18 There is no fear in love c. And also largely to that place Rom. 8. 15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear c. That place in Rev. 21. 8 But the fearful c. shall be cast into the lake of sire c. answered What is that fear of God here commanded farther set down in three particulars Q. What are the special marks of the true fear of God answered in seven particulars Q. What the arguments are to induce us to fear God answered in eight things In way of a conclusion Thirteen sentences about the fear of God Exercitation V. Of waiting upon God upon these words My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him Three ingredients to wait upon God What waiting upon God is Four signs of our waiting upon God Four helps for strengthening us against troubles An explanation out of the Greek of waiting and expectation The manner of our waiting in three things Gods waiting upon us Wait upon God only What expectation is What we expect from God Examples of the miseries of those who would not wait upon God Exercitation VI. The way to salvation repentance and faith On these words Mark 1. 15 Repent ye and believe the Gospel What repentance is Repentance is twofold 1. Legal 2. Evangelical What they both are The signs whereby they may be known Four parts of Evangelical repentance Repentance must be renewed What faith is Five acceptations of faith The object of true saving faith The manner of Gods working of it The absolute necesssity of it in every part of Gods worship Encouragements to labour for it Exercitation VII Holiness on these words Psal 93. 5. Holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever What Holiness is 1. As applyed to God 2. To believers Our holiness must bear a conformity to Christs holiness in four things What sanctification is The terms from which and to which Two degrees of sanctification Two parts of it The ends of it in two things What we must do that we may be holy Four things thereto Three things to be observed for holiness sake Christ is the principle of our holiness and also the pattern of it the comeliness of holiness Of Gods house How holy it is and how holy we must be A Scriptural Prayer to God for Holiness A farther Encomium and praise of Holiness Exercitation VIII Of Swearing On these words Jer. 23. 9 For because of Oaths the Land mourneth A sad complaint of the over-spreading and greatness of this horrid sin of prophane swearing Of taking Gods name in vain Superstitious and foolish swearing How an Oath is to be taken The parts of an Oath The form of an Oath The end of an Oath The divers kinds of an Oath How an Oath is to be performed Is it lawful for Christians to take an Oath Proved affirmatively by four reasons An exploding the Opinion of the Anabaptists c. by six Arguments By whom we must swear About what things an Oath may be taken Whether all Oaths are to be kept How God in Scripture is said to swear The sum of the third Commandment Six Corollaries Of the government of the tongue Exercitation IX Hardness os heart On these words And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also The Plague of hardness of heart Examples of it To harden the heart what it is 1. In reference to God 2. â—o Satan 3. To a mans self Of conscience what it is How did God harden Pharaohs heart and how he did iâ— himself The miseries ensuing hardness of heart Exeroitation X. Of the Sabbath On these words in Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. 20. 8 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy The necessity of a sabbath The morality of it The excellency of the Moral Law above the Ceremonial or Judicial What the sanctifying of the sabbath is the parts of it A short Paraphrase on Isai 58. 13 14. which is borrowed The strict observation of the sabbath belongs more to us then to the Jews the reasons of the alteration of it How the sabbath is a sign Woe to sabbath prophaners and sabbath idlers The right manner of sanctifying of the sabbath Be not weary of sabbath-duties For Reasons why it is called sabbath The many sabbaths of the Jews formerly Three Reasons why God commands us to observe the sabbath We must lay out our strength in sabbath-duties Exercitation XI Of Patience On these words Luk. 21. 19 In your patience possess ye your souls Of afflictions to the Godly 1. For correction 2. For tryal Inferences upon each Examine for what particular sin God so afflicts Afflictions a sign of Gods love Why afflictions are called temptations What patience is Of impatience The good effects of patience Motives to it The true nature of patience towards God our selves and others Four Arguments to strengthen us in our patience The vices contrary Exercitation XII Pride and humility On these words James 4. 6 God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble What Pride is The parts of Pride How it is shewed Of pride against God and of pride towards men Of the sin of the fallen Angels and of the sin of our first Parents Four helps to subdue pride What grace is Several acceptations of grace A description of humility Humility towards God humility towards men Five means to attain humility towards God Three marks of humility towards men Humility farther described and praised Incitations to humility Some additional notes about pride and humility Fourteen Aphorisms about humility Exercitation XIII Of Care On these words 1 Pet. 5. 10 Casting all your care upon God for He careth for you Seven Arguments against carefulness Twofold care of outward things Worldly cares compared to thorns in four respects Irregular cares are 1. Superfluous 2. Sinful We are to do our duty faithfully and then trust in God who is our Father and the great house-keeper of all the earth The fourth Petition in the Lords Prayer fully explained If we rowl our selves upon God He hath engaged Himself to relieve us Outward things are necessary for us in a threefold respect Rest upon Gods Providence What Gods actual Providence is Of the fate of the heathen Philosophers The parts of Providence Depend upon Providence Wait Gods time Live by faith Be we diligent in our callings The tenderness fidelity and wisdom of Gods Providence The twelve miracles observed about Manna More of Gods Providence and twelve Corollaries thereabout Exercitation XIV Of death judgment hell and heaven On these words Rev. 20. 12. 15 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire 1. Of death what death is The causes of it The
while they daily say Psal 42. 3. Ezek. 9. 4. unto me where is thy God That the Lord may remember us for good and mark us out for mercy when we mourn and sigh and cry out for all the abominations which are done in the Land It is not enough for us to refrain from those abominations but we must also be truly humbled for them and that because of the great dishonour redounding to God thereby 3. Speak not of God but with fear and reverence and as in His sight and hearing for there is not a word in our Psal 139. 4. mouths but he knows it altogether Seeing we are unworthy to take God's holy name in our mouths much less ought we to abuse it vainly and lightly in our speeches But to abuse it in vain rash or false oaths is an undoubted sign of one that hath no fear of God before his eyes They shall make their own tongue Psal 64. 8. Hos 7. 16. to fall upon themselves they shall fall for the rage of their tongue So the Prophet complains Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and Isai 3. 8. their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory 4. Let our speeches be always gracious seasoned with the salt of wisdom and discretion such as may edifie or Colâ— 4. 6. Minister Grace to the hearers Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our Eph. 4. 29. mouths but that which is good c. for 1 Cor. 15. 33. evil communications corrupt good manners 5. Pray to God in the words of David Set thou a watch O Lord before Psal 141. 3. my mouth and keep the door of my lips c. and let us take heed to our ways Psal 39. 1. that we sin not with our tongue and keep our mouth as with a bridle For whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from trouble For he that loveth Prov 21. 23. 1 Pet. 3. 10. life and would see good days must refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile 6. Consider wherefore God gave thee a tongue and the organs of speech thou art not so bruitish as to think it was to curse and swear and blaspheme his name No no know assuredly that the tongue is the glory of a man and so David calls it and faith awake my glory Psal 57. 8. I my self will awake early to praise the Lord. And so in another place Thou hast shewed such mercies to me to the end 30. 1â— that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent c. They that use their tongues to God's dishonour and refuse to praise him with their tongues here shall never sing Hallelujahs hereafter but shall gnaw their Rev. 16. 10. tongues for pain because of their pains and that for ever where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out I might farther speak here of the government of the tongue which containeth two parts 1. Holy speech 2. Holy silence In Holy speech must be considered 1. The matter of our speech 2. The manner of it But I shall be too prolix and expatiate too far to insist particularly on these and the several branches thereof I shall close up this discourse with these Sentences The lips of the righteous know what is Prov. 10. 32. acceptable but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his 13. 3 life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction Whoso keepeth his mouth and tongue 21. 23. keepeth his soul from evil The breach of this third Commandment is very hainous and so much the more as the glory of God is most dear and precious to Him And good reason for if sinful men regard their reputation ought not God much more respect His honour and glory The punishment God threatneth iâ— not to hold the party offending guiltless that is faultless And though noâ— particular punishment should follow yet impunity is punishment enough God is greatly angry when He correcteth not And an hardned heart is punishment enough So a man may be grievously punished and yet not feel it Besides in this threatning no time is affixed that offenders may fear always for suddenly oft-times God cometh anâ— shews His vengeance on such wicked persons as we have many examples No kind of punishment is named that they may look for all There is no exception of persons every one so offending shall be punished and plagued EXERCITATION THE NINTH Exod. 8. 32. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also IT is a fearful thing for any man to harden his heart against God Who ever hardened himself against God and Job 9. 4. hath prospered Pharaoh first presumptuously and wickedly hardened his own heart then the Lord judicially hardened his heart and gave him over to hardness of heart Though he had those ten direful Plagues upon his Land though the Egyptians his own people cryed out to him to let Israel go urging to him Doest thou not know that all the Exod. 10. 7. land of Egypt is destroyed yet still he hardened his heart Like other wicked men who after their hardness and impenitency of heart treasure up unto Rom. 2. 5. themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgments of God The plague of hardning of his heart was a greater plague than all the ten plagues of Egypt For so obdurate and desperately hardened was his heart that although he had let the people of Israel go and had had all those ten plagues on him and on his Land yet he pursued after them with all his Hoast Chariots Horses and Horsemen even into the middest of the red sea and there they were all drowned there remained not so much as one of them Like as they made their hearts Exod. 14. 28. harder than the nether milstone as it is spoken of Leviathan so they all sank Job 41. 24. Exod. 15. 10. as a stone or lead in those mighty waters Thus God brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces viz. Pharaoh and all his host and gave them to be meat Psal 74. 14. to His people inhabiting the wilderness The meaning whereof is not as some though pious and learned and the Septuagint also do too too grosly interpret it to the wild beasts which devoured the Egyptians carcasses that were cast upon the shore but the meaning is that God overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the red sea and gave them to meat to His people of Israel in their wilderness-condition for their souls to feed on by faith to consider God's signal miraculous preservation of them and deliverance of them out of Egypt and from those mighty Leviathans who would have swallowed them up and destroyed them and so to strengthen their faith in an experimental way that God would still go along with them
keep and preserve them subdue the Canaanites before them and settle them in that Land for a possession as He had sworn to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice I know not the Lord. But God said the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh upon Exod. 14. 18. his chariots and upon his horse-men Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at Thy people Isai 26. 11. yea the sire of thine enemies shall devour them For the Scripture saith of Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew My power in thee and that My name Rom. 9. 17. might be declared in all the earth So Sihon King of Heshbon though probably he had heard of the wonders God had wrought for Israel he would not let the people pass by him for the Lord hardened his Spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel who smoâ—e him his sons and all his people until Numb 21. 35. there was none left him alive and they possessed his Land So Nebuchadnezar when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride he was deposed from his kingly Dan. 5. 20 21. throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses they fed him with grass like oxen c. And thou his son O Beshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou Dan. 5. 22. 23. 30. knewest all this but hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven c. and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not honoured in that same night he was slain What became of the Jews who hardened their hearts against the preaching of Christ and His Apostles God gave them over to hardness of heart and impenitency c. those spiritual plagues and followed them so with His temporal judgments also until His wrath came 1 Thess 2. 16. upon them even to the utmost This St. Paul then spake in a way of Prophecy for he writ these Epistles to the Thessalonians from Athens about the 13th year of Claudius Caesar which was about 22 years after Christ Crucified and Jerusalem was not destroyed by Titus Vespâ—sian until some years after for some place it in the 40th year but the most Authentick in the 38th year after Christ was Crucified when in the Siege were slain Eleven hundred thousand in the war taken Captives Ninety seven thousand besides many millions that perished in silence Thus perished those wicked hardened Jews as they had wished that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children and so it hath rested Mat. 27. 25. heavily for above these Sixteen hundred years and they are as vagabonds on the earth still 〈◊〉 no more of this To harden the heart may have reference 1. To God which is when He leaves a man in his natural hardness not softning his heart but as a just Judge delivering him over to Satan to be more hardened thus God hardened Pharaoh's Exod. 9 12. heart 2. To Satan to inspire blind thoughts and so to make the heart of a man more hard 3. To a man's Self to follow his own lusts stubbornly thus Pharaoh hardened his heart So at last such a man hath a stony heart which is an extream hardness of man's wit and heart with stubbornness resisting God's will Thus a man comes to a hard heart which is a disobedient and unyielding heart a heart Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 3. 13. that cannot repent which the Apostle bids them beware of lest their heart be made hard through the deceitfulness of Isai 48. 4. Zech. 7. 12. sin This is the brâ—sen forehead the iron sinew the stony heart the heart of Adamant spoken of in Scripture which nothing can bow or break neither promises nor threatnings blessings nor afflictions Unto this estate men come by long custom in sin custom of sin bringeth hardness of heart Well doth holy David therefore pray to God to Psal 139. 24. 119. 101. 104. deliver him from every way of wickedness that he might not make wickedness his trade his customary way to walk in as too too many do This hardness of heart comes as I said before 1. By the just judgment of God 2. By the malice of Satan 3. By a man 's own perverse will This the Apostle fully describes They Eph. 4. 18 19 walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness I translate it the hardness of their heart for the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies induration or hardening although rendered in our translation according to the blindness of their heart Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 callum Joh. 12. 40. obduco obduro is rendered He hath hardened their hearts and both words come from the same word in the Original So from these words we see in what consists this alienation or estranging from God namely in the darkness of the understanding and the untamed malice of the heart being deprived of God's Spirit and Grace being given over to a reprobate mind i. e. to a mind void of judgment or God took from them the light of right reason for all Rom. 1. 28. these the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Original they are wilfully ignorant obstinately refusing the light of God which is offered them Who being past feeling having lost all remorse of Conscience all fear of God's judgments and likewise all just feeling of their punishments have deaded their Conscience that they may not be stayed from doing evil by God's judgments And this is the last degree and fulness of the said alienation from God by which a man is not only destitute of God's light and power to do well but also shakes off the only curb he had to keep him from doing evil which is his Conscience And so he brings himself to a seared Conscience to have his Conscience seared as with a hot iron that hath lost 1 Tim. 4. 2 all manner of feeling and motion of Conscience as a cautery or searing iron applyed to any part of the body deadens it and makes it insensible For Conscience is a Judge and a Witness unless it be deadned the Conscience is but a correspondency and relation of man's spirit unto the Law either to bind or unbind him to accuse or excuse him to condemn or absolve him
Wherefore seeing the Heathen have a Conscience they have also a Law which leaves them without excuse at the great day of Judgment though they have not the light of the glorious Gospel shining among them as blessed be God we have Let us strive to keep Conscience awake while we are here in this life and not to muzzle its mouth then it will either accuse or excuse us but if it be deadned here at the great day of judgment when the books shall Rev. 20. 12. be opened that is mens Consciences or the records and testimonies of every man's Conscience being unfolded and manifested through the mighty power of God wherein as in books are written all mens thoughts words and works then Conscience will speak and not be dumb and thou shalt be judged out of those things which are written in those books yea if thou stiflest the mouth of Conscience here thy Conscience as ten thosand witnesses will fly in thy face for ever hereafter where the worm never Isai 66. 24. Mark 9. 44. dyes where that worm of Conscience will for ever gnaw upon thine heart in the fire that never goeth out Then the Lord will be known by the judgments Psal 9. 16. which He executeth and the wicked shall be snared in the works of their own hands Oh that dreadful expression the Lord said by Moses unto Pharaoh Exod. 9. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people And in the next Chapter I have hardened his heart and Exod. 10. 1. the heart of his servants These spiritual judgments are of all others the most fearful and terrible that can befall a man or woman in this life As 1. Blindness of mind 2. Hardness of heart 3. Searedness of Conscience for these are the dreadful fore-runners of hell Let us therefore hearken to the checks of Conscience and not stifle them and labour we to have our hearts sprinkled Heb. 10. 22. from an evil Conscience that is from the inward impurity and defilements of corruption whereof every man's Conscience is a witness and judge And strive we also to have the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good conscience towards God The meaning of the Apostle there is of the inward baptism or washing wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost whereby a believers Conscience is in such manner eased acquitted and purified that it being tryed and questioned before God it answers and witnesses to it self in the name of the Holy Ghost Pardon Grace and Peace which is Rom. 8. 16. which is unto such a soul a foundation pledge and assurance of everlasting Salvation As the former were the pledges and assurances of everlasting damnation Despair is that which follows from an evil Conscience and obstinate contempt of God and is the greatest part of punishment and evil which wicked men suffer Conscience may be thus described though there be other definitions of it A power and faculty of the Soul taking knowledge and bearing witness of all a man's thoughts words and actions and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting of the same Conscience is God's Notary and there is nothing passes in our whole life whether good or evil which Conscience notes not down with an indeleble Character which nothing can rase out but Christ's blood alone Conscience writes men's sins as with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and they are graven upon the table of their hearts Their conscience Jer. 17. 1. also bearing witness c. In the day when Rom. 2. 15 16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Conscience I say is exact and punctual in setting down the particulars of a man's whole life that it may be a faithful witness either for him or against him at the last day Our transgressions Isai 59. 12. are multiplyed before Thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our sins we know them A hard heart is not rent by compunction Bernard nor mollified by Piety nor moved by intreaties yieldeth not unto threatnings is hardened by corrections is ingrateful for benefits will not hearken to good counsel cruel to revenge immodest in regard of shameful things not dismayed with dangers inhumane in humane things râ—sh in Divine things forgetting things past neglecting present things not providing for future that is which remembreth nothing past but only injuries to revenge them c. Q. How may we understand this that is said in several places Pharaoh hardened Exod. 4. 21 his heart and God said I have hardened Pharaohs heart and the Lord 9. 12. hardened Pharaohs heart if God hardened his heart how did he do it himself A. God worketh two ways in the hearts of wicked men 1. By with-holding His Grace whereby they might be moved unto good as when light is taken away there remaineth nothing but darkness and blindness when God's Spirit is taken away then mens hearts become hard as stones when God's direction ceaseth then mens hearts are turned aside into crookedness and perverseness so it is said that God doth blind harden and bow them from whom He takes away the power to see and to do that which is right 2. By using the Ministery of Sathan to stir up frame and incline their wills God for the executing of His judgments by Sathan the Minister of His wrath both appointeth the purposes of wicked men to what end it pleaseth Him and stirreth up their wills and strengthneth their endeavours So Sihon King of Heshbon as we said Deut. 2. 30. before did not let Israel pass by him because the Lord hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel Therefore because it was God's Will to have him destroyed the making of his heart hard and obstinate was God's preparing him for his destruction So God hardened Pharaoh's heart that is not only in not sustaining it but also in committing his heart to Sathan to be confirmed with obstinacy So God turned their hearts to hate His Psal 105. 25. people c. And it was the Lord that hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants to pursue after Israel that He Exod. 14. 4. might be honoured upon Pharaoh c. God hardened Pharaoh's heart not that He did set and imprint hardness in his heart but because by sundry actions He ordered and governed His wicked will And they are four 1. God permitted Pharaoh to walk after his own will 2. He left him to the malice of the Devil and the lusts of his own heart 3. He urgeth him with a Commandment to let the people go and Pharaoh the more he is urged the stiffeâ— and more stubborn he is and the more he reâ—els against God 4. God useth the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to the manifestation of His own
God hath sifted us fully if we will meekly and patiently depend upon Him and holily and humbly wait till He send deliverance There is a work of patience it must not be an idle patience but a patience working in the use of all lawful means And there is also a perfect work to bear a very heavy burden and a long time and that with patience this doth shew that patience hath had its perfect work Be we patient stablish our hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth Jam. 5. 8. nigh that is not in the general judgment at the last day but in this or that particular mercy or deliverance out of such a streight tryal or affliction Shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him though He bear long with them I tell you saith our Saviour He will avenge Luk. 18. 7 8. them and that speedily that is when God's good time is come Nevertheless when the Son of man shall come shall He find faith on the Earth the meaning is that God oftentimes deferreth such or such a mercy or deliverance until we are even weary of waiting our hope lost our faith even spent and so our extremity God takes for His opportunity then is Gods time to work then mercies will be most sweet then most refreshing Every thing is beautiful in Eccles 3. 11. its time 3. Wait diligently Stir up thy self to take hold on God waiting is no idle posture or sitting still Engage thy Isai 64. 7. Jer. 30. 21. heart to approach unto God Consider that the blessing doth not consist in the removal of an affliction but in the sanctified use of it And therefore blessed is the man whom thou chastenest Psal 94. 12. O Lord and teachest him in thy Law When instruction and correction go together that is a blessed and happy correction Labour therefore for a sanctified use of every affliction to be purged and purified thereby Give aâ— â— Pet. 1. 10. diligence to make thy calling and election sure Keep thy heart with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. Heb. 6. 12. And shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Looking Heb. 12. 15. diligently lest we fail of the Grace of God So let us be diligent in our waiting that we may be found of God in peace 2 Pet. 3. 14. without spot and blameless I wait for the Lord my Soul doth Psal 130. 5. wait and in His word do I hope God will have us to wait until He come and rain righteousness upon us Oh how Hos 10. 12. doth our blessed Saviour wait upon us standing at the door of our hearts and knocking saying Open to Me My Sister Rev. 3. 20. My love My dove My undefiled Cant. 5. 2. and so woes us for to let Him come into our hearts and we wickedly shut the door of our hearts against Him and refuse His offers of Grace and Mercy and put Him off with delays yet He stands still and knocks and waits till His head is filled with dew and His locks with the drops of the night And He hath sent forth His Ministers also to wooe for Him and to pray us in 2 Cor. 5. 20. Christs stead that we would be reconciled unto God We know not how long God may wait for us Now is the acceptable 2 Cor. 6. 2. Heb. 3. 7. time now is the day of salvation Hear while it is called to day Lay hold on Grace while it is offered And strike while the iron is hot Remember Jerusalems case how our Saviour wept over it spake and wept wept and spake O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would Luke 19. 41. to 44. I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings I would but thou wouldst not therefore desolation misery and confusion followed God waited 120 years for the repentance and conversion of the old world 40 days for Nineveh God waiteth for Gen. 6. 3. Jonah 3. 4. Ezek. 18. 21. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Rom. 2. 4. poor sinners not willing that any should perish but that all should repent and live Yet they despise the riches of His goodness forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the forbearance of God should move them to repentance If we hear not while it is called to day but Heb. 3. 8. Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 23. 32. harden our hearts through unbelief and like fools make a mock of sin at length it will sting like a serpent and bite like an adder God hath His appointed time when he will wait no longer As Solomon spake of temporal things so do I of spirituals and things of everlasting concernment Man most men know not Eccles 9. 12. 8. 6 7. their appointed time therefore the misery of man is great upon earth Laesa patientia fit furor Patience abused turns into fury Now mercy is offered mercy sits at the helm Justice will have its course and that upon all those who come not in nor accept of this golden Scepter of Grace and Mercy now Rev. 6. held forth They shall have a cup of the pure wrath of the Almighty a cup of pure wrath without mixture no drop of mercy or pity more ever to be expected or hoped for Oh who knows the Psal 90. 11. Rev. 14. 10. power of God's wrath They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone c. and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night c. But I have expatiated too far upon God's waiting for poor Sinners For God will have His glory magnified if His Mercy and Grace be not so in the Conversion and Salvation of poor Sinners His justice will be for ever magnified and glorified in their everlasting confusion and condemnation So God will be no loser at all But now according to the words at first read come we to man's waiting upon God My soul wait thou upon God The Lord waits that He may be gracious Isaâ— 30. 18. to us as we have seen and He will be exalted that He may have mercy upon us for the Lord is a God of judgment Blessed are all they that wait for him Jacob in the middest of blessing his Children as in an holy rapture breaks out in this pathetical expression I have waited for Thy Salvation O Lord. Gen. 49. 8. Likewise the Church O Lord be gracious unto us we have waited upon Thee Be Thou our arm every morning our Salvation Isai 33. 2. also in the time of trouble Let these examples of Saints formerly stir up and encourage us still to wait upon God yea though He seem to hide His face from us as the Church complains Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thy self Isai 45.
justice and judgment and so opened to him a way that he might run head-long to his own utter ruine and destruction So God confounds his implacable enemies two ways here 1. By hardness of heart which ariseth as we said before when God with-draweth His Grace from a man and leaveth him to himself so as he goeth on from sin to sin and never repenteth to the last gasp And we must esteem of it as a most fearful and terrible judgment of God for when the heart is possessed therewith it becomes so flinty and rebellious that a man will never relent or turn to God This was manifest in Pharaoh for though God sent most grievous plagues upon him and all the Land of Egypt yet would he not submit or humble himself save only for a fit while the hand of God was so heavy upon him for when the hand of God was removed he returned to his former obstinacy wherein he persisted until he was drowned in the red Sea And this judgment of God of hardness of heart is the more fearful because when a man is in the midst of all misery he feels no misery 2. God confounds His enemies as by hardness of heart so by final desperation I say final because all kind of desperation is not evil for a man may despair of himself and of his own power in the matter of Salvation which tends to his everlasting comfort But final desperation is when a man utterly despairs of the pardon of his sins and of everlasting life Examples we have in Saul that slew himself in Achitophel and Judas that hanged themselves c. This sin of desperation is caused thus so many sins as thou committest without repentance so many wounds thou givest to thine own soul and in life or death God will make thee to feel the smart of it and the weight of them all whereby the soul sinks down to the gulph of despair without recovery The sins which thou committest lye at the door of thy heart though thou feel them not as God said unto Cain Gen. 4. 7. sin lyeth at the door and if thou dost not prevent them by speedy and timely repentance God will make thee to feel them once before thou dyest and raise up such terrours in thy Conscience that thou shalt think thy self to be in Hell before thou art there They that were sent from the chief Priests c. to apprehend Christ though He had acknowledged I am He and they were astonished and fell to the ground and He had miraculously healed Joh. 18. 12. Malchus his ear yet for all though they had seen his wonderful power both in word and deed they proceed in malice against Him and bind Him as a Malefactor In this we note what a fearful sin hardness of heart is The danger whereof appears in this that if a man be possessed with it there is nothing that can stay or daunt him in his wicked proceedings no not the powerful words and deeds of our Saviour Himself And indeed among all God's judgments there is none more fearful than this of hardness of heart and yet how rife is it among us even in these our days For it is very evident that the more men are taught the Doctrine of Gods Law and Gospel the more hard and senseless are their hearts like unto an anvil the more it is beaten upon with the iron hammer the harder it is So that that denunciation against the Jews Acts 28. 26 27. is fulfilled in them It is such a terrible judgment of God into which when a man is fallen he feels neither pain nor grief Therefore we have cause with fear and trembling to look into it lest it take such hold of us that we be past all hopes of recovery Sin is a deceitful thing and custom in sin brings hardness of heart therefore read that Heb. 3. 13. and Rom. 2. 5. Let us bewail and be humbled for our hardness of heart whereby we are hindered from knowing and acknowledging God aright and from discerning His glory and Majesty from acknowledging God's judgments or our own sins dreaming we are safe from God's vengeance and such perils and miseries which arise from sin whereas all those out of Christ and in this estate have nothing stands between them and vengeance EXERCITATION THE TENTH Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holiness to the Lord. Whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath-day he shall surely be put to death Wherefore the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh He rested Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy HEre we have the Commandment of God for the strict observation of the Sabbath-day No one Commandment so often iterated or so much pressed This Commandment requireth at the hand of every man one day of seven in every week to be set a-part unto a holy rest and requireth all persons to separate themselves from their ordinary labour and all other exercises to God's Service alone on that day that so being severed from their worldly businesses and all the works of their Labours and Callings concerning this Nehem. 13. 15. 22. life they may wholly attend to the Worship of God alone wholly to separate themselves to the Worship and Service of God that they may with more freedom of Spirit perform the same If Adam in his perfection had need of this holy day as it was first enjoyned in the state of innocency much more Gen. 2. 2 3. have we To teach man from time to time on the Sabbath-day to withdraw himself from the cares and labours of this life to apply himself in freedom and tranquillity of mind to the meditations and actions of a spiritual life Q. But some will say this fourth Commandment is ceremonial and so it is taken away by the death of Christ A. I answer No but it is constantly and perpetually to be observed 1. For it is placed in the number of the ten Commandments which are perpetual otherwise the Moral Law should consist but of nine which is contrary to God's Word And He declared unto Deut. 4. 13. you His covenant which He commanded you to perform even ten Commandments 2. Because this fourth Commandment among the rest and in the middle of them as a Diamond in a ring was written
proud either directly or indirectly 1. Directly when he simply preferreth himself above another 2. Indirectly and interpretatively when he will not submit himself to another to whom he ought to be subject In this last respect as it is pride against man not to be subject to Superiours and Magistrates whom he ought to submit unto which he is enjoyned to do and Rom. 13. 5. that for Conscience sake So also it brancheth it self out in the second place in reference to God 2dly Pride against God is shewed when men will not be subject to God's Will and refuse to hear and obey His Word Then spake all the proud men Jer. 43. 2. saying to Jeremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not said so To these the same Prophet in another place speaketh Hear ye and give ear be not proud for 13. 15. the Lord hath spoken There is another sort of pride also simply against God when a man is proud of his Gifts and Graces or of the performance of duties or any enlargedness therein which of all pride is most devilish O watch thy heart here-against for Satan will be apt to tempt thee lest thou fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the devil be humbled for it and Pray against it For what hast thou that thou hast not received wilt thou then boast or be puffed up with pride as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. But to speak a little more of pride towards men which we should have done before and then to proceed in speaking more fully of pride immediately towards God Pride in reference to men is toward Superiours or Inferiours or Equals 1. Toward Superiours when proud men will not be subject to them 2. Toward Inferiours when they will not behave themselves so towards them as is meet but scorn them and trample upon them 3. Toward Equals when they desire to be or seem to be higher than they This pride is either in heart or in speeches or in outward gesture 1. In the heart then it is called a lifting up of the heart so it is spoken of Amaziah when he had smitten the Edomites â— Chr. 25. 19. then his heart was lifted up So Ezech. 28. 2. of the King of Tyrus because thine heart is lifted up c. 2. In speeches then it is called boasting when a man 's own tongue Prov. 20 6. proclaimeth his own goodness 3. In outward gestures The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they go c. Isai 3. 16. To speak a little more of pride against God Oh this pride Some learned men do hold that it was this sin of Pride that did cast the Angels out of Heaven mistaking that place Isai 14. 13 14. which is meant of the King of Babylon The sin of the Angels comprehended pride envy and more too Being an utter falling away from God and that holy standing which God had placed them in especially to minister to man's good So also pride was a great ingredient in the sin of our first Parents though in general it was disobedience the degrees whereof were first infidelity then pride and lastly the disavowing of subjection to God Gen. 2. 16 17. 3. 6 7. by eating the forbidden fruit which they imagined should be the means to attain to a higher degree of blessedness but proved to be the sin that procured their fall Thus we see the rise and original of pride and how odious it is to God and the dreadful consequences of it It made the Angels become Devils and God spared them not but 2 Pet. 2. 4. threw them out of heaven and cast them down to hell and delivered them into Jude 6. chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment So also it cast our first Parents out of Paradise brought upon them and all their posterity sin guiltiness and punishment which three do always follow one upon another all manner of miseries death yea everlasting death and damnation without Christ's merits and God's mercies This is the fruit of pride and yet we are still so wicked and such fools to hug this serpent this viper of pride in our bosomes This was the iniquity of Sodom Pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her c. and they were haughty c. Therefore said the Lord I took them away as I saw good And Ezek. 16. 49 50. still this pride reigns in Sodom's children though God hath revealed His wrath from Heaven against it by such terrible vociferations Pride and arrogancy Rom. 1. 18. Prov. 8. 13. do I hate They that are lifted up with pride fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the Devil A man's pride shall bring him low Pride goeth before destruction Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 18. and a haughty spirit before a fall When pride cometh then cometh shame Only Prov. 11. 2. Prov. 13. 10. Oâ—ad 3. Isai 23. 9. by pride cometh contention The pride of their heart will deceive them when God shall stain the pride of all glory this shall they have for their pride they shall lye Zeph. 2. 10. Dan. 4. 37. down in sorrow Those that walk in pride God is able to abase them and will abase them This made the holy Prophet Jeremiah tell the Jews My soul Jer 3. 17. shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears yet the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek Psal 10. 4. after God God is not in all his thoughts Though their pride testifyeth to their face yet do they not return to the Lord Hosea 7. 10. nor seek him for all this but have their hearts lifted up and their minds Dan. 5. 20. Psal 31. 23. Prov. 15. 25. hardened in pride Though the Lord will plentifully reward the proud doer and will destroy the house of the proud Every one that is proud in heart is abomination to the Lord though hand joyn in hand though he use all outward Prov. 16. 5. means of prevention yet he shall not be unpunished Think upon what God said of Babylon heretofore She hath been proud Jer. 50. 29. 31 32. against the Lord behold I am against thee O thou most proud saith the Lord God of hosts for thy day is come the time that I will visit thee and the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his Cities and it shall devour all round about him Wherein they deal proudly God will be above them Dost Exod 18. 11. thou think to resist God when He sets Himself in battel-array against thee Who can stand before Him when He is angry If he doth but touch the mountains Psal 104. 32. and they smoke Assure thy self thou canst not contend with