which they will bring upon themselves should afflict us Thus the Apostle Phil. 3. 18 19. Of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction To see Men goe by droves to Hell it should work on our Bowels if this brought Christ out of Heaven to dye for Sinners surely this should make us sadly resent their Condition 4. This produceth good Effects it is a disposition of great Use and Profit to us 1. It deterreth us from sinning our selves and so we are kept from being tainted with the Contagion of evil Examples for what we mourn for in others we will not commit our selves The Heart is made more averse from Sin every day by this Practice whereas those that take Pleasure in the Sins of others do the same things Rom. 1. 32. consent with them to dishonour God and so howle among the Wolves as the Latin Proverb is but when this is a Trouble to us it maketh us avoid their Example notwithstanding Terrours and Allurements to the contrary Terrours from the angry World who cannot endure that any should part Company and Allurements from our commodious living among the Offenders Thus Lot scaped in Sodom because his righteous Soul was vexed and Noah was upright in his generation because he reproved the Deeds of the Wicked 2. When we see their Punishment in their Sin and fear a Storm when the Clouds are a gathering it puts us upon Mourning and Humiliation which is a necessary Duty in evil times Ier. 13. 17. If you will not hear my Soul shall weep in secret places for your Pride None do so feelingly bewaile the Sins of the Times as those who have a tender holy Heart affected with God's Dishonour and Compassion over the Souls of Men. Others do personate a Mourning and act a part in a Fast as the mourning Women among the Iews did at Funerals or as the Boyes in the Streets would act their Festivities and Lamentations Matt. 11. 16 17. Whereunto shall I liken this Generation It is like unto Children sitting in the Markets and calling to their fellows and saying We have piped unto you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented therefore it is of great use to us to get this frame of Spirit 3. It maketh us more carefull to reform others so far as it lieth within our Power Certainly without this Disposition a Man will never seek the Conversion of Souls for which Christ dyed but have it once and then you will take all occasions to doe good to the Souls of your Children and Relations and Neighbours When Paul was stirred in Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exasperated within himself because he saw the whole City given to Idolatry He disputed with them daily in the Market-place and took all Occasions to reclaim them So if you were affected with the evil of Sin horribleness of Wrath certainty of the Word of God and the Bane that cometh to any Society by having the Wicked amongst them would you let your Children and Servants or Friends go on in a damning Course would you not have Compassion on them and pluck them out of the Fire Surely this should be the temper of every Minister when he hath to doe with Sinners that his Ministry may not be a sleepy Ministry of every Parent and Householder that all under his Roof may be found in the way of the Lord of every Christian towards his Friends 4. It justifieth our Zeal in reproving Surely Reproof had need to be managed with great tenderness and Compassion that it may not seem to flow from hatred and ill-will to the Persons reproved nor from Petulancy of Spirit nor a desire of venting Reproaches but from pure Zeal to the glory of God grief to see him dishonoured Souls in danger to be lost or hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin therefore holy Men in their sharpest invectives against Sin or oppositions of it have always mingled Compassion Mark 3. 5. Our Lord looked about with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts There was more of Compassion then Passion in our Lord Iesus Christ he was angry but grieved So Paul when he disputed earnestly against the Iews yet telleth us Rom. 9. 2. I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart as much Love to the Persons of his Country-men as Zeal against their Errours So flens dico I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3. 18. Though he discovereth them to be Enemies to the Cross of Christ yet he wept for their sakes and the Churches sake 5. Those that are grieved and troubled even to some degree of horrour and trembling of heart for the prevailing of Iniquity in those Places and Persons among whom they live are delivered from the common Judgment So 2 Pet. 2. 7. He delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the Wicked and those that mourned and sighed for all the abominations which were committed in the midst of the Land were marked out for preservation The Lord hath a special care of them in times of publick Calamity Use 1. Is of Reproof it condemneth 1. Them that take pleasure in nothing so much as in the Company of the Ungodly where they hear God dishonoured his Laws broken if they were horribly afraid of the Wicked which forsake God's Law how could this be All Conversation with the Wicked is not forbidden for then we must go out of the World and to some we are bound by the Law of Necessity or some civil and religious or natural Bond yet we are to eschew all unnecessary and voluntary Fellowship and Familiarity with them Psalm 26. 4. I have not sate with vain Persons nor gone in with Dissemblers So Prov. 22. 24 25. Make no friendship with an angry man and with a froward man thou shalt not goe Lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy Soul Certainly we are not to delight in the open Wicked as the onely Company that is pleasant to us for what can a tender Christian get among them but a wound to his Soul 2. Those that are not affected with their own Sins much less with the Sins of others It is but a deceit of heart to declaim against the Sins of the Times and not to mourn bitterly for our own Sins This is to translate the Scene of our Humiliation and to put it far off from our selves Surely that Grief will be most pungent and afflicting which doth most concern our selves and we know more by our selves then possibly we can by other Men therefore we should often think of the Merit of our own Sins their hainous Nature their dreadfull Consequences if God be not the more mercifull to keep us humble and thankfull Use 2. Is to perswade us to be of this Temper to be deeply affected when we see God's Laws broken It requireth 1. The general Grace
set him in safety from him that puffeth at him 'T is the Pride of the Oppressor which God taketh notice of his puffing scoffing and mocking at the hopes of God's despised ones he never dreameth of any checks from any but despiseth and contemneth all And partly because of the insulting over their misery and low estate Zeph. 2. 10. This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts But God taketh notice of it and will call them to an account in due time Prov. 3. 34. He scorneth the scorners but giveth grace unto the lowly Psal. 14. 6. You have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lordâ—… is his refuge i. e. mocked at a man because he is resolved to trust in the Lord laughed at those that made conscience of their duty that consulted whether lawful or unlawful not whether danger and profit not whether safe or unsafe but whether pleasing to God or not They trust in the Lord that in conscience of their duty venture upon hazards expecting their security from Heaven these thoughts seemed foolish to worldly wisdom you shamed his counsel scoff at it Isa. 51. 7 8. Fear ye not the reproach of men nor their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wooll Those that make reckoning of the ways of God need not be discouraged with their spiteful vaunts USE Let us take heed of Pride the Lord that hated the Pride of Moab doth also hate the Pride of Iacob Amos 6. 8. 1. Take heed wittingly and willingly of opposing any Command of God Psal. 119. 21. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments Nehem. 9. 16. But our fathers dealt proudly and hardned their necks and hearkned not to his commandments so ver 29. These proclaim a War with the Lord of Hosts especially when not reclaimed by grievous Judgments Isa. 26. 19. I will break the pride of your power And this is that we should lay to heart at this day Ier. 13. 17. But if ye will not hear my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride When a People will not be brought to any serious consideration of God's Judgments nor abate their haughty minds he would bewail their foolish arrogancy and the miseries ensuing thereupon This standing out against God is the greatest Pride 2. Take heed of murmuring against his Providence Entertaining Crosses with anger and Blessings with disdain are sure Notes of unmortified Pride when God's dispensations still displease and the heart swelleth against his Sovereignty First To entertain Crosses with anger 2 Kings 6. 33. This evil is from the Lord why should I wait any longer upon the Lord Words of desperate distrust and murmuring Secondly Blessings with disdain Mal. 1. 2. I have loved you saith the Lord and they said Wherein hast thou loved us As if God owed them more than others and were a kind of Debtor to them Habak 2. 4. Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith The lofty and unsound are distinguished from the just who can tarry God's leisure those mens souls are lifted up who cannot acquiesce in their lot and portion assigned by God but censure his way of proceeding and are loth he should have the disposing of them at his pleasure 3. Take heed of despising any of Christ's little ones and scorning and mocking at those that fear the Lord. The 51 verse of this Psalm The proud have had me greatly in derision To make a mock of others upon any account is a sign of Pride though they be meaner in Gifts though differing in Judgment though walking in a lower Dispensation but especially to scorn at them because more godly 2 Tim. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Despisers of those that are good This is to reflect upon God himself whose Image in his Saints is made a by-word and a strict obedience to his Will matter of scorn and derision If a Slave should mock a Child because he is like his Father would this be well taken so the jealous God will not long endure this horrible indignity that his Image should be scorned in his children Isa. 63. 9. In all reproaches he is reproached But they will say 't is not their Holiness but their demure Hypocrisie and affected Preciseness which they reproach and scorn but God seeth the heart 't is as if a Leper did upbraid others with Pimples The Infirmities of the Godly do not justifie your contempt of Godliness and because of their Faults you must not scorn at their Holiness and expect Indempnity 4. Take heed of Moral Pride which consists in a lofty conceit of our selves joined with a contempt of others This was the Pharisees sin Luk. 18. 9. He spake this Parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others And 't is notably personated in the Pharisee and Publican who went up to pray and is daily seen in them who are speaking of their own things boasting of their own excellencies elevating their own but extenuating the gifts of others Most men are too great and too good in their own esteem Self-love representeth our selves to our selves in a feigned shape and likeness much more wise and holy and just than we are it maketh us loath other mens Sins rather than our own to extenuate other mens Gifts and Graces and cry up our own but this should not be Philip. 2. 3. Let each esteem another better than themselves Humility is content to sit in the meanest place Ephes. 3. 8. Who am the least of all the Saints 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ came to save sinners of whom I am Chief We know our own weakness better than others and they may have secret excellencies which we see not this Moral Pride discovereth it self in three things First In disdain of Inferiors or contempt of those who are of meaner gifts or rank and place in the world Every member hath its use in the body the toe as well as the head neither can one say to another I have no need of thee 1 Cor. 12. 21. All Christians have their peculiar gifts by which they are rendered acceptable and useful to the body as every Countrey hath its proper Commodities for the maintaining of Trade and Commerce between all parts of the world or as to the beauty and use of the Universe there is need of Hills and Vallies so all Ranks of Men contribute to the beauty use and service of the whole The strong should not despise the weak nor the weak prescribe to the strong Now 't is impossible to keep all in their due order and proportion unless every one consider their own weakness and want and the usefulness of others As among Christians some are useful to preserve order others to keep afoot the life and power of godliness
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly 'T is but a little while and we shall receive the Crown and triumph over all our enemies III. Why the Saints should deprecate this evil 1. Because there is sin still in us all 'T is a bosome enemy that is born and bred with us and therefore it will soon get the advantage of Grace if it be not watched and resisted As Nettles and Weeds that are kindly to the Soil will soon choke Flowers and better Herbs that are planted by care and grow not of their own accord when they are neglected and not continually rooted out We cannot get rid of this cursed Inmate till this outer Tabernacle be dissolved and this House of Clay crumbled into dust Our old nature is so inclinable to this slavery that if God substract his Grace what shall we do 2 It is not only in us but always working and striving for the mastery it is not as other things which as they grow in age are more quiet and tame but Rom. 7. 8. Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy It is not a sleepy but a working stirring principle If it were a dull and unactive habit the danger were not so great but it is always exercising and putting forth it self and seeking to gain an interest in our affections and a Command over all our actions and therefore unless we do our part to keep it under we shall soon revert to our old slavery Sin must be kept under as a Slave or else it will be above as a Tyrant and domineer Once more The more it acts the more strength it gets as all habits are encreased by action for when we have once yielded we are ready to yield again Therefore any one sin let alone yea that which we least suspect may bring us into subjection and captivity to the Law of sin Rom. 7. 23. It doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations but it doth urge and impel us thereunto Again This bondage is daily encreasing and more hard to be broken for by multiplied acts a custome creepeth upon us which is another Nature And that which might be remedied at first groweth more difficult Diseases looked to at first are more easie to be cured whereas otherwise they grow desperate So sins before hardned into a custome before they bring us under the power of any Creature or Comfort which we affect 2 Cor. 6. 12. For then afterwards it cometh to a compleat dominion and slavery so that if a man would he cannot help it It behoveth then every Child of God to do his part that sin may not reign for where care is not taken it certainly will reign Use. To reprove the security and carelesness of many David suspected himself else he would never have made this prayer to God Lord keep me Let not any iniquity have dominion over me And we should all do so that would be safe Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief A constant watchfulness and holy jealousie and self-suspicion will be no burthen to you but a blessing Sin deceiveth us into hardness of heart for want of taking heed Many that are secure do not consider their danger and therefore they are not so careful to watch over themselves nor so humble as to implore the Divine assistance because they do not consider how soon they may be transported by a naughty heart and brought under the power and reign of sin Surely were we as sensible of the danger of the inward man as we are of the outward we would resist the first motions and not nourish and foster a temptation as we do The Saints do not tarry till the dead blow cometh but resist the first strokes of sin they do not tarry till it pines to death but resist the first inclinations An evil inclination if it be cherished and gratified gets ground the longer we let it alone the harder will our conflict be for sin secureth its interest by degrees 2. It sheweth the fearful estate of them that lye under the dominion of sin But who will owne it First It is certain that all men in their natural estate are in this condition Sin doth reign where there is no principle of Grace set up against it The Throne is always filled Mans heart cannot lye empty and void If Grace doth not reign sin reigneth Natural men are under the power of darkness Acts 28. 18. and Col. 1. 13. living in a peaceable subjection to sin till Christ come to trouble it all is quiet Wind and Tide go together Secondly It appeareth by your course Many will say There is not a just man on earth that doth good and sinneth not You are Sinners as well as we Answ. There is a difference though there be not a good man upon earth that sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. yet there is a difference Some have not the spot of Gods Children Deut. 32. 5. There is a difference between sins Levit. 23. 24 27. God gave the Priest under the Law direction how to put a difference between leprous persons So still there is a great deal of difference between numbness and death and between dimness of sight and blindness want of sense and want of life between stumbling into a Ditch and throwing our selves headlong into an Ocean And so there is a difference between infirmities and iniquities a failing out of ignorance and weakness or some powerful temptation and a running headlong into all ungodliness Gods Children have their failings but a burning desire to be freed from them Though others wallow in their sin without any care of a remedy In the one there is a failing in point of Duty in the other a Rebellion Take Iudas and Peter both sinned against their Master the one denied the other betrayed him the one denied him out of fear the other betrayed him out of covetousness and greediness of gain the one plotted his death the other was surprized on a sudden There is a great deal of difference between purpose and a surprize the one wept bitterly the other is given up to a raging despair David did not make a trade of Adultery and bathe himself in filthy lusts Noah was drunk but not knowing the power of the juice of the Grape They dare not lye in this estate but seek to get out by repentance Thirdly Some things may beget caution and move you to suspect your selves that is when your souls readily comply with the temptation you are at sins beck If it saith Go you go if it saith Come you come It is of great concernment to know what goes to the determining a mans condition to know at whose beck he is whether he is at the Fleshes or Spirits beck Psal. 103. 20. The Godly are described that they hearken unto the voice of his Word so the wicked are those that hearken to the voice
of man reacheth not to the mind and spirit they would be ridiculous if they should take upon them to give Laws to these Philosophers might give directions about them but Potentates would not give Laws for it doth not beseem them to interpose their authority in such Cases where it is impossible they shall know whether they are broken or kept The Scriptures upon their disobedience make men liable not only to temporal but spiritual and eternal punishments and accordingly are rewards proportioned in case of obedience The Magistrates wrath lighteth on the Body but Gods upon the Soul All that man can do concerns Life or Limb or Liberty or Estate the inward man is exempted from their power but God threatneth hardness of heart Exod. 7. 13. He hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearkened not unto them A reprobate sense Rom. 1. 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient A trembling heart Deut. 28. 65. The Lord shall give thee a trembling of heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind On the contrary Obedience hath the promises of a soft heart and peace that passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Iesus Of an encrease of Grace Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day God that punisheth sin with sin will reward Grace with Grace So for eternal rewards God threatneth The Worm that never dieth and the fire that never shall be quenched Mark 9. 44. On the other side he promiseth Rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. He that will be believed and obeyed upon terms of salvation is a God one that hath power of the World to come Thus hath God scattered the strictures of his Majesty and given real evidence of interposing his authority every where throughout the Word I shall only adde That the Scriptures as Gods Law may be considered as the Rule of Mans Duty and Gods Judgment In respect of the Commands they bind man to Duty and are the rule of it In respect of the Sanction that is promises and threatnings they are the rule of Gods Judgment In the one God sheweth his righteousness in the other his truth in the precepts righteousness in the promises and threatnings truth Secondly All that God hath required of us is very righteous and just becoming God to give and man to receive There is a condecency in these Precepts both to Gods Nature and to ours They are the Copy of Gods holiness and so a fit means to bring us not only into a subjection to him which is just he being our Creator but into a conformity to him which is our happiness To prove the righteousness which is in Gods Laws I shall produce several Arguments First Surely there is a distinction between good and evil and all acts are not in their own nature indifferent that was a monstrous conceit of Carpender and others contrary to the common sense of man If this were true the chastness of Lucretia should not be more to be prized than the lightness of Lais not the vertue of Cato than the dissoluteness of Sardanapalus and it would be as indifferent for a Man to kill his Father as his Neighbours Dog to rob in the Woods as to hunt a Deer or Hare to lye with his Fathers Wife as to contract honest Matrimony to forswear and lye as to be sincere in all our words and proceedings Now whose heart doth not rise within them at such an apprehension If this be thought to be only custome and received opinion that begets this abhorrence I would ask Whence cometh it that we all desire to be if not really yet seemingly honest The most wicked are offended when they are taken for such as they are and endeavour as much as they can to clothe their actions with the appearance of probity and uprightness If men were not sensible that vice were blame-worthy and vertue commendable why should such a desire so universally possess the heart of man were there not a natural sense of good and evil and an essential difference between the one and the other which we are sensible of Nature it self valuing and esteeming the one and blasting the other with severe marks of her improbation and hatred And I do with the more confidence urge this Argument because there is difficulty in the exercise of Vertue because of the conflict of the sensual appetite and on the other side many delights and pleasures accompanying Vice by which it gets an easie entrance into our souls and dominion over our desires Why should a thing so much against the bent and hair be accounted worthy of praise and the contrary which hath such a compliance with our natural desires be accounted worthy of blame And were there only Custome and Tradition for it would men so universally conspire to decree honours for that which is contrary to their corrupt Nature and to disapprove what is suitable to it It cannot be Would they desire the reputation of Vertue when their desires chuse Vice and impel them to it and hold them under it if they were not sensible that the one hath a comeliness and the other a turpitude in it Thus Hypocrites do clearly attest the excellency of uprightness and honesty Well then the Testimonies which God hath commanded are very righteous for they forbid those things which have a natural turpitude and indispensible sinfulness in them and command those things which are plainly and evidently lovely and praise-worthy Phil. 4. 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things Secondly It is such a rule and direction as men would chuse if they were at their own liberty provided they were wise and not brutified by their inordinate passions evil customes and discomposure of soul for all such are incompetent Judges For there is nothing preserveth the rectitude of humane Nature and maketh men to live as men according to the dictates of reason as the serious observance of this Law Break it a little and so far a Man turneth Beast so that it was well said of one A Saint or a Brute For the Law is so written upon mans heart and so connatural to his reason that you must extinguish the nature of man before you can rase out all the sentiments of this Law Rom. 2. 14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience
purpose Acts 11. 23. if thy purposes were more full and strong and throughly bent against sin they would sooner succeed Is it the fixed decree and determination of thy Will When you are firmly resolved your Affections will be sincere and stedfast you will pursue this work close not be off and on hot and cold unstable in all your wayes your full purpose or the habitual bent of your hearts are known by your drift and scope Or it may be this purpose may be extorted not the effect of thy Judgment and Will but only thy Conscience awakened by some present fear Many are by some pangs and qualmes of Conscience frighted into some Religiousness but this humour lasts not long Psal. 78. 35 36 37. And they remembered that God was their rock and the most high their redeemer Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed to him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant In their dangers they remembered God but their hearts were not right with him Ahab in his fears had some relentings So had Pharaoh The Israelites turned to the Lord in their distress but they turned as fast from him afterwards Resolves not of love but fear So are these resolutions wrested from you by some present Terrours which when they cease no wonder that they are where they were before Violent things never hold long they will hold as long as the principle of their violence lasteth Or it may be you rest in the strength of your own Resolutions now God will be owned as the Author of all Grace who reneweth and quickeneth every Affection in us still we must have a sense of our own insufficiency and resolve more in the strength and power of God and relie upon the Grace of Jesus Christ by his Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body as knowing that without him you can do nothing neither continue nor perform our Resolutions Men fall again as often as they think to stand by their own power there is much Guile and Falshood in our own hearts we cannot trust them the Saints still resolve God assisting Psal. 119. 8. I will keep thy precepts O forsake me not utterly Verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart They beg God to keep up their Inclination and Bent against Sin Verse 36. Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousnâ—…ss 2. As to Sriving let us examine that a little if it be so serious so diligent so circumspect as it should be Certainly that is no effectual striving when you are disheartned with every difficulty for Difficulties do but influence a resolved Spirit as stirring doth the fire No question but it will be hard to enter in at the streight Gate or walk in the narrow way God hath made the way to Heaven so narrow and streight that we may the more strive to enter in thereat Luk. 13. 24. Now shall we sit down and complain when we succeed not upon every faint attempt Who then can be saved This is to cry out with the Sluggard There is a Lion in the way Should a Mariner as soon as the Waves arise and strong gusts of Wind blow give over all guiding of the Ship No he is resolved upon his Voyage To give out upon every difficulty is against all the experience and wont of Mankind Again this striving and opposing is but slight not accompanied with that Watchfulness and Resolution which is necessary Many pretend to watch against sin yet abstain not from all occasions of sin if we play about the Cockatrice hole no wonder we are bitten Never think to turn from thy sin if thou dost not turn from the occasion of them Prov. 4. 15. Go not in the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away This is a practice becoming the hatred of sin Evil Company is a Snare if thou hast not strength to avoid the occasion which is less how canst thou avoid the sin which is greater He that resolveth not to be burnt in the Fire must not come near the Flames Iob made a Covenant with his Eyes Iob 31. 1. Our Saviour taught us to pray lead us not into temptation he doth not say into sin Temptation openeth the gate to it Certainly it argueth an hanckering of mind when we dally with Temptations as the Raven when he is driven from the Carrion loveth to abide within the sent of it so they have an inclination to sin when they forbear the the practice of it 3. For Praying we oftener pray from our Memories than from our Consciences and from our Consciences Enlightened than Hearts Renewed by Grace Prayer as it is the fruit of Memory and Invention is but a few slight and formal Words said of Course a Body without a Soul As dictated by Conscience it may be retracted by the Will at noli modo Austin when he prayed against his Youthful Lusts timeâ—… ne me excluderet Deus was afraid left he should be heard too soon at best but half desires faint wishes like Balaams wish to die the death of the Righteous The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing God never made Promise that lazy wishes should be satisfied if you pray against sin with your whole heart he will hear you The great fault is the want of this thorough hatred of Sin Use. Take heed of two things 1. A secret Love to your Sins 2. A remiss Hatred against them 1. A secret Love to Sin Iob speaketh of some that hid sin as a sweet Morsel under their Tongues Iob 20. 12. loth to let a Lust go And David of regarding iniquity in our heart Psal. 66. 18. First there is a secret liking of sin which in time will prove baneful to the Soul some Lust is spared and continueth unmortified It doth not remain so much as it is reserved and there keepeth Possession for Satan This will in time eat out all our other Vertues and bring a stain upon those good properties wherewith God hath indowed us Sin was never heartily cast out therefore they are in time insnared again and drawn away by some sensitive Lure 2. A remiss Hatred of sin no there must be a Total and full Aversion Hatred and Indignation is the souls expulsive Faculty it cannot be kept in good plight without it 'T is the lively and active principle which sets the soul awork in avoiding what is hurtful to the spiritual Life it concerneth us to keep it up in strength and vigour The Reason why even Believers do so often sin through weakness is because the Will doth not so strongly dissent as it should though we do not deliberately give our assent it should more potently awaken our displeasure but certainly the reason of wilful sin is want of a strong hatred Though Convinced of Evil yet we go on like a fool to the Correction of the Stocks Prov.
and are inclin'd to believe but when these truths soak into the heart to frame it to the obedience of his will When the Lord had spoken of practical obedience Was not this to know me saith the Lord Jer. 22. 16. And this is to believe So for Love Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Every faculty must express Love to God Many will be content to give God a part God hath their Consciences but the world their affections Their heart is divided and the evidence of it is plainly this In their troubles and extremities they will seek after God but this is not their constant work and delight We are welcome to God when we are compelled to come into his presence God will not say as men you come in your necessity But we must then be sincere in our addresses and rest in him as our portion and all-sufficient good 2. For intention of Degrees To seek God with the whole heart it is to seek him with the highest elevation of our hearts The whole heart must be carried out to God and to other things for Gods sake As Harbingers when they go to take up room for a Prince they take up the whole house none else must have place there so God he will have the whole heart Again it may be considered as to the exaction of the Law and as a Rule of the Gospel 1. As an exaction of the Law and so Christ urged it to the young man that was of a Pharisaical institution to abate his pride and confidence Mat. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Certainly these words there have a legal importance and signification for in another Evangelist Luk. 10. 28. it is added do and live which is the tenor of the Law And Christs intent was to abate the Pharisees pride by propounding the rigor of the first Covenant The Law requireth compleat love without the least defect according to the terms of it a grane wanting would make the whole unacceptable As a hard Landlord when all the rent is not brought to the full he accepteth none It is good to consider it under this sense that we may seek God in Christ to quicken us that we may value our deliverance by him from this burden which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear a stragling thought a wandring glance the least out-running of the heart had render'd us accursed for ever 2. It may be considered as a Rule of the Gospel which requireth our utmost endeavors our bewailing infirmities and defects but accepts of sincerity There will be a double principle in us to the last but there should not be a double heart So that this expression of seeking the Lord with the whole heart is reconcilable enough with the weaknesses of the present state For instance 1 King 14. 8. My servant David who kept my Commandments and who followed me with all his heart and did that only which was right in mine eyes David had many failings and some that left an indelible brand upon him in the matter of Uriah yet because of his sincerity and habitual purpose God saith He hath kept all my Commandments So in Iosiah 2 King 23. 25. Like to him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart with all his soul and with all his might Yet he also had his imperfections against the warning of the Lord he goes out with a wicked King and dies in Battel So Asa 2 Chron. 15. 17. The high places were not taken away it was a failing in that holy King yet 't is said the heart of Asa was perfect all his days Well then when the whole heart is engaged in this work when we do not only study to know God but make it our work to enjoy him to rest in him as our all-sufficient portion though there will be many defects yet then are we said to seek him with the whole heart Secondly The reasons why God will be sought with the whole heart are 1. He that gives but part to God doth indeed give nothing The Devil keeps an interest as long as one lust remains unmortified and one corner of the soul is kept for him As Pharaoh stood hucking he would fain have some pawn of their return either leave your children behind no no they must go and see the Sacrifices and be trained up in the way of the Lord then he would have their flocks and herds left behind he knew that would draw their hearts back again So Satan must have either this lust or that he knows by keeping part all will fall to his share in the end A bird that is tyed in a string seems to have more liberty than a bird in a Cage it flutters up and down though it be held fast so many seem to flutter up and down and do many things as Herod but his Herodias drew him back again into the Fowlers net Thus because of a sinners danger 2. Because of Gods right By Creation he made the whole therefore requires the whole the Father of spirits must have the whole spirit We were not mangled in our Creation God that made the whole must have the whole He preserves the whole Christ hath bought the whole 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods And God promiseth to glorifie the whole Christians it would be uncomfortable to us if God should only take a part to Heaven All that you have is to be glorified in the day of Christ all that you are and have must be given to him whole spirit soul and body Let us not deprive him of any part Use. Well do we serve God and seek after God with the whole heart The natural mother had rather part with the whole than to see the child divided 1 King 3. 26. God had rather part with the whole than take a piece Either he will have the whole of your love or leave the whole to Satan The Lord complains Hos. 10. 2. Their heart is divided Men have some affections for God many times but they have affections for their lusts too the world hath a great share and portion of their heart Q. But when in a Gospel-sense may we be said to seek God with the whole heart Take it in these short Propositions 1. When the setled purpose of our souls is to cleave to God to love and serve him with an intire obedience both in the inward and outward man when this is the full determination and consent of our hearts 2. When we do what we can by all good means to maintain this purpose for otherwise 't is but a fruit of conviction a free-will pang Act. 24. 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all
young or had more leisure and rest In that I have meditated and conferred You must continue still in a holy course To begin to build and leave unfinished is an argument of folly There is always the same reason for going on that there was for beginning both for necessity profit and sweetness We have no licence to slack and give over till all be finished Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own salvation otherwise all you do is in vain yet not in vain Gal. 3. 4. in vain as to final reward yet not in vain as to encrease of punishment You lose your cost your watchings striving prayings but you will gain a more heavy punishment so that it had been better you had never begun 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them You bring an ill report upon God your sense of the worth of heavenly things must needs be greater for your making trial and therefore your punishment for neglect the greater Into the Vineyard they came at several hours but all tarried till the close of the day Some called sooner some later but all held out till the end Heb. 6. 10 11. You have ministred and must minister you have prayed and must pray you have heard the word with gladness and must hear still Many in youth are zealous but when their first heats are spent grow worldly careless and ready to sound a retreat from God The fire of the Altar was never to go out so should the life and warmth and vigour of our affections to the word of God be ever preserved God is the same still and so is the word and therefore we should ever be the same in our respects to it The Devil in policy lets men alone for a while to manifest some respect to the ways of God that they may after do Religion a They are full of zeal strict holy diligent in attendance upon Ordinances he never troubleth them but is at truce with them all this while till they get some name for the profession of godliness and then he knoweth their fall will be the more scandalous and ignominious not only to themselves but to their profession They are forward and hot men a while till they have run themselves out of breath and then by a notable defection shame themselves and harden others 2. Compare it with the 13th verse I have declared now I will meditate To be warm and affectionate in our expressions of respect to the Word before others and to slight it in our own hearts argueth gross hypocrisie Therefore David would not only confer but meditate Many talk with others but not with their own soul. Commune with your hearts and be still True zeal is uniform when there is no witness but God it acts alike 3. Refer it to the 14th Verse David had spoken of his delight in the Law now that he would meditate therein in both not to boast but to excite others by his example that is to be understood all along when he speaketh of his diligence in and about the Law of God But mark first the word was his delight and then his meditation Delight causeth meditation and meditation encreaseth delight Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night A man that delighteth in the Law of God will exercise his mind therein Our thoughts follow our affections It is tedious and irksome to the flesh to meditate but delight will carry us out The smallest actions when we have no delight in them seem tedious and burdensome It was no great matter for Haman to lead Mordecai's Horse yet a burdensome offensive service because it was against his will The difficulty that we find in holy duties lyeth not in the duties themselves but in the awkwardness of our affections Many think they have no parts and therefore they cannot meditate He that findeth an heart to this work will find an head Delight will set the mind a-work for we are apt to muse and pause upon that which is pleasing to us Why are not holy thoughts as natural and as kindly to us as carnal The defect is in the heart I have rejoyced in thy testimonies saith David and therefore I will meditate in thy statutes In the words there is a double expression of Davids love to the Law of God 1. I will meditate in thy precepts 2. I will have respect to thy ways Concerning which observe 1. In both the notion by which the word of God is expressed and diversified Precepts Ways The word precepts implieth Gods Authority by which the counsels of the word are ratified Ways implieth a certain direction for our walk to heaven There are Gods ways to us declared in his Promises so it is said Psal. 25. 10. All the paths of God are mercy and truth Our ways to God ver 4. of that Psalm Shew me thy ways teach me thy paths These are his precepts 2. Observe the one is the fruit of the other I will meditate and then I will have respect Meditation is in order to practice and if it be right it will beget a respect to the ways of God We do not meditate that we may rest in contemplation but in order to obedience Joshua 1. 8. Thou shalt meditate in the book of the law day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein So Phil. 4. 8 9. Think of these things do these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when you cast up your accounts and consider what God hath required of you it is that you may set upon the work Meditation is not a flourishing of the wit that we may please the fancy by playing with divine truths Sense is diseased that must be fed with quails but a serious inculcation of them upon the heart that we may urge it to practice Nor yet an acquainting our selves with the word that we may speak of it in company Conference is for others Meditation for our selves when we are alone Words are but the female issue of our thoughts works the male Nor meerly to store our selves with curious notions and subtil inquiries study searcheth out a truth but Meditation improveth it for practical use it is better to be sincere than subtil 3. Observe this practical obedience is expressed by having respect unto the ways of God To respect Gods ways is to take heed that we do not turn out of them to regard them and our selves observe to do them Josh. 1. 8. and it is called elsewhere pondering our path Prov. 4. 26. ponder the path of thy feet that we
upon earthly things they must have Heaven The more their affections are estranged from the one the more they are taken up about the other Col. 3. 2. Heaven and Earth are like two scales in a Ballance that which is taken from the one is put into the other 3. There is no sufficient direction how to attain this durable estate but in the word of God Without this we are but like poor pilgrims and wayfaring men in a strange Countrey not able to discern the way home A blessed state is only sufficiently revealed in the word 2 Tim. 1. 10. Life and immortality is brought to light in the Gospel The Heathens did but guess at it and had some obscure sense of an estate after this life but it is brought to light with most clearness in the Word so the way thither is only pointed out by the Word It is the Word of God makes us wise to salvation and our Line and Rule to lead us to the heavenly Canaan and therefore it concerns those that look after this durable state to consult with the Word 4. There is no understanding Gods word but by the light of the Spirit Job 32. 8. There is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding Though the Word have light in it yet the spirit of man cannot move till he enlightens us with that lively light that makes way for the dominion of the truth in our hearts and conveyeth influence into our hearts This is that light David begs when he saith Hide not thy commandments from me David was not ignorant of the ten Commandments of their sound but he begs their spiritual sense and use 5. If we would have the Spirit we must ask it of God in prayer For God gives the Spirit to those that ask him Luke 11. 13. and therefore we must say as David Psal. 43. 3. O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy hill to thy tabernacle 6. When we beg it of God we must do it with submission to his Soveraignty and with subscription to his Iustice Therefore doth David use this manner of speech Hide not thy Commandment from me God doth hide when he doth not open our eyes to see now the Lord may chuse whether he will do this or no for he is Soveraign and may in Justice forbear to do so because we have abused the light we have it will be hid from us unless he reveal it The mystery of Grace is wholly at Gods dispose and whosoever begs it he must refer himself to the holy and soveraign good pleasure of God who may give out and withhold his efficacious grace according to his pleasure Matth. 11. 25 26. I thank thee Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Here 's the Lords Soveraignty he doth in these things as he pleaseth therefore David submits to it And then it implies It may be just with God to leave us unto our natural blindness and suffer Satan to blind us more It is fully consistent with the honour of his Justice therefore it is said Johâ—… 12. 40. He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts c. that is judicially suffering them to encrease their own blindness by their sin blindness that 's their sin and the Lord may leave it as a Judgment upon them USE Here 's Direction to you that know you are but pilgrims the great thing you should seek after is the straightest way to heaven If you have a sense of Eternity and a sense of your present frailty you should look how to get home to your Countrey To this end 1. Study the word why This is your Antidote against Infection and a Cordial to cheer us in the way It is an Antidote against Infection 2 Pet. 1. 4. By the promises we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust The World is an Infectious place therefore you had need take the promises next your heart to keep your hopes alive And here 's your Cordial to keep you from fainting that which makes you to rejoyce in the midst of present afflictions Psal. 119. 54. 'T is a cordial to cheer us up to revive us in the way till we come to our journeys end This will make up losses sweeten difficulties allay your sorrows Then 't is your direction the way to lead you home Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a light to my feet and a lanthorn to my paths We shall soon pass over this life all our care should be to pass it over well there are so many by-paths in the world and in a strange place we may soon miscarry 2. Intreat the Lord of his abundant grace to pity poor strangers who are ignorant and desire him he would not hide his word from you that you may walk in the nearest closest way wherein he would have you walk He may hide it from you as an Absolute Supreme Lord for he is bound to give his grace to none and he may do it as a just Iudg he may leave you to your own infatuations and prejudices Say Lord pity a poor stranger and pilgrim The word may be hidden two ways and take care of both 1. In point of External administration when the powerful means are wanting O it is a great mark of Gods displeasure when men are given up by their own choice to blind Guides to those that have no skill or no will to edifie or no abilities rightly to divide the Word of truth only fill the ear with clamour and noise but do not inform Conscience or move the heart by solid and powerful instruction from the Word of God 2. In point of Internal influence when the comforts and quicknings of the Spirit are withholden Lord withhold not thy Spirit from me SERMON XXI PSAL. CXIX 20. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times DAVID had begged Divine illumination v. 18. The reason of his request was Because he was a stranger upon earth and a stranger may easily be bewildred Now here is a second reason why he would have God to open his eyes Because his heart was carried out with so strong an affection to the word He that asketh a thing coldly doth but bespeak his own denial But David was in good earnest when he prayeth for light it was not a dead-hearted perfunctory petition but such as came from an ardent and strong affection My soul breaketh c. In the words we have 1. The Object of David 's affection Thy judgments 2. The quality or kind of his affection 1. It was vehement My soul breaketh with longing 2. It was constant at all times By Misphalim Iudgments is meant the Word which is the infallible Rule of Gods proceeding with sinners For the Affection I shall
as the benefits that he bringeth with him He doth approve things upon good knowledg and cometh to a well setled resolution Another defect in wicked men is because the judgment is superficial and so come to nothing 'T is not full clear and ponderous 't is not a dictamen a resolute decree not ultimum dictamen the last decree all things considered and well weighed 2. God's Grace God doth never fully and spiritually convince the judgment but he doth also work upon the will to accept embrace and prosecute those good things of which it is convinced He teacheth and draweth they are distinct works but they go together therefore the one is inferred out of the other Drawn and taught of God both are necessary for as there is blindness and inadvertency in the mind so obstinacy in the will which is not to be cured by meer perswasion but by a gracious quality infused inclining the heart which by the way freeth this doctrine from exception as if all Gods works were meer moral suasion The will is renewed and changed but so as God doth it by working according to the order of Nature USE By all means look after this Divine illumination whereby your judgment may be convinced of the truth and worth of spiritual things 'T is not enough to have some general and floating notions about them or slightly to hear of them or talk of them but they must be spiritually discern'd and judg'd of for if our judgments were throughly convinced our pursuit of true happiness would be more earnest you would see sin to be the greatest mischief and grace the chiefest treasure and accordingly act God inlightning the soul doth 1. Take away carnal principles Many men can talk well but they are leavened with carnal principles as 1. That he may do as most do and yet be safe Mat. 7. 23. Many will say in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name c. and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Prov. 11. 31. Behold the righteous shall be recompenced upon the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Exod. 32. c. 2. That he may go on in ungodliness injustice intemperance because grace hath abounded in the Gospel Tit. 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world And Luke 1. 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life 3. That he may spend his youth in pleasure and safely put off repentance till age But Eccles. 12. 1. we are bid to Remember our creator in the days of youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them And Luke 12. 20. when the rich man said to his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry God said unto him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Heb. 3. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. Men think it is a folly to be singular and precise that 't was better when there was less preaching and less knowledg that small sins are not to be stood upon But God inlightning the soul maketh us to see the vanity and sinfulness of such thoughts 2. There is a bringing the understanding to attend and consider there is much lieth upon it Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia so that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul That is weighed them in her heart SERMON XXXVIII PSAL. CXIX 34. Yea I shall observe it with my whole heart I Come now to the last clause I shall observe it with my whole heart The Point is Doct. That it is not enough to keep Gods law but we must keep it with the whole heart Here I shall shew you 1. That God requireth the heart 2. The whole heart 1. God requireth the heart in his service the heart is the Christians sacrifice the fountain of good and evil and therefore should be mainly looked after without this 1. External profession is nothing most Christians have nothing for Christ but a good opinion or some outward profâ—…on Iudas was a disciple but Satan entred into his heart Luke 22. 3. Ananias joyned himself to the people of God but Satan filled his heart Acts 5. 3. Simon Magus was baptized but his heart was not right with God Acts 8. 22. Here is the great defect 2. External conformity is nothing worth It is not enough that the life seem good and many good actions be performed unless the heart be purified otherwise we do with the Pharisees wash the outside of the platter Mat. 23. 25 26. when the inside is full of extortion and excess 'T is the heart God looketh after 1 Sam. 16. 7. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Cast salt into the spring As Iehu said to Ionadab so doth God say to us 2 Kings 10. 15. Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart We should answer it is Men are not for obsequious compliances if not with the heart so neither is God Though thou pray with the Pharisee pay thy vows with the Harlot kiss Christ with Iudas offer sacrifice with Cain fast with Iezebel sell thine inheritance to give to the poor with Ananias and Saphira all is in vain without the heart for 't is the heart enliveneth all our duties 3. It is the heart wherein God dwelleth not in the tongue the brain unless by common gifts till he take possession of the heart all is as nothing Ephes. 3. 17. He dwelleth in our hearts by faith The bodies of believers are Temples of the Holy Ghost yet the heart will and affections of man are the chief place of his habitation wherein he resideth as in his strong Citadel and from whence he commandeth other faculties and members and without his presence there he cannot have any habitation in us the tongue cannot receive him by speaking nor the understanding by knowing nor the hands by external working Prov. 4. 23. Out of it are the issues of life 't is the forge of spirits He dwelleth not in temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. and Jer. 23. 24. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord He will dwell in thine heart and remain there if thou wilt give thy heart to him 4. If Christ have it not Satan will have it The heart of man is
just is as the shining-light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Therefore when a man doth heartily apply himself to the things of God and acknowledging his defects doth go on from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. from love to love and from obedience to obedience Heb. 6. 10. and doth study to bring his heart into a farther conformity to God not looking back to Sodom or turning back to Egypt God accepteth of these desires and constant and uniform endeavours and will spare us as a man spareth his only son that serveth him Mal. 3. 17. as a son an only son that is obsequious for the main though he hath his failings and escapes There is in them integrity but not perfection all parts of holiness though not degrees As in the body every muscle and vein and artery hath its use thus all Israel is said to seek the Lord with their whole desire 2 Chron. 15. 15. And all Iudah rejoiced at the oath for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire 'T is said of Asa That he sought the Lord with his whole heart yet the high places were not taken away Now the Reasons why we must keep the Law with our whole heart are these following 1. He that giveth a part only to God giveth nothing to God for that part that is reserved will in time draw the whole after it The Devil keepeth an interest in us as long as any one lust remaineth unmortified as Pharaoh stood hucking he would fain have a pawn of their return first their children then their flocks and herds must be left behind them He knew this was the way to bring them back again So Satan hath a pawn and knoweth that all will fall to him at last Hos. 10. 2. Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty halting between God and Idols When men are not wholly and solely for God but divided between him and other things God will be justled out at last Grace is but a stranger sin is a native and therefore most likely to prevail and by long use and custom is most strongly rooted Herod did many things but his Herodias drew him back into Satans snare A bird tyed by the leg may flutter up and down and make some shew of escape but he is under command still So may men have a conscience for God and some affections for God but the world and the flesh have the greater share in them Therefore though they do many things yet still God hath no supreme interest in their souls And therefore when their darling lusts interpose all Gods interest in them signifieth nothing As for instance A man that is given to please the flesh but in all other things findeth no difficulty can worship give alms findeth no reluctancy to these duties unless when they cross his living after the flesh which in time swalloweth up his conscience and all his profession and practice A man addicted to the world can deny his appetite seem very serious in holy duties but the world prevaileth and in time maketh him weary of all other things 2. The whole man is God's by every kind of right and title and therefore when he requireth the whole heart he doth but require that which is his own God gave us the whole by Creation preserveth the whole redeemeth the whole and promiseth to glorifie the whole If we had been mangled in Creation we would have been troubled if born without hands or feet If God should turn us off to our selves to keep that part to our selves which we reserved from him or if he should make such a division at death take a part to Heaven or if Christ had bought part 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods If you have had any good work upon you God hath sanctified the whole in a Gospel-sense that is every part 1 Thes. 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Not only conscience but will and affections appetite and body And you have given all to him for his use I am my beloveds not a part but the whole He could not endure Ananias that kept back part of the price all is his due When the world pleasure ambition pride desire of riches unchaste love desire a part in us we may remember we have no affections to dispose of without Gods leave 'T is all his and it is sacriledg to rob or detain any part from God Shall I alienate that which is Gods to satisfie the world the flesh and the Devil It is his by Creation Redemption Donation when our flesh or the world or Satan detain any part this is with Reuben to go up unto our fathers bed Use 1. Is to reprove those that do not give God the heart in their service 2ly Not the whole heart 1. Not the heart but content themselves with outward profession Jer. 12. 2. Thou art near in their mouth but far from their reins God is often in their speech but they have no hearty affection never was there an Age higher in notions and colder in practice of Christianity The heart is all it is the Terminus actionum ad intra fons actionum ad extra It is the bound of those actions that look inward The senses report to the phantasy that to the mind and the mind counsels the heart If wisdom enter the heart Prov. 2. 10. It is the well-spring of those actions that look outward to the life Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Mat. 15. 19. and Prov. 4. 4. Let thy heart retain my words keep my commandments and live Then other things will follow 2. It reproves those that do not give God the whole heart for he requireth that and surely all is too little for so great and so good a master God will have the heart so that no part of it be lest for others or for our selves to dispose of as we will the true mother would not have the child divided 1 Kings 3. 26. God will have all or nothing he will not part stakes with Satan but Satan if he cannot have all will be content with a part But who are they that do not give God the whole heart 1st Those that are for God in their consciences but not in their affections Conscience many times taketh Gods part their affections are for the world but their consciences are for God as convinced men that do some outward work commanded in the law but they have no love to the work this will not serve the turn for whatever is done by constraint or the mere compulsion of a natural conscience can never hold long Nature will return to its byass again however men force themselves
us in Christ that keepeth us doing Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And Tit. 2. 11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Thankfulness to God is the great Principle of Gospel-Obedience 2. Love thy commandments which I have loved 2 Cor. 5. 12 The love of Christ constraineth us Nothing holdeth up the hands in a constant obedience to God and performance of his Will so much as a thorough Love to God and his Ways Faith begets Love and Love Obedience These are the true Principles of all Christian Actions 6. This lifting up of the hands imports a right End Commanded Work must be done to commanded Ends else we lift up our hands to our own Work Now the true End is the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 32. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God And Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Iesus unto the glory and praise of God God's Glory must be our main scope not any bye respect of our own Well then this is lifting up our hands to the commandments of God not doing one good Work but all and this with a serious Diligence in our ordinary Practice continuing therein with Patience whatever Oppositions we meet with and this out of Faith or a sincere belief of the Gospel and fervent Love and an unfeigned respect to God's Glory II. Why such a lifting up the hands or serious addressing our selves to our Duty is necessary My Answer shall be given in a fourfold respect God Ordinances Graces and the Christian who is to give an account of himself unto God 1. God Father Son and Holy Ghost Father as a Law-giver Son as a Redeemer and Head of the Renewed Estate Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier 1. God the Father who in the Mystery of Redemption is represented as our Law-giver and Sovereign Lord and will be not onely known and worshipped but served by a full and intire Obedience 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind He hath given us a Law not to be trampled upon or despised but observed and kept and that not by fear or force but of a ready mind Though there be an after-provision of Grace for those that break his Law because of the frailty of the Creature yet if we presume upon that Indulgence and sin much that God may pardon much we may render our selves uncapable of that Grace For the more presumptuously wicked we are the less pleasing unto God The Governour of the World should not be affronted upon the pretence of a Remedy which the Gospel offered for this is to sin that Grace may abound than which wicked Imagination nothing is more contrary to Gospel-Grace Rom. 6. 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid To check this Conceit God deterreth Men from greater Sins as more difficult to be pardoned than less they shall not have so quick and easie a pardon of them as of others nay he deterreth Men from going on far in sin either as to the intensive increase or the continuance in time lest he cut them off and withdraw his Grace and pardon them not at all Therefore he biddeth them to call upon him while he is near Isa. 55. 6. Not to harden their hearts while it is called to day Heb. 3. 7 8. Therefore if we should onely consider God as our Lord and Law-giver we should earnestly betake our selves to Obedience 2. If we consider the Son as Redeemer and Head of the Renewed Estate he standeth upon Obedience Heb. 5. 9. He is the authour of eternal life to them that obey him As he hath taken the Commandments into his own hand he insisteth upon Practice if his People will enjoy his favour Iohn 15. 10. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love as I have kept my fathers commandments and abide in his love He hath imposed a yoke upon his Disciples and hath Service for them to do he being a Pattern and Mirrour of Obedience expects the like from his People He fully performed what was enjoyned him to do as the Surety of Believers and therefore expecteth we should be as faithful to him as he hath been to God So Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me No love of Christ should encourage us to cast off Duty but continue it He taketh himself to be honoured when his People obey 2 Thess. 1. 11 12. Wherefore also we pray always for you that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Iesus Christ may be glorified in you The Work of Faith is Obedience and Christ is dishonoured and reproched when they disobey Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say 3. The Spirit is given to make Graces operative to flow forth Iohn 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life And Iohn 7. 38. He that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This spake he of his Spirit which they that believe in him should receive Therefore if we have an inward approbation of the Ways of God unless we lift up our hands we resist his Work 2. With respect to Ordinances They are all Means and Means are imperfect without their End Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of no use unless that other thing be accomplished for which they serve As he is a foolish Workman that contents himself with having Tools and never worketh for Tools are in order to Work and all the Means of Grace are in order to Practice We read hear meditate to understand our Duty Now if we never put it in practice we use Means to no end and purpose Hear and live Hear and do The Word layeth out Work for us it was not ordained for speculation onely but as a Rule of Duty to the Creatures therefore if we are to hear read meditate we must also lift up our hands 3. All Graces are imperfect till they end in Action for they were not given us for idle and useless Habits Knowledge to know meerly that we may know is Curiosity and idle Speculation So Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments Jer. 22. 16. He judgeth the cause of the poor and the
of heart to God The carnal mind is enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8. 7. We manifest our enmity to the Law of God by delays as well as by a downright opposition Neh. 〈◊〉 6. it is said the Work went on speedily why For the People had a mind to the Work Where there is an earnest bent of heart there we cannot linger and dally any longer But men have no love nor affection to God therefore do they delay and keep off from him 4. The love of the World rooted in us the love of present Delights and present Contentments This is so deeply rooted in our Nature that here we stick and are loth to come off kindly to the Work of God In Matth. 22. when they were invited to the marriage Feast of the Kings Son that is to the priviledges of the Gospel what did they plead The â—…arme Oxâ—…n Merchandise and one had married a Wife they were loth to be divorced from their dearest Lusts and to renounce the satisfaction which they had in carnal things that so they may walk with God in a way of strict Obedience II. Let me represent the hainousness of it because we are apt to stroke it with a gentle censure and to speak of this with soft words let us see what this dâ—…lay and putting off God is when he comes with a great deal of importunity and affectionate earnestness inviting us to partake of his Grace 1. 'T is flat disobedience to God You think 't is but putting it off for a while No it is flat disobedience Why God is as peremptory for the time and season as he is for the Duty it self God doth not onely say turn to me but to day even while it is call'd to day harden not your Hearts Heb. 3. 7 8. The Lord deals with us as the Roman Ambassadour dealt with Antiochus when he was shifting and putting off the matter that he might not give a direct answer to the Romans the Ambassadour draws a circle round about him saith he intra hunc let 〈◊〉 have an answer before thou passest from hâ—…nce so God will not onely have an answer but a present answer If he saith to day it is flat disobedience for you to say to morrow He saith now is the time of Salvation we are charged in his name and by his authority to do it now in this instant 2. 'T is Ingratitude and Unthankfulness for Gods Eternal Love Psal. 103. 17. From everlasting to everlasting thy loving kindness is great to them that fear thee From all Eternity God was mindful of us and before the World was With reverence we may speak it ever since he was God he was our God from Eternity to Eternity his loving kindness is great and shall we adjourn and put him off to an odd corner of our lives when he thought he could never soon enough think of us Shall the whole duration of God be taken up by his Love to us and shall we be content to grieve the Spirit of God and trample his Laws under our Feet for all this can you have hearts to abuse such a God and to deal so unkindly with him 3. It is base disingenuity we do not deal with God as we would have God to deal with us If we have any business or errand at the Throne of Grace we would be heard presently and are ready to complain if we have not a quick dispatch Psal. 102. 3. Lord hear me speedily here 's our Language when praying for any relief we stand in need of To day is a season for Mercy but to morrow we make always to be the season for Duty We would have God to tarry our sinful leisure till the heat of our Lusts be spent and fervors of Youth be abated yet we will not tarry his holy leisure We are bound but the Lord is hee whether he will answer us or no yet we murmur if God come not in at our beck we are always in haste if in any danger and want any relief we cry how long And shall God stand waiting till we turn from our evil ways If any cry how long God may as he doth Ier. 13. 27. when shall it once be 4. It is â—…ase self-love when we can be content to dishonour God longer provided that at length we may be saved Shall I say that this is to preferr our Salvation before God No but it is to preferr our sins before God And it shews that we are not willing to part with sin upon reasons of Duty or any real inclination of heart towards God but onely upon reasons of Interest that we may be saved yea never to part with it at all if you might have your wills Not but that a man may and ought to eye rewards and punishments It is part of the exercise of our saith to eye the reward and also to eye the punishment but this manifests an inordinate respect to the reward when we would enjoy our personal happiness and so that he obtained at length we care not how God be disobeyed and dishonoured You do but in effect say to God thus Let me despise thy Commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer then I will look after my Salvation when my Lusts are satisfied This is base self-love Christ did not redeem us onely that we might die well but that we might live well Not onely that we might be safe at last but glorify God here upon earth Not onely that we might enter into Heaven but do him service and that all our dayes Luke 1. 74. Being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life 5. It is great Injustice and Injury to God who hath been too long kept out of his right already Oh look back how ungratefully have you spent all your â—…ormer time too much time hath been spent already and you would delay longer 1 Pet. 4. 3. The time past may more then suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles c. It 's enough and should be more then enough and now you should not stay a moment As those that have delayed their journey when they begin and set out mend their pace that they may redeem their time and accomplish their journey so should we for the time past is more than enough to be spent in worldly vanity and carnal excess Rom. 13. 12 13 14. It 's high time to awake out of Sin God hath been encroached upon for a long time and that should and will be a grief of heart to you that you have not all this while acknowledged or paid your debt to your Lord. The thought of this should prevail with us the more because the payment of a debt to a man should not be delayed to put off a poor man till to morrow when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 28. And the wages of a Servant should not abide with us Lev. 19. 13. We
nor forsake thee And 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to bear but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it To the eye of sense we are lost and gone and have no helper but God is never wholly gone Hagar set herself over against the Lad would not go too far from him God seems to throw us away but he keeps himself within sight he will not totally or finally forsake us 6. That God's usual way is by Contraries The Gospel-way to save is to lose Ioh. 16. 25. Mat. 16. 25. He that will save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it Ioseph was made a Slave that he may be made Governor of Egypt His Brethren sell him that they may worship him And he is cast into Prison that he may be preferred at Court Thus God by Shame bringeth to Honour by Misery to Happiness by Sorrow to Comfort and by Death to Life to teach us to hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. and to trust in him though he kill us Job 13. 15. For Death is ours as well as other things If Calamities shorten our lives they hasten our glory Persecution is the nearest way to Heaven in the eye of Faith and the Sword of the Enemy is but the Key to open the Prison doors and let out the Soul which hath long desired to be with Christ. 7. That 't is better to suffer than to sin In suffering the offence is done to us in sinning 't is done to God The evil of suffering is but for a moment the evil of sin for ever In suffering we lose the favor of men in sinning we hazard the favor of God Suffering bringeth inconveniency upon the Body but sinning upon the Soul The sinful estate is far worse than the afflicted Heb. 12. 28. The evil of Sufferings for the present the evil of Sin for afterwards 8. That Holiness Faith Meekness and Patience are better Treasures than any the world can take from us Certainly a Christian is to reckon himself by the inward man if he hath an healthy Soul he may the better dispense with a sickly Body 3d Epist. Iohn 2. If the inward man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. If sore Troubles discover reality of Grace Sound and saving Faith discovered to the Soul is better worth than the worlds best gold 1 Pet. 1. 9. If carnal sense were not quickest and greatest we would judge so and not look to the sharpness of the affliction but to the improvement of it If the bitter water be made sweet if you be more godly wise and religious 't is enough Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby If the loss of worldly comforts make us apply our selves to heavenly consolations if being disburdened of worldly incumbrances we go on in our way of serving God with more liberty and delight and when our dangers are greatest we draw near to God and adhere to him most closely and being persuaded of his love vigilancy and power with these and such kind of thoughts will a man be stocked who is with seriousness and delight conversant in the Scriptures and so will go on undisturbed in the course of his obedience 2 These things must be improved by meditation so saith David I will meditate on thy precepts 1. Sleepy Reason is unuseful to us and Truths lie hid in the heart without any efficacy or power till improved by deep serious and pressing thoughts Non-attendency is the bane of the world Mat. 13. 19. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart Those invited to the Wedding Mat. 22. 5. made light of it Men will not suffer their minds so long to dwell upon holy things as to procure a good esteem of them then in seeing they see not and in hearing hear not as when you tell a man of a business whose mind is taken up about other things A sudden carrying a Candle thorough a Room giveth us not so full a survey of the Object as when you stand awhile beholding it A steady contemplation is a great advantage Attending is the cause of believing when we grow serious Acts 16. 14. Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things spoken by Paul Acts 17. 11. And these were more noble than they of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind If People would often return to cosinder they would not be hardned in sin Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own heart upon your beds Hagg. 1. 5. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways God's complaint was They would not consider his ways Job 34. 27. Isa. 1. 3. My people doth not consider Running thoughts never work upon us nor leave any durable impression like the glance of a Sun-beam or a Wave When the Soul is besieged by a constant battery of Truths it yieldeth but a mind scattered upon impertinent Vanities groweth not up to any considerable strength of faith or joy or comfort or holiness 2. God will not be served by the bie and at hap-hazard David taketh a resolution to study his duty The more deliberate our resolutions are the better Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies We shall never stumble upon a good course by chance Isa. 56. 4. And choose the things that please me Not take them upon some sudden motion but after mature and serious deliberation 3. To divert the mind from other things Afflictions and Troubles stir up a multitude of thoughts in us Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts Sometimes self-oppressing thoughts carking thoughts envious thoughts and repining at God's Providence the object of our trouble is ever before us Now there is no way to get rid of these but by exercising them upon better things Troubles make us concerned about matters of weight they employ our minds usefully which before were scattered to impertinent vanities Psal. 39. 3. My heart was hot within me whilest I was musing the fire burned That our minds may not be a prey to inordinate passions we pore upon the trouble and the heart is heated like an Oven stopped up and therefore keep the mind well employed 4. Frequent meditation keepeth our principles in view and memory We are apt to forget in our sorrows Heb. 12. 5. And ye have forgotten the consolation 'T is not ready at hand to support us in the time of Trouble A seasonable remembrance of Truths is a great relief to the Soul 't is the Spirit 's office 3 That Afflictions and Molestations have a great tendency and subserviency to promote and advance these
Father of our Lord Iesus Christ As if God could not be glorified by them where there is not this Amen Well then if David did so earnestly desire the company of God's children so should we 3. Though it be so great a blessing yet often it falleth out that theâ—… are great discords and estrangements between those that fear God and know his Testimonies godly men may be strange one to another David complaineth Psal. 69. 8. I am become a stranger to my brethren and an alien to my mothers children And Psal. 38. 11. My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore They stood afar off then when wicked men had wounded him Now this may come to pass 1. Through carnal Fear As the Godly may be deterred by the fear of the Proud Therefore he desireth they may recover their courage An afflicted condition as it might increase the violence of the Proud so it might diminish the affections of the Godly Affliction is harsh to flesh and blood and good men in their sharpest conflicts may be deserted not only of those who make fair profession but are really Godly and stand in the gap alone Christ himself hath paved the way he was left alone so Paul complaineth 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all did forsake me I pray God it be not laid to their charge The Godly may forsake our fellowship though they wish well to us when we are persecuted as the rest of the Herd forsake the wounded Deer they may shrink from us and our afflictions 'T will be a great mercy if owned in our Troubles Paul took notice of Onesiphorus's not being ashamed of his chain when some turned away 2 Tim. 1. 15 16. 2. They may be alienated by Prejudice Persons truly godly may be deceived by the Proud His enemies had depraved his cause as in the former verse his enemies represented him as a strange person so they might be seduced by their slanders and so engage against him till they were disabused and reduced As now he beggeth God in mercy to do for him the equity of my cause being known let them join themselves to me As Iob to his Friends Job 6. 29. Return I pray you let it not be iniquity yea return again my righteousness is in it That is in this matter every good man would desire this but David was the head of the Party and chief of the Godly's sight often it falleth out that the Godly may take distaste and offence at us 3. There may be some offence given by us Chrysostom and Theodoret think it relateth to David's sin after he had committed Adultery with Bathsheba and plotted the Murder of Uriah Theodoret thinks that he was withdrawn or separated from the Communion of the Church according to his foul Fact and therefore prayeth for a redintegration and that they might return to intimacy with him again and he gathereth it from Symmachus's Translation who doth not read it let them turn unto me but let them converse with me as freely as before Thus the Disciples were offended with Paul till God hardned their hearts towards him Acts 9. 13. Saul was ashamed to see any of those whom he had persecuted Ananias was afraid as the Lamb to come near the Wolf till God prepared both by an internal vision so verses 21 26 27. 4. From difference in Iudgment about lesser things we should Philip. 3. 15 16. be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing There should be an union in heart way and scope Rom. 14. but often it doth fall out that Passion because of lesser differences may occasion an unkindness between very Brethren Acts 15. 37 38 39. And Barnabas determined to take with them Iohn whose sirname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus That Paroxism between Paul and Barnabas 5. From the Providence of God permitting it for wise reasons Iob owneth God in it Job 19. 13 14. He hath put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me So doth Heman Psal. 88. 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me thou hast made me an abomination to them Partly to humble us and try us for our depending too much upon man and making us our selves again with our Party A winnowing storm may be sent to this purpose we think our Faith and Resolution strong now God will try how we can stand alone And partly to drive us to God With thee the fatherless find mercy Hosea 14. 3. Psal. 60. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Psal. 12. 1. Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth the faithful fail from among the children of men We shall not have too much comfort by any creature To turn us to believe in God alone We are prone to look to the creature and to have our hearts drawn away from God And partly to conform us to Iesus Christ John 16. 32. Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone Mat. 26. 56. But all this was done that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled Then all the Disciples forsook him and fled This is part of the bitter Cup. 4. When this falleth out we should use all due means to recover those that have deserted us and draw them into us again the favor is worth diligence A man would not be cast out of the hearts of God's people the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only embrace it when 't is offered to us and fairly droppeth into our mouths but pursue it with earnestness We must pursue it as a man pursueth something running from him to take it 't is explained Psal. 34. 14. Seek peace and pursue it If the issue answer not our first attempt we must seek it again not giving the cause for desperate lest despair quench our endeavors 5. One great means to recover a good understanding among God's People is Prayer David goeth to God about it Lord let them turn to me The Lord governeth hearts and interests both are in his hands and useth this alienation or reconciliation either for judgment or mercy God when he pleaseth can divert the comfort of godly Friends and when he pleaseth he can bring them back again to us The Feet of God's Children are directed by God himself if they come to us 't is a blessing of God if not 't is for a
matter how comes this deadness upon me Isa. 63. 17. Why hast thou caused us to err from thy ways and hardned our heart from thy fear Enquirew hatâ—…s the cause of this deadness that grows upon me that you may humble your selves under the mighty hand of God The Argument only is behind According to thy Word David when he begs for quickning he is encouraged so to do by a promise The question is where this promise should be Some think it was that general promise of the Law If thou do these things thou shalt live in them Lev. 17. 5. And that from thence David drew this particular conclusion that God would give life to his people But rather it was some other promise some word of God he had to bear him out in this request We see he hath made many promises to us of sanctifying our affliction Isa. 27. 9. The fruit of all shall be the taking away of sin of bettering and improving us by it Heb. 2. 11. of moderating our affliction that he will stay his rough wind in the day of the east-wind Isa. 27. 8. That he will lay no more upon us than he will enable us to bear 1 Cor. 10. 13. He hath promised he will moderate our affliction so that we shall not be tempted above our strength He hath promised he will deliver us from it that the Rod of the wicked shall not always rest on the back of the righteous Psal. 105. 3. That he will be with us in it and never fail us Heb. 13. 5. Now I argue thus If the People of God could stay their hearts upon God's Word when they had but such obscure hints to work upon that we do not know where the promise lies Ah how should our hearts be stay'd upon God when we have so many promises When the Scriptures are enlarged for the comfort and enlarging of our Faith surely we should say now as Paul when he got a word Acts 27. 25. I believe God I may expect God will do thus for me when his Word speaks it everywhere Then you may expostulate with God I have thy Word for it Lord as she when she shewed him the jewel ring and staff whose are these so we may cast in God his promises whose are these according to thy Word And mark David that was punctual with God I have sworn and I will perform it and quicken me according to thy Word Sincere hearts may plead Promises with God Isa. 38. 3 Lord remember I have walked before thee with an upright heart These may look up and wait upon God for deliverance SERMON CXVIII PSAL. CXIX VER 108. Accept I beseech thee the free-will-offering of my mouth O Lord and teach me thy judgments IN this Verse two things are asked of God God's Acceptance then secondly Instruction First He begs Acceptation Therein take notice 1 Of the matter object or thing that he would have to be accepted The free-will-offerings of my mouth 2 The manner of asking this Acceptation Accept I beseech thee O Lord. In the former you may observe the general nature of the thing and then the particular kind they were free-will-offerings and yet more express they were free-will-offerings of his hands not legal sacrifices but spiritual services free-will-offerings of his mouth implying praises our praises of God are called the calves of our lips Hos. 14. 2. rendred there by the Septuagint the fruit of our lips and accordingly translated by the Apostle Heb. 13. 15. The fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name He was in deep affliction wandering up and down the Desart he was disabled to offer up to God any other sacrifice therefore he desires God would accept the free-will-offerings of his mouth he had nothing else to bring him Secondly He begs of God instruction in his way Teach me thy judgments By Misphalim judgments are meant both God's Statutes and God's Providences If you take them in the former sense for God's Statutes so he begs grace to excite direct and assist him in a course of sincere obedience to God practically to walk according to God's Will If you understand it in the latter sense only for the accomplishment of what God had spoken in his Word for God's Providence for his corrective dispensation Teach me he begs understanding and profiting by them I shall begin with his first Request which offereth four Observations 1. That God's people have their spiritual offerings 2. That these spiritual offerings must be free-will-offerings 3. That these free-will-offerings are graciously accepted by God 4. That this gracious acceptance must be earnestly sought and valued as a great blessing I beseech thee accept c. Doct. 1. First That God's People have their spiritual offerings I shall give the sense of this Point in five Propositions 1 That all God's People are made Priests to God for every offering supposeth a Priest so it is said Rev. 1. 6. That Christ Iesus hath made us Kings and Priests All Christians they have a Communion with Christ in all his Offices whatever Christ was that certainly they are in some measure and degree Now Christ was King Priest and Prophet and so is every Christian in a spiritual sense a King Priest and Prophet for they have their anointing their unction from the Holy One and he communicates with them in his Offices So also they do resemble the Priesthood under the Law in 1 Pet. 2. 5. they are called a holy Priesthood to offer sacrifices to God And 1 Pet. 2. 9. they are called a royal Priesthood They are a holy Priesthood like the sons of Aaron who were separated from the People to minister before the Lord and they are a Royal Priesthood in conformity to the Priesthood of Melchisedec who was King of Salem and also Priest of the Most High God There is a mighty conformity between what is done by every Christian and the Solemnities and Rites used by the Priests under the Law The Priests of the Law were separated from the rest of the People so are all God's People from the rest of the World The Priests of the Law were to be anointed with holy oil Exod. 28. 41. so all Christians they receive an unction from the holy one 1 John 2. 20. By the holy oil was figured the holy Spirit which was the Unction of the Holy One. by which they are made fit and ready to perform those duties which are acceptable to God After the Priest was thus generally prepar'd by the anointing to their services before they went to offer they were to wash in the great Laver which stood in the Sanctuary door Exod. 29. 4. Lev. 8. 4 5. So every Christian is to be washed in the great Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. And when they are regenerated born again purged and cleansed from their sins then they are Priests to offer Sacrifices to God for till this be done none of their offerings are acceptable to him For they that are in the flesh â—…annot
48. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction that is not so throughly silver is not refined till all the dross be consumed and wrought out of it and when should we see good day if God should so refine us 4. They are not reckoned to dross but metal that walk answerable to their profession and obligations to God as becometh his peculiar people to do they are not satisfied with common mercies A man may have the world at will and yet be a cast-away they must have something peculiar and distinguishing Psal. 119. 132. Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do to them that love thy name things that can never be given in anger They do not rest in common Grace Heb. 6. 9. But we hope better things of you and things that do accompany salvation Those good moods in Hypocrites and Temporaries Nor content themselves with a common conversation 1 Cor. 3. 3. Are ye not carnal and walk as men 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot Matth. 5. 46. If you love them that love you what reward have ye do not even the Publicans the same You should do something rare and singular not in an ordinary loose rate III. That it is God's business in heaven to put away the wicked as dross to sever them from the purer metal 1. God hath many ways and means to do it partly by his Judgments he doth it more and more Matth. 3. 12. His Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor and gather his Wheat into the Garner but he will burn up the Chaff with unquenchable fire As the Chaff from Corn so Dross from Metal Isai. 4. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughter of Zion and shall have purged the bloud of Ierusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning that is by the Judgment executed upon the evil among them Ezek. 20. 38. And I will purge out from among them the Rebels and them that transgress against me This God doth by destroying wasting Judgments 2. Partly by the censures of the Church 1 Cor. 5. 9. Put away from among your selves that wicked person And partly by the stroke of the Civil Magistrate and their punishments Prov. 25. 4 5. Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the Finer Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness Thus doth God do it now but he will fully and finally do it at the last Judgment when there shall be a perfect separation of them and all the wicked shall be cast away as refuse Matth. 25. 32 33. Before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his left hand there is a congregation and then a segregation never to meet more nor be mingled more Now God doth it in part but then more fully 2. The Reasons First God doth so lest the silver it self should be turned into dross We are apt to corrupt one another natural corruption within meeting with examples without Isai. 6. 5. Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips As a man that hath the matter of a Disease prepared coming into infectious Company is soon infected Gods choicest people have much dross in them therefore the Lord needeth to purge out their dross the purest Church is apt to contract pollution and to degenerate and the choice Plants of the Covenant-Stocks to run wild were it not for these dispensations Secondly That impunity may not harden the wicked and encourage others God suffereth it as long as he judgeth it expedient Eccl. 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil Psal. 9. 16. The Lord is known by the Iudgments he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Men sin the more freely and securely when a Judgment doth not presently overtake them when sinners go on without any mark of Gods vengeance but God will in every Age clear his Providence by bringing of Judgments upon wicked men Thirdly The nearer they are to God the more hateful their provocations are and more severely punished Amos 3. 2. You have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities For their sins the valley of vision is brought to barrenness They sin against the clearest light the dearest love the highest engagements to the contrary and therefore when they are mingled among his people as dross with the silver God putteth them away Use. Is to inform us that God in his judicial proceedings will distinguish he will divide the dross from the other metal that he may destroy the one and preserve the other David prayeth Psal. 26. 9. Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men that God would not lay him common with the wicked God hath his Harvest for cutting down for cutting and binding together those that sinned Now David prayeth That he that had severed himself in his course of life might not be gathered with them in their punishment God will distinguish his Judgments are for the destruction of the worser sort and the amendment of the better When he severeth the dross he hath a care of the silver Though never so terrible to the wicked still he will be comfortable to his own 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust to the Day of Iudgment to be punished His own Jewel that lyeth hidden among them when all is shaken round about them God can hide them in the secret of his Presence and preserve them as he did Lot and Noah His own are wonderfully preserved in common Judgments several Scriptures speak to this Eccl. 8. 12 13. Surely it shall be well with them that fear God but it shall not be well with the wicked And Iosh. 3. 10. Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you and he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites Isai. 3. 10 11. Say unto the righteous It shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him God will make a difference between good and bad Use 2. That a few wicked men may bring a great deal of hurt and mischief as Achan upon Israel two dry sticks may set a green one
little patience will discover it As poysonous Ingredients in a Medicine take them singly and they are destructive but as tempered with other things by the hands of a skilful Physician so they are wholesome and useful Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous The Rod is a sowre thing for the present but wait a little this bitter root may yield sweet fruit God can so over-rule it in his Providence So Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Ask a man under the Cross Is it good to feel the lashes of Gods correcting hand No but when he hath been exercised and found lust mortified the world crucified and gotten evidences of Gods favour then it is good that I have been afflicted 4. This good is not to be determined by feeling but by Faith Psal. 73. 1. Yet God is good to Israel and to such as are of a clean heart God is good to his people however he seem to deal hardly with them sence judgeth it ill but faith saith it is good it seeth a great deal of love in pain and smart There is such a difference between faith and sense as there was between Elisha and his Servant 2 King 6. 15 16. the Servant saw the Host of the enemies but he did not see the fiery Chariots and Horsemen that were for his help Elisha saw both so Believers see not only the bitterness that is in Gods chastenings but the sweet fruits in the issue Faith can look at the pride and power of wicked men as a vain thing when they are in the height of their power and greatness Iob 5 3. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation that is prophetically not passionately foretelling evil not wishing it When they were taking root as themselves and other worldly men thought I judged him unhappy foretold his end and destruction There is much of the spirit of prophecy in faith When others applaud make little gods of them he looketh through all their beauty riches and honour Psal. 92. 7. When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Grass will wither and dry up of its own accord especially when there is a Worm at the root Their very prosperity as it ferments their lusts and hardeneth their hearts is a means to draw on their destruction Psal. 39. 5. Man in his best estate is vanity Then when they seem to have all things under their feet who could harm them So that none dare open the mouth move the wing or peep yet God can easily blast and whip them with an unseen scourge 5. Good is of several sorts temporal spiritual eternal First Temporal Good Cross accidents conduce to that Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day and to save much people alive The Egyptians and themselves had wanted a preserver if Ioseph had not been sold and sent into Egypt If a man were to go to Sea in a voyage upon which his heart was much set but the ship is gone before he cometh but after he heareth that all that were in the ship are drowned then he would say This disappointment was for good As Crassus's Rival in the Parthian War was intercepted and cut off by the craft of the Barbarians had no reason to stomach his being refused Many of us have cause to say Periissem nisi periissem we had suffered more if we had suffered less In the Story of Ioseph there is a notable scheme and draught of Providence He is cast into a Pit thence drawn forth and sold to the Ishmaelites by them sold into Egypt and sold again what doth God mean to do with poor Ioseph He is tempted to Adultery refusing the temptation he is falsly accused kept for a long time in ward and duress All this is against him who would have thought that in the issue this should be turned to his good that the prison had been the way to preferment and that by the pit he should come to the Palace of the King of Egypt and exchange his particoloured Coat for a Royal Robe Thus in temporal things we get by our losses and God chuseth better for us than we could have chosen for our selves Let God alone to his undertaking and he will manage our affairs better than we looked for Secondly Good spiritual Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness What do we call profit The good things of this World and the great Mammon which so many worship No some better thing some spiritual and Divine benefit a participation of Gods holiness Then we profit when we grow in Grace and are more god-like when we are more concerned as a soul than a body It is a good exchange to part with outward Comforts for inward holiness If God take away our peace and give us peace of Conscience we have no cause to complain If our outward wants be recompensed with the abundance of inward Grace 1 Cor. 4. 10. and we have less of the World that we may have the more of God and be kept poor that we may be rich in faith Iam. 2. 5 6. if we have a healthy soul in a sickly body as Gaius had 3 Iohn 2. if an aking head maketh way for a better heart doth not God deal graciously and lovingly with us Thirdly Our eternal Good Heaven will make amends for all that we endure here This mainly is intended in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God And then in the 29 th and 30 th Verses he presently bringeth in the golden Chain Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called he justified and those whom he justified them he also glorified So 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory it shall either hasten or secure our glorious estate A man may lose ground by a temptation his external good may be weakned his soul suffereth loss but this warneth him of his weakness and quickeneth him to stand upon his watch and to look up more to Christ for strength against it Or it may be cut off and perish in the affliction but then his glorious estate cometh in possession 6. That may be good for the Glory of God which doth not conduce to our personal benefit and the Glory of God is our great interest Iohn 11. 27 28. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this Cause came I unto this hour father to glorifie thy name Then there came a voice from Heaven saying I have both
glorified it and will glorifie it again There was the innocent inclination of his humane Nature Father save me from this hour and the over-ruling sense of his duty or the obligation of his office But for this cause came I to this hour We are often tossed and tumbled between inclinations of Nature and Conscience of Duty but in a gracious heart it prevaileth above the desire of our own comfort and satisfaction the Soul is cast for any course that God shall see fittest for his Glory Nature would be rid of trouble but Grace submitteth all interests to Gods Honour that should be dearer to us than any thing else were it not selfishness and want of zeal that would be our greatest interest SERMON CXXXIV PSAL. CXIX VER 122. Be Surety for thy Servant for good let not the proud oppress me USE It informeth us what reason there is to pray and wait with submission to the will of God God will answer us according to our trouble not always according to our will He is wiser than we for he knoweth that our own will would undo us If things were in our own hands we would never see an ill day and in this mixt estate that would not be good for us But all Weathers are necessary to make the Earth fruitful Rain as well as Sun-shine We must not mistake the use and efficacy of prayer We are not as Sovereigns to govern the World at our pleasure but as Supplicants humbly to submit our desires to the supream Being Not to command as Dictators and obtrude any module upon God but to sollicite as servants Do good in thy good pleasure to Zion Psal. 51. 18. If we would have things done at our pleasure we should be the Judges and God only would have the place of the Executioner Our wills would be the supream and chief reason of all things But this God cannot endure therefore beg him to do good but according to his own good pleasure 1. Let us submit to God for the mercy it self in what kind we shall have it whether temporal spiritual or eternal If God see ease good for us we shall have it if deliverance good for us we shall have it Psal. 128. 2. or give us strength in our souls or hasten our Glory We should be as a Die in the hand of Providence to be cast high or low as God pleaseth 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 2. Let us submit for the time Though Jesus loved Lazarus yet he abode still two days in the same place when he heard he was sick Iohn 11. 6. It is not for want of love if he doth not help us presently nor want of power Christ may dearly love us yet delay to help us even in extremity till a fit time come wherein his Glory may shine forth and the mercy be more conspicuous He doth not sleight us though he doth delay us he will chuse that time which maketh most for his own Glory Submit to Gods dispensations and in due time you shall see a reason of them 3. Let us submit for the way and means We know not what God is a doing Iohn 13. 6 7. Then cometh he to Simon Peter and Peter saith unto him Lord dost thou wash my feet Iesus answered and said unto him What I do thou knowest not but thou shalt know hereafter No wonder we are much in the dark if we consider first that the Worker of these works is Wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isai. 28. 29. infinitely beyond Politicians whose projects and purposes are often hidden from us therefore much more his Secondly That the ways of his working are very strange and imperceptible for he maketh things out of nothing Rom. 4. 17. And calleth those things that be not as though they were one contrary out of another as light out of darkness 2 Cor. 4. 6. meat out of the Eater Enemies catched in their own Snare Thirdly That his end in working is not to satisfie our sense and curiosity Isai. 48. 7. They are created now and not from the beginning even before the day when thou heardest them not lest thou shouldest say Behold I knew them Isai. 42. 16. I will bring the blind by a way they know not I will lead them in paths that they have not known He chuseth such a way as may leave enemies to harden their hearts Mic. 4. 12. But they know not the houghts of the Lord neither understand they his counsel for he shall gather them as the Sheaves into the Floor Secondly I now come to the literal explanation and there we have I. The evil deprecated Oppress me II. The persons likely to inflict it The proud I. The evil deprecated Let not the proud oppress me The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them not calumniate me The Septuagint take this word for oppression or violent injustice and therein are followed by St. Luke Chap. 3. 14. Chap. 19. 8. Doctr. Oppression is a very grievous evil and often deprecated by the people of God 1. I shall shew you what oppression is It is an abuse of power to unjust and uncharitable actions That it is an abuse of power appeareth by the object of it who are those that are usually oppressed that is either the poor and needy Deut. 24. 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers within thy Gates the fatherless and the widow are mentioned Ier. 7. 6. Ye shall not oppress the stranger the fatherless and the widow the stranger Zach. 7. 10. And oppress not the widow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and Exod. 22. 21 22 23. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless Child if thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all to me I will surely hear their cry 2. The Subject or Agent by whom 't is practised The proud the mighty rich great man at least comparatively in regard of the wronged party Eccl. 4. 1. And on the side of their oppressours there was power but the oppressed had no comforter Job 35. 9. By reason of the multitude of oppressours they make the oppressed cry and by reason of the arm of the mighty Secondly The base and mean when they get power into their hands to oppress the rich noble and honourable Isai. 3. 5. And the people shall be oppressed every one by another and every one by his neighbour the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable It is commonly more insolent and cruel and contemptuous and despightful Prov. 28. 3. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food When men do unjust and uncharitable actions as when men bear it proudly or insolently towards them throwing them out of
they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God This is the true sense but because the heart is deceitful First Be sure your Cause be good your Adversaries evil that ye may say Psal. 74. 22. Arise O Lord plead thine own Cause 'T is not for your sins but your sins but your righteousness the hatred is not against the body Indeed they pretend some little faults 'T is as if a Leper should hate a man because he hath some pimples in his face Something they would lay to their charge Secondly That we use all means with God and Men to reclaim them praying for them Matth. 6. 44. Pray for them that despightfully use you Mourning for their sins Ier. 23. 19. My soul shall weep in secret for your pride Heaping Coals of fire upon their heads by all acts of kindness condescending to them as far as possibly we can Rom. 12. 18. These arts become his Kingdome that is not to be planted by force but consent them that would have the zeal of God not of a party Thirdly Be sure your principle be zeal for Gods Glory not a desire to establish your own interest and to see revenge on a party that differeth from you Luke 9. 54 55. You know not what spirit you are of Religious affections overset us and fleshly zeal puts on a holy spiritual Guise and Mask and we think 't is for the honour of Christ. Fourthly Not against particular persons but the opposite faction to godliness In general destroy all the enemies of Christ c. Secondly For the manner How We must seek to God first with submission not prescribing to God nor making a snare to our selves We that have short and revengeful Spirits cannot judge aright of Gods patience which is infinite out of fleshliness and affection to our own ease And so our times Iohn 7. 6. your time is always ready if none of these be yet we are limited Creatures and great is the wisdom of God and his power admirable it doth not belong to us to guide the affairs of the world Psal. 78. 41. We must not prescribe opportunity to him fixing times Besides that it argueth a spirit too much addicted to and eying of temporal happiness It doth much unsettle us and harden others The Devil maketh advantage of our disappointment Therefore not only when it seemeth seasonable to us we may seek to him for deliverance Once more there are other things concurr besides the enemies ripeness for Judgment preparing his peoples hearts fitting those instruments for his work therefore all is left to Gods will and let him take his time Use of all is to teach us how to behave our selves in these times with patience and yet with hope and waiting 'T is the time of Iacob's trouble but there will be a time of deliverance Ier. 30. 7. With patience God will have a time to chastise his people We must bear it patiently it will make Crosses sit easie they may be greater and longer than our joys Psal. 90. 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil Secondly With hope let us expect it Certainly it will not exceed the time limited by God That time is not long Isai. 13. 22. Her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged Ezek. 12. 21. to 28. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of man what is that Proverb that ye have in the land of Israel saying The days are prolonged and every vision faileth Tell them therefore Thus saith the Lord I will make this Proverb to cease and they shall no more use it as a Proverb in Israel but say unto them The days are at hand and the effect of every vision for there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel for I am the Lord. I will speak and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass it shall be no more prolonged Faith should see it as present approaching and then let us wait his leisure minding God in prayer SERMON CXXXIX PSAL. CXIX VER 127. Therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold IN the Words we have I. A Note of inference Therefore II. The Duty inferred I love thy Commandments III. The degree of that love Above Gold amplified by the repetition with some advantage in the expression Yea above fine Gold III. Gold by a Senechdoche is put for all worldly things the comforts and profits of this life as in many other places as Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey Comb. The two Bastard Goods with which the World is inchanted are pleasure and profit Old people are all for profit young people are all for pleasure Now both these truly so called are found in the Word of God So in Prov. 8. 10 11. Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choise gold for Wisdom is better than Rubies and all the things that are to be desired are not to be compared to it So Prov. 8. 19. My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my revenues than choise silver So Prov. 3. 14. For the merchandise thereof is better than gold and the gain thereof than fine gold So Prov. 16. 16. How much better is it to get Wisdom than Gold and to get Understanding rather to be chosen than silver This Comparison is used so often for two Reasons 1. Because it is more prized in the World All things that have a goodness in them have a certain Bait suitable to the several Appetites of men but in most mens opinions Gold seemeth chiefly to be desired partly for its beauty but chiefly for its use it being the great instrument of Commerce that doth all things in the world The corruption of mans heart addeth a greater price to it and therefore is the thirst of it so unsatisfied Now the Word and that wisdom and godliness which it teacheth is far above Gold and fine Gold 2. Because it is the usual temptation to draw off men from the love and study and obedience of the Word Babylon's abominations are offered to the world in a golden Cup Rev. 17. 4. And the Woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with Gold and precious Stones and Pearls having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication Preferments are the Baits of that black Religion True Christianity consists in sound Graces Pseudo-Christianity in pomp and state and worldly advantages and the Apostle telleth us 1 Tim. 6. 10. That the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith Therefore doth the spirit of God so often compare spiritual things to Gold and here David preferreth his love to the Word before Worldlings love to
by mourning for this Carnal men are hot in their own cause cold in Gods Gods Children are quite otherwise cold in their own cause and hot in Gods Therefore they are deeply sensible when Gods honour is weakned Moses was the meekest man upon Earth yet he brake the Tables How doth this agree The injuries that were done to himself he could look upon with a meek quiet spirit easily put them up but when he saw the people bring dishonour to the name of God then he hath a high and deep affection They cry out Iosh. 7. 9. Lord what wilt thou do for thy great name So Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory They go to God not to advance our faction and interest we are brought very low yet the wrath of man shall praise thee Thy name is dear and precious they are sorry to see any prophane it God hath abundantly provided for their respect he hath bid all men love them when he bid us love one another So that in effect all the respects of the world are devolved upon one person And they would have all men love God and honour God Secondly It comes from their compassion and pity and love to men O it grieves them to see so many that do not grieve for themselves and their eyes are wet because yours are always dry I tell you weeping saith Paul Phil. 3. 18. Compassion over the miserable estate of such Teachers and those that are led by them they and whole Droves run after fancies that endanger their souls False Teachers and their Proselytes should not only fall under our indignation but our pity They are Monsters in nature that want Bowels much more in Grace Religion doth not harden the heart but mollifie it Jesus Christ was made up of compassion and all Christians partake of Christs spirit Phil. 1. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Iesus Christ. Pray mark Paul had got some of Christs bowels and let me tell you they were tender ones Compassion towards others and weeping over their sins is somewhat like the love of Jesus Christ. He would take our burthen upon himself when he was not interested so the spirit of Christ worketh in all his Members he hath distributed his bowels among them and therefore they cannot but long for the salvation of others yea their heart is broken and mollified with Christs compassion to them and therefore long for fellows in the same Grace Though they have received personal and private injuries yet they pity their case and mourn for them 'T is matter of humiliation and lamentation 2 Cor. 12. 21. When I come again I fear my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the fornication uncleanness lasciviousness which they have committed It is matter of grief to see so many thousands perish or in a perishing condition Thirdly This disposition cometh from the antipathy and zealous displeasure that is in their hearts against sin They know what sin is the greatest enemy that God and Christ and their own souls have in the world It was sin that made Angels become Devils it was sin that blew up the sparks of Hell fire it was sin that opposed God that crucified Christ it is sin that grieves the Spirit of God and therefore they mourn when sin gets Proselytes A man cannot endure to see a Toad or Viper near him your hearts rise when you see them creep upon another so do the hearts of the Children of God rise that their enemy and Gods should find such respect and entertainment in the world It is said of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 2. That she could not bear those which were wicked And David saith Ps. 101. 3. I hate the works of them that turn aside They know this will grieve the spirit of God that this will press him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves and shall God be pressed and burthened and they not troubled It cannot be They that love the Lord will hate evil Psal. 97. 10. both in themselves and others Fourthly This disposition comes out of a sagacity of faith and serious foresight of the effects of sin They know what sin will come to and what is the danger of it therefore when they see sin encreasing Rivers of water run down their eyes Wicked men tremble only at the Judgment of God but good men tremble at his Word and therefore they mourn when others fall into danger of the threatning When Ezra plucked his beard and was in such a zealous indignation against the sins of the people bewailing them before the Lord Ezr. 9. 4. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel At fasts others are sleight and obdurate they look on threatning as a little mock Thunder they are not sensible of the danger I may set forth this by that allusion 2 Kings 8. 11. The Prophet Elisha wept when he saw Hazael that he looked wishly on his face till he blushed The man of God wept and Hazael said Why weepeth my Lord And he answered Because I know the evil thou wilt do unto the Children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their Children and rip up their women with child and Hazael said But what is thy servant a Dog c. So when the Children of God look upon sin they know by the complexion of it what will be the dreadful effects This will be bitterness in the issue in time this will produce pestilences famine fire sword and all other mischiefs and judgments and expressions of the angry indignation of the Lord. They foresee a Storm when the Clouds are but a gathering therefore they tremble when they see them This is the sagacity of faith Now carnal men on the other side look upon the threatnings of Scripture but as words of course used as in way of policy that God only would awe and scare them but doth not purpose to condemn them But Faith is sagacious Look as to the promises Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen So as to the threatnings the same evidence of things not seen The Apostle doth not only instance when he had given the general description of the objects of hope for the recompence of reward but he instances in the threatnings Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark c. They know however men sleight the word of God one day it will be found true and therefore when they see men add sin to sin they are troubled The Word is as sure as execution and works upon them accordingly They have all things in a near view the nearer the objects of our faith are in our view the more they stir up our affections Dangers and death
the Judge of the World 3. Besides his general Justice as the Ruler and Judge of the World and the Condecency that is in such a dispensation to the rectitude of Gods Nature there is his Covenant declared in his Word wherein he promiseth temporal happiness to the Godly and threatneth Misery and Punishment to the Wicked and God ever stood upon the Truth of his Word to make it good in the eyes of the World therefore it will be with men as their condition is set forth in the Word of God A Promise there is as good as Accomplishment and a Threatning as sure as Performance and therefore accordingly as the Word saith of them so is Salvation far or near from them Now search all the Word of God and see if it speak any thing of hope and comfort to the Wicked or them that make a trade of provoking God nay they are well enough aware of that and therefore will not come to the light care not to busie themselves in the Scriptures for they say of them as Ahab of Micaiah he prophesieth nothing but evil to me and justly enough for they can see nothing there but their own doom if they are evil it can speak nothing but evil Isaiah 3. 10 11. Say ye unto the righteous it shall be well with them for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with them for the reward of his hands shall be given to him This is the Tenour of the whole Word of God so Eccl. 8. 12 13. Though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God It is a certain Truth it is a certain evident Truth for it is judicium certi axiomatis I do know and confidently affirm that it shall be well with them that Fear God but it shall not be well with the Wicked that is it shall be very ill with them But here cometh in the great Objection of sense How can these things be so We see the contrary that all things come alike to all Eccl. 9. 1 2. The righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that seareth an oath That those outward things are given indifferently to good and bad and the wicked are as free from Temporal Punishment as others and enjoy all prosperity in this World even sometimes to the envy and offence of Gods Children and the hardening of their own hearts and which is more that often it happeneth to the Just according to the work of the Wicked Eccl. 8. 14. and to the Wicked according to the work of the Righteous that is Evil to good Men and Good to evil Men as to outward things the advantage is usually on the side of the worst Answ. 1. By Concession we must grant what is to be granted that Temporal things not being absolutely Good or Evil the Lord taketh a liberty in the Dispensation of them the Eternal Promises and Threatnings being of things absolutely Good and Ill are therefore Absolute and Peremptory none that live Godly can fail of the Eternal Promises none that goeth on still in his Trespasses can escape the Eternal Threatnings but the temporal Promises and Threatnings being of things not simply Good and Evil are not so absolutely fixed but God will take a liberty sometimes to cross his hands out of his general Indulgence to give Prosperity to the Wicked and out of his Fatherly Wisdom to Chasten the Godly and so all things come alike to all Is Abraham Rich So is Nabal yea so the Godly may be Afflicted when the Wicked Triumph as Lazarus pined with want when Dives fared deliciously every day and Ierusalem was in an heap of Ashes when Babylon flourished 2. By Correction the wicked have no right by Promise or Covenant and so Salvation is far from them for this Promise or Covenant-right inferreth two things 1. A Sanctified injoyment 2. A more sure Tenure 1. A Sanctified Injoyment they that have Salvation by Promise they have it as an effect of Gods special Love and so have it as a Mercy not as a Judgment but without this they have it only by Gods general Indulgence and so it may be a snare Psal. 69. 22. Let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a Trap and promote their Ruine not only Eternal but Temporal if they be not by these common Mercies brought to Repentance the greater shall their Condemnation be and their downfal the more speedy For while they let loose the Rains and run headlong into all Sin God is the more provoked against them and his Anger that was a little delayed and put off is the more severely executed It is a blessed thing to have Salvation by Covenant Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose When we are sanctified to God saith Baxter all things are sanctified to us to serve us for God and to help us to him 2. Our Tenure is more sure and we can with more Confidence wait upon God for it in this sense Salvation is far from the Wicked because they cannot lay Claim to Gods favourable Providence or look for the continuance of it with any Confidence because they have no Right no Promise to build upon the Word of God speaketh no good to them whatever God may do out of his general Indulgence Iam. 1. 7. Let not that man think he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Now the Misery of this appeareth by considering wicked Men either as in Prosperity or Adversity 1. If they be still at ease for the present yet they are not upon sure Terms because they know not how soon God may break in upon them and theirs Iob 5. 3 4. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation his Children are far from safety the Notion of the Text and are crushed in the gate and there is none to deliver them in the eye of the Godly they are far from Salvation I judg'd him unhappy for all his Wealth foretold his suddain destruction which God would speedily bring on him and his I read his Doom So Iob 8. 10 11 12 13. Can the rush grow without mire can the flag grow without water whilst it is yet in its
p. 539 Constancy in Obedience will turn to good account at lastp 375 376 377. Vid. Perseverance Constant endeavours against Sin a sign of Grace p. 20 Constant Obedience from a new Principle p. 753 Constancy the glory of Obedience p. 339 Constant Zeal for God p. 855 Constant Obedience against all Temptations p. 668 Contempt of Gods Word two Reasons of it p. 1005 338 339. Must not drive from Duty p. 339 340 Contemptuous wanderers from Gods Precepts God will pull down p. 793 Contention with Equals a fruit of Pride p. 520 Contentment in trouble from the Faith of Gods Protection p. 768 We should be Content with what measures of grace God alloweth p. 905 Continuance in sin exceeding dangerous p. 21 Continuance in Obedience the same Reason to continue it that there was to begin it and more p. 341 Contraries subserve Gods designs p. 525 Conversation of a Christian should be a Hymn to God p. 1096 Converse with God delightful p. 952 Converse with Saints comfortable p. 504 505 Conversion occasioned by Afflictions p. 464 Conversion may be observed and known p. 603 Conversion Gods method in it 1. In Conviction of sin 2. Compunction for sin p. 603 604 626 1. By humbling for sin 2. Cleansing the heart 3. Binding up the broken heart p. 626 Conviction in various degrees p. 604 Convictions stiâ—…led harden the heart more p. 400 412 Convictions their saving effects p. 605 Conviction 1. By way of prevention 2. Humiliation p. 688 Corruptions always ready to break out upon us p. 790 A cause of Apostasie p. 803 Corrupt communication 1. Obscene 2. Calumniating 3. Proud 4. Passionate Discourses c. p. 1064. its evil p. 1065 Cost and charge in the service of God an Argument of true Zeal p. 853 A priviledge of the Covenant to be taught Gods Statutes p. 845 Covenant of works leaves no room for Repentance-p 838 Arguments to enter into Covenant with God and keep it p. 707 708 909. Covenant Right the priviledge of them that walk with God p. 7. Covenant of Grace in the form of Precepts and Promises p. 28 It differs from all other Covenants p. 941 Covenant between God and man is mutual p. 608 821 Difference and agreement between the two Covenants p. 906 907 908 Covenant not to â—…e modelled by our fancies p. 578 Covenant Relation to God implies an entire surrender of the whole Soul to him p. 683 It ought to be often renewed and why p. 706 when p. 706 707 Covetousness a great Enemy to Righteousness p. 818 and to obedience what it is p. 254. Reasons p. 257 Counsel Wisdom Understanding how they differ-p 737 Counsels of God are Commands p. 24. Counsel of God in his Word sufficient for all our necessities p. 153 Counsellors Gods Testimonies the best Counsellors p. 148 152 Evil Counsellors Envy Covetousness Pride Revenge p. 829 Courage Christian what it is difference between it and Military Valour p. 723. Objections answered p. 734 Courage for God A Christian must not only be Laborious as an Oxe but Valiant as a Lion p. 851 852 Court of Gods Iudgment p. 942 Creation discovers the Author to be God p. 9. End of Creation to make us seek God the Creator p. 13 397 448 It discovers God to be Merciful p. 437 Creation gives God a right to the whole heart and our whole Obedience p. 16 Creatures serve man man his Creator p. 589 498 Creatures when spoken of as eternal it must be understood of a Communicated and dependant et cruity p. 570 Creatures utmost perfection is Vanity p. 613 614 It is of a perishing Nature p. 615 Credit God stands upon the Credit of his Word p. 831 Cross hath done its work when it hath purged away our sins p. 868. We never more advance in Christianity then under the Cross p. 147 Cross serves to awake the drowzy Conscience p. 464 465 Crosses must 1. be looked for 2. prepared for 3. borne with patience when laid on us p. 966 Crown of Glory to be set against the Cross p. 592 Under the Cross to have good thoughts of God glorisies him p. 511 Crown of Glory forfeited by Apostacy p. 342 Crying to God in Prayer opposed to lifeless formality p. 898. We may cry we must cry to God and why so what it is to cry to God p 898 899 Reasons why men do not cry to God 1. They want a right sense of their necessities 2. They are tongue-tyed through guilt 3. They have no spiritual Desires 4. Nor Reverence of God 5. They want Faith p. 900 901 Cure of Sin two ways 1. by abating the inward Lust. 2. Removing the outward bait p. 867 Curiosity and Conscience p. 689 Curse of God the Nature of it p. 132 133 Curse of God lies upon every man by Nature p. 133 How to know we are not under the Curse p. 134. Custom no safe Rule to walk by p. 4 Custom in sin makes sin stronger p. 56. It it a second Nature p. 303 Customariness and Complement in praying make no business of that great Duty p. 920 D. DAY of Iudgment An account of thoughts words and actions to be given in that Day p. 39. the necessity of that Day p. 457 The Triumph of Gods Justice will be glorious at the last day p. 937 Daily grace to be sought as well as daily bread p. 789 Why God permits his Children to be in daily danger of their lives p. 74 728 Danger sense of it puts an edge on Prayer p. 916 917 Danger may be nigh to gods People p. 943. Reasons p. 943 944 Deadness of heart in the Children of God whence 1. From some sin committed 2. Some good omitted 3. Unthankfulness 4. Pride of gifts 5. Great outward Troubles 6. Carnal liberty indulged to themselves p. 597 598 Helps against deadness p. 601 602 Deadness of heart towards that which is good caution'd against p. 777 Deadness in prayer reproved whence it comes p. 890 900 Death to the Soul to be without sense of Gods Love p. 516 Death how far it may be desired and how not p. 104 1095 Ministers should Preach and People hear as if Death were at their backs p. 408 Death it self should not make us warp from the Word p. 732 Death not desirable for it self p. 1095 Deceitfulness of sin in two particulars p. 679 680. Decay first decays of the soul to be observed p. 344 Deceived wicked men are Deceived in their Trust p. 798 Deceivings of the Heretick the superstitious and the seeming Religious Person p. 799 Declame A man may declame against other mens sins and yet never mourn for them in secret p. 932 Declaring our Case before God argues sincerity p. 164 165 Defection of others should make us more esteem Gods Word why p. 871 Vid. Apostacy Degenerated man the worst of all Creatures p. 897 Degeneracy of Man and Mankind p. 496 1100 Degrees of Holiness p. 18 Degrees of love to the Word p. 867 868 Delays in turning to God dangerous