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
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
'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
ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is A man that desireth to follow God fully would fain know the whole latitude and breadth of his duty A child of God is inquisitive He that desireth to keep all doth also desire to know all It is his business to study the mind of God in all things gross negligence sheweth we are afraid of understanding our duty 2. By often searching and trying his own heart that he may find where the matter sticketh Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways that we may turn unto the Lord. Compleat Reformation is grounded on a serious search A chief cause of our going wrong is because we do not bring our hearts and ways together 3. Desire God to shew it if there be any thing in the heart allowed contrary to the Word Iob 34. 32. That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more And Psal. 139. 23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked thing in me and lead me in the way everlasting He would not hold on in any evil course There is no sin so dear and near to him which he is not willing to see and judg in himself 4. When they fail through humane infirmity or imprudence they seek to renew their peace with God 1 Ioh. 2. 1. My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous They sue out their discharge in Christs name If a man were unclean under the Law he was to wash his clothes and bath himself in water before evening and not rest in his uncleanness Now if we still abide in our filthiness and do not fly to our Advocate and sue out our pardon in Christs name it argueth that we have not a respect to the Commandment 5. They diligently use all holy means which are appointed by God for growth in faith and obedience 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and coming up to a greater conformity 6. A care of their bosom-sin to get that weakned Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity Such as are most incident to us by temper of nature course of life or posture of interests the right hand must be cut off the right eye plucked out Mat. 5. 29 30. If thou seekest to cross that sin that is most pleasing to thine own heart seekest to dry up that unclean issue that runneth upon thee by that and the other signs may we determine whether we have a sincere respect to all Gods Commandments 2. The next Circumstance in the Text is the fruit and benefit They that have an intire respect to Gods Laws shall not be ashamed There is a twofold shame The shame of a guilty Conscience And the shame of a tender Conscience The one is the merit and fruit of sin the other is an act of Grace This here spoken of is to be understood not of an holy self-loathing but a confounding shame This shame may be considered either with respect to their own hearts or the world or before God at the day of Judgment 1. With respect to their own hearts and thus the upright and sincere shall not be ashamed There is a generous confidence bewrayed in Duties in Troubles and in Death In Duties they can look God in the face uprightness giveth boldness and the more respect we have unto the commandments the greater liberty have we in prayer 1 Joh. 3. 21. If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But when men walk crookedly and loosly they sin away the liberty of their hearts and cannot come to God with such a free spirit A man that hath wronged another and knoweth not how to pay cannot endure to see him so doth sin work a shieness of God 2. In Troubles and Afflictions Nothing sooner abashed than a corrupt conscience they cannot hold up their heads when crossed in the world a burden sits very uneasie upon a galled back their crosses revive their guilt are parts of the curse therefore they are soon blank But now a godly man is bold and courageous Two things make one bold Innocency and Independency and both are found in him that hath a sincere respect to Gods commandments Innocency when the soul doth not look pale under any secret guilt and when we can live above the creatures it puts an heroical spirit or Lyon-like boldness into the children of God 3. In Death To be able to look death in the face it is a comfort in your greatest distresses When Hezekiah was arrested with the sentence of death in the mouth of the Prophet here was his comfort and support O Lord thou knowest that I have walked before thee with a perfect heart And Job 15. 16. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him 2. Before the world a man will be able to hold up his head that is sincere It is true he may be reproached and scoffed at and suffer disgrace for his strictness yet he is not ashamed Though we displease men yet if we please God it is enough if we have his approbation 1 Cor. 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment To depend on the words of man is a foolish thing There is more ground of rejoycing than of shame You have the approbation of their consciences when not of their tongues In the issue God will vindicate the righteousness of his faithful servants Psal. 37. 6. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon-day There will be no cause in the issue for a Christian to repent of his strict observance of Gods commands Eph. 3. 18. 3. Before God at the day of Judgment 1 John 2. 28. And now little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming He is the brave man that can hold up his head in that day Wicked men will then be ashamed 1. Because their secret sins are then divulged and made publick 1 Cor. 4. 5. Iudg nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 2. Because of the frustration of their hopes Disappointment bringeth shame Some do many things and make full account of their acceptance with God and reception to glory but when all is disappointed how much are they confounded Rom. 5. 5. Hope maketh not ashamed because it is not frustrated 3. By the contempt and dishonour God puts upon them banishing
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
loved from the grave for so it is in the Hebrew Isa. 38. 17. Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of destruction To be loved out of a danger and loved out of a sickness oh that 's a blessed thing USE 1. To acknowledg the Lords goodness in these common mercies We did not give life to our selves and we cannot keep it in our selves God made us and God keepeth us It was not our Parents that fashioned us in the womb they could not tell what the child would prove male or female beautiful or deformed They could not tell the number or posture of the veins or bones or muscles it was all the curious workmanship of a wise God and it is the same God that hath kept us hitherto Isa. 46. 3 4. By me ye are born from the belly and carried from the womb even to old age I am he and even to hoar hairs will I carry you c. We have been supported and tenderly handled by God as Parents and Nurses carry their younglings in their arms Many times wanton children are ready to scratch the faces of those that carry them so have we put many affronts upon him yet to the very last doth he carry us in the arms of his Providence In infancy we were not in a capacity to know the God of our mercies and to look after him but nevertheless he looked after us Afterwards we knew how to grieve him and offend him long before how to love and serve him Oh how early did our naughty hearts appear and all along how little have we done for God in whom we live and move and have our being He is not far from us in the effects of his care and Providence but we are far from him by the distance of our thoughts and affections by the carnal bent of our hearts It is a good mornings-exercise for us humbly and thankfully to consider of his continual mercies For Gods compassions are new every morning Lam. 3. 22. as fresh as if never tired with former acts of grace nor wearied with former offences It is some recompence for the time of sleep half our time passeth away and we do not shew one act of love and kindness unto God therefore as soon as we are awakened we should be with God Psal. 139. 18. How many are gone down to the Chambers of death since the last night 2. It quickneth us to love and serve God who is the strength of our lives and the length of our days Deut. 30. 20. Thy life is wholly in Gods hands Man cannot add a cubit to his stature nor make one hair white or black at his own pleasure It is the Lords Providential influence that keepeth thee alive in point of gratitude thou shouldst serve him Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live But I may urge also in point of hope Gods servants can best recommend themselves to his care and keeping by prayer and expect to walk continually under divine protection Those that provoke God continually they may be continued by the bounty and indulgence of his providence but yet they can look for no such thing and in the issue it proveth to be in wrath for their sins are more and judgments greater it is but to treasure up wrath to the day of wrath 3. If life temporal be the fruit of Gods bounty much more life eternal Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life One is wages the other a gift 4. It informeth us that we may lawfully pray for life with submission to the will of God and that death may not come upon us suddenly contrary to the ordinary course of nature I was loth to make a distinct doctrine of it yet I could not decline the giving out of this Truth How will this stand with our 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 1. by concession That we are to train up our selves in an expectation of our dissolution that we may be willing when the time is come and God hath no more work for us to do in the world we are to awaken our desires after the presence of Christ in Heaven to shew both our faith in him and love to him Since Christ was willing to come down to us though it were to meet with shame and pain why should we be loth to return to him Iacob's spirit revived when he saw the Waggons which Ioseph sent to carry him Death is the Chariot to carry you to Christ and therefore it should not be unwelcome to us 2. By correction though it be lawful and expedient to desire death yet we are not anxiously to long after it till the time come there may be sin in desiring death as when we grow weary of life out of desperation and the tiresomeness of the Cross and there may be grace in desiring life that we may keep his word longer express our gratitude to him here in the world to mourn for sin to promote his glory More fully to make this evident to you I shall shew how we may desire death how not To answer in several propositions 1. There is a great deal of difference between serious desires and passionate expressions The desires of the children of God are deliberate and resolved conceived upon good grounds after much strugling with flesh and blood to bring their hearts to it Carnal men are loth that God should take them at their word as he in the Fable that called for death and when he came desired him to help him up with his burden Alas they do not consider what it is to be in the state of the dead and to come unprovided and unfurnished into Gods presence We often wish our selves in our graves but if God should take us at our word we would make many pauses and exceptions Men that in their miseries call for death when sickness cometh will run to the Physician and promise many things if they may be recovered None more unwilling to dye than those that in a passion wish for death 2. We must carefully look to the grounds of these wishes and desires Carnal wishes for death arise either 1. out of violent anger and a pet against Providence as Jonah 4. 8. The Sun beat upon the head of Ionah that he fainted and wished in himself to dye and said it is better for me to dye than live The children of Israel murmured when they felt the Famine of the Wilderness Exod. 16. 3. And the children of Israel said unto them Would to God we had dyed by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt c. When men are vexed with the world they look upon death as a relief to take vengeance upon God to deprive him of a servant 2. In deep sorrow as Iob 3. 3. Elijah 1 King 19. 4. He requested for himself that
the children of God 2. It is a perversion of the Order of Nature The tongue is the Interpreter of the mind and therefore if the Interpreter of another man speak contrary to what he pronounceth there were a manifest wrong and disorder so when the tongue speaks otherwise than the man thinks there 's a great disturbance and deordination 3. We resemble Satan in nothing so much as in Lying and we resemble God in nothing so much as in Truth Falshood is the Devil's character Joh. 8. 44. He was a lyar from the beginning that is the first inventor of lyes as Iubal was the father of them that played upon the Harp the first Inventor and herein we most resemble Satan On the contrary there is nothing wherein a man resembleth God so much as in Truth Truth is no small part of the Image of God for he is called the God of Truth and it is said of him Tit. 1. 2. That he cannot lye It is contrary to the perfection of his Nature Nor command us to lye God hath commanded many other things which otherwise were sinful as to kill another man as Abraham to slay his Son to take away the Goods of others as Lord of all as when the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians of their Jewels but God cannot lye 't is against his nature Eph. 4. 24 25. Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Then presently Wherefore put away lying speak every man truth with his neighbour Wherefore that is from your regeneration when the Image of God is planted in you So the same Col. 3. 9. Lye not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds There may be sin in the children of God but there should be no guile in them habituated guile is the old man that is deceitful the new man is framed to truth and according to the will of God 4. This is a consideration that God never dispenced with this Precept He hath upon special occasion dispenced with other Commands but never with the ninth With the seventh Commandment in the Polygamy of the Patriarchs and with the second in Hezekiah's Passover but a man must not lye for God Job 13. 7 8 9. because this Commandment hath more in it of the Justice and Immutable Perfection of God than others 5. By the light of Nature nothing is more odious We love a just and true man one that is without guile we acknowledg it as a Moral perfection but a Lye is counted the greatest disgrace we revenge the charge of it It is counted a base thing to lye why because it comes from fear and it tends to deceit both which argue baseness of spirit and are contrary to the gallantry of a man therefore it is shameful in the eyes of Nature and those that are most guilty of it cannot endure to be charged with it When the Prophet Micajah told Zedekiah of his lying spirit he smote him on the cheek 1 King 22. 23. So men take it ill to be charged with a lye We count it a shameful sin among men The old Persians had such a great respect to Truth that he that was three times taken with a lye was never more to speak in publick upon penalty of death 6. It is a sin that is most hateful to God therefore it should be far from the children of God We hate that most which is contrary to our nature so it is contrary to God's nature There are six things God hates and a lying tongue is one of them twice it is mentioned Prov. 6. 17. 19. and Prov. 12. 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight Now certainly because God hates it therefore we should hate it To will and nill the same thing that 's true friendship God hates it therefore a righteous man hates it Prov. 13. 5. A righteous man hateth lying but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame 7. It 's a sin which God hath expresly threatned to punish in this life and in the life to come In this life Psal. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing And Prov. 19. 5. He that speaketh lyes shall not escape God will cut them off as not being fit for human society The first remarkable instance we have in the New Testament of God's vengeance was for a lye Acts 5. 5. yea it is one of the sins that draws down publick and national Judgments and therefore it is said Hosea 4. 2. By swearing and lying therefore doth the Land mourn And when God gives advice to his people how they should prevent his Judgments Zech. 8. 16 17. These are the things that ye shall do speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth love no false Oath for all these are the things that I hate saith the Lord. When men have no care of their speeches when a people bind themselves by Oaths to do that which they mind not to perform or wilfully do not perform they are ripe for a Judgment And so in the life to come Rev. 21. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye And Rev. 21. 8. All lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone and Rev. 22. 15. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye USE O then let us beware of all lying and dissimulation with respect to God and men Let our words consent with our minds and our minds agree with the thing it self A lye is most odious to God a proud look and a lying tongue and therefore a Christian that loves God shall he do that which God so expresly hates will you rush upon the pikes kick against the pricks and run against the Judgments of God a lying tongue shall not escape Nay God reckons upon his Children Isa. 63. 8. Surely they are my people children that will not lye Disappointment that 's the worst vexation God reckons upon it surely you will make Conscience of truth not only in your Oaths certainly that 's a barbarous thing to break the most sacred engagements that are among mankind therefore you will be careful to perform what you have sworn to the Lord with your hands lift up to the most high God but also in your promises and ordinary speeches Good men have been foiled by it David begs Keep me from a way of lying and it is a sin more common than we imagine it 's very natural to us Isa. 58. 3. As soon as we are born we speak lies before we could go we went astray and before we were able to speak we spake lies the seed of it was in our nature It is a sin most natural for it was
to the other they are left to arbitrement to abstain and use for edification according to the various postures and circumstances of times places and persons but so that we should never take from any believer or suffer to be taken from him that liberty which Christ hath purchased for us by his blood It is a licentious abuse of Power not to be endured We are to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal. 5. 1. the Apostle mainly intends it of the observance of the ceremonial Law which was a bondage because of the trouble and expence O but then the price wherewith Christ bought our freedom should make us more chary of it and stand in the defence of it with greater courage and constancy whatever it cost us The Captain told Paul that his liberty as a Roman was obtained with a great sum Acts 22. 28. Now the Court of Rome doth challenge such a power that it commandeth and forbiddeth those things which God hath left free as distinction of days meats marriage according to their own pleasure 1 Tim. 4. 3. Nay sometimes dispenseth with that which God hath expresly commanded or forbidden and then what doth it but make him equal with God yea superior to him That Physician possibly may be born with that doth only burden his Patient with some needless prescriptions if for the main he be out faithful but if he should mingle poyson with his Medicaments and also still tire out his Patient with new prescriptions that are altogether troublesome and costly and nauseous and for the number of them dangerous to life it behoveth his Patient to look to his health And this is the very case The Pope doth sometimes make bold with dispensing with Gods Laws and doth extinguish and choak Christian Religion by thousands of Impositions of indifferent things which is not to be endured And then as to the Authority it self according to the eminency of the Lawgiver so is his Authority more or less absolute Therefore when a mortal man shall challenge an Authority so absolute as to be above controul and to give no account of his actions and it is not lawful to say to him What dost thou or enquire into the reason or complain of the injury this is that which the Churches of Christ cannot endure therefore they had just ground and cause of withdrawing and making up a body by themselves rather than yield to so great encroachments upon Christian liberty to receive the Decrees of one Church and that so erroneous and imposing without examination or leave of complaint 3. That which grieveth and did grieve and cause this withdrawing is both Papal Infallibility and freedom from error That any Church which is made up of fallible men should arrogate this to themselves especially the Roman which of all Churches that ever Christ had upon earth is most corrupt that they should fasten this Infallibility to the Papal chair which is the fountain of those corruptions this they look upon as a great contradiction not only to faith but to sense and as hard a condition as if I were bound when I saw a man sick of the Plague and the swelling and tokens of death upon him yet to say he is immortal nay that that part wherein the disease is seated is immortal This was the burden that was imposed upon the people of God that they should yield to this Secondly Come to their Heresie in Doctrine To rake in this filth would take up more time than will comport with your patience It is almost every where corrupt the only sound part in the whole frame is the Doctrine of the Trinity which yet the Schoolmen have intangled with many nice and unprofitable disputes which render that glorious and blessed mystery less venerable We must do them right also in this that they grant the doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction and that he not only dyed for our good but in our stead and bore our punishment they grant the truth of it but deny the sufficiency of it so mightily weaken if not destroy it while they think it must be pieced up by the sacrifice of the Mass human satisfaction by the merit of works Purgatory and Indulgences but in all other points of Religion how corrupt are they That which most offends the Reformed Churches is their equalling Traditions with the Scripture yea their decrying and taxing the Scriptures as obscure insufficient and as a nose of wax pliable to several purposes Their mangling the doctrine of Justification which we own to consist in the imputation of Christs righteousness received by faith and they plead in the works of righteousness which we have done and so if the Apostle may be Judg make void the grace of God Gal. 2. 21. And then the merit of works not expecting the reward of them from God's mercy which becometh Christian humility but from the condignity of the work it self which bewrayeth their Pharisaical pride We say that sins are remitted by God alone exercising his mercy in Christ through the Gospel towards those that believe and repent But the Papists say pardon may be had by virtue of Indulgences if a man give such a price do this or that say so many Ave-maries and Pater-nosters though far enough from true faith and repentance The one savours of the Gospel the other of the Tyranny of the Pope of Rome that hath set himself in the place of God and substituted his Laws instead of the Laws of Christ. So their portentous doctrine of Transubstantiation that a Priest should make his Maker and a people eat their God I could represent the difference of both Churches both in excess and defect In excess what they believe over and above the Christian faith The true Church believes with the Scripture and with the primitive Churches that there is but one God Father Son and Holy Ghost to be religiously invocated and worshipped They plead the Creature Angels and Saints are to be both religiously invocated and worshipped The Scripture shews that there is but one Surety and Mediator between God and man he that was both God and man Jesus Christ. They say that the Saints are Mediators of intercession with God by whose merits and prayers we obtain the grace and audience of our supplications The Scripture saith that Christs Propitiatory Sacrifice offered on the Cross is sufficient for the plenary remission of all our sins They say the Sacrifice of the Mass which the Priest under the species of bread and wine substantially that is by consecration into the body and blood of Christ offered to God that this is available for the remission of sins both of quick and dead That the remission of sins obtained by Christ and offered in the Gospel to the penitent believer is bestowed and applied by faith this is the opinion of the Scripture They say remission of sins is obtained and applied by their own satisfactions and Papal Indulgences That true repentance consists in
Comforts are God's Comforts and so more powerful and authoritative 2. It is a strong Comfort Heb. 6. 18. That the heirs of promise might have strong consolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other Comforts are weak and of little force they are not Affliction-proof nor Death-proof nor Judgment-proof they cannot stand before a few serious and sober thoughts of the World to come but this is strong Comfort that can support the Soul not onely in the imagination and supposition of a Trouble when we see it at a distance but when it is actually come upon us how great soever it be If we feel the cold hands of Death ready to pluck out our hearts and are summoned to appear before the Bar of our Judge yet this Comfort is not the more impeached that which supported us in Prosperity can support us in Adversity what supports in Life can support us in death For the Comforts of the Word endure for ever and the Covenant of God will not fail us living or dying 3. It is a full Comfort both for Measure and Matter 1. Sometimes for the Measure the Apostle speaketh of Comforts abounding by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. and Acts 13. 52. The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost And the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 7. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am filled with comfort and am exceeding joyful in all your tribulations Paul and Silas could sing Praises in the Prison and in the Stocks after they had been scourged and whipped Acts 16. 30. And our Lord Iesus Christ when he took care for our Comfort he took care that it might be a full Comfort Ioh. 15. 4. These things have I spoken that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full The Joy of Believers is a full Joy needing no other Joy to be added to it 'T is full enough to bear us out under all discouragements If Christians would improve their advantages they might by their full Joy and Chearfulness entice carnal Men who are ensnared by the Baits of the World and the Delights of the Flesh once to come and try what Comforts they might have in the Bosom of Christ and the lively expectation of the promised Glory 2. For the Matter it is full because of the Comprehensiveness of those Comforts which are provided for us There is no sort of Trouble for which the Word of God doth not afford sufficient Consolation no Strait can be so great no Pressure so grievous but we have full Consolation offered us in the Promises against them all We have Promises of the Pardon of all our Sins and Promises of Heaven it self and what can we desire more We have Promises suited to every State Prosperity and Adversity what do we need which we have not a Promise of Prosperity that it shall not be our ruine if we take it thankfully from God and use it for God for to the pure all things are pure Tit. 1. 15. But especially for Adversity when we most need there are Promises either of singular Assistance or gracious Deliverance In short the Word of God assureth us of the gracious Presence of God here in the midst of our Afflictions and the eternal Enjoyment of God hereafter that he will be with us in our Houses of Clay or we shall shortly be with him in his Palace of Glory and so here is matter of full Comfort 1. His Presence with us in our Afflictions Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble and Isa. 4. 3. When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee and many other places Now if God be with us why should we be afraid Psal. 23. 4. When I walk thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will not be afraid for thou art with me and in many other places We see in the Body if any Member be hurt thither presently runneth the Blood to comfort the wounded part the Man himself Eye Tongue and Hand is altogether employed about that part and wounded Member as if he were forgetful of all the rest So we see in the Family if one of the Children be sick all the care and Kindness of the Mother is about that sick Child she sits by him blandisheth him and tendeth him so that all the rest do as it were envy his Disease and Sickness If Nature doth thus will not God who is the Author of Nature do much more For if an earthly Mother do thus to a sickly and suffering Child will not our heavenly Father who hath an infinite incredible and tender Love to his People Surely he runneth to the Afflicted as the Blood to the hurt Member he looketh after the Afflicted as the Mother to the sick Child This is the difference between God and the World the World runneth after those that flourish and rejoyce and live in Prosperity as the Rivers run to the Sea where there is Water enough already but God comforteth us in all our tribulations 2 Cor. 1. 4. His Name and Style is He comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7. 6. The World forsaketh those that are in poverty disgrace and want but God doth not withdraw from them but visiteth them most hath communion with them most and vouchsafeth most of his Presence to them even to those that holily meekly and patiently bear the Afflictions which he layeth upon them and one drop of this Honey is enough to sweeten the bitterest Cup that ever they drank of If God be with us if the Power of Christ will rest upon us then we may even glory in Infirmities as Paul did 2. Of our presence with God when our Afflictions are over that is our happiness hereafter we shall be there where he is Iohn 12. 26. There where I am shall my servant be And Iohn 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me When we have had our Trial and Exercise we shall live with him for ever Therefore is our Comfort called everlasting Consolation 2 Thess. 2. 16. Who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Nothing more can be added or desired if we have but the patience to tarry for it that we may come to the sight of God and Christ at last Surely this will lighten the heart of that sorrow and fear wherewith it is surcharged here is an everlasting ground of Comfort and if it doth not allay our Fears and Sorrows the fault is not in the Comfort for that is a solid and eternal Good but on the Believers part if he doth not keep his Faith strong and his Evidences clear 4. It is a reviving Comfort which quickneth the Soul Many times we seem to be dead to all Spiritual Operations our Affections are damped and discouraged but the Word of God puts Life into the dead and relieveth us in
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
Sinners will at last take Effect and end in sad Chastisements and they that would not believe their danger are made to feel it Now his Promises will have their effect as well as his Threatnings Micah 2. 7. Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly The Word of God doth not onely speak good but doe good The Words saying of good is indeed doing of good The Performance is so certain that when it is said it may be accounted done We are apt to despise the Word of God as an empty sound no it produceth notable Effects in the World The Sentences that are there whether of Mercy or Judgment are Decrees given forth by the great Judge of the World whereupon Execution is to follow as is foretold Now when we see it done and can compare the Lords Word and Work together it is a mighty support to our Faith whether it be in our or in former Ages For you see the Word is not a vain Scare-crow in its Threatnings nor do we build Castles in the Aire when we do depend upon its promises The Judgments of his Mouth will be the Judgments of his Hand and Providence is a real comment upon and proof of the Truth of his Word 4. God's Judgments of old or his wonderfull Works were never intended onely for the benefit of that Age in which they were done but the benefit of all those who should hear of them by any credible means whatsoever Surely God never intended they should be buried in dark Oblivion but that after-Ages may be the better for the remembrance of them Witness these Scriptures Psal. 145. 4. One generation shall praise thy works unto another and remember thy mighty Acts. Joel 1. 3. Tell your Children of it and let your Children tell their Children and their Children another generation So Psal. 78. 3 4 5 6 7. That which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us we will not hide them from their Children shewing the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his wonderfull works which he hath done for he established a testimony in Iacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children that the generation to come might know them even the Children to come which should be born who should arise and declare to their Children that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of the Lord but keep his Commandments and might not be as their Fathers c. from all which places and many more I observe 1. That we should tell Generations to come what we have found of God in our time and that we should use all ways and means to transmit the Knowledge of God's notable and wondrous Providences for his People to Posterity 2. That this Report of God's former Works is a special means of Edification for therefore God would have them recorded and told for the special benefit of the Ages following 3. And more particularly that this is a great means and help of Faith For in one of the places it is said that they may set their Faith and Hope in God and from all we may conclude that by remembring God's Judgments of old we may be much comforted as in remembring God's Works when the Church was first reformed in Luther's time the delivering of England from the Spanish Invasion Gun-powder-Treason c. for the confirming our Faith and Confidence in God All God's Judgments that were done in the days of our Fore-fathers and in all Generations if they come to our Knowledge by a true Report or Record are of use to warn us and comfort us yea the bringing Israel out of Egypt and Babylon or any notable Work done since the beginning of the World till now The Use is to press us to take this Course as one Remedy to comfort us in our distresses In distresses of Conscience the Bloud of Christ is the onely cure But in Temptations arising from the Scorn and Insultation of Enemies remember what God hath done for his People of old and let his Providence support our Faith Psal 23. 4. thy rod and thy staff comfort me Pedum pastorale for the protection and guiding of the Sheep and driving away the Wolf the Rod and Staff are the Instruments of the Shepherd More particularly consider 1. What is to be observed and remembred All the eminent Passages of God's Providence when acts of Power have been seasonably interposed for the rescue of his People Judgments of all kind publick universal private and personal our own Experiences 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us The Experiences of others not in one but in every Age for in every Place and Age God delighteth to leave a Monument of his Righteousness and all is for the Consolation and Instruction of the Church Judgments in our time Judgments in former times blow off the dust from old Mercies and the Inscription of them will be a kind of Prophecy to your Faith but especially cast your eye often upon the Lords manner of dealing with his Saints in Scripture their Consolations and Deliverances received after trouble partly because the Word of God is a rich Store-house of these Instances and Examples and partly because of the Infallibility of the Record where things are delivered to us with so much simplicity and Truth partly also because of the Manner and Ends in which and for which they are recorded But if I would have recourse to Scripture should I not rather make use of the Promises Answ. We must not set one part of Scripture against another but Examples do mightily help us to believe Promises as they are a pledge of the Justice Faithfulness Care and Love of God towards his People and I know not by what secret force and influence invite us to hope for what God hath done for other of his Servants 2. How they must be considered Seriously as every thing that cometh from God a slight Consideration will not draw forth the profitable Use of them when they are looked on cursorily or lightly passed by the impression of God upon his Works cannot be discerned therefore they must be well considered with all their Circumstances Psal. 143. 2. David sufficed not to say I remember thy works of old but I meditate on all thy works I muse on the works of thy hands Psal. 77. 12. I remember thy works of old I will meditate also of all thy works and surely this should be a delightfull Exercise to the Children of God as it is for the Son of a noble and princely Father to reade the Chronicles where his Fathers Acts are recorded or the famous Atchievements of his Ancestors Psal. 111. 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Some works of God have a large Impression of his Power and
that 's no fault of our Portion but the defect of our Capacity Though we have not that fulness that we shall have hereafter yet we have it initially Here we have the First-fruits have it virtually hope and look for it there is something begun in the Soul that will increase towards this Satisfaction certainly this is a Portion that can alone be possest with Content God is satisfied with himself and sufficient to his own Happiness therefore surely there is enough in him to fill the Creature That which fills an Ocean will fill a Bucket that which will fill a Gallon will fill a Pint those Revenues that will defray an Emperours Expences are enough for a Beggar or Poor man So when the Lord himself is satisfied with himself and it is his happiness to enjoy himself there needs no more there is enough in God to satisfy If our desires run out after other things they are desires not to be satisfied but to be mortified If we hunger after other Contentments they are like feverish desires not to be satisfied but to be abated in the Soul for he that fills all things hath enough to fill up our Hearts Sixthly Complacency and Delight That which a Man would take pleasure in there where he may have abundant matter of rejoycing and Delight this a Man would choose for his Portion Now in God he hath the truest and sincerest Delight This is matter of rejoycing as David saith Psal. 16. 7. The Lord is my Portion what then I have a goodly Heritage here 's that which will revive and refresh my Heart enough There is no rejoycing that is sincere but this As the Discomforts of the New Creature are more real than all other Discomforts and pierce deeper a wounded Spirit who can bear so the Joyes of the New Creature none goe so deep Psal. 4. 6. Thou hast put more gladness into my heart c. Others do but tickle the Senses a little refresh the outward Man please the more bruitish part but this the Heart And this is such a joy as can be better felt than uttered 2 Pet. 1. 8. It is unspeakable and none can know the strength and sweetness of it till it be felt a Stranger cannot conceive it doth not intermeddle with his joy Prov. 14. 10. One drop of this is more than an Ocean of carnal Pleasure When we have other things without God we can never be serious Take the merriest Blades in the World and dig them to the bottom still there is something of sadness and remorse that doth sowre all their Content Conscience is secretly repining and ready to imbitter their Joy Though men strive to bear it down yet it 's ever returning upon them therefore they cannot be truly chearfull The most jolly Sinners have their Pangs that take off the edge of their Bravery Carnal Rejoycing makes a great noise like Thorns under a Pot but it 's but a blaze and gone But this is a solid Joy and Comfort wherewith a Man may look death in the face with chearfulness and think of the World to come and not be sad Alas a little thing puts the merriest Sinner into the Stocks of Conscience He that makes it his business to adde one Pleasure to another and spend his days in vanity how soon is his Mirth removed Therefore if a Man would choose a Portion to have Joy at the higest Rate he should choose God for his Portion II. How comes a godly Man to look upon God under this Notion that no less will content him but God himself why he hath another apprehension and another manner of heart to close with him than carnal Men his Understanding is inlightned and his Heart inclined by Grace 1. He sees more into the worth of Spiritual and Heavenly Things He hath Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen of things that do not lie under the judgment of Sense and present Reason he can spy things under a Vail and his eyes are opened to see what is the Riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 17 18. and therefore he is convinced of the fullness and sufficiency that is in God and the emptiness and straitness that is in the Creature God hath given him Counsel his Reins instruct him Psal. 16. 7. All by Nature are blind ignorant apt to dote upon the Creature but by Grace their eyes are opened that they have another manner of discerning that they do not see things onely by discourse but their Hearts are affected Others may discourse but they have not this divine Light and spiritual Understanding by which spiritual Things may be discerned as matters of Opinion they may but not as matters of Choice A carnal Man may argue out with Reason the Worth and Excellency of God but he hath not a refined Apprehension and perswasive Counsel which is in God's People 2. Their Hearts are inclined to choose him for their Portion They do not onely see an alluring worth in the Object but there 's an attracting Vertue by which the Heart is drawn in to God Iohn 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him The great Article of the Covenant of Grace is to take God for our God Now all the Articles of the New Covenant are not onely Precepts â—…ut Promises The conditions of the Covenant are conditions in the Covenant God gives what he requires And therefore as the great Article of the Covenant is to take God for our God so the great Blessing of the Covenant is to have a new Heart or a new placing of our Desires and Affections Sin lieth in a Conversion from God to the Creature Grace in turning us to God again The Change is mainly seen in fixing our chiefest Good and our last End God gives his People a Heart to close with him and accept of him as their Portion to fix upon him as their chiefest Good and their last End Use 1. To reprove them that do not take God for their Portion Godly Men must have God himself they prefer him above all and saving Grace above other Benefits Psal. 4. 6 7. There 's the dispositions of the Godly and the Carnal The many say who will shew us any good but Lord lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us A carnal Man is for Good in common any Good but not for the Light of God's Countenance nothing will satisfy the Saints but the Light of God's Countenance they prefer him above his Gifts and among his Gifts they prefer saving Graces and renewing Mercies such as begin and confirm them in their Union with God in Christ. But carnal Men go no further than the World they choose not God but his Gifts and among these not the best but the common sort such as suite with the Appetite of the fleshly Nature and the more brutish part of these Riches Pleasures and Honours and these too not as coming from God but as
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
Life 1 Pet. 1. 23. He hath begotten us not by corruptible but incorruptible Seed c. Iames 1. 18. He hath begotten us by the word of Truth 2 Pet. 1. 4. To us are given great and precious Promises that we might be made partakers of the divine Nature John 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth All this is said of the Word 't is the means to sanctify us the immortal Seed the beginning of the New life the divine Nature to make us live after a God-like manner therefore 't is better than thousands of gold and silver A Child of God findeth a greater Treasure in one Chapter of the Bible than worldly Men in all their Lands and Honours and large Revenues A poor Christian meeteth with more true Gain in a Sermon than others can in their Trades while they live God begetteth him at first by the Word of Truth and giveth him there the supply of the Spirit therefore be swift to hear much in reading and meditation day and night Oh there is the true Treasure the Pearl of price there their Souls become acquainted with God 2. It directeth us and keepeth us from being carried away with every deceit of Sin Psalm 119. 105. Thy word is a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet Here are Directions for all Cases here is a general Direction 't is a light to our path and sheweth us what to doe in particular Actions 't is a lamp to our feet So 133 verse Order my steps in thy word and let no iniquity have dominion over me 'T is the Word prevents the reign of any one Sin To have a sure Rule to walk by in the midst of so many Snares and Temptations is a greater favour than to injoy the greatest affluence of worldly Felicity 3. It supporteth us in all our Afflictions and Extremities All the Wealth in the World composed and put together cannot yield us that true Contentment and Satisfaction which the Word of God doth to the obedient Soul Wealth cannot allay a grieved Mind nor appease a wounded Conscience The Word directeth us where we may find rest for our Souls Ier. 6. 16 Goe ask for the good old way and you shall find rest for your Souls We lose our selves in a maze of Uncertainties till we come to the Word of God Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and you shall find rest for your Souls here is ease for the great wound and maim of Nature The great maim of Nature is Sin now where shall we have a Plaister for this Sore but onely in the Word of God So for particular Afflictions Rom. 15. 4. That ye through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Comfort is the strengthening of the Mind or the fortifying the Mind when 't is vexed and weakened with doubts fears and sorrows I had fainted in my Affliction unless thy word had quickened me Psalm 119. 50. The Comforts of the World appear and vanish in a moment cannot firmly stay and revive the Heart every blast of Temptation scattereth them Philosophy and natural Reason cannot give us true ground of Comfort that was it they aimed at how to fortify the Soul and keep it quiet notwithstanding Troubles in the Flesh but as they never understood the true ground of Misery which is Sin so neither the true ground of Comfort which is Christ. That which Man offereth cannot come with such power and authority upon the Conscience as that which God offereth and bare Reason cannot have such an efficacy as divine Testimony and the Law of God's Mouth This Moonlight rotteth before it ripeneth Fruits but the Word acquainteth us with Christ who is the Foundation of Comfort with the Spirit who is the efficient cause of Comfort with the promise of Heaven which is the true matter of Comfort with Faith the great Instrument to receive it 3. Let us look to the Duration there is a vanity and uncertainty in all these outward things they soon take the wing and leave us in sorrow If they continue with us till death then they have done all their work Wealth may bring you to the Grave but it can stead you no farther then Wealth is gone but Horrour doth continue Luke 16. 24. Son in thy life time thou enjoyedst thy good things these good things are onely commensurate with Life Sometimes they do not last so long but when we must leave the World and lanch out to those unknown Regions Iob 27. 8. how miserable shall we be Worldly Comforts will fail us when we have most need of them as Ionah's Gourd when the Sun scorched him So in the hour of Death what will Bags of Gold doe then but now on the other side Wisdome is better than Gold and Silver because with her are durable Riches and Righteousness Prov. 8. 18 19. therefore my fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my revenue than choise silver If a man would labour for any thing labour for that which is Eternal Iohn 6. 27. No Treasure can be compared to eternal Life and this the Word assureth us of II. Let us now come to examine why the Children of God value it so 1. Because they are enlightned by the Spirit when others have their Eyes dazzled with an external splendour and their Judgment is corrupted by their Senses 'T is not Ignorance undoes the World so much as want of spiritual Prudence spiritual and heavenly Things can onely be seen in the light of the Spirit without which we can neither discern the truth or worth of them in order to choice 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit and therefore till we have this illuminating and sanctifying Light of the Spirit we shall not make a good Choise for our selves Eph. 1. 17 18. The Apostle prayeth That the Lord would give you the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation The eyes of your Understanding being inlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his Calling and the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints That saving Knowledge of divine Mysteries which causeth us to prefer and choose them above other things comes from the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation otherwise in seeing we see not There is a perfect contradiction many times between speculative and practical Knowledge the common Wisdome and Knowledge of divine Mysteries is a Gift that cometh from the Spirit much more this spiritual discerning 2. They are affected with their true Necessities Our real Necessities are the Necessities of the Soul bodily wants are more urging and pressing upon us but these are more dangerous therefore Gold and Silver which supplieth our bodily Necessities is not so welcome to them as the Law of God's Mouth which provideth a remedy for their Soul defects How to be justified how sanctified is more than what shall we eat and drink and wherewith shall we be cloathed
compared with all that may be called life Life is either Natural Spiritual or Eternal Compare it with life Natural and there the Psalmist will tell you Psal. 63. 3. Thy loving-kindness is better than life life is not life without it without the feeling of this love or the hope of feeling it it is little worth To have the light of the Sun which is the comfort of the senses without the light of God's Countenance which is the comfort of the soul is a sad and dark estate especially to the Children of God that know they are made for another world and for this onely in their passage thither Natural life onely giveth us a capacity to injoy the comforts of sense which are base dreggy and corruptive but the special favour of God lets us into such consolations as perfect the Soul and affects it with a greater pleasure than our natural faculties are capable of life natural is a frail brittle thing but these saving effects of Gods mercy lay a Foundation of eternal happiness Life natural may grow a burden but the love of God is never burdensome the days may come in which there is no pleasure Eccl. 12. 1. Job 33. 20. his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty food in sickness and age in troubles of Conscience Men do pretty well with their worldly happiness till God rebuke man for sin then all the glory profit and pleasure of the creature doth us no good Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Iudas halter'd himself when filled with the sense of Gods wrath Iob chose strangling rather than life At death when all worldly things cease and are of no more use to us the sense of Gods love will be of great use to us All the world understand the worth and value of Gods love when death cometh then a child of God feeleth it Oh saith he I would not for all the world but that I had made sure of the love of God before this hour how terrible else would it have been to leave all and leap out into an unknown world Ier. 17. 9. The unjust man at his latter end shall be a fool and Iob 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite if he hath gained when God cometh to take away his Soul 2. Life Spiritual the Soul hath no life but in communion with God who is the fountain of this new life now the more sensible and close this is the more they live the vitality of this life lyeth in the sensible participation of the effects of his special grace and mercy then we have it more abundantly Iohn 10. 10. not onely living but lively 3. For eternal life a comfortable sense of Gods mercy is the beginning and pledg of the true and heavenly life Rom. 5. 4 5 6. The shedding abroad the love of God in the heart of a believer maketh this his hope sure and certain he needeth not be ashamed for he hath earnest beforehand 2. Gods favour furnisheth us with a remedy against all evils and miseries i. e. wants troubles sins The want of other things may be supplyed by the love of God but the want of the love of God cannot be supplyed with any thing else if poor in the world yet we may be rich in faith Iam. 2. 5. if afflicted destitute yet this loss may be made up by the presence of God in the Soul 2 Cor. 4. 16. As our outward man decayeth our inward man is renewed day by day If they want the creature they have God there is no want of a candle when they have the Sun if they want health the Soul may be in good plight 3. Epist. Iohn 2. as Gaius had a healthy soul in a sickly body If they want liberty they ly open to the visits of his grace the Spirit of God is no stranger to them nor can his company and comforts be shut out Tertullian telleth the Martyrs you went out of the prison when you went into it and were but sequestred from the world that you might converse with God the greatest prisoners are those that are at large darkened with ignorance chained with lusts committed not by the Proconsul but God If they want the favour of men they have the favour of God God smileth when the world frowneth they may be Banished but every place is alike near to God and Heaven Some climates are nearer and some further off from the Sun but all alike near to the Sun of Righteousness Ibi pater ubi patria that is our Country where God is we are harrassed beaten afflicted in sundry manners but the sting is gone therod that is dip'd in guilt smarteth most but a pardoned man may rejoyce in tribulations Rom. 5. 1 2. But now on the contrary suppose a man high in honour wallowing in wealth spending his time and wealth in ease and pleasure but after all this God will bring him to Judgment the world is his friend but God is his enemy and he is all his life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. not always felt but soon awakened and during the time of his comfort and delight he is danceing about the brink of hell liable to an eternal curse and there is but the slender thread of a frail life between him and execution a few serious sober thoughts undoe him 2. Sin that is the great evil both as to the guilt of it and the wages of it the guilt and obliquity of it no creature can provide a plaister for this sore to get our Consciences setled and our natures healed this is the special fruit of Gods mercy in Christ his business is to save us from sin Matt. 1. 21. Acts. 3. 26. God having raised up his son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquity Rom. 11. 26. There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob have Gods Image repaired and restored to his Grace and Favour those that have felt sin a burden nothing will satisfie till the Lord looks graciously upon them 3. The favour of the Lord is the fountain of all blessings Get an interest in his special mercy and then all things are yours you have God for your God who commandeth all things 1 Cor. 3. 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things are yours Matt. 6. 33. First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it 4. It sweetens every Comfort a piece of bread with the love of God is a plentifull feast A little that a righteous man hath is better than the revenue of many wicked Quid prodest regium alimentum si ad Gehennam pascat What profiteth it to be fatted
see what is this Salvation which is here spoken of Salvation in Scripture hath divers acceptations it 's put 1. For that temporal Deliverance which God giveth or hath promised to give to his People So 't is taken Exod. 14. 13. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord that he will shew you to day That is the wonderful deliverance which he will work for you So Lament 3. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Meaning by Salvation their recovery out of Captivity 'T was their duty to wait for this deliverance and though it were long first yet having a Promise they were to keep up their Hope 2. For the Exhibition of Christ in the Flesh. Psal. 98. 2 3. The Lord hath made known his salvation his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen He hath remembred his mercy and truth to the house of Israel all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God Clearly that Psalm containeth a Prediction of the setting up of Christ's Kingdom and a bringing of the Gentile World into subjection to it which was first to be offered to the People of the Iews and from thence to be carried on throughout all the Regions of the World So old Simeon expresseth himself Luke 2. 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Meaning thereby Christ actually exhibited or born in the flesh which was the beginning of the Kingdom of the Messiah 3. For the Benefits which we have by Christ on this side Heaven as the pardon of Sin and the renovation of our Natures these are called Salvation as Mat. 1. 21. He shall save his people from their sins And Tit. 3. 5. He hath saved us by washing in the laver of regeneration And in the Old Testament Psal. 51. 12. Restore unto us the joy of thy salvation That is the joy which we have because God hath freed us from our sins 4. For Everlasting Life Heb. 5. 9. He is become the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him And 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls Meaning thereby our final Reward The Text is applicable to all these But 1 most simply we must expound it of Salvation in the first sense because the drift of the Man of God in this Octonary is to shew how he was affected since God heard him not at the first cry or as soon as he prayed for deliverance Though he prayed for deliverance yet the help promised and hoped for was delayed so long till he was ready to faint and had fainted altogether but that the Promise revived and kept up his hopes 2 If these words be supposed to be spoken by the Church and in Her Name they fitly represent the longings of the Old Testament Fathers after Christ's coming in the Flesh. For as David expresseth himself here so doth old Iacob Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. That speech cometh in there by way of interruption for as he was blessing his Children he turneth to the Lord desiring his salvation by Christ of which Samson belonging to the Tribe of Dan the Tribe which he was then blessing was a special Type So 't is said of Abraham John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Abraham knowing him to be the true Messiah did earnestly desire to see that day and to his great contentment got a sight of it by Faith 't was a sweet and blessed sight to him So Luke 10. 24. Many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them That is David a King and other Prophets longed for this day So Heb. 11. 13. Having seen the promises afar off they were persuaded of them and embraced them Oh! they hugged the promises saying These will one day yield a Saviour to the world So 't is said of all the serious Believers of the Old Testament Luke 2. 25. That they waited for the consolation of Israel That is for the Redemption of the World by the blood of Christ and the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon which follow'd the calling of the Gentiles and the setting up of the Kingdom of God in the World These things the Saints longed for waited for and because the Lord suspended the exhibition of them till the fulness of time and did not presently satisfie their desires they might be said to faint but the Promise kept up their Faith in waiting and confidence I cannot wholly exclude this sense because the Salvation promised at the coming of the Messiah was the greatest and common to all the faithful They had many discouragements in expecting it from the wickedness and calamities of that people from whom as concerning the Flesh Christ was to descend But though they were ready to faint they did not give over the hope of that Salvation having God's word for it and the remembrance of it kept afoot by the Sacrifices and Types of the Law 3 Since Christ hath appeared in the Flesh and hath wrought Salvation for us we must wait and long and look for that part of Salvation which is yet to be performed as the deliverance of the Church from divers Troubles the freedom of particular Believers from their doubts and fears and finally our eternal Salvation which shall be compleated at Christ's second coming All that have the first-fruits of the Spirit are groaning for this and hoping for this Rom. 8. 23 24 25. We are to desire Heaven yet patiently to stay God's time for here is fainting and hoping or as the Apostle saith hastening to and yet waiting for the coming of the Lord 2 Pet. 3. 12. one is the effect of Desire the other of Hope Desire hastening and Hope waiting These things being cleared let us first apply the words to Temporal Deliverance Observe I. DOCT. The Afflictions of God's People may be long and grievous before any Comfort and Deliverance cometh For the Affliction continued so long upon David that his Soul even fainted There are three Agents in the Afflictions of the Saints 1. GOD. 2. SATAN 3. WICKED MEN. 1. God hath many wise Reasons why he doth not give Audience or a gracious Answer at the first call First Because he will try our Faith to see if we can depend upon him when it cometh to an extremity Thus by silence and rebukes Christ tryed the Woman of Canaan that her Faith might appear the more gloriously Mat. 15. 28. Then Iesus answered and said unto her O woman great is thy faith And by extremities he still tryeth his children Our graces are never exercised to the life till we are near the point of death that 's Faith which can then depend
upon God Job 13. 15. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him And Psal. 23. 4. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Many of his Children are reduced to great straits there may be no meal in the Barrel nor oil in the Cruse before God helpeth them There may be many mouths to eat little Food Iohn 6. 5 6. when there was a great deal of company and little provision Christ asketh one of his Disciples Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat And this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would do So many a poor Believer is put to it Children increase Trading groweth dead Supplies fail What shall they do They pray and God giveth no answer This he doth to prove them 'T is a strong Faith which can hold out in such straits and difficulties 2dly To awaken our Importunity Luke 18. 1. And he spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint compared with Luke 11. 8. with the Parable ensuing So again an instance in the Woman of Canaan she turneth discouragements into arguments When Christ said It is not meet to take the childrens bread and to cast it to dogs She said Truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crums which fall from their masters table Mat. 15. 26 27. So the blind men Mat. 20. 31. the more they were rebuked cryed the more rather than his People shall neglect Prayer or grow formal in it God will cast them into great Afflictions as Christ suffereth the Storm to continue till the Ship was almost overwhelmed that his Disciples might awaken him Mat. 8. 25. 3dly To make us sensible of our weakness as Paul 2 Cor. 1. 9. 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 We are much given to self-confidence therefore God will break it and e're he hath done with us make us trust in him alone There is a twofold strength Natural and Spiritual 1. Natural which ariseth from that Courage that is in Man as he is a reasonable Creature This will hold out till all probabilities be spent Prov. 18. 14. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Till a Man be struck at the heart his reason will support him 2. Spiritual Faith Hope Patience These may be spent when the Affliction is deep and pressing and God's help is long delay'd Faith is the strength of the Soul as Faith decayeth or is tired the Soul faints Faith may be damped and give up our case for gone Psal. 116. 11. Psal. 31. 22. They throw up all and think it is in vain to wait any longer Thus will God discover our weakness to our selves the weakness of our Reason the weakness of our Faith I remember Solomon saith Prov. 34. 10. If thou faintest in adversity thy strength is small Grievous or long Afflictions discover our strength or weakness Some are of a poor spirit give up at first assault before their strength faileth them before the probabilities which Sense and Reason offereth are spent They are lazy and love their ease Some are negligent do not make use of the helps of Faith but when evils continue long and sit close the strongest Faith is seen to be too weak God by this will humble us 4thly God doth this for his own glory and that his work may be the more remarkable and conspicuous John 12. 6 7. Iesus loved Lazarus and when he heard that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was Little love in that you will say a Man would hasten to his dying Friend Christ may dearly love his own and yet delay to help them even in their extremity till the fit time come wherein the mercy may be the more conspicuous 'T is said Eccles. 3. 11. God hath made every thing beautiful in his time Before its time God's work seemeth harsh and rough as a Statue when it is first hewn out but in its time t is a curious piece of workmanship God in his own time and way knoweth best how to comfort his People 2. 'T is the Devil's design to tire and weary out the People of God and therefore stirreth up all his malice against us Luke 22. 31 32. Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not The Devil if he might have the shaking of us and liberty to do his worst he would drive us from the faith of Christ and all hopes by him 3. Men are unreasonable in their oppositions and will not relent nor abate any thing of their rigor Zech. 1. 15. I was a litte displeased and they helped forward the affliction They are still adding to the Churches trouble and would destroy those whom God would only correct and purge as the Slave layeth on unmercifully Till God restrain it their wrath never ceaseth Well then 1 USE Let it not seem strange to us That Godly Men in their Afflictions though they flie to God and implore his Mercy are not presently delivered nor always at the first instance God hath many discoveries to make much work to do Would you have Faith rewarded before it be tryed or the beautiful frame and link of causes disturbed for your sakes Faith is not tryed to purpose till the thing we believe is not seen nor have any probability that ever we shall see it yea till we see nothing but the contrary and hope against hope we must stay till the mercy be ready for us and we ready for it an hungry Stomach would have the Meat e're it be roasted our times are always present with us when God's time is not come 2. Let us prepare for grievous and tedious Sufferings We would turn over our hard Lesson before we have sufficiently learned it we love the case of the flesh would have no Cross or a very short one Things will not be so soon or so suddenly effected as we imagine We make greater provision for a long Voyage We should be strengthned to long-suffering Col. 1. 11. as for all sort of Crosses so for long and tedious Crosses 3. If our Affliction be long observe your carriage under it Doth Faith and Hope keep you alive still Heb. 6. 12. Be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Do you keep up your prayerful affections Rom. 12. 12. Continue instant in prayer We pray as Men out of heart for fashions sake and with little life rather satisfying our Consciences than expressing our hope and confidence A damp on the Spirit of Prayer is an ill Presage Can you love God though you be not feasted with Self-comforts and present Benefits
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
Iam. 1. 2. So Christian courage and resolution that 's tried in deep affliction when we are slain all the day long Heb. 11. 35 36. Rom. 8. 37. In all these things we are more than Conquerors The strength of a man's back is not tried by a small weight but by a heavy burden how much he can bear so the sharper the affliction the greater the trial 3. That they may have the more experience of God for the sharper the affliction the sweeter their comfort and the more glorious their deliverance Psal. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles thou shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth God's power in raising them up is more seen 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivered me from so great a death Use 1. If we be under sore troubles let us not faint remember 't is no more than we have deserved God will not afflict a man above his deserts he cannot complain of wrong Ezra 9. 13. It is never more it may be less when our afflictions are great our deserts are far greater Isa. 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God Why For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins God saith double he relents presently 2. Consider the degree of affliction it is not measured out by your selves but measured out by a wise God though afflicted very much and very sore the measure it is ordered by God as well as the kind of it If it were measured out by our selves it would be too light it would be too gentle The Patient must not be trusted in searching his own wounds and if it were left to our Enemies they would know no bounds Zech. 1. 15. I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction But it is left to the wise just and gracious God and Father he tempers the Cup in his own hand and therefore when the affliction is grown sore and strong it comes not only from a wise God but a tender Father that best knows what is good for us Iob 34. 23. That 's a notable place For he will not lay upon man more than right that he should enter into judgment with God That is the party afflicted hath no just complaint against God can take no exception against God's proceedings for he perfectly understands our need and understands our strength God perfectly understands our need 1 Pet. 1. 6. If need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations And understands our strength 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is he who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able Many Parents do not correct their children in measure being ignorant of their nature and disposition Many Physicians mistake their Patient's constitution therefore the Physick may work too strongly and too violently for them but God understands our need and our strength and so suits all his remedies accordingly Use 2. To reprove those fond complaints that are extorted from us in deep and pressing afflictions as if 1. Sometimes there was never any so afflicted as I am God's people have been sore troubled Lam. 1. 12. Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me Yes others have been afflicted in the same kind and degree if not worse 1 Pet. 5. 9. All these things are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world You think 't is such as the like hath never been known or heard of for every Man 's own pain seemeth most grievous Lam. 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath Other Prophets foretold them I see them executed The best of God's people have their measures of hardships you are not singular do not stand alone This is one of Satan's deceits Satan will suggest this to a Child of God that he may question his Fathers affection lose the comfort of his Adoption and put your selves out of the number of God's Children your lot is not harder than the rest of God's Children all that are in the world have the same trials troubles pressing evils upon their hearts now and then 2. Another you find complaining taxing God of unfaithfulness as if he would break trust and lay upon you more than you are able to bear and you deceive your selves for if you cannot bear your present burden you would bear none you do not improve Christ's strength Phil. 4 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me Christ doth not help us in such a degree or one trouble and no more but in all 3. Another we find complain I am cut off God will be merciful and gracious no more Psal. 77. 8 9 c. He hath forsaken me and forgotten me God's Children have been brought thus low yet have been raised as the Church Psal. 118. 18. Lord thou hast chastened me sore yet hast not given me over unto death Within a little while he will shew this was but our infirmity this would stop these idle complaints by which we give vent to our daily impatience We have seen David s case but what doth he do he goes to God about comfort and relief I am afflicted very sore O Lord quicken me according to thy Word There observe 1. That he prays and makes his addresses to God 2. For what he prays Doct. First That he prays Observe Affliction should put us upon Prayer and serious address to God Thus God's people are wont to do Isa. 2. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them They that have neglected God at other times will be dealing with him then and this God expects Hos. 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early 'T will be the first thing they will do the greatest thing they will take care off as that which we most care for most is thought of in the morning Nay it is that which God enjoins Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble Some might hang off when God's Rod is upon their backs or be discouraged by the bitter sense of a trouble therefore God doth not only give us leave but commands us to call upon him This is the special season when this duty is performed with life and vigor Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5. 13. Let him thus give vent to his trouble it doth mightily ease the heart An Oven stopt up is the hotter within the more we keep down grief and do not unburden our selves the more it presseth upon the heart Wind imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth makes a terrible shaking there till it gets vent so till our sorrow gets a vent it rends and tears the heart The Throne of Grace was appointed
I am afflicted very sore O Lord quicken me Doct. We must not give over Prayer though our afflictions be never so great and heavy Why because 1. Nothing is too hard for God he hath ways of his own to save and preserve his People when we are at a loss This was the glory of Abraham's Faith that he accounted God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead Heb. 11. 19. difficult cases are fit for God to deal in to shew his Divine Power When means have spent their allowance then is it time to try what God can do Psal. 142. 4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living When all things fail God faileth not 2. We must still pray Faith must express something above sense or else living by Faith and living by sense cannot be distinguished In desperate cases then is the glory of Faith seen Iob 13. 15. Though he should kill me yet I will trust in him In defiance of all discouragement we should come and profess our dependance upon God Use. To condemn those that despond and give over all treaty with God as soon as any difficulty doth arise whereas this should sharpen Prayer rather than discourage us This is man's temper when troubles are little and small then to neglect God when great then to distrust God A little head-ach will not send us to the Physician nor the scratch of a Pin to the Chyrurgion So if our troubles be little they do not move us to seek after God but we are secure and careless but when our troubles are smart sore and pressing then we are discouraged and give over all hopes so hard a matter is it to bring Man to God to keep an even frame neither to slight the hand of God nor to faint under it as we have direction to avoid both Extremes Heb. 12. 5. to cherish a due sense of our troubles with a regular confidence in God That he prays you have seen Now what he prays for He doth not say deliver me but quicken me Doct. Strength and Support under Afflictions is a great Blessing to be sought from God and acknowledged as a Favor as well as Deliverance 1. You shall see this is promised as a Favor Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength That is shall not faint nor be weary but mount up as it were with wings as Eagles they shall have a new supply of grace enabling them to bear and hold out till the deliverance cometh They that wait upon the Lord do not always see the end of their troubles but are quickned comforted and strengthned in them they shall renew their strength 2. This is accepted by the Saints with thanksgiving and valued by them as a special answer of prayer they value it more than temporal deliverance itself many times as 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. Paul prays for the removal of the thorn in the flesh thrice when God only gives him this answer My grace is sufficient for thee saith Paul then I 'll rejoice in mine infirmities so I might have strength and support in grievous weaknesses reproaches and afflictions whatever they be So Psal. 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul. That 's noted as a special answer of Prayer How did he hear him with strength in my soul. Though he did not give him deliverance he gave him support so that was acknowledged as a very great mercy 3. There are many Cases wherein we cannot expect temporal deliverance then we must only go for quickning and support when by a lingring disease we are drawing down to the chambers of death and our outward strength is clean spent and gone then have we support that 's a great mercy Psal. 73. 26. when strength fail and heart fail God is the strengtâ—… of my heart and portion for ever That is to have his heart quickned by God in the languishing of a mortal disease So 2 Cor. 4. 16. Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day There are many troubles that cannot be avoided and therefore we are then to be earnest with God for spiritual strength Use. Well then you see upon what occasion we should go for grace rather than for temporal deliverance we should pray from the new nature not deliver me but quicken me and if the Lord should suspend deliverance why that will be our strength in time of trouble Psal. 37. 39. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble But more particularly let us take notice of this Request Quicken me saith he Doct. Quickning Grace must be asked of God 1. What is quickning 2. Why asked of God 1 First What is this quickning Quickning in Scripture is put for two things 1. For Regeneration or the first infusion of the life of grace as Ephes. 2. 5. And you that were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickned That is infused life or making to live a new life 2. It is put for the renewed excitations of God's grace God's breathing upon his own work God that begins life in our souls carries on this life and actuates it Now this kind of quickning is twofold spoken of in this Psalm there is quickning in duties and quickning in afflictions quickning in duties that 's opposite to deadness of spirit quickning in affliction that 's opposite to faintness 1 Quickning in duties that 's opposite to that deadness of spirit which creeps upon us now and then and is occasioned either by our negligence or by our carnal liberty that deadness of spirit that doth hinder the activity of grace 1. By our negligence and sloathfulness in the spiritual life when we do not stir up our selves Isa. 64. 6. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee When Men grow careless and neglectful in their souls An Instrument though never so well in tune yet if hang up and laid by soon grows out of order so when our hearts are neglected when they are not under a constant exercise of grace a deadness creeps upon us Wells are the sweeter for the draining Our graces they are more fresh and lively the more they are kept a work otherwise they lose their vitality A Key rusts that is seldom turned in the Lock and therefore negligence is a cause of this deadness 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stir up the gift that is in thee We must blow up the ashes There needs blowing if we would keep in the fire we grow dead and lukewarm and cold in the spiritual life for want of exercise 2. This deadness is occasioned by carnal liberty Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me
before them all saying I know not the man Or when we take any sinful course for temporal safety as when David seigned himself mad before Achish 1 Sam. 21. 13. Or when our spirits are fill'd with passion against the instruments of our trouble and with uncomely heats as Peter drew a Sword in a rash zeal and had no thanks for it but a Rebuke from Christ. Or when we suffer in a heartless and uncomfortless manner as God's children sometimes are in dejections of spirit David took notice of his drooping and disconsolateness Psal. 42. 5. when he flitted up and down in the Wilderness and pursu'd with Saul's Army he had his droopings and discomforts in these Cases we forget the Word of God 2dly To press you to courage and constancy in a time of danger to endure all Extremities rather than do any thing against the Word of God Here I shall inquire 1. What is this Christian Courage There is Military Valor and Christian Valor The one consists in doing the other in suffering great things Peter at Christ's death had more of the Military Valor and Fierceness than of the Passive Valor for he that could venture on a Band of Men was foiled by a Damsels question The one dependeth on hastiness of temper greatness of blood and spirits the other upon Faith and submission of God's Will Acts 7. 55. He being full of the Holy Ghost look'd up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God It is spoken when the People gnashed on him with their teeth then full of the Holy Ghost There is the Habit of Fortitude and the Act of it when led on There is a great deal of difference between the courage of wicked men and the faith and fortitude of good Christians We see rude men are undaunted in the face of danger but the fortitude of Christians consisteth in lifting up their eyes and hearts to Heaven others not for as soon as they think of God their courage faileth the more brave the more they shut out the thought of divine things all sense of God and immortality 1 Cor. 15. 32. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye It is a brutish fury inflam'd by Wine stir'd up by Trumpets and Drums not stir'd up by the consolations of God or remembrance of his Covenant then they are dejected Rev. 6. 15 16 17. 2dly To remove such Objections as may hinder your Courage and Constancy 1. It is a sore temptation to keep our service but we must stand to God's Providence to honour him by service or by suffering as he shall think good We are to honour God in his own way we are not to stretch Conscience in the least degree to continue it God hath no need of thy sin when God hath a mind to lay you aside submit 2. The smalness of the difference is another Objection If it were to turn Turk or Heathen or Papist men will say They would not do so and so God standeth upon every peek of his word every dust of truth is precious 3. Another Objection is this We shall be interpreted to hinder the Publick Peace I answer If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. But be sure not to betray the Cause of God nor lose the Interest of Christ that is not possible which is not lawful in a moral sense 4. Another Objection is That we shall be accounted peevish rash stubborn I answer We must be led to credit There is a difference between men stubborn and obstinate and zealous Many may sacrifice a stout body to a stubborn mind but be couragious and constant in the service of God 3dly What is necessary to this well-temper'd Courage that we may suffer not out of humour but out of conscience towards God not because formerly engag'd by profession or out of a desire of a name and esteem among Religious persons but out of Obedience to God who commandeth us to chuse afflictions rather than sin To this Resolution there is necessary 1. An heart weaned from the World Mat. 6. 24. otherwise a man will act very uncertainly and his zeal for God be very uneven 2. An heart intirely devoted to God Every one that cometh to Christ must be thus resolved Luke 14. 26. 3. An heart purged from sin or else our zeal is not uniform besides that our lusts will weaken our courage A carnal person suffering in a good cause is of no account with God The Priests were to search the Burnt offering if sound or had any defect or blemish upon them He that keepeth the Commandments is best able to suffer for them Mat. 5. 10. Blessed are they that suffer for righteousness sake A Martyr must have all the precedent graces 4. An heart that lieth under a deep sense of Eternity and things to come 1 Ioh. 5. 4. This is the victory we have over the world even our faith Not any looking backward but forward SERMON CXX On the Fifth of NOVEMBER PSAL. CXIX VER 110. The wicked have laid a snare for me yet I erred not from thy precepts HEre is the second Assault made upon David's Integrity the secret snares laid for him The Enemies of God's People do not always go to work in the way of open Persecution and directly for Righteousness sake but then they lay snares what they cannot do by open force they seek to do by fraud Many that have stood out with courage against the shock of violence have been taken in a snare as the Prophet that resisted the King was enticed by the blandishments of the old Prophet 1 Kings 13. Persecution is a more gross way and liable to Exception and therefore they must go secretly to work Sometimes this life is a continued temptation and a Christian that walketh in the world walketh in the midst of snares set for him by his Enemies bodily and spiritual The Devil is the great Snare-layer and wicked men learn it of him The wicked have laid a snare for me c. In the words observe 1. David's Temptation A snare laid for him 2. The Persons who manag'd the Temptation The wicked 3. The Success and Issue Tet I erred not from thy precepts Doct. The Godly have often Snares laid for them not only by Satan but by wicked men Now Snares are to entice or endanger or of a mixt nature 1. Snares to entice them from their Duty Thus the blandishments of the whorish Woman are call'd a snare Prov. 7. 23. As the Bird hasteth unto the snare and knoweth not that 't is for his life Of this nature are crafty Insinuations Baits of Preferment Profit Pleasure or any carnal advantage to pervert our Judgments and draw us off from our Duty 2. Snares to endanger their safety clog'd with some spightful condition to entrap others or when there is a Plot-laid to endanger others as Ieremy complaineth Jer. 18. 22. They have digged
your hearts upon your beds When our reins should instruct us and suggest wholsom thoughts to us Psal. 16. 7. Or when we should direct our Prayer to God in the morning Psal. 5. 3. then they employ their thoughts and musings on Evil the Apostle maketh it to be their disposition that are given up by God to a reprobate sense to be inventers of evil things Rom. 1. 30. 3. They that plot Evil they are of the Devil's Trade whose work it is to hurt and mischief those who are broken loose from him 't is his business to lay snares 2 Tim. 2. 26. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will When Iudas plotteth against Christ the Devil entereth into him So Acts 13. 10. 't is said to Elymas the Sorcerer O thou full of all subtilty and mischief the child of the devil They are like the Devil in their hatred of God and the Truth and the Persecution of the Church and like him for subtilty and politick contrivance bloody designs and inventions are the venom and poyson of the old Serpent sinked into mens hearts there are both cruelty and lying John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it 4. 'T is a sin contrary to the love of God and man against double light and double obligations from both the Tables Grace and Nature condemneth it 't is against God for if we did love him we would love his image the Saints that are so near and dear to him they are his jewels Mal. 3. 17. they cost him dear he gave an infinite price for them the blood of Christ they are the Apple of his Eye to strike at them is to strike at God himself And 't is against man if Reasons of Grace do not restrain such yet Reasons of Nature should to plot mischief against one that is of the same nature with us natural light will teach us we should do as we would be done by Oh what a cruel creature is man to man when God lets him alone to the sway of his own heart and natural fierceness 5. The contrary to the gentleness and simplicity of the Christian Religion Christian Religion is a simple and harmless thing Phil. 2. 15. That ye be holy and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoicing that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversations in the world 'T is a sign men have drunk in a false Religion when their spirits are efferated and grow Monsters in wickedness Men addicted to false worship are subtle and cruel subtle for where there is real worth there is no dissimulation they carry things open and fair they have a God and Conscience to bear them out and this is worth all the world and if things do not suit to their minds they can tarry God's leisure without base and creeping acts and underhand designs and machinations but a false Religion that hath not a God to depend upon breadeth fears and fear and pusillanimity puts men upon Plots and bloody designs as Herod when afraid seeketh craftily to murther Christ Mat. 2. And as a false Religion is crafty so 't is mischievous and cruel Jude 11. These walked in the way of â—…ain For a false Religion cannot subsist without the Plots of Blood and Tyranny and Cruelty When Iudaism begun to fall the Iews bound themselves under an Oath That they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul False worships put men upon a blind zeal that breaketh out in Tragical Effects Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum So much of Truth so much of Meekness Openness and Plainness as the other is of Spight and Malice Use. Oh then let the Children of God abhor this hateful disposition take heed of those kind of sins that have subtlety and malice in them these are the Devil's sins the cursed old Serpent that hath been a Murtherer from the beginning take heed of plotting mischief and secretly designing the ruine of others I would have you Christians that are of the true Religion carry it meekly towards others beware of deliberate sins 't is possible in some great temptation the Children of God may fall into these of sins as David plotted Uriah's death but that sin was laid to his charge more than all the sins that ever he committed These sins are accompanied with some notable affliction and judgment as on David's sad house they leave an indelible stain and blemish and cost us dear 1 Kings 15. 5. David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all his dayes save in the matter of Uriah How many failings have we left upon Record His distrust I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul His dissimulation with his rash Vow to destroy Nabal his injustice in the matter of Ziba and Mephibosheth indulgence to Absolom numbering the People wherein he shew'd his carnal confidence All these are passed over in silence as his infirmities save only in the matter of Uriah And they will cost dear there is always some eminent trouble and affliction that accompany such sins When David had sin'd in the matter of Uriah what troubles were there in his house his daughter ravish'd Amnon slain in his drunkenness Absolom driveth him from his Palace Royal and then poor man his Subjects deserted him he forced to go weeping up and down and shift for his life all Israel came to Absolom his Wives defiled by his own Son Thus you see what is the fruit of deliberate sins These sins cost us a great deal of bitter sorrow sighs and tears to recover our peace and God's love and favour Again how bitterly did David remember his sin and beg that God would restore to him the joy of his salvation Psal. 51. therefore take heed of deliberate sins when we have time enough to have serious and sufficient consideration of the evil and yet do it when a man knoweth a thing to be evil and yet resolveth to go forward with it Sin is not done suddenly in heat of blood but at leisure not limited to a minute or an hour or any short space of time and yet to do it this grieves the Spirit and will cost us dear SERMON CXXI PSAL. CXIX VER III. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart IN this notable Psalm there are many independent Sentences expressing David's affection to the Word of God In this Verse you have I. David's Choice Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for
water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day God will keep his people by day lest by force they break in upon his heritage and keep them by night lest they steal in privily and by secret machinations hurt them 3. Again consider how many Arguments there are to work us to this trust Sometimes the Scripture teacheth us to argue from the less to the greater Mat. 6. 30. If God so clothe the Grass of the Field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Sometimes the Scripture teacheth us to argue on the contrary from the greater to the less Rom. 8. 32. If God hath given us his Christ will he not with him freely give us all things Sometimes the Scripture teacheth us to argue from things past God hath been your shield and helper he hath delivered from the mouth of the Lion and Bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them 1 Sam. 17. 37. Sometimes from things past and present to things to come 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver Sometimes from things to come to things present Luke 12. 32. Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Anne dabit Regnum non dabit viaticum If he give a Kingdom will he not give daily bread Will he not preserve you while he hath a mind to use you Thus our unbelief is overpowered by divers arguments to press us to this trust Well then run to your security how so First In defiance of all difficulty owne God as your hiding place and shield David when he was driven from his Palace Royal and wandered up and down for his life and when his enemies began to say Now there is no help for him in God Psal. 3. 3. All Israel were against him Many there be which say thus His Son drives him from his Palace now there is no safety nor defence but saith he Lord thou art my shield and my Glory and the lifter up of my head This is the way to get under the Covert of his wing when in the face of all difficulties we will owne God as our hiding place Secondly Sue out your protection by earnest prayer God hath given us promises as so many Bonds upon himself and we must put these Bonds in suit Our necessity leads us to the promises and the promises lead us to the Throne of Grace Psal. 141. 9. I flye to thee hide me O Lord keep me from the snare which they have laid for me Plead with him and say Lord thou hast said thou wilt be my refuge and hiding place whither should a Child go but to its Father and whither should I go but to thee for thou art my God Challenge him upon his word See how David expresseth himself Psal. 17. 7 8. Shew thy marvellous loving kindness O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee Keep me as the apple of the eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings Go challenge God upon his word Lord thou hast said thou wilt save those that trust in thee those that depend upon thee The eye is offended with the least dust and Nature hath provided a fence and covert for it Thus may we go to God and challenge such kind of protection Keep me as the apple of thine eye hide me under thy wings As the Dam is ready to flutter and spread her wings over the young Brood when they fly to her so will God Thirdly Take notice when ever it is made good give God his honour when he hath been a hiding place and protection to you that you may observe his Providence Psal. 18. 30. As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all those that trust in him Well I have waited upon God according to these promises and lo it is come to pass as the Lord hath said So Psal. 28. 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart trusted in him and I am helped Gen. 48. 16. The Angel of the Covenant which hath fed me all my days and redeemed me from all evil He speaks of the faithfulness of God and of the Mediator in all those promises of protection Fourthly Constantly make use of God You may think this discourse may be of no use to you because you are out of fears and dangers why you are constantly to make use of God be it well or ill and to live upon God All our comforts are from God as well as our support in trouble Certainly he that lives upon God in prosperity will live upon him in adversity O when you are well at ease and abound in all things you take these things out of the hand of God you will learn better to make him your refuge But he that lives upon the Creature in his prosperity when the Creature fails he will be in utter distress and know not what to do SERMON CXXVI PSAL. CXIX VER 115. Depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God MOST of the passages of this Psalm are directed to God himself but now he speaks to carnal men shaking them off as Christ will at the last Day His Speech is then Matth. 7. 22. Depart from me ye workers of iniquity and so saith David Depart from me ye evil Doers Whether David speaks this for his own sake or for others instruction as he doth many things in this Psalm I will not now dispute But certainly the drift of this Verse is to shew That if we intend to walk constantly with God we should keep at a distance from wicked men Separation from them is necessary for a conjunction with God If they be not Gods they should be none of yours for you are his Depart from me ye evil Doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God Here 1. Take notice of the persons to whom he speaks Ye evil Doers 2. What is said he renounceth all commerce with them Depart from me 3. The reason of this renuntiation For I will keep the Commandments of my God Where you may note 1. The fixedness of his resolution I will 2. The matter resolved upon I will keep the Commandments which they broke or made light of and so their friendship and company was an hinderance to him 3. The inducing Consideration My God he is the comfort and refuge of my soul more than all men are to me Friends are dear but God should be dearer None is ours so much as he is he is my God therefore 't is him that I will please my Gods Commands I will conform my self to All the business is to shew On what grounds David bids the evil Doers depart from him 1. It is either because of his
of Fools shall be destroyed not only Fools but their Companions Lot living among the wicked Sodomites he suffered with them you know when Sodom was assaulted Lot was taken Prisoner and his Goods plundered as their's were Gen. 14. 12. Iehoshaphat being associated with Ahab was in danger of death 1 Kings 22. 37. The Heathens were sensible that wicked men were marked out for vengeance The Athenians would not wash in the same Bath with the Persecutors of Socrates So Polycarp would not go into the same Bath with Cerinthus but said The enemy of Truth is here let us depart hence lest the Bath fall down upon us Use 1. Reproof of their fool-hardiness that rush upon evil Company and fear nothing What are your hearts so good that you think scorn that any Company should hurt you Consider is sin grown less dangerous than it was or are we come to such an height of perfection as to be above temptation to sin Or have we so good a Command of our selves that we need not take such care of our Company that we shall do well enough though we play about the Cockatrice's hole and run into all Companies and Societies without fear Good David here in the Text is fain to proclaim Depart from me ye workers of iniquity and to banish them out of his Company and David exceeded us in holiness and surely we live in more wicked days than he did See how it succeeded with Peter he would venture into the High Priests Hall and sit with the Company there and how did it succeed with him It brought him to a denial of Christ. Eve was bold with the Serpent and the Virgin Mary shamefaced with an Angel Luke 1. 29 30. and you know how it fell out both with the one and the other one was a means to ruine all Mankind and the other to repair it What 's the matter is not sin the same it was and is not humane Nature as bad as ever What Spells and Charms have we about our selves that the people of God had not heretofore Or are we more fortified and so are less watchful Shall we be running still upon the Pits Brink and shew how far we can go and not fall in Are all those Cautions out of date that bid us shun the occasions of sin and is not evil Company one of the chiefest of them Yet some men can frolick it in all Companies revel and dance run to Plays and no harm they think of all this Solomon says Prov. 4. 14 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away See how he heaps up words Did he trifle and speak needlesly when with such earnestness he pressed this that we would be careful of associating with wicked men Surely no and yet men are for all Companies as if there were no danger to their souls Use 2. Let us be perswaded to shake off the Society of the wicked Depart from them that depart from God and would draw you along with them But chiefly should we shun them because bad Company is the pest and bane of godliness Under the Law a man that had a running Issue whoever touched him was unclean Levit. 14. 4. And so 't is here you are defiled by your conversing with them men of different humours spirits interests how can they agree Either you must abate somewhat of your zeal or you can never suit if you enter into friendship with them You cannot deal so plainly against their sins or gain-say them in their evil practices but will wax cold by little and little If you be in defiance with them that will make way for calumny and all manner of injuries therefore it is better never to begin acquaintance with them Consider again if none of this fall out yet their company will be a loss to you as it spendeth time and hindereth you of many opportunities of religious privacy and service of God so if no other way you had a loss by them they would not better you for they are not Company you expect to gain by As he said Nunquam ad te accedo quin doctior recedam quin sanctior I never came to such an one but I went away more learned and holy Certainly a Christian should chuse such for his Company that he might say that I go away more holy otherwise his Company would be a loss to us But to pursue this Argument a little further To give some Observations then some helps against evil Company 1. Some Observations First This concerns young ones especially and those that are not in a radicated state of Grace Indeed it concerns all If you mean to keep close to God you must divorce your heart from them but chiefly young ones that are either left to chuse or not confirmed in their choice for the danger to them is greater than to others O how many young ones are undone by carnal Company Eusebius tells us of a young man that was bred up under St. Iohn who by evil Company was not only drawn to be a Robber but the Prince and Captain of Bobbers Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. until St. Iohn went out and met him And Gregory the Great speaks of Gordiana his own Aunt that was drawn off from the love of God and the strictness of a holy life after the death of her two Sisters Tharsylla and Aemiliana by her Companions And St. Augustine lib. 8. confess cap. 8. Quem fructum habui miser aliquando in iis quae nunc recolligens erubesco maximè in illo furto in quo ipsum furtum amavi nihil aliud ipsum esset nihil ego eo miserior tamen solus id non fecissein Sic recordor animum tunâ—… meum solus omninò id non fecissem ergo amavi consortium eorum cum quibus id feci O Lord what cause have I to be ashamed when I remember these things especially the theft where I loved the theft for the thefts sake What was the gain but a few Apples stoln and yet saith he I had never done it if I had been alone O it was the Company of them that drew me to this theft then afterwards it was my Companions drew me to this O nimis iniqua amicitia seductio ment is investigabilis O cruel friendship when they said Come let us go and do it I was ashamed not to be shameless and as evil as they Well then in this waxen Age Youth are above all to avoid the Company of evil Doers 2. We must not only take heed that we be not inured to evil but also that we be not deadned to that which is good Example may corrupt us either way Neglect of God will keep us out of Heaven as well as prophaneness Now alas how easily are we leavened with deadness and formality by our Company Frequent Society with dead-hearted Formalists or persons merely Civil and Moral whose
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
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
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
upon them as many Herbs in Nature have a signature to shew for what use they serve Obad. 15. As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head When God payeth men home in their own Coin Gen. 9. 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed it is not only a Law what ought to be done in Justice but a Rule of Providence what shall be done Pharaoh was the Authour of the execution in drowning the Israelites Children so Pharaoh and all his Host his Nobility and Men of War were drowned in the Sea Ahab's blood was licked up with Dogs in the place where they licked up the blood of Naboth Iezebel was more guilty than he Ahab permitted it but Iezebel contrived it Ahab humbled himself therefore his Body was buried but Iezebel was intombed in the Bellies of Gods Haman was hanged on the Gallows set up for Mordecai Henry III. of France was killed in the same Chamber where the Massacre was contrived Charles IX flowed with blood in his bed Thus God will requite men in the same kind His own people meet with this Iacob supplanted his Elder Brother and therefore the Elder is brought to him instead of the Younger Asa put the Prophet in the Stocks and he is diseased in his feet Ioseph's Brethren were not flexible to his request afterwards when they were in extremity Ioseph proves inexorable to them Gen. 42. 21. We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us How comes this into their minds this was many years after the Fact was committed some twenty years as they compute So God deals with his Children in like manner as they dealt with others that their Consciences may work the more kindly The same is observed concerning David and Absolom 2 Sam. 12. 10 11 12. He took the Wife of Uriah to be his Wife and Absalom took his Wives before his eyes St. Paul consented to the stoning of Steven and assisted in the execution They laid down their Garments at his feet therefore afterwards Paul himself for preaching the Gospel is stoned and left for dead Acts 14. 19 20. Barnabas was not stoned that assisted Paul both were alike offensive to the men of Iconium in preaching the Gospel Paul was sensible of this as a great part of his guilt Acts 22. 20. and his Conscience works upon that Many other instances might be given but this enough 3. When Judgments fall upon them in the very act of their provocation Thus many are taken away by a violent death in the very heat of their drunkenness Zimri and Cozbi lost their lives in the very instant when they were unloading their lusts and many times we see punishment treads upon the heels of sin 4. When they are Authours of their own destruction Not only in such a sensible manner as Saul Achitophel and Iudas that murthered themselves but thus when men are given up to their headlong Counsels to break themselves Prov. 5. 22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the Cords of his sins Wicked men are often whipt with their own Rods. And Psal. 9. 15 16. In the Net which they hid is their own foot taken The Lord is known by the Iudgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgajon Selah When by their own errours mistakes and furious passions they undo themselves 5. When evil men are brought down wonderfully suddenly contrary to all apparent likelihood and the course of second Causes Psal. 64. 7. God shall shoot at them with an Arrow suddenly shall they be wounded so they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves And Psal. 58. 7. unto the 11th Verse there 's this Consolation given to the Church That enemies shall be destroyed before the Pots feel the thorns When they are contriving and boiling somewhat in their minds before the Pots feel the thorns God takes them away suddenly in an instant and then men shall say Verily there is a rewarder of evil 6. When Gods Judgments are executed by unlikely means and instruments Sisera a great Captain destroyed by Iael Iudg. 4. 21. Adrian the Pope strangled by a Gnat Arius voiding his Bowels in a Draught after his perjury Cora Dathan and Abiram when the Earth clave to receive them that had made a rent in the Congregation and Herod was eaten up with Lice 7. When such accidents bring a great deal of Glory to God and peace and tranquillity to his people as hanging Haman with his Sons upon his own Gallows Esth. 7. 9. and 8. 17. 8. When God supplies the defects of mans Justice and their iniquity finds them out when they think all is forgotten and shall be no more heard of Psal. 9. 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood he remembreth them he forgetteth not the cry of the humble There are many instances how God finds out men that seem to escape well enough from mans hands when they could not be found out by man Zeph. 3. 5. the Prophet tells us Every morning he will bring his Iudgments to light There is some sinner or other which God notably punisheth that men may owne his Providence 9. When the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the express letter is made good upon men Hos. 7. 12. I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard The word doth fully take effect and what they would not believe they are made to feel By these rules we may observe Gods Judgments with profit To quicken you to do so consider First It would be a mighty cure to Atheism There are a sort of men setled on their lees that say in their heart The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1. 12. that think God is so shut up within the Curtain of the Heavens that he takes no notice of what is done below These vain conceits would soon vanish if men would but turn Students in Gods Providence they would soon cry out Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth they would say there is a Ruler of the affairs of the world and a righteous Judg that takes care of all things here below Usually men think amiss of God as if good and evil were of no respect with him but all things were governed by chance as Iob's wife said Dost thou yet retain thy integrity Curse God and dye Mal. 2. 12. Ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say Wherein have we wearied him When ye say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or Where is the God of judgment We do notsee his Justice and so have atheistical and evil conceits of God When we fancy evil men are in esteem and
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly 'T is but a little while and we shall receive the Crown and triumph over all our enemies III. Why the Saints should deprecate this evil 1. Because there is sin still in us all 'T is a bosome enemy that is born and bred with us and therefore it will soon get the advantage of Grace if it be not watched and resisted As Nettles and Weeds that are kindly to the Soil will soon choke Flowers and better Herbs that are planted by care and grow not of their own accord when they are neglected and not continually rooted out We cannot get rid of this cursed Inmate till this outer Tabernacle be dissolved and this House of Clay crumbled into dust Our old nature is so inclinable to this slavery that if God substract his Grace what shall we do 2 It is not only in us but always working and striving for the mastery it is not as other things which as they grow in age are more quiet and tame but Rom. 7. 8. Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy It is not a sleepy but a working stirring principle If it were a dull and unactive habit the danger were not so great but it is always exercising and putting forth it self and seeking to gain an interest in our affections and a Command over all our actions and therefore unless we do our part to keep it under we shall soon revert to our old slavery Sin must be kept under as a Slave or else it will be above as a Tyrant and domineer Once more The more it acts the more strength it gets as all habits are encreased by action for when we have once yielded we are ready to yield again Therefore any one sin let alone yea that which we least suspect may bring us into subjection and captivity to the Law of sin Rom. 7. 23. It doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations but it doth urge and impel us thereunto Again This bondage is daily encreasing and more hard to be broken for by multiplied acts a custome creepeth upon us which is another Nature And that which might be remedied at first groweth more difficult Diseases looked to at first are more easie to be cured whereas otherwise they grow desperate So sins before hardned into a custome before they bring us under the power of any Creature or Comfort which we affect 2 Cor. 6. 12. For then afterwards it cometh to a compleat dominion and slavery so that if a man would he cannot help it It behoveth then every Child of God to do his part that sin may not reign for where care is not taken it certainly will reign Use. To reprove the security and carelesness of many David suspected himself else he would never have made this prayer to God Lord keep me Let not any iniquity have dominion over me And we should all do so that would be safe Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief A constant watchfulness and holy jealousie and self-suspicion will be no burthen to you but a blessing Sin deceiveth us into hardness of heart for want of taking heed Many that are secure do not consider their danger and therefore they are not so careful to watch over themselves nor so humble as to implore the Divine assistance because they do not consider how soon they may be transported by a naughty heart and brought under the power and reign of sin Surely were we as sensible of the danger of the inward man as we are of the outward we would resist the first motions and not nourish and foster a temptation as we do The Saints do not tarry till the dead blow cometh but resist the first strokes of sin they do not tarry till it pines to death but resist the first inclinations An evil inclination if it be cherished and gratified gets ground the longer we let it alone the harder will our conflict be for sin secureth its interest by degrees 2. It sheweth the fearful estate of them that lye under the dominion of sin But who will owne it First It is certain that all men in their natural estate are in this condition Sin doth reign where there is no principle of Grace set up against it The Throne is always filled Mans heart cannot lye empty and void If Grace doth not reign sin reigneth Natural men are under the power of darkness Acts 28. 18. and Col. 1. 13. living in a peaceable subjection to sin till Christ come to trouble it all is quiet Wind and Tide go together Secondly It appeareth by your course Many will say There is not a just man on earth that doth good and sinneth not You are Sinners as well as we Answ. There is a difference though there be not a good man upon earth that sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. yet there is a difference Some have not the spot of Gods Children Deut. 32. 5. There is a difference between sins Levit. 23. 24 27. God gave the Priest under the Law direction how to put a difference between leprous persons So still there is a great deal of difference between numbness and death and between dimness of sight and blindness want of sense and want of life between stumbling into a Ditch and throwing our selves headlong into an Ocean And so there is a difference between infirmities and iniquities a failing out of ignorance and weakness or some powerful temptation and a running headlong into all ungodliness Gods Children have their failings but a burning desire to be freed from them Though others wallow in their sin without any care of a remedy In the one there is a failing in point of Duty in the other a Rebellion Take Iudas and Peter both sinned against their Master the one denied the other betrayed him the one denied him out of fear the other betrayed him out of covetousness and greediness of gain the one plotted his death the other was surprized on a sudden There is a great deal of difference between purpose and a surprize the one wept bitterly the other is given up to a raging despair David did not make a trade of Adultery and bathe himself in filthy lusts Noah was drunk but not knowing the power of the juice of the Grape They dare not lye in this estate but seek to get out by repentance Thirdly Some things may beget caution and move you to suspect your selves that is when your souls readily comply with the temptation you are at sins beck If it saith Go you go if it saith Come you come It is of great concernment to know what goes to the determining a mans condition to know at whose beck he is whether he is at the Fleshes or Spirits beck Psal. 103. 20. The Godly are described that they hearken unto the voice of his Word so the wicked are those that hearken to the voice
for us unless we had some experience of it our selves He tasted of this Cup Matth. 27. 46. And though it be a bitter Cup yet it must go round we must all pledge him in it Conceit will not inform us so much as experience 3. His Justice requires it when we surfeit of our comforts and play the Wantons with them that he should withdraw them We our selves breed the Mist and Clouds which hide from us the shining of Gods favour We raise up those Mountains of transgression that are as a Wall of separation between us and God whence that expression Isai. 59. 2. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you As the Sun dissolves and dispels Mists and Clouds by his bright Beams so God of his free Grace dissolveth these Clouds Isai. 44. 22. I have blotted out thy iniquities as a Cloud and thy transgressions as a thick Cloud Now there are two sins especially which cause God to hide himself First Too free a liberty in carnal pleasures and delights and Secondly Spiritual laziness First Too free a liberty in carnal pleasures and delights When we live according to the Flesh we smart for it these marr our taste and when our affections run out to other comforts we forfeit those which are better Psal. 30. 6 7. When we begin to sleep upon a carnal pillow to compose our selves to rest and lye down and dream golden Dreams of earthly felicity Carnal confidence and carnal complacency make God a stranger to us This carnal complacency hinders a sense of Gods love two ways Meritoriè effectivé Not only meritoriously as it provokes God to withdraw when we set up an Idol in our hearts but also effectively As carnal delights bring on a brawn and deadness upon the heart so that we cannot have a sense of Gods love for that requires a pure delicate Spirit Our tast must be purged resined sensible of spiritual good and evil Now this will never be except the soul be purged from carnal complacency for while there is so strong a relish of the Flesh-Pots of Egypt we are not fit to taste of the hidden Manna but always the more dead the heart is to worldly things the more lively to spiritual sense ever Iude 19. Sensual not having the Spirit i. e. spiritual joyes feelings operations When Solomon withheld not his heart from any joy God left him when he was trying the pleasures of the Creature and went a whoring from God God left him Secondly Spiritual laziness is another cause why God hides his face from his people Cant. 5. 6. compared with ver 2 3. The Spouse neglected to open to Christ upon light and frivolous pretences and then her Beloved had withdrawn himself If we lye down on the Bed of security and grow lazy and negligent then Christ withdraws 4. It is necessary and useful for us sometimes that God should hide his face Cloudy and rainy Days conduce to the fruitfulness of the Earth as well as those that are fair and shining and the Winter hath its use as well as the Summer We are apt to have cheap thoughts of spiritual comforts Iob 15. 11. apt to run riot and to grow neglectful of God and be proud 2 Cor. 12. 7. Paul had his buffettings to keep down his pride We have changes even in our inward man to keep us in the better frame the more watchful diligent and waiting upon God Use. Well if it be so all the use I shall make is To put this Question Is this your Case yea or no There is nothing that conduceth to the safety and comfort of the spiritual life so much as observing God's comings and goings that we may suit our carriage accordingly Our Lord saith Matth. 9. 15. Can the Children of the Bride-Chamber mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them Is God present or is he gone When God is gone not to lay it to heart argues great stupidness You are worse than that Idolater Iudg. 18. 24. He thought he had reason enough for his Laments and Moans when they had taken away his Images his Gods So if God be gone shall we digest and put up such a loss and never mind to lay it to heart Iob complains of this Chap. 29. 3. That the Candle of the Lord did not shine upon his head as it did of old Surely they that have any respect to God any tenderness left in their hearts will be sensible of Gods going On the other side if we get any thing of God his Grace and favour to our hearts it should be matter of joy and consolation to us Rom. 5. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Jesus Christ hath made the atonement but we have received the atonement when we get any thing of the bloud of Christ upon our own Consciences when we have any sense of reconciliation A little Sun-shine inliveneth the poor Creatures the Birds fall a singing that were melancholy and sad before in cloudy Weather they are cheered and comforted when the Sun shines How should we observe the least glympse of Gods favour if he but shew himself through the Lattice Cant. 2. There is nothing keeps Grace lively and freeth us from a dead and stupid formality so much as this But when men are careless and do not observe Gods accesses and recesses hardness of heart encreaseth upon us presently and God loseth that worship and reverence and invocation and praise that is due from us to him Therefore our eye should still wait upon the Lord and as the eyes of servants are on their mistresses Psal. 123. 3. so should our eye be still on Gods hands and observe what he gives out in every Duty or what of God we observe in this or that Ordinance II. The Children of God that are sensible of this cannot be satisfied with this estate but will be praying and always seeking the evidences of his favour and reconciliation Psal. 80. 3 7 19. three times it is repeated Turn us again O Lord of hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved Their great happiness is to be in favour with God They can dispense with other comforts and can want them with a quiet mind let God do his pleasure there but they cannot dispense with this with the want of his favour and manifested good will to them This is the life of their lives the fountain of their comforts this is the Heaven they have upon Earth without which they cannot joy in themselves Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled What are the Reasons of this 1. Because of the value of this priviledg the favour of God is the greatest blessing It may appear in sundry respects Take but that consideration Psal. 63. 3. Thy loving kindness is better than life The favour of God is the life of our souls and his displeasure is our death A Child of
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
seen in their deliverance and therefore before God doth appear for his Children he bringeth them very low Thus Paul 2 Cor. 1 9. We had the sentence of Death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead and Psal. 136. 23. He remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever His Mercy and Power is the more glorious in our rescue All that I shall say by way of Use on this point is this 1. That when we are a small people and persons of no Interest we have a liberty to use it to God you may make use of your weak and low Condition as an Argument of Pity so doth the Prophet Amos Iacob is small so doth David here and elsewhere Psal. 109. 22. But I am poor and needy deliver me for thy Names sake and Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful let thy salvation O God set me on high It is some ease to acquaint a friend with our griefs that can onely pity us much more when we have liberty to go to God who can and will help us and will allow us to complain to him though not of him 2. When God's ends are accomplished there is hope Isa. 10. 12. When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion when he hath chastised his People and brought them to his purpose then he will reckon with his Enemies When Heaven is minded more and Earth less We naturally mind earthly things and please our selves with the dreaming of an happy estate in the World The Appetite of Temporal dominion and Wealth and Honour and Peace is natural to us and very hardly subdued and therefore we would fain flourish here and do not comfort our selves in our Crosses with the Meditation of the Glory of the World to come but are alwayes feeding our selves with desires and hopes of earthly happiness and of turning the Tide and Current of Affairs that things may again smile upon us and when frustrated and disappointed of this hope our Soul fainteth Your Worldly Happiness will be a snare to you while you are thus affected Matth. 6. 33. Prepare for Heaven and God will give you so much Happiness by the way as will be needful and fit for you Again when we are Mortified and the Cross hath purged out sin Isa. 27. 9. the Cross hath done its work So when we are humble Lev. 26. 41. If then their Uncircumcised hearts be humble and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity to be meek in Spirit and to trust in the Lord is a fore-runner of Mercy Zeph. 3. 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor People and they shall trust in the Name of Lord. When you bring honour to God by your Sufferings Iam. 1. 4. but let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing When 't is most for Gods Glory to 〈◊〉 Deut. 32. 36. For the Lord shall Iudge his People and repent himself for his Servants when he seeth that their Power is gone and there is none shut up or left 2. Doctrine Gods people when they are brought low are usually a very despised people the most despised people under Heaven Here I shall shew 1. That this is the usual Lot of an Afflicted people 2. But especially of the people of God 3. The Tryal is very grievous to them 1. An Afflicted People are usually a despised People Psal. 123. 4. Our Soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the Contempt of the Proud They that are proud and have all things flow in upon them according to their own will contemn and slight others and take no notice of their burdens unless it be to increase them they pour vinegar on the wound The Heathens had a reverence for places stricken with thunder because the hand of God had touched them but here 't is not so Iob 12. 5. he that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thoughts of him that is at ease While we are burning lamps shining in Riches and greatness we shall have enough to look after us but a poor broken dying lamp a snuff that is ready to go out every body holdeth their nose at it Whilst the enemies are Honourable Great tumble in Wealth and the excess of Carnal delights they despise those that are mean and low and faln under God's hand 2. The People of God much more common sufferers may meet with some pity in their Calamity but the godly are subject to reproaches and mockings in their troubles and this many times proveth the heaviest part of the Cross and maketh it most grievous to be borne 'T is so partly because faln from their great hopes carried on in a way of Religion Where is their God Their fasting prayer As if all were now delusions and phantastical Impressions And partly because the presence of God is sensibly gone from them The presence of God among his people maketh them Wise Couragious Prosperous How should one chase an hundred and a hundred put a thousand to flight But when God leaveth them they grow despicable and ridiculous above all others Hosea 14. 2. Return to the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by this iniquity All that honoured her shall despise her because her nakedness is seen Lam. 1. 8. A dispirited Judgment-blasted people shall be contemned And partly because the cause for which they suffer may be strangely disguised and ill-represented to the World Satan was first a Liar and then a Murtherer Ioh. 8. 44. Elijah was thought the troubler of Israel They may not only persecute but say all manner of evil against us falsely for Christs sake Matth. 11. 19. Christ is called a Glutton a Wine-bibber and Stephen a Blasphemer And partly by Satans instigation by this means he maketh the despisers increase their sin and hasten their Judgment and so he disswades and discourages many weak Christians from owning the despised wayes of Christ yea it taketh off much of the cheerfulness and Courage of the strong in the profession of Godliness 3. 'T is very grievous Contempt maketh our other tryals more sharp Every man thinketh himself worthy of some respect and would be somebody in the World and therefore when we are laid aside as if dead and useless the temptation is the greater Saul could better bear death than contempt 1 Sam. 31. 4. Draw thy sword and thrust me thorough lest the Uncircumcised come and abuse me Zedekiah was afraid of mocking Ier. 38. 19. Lest they deliver me into the hands of the Chaldeans and they Mock me but not only as we are men it is grievous to us but also as Christians because this contempt reflecteth upon our hopes and the Worship of God it hindreth our service while we were esteemed we did more good and had greater advantages It may revive the sense of guilt God saith
the Creature in appointing him such a law God hath the greatest Right and Authority to Command Isa. 33. 22. The Lord is our Iudge and our Law-giver 2. That there is not only direction given to us but an Obligation laid upon us There is this difference between a Law and a Rule a bare Rule is for Information a Law for Obligation So herein the Word of God agrees with a law 't is not only the result of Gods Wisdom but the effect of his Legislative Will He would not only help and instruct the Creature in his Duty but oblige him by his Authority Decretum necessitatem facit exhortatio liberam voluntatem excitat saith the Canonist Exhortation and Advice properly serveth to quicken one that is free but a decree and a law imposeth a force a necessity upon him So Hierom lib. 2. contra Iovin Ubi consilium datur operantis arbitrium est ubi praeceptum necessitas servitutis A Counsel and a Precept differ a Precept respects Subjects a Counsel Friends The scriptures are not only Gods Counsel but his Precept There is a Coactive power in his laws God hath not left the Creature at liberty to comply with his Directions if he please but hath left a strict charge upon him 3. Every law hath a sanction otherwise it were but an Arbitrary Direction the Authority might be Contemned unless it hath a sanction that is confirmed by Rewards and Punishments so hath God given his law under the highest penalties Mar. 16. 16. He that Believeth shall be saved and he that Believeth not shall be damned Gal. 6. 8. If ye sow to the Flesh of the Flesh ye shall reap Corruption Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die God telleth them what will come of it and commandeth them to abstain as they will answer it to God at their utmost peril The Obligation of a law first inferreth a fault that is Contempt of Authority so doth Gods as 't is his law and so will infer a fault in us to break it And as we reject his Counsel it inferreth Punishment and the greater Punishment the more we know of Gods law Rom. 2. 9. Tribulation Wrath and Anguish upon every soul that doeth evil upon the Iew first and also upon the Gentile Why the Iew first They knew Gods Mind more Clearly 4. A sanction supposeth a Judge who will take an account whether his law be broken or kept otherwise all the Promises and Threatnings were in vain The law that is the Rule of our Obedience is the Rule of his Process so the Word of God hath this in common with other laws therefore God hath appointed a Judge and a Judgment-day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousness by the Man whom he hath appointed and 2 Thes. 1. 8. He will come in flaming fire to render Vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel According to the law they have been under Gentiles Christians they must all appear before the Lord to give an account how they have observed Gods law Now in patience he beareth with men yet sometimes interposeth by particular Judgments but then they shall receive their final Doom 2. Let us see wherein they differ from ordinary laws among Men. 1. Man in his laws doth not debate matters with his Subjects but barely injoyneth and interposeth Authority but God condescendeth to the Infirmities of Man and cometh down from the Throne of his Sovereignty and reasoneth and perswadeth and prayeth Men that they will not forsake their own Mercies but yield Obedience to his laws which he convinceth them are for their good Isa. 46. 8. Remember this shew your selves Men bring it to mind again ye Transgressors Isa. 1. 18. Let us reason together saith the Lord. God is pleased to stoop to sorry Creatures to argue with them and make them Judges in their own Cause Micah 6. 2 3. he will plead with Israel O my People what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me He will plead with Israel about the equity of his laws whether they are not for their good 'T is a lessening of Authority for Princes to Court their Subjects they Command them but God will Beseech and Expostulate and Argue with his People 2 Cor. 5. 20. He draws with the Cords of a Man sweetly alluring their hearts to him 2 The laws of God bind the Conscience and the Immortal Souls of Men the laws of Men only bind the Behaviour of the outward Man they cannot order the Heart God takes notice of a wanton glance of an unclean thought a carnal motion Matth. 5. 28. Mens Words and Actions are liable to the laws of Men they cannot know the Thoughts but the law of God falls upon the Counsels of the Heart Rom. 7. 14. For I know that the law is Spiritual but I am Carnal Heb. 4. 12. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart 3 The law of God Immutably and Indispensibly bindeth all men without distinction no man beggeth exemption here because of their condition there is no Immunity and Freedom from Gods Law Men may grant Immunity from their laws 1 Sam. 17. 25. He will make his fathers house free in Israel Mens laws are compared to spiders Webs the lesser flies are intangled great ones break through God doth not exempt any Creature from Duty to him but speaketh Impartially to all 4 Mens laws do more propend to Punishment than they do to reward For Robbers and Manslayers Death is appointed but the innocent subject hath only this reward that he doth his Duty and escapeth these Punishments In very few cases doth the law Promise Rewards the inflicting of Punishments is its proper work because its use is to restrain Evil but Gods law propoundeth Punishments equal to the Rewards Eternal life on the one hand as well as Eternal death on the other Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day Life and good Death and evil because the use of Gods law is to guide men to their Happiness This should be much observed 't is legis candor the Equity and Condescension of Mans law to speak of a Reward it commands many things forbids many things but still under a penalty that 's the great design of mans Power in very few cases doth it invite men to their Duty by a Reward only in such cases when every good man would not do his Duty 'T is more exact and vigilant in its proper and natural work of punishing the disobedient that wickedness should not go unpunished the common Peace requireth that but that good should be rewarded there is no humane necessity Humane laws were not invented to reward Good but prevent Evil. Use. Let us humble our selves that we bear so little respect to Gods Word that we so boldly break it and are so little affected with our breaches of it do we indeed consider that this is Gods law The greatest
check our fears when trouble is near God is also near to counterwork our Enemies and support his People Zech. 3. 1 2. And he shewed me Ioshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him And the Lord said unto Satan the Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire Where there is Satan to resist there is an Angel to rebuke as extremities draw nigh God draweth nigh When Laban with great fury followed after Iacob God followed after Laban and stepped between them and commanded Laban not to hurt him When Paul was like to be torn in pieces in an uproar God runneth speedily to his help 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 trust that he will yet deliver us When Danger cometh to be Danger indeed you will find him a present help Use. 2. To quicken us and encourage us actually to draw nigh to God with the more Confidence that is let us address our selves to converse with him in his Ordinances for his Favour Mercy and Blessing that we may not stand afar off but come boldly To this end Consider whither we come by whom we come in what manner we must come or draw nigh to him 1. To whom we draw near to God as reconciled in Christ. If God were inaccessible it were another matter but divine Justice being satisfied in Christ we come to a Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Gods Throne is a Throne of Justice Grace Glory To the Throne of strict Justice no sinful man can approach to the Throne of Grace every penitent sinner may have access to the Throne of Glory no mortal Man can come in his whole Person his heart may be there so it is said Heb. 10. 19. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus as Petitioners are admitted to the Prince in the Presence Chamber the way to the Throne of Glory lyeth by the Throne of Grace we pass by one unto the other In short Christ stood before the Throne of Justice when he suffered for our sins Penitent sinners stand before the Throne of Grace when they worship him in Faith after the Resurrection we shall ever stand before the Throne of Glory and ever abide in his Presence Our business now is with the Throne of Grace to give answer and dispatch our suites There is a threefold Throne of Grace the Typical which was the Mercy-seat Psal. 80. 1. Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth the Real which is Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus the Commemorative which is the Lords Supper where is a representation of Wisdom and Obsignation of the Grace of Christ in the New Testament This Throne of Grace is set up every where in the Church it standeth in the midst of God's People as the Tabernacle did in the midst of Israel For God is always in all places nigh unto such as call upon him in Truth Ioh. 4. 23. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Access to God may be had every where therefore let us come 2. By whom we come by Jesus Christ Eph. 3. 12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him upon the account of his Merit and Intercession We should come without fear or doubt to him de facto as if his blood were running afresh 3. How we come with a true heart Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water SERMON CLXX PSALM CXIX VER 152. Concerning thy Testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever IN this Verse is a further Illustration of the last Clause of the former he had said there thy Commandments are ipsissima veritas now he amplyfieth that saying from Gods Ordination and Appointment Concerning thy testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever The Prophet ends this Octonary and Paragraph with some triumph of Faith and after all his Conflicts and Requests to God goeth away with this Assurance that Gods word should be infallibly accomplished as being upon his own experience of unchangeable and unerring certainty Two things you may observe in the Words First The constant and eternal Verity of Gods Testimonies Thou hast founded them for ever Secondly Davids Attestation to it I have known of old that it is so What the Word of God is in itself and then what is the Opinion of the Believer concerning it 1. What the Scriptures are in themselves 1. For their Nature they are Gods Testimonies or the significations of his Will 2. For their Stability they are Founded there is a great Emphasis in that word and that by God thou hast founded them 3. For their Duration and everlasting Use in that word for ever of an Eternal Use and Comfort II. Davids Attestation or Perswasion of this I have known of old I here observe 1. His Perswasion 2. The date and standing of his Perswasion it was ancient I have known of old 1. His Perswasion I have known there is a twofold Knowledge the Knowledge of Faith and the Knowledge of Sense both agree with the words 1. The Knowledge of Faith I know that my Redeemer lives that is I believe it what we read concerning thy Testimonies other Translations read by thy Testimonies I have known by thy Testimonies the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have been perswaded of this by thy Spirit out of the word it self 2. The Knowledge of Sense and Experience I my self have known by sundry Experiences heretofore which I shall never forget 2. The Date and Ancientness of this Perswasion of old it was not a late Perswasion or a thing that he was now to learn he always knew it since he knew any thing of God that God had owned his Word as the constant Rule of his proceedings with Creatures in that God had so often made good his Word to him not only by present and late but old and ancient Experiences Well then Davids perswasion of the Truth and Unchangeableness of the Word was not a sudden humour or a present fit or a perswasion of a few days standing but he was confirmed in it by long Experience one or two Experiences had been no Tryal of the Truth of the Word they might seem but a good hit
we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation The word spoken by Angels was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was only worth questioned no but the truth also because so little believed therefore so little thought of less desired least of all pursued and sought after 2 Pet. 1. 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Iesus but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty Use. Oh study to be informed more and more of this great Truth le ts think of and often consider the unerring Certainty of the Scripture 'T is a Truth not to be supposed and taken for granted but known that you may build sure Man is apt to suspect Evangelical Truths as being cross to his Lusts and Interests You will find it of use not only in great Temptations when we are apt to question all Psal. 73. 13. but in ordinary practice in every Prayer Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith 'T is not an Assurance of our particular estate or our Title to Eternal Life but a full Assurance of the Word and Promise of God that is necessarily required in every one that will draw nigh to God Let us ask in faith nothing doubting Iam. 1. 7 8. 2. Do not content your selves with a light Credulity but grow up to a full perswasion 2 Tim. 3. 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And Col. 2. 2. That their hearts being comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding Not a fluctuating doubting Knowledge but a full perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel Luk. 1. 4. That thou mayest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Col. 1. 23. If thou continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel a rooted perswasion that 't is the undoubted Truth of God the firmness of Faith should answer the firmness of Gods Word There are several degrees of Assent Conjecture Opinion weak Faith and receiving the Word in much Assurance 1 Thes. 1. 6. There is Belief Confidence Assurance and full Assurance Belief is grounded on Gods Word in general and all the Truths and Propositions therein contained Confidence on the Promise the one goeth before the other Fidelity is before Dependance and Belief for the Promise is first a Truth and so to be considered before it can be conceived under the formal notion of a Promise full Assurance is grounded on the Fidelity and Immutability of God no man believeth so far but he may believe more Doct. III. That Experiences of former times should give us encouragement to trust God for what is future Thy Testimonies I have known of old saith David So the Children of God make use of them See Davids Instance 1 Sam. 17. 36. Thy servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistian shall be as one of them Moreover David said the Lord hath delivered me from the paw of the Lion and the paw of the Bear and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine Thus he argueth from former experience to future deliverance I trust in the same God who is able to give the same strength and why should I not look for the same success So Iacob Gen. 32. 10 11. I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of the Truth thou hast shewed to thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands deliver me I pray thee from the hands of my brother Esau. So Psal. 23. 5 6. Thou hast prepared a table for me in the presence of mine enemies Surely goodness and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life He hath been good to me and if it be for his glory he will be still good to me he hath been my God and will be my God and shall be my God for ever 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust he will yet deliver us In all respects of time we stand in need of deliverance when one is past another cometh there have been dangers there are dangers and there will be dangers but God hath doth and will deliver It is a Trade God hath used an Art he is versed in and never at a loss about Our God is a God of Salvation and is excellent in working of it Reasons of the Point I. Gods Constancy and Unchangeableness God is the same alwayes like himself for Mercy Power and Truth he is never at a loss what he hath done he can do and will do I am is Gods Name not I have been or shall be his Providence is new and fresh every Morning Lament 3. 23. God is but one God Gal. 3. 20. Alwayes like himself as he hath delivered so he doth and will Isa. 59. 1. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear No decay in him when we give to another we give from our selves we waste by giving the Creatures are at a stint and soon spend their allowance but God cannot be Exhausted there is no decrease of Love and Power no wrinkle upon the brow of Eternity II. Experience begets Confidence Rom. 5. 3. And patience experience and experience begets hope The heart is much confirmed when it hath Faith and Experience of his side If we were as we should be the Promise should be beyond all Experiences for it is the Word of him that cannot lye Experience addeth nothing to the certainty of the Promise nor any Authority to it only in regard of our weakness 't is an help and sensible Confirmation against our distrustful Cares and Fears Sense and Experience is not the ground of Faith we must believe God upon his bare word yet 't is an encouragement Ioh. 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed Then more encouraged when felt Christ. We have a double proof and experience 1. What God is able to do for us 2. What God will do again when his own Glory and our need requireth it 1. We know what God can do former Deliverances are as so many Monuments and significations of his Power Isa. 51. 9. Awake awake O arm of the Lord art not thou he that cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon awake and put on strength as in the ancient dayes Rahab is Egypt Psal. 87. 4. the Dragon Pharaoh Ezek. 29. 3. the Dragon or Crocodile of Egypt Can he do this and not do that Upon every experience we that learn by sense should be more strongly perswaded of Gods Power 'T
imports his knowledge accompanied with a tender Love This is often spoken of in Scripture Exod. 2. 28. God looked on the Children of Israel and had respect to them So Exod. 3. 7. And the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task-Masters and have known their sorrows Acts. 7. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people or seeing I have seen the very sight of God is a comfort and support to a sinking Soul it is some comfort to us to have our crosses known to such as we are assured do love us if they condole with us though they be not able to help us so that the Lord looketh upon us with a merciful pitiful Eye 2. As God will cast the Eye of his Pity on us so he will put forth the Arm of his Power as he hath a merciful Eye so he hath a powerful Hand ready to help though sometimes we see nothing of this 2 Chron. 16. 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to shâ—…w himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him there is his Care and effective Providence 2. Be sure you keep up your Qualification I do not forget thy Law Many times when men in their Prosperity do not regard God and his Commandments he regardeth them in their Streights for though we forget the Duty of Children he doth not forget the Mercies of a Father but surely he will not forget them that do not forget his Law Therefore it is not credible that God should forget us and our Condition that we should be more mindful of his Law than he of our Affliction he that puts us in mind of his Law will also put himself in mind of the troubles we endure for the keeping of it for certainly God is more mindful of his part of the Covenant then we can be of ours See Christs Argument Ioh. 17. 10. And all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them Doctrine IV. We may ask Deliverance from Temporal Troubles not only Support but Deliverance So doth David 1. God hath promised Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of Trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me 2. Much of God is discovered in it His Wisdom 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of Temptation We are at a loss many times but God is never at a loss His Power Dan. 3. 17. If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King when the wrath of the King was great and the fiery furnace burning before them His Goodness God is sufficiently inclined to it by his own Grace and delights to do it Psal. 149. 4. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with Salvation he loveth the Person of Believers and loveth their Prosperity and Happiness and delighteth to see them do well in the World he hath pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants Psal. 35. 27. which is a good incouragement to pray for it 2 Sam. 14. 1. Ioab perceived that the Kings heart was towards Absalom Yea not only his Love but the constancy and unweariedness of his Love 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivereth us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us there are all respects of time Solomon saith Prov. 25. 17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee Men waste by giving but I AM is Gods Name we still need and he is still a giving 2 Tim. 3. 11. Thou hast fully known my persecutions afflictions which came unto me at Antioch c. But out of them all the Lord delivered me So many Troubles so many gracious Experiences of God Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all Iob 5. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven shall no evil touch thee Seven is the number of perfection God can and doth deliver us as often as we need deliverance When Clouds return after the Rain or one evil treadeth on the heels of another he hath a succession of Mercies for our succession of Sorrows We are dismayed when we see one trouble is over and another cometh we have the same God still the same certainty of his Mercy in delivering Many times God so delivereth that the Troublers of his people shall come in their room Prov. 11. 8. The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead As the Leprosie of Naaman went to Gehazi His Faithfulness which he hath laid at pledge with us that he will make a way to Escape 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way for you to escape that you may â—…e able to bear it His Dominion and Soveraignty Psal. 44. 4. Thou art my King O God command deliverances for Iacob he hath all things at his Command all second causes the hearts of his Enemies 3. We have greater opportunities to serve God Psal. 119. 134. Deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep thy precepts Luk. 1. 74 75. That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life Use. They are too nice that think we may not ask of God temporal Mercies it is lawful to ask them if we ask them lawfully with a submission to God and for his Glory that we may serve him more chearfully so you may ask a deliverance out of your Troubles Doctrine V. Those that would have God to deliver them out of their Afflictions should be sure they do not forsake their Duty All the Evil that David suffered could not weaken his love to the Law of God nor draw him from the Obedience of it and what was the issue He pleadeth this in Prayer to God Reasons 1. Because if we do so the nature of our sufferings is altered both as to God and Man as to Man we do not suffer as evil doers 1 Pet. 4. 15. But let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an evil doer or as a busie body in other mens matters which will much darken our Comfort and Glory in suffering though for the main you have an interest in God if by your miscarriage you have deserved the stroke of humane Justice as to God your sufferings are not Castigatory but Probatory Rev. 2. 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tryed not punished but tryed 2. Because
callings here is great joy but this is nothing to the knowledge of Gods will Thirdly Every Christian is a Warriour against Sathan the World and the Flesh so 't is a fit similitude for them victory over sin and satan is above all the Conquests in the World this is a part of the good news the Word bringeth to us Col. 2. 14 15. Iohn 16. 33. Now observe In the former verse David had expressed his Reverence to the Word now his Delight First Our trembling at the Word doth not hinder our delight in it none more cheary then the awful soul Acts 9. 31 They walked in the Fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost And Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that Feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandements Those who are most observant of Gods will and careful to follow it have the greatest contentment in their souls Secondly Joy should be mingled with Reverence lest it degenerate into slavery and a scrupulous Fear Doctrine That Gods People do greatly Rejoice in his Word 1. 'T is not an ordinary delight which is here set forth but such as is high and intense such joy as the richest and most gainful victory can raise in any worldly man 'T is incredible and cannot be expressed how much joy and comfort the Word of God yieldeth to good men Therefore so many similitudes used More then in all Riches Psal. 119. 14. ver 103. Sweeter than Honey and the Honey Comb. I love it above Gold and above fine Gold 127. ver A joy greater than the joy of worldly men 2dly 'T is not a light flash or a phantastical impression but a solid consolation such as is affliction proof and death proof when the strength of this joy cometh to be tryed and assaulted by deep afflictions Therefore the heirs of promise are said to have strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. So verse 50. of this Psalm This is my Comfort in mine affliction thy Word hath quickned me 3dly This joy which is the mark of a sound believer is delighting to know believe and obey Gods Word For 't is in the way of his Testimonies Psalm 119. 14. 'T is in his Commandements they delight greatly Study and Contemplation breedeth a pleasure but nothing like practice The pleasures and delights of the mind do certainly exceed those of the Body for the more noble the faculty is the more capable of delight A man in study hath a truer pleasure than the greatest Epicure in the most exquisite enjoyments of sense Now moral delights exceed those which are the meér result of Contemplation as they give us a more intimate feeling of the worth of things Again those delights which are supernatural and come from the Spirit as the pleasures of Faith and Obedience do exceed those of the natural mind as much as those do bodily pleasures as being exercised about nobler Objects which are the sence of the Favour of God and Reconciliation with him and the hopes of Eternal Life And as coming from an higher cause the Spirit of God Therefore upon the whole there is no true delight and contentment but what proceedeth from a careful performance of Gods Commands strictly abstaining from what may displease him and chearfully practising all that he requireth of us Truly the present gratefulness of such an employment and the succeeding comforts of such practices are a continual Feast all other Pleasures to this are nothing worth The Obedience of Faith to a Believer is more than any worldly advantage 'T is a sweet thing to be exercised in the Word of God in Reading and Hearing it with serious Meditation but much more to be brought under the Power and Practice of it Reasons 1. The Godly find glad tydings in the Word suitable to their souls necessities and therefore rejoyce in it For the object of delight is bonum conveniens sufficiens here is enough to content them and it is very suitable There is pardon of sins and that is ground of Joy Matth. 9. 2. Be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee there we hear of a Saviour 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners When the Gospel was Preached at Samaria Acts 8. 8. There was great joy in that City Zacheus received Christ joyfully for he brought Salvation to his House Luke 19. 6. There iâ—… the true way of mortifying sin and sanctifying the Heart Psal. 19. 8. The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the soul the Commandement of the Lord is pure inlightning the Eyes There we are told of the joys of the World to come 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him We should exult for joy to hear of those things Thus you see the Word of God affordeth such comforts such matter of rejoycing as cannot be parallel'd A poor man when he findeth a treasure receiveth it with a joyful Heart Oh! What inestimable treasure do we find in the Word of God! the way of Eternal Salvation is there made manifest 2. The Saints have felt benefit by it They have been renewed and sanctified by it therefore they prize it Iames 1. 18 19. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures Therefore be swift to hear There they have found powerful heavenly Truths by which their souls are made new they have tasted Gods Love in the Doctrines and promises thereof and against a tast there is no disputing 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. Experimented sweetness is beyond all arguments they have been revived and comforted by it in their Troubles as at the 93d verse of this Psalm more largely I will never forget thy Word for by them thou hast quickned me God hath done their souls good by it 'T is the charter of their hopes verse 111 of this Psalm What ever Calamities they meet with in the World there they see ground of Peace and composedness in their soul. 3dly They love God and they hear more of him in the Word than they can elsewhere The soul that loveth God heareth and seeth his Blessed name in every leaf they find the effects of his Goodness in Creation some fruits and pledges of his love in daily Providence but there they find his great eternal and wonderful love in Christ there they know Gods will and 't is their desire to be subject to it and therefore value it not onely as the Charter of their hopes but as the Rule of their Duty Use I. To condemn them First That find no sweetness in the Word of God they do not mind the business of Salvation and then no wonder if they have a slight and mean esteem of the Word Two reasons of this Contempt 1. Their Scope is not fixed All means are regarded with
the World little in regard of outward interest and so lye open and liable to offences little in regard of their spiritual growth and so apt to take offence yet they are dear to the great God who is their Patron and will take their quarrel into his own hands And it will be a thousand times better they had been the persecuted ones than to be persecutors Thirdly With respect to the double faculty the devil seeketh to work upon which is our irrascible or concupiscible faculty our eschewing or pursuing power the flesh with its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5. 24. 'T is passions and lusts what we render affections and these are suited to the Temptations that most Men are usually overcome by such are the Terrours and Allurements of the World the Terrours of the World that works upon our Passions the Allurements of the World that works upon our Lusts. First The Terrours of the World are apt to draw men to dislike God and distaste the way of Godliness Certainly By these the Devil seeketh to get us into his Power and Reach Therefore 't is said 1 Pet. 5. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the Faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren that are in the World Satans Temptations are conveyed to the Godly thorough Afflictions hoping by these to prevail with them to make them quitt the Truth and their duty to Christ and grow weary of the ways of God and it doth the more prevail when they think they are the only sufferers This should not be for the drift of Christianity 't is to take us off from the hopes and fears of the World and a full third part of the Scriptures serveth to comfort us in Tribulations and Afflictions for the Gospels sake and if we were not exposed to troubles these would be as unsuitable and needless as bladders and arts of swimming were to a man that standeth on dry land and never meaneth to go into the deep Waters But yet they are an usual stumbling block to those that have not overcome the sensual inclination and are not dead to a worldy interest 2. The Allurements of the World or the baits of sence present things have a strange infatuation upon us 2 Tim. 4. 10. And Demas hath forsaken us having loved the present World The troubles of the World are not so dangerous as the snares of the World though many be discouraged by troubles yet many times others are gained by the Patience Courage and Constancy of Gods Servants in Persecutions The offence may be more easily disproved as not justifiable for men may have a secret liking of the Truth and a purpose to own it in better times but by the baits of sence men are inveigled and tempted to dislike Religion it self as contradicting their Lusts and nourish a base Opinion of it in their hearts in Troubles and Persecutions there is not a dislike of Religion it self but of the hard Terms upon which it must be received and cherished And besides the mischief is greater they that cast off the Profession and Practice of Godliness upon some great Earthly hopes involve themselves in a more hainous sin then they that shrink from it out of some great fear for those things we fear as Afflictions Torments and Death they are in themselves destructive of our Felicity and therefore it cannot be said how much nature abhorreth them But those things which we hope for and desire are such that nature may easily and without great inconveniency be without them As great Riches Splendour of Life Noble Affinities and Marriages for these things are not absolutely necessary to the Worldly life but only conduce to the greater coveniency and felicity thereof Not our Worldly Being but our well-being is concerned in them Our being may be kept up and supported in a far meaner Condition thence It is that great dangers when they are at hand and difficulties sustained and the fear of them doth often sway us against the Conscience of our Duty but if we lose our great Worldly hopes or be cut short in our Condition and Worldly expectations 't is no great matter Wise and Gracious men may easily bear it with a quiet and well-composed Mind The sin of those that stumble at great and worldly hopes is questionless the greater Transgression for they are only inticed and drawn away by their Pleasures and Lusts which all good Christians are obliged to deaden and mortifie But though to fall out of Fear be not so hainous a sin yet a great and hainous sin it is for Grace should govern Fear as well as hope If the Coertion and bridling of it be difficult it doth not excuse a toto but a tanto only and 't is hard to set a Christian in joynt again that is faln by Fear witness those Terrors that do haunt men when once they are gotten into the snare As Peter went out and wept bitterly it cost him much sorrow at heart Christ is fain to direct a special message to him by name Mark 16. 7. Though it doth not exclude all hopes of Repentance and Pardon yet it needeth great Mercy on Gods part and Repentance on ours Indeed the Church is bound to consider mens weaknesses and to judge of the fault according to the violent shock and incursion of the Temptation because we know not our own strength and how soon we may be surprized in like kind and need indulgence our selves Gal. 6. 1. But God is not in our Condition nor obliged to recover all that lapse in this kind and therefore useth his Mercy according to his own pleasure Sometimes he recovereth them and sometimes not but for the other Temptations what excuse is it capable of Heb. 12. 16 17. Secondly Let us consider how a Believer is preserved Unsound Professors are turned by Scandal from the wayes of Godliness which they seemed to walk in but for the sincere Believer there may be many stumbling blocks laid in his way but he falleth not at them escapeth those hainous sins into which others fall through his love to Gods Commandments Observe here three things 1. 'T is not Light but Love that keepeth them from stumbling the light of saving knowledge is a great matter for it sheweth us a sure rule to walk by and sure Promises to build upon but love must joyn with it to assist us that we may escape those snares for many fail because they receive not the Truth in the love of it 2 Thes. 2. 10. Till light be turned into love it hath not such a powerful influence upon us Certainly a man is better held by the Heart than by the Head Rom. 8. 39. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. The love of God is not principally taken there in a passive sense for the love wherewith we are beloved of God but in an active sense for the love wherewith we love God For Affliction and
fleshly Lusts in us which must be mortified more and more and deadned to the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of this World by remembring our great Obligations and Expectations from Christs death and Eternal Life For while any fleshly or Worldly Lust prevaileth with us and is the chief Principle in our hearts we cannot heartily serve God 4. An Heart Acted by Love 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again This is the active Principle which sets us a-work with cheerfulness Christ often intimateth that keeping the Commandments is the fruit of Love Ioh. 14. 15. all the expression of our Love to him is turned into that Channel Secondly I come now to the second Evidence and Testimony of his sincerity his Love to the Word I have loved them exceedingly Mark First His Affection I love thy Testimonies Secondly The Degree in the word Exceedingly First From his Affection Note Doctrine That 't is not enough to keep the Commandments but we must love them and that obedience they require from us This Love to the Law is often spoken of in this Psalm therefore there needeth the less to be said now Paul speaketh of this Love as well as David Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the law of God after the inward man The Reasons of the Point I. We can never thoroughly and constantly keep the Law without Love to it 'T is no easie thing to keep the Law of God there needeth much labour and striving Now where there is a sincere Love of the Law of God planted in the heart there will be this striving and endeavouring to Perform it None so sensible of the weight of sin none so active for Gods Glory there is nothing so difficult but Love maketh easie nihil amarum In a Word Labour and Toil proves a Pleasure and pain a matter of Delight where we Love the careful Mother bringeth forth the Child with Pain and Nurseth it up with Toil and Trouble is well enough pleased with her work and cheerful in it because of the Love she hath to the fruit of her Womb and her Child is dear to her Iacob's seven years Labour seemed to be a few daies for the Love he had to Rachel Gen. 29. 29. So God will have us serve him out of Love because nothing is grevious to Love 1 Ioh. 5. 3. It beareth all things suffereth all things Poverty Nakedness Bonds Injuries Labours never tyreth or groweth weary 2 Cor. 13. 7. II. Except we Obey because we Love our Obedience is not sincere and acceptatible 1 Cor 13. 1 2. Though I speak with the tongue of Men and of Angels and have not charity I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and though I have the gift of prophesie and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many are frighted into a course of Religion and go on from Duty to Duty out of a Fear of being Damned This is not true Obedience that is done servilely and by constraint These unwilling services which we perform to Christ out of urging of Conscience and fear of Wrath Ier. 2. 27. Which have turned the back unto me and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say arise and save us They come to God not out of delight and choice but out of necessity and only then Hos. 5. 6. They that did not care for God at other times will then come with their Flocks and their Herds The Spirit of Bondage is clamourous for Duty as the Spirit of Adoption sweetly inclineth to it Many obey God no further than they are forced as Slaves whom nothing but Fear induceth to perform their Masters Command and so do not love the work nor do it for the Works sake III. The next Object to God fit for our Love is Gods Law 't is clear that God is primum amabile the first thing that is to be loved but what is the second surely that which hath most of God in it next after God his Word There is vestigium in the Creature there is Imago in his Testimonies 2 Cor. 3. 18. For we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord The fairest draught and print of God that can be taken his People have his Image but 't is overshadowed with weakness 't is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-set of his Word 'T is the Word that maketh Saints There is the liveliest stamp and print of God his Testimonies lead not only to the knowledge of God but also the Fruition of him Whatsoever leadeth us to the Fruition of God is incomparably better than any other thing therefore if we Love God we must Love his Precepts Love them so as to keep them 'T is the greatest Testification of that Love we can shew to God Use. I. Is to shew us the Reason why so many Miscarry in the Profession of Godliness Many walk in the ways of God for a while but have no sound Love to them either By-ends or slavish Fears forced them into some Profession but they did not love Godliness as Godliness and therefore cannot hold out with God When a Man is Byassed and Poised by his heart to a thing you cannot easily divert and break his inclination that 's a rooted thing others were but forced and forced subjection will not alwayes hold Men are hoping they shall shake of an unpleasing task and where they obey from constraint and the Iron Yoke of Terror they will not long obey Use. II. To press us not only to keep God Testimonies but to love them Let me use some Arguments 1. From its Excellency to Love is more than to Do as to love sin is a greater Evil than to Commit it Gravius est peccatum diligere quam facere A Man may commit sin out of infirmity but he that loveth it sin reigneth in him Practice may be over-ruled a man may do evil that hateth it being overborn by the Violence of a Temptation as Paul saith of himself the evil that I hate that I do So a man may do good that hateth it being influenced by By-ends but our love is our own the genuine off-spring of the Soul 2. The Necessity of it unless we love our work we shall never be the more earnest in the performance of it Nature of its self is unwilling the heart hangeth off till it be poised by Love Reasons and Motives will not do it Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law The Commandments of God Cross our Will Profit and Pleasure therefore we need not only
sweetness in it to Confer together of holy things Rom. 1. 12. That I may be comforted by the mutual faith of you and me Holy discourse doth refresh more than vain and foolish jesting 't is a far sweeter thing to talk of the Word of God and those spiritual and heavenly things which are contained therein than to spend the time in vain and foolish jesting or discoursing about meer Worldly matters should any thing be more delightful to a Christian than Christ and Heaven and the Promises of the World to come and the way that leadeth thither and should it be burdensom to talk of these things which we profess to be our only hope and joy certainly our Relish and Appetite is mightily depraved if we think so judge our-selves in a Prison when we are in good Company who remember God and when they invite you to remember him with them will you frown upon the motion because 't is some check and interruption to your Carnal Vanity 4. The well ordering of our Words is a great point of Christianity and argueth a good degree of Grace He that bridleth his tongue is a perfect man Iam. 3. 2. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue saith Solomon Prov. 18. 21. upon the good or ill use of it a mans safety doth depend Not only temporal safety but eternal Matth. 12. 37. By thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words shalt thou be condemned These Evidences are brought into Judgment therefore it concerneth us to see what our Discourses are as well as our actions Solomon often describeth the righteous by his good Tongue Prov. 10. 13. The mouth of the righteous bringeth forth wisdom And Prov. 12. 18. The tongue of the wise is health Use. I. Is Reproof It reproveth us for being so dumb and tongue-tyed in holy things We can speak liberally of any subject only we are dumb in spiritual matters which concern our Edification we shew so little Grace in our Conferences because we have so little grace in our hearts Alas many that profess Religion their talk is little different from other mens as if they were ashamed to speak of God or had nothing to say of him and for him I do not alwayes bind you to talk of religious things but sometimes it bindeth Now when is it your Tongues speak of the Word in a serious and affectionate manner Can you love God and never put in a word for him Can you see or hear God dishonoured and suffer your mouths to be sealed up with a sinfull â—…nce that you should not have a word to speak in the cause of God Use. II. Is to Exhort us to be frequent and serious in our discourses of God and spiritual heavenly things For means to help us 1. Divine Illumination to teach others the way of God requireth that we our selves should be taught of God then it cometh the warmer and fresher when we speak not by here-say only but experience as heart answereth to heart so the renewed heart in him that heareth to the renewed heart in him that speaketh and we shew others what God by his illuminating grace hath first shewed us it savoureth of that Spirit that worketh in both he will easily kindle others who is once on fire himself The word passeth through others as water through an empty Trunk without feeling they may speak very good things but they do but personate and act a part but when we have been in the deep waters and God hath bound up our wounds we can more feelingly speak to others 2. A sight of the excellency of the Word and a value and esteem thereof the reason in the Text for all thy Commandments are righteousness We are apt to speak oftenest of those things which we most affect Did not your Souls grow out of relish with these Holy Spiritual and Excellent things your speeches about them would be more frequent lively serious and savoury for we cannot conceal our Affections Our coldness in speaking to others of these spiritual and heavenly things cometh from want of this perswasion that all his commandments are righteousness For they who are perswaded of the excellency of the Word will be talking of the sweetness of its Promises continually 3. A Stock of Spiritual Knowledge Matth. 12. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Every man entertaineth his Guests with such Provisions as he hath 'T is the Word which enableth us to edifie our selves and others with holy Conference the more store the more we have to bring forth upon all occasions Col. 3. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another A plentiful measure of Gospel Knowledge enableth us to direct and instruct others there all Wisdom is made plain things revealed which cannot be found else-where that which may by long search be found else-where is made ready to our hands and brought down to the meanest Capacity The Heart is the Fountain from whence the Tongue doth run and flow and when the Heart is well furnished the Tongue will be employed and exercised 4. Zeal for the Glory of God and Love to others Souls we should communicate to others what we have learned our selves David would not reserve his knowledge to himself Teach me and my tongue shall speak of thy word Fire turneth all about it into Fire Mules and all Creatures of a Bastard Race do not Procreate Davids Maschil Psal. 32. Title is to instruct others True good is diffusive in itself our Candle enlightened should enlighten others When Philip was called he inviteth Nathaniel to come to Christ Iohn 1. 45. Andrew calleth Simon True Grace sheweth itself in Zeal to promote the Kingdom of Christ and the good of our Neighbours Souls and the new Nature seeketh to multiply the kind and such as are brought to Christ will be careful to invite others 5. Wisdom is necessary Col. 4. 6. Let your speech be alwayes with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man that is seasoned with the salt of Holy and Divine Wisdom that it may be savoury and acceptable to the Hearers and both Delight and Edifie Without this Holy Skil and Wisdom how often is Conference turned into Jangling or meer Babling 6. Watchfulness and heed otherwise Corruption will break out in Pride in a vain ostentation of parts Passion in some heat of Words Worldliness and Sensuality in diverting from Holy Conference to that which is Carnal and Worldly Discontent in some unseemly Expressions of Gods dealings with us Indiscretion and Folly in a multitude of impertinent Talk Psal. 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth keep the door of my lips The Tongue must be watched as well as the Heart all Watching will be to little purpose unless God bridle and direct our Tongue that nothing break out to his Dishonour There must be a constant Guard that nothing
of his People may be tryed and yet his Enemies reckoned with 3. He hath Love enough God doth concern himself in all our Affairs 1 Tim. 4. 10. We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe A protector and deliverer yea 't is said he saveth Man and Beast Psal. 36. 6. The object of his providence is very large all Creatures have their Being and Preservation from him much more Man much more his Children they are allowed to believe a special providence and the more they depend upon him the more is his care assured to them 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all your care upon the Lord for he careth for you The Lord is free from all passions of Care and Sorrow but we shall find no less proof of his keeping off danger or delivering us from danger than if we were solicitous for our selves surely our Father is not unmindful of us 3. Because there is no difficulty that can fall out to check this Confidence which is built upon Gods undertaking and sufficiency to make it good 1. Not any danger from men though of never so dreadful an appearance 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us The danger was Trouble in Asia a great danger pressed above measure and above strength great Trouble was at Ephesus where the people in an Uproar were ready to tear him in pieces so that he received the sentence of Death in himself yet God found a way and meanes to save and he came off safe and sound 2. Not any appearance of Anger from God himself Iob 13. 15. Though he slay me yet I will put my trust in him Sometimes Trouble may represent God as the party dealing with us yet Faith can take him for a Friend when he seemeth to deal like an Enemy and we must resolve to adhere to God and his wayes and trust his power with submission to his good will and pleasure and believe that he hath more respect and care over us than is seen in the present dispensation III. 'T is natural to all to seek deliverance out of Troubles Isa. 51. 14. The captive exile hasteth that he may be delivered and that he should not die in the pit How then is it any part of Grace to Long for Gods Salvation I Answer 'T is proper to the Godly to love no Deliverance but what God sendeth by his own Means in his own Time and to wait for it in Gods way 1. There is somewhat of Grace in it that they look for Salvation from God alone as the Author and are resolved to take it out of his hands whencesoever it cometh Man naturally would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live upon himself be sufficient to his own happiness and so they are vexed when they are left upon God and put upon dependance and submission and waiting upon him for they think it little worth to wait upon God as long as any other shift will serve the turn As Ahaz when troubled with the fear of Rezin and Pekah and the Prophet assureth him of Gods Salvation and biddeth him ask a sign Isa. 7. 11 12 13. I will not tempt the Lord. I will not trust the Lord he meaneth though he useth that pretence his expectation was fixed on the friendship of his Confederates if he had asked a sign of God he must wait for the issue in Gods way now Ahaz could not indure to trust God alone he depended on the Assyrianâ—… and not on Gods Salvation he believed nothing the Prophet spake but counted it vain and frivolous and was resolved to go another way to work 2. Gods salvation as to the means not by our shifts that maketh a breach upon our sincerity Gen. 17. 1. I am God almighty walk before me and be thou upright A man that doth not trust God cannot be long true to him you go off from God to the Creature by distrust and unbelief Heb. 3. 12. this is making more hast than good speed Isa. 28. 16. it plungeth us in sin 't is the greatest Hypocrisie that can be to pretend respect to God and shift for our selves 't is to break prison to get out of Trouble before God letteth us out 3. In his own Time thy Salvation they resolve to wait till he sendeth it carnal men when other means and expectations fail will seek to God they are beaten to him but if their expectation in waiting upon God be delayed they wax weary and faint as that King put on Sackcloth for a while 2 King 6. 30. afterwards said This evil is from the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer They give it over as an hopeless service 4. That in the height of Trouble they still go to God and will not cast away their confidence and dependance come what will come Isa. 26. 8. In the way of thy Iudgements we have waited for thee our desires are to thee and to the remembrance of thy name They still look to him and though often disappointed will seek Salvation from no other they still cleave to Gods way Psal. 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forsaken thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant They persevere in prayer Psal. 88. 13 14. Unto thee have I cryed in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee Lord Why castest thou me off why hidest thou thy face from me They will not give over but shew their vehement Longings after God whereas wicked and carnal men when great Troubles continue are driven to despair and give over all hope Use. In times of Trouble let us look to God and continue looking all the time that God will exercise our Faith and Patience and express our Longings and Desires of Gods salvation in humble and earnest prayer 1. 'T is no time to look else-where for God will shew us that vain is the help of man by many disappointments Isa. 48. 11. I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour He will break all Confidences till we come to this he shall be my salvation As Iob resolved when God brake him with his Tempests and pursued him with his Waves and was ready to slay him as he thought In all extremities this should be our fixed ground of Faith that Salvation and Deliverance is to be expected from God only Ier. 3. 23. Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the hills and the Mountains truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel God will teach us this Lesson e're he hath done with us Usually there is no serious dealing with God till we find the vanity and inability of all other dependancies looking to the Hills and Mountains strength of situation Forces all these will fail us 2. 'T is no time to dally with God and his service any longer for when Troubles come close and near the spirit of Prayer should
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
Heaven in order in one whole Body is like an Army in Rout and most are forced to get home in straggling Parties Now every tender Soul should Long for Gods Salvation to get up to that Counsel of Souls who with perfect Harmony are Lauding and Praising God for evermore Heb. 12. 23. Use. I. Is to reprove them that are loth to leave this woful Life and do not long and prepare for a better God driveth us out of the World as he did Lot out of Sodom yet we are loth to depart as if it were better to be Miserable apart from God and Christ then happy with them Surely they are far from the Spirit of true Christians who would live alwayes here are at home in the World and cannot endure to think of a remove There are two Causes of this 1. An Unmortifyed Heart 2. An Unsettled Conscience 1. An Unmortified Heart they are not yet weaned from the World their Hearts are set upon satisfying the Vile Lusts of the Body carry it as if their Portion lay in this World Psal. 17. 14. sucking yet upon the Worlds Dugg they have no longing nor desire for that Happiness and Glory which God hath provided for them that love him they desire no other Portion than what they have in hand 2. And the other cause is an Unsettled Conscience some fear the state of the other World rather than desire it and long for it there are two degrees notknowing for certain it shall go well with us and not knowing for certain but that it shall go ill with us both suppress this desire especially the latter Use. II. Is to Rowse up our languid and cold Affections that they may more earnestly be carryed out after heavenly things that we may seek after them with more Fervency and Constancy and Self-denial The Motives to press us are these 1. God giveth Heaven to none but to those that Look and Long for it Men may go to Hell against their Wills but none go to Heaven against their Wills In a Punishment there is a force offered to us but not in a Reward We suffer what we would not as Christ saith to Peter another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not Ioh. 21. 18. But happiness must be imbraced pursued and sought after Well then let the concernments of the other World more take up our Hearts and Minds and stand as at heavens Gate expecting when God will open the door and call you in Christ will appear to them that look for him Heb. 9. 28. 2. The Children of God Long to see God in his Ordinances Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of God all the dayes of my Life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple And Psal. 42. 2. My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal. 63. 1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Now if there be so Great and Longing a desire to see the glory of the Lord in a Glass wherein so little of his Glory is seen with any comfort and satisfaction how much more to see him immediately face to face if a Glimpse be so comfortable what will the immediate Vision of God then be surely if this be Salvation every one of us should long for this Salvation 3. If it be not worth our Desire 't is little worth the Estate being so excellent such a compleat Redemption from all our Troubles so perfect and so full an happiness in Body and Soul will not you send a groan or an hearty Act of Volition after it 't is great ingratitude that when Christ hath procured a great state of blessedness for us at a very dear rate we should value it no more he procured it by a life of Labour and Sorrow and the Pangs of a bitter Cursed death and when all is done we little regard it surely if we choose it for our happiness there will be longing and looking for it No man will fly from his own happiness a mans heart will be where his Treasure is Math. 6. 21. if you prize it you will sigh and groan after it the Apostle saith Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you count it better to be there than else where you will be desiring to be there and longing to be there for we are always longing for that which is better chiefly for that which is best of all there is the best estate the best work the best company all is better if you count it so it will be no difficult thing to bring you earnestly to desire it 4. All the Ordinances serve to stir up this longing after Heaven and to awaken these desires in us the Word is our Charter for Heaven or Gods Testament wherein this rich Legacy is bequeathed to us that every time we Read it or Hear it or Meditate upon it we may get a step higher and our Hearts more drawn out after Heavenly things In Prayer whether in Company or Alone 't is but to raise and act these heavenly Desires there we groan and long for Gods Salvation In the Lords Supper we come solemnly to put our selves in mind of the new Wine we shall drink in our Fathers Kingdom Matth. 26. 29. to put a new heavenly Relish upon our Hearts 5. The Imperfection of our present Estate We are now imperfect and streightened like a Fish in a Pail or small vessel of Water which cannot keep it alive it would fain be in the Ocean or swiming in the broad and large Rivers So we are pent up cannot do what we would there is a larger Estate when filled up with all the fulness of God that Holiness we have now maketh us look for it and long for it and surely Holiness was never designed for our Torment 6. We are hastning into the other World apace and therefore we more desire it Natural motion is in principio tardior in sine velecior the nearer to fruition the more impatient of the want of it When a Man is drawing home after a long Journey every Mile is as tedious as two We are drawing nigh to the other World let us leave this willingly not by force let not Trouble chase us out of it but Love and Desire draw us out of it God doth loosen our Roots by little and little that we may now be sit for a Remove the Pins of our Tabernacle are taken down insensibly and by leisurely Degrees Now as fast as we are going out of this World we should be going into another the inner Man Renewed day by day
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
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