make Christs fear of death only natural and say therefore he was more sadly affected with it than any of the Prophets or Martyrs because of the exquisite and tender constitution of his body do greatly derogate from that work of mediation for us and satisfaction which was done by his blood to the justice of God From these examples you see that though grace can subdue sinne conquer lusts overcome the Devil yet it cannot totally take away the anxiety and fear of death which is altogether natural though the sinfulness of it may be mortified But to this it may be objected How could Paul be so sollicitous about death when Phil. 1. 23. he saith He had a desire to depart and to be with Christ Yea he did not know what to choose whether life or death He was in a straight betwixt two a desire to be with Christ and a desire to live that he might be serviceable to the Church That this may be answered it is good to take more exact notice of that place for it is an admirable demonstration of the gracious frame of Paul's heart lest the Philippians should think that he desired their prayers for himself now in bonds for the Gospel as being too inordinately affected to the desire of life he sheweth what a blessed frame of heart he had obtained unto even that if it were put to his choice whether he should live or die he should be straightned what to do The desire to be with Christ on one side did so affect him and the desire of the Churches good by his labours on the other side did so much work upon him where we may observe that his desire to depart was not because he had troubles and calamities here it was not because of the miseries and afflictions he met with but want of love to Christ That I may be with Christ saith he he doth not say that I may have glory that I may reign in Heaven but be with Christ Christs presence maketh Heaven to be Heaven Though Paul in this life was in Christ yet he was not with Christ Further he doth not say meerly I desire but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a desire it was a constant setled permanent desire in him and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut the rope as it were and to set fail to Heaven to return to him from whom he had his spiritual being The Apostle then did not only desire to be with Christ but he judged it the farre better condition for him Therefore we must distinguish of a two-fold desire there is a Natural Desire and an Elicite Desire A Natural Desire is that which floweth from the meer principles of Nature desiring to preserve it self and this Paul could not but have as he was a man Even as our Saviour told Peter He should be bound and should be carried whether he would not Joh. 21. 18. that is according to his natural will otherwise according to his will as sanctified did with readiness and joy go to the place of his Martyrdom An Elicite Desire is that which a man putteth forth according to the principles of reason and grace so that we may desire one thing with a natural desire another thing with an elicite A man that hath a putrified arm doth with a natural desire will to continue his arm still in his body but with an elicite desire following reason so he willeth to cut it off And thus Paul did with an elicite desire so he willed Heaven and being with Christ rather than to continue in the flesh To amplifie this Consider First That death is not according to mans creation at first he was not made mortal or corruptible But as the sentence of God doth witness In the day Adam did eat of the forbidden fruit he fell into a dying condition It is true The Question is of a large dispute Whether Adam was made immortal or no The Papists say he was made mortal and the Socinians they do more frowardly oppose this truth affirming Adam would have died though there had not been any eating of the forbidden fruit So that with them actual death was necessary before Adams sinne only it became a punishment after But Rom. 5. the Apostle at large sheweth That by one mans sinne death came into the world And Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death Death then being wholly against the natural institution At first Adam had an implanted love of his life in him And although his estate was so blessed that there could not be place for any fear yet had he been capable of losing his life his love to it would have made him afraid of being deprived of it This then is the great mystery that the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of Death they would not deny they called it The tribute of Nature which all must pay only they did not know the cause of it they understood not how it came to seâ—se upon all mankind Secondly Seeing that death is thus connatural and the effect of sinne and the Devil Hence it is that which maketh Death farre more terrible than otherwise it would be is sinne Whatsoever bitterness and gall is in death it doth chiefly come from sinne 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sinne So many sinnes as thou committest thou puttest so many stings into death to make it more dreadfull Could a man die and have not any sinne laid to his charge though it would be pain yet it would not be terrour When Aristotle calleth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The terrible of terribles He speaketh of death as now it is Now in death as ordinarily men die there is not a bare apprehension of the dissolution of soul and body but there is the guilt of sinne likewise interposing whereby a dying man is usually terrified with the thoughts of what he hath done and in Christians what will become of them when they are dead Animula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca Die I dare not live I cannot and thus his soul is miserably in agonies and grievous tormenting fears and all because sinne is the sting of death Oh it were easie to die were it not for sinne for hell for judgement were it not for conscience accusing and condemning But this is it which maketh the thoughts of it so grievous and terrible Therefore in the third place The Lord Christ came into the world to destroy and remove this sting of death To change the nature of death that it should not be matter of terror but of joy and comfort being like Joseph's Chariot to carry us to the place of our hope and desire Thus we have the Apostle insulting over death 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. Death is swallowed up in victory Death doth not swallow the godly man but he doth swallow that up O death where is thy sting Thanks be to God which giveth us victory by our Lord Jesus Christ Were it not then for
Christ what would become of a poor humbled sinner What terrour would compasse him about This powerfull effect of Christs death for death overcometh death is notably spoken of Heb. 2. 14. That through death he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage A learned man Cocceius understands this of the Jewes especially who because of those many Ceremonial Lawes they were in bondage to were in continual fear of death because the transgressing of many of those Lawes God made capital they were to die for it hence they could not be but in constant fear of death But it seemeth more genuine to interpret more largely as an effect of Christs death to believing Gentiles as well as to the Jewes It is from Christ only that the terrible thoughts of death can be mitigated otherwise to a man not in Christ it is the beginning of hell But in the fourth place Though to the godly thus death is changed in its Nature The Serpent hath its sting taken out Moses need not runne from it it is only turned into a rod of a fatherly chastisement yet Nature cannot but tremble at the approaches of it The heart of that man who is most heavenly though he would gladly be in Canaan yet he is not willing to passe through this wildernesse to it he would be cloathed with immortality but is unwilling to put off this garment of the body We would be happy but we would not die As children cry for a new garment to have it on and yet cry while it is putting on so greatly is the love of life and the fear of death engraffed in the very heart of a man And so farre as this fear of death is only natural not immoderate it is of great use For First Hereby men do more patiently abide under their afflictions As long as it is not death they do the more willingly bear it Lament 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain If a man be greatly punished for his sinnes yet if God keep him alive he hath cause to be more patient Thus Satan thought Job 2. 4. Skinne for skinne and all that a man hath he will give for life Therefore he would have Job tryed in that Fear then of death is a mercy because hereby men may the more readily sit down under other afflictions that are not so bad as death When therefore men come to such high discontents as Ahitophel because his counsel was neglected or such despairing terrours of conscience as Judas did that they choose to die yea to make away them selves This as it is an heavy temptation and desertion from God so it argueth that by the fear of death men do patiently abide under their distresses but when they care not for this they voluntarily throw themselves into the flame of hell Secondly The natural fear of death is of great use in this respect That it doth keep men from the committing of many sinnes which otherwise they would securely offend in Hence God appointed in the Law the punishment of death for many sinnes And Rom. 13. the Apostle biddeth him that doth evil be afraid of the powers Because they bear not the sword in vain It is therefore the fear of death that maketh men keep within bounds of righteousnesse and honesty It is not the fear of God nor the fear of hell nor the fear of sinne it self but a bodily corporal death that restraineth men from sinne So that if men come to that height of obstinacy as not to fear death they are prepared for any impiety Vitam qui contempsit suam tuae Dominus est When the Devil would perswade Eve to sinne he telleth her She shall not die he giveth her hopes of life Thirdly The natural fear of death is thus farre advantagious That it maketh a man more thankefull for the mercies of his life for his food and raiment which go to the preservation of his life Therefore a godly man doth make advantage of this fear of death to stirre up himself to all thankfulnesse to look up unto God as knowing That in him onely we live move and have our being It is also from this fear of death that the godly are more quickned to improve the day of grace to be working while it is called to day Those that had made a Couenant with death they grew desperate Let us eat and drinke for to morrow we shall die whereas rather to have concluded Let us pray mourn rnd repent lest to morrow we die If therefore the godly are at any time greatly dejected with the fear of death the thoughts of it are a great temptation they sadly complain that they cannot conquer those slavish thoughts the memory of death is bitter to them they cannot take any joy when they think of it Let them among other things remember to turne this water into wine by faith Let them make an advantage of this natural infirmity Doest thou fear to die Then be more thankfull to God for the dayes and years he hath given thee in this world Doest thou fear to die Oh then be fruitfull live holily make a good use of thy health that so when death shall come it may be only death thou shalt grapple with not death and sin also death and the anger of God with it Death enough is terrible do not thou make it fuller of horrour Fifthly This natural fear of death is very difficultly kept from being a sinfull fear It is very hard to regulate and order it aright so that in some respect or other it doth not go beyond its bounds It 's hard so to fear and not to over-fear Even the most godly have found this fear of death to be a great snare to them They have not done the good they should have done because of this fear They have gone against conscience wounded their spirits because of fear Abraham though he was the Father of the faithfull yet did use sinfull equivocation with Abimelech about Sarah from which many sad evils might have been committed and all was this sinfull fear of death Though a godly man be allowed to have a natural fear of death yet he must take heed of a sinfull fear This hath brought many into such grievous sinnes that the fear of their consciences about Gods anger about hell and damnation have quite swallowed up the fears of death at last the greater fear hath devoured the lesse To whom are woes and wounds of conscience by apostasie and forsaking of Christ but to those who have too excessively been afraid of death As we see in Peter and many others Our next work therefore is to shew when the natural fear of death goeth beyond its bounds and becometh sinfull SERM. LXV Of the natural and sinfull fear of Death How to discern between them and from whence the sinfulness of that fear proceedeth 2 COâ— 1. 8. So that we despaired even of life THis last aggravating
sinfull It is a fundamental qualification required in every Disciple of Christ he cannot be Christs unless he be above the love of all things Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth father or mother or life it self more than me cannot be my Disoiple Why then art thou so afraid to die Is it because thy heart is so dearly engaged in such relations to such creatures Be humbled for this and reform A second sinfull cause which floweth from the former is The want of love to God and to Christ Thy desire is not with Paul To be with Christ thou doest not judge this best of all Not to be willing to die upon this account must also be very sinfull Do we not pray for the Kingdome of God Are we not to look for and hasten the coming of Christ Are we not to be as pilgrims and strangers in this world Now if these things were real upon thee though thou couldst not avoid a natural fear yet thou wouldst greatly subdue a sinfull fear 3. There is a sinfull cause of the fear of death When we produce those actions and live such a life which will justly make death terrible Thou complainest I am afraid to die I dare not think of death and why Thou doest put stings into death thou increasest the guilt of thy conscienne by living without repentance and reformation and then it is no wonder if such a sinfull cause make a sinfull effect Sinne less keep thy conscience clear and then thou wilt fear death less The last sinfull cause of the sinfull fear of death is Want of faith in Christ and this even the godly are subject to though they live holily and unblameably though they have kept a good conscience towards God and men yet they have sometimes uncomfortable fears about death because they do not look upon Christ they consider not that Christ hath conquered death So that now every Christian may with Paul triumph Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. but want of faith depriveth of this holy comfort and boldness See then if thy want of faith maketh thee fear death and consider that if so this is very injurious to Christ as if still death were not subdued as if death had conquered Christ and not Christ death Faith will make thee see a loveliness and another nature in death than what it had at first SERM. LXVI The truly godly may sometimes passe false sentences upon their own Persons and Actions and Gods dispensations towards them 2 COR. 1. 9. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead THe second Doctrine remaining from the clause of the former verse viz. That the children of God judge otherwise while they attend to second causes and humane helps then they do while they look to the power and promise of God will come in very seasonably as a branch of that general usefull matter which this Text will afford us Come we therefore to the consideration of it 1. It is a further amplification of this trouble which came upon him in Asia and that is the most extream and highest aggravation that yet hath been used which is expressed in the beginning We had the sentence of death in our selves 2. It is illustrated from the wholsom and saving end of this trouble laid on him It was not brought upon him by God for his destruction but his spiritual good His soul might have been in danger if his body had not been He might have perished spiritually if he had not been in danger of perishing temporally Now this blessed effect of his trouble is set down 1. Negatively That we might not trust in our selves 2. Positively But in God Described by a sutable property Who raiseth the dead Let us begin with the aggravation his trouble was so great That he had received the sentence of death in himself This is more than the clause in the precedent verse for there it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was in such a doubt and perplexity about his life that he did not see any way to evade but here he is positive he comes now to make resolute conclusions He must die He had received the sentence of death The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used here in this place onely in the New Testament The Verb from whence it cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Budeus sheweth to have two more eminent significations the one is to separate and secerne one thing from another in which sense I do not observe it used in the New Testament It useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that sense even as humane Authours also do most frequently 1 Cor. 1. 15. The spiritual man judgeth all things by searching and judging he cometh to discern the truth from errour The other signification is to answer in which sense it is alwayes used in the New Testament Favorinus in his Lexicon maketh this difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former is a bare simple Answer made to any Question the later is an Answer by way of defence against some accusation The proper word for an Answer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Luke 2. 47. Luke 20. 26. Joh. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is seldome used for an Answer yet Stephen sheweth out of Suidas an expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like that à secretis one whose office was to answer requests Hence some translate it answer as it is in the margin But the most genuine translation is sentence for so Hesychius expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Favorinus followeth verbatim in this as in many other particulars It is true Heinsius on the place maketh the word in a contrary sense to signifie an answer or inspiration from God secretly assuring of him that he should not die like that Act. 24. 24. Fear not Paul such answers were by the Urim and Thummim So that in his sense it should imply Gods suretiship or undertaking for his preservation But the other is more generally received and the following words argue such a sense The word then doth signifie a sentence passing upon him That he must die This he had received but from whom Not from God for God delivered him nor from the Magistrate there was no such Decree that we read of against him Therfore it was onely from his own feares his own thoughts which maketh him say He had received it in himself You see then that Gods thoughts were others then Paul's Paul absolutely concluded he should die but God had purposed the contrary From whence observe That the godly themselves are sometimes greatly deceived about Gods administrations to them They are apt to erre in their judgements about Gods dispensation They gather such conclusions and make such inferences as are wholly opposite to Gods intentions Though it
3. Flesh saith our afflictions will never end 4. Flesh would put us upon any means to get out of trouble 5. Flesh only attends to what is troublesome and grievous in afflictions Why a man should so much study to discern betwixt the flesh and spirit within him 1. Because otherwise he will be apt to passe a false sentence upon himself 2. Hereby he may prevent the Devils end in troubling us It is not the natural strength of any man that can carry him through all afflictions 1. No man can bear all afflictions aright in his own strength 2. All opinion's that hold the contrary are injurious to the glory of God 3. There is a great difference betwixt a natural and spiritual bearing of troubles 4. There is a difference likewise betwixt moral and spiritual bearing of afflictions No grace removeth the natural fear of death The difference betwixt a natural and an elicite desire Propositions clearing the truth 1. Man was not made mortal 2. T is sin that maketh death so terrible 3. Christ came into the world to remove this sting of death sinne 4. Yet howsoever nature cannot but tremble at the thoughts of it Of what use the natural fear of death is 1. Hence men do more patiently endure afflictions 2. It keeps men out of many sins 3. It makes a man more thankfull for the mercies of life 4. The natural fear of death is very hardly kept from being sinfull There is a natural fear of death in all but in some more in some lesse When the fear of death is sinfull 1 When it becomes a snare 2. When it is immoderate and disquieting 3. When it excludeth much profitable and seasonable fear 4. When it proceeds from a sinfull cause as from 1. An inordinate love of life 2. The want of love to God 3. A sinfull life 4. Want of faith in Christ The godly are sometimes deceived about Gods dispensations towards them 1. A godly man may sometimes be deceived in his advise to others which he may think is of God when it is not 2. They are deceived when they thinâ— Gods dispensations are to abet some errours which they may be fallen into 3. When they judge of God after outward appearance 4. When they give too much credit to their zeal and affections 5. They may be deceived in the frame of their own hearts Gods people are deceived when they judge according to sense not saith Reasons 1. Because the godly are too hasty in their judgings 2. Because of their feare and anger wherewith they are too passionately transported 3. From the want of spirituall wisdome Rules for the preventing of false judgements concerning Gods dealings with us Two sorts of trust humane and divine Selfe-confidence a great sinne Propositions clearing the nature of self-confidence 1. All Creatures necessitated to trust in something 2. Our trust is corrupted by originall sin 3. Hence our trust is placed upon many false objects 1. Some trust in their wickednesse 2. Humane power and strength 3. Wealth What are those inward things which a man is apt to trust in 1. In his own heart 2. Self-righteousnesse 3. Church-priviledges How even a godly man may be guilty of self-confidence by trusting 1. In his spiritual gifts 2. In his graces Whether Paul speaketh these words in his own person Of the sinfulness of self-confidence which appears 1. From Gods chastising his children so much to prevent it 2. It is a secret sinne 3. 'T is a sinne soon committed 4. 'T is a making the creature a God 5. 'T is a foolish and unprofitable sin God alone is the proper object of our trust Propositions concerning our trusting in God 1. It is wrought by the Spirit of God 2. None but the regenerate can act this grace 3. It is an act of faith 4. It is not God as absolutely but relatively considered that is the object of our trust 1. As he is an infinite true and everlasting God 2. As immutable in his promises 3. As he is omnipotent 2. The matter for which we trust in God is the good thing we want either spiritual or temporal What is required to our trusting in the Lord. 1. A powerfull apprehension of our own and the creatures inability to help us 2. A practicall consideration of Gods greatness and goodness 3. A particular appropriation of God as our God 4. An experimentall knowledge of Gods promises and providences 5. An use of meanes 6. A sound judgement Of the excellency of this grace of trusting in God 1. It is many times put for the whole worship of God 2. The Lord delighteth to put us upon the daily practice of it 3. It indeareth God to us and engageth him for us 4. T is difficult to flesh and blood 5. One of Gods ends in afflicting us is to work this grace 6. It giveth all glory to God 7. It calmes and quiets the spirit God both can and will help his people in their extremitics 1. God raiseth up the naturally dead 2. God raiseth the metaphorically dead and such who are in any trouble either externall or internall Of Gods raising from internall extremities What is implyed in the expression God raiseth from the dead 1. That Gods own Children may be brought into helpless and hopeless conditions 2. That God hath power over all estates whatsoever 3. That our extremities are Gods opportunities The children of God do not only take notice of Gods mercies but their aggravations likewise 1. From their own low condition 2. From their own sinfulness 3. From the times and seasons of Gods mercies 4. Fromothers miseries We should account of privative and preventing mercies as of positive 1. Some mercies suppose evil inflicted others do not 2. Two sorts of evils spiritual and temporal which the mercy of God prevents 3. The godly are oâ—â— forgetfull about these preventing mercies 4. It is therefore their duty to go further in praise and thankfulness for these mercies then usually they do 1 Whatsoever evil is not inflicted that we have deserved is to be acknowledged a preventing mercy 2. Whatsoever evil fals upon others and not upon us 't is a preventing mercy 3. Whatsoever evil God justly may and yet doth not inflict 't is a preventing mercy 4. What evils God brings upon others in a providential way and not upon thee it is of his preventing mercy 5. Whatsoever mans own weakness would cast him into and yet God keeps it off is a preventing mercy Gods continuing his mercies is as necessary to us as his first bestowing them What deliverances God workes for us 1. Temporall 2. Spirituall 1. From wrath to come 2. From the power of sin and Satan 3. From temptations to sin and apostacy Why 't is necessary God should continue his mercies as well as give them to us 1. Because we cannot continue them our selves 2. Because of our unworthiness 3. Because our dangers and temptations continue The experience of former mercies should encourage us to trust in God
the name of Jesus was not for some hundred of years after Christ and hath no Scripture institution But the Office signified by name is to be cordially improved by the believing soul Therefore to explain this Considerâ—… First That Christ is not a Saviour in any temporal or worldly sense It 's true God is said to be the Saviour oâ— the whole world because of his preservation which extends to all but Christ is a Saviour because he saveth his people from their sinnes Mat. 1. It was a corrupt opinion among the Jews yea the Disciples were leavened with it That Christ should come and be a temporal Saviour as Joshua and Moses I were â—â—but this salvation is wholly spiritual it 's from our sinnes from the Devils and condemnation which as it is the greatest salvation and none could be a Saviour in this sense but Christ So it ought to be of the greatest esteem with us Therefore the Gospel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the most happy and blessed news that can be for broken and undone sinners to hear of a Saviour Do not then come to this Saviour for loaves for outward advantages but if sick for sinne and burdened under the load of it come to this Saviour for ease Secondly He is a spiritual Saviour but not in a Socinian sense as if he did only save us by example and giving us a patern of holiness but not saving us by his blood as a ransome and atonement made to Gods justice for us The Scripture is clear not only to inform us of being our Saviour but in what manner and indeed the manner how viz. by becoming a curse for us and suffering in our stead as a Surety doth wonderfully aggravate the love of Christ and make it love unspeakable Thirdly He is not a Saviour in an Huberian sense as if he did actually save all For he saith That as Adam did actually condemn all so Christ did actually save all that is put them into a state of salvation so that if they fall from that and are condemned it 's a new wilfull transgression of their own but the Text saith He shall save his people not all from their sins Fourthly He is not a Saviour in an Arminian sense as if he were a Saviour only habitually aptitudinally or upon condition If men did believe in him and receive him as a Saviour by impetration not application for this is to make the whole fruit of Redemption incertain and that he might have been a Saviour and yet not one saved But Fifthly He is a Saviour in an efficacious applicatory manner Those that he intentionally died for he will save This good Shepherd will find out his lost sheep and not expect till the lost sheep come and find him which will never be They are his sheep he layeth down his life for It 's his people he saveth from their sinnes So that those of whom Christ is a Saviour he will in time cause by effectual grace that they shall come home to him and be made partakers of the glorious benefits that flow from his death Thus you see in what sense he is a Saviour take notice of the properties of it 1. It 's a spiritual salvation and therefore carnal and natural men who feel not themselves spiritually undone they will never runne after him The godly soul that complaineth of the guilt of sinne of the power of sinne of the remainders of corruption he it is that crieth out Oh let this Saviour come and save me And he can the more affectionately do it because he himself was saved and delivered by God from the cries and agonies he conflicted with The Apostle aggravateth this for our comfort Heb. 5. 7. He made supplications with tears unto him that was able to save him from drath And Heb. 4. 15. because he was tempted like us sinne onely excepted we are therefore exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace And hence some consider that of Zechary Chap. 9. 9. where the daughter of Zion is exhorted in rejoyce greatly because her King cometh having salvation The word being in Niphal they render it Salvatus being first saved himself and then saving us howsoever this experience of our infirmities makes him the readier to save us but to whose heart is this truth welcome save to the spiritual Christian 2. He is the sole Saviour Act. 4. There is no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved It 's high presumption to adde other Saviours and Mediators to him under any distinction whatsoever so that we must go to him alone And truly this is a very hard duty witness all that Pharisaical and Justiciaryrighteousness which is in the world How unwilling are men to renounce all their own righteousness to trust in him alone to rest upon him only 3. He is a full and sufficient Saviour there is no defect or fault in him he cannot say he hath not salvation enough yes he hath enough for thee and every godly man else Hence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Simeon Salvation in the very abstract as having all the fulness of it in him Hence he is said to be able to save to the uttermost Heb. 7. 25. Oh let this vanquish all thy fears and dejections saying Can Christ save some sinners indeed but not so hainous a wretch as thou judgest thy self to be Use 1. Of Instruction Judge then your selves to be undone and lost by reason of sinne Christ saith He came to save that which was lost Matth. 18. 11. As long therefore as thou art full and well in thy self and doest not come often into Gods presence saying Oh I am a lost man Oh my sinnes have undone me all the world cannot save me What shall I do O Lord Christ Be a Jesus be a Saviour to me Till I say thou art in these sad agonies Christ is no Saviour to thee Shall the Disciples in danger of drowning Matth. 8. 25. cry out Lord save us we perish And the Israelites when Dathan and his Complices were swallowed up cry out we die we perish and are consumed How much rather should the sense of our sinnes affect us Use 2. Of Instruction Be not discouraged if truly humbled though guilty of great sins Why is he a Saviour if thou art not lost If thou hadst no sins there would be no need of a Saviour The second Description is from his Appellative Name Christ which is as much as anointed or the Messias The word is used sometimes generally to all the people of God Hab. 3. 13. The whole body of Israel is there called Gods anointed and to this sense Grotius brings that place Heb. 11. where Moses is said to account the reproaches of Christ better than the treasures of Aegypt By annointed he understands the people of Israel But that is not so probable It 's more specially
sake The Romans boast of many such virtuous persons amongst them and for patient enduring of bitter torments what expressions do the Stoicks delight in They make all Philosophy to be in these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sustine and abstine Now although by their rules they would teach a man to bear afflictions yet this is but a splendid sinne It 's from Christ onely we can be strengthned to such things And Paul Phil. 4. 12. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am instructed as in a secret mystery to know how to abound and how to suffer need Wonder not then if you read of what fortitude and patience even to admiration Heathens have excelled in who yet were not strengthned by Christ for vain-glory and corrupt aims may make men contemn their lives yea and the Devil many times filleth such with boldness and presumption as we see in blasphemous Hereticks who have shewed great confidence in their death For as the Devil when he possessed the bodies of some persons filled them with more strength than naturally they had so that they have been able to break iron chains in pieces thus when he filleth the hearts of men by Gods just judgement with impudency and mad undaunted boldness they will willingly adventure any danger whatsoever The Devil hurrieth such into danger yea death it self as he did the swine into the sea Use of Instruction to all that fear God to humble themselves under every trouble God brings upon them to go out of themselves to acknowledge Gods strength onely Say O Lord if I had no more power than my own there is no cross I could bear I am such a bruised reed that I could not stand under any tribulation Therefore I cast my burden upon thee thou canst make me bear it though of my self I cannot urge God When thou feelest thy infirmities with that gracious promise Isai 40. 30 31. All shall lose their strength rather than the people of God What hath God given thee strength to love him to believe in him and hast thou no strength to suffer afflictions Be strong in the power of the Lord Ephes 6. 10. SERM. LXIV The natural fear of Death is not taken away by Grace What are the Uses of it 2 COR. 1. 8. Insomuch that we despaired even of life THis last clause in the Text is a further Aggravation of the greatness of this trouble which came upon him in Asia and it is from the Event or Consequent It was so great that he could not escape death The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath an emphasis in the Preposition and so is more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that doth properly signifie When a man is indeed doubting and full of debates within himself not well concluding what to do Joh. 13. 22. Gal. 4. 20. but when this Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added it denoteth such a perplexing that a man cannot any way evade out of it Therefore the Apostle you would think speaketh the contrary to this passage as we shewed he did seemingly to the former For 2 Cor. 4. 8. there the Apostle doth expresly say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is used only there and in my Text. It may seem then a contradiction for the Apostle here to say He was without all help or means and there to say The godly never are But the answer is easie For when in the Text Paul saith He was without all help or means he meaneth natural and visible There was no outward way to help him Not but that God might deliver him in a way he did not see or apprehend and so indeed God did deliver him as appeareth afterwards Therefore when in that fourth Chapter he saith The godly are never so destitute as to be without help he meaneth so as to have neither divine or humane help Even as in the same place Paul saith of the godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are not distressed yet 2 Cor. 6. 4. he saith He was in necessities in distresse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 2 Cor. 12. 10. The word thus explained the summe of his meaning is That this trouble was so great that it brought him into such a straight that in respect of any humane help there was a necessity of his death and this fear of death did much afflict and assault the spirit of Paul Some render the word taederet so that Paul was even weary of his life as if he desired to die his trouble was so great Some with our Translators We despaired of life But Beza doth willingly abstain from that word therefore that which doth most express the significancy of the word is such a perplexity and doubting in his mind about his life that he could not see any wayes to escape he was like Jonah in the Whales belly out of which there was no visible way to be delivered So that the word implieth these two things 1. That Paul was very anxious about his life and was afraid of death 2. That flesh and blood did conclude there was no help for him because outwardly there did not appear any From whence we may observe this Doctrine That Grace though it be never so lively and active yet doth not remove the natural fear of death Grace doth not destroy nature This holy Apostle who is so confident of the love of God and can triumph in all distresses is yet afraid of death is yet very solicitous about the preserving of his life There is a natural fear of death because there is implanted in a man a desire of self-preservation so that to be without it would be a sinne And then there is a sinfull fear of death which ariseth from sinne or tendeth to sinne Now the grace of God doth at least in some measure conquer the latter but it cannot overcome the former Hence Jacob for fear of death we see him in a great straight upon his meeting with his brother Esau greatly praying to God to turn the heart of his brother and also studying to mollifie his spirit with presents he sent to him David likewise was very sollicitous in the preservation of his life when Saul did so bitterly pursue him Yea Hezekiah though he had the testimony of a good conscience and could appeal even to God That he had served him with an upright heart and in truth yet when the Prophet Isaiah declared to him that he must die it is said He wept sore Isa 28. 2 3. and at the ninth verse we have a description of the bitterness of his soul under those fears Yea the Lord Christ himself In whom was found no sinne yet we find him greatly affected with the fear of death And although he had a peculiar reason because he tasted of death for our sake and so did therein bare our sinnes conflicting with the wrath of God due to us yet there was included in this a natural fear of death They that
there are sinfull and unjustifiable grounds of some persons who do not joyn themselves to any Church-society and that may be either from a Corrupt Opinions or a Corrupt Heart though they seldom be separated from one another First From a Corrupt Opinion As 1. Of those who call themselves Seekers confessing they cannot yet find a Church to which they may joyâ—… For they affirm That since the Apostles dayes there are no Churches and therefore till they can see Apostles Apostolical gifts and miracles with the like effusion of the holy Ghost upon persons they cannot own any Church But this is against those Texts of Scripture which speak of a perpetuity of the Ministry and the duty of receiving Sacraments till the coming of Christ which could not be if there were no Church 2. Another corrupt opinion is of those who call themselves high Attainers These make themselves above the Church-ordinances they need them not yea some Anabaptists in Germany made themselves above the Bible living wholly upon spiritual revelations and called those who would leave to the Scripture as a Rule Creaturistae as depending upon a creature But the Scripture and Ordinances are necessary to quicken grace in the most holy and there are none so spiritual but they need them daily to comfort or instruct them yet such have their publick Assemblies wherein they deliver their opinions to be received But if people ought to be above all Ministry and teaching then also above theirs And certainly if those places of being taught of God and having an unction which teacheth us all things be against our Ministry it is also against theirs 3. There may be a corrupt opinion which though it be not against Church-communion absolutely yet they judge it Arbitrary and not necessary Of this opinion Grotius seemed once to be for he is thought to be the Author of that Book which asserts Quod non semper communicandum per symbola and Rivet in his Dialysis against him chargeth this upon him that he was not a member of any Church acknowledging it a just hand of God upon him that at his death when a Minister was brought to him he was wholly sensless So that he who in his life time cared not for Church-communion could not have any benefit by a Minister of the Gospel at his death 4. The last corrupt opinion by which men may not joyn to a Church may be from a superstitious conceit whereby men thinking it impossible to have salvation in the world have imprisoned themselves as it were in Cells and holes of Rocks thereby to give themselves wholly to divine Contemplation Thus the Monks Eremites and Anchorites of old For though some of the most ancient are excused as being driven thereunto by persecution yet the latter seemed to be transported wholly with superstition and therefore in that they lived solely not coming to the publick Ordinances of God in a Church way it was not justifiable by Scripture Indeed if they took their times to come to publick Societies and receive Sacraments as Rivet affirmeth against Grotius Dialys pag. 106. pleading their example for being of no Church then they are to be excused à tanto though not à toto The second unlawfull ground of keeping from Communion with Church-assemblies is A prophane Atheistical disposition that look upon a Church and a Church-assembly as humane devices to keep men in awe or if they be not so eminently Atheistical yet their love to their lusts and pleasures to the world and contents thereof make them weary of the Sabbaths and publick Ordinances as those in Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat to sell How many are there that comes as seldome as ever they can to these publick Assemblies and when they do come it 's but for custom and fashion not that they ever found any spiritual good or expect and desire any Therefore let the Use be of Instruction that as ye are not to rest in any Church forms or external Communion to think that the very bodily doing of them will save you So on the other side Take heed of voluntarily and wilfully neglecting the publick Assemblies How have the godly when banished and driven from them bewailed their misery whereas thou dost voluntarily absent thy self Think how it may lie upon thee at thy death when thou shalt remember the many Sabbaths the many Ordinances thou hast neglected and now if God would give thee but one day or one hour to make thy peace with him thou wouldst judge it a great mercy The second Observation is from the Universality All the Saints There are none so mean so inconsiderable but this Epistle is directed to them as well as the most eminent From whence observe That the soul of the poorest and meanest Saint is not to be neglected That as the rain falleth upon the least spire of grass as well as the choisest flowers so ought all ministerial planting and watering to be to the meanest plant in Christs garden as well as the chiefest Though Christian Religion doth not abolish civil Polity nor the distinctions and relations of Magistrate and Subject of Master and Servant but strictly enjoyneth their respective duties yet in respect of religious considerations all are but as one Thus the Apostle notably Gal. 3. 28. There is neither bond or free male or female but all are one mark that in Christ Christ looketh upon all as one man And certainly if Christ in shedding his bloud for his people had an equal respect to the meanest with the greatest he died for the godly servant as well as the godly master the godly poor man as well as the godly rich man Then it behoveth all Christians to imitate him in this Whosoever is a Saint though he be never so contemptible do thou own and imbrace such else we do not love the brotherhood we do not love a godly man because he is godly but because he is great or rich or may advantage thee in the world Paul will not except or leave out one of the Saints in all Acbaia SERM. XXII How Grace and Peace and such like spiritual Mercies and Priviledges are to be desired before any temporal Mercies whatsoever 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ HItherto we have considered the Inscription we now come to the Salutation which is in these words and it containeth matter of prayer It is not any earthly or temporal mercy he prayeth for but what is heavenly and spiritual The Apostle Paul doth constantly use this Salutation only in both those Epistles to Timothy and Titus which were Church-officers he interposeth Mercy between Grace and Peace Calvin thinketh he putteth it in his Salutation to Timothy because of his dear affection and love to him but why should he do it to Titus also Certainly it ought to be considered that only to Church-officers he useth
fancies and opinions making such a grace as we would have and then go to the Scripture to confirm it but the word of God must be the alone Rule in this case So that by the Scripture alone we shall not give too little nor on the other side attribute too much to it making Gods grace to be such a thing not indeed as it is but such as we would have It is good therefore to attend to the Scripture and to lay all our own thoughts and all humane Authorities aside that so the Scripture grace of God may be found out Now these Characters we may have of that grace the Scripture commends in God 1. That the Scripture-grace doth begin all the good in us We do not prevent God but he prevents us Thus our Saviour You have not chosen me but I have chosen you We love him because he loved us first So that the word of God doth still resolve the original of all we have into this grace of God as Rom. 9. and Rom. 11. Ephes 1. Whosoever therefore makes something in us to begin and then Gods grace to be subsequent he setteth not up grace in a Scripture-way Therefore there are no antecedent merits or dispositions in us for which God doth afterwards bestow his grace upon us The very first desire inspiration and least unseigned groans after Christ is from this grace of God Therefore the beginnings of what is good is attributed to God as well as the progressives yea the initials most of all because then we were dead in sin and in a state of enmity against God 2. The grace of God which the Scripture commends as to our Sanctification and conversion is not meerly suasory and by moral arguments or in an universal indeterminate and ineffectual manner till we by our freewill content to it but it 's a grace that takes away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh it 's a grace that gives a new birth and maketh us new creatures Which expressions do suppose that we had not so much power as to consent unto grace till grace doth enable us It is a grace that giveth us both to will and to do It 's a grace that makes us to be what we are and so to differ from another whereas if we did co-operate with grace or make Gods grace effectual then it would be we our selves and not Gods grace that should make this difference 3. The grace of God which the Scripture commends as to our Justification is imputed grace not inherent evangelical grace which justifieth us is external though by faith received into us and made ours And this is greatly to be observed for what godly man when he goeth for Justification and consolation doth not more attend to inherent grace than imputed This truth is the very heart and marrow of the Gospel It is about this that there is so much doctrinal and practical contending Whether grace inherent in us or imputed to us be that which we must rest upon and lean upon when God enters into judgement with us We say only imputed grace others say inherent and that because the Apostle excludeth works not only meritorious work but godly works works of grace done by us And here now the Adversaries seem to insult saying The Apostle excludeth works only of the Law such as are done by our natural strength or perfect works or works that merit but this is to distinguish where the Scripture doth not and whereas it is said that the works of grace cannot be opposed to grace because they flow from it they are effects of it It 's answered that works of grace cannot indeed be opposed to that principle of grace within us from whence they are said to flow but they are opposed to that grace which is said to be the effect of them viz. Justification and remission of sins So that though works of grace do not oppose internal renovation yet they do justification which they say is produced by them Again whereas they say That none extoll grace more than they do because they make grace inherent to make us accepted of with God Whereas the Protestants debate it denying it this noble work For say they will not grace be most advanced in Heaven when we shall be justified by that perfection of holiness which is within us But to this also it 's answered That it's imputed grace which is Evangelical grace and that we are to exalt in this life In Heaven indeed this Evangelical and imputed grace will cease though all glory will be given to that because by it we are brought to perfect inherent grace Lastly The Scripture-grace though it be not for good duties yet doth alwayes require the study of them and diligent attending thereunto So that as we must not with the Papist make our duties thrust out grace so neither must we with the Antinomians make grace to thrust out duties for both these do consist together Therefore as the Scripture speaks of Gods grace so it doth also of those holy duties which if we do not diligently perform we cannot have any portion in everlasting happiness Use of Admonition To pray for that spiritual wisdome that we may joyn Gods grace and our holiness to be conscionable in performing of the later but to relie only upon the former Especially take heed of such wayes and courses that shall put thee out of this warm Sunne that shall make thee to walk in darkness not feeling the comfortable beams thereof Oh remember it is this alone that makes life and death comfortable It is true thou mayest be under this grace of God yet by some cloudy temptations upon thy soul thou not be able to perceive Oh but let thy earnest prayer be That Gods grace may not only be to thee but this may be evidenced to thee Thou canst never have true solid peace and quiet contentation of soul till this be all the food as it were thou livest upon till this be all the cloaths thou coverest thy nakedness with SERM. XXV Of the Nature of true Gospel peace and wherein it chiefly consisteth 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ VVE are now come to the second thing which the Apostle doth so cordially wish these Corinthians and that is Peace Grace is the Cause Peace is the Effect Grace is the fountain Peace is the stream This word Peace among the Hebrews comes from a root signifying to be whole and sound because by Peace they did mean all good and prosperity as by Warre the Hebrew word coming from a root signifying to eat and devour they meant all misery and destruction And among the Hebrews this was their ordinary salutation and greeting Peace be to you intending thereby all prosperity and happiness And so some expound it here by Peace understanding a prosperous and successefull proceeding of all their affairs But though this is not to be excluded yet
the rage of the fire so that the very garments did not so much as smell of any burning Thus the presence of Christ hach so wonderfully ravished and refreshed the heart of an afficted afflicted Saint that he hath almost forgot his affliction and discovereth not the least soil from it 3. Another Scripture discovery for comfort is to presse and command the life of faith upon Gods promise So that whatsoever the principles of the world and sense do suggest yet faith rectifieth all That finds honey to come out of a dead Lion that can suck honey from a bitter herb when fleshly wisdom and humane reason can go no further yet even then faith can gather sure and firm arguments of comfort David in that great distresse at Ziklag yet is said to encourage himself in his God Paul maketh this the ground of a Christians magnanimity support and joy uuder all tribulations Heb. 11. 1. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Gods thoughts and our thoughts are wholly different only faith inableth us to know the mind of God and where flesh is ready to say God is casting off and utterly forsaking there faith seeth him drawing near The Disciples in a tempest thought they had seen a Spirit and were affrighted but it was Christ The promise of God and faith applying it do bear up the soul and make it rejoyce in troubles Heb. 6. 18. we have there Gods promise and Gods oath also to confirm it and therefore saith the Apostle We have those two immutable things that we might have strong consolation See there because of Gods promise and that confirmed by an Oath We have a consolation and a strong consolation Strong because the ground of it is strong Gods Word so that it is stronger than mountains it is stronger than Heaven and earth Every creature shall fall to the ground rather than the promise not be made good to thee Again it is a strong consolation because neither the Devils nor his instruments shall be able to overcome it Though therefore thy enemies be strong enemies though thy troubles are strong troubles yet remember here is a strong consolation death it self cannot deprive thee of it if then we walk by faith and not by sense if we live upon these brests of consolation as the Infant doth surely we may then swallow down even deadly and poisonous things yet they shall not do any hurt Because the promise is the same thy heart would alwayes be the fame as the Law is written in thy heart in respect of obedience so let the promise in respect of faith Faith from the Word doth shew carnal reason all the mistakes and false principles it proceedeth upon discovering light in darknesse love in afflictions and life even in death it self Lastly For these bunches of grapes may serve to acquaint you what the Land is eternal glory to be possessed after the troubles vexations and exercises here is able to make the heart to be exceeding glad under all our troubles Thus the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 16 17. We faint not for this light affliction worketh for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and this is by looking not on the things that are seen but the things that are not seen At another time the godly are commanded to lift up their heads when the day of judgment draweth nigh because their redemption is at hand And 1 Thess 4. 18. after a discourse of our Lords coming and that the godly shall be ever with him they are enjoyned To comfort one another with these things that incomprehensible glory which is provided for us to receive after our sufferings here makes the heart rejoyce while it is in the valley of tears this Haven after our storms this rest after our troubles this Crown after our warfare is that which reviveth the soul and makes it a Naomi while it is a Marah SERM. XL. How God may be said to comfort his children in all their Tribulations though many of them may live very disconsolate 2 COR. 1. 4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation WE were discussing this third particular in the Text but that one main doubt may present it self the discussing whereof is very usefull in a practical way It is this Seeing Paul speaketh thus generally God comforteth us in all our tribulations doth not this necessarily infer that all the children of God in all straits are full of comfort And if this be so either we must condemn many who in all appearance are the dear children of God for hypocrites and unsound because they have no comfort Yea all divine means have been used and yet they cannot be comforted or else we must question the truth of this Scripture This Text saith God comforteth his in all their tribulations Experience telleth us That many of Gods children are sadly disconsolate or else if their want of comfort be an argument they do not belong to God we shall then passe an uncharitable censure upon those who are every way to be accounted of as precious Saints and that of the first magnitude Let us therefore remove this stumbling block out of the way And First It cannot be denied but that it may be the case not only of a godly person but even an whole Church to be without all comfort that nothing but sorrow and trouble do even devour them all the day long See this true in Jeremiahs Lamentations Chap. 1. 2. Chap. 2. 20 21. The Church there sits in mourning with tears on her cheeks and she hath none to comfort her neither God or man And for a particular person what is clearer than Job whose soul was as full of spiritual botches and sores by sad thoughts as his body was of corporal ones Job 17. 13. When I said my bed shall comfort thou skarest me with dreams c. Job not in his bed a place of rest nor in the night a time of rest can be freed from terrors and fears yea Chap. 9. 27. when he said I will leave off my heavinesse I will comfort my self when he set himself with all holy endeavours to cast off this viper of sorrow yet they did rather increase upon him Yea when he himself cannot remove those mountains of his heart it may be his godly friends may and indeed such spiritual Physicians God doth sometimes blesse for that end But Chap. 21. 34. he telleth them They comfort him in vain none then can deny but there was a time at least when God did not comfort Job in his tribulations We read also of Heman Psal 88. 15. who complaineth That he was distracted with the terrors of the Lord from his youth up he complaineth Gods wrath lay hard upon him that God did afflict him with all his ways yea he prayed he cried and God did hide his face from him So that in all the Psalms there is not a word of comfort no nor of hope or of confidence
the Gospel is though to some a savour of life yet to others a savour of death Thus afflictions and troubles to some do discover their hypocrisie and guile as winnowing doth the chaâ—â— but to others they are blessed either to conversion or to edification So that in all the sufferings of the Church we are by prayer to importune God that by these means greater glory may come to Christ and that these waters of persecution may be like those to the Ark which could not drown it but exalted it nearer to Heaven Hence Fourthly We may admire the wisdome power and goodnesse of God that wherein the enemies of Gods Church deal craftily and cruelly in that very thing he is above them working the contrary to that which they are intending For how many persecutors hath the Church had who like Haman resolved to root out the very name of Christianity and their persecutions have increased the number of Christians Thus it must needs be madness and torment to the Churches enemies to see that the wayes they take to demolish is indeed to build up the Church of God Even as it was with Pharaoh when he called a counsel to deal craftily with the Israelites to oppress and diminish them then they were the more multiplied Thus Act. 12. 24. when Herod set himself to kill the eminent servants of the Lord and thereby weaken the Church of God for when the shepherds were dissipated what would become of the flock it is said But the word of God grew and multiplied See how the contrary fell out to Herods design These things premised Let us consider What is the general good promoted by the Churches sufferings And 1. Hereby the glory of God and Christ is the more exalted amongst all that fear him For when the Churches of God shall see the wisdome and goodness of God thus to his people turning all the cruelty and craft of their adversaries to their own good that what they could never do their enemies do for them What glory and praise doth this cause in all Congregations How is the Church indeared hereby to God to trust in him to continue faithfull to him in all exercises God hath been good and will be good God hath turned the greatest evil of men to the greatest advantage and he will do it As Christs death is called a glorifying of him Thus also are the sufferings for Christ the believers glory and not only so but the glory of Christ also What saith Paul Phil. 1. 20. Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or death But 2. The great good overflowing to the Church by its sufferings are the propagation and enlargement of the Gospel thereby Phil. 1. 13. Paul there sheweth how his troubles fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel for his bonds were made manifest in Caesars palace and in all other places That of Tertullian is known The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church When men did behold their faith the râ—patience their constancy and courage it made them enquire into the cause of their sufferings what it was that could make them so constantly endure all kind of torments Insomuch that this was in stead of the working of miracles to bring men to faith So that as the shaking of a ripe flower maketh many seeds fall to the ground and in stead of that one flower many come up in the room of it or as when the Vine hath its branches cut off there come farre more in stead thereof Thus it hath also been by all the troubles on the Church of God by afflictions and by patience under them How numerous did the Church of God grow even like the stars in Heaven Let the Use be To consider those examples of all such worthies who have suffered for Christ whether recorded in Scripture or in Ecclesiastical History read them for thy comfort and thy salvation The word of God and the lives of Martyrs bearing witness to it may much prevail over a stony heart It hath been a good blessing of God that the Names and Histories of most Martyrs have been preserved and recorded for the good of the Church of God to come The lives and sufferings of our Martyrs here in England what influence may they not make upon thee What patience what heavenly mindedness what courage should this put into thee As Abel though dead speaketh Thus do all the godly Martyrs the Bradfords the Ridleys the Latimers they all speak still and God suffereth such persecutions to be as perpetual Sermons to teach us SERM. LI. The Afflictions which others suffer for Christ make much for our Comfort and Salvation 2 COR. 1. 6. And whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation THe second particular in this Text as it stands divided is the Consequent or Effect of this tribulation which is set down in a particular and special manner above any other fruit of it and that is two-fold Consolation and Salvation Of the word Consolation enough hath already been said For the other viz. Salvation we shall remit it to the end of the verse where it is again specified So that our work is immediately to proceed to the Observation which is That sufferings for Christ should be so farre from disheartning and offending others that a true and right consideration of them may much provoke our comfort and salvation This truth is of great use For the afflictions accompanying the wayes of Christ have been an offence and a stumbling block to many Now when a curb shall be made a spur when an hinderance a furtherance and we shall be encouraged from those particulars which should drive back this consideration must be very profitable Before we come to amplifie in what manner in what respects persecutions are made thus serviceable to others Let us take notice First That the sufferings of others do work good only occasionally or by way of example We must not conceive any merit or causality as was declared before in Martyrs They are Examples not Mediators Their light did shine that we might thereby glorifie God So that we must take heed that the sufferings of the godly do not obscure the sufferings of Christ that they should not be accounted the only treasure of Christ But as Luther was afraid lest his books should take men off from meditating on the Bible Or as Paul was afraid men should judge of him as if he by his own power had done that miracle and therefore told them It was onely by the Name of Christ. So also it was with all the true Martyrs of Christ they were humble looking upon themselves as unworthy of the name of a Martyr neither would they have their blood derogate from the blood of Christ Hence Secondly We may greatly deplore and bewail the Apostasie of the Church concerning those that were Martyrs and sufferers for Christ in what superstition and sinfull devotion were they plunged in about
more when we see it is not one or two but multitudes yea millions which have given testimony to such truths and that by their bloud that so many should thus be willingly undone for that which is a falshood is very improbable And therefore our Divines do usually bring the constancy of Martyrs as an argument to prove the divine truths of the Scriptures Oh then shalt thou doubt Shalt thou question whether this or that be truth when thou hast such presidents of so many laying down their lives to confirm it Secondly From the sufferings of others for Christ and his way we may be greatly encouraged to trust in God and to depend on him to enable us also if he should call us thereunto How apt are the people of God to be despondent within themselves to be afraid of their own weaknesse and hypocrisie saying their hearts are so carnal so unmortified that they know not to part with any thing much lesse life it self for Christ He cannot will one say he dare not say with Peter Though all men forsake Christ yet he would not but rather if there be any that will deny Christ he should be the man This temptation is very incident to the gracious heart But if they look off from themselves to these champions before their eyes what hope and confidence may they attain unto in the Lord For what were those confessors of themselves Were they not men Were they not flesh and blood as well as thou art Were they not affected with wives children and life it self Were they marble and rocks No surely but they were subject to all such temptations as thou art and yet God was with them he raised them up above their own strength So that while thou art out of this fight thou canst not conceive what strength and what gracious influence God will vouchsafe unto thee As we read of one French Martyr in Fox his Martyrologie that was exceedingly possessed with fear about suffering insomuch that he disguised himself and took upon him to be a pedlar carrying ware up and down but being at last discovered and hiding himself in a bush no sooner was he apprehended but as he acknowledged afterwards as soon as ever the enemy had laid hold on him that spirit of fear and cowardlinesse left him being filled with undaunted courage If therefore we read the lives and deaths of those who have been persecuted for Christ and observe what wonderfull supports they have had and how God hath glorified himself in their infirmities so that with Paul they could say I could do all things through Christ that strengthens me they did partake of a kind of Omnipotency And at another time he saith When I am weak then am I strong This may make thee though a Lamb for meeknesse and innocency yet a Lion for courage and spiritual fortitude Hence the Apostle when Heb. 11. he had instanced in the great atchievements many worthies had accomplished by faith at the twelfth Chapter he beginneth Seeing we are compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses or Martyrs for so we may render it Let us runne the race that is set before us We have such a cloud of witnesses that as the cloud did direct and guide the people of Israel in the wildernesse so also should the lives and examples of so many called for that end likewise a cloud guide us and teach us Who then can be diffident unbelieving fearfull when he hath such encouragements before his eyes Thirdly From the consideration of such worthies suffering for Christ we may also take occasion to rejoyce and to be glad So farre should we be from shrinking and apostatizing from Christ there are several causes of rejoycing partly in God blessing and praising him who doth so much exalt himself in weak vessels As God hath alwayes delighted to bring about the greatest glory to himself by abject and contemptible means Thus also he doth by the sufferings of his people that which is most unlikely by that he magnifieth himself and that God is seen and made great in the world this should mightily rejoyce us partly Because we have the same God and the same promise that they had And therefore wee may look to rejoyce as well as they They have not a more mercifull or powerfull God than thou hast neither have they more excellent or better promises than thou hast So that as fire kindleth fire thus their joy may produce joy in thee Fourthly From the sufferings for Christs sake we may informe our selves much in this great lesson that they were in earnest and real for him It was not only words or a profession but a lively submission unto the wayes of Christ That which the Scripture complaineth of so much is the general sinne of the Christian world They follow Christ because of loaves They professe him while the scorching heat of the Sunne doth not arise but when once Christ and their earthly comforts cannot stand together then they discover their unsoundnesse and that they had no root at all But those that suffer for Christ they professe no more with their tongues then they manifest in their lives Non loquimur magna sed vivimus as Cyprian We do not so much speak great things as live them This was the great Objection to Seneca and such moral Philosophers that they had expressions about Virtue but in their practice were farre from it Seneca was forced to purge himself in this accusation But neither he nor Socrates nor Aristotle nor any of those Masters in Morality could acquit themselves Aristotle that maketh Temperance a vertue and that he only is temperate who doth it for virtues sake that a virtuous man will rather die than do an evil or dishonest action yet he kept a whore yea and sacrificed to her as the Heathens did to a goddesse He was moved to study Philosophy by the instinct of Pythias which is no more than by the command of the Devil He was ungratefull betrayed his Countrey and then afterwards had a great hand in poisoning Alexander which made Caracalla the Emperour expell all Philosophers of Aristotles Sect because of his mischief to Alexander He was also exceeding covetous for this end Lucian bringeth Alexander in hell upbraiding Aristotle that therefore he made riches part of the Summum bonum that under that pretext he might the rather heap up wealth insomuch that Lactantius said truly of him Aristoteles nee Deum coluit nec curavit So that these great Moralists were like some Painters who can draw excellent and beautifull pictures when they themselves are foul and deformed So that to adde action and suffering to our profession when we are called to it this is to shew we are Christians indeed Nunc incipio esse Christianus said Ignatius when he was going to his Martyrdom Lastly By those that suffer we may learn to crucifie our hearts to the world to be weaned from all comforts not to love them more
off for ever Will he be gracious no more Thy tribulations are not eternal After thy wildernesse condition thou wilt be brought into a Canaan 2. We have the effect or end of such consolations which are vouchsafed to others especially the Officers of the Church who are like the mountains whose springs empty themselves into the valleys and that is two-sold Consolation and Salvation Of the former enough hath been said already We come therefore to the latter which is their Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have three words in the New Testament tending to the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour thus Christ is often called and his Name Jesus is because he doth save his people Christ is the cause of our salvation Then there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actual salvation Act. 4. 12. Yea this is applied sometimes to Christ himself metonymically Even as in the Old Testament David doth often call God his salvation Act. 13. 47. Christ is there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For salvation to the ends of the earth Luk. 1. 69. he is called the horn of saluation that is a powerfull and strong Saviour Lastly There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth not so much signifie salvation it self as the means and instrument by which it is procured and thus Christ as Mediator is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 2. 30. Luk. 3. 6. Hence Ephes 6. 17. The helmet of salvation because it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may relate even to Christ himself as David calleth God his helmet and his shield c. As for the thing it self viz. Salvation that may answer the Hebrew word Peace which containeth a confluence of all good things The Heathens did so admire it that they built a Temple Deae Saluti to the Goddesse Safety though they understood only a temporal safety and therefore when they were saved or delivered from dangers they did offer their Sacrifices called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus they thought all their safety came from Heaven though corrupted with blind minds In the Scripture we read of a two-fold salvation A Temporal one and the Old Testament speaketh much of this salvation because temporal mercies were in a more plentifull manner vouchsafed to them not but that the godly looked for a spiritual salvation as Jacob witnesseth in his benedictory prayer before his death saying Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord only spiritual things were not so clearly and plainly manifested as in the Gospel times Hence the Temple 1 King 6. 4. had windows indeed but they were of narrow lights This Salvation temporal is often in the Old Testament expressed in the plural number The salvations of the Lord because of the multitude and Frequency of them 2. There is a spiritual Salvation and this is sometimes applied to the Gospel and means of grace because they are instituted means to bring to salvation Act. 13. 26. It 's called the Word of salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the day of salvation Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation So that the very title which is given to the preaching of the Gospel should partly much affect and winne upon us who would not be saved Why should not all Congregations endeavour after a godly Ministry This is to bring in Salvation amongst them And partly it should terrifie all prophane atheistical men who delight in their lusts and slight the Gospel preached what is this but to refuse salvation What is this but to say Let me be damned I had rather with my lusts go to hell then without them to Heaven Every Sermon thou despisest salvation it self is rejected by thee But then 2. This spiritual Salvation is either inchoate or consummate Inchoate or Salvation begun is attributed to the works of grace in this life Sanctification especially Justification So Ephes 2. 5. and 2. 8. By grace ye are saved he speaks of Justification in this life and as that which is already obâ—ained 2 Tim. 1. 9. Justification is salvation begun though good works are otherwayes required to one and the other The Consummate or compleat Salvation is that in Heaven which is the Salvation so often promised in the Scripture and that is the Summum bonum and the ultius finis the mark all are to aim at The Scripture doth clearly describe that which the Philosophers did grope in the dark about having many several opinions about it That as our Saviour asked his Disciples Whom do men say I am And they answered Some John Baptist some Elias Now though these were holy men yet it was a dishonour to Christ to be accounted no more than a man Woe be to us if Christ had been no more than a meer Prophet Seeing therefore these did so mistake our Saviour asketh further But whom say ye that I am Then Peter answered The Sonne of the living God It was the Father not flesh and blood that had revealed this Thus if you ask What do the men of the world say Happinesse and Salvation is One will reply Riches another Honours but what do ye say who are more than flesh and blood who have the Spirit of God revealing things to you Even the enjoyment of God and Christ to all eternity this is Salvation this is Blessednesse This Salvation is that which we are to endeavour after in our whole life Better never have been borne and not saved What will it profit thee to have had a little pleasure a little greatnesse and honour in this life and hereafter to lose this salvation There are some places of Scripture wherein it 's disputed what Salvation is spoken of whether temporal or spiritual or both 1 Pet. 3. 20. Eight persons were said to be saved in the Ark. So 1 Pet. 4. 18. The righteous shall scarcely be saved The Arminian would bring that place 1 Tim. 4. 10. Who is the Saviour of all men to a spiritual salvation But that is absurd for he speaks of being an actual Saviour and that cannot be to wicked men for they are not saved therefore it is of a temporal preservation for even to wicked men he vouchsafeth daily salvations and deliverances Now it is plain my Text speaketh of a spiritual Salvation and that which is to come called eternal Salvation Observe That God doth by all his dispensations carry on and further the salvation of his people If others be afflicted if others be comforted all helpeth forward to the salvation of those that believe In this sense it is said 1 Cor. 3. ult All things are yours The Officers and Ministers of the Church life and death things present and things to come How are all these things a godly mans Even because they further his salvation by all these he promoteth the happinesse of his people Thus Paul knew Phil. 1. 19. that all his enemies practices yea their preaching Christ out of envy thinking thereby to afflict
very powerfull for their salvation They are like the saws and hammers that did prepare and polish the stones to be fit for the building So that to be deprived of these to be denied these is even to be deprived or denied salvation it self Only when we say they are means instituted to procure salvation You must not think there is any intrinsecal vertue in these as the Lutherans speak about the Word preached or as the Papists about the Sacraments working salvation as Physick doth health by a natural causality No the Apostle tels us That in some it is not the Word of life but of death 2 Cor. 2. 16. It 's to some people as the Ark to the Philistims because not used aright it becomes their further damnation 2. There are occasional means which do not directly but occasionally promote the salvation of believers And they are 1. Their very sinnes These are Occasiones passivae passive occasions meerly because sinne of it self hath such a deadly nature that it is not ordinable to salvation only the Omnipotency the Wisdome and Goodnesse of God make the former sinnes the godly have commitred to be admirable antidotes and preservatives against future sinne Thus Pauls blasphemy and persecution was overpowred to promote his salvation by making him more active Even as one grief doth cure another sometimes or the burning of fire is taken out by fire which made one not afraid to say That he got good by his sinnes more than by his graces Hence Rom. 8. many learned men do not exclude sins themselves from that comfortable expression of the Apostle All things shall work together for their good The second occasional means are Afflictions and these may be called Active occasions because in their nature they are ordinable and actually by God are ordained to help forward our salvation Now the ground of all this is from Gods Predestination and Election of such to salvation and because so elected every thing becomes instrumental to that end so that God governeth and ruleth in all things thereby to bring them to eternal blessednesse for Election will obtain and cannot be frustrated So that the Use may be to inform the people of God of their infinite obligation to the goodnesse and grace of God towards them in this particular if grace did fall asleep as it were but a moment thy salvation might be for ever lost but this grace that keepeth thee doth neither slumber nor sleep What joy and gladnesse may it fill the godly heart with when he is allowed to say with Paul I know this shall turn to my salvation If I be afflicted if I be comforted if I have mercies if I be without them if I live if I die I know all these things shall carry on my salvation SERM. LVI Of Pauls Hope and Perswasion of the Corinthians with the Reasons and Grounds of it 2 COR. 1. 7. And our hope of you is stedfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation THese words brought in as some say be a parenthesis are by way of mitigation and mollifying the minds of the Corinthians For Paul in his former Epistle having severely reproved them it obtained good successe and procured some spiritual effect upon them for they were made sorrowfull thereby and set upon the work of Reformation And although the false Apostles had too much prevailed with them yet they were brought to a sounder temper than formerly Neither were Pauls afflictions such matter of contempt as formerly yea they are partakers of the same sufferings with him These things laid together maketh Paul use these encouraging and softning passages to rebukes we must joyn meeknesse and love together The Artificer cannot build his house with hard brick or stone he must have his soft mortar to cement them together Rigidnesse to rigidnesse will nener unite There must be yeelding as well as severity else the edification of Gods Church cannot proceed The words are a profession of Pauls charitable esteem and loving apprehensions of them though sometimes he doth rebuke them very sharply If he had said I have no hopes of you no Epistle or writing will do you any good this might have more hardened them in obstinacy Yea as Chrysostom well observeth on this place He speaketh more hopefully and confidently of these Corinthians then he doth of the Thessalonians For 1 Thess 2. 2 3 4 5. he there discovereth the holy jealousie and fear he had lest they should be oot much moved with the afflictions that do accompany the Gospel When I could no longer forbear saith he I sent Timotheus to establish you that no man should be moved by these afflictions Again he repeateth it When I could no longer forbear I sent to know your faith lest by some means the tempter should tempt you By these vehement and doubled affectionate expressions you see with what a holy jealousie he was possessed concerning them but he speaketh farre more confidently about these Corinthians Our hope of you is stedfast That which the Apostle here calleth his hope he doth often in other places name his perswasion Heb. 6. 9. We are perswaded better things of you 2 Tim. 1. 5. I am perswaded that the same faith dwelleth in thee also 1 Pet. 5. 12. The Apostle speaking of Sylvanus calleth him a faithfull brother 1 Pet. 5. 12. as I suppose The word doth not there denote any doubt or fear about him for that is contrary to the Apostles scope who intends to commend him but it signifieth a firm and stedfast judgement concerning his faithfulnesse Now the Question is What is that hope and perswasion or knowledge which Paul had concerning other men To understand this you must know Paul had a two-fold hope A Divine Hope and a Charitable or Prudential Hope which we may call a Moral Hope Divine Hope is a supernatural grace wrought by God in the heart of Paul and so in every believer whereby he is enabled to put his confidence in God expecting from him onely what he stands in need of So that of Divine Hope God is the efficient and God also is the object on which it is determined and as we must not believe in any thing but God so nether hope in any thing but God Of this Divine Hope Paul doth not here speak he doth not say Our hope in you is stedfast but of you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those Prepositions are often changed Therefore it is a Moral Hope which is grounded upon principles of prudence and charity by which Paul was bound to judge thus favourably of them Paul could not tell the hearts of those he wrote to he could not infallibly discern whether they were hypocrites or sincere onely he judgeth the tree by the fruits Yet you must not understand this as spoken o◠every particular and individual but collectively for he writeth to them as a body and a
of death is thus sinfull when it putteth thee upon sinne so when it maketh thee omit any duty that God requireth thou darest not confess God and his truth in the midst of a perverse generation thou darest not be valiant for the truth nor plead for righteousness this fear is excessive Love to God love to his glory should cast out the fear of death Observe then thy self in dangers or temptations how thou findest thy fear to put thee upon sinfull compliances or omissions and presently as Jehoshaphat in the midst of a battel being in great danger cried out unto God for help so do thou to be delivered from this sinfull fear that is a deadly enemy encompassing thee about Secondly Thy fear about death is sinfull when it is immoderate and disquieting of thee so that thou doest not walk with a cheerfull quiet and calm spirit So that although it may not put thee upon any sinfull or unlawfull enterprize yet if it fill thee with anxieties with trepidations so that it depriveth thee of that Evangelical joy and peace in this excess it is a sinne All that are truly godly Being justified by faith they are to have peace in their hearts yea they are to rejoyce alwayes in the Lord but the inordinate fear of death causeth this Sunne to be in an eclipse and as men subject to swooning fits or convulsions cannot go with that courage and confidence up and down as those who are freed from such distempers Thus also the slavish and immoderate fear of death putteth millstones about our neck is a continual Ephialtes upon the soul filleth the spirit with heaviness whereby that Evangelical life and Gospel-conversation that we are called unto is seldome or never exercised Observe then thy self doth such fears of death make thy soul full of tumults and distractions Doth it oppose any Evangelical grace or retard the Spirit of Adoption upon thy soul Then humble thy self know thou sinnest against God and pray for the mortification of it and this thou art to do though it doth not make thee put out thy hand to any evil way though it doth not make thee omit any known duty For as worldly and distrustfull cares though lodging only in the heart are greatly displeasing to God though we do not thereby fall into covetous and unjust wayes yet the very cares and distractions of the heart are forbidden as appeareth by that reproof given to Martha by our Saviour himself Luke 10. 41. Martha Martha thou art troubled about many things but one thing is needfull Thus it is also in fears though thou art not instigated thereby to unlawfull wayes to preserve thy self yet the distractions and divisions of thy heart are offensive to God Therefore as the Apostle saith Phil. 4. 6. Be carefull in nothing but let your requests be made known to God Let prayer rebuke all storms and tempests of sinfull cares so in nothing be fearfull no not about death it self but commit thy self by prayer to God to whom the issues of life and death do belong Thirdly This fear of death is sinfull when it excludeth better and more profitable and seasonable fear The Scripture doth frequently command a fear of God and the serving of him with godly trembling Psal 2. 11. Yea the whole work of grace is expressed in this That God will put his fear in our hearts Jer. 32. 40. If then this fear of God did more prevail and rule in our hearts we should not fear diseases and death so much as we do The fear of God would put a due moderation upon all the powers of the soul This would regulate the fear of all other things so that we dare not fear otherwayes than God hath commanded then this natural fear is compatible with gracious fear For as our love to the creatures must be animated and regulated by our love to God so that we are never to love any thing that thereby our love to God may be abated or diminished Thus it must be in fear we are never to dread any thing further than it is consistent with the fear of God therefore it may fall out sometimes that the fear of God may justly put us upon the fear of death as when we walk negligently coldly and formally when we do not make up our daily accounts with God when we do not make our daily peace with God with renewed repentance and faith If we live in this manner then we have good cause to fear death because we are unprovided for it it seizeth on us before we are prepared and the fear of God may justly put us into this fear of death For we know how great holy and just God is how dreadfull his appearance will be at the day of judgement and all that we can do it must be done before death then the night is come and none can work To repent to bewail our unprofitableness our neglect of the seasons of grace in hell will then be as unprofitable as Esau's teares when he had lost his birth-right There is therefore a just and holy fear about death lest it should take us not doing the work of God lest it should come so unexpectedly that we be forced to cry out with him Inducias usque ad mane O spare me till to morrow Let one live another day to make peace with God and the fear of God will put us upon this fear as the Apostle said 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Thus it is here Knowing the terrour of the Lord that he is greater than our hearts that if they condemn us then God will much more This will put a fear of death upon us because that is nothing but the presenting of our souls in his presence We read Judg. 6. 23. and in many other places when God made any glorious apparition the persons who beheld it were so amazed and stricken with the sense of their imbecillty that they thought they should die presently and shall not the thoughts about death that it 's the dislodging of the soul and bringing it immediately before God strike much terrour into us This holy and reverential fear about death is laudable and is the fruit of the fear of God but when this fear of death maketh thee fear God the less or hindereth thee in the service of him then cast this Hagar out of doors Fourthly The fear of death is sinfull when it doth proceed from a sinfull cause If the fountain be bitter then the stream is bitter Now there are these sinfull causes of the fear of death 1. When it proceedeth from an inordinate love of life An excessive love of life doth alwayes beget an immoderate fear of death So that we may judge of the sinfulness of fear by the sinfulness of love If thy heart be not mortified and crucified to the world if thy heart be not loosned and weaned from earthly comforts and this maketh thee afraid to die this is
dead can be proved possible by naturall reason but whether it can or no we are sure the Scripture doth so positively and plainly affirme it that it must be bold Atheisme to deny it Now do but consider how great a matter it is to exercise faith in this particular how improbable yea and impossible doth it seem to naturall reason All those who have dyed ever since Adam so many thousand yeares ago who have been for so long a time consumed into ashes All such bodies which have been eaten with fish or beasts yet God will raise the same body again the same bones and flesh again What amazement and astonishment may this raise in thee yet it is clear by Scripture God can and will do this Oh then that the godly did more vigorously exercise their faith in this fundamentall point of Religion What canst thou believe in God concerning this great and admirable truth yet doubtest whether he can raise thee out of those petty and minute troubles thou art exercised with When was news brought to the Pope of the murther of Henry the fourth of France he was exceedingly affected with it in his speech in the conclave blaspemously aggravating the mercie as he thought and among other particulars said the fact was so incredible that had he not used himself to believe the high and mysterious points of Religion he could not have believed this fact Thus he in a wretched manner but thou maist in a true and godly sense say Oh Lord this temptation is so great this trouble is so pressing I am so greatly overwhelmed that did I not believe those wonderfull Principles of Religion were I not used all the day long to things above humane reason and expectation I could not be able to beare up my self in these extremities 2. This Doctrine is metaphorically true also God raiseth from the dead and that again in a twofold extremity externall and internall externall troubles the Scripture doth delight to represent the great and extreame troubles of the Church when it hath visible help or deliverance under the name of death Isaiah 26. 19. We have the Prophet comforting the Church in her desolate estate Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise It is true many Interpreters expound this as if properly and immediately spoken of the Resurrection and it should seem our Translators understood it so when they render it together with my body but the context maketh it cleare God speaketh of their deliverance from captivity wherein he calleth his people Cadaver meum my dead body because in outward appearance so now the reason of this may be because Gods power would be to them as the dew to herbs ready to perish which doth revive them Thus their deliverance out of their calamity is described Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight This Text is literally and immediately to be understood of the Jewes yet by consequence it may be applyed to Christ so that it argueth the calumniating spirit of Hunnius who would make Calvin to jadaize because he doth not expound it as a promise of Christs Resurrection God will do with his Church as he did with the body of Christ he would not suffer it to see corruption but within three dayes raise it again Thus saith the Church though we be in a dead condition yet he will within two or three dayes within a short time revive us again But above all you have a most evident allusion to this Ezek. 37. Where the Prophet in a vision saw a Valley full of dry bones and breath from the Lord brought sinews and flesh upon these bones and the bones came together and lived Now what the meaning of this parabolicall vision is appeareth Verse 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say our bones are dryed up our hope is lost we are cut off from all parts but saith God I will open your Graves and you shall come out By these expressions you see how true the Doctrine is that in the Churches extreame calamities God raiseth the dead neither was this opening of the graves and making dry bones to live once done by God only for that people of that time But such hath been the condition of the Church in severall Ages It hath been the dry bones and God hath breathed life into them Now the Child of God should daily meditate upon these great workes of God to his People and then he will be ashamed to see himselfe so much dejected about his own particular What thou art but one dry bone and cannot God restore thee when he doth help so many Can he deliver his whole Church and not a particular Member therein More faith in the generall affaires of the Church would facilitate thy particular Come we then to internall extremities and exigences and there in a two-fold sense likewise we shall find it is God that raiseth the dead In the first place If you consider man in his state by nature he is wholly dead in sinne and therefore when God by his grace doth correct him then he raiseth the dead Thus every godly man in this spirituall change wrought upon him can experimentally say God who raiseth the dead I was senselesse in sinne I was stupid I felt no burden I desired no deliverance but God raised me from the dead Even as the Father said of his Prodigall Sonne converted this our Sonne was dead but is alive This expression in a spirituall sense the Scripture doth much delight in Ephes 2. You who were dead in sinne hath he quickned and therefore the work of grace is compared to a Resurrection and from this similitude we justly urge against the Arminians that man hath no active power to prepare himselfe for grace or to turne himselfe to God no more then a dead Lazarus did dispose himselfe to a Resurrection Thou then who labourest under many temptations about the weaknesse of thy graces that bewaile thy dead heart thy dead duties thy dead Religion Oh thou art withered and hast no life in thee Remember it is God that raiseth the dead And certainly if he did infuse the life of grace into thee at first when thou wast wholly dead can he not much more now thou art quickned recover thee out of thy decayings and swounding fits he that hath spirituall life at first can much more recover thee out of thy consumptions he that delivered from death can much more from sickness 2. There is another internall exigency upon the soul which may be called a spirituall death and that is the sad desolations and terrible blackness that may cover the soul because of desertions God may have forsaken thee thou maist not only look upon thy selfe as a dead man but as a damned man Oh this temptation when God sets himselfe against a broken soul shootes his arrowes into his heart
his deare Son You see what the condition of every man is till converted it is said to be under the power of darkness How unspeakeable is the misery of all unregenerate men who are thus the Devils prisoners bound hand and foot that they are not able to shake off any one sinne they are accustomed unto neither are they willing to be delivered They do not mourne and groane after a Redeemer how inlarged therefore should the heart of a godly man be when he shall see himself thus delivered the time was I could not give over my loose and wanton wayes I could not part from my prophane and wicked Companions the time was I hated such as feared God I could not indure any holy strictness any family-duties The time was when the cares of the world did lord it over me so that neither praying or hearing or any holy Ordinances had any influence upon me being so greatly inslaved to those earthly thing but now blessed be God the snare is broken and my soul like a Bird is escaped I can now run with delight in the wayes of God Oh how blessed a deliverance is this to be saved from thy former impieties to be delivered out of thy old blindness and wickedness Seest thou not in what miserable bondage many persons are intangled in by their lust They have some convictions some terrors upon their conscience they cry out oh that they could never fall into such sinnes again and yet upon every temptation hideously relapse again Augustine before his full conversion to God complained of this captivity exceedingly If therefore God hath delivered thee from thy former unregenerate estate if he have made thee a new Creature then know the goodness of God towards thee is more then ever can be comprehended by thee It cannot enter into thy heart to conceive of the fullness thereof But because this deliverance is not compleate and perfect in this life as appeareth Rom. 7. where Paul complaineth of a captivity still he was plunged into he breaketh out at last into that affectionate expression Who will deliver me from the body of this death Oh how blessed and happy will that day be when thou shalt have no more thornes in thy side or rather in thy heart no more Jebusite to disquiet thee but all sinne with the effects thereof shall be wholly dryed up 3. There is a spirituall deliverance in respect of the continuall temptations we meet with in this world to draw us to sinne and to make us turne the back upon God That we may alwayes have Gods protection herein we are taught to pray even as often as for our daily bread that he would deliver us from evi'l Luke 11. 4. and herein the Lord doth vouchsafe more daily deliverance to us then we can possibly apprehend Every condition every mercy every affiction would be a temptation to us to allure us to sinne did not the Lord daily deliver What is it that keepeth thee from the Apostacy of others and so from the wounds and gashes of Conscience which usually fall thereupon but the meer delivering mercy of God Thus you see in how many particulars God doth deliver his people but as the Doctrine is It is not enough for God to deliver once unless he doth it daily continually never withdrawing his arme from under us and the grounds of the necessity of continued mercy are these 1. Because of our utter inability and impotency to continue the same to our selves If the Lord doth bestow such and such deliverances on us leaving us afterwards to our selves that we by our own wisdome and power should preserve our selves Alas This would immediately prove a ruine to us for we can no more continue the deliverance then we could procure it at first he that hath delivered must be the same that doth deliver It s not God that hath delivered and then we who do deliver Humble thy self therefore thankfully under all Gods mercifull dispensations towards thee say O Lord I depend on thee for daily bread for daily grace for daily pardon for daily preservation The same infinite power and wisdome is required to uphold thy mercy as was at first to bring it to thee 2. This continuance of mercy is requisite not only from our naturall imbecillity but also our morall unworthiness So that though the Lord hath delivered once and twice yet we are apt to be so unthankfull and forgetfull that the Lord may deliver no more Oh how often do we forfeit the good mercies that God vouchsafeth us how often have we provoked him to take away his good gifts from us but it is his mercy it is his goodness to continue them unto us Every day thou dost enough to make God take away all he had bestowed upon thee Even as when he had made man who revolted from him and was plunged into obstinate wickedness it is said Gen. 6. It repented him that he made man and it grieved him at the heart an expression to humane capacity to shew how unworthy a Subject man was now become of all that love God had shown to him and maist thou not feare when thou lookest upon thy own barrenness and unworthy dealings with God that God doth repent that ever he thus honoured thee that ever he thus blessed thee that ever he vouchsafed such grace to thee and so take all from thee Take Saul for an instance how many personall favours did the Lord bestow on him but at last God quite forsooke him because of his Hypocrisie ane Rebellion If therefore we consider how forgetfully and wretchedly we walk under Gods mercy we may evidently see that if the goodness of God did not continue them as well as at first bestow them we should quickly be stript of all How many not persons only but Churches for want of the continuance of Gods mercies are of Gardens become a very Wilderness Is God to the Nation of the Jewes as to the Churches of Asia as he was once so that the demerit which is upon us after mercies received our not improving of them for God may provoke God after the good he hath done for us to bring all evill upon us 3. It is necessary the Lord should continue mercies and deliverances as well as at first vouchsafe them to us because our dangers our temptations continue They that renew their disease daily must also renew their Physick They that fall daily need to be raised daily Iterated troubles need iterated deliverances It is true there are some mercies that cannot be iterated any more the benefits of them may but not the mercies themselves Thus the Creation of the world was at first and it would be absurd to pray that God would create it So the Incarnation of Christ this was once done that it cannot be done any more Gods Predestination likewise of his people was from all eternity neither can it be iterated But then there are other mercies which are duely to be
such a trouble that came in with so seasonable a deliverance and when thou knowest his name thus wilt thou not trust in him 3. It is a speciall way to keep the heart in a serene and quiet frame to exercise trust in God for the future Not only to bless God for the mercies we have and do enjoy but also as confidently and securely to trust in God for all future things that shall befall us as if we did for the present enjoy what we could desire We shall find that for want of this trusting in God for the future all our anxieties and disquietness doth arise We do continually create unto our selves constant molestations of spirit because we make suppositions about the future What if I should be brought into such a condition What if such a sad estate should befall me What if I be left unto such a temptation Thus constant conflicts about what is to come taketh off all joy and thankfullness for what we have for the present Therefore it is a speciall duty in the Children of God to be acting dependently upon God for the future as well as for the present Our Saviour Mat. 6. 25. doth by severall choise and precious Arguments indeavour to conquer that ill temper in his Disciples who were so sollicitous what would befall them to morrow how they should be cloathed hereafter how they should live hereafter Therefore the Child of God is to live with as much joy and contentation in respect of future things as if they were present And this is the reason why the promises in Scripture are sometimes expressed in the past tense and sometime in the present because we are also as much assured of every good thing promised as if we had it already in our hands 4. The good things we are to trust in the Lord for as future are both spirituall and temporall things Though Paul speakes here and David many times in his Psalmes of trusting in God for temporall mercies yet the most noble and excellent objects of our confidence is to be eternall glory or the injoying of God in that state of blessedness Hence it is that God is sometimes and everlasting glory is sometimes called our hope because in the expectation of these things the soul is daily supported and certainly if the Husbandman would not plow but in hope neither would a believer indure all those sufferings and afflictions for Christs sake but for this hope This trusting to have that unspeakable joy hereafter and to be for ever with God should be put forth more vigorously by us And we should find it excellently usefull to weane us from the world and to make us part with our dearest comforts for Christs sake yea as was hinted before we are to trust in God for these temporall things only as they are conducible thereby because God hath promised them no further and so farre they are absolutely promised insomuch that we may no more distrust God about temporall things so farre as necessary to our salvation then we may of spirituall and gracious things which may detect the Hypocrisie of our hearts whereby we please our selves as if we trusted on Christ for our justification and the salvation of our soules when in the mean while we distrust him about a morsell of bread or a drop of water Only it may be doubted how Paul and any godly man can trust in the Lord for the future about temporall mercies seeing that the godly may many times be without them and if Paul be delivered once by God it dothnot follow he must be delivered every time for then he could not have suffered Martyrdome as he did at last And why might not John the Baptist and James have trusted in the Lord to be delivered Which if they had done it had been a false trusting To this some say that we are as absolutely bound to trust in God for every temporall mercy as we are for any spirituall and that it is meerly for want of faith or trusting in God if we have not all the temporall deliverances we stand in need of If a man dye of the Plague they will say it is for want of faith in God but although no doubt the People of God are greatly to be blamed for their diffidence and for want of trusting in God they loose many outward mercies yet because temporall things are not so absolutely promised as spirituall therefore there cannot be such an absolute trusting for them Others they say that we are to trust in Gon conditionally To rest upon him for this and that mercy with this condition if God will But those that say we are absolutely to pray for temporall things these must also conclude that we are to trust in God for them absolutely likewise and therefore such do not like that expression by way of condition when we pray for these outward mercies They like not this expression in prayer Father if it be thy will recover such an one that is sick They think this is not a Prayer because from a conditionall supposition no certain thing is inferred Others therefore they conclude we are to pray absolutely for temporall things and by consequence we may also add to trust for them only there ought to be a submission in our spirits that if God give us not our requests we yield our selves up to his holy and wise will Thus with them though we may not pray with condition yet we ought with subordination and happily they that speak of this condition mean no more then subordination There is then a difference about trusting in God concerning spirituall and temporall things eternall glory absolutely and such a measure of grace as will beare us through all temptations that we shall not totally and finally be overcome by them temporall things with subordination yet so farre also absolutely ab out them that no good thing shall be withheld from us so that we may with Paul Rom. 8. in an holy triumph profess That neither life nor death neither things present or things to come shall separate us from the love of God in Christ SERM. LXXVIII Of Motives to trust in God and the Opposites to it Presumption and Despair 2 COR. 1. 10. In whom we trust he will yet deliver EXperiences of Gods mercies that are past you heard may justly excourage us to trust in God for the future Now although much hath been said concerning this necessary grace of trusting with the object in which and for which yet some particulars are to be added for further explication As First There are some peculiar and proper motives to trust in God which were the personal priviledges of some believers onely and there are general common ones which do belong to all the godly As for example when David in that place mentioned before argued that God who had delivered from the Bear and Lion would also from that uncircumcised Philistim We may very well conclude that David in that
spending all upon their pleasures they regard not their children but leave them in poverty and misery Now it's Gods gift to thee informing of thy parents heart to their duties concerning thee Thus if wives love husbands love children all this is Gods gift Gerson relates of his parents who desired to instruct him in this that he had all things from God as a gift that they made an Engine whereby descended from above whatsoever he desired or cried for as if it came from God immediately Fourthly Even those things that are brought about for us by the art and skill of others as well as their bounty we are to acknowledge God the giver of them Thus if Physicians by their art and skill have been a means to recover thee out of any disease thou art to confess it Gods gift It was Asa his great sinne That he relied on the Physician in his disease more than on God And men think themselves bound to reward the Physician to see he hath his fee but how little do they think to glorifie God and to give him the praises due to his name It is the midwives care and skill that brings the child into the world yet we have David taking notice of God as if he alone had done it Psal 22. 9. Thou art he that took me from my mothers womb Thou art my God from my mothers belly Oh how thankfully how humbly should we live did we consider how we are compassed about with Gods gifts Every thing we enjoy is the gift of God Lastly If all these things that yet seem to be the proper effects of second causes are yet the gifts of God Then how much more are all those enjoyments wherein mans wisdome and power cannot claim any worke at all Such are now all those favours of God in a temporal may that are cast upon us without any care or providence of ours That as God provided a wife for Adam while he was in a sleep Thus doth the Lord bring about many providences of love for his children that they never thought of that they could not in the least manner imagine To this head we may referre Paul's mercy in the Text. It might well be called a gift because he was pressed above strength and had no hope of life yet even then God did deliver him Such mercies also must needs be Gods gifts which are bestowed upon us while we are asleep while all the senses are locked up our preservation then from outward dangers yea and from many other wayes which might be our death or ruine when we have no use of reason to prevent them they must needs be Gods gift And lastly All the providences of God to us while little children having no wit or power to help our selves but exposed to danger every way all these were the gifts of God But who doth with thankfulnesse remember and meditate upon Gods mercies to him while a little child when he did eat and drink and play and thought of no God yet even then did God vouchsafe mercy to him David did acknowledge this Psal 22. 9. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers brests David was a sucking child then he could not put forth the actings of hope or any grace at that time but I meaneth God was he that did then support and preserve him though he did not know of it Thus you see that if you let your thoughts runne over all the good things you enjoy let them come in what channel they can yet they are all gifts from God So that we are to overlook all natural causes all means all men all our own wisdome and labour and take them from Gods hand alone That which David saith in reference to the creatures belongeth also to man Psal 104. 27. These all wait upon thee that thou mayest give them their meat in due season That thou givest them they gather thou openest thy hand and they are filled Now the grounds why they are Gods gifts are First Because there is no necessity upon God either natural or moral to vouchsafe them to thee He is not bound to give thâ—… life senses wealth there is no natural necessity for he made thee out of his meer good pleasure and he made thee a man whereas thou mightst have been a Toad or a Serpent Nor was there any moral necessity thou doest not deserve any thing at Gods hand thou doest not deserve a morset of bread nor a drop of water therefore all is the meer gift of God It is his free gift God doth it purely out of his love according to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Favours are to be free and naked not dissembled and counterfeited Thus God having nothing from thee to move him doth it from himself alone Secondly It 's Gods gift Because thy sins are such that he is provoked to blast all thy comforts to continue them no longer to thee As God threatens Hos 2. 8 9. I will take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof You see God calleth it his corn and his wine because he giveth it Thus all thy mercies are Gods gifts upon a two-fold account both because he gave them at first and also because he continneth them still unto thee notwithstanding thy unworthiness Thirdly They are Gods gifts Because we are commanded to pray unto him for them In that short summe of Petitions our Lord remembers this when he directs us To pray for our daily bread and this the rich man must do as well as the poor a Dives that hath his barns full as well as a Lazarns that wants crums If then we pray to God for it it is plain that it is his gift Use of Exhortation Are all the comforts we enjoy Gods gifts Then walk more thankfully Think of God more do not mind second causes and instruments so much David Psal 27. 10. saith David's parents did not forsake him but he compareth himself to a little Infant exposed as Moses was and God did take him up to provide for him Thus we are to regard God more than father or mother Labour to speak the language of Scripture more Say God hath given this God continueth this and be diligent to use these gifts to the honour and glory of the giver for that is the chief end why he giveth them Shall God give to thee and then wilt thou take off from his glory and honour Provoke not God to repent as it were that ever he did thus and thus to thee as he did about the making of man and preferring of Saul Those that said Their tongues were their own Psal 12. 4. were thereby encouraged to wickednesse whereas to consider thy wealth is not thy own thy health is not thy own thy eyes thy tongue thy body these are not thy own they are Gods gift How carefull wouldst thou be to improve them all for his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let this
God onely when the heart doth in the chiefest manner close with God and center upon him as the ultimate end through Christ And therefore simplicity of heart is the same with onenesse of heart When a man doth not love God and the world too serve God and lusts also For though our Saviour say This is impossible yet many whose whole souls are engaged to the world and the things of the world do yet please themselves as if they loved God also which yet is as impossible as with one eye to look downwards and another to look upwards That heart and heart which some Kings in the Old Testament are charged with was because they did halt between God and Belial They would not serve God alone Simplicity then is opposed to inconstancy and unsetlednesse of spirit when a man doth not with full purpose of heart cleave to Christ and take him upon all his terms but in some things is for him and in some things is against him At some times he prayeth and calleth upon God at other times again he giveth all over This is opposite to singleness of heart The Apostle James calleth such an one Chap. 1. 8. A double minded man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man with with two soules as it were So that this very particular is greatly to be heeded it will penetrate and search to the very bottome of the soul Most men undo their soules in this point they have but wishings and wouldings in religious things they have aguish workings of heart sometimes hot and sometimes cold They have not taken our Saviours counsel To sit downe and bethink themselves what it will cost them to be the Disciples of Christ what lusts they can part with what sufferings they can endure what powerfull and fervent service they can doe for God And hence it is they are like a reed shaken with every winde Instability and inconstancy cannot in a predominant manner consist with this simplicity of heart no more than heat and cold in gradu intenso There is no godly man but bewaileth the unsetlednesse the unevennesse of his heart that he is not alwayes as believing as heavenly-minded as weaned from the world as he is at sometimes but this is gradual only his heart hath for the main fixed on God though it be thus tossed up and down even as the ship may be anchored fast to the earth yet the waves and winds may move it up and down but they cannot remove it Thus the heart which hath godly simplicity is fundamentally fastened upon Christ although many temptations intruding may sometimes cause it to shake and totter Fourthly Simplicity of heart is consistent in the uncompounded frame thereof It is not made up of several heterogeneals as if there were metal of silver and lead or gold and copper and so is the same with purity Every hypocrite hath a mixt heart it is compounded of several ingredients for being it is glewed to the creatures and to several lusts because these are many therefore he hath not a simplicity but multiplicity in his heart Divines doe usually make simplicity to be one of Gods Attributes because he is a most pure act compounded of no parts Therefore he hath the highest simplicity in his Essence And the Angels they are also called simple substances because they are next unto God Yea the Philosophers call the Heavens though a body yet simple because not compounded of elements as sublunary things are The notion then of the simplicity of the heart is seen in this when it is not compounded it hath not the mixture of other things with spiritual and hence it doth appear that no man in this life hath perfect and absolute simplicity none hath his graces wholly pure because some corruption is mingled with our duties There is a composition of wine and water of flesh and Spirit of Grace and Nature in the best but yet it is not predominant in the godly The tares do not choake the wheat The Iebusite doth not drive out the Israelite Onely this may serve to keep the godly humble and low in their owne eyes they have not that purity and singlenesse of heart they ought to have yea and earnestly desire Doest thou ever goe about any holy duty wherein thou doest not find corruption presently intermingling it self Doth pure grace work alwayes How much of flesh and self doth interpose But yet for the main thy heart hath simplicity Fifthly Simplicity consisteth in an even equal and uniforme way of obedience The course of a mans life is for the general of the same complexion alwayes praying alwayes believing alwayes mortifying of sinne alwayes heavenly mindednesse I doe not speak this as if there were never any interruption sometimes natural as in sleep and otherwayes because the soule being finite cannot attend to many things at once sometimes moral by sinne or at least carelesse and dull affections but the course of his life or as the Scripture calls it The way of a man that is generally of the same consonancy Whereas Hypocrisie is full of uneven and unequal actions sometimes mountaines sometimes valleys There are many Hyperbatons as it were in the oration of his life his life doth speake in different Dialects he can say Sibboleth and Shibboleth too Thus David describeth the godly man as Meditating and delighting in the Law of God day and night And the Apostle John speaketh once or twice That those who are borne of God sinne not neither can they Not because they have not divers infirmities but because the full purpose and habitual inclination of such a mans heart is uniformely to Gods commands Therefore you heard that the opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you looke upon many examples of those who did many things for God yet wanted this simplicity you shall finde a great difformity in their lives their lives speake contradiction they are not the same men at one time they are at another Thus Soul at first very zealous to promote the will of God yea from this he did put all the Witches to death and yet at another time he himself maketh recourse to such So Jehu how active is he to destroy Baal's worship but yet he retaineth Ieroboam's worship If it was good to destroy Ahab's worship because not commanded by God was it not also good to demolish Ieroboam's seeing that also had no command from God But where there is no simplicity of heart you may observe a great deal of unevennesse yea and contradiction in that mans conversation Sixthly Simplicity of heart doth mainly lie in this To have our outwards and inwards all of the same nature To be such cordially and internally to God as outwardly we appeare to be So that if you aske What is this simplicity In the general we may say the adequate conformity and agreement betweene the heart and our profession Out of the heart we pray we heare we professe So that
to the course of the world not according to the lusts of men but as Christ hath commanded so we live and then partly because by Christs blood we do obtain this life he hath redeemed us from our former evil wayes he hath purchased a liberty for us and then partly because our life is terminated in Christ and we doe objectively propound him in all our wayes as Paul saith Galat. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Christ is the principle or authour Christ is the means and way Christ is the finisher and end of this life In the next place let us consider What goeth to make a mans conversation godly that we may say it is not some sudden motions or transitory workings but his conversation that is according to the Gospel For if some particular good actions at some times were enough to make a man godly then the way to Heaven would be no longer a narrow but a broad way Now in this description you must not expect a metaphysical or punctual decision of how many actions goe to make a mans conversation So that if he come up to such a number yet if he want one more then it cannot be called his conversation but we must understand it morally and in a large sense Briefly therefore to a mans conversation there is required as the foundation of all First A principle of regeneration to be made a new creature There must be spiritual life before there can be spiritual motions and actions So that if men are brought sometimes to what is holy by external motives because they have godly parents godly Magistrates godly Governonrs as Joash all the while Jehoiada the Priest and his Uncle lived This cannot be called a mans conversation there is not a new nature within but outward motives prevail with him and thereupon as they ebb or flow so is there a variation and change in his practices Secondly There must be a predominancy in his heart and affections to what is holy Christ must be his treasure he must love him more than any thing in the world then father or mother or life it self For if the soul be not thus principally fixed on him when that which is dearer and more loved doth suggest it self then they leave Christ This is plainly seene Matth. 13. in those hearers who believed for a while and brought forth some fruit but then when persecutions did arise they fell off then these seeming vines became thorns Thirdly There must be an actual improvement of those habitual principles of grace that are within For though a man have never so much grace within yet if it be not improved by outward exercise we cannot call it a godly conversation and therefore it is a vain thing for men to appeale to the goodnesse of their heart and their good meanings for the conversation is more to be believed than all these There must then be these streames as well as the fountain we must shew our faith as you heard by a godly conversation so that this relateth most to the exercise of grace though it presuppose the fountain and root within Lastly To our conversation There are required pure and heavenly motives that we do holy duties for holinesse sake That we follow Christ for Christs sake not for loaves The old Rule is A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia He that doth a godly duty because godly will do all godly duties As the fire because it burneth naturally it burneth in one countrey as well as another Thus a Christian because carried out purely and naturally as it were to the things of God doth own them every where in all places in all companies That which is godlinesse at one place and in one company is godlinesse in another Onely we must necessarily take along one Caution lest we condemn all the generation of the godly for hypocrites A mans conversation is godly though in many things he faileth by common infirmities though in all things he cometh short of that perfection which is required of him Yea though for a season through prevailing temptations he fall into and lie in some grievous sinnes David's conversation may be called godly he was a man after Gods own heart And Peter's conversation may be godly though he had such a foul fall So that infirmities yea sometimes grosse sinnes fallen into through urging temptations cannot be said to make a mans conversation wicked when the general inclination of the soul is set for that which is good It is true he that doth customarily and habitually sinne he is not borne of God neither can a regenerate man sinne so as the Apostle speaketh 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Every swoon or fainting is not death yet such having the seed of grace within will as Trees that seemed to be dead all winter because there is life in the root at last revive and flourish when the spring of Gods grace shall draw it forth This is necessary lest the Doctrine of a godly conversation seem onely an Idaea like Tullies Oratour and that it cannot be found any where in the world In the last place let us see what profitable Uses may be drawn from this truth And First Of Instruction who are to informe themselves their conversation is not holy notwithstanding some good things may sometimes be found in their lives And 1. Such who in fear of death onely and in times of sad dangers doe call upon the Lord and cry out of their sinnes Is this your conversation Doe ye ever thus but in some times of exigency It is greatly disputed Whether a death-bed repentance can ever be sincere The Socinians are too rigid denying the salvation of such persons because they have no time to shew forth good works in their conversation But as this may be too rigid so on the other side Austin and others put it greatly to the doubt Non dico damnabitur sed nec dico salvabitur then is the conversation holy when in all conditions rich or poor sick or well living or dying thou doest diligently seek the face of God 2. Such cannot plead for an holy conversation in the world Who are onely such in some companies and in some places Many of the Nations became Iewes for fear of them Thus if thou because the company thou art with is religious or in the place where thou livest godlinesse is owned with credit then thou wilt also doe as they doe talke as they talk This is not thy conversation Paul was godly in all the places of the world even at Rome and where he was in the greatest danger Lot was righteous in wicked Sodome It is not with a godly man as they say of some Trees in one Countrey they bring pleasant and wholsome fruit but if transplanted into another soil poisonous and destructive So he in some places speaketh for godlinesse and in other places to laugh and deride it This is not thy conversation 3. Neither
22. How miserable are such a people who rejoyce in the greatest judgment that can befall them Rejoyce not in this but weep and mourn rather when those who should deal faithfully with thee do flatter and seduce thee daubing with untempered morter For God will destroy both such Prophets and such a People Thirdly We are to rejoyce in the spiritual success and prosperity of their work It is very sad to hear those complaints in the Scripture Who hath believed our report and All the day long have we stretched out our hands unto a rebellious people To have much rain fall upon the ground and nothing but bryars and thorns coming up thereupon When therefore we shall finde that God makes the Ministry a savour of life and not of death unto many this ought greatly to rejoyce us when thou findest it to be a mighty word upon thy own heart or upon the hearts of others wherein we ought to be exceeding glad For Is there any greater mercy can befall thee than to have the Word thus a converting and saving Word to thee Thou mayest admire thy Pleasures thy profit thy lusts and judg them sweet But know that the Saving efficacy of the Ministry upon thy soul will be the blessedness indeed that shall endure for ever and therefore when you hear men praise a Ministry admire that examine what is the spiritual good they have found thereby what Reformation what a change hath it made The Apostle telleth these very Corinthians 1 Cor. 5. 6. that their glorying was not good why so because they did not purge out the old leaven They did not cast out that wicked person from amongst them now all this while they gloryed in their able Teachers they magnified the wisdome and Eloquence of many that preached amongst them but saith he your glorying is not good where is the holy Order the godly Discipline the spirituall Reformation that you should have attained unto by the Gifts and Ministry of your Teachers This alone will cause us truly and solidly to rejoyce Use of Instruction How impossible is it for men upon true and spiritual grounds to rejoyce in the Ministry unless they have felt some special efficacy upon it in their hearts They may glory in the parts in the Eloquence in the abilities of men but not for the spirituall success of the work In Popery they will have their people glory in their Church-Officers because of the external pomp and stateliness they live in and so they become reverenced for their outward glory But this is wholly unsuitable with the Scripture-glory and the Scripture-rejoycing for this alone will make thee praise God if thou hast found his Ministers to be the happy Instruments of grace and peace to thy soul SERM. CIII Of the Rejoycing a faithfull Minister hath in an Obedient people 2 COR. 1. 14. That we are your rejoyeing as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus THere remaineth the Second part of the Doctrine to be dispatched which is The Ministers rejoycing upon good grounds in his people For you heard how happy and blessed a thing it was when there was cause for a mutuall and reciprocall rejoycing in one another between Minister and People For God many times upon wise ends doth divide those who should be conjoyned sometimes he sends faithfull Embassadours to a froward and rebellious people as God in Ezekiel that the people were bryars and thornes to him and that he did dwell among scorpions yet he must not be afraid or dismayed at their lookes though they were a rebellious house Chap. 2. 6. Now what comefort could Ezekiel have from such a people They were so many bryars and thornes scratching and tearing of him so many scorpions that had stings and what danger was it to dwell with such Sometimes again there may be a godly and holy people highly prising the means of grace and yet God set over them dumb or wicked Pastors that are Idols and no shepherds Now when this is so their is little rejoycing in one another and if Jehoash the King of Israel 2 Kings 13. 9. compared an unequal Warr to an unequal and unfit Marriage the thistle in Lebanon with the Cedar in Lebanon which proved destructive immediately for the wilde beast in Lebanon came and trode down the Thistle How much more now is this true in this spiritual relation When an Ignorant or prophane Minister is over a gracious people then the Thistle is married to the Cedar but but this cannot hold long for the Devil which is like the wilde beast the roaring Lyon he will come and devour all so that what the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 6. 14. may well be applyed here Be not unequally yoaked what communion hath light with darkness It is then very uncomfortable when a Godly people hath an unfaithfull Minister or a faithfull Minister an ungodly and a froward people This will make him sadly to bewail his condition crying out with Isay Wo unto me for I dwel among men of polluted lips Isay chap. 6. 12. This maketh him like Lot to torment his righteous soul by seing and hearing the wickedness of those he dwelleth amongst 2 Pet. 2. 8. This is a bitter and sad Persecution as it were thou dost not onely persecute a Minister by the malicious opposition and violent courses against him but even thy ungodly life that thou wilt not be reformed that thou wilt not hear and humbly receive the word of God this maketh them grieved and wearied in their work This is a perfecution of their righteous souls as Jeremy said chap. 13. 17. If you will not here it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride Thus the wickedness and ungodly wayes of a stubborn people are the very heart-breaking of a godly Minister while they deride and scorn his soul mourneth for them while they revile and reproach him maliciously he giveth himself to prayer for them Even as it is with some tender Father who hath a Son grievously distracted and bereaved of his wits while he rageth and raveth at his Father while he miscalleth him and striketh at him The Father stands by sadly affected weeping and praying for his childe that he might be brought to his sound minde again Thus doth a godly tender Pastor mourn over a wicked scornfull and rebellious People But let us proceed to shew Wherein a faithfull Minister of Christ hath cause to rejoyce over his people And first When they are a teachable and learning people very tractable and ready to receive Instruction This is a great joy and Incouragement There are many who as they are sottishly ignorant in matters of Religion so they will continue obstinately therein They are not desirous and hearkning after knowledg that say with those in Job 21. 14. unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Now it is for want of a true knowledg of God that iniquity and profaneness doth abound every where
Further the place into which they must depart is terrible beyond all expression into fire and everlasting fire Fire Is not that most dreadfulll Do not your hearts ake and tremble Do not your ears tingle at the naming of this punishment But if it be fire it may be quickly over the pain may be presently gone it may quickly consume to ashes No it is everlasting fire after thousands and millions of years it is still the same as hot to burn as at the first moment If God had said thou shalt lie roaring in hell flames till a thousand years are over for such and such a sinne not repented of might not this have prevailed with every man to leave the most pleasant and the most profitable sinne that is How much more when it is everlasting when there is no end Oh the change thou wilt then find upon thy self Then thou wilt cry out saying Was my hours pleasure my moments profit equal to these eternal torments Now say Whether it is better to sinne then to be damned Are thy lusts equivalent to all the torments of hell Lastly That is no little aggravation Prepared for the Devil and his Angels You see what companions you must have As much as you now defie the Devil you and he must lie down in the same flames The Devils will have no worse place than thou hast Now if this be so What a mighty alteration is here made The man that like Dives fared deliciously every day would have a drop of water to cool his tongue and cannot Oh that the Spirit of God would convince and assure you of these things Say now I am merry proud confident Now I follow my lusts my pleasures but will not the day of judgement then make a change Will not there be a sad difference between my present estate and that then Thirdly As to the godly man there will be a most happy and blessed change To see a Lazarus wiping his sores taken up into Ambraham's bosome What a blessed change is here The godly man hath his exercises from many considerations The world derideth and opposeth him afflictions from God crush him and press him down The Devil because he shall not have an hell hereafter laboureth he may have an hell here and from within there are lusts there are molesting motions to sinne which make him cry out Oh miserable man that I am But when this day shall come what man though he had the tongue of Angels is able to declare his happiness This man that was scorned is now blessed and honoured by all the wicked damned ones of the world Now they cry Oh that our case were like his Oh that our souls were as his shall be Now the Devil is trampled under feet and thrown into the Abysse into the deep where he was so unwilling to go to receive the full of his torments Now the spiritual warre within is put to a period and he doth all the good in as perfect and full a manner as he can desire to do his will and his power have the same bounds he can do what he would and he can will all that God would have him to will We read of blessed changes in this world of Joseph from a poor prisoner in the dungeon and in danger of his life to be exalted in the highest place of honour in Aegypt next to Pharaoh himself Of Mordechai who was designed to death and immediately made the man whom God would honour Of David from following the sheep and afterwards driven as a Bird from the mountain to be made a great King Yet none of these come up in the least manner to this great change Hence it is called The day of redemption Matth. 24. The day of refreshing and restoring of all things Act. 3. 19. for we must not limit that time to the destruction of the Iews only as some do Yea the godly are to look for and hasten his coming 2 Pet. 3. 12. as being the marriage time between Christ and his Church Therefore the Spirit and the bride say Come Revel 22. 17. It is for want of a lively meditation about this that the godly at any time sink under any temptations Is there any evil thou art exercised with that this day will not deliver thee from Is it not a day of redemption never to be in bondage any more either to sinne or misery Especially the Church under afflictions and persecutions is to fetch all her comfort from thence God will turn her sackcloth into robes of honour her dungeons into heavenly mansions Should not then the Church sit expecting his victorious coming more affectionately then Sisera's mother Iudg. 5. 28. did his return saying Why is his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Luther speaking of this hopefull expectation that ought to be in the godly of Christs coming endeavoured to affect his hearers from the condition they were in at that time The Popish party did triumph over the Reformed boasting That Caesar was coming with a great Army that he would presently and speedily vanquish all the Lutherans Now saith he as you see they rejoyce and fill themselves with hopes of the Emperours coming so should the Church under all her pressures with the coming of Christ Fourthly There will be a mighty change as to mens judgements and apprehensions over what they have now There is never a wicked man would for an hour go on in his sins if he could have such thoughts as he will have at that day Oh that we could look upon sinne as we will then look upon it when God shall bid us Depart into everlasting fire And certainly if part of that terrour did work so much upon Iudas that he throweth away his silver crieth out He had sinned in betraying of innocent blood No wonder if when all the gall of Gods wrath be poured into a mans conscience he then crieth out of his sins gnasheth the teeth at them remembreth them with horrour which were once so full of sweetness and delight Go on then presumptuously thou prophane wretch believe no Scripture deride at all good counsel Say Give me my sins though I be damned yet remember this perswasion will not hold alwayes there will come a day when thou wilt as much loath and abhorre these lusts as ever once thou didst love them Oh that men could now behold their sins with that horrour and indignation as they will when they shall stand trembling at Gods tribunal Again men will have other thoughts 1. About the wayes of Godlinesse 2. About Godly men And 3. About Christ For false principles and mis-judging about these is that which maketh so many damn themselves To begin with the first about Godlinesse they think it is an hinderance to man if he were not so just and conscionable he might swallow down many a sweet morsel which he lets go Thus men are ready to think they fare the worse for godliness Oh but
immediately make them take up such Resolutions they must shew much Constancy and self-denial using all means to recover them For seeing it is God that giveth the encrease though we plant and water and his time is unknown to us it may fall out that a people who give no hope for the present may afterwards appear more curable and the seed that is now sown thou for the present it may seem buried yet afterwards it may grow up Therefore we are to imitate God himself who useth much Patience and Forbearance even to the vilest men thereby to allure them to Repentance This counsel also Pasl giveth Timothy as a Minister of the Gospel 2 Tim. 2. 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose if peradventure God will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth Though then hopes of doing good to a people is a great Encouragement to co continue with them yet a people that appear incurable for the present are not to be immediately abandoned because the times of success are in Gods hand and sometimes Persecutors are at last made Lovers and imbracers of the truth Besides we see the Prophet quieting his heart with this though he had no success in his Ministry that he had his reward with God Isay 49. 5. Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of God Such as are despised and contemned in the eyes of men shall be glorious in the eyes of God 4. This confidence and hope of doing good must not depend upon a mans own apprehensions but must be guided by the word of God So deceitfull and corrupt is the heart of a man that many times it flattereth it self and when a man seeketh his own advantage yet he may perswade himself that it is confidence and hope of doing good Therefore to know when their is more hope of doing good in one place than in another must not be decided by selfish and private desires but by general Rules fetched out of Gods Word and indeed because all success of Ministerial Labours lyeth wholly upon the good Grace of God and the Word is blessed sometimes to one people not so likely and at another time not to a people more likely Therefore the will of God is very difficultly discovered in such cases which sheweth with how much sincerity and fervency God is to be sought unto at such times Now the Reasons are palpable Why Confidence in a Minister to do good to a people should be a matter not onely of continuance but of studying and diligent improving all his Ministerial Labours with the greater joy First Because the End of his Ministry is hereby accomplished When the Disciples had fished all the day and caught nothing they were disheartened but when Christ bid them throw the net in again and they brought up a multitude this made them rejoyce even to amazement If the Husbandman is at much cost and pains about his ground and that bring forth nothing but bryars and thornes Is not that a disheartening If a Physician see that no Potions no Medicines he giveth ever do any good will not that make him weary of his imployment How much more if a Minister labour in vain Preach in vain Admonish in vain and still people grow more ohdurate in their sinnes Doth not this teach them with Jonah even to run from their work Secondly There is great matter of rejoycing where this hope is because Success in the Ministry is above all Successes Herein the Souls of men are concerned In this is contained our everlasting Happiness Oh that men should be no more sollicitous in this than they are How few do examine what fruit the Word preached hath upon them whether it be a sustaining Word or an hardening Whether it be the savour of life or the savour of death That Ark which brought so much blessing to Obedmelech and his Family to the Philistines was cause of grievous Plagues And thus the same Sermons that are life to one may be darkness to others that are light to one may be darkness to another If then the Minister shall see his work like to prosper in the end it is sent for here is greater cause to rejoyce then in any outward blessing whatsoever for this is of everlasting consequence Let the Use be of Exhortation to you to be a people of good Confidence that our Ministeriall Labours shall not be in vain That we do not in vain preach to you or pray for you Can there be a greater grief to the Minister yea and provocation of God than to be like that ground the Scripture speaketh of Heb. 6. 8 Which drinking in rain often yet bringing forth nothing but bryars and thornes is rejected and whose end is to be burned And is not this the sad case of most of those trees that stand in the Lords Garden Do not many grow more ignorant more prophane more hardened Oh what hope can a Minister have about such a man May we not see sad symptomes of Gods wrath upon your soules many such desperate Patients have the spiritual Physicians of mens soules to deal with But take heed of shewing thy self an hopeless man to a faithfull Minister one to whom no admonition no reproof will ever do good For First Those sighs and troubles that thou put test such spiritual Guides unto are in a speciall manner taken notice of by God It is true we see Jeremiah so grieved and offended sometimes at the wicked carriage of the people he prophesied unto that he prayeth against his persecutors yea God commanded him saying Pray not for this people for their good Jerem. 14. 11. But we have not an extraordinary Spirit neither dare we pray against any hopeless people yet remember all their â—ighs all their grief will one day witness against thee Certainly if the ears of God be open to the Curses of an hired Man whose wages are kept from him how much more will God hear the sad complaints of those Ministers who are faithfull poured out because of a peoples rebellion and incurableness 2. Consider this That your discouraging them by your evil wayes maketh them the more unfit and heartless in their studies and Labours Why doth rain fall on the rock say they Why do we wash blackamoors and so some expound that place Heb. 13. 17. That they may give their account with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you in this sense by grieving and disheartening of them they cannot be so active in their Ministry they will grow more heartless therein and that will be your damage Oh it s a terrible thing when this heaviness and dulness of a Minister ariseth from the discouragements he hath from the wicked lives of a people and therefore Calvin upon that place speaketh excellently That people should take notice of God punishing them for their ingratitude When their Ministers abate in zealous and lively watching over their soules we are apt many times to
object matter into spiritual and temporal Spiritual are such as concern the welfare of the soul Temporal are such as relate to the body and the outward man for there is no external mercy but God hath promised it to the godly Therefore godlinesse is said to have the promise of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. In deed in the Old Testament temporal promises were more frequent and spiritual more rare and many times shadowed out by the temporal ones In the New Testament spiritual promises are farre more frequent and temporal ones more rare yet the New Testament doth abundantly testifie this That all things are the godly mans whether life or death 1 Cor. 3. 23. and that onely they have the promise of this life as well as that which is to come And certainly If God hath given us Christ as the Apostle argueth Rom. 18. how shall he not with him give us all things else So that we see the treasure of a Christian it lieth in Gods promises both for this life and the life to come So that as it falleth out sometimes a man may have little money for his present use and yet be very rich in bonds and bils Thus it is sometimes with a godly man though he hath a promise of all things yet for the present he may want all things As Abraham had a promise for the possession of the Land of Canaan and yet for the present had not where to set his foot as upon his own ground Onely we must distinguish between the spirituall and temporal promises these later are not absolutely promised but with the exception of the Crosse and with this limitation when they are good for us For seeing these earthly mercies are not ablutely and as indipensably necessary as Christand grace are so therefore no wonder if they be not absolutely promised If a godly man could not be saved unlesse he had riches and wealth unlesse he had health and strength then he was as sure to have them as he hath Christ but that not being so therefore it is that they have Christ and yet many times want other things They have the Ocean when they cannot have a drop Again Temporal good things are not absolutely good but conditionally and upon supposition though they may be good in themselves yet not to thee As wine may be in it self comforting but not unto a man in a feaver Thus it may be if thou shouldst have riches they would doe thee hurt if thou shouldst have health and strength thy corruptions also would be the stronger Those things are not called good because they make us good no we may make them good or evil But now Christ is such an infinite good that thy having of him can never be hurtfull to thee Yea when he finds thee evil he can make thee good It is good to informe our selves thus about the nature of temporal promises for we are ready to murmure and repine when we find not these promises made good to us whereas we should rather be thankfull and rejoyce in that God will not give us that which would doe us so much hurt And certainly if thou wert spiritual as thou shouldst be this would be enough to thee that spiritual things are absolutely promised that thou art sure to have Christ to have Heaven how sad and afflicted soever thy portion may be in this world Doth it not argue thy heart to be too carnal when thou mournest for want of outward mercies and yet Christ is thine God hath sanctified thee God hath converted thee Alas hath not God in this done more for thee than the greatest Emperours in the world that have not godlinesse What if thou hast not riches the greatnesse others have It may be they have not the Christ the grace that God hath bestowed on thee Onely when we say spiritual things are absolutely promised you must distinguish of spiritual things some are essential and necessarily conjoyned with eternal glory so that if he have them not he cannot be saved such is Regeneration and Justification Againe others doe much conduce to our eternal happinesse but are not inseparably joyned with it such are the degrees of grace spiritual consolation and joy as also the assurance of Gods favour These are precions-advantages more to be desired than the gold of Ophir but they are not absolutely promised to every godly man In the second general place We are to know that the promises of God they are the executions in time of what he had decreed to doe from all eternity Insomuch that from Gods promise we may argue to his predestination when God promiseth Justification and pardon of sinne to thee it is because he hath purposed this according to the counsel of his own will So when he promiseth to give grace to thee and the encrease thereof it is because he hath in mercy ordained thee for this If you ask then why is it such and such promises are fullfilled You must not have recourse to mans free-will or any workes that he doth but to the will of God and his gracious counsel Hence some expound that place Titus 1. 2. where it is said That God who cannot lie had promised eternal life before the world began of his decree to promise for it is not proper to say God promised before the world was Seeing then there was no men to whom the promise could be made therefore say they the meaning is He decreed to promise But there is another interpretation more probable which is to render the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the ancient ages alluding to the first promise that God made to Adam upon his fall concerning the womans seed which was Christ For till that promise was manifested there was no difference in respect of hope and comfort between lost mankind and the Apostate Angels The promises then of God are but Gods predestination put into execution Hence in the third place No wicked men have any promises of God belong to them Therefore the state of the Heathens Ephes 2. is said to be without Christ and without the promises which argueth as desperate a condition as when those of the old world were without the Ark there was a necessity of perishing It is true all wicked men who live within the Church they cannot in that sense be said to be without the promises as Heathens are for they are under the offer of promises they are under the external dispensation of them and because they manifest an outward acceptance of Gods offer with the conditions tendered therefore we may call them the children of the promise in an externall sense In which sense Rom. 9. 4. the Apostle speaking of the Israelites in the general saith Of whom is the service of God and the promises In this sense many were the seed of Abraham not onely after the flesh but of the promise also else circumcision the seal of the promise had not been
their earthly ends It is true when the faithfull Ministers of Christ do effectually move for the purity of Ordinances and the promoting of godlinesse among their people there are those who will maliciously traduce them for carnal and selfe-seeking ends as if they proceeded wholly upon subtilty and policy but the searcher of hearts witnesseth to their sincerity and so they comfortably proceed in Christs worke maugre all opposition It 's holy prudence then not carnal policy which must manage ministerial power Secondly When we require holy prudence and meeknesse we do not hereby exclude zeal as if a man should not with much fervency and ardour of spirit set himself for the truth of God as also against the kingdome of sinne and Satan No it cannot be heavenly prudence unlesse it be accompanied with this zeale As zeale must be with knowledge and discretion so must knowledge be with zeale They must be as Castor and Pollux alwayes appearing together which was represented in the Sacrifice which was to have salt as well as fire Thus Rom. 12. We are to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. And it is the Lord Christ who said The zeale of thy house hath eaten me up Joh. 12. 17. Here is a notable example for all godly Ministers The zeale for Gods glory is even to consume them as it were as the fat of the Sacrifice was burnt in the fire to the Lord to which some think our Saviour doth allude in that expression We are to come in the spirit of Elijah even to be carried in a fiery Chariot And truly without this zeale for God a man is but a lump of earth It is true we must distinguish holy zeale from our owne passions and cholerick distempers but that which is the pure fire of Gods Spirit kindled in our hearts as it doth greatly conduce to Gods glory so it doth exceedingly tend to our own comfort Let therefore those be magnified for wise and moderate men let them be admired as so many Angels that live in a lukewarm and neutral way they will reprove no sinne they will provoke no man to frowne upon them but alas the issue will discover their folly Oh the throbs and pangs of conscience some have had when going out of the world for this very particular because they did not with more zeale and forwardnesse appear for God And on the other side that Minister who hath with faithfull zeale according to the words direction behaved himself in his ministerial labours though great ones have frowned at him though malicious people have vexed him yet he dieth full of comfort For they that are filled with the Spirit of God by zeal in their life time are many times filled with heavenly consolations in their death Lastly This holy prudence is not to be confounded with that sinfull man-pleasing which is in many indulging men in their lusts and hardening them thereby in their impieties Though the Apostle said 1 Corinth 10. 33. That he pleased all men in all things not seeking his owne profit yet that is not to be understood in sinfull things for in that respect he saith Galat. 1. 10. If he pleased men he should not be the servant of Christ but in lawfull things he did condescend to those that were weak and would not alwayes use his own liberty which he might being strong in judgement but this doth nothing advantage such who have a flattering complying way with men in their wickednesse like those false prophets of old that daubed with untempered mortar and cryed Peace peace to him whom God hath promised no peace This is highly offending God Yet how many are admired because they have the love of wicked and ungodly men that they can keepe in with them Whereas this is not because they have large parts but a large conscience and that which some make to be a very wise man is indeed to be a man without any conscience But I must not enlarge in this In the second place therefore we are to shew Wherein this holy prudence doth consist And First In discovering our love to their persons to be the ground of all our proceedings If we reprove them it is love if we admonish them it is love if we do not admit them to the dreadfull mysteries of Christ it is love Dilige loquere quod vis saith Austin Love and then say what ye will This made the Apostle use a sacred oath at this time to shew it was his love to them and no sinfull end that made him forbear his coming so great a matter is it to be perswaded that what the Ministers of the Gospel doe though it distaste and displease us yet it is out of their conscience to God and love to us Secondly Holy prudence lieth in this when we observe the fit seasons and opportunities for exercising our power which God hath given us otherwise if unseasonably administred it may doe more hurt than good It is special prudence to time it well in this sense it is good to be a time-server as some read that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. applying it to this sense Abigail would not speak to her husband in his drunken senslesse fit Isai 50. 4. The tongue of the learned is to speake a word in season though that be chiefly to be applied to a word of comfort yet a word of reproof in season doth more good than ten thousand unseasonably spoken Such a word so spoken is said to be like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25. 11. wherein is implyed both preciousnesse and excellency as also delight and refreshment A fit word is called in the Hebrew A word upon the wheeles as some thinke because of the smoothnesse and readinesse of it to enter into the hearts of others Some render it A word with its two faces as looking on both sides which is the property of prudence and the next verse following sheweth how happy it is when a wise reproof and an obedient ear meet together such an obedient ear is more comely and glorious than any ear-jewel As then the Bee doth not every day but in fit seasons gather its honey so doth a prudent Minister of the Gospel Thus Solomon Eccles 12. 9 10. Because the preacher was wise he sought out acceptable words Some trees that blossome last are yet said to have their fruit first which sheweth that it is not the first or sudden speaking but the most opportune that doth the greatest good especially in reproof this is most necessary because it is said Genus quoddam Martyrii est c. It is a kinde of Martyrdome to take a reproof patiently Thirdly Our prudence is seene when we discerne of sinnes not judging little and great alike To excommunicate for lesser faults is saith Gerson To strike off a flie from a mans fore-head with a beetle The remedy is more dangerous than the disease They were grosse sinnes that the Apostle
particular in the description of Paul's trouble in Asia hath been explained and in some measure enlarged The summe whereof was That grace even in a Paul doth not wholly remove the natural fear of death Grace doth regulate and direct Nature but not extinguish it Stoicism and Christianity differ as much as Heaven and Earth Not to fear not to grieve about due objects in a due manner is a sinne not a vertue But though grace doth not extirpate this natural fear of death yet it subdueth and conquereth the sinfull fear of death Our natural fear doth quickly become immoderate and so offensive unto God Therefore the proper work of grace is to mortifie this that it may not be over-fearing that this fear may not prove a temptation to sinne Our work therefore in the next place is to direct a Christian in the discerning between a Natural fear and a Sinfull fear that he may know what is of meer nature and what is of corrupt nature Only it is good to take notice of this 1. That a natural fear of death may be in some more and in some lesse from the very constitution and temperament of their body Some are very fearfull by their very natural complexion and to such death is more dreadfull than to others who are of a more bold and stout constitution Even as some are more prone to anger than others so some are more prone to fear than others and this being a natural passion they cannot conquer it no more than grace can change the temperament of the body Onely to the godly such a natural fear is sanctified They go out of themselves they depend much upon God And therefore some who have been assaulted exceedingly with fears in the times of persecution suspecting their own selves that they should prove perfidious to Christ and Apostates have found unexpected courage and boldness because they have gone out of themselves and trusted in God only These Lambs have proved Lions Hence the Scripture antidotes and comfortable promises against this fear Isa 53. 4. Say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong feare not Yea we have a precious promise to the godly that under Christs government and protection over them Ier. 23. 4. They shall fear no more nor be dismayed If then the godly find himself of a fearfull disposition that it is a natural passion tyrannizing over him let him pray for the sanctification of it that God would turn it to his good and many times such are preserved from those wounds of conscience and those sad falls which those that are more presumptuous and self-confident do fall into As there is thus a natural passion of fear about death in some more than in others so also sometimes by Gods permission the children of God have been assaulted by it as a peculiar temptation and that improved by Satan So that whereas there are several kindes of temptations whereby the Devil doth molest and disquiet the godly sometimes by blasphemous thoughts sometimes by fear of committing that unpardonable sinne against the holy Ghost c. So sometimes it is by a daily and constant fear of death such a perswasion of death doth fall upon them and that accompanied with much distracting fear and tembling that it takes away the comfortable enjoyment of all those mercies God bestoweth upon them This hath been the case of many of the children of God and the Devils designe is by these unprofitable and needlesse feares to keep them from that service which otherwise they might do for God For as Timber too moist and not well dried will deceive the builder and not support the house as it is expected so neither can a Christian amazed with such dividing fears do God that service in his place as he ought to do These are like wormes in the wood that at last eat up the heart of it Such therefore that are buffeted with these temptations they have no other wayes to take but to flie unto God He is the Jehovah who can give power and strength to them as was done to Daniel in his great amazement and unto the Scripture as a directive Rule from whence he may wisely observe many remedies against such preposterous feares Let him also possesse his soul with this as an undoubted principle That the Lord bindeth him in this chain as it were to prevent other sinnes that he may boldly venture upon and that these feares conâ—inually annoying are a meanes to keepe off some great sinnes or others They are like barking curres that keepe off thieves when they heare such a noise within These things premised Let us now consider When and wherein the fear of death doth manifest it self to be sinfull And First When it becometh a snare to a man so that by it he either commits some sinne or omits some duty When the fear of death hath this influence upon thee then know it exceedeth its limits Thou fearest men more than God thou fearest death more than hell and damnation Prov. 29. 25. The fear of a man bringeth a snare When it bringeth a snare upon thee conscience saith Doe not this the Word of God saith Doe not this but fear of death saith Doe this then this becometh very sad in the issue as you see it was in Peter fear made him deny his Master So in Abraham and Isaac though so great examples of holinesse yet fear of death put them upon lying and dissimulation Now to sinne for fear of death is a most absurd and irrational fear to fear the lesse and not to fear the greater Thou doest not fear to be damned yet thou fearest to die How fully doth our Saviour convince us of the folly of this fear Luk. 12. 4 5. I say to you my friends Though the Disciples had this comfortable title and encouraging relation upon them what could be greater than to be Christs friend Will Christ forsake his friend in adversity Shall any have cause to say to Christ as Absolom to Hushai Is this thy kindness to thy friend Yet how ready are they to fear men and death immoderately Therefore he exhorteth them Not to be afraid of men who can kill the body and after that have no more than they can do but I will forewarne you whom you shall fear They need premonitions about it the object whereof is God who hath power to cast into hell which he redoubleth yea I say to you fear him So that by this place we see that it is a most and unreasonable fear to venture the damnation of our souls for fear of death Yet how often hath this been done but sometimes it hath proved so dismall as in Spira and others that the guilt of sinne and the terrors of Gods wrath falling upon their conscience have so greatly overwhelmed them that the fear of death hath been quite put out by a greater fear They have desired death yea they have hastened to it by offering violence to themselves As the fear