Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords USE 1. For Reproof Every man desireth life the whole world would all and every one of them put up this request to God Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live but there is not one man in a hundred that considereth why he should live Some would live to please the flesh and to wallow in the delights of the present world a brutish wish an heathen could say He doth not deserve the name of a man that would spend his time in pleasure one day These would not leave their husks and their hog-trough This was not David's desire but that he might keep the Law and faithfully worship God 2. Some desire to see their children well bestowed or to free their Estate from incumbrance this is distrust as if we did not leave a God behind us who hath promised to be a father of the fatherless and to take care of our little ones Can we venture our selves in Gods hands and can we not venture our families with him whose goodness extendeth to all his creatures Some are loth to leave such as are dear to them Wife and Children and Friends and is not God better and Christ better These must be loved in God and after God We set friends in the place of God and Christ when we can be content to be absent longer from God meerly upon this ground because we are loth to be separated from our friends He that loveth father and mother and husband and wife more than me is not worthy of me saith Christ. Oh how far are these from any Christian affection surely to a believer it is a piece of self-denial to be kept out of heaven longer therefore it must be sweetned by some valuable compensation something there must be to calm the mind contentedly to spare the enjoyment of it for a while Now next to the good pleasure of God which is the reason of reasons there is some benefit which we pitch upon nothing is worthy to be compared but our service if God may have glory if our lives may do good A gracious heart must be satisfied with gracious reasons Some may desire life because they are dismayed with the terrors of death but this is unbelief hath not Christ delivered us not only from the hurt of death but the fear of death Heb. 2. 14. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Where is your faith death is yours 1 Cor. 3. 16. It is a sin simply to desire life but look to the causes and ends of it 2. It directeth us how to dispose of our lives For this end take a few Considerations 1. This life is not to be valued but by opportunities of service to God It is not who liveth most plentifully but most serviceably to Gods glory Acts 13. 36. David after he had served his generation by the will of God he fell asleep Every one was made to serve God in his generation and hath his office and use as an instrument of Divine Providence from the King to the Peasant We are undone if the creatures made to serve us should fail in their season We were made to serve God in our season 2. This service is determined by the course of Gods Providence He is the great Master of the Scenes that appointeth us what part to act and sets to every man his Calling and state of life Iohn 17. 4. Our Saviour saith I have finished the work thou hast given me to do We must not be our own carvers prescribe to God at what rate we will be maintained nor what kind of work we will perform Those that are free may covenant with you and make their bargain what kind of service they will undertake but we are at Gods absolute dispose to be used as vessels of honour or dishonour as fitted and disposed 3. In the management of this work we must measure our actions by Gods word and refer them to his glory By Gods word Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths His glory Col. 3. 17. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him 4. Death shall not prevent us till we have ended our appointed service As long as God hath work for us to do he will maintain life and strength Gal. 1. 15. Who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace The decree taketh date from the womb God frames parts and temper God rocketh us in our cradles taketh care of us in our Infancy and all the turns of our lives 5. If God will use us to a great age we must be content You may adorn your profession and bring forth fruit in old age The longest life is too short to honour God Psal. 92. 13. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God We should count it our happiness to be still used and that we are fully rewarded by being imployed in farther service 6. Life must be willingly laid down when we cannot keep it but with forsaking the word Luke 14. 26. If any man come unto me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple 7. The life of eternity must be subordinate to this great end the glory of God our desire of it must be that we may be to the praise of God SERMON XIX PSAL. CXIX 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law THE Heathens thought that man had not a power over his life but a power over his actions Quod vivamus Deorum munus est quod bene vivamus nostrum But the Psalmist acknowledgeth God in both Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy law that he could not live nor keep the word without Gods grace This latter he amplifieth in this Verse that he was so far from keeping it that he could not so much as know it savingly and practically without divine grace Lord open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law Here is 1. A Request Open thou mine eyes 2. The Reason from the End Benefit and Fruit of it That I may or then I shall behold wondrous things out of thy Law In which Reason is intimated the Necessity of Divine Illumination and then the Profit of it 1. The Necessity That I may behold c. i. e. otherwise I cannot 2. The Profit Then I shall behold wondrous things out of thy Law Doct. 1. That we need that God should open our eyes if we would have a right understanding of his word 1. What is meant by opening the eyes 2. The necessity of such a work in order to
shall be established unto thee and the light shall shine upon thy ways Decree and it shall be established speak the word and it shall come to pass Is it for us to enact Decrees to appoint what shall be Their Prayer is a duplicate or counterpart of Gods Decrees God guideth their hearts to ask such things as are pleasing to him God is ready to help us to give supplies in all our Necessities he is remembring us for good upon all occasions especially in our low Estate when we have none to help he will help Isa. 59. 16. And he saw that there was no man and wondred that there was no Intercessor therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness it sustained him It was when he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey he cannot be safe unless he be wicked and none will bestir himself in the behalf of Truth and Right or own the good Cause by speaking a word for it therefore God himself would take the business in hand Psal. 105. 14. He suffered no man to do them wrong They that are Gods Confederates he hath a watchful Eye over them they are under his Defence and Protection an afflicted People are more sensible of God's Presence Help and Assistance than others are for streights and troubles are means to open mens eyes and waken their senses now you will ever find God with you when he seemeth most to forget you But especially in Duties of Worship the Visits of Love there and the entertainment at Gods Table Psal. 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach to thee that he may dwell in thy Courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple They have many sweet experiences of God which they find not elsewhere there he doth Comfort Quicken and Revive them Psal. 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures God biddeth them welcom to this Table and will not send them away empty indeed there they come to feel joyes unspeakable and glorious Not that we should build always on sensible experiences or tye God to our time or make an Essay of Curiosity but if they humbly resolutely wait upon God according to the incouragements of his Promise first or last they shall have a full meal and God will own them and fill their hearts with goodness Thus in answering their Prayers helping them in streights visiting in Duties 2 On our part it is delightful to Converse with God 1. In Holy Duties Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Iob. 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee We have no Reason to be strange to God for if we were acquainted with our selves we should find daily and hourly some errand to the Throne of Grace To forget him dayes without number sheweth we have little knowledge of God or of our selves Be sure to look after a desire to enjoy God in the Duty My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of my God my flesh and my heart cryeth out for the living God Psal 84. 2 3. To rest in an empty Ordinance sheweth we do what we do rather to pacifie Conscience than satisfie spiritual desires God is to be our End and Object whom we are to seek and serve abs te sine te non recedam 2. In a course of Holiness how can two walk together except they be agreed Amos 3. 3. Loveth what he Loveth Hateth what he Hateth Suitableness of disposition is the ground of intimacy 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another God saith I will dwell in them and walk in them walk as ever before God Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect Secondly How we come to be brought into this nearness The Reason of doubting is because every man is born a stranger to God Psal. 58. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies Sin causes a distance between God and us Isa. 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear Man is averse from God without God Christ Covenant or Hope or any good from him Christ represents our Apostate Nature by the Prodigals going into a far Countrey the breach groweth wider every day and the distance is increased by actual sin The wicked are far from God Hos. 7. 13. Wo unto them for they have fled from me destruction unto them for they have transgressed against me While matters stand thus between us and God there is no Hope the rigour of Divine Justice and the Terror of a guilty Conscience will not give us leave to look for any Communion with God Ans. In this hopeless and helpless estate the Lord Jesus had pity on us the great End of the Mediator is to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God And therefore he is said to be the way to the Father Ioh. 17. 6. I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me He hath taken our case into his own hands and doth partly by his Merit and partly by his Spirit bring about this nearness and fellowship between God and us 1. By his Merit he bringeth us into a state of Favour he opened the door by his death Eph. 2. 13. But now in Christ Iesus we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. To go to God offended and appeased by no satisfaction is terrible to the guilty Creature but Christ hath made our peace so that we have access into this Grace wherein we stand Rom. 5. 1 2. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand This door which he hath opened by his death he keepeth open by his constant Intercession Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able to save unto the uttermost all those that come unto God through him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us which our repeated provocations would otherwise daily and hourly shut and close again 1 Ioh. 2. 1. These things I write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and so all distance is removed and poor Creatures may comfortably come to God 2. There is a great averseness in our hearts and we need not only leave to come to God but an heart to come to God we
keeping their Fathers command Ier. 35. Set pots before them c. no our Father hath forbidden us to drink wine Their Fathers were dead but ours is living will you that are sons renounce God and side with the Devils party and commit sin you to whom the Father hath shewed such love that you should be called his children Then 't is a wrong to Iesus Christ to his Merit to his Example To his Merit Christ came to take away sin and will you bind those cords the faster which Christ came to loosen Then you go about to defeat the purpose of his death and put your Redeemer to shame You seek to make void the great end for which Christ came which was to dissolve sin And besides you disparage the worth of the price he paid down you make the blood of Christ a cheap thing when you despise grace and holiness you make nothing of that which cost him so dear you lessen the greatness of his sufferings And it is a wrong to his Pattern You should be pure as Christ is pure 1 Joh. 1. 3. and v. 5. be righteous as he is righteous You should discover what a holy person Christ was by a conformity to him in your conversation Now will you dishonour him What a strange Christ will you hold forth to the world when his Name is upon you will you give way to sin and folly And it is a wrong to God the Spirit a grief to him His great and first work was to wash us from sin Tit. 3. 5. You forget that such a work was past upon your hearts and that you have been purged from your old sins when you return to them again 2 Pet. 1. 9. and his constant residence in the heart is to check the lusts of the flesh to prevent the actings of sin If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. therefore you go about to make void his personal operation Thus 't is a wrong to God 2. By an argument drawn from our selves it is very unsuitable to you We profess our selves to be regenerate and born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. He that is born of God cannot sin It is not only contrary to thy duty but to thy nature as thou art a new creature It were monstrous for the egg of one creature to bring forth a brood of another kind for a Crow or a Kite to come from the Egg of a Hen It is as unnatural a production for a new-creature to sin therefore you that are born of God it is very uncomely and unsuitable Do not dishonour your high birth 3. Consider the nature of Sin if you give way to it it will encroach further Sins steal into the Throne insensibly and being habituated in us by long custom we cannot easily shake off the yoke or redeem our selves from their tyranny They go on from little to little and get strength by multiplied acts Therefore we should be very careful to avoid all sin The second part of the Caution is Beware of gross sins committed against light and conscience When we are tempted to sin say with Ioseph Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this wickedness and sin against God The more of deliberation and will there is in any action the sin is the fouler Consider foul sins are a blot that will stick long by us See 1 King 15. 5. it is said David walked in all the ways of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite Why there were many other things wherein David failed you read of his diffidence and distrust in God I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul We read of his dissimulation and feigning himself mad in the company of the Philistines We read of his injustice to Mephibosheth his fond affection to Absolom his indulgence to Amnon we read of his numbering the people which cost the lives of thousands all on a sudden all these are great failings but these are not taken notice of but the matter of Uriah left a scar and blot that was not easily washt off Thirdly Bewarē of continuance in sin How may we continue in sin In what sense Three things I shall take notice of in sin culpa reatus macula there 's the fault the guilt the blot and then we continue in sin when the fault the guilt or blot is continued upon us 1. The fault is continued when the acts of it are repeated when we fall into the same sin again and again Relapses are very dangerous as a bone often broken in the same place you are in danger of this before the breach be well made up between God and you as Lot doubling his Incest to venture once and again is very dangerous 2. The guilt doth continue upon a man till serious and solemn repentance till we sue out our pardon in the name of Christ. Though a man should forbear the act never commit it more yet unless he retracts it by a serious remorse and humbleth himself before God and sueth out his pardon in a repenting way the guilt continues If we confess he speaks to believers then sin is forgiven not otherwise 3. There 's the macula the blot by which the School-men understand an inclination to sin again the evil influence of the sin continueth until we use serious endeavours to mortifie the root of it When we have been foiled by any lust that lust must be more mortified For instance Ionah he repented for forsaking his call when he was cast into the Whale's belly but the sin broke out again because he did not mortifie the root what was that his pride So that it is not enough to bewail the sin but we must launce the sore and discover the root and core of it before all will be well A man may repent of the eruption of sin the former act but the inclination to sin again is not taken off Iudges 16. 2. Sampson loves a woman of Gaza and she had betray'd him but by carrying away the Gates of the City he saves his life possibly upon that experience he might repent of his folly and inordinate love to that woman I but the root remains therefore he falls in love with another woman with Delilah Therefore if you would do what is your duty you must look to the fault that that be not renewed the guilt that that be not continued by omission of repentance and that the blot also do not remain upon you by not searching to the root of the distemper the cause of that sin by which we have been foiled So much for the first part of the Text They do no iniquity The Second note is They walk in his ways This is the positive part not only avoiding of sin but practice of holiness is implyed Observe Doct. 2. It is not enough only to avoid evil but we must do good
your selves in your father's anger when he seemeth to go cross to our prayers and hopes and gives to wicked men advantages against us Numb 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days When God doth not make good the confidence of his people rather the contrary the confidence of their enemies does as it were spit in their face then it is time to take shame to themselves and humble themselves before the Lord. SERMON XXXIV PSALM CXIX 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart IN these words there are two parts 1. A supposition of strength or help from God When thou shalt enlarge my heart 2. A resolution of duty I will run the way of thy Commandments Where 1. observe that he resolves I will 2. The matter of the resolution the way of thy commandments 3. The manner how he would carry on this purpose intimated in the word run with all diligence and earnestness of soul. The Text will give us occasion to speak 1. Of the benefit of an enlarged heart 2. The necessary precedency of this work on God's part before there can be any serious bent or motion of heart towards God on our part 3. The subsequent resolution of the Saints to engage their hearts to live to God 4. With what earnestness alacrity and vigor of spirit this work is to be carried on I will run First Let me speak of the enlarged heart the blessing here asked of God The point from hence is Doct. Enlargement of heart is a blessing necessary for them that would keep God's Laws David is sensible of the want of it and therefore goes to God for it 1. I shall speak of the nature of this benefit 2. The necessity of it First As to the nature what this enlargement of heart is There 's a general and a particular enlargement of heart 1. The general enlargement is at regeneration or conversion to God when we are freed from the bonds of natural slavery and the curse of the Law and the power of sin to serve God cheerfully then is our heart said to be enlarged This is spoken of in Scripture Joh. 8. 36. If the son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed There are two things notable in that Scripture that this is freedom indeed and that we have it by the Son 1. That this is the truest liberty then are we free indeed How large and ample soever our condition and portion be in the world we are but slaves without this freedom As Austin said of Rome that she was Domitrix gentium captiva vitiorum the Mistriss of the Nations and a slave to Vices so vicious men are very slaves how free and large soever their condition be in the world Ioseph was sold as a bond-slave into Egypt but his Mistress that was overcome by her own lust was the true captive and Ioseph was free indeed 2. The other thing observable from this Text is That we have this liberty by Christ he purchased it for us this enlargement of heart from the captivity of sin cost dear Look as the Roman Captain said Acts 25. 28. With a great sum obtained I this freedom They were tender of the violation of this priviledg of being a Citizen of Rome a free-born Roman because it cost so dear and when the liberties of a Nation are bought with a great deal of treasure and blood no wonder that they are so dear and precious to them and that they are so willing to stand for their liberty Certainly our liberty by Christ was dearly bought One place more I shall mention Rom. 13. 2. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death The Covenant of grace is there called the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the Covenant of works is called the law of sin and death To open the place The Covenant of grace that 's accompanied with the law of the spirit the Covenant of works that 's the law of the letter that only gives us the letter and the naked knowledg of our duty Lex jubet gratia juvat 't is the law of the spirit and not only so but the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus because it works from the spirit of Christ and conforms us to the life of Christ as our Original pattern Well then this law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus it makes us free This freedom though purchased by Christ yet is applied executed and accomplished by the Spirit The spirit makes us free and from what from the law of sin and death that is from the law as a Covenant of works which is therefore called a law of sin and death because it convinceth of sin and bindeth over to death it is the ministry of death to condemnation to the fallen creature Let us see what this general enlargement and freedom is from these places It consists in two things A freedom from the power and from the guilt of sin or the curse and obligation to eternal damnation The first sort of freedom from the power of sin is spoken of Rom. 6. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness There is a freedom from sin and a freedom for sin or a freedom from righteousness as it is called v. 20. When you were the servants of sin saith the Apostle you were free from righteousness To be under the dominion of sin is the greatest slavery and to be under the dominion of grace is the greatest liberty and enlargement Then is a man free from righteousness when he hath no impulsions nor inclinations of heart to that which is good when righteousness hath no command over him when he will not be held under the restraints of grace when he hath no fear to offend or care to please God But on the other side then is a man free from sin when he can thwart his lust always warring against it cutting off the provisions of the flesh when he hath no purpose and care to act his lust but it is always the bent and inclination of his heart to please God and this is our liberty and enlargement The other part of this liberty and enlargement is when we are freed from the bondage of conscience or fears of death and hell Every Covenant hath a suitable operation of the spirit attending upon it The Covenant of works hath an operation of the spirit of bondage the Covenant of grace hath an operation of the spirit of adoption I say the Covenant of works rightly thought of produceth nothing in the fallen creature but bondage or a dreadful sense of their misery it is called the spirit of bondage and every one which passeth out of that Covenant hath a feeling of it Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear You had it
found out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first mover and a first cause but when and how the world was made they were left in uncertainties which was first the Egg or the Hen the Oak or the Acorn Heb. 11. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear A child is taught more than they could find out by their profound researches So concerning the Fall of Man Conscience will inform us of a distinction between good and evil and Heathens by the light of Nature could speak of Vertue and Vice as moral perfection and a deordination but nothing of sin and righteousness relating to a Covenant and whence this mischief began they knew not They complained of Nature as of a Step-mother observed an inclination to evil more than to good that vices are learned without a Teacher that man is born into the world crying beginneth his life with a punishment but the first spring and rise of evil was a secret to them but clearly discovered to us Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Mans restitution and redemption by Christ is wonderful indeed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory This could not be found by man how could they know the free purposes of Gods Grace unless God revealed them This is the Mystery of Mysteries which Angels desire to pry into 1 Pet. 1. 12. So excellent and ravishing a Mystery is this plot of salvation of lost sinners by Christ incarnate that the very Angels cannot enough exercise themselves in the contemplation of it So union with Christ and communion with him a Mystery that Nature could never have thought of Gods keeping a familiar correspondence with his Creatures Gods dwelling in us our dwelling in God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit Words we should not dare to have used if God had not used them before us it would have lookd like blasphemy to speak so if we had not the warrant of Scripture So the resurrection of the body and life eternal they are all wonders 2 Tim. 1. 10. But is now made manifest by the appearance of our Saviour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Heathens might dream of a life after death but could never understand it distinctly It is brought to light Their wise men saw it like the blind man who saw Men walking like Trees or a Spire at a distance no clearness no certainty Lord thy testimonies are wonderful Thirdly It is wonderful for purity and perfection The Decalogue in ten words compriseth the whole Duty of man and reacheth to the very soul and all the motions of the heart All the precepts of morality are advanced to the highest perfection Those fragments and sorry remainders of the light of Nature that have escaped out of the ruines of the Fall will shew us the necessity of a good life But the word of God calleth for a good heart a regeneration as well as a reformation not only abstaining from acts of sin but lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims that ye abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Not only the outward work but the spirit that is weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary Prov. 16. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits It mightily establisheth faith fear and love to God as the essential Graces When we consider Duty in the lump we have no admiting thoughts but when we look abroad into all the parts and branches of obedience whereunto the Law diffuseth it self then the holiliness which the Law requireth is admirable then we see it no easie matter to serve this holy and jealous God it is no easie matter to go to the bottom of this perfection Fourthly It is wonderful for the harmony and consent of all the parts All Religion is of a piece and one part doth not interfere with another but conspireth to promote the great end of subjection of the Creature to God The Law hath a mighty subserviency to the Gospel and the first Covenant shutteth up the sinner immediately under the curse that mercy may open the door to him The Gospel is first darkly revealed and still it groweth as the light doth till noon-day At first an obscure intimation The seed of the woman to Abraham In thy seed which after was repeated to Isaac to cut off Ishmael then to Iacob to cut off Esau yet not what Tribe Gen. 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the Lawgiver from between his feet till Shilo come yet not what Family of Iudah to David 2 Sam. 7. 13. I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever then Isai. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel then Iohn the Baptist Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world points with a finger to Christ. This while in short the Scriptures do so set forth the mercy of God as that the duty of the Creature is not abolished so offers Grace as not to exclude our care and use of means Justification and Sanctification promote one another all is ordered with good advice 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Thus the wonderful harmony order and consent of all the parts with respect to the great end which was the glorifying of God and the subjection of the Creature demonstrate the wonderfulness of Gods testimonies The glorifying of Gods Grace and Mercy in those that are saved and his Justice in those that are damned With respect to this God made man upright furnished with abilities to do his will but mutable and in case of a Fall to begin with a new Covenant He will have his mercy honoured without prejudice to his justice the comfort of the Creature established so as Duty not abolished not all of commands nor all of promises but these interwoven that they may serve one another A Promise at the back of a Command to make it effectual Command besides a Promise to cause humbling neither looseness nor rigour If the Covenant had been left to our ordering it had been a confused business Now it is wonderfully suited God keepeth up his Dominion and Sovereignty notwithstanding his Grace and condescension Justice hath full satisfaction yet Grace glorified Fifthly Wonderful for the
First To sin in general He whosoever he be that instead of trembling at Gods Word scoffeth at it and maketh more account of this World than of the will of God of the fashions of men than of Gods Word and thinketh the scorn of a base Worm that would deride him for godliness a greater terrour than the wrath of God and the love of his carnal Company a greater happiness than Communion with Christ and instead of working out his salvation with fear and trembling runneth into all excess of riot and carelesly neglecteth his precious soul while he pampereth his frail body and doth voluntarily and ordinarily leave the Boat to the Stream give up himself to serve his corruption without resistance or crying to Christ for help This man is without dispute and in the eye of the world a Slave to sin Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness It is an apparent Case A man that giveth up himself to go on in the ways of his own heart restraining himself in nothing which it affects he is one of sins Slaves So saith our Lord Christ Iohn 8. 34. Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin He needeth no farther doubt nor debate about the matter He that goeth on in a trade of sin and maketh that his work and business in the world without serious looking after the saving of his soul is one in whom sin reigneth Secondly So some particular sins As we have instances of carnal wretches in general so of some poor Captive Souls that remain under the full power and tyranny of this or that lust and are so remarkable for their slavery and bondage under it that the World will point at them and say There goeth a Glutton a Drunkard an Adulterer or covetous Worldling a proud envious Person Their sin is broken out into some filthy Sore or Scab that is visible to every eye either their Covetousness or Gluttony or ambitious affectation of worldly Greatness one whose God is his Belly who is a Slave to appetite 1 Pet. 2. 19. For of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage They grow proverbial for giving up themselves wholly to such a conquering and prevailing lust As in the natural man several men have their distinct excellencies some are famous for a strong sight some for a quick ear some for a nimble tongue some for agility of Body so these for notable excesses in some corruption Or as the Saints of God are eminent for some special Graces as Abraham for faith Moses for meekness Iob for patience and Ioseph for chastity and Paul for zeal Timothy for temperance so these have their notorious and contrary blemishes Secondly There is a more secret and close dominion of sin that is varnished over with a fair appearance Men have many good qualities and no notorious blemishes but yet some sensitive good and created thing sitteth nearest the heart and occupieth the room and place of God that is loved respected served instead of God or more than God That which is our chiefest good and last end is our God or occupieth the room of God So our Lord telleth us Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon And Iohn 5. 44. How can ye believe that seek honour one from another and not the honour that cometh from God only And Luke 14. 26. If a man come to me and hate not father and mother c. We must be dead not only to carnal pleasure but to credit estate yea life and all It must not sit nearest the heart nor bring it under its command and power 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any We are besotted and bewitched with some created thing that we cannot part with it or leave it for Gods sake or notwithstanding all the mischief it is to the interest of his Soul Though a man serveth it cunningly closely and by a cleanly conveyance yet all his Religion is but either to hide or feed his lust 2. Distinction There is a predominancy of one sin over another and a predominancy of sin over Grace In the first sense renewed men may be said to have some reigning corruption or predominant sin namely in comparison of other sins That such predominant sins they have appeareth by the great sway and power they bear in commanding other evils to be either committed or forborn accordingly as they contribute to their advancement As a Wen or a Strain draweth all the noxious humours to it self so it appeareth by the violent and frequent relapses of the Saints into them or their unwillingness to admit of admonition and reproof for them or their falling into them out of an inward propensity when outward temptations are none or weak or very few some sins that are less mortified than others or unto which they are carried by a natural inclination constitution or education Thus David had his iniquity Psal. 18. 23. whether in were hastiness or distrust of the promise or an inclination to revenge himself Some sins that men favour most and are most urgent and importunate upon them and steal away their hearts most from God The great Pond into which other Rivulets or Streams of iniquity do empty themselves That sin that out-groweth all the rest as the tall Tree taketh away the nourishment from the under Shrubs That which is loved and delighted in above other sins and when other sins will not prevail the Devil sets this awork as the Disciples looked upon the Disciple whom Jesus loved when Christ told them that one of them should betray him Simon Peter beckoned to him that he should ask who it was of whom he spake Iohn 13. 23 24. Well then in regard of other sins one may reign and sit in the Throne of the heart be beloved more than another but not in regard of predominancy over Grace for that is contrary to the new nature that sin should have the upper hand constantly and universally in the soul for any one thing though never so lawful in it self habitually loved more than God will not stand with sincerity Luke 14. 26. If not our natural comforts certainly not our carnal lusts To love any thing apart from Christ or against Christ or above Christ is a dispossessing Christ or casting him out of the Throne 3. Distinction There is a twofold prevalency and dominion of sin actual or habitual actual is only for the time habitual for a constancy Though a regenerate man be not one that lets sin reign over him habitually yet too often doth sin reign over him actually as to some particular act of sin First The
light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal He that hopeth for nothing from God will soon fall off from him and yield to fainting discouragements their hearts are turned off and perverted but when we hope we do with Patience submit to the Cross What troubles will not they undergo that expect undoubtedly their speedy ending in everlasting and endless Bliss and Happiness If God hideth his Face that raiseth a storm Psal. 43. 5. Why art thou so disquieted O my Soul still hope in God Casting Anchor upon the Rock as the crying Child falls asleep with the Teat in his mouth or when God delayeth the performance of what is promised Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Expectation is a tedious thing as smoak to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth an ordinary messenger sent on a trifling Errand Now Rom. 8. 15. If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it 1 Thes. 1. 3. And patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ. Is a Title nothing before Possession 'T is not a matter of debt Or is it the fear of approaching death which is the King of Terrors Prov. 14. 32. The wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death The Wicked being arrested by Death is hurried away into Hell but the Righteous dismisseth his Soul into his Redeemers hands Never more chearful than when our confidence in Gods Mercy is most put to Trial. Secondly Here is the Profession of his Obedience I have done thy Commandments Here is I. The Object thy Commandments II. The Act of Duty done I. The Object thy Commandments quia tua therefore kept them because they are thine things thou hast given in charge Men were ready to perswade or threaten him out of his Duty II. The Act of Duty done thy Commandements The Act of Duty to Do noteth the substance of the Act or Omission The doing things Commanded by eschewing things Fordidden 3. The Manner of doing out of knowledge of Gods Command and Conscience of obeying it to his Glory and our Salvation Now saith David I have done it Implyeth I have not only Care and Conscience but Strength and Ability in some measure to do thy Will But is not this Plea a proud Word for a Creature to say I have done thy Commandments Who can thus say and aver it to the face of God Ans. There is a Twofold keeping or doing of the Commandments Legal and Evangelical 1. Legal When we do them so exactly as is answerable to the Rigor of the Law and the Rule of strict Justice doth require which exactness is when our Obedience is Universal in every Point when every thing Commanded by God is done by us without failing in one point Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them 1. In all things and that 2. Continually in respect of time from the first minute of our birth till our dissoution one failing in thought at any time casteth off our Plea 3. Full and Compleat in respect of the degrees and measure of Obedience with the utmost Intention and Affection of the heart which the Scripture expresseth by all the Heart and all the Soul In this sense never man was able to keep the Law save only the first Adam in innocency and the second Adam Jesus Christ and therefore according to this Rigor there is no hope for us one sin once committed would undo us for ever as it did the Apostate Angels 2. Evangelical according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation of the Gospel that is when we do the Commandments according to those terms of Grace which God offereth to us in Christ that doth as to Obedience mitigate the Rigor of the Law in two things 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins 2. Accepteth of Repentance after any the most hainous sin committed 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins as sins of infirmity either of Ignorance which if we had known we would not have committed or sins of suddain surreption which escape without our observing of them or sins of violent Temptation which by sudden assault sway against the right Rule before we have time to weigh both it and our selves or in cool Bloud to think what we are a-doing Such as do not arise out of any evil purpose of the Mind but out of humane Frailty and from which we shall never be free as long as we live in this Body of Corruption Rom. 7. 24. Paul groaneth under these relicks when what we have done is not out of deliberate consent giving way to the growth and reign of Sin Rom. 6. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you non dixit non sit sed non regnet inest peccatum cum perpetras regnat cum consenseris saith Austin When we give Obedience to it freely willingly yield up our selves to be Servants of it then Sin Reigns Therefore he doth not say let not Sin be in you or Tempt you or please you but let it not Reign in you 'T is a misery to be Tempted a snare to be delighted and a forfeiture or renouncing the Grace of the Covenant to give up our selves to the full sway of it 2. The Gospel doth herein moderate the Rigor of the Law because it leaveth a Sinner a way and means of Recovery Namely by Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ and upon Repentance giveth him a Pardon Matth. 9. 13. Remission or Forgiveness is a Priviledge of the New Covenant the Law knoweth no such matter Ezekiel 18. 21. 22. But if the wicked shall turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surâ—…ly â—…ive and not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him Well then this is to be understood in the Gospel sense 't is the Plea of a Man Justified freely by Gods Grace and one that is Sincere and Upright for the Main One that had received Grace to be Faithful though not without his Infirmities and did not make a practice to live in any known sin against Conscience Secondly We now come to shew the Connexion between these two I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments II. None do and can keep the Commandments but they that hope for Salvation I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments that will appear to you 1. Partly Because God hath by a wise Ordination conjoined Means and End and offered the
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
smote him It grieves and shames them that they do evil There 's tenderness goes with the new nature Peter sinned foully but he went out and wept bitterly Well then the point is this Doct. 1. They that are and shall be blessed are such as make it their business to avoid all sin I may illustrate it by these reasons 1. Surely they shall be blessed for they take care to remove the make-bate the wall of partition between God and them It is sin which separates Isa. 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God This was that which cast Angels out of heaven when they had sinned God could endure their company no longer This cast Adam out of Paradise This is that which hinders men from Communion with God 2. These are men fitting and preparing themselves for the enjoyment of their great hopes Col. 1. 12. Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 1 Joh. 3. 3. He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure Esther when she was chosen to be Bride and Spouse to that great King she had her months of Purification The time we spend in the world are the months of our Purification it 's a sign they mind their business they are fitting for eternal happiness They remember they are shortly to appear before the great God therefore they would not be uncomely Ioseph washed his Garments when he was to go before Pharaoh They have these hopes that they shall see God as he is that they shall be like him and he will appear for their comfort therefore they are fitting themselves more and more 3. In them true happiness is begun There are degrees in Blessedness the Angels they never sinned the glorified Saints they have sinned but sin no more the Saints upon earth in them sin reigns not therefore here 's their happiness begun as sin is taken away so our happiness increaseth first God begins with us in a vvay of Justification ne damnet he takes avvay the damning povver that is in sin and in Sanctification the vvork goes on ne regnet that sin may not reign aftervvard ne sit that sin may not be therefore these have begun their happiness they are hastning tovvards it apace Use 1. For trial and examination Whether vve may be reckoned among the blessed men yea or no There are some think that because the children of God are lyable to so many failings and there being so many vviles and circuits in the heart of man that there can be no judgment made upon the case betvveen the sins of the regenerate and unregenerate But surely there is a difference betvveen the sinning of the one and the sinning of the other and such a difference as may be discerned 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin Novv mark v. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil This is that vvhich distinguisheth the children of God from the children of the Devil Well then how shall we manage this discovery that we may be able to judg of our own estates First Let us consider how far sin may be in a blessed man in a child of God 1. They have a corrupt nature they have sin in them as well as others it is their misery to the last Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am saith the holy Apostle Sin though it be dejectum cast down in regard of Regency yet it is not ejectum cast out in regard of inherencie their corrupt nature sticks by them to the last One compares it to a wild fig-tree or to Ivy in a wall cut off the body the boughs sprigs branches yet still there will be something that will be sprouting up again until the wall be digged down Such an in-dwelling sin is in us though we pray strive and cut off the excrescencies the buddings out of it here and there yet till it be plucked asunder by death it continueth with us 2. They have their daily failings and infirmities Eccles. 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Those that for their general state are just and righteous men yet certain sins they cannot get rid of and are unavoidable as sins of ignorance incogitancy sudden surreption indeliberate incursions which we shall never be freed from as long as we are in this imperfect state So also imperfections of duty for we cannot serve God with that high degree of reverence delight and perfection which he requireth There are unavoidable infirmities which are pardoned of course 3. They may be guilty of some sins which by watchfulness might be prevented as vain thoughts idle passionate speeches and many carnal actions It is possible that these may be prevented by the ordinary assistances of grace and if we will keep a strict guard over our own hearts But in this case Gods children may be overtaken and overborn overtaken by the suddenness or overborn by the violence of temptation Overtaken Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault restore such an one c. and overborn Iam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 4. They may now and then fall foully as Noah by excess of Drink Lot's Incest David's Adultery Peter's Denial Failings and Infirmities they are not determined either by the smallness or by the greatness of the act but by other concomitant circumstances Not by the smallness of the act There is as much Treason in coyning Pence as Shillings and Pounds Allowed affections to small sins is deadly and damnable He that is unfaithful in little will be unfaithful in much Christians where temptations are weak and impotent and of slight concernment and importance they may be sooner confuted and obedience is the more easie so that our rebellion to God by small sins may be greater A man may have great affections to small sins so it may prove an iniquity a damnable sin On the other side great sins may be infirmities as Lot's Incest David's Adultery when they are not done with full consent of soul when their hearts are not wholly carried away with them Iniquities are determined by their manner Iude v. 15. Their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed when with full consent of will and it is their course that argues an habitual hatred and contempt of God 5. A child of God may have some particular evils which may be called predominant sins not with respect to grace that 's impossible that a man should be renewed and have such sins that sin should carry the mastery over grace but they may be said to have a predominancy in comparison of other sins he may have some particular inclination to some evil above others David had his iniquity Psal. 18. 23. Look as the Saints have particular graces Abraham was eminent for Faith Timothy for Sobriety Moses for meekness c.
so they have their particular corruptions which are more suitable to their temper and course of life Peter seems to be inclin'd to Tergiversation and to shrinking in a time of trouble We find him often triping in that kind in the denial of his Master again Gal. 2. 12. it is said he dissembled and complied with the Iews therefore Paul withstood him to his face for he was to be blamed It is evident by experience there are particular corruptions to which the children of God are more inclinable this appears by the great power and sway they bear in commanding other evils to be committed by their falling into them out of inward propensity when outward temptations are few or weak or none at all and when resistance is made yet they are more pestered and haunted with them than with other temptations which is a constant matter of exercise and humiliation to them Secondly Wherein doth grace now discover it self where 's the difference 1. In that they cannot fall into those iniquities wherein there is an absolute contrariety to grace as hatred of God total Apostasie so they cannot sin the sin unto death 1 Joh. 5. 16. 2. In that they do not sin with the whole heart Psal. 119. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandments There was somewhat of God in the heart when he was conscious to himself of strayings and wandrings and David saith elsewhere I have not departed wickedly from thy precepts When they sin it is with the dislike and reluctancy of the new nature it is rather a rape than a consent Bernard saith A child of God suffers sin rather than acts it and his hearts protest is against it 3. It is not their course not constant easie and frequent Relapses into gross sins they argue an habitual aversion from God for a habit is determined by the constancy and uniformity of acts therefore it is but now and then under some great temptation There is sin and there is a way of sin Psal. 139. 24. Search me and see if there be any way of wickedness in me as Chrysostome glosseth 4. When they fall they do not rest in sin Shall they fall and shall they not arise Jer. 8. 4. They may fall into the dirt but they do not lye and wallow there like swine in the mire A fountain may be mudded but it works it self clean again The needle that hath been touched with the load-stone may be jogged and discomposed but it never leaves till it turn towards the Pole again Gods children have their failings but they sue out their pardon run to their Advocate 1 Ioh. 3. 1. humble themselves before God 5. Their falls are sanctified When they have smarted under sin they grow more watchful and more circumspect A child of God may have the worse in praelio in the battel but not in bello in the war Sometimes the carnal part may get the victory and they may fall foul but see the issue Psal. 51. 6. In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom David had sinned against the Lord but I have learned wisdom never to trust a naughty heart more but to look to my self better 6. Grace discovers it self by the constant endeavours which they make against sin What 's the constant course a Christian takes They groan under the reliques of sin it is their burden that they have such an evil nature Rom. 7. 24. They fly to Gods grace in Christ for daily pardon 1 Ioh. 1. 9. They are ever washing their garments in the Lambs blood Rev. 7. and every day are cleansing themselves from the filthiness and defilement they contract by sin Ioh. 13. 10. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet An allusion to a man that hath been a journey in those Countries where they went bare foot when he came home he must wash his feet So a man that is reconciled to God though he hath been in the Bath in the fountain which God hath opened for uncleanness yet every day he must be washing his feet cleansing himself by the blood of Christ more and more because he contracts new defilement Then by using all endeavours against it Col. 3. 5. as prayer striving watching cutting off the provisions of the flesh improving the death of Christ. They do not voluntarily and without opposition live under sin and the slavish tyranny of it Their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise therefore they are said to do no iniquity whereas those that are wretchless and careless of their souls sin and never lay it to heart they are the workers of iniquity Use 2. If this be the character of a blessed man To make it our business to avoid sin Then here 's caution to God's people 1. To beware of all sin 2. To be very cautious against gross sins committed against the light of conscience 3. To beware of continuance in sin First To beware of all sin The more you have the mark of a blessed man 1 Joh. 2. 1. These things I write unto you that you sin not Though you have a pardon and cleansing by the blood of Christ though you have an Advocate yet sin not Now the motives to set on this Caution are taken from God from our selves from the nature of sin 1. From God Sin not why because it is an offence to God Consider how contrary sin is to all the persons in the Trinity To God the Father as a Lawgiver being a contempt of his Authority 1 Ioh. 3. 4. Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law that is an act of disloyalty and rebellion against the Crown of Heaven Open sin doth as it were proclaim rebellion and war against God and privy sin is conspiracy against him All creatures have a Law Psal. 148. 6. Thou hast set to them a Decree beyond which they cannot pass And they are less exorbitant in their motions than we are It is a greater violation to the Law of Nature for man to sin than for the Sea to break its bounds The Creatures have not sense and reason yet they do not pass beyond the Law which God hath set them This should prevail with the new creature especially whose hearts God hath suited to the Law so that they offer a violence to their own conscience Take heed of entring into the lists with God of despising his Authority Every sin that is committed slights the Law which forbids it 2 Sam. 12. 9. Wherefore despisest thou his commandments God stands much upon his Law one tittle shall not pass away and you despise it go about to make it void when you give way to sin Nay it is an abuse of his Love 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed us you are children and sons of God and will you slight his love Your sins are like Absoloms treason against his Father The Rechabites are commended for
them out of his presence they become the scorn of Saints and Angels Dan. 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt But now the godly are bold and confident Psal. 1. 5. The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous But the godly shall lift up their head with joy and rejoicing Now the Reasons of this Where sin is not allowed there is a threefold comfort 1. Justification 1 Joh. 1. 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin It is an evidence that giveth us the comfort He hath failings but they are blotted out for Christs sake 2. It is an evidence of sanctification that a work of grace hath passed upon us 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you ward Heb. 13. 18. We trust that we have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly An universal purpose and an unfeigned respect hath the full room of an evidence 3. A pledg of glory to ensue Rom. 5. 5. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Use. It informeth us by the rule of Contraries That we deceive our selves if we look for any thing from sin but shame Rom. 6. 21. For the wages of sin is death Sin and shame entred into the world together How were Adam and Eve confounded after the fall Sin is odious to God it grieveth the Spirit but the person that committeth it shall be filled with shame In the greatest privacy sin bringeth shame Men are not solitary when they are by themselves there is an eye and ear which seeth and observeth them there is a law in our hearts which upbraids our sins to us as soon as we have committed them a secret bosom-witness 2. It informeth us what hard hearts they have that have respect to no commandments yet are not ashamed They have outgrown all feelings of conscience and so glory in their shame Phil. 3. 19. Whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Erubuit salva res est By how much less they are ashamed now the more they shall be their shamelesness will encrease their shame Jer. 3. 3. Thou hadst a whores forehead thou refusedst to be ashamed The Conscience of a sinner is like a Clock dull calm and at rest when the weights are down but wound up it 's full of motion 3. Here is caution to Gods children The less respect you have to the Commandments the more shame will you have in your selves Partiality in obedience breaketh your confidence and over-clouds your peace Therefore that we may not blemish our profession let us walk more exactly So shall we not be ashamed when we have respect to all Gods Commandments SERMON VIII PSAL. CXIX 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments IN this Verse David expresseth his esteem of the Word by telling what he would give for the knowledg and practice of it As we use to tell a man how thankful we would be if he would do thus and thus for us So Lord if thou wilt give me to learn thy righteous judgments then I will praise thee c. His promise of praise manifesteth his esteem which should affect our stupid hearts The Canon is now larger and the mysteries of the Word are more clearly unfolded If the Saints of God were so taken with it before when there were so scanty and dark representations in comparison of what is now O what honour and praise do we now owe to God! In this Verse observe 1. The Title that is given to the Word Thy righteous judgments 2. His Act of Duty about it or the benefit which he desireth sound erudition When I shall have learned 3. The fruit of this benefit obtained Then will I praise thee 4. The manner of performing this duty With uprightness of heart First The Title that is given to the Word Thy righteous judgments or as it is in the Margent the judgments of thy righteousness Hence observe Doct. Gods precepts are and are so accounted of by his people as righteous judgments or judgments of righteousness There are two Terms to be Explained 1. What is meant by judgments 2. By righteousness For the First Righteousness is sometimes put alone for the Word and so also Judgments as we shall find in this Psalm but here both are put together to increase the signification The precepts of the Word are called judgments for two Reasons 1. Because they are the Judicial sentence of God concerning our state and actions 2. Because of the suitable execution that is to follow First They are the Judicial sentence of God concerning our state and actions The judicial sentence that is they are the Decrees of the Almighty Law-giver given forth with an authority uncontroulable A man may appeal from the sentence of men but this is judgment this is as certain as if he were executed presently There is injustice and oppression many times in the Courts of men but there 's a higher than the highest regards it and there be higher than they Eccles. 5. 8. There may be another Tribunal to which we may appeal from the unjust sentences of men but there is no appeal from God for there is no higher Judicature Paschalis a Minister of the Albigenses when he was burnt at Rome cited the Pope and his Cardinals before the Tribunal of the Lamb. When we are wronged and opprest here we may cite them before the Tribunal of God and Christ but who can appeal from the Tribunal of Christ himself And then this sentence is concerning our state and actions 1 Our State whether it be good or evil The word sentenceth you now for instance If a man be in a carnal state Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already How condemned already In the sentence of the Law so he is gone and lost Every unbeliever such as all are by nature is condemned already having only the slender thread of a frail life between him and the execution of it The sentence of the Law standeth in force against him since he will not come to Christ to get it repeal'd This sentence standeth in force against all Heathens which never heard of Christ and are condemned already by the Law But now Christians or those that take up such a profession and have heard of the Gospel on them it is confirmed by a new sentence since they will not fly
it is very needful they should be seasoned with the word betimes 3. Consider the many inconveniencies that will follow if they do not presently mind this work 1. Death is uncertain and therefore such a weighty business as this will brook no delay God doth not always give warning Nadab and Abihu two rash and inconsiderate young men were taken away in their sins and the Bears out of the Forest devoured the children that mocked the Prophet The danger being so great as soon as we are sensible of it we should flye from it When children come to the fulness of reason they stand upon their own bottom before they are reckoned to their Parents Oh! wo be to you if you dye in your sins Certainly as soon as a man is upon his own personal account he should look to himself lest God cut him off before he hath made his peace with him 2. Sin groweth stronger by custom and more rooted it gathereth strength by every act A brand that hath been in the fire is more apt to take fire again A man in a Dropsie the more he drinks the more his thirst increaseth Every act lesseneth fear and strengthneth inclination Jer. 13. 27. Wo unto thee O Ierusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be A twig is easily bowed but when it grows into a Tree it is more troublesome and unpliable A Tree newly set may be transplanted but when long rooted not so easily The man that was possessed of a Devil from his childhood how hardly is he cured Mark 9. 29. 3. Justice is provoked the longer and that will be a grief to you first or last If ever we be brought home to God it will cost us many a bitter tear not only at first conversion Jer. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised c. but afterwards David though he began with God be-times Psal. 25. 7. yet prays Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgression And Iob 13. 26. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth Old bruises may trouble us long after upon every change of weather and new afflictions revive the sense of old sins They may stick by us We think tricks of youth are not to be stood upon you may have a bitter sense of them to your dying day 4. You will every day grow more useless to God the exercise of Religion dependeth much on the vigor of affections Again it is very profitable it brings a great deal of honour to God to begin with him betimes All time is little enough to declare your respects to God And it is honourable for you Seniority in grace is a preferment They were in Christ before me saith Paul An Old Disciple is a title of honour To grow gray in Christs service and to know him long it maketh the work of grace more easie The dedication of the first-fruits sanctified the whole lump Lam. 3. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoak in his youth to be inured to strictness betimes Dispositions impressed in youth increase with us Again it will be very comfortable when the miseries of old age come upon you As the Ant provideth in Summer for Winter so should we provide for age Now what a sweet comfort will it be when we are taken off from service that while we had any strength and affections God had the use of them Then our age will be a good old age USE 1. is for Lamentation That so few youths take to the ways of God No age doth despise the word so much as this which hath most need of it It is a rare thing to find a Ioseph or a Samuel or a Iosiah that seek God betimes Go to the Universities and you will find that those that should be as Nazarites consecrated to God live as those that have vowed and consecrated themselves to Satan Amos 2. 11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites c. The sons of the prophets in their youth were bred for a more strict discipline in their holy calling separated from worldly delights to be a stock of a succeeding Ministry But alas they spend their time in vanity bringing nothing thence but the sins of the place and vainly following the sinful customs of the Countrey How few regard the education of their youth in knowledg or religious practice Families are Societies to be sanctified to God as well as Churches The Governours of them have as truly a charge of souls as the Pastors of Churches They offer their children to God in baptism but educate and bring them up for the world and the flesh They bewail any natural defect in them if their children have a stammering tongue a deaf ear or a withered leg but not want of grace We have a prejudice and think they are too young to be wrought upon but Gods word can break in with weight and power on young ones Luke 11. 1. One of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as Iohn also taught his disciples And Mat. 21. 15. When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying in the temple and saying Hosanna to the son of David they were sore displeased and said unto him Hearest thou what these say And Iesus said unto them Yea have ye never read Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise They learned it of their Parents Mat. 21. 9. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David We should often be infusing good principles in youth Corruption of youth is one of the saddest symptoms of approaching Judgment USE 2. Is exhortation to young ones You that are to begin your course begin with God you have no experience yet you have a rule You have mighty lusts but a stronger Spirit No age is excluded from the promise of the Spirit Joel 2. 28 29. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit Of Iohn Baptist it is said Luke 1. 15. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb And Mark 10. 14. Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God There is power to enlighten you notwithstanding all your prejudices to subdue your lusts notwithstanding the power of corruptions 1 Joh. 2. 13 14. I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little children because ye have known the Father c. And see Gen. 39. 9. It will be a
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
ruine We have instances of a Council gathered against Christ Joh. 11. 47. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a Council and said What do we for this man doth many miracles They meet together and plot the ruine of Christ and his Kingdom and they were those that were of chief Authority in the place Another instance Acts 4. 27 28. For of a truth against thy holy Child Iesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done There is their agreement to put Christ to death In the Old Testament Pharaoh and his Nobles Exod. 1. 10. Come on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any war they joyn also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land And against Daniel the Princes of the Persian Empire consult how to intrap him in the matter of his God Dan. 6. 4 5 6 c. 2. For abusing the Throne of Judgment and Civil Courts of Judicature to the molestation of the Saints I shall cite but two places Psal. 94. 12. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee which frameth mischief by a Law It is no strange but yet no small temptation that the oppression of Gods people is marked with a pretence and colour of Law and publick Authority and the mischief should proceed from thence where it should be remedied namely from the Seat of Justice so Mat. 16. 17 18. Christ foretelleth they shall have enemies armed with Power and Publick Authority Beware of men for they will deliver you to the Councils and they shall scourge you in their synagogues and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake Not only subordinate but supreme Governours may be drawn to condemn and oppress the godly In so plain a case more instances need not Reasons of it on Gods part and on the part of the Persecutors First On Gods part he permitteth it 1. To shew that he can carry on his work though Authority be against him and that his people do not subsist by outward force but the goodness of his Providence and so have the sole glory of their preservation When the Christian Religion came first abroad in the world not many noble nor many mighty were called the Powers of the world were against it and yet it held up the head and was dispersed far and near Falshoods need some outward interest to back them and the supports of a Secular arm but Gods Interest doth many times stand alone though God doth now and then make Kings nursing fathers and Queens nursing-mothers according to his promise Isa. 49. 23. Oftentimes the Church is destitute of all worldly props Mic. 5. 7. And the remnant of Iacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Yea the power of the world is against it and yet it subsists Thus it was in the primitive times there were only an handful of contemptible people that professed the Gospel yet it got ground daily not by force of arms or the power of the long sword but by Gods secret blessing Ambrose giveth the reason why God suffered it to be so Ne videretur authoritate traxisse aliquos veritatis ratio non pompae gratiâ praevaleret lest this new Religion should seem to be planted with power rather than by its own evidence and the authority of men should sway more with the world than the Truth of God There is a wonderful encrease without any human concurrence as the Lord saith The remnant of his people shall be as a dew from the Lord that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Without mans consent or concurrence So that God alone hath the glory of their preservation 2. That the patience of his people may be put to the utmost probation When they are exercised with all kind of trials not only the hatred of the vulgar but the opposition of the Magistrate carried on under a form of Legal procedure In the primitive times sometimes the Christians were exposed to the hatred and fury of the people Lapidibus nos invadit inimicum vulgus At other times exposed to the injuries of Laws and persecutions carried on by authority against them There was an uproar at Ephesus against the Christians Acts 19. and there seemed to be a formal Process at Ierusalem Acts 4. This latter temptation seemeth to be the more sore and grievous because Gods Ordinance which is Magistracy is wrested to give countenance to malicious designs and because it cuts off all means of human help and so patience hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its perfect work James 1. 4. There are some glory in suffering the rage and evil word of the Vulgar for they are supposed not to make the wisest choice but when men of Wisdom and Power and such as are clothed with the Majesty of Gods Ordinance are set against us then is patience put to the utmost proof and whether we regard God or man most and who is the object of our fear those that have power of life and death temporal or him that hath power of life and death eternal 3. That his people may be weaned from fleshly dependencies and doting upon Civil Powers and so be driven to depend upon him alone Psal. 94. 20 21 22. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee which establish mischief by a Law they gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood But the Lord is my defence and my God is the rock of my refuge There would not be such use of faith and dependance upon God if our danger were not great It is harder to trust in God with means than without means We are beaten out when outward helps fail otherwise we are apt to neglect God and then a world of mischief ensueth When the Emperor of the Romans began to favour the Christians poyson was said to be poured into the Church and in the sun-shine of worldly countenance like green timber they began to warp and cleave asunder and what Religion got in breadth it lost in strength and vigour Gods people never live up to the beauty and majesty of their Principles so much as when they are forced immediately to live upon God and depend upon him for their safety 4. That their testimony and witness-bearing to Gods truths may be the more publick and authentick in the view of the world This testimony is either to them for their conviction and conversion Mat. 24. 14. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations or against them Mark 10.
Here 's 1. The sin deprecated Remove from me the way of Lying 2. The good supplicated and asked Grant me thy Law graciously In the first clause you have his Malady David had been inticed to a course of lying In the second we have his Remedy and that 's the Law of God First let me speak of the evil deprecated there Observe 1. The Object The way of lying 2. Gods act about it Remove from me c. First for the Object The way of lying It is by some taken generally by others more particularly 1. For those that expound it more generally they are not all of a mind Some think the way of lying is meant Corruption of Doctrine others of Worship others apply it to disorders of conversation some take it for Error of Doctrine false opinions concerning God and his Worship which are called lying and so opposed to the way of truth spoken of in the next verse I have chosen the way of truth Heresie and false Doctrine is called a lye Ezek. 13. 22. Their diviners speak lies So John 2. 21. A lye is not of the truth and the word used The way of lying is elsewhere rendred a false way v. 104. and 128. there is the same expression Now this he desires to be removed from him because it sticks as close to us as our skin Error is very natural to us and man doth exceedingly please himself with the figments of his own brain All practical Errors in the world are but man's natural thoughts cryed up into a voluble opinion because backed with defences of Wit and Parts and secular Interests and other advantages they are but our secret and privy thoughts which have gotten the reputation of an opinion in the world for we speak lyes from the womb even in this sense we suck in erronious principles with our milk Nature carrieth us to wrong thoughts of God and the ways of God and out of levity and inconstancy of spirit we are apt to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men Now to this sense the latter clause will well agree Keep me from a way of lying that is keep me from falling into error and mistakes about Religion for he begs that the law may be granted to him or a certain stated rule without which all things are liable to deceit and imposture And according to this sense Austin beggeth that he may neither be deceived in the Scriptures nor deceive out of them Nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis let me never be mistaken my self nor cause others to mistake Again By a way of lying some understand false worship for an Idol is a lye Isa. 44. 20. Is there not a lye in his right hand meaning an Idol By others a course of sinning for a way of sinning is a way of lying for it deceives us with a conceit of happiness which we shall never enjoy therefore Eph. 4. 22. Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Lusts are called deceitful because they promise what they never perform they flatter us not only with hopes of impunity but much imaginary comfort and satisfaction O but it 's a lye Satan deceived our first Parents pretending to shew them a way of Immortality whereas that brought death to the world Most go this way Remove from me the way of lying that is the way of sin and the rather because the Septuagint translation read it thus Remove from me the way of Iniquity and Chrysostom in his gloss He means Every evil deed should be removed from him or it proves a lye in regard of all those flatterings and blandishments by which it enticeth the soul. Nay there 's a parallel place seems to make good this sense Prov. 30. 8. When Agur prays against sin Remove from me vanity and lies meaning a course of sin Thus it is taken more generally 2. Those that take it more particularly for the sin of lying or speaking falsly in commerce they again differ Some take it passively keep me from frauds or deceits of other men because it seems to be a hard thing to ascribe a way of lying to a child of God therefore they rather take it passively But this is to fear where no fear is But David begs that he might be kept from a way of lying that it might not settle into a way that 's his meaning Therefore I rather take it actively that he might not run into a false and fallacious course of dealing with others Now why would David have this way of lying removed from him Three Reasons 1. Because of the inclination of his corrupt nature We had most need pray to be kept from gross sins as Psal. 19. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins We need not only pray against lesser sins or spiritual wickednesses but from gross sins carried on presumptuously against the light of Conscience So Col. 3. 5. Mortifie your earthly members c. What members doth he speak of not worldliness and unbelief only but he speaks of adultery uncleanness inordinate affections and the like and the Children of God if they do not deal with God for grace against their gross sins they will soon know to their costs Jesus Christ warned his own disciples those that were trained up in his School those that were to go abroad and deliver his Gospel to the world Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness c. A candle newly blown out easily sucks light and flame again and we that are newly taken out of the dominion of sin into a state of grace may suck light and flame again therefore we had need pray against gross sins 2. Because he had been tripping and guilty in this kind In the story of David you may trace too much of this way and vein of lying as his feigning to Abimeleck the Priest 1 Sam. 25. 8. and to Achish 2 Sam. 27. 8. compar'd with vers 10. his perswading Ionathan to tell his Father he was gone about such a business Now this we may learn when we are foiled by any sin we should take heed lest we settle into a way and course of sin for in every sin as there is culpa the fault or the transgression of the Law and reatus the guilt or obligation to punishment so there is macula the blot an inclination to sin again in like manner as a brand once on fire is more apt to take fire again By every act of sin the Law of God is lessened our carnal inclination is increased therefore we had need be earnest with God Lord keep me from a way of lying 3. Man is strongly inclined to lying it sticks close to our nature so that God must remove it from us as more fully afterwards Thus for the Object a way of lying Secondly Gods Act about it Remove from me Sin is removed either in a way of Justification when the guilt of
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
Apostle there speaks of the fruit of Christs death being dead unto Sin before he can live to God 1. Peter 2. 24. David first maketh it his Request Turn away mine Eyes then Quicken Many would fain live with Christ but first they must learn to dye unto Sin 'T is impossible for Sin and Grace to live in the same Subject 2. One great means of Mortification is guarding the Senses Eyes and Ears and Tast and Touch that they may not betray the Heart I put it so general because the man of God that is so solicitous about his Eyes would not be careless of his Ears and other Senses We must watch on all sides when an assault is made on all sides if one Gate open it is as good as all were The Senses are the Cinque-Ports by which Sin is let out and taken in The Ingress and Egress of Sin is by the Senses and much of our danger lyeth there partly because there are so many Objects that suit with our Distempers that do by them insinuate themselves into the Soul and therefore things long since seemingly dead will soon revive again and recover Life and strength There is no means to keep the Heart unless we keep the Eye and Partly because in every Creature Satan hath lay'd a Snare for us to steal away our hearts and affections from God Partly because the senses are so ready to receive these objects from without to wound the heart for they are as the Heart is if the heart be Poisoned with Sin and become a Servant to it so are the Senses of our Bodies weapons of unrighteousness Rom. 6. 13. Objects have an impression upon them answerable to the Temper and the affections of the Soul and what it desireth they pitch upon and therefore if we let the Senses wander the Heart will take fire presently and if 〈◊〉 do not stop evil at the beginning but let it alone to take Head we cannot stop it wâ—…n we would nor repress the Motions of it from flying abroad 3. Above all Senses the Eye must be guarded 1. Because it is the noblest Sense given us for high uses There is not only a natural use to inform us of things profitable and hurtful for the outward man but a spiritual use to set before us those objects that may stir us and raise our minds to Heavenly thoughts and Meditations For by beholding the perfection of the Creatures we may admire the more eminent perfection of him that made them Psal. 19. 1. The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Psal. 8 3. And when I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Finâ—…s The Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained David when he walked abroad in a Moon shining night he admires the glory of the Moon and Stars the Moon and Stars are mentioned because it was a night meditation his Heart was set a work by his Eyes Rom. 1. 20. 20. For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal power and God-Head c. The perfection of the Creatures are to draw us to God and their Imperfections and defects to drive us from themselves The Eye as ti 's used will either be a help or a Snare either it will let in the sparks of Temptation or inkindle the fire of true Devotion These are the Windows which God hath placed in the top of the Building that man from thence may Contemplate Gods works and take a Prospect of Heaven the place of our eternal residence Os homini Sublime dedit God made man with an erect Countenance not groveling on the Earth but looking up to Heaven and viewing the glorious Mansions above 2. Because they have a great influence upon the Heart either as to good or evil but chiefly to Evil. In this corrupt state of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By looking we come to liking and are brought inordinately to affect what we do behold Numb 15. 39. That ye seek not after your own heart and your own Eyes after which ye use to go a Whoring Iob 31. 7. If my step hath turned out of the way and my Heart walked after mine Eyes These are the Spies of the Heart Brokers to bring it and the Temptation together the Eye seeth and then by gazing the Heart lusteth and the Body acteth the transgression 'T is more dangerous to see Evil than to hear it the impression is greater the relation of any thing doth not affect us so much as the Sight of it Those that hear of the fury of wars and fireing of Houses Ravishing of Virgins Killing and wounding of men and the like cannot have so deep a sense of those things as they that see it The sight of Heaven works more than the report of it as in Paul when he had a sight of these things was in an Extasi The Look doth immediately work on the heart Well then it is dangerous to fix the Eye on inticing Objects for it exciteth more than hearsay 3. The eye must be looked to because it hath been the Window by which Satan hath crept in and all manner of Poyson conveyed to the Soul I shall prove it 1. Doctrinally 2. Historically 1. I shall give you Doctrinal assertions The eye hath been the in-let of all Sin as uncleanness 2 Pet. 14. Having eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from Sin beguiling unstable Souls c. In the Original 't is Eyes full of the Adulteress and the Eye inkindles impure flames in the Heart Prov. 6. 25. Lust not after her Beauty in thy heart neither let her take thee with her Eye-lids Gazing on the beauty of Women inkindleth foul flames within the Breast and we feel strange transports of Soul when we give way to it The evil heart is in its Element when t is thus Then coveteousness gets into the heart by the eye 1 Ioh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And therefore the Apostle when he maketh a Division of Sin he saith for all that is in the World the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World Because the mind is so secretly inchanted with the Love of those things it beholds and are represented to it by the external Senses And Eccle. 4. 8. There is no end of all his Labour neither is his Eye satisfied with Riches that insatiable thirst is inkindled in the Soul by beholding the Splendour of outward things it is born and bred and fed by it and the Heart is secretly inchanted with a love to it and therefore we must have more of it Again Drunkenness Prov. 23. 31. Look not thou upon the Wine when it is Red when it giveth its Colour in the Cup when it moveth
6. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his Servants ye are whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Now Man rightly constituted his Actions are thus governed The Understanding and Conscience prescribe to the Will the Will according to right Reason and Conscience moveth the Affections the Affections according to the command and counsel of the Will move the bodily Spirits and Members of the Body But by Corruption there is a manifest Inversion and Change Pleasures affect the Senses the Senses corrupt the Phantasie Phantasie moveth the Bodily Spirits they the Affections and by their violence the Will is carried captive Man blinded and so Man goeth on headlong to his own destruction The corrupt Passions are like wild Horses that do not obey the Driver but draw to Precipices for his destruction Therefore Basil of Seleucia calleth a carnal Man a Slave that runs after the Chariots of his own Passions and corrupt Affections 3. Consider the great tyranny and power of Sin it leaveth us no right and power to dispose of our selves and our Actions and so Men cannot help themselves when they would as is sensible in them that are convinced of better and do worse they see what they should do but do not do it being drawn away by their own Lusts. Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor Sin hath gotten such a deep interest in their Actions and command over their Affections that they cannot leave what they know to be naught or follow that which they conceive to be good And this Bondage is more sensible in them that have some kind of remorse and trouble with their Convictions either from temporal inconvenience shame or loss and yet cannot leave their Lusts and so in despair resolve to go on and make the best of it Ier. 18. 12. And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Jer. 2. 25. Thou hast said there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go Yea further that have a kindly remorse from the conviction of the Spirit Ier. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke And so Paul Rom. 7. 14. I am carnal sold under sin 4. Consider how this Bondage is always increased by Custom which is a second Nature or an inveterate Disease not easily cured Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil The more he continueth in this course the less able to help himself the more he sinneth the more he is inthralled to sin as a Nail the more it is knocked the more it is fastned in the Wood. First a man yields up himself to Sin as a Servant by Covenant Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey that is gives up his principal Time Actions and Employments Then a Servant by Conquest 2 Pet. 2. 19. While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage A Sinner is under the dominion of Sin as an hired Servant and a Captive We first willingly and by our own default run into it and after cannot rid our selves of it Ligatus eram non ferro alieno sed mea ferrea voluntate velle meum tenebat inimicus me mihi catenam fecerat constrinxerat me Lord I am bound not with Iron but with an obstinate Will I gave my Will to mine Enemy and he made a Chain of it to bind me and keep me from thee Quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido dum servitur libidini facta est consuetudo dum consuetudo non resistitur facta est necessitas Aug. Confes. lib. 8. cap. 5. A perverse Will gave way to Lustings and Lustings made way for a Custom and a Custom let alone brought a Necessity upon me that I can do nothing but sin against thee And after that Reformidam quasi mortem consuetudinis mutationem Aug. Confes. lib. 8. cap. 7. Thus are we by little and little enslaved brought under the power of every Toy Things are lawful as subordinate helps but we contrary to the Law of Reason and the Inclinations to true Happiness immoderately desire them and these Desires being excessive get a compleat Victory over our Souls and at length we are brought under the power of every Creature 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawful but I will not be brought under the power of any 5. There is one thing more that maketh the Carnal Life to be a meer Slavery and that is the Fear and Terror which doth arise from the consciousness of Sin the fear of Death and Damnation and Wrath to come which doggeth Sin at the heels When Adam sinned he was afraid Gen. 3. 7. And carnal Men are all their life-time subject to bondage through the fear of death Heb. 2. 15. There is a Fire smothering in the bosom of a Sinner and sometimes it flashes out in actual gripes and horrors they have grievous damps of heart so that Sinners are so far Bond-men that they dare not seriously call themselves to an account for the expence of their Time and Employments which every one should do nor think seriously of Death or God's Judgment or Hell He that is always under the check of a cruel Master cannot be said to be a Freeman Now so is every Man that is not in Christ let him be never so great and mighty and powerful he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to bondage in danger of hidden fears easily awakened in his heart Well then call you this a Free Life As jolly and jocund as wicked Men seem to be or as great as they are it is a liberty of the Flesh taken by Men not given by God the quietness of the Flesh but bane of the Soul 2. On the contrary The true Liberty is in the ways of God 1. There we are directed how to attain to our great End which is true Blessedness Mat. 7. 14. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it A way of Sin seemeth broad and easie to the Flesh but it is strait and hard to the Spirit and the way of Duty strait and narrow to the Flesh but because it is to Life it is broad to the Spirit or new Nature I shall walk at liberty To a renewed Heart the Divine Commandments are not grievous 1 Iohn 5. 3. for by this means they come to enjoy God and walk to their own Happiness and attain to the End for which they were made A poor heart goes home chearfully
2. In loving fearing praising serving God the noblest Faculties are exercised in the noblest and most regular way of Operation The Soul is in the right temper and constitution they are the highest Actions of the highest Faculties elevated by the highest Principles about the highest Objects The Objects are God Christ Heaven the great things of Eternity The Principles are the Love and Fear of God the Faculties Understanding and Will not Sensitive Appetite these exercised in thinking of God and chusing of God II. The second part of the Demonstration is That there is liberty given to walk in that way Ever since Adam's Fall every Man is a spiritual Slave under the Dominion and Power of Sin and Satan and the Curse of the Law but now where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. true Christian Liberty or a power given us to walk familiarly with God and chearfully and comfortably in his Service By Grace a Man is freed 1. From the yoke of oppressing Fears And 2. The Tyranny of commanding Lusts. 1. We are freed from the Bondage of Sin Rom. 8. 2. The law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death John 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make ye free ye shall be free indeed There is a Liberty in that which is good Psal. 119. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart 2. We are freed from those Doubts and Fears and Terrors which accompanied the state of Sin Iob 36. 8. If they be bound in fetters and be holden in the cords of afflictions Job 13. 27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks Lam. 3. 7. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out he hath made my chain heavy so that the meaning is I shall walk at liberty be chearful and enlarged in heart for I seek thy Precepts III. There is Liberty in that walking It is the fruit of strictness There is a twofold Liberty 1. Outward Deliverances out of Straits and Afflictions Psal. 118. 5. I called upon the Lord in distress the Lord answered me and set me in a large place And Psal. 18. 19. He brought me forth also into a large place he delivered me because he delighted in me So Psal. 4. 1. Thou hast inlarged me when I was in distress Affliction is compared to a Prison where the poor afflicted Creature is as it were confined committed by God and must not break Prison come out by the Window but the Door When we are let out by God upon submission and supplication urging the Satisfaction of Christ as we are sent thither by God's Authority so we come out by God's Love Now God doth this for those that obey him as all those Places manifest 2. Inward Confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom on the Text An holy Life is the ground of Liberty and holy boldness 1 John 3. 9. If our hearts condemn us not then have we liberty towards God We have delight and pleasure and contentment Till we defile Conscience we have a great deal of boldness and courage against opposition yea a boldness to go to God himself who otherwise is a consuming Fire Use 1. Is to take off that prejudice that we have against the Ways of God as if they were strait and hard and not to be endured Oh no all Gods ways are for our good Deut. 6. 24. The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always And the Duties that he requireth of us are honourable and comfortable we never walk more at large than when we have a Conscience of them Man acteth like himself when he is holy just temperate sober humble Grace puts all things in the right frame and posture again it puts Reason in Dominion and maketh us Kings in governing our own Hearts and this breedeth sweetness and peace Pax est tranquillitas ordinis when all things keep their place then is there peace As when the Humors of the Body are in order and the Spirits move tuneably there is a chearfulness ensueth so the fruit of Righteousness is Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost If a Man had no Rule to guide him and God had left him without a Law yet if he were well in his wits he would prefer the Duties which he hath enjoyned before Liberty and of his own accord chuse to live according to such an Institution there is such a sutableness in all those things to the Reasonable Nature What do Men aim at Pleasure Honour or Profit For Pleasure Prov. 3. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace None have such a sweet life as they that live vertuously and as God hath commanded All the Sensualists in the world have not such a dainty Dish to feed on as they that have a good Conscience they have a continual Feast that never cloyeth You never come away from your Sports with such a merry heart as they come away from the Throne of Grace If Men would consider their Experiences after the discharge of their Duties and when stragling to carnal delights after saddest Duties there is a serenity in the Conscience Who ever repented of his Repentance 1 Sam. 1. 18. Hannah went her way and did eat and drink and her spirit was no more sad Prayer giveth ease but sensual Pleasures leave remorse and a sting If you count Liberty to consist in hunting after Honours and great Places can there be a greater Honour than to serve God Who hath the better Service he that attendeth on the uncertain will of Men yea of the greatest Princes or he that waiteth on the Lord Your Work is more Noble Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour What an unprofitable drudgery is the Service of the greatest Prince in the World in comparison of the Work of a poor Christian that liveth in Communion with God We serve a greater Prince and on surer terms Then for Profit Where is there more gain as to our Vails and Wages than in God's service Well then he that liveth holily hath much the sweeter and happier life than they that serve Covetousness Ambition or any other Lust. Certainly this should perswade us to put our neck under Christs yoke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 11. 29. His yoke is easie and his burden is light If it be grievous it is to the Flesh and we have no reason to indulge the Flesh Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can it be The Command to an unfound Conscience is as a light Burden laid on a sore Back Men that are soaked in Pleasures are incompetent Judges of the sweetness of the Heavenly Life On the other side What a miserable Servitude is there in Sin how disabled for their great End for which
it is exercised about noble Objects the Favour of God Reconciliation with him and the Hope of Eternal Life all these as belonging to us and it is excited by an higher Cause the Spirit of God and lastly it giveth us a sense of what we had but a guess before We know the grace of God in truth Col. 1. 6. we know it so as to taste of it 3. The fundamental or bottom Cause of this Delight is exprest which I have loved There is a precedent Love of the Object before there can be any Delight in it Love is the Complacency and Propension of the Soul toward that which is good absolutely considered abstracting both from Presence and Absence Desire regardeth the Absence and Futurition of a Good Delight the Presence and Fruition of it It is impossible any thing can be delighted in but it must be first loved and desired None can truly delight in Obedience but such as desire it By nature we were otherwise affected counted his Commands burdensom because contrary to the desires of the Flesh Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be But when the Heart is renewed by Grace then we have another Love and another Bias upon our Affections 1 Iohn 5. 3. This is love to keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous To others they are against the bent and the hair and too tedious but Love maketh way for Delight II. Reasons why a gracious Heart doth love and delight in the Commandments of God 1. The Matter of these Commandments sheweth how much they deserve our love and delight The Matter respects either Law or Gospel 1. That which is strictly called the Moral Law is the Decalogue a fit Rule for a Wise God to give or a Rational Creature to receive a just and due Admeasurement of our Duty to God and Man The World cannot be without it To God that we should love him serve him depend upon him delight in him that we may be at length happy in his Love The Law is holy just and good not burdensom to the Reasonable Nature but perfective Surely to know God to love him and fear him and trust and repose our Souls on him and to worship him at the time in the way and manner appointed is a delightful thing and should be more delightful to us than our necessary and appointed Food To Man Justice Charity Micah 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy Hos. 12. 6. Keep mercy and judgment Now all kind of Justice should not be grievous either Political Justice between the Magistrates and People How should we live else This maintaineth the Order of the World Private Justice between Man and Man Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them Family-Justice between Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants how else can a Man have any tolerable degree of safety and comfort 1 Pet. 3. 7. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge Then for Mercy there is not a pleasanter Work in the World than to do good it is God-like A Man is as an earthly God to comfort and supply others Acts 20. 35. It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive And Blessedness is not tedious the Work rewards it self The satisfaction is so great of doing good and being helpful to others that certainly this is not tedious 2. The Gospel it offereth such a sutable Remedy to Mankind that the Duties of it should be as pleasant and welcom to us as the Counsel of a Friend for our recovery out of a great Misery into which we had plunged our selves In the Law God acteth more as a Commander and Governour in the Gospel as a Friend and Counsellor Surely to those that have any feeling of their Sins or fears of the Wrath of God what can be more welcom than the way of a Pardon and Reconciliation with God whom his Word and Providence and the fears of a guilty Conscience represent as an Enemy to us Surely this should be more pleasant than all the Lust Sport and Honours and Pleasures of the World Here is the Foundation laid of Everlasting Joy a sufficient answer to the Terrors of the Law and the Accusations of a guilty Conscience which is the greatest Misery can befal Mankind In short That the Matter of God's Commands deserves our Delight and Esteem is evident 1. Because those that are unwilling to submit to them count them good and acceptable Laws When their particular Practice and sinful Customs have made them incompetent Judges of what is fittest for themselves in their health and strength yet their Conscience judgeth it a more excellent and honourable thing in others if they can deny the Pleasures of the Flesh and overcome the Temptations of the World and deny themselves the Comforts of the present Life out of the hopes of that which is to come Such are accounted a more excellent and better sort of Men Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour He hath more of God and of a Man than others as he hath a freer use of Reason and a greater command of his own Lusts and Passions There is a Reverence of such darted into the Consciences of wicked Men Mark 6. 20. Herod feared Iohn knowing that he was a just and holy man and observed him 2. Because of the Sentiments which Men have of a holy sober godly Life when they come to die and the disallowance of a dissolute carnal Life Iob 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Psal. 37. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace When Men are entring upon the Confines of Eternity they are wiser the fumes of Lust are then blown over their Joys or Fears are then Testimonies to God's Law 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law It is not from the Fancy or Melancholy of the dying Person nor his Distemper that his Fears are awakened but his Reason If it did onely proceed from his Distemper Men would be rather troubled for leaving Worldly Comforts than for Sin No it is the apprehension of God's Justice by reason of Sin who will proceed according to his Law which the guilty Person hath so often and so much violated and broken They are not the ravings of a Fever nor the fruits of natural Weakness and Credulity no these Troubles are justified by the Law of God or the highest Reason 3. By supposing the contrary of all which God hath commanded concerning the embracing of Vertue shunning of Vice If God should free us from these Laws leave us to our own choice
sheweth that we are all Strangers here for if here we do not live for ever and yet we have Souls that will live for ever there must be some other place to which we are tending The Body is dust in its Composition and Resolution Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Body return to the Earth as it was Nature may teach us so much but Faith that assureth us of the Resurrection of the Dead doth more bind this Consideration upon us We are Mortal and all things about us are liable to their Mortality and therefore here we must be still passing to another Place 2. Here we have no Rest Micah 2. 10. Arise and depart hence for this is not your Rest that is hereafter Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth therefore a Rest for the People of God Our Home we count the place of our Repose Now there is no Rest and Content in this World which is a place of Vanity Misery and Discomfort Yea to the Children of God there are stronger Motives than Crosses to drive them from the World daily Temptations and our often falling by them Crosses are grievous to all but Sin is more grievous to the Godly and nothing makes them more weary of the World then the constant indwelling and frequent outbreaking of Corruption and Sin Rom. 7. 24. Oh miserable Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death The Apostle was exercised with many Crosses but this doth make him complain in the bitterness of his Soul not of his Misery but of his Corruption which he found continually rebelling against God Many complain of their Crosses that complain not of Sin to loath the World for Crosses alone is neither the Mark nor Work of Grace a Beast can forsake the place where he findeth neither Meat nor Rest but because we are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God this is the trouble of the Saints 3. They believe and look for a better Estate after this life is over 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens No Man can be a right Sojourner on Earth who doth not look for an abode in Heaven for that which doth most effectually draw off the heart of Man from this World is the Expectation of a far better State in the World to come 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heathens could call the World an Inn but they had onely glimmering Conceptions of another World A Christian that believeth it and looketh for it on God's Assurance he is onely the joyfull Stranger and the Pilgrim Common Sense will teach us the necessity of leaving this World but Faith can onely assure us of another they are Believers and Expectants of Heaven 4. They do not onely look for it but seek after it We reade of both looking and seeking Heb. 11. 14. They declare plainly that they seek a Country Heb. 13. 14. Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come Seeking implyeth Diligence in the Use of Means all the Life of a Christian is nothing but the seeking after another Country every day advancing a step nearer to Heaven and therefore their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Conversation is said to be in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. This is their great business upon Earth to doe all to eternal Ends all other Works and Labours are but upon the bie and subordinate to this Their main care is to obtain this blessed Condition therefore they use Word Sacraments that they may grow in Grace Faith Repentance New obedience Every degree in Grace is another step towards Heaven Psal. 84. 4. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose hearts are the ways of them vers 6. They goe from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth before God Some of the Sains are in Patria others in Via still bending homeward 5. Because they are so the Children of God are dealt with as Strangers Difference of scope and drift will procure alienation of Affection 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of Riot speaking evil of you And Iohn 15. 19. If ye were of the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Other cannot be expected but that the Servants of the Lord should be ill-rewarded and treated here not onely out of the Worlds Ignorance they know not our birth breeding expectations hope 1 Iohn 3. 2. Beloved now are we the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is but Enmity as the different Carriage of the one puts a disgrace upon the course of Life which the other do affect the one fixeth their home here the other looketh for it elsewhere and the World is sensible this is an Excellency and therefore those that are at the bottom of the Hill envy and malign those that are a-top Use. Are we thus minded There are two sorts of men in the World the one is of the Devil and the other is of God for all men seek their Rest and Happiness on Earth or Rest in Heaven Naturally Men were all of the first Number for the Rational Soul without Grace accommodateth it self to the Interests of the Body but when sublimated and transformed by Grace the World cannot satisfy it and it can find nothing there which may finally quiet its desires for the new Life infused hath other aimes and tendencies As Saints are new born from Heaven so for Heaven and therefore the new Nature cannot satisfy it self in the injoyment of the Creature with the absence of God The Apostle saith while at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6 7. In this Life we are not capable of the glorious Presence of God it is not consistent with our Mortality And our being present with him in the Spirit is but a Tast that doth provoke rather then cloy the Appetite Rom. 8. 23. Our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body These Tasts do but make us long for more they are sent down from Heaven to draw us up to that place of our Rest where this Glory and Blessedness is in fullness Now which sort are you of the City of God or under the Dominion of Sathan and the power of worldly Lusts 1. There are some that take up here and never consider whence they are nor whither they are
now white when stamped with the printing Irons hath a Story written upon it in legible Characters 6. How much it concerneth you to come out of this Condition speedily for God is not a God to be neglected or dallied with When he calls in the seasons of Grace he will be observed otherwise you may call and he will have no regard They shall call and I will not answer they shall seek me early but not find me Prov. 1. 28. When you receive many checks of Conscience intreaties of Grace motions of the Spirit in vain God will be gone God doth commonly give Men a Day and no Man or Angel knoweth how long this Day shall last God gave Cain a day if thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted if thou dost ill Sin lieth at the door Oh then when you begin to have thoughts of turning unto God let them not be quelled God reckoneth every hour these three Years this second Epistle this second Miracle and when his Patience will expire you cannot tell 7. How happy it will be for you when once you change your Course The Prodigal remembred the plenty in his Fathers House you will find a manifest difference Rom. 6. 21 22. What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is Death But now being made free from Sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life In the way no such gripes of Conscience no shame sorrow fears in the end everlasting Life It was your mistaking that called the days of Sin good days Oh but when fruitfull in Holiness you will have present Comfort and serenity of Mind a tast of the clusters of Canaan in the Wilderness hope of a glorious State and the best will be at last Compare Pain with Pain Pleasure with Pleasure We do not compare right the pains of Godliness with pleasures of Sin and yet there you may see the discharging of our Duty will yield more true Comfort and Peace than all the Pleasures of Sin can bring us 8. What Hopes by Christ Heb. 3. 1. Wherefore holy Brethren partakers of the heavenly Calling consider the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Iesus Christ what Provision God hath made Thirdly Let me argue the Necessity of this Consideration 1. Otherwise Men are rash careless and precipitant and act as they are carried on by their own Lusts whereas if they did consider it would stop them in the course of Sin they rush like an horse into the Battle because no man saith what have I done Jer. 8. 6. Men run on like a head-strong Horse after their Lusts and Fancies whereas if they do seriously bethink themselves and cast in a few grave thoughts about things to come it would be like the putting in of cold water into a boiling Pot abate the fervour of their Lusts. Men are wicked because they are Inconsiderate there are Arguments enough against Sin if they would but pause and weigh them seriously but we do not think of Heaven and Hell and therefore they do not work upon us Eccles. 11. 9. Remember that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment 2. This serious Consideration is a good means to awaken us from the sleep of security when we consider the end why we were made the Rule we are to walk by and pose our selves about Conformity or Inconformity to this Rule and do withall revolve the issues of things in our Minds it cannot but rouse us up out of our sloath and stupidness and make us act more vigorously and regularly as to the ends of our Creation Oh what shall I doe the first Grace is Awakening that maketh way for other Graces Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light Whereas otherwise when we consider not we are stupid and sottish Isa. 44. 19. None considereth in his heart is there not a lye in my right hand I have burnt part in the fire Eccles. 5. 1. They offer the Sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they have done evil they do not weigh their Actions The Reason why they goe wrong and continue wrong is they do not seriously ponder and debate with themselves what it will come to 3. By Consideration we come to find where the Work of God sticketh with us and so Conviction being the more particular worketh the more kindly A blunt Iron that toucheth many points doth not so soon go to the quick as a Needle that toucheth but one point Mal. 3. 17. Return and they said wherein shall we return we do not see the need of Repentance so much as by prying narrowly into our own Ways In short without this Life is not so regular the Heart is not overpowred with such strong and full Reason to comply with God's Counsel II. How much it concerneth us after we have considered our Ways to turn to the Lord and diligently to pursue the Course which he hath prescribed I turned my feet unto thy Testimonies a sound Conversion is here described 1. I turned in the thorough purpose of his Heart that is the Act on our part It is by God's Grace that we are turned but we turne our selves when the purpose of our Souls is fixed Turne me and I shall be turned God inclineth the Heart and we manifest it by binding our selves by a thorough purpose A wish an offer when it endeth onely in that we have not considered enough but when the Heart is bent I am turned The Prodigal when he took up came to himself and had reasoned the case says I will goe to my Father Luke 15. 18. it must be such a purpose as is diligently pursued 2. The Object or Rule my feet unto thy Testimonies By his Feet is meant the course of his Life Our Will and natural Inclination should be no Rule to us but God's Testimonies We must intirely give up our selves to the direction of his Word As many as walk according to this Rule Gal. 1. 16. we are not to walk as we list There is a fixt determinate Rule which must be kept with all accurateness and attention a Godly man is very tender of breaking this Rule he makes Conscience of keeping to this Rule Now it concerneth us to make sure work of it 1. Because Convictions lost occasion the greater hardness of Heart No Iron so hard as that which has been often heated and oft quenched and no Heart so bad as theirs that seemed to have some serious and anxious thoughts about their eternal Condition The Devil is the more busy and watchfull about them because of their offer to escape and God is the more provoked because they started aside when they were at the point of yielding As better a Match were never proposed then to break off just as it is ready to be concluded Always according to the closeness of the Application if it succeed
weighty matter of Life and Death Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your Hearts and be still this is the way to check sin and to come on most hopefully in a course of Obedience 3. Drive your thoughts to a Resolution to rectify whatever is amiss never leave thinking of your ways till you grow anxious about Eternal Life nor let your anxiousness cease till you bring it to somewhat grow to some resolution about the wayes of God Pray God to make your Consideration effectual 2 Tim. 2. 4. Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things this is but the means God giveth the Grace SERMON LXVII PSAL. CXIX 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments IN the Verse immediately preceeding the Man of God speaks of Repentance as the Fruit of consideration and self-examining I considered my wayes and then turned my Feet to thy Testimonies But when did he turn for though we see the evil of our wayes we are naturally slow to get it redressed Therefore David did not onely turn to God but he did it speedily we have an account of that in this Verse I made haste c. this readiness in the work of Obedience is doubly exprest Affirmatively and Negatively Affirmatively I made haste Negatively I delayed not This double Expression increaseth the sence according to the manner of the Hebrews as Psal. 118. 17. I shall not die but live that is surely live so here I made haste and delaied not that is I verily delaied not a moment assoon as he had thought of his wayes and taken up resolutions of walking closely with God he did put it into Practice The Septuagint read the words thus I was ready and was not troubled or diverted by fear of danger Indeed besides our natural slowness to Good this is one usual ground of delaies we distract our selves with fears and when God hath made known his Will to us in many Duties we think of tarrying till the times are more quiet and favour our Practice and our Affairs are in a better posture A good improvement may be made of that translation But the words run better as they run more generally with us I made haste and delaied not c. and from thence observe Doct. That the call of God whether to amendment and newness of Life or to any particular Duty must be without delay obeyed To illustrate the point by these Reasons Reason 1. Ready Obedience is a good Evidence of a sound impression of Grace left upon our Hearts There 's a slighter conviction which breedeth a sense of Duty but doth not urge us throughly to the performance of it and so men stand reasoning instead of running debating the case with God and there 's a more sound conviction which is accompanied with a prevailing Efficacy and when we have this upon our Spirits then all excuses and delaies are laid aside and we come off readily and kindly in the way of complyance with Gods call This is Doctrinally spoken of Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee Running is an earnest and speedy motion from whence comes it From drawing it is a Fruit of drawing or the sweet and powerfull attraction which the Spirit of God useth in the Hearts of the Elect. Instances I might give you in several calls and conversions spoken of in Scripture When Christ called Andrew and Peter they left their Father and followed after him Mark 1. 20. So when Christ called Zaccheus he made haste and came down from the Tree and received him joyfully Luke 19. 6. So Christ to Matthew follow me and straightway he followed him Matth. 9. 9. Iulian the Apostate scoffs at these passages as if it were irrational to conceive such a thing could be that men should so soon leave their course of gain and their calling or else that Christs followers were a kind of sotts and fools weak and poor spirited Creatures that upon a word speaking they would come off presently all of a suddain but impulsions of the Spirit carry their own reason with them and draw the Heart without any more adoe But such as he were not acquainted with the workings of the Holy ghost in Conversion therefore scoff at these things So Gal. 1. 16. Immediately I conferred not with Flesh and Blood When our call is clear there needs no debate When Men stand reasoning instead of running there is not a through work upon them Reason 2. The sooner we turn to the wayes of God the better we speed How So 1. Partly in this that the Work goes on the more kindly as being carried forth in the strength of the present influence and impulsion of Grace whereas if the heart grow cold again it will be the more difficult A blow while the Iron is hot doth more than ten at another time when it grows cold again so when thy Heart grows cold thou wilt not have that advantage as when thou art under a warm conviction And indeed that 's the Devils cheat to speak of hereafter to elude the importunity of the present conviction that is upon you Iohn 5. 4. You know when the waters were stirred then was the time to put in he that stept in first had experience of the Sanative vertue of the Waters So when the Heart is stirred we should not lose this advantage but come on upon that call There are several Metaphors in Scripture that do express this sometimes we must open when God knocks Cant. 5. we must enter when God opens lest the door be shut against us Matth. 25. we must come forth when he bids us as Lot out of Sodom lest we perish when a thing is done speedily and in season it 's a great advantage 2. The more welcome to God the sooner we turn to him We value a gift not onely by its own worth but by the readiness of him that gives if we have it at first asking we count it a greater kindness and give the more thanks so the less we stand hucking with God and demurring upon his call the more acceptable is our Obedience Pharaoh did at length let Israel goe but was forced to it and with much adoe no thanks to him It is true indeed if we turn at length seriously heartily we are accepted with God but not so accepted as when we come in at first Surely the sewer calls we withstand the less we provoke God and the more ready entertainment do we finde The Spouse that would not open at the first knock but onely at length when her bowels were troubled when she thought of her unkindness then she went out to open to her Beloved but then her Beloved was gone You will not finde God at your beck when you dally with him Your Comforts will cost you longer waiting for when you make God wait for entrance and would not give way to the work of his Grace 3. You speed better because your personal benefit is the greater the sooner you
guiding of our hearts and ways 2. It is such a part as hath a necessary connexion with the Promises as without which they can doe us no good therefore if we mean to be happy we must regard both the one is as necessary and fundamental to our happiness as the other Our consent to God's Covenant is required not as if we were to debate and alter the terms at our pleasure but that we may take it as God hath stated it and bind our Duty upon us by our consent to God's Authority We cannot prescribe Conditions and Laws of commerce between God and us but onely God alone Man did not give the Conditions or treat about the making of them what they should be but is onely bound to submit to what God was pleased to offer and prescribe We are not left free to model and bring down the terms to our own liking to take hold of them nor to appoint them Isa. 56. 4. For thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and doe the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant for though he condescendeth to treat with us yet still he keepeth the place of a Sovereign and therefore if we believe Promises and do not believe God's Commandments it is not God's Covenant but one of our own devising When we take and leave and part and mingle and chop and change at our own pleasures The Covenant requireth a total universal unlimited Resignation of our selves to the Will of God I will be your God you shall be my People 3. The Gratitude that resulteth necessarily from Faith or believing the Promises will put us upon this it apprehendeth Love and leaveth the stamp of it upon the Soul and worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. Now how are we to express our Love to God not in a fellow-like familiarity but dutifull subjection to his Laws 1 Iohn 5. 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous And Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me nor my glavering respects or a fond remembrance and esteem of his Memory Matth. 7. 11. If we live to God not to the World not to the Flesh if Faith be lively it will put us upon this 2 Cor. 5. 15. And that he died for all that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 4. Our Trust in the Promises is always commensurable to our Fidelity in the Commandments Faith in the one is maintained by Faithfulness in the other and assurance of acceptance with God cannot be greater than our care of Obedience When love to the World and the Flesh tempt us to omit any part of our Duty then do we weaken our Confidence thereby and Sin will breed distrust if we be serious and mind our Condition The fruit of Righteousness is Peace 1 John 3. 21. Beloved If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And Heb. 7. 2. Being by interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace and Christ saith Matth. 11. 29. Take my Toke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls Confidence and Comfort follow Grace as heat doth fire and Fears and Doubts follow Sin as Pain doth the pricking of a Needle or any sharp thing wherewith a man pierceth himself therefore when sensual Objects oversway us and take us off from obedience to the Command they will also make us doubt of the Mercy of God as well as transgress our Duty We cannot trust him when we have offended freely and without restâ—…int Sin will breed Shame and Fear At present all Sinners feel it not yet hereafter that Sin that now weakneth the Faith we have in the Commandments will in time weaken the Faith we have in the Promises Every part of our Trust in God's declared Will cometh to be tryed one time or another our confidence in God's Mercy is not fully and directly assaulted till the hour of death and the time of extraordinary trial when the evil day cometh then the consciousness of any one Sin whereunto we have been indulgent and of the delight and pleasure we took in transgressing God's Commandments will be of force to withdraw our assents from God's Mercies 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law 5. Faith in the Promises if it be not a conceit and a vain dream it is not onely an act enforced by our necessity but done in obedience to God's Will therefore we believe because God hath commanded it 1 Iohn 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Iesus Christ. John 6. 29. This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent It appeareth sensibly many times a poor Soul hath no other Motive nor Incouragement it ventureth notwithstanding all discouragements to the contrary in the strength and sense of a Command as Peter Luke 5. 5. Master we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the Net Now that which is done if rightly done merely in obedience to a Command cannot be the ground of disobedience in other things We must not pick and choose certainly if we believe the Promises on God's Command we will make Conscience of other things commanded also for he is truly obedient to no Precept that doth not obey all inforced by the same Authority III. The Utility 1. That we may begin with God to yield up our Wills absolutely to his Will it is upon a belief that this is his Will concerning us for his Will concerning our Duty is revealed in his Precepts He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6. 8. Certainly an obedient Creature desireth to know no more but what God will have him to doe and therefore it is needfull we should believe what is God's Will that we may resolve upon his Will Rom. 12. 1 2. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service And be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God The first thing that we doe in Grace is to arm our selves with a resolution to obey God's Will though it be never so contrary to our own or to the wills of Men or the course of the Worlds Fashions 1 Pet. 4. 1 2. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the
unable to keep out of errour and having erred unable to return This is the Emblem by which the Holy Ghost would set forth the nature of Mankind But is it better with us after Grace received no we are in part so still The best of us if left to our selves how soon are we out of the right way into what sad errours do we run our selves Psalm 19. 12. Who can understand his errours cleanse thou me from secret sins Since Grace we all have our deviations though our hearts be set to walk with God for the main yet ever and anon we are swerving from our Rule transgressing our Bounds and neglecting our Duty Good David had cause to say Psalm 119. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep Oh seek thy Servant We goe astray not onely out of Ignorance but out of perverseness of Inclination Ier. 14. 10. Thus have they loved to wander they have not restrained their feet We have hearts that love to wander we love shift and change though it be for the worse and so will be making excursions into the ways of Sin 2. This straying humour is much increased and incouraged by Prosperity which though it be good in its self yet so perverse are we by nature that we are the worse for it That the wicked are the worse for it is clear Isa. 26. 10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked yet will they not learn righteousness The Sun-shine upon the dunghill will produce nothing but stinks and the salt Sea will turn all that falleth into it into salt water the sweet dews of Heaven and the tribute of the rivers all becometh salt when it falleth into the Sea So wicked men convert all into their humour Neither God's Mercies nor Judgements will have any gracious and kindly work upon them But if it be well with them they take the more liberty to live loosely and prophanely the Fear of God which is the great hold-back from all wickedness is lessened and quite lost in them when they see no change Psalm 55. 19. Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God That little slavish fear which they have which should keep them back from wandring is then lost and the more gently God dealeth with them the more Godless and secure they are When they goe on prosperously and undisturbedly the more obdurate ever But is it not so with the People of God also Yes verily David whose heart smote him when he cut off the lap of Sauls garment when he was wandring in the wilderness could plott the death of Uriah his faithfull servant when he was at ease in his Palace We lose much tenderness of Conscience watchfulness against sin much of that lively diligence that we should otherwise shew forth in carrying on the spiritual life when we are at ease and all things go well with us We are apt to indulge the Flesh when we have so many baits to feed it and to learn how to abound is a harder lesson of the two than to learn how to be abased Phil. 4. 12. And therefore did not God correct us we should grow careless and negligent The beginning of all obedience is the mortification of the flesh which naturally we cannot endure After we have submitted and subjected our selves to God the Flesh will be seeking its prey and be rebelling and waxing wanton against the Spirit till God snatch its allurements from us Therefore the Lord by divers afflictions is fain to break us and bring us into order We force him to humble us by Poverty or Disgrace or Diseases or by domestical crosses or some incoveniency of the naturall and animall life which we value too much Besides our affections to heavenly things languish when all things succeed with us in this world acccording to hearts desire and this coldness and remisness is not easily shaken off Many are like the children of Reuben and Gad Numb 32. who when they found convenient pastures on this side Iordan were content with it for their portion without seeking ought in the land of Promise So their desires insensibly settle here and have less respect to the good of the world to come 3. When it is thus with us God seeth fit to send Afflictions Much of the wisdome of God's Providence is to be observed Partly in the season of Affliction in what state and posture of Soul it surprizeth us when we are wandring when we most need it when our abuse of Prosperity calleth aloud for it when the sheep wander the Dog is let loose to fetch them in again God suiteth his Providence to our necessities 1 Pet. 1. 6. For a Season ye are in heaviness if need be Alas we often see that afflictions are highly necessary and seasonable either to prevent a distemper that is growing upon us or to reclaim us from some evil course in which we have wandred from God Paul was in danger to be lifted up and then God sendeth a thorn in the flesh This discipline is very proper and necessary before the disease run on too far Partly in the kind of Affliction all Physick doth not work upon the same humour divers lusts must have divers remedies Pride Envy Covetousness Wantonness Emulation have all their proper cures All sins are referred to three impure Fountains 1 Iohn 2. 16. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the Pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world From the lusts of the flesh do arise not onely the gross acts of Wantonness Fornication Adultery Gluttony Drunkenness which the more brutish and base part of mankind are taken with but an inordinate love of pleasures vain company and vain delights carnall complacency or flesh pleasing wherewith the refined part of the world are too often captivated and bewitched The lust of the Eyes Covetousness and worldly mindedness produce wretchedness Rapines Contentions Strife or that immoderate desire of having or joyning house to house field to field and building up our selves one story higher in the world from Pride of life cometh Ambition lofty conceit of our selves scorn and contempt of others affectation of credit and repute in the world pomp of having multitude of Servants or greatness of train fineness of apparell and innumerable vanities Now God that he may meet with his servants when they are tripping in any kind he sendeth our Afflictions as his faithfull messengers to stop them in their Careere that the flesh may not sail and carry it away with a full and clear gale Against the lusts of the flesh he sendeth sicknesses and diseases against the lusts of the Eyes Poverty and disappointments in our Relations against Pride Disgraces and shame and sometimes he varyeth the dispensation for his Providence doth not keep one tenour and every cure will not fit every humour All will not work alike upon all he sendeth that Affliction which is sure to work he knoweth how to strike in the
carowsing dancing all the warnings of Parents the good counsel of Tutors and Governours the grave exhortations of Ministers and Preachers will do no good upon them they are alwayes wandring up and down from God and from themselves cannot endure a thought of God of Death of Heaven of Hell of Judgment to come but when God casts them once into some grievous disease or some great trouble they begin to come to themselves and then they that would hear nothing understand nothing despised all grave and gracious counsel given as if it did not belong to them scoffed at admonitions thought the day lost in which they had not acted some sin or other when the Cross preacheth and some grievous calamity is upon them then Conscience beginneth to work and this bringeth to remembrance all that they have heard before then they come to themselves and would fain if they could come to Christ. Sharp Affliction is a sound powerfull rouzing teacher Iob 36. 8 9. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded Grace worketh in a powerfull but yet in a morall way congruously but forcibly and by a fit accommodation of Circumstances One place more Ier. 31. 18. Truly I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Affliction awakeneth serious Reflections upon our wayes therefore take heed what ye doe with the Convictions that arise upon Afflictions to slight them is dangerous Nothing breedeth hardness of heart so much as the smothering of convictions Iron often heated grows the harder On the other side see they do not degenerate into despair either the raging despair which terrifieth or the sottish despair which stupifieth Ier. 18. 12. They said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one doe the Imagination of his evil heart The middle between both is an holy sensibleness of our condition which is a good preparation for the great duties of the Gospel The work of Conversion is at first difficult and troublesome but pass over this brunt and all things will be sweet and easie the bullock at first yoaking is most unruly and fire at the first kindling casts forth most smoak so when sin is revived it brings forth death Rom. 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died But yet cherish the work till God speak peace upon sound terms 2. It is a great help to those that are converted already How many are reduced to a more serious lively practice of Godliness by their troubles We are rash inconsiderate unattentive to our duty but the rod maketh us cautious and diligent We follow the world not the word of God the vanities thereof take us off from minding the Promises or Precepts of the word till the affliction cometh In short there is none of us so tamed and subdued to God but that we need to be tamed more We are all for carnal liberty there is a wantonness in us We are high minded earthly minded till God come with his scourge to reclaim us he chasteneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. Some lust still needeth mortifying or some Grace needeth exercising Our Pride needs to be mortified or our affections to be weaned from the world The Almond Tree is made more fruitfull by driving nails into it because that letteth out a noxious gumm that hindereth its fruitfulness So when God would have you thrive more he makes you feel the sharpness of affliction You have heard Plutarch's story of Iason of Choerea that had his Imposthume let out by a casual wound There is some corruption God would let out We are apt to set up our rest here and therefore we need to be disturbed to have the world crucified to us Gal. 6. 14. that the cumber of the world may drive us to seek for rest where it is only to be found and to humble us by outward defects that we may look after inward abundance that by being poor in this world we may be rich in Faith Iames 2. 5. and having nothing in the Creature we may possess all things in God 2 Cor. 6. 10. and be inlarged inwardly as we are straitened outwardly In short that we may be oftner with God God sent a tempest after Ionah Absalom set Ioab's barley-field on fire and then he came to him 2 Sam. 14. 30. Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Hosea 5. 15. In their affliction they will seek me early It were endless to run out in discourses of this nature 5. The Affliction of its self doth not work thus but as sanctified and accompanied with the Spirit of God If the Affliction of its self and by its self would doe it it would doe so alwayes but that we see by experience it doth not in its self It is an evil and a pain that is the consequent and the fruit of Sin and so breedeth Impatience Despair Murmuring and Blasphemy against God as it is a legal curse other fruit cannot be expected of it but reviving terrours of heart and repinings against the Sovereignty of God We see often the same Affliction that maketh one humble maketh another raging the same Poverty that maketh one full of dependance upon God maketh another full of shifts and evil Courses whereby to supply his want No it is understood of sanctified Crosses when Grace goeth along with them to bless them to us Ier. 31. 19. Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth After God had wrought a gracious change in him by his afflicting hand and Spirit working together So Psalm 94. 12. Blessed is he whom thou chastenest and instructest out of thy Law The Rod must be expounded by the Word and both must be effectually applied by the Spirit Grace is God's immediate Creature and Production he useth subservient means and helps sometimes the Word sometimes the Rod sometimes both but neither doth any thing without his Spirit 6. This Benefit though gotten by sharp Afflictions should be owned and thankfully acknowledged as a great testimony and expression of God's Love to us So doth David to the praise of God It is a branch that belongeth to the Thanksgiving mentioned v. 65. Thou hast done well with thy Servant according to thy Word The first of this octonary We are prejudiced against the Cross out of a Self-love a mistaken Self-love we love our selves more than we love God and the ease of the Body more than the welfare of the Soul and
out into leaves the baits of the Flesh must be taken from us that our gust and rellish of heavenly Things may be recovered The Use is to caution us against our Murmurings and taxing of God's Providence How few are there that give him thanks for his seasonable Discipline and observe God's Faithfulness and the Benefit they have by Afflictions but rather murmur repine and fret through Impatience If it be good to be afflicted let us accept of it for Good is matter of choice Levit. 26. 41. If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their Iniquity Now all Affliction on this side Hell is good as 't is a lesser evil hic ure hic seca if God will cut here burn here lance here as a Chirurgion that we may not be destroyed for ever corrected that we may not be condemned 1 Cor. 11. 32. 'T is good as it is a means to Good for the end putteth a loveliness also upon the means though things in themselves be harsh and sowre We must not consider what things are in themselves but what they are in their reduction tendency and final use so all things are yours Crosses Deaths 1 Cor. 3. 18. all their Crosses yea sometimes their Sins and Snares by God's overruling We lose the benefit of our Affliction by our Murmurings Repinings Faintings carnal Sorrows and Fears an impatient distrustfull Mind spoileth the working of God Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience 'T is not the bare Affliction worketh but the Affliction meekly born Let us not misconstrue God's present way of dealing with us there may be a seeming harshness in some of his dealings but yet all things considered you will find them full of Mercy and Truth Murmuring is a disorder in the Affections misinterpreting in the Understanding to prevent it 1. Consider you must not interpret the Covenant by God's Providence but God's Providence by his Covenant Certain it is that all New Covenant-dispensations be Mercy and Truth Psalm 25. 10. our Crosses not excepted by them God is pursuing his Covenant and eternal Purpose concerning our Salvation There is sometimes a seeming Contradiction between his Promises and his Providences Word and Works his Voice is sweet like Iacob's but his Hands rough like Esau's Goe into the Sanctuary and God will help you to reconcile things Psalm 73. 16 17. otherwise the difficulty will be too hard for you The Children of God that have suspected or displeased him have always found themselves in an Errour Isa. 49. 14 15. His Promise is the light side his Providence is the dark side of the Cloud Psalm 77. 19. Thy way is in the Sea and thy path in the deep waters and thy footsteps are not known We cannot trace him nor find out the reason of every thing which God doth onely in the general That he doth all things well Mark 7. 37. nay what is best 2. We must distinguish between a part of God's Work and the end of it We cannot understand God's Providence till he hath done his Work he is an impatient Spectatour that cannot tarry till the last Act wherein all Errours are reconciled Iohn 13. 7. What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know No wonder if we are much in the dark if we look onely to present sense and present appearance then his Purposes are hidden from us he bringeth one contrary out of another Light out of Darkness Meat out of the Eater God knoweth what he is a doing with you when you know not Ier. 29. 11. I know my thoughts to give you an expected end When we view Providences by pieces we know not God's mind for the present we see him it may be rending and tearing all things therefore let us not judge of God's Work by the beginnings till all work together Our present State may be very sad and uncomfortable and yet God is designing the choisest Mercies to us Psalm 31. 22. I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my Supplications when I cried unto thee Psalm 116. 11. I said in my hast all men are liars Hast never speaketh well of God nor his Promises nor maketh any good Comment upon his Dealings 3. We must distinguish between that which is really best for us and what we judge best for us Deuter. 8. 15 16. Who led thee through that great and terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and Drought where there was no water who brought thee out water out of the Rock of Flint Who fed thee in the Wilderness with Manna which thy Fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to doe thee good at the latter end Other Diet is more wholsome for our Souls than that which our sick Appetite craveth 'T is best with us many times when we are weakest 2 Cor. 12. 10. When I am weak then am I strong Worst when strongest 2 Cor. 26. 16. When he was strong his heart was lifted up to his own destruction Lot chose Sodom a fair and pleasant Situation but you know what inconveniencies he met with there Many times the Buffettings of Satan are better for us than a Condition free from Temptations so is Poverty Emptiness better than Fulness loss of Friends than the injoyment of them Use 2. Is of Information 1. By what note we may know whether God chastens us in anger yea or no whether our Crosses be Curses The Cross that maketh thee better cometh with a Blessing 't is not the sharpness of the Affliction we should look to but the improvement of it the bitter Waters may be made sweet by experiences of Grace if we are made more godly wise religious 't is a good Cross but if it leave us as careless and stupid or no better than we were before that Cross is but a preparation to another if it hath onely stirred up our Impatience done us no good God will follow his stroak and heat his Furnace hotter 2. It informeth us that 't is our Duty not onely to be good in Afflictions but we must be good after Afflictions David when escaped saith 'T is good for me that I have been afflicted Wicked men are somewhat good in Afflictions but assoon as they are delivered they return to their old Sins As Mettals are melted while they are in the Furnace but when they are taken out they return to their natural hardness but the godly are better afterwards 3. That every Condition is as the Heart is Afflictions are good if we have the grace to make a good use of them Look as the good Blessings of God by our Corruption are abused to wantonness and so made hurtfull to us so Crosses that are evil in themselves when sanctified are good All things are sanctified to us when we are sanctified to God Other things that would be Snares prove Helps and Incouragements are great Furtherances the Creature is
beast maketh its moan when 't is in pain But much more will his compassion shew it self to his people when they bemoan themselves in a spiritual manner Ier. 31. 18. 20. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself what then My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. When Ephraim was bewailing his sins God taketh notice of it and returneth an answer full of fatherly affection that he would surely shew him mercy Gods compassion proceedeth from Love as the cause and produceth Relief as the effect Secondly The next word is Kindness that noteth the bounty of God or his free inclination to doe good without our merit and against our merit The cause is not in us but himself We draw an ill picture of God in our mind as always angry and ready to destroy No! The Lord is kind and that many times to the unthankfull and to the evil Luke 6. 35. We should all inlarge our thoughts more about Gods mercifull Nature that we may love him more that we may not keep off from him As long as we think he delighteth in the Creatures misery or seeketh occasions of man's ruine and destruction God is made hatefull No! You must conceive of him as one that is kind that doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of men Lam. 3. 33. but is ready to doe good upon all occasions We need not fear any hurt from God but what we willingly bring upon our selves He destroyeth not humble Souls that lie at his feet and would have mercy upon his own terms Secondly What incouragement this is to the people of God 1. 'T is an incouragement because the object of mercy is misery Mercy is favour shewed to a miserable person Now the more sense of our misery especially of our true misery which is sin the greater hopes So that the broken-hearted are more capable of his mercy than others are God will revive the spirit of the contrite ones â—…sa 57. 15 16 17. He taketh care to comfort them and to look after them what ever be neglected Isa. 60. 2. None are so apt to presume of mercy as the careless nor none less capable of mercy or more deserve judgment While we make nothing of sin 't is easy to believe mercy In a time of peace sin is nothing Vanity and Carnality nothing a negligent course of profession nothing vain talk idle mispence of time pleasing the Flesh with all it craveth is nothing and there needeth no such niceness and strictness God is mercifull but when the conscience is awakened and we see our actions with their due aggravations especially at the hour of death and when earthly comforts fail then 't is hard to believe Gods mercy Sin is a blacker thing than they did imagine and they find it another manner of thing than ever they thought of and the same unbelief that now weakens their faith about their Duty and what belongeth to their Duty doth now weaken their faith about their comfort and what belongeth to their comfort Those that now question precepts will then question promises Well then the careless and negligent are not capable objects of the tenders of mercy but the sensible and the contrite and the serious these are the fittest objects though they think themselves farthest off from mercy Those that have a deep sense of their own unworthiness most see a need of mercy and most admire mercy Gen. 32. 10. They see that mercy doth all that there is somewhat of the pity and kindness of God in all things vouchsafed They apprehend they are alwayes in some necessity or in some dependance and they are unworthy and that it is at Gods mercy to continue or take away any comfort they have Health Liberty Strength all is dipt in mercy continued in mercy restored at mercy Secondly It is an incouragement to us because the Scripture saith so much of this mercy in God Id agit tota Scriptura ut credamus in Deum saith Luther 't is natural to him 1 Cor. 1. 3. The father of mercies not Pater ultionum but misericordiarum he is as just as he is mercifull but he delighteth in the exercise of one attribute more than the other Micah 7. 18. The other his strange work There is a fulness and plenty abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1. 3. and Psal. 51. 1. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies Our wants are many and so are our sins onely plentifull mercy can supply and overcome them They are tender mercies compared with those of a Father and Mother Of a Father Psal. 103. 13. As a Father pitieth his Children so doth the Lord pity those that fear him We need not much intreat a Father to pity his Child in misery An earthly Father may be ignorant of our misery as Iacob in Iosephs case an earthly Father pitieth foolishly but God wisely when 't is most for our benefit An earthly Fathers pity may goe no farther than affection and cannot always help his Children and relieve their misery But God as he is Metaphorically said to have the affection so he hath an alsufficient power to remove any evil present or avert that which is imminent With that of a Mother Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee saith the Lord. In the general passions in Females are more vehement especially in humane Creatures the Mother expresseth the greatest tenderness and largeness of love God hath the Wisdome of a Father and Bowels of a Mother Mark 'T is not to an adopted Child but to her own Son her sucking Child that hangeth on her Breast cannot subsist without the Mothers care Mothers are wont to be most chary and tenderly affected towards them poor helpless Infants and Children that cannot shift for themselves Nature hath impressed this disposition on them Suppose some of them should be so unnaturall as to forget their sucking Babes which is a case rare to be found yet I will not forget you saith the Lord. They are durable compassions his compassions fail not Lam. 3. 22. They are continual mercies supplying daily wants pardoning daily failings bestowing daily mercies Oh that the miserable and the wretched those that find themselves so could believe this and plead this and cast themselves in the arms of this mercifull Father Surely the Penitent are not more ready to ask than he to give Therefore let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. Let not our Sins keep us from him our Misery rather than our Worthiness is an object of his mercy Thirdly His mercy is more to his People than to others There is a general mercy and a special mercy 1. There is a general mercy by which God sustaineth and helpeth any Creature that is in misery especially man so Christ calleth him mercifull as he sheweth himself kind to the unthankfull and evil
and Troubles but have much peace and quietness of spirit in believing Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing 3. As Peace exceedeth Consolation so doth Joy exceed Peace and begets a more notable sense of it self in the Soul In Peace all things are quiet so as we feel no anxious tossings of mind no gripes and fears of an accusing Conscience but in Joy true Joy more some lively motions of heart accompanied with a more lively pleasure and delight In Peace the Soul is in such a condition as the Body is when nothing paineth us but in Joy as when the corporeal Senses are mightily moved with such things as delight and please them as at a Feast the Soul is filled with perpetual suavities so great many times as cannot be told 1 Pet. 1. 8. Ioy unspeakable and full of glory Well then This is Comfort if you consider it with respect to the sense of God's Love or the hopes of glory such a lightning and easing of the heart as sheweth it self in alacrity in God's service and courage in Tribulations 1. These Comforts though not absolutely necessary to Salvation yet conduce much to the well-being of a Christian and therefore not to be despised 'T is as Oyl to the Wheels Iob. 15. 11. If neglected and not sought after with earnest diligence they are despised which cannot be without great sin 2. It follows after holiness as heat doth fire The Oyl of grace will breed the Oyl of gladness There are certain spiritual Pleasures which do attend a course of Obedience Holiness is our work Comfort our reward Holiness is God's due Comfort our profit and interest Acts 9. 31. Walked in the fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost Grace carrieth us out to honour God Love to him breedeth Comfort 'T is strange if it be not so there is some unusual impediment 3. Though our main Comfort be in Heaven yet whilst we are here in the world we have some foregoing Consolation as an earnest and pledge of more to ensue and as the solace of our Pilgrimage Psal. 117. 54. Here is not onely the offer but the sealing of Pardon and Peace to the Soul 4. Comfort is more needfull at some time than at others and God dispenseth it suitably to our tryals necessities and wants In great Afflictions and Temptations there is a larger allowance because they need greater Comforts 2 Cor. 1. 5. a drop of Honey is not enough to sweeten a Hogshead of Vinegar The Lord reserveth the Comforts of his Spirit for such a time The more humble and frequent in Prayer Grace is more exercised drawn forth into the view of Conscience 2. Comfort is to be asked of God for 't is his proper gift 'T is his Name The God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. and 2 Cor. 7. 6. The God that comforteth those that are cast down 'T is well that our Comforts are in the hand of God we should have little of it if it were in the disposal of the Creature Consider 1. That natural Comforts are the gifts of God 1 Tim. 1. 17. He giveth us richly all things to enjoy and sets forth the bounds of our habitation where and how much we shall have and giveth and taketh these things at his pleasure raising up some from the Dunghill pulling down others from the Throne of Glory 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. That Prosperity may never be without a Curb nor Adversity without a Comfort God will acquaint the World with such Spectacles now and then All things are at his dispose 2. That moderate delight and contentment that we have in our earthly Blessings is his allowance The Creature without God is like a deaf Nut when we crack it we find nothing Eccl. 2. 24 25. and Eccl. 3. 13. 'T is the gift of God and 't is one of the chiefest earthly mercies that in this valley of Tears where we meet with so many causes of grief and sorrow we take comfort in any thing Without this a Crown of Gold will sit no easier than a Crown of Thorns upon the head of him that weareth it yea a Palace becomes a Prison and every place an Hell to us 'T is not abundance of Honour that makes a man happy but Comfort Luk. 12. 15. If God send leanness into the Soul or a spark of his wrath into the Conscience all is as the white of an Egg unsavory A secret Curse eateth out all the contentment of it He that liveth in a Cottage is happier than he that liveth in a Palace if he have Comfort there 3. For spiritual Comfort which ariseth either from the sense of his Love or the hope of Glory we cannot have one drop of it but from God His Spirit is called the Comforter All the World cannot give it if he doth not give it us He hath an immediate and soveraign power over the hearts of men if he frown nothing can support us When the Sun is gone all the Candles in the World cannot make it day We can procure our own sorrow quickly bu the onely can comfort us None but Divine comforts are Authentick 3. The means of conveying and procuring this comfort 1. The means of conveying it on Gods part is his word David pleadeth that where the remedy of his misery was discovered and offered We read often in this Psalm how David revived his comfort by the Word and Rom. 15. 4. Comfort of the Scriptures There is the matter of true spiritual comfort 1 Cor. 14. 31. That all may learn and all be comforted This follows from the former God is the God of comfort And we should not have the heart to come to him unless he had opened the way to him by his promise The World cannot give it to us Philosophy cannot The word of God can And this comfort is both strong and full for measure and matter 1. Matter There the Death of Christ is laid down as the foundation of comfort If we consider God as Holiness it self and we nothing but a mass of sin and corruption you will see there can be no reconciliation without satisfaction given Mercy must see Justice contented one Attribute must not destroy another Justice hath no loss 't is fully satisfied in Christ and that 's the ground of our comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. There are the promises of deliverance protection support the liberties and privileges of Christians laid forth These are the breasts of comfort Isa. 66. Suck of these and be satisfied In short our great comforts are God's presence with us while we are in these Houses of Clay Our presence with God in his Palace of Glory 1 Thes. 4. 17 18. We shall ever be with the Lord. And comfort one another with these words Secondly The means on our part receiving the sweet effects of Gods mercy and word and that is Prayer We cannot have it without dealing with God in an humble manner Whatever God giveth he will
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
them under sadness and horror Iudas threw away his 30 pieces of Silver when his guilt star'd him in the face I have sinned in betraying innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. When God is angry the creatures cannot pacifie him and make you Friends as when a man is going to Execution with a drooping and heavy heart bring him a Posie of Flowers bid him smell of them and comfort himself with them he will think you upbraid his misery so in troubles of Conscience what good will it be to tell a man of Riches and Honours the remedy must be according to the grief so that if outward things could satisfie the heart they cannot satisfie the Conscience our sore will run among all the creatures and there 's no salve for it Secondly They will not stead us at the hour of Death when a Man must launch out into Eternity and set Sail for an unknown World Can a Man comfort himself then with outward things that a Man is great rich and honourable beautiful or strong or that he hath wallowed in all manner of sensualities If Men would look to the end of things they would sooner discern their mistake Deut. 32. 29. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end So Ier. 17. 9. At his latter end he shall be a fool He was a Fool before all his life-long but now he is so in the account of his own heart So Iob 27. 8. What hope hath the hypocrite though he hath gained when God cometh to take away his soul The poor Man would fain keep his soul a little longer no but God will take it now and he doth not resign it but God takes it by force And 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin The dolors and horrors of a guilty Conscience are revived by death and then the weakness of worldly things doth best appear our wealth and honour and pleasure will leave us in the dirt when the soul is to be turned out of doors our vain conceits are blown away and we begin to be sensible of our ill choice if Conscience did not do its office before death will undeceive them When a man dyeth he shall carry nothing away with him his glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. He shall be eaten out by Worms as others are when he cometh to go the way of all the Earth then for one Evidence for Heaven one dram of the favor of God as Severus the Emperor cryed out I have been all things but now it profits me nothing 4. 'T is of no use to you in the world to come Gold and Silver the great Instruments of Commerce in this world are of no value there all civil distinctions last but to the Grave some are high and others low some are rich and others poor these distinctions will last but awhile but the distinction of good and bad lasts for ever their works follow them but not their wealth outward things cannot save your souls or bring you to Heaven 5. In this World it will not prevent a Sickness or remove it The honorable and the rich have their diseases as well as the poor yea more they are bred upon them by their intemperance All your Houses and Lands and Honors and Estates cannot ease you of a Fit of the Gout or Stone nor an aking Tooth nor keep off Judgments when they are Epidemical There were Frogs in Pharaoh's Bed chamber as well as among the meaner Egyptians and all the King's Guard could not keep them out Well then all these things shew 't is of a limited use indeed they serve to make our Pilgrimage comfortable and to support us during our service that 's the best use we can put them to but the use the most put them to is to satisfie a sensual appetite or please a fleshly mind Psal. 17. 14. The utmost that these things can procure is a back well cloathed and a belly well filled This is but a sorry happiness to feed a little better than others to provide a richer Feast for the Worms yea a Prey for Hell Take all created perfections not as subordinate to grace but separate from it it serveth but to please the appetite or the fancy make the most or best of it Secondly By their time and period as to continuance All these things perish in the using like Flowers they wither in our hands while we smell to them The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And whosoever liveth here for awhile must look for changes and reckon to act several parts in the World Whatsoever was wonderful in former Ages 't is lost and past with age things that now are are not what they once were Psal. 102. 26 28. They shall perish but thou shalt endure for ever saith the Psalmist speaking to God Yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years have no end Christ he hath no end but Men will soon see the end of all perfection The World and all things were made ea lege ut aliquando pereant that they might at length fail and come to an end That which you now have you cannot say it shall be yours this time twelve month or it may be a month hence we hold all things by an uncertain tenure God may take away these things from us for Man is compared to Grass and the glory of Man to the flower of Grass 1 Pet. 1. 24. What is the glory of Man Riches Wisdom Strength Beauty Credit all these things are called the Flower now the Flower fadeth before the Grass and withers the neglected stalk remaineth when the leaves of the Flower are shed you may be gone and they gone if they continue with you till death then you must take your final farewell of all your comforts Thus you see all perfection will have an end Fourthly Here is the confirmation from Sense I have seen Consider it 1. As 't is matter of sense or experience 2. As 't is an observation upon experience First The vanity of the Creature is matter of sense and plain experience We have seen and others have seen all outward things come to their final period goodly Cities levied with the Earth mighty Empires destroyed worldly Glory blasted Honours vanished Credit and Esteem shrunk into nothing Beauty shrivelled with Age or defaced by Sickness yea all manner of greatness laid in the dust We trample upon the Graves of others and within a little while others will do the same over ours All things have their times and turns their rise and ruine there 's no man that converseth with the world but he will soon see the vanity of it David found it not only by clear reason but by his own experience I have seen saith he and so will you say too within awhile these things will fail when you have most need
honey There was somewhat of Prophetical Vision in these things but generally it is carried not an outward and literal eating but a spiritual taste relishing the sweetness of it Well then the Word must not only be read and heard but eaten What 's this spiritual eating of the Word Three things are in it and all make way for this taste 1 Sound Belief 2 Serious Consideration 3 Close Application He that would have a taste of spiritual things these three things are necessary 1. That there be a sound Belief of it Men have not taste because they have not faith we cannot be affected with what we do not believe Heb. 4. 2. The Word profited not not being mixed with faith in them that heard it What 's the reason Men have no taste in the doctrine of God and in the free offers of his grace It is not mingled with faith and then it wants one necessary Ingredient towards this taste So 1 Thes. 2. 13. Te received the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe If you would have spiritual sense Faith makes way for it we must take the Word as the Word of God When we read in feigned Stories of inchanted Castles and golden Mountains they affect us not because we know they are but witty Fictions pleasant Fables or idle Dreams and such Atheism and Unbelief lies in the hearts of men against the very Scriptures and therefore the Apostle seeks to obviate and take off this 2 Pet. 1. 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables intimating there is such a thought in man's heart Certainly if men did believe the mystery that is without controversie great that God hath indeed sent his Son to redeem the world and would indeed bestow Heaven and eternal happiness upon them they would have a greater taste but they hear of these things as a Dream of Mountains of Gold or Rubies falling from the Clouds If they did believe these glorious things of Eternity their hearts would be ravish'd with them 2. As Faith is necessary so serious Consideration by which we concoct Truth and chew them and work them upon the heart that causeth this sweetness by knocking on the Flint the sparks flie out those ponderous and deep inculcative thoughts of divine and heavenly things makes us taste a sweetness in them When we look slightly and superficially into the Word no wonder we do not find this comfort and sweetness but when we dig deeply into the Mines of the Word and work out truths by serious thoughts and search for wisdom when we come to see truth with our own eyes in its full nature order and dependance this is that which gets this taste Prov. 24. 13 14. My son eat thou honey because it is good and the honey comb which is sweet to thy taste So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul when thou hast found it When men are serious look into the nature and see all truths in their order and dependance then they will be like honey and the honey comb this makes way for this sweet taste 3. There is necessary to this taste close Application For the nearer and closer things touch one another the greater their efficacy so the more close you set the Word home upon your own hearts the more it works Iob 5. 27. Know it for thy good break out thy portion of the bread of life look upon these promises and offers of grace as including thee these commands speaking to thee and these threatnings as concerning thee look upon it not only as God's Message in common but urge it upon thy soul. Ier. 15. 16. It was unto me the rejoicing of my heart There must be a particular application of these things These things are necessary to this taste with respect to the Object as there must be eating a taking into the mouth if we would taste so thâ—…e must be a digesting or working upon the Word by sound Belief serious Consideration close Application 2. As to this taste there is somewhat necessary as to the Soul or Faculty we must have a Palate qualifi'd for these delicates Now there 's a double qualification necessary to this taste an hungry Conscience and mortifi'd Affections 1. An hungry Conscience Without this a Man hath a secret loathing of this spiritual food his taste is benummed but to an hungry Conscience the Word is sweet when he is kept in a constant hungring after Christ and his Grace Prov. 27. 7. The full soul loatheth the honey comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet Cordials they are nauseous things to a full stomach O but how reviving comfortable and sweet are they to a poor broken heart The first time that we got this taste it was when we were under the stings of a guilty Conscience then God came and tender'd his grace to us in Christ he sent a Messenger one of a thousand to tell us he fiath found a ransom and that we shall be deliver'd from going down into the Pit that he will spare us and do us good in Christ Jesus then the man's flesh recovers again like a child's Iob 33. 23. When men have felt the stings of the second death and God comes with a sentence of life and peace by Christ how sweet is it then Now though we have not always a wounded Conscience yet we must always have a tender Conscience always sensible of the need of Gospel support we came to this first relish of the doctrine of eternal life and salvation by Christ when we lay under the sentence of eternal death 2. The heart must be purged from carnal affections for until we lose our fleshly savor we cannot have this spiritual taste Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh do savor the things of the flesh the word may be translated so A carnal heart relishes nothing but carnal things worldly pleasures worldly delights now this doth exceedingly deaden your spiritual taste Spiritual taste is a delicate thing therefore the heart must be purged from fleshly lusts for when fleshly lusts bear sway and doth relish the garlick and onions and flesh pots of Egypt your affections will carry you elsewhere to the vanities of the world and contentments of the flesh Look as sick men have lost their taste and that which is sweet seems sowr and ungreateful to a distemper'd appetite so a carnal appetite hath not this taste from the Word of God to a carnal heart it 's no more savory than the white of an Egg yea it is as gall to them but now to others it is exceeding sweet it is their joy the life of their souls Well then you see what is this spiritual taste that relish which a renewed soul hath for spiritual comforts Use. To persuade you to get this taste and when once you have got it take heed you do not lose it 1 It concerns you very much to get this taste take these Arguments 1. It is a
But what is this hatred of Sin 1. It implies an universal repugnancy in every part of a Man against Sin not only in his Reason and Conscience but Will and Affections There is not a wicked man but in many cases his Conscience bids him do otherwise Ay but a renewed man his heart inclines him to do otherwise his heart is set against Sin and taken up with the things of God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the law of God according to the inner man It is in the whole inward man which consists of many parts and faculties Briefly then it notes the opposition not from enlightned Conscience only but from the bent of the renewed heart Reason and Conscience will take God's part and quarrel with Sins else wicked men could not be self-condemned 2. Hatred it is a fixed rooted enmity Many a man may fall out with Sin upon some occasion but he hath not an irreconcileable enmity against it The transient motions of the soul are things quite distinct from a permanent principle that abides in a renewed heart he hath that same seed of God remaining in him 1 John 3. 9. An habit notes an habitual aversation A brabble many times falls out between us and Sin upon several occasions when it hath sensibly done us wrong destroyed our peace blasted our names or brought temporal inconvenience upon us In time of judgment and fears and present troubles and dangers men think of bewailing their Sins and returning to God but they fall out and fall in again this is anger not hatred like the rising of the heart against a drawn Sword when it is flasht in our faces whereas afterwards we can take it up without any such commotion of spirit 3. Hatred 't is an active enmity warring upon Sin by serious and constant endeavors manifested by watching striving groaning Watching before the temptation comes resisting in the temptation groaning under it and bemoaning our selves after the temptation hath prevailed over us 1 There 's a constant jealousie and watchfulness before the temptation comes They that hate Sin will keep at a distance from whatever is displeasing unto God Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway A hard heart that knows not the evil of Sin rusheth on to things according to the present inclination Ay but a man that hath a hatred against Sin that hath felt the evil of it in his Conscience that hath been scorched in the flames of a true conviction will not come near the fire A broken heart is shy and fearful therefore he weighs his thoughts words and actions and takes notice of the first appearance of any temptation they know Sin is always present soon stir'd and therefore live in a holy jealousie Certainly they that walk up and down heedlesly in the midst of so many snares and temptations wherewith we are way-laid in our passage to Heaven they have not this active enmity against Sin and therefore hatred is seen by watching 2 It is seen by striving or serious resistance in the temptation A Christian is not always to be measured by the success but by conflict he fights it out Rom 7. 15. The evil which I hate that do I. Though they be foiled by Sin yet they hate it An Enemy may be overcome yet he retains his spite and malice Sin doth not freely carry it in the heart neither is the act completely willing Gal. 5. 17. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh for saith he the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would that is you cannot sin with such proneness and full consent and bent of heart as others they have a principle of opposition a rooted enmity in their souls against Sin 3 By a bitter grief after the temptation as Peter when he had fallen fouly he went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. They do not lie in Sin but recover themselves by a kindly remorse it is the grief of their souls that they are fallen into God's displeasure grieved his Spirit and hazarded their communion with him O Sin is grievous to a gracious heart and this makes them groan and complain to God O wretched man c. 4. 'T is such an enmity against sin as aims at the utter extermination and expulsion of it that endeavoureth to destroy it both root and branch Hatred it 's all for mischief Annilation that 's that which Hatred aims at Anger it worketh trouble but Hatred mischief it is an implacable affection that continues to the death that will not be appeased till the thing which we hate be abolished So where there is this hatred of Sin it follows Sin close till it hath gotten the life of it As by the grace of Justification they have obtained such favor with God that ne damnat it shall not damn by the grace of Sanctification ne regnat Sin shall not reign and still they are aspiring and looking after the grace of Glorification ne fit that Sin may no longer be therefore they are longing and groaning under the reliques of corruption Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. Many scratch the face of Sin but they do not seek to root it up to destroy the body of death it is their constant grief that any thing of Sin is left in the heart as Enemies are not satisfied till they have the blood of each other Where there is hatred 't is not enough to stop the spreading weaken the power of Sin but labouring to destroy the being of Sin As David said of his Enemies I pursued them till they were destroyed so when we set against Sin with an aim not to give over till we have the life of it or as God said concerning the Canaanites Deut. 7. 23. I will destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed So doth a renewed heart war against Sin that he may leave neither root nor fruit within them Use. If this be to hate Sin how few can say with David I hate every false way how few are of David's temper some love Sin with all their heart that hide it as a sweet morsel under their tongue Iob 20. 12. The love of Sin that 's the life of it it dies when it begins to be hated but when you have a love to it it lives in the soul and prevails over us And as they testifie their love of Sin so they misplace their hatred what do they hate not Sin but the Word that discovers it They hate the light because their deeds are evil John 3. 20. They do not hate Sin but God's Messengers that plead against it 1 Kings 22. 8. I hate him saith Ahab concerning Micaiah for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil They hate the faithful Brother that reproves them he is hated because he will not hate his Brother to see Sin upon him
of the spiritual Shepherd and this comforts us when we are in the shadow of death in our crosses in confusions and difficulties when we have nothing else left but the promises this is a reviving to the soul. 2. It is a comfort and refreshing to us in spiritual troubles that arise from the guilt of sin and want of the sense of God's love Isa. 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God What shall he do Shall he compass himself about in his own sparks O how miserable are we then no but let him depend upon God according to his promise The Word of God is a great part of his Name let him stay his heart upon the Word of God when he walketh in darkness and seeth no light Now that the Word of God is such a light such a sure and clear direction I shall 1 give a direct proof of it from Scripture 2 Some Types of it 3 Prove it by experience 4 By Reason 1 For the proof from Scripture you have the Notions of the Text So Prov. 6. 23. The commandment is a lamp and the law is light It is that which keeps us from stumbling So 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place The world is a dark place ay but now here 's a light that shines in a dark place and that 's the Holy Scripture the sure word of prophecy it sheweth us our way to Heaven and prevents us from stumbling into Hell 2 To prove it by Types Two Types I shall mention one is Israel being directed by the Pillar of a Cloud the other is the lamp of the Sanctuary 1. The Type of Israel's being directed by the Pillar of the Cloud by day the Pillar of Fire by night till they came into the Land of Canaan Exod. 13. 21. still they moved up and down hither and thither as the Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire went before them thus our whole course is to be ordered by God's direction See how this Type is exprest Neh. 9. 19. The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to shew them light and the way wherein they should go Mark when they were in the wilderness the Pillar of Cloud and Fire shewed them the way where they were to go this is an Emblem of the safe conduct the Church may expect from Christ Jesus in all Ages God's Pillar departed not from them by night nor day so while we are travelling in the wilderness of this our Pilgrimage his Word and Spirit is continued to us When they entred into Canaan that was a Type of Heaven then this Pillar of Cloud was removed It is notable Iosh. 14. when Israel passed over Iordan we do not read the Pillar went before them but the Ark of God was carried before them so when the Church comes to Heaven the resting place then this conduct ceaseth the Word hath no more use Jesus Christ as the great Shepherd leads his Flock into their everlasting Fold 2. The other Type was the Lamp of the Sanctuary we read of that Exod. 27. 20 21. There was a great Lamp hung upon the Vail to distinguish the Holy of Holies from the other part of the Tabernacle and was fed with pure oil-olive and this lamp was prepared and trimmed up by the Priest daily Now what did this Lamp signifie mark the application this pure oil-olive signifi'd God's pure Word without the mixture of Humane Traditions this hung up in the Vail shin'd in the Church and every day it was prepared furnished set forth by them that are called thereunto for the use of the faithful 3 Let me prove it by experience that the Word is such a sure direction 1. Because natural men have a sense of it and upon that account fear it see Iohn 3. 20 21. Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Natural men will not come to the Word they fear it as discovering and therefore never feel it as refreshing Evil doers hate the light they are afraid of the Word lest it should convince them and discover them to themselves therefore they stand off and shun all means of closing with it there is such conviction in the oar a secret jealousie of the searching power that is in the Word of God 2. Godly men do find a great deal of comfort and satisfaction from this light as to all the doubts and fears of the soul. Psal. 19. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes All their scruples vanish here 's an apt and fit doctrine accommodated to the heart of man A man hath never true and rational delight till he is fully satisfi'd in point of Religion till he can have rest for his soul and commodious notions of God Now if you would have rest for your souls Ier. 6. 16. here it is the children of God find it There 's a fair compliance in this doctrine with all those natural principles and ingrafted notions within us concerning God and his Will they find satisfaction in it to Conscience though not to fond curiosity the one is necessary the other dangerous and unprofitable Christians there 's a great deal of difference between these two satisfying Conscience and satisfying Curiosity as much as between quenching the thirst of a sober man and satisfying the lust and appetite of a Drunkard Here 's enough to satisfie Conscience a fair accommodation of excellent truths to a reasonable nature truths becoming God truths suiting with the heart of man and therefore here they find it to be light that is a sure direction The wicked feel the discovery of it and the Saints feel the impression of it 3. We have this external and outward experience to assure us of our rule and light that shines in the Word of God because those that go against this light and direction do sensibly miscarry and are sure to split themselves upon some Rock or other Our first Parent Adam when he hearkned to the voice of the Serpent rather than the voice of the Lord destroyed himself and all his Posterity As long as he obeyed the Word of God he remained in a blessed estate in Paradice but when he gave heed to other counsels he was cast out of Paradice and rendred liable to many sorrows yea eternal death So all that walk in the imagination of their own hearts and have not light from the Word they presently run themselves into sundry mischiefs The young Prophet is an instance of this 1 Kings 13. 21. To go to particular instances would
in thy way When we have been too busie about the vanities of the world or pleasures of the flesh when we have given contentment to the flesh and been intermedling with worldly cares and delights it brings a brawn and deadness upon the heart Luke 21. 34. Take heed that your hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world c. I say by this the soul is distemper'd and rendred unapt for God Christians this is a disease very incident to the Saints this deadness that creeps upon them We have not such lively stirrings nor a like influence of grace we have not those earnest and lively motions we were wont to have in Prayer Now God he quickneth us how by exciting the operative graces as Faith Love Hope and Fear when these are kept pregnant and lively as we read of lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. There is living Faith and lively Faith and living Fear and lively Fear of God and living Hope and lively Hope All graces God makes them lively and vivacious that they may put forth their operations the more readily Well this is quickning in duties 2 There is quickning in afflictions and so it is opposed to fainting that fainting which is occasioned by too deep a sense of present troubles or by unbelief or distrust of God and his promises and the supplies of his grace O when troubles press upon us very sore our hearts are like a Bird dead in the Nest overcome so that we have no spirit life nor aptness for God's service my soul droopeth for very heaviness we have lost our life and our courage for God Well How doth God quicken us By reviving our suffering graces as our hope of eternal life and eternal glory patience and faith and so puts life into us again that we may go on chearfully in our service by infusion of new comforts He revives the spirit of his contrite ones so the Prophet saith Isa. 57. 15. He doth revive our spirits again when they are dead and sunk under our troubles O! it is very necessary for this Psal. 80. 18. Quicken us and we will call upon thy Name Discomfort and discouragement it weakens our hands until the Lord cheers us again we have no life in prayer By two things especially doth God quicken us in affliction by reviving the sense of his love and by reviving the hopes of glory By reviving the sense of his love Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad like a fragrant ointment that doth revive us when we are even ready to give up the ghost Psal. 85. 6. Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee I say when he restores the sense of his love after great and pressing sorrow then he is said to quicken so when he doth renew upon us the hopes of glory Rom. 5. 2 3. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God Well you see what this quickning is 2 Secondly This quickning must be asked of God 1. Because it is his Prerogative to govern the heart of man especially to quicken us God will be owned as the Fountain of all life 1 Tim. 6. 13. I charge thee in the sight of God who quickneth all things It is God that quickneth all things All the life that is in the Creature all the life that is in new Creatures it comes from God it is he that giveth us life at first and he must keep in this life in the soul and restore it The meanest Worm all the life it hath it hath from God When Iohn would prove the Godhead of Christ he brings this argument Iohn 1. 4. In him is life There is not a Gnat but receives this benefit from Christ as God He hath the life of all things and this life is the light of Men much more the noble Creature Man hath this life from God much more the new Creature greater opâ—…ration of spiritual life more depends upon his influence and therefore if we would be quickned and carried out with any life and strength we must go to God for it 2. God as our Judge he must be treated with about it for he smites us with deadness therefore till he takes off his sentence we cannot get rid of this distemper it is one of God's spiritual plagues which must be removed before we can hope for any liveliness and any activity of grace again Under the Law God punished sins more sensibly as unhallowed addresses he punish'd them with death Under the Gospel he punisheth sins with deadness of heart When they seem careless in the worshipping of God they have a blow and breach as he smote Uzza and Nadab and Abihu dead in the place and now he smites with deadness Rev. 3. 7. He hath the Key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth without his permission we can never recover our former lively estate again for there is a judicial sentence passed upon us Use. To press us to be often with God for quickning that we may obtain this benefit I have spoke of it at large upon another Verse if you would have this benefit rouze up your selves Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself And 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stir up the gift that is in thee A Man hath a faculty to work upon his own heart to commune and reason with himself and we are bidden to strengthen the things that are ready to die Rev. 3. 2. When things are dying and fainting in the soul we are to strengthen our selves therefore if we would have God to quicken us thus must we do chide the heart for its deadness in duty we can be lively enough in a way of sin chide the heart for its deadness in affliction Psal. 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul still trust in God And after you have done this then look up and expect this grace from God in and through Christ Jesus It is said Iohn 10. 10. I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly Jesus Christ he came not only that we might have life enough to keep body and soul together but that we might not only be living but lively full of life strength and chearfulness in the service of God He is come into the world for this end and purpose expect it through Christ who hath purchased it for us And then plead with God about it according to his promise Ah Lord according to thy Word hast thou not said I will quicken a dead heart When thou art broken and tossed with affliction remember it is the high and lofty One that hath said he will revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa. 57. 15. and plead thus with God Ah Lord dost not thou delight in a chearful spirit Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee Psal. 85. 6. And then humble your selves for the cause of the distemper what 's the
a Pit to take me they have hid snares for my feet Secretly conspir'd and practis'd his destruction And David Psal. 140. 5. The proud have hid a snare for me and cords they have spread a net by the ways side and set gins for my feet Selah Hunters and Fowlers did never go more cunningly to work to catch the Prey than those proud men had laid their design to bring his life under their power And in Psal. 35. 7. For without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. And Psal. 57. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps my soul is bowed down they have digged a pit for me into the midst whereof they are fall'n themselves Selah Now of this sort are St. Bartholomew's Mattens and the Plot and Contrivance to out the Protestants in France when they were invited to a Wedding that they might destroy them and of this nature was the Gunpowder Treason there was a snare laid When Orestes had plotted Clytemnestra's Death Euripides expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She fitly cometh into the snare 3. Of a mixt nature both to entice by endangering and endanger by enticing 1. As when they put them upon such conditions as may tempt them to Folly and Sin some think the Text verifi'd in David at that time when he said 1 Sam 26. 19. They have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other gods Meaning they excited Saul to pursue him and persecute him and forc'd him to flee into an Idolatrous Countrey and so a snare laid to endanger his stedfastness in the true faith 'T is a great Temptation Necessitas cogit ad turpia Necessity is but an evil Counsellor and this joined with the other Temptation of bad company Psal. 120. 5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar 2. When they Enact a Law or Statute whereby to force them to sin or trouble as they had a Plot against Daniel either to make him neglect his God or render him obnoxious to Authority Dan. 6. 7 8. When they burden them with such Laws and Statutes as the godly cannot obey without sin or refuse without danger they have their ends either to draw them to sin or suffer Now Snares are laid by the wicked 1. Because usually they excel in Policy Craftiness and worldly Wit are superior to God's children therein their whole hearts run that way and their principle is intire and unbroken and therefore our Lord Christ telleth us Luke 16. 8. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light They applaud themselves in their Artifices Idolize their Wit Habak 1. 16. Sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag therefore use it to the Saints destruction 2. Because they are acted by Satan who will ever be doing against the Church though to little purpose Luke 22. 3. The Devil enter'd into Iudas when he plotted against Christ. They learn their Wiles from Satan and conceive mischief by copulation with the great Incubus of Hell 3. Their own hatred and malice against the People of God Malice is a laying snares Anger vents its self in a storm of words or in some sudden violent Action but hatred lurketh in the soul and puts them that harbor it upon Plots and Contrivances of revenge The Historian observeth of Tiberius In malitiam statim invectus est c. When Absalom hated Amnon because he forced his sister he plotteth how to take away his life 2 Sam. 13. 22. Now whence cometh this malice against the Children of God Either by envy at their Interests or hatred at their Holiness 1. Envy at their Interests their Esteem and Respect in the World when they come to be of any regard among men Esther 5. 9. Haman plotteth against Mordecai because he sate in the King's gate Psal. 112. 9 10. His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and he grieved and gnash with their teeth When the Gospel was like to get credit Acts 17. 5. the envious Iews raised an uproar Pride is loth to stoop to see opposites in glory and power whets their malice and they contrive how to root them out Every man would have himself and his own Faction admir'd and magnifi'd The Pharisees conspir'd to take Christ Iohn 12. 19. All the world is gone after him When Religion prevaileth and groweth in credit and fashion it is deeply resented by naughty men 2. Hatred at their Holiness Men cannot endure to be outstript in Religion and therefore hate what they will not imitate Hatred is quick-sighted in Revenge full of Plots and Contrivances and tickleth the soul with a delight in them but especially Religious Hatred when a man hateth another for his Godliness when Religion instead of a Party becomes a Judge that which should restrain our Passions feeds them no Hatred so great as that against the power of Godliness Cain when he saw Abel so punctual in God's service he plotteth to draw him into the Field 1 Iohn 3. 12. and beginneth a Discourse with him about Providence and Judgment to come and Rewards and Punishments and while Abel maintained God's part Cain fell upon him and slew him To apply this As these Snares tend to our temporal destruction so there is a double use to be made of them 1. To trust God with our safety in the midst of so many snares What shall we do Whatever remedy we have against violence no man by his own foresight can find out all the snares that are laid for him therefore commit your safety spiritual and temporal to the Lord go to him and say Psal. 141. 9. Keep me from the snare they have laid for me and the grins of the workers of iniquity Constant dependance upon God is necessary for there can be no snare hidden from him who watcheth over us and our safety by night and by day There is a double Arguâ—…ent why we should trust God with our safety because of his wisdom and because of his watchful providence Because of his wisdom Alas we are foolish and simple and often betray our selves into an evil condition but God is wise for them that are foolish Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just and guasheth upon him with his teeth the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming There is a wise God acting for a foolish People I tell you the wisdom of God for us is much greater than the wisdom of God in us where Enemies deal proudly God is above them where they deal craftily God is beyond them The wisdom of God for us is greater than the wisdom of any against us And also because of his watchful Providence he hath a waking love and care of us night and day Psal. 121. 4. Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep He
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
him but when his heart was upheld in the ways of God So Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God They had a life visible as other men had but your life that which you chiefly esteem and indeed count to be your life is a hidden thing Here I shall enquire 1. What is this spiritual life 2. Shew that there is a spiritual life distinct from the natural 3. The excellency of the one above the other 4. When this spiritual life is in good plight 1. What is meant by spiritual life 'T is threefold a life of justification and sanctification and glorification First The life of justification We are all dead by the merit of sin When a man is cast at law we say he is a dead man Through one mans offence all were dead Rom. 5. 5. We are sensible of it when the Law cometh in with power Rom. 7. 9. we begin to awaken out of our dead sleep Gods first work is to awaken him and open his eyes that he may see he is a Child of wrath a condemned person undone without a pardon when the Law came sin revived and I died before he thought himself a living man in as good an estate as the best but when he was enlightned to see the true meaning of the Law he found himself no better than a dead man Now when justified the sinner is translated from a sentence of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour and therefore it is called justification of life Rom. 5. 18. and Ioh. 5. 29. He that believeth shall not enter into condemnation but hath passed from death to life that is is acquitted from the sentence of death and condemnation passed on him by the Law Secondly The life of sanctification which lyes in a Conjunction of the soul with the spirit of God even as the natural life is a Conjunction of the body with the soul. Adam though his body was organized and formed was but a dead lump till God breathed the soul into him so till our union with Christ by the communion of his spirit we are dead and unable to every good work But the Holy Ghost puts us into a living condition Ephes. 2. 4 5. We were dead in trespasses and sins yet now hath he quickned us There is a new manner of being which we have upon the receiving of Grace Thirdly Life eternal or the life of Glory which is the final result and consummation of both the former For justification and sanctification are but the beginnings of our happy estate justification is the cause and foundation and sanctification is an introduction or entrance into that life that we shall ever live with God 2. Now this life is distinct from life natural for it hath a distinct principle which is the spirit of God the other a reasonable soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Parents are but instruments of Gods Providence to unite body and soul together but here we live by the spirit or by Christ Gal. 2. 20. God and we are united together Then we live when joined to God as the fountain of life whence the soul is quickned by the spirit of Grace This is to live indeed 'T is called the life of God Ephes. 4. 18. not by common influence of his Providence but by special influences of his Grace Secondly It is distinct in its operations Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam as things that move upward and downward according to their form so the new Nature carrieth men out to their own natural motion and tendency Walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 3. and walking as Christians are two distinct things The natural and humane life is nothing else but the orderly use of sense and reason but the Divine and spiritual life is the acting of Grace in order to communion with God as if another Soul dwelt in the same Body Ego non sum ego Old lusts old acquaintance old temptations knock at the same door but there is another Inhabitant Thirdly Distinct in supports Hidden Manna Meat indeed Drink indeed Ioh. 6. 55. There is an outward man and an inward man the inward man hath its life as well as the outward And as life so taste omnis vita gustu ducitur The hidden man must be fed with hidden Manna meat and drink that the world knows not of its comforts are never higher than in decays of the body 1 Cor. 4. 16. A man is as his delight and pleasure is it must have something agreeable Fourthly Distinct in ends The aim and tendency of the new Nature is to God 't is from God and therefore to him Gal. 2. 19. 'T is a life whereby a man is enabled to move and act towards God as his utmost end to glorifie him or to enjoy him A carnal man's personal contentment is his highest aim water riseth not beyond its fountain But a gracious man doth all to please God Col. 1. 11. to glorifie God 1 Cor. 10. 31. And this not only from his obligations Rom. 14. 7 8. but from his being that principle of life that is within him Ephes. 1. 12. A man that hath a new principle cannot live without God his great purpose and desire is to enjoy more of him 3. The excellency of the one above the other There is life carnal life natural and life spiritual Life carnal as much as it glittereth and maketh a noise in the world 't is but a death in comparison of the life of Grace 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth and let the dead bury their dead Luke 9. 60. and dead in trespasses and sins None seem to make so much of their lives as they yet dead as to any true life and sincere comfort So life natural 't is but a vapour a wind and a little puff of wind that is soon gone take it in the best Nature is but a continued sickness our food is a constant medicine to remedy the decays of Nature most men use it so alimenta sunt medicamenta But more particularly First Life natural is a common thing to Devils Reprobates Beasts Worms Trees and Plants but this is the peculiar priviledge of the Children of God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Therefore Gods Children think they have no life unless they have this life If we think we have a life because we see and hear so do the Worms and smallest Flyes if we think we are alive because we eat drink and sleep so do the Beasts and Cattel if we think we live because we reason and conferr so do the Heathens and Men that shall never see God if we think we have life because we grow well and wax strong proceeding to Old Age so do the Plants and Trees of the Field Nay we have not only this in common with them but in this kind of life other Creatures excel Man The Trees excel us for
spirit Be careful for the Soul that you may keep up a lively faith and a constant sense of blessedness to come and so rejoyce in God Oh how much time and pains do men waste in decking and trimming the Body when in the mean time they neglect their Souls We may all fall a weeping when we consider how little we look after this inner life to keep that in heart and vigour SERMON CXXVIII PSAL. CXIX VER 116 117. And let me not be ashamed of my hope Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually IN the former Verse I observed David begs two things Confirmation in waiting and the full and final accomplishment of his hopes Something remains upon the 116th Verse Let me not be ashamed of my hope Hope follows faith and nourisheth it Faith assures there is a promise hope looks out for the accomplishment of it Now David having fixed his hope upon the mercies of God begs Let me not be ashamed that is that hope may not be disappointed for hope disappointed brings shame Man is conscious of the folly and rashness in conceiving such a hope Iob 6. 20. They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither and were ashamed They looked for water from the Brooks of Tema but when they were dried up they were confounded and ashamed That breeds shame when we are frustrated in our expectations There is a hope that will leave us ashamed and there is another hope that will not leave us ashamed for David goes to God and desires him to accomplish his hope There is a Christian hope that is founded upon the mercies and promises of God and encouraged by experience of God that will never deceive us I shall speak of that hope that will bring shame and confusion and that is twofold worldly hope and carnal security 1. Worldly hopes such as are built upon worldly men and worldly things Upon worldly men they are mutable and so may deceive us sometimes their minds may change the favour of man is a deceitful thing As Cardinal Wolsey said in his distress If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King he would not have given me over in my grey hairs but it 's a just reward for my study to do him service not regarding the service of God to do him pleasure Let God be true and every man a Liar A man makes way for shame that humours the lusts of others and wrongs his Conscience and first or last they will find it is better to put confidence in God than the greatest Potentates in the World Psal. 118. 8. and therefore it should be our chief care to apply our selves to God and study his pleasure rather than to please men and conform our selves to their uncertain minds and interests To attend God daily and be at his beck is a stable happiness the other is a poor thing to build upon Mens affections are mutable and so is their condition too Psal. 62. 9. Surely men of high degree are a lye and men of low degree are vanity Whoever trusts in men high or low are sure to be deceived in their expectations And therefore we should think of it beforehand lest we be left in the dirt when we think they should bear us out 1 Kings 1. 21. When my Lord the King shall sleep with his Fathers I and my Son Solomon shall be counted offenders When the Scene is shifted and new Actors come upon the Stage none so liable to be hated as those that promised to themselves a perpetual happiness by the favour of men This is a hope that will leave us ashamed And then worldly things they that hope in these for their happiness will be ashamed There are two remarkable Seasons when this hope leaves us ashamed in the time of distress of conscience and in the day of death In time of distress of conscience Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moth. When sin finds us out and Conscience goes to work upon the sense of its own guilt O then what will all the plenty of worldly Comforts do us good The Creatures then have spent their allowance and can help us no more What good will an Estate do And all the pomp and bravery of the World will be of no more use to us than a rich shoo to a gouty foot Prov. 18. 14. A wounded spirit who can bear But now he that hath chosen God for his portion in all distress and calamities can revive his hopes So also in the hour of death Iob 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God shall take away his soul When God puts the Bond in suit though man hath gained where 's his hope when God delivers him over to the Executioner to Chains of darkness 2. Carnal security will leave us ashamed Men living in their sins hope they shall do well enough and expect mercy to bear all and pardon all though they be not so strict and nice as others yet they shall do as well as they This hope is compared to a Spiders Web Iob 8. 12. a poor slight thing that is gone with the blast of every temptation when the Besome comes both Spider and Web are swept away And it is said Iob 11. 20. The hope of the wicked is like the giving up of the Ghost and these in a moment take an everlasting farewel of their hopes So their hopes fail in the greatest extremity This carnal and secure hope in God presumption of his mercy it is but a waking dream as a dream fills men with vain delusions and phantasms It is notably set out by the Prophet Isai. 29. 8. They shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty There will an awakening time come and then the Dream of a hungry man torments him more Carnal men are like Dreamers that lose all as soon as they are awake though they dream of enjoying Scepters and Crowns yet they are in the midst of Bonds and Irons Vain elūsions do they please themselves with that make way for eternal sorrow and shame Let us see how this false hope of the wicked differs from the true hope of Gods Children First This hope is not indeed built upon God God hath the name but indeed they trust upon other things as those women the Prophet speaks of Isai. 4. 1. We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach So they call their hope ◅fter Gods name but their hearts are born up with other things as appears because when outward things fail they are at a loss and begin to awake out of their dream especially in adistressed case when it pincheth hard Secondly It is not a serious and advised trust
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
himself and intrust us with a stock of Grace but after he hath done that we 〈◊〉 are faulting and sinning Rom. 8. 1. Yet now there is no condemnation to them that are 〈◊〉 Christ notwithstanding the reliques of corruption and its breaking out 4. From the temper of the Saints their humility None have such a sight and sense of sin as they have because their eyes are anointed with spiritual eye-salve They have a clearer insight into the Law Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh They are enlightened by Gods Spirit the least Mote is espied in a Glass of clear Water None are so acquainted with their own hearts and ways as they who often commune with their own hearts and use self-reflection Others that live carelesly do not mind their offences but they that set themselves do more consider their ways none have a more tender sense of the heinousness of sin She loved much wept much because much was forgiven her Luke 7. Some are of a more delicate constitution the back of a Slave is not so sensible of stripes as they that have been more tenderly brought up The Beams of the Sun shining into a house we see the Dust and Motes in the Sun-Beams which we saw not before They profess as Iacob I am not worthy of all the mercy and truth thou hast shewed me They groan as Saint Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Use 1. Is information We learn hence that we should not be discouraged when our hearts are touched with a deep remorse and sense of our failings and are desirous to break off our sins by repentance that mercy which is freely vouchsafed in the Covenant which all Gods servants have so often experienced which the best make their only plea and ground of hope will find out a remedy for us If you have an heart to give up your selves to Gods service and so to get an interest in the promises and blessings of the Covenant you may come and sue out this mercy for God desireth to exalt his Grace God saith Return to the Lord your God and I will heal your backslidings and love you freely Hos. 14. 'T is the delight of Grace to do good notwithstanding unworthiness The worst of sins do not hinder Gods help are not above his cure There is hope for such as are convinced and see no worth in themselves why God should do them any good God needs not will not be hired by the Creatures to do it Use 2. How inexcusable those are that reject the offers of Grace If they have any liking to the blessings of the Covenant they have no ground to quarrel and differ with God about the price Isai. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth let him come to the Waters and drink freely without money and without price You have no cloak for your sin if you will not deal with God upon these terms Nothing keepeth you from him but your own perverse will Use 3. What reason there is the best of Gods servants should carry it thankfully all their days From first to last the mercy of God is your only plea and claim No flesh hath cause to glory in his presence there being no meritorious cause in the Covenant of Grace no moving and inducing cause no co-ordinate working cause Not for your sakes do I this Ezek. 36. 32. And in the 1 Cor. 7. 4. 't is said Who maketh thee to differ We paid nothing for Gods love nothing for Christ the Son of his love nothing for his Spirit the fruit of his love nothing for sanctifying Grace and Faith the effects of his Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts nothing for pardon we have all freely nothing for daily bread protection maintenance and shall pay nothing for Glory when we come to receive it Iude 21. Looking for the mercy of God unto eternal life 'T is all without our merit and against merit we should regard this especially when we are apt to say in our hearts This is for our righteousness as Haman thought none so fit for honour and preferment as himself Esth. 6. 6. Haman thought so in his heart So proud-hearted self-conceited Sinners say in their hearts God seeth more in them than in others Alas you are not only unworthy of Christ the Spirit Grace and Glory but the Air you breathe in and the Ground you tread upon What did the Lord see in you to judge you meet for such an Estate Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and all thy truth Did not you slight Grace neglect Christ as well as others and doth not sin break out and make a forfeiture every day Use 4. That we should carry it humbly as well as thankfully The best of Gods Children should most admire Grace and glorifie Mercy set the Crown on Mercies head Consider First What was the first rise of all Gods love what set all a stirring in Gods bosom Iohn 3. 16. There was no cause beyond this In other things we may rise higher from his Power and Wisdom to his Love but why did he love us There is no other cause to be given he loved us because he loved us 'T was love first moved the business in the ancient counsel of Gods will Gods love is the measure of its self Secondly When he came to apply it he found us in our blood 'T was a great mercy that God would take us into his service with all our faults We were his Creatures but quite marr'd not as he made us We are not what we were when first his as we came out of his hands we were pure and holy but since the Fall quite spoiled Ier. 2. 21. I had planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me Strangely changed and altered If a Servant run from his Master and is become altogether blind deformed and diseased will his Master look after him or care for him or take him again This was our case Thirdly What is spoken already is common to others you your selves knew what you were Tit. 3. 3. Every man is soundly affected more sensible of his own case seeth particular reasons why God should refuse him yet you are as brands plucked out of the burning who did resist such powerful means such fair advantages you dallied with God You know the case of others by ghess your own by feeling You lay not only in the common polluted Mass but had your particular offences Fourthly When taken in a fault that God will pity our weakness and infirmities in his service Mal. 3. 17. I will spare them as a man spareth his Son that serveth him that is he will continue his favour and good-will to them that serve him So surely they that have a Conscience and are privy to their manifold infirmities and failings will admire this Fifthly
God restored in us Ephes. 4. 24. The new man is created to restore in some measure those abilities we lost in Adam God never yet gave man a liberty to be free from the obligation of the Moral Law He would not pardon any sin against it without satisfaction made by Christ and believed and pleaded by sinful man Christ merited and God restored the Spirit of sanctification that men might keep it He will not spare his own Children when they transgress against it by heinous and scandalous sins as to temporal punishments Prov. 11. 31. The righteous man shall be recompenced upon Earth much more the wicked and the sinner Psal. 30. 31. David and Eli both smarted for their sins No man hath interest in Christ unless he return to the obedience of this Law 1 Cor. 9. 21. To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law Rom. 8. 1 2. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death No interest in mercy else Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace and mercy be upon them We cannot have full Communion with God till we perfectly obey it Ephes. 5. 27. That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but it should be holy and without blemish 2. The great priviledg of the Covenant of Grace is To be taught Gods Statutes or to have a real impress of them upon the heart and mind which is the way of Divine teaching Heb. 8. 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people He will cure us of our wickedness weakness and carelesness and inable us to keep his Law 't is Gods undertaking to do so and that out of free Grace and favour for he is not indebted to us 't is to give us knowledge of them and power to keep them Much of the Law natural cannot be severed from it and that is the reason why the Heathens have the Law written upon their hearts Rom. 2. 15. But the writing is very imperfect both as to knowledge and power to keep it God will imprint them more perfectly this is the true Notion of the Law By the mind is meant understanding by the heart the rational appetite In the mind is the directive counsel in the will the imperial and commanding power There is the prime mover of all humane actions he giveth an apprehensive and perceptive power whereby we apprehend things more clearly and effectually desire and affect spiritual delights Use 1. Is to refute the claim of them that would plead mercy but would still go on in their own ways blessing themselves in their sins Till our hearts and minds are suited to Gods Law by a permanent tincture of holiness we are not fit Subjects to ask mercy and the promises of the Covenant 2. If we would have this effect we must go to God who alone can work upon the immortal Soul to reform mould or alter it a new man or Angel cannot do it they may by sense and fancy teach him many things but to make these lively impressions must be the work of the Spirit SERMON CXXXVII PSAL. CXIX VER 125. I am thy Servant give me understanding that I may know thy Testimonies IN this Verse he repeateth his Plea and Request also In the former Verse he mentioneth the relation of a servant and prayeth Teach me thy Statutes And here again First Asserteth his relation to God I am thy servant and Secondly Reneweth his Request Give me understanding Thirdly The fruit and effect of the Grant That I may know thy Testimonies or Then I shall know This repetition hath its use this repeating his relation to God sheweth That where the Conscience of our Dedication to God and our endeavours to serve him is clear and sincere we should not easily quit our claim Deal with thy Servant in mercy yea Lord I am thy servant I have my failings but Lord 't is in my heart to serve thee I can and will avow it as long as I live Our defects and disallowed failings do not deprive us of the title of being Gods Servants we may take comfort in it and assert our interest in the promises as long as we delight to do his will And though unbelief opposeth our claim we must remove it in the face of all objections Christ puts Peter to a threefold assertion of his love to him Iohn 21. 'T is supposed we do not lye in these redoubled professions of our respect and service to God Secondly This renewing his Request sheweth his earnestness to encrease in spiritual understanding Savoury and powerful knowledge of Divine things is in itself so excellent a benefit and our necessity of it is so great that we cannot enough pray for it Only observe that in the former Verse the Notion was Statutes here Testimonies Statutes are that part of Gods Word which we should obey Testimonies that part which we should believe viz. the promises But this may be too critical the words being taken in this Psalm in a greater latitude Doctr. That 't is a good Plea when we want any mercy spiritual or temporal to be able to plead that we are Gods servants I. That there are a sort of people that in a peculiar manner are Gods servants II. These may plead it when they want any mercy spiritual or temporal I. That some are in a peculiar manner Gods Servants The Saints of God are so called 't was Moses's honour They sung the Song of Moses the servant of the Lord. So Ios. 1. 1. Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord. So Paul asserts it of himself Acts 27. 23. The God whose I am and whom I serve Here is a true description of a Christian Man he is Gods and serveth God he is Gods by special appropriation and communion with God He serveth God that is walketh answerable to his relation and is ever about Gods work Elsewhere he describeth himself by his service Rom. 1. 9. My God whom I serve in my spirit 1 Tim. 1. 3. God whom I serve with a pure conscience But to know who in a peculiar manner are Gods servants we must distinguish 1. God is served actively and passively by necessity of Nature or voluntary choice Passively by necessity of Nature all Creatures even the inanimate are his servants Psal. 119. 91. They continue this day according to thine ordinances for all are thy servants But actively to serve him out of
them at present but could easily be reconciled They seek not after the death but the restraint and imprisonment of their corruptions and lusts that they may not disgrace or otherwise prejudice them Nothing contents the regenerate but the killing and mortification of them they would have them dealt with as Samuel by Agag hewn in pieces therefore they study revenge upon their sins Gal. 5. 24. Crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts Fourthly From the state of the regenerate They have sin in them but yet they hate it Their will and consent to sin is always abated and made remiss by a contrary principle the Grace that is in their wills Gal. 5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh Sin cannot reign in them with a full and uncontrouled dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you Use 1. How few are there that are Gods Children for how few are there that hate sin Some love it Iob 20. 12 13. and the love of sin is the life of it and what is it they hate They hate the Word that discovers sin Iohn 3. 20. they hate Gods Messengers that do cry aloud against sin and do rub their sores as Ahab said of Micaiah He doth never prophesie good of me they hate the Magistrate that would reform them they hate Gods image in his Saints they cannot endure the lustre of holiness that shineth forth in them Use 2. Do we indeed hate sin We had need look after this 1. Because this is the true principle of resistance against sin Till a man hateth it the soul is not throughly resolved against it as a man is never throughly gained to God till he love holiness for holiness sake his affections may be bribed with other considerations but then he is rooted in godliness So a man is not resolved against sin till he hate it for its own sake He may be frighted out of sin for a Fit put out of humour with it but his heart is in again with his old lusts till there be a detestation of sin But when once he cometh to hate it perswasions cannot easily move him nor example draw him nor difficulties compel him to that which is evil nor allurements that have a great force upon us Straightway he followed her But they cast away sin with indignation Hos. 14. 8. What have I any more to do with Idols 2. This is a true distinctive Note between good and bad Men may forbear sin that do not hate it they forbear it by constraint for fear of punishment shame worldly ends but regard it in their hearts Psal. 66. 18. The Dog hath a mind to the Pail but feareth the Cudgel But God judgeth not as man judgeth SERMON CXLI PSAL. CXIX VER 129. Thy Testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my Soul keep them IN the Words are two Parts I. The dignity and excellency of Gods testimonies Thy testimonies are wonderful II. The effect it had upon David's heart Therefore doth my soul keep them Accordingly two Points Doctr. 1. That the testimonies of God when duly considered and throughly understood will indeed be found to be wonderful Doctr. 2. The wonderful excellency of the word should beget in our hearts a readiness and diligent care to keep it Doctr. 1. The Testimonies of God are wonderful First the word in it self is wonderful as containing Truths of a sublime nature Secondly It is wonderful in its effects as it produceth effects rare and strange First In it self considered it is sometimes called the mystery of Faith as it containeth Principles of Faith and sometimes a mystery of Godliness as it containeth rules of practice As it is a mystery of Faith there are many strange Doctrines in it above the reach of mans capacity which we could neither invent nor understand unless we be enlightened by the spirit of God as that three to be one and one to be three God to be made man c. these are riddles to a carnal mind and as it is a Rule of Faith still it offereth matter of wonder the duty of man being represented with such exactness and comprehensiveness Psalm 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandment is exceeding broad Secondly What rare effects it produceth where it is entertained it maketh a Christian become a wonder to himself and others 1. A wonder to himself 1 Pet. 2. 9. He hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light There is no man converted by the word of God but hath cause to wonder at his own estate at the condescension of God in plucking him as a brand out of the burning or that woful condition wherein he was before when others are left to perish Ioh. 14. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world and then that we are brought into the possession of such excellent priviledges as we enjoy in our new estate peace that passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Priviledges greater than can be imagined or expressed So are their hearts ravished in the sense of their Reconciliation with God and Communion with him So also in giving them such an undoubted right to an everlasting blessed Estate in the Heavens 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 He hath promised them an happiness which they can never think of but every day they must fall a wondring anew and all this wrought by an exceeding great power working together with the word Eph. 1. 19. As Peter wondred at his own deliverance when chains and gates and bars did all give way to the power of the Angel that brought him forth Acts 12. 9 10 11. And he went out and followed him and wist not that it was true that was done by the Angel but thought he saw a vision When they were past the first and the second ward they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city which opened to them of its own accord and they went out and passed on through one street and forthwith the Angel departed from him And when Peter was come to himself he said Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Iews So may every one that is converted to God stand wondring when he considereth how from whence and to what he is called by God all this is wonderful indeed There is more of God seen in inward Experiences than in outward in converting comforting quickening and carrying on the work of grace in our own hearts than in governing the courses of nature therefore the Apostle appealeth to this internal Power Eph. 3. 20. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to
of the law it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise The Commands and Promises were not commensurate There was not a promise in that Covenant for every command of the Law of Nature but in the Gospel God promiseth what he requireth In the Covenant of Works Justice is the Rule of Gods dealing for though he entred into that Covenant and promised a reward out of Grace yet being entred into it Justice holdeth the Ballance and weigheth the works of men and giveth to every man according to his works what is due to him Rom. 2. 6 7 8. Who will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for life and glory and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath c. But the rule of Gods dealing in the new Covenant is grace The Covenant of works was more independent on God and grace without man and more dependent on man and grace within himself In it man was left to stand by his own strength to be justified upon his own righteousness God having furnished him with a stock at first or a sufficiency of power to keep that Covenant But the Covenant of grace findeth us without strength therefore we are kept in dependance upon another Psal. 89. 13. I have laid help upon one that is mighty And Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Man was to keep the first Covenant but here in effect the Covenant keepeth us 1 Pet. 1. 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation Jer. 32. 40. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Thirdly In the terms Unsinning obedience is the Condition of the Covenant of works The Covenant of works is wholly made void and the promise thereof of none effect by any one sin without any hope of cure or remedy Once a Sinner and for ever miserable as the Angels for one sin were thrown down from Heaven and reserved in Chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day Jude 6. It admitteth of no such thing as repentance neither doth it offer any provision for such it speaketh much to the whole nothing to the sick it maketh a promise to the righteous but none to Sinners But the Covenant of grace is otherwise Matth. 9. 13. I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Every failing doth not make void the Covenant no not every grosser fault Psal. 89. 33 34. Nevertheless my loving kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips The first Covenant is an uncomfortable Covenant to a Sinner and can be only comfortable to a perfect righteous person for in case of the least failing it speaketh nothing but wrath and the curse But the Covenant of Grace is comfortable to Sinners it offereth pardon to them As to the first Covenant it is impossible to be fulfilled by man in the state of corruption Rom. 8. 3. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh Since the day that Adam fell never did nor could any man fulfil this Covenant Well then the demands of this Covenant cannot be satisfied without a continuation in all things written therein in height of exactness and perfection But the Gospel admits of a sincere uniform obedience as perfect 2 Cor. 8. 12. But if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not There is a merciful lenity as to acceptance though the Rule is as strict Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the day when I make up my Iewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him Use 1. Then enter into this Covenant You have no benefit by it till you personally enter into the Bond of it The Covenant of works was made with man generally universally considered with Adam as a publick person representing all his Posterity but the Covenant of Grace is made with man particularly and personally considered and his consent is expresly required or else it can convey no benefit to us That was a Law and so did bind whether man did consent or no. This is a priviledge Christ draweth to consent to him doth not force us against our will Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Will you owne him as the Son of God and Redeemer of the World Every man must consent for himself The effects of the first Covenant are uncomfortable for the present the spirit of bondage Heb. 2. 15. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage But dreadful hereafter Iames 2. 13. He shall have Iudgment without mercy When none to mediate for them they have to do with Justice strict Justice The least sin is enough to ruine you it will pass by no transgression remit no part of your punishment it will have satisfaction to the utmost farthing admits of no pardon no Advocate regardeth no tears What Justice can give you that you may look for If Justice speak no good promise no good you are to look for none for Justice doth all in the Covenant under which you stand Psal. 130. 3. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand What you may claim as a due Debt that you may look for that Covenant gives no gift Oh then give the hand to the Lord. 2 Chron. 30. 8. But be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were but yield your selves to the Lord and enter into his sanctuary which he hath sanctified for ever and serve the Lord your God Receive Gods condition Acts 9. 6. Lord what wilt thou have me to do You have not leave to chuse and refuse Use 2. Let us bless God and admire his grace in bringing about this new Covenant 1. Man irreparably had broken the first Covenant fallen from his state of life so that all the world is lost under guilt and a curse Rom. 3. 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God 2. Upon this fundamental breach the Lord was acquitted and absolved from the promise of life in this way of works for man could never stand in that Court Rom. 8.
resigned our selves to Christ and the hands of Consecration have passed upon us When Ananias had dedicated that which was in his power and kept back part for private use God struck him dead in the place Acts 3. 5. And if we alienate our selves who were Christs before the Consecration of how much sorer vengeance shall we be guilty Gods Complaint was just Ezek. 16. 20. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured And if Satan hath a full interest in you by doing his lusts as he had in them by that Rite of Worship is not the wrong done to God the same 2. It is a sure note of a carnal heart For it is not only incongruous that a renewed man should let sin reign but impossible De jure it ought not de facto it shall not be The exhortation and promise Rom. 6. 12. with 14. verse 12. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies There is the exhortation while you have these mortal bodies sin will dwell in you but let it not reign over you God suffereth it to dwell in us for our exercise not our ruine Then the promise Verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Let not shall not It is true sin remaineth in the godly but it reigneth not there 'T is dejectum quodammodo non ejectum tamen Cast down in regard of regency not cast out in regard of inherency Like the Beasts in Daniel Dan. 7. 12. They had their dominion taken away though their lives prolonged for a season Some degree of life but their reign broken The Israelites could not wholly expel the Canaanites yet they kept them under There will be pride earthliness unbelief and sensuality dwelling moving working in them but it hath not its wonted power over them Christ will not reckon men slaves to sin by their having sin in them nor yet by their daily failings and infirmities or by their falling now and then into foul faults by the violence of a temptation unless they make a constant trade of sin and be under the dominion of it without controul and set up no course of mortification against it 3. The reign of sin is so mischievous Sin when it once gets the Throne groweth outragious and involveth us in many inconveniences e're we can get out again Therefore they that know the service of sin as we all do by sad experience should use all caution that it never bring them into bondage again The work and wages of sin are very different from Gods work and wages The Apostle compareth them when he disswadeth them from the reign of sin Rom. 6. 21 22. For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those thing is death But now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life You have had full experience of the fruits of sin of Satans work what fruit then before you had tasted better things before you had a contrary principle set up in your hearts you are ashamed now to think of that course now you know better things But what fruit then Satans work is drudgery and his reward death The Devil hath one bad property which no other master how cruel soever hath To plague and torment them most which have done him most continual and faithful service Those that have sinned most have most horror and every degree of service hath a proportionable degree of shame and punishment He is an unreasonable Tyrant in exacting service without rest and intermission The most cruel Oppressors Turks and Infidels give some rest to their Captives but sin is unsatisfiable Men spend all their means and all their time and all their strength in the pursuit of it yet all is little enough And what is the reward of all but death and destruction Now judge you to whom should we yield obedience and who hath most right to be Sovereign He who made us and redeemed us and preserveth us every day none but he can claim title to us he to whom we are Debtors by so many Vows so many Obligations Or else Satan our worst enemy who is posting us on to our own destruction 4. It is so uncomely and misbecoming the new estate wherein we have so many helps and encouragements to resist sin First For helps you have an opposite principle to give check to it the seed of God or new nature Since Christ hath put Grace into your hearts to resist sin 't is your Duty not to suffer it to be idle and unfruitful Rom. 6. 11 12. Reckon your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof You want no ability to encourage you have an observing witness to give check to it the Spirit of God who will help you in this work Rom. 8. 13. He will be your Second neither we without the Spirit nor the Spirit without us There is a life and power goeth along with every Gospel-Truth Laziness pretendeth want of power but what is too hard for this Spirit Then Secondly For encouragement In every war are two notable encouragements goodness of the Quarrel and hopes of Victory as David 1 Sam. 17. 36. We have these in our Conflict and Combat with sin First Our Quarrel and our Cause is good 't is the Quarrel of the Lord of Hosts which you fight We stand with Christ our Redeemer who came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might destroy the works of the Devil He hath begun the battle we do but labour to keep under that enemy which Christ hath begun to slay and destroy Sin is not only an enemy to us but to him 'T is against him and hindreth his Glory in the World and the subjection of his Creatures and Servants Were it not for sin what a glorious Potentate would Christ be even in the judgment of the world Secondly Hope of the Victory Our strife will end and it will end well Those that are really earnestly striving against sin are sure to conquer Rom. 6. 14. Let not sin reign c. And it shall not If there be but a likelihood of Victory we are encouraged to fight here a Christian may triumph before the Victory Non aequè glorietur accinctus ac discinctus 1 Kings 20. 11. Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off There will come a good and happy issue in the end even a Conquest of sin For the present we overcome it in part it shall not finally and totally overcome us in this World and shortly all strife will be over Rom. 16. 20. The God of
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
stays the working of the boiling Pot so these sober thoughts of Gods Justice and Judgment may abate the fervours of youthful lusts When you are pampering the flesh letting loose the reins to all wanton desires go on in them there 's a righteous God Men harden themselves by two things by God's patience for the present and thoughts of his mercy for the future 1. By Gods patience for the present When God doth not strike but withholds his hand Psal. 50. 21 22. These things hast thou done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Christians patience and forbearance is not absolute remission and forgiveness God may give you a long day and yet reckon with you at last Rom. 9. 22. He endureth with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Mark there 's suffering long-suffering and much long-suffering and yet Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction God suffered Cain to live as a man reprieved so you may be reprieved He deals with ungodly men as David with Ioab and Shimei he would not acquit them yet forbare them and gave order to Solomon to put them to death your doom may yet be dreadful Christians bethink your selves there is a Sentence in force and there is but a slender thred of a frail life between you and execution but a step between you and death and will you adde sin to sin and heap up more wrath and condemnation to your selves Alas you are but in the state of condemned Malefactors and will you roar and revel as some desperate Wretches in the Gaol between condemnation and execution There is but cold comfort in this to be rescued and to be afterwards executed and therefore remember God may forbear those whom he will not pardon I and his anger is most sharp after patience is abused and most speedily when you begin to reckon the worst is over Luke 12. 20. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee 2. Men please themselves that they shall do well enough because God is merciful and so they fancy a God all of honey and sweetness God is just as well as merciful I but his Justice may be a friend can you claim that Justice 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins When we with remorse and humble penitence go and confess them before the Lord then Justice is our friend It is not your friend until you be in Christ Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus Why but am not I in Christ am not I baptized in his name Then I say again there are none in Christ but those that come in in the New Covenant way for him hath God set forth through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 2 3. If we hope we believe in Christ if we do then let me say one thing more There are none come in the New Covenant way that do allow themselves in any known sin and therefore the Justice of God still remains upon you I prove this latter thus He that transgresses in one point is guilty of all therefore so speak and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty Iames 2. 10 11 12. There are some that have Judgment without mercy and others that shall be judged by the Law of liberty He that allows himself to break with God in any one thing shall not be judged by the Law of liberty but shall have Judgment without mercy Therefore take heed you will have double condemnation if you love darkness rather than light that is if you allow your selves in sinful courses and turn your back upon the Grace and mercy God offers in Christ. 2. Here 's for the comfort of the godly God is just But to you also he will be merciful all his dispensations to you are Justice and Mercy mingled Psal. 116. 5. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful Not all Mercy and no Justice nor all Justice and no Mercy but so just that we may not offend so merciful that we may yet hope in him Psal. 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach Sinners in the way He is good therefore will direct you he is righteous therefore we must take his direction Nay Justice and Mercy are both for you You must not apprehend as if Mercy were for you and Justice against you No no the Justice of God is made your friend that Attribute which is most terrible in God is the pawn and pledge of thy salvation The grand enquiry of all the great Rabbies and Sophies of all the world was this How Justice should be made a friend It cannot be put out of our mind but that God is just and an Avenger of the Sinner but he is faithful and just 1 Iohn 1. 9. Just in justifying those that believe in Christ. You have a double claim and holdfast on God you may come to either Court before the Throne of his Grace and Tribunal of his Justice for there Christ interposed and satisfied the Justice of God Here the great scruple of Nature is solved that is how the Justice of God should be made our friend Nay when you are fainting and discouraged with the scorns and neglect of the World Heb. 6. 10. The just God will reward your work and labour of love which ye have shewed toward his name It may be vain in the world but not vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 59. Therefore be cheerful in your service Men are not Pay-masters but God It is a noble spirit to look for it hereafter a base spirit to look after it here They have their reward saith Christ. And then against wrongs and injuries we meet with here the just God who as he will do us no wrong himself so he will not suffer others to do us wrong without punishing of them Psal. 103. 6. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed He pities the afflictions of them that suffer unjustly and will execute Judgment for them Mark First from his pity then from his justice First From his pity Iudg. 10. 16. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel And 2 Kings 14. 26. And the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter and he saved them But how much more will he pity those that are unjustly oppressed by mens hands Acts 7. 33 34. I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people and I have heard their groaning And Isai. 63. 9. In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and pity he-redeemed them Therefore if we look upon the compassions and pities of God this may comfort us in all wrongs and injuries Then out of hatred to oppression Psal. 11. 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright So again
forth high Tides of Affection Iam. 4. 3. but few seek Grace to serve God they would make God serve with their sins These are not the Groans and Breathings of the Spirit but the Eructations and belches of the Flesh. Therefore the Vehemency of the Affection is not only to be regarded but the regularity that they be not stirred up by the Flesh but guided by the Spirit 3. 'T is not a meer natural Fervency That 's the Cry of Nature after Ease but not the Cry of Grace after God and 't is but howling in Gods Account Hosea 7. 14. The Heart is not affected with that which is the true Misery Sin and the Wrath of God nor sincerely ingaged to God from whom they expect help and then how instant and earnest soever men be to be ridd of their Burthen their Prayers are but like the Moanings of the Beasts under Pain and the howling of Dogs or the gaping of hungry Ravens Psal. 147. 'T is lawfull to ask Ease but we must ask in a spiritual manner 'T is lawful to pray for Temporal Blessings but not in the first place or with the neglect of better things Prayer properly is the vent of Grace and the desires of a renewed Heart expressed to God Zech. 12. 10. 1. Use. To Reprove most Men for their deadness and carelesness in Prayer Prayer is a part of Natural Worship All that will acknowledge God and a Providence will acknowledge a necessity of praying to God especially in their Streights The Pagan Mariners cry'd every Man to his god in a Tempest Ionah 1. 6. but though all will pray in one sort or other yet few pray in good earnest Some say a Prayer but they do not pray in Prayer Iam. 5. 17. Elijah prayed earnestly Their Prayers are conceived in a cold and customary track of Devotion Others flow in words without spirit and life their Tongue is as the Pen of a ready writer but the Heart is dead and carelesly affected for they are indifferent whether they be heard or not Prayer is indeed the work of their Invention but not the Expression of their spiritual Desire The mind conceiveth a rational Prayer but the Heart is not poured out before God and so 't is discoursing rather than Crying Words are the outside of Prayer sighs and groans lye nearer the Heart and do better discover the Temper of it and are more regarded by God than all the Charmes of speech Psal. 6. 8. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping Tears have a Language which our Father understandeth a want of Affection is more than a defect of words broken words with a spiritual Affection do more than a well set speech with unbrokenness of Heart Others have a natural fervency but not renewed affections pray from their own Interest or pray passionately for Carnal things Numb 11. 4. They fell a lusting and wept saying who will give us Flesh They may be importunate for their own Ease and Welfare give me Children or else I die saith passionate Rachel Natural desires are very passionate yea for spiritual things on their own Terms would not a man desire Pardon and Heaven whose heart doth not ingage him to look after them Some that are renewed yet are too cold in Prayer do not Cry 'T is not enough to have the Qualification of the Person but the Prayer must be qualified also Iam. 5. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be a well-wrought Prayer otherwise it availeth not yea our earnestness must encrease according to the weight and moment of what we pray for when Peter was in Prison the Church made Instant and earnest Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 12. 5. as in the Margin it is and Christ had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22. 44. But now the Children of God are Conscious to themselves of much deadness and drowsiness and are so low sometimes that they are not heard scarce breath in prayer so far from Crying But What is the Reason of this Carelesness 1. Want of Sense They have no feeling of their Wants and therefore pray perfunctorily The poor in Spirit the Mourner and Meek are put before the desirer Matth. 5. Men must be affected with their wants before they be earnest after a supply Jesus Christ was sensible of his burden and therefore he offered up Supplications with strong Crying and Tears Heb. 5. 7. and if man were once sensible of his sins by which his Saviour suffered he would be fervent in his prayers and most earnestly deprecate the wrath of God as his Saviour did A smart sense of Wants quickens prayers If we were always alike affected as we are in a deep distress or fears of Death or somenotable danger we should not need many directions to teach us to pray fervently but because such a sense is soon worn off our Prayers grow cold and careless 2. As they are Tongue-tyed through sin and carnal Liberty hath brought an indisposition upon them 1 Ioh. 3. 20 21. He that hath wronged another will not easily repair to him and crave his help in streights 3. Want of spiritual Desire Prayer is but the acting of Desire as Desire is more or less so is our Cry in Prayer He that asketh Remission of his sins but doth not thirst after it with an earnest and burning desire doth but pray for it out of Course and not as it becometh a Creature that hath a sense of Gods Anger against sin He that asketh the Mortification of sin but doth not desire it out of True Desire flowing from the hatred of sin dwelling in him doth but pray for Forms sake He that desireth the deliverance of the Church but doth not desire it out of a True Love to the Church will never pray heartily and in good earnest for it Isa. 62. 1. For Zions sake I will not hold my peace c. A man whose Soul truly loveth the Interests of the Church will be solicitous for it as Eli trembled for the Ark of God 1 Sam. 4. 13. So when at ease we ask Temporal supplies for fashions sake God must have the Name though we eat our own bread and wear our own Apparel 4. Want of Reverence to God and therefore they babble over words without sense and feeling they do not see him that is invisible Eccl. 5. 1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of God and be more ready to hear than to give the Sacrifice of Fools for they consider not that they do evil Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Therefore let thy Words be few Keep thy heart and affections when thou goest into Gods Presence a little outward Lip-service is but the Sacrifice of Fools an affront to the Power and Majesty of God Mal 1. 8. Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord
Action A Rebellion or an act of disloyalty against God yea there is not only a vertual hatred in Sin but a formal hatred not only implyed but exprest they wish there were not a God to punish them and call them to an account such a Law to forbid such Practices as they affect or that such things were not sin VVell then 't is not some kind of pleasure in the study of the VVord will shew our love to the VVord but an Impartial Intire and Uniform Obedience strictly abstaining from such things as if forbiddeth and carefully practising what it requireth at our hands 2. That our hatred of Sin must flow from such a Principle a man may hate sin upon forreign and accidental reasons and so that obstaining from sin is not a true hatred but a Casual dislike as when we forbare some sins but retain others that sute better with our Condition Callings Employment Temper or because of some difficulty in compassing shame in Practising or repugnant to our natural Temper No it must be out of a principle of Love to God Psal. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil So Psal. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love An hatred of Sin arising from love to God and his VVord is the only true hatred that 's hatred of sin as sin as 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Iohn 3. 4. A transgression of the Law as 't is ingratitude to God contrary to our Obligations to him not only as destructive to our selves not principally timore poenae but amore virtutis The VVord of God furnisheth us with divers Reasons and Arguments to move us to hate sin they all have their place but some are more Noble and Excellent than others As when a Man hateth sin because God hath forbidden it True hatred cometh from a love of the contrary therefore he that hath a vehement love to the Law hateth all things which are contrary to it Matth. 6. 20. He will hate the one and love the other There is no serving two Masters love to the one inforceth hatred of the other To love the Good and hate the Evil are inseparable 3. The more we hate Sin the more prepared we are to love the Law A carnal Heart hateth the Law Ioh. 3. 20. He that doth evil hateth the light And Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law He that doth not hate sin hateth the word of God VVe cannot delight in it till our Affections be purified and sanctified Mens evil practices and dispositions cause them to hate the Light 't is a reproving light can sore Eyes delight to look upon the Sun or an unsound heart delight in that which will so ransack and search the Conscience 4. According to the degree of Love so will the degree of our Hatred be they that have the highest love of the Law will have most hatred of Sin they hate every lesser contrariety a vain Thought Psal. 119. 113. They do not only hate open and scandalous sins but sin carried on in a more close and cleanly manner yea they groan under the Relicks of Corruption and feel it an heavy burden Rom. 7. 22 23 24. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members And then Oh wretched man that I am Next to the Object of our affection the principle or spring of it must be regarded and next to the spring and rise of it the degree must be looked after that we love the good and hate the evil proportionably that is to say that our Hatred must be proportionable to the evil of the thing hated and our love to the good of the thing loved and indeed where the one is the other will be where a great love a great hatred where a little love a little hatred Psal. 119. 127 128. I love thy commandments above gold yea above fine gold therefore I esteem thy precepts in all things to be right and hate every false way Use. Well then if we would shew our love to the Word we must truly sincerely and constantly turn from all known sin with Detestation and Abhorrence for hatred of sin is an infallible evidence of love to the Word Now hatred of sin if it be right 1. 'T is Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the whole kind as Haman thought scorn to lay hands upon Mordecai alone but sought to destroy the whole Race of the Iews Ester 3. 6. one sin is as inconsistent with the love of God as another there may be as much Contempt of Gods Authority in a sin of Thought as in a sin of Practice in a small sin as in a greater There may be much crookedness in a small line and in some Cases the Die is more than the Stuff I hate every false way 't is twice repeated in this Psalm in the 104. verse and verse 128. To hate what God hateth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil 2. 'T is Implacable it aimeth at the utter Extirpation and Expulsion of Sin they seek to remove the guilt to weaken the inclination they groan sorely under the very Being of sin that any thing of sin is left O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of death Rom. 7. 24. 3. 'T is still growing at first 't is a dubious Case men that are Convinced have some Mind to let sin go or a wish that Christ would save them from it but 't is with such Reserves that they have rather a mind to keep it than let it go As Pharaoh had no mind to dismiss Israel and therefore stood hucking with God or as David when he sent out Forces against Absalom yet be tender of the young Man Pleasing Lusts we have but a remiss Will against them our love to it is greater than our dislike of it therefore so unstable Iam. 1. 8. but when the soul is Converted the soul is armed with a resolution 1 Pet. 4. 1. Then the love of sin is weakned in their hearts and the strength and vigour of it abated the soul is armed with a serious purpose to give it up and shake off this servitude in the confidence of that Grace which is purchased for them by Christs Death there is a Godly Inclination and bent of soul to live unto God Again as our Communion with God and sense of his Love is increased in us so our hatred of sin groweth more keen and fierce when God had told what he would do for Ephraim what have I any more to do with Idols Hosea 14. 8. I have had too much to do already what any more In what proportion there is a sense of Gods Love in the same proportion an hatred of Evil. Moses when he had talked with God in the Mount at his return
purpose Acts 11. 23. if thy purposes were more full and strong and throughly bent against sin they would sooner succeed Is it the fixed decree and determination of thy Will When you are firmly resolved your Affections will be sincere and stedfast you will pursue this work close not be off and on hot and cold unstable in all your wayes your full purpose or the habitual bent of your hearts are known by your drift and scope Or it may be this purpose may be extorted not the effect of thy Judgment and Will but only thy Conscience awakened by some present fear Many are by some pangs and qualmes of Conscience frighted into some Religiousness but this humour lasts not long Psal. 78. 35 36 37. And they remembered that God was their rock and the most high their redeemer Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed to him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant In their dangers they remembered God but their hearts were not right with him Ahab in his fears had some relentings So had Pharaoh The Israelites turned to the Lord in their distress but they turned as fast from him afterwards Resolves not of love but fear So are these resolutions wrested from you by some present Terrours which when they cease no wonder that they are where they were before Violent things never hold long they will hold as long as the principle of their violence lasteth Or it may be you rest in the strength of your own Resolutions now God will be owned as the Author of all Grace who reneweth and quickeneth every Affection in us still we must have a sense of our own insufficiency and resolve more in the strength and power of God and relie upon the Grace of Jesus Christ by his Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body as knowing that without him you can do nothing neither continue nor perform our Resolutions Men fall again as often as they think to stand by their own power there is much Guile and Falshood in our own hearts we cannot trust them the Saints still resolve God assisting Psal. 119. 8. I will keep thy precepts O forsake me not utterly Verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart They beg God to keep up their Inclination and Bent against Sin Verse 36. Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousnâ—…ss 2. As to Sriving let us examine that a little if it be so serious so diligent so circumspect as it should be Certainly that is no effectual striving when you are disheartned with every difficulty for Difficulties do but influence a resolved Spirit as stirring doth the fire No question but it will be hard to enter in at the streight Gate or walk in the narrow way God hath made the way to Heaven so narrow and streight that we may the more strive to enter in thereat Luk. 13. 24. Now shall we sit down and complain when we succeed not upon every faint attempt Who then can be saved This is to cry out with the Sluggard There is a Lion in the way Should a Mariner as soon as the Waves arise and strong gusts of Wind blow give over all guiding of the Ship No he is resolved upon his Voyage To give out upon every difficulty is against all the experience and wont of Mankind Again this striving and opposing is but slight not accompanied with that Watchfulness and Resolution which is necessary Many pretend to watch against sin yet abstain not from all occasions of sin if we play about the Cockatrice hole no wonder we are bitten Never think to turn from thy sin if thou dost not turn from the occasion of them Prov. 4. 15. Go not in the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away This is a practice becoming the hatred of sin Evil Company is a Snare if thou hast not strength to avoid the occasion which is less how canst thou avoid the sin which is greater He that resolveth not to be burnt in the Fire must not come near the Flames Iob made a Covenant with his Eyes Iob 31. 1. Our Saviour taught us to pray lead us not into temptation he doth not say into sin Temptation openeth the gate to it Certainly it argueth an hanckering of mind when we dally with Temptations as the Raven when he is driven from the Carrion loveth to abide within the sent of it so they have an inclination to sin when they forbear the the practice of it 3. For Praying we oftener pray from our Memories than from our Consciences and from our Consciences Enlightened than Hearts Renewed by Grace Prayer as it is the fruit of Memory and Invention is but a few slight and formal Words said of Course a Body without a Soul As dictated by Conscience it may be retracted by the Will at noli modo Austin when he prayed against his Youthful Lusts timeâ—… ne me excluderet Deus was afraid left he should be heard too soon at best but half desires faint wishes like Balaams wish to die the death of the Righteous The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing God never made Promise that lazy wishes should be satisfied if you pray against sin with your whole heart he will hear you The great fault is the want of this thorough hatred of Sin Use. Take heed of two things 1. A secret Love to your Sins 2. A remiss Hatred against them 1. A secret Love to Sin Iob speaketh of some that hid sin as a sweet Morsel under their Tongues Iob 20. 12. loth to let a Lust go And David of regarding iniquity in our heart Psal. 66. 18. First there is a secret liking of sin which in time will prove baneful to the Soul some Lust is spared and continueth unmortified It doth not remain so much as it is reserved and there keepeth Possession for Satan This will in time eat out all our other Vertues and bring a stain upon those good properties wherewith God hath indowed us Sin was never heartily cast out therefore they are in time insnared again and drawn away by some sensitive Lure 2. A remiss Hatred of sin no there must be a Total and full Aversion Hatred and Indignation is the souls expulsive Faculty it cannot be kept in good plight without it 'T is the lively and active principle which sets the soul awork in avoiding what is hurtful to the spiritual Life it concerneth us to keep it up in strength and vigour The Reason why even Believers do so often sin through weakness is because the Will doth not so strongly dissent as it should though we do not deliberately give our assent it should more potently awaken our displeasure but certainly the reason of wilful sin is want of a strong hatred Though Convinced of Evil yet we go on like a fool to the Correction of the Stocks Prov.
Promises with a qualification Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life God hath not simply promised Blessedness but the Promise requireth a qualification and a performance of Duty in the Person to whom the Promise is made and therefore before we can have a certainty of Hope we must not only look upon the Assurance on Gods part but make out our qualification So Psal. 1. 1 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night So Psal. 119. 1 2. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart and many such places which intimate that blessedness belongeth to such as are of an holy Heart and intirely give up themselves to an holy Course that doing the Commandments uprightly and in a Gospel Sense is a necessary Condition to qualifie those Persons which shall be saved And therefore they that live in any sin against Conscience may take notice how fearful their Estate is for the present and how needful it is to begin a good course before they can have any hope toward God 2. And Partly Because true hope is operative and hath an influence this way There are two parts in Sanctification Mortification and Vivification and true Hope hath an influence upon both Mortification 1 Ioh. 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purisieth himself as he is pure that when we see God we shall be like him he that hopeth for such a pure and sinless Estate either to see God will he appear before him in his filthy Rags Ioseph washed himself when he was to come before Pharaoh so when to appear before God what with this wanton vain unclean heart We are to be like him is this to be like Christ where there is such a disproportion between Head and Members And if this hope be fixed in our hearts it will set us a purifying more and more So for Vivification it urgeth and incourageth to Obedience Tit. 2. 12 13. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present world Look backward or forward it urgeth the heart to Obedience Why backward to the duties of Holiness shall we be Lazy in his work when we expect such a great Reward 3. Because there is no such thing to damp Hope and weaken our Confidence as Sin We cannot trust him whom we have offended freely and without restraint and therefore while we please the flesh we break our Confidence Sin will breed shame and fear and 't is impossible to hope in God unless we serve him in love and seek to please him if we feel it not presently we shall feel it sin that now weakeneth the Faith which we have in the Commandments will in time weaken the Faith that we have in the Promises Every part of Gods revealed Will cometh to be tried one time or another our Confidence in Gods Mercy is not earnestly and directly assaulted till the hour of Death or the time of extraordinary Trial When the evil day cometh then the Consciousness of my own sin whereunto we have been indulgent will be of like force to withdraw our assent from Gods Mercies as the delight and pleasure we took was to cause us to Transgress his Commandments 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law 4. Because our hope is increased by our diligence in the holy life This fostereth and augments it Heb. 6. 11. And we desire that every one of you doth shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end It must needs be so for since there is a qualification the more clear our qualification is the more full is our assurance of hope and so far as a man neglects his duty and abateth in his Qualification so far doth his Assurance abate To look on one side of the Covenant is a groundless presumption 2. None do and can keep the Commandments but they that hope for Salvation This is plain from the order of the words in the Text first I hoped for thy Salvation therefore done the Commandments implying that thereby he kept the Commandments without this none can have an heart nor hand to do any thing for God Peccator saith Bernard nihil expectat indique peccator est quod bonis presentibus Non modo delectus sed etiam contentus nihil in futurum expectat He that looketh for nothing from God can never be diligent in his service nor faithful and true to him Hope 't is our strength Lam. 3. 18. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord we first begin continue and go on with God upon the hope he offereth to us Use. I. It reproveth those that hope well but take no care to do any thing for God Every one will say they must hope in God but none looketh after this lively and operative hope their hope is barren and unfruitful who are they that can make Application of the Promises 2 Tim. 4. 8. Use. II. Is to perswade us to the coupling of these two when this Conjunction is founded then are we in a right frame if we would keep the Commandments we must hope for the Salvation of God if we would hope for the Salvation of God we must keep the Commandments This is most acceptable to the Lord Psal. 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him and hope in his mercy Such as believe and fear to offend him they have acceptable Communion with him 'T is for your Comfort Acts 9. 31. 't is for the honour of Religion on the one side to avoid the carnal Confidence of Papists on the other the cold Profession of Protestants if you hope for temporal Deliverance They that make no Conscience of obeying God cannot hope for Deliverance from him for his Salvation must be expected in the way of his Precepts Psal. 37. 3. Trust in the Lord and do Good so shalt thou dwell in the land So Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Then we may commend our selves and all our Affairs to Gods care and trust it becometh them that look for Salvation and to be helped out of their troubles to be more earnest than others in keeping his Law If you would enjoy the comfortable Assurance that you shall be saved at length live so as you may never mar your Confidence 1 Pet. 1. 13. Be sober and hope to the end Live
the Necessity 2. From the Congruity and Conveniency 3. From the Utility and Profit of it 1. The Necessity of it It must needs be so that Gods wayes must be taken up upon choice because there are several Competitors that bid for the heart of Man where there is but one thing there is no choice There is the Devil by the World through the Flesh seeks to get in and reign in your Hearts and there is God Christ and the Spirit Now there must be a casting out of one and putting in the other Look as in the 9. Prov. the whole Chapter there Wisdom and the foolish woman are brought in pleading to draw in the heart of unwary man to themselves Wisdom is pleading and the foolish woman is pleading In the beginning of the Chapter Wisdom tells what Comfort what Peace they shall have if they will take her Institutions Wisdom offers solid Benefits but Folly offers stolen waters and bread eaten in secret some carnal Mirth when Conscience is asleep ay and the dead are there too The intoxicating Pleasures of this World bring Death along with them when they can choak the sentiments of God that are in his heart Whoso is simple let him turn in hither saith Wisdom and who is simple let him turn in hither saith Folly As the Poets feign of their Hercules that Vertue and Vice appeared to him and the one shewed him a rough and the other a pleasant way Certainly as soon as we come to years of discretion we come to make our choice either to go on in the ways of death or to choose the ways of God either to give up our selves to the Pleasures of sin or else to seek after the comforts of the Spirit Now since there are two Competitors for the heart of man and his love cannot remain idle it must be given to one or another Love and Oblectation cannot lie idle in the Soul either it must leak out to the World or run out to God There is a necessity of a choice of renouncing the bewitching Vanities of the World that we may seriously betake our selves to the service of God 2. Consider the Congruity and Conveniency of it both to the honour of God and nature of Man that no man should ever be happy or miserable but by his own Choice 1. 'T is not for the Honour of God that a man should be Happy or have such great Priviledges setled upon him without his own choice such great benefits as Justification Sanctification and Eternal Glory On the other side that a man should be Miserable without his knowledge or against his will or besides his purpose and consent that God should give Eternal Life whether men will or no. It is not agreeable to the Honour of God to inflict Eternal Death upon them without their consent unless they choose the ways of death Mans Heart else would have a Plea against God Certainly the wise God will never make any happy without their own consent and never make any Miserable but their Destruction is of themselves Hos. 13. 9. 2. Neither will it agree with the Nature of Man who is a reasonable rational Creature or any agent capable of Election or Choice The Brutes are rul'd with a rod of Iron God guides all things by his Providence inanimate Creatures by meer Providence Brutes by their own instinct and Man as a free Agent capable of knowing and prosecuting his Chief End Now every Creature of God is governed according to the nature which is put into it and therefore since man is a free Agent God expects in submitting to his service the Creatures consent and choice and before we can submit to his service before he will admit us to the benefits there must be a choice and an actual will on our parts Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely The business is brought home to us and left with our will If we miss of happiness it is because we would not choose it and the way that leads to it The Lord chargeth it still upon mans Will Iohn 5. 40. Luke 19. 14. Matth. 23. 37. Psal. 81. 11. our Misery is from our wilfulness But in all that are brought into Grace there is a Will 't is true but God prevents them and inclines their Will Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of grace and power You have a grant and an offer of mercy from God and then he inclines and moves you to make a right choice So that of the good and bad it may be said they have their choice If you neglect and refuse holiness you choose your own destruction and neglect life your Hearts must tell you this Thou hast been the fault of it as Plutarch brings in one Apollodorus that dreamt one night that he was boyling in a Kettle of scalding Lead and that his heart cried out to him I have been the cause of all this This Heathen improves it to shew there is a Vengeance that attends sinners I mention it only allusively Now it was your own perverse Choice and Will that made your Hell thou hast but the fruit of thine own choice Indeed as to what is good if you have chosen the Precepts of God there God must have the Glory you must say not I but Christ as the Apostle Ay but there you come in there 's an Act of your Will but as disposed and rightly enclined by God You come both to the Duties and Priviledges of Religion by a choice also though not of your selves but of God 3. Let me reason from the Utility and Benefit A man that takes up the wayes of God upon Choice 1. He is able to justifie the wayes of God for he seeth a Reason for what he chooseth When Temptations come strong there will be many mis-giving thoughts ay but then Wisdom should be justified of all her Children Matth. 11. 19. A blind accidental Love is the fruit of chance but a Love that is grounded upon knowledge and Judgment that 's choice this is so grounded therefore he seeth Reason for what he doth Phil. 1. 9 10. I pray God that your love may abound in all wisdom and understanding That ye may approve things that are excellent They see a Reason for they took it upon choice The Lord hath shewed them the worth and excellency of his wayes therefore they can better justifie God against all their prejudices 2. Such will be more firm and stedfast The cause of all halting in Religion is is the want of a Choice of a purpose resolutely set A wavering double-minded man that is half off and half on will be unstable in all his ways Iames 1. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a two-soul-man a man that seems to have a soul for God and a soul for earthly things and the heart hangs sometimes for one and sometimes for another A scoff or scorn or a little inconvenience a little fear a little enticement or stirring of
was not hearty and durable but only formal and Temporary 2 Because they take all occasions to inlarge themselves out of the stocks of Conscience and as soon as their fear is worn off away go all their Religious Pangs and thoughts of the other World and care about it How often is this verisied by daily Experience Many that were frightned into a course of Religion went on from Duty to Duty out of a Fear of being Damned but their Hearts were another way but afterwards they cast off all when they have sinned away these Fears As Herod feared Iohn and afterwards put him to death Mark 6. 19 20. Yea all the while they did good they had rather do otherwise if they durst and therefore did but watch the occasion to fly out 3 Because men of this frame dispute away Duties rather than practice them and are quarrelling at those things which the new Nature would sufficiently incline them unto if they had it In the New Testament God much trusts Love and the number and length of Duties is not stated so exactly because where the Love of God prevaileth in the Heart men will take all occasions of glorifying God and edifying themselves But when men quarrel How do you prove it to be my Duty to do so much and to give so much when the Duty its self is instituted Love will make God a reasonable allowance and not stand questioning how do you prove it to be my Duty to pray so often in my Family or in secret or hear so many Sermons which our constant necessities do loudly call for Men that have a love to a thing will take all occasions to enjoy it or be conversant about it and a willing heart is liberal and open to God and is rather disputing the restraint than the Command how do you prove it is not my Duty and is loth to be kept back from its delight 3. Some do good out of Craft and Design there is some By-end is the cause as Iehu was not so much Zealous for God as his own Interests 2 King 10. 16. And our Lord telleth us of some that make long Prayers to devour Widows Houses Matth. 23. 14. made Piety a colour and pretext to Oppression and that they might be trusted took as a shew of great Devotion And of this strain were those that followed Christ for the Loaves Ioh. 6. 20. To be fed with a Miracle and to live a life of sloth and ease God never set any good thing afoot but some temporal Interest grew upon it with which men were swayed more than with what belongeth to God Use. II. Is to perswade you to choose Gods Precepts I have chosen thy Precepts said the man of God To this end I shall give you both Motives and Directions Motives why you should choose them and then Directions in what manner things are to be attended upon in your choice First For the Motives 1. Choose them because they are Gods to whom you are indebted for Life Being and all things Shall we not obey him that made us and in whom still we live move and have our being We are debtors to him for all that we have and truly we cannot have a better Master He was angry with his People that when the Beasts would own their Benefactors that his People would not own him from whom they had all things Isa. 1. 3. The Brute-beasts the dullest of them the Oxe and the Ass are willing to serve those that feed them and pay a kind of gratitude and shall not we own God Every day your health strength and comforts come out of his hands so every nights Rest and Ease and after this can you sin against God that keeps you by Night and by day 2. These Precepts are all holy just and good What is it the Lord requires of you but to love him and serve him and fear him and forbear those things which hurt the Soul thus he speaks to Israel Deut. 10. 12. Surely these commands are not unreasonable nor grevious You dare not say sin is better that it is more profitable to please the flesh and to wallow in and seek after worldly things O why then dost thou not choose Gods Precepts before the work which Satan would put thee upon for these Precepts commend themselves by their own Evidence 3. In keeping them there 's a great deal of benefit 1. For the present there 's a deal of Comfort and Peace to be be found in the ways of God If there were no reward of Heaven yet there 's such comfort and peace that attends holy living even as heat from the fire that certainly this should draw our choice All her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3. 17. And again the Prophet tells you the fruit of righteousness is peace A man that doth evil hath a sting in his Conscience and a wound in his own Soul But every good action is followed with a Serenity of Mind and an approbation from the heart of him thar doth it Nay you shall not only have Peace but Joy in the Holy Ghost for if you walk in the fear of God you walk in the comforts of his Spirit Acts 9. 31. And the Kingdom of God stands in Righteousness and Peace ay and a distinct Priviledge Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. What 's the difference between Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Peace is a Tranquility of mind resulting from the rectitude of our actions but this joy is an impression of the comforting Spirit This Joy it hath God for its Author he puts it into our hearts therefore it will more affect us then the bare Act of our natural faculties Peace it is an acquittance from Conscience but Joy in the Holy Ghost it is and Acquittance from God who is our Supream Judge and is the beginning of that endless joy which he hath prepared for them that love him in Heaven 2. For the future and final reward that is great and glorious indeed Surely the Glory of the Everlasting Kingdom should invite us to choose Gods Precepts whatever it may cost us to keep them for in choosing Holiness you choose Life and in choosing the ways of God you choose the heavenly inheritance which is the certain end and issue of them So Prov. 8. 35 36. Whoso findeth me findeth Life and obtaineth favour of the Lord But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul all they that hate me love death Christians when you are about choosing these are the terms propounded to you and they should be seriously weighed by us Evil and Death Good and Life will you choose Sin and Death or Holiness and Life Is the Pleasures of the Flesh for a few hours better then the endless Joy of the Saints If you believe Heaven and hell as you profess to do why should you stand demurring are you content to be thrust out from the presence of the Lord with the Devil and his Angels into unquenchable
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
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
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
by mourning for this Carnal men are hot in their own cause cold in Gods Gods Children are quite otherwise cold in their own cause and hot in Gods Therefore they are deeply sensible when Gods honour is weakned Moses was the meekest man upon Earth yet he brake the Tables How doth this agree The injuries that were done to himself he could look upon with a meek quiet spirit easily put them up but when he saw the people bring dishonour to the name of God then he hath a high and deep affection They cry out Iosh. 7. 9. Lord what wilt thou do for thy great name So Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory They go to God not to advance our faction and interest we are brought very low yet the wrath of man shall praise thee Thy name is dear and precious they are sorry to see any prophane it God hath abundantly provided for their respect he hath bid all men love them when he bid us love one another So that in effect all the respects of the world are devolved upon one person And they would have all men love God and honour God Secondly It comes from their compassion and pity and love to men O it grieves them to see so many that do not grieve for themselves and their eyes are wet because yours are always dry I tell you weeping saith Paul Phil. 3. 18. Compassion over the miserable estate of such Teachers and those that are led by them they and whole Droves run after fancies that endanger their souls False Teachers and their Proselytes should not only fall under our indignation but our pity They are Monsters in nature that want Bowels much more in Grace Religion doth not harden the heart but mollifie it Jesus Christ was made up of compassion and all Christians partake of Christs spirit Phil. 1. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Iesus Christ. Pray mark Paul had got some of Christs bowels and let me tell you they were tender ones Compassion towards others and weeping over their sins is somewhat like the love of Jesus Christ. He would take our burthen upon himself when he was not interested so the spirit of Christ worketh in all his Members he hath distributed his bowels among them and therefore they cannot but long for the salvation of others yea their heart is broken and mollified with Christs compassion to them and therefore long for fellows in the same Grace Though they have received personal and private injuries yet they pity their case and mourn for them 'T is matter of humiliation and lamentation 2 Cor. 12. 21. When I come again I fear my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the fornication uncleanness lasciviousness which they have committed It is matter of grief to see so many thousands perish or in a perishing condition Thirdly This disposition cometh from the antipathy and zealous displeasure that is in their hearts against sin They know what sin is the greatest enemy that God and Christ and their own souls have in the world It was sin that made Angels become Devils it was sin that blew up the sparks of Hell fire it was sin that opposed God that crucified Christ it is sin that grieves the Spirit of God and therefore they mourn when sin gets Proselytes A man cannot endure to see a Toad or Viper near him your hearts rise when you see them creep upon another so do the hearts of the Children of God rise that their enemy and Gods should find such respect and entertainment in the world It is said of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 2. That she could not bear those which were wicked And David saith Ps. 101. 3. I hate the works of them that turn aside They know this will grieve the spirit of God that this will press him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves and shall God be pressed and burthened and they not troubled It cannot be They that love the Lord will hate evil Psal. 97. 10. both in themselves and others Fourthly This disposition comes out of a sagacity of faith and serious foresight of the effects of sin They know what sin will come to and what is the danger of it therefore when they see sin encreasing Rivers of water run down their eyes Wicked men tremble only at the Judgment of God but good men tremble at his Word and therefore they mourn when others fall into danger of the threatning When Ezra plucked his beard and was in such a zealous indignation against the sins of the people bewailing them before the Lord Ezr. 9. 4. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel At fasts others are sleight and obdurate they look on threatning as a little mock Thunder they are not sensible of the danger I may set forth this by that allusion 2 Kings 8. 11. The Prophet Elisha wept when he saw Hazael that he looked wishly on his face till he blushed The man of God wept and Hazael said Why weepeth my Lord And he answered Because I know the evil thou wilt do unto the Children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their Children and rip up their women with child and Hazael said But what is thy servant a Dog c. So when the Children of God look upon sin they know by the complexion of it what will be the dreadful effects This will be bitterness in the issue in time this will produce pestilences famine fire sword and all other mischiefs and judgments and expressions of the angry indignation of the Lord. They foresee a Storm when the Clouds are but a gathering therefore they tremble when they see them This is the sagacity of faith Now carnal men on the other side look upon the threatnings of Scripture but as words of course used as in way of policy that God only would awe and scare them but doth not purpose to condemn them But Faith is sagacious Look as to the promises Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen So as to the threatnings the same evidence of things not seen The Apostle doth not only instance when he had given the general description of the objects of hope for the recompence of reward but he instances in the threatnings Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark c. They know however men sleight the word of God one day it will be found true and therefore when they see men add sin to sin they are troubled The Word is as sure as execution and works upon them accordingly They have all things in a near view the nearer the objects of our faith are in our view the more they stir up our affections Dangers and death
when in hand and in present expectation work far otherwise than they do when they are considered at a distance So when the effects of sin are looked upon as near at hand when faith makes them present then they stir up these affections in the soul. Fifthly A fifth cause is from their publick Spirit and tender respect to the common good When they wisely foresee approaching dangers they are moved with the love and care of their Countrey and this melteth them They know sin is of a destroying nature that one sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 9. 18. One sinner may do his Countrey a great deal of mischief an open bold fac'd Sinner Achan troubled the whole Camp Iosh. 7. 11 12. much more when a multitude of Sinners are encreased therefore they sigh and mourn Godly men are the truest friends to their native soil they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel Those that plead with God stand in the Gap keep off Judgments and have the most publick spirit therefore the least they can do is to sigh for it and to plead with wicked men as Tertullian Si non vis tibi parcere parce Carthagini If thou wilt go on with thy soul-destroying course and wilt not spare thy self yet spare Carthage This will be bitterness in the issue The Children of God are always of a publick Spirit David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. Abraham prayed to God for Sodom a neighbour Countrey the godly Israelites were good friends to Babylon in their Captivity Ier. 29. 11. Seek the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried captive and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace If nothing but their interest and share in the common rest and quietness Passengers are concerned in the welfare of the Vessel wherein they are imbarked Babylon fared the better for the Jews prayers Now more especially are their hearts carried out with a respect to their native Soil and dearest comforts therefore this melteth them to see the Land defiled with sins and ready for Judgments SERMON CLII. PSAL. CXIX VER 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law USE 1. For reproof of two sorts of persons 1. Those that do not lay to heart their own sins Usually men make their affections to prescribe to their judgment and cavil at the fervorous exercises of Religion because unpleasant to flesh and blood To humble our selves before the Lord with a pressing sorrow seriously and indeed to rend our hearts and not our garments In this wanton and delicate Age men are apt to think I speak of a Theam obsolete and out of date as calculated for former times when men were more tender hearted if we could awaken some of the old godly professors out of their Graves as the Prophet calleth up Rachel to weep in Ramah for her Children Ier. 31. 15. then we might hope to prevail Alas to plead now for mourning over the sins of others when men think it a crime to mourn for their own this is like to be lost labour Were this the humour only of ungodly Wretches it might be born with silence and patience but those that would be taken for Christians of the highest form are altogether prejudiced against such Doctrines as this Men would be honeyed and oyled with Grace and distaste the wholesome discipline of repentance as too severe They cry out we are legal How may the poor Ministers of the Gospel go to God and say as Moses did Exod. 6. 12. The Children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharaoh hear me The Professors of Religion will not brook such Doctrine and how shall we hope to prevail with the poor blind carnal world To scoff at Doctrines of repentance and humiliation was once a badg of prophaneness many now adopt it into their Religion But be not deceived the Gospel doth not take away the Conscience of sin It may take away the fear of Hell and damnation upon right terms The heart of flesh is a promise and the spirit of Grace is a promise or mourning apart is a promise You that say that justified persons must no more mourn for sin you may as well say they shall no longer have an heart of flesh or a spirit of Grace and supplications that they shall no longer have a tender Conscience Be not deceived there must be some time to weep for your own sins as Peter went out and wept bitterly Sorrow must have its turn in the Christian life I would press it upon you by this Argument You cannot be sorrowful for others sins unless you be first sorrowful for your own sins Grief must begin at home there where you have the advantage of Conscience and inward remorse 'T is hypocrisie to pitch upon other mens sins and neglect our own as some will zealously declaim against publick disorders yet neglect their own hearts as the crafty Lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying to draw the Fowler from her own Nest. We have a nest of sin of our own and we are loth it should be rifled and exposed to publick view 2. It reproveth them that in times of publick defection never take care to mourn over Gods dishonour We complain and murmure under our Judgments but do not weep over our sins every person and family apart Whether it be out of negligence and carnal security or out of distaste and displeasure against the conduct of present affairs we seem to have lost our publick affections and can only wonder at the Children of God in former times since they were so broken and tender To many that would now go for Professors this Doctrine seemeth a Riddle a mere strain of wit and fancy like a precept wire-drawn or elevated beyond its pitch and tenour But in the fear of God consider what hath been spoken There are many abuses in our reflections upon the sins of others Wicked men are quite otherwise disposed they do not only do evil themselves but take pleasure in those that do so Rom. 1. 32. would be glad that sin were more common that it might be less odious and then there would be none to put them to the blush Prov. 2. 14. It is said they rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked So the Prophet speaks of some corrupt men in the Priesthood They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. God had appointed those that served at the Altar should live of the Altar have a proportion of those Offerings Now they flattered them in their sins so they might have meat and get a portion of the Sacrifices Many that would be accounted Ministers care not for the sins of the people but think the less serious men are in Religion the better they can work them to their private advantages and have more respect among them Then there are some