zealous was Paul in desiring this for the Jews We read of a notable expression Epist 3. of John ver 2. There he wisheth Gaius as much health to his body as he had in soul How excellent was his soul that was in better condition than his body SERM. XXIII Of the Name Nature and Preheminence of the Grace of God above all other things 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace c. THe next thing considerable in these words are the particular mercies prayed for in this Salutation The first whereof and that which is the efficient cause of all other things is Grace The Common-place in Divinity De Gratia Dei of the grace of God is of a very vast extent and most of the Popish Arminian and Socinian errours arise from the mistake of the use of this word in the Scripture but it would be impertinent to grasp that whole controversie I shall not treat any more of it then what may relate to this Text. We may therefore briefly take notice of the use of it to our purpose That the first and most principal signification of it is the favour and mercy of God towards us for it answereth the Hebrew word Chen which comes of a root that signifieth to have mercy So that when the Scripture faith We are justified by grace we are called by grace we are saved by grace The Popish party doth grosly erre taking grace there for something in us wrought by the Spirit of God whereas it is indeed without us even the Attribute of mercy and grace in God So that the meaning is We obtain such glorious priviledges not because of any thing in our selves though never so holy but because of the meer grace and favour of God without us Grace then in the most frequent and principal signification of it denoteth the favour and goodness of God But then In the second place It is used sometimes for the Effects of this Grace For as mercy is sometimes taken for the attribute in God and sometimes for the effects of it So likewise is grace Hence it is that Gods grace is sometimes put for the Gospel and the preaching of the Word This being meerly from his grace that he vouchsafeth such a mercy to his people Act. 20. 24. Tit. 2. 11. Sometimes it is taken for the good success and special assistance that God giveth unto the preachers of it Act. 14. 26. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Yet not I but the grace of God viz. assisting and giving success to my ministerial labours Again It 's applied to those common gifts of Gods Spirit which were so wonderfully vouchsafed in those dayes To speak with tongues to work miracles these are called the grace of God though some would distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 10. Yea the very function and offices in the Church are called Gods Grace as Paul did his Apostleship Rom. 1. 5. because it's the meer grace of God that hath appointed such Offices in the Church Lastly That which the Roman Church makes the more ordinary sence that indeed is sometimes but seldom to be found in Scripture viz. to signifie those habits and principles of holiness which are with in us There are some indeed who say The Scripture never useth the word Grace in this sense but some places seem to be clear Col. 3. 16. Col. 4. 6. Heb. 13. 9. 2 Pet. 3. 18. And therefore we may truly call that work of God in us Grace so that we do not make it to justifie or save for that is the grace of God without us Observe That the grace of God is to be desired by every one in the chiefest and first place This we should earnestly pray for that whatsoever God would deny us yet that he would give us his grace and favour We are I say to desire it not only above all temporal and earthly comforts above riches honours and long life but even above the sanctification and holiness of our souls which God worketh We are to desire his grace more than grace in our own hearts for this is the effect of that and this alone being imperfect in us could not justifie or save us Let us discover this rich treasure of Gods grace though the Apostle Ephes 2. 5. calls it The exceeding riches of his grace so that we can never speak to the full of it though we had the tongue of men and Angels still there is more in the grace of God than we are able to fathom We must therefore speak and understand as children about it till in Heaven this imperfection be done away And First We must know that God hath several attributes tending to the same thing yet do not ionally differ There is his Goodness whereby he is willing to communicate of his fulness to the creature Thus he was good to Adam making him so glorious a creature There is his Mercy and that is whereby he pitieth his creature being cast into misery There is also his Patience and Long-suffering which is extended to sinners that do for a long time rebell against him when he could if he pleased destroy them every moment in hell And lastly here is this property of Grace whereby he is called a gracious God And this the Scripture doth speak of as the most glorious and comfortable attribute and that doth imply these things 1. That whatsoever good God doth bestow upon us it cometh solely and originally from his meer bounty and good pleasure So that there is nothing in us that may in the least manner either merit with God or move him to be thus gracious So that we can never hear of this word Grace but it should presently humble and debase us it should make us condemn our selves and give all to God For if it be of grace than there was no motive in us God out of his own bowels doth this for us Rom. 1. 5 6. The Apostle speaketh very fully to this If of grace than it is not of works otherwise grace is no more grace So that to acknowledge the grace of God as Pelagians were forced to do and so Papists and Arminians do yet at last to divide between grace and our selves to make us co-workers with it yea to make it effectual this is to take all away really that we had given verbally before So that if it be Gods grace we must not give so much as the least sigh and desire to our selves all cometh meerly from the good pleasure of his own will 2. Grace doth not only thus imply a pure and only original from God himself excluding us but it supposeth also a manifest unworthiness in us and a contrary desert to what God bestoweth upon us Therefore grace in the Scripture language supposeth sinfulness in us that we deserve to be abhorred and cast out of Gods presence Hence justification and pardon of sinne are attributed to the grace of God
although we are to presse after perfection in this grace as well as any other yet none can attain to such a constant setled and fixed frame of heart in trusting in God that in no temptation or at no time he should ever be moved and cast down with diffidence Who can express greater trust in God than David doth at sometimes yea would think this mountain can never be moved as Psal 112. 7. which indeed is spoken of every godly man He will not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 56. 3. at what time I was afraid I will trust in thee Yea in many Psalms did he so farre proclaim his confidence in God that by the event it seemeth that this did regenerate into self-trusting for which God did for sake him sometimes and leave him in darkness But as confident as he is in God sometimes you have him at other times as much dejected and without comfort or support Though therefore thou prayest and mournest after this blessed grace which if perfectly enjoyed would put thee into Heaven while on earth yet look to be often in conflicts sometimes trusting and sometimes distrusting till God should make thee perfect in Heaven where there is no more ground for fear sorrow or any diffidence Let the Use be to humble the children of God under all those distrustfull and despondent thoughts they labour with What are become of Gods mercies of old Where are thy former experiences Let such as never knew the name of God that have no interest in Christ or his promises let such I say like Judas and Cain go up and down with perpetual tremblings and anxiety of heart but thou dishonourest God and the promise and that holy calling by which thou art called while thou art tormenting thy self with cares about future things Matth. 6. 36. It is made the Gentiles sinne an Heathenish sinne How then cometh it about that Christianity hath taught thee no better Who may walk confidently and with quiet spirits though the Earth be removed into the Sea if thou mayest not Aristotle giving Characters of confident men Rhetor. lib. 2 do among others hath these two particulars 1. Such are confident who have great power and might or have friends that are so Now is there any greater than God Is there any mightier than he 2. Those are confident saith he that are well-affected to religious and divine things And is it not thus with thee Art not thou carefull to observe the commands of God Art not thou tender about his worship and his glory Indeed sinne and contempt of holy things that must needs emasculate and take away all courage but thy faithfulness to God may make thee assured of his faithfulness to thee SERM. LXXIX How we are to relie upon God and yet make use of requisite Means too 2 COR. 1. 11. You also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf THe Apostle having commemorated the goodness and power of God in his deliverances attributing all to his mercy he doth in this verse declare what helps and means were likewise to be used for the accomplishing thereof For he that trusteth in God alone for any deliverance doth also diligently use those appointed means which God hath commanded Neither doth the goodness and power of God to do any thing for us disoblige us from a carefull attendance to those wayes wherein the mercy is to be obtained In that therefore Paul having expressed his assurance of present and future deliverance doth also excite and exhort them to pray for him we have 1. A Demonstration of the nature of that confidence which was in him it was divine and genuine not presumption which separateth end and means from another 2. Here was an Evidence of his humility and modesty For though a Saint in the highest forme farre excelling others is gifts and graces yet he earnestly desireth the prayers of those that are inferiour to him The Text therefore is a further amplification of his deliverance 1. From the Means used to obtain it Piscator calleth this prayer Causam adjuvantem but that expression is too big The Churches prayer is a means not a cause prevailing in the behalf of others 2. From the End which is Thanksgiving by others as in time is to be shewed Let us consider the Means specified in the Text and therein we have the Means it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical You also implying that neither Gods promise or his power would procure this mercy alone without their prayer Besides the goodness of God on his part there must be prayer on their part The word in the original for helping is emphatical being twice compounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word doth denote the Service and Ministry of those who are under us and so it doth imply that the Church doth owe as a debt unto their spiritual guides earnest prayer for them Though the Ministers be their servants in some respects in respect of the end of their office as all Governours are yet they are their servants in other respects by way of obedience to their word and constant prayer for them But then there is the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added which doth denote not onely their effectual prayers but their concord and agreement therein and that in their publick and solemn Assemblies Again the word signifying to work and labour doth denote what the nature of prayer is that the soul labours therein is fervent full of agonies which sheweth that the customary formal prayers of most people are not worthy of the name there is no labour or fervency of the soul therein In the second place You have the way how they laboured by prayer The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be spoken to afterwards They did not labour by using friends to sollicite the Magistrate in Paul's behalf for there was no hope from them but they made their addresses to God Lastly Here is the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You helping together It is an honour Paul puts upon them by this expression and thereby also commendeth their duty to them of praying for them Several Observations are contained in this particular As First Whereas we see Paul resting alone upon the goodnesse and power of God for his deliverance yet not excluding but rather desiring the prayers of the Corinthians as a necessary means to have this also obtained Observe That it is a Christians duty not to separate from or oppose the grace and power of God to the duties and means he also hath required Not to say because it 's Gods grace and Gods work therefore I will sit down and do nothing Now on the other side God commands me to pray to work therefore it is not the grace of God but my duties that do justifie and save me
of glory and rejoycing to us So likewise Gal. 6. 4. the Apostle pressing every man to try his own works to examine his intentions therein giveth this as the consequent fruit thereof That then he shall have rejoycing in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of glorying and boasting in himself To clear this truth let us first shew what is required to this glorying and then in what respects it is lawfull and allowed us And for the former First It is necessary to this rejoycing and glorying in the first place That we have an high esteem of the excellency and worth of that grace we discover to be in us If so be we are to rejoyce in these outward mercies which yet are only for the body what matter of joy should it be to find those spiritual workings of Gods Spirit in us which are of eternal concernment What Solomon saith concerning the esteem of wisdom which is indeed nothing but grace we should all make good Prov. 2. 4. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures That soul then which can rejoyce in the discovery of grace must esteem of it more than all the treasures of the world To say O Lord I had rather find my self sanctified I had rather see the powerfull workings of grace upon me then to be made the greatest or richest man in the world we have many exhortations to examine our selves and try our hearts to see if we can find this precious jewel in our souls Now none will be cordial to examine and search herein but those who look upon it as the greatest treasure Did the woman in the Gospel make such diligent search for a lost groat only and call her neighbours to rejoyce with her when she had found it How large and boundless then should our thoughts be about the excellency of grace And indeed to the godly soul this is the great question it labours to study and to resolve Whether it be in the state of grace or no knowing that this onely is the most blessed and happy estate in the world Secondly As we must highly esteem this work of grace so we must have a Certainty and perswasion that we have obtained it Had not Paul known that his heart had been sincere that he was not acted by carnal wisdome he could never have rejoyced For Philosophers make joy to be in that good thing we do possesse and also the knowledge thereof This Text then doth abundantly declare that the people of God may have a certain knowledge of the work of grace So that although the heart be indeed deceitfull and full of hypocrisie yet when sanctified it hath some measure of truth and sincerity in it and so far doth not deceive us He then that would rejoyce in the grace of God wrought in him must presse after assurance must endeavour after a certain perswasion of the truth of grace in him And although this perswasion be not justifying faith yea it is separable from it A man may be justified may be sanctified and not know it yet it is such a priviledge yea and duty also that we should diligently take heed of all those things that may weaken our assurance that may make us to doubt and question whether Jesus Christ be in us or no. Thirdly A sure perswasion of the goodnesse and integrity of our hearts is not enough but it must be upon right grounds and in a Scripture-demonstration For if it be a false perswasion it may produce indeed a rejoycing but a false rejoycing also It is more than probable that Paul while a persecutor being zealously affected to the tradition of his fathers and thinking himself bound as he professeth to do what he did against Christ and his members could then say His rejoycing was the testimony of his conscience being perswaded that in those wayes he glorified God And therefore some do extend that profession of his before the Council That he had lived in all good conscience before God untill that day And if this be so then we see plainly That every perswasion though never so confident is not enough to make us rejoyce but we must look to Scripture-grounds Doth not experience confirm this Take any heretical person any erroneous person though it be to the destruction of the very fundamentals of Religion yet he will proclaim a rejoycing in his heart from the good testimony of his conscience So that an erroneous conscience satisfied doth bring peace and rejoycing but it is an erroneous joy It is either from meer humane principles or from diabolical delusions But this will come in more properly when we come to the ground or reason it self of Paul's rejoycing Fourthly To this rejoycing there is required The Spirit of God enabling us thereunto So that the same spirit which doth seal to us the assurance of our estate doth also cause comfort in us The Spirit of God doth enlighten and sanctifie after this it doth seal and comfort And this latter work of Gods Spirit is necessary as well as the other For we see it lieth not in the power of Gods people to have comfort when they will Hence Gal. 5. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit and it 's called Joy in the holy Ghost not only objectively because it is a joy in spiritual objects but also efficiently because it is wrought by him Hence it is that the Spirit of God mouldeth the heart for comfort removeth fears and doubts restraineth and keepeth off Satan whereby no sinne no Devil is able to deject and cast down because God comforteth â—Thus you see what goeth to rejoycing in the graces of God and thereby an holy glorying in them Now let us see in what respect it is lawfull thus to rejoyce And First It is lawfull to rejoyce in them as they are the effects and fruits of Gods favour and love as they signifie the cause from whence they come Rahab could not but rejoyce to see the thread that was a signe of such a great mercy designed for her If then the godly man have that spiritual skill as to difference between trusting in his graces as any way causes of his salvation and thankfully receiving them assignes from which he may be perswaded of it then doth he hit the mark It is usually said from Luther That we are to take heed not onely of evil deeds but of good and holy works also because the heart is apt to be carried away with pride and self-confidence insensibly yet this much not so deterre the people of God that they may not take comfort from their graces For how can they see them and not rejoyce because they are the pledge of Gods favour it self and of an interest in Christ So that though their graces be weak and full of imperfections yet they manifest that to be ours which is fully perfect and hath no fault at all in it Imperfect graces do manifest Gods perfect grace to
of this Therefore First We may take notice That there is a two-fold testimony of our conscience which doth afford matter of rejoycing either particular as to some matter of fact or one particular business especially when calummated by adversaries Or secondly General which is to the whole frame of our heart and our whole conversation These two are greatly to be distinguished For we see David in many places praying to God That he would reward him according to his innocency and deal with him according to the righteousnesse of his hands and he doth many times appeal to God concerning his integrity Now this was from a testimony of his conscience to a particular fact Saul and others did maliciously accuse him laying to his charge things that he never did Of this Paul speaketh also 1 Cor. 4. 2. I know nothing by my self He did not matter those crimes that the false Apostles burdened him with because his conscience did clear him as to any grosse neglect in his ministerial course Now you must know that many a natural or moral man may have in some cases this particular testimony of his conscience and receive comfort from it and yet be farre enough from the state of grace How many persons in the world are slandered by some malicious adversaries as guilty of such crimes which are altogether false Now happily thou art pure and free from them thy conscience justifieth thee and thou hast comfort from this but this is not all which God requireth Therefore there is a second testimony of the conscience which is General and that speaketh to the whole man witnessing that thy whole conversation is unblameable and that thy heart in the universal inclination thereof is wholly for God and against sinne It is this general testimony that is the foundation of true comfort A man may be free and innocent as to some particular sinnes and yet the state of his soule be in gall and bitternesse Secondly This testimony of the conscience even in general witnessing unto thee thy state of grace may be considered two wayes For either it may be supposed or expected that it should testifie unto thee an heart and life free from all sinne failing in nothing at all Or else To witnesse sincerity and uprightnesse for the main though failing in many things If then a Christian should resolve to take no joy unlesse his conscience can witness perfection and an immunity from any failings such an one must resolve to have no comfort all his life time but if it witness the main bent and frame of thy heart to be for God though carried aside often through the violence and deceitfulnesse of temptations from this thou mayest rejoyce This is much to be observed for why are the discouragements and disconsolateness of Gods own children so great but because their conscience telleth them of several failings and they desire some testimony of a perfection Satisfie your selves therefore and regulate your thoughts in this particular And thus we must expound that place 1 John 3. 20 21. which at first appearance seemeth to speak very terribly If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things This Text if not rightly understood is enough like Belshazzars writing in the wall to strike us with trembling For is there any man living whose heart doth not condemn him for sinne Doth not this very Apostle say 1 John 1. 8. If we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and no truth is in us If then we have sinne how can our hearts but condemn us And then God knowing our hearts and seeing more evil and errour in us then we can understand must condemn us much more What is this then but to fill every godly man with despair But that the Apostle himself may not speak a contradiction we must have recourse to the mentioned distinction viz. That our hearts condemn us justly for the main that our foundation is rotten that we love sinne more than God then we have cause to be wholly cast down but if our hearts do not condemn us for the main only for those imperfections and frailties which we cannot perfectly be purged from in this life then we may have confidence towards God Thirdly Our conscience may be considered as Habitually able to testifie or as Actually and immediately prepared This is necessary to be observed For every regenerate man having his conscience sanctified is thereby habitually able to give a good testimony but many things may intervene that hinder it in its actings Even as the Sunne is able to give a clear light to the whole world but clouds and mists may hinder the actual communication of it And thus it is often with the children of God their conscience is sanctified but many doubts arise many scruples and fears do interpose so that they have not that actual witness in their conscience which they might have So that as in sanctification there are the principles of grace though the exercise of them may be stopt So it is in matter of consolation there is the foundation and fountain of it though the stream may be troubled And this should make us wary so to walk as not to put stops and checks in the way of conscience especially to labour for a sound judgement and a full perswasion in things to be done For the more doubtfull and scrupulous we are the less firm and clear is the testimony of our conscience as appeareth Rom. 14. 22 23. Fourthly We are to distinguish of the testimony of conscience as alone and separate or relating wholly to the blood of Christ in whom alone all our acceptance and cause of comfort is contained Whereas if a man should attend to the testimony of conscience alone though to his best actions he would have more cause to fear and tremble from that then rejoyce Therefore the Scripture attributeth the purging of our conscience to the blood of Christ there is no mans conscience can be good and truly peaceable that doth not look to Christ that saith not with John Behold the lamb of God that taketh away thy sinne as well as behold the holy duties thou hast lived in Heb. 9. 14. How much rather shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead workes Let conscience then alwayes eye Christ look to him as well as to our graces For the goodness of an evangelical conscience lieth not in this to testifie thou hast not been such a sinner or thou hast not such failings but though thou hast been such yet repenting and believing through the blood of Christ thy conscience is not to condemn thee for them because pardoned Now the conscience of a civil and pharisaical man which comforts from works done doth not at all relate to Christ and by this thou mayest find the deceitfulness of it seeing that by Christs blood alone it cometh to be truly purified Use 1. Of Instruction How few they are that have this
temporal life and loose a spiritual life Fourthly Whereas sinnes according to Divines are distributed into sinnes of the heart of the tongue and of the hand Cordis oris operis Lying is a sinne of the tongue So that as by the tongue we come to know the disease sometimes of the body that is within so by the tongue we may discerne a sinfull wicked heart A lying tongue doth argue a deceitfull heart So that as the pureness and foulness in the fountain doth quickly empty it self into the streams Thus as the heart is either holily or sinfully affected so it emptieth it self into the tongue and hands Hence in the fifth place All those who would abstaine from the way of lying must study the spiritual government of the tongue Nature indeed hath inclosed it with lips and teeth but Grace must have a more powerfull and predominant curb over it The Apostle James doth notably speak of the sinfulnesse of the tongue James 3. 6. calling the tongue though a little member yet a world of iniquity an unruly evil full of deadly poison Certainly the Apostles zeal discovered in that Chapter against a sinfull tongue should make us with much diligence watch against it especially in that it is so unru y that no man can tame it Now among many sinfull evils of the tongue this of lying and falshood is not the least So that he who hath an holy meek just and faithfull tongue is called by the Apostle a perfect man vers 2. not but that he hath still much imperfection in him onely we are so apt to sinne by that to offend by that What is in the heart is so quickly in that that the Christian hath arrived at a great proficiency in godlinesse who hath this power over his tongue Hence David as sensible of this work above his own strength maketh his earnest addresse in prayer unto God Psal 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Grace must be the spiritual porter to watch the mouth else such sins will come out thereat that will both greatly offend God and man Hence in the sixth place That this government of the tongue against lying or any other sin may be attained unto it is necessary 1. To cleanse the heart that is the original and source of all evil and therefore it is in vain to heal the outwards unlesse the inwards also be first purged Therefore David in the fore-mentioned prayer addeth another Petition to the former Psal 141. 4. Incline not my heart to any evil thing Therefore when Solomon had first given that counsel Chap. 4. 23. To keep the heart with all diligence then he speaketh of the duties about the eyes hands and feet No man can in an holy manner keep his tongue from lying cursing and swearing with other sinnes thereof unlesse he first endeavour that the inward frame of the heart be made pure and holy The old man must be put off and the new man put on as the Apostle speaketh and then we lay aside the way of lying In the next place Let us consider what are the causes of lying of yea and nay I doe not mean the general ones for the Text nameth them to be inconstancy and a corrupt heart but the particular ones And 1. Some have a strong inclination and peculiar propensity to it they love and delight in telling of lies Yea this lying disposition is noted to be the property of some Countreys as the Poet said of the Cretians They were alwayes liars Titus 1. 12. which witnesse the Apostle saith is true And no wonder at this for the same Apostle maketh it the quality of every man by nature and that wherein he doth oppose God whose Attribute is truth God is true and every man a lyar Rom. 3. 4. Seeing then the nature of man is thus prone to it and some have a more peculiar inclination to it no wonder if lyes as well as oaths do make a Land mourn Do we not see it in children how they are more forward to lie than to speak They come both together only lying seemeth more natural A second cause of lying is want of dependance upon God as if he would not fulfill his promises without our lies and unlawfull means that we use In this Rebecca failed Genes 27. 6 7. though she knew of Gods promise to Jacob yet because Isaac's affections were set upon Esau the elder brother she saw no visible way how the promise should be accomplished therefore she used lying and dissimulation but though she got the blessing for her sonne yet many sad afflictions did befall both her and Jacob thereby 3. Another cause is The captivity and bondage that we are in by nature to Satan for he being 〈◊〉 lyar from the beginning we imitate him and follow our father in this particular This our Saviour telleth the Jewes John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it Mark that the father of it implying that by the Devil we are sollicited and tempted to lies and if there were no other consideration but this it were enough to make us with David Psal 119. 163. To abhorre the way of lying because it cometh from the Devil we thereby demonstrate the Devil to be working in us to move our tongues And truly the name of a lie is a very reproachfull thing How hardly can men endure the name of it who yet are constant in the practice of it So that the reproach especially the cause from whence it cometh may perswade us to leave it off which is hell it self we shall then quickly hear every man speaking truth with his neighbour 4. An inordinate desire of profit and gain doth many times put men upon lying They wil◠commend and praise that which in their conscience they know to be bad and all to get a little profit Thus Ananias and Saphira they lied to Paul and all to reserve a little profit to themselves Lastly A sinfull and immoderate fear that many times provoketh to lying It was thus with Abraham and Isaac about their wives they lied to save themselves out of dangers And although David did abhorre the way of lying yet we see him in several exigencies degenerate from his principles It is true in case of a mans life to choose rather to die than to tell a lie must needs be an argument of heroical grace in a man but we see in Peter how difficult it is to abstain from lies when thereby we can preserve our selves out of danger So that if at any time we find the godly overtaken with this sinne we must not from thence conclude the lawfulnesse of it but rather bewail our pronenesse thereunto For if those that are godly in an eminent manner are thus apt to fall what shall the little Trees do
prepare themselves to be combustible matter in Hell Indeed a modest and humble enquiry into the Truths preached as the Bereans did about Pauls Preaching is allowed and commendable but a froward cavilling Disposition indisposeth to finde out the Truth and is like some fretting humour in the eye which hindreth the sight 2. We then do sinfully oppose the Ministry when we strive and contend with them because of their zealous and faithfull reproving and withstanding the course of sin Because a Minister would bring thee to the sight of thy sinnes to a deep and serious Humiliation because of them because he would recover thee out of those damnable wayes thou livest in Hence it is that thou cryest down the Ministry and their Labours This is the true ground of most mens calumny and malice because the word Preached is a convincing Word a reproveing Word a discovering Word of that evil and wrethchedness which is in thy heart Hence it is that thy soul cannot endure the messengers thereof This is not meerly to be wicked but Diabolicaly wicked And yet if many Despisers of the Ministry were asked What is it that moveth them to such despite against the Officers of Christ They would but for shame speak that which lieth in the bottome of their heart viz. That the Ministry discovereth unto them all the evil they have done That is speaketh onely evil and Damnation to them and therefore they cannot abide it but wo be to that man who striveth with a Minister doing his duty That because he telleth thee the truth he dealeth faithfully with thy soul therefore thou dost become an enemy to him Consider that place Hos 4. 4. Let no man reprove another for this people are as they that strive with the Priest The meaning is It is to no purpose to reprove the wicked men of Israel any more it is to no purpose to bring them balme or spiritual Medicines for they are an incurable people Why how doth this appear In that they strive with the Priest They will not et him do his duty If he reprove them for sin if he set against their iniquities they rise up as proudly against him as the Sodomites did against Lot their Preacher of righteousness By this you see it s a property of a desperate and incurable people when they strive with their Church-Officers in doing of their Duty Indeed if Ministers should pervert the Ordinances of God endeavour to bring in Heresies Supersâ—ition and Prophaneness to exalt the Kingdome of darkness then they are in all lawfull and wise wayes to strive with them even as Children may in some cases reprove their Parents who are desperately set to damn their soules provided they shew that Reverence and Humility that they ought to do This Text of the Prophet is made use of by the Papists who charge our Reformers that they did strive with the Pope and their Bishops refusing submission to them For their Canonists have a saying That if the Pope should draw thousands of soules to Hell none might say unto him why dost thou so But this place will not be a Sanctuary to them for if we take the ordinary exposition and common one which I have given there being another by-Learned man who maketh directly against them it speaketh of such a people who do sinfully strive with the Messengers of God because they reprove sin and zealously do their Duty This is the highest Degree of sinfull Opposition that can be no contesting with the Ministry is so heynous as when it cometh upon this account These are like frenetique men who fight with their Physician In other diseases commonly men send for physicians they desire their help but the mad man he will ne re send for any and if any be brought to him he rageth at them Thus doth such wicked men and so are like a ground Historians speak of that is dryer by the rain that falleth upon it and the more drought the more moysture 3. Then we sinfully reflect upon the Ministry when the vices of the persons we cast upon their office and Doctrine This was that which made Paul so di ligent and zealous in this Text had it been his own glory and name he would more patiently have born it But when they come hereby to disparage his Doctrines to call that in question then he could no longer bare it Take heed then of this disposition upon any evils or faillings in them presently to fall upon the Calling immediately to dislike the Doctrine they preach For though it ought not to be so yet we are naturally ready ex personis probare fidem not ex fide Personas We are ready to like and approve of Faith as we approve of mens persons and therefore if any failing or weakness be seen in them we presently charge their Doctrine with it What should a man have refused all that Peter said thinking it is no matter what he Preacheth because in his fear and temptation he denied Christ What shall a man exclaim at Paul and say we know not how to believe what he Preacheth For he was once as hot and zealous for the contrary way Oh take heed of such ungodly Judgment The Truth is Christs Truth the Gospel is the Gospel of God however men may fail 4. This is still the more abominable when men take false rumors and slanders up or go upon their own surmises and conjectures and thereby refuse the Ministry for this was Pauls case He had just grounds as is in time to be shewed why he did not come to them as he promised It was to spare them as he saith v. 23. So that if there were any fault they were the cause of it yet how readily do they make an occasion to bring Pauls Doctine out of credit and nothing is more ordinary than this for men to feign Reasons and pretend many absurd Arguments to vilifie the work of the Ministry which yet is appointed by God for the good of their souls If you ask What are the Reasons why men are so apt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Doctrine preached They are such as these First Wicked men being under the power of the Devil they are acted by him and his works they do Now his greatest work is to destroy that which if suffered would destroy him and his Kingdome The end of the Ministry we may read in Pauls Commission Act. 26. 18. which is To open mens eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God It is no wonder if the Devil in all ages tempt men to this sin rather than others For hereby his Kingdome will be lift up so that as the Physicians were never quiet till they had deprived Sampson of that which was his strength so neither is the Devil and his Instruments ever at rest till they have removed that strength Christ hath appointed for the destroying of the works of the Devil 2. Men are carryed
evil he would not do that he did As these impetuous lusts are a burden so the deadness barrenness and hardness of his heart Oh often doth he cry out of his soul as like the mountains of Gilboa on whom no dew doth fall like a parched and dried wilderness and he knoweth not how to come out of it yet even in these sad perplexed thoughts God comes in with comfort when his heart affords none when all within riseth up against him yet as it was with Paul his complaints shall be turned into praises I thank God in Jesus Christ A third Soul-tribulation may be from Satans temptations He is called the tempter he is said to have his fiery darts he hath his buffetings We see how fiercely he assaulted Christ himself and as for the incestuous person by Satans devices he was almost swallowed up with sorrow And indeed what horrid suggestions of blasphemy self-murder and whatsoever is most terrible and amazing will not he assault the godly soul with if God bind him not up Well doth the Scripture compare him to a a roaring Lion what can a poor Lamb do if he fall upon it And truly no more could the poor humbled sinner stand before all the temptations and oppositions of Satan if Gods grace did not interpose yet even in this hellish darkness when the soul is apt to judge its condition like those that are damned in hell when he is ready to conclude God hath forsaken him for ever that the express signs and characters of a cast-away are upon him as he thinketh yet of this Whales-belly from the mouth of hell God doth raise him and give him comfort yea many times those have the greatest comforts that have the greatest exercises of this kind and therefore the Lord did leave them in this black night that the day might be the sweeter and more welcome Lastly The Souls-trouble may arise from the breaches it hath made by Apostasie and falling into great sins after it hath known God And these commonly do give a mortal blow to all our former comfort You see it in David Psal 51. when he complaineth of his broken bones praying to have joy restored to him Some have thought that David never had such comfort again as formerly Certainly the godly in such fals sinne hainously because of the experience they have of Gods favour and the bitterness of sinne therefore for them to revolt from God is an high aggravation As if the Prodigal son after he had been entertained in his Fathers house and feasted with the fatted calf should have gone to his husks again how intollerable would that have been Well but for all this this sad condition of a gradual Apostate and revolter is not without ground of comfort when truly humbled and debased before God Doth not God speak graciously Jer. 3. 22. Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings And see how this mercifull offer is imbraced Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God She pleadeth her interest and right to God howsoever Thus also God promiseth Hos 14. 4. I le heal their backsliding So that although when the conscience hath been the second time bruised when thou hast been twice as it were in the new birth thou must look for greater pains and agonies yet God can and doth comfort such also Peter speaks of joy unspeakable and full of glory which the people of God have though he had greatly revolted from Christ his master So that manna may be had in this wilderness also The second kind of troubles are outward and these are also innumerable Act. 14. 22. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of Heaven We must expect like Christ to be men of sorrows for we are to suffer with him if we will reign with him Now two sorts of troubles there are in which God will give comfort and in them all troubles are comprehended 1. There are troubles such as we bring upon our selves by our own folly and sins We have provoked God to be angry and to take away many outward mercies from us Now because our sins and our iniquities have done all this therefore it is that we may justly expect that God will deny all comfort We might think it is true when we suffer for Gods sake when we are persecuted for righteousness sake then Christ will take us into his wine-sellar and bid us Drink abundantly But it is my vile heart my proud heart my loose and negligent walking that hath brought all this evil upon me and what comfort then can I expect from God But even in this condition such is the grace and mercy of God that although our sins have brought evil upon us yet if humbled under them and bewailing of them we shall find God for to comfort us When David Psal 4. had that overflowing joy which he saith God put into his heart more than all harvest joy yet he was at that time in very sad exigencies pursued by his son and driven out of Jerusalem and this God threatned as the fruit of his sinne but behold all this God giveth him comfort And the truth is when humbled for our sinnes then the nature of these afflictions are altered they become paternal and medicinal chastisements they are arguments of Gods love to us we may rejoyce in them as testimonies thereof for so Heb. 12. and Rev. 3. it is said Whom God loveth he chasteneth God makes as the Physician an excellent antidote of that which is poison and so the fruit of thy sins becometh great matter of thankfulness as David acknowledged when he said Out of very thankefulness thou hast afflicted me And as for the second kind of afflictions which are only for the exercise of graces when we are persecuted not for the evil in us but the good appearing as the case of the Martyrs was then God giveth us comfort with full measure pressed down and yet flowing over witness the Apostles who went away rejoycing because they were accounted worthy to suffer all things for Christs sake The Martyrs also had more joy in their troubles then ever they had in their prosperity and it is of those tribulations the Scripture speaketh of Indeed some Philosophers have essayed upon such a comfort as Epicurus said If a wise man were burnt in Phalaris his Bull he would say Dulce est ad me nihil pertinet This is a sweet thing and doth not at all hurt me But these were Book sayings No Philosophers ever endured misery for their Sects as Christians have done for the truth of Christ But you may say What is that by which God comforts his people in all their tribulations Hath the Scripture any higher grounds than Philosophy Philosophy is called animi medicina and as there were several Sects of them so they had different principles to comfort for there was no theam treated on more by them than this only some principles were contrary to others for some
perswaded this as a special help to premeditate on evils before they came Others they refused this as making a man miserable before he was so Others supported themselves with the thoughts of necessity and that it could not be otherwise But of all these we may say as Job to his friends Ye are miserable comforters and are of no more advantage then the rending of garments or pulling off the hair in grief which Bion derided in one as if a bald head would take away grief We therefore conclude That no Philosophers had the true art or grounds of comfort and that 1. Because they were wholly ignorant of Jesus Christ in whom alone is all the cause of comfort Therefore he is called our Peace and he is said to be the Prince of peace Foelicissimum est cui non est opus foelicitate and such an one is the man in Christ for he will never thirst more than hath drunk of that fountain No sinne no guilt no curse can be removed but by the bloud of Christ Insomuch that all their Philosophical precepts about comfort were as the influence of the Moon which doth rather rotten than ripen in respect of the Sunnes influence 2. They were without the Spirit of Christ the efficient cause of comfort Christ is the subject matter in whom alone we can have comfort and the Spirit of God is the efficient cause that doth alone give a comfortable and glad heart 3. They were altogether unbelieving of a Resurrection to leternal glory which is an admirable ground of all true joy This the Apostle presseth against immoderate sorrow about those that are dead Not to grieve as those that are without hope Lastly They were wholly unacquainted with the life of faith that is only instrumental to receive joy Use of Exhortation in all thy tribulations to look up to God in Christ for comfort Thou runnest to this creature to comfort and thou thinkest this and that condition would comfort thee but how can the chanel have any thing in it if the fountain doth not give it Say not it 's thy affliction so greatly to be aggravated that makes thee disconsolate No it is for want of Gods presence in it SERM. XXXIX What are these Apples which Christ refresheth his Spouse with Or what are those Scripture-grounds of comfort which support the hearts of Gods children under all their afflictions 2 COR. 1. 4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation THere is no tribulation either for the kind or degree of it but God can and doth comfort his people therein It is therefore requisite to know what are those cordial comforts what is that balm and oyl by which he healeth the wounds of his afflicted ones For seeing Gods comforts do farre exceed all Philosophical remedies as much as the Sunne doth a Gloworm And Paul's admirable temperament I know how to abound and how to want doth infinitely transcend that so much celebrated carriage of Socrates who was noted to be alwayes Eodem vultu let whatsoever befall him It is very usefull to know what are these Apples of comfort as the Church calleth for Cant. 2. 5. And the rather this is to be done because many of Gods children are deficient in a three-fold respect about Gods consolations For either 1. They are in a great manner ignorant of what foundations and sure grounds they have of comfort They do not know what fountains of living water they may abundantly bathe themselves in They are as Elisha's servant who though there was a great host of Angels to help him yet he did not see them So that the Spirit of God doth not only illuminate us in the matter of duty but also in matter of comfort hence he is called The Comforter Or 2. Though they know many arguments of comfort yet their memory faileth them that in the very hour of their temptations in the midst of their furious assaults they forget what comfortable supports they might make use of So that it is good to preach of these principles of consolation that thereby we may be remembrancers to you and put you in mind of that joy which in the midst of your afflictions your corruptions and the Devils temptations are so apt to strike out As the Disciples were sometimes blamed for their forgetfulness they did not remember the miracle of loaves Thus also the children of God may often rebuke themselves and with David say Why wast thou cast down O my soul And why wast thou so troubled within thee Hadst thou thought on such a promise such a place of Scripture Hadst thou remembred such a precious and sweet truth the temptation had not prevailed so much upon thee Come we then to lead you up into the Mount of transfiguration let us see even in this life as farre as our narrow hearts can comprehend What are the good things God hath prepared for those that love him And First Take this for a foundation That God comforts only through and by the Scriptures He must enter into this pool that will feel these consolations descending upon him he must buy this field of the Scriptures that will have this pearl hidden there The Spirit of God is that indeed which doth efficiently reach to the soul and make it to receive comfort but the means by which or the harp as it were whereby the evil spirit of sorrow and dejection is removed is by the word of God So that as the Spirit of God doth powerfully change and alter the heart yet the word is organically and instrumentally used for that end So though the Spirit of God be the Comforter yet it is through the Word Hence the Apostle Rom. 15. 4. That we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And David doth not only admire the word of God because it fore-warneth of sinne quickeneth up to duty but also because it was a reviving comforting Word whereby he was kept from fainting and being utterly overwhelmed in his troubles And this is the more to be considered by the godly that so they may not be deluded by false joyes When the Devil is said to transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. that is into light of comfort as well as of truth There are false joyes there are comforts from the Devil as well as doctrines of the Devil The Papist hath his comforts The Socinian the Antinomian all these have a spirit of delusion in their joyes as well as in their opinion The Spirit of God doth first lead into truth before it vouchsafeth comfort But we detain you too long The first ground therefore of Scripture that may be had out of the treasury thereof is this viz. That all the tribulations we fall into they are precisely determined by God as a Father out of much love both in regard of the beginning of them the degree of them as also the continuance of them And if this truth be well rumiated and digested here is
enlighten our minds to give us tenderness and lowliness of mind that we be not led aside with the errour of the wicked for errour and heresie will break out into enmity and make men think they do God good service while they destroy you Thirdly Then we regard Religion after a carnal manner When we make parties in it when we promote factions and divisions and such as do so are filled with much spite and malice against those that are contrary to them This is a sinne the members of the Church are prone to and nothing inclineth more to oppositions and contentions then such a frame upon mens spirits The Apostle speaketh very clearly to this 1 Cor. 3. 3. Whereas there is among you envying and strife one is for Paul another for Apollo are ye not carnal And vers 4. Again are ye not carnal So that this doth plainly discover men not to be led by divine and holy principles who are apt to foment differences who are ready to set up one Minister against another to admire the gifts and abilities of one to the contempt of others This was the great sinne of these Corinthians that as they discovered much pride and ambition in the names which they gave persons Capellus Histor A. M. 3168. sometimes delighting in words which signified power and principality as Hegemon c. Or such as denoted victory as Nicolaus c. Or such as declared glory as Polycletus c. Thus such a carnal ambition did still remain in them though made Christians setting up and admiring mens persons looking after gifts which brought applause more than grace and sanctification Now those that are thus carnally affected they do continually throw balls of fire into the Church and make it a Babylon in stead of a Jerusalem Jude speaketh vers 16. Of having mens persons in admiration because of advantage It is some carnal advantage or other that maketh them advance this and that man against others What the issue of such divisionsis appeareth Jam. 3. 14 15 16. viz. To bring in all confusion and every evil work As also he sheweth the nature and cause of this It is earthly sensual and devilish though men may judge it zeal and think they are active for Gods glory yet it 's sensual and cometh from the Devil and it is good to observe how largely the Apostle expatiateth about the sinfulnesse of the tongue That a world of evil is in it and from that exhortation Be not many Masters that is do not take upon you to be Teachers and so to reprove and censure others in a carnal and sinfull way It is this that maketh not only the tongue but the pen also to be full of gall and wormwood it maketh the pen to be an unruly evil that none can tame Take we heed then of minding Religion onely to make parties and different wayes therein for this will at last break into an open enmity against the truely godly Fourthly Then we look after Religion in a carnal way When we make use of the Doctrine thereof onely to shew our parts or learning when we earnestly contend about it as it is our opinion not as it is Gods truth For this reason the Apostle doth so frequently exhort Timothy To take heed of disputes and vain janglings 1 Tim. 1. 6. where the end of the preaching of the Gospel is said to be Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience with faith unfeigned but from these some did swerve by turning aside unto vaine jangling Here you see that those who have not pure and unfeigned hearts in the things of God they fall into vain disputes and quarrels So 2 Tim. 6. 4. it is called Doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy railings and evil surmises And he addeth their character Supposing that gain is godlinesse Here you see that in all these disputes and controversies there is no pure heart no good conscience all is to advantage themselves by it yea if this be not discovered in any sordid or worldly manner yet if thy pride the loftiness of thy spirit be hereby advanced and thou doest not mind Religion to exercise thy self to godlinesse but to have men admire thy gifts and to wonder at thy abilities Thy heart is a corrupt heart and thou wilt manifest thy enmity against the wayes of Christ when opposed therein Thy wit thy parts thy applause thou mayest make thy great Diana and oppose all that would destroy this Goddesse Lastly That we may conclude all and leave nothing out Whosoever doth not own the Christian faith from divine principles and holy pure motives this man is but a titular and a false Christian and so cannot but when occasion serveth manifest his opposition to Christs wayes And therefore it is that as amongst the people of Israel there was an irreconcilable division between Israel and Judah and a great opposition between Davids house and Sauls though all pretending to the onely true God So it is in the Church of God though there may be an agreement in the same Doctrine in the same Profession of faith come to the same Ordinances together yet because one hath not a supernatural life of grace within hath no experimental feeling of the power of sanctification upon his soul hence it is that he hath a spirit of antipathy and contrariety to those who are indeed born of God and walk in wayes of mortification So that we may conclude Whosoever is not regenerated regardeth Religion no further than carnal and earthly respects let his pretences be never so high and plausible And therefore there is no unconverted man though he hath never so high an Office never so great repute in the Church of God but he serveth Christ for loaves some insincere and insufficient motive or other worketh upon him he hath his shrines that he liveth by And therefore as it was with that rich man who boasted He had kept all Gods Commandments from the youth when he was tryed in one instance where his heart was greatly affected viz. To part with all and follow Christ it is said He went away exceeding sorrowfull Thus when any such empty nominal Christians are put upon such duties and wayes which are contrary to their lusts they will go away not it may be exceedingly grieved but greatly enraged and disquieted This will be like the jealousie-water to discover the adulteresse To pull out their right eyes and to cut off their right hands will be like the pronouncing of Shibboleth to discover what they are And the ground of this whole truth is from the exceeding great purity and exactnesse that is in the word of God truly preached it cometh to new mould and change the whole man All old things must passe away This will not abide either a corrupt mind or a carnal heart and therefore one being contrary to the other as light to darknesse and fire to water No wonder if then the hypocrite be
of death is thus sinfull when it putteth thee upon sinne so when it maketh thee omit any duty that God requireth thou darest not confess God and his truth in the midst of a perverse generation thou darest not be valiant for the truth nor plead for righteousness this fear is excessive Love to God love to his glory should cast out the fear of death Observe then thy self in dangers or temptations how thou findest thy fear to put thee upon sinfull compliances or omissions and presently as Jehoshaphat in the midst of a battel being in great danger cried out unto God for help so do thou to be delivered from this sinfull fear that is a deadly enemy encompassing thee about Secondly Thy fear about death is sinfull when it is immoderate and disquieting of thee so that thou doest not walk with a cheerfull quiet and calm spirit So that although it may not put thee upon any sinfull or unlawfull enterprize yet if it fill thee with anxieties with trepidations so that it depriveth thee of that Evangelical joy and peace in this excess it is a sinne All that are truly godly Being justified by faith they are to have peace in their hearts yea they are to rejoyce alwayes in the Lord but the inordinate fear of death causeth this Sunne to be in an eclipse and as men subject to swooning fits or convulsions cannot go with that courage and confidence up and down as those who are freed from such distempers Thus also the slavish and immoderate fear of death putteth millstones about our neck is a continual Ephialtes upon the soul filleth the spirit with heaviness whereby that Evangelical life and Gospel-conversation that we are called unto is seldome or never exercised Observe then thy self doth such fears of death make thy soul full of tumults and distractions Doth it oppose any Evangelical grace or retard the Spirit of Adoption upon thy soul Then humble thy self know thou sinnest against God and pray for the mortification of it and this thou art to do though it doth not make thee put out thy hand to any evil way though it doth not make thee omit any known duty For as worldly and distrustfull cares though lodging only in the heart are greatly displeasing to God though we do not thereby fall into covetous and unjust wayes yet the very cares and distractions of the heart are forbidden as appeareth by that reproof given to Martha by our Saviour himself Luke 10. 41. Martha Martha thou art troubled about many things but one thing is needfull Thus it is also in fears though thou art not instigated thereby to unlawfull wayes to preserve thy self yet the distractions and divisions of thy heart are offensive to God Therefore as the Apostle saith Phil. 4. 6. Be carefull in nothing but let your requests be made known to God Let prayer rebuke all storms and tempests of sinfull cares so in nothing be fearfull no not about death it self but commit thy self by prayer to God to whom the issues of life and death do belong Thirdly This fear of death is sinfull when it excludeth better and more profitable and seasonable fear The Scripture doth frequently command a fear of God and the serving of him with godly trembling Psal 2. 11. Yea the whole work of grace is expressed in this That God will put his fear in our hearts Jer. 32. 40. If then this fear of God did more prevail and rule in our hearts we should not fear diseases and death so much as we do The fear of God would put a due moderation upon all the powers of the soul This would regulate the fear of all other things so that we dare not fear otherwayes than God hath commanded then this natural fear is compatible with gracious fear For as our love to the creatures must be animated and regulated by our love to God so that we are never to love any thing that thereby our love to God may be abated or diminished Thus it must be in fear we are never to dread any thing further than it is consistent with the fear of God therefore it may fall out sometimes that the fear of God may justly put us upon the fear of death as when we walk negligently coldly and formally when we do not make up our daily accounts with God when we do not make our daily peace with God with renewed repentance and faith If we live in this manner then we have good cause to fear death because we are unprovided for it it seizeth on us before we are prepared and the fear of God may justly put us into this fear of death For we know how great holy and just God is how dreadfull his appearance will be at the day of judgement and all that we can do it must be done before death then the night is come and none can work To repent to bewail our unprofitableness our neglect of the seasons of grace in hell will then be as unprofitable as Esau's teares when he had lost his birth-right There is therefore a just and holy fear about death lest it should take us not doing the work of God lest it should come so unexpectedly that we be forced to cry out with him Inducias usque ad mane O spare me till to morrow Let one live another day to make peace with God and the fear of God will put us upon this fear as the Apostle said 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Thus it is here Knowing the terrour of the Lord that he is greater than our hearts that if they condemn us then God will much more This will put a fear of death upon us because that is nothing but the presenting of our souls in his presence We read Judg. 6. 23. and in many other places when God made any glorious apparition the persons who beheld it were so amazed and stricken with the sense of their imbecillty that they thought they should die presently and shall not the thoughts about death that it 's the dislodging of the soul and bringing it immediately before God strike much terrour into us This holy and reverential fear about death is laudable and is the fruit of the fear of God but when this fear of death maketh thee fear God the less or hindereth thee in the service of him then cast this Hagar out of doors Fourthly The fear of death is sinfull when it doth proceed from a sinfull cause If the fountain be bitter then the stream is bitter Now there are these sinfull causes of the fear of death 1. When it proceedeth from an inordinate love of life An excessive love of life doth alwayes beget an immoderate fear of death So that we may judge of the sinfulness of fear by the sinfulness of love If thy heart be not mortified and crucified to the world if thy heart be not loosned and weaned from earthly comforts and this maketh thee afraid to die this is
do attain it They take civility for godliness they take the outward performance of religious duties for godliness they take some sudden pangs and fits of devotion for godlinesse Thus they judge copper to be gold But In the next place if they do understand what it is to be regenerated how great a matter it is to be a New Creature then such is their self-love that they presently apply it to themselves and do believe they are such ones For this end is that duty so often commended To commune with our own hearts to try and search our own hearts For this end we are informed of the deceitfulnesse and desperate wickednesse of the heart that no man knoweth it that God only knoweth it Thou boastest of thy heart thou trustest in thy heart Ah poor deluded wretch thou knowest not what a sea of evil thy heart is till grace shine into that dark dungeon thou canst never perceive the loathsome lusts that crawl there Pray therefore to be delivered from this heart-trusting as from hell it self It is this that is the Beelzebub sinne This maketh thee shut thy eyes stop thy ears harden thy heart and therefore till this root be pulled up no preaching no Ministry can do thee any good For the first thing done by converting grace is to take away this trusting in our selves and in stead thereof to work an holy despair in our selves This the Spirit of God doth by convincing of sinne through the Law by this we see our selves a sinfull people and a cursed people we are also convinced of our impotency and insufficiency to help our selves By this we are convinced that it must be the righteousness of another even of Christ himself and not our own that we must appear in when we approach unto God Till therefore thou art in this heart-trusting way as long as this good perswasion and secure thoughts are in thy self thou art wholly out of the way to Heaven This is not the way to Christ if thou art not wounded the good Samaritan will pour no oil into thee if thou doest not judge all things husks and seest thy self ready to famish there will no entertainment be given to thee at thy fathers house Oh then that the Spirit of God would in a mighty and powerfull manner fall upon such sinfull considers that he would shake the very foundations of their souls For as long as this self-trusting a bideth in thee thy condition is incurable if the heart be deceitfull above all things why doest thou believe it above all things Thou believest thy own heart more than Gods word more than the Ministers of God No man doubteth of his heart none questioneth or examineth his heart and therefore cometh not to the Word preached to have that purged to have that cleansed but takes it for an undoubted principle that his heart is good already But how cometh it to be good When was it made good by nature it is full of evil and therefore it can never be sanctified but by the grace of God effectually working by the Ministry Secondly The Scripture instanceth in another object of sinfull trusting that is secret and close but also very dangerous and that is in the righteousnesse we conceit we have and this was the great pharisaical sinne This was the Camels bunch this made them stand in such immediate opposition to Christ that they rejected his Person and Offices They did not look upon themselves as sick and therefore would not admit of a Physician And oh that this sinne had been like Jonah's gourd that sprang up for a day only and presently was consumed but it is a sinne that passeth from one generation to another to put confidence in their own righteousnesse to seek to be justified by the works they do Doth not this reign in Popish spirits in all formalists in civil and moral men Do they not look to be saved to be justified by their works of righteousnesse and charity How often doth the Scripture thunder against this sinne And indeed well it may for it maketh our selves our own Christs our own Saviours It maketh Christ to die in vain Now how natural and imbred a sinne this is appeareth by the Jewes Rom. 10. 3. They went about to establish their own righteousnesse and would not submit themselves to the righteousnesse of faith Hence because this sinne did so reign in the Pharisees our Saviour spake that excellent Parable Luke 18. 9. concerning a Publican humbling himself and sensible of his unworthiness as being justified rather than a Pharisee He spake this saith the Text to certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous And why doth our saviour make those blessed that mourn that are poor in spirit that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse but to shew in what a blasted and cursed estate they are who put any trust in the good works they do to be justified by them You see then by this how dangerous and damnable a thing that common sinne is which every civil every just and righteous man is apt to lean upon if his eyes were opened and his heart made tender he would not dare to eat or sleep or stay one night in it as good and safe as now he believeth it to be Thirdly Another object of this sinfull secret trusting is in spiritual or Church-priviledges or Ordinances that we have more than others This is also like the Psalmists plague which destroyeth at Mid-day thousands fall dead into hell because of this religious trusting in priviledges and Ordinances They trust in them not regarding what holinesse and godlinesse God doth require of them How palpably did the Prophet Jeremiah reprove this in the Jewes Jer. 7. 4. Trust ye not in lying words saying The Temple the Temple of the Lord are these but amend your wayes and your doings as vers 3. When the Prophet exhorts them to repentance and reformation then they plead The Temple of the Lord and the Ordinances This is so enticing a sinne that in the Christian Church many were perswaded by false Teachers That unlesse they were circumcised and kept up the Rites of the Ceremonial Law they could not be justified Therefore the Apostle speaketh excellently Phil. 3. 3. We are the circumcision which rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When it cometh to this that thou doest not trust in Duties or in Ordinances but in Christ in them then art thou a true worshipper of God in the Spirit In the same Chapter Paul layeth upon his own heart what trust and confidence he once had in his being a Jew in being circumcised in his legal righteousness But when it pleased God to reveal Christ to him What doth he trust in these priviledges any longer No by no means for he accounts all things but dung and losse in comparison of that righteousnesse which is by faith in Christ Is not this likewise an universal predominant sinne amongst Christians Do they not
their rust cleansing out their spots they would quickly become very loath some and unclean Now in the pursuing of this Doctrine because I have already opened the nature of this self-trusting I shall only aggravate the evil of it that because the godly are so prone to it they may the more bewail it and watch against it And certainly the people of God doe not thinke and meditate upon the evil of this sinne enough you heare them complaining often of other sinnes they lie heavy upon their hearts but very little of this whereas this is like sweet poison it destroyeth and you feele it not And First It must nneds be a sinne highly displeasing God Because he doth so severely chastise his own people to prevent this sinne The sharper physick is given the greater danger of the disease God would not have exercised Paul thus above his strength but that he might see his own feebleness and infirmity and might accordingly trust in God onely Lighter and lesser afflictions do not drive thee out of all humane props thou hast some creature-consideration or other that doth make thee bear up thy heart but when God cuts every rope and drives the ship into the midst of the Sea among waves and tempests then thou art provoked to look up unto God Let then the children of God lay to heart this sinne more and examine themselves in every affliction that doth befall them Thou many times sayest Oh that I could find out the sinne the Jonah that hath raised this tempest Oh that I knew what was the peculiar corruption God would bring me in mind of by this trouble upon me Why try and search whether thou hast not secretly trusted in thy own self or in some earthly hopes Whether thy heart hath been weaned from all things It may be there is this or that creature thou doest inordinately lean upon and therefore because thou doest not yet trust in God with all thy heart he doth thus imbitter thy condition to thee Insomuch that were the children of God in no danger of self-dependance or creature-dependance they should seldome meet with the rod of God upon their backs Who was a man of greater afflictions and exercises than David was And who speaketh more of trusting in God than he doth This he learned by all his temptations Secondly This sinne is to be aggravated Because it is such a secret close imbred sinne it is the last sinne that will be mortified There is a difficulty of finding it out and a difficulty of overcoming it when it is discovered and both these make it the more dangerous and damnable sinne It is difficult to find it out This sinne like Saul hideth it self behind the stuff you may search and search as they did for the Spies in Rahab's house but because something or other covereth this sinne therefore you passe it by undiscerned How apt are we to say I do not trust in my graces I do not trust in my gifts Would you not have me to take notice of them How can I then be thankfull to God How can I bless God for them And for my graces Do not all Divines say though they may not trust in them yet they may take them as comfortable signs of Gods favour and thereupon rejoyce before God yea and plead them against the accusation of Satan or as an argument to God not by way of merit but because of the gracious promise made by God to our graces after this manner Hezekiah under the sentence of death prayed Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with an upright heart 2 King 20. 3. Thus also Paul did I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of glory 2 Tim. 4. 7. All this is true godly men are allowed to take comfort from their graces and thankfully to receive the evidences of Gods love thereby but how hard a matter is it to stay there and go no further How difficultly are consolations from them and confidence in them separated one from another Even as to have riches and not to trust in riches so to have grace and not trust in grace and the rather by how much grace is accounted a more excellent thing then wealth As it is hard to find it out so no lesse difficult to overcome it Caesar had some enemies of whom he said it was Difficilius invenire quam vincere but it is not so with this corruption Paul himself cannot so quickly shake off this viper that sticketh not to his hand but close to the heart For as faith is therefore the most difficult grace because it carrieth us out of our selves out of the creatures out of all things and fixeth the heart upon God alone So on the contrary this is the sinne that is most easie and where unto we are most propense with the worme we crawl upon the ground our feeblenesse and infirmity is such that we must have churches to rest upon and till faith be made perfect we cannot but catch hold upon some reed or other though never so weak Thirdly It being an heart-sinne It may be frequently committed in a day in an hour Thy heart is alwayes in motion it never lieth still now every time it moveth it may put forth some carnal dependance or other upon the creature Thus whereas many sins cannot be often committed there are many things concurrent ere they can be accomplished This may be committed as often as there is the twinkling of the eye The air then may not be fuller of Atomes or the sea of water than thy heart of carnal confidences And certainly every time God is not made thy refuge every time thou doest not rest under his shadow so often doest thou put trust in something else than God onely Take heed then of that sinne which like the Poets Hydra as often as thou cuttest off their Heads new ones arise again in the room thereof That the emptying of thy heart is like emptying of a lively and quick spring the more water is cast out the more new cometh in immediately Fourthly This trusting in any thing but God is a very great sinne Because it is a making of the creature a God and so a breach of that first Commandment wherein we are forbidden to have any other gods but the true one Now how great a sinne Idolatry is the Scripture doth every where speak Thou therefore that abhorrest to worship a stock or a stone who darest not fall down before an Idol to doe reverence thereunto How often doest thou as bad in thy heart to the creatures Yea many times some Idolaters did worship the true God they did not erre in the object onely they formed sinfull representations of God to themselves As the Israelites in that Calf which they made crying out These are thy gods O Israel And this Idolatry is not so bad as when that which is not the true God is set up for him
life You may see this practised by the Church of Israel when she had smarted for her carnall confidence and dependance on outward helps so as to neglect God see in what an humble gracious manner she maketh her confession to God Hos 14. 3. Asshur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the workes of our hands ye are our gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Oh blessed and self-emptyed frame here the Church repenting and turning unto God of all the sinnes which she was guilty of doth instance in her carnall confidence as that which had most provoked God and therefore she doth renounce and disavow all civill confidence and trusting Asshur shall not save us c. And 2. All religious confidence They will no more make their applications to their gods and then here is the reason because in thee the fatherless finds mercy By this proclaiming that they looked upon themselves as so many poore fatherless Children that had not wherewith to help themselves If then an whole Nation do thus how much more ought every particular Christian though great though rich yet respectively to God to look upon himself even as that Infant the Prophet speaketh of New borne and exposed to danger and no wayes able to succor it selfe Thus he that would trust in God must begin here and lay his foundation thus low even as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 5. 5. She that is a widdow indeed and desolate trusteth in God We cannot come to rest upon God till we look upon our selves as desolate and destitute of all humane succour The Bohemians when they lost their famous Captain Zisca called themselves Orphanes Thus when our helps our outward supports are removed then we are driven to look up unto God and not before The Heathens had a custome when they went into their Temples to pray that none would go in with a Sword or money in their Purse which was to denote that they did not put confidence either in strength or wealth but did rest upon their gods for relief only We then that are Christians who have the Word of God to be a guide unto us ought to have low thoughts of our selves and of all Creatures accounting of them as nothing respectively unto God 2. To trust in God is required in the next place a practicall Meditation concerning the greatness and goodness of God how infinitely able he is and how willing to help his people It is the not attending to this but the looking unto the power and strength of second causes that maketh us so full of distrust in God Is it not then for this reason that the Scripture doth so often delight to represent the greatness and majesty of God That all the Nations are but as a drop to him that they are less then nothing that he created the world out of nothing All this is to raise up the heart that it should have high and hopefull thoughts about God This maketh David attribute so many metaphoricall titles to God that he is his strength his rock his fortresse and strong tower Did we meditate upon these things did we with Abraham not consider the dead wombe but the power of God with what dependence on God and quietness of mind should we pass our lives But now we are tossed up and down with many waves we are like Noah's Raven sent out of the Ark we know not where to set our feet and all is because we do not settle on God omnis motus fit super immobili The soul cannot move unless it have a stedfast and immoveable foundation to stand upon and that is not the Creature but God only Thus David Psal 16. 8. I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved and therefore Verse 2. expressing this act of trusting in God he saith thou art my Lord Adonai The word signifieth that which is the basis the foundation that keepeth up all things Oh then let nothing be great in thy thoughts but God Grotius Prologom in Epist ad Rom. would make that faith which the Apostle doth so much commend in his Epistle to the Romanes to be nothing but an high and eminent esteem of Gods power c. So that faith in this respect and not the obedience of Christ as apprehended by faith is by him that imputed righteousness Paul doth so much instance in But he is deceived therein and layeth this as a foundation for his other errors about Justification Though we do easily grant that in faith there is a most raised and elevated apprehension about the majesty and power of God 3. To trust in God there is required a peculiar and particular appropriation of God to our soules as our God as our Father to say as Thomas to Christ my God and my Lord. Thus David in the forementioned Psal 16. 2. when he had pressed God with this Argument to preserve him because he trusted in him he declareth what his trusting is Oh my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord. Thus we are particularly to apply and to say Thou art my Father thou art my God And this is the reason why the people of God are so full of distrust of despondent and dejecting feares They cannot say Oh my soul thou hast said to God thou art my Lord yea we look upon him as a judge that will condemne 4. To trust in God there is required some experimentall knowledge of God to be acquainted with his former works of mercy and deliverance to them for when we have both Gods promise and his providence seconding it this maketh us to have more vigorous trusting in God as David argued God had delivered him from the Bear and Lion and therefore would from the Philistin Thus the Apostle at the 10. Verse from the present deliverance doth argue that he trusteth he will deliver also Thus Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will trust in thee It is for want of experience and practicall knowledge about God that maketh us so full of diffidence 5. To trust in God there is required a faithfull and diligent use of all those meanes that God hath required and by this it is fully distinguished from presumption which many take to be in their trusting in God for when you hear such who live impenitently in evill and ungodly wayes yet say they trust in Christ with all their heart for the pardon of their sinnes they do desperately presume for if they did trust in God they would be constant in the use of those meanes God hath required 1 John 3. 3. He that hath this hope in him purifieth himselfe as God is pure It s not their trusting in God but presumption which maketh thee expect such glorious priviledges and dost not walk in the way thereunto 6. To trust in God there is required a sound judgement and right understanding
there be any afflicted with bitterness as I am And is not this thy case Is not thy house a house of mourning for dead fathers or dead husbands as well as others Is not all this from the preventing mercy of God The second chanel in which these mercies may be discovered is In spiritual things And certainly here we may cry out also That they are more than can be numbred For what sinne what temptations what terrours and troubles of heart what wounds and gashes of soul do any of the godly fall into and thou mayest not also be plunged into the same Who maketh thee to differ Why must not the branch ingraffed in insult over that which is broken off but take heed and tremble Is it not because God may break off those also Oh then with bleeding and melting hearts acknowledge and say O Lord what would have become of me if left to such a passion if forsaken in such a temptation Why is it that I have not the guilt the condemnation that others lie under Is it not because thy goodness did keep me Even as David was preserved in respect of that businesâ— of the men of Keilah he asketh of God Whether they would deliver him into Saul's hands and God telleth him they would certainly do it thereupon David will not commit himself to them It is thus often in respect of thy soul if thou go to such a place if thou art put into such a temptation if placed in such a condition or relation God knoweth that this would prove a snare to thee it would be a ruine to thee Therefore the Lord doth so order by his mercy that thou shalt not come into that condition Divines have one kind of grace that they call Gratia praeveniens which doth prevent us it cometh upon us before we have any thought any will or desire about it As God said He was found of those that sought him not And truly such preventing grace we do not only need at our first conversion but all our life long as much as our daily bread Grace must prevent our mind our will our affections otherwise some sinne some lust or other would immediately fasten upon us Let then the godly soul remember what a deep and vast ocean this is of preventing grace the bottome whereof thou canst never dive into As Paul said By the grace of God I am what I am so saith Austin he might have added By the grace of God I am not what I am not It 's the grace of God that thou art not a withered tree a barren wilderness It is the grace of God keepeth thee from Hypocrisie and from Apostasie what a sinner and evil wretch thou art not it is wholly by the grace of God Thirdly Although the godly do thus judge of preventing mercies as well as of positive mercies yet because we are apt to account of mercies by sense and feeling we have hence it is That the godly are exceedingly-forgetfull many times about preventing mercies It is often said We never prize a mercy till we want it How precious is health to a diseased man ease to a tormented man And so also we never account any evil grievous but while we feel it while it is upon our backs and thereupon we are most sensible of such mercies which do take off this burden from us Thus it is indeed because we judge of all things according to our sense but if we did let judgement work then the godly soul would be likewise greatly enlarged for the keeping of evil as well as removing of it The evil we never felt yet because ready to come upon us had not the mercy of God kept it off is affectionately taken notice of by that soul which delights to search out the works of God towards it The godly ought not be so bruitish as to be taught only by thorns or to be like the horse which must have alwayes the bit and bridle Preventing mercy is as real a mercy as a positive one God is as truly good in keeping of evil from thee as removing of it Shall God therefore lose such of his glory and honour because thou wilt judge only by sense Fourthly That therefore the children of God may know It is their duty to go further in the way of praise to God then usually they do Let them consider these ensuing rules concerning preventing mercies And 1. Perswade thy self of this That whatsoever evil thou hast deserved by thy sinnes and is not brought upon thee look upon this as a preventing mercy and be affected wit it as much as with any positive mercy And truly this very particular may be like a live coal from the Altar to warm and purifie thy heart For hast thou not deserved all the curses threatned in the Law As soon as ever as thou hast sinned may not the Law of God immediately challenge thee take thee by the throat and hale thee to hell Well if so consider this preventing mercy of God that keepeth thee from them Mayest thou not truly say remembring the deserts of thy sinne not onely the God who deliuereth from so great a death but also so great an hell and so great a damnation Were not thy heart like a clod of earth like a stone how greatly wouldst thou be affected in this particular saying It 's the Lords mercy I am not in the grave It 's the Lords mercy I am not roaring in hell for the Law curseth me I have transgressed that there is nothing keepeth off the execution of that dreadfull sentence but the meer mercy of God And therefore if thou wert dead and raised again if damned in hell and yet delivered out Would not thy mouth and heart be filled all over with blessing and praising of God Why not then when God keepeth thee out of this destruction every moment It 's observed as the demonstration of Gods great power and mercy that the waters of the sea being higher than the earth yet they are so checked and bounded by the power of God that they do not overflow the earth This is the meer preventing mercy of God Insomuch that Luther said The Inhabitants of the earth are as wonderfully preserved from destruction by the sea as the people of Israel were in their passage to Canaan when the waters stood like walls on both sides And thus it is in any mercy we enjoy if we consider what the Law threatens how that curseth what we have deserved It 's a wonder of wonders that every houre we doe not fall into hell Therefore if thou findest thy heart not affected with these preventing mercies lay this particular close to thy soul 2. Consider That whatsoever evil doth actually fall upon any other in the world and not on thee this is a preventing mercy Is another sick and not thou Is another poor not thou This is a privative mercy For what reason can there be given of thy difference from others but onely
a godly man can more securely make that wish than the Heathen who wished that he had a window in his breast that all men might see what he thought what laie in his heart This was great confidence For certainly if God should take a man as he did Ezekiel and make a man look into the secret corners of many mens soules we should see every day more abominations A man of this godly simplicity careth not if other men knew his heart because God whom he feareth more than man knoweth all the motions of his soul It is the complaint that God maketh of some by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 29. 13. This people draw nigh me with their mouth and with their lips they honour me but remove their hearts farre from me This is to have a double heart such want this godly simplicity But oh the lamentation and bitter mourning that we may take up in this respect Have not most of our Congregations this double heart and this double tongue For what contrariety is there betweene thy religious approaches and thy ordinary actions Are ye not here to day as if ye were an holy people a repenting people as if you did owne and acknowledge the Lord in all his commands But what are you in your shops in your markets yea it may be in ale-houses and such places that doe foment iniquity What grosse double dealing is this with God You have a tongue to pray to God here and then you have a tongue to curse and swear after You appear here to day for the service and honour of God and then in the week-day you serve the Devil and the world What impudent hypocrisie is this Will God be thus grossely mocked by you What doth not God remember Is he an Idol-god Oh yeeld your selves up to that exhortation of the Apostle before Gods wrath consume you and you cannot escape Iames Chap. 4. 8. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded Your hypocrisie and dissimulation is so grosse and visible that did not the Devil exceedingly blinde you you could not but take notice of it it would rise up in your consciences and â—â—ing like a Scorpion Seventhly Simplicity of heart is seen in this That it dare not hide or cover any sinne or mince it and by distinctions lessen it as much as may be You heard simplex is sine plicis It is a metaphor from garments that have not folds in them you may see what they are Saul did exceedingly discover the guile of his heart when he did so mince his sinne to Samuel and did pretend sometimes necessity and sometimes religious respects to God whereas David though for a while he had too much of this double heart in him about Uriah's matter yet at last he confesseth all Psal 51. Against thee against thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight It was because the eye of God was upon him that he was so much troubled it was because he had used so much fraud and cunning in accomplishing his iniquity that he was wounded at the very heart therefore saith he Create in me a right spirit and thou desirest truth in the inward parts When a man once cometh to this simplicity of heart he will justifie God and condemn himself he will confesse to God hide nothing from him deal plainly with him not with Adam excuse or put it off to others he will say I am the man I charge my self with all that evil and all the aggravations of it that the Scripture requireth Eighthly Simplicity of heart maketh a man wonderfull free and willing in the service of God It doth not limit and stint his worke to God sutably to his own advantages but his Modus diligendi Deum est sine modo his measure is to put no measure Therefore all those who love not strictness zeale fervency and activity for God they discover much unsoundnesse of spirit Were thy heart single for God thou wouldst strive forward and forget all things that are behind This is the reason you heard why the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is many times used for bounty and liberality because he who hath a plain heart for God he doth not walk by politick rules and prescripts of humane moderation but conformeth to the rule with as much exactness and zeal as he can SERM. XC A further Discovery of the true Nature of Godly Simplicity both towards God and Man 2 COR. 1. 12. That in simplicity and godly sincerity WE are treating upon this special grace of simplicity which doth afford unspeakable comfort to him that enjoyeth it There remain more particulars to declare the nature of it And First Where this simplicity is there is an humble submission of the mind to the truths of God revealed in believing of them and an obediential resignation of the will to the commands of God without cavils and froward disputations In this particular the grace of simplicity doth triumph Although to speak properly simplicity and sincerity are not so much a distinct specifical grace as a qualification and modification of the powers of the soul and their operations In these two chanels of faith and obedience doctrine and duty simplicity doth greatly discover it self We can neither believe soundly or walk holily without this For the former it is plain that seeing the truths of Christianity are made known to us by divine Revelation and therefore are above reason though not contrary to it there is no such requisite to believe as a simplicity of the mind whereby we do acquiesce upon the authority of the Word never curiously disputing and cavilling how it can be This the Apostle calleth Captivating every thought 2 Cor. 10. 5. And herein Christianity differeth from Philosophy the later requireth science by disputes and discourses the former requireth an humble assent to the testimony affirming such a thing to be so So that we may say It 's the want of this simplicity of the mind that maketh so many absurd and damnable heresies in the Church What causeth the Socinian the Arminian but the want of this humility of mind It is said to be the Embleme of Nazianzen Theologia nostra est Pythagorica Our Divinity is pythagorical as amongst Pythagoras his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was enough to silence all disputes So much more ought this amongst Christians to quiet all disputations The Lord hath said it Christ hath spoken it Thus it is written But how sadly may we lament to see all Divinity turned into Quaerees and Utrum's videtur's quod sic and videtur's quod non How is this holy simplicity in believing laid aside and raâ—â—onal scientifical inquisitions advanced as if now the just were to live by reason not by faith as if reason were the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Certainly this maketh men so uncertain so inconstant they look not after faith which as the Schoolmen well say is
Prophets presence as if all had been well Oh then how vain is it to hide thy designs and intentions to men to make protestations and professions of thy integrity to men if the all-seeing eye of God behold other things in thee What greater obligation can there be to have all the motions and turnings of thy heart cordial and faithfull towards God seeing no man can more perfectly behold the outward gestures of thy body then he doth the inward motions of thy soul Oh say God knoweth what I think what my heart is upon what is the spring of every duty I do Secondly Sincerity respecteth God As he is the first cause and the last end The Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end of whom are all things and to whom are all things Rom. 11. 36. Now this two-fold property in God the sincere man doth greatly improve First As he is the Efficient cause so that he expects all-sufficiency and power from the grace of God alone The Scripture dot frequently affirm That it is by the grace of God alone that we are able to do any good thing therefore the sincere man dareth not sacrifice to his own nets dare not give any thing to his own power and free-will neither dare he rob Christ of his glory by setting up Angels and Saints as Mediators under any nice distinctions whatsoever he trembleth to dispute against the grace of God lest he want the blessed effects of it in the greatest necessities You may observe David and Paul who expresse such remarkable sincerity towards God that they go out of themselves depend on God alone and not onely do they acknowledge God the supream giver of all the good they enjoy but also they make him the ultimate end to whom they referre all things remembring the Apostles rule 1 Cor. 10 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God This is a very hard lesson to do a very difficult duty to be performed but yet the sincere man he overlooketh all second causes and instruments with his Eagles-eye he gets up as it were into the mountain and leaveth all his carnal interests below as Abraham did his beasts and servants when he went to sacrifice Isaac This single and pure intention of Gods glory is not so easily accomplished as it is quickly and commonly pretended Oh how rare a thing is it to eat and drink to study and preach that hereby God may be glorified How closely doth some carnal respect or vain-glorious motive follow thee in the duty as Asahel did Joab which thou canst not make depart from thee till thou thrust it as it were thorow the fift rib till thou give it its mortal blow by mortification Thirdly The sincere heart relateth all to God In regard of his Sovereignty and dominion over him Because God is the supream Lord and Lawgiver who only can impose Laws upon the conscience therefore in his obedience he doth principally look to the will and authority of the Lawgiver This is a notable character of sinceâ—ity to obey because thus saith the Lord it is his will and as the supream orb doth carry along with it the inferiour orbs though against their particular inclination Thus doth the will of God because supream bring the creatures will into obedience when corrupt inclinations do propound a contrary way It is the matter of our prayer which we are constantly to pour forth unto God That his will may be done his will not our will Therefore if sincerity have a throne in thy heart thy sense will be as soft wax to receive any stamp or impression from God what God commands though against pleasures profits and all the inclinations of thy corrupt heart thou doest readily submit unto Thus thou offerest up thy self as an whole burnt-offering unto God Lastly This sincerity doth respect the wisdome of God in all those sharp and bitter providential temptations that a man may be exercised with for his faithfull service to God The Scripture doth frequently inform of this what cups of wormwood they must drink that will be Christs Disciples what crowns of thorns they must endure upon their heads who expect crowns of glory from him Now the heart that is sincere doth not cavil and murmur at Gods dispensations herein though so unpleasing to flesh and blood but doth wholly acquiesce in the wisdom of God filencing the impetuous motions of his Spirit God is wiser than I he knoweth this is better for me then I think it is For certainly all discontents do arise from this we think God might have shewed more love to us and more wisdome if he did not suffer such and such things to come upon us Therefore afflictions and persecutions are the special Touchstone to discover our sincerity This fire will manifest whether we be gold or drosse these winnowings whether chaffor wheat The hypocrite wanting root doth commonly begin to wither when the Sunnes scorching heat doth arise and if they are at any times afflicted for Christ it is against their wils so that with Simon they are compelled to carry the crosse of Christ but sincerity doth not only admire the wisdome of God in such dispensations but justifieth him and condemneth its self Thus you see what are those high and sublime things a sincere man looketh at in all his religious wayes That whereas in a bodily way the beast looketh to the ground when man hath an upright look towards Heaven So even every natural man hath a soul bowed down only to earthly respects while the sincere heart ascends up to God himself Therefore it is that he doth prudently escape all those ambushments that low inferiour ends are apt to lay in his way thereby to intercept him from arriving at God himself We cannot reckon all the inferiour and unworthy ends that are apt to interpose no more than the creeping things in the Sea onely some few we may instance in As 1. Vain-glory and Self-applause that many times clippeth the wings of our souls that while we are moving to Heaven this maketh us fall to the ground This made the Pharisees lose the heavenly reward of all their religious duties And how often have the holiest of men complained of this Dalilah this sweet poison this flattering enemy Is it not the worme that devoureth the sweetest flowers and the ripest fruit This maketh death in the pot even damnation in excellent duties therefore the sincere man doth constantly watch and ward keeping a strict search into his heart that no such thief enter in and steal away his treasure A second inferiour and base end which would corrupt us in the service of God is The external greatnesse of honour or the seeming profit of wealth This dust hath often blown into the eyes that they have not been able to look up What glorious things did Jehu do for God If you look upon the external actions only But his heart was not sincere
through the Word preached be more hardened in their sinnes and made more obdurate in their evil wayes this is besides the intention of the Word As when the Sunne blindeth a mans eyes through the dazelling thereof this is accidental the proper and natural effect being to illuminate all spiritual authority is for edification And in the other Text you have the power of grace upon Paul's heart so affecting of him that he cannot do any thing against the truth Neither doctrinally or practically would he indulge to any evil way but thereby the end of his Ministry should be frustrated Now this is a special work of Gods grace so to sanctifie and keep tender our hearts that we take heed of every thing that may obstruct the happy course of the Gospel Whereas the Jesuitical party will wander out into many by and extravagant wayes to accomplish their designes Jansenius a learned Papist Jansen Sanctus Augustinus liber proaemialis pag. 9. speaketh of one man who not daring to do something out of favour to another which he knew was contrary to the principles of morality neither affirmed by any Authours as probable had this answer from a Jesuited Doctor Aude nos efficiemus probabile Be bold to do it and we will make it probable Here we see their power is many times against the truth But Paul was so kept by the grace of God that not only deliberately he did not any thing which might retard the progresse of the Gospel but also nor so much as by infirmity or any sudden surprizal as we see Peter did and therefore Paul did withstand him to the face This therefore is a blessed worke of Gods grace when a Minister is kept so faithfully to the end of his Office that neither in life or doctrine will he doe any thing that may be contrary to it Secondly The grace of God extended itself mercifully to Paul In that he was kept low and humble under all those signal favours and prerogatives that God hath bestowed upoh him Was not every thing in Paal almost extraordinary and miraculous and yet who is kept lower in his own eyes who is more emptied of himself looking upon what he had been more than what he was So that it was of Gods grace to Paul to make him acknowledge Gods grace not to trust in himself And thus it is alwayes in the Church of God one special work of Gods grace is to make us sensible of it to give all to it to goe out of our selves and thus Gods fulnesse is most seene in our emptinesse We see the Jewes went about wholly to establish their own righteousnesse The Stoick Philosophers who did so admire vertue were thereby advancers of themselves They looked upon virtue as their own work that they were not beholding to God for it Therefore Seneca maketh this the cause and foundation of all happinesse Fidere sibiipsi to trust in himself And the Pelagian though Christian yet his Doctrine driveth wholly to self-advancement So that though he would acknowledge the necessity of that prayer Forgive us our sinnes yet so as when we had sinned otherwise they pleaded perfection and that a man might be without sinne yet for the ensuing Petition Lead us not into temptation c. They would not understand it of spiritual temptations and occasions to sinne as if we needed to pray to God for grace to prevent future sinnes our own will and strength was sufficient for that but of external miseries such as not to fall off an horse or to be killed by a thiefe These were the temptations onely we prayed against in this Petition But where the grace of God is effectually working there it maketh a man apprehensive of the necessity of it and that to every action all the day long and truly this is from God when the Minister of the Gospel shall go out of all parts learning and studies whatsoever acknowledging it's the grace of God alone that inableth him in his work happily this would make the presence of God more powerfull with us if we did own his grace more Thirdly The grace of God with Paul in his ministerial imployment was The directing of him in meditations and guiding of him to such thoughts and words as might most prevaile upon those that heare him For this we must know that where Gods presence is with a Minister there he is directed to preach on such subject matter rather than other which God will blesse to a most happy and effectual issue This made Paul say excellently 2 Cor. 5. 6. Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament Here you see Paul acknowledging that we are not able to think one thought in our ministerial way advantagious for the edification of others without the grace of God As in prayer we know not what to pray or how to pray without the Spirit of God inabling So neither in preaching we know not what to preach or how to preach unlesse the Lord guide us That is observable Eccles 12. 9 10. Because the preacher was wise he taught the people knowledge he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs The preacher sought to find out acceptable words By this we see that there is special wisdome to search out fit matter and fit words which cannot be obtained without God the fountain of wisdome So that herein the Minister of God is to exercise himself daily in prayer to God that he would teach him how to preach and what to preach that he may not sow chaff in stead of wheat and cockles in stead of barley that he may be so directed as to pitch upon those arguments those expressions which will be most effectually working upon the souls of those that do hear Fourthly The grace of God was wonderfully manifest in Paul By the spirit of self-denial patience zeal and courage which was in him while accomplishing his worke Indeed Paul is like a pleasant and choice Garden wherein are so many precious flowers that we know not which to pluck first Thus Paul was so eminently bespangled with all the graces of Gods Spirit that we know not which to commend first His self-denial was admirable when he complained All sought their own and not the things of Jesus Christ This argued how much he did abhorre such courses Phil. 3. 21. when he was so solicitous to bring off deluded souls from the false Apostles who reigned over them It was not his honour or glory that he looked at if so be they would own Christ and his wayes in truth let him be rejected he mattered it not This he plainly professeth 2 Cor. 13. 7. I pray God ye do no evil not that we should be approved but that you should do that which is honest though we be accounted as reprobates It is plain therefore that it was their good their salvation
to the course of the world not according to the lusts of men but as Christ hath commanded so we live and then partly because by Christs blood we do obtain this life he hath redeemed us from our former evil wayes he hath purchased a liberty for us and then partly because our life is terminated in Christ and we doe objectively propound him in all our wayes as Paul saith Galat. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Christ is the principle or authour Christ is the means and way Christ is the finisher and end of this life In the next place let us consider What goeth to make a mans conversation godly that we may say it is not some sudden motions or transitory workings but his conversation that is according to the Gospel For if some particular good actions at some times were enough to make a man godly then the way to Heaven would be no longer a narrow but a broad way Now in this description you must not expect a metaphysical or punctual decision of how many actions goe to make a mans conversation So that if he come up to such a number yet if he want one more then it cannot be called his conversation but we must understand it morally and in a large sense Briefly therefore to a mans conversation there is required as the foundation of all First A principle of regeneration to be made a new creature There must be spiritual life before there can be spiritual motions and actions So that if men are brought sometimes to what is holy by external motives because they have godly parents godly Magistrates godly Governonrs as Joash all the while Jehoiada the Priest and his Uncle lived This cannot be called a mans conversation there is not a new nature within but outward motives prevail with him and thereupon as they ebb or flow so is there a variation and change in his practices Secondly There must be a predominancy in his heart and affections to what is holy Christ must be his treasure he must love him more than any thing in the world then father or mother or life it self For if the soul be not thus principally fixed on him when that which is dearer and more loved doth suggest it self then they leave Christ This is plainly seene Matth. 13. in those hearers who believed for a while and brought forth some fruit but then when persecutions did arise they fell off then these seeming vines became thorns Thirdly There must be an actual improvement of those habitual principles of grace that are within For though a man have never so much grace within yet if it be not improved by outward exercise we cannot call it a godly conversation and therefore it is a vain thing for men to appeale to the goodnesse of their heart and their good meanings for the conversation is more to be believed than all these There must then be these streames as well as the fountain we must shew our faith as you heard by a godly conversation so that this relateth most to the exercise of grace though it presuppose the fountain and root within Lastly To our conversation There are required pure and heavenly motives that we do holy duties for holinesse sake That we follow Christ for Christs sake not for loaves The old Rule is A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia He that doth a godly duty because godly will do all godly duties As the fire because it burneth naturally it burneth in one countrey as well as another Thus a Christian because carried out purely and naturally as it were to the things of God doth own them every where in all places in all companies That which is godlinesse at one place and in one company is godlinesse in another Onely we must necessarily take along one Caution lest we condemn all the generation of the godly for hypocrites A mans conversation is godly though in many things he faileth by common infirmities though in all things he cometh short of that perfection which is required of him Yea though for a season through prevailing temptations he fall into and lie in some grievous sinnes David's conversation may be called godly he was a man after Gods own heart And Peter's conversation may be godly though he had such a foul fall So that infirmities yea sometimes grosse sinnes fallen into through urging temptations cannot be said to make a mans conversation wicked when the general inclination of the soul is set for that which is good It is true he that doth customarily and habitually sinne he is not borne of God neither can a regenerate man sinne so as the Apostle speaketh 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Every swoon or fainting is not death yet such having the seed of grace within will as Trees that seemed to be dead all winter because there is life in the root at last revive and flourish when the spring of Gods grace shall draw it forth This is necessary lest the Doctrine of a godly conversation seem onely an Idaea like Tullies Oratour and that it cannot be found any where in the world In the last place let us see what profitable Uses may be drawn from this truth And First Of Instruction who are to informe themselves their conversation is not holy notwithstanding some good things may sometimes be found in their lives And 1. Such who in fear of death onely and in times of sad dangers doe call upon the Lord and cry out of their sinnes Is this your conversation Doe ye ever thus but in some times of exigency It is greatly disputed Whether a death-bed repentance can ever be sincere The Socinians are too rigid denying the salvation of such persons because they have no time to shew forth good works in their conversation But as this may be too rigid so on the other side Austin and others put it greatly to the doubt Non dico damnabitur sed nec dico salvabitur then is the conversation holy when in all conditions rich or poor sick or well living or dying thou doest diligently seek the face of God 2. Such cannot plead for an holy conversation in the world Who are onely such in some companies and in some places Many of the Nations became Iewes for fear of them Thus if thou because the company thou art with is religious or in the place where thou livest godlinesse is owned with credit then thou wilt also doe as they doe talke as they talk This is not thy conversation Paul was godly in all the places of the world even at Rome and where he was in the greatest danger Lot was righteous in wicked Sodome It is not with a godly man as they say of some Trees in one Countrey they bring pleasant and wholsome fruit but if transplanted into another soil poisonous and destructive So he in some places speaketh for godlinesse and in other places to laugh and deride it This is not thy conversation 3. Neither
so infinitely transcending all earthly comeforts and therefore such who find no matter of rejoycing herein it is because they are carnal sensual they abide under the Dominion of their lusts they never found the Ministry spiritual and powerfull to them They never had the experience of the blessed effects thereof upon their hearts and then How can they rejoyce in iâ— 3. Seing that this mutual assistance is appointed by God as a special means to destroy the Kingdome of Satan Hence it is that he doth most assault this indeavouring to make discords and differences between Minister and people That so both the benefit and comefort of such unity might be frustrated It is true the Devil delights to sow his Tares in every field therefore in civil estates in domestical relations he throweth his Firebrands and loveth to see all in Passions and discontents but especially his design is against those spiritual relations because the well mannaging of them doth more immediately oppose his throne of darkness For this end he stirred up so many fals Prophets and Teachers whose works was to divide between the people and their faithfull guides And can we think the Apostles would have written so Apologetically in many places condescended so much in the wayes of Humility and diligence to win their affections but that he knew by such Dissentions the Devil would inlarge his Dominions Hence it is that Calvin upon that place of 2 Cor. 2. 11. Lest satan should get an advantage of us though he take notice of their exposition who refer it to the Incestuous person as if Satans designe was upon that occasion to have him swallowed up with excessive sorrow yet he doth in a great part relate it to the Dissention that the Devil endeavoured to make between them and Paul for if Paul was for the confirming of their love to that person now repenting but the Corinthians under a pretence of zeal against sin should be against him This would have caused sad Divisions and so thereby Satan would have prevailed It is observed as one of Julians devilish designes against Christianity to make a difference between the Christians and their godly Pastors and therefore he did craftily and secretly pour all the oyl he could into such flames to make them greater and truly the Instances of such differences even in the Reformed Churches do give too full a testimony of the Devils labour herein Should we speak of the Churches troubles at Franckford though exiled and under Persecution The sharpest whereof was between the Flock and their Shepherd yea of the hot contention between Geneva and Calvin and in many other Churches we may easily be perswaded that there is scarce any one thing wherein the Devil goeth more about as a roaring Lyon to deceive them than to break the slaves of beauty and bands between Shepherd and Sheep which should make both Minister and people the more watchfull and diligent and also much in Prayer that God would disapoint all such purposes of Satan and his Instruments This may suffice in the General Let us now proceed to the respective particulars and first In what sence and how a people may rejoyce in their faithfull Guides And first They are to rejoye in them as those instruments which God hath used to bring spiritual light unto their minde and heavenly heat into their heart For this it is the Apostle doth so much insist upon to convince the Corinthians That if ever they did believe if ever they felt any thing of the saving efficacy of Gods spirit upon their hearts it was by his Ministry and therefore they would be unthankfull to God if they did not take notice of Gods special blessing to them by his means It is true 1 Cor. 3. we see there the Apostle zealously beating down their factions and Contentions which they raised by setting up one Officer and Teacher to the despising of another and thereupon exalteth Christ onely But yet though Christ be the principal only and he alone giveth the encrease yet he granteth the Necessity of the Ministry withall Paul must Plant Apollo must water and these are Ministers by whom they believed Ver. 5. Although then it be our duty to lift up our hearts to God alone as he in whom and by whom all spiritual success doth arise to us yet we are to rejoyce in such instruments as God useth For if we may be glad of such Instruments that cause our temporall comforts and supports If the Childe may rejoyce in the father if an indigent man in him who is potent and bountifull no wonder then if we do cry out How welcome are the feet of those who bring glad tydings of peace Rom. 10. 15. How beautiful are the very feet of such So that it plainly demonstrateth all such to be delivered up to the spirit of slumber and prophaneness or of Error and Heresie who do not find this cause to rejoyce in them as Gods Instruments to their Soules 2. We are to rejoyce in them because of their works sake and the Faithfull discharge of their duties And the more powerfull they are herein the greater ought our joy to be Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man account of us as the Embassadours of God and Stewards of Christ Thus the Apostle also commandeth 1 Thessal 11. 13. To esteem very highly of those who are over them and admonish them and that for their works sake Though they do admonish and reprove you which is as unpleasing to a sin as salt to a sore yet you are to esteem highly of them This requireth not onely external respect but cordial and Internal and this must be for their works sake Many times a people may glory in the Abilities in the Learning and admirable gifts of their Teachers thinking that thereby they surpass other Congregations This is a vain-glorious thing too often seen in great Cities but the Apostle saith it must be for their works sake because they do faithfully and powerfully lead you into the paths of Eternal Life Thus as David esteemed the word of God above gold and silver because thereby he was forewarned from sin The spiritual and holy commands of God not induring any sin made him thus in love with it So it should also be with our people they should delight and rejoyce in the Ministry because it is efficacious against sin because it enlighteneth it converteth it destroyeth the works of the Devil so that this particular discovers the Prophanenesse and impiety of such men who rejoyce most in such Ministers as are either lazy and negligent or that are dissolute and carnally humouring men in their evil wayes These they boast in and rejoyce in they account none like them Thus God of old complained of the people of Israel that they loved such who did sow pillowes under their armes and encouraged the hearts of those that were wicked but made those sad whom the Lord would not have made sad Ezek. 13. 10
as Hos 4. 1. Is it not better and more comfortable to be a Shepherd to the bruit beasts than to such men for the Shepherd driveth his sheep into what Pasture he pleaseth and ordereth them according to his desire but these though bruitish in knowledge yet are devillish in wilfulness and obstinacy and therefore as they ignorant so they will live and die and go to Hell in it go from darkness here to darkness hereafter It is a very great comfort to preach to a knowing people to men of understanding and that are desirous to be more and more and more instructed There is great hope of such a peoples conversion afterwards as you see by that expression Isa 6. 10. Lest they understand with their heart and be converted What good doth the light at nown day to a blinde man This makes Preaching in vain and Hearing in vain Now that you may be matter of rejoycing to your Minister in this respect consider these things First The necessity of knowledg in holy things There is no salvation without it 1 Tim. 2. 4. God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the truth If they will be saved they must first come to the knowledg of the truth Thou that art sottishly ignorant of the Principles of Christianity there is no way for thy salvation such Ignorance as well as Profaneness will necessarily damn Isa 26. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them This very Text breaketh the staff of your confidence for you are ready to say Alas we are poor ignorant people we know nothing What then will this help you No God that made you will not have mercy on you It is true we pitty poor old blinde men because they are blinde against their will They would use any means to have their sight but you that are Ignorant are no wayes to be pittied for it is affected and willfull your eyes might be opened and you will not Oh how sad is it to preach to stones to preach to posts for so we do while to the grosly ignorant Therefore as one said when asked what was the benefit of Learning saith he nè lapis sedeat super lupidem that when a man is grown up he may not in the Counsel-House sit as a stone upon a stone implying that a man without knowledg was no better than a sensless stone and truly this good would you have by getting knowledg that in the Congregation thou mayest not sit a block upon a block How grievous is it to have Idol-hearers that have eyes but see not and ears but hear not Know then to be an ignorant people is matter of grief to a godly Minister for such carry about with them the visible mark as it were of condemnation Secondly That ye may be a knowing people Consider not onely the necessity but the usefulness and profitableness of Christian knowledg By this we come to know how to please God how to be saved how to enjoy eternal life All are convinced of the necessity of knowledg of earthly things They must know how to plow and sow Do you not set your children to know a Trade do you not say They must do something that they may live implying they are outwardly undone if they know not these things Oh foolish and unwise Must men know how to live here and not know how to live hereafter Must men know how to keep of poverty and not how to keep off damnation Why then do you not lay aside all things to get some competent knowledg of Christian Principles without which you cannot get any good by Sermons by acraments without which ye cannot tell how to live or how to die And never complain saying Thou art two old or thy memory is bad It is plain thou hast no heart to it no zeal and affection for it For how many as unlikely as thou art have by diligence got knowledg even to the admiration of others And God he useth to bless those and to encrease their gifts that are serious in their desires after these things But the truth is The world hath thy heart Lusts have thy heart If thou didst follow the wise mans Counsel to seek for it more than gold or silver more then any precious treasure thou wouldest not be such a blinde wretch as thou art Then saith Solomon thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledg of God Prov. 2. 3 4 5. If then thou dyest in thy ignorance and without instruction which is threatned as a dread full judgment Prov. 11. 23. blame thy own corrupt lazy and wicked heart now this universal ignorance is the more abominable because we enjoy the plentifull means of knowledg we have constant Preaching we have the Word read and Ordinances administred in our known tongue How intolerable then is it if generally people be still as ignorant as if the Bible were not translated and all Church Administrations dispensed in an unknown tongue Secondly Then are people matter of rejoycing to a ministry when they are believing of the word of God and receiving it as Gods word thereby awing their hearts and captivating the whole man thereunto For knowledg is not enough How many know and can remember places of Scripture can understand most Sermons But they do not believe those things to be true neither are they ingrafted in their hearts by faith saying This is Gods word how can I go against it this is the word of God and not man that condemneth this sin commands that duty Wo then be unto me if I gainsay it for this the Apostle doth exceedingly commend the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. 13. ye he is so affected with it that he did thank God without ceasing in his respect even because they received the word of God which they heard of Paul not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh in those that believe How comfortable a thing is this for a Minister to see his people receiving the truths he preaches of Gods word They hear and tremble they believe and tremble so that without this saith as it is impossible to please God so it is to get any good by the Ministry As it s not the seeing of meat but the eating of it and digesting that doth nourish so neither is it the hearing and knowing but the believing of it that maketh a powerfull change upon a people Thirdly Then a people rejoyce a faithfull Minister when to knowledge and Faith there is added that compleat efficacy of the Word as to regenerate us and make us to become new creatures Even men who yet will lye roaring for ever in Hell may have great knowledg and some faith yet because not regenerated not delivered fully from their bondage of sin they lived in do therefore come short of Eternall glory Now this is the most
when thou shalt see what that Heaven what that glory and happiness is which at that day godliness will give thee full possession of how quickly will thy thoughts alter Then thou wilt cry out Oh it is a mans riches to be godly it is a mans wisdome to be godly a mans profit to be godly though he did there by lose all this present world Again We are prejudiced against Godlinesse because it is not in honour and repute None of the great men of the wise men do much regard it Men of great estates and birth think godliness below their greatness that it is a dishonour a stain to their reputation to walk precisely and singularly to the wicked course of the world But in this also that day will make a mighty change when you shall see that then godliness is only enquired after Then the Question will be How hast thou lived How hast thou kept thy self unspotted from sinne Then thou wouldst give thousands of worlds for godlinesse That holiness and purity thou now laughest at it will at that day be only in request At that day there is no difference between Kings and peasants between the noble and base between the rich and poor but either wicked or godly sheep or goats that maketh all the distinction If Alexander plead he conquered the world If Craesui plead the multitude of riches If one saith he is an Emperour another he is a Nobleman a Gentleman these are absurd pleas at that day Art thou a godly an holy man This only will carry it Oh then remember you will have other thoughts of godlinesse than now you have It will be more in request and honourable esteem than now it is Whosoever he be that doth evil though the great Potentates of the world the Judge will then say Depart I know you not Lastly We are prejudiced against Godlinesse because we think it is too strict it requireth too much of us It will not allow us those pleasures and delights we might have Oh but at that day such a thought will presently vanish all the labour of my life thou wilt say is not worthy to one minute of this glory could I have been a Martyr every day it would not have been equivalent to this present happiness SERM CV A further Discovery of the great Changes that will be wrought at the Day of Christ's second coming 2 COR. 1. 14. In the day of the Lord Jesus AT this great day you heard there would be a wonderfull change upon the thoughts and perswasions of men to what they are now It is not so much what thy affections and apprehensions are for the present but what they be at that day Especially in three things this Change will be seen 1. About Godlinesse which hath been dispatched 2. About Good men 3. About Christ We come therefore to the second and that is the wonderfull change that wicked men shall then have in reference to those who live godly and dare not conforme themselves to the course of this world As First Such who separate themselves from the evil wayes of the world They are matter of reproach and scorne They are judged the fooles and the simple ones by all that live near them But at that day you will have other thoughts you will then admire their happinesse call your selves the fools and deluded ones wishing that it might fare so with you as it doth with them It is said of those noble Worthies Heb. 11. 38. That they had tryal of cruel mockings Yea David though a King Psal 69. 12. complaineth He was the song of the drunkards Thus you see what thoughts men of the world have of such who fear God as Michal did David They despise them in their heart But oh the wonderfull alteration that day will cause when thou shalt see those who were despised by thee honoured by God Those whom thou didst reproach to be blessed by God What a confusion will this be to thee Then you will cry out We fools and mad men judged their wayes folly and matter of scorn but with what unspeakable glory doth God honour them Secondly Another false perswasion they have about godly men is That they are Hypocrites that all they do is not out of love to God but for ostentation sake That it is not the glory of God but their own glory and advantage that they seek after Paul was so often charged with corrupt ends in his Ministry that he is compelled to make his Apologetical Defence to clear himself Yea Christ himself was judged by the Pharisees to be an Impostor and that he came of himself doing his own will and seeking his own glory which made him so earnestly deny it Iohn 6. 38. Iohn 8. 50. This is a sore evil upon the sonnes of men that because they have an enmity and hatred against the godly yet they cannot put this forth upon godlinesse as godlinesse therefore they represent the godly in such colours and lay such things to their charge that they may seeme to have just cause to vent their malice against them But at that day their sincerity and integrity will appear then all the world shall see that their hearts were upright their aimes and intentions sincere that what reproofe what holy endeavours they used for the recovering of men out from their sinnes was not out of hatred or any other ill principle as wicked men are now apt to judge but out of pure love and desire for their soules good Let not then evil and ungodly men take upon them to judge the hearts of others that is the prerogative of God alone neither doe thou judge before the great day of judgement Take heed of calling such Hypocrites and dissemblers of calling such Pharisaical and conceited whom it may be God will own at that day for his jewels for his faithfull ones If there be any Judas who followeth Christ because of the Bagge If there be any who believe in Christ yet love the glory of men more than of God they shall beare their burden The portion of Hypocrites in Hell is a double portion But let not all the Apostles be censured for a Judas Let not all be judged Hypocrites because he was so Remember that this day is a revelation of all things all the hidden purposes and counsels of mens hearts shall then be made manifest The Apostle giveth this exhortation to such as judged him 1 Corinth 4. 5. he sheweth them how little he regarded mans judgement for it is the Lord that judgeth Therefore they are not to judge any thing before the time untill the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of mens hearts and then shall every man have praise of God Is not this a full place to make thee afraid of all censures and hard speeches against such who professe godlinesse Let them alone to the Lord there is a day when all the thoughts
is like Pharaohs lean Kine that devoureth all it meeteth with Why doth a man pursue this thing one time and then oppose it again Why doth he build and then destroy it again It is only for Self No wonder then if our Saviour laying down a fundamental Qualification in his Disciples requireth that a man should deny himself Mat. 16. 24. and truly he that cannot deny himself he will certainly deny God and Christ he will deny the true Faith of Christ when he is plunged into extream temptations Self-denyal then is that which will make a man deservedly be called homo quadratus better than he in Aristotle for he is settled upon such a sure and immoveable Rock that he will abide the same under all stormes and tempests In the next place we are to shew What are those Principles and rules of grace we ought to walk by opposite to those of the flesh that some may alwayes be steadfast and immoveable in the work of the Lord. But for the present we may by Use of Instruction be informed what to exspect from any carnal man he will never be faithfull to God and man he will change and alter according to earthly respects and therefore every such man is a lyar both towards God and man Constantine did once by way of stratagem make as if he were turned Arrian and published That all who would not Arrianize should lose their Preferment and be deprived of his favour Hereupon their were very many began to change their Religion many did deny the Deity of Christ But when he had discovered them enough then those few who would not deny the truth and imbrace Arrianism though it was to their great loss he imbraced and incouraged and as for the other Apostates he threw them off saying That they who were not faithfull to God would never be so to him Now from all natural men who walk by no Scripture-Principles but the lusts of their own hearts you cannot exspect any better they never followed Christ but for the loaves and therefore when they fail they will also withdraw These are like the Mill that goeth no longer than the waters drive it No wonder then if godly wen finde them to love to day and to hate to morrow for they do thus even to God himself Take heed then of purposing the things of thy soul after the flesh for then all those present affections will presently dye and wither within thee Thou wilt not long hold in the same minde but we shall quickly see it changed and thee falling off Therefore as David prayed when he saw the people offer willingly 1 Chron. 29. 18. O Lord God keep this for ever in the hearts of thy people So we may pray for thee when at any times manifesting some desires some affections to what is good O Lord keep this for ever in their hearts SERM. CXIII Of Principles in general and a godly mans in particular 2 COR. 1. 17. Or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh HItherto we have been discovering what principles of flesh there are which natural men do walk by whereby they are made so mutable and inconstant We are now to shew the godly mans principles who purposeth things according to the Spirit and thereby he is alwayes the same because God and the Scripture is alwayes the same yea hereby as Nazianzen saith it may be said of him as of God though with infinite disproportion I am God and change not So the godly man having the Image of God stampt upon him he is godly and he changeth not But before we come to specifie the principles of the godly who purpose after the Spirit let us take notice of something in the general relating both to the spiritual and carnal man As First Herein are men differenced from bruit beasts that they are carried forth to operations by some principles within them where as the bruits are acted by a natural instinct The Schoolmen make a Question Whether the bruit beasts do worke for some end or no And they conclude negatively because they have no reason or understanding yet by God the first cause they are acted to an end which they do not understand according to that Rule Opera naturae sunt opera intelligentiae But now man he being a rational creature as he hath some end to which he referreth all his actions so he hath several principles guiding of him to that end These principles are like the wings to the Bird the oars to the ship legs to a man to bring him to his end So that principles having such powerfull influence into what a man doth it behoveth a man above all to look to them to have sanctified and spiritual principles to consult choose and act by Secondly These principles whereby all men do walke are either speculative or practical such as regard truth to be imbraced or good to be practised Indeed there are in all men some general and common principles but of those we speak not There are superadded to these acquired principles or infused and these are more proxim and particular than the former It is a general remote principle That good is to be imbraced evil to be avoided But alas come to the practical improvement of this and then you would think the clean contrary were true that evil only was to be loved and good to be eschewed and the reason is because the corrupt heart of man acquireth practical sinfull principles to walk by So that untill God infuse heavenly principles he doth no more incline to and delight in good than swine can in pleasant flowers Thirdly Such is the universal corruption of man by nature till regenerated that all the principles he walketh by are sinfull carnal and earthly And therefore Paul alledgeth out of the Psalms Rom. 3. That there is none understandeth none seeketh after God there is none that doth good no not one And is it any wonder For can men of corrupt principles do holy actions Every man is as his principles are they make him a good tree or a bad tree As a man is affected so he judgeth so he loveth so he hateth so he liveth and worketh in all things Hence with the Schoolmen we have often this assertion That what principles are to conclusions the same is the end in things to be done And therefore as from false principles a man can never gather true conclusions so neither from a corrupt end is a man ever able to perform a good action They have also another Ruâ—e That what the forme is in natural things giving being unto them the same is the end in moral things and that humane actions are specified from the end They are gold or drosse as the end intended is all which shew the necessity of a mans attending to his principles what they are that move him and carry his soul out to work For it is not so much a mans actions and wayes as his principles
such a broken-hearted sinner that feeleth himself dropping into Hell falling into those eternal flames and therefore cryeth out O Lord Christ save me else I perish We may read Mat. 11. 28. who they are that have the Scepter of Grace held out towards them and are invited to come into his presence even such as labour and are heavy laden that have no rest in their soules as yet because of sin neither their bids nor their houses neither their gardens nor their wealth can give them any rest Hence in the third place They are such as are saved already from the evil and wicked wayes of the world There is a twofold salvation the one from Hell and damnation and many look only upon this as salvation But then there is a salvation from the evil customes and wicked wayes of the world and he that hath not this salvation will never have the latter Therefore Act. 2. 37. when Peters hearers were pricked in their heart that is a preparatory way to conversion they asked Men and brethren what shall we do They would gladly be saved from the guilt of these sinnes Then observe what counsel the Apostle giveth yea he did it with much exhorting and testifying v. 40. save your selves or be ye saved from this untoward generation that is Be not in the number of those that do resist Christ that will not believe his Doctrine and miracles but escape from them they are in a dangerous estate Therefore if thou wouldest be saved hereafter see Art thou saved already art thou delivered from the number of those wicked and ungodly men who will not obey Christ How greatly would a man roaring in Hell be affected with such mercy as to be delivered from those torments But it is no less to be saved from those ungodly wayes thou didst once live in to be saved from the wicked companions and the inticements of lusts that once thou wast intangled in Fourthly They who are to be saved are Christs people and none else Such as take him for a Lord as well as a saviour Every wicked wretch loveth to hear that Christ is a saviour but then if thou enquirest to whom this will marr all thy hopes He will save his people from their sinnes Mat. 1. 21. his people that is such as do accept of him and receive him as their Lord and Master who do cordially submit to his Lawes and Ordinances So that these two words Christs people do shut out a very great part of of the world from this Salvation they have neither part or lot herein Is the praphane man one of Christs people no he is one of his enemies one of his adversaries he saith We will not have Christ raign over us Fiftly They that are saved are very few comparatively to those that are damned Christ though he be a sufficient saviour to save the whole world yet he is an actual efficacious saviour but to few only therefore they are called a little flock Hence when one put that Question to our Saviour Whether there would but few be saved Luke 13. 23. Though our Saviour did not directly answer him as proceeding from curiosity yet he did implicitely resolve it when he bid that man strive to enter in at the straight gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able There will be a time when a saviour will be in request though for the present we seek after other saviours But alas Will thy riches save thee will thy wealth save thee at that day If Christ then be a Saviour and salvation is the great end of thy soul to prepare for that ought to be thy greatest care and delight Better never have been born then not to be saved hereafter Oh remember now is the acceptable time of thy salvation now Christ proffereth to be a Saviour In his first coming his profession is that he came not to judg but to save the world John 12. 47. But at his last coming he will then appear not to save but to juge the world Oh then that men should be so besotted and bewitched as to neglect this salvation offered Oh what terror will it be to hear millions of persons adjudged for their sinnes to eternal destruction then in horror to cry out Oh Christ save us Lord save us but it will be too late The Second Doctrine I shall but only name which is That the Lord Jesus is Christ that is the Messias the anointed one he is a Christ that he may be a Jesus Now Christ is no more then Anointed and because in the Old Testament Kings and Priests and sometimes Prophets were anointed to that Office and thereby were made sacred and inviolable Touch not my anointed and do my Prophets no harm hence in allusion Christ is said to be anointed not indeed with material oyl but with the holy Ghost which is called the oyl of gladness Psal 45. 7. And from hence we have our names Christians as much as anointed ones A glorions title implying our participation of Gods Spirit and his Graces Hence the Apostle 1 John 2. 20. But ye have an unction from the Holy One. and at the 21th verse in this Chapter God is said to have anointed us I shall therefore put off this excellent point of our anointing by Christ till we arrive at that Text. SERM. CXXII Of Assistants required in the Ministry false Charges laid against it and the happy Agreement of it 2 COR. 1. 19. Who was preached among you by us even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus THe next Particular considerable is The Ministerial and instrumental Cause of the preaching of Christ and there we have three named The First and principall is Paul himself The other two Colleagues and Associates are Sylvanus and Timotheus Calvin propounds the Question Why Apollo was not named as well as these and he giveth this Answer That probably these only were charged with the same Calumnies that Paul was because they were his Attendants and Companions in his spiritual peregrinations and therefore he would defend their names as well as his own Concerning Timotheus which is Timothy we have spoken already from the first verse Only concerning this Sylvanus there is some doubt but the most learned do make him to be the same with Sylas mentioned often in the Acts of the Apostles as a companion of Paul hence some would expound that Periphrastical expression 2 Cor. 8. 18. The brother whose praise is in the Gospel of Sylas as not being applicable to Luke Sylas and Sylvanus are generally thought to be the same name though some would make them two names of one person yea some would make them two distinct persons which hath no probability The word cometh from an Hebrew root which is to send and so is the same with Apostolus an Apostle one that is sent We may read often of this man as being eminent in the Gospel-Ministry Paul inscribeth both his Epistles to the Thessalonians
glory than if there were no promise no grace no mercy and pardon Let not then the People of God have low thoughts of Faith No thou dost more in beleeving and bâ—ingest more glory to God thereby than thou couldest do by all thy other obedience Shouldest thou mortifie sinne to thy desire Shouldest thou dye a Martyr for the Cause of God thou wouldest not so glorifie God as thou dost by beleeving I know this seemeth very Paradoxall to the humbled sinner I know he is difficultly perswaded that by trusting in God he doth thus glorifie God but if thou understandest the Scripture-way then thou wilt quickly see as to beleeve is the most difficult duty so it is the most consequentiall for Gods glory And indeed what have other Duties admirable in them that Faith it self in the Promise hath not in beleeving the understanding is mortified in beleeving the will is crucified in beleeving the Heart and Affections are martyred So that faith maketh a man to be offered up as an whole burnt-offering unto God Use of Instruction That the onely way to make a man live a joyfull life in himself and a glorifying life of God is by faith in the Promises This is that Faith by which a just man is said to live so that thy doubts thy fears thy unbeleeving thoughts these bring a dishonour to God these reproach the Gospel-way these obscure the honour of Christ Let then the godly soul take heed how it giveth way unto such temptations if your own consolation if the glory of God be dear unto you then bolt out unbeleef No wonder if the devil that is so great an enemy to the glory of God doth assault your souls most in this if he have broken down this part of the wall what legions of other sinnes may not he bring with them For this reason many Divines say Sola infidelit as damnat which is not to be understood as if other sinnes were not meritorious of damnation yea and did actually damn only that opposeth the Physician that would heal us that refuseth the atonement that is made for us Secondly As the Promises are thus to be improved for Gods glory by beleeving so also attend to another effect which the Scripture doth inferre from them and that is to cleanse our selves to be every day perfecting holinesse For so the Apostle notably exhorts us 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit Promises are no waies incentives to sinne or encouragements to evil works No but a strong antidote against them Neither is faith in them a light superficiall assent swimming upon the heart as a fowl in the water said Luther but as water calefied doth no more manifest its own coldnesse but the heat of the water so doth faith fermentate and leaven the whole soul of a man that humane things do not so much appear as divine things in him As the Apostle expresseth the energy of it when he said I no longer live but Christ in me and that life is by faith in the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Thou then that sayest all thy trust is in the Promises thou hopest in them for mercy and pardon Are they cleansing Promises purifying Promises Do they perfect holinesse every day in thee through the fear of God SERM. CXXIX Our Settlement and establishment in the faith of the Promises is the gracious work of God alone 2 COR. 1. 21. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God THe Apostle having formerly spoken of his constancy and unchangeableness in the preaching of the Gospel lest this should be attributed to his own power he informeth them who is the fountain of this strength even God himself For the Apostle doth upon all occasions delight to exalt grace having experimentally found the mighty work of it upon his own soul Or we may make the coherence this The Apostle in the verse preceding spake of the certainty of Gods Promises in themselves they were in themselves Yea and Amen which is called certitudo objecti though some learned men think that it is not a proper expression Now in this Verse he cometh to the certitudo subjecti or to show whence it is that the children of God have this assured perswasion in their own hearts that they are true and constant whence it is that we are able to give our Amen as a note of confirmation to them and therefore in the words we may take notice of The blessed and happy Effect it self and that is 1. Confirmation he which stablisheth 2. The Subject of this us with you 3. The Object in whom in Christ 4. The efficient Cause of this is God 5. The Illustration of this Establishment by a threefold Similitude of anointing sealing and giving the earnest 6. By whom God doth this and that is by his Spirit as it followeth in the next verse So that in these two Verses is the proper seat of that excellent and precious Doctrine Which is The assuring and sealing of the Spirit of God that is given unto Believers But I begin with the First It is God that establisheth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we render it now yet some make it causal for he that stablisheth us c. and that seemeth more probable The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Varinus maketh the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 10. is made the same by Hesychius with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which cannot be shaken or altered this word is sometimes used of the Doctrine of Christ when that was confirmed and made sure by miracles or otherwise Mark 16. 20. Thus an oath is said to be the confirmation of the end of a strife Heb. 6. 16. or else of persons as here in the Text and Col. 2. 7. stablished in the Faith which being used passively denoteth that this strength and power we have cometh from God only That we of our selves are like reeds shaken with every winde It is the grace of God that maketh us pillars in his Church So that from the Text we may observe That our establishing and confirming in the faith of the promises is alone the gracious work of God Though the Promises be never so lovely and precious though never so profitable and necessary for us yet we are not able to rest our selves upon them but by the power of God strengthening us Our hearts do so quake and tremble with the consideration of our own sinnes and unworthiness that unless the Lord make it stedfast and immoveable we are tossed up and down like the leaves of a tree That it is God alone who doth thus preserve and confirm us is plain by that notable place 1 Pet. 5. 10. where the Apostle prayeth that God who had called them would make
is the Sealing that here beleevers are said to have from God and that will appear to be a metaphor taken from men who for severall ends make use of seals and so accordingly it is to be applyed to that work of Gods spirit which is in the hearts of beleevers All which will better appear in the opening of the doctrine which is That the people of God are his sealed ones To improve which truth Consider First That we reade of an active sealing and a passive sealing An active sealing is when we by profession or otherwise do give our Testimony to the Truths of God for when a man receiveth the Word of God as his Truth and doth accordingly manifest this in his life herein he doth seal to God So the Evangelist John chap 3. 33. He that hath received his Testimony hath set to his seal that God is true By which expression you see of what necessity faith in the Word of God is with the profession thereof in our lives It is a sealing that God is true insomuch that he who beleeveth not as much as in him lieth maketh God a lyar Oh consider this thou who art tempted to unbeleef to distrust not to rest upon the Promises of God What an hainous sin is this not to give testimony to Gods Truth but this we are not to speak of Therefore there is a passive sealing which we reade applyed to Christ and to all beleevers To Christ thus Joh. 6 27. For him hath God the Father sealed How was that when by the wonderfull miracles that were wrought he was confirmed to be the Messias And then for beleevers they are said to be sealed not only in this place but Eph. 1. 13. and Eph. 4. 30. Thus you see the people of God have a sealing But in the next place Gods sealing of his people is twofold either visible or invisible externall or internall Gods visible sealing was again twofold extraordinary or ordinary extraordinary were the miracles and wonderful signes which many beleevers did in the first plantation of the Gospel Thus Paul cals miracles the signes of his Apostleship 2 Cor. 12. 12. and they are said to be a sign to those that beleeve not 1 Cor. 14. 22. Now some would have this sealing which beleevers are said to receive meant of these extraordinary miracles which were visible to the world but that cannot be partly because all true beleevers in those dayes had them not and some who were not true beleevers did partake of them and partly because that was but for a season while the Gospel was first preached whereas the Scripture speaketh of such a sealing as the godly may have in all ages even till their redemption In the next place there are visible ordinary seals such are the two Sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper for as circumcision is called Rom. 4. 11. the seal of the righteousneste of faith so that is to be applyed to every other Sacrament being of the genericall nature thereof It is true the Apostle in this Text and other places may happily allude to this Sealing in the Sacrament which is visible and externall but because the outward application of these is to the unregenerate and hypocrite as well as the truly godly therefore the Apostle meaneth a further thing even some proper priviledge that is peculiar to the godly only and that invisibly or spiritually in our hearts as the next words shew the earnest of the spirit in our hearts So that as the anointing is a spirituall invisible thing thus also must the sealing be Therefore before we come to declare the nature and use of this obsignation Let us consider what is implied in the metaphor of sealing for thereby we shall in part be brought to understand the admirable nature thereof And first Sealing of the godly doth imply the precious and excellent esteem they have with God for so amongst men those things are sealed up by us as we account precious None use to seal up dung and pibbles in a bag Thus Hag. 2. 23. God promiseth Zerubbabel he will make him as a signet because he had chosen him that is he should be very precious and dear to him as the diamond in a ring Therefore we have that expression Jer. 22. 22. Though Coniah were the signet of my right hand saith God yet I would pluck him from thence that is though never so dear to him We have also the Church praying Can. 8. 6. Set me as a seal upon thy heart as a seal upon thy arm As these who dearly love any were wont to have their image engraven upon the rings they did wear on heir hands to have them continually in remembrance Thus the Church prayeth that she may be put as a seal even upon the heart of Christ so that by this expression is meant the preciousnesse the high esteem God hath of them they are his Jewels they are his peculiar treasure and therefore it is that he doth thus seal them 2. Sealing is for the safety and preservation of any ohing that we would not have lost Thus Dan. 6. 17. when Daniel was cast into prison there was a stone laid upon the mouth of the den and the King sealed it with his own signet that so there might be no hope of having Daniel released and thus God sealeth his people by special grace preserving them that they shall never totally and finally be lost though Satan be never so watchful to destroy them They are sealed and therefore they shall certainly persevere but because this will come more fully in the next particular I passe it over 3. Sealing doth not only imply safety but security also against such danger that is imminent upon us God sealeth his people that the destruction which is consuming of others may passe them by Thus we reade in Ezechiel cap. 9. 4. when the Angel was to destroy the inhabitants of Jerusalem yet there was a command given to set a mark upon the foreheads of such as did sigh and cry for the abominations thereof When the Egyptians likewise were to be destroyed they passed by every house that had blood sprinkled upon the posts thereof Rahabs red thread was like a seal to preserve her from destruction and her family hence Rev. 7 4. we reade of many thousands of Gods servants sealed in the foreheads and they were therefore sealed that they might be preserved from desolation This sealing was not any external mark no more than the mark of the beast was but that reall profession of Christ which they put forth in the midst of all dangers not defiling themselves with the impurities of others And thus God doth still seal his people that Satan though he desire to winnow and sift them yet is not able to devour them as his prey Oh what unspeakable mercy is this when the justice of God goeth with a drawn sword to throw such and such into hell he passeth by thee because thou
for they have not returned to glorifie me It is love to our selves it 's a self-seeking that makes us pray but it would argue love to God and an honouring of him when we returne praises to him It is therefore the duties of Ministers to press you upon the duty of praising of God as well as of praying unto him Many are horribly negligent in both some are more often in prayer then they are in thanksgiving Whereas God is said to inhabit the praises of his people Psalm 22. 3. as well as he is the God that heareth prayers Psalm 65. 2. God dwelleth in the praises of Israel that is in or amongst Israel continually praising of him or else it is to shew that as a man dwelleth in his house constantly residing there so God is daily administring matter of praises to his people implying thereby that there is no time no place no condition wherein we ought not to bless and praise God Those many Psalmes which David made declare how necessary a duty it is and how much the people of God are to exercise themselves therein Hence it is that David professeth he will never intermit this duty as we are to pray without ceasing so to praise God without ceasing Psalm 145. 1 2. I will bless thy name for ever and ever I will bless thee every day See what an ardent affection David hath to this For although the Apostle James saith Is any man afflicted let him pray is any man merry let him sing Psalmes James 5. 13. implying thereby that there are speciall times wherein one duty is to be exercised more than another yet there is no time wherein the Lord doth not give his people occasion to give thanks to him That your hearts may be both rightly instructed in the manner of this duty and awed against all slothfullness therein take notice of these ensuing particulars 1. What is required to this Duty And 2. The Motives thereunto And First To praise God there is required an acknowledgement by faith that God and God alone is the Author of all the mercies both temporall and spirituall that we do enjoy Hence an Atheist can never be thankfull because he owneth no God the giver of mercies And the practicall Atheist who liveth as if there were no God he like the Swine eateth indeed upon the fruite that he findeth upon the ground but never looketh up to the tree from whence it falleth Now this practicall Atheisme doth raign every where and that causeth the universall ingratitude that is in the world men take these mercies as so many debts belonging to them They look upon them as the things of a naturall course not as the dispensations of a free and voluntary Agent even the great God who giveth them and denyeth them at his pleasure David therefore in his Psalmes doth so often magnifie God by many glorious Titles thereby professing that From God cometh every good and perfect gift Hence also the Apostle James Cap. 4. 15. maketh it the duty of every one in their daily resolutions to buy and sell or to go to such a place to say if the Lord will declaring hereby that it is from God that we are inabled to performe any naturall or civill action I also add that it must be an acknowledgment of God alone because in spirituall mercies many corrupt Teachers have divided the kingdome between Gods gracious power and mans mans free-will Therefore the Papists the Socinians the Arminians these do either in whole or in part destroy the very foundation of thanksgiving to God in respect of spirituall mercies especially in that whereby one man differs from another That which the Apostle doth so evidently attribute to God only 1 Cor. 4. 7. that they appropriate to themselves the good use of free-will or the improving of grace offered is made mans work and then certainly we are to glory more in our selves then in God But if we are to give God thankes for every morsell of bread we eate shall we not much rather for every spirituall mercy to the soul It was Tullies observation that though their Ancestors praised God for their prosperity and success yet they never did for their vertuous actions thinking that absurd as if unless they were not done by their own power there was no commendation due to them and too much of this Heathenish and Philosophicall leaven doth still soure the minds of many Learned men in the Church Know then so much as thou settest up a free-will beyond Scripture bounds so farre thou takest off from the duty of praising and blessing of God Besides we say God must be acknowledged in every mercy temporall and spirituall Thou that prayest God would give thee thy daily bread wilt thou not praise God when he doth it yet how sottish and brutish are many persons and Families when they go to meales and rise from meales and no thankes or praises are given to God should not the example of Christ move thee when he had but some loaves of Barly and a little Fish yet he blessed God before he did eate thereof How then cometh it about that there should be such unthankfull wretches that take their food and yet never thank God that giveth it Thou wouldst account that poore man a proud or unworthy person to whom thou shouldst give some food in his necessity and he never so much as open his mouth to give one word of thankfullness to thee Thou dealest more frowardly and wickedly with God And if for temporall mercies then much more for spirituall if thy meate thy drink thy rayment be Gods mercy much more is thy regeneration thy justification which do so far transcend the power of nature 2. To this duty of praising God is not only required These generall acts of faith whereby we own him for the Jehova and the Creator of Heaven and Earth but also those particular Acts whereby we do apply and appropriate him as our God in particular For it is this particular applying Act of faith that maketh the heart full of praise and thanksgivihg Therefore you may observe David in his Psalmes not only calling God a buckler a refuge a strong tower but his buckler his strong tower his God Neither can we be thankfull in spirituall mercies about pardon of sinne support in temptations till with Paul Gal. 2 we say Who loved us and gave himself for us and this is one reason why we urge the People to take heed of diffidence not to give way to distrust and doubtfull perplexities of soul because while these are predominant they cannot walk thankfully and give the glory that is due to him 3. Love to God Because he heareth our prayers will raise up the heart exceedingly to thanksgiving Psal 116. 1. I will love the Lord because he hath heard my supplications That God should hear the prayers of one so unworthy and polluted as thou art that God should do thee good who art so evill this freeness
of his love this riches of his grace should exceedingly melt thee it should be like fire that assimilateth every thing into its self now when this love like so many coales of fire is in thy breast it cannot be but that it will open thy heart and thy mouth wide to praise the Lord. This is our corruption we love the mercy it self but not God that giveth it we delight in the comforts that are bestowed upon us but do not rejoyce in God from whence they come If therefore thou findest thy heart frozen and dull thou canst not raise it up to bless God meditate much upon the love of God to thee so vile and unworthy 4. An heavenly heart is necessary to bless and praise God The praising of God is Angels works and the imployment of the glorified Saints to all eternity Praise is comely but it is from clean hearts and clean mouths We need the Spirit of God to inable us to thanksgiving as well as to prayer Psal 119. 7. I 'le praise thee with uprightness An hypocrite who giveth God glory by his mouth but reproacheth him by his life not only his prayer but his praises are abominable Hence Psal 50. ult it is said Who so offereth praise glorifieth God But lest you should extend this to every man See what is added And who so ordereth his conversation aright c. If a man praise God in never so melodious a tune but then there is no harmony nor order in his life this is a reproach to God We may benedicere linguâ when we do maledicere vitâ There is a real praising of God by exercised holiness as well as verbal by the tongue In the Sacrifices of thanksgiving Levit. 7. 10. Whosoever did eat thereof that had uncleanness upon him he was to be cut off By this is typified how unpleasing the praises of such are who live in their sins it is as uncomely as a pearl in the Swines mouth It is true God doth greatly condescend to accept of our praises for he hath millions and millions of Angels continually praising of him who have not the least blemish or spot upon them but yet he is pleased to take this Sacrifice at our hands In the Sacrifice of thanksgiving Levit. 7. 13. there was leaven allowed Junius observeth That whereas God allowed leaven in no other Sacrifice though Bonfrerius thinketh otherwise and that leaven only was forbidden so farre as to be offered but the common opinion is otherwise why then was leaven allowed only in this Sacrifice Hereby to teach us saith Junius that there is corruption and sinfulness in our best actions and that we need the righteousness of Christ that they be accepted of Even then in our praises there is matter of humiliation there is some bitterness yet through Christ we are accepted of But though all pollution cannot be purged out yet he that liveth in a wilfull way of sinning cannot give glory to God acceptably 5. He that praiseth God must do it voluntarily readily chearfully otherwise it is not worthy the name of praise As God loveth a cheerfull giver so especially a thanksgiver To praise God with an heavy lumpish unwilling heart is a contradiction to the duty in thy hand it is as if we should say a black Sun or a cold fire Lev. 22. 29 30. The Law about a Sacrifice of thanksgiving is that when they offer it it must be at their own will which argueth the readiness and willingness that ought to be in us at that time and then on the same day it was to be offered they were to eat it all up to leave none till the morrow whereas in other Sacrifices they might And this was to shew that he who would give thanks to God he must do it speedily he must not delay or put off So that by this you see a praising frame of heart requireth a most curious exact temperature It 's that Apothecaries ointment which belonged to the Highpriest onely made up of choice ingredients A sinfull heart cannot praise God and a worldly heart cannot praise God that wants wheels to its chariots wings to flie up with The Lark lifteth her self off from the earth ere she begins to sing And then a sorrowfull dejected heart that cannot praise God no more than a string in the instrument too much wetted can cause a melodious sound In the next place Let us consider the encouragements thereunto And 1. The excellency of this duty is apparent in that the heart is naturally so froward and opposite to it It may cause some wonder why the soul of a man should be slow to this work and commonly all are more in petitions then in thanksgivings Hence David Psal 103. though a man more exercised in this service than any one called therefore the sweet singer of Israel and who is not contented himself to praise God but cals upon all the creatures in Heaven and earth yea the most inconsiderable ones to praise God yet he finds some listlesness and slothfulness in himself see therefore how he prepareth and stirreth up himself as the Cock doth before his crow Bless the Lord O my soul and let all within thee praise his holy name His heart doth need calling upon his soul must be moved and quicknnd ere it doth his duty Conclude then certainly this duty is most excellent it is very pleasing to God because I am so backward I am never scarce in a praising temper one clog or other is upon me 2. Consider That the Scripture vouchsafeth it the name of a Sacrifice Heb. 13. 15. Where you have the duty commanded the time when and the manner how Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God and that continually As David said Seven times a day will I praise thee Ps 119. 164. It is a sacrifice and every sacrifice must have fire there must be zeal and fervency but by whom must we offer it it is by Christ so that he is the Altar upon which the incense of prayers and praises are to be offered to God By him we have both power and acceptance to praise God and in this sense all the people of God are called Priests and they have the sacrifices of praise continually to offer up unto God Hence to praise God is expressed Hos 14. 2. by rendring the calves of our lips 3. It is a debt that is due to God He that hath commanded thee to pray to him hath also enjoyned thee to praise him Yea this is all that God looketh for Thou canst not satisfie God for thy sins committed thou art not able to repair his honour and glory shouldst thou be damned a thousand times over yet it could not recompence to God according to what thou hast dishonoured him Therefore seeing this is the only debt God obligeth unto why should we not be more diligent in it If he had required some greater service of us and more terrible to flesh and blood ought