upon all occasions where there is less comfort from the Creature there is the greatest supply from Him he makes up the want and deprivation of other friends A Father of the Fatherless and a Judge of the Widdow is God in his holy Habitation Psal 68.5 He is a Father of others and he is a Judg of others but a Judg and Father to these in a more especial and peculiar manner There is none commonly which are better provided for then those oftentimes which are in such Conditions as these are And the Reason of it is because hereby God has the greater Honour and Glory both of his Power and Goodness He is more seen in such passages and dispensations of Providence as these and accordingly more to be acknowledged The Improvement whereof to our selves is to teach us to take notice of it both for our thankfulness and comfort It is a great Supportment to us in any low and sad Estate which at any time may befall unto us to consider and remember this truth that care which God has even of Infants and little Children in their helpless Condition And it may be carryed not onely to our selves for our own particular Person but also by way of inlargement to the whole Church and People of God as the Prophet Esay seems to express it in the name of God Himself Esay 46.3.4 Harken unto me O House of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are born by me from the Belly which are carryed from the Womb. And even to your old age I am he and even to your Hoary hairs will I carry you I have made and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you The Lord he takes upon him to be to his Church as a tender Nurse or Mother which bears her Children upon in her arms and according to these Expressions does he often deliver Himself As Exod. 10.4 I bear you on Eagles wings and brought you to my self So Deut. 32 11. As an Eagle stirreth up her Nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them upon her wings So did the Lord do with his People c. And Deut. 1.31 The Lord thy God beareth thee as a man doth bear his Son And Act 13.18 He suffered their manners in the Wilderness Some take it as a Nurse beareth or feedeth her Child so did the Lord bear and feed his Church Again we have an expression much like this in Hos 11.1.3 When Israel was a Child then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt I taught Epharim also to go taking them by their armes but they knew not that I healed them Thus does the Lord take care of his People in the worst Estate All which comes to this purpose to stir up our Faith and Confidence in God even for the good of his Church and people still in these sad and Calamitous times which are at present upon us And thus as David was cast upon God from the womb by the helplesness of his Condition Secondly By the faith of his Parents they resign'd him and gave him up to God to his care and defence and protection from their very first injoyment of them which shewes here the like duty to be practised by all other Parents whatsoever even to commit their children to God from the very first moment that God bestowes them upon them There are two things which are here exhibited and presenred unto us from this particular as a duty which lyes upon Parents in this regard First the Duty it self viz. To cast their children upon God and his fatherly providence And Secondly to do it early and betimes even from the womb it self Thus sayes David here upon thee was I cast from the womb First I say they must cast them upon and commit them to him which I do not speak to this purpose as that themselves should cast away all care and regard of them but that in the use of all lawful means they should devolve the chief care upon him to whom it chiefly belongs As God casts children upon Parents by giving children to them so they should cast them back again to him by commending them to his Custody and direction Secondly They must do it also betimes do it from the womb from the very first injoyment of them There are many which it may be will do it afterwards be content to cast them upon him when they have sufficiently provided for themseles but this is commended to us the doing it from their first beiginning This committing of your children to God is the safest provision for them that possibly you can make it is better then to comit them to the dearest friends that they may have in the world It is better then to commit them to the greatest estates that ye can purchase for them It 's better then to commit them to the greatest skill or ability which we can conveigh unto them all is nothing to this the casting of them upon God himself And so ye have also the third particular here mentioned The blessings of the Cradle Vpon thee c. The fourth and last is the blessing of the Covenant Thou art my God from my mothers belly where again are two particulars more First The blessing it self Thou art my God Secondly The extent of this Blessing from my mothers womb First The Blessing it self Thou art my God This hath more in it then all the rest besides and comprehends the other under it and something more Here 's the blessings of the first birth and the blessings of the New-birth And there are two things more again in it First Here 's an implication of interest Thou art my God that ownest me and I thee And Secondly here 's an Implication of Activity Thou art my God which standest to me and art careful for me First Here 's an Implication of Interest Thou art my God That is there is a Gracious Covenant drawn betwixt me and thee This we may observe as pertinent and belonging to every true Believer God makes over himself to him and he makes over himself to God They are mutually one another Thou art my God Only for the right understanding of it we must know in what order and method God begins with us and then we follow him God first chooses us and then we choose Him God first loves us and then we love him God first gives himself to us and then drawes our hearts and spirits in this gift to give our selves to him This is a great mercy and much to be acknowledged by us though we had nothing else in the world For God to be our God it is more then for all the Kingdomes of the Earth to be intayl'd upon us David in this one expression he includes every thing else which had been possible for him to have thought on and call'd to mind He could not well have said less and he could not possibly have said more If God be
calamities and worldly miscarriages That they may not be sickly or weakly or poor and mean and low in their outward condition but for other things they may be what they will be as wicked and impious and graceless and sinful as they please It was otherwise with this Godly and Religious Parent in the Text this Holy man Job who hath other kind of thoughts with himself I see saies he that I have many children and they are healthful and strong and towardly and likely to live in the world but this is not my greatest comfort that they are mine except also they may be God's I complain not of their carriage to me which is fair as to their outward deportment but I am afraid least they may forget him and trespass upon Him It may be my Sons have sinned And so parents in this particular they should labour to qualifie and abate the fears of them There was no question but Job had been carefull to instruct his children and as became so Godly a Father to give them good and pious education and yet for all that He was anxious and sollicitous about them It may be my sons have sinned we may therefore take notice of his fear even in this particular circumstance which may serve as an illustration Job He was afraid of his children even then when he had instructed his children and had used all good means that might be for the preventing them and keeping them from sin from whence we may observe thus much That there 's no trust to be given either to good Relations or good education consider'd alone by themselves Even the sons of Job it was possible they might sin and sin notoriously notwithstanding they had so good a father and one that was so carefull for his particular to make them good likewise It may be they have sinned The ground of it is this Because these things are no further successeful then it pleases God to vouchsafe his blessing to them which being denyed have no effect at all If God does not seal his instruction and sanctifie education to those who are made partakers of it it is all but in vain and to no purpose and comes to naught Grace it does not go either by inheritance or propagation but is oftentimes interrupted and broken off in a succession of persons though sometimes indeed upon other considerations there is a continuance and preservation of it as we see in Timothy his mother and Grandmother in 2 Tim. 1.5 The Use of this point is not to discourage any from such wayes as these are Godly education it is both a duty and likewise a Priviledge which both Parents are to be careful of for the giving it and Children to rejoyce in and to be thankful for as to the Participation But the Scope and Drift of this Observation comes to this that it be not trusted in or relyed upon by us as sufficient of it self which indeed it is not and so Job here thought who though he had been mindful of it even with Abraham to teach his children after him yet notwithstanding was not secure hereupon so as to think they were out of all danger God is pleased sometimes now and then even to frustrate the best Instructions that so we may rest wholy upon Himself and his free-Grace in the use of the means But what was that which gave occasion to Job now to Fear and thus to suspect It may be my Sons have sinned There are divers reasons and occasions for it First His Love and affection to them Love as I said in the beginning it is full of Sollicitude for the parties which it is carried unto As St. Paul expresses it to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11.2.3 I am Jealous over you with a Godly Jealousy for I have espoused you to one Husband c. But I fear c. Secondly Their General Corruption of Nature whosoever they be that have Flesh and Corruption in them even the best that are we may fear least they have sinned because they have the Ground and matter and Foundation of sin in them Homo sum humani c. Thirdly Their Age and Condition of Life They were Persons which were now in their Youth which is an Age subject to Miscarriage as any other whatsoever From its Rashness and Fierceness and Violence and Incogitancy c. There was ground enough for Suspicion from thence especially as to Youthful lusts more then others Fourthly Their Imployment or the occasion of their present meeting which was a Feast It was Eating and Drinking And there are great Snares and Temptations here and that of divers sorts as First To Gluttony and Drunkenness and Intemperance These are too often spots in men's Feasts not to Consider what is before them but to be given to Appetite Prov. 23.1.2 Feeding themselves without fear Jude Epist vers 12. To have their Hearts over-charged with Surfeting and Drunkenness Luk. 31. vers 34. Secondly To Strife and Contentions and Brawlings and Fightings c. Prov. 23.29.30 Who hath Woe Who hath Sorrow Who hath Contentions Who hath Bablings Who hath Wounds without cause c. They that tarry long at the Wine c. Thirdly Lascivious Carriages and Speeches Thine Eyes shall behold strange Women and thine Heart shall utter perverse things Prov. 13.33 Fourthly Atheisme and forgetfulness of God and Blaspheming of his name as it follows in the Text which in its place we shall come unto Sinned and have Cursed God in their Hearts Jesurun waxed fat and kicked Deut. 32.15 And Deut. 8.10 When thou hast eaten and art full beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping of his Commandments and his Judgements and his Statutes c. These and the like are such sins as are incident to such occasions which made Job to be so fearfull of his children in these present circumstances in which they were and became him so to be And the rather which we may add hereunto because Satan is usually vigilant to improve such opportunities as these all he can for the insnaring of poor souls And Job he was not now ignorant herein of Satans devices Well if Job was thus carefull for his part we may see how carefull we had need be for ours both in our own case and others to be jealous of the Temptations of our conditions and of the circumstances in which we are from our conversation in the world And so much of the miscarriage consider'd in the General proposition It may be that my sons have sinned The Second is the Particular instance or specification And have cursed God in their hearts This will require a little opening and explicating by us in regard of the great difference and variety of Interpretations The words in the Original Text runs otherwise for there it is It may be that my sons have sinned and blest God in their hearts which is quite contrary to that which is here exprest in our English Translation as also in divers other
and see what we are according to our care and indeavour in this particular If we shall go from day to day and never care to improve in Grace and the strengthning of our inward man but rather by wilfull neglect and carelesness weaken it and diminish from it this does too palpably discover that we are not that which we ought to be in Christianity For if we we we should find this disposition working in us to abound more and more as the Apostle Paul speaks to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.1 we should still find our selves getting up in spiritual strength Look as it is with a man which is in part cured and recovered out of some bodily distemper by how much the disease weakens the man strenthens as that looses of its power so he gains and gets more in his Even so it is also with that person which is brought out of his natural condition when the sinfull corruption of nature is healed in him Look how that does any thing decay so does Grace flourish in him and increase As it was in those two opposites for the Kingdom Saul and David David waxed stronger and stronger and the house of Saul waxt weaker 2 Sam. 3.1 Even so is it likewise here As Grace weakens so corruption does more and more increase and as Grace encreases so does Corruption loose of its strength These two they are like a pair of ballances when the one goes up the other is sure to go down and so contrarily That heart which has the work of Grace truly and indeed wrought in it it will be desirous and indeavouring after improvement and settlement of it self Let none therefore plead weakness and justifie and allow themselves in such a condition as that is for it is not sutable to a Christian temper The best Christians that are they may have weaknesses in them but they do not content themselves with those weaknesses They have so much strength in them as to be sensible and apprehensive of their weakness and so much Grace in them as to labour as soon as may be to come out of it and to gather strength And where we find it otherwise with our selves we have cause to bewail our selves and to be truly humbled for it As for those which have no strength at all they do not care for the renewing of strength nay indeed they cannot they are uncapable of it The renewing of strength does suppose the having of some strength allready to be renewed Carnal and natural men which have no work of Grace in their hearts nor the Spirit of Christ stirring in them they are not weak but dead and so uncapable of getting more strength The Impotency of corrupt Nature it is not weakness but wickedness and so to be accounted but where there 's weakness there is in part some strength which is mingled with it and where there is this strength there 's an indeavour to work out that weakness and to recover after some former abatings and diminishings of Grace in it self That 's the second particular viz. A Christians Disposition joyn'd with his Duty They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength that 's their Inclination The Third is their Priviledge what they may do or does indeed actually befall them They shall renew their strength that is This happiness belongs unto them This is their state and condition And this indeed seems to be the proper sense and meaning of the Text to express thus much to us wherein the Spirit of God shewes us the difference between these and others in a way of opposition The youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength The word which is here rendred Renew is in the Hebrew Text. Jachalifu which signifies properly they exchange it commut abunt vires that is they shall have another kind of strength bestowed upon them then that which they formerly had For there is a double kind of change to be observed and taken notice of by us There 's a change in Quality of the worse for the better And there 's a change in Quantity of the less for the Greater Now both of these Changes are in a Christian as to spiritual strength First They have a change in Quality Another sort and kind of strength then what they had before Conversion And Secondly A change in Quantity more strength then at their first Conversion First I say there 's a change in Quality They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength that is they shall have a new kind of strength bestowed upon them over what they had before Conversion as Caleb had another Spirit and Saul another heart For we must know that even before Conversion in natural and unregenerate persons there is a kind of strength which does appear in them and that also in reference to Religion and the Duties of it but it is not such a strength as is here meant in this present Text nor yet such as any are to satisfie and to rest themselves contented withal To explain it a little unto you ye may take it in these particulars First There 's the strength of temper and natural Constitution Secondly There 's the strength of Custome and Religious Education Thirdly There 's the strength of Civility and Moral principles Each of these kinds of strength there are and that also before Conversion First I say There 's the strength of Temper and natural Constitution this is such as may go very far and a man may be able both to do and suffer very much by it This is that which does for the most part extend it self to the outside and form of Religion and in those performances which belong to that Men by a natural strength may be very much in them whether a strength of bodily frame or a strength of Natural parts but it is not this which is sufficient and yet it is that which many rest themselves in and are contented withal The strength of Wit and Reason and Vnderstanding and Memory and the like whiles their heart and will and Affections have no saving work at all upon them Secondly There 's the strength of Custom and Religious Education This it will go very far likewise many which have been piously Educated and brought up and accustomed to such and such Performances they through Vse and Exercise contract some kind of strength to themselves for the doing of them and become strong in the outward bulk of Religion This was such a strength as was in Joash whiles his Uncle Jebojada liv'd He did that which was good and right in the sight of the Lord though afterwards he departed from it And so 't is also with many others besides They have nothing which does so much act them and put them forward to any thing which is good but as it is that which they have been alwayes used and accustom'd unto Thirdly There 's the strength of
day when I shall make up my jewels And I will spare them as a manspareth his own son that serveth him Then ye shall return and discern betwixt the righeous and the wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Discern betwixt them namely in regard of my different dealings with them those that are different from other men in their carriage and behaviour towards God he will be also different in his carriage towards them over what he is towards other men Secondly Such as these they do close and comply with him in the way of his Judgments therefore he will be more gracious to them They come off to him in those ends which he propounds to himself in his visitations and so prevent him and save him a labour The reason why God at any time sends any plagues and punishments upon any people it is in reference to the abominations which are done amongst them Wicked and Atheistical persons which are besotted and given up to an hard and reprobate heart they look upon such things as these are as onely matters of chance and casualty or at the most but of common providence and so are little affected with them But those that are the Children of God and that understand any thing in Religion they know there is somewhat more in it and accordingly consider it and that is in reference to sin and to work men to a detestation of it and mourning for it Now therefore those that do so of themselves they do so far forth make it needless and superfluous with them they that cry before correction they shall not need to cry after it or to cry in it and they that of themselves do sigh and mourn for the common abominations they shall not need to be afflicted thereby to make them mourn And God loves not at all to afflict more than needs must The consideration of this point shews us therefore what is to be done by our selves at this present time and upon these occasions Now that Gods judgments are abroad in the Land and abroad in the City now that the Destroyer is gone forth with his Commission as we see he is amongst us we see here what is the best course to be taken by us to preserve our selves from this common desolation namely by sighing and crying for the abominations that are committed amongst us This is the way if any at all to have a mark set upon our foreheads by way of distinction Gods Tokens in this sense is the way to prevent his Tokens in another If we be careful and diligent so to order and dispose our selves towards him he may bestow this special favour upon us There are divers sorts of persons in the world which come short of this duty and practise of sighing and crying for these abominations which we may briefly take notice of by way of Illustration First Those that practsse them and do rather add unto them Those that make the abominations are far enough from mourning for them and so consequently far enough from this priviledge here mentioned in the Text of having a mark set upon them Therefore in this sighing and crying is included mending and reforming It is not enough for any in these cases onely to cry out upon others and to seem to bewail the wickedness which is done in the land or done in the City and in the mean time to allow or nourish the same or like wickedness in themselves But it implies an absolute hatred and loathing of those things in their own hearts He that truly and sincerely bewails and laments others abominations he is careful to suppress his own and as much as may be to withdraw and abstain from them Whosoever they be that do otherwise they fall short both of the Duty and of the Mercy of the Duty of sighing and crying and of the Mercy of being preserv'd and exempted from judgment and destruction in reference thereunto as is here declared of such persons Secondly such as some also there are that do encourage others in wickedness and not only not restrain them but rather countenance them and further them in it These are also very far from this performance yea indeed quite opposite to it and so instead of receiving a mark of preservation upon their foreheads may rather expect to receive a mark of vengeance and destruction upon their Persons Thirdly which is a lower degree of it which do not lay the sins and abominatins to their heart which are not humbled for them which it concerns them and becomes them to be And this is that which we are now at this time from the Text more especially to conform to As we desire that our selves may be hid and secured in the day of Gods anger that we may be kept and preserved from destruction it behoves us secretly to lay to heart both our own and others provocations and to make our peace with God in Christ As we desire that God should not judge us it concerns us to judge our selves And that we may do it so much the more effectually take notice of these following directions First Labour to discern and to take notice of the abominations themselves they that will sigh and cry for them they must first know what they are and it is not difficult for us to do that if we do but open our eyes Indeed they are so various and infinitely many as that it is hard to sum them up but yet withall they are so obvious and notorious as that it is an easie matter to observe them and to be sensible of them As to instance in some few of them The abominable Adultery and Uncleanness that is in the Land the strange and unnatural Lusts Swearing Drunkenness Injustice Formality Hatred of the very power of Religion and almost the very name of it contempt of the Gospel and Ministry gross Ingratitude and Hypocrisie and which is the heighth of all an Impudency and Shamelesness in sin a daring of God to his very face and in a manner bidding him to do his worst as not caring for it Never was more wickedness in England than has been in these few latter years Assembling themselves by troops in the harlots houses As fed horses in the morning every one neighing after his neighbours wife as it is in Jer. 5.8 And these things not onely not lamented but rather rejoyced in and made a matter of saughter and merriment than any thing else as if there were no great matter in them Now Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this is Can we think to go clear and scot-free amongst so many calamities and are we not nearly concerned to observe them and to take notice of them But secondly As we are to discern these things that so we may the better lament them so we must look upon them in their aggravations and the circumstances that do attend them not
these and the disposing of them to do all things Spirtually it is not ours but Christ's As a Trumpet that gives a sound but it is from the breath of the Man that blows through it so it is with us in this particular we perform such and such Duties materially and as to the outward substance of the action but it is Christ that chiefly and principally works in us and by us as the Apostle Paul most fully expresses it to this purpose 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me The third thing considerable to this purpose is a Spiritual Activity or Operation which is likewise conveyed to us by Christ and by him alone he does not onely give us the life of Grace and a Power issuing from this life but he likewise gives us the very Act and Deed it self for such a particular performance There is not the best man that is and who has most of the sanctifying Grace of the Spirit of Christ in him but he needs the present and actual assistance of the same Spirit as immediately concurring to such particular good actions that is to be done by him he needs not onely preventing and operating grace but assisting and co-operating grace to be bestowed upon him and to be joyn'd with it And this is that which is here intended by our Blessed Saviour speaking to his Disciples and in them to all other Christians whiles he sa◠〈◊〉 without me ye can do nothing not onely without me as who must give the general activity but also without me as who must give the particular accomplishment If Christ does not give the actual performance as well as the general qualification there is nothing which will be done by us to any purpose This can be no wonder to us if we do but consider how it is with us even in other matters of inferiour consideration take 〈◊〉 but in common business and the transactions of our ordinary Callings and we shall find it to be so even here That we have need not onely of common and general inablement but also of special and particular assistance In the Ministery for example it is not enough to have some general qualifications and abilities for the work but there is need moreover of Gods particular assistance and immediate concurrence with us in every particular Sermon and Exercise that is undertaken by us In the Souldiery it is not enough to beat large qualified for the Wars but they need Gods assistance of them and standing by them in every Battel and Encounter And so in Physick it is not enough to have skill in general but an application of it to his particular Disease and Patient and Condition certain hints and suggestions from God himself answering to the present occasion As it is said of our Blessed Saviour himself when people came to him to be cured of their several infirmities that the power of the Lord was present with him to heal them Luke 5.17 Such a presence of Power as this is whereof we now speak is requisite for any other besides Now as it is thus in Temporals and Corporals so it holds in Spirituals and Supernaturals especially that there is required not onely Grace in the Habit and Principle but also in the very Act and Performance This is suitable and agreeable to divers other places of Scripture as Hos 14.8 it is the speech of God to Ephraim From me is thy fruit found and Isa 26 12. it is the speech of the Church to God Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us or in us And so Ezek. 36.27 I will cause you to walk in my statutes c. To open this Point a little further to us and speak more distinctly of it we must know that there are three things which God does work and which it is requisite for him that he should work in us in order to any Spiritual performance which is to be done by us even after the first work of Conversion and saving Grace wrought in our hearts First he strengthens and confirms the habit of them whereby he fits us and qualifies us for such a duty which he requires of us Secondly he excited and nourishes this Habit whereby he inclines us and makes us disposed to the performance of this duty Thirdly He assists and concurs with this Habit as to the act and performance it self Each of these does God do for us and it is requisite and necessary that he should do so or else otherwise there could be no good action expected from us He strengthens the Habit he inclines to the Duty and he assists the Act. First I say he strengthens the Habit whether of Faith or Love or Patience or any other Grace which might be named by us This is the spring and source of all good actions in us which therefore had need to be preserved and confirmed in us all that may be and the ' rather because it is subject to so much weakness and shaking as it is There are so many corruptions and temptations which the Servants of God are exercised withall as that they have need of daily confirmation of the Graces of the Spirit of God in them which would otherwise languish and decay and for this purpose does God do it for them This was that which the Apostle pray'd for in behalf of the Ephesians Ephes 3.16 17. That God would grant unto them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith c. And so likewise in behalf of the Colossians that they might be strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness strengthned with all might And this accordingly is that which the Apostle Paul professes of himself that he can do all things through Christ that strengthens him Phil. 4.13 Which words that we may rightly understand them are to be taken by us in their latitude and emphasis both Positively and also Exclusively that through Christ strengthning him he can do all things and without Christ strengthning him he was able to do nothing That 's the first thing here considerable in this business of Christ's concurrence with us in the doing of good he strengthens the Habit. Secondly As he strengthens the Habit so he likewise inclines the mind to the particular duty to be performed For though we have such and such Principles and Habits of grace conferr'd and bestowed upon us as qualifying us for such and such Duties yet we have not always and continually in us a readiness and promptness of mind for the exercise and improvement of them but we have a great deal of sluggishness and awkness upon us in this