fourth rank is of those things which are evil in themselves and good only by accident in order to some greater good which may be procured by them as War to make way for a lasting Quiet and Peace the cutting off an Arm or Leg to preserve the rest of the Body burning the Harvest to starve an Enemy In a Theological Consideration Afflictions have this use which are not things to be desired and chosen but endured and suffered when sent by the wise God for our good Well now a Christian should love all things according to their value and as they approach nearer to his last end and chief good He valueth all things as they more or less let out God to him the nearer means more than the remote subservient helps Thus he delighteth in the Ordinances more than the Creatures because the Ordinances discover more of God and exhibite more of God to him He valueth Graces more than Ordinances because by the Graces of the Spirit he is brought into more Conformity to God and Communion with him than by the bare formality of a Duty And he delighteth in Jesus Christ more than in Created Graces as being by him nearer to God and God nearer to us Here is the method and order of our value and esteem then First God next Christ as Mediatour next the Graces of the Spirit next the Ordinances next the Creatures and Comforts of this Life 3. A Godly mans Judgment is rectified about the difference between things spiritual and temporal Prov. 23.4 Labour not to be rich cease from thine own Wisdom 1 Cor 2.12 We have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Psal. 16.7 I will bless the Lord who hath given me Counsel my Reins also instruct me in the night season He counteth that Condition beâ—â— wherein he may be most serviceable to God and best helped to Heaven The natural understanding valueth all things by the Interest of the Flesh for it looketh only to present things 't is the Spirit of the World But one to whom God hath given Counsel he is of another temper seeth things by another light and liveth to another end and scope His End enlightneth him and the Spirit of God enlightneth him The Spirit sheweth him the reality and worth of Heavenly things Eph. 1.17 18. That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him The Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the Hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints There is no Prospect of the other World by the light of a natural Spirit but by Faith 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off A meer naturaâ— man acteth at little a higher rate than a Beast A Beast seeth things before him tasts what is comfortable to his Senses is guided by Fancy and Appetite But the Spirit of Faith maketh a Man live as in the sight of God and under a sense of another World His end enlightneth him for Mat. 6.22 The light of the Body is the Eye if thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light When a man hath fixed his end he will the sooner understand his way Finis est mensura mediorum The End is the measure of the means A good end and scope inlightneth and governeth a man in his whole course As a Man's end is so he judgeth of Happiness and Misery If a Mans end be to live well in the World then Happy are the People that are in such a Case If his end be to enjoy God then Happy is the People whose God is the Lord Psal. 144.15 It is a blessed opportunity to be waiting upon him So he judgeth of Liberty and Bondage If his end be to please God then Corruption is his Yoak if to please the Flesh Duty is his Yoak So he judgeth of Wisdom and Folly A carnal man counteth himself wise when he has made a good Bargain then he applaudeth himself Psal 10.3 The wicked boasteth of his Hearts desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth The Godly Man then counteth himself wise when he has redeemed time for spiritual uses Eph. 5.15 16. Not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the time because the days are evil And the Eunuch when he was instructed by Philip went on his way rejoicing Acts 8 39. Vse 1. If these things be so then it informeth us how chearfully we should pass through our Sabbath Duties Isa. 58.13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy Day and call the Sabbath a delight the Holy of the Lord honourable and shalt Honour him not doing thine own work nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words c. It followeth naturally from the Point in hand for if a day in Gods house be better than a thousand elsewhere then a Christian should be in his Element when he is wholly at leisure for God His Sabbath time should not hang upon his hands nor should he count this day as a melancholy Interruption Few are of this Spirit they are out of their course Amos 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth Wheat They are weary of Sacred Meetings and long to have them over that they might follow their gain and satisfie their worldly Humour They make the World and their Gain their great Errand and look upon Attendance upon God as a matter by the by and therefore are soon weary of it Vse II. Let us reflect the Light of this Truth upon our own Hearts have we this love and affection to the means of Grace If we profess it the Truth of it is best known to God but in some measure it should be known to our selves also if we would take Comfort in it Therefore let us a little state it 1. This Affection and Respect to Ordinances is to them as pure to those meetings where God is sincerely and purely worshipped As new born Babes desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere Milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 The new Nature is suited to Gods Institutions As the puking Infant when he sucketh a Stranger doth in Effect say this is not my Mothers Milk Christ is there where he is worshipped in his own way Mat. 28.20 Teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World The Church hath nothing to do about ordaining or instituting but only about ordering the natural circumstances of Worship 2. It is not the empty formality which the Saints prize but meeting with God Psal. 81.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord
meditate therein Day and Night And this I suppose is that Meditation which is required of the simpler sort of Christians Certainly it is every one's Duty to meditate but every one hath not Riches of Invention and cannot command their Thoughts they are slow of Conception what then shall they continually live in the Neglect of a necessary Duty No here is a Help read and ponder what thou readest urge thy Soul do as the clean Beasts chue the Cudd go over and over it again You have often seen the Beasts when they have done feeding chew over their Food again and so prepare it for the Stomach thus may the meanest Christians do they may urge their Hearts with what they read whereas their Thoughts are not like a Ball struck against a Wall that cometh to hand again but as a Ball struck into the open Air that returneth not Certainly Meditation is one of the Exercises of Godliness and they that delight in the Law of God will be meditating pressing and fixing it on their Hearts Psal. 1.2 His Delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night for we muse upon what we love 4. Prayer that 's another Exercise of Godliness Here we have our constant Commerce with God If there were no other Use of Prayer but only to appear before God to do our Homage to profess our Service and Dependance upon him it were enough but it is a means of spiritual Acquaintance by these private Soliloquies God and the Soul grow intimate and we unbosome our selves to God as intimate Friends are often together speaking one to another Prayer is such a necessary Duty and a part of Godliness that it is often put for the whole Worship of God Acts 2.21 Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved it is only express'd by that On the other side Atheism is expressed by not calling on God's Name Psal. 14.4 Who eat up my People as they eat Bread and call not upon the Lord. There is not a Swine but is better regarded than God they are tended Morning and Evening but God is forgotten O what Honour is put upon Dust and Ashes to speak to the great God! Prayer is to be reckoned among our Privileges If we had such Freedom of Access to an earthly Prince we would not reckon it a Burden It is a part of our Liberty by Christ that was purchased at a dear rate therefore let us often call upon God with Thankfulness God hath been at a great deal of Cost to erect a Throne of Grace that we may pray with Confidence Having Boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Iesus Heb. 10.19 If a charitable Man should see a Company of Beggars wandring in the Street in the time of Worship and their Pretence is that there is no room for them in the publick Place of Meeting and he should build a Chappel for them they would be without Excuse God hath been at great Cost to provide a Throne of Grace that we might not neglect Prayer 5. Singing of Psalms that is one of the Exercises of Godliness and is of great Use in the spiritual Life though usually it be performed perfunctorily and customarily It is chiefly required as a solemn Profession of Worship As far as the Voice will extend we proclaim it to all the World that we are not ashamed of God's Worship David calls upon the Nations to make a joyful Noise to God Psal. 66.1 2. Make a joyful Noise unto God all ye Lands sing forth the Honour of his Name make his Praise glorious As it is the Custom of Nations to proclaim what they would have noted and observed by Sound of Drum and Trumpet so by Singing we manifestly own God's Worship and Service But this is not all it is an excellent way of Instruction Col. 3.16 Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with Grace in your Hearts unto the Lord. It was one means of Austin's Conversion Quantum fluminis in hymnis canticis suavi sonantis Ecclesiae How did he weep and mourn when he heard the Psalms sung by the Church to think of the Mercies and Dispensations of God to the Church And it is a Fruit and Effect of spiritual Delight the Vent we give to it Look as Drunkards when filled with carnal Mirth they howl out their wanton Songs So when the Soul is filled with spiritual Consolation it breaks out into Singing The Apostle alludes to it Ephes. 5.18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making Melody in your Heart to the Lord. It gives vent to strong spiritual Affections when the Heart is ravished and overcome with the Love of God It is a more distinct and fixed Reading a Reading with Meditation Singing and Meditation are put for the same thing Psal. 104.33 34. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing Praises to my God while I have my Being my Meditation of him shall be sweet Singing is but a more distinct Pronunciation that we may have more liberty for Thought and Meditation as we go over those Portions of Scripture that are sung in the Church 6. A religious use of the Seals Baptism must not be forgotten tho not to be reiterated Look as Christ told Peter when he washed his Feet Iohn 13.7 What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter So you are to look after the Fruits and Effects of your Baptism and of your Engagement to Christ in your Infancy and what Benefit you have by virtue of your being baptized into Christ. But especially the use of the Supper that 's one of the Exercises of Godliness it is the Seal of the Covenant It is called The New Testament in Christ's Blood Luke 22.20 that is it is a Sign and Seal of it Sacramental Speeches must be understood sacramentally Now this is a high Condescension on God's part with what Reverence should we come to such an Ordinance as if his Word did not suffice but we must have all ways of Ratification and Assurance The Lord's Supper is the Map of the Gospel all the Mysteries of Salvation are here abridged it is the Epitome of the Gospel Christ's publick Monument to the Church Look as Kings will not only have their Royal Acts and Deeds recorded in faithful Chronicles but also erect a publick Monument to keep up their Memory so the Lord Christ would not only have his Royal Acts recorded in the Chronicles of the Scripture but hath erected this publick Monument that we may remember what he did for us how he triumphed over Principalities and Powers and made a Spoil of them openly It is a visible Pledg of his second Coming Christ would have it celebrated in the Church to awaken our Hopes our Thoughts and our
Desires till he come again in person to convey us into his Father's Bosom It is a mysterious Instrument and Means God hath found out to convey Comfort and Grace to the Soul to work out a Union between him and the Creature We do not only draw nigh to God but are united to him It is the Beginning and Antipast of Glory so much Christ intimates Mat. 26.29 I will not henceforth drink of the fruit of the Vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom It is a Taste of the new Wine we shall drink with Christ those spiritual Consolations we shall receive from him in his Kingdom 7. Keeping the Sabbath-day holy It is a sure mark of an ungodly Person to be a Sabbath-breaker as a conscionableness to celebrate it to God's Glory is both a mark and a work of Godliness It is the description of the godly Eunuch Isa. 56.4 Thus saith the Lord to the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant Mark it is one of the chiefest things that is taken notice of there the observation of God's own Day If you would exercise your selves to Godliness this is a great means Prophaning the Lord's Day is the cause of Prophaneness all the week after and so a careless keeping the Lord's Day is the cause of the Carelesness and Formality you are guilty of in the business of Religion God hath appointed this Day for a repose for the Soul that by a long uninterrupted continuance in Worship it might be more seasoned and fit to converse with God all the week after Dost thou love Christ then observe his Day Ignatius calls it the Queen of Days The primitive Christians were very careful of the Sabbath they would run all hazards rather than not keep the Sabbath-day When they were accused as guilty of Sabbath-violation they would answer I am a Christian how can I choose but love the Lord's Day This is the Day wherein we do most solemnly and publickly profess the Worship of God therefore it is to be celebrated with all care Thus much for the Description of Godliness from the Disposition of the Heart and the Duties about which it is conversant II. I am to speak of the Exercise of Godliness 1 Tim. 4.7 Exercise thy self to Godliness It must be exercised both in Worship and Conversation 2 Pet. 3.11 What manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness First In Worship What is the part and office of Godliness in Worship 1. There must be a care that it be right God will not be at the Creature 's carving his Honour is best kept up by his own Institutions and therefore he will accept nothing but what he requires The Woman of Samaria as soon as she was converted enquired after the right Worship Christ had convinced her of Lewdness and living in Adultery Iohn 4.18 The Man thou now hast is not thy Husband The great thing that troubled her was her present standing and the Superstition she was nuzled and brought up in ver 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the Place where Men ought to worship Assoon as Men are awakened that is the question they can no longer be content with their ignorant sensless careless ceremonial worshipping of God and say Thus our Fathers did this will not serve the Conscience when it is a little stirred It is said of the People of God Ier. 50.5 They shall ask the way to Sion with their Faces thitherward Sion was the place of God's Residence and solemn Worship and it is the disposition of his People still to be inquisitive after the way to Sion how God is worshipped I speak not this to unsettle Men and to draw them to Scepticism and Irresolution but partly that they might settle upon better grounds than Tradition publick Consent and the Example of Men. Cyprian observes that this is the reason Men are so fickle so inconstant so soon off and on they do not practise those things upon good grounds None so unconstant as they that practise things right and good but not upon Principles And partly that Men may not content themselves with a cheap Worship such as costs them nothing as when they do not enquire about the grounds and reasons of what they do or when they do but even as others do We should be still searching and proving what is acceptable unto the Lord Eph. 5.10 and seek for Knowledg as for Silver and search for her as for hid Treasures Prov. 3.4 It is a thing of great care and exactness to be a Christian to be right in God's Worship Usually Men serve God at random and at peradventure and if they be right it is but a happy Mistake they do not enquire and search and so miss of a great deal of Comfort Settlement and Experience in the Way of God 2. There is required Constancy and Zeal in the Profession of God's Worship This is Religion to be zealous for God's Institutions to contend for the Faith of the Saints and hate what is contrary to right Worship and sound Doctrine Psal. 119.104 Through thy Precepts I get Vnderstanding therefore I hate every false Way And ver 128. Therefore I esteem all thy Precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false Way This is the effect of the knowledg of the Truth to hate all Falshood Idolatry and Superstition as much as they love God's Institutions that they may not be entangled and so either deceive others or be deceived themselves by the Craft of them that lie in wait for such an Enterprize Whenever they hear or read any such Doctrines the Heart nauseateth them there is a rising of Heart not only against Corruptions of Manners but Falshood of Doctrine But if Men be indifferent come what may come Christ or Antichrist they care not greatly their Religion is worth nothing If you do not hate Heresy and corruption in Worship there is no true Religion or Godliness in you Hereticks and Men in a false way seldom hate one another tho they differ in Principles Why because they have not a love to Truth but those that love the Truth prize the Institutions of God there 's a keen displeasure in their Hearts against any false Way 3. There must be frequency in the practice of it God and their Souls must not grow strangers Things that are not used contract Rust as a Key seldom turned in the Lock turns with difficulty so it will not stand with your spiritual Welfare to omit Duty long Much spiritual Exercise keeps the Soul in Health and sweet as the oftner they drain the Well the sweeter the Water is By running and breathing your selves every day you are the fitter to run in a Race so the oftner you come into God's Presence the greater Confidence and Freedom and Enlargement it will bring The way to be fervent
hath spent his Time well but the Apostle commands Eph. 5.15 16. See that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the Time because the days are evil Those other are the worst Fools who make no Provision for the future they part with Jewels for Trifles SERMON XII TITUS II. 13 Looking for that blessed Hope c. I Observed 1. The Teacher The Grace of God 2. The Lesson the whole Duty of our Heavenly Calling To deny Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly c. 3. I come to the third general Branch The Encouragements to Learning here are two Eternal Life and Christ's Death There are two great Principles of Obedience Gratitude and Hope Gratitude or Thankfulness because of the Obligation that is left upon us from Christ's Death and then Hope because of the glorious Reward that is set before us So that whether we look backward or forward we meet with Obligations to Obedience Backward there is an excellent Merit ver 14. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity c. Forward there is a glorious Hope Looking for that blessed Hope c. There is nothing lost by God's Service the Lord might deal with us out of Soveraignty and rule us with a Rod of Iron but he is pleased to draw us with the Cords of a Man and with Bands of Love Hos. 11.3 to indent with us and propound Rewards as if we were altogether free before the Contract Men do not use to covenant with their Slaves we are bound to serve him whether there had been any Reward or no but the Lord will not leave us without an Encouragement We are apt to have hard Thoughts of God and to think him harsh and austere requiring Work but not giving Wages But consider we have the highest Motives as well as the noblest Work we are not only to live soberly righteously and godly in the present World but to look to the blessed Hope Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel There is no such Encouragement to vertuous living any where as in the Gospel Lactantius saith of the Heathens Virtutis vim non sentiunt cujus premium ignorant They do not feel the force and transforming Power of Vertue because they are ignorant of the Reward of Vertue The Heathens had no such Encouragement as Immortality and Eternal Life and the happy Enjoyment of God and Christ for evermore But to handle the words a little more distinctly We have here 1. the Reward it self called a blessed Hope Then 2. the time when it shall be accomplished to the full at the coming of the Lord. Both these things you must look for Christians as often as you think of Eternal Life you must also think of Christ's Appearing Before we enter into Glory we must first give an Account Carnal Men fancy a Heaven without a Day of Judgment they would be saved but they would not be called to an audit and reckoning with God Many can brook sitting upon the Throne with Christ but not coming before his Tribunal but they that would live holily must look for both the blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of Christ. Many Points may be observed out of this Verse Doct. I. That looking for the blessed Hope conduceth much to the Advancement of the Spiritual Life I. What this Looking is II. What Influence and Power it hath to work us to the Spiritual Life I. What this Looking is It implies Patience but chiefly Hope 1. Patience in waiting God's Leisure Patience is a Grace very needful in our Pilgrimage where we are exercised with so many Difficulties Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye might receive the Promise you do not only need Holiness but Patience It is long before we can bring our Hearts to do the Will of God but after that is done you have need of Patience that you may wait God's Leisure for your Reward For the Reward is not given till there be time for Labour and Exercise and Troubles coming on make time seem very long Whatever Grace we may spare we cannot spare Patience if we would persist in well-doing for we are to wait for the blessed Hope The good Ground bringeth forth Fruit with Patience Luke 8.15 Look as the Ground endures the Plough the Harrow the Cold the Frost that in due time the Seed may spring up so we have need of Patience that we may wait upon God for the blessed Hope And as Patience is very needful in the present Life so it is inseparable from Hope 1 Thess. 1.3 it is called the Patience of Hope To every Grace he gives a proper Action there is the Work of Faith the Labour of Love and the Patience of Hope Faith propounds Work Love makes us to labour and sweat at it and Hope makes us wait with Patience for our Reward and Recompence Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with Patience wait for it What we hope for we wait with Patience for between Hope and Having there is an intervening time to exercise Patience There is want of the thing desired and Delays are troublesome Now to keep looking is a Work of Patience 2. It chiefly implies Hope This looking for is the formal Act of Hope an actual Expectation of Blessedness to come Now because there 's a bastard and blind Hope and there is a regular and good Hope 2 Thess. 2.16 Who hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace therefore let me tell you First What this Expectation is not Secondly What it is First Negatively what it is not 1. It is not a blind Hope such a Hope as is found in Men ignorant and presumptuous that regard not what they do Presumption is a Child of Darkness as Hope is a Child of Light Presumption is the Fruit of Ignorance and Inconsideration When Men are once serious they find it the hardest matter in the World to hope for guilty Nature in it self is more presagious of Evil more inclinable to Fear and Sorrow than to Joy and Hope But yet a blind Confidence is very common because Men do not consider what they do but hand over head make a full account that they shall go to Heaven without Warrant and without Evidence And therefore you shall find it is one of the first things God works by the Word to break down our former carnal Hopes and make Men see they are out of the way lost and undone Creatures Paul in his presumptuous State thought he had as much to shew for Heaven as any Man in the World Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died The Commandment coming in full Conviction upon his Heart he began to be serious and then he found himself lost and obnoxious to God's Judgment The Excellency of Hope doth not lie in the Strength
mingled with the Wheat and besides the Persecutions of the Wicked their very Company is a Burden Iacob's Cattle and Laban's are together but then they shall be separated and the Saints shall be gathered together and sit as Judges of them giving their Vote with Christ in their Condemnation 4. It is a Day of Glorification to Christ and therefore the Saints long for it a Day when Christ shall be honoured and get to himself a glorious Name God got himself a great Name when he drowned Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Sea O what will it be when he shall cast all the Wicked into Hell Now Christ will come to shew the Fulness of his Majesty the Terror of his Wrath and to glorify his Justice upon wicked Men. Christ sheweth his Majesty every day but we have not Eyes to see it our Eyes are dazled with Worldly Splendor but then all Mists shall vanish The Saints that love the Glory of God must needs long for that time when Christ shall be seen in all his Glory when God shall be dishonoured no more and the Kingdom of Sin and Satan have an end and wicked Men shut up under their everlasting State And then from the Saints God hath perfect Glory in them and from them here God hath not his perfect Glory from us nor in us This is the Comfort of God's Children that God is glorified in their Glory that they may live to praise him for ever without Weakness and Distraction and that 's the reason of those Expressions To whom be Glory for ever and ever They delight in their own glorious Estate because they shall ever be in a Capacity to bring Glory to God Nay then God shall be glorified in all his Counsels and Decrees in the Wisdom of his Providence and in the course of his Judgments for in the Day of Judgment the full History of the World shall be brought before the Saints whereas now we see it but by pieces 4. Why the Saints look for Christ's Appearing is the Profit of this Expectation which they shall receive partly as it engageth to a heavenly Conversation Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Where should we converse most but where Christ is Now where is Christ but in Heaven and therefore our Minds should be ever running upon it our Eyes ever looking that way and our Hearts ever longing for him Partly as it engageth us to Faithfulness in our Relations there is a Day coming when we shall give an account for the Duties of our Relations because that is the particular Sphear of our Activity 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus who shall judg the Quick and the Dead at his Appearing and his Kingdom Paul there presseth Timothy to discharge the Duty of a Minister and so for a Master of a Family and for a Servant Your Relations are not things of chance but they fall under the special Care of God's Providence and therefore you must be accountable for them here God hath confined you by the Wisdom of his Providence to serve the great Ends of your Creation therefore whatever is omitted you are to give an account of your Relations Magistrates Ministers Masters Servants all of their several Relations Partly as it calms the Heart against the Injuries and Molestations of the present Life 1 Pet. 2.23 our Lord Christ when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judged righteously So you must learn of him when you meet with Trouble and hard Usage and unworthy dealing in the World commit your selves to God the Judg is at the Door and he will review all things again Look as Paschalus a Minister of the Albigenses when he was burnt at Rome cited the Pope and his Cardinals before the Tribunal of the Lamb thus do you Partly as it engages to Perseverance If a Man hath followed a distressed and afflicted Party for a long time if nothing comes of it he tires but remember if we follow Christ here all our Pains will be recompensed to us 1 Iohn 2.28 Abide in him that when he shall appear we may have Confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming Christ will come and that with Salvation to them that look for him therefore let me be faithful in my Duty Obj. 1. But how can we look for it when we know there are some Signs that precede the Coming of Christ therefore certainly he is not like to come in our days Will he alter the prefix'd time of his Approach and change the Jacets of that great Journey Answ. 1. Tho Christ keepeth his pace yet it is good for us to alter ours tho we cannot hasten his coming yet let us be always ready 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the Day of God It is good for us to get ground upon our Fears and our Sins and to declare our readiness to meet with Christ every day we live in the World is a day lost in Heaven 2. If any Age had cause to think Christ would come certainly we have It was not far off in the Apostles days they were called the last days but ours are the very Dregs of Time When we see an old Man weak and feeble Aches and Diseases of the present Life encrease upon him we say certainly he cannot live long So if we look upon the Temper of the World sure it cannot endure long Christ will come to set all things at rights One Forerunner of Christ's coming are the Dreams and Delusions that are abroad Mundus senescens patitur phantasias as the World grows old it is much given to Fancies as old Men are to Dotage and Dreams 3. If Christ come not in our days yet Death is at hand Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die and after that the Iudgment Every Man 's particular Judgment follows upon his departure out of the World and then the general Judgment follows as Death finds him either among the Sheep or Goats Iudas died sixteen hundred Years ago yet as he died so shall he be found After Death there 's no change of State therefore your business is always to be ready to depart in Peace and hasten to an eternal State Obj. 2. How can this be the Property of God's Children to desire his coming Are they always in this Temper and Frame many weak ones tremble at the thought of it for want of assurance of God's Love it is the Terror and Bondage of their Lives to think of Christ's coming and sometimes the Saints do not actually feel such an Inclination and Strength of Desire Answ. 1. The meanest Saint hath some Inclination this way Can a Man desire that Christ may come into his Heart and will there not be such Desires that he may come to Judgment since Comfort and Reward is more naturally embraced than Duty The very first Work of
Grace is to raise and beget this Hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Who hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope 2. There may be sometimes a Drousiness and Indisposition when their Lamps are not kept burning Luke 12.36 And be ye always ready as those that wait for their Lord. When they are fallen asleep they may for the present wish that Christ may not come and take them in this condition As the wise Virgins slept as well as the foolish so God's own Children many times find themselves indisposed for his coming careless Carriage weakens their Hope and the Remisness of their Watch yet in all there is a Spirit this way which beginneth with the new Birth A Wife desires her Husband 's coming home but it may be all things are not ready and in so good order as they should So all Christians desire the coming of Christ but sometimes they are not so exact and watchful and therefore their Affections are not so lively Drousiness creeps upon their Hearts and then God rouzeth them by Afflictions Obj. 3. But is this the Property of God's Children when we see carnal Men sometimes out of Weariness of the present Life and Trouble of the World will even long for his coming and wish for Death Answ. That is an Offer of Nature after Ease this is a Desire stirred up by the Spirit Sometimes God's Children in their Passions desire to be taken out of the World as Ionah 4.8 He fainted and wished in himself to die and said It is better for me to die than to live And Elijah 1 King 19.4 He requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers But this is but a shameful Retreat from Duty and the Heat and Burden of the Day and the Labours of the present Life these are froward Thoughts not sanctified Desires Words of a feaverish Distemper not of Affection but it comes from the Sickness and Weakness of their Souls But this I speak of is a solid looking for desire and longing for the glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ. Vse 1. It sheweth what they are who wish that it may never come Some would be glad in their Hearts to hear such News that Christ's Coming would never be it is their Burden and Torment to think of it as Felix trembled when he heard of Judgment to come These Men have the Spirit of the Devil in them if they had the Spirit of God in them would it be so Surely no. A carnal Man cannot say the Lord's-Prayer for he is afraid he shall be heard Optas ut veniat quem times ne adveniat saith Austin How canst thou say Thy Kingdom come when thou art afraid lest God should come Vse 2. To press us to this earnest Looking Christ looketh he is not slack 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise If all things were ready he would come presently Before he came in the Flesh his Delights were with us Prov. 8.31 Rejoycing in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. And he longeth now he is in Heaven Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me The Angels expect it they would not be found Liars they told us of it Acts 1.11 This same Iesus that is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven The Saints groan How long O Lord how long Devils tremble at the thoughts of it Mat. 8.29 Art thou come hither to torment us before the time The Creatures expect it in their kind Rom. 8.19 For the earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God All things by a natural Instinct are carried to their Perfection Evil Men cannot endure to think of it as Felix trembled at the thoughts of Judgment to come Let not the Saints stand out but expect it earnestly How much was the first coming of Christ wished for and desired Abraham rejoiced at the thoughts of it Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad Kings and Prophets desired to see these things Luke 10.24 For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Old Simeon Luke 2.25 was just and devout waiting for the Consolation of Israel yet then he was a Child in the Cradle now in Glory riding on the Clouds then he came in the Similitude of sinful Flesh Rom. 8.3 God sent his own Son in the likeness of Sinful Flesh but now he shall appear without Sin Heb. 9.28 Vnto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation This earnest looking implieth strong Faith longing Desires frequent Thoughts 1. Strong Faith Reason saith it may be Faith saith it shall be Divine Justice must have a solemn Triumph Conscience is afraid of it Our Reward may be delayed but it cannot stand with the Justice of God that it should be abolished and taken away There is Confusion in the World Dives flowed with Ease and Plenty when Lazarus was rough-cast with Sores We need to be awed with Shame as well as Fear Faith saith he will come we have his Word for it as unlikely things have come to pass that have been foretold Were the old Believers deceived that expected his coming in the Flesh That a few Fishermen should preach the Gospel to all Nations this is already done Christ is contracted with us now he will come to marry us he went not away upon Discontent He that loved us so as to as to come from Heaven to Earth to take our Nature will he not come in Glory We have of his Spirit and we enjoy his Ordinances as a Memorial till he comes and we have many Love-tokens sent us as a Pledg that he will come 2. Longing Desires Our Hearts should even spring and leap within us when we hear of Christ's coming Thus the Believers of the Old Testament how did they rejoice to hear of a Messiah to come Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad Abraham rejoiced to think that a Son should come of his Loins in whom all the World should be blessed Heb. 11.13 These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them How did the Patriarchs hug the Promises O sweet Promise this will yield a Messiah a Christ to the World 3. There should be frequent Thoughts of his coming as if you always heard the Trumpet Every time thou lookest to Heaven think I have a Christ there a rich Jewel kept safe and when ever you see the Clouds think of Christ's coming and going These Clouds were Chariots by which Christ
second Miracle that Iesus did when he came out of Judea into Galilee 2 Pet. 3.1 This second Epistle write I to you Tot convincor testibus quot Christianis Sermonibus me monuerunt I have so many Witnesses against me as I have heard Sermons So the same is true for Deliverances The Lord will set his Hand again the second time to recover the Remnant of his People that shall be left Isa. 11.11 So for Motions of his Spirit My Spirit shall not always strive with Man Gen. 6.3 it had done so long already So for God's Apparitions to Solomon 1 Kings 11.9 His Heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared unto him twice So Jer. 25.3 From the thirteenth Year of Josiah the Son of Amon King of Judah unto this very Day that is the three and twentieth Year the Word of the Lord hath come unto you and I have spoken unto you rising early and speaking but you have not hearkened God's Expostulations in Scripture when he proceedeth to any particular Judgment are an Instance of what he will do in the general Judgment 2. On the other side is written all the Good and Evil that we do For Good the Apostle speaketh of Fruit abounding to their Account Phil. 4.17 The Prophet sheweth God taketh notice of our Faithfulness or owning God in an evil time Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name So of the Conversion of any be they never so few Acts 17. ult Howbeit certain Men clave unto him and believed Kindness to his Servants Mat. 10.42 Whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a Cup of cold Water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his Reward 1 Kings 19.18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the Knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every Mouth which hath not kissed him On the other side Injuries done to his People are recorded he hath a Bottel for their Tears a Book for their Sorrows Psal. 56.8 Thou tellest my Wandrings put thou my Tears into thy Bottel are they not in thy Book So for all the Sins we have committed Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my Treasures Deut. 32.34 Nay Iob 13.27 Thou lookest narrowly unto all my Paths thou settest a Print upon the Heels of my Feet Every Action leaveth a Mark behind it Nay in the Verse before Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth as if God had taken account of his old Sins Many in this Account shall hear of things long ago committed their Iniquities will find them out If a Man escape any remarkable Judgment for one Year or two he thinketh all is forgotten Ay but these Debts stand upon record against us till the Book be cancelled or crossed Thousands of vain Thoughts sinful Actions much mispence of Time abuse of Mercies will then occur to our view when our whole Lives shall be set in order before us Psal. 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes Now these are the Accounts kept between God and us 2 dly At the Day of Doom these Books shall be opened Rev. 20.12 I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened God can forget nothing and Conscience shall be awakened to an exact review of all our Ways Security vanisheth Light is greater Judgment is nearer Circumstances of Conviction shall then be produced the Trial is to be open the Wicked are to be shamed the Righteous to be vindicated God shall be justified when he judgeth Psal. 51.4 That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest Impenitent Sinners are to be condemned for abusing the Law of Nature or despising the Grace of the Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 Taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. 3 dly That all without exception shall be called to this Reckoning none so high as to be exempted from it none so low as to be neglected in it I saw the Dead small and great stand before God Rev. 20.12 They all stand on the same level Magistrates must give an account of their Trust and so must meaner People 1 Pet. 1.17 If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every Man's Work God is an impartial Judg. Men are often biassed by the expectation of Benefit or terrified by the apprehension of Danger No Person no Action can escape his Judgment 4 thly The Judgment will pass upon all Men according to the Account then given If we have been faithful and fruitful in improving God's Talents it shall go well with us in the Judgment if negligent and careless it shall go ill Cast the unprofitable Servant into outer Darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Mat. 25.30 Though not persecuting not riotous yet if unprofitable The barren Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewen down as well as the naughty Tree that bringeth forth bad Fruit. God reckoneth with us now but often doth not execute his Threatning or in the midst of Judgment remembreth Mercy Then the Doom is finally and irreversibly past without hope of Recovery and there is no temperament of Mercy at all to those that have lost their Season Vse To reflect the Light of these things on our Hearts Is our Account ready Most neglect or put off the Thoughts of it But do you take Occasion hence to reckon with your selves aforehand See every Day what you Receive and what you Return Consider every Day 's Mercies and every Day 's Work The profit of daily arraigning Conscience is exceeding great 1. It keepeth us sensible of our Duty which otherwise would be forgotten Heathens saw a necessity of this Reckoning with respect to growth in moral Vertue Men would not easily commit Evil nor omit Good or perform it so coldly if they did but say as the Town-Clerk of Ephesus did to still the Citizens We are in danger to be called in question for this day's Vproar Acts 19.40 2. It would make us often to have recourse to Grace when we observe our Sins Duties Mercies Comforts and how the one aggravate the other Surely we should every day make even with God deprecate the strict Judgment Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Iudgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified Get the Books cancelled Psal. 51.1 According to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Augustus bought his Guilt who slept securely when he owed so
for Impiety all went to ruine 2. There will be some Serenity of Mind resulting from the Rectitude of your Actions Look as the Heathens when they did by Nature the things contained in the Law they had the approbation of their Consciences Thoughts excusing Rom. 2.15 3. It is some advantage to Grace it is like the Priming the Post that maketh it receptive of better Colours At least they do not aggravate their Condemnation nor encrease their Weakness nor draw upon themselves Penal Blindness and Hardness of Heart and utter Despair However it is like the Embalming a Carkass though it do not restore Life yet it keeps the Body from stinking As long as they are at work they are not given over to a Reprobate Sense They are not far from the Kingdom of God Mark 12.34 An humble Man that hath some Thoughts of God and of Eternal Life certainly is sooner Converted than an Outragious Wretch that doth swagger and out brave the Ordinances of God whereas Men that are strangers to all Goodness and of an inveterate Wickedness and Falshood that are estranged from the Womb and go astray so soon as they be born speaking lyes as the Propet expresseth it Psal. 58.3 are more hardly Cured 4. As to their Eternal Estate it will be more tolerable for such than for others Though they fall short of Heaven yet mitius punientur at least they have a cooler Hell their Account is more easie as the Scripture speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a greater Damnation Mat. 11.22 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sydon at the day of Iudgment than for you Cato suffers less than Catiline Socrates than Nero and certainly it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those that despised the Gospel therefore a Heathen could say No such Feast as to do our Duty which God requires SERMON VI. ON MARK X. v. 21. One thing thou lackest go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven NOW we come to Christ's Answer and there take Notice First Of the Admonition of his Defect Iesus said unto him One thing thou lackest By the Evangelist Matthew it appears that this part of the Answer was given to a Question proposed Mat. 19.20 All these things have I kept from my Youth up what lack I yet He saith confidently All these things have I kept and Christ saith one thing thou lackest Indeed take the Commandments in their full Latitude and Breadth of Interpretation he wanted all things how is it then that our Saviour saith only One thing thou lackest 1. Because it would have been tedious to convince him of all his Defects and therefore Christ would take the more Compendious way and insist but upon one thing which was enough to shew that he was not perfect as he vainly dreamt If a Man bragg that he is able to pay a hundred Pound you convince him of his Penury when you press him to pay one Penny and he cannot 2. This one thing was sure and would strike home for our Lord knew his Heart and therefore was resolved to touch his Privy-Sore and doth propose such a Precept as would cross his Darling Sin and therefore he would only come with one thing which would try him to the purpose Men that esteem too highly of themselves and yet have a secret Idol in their Hearts they shall be put upon some special Tryal that will discover their Weakness to the full 3. That one thing which he lacked was the main thing the principal thing of the Law which was Loving God above all things the summe of the Law is To Love God above all and our Neighbours as our selves Now our Lord who had Power to try his Love by any way he thought fit by this particular Injunction tryeth him in his Love to God and his Neighbour Chiefly he would convince him of want of Love to God or spiritual Idolatry making Wealth his summum bonum his chiefest good this was the main thing in which he failed and the Cause of his other Failings and yet Christ doth it in such a way as to take in the other part of the Precept the Love of our Neighbour Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor 4. Because the young Man Erred out of Ignorance Christ would not deal roughly with him or by way of sharp Reproof he doth not rate him and call him Proud Hypocrite for saying All these have I kept but he gently minds him of his Defect One thing thou lackest words of a mild Condescention to one that was tractable And while Men are facile and reachable we should not use roughness but convince them of their Errors by using all Mildness and all Condescention as we our selves would be dealt withall if we lay under the Power of Prejudice and a dark Understanding Let this suffice from that Clause only Learn from Christ's Practice here when we have to deal with such kind of Men two or three things 1. That Proud Sinners must not be soothed up in their Self-Conceit but Convinced of their Defects One thing thou lackest To flatter Men in their Presumption is very dangerous Luk. 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves before Men but God knoweth your Hearts for that which is highly esteemed among Men is abomination in the sight of God 2. That the way to Convince them is by representing their principal and chief Faults some one sin so Christ dealt with this young Man and so he deals with the Woman of Samaria Convincing her of her Sin that though she had spent her time in Marriage with five Husbands yet after all this Commits Adultery Ioh. 4.18 Thou hast had five Husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy Husband We are not to shoot at Rovers but Convince those we have to do with of those Sins they are most guilty of 3. The more our Failings strike deep upon the main Articles of our Obedience to God the greater our Conviction and the more sense we should have of our Condition before God To Love God above all is a Fundamental Article of the Covenant Now when we are convinced that we fail in this and want Love Trust and Faith in God we are nothing therefore such kind of Defects should make us look after our Estate better Secondly We come to Christ's Precept Command and Injunction and there First Something of particular Concernment Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven Where observe 1. The Duty 2. The Motive 1. The Duty Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor The Precept you see is very strict and falls upon the Heart of this Young Man who was addicted to the World Go without delay sell not a part but all whatsoever thou hast and give not to thy Friends that may relieve thee when thou art in straits not
with him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeâ—ness of his Resurrection 2. In Baptism you were entred by others therefore in grown years you must enter your selves by your own Consent Disciples of Christ. There is a Personal Act required of all that come to Age that they may stand to the Covenant and own what their Parents promised for them As the Parents of the Blind-man said Iohn 9.21 He is of Age ask him he shall speak for himself You did by your Parents according to God's Institution Covenant to renounce the Pomps and Vanities of the World and accept of Christ but now you are of Age you must speak for your selves then every one must come with his own Hand and enter themselves into God's Muster-Roll Isa. 44.3 4 5. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my blessing upon thine Off-spring c. One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Iacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the Name of Israel As they grow up they shall engage themselves unto the Lord. Therefore Christianity is called a Confession and Jesus Christ is called the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Heb. 3.1 and every Christian is a Confessor Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth one that must openly own Christ and personally profess his subjection to the Gospel of Christ 2 Cor. 9.13 They glorifie God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ. Our Renunciation of Christ's Enemies and Profession of our Faith and Resignation to God should be made with our own mouths when we are able 3. This Personal Consent must not only be Outwardly professed but the Heart must be Renewed and the bent of it set towards God For we have not only to do with men but with God therefore Rom. 6.13 Yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead All this is spoken to shew the Vanity of those that say That there is no Conversion in the Church no Regeneration but by Baptism these are pernicious Errors that strike at the Root of Holiness As there is a Conversion from Paganism to Profession or Confession of the Name of Christ so there is a Conversion from Confession to Reality We are all bound to enter our selves as Christ's Disciples 2 Doct. They that enter themselves Disciples to Christ and give up themselves to him must follow him that is to say imitate his Example REASONS 1. In the General Because this is agreeable to the General Sence of Religion that is in the Hearts of all men Ea demum vera est Religio imitari quem colis This is true Religion to imitate what we worship otherwise men are not true to the Religion they do profess The Heathens were so bad because they were taught Iovem colere potius quà m Catonem to Worship Iupiter rather than Catâ— So Christians are to be much better because it is Christ whom they worship therefore they are to be pure as he is pure 1 Ioh. 3.3 He that hath this hope in him purifyeth himself as he is pure A Man is not true to his Religion if he doth not prize that and follow after that which he conceits to be most excellent in his God To despise Holiness in Men and pretend to love it in God is gross Hypocrisie Reason will tell us that the first Cause should be the highest Rule that the Divine Essence and Being as it is the beginning of all Beings so it should be the Rule of all Perfections II. There are many Special Reasons why Christ should be propounded to us as our Pattern and Example whom we should follow and imitate 1. Because he is a Pattern of Holiness set up in our Nature It would discourage us to consider of the deep Ocean of the Deity rather we are taught to coast it in our Passage to Heaven by the Banks of Christ's Example He came down from God not only to restore us to God's Favour but to set us an Example 1 Pet. 2.21 Leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps The Life of Christ is a living Rule Religion exemplified a visible Commentary on God's Law The Angels obeyed God and we are referred to their Example in the Lord's Prayer Thy Will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven but this could not be so encouraging as when it is done by one in our Nature 2. Because there are many advantages by this Pattern in our Nature As 1. Our Pattern is more compleat than if God had been our Pattern There are some Graces wherein we cannot be said to resemble God and therefore we must look for a Pattern elsewhere as Humility Faith Fear Hope Reverence Obedience none of these things are in God for he hath no Superior and these things imply Inferiority and Subjection There are some parts of Holiness which stand in a Conformity to God others which stand in a subjection to God such as Man oweth to God as his Superior which hath no resemblance to any thing in God's Nature for God is not subject to any But Knowledge Wisdom Justice Mercy Love Purity we have them in a lower degree some shadow of them Now in all these Christ is our Pattern Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart in all things that have respect to Suffering and Subjection in Patience and Self-denyal Our Rule was perfect at first but not our Pattern 2. It is an engaging Pattern We are engaged by the Rule of our Obedience but much more by Christ's Example The Practice of Christ maketh every Duty lovely to us for the Disciple is not above his Lord. Masters many times to shame their Servants will take the work in hand which they grudge at Iohn 13.14 If I then your Lord and Master have washed your Feet ye ought also to wash one anothers feet Shall we forbear to follow such a Leader 3. It is an encouraging Pattern Partly as there is an efficacy in this Pattern as with the Gospel or Law of Christ there goeth along the Ministration of the Spirit so also with the Consideration of his Example It is not a bare Moral Inducement but it is accompanied with a real Influence of the Spirit Christ doth not only bless to us his Doctrine but his Example he hath purchased Grace that we may do as he hath done before us he hath divided his Spirit and shed it abroad among his Disciples Every Duty is sanctified by his subjection to it all his Paths drop fatness and the way to Heaven is made more easie because he hath walked in it
and was as the Garden of God What were the sins of that place Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness Ezek. 16.49 and that fulness did dispumare in libidinem as Tertullian saith Issue out into monstrous Lusts. Alas where there is such a glut of Worldly things what hope is there to prevail and bring Men under the Power of strict Religion and that Holiness Christ calls for Men grow excessive in their Pleasure and they refresh not their Labours with some kind of Pleasure for that God hath allowed but they refresh one Pleasure with another and so set up the Flesh in God's stead their God is their Belly Phil. 3.19 and they are Lovers of Pleasure more than Lovers of God 1 Tim. 3.4 Men think Sensuality no sin in those that are rich Indeed greedy getting or griping to raise an Estate the World will Condemn O! but when a Man lives plentifully and is at Hearts Ease without considering whether he nourish a Temptation or no the World takes no Notice of that Psal. 49.18 While he lived he blessed his Soul and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thy self that is when thou spendest freely upon Carnal Satisfactions that is accounted more honourable nay and they themselves do applaud themselves in this course and think because their Estates will bear it therefore they may indulge their Carnal Desires O! do not think so You are to consider things with respect to Eternity and the World to come Plenty will be no Excuse You would be angry with your Cook if he should make your Meat too salt because he had store of Salt by him so may God be angry with you if you have Plenty such as would refresh the Hungry and supply the Needy and you altogether lay it out upon Pomp and Pleasure above what your Estates and what your Bodies will bear but chiefly what your Souls will bear for you should keep up the welfare of your Souls and be ready and free towards God Do you think you were made only for Idleness and Pleasure and others must Glorifie God only by Labour and Service The rich Glutton was cast into Hell here was no Oppressions but he fared deliciously every day and sucked out the sweetness of his Wealth and the Indictment that is brought against him is this Luk. 16.25 Son remember that thou in thy Life-time receivedst thy good things A Slavery to Pleasures will make the hardship and Duties of Religion intolerable You are brought into Bondage and under the Power of these things and then you cannot leave them that you may attend upon the good of your Souls and upon the things that relate to Eternity 1 Cor 6.12 All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any 7. The more Rich the more wedded we are to the World for Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam usually the more we have our desires are encreased to get more Eccl. 5.10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase Men when they are low are modest Food and Raiment is enough and they receive it with great thankfulness but if they had a litle more in the World then they should serve God without distraction and if they had such a proportion they would care for no more but if those desires be granted they find themselves entangled and their Hearts deceived and still they must have more and more until they settle into a worldly course As a River the greater it grows by receiving of little Brooks the wider and deeper still it wears the Channel so outward things the more they encrease the more they enlarge desires Men would be a little higher in the World a little better accommodated and when they have that they would have a little more and still a little more and so keep joinining house to house and field to field 'till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth Isa. 5.8 They would seize upon all things within their grasp and reach As Fire increaseth with new Fuel so this burning desire doth increase on their hands whereas we should still take thankfully what God vouchsafeth to us without those vast cravings and desires and look after no more than will serve us in our Passage to Heaven Mariners freighted for a near Haven will not Victual for a long Voyage Magno viatico breve iâ—er non instruitur Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 Thus there is very great difficulty with respect to the sins that are incident to a plentiful Estate and grow upon us insensibly 1 VSE This Doctrine sheweth us how Contented we should be with a mean Condition if God reduce us thereunto We can hardly be poorer than Christ and his Apostles and shall we murmur Many have more than they had take them all together and yet think their Condition hard and streight 1 Tim. 6.8 And having Food and Raiment let us be therewith content God hath freed thee from those Snares and Occasions of sin which others are subject unto and so thy way to Heaven is made more easie Certainly they that do indeed intend the Kingdom of Heaven would not desire a more difficult Passage therefore be Content with a mean Estate thô you have no more than Necessaries Contract your Desires and your Trouble will be lessened The Israelites said to the King of Edom Let us go through your land in peace but the Cravings of Carnal Men are endless they enlarge their desire as Hell Habbac 2.5 Not to be Content with our Lot and Portion especially when it is competent is a great sin When you hunt after more what do you but increase your Temptations and multiply your Snares You load your selves with Clay Habbac 2.6 Base Riches which pollute you Thorns which make your Condition more uneasie And when will there be an end of these desires Lust will grow with the Possession the more Wood you put on the more the Fire encreaseth Therefore rather bring your Minds to your Estates than your Estates to your Minds if you be not Content with what you have now you will never be Contented hereafter a greater Estate will not do it if Grace do not do it As in some Diseases non opus habent impletione sed purgatione there is more need of purging than filling a man is still hungry thô he hath eaten enough and still thirsty thô he hath drank enough The way is not to increase our Substance but to moderate our Desires 2 VSE It teacheth us Patience and Comfort under Loss of Goods We should possess the things of this World as if we possessed them not and therefore when God taketh away our Plenty we should mourn as if we mourned not You may find gain in this loss and profit in this tryal The Lord seeth fit many times to take away the Fuel of our Pride and other Lusts to draw us to seek better
with some Joy and the Life in some measure reformed at least from grosser Sins called escaping the pollutions of the World 2 Pet. 2.20 But the Impression is not deep enough nor is the Joy and Delight rooted enough to encounter all Temptations to the contrary Therefore this sense of Religion may be choaked or worn off either by the Cares of this World or voluptuous Living or great and bitter Persecutions and Troubles for Righteousness sake It is a common Deceit many are perswaded that Jesus is the Christ the only Son of God and so are moved to embrace his Person and in some measure to obey his Precepts and to depend upon his Promises and fear his Threatnings and so by consequence to have their Hearts loosned from the World in part and seem to preferr Christ and their Duty to him above worldly things as long as no Temptations do assault their Resolutions or sensual Objects stand not up in any considerable Strength to entice them But at length when they find his Laws so strict and Spiritual and contrary either to the bent of their Affections or worldly Interests They fall off and lose all their Taste and relish of the Hopes of the Gospel and so declare plainly that they were not rooted and grounded in the Faith and Hope thereof This is true Faith generally considered which Foundation being laid it will be easie to shew the Nature of Special Faith which now followeth to be discussed Secondly The Special Objects of Faith are God's Transactions about Man's Salvation by Christ therefore besides the General Faith there is a Special Faith whereby we receive Christ and rest upon him Saving Faith is called a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his Name And Col. 2.6 As ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him We take him as God offereth him and to the ends for which God offereth him to do that for us and to be that to us which God hath appointed him to do for and to be unto poor Sinners The General Work of Christ as Mediatour is to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God And the great use that we make of him is to come to God by him There is implyed in Faith an Intention of God as our Chiefest Good for otherwise Christ is of no use to us and a Consent to Christ's undertaking that he may bring us to God or a thankful acceptance of him for those ends All they are rejected that will have none of him Psal. 81.11 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own Counsels That will not come to him that they may have life John 6.40 That will not have him to reign over them Luke 19.27 But they who consent to receive him as their Lord and Saviour are accepted with him only let us see how this Consent is qualified 1. It is not a Rash Consent but such as is deliberate and serious and well-advised When God in the Gospel biddeth us to take Christ Men are ready to say With all their Hearts but they do not consider what it is to receive Christ and therefore retract their Consent as soon as 't is made No you must sit down and count the Charges Luke 14. When you have considered his strict Laws and made a full allowance for incident Difficulties and Temptations and can resolve forsaking all others to cleave to him alone for Salvation it is an advised Consent 2. It must not be a forced and involuntary Consent such as a Person maketh when he is frighted into a little Righteousness for the present such as a Person would not yield to if he were in a State of Liberty It may be in a distress or pang of Conscience by all means they must have Christ when Sick when afraid to dye when under some great Judgment No the Will must be effectually enclined to him and to God the Father by him as our utmost Fecility and End Christ's People are a willing People Psal. 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power 3. It must be a resolved Consent a fixed not an Ambulatory Will which we take up for a purpose or at some certain times for a solemn Duty or so No you must cleave to him Acts 11.23 He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. You must trample upon every thing that will seperate you from him Phil. 3.8 9. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dâ—ng that I may win Christ c. And Rom. 8. from the 36 th to the end I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come Nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. 4. It must be not a partial Consent but Total not only to take Christ as offered with his Benefits but a Consent of Subjection to him as our Lord. We are to take him and his Yoke Mat. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me We are to take him and his Cross Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me It is accompanyed with a Resolution to obey his Laws and keep his Commandments that we may abide in his Love Thirdly Besides this Consent there must be a Recumbency Dependance Resting or a fiduciary Relyance upon him for all things we stand in need of from him Recumbency is a Special Act of Faith Isa. 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee Now what do we rest upon him for For somewhat Here and somewhat Hereafter 1. Here For the Inward Man for all kind of Grace Justification Sanctification Priviledges Duties for the Beginning and Continuance Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it untill the day of Iesus Christ And Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins He is the Author and Fountain of Grace as well as a Lord and Law-giver and the ground of our Hope and Confidence as giving us that Righteousness whereby we may stand before God and have comfortable access to him And then for the Outward Man God hath not only undertaken to give us Heaven and Happiness in the
better colour The Mystery of Redemption to the Carnal is but a cold Story and the Rose of Sharon but as withered Flowers and the Promises of the Gospel are as dry Chips 3. The Causes of it they are the Holy Ghost and Faith as his Instrument This Joy is stirred up by the Holy Ghost therefore often called Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but Righteousness and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost And the Comforts of the Spirit Acts 9.31 Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost But then Faith is the Means Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom tho' now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory So that it is a Fruit of Faith as well as a Work of the Holy Ghost Faith joyned with Love will bring much Love into the Heart of a Believer and will cause it to be deeply affected with Christ's Grace 3. The Nature of this Joy and Gladness Here we must distinguish 1. There is a superstitious Joy which ariseth from knowing Christ after the Flesh 2 Cor. 5.16 Wherefore henceforth know we no Man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more which is seen in this it prizeth Christ's Name but neglects his Office pretends a fond Esteem of his Memory but despises his Benefits As the Iews would fly in the Face of any that would not count them Abraham's Children yet would not do the Works of Abraham so is the Nominal Christian's Joy This Joy venteth it self in a Carnal way by outward Theatrical Pomp and Ceremonial Observances but not in real Affection to Christ yea they are rather Enemies to his spiritual Kingdom and Cause and Servants and express their rejoycing rather as Votaries of Bacchus than as Disciples of Christ in a gross and Carnal way This Joy is a rejoycing in Christ for a day but we are to make it our daily Work an holy Festival that lasteth our whole Lives Phil. 4.4 Rejoice in the Lord alwayes and again I say rejoice This is a different thing from Abraham's rejoicing He had a Prospect of Christ's day and was exceeding glad but this is a Carnal owning of the God of the Countrey and no more 2. There is an holy Rejoycing which may be considered 1. As to the lively Acts. 2. Or solid Effects 1. As to the lively Acts in solemn Duties as the Word and Meditation and Lord's Supper it doth your Hearts good to think of Christ Cant. 1.4.10 We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine Psal. 22.26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him Your Heart shall live for ever Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them That is when they thought of it the time of the Gospel was a sweet time to them and so it is to all other Believers A Man cannot think of his Pelf or any petty Interest in the World without Comfort and can a Believer think of the Promises and not be affected with them In solemn Meditation and other Duties is Faith and Joy acted 2. As to its solid Effects 1. It is such a Joy as doth enlarge our Hearts in Duty and strengthen us in the way of God Nehem. 8.10 For the joy of the Lord is your strength Psal. 119.14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all riches The hardest Services are pleasant to one that delighteth in Christ. This Joy is the very life of Obedience a Christian cannot be without it 2. It sweeteneth our Calamities and Crosses 1. Common Afflictions It can never be so sad with us in the World but we have cause of rejoycing in Christ Hab. 3.17 18. Tho' the Fig-tree do not blossom c. yet I will rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation For we have better things in him than any natural Comfort which can be taken from us This should not diminish the solid satisfaction of our Souls 2. The Afflictions of the Gospel Luk. 6.23 Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven for in like manner did their Fathers unto the Prophets Heb. 10.34 And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that in Heaven ye have a better and enduring substance They are fit Occasions to shew how much we Value Christ above all our own Interests how near and dear soever they be to us 3. It draweth us off from the vain Delights of the Flesh. Every Man must have some Oblectation for Love and Delight cannot lye idle in the Soul either it is taken up with the Joyes of Sense or with the Joyes of Faith And it is good for every Man to Observe what it is that puts gladness into his Heart where his solid Contentment and Pleasure is A bruitish Heart fetcheth all its Solaces from the World but a gracious Heart from Christ the one love Pleasures more than God but to the other Christ and his Benefits are their matter of Joy and Comfort this is that they are cheared with as they get more of Christ into their Hearts Psal. 4.7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased As David calleth God his exceeding Ioy Psal. 43.4 They need not the Carnal Mirth without which others cannot live Psal. 4.6 Who will shew us any good VSE Well then you see Faith is not only a Sight but a Taste or a feeding on the Promises with delight Psal. 119.111 Thy Testimonies I have taken for an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart And such a Delight as draweth off our Hearts from other things as the Man that had found the true Treasure Matth. 13.44 For joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field I Observe a double Joy in Abraham 1. In Desiring He rejoiced to see my day The Spiritual desires of God's People after Christ are full of Joy There is a Joy that accompanieth seeking before we attain what we seek after Psal. 105.3 Let the hearts of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Before Complacential Joy there is a Seeking Joy Better be a Seeker than a Wanderer and Delight in Christ keepeth up this seeking 2. There is a Joy after Faith hath given some satisfaction First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he rejoiced and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was glad A Man sick of a Mortal Disease when he heareth of
must open the Nature of it The Hardness of Heart discovereth it self by two Properties it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an insensible Heart and an inflexible Heart 1. An insensible Heart as a brawny Substance or callous piece of Flesh like the Labourer's Hand and Traveller's Heel This the Apostle intimateth Ephes. 4.18 19. Having the Vnderstanding darkned being alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the Blindness of their Heart Who being pâ—st feeling c. In one Verse he chargeth them with Hardness of Heart and in the first Words of the next Verse with loss of Feeling Feeling of all Senses though it be not the most noble yet it is the most necessary there is no Life without it it is diffused throughout the whole Body and in what Member soever it is lost there is no more Intercourse of vital and animal Spirits and where 't is totally lost there is no more Life There may be Life when other Senses are wanting a Man may be deaf and yet live blind and yet live but if he utterly lose his Feeling he cannot live Such a dead sensless Heart is the hard Heart as appeareth in the Wicked by that great Security Ease and Quiet which they naturally have though lying under the Guilt of many and grievous Sins and though they be obnoxious to the Wrath of God yet they are never troubled nor affected with any sense of their Condition They can sin freely in Thought foully in Act without any Remorse and Shame Ab assuetis non fit Passio Men are not moved by such things as they are much used to As they that live by the fall of great Waters sleep quietly because they are accustomed to the Noise so Men that are accustomed to Sin can swear and be drunk and commit Filthiness or go on in some other Trade of Wickedness and are never troubled Mithridates through the Custom of drinking Poison made it so familiar to him that he drank it without danger Elementa non gravitant in suis locis Elements weigh not in their proper place A Fish in the Water feeleth no Weight Sin is not burdensom to wicked Men it is in its own place This Insensibleness is the greater where Men will not be awakened out of their Lethargick Fit by all the Means which God useth to them by the Threatnings of his Word or the Judgments of his Providence There is a Method in God's Dispensations he threatneth that he may not punish and punisheth now that he may not punish for ever Now the Children of God are startled at the Threatnings and tremble when they see a Storm in the Clouds before it falleth As Iosiah had a tender Heart and melted at the Threatning 2 Chron. 34.27 And they are said to tremble at the Word Isa. 66.2 and Ezra 9.4 But wicked Men think this is a vain Scarecrow and though they are most obnoxious to the Judgment and Wrath of God yet they have no sense and tender feeling of it Therefore God goeth on to his second Dispensation he punisheth now that he may not punish for ever As Absalom set Ioab's Barley-field on fire that he might draw him to come and speak with him so God seeketh to make Men serious to bring them to the Throne of Grace and sue out their Pardon by many temporal Judgments But still wicked Men start aside and will not turn to him that smiteth them Ier. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correction As the Anvil is smoothed into Hardness by many Blows and Strokes so are Men more insensible of their Condition and will not regard the meaning of God's Providences Well then an hard Heart is insensible of what they have done against God or what God hath or may do to them And so far as we lose our Sense and Tenderness so far is the Heart hardned 2. It is an inflexible Heart it is not easily bent to God's Purpose say he what he will Men are as light as vain as mindless of Heavenly Things as basely wedded to the Delights of the Flesh as ever and obstinately and against all Means to the contrary refuse the Counsel of God for their Good Though God hath the highest Reasons of his side and great Variety of powerful and alluring Motives to gain Souls to his Obedience and these represented not only to the Ear by his Messengers but to the Heart by his Spirit yet Men are so addicted to their own Wills and Lusts that they will not suffer themselves to be perswaded by him to accept of his Offers and rich Mercies in Christ they will not obey the sweet Directions of his Word nor regard the Motions and Strivings of his Spirit to let their beloved Lusts go and comply with the Will of God 1. They are inflexible to the Counsels of his Word where God interposeth in the way of the highest Authority straitly charging and commanding us under pain of his Displeasure and reasoneth with us in the most potent and strong way of Argumentation from the Excellency of his Commands and their Sutableness to us as we are reasonable Creatures from his great Love in Christ whom he hath given to die for us from the Danger if we refuse him which is no less than everlasting Torment from the Benefit and Happiness of complying with his Motions which is no less than eternal and compleat Blessedness both for our Bodies and Souls and all is bound upon us by a strict impartial Day of Accounts when we are to answer for our Neglects or else to receive the Reward of our Diligence But alas the hard Heart defeateth the End of this whole Contrivance Neither the Awe of God's Authority nor the Reasonableness of his Commands nor the wonderful Love of Christ nor the Joys of Heaven nor the Horrors of everlasting Darkness nor the Strictness of the last Day 's Account will work Man to a sense of his Duty or gain him to make serious Preparation for his own Happiness and everlasting Salvation Out of what Rock was the Heart of Man hewen What will work upon you if this Doctrine upon which God hath laid out all the Riches of his Wisdom and Grace will not work upon you Hath God another Son to die for you a better Heaven to bestow upon you or an hotter Hell to scare you withal Would you have the Day of Judgment more exact and severe or greater Obligations to all Holiness and Godliness of Conversation than those already propounded or more Charms and Perswasiveness added to the Gospel O no that cannot be Infinite Wisdom hath already stated these things Or would you have God save you against your Wills or thrust these things upon you without your Consent Surely it is Obstinacy plain Obstinacy and hardness of Heart that maketh you stand out against God Psal. 58.4 5. They are like the deaf Adder that stoppeth her Ear which
Dissembling the Pharisees were a dissembling Generation and they are the famous Instances of hardness of Heart in the first Gospel-days Hypocrisy is a constant Lie and every Lie is a Sin against Light When Men take a Religion out of design their Pretences condemn them Men sin and are secured against the Stroke of the Word and Checks of Conscience by their Fame and plausible Appearance Then for formal performing of good Duties Prov. 7.14 I have Peace-Offerings with me this day have I paid my Vows I do this and that I read so many Chapters a day and keep to my Church Men think they have done enough though they have done never so little Hardness of Heart is often occasioned by the Ordinances Now how do Ordinances harden They may harden partly as they irritate Corruption but chiefly as they are trusted in Duties soundly done humble Men as new Wine rendeth and breaketh old Bottles all to pieces But when formal Duties are used as a sleepy Sop to stop the Mouth of Conscience the Heart is insensibly hardned Every Man must have a Religion to lean to Conscience like the Stomach when it hath no solid Food draweth Wind. 5. Pride and Stubbornness against God Men scorn to be controlled Exod. 5.2 And Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Nehem. 9.29 They dealt proudly and hearkned not unto thy Commandments but sinned against thy Iudgments and withdrew the Shoulder and hardned their Neck and would not hear Jer. 13.15 Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Men scorn to submit to Ordinances to be checked by God's Messengers and say What have we to do with them In this Light of Christianity the Contempt is cast upon the Messenger though indeed the Heart riseth against the Authority of God himself One great Cure of hardness of Heart is seriously to meditate on God's Power Deut. 10.16 17. Circumcise therefore the Foreskin of your Heart and be no more stiff-necked For the Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God a mighty and a terrible which regardeth not Persons nor taketh Reward Do you know what God is Will you contend with him You will fail in the Enterprize you cannot be hard-hearted if you would in the Issue of the Combate Pride is the Root of all Sin what is the Reason Men dare sin They think they shall carry it out well enough for all God and so suffer their Lusts to perk above the Commandment 6. The Deceitfulness of Sin Heb. 3.15 Lest any of you be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin Now how doth Sin deceive us and so harden the Heart 1. By general Invectives We all cry out of Sin and complain of Sin and yet all this while regard it in our Hearts We make Sin a Notion and so defy it in the general when in Particulars we love it all the while as many ignorant People defy the Devil but hold the Crown upon his Head for he is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World The Devil careth not for ill Words so he can keep Possession of the Heart We make Sin the common Pack-horse to bear all our Burdens Men content themselves with empty Declamations or Forms of Satyr and Invective yet the Heart liketh it well enough and so is insensibly hardned they are not serious and particular Men look upon Matters of Religion as abstracted Ideas and Matters of Fancy O take heed of this 2. By delaying Acts 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient Season I will call for thee Christian it is but a Deceit take heed thy Heart be not hardened by it What Reason hast thou to presume of that which God can only give If Cesar had read the Letters over-night to prevent the Conspiracy he had been safe What Security have you either of Time or Grace but your own Presumptions And he that is Security to himself is a Fool. It is true all may be redressed by Repentance but this is not in thy Power and thy Hardness by delaying increaseth every Day 3. It cometh lapped up in carnal Baits of Profit and Pleasure to gratify our Lusts and Interests Sin pretends great Advantage but be not deceived it will harden thy Heart and destroy thee it cannot profit thee 4. It hath many Colours wherewith to beguile a Man It presents it self in another Dress than its own and therefore we have need to have our Eyes about us Prov. 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth always but he that hardneth his Heart shall fall into Mischief Many Sins lie secret unrepented of and so the Heart is hardned 5. It will increase upon thee it groweth to a Custom by Degrees it is of a bewitching Nature and soaketh into a Man insensibly from Thought to Consent then to Action then to Reiteration then to Custom First Men excuse Sin then justify it then glory in it and in time they grow senseless and confirmed in a Habit of Sin and are loth to quit it At first Temptations seemed horrible the first committing of Sin much perplexed the Soul but in time it is not so burdensom yea it is become pleasing and delightful Be not deceived and hardned by saying it is a little one and my Soul shall live unless we take it betimes as Peter went out immediately and wept bitterly it cannot easily be subdued Sampson knew that Dalilah had purposed to betray him into the Philistines Hands and yet he could not leave her Though Sin cost Men temporal and eternal Life yet they cannot give it over 6. That God will be merciful this is another thing whereby we are deceived a Presumption of Impunity Psal. 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept Silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes So Deut. 29.19 20. And it come to pass when he heareth the Words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst. Be not deceived mark what follows The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousy shall smoak against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven Take heed of the Deceitfulness of Sin These are the Causes of Hardness of Heart V. The Heinousness of it 1. It is a contending with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fighting with God The hard Heart is the greatest Enemy God hath on this side Hell That there is a Contest between God and an hard Heart who shall have the better the Instance of Pharaoh sheweth God sendeth a Message to him and meeteth with a Repulse His Message to Pharaoh was
hath to do with a hard Heart he will not steal out of the Field but go away with Honour and Triumph This was to be a publick Instance and for Intimation to the World 1 Sam. 6.6 Wherefore then do ye harden your Hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardned their Hearts when he had wrought wonderfully among them did they not let the People go and they departed The Philistines took warning by it and it will be our Condemnation if we do not 7. In all these Plagues I observe that Pharaoh now and then had his devout Pangs In an hard Heart there may be some Relentings but no true Repentance We have him confessing Exod. 9.27 I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my People are wicked And chap. 10.16 17. I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you Now therefore forgive I pray thee my Sin only this once and intreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this Death only So chap. 12.32 Be gone and bless me also Hardned Sinners may have their Gripes and sensible Touches and so some faint Purposes of Reformation But that which was defective and sheweth it was not true Repentance was 1. Because it was only extorted by present Horror Job 27.10 Will he always call upon God A Still will send forth Water as well as a Fountain but it is by Drops and by Force Prov. 5.11 12 13. And thou mourn at last when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed and say How have I hated Instruction and my Heart despised Reproof and have not obeyed the Voice of my Teachers nor inclined mine Ear to them that instructed me The Leacher hath his penitent Moods A Malefactor on the Rack will confess freely Vows of Men are very frequent O that Men would be such when they are well as they promised to be when they were sick 2. Because the Aim of all was Ease and Safety Pharaoh's Cry is not Take away Iniquity but Take away this Plague Offers of Nature after Ease are found in Hypocrites Esau sought the Privileges of the Birth-right with Tears quia perdiderat non quia vendiderat not because he sold it but because he had lost it Nature may be sensible of present Evil. 3. Because it was vanishing The good Motions of an hard Heart are of no long continuance they pass through and are gone like a Flash of Lightning Pharaoh his Remorse for the Frogs and Grashoppers was as a Cloud soon blown over Till there be sound Repentance Remorse must needs be short for it is an unpleasing Penance Water heated is the colder afterwards because it is rarified after it hath thawed a little it will freeze the harder Pharaoh after every Respite was hardned anew it is the Temper of those that are doomed to Destruction 4. Because his Purposes came so short and lame of what God expected An hard Heart when it cannot prevail against God would fain compound with him First he gave leave Exod. 8.25 Go ye sacrifice to God in the Land Then ver 28. I will let ye go that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the Wilderness only ye shall not go very far away Then chap. 10.11 Go now ye that are Men and serve the Lord. Their Children were to remain for Hostages Then ver 24. Go ye serve the Lord only let your Flocks and your Herds be stayed let your little ones also go with you Their Cattle were to remain for a Pawn and their Flocks and their Herds for a Forfeiture if they returned not and a Recompence for the Damage of Egypt But God would not abate him a Hoof. An hard Heart yieldeth to God by halves Pharaoh hucketh with him first they might sacrifice in the Land then go a little way three Days Journey then he would keep their Children then their Flocks and Herds An hard Heart never yieldeth to God his whole Demand the Devil is loth to let go his hold How do Men huck with God in Duties contrary to their Affections or prejudicial to their Interests 2 Kings 5.18 In this thing the Lord pardon thy Servant that when my Master goeth into the House of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my Hand and I bow my self in the House of Rimmon when I bow my self in the House of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing They have their Reservations and in this and that thing they will be excused These are but deceitful Pangs Pharaoh doth often eat his Words and retract every Grant 8. In process of Time his Hardness is improved into Rage and downright Malice Exod. 10.28 Get thee from me take heed to thy self see my Face no more for in the Day thou seest my Face thou shalt die Vessels when they come to the Lees they grow sowre and tart so Pharaoh began to run Dregs Or as Beasts by long baiting grow mad and furious so it was with Pharaoh Men first slight the Truth and then are hardned against it and then come to persecute it A River when it hath been long kept up swelleth and beareth down the Bank and Rampire so do wicked Men rage when their Consciences cannot withstand the Light and their Hearts will not yield to it 9. At length Pharaoh is willing to let them go After much ado God may get something from a hard Heart but it is no sooner given but retracted like Fire struck out of a Flint it is hardly got and quickly gone Hosea 6.4 Your Goodness is as a Morning Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away Many may have some shew of Goodness at least at some times who yet are little the better and their Condition nothing the better it proveth a great Snare and Neckâ—break to them its Unfoundness is presently seen in its Unconstancy 10. The last News that we hear of hardning Pharaoh's Heart was a little before his Destruction Exod. 14.8 And the Lord hardned the Heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt and he pursued after the Children of Israel Pharaoh begrudgeth his own Grant as if he had yielded too far Hardness of Heart will not leave us till it hath wrought our full and final Destruction God always besotteth when he meaneth to destroy Never any were hardned but to their own Ruine As God that loveth his own loveth them to the end so God that hateth those that are hardned hateth them to the end Pharaoh is first plagued and then destroyed This is the upshot of all Iob 9.4 Who hath hardned himself against him and prospered The Beginning is Imposture and Delusion the Middle Obstinacy and the End Ruine II. How God hardneth It is a Point that needeth Explication God is not and cannot be the Author of Sin if God should cause it Man should sin of necessity and then his Punishment would not be just he being under Force God hath not brought upon any a necessity of sinning and God that is Good cannot be the cause of Evil
hard Times of the hard Dealings of Men of hard Duties Durus est hic Sermo this is a hard Saying and who can hear it But we seldom complain of that which we should most complain of hardness of Heart The Lord is pleased with these Complaints Ier. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke Spiritual Distempers must be most laid to heart God's Children in some degree are inflexible and unsensible there is too great Touchiness and Impatiency to be admonished too much Disobedience to the Spirit 's sanctifying Motions they are too often benummed with the Delights of the Flesh and Cares of the World 2. Hasten your Repentance and Return to God Psal. 119 6â— I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Gal. 1.16 Immediately I conferred not with Flesh and Blood To press thiâ— let us consider these things 1. How soon God may take an advantage against us we cannot tell He hath not told us at what number of Calls he will depart and give us over to our own Hearts but he hath bid us not to delay and lose the present Season Heb. 3.7 8. To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts The Command is as express for the Time as for the Duty there is no Season like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present Season It is but a flattering Presumption to think that God will always stand waiting Felix had but one Call that we hear of and he fooled it away to a more convenient Season 2. Every Day spent in an unregenerate Condition brings us nearer to Destruction and puts us upon a greater Disadvantage Rom. 13.11 Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed A pari we may say Now is our Damnation and final Impenitency nearer 3. Every Call sets us yet nearer still Sins are ripened by every Call as Iron oft heated and oft quenched is the harder When Men are often Sermon-scorched they prove at length Sermon-proof The holy God will not cast his Pearls before Swinâ— Isa. 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near 4. A presumptuous going on in Sin upon a Supposition that we shall repent at last is the very next Door and Step to Hell You wittingly continue under the Devil's Power Life is uncertain God may take you away in the Act of Sin as he did Zimri and Cosbi Corah and his Accomplices or he may deny that Space to call for Mercy that you think of for Death doth not always give warning or by an Apoplexy or Lethargy or some stupifying Distemper he may deprive you of the use of your Reason Let this rouze and awaken you out of your fond Presumptions 3. Beware of Tendencies to it when the Heart begins to harden As 1. When you are not sensible of God's Withdrawings when there are any Suspensions of his Grace the Comfort and Conduct of his Spirit and the Soul is stupid It is sad not to be sensible of the Accesses and Recesses of the Spirit Mat. 9.25 The Days shall come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast Grace stands in a continual Watchfulness and Observation of all God's Dealings Felt Desertions are grievous but not so dangerous as those that are unfelt It is some good degree of Grace not to be quiet without God 2. When you scorn at Reproof when you are not only Actors but Defenders of Sin and bear up your selves impudently and stubbornly in your ransgressions Jer. 6.10 To whom shall speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearâ—en behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a Reproach They are of an unteachable untractakble Disposition they think we rail when we do reprove The Devil hath then two Victories one by the Scorn and Opposition that is cast on the Reprover and the other by the hardning of the Heart of the fretting and reproved Sinner that Anger that should be turned upon the Sin is turned upon the Reproof 3. When Ordinances grow powerless You live under Ordinances and receive no Profit by them you have much Means and can see no Fruit Isa. 6.9 10. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed The Word is powerful if it softens not it hardens 4. When our worldly Comforts are apt to prove a Snare to us Mal. 2.2 I will curse your Blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to Heart When your Table is made your Snare your Meat becomes your Poison your Estate is but as golden Fetters to bind and chain your Heart to the World your Honours blow you up When you do not take Comforts as the Mercies and Blessings of God to praise him for them and to devote your selves in the Strength of them to his Service 5. When Corrections go away without Fruit. Jer. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correction they have made their Faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return God will have an account of every Dispensation Afflictions are upon the Register as well as Mercies Christians should never advance more in Christianity than under the Cross. 6. When we are lazy and loth to admit Christ into the Heart It being thronged with Creature-Comforts we keep him at the Door knocking and will not open to him Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and knock Cant. 5.3 I have put off my Coat how shall I put it on I have washed my Feet how shall I defile them This Laziness and spiritual Security is a Cause and Beginning of hardness of Heart 7. When trivial and slight Temptations prevail against the sense of our Duty when for a piece of Bread and handfuls of Barley they will transgress and sell the Righteous for a pair of Shoes when they are as a Stone to God's Counsels but as Wax to all other things 8. When the Heart grows vain and frothy for a slight Heart will be an hard Heart or God gives Men over to a reprobate Sense and an injudicious Mind These are the Fore-runners of hardness of Heart which we should beware of and carefully watch against A SERMON UPON GENESIS III. 15 It i. e. the Seed of the Woman shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel THese Words are a part of the Gospel preached in Paradise or the first Promise of Grace and Life made to Mankind now fallen and dead in Sin As God was cursing the Serpent he draweth out this Comfort to our first Parents who were confounded with the
Field or Garden where the Senses being locked from all other Objects the Mind may fall more directly upon it self which otherwise in a Field or Garden would skip from Object to Object without pitching upon any seriously 4. The last Circumstance in the Text is the Time in the even-tide which is also a matter of an Arbitrary Concernment Time in it self is but an unactive Circumstance all Hours are alike to God he taketh no more pleasure in the Sixth or Ninth Hour than in the First Hour only you should prudently observe when your Spirit is most fresh and smart To some the Morning is quickest the Fancy being fittest to offer Spiritual and Heavenly Thoughts before it hath received any Images and Representations from Carnal Objects abroad Morning Thoughts are as it were the Virgin Thoughts of the Mind before they have been prostituted to these inferiour and baser Objects and so are more pure sublime and defecate and then the Soul like the Hind of the Morning with a swift and nimble readiness climbeth up to the Mountains of Myrrhe and Frankincense Cant. 4.6 Vntil the day break and the shadows flee away I will get me to the mountain of myrrhe and to the hill of frankincense and it tendeth much to season the whole day when we can talk with the Law in the Morning Prov. 6.22 When thou awakest it shall talk with thee To some the Evening seemeth fitter that when the gayishness and vanity of the Spirit hath been spent in business their Thoughts may be more serious and solemn with God and after the weights have been running down all day through their Imployments of the World they may wind them up again at Night in these Recesses and Exercises of Piety and Religion as David saies Psal. 25.1 Vnto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul. To others the silence and stillness of the Night seemeth to be an help and because of the Curtain of Darkness that is drawn between them and the World they can the better entertain serious and solemn Thoughts of God David speaks every where in the Psalms of his Nocturnal Devotions Psal. 63 6. When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches The Expression is taken from the Custom of the Iews who divided the Night into so many Watches whilst others were Reposing their Bodies on their Beds David was Reposing his Soul in the Bosom of God and he gave the less Rest to his Eyes that he might give the more to his Soul So Psal. 119.148 Mine eyes prevent the night-watches that I might meditate in thy word Certainly in the Night when we are taken off from other business we have the greatest Command of our Thoughts and the Covert of Darkness that God hath stretched over the World begetteth a greater Awe and Reverence Therefore Mr. Greenham when he pressed any weighty Point and perceived any careless used to beg of them that if God by his Providence should suffer them to awake in the Night that they would but think of his words Certainly the Mind being by sleep emptied of other Cares like a Mill falleth upon it self and the Natural Awe and Terrour which is the Effect of Darkness helpeth to make the Thoughts more solemn and serious So that you see much may be said for the conveniency of either of these Seasons Evening or Morning or Night It is your Duty to be faithful to your own Souls and sometimes to take the advantage either of the Night or of the Day or of the Morning or of the Evening as best suits us David saith Psal. 119.97 Oh how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day So he describes his Blessed Man Psalm 1.2 His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night That is sometimes in the Day and sometimes in the Night no time can come amiss to a prepared Spirit Isaac's Hour was in the Even-tide in the Evening he went out to meditate in which two things are notable 1. That he made Duty his Refreshment He had wrought all the Day and in the Evening he goeth to Recreate himself with God What a shame is it that what was his solace is our Burden If we had a Spiritual discerning we should soon see that there is no Delight to that of Duty and no Refreshment like that which we enjoy in the Exercises of Religion and in Communion with God The World's Delights are vain and dreggy they may provoke laughter but they cannot yield any pure solid and true Contentment It was Christs meat to do his Fathers Will Iohn 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work It was sweeter to Iob then his appointed Food to hear Gods word Iob 23.12 I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food And David saith Psal. 119.54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage All the Comfort he had to drive away the sad and disconsolate Houâ—s of his Pilgrimage was to exercise himself in the Study and Meditation of Gods Word And it was Isaac's Evening-Comfort to go out and meditate Gracious Hearts must have Spiritual Delights the Word and Obedience and Prayer and Meditation As one said Aut hoc non est Evangelium aâ—t nos non sumus Christiani Either these Histories are not true or our Hearts are much unlike theirs Oh how sweet would it be if we could make Duty a Recreation and our Work our Pleasure that in the close of the Day this might be our Solace after the work of the Day to take a turn with God in the Mount and to walk in the Garden of Love and as David saith Psal. 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Isaac went out at even-tide 2. That at the Evening his Spirit was still fresh and savoury this was the time not of necessity but choice Many spend their heat and strength in the World toyling all Day and in the Evening come and offer God a drowsie yawning Prayer when all the Vigour of their Spirits is wasted You should bring forth the best Wine at last never so engage in the World as to hinder a Duty It should be the Wisdom of Christians to guide their Affairs with such Judgment that Duties may not become a burden and a weariness Now a Soul incumbred with business cannot act with such delight and freedom as it ought Too often do we suffer the lean kine to devour the fat Mary hath cause to complain of Martha so much time is spent in the World that we have no heart or strength for Communion with God and usually when all are asleep and wearied out with the World then we call to Duty Oh remember in the Evening and Close of the Day your Affections should be quick and free for Spiritual things Isaac went out at evening-tide I shall sum up the intent
are slight and vanishing but deep musing maketh the Fire burn and keepeth a constant heat and flame in the Spirits not by flashes And as for Duty so for Comfort a Man that is a Stranger to Meditation is a Stranger to himself In Acts of review you enjoy your selves and you enjoy your selves with far more Comfort in these private recesses you have most experience of God and most experience of your selves Moses when he went aside to meditate had the Vision of the Fiery Bush usually God cometh in in the time of deep Meditation and an Elevated Heavenly mind is fittest to entertain the Comforts and Glory of his Presence Thus you see it is a necessary Duty Many think it is an excuse to say it doth not suit with their temper that it is a good help but for those that can use it I Answer 1. It is true there is a great deal of difference among Christians some are more serious and consistent and have a greater Command over their thoughts others are of a more slight weak Spirit and are less apt for Duties of retirement and recollection But our unfitness is usually Moral rather than Natural not so much by temper as by disuse and Moral Unfitness cannot exempt us from a Moral Duty Inky water cannot wash the hand white or a Sin exempt me from a Duty Indisposition which is a Sin in me doth not disanul my engagements to God as a Servants Drunkenness doth not excuse him from work That it is a Moral unfitness appeareth by two things 1. Disuse and Neglect is the cause of it Those that use it have a greater Command over their thoughts Men count it a great yoak but Custom would make it easie Every Duty is an help to it self and the more we meditate the more we shall It is pleasant to them that use it Psalm 1.2 His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night Fierce Creatures are tame to those that use to command them and if a Man did use to govern his thoughts he would find them more obedient 2. Want of Love Thoughts are at the Service of Love we pause and stay upon such Objects as we delight in Psal. 1.2 His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night Love naileth and fastneth the Soul to the Object or thing beloved as we see we can dwell upon Carnal Pleasures because our Heart is there As Solomon gives this reason why a Carnal Man cannot dwell upon a sad and solemn Object because his heart is in the house of Mirth Eccles. 7.4 We usually complain we want Temper and we want Matter but the truth is we want an heart David saith Psalm 119.97 Oh how love I thy law it is my Meditation all the day Delightsome Objects will engross the thoughts Therefore see if it be not a Moral Distemper 2. Suppose it be a Natural Unfitness yet while you have Reason it is not Total and Universal and therefore cannot excuse We see in other Duties some have the gift of Utterance and have a great savoryness and readiness of Expression for Prayer others are more bound up and restrained but this can be no plea for them wholly to neglect Prayer Duty must be done as we are able God will hear the breathing panting Soul as well as the rowling Tongue so it is in Meditation some are more for musing and can better melt out their Souls in Devout Retirements other can shew their Love better in Zealous Actions and Publick Engagements for the Glory of Christ yet still though there be a diversity of Gifts we are all bound to the same Duties and though we be fitter for some rather than others yet none must be neglected in their Order and Course 3. The Rank and Place that Meditation hath among the Duties Meditation is a middle sort of Duty between the Word and Prayer and hath respect to both The Word feedeth Meditation and Meditation feedeth Prayer we must hear that we be not erroneous and meditate that we be not barren These Duties must alwayes go hand in hand Meditation must follow hearing and precede Prayer 1. To hear and not to meditate is unfruitful We may hear and hear but it is like putting a thing into a bag with holes Haggai 1.6 He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Iames 1.23 24. He is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was Bare hearing begets but Transient Thoughts and they leave but a weak impression which is rather like the glance of a Sun-beam upon a Wall there is a glaring for the present but a Man never discerneth the Beauty the Lustre and the Order of the Truths delivered till he cometh to meditate upon them then we come clearly to see into the Truth and how it concerneth us and how it falleth upon our Hearts David saith Psalm 119.99 I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation The Preacher can but deliver general Theorems and draw them down to Practical Inferences by Meditation we come to see more clearly and practically than he that preacheth We see in outward Learning they thrive best that meditate most Knowledge floateth till by deliberate thoughts it be compressed upon the Affections 2. It is dangerous to meditate and not to hear because of Errors Man will soon impose a deceit upon himself by his own thoughts Fanatick Spirits that neglect hearing pretend to Dreams and Revelations we have a Sophister and an Heretick in our own bosoms which soon deceiveth without a Stock and Treasure of some Knowledge for Men would be vain in their Imaginations were not their thoughts corrected by an External Light and Instruction Iude calleth those Fanatick Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filthy dreamers Iude 8. All Practical Errors are Mens Natural Imaginations gotten up into a Valuable Opinion 3. It is rashness to pray and not to meditate What we take in by the Word we digest by Meditation and let out by Prayer These three Duties must be so ordered that one may not justle out the other Men are barren dry and sapless in their Prayers for want of exercising themselves in Holy thoughts Psalm 45.1 My heart is inditing a good matter and then it follows I will speak of the things which I have made touching the king my tongue is the pen of a ready writer The Heart yieldeth Matter to the Tongue the word signifieth boyleth and fryeth a word from Mincha their Meat-Offering the Oyl and the Flower was to be kneaded together and then fryed in a Pan and then offered to the Lord implying we must not come with raw dough-baked-offerings till we have concocted and prepared them by Mature Deliberation It is notable that often in Scripture Prayer is called by the name of
SERMON V. GENESIS xxiv 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide 4. Case WHEN must we Meditate 1. In the General something should be done every day seldom Converse begetteth a strangeness to God and an unfitness for the Duty It is a Description of Gods Servant Psalm 1.2 His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night At least we should take all convenient occasions It is an usual way of Natural Men to make Conscience of Duties after a long neglect they performe Duties to pacifie a Natural Conscience and use them as a Man would use a sleepy Potiori or Strong Waters they are good at a pinch not for constant Drink Alass we lose by such wide gaps and distances between performance and performance it is as if we had never done it before 2. For the particular time of the day when you should meditate that is Arbitrary I told you before you may do it either in the silence of the Night when God hath drawn a Curtain of Darkness between you and the things of the World or in the freshness of the Morning or in the Evening when the Wildness and Vanity of the Mind is spent in Worldly Business 3. There are some special solemne times when the Duty is most in season As 1. After a working Sermon after the Word hath fallen upon you with a full stroak it is good to follow the blow and when God hath cast Seed into the Heart let not the Fowls peck it away Matth. 13.19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart Ruminate on the Word chew the Cud many a Sermon is lost because it is not whet upon the Thoughts Iames 1.23 24. He is like a man that beholdeth his Natural face in a glass For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was Matth. 22.22 When they heard these things they marvelled and left him and went their way You should rowl the word in your thoughts and deeply consider of it 2. Before some solemn Duties as before the Lords Supper and before special times of deep Humiliation or before the Sabbath Meditation is as it were the breathing of the Soul that it may the better hold out in Religious Exercises it is a good preparative to raise the Spirits into a frame of Piety and Religion When the Harp is fitted and tuned it doth the better make Musick so when the Heart is fixed and setled by a preparative Meditation it is the fitter to make Melody to God in Worship 3. When God doth specially revive and enable the Spirit It is good to take advantage of the Spirits gales so fresh a Wind should make us hoise up our Sails Do not lose the Spirits Seasons the Spirits Impulses are good significations from God that now is an acceptable time 5. Case What time is to be spent in the Duty I Answer That is left to Spiritual Discretion Suck the Teat as long as Milk cometh Duties must not be spun out to an unnecessary length You must neither yield to laziness nor occasion Spiritual wearyness the Devil hath advantage upon you both wayes when you rack and torture your Spirits after they have been spent it makes the Work of God a Bondage And therefore come not off tiâ—l you find profit and do not press too hard upon the Soul nor oppress it with an indiscreet Zeal It is Satans Policy to make you out of Love with Meditation by spinning it out to a tediousness and an unnecessary length 6. Case Whether should the time be set and constant I Answer It is good to bind the Heart to somewhat and yet leave it to such a liberty as becomes the Gospel Bind it to somewhat every day that the Heart may not be loose and arbitrary we see that necessity quickneth and urgeth and when the Soul is engaged it goes to work the more throughly Therefore the Lord asks Ier. 20.21 Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me It is good to lay a tye upon the Heart and yet I advise not to a set stinted Hour lest we create a snare to our selves Though a Man should resist Distractions and Distempers yet some business is unavoidable and some Distempers are invincible I have observed this that even Religious Persons are more sensible of their own Vowes then of Gods Commands when Men have bound up themselves in Chains of their own making their Consciences fall upon them and dogg them with restless Accusations when they cannot accomplish so much Duty as they have set and prescribed to themselves And besides when Hours are customary and set the Heart groweth formal and superstitious 7. Case Are all bound to meditate Are the Ignorant Are Men of an unquiet Nature Are Servants Are Ministers 1. Are the Ignorant and Men of barren Minds that have not a good stock of Knowledge I answer Yes they are bound to this as well as other Duties though they cannot do it well it is their Duty to strive that the Word of God may dwell richly in them It is a mark of a Godly Man every Man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures Ier. 31.34 They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord. God hath no Child so little but he knows his Father therefore all are bound in some measure to be able to discourse of God and of the things of God 2. But some are of an unquiet Nature fit for Publick Duties but not for Private Exercises are they bound as well as those of softer Spirits and fitter for Meditation I answer This is not Temper but Distemper the unquiet Spirit must not totaliter cessare wholly discontinue this work They are to mind wherein they may serve God most but not totally desist from a work so necessary and of such great importance 3. Are Servants bound to it whose time is not their own I Answer They should do what they can God is more merciful to them but those that are in bondage to others may find some leisure for God 4. Are Ministers obliged Their whole work is a Study their Imployment is a continual Meditation I Answer There is a difference between Meditation and Study In Study we mind the good of others in Meditation the good of our own Souls Things work with us according to our end and the aims that we propose to our selves Things work with us according to our end and the aims that we propose to our selves Publick Teaching is no such Tryal of our Hearts there is a Natural Pride in us to urge us to teach others and that makes so many intrude into the Ministry there is some kind of Authority in it that we exercise over others but we are to mind the good of our own Souls and to regard
idolize every petty and vain thing in the World therefore in Christ the Lord would shew us the highest Self-denyal when he took the Humane Nature on him and endured the Wrath of the Father The whole World wondred after the Beast and the Disciples wondred at the goodly Stones of the Temple Matth. 24.1 Oh what will you do at the Son of God in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily This should beget a special Veneration and Reverence towards God 3. To overcome us by Love There is a great engagement laid upon a Sinner hereby When the King of Moab was pressed hard by Israel He took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt-sacrifice upon the wall 2 Kings 3.27 according to their superstition who were wont in extream Dangers and desperate Cases to sacrifice their Children whereupon they raised the Siege and went home God hath took his own Son and sacrificed him that we might leave off fighting against Heaven God would overcome Sin by the highest Act of goodness and kindness imaginable hereby he would shame and overcome the heart of a poor Sinner 4. That we might have a High and Glorious Pattern of Obedience We are referred to Angels and to Christ himself who would leave us a more glorious Example 3. Magnifie this great contrivance of your Salvation by Comparisons Compare it with Creation with other Deliverances and with the Works of Nature 1. Compare it with Creation The Lord discovered much of his Glory in making the World out of nothing but he discovered more of his Glory when Jesus Christ was born of his own Creature a Vine out of the Berry or Grape This was his Master-piece and grand design in which he purposed to gain to himself most Honour and Glory The World was made with a Word but redeemed with a serious Plot and Contrivance The World was made for Man and Woman but Christ was made out of a Woman In the Creation God made us like himself but here the Lord made himself like us In the Creation all things were made out of nothing here Order came out of Confusion In the Creation Man was made out of the Earth but here God was made Man In the Creation God went the high way to do us good in Redemption he came the lower way Jesus Christ abased himself for our sakes 2. Compare it with other Deliverances It was a great thing to be delivered out of Egypt and Babylon but it is far greater to be delivered out of Hell and from Damnation and Wrath to come Read the Story of the Children of Israels Deliverances Psalm 107. They were delivered from the oppression of Pharaoh but we from Satan God gave them Food and satisfied the longing Soul and filled the hungry But Jesus Christ incarnate is made Bread and Food to the Soul They had Deliverance from Diseases but we from Sin the Sickness and Disease of the Soul and from the Vanity of our own Spirits Then he goes on to the Wonders in the deep but we may see the depth of Mercy swallowing up the depth of Sin and the glorious Love of God breaking out in such a wonderful Deliverance by Jesus Christ that we may well cry out with them verse 31. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men 3. Compare it with the Miracles of Nature There are strange things among the Creatures yet there may be some footsteps of Reason seen but it cannot enter into the heart of Man to conceive of this glorious Salvation brought about by the Son of God Therefore bless God for the Revelation and complain of thy self for not thinking of these things with serious admiration scarce vouchsafing to look into these things but art more pleased with every bawble and vain contrivance than the great and serious Plot of the Gospel SERMON X. GENESIS xxiv 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide Fourthly THE Object which I shall now propose is Providence a large Field and full of useful matter It is a draught which God hath been plotting from all Eternity and accomplishing these thousands of years 1. Take it altogether and it is a continued contexture or concatenation of Decrees Actions and Events from the Creation to the day of Judgment It is our Duty to understand it for the present and it will be our happiness to understand it perfectly hereafter Psalm 107.43 Whoso is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. It is an excellent piece of Wisdom to be able to link Events together that we may see the Wisdom and Love of God in the usual occurrences that happen out We being of short narrow thoughts fail most herein Power is such an Attribute as is visible and obvious to a common and careless Eye the Heathens knew it Rom. 1.20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead But to find out the Beauty and Wisdom of Gods Work there needs the Light of Faith and some acquaintance with God himself therefore it is said Iob 11.5 6. Oh that God would speak c. and shew me the secrets of wisdom that they are double to that which is Power is obvious to Sense and Reason but Wisdom is scarce discernable to Faith There is an out-side and an in-side in all Divine Dispensations the out-side is full of Beauty but that is but dark to the in-side to the secrets of Wisdom Gods Works are full of Mysteries as well as his Word and we cannot understand them unless God himself be our Teacher we are blind and see not and then we murmur But the full knowledge of the Mysteries of Providence is reserved for our Portion in Heaven when we shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then I shall know even as also I am known We shall view all the passages of Providence by which we have been brought to Glory and see the beautiful Order and Links of them Now we have known God or rather are known of God Gal. 4.9 God knoweth what is the meaning of such a Providence what is in the Womb of such a Dispensation Here there is a hand-writing upon the Wall but we as Beltshazzar cannot read it As when we see a Woman with Child we cannot tell what it will prove but when we are on the top of the Mount we shall look back and see how many are the crooked Lanes we have passed the up-hill and down-hill we have trod and God knew us all along and did not only lead us in but lead us out Then we shall know the multitude of his thoughts and what the great number of them is I confess by narrow
earth shall remember and return unto the Lord. Think with your selves whence am I Whither am I going What have I done in the work of Repentance What will become of me to all Eternity Here in the Scriptures God himself hath told me what I must look for and will God deceive me Oh let me take Gods Directions for the saving of my Soul I might take occasion hence to press you to bless God for transmitting such a Doctrine to us and to give you caution not to look after other Revelations there are none or if there were none can be so certain and so sufficient as this And whatever is pretended as a Message from God bring it to the Scriptures Isa. 8.20 To the law and to the testimonies if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Some cry up the Church some the Spirit in contradiction to the Scriptures do you take the middle course go to the word opened and dispensed in the Church and wait for the Spirits teaching And whatever is pretended if it be not according to this there is no light in it and if there be no Light of Knowledge there will be no Light of Comfort and no Light of Happyness A SERMON ON HEB. xiii 20 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever Amen THE words carry the form of an Apostolical Blessing or Prayer for these Christian Hebrews to whom he wrote Consider in them 1. The Person to whom he prayeth in which the grounds of Audience are implyed verse 20. 2. The Matter which he prayeth for verse 21. 1. The Person to whom the Prayer is directed who is described 1. By a proper Title the God of peace 2. By his great Work he brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus Christ Who is set forth 1. By his Office the great shepherd of the sheep 2. By his Merit and Satisfaction through the blood of the everlasting covenant Which may relate 1. To God's Title He is become the God of peace through the blood of the everlasting covenant 2. To Gods Work through the blood of the everlasting covenant he brought him again from the dead 3. To Christ's Office through his blood shed for sinners he is become the great shepherd of the sheep 2. The Matter which he prayeth for The continued Sanctification of Man once regenerate set forth by both its parts the Will and the deed Phil. 2.13 First The Will or remote Power Make you perfect or fit you for every good work to do his will Secondly The deed or actual assistance working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight We have both by Jesus Christ for it is added with a Doxology through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The Text is long I must give you but short Strictures upon it And I will begin with the second branch the Matter prayed for And therefore let me observe Doct. That the beginning progress and accomplishment of every good work is from God through Iesus Christ. This appeareth plainly from the 21. verse which may be reduced to two heads 1. The Expressions which concerne Mans Duty which is to be perfect in every good work that we may do God's will and that which is pleasing in his sight 2. The Expressions which concerne Gods Power to inable us for this Duty there are two words perfecting and working The first relateth to his Habitual Grace the second to his Assisting Grace I. The first expressions which import Mans Duty are four 1. Perfecting 2. Every good Work 3. Doing his Will 4. So as may be pleasing in his sight 1. We must be made perfect or the begun Work of Grace must be carryed on to perfection We all come short of that perfection which is attainable in this Life therefore those that have attained some good measure of Grace should not rest satisfied with it We need to be more able for Duties more fortified for Tryals A Man groweth till he be fit for all Manly Actions And a Christian groweth and must be made more peâ—fect â—ill he be fit for every good Work An Artisan must be so long learning his Trade till he be fit for all those Functions which belong to his Trade A sick or wounded Man is under the hand of the Physitian or Chirurgeon till he be perfectly cured So is a Christian under the care of his Spiritual Physitian till he be fitted for all the â—arts and Duties of a Christian Here upon earth Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified or dedicated to God Heb. 10.14 But now he is in Heaven he perfecteth us by degrees The Sacrifice needeth not to be repeated but his intercession is continual because we still need new influences of Grace Absolute Perfection is not attainable in this life but the perfection of sincerity is here required that we should mortifie all our Lusts and serve God in every good Work and please him by an Universal and Impartial Obedience Phil. 3.12 Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus That is I aim at that which Christ aimed at that I may be thoroughly and exactly perfect 2. In every good work Not in one but all Many will do some good but are defective in other things and usually in those which are most necessary They cull out the easiest and cheapest parts of Religion such as do not contradict their Lusts and Interests We can never have sound peace till we regard all Psalm 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments Shame is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear of a just reproof This reproof is either from the Supream or the Deputy-Judge The Supream Judge of all our Actions is God This should be our principal care that we may not be ashamed before him at his coming nor disapproved in the Judgment But there is a Deputy Judge which every Man hath in his own bosom Our Consciences do acquit or condemne us as we are partial or sincere in our Duty to God and much dependeth on that 1 Iohn 3.20 21. But if our hearts condemne us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God Well then that our hearts may not reprove or reproach us we should be complete in all the Will of God Alas otherwise you will never have Evidence of your sincerity 3. The next Expression is That you may do his will The Rule of Mans Duty is the will of God
there must be a resolute endeavour to overcome every Sin you are convinced of Heb. 13.18 Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly 2. That you may not have a dead sleepy stupid Conscience you must often excite it For your Actions bring them to the Rule Haggai 1.5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord God consider your wayes Psalm 4.4 Commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still For your state try it often 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates The Acts of Conscience are three to be an Accuser Witness and Judge 1. As an Accuser hearken to its voice what doth it say to you good or evil Iob 27.6 My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live If it speak not to you you must speak to it God complaineth Ier. 8.6 I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done 2. As a Witness consider the Evidence it bringeth that it may be matter of Joy or Sorrow to you of Confession or Thanksgiving If it reproach you do not smother the check Acts 24.25 And as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come Foelix trembled and answered go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee If it chear you see upon what grounds Rom. 9.1 I speak the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the holy Ghost It is no matter what others think but what Conscience thinketh Nothing is nearer to us than our selves it is a domestical Tribunal that we alwayes carry about with us 3. As a Judge it passeth Sentence if it be wrong there is an appeal from Court to Court Psalm 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who can stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Conscience is a Judge but it is an inferior Judge there lyeth an Appeal to a higher 1 Cor. 4.4 He that judgeth me is the Lord Heb. 11.23 And to God the judge of all But it should be done with great admiration of Grace But if the Judgment be right it is ratified its Judgment we must yield to 1 Cor. 11.32 But when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord. Thus should we keep up the force of Conscience A SERMON On ZECHARIAH xiv 20 21. In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses Holiness unto the Lord and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the altar Yea every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah shall be Holiness unto the Lord of hosts THESE words describe the Purity and Holiness of the Gospel-Church in such Termes and Notions as are proper to the Old Testament Dispensation In them observe 1. The Inscription or Impress 2. The things on which it is ingraven 3. The time when it is done 1. The Inscription or Impress Holyness to the Lord. This was of old written on the Priests Mitre Exod. 28.36 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the ingravings of a signet HOLINESS TO THE LORD To shew that he was a Person Sacred and designed for special Holy Uses therein he was a Type of Christ. Now what was upon the High Priests Frontlet was inscribed on every thing to shew they should consecrate their all to God 2. The things inscribed particularly enumerated first the horse-bells or the Ornaments of their Horses Secondly Their bowles or basons Thirdly Their pots 1. What was used in the Kitchings of the Temple 2. The Utensils of every ordinary House and Family There were Kitchins belonged to the Temple wherein the Thank-Offerings were dressed for their Sacred Feasts The Bowles of the Altar were for an higher use namely to receive the Blood of the Sacrifices to make the sprinklings as Solomon made an hundred basons of Gold for that use 2 Chron. 4.8 3. The Time in that day he speaketh not of any peculiar time but the whole State of things under the Gospel which is as it were but one day And it is called that day by way of excellency Thus the time of the Gospel are dayes indeed full of Light and Grace and that day by way of limitation it should be reserved for this day and not found in such a degree and measure at any other time even then when there should be no Sacrifices no Altars then the Bells Pots and Basons should be sanctified or separated from a common and dedicated to an Holy Use that is there shall be such special Universal Holiness as if it were so done upon all these things But you will say When and where is it Alas considering the degenerate state of the Christian World where is this Universal Holiness to be found How shall we make it good Answer 1. Prophesies of things belonging to our Obedience are to be understood many times quoad officium of our Duty rather than quoad eventum of the event it is their Duty to be thus Holy in all their Imployments and Affairs that dispensation requireth it as our Duty 2. As to the Event it is to be understood comparatively not absolutely to shew that there shall be a far greater Holyness under the Gospel than under the Law both intensive as to the degree of the Holyness it self and extensive as to the Persons sanctified Intensively the Holiness its self is greater because the Ordinances of the Gospel are Rational and not Typical and the Duties of it Moral more than Ceremonial God taught them by Ceremonies to hate Sin by the Types of legal uncleanness to devote themselves to God by offering their Beasts in Sacrifice Theirs was like a training ours a real War as much as the difference is between shooting at a Puppet or painted Castle and fighting with an Enemy And because more of the Spirit is poured out now Grace is not given upon trust but the price is actually paid Extensively more Persons are sanctified as the Pale is inlarged and the Gospel prevaileth on them Rev. 5.9 Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation Mark 16.15 Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature 3. The Gospel-State hath its ebbs and flowes in several Ages Sometimes there is a notable vigour and power of Godliness at other times a great Increase of Wickedness and Men do so far corrupt their way that we are forced to put another sense upon words or expect a better time when the Prophesie shall be more amply fulfilled We can hardly reconcile the words with the state of the
times Doct. God in and by the Gospel will effect an eminent and notable sanctification both of Things and Persons 1. Let us consider how Gospel Holiness is set forth in this Prophesie 2. I shall speak of Holiness in the General 3. Give you the Reasons I. That degree of Holiness which is here prophesied of 1. All such things as were before imployed against God should be then imployed and converted to his service for the Horse-Bells shall be inscribed He speaketh before of Horses imployed against the Church which God would overthrow verse 15. It was the fashion of those Oriental Countreys to adorn their War-Horses and Camels with Golden Chains and Bells Iudges 8.26 This Prophesie intimateth that now these Bells should be converted to another use to make Golden-Pots and Bowles for the Temple and be inscribed by Gods Motto and Impress In our Natural Estate we imployed our Time and Wit and Parts and Strength against God but if converted then for him As one of the Fathers glosseth upon Eves seducing Adam She was a Rib but she proved a Dart. We fight against God by his own Weapons but Conversion maketh a change Rom. 6.13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Weapons or Instruments of unrighteousness are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instruments of righteousness So verse 22. For now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness There is a manifest change in the use of all things 2. Upon all the Utensils of the Temple there shall be Holiness to the Lord whether Pots or Bowles The great and immediate Duties of the Worship of God should have special Holiness in them for God will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified There should be a special Awe and Reverence upon our Hearts in our conversing with God when the Blood of the Sacrifice is presented to him as it was in the Bowles or the Flesh of the Sacrifice eaten by our selves as it was by the Priests when it was sodden in the Pots of the Lords House We read of discerning the Lords body 1 Cor. 11.29 We receive it not in an Holy manner if our eating be not in a different manner from eating our ordinary Meal The Impression of our great end should be upon our ordinary and common Actions but in Worship the Nature of the Work is Holy and the Manner of our Deportment should be very reverend and serious 3. The Expressions imply a proficiency and growth in Holiness For the Pots of the Kitchen of the Temple shall become as the Bowles of the Altar for purity and Holiness There were degrees of Holiness in the several Vessels belonging to the Temple the meanest things in Sacred use shall be advanced to an higher degree of Esteem and Holy Employment than before which some understand thus that the meanest things in the Christian Church shall be as precious as the most glorious things in the Iewish Church rather that Holiness should be upon the growing hand and increasing from degree to degree till all be perfected in the Everlasting Estate The Bells or Neck-Ornaments of their Horses shall be turned into Pots of the Lords House and the Pots in the Kitchen become as the Bowles on the Altar Oh Christians the Holiness of the Gospel is a growing Holiness we should go on from strength to strength Psalm 84.7 from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.28 The inner Man must be renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 There should be a continuance in Gospel-Holiness Carnal Men seek to grow greater and greater and higher and higher and attain further degrees of their Worldly Happiness and shall not we seek to grow better and better One dramm of Holiness is worth a whole World of Greatness Holiness is the Glory of Saints the Beauty of Angels the Delight of God you cannot be too holy But alas Many lose ground in Religion Holiness is in the wane not in the increase Sin is not so hateful as it was before What will this come to at length How can he be rich who groweth every day poorer Or reach the Goal who goeth every day a step back who loose their Zeal and the elder they grow live in more indulgence to the Flesh 4. As it is a progressive Holiness so it is also a diffusive Holiness that spreadeth its self throughout all Actions Civil and Sacred in things which belong to Peace and War 1. In things Civil and Sacred all the Pots of the Lords House and all the Pots in Ierusalem 2. In things of War and Peace for here are Horse-Bells and Pots all things should now become Holy and holily used In every point and ordinary Action of the Christian Life a Christian should devote himself to God True Holiness will extend its self and shine forth in a Mans most common things and imployments and the sincere Man referreth all to God even in his ordinary Conversation as if he were about immediate Worship 1 Pet. 1.15 For as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all manner of conversation In every creek and turning of your Lives or in every particular passage of your Christian Course Oh what a blessed thing is it when Godliness runneth through a Mans whole Life as the Woof through the Web when our whole Conversation savoureth of Godliness and True Holiness and our Common and Civil Actions are done in the Lord and for his Glory and upon all occasions you shew your selves haters of Sin and lovers of what is good Every thing that passeth Gods Hand discovereth the Author there is not a Gnat or a Pile of Grass but you may see God in it as well as in the more stupendious Works of the Creation So should a Christian in every condition prosperous and adverse in an high or low Condition whether he be abased or do abound carry himself like a Christian Phil. 4.12 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need Hosea 7.8 Ephraim is a cake not turned baked but on one side and dough on the other So in every Action Civil or Sacred there must not only be a Spirit of Holiness breathing in our Duties but shining forth in our ordinary Employments and Recreations Every Action morally considered is in its self a step forward to Hell or to Heaven In every Relation in Love to our Maker in Duty to our fellow Creatures Acts 24.16 And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men
hanging upon a Tree We should look upon Christ crucified as if the thing were now a doing before our Eyes Gal. 3.1 Before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified before you Though it be past long ago it is present to Faith For he is lifted up that by the Eye of Faith we should look to him and see not only the thing but the end use and vertue of this Mistery The Brazen Serpent was a sufficient Remedy for the stung Israelites none that looked towards it perished the Cure never failed and Jesus Christ lifted up and being eyed is sufficient to cure the guilt of Sin and pain of Conscience through Sin and to heal our Diseased Souls and free them from the power of Corruption For being made a Curse for us the Blessing cometh freely upon the believing Gentiles even the gift of the Spirit Isa. 53.5 He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed 2. The Superexcellency of Christ above this and all the Shadows and Types of him The Type doth express the thing signified but yet the Truth doth much exceed the Shadow The Brazen Serpent was but a Sign of Salvation so called in the Book of Wisdom chap. 16.6 But Christ is the Author of Salvation Heb. 5.9 The Serpent benefitted only the Israelites but Christ all Nations both Iew and Gentile Isa. 11.10 In that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious It freed them from present Death but yet so that they might dye by other means but Christ hath freed us not only from the Death of the Body but of the Soul and this for ever as in the Text That they should not perish but have everlasting life So Iohn 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye There Natural Life is preferred but for a while here Eternal Life obtained This benefit might last for a day or two but Iesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 Christ ever retaineth his healing Vertue This was but a piece of Brass while they lodged it in the Temple but Christ is a Mediator to all Eternity It was a great wickedness to worship the Brazen Serpent therefore Hezekiah broke it in pieces when once he understood the People to be guilty of that Idolatry 2 Kings 18.4 He brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made for unto those dayes the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it Neâ—ushâ—an or a piece of Brass but it is our Duty to worship Christ All men must honour the Son as they honour the Father Iohn 5.23 And Heb. 1.6 Let all the angels of God worship him Phil. 2.9 10. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow When the Israelites worshipped the Brazen Serpent it was broken in pieces but they shall be broken in pieces themselves that deny Christ his due Worship Psalm 2.9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel Dan. 2.44 And in the dayes of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and shall stand for ever The Kingdom that will not submit to him shall be broken in pieces Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Thus it sets forth Christ. 3. Faith is set forth or the Way and Means how we come to have benefit by Christ. It is not enough to look to what Christ hath done but what we must do that we may be partaâ—ers of him The way of Cure was by a look so it is believing in him that bringeth home the Blessing to our Souls From this Type we learn 1. The necessity of Faith None had benefit by the Brazen Serpent but those that looked on it The Promise was made to those that observed the Command Numb 21.8 Every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live If a Man turned away his Eyes and refused Gods Remedy the biting was Mortal to him As there is a necessity Christ should die so there is a necessity you should believe for besides Impetration there must be Application and the work of the Spirit is as necessary to apply Grace as the work of the Mediator to obtain Grace for us A deep well will do you no good without a Bucket nor the purchase of Salvation unless you apply it 2. An Incouragement of Faith 1. To broken-hearted Sinners if you are stung with Sin you may look to Christ. It was ground enough for any bitten Israelite to look to this Brazen Serpent because he had need he found himself bitten and thirsted for cure by this appointed means A felt Sense of Sin is warrant enough to look to Christ as the offered remedy Look not altogether to your soar to your sins but to Christ as the means of healing Indeed there must be a feeling and a sense of Sin or else there is no work for Christ to do what should an hail Israelite do with the Brazen Serpent Their looking began in a sense of pain none troubled their Thoughts about it till they were stung Compunction goeth before Faith The Israelites cryed out Oh! What shall we do for these fiery Serpents So Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do An impoisoned dagger was flung into their Souls and then What shall we do The Goaler came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said Sirs what must I do to be saved Acts 16.29 30. And they said verse 31. Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Only look upon the Serpent A Sinner must first feel himself a Sinner before he will or can come to Christ but then come The son of man is lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Some that know not themselves believers have been welcome to Christ but never any that know not themselves Sinners 2. To lapsed Believers The Serpents were left to sting the Israelites while they were in that place only the Brazen Serpent was lifted up God did not presently take away the Serpents only he gave a Remedy for such as were bitten Sin is not abolished but whilest we are in this Station the Remedy is still offered we are never so cured but we may be bitten again The disobedient Israelites needed this Motive and Chastisement to keep them in
We are never prepared till our State be altered Heart altered and Life altered 1. Our State must be altered For naturally we are Children of Wrath condemned by the Sentence of the Law and under the Curse and doth it become condemned Men to rejoyce and go to their execution dancing No you must take hold of another Covenant the hope that is set before you and then you provide matter of joy yea of strong consolation Heb. 6.18 By taking Sanctuary at the Lords Grace the Heirs of Promise have strong Consolation When the Eunuch was solemnly admitted into Gods Covenant by Baptisme He went on his way rejoycing Acts 8.39 By Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we enter into the New Covenant and that is a State of Peace Life and Joy In the New Covenant God offers himself to be your Reconciled Father Christ your Saviour and the Holy Ghost your Sanctifier are you willing to consent to this And then Why should not you rejoyce in the Lord For you have enough in God 2. Our Heart must be altered For every Mans relish and complacency is according to the Temper and Constitution of his Soul Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Know his complacency what it is that a Man is pleased with most and you know the Man An old corrupted Heart and Mind cannot delight it self in God 1 Cor. 2.14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned But those that have a Divine Nature put into them cannot satisfie themselves in the World 2 Pet. 1.4 Ye may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust They can easily spare the pleasures of the flesh and leave these husks for Swine to feed on A change of Heart inferreth a change of Delights and Pleasures for the New Heart is nothing else but New Desires and Delights when you have a New Understanding and a New Heart then you will discern and relish Spiritual things 3. The Life must be altered For Holy walking and fruitfulness in Obedience raiseth the greatest Joy Iohn 15.10 11. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Acts 9.31 Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost The Godly Life is the only sweet Life 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we had our conversation in the world If you will but learn what it is to live in the Love of God and the belief and hope of Life Eternal and in Universal Obedience to the Laws of Christ you will soon see what it is to live in a State of Joy and Comfort If you fall into great and wounding Sins no wonder if your rejoycing in God be disturbed Surely a tender Heart cannot make light of Sin but it will cost them broken Bones and broken Hearts 2. Act it continually Partly for that the grounds of rejoycing are Everlasting an Eternal God an Unchangeable Covenant Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Infinite and Eternal weight of Glory Now these things should ever be thought of by us that we may keep up our delight in the Lord. Partly because we need it continually to enliven our Duties to sweeten our Crosses and to wean us from our Carnal Vanities for otherwise our Duties will go off heavily our Crosses will swallow us up with too much sorrow or our Hearts will be apt to be insnared by sensual delights unless we remember that we are continually to rejoyce in God and Heavenly things Partly because this delight cannot be maintained in the Soul unless it be continually exercised by constant acting it we keep it and increase it till at length it cometh to be predominant in the Soul and able to controul our Affection to other things It is said of Iohn Baptists Hearers That they were willing to rejoyce in his light for a season Iohn 5.35 And of the stony ground Luke 8.13 That they received the word with joy and believed for a while but in time of temptation fall away Herod heard Iohn Baptist gladly for a while Mark 6.20 Gods offering Eternal Happiness in Christ may affect us for the present but this rejoycing faileth being over-mastered by the Appetites and Desires of the Flesh. Therefore to root it and increase it that it may be firm to the end it must be continually acted and exercised 3. Take heed you do not forfeit it or damp it by any great and wounding Sin As David speaketh Psalm 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Sin cloudeth the Face of God wasteth our Comfort and Joy Psalm 32.3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy spirit whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption When the Comforter is offended he sheweth his dislike and withdraweth when we grosly omit any known Duty or commit any soul Sin he will shew himself displeased with it and withdraw his Gracious and Comfortable Presence Isa. 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth On such occasions he is wroth and smiteth he is wroth and hideth himself and then our Comfort and Delight in God ceaseth Therefore we should deal more dutifully with the Spirit neither grieving him by the omission or intermission of necessary Duties nor by the commission of any hardning Sin by some error of the concupicible or pursuing faculty or the irascible or eschewing faculty by Sins of the Tongue which most easily bewray corruption or by words which discover the temper of the Heart I observe that grieving the spirit Ephes. 4.30 is put in the middle between a disswasive from corrupt Communication verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying When Men endeavour to make themselves glad by carnal Discourse which argueth an Heart set for carnal delights and is contrary to rejoycing in the Lord Eph. 5.4 Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks and on the other side verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from
any among you afflicted let him pray That gives vent to our sorrow and turneth it into a Spiritual Channel In a prosperous Estate we are to pray that we may not forget God Carnal Men never come to him but when they have extream need of him Ier. 2.27 But in the time of their trouble they will say arise and save us That our Hearts may not be corrupted but our portion sanctified to us for every thing is sanctified by the word of God and prayer 1 Tim. 4.5 Thus God must hear from us sick and sound in pain and well at ease whether we are abased or abound 3. In every business Civil or Sacred In all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.6 In business secular Abrahams Servant beggeth success in his Errand Gen. 24.12 O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day In Matters Sacred 2 Thess. 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God So that a serious sensible Christian seldom wanteth an Errand to the Throne of Grace and if we be not Strangers to our selves we cannot be Strangers to God 2. To the other extream we now come when Men are rare and unfrequent with God upon the pretence that they are not bound to pray alwayes and the time of Duty is not exactly stated in the New Testament To these we oppose other Considerations 1. Though there be not an express rule particularly set down how often we should be with God yet Duties are required in the strictest and most comprehensive tearms and Gods expressions about them are very large For here God saith pray without ceasing and Eph. 6.18 Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance So Col. 4.2 Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving So Psalm 62.8 Trust in the Lord at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him So Luke 21.36 Watch ye therefore and pray alwaies So that here is no gap opened to loose and vain Spirits to countenance them in their neglect of God The Scriptures rather speak over than under Nature is apt to incroach upon Grace as the Sea upon the Banks and sloath and strangeness to God will soon creep upon us therefore the crooked stick is bent the other way rather pray alwaies than be alwaies in the World and alwaies in pleasures at least take the due occasions Though these expressions be not to be understood as if we should do nothing else but pray yet they imply frequency in this Duty at all times when opportunity calleth for it 2. The Examples of the Saints should move us David prayed three times a day at Morning Noon and Night Psalm 55.17 Evening and morning and noon will I pray and cry aloud So did Daniel and would not omit it in times of persecution Daniel 6.10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Ierusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did afore time Now though every ones Necessities Abilities or Condition of Life will not permit him to do so much yet in the general we must conclude from thence that we must be constant in our daily Worship and attendance upon God 3. The ceasing of the daily Sacrifice was accounted to be a great part of the Misery occasioned by the abomination of desolation Dan. 9.27 And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate 4. Now God trusts Love and would not particularly define the times of our Duty and immediate Converse with him surely we should be more open hearted and liberal to him God expecteth much from a willing people Psalm 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Our attendance upon God should be rather more than less since it is left to our choice 5 God himself was angry with his People and complaineth of their neglect of him Ier. 2.32 My people have forgotten me days without number Time out of mind as we say in an English Phrase have I not heard from them Now these considerations shew this expression should not be too much streightned III. The Reasons why constant and frequent Prayer is our Duty 1. With respect to God that we may acknowledge his Being and Soveraignty over us and all Events that concern us and ours 1. We acknowledge his Being in Prayer for he that cometh to God must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 Men of all Religions call upon that which they think to be God As in the storm the Pagan Marriners cryed every man unto his God Ionah 1.5 Men take their God to be their sure Refuge in all their troubles distractions and fears Now the People of God know him by experience to be the only true God that heareth Prayer therefore they own him as such Psalm 65.2 Oh thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Now this owning of God must not be done in a few rare and disused Prayers but in a constancy of Prayer that we may often call to mind his Being and Attributes It is a sin not only to deny God but to forget him Psalm 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God We are apt to forget God who is an Invisible Being though we have all things from him and he be necessary to us continually Therefore we must often remember him and present our selves before him and inure our selves to a Reverence of his Majesty God complaineth Ier. 2.32 My people have forgotten me days without number 2. We acknowledge his Supream Providence by taking all out of his hands and so are kept more humble and in a constant dependance We do not injoy our Mercies by Chance or by good Fortune but by the Gift of his Providence that we may not be forgetful of this God will have us pray often yea thus solemnly take our daily Bread out of his hands Matth. 6.11 Give us this day our daily bread The Bread you eat is not your own but Gods you intrench upon his Prerogative when you use it without asking his leave 2. With respect to the Nature of Prayer It is the converse of a loving Soul with God the nearest familiarity with a Soul dwelling in flesh can have with him Now Acts of Friendship and Communion must not be rare and unfrequent but constant and often therefore called an acquainting our selves with God Iob 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace Acquaintance implyeth frequent Commerce and Intercourse Men that often visit one another and meet together are acquainted Prayer is a giving God a visit Isa. 26.16 Lord in trouble have
not a few cold heartless words then is Faith solemnly acted 2. Love is acted and increased in this Duty while we desire of God all things in order to God and shew forth our hearty groans after every thing that will bring us nearer to himself praying first for Gods Love then the Grace of the Redeemer and all other subordinate blessings and helps as they relate thereunto Yea this very opening our hearts to God is a solace to us and the fruit and act of our Delight in him The groans of the Spirit are the immediate issues of Love and come from an heart strongly bent to God and Heavenly things As Faith directeth us to God as the first Cause so Love to the chief end the Glory of God and regulateth all our choices and desires by it The Fruit of Prayer increaseth Love Psalm 116.1 2. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications Because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live 3. Hope is acted and increased by it Because in Prayer this Grace is predominant the certain and earnest expectation of the promised Glory Our thoughts of Heaven at other times are cold and heartless here we enter into the Holiest we beg Heaven and all things in order to Heaven because we expect it from the Mercy of God in Jesus Christ. There is desirous expectation in hopes and Prayer is but the expression of our Desires and a certain expectation in hope so in Prayer we plead Promises and shew the grounds of our trust why we look and wait for it that God will preserve us and bear our Expences to Heaven 2. The three Duties pressed in this place are much promoted by frequent Prayer Rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing in every thing give thanks 1. Rejoyce evermore We cherish our rejoycing or Peace and tranquillity of mind in all Conditions by frequent praying This vent and utterance easeth us of our burden if any thing troubleth us we go to God whâ—â—s able and willing to help us Iob 16.20 My friends scorn me but mine eye poureth out tears unto God It is our Comfort that there is a Throne of Grace before which to bring our complaint So Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Iesus Christ. Be careful for nothing is parallel to rejoyce evermore what help have we to pray let your requests be made known unto God and the Effects of Prayer is the peace of God When the Air is imprisoned in the Bowels and Caverns of the Earth there are shakings and terrible Convulsions till it gets a vent so is the Soul tossed and turmoiled with many tormenting thoughts till we open our hearts to God Hannah when she had prayed went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 Now should we not be frequent in this Duty which will keep up our Delight in God and our tranquillity of mind in all Conditions on the Confidence of his All-sufficiency 2. Pray without ceasing The Duty is promoted by the Duty pray without ceasing and you will pray without ceasing The way to be fervent is to be frequent A Key that is seldom turned rusts in the Lock Wells are the sweeter for the draining We lose the habit of Prayer and fitness for Prayer when we are seldom with God and there is such an intermission between Duties The more we walk the fitter we shall be to walk and the more we pray the fitter we shall be to pray They find so much sweetness in it that experiment it by practice that they cannot be without it It is the Strangers to Prayer that need to be perswaded When we intermit this necessary work we loose our fitness He that hath often prayed will pray Psalm 116.2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live 3. For the last Duty in every thing give thanks They that pray often see all things come from God and they return all to God again they take it out of his hands and use it for his Glory Usually what we win by Prayer we ware with Thanksgiving Others do not and cannot observe Providence as much as they do that pray often and upon all occasions they look to God Besides Prayer sweetneth the Mercy For this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him Therefore have I lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shalâ— be lent to the Lord 1 Sam. 1.27 28. 3. It is useful to preserve in us a Sense of our Duty to God as it obligeth us to be more cautious and watchful Who should be so careful of their Conversations as they that come often into Gods presence They had need to be careful on a double account 1. That they may be in a readiness alwayes to pray Eph. 6.18 Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance 1 Pet. 4.7 Be sober and watch unto prayer If we would be often with God in Prayer we must watch against any thing that would hinder our Communion and intercourse with God that we may look God in the face with Comfort As those that are alwaies to appear in the presence of earthly Princes must be more decently clad than other Men. How shall we pray at Night when we have been offending God all the Day 2. The very praying often inferreth an Obligation of greater strictness that we may be such out of Duty as we profess to be in Duty 1 Pet. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity What confess Sin and yet commit it What pray so zealously and live so vainly Confute and contradict your Prayers by your Lives Ask Grace so earnestly of God and cast it away so carelesly in your Conversations Leave off one or the other for Hypocrisie is a double provoking thing more than open prophaneness VSE 1. Is to reprove those that never call upon God or very rarely either in their Families or Closets or both This cometh to pass 1. Sometimes through a defect of their Faith they do not believe Gods Being and Providence and the Promises of his Holy Covenant as made with us They do not believe his Being Psalm 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God And verse 4. They call not upon the Lord. The practical Atheist doth not pray Iob 15.4 Thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer before God As the awe and reverence of God abateth in them they cast
Doctrinal Opinionative Faith in Christ. Always according to our sense of the disease so is our carriage about the cure and remedy It must needs be so for God by the one will advance the other that where sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound Rom. 5.26 that is rather in our sense and feeling than in our practice So that one wounded for sin will more earnestly look after a cure Others may dispute for the Gospel but they feel not the comfort of it Well then I have proved to you that every Man is in a lost condition sensible or insensible of it And that we ought to have a deep sense of this upon our Hearts to count our selves lost and undone that we may be more prepared and fitted to entertain the Offers and Calls of the Gospel and prize our Redeemer's Grace II. In what sense Christ is said to seek and save such Here is a double work seeking and saving 1. What is his seeking It implieth 1. His pity to us in our lost estate and providing means for us in that he doth not leave us to our wandrings or our own Hearts Counsels but taketh care that we be brought back again to God Iohn 10.16 Other Sheep have I which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice It is spoken of his care to bring in his own among the Gentiles he will in due time convert and bring in all that belong to the Election of Grace Christ hath not only a care of those that are already brought in but of those who are yet to be brought in they are his Sheep though yet unconverted in respect of his Eternal Purpose and his heart is upon them when they little think of him and his love to them So the Lord Jesus appeared in the Vision to Paul Acts 18.10 Fear not I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this City He doth not say there are much people Corinth was a populous City and 't is good casting out the Net where there are store of Fish but I have much people it is not meant of those Corinthians that were already converted to God for at that time there were few or none for all those at Corinth that were converted were converted by Paul 1 Cor. 4.15 Though ye have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Or if some few were already converted Paul was not afraid of them But there are much people viz. who were Elected by God Redeemed by Christ though yet wallowing in their sins such as these he findeth out in their wandrings 2. His seeking implieth his diligence and pains to reduce them Luke 15.4 What man of you having an hundred Sheep if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the Wilderness and seeketh after that which was lost till he find it It requireth time and pains to find them and gain their consent A lost Soul is not so easily recovered and reduced from his straying there is many a warning slighted many a conviction smothered and tenders of Grace made in vain till they are taken in their month Isa. 65.2 I have spread out my hands all the day long unto a rebellious People as requiring Audience I evidence this two ways I. Christ is said to seek after us by his Word and Spirit 1. By his Word he cometh as a Teacher from Heaven to recall sinners from their wandrings At first he came in person I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to Repentance Matth. 9.13 Besides his giving Repentance as Prince and Lord of the renewed estate or dispenser of the Grace of the Gospel there is his calling to Repentance and Christ was very painful in it going up and down and seeking all occasions to bring home poor Creatures to God Thus he was now calling home to God Zaccheus a Publican so the Woman of Samaria when he was faint and hungry Iohn 4. and verse 34. He telleth her His meat was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work To seek and save lost Souls was meat and drink to Christ. So still he doth send Ministers giving them gifts and inspiriting them with a Zeal for God's Glory and compassion over Souls that with all meekness they may instruct those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth c. 2 Tim. 2.25 2â— Now these are to be instant in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 As the Woman lighted a Candle to seek her lost Groat Luke 15.8 So Christ causeth the Candlestick of the Church to be furnished with burning and shining Lights men of Prudence Zeal and Holiness and Compassion over Souls that he may at length gain on a People And indeed Christ never lights a Candle but he hath some lost Groat to seek 2. By his Spirit striving against and overcoming the obstinacy and contradiction of our Souls By his Call in the Word he inviteth us to Holiness but by his powerful Grace he inclineth us Man is averse from God he resists not only external offers but internal motions till by his invincible Grace he changeth our hearts and so in the day of his power we become a willing people Psal. 110.3 Thy people are willing in the day of thy power It is the good Shepherd that bringeth home the Sheep upon his own shoulders rejoycing Luke 15.5 II. This seeking is absolutely necessary if he did not seek them they would never seek him It is our great duty to seek after God the Scripture calleth for it every where Isa. 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near By the motions of his Spirit he urgeth us thereunto Psal. 27.8 When thou saidst Seek ye my face The course of his Providence inviteth us both Afflictions Hosea 5.15 In their afflictions they will seek me early and Mercies Acts 17.27 28. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For in him we live and move and have our being And his People are described to be a Generation of them that seek him Psal. 24.6 Yet if Christ had not by his preventing Grace sought us we could never seek after him Isa. 65.1 I am found of them that sought me not I prevented their seeking of me by sending and seeking after mine own first Christ begineth with us first 1 Iohn 4.19 We love him because he first loved us He chuseth us before we chuse him Iohn 15.16 Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you He seeketh us first before we seek him for we are fugitives and exiles our hearts are averse from God and there is a legal exclusion in the way Sweetly Bernard to
good God and have some taste of his bounty It is said Psal. 145.9 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works He is good to all Creatures much more to all men the wicked not excepted though some men are but as a wiser sort of Beasts as they cater more for the Flesh and wholly value their Happiness by the Body and the Interests of the bodily Life They shall not want Invitations to lead them to God though they love their Bodies above their Souls yet they shall not want Arguments to love God who giveth them food and gladness and fruitful Seasons and plentiful Estates and many of these common Mercies which point to their Author and discover their End Acts 14.17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our Hearts with food and gladness These Mercies where they are bestowed argue not a good People but a good God 2. That he may reward some good in them and mortifie the remaining evil in his People by Afflictions None shall be a loser by God they that cannot tarry for the Heavenly Reward shall have a Temporal one such as they prize and affect Mat. 6.2 Therefore when thou doest thine Alms do not sound a Trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the Synagogues and in the Streets that they may have Glory of Men Verily I say unto you they have their Reward So for Prayer verse 5. and for Fasting verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have signifieth an acquittance or discharge they acquit God of other things they have a reward suitable to their affections and their work their affections are altogether upon Temporal things The Spirit of an Heir and the Spirit of an hired Servant differ An Heir can patiently tarry till the Inheritance falleth but an hired Servant must have wages from day to day or from quarter to quarter So worldly men must have something in hand they have not a lively hope of Blessedness to come and cannot tarry for the Eternal recompence So suitable to the Work which is external a meer out-side Duty so is their Reward proportionable Nebuchadnezzar did God some service and God had his Reward for him inlargement of Greatness and Empire Ier. 27.6 And now have I given all these Lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant So Ezek. 29.18 19 20. The Word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of Man Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon caused his Army to serve a great service against Tyrus Every Head was made bald and every Shoulder was peeled by carrying Baskets of Earth to fill up the Channel between it and the main Land yet he had no wages nor his Army for Tyrus for the service which he had served against it Therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I will give the Land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and he shall take her Multitude and take her Spoil and take her Prey and it shall be the wages for his Army I have given him the Land of Egypt for his Labour wherewith he served against it because they wrought for me saith the Lord. The Lord thought of rewarding this Ambitious Man for his hard Labours and Toils Mal. 1.10 Who is there among you that would shut the Doors for nought Neither do ye kindle fire upon mine Altar for nought God's service is good service even to those who do but outwardly and grudgingly perform it Levites and Porters had their allowance and superficial work meeteth with an External Reward 3. To shew that these are not the chief good things by which his special love is manifested unto us God will not now govern the World by sense but by Faith and therefore Prosperity and Adversity of themselves do not clear up a Man's Estate before God and are not perfect demonstrations of his love and hatred nor can a Man judge of his acceptance with God by his outward condition nor should we quarrel with the Wicked about their outward condition which are their portion not ours Eccles. 9. 1 2. No Man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them All things come alike to all there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked For these things are promiscuously dispensed without any difference evil things to good men and good things to evil men Josiah died in Battles as well as Ahab Is Abraham Rich So is Nabal Is Solomon VVise So is Achitophel Is Joseph honoured by Pharaoh So is Doeg by Saul Hath Demetrius a good report of all Men 3 John v. 12. So had some false teachers that complied with Men's Lust's and Humors Luk. 6. 26. Wo unto you when all Men shall speak well of you Had Caleb Health and Strength Josh. 14. 11. So have VVicked ones Psal. 73. 4. There are no bands in their death but their strength is firm Hath Moses beauty So hath Absolom 2 Sam. 14. 20. Learning and VVisdom is given to the Egyptians as well as to Moses Act. 7. 22. and Daniel chap. 1. 17. Ishmael had long life Gen. 25. 17. as well as Isaac Gen. 35. 29. Is greatness and powerful Reign given to David So to Infidels so that nothing hence can be concluded To bring us to look after more distinguishing mercies these are given to others as well as to his Children II. VVho are those carnal men to whom God will give no more than carnal felicity In the General those that chuse these things for their Portion Men have according to their choice THY GOOD THINGS chuse and have It absolutely holdeth good in Spiritual things Luk. 10.42 Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her But it is not always so in carnal things tho' many times it is here a Man may chuse and not have they that chuse worldly greatness and the wealth and credit of the VVorld cannot always have their choice God denieth it to some in mercy that they may look higher But sometimes he giveth it to others in wrath God giveth them their Hearts desire in Judgment These are their good things the only things suitable to their Hearts the VVorld is all they care for let God keep his Heaven and his Spirit to himself It is good to observe what our Heart calleth ours As Nabal 1 Sam. 25.11 Shall I take my Bread and my Water and my Flesh which I have killed for my Shearers And Laban to Iacob Gen. 31.43 These Daughters are my Daughters and these Children are my Children and these Cattle are my Cattle and all that thou seest is mine A Carnal Man with a lively gust and rellish calleth these things his things A Godly Man owneth them as coming from God and referreth them to him 1 Chron. 29.14 All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee VVell then how just is God in
you shall command your Children to observe to do all the words of this Law Luke 9.44 Let these sayings sink down into your Ears Close Application Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things if God be for us who can be against us Job 5.27 Loe thus we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good And therefore as things are duly thought on so they must be closely applied These three acts of the Soul have each of them a distinct and proper Work Sound belief worketh on the clearness and certainty of the things asserted Serious Consideration on the greatness and importance of them Close Application on their pertinency and suitableness to us See all in one place 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a true saying worthy of all acceptation That Iesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief These are all necessary to make any truth operative Sound belief for we are not affected with what we believe not Heb. 4.2 For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it Therefore to awaken diligence the truth of things is pleaded 2 Pet. 1.5 10 16. Give all diligence to add to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledge Give diligence to make your calling and Election sure for we have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Iesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty Heb. 2.3 4. For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him The first rousing Question when Men heard any Sermon about any Truth or Doctrine of the Gospel was Is this true For Consideration Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Christ Iesus our Lord. Without Consideration the weightiest things lie by as if they were not Sleepy reason is as none The most important Truths have no force upon us till Consideration awakeneth us Then for Application what concerneth us not is passed over Unless we hear things with a care to apply them we shall never make use of them Eph. 1.13 In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of our Salvation In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise 'T is not enough to know the Gospel to be a Doctrine of Salvation to others but we must look upon it as a Doctrine that bringeth Salvation to our own doors and leaveth it upon our choice A Plaister doth not heal at a distance till it be applied to the Sore Truths are too remote till we set the edge and point of them to our own Hearts Well then by this way we Preach to our selves Day and Night by exciting our Faith in God and Christ and Glory to come and by serious Consideration stirring up all God's graces in our selves and reproving our selves for all our Sins and calling a backward Heart to all the duties required of us This is the work of Close Application 5. They prosper best in Grace that most faithfully and diligently use the means Here I shall prove two things 1. That we are to use the means For wherefore hath Christ appointed them but that we should use them His Church is not like a Statuaries Shop where the Image or Statue doth nothing but the Carver or Artificer doth all But 't is compared to a School where Christ is the Teacher to teach us our Duty and we are Disciples to learn it And to a Kingdom where Christ is the Monarch and Sovereign and we are Subjects ingaged by Covenant to Obey him and the manner of his Government 't is not meerly natural ruling us as he doth the other Creatures by a Rod of Iron or in a way of absolute power as they cannot do otherwise but Moral by Laws Promises Threatnings working Faith by preaching and Love Hope and Obedience are the ends of Faith Certainly he governeth Man as Man not by Physical Motions only but by Moral Motives to which we must attend consider and improve Hosea 11.4 I drew them with the Cords of a Man with bands of Love Christ hath not to deal with Stones or Brick or Timber but with Men. God hath fitted the means to do their work and for these ends we must use them If he did ordinarily work without them he would never have appointed them to this end He could have done it with one powerful fiat one creating word or beck of his will but he hath set another train and order of Causes and therefore he will work by them because he worketh on all things according to their Nature and this is suitable to the nature of Man We never knew of any Man that came to Knowledge Faith or Love without means Therefore 't is presumption for us to expect it And the greatest neglecters and despisers of Means are every where the most graceless and the worst of Men Therefore it concerneth us to use them 〈◊〉 the greater diligence and care We may learn from our Adversary the Devil he sheweth his Malice to Souls in opposing the means either by depriving Men of them 2 Thess. 2.18 Wherefore we would have come unto you even I Paul once and again but Satan hindred us or keeping them from them by thraldom or filling them with prejudice Iohn 8.4.4 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do he was a Murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him 2 Cor. 44. In whom the God of this World hath blinded the Eyes of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine upon them Or from the Faithful using of them Matth. 13.19 When any one heareth the word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sowen in his Heart He watcheth them in all their Postures As soon as Men begin to be serious and to take heed what they hear he disturbeth the Work Well then the Means have an Aptitude and subservient Efficacy which we ought to regard 2. They prosper best that do most faithfully and diligently use the means I shall prove that by the double reason of the Text. 1. With what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again In the Allegation of this Proverbial Speech I shall observe two things 1. That there is a Law of Commerce between God and his Creatures or else how shall we know what to expect And the ordinary Rule
to take Care and Thought for our selves It was our Fathers part to preserve us and provide for us to bestow good and keep off the evil But every Man since would have life and his comfort and his safety in his own hands and so much of temporal Happiness as he seeth good There is no way to rectiâ—ie it but to return to our Innocency to mind our Duty and cast our burden on the Lord commending success and events to him 1 Pet. 5.7 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you And Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thansgiving let our requests be made known unto God upon confidence that his Hand and Providence will not neglect us or any of our concernments 4. Those that are contented with what their Father alloweth When God giveth sufficient to supply our necessities we seek to satisfie our Lusts when God hath done enough and more than enough to evidence his Power Justice Truth and Care of our welfare yet we will not rest on him unless he will subject his Providence to our Will and carnal Affections As the Israelites when miraculously fed miraculously cloathed God kept a Market for them gave them their Supplies not out of Earth but out of the Clouds yet tempted God in their hearts asking meat for their lusts Psal. 78.19 Yea it is said Psal. 106.13 14 They sâ—â—n forâ—at his works they waited not fâ—r his counsâ—l but lusted exceedingly in the wildâ—rness They made haste they forgat his worâ—â— so 't is in the Hâ—brew Carnaâ— desires greatly transport they must have Festival Diet in the Wilderness or they will no longer believe his Power and serve him Thus when Men take the ruling of themselves into their own hands they will not stay till God provide for them but must have their Carnal Desires presently satisfied Matth. 5.5 The meek shall inherit the earth But who are meek They that quietly submit to God's Providence and so they have Food and Raiment and have any time to glorifie God and seek his Kingdom and the Salvation of their Souls let others live in Pomp and Ease It is enough for them to be as God will have them be They are not over-desirous to have Worldly Things or too much dejected and cast down through the want of them But those that are greedy and earnest and covet more than God seeth meet to bestow upon them as they forfeit the Blessing of God's Presence so by enlarging their Desires they make way for their own Discontent when they are not satisfied and so fall into murmuring against God and so into all disquiet of Mind about Earthly Things 2. Improve this Point to moderate and allay your distrustful and distracting Cares And so cometh in the Apostles Exhortation Be content with such things as you have Content is a quiet temper of Mind relying on God's merciful Providence and gracious Promises for such Things as are necessary for us during our Pilgrimage and Passage to Heaven Sometimes it is opposed to Murmuring but I take it here as opposed to distrustful Cares because we have little in a time of Troubles and are like to have less and therefore are full of anxious Thoughts what we shall eat what we shall drink what we shall put on Consider God will not leave you nor forsake you What cannot his Wisdom and Mercy and Power do for you He hath deeply and strongly engaged himself to his People and therefore it should quiet our Minds in all Necessities and Streights See Christ's Arguments Mat. 6.25 26 and 32. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment 1. They had Life from God without any thought of theirs therefore he would provide the Conveniencies of Life God has given Life and framed the Body which was a far greater act of Power and Mercy than giving Food and providing Raiment 2. Other Creatures are provided for without any solicitude of theirs both as to Food and Raiment Vers. 26. Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them Are ye not much better than they God that provideth for Birds and Fowls will provide for his Children Men may look for it more than they having ordinary means of Reaping and Sowing and other Trades and ways of Living which the Fowls have not and so are meerly cast on the Care of Providence Man is a more considerable Creature so more liable to God's Care and Providence 3. It is a Pagan Practice to be thoughtful Vers. 32. After all these things do the Gentiles seek 3. Improve it to remove our Fears of Danger So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me They are David's words Psal. 118.6 If God be with us he will help us therefore as Faith prevaileth Fear ceaseth Psal. 16.7 I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel my reins also instruct me in the night season If our Hearts misgive us God is our Second he will afford Protection when necessary for his glory and our good The Fear of Man is an ordinary Temptation to divert the Godly from their Duty or discourage them in it You may be confident upon such a Promise Psal. 112.7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. Man can do much he can fine imprison banish reduce to a morsel of Bread yea torture put to death yet as long as God is with us and standeth for us we may boldly say I will not fear what man can do Why Because God will not see them utterly perish He can give us Joy in Sorrow Life in Death A Christian is not afraid because he can set God against Man Temporal Things against Eternal Covenant against Providence 1. God against Man Isa. 51.12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you c. God can change their Hearts Prov. 16.7 When a man's ways please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him He can weaken their Power Iob 12.21 He weakenth the strength of the Mighty Mar. 12.41 Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and can do no more 2. Eternal things against Temporal 2 Cor. 4.16 Our light Affliction for a moment worketh for us an eternal weight of Glory 3. The Covenant against Providence Psal. 73.17 Till I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end A Sermon on 1 THES V. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation IN the Context the Apostle inferreth our Duty from our Profession of Christianity all Christians are taken into a new estate called out of Dâ—rkness into Light
and so are Children of the Dâ—y and not of the Night Now Deeds of Darkness will not become the broad Day-light of the Gospel that we live in He instanceth in two Sins Negligence and Voluptuousness Vers. 7. They that sleep sleep in the Night and they that are drunken are drunken in the Night Sleep is a Night-work and Drunkenness also is a Night-work He opposeth to these two Duties Watchfulness and Sobriety he opposeth to Sleep Watchfulness and as opposite to Sensuality he enforceth Sobriety Watchfulness implyeth a Carefulness and Constancy in our Duty and Sobriety an holy Moderation in all Earthly Things and more particularly a sparing use of Worldly Delights that Security may not grow upon us and the Day of the Lord surprize us unawares Unless we moderate our Affections in the pursuit and use of Earthly Things a strange benummedness seizeth on the Conscience and an Oblivion and forgetfulness of God and Heavenly Things presently followeth it Luke 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your Hearts be over-charged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon you unawares Now the Apostle doth not barely disswade them from Sleep and Sensuality as we would perswade a Man that hath an ordinary Work to do to prevent Sloth and loss of his Day-time which was made for Work but as we would deal with a Souldier that is upon his Watch to prevent danger Therefore it doth imply not only how misbecoming these things are but how baneful It is not enough to be sober but we must be armed else we cannot be safe from Temptations Our Life is a Conflict and our Graces are our Armour Rom. 13.12 The Night is far spent the Day is at hand let us cast off the Works of Darkness and let us put on the Armour of Light Therefore it is not enough for us to be sober or to be awake but prepared for our Spiritual Warfare But let us who are of the Day be sober putting on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation In the Text there is a double Exhortation 1. To keep our selves awake But let us who are of the Dâ—â— be sober the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifiâ—th both Sobriety and Watchfulness The meaning is Take heed we be not lulled asleep by Worldly Desires Cares and Pleasures 2. To put on our Armoâ—r Two pieces he commendeth to them a Breast-platâ— and an Helmâ—t Men fence the Breast for the Heart's sake and the Head is the Seat of the Sense upon whose safety dependeth principally the safety of the whole Body for the Head guideth the whole Body Wounds in either of these two paâ—ts are most dangerous Now 1. The Breast-plate consisteth of two Graces Faith and Love these two are joyned together for the one can do nothing without the other Faith without Love is but a dead Opinion and Love to God in Christ cannot be without Faith both togeâ—her enable us to do notable things for God Gal. 5.6 Faith worketh by Love What can withstand Faith working by Love 2. The Hâ—lmet is the Hope of Salvation or a sure and earnest Expectation of our Eternal Reward from Christ. Keep these and you shall not only be in a blessed Condition when the Day of the Lord cometh but in all your Troubles Tryals and Temptations you are safe for the present and you shall not miscarry by the way If any say the pieces of the Spiritual Armour are otherwise reckoned up Ephes. 6. I answer 1. Metaphors may be several ways used and in these things so the matter be fitly delivered and understood it is enough 2. Here the Apostle sheweth what is necessary to watching there to fighting He that watcheth provideth for Enemies but doth not presently encounter them and therefore here a Decorum is observed Livy tells us of Paulus Emilius Vigiles novo more scatum in vigiliam ferre vetuit It is enough if he hath a Breast-plate though no Shield for his business is not presently to fight but to excite others to fight when he perceiveth the Enemy approaching A Breast-plate is enough till he call others to help him Doct. Christians are not well prepared for their Spiritual Warfare till they have put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation 1. It is supposed that it concerneth us to arm our selves for a Conflict Partly because we have sore Enemies the Devil the World and the Flesh. The Devil is a Roaring Lyon and must be resisted 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Be sober be vigilant because your Adversary the Devil as a Roaring Lyon walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith The World either vexeth us with fears or inticeth us by hopes and must be overcome 1 Iohn 5.4 5. For whosoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God But the sorest Enemy is within to wit our own Flesh which must be subdued and tamed Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. Partly because we are constantly observed how we acquit our selves in the Conflict Now for the present there are Spectators God and his holy Angels hereafter there will be a Judge Jesus Christ. Now there are Spectators 1 Cor. 4.9 For we are made a Spectacle unto the World and to Angels and to Men. He speaketh there of the Apostles who were as it were exposed as the sorlorn hope set up in the Eye of this World but it is true of all Christians Christ maketh inspection now for we fight in his presence he seeth how his People carry themselves in their Conflicts and Temptations I know thy Works Behold I have set before thee an open Door and no Man can shut it For thou hast a little Strength and bust kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name Revel 3.8 But Christ who is now a Spectator will be hereafter a Judge 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Iudge shall give one at that Day Now he observeth then he crowneth his Combatants partly that we may throughly discharge our duty We can hardly do any good but we must fight for it but especially in the great Work of our Heavenly Calling Practical Christianity is a serious Application of the Mind and Heart to do what Christ hath required that we may obtain what he hath offered and to do it as our first work and chief business Phil. 2.12 Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 3.14 I press toward the Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Iesus 2 Pet. 3.14 Wherefore Beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him
Profit and Pleasure that is in Adultery and Theft but shutteth the Eyes of his Mind against the Filthiness or Injustice that is in it and therefore he is like a Man that leapeth from an high place into the Water who first shutteth his Eyes and then casts himself into the Flood or Stream 3. Consequent Ignorance is after the Sin or Act of the Will either from the depraved Disposition of the Will Iohn 3.20 For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Or from the just Judgment of God Iohn 9.39 For judgment I am come into the world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind God inflicts a Judicial Blindness on Men that will not obey the Truth 3. Ignorance is either Invincible or Vincible 1. Invincible Ignorance is when there is not sufficient Revelation when it is a thing we should know but God hath not brought Light among us Thus the Heathens are punished for not glorifying God whom they knew by the Light of Nature Rom. 1.21 When they knew God they glorified him not as God Not because they believed not in Christ for he was not revealed unto them But Christians shall be punished for not obeying the Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. Vincible Ignorance is when there are plentiful Means and gross Helps to overcome it then is our Ignorance more culpable This is seen when either Ignorance is Voluntary and Pertinacious or when there is gross Negligence When it is Voluntary 2 Pet. 3.5 For this they are willingly ignorant of That they may Sin more freely and securely they will not know what may disturb or trouble their Sleep in Sin Iob 21.14 Therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Psalmist says of them Psal. 95.10 It is a people that do err in their hearts they have not known my ways They err in their Hearts as well as in their Minds when they do not desire to know what they should know this Ignorance is voluntary Or else it is bewrayed by gross Negligence when a Man doth a thing that if he were not grosly Negligent he might know to be Sin Eph. 3.15 16 17. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time because the days are evil Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is A Christian is bound to use all holy Means to know all things that belong to his Duty and must bestow much time and diligence upon it If he is grosly ignorant it is a sign he hath a mind to put a cheat upon his Soul Use. Let us beware of Sin against Knowledge these Sins of all others are the most dangerous whether they be Sins of Omission to omit Duties that we know to be Duties this is very dangerous Iames 4.17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Or Sins of Commission to commit Sins that we know to be Sins Rom. 2.21 22. Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy self Thou that preachest a man should not steal dost thou steal Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery Thou that abhorrest idols dost thou commit sacriledge To commit Sins that we know to be Sins is to involve our selves in Wrath and Vengeance Have a care then of these Sins if you are guilty of them it cannot be pleaded for you Father forgive them they know not what they do A Sermon on JOHN xix 30. He said It is finished and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost THIS is one of the seven Words which Christ uttered upon the Cross the last save one for before his bowing of the Head and giving up the Ghost those Words must come in which are mentioned Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost To make way for these Words we need go no farther back than the 28th Verse it is said there After this Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled said I thirst Where we may observe 1. The exact knowledge which Christ had of all his Sufferings He knew that all things were accomplished namely all the preparative Sufferings which were to usher in his Death All these bitter Sorrows were numbred out to him by the Divine Decrees and praesignified in the Prophesies Jesus knew all the exact Tale and account of them A Circumstance that doth much commend his Love to us Christ knew how dear the bargain of Souls would be to him and yet he would shew his Obedience to the Father and his Love to Mankind He long since sate down and counted the Charges and yet he came to do his Father's Will When a Business proveth hazardous and inconvenient we are apt to say If I had known it would have cost me so much I should never have undertaken it Christ went not to the Cross blindfold he knew the Work of our Redemption would be troublesom and painful that he was to give his Back to the Smiters and his Cheeks to the Nippers that he was to be hurried from the Garden to the Courts of Men from the Courts of Men to the Cross and there to endure acute Pains and Torments Jesus knew that all these things were to be fulfilled 2. Observe It is said he knew they were accomplished Christ had a lively feeling of every part of his Sorrows and his Senses remained in full vigour to the last and without any stupefaction He knew what Hour the Clock of the Divine Decree would next strike or what was the next Circumstance whereby he was to discover himself to be the true Messiah David saith Died Abner as a fool dieth 2 Sam. 3.32 We may say so Died the Lord Jesus as a Fool dieth in a stupid sensless way Or as one merely passive Extremity of Pain had now surprized the Thieves which were crucified with him we hear no more of them but Christ's Reason and Senses are still exercised and his Sorrows made more active by his own apprehension 3. Observe That the Scriptures might be fulfilled he said I thirst By fulfilling another Prophecy God discovereth another Note whereby the Messiah might be known All the Passages of Christ's Death were appointed with infinite Wisdom and Love either they were such as were necessary parts of Redemption or some Indications whereby the Messiah fore-prophesied of might be discovered Here is another Prophecy fulfilled in Christ's Thirst. The Prophesies alluded to are two one is Psal. 22.15 My strength is dried up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws thou hast brought me to the dust of death The other Prophesie hinteth the
of the whole Verse in this one Point Doctrine That it is the Duty of Christians to sequester and set apart some time and place for Solemn Meditation or the Exercising their Souls in Heavenly and Holy Things My purpose is to speak of Meditation a Duty unaccustomed and unpractised both the Practice and the Knowledge of it are become Strangers to us The times are times of Action and Tumult and we all think that we have so much to do with others that few desire to Converse with God and themselves Our Case is somewhat like theirs in Nehemiah's time Nehem. 4.17 With one hand they wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon We are forced to fight and quarrel for our Religion that we may rescue the Innocent and Holy Principles of it from violation and scorn I observe that many Christians use the Sword they spend the heat and strength of their Spirits in Controversies but I doubt they do not use the Trowel enough and are not so serious in Private Retirements as they are earnest in Publick Defences Therefore I shall make it my work to press the Duty of Meditation My Method shall be this I shall shew 1. What Meditation is 2. The Necessity and Profit of it 3. The Rules that serve to guide us in this Holy Work and Business 4. The Lets and Hindrances of it with the Helps and Remedies against them 5. The Object or Matters upon which you are to Meditate which I shall handle 1. Generally 2. Particularly I shall give you some hints of Meditation on those Objects which are most usual and most practical I. What Meditation is Before I can define it I must distinguish it 1. There is that which we call Occasional Meditation which is an Act by which the Soul Spiritualizeth every Object about which it is Conversant A Gracious Heart is like an Alymbeck it can distil Useful Meditations out of all things it meeteth with Look as it seeth all things in God so it seeth God in all things Our Lord at the Well discourseth of the water of life Iohn 21.10 At the Supper of the Pharisee one discourseth of eating bread in the kingdom of God Luke 14.15 There is a Chimistry and Holy Art that a Christian hath to turn Water into Wine Brass into Gold to make Earthly Occasions and Objects to minister Spiritual and Heavenly Thoughts God trained up the Old Church by Types and Ceremonies that upon a Common Object they might Ascend to Spiritual Thoughts and Our Lord in the New Testament taught by Parables and Similitudes taken from Ordinary Functions and Offices among Men that in every Trade and Calling we might be employed in our Worldly Business with an Heavenly Mind that whether in the Shop or at the Loom or in the Field we might still think of Christ and Heaven There is a Parable of Merchant-Men a Parable of the Sower a Parable of a Man calling his Servants to an Account in all these similitudes Christ would teach us that we should still think of God and Heaven So small a matter as a grain of Mustard-seed may yield many Spiritual Applications 2. There is set and solemn Meditation Now this is of several sorts or rather they are but several parts of the same Exercise 1. There is a Reflexive Meditation by which we wholly fall upon our selves This is nothing else but a solemn Parley between a Man and his own Heart Psal. 4.4 Commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still When in a solemn Retirement Reason and inward Discourse returneth and falleth back upon it self Of all the parts of Meditation this is the most difficult for here a Man is to exercise Dominion over his Soul and to be his own Accuser and Judge It is against self-love and carnal-ease We see all our shifts are to avoid our own Company and to run away from our selves Guilty Man like a Basiliske dyeth by seeing himself Hence the Worldly Man choaketh his Soul with business lest his Thoughts for want of work like a Mill should grind upon it self the Voluptuous Person melteth away his dayes in Pleasure and charmeth his Soul into a deep sleep with the Potion of outward Delights lest it should awake and talk with him Oh then necessary it is that a Christian should take some time to discourse with himself to ask of our own Souls What we are What we have been What we have done Ier. 8.6 What Streights what Temptations we have passed thorough and how we have overcome them You would think it strange of Two Men that Conversed every day for Forty or Fifty years and all this while they did not know one another yet this is the Case between us and our Souls we live a long time in the World and are Strangers to our selves 2. There is a Meditation which is more direct and that is of two sorts 1. Dogmatical whose Object is the Word 2. Practical Whose Object is our own Lives There is more of search and apprehension in the First there is more of Plot and Contrivance in the Second the one is more conversant about Doctrines the other about Things the latter catcheth hold of the heel of the former for where Dogmatical Meditation endeth there Practical Meditation beginneth 1. Dogmatical Meditation is when we exercise our selves in the Doctrines of the Word and consider how Truths known may be useful to us It differeth from Study partly in the Object Study is conversant about a thing unknown in whole or in part Rom. 12.2 That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God but Meditation is an Act of Knowledge reiterated or a return of the mind to that point to which it arrived before it is the inculcation or whetting of a known Truth the pawse of Reason on something already conceived and known or a calling to remembrance what we know before Partly in the end the end of Study is Information but the end of Meditation is Practice or a work upon the Affections Ioshua 1.8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein Study is like a Winters Sun that shineth but warmeth not but Meditation is like the blowing up of the Fire where we do not mind the blaze but the heat The Fruit of Study is to hoard up Truth but the Fruit of Meditation is to practise it Curious Inquiries have more of the Student in them than the Christian. In Study we are rather like Vintners that take in Wines to store themselves for Sale in Meditation we are like Private Men that buy Wine for our Use and Comfort A Vintners Cellar may be better stored than a Noblemans but he hath it for others Use. The Student may have more of Notion and Knowledge his Cellar may be fuller but he hath it not for tast and necessary