God's Grace is great Comfort and Security for a departing Minister to commend his People unto This is the second part of the Remedy I shall be brief herein Now I commend you to this Word 1. Because it is of indispensible Necessity Happiness is the great principle Nature hath implanted in every creature all its motions are in tendency to its rest and tranquility Now the happiness and chiefest good of the rational Creatures is God who is the Fountain and supream End of all good to enjoy him is an Heaven to his People here on Earth and the Heaven of heavens to Saints and Angels to behold and enjoy his beatificial Vision And though the light of Nature works of Creation and Providence do manifest that there is a God his Goodness Lordship and Sovereignty over all as to leave men inexcusable Rom. 1.19 yet are they not sufficient to give that Knowledge of God and his Will which is necessary to Salvation 1 Cor. 1.21 2.13 14. How little doth the Book of Nature teach us what an one God is that there is a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity three Persons and but one God every of the three Persons God the Father God the Son God the holy Ghost God yet not three Gods but one God! How little doth it teach us how this God will be worshiped how little doth it acquaint us with the excellent state of our Creation our miserable Apostacy how God came to be displeased with man and how he must be reconciled it tells us nothing of our Redemption from Sin Satan the Wrath of God by the Incarnation Death and Suffering of the Son of God it saith nothing of the Day of Judgement and Resurrection of our Bodies it tells us nothing and though it may possibly acquaint us with an immortal State yet what that Happiness is and what that Misery is how we came to be deprived naturally of that Happiness and how it must be recovered and who they be that shall enjoy it it saith nothing all which must be known before they can be believed Rom. 10. and they must be believed before we can be saved John 3.16 And therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and by divers manners to reveal himself and declare his Will to his Church Heb. 1.1 and afterward for the better preserving and propagating the Truth and for more sure establishment comfort of the Church against the corruptions of the flesh the malice of Satan and the World that she be not drowned in prophaness dejected by persecution blinded by ignorance misled by errours poysoned by heresies superstition and idolatry it pleased God to commit the same to writing which makes the sacred Scriptures most necessary those former wayes of God's revealing his will to his People being now ceased The Sun is not more necessary to enlighten warm and make fruitful this inferiour the World than the Word of God is for the World better to want the Sun in the Heavens than the Word of God in the World 2. I commend you to this Word because it is a compleat Word it is perfect as well as necessary such is the perfection of this Word that nothing is to be added to it nor diminished from it Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the Word I command you nor diminish from it Yea if an Angel from Heaven should preach and reveal another word than this he is accursed Gal. 1.8 9. God threatens that if any man shall add to the things wrote in his Word to add to him all the Plagues wrote in the Book And if any man shall take away from the Words of the Prophecy God will take away his part out of the Book of Life Rev. 22.18 19. all which Commands and Threatenings had not been given if God's Word had not been perfect it is compleatly perfect for the information of our understanding and will in things to be believed and for our direction in things to be avoided and practised 2 Tim. 3.17 18. All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto every good Work This teacheth you all things necessary to be known and believed in order to Salvation that there is a God and what an one this God is it teacheth you that there is a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity that there is three Persons and but one God every one of the Persons God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost-God yet not three God's but one God It teacheth you what an one God is in his Attributes in his Works of Nature and of Grace This tells you what was our Primitive Excellency and Happiness in Creation our Deformity and Misery in our Fall This perfectly declares our Redemption from Sin Satan Gods Wrath by the Incarnation Death and Passion of Jesus Christ the Son of God that as Mediator and Redeemer he is the Priest Prophet and King of his Church what he hath done suffered and purchased for Us Pardon and Justification Peace with God and Reconciliation Adoption Grace and Glory It assures us of a Day of Judgement and Resurrection of all Persons from the Grave Of the blessed Estate of the Godly of the Misery of the Ungodly and the Eternity of both This directs you in things to be avoided all Duties of your several Relations to be practised Duties of your general and particular Calling Duties of Piety in the first Table Duties of Righteouss Charity and Temperance in the second Table as Husbands and Wives as Children and Parents as Masters and Servants according to your Relations of Consanguinity Affinity Friendship and Neighbourhood and therefore we are commanded to lay the Word up in our hearts richly in all Wisdom Col. 2.16 and to speak of it to our Children when we sit down in our houses walk by the way when we lye down and when we rise up Deut. 11.18 19. Yea Kings and supream Authorities of a Nation must reade in this Book all their dayes that they may fear God and administer Justice and Judgement to the People that they may relieve the Oppressed to be Encouragements and Defenders of the Good and Terrours to Evil-doers 3. I commend you to this Word because of its daily Usefulness and Profitableness every day and in every condition it is useful and profitable unto you and very suitable 1. It is a Light to enlighten and guide you How useful and comfortable is Light to man shut up in a dark Dungeon How useful and beneficial is a Light to a Traveller when the night is very dark the Moon and Stars covered with pitchie Clouds the way very miry and dirty dangerous by pits and precipices and easie to be mistaken By nature your souls are like a dark Dungeon having no saving knowledge of God of your selves your sin and misery nor of Christ the Sovereign Remedy But this Word
the Apostles of Christ It hath been the design of Satan and the work of the corrupt hearts of men in all Ages to be making Additions to the Commands of Christ and to be mingling mens Inventions with the Institutions of Christ in matters of Worship Churches are very apt to degenerate from plain Spiritual Worship and the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ into a name to 〈◊〉 a meer outward form of Religion and a gay and pompous way of worshipping God such as may most please the flesh and fancy of men Now in such a case it is the duty of God's People to remember how they have received and heard They should remember that God hath said he will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.23 24. and what Christ hath said Mat. 15.3 10. and Mark 7.7 8 9. Reade these Scriptures at leisure This was Christ's Doctrine And when the Church was very much degenerated God bids them Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein Not the old paths of Custom Tradition the opinion and practice of forefathers but those wayes that are as old as your Bibles are as the Word of God and the Gospel is for these are the good old way Other wayes may be old but not good When things of mens devising are put upon men and crowded into God's Worship Christians should run to their Bibles and ask Was it so from the beginning Did Christ and his Apostles preach pray administer and receive Sacraments thus how did they appoint them to be dispensed Christians should account it wisdom enough to follow their direction and example Certainly they worshipped God decently yet they contented themselves with what they had received of the Lord without making additions of their own When any thing is obtruded upon God's People in matters of Worship they should try all things by the Word of God It is a saying of Cyprian to this purpose in an Epistle of his Si canalis aquam ducens subito deficiat nonne ad fontem pergitur c. If the Conduit-pipe or Cistern which was wont to give forth water plentifully suddenly stop do not men go to the Fountain to find out the cause whether the Fountain be dry or the veins stopped c. Sic â—â—portet facere Dei sacerdotes si in aliquo nutaverit aut vâ—â—â—llaverit veritas ad originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam traditionem revertamur c. Let us return to the Word and Gospel and Apostolical tradition that which is truly so called and can be proved from undisputable authority to be such This is a safe Rule and the way to keep Churches from corruption and rightly to reform them if they be in any thing corrupted 3. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from spiritual deadness to remember what they have received and heard for the directing of their practice and ordering of their conversations They should remember practical Truths the Commands Counsels Exhortations Directions they have found in and heard from the Word of God These should be had in everlasting remembrance They are to be remembred by Christians all their dayes and never to be forgotten Though some notions should through weakness slip out of your minds yet practical Truths should be written not in the dust but on your hearts as on marble engraven as with the point of a diamond never to be razed out Oh Beloved many many of these have you received and heard You have been pressed unto publick family secret relative duties you have been directed how you should hear reade pray confer receive Sacraments how you should carry your selves as Magistrates Ministers People Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants in commerce traffique and dealings with men Oh remember these things And especially if such times should come when you may not hear so much and often of these things as heretofore you have done 4. It is the duty of Christians to remember the reproofs and warnings against sin they have received and heard The remembrance of these will be a means to keeâ—â—ou from sin You have been many times warned to take heed of sin as a most venemous Serpent and the most inveterate enemy both of God and of your own souls God hath sent his Messengers rising early to warn you to take heed of all sin You have been warned to beware of Prophaness Sabbath-breaking Error Superstition yea and of Hypocrisie Formality Deadness Apostacy you should remember what and how you have received and heard so as to take heed of these and all other sins and especially when you shall be in an hour of temptation when these sins may be rise common and grow in fashion 5. It is the duty of Christians and a means both to keep and recover from deadness to remember the forewarnings they have had of God's Judgments You have been told of God's Judgments against sin in general and against such and such sins in particular You have been told of Afflictions Sufferings Persecutions that you must look for You have been told of these in the written Word and by Gods Ministers And you should especially remember these when you see Judgments coming or feel them already executed Remember those warnings in the Word of God John 16.1 2 3 4 33. Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 O Christians you have been forewarned that Error in Judgment Wantonness in Opinion and Practice under the Gospel loathing of Manna would bring a famine of the Word that decayes in and leaving of first Love would cause God to remove his Candlestick that deadness and formality would cause God to come as a thief in the night to take away the Gospel and all your precious things O therefore Christians when you see such Judgments coming or feel them upon you remember what and how you have received heard and this Remembrance will be a special means to bring you to Repentance 6. And lastly It is the duty of Christians 〈◊〉 â—emember the comforts they have received in and heard from the Word of God those grounds of comfort precious Cordials and strong Consolations you have read and heard to bear up your hearts under the sence of sin and apprehensions of God's wrath and in a time of dissertion and against the fierce and fiery assaults of Satan the strength of corruption weakness of grace difficulty of duty as also under afflictions from God and sufferings and persecutions from men This will be a means to keep the hearts and hopes of Christians alive in the saddest conditions they can be brought into It will be of great use in an evil day And thus I have shewed you what it is for the matter Christians are chiefly and especiallp to remember Secondly For the further explication of the duty in the Doctrine I come now to shew how for the 〈◊〉 Christians are to remember how they have received and heard And this is more expresly spoken of in the Text
have Tribulation but be of good Comfort As you should be humble in Prosperity so quiet and chearful in Adversity Carry an even frame in each state Let your Moderation be known unto all men even in bearing Afflictions Be not overmuch cast down with any trouble Let the Enemy see that you have been with God by the Gladness of your Countenance You 'l discredit Religion by too much drooping Let not others say You serve a hard Master God that knows all things knows what condition is best for you and how to deal with you Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes Though Adversity and the Wicked may intermeddle with your outward comforts and take them away yet let them see you have inward Joyes with which they cannot intermeddle nor take away 13. Esteem and approve Time as a precious Commodity Husband Opportunities for Soul-Advantage When you have spare hours improve them in Reading Meditation and Prayer Redeem Time from sleep your callings and recreations in order to Heaven Men usually work sleep and recreate more than necessity calls for and then cry out they have no time for holy Exercises Oh what would damned spirits give for two or three of those hours which we throw away Oh how would they spend them would they sleep play or work them away Nay how would they Pray Read and Repent more in one hour than we do in many Brethren the time is short your work is much you have God to honour your Relations to watch over your own Evidences to make clear O then redeem precious Time do not throw it away Ephes 5.16 15. Contend earnestly for the Faith Jude 3. Maintain fundamental Truths I do not mean that you should fall a wrangling with every one you meet The Apostle indeed takes notice of some men that place their Religion in fightings of Words in conflicting with the Air in janglings and disputings about things they understand not 1 Tim. 1.5 6. Some place their Religion in being of this and that Opinion and indeed they are meer Opinionists Our meaning is this When the Enemies of the Church labour to root up the necessary and very foundation Truths of Christianity that we should stick to them As Paul he did earnestly contend for the Doctrine of Christ being the Messiah against the Jews He maintained the Doctrine of the Resurrection against the Saduces The Doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness against the Teachers of the Law He doth strongly and vehemently maintain Divine Worship against the idolatrous worship of the Athenians And so should we contend opportunely and wisely with tongues and lives Contend against Justification by Works against Idolatry rather than God's Honour should be given to dumb Idols give your honour to the Dust Consider fundamental yea every Truth hath been confirmed by no less than Miracles preserved in a miraculous way and sealed in the Blood both of Christ and of Martyrs Never then sell the Truth but buy it 16. Get longing Desires after the Enjoyment of God in Heaven Let your hearts be often sending sighs thither Long till you be at home Groan earnestly till mortality be clothed with Immortality 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Say as he When shall I come and appear before God Long till you be in Heaven that so you may have constant Communion with God's Angels and Saints that ye may be wholly freed from sin and made perfect in Holiness Let your Conversation be in Heawhilst you are on Earth To this end get more acquaintance with Heaven Study till you be convinced that it is and what it is Understand what that Happiness is that Saints enjoy there When you have got minds informed and hearts affected with it often muse and meditate of it This heavenly Conversation is very sweet it will comfort us when we are never so sad Well may the soul say Now I am full of sin O but then no sin I am now sold under sin O but then I shall be free Now I dishonour God but then I shall honour him altogether Now I am in continual fear of falling into sin but then I shall be past all danger Now I am in continual sorrow but then all tears shall be wip'd away Now I am kept in bondage through fear of death but then there shall be living and no more Death and so no more fears of it Moreover this would teach us to understand the World When we do experimentally taste Heavens Joyes we shall despise Earths Pleasures when we seriously think of that Friendship and Communion we shall have with Friends in Heaven even God Christ Angels and Saints it will wean us from Friends on Earth and make us more willing to leave them And when we think of Heavens Honour we shall undervalue the honours and scorn the contempt we meet with in this world Get now and then upon the top of Pisgah and solace your selves with a view of the Heavenly Canaan Having now given you an account of those main Duties and Counsels that relate more immediately to God and your souls I shall briefly give you the sum of those Counsels I have to leave you about things that relate more nearly to you and others with whom you converse and have to do The first is this 1. Discharge domestical Duties Study and perform the Duties that every Relation calls for Act as Christian Parents and Christian Masters towards your Children and Servants bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord call on them to reâ—d the Scriptures frequently that even of Children they be acquainted with that which will make them wise to Salvation keep them to a form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 hold them to the Principles of Religion Catechisms are called A Form of sound words because they keep the Judgment and Affections sound they help to discern betwixt Truth and Error fit and prepare for hearing of the Word preached and for the receiving of the Lord's Supper For want of this we may observe notorious ignorance in grown youth and old men also For want of this how many that are Fathers in years are meer Children in understanding Again pray with and for your Children and Servants and set them to pray by themselves for this end give them time convenient do not so much forward them in your service as to hinder them from serving God your Servants have God to acknowledge honour and serve as well as you they have sins to be pardoned corruptions to be subdued Graces to beg wants to be supplied and souls to be saved as well as you and will you make them throw their souls over-board to secure your goods And so study to carry as Christians in every other Relation Carry as Christian Husbands and Christian Wives are directed and ought to do that the Gospel of Christ be not blamed upon your account And so you that are Children and Servants as you expect your Parents and Masters should discharge their duties towards you so it is expected you should
Alas that I should be forc'd to speak a word which will be so little for the honor of the Gospel The Professors thereof in England are become flow to Duty and of a drowsie temper As to publick specious but little serious as to private perhaps constant but very cold as to secret I doubt very careless A Professor of late hath been little or nothing more than another man save only that he hath heard one Sermon in a week more Alas the very best are remiss and seem to be of the declining hand If a serious zealous Christian of another Church should demand of our Ministers concerning their people as the followers of John asked our Saviour concerning his Disciples Mat. 9.14 Why do we and the Professors of other Churches fast oft c. but your people fast not pray not sanctifie not the Sabbath to any purpose Is it not because the Bridegrooms are with them is it so indeed The day is just upon you that the Bridegrooms are taken away God grant that our curb may prove your spurt The less we must do for you the more do you for your selves and your Children 7. Call to remembrance old Truths repeat in your hearts and in your houses too what ye have formerly received chew upon the Word that you have formerly eaten Who knows but that God may have taken you off your meat your green and flourishing Pastures on purpose to make you find your cud On the precious Truths that at this day lye by the Professors of England as stale commodities or meats out of season verily one Sermon-less-year will make you make a meal of the most despiseable and homely dish that was ever set before you If you can but suck at old Truths with new appetites you will find fresh vertue coming from them and that Doctrine that was laid aside as having served one turn may be effectually taken up for many other good purposes in the soul It is said of our Saviours Disciples once and again in the Gospel after he himself was removed from them Then they remembred the words of Jesus his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them Joh. 2.22 and again Joh. 12.16 These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they c. The former part of this verse Ah! how true is it of this People of England Oh that the latter part may be found so to that this affliction may prove a rod to bring to remembrance both sins committed and Truths neglected that so the People of God may be truly humbled and the Gospel of God greatly furthered In a word What ever God shall reveal unto you as a pertinent Duty as a Duty of the season as a means to further the eternal Gospel of Christ that do In the mean time praying and purposing as Elihu sayes is meet Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more SERMON IX Ephes 6.18 With all Prayer DYing Israel gave his Children portions and to Joseph one above his Brethren Gen. 48.22 I would commend one or two parts above what some of your brethren are content to sit down with All Prayer Three are All as we speak of principles I. Publick Prayer Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the dayes of my Life to behold the Beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple He subjected himself to the appointed publick means and resolved his pursuance of them in case of hidings This Ordinance of Solemn Meetings appointed 1. That God's Name may be hallowed Psal 29.1 2. Give unto the Lord Glory worship Him in the Beauty of Holiness Glory must be given unto the Lord and we must alwayes look what way the Lord hath prescribed for it and that is in his own Ordinances Singularly is the glory of God's Power Wisdom Goodness c. born upon the shoulders of many this way God rides in triumph The Kings honour is in multitude of Subjects Blessed Parents have a full quiver Great Men have many poor at their gates At an Assize and Sessions Great Men have more cognizances than at private meetings and this for their honours When Men Women and Children lay siege to Heaven Haec vis grata Deo Tertul. It 's the Glory of God to be overcome by a multitude 2. Herein his People are regarded 1. Hopes given them of Audience Mat. 18.20 There 's a threefold cord in this one kind of Prayer strong to remove Evils and a powerful twist to pull down Blessings The Wayes sure will be mended when not only rich men with their teems but cottages with their scuttles come to the common work 2. The Godly quickned in the Duty Growing and thriving People have that language Zech. 8.21 Come let us go and Pray I 'l make one in Prayer O come let us worship 3. Others stir'd up When they see a King a Landlord a Master casting a copy for them 2 Chron. 6.12 Thus they are ready to reason See my concernments are like theirs but not my heart zeal love to God watchfulness preparation c. What a fool am I in the midst of the Congregation c. II. Private Prayer Josh 24.25 I and my House will serve the Lord. There should be right houshold-Order and Government according to the Rule amongst Christians Col. 4.1 Paul speaks to Masters of Families to carry like good Kings in the first verse and in the second minds them of their Priestly Office Continue in Prayer This Kind instituted First That his Name may be hallowed The wise and merciful God hath a quick Eye and a strong Shoulder as he knoweth so he profers to bear burdens wherewhith Families are loaden Cast your care on me for I care for you When we lock up our selves at night and have Prayer the Key at our girdles letting out our selves in the morning under his Providence we have him for our God and acknowledge him what he is Secondly Families regarded 1. A bar to domestick Discords There must necessarily be a studied intended right carriage in the family where Prayers are on foot 2. Servants and Children acquainted with their Duties framed to that Worship of God fitted for publick Prayer c. 3. Superiors in Families hereby are under rich Promises Gen. 18.17 4. Affaires of the whole sanctified 1 Tim. 4.5 I I. Secret Prayer Mat. 6.6 This kind instituted First That God's Name may be hallowed For the more self is set aside more way is made for God's Glory the Glory of his Omnisciency c. Secondly Particular regard of man 1. As to the matter of Prayer What an Hell the House would be but for the Closet If the wife heard the confessed vile miscarriages of the husband and â—he husband did but peep into the heart of the wife through an open window and so in other
Sabbaths and yet in vain how many Sermons and yet in vain how many Threatnings Promises Entreaties and yet in vain how many strivings of the Spirit and yet in vain How hath God fed this Nation with the finest of the Flower and best of the VVheat and made the Rock to drop with Honey and yet how lean wonderfully lean are the souls of these Nations like Pharoah's lean Kine in the enjoyment of thrice seven years of plenty of the Gospel how hath he made his Clouds to rain upon you even to the emptying and wasting of themselves and yet in vain Are you not Rocks and Mountains hard and barren now even as before how little Reformation in your Parish in your Families how little are Husbands and VVives how little are Parents and Children Masters and Servants reformed how little is Religion and God's VVorship set up in your Families how little do you endeavour to bring your VVives your Husbands your Children and Servants to a saving knowledge of God! how little do you catechise and instruct them and how little do you labour to see Christ formed in the hearts of your domestick relations How few old sins do you leave how few new duties do you take up and practise How little do you endeavour to perform duties in a more holy humble and servent manner than before May not his Ministers cry out in the language of the Prophet they have laboured in vain they have spent their strength in vain And judg I pray you Sirs is it not just with the Lord when our Nation our Parishes your Families remain unfruitful after such multiplied cost and pains and this for so many years is it not just with the Lord now to say England such Towns and Parishes such Families such Persons are given to barrenness let them alone I will command the Clouds they rain no Rain upon them 2. The Second ground and reason of a Ministers removal from a People is those persecutions and afflictions that befal them Sometimes the Persecution falls upon the Church in general upon People and Pastors and then Ministers cannot with that clearness and justifiableness leave their Flocks as when some Ministers only are aimed at God's Church is compared to a Lilly among Thorns to a flock of Sheep amongst Wolves and Noahs Ark upon the deluge tossed to and fro with storms and tempests upon the Sea of this troublesome world There is an irreconcileable enmity betwixt the interest of Christ and the interest of Satan and therefore no wonder if the gates of Hell the policy and power of infernal darkness are united and combined against the Church of Christ The Devil is called a Red Dragon Rev. 12. A Dragon denoting his hurtful poisonous and destructive nature and a red Dragon denoting his cruelty that he is delighted in and becoloured with the blood of God's People and all the storms and persecutions that have befallen the Church he hath raised them He labours with might and main with rage and fury by imprisonments by banishments by fire and faggot to eradicate and totally to destroy Christ's Kingdom and Interest out of the world either by falling upon the Church in general or upon her Lights Guides and Watch-men in particular Remove the Watchmen and the Garison is easily surprized and taken put out the Lights and you are surrounded with darkness take away the Guide and the Travellor is eaeasily seduced and therefore Satan sometimes in his persecutions aimes chiefly at pious learned painful and zealous Ministers because they most of all like burning and shining Lights squander and dispel the darkness of his kingdom discover and manifest his hellish and subtile stratagems and methods of deceiving poor souls and lead them from them into the wayes of Piety and Salvation because they are as God's Boanarges's and Barnabasses battering down the walls of his kingdom presumption security and dispaire by awakening men and women out of their spiritual lethargy and letting them see their danger and misery that they may escape it and on the other hand by comforting raising up such as are dejected and under temptations to despaire and on both hands lessen and weaken his interest in the world and therefore the Devil to secure his own interest and to oppose to hinder and to destroy the Interest of Christ will have them burnt or banished silenced their mouths stopped that no more lightning and thunder no more Cordials and Comforts come from them or by violent on-set of hot Persecution make them run and fly for it When they persecute you in one City flee ye into another And as the interest of Satan is one ground of Persecution so the irreconcilable enmity betwixt the Interest of Christ and the sinful corrupt interests of ungodly men is another ground of Persecution upon the Church of banishing imprisoning and silencing Ministers to be a friend to the one is to be an enemy to the other The friendship of the world saith James is enmity with God and whosoever will be a friend of the world is a enemy of God Jam. 5.4 If Ministers dare and will comply with the sinful interests of great men and become Court-flatterers and Parasites to Kings either to preach up or not to preach down their State-Corruptions and Wickedness they shall have peace and protection If you were of the world saith our Saviour to his Disciples that is of the principles customes fashions of the world the world would love you for she loves her own Joh. 15.19 And this was the reason why Antichristian false doctrines were so much imbraced in the dayes of John because they were doctrines of the world doctrines pleasing flesh and blood and sutable to the principles customes and interests of sinful men They are of the world therefore they speak of the world and the world heareth them 1 John 4.5 Never was there any Interest of Great men so sinful and corrupt nor any Religion owned countenanced and established by Authority so superstitious idolatrous and abominable as to want Defenders and Promoters some for favour some for fear some for secular advantages to preserve and keep what they have or to gain honours preferments and riches by it others from their choice and election loving and delighting in that way The way and means that Jeroboam and his Council contrived to withdraw and keep the People from going to Jerusalem to sacrifice and to secure the ten revolted Tribes to him his posterity was abominable idolatry against which they had many caviates and cautions from God for which their fore-fathers had been severely punished Exod. 32. Judg. 2.10 11 12 13. 3.5 6 7 8. yea for this their famous King Solomon lately deceased was threatned with the renting of part of his Kingdom from his Posterity and verified in this revolt 1 Kings 11. Yet notwithstanding all this the sinful contrivance of Jeroboam wanted not owners and promoters for besides the Courtiers and the common People the lowest of whom he consecreated
People This I shewed you before and applied it Now in the last place and my last opportunity I come to the Grand Cure and Sovereign Remedy for the above named Maladies God and the Word of his Grace The Doctrine is this That God and the Word of his Grace are the best Security and Comfort a departing Minister can commend his People unto The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath divers significations in the New Testament but in this place and some others it properly signifies Fidei alicutus depositum servandam trado committo we commit something to the care and fidelity of another for security and preservation Thus our blessed Saviour when he dyed on the Cross 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke 23.46 And the Apostle Peter exhorting the Christians not to be dispondeâ— and dejected under the Sufferings they met with for Christ's sake but in the midst of their sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto him as to a Faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 Thus the Apostle commits these Ephesian Ministers and all the Christians in Ephesus their souls their bodies and all the affairs and concernments of that Church both under Persecution and in the midst of contagious Heresies and Doctrines to the defence and protection of God and to the direction light and preservation of his holy Word So that if you please to give a name to my Text let it be this The departing Pastor's Security and Comfort for his left People c. When the Father of a family lies upon his death-bed and ready to take his ultimum vale of the world commends his Wife and Children to the care counsel and direction to the defence and protection of his most trusly faithful and assured Friends saying I am now going the way of all flesh and my deare Wife will become a discousolate Widow and my tender Children will be fatherless and I shall no more return to perform the duties of an Husband and Father to them no more to counsel and direct them no more to manage and order their affairs for them No more to provide for and maintain them no more to succour and comfort them No more to defend them from injuries and oppressions No more to right them in their wrongs And therefore I leave and commend them to you to be as a Husband to my Widow and a Father to my Fatherless I leave them to your love to pity them I commend them to your wisdome and prudence to counsel and direct them To your care and faithfulness to manage their affairs for them I commend them to your justice to right them in wrongs and defend them from injuries Even thus this blessed Apostle going to Jerusalem these Ephesians should see his face no more No more he should fight with beasts after the manner of men at Ephesus He should confute the Erroneous and Hereticks no more No more should he be with them to appease their dissentions reconcile their divisions he should maintain the Doctrine of Free-Grace the purity and simplicity of Gospel-Worship no more No more to vindicate the Resurrection of the dead No more to perform amongst them the duties of a vigilent Watch-man and faithful Minister to rebuke the Obstinate and such as walk disorderly to comfort the Mourners to strengthen the Weak to reduce the Wanderer to raise and recover them that are fallen And therefore seeing I shall be no more with you to do any of these things for you I leave and commend you to God and the Word of his Grace the best security from and comfort under both Persecution and infectious and seducing Doctrine He is a Watchman and Shepherd instead of all Shepherds and Watchmen He is a Teacher instead of all Teachers And for a people to be left with such Guardians when their Minister must depart from them is good security and comfort for them And this I shall shew first in respect of God 2dly in regard of his Word First To commit you to God is to commit you to him who is furnished with every thing necessary for Security and Comfort 1. It is to commit you to the greatest Love And Love is a strong Security To be committed to the defence of an enemy that hates us with deadly hatred there can be no comfort no security but a fearful and trembling expectation that our defence should prove our destruction But Love addeth strength and security to mud-walls when hatred makes stone-walls full of danger Hatred seeks the destruction of the object hated when Love seeks the welfare and protection of the object beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birds build their nests on high in close obscure places and spare their own crâ—ws to secure and fill their young ones The most timerous creatures grow most resolute and expose themselves to danger and death in combating to preserve their young ones and all from that storgie and affection Nature hath implanted in them What will not Parents do and venture to preserve their tender babes in danger they 'l venture upon pikes and swords upon wild beasts they 'l venture through fire and water to save them And if there be such love in the creature surely there is much more in the Creator their greatest plenitude is but a drop to his immeasurable Ocean Love in the creature is a concrete finite and imperfect but in God it is an abstract infinite and Perfection it self God saith John is Love 1 Joh. 4.8 and this Love of God to his People is an all-conquering Love this stirrs up God to stand as a skreen between his People and danger and primum mobile of their protection What is the reason that all the policies and power of infernal spirits all the stratagems of the Devil's Agents all the black cursings and bloody execrations of ungodly men all the Popish Fulminations and thundrings of Anathema's against God's People take no more effect what is the reason that there is no Inchantment against Jacob nor Divination against Israel It is God's Love that shields off all Balaam you know following the wages of unrighteousness attempted to have cursed Israel but this Love of God opposed it and turned the Curse into a Blessing Deut. 23.5 The Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam but the Lord thy God turned the Curse into a Blessing because he loved thee Hence it is God opposeth the opposers of his People and destroyeth their destroyers saying Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm The most glorious Potentates prosperous Kingdoms have become contemptible and heaps of ruine for their opposing oppressing and persecuting God's Church God's Love puts an higher estimate upon the poorest Saint than upon all the Sinful though sceptred crowned adorned and adored Monarchs of the world Why did he smite the first-born in Egypt both of man and beast why did he send his