complaints call on God to lay more on folk to tame them better O! be sober and if ye be put in a Babel see if ye can build houses there and make your pressures as supportable as lawfully ye may without sin make them not intolerable for that is to break your back but see how tolerable ye can make them without sinning against God that ye may dwell beside your cross with silence and submission who wots but ere many days go over ye may meet with an out-gate But 2. As variety of pressures are supposed here so it expresses plenty of Redemption in God for all that variety time will not permit me to break in on that other thing that this plenteous Redemption relates to the recurring of pressures how frequently the people of God may fall under repeated pressures and may be ofter than once pressed but here for variety of pressures there is plenteous redemption He will deliver in six troubles and in seven Job 5.19 If they be assaulted on the right and left hand there is armour of righteousness for both 2 Cor. 6.7 If they be troubled on every side he can keep them from being distressed if perplexed they shall not despair c 1 Cor. 4.8 If they be troubled on every side have fightings without and fears within God that comforts those that are cast down can comfort them 2 Cor. 7.8 When thou sits down and cannot tell all thy pressures and are like a weak patient who when his wounds are opened up swerfs thy heart grows sick and thou faints He is all sufficient to afford Cordials for thy support thou cannot have so many wants but he can supply them And as the old man said to the Levit Judges 19.20 All thy wants shall be upon him Thou cannot be straitned in God though through the narrowness of thy confidence thou may be straitned in thy own bowels for with him is plenteous redemption Think upon this ye that have to do with it ye that in your pressures are left on God alone bring up a good report on him cry not up your wants above his furniture cry not up your griefs above his consolations which cannot be exhausted this would make folks life not so comfortless as oft times they make it to themselves while they cry out What will they do with this and with that it 〈◊〉 come in their way If indeed such a thing be before thee we may say as it was said to Jeremy Jer. 12 5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how can thou contend with horses If thy few pressures have laid thee by What wilt thou do with more and greater If in the land of peace wherein thou trusted they have wearied thee I shall not say thou wilt have that atheistical word What caâ— God do But what wilt thou do if it come to the swellings of Jordan But if thou keep thy eye and heart on that word With God is plenteous redemption and then ask what shall I do with my troubles I say even bear them go to God and get much from him to bear them many proofs of his power and love his all sufficiency is infinite to bear thee thorow and bod well of him and have well look down on the greatest number of pressures as tolerable in his strength I love not carnal confidence but God loves not drooping or that folk should go discouraged to their work though humble they should be They that go drooping to their work will come halting from it but though a solemn assembly of terrors should surround you hold your eye oâ— plenteous redemption in God and it shall be well with you God bless his word to you for Christ's sake SERMON XLIII Psalm 130. Verse 7. And with him is plenteous redemption And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities AS there is no searching out of the Almighty to perfection as to what he is in himself for he is higher than the Heavens as it is said of his Wisdom and deeper than the Earth So that what can we do or know Job 11.7 8. So we are as little able to comprehend or fathom all that is in him for the good of his people and what wonder when over and above all particular Promises he hath given himself away to be their God hath made infinitness their portion Here we have a taste of what riches are in him for the behove of his people That for misery in Israel with the Lord there is mercy that for bondage and slavery in Israel with him is plenteous redemption And for the particular bondage and pressure of sin He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities I have already said somewhat to that attribute of mercy in God and the last day I came to a close of this That with him is plenteous redemption ye heard that this redemption imports partly authority to interpoâ—â— and partly power to back authority to vindicat his people Ye heard also that it was called redemption on a threefold account 1. On the account of its rise and fountain that every redemption and delivery the people of God get is founded on and is the result of their great Redemption by Christ 2. It is so called with an eye to the trouble and troublers from which he redeems his Israel but without money 3. That it is so called upon the account of the issue when the Lord delivers his people he sets them at freedom and liberty he sets their feet in a large place as it is Psal 18.19 I came also to speak of the plenteousness of this Redemption The Text says that not only there is redemption but plenteous redemption with him and as I shewed it is called plenteous redemption on a double account 1. In relation to the great plenty and variety of pressures wherewith the people of God may be assaulted on the right and on the left hand with fightings without and fears within and as the Church hath it Lam. 2.22 They may have their terrors called as in a solemn day round about them but in reference to all these he hath plenteous redemption to deliver from six troubles and from seven to put on the armour of righteousness when they are assaulted on the right hand and on the left when they are troubled on every side to keep them from being distressed When perplexed to keep them from despair c. 2 Cor. 4.8 Of this I have spoken and shall not repeat It remains in the 2d place That I speak to this plenteous Redemption as it relates to the frequent relapses of the people of God into bondage through their folly after the Lord hath brought them out of former pressures they betray themselves and bring themselves under new pressures they fall in new provocations that bring them in new difficulties which puts them again and again to look up to redemption in God I shall follow out this a little in three heads 1. It is
a testimony of their reading of it what a monstruous neglect is it 2. Consider that it is a mean of God's Converse with us There is a double mean of intercourse and converse betwixt God and us on our part we converse with him by Prayer by sending up our beggar supplications to Him we traffick with Heaven by our necessities vented in Prayer to God upon the one hand and upon the other hand it is by these Scriptures that God corresponds visibly with us and sends messages to us Hence I infer and look to it That neglecters to converse with the Scripture not only obstruct God's intercourse and provocks him to give up correspondence with them in his Word nay his dwelling in them for Joh. 15.7 Speaking of his abiding in us and we in him he says If ye abide in me and my words in you he in stead of putting in his abiding puts in his words abiding in us because it is by his word he abides in us But I say it is to be feared that neglecters of converse with the Scripture not only obstruct God's correspondence with and dwelling in them but that they also cut short the converse on their side with Heaven by needy Prayer Let them never say that they are serious in Prayer that neglect to read the Scriptures though a man may read much that prays not for these are not reciprocal yet he can never be serious in prayer that reads none he must be a delighter in the Scripture that converses with God by prayer if then ye neglect reading ye not only obstruct Gods intercourse with you but yours with him And I shall add in the 3d. place there is not a more infallible mark of Grace and Regeneration nor to be much acquaint and conversant with the Scripture delighting therein and feeding thereon I shall not urge that natural Axiom iisdem nutrimur ex quibus constamus we are nourished of the same things we are made of but I shall give it you in Scripture terms Compare these two 1 Pet. 1.23 and 2.2 â—n the one passage it is said Ye are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever In the other passage as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby If a man be begotten and born by the word he will desire the sincere milk of the Word that he may grow and be nourished by it and in this I may allude to that of David Psal 119.93 I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickened me A man that hath found the Word powerful pulling him from Nature to Grace from the power of Sathan to God will not forget it but must be conversant with it And I shall add in the fourth place as the frequent use of the Scripture is a blessed proof of Regeneration so it is an evidence of a tender man The untender man takes advice from any thing that may bring him pleasure advantage or preferment and accordingly steers his course but the tender man must have directions from the Word else he will not stir in any thing he far transcends these Grecians who being at their Sacrifice would not stir from it though the enemy approached and killed some and wounded others till they got some good signs and then they got up and went to it So the tender man in all his cases and difficulties will take his directions from the Bible and then he goes to it for his encouragements and hence Psal 1.2 The blest man is he who delights in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth meditat day and night He must not want his Bible what ever he want and that is a tender man who like David in a distress must encourage himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 or else he will not be encouraged There is a 5th thing that presses this duty of conversing with the Scripture and it is the thing in hand the godly man hath so many needs that he must not want the Bible to make up and supply them he is put to fend by Faith and Hope and Faith and Hope must not want the Scriptures the ground of both there is no pasture for Faith and Hope but the Scripture Therefore the godly man must be conversant with it he must have his all in God and must study to know the mind of God that he may please him in all things The godly man is called to live by Faith and must know what Faith hath to feed on and this puts him to converse with Scripture As I said before The Bible is the Charter of his Inheritance the Rule that he must walk by his Elder Brother's Testament the Compass he must steer his course by in storms his Magazine for weapons and furniture his Touch-stone that he must try all Duties and Comforts by in all these and many mo he hath need of the Bible and therefore if his grace be in exercise he must be much conversant with it I shall not fall on any of the other Heads but exhort you while ye have the light to walk in the light and while ye walk in the light make use of the Bible let this Word not be sown in the wind but let it be as a good and a nail fastened by the Masters of Assemblies Acquaint your selves with the Bible through and through read it and depend on God for the blessing delight in it meditatâ—on it hereby ye shall evidence your esteem of it as most excellent above all other Books Hereby ye shall evidence your esteem of and converse with God your Regeneration and walk with God that ye dwell in God and have your all in him and that ye rest on what he has spoken in the Scriptures for making up all your wants God bless his Word to you for Christs sake SERMON XXVII Psalm 130. Verse 5. And in his Word do I hope WAiting for God being as ye have heard it the excellent yet difficult and trying task of the Saints surely they stand in great need to be well beam-fiâ—led and stocked that would engage in such an undertaking lest they weary of waiting on God and row to some other shore and this is it that the Psalmist here is from his own experience and practice directing us in after that he hath in the first place asserted his waiting and next his waiting for the Lord. And 3. That his waiting is not degenerat in a careless indifferency and stupidity but however he did cast out bitterness haste and fretfulness out of his waiting yet it did not cool his affection was not blunted for his soul did wait after that I say he proceeds to give an account of his support in waiting my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope he tells that it was Faith and hope that enabled and supported him to wait for God Ye may remember that the first
on stroaks from which folks will not easily come to be delivered O how oft may we write that over ill improved pressures which ye have Psal 81.13 O that my people had hearkened to me and Israel had walked in my ways I would soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries And Isai 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandment then had thy peace been as a river c. It must be otherwayes with pressed saints than it is with others It is a sin and a shame that so many ruines are under saints hands not improved but a double sin shame that they should increase under their hand and an evidence they have not been improved But a 3d word most directly from what I have spoken on this branch is this That if every delivery be a redemption and enlargement Then it calls the people of God to be comforted and enlarged under every mercy and proof of love how mean soever it be The Lord who calls men in the day of adversity to consider calls them in the day of prosperity to be comforted and joyful in any measure of redemption that they meet with Eccl. 7.14 And it 's marked by Nehemiah and others when God had brought Israel into the land of Canaan and gave them abundance of good things they delighted themselves in his great goodness Neh. 9.25 a practice very rare among God's people proofs of love particular redemption trists them which calls them to rejoyce in God and his goodness and yet they are where they were when they got them their mercies are little seen upon them by any enlargements given them and what wonder therefore that mercies be withholden from them who cannot be worse with the want of them than when they have them they droop when they have and they droop when they want the having of them is no enlargement to them and this they mourn not for as a sin they are better at picking quarrels at them than at being thankful for them which speaks a proud unsubdued selfie disposition I shall not stand to discuss the shifts and pretexts that folks make use of in their byasses in setting no value on Redemptions bestowed on them many a time their own spirit is a spirit of bondage when God allows on them a spirit of liberty It is not the want of allowances from God but the want of enlargement of heart a slavish servil disposition that makes a spirit of bondage when it is not Gods allowance Sometime they pretend the smalness of the mercy to undervalue it when they rather proclaim the want of humility in themselves The humbled Church Lam. 3.22 Under many pressures sees That it is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed if our mercies be compared with our lustings or deservings they will be great and admirable mercies And sometimes the cloud of continued pressures hides the sight of partial Redemptions but certainly every evidence of mercy remembred in wrath is a redemption and should be delighted in and our heart should be enlarged in receiving it as such in a word it is an evidence of a blest disposition when whatever be folks lots they love not to cast out with God they love not to fish faults with his Providence to miscal a mean mercy how insignificant soever it be to their sense and when they are content to pick up their mercies amongst the crouds of their crosses that these shall not tempt them not to be comforted in the meanest mercy and who knows but such a frame if it were studied might prove a door of hope to the increase and growth of favours they that delight to commend mercies shall find them grow Now I have done with the accounts on which deliveries are called Redemptions In the third place it remains that I should speak a little to the plentifulness of these redemptions With him there is plenteous redemption Ye heard the last day when I was speaking of the mercy of God That God is full of compassion and plenteous in mercy Psal 86.5 15. That he has manifold mercies Neh. 9.19 and that he is abundant in goodness Exod. 34.6 Here He is plenteous in redemption and this hath relation to these two 1. To the variety of the pressures the saints may be assaulted with for plenteous redemption speaks plentiful pressures 2. To the recurring of these pressures that when folk are brought out of them they fall in them again through their own folly There is plenteous redemption with God in relation to both For the first The variety of pressures wherewith saints may be assaulted There is somewhat 1. Supposed here That not only the Israel of God may have pressures but a variety a great many of them Hence Eliphaz Job 5.19 Supposing Job a penitent says God should deliver him in six troubles and in seven a number of perfection 2 Cor. 4.8 The Apostle says we are troubled on every side and Ch. 6.7 He tells There is need of the armour of righteousness both on the right and left hand there is no hand we can turn us to would he say but there is need of armour Chap. 7.5 Troubled on every side without are fightings and within were fears and in a word the Church tells us Lam. 2.22 That God had called as in a solemn day her terrors round about her in the day of Gods anger no pressure was wanting and there was a convention of them 1. Hence from this that variety of pressures are the lot of the people of God it doth on the one hand point out that they are ill to tame ill to hold like a wild ass snuffing up the wind it is not easie sisting them except they be hedged in on all hands hard wedges tells there are hard stone or timber to be divided and they who have many pressures may sit down and lament over their dispositions that less would not do their turn many might steal more quietly in to heaven were it not for their dispositions that are so wild and ill to be tamed Though yet I shall add the more pressures thou hast if thou could improve them well thou has the more doors open for mercy and occasions to get meat out of the eater 2. From it I would have many folks learning to silence their murmuring and complaining many have learned a gad of crying ere they be toucht there be many who though there be pressures be such as many of the people of God would count an outgate yet there is no biding of their complaining O! what would many of you do if ye were put in Job's case who in one day was stript of all that he had and the next day of his health and quietness of mind and yet he was born through it is a great evidence of mortification to be enabled to bear pressures well to make little din of grievances much din and crying under them tells there are many boyls to be let out and many
the second main Point to encourage Irsael to hope in God that with him is plenteous redemption I proceed now to the 3d Observation that at the entry to these words I proposed to be spoken to That what God is or what is in God is put forth by God for the behove of his people according as they need it I gather this from the connexion of the two Verses with God there is merey and with him there is plenteous redemption and what follows And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity If he have mercy to compassionat them in their misery and if he have authority and power to vindicate them from bondage it shall be seen in their actual deliverance The point is plain and obvious Gods all-sufficiency his furniture for the need of his people shall not be wanting but put forth actually as he sees good for the behove of his people If he have plenteous redemption he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Hence it is that in Scripture we have not only an account of furniture in God if I may so word it for his people That with him is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and of promises wherein God engages himself to put forth that furniture for their behove but the Scripture gives an account of his actual putting forth that mercy and power for them Jer. 31.10 There are news to be sent and publish'd in the Isles afar off and what is that He that scattered Israel will gather them and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock and what more For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he It 's spoken of as a thing done and on this account David in his Prayer promises himself a good day Psal 35.9 My soul shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoice in his salvation all my bones shall say alluding to that Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice who is like unto thee that delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him yea the poor and the needy from him that spoils him I am would he say looking for a Song when not so much as a broken bone shall be dumb but all shall get a voice to sing praise for actual redemption I shall not need to stand to prove this from the all-sufficiency of God from his love and affection to his people and from his fidelity that cannot lie Nor will I break in on the particular inferences of this point now Only in general be not vexed take it not ill though ye be put to and kept at a task to keep a good report in your hearts of God when temptation says as Psal 77.7 8 9. The Lord hath cast off for ever and will be favourable no more his mercy is clean gone c. When temptation says what means this and that in my case If all this mercy and redemption be with God and thou may then have a hard steek of work to keep up a good report of him when so many Hell Fire-brands are going thick and three-fold Be encouraged and comforted in this that a day comes when actual redemption shall take all these off thy hand and thou shalt not have it to say only That with God is redemption in opposition to thy troubles but he hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he Be comforted in this ye that are engaged in a task to keep up a good report of God against prejudices The time is coming when he will leave you little to say to his commendation when he shall come and relieve you and make actual redemption give the lie to all mistakes and prejudices whatsoever SERMON XLIV Psalm 130. Vers 8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities I Am now ye see towards the close of this Psalm which hath detained me so long upon the account of the riches and universal usefulness of the matter therein contained Ye may remember that after that Exhortation to Israel to hope in the Lord I came to the motives encouraging them so to do wherein somewhat was spoken to what is supponed concerning the Israel of God called to hope and allowed to hope in God that they are under the sense of misery needing mercy and under the sense of bondage needing plenteous redemption and in particular under the sense of the bondage of sin putting them in need to be redeemed from all their iniquities and in speaking to what is proposed for the encouragment of such to hope in God I hinted somewhat concerning these two great truths That with God there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption You may remember that I told you there be two words further to be gathered from this 8. v. One is that what is in or with God it shall be put forth for the behove of his people as they have need he shall redeem Israel and another is That it 's in particular Israels great mercy that God shall be a Redeemer to him from all his iniquities For the first of these I brake in on it on the close of the mornings Exercise that what is in or with God shall be put forth for the behove of his people as they need it and they shall find it made forth-coming to them as they need it for if there be with him plenteous redemption he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities I left at a general word of Use from this That we should not take it ill to be kept at a task of bringing up a good report on God against all prejudices and whatsoever temptation suggests of him for the time is coming which the Lord will hasten in his time that he will leave us little to say to his commendation his own performances will say so much and declare him to be exalted above all blessing and praise The time is coming that they shall not think shame of it that if we may so word it have spoken good of him behind his back and would not take a report of him but from his Bible But to follow out this a little for the comfort of them that are looking for the accomplishment of what is in or with God for the behove of his people I shall lead you to a fourfold direction in order to this and endeavour to put a close to this Scripture The first direction is this That ye would study to be well acquaint with the Word to be well acquaint with what God hath declared is in him for his people The Bible should be a well-finger'd Book in gloomy times David knew well what he was doing when he made the Statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage and the reason why I press this acquaintance with the Word is to help you to prevent a double hazard there is on the one hand the hazard of ignorance