drinke indeed Aske among the Saints if ever any of his servants yet repented him of his condition or employment they 'l tell you that the comforts which they have in Christ are more worth than a world of sensuall delights 'T is true some prove Apostates They went out from us but they were 1 Joh. 2. 19. not of us sayes the Apostle Iohn if they had bin of us they had no doubt continued with us Doe but try once if it be not thus tast and see as the Psalmist sayes that the Lord is good You are like to Solomons buyer Ps â—4 8. Prov. 20 â—4 it is naught it is naught saith the buyer but when he is gone his way he boasteth so let what can be said in praise of Christ he is but low in your esteeme till you have made your covenant with Christ and then you boast and say you could not have thought that Christ had been so good and his wayes so sweet as now you find them then you 'l say that all his wayes are pleasant and his commandements sweeter then the Pro. 3. 17. Ps 19. 10. hony and the hony comb Be perswaded therfore beloved and set upon this work this day 't is true the heart will hold off no other is to be expected else we need not so to strive to enter in at the straight gate the Apostle Paul sayes of himselfe that when he would doe well evill was present with him it is the case of all the Rom. 7. 21. Saints of God you heard before the sinne of our own hearts will certainly oppose in any thing we doe for God Set therfore to the work and drive along the heart with violence say not you shall ne're doe good upon 't because you find your selves so listlesse and so backward make once your peace with God this work shall also prosper in your hands even the destruction of your sinnes and cleansing of your hearts from wickednesse God shall disarme that wicked and malignant party in your soules the strong holds of sinne shall fall before the weapons of our 2 Cor. 10. 4. Rom. 8. 26. Ps 57. 2 Rom. 8. 2. warfare they shall be mighty through him to overthrow all carnall reasonings and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ he 'l help your infirmities he 'l teach you how to pray and what to pray for he 'l performe all things for you he 'l dwell in your hearts and the spirit of life which is in Christ shall make you free from the law of sinne and death Oh that you did Luk. â—9 42. but know even you who are the greatest strangers unto God that live without him in the world at least in this your day though you have despis'd his mercies many yeares and would not be reformed the things which belong unto your peace how ready Christ is to receive you how sweet his embraces are how helpfull to you in his service And me thinks in case you should forget your own soule your love unto your country your desire of a good successe of that great work you have in hand should even ingage you not to rest untill ye find your sinnes are pardoned and Christ is yours this gives increase of fortitude and wisdome it makes you to be imploid for God fit to encounter Satan and histroopes and to resist the sinne of your own hearts that will betray you and the cause if it be suffer'd but whenas together with so great a blessing the salvation of your soule and life eternall is compris'd what heart would not be gain'd by such an argument and who knows but some of you the Lord hath thus ingaged in his worke that so by being thus as it were constrain'd to seeke him you may be brought to his acquaintance and an happy closing with him to eternall blisse and glory otherwise suppose you have the day yet if what hath bin said will not prevaile and you neglect your peace with God alas when you shall stand before the righteous Judge of all how sadly will the soule complaine woe is me will that cry out such pains and care was taken for my country my estate my family but none at all for me such hazzards did I runne such noble acts I did such honour and renown I got but now I see I perish and must for ever lye in hell O what pitty is it such as doe such things for God should not be saved what shall it profit a man if he gaines the whole world and lose his own Mar. 8. 36. foule And let me adde yet one thing more either make your peace with God this day or else this worke which here you are about will no way prosper with you this your comming here together will not be for the better but the worse by such fasting and praying 1 Cor. 11. you shall lose much of the tendernesse of your hearts and set your selves at greater distance from repentance You heard before what God sayes by his Prophet The wayes of the Lord are right and the Hos 14. 9. righteous shall walke in them that is they shall goe on and prosper they shall not be the worse for prayer nor hearing of the word nor any duty but the trnsgressours shall fall therein The good Lord deliver us from such a doome I will stay no longer in this exhortation the Lord perswade your hearts to listen to it Vse 2 Is it so that the work of God doth prosper best in those mens hands whose peace is made with him then having made your peace take heed that in your doing of his worke it be not broken It is true that ordinarily what care you take in seeking to be reconcil'd you 'l take to keep it being gotten because thereby your strength and resolution will increase the having of a pardon teacheth us to prize it therfore I said before that such the Lord may trust in doing of his worke but yet because of humane frailty since there is flesh as well as spirit in the best there is also place for this advise beware that what ye doe for God ye doe it so as you offend him not in doing of it Three wayes especially that may be done 1. It will offend him much if you especially in matters of Religion take up things on trust from men and shall not search into the truth your selves and labour by your own light to discern the mind of God Call no man your Father upon earth saith Christ Mat. 23. 9. not but that our parents must be honoured our Saviour meanes not them it 's meant in matters of faith that no man should impose upon us by his own or any mans authority therefore it follows neither be ye called Master that is expect it not from others that they should take up things on trust from you our Saviour addes the reason v. 9. for sayes he ye have one Master even Christ that is his word
with the Prophet Isaiah what complaints Isa 6. 5. to 8. he makes of his unfitnesse for the office and imployment of a Prophet Woe is me saith he I am undone because I am a man of uncleane lips God doth but assure him that his sinnes were pardoned and how ready is he and forward to the worke v. 6. one of the Seraphims touched his lips with a coale from the Altar that is he was toucht by that Spirit of grace and life Rom. 8. 1. Heb. 1â— 1â— which is in Christ our Altar whereby as the Apostle sayes we are made free from the Law of sinne and death and sayes unto him thy iniquity is taken away and thy sinne purged then when God cryes whom shall I send and who will goe for us here am I sayes the Prophet send me See what a pardon does to fit us for the work of God not that now he began to be a Prophet or that now his sinnes were first pardoned but this fresh evidence of pardon gave to him a new strength and courage to the work Another instance we have of this in Saul and David Saul was a man of the goodliest person and for gifts of nature was the likeliest of all the men of Israel to make a King and such a King as should deliver Israel from oppression by his enemies he was higher than any of the people from the shoulders upward 1 Sam 10. 23. the testimony that Samuell gave of him was this see him whom the Lord hath chosen that there is none like him among all the people v. 24. He was a man of such hopes and Samuel himselfe had such expectations what God would doe for Israel by his hand as we see how he mourns for Saul when God had cast him off But this mans sinnes were never pardoned he never made his peace with God in all his life and how ill the work of God succeeded in his hands he does his work to halves God sends him to destroy Amalek against whom he had an ancient quarrell Saul spares Agag Exod. 17. 16. and the fattest of the cattell Israel in the time of his reigne was brought to such a bondage to the Philistines as that there was not found a Smith in Israel and 1 Sam. 12. 6. 19. the people hid themselves in caves in thickets and in rocks and high places it is true at the beginning of his reigne something he did but yet if Saul slew his thousands David his ten thousands and what was David a man but of a slight appearance in comparison but a man after Gods own heart one that had 1 Sam 13. 14. Ps 63 1. his sinnes pardoned and could say O God thou art my God and of Gods favour that it was better than life to his soule he slayes Goliah with a sling and a stone 1 Sam. 17. when Saul stands trembling in his tent and how did he prosper against the enemies of God throughout his reigne Well this David breakes his peace with God and then how feeble and how weake he growes that sinne in the matter of Vriah he confesses broke his bones Ps 51. 8. Againe at ver 12. see what he saies Restore to me the joy of thy Salvation and establish me with thy free Spirit then will I teach transgressours thy wayes and sinners shall be converted to thee David was a Prophet but he could not teach the wayes of God untill the joy of Gods Salvation was restor'd him The joy of the Lord is our strength Nehem. 8. 10. Now in handling this Point however that in my Text from whence it riseth be an instance onely of a warre that Israel under-tooke for God yet I shall not there confine my selfe but insist upon it in the generall as it is a truth in any case whatever nor shall I so desert my Text not onely because the truth is universall and holds paralell in all cases wherein we appeare for God but also because as the Nation of the Iewes was a type of the Churches of the Gospell so such like passages of providence and dealings with that people have in them much of the mind of God about the most spirituall affaires of the Churches of the New Testament as we see the Apostle Paul applies that great Deliverance of the people out of Aegypt at the red-Sea and in the Wildernesse to the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 10. 1. Therefore I say I shall handle it as that which holds true in any worke we undertake for God it prospers bâ—st with those whose peace is made with him For the further clearing of it take first one demonstration that it is a truth then I shall give the Reasons whence it comes to passe That it is a truth appeares in this because a man not reconciled to God ere long growes weary of his worke The house upon the Sand our Saviour saies will fall and the stonie Mat. 7. 26 Mat. 13. 20. ground that is an heart wherein there is no through worke of grace will bring forth fruit but for a season Sooner or later at least in some degree of Apostasy a man unsound falls off from God The ways of the Lord are right and the Righteous walke in them but Hos 14. 9. the Transgressours shall fall therein which is an evidence his worke did never kindly prosper in his hands that is one cause of all Apostasyes when men will doe for God and what they doe comes off with losse and disadvantage For instance when a man will pray but looses of the tendernesse of his heart by prayer or heares the word and for a season heares with joy yet is the worse for hearing or ventures himselfe for God in standing for his cause and every time with lesse content and comfort in his venture in every duty driving still the Christians trade to losse what followes upon this At last he is discourag'd quite and saith in his heart that he shall not doe good upon the way turns Apostate and fals away from God Looke into mens Apostasyes you 'l find this still hath been one cause thereof Despaire is ever an ingredient in that sinne and that arises partly from such like experiments What is said of God in that he does for man in his conversion and salvation is true of us in that we doe for God Heb. 10. 38. If any man draw backe sayes Heb. 10. 38. God my soule shall have no pleasure in him Hee speakes it of such persons who come forward kindly in conversion unto such a pitch and then fall off Now saies the Apostle thus it is with Christ in this particular A man that is as it were betwixt his hands in fashioning and moulding to salvation so long as he comes kindly on in his conversion Christ takes pleasure in him and rejoyces over the worke of his owne hands upon his soule but if he prove a knotty peece that comes not forward in the worke resisting still the Holy
men unregenerate there is no Toad or Serpent so odious in the eye of man as such a man is in the eyes of God and this is every mans condition as he comes into the world as the Prophet saies no eye pitties us but wee are throwne out into the open field to the loathing of our Ezek. â—6 5 persons in the day that we are borne We are not objects of compassion but of detestation thinke upon it well and let it humble us is this a small thing in our eyes that we by nature are a lumpe of filthinesse and that the God of Heaven and Earth the righteous Iudge abhorrs our persons Secondly sinne being nature to us this also followes that it works exceeding powerfully in us so as we are the slaves of sinne it leades us captive what workes by nature workes with power therefore is it said that we are captivated to the Law of sinne that Rom. 7. 1. v. 23. is to the naturall working of it in us and that we find a Law that when we would doe well evill is present with us that is vve find an irresistible course of nature in us that way tending The courses of nature in Scripture are call'd a Law the naturall motions of the heavenly bodies are called Ordinances of Heaven Ier. 31. 36. The nature of every creature is the Law of it's creation therefore the new nature is expressed by that phrase The Law of God vvritten upon the heart Ier. 31. 33. and it is called the Law of the Spirit of life vvhich is in Christ Rom. 8. 2. So as this is our misery by nature we can as well forbeare to eate and and drinke or any duty that we owe to nature as forbeare to sinne shall not the thought of this abase and humble us What more unworthy of a man than slavery No slavery to that of sinne it sets us to the basest drudgery in the vvorld it keepes us alwayes at it and it gives us nothing for our paines What fruit had you in those things whereof yee are Rom. 6. 21 now ashamed It puts us to an endlesse toyle about a base imployment and the wages that it gives is shame and death Thirdly since it is our nature allbeit the misery be such it brings upon us farre beyond vvhat we are able to expresse yet we by nature are secure and feel no burthen nature is no burthen Wee may stand amaz'd to see how men indued with admirable gifts of reason able for to judge of matters in the world when they have heard how sinne vvill utterly destroy them soules and bodies how it vvill be bitternesse at last and sinke them into hell yet can goe on in vvickednes vvithout remorse or trouble nay can give up themselves to such notorious vvayes of sinne as they can see apparantly vvill ruine bodies and estates without an a king conscience I say vve may be well amaz'd at this but here is the reason sinne is our nature and vvhat ever nature gives us is no burthen to us of all mischiefes is not this one of the greatest to be most miserable and not to feele it this keepes a man in that his misery all the meanes of grace are fruitlesse by it to his soule and that which made our Saviour bleed upon the Crosse and brought him to his agony and sweat of blood cannot obtaine a teare from us but is despis'd and sleighted in our hearts and thus it 's vvith us all so farre as vvee are unregenerate and sinne prevailes O let the thought of this at least in this our day of Fast doe something towards the humbling of our selves before the Lord 2. Consider sinne in it's effects and Fruits it threw the Angels out of Heaven Angels of light they were Iob â—8 7. Iude v. 7. sinne entring once upon them made them heapes of everlasting darkenesse and confusion as for man it cast him out of Paradise stript him of his beauty bereav'd him of the right use of his reason and fills his heart Eccl 9. 3. with madnesse whilst he lives the wisdome of God is foolishnesse unto him it destroyes the tendernesse of 1 Cor. 2 7 14 Heb. 3. 12 Ro. 1. 31 Ioh. 3. 36. his heart and by degrees extinguisheth his naturall affection and eats out all good nature in him it layes him for ever naked to the wrath and curse of God and sinkes him downe to hell that which is worst of all it makes a man despise a pardon and to trample under foot the sonne of God how oft would I have gathered you saith Christ as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Who would nourish such a viper in his bosome this do we but shall it not afflict our soules whilst we consider how 't is with us and what miseries we have brought upon our selves thereby if all this will not make our hearts relent let us a little turne our thoughts upon the temporall afflictions that it brings there we have an object of affinity with sense which is a great advantage unto teares Looke upon the miseries of Ireland the blood which there is spilt by cruell blood-thirsty and deceitfull men the dolefull miseries we feare in this our Land from warre me thinks I heare the little children the infants now unborne to call for teares this day from parents trying if possibly the Lord will be intreated by us and such woe and misery may be prevented but what ever is already or hereafter comes upon us in that kind should it be which God forbid the ruine of our Cities destruction of the people corruption of Religion losse of all that 's dearest to us and the overthrow of Kingdomes all is the fruit of sinne Looke upon it therefore in the miseries and desolations it has caus'd in all the world and let it so provoke your soules to mourne before the Lord this day 3. Let sinne also be considered in the cure The pretious blood of Christ that surely will make our hearts to yeeld the blood of Abel cry'd against the wicked Cain much more the blood of Christ against our sinnes such is the vilenesse of it as no other sacrifice but Christ could pacifie the wrath of God all the creatures in the world Angells and men could not make up the price of mans redemption Psal 49. 7 8. None of them can by any meanes redeeme Rom. 5. 9 10. Gal. 3. 13 his brother nor give unto God a ransome for him for the redemption of the soule is precious but was not the holy life of Christ enough No he must dye and it must be a cursed death nor will his body's death suffice his soule must dye Isa 53. 10. His soule Mat. 26 38. was made an offering for sinne and v 12. He powred out his soule to death nor had all this been sufficient had not the blood of Christ been the blood of God Act. 20. 28. God purchased his Church by his