as the benefits that he bringeth with him He doth approve things upon good knowledg and cometh to a well setled resolution Another defect in wicked men is because the judgment is superficial and so come to nothing 'T is not full clear and ponderous 't is not a dictamen a resolute decree not ultimum dictamen the last decree all things considered and well weighed 2. God's Grace God doth never fully and spiritually convince the judgment but he doth also work upon the will to accept embrace and prosecute those good things of which it is convinced He teacheth and draweth they are distinct works but they go together therefore the one is inferred out of the other Drawn and taught of God both are necessary for as there is blindness and inadvertency in the mind so obstinacy in the will which is not to be cured by meer perswasion but by a gracious quality infused inclining the heart which by the way freeth this doctrine from exception as if all Gods works were meer moral suasion The will is renewed and changed but so as God doth it by working according to the order of Nature USE By all means look after this Divine illumination whereby your judgment may be convinced of the truth and worth of spiritual things 'T is not enough to have some general and floating notions about them or slightly to hear of them or talk of them but they must be spiritually discern'd and judg'd of for if our judgments were throughly convinced our pursuit of true happiness would be more earnest you would see sin to be the greatest mischief and grace the chiefest treasure and accordingly act God inlightning the soul doth 1. Take away carnal principles Many men can talk well but they are leavened with carnal principles as 1. That he may do as most do and yet be safe Mat. 7. 23. Many will say in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name c. and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Prov. 11. 31. Behold the righteous shall be recompenced upon the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Exod. 32. c. 2. That he may go on in ungodliness injustice intemperance because grace hath abounded in the Gospel Tit. 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world And Luke 1. 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life 3. That he may spend his youth in pleasure and safely put off repentance till age But Eccles. 12. 1. we are bid to Remember our creator in the days of youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them And Luke 12. 20. when the rich man said to his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry God said unto him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Heb. 3. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. Men think it is a folly to be singular and precise that 't was better when there was less preaching and less knowledg that small sins are not to be stood upon But God inlightning the soul maketh us to see the vanity and sinfulness of such thoughts 2. There is a bringing the understanding to attend and consider there is much lieth upon it Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia so that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul That is weighed them in her heart SERMON XXXVIII PSAL. CXIX 34. Yea I shall observe it with my whole heart I Come now to the last clause I shall observe it with my whole heart The Point is Doct. That it is not enough to keep Gods law but we must keep it with the whole heart Here I shall shew you 1. That God requireth the heart 2. The whole heart 1. God requireth the heart in his service the heart is the Christians sacrifice the fountain of good and evil and therefore should be mainly looked after without this 1. External profession is nothing most Christians have nothing for Christ but a good opinion or some outward profâ—…on Iudas was a disciple but Satan entred into his heart Luke 22. 3. Ananias joyned himself to the people of God but Satan filled his heart Acts 5. 3. Simon Magus was baptized but his heart was not right with God Acts 8. 22. Here is the great defect 2. External conformity is nothing worth It is not enough that the life seem good and many good actions be performed unless the heart be purified otherwise we do with the Pharisees wash the outside of the platter Mat. 23. 25 26. when the inside is full of extortion and excess 'T is the heart God looketh after 1 Sam. 16. 7. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Cast salt into the spring As Iehu said to Ionadab so doth God say to us 2 Kings 10. 15. Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart We should answer it is Men are not for obsequious compliances if not with the heart so neither is God Though thou pray with the Pharisee pay thy vows with the Harlot kiss Christ with Iudas offer sacrifice with Cain fast with Iezebel sell thine inheritance to give to the poor with Ananias and Saphira all is in vain without the heart for 't is the heart enliveneth all our duties 3. It is the heart wherein God dwelleth not in the tongue the brain unless by common gifts till he take possession of the heart all is as nothing Ephes. 3. 17. He dwelleth in our hearts by faith The bodies of believers are Temples of the Holy Ghost yet the heart will and affections of man are the chief place of his habitation wherein he resideth as in his strong Citadel and from whence he commandeth other faculties and members and without his presence there he cannot have any habitation in us the tongue cannot receive him by speaking nor the understanding by knowing nor the hands by external working Prov. 4. 23. Out of it are the issues of life 't is the forge of spirits He dwelleth not in temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. and Jer. 23. 24. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord He will dwell in thine heart and remain there if thou wilt give thy heart to him 4. If Christ have it not Satan will have it The heart of man is
according to the Analogy of Faith and there is not a more powerful incentive of Duty Psal. 130. 5. There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Jer. 2. 11 12. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service This is true Divinity The flesh deviseth another Doctrine let us Sin that Grace may abound to make a carnal Pillow of Gods Mercy that they may sleep securely in sin yea a Dung-cart to carry away their filth God is Merciful but to those that count sin a burden and misery God is slow to Anger but yet angry when provoked abused Patience kindleth into Fury as water when the mouth of the Fountain or course of the River is stopped breaketh out with more violence God hath his Arrows of Displeasure to shoot at the wicked you must not fancy a God all Honey all sweetness He is the Father of Mercies but so that he is also a God of Vengeance Psal. 68. 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who daily leadeth us with Benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death But God shall wound the hairy scalpe of his Enemies the mercy of God is large and free if men do not make themselves uncapable by their Impenitency 4. We must beg 1. The Application of these to me also We have heard that the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings 1 Kings 20. 31. Now we would feel it 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief Wind in our selves within the Covert of a Promise enter at the back door of a Promise there comes Virtue from Christ if but touched the Woman came behind him and touched the hem of his garment so we must seek the Application of this Vertue 2. Effectual Application Let it come unto me Mercy cometh unto us or we shall never come unto it 1 Pet. 1. 10. The Grace that cometh to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace which is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Gods Grace is brought home to our doors we seek not after it but it seeketh after us Salvation is gone forth saith the Prophet to find out lost sinners Wisdom hath sent forth her Maidens she crieth upon the high places of the City whoso is simple let him turn in hither Prov. 9. 3 4. God sends the Gospel up and down the Worldto offer his Grace to men it worketh out its way Use. Here is Incouragement and Direction to poor Creatures how to obtain Gods Mercy for their Comfort 1. Incouragement Mercy doth all with God it is the first cause that setteth every thing awork 1. Mercy is natural to God 2 Cor. 1. 3. Father of Mercies God is not merciful by Accident but by Nature the Sun doth not more naturally shine nor Fire more naturally burn nor Water more naturally flow than God doth naturally shew Mercy 2. It is pleasing to him Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that Pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Judgment is called his Strange work Isa. 28. 21. That he may do his work his strange work and bring to pass his Act his strange Act. Primitive Acts he is forced to but he rejoyceth to do good as Life-Honey droppeth of its own accord 3. It is plentiful in God he is rich in Mercy abundant in Goodness and Truth thy sins are like a spark of Fire that falleth into the Ocean it is quenched presently so are all thy sins in the Ocean of Gods Mercy there is not more water in the Sea than there is Mercy in God 4. It is the great wonder of the Divine Nature Every thing in God is wonderful especially his pardoning Mercy It is no such great wonder in God that he stretcheth out the Heavens like a Curtain since he is Omnipotent that he formed the Earth or the Waters since he is strong that he distinguished Times adorned the Heavens with so many Stars decked the Earth with such variety of Plants and Herbs since he is Wise that he hath set Bounds to the Sea Governeth the Waters since he is Lord of all that he made Man a living Creature since he is the Fountain of Life but that he can be Merciful to Sinners infinitely Merciful when infinitely Just. There is a conflict in the Attributes about us but Mercy rejoyceth over Iudgment Iames 2. 13. That he is so Gracious and condescending when his first Covenant seemed to bind him to destroy us that he that hateth sin is so ready to forgive it pardoneth it so often and punisheth it so seldom 5. He is Communicative it is over all his Works Psal. 145. 9. Not a Creature but subsisteth by Gods Mercy he loveth Man and Beast Psal. 36. 6. and 1 Tim. 4. 10. He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe the whole Earth is full of his goodness Lord shew it to me also he heareth the cry of Ravens 2. To direct us how to sue for it in a broken hearted manner there are two Exreams Self-confidence and Desperation Self-confidence challengeth a Debt and Despair shutteth out hopes of Mercy a proud Pharisee pleads his Works Luke 18. 11. Kain saith Gen. 4. 13. My Punishment is greater then I can bear The middle between both is the penitent Publican Luke 18. 13. He stood afar off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to Heaven but smote on his Breast saying God be merciful to me a Sinner Go to him that which with men is the worst Plea with God is the best SERMON XLVIII PSALM CXIX Verse 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that Reproacheth me for I trust in thy Word IN the former Verse we saw the man of God begging for Deliverance or Temporal Salvation from the Mercies of God according to his Word Salvation belongeth to the Lord and his Mercy can pardon great sins and fetch us off from great extremities and that according to the Word of God he had boasted of this there is his Request here is his Argument from the use and fruit of his Deliverance he should have something to reply to the Scoffs and Mocks of wicked men who insulted over him in his Distress and Calamity he had spoken of great things or the Promise and now desireth the Promise to be made good that he might have an Answer ready against their Reproaches So shall I have wherewith to answer him that
us in Christ that keepeth us doing Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And Tit. 2. 11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Thankfulness to God is the great Principle of Gospel-Obedience 2. Love thy commandments which I have loved 2 Cor. 5. 12 The love of Christ constraineth us Nothing holdeth up the hands in a constant obedience to God and performance of his Will so much as a thorough Love to God and his Ways Faith begets Love and Love Obedience These are the true Principles of all Christian Actions 6. This lifting up of the hands imports a right End Commanded Work must be done to commanded Ends else we lift up our hands to our own Work Now the true End is the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 32. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God And Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Iesus unto the glory and praise of God God's Glory must be our main scope not any bye respect of our own Well then this is lifting up our hands to the commandments of God not doing one good Work but all and this with a serious Diligence in our ordinary Practice continuing therein with Patience whatever Oppositions we meet with and this out of Faith or a sincere belief of the Gospel and fervent Love and an unfeigned respect to God's Glory II. Why such a lifting up the hands or serious addressing our selves to our Duty is necessary My Answer shall be given in a fourfold respect God Ordinances Graces and the Christian who is to give an account of himself unto God 1. God Father Son and Holy Ghost Father as a Law-giver Son as a Redeemer and Head of the Renewed Estate Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier 1. God the Father who in the Mystery of Redemption is represented as our Law-giver and Sovereign Lord and will be not onely known and worshipped but served by a full and intire Obedience 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind He hath given us a Law not to be trampled upon or despised but observed and kept and that not by fear or force but of a ready mind Though there be an after-provision of Grace for those that break his Law because of the frailty of the Creature yet if we presume upon that Indulgence and sin much that God may pardon much we may render our selves uncapable of that Grace For the more presumptuously wicked we are the less pleasing unto God The Governour of the World should not be affronted upon the pretence of a Remedy which the Gospel offered for this is to sin that Grace may abound than which wicked Imagination nothing is more contrary to Gospel-Grace Rom. 6. 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid To check this Conceit God deterreth Men from greater Sins as more difficult to be pardoned than less they shall not have so quick and easie a pardon of them as of others nay he deterreth Men from going on far in sin either as to the intensive increase or the continuance in time lest he cut them off and withdraw his Grace and pardon them not at all Therefore he biddeth them to call upon him while he is near Isa. 55. 6. Not to harden their hearts while it is called to day Heb. 3. 7 8. Therefore if we should onely consider God as our Lord and Law-giver we should earnestly betake our selves to Obedience 2. If we consider the Son as Redeemer and Head of the Renewed Estate he standeth upon Obedience Heb. 5. 9. He is the authour of eternal life to them that obey him As he hath taken the Commandments into his own hand he insisteth upon Practice if his People will enjoy his favour Iohn 15. 10. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love as I have kept my fathers commandments and abide in his love He hath imposed a yoke upon his Disciples and hath Service for them to do he being a Pattern and Mirrour of Obedience expects the like from his People He fully performed what was enjoyned him to do as the Surety of Believers and therefore expecteth we should be as faithful to him as he hath been to God So Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me No love of Christ should encourage us to cast off Duty but continue it He taketh himself to be honoured when his People obey 2 Thess. 1. 11 12. Wherefore also we pray always for you that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Iesus Christ may be glorified in you The Work of Faith is Obedience and Christ is dishonoured and reproched when they disobey Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say 3. The Spirit is given to make Graces operative to flow forth Iohn 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life And Iohn 7. 38. He that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This spake he of his Spirit which they that believe in him should receive Therefore if we have an inward approbation of the Ways of God unless we lift up our hands we resist his Work 2. With respect to Ordinances They are all Means and Means are imperfect without their End Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of no use unless that other thing be accomplished for which they serve As he is a foolish Workman that contents himself with having Tools and never worketh for Tools are in order to Work and all the Means of Grace are in order to Practice We read hear meditate to understand our Duty Now if we never put it in practice we use Means to no end and purpose Hear and live Hear and do The Word layeth out Work for us it was not ordained for speculation onely but as a Rule of Duty to the Creatures therefore if we are to hear read meditate we must also lift up our hands 3. All Graces are imperfect till they end in Action for they were not given us for idle and useless Habits Knowledge to know meerly that we may know is Curiosity and idle Speculation So Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments Jer. 22. 16. He judgeth the cause of the poor and the
Promises with a qualification Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life God hath not simply promised Blessedness but the Promise requireth a qualification and a performance of Duty in the Person to whom the Promise is made and therefore before we can have a certainty of Hope we must not only look upon the Assurance on Gods part but make out our qualification So Psal. 1. 1 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night So Psal. 119. 1 2. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart and many such places which intimate that blessedness belongeth to such as are of an holy Heart and intirely give up themselves to an holy Course that doing the Commandments uprightly and in a Gospel Sense is a necessary Condition to qualifie those Persons which shall be saved And therefore they that live in any sin against Conscience may take notice how fearful their Estate is for the present and how needful it is to begin a good course before they can have any hope toward God 2. And Partly Because true hope is operative and hath an influence this way There are two parts in Sanctification Mortification and Vivification and true Hope hath an influence upon both Mortification 1 Ioh. 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purisieth himself as he is pure that when we see God we shall be like him he that hopeth for such a pure and sinless Estate either to see God will he appear before him in his filthy Rags Ioseph washed himself when he was to come before Pharaoh so when to appear before God what with this wanton vain unclean heart We are to be like him is this to be like Christ where there is such a disproportion between Head and Members And if this hope be fixed in our hearts it will set us a purifying more and more So for Vivification it urgeth and incourageth to Obedience Tit. 2. 12 13. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present world Look backward or forward it urgeth the heart to Obedience Why backward to the duties of Holiness shall we be Lazy in his work when we expect such a great Reward 3. Because there is no such thing to damp Hope and weaken our Confidence as Sin We cannot trust him whom we have offended freely and without restraint and therefore while we please the flesh we break our Confidence Sin will breed shame and fear and 't is impossible to hope in God unless we serve him in love and seek to please him if we feel it not presently we shall feel it sin that now weakeneth the Faith which we have in the Commandments will in time weaken the Faith that we have in the Promises Every part of Gods revealed Will cometh to be tried one time or another our Confidence in Gods Mercy is not earnestly and directly assaulted till the hour of Death or the time of extraordinary Trial When the evil day cometh then the Consciousness of my own sin whereunto we have been indulgent will be of like force to withdraw our assent from Gods Mercies as the delight and pleasure we took was to cause us to Transgress his Commandments 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law 4. Because our hope is increased by our diligence in the holy life This fostereth and augments it Heb. 6. 11. And we desire that every one of you doth shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end It must needs be so for since there is a qualification the more clear our qualification is the more full is our assurance of hope and so far as a man neglects his duty and abateth in his Qualification so far doth his Assurance abate To look on one side of the Covenant is a groundless presumption 2. None do and can keep the Commandments but they that hope for Salvation This is plain from the order of the words in the Text first I hoped for thy Salvation therefore done the Commandments implying that thereby he kept the Commandments without this none can have an heart nor hand to do any thing for God Peccator saith Bernard nihil expectat indique peccator est quod bonis presentibus Non modo delectus sed etiam contentus nihil in futurum expectat He that looketh for nothing from God can never be diligent in his service nor faithful and true to him Hope 't is our strength Lam. 3. 18. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord we first begin continue and go on with God upon the hope he offereth to us Use. I. It reproveth those that hope well but take no care to do any thing for God Every one will say they must hope in God but none looketh after this lively and operative hope their hope is barren and unfruitful who are they that can make Application of the Promises 2 Tim. 4. 8. Use. II. Is to perswade us to the coupling of these two when this Conjunction is founded then are we in a right frame if we would keep the Commandments we must hope for the Salvation of God if we would hope for the Salvation of God we must keep the Commandments This is most acceptable to the Lord Psal. 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him and hope in his mercy Such as believe and fear to offend him they have acceptable Communion with him 'T is for your Comfort Acts 9. 31. 't is for the honour of Religion on the one side to avoid the carnal Confidence of Papists on the other the cold Profession of Protestants if you hope for temporal Deliverance They that make no Conscience of obeying God cannot hope for Deliverance from him for his Salvation must be expected in the way of his Precepts Psal. 37. 3. Trust in the Lord and do Good so shalt thou dwell in the land So Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Then we may commend our selves and all our Affairs to Gods care and trust it becometh them that look for Salvation and to be helped out of their troubles to be more earnest than others in keeping his Law If you would enjoy the comfortable Assurance that you shall be saved at length live so as you may never mar your Confidence 1 Pet. 1. 13. Be sober and hope to the end Live
grace to them is an argument why he will give more grace to them Two things will be here discussed 1. The necessity of the efficacious assistance of grace that we may walk worthy of God in all well-pleasing 2. How acceptable a frame of heart it is when we are once brought to delight in the ways of God Doct. 1. For the first That God from first to last doth make us to go in the path of his Commandments David was a renewed man a man that had gotten his heart into a good frame for he owneth his delight in the paths of Gods Commandments yet he begs for new strength and quickning Make me to go Lead or walk me Sept. First That at first conversion God maketh us go in the path of his Commandments that 's clear by Scripture for it is said Ephes. 2. 10. That we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them When we are renewed we are as it were created over again there is a power given us that we had not before to do this work Clearly the Apostle doth not speak there of the first Creation the end of our first Creation was to serve God but he speaks of supernatural renovation for he saith We are created in Christ Iesus There was a twofold Creation at first Ex nihilo ex inhabili materia either that which God created out of nothing or if out of pre-existent matter yet such as was wholly unfit and indisposed for those things that were to be made of it Now this latter suits with us We are created in Christ Iesus to good works that is we were altogether indisposed before to that which is good We have our natural powers but they are wholly vitiously inclined till the Lord worketh on us and infuseth a principle of new life till then we cannot do any thing that is spiritually good But when the Lord createth us anew he furnisheth us with an inward power and ability to do good What David prays for Make me to go in the way of thy commandments God promiseth Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes God puts his spirit a new principle of grace When the Gospel is proposed to a man his will must be determined by something either by an object or a quality not by the proposal meerly of the object without for the Scripture shews there must be some work upon the heart some Divine quality infused within to incline and bend us to what is good Well then first there must be an infusion of the principles of grace In sinning there the mischief began with an act Adam sinned and that infected his nature But in grace the method is contrary the principle must be before the action God first sanctifieth our natures and then we act holily and this difference there is between acquired and infused habits Acquired habits follow action for frequent acts beget an habit as often swimming makes us expert in swimming and much writing expert in writing but gracious habits are infused and so preceed the act as a wheel runs round not to make it self round but because it is round Indeed there is a farther radication of grace by frequent acts as the means which God blesseth Now by this first work of grace we have three advantages 1. An inclination and tendency towards what is good As all natures imply a propensity to those things which agree to such a nature As sparks fly upward and a stone moves downward it 's their natural propensity so in the new nature there 's a new bent and tendency of heart which is to live unto God Gal. 2. 19. there 's an inclination towards God and holy things and therefore the Apostle presseth them by virtue of this grace received to act according to the tendency of the new nature Rom. 6. 13. Yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead that 's his argument As soon as the life of grace is infused the soul bends towards God 2. A preparation of heart for holy actions There is a principle that will carry them to it These Vessels are fitted and prepared for their Master's use and are prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2. 21. they are fitted and rigged for all holy actions and employments Eph. 2. 10. Created unto good works which God hath prepared that we should walk in them He hath prepared them for us and us to them There is a sutableness in the new nature to what God requireth As every creature is furnished with power and faculties sutable to those operations that belong to them so when the Lord infuseth the principles of grace and works upon the heart we are suited to every good work so that we need not new faculties but new operations of grace to excite and move us A ship that 's rigged and fitted with sails ready for a voyage needs a Pilot to guide and steer it so we need influences of grace Therefore when the Spirit is shed upon us afterwards it is in another manner than upon the unregenerate The unregenerate are objects of grace but the renewed are instruments of grace he works upon the one but he works by the other 3. There is a power and an ability to do good works when we are renewed if otherwise one of God's most precious gifts would be in vain if we were altogether without strength That 's the description of carnal nature Rom. 5. 6. We were without strength therefore there is a power which must be improved not rested in Gal. 5. 25. If ye live in the spirit walk in the spirit There is an operation that accompanieth every life and if there be a life of grace there will be a walking And Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ so walk in him Grace received must not lye idle but be put forth into act Thus God creates and infuseth such divine qualities as may give us a tendency and preparation of heart and strength to do that which may be pleasing to him Secondly He vouchsafeth his quickning actuating assisting grace for the improving these principles infused that their operations may be carried forth with more success Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes God gives not only life but the constant motion of that life Natural things do not act without his daily Providential influence and therefore it is said Prov. 20. 12. God gives the hearing ear and the seeing eye not only doth give the eye and ear the faculty but the act of hearing and act of seeing he concurs to that and therefore God concurs by his actual assistance sometimes in a more liberal and plentiful manner by the freer aids and assistances of his grace and sometimes more sparingly according to his own pleasure He doth not only give us the habits of grace he worketh all
in the use of all these things Now let a carnal Wretch work upon this Principle and what inference doth he draw Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15. 32. See this other Principle The Grace of God brings salvation to poor Sinners Tit. 2. 12. How doth a gracious heart work upon it Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts c. O what shall be done for this God the Grace that offers such salvation by Christ Let a carnal wretch work upon this principle and he will take liberty to sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid Such kind of reasonings there are in the hearts of the Godly 2 Sam. 7. 2. saith David I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains God hath fenced me with his Providence What then Here I may sit down and rest and take my ease and pleasure and gratifie my sensual lusts No he doth not argue so but what shall I do for God that hath done so much for me Now see those ungracious Jews after their return how they reason Hagg. 1. 2. The time is not come the time that the Lords house should be built no matter for Gods House It is the Lords hand let Eli work upon that 1 Sam. 3. 18. Let him do what seemeth him good he draws from it a submissive patience O the Sovereign God will take his own way and the Creature must not murmure repine and set up an Anti-providence against him But now saith that carnal Wretch 2 Kings 6. 33. Behold this evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer he murmures and frets and grows impatient Solomon tells us Prov. 26. 9. As a Thorn goeth up into the hand of a Drunkard so is a Parable in the mouth of Fools A Thorn was their instrument of sewing now when a Drunkard should manage his Needle he wounds and gores himself so is a Parable in a Fools mouth a carnal heart wounds and gores himself with the most holy Principle of Religion The 2. Sort of vain thoughts are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 musings and here take notice the vanity of our thoughts appears First In the slipperiness and inconstancy of them We run from object to object in a moment and our thoughts look like strangers one upon another wondring like those vagabond Iews Act. 19. 13. so they are called because of their uncertain station and frequent removes Eccl. 6. 9. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandring of the desire in the Original 't is the working out of the Soul Usually we have a stragling Soul roving wandring here and there and all in an instant especially this roving madness may we take notice of when we are employed in holy things hearing prayer meditation It is strange to see what impertinent sudden discursions there are from good to lawful from lawful to sinful and how far the heart is removed from God when we are before him when a man hath brought his body to God his heart is turned back again These vain thoughts pursue and haunt us in Duties so that we mingle Sulphur with our incense it is Gregory's comparison even in our prayers and holy addresses to God Secondly The unprofitableness and folly of our musings Our thoughts are set upon trifles and frivolous things neither tending to our own profit nor the benefit of others Prov. 10. 20. The heart of the wicked is little worth all their debates conceits musings are of no value The tongue of the just is as choise Silver but all their thoughts are taken up about childish vanity and foolish conceits Prov. 24. 9. The thought of foolishness is sin not only the thought of wickedness but foolishness Thoughts are the first-born of the Soul the immediate issues of the mind yet we lavish them away upon every trifle Follow men all the day long and take an account of their thoughts O what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious to Psal. 94. 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity If we did judge as God judges all the thoughts reasonings discourses of the mind if they were set down in a Table we might write at the bottom Here 's the Summ and Total Account of all nothing but vanity Thirdly The carnality and fleshliness of our thoughts Phil. 3. 19. They mind earthly things How sweet is it to us to be thinking of worldly matters how to grow great to advance our selves here This carnal mind is very natural to us We are in our Element and do with a great deal of savour and sweetness think of these things it makes our heart merry but when we come to think of that which is good we are tired presently and it is very tedious to spend our thoughts upon them Good things come upon us like a flash of Lightning soon gone but on carnal things we can spend our thoughts freely These carnal musings are stirred up by carnal desire or carnal delight sometimes by a desire of worldly things so they are forming images and suppositions of those things they hope for As Faith works in a godly man forming images and suppositions of that happy time when they shall be gathered to God and all holy ones and rejoyce in his presence He hath a Faith the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. which represents his hopes to him so carnal men dream of preferment riches honours vain-glorious applause they are looking out after their hopes they send their thoughts as Messengers of the Soul to forestal the contentment of those carnal things which they do expect Sometimes they are employed by carnal delight when the thing we muse upon is enjoyed the complacency men take in any carnal enjoyment it is part of this vanity when we go musing upon our own worth and our own excellency as that King Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babel that I have built for the honour of my Majesty Men take some time every day to worship the Idol of self and dote and gaze upon their own excellencies and atchievements their wisedom and wit Hab. 1. 15. They gather them in their drag therefore they rejoyce and are glad Or else pleasing themselves in their Estates dialogizing within themselves as the word is Luke 12. 13. Soul take thine ease thou hast Goods laid up for many years c. Fourthly By the impiety and apparent filthiness of them When men are taken up with sin so as to act it over in their own minds delighting themselves in fansying of sin either by way of revenge or lust or any other such thing as an unclean person sets up a stage in his own heart 2 Pet. 2. 14. Eyes full of adultery or the adulteress their fancy is upon the beauty of women their soul is set upon it The 3. Thing is
that are gotten by studying and obeying it they exceed worldly things as will appear because the one suits with our bodily necessities the other with our spiritual Our bodily necessities are supplied by Gold our spiritual necessities by Grace Gold will not comfort a distressed Conscience no more than Nosegay-Flowers a condemned man Quod si dolentem c. saith Horace Prov. 11. 4. Riches avail not in the day of wrath The one renders us acceptable to men the other to God The world knoweth all things after the Flesh they measure men by splendor and pomp of living but it is Grace that God approveth most and accepteth most Grace is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3. 4. But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price The one much embaseth our Nature it is something more vile than us therefore that affection is debased But Grace always ennobleth our Nature and is something above us A greater affection is due to things above us than to things beneath us The one is useful to us in viâ the other in patriâ Surely that which is of eternal use and comfort to us is better than that which is only of a temporal use In our passage to Heaven we need Gold and Silver for the supply of our bodily necessities and the support of outward life so far as we have to do in the world but with respect to the world to come Gold doth nothing there we leave our wealth behind us but our works follow us Our treasure we quit when we dye but our Grace we carry with us Once more the price by which things may be purchased sheweth the worth of them Wisdom is of so great a price that all the treasures of the world cannot purchase it Iob 28. 15. to 20. It cannot be gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire the Gold and the Crystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for Iewels of fine Gold no mention shall be made of Corral or of Pearls for the price of Wisdom is above Rubies the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it neither shall it be valued with pure Gold What cannot money do in the World yet it can do nothing as to the procuring of Grace The Apostle telleth us This is a dear bought blessing 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot To despise the favour of God the image of God is to despise the price that was paid for these things to have lessening thoughts of the blood of Christ. To conclude those we count lesser gifts which we bestow upon friends than upon enemies a man would give meat and drink unto enemies when they hunger and thirst but other gifts of a greater value to friends and relations God giveth his Christ his Spirit his Grace to his Friends Children Servants but Corn and Wine and Oil these he giveth promiscuously yea to his enemies a larger portion Surely then these are better than Gold Our love should be according to the value of things 2. Because if the word be not preferred before earthly things it is not received with any profit and good effect Christ saith He that loveth any thing more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 10. 37. He that studieth to please his friends rather than Christ or to gratifie his interest more than his Conscience within a very little while his Christianity will be worth nothing It is not a simple love but a greater love that we shew to worldly things Matth. 13. 44 45 46. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it We must part with all rather than miss of his Grace all that is pleasant and profitable renounce all other things When Christ propounds his terms he would have us surrender all to his will and pleasure Luke 9. 23. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me He must not avoid the Cross by sinful shifts we are ready to do so every day These are the necessary terms else we are not fit for the masters use 2 Tim. 2. 21. If any man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work 3. Unless we love the word above Riches we cannot possess Riches without a snare then it will be not only hard but impossible to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 10. 23 24 25 26 27. And Iesus looked round about and saith unto his Disciples How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God And the Disciples were astonished at his words But Iesus answereth again and saith unto them Children how hard is it for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God And they were astonished out of measure saying among themselves Who then can be saved And Iesus looking about him said With men it is impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible Riches will so prevail over us and wholly sway us if they be our chief good and portion and we have not an higher end to check our love to them If a man would have all things cleave to him he must be sure the world doth not sit nearest his heart for if they do such a man as he is unfit for Heaven so he is unfit for the world too If they be your good things Luke 16. 25. Son rememember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things you will get and keep and use them otherwise than the word doth allow 4. From the fruit of Grace where it is planted in the heart and prevaileth the desire of wealth is mortified worldly lust denied Tit. 2. 12. Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts And desires of Grace enlarged and encreased 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby And when it prevaileth further and to an higher degree they come to Moses's frame to
heareth us and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him Gods hearing of us his audience is a distinct thing from the answer of his Providence and therefore when he begets a confidence that we are heard and the soul begins to be quieted in God and look up for Mercy it is a sign of his accepting our Prayer though the benefit be not actually bestowed David found a change in his heart many times as if one had come and told him the posture of his affairs were altered it is otherwise with you than it was when you began to pray therefore you have him in the beginning of a Psalm come in with bitter complaints and groaning his eyes were ready to drop out with grief and presently he breaks out with thanksgiving as Psal. 6. 8 9. Mine eye is consumed because of grief it waxeth old because of all mine enemies presently Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping So Hannah she had commended her request to God and was no more sad 1 Sam. 1. 16. That 's one way of answer when we have declared our selves to the Lord the heart looks out to see what will come of its Prayers it begins to rest and is quiet in God and look for some answer of the Mercy The Second Consideration That the outward mercy in his Providence is either in kind or in value God doth not always answer us in kind by giving us the thing asked but doth give us something that is as good or better which contents the heart by denying the thing desired and giving something equivalent Many times we ask Temporal Mercies Defence Victory Deliverance and God gives Spiritual we ask Deliverance and God gives Patience 2 Cor. 12. 8 9. Paul asked thrice that the thorn in the flesh might depart from him but Gad gives him sufficient grace God doth not answer us always according to our will but certainly according to our weal and profit many times he will give the blessing in kind but as other times he gives the value of it which is better God may give temporal Comfort in kind in anger but the value the blessing he never gives in anger but always in love when they asked meat for their lusts God gave it in kind in anger Psal. 78. and I gave them a King in my wrath Hos. 13. 11. when we are passionate and eager upon a temporal request God doth answer in wrath the Mercy is more when he gives us that which is better Thirdly God delays many times when he doth not deny for our exercise 1. To exercise our Faith to see if we can believe in him when we see nothing have no sensible proof of his good Will to us The woman of Canaan she comes to Christ and first gets not a word from him Christ answered her nothing afterwards Christ breaks off his silence and begins to speak and his speech was more discouraging than his silence she meets with a rough answer It is not meet to give the childrens bread unto dogs Then the woman turns this rebuke into an encouragement Lord the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters table Then Christ could hold no longer O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Mat. 15. So many times we come to God and meet with a silent Oracle cannot get an answer but if we get an answer it may be we begin to think God puts us off as none of the sheep he is to look after O! but when we wrestle through all these discouragements and temptations then great is thy faith In short we pray for a blessing and sometimes though God love the Suppliant yet he doth not seem to take notice of his desires that he may humble him to the dust and may have a sense of his unworthiness and pick an answer out of Gods silence and grant out of his denial and faith out of these discouragements 2. To exercise our Patience Heb. 6. 12. Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Our times are always present with us but Gods time is not yet come A hungry stomach would have meat before it's roasted or sod Impatient longings must have green fruit and will not stay till it be matur'd and ripened Now God will work us out of this impatience The troubles of the world are necessary for patience as well as faith 3. To try our Love Though we be not feasted with felt comforts and present benefits yet God will try the deportment of his children if indeed he be the delight of their hearts Isa. 26. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee When we love God not only when our affections are brib'd by some sensible experience or comfort but when we can love God in the way of his judgments A child of God is a strange creature he can love God for his judgments and fear him for his mercies When our heart is like lyme the more water you sprinkle upon it the more it burns our desires glow the more the more disappointments we seem to meet with We love his benefits more than we love God when we delight in him only when he doth us good But when we can delight in him even when our desires are delayed and nothing appears but tokens of Gods displeasure this is delight indeed 4. To enlarge our desires that we may have a greater income of his mercy As a Sack that 's stretched out holds the more God will have the soul more stretched out when he means to fill it up with grace Delays encrease importunities Ask seek knock Mat. 7. If God will not come at the first asking we must seek if seeking will not bring him we must knock be importunate have no nay Luke 11. 8. For his importunity sake he will arise The man is impudent he stands knocking and will not be gone Fourthly God may seem sometimes to deny a request yet the end of the request is accomplished for instance God's children they have an end in their requests we pray for the means with respect to an end Now many times God gives the end when he will deny the means Paul had grace sufficient though the thorn in his flesh were not removed 1 Cor. 12. 9. A Christian prays for the light of Gods countenance for sensible feeling of Gods love why to strengthen him in his way Now God denies him comfort because he will do it by the word of promise it shall not be by sensible comfort We pray for victory over such a lust the mortification of such a sin why that we may serve God more cheerfully God denies such a degree of grace because he will mortifie a greater sin which is pride in the heart And thus we miss the particular that we desire yet still we have the end of
he hath begun Phil. 1. 16. The Apostle most notably sets it forth 1 Pet. 5. 10. The God of all grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you All these words concern the habit or the seed of grace in the soul and to shew Gods concurrence towards our preservation in the spiritual state he useth these words Make you perfect that notes the addition of degrees that are yet wanting stablish you that notes defending that grace which is already planted in the heart from temptation and dangers and strengthen you that is give you power for action or ability for working and settle you that is to fasten the root more and more All may be represented in a Tree look as a Tree grown downward in the root is defended from the nipping of the weather and stablisht and strengthned against injuries from beasts and being fill'd with sap springs forth and becomes fruitful so the Lord settle you c. 3. There 's a concurrence of God to the act Grace in habit is not enough but it must be actuated and directed About the act there are two things The Holy Spirit actuates the grace that is implanted draws it forth into exercise so it is said Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do that is he does apply that grace in our heart set it awork and then there 's a directing or regulation of the soul to action 2 Thes. 3. 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God c. Thus God plants grace in the heart by preventing us with his mercy and loving-kindness taking us into favour then he doth stablish us and perfect it root it in the soul more and more Then as to the act he doth excite and strengthen us Secondly The uses for which we have this strength from God It serves for three Uses for doing for suffering and for conflicting to bear us out in conflict as our necessities are many so must our strength be 1. Strength to perform duties Weariness and uncomfortableness will soon fall upon our hearts and we shall hang off from God if the Lord doth not put forth a new force and a new quickning upon our hearts therefore the Spouse saith Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee And here in this Psalm When the Lord shall enlarge my heart I will run the ways of his commandments If we would be carried on with any fervour and motion towards God we must go forth in the strength of God The soul is a tender thing and soon discomposed When we think to go forth and shake our selves as at other times as Sampson we shall find fetters and restraints upon our soul. Therefore God's work must ever be done in God's strength 2. Strength for bearing of burdens with patience that we may not faint under them Col. 1. 11. Strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness That we may not faint under our affliction Prov. 24. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small God's children before they go to Heaven will have their tryals they will have many burdens upon them Heb. 6. 12. Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises There needs not only faith but patience There will be trouble Now a heavy burden need have good shoulders We pray for strength that we may break through difficulties and afflictions that we meet in our passage to heaven 3. Strength for conflicts that we may break through temptations A Christian is not only to use the Trowel but the Sword We cannot think to discharge duties or bear afflictions without a battel and conflict therefore we need the strength of the Lord's grace to carry us through Satan is the great enemy with whom we conflict he is the manager of the temptation This is the course of it the World is the bait the Flesh is the Traitor that works within men which gives advantage to Satan the Devil lyeth hidden and by worldly things seeks to draw off our hearts from God Now we are assaulted on every side sometimes by the pleasures of the world sometimes by the frowns and crosses of it so that a Christian needs to be fit for all conditions Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me for every way will the Devil be inticing us to sin Now these Conflicts are either solicitations to sin or tend to weaken our comfort and in both respects we must have strength from God Satan's first temptation is to draw us to sin if he cannot weaken grace then to disturb our comfort if not to deny God yet that we may suspect our own estate and therefore he follows us with blasphemies and other temptations until he hath made our lives wearisome till we call our condition into question and therefore as grace is strengthned so is comfort Neh. 8. 11. The joy of the Lord is your strength Thus I have shew'd what is this spiritual strength and what we beg of God when we say Strengthen me And how this is given out in what manner God conveyeth this strength to the soul how sutable to our nature to our temper to our employment Thirdly How God is concerned in it David goes to God for this benefit Lord strengthen me From first to last he doth all We do not stand by the stability of our own resolutions nor stand by the stability of gracious habits in our selves unless the Lord supply new strength Not by the stability of our own resolutions for these will soon fail for David was under a resolution to keep close to God yet he saith My feet had well nigh slipt what upheld him Thy right hand upheld me I was mightily shaken all purposes of holding on of godliness were even gone but I am continually with thee Neither is it the stability of gracious habits in themselves for of themselves they are poor vanishing things faith love and fear of God of themselves will soon vanish Rev. 3. 2. Be watchful strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dye These are ready to dye therefore are only maintained by a renewed strength from God It is the power of God that is engaged in our preservation I might shew in what order we have this from God we are not only kept in general by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. but all the persons work The Father his act is Judicial Eph. 3. 14. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that he would grant you to be strengthned with might in the inner man He issueth the grant that such souls coming in Christ's name and petitioning relief should obtain it And God the Son hath bought this strength for us and he intercedes for constant supply and therefore it is said Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ. Christ puts in
so as the effect may follow Surely God hath more hand in good than Satan hath in evil otherwise man were as praise worthy for doing good as reproveable for doing evil God enclines the heart to that which is good and perswades it by his grace God knows how to alter the course of our affections by his secret power therefore doth not only lead but draw works intimately upon the heart Unto thy testimonies so the word of God is called for it testifieth of his will There we have a clear proof and testimony how God stands affected to every man what kind of affection God hath to him And not to covetousness Mark the phrase incline c. Doth God incline us to covetousness No but he permits us to the inclinations of our own hearts justly denying his grace to those that do offend him and upon the suspension of his grace nature is left to its own sway The presence of the Master or Pilot saves the ship his absence is the cause of the ship-wrack And so the Schools say God inclines to good efficienter working it in us and to evil deficienter withdrawing his grace from us A like expression you have Psal. 141. 4. Incline not my heart to any evil thing God may as a Lord do what he pleaseth with his own and as a just Judge may give over our hearts to their own natural wicked inclination therefore David deprecates it as a judicial act Not to covetousness This is mentioned because our too much love to worldly things is the special hindrance of obedience it takes off our hearts from the love and care of it and then when he saith not to covetousness herein implies his own esteem and choice as preferring God's testimonies above all riches and possibly intimates the sincerity of his aims that he would â—…ot serve God for temporal advantages and vvorldly respects Satan accuseth Iob for such a perverse respect Job 1. 9. Doth Iob serve God for naught David to prevent such a surmise that â—…e vvas not led by any thought of gain to desire godliness saith to thy testimonies and not to covetousness Tvvo Points offer themselves from these vvords 1. That it is God alone that sets our hearts right or inclines them from their carnal bent to his ovvn testimonies 2. That covetousness or the flagrant desire of vvorldly things is a great lett or hindrance from complying vvith Gods testimonies Doct. That it is God alone that sets our hearts right or inclines them from their carnal bent to his own testimonies That I shall illustrate by these Considerations First The heart of man must have an Object unto which it is inclined or whereunto it doth cleave for it is like a spunge that being thirsty in it self sucks in moisture from other things it is a Chaos of desires seeking to be fill'd with something from without We were made for another to be happy in the enjoyment of a being without us therefore man must have something to love for the affections of the soul cannot lye idle and without an Object Psal. 4. 6. Then many will say who will shew us any good We all hunt about for a match for our affections for some good to satisfie us Secondly The heart being destitute of grace is wholly carried out to temporal things why because they are next at hand and suit best with our fleshly natures I say out of a despair of meeting with better we take up with those Objects that we are most conversant about which are carnal contentments The good of which we can apprehend and rellish with our natural faculties There are two reasons of the addictedness that is in mans heart to temporal things 1 Natural inclination And 2 inveterate custom 1. Natural inclination That there is a greater proneness in us to evil than good is clear not only by Scripture but by plain experience Now whence is it that we are thus vitiously disposed the soul being created by God he infuseth no evil into it for that would not stand with the holiness of his nature I answer though the soul be created by God yet it is created destitute of grace or original righteousness and being destitute of the Image of God or original righteousness can only close with things present and known having no other light and principle to guide it Now things known and things present they are the pleasures of the body as meats drinks natural generation wealth and honour Now these being wholly minded avert us from the love and study of Supernatural things It is true these things are good in themselves and that self love which carrieth us out to them is naturally good but though it be naturally good it proves morally evil when the love of these things destroys the love of God which must needs be if we be destitute of grace The love of our selves and outward things necessarily grow inordinate not being guided and directed by grace It is a Rule among Divines Si non inest quod inesse deberet necessario inerit quod non inesse deberet A privation falling upon an active subject such as the soul of man is doth necessarily infer disorder and irregularity in its operations Take away light from the air it must be dark and when the Sun is down it must be night So it is if grace be taken away The great work of grace is to make God our last end and our chiefest good Now this last end being changed all things must needs run into disorder with man Why for the last end is Principium Universalissimum the most universal Principle upon which all moral perfections depend Look as Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit forfeited the Image of God and were polluted so we Why did God infuse pollution and filthiness in them or had the fruit any such poysonous quality No their last end was changed which is the great Principle that runs through all our actions and when our end is changed then all runs to disorder They fell from God whom before they made their chiefest good and their last end I say they fell from God as envious false and wishing ill to them and by the Devils instigation turned to the Creature to find happiness in them against the express will and command of God As the first man was infected so are all men wholly perverted for sin still consists in a conversion from God to the Creature Ier. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 4. By the change of our end all moral goodness is lost for all means are subordinate to the last end and are determined by it Now necessarily thus it will be without grace there will be a conversion of a man to the Creature and the body with the conveniences and comforts thereof the interest and concernments of the body are set up instead of God For though the soul cometh down from the superior world yet it soon forgets its Divine original and being put into the body it
to its natural temper and it is colder afterwards so the Soul returns to its byass and old bent again towards worldly things therefore there must be a constant desire kept up such as enjoy the Grace of God will still need and desire more this is the constant temper of their Souls they are always desiring and longing after Gods Precepts and more Grace to keep his Will 4. In those desires which they seem to have after holiness here is the defect they are not laborious He that longs for Gods Precepts will do his utmost endeavour that he may yield uniform Obedience to God The Scripture placeth much upon the Will. Macarius an ancient practical Writer puts this Question Who are those that have a will to God and Heavenly things and a will to the waters of Life What demonstrations can there be of a will Nothing but constant labour If there be such a will as to set you a work and a desire which makes you diligent Lazy Prayers and feeble Endeavours they do not argue any great strength of desire Alass when a man asketh Grace indifferently and coldly and is almost at an even point whether God hears him or no and doth not seek after that Grace and excites his soul this man hath not a desire because it is not laborious If it be not an operative desire it is but a velleity a will it is not All their Prayers are but the ejaculations of speculative fancy not the products of true Affection for that would be industrious Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the Sloathful killeth for his hands refuse to labour They do not manifest the life and strength of Love in their endeavours that they seem to have in their Prayers Cold Prayer they may put up for Grace that God may make them better and they wish it were better with them and that the Lord would bring them to a greater conformity But these are not laborious desires volens sed nolens they would but they will not that is to say O that I were at such an earthly place and never travel the way to get there So would I had learned such a Lesson yet like a lazy Boy they set not themselves in good earnest to do it They seem to will or wish therefore they are but Wouldings not Willings they do not in good earnest set themselves to get that Grace There is not such an invincible resolution to get through and a serious industry that they may attain those things they seem to long for 5. These wishes and desires which are in Carnal men are not permanent that overcome the desire of other things they will not absolutely set about it to be done whatever it cost them but such desires as are sincere overcome all earthly desires and delights whatever They would have Grace but yet would live as they do It is not such a desire as to controul other things but is controuled by them The desires of Grace is an underling and mastered by the desires of pleasures or profits of the World and other delights Many have a desire but it is easily subdued it is not prevalent Alass there may a faint desire be stirred up by enlightned Conscience and not by a fruit of a renewed Will A dictate of Conscience must be distinguished from a desire of the heart Illuminated Conscience tells them they must grow more holy and heavenly and wish they were so but the heart is not perfectly subdued to God they are directed by their interest they make not this the main and great interest of their lives David when he expresseth his desires mentions it thus Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life that is I will make this my business the chiefest matter of my care But now they that care not whether they have it yea or no this cannot be a desire Phil. 2. 12. We are bid to work out our Salvation mith fear and trembling We must carry on the business of godliness with a great deal of Solicitude but their affections sway them more to other things SERMON XLVI PSALM CXIX Verse 40. Behold I have longed after thy Precepts c. I Come now to a Second Use and that is Use 2. To press us to long after Holiness and Subjection to God Two Motives 1. You shall have these desires granted For a man to have his Will and whatsoever he desires what a happiness is that If his Soul be set upon holy things he shall have what he desires the Lord will not be wanting Prov. 10. 24. The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him but the desire of the Righteous shall be granted The desires of the Righteous are suitable to the constitution and frame of their heart He will grant the desires of their Souls Psal. 10. 17. A man that makes God his hearts delight shall have his hearts desire Psal. 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart his business is to maintain Communion with God and his desires will not miscarry 2. When they are granted it shall do you no hurt Prov. 11. 23. The desire of the Righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath It is the greatest Judgment to wicked men when God gives them a heart to desire a full affluence of earthly comforts Better to be denyed in mercy than to have our requests granted in anger but Grace will do us no hurt it will not increase our snares and temptations as other things do and therefore can never be given in anger but always in love Well then 1. Fix your desires 2. See they do not abate in you 1. Fix your desires and inlarge them to the full A Carnal man may be a shame to a Godly man because he is carried out so earnestly and with such uniform respect to earthly things 1 Cor. 12. 31. Covet earnestly the best gifts this is a holy Covetousness and a good diversion from that great Sin As the Covetous learn all the Arts of Thriving are always joyning house to house and field to field Isa. 5. 8. So should we add Faith to Faith and Obedience to Obedience Our enjoyments are better and therefore it should not be followed with a slacker hand The more a covetous man hath in the World the more he desires still Should not we forget the things that are behind and reach forth to the things that are before us Still here the Tast increaseth the Appetite like Sea-water that wets the Palate but inflames the Appetite Now shall not we be carried out with a holy Covetousness thus to God See what help and methods of increase they use how their desire carrieth them on in unwearied diligence They rise early sit up late eat the bread of sorrows Psal. 127. 2. and all to heap up a little pelf to themselves
humana doctrina sed magis floret It spread far and near the first Reformation what small beginnings it had 2. There are Judgments strange Providences by which God breaketh Opposition either changing the hearts of Men or else cutting them off in the mid-way when his Wrath is kindled but a little Psal. 2. 12. They dash against the Corner-stone God will shew himself mighty and powerful in promoting the word of Truth and will carry on the Kingdom of Christ over the backs of his Enemies Doct. IV. We should not give over dealing with God though he is pleased to desert us in some passages of our Tryals that he may not forsake us utterly Many of Gods choicest Servants have been tripping Psal. 73. 21. As for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipped but they recover themselves again Peter fell for a time but afterwards groweth bold Once timerous Peter but Acts 4. 13. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John The Martyrs that were permitted for a while to deny the Truth yet were not permitted to deny it utterly they bewailed their faults and suffered the more couragiously 1. It is fit the Creatures should know themselves therefore God will humble us and in part leave us to our own fears but not wholly leave us destitute of Grace as the Nurse seemeth to let the Child fall that he may clasp the more strongly about her 2. It is fit the World should know that a zealous defence of the Truth comes not from natural Stubbornness and Pertinacy but from Divine Assistance therefore God sheweth what the Flesh would do how it would shrink in the confession of the Truth if it were permitted to prevail 3. It is fit we should see the necessity of continual dependence after Grace received we have not always the same presence of mind so as to plead for God but only as he is pleased to influence us our case doth change and alter ebb and flow as it pleaseth God Use. Not to be severe against those that fail out of infirmity nor to cast them off for God doth not pity them rather than censure them let us help them out of the Mire unhumbled hearts that are puft up with Pride and Confidence in their own strength when out of the Temptation may judge it a task of no great difficulty to carry it with courage and will readily condemn others of Cowardise and Back-sliding who ride not out the Storm with as much Courage and Chearfulness and Resolution as they conceive themselves would do Iob 4. 5 6 7. Now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled is not this thy fear thy confidence and the uprightness of thy ways thy Hope but an humble heart acquainted with sufferings will not judge so he is sensible of weakness and how hard it is for Flesh and Blood to deny it self and to prefer a good Conscience before safety and worldly increase how ready it is to faint under a continued Cross how crafty to find out evasions to beguile it self into a way of sin that they pity the poor tempted man In the Primitive times Novatus and his followers denyed those that had fallen to be received into the Communion of the Church though upon Repentance Doct. V. They will not be utterly overcome in their Tryals that hope in Gods Iudgments Why 1. Because this hope will teach us to wait upon the Lord untill he shew us better things Psal. 62. 1. My Soul wait thou upon the Lord for my Expectation is from him they can tarry a little while and so are not carried away with the violence of the present Temptation It is an inclination to present things that undoeth us Demas hath forsaken us and loved this present World Now when we can wait for future things the soul is stayed and kept from Apostacy We read of the patience of Hope 1 Thes. 1. 3. And the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 15. If weâ—…o hope for that we see not then do we with Patience wait for it he that believeth a better condition is not dejected with present evils 2. It fortifieth the Soul against present difficulties so as they do not unsettle but quicken us it hath an Apprehension that the good is hard to be obtained therefore it gathereth all the force and strength of the Soul to resist it For the Nature of Hope See the Sermon on the 114 Verse Well then Hope in Gods Judgments Consider who hath made the Promises is it not God whose word cannot fail of its effect Rom. 4. 20 21. He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform And then consider how he standeth affected to us doth not he love us And also in what Relation he is obliged to us as a Father And then consider what doth the Promise say And how it maketh for his Glory to accomplish it what plentiful means he hath in store to bring to pass what he hath spoken And What a Potent and Wise Intercessor we have to Plead our Cause at the right hand of the Father and to mind him still of whatever concerns our comfort SERMON L. PSALM CXIX Verse 44. So shall I keep thy Law continually For ever and ever FIrst David Prays for Deliverance Verse 41. Let thy Salvation come c. Next he prays if he might not have Deliverance yet a little Liberty to own God in the time of his trouble Take not the word of Truth utterly out of my mouth and with what Argument doth he enforce it In the Close of the former verse he had Pleaded I have hoped in thy Iudgments Now he pleads his stedfast purpose to serve God conceived in the form of a Vow So shall I keep thy Law c. They that hope in Gods Promises must have a tender regard to his Precepts First he saith I hope in thy Iudgments then I shall keep thy Law The tender regard of Gods Precepts how what to talk of them only No. As in the former Verse he speaks of the word of Truth in his mouth so here he speaks of keeping and observing the Law in his Practice to shew we should not own God in word only but in deed also He spoke of Profession there and now we are to fill up our Profession with answerable Practice So shall I keep thy Law continually for ever and ever The Text contains a Promise of Obedience 1. The matter Promised I shall keep thy Law 2. The manner and constancy of that Obedience continually for ever and ever Mark the Promise of Obedience is brought in by way of Argument So shall I keep so that is this will encourage me this will enable me 1. The granting of his requests would give him encouragement when God answers our hope and expectation Gratitude should excite and quicken us to give him all
they were created Corruption is an imperious Master it will not suffer us to hear good things to be there where good things are spoken to accompany them that are good it hath them in so strait a custody they hate the means of their recovery They have many Masters Quot habet Dominos qui unum habere non vult Tit. 3. 3. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures And Iames 4. 1. Whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members One Lust draweth one way another another way Covetousness Voluptuousness Ambition Uncleanness as when two Seas meet We have little reason to envy them for their free Life pity them rather How do their bruitish Affections hurry them What pains Aches in the Body wounds in the Conscience how many secret gripes and scourges No such Subjection no Slave so subject to the Will of his Lord as a Man to his Lusts and sinful Desires will speak think nothing but what Sin commands It is a besotting Slavery wicked Men remain in this Bondage with a kind of pleasure Gally-slaves would sain be free wish for Liberty Israel was in bondage in Egypt but they groaned under it The cry of the children of Israel is come up to me Here Men loath to come out of their Slavery and are enemies to those that would help them out Their Work is hard and oppressive loss of Name Health Estate They tire their Spirits rack their Brains and after all their drudging are cast into Hell Use 2. Do we walk at liberty 1. There was a time when we served Sin but being converted we change Masters Rom. 6. 18. Being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness If there be such a change it will discover it self 1. You will do as little Service for Sin as formerly for Righteousness Rom. 6. 20. When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness Righteousness had no share in your time thoughts cares you made no conscience of doing good took no care of it so now you do as little for Sin 2. Positively do as much for Grace as formerly for Sin ver 19. As you yielded your members servants unto uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so now yield your members servants unto righteousness unto holiness as watchful as earnest as industrious to perfect Holiness as formerly to commit Sin It is but equal He that hath been Servant unto an hard and cruel Master is thereby fitted to be diligent and faithful in the service of a loving gentle and bountiful Master You can judge what a Tyrant Sin was shall not Grace have as much power over you now and will you not do as much for God as for your Lusts 2. What do you complain of as the Task and Yoke the strictness of the Law or the reliques of Corruption Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be compared with 1 Iohn 5. 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous What is a Bondage Sin or Duty Is the Commandment grievous or in-dwelling Sin The Apostle was complaining but of what the Purity of the Law No but the power of in-dwelling Corruption the Body of Death Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Which do your hearts rise against 3. What Freedom Luke 1. 74 75. That you being delivered out of the hands of your enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of your lives If you are enslaved to any one Lust you cannot walk at large Are your Gives and Fetters knocked off Have you that free Spirit Psal. 51. 11 12. Cast me not away from thy presence take not thy holy spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me by thy free spirit SERMON LII PSAL. CXIX 46. I will speak of thy Testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed THE Man of God had prayed ver 43. That God would not take the word of truth utterly out of his mouth that is deny him the Liberty or the Grace the Opportunity or the Heart to make an open Profession of his Faith and Respect to God and his Ways This Suit he backeth with sundry Arguments 1. From his Hope ver 23. For I have hoped in thy judgments He had placed all his confidence in them and therefore would openly profess what Rule he lived by and what Expectations he had from God 2. His Resolution to persist in this course whatever befel him ver 44. So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever it would engage him to constancy to the end of his Life 3. From the alacrity and readiness of his Obedience as well as the constancy ver 45. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Then we have true liberty 4. That no worldly Splendor or Terror should take him off from making this Confession if God would give him liberty and opportunity Two things hinder a free Confession of God's Truth Carnal Fear and Carnal Shame Both are obviated by the Resolution of the Man of God he would neither be afraid nor ashamed to recommend the ways of God to the greatest Princes of the World 1. The Terror of Kings or Men in Power may be supposed to be an hinderance to the free Confession of God's Truth therefore he saith I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings 2. Carnal Shame may breed a lothness to own God's despised ways therefore he addeth I will not be ashamed David would neither be afraid nor ashamed if called thereto to make this open Confession to own God and his Truth 1. His Resolution against Fear deserveth a little opening I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings The words may be looked upon as a Direction for them who are called to speak before Kings 〈◊〉 Men may be supposed to be called 1. Either by the Duty of their Office to speak to them in a way of Instruction Or 2. As convented before them in a Judiciary way to give an account of their Faith 1. In the first sense those who are called to instruct Kings ought with the greatest confidence to recommend the ways of God to them as that which will enhaunse their Crowns and Dignity and make it more glorious and comfortable to them and their Subjects than any thing else And so David's Resolution sheweth what Faithfulness becometh them who live in the Courts of Princes It concerneth Princes to be instructed Psal. 2. 10. Be wise now therefore ye Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth Few speak plainly and sincerely to them as Nathan to David 2 Sam. 12. 7. Thou art the man and God to David 2 Sam. 24. 13. Shall seven years
Father I have made known unto you 3. By our constancy in Prayer and earnest Supplication to know more of the Mind of God They will not be put off with other things God gave the Spirit to the rest of the Apostles but he gave the Purse to the Son of Perdition Men may have a fit of Devotion in their Prayers but their general Course is not answerable Matth. 6. 33. First seek the Kingdom of God if we seek it in good earnest we shall shew it in our Conversations and Demeanours Prov. 4. 7. Wisdome is the principal thing therefore get Wisdome and with all thy getting get Understanding This must be the chiefest thing that beareth sway in our Endeavours that we may know more of God's Mind in following our Suits uncessantly we must not be put off though God giveth other things you must not cease your Importunity Lord I expect something else from thy Goodness see Psalm 119. 132 133. Look upon me and be mercifull unto me as thou usest to doe to them that fear thy Name Order my steps in thy Word and let no Iniquity have dominion over me And Psalm 27. 7. Hear me O God when I cry with my voice have mercy upon me and answer me If we do not suffer this Desire to languish and die but still it be recommended to God daily my business is rightly to understand and perfectly to doe thy Will this is my one and great Request which I will ever and ever urge I cannot give over this Prayer till thou beest all in all and shewest me the utmost of thy Bounty We desire many things but we are soon put out of the humour as Children that seem passionately and pettishly to desire a thing but by presenting other things to them they are diverted and stilled but 't is not so with God's People As Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3. 18. For the man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this day So a Child of God will not be satisfied till his Desire be in some measure accomplished Secondly In what manner we should pray 1. With Earnestness slight Prayers bespeak their own denial Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. My Son if thou wilt receive my Words and hide my Commandments with thee So that thou incline thine ear to Wisdome and apply thine heart to Understanding yea if thou cryest after Knowledge and liftest up thy voice for Understanding If thou seekest her as Silver and searchest for her as for hid Treasures Then shalt thou understand the Fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God 2. With Confidence he is wont to doe it for you Ask nothing contrary to his Nature we should come with a confidence of speeding there is in him a propensity and inclination to help us What would ye doe to an hunger-bitten Child if he cometh to you for a Knife or an Apple you would deny him them but not Meat to satisfy his hunger If for Bread to play with or Meat when he hath enough you would deny him not gratify his Fancy if he come to be taught his Book you would readily hear him So when we come not for temporal Things but spiritual Comforts when spiritual Comforts are not asked out of course and for forms sake yea not onely for Comforts but necessary Grace to doe his Will surely it cannot be that he should cast off them that love him and would fain be conformed to his Will that come humbly and long and pray and seek for his Grace 3. That this Confidence must be Evangelical he sets before his Eyes God's Goodness or Readiness to be gracious to all that call upon him so that all the hope we have to prevail should not be taken from any thing in us but something in God himself We must expect and ask Blessings from God for God and because of God's sake it is not for any good we deserve or have done or can doe that God taketh care of his weak foolish Children but for the glory of his Name his Grace and constant Goodness God is our Fountain our Reasons are his Goodness our End his Glory This is the true way of addressing our selves to God deprecating Sins for which he may harden us and remembring his Mercies on which we ground our Hope So doth David Psalm 25. 5 6. Lead me in thy Truth teach me for thou art the God of my Salvation on thee do I wait all the day Remember O Lord thy loving kindnesses and thy Mercies for they have been ever of old His eternal Love is assigned as the cause of all Psalm 23. 3. He leadeth us in paths of Righteousness for his Names sake Thirdly What should be the Grounds and impelling Principle of Prayer 1. A strong bent to please God and that all your Affections and Actions may be ordered so as to be acceptable in his sight Those that stand in awe of God are loth to offend him they may expect Direction and Light in all difficult Cases Psalm 25. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose Vers. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant 2. A desire to injoy him for these things are valuable as they lead us to God Our solid Joy lieth not in outward things but in our Communion with God Psalm 139. 24. Lead me in the way everlasting And Psalm 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me by thy Counsel and afterward receive me to thy Glory Their Business is to be happy hereafter and well guided here that they may attain that Happiness Now there is an inseparable Connexion between our walking in the time of this Life and receiving into Heaven after this Life and he that is resolved to walk by the Rule of God's Direction may promise himself to be received into Glory after his Journey is ended So Psalm 43. 3. Send out thy Light and thy Truth to lead me to thy holy Hill They would fain take the nearest way to Heaven and follow God's Counsel in all things We have his Word continually to guide us in this way but we need also the assistance of his Spirit The promised Rest is much in their Eye and doth mightily prevail with them they would have God to be their Guide here that he may be their Rest hereafter SERMON LXXIX PSAL. CXIX 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes THE Context speaketh of Afflictions by occasion of Persecutions The Proud had forged a lie against him and involved him in many Troubles when in the mean time their heart was as fat as grease They wallowed in Ease and Pleasure but David kept right with God and yet his Afflictions do not cease God doth not presently take away Opposition because of our proud unhumbled unmortified Spirits though we hold fast our Integrity for the main therefore he comforteth himself in his
the most common Benefits of Creation to strengthen it self 2. God beareth much affection to Man as he is his Creature and the work of his Hands and the Saints plead it when they would be spared and when they would be saved As Iob 10. 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands So verse the 8th of that Chapter Thy hands have made me and fashioned me and yet thou dost destroy me The summe and effect of these Pleas is 'T is strange that God should despise his own Workmanship especially a piece of such Excellency as Man is Surely God is the readier to doe good to Man because he is the work of his Hands We see Artificers when they have made an excellent Work they are very chary and tender of it and will not destroy it and break it in pieces An instinct of Nature teacheth us to love that which is our own by natural Production so 't is an Argument moving the Lord to much Compassion to tell him that we are his Workmanship Isa. 64. 8 9. But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the Clay thou art our Potter we are all the work of thine hands Be not wroth with us very sore O Lord this raiseth in us some hope of speeding and prevailing with God The words of the Text are emphatical made and fashioned God hath bestowed much care upon us to make and fashion us and therefore he will pity us and spare us Iob 14. 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands All these places shew there is an Argument in it that may raise our Faith when other Arguments faile 3. Creation implieth some hope because God forsaketh none but those who forsake him first He might destroy us for our original Sin as we destroy Serpents of a venomous nature before they have actually done any harm though Man hath lost his Goodness God hath not Every one of us in person doth actually break with God before he breaketh with us 2 Chron. 15. 2. If ye forsake him he will forsake you 1 Chron. 28. 9. David telleth Solomon If thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever he will not acknowledge thee Take this rightly That God giveth Grace to any is his Goodness that to one more than another is his distinguishing and elective Love that he denieth Grace to any is long of themselves chargeable upon the Creature who abuse that common Grace which if improved might have made them better yea though all deserve to be denied the Grace of the Redeemer yet 't is not denied till after many wilfull Refusals and by gross Impenitency we turn the back upon God when we will not implore our Creatours Bounty but obstinately refuse it 4. Seeing God is our Creatour and the end of our Creation is to serve God we may the more confidently ask the Grace which is necessary to inable us to serve him that the same creating Mercy which layeth on the Obligation may help to discharge the Debt God is no Pharaoh to require Brick and give no Straw to appoint Work and not to provide Grace though he hath not absolutely promised to every individual Person converting Grace yet he hath appointed certain Means for the Ungodly which they are bound to use in order to Conversion and if we consider the goodness of God and the nature of those Means 't is a great incouragement Surely the assistances of Grace are always ready Matt. 22. 5. Come to the feast all things are ready None can tax him of backwardness So our Saviour taxes the Iews Matth. 23. 37. I would have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wing but you would not When did God ever faile the waiting Soul or put away the Creature that sought after Grace to serve him He is often beforehand with us never behindhand and we grossly and hainously forfeit all our Means and Helps before we lose them 5. There is incouragement to Faith à pari from the resemblance and likeness that is between his making us at first and his new-making of us in Iesus Christ. 'T is called a Creation Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 4. 24. The new man which after God is created c. 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts The Authour is the same God to whom it belongeth to create We have the humane Nature from him and can have it from no other much less can we have the divine Nature from any other but him Psalm 51. 5. or else we shall not have it at all 'T is not implanted in our Nature or attainable by any industry of ours 'T is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth Rom. 9. 16. but the immediate work of God 't is the work of his Omnipotency So dead and indisposed are we by nature to Holiness and Grace that no less than creating Power is required to work it in us Besides we were created freely without any merit of ours so we expect from the same Goodness such saving Knowledge as may change our Hearts there is this double incouragement there is God's Omnipotent Power and his free giving us his Image at first Rom. 4. 17. 6. If we consider the manner of pleading and the good frame of heart implied in the Pleader we may better understand the cogency of the Argument and though the Argument its self doth not necessarily infer the help of Grace yet the manner of pleading sheweth some preparative work of Grace and such meet the Lord in the stated order of Commerce between him and his Creatures and shall receive his Blessing And then the Argument will be strong in this Petition give understanding that I may learn thy Commandments here are many things implied such as are wrought by God in those to whom God will vouchsafe the Grace 1. An acknowledgment of the Debt that Man being God's Creature is obliged to serve him as he was not made by himself so not for himself and should no more cease from intending God as an End than he can cease from depending on God as a Principle Now 't is long ere we are brought to this you know how the Rebels are described and set out Psalm 12. 4. Our Tongues are our own who is Lord over us Now God hath gained one great end with us when we are sensible of our obligation to him and are brought to acknowledge the Debt and that Love Duty and Service we owe to him Wherefore doth God press Duty upon carnal Men who are no way competent or able to perform it Divines tell us to demand his right as a Creditor doth of a prodigal Debtour and to make us sensible that we stand bound to God in the debt of Obedience 2. Here is a Will to pay or an Heart set upon Service and Obedience for this is a Speech
That I might keep thy Word 6 This refraining must be from every sinful course The grace of Justification will teach this and the grace of Sanctification the grace of Justification that pardoneth all sin will teach us to deny all Tit. 2. 12. And the grace of Sanctification will teach us to deny not one but all for that introduceth a setled hatred against sin in the soul Now hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the whole kind he that hates one sin as sin hates all sin As Haman thought scorn to lay his hands upon Mordecai alone but sought to destroy all the seed of the Iews Esther 3. 6. So this hatred 't is universally carried out against all sin Indeed they do not mortifie any sin that do not mortifie every sin one lust remaining unmortifi'd it keeps the Devil's interest afoot in the soul. Pharaoh when the Israelites would have gone would fain have a pawn of their return their Flocks their Herds or their Children that they might be sure to come back again So Satan if a Man be touched in conscience and will bethink himself and look after Religion if he can get but a pawn a corner of the heart one sin he knows his interest is still kept Herod did many things but he had his Herodias and that held him fast and sure to Satan The young man had a sense of eternal life upon him Mat. 19. 22. and he did many things All these have I kept from my youth but he was worldly There are certain tender parts in the soul that are loth to be touched but now if we would be sincere with God we must refrain from every evil way Any one man entertained besides the Husband it breaks the Marriage Covenant any one sin allowed in the soul be it never so small it forfeits our priviledges by grace But now because particulars are more affective and do strike upon the soul with the more smart blow than generals briefly consider 1. We must refrain from every evil way not only notorious sins but those that are plausible and of more reputation in the world that are not so ranck in the nostrils of men and expose us to such disgrace and dishonor There are open sins that are found hateful that have a turpitude in them and bring shame Gal. 5. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The works of the flesh are manifest such as Murder Adultery gross oppression these are ranck weeds of an ill savor that stink in nature's nostrils and are accompanied with shame and disgrace To refrain from these is little thanks Luke 18. 11. The Pharisee wipes his hand of these I am not an Adulterer c. Ay but he was proud censorious and covetous there 's Pride Censoriousness Covetousness and Worldliness cloaked sins that are not of such disgrace in the world all these should be hated by you Many times those sins that are majoris infamioe of greater infamy they are not always majoris reatus they do not leave the greatest guilt upon you Unbelief it is not infamous in the World neglect of the Gospel of grace want of love to Christ Jesus these are great sins and therefore you must not only abstain from notorious sins but those which are more plausible and are not of such ill fame in the world 2. You must abstain from sins outward and inward Isa. 55. 7. The Sinner must not only forsake his way but his thought by his way is meant his outward course and practice but he must make conscience of his thoughts and secret workings of heart Practices may be over-rul'd by by-ends but thoughts and desires these are the genuine immediate motions and issues of the soul that do come immediately out of the Fountain and are restrained only by grace 3. Sin 's profitable and pleasant as well as those that have no such allurement and blandishment in them There are many sins that have nothing of allurement in them that are entertained only upon sin's account and evil custom as rash swearing blasphemy malice and the like But there are other sins that allure and entice the soul by the promise of profit and pleasure these two bastard goods that do make us often quit the good of honesty and duty Now you are to deny all ungodliness and worldly Lusts Tit. 2. 12. worldly Lusts what ever would endanger the soul all inordinate inclinations that carry you out to these things of pleasing the flesh and gratifying worldly interests 4. In refraining the feet from every evil way that is from sins against either table Rom. 1. 18. Mark God hath owned both tables not only revealed his wrath against ungodliness breaches of the first table but against unrighteousness breaches of the second table Many they indeed will not be unjust intemperate unkind to their neighbours I but they express no affection to God by worshipping him in their hearts by faith fear and love or in their houses by constant prayer morning and evening and secret and familiar in closet converses with God they are guilty of ungodliness though not of unrighteousness And there are many that would be much in worship in praying fasting and hearing but they forget their neighbours they are unrighteous they do not make Conscience in their dealings with men and in the duties of their relations are unfaithful many times to the great dishonour of God they do things Heathens would boggle at 5. There are great sins and small sins Many make not Conscience of small offences count these venial certainly he that would have a tender regard to God's Law no sin should seem little to him that is an offence to the great God It is Satan's custom by small sins to draw us to greater as the little sticks do set the great ones on fire and a wisp of straw enkindles a block of wood and by small sins we are enticed by Satan the the least sin allowed of is of a deadly and dangerous consequence Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments and teach men so It is treason to coin a penny as well as a pound To break the least of God's Commandements to make no Conscience of them because it is a small thing it argues a naughty heart Bodkins may wound and stab as well as swords Look as we read of the Prophet he was devoured of Lyons so we read of Herod he was eaten up by lice Small sins may be a very great mischief to the soul. Little sins are often the mother of great sins and the grand mother of great punishments and of plagues from God and therefore these lesser sins we must refrain from I kept my self from every evil way 6. We must not commit any thing that is evil out of a good intention if it be an evil but stand at a distance from it Do not turn aside to any crooked path upon any pretence soever Some have a good action but a bad aim now these do as it were make God serve the
natural and as kindly to the new nature to hate the chiefest evil as it is to love the chiefest good Do you talk of Love and Communion with God and never exercise your selves in refraining your feet from every evil way Certainly if you have any love to God you will hate that which God hates for Idem Velle Nolle to will and nill the same things that 's true friendship therefore if God be your friend you will hate as he hates that which makes a breach between you and God and makes you grow shie of God and lose your familiarity with him As love to God so love to his word Psal. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Certainly if a man hath a love to the Law he will not only hate sin in practice but vain thoughts what tends to breaking the Law in his thoughts any lesser contrariety contradiction or defiance of God's Law for our hatred is engaged by Love Well get this Love set it a work improve it by reason for every affection is fed by discourses of the mind All sins are set a work by some discourse so graces are set a work by discoursings of our minds Now set this Love a work O shall I that have tasted so much of the Love of God or that do pretend to love God and Christ and enjoy Communion with him yield to follow sin Ezra 9. 13. What after such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandment When God hath delivered us not only out of Babylon but you may say out of Hell how should we set Love a work The great instance of God's Love was the giving his Son 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. Herein is Love c. Now then if God hate and resist sin reason and argue from this Love what shall God give his Son for me and I not spare a lust for God when God did not stand upon his Son that was so dear and precious to him shall I stand upon my sin what shall Christ die for me to ransom me from hell is this my kindness to my Friend Cyprian brings in Satan pleading thus as vaunting against Christ. I never spilt one drop of blood my back was never mangled with whips and scourges I never had a Heaven to bestow upon them yet among all thy beneficiaries shew me any so busie painful diligent exact in thy service as these are in mine Thou hast shed thy blood and endured a painful and an accursed death for them yet they are not so dutiful to thee as to me You see whereto this tends and shall Christ do so much for us and we not deny our lusts for him Surely if we have any sense of the Love of Christ Jesus it will work this hatred this abhorrency and refraining our selves from every evil way Thus set Love a work 2. Another grace is a fear of God and his word A fear of God Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil Job 1. 1. Iob feared Gâ—…d and eschewed evil Surely a fear of God will make you refrain your selves from every evil way And not only so but a fear of his Word that 's useful Prov. 13. 12. He that feareth a Commandment shall be rewarded It is not said he that fears a Judgment but he that fears a Commandment If the Word stands in his way it is more than if all the inconveniences in the world stand in his way This also should be improved by holy reasoning and discourse you may reason as Ioseph the Lord seeth me and how can I do this wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39. 9. Shall I break the Lord's Laws before his face what when my heavenly Father hath forbidden me The Sons of Ionadab the Son of Rechab Ier. 34. 5 6. They were afraid to drink Wine when the Prophet brought pots before them no we dare not our Father hath commanded us the contrary Their Father was dead and could not take cognizance of their actions to call them to an account for breaking the rule of the Institution but there was an awe upon them but our Father his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth Therefore when you are tempted to sin and folly say I dare not God hath commanded me in his Word to the contrary Set fear a work here 's a commandment stands in my way the great God he sees all things and will one day call us to an account The two duties into which these graces do run and issue themselves are watchfulness and resistance Watchfulness we are poor creatures in the midst of Snares very easily may miscarry partly through our constitution there 's flesh as well as spirit and the flesh doth always stir and not lie idle Old sins that seemed to be laid asleep may easily waken again The Devil suits the bait to the season and affections we are under As Angels furnish their hook with a proper bait O! saith Bernard here are fears there snares that which pleases is apt to tempt me that which frightens is apt to terrifie me what should a poor creature do Be watchful stand upon your guard that you be not surprised by the craft of Satan that you may not swallow the hook when he sets the bait to your appetite And then powerful resistance of evil that sin may not prevail and we more and more drawn off from God Do not yield a little smaller sins make way for greater when the gap is once open it is wider and wider if sin be not stifled at first it will encrease SERMON CVIII PSAL. CXIX VER 102. I have not departed from thy Iudgments for thou hast taught me IN the former verse he had spoken of his vigilancy against evil as the result of that Wisdom which he got by the Word now he speaketh of his constant adherence to God's Direction Here you may take notice of two things 1. David's exactness and constancy in Obedience I have not departed from thy Iudgments 2. The Reason of it for thou hast taught me 1. Branch By Misphalim Judgments is meant God's Law for thereby he will judge the World And the Word departed not intimateth both his exactness and constancy His exactness that he did not go an hairs breadth from his direction Deut. 5. 32. Ye shall observe to do what the Lord your Godhath commanded you Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left And his constancy is employed in it for then we are said to depart from God and his Law when we fall off from him in Judgment and practice Ier 32. 40. 2. Branch God's Institution and continual instincts The Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence the Vulgar Legem posuisti mihi Thou hast given me that Law and so the reason would be drawn from God's Authority but rather 't is meant of his internal illumination and constant direction Observe 1. A man that would shew love to the Word must
Iosiah ran upon his own death by his own folly 2 Chron. 33. 22. 2. The resolution of his obedience that is renewed and promised upon obtaining of this mercy And there take notice First Of the accuracy of that obedience promised I will have respect unto thy Statutes Secondly The constancy of it Continually not for a moment only a few days in a pang or when the mercy is fresh and warm upon the heart but constantly without intermission without defection First Observe from the repeating of the same request Doctr. I. That sustaining Grace must be sought with all earnestness and importunity Uphold me before and now again hold thou me up and I shall be safe Reason 1. First They that have a due sense of things upon their hearts will do so that is to say that have a sense of their own weakness the evil of sin and the comfort of perseverance in obedience 1. That have a sense of their own weakness as David was touched with a sense of his own necessity therefore he repeats this prayer Hold thou me up and if David need to be held up what need have we If Pillars are not able to stand of themselves what shall Reeds do If Giants are overthrown and vanquish'd Children much more Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always How so With a fear of caution not a fear of distrust with a fear of reverence not with a fear of bondage otherwise it were a torture not a blessedness That man that is sensible of his own frailty is more blessed than other men why Because he will ever have recourse to God to set his power a work for the good of his Soul Rom. 11. 20. Be not high-minded but fear Though weakness be a misery yet a sense of it is a degree towards blessedness because it makes way for the great Christian Grace which is trust and dependance 2. They have a sense of the evil that is in the least sin This is the difference between a tender Conscience and a hard heart one is afraid to offend God in the least matter the other makes nothing of sin and so runneth into mischief Prov. 28. 14. Well then a man that hath a tender heart is loth to fall into the least sin he is ever drawing to God to be kept from all sin When we are earnest in this matter it is a sign we are sensible what an evil sin is Men that side with their own lusts and interests may wonder at the frequent requests of the Psalmist here establishment and preservation from sin But those that have a tender Conscience are like the eye soon offended and make it their business to keep it from offence they are thus sollicitous and earnest with God to be upheld 3. They are sensible of the good of perseverance in obedience There are two things here First Obedience is good the more we experiment it the more we would desire to keep it up in an even tenour of close walking with God without interruption without intermission God appeals to experience Micah 2. 7. Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly And when men wander they have this experience Am I a barren Wilderness Mic. 6. 3. O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me The more we find liberty sweetness and comfort in the ways of God the more we should desire to continue in them Secondly As obedience is good so perseverance in obedience is good for it strengthens Grace especially in an hour of temptation when many make defection The choicest discovery of good men is in bad times Noah was upright in his Generation Gen. 6. 9. to stand when others decline to be like Fish that keeps its freshness in salt water to hold fast there where Satan hath his Throne Rev. 2. 13. and to be faithful as is said of Iudah Hos. 11. 12. when Ephraim compassed me about with lies and the house of Israel with deceit It is a comfort and honour to persevere with God Reason 2. Secondly This sustaining Grace must be asked because God will shew his Sovereignty that it is not at our beck it must cost us waiting striving and earnest and renewed prayer 2 Cor. 12. 8. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice God will not answer at the first knock but at the third then God came in So Christ Matth. 26. 44. the third time he came and repeated the same thing then if you compare Luke he received his consolation by an Angel God doth not come at the first knock therefore we must pray again Uphold me Reason 3. Thirdly Without continued influences of Grace we cannot be safe therefore they must not be sought once and no more but daily As we seek daily Bread so we should seek daily Grace the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this day hath respect to all the petitions this day we must have our daily bread this day lead us not into temptation this day keep us from evil While temptations continue we must continue prayer Long suits though often denied may prevail at length In short the continuance of strength and assistance from God is necessary to preserve both habitual and actual Grace therefore they must be continually asked 1. To preserve habitual Grace the seed that remains in us We would wonder to see an Herb to thrive and grow in the midst of many Weeds so that Grace should be there where there is so much pride love of pleasure worldly care and bruitish lusts especially when any of these are set awork by temptations without The Angels and Adam fell when there was nothing within to work upon them but the mutability of their Nature so when there is so much within to work and temptations without it is hard to keep Grace in the Soul 2. For the quickning and actual stirrings of the Soul to good We should soon faint and tire in the ways that we have begun were it not for Gods sustaining Grace these sparks would quickly go out if God did not keep them alive 1 Chron. 29. 18. When the people were in a high point of willingness Lord keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people When we have gotten any good frame of spirit we cannot preserve it without this continual influence Reason 4. Renewed prayer is a means of persevering not only for it but by it God keeps us alive in the way of Grace as by the word so by prayer Praying in the Holy Ghost is one means of establishment Iude 20. Prayer is a solemn preaching to our selves or a serious warming of our souls in our duty in the sight of God now means of supports must be used not once but often There must be constant meals for the encrease of bodily strength If a man be never so strong yet he cannot always grow in strength by one meal there must be new refreshment so this
approbation and esteem of the Law of God in all the parts and points thereof I esteem all thy Precepts concerning all things to be right II. His hatred of all sin as contrary thereunto And I hate every false way the one as the effect of the other I. In the first Branch take notice of 1. the illative particle Therefore 2. His respect to the Word I esteem thy precepts to be right In the Septuagint 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was directed or set right unto all thy Laws But it maketh no difference in effect from our Translation for they that esteem the Law will embrace and practise it 3. The extent and universality of this respect there is a double universal particle All thy precepts concerning all things the general drift of them and every particular matter and circumstance that falleth under this Law 't is all right I approve of whatsoever thou commandest without any reservation and exception all even all have I approved 1. Something might be observed from the illative particle 't is inferred from their making void of Gods Law Doctr. In times of defection when others sleight contemn and forsake the ways of God we should approve and esteem them the more The Reasons are First To make amends for the contempt of others 2 Pet. 4. 14. On their parts he is evil spoken of on your part glorified Let not God want his Glory if he be dishonoured by their sins he should be the more honoured by your obedience It concerneth us to look that God be no loser As the Sea what it loseth in one place it gaineth in another or as a River what it loseth in breadth and is pent within narrow Channels it gets in depth So you should give him the more respect the more 't is denied him by others the sincere professors of the name of God should be the more earnest Secondly To shew that we do not chuse the ways of God upon foreign reasons as publick countenance and consent Many men owe their Religion not to Grace but to the favour of the times 't is in fashion they may profess it at a cheap rate because none contradict it Indeed it sheweth they are extreamly bad that are bad when they may be good without any loss to themselves but it doth not shew they are good that are only good in good times Dead Fish swim with the Stream They do not build upon the Rock but set up a Shed leaning to another Mans House which costs them nothing carried with a multitude are not able to go alone in a good way if they be religious 't is â—…or others sakes Then is integrity discovered when persons dare be good in bad times as Noah was said to be an upright man because he was perfect in his Generation Gen. 6. 9 When all flesh had corrupted their way And so 't is said Iob 7. 9. The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger that is when there are discouragements and oppressions as a resolved Traveller holdeth on his journey whether he meeteth with fair way or foul good weather or bad Thirdly There is an Antiperistasis in Grace as well as Nature Every quality when it is pent up is the stronger Stars shine brightest in the darkest Night Fountain-Water is hottest in Winter when the heat is pent up In bad times good men are best wicked mens badness exerciseth and encreaseth good men Graces The more odious sin appeareth in them the more Grace is strengthened in the Saints their looseness maketh you strict their vanity and carelesness maketh you serious their intemperance maketh you sober their worldliness and sensuality maketh you spiritual as they are instances of the cursed vigour of Nature you are instances of the sacred power of Grace Phil. 2. 15. shining as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation to be eminently holy among a company of Prophane Godless Atheistical Spirits shewing forth the lovely beauty of holiness Fourthly To shew the difference between the people of God and others and this as a fruit of Gods eternal choice God hath made a difference in the purposes of his Grace and they discover the difference in the course of their Conversations Iohn 17. 25. The world hath not known thee but these have known thee that thou hast sent me and hast chosen them out of the world The opposite ignorance and obstinacy of the world sheweth their acknowledgment of Christ was of more value and acceptation When the world neither knew nor believed on him but rather opposed and persecuted him they owned Christ and so walked in a countermotion to the times Fifthly To defeat the enemies purpose which is to hinder the success of the Gospel and destroy all affection and respect to the word and ways of God and that the service of God should fall to the ground As we hold a Staff the faster when one would wrest it out of our hands Tit. 1. 9. Holding fast the faithful word The Pastor of the Church should be good at holding and drawing as the word signifieth So peoples zeal should be the more kindled in the worst times God hath a number that do fear him Christ is never a King without Subjects nor a Head without a Church he ruleth in the midst of his enemies Psal. 110. 1. therefore he hath some to rule over Where Satans Throne is there he hath some to confess his Name Elijah thought himself left alone yet then God had reserved to himself seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal Use. 'T is very seasonable for us in these times to mind this therefore 1. That we may encrease in practical godliness Now wickedness is broken loose and the Law is made void this should not damp our zeal but quicken it You should walk with God as Noah and David did in the worst of times yea the badness of the Age you live in should make you the more wise more circumspect more humble more heavenly as fire burneth hottest in the coldest weather Study to serve God in thy Generation A man that is not good in the Age he liveth in would never be good A Lilly will thrive in a Wilderness and a Brier is but a Brier though it grow in Paradise Their fury in sin should warn you of your duty to God Shall a lust prevail more with them to damn themselves than the love of God and the hope of salvation with you shall they act more regularly to their ends What zeal and earnestness have they in their course and how open and bold-fac'd in sin We read That Pambo wept when he saw a Woman dressing her self curiously to please her wanton Lover to see her take so much pains to undo her soul and that he had not been so careful to please God and provide things honest in the sight of God as she to please her self 2. They are set up as
as absolute and sovereign Lord of all his own actions He works all things according to the counsel of his own will Ephes. 1. 11. and Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created As his wisdom saw fit so he hath placed Creatures in several ranks of Beings the Fish cannot complain that it was made without feet or hands nor the Ass that it was made for burthen that it is not fierce and mettlesome as the Horse which was made for battel And we men whatever was given us by Creation it was not a matter of right but the mere effect of Gods good will and pleasure He might have made us Stocks and Stones and not living Creatures and among living Creatures Plants only with the life of vegetation and growth Or if he had given us a sensitive life he might have placed us in the lowest rank he might have made us Toads or Vipers or Horse and Mule without understanding and not men And among men all the blessings and priviledges to which we were born might have been withheld without any injustice 2. He hath a right of using and disposing of them so made according to his own pleasure to appoint them to be high or low miserable and afflicted or prosperous and happy as it shall be for his Glory Rom. 11. 36. All things are of him and from him and to him to whom be glory As God made the Creatures for himself so he governs them ultimately terminatively for himself There is no cause of murmuring and repining when he will use us as he pleaseth for his own Glory Isai. 45. 9 10. We cannot say Why dost thou thus It is enough to silence all Tempests in our souls God did it Psal. 39. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Now this is true in the dispensations of Grace as well as in the blessings of this life to some God gives Grace to others not some are elected to mercy others left to perish in their own sins one is taken and another left Matth. 24. 40 41. There were two Thieves upon the Cross together with Christ God saves the one passeth by the other He may do with his own as he pleaseth He being Sovereign is obliged by no Debt of Law or the Command of any superior power and therefore-hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9. 18. Election is an act of Sovereignty and Dominion God might have left all in misery as he left the faln Angels none of them that sinned are recovered out of their misery and are we of a more noble consideration than the Angels than those Spirits One of them could have done God more service than many men could do therefore as he left all those Angels in their sinful condition so it 's a mercy that when he might have destroyed all mankind he would save any God could have given Iudas a soft heart as well as Peter but he does not He will be master of his own gifts Only this clears his Justice None are denied Grace but those that deserve it should be so none by God are compelled to sin none are punished without sin but in all his gifts and in what he doth as supreme Lord his will is his reason Secondly God may be considered as Governour and Judge and so he gave a Law to the Creatures and his governing Justice consists in giving all their due according to his Law This is to be distinguished from the former for God that is arbitrary in his gifts is not arbitrary in his judgments Observe that he is arbitrary in his gifts he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy but in his judgments he proceedeth with men according to their works according to a law or outward rule Of this governing Justice the Scripture often speaks Deut. 32. 4. He is a righteous God and all his ways are judgment So Psal. 7. 9. He will judge the world in righteousness and will minister judgment to the people Now this governing Justice of God is twofold either Legislative or Judicial First Gods Legislative Justice This determines mans duty and binds him to the performance thereof and also decrees and sets down the rewards and punishments that shall be due upon mans obedience or disobedience God made man rational or a voluntary Agent capable of good and evil with desires of the good and fears of the evil and therefore God as universal King that he might rule him according to his nature hath made for him a Law that revealeth good and evil with promises to move him by desire and hope of the good and with threatnings to drive him by a necessary fear of the evil So Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil It is true of the Law of Moses and it is true of the Gospel of Christ Jesus he deals With us this way that I may not make a distinction between the Law and the Gospel what 's the Law of the Gospel Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now this Law is the rule of mans duty and Gods dealings with all those that have received it Secondly There is his Judicial Justice called also distributive and this is that whereby he renders unto men according to their works whether they do good or evil without any respect to persons 1 Pet. 1. 17. Without respect of persons he judgeth according to every mans work The persons that may be respected in Judgment is some external thing that hath no affinity with the cause in hand Now when God comes to judge of the breach of his Law or the keeping of his Law he hath no respect of persons high or low rich or poor professing or not professing Christianity he deals with them as they have walked according to his Law His Judicial or distributive Justice is declared at large by the Apostle Rom. 2. 5 6 7 8 9. There Gods executing Judgment according to his Law is described and you find it twofold remunerative or vindictive First His remunerative or rewarding Justice It is just with God to reward our obedience and to give men what his promise hath made due to them It is true we cannot expect reward from God in strict righteousness or by the exact Laws of Commutative Justice and strict righteousness in this fallen estate as if there were an inward condignity of our works to that which God gives Oh no that is disclaimed by the Saints Psal. 103. 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities Psal. 143. 2. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified From any exuberancy of merit we cannot expect a reward from God but we may and ought to encourage our selves from his righteousness even that it is not an unrighteous thing with God to give us
mans holiness consists in loving God therefore his holiness need to be tryed whether it be a sincere love to God Psal. 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant There 's a tryal of love A man of strength seeks a fit Adversary to deal withal It is no tryal to a man of strength and courage that he can bear down a Child If we would try our strength fortitude sincerity and courage we had need be exposed to difficulty sometimes as the skill of a Pilot is seen in a Storm and Tempest and a valiant Souldier's in a Battel Verberat nos lacerat nos Iehovah patimur non est saevitia certamen est Sen. Doth the Lord scourge us doth he break us and tear us in all our concernments in pieces bear it it is not cruelty it is a tryal Religion must cost us something else it is worth nothing It will give you no comfort till it be tryed and therefore there 's a necessity that we should be tryed 4. Afflictions have their profit and use and conduce to our good Heb. 12. 11. It yields Grace and comfort to us it is the fruit of righteousness and the peaceable fruit of righteousness that is that righteousness which brings peace Outward troubles occasion an encrease of inward blessings Outward things are but shadows of better If God deny the shadow and give us the substance have we cause to murmure If God do deny the Picture but give the thing it self hath that man cause to complain If we have not abundance yet if we grow rich in faith rich in grace Iames 2. 5. we have no cause to repine against God Though we flow not in ease and plenty yet if we have a full tide of spiritual consolation if we have no respect in the world yet if we have the favour of God we have no reason to complain Levi had no portion among his Brethren but God was his portion So it is here good men have comfort and support at least in all their troubles they may be accounted miserable but they are not so especially if we consider that a great part of their goodness lies in their mortification and contempt of the world So that to a man that is as God would have him to be that which is a misery to others is none to him for his affections are weaned Therefore if we have an encrease of Grace and spiritual comfort we have no reason to quarrel against Gods Providence 5. Good men are but in part good and it is fit their carnal part should be chastised that while there are remainders of sin there should be some trouble that God should burn and cut here that he might spare hereafter that we should be judged of God and not condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. It is better that we should have our troubles than all our consolations here and nothing but Hell and misery in the world to come Use 1. Information If God be righteous then all that comes from him is righteous His word and his works Modus operandi sequitur modum essendi Righteous art thou O Lord and then Upright are thy judgments God acts according to his Being It is true a man may be just and yet all that proceeds from him may not always be just Why He is not essentially just but God being essentially just all that he does or says is just also A mans actions are one thing and his rule another A Carpenter that hath a Line without him may sometimes chop besides his Line but a man whose hand is his own Line can never chop amiss So a mans rule is without him his righteousness is one thing his nature another he may swerve and be just But God's act is his rule his righteousness is himself therefore whatever he does is just and righteous Men may be deceived but God deceiveth none and is deceived by none 1. His Word and every part of his Word is just it is in all things right commanding those things which natural Justice exacteth and forbidding those things which have a natural sinfulness and turpitude in them God is just and all his Judgments are just the way he hath set down for the justifying of Sinners and receiving them are just and righteous Rom. 3. 26. And the way he hath set down for the sanctifying of men to guide men in holiness it is a just Law Rom. 7. 12. The Commandment is holy just and good becoming such a pure nature to give and having nothing of exorbitancy or irregularity 2. The way God hath prescribed for saving such as follow this way of sanctification is just The righteous Judg will give a Crown of righteousness in that day 2 Tim. 4. 8. And the way for punishing such eternally as do despise eternal mercies is just they have received a just recompence of reward especially those that neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. Gods Law flows from his righteous nature and it is a Copy of his righteousness therefore it becometh those that confess God to be righteous to acknowledge his Laws such and to live according to them 3. His works God hath his Judgments for those that do not accept the way of righteousness prescribed by him Psal. 145. 17. The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works We are too busie in interpreting wrongs to others but when it lights upon us we do not acknowledge it Neh. 9. 33. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us c. Nay if thy hand be never so smart upon us Lord thou art righteous in all The only way to suppress murmuring and silence disputes and rebuke the Waves and Winds of discontent that toss the soul to and fro is to remember all Gods ways are just and true God taketh it ill when we question any of his works Are not my ways equal saith the Lord Ezek. 18. 25. When we thus acknowledge the dispensations of God to ourselves we may with profit observe them or others that we may applaud his proceedings Rev. 15. 3. Great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways O King of Saints So Rev. 19. 2. For true and righteous are his judgments for he hath judged the great Whore which did corrupt the Earth with her fornications There is no hurt done and they are confirmed in his promises and the rule set down in the Scripture not afflicted but on just grounds 'T is good to observe this in all his dispensations Use 2. If God be a righteous God and all his Judgments right this is terrour to wicked men that securely wallow in the pleasures of sin without remorse and trouble Go on in the way of your own hearts give satisfaction to your senses please your eye withhold not your heart from any comfort you delight in but remember for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment As cold water
what is to come yet fear of punish ment alone sheweth you are slaves and only love your selves the Devils fear and tremble but do not love You may fear a thing though you hate it So far as the heart is affected with the fear of Hell 't is good 3. There are very good and sound Principles yet do not always argue Grace as when duties are done out of the urgings of an enlightened Conscience this may be without the bent of a renewed heart but yet the principle is sound for the first thing that influenceth a man is to consider himself a Creature and so to look upon himself as bound to obey his Creator I shall illustrate it by the Apostles words in another case I must preach the Gospel and wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. 17. Whether I do it willingly or unwillingly yet a Dispensation is committed to me So saith the Soul whether I be fitted to do God service or no God must be obeyed but because Gods precept is invested with a Sanction of Threatnings and Rewards here comes in the fear of Hell and the hopes of heaven The Lord hath commanded me to fly from Hell this is a good principle So the hope of Heaven Heb. 11. 26. 't is a sound principle a man may be gracious or he may not Many have a liking to Heaven and Eternal Life as 't is a state of happiness not of likness to God where 't is not alone 't is a very sound principle but as 't is it may sometimes be the sign of a renewed man and sometimes not 4. There are rare and excellent Principles when we Act out of thankfulness to God when we consider the Lords goodness that might have required Duty out of meer Soveraignty he hath laid the Foundation of it in the bloud of his own Son 1 Ioh. 4. 29. When we love him out of the sense of his love to us in Christ And when the grace of God that hath appeared teacheth us to deny ungodliness Tit. 2. 11. when the Mercies of God melt us Rom. 12. 1. when there are no intreaties so powerful as that of Love Again another principle that is rare and excellent is when the Glory of God doth season us in our whole Course that it may be to the praise of his glorious grace 1 Cor. 10. 31. Another is Complacency in the Work for the Works sake When we love the Law because it is pure when I see it will ennoble me and make me like God when I love God and his wayes when nothing but so noble imployment doth ingage me to his service and service to God is the sweetest life in the World SERMON CLVIII PSALM CXIX VER 141. I am Small and Despised yet do I not forget thy Precepts HEre David proveth the Truth of his former Assertion that seeing the Word of God was so Pure he loved it for its own sake and that he did not Court Religion for the portion that he should have with it but for it self Some are meer Mercenaries no longer then they are bribed by some Worldly profit they have no respect for God and his Wayes The Man of God was of another Temper if God would bestow any thing on him well if not he would love his Word still yea when it brought him apparent Loss Meanness and Contempt yet this could not make any divorce between his Heart and the Word I am small and despised c. In the Words we have 1. David's Condition 2. David's Carriage under that Condition His Condition might have been a Snare to him yet still he keepeth up his Affection 1. His Condition is set forth by two Notions the one of which implyeth the other Gods Providence I am small God had reduced him to streights the other Mans Treatment of him and despised the one sheweth what he was really in himself the other what he was in the opinion of others Mean in himself and Contemptible in the eye of others The Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the younger and set at nought Therefore the Greek Interpreters suppose it relateth to the story when God bids Samuel to anoint one of the Sons of Iesse to be King and the elder Children were brought forth who were Taller and more likely too and they said of them surely the Lords Anointed is before him and when Samuel enquired for another they told him 1 Sam. 16. 7. That there remaineth the youngest and he keepeth sheep then when he was but an Youth and a despised stripling his heart was with God and God favoured him Or else they refer it to the time when Eliab his eldest Brother despised him 1 Sam. 17. 28. Others think this was verified when the Elders of Israel forsook him and clave to Absalom rather I think it generally to any Afflicted Condition when he was little in Estate and Reputation rather than in years elsewhere so is this word small taken Amos 7. 2 5. Iacob is small by whom shall he arise When his Condition was helpless and hopeless and Interest inconsiderable in the World So here I am small and despised I am looked upon as a man of no Value and Interest 2. Davids Carriage under this Condition Yet do I not forget thy Precepts First here is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 less is said more is intended I do earnestly remember them Again a man may be said to remember or forget two wayes Notionally or Affectively Notionally a man forgets when the Notions of things formerly known are quite vanished out of our Minds Affectively when though he retaineth the notions yet he is not answerably affected he doth not act suitably So 't is taken here and implyeth as much as I am stedfast in the profession of this Truth as they say in a like Case Psal. 44. 17. We have not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant not parted with any point of Truth or neglected and dispensed with any part of Duty Precepts is put for the whole word of God I do not forget thy Word the Comforts and Duties of it None do so far forget God and his Precepts as those that make defection from him The sum of all is My mean and despicable Condition doth not make a breach upon my Constancy but still I keep the Credit of being a Faithful Servant to thee His Temptation was double his Faithfulness had made him small God seemeth to forget us in our low Estate yet we should not forget him and had made him despised though we lose esteem with men by sticking to the Word of God yet the Word of God should lose no esteem with us Doctrine They that love God may be reduced to a Mean Low and Afflicted Condition I am small saith David The Lord seeth it meet for divers reasons 1. That they may know their happiness is not in this World and so the more long for Heaven and delight in Heavenly things Psal. 17. 14 15. From men
and God is too Fatherly to deny it to his Children You may deny an Apple to a wanton Child but you will not deny Bread to a fainting Child The bowels of a Father will not permit you to do that you may deny them superfluities in wisdom but your love will not permit you to deny them necessaries Meat is not so necessary to revive and refresh the Body as Grace for the Soul and his Holy Inspirations to act and guide you And will God deny these requests 7. Know when you have received Quickning Many Christians look for rapt and extatick Motions and so do not own the work of God when it hath passed upon them they under-rate their own Experiences and so cannot take notice of Gods Faithfulness Sense Appetite and Activity are the fruits of life and quickning 1. We have the more sense of indwelling Sin as an heavy Burthen Rom. 7. 24. None groan so sorely as those that are made partakers of a new Life Elementa non gravitant in suis locis a delicate Constitution is more sensible of pain Wicked Men scarce feel deep wounds given to their Conscience nor have any remorse for gross sins Gods Children their hearts smite them for the smallest disorders and irregularities 2. Appetite after Christ his Graces and Comforts 1 Pet. 2. 2. the more life any have the more craving of Food to maintain it in being they are always hungering and thirsting after God Matth. 5. 6. our Appetite will be after the things that conduce to the maintaining and preserving that being which they have If a man lose his Appetite the body pineth and languisheth and strength decayeth desire prepareth the soul to take in its supplies Your Life is in good plight when that is desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't will be a means of Spiritual growth a kindly appetite after this Milk They are under a great decay who have lost their Appetite after the Gospel 3. Activity in Duties That we may honour Christ 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. To whom coming as a living stone ye also as lively stones are built up into a spiritual House Christ liveth and we live by him as the stones in the building carry a proportion with the corner-stone So Christians as the body with the Head It must needs be so because of Gods Spirit dwelling in us Ezek. 36. 27. Ioh. 7. 37. and because of the Graces in a Christian Faith and Love Faith working by Love is the great evidence of the new Creature If Faith and Love be strong it will quicken us to do much for God the apprehension of Faith doth enliven our notions of God Christ Heaven and Hell Faith puts Life into our thoughts of him Love is a notable pleader and urger 2 Cor. 5. 14. The Love of Christ constraineth us c. Secondly The Reasons why c. 1. They that have so much to do with God do see a need of it for he is a living God and will be served in a lively manner Rom. 12. 11. Not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. They that serve the Lord Negatively must not be slothful in business Affirmatively fervent in spirit God will not be served negligently coldly but with Life and earnestness The twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instantly Act. 26. 7. Instantly serving God with the uttermost of their strength He that hath a Right to our all must have our best surely he will not be put off with every slight thing Now the Children of God that are sensible of this are earnest for quickning that they may serve God in such a way as becometh him with Life and Power and Zeal for the manner in every Duty is to be regarded as well as the matter A man may do many things that are good but there is no Life in what he doth He prayeth but without any life in Prayer dead in Prayer Heareth but no Life in Hearing dull of Hearing All things in a Christian may be counterfeited but Life cannot be counterfeited that cannot be painted 2. They are acquainted with themselves and observe the frame and posture of their own spirits Now they that know themselves will see a need of Quickning 1 Because of the instability and changeable frame of mans Heart it hardly stayeth long in the same state now 't is up and anon 't is down as the constant experience of the Saints witness Sometimes they have a forwardness and strong propension of Heart to that which is good at other times a lothness and dulness or unfitness to perform any spiritual service when their Will is more remiss and their Affections unbent 'T is not indeed the constant frame of their Hearts yet it is a disease incident to the Saints even good men may feel a slowness of Heart to comply with the will of God and some hanging off from Duty Spontancae lassitudines sunt signa imminentis morbi so is this laziness and backwardness of spirit a sign of some great spiritual distemper Sometimes they are carried with great largeness of Heart and full sail of Affections at other times they are in bonds and streights that they cannot pour out their Hearts before God Psal. 77. 4. I am sore troubled that I cannot speak sometimes they have great Life and Vigour at other times no such lively stirrings but are flat and cold and dead when with Sampson they think to go forth and shake themselves as at other times Iudges 16. 20. by sad Experience they find that their Locks are gone that their Understandings are lean sapless and their Affections cold and their Delight and Vigour lost Man is a sinful weak inconstant Creature his heart is as unstable as water and much of this levity and instability remaineth with us after Grace as is seen in the various postures of spirit that we are under 2 Because of the constant opposition of the Flesh. There is an opposite Principle in our Hearts Gal. 5. 17. The body of Death that dwelleth in us doth always resist the life of the Spirit in us and therefore God must renew the influences of his Grace to preserve Life There are desires against desires and delights against delights this must needs abate our Vigour The Spirit draweth one way the Flesh another 'T is drawing Iam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 'T is depressing Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Carnal Affections hang as a weight retarding us in our Heavenly flight and motions 'T is warring Rom. 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin And therefore the Lord had need to cherish the new Creature and good seed which cannot but be weakned with this opposition 3 Because our outward condition doth
535 Affections must be purged and quickned p. 532 Affections sensitive differ from the solid Complacency of the Soul p. 85 Affections when strong are very painful p. 121 Affections strong constant and earnest towards Gods Word a mark of a Child of God p. 121. 898. expressed by 1. Opening the mouth 2. Panting 3. Longiug p. 897 Affections spiritual their Objects End and Properties p. 121 122 Affections carnal to be avoided p. 566 Affection to Gods Word for its innate Goodness and Truth p. 623 Affections false and slashy p. 122 Affections not nullified but rectified by Grace p. 807 884 Affections of the mind usually expressed by Words proper to the bodily senses p. 671. 897 Affections follow apprehensions p. 685. 234 They are good or evil according to their objects p. 1006 Affections spiritual will take all occasions to Remember Gods Name p. 374 Four things about our affections considerable p. 252. 253 Afflictions God is always just in them p. 509. 510. Yet Patient and Moderate p. 510 511 Afflictions long and sharp usually attended with either 1. Impatience or 2. Revenge against instruments or 3. The using indirect means for redress or 4. Despondency or 5. Questioniug our Interest in God or 6. Atheistical and despairing Thoughts p. 555 556. 465. 835 836. 843 Afflictions sanctified advance holy Thoughts p. 526 Prayer p. 714. They are good in what respects p. 484 Afflictions may be long and grievous before deliverance comes p. 150 157. 537. 835. 711 712 713. Three Agents in the Afflictions of Gods People 1. God 2. Satan 3. Wicked men p. 537 538. In afflictions Gods end is to reduce us into the right way p. 463 464. To humble and purge us 711 712. 510 Afflictions of great use to the converted and unconverted p. 464 465. 510 Why God afflicts his Children so sorely p. 711 712 Afflictions their necessity p. 157. 591. 487. And Utility p. 461 462 463 464. 484. 711 712. Afflictions encrease our Comforts in Gods Word p. 888 Afflictions though great are alleviated by the Consolations of the Word p. 148 Choisest Saints have their afflictions p. 965 Afflictions are great Priviledges p. 424. 481 Afflictions work not for good of their own Nature but by the Spirit of God p. 465 466. 487 They should bring us to God by Prayer p. 968 Age one age sees more then another p. 650 Age brings wisdom by experience p. 650 Aged ought to be reverenced p. 654 Aggravation of sin to Vow and not perform it p. 704 Allow we must not allow our selves in the least sin p. 34 Aides of Grace either necessary or liberal p. 221 Alphonsus King of Arragon his Counsellours p. 148 Allurements and Terrors of the VVorld means to draw us from God p. 1031 All sufficiency of God encourageth 1. Our dependance on him 2. Our subjection to him p. 587 588 It makes him the Souls only portion p. 385 Ancients VVho p. 650 Anger wrath envy how they differ p. 520 Anger of God when discovered bespeaks Holy awe and dread p. 808 Anger at the Violation of Gods Law a Note of true Zeal p. 853 Anger and hatred of Sin how they differ p. 878 Anger against the sin and pity to the sinner shews a well tempered zeal p. 931 Anger and Passion in discourse renders it evil p. 1064 Anguish of Spirit even in gracious souls caused by great Troubles partly from Nature Partly from Grace p. 884 Answers of Prayers to be duly observed p. 168 and why Reasons ibid. p. 905 906 907 Answer of Prayer either in kind or value p. 169 167. 908 909 Gods Children are earnest for answers of Prayer p. 905 Answer of a good Conscience what it signifies p. 699. Answer of Prayer neglected proceeds from either 1. Heedlessness 2. Atheism 3. Distrust 4. Disesteem of Gods favour p. 906 Great evil effects of such neglect p. 906 907 Antecedency of Gods work before Mans work p. 221 Antinomians who deny the Law to be a Rule p. 4 Antiperistasis in grace as well as Nature p. 871 Antiquity should not sway against Truth p. 650 Apostacy one ground of it the not Receiving the Truth in the love of it p. 67. Vid. Distrust As also from our inbred Corruption p. 803 Dissuasives against Apostacy p. 871. 341 342 Evil consequences of Apostacy p. 210. 342. Apostacy is bestial and brutish p. 1100 Apostacy caused from 1. Errors 2. Persecutions 3. Scandals p. 343. Vid. Back-sliding Defection Appeal to God on a double account p. 522 No appeal from Gods Judgement p. 38 Many pretend to serve God that cannot appeal to him p. 306 Appetite follows life and holy desires spring from a new Nature p. 304 Application of mercy personally called coming to God p. 517 Application of the Word by Faith p. 768 Application of Providence to their own selves a mark of Gods Children p. 811 Application of Gods mercies to our own souls p. 318. 517 Effectual application of mercy p. 517 Approbation of God a great Comfort under reproach p. 301 Approbation of Gods Law by the sanctified Judgment p. 34. 752 Means to bring our hearts to approve Gods Law p. 877 Approbation of purity without chusing it is not sufficient p. 861. 708. 223 Approbation of that in our selves which we condemn in others an evil character p. 3 Arbitrary God is so in gifts not in Judgments p. 934 Arts and Sciences not comparable to Gods word for the obtaining of true VVisdom p. 650 Arrogance in discourses odious to God p. 1064 Ascribe all to God p. 43. 552 Arguments to prevail with God 1. From his mercy 2. His Truth p. 941 Ask Gods Counsel his Leave and Blessing p. 31 Ask of God saving knowledge of Divine things p. 895 Grounds of it ibid. How Temporal deliverance is to be asked p. 923 Ashamed of God Christ and his Gospel Reasons of it Arguments against it p. 311 Assaults of Satan make assisting grace necessary p. 780 Assurance strengthned by perseverance p. 342 Astray the best of Saints apt to go astray p. 1102 Reasons 1. Present imperfection 2. Remainders of Corruption p. 1102 1103. Not totally and finally p. 1106 Assistance of God necessary to preserve both habitual and actual grace p. 789 Attributes of God in a Conflict about sinners p. 320 Atheistical persons are great deriders of Saints for 1. Their Faith 2. Obedience p. 336 Atheism to observe Gods signal Judgements on the wicked a Cure of it p. 798 A man may have Atheism enough to question Providences when ther 's Faith enough to justifie God p. 836 Avenger God is the Avenger of breach of Vows Oaths and Covenants p. 704. 705. Averseness of the heart from God a Cause of the delaying of Repentance p. 408 Averseness of Heart in coming to God makes us need not only leave to come but power to come p. 953 Audience of God how manifested how procured p. 166 St. Augustines Prayer about the Scriptures That he might neither be deceived in them nor deceive others by