little knowest what thou maist be and do even the most abominable things that are if left to a Temptation Now this is a special thing in Christs praier to have present help of grace in such a streight Thus v. 15. I pray that thou shouldst keep them from the evil of the world Not to be taken out of the world but to be preserved from the sinfulnesse of it and thus for Peter Christ saith Satan had a desire to winnow him but he praied that his faith might not fail Luk. 22.32 Had not the fruit of this praier intervened Peter and Judas might have been both alike Oh then the tender godly man that is obnoxious to over-whelming fears if such and such temptations should befall him he should be undone that saith one time or other this or that affliction will break him Let such consider that it 's not their strength but Christs praier is their support he that praied Peters faith might not fail hath done the like for thee 3. Perseverance in the way of grace against all oppositions and difficulties This his praier extends to v. 34. Father I will they be where I am and how careful was he to keep them that none of them who were given him might perish The perseverance of Gods Children doth not depend upon grace within for Angels and Adam lost it but upon the promise of God and Christs Intercession Oh how often do we break our Covenant with God on our parts if we were left to our selves we should be branches broken from the Vine pulled from the root we should become Trees not twice but twenty times dead But it is the praier of Christ that keeps up all life and vigour It 's better with us then with the People of Israel all the while Moses held up his hands he prevailed but when he was weary then their enemies prevailed But it is not so here Our Intercessor never giveth over he doth not intermit for a moment so that as long as Christs Intercession shall abide so long shall we be preserved 4. Christs praier extends to their vivification and quickning up to holinesse Sanctifie them by thy Truth They were already sanctified but he praieth for encrease and growth therein The hearts and affections of the most holy are in some degree polluted and unclean therefore they need this further Sanctification and preparation of them for what is holy Lastly This praier doth extend to our communion and intimate Fellowship with the Father as is abundantly expressed That they may be one as thou and I am one they in me and I in them Man as he is a man is Animal sociale and as a Christian he desires fellowship which is not only with other members but chiefly with the head And this Communion is the ground of all spiritual and heavenly joy the fulness of it being that eternal glory in heaven 7. The excellency and comfortablenesse of it is the more aggravated by the contrary viz. the devil who is the accuser of the Brethren and he continually brings in matter of accusation against us If Joshua hath rags on Satan will revile him certainly he that is so great an Enemy to a godly mans praier labouring either to hinder it or distract it or marre it with some proud self-confidence how much rather if he could would he hinder the praier and intercession of Christ Now though he can finde much accusation against the godly mans praier yet none against Christs Though he be an accuser of the Brethren yet not of Christ the head The Prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me Joh. 14.30 Vse 1. of comfort to the Godly behold we open to you Treasures of consolation when you cannot do not pray yet even then is Intercession made for you We are apt to think as the Disciples did If Christ were corporally present with us If he were visibly speaking to us as to that Woman Be of good comfort thy sins be forgiven We should judge our selves happy but it 's better for us Christ appeareth for us in heaven This is more advantagious then his corporal presence can be Oh then see what is thy staff to lean upon not thy praiers or duties but Christs Intercession Oh maintain this plea against the devil and thy own troubled heart Say what condemnation or accusation can there be of Christ how can the Father refuse him pleading for us O Lord if I had nothing but my praiers my duties I were not able to look up to heaven Vse 2. To discover the woful and damnable estate of wicked men They have no Intercessor for them If they sinne they have no Advocate It was a dreadful thing when God bid Jeremiah pray not for this people Oh but when Christ shall not pray there is no way or hope open for thee Should all godly Ministers and Friends pray for thee yet if Christ intercede not they can doe thee no good The devil accuseth thee Justice arraigneth thee and there is none to speak a word for thee SERMON XLIII Of the Extent of Christs Mediatory Praier and of his Death That he Praied and Died not for all and every one of mankinde but onely for the Elect And that the Scripture-Expressions of Christs Dying for all are to be understood Indefinitely and not Vniversally JOH 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world HAving handled the positive part I come to the exclusive The Subject that is shut out of Christs praiers and that is the world I pray not for the world The word world is as large in signification according to Scripture-use as it is in comprehension so that we may say it hath a world of significations Some say It 's not used at all in the Old Testament but that is a mistake for in our Translations it 's very frequent I shall instance in some choice ones It is used sometimes for this whole Universe in all the parts of it as when it 's said Before the Foundation of the world Sometimes and that most frequently for men who are the Inhabitants of the world and it 's observed by the Learned that John the Evangelist doth use it in the most various significations The world when it signifieth men the Inhabitants of it either is used â—niversally for all or else Synechdochically for the greater part for all as Joh. 3. God so loved the world viz. mankinde he did more for that then for Apostate Angels Though Learned men expound that otherwaies it 's used synechdochically for a greater part but indefinitely good and bad as when it 's said the whole world went after Christ but it 's many times used definitely for a certain kinde of men And that either the wicked and ungodly who are the greater in quantity and thus by our Evangelist often The world hateth you and I have overcome the world Or else it 's used for the better part of the world though the lesse for the world of the Elect and
strength should fail them lest one time or other they should yeeld to sinne and be overwhelmed Now in the midst of all these fears Christ hath praied for thee as well as for Peter that thy faith may not fail Insomuch that we may say Christs praier for beleevers is all their hope and foundation In some sad exigences how carefull are we to have the praiers of all Gods people to be remembred in such and such a Congregation but if all the Churches in the world should pray for a man it would not amount to so much as Christs praier therefore let the godly comfort one another with these things Lastly He hath praied for their glorification Thus he praied that they may be one even as he and the father are one and that they be where he is viz. that they may enjoy that glory which Christ had purchased for them Therefore he is called the Resurrection Job 11.25 because he will raise up such at the last day The body though dead and consumed to ashes shall not alwaies be in the grave neither shall the soul have such rags and deformities upon it continually but shall be cloathed with glorious robes Thus you see the chief and main matter of Christs praier not so much earthly and temporall things as heavenly for although Christ did comfort his Disciples even in earthly straits Mat. 6.25 that they had a Father in Heaven and if he did provide for all the creatures in the world they might much rather be perswaded of his care to them and Paul argued Rom. 8. he gave his only Son for them how shall he not give all things else Yet the great things that Christ before his sufferings thought fit to commend unto God were spirituall and heavenly benefits And that is the first consideration The matter of Christs Praier Secondly Take notice of the nature of this Praier it 's by way of Mediation It 's a Mediatory Praier and so differs from all the praiers of other men As they are bare meer men so their praiers are bare meer praiers There is no merit no mediation in thee but Christs praier is of a farre more transcendent nature Even as the bloud of the Martyrs came farre short of Christs Their bloud was not expiatory it was not by way of a Sacrifice for sinnes whereas Christs was Thus there is a vast difference between praiers and praiers God may regard one mans praier more then anothers it may be more effectuall as in that supposition though Daniel and Job stood and praied they should not be heard Job you know was commanded to pray for his Friends and his praier was accepted of more then theirs and Daniel was said to be a man greatly beloved because his praiers were so readily heard Likewise the praier of many or a Church is more prevalent then the praier of one single person So a Praier from one in office as a Minister is more then of one in a private condition but yet the praier of Christ as in the office of a Mediatour doth farre surmount all So then in Christs praier we are especially to look to the Mediatory power to the impetratory efficacy of it It 's not a meer supplication as ours are but a powerfull obtaining of what is desired His praier can be no more refused then his bloud they both are in the same nature they go along under the same respect his bloud may as well be without advantage as his praier The high-Priests praier for the people was of greater concernment for the people then their own praiers I tell thee all thy own praiers are not of that consequence to thee as Christs praier is all Mediatory and impetratory efficacy is from that Thirdly Consider the dignity of the Person who did pray for beleevers and thereby cometh an infinite efficacy and worth to it Christ who praied for us being God and man in regard of his divine nature there cometh an infinite worth upon his praier his praier is like himself and from this account it is that it is meritorious with God that it is just with God to grant him his Requests his Supplications are put up in his own name he needeth no Mediatour there is none to make way for his acceptance with God so that this Meditation affords unspeakable consolation though all thy praiers and duties be nothing worth yet Christs is of infinite value The dignity and merit whereby any good cometh to us is not for our praiers but for Christs Certainly the people of God do not live so chearfully upon this consideration as they ought They are careful to pour out their own praiers but not by faith to rest on Christs What needest thou fear who canst bring praiers of infinite merit The Lord Christ hath praied that I might have this mercy he hath praied that this grace should be vouchsafed unto me What fault can be found with Christ What blame or imperfection is to be seen or found in him how can Christ be denied in justice It is his right to have his Requests answered Fourthly Consider the respect and relation Christ stands in towards God the Father And then you will still say his praier is of great concernment to 〈◊〉 Now his relation is the only Son of God and dearly beloved by him This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Mat. 3.17 So that his praiers are heard unquestionably upon a twofold ground the one of justice because infinite in worth the other of love because the only begotten Son This Heb. 5.7 He is said while he praied to be heard in what he feared and Joh. 11.12 Christ thanks the Father that he heard him alwaies and often doth he professe that the Father loveth him the Sonne and that the Father and the Son are one This also is very comfortable to meditate upon Thou hast the praier of him who is the only begotten of the Father whom the Father heareth alwaies and to whom he denieth nothing if we are able to say Lord this is not my praier only This is not my desire only but it s the request of Christ so beloved of thee then thou maist justly beleeve thou shalt be accepted of O Lord though I have no lovelinesse no comelinesse yet Christ hath Some have doubted whether Christ was heard in every thing he praied for and they instance in his praier that the cup might passe from him but that was only conditionall If it be thy will and therefore he added Not my will but thine be done That which he absolutely praied for was Gods support and preservation of him as also the raising him out of the grave That which seemeth to have gteat difficulty is his praier Luke 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do but of the efficacy of this we need not doubt of because the Pharisees and others they sinned against their knowledge and conscience and for such Christ praied not but
is continuall we have occasion every day we glorifie him 1. By blessing and praising God for him God never did so much for us as when he gave Christ 2. We glorifie him when we live to him when we wholly set up Christ give him the glory of all the comfort and grace we doe partake of 3. We glorifie him when we can part with and leave all things for his sake when we can say All things are but drosse in comparison of him SERMON VI. Of Heavenly mindednesse Shewing that we should seek both Earthy and Heavenly blessings chiefly for this end viz. That God may be glorified JOH 17.1 Glorifie thy Sonne that thy Sonne may also glorifie thee THE next thing in order is the last Argument or motive Christ useth in this Praier for Glory and that is the end and motive why he desireth it which is altogether pure and sincere He desireth it not for himself or in reference meerly to his own advantage but thereby to glorifie God O admirable example of modesty and humility He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet as Mediatour challengeth nothing for himself ultimately He that in other places is called Alpha and Omega now denieth that prerogative and giveth it solely to God his Father so truly did he say Nulla Creatura humilior Deo that is Christ you see then this Sun of Righteousnesse making himself like one of the inferiour Starres borrowing all light and returning the same again to God and certainly if Christ himself as Mediatour will not take to himself the glory due to God then this will highly condemn all that arrogance in man who shall desire any earthly or heavenly advantages meerly for his own sake That shall desire riches honours greatnesse or heaven it self for any other end but to glorifie God thereby It 's not the much eating but the good digesting that gives health and it 's not the possessing of great abundance but the wise improving of all for Gods glory that makes happy so then this example of Christ shall be considered by us as an argument a majori ad minus That if Christ praied for all that heavenly and transcendant glory principally to glorifie God thereby and did not chiefly aim at himself then how much more should man desire either heavenly or earthly glory not so much that it is his own good as that thereby it will be instrumentall to Gods glory and hence observe That as Christ so much more all men are to pray for and desire any comfort or advantages not so much for themselves as that thereby God may be glorified that as Christ said Joh. 8 50. I seek not my own glory but the glory of him that sent me so every one should say If God make me rich great in this world I do not regard these things as my advantages but as opportunities to glorifie God It 's a Rule in Logick Media non sunt appetenda propter se sed propter finem and appetitus finis est infinitus the desire of the end is infinite but of the means is only finite and limited Thus not only all our earthly comforts here below but all that eternall glory and happinesse which we shall have in heaven is but a medium to promote the glory of God and although the salvation of our souls be in some sence the end of a man yet even this end hath a further end the glory and honour of God of which we are to say as the people of David Thou art worth ten thousand of us so is the glory and honour of God of more worth then the salvation of all mens souls But that you may all feel power coming out from this doctrine to your souls let us consider the truth of it in Christ briefly and then more largely how it is to be fulfilled in us And first For Christ Consider his two states the state of his humiliation and his exaltation for this Sunne of Righteousnesse had his setting as well as his rising and if God be said to humble himself to look on the Children of men Psa 113.6 how much more then to become a childe of man This humiliation of Christ the Apostle expresseth by an emphaticall word Phil. 2.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though he was equal with God yet he laid aside all the glorious manifestation and appearance of this and was of no repuâ—ation This humiliation expressed it self two waies in his active obedience and passive in both which he still referred all to Gods glory Though he be called Heb. 1 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brightnesse of Gods glory yet by his humiliation he is said to have no comelinesse on him a worm and no man For his active obedience subjecting himself to the Law of God teaching and declaring Gods will to all men and revealing the truth of God from the bosome of his Father He in all this professeth Joh. 8.50 He sought not his own glory but the glory of his Father If you ask him why he was born why he was baptized why he did fulfill all righteousnesse he would say for the glory of his Father Oh but in all our religious duties how much vain-glory doth infect and rotten them That is the Pirate which doth intercept the golden Fleete of our praiers that they return not again fraughted with good things for us yea that is remarkable Heb. 5.5 Christ is there said not to glorifie himself he did not undertake that office of a spirituall Priest till he was called by God he glorified not himself And as for his passive obedience all those sufferings and ignominious reproaches which he did undergo it was only thereby to glorifie the wisedom and goodnesse and infinite love of God to man which made the Apostle call Christ crucified the power and wisedom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 25. Joh. 13.31 There we have Christs glorifying of God and Gods glorifying of Christ both put together When Judas was gone out to accomplish Christs death Now saith he the Son of man is glorified and God is in him Christs sufferings were his glory and Gods glory and then mark the connexion If God be glorified by him God will glorifie him again he shall be no loser and that in himself Oh how admirable and different is that glory which God himself giveth from that which either Men or Angels can bestow so then we see all the end of Christs humiliation both in his active and passive obedience was to glorifie God There remaineth the second part of Christs state which is his Exaltation and in that we shall finde all the glory and honour he had did not stay in him but was carried out further to God the Father This glory he praied for God bestowed it on him yet so that at the last he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto his Father that so God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Not but that
restlesse till it fix there Take all the men in the world who have drunk deepest in the streams of these earthly comforts yet still they thirst There is a dropsie on them still they would have more and other objects They have a feavoriâ—h heat with them That makes them restlesse whereas when we come to Christ we shall finde rest to our souls and He that drinketh of this water shall never thirst more Jo. 4.14 so then we see what eternal life is it 's all the good that God is What good is in God that the beleever hath and how unreasonable is it to think that there is a better good then he If the Creator cannot satisfie can the Creature From hence it is that the godly do so long for this time of enjoying him I desire to depart saith Paul Phil. 2.23 The Church crieth for Christ to Come quickly Those Patriarchs looked on themselves as Pilgrims and desiring a better City then that of this world so then you can but judge of this happinesse by the footsteps by the drops of it If there be any attractive good in the creature it 's but a drop God the Fountain he is the Ocean Now in this object God enjoyed there are these remarkable properties of his goodnesse 1. He is the Vniversal good he is the bonum in qua omnia bona There cannot be any desirable perfection but it is in him The Creatures have their particular limited goodnesse health hath its wealth hath its learning its but now God is the Jehovah all beings are eminently in him As the Psalmist argueth He that made the eye shall not he see he that made the ear shall not he hear Psal 94.9 He then that makes this and that thing desirable is not he much more desirable Is there a ground to love Father Mother Wife or Children and not much rather to love God so that that Command Mat. 22. hath the greatest reason where God willeth to be loved with all the heart all the soul all the might for there is nothing hath any good which is the Object of love but it 's in God or from him There is none good but God saith Christ so then what are Stars to the Sunne The Starres cannot dispell the night only the light of the Sun can do that Thus only God and the light of his countenance can make the heart happy as having all things 2. That good which God is it is an unmixed sincere good He is so good that there is no trouble in him for that is the imperfection of all earthly good things as there is a drop of honey so there is a drop of gall Every Rose hath its thorn If God gives thee any mercy in this life yet still there is a sting as well as hony so that no condition no mercy hath every thing in it Though they have this yet they want another and hence Solomon who gave himself to finde out this Philosophers stone to obtain an happinesse if it could be in this world yet upon experience he giveth this Motto of every thing Vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccl. 1.1 But do the Saints in heaven who have had the experience of enjoying God passe such a sentence upon that happinesse in heaven Of this honey in the world we must not eat too much lest we surfet But there is fullnesse without nauseating There is replenishing and yet alwaies hungring God is as much desired after millions of years as at the first moment in heaven Hence this life is to be spent only in joy in praises and gladnesse of heart Oh that we could affect our hearts more with this eternal life it would be a great comfort in afflictions and a quick spur to all duties Lastly God who is thus the object of this Eternall life is the proper peculiar and convenient good No object is so sutable and adequate to the heart as he is howsoever morall Philosophers say good is the object of the will yet they say It 's not good in the generall or absolute but that which is proportionable and convenient The sick man desireth health because it 's the good proportionable to his wants so the tormented man ease Thus although it be true that since man is fallen and corrupted with sinne God is not proportionable or sutable to him Hence wicked men are said to hate God Exod. 20. yet take we man according to his Creation and the Image of God first planted in him and so God was his ultimate end in him only could he have full complacency and so as farre as we are regenerated and this holy Image restored in us Nothing can satisfie us but God We see David in many of his Psalmâ— he discovers severall extremities and necessities upon him yet the only cure is the light of his countenance Let God look graciously on him let him draw near to him and then the troublesome waves are presently quiet 2. This Eternall life doth positively consist in the beatifying the soul and the whole body sanctifying it so fully that now it can enjoy God For though God be never iâ— glorious an object yet till the soul be made perfect he cannot enjoy God No more then the Sunne which is primum visibile yet because of its dazling lustre the eye is too weak to behold it stedfastly Now in heaven the spirits of iust men are said to be made perfect and no corruptible thing can inherit the Kingdom of heaven This then this eternal life is seen in that the soul yea the whole man is â—o heavenly and holy so perfected in every thing that it 's made capable of all this happinesse The godly have communion and fellowship with God in this life now they are no more capable of this if not sanctified then a beast can converse with a man Hence because this sanctification is impotent we know in part we beleeve in part We see him but in a riddle not face to face but then shall we know him even as we are known of him 1 Cor. 13.12 It was a general received opinion as appeareth by severall examples in the Old Testament that if God made any glorious appearance to man he should presently die so Manaoh and others argued and whence rose that apprehension but because of the glorious Majesty of God and the vain weak frail nature of man Oh but in heaven where God is in all his glorious manifestation and we shall behold him continually yet there shall be no faintings no fears within us and all is because the Saints are then glorified and perfected in soul and body There 's not the least spot or wrinkle of sinne to put them to any shame or fear within 3. This Eternall Life consists in a quick and lively apprehension of this happinesse it hath without which happinesse could not be happinesse A man in a Lethargy though he liveth yet he is as good as dead because he perceiveth not his
worshippeth that which others doe where he liveth but whether it be God or an Idol that he understands not The Athenians had an Altar dedicated To the unknown God Act. 17.23 and Paul with much zeal doth reprove this their superstition and Idolatry telling them they were out of the way to heaven yea the more devout and zealous a man is for that worship he understandeth not the more swift he runneth in the way to hell so then where ignorance is It 's all one whether Christ or Mahomet be worshiped whether an Image or the true God So truly doth Seneca observe of the common people Eunt qua itur non qua eundem est They do and go not whither they ought but whither they see others before them yea by this means men come to worship the devil in stead of God Oh terrible and heavy aggravation Thou that thinkest thou dost worship God yet by thy ignorance going on in Idolatry dost worship the devils Thus Jeroboam is said to set up calves to the devil 2 Chron. 11.15 the people little thought so and so those that would be at the Idolaters Feasts they did partake of the cup of the Lord and of deuils 1 Cor. 10. Now although it be true that thou art brought up in that Religion where the true God is worshiped yet this is all one to thee who hath no knowledge of God or Christ for if it had been to Moloch to Baal or Ashtaroth had it been to Mahomet or to Images and Idols in every high way thou wouldst have done that as well as this for any true knowledge or understanding thou hast O pray then that God would give thee true knowledge As it is thus for the generality of Gods worship so in more special manner ignorance doth wholly overthrow praier unto God which is more necessary then food or raiment and is a duty to be performed to God every day Now saith the Apostle Heb. 11.1 He that cometh to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that seek him but how can this be when a man by ignorance is in a confused chaos Oh that ignorant people would attend to this They say they pray yea they hope to be saved by their good praiers when alas thou that knowest nothing of God or Christ canst not pray at all Thou never didst pray acceptably to God all thy life time If a Parrot be taught to say the Lords Praier shall that be accounted a praier and is there not many that pray Gods Name may be hallowed his Kingdom may come and yet understand not at all the sence of their praier Thus in Popery they do sinfully nourish people in their ignorant praiers for seeing their praiers are in Latine it 's all one whether they pray good matter or blasphemy The Apostle 1 Cor. 14. doth expresly argue against praying in an unknown tongue saying for himself He will pray in the spirit and with understanding also What terrour then doth this proclaim ignorant people pray they cannot they do not no not when they pray If that Question should be put to them which Philip put to the Eunuch Vnderstandest thou what thou readest So Understandest thou what thou praiest Were they able to say one word of knowledge to you We may cry out Be astonished O Heavens and the Earth at the ignorance and blindenesse of many people and yet nothing will provoke them to get knowledge 3. We cannot do that great and necessary duty which is the substance of all Gods command viz. to love him with all our heart with all our soul and might neither the consequents of this love which is to desire after him to delight and rejoyce in the light of his countenance without knowledge for what a man knoweth not he cannot love Ignota nulla cupido Let ignorant people by this see the great gulf that is between them and heaven Thou canst not love God nor desire him as long as thou dost not know him so neither can you fear God if you know not his infinite Majesty the greatnesse of his power and his hatred against sinne What makes men so desperately wicked to commit sinne without any fear or trembling They know not God Hence is that frequent expression in Scripture when God saith he will bring such and such punishments Then they shall know that I am God 4. Those that serve God ought to be full of fervency and zeal For all duties without zeal are like a Sacrifice without fire a Bird without wings a Messenger without feet Now all zeal without knowledge is refused by God They have a zeal but not according to knowledge Rom. 10.2 Ignorant people may be very zealous as those that offered their children to Moloch That did cut and lance themselves in calling upon Baal but this fire of zeal was like that of hell calidus and not lucidus hot but not light Vse If Eternal life be to know God then this is eternal death not to know God This is eternal damnation to be ignorant of him It was Gods promise that all should know him from the greatest to the least Jer. 31.34 but how few finde the fruit of this promise How many Families how many persons are there who do all they do to the unknown God yet these hope to be saved yet these say They have a good heart when nothing can be good while ignorance is predominate neither a good faith or good love or good duties or a good heart and as ignorance is damnable of it self so much more when it is where the means of knowledge are where the Sun shineth where the Ministry is instructing Oh what wo and woe again will befall such men SERMON XV. More Reasons of the Necessity of Divine Knowledge And the Causes of Ignorance JOH 17.3 And this is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent THe Doctrine observed was that without the knowledge of God and Christ there cannot be any eternal life obtained The first ground or reason of this was from those several duties that are required of us towards God which without some knowledge could never be acceptably performed The second ground shall be from those duties we owe to Christ And herein damnable ignorance will farre sooner possesse us then in the former for there are some common notions and dictates about a god which made Tertullian cry out O animam naturaliter Christianam But in respect of Christ we have not the least implanted notion about him so that the doctrine of Christ is far more supernatural then that about God for the hoti quod si Deus is I discovered by natural light but who he is and how to be worshiped this is meerly supernatural but concerning Christ both the quod sit and the quid sit That there is a Christ and what he is are both by divine manifestation So that whatsoever we have of Christ it must only be
Ghost is also requisite to Eternal Life appeareth in that we are baptized into his Name so that it 's a principle and Foundation to be instructed about the holy Ghost as well as the Father and the Sonne We reade that the Apostle doth in most of his Salutations pray for grace and peace from God the Father and the Lod Jesus Christ yet none may from thence gather the Spirit is excluded for 2 Cor. 1.13 14. There is the communion of the Spirit added to the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ 3. You may demand If the Knowledge of those things be enough to eternall Life what then needs the Ministry or Preaching to a man that knoweth these If a man have these is he not above Ordinances and the Ministry This indeed some have arrogantly thought But 1. There is no man knoweth as much about God and Christ as may be known The Apostle that was lifted up to the third heavens yet he saith We know but in part 1 Cor. 13. If Paul then knew but in part what must others do We see the Angels themselves desire to have the Mystery of Christ made more known to them Eph. 3. so that it 's a foolish conceit to think thou knowest enough already for though our knowledge shall be perfected in heaven yet even there we cannot know God as much as he is known for the infinite object cannot be comprehended by a finite faculty 2. Suppose thou couldst not grow in knowledge which yet is impossible yet the Ministry is necessary for thy heart and affections The devils know more then any man but there will is obdurate and hardened in wickednesse So thou maist have great knowledge and understanding yet thy heart may need much quickening much mollifying and for this end the Ministry is appointed 3 If thou didst not finde a need of them either for understanding or heart which yet is more impossible then the former yet God having appointed such a way thou art only for obedience sake and to testifie thy submission to God to do it Christ needed not to be baptized for he wanted not the grace signified viz. remission of sinnes Yet to shew his obedience he did it Adam though created in a state of integrity yet had a command of triall to manifest his obedience and so though never so perfect yet thou canst not be exempted from obedience to Gods commands Vse of Instruction to the full self-righteous man that is not burthened and loaded with the sence of his sinnes whatsoever knowledge thou maist have yet thou canst not know any thing in a saving manner about Christ Till thou be affected with thy misery and the remedy thou art not yet a knowing man in Christs School or to those who labour and are greatly affected with their sinne They know sin They know the Law They know the terrors of an angry God but they know not Christ Consider how Paal was affected herein he knew nothing but Christ crucified 2 Cor. 2.2 All things were accounted dung and drosse for the excellency of this knowledge Phil. 3.8 Consider Eternal life is as well in knowing of Christ as in knowing of sin or what duties God requireth of thee SERMON XIX Sheweth how a Godly Life though it merit no good is a Ground of Comfort at the hour of Death JOH 17.4 I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do IN this Verse our Saviour addeth a new argument for that Petition mention mentioned v. 1. Glorifie me Why because I have glorified thee on earth I have finished my work Now his work is done he expects his reward These words our Saviour doth not speak out of ostentation and boasting but to shew the order God appointed that by his sufferings when perfected he should enter into glory In the words we have Christs profession of the end he intended in all things I have glorified thee on earth 2. The manner how or the means by which I have finished the work thou gavest me to do I have glorified thee though Christ as God had all divine glory due to him yet as Mediatour in the state of humiliation so he was inferiour to the Father and in this sence he did glorifie him To glorifie is either when really that glory is exhibited which was not before and so God glorifieth us or else when we celebrate acknowledge and declare that glory which is already possessed and thus we glorifie God For when we glorifie God we adde nothing to him we do not make him more glorious then he is indeed We cannot advantage him but our selves by serving of him as a man by seeing doth not profit the Sun but himself nor the thirsty Traveller by drinking refresh the Fountain but himself Christ then being by the state of humiliation made lower then God yea lower then Angels had this purity of intention in all that he did and all that he suffered to glorifie God Q. If you say Was not the redemption and salvation of these the Father gave him his end how then is the glory of God his end A. The Answer is the ultimate and chief end is Gods glory The proxime and immediate was the salvation of man and therefore in respect of the chief end this is the manner or the means of glorifying of God and this is intended when he saith He had finished his work 2. Consider the restriction or limitation of this glorifying of God from the place where I have glorified thee on earth That is mentioned because here only on the earth was he to be in a state of debasement here only he was to work in heaven he was to receive his glory The Schoolmen use to call a man while he was in this life the way to heaven viator and when he is possessed of glory they call him comprehensor Now they say That Christ was both viator and comprehensor together but if they mean that in this life he possessed all that glory which he should have in heaven that is false for we see him here praying for it and other places God promiseth it as a reward of his obedience and sufferings Indeed the humane nature of Christ was alwaies united personally to the godhead but there was a suspension of that glorious influance and happinesse while on the earth 3. Consider the time when Christ makes this profession at the end of his daies when he is to go out of this world This was the ground of his confidence in his Petition Now although we are not able in the same degree and perfection to say as he did yet for the main we ought to be like him in this when Death comes when our daies are to be finished to be able to say Lord we have glorified thee we have finished the work thou gavest us to do and of this particular I shall treat Obs That it is a blessed and most happy thing to be able at the time of
the flesh which will cause great pain in the pulling out If therefore thou wouldst with much peace and joy make up thy account sit loose from all earthly things these are good but God is better to have God would be a gain to thee these are thorns and thorns in thy side they do not only choak our duty but our comforts 2. This will diminish thy comfort much though thou hast for the main been holy when too much formality and slothfulnesse hath been upon thee The want of zeal and fervency will greatly abate of thy joy Therefore the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. saith Give all diligence to make your calling sure as if he had said as long as you live slothfully and negligently you can never come to any assurance the more lazy and cold thou art the greater will thy fears and doubtings be Oh then let this be a goad in thy side to do what thou doest with all thy might love God serve God pray to God with all thy might I tell thee it will be a great grief and breaking of heart to think of all thy family duties and publique duties done in a meer customary way if thou doest them not as a dying man as a man going immediatly to give his account to God thou comest not up to thy duty Rev. 2. see how severe God is there to the Church I have something against thee because thy works are not perfect filled works They were good works but they were not filled with inward life and the substance of grace therefore he exhorts them to strengthen the things that were ready to die Oh then do thou pray that a constant fire may burn upon the altar of thy heart take heed of grievings and tormenting fears because thou wert so barren so superficiall and unhearty in the work of God though this will not break thy anchor yet it will tosse thy ship up and down very violently though it will not raze thy foundation yet it will cause great heartquakes and trembling within thee 3. This will much weaken though not quite destroy thy comfort when thou hast not been carefull and active to improve all the opportunities and prizes God put into thy hand To think this I might have done there was this excellent occasion and I neglected it These thoughts will be so many drops of gall in thy hony Therefore the Apostle presseth that duty to redeem the time Ephes 4.16 to take all the occasions and opportunities before thee We are commanded to learn of the unreasonable creatures that know their times and seasons Christs tears over Jerusalem Luk. 19.41 were because she did not know her day God doth give many gracious occasions which it may be will never be injoyed more Now as those that did not go out early to gather Manna could not have any afterwards though they would have laboured many hours and as those that did not step into the Pool while the Angel descended could not upon any terms have the benefit afterwards so it is here if thou take not the opportunity the season God offers it may never come again It 's true there is no man dying but may be greatly afflicted for mis-spent opportunities therefore you heard no man could put any confidence in the best improved life that can be only he is happy that hath lesse worms gnawing upon his conscience then others Oh then take this home with thee thou godly soul when Christ knocketh at the door there is an opportunity of doing or receiving good take heed with the Church thou do not make excuses and so make Christ depart thou maiest afterward search for him in the anguish of thy heart and not finde him 4. This will allay our comfortable account when though we have done the work of God yet we did it upon constraint and slavish fears not from filiall and voluntary principles As the heart hath been free and willing so commonly will thy joyes be When the people offered so willingly about the Temple how joyfull and glad is David blessing God Who are we that we should be able to offer thus willingly 1 Chron. 29.14 and Lord keep this alwaies in their hearts so that a ready willing minde God doth accept of and fils with consolation He hath not sowed sparingly and therefore shall not reap sparingly Wo is me saith Paul if I preach not the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.16 If I preach the Gospel willingly I have a reward but if not the dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me As if be had said If I preach the Gospel and do my duty from a ready willing minde I shall have an overflowing reward but if not there is a necessity laid upon me it is my duty I cannot put it off God will require his trust Oh then do not lose the comfort of all thy duties to do from constraint from fear because of a slavish conscience this will not produce that consolation which a voluntary free spirit will therefore as the Apostle spake concerning Ministers Heb. 3.17 people should obey them that they might give their account with joy and not with grief the same is to be applied by every one oh let me with delight and willingnesse do Gods work that I may lift up my head when death appeareth He that is haled to his duty will be haled to his account in neither will he have any joy I did such things indeed but it was meer fear of hell and torment I had no delight in God or approaches to him 5. Though we do the work God requireth yet so much insincerity and hypocrisie as there is so much will our comfort abate This I have done indeed this zeal this activity I had but it was not purely for God there were self-respects self-considerations and these will be so many thorns by thy roses if it had not been for such ingredients thy heart had been more serene and calm This was Pauls evidence not simply that he preached the Gospel but that he did it as of God and to God 2 Cor. 2. The Pharisees in all the duties they did could have no true comfort because their ends were nought Jehu and Judas these will give no comfortable account so that purity of intention and rectitude of aims will only comfort thee at thy death shouldst thou abound in the most Angelicall duties that are be admired of all yet if in all these things thou hast not been purely fixed thy hopes will fail insincerity is accompanied with sad doubts and uncertainties 6. Ignorance or a mistake in some things may make us give our account with great fear As 1. If we look for perfection in our lives being resolved like Rachel to mourn and take no comfort unless our life appear a garden to us without any weeds at all but that is reserved only for heaven If none might dye comfortably but he that hath lived perfectly then every man must go out of the world with despair
gates of hell fall to the ground The devil that had power over mens hearts and kept men captive in their lusts is wholly conquered Alas all the power done in temporal deliverances cannot be compared to this redemption It 's true the eye of faith and not of the body must admire this Lastly God is glorified in his Justice and that more then the heart of man can conceive for although in respect of us there be nothing but grace and all that we have and receive is mercy yet in respect of Christ there was exact justice God laid our sins upon him he became a Surety in our stead he undergoeth that wrath that curse that did belong to us God did not abate of any thing that Christ could suffer without sinne so that we have not the pardon of our sins upon any unjust and unlawful terms The Law and Justice cannot complain Gods justice then against sinne is abundantly seen in that though Christ was the only beloved of the Father yet he is not spared but must be made a curse and endure the wrath due unto us so that if a man would consider what arguments should keep him from sinne if he would be affected with Gods wrath against it let him look on Christ crucified oh how can it be that sinne should be so pleasing and delightfull unto thee which was so bitter and full of wrath to Christ Would not God spare his own Children but his justice must be satisfied through Christ then what may wicked men expect Are they able to conflict with Gods wrath Can they satisfie his justice This bloud of Christ though it speak better things then that of Abel to the godly yet it 's more terrible then that to the wicked for thereby it testifieth that God will have bloud he must have an atonement for sinne and that cannot be by thy sufferings though in hell Therefore Gods justice is more glorified by Christ then by the damned in hell for there they are never able completely to satisfie therefore they are kept in those chains to all Eternity The debt is never paid but Christ discharged all to the utmost and therefore the grave could not contain him Thus you see how in every respect God is glorified by our salvation through Christ Though to us a Son be given and to us a childe was born Isa 9.6 He was a Saviour and Mediatour in respect of us not himself yet all this did at last referre to Gods glory That was the Ocean in which this stream did empty it self Thus you have heard wherein God was glorified by Christ In the next place consider the end that Christ did propound in all his doings and sufferings I mean the ultimate and chief end not the proxime or immediate end and that also was to glorifie God his chiefest end was not either to glorifie himself or us these were subordinate ends 1. Not himself hence Joh. 8. I seek not my own glory but the glory of him that sent me It 's true he is said to have an eye to the end of his sufferings Heb. 11. and the Scripture makes his exaltation a consequent of his humiliation yet this was not chiefest in his thoughts The name and glory God gave him exalting him above every great thing was not principally regarded by him but the glory of God So that by this we see how precious the glory of God should be to us how deer in our esteem When we see Christ preferring it above his own glory The aim that Christ had did arise from that love and zeal he had to God for none can referre all things to Gods glory who do not love him above all things who do not give him the preheminency in every thing One said Fiat justitia ruat mundus Let the glory of God be exalted though the whole world be ruined thereby as love to God so purity of intentions and an excellent rectitude of the heart is requisite else self-love and self-respect will be more prevalent then Gods glory 2. As Christ did not principally intend his own glory so neither our happinesse but only as the means to glorifie God Because Gods glory is so deeply interessed in our salvation therefore did he procure it He did not glorifie God that we might be saved but he saved us that thereby God might be glorified yet this doth not at all derogate from the Love of Christ to us neither doth it make us the lesse beholding to him though he would not have saved us had it not been for Gods glory But hereby he demonstrated both his love to us and God at the same time he loved our souls and salvation yet not above the glory of God That would have been unlawfull Therefore at the same time he did demonstrate both his love to us and to God and yet kept the due order that ought to be in his love first to God and then next to us Now the ground and reason why Christ did referre all his obedience both active and passive to Gods glory is 1. Because God himself makes all his own actions to the glory of his Name The end of Creation of Redemption of Christs coming into the world All these were ordered by God for his own glory so that as the work was imposed on Christ which he was to aim at was also required by God Had it been possible for we may suppose impossibilities for illustration sake for Christ to have procured our salvation for other ends then to glorifie God it had been sinne in him for if God be so jealous of his glory that he will not have it attributed to any other beside himself how much would his jealousie have been provoked if this matter wherein his glory is most visible should have been given to any other Gods glory then is the supreme and universal end to which all are to subordinate themselves 2. The glory of God is more noble and hath greater worth in it then any thing else Therefore that which is most noble must be the end as the lesse noble the means Seeing then the glory of God is of infinite excellency even like God himself no wonder if Christ did referre our Salvation to that most high end and by this we are to see that it 's our duty to prize the glory of God above our salvation for our salvation is but the good of a creature but the glory of God is infinite even as God himself We are to judge of and rejoice in the glory of God as more excellent then our own happinesse yet this is not so to be understood as if a man were to be willing to be damned that God might be honoured For it 's our duty to will our salvation we are to seek for immortality and glory and Rom. 2 It 's not lawfull to be willing absolutely for Paul spake conditionally I could wish to be separated from the presence of God If it be not lawfully to will our bodily
degrees and subjective perfection also yet Cursed is he that doth not continue therein Gal. 3.10 as you see Adam did not but Christ from the beginning to the end of his daies held it out yea his love did most appear at the later end for then was the greatest and hardest parts of his work to undergo but though in all that reproach contempt and scorn yet he was not weary he did not give over his work he did not fail or faint in the later end Thus Christ was our David fighting against Goliah and in his conquest we did overcome Lastly He so finished it that he hath left nothing to be done either by Angels or men in that way and kinde as he did Therefore all these doctrines that maintain free-will that hold the mediation and intercession of Saints in heaven that maintain merits and satisfactions all these blaspheam the sufficiency of Christ and say Christ hath not finished his work for either Christ was a totall and perfect Mediator or else a partiall if a totall and perfect then there needeth no more one Sun is sufficient all things added are superfluous if a partiall Mediatour then he did not finish his work then he did it by halves and so Angels and Men are to share with him in his glory It 's true they have many distinctions to mince the matter but these fig-leaves cannot cover Adams nakednesse and it 's made the sinful property of man fallen to seek out many inventions God made man upright but they have sought â—ut many inventions Eccl. 7.29 They have many colours and pretences many distinctions and excuses to cover their sins with But you will say If Christ hath done all and we are to doe nothing then what need we be diligent and zealous in the waies of godlinesse Sin or not sin it will be all one Christ hath done all therefore we may eat and drink and rise up to all excesse of riot No that is a Non sequitur For our duties are not required to that end which Christs was but yet they are necessarily commanded for other ends Though Christ did work and finish his work yet thou must work and endeavour to finish thy work too But how It 's good to understand this for here Popery and the true Religion part here they oppose one another We pleade the necessity the presence the command of good and holy works as well as they only we differ in the end They presse them for such an end as Christ did his work for us for merit for justification for our salvation This we say is to derogate from Christ This is to make Christ of no effect whosoever repents beleeveth doth any holy duty for this end is guilty of spiritual Idolatry he maketh another Christ to himself besides the true Christ but then there are other ends for which we do these duties partly because God hath commanded them as the way to walk in if ever we will be saved so that though our holy life deserve not heaven yet our wicked and ungodly life deserveth hell and then partly to glorifie God and to testifie our thankfulnesse and love to him yea there is an inseparable connexion between a man interested in Christ and a holy life as there is in the fire with heat and light In the next place Consider the properties of this work Christ â—â—â—nished And 1. It was a work of infinite value and worth whatsoever Christ did it had a transcendent excellency because he was God as well as man so that we are not to consider those works he did as of a meer man though never so holy but as one of a divine nature 2. They were Mediatory works all that he did and suffered tended to a propitiation and reconciliation with God so that as the nature of them was infinite so the end of them was precious and admirable what should man have done if Christ had not done thus 3. It was not only his work but our work Alas Christ was not obliged to these duties for his own sake but it was for our sake so that the godly with great affection may consider of these works of Christ for they concern thee They are our works both impetrativè they merit for us they procure good for us and imputativè we are made the righteousnesse of God as our sins were accounted his 4. The necessity of this working and working so perfectly and that doth appear from the justice of God and purity of the Law and partly from our impotency from the justice of God for that being infinite nothing could satisfie him but what was of infinite worth It would have been injustice in God to have given us heaven otherwise and then partly from the holinesse of the Law that admits of no works but perfect pure and holy Therefore to say God accepts of imperfect holinesse and accounts that as compleat which is not so is to attribute false judgement unto God and lastly our own impotency proclaimeth the necessity of Christs perfection for take us as we are in our selves so we are nothing but sin and a curse In stead of working Gods work we do the devils and take us as regenerated then though we be partakers of Gods grace yet the remnant of corruption within us doth staine and infect all that we do Lastly Here is the glorious visibility of Christs perfect working in his resurrection ascension and now sitting at the right hand of God in glory which could not have been had not Christ perfected his work for what is the reason the devils and damned in hell are detained to Eternity in those prisons of darknesse Is it not because of their insufficiency to perfect their sufferings to make them adequate to Gods justice to bring as great glory to God as ever sin did evil or dishonour In that therefore Christ hath overcome the grave and the bonds of death we have an infallible evidence of his perfect working Vse of Instruction how dangerous all those doctrines are which proclaim free-will merit under any notion whatsoever As they give that to man which belongs not to him so they take that from Christ which is due yet this is a most natural sin in all either in whole or in part to take off from Christ not to be beholding to him only God hath commanded us to come out of our sins by repentance and our own works by faith and the Apostle doth not only exclude sins but even working also from Abrahams Justification Rom. 4. There is a danger of being a Pharisee when thou ceasest being a Publican Vse 2. of great Consolation to the broken-hearted sinner This is the glad tidings of the Gospel to those who sit under the sentence of eternal death Christs works will abundantly answer all the temptations about thy own works Two things lie like two Mountains upon the godly The weakness of their graces and the strength of their corruptions If
that praier doth not draw God to us but our hearts to God In our earnest Petitions we do not bring Gods will to ours but ours to him Praier is a golden chain that reacheth from heaven to earth and although we think to move God to us yet we move our selves to him as the Ship that is fastened with the Cable doth not bring the haven to it but it 's self to the haven so that the change praier makes is not on God but on our selves 6. Praier is necessary because hereby Faith is drawn out in all the choice and excellent effects of it Praier without faith is like the musicall Instrument without an hand to make a sound melodious It 's like a picture without life but of this more in the qualifications of a praier The demand then may be What is that Praier and how must it be accomplished that is a fruitful Praier such a praier as will bring about what we desire And 1. It must be the praier of a righteous man such who washeth himself from his sinnes for sinnes they have a tongue and they cry for vengeance and will quickly cry louder then our praiers Hence a wicked mans praier is said to be an abomination to the Lord Pro. 28.9 and the blinde man could see and say this God heareth not the praiers of a sinner There is a twofold sinner a sinner wilfully going on in his wickednesse and such God will not hear but then there is a sinner praying mourning and repenting as the Publican who said Lord be mercifull to me a sinner and such sins God doth hear Nay all men are sinners in this respect and thus God should hear no praier at all if he did not hear such But for other kinde of sins of which all places are full those God doth loath and their duties David hath expressed it fully If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me Psa 66.18 Oh then look to thy self and thy life when thou goest to pray If the tongue that praieth be a cursing swearing tongue If the eyes lifted up to heaven be full of wantonnesse and adultery If the hands held out towards heaven be full of violence fraud and injustice God is of purer eyes then to behold such 2. They must be fervent zealous praiers The effectual fervent praier of a righteous man availeth much Jam. 5. He must be righteous but many a righteous godly mans praier may have no successe if it be full of dulnesse distractions and lukewarmnesse Therefore it must be fervent We must be Jacobs wrestling with God ere we can be Israels prevailing with God Praier is compared to Incense and it 's the fruit of Gods Spirit which is compared to fire Rom. 8. They are said to be groans unutterable It 's not then enough to pray unlesse it be fervently and zealously otherwise they are like a Bird without wings or a Messenger without feet 5. They must be beleeving praiers Let him ask in faith nothing doubting For he that doubteth is to conclude he shall not receive any thing in spiritual things that are necessary our faith is to be absolute in other things our fiducial faith is to be guided by our doctrinal faith so farre as those things make for our good and Gods glory our faith is to conclude of them This is the grace that crowneth our praiers This grace God highly honoureth insomuch that Without faith it 's said it's impossible to please God Heb. 11. Now though presumption be a weed that comes up of it self yet Faith is a gift of Gods own planting and great opposition great difficulty there is to put this forth Lastly It must be persevering and constant Praier our Saviour spake that Parable of the unjust Judge that we should pray incessantly not give God over till we obtain the blessing not to be discouraged though we meet with many delaies and great discouragements like that Woman of Canaan whose Praiers had an holy kinde of impudency and pertinacy in this to take no deniall Vse of Exhortation To be a people much in praier that it may be said of thee as of Paul Behold he praieth and of thy house as of Gods Temple an house of Praier Oh what shall those prophane persons and prophane Families expect but Gods dreadfull vengeance who rise and go to bed without such fervent zealous praiers never expect good from that man or Family that is not tender and constant in this duty he is like a Tree in the barren Wildernesse that cannot bring forth any fruit and do not say I have no time to pray this and that businesse puts it out Wouldst thou have time to receive mercies from God and no time to go by praier to God Shall the Sluggard sit still neither plow or sow or take pains and yet expect his ground should yeeld a plentiful crop oh what hope would there be that God would blesse the Ministry work conversion by it If ye were more diligent in this duty But how greatly is it neglected by most and those that do it how formall and customary are they so that it brings no good at all to the soul Think of these things more and tremble under them SERMON XXVI Of Heavenly Glory as opposed to Earthly And how the hopes thereof earnestly sought and prayed for will comfort a man against the fear and in the midst of all Trials and Afflictions JOH 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was THE next thing in order to be pursued is the nature of that glory which Christ praied for For Christ being near the bitterest part of his Cross and seeing nothing but gall for him to drink he comforteth and encourageth himself with that glory which is provided for him and this makes him so earnest in praier for it where by the way we may see the arrogant presumption of those who hold they are above Praier They will give thanks to God as Angels do but their perfection is such that they need not present Petitions in Praier what a Diabolical delusion is this for Christ himself though he confessed no sinne in Praier yet was not above Petitions as we see in this Chapter and if it were granted which cannot be that they were so pure as to be without sinne yet they have not as yet glorified bodies and therefore for that glory in heaven they ought to pray but why do we meddle with these who indeed need praier most and that to see themselves deluded and to be in a farre more dangerous estate then many other persons We come 1. to the description of this glory praied for from the nature or inherent property of it It 's a glory with Gods own self Glorifie me with thy own self This as you heard is spoken partly oppositely to humane glory and the honour of the world for as Christ despised the shame and was not
he plainly feeleth God working in him The wicked man knoweth God by the creatures and his works abroad but the godly knoweth him by the new creature and works of grace upon his heart and this is the most excellent knowledge when he knoweth God by the regeneration and sanctification of his nature by his heavenly and gracious quicknings to holy duties and against sinne If in regard of out naturall life we live and move and have our being in God how much more in our supernatural life Those know God indeed that feel those divine workings upon their souls As Job before when God had humbled him said I have heard of thee by the ear but now my eye seeth thee Job 42.5 So saith the godly I have heard many Sermons of God but I never felt him till now or as the Queen of Sheba who had heard much of the fame of Solomon but when she came to be an eye-witnesse of it then she was astonished and judged all her former apprehensions nothing Thus it is with the truly sanctified though you tell him what good parts what Scripture understanding what abilities in duties he had Oh saith he all that time I did not know God I never knew him till these inward workings were upon me I spoke of him as a man will do of some strange Countrey he had often heard of but never saw Argum. 5 5. The true godly man only knoweth God because he only hath communion and fellowship with him he only is admitted into Gods presence All wicked men though never so knowing are at a great distance from God They know not the light of his countenance what it is to have the assurance of his favour what to have those experimental sweetnesses of heart which flow from the enjoying of him Therefore it s added in that of Joh. 18. I will manifest my self to him and come and sup with him that is God will give us a joyfull chearfull familiar fellowship with himself he will make known himself as Joseph did at last to his brethren God draweth nigh to them and they to God and this indeed is a choice way of knowing of God when we know what it is to have his love shed in our hearts when we hear God speaking peace to us when it 's not duties nor any religious performance but God himself that the heart partakes of Thus the Psalmist inviteth to taste and see how good God is Psa 34.8 Oh hast thou ever had this tasting and seeing then thou knowest God comfortably Now the ground of all this is because obedience love and fear are the end of all knowledge therefore that knowledge which doth not obtain its end is no knowledge and hence the Scripture saith If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Joh. 13.17 and generally the Scripture describeth wicked men by this that they know not God as Paul said of the Jews If they had known Christ to be the God of glory they would never have crucified him 1 Cor. 2.5 Thus did men know God as they ought they could not think and speak or live as they do Vse Rest not in any kinde of knowledge about God till it hath these effects on thee Never judge thy self to know any thing of Religion till it hath thus transformed thee till it be the acknowledgement of truth after godlinesse but alas where are the persons where is the Family where are the people that know God The ungodliness they live in proclaim they know no such divine Majesty Oh consider that God knoweth not thee likewise with a knowledge of approbation of omniscience he doth and that will be thy confusion but not of complacency at the day of judgement he will say Depart I know you not Oh that we were such of whom it may be said Their obedience their pure and holy life their delight and acquaintance with God manifests they know God and then you will not die with such terrour with such fear I go to him I have known I go not to an unknown God SERMON XXX The Great End of the Ministery And what should be the end of both Ministers and people in their Preaching and hearing JOH 17.6 I have manifested thy Name to as many as thou hast given me out of the world WE have considered the action or efficacy of the person or efficient spoken of in the Text We now come to consider the person himself and that is Christ who saith of himself I have manifested thy Name Christ speaks in this as he is the great Prophet and chief Shepherd of our souls for being intrusted with this office he did faithfully discharge it whoever reads over Christs life and seeth how laborious and diligent he was to bring men to the knowledge of God and to save their souls must needs say The Lion of the Tribe of Judah went up and down more earnestly to save then the roaring Lion of hell is busie to destroy Hence Joh. 4. while he is emploied to bring home but one poor Sheep that was gone astray the Woman of Samaria he is so earnest in it that he forgets to eat his bread and tels them his meat and drink was to do his Fathers will which was to declare the truth of God and invite sinners to come in unto him so then we see here an excellent President for all the Ministers of the Gospel to follow As Christ was wholly in this to make people know God so ought they to be In Christs works of his Mediatorship and of his Miracles we may not imitate him we cannot but in this of his labour and tender love to mens souls we are bound to follow him Obs That the end of the Ministry and Ministers should be to bring people to the knowledge of God to the saving knowledge of Christ Thus Paul exceeded the Heathen Hercules in his manifold labours to this purpose especially see what a divine profession he makes to them of Ephisus Act. 20.26 27. I take you to record this day that I am pure from the bloud of all men Here we see there is a soul-murder as well as a body and the Ministers of the Gospel are to keep themselves pure from that for if the bloud of Abels body crieth aloud what outcries will the bloud of peoples souls make Now Paul kept himself thus pure by declaring unto them all the Counsell of God so that if we would doe our duty we must be Lights shining upon the understandings of men that they may know beleeve in and obey God And so Paul again at large 1 The. 2. There his very heart flameth out into affectionate words for their salvation The end then of our Preaching and of your hearing should be to have God manifested to your souls how apt are both Ministers and people to fail of this great and necessary end To open the doctrine you may take notice that as the Logicians speak of a twofold end Finis operis and
say Argumentum pessimi turba Again we are apt to judge of duty by our interest and engagements as our Education Safety and Profits leade us Whereas we should say to our hearts in such cases as Christ to Peter Get thee behinde me Satan We come to the second Observation the object of Obedience is described in the plural number Thy words thou hast given me They did not neglect or break any wilfully They looked upon all as precious gold wherein the least Oâ—â—e is not to be lost Obs That it 's the property of godly men to have a respect to all Gods Word to look to all his commands Herods and Pharaohs they will do some things but Davids and Josiahs they only will regard all and indeed doing many things unlesse all will not save There is a leak in the Ship that will overthrow all This one spark will set all on fire as David implieth Psa 119. Then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandments That man who because he hath done many things looketh for heaven will be in dreadful confusion when he shall see one sin able to shut the door of heaven against him and mark the expression when I have respect he doth not say obey but have respect That doth imply besides the outward obedience an inward awe and reverentiall eye towards every duty God requireth Thus James also doth severely reprove this partiall mutilated obedience and pronounceth that heavy doom He that breaketh one is guilty of all Jam. 2.11 viz. because of the vinculum formale the authority of God which is in one as well as in another To improve this consider First That even the godly through Ignorance upon their mindes or some importunate temptation may be very diligent in some commands and yet not observe others and this may be either from ignorance or provoking temptations from Ignorance such may the education of the godly be or they may live in such dark times wherein errour is common and none make any question of it and then they may continue in the omission of many duties So some excuse the Patriarcks in their Polygamy Though say they it was an expresse sinne against the first Institution of Marriage yet custome and Tradition had taken away the sence of sinning and so in the time of many good Kings who made an exact Reformation yet the high places were not taken away there was either non-attendance or sinful connivance at that and in the Infancy of the Christian Church how many were so weak as not to discern their Christian Liberty but placed much obedience in the observation of Jewish rites and Ceremonies And thus also there may be some provoking violent temptations The Godly though they have an universal Inclination to Gods will yet are hurried aside David was overtaken with Adultery though his heart was sincere towards all the whole Law of God We distinguish then between temptations and an habituall custome in any sinne The godly man may by the former be driven out of his faith not by the latter so that even then there remaineth an inward seed that doth virtually contain the commands of God and therefore is called the Law of God written in their hearts Secondly In the godly we are again to distinguish between grosse sins such as Tertullian saith waste the conscience And those Reliques of corruption which Austin saith are of daily incursion upon us The one is a camel the other is a gnat comparatively Now the godly do so keep all Gods commands that they seldom or never to be sure not wilfully and habitually fall into these deep and foul pits But as for the latter we see by Pauls complaint they have not a full conquest over them Rom. 7. They may be possessors of Canaan though they have some Jebusites alive to humble them and keep them low Thirdly Though the godly have a respect to all Gods Commadements yet they acknowledge an order amongst the commands they know some are greater and others lesse And therefore when there cometh an indispensable omission of one they passe by the least and the contrary to this is grand hypocrisie which our Saviour doth often condemn in the Pharisees They omitted the great things of the Law and Judgement and Mercy but were very diligent in the inferiour things Saul lost both a temporall and spirituall Kingdom in this respect For Samuell tels him Obedience was better then Sacrifice 1 Sam. 15.22 and Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft There is the great command of loving God with all our heart and soul to which all others must bow Fourthly We must alwaies distinguish between the Integrity of parts of our obedience and the intension of degrees The godly though they reach to the former yet not to the latter It 's true by what reason we do any command in the integrity of it we are bound to the perfection of it But God giveth not such a measure of grace in this life It 's said of David and Zachary with his Wife that they walked in all the Commandments of God Yet that cannot be understood perfectly for how often did David fail and Zachary for his unbelief was stricken dumb There is no such thing as a Popish perfection The Fathers abhorred it our perfection is to acknowledge our imperfection and then the Commandements are by Gods grace accounted done when what is not done is forgiven and pardoned These things premised let us consider why the godly are obedient to Gods commands they dare not omit known duties or commit known sins Reasons 1 First Because the principle of Regeneration and seed of grace is universall It doth seminally contain all kindes and parts of grace in it As all seeds even of an Oak or the tallest Trees though never so little yet virtually contain all those great branches and let them have time to grow they will diffuse themselves into a vast compasse Grace is the Image of God and that inferreth a resemblance in lineaments and parts an hand or a foot is not an Image So then seeing that in Regeneration there is infused the habit or principles of all grace no wonder if there be an Inclination to all yet not so but that they may be carried out more readily and willing'y to some rather then other even as though all men by reason of original corruption have a Fountain of all wickednesse yet one may be carried out more propensely to one sinne rather then another The Sea may break out of one bank sooner then in another Reasons 2 Secondly There is the same authority forbidding or commanding in all As the Apostle James argueth Jam. 2. He that said Thou shalt not do thus said also Thou shalt not do thus If therefore the same God put forth his authority in every Command Who are thou that darest omit one and not another Reasons 3 Thirdly The motive is the same For every sinne because it's sinne and a dishonour to
God draweth him out to hate it and in duties good because it 's good doth move him Now the least sinne is sinne and we kill young Serpents as well as old ones and the least good is acceptable to God and he will reward it Reasons 4 Lastly In respect of the privative part of the punishment of sinne all are equall which is the losse of God and Heaven The least sinne depriveth of the happy Vision of God as well as the greatest so that in this sence we may say there is no little sinne no more then there is a little God and so likewise for the good of any duty The least shall have heaven as well as the greatest though not such degrees Even a cup of cold water doth not lose its reward Mat. 10.42 Vse To discover that Hypocrisie and falshood in many men some sins they avoid others again they embrace Is not all sinne poison Is there any good sinne Were thy heart sound those beloved and customary sins of thine could have no more welcome in thy heart then toads in thy bosome SERMON XXXVII Sheweth That Gods People are ready and willing in Obedience Whence it is that they are so Tending to rouse men up from dulnesse and Formality in Gods service JOH 17.8 For I have given them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them THere remaineth two things more considerable in the description of the Disciples Obedience The next thing to be considered is their readinesse and willingnesse implied in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They did not cavill or dispute They did not draw back or maliciously oppose but they were like melted wax ready to receive any impression like white paper whereon Gods Will and Law might be immediatly written and indeed if you observe the Disciples all along from their first call to this present time there appeared much readinesse in them Christ did no sooner speak the word commanding them to follow him but immediatly they leave all and obey though it was so much to their outward disadvantage though it was to fall in the Whales mouth yet they readily resign themselves and although sometimes they shewed dulnesse to beleeve and unwillingnesse in his service yet our Saviour excuseth it saying The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and certainly had there not been a ready free spirit in the Disciples to take Christ above all and to cleave to him only they could never have devoured these troubles with so much patience as they did Obs That it 's a sure character and property of the children of God to be a willing ready people in obedience They are not as hypocrites kept from sinne by constraint meerly from a principle of fear within but Psa 110. They are willingnesses in the day of Gods power To explain this a little First There may be the presence of dulnesse and unwillingnesse sometimes in the Children of God but this is not reigning nor is it habitually consented to but resisted and with much agony praied against There is no garden but hath some of this weed in it No gold but some of this drosse No godly man but now and then hath wearisomnesse and unwillingnesse to holy duties seizing upon him Thus we reade the Church when Christ knocked at the door though he had stood all night and his locks were wet with the dew yet the Church out of a dull sluggish humour doth refuse to open to him Cant. 5.2 3. So Rev. 2. There the Church is reproved for suffering her graces to decay and that her duties were not filled up with fervency and solidity yea we may reade of the Church complaining of this slothfulnesse and coldnesse when she said Draw us and we will run after thee Cant. 1.4 And at another time Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear Isa 63.17 So that it 's too manifest the people of God have much coldnesse and negligence in them What is that which fils their hearts with so many complaints but this what makes them so full of fears and doubts about their spiritual condition Is it not want of life vigour and willingnesse Oh they finde their hearts can take delight and be willingly drawn out in earthly affairs but they are like so many lumps of earth in heavenly things when yet there is farre more excellency worth and dignity in holy things then in all the whole world to draw out the heart so then let the godly for their comfort distinguish between the presence of unwillingnesse and the power of it Between unwillingnesse in the command and power over the soul and the reluctancy and striving against it The Apostle speaketh generally of sinne Let it not reign in your mortal bodies Rom. 7. Non dixit non sit sed ne regret This stumbling-block removed let us consider why the people of God must needs be so willing and ready in their obedience And first The sence of their guilt and all the misery sinne hath brought upon them puts them into a melting yeelding frame while mens hearts are hardened and they are not apprehensive of the damnable estate they are in while they are not in the fire of Gods displeasure they are stubborn and untractable but when they are kindely humbled for sin then they will do anything Thus Paul He that was mad in his oppositions against Christ no sooner did the Lord touch his heart with the sense of his sins but he crieth out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Thus David when the Lord had humbled him and used afflictions for his sinne see how humbly and obediently he speaks If he say he hath no delight in me behold here I am let him do what he pleaseth 2 Sam. 15.26 and the Church Mic. 7. I will hear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Nothing then will so humble and mollifie the heart to make a man do and be any thing as a deep sence of sinne Thus the cold hard Iron is put into the fire and it may be beaten into any shape Secondly As the sence of sinne so the sence of Gods goodnesse and grace in being reconciled notwithstanding all our provocations doth much more enlarge the heart to thankefulnesse and obedience The love of Christ saith Paul constraineth us We cannot hold we cannot keep in as you may see David upon the apprehension of Gods goodnesse to him resolving to take the cup of salvation and to praise God in the great Congregation Psa 116.13 Gospel grace doth not in a filiall spirit harden and make wanton but doth more soften and enflame to an active obedience This made Paul run like the Sunne in the Firmament You see it 's the grace of God which lieth kindling and warming of him This is like the Spirit in Ezechiels wheels the dejected unbeleeving soul is not so readily obedient An Evangelical frame of heart assured of Gods love carrieth out to filiall fruitful
also in Divinity our own Righteousnesse our own good thoughts they cleave so close to us and so we are not able to put forth any spirituall sence But as even the Ethiopians think the flattest nose and the blackest colour to be the best beauty and the Persians the contrary and all because that they are so It 's a National property So it is here because our heart is ours our works ours our duties ours therefore we think them good and so put secret hopes therein and though in this high bloudy sinne yet our Consciences do not cannot smite us therefore fear Security more then all despair and trouble of Conscience for this is felt and discovered and thereby the better prevented but the other is a secret Impostume never manifesting it self but when immediatly killing 2. As it is a secret sinne hardly perceived so it 's a deep radicated one It 's our very nature and essence almost You see by these many disputes that Paul had against those who would joyn the works of the Law with the Lord Christ that it is not only imbred in us to put confidence in them but even to pleade for it and to justifie this doctrine and this was not only amongst the unbelieving Jews but even such as did acknowledge Christ also The danger therefore is that when we can cast away other sinnes yet this will cleave the faster to us The more we abstain from iniquities the more trust we are apt to put in our selves This our Saviour urged when he said unlesse a man become like a little childe he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 18.4 And when he spake a Parable to this purpose that when we had done all we should say we were unprofitable Servants Oh then take heed of this sweet poison within thee Do not say within thy heart Such and such sinnes I have left I am none of the prophane ones of the world I have a constant care about all holy duties for if thy heart be hereby confident in these things it is Idolatry Though it be more subtle yet he that fals down before a stock or stone and worshipeth Idols is no greater an Idolater then thou art for thou makest thy self a Saviour and saist of thy duties as they did of the golden Calf These are the Gods that brought thee out of Egypt 3 This trusting in our own Righteousnesse and not in Christ solely is a Spirituall sin It 's a sicknesse not of the body but of the soul and so the greater sinne All sinnes that are immediatly subjected in the soul have the greater guilt and defilement ceteris paribus more then any bodily sinnes As the Schoolmens Rule is The sinnes of the Spirit are maioris reatus but bodily sinnes maioris infamiae We see it in the Devils Their sinnes are wholly sinnes of the Spirit and are therefore called vnclean spirits yet they are more sinfull then men Therefore they are called spirituall wickednesses in high places Eph. 6. Though then these sinnes of spirituall pride and secret confidence in our selves do not make a noise in the world and bring reproach as bodily sinnes doe yet in other respects they may be of a crimson colour 〈◊〉 â—loudy aggravation They are a corruption of the best and choicest part â—hin thee and therefore look not only to outward but inward heart-sins Lastly The grievousnesse of this sinne doth appear in the immediate contrariety and opposition it hath to Christ and the Gospel of grace There is no sinne doth so formally and immediatly reject Christ as a Mediatour as this self-fulnesse and self-righteousnesse as we may see by our Saviour and the Pharisees That which kept them from Christ was their self-justification They thought they had a Righteousnesse of their own which made our Saviour call them Blessed that did hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse That were heavy laden and burthened And indeed Reason will tell us that a false Righteousnesse set up against the true is more dangerous then open and plain sinnes and Christ must needs be more jealous of such a person Seeing therefore that God requireth a Righteousnesse there must be a Righteousnesse procured and this of Christs can onely be satisfactory it is an high sinne to set up thy Absalom King instead of this David Thou dost in effect say All that Christ did it was needlesse it was in vain for thou hast a Righteousnesse of thy own works thou wilt trust to and never think to wash thy self from this sinne because by thy words thou speakest the clean contrary There is none that professeth Christ will grosly and palpably own his works for Justification but there is an inward secret tickling of heart and confidence because of them so that God onely can charge this sinne upon men for he knoweth and trieth the hearts and reins of men But thus you will say If this Self-righteousnesse and trusting in what we doe be in some sence worse then all the grosse sinnes that are committed how should we become convinced of it and so forsake it Oh that we could tell how to get this Ivy from cleaving thus to us lest it consume all that is within us Now the ready and onely way for a man to be driven out of this self-righteousnesse is First Seriously convince and inform thy Judgement of that Originall pollution which cleaveth to thee as soon as ever thou hast a Being Remember those place In iniquity did my Mother conceive me Psal 51. The Imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are onely evil and that continuly Gen. 6. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean We are by nature the Children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Oh the true apprehension of this loathsome contagion will quickly make us cry out of our selves and any thing that is ours Secondly Remember the purity and perfection of the Law what it is that requireth even the perfect actings of all grace so that if there be wanting but one duty yea one degree of grace The Law rejects all and curseth all There is no way but Hell and eternal damnation Nâ—â— the knowledge of this must needs make a man cry out of himself because he fails in all things Thirdly Consider the examples of those that have been most holy and godly how still they would go out of themselves They would not have their own life to be the Rule to be justified by David that is so highly commended and who breaths out such divine affections to God 〈◊〉 saith If thou enter into Judgement with thy Servant who can be Justified Psal 133. Oh it 's not for us to stand upon our works and duties when God cals to account and Job Though he pleadeâ— his Integrity yet he humbled himself under his imperfections comparatively to God Paul likewise would not be found in his own Righteousnesse It would be shame to 〈◊〉 â—â—d guilt to him to be found so Fourthly The reliques and remainders of corruption still cleave to us
the Mother of Austin by her daily praiers was a means of converting Austin So that we may say of the ungodly as Samuel concerning the people of Israel though a stubborn and wicked Nation God forbid I should cease to pray for you And indeed if it be our duty to admonish and exhort others and with much patience to endure if it be possible to bring them out of the snares of sinne no doubt we are to pray that God would blesse such Reproofs That he would prepare the heart to receive them And again the very miserable and wretched estate they are in through sinne makes them fit Objects of praier There is never a prophane man that walloweth in his lusts blessing himself in his hearts desire but he is an Object of great pity Even as mad men that think themselves Great Persons when they are bound up in chains Seeing therefore they lie under such great misery and they feel not this They pity not nor pray for themselves This should make us that can pray to commend their estate to God And the rather because as Preaching of the Word so Praier is appointed as a means of Conversion but by the Word Ask and ye shall receive So that if I ask for Conversion If I pray for the Reformation of another my praier may be the Execution of Gods Election It 's by praier that God will make good this promise Oh how comfortable will it be to see thee a Father answered in praier for the conversion of thy Children That they are the Fruit of thy Praiers So likewise what rejoycing is it to a Minister when not onely his preaching but his praying for his people is answered That it is not all our duty to preach to you but pray for you as Christ did And what a joy is it if we see God answering our praiers in the conversion and reforming of one man It 's true there are some wicked men so highly prophane and so wilfully wicked that they greatly cool the heart of a godly man in Praier It 's said the Church shut Julian out of her praiers and there could not a greater and more sorer judgement befall him for that was futuri judicii prejudicium Vse 1. Is Praier thus hopefull in the behalf of the godly then this should teach the godly to be more fervent and constant in this duty for one another Paul though so eminent in office and graces yet again and again desireth the Churches praiers and he promiseth his praiers for them He informeth Philemon in particular that he makes mention of him in his praiers alwaies Thus you see what the godly have been used to do If David Psal 119.4 when his Enemies reviled him and reproached him yet he gave himself to Praier and humbled himself in Sackcloth for them what then would he do for those that were godly Psal 72. It 's made a great blessing unto Solomon that praier shall be made for him and the fervent Praier of a righteous man prevaileth much Jam. 5.16 If so why do we not stir up our selves more to this duty The Apostle James biddeth us confesse our sinnes and pray for one another in the same place Shall Christ pray for all his and wilt not thou Do not say It 's enough to pray in the general for Gods Church but thou art in particular to pray for others as their conditions and necessities require be moved hereunto First From the common body and fellowship that ye are in The Scripture delights to resemble the Communion of the Church under the similitude of a body to shew how near and conjoyned they are together If one member suffer shall not the Tongue pray for it If any part of thy own body be pained and grieved how much doth it affect thee thou shouldst have the same affections to those that are of the body of Christ Secondly Praiers are an instituted help and means to procure the good of others so that it 's a duty you owe Phil. 1.19 Paul trusted that all the opposition he had would turn to good by their praiers So then the afflictions the mercies that others are under prove good by Praier Oh how apt is one to consume another They are proud under such mercies They are impatient under such afflictions but thou that art thus apt to finde fault dost thou or hast thou praied for them It may be they are no better because thou hast not done thy duty Thou little thinkest how near their sinnes may come to thee Not that we are bound to mention by Name every godly man for that is infinite but as occasion draweth thee out and thou art desired making as much Conscience of praier for others as a debt thou owest or as a pledge thou art to restore Thirdly Fervent Praier for one another will take away all differences all jealousies and suspicions it will make the Godly of one heart and one minde Oh who can bewail the divisions of Jacob Not the garments but the body of Christ is now rent In former times it was said Behold how they love one another how they call one another Brethren but now what differences in opinion and other carnal contentions There is no Love and communion and there is no greater cause then neglect of this duty and it 's also an excellent remedy against all discontents Art thou apt to receive unkindnesses To think this or that hard dealing Go and pray for that man Oh how immediatly will it quiet those windes and waves Vse of Admonition To wicked men to avoid all impiety if not for other Reasons yet for this it makes other mens praiers the lesse effectuall It may be though thou art so vile and naught thou hast a godly Father or a godly Friend praying for thee Though thou art so ungodly thou hast a godly Minister praying for thee Oh do not raise so great a gulf between Heaven and their praiers as thy sinnes are When Lazarus was dead and buried in the grave Mary giveth it over as a desperate case If thou hadst been here he had not died saith she So are we apt to say Lord Praier for such before they come to be thus obstinate before they bave rebelled so much against the Light might have been hopeful But now what hope is there Take heed thou go not so far in sinning that God saith Pray no more for this man SERMON XLII The Excellency and Efficacy of Christs Mediatory Prayer Set forth in many Aggravations of it for the Consolation of the Godly JOH 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world THE Subject of Christs Praier is here described First By the Relative particle them and although he speak strictly of his Disciples yet in the end of this Chapter he joyneth all Beleevers unto them So that the 2d Observation is That all the Children of God are under Christs Mediatory Praier Now the Children of God which are also called his Sheep are of two sorts 1. Those
thou forsaken me If the green Tree burn thus what shall the dry do For thee therefore to think by thy tears and Repentance to expiate thy sinne is wholly to mistake the necessity of Christ a Mediatour This is to put an Atlas his burthen upon a Pigmies shoulder See what the weight of sin did upon Cain and Judas though they would have given a world yet they could not obtain the lest drop of water to ease their spirits but like Dives were tormented in hell while here on earth Oh then that wicked men would consider more they lay load upon load but who at last shall take it off Thou thinkest not that though sin for the present be sweet yet it hath an eternal sting with it What wilt thou do when at last thou shalt cry out with Cain My sinne is greater then I can bear Lastly The last and utmost step of Gods mercy to us is glorification and making of us happy for ever When he hath done this there remaineth no more to be done and even this Crown of Glory is put upon our heads because of grace Rom. 6.23 The gift of God is Eternal Life And Tit. 2. We are saved by grace not by works The Apostle doth in that place with exact diligence shut them out from any share in our Salvation Now that all this from the first to the last even salvation it self is of grace will appear 1. From the imperfection that cleaveth to the best things we do Insomuch that they need grace to pardon so farre are they from having any worth in them for heaven This made the Apostle Paul account all that he had and did dung and drosse for the Righteousnesse of Christ This made David pray that God would not enter into judgement or be strict to mark what is done amisse When we have done all we must say we are unprofitable Servants how much more when we come farre short of all 2. If we consider the transcendant dignity of that glory God will bestow on us It must needs be solely of grace For the Apostle tels us The eye hath not seen it nor the ear heard it nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of is 1 Cor. 2.9 It 's no lesse then enjoying God himself The immediate fruition of himself is the only happinesse we shall have Now what comparison is there between our graces and God himself Again the Transcendency is seen in the duration Suppose our graces were present yet are they but for a season They are transient expressions Whereas our happinesse doth endure for ever 3. If we are enabled to do any good thing we are so farre from deserving at Gods hand That we are the more obliged to him and ought to be the more thankfull Coronat dona sua non merita nostra The more thou art enabled to repent or beleeve the more thankfull art thou to be to the grace of God Thus all is of grace But you will say Is not heaven called a reward At the day of Judgement doth not God pronounce a blessing because of the good works they have done Are they not called Blessed that die in the Lord because their works follow them Rev. 14.13 All this is true but this proveth no more then that an holy life and godly works they are via Regni not causa Regnandi as Bernard long since If we do not strive and labour we shall never have this Crown If we use not violence we shall never get this Kingdom So that grace doth not encourage to sinne or maintain slothfulnesse but we as the Apostle urgeth Phil. 2. are encouraged to work out our salvation because that it's God who giveth us to will and to doe Vse 1 Vse of Instruction to the godly Are they wholly the gift of God in Christ Is all from the grace of God then let the people of God walk humbly and thankfully Oh it 's a close secret sinne to have self-dependance self-confidence and yet there is no sinne hath greater enmity to the Gospel of Christ then this Neither do thou think to divide the matter between grace and thy duties as the Papists make our hope to be coming partly from our merits and partly from the grace of God What shall David Shall Paul such eminent Cedars in Lebanon fear their own selves and dost thou a low shrub boast of thy self Herein commonly is the difference between a true godly man and a civil vertuous man the one hath a secret hope in himself but the other looks for and expects grace as meerly from God as if he never had done a good work in his life Vse 2 Vse 2. Let this grace of God quicken thee to all life and zeal for God Grace is like fire to melt thee If mans kindenesse worketh upon a good nature how much rather should Gods kindenesse upon a sanctified and a renewed nature SERMON XLVII Of Gods Propriety in his People as the Ground of all the Good that accrueth to them JOH 17.9 For they are thine THis is the third and last description which our Saviour useth of those who are the objects of his praier viz. The propriety that God hath in them They are his own I have handled this Point formerly but then I did it under an absolute notion shewing you how many waies the people of God were his People but I shall now treat on it relatively as it 's an Argument used by our Saviour why he should be heard in his praier for his Disciples And certainly here is much of strength in it They are thine I pray not for thy Enemies nor for strangers but such as are near thee that are of thy own houshold such upon whom already thou hast placed thy love and delight so that our Saviour makes the propriety God hath in his Disciples and so in all beleevers to be the ground of his praier for them And indeed this must needs be very effectual for the Apostle argueth If any man provide not for his own 1 Tim. 1.0 he is worse then an Infidell If then God doth so greatly abhor him who takes not care for his own Shall not the Lord himself provide for his Thus Ephes 1.29 the Apostle urging the duty of Husbands to Wives argueth from propriety Their own Wives and no man ever hated his own flesh Now then God takes this relation of an Husband to his people and because they are his therefore he will hear their praier and vouchsafe all good to them Propriety is so great a matter that Aristotle makes it the cause of all the labour and trading that is in the world insomuch that he saith If all things were common the world would be filled with idle persons but because it 's their own ground their own wealth their own riches therefore they are so diligent to encrease in these things None regard the air the light of the Sun because it 's common to all Whereas if they could be
whom yet they fastened many impious actions upon for certainly nature would have told them That was God quo nibil melius cogitari potest Thus the God whom Christians according to the Scripture doe serve is the onely holy and true God Thirdly He is holy in respect of his will command and approbation His word is an holy Word The Scriptures are holy Scriptures They command They approve They encourage and comfort nothing but holinesse David Psal 19. compareth them to Gold often refined that hath no drosse and Hab. 1. God is of purer eyes then to behold Iniquity viz. by approbation Therefore he is said to be angry with the wicked all the day long Oh then though other men love thee and thou art in love with thy own self yet if not holy God doth not God cannot love thee Fourthly God is holy efficiently He is the Authour and cause of all the holinesse we have Iames 1.17 Every good and perfect gift comes from him We are his Workmanship created to good works He made the Angels holy He created Adam holy yea he infused all holinesse into Christs humane Nature and therefore much rather must he cause all the holinesse that is in us Therefore Christ by praying that God would sanctifie his Disciples doth thereby teach that none can make holy but God alone Let then the proud Patrons of free-will be confounded at this They that cannot make themselves Creatures will they say ' they make themselves holy Creatures Minus est te fecisse hominem quam justum Fifthly He is finally holy That is all our holinesse is to terminate in him Holinesse doth properly respect God as the Object and therefore though a man praieth heareth giveth alms yea his body to be burnt and doth not with a pure and chaste Intention look at Gods glory in all this it is not holinesse Hence it is that many have low thoughts about holinesse and grosly mistake in it taking copper for Gold and Samuels Ghost for Samuel himself Thou art not holy till thou canst truly say in some Degree at least though with much opposition Whom have I in Heaven but God and none on Earth besides him In Heaven Heaven it self would not be heaven to a gracious heart but because God is there Sixthly God is holy exemplarily He is the Rule Pattern and Example of holinesse 1 Pet. 1.15 Be ye holy as I am holy Levit. 20.26 So that if we would know how we are to be holy it must not be as men think or as the world prescribeth but as God is holy Not that we can attain to an equality but to a similitude onely So that the principle of the world must fall to the ground They will doe as others doe or as most doe Oh but rather Consider that God himself hath set down a Form for thee and because there is such fulnesse in him as in an Ocean therefore we have a necessity of growing every day No man is as holy as the patern therefore still he is to be perfecting Holinesse and Righteousnesse in the Fear of God 1 Cor. 7.1 Thus you have heard that God is holy But in the next place know it is our Duty to improve this Attribute for our Good For so our Saviour doth not look upon it as an absolute property in God but as that which may be profitable unto his Disciples So that we are to make use of this by Faith And that first Because when God becomes our God by the Covenant of Grace he is wholly ours and all his Attributes are for our benefit and advantage I will be their God Now God is not our God nulesse his Wisedome be ours his Holinesse be ours that is for our benefit For we cannnot separate God and these Oh then what an unwise and foolish thing is it in a Christian when he hath such a Treasure and yet will make no use of it Such a Mine and yet improveth it not In God there is holinesse for all Angels and men much more for thee Secondly God being thus absolutely good he is communicating of it and it is a Rule The more any thing is good the more diffusive it is of it self As we see in God who though glorious and happy enough in himself yet he created a world and ordained many to Eternall Glory out of his meer good pleasure and Fullnesse not that he needed or wanted any Oh then it is very acceptable and well-pleasing to God that we should come with thirsting Souls unto this Fountain and draw Water out of it That we should suck plentifully at these full Breasts and be refreshed Vse of Instruction to the People of God who are greatly afflicted under this great Temptation They are not an holy People Oh they finde sinne captivating them sinne prevailing over them but where is an holy heart holy affections and holy aims in what they doe Oh they say Could they finde they were more holy though they were poor and afflicted yet they should rejoyce Let such Consider It is their Unbelief and want of earnest Praier if they be not richly supplied and furnished in this for God is infinitely holy and he delights to communicate it The larger the Vessell is the more willing he is and will be to fill it and there cannot be any Prayer more acceptable then to begge for this above all things Vse 2. Is God thus holy Then let the most holy be humble in all their approaches to him for he is of such pure Eyes that he findes spots and blemishes yea damnable matter in thy most holy duties Angels holinesse is not proportionable to him Thirdly Of Reproof to wicked men who deride scoff and maliciously oppose holinesse What is this but to rise up against God himself Is not Holinesse the Glorious Attribute of God And do the Beams of this shining in his People offend thee This argueth thou art of a perverse and of a devilish Spirit for thou shouldest rather reverence and honour it saying Oh that I might live and dye like such holy men Indeed there are many would like Balaam die like a Godly man but not live like him as One said He would live like Croesus but die like Socrates Yet this is impossible There must be an holy Life else there will hardly be an holy Death SERMON LV. The Great Lord-Keeper of Israel from inevitable Ruine both of Body and Soul extolled JOH 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own Name those thou hast given me c. WE have dispatched the Introductory Compellation and now proceed to the Petition it self and in that Consider 1. The mercy praied for and 2. The Amplification of it The mercy praied for is Keep The amplification is 1. From the Subject described by their Election from Eternity And 2. Actuall donation to Christ in time Those thou hast given me This is often repeated by our Saviour as being a main Argument why nothing should he denied them that were thus
the imperfection of it cannot justifie us or save us so neither from the weaknesse of it can it preserve Grace is not God neither hath it the power of God Obj And if you say That actuall help of grace whereby God keepeth us that is but a Creature and then that must need another help and so in infinitum as some Arminians urge I answer Grace inherent in us is by way of a permanent principle abiding in us and so needeth some to excite and quicken it but this actuall helping is by way of a transient principle moving but not continuing and so that doth not need a further help This is like the sharpening of the edge of the tools This is like the actuall Ejaculation of the Sun-beams which make Objects to be actually seen Take heed then of magnifying grace too much within us as in Popery when it is made our Righteousnesse whereby we are justified before God or when we judge this able of it self without further Auxiliaries of God to preserve us Thirdly Grace is necessary to keep us Because while we are in this Life we are yet but in the way We are not come to our Eternal home in Heaven where we shall be so confirmed that we shall not need such peculiar helps as now we do We are here still in the way Our Condition is compared to a warfare to a Wrestling and fighting We are but in the race we have not yet put on the Crown and therefore Gods assisting grace is alwaies necessary One reason the Orthodox give why we are justified by imputed Righteousnesse and not inherent why our inherent Righteousnesse is imperfect though God could make it perfect is because God thereby would make us humble and lowly in our selves But say the Adversaries if we were perfectly holy there would be no danger of pride no more then there is in those that are glorified To which it is answered That suppose a man were made perfect in this Life and were yet in viâ not in termino There would be as much danger of pride as there was in Adam and the Angels The Saints therefore glorified they are made perfect they are no more in the way They have overcome and so are made Pillars in the Temple of God that never shall be removed But it is not thus with the most holy man he is yet fighting sighing groaning and so needs daily custody Fourthly If we doe Consider those many Commands and Exhortations not to be high-minded but fear Rom. 11.20 To walk with fear and trembling These argue a necessity of dependance upon God The Apostle Rom. 11. bids a man take heed of boasting lest he fall for thou bearest not the Root but the Root thee Rom. 11.18 This is very pertinent Thou dost not keep God to thee but God keepeth thee to himself The branch gives not juyce to the Vine but the Vine to the branch The Arminians from such Exhortations would inferre the Apostasie of Saints but they are rather practicall and powerfull means whereby he doth preserve his people By these admonitions to take heed of falling they are enabled to stand Only by them we are advertised to look up unto God as being unable to establish our selves Fifthly The remainder of corruption within the Godly that is very active and working proveth the necessity of Gods gracious power Paul Rom. 7. complaineth of the lively power of this Law of sinne within him and that at all times and in all duties even so farre prevailing that it hindred him from doing the good he would Now then if we have such a powerfull Enemy within us if from our own hearts would arise lusts to destroy us who seeth not the necessity of Gods keeping of us Alas we live all the day in spiritual danger our Souls may be betraied every moment Did not God therefore keep us we needed no Enemy to destroy us but our selves Sixthly The malice and power of Satan continually assaulting of us proclaimeth the great necessity of Gods power He is the Tempter and he is a roaring Lyon to destroy The Devils are the principalities in high places and above all he is most set against the godly as Luk. 22. Now who could be secure in the midst of so many Legions of devils if Gods arm did not alwaies support us would not Satan have possessed the heart of Peter as much as he did Judas had not Gods power withstood him his Temptations are so sutable so subtlely managed so importunately urged that it must be a power from above that can overcome them They are called Satans darts and his fiery darts to shew how quickly and forcibly they can enter Ephes 6.16 Lastly That Gods gracious help is necessary every moment appeareth in the sad Fals and woful decaies of the truly Godly which could never have been had they not with Sampson deprived themselves of their strength how comes David in all that mire of Uncleannesse and Murder how comes he to be made indeed like one of the vile persons of the Earth as once Michol falsly upbraided but that God had withdrawn his present assistance and whatsoever sins or Fals you reade of in the Godly it was because the Lord was not a present help to them in that Temptation as when the Sun withdraweth his Light it must needs be dark or his heat it must be cold Vse of Exhortation to the godly to live by a depending Faith upon Gods gracious power onely in thy way to Heaven The way is so streight the oppositions so many Thy corruption so great that thou canst never come to the Journeys end unlesse God be with thee all the day long Shall men in outward temporall difficulties say as Jehosaphat did O Lord we know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee how much rather in all thy combats with sin and endeavours after holinesse maist thou cry out O Lord the work is so great the dangers so many that I know not what to do Wo be to me if the Lord let me alone to my self Therefore as the Church resolved so doe thou lay hold on God and do not let him go Wrestle and strive with God as Jacob not letting him alone till he blesse thee Say as Moses I will not go unlesse the Angel of thy presence go along with us and that thou maist doe this take heed First Of presumption and self-confidence They are the humble and self-debased whom God will help When I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12.10 Paul exhorteth Timothy to be a spirituall Souldier and to get the heavenly armoury upon him yet he must be strong in the power of the Lord 2 Tim. 2.1 The like is said to all Christians Ephes 6.10 When Peter presumeth upon his own strength then Gods assistance doth forsake him Secondly Take heed of wilfull throwing thy self into the occasion of sinne For by this means thou temptest God whereby he forsakes thee Thou wilt runne into
spiritual Vnity Insomuch that some have called the Spirit of God the holy bond of the Trinity It 's not a carnal bodily Unity but spiritual and thus ought the Ministers of the Gospel to be though they be of the same nature of the same flesh and bloud yet if they have not the same spirit composing and sanctifying of them they will be like ropes of sand This the Apostle urgeth admirably 1 Cor. 12. 4 c. and vers 13. where enumerating the several gifts and operations of Gods Spirit he still addeth It 's the same Spirit and by one Spirit we are all baptized in the same bond This then ought to be our Unity the holy Spirit of God is to move work and guide all our hearts and affections As it 's the same Soul that informeth all the parts of the body or as some Philosophers said There was one intellectus agens that was universal to all men There may be agreement for civil and political considerations but this will never hold till there be a spiritual Unity As Tully observed That all friendship founded upon bonum utile or jucundum would never endure unlesse they added bonum honestum We may adde further Even that moral honest good is not ground enough unlesse it be bonum spirituale If then the Spirit of God did work the same measure of illumination and sanctification in all there would not be any disagreement but though all godly men have the same Spirit yet not the same gifts or graces or degree of graces and for want of this cometh contention Secondly The Vnity between Father and Son is constant and individed There can never be a separation between them The Father and Sonne were alwayes one though the manifestation of this is more under the Gospel-light then it was under the Law and thus ought the Ministers of the Gospel to agree constantly perpetually for if at any time contention breaketh forth it proveth like a dead flie in a box of ointment it makes all the other good they have to be ill spoken of Let them never be so learned so godly so zealous yet discord will scandalize all and this constancy of Unity is to be preserved against all outward or inward causes of difference outward is the persecution and opposition of enemies to the Church of God inward is from our own corruptions and distempers Against both these we are to watch that so our peace be not weakned Thirdly The Vnity of the Father and the Sonne is an holy Vnity They are one in that which is holy and heavenly They onely will what is good and the Sunne may sooner become a dunghill then they will what is evil such an Unity let the Ministers of God endeavour after An unity in errour an unity in mischief and wickedness is such an unity as the devils have amongst themselves That unity amongst Papists which they boast of is it not like the unity of Herod and Pilate both agreeing against Christ Fourthly The Vnity of the Father and Sonne is full of love and bowels to mankinde They both are one in this to procure the salvation of believers The Father he wils to send his onely begotten Sonne to die that reproachful death and to be an atonement for mans sinnes The Sonne doth voluntarily and readily undertake this bitter cup then they are one to procure the salvation of man If the Father and the Sonne had disagreed no salvation had been possible Oh then that the Ministers of the Gospel would make this use of their Unity that they might all as one man endeavour the conversion and edification of souls How happy would it be to lay all differences and disputes aside that they might bring people to the saving knowledge of God What a spur should this be to us Shall the Father not think his Sonne too dear Shall the Sonne not think his bloud too dear for mens souls and shall we ruine souls by contentions Do we not take the devils work then upon us and not Christs Fifthly The Vnity of Father and Son is a well-ordered Vnity Though there be a Unity of Nature yet this breedeth not a confusion of the Persons The Father is the Father and the Sonne is the Sonne for all this Unity they are not unus though they he unum and thus the unity amongst Gods Ministers and the people must not degenerate into confusion The difference between shepherd and sheep between Governours and governed in the Church must be maintained When the Devil cannot divide then on the contrary he would bring unity into confusion The difference of gifts and offices shall not be kept up as Corah and his Company told Aaron They took too much upon them all the Congregation was holy as well as they But the Apostle though he presse unity fervently and that because we are one body yet he sheweth a difference between the members in that body every member is not the eye so neither is every one a Preacher an Officer in the Church This unity ends in all schism and disorder at last Lastly The Vnity of the Father and the Sonne is most perfect and absolute It 's an essential Unity and although we cannot have this Unity yet this should teach us to aâ—m at the highest degree of unity we can not to suffer the least grudging and repining thoughts not the least proud or envious thought against one another to love more then father or children then husband or wife or any kinde of relation that causeth unity for they are but one flesh This calleth for an higher unity We have heard the duty and necessity of unity as also the causes that break it what good remedies may be prescribed to keep this excellent harmony Although I shall not lanch into this whole point deferring it till vers 21. yet I shall name some First We are earnestly to pray to God to bestow such a spirit of concord It 's not the industry or policy of all the Conciliators Moderators and Pacificators in the world to bring this about but God onely can bend mens hearts for it Hence we see our Saviour praying to the Father for this agreement and God is called The God of peace because he only can make it in the Church and State It 's from Gods anger and wrath when an evil contentious spirit is amongst the Prophets as well as when he sends a lying spirit amongst them when the Temple was to be destroyed the rending of it was a prognostique of the desolation thereof and when God will unchurch a Church and make a Garden a Wilderness commonly divisions are the antecedent causes of it A second Rule is To rejoyce in the parts and gifts of others as much as our own when God is glorified by them and to be compassionately affected in the weaknesses and failings of others These two are necessarily joyned together and they are able to cement and unite all differences The former is to
We see by degrees men were prepared to this Apostolical Office in the Church and Judas was one of these Now this was the highest pinacle of the Temple There was not a greater place of honour and trust then to be an Apostle they are called the pillars and the foundations Hence Paul begins his Epistle with this Title Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ which is as great a glory saith Chrysostome as when any Officer under the Emperour writes himself next in place to the Emperour It would be impertinent at this time â—o expatiate in the dignity and excellency of the Apostolical-Office The Ancients said they were Pedes Christi oculi Dei and Ecclesiae mammae Christs feet Gods eyes and the Churches breasts These had infallibility in Doctrine had power to work miracles to expell devils to open and shut heaven as it were and yet the son of perdition is one of these Apostles Thirdly He had not only the Apostolical-Office but the gifts and qualifications of an Apostle He was one of those that returned with joy saying The very devils were subject to them He prophesied he wrought miracles he confessed and published the name of Christ he prayed he performed all the heavenly duties that others did neither do we reade of any neglect in his Apostolical-Office nor is he blamed for defects in any religious duty and certainly if he had been guilty of any such omissions the Apostles would have suspected him but we see when Christ said One should betray him they did no more suspect Judas then themselves Fourthly Christs carriage was as full of sweetness love and respect to him as full of comfort and encouragement to him as to the rest in an external dispensation When they returned from their spiritual circuit Rejoycing as you heard because the devils were subject to them our Saviour speaks indefinitely to them all Rejoyce not in this but because your names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 he speaks here as if Judas his name were written in heaven and Luke 22.30 Christ tels his twelve Apostles They should sit upon twelve Tribes judging Israel Little did men think that Judas would be cast out and one put in his room Now lay all these together and thereby will appear his eminency and esteem in Religion yet for all that he was a sonne of perdition for whereas Chrysostom and others from the fore-mentioned Texts would conclude that Judas was once a true godly man but afterwards fell from his grace that is contradictory to the Scripture as you have heard And when our Saviour condescended to that low humiliation of washing the Disciples feet mentioned onely by John so that the same Evangelist who doth relate in most perspicuous manner the sublimest things of Christ as appeareth Cap. 1. so he mentioneth this action which was of the lowest debasement now in washing of their feet Judas is not excepted Those hands of Christ which wrought so many miracles cured so many diseases bestowed so many blessings yet even these wash not the face or the hands but the feet the meanest part and that of Judas who was immediately to betray him But no wonder he layeth aside his garments and girded himself with a towel and poured water in a bason seeing he formerly laid aside the manifestation of his Divine Nature being in the form of a man and poured out his bloud for us yea it 's thought by many and those learned both by ancient and learned Writers though opposed also by many learned men that Christ gave Judas the Sacrament also Neither say they will this prove that scandalous men may be admitted to the Lords Supper because his sinne was as yet secret and not publick and although Christ as God knew him to be such a secret sinner yet Christ did not in his outward Office of the Ministry act according to the knowledge of God but as a Minister under God in his Office Whether Judas received or no the Lords Supper Those that affirm are many Those that deny are also many Raynardus the Jesuite Lib. cui Titulus vitae optimae finis pessimus at large quoteth the Authors of both sides Some make it a probleme and therefore condemn Prateolus as too rigid who noteth those with heresie that deny his communicating with the other Apostles in this Sacrament In the next place Though thus eminent yet consider these things to debase him 1. In all this eminency and profession of Christ he was an hypocrite he had no true love to Christ nor saving faith as John 6. where at the beginning of all Christ said One is a devil the present tense is not to be neglected and the text saith Even then he did not believe viz. in a saving manner Oh what cause of fear and trembling is this Who can hear of Judas that preacheth that worketh miracles that is often in duties with Christ yet he is not sincere and therefore you may observe that our Saviour in all his Sermons and Parables did press this as the summe of all to look we build upon a Rock to see that we dig deep in our building that we be good ground receiving the seed in a deep and honest heart No subject did our Saviour so much insist on as this when yet we would think in those dayes when Christs teaching and miracles were so visible and outward encouragements to profess him wholly wanting that none should follow him but upon sincere and upright grounds 2. In this time of his profession and communion with Christ he liveth in a secret sinne though the Apostles knew it not yet his own consceence could not but condemn him He was a thief saith the text Christ had many contributers to his sustenance and that was put in a common bag for the maintenance of himself and his Apostles Now Judas he carried the bag how this came about it 's disputed Whether he desired it or no or Whether it was put upon him as judged a fit and faithfull man the Scripture tels not Howsoever we see by this as is to be shewed That it 's a terrible thing to be in such a condition of life as is sutable to draw out the sinnes we are given unto but of that afterward Judas having this great opportunity he stealeth part of the treasury and keepeth part of it for himself What made him to do this whether because he was married and had a charge of children as some conjecture or whether because he had a covetous worldly heart as the Scripture seemeth to encline is controverted So that now Judas becomes a gross hypocrite for the very light of nature taught him not to impropriate that which was common to others he knew it was Christs goods not his own yea many learned Authors say This was not simple theft but sacriledge for what was given to Christ and his Ministry was to an holy use and therefore Judas was guilty of both and the grosseness of his hypocrisie is the more aggravated if
Art thou not guilty of many omissions of duties Thou hast not reproved mourned prayed for others Thou hast not done that spirituall and temporall good thou shouldst Paul excused the Philippians that they would have done good but they wanted an opportunity Phil. 4.16 But how many times have we an opportunity and we want hearts John could write to that pious Gaius his Host 3 John vers 2. to wish that his body may be in health even as his soul prospered What a glorious commendation was this It was better with his soule then his outward man Now wee cannot say thus of our selves because we are not diligent and industrious to doe more then we doe Certainly every godly man may be astonished when he shall consider how broad the Commandements of God are and how narrow his heart is growne in doing more then thou hast done 2. Thou mayest be sanctified extensively by the Relations that thou doest take upon thee when made an Husband a Wife a Minister a Magistrate here thy holinesse is to extend further God requireth more of thee and that godlinesse which would have served thee before will not now While the Apostles were private men they needed not that Sanctification which they were to have as Apostles Hence we see the Apostle diligently in his Epistles informing Husbands Wives Children and Servants of what they have to doe And certainly the grace of our Relations is an excellent evidence of our holinesse in the main If the Heathen could say He was not Bonus vir that was not Bonus civis not a good man that was not a good Citizen So may we say He is not a good Christian that is not a good Minister a good Magistrate a good Husband a good Servant The Apostle bids Archippus fulfill his Ministry And thus Ministers are exhorted to look to the flock over which God hath set them Oh then see if thou mayest not be greatly sanctified in thy Relations if they may not be filled with more Wisdome Patience and exemplarity of Conversation Alexander wept because there was no more Worlds he wanted work But to be sure thou hast more then ever thou canst turn unto Every Relation requires a new grace or a new exercise of grace So that here is no time for thee to sit down or to be still as if all thy enemies were conquered Thirdly We may be more sanctified in the deeper radication of Grace in our hearts It 's a Philosophicall Dispute Whether accidents are intensed by addition of degrees or a deeper radication of them in the subject We may conclude That grace in the heart is both wayes improved and for the rooting of it in the soul This is so great a matter that the temporary believer is in this respect as well as others mainly differenced from the true believer Though they had some root yet they had not root enough and the unwise builder did not dig deep enough for this therefore the Apostle prayeth even in reference to such as were already rooted in Christ that they may be more rooted Colos 2.7 Rooted and built up in him And to this purpose are all those Exhortations of being stedfast and immoveable of being strengthened stablished settled 1 Pet. 5 10. as there the Apostle prayeth remrkably There is no man hath laid so sure a foundatinn but he may make it more sure No man is so established but he may be more established Is it not a terrible thing to see the fall of many Cedars in Lebanon of many Starres from Heaven And why is all this They were never established deep enough they never took more root downwards like unwise builders they attended to make a glorious upper-room and stairs in the house but mattered not the foundation and certainly though the childe of God even of the lowest form be so farre rooted that he shall never fall away yet this establishment and stedfastness of his is not by his own power and strength it 's God that keeps him neither is it continued but in the constant daily exercise of holy means Oh then every day be indeavouring after this Lord grace is not rooted in me enough it 's too superficiall Oh that I could say I no longer live but Christ within me Oh that it were like leaven diffusing it's power over me the Promise is Jer. 31. I will write my Law in thine inwards parts in the midst of them So that grace shall be habituated in thee and sink as deep as ever original sin did in thee Fourthly We may be more sanctified Subjectively that is every part of the soul may be more throughly sanctified every day as in that place 1 Thess 5.23 Hence to the converted Ephesians the Apostle exhorts as you heard both a further renovation of the minde and of the will and affections Ephes 4.23 24. In the mind How greatly may we be more sanctified have more illumination more heavenly knowledge of God and Christ Thou art to grow in knowledge more and more Paul was once like a childe but he became a man The Apostle Heb. 6. doth severely reprove those that continued babes and were not carried on to further perfection It 's both a shame and a sinne that thou hast yet no more knowledge and heavenly understanding by the Ministry thou hast enjoyed so many years Again the minde is to be more sanctified by a more firm and solid faith the Apostle then directs That they should be stedfast and sound in the faith not tossed up and down with every winde of doctrine Their increase of faith may be both in the Objects believed though for the things necessary to salvation the knowledge of them by the Spirit of God is promised to every believer yet there the superstructions in Religion which according to the means we enjoy we are to believe Therefore the Apostle 1 Thess 3.10 sheweth his earnest prayer to come to the Thessalonians that he might perfect what was lacking in their faith which could not be meant in regard of foundations but superstructures not essentials but additionals Thus they are to grow in the doctrine of believing but then in the manner of believing that is the proper way for all to grow To believe more certainly more firmly more practically Therefore though the fundamentals of Religion cannot be augmented No necessary truth to salvation can be revealed which was not known before yet it may be more strongly and clearly believed And this is the end of all Authors that write against Heretiques of all sorts not to bring a new Religion into the world or new Articles of Faith but to cause a more clear and firm assent to those things which the subtilty of Heretiques had obscured Further Their mindes are to be more sanctified by holy thoughts heavenly-Meditation For what godly man doth not perceive vain thoughts creeping into his soul as the Froggs did into Pharaoh's Chamber whether he will or no and as for a fixed heavenly-Meditation it 's an
preterperfect tense I have sent them seeing they were not yet sent to publish the Gospel to the whole world for that was not done till his Ascension But it 's answered that it 's ordinary with the Scripture to put one tense for another and besides Christ had begun already to send them though not into the whole world yet into Judea and Luk 6. he had already given them the name of Apostles which is as much as those that are sent yet because after his Ascension he then enlarges their Commission To preach to all Nations beside Judea Hence Joh. 20.21 Christ there speaks in the present tense As my Father hath sent me even so I send you So then the Apostles did not undertake their ministeriall Office before they were sent and for this end are called Apostles Salmasius thinketh he gave them this Name from the Captain of the Jews at that time for in their Synagogues the Governours thereof have their proper Messengers belonging to them who were called Apostles From this Observe That none may undertake the publike Office of the Ministry without a sending or authoritative Call thereunto If Christ did it not as ye heard and the Apostle Heb. 5. is diligent in observing of that much lesse may any men do it for the very word sending doth imply a superiour who hath power to send and also the inferiority and passivenesse of those that are sent Therefore Rom. 10.13 14 15. You have there a Ladder like Jacobs reaching from earth to Heaven where calling on God requires beleeving beleeving requireth hearing hearing requireth preaching and preaching requireth sending See here the golden Chain of our Salvation in an ordinary way No calling no faith no faith no hearing no hearing no preaching no preaching no sending They are all required in their peculiar way with the same necessity and therefore take heed of endangering your souls by despising the lawful Ministry of Christ How shall they beleeve saith the Apostle without this But to inform your judgements in this Point because it 's a necessary Truth and many errours are about it for your good not for our own self-advancement as some are apt to think we shall take this Method 1. Give some Distinctions to clear the Point 2. Shew you the distinct office of the Ministry from other callings and the necessity of a lawful Call thereunto Not that my purpose is to handle all those things which belong to that Famous Common-place in Divinity De ministerio Ecclesiastico but to touch on those things that most relate to this Text And first Consider That there is a two-fold sending a mediate and immediate sending an immediate sending is when God or Christ doth in an extraordinary and peculiar manner give some a Call to this office Thus the Prophets of the Old Testament they were immediatly sent of God and this immediate inspiration and extraordinary gifting of them was enough to authorise them though they had no Call in an ordinary manner from men when they said Thus saith the Lord then they shewed their Commission and thus the Apostles they were likewise immediatly called by Christ and they were gifted in an extraordinary manner thereunto They had no such gifts at first but Christ bestowed them on them In ordinary sendings or missions there men must first try and examine gifts and see them before they confirm any in their office but Christ that can make Children of Abraham out of stones can also make Apostles out of illiterate and rude Fishermen This immediate and extraordinary sending is now wholly ceased even as the gifts of Miracles and therefore though our Divines do sometimes say Luther Calvin and those first Reformers had an extraordinary Call their meaning is not as if they were put into their Church-office by an immediate call of God only there were extraordinary qualifications of them by stirring them up to such zeal and corroborating of them to go through such a work as they did In the next place there is an ordinary mission or authorizing and that is to be perpetual in the Church according to such Rules as Paul laieth down in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus which are a directory concerning the Churches Government to the ends of the world This ordinary sending we are now to have though the Apostles had an extraordinary Secondly Consider that though the Apostles had many personall and extraordinary priviledges yet the essence and substance of their Ministerial office is the same with that which every Minister of the Gospel hath For Matth. 28. there the substance of their office is to preach and administer the Sacraments which is the duty of every Pastor in the Church We may not then argue from the extraordinaries of the Apostles to every Minister but from their substantials as thus The Apostolical priviledges were to behold Christ with their eyes and thereby to witnesse the truth To be infallible in their doctrine to be illimited not bound to one place more then another to work miracles c. Now these were necessary for the infancy and first plantation of the Church Signes being for those that do not beleeve and so it 's not necessary ordinary Pastours should have them but then there are the substantials of their Apostolical Office which was to preach the Word to be authorized thereunto these are belonging to every Pastor and in this they are Successors to the Apostles Mat. 28. ult I will be with you to the end of the world and 2 Tim. 6.14 where in one place God promiseth and in another place Paul is required to keep those Church-Ordinances till the end of the world how can this be otherwise but in the Pastor of the Church who are in this though not in their extraordinaries the Apostles Successors Thirdly There is a great difference to be made between a publike and potestative preaching by way of office and a private wise and humble charitative emploiment of our gifts one Christian to another When we say that only men may by way of office preach We do not thereby prohibit or exclude Those Christian duties and improvements of gifts in pâ—rier and admonition either in Families or one towards another so that there is no Christian though he hath never so good gifts but he hath opportunities enough to improve them in a private way for Gods glory without usurping that office There are many Texts of Scripture that shew how fruitfull and active private Christians should be in their way to do good one to another Col. 3.16 Let the Word of God dwell in you richly with all wisedom teaching and admonishing one another It is your duty to be exercised in the Word of God and to admonish one another out of it so Heb. 10.24 25. There they are to provoke and exhort one another to do good We should in a brotherly way all take care of one anothers soul and this is that Christian Communion so much commended in the Church of God
riches his honours his greatness his parts his morality doth not free him from this impurity so that he ought to abhor himself as a monster as a toad This is the foundation of all our misery that we doe not look upon our selves as so many vile carkasses as so many dead dogs Till this be laid as the first principle Christ is not prized Sanctification is not sought after Oh therefore stand like the leprous person afarre off and cry out I am unclean unclean Thou wouldst be ashamed as Adam was to come with this nakednesse and filthinesse upon thee into Gods presence 2. Being unsanctified doth imply That even the holy things we are imployed about do not sanctifie us but we rather pollute them Hag. 2. He that was unclean though he touched the holy things though he ranne to the Temple and the Altar yet he was not thereby sanctified but he rather polluted them and thus while a man is unsanctified those very duties prayers and ordinances he doth runne unto will condemn him as appeareth Isa 1. by that severe expostulation with them that abounded in their Sacrifices yet did not wash them or make them clean 3. There is implied an utter unfitnesse and indisposition to any good work as on the other side a vessel sanctified was meet for his masters use So that till we be sanctified by Christs blood we have no fitnesse for any holy duty iron can as well swim and logs flie as a natural man be prepared to do that which is holy and supernatural Thirdly That our Sanctification is here attributed to Christs Sanctification of himself we see 1. That the initials and beginnings of Sanctification are wholly from him Some have endeavoured to make the very Heathens partakers of some kinde of sanctification making a pietas pagana as well as Christiana but they are to fear lest that might be applied to them which Bernard did to Abailardus Dum sudat Platonem facere Christianum scriptum facit Ethnicum There is no sanctification but where Christ is and Christ and his body cannot be separated as the gold onely in the Temple was sanctified and this is good to lay us low and to make us admiring of the grace of Christ How is it thou art sanctified and others remain prophane polluted like bruit beasts who hath made this difference Who infused this holy nature into thee Wast thou not as loathsom as wallowing in the filth of thy lusts as others till Christs blood did cleanse thee 2. Not only the initials but progressives and consummatives in Sanctification are to be attributed to his Sanctification Therefore you heard him called the finisher as well as the authour of our faith and the Disciples though already sanctified yet are still more and more to be sanctified It 's true here is a difference between our first Sanctification and the increase of it at first we were wholly passive Christ found us dead in our sinnes and wallowing in our blood but afterwards he findes us alive onely needing his continual exciting and quickening grace Therefore Paul though converted yet still lives a life of faith in Christ we need Christ all the day long How unholy earthly dull and lumpish is thy heart if Christ did not constantly sanctifie it Fourthly This Sanctification purchased by Christ must be in truth and integrity so Christ addeth sanctified in the truth that is truly in opposition to those legal and ceremonial sanctifications which did only cleanse the body but not reach to the soul Although in the New Testament we have no such external bodily Sanctification yet still there is an outward Sanctification and an inward both coming by Christ and one separable from the other Thus you heard the apostate is said to be sanctified by the blood of Christ which was not indeed and truly so for then he would not have totally fallen off but in respect of the external administration Hence 1 Cor. 1.2 the whole Church of Corinth though afterwards reproved for many sinfull practices yet are called sanctified and that partly because of the external dispensation of the Ordinances which they enjoyed So that there is a Sanctification external and a Sanctification internall External is when by our Baptisme and Christian profession We acknowledge our selves separated from the world to live unto God but internal is when we are so indeed How shall we call the prophane ungodly person a sanctified one Look to the truth of Sanctification here mentioned in the Text. Now the truth of it lieth 1. In the manner of working of it The Spirit of God by the Word doth thus sanctifie therefore some understand this in the Text by the truth as formerly our Saviour prayed God himself is the onely Authour of Sanctification We cannot make our selves holy no more then we can make our selves men yet God works not in the order of grace immediately no more then in the order of nature where he makes use of second causes Thus in the working of grace he appointeth second means as the Ministry and Ordinances and therefore Paul 1 Cor. 3. saith They were Ministers by whom the Corinthians did beleeve and there is no better discovery of true Sanctification then to examine the manner and way how thou hast received it for if the Spirit of God by the Word hath wrought it in thee then fear not this is of a more noble and supernatural being then what morality or principles of civility can incline unto thee As Christ himself was in his bodily nature conceived by the holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner Thus is every one sanctified in an higher and more sublime way then all the moral and prudential dictates of nature can carry us unto Oh then prove thy self what hath the Spirit of God and his Word done unto thee That was not more wonderfull in those who had a prophetical Spirit then in such who are sanctified To enable men to speak with strange Tongues is not more admirable then to give a man a strange heart to what he had once and strange in respect of others 2. It 's true Sanctification when it hath the universality and integrity of all parts which is the whole Image of God as Paul prayeth 1 Thess 5. I pray God ye be sanctified throughout in spirit soul and body This work of Sanctification it 's an entire compleat harmonical compages of all holinesse take any part of it away and you dissolve the whole fabrick It 's true Sanctification though it have not perfect and compleat degrees but not true if it want any essential parts and therefore called the Image of God which cannot be one grace no more then a man can be a man in one part and a beast in another but the Systeme of all 3. It 's true Sanctification in the permanency and continuance of it Perseverance doth not make Sanctification to be true but the truth of Sanctification makes it persevere Perseverance is an effect not a cause of
glory and therefore that state of happinesse is properly called a state of glory yet we have the first fruits of it here In part Christ doth invest us with his glory but this is nothing to what shall be hereafter Even in this life the things are so great That no eye hath seen neither hath it entered into the heart of a man to conceive How much more then will eternal glory surpass all our imaginations Should not then the consideration of this glorious portion we in part have and expect more fully make us walk comfortably be chearfull in our afflictions passe through this world with joy Certainly we put not forth our fixed contemplations on this glory if we did our hearts would scarce ever be taken off it Eudoxus was so affected with the glory of the Sunne that he thought he was born onely to behold it How much rather should we think it our duty all the day long to behold this glory As the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.17 professeth that all the afflictions he went through and he had many yet they were but light and but for a moment to that eternal weight of glory and what made him think so While we look not at the things which are not seen If then thy heart is at any time dejected disquieted oh think of this glory provided for thee it will make thy soul silence it's crying and mutterings immediately yea this will conquer the fear of death and make the thoughts of it lovely and welcome Fourthly Doth Christ give spiritual glory to his Then let this consume all love and desire of vain-glory and esteem of men This love of glory hath been and is the worm that eateth up the best fruit when lusts and sins have not been able to undo a man glory from the world hath Therefore our Saviour makes such a temper inconsistent with grace How can ye believe and seek glory of one another and seek not the honâ—ur which comes from God onely John 5.44 This vain-glory Chrysostom called The mother of hell and indeed How many religious duties doth it corrupt The Pharisees prayed and gave alms to be seen of men yea there is no external duty in Religion but this may put a man upon it But as love of Christ will kill the love of the world fear of God will overcome fear of man so a love to this spiritual glory will quickly out vain-glory It 's good to observe That though all other things in this world be vain man is vain beauty is vain wealth is vain yet custom of speech doth appropriate it only to glory calling it vain-glory Oh then remember there are more glorious things to affect and enlarge thy heart with then these applauses of the world Fifthly Doth Christ give his people glory Then let them faithfully do Christs work notwithstanding all the reproaches and scorns wicked men load them with David rejoyced in that he was despised and contemned while he danced before the Ark I will be more vile still saith he 2 Sam. 6.22 And thus the Apostles rejoyced they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christs sake It 's a great glory to lose thy glory for Christs work Oh this is that which makes men afraid boldly to venture in holy things they shall be censured they shall be contemned Remember that Scripture Those that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 It 's a miserable slavery to live dependently upon the breath of others who many times do as children put a Garland upon one of their fellows heads and then laugh at him behinde his back so though they applaud thee to thy face yet secretly backbite thee Be therefore diligent to do Gods work and content thy self with the glory God bestoweth upon thee Doth a man running in a race regard the bird singing upon the tree Eye Christ more and man lesse The Moon that hath but a borrowed light is sometimes full sometimes at the wane never certain Thus a man that liveth upon the applause of others and not approving his conscience to God he is sometimes lifted up and then dejected down even as outward supplies come to him Sixthly Doth Christ give glory to his Then admire the bounty and freenesse of his grace Of all things we would think he would not communicate of his glory to us and indeed God saith He will not give glory to another neither will Christ give his Mediatory glory to others only in some passages of glory he is willing we should reign with him and be co-heirs with him This sheweth how much he loveth us For certainly no man is willing to have another co-partner with him in his glory yea how apt are we to envy the gifts and graces in others that may overshadow us but Christ giveth of his glory to us Lastly Doth Christ give glory to us Let us then glorifie him again Christ indeed he giveth glory to us really and inwardly but we only to him verbally and declaratively Let not the Heavens that are natural creatures exceed us They declare the glory of God and shew his handy-work and shalt not thou then in thy life in thy conversation declare the glory of Christ The title given to Church-officers 1 Cor. 8.23 is in some sense to be applied to all believers they are the glory of Christ SERMON CXXIV That Jesus Christ though God Co-equall with the Father had many things given him by the Father And how that can be JOH 17.22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them WE have treated of the nature of that glory which Christ giveth to all beleevers The next considerable is the description of the manner and way how Christ comes to have this glory and that is said to be by way of gift The glory which thou gavest me Now this seemeth very hard to understand how Christ being God could receive any thing for as God can have nothing given him so it should seem Christ neither could have any thing given him insomuch that this place with many others of the like fence is brought by the Socinians as an unanswerable Argument that Christ was not truly and essentially God for they heap up many places of Scripture where all that Christ hath is said to be given him and from hence conclude he cannot be God But the weakness of this will appear in further discovery of this Truth which that it may be more clearly understood Observe That Christ though God had many things given him of his Father The Fathers giving of many things to him doth not take off from his divine Nature This Truth will be profitable both to inform your judgement in that main Article of Religion and also is of that practical consequence Therefore to clear this Consider 1. That we may conceive of a two-fold giving that which is natural and necessary 2. that which is free and voluntary so that it might or might not be given for a naturall and necessary giving So Christ
the Son will reveal it there is knowledge and where he will not there remaineth blindness 3. There is the effectual and powerfull way of this revealing such shall know such will come to God such shall have the vail-taken off their eyes and the stone out of their hearts 4. There is the continual and daily efficacy of this I have manifested it to them and will do it Though they were Apostles yet they need the daily guidance and illumination of Christs Spirit we cannot either begin or proceed without him Vse of Instruction To look above the Ministry even up to Christ that he would open thy heart constantly wait upon that but withall say Unlesse thou Lord go along with the Ordinance all hearing and all preaching is in vain He that only can give eyes to the corporal blinde can also to the spiritual blinde Is it not for want of this you finde the Ministry no more working upon you you are not instant with God in prayer that it may be effectual to you Vse 2. Of Exhortation To such who have this vail and thick cloud on their hearts removed let them not indeed proudly compare themselves with and insult over others yet by the opposition be quickned to walk humbly and praise God the more O Lord the world hath not known thee such great men such rich men such neighbours but I by thy grace have known thee SERMON CXLII Setteth forth the singular Christian cleaving to God though the multitude go another way And how his godlinesse in that case endears him to God JOH 17.25 And these have known that thou hast sent me IN these words you have described by way of commendation the Faith of believers with the object thereof 1. Their Faith is called knowledge as several times in this Chapter 2. There is the object of this Faith That the Father sent Christ into the world Austin understandeth it thus as if the meaning were They have known me not by nature or free-will but because I was sent into the world to reveal and cause this knowledge in them So that he expounds it in a causal sence They have believed wholly of grace because thou hast sent me to be the Sun of Righteousnesse enlightening of them But it 's more consonant to the customary use of that phrase to take in an objective sence making Christ sent to be the specifying object of their faith and as for the persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these who are said thus to know though some limit it to the Apostles only yet because the world is made the immediate opposite to it we are to extend it to all believers I have handled this description of believers Faith absolutely already both as it is called knowledge and as it is terminated upon Christ as sent by the Father and hereby distinguished from the absolute knowledge which men may have of God without Christ I shall therefore only take notice of it relatively as it stands by way of argument in this Petition for therefore doth Christ commend them as the fit objects of glory because they do believe though the world be wicked and mad opposers of the knowledge of God Obs That it 's an endearing respect of believers to God that they do own him and cleave to him when the whole world goeth the contrary way If the whole world did lie in godlinesse as it 's said to be in wickednesse If every one did believe in God then the excellency of such who do believe would not be so great If all the stones of the earth were jewels then these would not be so much set by and if all the weeds of the field were choice flowers then flowers would not be so much regarded so that the wickedness of the world is an excellent foil to the godliness of believers The darker the night is the light of the stars is thereby the brighter and this the Apostle alludeth unto in that glorious commendation given to the Saints at Philippi Phi. 2.15 where praying that they might be without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation he tels them they did shine as lights in the world So that as the darker the night is the more glory is in the star when it shineth so the more perverse and wicked the world is the more amiable and lovely is the faith of such who believe in Christ Hence it is that such an encouraging promise is made to such who confess Christ before men Mat. 18. that is an adulterous and wicked generation as Mar. 8 38. The acknowledging of God amongst so many vile opposers and wicked persecutors is especially taken notice of by God Thus when the Apostle Peter speaks of Lot how merciful God was in protecting and delivering him from the impendent judgements he giveth him this character that he was a just and righteous man 1 Pet. 2.7 which was abundantly discovered in this that he was vexed tormented as if he had been put upon the rack the word is applied to the very torments of hell with the conversation of the wicked his eye and ears yea the whole soul it self was vexed with their unlawful deeds for Lot to walk righteously and holily in the midst of such miscreants and incarnate devils as they were this moved God to have a more special care over him To consider this Truth more throughly take notice 1. That there is a wonderfull pronesse in every man by nature to do as the most do not to be thought more wise more holy or more strict then others especially to be scoffed or derided or persecuted for walking more strictly then others do this is much against flesh and bloud Hence it is that we have such a peremptory prohibition that we are not to follow a multitude to do evil Exo. 23.2 therefore our Saviour when he foretold that his disciples should be hated of all men for his Names sake he spake the most discouraging matter that could be for every one naturally would gladly have the good word of all the praise and applause of all But because that is impossible to please God and please men too therefore it is that he who will be godly who will do his duty he will stir up the generation of wicked men against him as so many hornets he shall neither have good name estate liberty or life it self if they could complete the height of their wickednesse now then must not this greatly indear them to God and Christ that though they be godly at so dear a rate though it cost them so much yet for all that they will not forsake God Oh saith God It 's for my sake thou art thus reproached thus persecuted if thou wouldst do as the world doth walk according to the course and fashion thereof Then the world would love and advance thee Let not then the godly be troubled but rejoyce rather under all the hard words and ungodly deeds which they meet with for all these