Famine then I conclude that general Mortality should be generally laid to heart for the Prophet did thus complain to God to affect all Men that they might so complain to God as he did how sadly matters went amongst them Take one Scripture more Lam. 1.6 And from the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her Princes are become like Harts that can finde no pasture and they are gone without strength before the Pursuer This Prophet layeth to heart particularly the distresses of Princes and great Men and alass what are all these to the distresses and death of the righteous and holy and merciful Men which proves that we should lay to heart the common strokes of God as the Sword and Pestilence take away one as well as another bad and good high and low I will prove this Point more particularly and distinctly to you First We are to lay to heart Mortality by the Pestilence I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt your Horses have I taken away and have made the stink of your Camps to come up into your Nosthrils and so killed you with Plagues and Diseases attending the Sword and yet ye have not returned to me Amos 4.10 that is you have not laid things to heart throughly to be ashamed of your evil ways and to turn from them The death of Men nay the death of Horses as such deaths not long since were amongst them we are to lay to heart and so to lay to heart as to prepare to meet God then the death of good Men by the Pestilence we are surely to lay to heart From above hath he sent a Fire into my Bones and it prevailed against them he hath made me desolate and faint all the day Lam. 1.13 The Prophet in these words as in all the rest personateth the state of the People generally and much laid to heart GOD's immediate strokes upon the Persons of Men by many mortal fierce Diseases without sparing any From above hath he sent Fire into my Bones and it hath prevailed c. Secondly Mortality by Famine is to be laid to heart The Prophet Joel speaketh of this stroke which indeed is great The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness and nothing shall escape them speaking of Vermin so devouring all Man's Provision Joel 2.3 at the 12th vers of this Chapter the Prophet telleth us what effect this should have Therefore now also saith the Lord turn ye to me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and not your Garments for he is gracious who knoweth if he will return and repent By which of these strokes either Pestilence or Famine the godly were taken away no Man can say for by Pestilence Famine and Sword did the Lord contend with that People That he contended with them by Famine the Prophet Joel and also the Prophet Jeremiah testifieth They have sowen Wheat and shall reap Thorns they have put themselves to pain but shall not profit thus doth the Prophet poscere aciem bid battel and ye shall be ashamed of your revenue because of the fierce anger of the Lord Jer. 12. 13. But most plain in Ezek. c. 4. 5. Where the Prophet is commanded to make Bread with Beans and Fitches and to eat this by weight and to mix dung with it And must this be laid to heart Yes much How can any do otherwise Thus saith the Lord smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel for they shall fall by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ezek. 6.11 Then they fell by all these and then it is probable that the righteous fell by all these as others then we should lay to heart Mortality by all these we should smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass What great abom nations have caused all these great Judgments God's temporal strokes and judgments which kill and slaughter all sorts should much be laid to heart by all sorts But you will say Q. What is it to lay to heart the mortal strokes of GOD in a Nation I answer A. It is to be deeply sensible of the cause as it may be in our selves or in the Nation wherein we live Observe how the Lord counselleth Ezekiel to carry it in the day of their dreadful misery Thus saith the Lord smite with thine Hand and stamp with thy Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the Land of Israel He doth not barely bid him to say alass for all the evil punishments of the Land as Sword Pestilence and Famine but alass for all the wickedness of the Land which hath caused these He that is far off shall fall by the Pestilence and he that is neer shall fall by the Sword and he that remains and is besieged shall die by Famine Ezek. 6.11.12 So that to lay to heart mortal strokes in a Nation is to be deeply affected with the cause of them in our selves or in others If you ask me further where we have found out causes in our selves and in others quos accidam as Salust saith To whom shall I turn and prostrate my self and say I have sinn'd Q. and done this evil abomination Answ To God in the Name of Christ A. Therefore thus saith the Lord turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 And to do this forth-with presently without all delay or else to be sure it is not turning to the Lord with all the heart To lay to heart God's willing Discipline is to be full of deep sorrow for sin in our selves and others as the proper causes of all sorts of deaths and deaths of all sorts of Persons good and bad and to turn from these to the Lord and to believe on Christ that the Lord for his sake will be pacified and turn away all his displeasure and not make us a reproach unto the Heathen as it is in that Chapter Joel 2.17 Having thus proved and opened the Doctrin I will shew you in the next Place Vses what Use may be made of it First This Point is profitable to teach If we are to be deeply sensible of temporal strokes such as refer to the death of our bodies then much more are we to be sensible of spiritual strokes and eternal strokes which refer to the death of our Souls I will send a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Amos 8.11 12. How diligently we get the Bills of Mortality now and being come up to Thousands O how we lift up our hands but who brings in Weekly Bills of
but wilt bring down high looks They that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lowest parts of the Earth they shall fall by the Sword they shall be a portion for Foxes but the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped Psal 63.10 11. Noah came out of the Ark about November the very beginning of Winter when nothing was to be had but what he had in the Ark for support and to begin the World withall and yet he lookt thorow this great strait which respected not a Nation but the whole world and sacrificed at the beginning of the new world as Adam did at the beginning of the old and so did cast all his care on Christ who well cared for him and for all the matters in his hand which respected the constituting of this World If you ask me how a believer doth make such prospect and perspect I answer by these four things First By the Promise The best Mens eyes fail in dark days and it is well they do so for then he betakes himself to the promise and by this Trunk beholds afar off A foolish or weak action failing Actione inepta succumbens recurrit ad aptam maketh way to an action that is valid A believers own sight failing maketh him to have recourse to the promise and by this he maketh prospect through all The Title of the Fifth Psalm tells us that it was made when the Philistines took David in Gath mine Enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me but how did he look through this Cloud I answer by the promise as you may see Verse the 6. In God I will praise his word in God I will put my trust I will not fear what Man can do thou tellest my wanderings put thou my tears in thy Bottel In God I will praise his word vers 10. This word which he so much speaks of was that which we read 2 Sam. 23.5 By which he lookt through sin and death These be the last words of David although my House be not so with God â—et he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation c. that is inward and outward temporal and spiritual The promise is so ordered and made in all things that in all matters whatsoever faith may see by it thorow and thorow be it sin of what kind soever Such sins as David committed before or after conversion or be it punishment spiritual or corporal desertion of Soul sickness of body distraction and troubles in the affairs of this World bad Family bad Kingdom as never any Man could have greater plunges of all sorts than he and yet by this promise so ordered in all things he saw still thorow all To the promise is added the Seal and Oath to make a strong and clear sight in the darkest case And this also David made use of when he fought with Aram Naharaim and Aram Zoba Psal 60.6 God hath spoken in his holiness I will rejoyce I will divide Sechem and mete out the valley of Succeth Who shall bring me into Edom wilt not thou which hast cast us off God hath spoken in his holiness or by his holiness that is hath engaged himself by oath and surely he will not break his word and his oath The Church likewise makech use of this Medium to see clearly and strongly through trials Psal 89.35 My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David And in what a dark case the People of God were then we may see by the following words But thou hast cast us off and abhorred thou hast made void the Covenant of thy Servant this is the Prayer of the Church urging the Covenant and Oath to David Thou hast broken down all his hedges all that pass by spoil him thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his Throne down to the ground Psal 89.44 Thus did the Church look thorow their dark condition by the Promise and Oath Secondly By Christ doth a believer look through all difficulties of what kind soever inward or outward The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot stool What enemies Ans All Enemies inward and outward The Psalmist by vertue of Christ saw natural corruption guilt of sin and all Men and Devils opposing destroyed By the death of Christ he saw guilt in all the Elect destroyed he shall drink of the brook in the way that is the black Book Kedron meaning that he should undergo a cursed death and so satisfie the justice of God and therefore in the Person of all the Elect lift up his head Likewise by the life intercession and ministry of Christ he saw all corruptions of nature destroyed in the Elect. Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness that is by the administration of thy holy Ordinances Thou hast the dew of thy youth to supply them and to moisten them Likewise by the death of Christ he saw all outward enemies vain and Devils destroyed The Lord at thy right hand shall smite through Kings in the day of his wrath he shall judg among the Heathen he shall fill the places with the dead Bodies he shall wound the heads over many Countrys Psal 110. Many things have their greatness not according to their nature but according to their skill and humility saith Seneca so a believer hath his greatness and honour not according to his nature and birth from Men but according to such a skill which God hath given to him to make use of Christ and to renounce still all in himself and by vertue of this he is very great and mighty and able to do all things I can do all things through Christ saith Paul and so can see through all things by him 'T was through Christ that the Church saw through that dark state before mentioned Psal 87. When all that passed by spoiled and all hedges down Then thou spakest in a Vision to thine holy one and saidst I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the People with whom mine Hand shall be established mine Arme shall strengthen him the enemy shall not exact upon him nor the Sons of wickedness afflict him and I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him which though true of David yet specially and principally of Christ and him did the Church then see in David as he by whom all their enemies inward and outward should be destroyed Thirdly By experiences doth a believer look through all difficulties and miseries Faith can help it self by reason What Father if his Child want bread Experiences will
this glory a defence will make States and Nations blessed Surely if we the Lord's People were but as zealous to use liberty and priviledge well as we are to have it it would come faster than it doth Let us look more into our selves and more up to God as the readiest way to all good These are the thoughts desires and prayers of Him who is Yours ever in the Lord. N. L. Rom. vii xxiv O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death THe great weight of sin and misery and the want of one to remove well both is the cause of this dolefull complaint O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death as it is put in the Margent The weight of sin is groaned under in this terme of my Text body which is a word of quantity nomen quanâ—itatis and means the corruption of our nature to be a very extensive thing that the whole state of man in all the powers of his Soul and Body is depraved and vitiated and made utterly unfit to serve God and most fit to serve sin and Satan with all Organs and Instruments within and without Secondly This terme in my Text body is also Nomen qualitatis a word of quality that means the naturalness of this general pravity to us it lay with us as Mr. Rutherford saith in our Mothers Womb as Twins as one body lieth with another It took us fast by the heel in the Womb and we could never kick it off since And Thirdly For as much as there is this Epethite given to this Body calling it a Body of Death and a Body of this Death it notes not only the weight of sin but also of misery death being here put to signifie guilt and punishment Our depraved condition casteth us under all guilt and under all punishment that is actually under much misery and lyable every moment to all misery in Soul and Body in this World and in the World to come not only liable to death as 't is a dissolution of Soul and Body and all the sicknesses and diseases which prepare unto it but liable to this death that is a separation of both Soul and Body from God for ever Now to deliver us from the Body of this death a Body of corruption which exposeth us to such a death as this There no Man nor Angel is able no all the Angels did they joyn to do us service in this thing to change our natures to take off guilt to rectifie the Image of God which we have lost they cannot stir this Body as to any of these in the least nor any member of it they are not able to remove one sin or satisfie for the guilt of it nor draw one line an eye or an eye-brow or one finger of the new man This great weight of sin and misery and this utter impotency of all created strength to help out of it maketh the Apostle to cry out thus O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. There be several things very profitable to be observed in these words as First this That every one is in a wretched and miserable condition by nature Depraved in all powers of Soul and Body and exposed in both to the utmost displeasure of God O wretched man that I am c. He doth not mean himself alone but speaketh as personating the best of men and so consequently all men for that he did thus complain of a corrupt state who was so holy who else but hath cause much more to complain For this death which my Text speaketh of hath passed over all Men for as much as all Men have finned in Adam And this Apostle which speaketh but of himself in this case in my Text speaketh generally elsewhere That by nature we are the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 Secondly This may be learned from these words That our state by nature is not a safe state to be rested in That our state as we come into this World is not such as we should be contented with but a state much to be complain'd of by the best and much cryed out upon and much strugled under to be freed from O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of God They which rest in their state as they come into this World and think that they attain to be moral and civil just and righteous to men and little or nothing complain of that which the Apostle doth here in my Text a Body of Death do not know their own danger Thirdly We may here learn That the best are not so good as they should be That the best in this World are much burdened and much endangered with natural corruption The Apostle Paul though regenerated found much of the rebellion of an evil nature of which he knew not how to get rid carrying him Captive to what he would not and so exposing him continually to the displeasure of God I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good I would I do not but the evil I would not that I do Corrupt nature as it easily besets us so it as easily overcomes us for any strength that we have of our own Such as so feelingly complain as Paul here doth will not easily be brought to drink in the Popish Doctrin of Perfection Fourthly We may here learn That our state in this World at best is but a wretched state for though a little grace be given unto us it is so over-matched with a great body of sin that we rather undo than do any thing that is good Is it not a wretched state to be so hampered with an ill Inmate Night and Day that when one pulls one way 'tother pulls stronger still the wrong way To see two Dogs coupled a little one and a great one What a woful condition is the little one in how he is pulled and haled up and down this way and that way not which way he would go but which way the great one will go or else he grins his teeth on the little one and bites him and abuseth him much just so is the condition of the most regenerate in this World And therefore he that is best and hath best in this World can say no better of it than he findes and daily feels that his condition is but a wretched condition O wretched man that I am c. The Point which I would stand on Doct. is this That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption Or we all ought much to lay to heart our fallen state by nature The Apostle Paul was a holy Man yet very sensible of much unholiness a body of it of which he was
matter Thus we are by nature of no more reason than a wilde Ass and yet as unturnable as that Creature The old Man is proud and wilful yea presumptuous yea of enmity and despight if resisted as Lions and Dragons are spitting their some and poison as Cats in the face of all that contradict 'T is said of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he became head-long Act. 1.18 He was so in his life for he would on in his work of betraying Christ though convinced by Christ's own preaching and told to his Face that he should betray him And so are the ways of corrupt nature carried head-long He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the froward are carried head-long Joh. 5.13 And all this continually as the Blackamore that cannot change his skin No place better sets out the bad property of natural corruption then that Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil and only evil and that continually For such a visible as well as audible Sermon as Noah preached of 120 Years long would surely have turned them from their sins had they not been desperately obstinate and so continually of which God was sensible and complain'd and was grieved at his heart that he made man And shall God so much lay to heart the depraved state of a man and man himself not lay it to heart at all Fourthly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the consequence of it It is a body of death a body of this death that is it disposeth us to all the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come And therefore doth the Apostle cry out here in my Text as one utterly loft O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. And they likewise who were prickt at heart by the Apostle Peter's preaching with the sense of their sinful state Cryed out Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Which are Scriptures of purpose to shew that we should be deeply sensible of the evil consequence of corrupt nature as it will destroy Soul and Body Judas is called a Childe of Perdition and so are we called Children of wrath by nature that is such as are not under mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pitied as the expression is rightly rendered in the Queens translation 1 Pet. 2.10 Now how are Malefactors affected with the consequence of their evil way when they are going to the Gallows especially when they have no hope of mercy when they be not under talk of mercy and pardon Now our natural state is death without all mercy that is the sentence pronounced upon it if the state so abide a carnal state it is death without all mercy and every carnal man should speak of himself as the Apostle Peter doth as one not under mercy or as one that hath not yet obtained mercy but lies lyable as a Prisoner condemned every hour to Execution I take it that their attonement day spokeâ— of Levit. 23.27 Wherein they were to afflict their Souls upon pain of death had principal reference to their state of sin by nature that body of sin which they brought into the World with them which exposed them and us all unto death and all misery in this World and that to come and if it be so then you have the Point in hand proved and the reason of it why we should be deeply sensible of corrupt nature as well as of all that flowes from it because God commands it and commands it upon great penalty We die for it else unless we afflict our Souls under the sense of our fallen state and Gods displeasure belonging thereunto that Soul which doth not so well die for it their afflicting day was a day to go to the Root and to cast salt and brine upon the springs of wickedness which if they did not the wrath of God seized on their Roots Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade Men saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.11 We perswade Men. To what Answ To look well about them that they be not found in their carnal state when Christ cometh to Judgment So that the deepest sense of this thing should be upon us that can possibly be as if we were now going before the Judgment of quick and dead and all in our sins or as if we were going to the Wedding of a great Prince and had not one rag on our backs to cover our nakedness Vse I Learn from hence that if we should be sensible of natural corruption then of all actual transgressions which are but as streams from this Fountain If we should mourn over the evil Womb then over all the evils which this VVomb brings forth And yet what twins and what tens and what great man-sins and provocations doth this evil VVomb bring forth every where at this day and yet who lays to heart either Mother or Children I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done every one turns to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Jer. 8.6 Vse 2 Woe and alas how much are the most liberal reproved who are past feeling as to both natural corruption and all actual transgressions yea even the fowlest and greatest Giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all iniquity with greediness and drink in all abominations as the Fish doth Water So far from sense of all sin either in the heart or in the life that all such frame of spirit is scoffed at If a man do but cast the least discountenance on the greatest sin What you are a Phanatick and ready as Swine to turn and tear and rent such as cast such Pearls before them as wholesome and seasonable reproofs and are as the wilde Ass that snuffeth up the wind and in the heat of her lust cannot be turned away Febris accedit the mad Feavour will and must have its course though Heaven or Hell bear upon breaking off or going on They say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant To talk of a body of death Lord what strange language would this be now adays and if a Man should chance to sigh as the Apostle O wretcheà man that I am What will become of me that Hellish cordial I doubt would be readily administred God dam-me thou wilt do well enough Never was it such a God-daring time for wickedness If it be such a God-damning time as persons pâ—ay Hell will be full of Souls indâ—ed for many Ages surely as this Men have made their hearts as an Adamant that they may not repent and seared their Consciences with a hot Iron that they may be sin-proof and not fall before the greatest wickedness nor the greatest judgment of God That capital curse I fear is inflicted
Spring as it is foolish so it is an endless work How can a clean thing come out of an unclean If the heart remain still filthy How is it possible to make the life holy Hence it is that the heart is so much called for to be cleansed and that sinck to be well lookt after because there is the seat of natural pravity and the very Core of all corruption Cut off branches as you would lop a Tree cut them off all and leave the roots through the sent of mud they will grow as Job saith every occasion and temptation so long as the nature remains unrenewed and unlookt to will make sin break out afresh and the Dog will return to his own vomit The Queens Daughter is therefore called upon to forget her Father's House or else she would be hankering to be there again They which came out of Egypt in body and did not come out spiritually as to their souls how unsteadfast were they and their righteousness as the morning dew and in their hearts went back again to Egypt If any Israelite having taken in War a Heathen Woman and beautiful that he had a desire to marry he was first to bring her home to his House and shave her Head and pare her Nails and was to put off the raiment of her captivity and then she was to bewail her Father and her Mother a full Moneth c. That is her Heathenish state wherein born and bred she was to bewail and taught by this paring of her Nails and changing the Raiment of her Captivity to look after deliverance from her inward captivity and for a new state a new Father and Mother and all new her hands yea her very Nails and all this but little enough to make her forget her Father's House and to forsake old haunts and customs and ways Who knoweth not but that Nails and Hairs and such excrements are most apt and ready to grow again and yet not more apt and ready than sin is though pared and shaved if it be not dealt throughly with in the heart and in the root Finally Without this deep sense of our natural condition Christ will not be precious to us nor indeed desirable who is the only Physician for this great cure We shall be righteous in our own eyes as the Pharisee and not care for any righteousness else but our own though we may talk of faith and of the righteousness of Christ as many Christians do We shall be as Country-people which are whole as a Fish and laught at all Physicians Till the Apostle Paul was smitten down from Heaven and his eyes opened to see this body of death of which he complains in my Text he was alive and brisk and who but he for a holy and a happy man But when the Commandement came in Authority upon him which he thought he had perfectly kept sin revived and he died 'T is the poor and blind and wretched and naked that Christ counsels to come and buy of him Eye-salve and Garments to cover their nakedness Rev. 3.17 18. As we are Proselites i.e. Comers to Christ so we are cured of our spiritual Leprosie and such Proselites we will never be but as we see and feel our lost state by nature and our great necessity of him Who looks after the things which they do not need Ho he that thirsteth c. and such will prise Milk and Water I cannot get a House in this Town wherein to leave drink-silver in my Masters name saith Mr Rutherford There is no sale for Christ in the north meaning at Aberdeen he is like to lie long on my hand ere any accept him Thus it is with all unsensible and unheart-broken sinners though at the brink of Hell yet will not come unto Christ that they may be saved from their sins and from the wrath of God FINIS THE REMEDIE OF NATURAL Corruption Being A SERMON ON Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THese words are an Answer to a sad Question the Question is in the words foregoing Who shall deliver me from the body of this death v. 24. That is from natural corruption the guilt and the dominion and Power of it This Apostle was at an utter loss in himself and as to all others and then God revealed an able Physician to him as these words of my Text tell us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is revealed to Sinners which dispair of all help in themselves or in any other Creature Such will thank God for him as here this wretched Man doth Mr. Rutherford speaketh of a sorrow that hath no eyes This Apostle's sorrow was such for a time Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He knew not of any deliveâ—er and then God became eyes to the blind and helped the sorrowful sinner and the blind sinner to eyes to see a Saviour and an All-sufficient one I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When Isaac was at a loss for an offering and Abraham also when the sorrow of both had no eyes God was sight and help to them both Here is the wood but where is the Sacrifice i. e. One to die My Son God will provide And he did so Donatum non petitum gratius est saith the Civilian A gift not asked is the most free So did God provide that offering for Isaac and so did he provide this offering for this Apostle and wretched Man and so he doth for every wretched Man which hath the benefit of him he is Donatum non petitum to every fallen Son of Adam that is raised by him He was found of him that asked not after him Secondly This may be further observed in these words That God doth not barely shew us the means of our good the proper means of our Souls good but enable us to make effectual use of them to that end If I should paraphrase upon this Text it would be to this effect Wretched man I am burdened much with a body of sin and death which is so heavy that I think oft it will one time or other sink me to the lowest Hell and I am as helpless as to all â—thers as impotent and miserable in my self O doubly wretched man that I am and am like to be who will who can deliver me Yet I have some help shewed to me I thank God but no body else he hath in my blinde and wretched conditiâ—n shewed me an able Physician by name Jesus Christ our Lord anointed and allowed under his own hand to help all such wretched Creatures as I am and he doth enable me to make use of him to my burdened Souls ease and rest This Scripture and such like shew that there is full and effectual relief for all burdened sinners who are ready to sink under the burden of their sin and misery Doct. The Doctrin
which I observe to prosecute from these words is this That Christ is the proper remedy of natural corruption I thank God through Jesus Christ c. He whom God the Father hath sealed sanctified and sent into this World for this end to Cure natural corrupâ—ion is Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle here calls him The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty unto the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 By Captives and such as are in Prison is meant sinners in their unregenerated condition who are under the power and slavery of sin and carried Captive by the evil one at his will and by broken hearted and poor he means such as are deeply affected and afflicted with the body of death natural corruption in the guilt and pollution of it these is Christ anointed with the Spirit of the Lord to relieve and help to bind them up and all their wounds and putrified soares and to heal them and to preach liberty to them and to bring them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God and such as are shut up under the power of sin and Satan as in a Prison to break down these strong holds and to open the everlasting Doors to himself the King of Glory to make a Prison a Palace a Slave a Son and Heir with him of all with this compare Isa 32.2 And a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim and the eares of them that hear shall hearken the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the Tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly Men in their natural condition may be in a calm as long as the strong Man ruleth all is at peace but these will be in a tempest and a terrible one first or last when their Consciences come to be convinced as the Apostles here was And then who is able and who is appointed to allay these storms To this the Prophet answers A man shall be a hiding place and a covert from wind and rain but so a Man that he is also God or else he could do nothing at these winds and storms That these things are thus spiritually to be understood appears by the next words v. 3 4. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim c. So that it means heart-storms and tempest and heart-help and Christ God-Man that is to be the helper and the great Covert in these storms and tempests and the great Rock for shade where the poor Soul is so scorched with the heat of God's wrath that he is ready to faint and die Blindness and deafness and rashness they all speak one thing the ill state we are in by nature blind deaf dumb and yet rash and mad and confident enough and the Man Christ Jesus who is called Emanuel God with us he is the appointed curer of all these Maladies This is a proof of the Point in hand in general I will descend to particulars of our fallen state and shew you that Christ is the appointed and proper remedy of all the diseases of our Souls There are three things complain'd of and supposed in the Apostles complaint in my Text one is a body of death that is our natural depraved state which is the filth of sin Secondly He complains of the Body of this Death that is the obligation of sin to the wrath of God temporal and eternal which we call the guilt of sin These two are expressed in his complaint Now there is a third thing supposed in these complaints of a bad state which is that he would fain have a better or else he would not have complained of this no more than other unregenerated Sinners do Now as to all these three Christ is the proper and appointed remedy and relief of miserable and wretched Man First As to the Body of Death i e. as to the fiâ—th of sin the depravation of our nature of which I spake in the other Sermon Christ is the remedy of this root and branch see Isa 51.9 10 11. Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord Awake as in the ancient days in the Generations of old Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon Art thou not it which hast dryed up the Sea and the Waters of the great deep that hast made the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away Now put all these borrowed words into plain English and what deep must this mean the drying up of which maketh the way to Zion where everlasting joy is obtained This deep must necessarily mean the bottomless Gulf of natural corruption shadowed fitly by the deep that hath in many parts no bottom and as Christ was he that went before our Fathers and dryed up that deep Sea and made it a way to go through to Zion and to the holy Land So it is he that dryeth up the deep Sea of sin in our nature and so maketh way to the holy state and the holy Church the true Zion in which is everlasting joy Now forasmuch as corrupt nature puts forth under some chief head and grand lust which is as King to all the Châ—ldren of pride as Pharaoh and his Princes to all the Body of Egypt Who fighteth against these Ans Christ He is remedy for root and branch of the Body of Death Art not thou it which hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon The Prophet speaketh still in allusion to Pharaoh and his Princes which he calls Crokâ—dile or Dragon that is a Sea-Dragon wherewith Egypt abounded This Sea of natural corruption hath some Sea-Dragons great Soul-devouring Monsters swimming and playing in it And who deals with these Ans He that dries up the deep that is Christ Art not thou he that hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon This Text leadeth us by the hand to that first promise made to Adam The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head which means our state of sin as headed and organised by Satan through any particular prevailing lust whatsoever our state of sin is there spoken of as headed by Satan who organiseth the old man as Christ doth the new And this surely is that great slaughter and the Towers falling which the Prophet especially pointeth at upon the fall of which the light of the Moon becometh as the light of the Sun and the light of
Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness is very precious to that Leper which indeed and from his heart cryeth out unclean Vse 4 The last Use of this Doctrin is for Exhortation Be at this practise with this Apostle of panting and groaning under the Body of Death when the poor Woman with the Bloody Issue saw that she was not hid she came trembling to Christ Luk. 8.47 and confessed her condition and how long it had been so with her and what ineffectual means she had used and yet wasted all on them Though your corrupt nature be hid from the eyes of men and from your own eyes much to much yet not in the least hid from the eyes of Christ and therefore come trembling to him and confess all your vileness to him as far as you are able but alas what a hard task do I mention 〈◊〉 and how long you have layne in this forlorne state and do as Beggars by the High-ways sides pull off all Plaisters from every soar and take heed of hiding any sin with Fig-leaves as your Father Adam let the great Physician see and know all every putrefied soar that is not bound up nor mollified with oyntment and who knoweth but his eye may move his heart towards you to pity you and to play the good Samaritan and to dress your filthy souls and soars and to anoint them and mollifie them This I think is the meaning of the Prophet Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see This is a proper work for every sinner to be at to bleed and mourn inwardly for the Fountain of sin that is in him and to bewail the many springs of wickedness which boil up bad matters Night and Day in his Soul to the grieving of the Holy Spirit Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look to the roots whence ye were hewen Isa 51.1 to the hole of the Pit whence ye are digged meaning Abraham who was an Idolater and dead in trespasses and sins as well as others The Body of Death is the hole of the Pit out of which cometh all the Frogs and Locusts which crawle and swarm in your lives Many Professors not bewailing this well and throughly as they should build a brave House to look on but on the Sand which with storms falleth and the fall thereof is great The time of loss is to be lookt into and considered Damni dati tempus inspicitur And how old is our loss of God's Image How inveterate is our wound How old is the old Man as old as Methusalah The old man came into the World with you and a Miracle it is that it had not with its great weight like a Mill-stone about your Necks pressed you to your place long ago yea the old man came into the World with this world that now is and with the other world that is drowned and it will bring this to the Fire at last and from burning to burning it is very proper work to be casting tears upon such sparks as will burn to the lowest Hill Secondly 'T is needful work this to know every Man the Plague of his own heart To know it that is to sigh and groan under it as here the Apostle Paul doth When Daniel had received that sad Vision of Nebuchadnezar's ruin the lopping down of that tall Tree which reached to Heaven and the sad condition of a beast which he was to be cast into Daniel remained speechless for one hour and his thoughts troubled him and he was not able to say a word to the King but sighed and lookt sad Dan. 4.19 And an hour more it may be he would have stood sad and sighing before the King and silent if the King had not forced matter from him And this carriage was very needful to set home things upon the King's heart and to make him look about him well And would I could so preach to all you this Day and in this place who are in your natural condition If I were silent now for one hour more and did only sigh over all you carnal and unregenerate Men and Women and look sad and sometimes mourn would it not be very needful as hearts are now heardened well and deeply to affect you Certainly it would so make you look about you well before the great Lopper death come 'T is very needful work for you and me to be at this oft-bewailing our fallen state and the body of this death because we are become as Nebuchadnezar by his fall Beasts that perish even we that were in honour in higher honour than Nebuchadnezar was before his fall We are become as Beasts in some respects and much worse than Beasts in other respects We are in this state without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World which he calls upon every one to remember Ephes 2.11 12. Wherefore remember that ye in times past were thus and thus c. Thirdly This is to go to the Root of our Disease to lay an Axe to the Root The Apostle was wise when he fell upon the main body of wickedness in him Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say Thus saith the Lord God unto all Jerusalem thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite and thy Navel was not cut nor salted c. Ezek. 16.2 3. You cannot know your abominations as you should that is be affected with them as you should unless you look to the Root from whence they all spring and fix your eyes and your hearts there well according to this wholesome instruction of the Lord. We are by nature Amorites and Hittites as wilde as any Children of wrath as well as others and in us i.e. In our nature dwelleth no good but the seeds of all wickedness and until we thus go to the bottom we do in our humiliations but skin over soares and not search and cleanse them well This this Apostle calleth for 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven what a deal a-do there was to search out leaven and to get totally rid of it among the Jews much is said of it the Apostle would have us as industrious about corrupt nature which he calleth old leaven in all our humiliations wherein there should be soul-examinations that we should fall close upon our evil hearts and state within and smite upon them and cry out much upon them Damni dans causam damnum ipsum dedisse videtur The old leaven is the cause of all the sins and miseries we daily fall into This this therefore we should especially bewail and labour about to pluck up the root of bitterness Fourthly There is no dealing with any actual sin without effectual dealing with the body of sin To go to lave a Pool and not first to deal with the
the Sun as seven days Isa 30.26 For the saith they shall be truly penitent and cast away their Idols i.e. their dearest lusts as a menstruous cloath saying Get ye hence vers 22. And the slaughters of all our Idols and the Mould wherein they are cast to wit our corrupt nature these are the great slaughters and high imaginations and proud affections boiling over yet subdued these are the high Towers and strong Holds falling It was Christ that said to Man and Woman Let them have dominion over-the Fish in the Sea and Fowls in the Heavens and over all the Works of God's hands So it is Christ that saith to fallen man let him have dominion over sin and Satan that leads it let it be by what cunning strong temptation soever let him rule over the Devil and all the works of his hands and let him put all under his Feet Secondly As to the body of this death i.e. as to the guilt of sin that whereby as a Transgressor of God's will Man stands bound over to the Judgment of the great Day to Eternal wrath and condemnation Christ is the proper remedy as to this also to cancil every bond and hand-writing of the Law and Conscience against us and to make us stand spotless before the Throne of the great and most Holy God See Zech. 13.1 In that Day there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness By sin is meant guilt which Christ taketh away by his blood and uncleanness means the filth of our corrupt nature which Christ purgeth by his Spirit which is a Spirit of Judgment and Burning Of this I have spoken in the last head I was upon I have now only to shew you that Christ cureth the body of this death that is the guilt which we continually contract by our corrupt state and the obligation which this maketh to the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come and setteth us in favour above That Christ doth this for fallen Man see Dan. 9.24 Seventy weekâ— are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the Vision and the Prophesie c. And to anoint the most Holy c By the Transgression here mentioned is meant the Jews killing of Christ and wishing his blood upon them and by sealing up the Vision and the Prophesie means the accomplishing of what God had shewed this Prophet and other Prophets concerning the Incarnation and death of Christ At such a time he shall come in Man's nature and at such a time he shall die and by his death make an end of wickedness that is as to the reigning power of it and as to the obliging power of it For as if this Prophet had said He shall by his death satisfie the Justice of God and dying as such a spotless Lamb and Sacrifice as one that hath fulfilled all God's wills as one indeed after his own heart he shall impute all this as theirs who shall believe on him and so procure their pardon the favour of God and an everlasting righteousness and well-pleasingness before God and so make an end of guilt utterly that if it be sought for it shall no where be found The Apostle Peter also confirmeth this that Christ cureth the body of this death i. e the guilt of fin For Christ suffered once for sin the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.12 That he might bring us to God that is That he might reconcile us to and bring us into favour with God Thirdly It is supposed by the complaint of this wretched state that the Apostle would have a better His complaint of sin and depravation and the loss of God's Image supposeth that he would have holiness and God's Image lost restored now as to this also Christ is the proper remedy as to destroy the old Man so to restore the new as it is he that binde the strong man and spoileth all his goods so it is he that creates the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 He it is that sanctifieth and we are they which are sanctified and all this is of one by the same Blood and Spirit by which as such an undertaker of our sin he sanctified himself by the merit and efficacy of the same he sanctifieth us who are not sinners meerly by imputation and deputation as he was but inherently Christ's Blood and Spirit is the Laver of regeneration and the Fullers Soap that maketh us white and changeth our black-more skin The Earth was without form and voâ—d tohu bohu and the Spirit of Christ fluttered upon it and brought it in a little time to such a glorious new thing than what it was in its first Creation So it is the same Spirit of Christ that fluttereth upon our Souls which by nature are anoâ—her Chaos and maketh them a new Creation To this I think the Apostle pointeth 2 Cor. 4.6 From whom I borrow this Metaphor But God who causes the light to shine out of darkness c. It was to Christ that the Father spake Come let us make Man in our Image and it is he and the Father that work hitherto by the Holy Ghost that speak one to another Come let us quicken this dead Soul and make him stand up from the dead and bear our Name in his Forehead our similitude and likeness When the Prophet Ezekiel had said that David should be their Prince for ever meaning Christ he further saith in the Person of this David to wit Christ The Heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more Ezek. 37.25.28 compared It is this Zerubbabel's hand that laid the Foundation and it is his hand that finisheth it and therefore the charge is that none despise the little small beginings of it though never so small As Christ can remove guilt and filth in one day which is much rubbish indeed So he can make a new Creature as soon if he please He made the Thief a new man quickly and carried him to Heaven with Him that Day He made Him and finished Him and Housed Him and all in a Day He made but a Days work nay but a few Houres work to finish Grace and Glory These things of the new state doth Christ and so as not to be undone He shall not fail or be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Iles shall wait for his Law Isa 42 4. There be many discouraging things in the removal of natural corruption as in any work I know enough
Christ which hath an Arm like God Omnipotent By the which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 It is a very strong Prison and very filthy in which we are by nature and who can go into this Prison to preach there but Christ The Doors are all Iron and Iron-bars and Bolts upon them If any one could go into these Prisons and preach 't would have spoken the state the less deplorable but for as much as none can but Christ himself it speaks the Prison in which man is by nature very strong and terrible 'T is a great heap of filth and a very great Dung-hill indeed which all the Carts in the World imployed about at once could not carry away no none but an Infinite strength Then was a fiery Sword turning every way to keep out Adam from the Garden and from communion with God and from eating of the Tree of Life the Seal thereof and surely this misery of Man is great upon him and this fiery Sword terrible that none can sheath it and take it away and bring Man into Paradise again and communion with God but the Omnipotent Power of Christ If any could have taken away that brandished Sword or if an Angel from Heaven could have done it and have taken Adam by the hand and have brought him into the Garden of delights i.e. of communion with God the misery had not been so great They are great and fearful diseases which none in this World can cure no nor none in that World above though much more populous than this but one even Christ himself Let the Inhabitants of the Rock sing let them shout from the top of the Mountains Isa 42.11 This is spoken of them that lived in the Wilderness of Arabia among Stones and Rocks Ishmael's Posterity where nothing but wild Beasts and Devils haunt the Inhabitants were like the Country they dwelt in their Hearts Rocks and Mountains and Legions of Devils and cursed Spirits haunting them Now O how mighty must he be that drives a Wilderness How mighty must he be that bids or commands the Inhabitants of these hard Rocks to sing and melt with joy Secondly Learn that we are much obliged to Christ and God for laying the help of such desperate Diseases on one so mighty The Apostle John wept that there was none found worthy to open the Book nor to read it nor to look thereon and he wept much and when one was found out how the tone is changed They that wept much rejoyced much and sung a new Song saying Thou are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy Blood out of every Tongue and Kindred and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5.4.9 The opening not only of one Book but of all the Scriptures and the heart too much weeping there is among sinners about this and none is found worthy that is anointed and accepted of God to this service but Christ and he hath bought his skill dear with his own heart blood he was slain to get this art and ability Worthy art thou to receive Power c. for thou wast slain And being thus how much are we bound to this Physician for our eyes and for his eye-salve as to the light of the Scriptures and the way to any good which we have I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in Paths which they have not known I will make darkness light and crooked things straight this will I do and not forsake them And who this is by whom God will do this see Isa 42.6.16 compared namely Christ To lead a blind Body from place to place and to do so all Day long all the Year long yea all the Life long and never to be weary how wonderfully is Man obliged to Christ and to God that hath given him to such a work Who is not tier'd to lead a blind Body a Day Thirdly Learn that it is dangerous to reject Christ because he is the appointed and proper remedy of our fallen state There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but by the Name of Christ As there is but one Faith one Baptisme so there is but one Lord Ephes 3.5 There being no more Doors to go out from our filthy state we had need to take heed that we do not neglect it the shame of our nakedness will by such a course appear The marshy places will not be drained or healed Ezeh 47.11 i.e. we shall remain unhealed and die in our sinful state our sin will remain Ye are come to Mount Zion not to Mount Zina and to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel See then that ye refuse not Him that spake Moses was a Mediator of the old Covenant and could do little Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and can do all the Services of our fallen state and fulfill the great and precious promises of the New-Testament to us He that rejected that Mediator which spake on Earth died for it Heb. 12.25 How much more will they who reject this Mediator which now speaketh from Heaven to us If Christ be only he which blesseth us and turneth Jew and Gentile from their sins and God hath only raised him from the dead for this end to bring Salvation from afar and we reject all it cannot be taken well either by God the Father or by Christ his Son Vnto you first God having raised up his Son hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquity Act. 3.26 As if the Apostle had said God hath been at great cost and pains to part with his only Son to die and then to raise him from the dead and all for this end to bless you Jews and to turn you first and then the Gentiles from their sins and so to make them and you eternally happy If you shall reject all this love of God and love of his Son it will fall heavy he will conster it that you have no mind to be turned from your sins but to continue in them and so you shall for ever and die and perish in them He that is filthy shall be filthy still Vse 2 Try your selves Is Christ become actually yet a remedy to you Hath he delivered you from the body of this death Then as you have long groaned under the want of it so you are much taken with the mercy in any measure obtained with the freeness of it that the Waters which cleanse you should come to you through such a golden Pipe as the Blood and Wounds of Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle is much taken with this that the Pipes of his cleansing should be laid through the sides of Jesus Christ so costly a conveyance
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
well in fair weather as in fowl saith Seneca but so doth not the Soul Thou hast made a Hedge about Job Doth he serve thee for naught No thou dost give him much and so hire him to serve thee do but take away as thou hast given to him and he will curse thee to thy face so saith God all he hath is in thine hands and then again saith touch his Bone and his Flesh and he will curse thee c. Take away Estate and take away health health and wealth and then questionless he will forsake such a hard Master and yet Satan was deceived Job held his integrity and now Job goes for current Coin in the Lords account Hast thou considered my Servant Job that he is a just Man and upright c. Though thou hast moved me against him without cause such an instance is David Thou didst thrust sore at me that is Satan because he saith that he thrust sore at him that he might fall but the Lord helped me Psal 118.13 God afflicts sore sometimes and then the Devil thrusts sore to shipwrack Conscience some way or other and thus doth God try Men sometimes to know all that is in their heart There is a Nursery at a great Dukes seat abroad which is called Schola illustris Great afflictions are the great God's Schola illustris that in and by which he makes the integrity of Men appear that is all the graces of Men in their true glory According to that 1 Pet. 1.7 That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ Barbils taken among Rocks are brave Fish and have their right colour Thirdly God brings all afflictions on Men yea on good Men to humble and to mortify Our Fathers were worried with all afflictions in the Wilderness forty Years together as to prove them so to humble them to pull down pride and stubborness and to make them long much for Canaan the Land of Rest And Job was kept at such a distance in all his conflicts as to try him so to humble him and abase him for his heart was too high What good Man's heart is not The Sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit such sacrifices in Religion God likes well Psal 51.17 He doth not despise low humble bleeding sinners that is he doth not worry and sleight to see them because they are as Wheat ground small enough to be Bread fit for their Masters Table David when his bones were all broken that is soul and body much afflicted then he begins to talk of a broken spirit when our conditions are high our spirits are so too and to bring the one low the Lord is forst to bring the other low too Paul that was a high confident Man God was fain from Heaven to fell him to the Earth and afterward to keep him low and humble was fain to let loose corruptions of nature and buffitings of Satan that by these thornes in his sides he might prick out and let out all the swelling windy conceits of himself and of his own holiness and goodness and usefulness which fluttered in his heart Mephibosheth being a Criple how humbly he speaks And he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead Dog as I am 2 Sam. 9.8 So when God Criples us in all things wherein we may be of use to him estate health inward and outward and yet keeps on a secret support and kindness though not sensible Oh how humble it makes the Man What a dead Dog am I that the Lord should regard me to do the least favour for me the ground is too good to bear me Naturali praevalet accidentale Sometimes accidental things prevail against natural accidental rods and punishments prevail against Natural Corruptions and Sins Secondly As God doth bring all afflictions to mortify pride so to mortify other sins to which our natures are too too prone to pluck up all sin by the roots well especially hypocrisie with which we do best play with in the matter of humiliation and mortification and renewing faith and repentance till the Lord swinge us indeed with all his Rods and long David though a good Man was beaten till he roared and made to roar all the Day long and Night and Day was God's hand heavy on him and his moisture turned into the drought of Summer to make him acknowledg and confess some special sin which lay hid and was kept close till a Fire was kindled in his bones then he confessed and spit out the sweet morsel which he tumbled in his mouth so long Psal 32.5 In some bad matters we are very bad and naught and ready to make excuses and defences and to hide our sin this way as Adam 't is but a little one and I do not use it it is but now and then when I meet with such bad company All afflictions and smart Rods are but few enough in these cases to make us speak out and do out as we should and to make such clearing our selves in these bad matters as becometh Penitents Sometimes of the year in Ethiopia when most hot their Silver waxeth Lead and no cover of any rich matter can endure saith the Historian And truly I may more fitly spiritualise it sometimes when the entisements of some sins most sutable to our nature are strong and hot through Satan's Fire-Darts all our silver becomes lead 1 All our graces Faith and love and courage fails and become corrupted and bribed by the sin which so easily besets and then is God enraged and layeth about him as a jealous God and taken up all his Rods and layeth them on as with all his might and all little enough to kill pleasing sin and beloved sin at the Root to dis-heart it well He makes a great Fire to purify well and make the scum come all out as it should When the Children of Ammon saw that they stank before David then they sent to him the Syrians 2 Sam. 10.6 So till a Sinner by the many punishments of God seeth that he stinks in the Nostrils of God he doth not raise forces against his sin as he should 1 He doth not set hmself to repent of it and clear and cleanse his afflictions throughly of it as he should by faith in the death of Christ They say of the Spaw Waters broad that they are not so pleasant as wholesome so I may say of afflictions that they are not so pleasant as wholesome Inutile per inutile perimitur Thirdly As God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon good Men to mortify sin well so to mortify them well to all the natural good things of this World and so to make them indeed dead with Christ to all here As the Nurse puts bitter things on her breasts to take off the Child from the sweet milk and put his mouth out of relish and
abate and yet Noah by faith knew he should see them quite down at length though long first And surely through his faith these waters hasted away to their proper places for in the last day they abated eleven Cubits which abated but one in four Days before By this which hath been said we see that Faith looketh through matters temporal though never so dark and difficult Secondly Faith looketh through matters spiritual though never so dark and difficult As the power of natural corruption the sense of God's wrath c. Faith can look through the power of natural corruption than which what is a greater Mountain in the eye of an enlighten'd Soul O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 25. Faith hath a strong and clear eye that can look through such a big and black Mountain as the body of death is Satan and corrupt nature are called the strong man and his goods Mat. 12.29 and Christ spoils them both and this faith seeth when both natural corruption and Satan are at strongest But I see another Law in my members willing against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man what a wretched state am I in And who can or who will deliver me out of this slavery and faith answers this hard question I thank God Christ can and will he that is mighty to save on whom help for me is laid To this may properly be added Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead indeed to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faith doth reckon the body of fin dead and all the Powers of it because that is done by Christ's death to procure it a Cure that never failed What shall we then say if God be for us who can be against us or what can be against us But God be thanked ye were the servants of fin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the forme of Doctrin into which ye were delivered Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother warm me behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in that inward hidden part thou shalt make me to understand wisdome that is experience the power of grace for by wisdom is meant grace Psal 51 5.6 By wisdom is meant grace and by knowing of wisdom means experiencing of grace Which sheweth to us that he by faith saw thorow the power of natural corruption and all the grieving operations and prevalencies of it and that the state of his inward man which was so ungracious and which had so deceived him and betrayed him in that matter of Vriah should notwithstanding be brought to a better and a more sincere frame for time to come Hence it is likewise that the Apostle Paul speaks of the work of Mortification as done which yet is still but a doing as long as we are on this side Heaven as seeing by faith every accursed thing in his heart slain They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts That is certainly they shall The Beasts of the Field shall honor me the Dragons and Owles because I give this and that in the Wildeâ—ness Isa 43.20 That is Creatures by Nature as blind as Owles and yet as confident and fiery as Dragons these shall see and become as tame that a little Child may lead them Jacob blessed Ruben that went up to his Fathers Bed and Simeon and Levy which had been such Brethren in evil and this he did by faith saith the Author to the Hebrews which sheweth that he saw thorow those corruptions wherwith they were over-taken the one with lightness the other with passion and fury and that God would change all their hearts both of the one and of the other and make them gracious and doubtless in his light the Children come at length to see light and by his faith were helped to believe Secondly Faith looketh thorow the sense of God's wrath which is he darkest and most dreadful thing or all Christ did so and he did it by faith when he cryed My God my God c. David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba as much clouded his Soul as any thing and filled his soul with the sense of Gods displeasure and yet he saw thorow that dark Cloud by faith as you may see 2 Sam. 12.23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me By faith he saw God reconciled as to this foul business yea reconciled to the Childe that was smitten dead or else he would not have wiped his eyes and have said I shall go to him but would have continued weeping and after the death of the Child most of all as he did for Absalom whom he gave up for a castaway They made the figure or the Sun upon Joshua's Tomb to preserve the Memorial of that great Miracle of causing the Sun to stand still Therfore also the place of his dwelling was called Timnath Serath or Here 's which witâ— some Letters transpos'd is as you should say the sign of the Sun upon the Tomb of a believer you may make the figure of Gods face and favour for when he is in the belly of Hell as Jona yet from thence he espies a reconciled God and his own everlasting mercies sure though these here be all uncertain Wilt thou be angry with us for ever wilt thou draw out thy wrath to all generations wilt thou not revive us again that thy People may rejoyce in thee I will hear what the Lord God will say for he will speak peace to his People and to his Saints but let them not return again to folly Psal 85.8 The People of God were very low at this time even as in their Graves and Tombes and yet there is the figure of Gods countenance even on their Graves they saw peace when there was nothing but War Who will bring me into the strong City Who will bring me into Edom Wilt not thou O God which hadst cast us off and thou O Lord which didst not go forth with our Armies Psal 60.10 Thirdly Faith looks thorow matters National as well as Personal though never so dark and difficult Thou will save the affâ—â—â—cted People but wilt bring down high looks for thou wilt light my Candle the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness for by thee I have ran thorow a Troop Psal 18.27 This Esaluâ— was made saith the Title when David was deliver'd out of the hands of all his Enemies and out of the hands of Saul so that it hath a National reference and respect David saw thorow all National conflicts as to the godly that how much distressed soever they were yet that God would own them and save them For thou wilt save the afflicted People