subjects of mercy that are the nearest to mercy when their conscience is awakned they think themselves furthest off and we have need to presse abundance of mercy and all little enough to set the soul in frame There is none of us all but we shall see a necessity of pressing this one time or other before we die David when he had sinned he knew well enough that God was merciful oh but it was not a slight mercy that would satisfie him as we see Psal. 51. how he presseth upon God for mercy and will a little serve him No according to thy abundant mercy he presseth mercy and abundance of mercy a multitude of mercies and unlesse he had seen infinite mercy abundant mercy in God when his conscience was awaked with the foulness of his sin there being such a crie for vengeance his sinne called and cried if the blood of Christ had not cried above it mercie mercie and abundance of mercy multitudes of compassion the soule of David would not have been stilled So other Saints of God when they have considered the foulnesse of sin how odious it is to God they could not be quieted and comforted but that they saw mercie and abundance of mercie As the Apostle St. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who of his abundant mercie hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance immortall c. God is the Father of mercies For faith will not have sufficient footing but in infinite mercy in the time of despaire in the time of torment of conscience in the time of desertion it must be mercie and the Father of mercies and multitudes of compassions and bowels of love and all little enough for faith to fix on the faith of a conscience on the rack but when faith considers of God set out not as Satan sets him forth a God of vengeance a consuming fire when faith considers God pictured out in the Gospel it sees him the Father of Christ and our Father and the Father of mercies and God of comfort faith seeing infinite mercy in an infinite God and seeing mercy triumph against Justice and all other attributes here faith hath some footing and staies it selfe or else the converted sanctified soul seeing the odiousnesse of sinne and the clamorousness of sinne such that it will not be satisfied but with abundant mercy and God must be presented to it as a father of mercie and compassion before it can have peace Therefore if so be at any time our conscience be awakened and the Devill layes hard to us let us think of God as he hath made himself knowne in his Word as a Father of mercies and God of comfort represent him to our soules as he represents himself in his Word Times of desertion when we seeme to be forsaken of God will enforce this times of desertion will come when the soul will think God hath forgotten to be merciful and hath shut up his love in displeasure oh no he is the Father of mercie he never shuts up his bowels altogether he never stops the spring of his mercie He doth to our feeling but it is his mercie that he doth that it is his mercie that he hinders the sence of mercy he doth that in mercy it is to make us more capable of mercie afterward Therefore saith the Father when he comes to us in his love and the sence of it it is for our good and when he takes the sence of his love from us it is for our good for when he takes away the sence of his love from us it is to enlarge our soules to be more capable of mercie after to prize it more to walk warily and jealously to look to our corruptions better Therefore in the time of desertion think of this when God seemes to forget us Can a Mother forget her Child Isa. 49. 15. Suppose she should be so unnatural as to do it which can hardly be believed that a Mother should forget her child Yet notwithstanding I will not forget you you are written upon the palmes of my hands that is I have you alway in my eye So that if there were no mercies to be found in nature no bowels to be found in a Mother where usually they are most abundant yet notwithstanding there is mercie to be found in the Father of Mercies still Therefore in such times let us make use of this And another thing that we ought to learne hence is this if God be so in Christ Jesus for we must alway put that in for he is mercifull with satisfaction and yet it is his mercie that he would admit of satisfaction his mercy devised a way to content justice his mercy set all on work mercy is above justice in the work of Salvation justice hath received contentment from mercy but that by the way to make us have higher thoughts of mercy then any other attribute of God in the Doctrine of the Gospel in that Kingdom of Christ it is a Kingdom of Grace and mercy if we have hearts to imbrace it Let this incourage us to come to God and to cast our selves into the arms of this merciful Father If we have lived in other courses before let the mercy of God work upon our souls In Rom. 2. it is pressed there excellently This mercy of God should lead us to repentance it should encourage us What makes a Thief or a Traitor come in when there is proclamation out against him If there be a pardon sent after him it makes him come in or else he runs out still further and further while the hue and cry pursues him but hope of mercy and pardon will bring him in again So it is that that brings us in again to God the very hope of mercy and pardon if we be never so ill or have been never so ill do not put off but take this day now Now is the time now while it is called to day take the present time Here is our error if God be the Father of mercy I will cry him mercy at the hour of death I thou maiest go to hell with mercy in thy mouth he is merciful to those that truly repent but how dost thou know that thy repentance on thy death-bed will be true It is not sorrow for sicknesse and grief for death and fear of that but there must be a hatred of sin and how shall conscience tell thee now thou hast repented that it is a hating of thy sinful courses rather then the fear of damnation that is rather from the sence of grief Conscience will hardly be comforted in this for it will upbraid I now now you would have mercy We see by many that have recovered again that have promised great matters in their sicknesse that it is hypocritical Repentance for they have been worse after then they were before It is not a sufficient matter to yeeld
it breeds discomfort and is terrible that way Again in death we leave those that cast their care upon us we leave oft times Wives and Children without Husband or Father those that had dependance upon us and this must needs work upon nature upon a right principle of nature indeed the excesse of it is with corruption alway Again in death there is great pain They say Births are with great pangs and so they are Now death is a birth the birth of immortality no wonder then if it have great pangs therefore nature fears it even for the pangs the concomitants that are joyned with it And then in death nature considers the state of the body presently after death that that goodly body that strength and vigour I enjoyed before must now be wormes-meat I must say to the worm Thou art my brother and to corruption Thou art my mother and the like as it is in Job That head that perhaps hath ruled the Common-wealth the place where I lived it must lie level with others and that body that others were inamoured with it must now be so forlorn that the sight of it will not be indured of our best friends Nature considers what the estate will be there that it shall turn to rottenesse ere long that the goodliest persons shall be turned to dust and lie rotting there till the day of the Resurrection Faith and Grace looks higher but because we have nature as long as we are men these and such like respects work upon nature and make death grievous But besides the glasse of nature and these things here in the World look upon it in the Law of God in that glasse and so nature trembles and quarrels at death Death what is it It is the wages of sin it is the end of all comfort and nature cannot see any comfort after that it is beyond nature Nature teacheth us not that there will be a Resurrection of the body nature teacheth not that the soul goes to God here must be a great deal of Grace and a great deal of Faith to convince the soul of this nature teacheth it not Now when besides this the Law of God comes and faith Death came in by sin and sin is the sting of death death is armed with sin and sin comes in with the evidences of Gods anger here unlesse there be Faith and Grace a man is either as Nabal a stone and a fot in death or as Judas and Cain swallowed up with despaire It is impossible for a man that is not a true Christian that is not a good man but that either he shouldbe as a stone or desperate in sicknesse and Death without Grace he must be one of them If he be a wise man he cannot but despair in the hour of Death For is it a matter to be dallied with or to be carried bravely out as your Roman spirits and Atheists think they account it a Glory to die bravely in a stout manner Is it the terrible of terribles so to be put off when all the comforts in this world shall end and all imployments cease when there is eternity before a man and after death hell and eternall damnation of body and soul Are these matters to be slighted it would make a man look about him if a man have not faith and Grace he must eitherr despaire or die like a stone none but a good Christian can carrie himself well in the hour of death nay a good Christian is sensible of death and till he see Gods time is come he labours to avoid it by all meanes as St. Paul doth here But St. Paul had another ground beyond nature to avoid Death He knew himself ordained for the service of the Church therefore he desired to escape that he might serve God a longer time for the good of his Church Are Gods Children sensible of Death and the danger of it and out of a principle of nature and Grace too How then should carnall wretched men look about them that have not made their accounts even with God the report of Death to them should be like the hand-writing upon the wall to Belteshazer it should make their knees beat together and make their countenance pale it should strike them with terrour and like Nabal make their hearts to die as a stone within them But it is a Use of comfort to poore deluded Christians they think alas can my estate be good I am afraid of Death I tremble and quake at the name of Death I cannot endure to hear of it but it most of all affects me to see it therefore I fear I have no Grace in me I fear I have no faith in me Be not discomforted whosoever thou art that sayest so if thou labour to strengthen thy faith and to keep a good conscience for thou mayest do thus out of a principle of nature nature trembles at Death A man may do two things from diverse principles from diverse respects both without sin For example in fasting nature without sin desireth meat or else fasting were not an afflicting of a mans body but Grace that hath another principle and that desires to hold out without sustenance to be afflicted so here is both a desire and not a desire and both good in their kind So a man in the time of sicknesse and death he may by all meanes desire to escape it and tremble at it out of a principle of nature but out of a higher principle he may triumph O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory and they that believe in Christ shall never die We are in heavenly places together with Christ we are as sure of heaven as if we were there So out of such kind of principles we may triumph over Death by Faith and Grace So let none be discouraged nature goes one way and faith and grace another a man may know when it is nature and when it is grace when grace subdues nature and subordinates it to a higher principle a man need not be much troubled Christ himself our head he was afraid of death when he looked on death as death but when he looked upon death as a service as a redemption as a sweet sacrifice to God so with a thirsting I have thirsted saith he he thirsted after death in that respect looking to his humane nature to the truth of his manhood then saith he Oh that this cup might passe from me but in another consideration he willingly gave his soul a sacrifice for sin to God The desire is as the objects are presented let heaven and happinesse be presented so death is a passage to it so death is the end of misery and the beginning of happinesse so Gods Children desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ as St. Paul did But look upon death otherwise as it is an enemy to nature as it is a stop of all imployment in this world and of all service
death in our selves St. Paul dyed not now and he had the Spirit of God in him to know what he spake how doth this agree then that he had the sentence of death passed I answer St. Paul spake according to the probability of second causes according to the appearance of things and so he might pronounce of himself without danger as being no sinfull errour that indeed I am a dead man I see no hope of escaping if I look to the probabilitie of second causes all my enemies are about me I am in the Lyons mouth there is but a step between me and death He doth not look here to the decree of God but he looks to the disposing of present causes So Gods ' children are often deceived in themselves in that respect it is no great errour for it is true what they speake in regard of second causes though it be not true in regard of Gods decree The Objections being satisfied we may observe some points of doctrine And out of the first part of St. Paul's tryall which some take it to be that in Acts 19. At Ephesus Dimetrins the Smith raised up a trouble against him when they cryed out Great is Diana of the Ephesians but those are but conjectures It may be it was some great sickness it may be some other affliction the Scripture is silent in the particular what it was To come then to the points themselves In the first part this is considerable in the first place that God suffers his Children to fall into extream perils and dangers And then secondly that They are sensible of it For the first God suffers his children to fall into great extremities This is clear here we see how he riseth by degrees We were pressed above measure above strength that we even despaired of life we received the sentence of death in our selves He riseth by five steps to shew the extremity that he was in This is no new thing that God should suffer his Children thus to be exercised It is true in the head it is true in the body and it is true of every particular member of the body It is true of our head Christ Jesus himself we see to what exigences he was brought in what danger of his life oft-times he was as when they would have cast him down from the mount Luke 4. and when in apprehension of his Fathers wrath he sweat water and blood in the garden and on the Crosse cryed out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me none was ever so abased as he was he humbled himself to the death of the Crosse nay lower then the Crosse he was in captivity in the grave three dayes They thought they had had their will on him there they thought they might have trampled on Christ and no doubt but the Divel triumphed over the grave and thought he had had him where he would but we see afterward God raised him again gloriously Now as the head was abased even unto extremity So it is true of the whole body of the Church from the beginning of the world The Church in Egypt was in extremity before Moses came therefore a learned Hebrician Capne that brought Hebrew into these western parts was wont to say When the tale of brick was doubled then comes Moses that is in extremity when there was no remedy then God sent them deliverance In what a pittiful case was the poor Church and people of God in Hesters time there was but a haires breadth between them and destruction it was decreed by Haman and they had gotten the Kings decree too they were as it were between the hammer and the anvil ready to be crushed in pieces presently had not God come between And so in Babylon the Church was in extremity insomuch as that when deliverance was told them they were as men that dream as if there had been no such matter they wondred at it And so in the times of persecution God hath suffered his Church to fall into extream danger as now at this time the Church is in other parts I might draw this truth along through all Ages It is true of the whole body of the Church It is true likewise of the particular members Take the principall members of it you see Abraham before God made good his promise he was brought to a dry body and Sarah to a dead womb that they despaired of all second causes And David though God promised him a Kingdom yet he was so straitned that he thought many times he should have died I said in my haste All men are liars they tell me this and that but there is nothing so he was hunted as a Partridge in the wildernesse It was true of St. Paul we see what extremity he was brought unto as the Psalmist saith Psal. 118. I was afflicted sore but I was not delivered to death Even as we say only not killed It is and hath been so with all the members of the Church from Abel to this day sometime or other if they live any long time they shall be like Moses at the Red-Sea we see in what a strait he and his company was there there was the Egyptians behind them the Mountaines on each side of them the Red-Sea before them what escaping was here for Moses so it is with the poore Church and Children of God oft-times there are dangers behind them and perils before them and troubles on all fides God brings them so low as deaths doore sometimes by sickness as there is an instance in Psal. 107. of those that go down to the sea in ships He brings them to deaths door saith the Psalmist What is the reason that by persecution and afflictions by one grievance or another God brings his Children to such a low ebb The reasons are many The first may be he will thus trie what mettle they are made of light afflictions light crosses will not trie them throughly great ones will Jonas that slept in the Ship he fals a praying in the Whales belly he that was pettish out of trouble and fals a quarrelling with God himself in trouble he fals to praying when he was in the bottom of hell as he saith himself Little afflictions may stand with murmuring and repining but great ones trie indeed what we are what we are in great afflictions he are indeed Againe To trie the sincerity of our estate to make us to know our selves to make us known to the world and known to our selves what good we have and what ill we have A man knows not what a deal of loosness he hath in his heart what a deal of falseness till we come to the cross to extremity Whereas before I thought I had had a great deal of patience a great deal of faith and a great deal of heavenly mindedness now I see I have not that store laid up as I thought I had And somtime a man is deceived on the contrary I thought I
uncharitable men judge amiss of the generation of the righteous Whereas they should set the Court in their own hearts and begin to censure there and to examine themselves they goe out and keep their Court abroad but I say passe not a harsh censure upon others or on thy selfe no not for extream dangers for God now is making way for great comfort let God go on his way without thy censuring of him Again This should teach us that we should not build overmuch confidence on earthly things on the things of this world neither on health of body or on friends or on continuance of life alas it is Gods ordinary course to strip us of all in this world we think of great reputation but saith God I will take that from you you shall learn to trust in me You think you have strong and vigorous bodies and you shall live long and therefore you will venture upon such and such courses I but God suffers his children to come to extream dangers and hazards that they think the sentence of death is passed upon them And since this is Gods course with the body and with the Members and with our head Christ himself shall we think to have immunitie and to escape and not looke to Gods order The Church is in great miserie and we are negligent in prayer we think there are many good people and there is strong munition c. As if when Gods people are in security and forget him and his blessings it were not his course to strip them of all to suffer them to fal into extream dangers have we not the Church before our eyes to teach us Let us trust therefore in nothing in this world So much for that point The second thing in the first part is this that As Gods Children are brought to this estate so they are sensible of it They are flesh and not steele they have not the strength of steele as Job saith they are men they are not stones they are Christians they are not Stoicks Therefore St. Paul as he was in extremity so he apprehended his extremity and with all his heart he would have escaped if he could he looked about to all evasions how he might escape death Gods children are sensible of their crosses especially they are sensible of death as he speaks here of himself We despaired even of life it self The word is very significant in the originall we were in such a strait that we knew not how to escape with life so that we despaired of life we would have escaped with our lives but we saw no way to escape To make this clear there are 3. things in Gods Children There is Grace Nature Corrupt nature nature with the tang of Corruption Grace that looks upward to glorie and comfort Nature looks to the present grievance nature looks not to things to come to matters revealed in the Word to supernatural comforts nature looks to the present crosse even nature without sin Corrupt nature feeles and feeles with a secret murmuring and repining and heavinesse and dulnesse as indeed corrupt nature will alway have a bout in crosses it will alway play its part first or last There are alway these three works in the Children of God in all extremities Grace works and that carries up up still trust in God it looks to heaven it looks to the end and issue that all is for good Nature it fills full of sense and pain and makes a man desire remedy and ease Corrupt nature stirs a man up to fret and say what doth God mean to do thus it stirs a man oft-times to use ill meanes indirect courses St. Paul was sensible from a right principle of nature and no doubt here was some tang of corruption with it he was sensible of the fear of death Adam in innocencie would have been affected and exquisitly sensible no doubt if his body had been wronged for the more pure the complexion the more sensible of solution as Physicians say when that which should be knit together if any thing be loosed by sicknesse or by wounds that should by nature not be hurt but continue together it breeds exquisite pain As to cut that which should not be cut to disjoyn that which should be together this is in nature The Schoolemen say and the reason is good that Christs paines were the greatest paines because his senses were not dulled and stupified with sensuality or indirect courses he had a body of an excellent temper and he was in the perfection of his years when he died therefore he received such an impression of grief in his whipping and when he was crowned with thornes that was it that made him so sensible of grief that when he sweat he sweat drops of blood and upon the crosse it made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Gods Children out of a principle of nature are sensible of any grievance to this outward man of theirs to the body especially in death as we see here St. Paul And there is most patience where there is most sense it is stupidity and blockishnesse else Why are Gods Children so sensible in grief especially in death Oh there is a great cause indeed in some regards they are not afraid of it for death is an enemy to nature it is none to Grace but when I speake not of Grace and Glory but of nature hath not nature great cause to tremble at death when it is an enemy to nature even to right nature It is the King of fears as Job saith it is that Tyrant that makes all the Kings of the earth to tremble at him when death comes it is terrible why because it strips us of all the contentments of this life of all comforts whatsoever we have here Nature without â—…n is sensible of earthly comforts that God hath appointed for nature and when nature sees an end of them nature begins to give in and to grieve Again death parts the best friends we have in this world the body and the soul two old friends and they cannot be parted without exquisite grief If two friends that take contentment in each other common friends cannot part without grief how shall these bosom-friends these united friends body and soul part without grief This marriage between the soul and the body cannot be disunited without exquisite pain being old acquaintance Again nature abhors death it hinders us of all imployment it hinders of all service of God in Church and Common-wealth And so grace which is beyond nature doth a little desire the continuance of life But nature even out of no sinful principle it sees that now I can serve God no longer I can do God no more service I can do good no longer in this World and therefore it takes it to heart Our Savour saith While you have light walke the night cometh when no man is able to work the night of sicknesse and death So
he not onely greives but with Achitophel he goes to ill courses it is a sign he trusted too much and too basely to them before Again when the enjoying of these things is joyned with contempt and base esteem of others it is a sign that we rest too much in them there is more trust put to them then they should bear we should not in the enjoying of honour or riches or pleasures or any thing think the meaner of others Especially security shewes that we trust too much in them when we bless our selves I shall do well Soul soul thou hast goods laid up for many years saith the foole and he was but a foole for it to promise certainty for uncertainty A man cannot stand in that which cannot stand it self to promise life in a dying condition to promise any thing in this world when the very nature of them is uncertain Thou foole saith the Scripture If his soul had been so full of faith as his Barnes were of Corn he would never have said Soul soul take thy rest for these things but he would have trusted in God It is a sign we trust too much to these things when we secure our selves all will be well and blesse our selves as the Scripture speaks Again it is a sign we trust too much to these things when upon confidence of these things we go to ill and unwarrantable courses and think to be born out by these things As when the younger sort shall pour forth themselves to vanity and are carelesse of swearing and licentiousnesse that they care not what to do they shall live long enough to repent c. This is a diabolicall trust that God will give them no security in So when men that have riches will venture on bad causes and think to carrie it out with their purse they trust in matter of oppression and think to bear out the matter with their friends or with their place or with their wits this is false trust Thy wisdom hath caused thee to rebell as the Prophet saith concerning Babylon they thought they had reaching heads and so ventured upon rebellious courses When any of these outward things draw us to unwarrantable unjustifiable courses it is a sign we plant too much confidence in them and it is a sign if we belong to God that he intends to crosse us in them The very confidence in these things hath drawn many to ill courses to do that that they should not do as good Josias Hezechias David and the rest Thus we see how we should examine our selves whether we trust too much in these things or no. Now since we are thus prone to this false confidence and since we may thus discern it if we discerne it in our selves how shall we cure it That in the next doctrine That we might not trust in our selves From whence observe It is a dangerous state to trust in our selves This ill disposition to trust in our selves or any thing out of our selves but onely in God in whom we should trust it is dangerous For a man may reason thus from the text That which God is forced to take such desparate courses for as to bring such an excellent man as St. Paul to such extremity and all that he should not trust in himself that he was not onely prone to but it was a dangerous estate for him but God brings him to deaths doore that he received the sentence of death that he might not trust in himself that he might see the nothingnesse of all things else therefore it was a dangerous estate for him to trust in himself It is ill in respect of God Our selves In respect of God to trust to our selves or the creature is to Idolize our selves or the creature we make an Idol of the thing we trust in we put God out of his place and set up that we trust in in Gods roome and so provoke God to jealousie VVhen men shall trust their wits in matters of Religion as in Popery they do they serve God after their own inventions what a dishonour is it to God as if he were not wise enough to prescribe how he will be worshipped Go after me Satan saith Christ to Peter he calls him Divell why what hurt was it he came with a good intention That which Popery think they please God most in they are Divells in and these things that they teach are the doctrines of Divells But the wisdom of the flesh is death it is not subject to the law of God nor can be subject saith the Apostle Rom. 8. So it is dangerous because it is offensive to God There is a way that seemeth right in a mans own eyes the issues whereof are the issues of Death It is Idolatry in regard of God And it is spirituall Adultery for what should take up our affections should we not place our joy our delight which follows our trust alway for trust carries the whole soul with it what should take up our joy and delight should not God and Heaven and Heavenly things should not these things have place in our hearts as they have in their own worth when we take these affections from God and place them upon the creature they are Adulterous affections when we love riches or pleasures better then God that gave us all it is an Adulterous whorish Love Oh ye Adulterer s and Adulteresses saith blessed St. James know ye not that the love of this world is enmity with God It is likewise falshood for it makes the creature to be that that it is not and it makes God that which he is not we despise him and set up the creature in his roome There is a false witnesse alway in false confidence indeed there are many sins in it There is Ignorance not knowing the creature to be so vain as it is there is Ignorance of God not knowing him to be All in all as he is And there is rebellion to trust in the Creature when God will not have it trusted in And there is impatience when these supports are taken away then men grow to murmuring There is almost all sins hidden in self-confidence and self-sufficiencie you see the danger of it to God Besides that it is dangerous to our selves it brings us under a curse Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his armes Jer. 17. that trusts in any thing but God It brings us under a curse as I said because it is Idolatry and spiritual Adultery And then again because leaning to a false prop that being taken away that shored us up before down we fall with that we leaned on Now all things but God being vanity we relying upon that which is vain our trust is vain as the thing is vain we can hope for no better condition then the things we trust to they are vain and we are vain so there is a curse upon them Therefore we have great cause to hate
Parasites that when God calls them to stand for true causes what do they make their rule Not Gods constant yea but they bend and bow to opinion as if the opinion of any man in the World were the rule of their faith and obedience This is to make men and no men Is not the written Word of God the VVord of God Is not the law the law politike lawes I speak not of shall a man yield to mens opinion especially if the VVord do not warrant it shall he yield to any man living that is inconstant by his disposition There is truth which is certain that a man must maintain to the Death He is not onely a Martyr that maintaines Religion John Baptist was a Martyr that stood out in a matter that was not against heresie but for the standing out against Herod he did not yield as many thousands would have done in such a case Thou must not have thy Brother Philips wife it is unlawful Men ought to suffer for the truths of nature and not deny truth whatsoever because it is a Divine sparkle from God If it be any truth whatsoever it must be stood in because it is constant and it is the best thing in the world next to Divine and saving truth If this be so that the Gospel and Divine truth be yea and that the Church at all times hath been built on that and that whosoever is saved is saved by that yea Let us labour to have a faith answerable to our truth We say and distinguish well there is a certainty of the thing and a certainty of the mind apprehending the thing It is certain the Sun is bigger then the earth but you shall never perswade a simple Countrey-man that it is so There is a certainty of the object but not of the subject he will never believe it because it is against sense But now there must be both in a Christian. The Apostles doctrine the truth he doth believe the truth in the Scripture is yea that is it is certain and true and not yea and nay it is not flexible it is not as the Heathen Oracles were that is doubtful and wavering Let our assent be answerable to the truth let us build soundly on a sound foundation As a Ship that is to rest in the middest of the waves there is a double certainty necessary that the Anchor-hold be good in it self and that it be fastned upon somewhat that is firm if it be a weak anchor or if it be fastned upon gound that will not hold the Ship is tossed about with waves and so split upon some rock or other So our soules require a double certainty we must have an Anchor of faith as well as an object of faith we must have an Anchor of hope as well as an object For the object we may cast Anchor there it is Divine truth which will hold there is no doubt of that it is yea but then our Anchor must be firm our faith and affiance Let us labour to build soundly and strongly upon it It should be our endeavour continually to stablish our faith to stablish our hope that we may know on what terms we live and on what terms to dye Do but consider the difference between an understanding strong Christian and another A Christian that is judicious and understanding ask him in what estate he is why comfortable what is the ground of his faith why thus I live in no known sin I confesse my sins to God my doctrine is yea and I labour to bring my life to my doctrine Ask another What do you mean to live so loosely and carelesly why will you stand thus will you be content to die so perhaps he doth not know sound doctrine or if he do it is confusedly he doth not build on that rock on that foundation O let us labour to build stronger and stronger on the truth Our building strongly makes us eternal Gods truth is eternal truth because it makes us eternal Is it not a strange thing that man that is chaffe and vanity and smoak whose life passeth as a tale that is told that yet notwithstanding if he build on this yea which is certain and infallible the doctrine of the Gospel it will make him a rock a living stone it will make him eternal All flesh is grasse but the Word of God endures for ever What a comfort is this our life being a vapour and vanity and growing to nothing that the time will shortly come when we shall be no more no more in this world then to have Divine truth that will make us eternal Psal. 90. Moses a good man he saw men drop away faith he Thou art our eternal habitation from Generation to Generation What is the meaning of that That is We dwell in thee here in our Pilgrimage to Canaan we drop away but Thou art our habitation from Generation to Generation So when a Christian considers his life is uncertain all things are vanity that support this life yet notwithstanding I have a yea to build on the Divine truth The Word of the Lord endures for ever and it will make me endure for ever It is a Rock it self it makes me a Rock it will make me a living stone built on that foundation that all the gates of hell shall not prevail against my faith and hope What a comfort is this We have nothing without this Yea we are yea and nay and our happinesse is yea and nay we are so happy now as we may be miserable to morrow Let us labour to build on Divine truth which is like it self that in all the Changes of the world we may have somewhat that is unalterable that is as unchangeable as God himself As S. Paul here brings God himself As God is true my word to you was not yea and nay but yea So much shall suffice for that Verse I go on to the 20. Verse VERSE XX. For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen THis comes in after this manner My Preaching to you saith he was invariable and constant because Christ himself is alway yea if Christ the matter of my preaching be alwayes yea and I preach nothing but Christ then my preaching is invariable and constant How doth he prove the minor how doth he prove that Christ is alway yea All the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen Christ is invariable and my preaching of him was not yea and nay Christ is not yea and nay because all the Promises of God in him are Yea and Amen The Promises of God in him are Yea that is they are constant and in him they are Amen There is some diversity in reading the words But most constantly the best Expositors have it as this Translation hath it All the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen The literal meaning is this All the Promises of God in Christ are Yea that is they are
him mystically as the Son of his love so the promises are made and given over to him of all good he takes all the promises of good from God for us and then they are made to us as we are in him He himself is the first promise that runs along in all the Scripture and all the promises of Christ are yea for whatsoever was promised of Christ before he came it was fufilled when he came for all types were fulfilled in him and all Prophecies and all promises they were all accomplished in him All types whether personal or real For personall types he was the second Adam Adam was a type of him he is the true Adam He was the true Isaac the ground of laughter He is the true Joseph advanced now to the kingdome to the right hand of God he is the steward of his Church to feed his Church here and bring her to Heaven with himself afterward He is the true Joshua that brought Israel out of the wildernesse to Canaan he brings us from Moses from the law to heaven he is the true Joshua that brings us through Jordan from death and miseries in this world to heaven He is the true Solomon the Prince of peace so all personal types of Kings and Priests as Aaron was a type of him c. they were yea in him they were fulfilled in him And all reall types he is the true Mercie-seat wherein God would be heard and prayed unto for he covers the Law the curse of it as the Mercie-seat did He is the true brazen Serpent that whosoever looks on him with the eye of faith shall not perish but have everlasting life He is the true Mannah the bread of life that type had its yea in Christ. He is the true sacrifice the Passeover Lambe the Lambe of God that takes away the sins of the world if our hearts be sprinkled with his blood the destroying Angell hath nothing to do with us The Passeover hath its yea in him therefore that which is affirmed of the Passe-over is affirmed of him Not abone of it shall be broken that is attributed to Christ that was performed in the type that is applied to Christ that was spoken of the Passeover to signifie the identitie of the type and the thing signified He was the yea of that of all comfortable types that were real personal all have their yea in him Therefore saith our Saviour Christ the last words of his almost upon the crosse All is finished all the types real and personal And all promises and prophecies have their yea in Christ. The first promise what was it but Christ The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head it was nothing but Christ it was yea when he was born and when he died he crushed the Serpents head By death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the divel So the promise that was renewed to Abraham In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed that is in Christ. And so to David that he should come out of his family And that particular promise of I say that a Virgin should conceive And the Baptist points him out Behold the Lamb of God All the particular things that befel Christ in time they were prophesied of before and Christ was the yea of all that is all had their determinate truth in Christ when he came This is one reason why S. Paul saith All the promises in Christ are yea whatsoever was promised concerning Christ or foretold it was yea in him concerning his birth and the place of it concerning his death and the manner of it concerning his resurrection and ascension concerning his offices all was foretold as we see in Scripture in the New Testament it is the foot of diverse verses that It might be fulfilled so this that was foretold in the Old it was fulfilled in the New So Christ is the first promise and whatsoever was said of him is Yea and Amen Whatsoever was spoken of Christ it was Yea in the Old Testament and Amen in the New it was made to them in the Old Testament and performed in the New And what is the Old and New Testament but this syllogisme He is the Blessed seed that is the Son of the Virgin Mary born in Bethlehem that shall come in the end of Daniels weeks that shall come when the Scepter shall be departed from Juda c. He is the true Messias the true Christ saith the Old Testament here is the yea Amen saith the New Testament to this But Christ is the Son of the Virgin Mary he suffered these things that it might be fulfilled so all is Amen in the New Testament I say this is the main reason that all is built on He in whom all these agree is the true Messias But saith the New Testament all these are Amen in Christ therefore Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary he is the true Messias We see whatsoever was prophesied concerning Christ himself was yea And not onely so but all the prerogatives and good things that come by Christ are yea they are undoubted in Christ and they were yea before he was he profitted before he was he was yea to Adam because however he that was the seed of the woman came not till the latter end of the World till 4000. years after the beginning or thereabouts yet the faith of Adam and of Abraham made him present Abraham saw Christs day and rejoyced There was a vertue from Christ to all former ages they all had benefit by Christ as it is proved at large Heb. 11. And in Acts 15. We hope to be saved by Christ as well as they insinuating that they hoped to be saved by Christ as well as we so he was yea for comfort to all that were before him as well as now all the promises were yea even to the Patriarchs and Prophets Even as if a man should undertake three or four years hence to pay a debt that is due by one that is subject to be carried to prison and on that condition that this man shall be freed I undertake at such a time to pay such a debt so though the debt be paid three or four years hence he is let go free that was obnoxious to go to prison for the debt though it be to be paid after So it was with Christ he the second person in the Trinity undertook being so appointed by God the Father the blessed Trinity stablished this that Christ should pay the debt by death the debt to divine justice should be satisfied by the cursed death of the crosse that those that before should have gone to hell else for the debt should be all freed that had any part and interest by faith in Christ who should pay the debt afterwards Christ undertook at such a time to be incarnate and to pay it for us God the Father to whom we were obnoxious that