nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
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
'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
work of the Law written in their hearts There is veritas naturalis and veritas mystica some objects of Faith depend upon mere Revelation but the Commands of the moral Law are clearer than the Doctrines of Faith they are of Duties and things present not of Priviledges to be enjoyed hereafter such as the Promises offer to us Now it is easier to be convinced of present Duties than to be assured of some future things promised 2. That these Commandments be received with that Reverence that becometh the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of so great a Lord and Law-giver It is the work of Faith to acquaint us with the nature of God and his Attributes and work the sense of them into our hearts The great Governour of the World is invisible and we do not see him that is invisible but by Faith Heb. 11. 27. By Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Temporal Potentates are before our eyes their Majesty may be seen and their terrours and rewards are matter of sense that there is an infinite Eternal and all-wise spirit who made all things and therefore hath right to command and give laws to all things Reason will in part tell us but faith doth more assure the Soul of it and impresseth the dread and awe of God upon our souls as if we did see him with bodily eyes By Faith we believe his being Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is His Power so as to oppose it to things visible and sensible Rom. 4. 21. being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform That there is no standing out against him who with one beck of his will can ruine us everlastingly and throw the transgressor of his Laws into eternal fire a frown of his face is enough to undoe us he is not a God to be neglected or dallyed with or provoked by the wilfull breaking of his Laws He hath truly potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death Iames 4. 12. There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy These considerations are best enforced by Faith without which our notions of these things are weak and languid You are to charge the heart with God's Authority as you will answer it to him another day not to neglect or despise the duty you owe to such a God No terrour comparable to his frowns no comforts comparable to his Promises or the sense of his favour 3. That these laws are holy just and good Rom. 7. 12. Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good This is necessary because in believing the Commandments not onely Assent is required but also Consent to them as the fittest laws we could be governed by Rom. 7. 16. If then I do that which I would not I consent to the Law that it is good Consent is a mixt act of the Judgment and Will they are not onely to be known as God's laws but owned and embraced not onely see a Truth but a Worth in them The mandatory part of the word hath its own loveliness and invitation as the Promises of Pardon and Eternal life suite with the hunger and thirst of Conscience and the natural desires of Happiness so the Holiness and Righteousness of God's Laws suit with the natural notions of good and evil that are in mans heart These Laws were written upon mans heart at his first Creation and though somewhat blurred we know the better how to read a defaced writing when we get another Copy or transcript to compare with it especially when the heart is renewed when the Spirit hath wrought a suitableness there must needs be a consenting and embracing Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts There is a ready willing heart to obey them and conform to them in the Regenerate therefore an Assent is not enough but a Consent this is that they would choose and prefer before liberty they acquiesce and are satisfied in their Rule as the best Rule for them to live by But let us see the three Attributes holy just and good 1. They are holy laws fit for God to give and man to receive when we are convinced of this it is a great help to bridle contrary inclinations and to carry us on chearfully in our work They are fit for God to give they become such a being as God is his Laws carry the express print and stamp of his own nature upon them We may know how agreeable they are to the nature of God by supposing the monstrousness of the Contrary if he had forbidden us all Love and Fear and trust in himself all respect and thanks to our Creator or bidden us to worship false Gods or change the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to a corruptible man as birds four-â—…ooted beasts and creeping things or that we should blaspheme his name continually or despise his glory shining forth in the work of his hands and that we should be disobedient to our Parents and pollute our selves as the beasts with promiscuous lusts and fill the world with Adulteries Robberies and Thefts or slander and revile one another and leave the boat to the stream give over our selves to our passions discontents and the unruly lusts of our corrupt hearts these are conceits so monstrous that if the beasts were capable of having such thoughts transfused into them they would abhor them and would infer such a manifest disproportion in the Soul as it would in the body to walk with our hands and doe our work with our feet And they are fit for man to receive if he would preserve the rectitude of his nature live as such an understanding creature keep Reason in dominion and free from being a slave to the appetites of the body To be just holy temperate humble meek chast doth not onely concern the Glory of God and the safety of the world but the liberty of the reasonable nature that man may act as a creature that hath a mind to know things that differ and to keep him from that filthiness and pollution which would be a stain to him and infringe the glory of his being There is no middle thing either a man must be a Saint or a Beast either conform himself to Gods will and look after the interests of his Soul or lose the excellency of his Nature and become as the Beasts that perish Either the Beast must govern the Man or the Man ride upon the Beast which he doth when he taketh Gods Counsel 2. Just. because it referreth to all God's Precepts I take it here not strictly but largely how just it is for
carowsing dancing all the warnings of Parents the good counsel of Tutors and Governours the grave exhortations of Ministers and Preachers will do no good upon them they are alwayes wandring up and down from God and from themselves cannot endure a thought of God of Death of Heaven of Hell of Judgment to come but when God casts them once into some grievous disease or some great trouble they begin to come to themselves and then they that would hear nothing understand nothing despised all grave and gracious counsel given as if it did not belong to them scoffed at admonitions thought the day lost in which they had not acted some sin or other when the Cross preacheth and some grievous calamity is upon them then Conscience beginneth to work and this bringeth to remembrance all that they have heard before then they come to themselves and would fain if they could come to Christ. Sharp Affliction is a sound powerfull rouzing teacher Iob 36. 8 9. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded Grace worketh in a powerfull but yet in a morall way congruously but forcibly and by a fit accommodation of Circumstances One place more Ier. 31. 18. Truly I have 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 Affliction awakeneth serious Reflections upon our wayes therefore take heed what ye doe with the Convictions that arise upon Afflictions to slight them is dangerous Nothing breedeth hardness of heart so much as the smothering of convictions Iron often heated grows the harder On the other side see they do not degenerate into despair either the raging despair which terrifieth or the sottish despair which stupifieth Ier. 18. 12. They said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one doe the Imagination of his evil heart The middle between both is an holy sensibleness of our condition which is a good preparation for the great duties of the Gospel The work of Conversion is at first difficult and troublesome but pass over this brunt and all things will be sweet and easie the bullock at first yoaking is most unruly and fire at the first kindling casts forth most smoak so when sin is revived it brings forth death Rom. 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died But yet cherish the work till God speak peace upon sound terms 2. It is a great help to those that are converted already How many are reduced to a more serious lively practice of Godliness by their troubles We are rash inconsiderate unattentive to our duty but the rod maketh us cautious and diligent We follow the world not the word of God the vanities thereof take us off from minding the Promises or Precepts of the word till the affliction cometh In short there is none of us so tamed and subdued to God but that we need to be tamed more We are all for carnal liberty there is a wantonness in us We are high minded earthly minded till God come with his scourge to reclaim us he chasteneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. Some lust still needeth mortifying or some Grace needeth exercising Our Pride needs to be mortified or our affections to be weaned from the world The Almond Tree is made more fruitfull by driving nails into it because that letteth out a noxious gumm that hindereth its fruitfulness So when God would have you thrive more he makes you feel the sharpness of affliction You have heard Plutarch's story of Iason of Choerea that had his Imposthume let out by a casual wound There is some corruption God would let out We are apt to set up our rest here and therefore we need to be disturbed to have the world crucified to us Gal. 6. 14. that the cumber of the world may drive us to seek for rest where it is only to be found and to humble us by outward defects that we may look after inward abundance that by being poor in this world we may be rich in Faith Iames 2. 5. and having nothing in the Creature we may possess all things in God 2 Cor. 6. 10. and be inlarged inwardly as we are straitened outwardly In short that we may be oftner with God God sent a tempest after Ionah Absalom set Ioab's barley-field on fire and then he came to him 2 Sam. 14. 30. Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Hosea 5. 15. In their affliction they will seek me early It were endless to run out in discourses of this nature 5. The Affliction of its self doth not work thus but as sanctified and accompanied with the Spirit of God If the Affliction of its self and by its self would doe it it would doe so alwayes but that we see by experience it doth not in its self It is an evil and a pain that is the consequent and the fruit of Sin and so breedeth Impatience Despair Murmuring and Blasphemy against God as it is a legal curse other fruit cannot be expected of it but reviving terrours of heart and repinings against the Sovereignty of God We see often the same Affliction that maketh one humble maketh another raging the same Poverty that maketh one full of dependance upon God maketh another full of shifts and evil Courses whereby to supply his want No it is understood of sanctified Crosses when Grace goeth along with them to bless them to us Ier. 31. 19. Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth After God had wrought a gracious change in him by his afflicting hand and Spirit working together So Psalm 94. 12. Blessed is he whom thou chastenest and instructest out of thy Law The Rod must be expounded by the Word and both must be effectually applied by the Spirit Grace is God's immediate Creature and Production he useth subservient means and helps sometimes the Word sometimes the Rod sometimes both but neither doth any thing without his Spirit 6. This Benefit though gotten by sharp Afflictions should be owned and thankfully acknowledged as a great testimony and expression of God's Love to us So doth David to the praise of God It is a branch that belongeth to the Thanksgiving mentioned v. 65. Thou hast done well with thy Servant according to thy Word The first of this octonary We are prejudiced against the Cross out of a Self-love a mistaken Self-love we love our selves more than we love God and the ease of the Body more than the welfare of the Soul and
stedfast in his Covenant Many have a little forced Religion in their Extremities but it weareth off with their Trouble Sin is but suspended for a while and the Devil chained up they are very good under the Rod they are frighted to it but after the Deliverance cometh the more prophane It is true many may begin with God in their Troubles and their Necessities drive them to the Throne of Grace and Christ had never heard of many if Feavours and Palsies and Possessions and Blindness Deafness and Dumbness had not brought them unto him thanks to the Disease but if a course of Godliness begin upon these occasions and continue afterwards God will accept it He is willing to receive us upon any terms Men will say you come to me in your Extremity but he doth not upbraid us provided we will come so as to abide with him and will not turn the back upon him when our turn is served if you doe so take heed God hath other Judgments to reach you as Iohn said Matth. 3. 11 12. He that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoos I am not worthy to bear He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire So that which cometh after is mightier than that which went before the last Judgment is the heaviest The Ax is laid to the root of the Tree therefore every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Matth. 3. 10. He will not onely lop off the Branches but strike at the Root as the Sodomites that escaped the Sword of Chedorlaomer perished by Fire from Heaven The Israelites that were not drowned in the Red Sea were stung to death by Fiery Serpents As if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Amos 5. 19. When you avoid one Judgment you may meet another and find a stroke where you think your selves most secure Use 1. Let us consider these things that we may profit by all the Chastenings of the Lord. It is now a time of Affliction both as to publick Judgments and as to the private Condition of many of the People of God we have been long straying from God from our Duty from one another it was high time for the Lord to take his Rod in his hand and to scourge us home again Upon these Three Nations there is somewhat of God's Three great Judgments War Pestilence and Famine they are all dreadfull The Pestilence is such a Judgment as turneth Populous Cities into Desers and Solitudes in a short time then one cannot help another Riches and Honour profit nothing then and Friends and Kinsfolks stand afar off Many die without any spiritual Helps In War what Destructions and Slaughters expence of Bloud and Treasure In Famine you feel your selves to die without a Disease know not where to have fuel to allay and feed the fire which Nature hath kindled in your Bodies But blessed be God all these are in moderation Pestilence doth not ragingly spread the War is at a distance the Famine onely a scarcity Before God stirreth up all his Wrath he observeth what we doe with these beginnings Besides the People of God are involved in an heap of Miseries on all hands the oppressed dejected Party burthened with jealousies and ready to be haled to Prison and put under restraint Holy men sometimes have personal Afflictions added to the publick Calamities Ieremy was cast into the Dungeon when the City was besieged The Chaff and Grain both are threshed together but the Grain is besides ground in the Mill and baked in the Oven Besides who thinks of his strayings and returning with a more severe Resolution to his Duty If we would profit by Afflictions we must avoid both the faulty extreams Heb. 12. 5. My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Slighting and Fainting must be avoided 1. Let us not slight them When we bear them with a stupid senseless mind surely that hindereth all Profit None can endure to have their Anger despised no more than their Love a Father is displeased when his Child slights his Correction That we may not slight it let us consider 1. Their Authour God We think them fortuitous from chance but they do not rise out of the dust Job 5. 6. Whoever be the Instruments or whatever be the means the Wise God hath the whole ordering of it He is the first Cause He is to be sought to He is to be appeased if we would stop Evil at the Fountain head for all Creatures willingly or unwillingly obey him and are subject to his Empire and Government Amos 3. 6. Is there any evil in the City and I have not done it saith the Lord Isa. 45. 7. I form the Light and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil I the Lord doe all these things Job 1. 21. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away 2. The meritorious Cause is Sin Lamentat 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sin that first brought Mischief into the World and still continueth it God never afflicts without a cause either we need it or we deserve it Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and execute Iudgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousness We should search for the particular Sins that provoke God to afflict us for while we onely speak of Sin in general we do but inveigh against a Notion and personate a Mourning but those we can charge upon our selves are most proper and powerfull to break the heart 3. The end is our Repentance and Amendment to correct Sin past or prevent Sin to come 1. For Correction to make us more penitent for Sin past We being in a lower sphere of understanding know things better by their Effects than their Nature Ier. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts Moral Evil is represented to us by natural Evil Pain sheweth what Sin is 2. For prevention of Sin for time to come The Smart should make us cautious and watchfull against Sin Ioshua 22. 17 18. Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed to this day although there was a Plague in the Congregation of the Lord but that ye must turn away this day from following the Lord And it will be seeing ye rebel to
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-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
this may put us upon great seeming zeal and activity So for profit to make a Market of Religion as the Pharisees got themselves credit to be trusted with Widows Estates by their long prayers these are rotten principles Then some are more tolerable not so bad principles as the former as when we serve God out of hope of temporal mercy as when they howl upon their beds for Corn Wine and Oil Hos. 7. 4. or for fear of temporal Judgments when men hang down their heads like a Bull-rush for a while or else for mere fear of eternal death they shall else be damned When Mens Duties are a sin-offering a sleepy sop to appease an accusing Conscience But then there are some that are lawful good and sound as when Duties are done out of the impulsion of an enlightened Conscience that urgeth them to that which is good or upon the bare Command of God his authority swaying the Conscience or when they walk in the ways of God out of the consideration of the reward to come a respect to Heaven this is very good in its place Again there are some excellent principles of Grace and which do most of all discover a Gospel Spirit a well tempered frame of Soul to God and these are love to God because of his benefits and love to us gratitude and thankfulness 1 Iohn 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us And Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God When we serve him out of love Again when we serve him out of delight out of love to the Duty find such a complacency in the work that we love the work for the works sake as David I love thy Law because it is pure when we love the Law for the purity of it Or when the Glory of God prevails above all our own interests Or when the promises and Covenant of God enabling of us that 's our principle Heb. 10. 16. I observe this Men usually are brought on from one sort of principle to another from sinful principles they are brought to tolerable and lawful and from lawful to those that are rare and excellent 2. This is such a mercy as gives us hope of more mercy in that kind If God hath held us up and we have been safe hitherto then we may say Thou hast held me up we may look for more new temptation will bring new strength every days work will bring its own refreshment God by giving binds himself more to give for he loves to crown his own work when he hath done good he will do good again Zech. 3. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire He hath saved us and he will save us And it holds good sometimes in temporal mercies 2 Cor. 1. 10. He hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver But especially it holds good in spiritual mercies 2 Tim. 4. 17. He hath delivered me out of the mouth of the Lion and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdome One act of mercy gives us more God that hath begun will make an end he that hath kept me will keep me Use. It serves to reprove two sorts of people 1. Those that are unthankful after their deliverance We forget his care of us and never think how much we owe to him When the Marriners have gotten to the Haven and Harbour they forget the Tempest so these forget how God stood by them in the temptation and conflict they do not abound more in the work of the Lord. These are like those that would have deliverance that Thorns might be taken out of the way that they might run more readily to that which is evil 2. It reproveth those that faint and despond in Gods ways after much experiences of his help and presence with them The Israelites in the Wilderness upon every new difficulty their faith is at a loss and then back again to Egypt they would go though they had so often experience of God they would not believe him because of his wonders but forgat his works and his wonders that he had shewed them Psal. 78. 11. God had given them wonderful mercy in destroying Pharaoh that it might be meat to their faith yet they believed not Good David was ready to say I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27. 1. though he had experience upon experience We should rather encourage our selves and go on in our work notwithstanding all difficulties The last Point from the accuracy and constancy of his obedience I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually This Phrase is diversly rendered the Septuagint render it I will exercise my self in them or apply my heart to them David's regard to Gods law is diversly expressed in this Psalm Doctr. 4. Gods Precepts must be respected and consulted with as the constant measure and direction of our lives Not only respect but continual respect Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this Rule it notes as many as shall walk in rank and order there needeth great accurateness and intention that we may keep within the bounds of commanded Duty So walk circumspectly Some men are so crafty through their self-deceiving hearts through their lusts and interests so doubtful that there needs a great exactness and so apt to be turned out of the way that we need a great deal of care to look to the Fountain and Principle of our actions to look to the matter manner end and weigh all circumstances that we may serve God exactly SERMON CXXIX PSAL. CXIX VER 118. Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes for their deceit is falshood IN the former Verse the man of God had begged establishment in the ways of God and now as an help to what he had prayed for he observe Gods Judgments on those that erre from them It is a special means to preserve us from sin to observe how mischievous it hath been to those that close with it So the Prophet here I will have respect to thy Statutes Why Thou hast trodden down them that erre from thy Statutes By this means we learn to be wise at other mens costs and are whipt upon others backs Zeph. 3. 6 7. I have cut off the Nations their Towers are made desolate their Cities are destroyed there is none inhabitant I said Surely thou wilt fear me c. God is very much disappointed if we be not bettered and improved by his Judgments Exemplo qui peccat bis peccat He that would plunge himself into a Quagmire where others have miscarried before sins doubly because he neither fears threatnings nor would take warning by their example God looks to be the more reverenced for every warning he gives us in his Providence because then what was before matter of Faith is made matter of sense and needs only a little application Thus it will be with me if I should straggle from
the rebelling flesh within will make him turn out of the way and how can such a one hold out with God when his way to heaven is a continual Warfare But on the other side a man that is a Christian and a servant of God by Choice his course is likely according to his choice because he is fixt upon Evidence he knowes he is upon sure ground and depending upon God he will not miscarry And therefore Ioshua when he would engage the Israelites to continue faithful with God he draws them on to a Choice and then saith Ioshua 24. 22. Ye are witnesses against your selves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said We are witnesses It much strengthens the Bond when a man binds himself freely and willingly and he makes himself the more culpable and the more inexcusable if he do not observe it 3. They will carry on the work of their Heavenly Calling with the more Ease and Delight because a choice is nothing else but the inclination of the Soul guided by Reason strengthned by a Purpose and quickned and actuated by our Love This Reason justifies our choice Purpose binds it makes it firm but now here comes Love which makes it easie and sweet to do what we have resolved upon A resolute Traveller will go through his Journey and overcome the tediousness of it his mind is set to finish it let him have what Way or Weather he will so a Christian will overcome his difficulties when his heart is enclined to this course it is his own choice and he will hold to it It is a hard heart that makes the work hard but when the Will is engaged a firm Resolution of the Will is the life of our Affections and to Affection all is easie Use. I. To shew That they act upon a wrong Principle who are not good and yet do good out of Chance To this end I shall shew you 1. That a Man may do good by Chance and not be good 2. A Man may do good by Force and yet not be good 3. That some do good out of Craft and Design but to do good out of Choice doth only discover the Truth and Sincerity of Religion 1. Some do good by Chance As 1. The Man that taketh up Religion by Example barely and Tradition not out of any sound Conviction of the Truth and Worth of it Thus many are Christians by the chance of their Birth in those Countries where the Name of Christ is professed and had in Honour and the main Reason into which their Religion is resolved is not any Excellency in its self but the Custom and Tradition of their Forefathers Ioh. 4. 20. Our father 's worshipped in this Mountain And 1 Pet. 1. 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and Gold from your vain conversation received by Tradition from your fathers 'T was hard to reclaim them from their inveterate Customs This is the Religion in which they have been born and bred 'T is true that Tradition from Father to Son is a Duty and a Means to bring us to the Knowledge of the Truth and that Christianity is such an Institution as doth so clearly evidence its self to be of God and speaketh to us of such necessary and weighty matters that it cannot but a little rowse and affect the mind of him that receiveth it however he receiveth it But most men do but blindly and pertinaciously adhere to it as that Religion wherein they have been born and bred without any distinct knowledge of the worth of it So that if there be any goodness in their Christianity as their Profession is good in itself They are but good by chance for upon the same reasons they are Christians if they had been born elsewhere they would have been Mahometans or Idolaters 2. Not only these but also those who stumble upon the Profession of Religion they know not how and those who in a Pang and sudden Motion are all for God and for Heavenly things but this vanisheth into nothing as Fire in straw which is soon kindled and soon out This is a free-will Pang not a choice the heart is not habitually inclined and devoted unto God Ioh. 6. 34. Oh that I might die the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. Such kind of wishing of holiness as a necessary means there may be as well as happiness These are accidentally stirred up in us 2. Some do good by force These also are of two sorts such as are forced by the fear of Men or of God 1. Forced by the fear of Men because they dare not be bad with credit and security as Fear of Parents Tutors and Governours 2 Chron. 24. 2. Ioash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the dayes of Iehojadah the Preist He did that which was right as to external Acts but after Iehojadahs death he revolted from the Lord 2 Chron. 24. 17 18. So fear of Magistrates as Iosiah compelled them to stand to the Covenant therefore Ier. 3. 10. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Iudah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but feignedly Fear of the times when set for Religion Esther 8. 12. Many of the people of the land became Iews for the fear of the Iews fell upon them 2. Forced by the Fear of God A little unwilling service may be extorted from them by the force of a convinced Conscience There is a slavish kind of Religiousness arising from a fear of Punishment without any love and delight in God Men may be against God and his Wayes when fear onely driveth them to them They do something good but had rather leave it undone they avoid some sins but had rather practice them By the spirit of bondage they are brought to tender some unwilling service to Christ and their only Motives are fear of Wrath and Hell and a sight of the curse due to sin The falseness of this Principle appeareth 1 Because 't is most stirring in a time of eminent Judgements when they are sick and like to dye Isa. 26. 9. When thy judgements are abroad in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn Righteousness Ier. 2. 26. In their affliction they will cry Arise and save us Mettle in the furnace is very soft but take it out and it returneth to its old hardness See Psal. 78. 34 35 36 37. The sense of present devouring Wrath and the Terrors of an Angry God may drive men to some Temporary acts of Devotion these proceed only from the Natural fear of Death and love of Self-preservation This may put a stand for a while to their former wayes of Provocation and incline them to seek God with some diligence in the outward forms of Religion but it produceth no stedfastness in the Covenant As if there had been some weak effect upon them as if it brought them for a while to some temper of Piety but it