while they daily say Psal 42. 3. Ezek. 9. 4. unto me where is thy God That the Lord may remember us for good and mark us out for mercy when we mourn and sigh and cry out for all the abominations which are done in the Land It is not enough for us to refrain from those abominations but we must also be truly humbled for them and that because of the great dishonour redounding to God thereby 3. Speak not of God but with fear and reverence and as in His sight and hearing for there is not a word in our Psal 139. 4. mouths but he knows it altogether Seeing we are unworthy to take God's holy name in our mouths much less ought we to abuse it vainly and lightly in our speeches But to abuse it in vain rash or false oaths is an undoubted sign of one that hath no fear of God before his eyes They shall make their own tongue Psal 64. 8. Hos 7. 16. to fall upon themselves they shall fall for the rage of their tongue So the Prophet complains Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and Isai 3. 8. their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory 4. Let our speeches be always gracious seasoned with the salt of wisdom and discretion such as may edifie or Colâ— 4. 6. Minister Grace to the hearers Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our Eph. 4. 29. mouths but that which is good c. for 1 Cor. 15. 33. evil communications corrupt good manners 5. Pray to God in the words of David Set thou a watch O Lord before Psal 141. 3. my mouth and keep the door of my lips c. and let us take heed to our ways Psal 39. 1. that we sin not with our tongue and keep our mouth as with a bridle For whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from trouble For he that loveth Prov 21. 23. 1 Pet. 3. 10. life and would see good days must refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile 6. Consider wherefore God gave thee a tongue and the organs of speech thou art not so bruitish as to think it was to curse and swear and blaspheme his name No no know assuredly that the tongue is the glory of a man and so David calls it and faith awake my glory Psal 57. 8. I my self will awake early to praise the Lord. And so in another place Thou hast shewed such mercies to me to the end 30. 1â— that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent c. They that use their tongues to God's dishonour and refuse to praise him with their tongues here shall never sing Hallelujahs hereafter but shall gnaw their Rev. 16. 10. tongues for pain because of their pains and that for ever where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out I might farther speak here of the government of the tongue which containeth two parts 1. Holy speech 2. Holy silence In Holy speech must be considered 1. The matter of our speech 2. The manner of it But I shall be too prolix and expatiate too far to insist particularly on these and the several branches thereof I shall close up this discourse with these Sentences The lips of the righteous know what is Prov. 10. 32. acceptable but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his 13. 3 life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction Whoso keepeth his mouth and tongue 21. 23. keepeth his soul from evil The breach of this third Commandment is very hainous and so much the more as the glory of God is most dear and precious to Him And good reason for if sinful men regard their reputation ought not God much more respect His honour and glory The punishment God threatneth iâ— not to hold the party offending guiltless that is faultless And though noâ— particular punishment should follow yet impunity is punishment enough God is greatly angry when He correcteth not And an hardned heart is punishment enough So a man may be grievously punished and yet not feel it Besides in this threatning no time is affixed that offenders may fear always for suddenly oft-times God cometh anâ— shews His vengeance on such wicked persons as we have many examples No kind of punishment is named that they may look for all There is no exception of persons every one so offending shall be punished and plagued EXERCITATION THE NINTH Exod. 8. 32. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also IT is a fearful thing for any man to harden his heart against God Who ever hardened himself against God and Job 9. 4. hath prospered Pharaoh first presumptuously and wickedly hardened his own heart then the Lord judicially hardened his heart and gave him over to hardness of heart Though he had those ten direful Plagues upon his Land though the Egyptians his own people cryed out to him to let Israel go urging to him Doest thou not know that all the Exod. 10. 7. land of Egypt is destroyed yet still he hardened his heart Like other wicked men who after their hardness and impenitency of heart treasure up unto Rom. 2. 5. themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgments of God The plague of hardning of his heart was a greater plague than all the ten plagues of Egypt For so obdurate and desperately hardened was his heart that although he had let the people of Israel go and had had all those ten plagues on him and on his Land yet he pursued after them with all his Hoast Chariots Horses and Horsemen even into the middest of the red sea and there they were all drowned there remained not so much as one of them Like as they made their hearts Exod. 14. 28. harder than the nether milstone as it is spoken of Leviathan so they all sank Job 41. 24. Exod. 15. 10. as a stone or lead in those mighty waters Thus God brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces viz. Pharaoh and all his host and gave them to be meat Psal 74. 14. to His people inhabiting the wilderness The meaning whereof is not as some though pious and learned and the Septuagint also do too too grosly interpret it to the wild beasts which devoured the Egyptians carcasses that were cast upon the shore but the meaning is that God overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the red sea and gave them to meat to His people of Israel in their wilderness-condition for their souls to feed on by faith to consider God's signal miraculous preservation of them and deliverance of them out of Egypt and from those mighty Leviathans who would have swallowed them up and destroyed them and so to strengthen their faith in an experimental way that God would still go along with them
keep and preserve them subdue the Canaanites before them and settle them in that Land for a possession as He had sworn to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice I know not the Lord. But God said the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh upon Exod. 14. 18. his chariots and upon his horse-men Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at Thy people Isai 26. 11. yea the sire of thine enemies shall devour them For the Scripture saith of Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew My power in thee and that My name Rom. 9. 17. might be declared in all the earth So Sihon King of Heshbon though probably he had heard of the wonders God had wrought for Israel he would not let the people pass by him for the Lord hardened his Spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel who smoâ—e him his sons and all his people until Numb 21. 35. there was none left him alive and they possessed his Land So Nebuchadnezar when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride he was deposed from his kingly Dan. 5. 20 21. throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses they fed him with grass like oxen c. And thou his son O Beshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou Dan. 5. 22. 23. 30. knewest all this but hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven c. and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not honoured in that same night he was slain What became of the Jews who hardened their hearts against the preaching of Christ and His Apostles God gave them over to hardness of heart and impenitency c. those spiritual plagues and followed them so with His temporal judgments also until His wrath came 1 Thess 2. 16. upon them even to the utmost This St. Paul then spake in a way of Prophecy for he writ these Epistles to the Thessalonians from Athens about the 13th year of Claudius Caesar which was about 22 years after Christ Crucified and Jerusalem was not destroyed by Titus Vespâ—sian until some years after for some place it in the 40th year but the most Authentick in the 38th year after Christ was Crucified when in the Siege were slain Eleven hundred thousand in the war taken Captives Ninety seven thousand besides many millions that perished in silence Thus perished those wicked hardened Jews as they had wished that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children and so it hath rested Mat. 27. 25. heavily for above these Sixteen hundred years and they are as vagabonds on the earth still 〈◊〉 no more of this To harden the heart may have reference 1. To God which is when He leaves a man in his natural hardness not softning his heart but as a just Judge delivering him over to Satan to be more hardened thus God hardened Pharaoh's Exod. 9 12. heart 2. To Satan to inspire blind thoughts and so to make the heart of a man more hard 3. To a man's Self to follow his own lusts stubbornly thus Pharaoh hardened his heart So at last such a man hath a stony heart which is an extream hardness of man's wit and heart with stubbornness resisting God's will Thus a man comes to a hard heart which is a disobedient and unyielding heart a heart Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 3. 13. that cannot repent which the Apostle bids them beware of lest their heart be made hard through the deceitfulness of Isai 48. 4. Zech. 7. 12. sin This is the brâ—sen forehead the iron sinew the stony heart the heart of Adamant spoken of in Scripture which nothing can bow or break neither promises nor threatnings blessings nor afflictions Unto this estate men come by long custom in sin custom of sin bringeth hardness of heart Well doth holy David therefore pray to God to Psal 139. 24. 119. 101. 104. deliver him from every way of wickedness that he might not make wickedness his trade his customary way to walk in as too too many do This hardness of heart comes as I said before 1. By the just judgment of God 2. By the malice of Satan 3. By a man 's own perverse will This the Apostle fully describes They Eph. 4. 18 19 walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness I translate it the hardness of their heart for the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies induration or hardening although rendered in our translation according to the blindness of their heart Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 callum Joh. 12. 40. obduco obduro is rendered He hath hardened their hearts and both words come from the same word in the Original So from these words we see in what consists this alienation or estranging from God namely in the darkness of the understanding and the untamed malice of the heart being deprived of God's Spirit and Grace being given over to a reprobate mind i. e. to a mind void of judgment or God took from them the light of right reason for all Rom. 1. 28. these the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Original they are wilfully ignorant obstinately refusing the light of God which is offered them Who being past feeling having lost all remorse of Conscience all fear of God's judgments and likewise all just feeling of their punishments have deaded their Conscience that they may not be stayed from doing evil by God's judgments And this is the last degree and fulness of the said alienation from God by which a man is not only destitute of God's light and power to do well but also shakes off the only curb he had to keep him from doing evil which is his Conscience And so he brings himself to a seared Conscience to have his Conscience seared as with a hot iron that hath lost 1 Tim. 4. 2 all manner of feeling and motion of Conscience as a cautery or searing iron applyed to any part of the body deadens it and makes it insensible For Conscience is a Judge and a Witness unless it be deadned the Conscience is but a correspondency and relation of man's spirit unto the Law either to bind or unbind him to accuse or excuse him to condemn or absolve him
Wherefore seeing the Heathen have a Conscience they have also a Law which leaves them without excuse at the great day of Judgment though they have not the light of the glorious Gospel shining among them as blessed be God we have Let us strive to keep Conscience awake while we are here in this life and not to muzzle its mouth then it will either accuse or excuse us but if it be deadned here at the great day of judgment when the books shall Rev. 20. 12. be opened that is mens Consciences or the records and testimonies of every man's Conscience being unfolded and manifested through the mighty power of God wherein as in books are written all mens thoughts words and works then Conscience will speak and not be dumb and thou shalt be judged out of those things which are written in those books yea if thou stiflest the mouth of Conscience here thy Conscience as ten thosand witnesses will fly in thy face for ever hereafter where the worm never Isai 66. 24. Mark 9. 44. dyes where that worm of Conscience will for ever gnaw upon thine heart in the fire that never goeth out Then the Lord will be known by the judgments Psal 9. 16. which He executeth and the wicked shall be snared in the works of their own hands Oh that dreadful expression the Lord said by Moses unto Pharaoh Exod. 9. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people And in the next Chapter I have hardened his heart and Exod. 10. 1. the heart of his servants These spiritual judgments are of all others the most fearful and terrible that can befall a man or woman in this life As 1. Blindness of mind 2. Hardness of heart 3. Searedness of Conscience for these are the dreadful fore-runners of hell Let us therefore hearken to the checks of Conscience and not stifle them and labour we to have our hearts sprinkled Heb. 10. 22. from an evil Conscience that is from the inward impurity and defilements of corruption whereof every man's Conscience is a witness and judge And strive we also to have the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good conscience towards God The meaning of the Apostle there is of the inward baptism or washing wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost whereby a believers Conscience is in such manner eased acquitted and purified that it being tryed and questioned before God it answers and witnesses to it self in the name of the Holy Ghost Pardon Grace and Peace which is Rom. 8. 16. which is unto such a soul a foundation pledge and assurance of everlasting Salvation As the former were the pledges and assurances of everlasting damnation Despair is that which follows from an evil Conscience and obstinate contempt of God and is the greatest part of punishment and evil which wicked men suffer Conscience may be thus described though there be other definitions of it A power and faculty of the Soul taking knowledge and bearing witness of all a man's thoughts words and actions and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting of the same Conscience is God's Notary and there is nothing passes in our whole life whether good or evil which Conscience notes not down with an indeleble Character which nothing can rase out but Christ's blood alone Conscience writes men's sins as with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and they are graven upon the table of their hearts Their conscience Jer. 17. 1. also bearing witness c. In the day when Rom. 2. 15 16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Conscience I say is exact and punctual in setting down the particulars of a man's whole life that it may be a faithful witness either for him or against him at the last day Our transgressions Isai 59. 12. are multiplyed before Thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our sins we know them A hard heart is not rent by compunction Bernard nor mollified by Piety nor moved by intreaties yieldeth not unto threatnings is hardened by corrections is ingrateful for benefits will not hearken to good counsel cruel to revenge immodest in regard of shameful things not dismayed with dangers inhumane in humane things râ—sh in Divine things forgetting things past neglecting present things not providing for future that is which remembreth nothing past but only injuries to revenge them c. Q. How may we understand this that is said in several places Pharaoh hardened Exod. 4. 21 his heart and God said I have hardened Pharaohs heart and the Lord 9. 12. hardened Pharaohs heart if God hardened his heart how did he do it himself A. God worketh two ways in the hearts of wicked men 1. By with-holding His Grace whereby they might be moved unto good as when light is taken away there remaineth nothing but darkness and blindness when God's Spirit is taken away then mens hearts become hard as stones when God's direction ceaseth then mens hearts are turned aside into crookedness and perverseness so it is said that God doth blind harden and bow them from whom He takes away the power to see and to do that which is right 2. By using the Ministery of Sathan to stir up frame and incline their wills God for the executing of His judgments by Sathan the Minister of His wrath both appointeth the purposes of wicked men to what end it pleaseth Him and stirreth up their wills and strengthneth their endeavours So Sihon King of Heshbon as we said Deut. 2. 30. before did not let Israel pass by him because the Lord hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel Therefore because it was God's Will to have him destroyed the making of his heart hard and obstinate was God's preparing him for his destruction So God hardened Pharaoh's heart that is not only in not sustaining it but also in committing his heart to Sathan to be confirmed with obstinacy So God turned their hearts to hate His Psal 105. 25. people c. And it was the Lord that hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants to pursue after Israel that He Exod. 14. 4. might be honoured upon Pharaoh c. God hardened Pharaoh's heart not that He did set and imprint hardness in his heart but because by sundry actions He ordered and governed His wicked will And they are four 1. God permitted Pharaoh to walk after his own will 2. He left him to the malice of the Devil and the lusts of his own heart 3. He urgeth him with a Commandment to let the people go and Pharaoh the more he is urged the stiffeâ— and more stubborn he is and the more he reâ—els against God 4. God useth the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to the manifestation of His own
these ungodly Swearers shall and that for ever for the Lord hath said He will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain God will have us to fear and reverence His glorious and fearful name the Deut. 28. 58. Psal 99. 3. Lord our God Let men praise His great and terrible name for it is holy The Jews heretofore were and yet still are so superstitious erring too much on the right hand that they mention not the Name of God but by a circumloquution and so had divers phrases to express God by as Caiaphas said to Christ Art thou the Son of the Blessed Mark 14. 61. would not say of God or of the Lord. But these on the contrary cannot speak six words without an oath and think it a Gentile quality and a gracing to their speeches to swear by the great and dreadful name of God I must not say they are Atheists although I really Tit. 1. 15 16. believe them so to be their mind and conscience is desiled They profess that they know God but in their works they deny Him being abominable disobedient unto every good work reprobate Like as they abhor not evil and abhor Psal 36. 4 10 3. Zech. 11. 8. to walk in God's ways even so the Lord will abhor them Their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched Isai 66. 24. and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh Although they think as their brethren of old those wicked rebellious Jews that they have made a Covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with Hell that when the Isai 28. 15. over-flowing scourge shall pass through that it shall not come unto them But the Lord telleth them your covenant 18. with death shall be disanulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through then ye shall be trodden down by it Some may think me too invective or â—atyrical against these prophane Sweaâ—ers let such know that these are the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever They are God's Mal. 1. 4. â—nemies that take His name in vain Psal 139. 20. which should cause grief of heart and detestation of spirit to all those that love and fear the Lord. So the following words of David are Do not I hate Verses 21 22. them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies We have not a prophetical spirit as David had to know certainly God's enemies although by their fruits they may be known we Mat. â— 20. may and must hate their vices and wickednesses and leave them to the righteous judgment of God continuing to mourn for these abominations which do make the Land to mourn and not ceasing to pray for them If peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. God will give them repentance unto life and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will to do his will Never was a child more like his father than they are like their father the Devil whose works they Joh. 8. 44. do By cursing and swearing whoredom Hos 4. 4. and adultery they break out for usually these abominable sins with others the like do go together they that make no conscience of one sin neither will they of another And when once the Devil hath gotten sound footing in such or such persons he drives them on without resistance They break all bonds asunder and cast all cords from them no bounds will hold them neither Psal 2. 3. Luk. 18. 4. the Laws of God nor man for they fear neither nor the checks of their own Consciences But like fed horses Jer. â— 8. neigh after their neighbours wise therefore God will cast them into a bed but it shall be a siery one into great tribulations Rev. 8. 22. except they repent of their deeds for whore-mongers and adulterers Heb. 13. 4. God will judge though they may escape the judgment of men yet God will assuredly judge them and will render to every one according to his 2 Cor. 5. 10 works Although while they are here they make the Land to mourn and the earth to groan under them to bear such wicked wretches God will come and Rom. 8. 2â— put a difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So Eccles 9. 2. we leave these Swearers who have attained to the highest form in the Devil's School By all these things we are taught how grievously they do sin who swear so rashly and easily oaths flowing from them as water out of a conduit in their ordinary speeches and discourses whose mouths are full of cursings and bitterness Rom. 3. 14. Job 15. 5. whose mouths utter their iniquities their own mouth condemns them Verse 6. and their own lips testifie against them they in the mean time not thinking that thereby they do expose the glory and the name of God to scorn and so do urge and provoke God to shew and inflict the severity of His judgments and vengeance upon them for the Lord will not suffer those to go unpunished who thus take His name in vain The Son of Syrach said Accustom not Ecclesiasticus 23. 9 10 11 thy mouth to swearing neither use thy self to the naming of the holy one For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blew-mark so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house If he shall offend his sin shall be upon him and if he acknowledge not his sin he maketh a double offence and if he swear in vain he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of calamities There is none that frequently swears but sometimes he forswears or perjureth himself like-as he who useth his mouth to multitude of words sometimes must needs speak unfit things Therefore said the wise man In the multitude of words Prov. 10. 19. there wanteth not sin But some will think to say O Lord O God O Jesus c. in their common talk or in a wondering way good God! good Lord is no sin Know assuredly that such foolish admirations and taking of God's Holy name lightly into our mouths on every slight occasion is utterly condemned in the third Commandment So the Reverend Archbishop Vsher and many other reverend and learned Divines do firmly conclude There is also a superstitious and idolatrous oath to swear by an idol or by Gods Creatures as by the Mass our Zeph. 1. 5. Lady c. by bread fish salt fire Amos 8. 14. light and many such-like fond trashes Whereas God never made or appointed His creatures for such uses Others will plight
justice and judgment and so opened to him a way that he might run head-long to his own utter ruine and destruction So God confounds his implacable enemies two ways here 1. By hardness of heart which ariseth as we said before when God with-draweth His Grace from a man and leaveth him to himself so as he goeth on from sin to sin and never repenteth to the last gasp And we must esteem of it as a most fearful and terrible judgment of God for when the heart is possessed therewith it becomes so flinty and rebellious that a man will never relent or turn to God This was manifest in Pharaoh for though God sent most grievous plagues upon him and all the Land of Egypt yet would he not submit or humble himself save only for a fit while the hand of God was so heavy upon him for when the hand of God was removed he returned to his former obstinacy wherein he persisted until he was drowned in the red Sea And this judgment of God of hardness of heart is the more fearful because when a man is in the midst of all misery he feels no misery 2. God confounds His enemies as by hardness of heart so by final desperation I say final because all kind of desperation is not evil for a man may despair of himself and of his own power in the matter of Salvation which tends to his everlasting comfort But final desperation is when a man utterly despairs of the pardon of his sins and of everlasting life Examples we have in Saul that slew himself in Achitophel and Judas that hanged themselves c. This sin of desperation is caused thus so many sins as thou committest without repentance so many wounds thou givest to thine own soul and in life or death God will make thee to feel the smart of it and the weight of them all whereby the soul sinks down to the gulph of despair without recovery The sins which thou committest lye at the door of thy heart though thou feel them not as God said unto Cain Gen. 4. 7. sin lyeth at the door and if thou dost not prevent them by speedy and timely repentance God will make thee to feel them once before thou dyest and raise up such terrours in thy Conscience that thou shalt think thy self to be in Hell before thou art there They that were sent from the chief Priests c. to apprehend Christ though He had acknowledged I am He and they were astonished and fell to the ground and He had miraculously healed Joh. 18. 12. Malchus his ear yet for all though they had seen his wonderful power both in word and deed they proceed in malice against Him and bind Him as a Malefactor In this we note what a fearful sin hardness of heart is The danger whereof appears in this that if a man be possessed with it there is nothing that can stay or daunt him in his wicked proceedings no not the powerful words and deeds of our Saviour Himself And indeed among all God's judgments there is none more fearful than this of hardness of heart and yet how rife is it among us even in these our days For it is very evident that the more men are taught the Doctrine of Gods Law and Gospel the more hard and senseless are their hearts like unto an anvil the more it is beaten upon with the iron hammer the harder it is So that that denunciation against the Jews Acts 28. 26 27. is fulfilled in them It is such a terrible judgment of God into which when a man is fallen he feels neither pain nor grief Therefore we have cause with fear and trembling to look into it lest it take such hold of us that we be past all hopes of recovery Sin is a deceitful thing and custom in sin brings hardness of heart therefore read that Heb. 3. 13. and Rom. 2. 5. Let us bewail and be humbled for our hardness of heart whereby we are hindered from knowing and acknowledging God aright and from discerning His glory and Majesty from acknowledging God's judgments or our own sins dreaming we are safe from God's vengeance and such perils and miseries which arise from sin whereas all those out of Christ and in this estate have nothing stands between them and vengeance EXERCITATION THE TENTH Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holiness to the Lord. Whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath-day he shall surely be put to death Wherefore the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh He rested Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy HEre we have the Commandment of God for the strict observation of the Sabbath-day No one Commandment so often iterated or so much pressed This Commandment requireth at the hand of every man one day of seven in every week to be set a-part unto a holy rest and requireth all persons to separate themselves from their ordinary labour and all other exercises to God's Service alone on that day that so being severed from their worldly businesses and all the works of their Labours and Callings concerning this Nehem. 13. 15. 22. life they may wholly attend to the Worship of God alone wholly to separate themselves to the Worship and Service of God that they may with more freedom of Spirit perform the same If Adam in his perfection had need of this holy day as it was first enjoyned in the state of innocency much more Gen. 2. 2 3. have we To teach man from time to time on the Sabbath-day to withdraw himself from the cares and labours of this life to apply himself in freedom and tranquillity of mind to the meditations and actions of a spiritual life Q. But some will say this fourth Commandment is ceremonial and so it is taken away by the death of Christ A. I answer No but it is constantly and perpetually to be observed 1. For it is placed in the number of the ten Commandments which are perpetual otherwise the Moral Law should consist but of nine which is contrary to God's Word And He declared unto Deut. 4. 13. you His covenant which He commanded you to perform even ten Commandments 2. Because this fourth Commandment among the rest and in the middle of them as a Diamond in a ring was written
18 There is no fear in love c. And also largely to that place Rom. 8. 15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear c. That place in Rev. 21. 8 But the fearful c. shall be cast into the lake of sire c. answered What is that fear of God here commanded farther set down in three particulars Q. What are the special marks of the true fear of God answered in seven particulars Q. What the arguments are to induce us to fear God answered in eight things In way of a conclusion Thirteen sentences about the fear of God Exercitation V. Of waiting upon God upon these words My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him Three ingredients to wait upon God What waiting upon God is Four signs of our waiting upon God Four helps for strengthening us against troubles An explanation out of the Greek of waiting and expectation The manner of our waiting in three things Gods waiting upon us Wait upon God only What expectation is What we expect from God Examples of the miseries of those who would not wait upon God Exercitation VI. The way to salvation repentance and faith On these words Mark 1. 15 Repent ye and believe the Gospel What repentance is Repentance is twofold 1. Legal 2. Evangelical What they both are The signs whereby they may be known Four parts of Evangelical repentance Repentance must be renewed What faith is Five acceptations of faith The object of true saving faith The manner of Gods working of it The absolute necesssity of it in every part of Gods worship Encouragements to labour for it Exercitation VII Holiness on these words Psal 93. 5. Holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever What Holiness is 1. As applyed to God 2. To believers Our holiness must bear a conformity to Christs holiness in four things What sanctification is The terms from which and to which Two degrees of sanctification Two parts of it The ends of it in two things What we must do that we may be holy Four things thereto Three things to be observed for holiness sake Christ is the principle of our holiness and also the pattern of it the comeliness of holiness Of Gods house How holy it is and how holy we must be A Scriptural Prayer to God for Holiness A farther Encomium and praise of Holiness Exercitation VIII Of Swearing On these words Jer. 23. 9 For because of Oaths the Land mourneth A sad complaint of the over-spreading and greatness of this horrid sin of prophane swearing Of taking Gods name in vain Superstitious and foolish swearing How an Oath is to be taken The parts of an Oath The form of an Oath The end of an Oath The divers kinds of an Oath How an Oath is to be performed Is it lawful for Christians to take an Oath Proved affirmatively by four reasons An exploding the Opinion of the Anabaptists c. by six Arguments By whom we must swear About what things an Oath may be taken Whether all Oaths are to be kept How God in Scripture is said to swear The sum of the third Commandment Six Corollaries Of the government of the tongue Exercitation IX Hardness os heart On these words And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also The Plague of hardness of heart Examples of it To harden the heart what it is 1. In reference to God 2. â—o Satan 3. To a mans self Of conscience what it is How did God harden Pharaohs heart and how he did iâ— himself The miseries ensuing hardness of heart Exeroitation X. Of the Sabbath On these words in Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. 20. 8 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy The necessity of a sabbath The morality of it The excellency of the Moral Law above the Ceremonial or Judicial What the sanctifying of the sabbath is the parts of it A short Paraphrase on Isai 58. 13 14. which is borrowed The strict observation of the sabbath belongs more to us then to the Jews the reasons of the alteration of it How the sabbath is a sign Woe to sabbath prophaners and sabbath idlers The right manner of sanctifying of the sabbath Be not weary of sabbath-duties For Reasons why it is called sabbath The many sabbaths of the Jews formerly Three Reasons why God commands us to observe the sabbath We must lay out our strength in sabbath-duties Exercitation XI Of Patience On these words Luk. 21. 19 In your patience possess ye your souls Of afflictions to the Godly 1. For correction 2. For tryal Inferences upon each Examine for what particular sin God so afflicts Afflictions a sign of Gods love Why afflictions are called temptations What patience is Of impatience The good effects of patience Motives to it The true nature of patience towards God our selves and others Four Arguments to strengthen us in our patience The vices contrary Exercitation XII Pride and humility On these words James 4. 6 God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble What Pride is The parts of Pride How it is shewed Of pride against God and of pride towards men Of the sin of the fallen Angels and of the sin of our first Parents Four helps to subdue pride What grace is Several acceptations of grace A description of humility Humility towards God humility towards men Five means to attain humility towards God Three marks of humility towards men Humility farther described and praised Incitations to humility Some additional notes about pride and humility Fourteen Aphorisms about humility Exercitation XIII Of Care On these words 1 Pet. 5. 10 Casting all your care upon God for He careth for you Seven Arguments against carefulness Twofold care of outward things Worldly cares compared to thorns in four respects Irregular cares are 1. Superfluous 2. Sinful We are to do our duty faithfully and then trust in God who is our Father and the great house-keeper of all the earth The fourth Petition in the Lords Prayer fully explained If we rowl our selves upon God He hath engaged Himself to relieve us Outward things are necessary for us in a threefold respect Rest upon Gods Providence What Gods actual Providence is Of the fate of the heathen Philosophers The parts of Providence Depend upon Providence Wait Gods time Live by faith Be we diligent in our callings The tenderness fidelity and wisdom of Gods Providence The twelve miracles observed about Manna More of Gods Providence and twelve Corollaries thereabout Exercitation XIV Of death judgment hell and heaven On these words Rev. 20. 12. 15 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire 1. Of death what death is The causes of it The
he that hath it It is better felt than expressed 3. We may know if we be in Covenant with God by our own knowledg After God had rehearsed the Covenant Jer. 31. 34. there He adds And they shall all know Me from the least to the greatest c. True knowledg of God in Christ first makes us to put off the old man with his deeds and to be renewed in the Spirit of our mind and to put on the Newman Eph. 4. 22 23 24. which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness and which is renewed in knowledg after the image of Him that created Him And 2. It worketh in us a readiness and Col. 3. 10. willingness to obey God and to serve Him when we are brought out of the slavery of Satan and from the bondage of sin and corruption that sin doth not reign over us then will we run the Rom. 6. 12. ways of God's Commandments and that with alacrity and chearfulness not thinking it a burden run and not be Psal 119. 32. Isai 40. 31. weary walk and not faint They who are thus in Covenant with God have a special interest in Him and have access with boldness to the throne of Grace through our great High-Priest Jesus the Son of God that they may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time Heb. 4. 14 16. of need Therefore Abraham after God had so entred into Covenant with him refused the King of sodom and his gifts wholly relying on God's Covenant for His blessing and said I have lifted up my hand Gen. 14. 22 23. unto the Lord the most high God the possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a thred even to a shoo-latchet and that I will take any thing that is the King of Sodoms lest thou shouldst say I have made Abraham rich This also upheld David when he had 1 Sam. 30. 6. lost wives and children and goods the City burnt all lost and the people spake of stoning him then he encouraged himself in the Lord HIS God He glories in his Covenant-interest with God that God yet had made an everlasting Covenant with him ordered in all things and sure For this said he 2 Sam. 23. 5. is all my salvation and all my desire c. God saith to His Covenant-people The mountains shall depart and the hills Isai 54. 10. be removed but My kindness shall not depart from thee neither the Cavenant of My peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Read all the Chapter For the Lord hath avouched thee to Deut. 26. 16 17 18. be His peculiar servant that thou mayst be holy to the Lord thy God and thou hast avouched the Lord to be thy God to walk in His ways and to keep His Statutes Numb 14. 24. and His Commandments and His Judgments and to hearken to His voice And thou hast chosen thee the Lord to Josh 24. 22. serve Him O my soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art My Lord thou hast chosen and appropriated the Lord Jehovah Psal 16. 2. 140. 6. to be thy Lord. Let not therefore other Lords have â—saâ— 26. 13. dominion over thee as Satan sin thy foolish noysom lusts the profits or pleasures or vanities of this world ever bewitch thee or steal away thy heart from following this thy Lord and that fully As thou hast yielded thy members servants Numb 14. 24 to uncleanness and to iniquity unto Rom. 6. 19. iniquity Even so now yield thy members servants to righteousness unto holiness Let holiness to the Lord be written Zecâ— 14. 20. on thy heart and forehead on all the inward faculties of thy Soul and on all the members of thy body and on all thy whole conversation and commerce with men That all may take notice of Acts 4. 13. thee that thou hast been with Jesus that thou walkest the way to Zion with thy face thitherward and that thou hast joyned thy self to the Lord in a perpetual Jer. 50. 5. Covenant which shall not be forgotten that thy light may so shine before men that seeing thy good works they may glorifie thy Father which is Matt. 5. 16. in Heaven That thou mayest declare plainly that thou dost seek a countrey and Heb. 11. 14 16. that thou desirest a better countrey that is an heavenly that God may not be ashamed to be called thy God for He hath prepared for thee a City Even a City wherein is no Temple For in the Temple were the outward signs of God's presence but God in this heavenly City shall manifest Himself face to face to His elect in Christ And this City hath no need of the Sun Rev. 21. 22 23. neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof In that heavenly glory my husband Jesus Christ shall be the only means of of all the communication that I and all the Elect shall have in the glory and light of God in whose presence is fulness Psal 16. 11. of joy and at Whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore This God is my God and in Covenant Isai 25. 1. with me I will praise Him and bless His Name for ever and ever As the Lord hath entred into Covenant with me and married me unto Himself so He gives me always to be arrayed in sine linnen clean and white which Rev. 19. 8. sine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints that I may watch and keep my garments lest I walk naked and men see Rev. 16. 15. my shame That I hating even the garment Jude 23. Rev. 3. 4. spotted by the flesh may walk with God in white and may be esteemed worthy through the worthiness and righteousness of Christ imputed unto me In whom alone I desire to be found not Phil. 3. 9. having on mine own righteousness which is as menstruous rags but that Isai 30. 22. which is of God by faith I can never sufficiently magnifie and admire the eternal love of God to me in Christ that He hath chosen me in Him before the foundation of the world that I should be holy and unblameable before Him in love having predestinated me Eph. 1. 4 5. unto the adoption of a Child by Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure of His will and hath entered into Covenant with me and so Ezek. 16. 8. hath made me to become His own And that not for any foreseen faith or works in me but according to the election of Grace He loved me because he loved Rom. 11. 5. me and He had compassion upon me because He had compassion upon me Oh Rom. 9. 15. the good Will of Him that dwelt in the Deut. 33. 16. Bush There is a mutual promise and obligation between God and me and all
virtue not fainting under affliction but constantly waiting for God's promised help and succour knowing that better things are reserved for us So we must not sink in our courage nor shrink from our burden and then we shall both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So said the Apostle Ye have need of patience Heb. 10. 36. that after ye have done the Will of God ye may receive the promise There is another word in the New Testament used also for expectation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an earnest expectation with Rom. 8. 19. holding up the head stretching out the neck lifting up the eyes with an earnest intention and observation to see when the person or thing shall appear And one word more is used for expectation namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But no more of this now The same word in the Sâ—ptuagint is in Psal 130. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have waited upon or for thee O Lord my soul doth wait c. Q. What are the signs of our true waiting upon God A. 1. If it râ—st on the Grace of God alone and His free promises 2. If it breed in us a care in all things 1 Pet. 1. 13. to please God Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as He is 1 Joh. 3. 3. purâ—â— 3. If it perswade us diligently to use the means ordained of God and â—eb 10. 23 24 25. to abstain from all others which are not lawful and He hath not appointed 4. If we depend not on those means but on God alone working by and through them And so in thus doing Esth 4. 13. we may chearfully go about our duty imposed on us by God that according to our earnest expectation and our hope Phil. 1. 20. in nothing we shall be ashamed c. Q. By what means our hearts may be confirmed and strengthened against troubles A. 1. By fervency of spirit or zeal that others may take notice of us that we have been with Jesus Acts 4. 13. we have been with Jesus 2. By a true confidence in God alone So if we commit our works unto the Prov. 16. 3. Lord our thoughts shall be established If we cast our burden upon the Lord He will sustain us He will never suffer the Psal 55. 22. righteous to be moved And the Lord Isai 58. 11. will guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not 3. By faithful and fervent Prayers commending and committing all our affairs unto God In every thing by prayer Phil. 4 6. and supplication with thanks-giving let our requests be made known unto God 4 By a sound judgment of those troubles wherewith we are assailed For sometimes many of them are meerly to be contemned as the foolish speeches of vain men and women c. And sometimes they are meer fopperies which when we have weighed them in the ballance of a clear judgment do presently vanish away and always are such that if they are duly compared with the dignity of our place and Christian Calling with the fruits and necessity of them they signifie nothing at all Our waiting and hope is confirmed and increased by all those Arguments whereby we may be made more certain that that good thing waited and hoped for doth belong unto us So experience worketh hope and hope maketh not Rom. 5. 4. ashamed This Hope is a virtue whereby we expect all good things from God and patiently wait for all things that we need at His hands resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him not only â—â—â— 37. 7. when we have the means but also when 〈◊〉 3. 17. we want all apparent means yâ—a and when the means seem contrary As the three Children answered Nebuchadnezar Our God whom we serve is able to deliver Dan. 3. 17. us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of thine hand O King but if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up 1. Wait believingly The vision is yet Habb 2. 3 4. for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry The just must live by faith He that cannot believe cannot live Behold the husbandman waiteth Jam. 5. 7. for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it c. Let us learn of the husbandman and from the constant experience and observation of God's providence towards us learn to wait upon God For light is sown for Psal 97. 11. the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Therefore will we not fear though the Psal 46. 2. earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea For this God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48. 14. He will be our guide even unto death I had verily fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Psal 27. 13 14. land of the living wait on the Lord be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. 2. Wait patiently For the patient expectation of God's poor Servants shall not perish for ever He that believeth Psal 9. 18. Isai 28. 16. makes not haste If we wait upon God by saving faith and an holy recumbency of spirit we will willingly wait for deliverance or supply and will not make haste to rid our selves out of such or such a calamity or use any indirect or unlawful means so to do In returning and rest shall we be saved in quietness Isai 30. 15. and in confidence shall be our strength Foolish men and women in the impatiency of their spirits do sin against God and their own arguments and reasons and do sin away those mercies which else would come unto them David was in a holy temper of spirit in his affliction which he reports to us for our imitation These things were our examples 1 Cor. 10. 6. 11. and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come David said I waited patiently Psal 69. 3. upon the Lord. How long did he wait even until he cryed himself weary his throat dry and his eyes dim I am weary of my crying said he my throat is dryed mine eyes fail while I wait for my God Oh invincible patience unconquerable expectation and he lost nothing by it for so it followeth and He enclined unto me and Psal 40. 2. heard my cry c. The Apostle advises us Let patience have its perfect work that ye may be Jam. 1. 4. perfect and entire lacking nothing till all our Graces are tryed and
God hath sifted us fully if we will meekly and patiently depend upon Him and holily and humbly wait till He send deliverance There is a work of patience it must not be an idle patience but a patience working in the use of all lawful means And there is also a perfect work to bear a very heavy burden and a long time and that with patience this doth shew that patience hath had its perfect work Be we patient stablish our hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth Jam. 5. 8. nigh that is not in the general judgment at the last day but in this or that particular mercy or deliverance out of such a streight tryal or affliction Shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him though He bear long with them I tell you saith our Saviour He will avenge Luk. 18. 7 8. them and that speedily that is when God's good time is come Nevertheless when the Son of man shall come shall He find faith on the Earth the meaning is that God oftentimes deferreth such or such a mercy or deliverance until we are even weary of waiting our hope lost our faith even spent and so our extremity God takes for His opportunity then is Gods time to work then mercies will be most sweet then most refreshing Every thing is beautiful in Eccles 3. 11. its time 3. Wait diligently Stir up thy self to take hold on God waiting is no idle posture or sitting still Engage thy Isai 64. 7. Jer. 30. 21. heart to approach unto God Consider that the blessing doth not consist in the removal of an affliction but in the sanctified use of it And therefore blessed is the man whom thou chastenest Psal 94. 12. O Lord and teachest him in thy Law When instruction and correction go together that is a blessed and happy correction Labour therefore for a sanctified use of every affliction to be purged and purified thereby Give aâ— â— Pet. 1. 10. diligence to make thy calling and election sure Keep thy heart with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. Heb. 6. 12. And shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Looking Heb. 12. 15. diligently lest we fail of the Grace of God So let us be diligent in our waiting that we may be found of God in peace 2 Pet. 3. 14. without spot and blameless I wait for the Lord my Soul doth Psal 130. 5. wait and in His word do I hope God will have us to wait until He come and rain righteousness upon us Oh how Hos 10. 12. doth our blessed Saviour wait upon us standing at the door of our hearts and knocking saying Open to Me My Sister Rev. 3. 20. My love My dove My undefiled Cant. 5. 2. and so woes us for to let Him come into our hearts and we wickedly shut the door of our hearts against Him and refuse His offers of Grace and Mercy and put Him off with delays yet He stands still and knocks and waits till His head is filled with dew and His locks with the drops of the night And He hath sent forth His Ministers also to wooe for Him and to pray us in 2 Cor. 5. 20. Christs stead that we would be reconciled unto God We know not how long God may wait for us Now is the acceptable 2 Cor. 6. 2. Heb. 3. 7. time now is the day of salvation Hear while it is called to day Lay hold on Grace while it is offered And strike while the iron is hot Remember Jerusalems case how our Saviour wept over it spake and wept wept and spake O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would Luke 19. 41. to 44. I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings I would but thou wouldst not therefore desolation misery and confusion followed God waited 120 years for the repentance and conversion of the old world 40 days for Nineveh God waiteth for Gen. 6. 3. Jonah 3. 4. Ezek. 18. 21. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Rom. 2. 4. poor sinners not willing that any should perish but that all should repent and live Yet they despise the riches of His goodness forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the forbearance of God should move them to repentance If we hear not while it is called to day but Heb. 3. 8. Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 23. 32. harden our hearts through unbelief and like fools make a mock of sin at length it will sting like a serpent and bite like an adder God hath His appointed time when he will wait no longer As Solomon spake of temporal things so do I of spirituals and things of everlasting concernment Man most men know not Eccles 9. 12. 8. 6 7. their appointed time therefore the misery of man is great upon earth Laesa patientia fit furor Patience abused turns into fury Now mercy is offered mercy sits at the helm Justice will have its course and that upon all those who come not in nor accept of this golden Scepter of Grace and Mercy now Rev. 6. held forth They shall have a cup of the pure wrath of the Almighty a cup of pure wrath without mixture no drop of mercy or pity more ever to be expected or hoped for Oh who knows the Psal 90. 11. Rev. 14. 10. power of God's wrath They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone c. and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night c. But I have expatiated too far upon God's waiting for poor Sinners For God will have His glory magnified if His Mercy and Grace be not so in the Conversion and Salvation of poor Sinners His justice will be for ever magnified and glorified in their everlasting confusion and condemnation So God will be no loser at all But now according to the words at first read come we to man's waiting upon God My soul wait thou upon God The Lord waits that He may be gracious Isaâ— 30. 18. to us as we have seen and He will be exalted that He may have mercy upon us for the Lord is a God of judgment Blessed are all they that wait for him Jacob in the middest of blessing his Children as in an holy rapture breaks out in this pathetical expression I have waited for Thy Salvation O Lord. Gen. 49. 8. Likewise the Church O Lord be gracious unto us we have waited upon Thee Be Thou our arm every morning our Salvation Isai 33. 2. also in the time of trouble Let these examples of Saints formerly stir up and encourage us still to wait upon God yea though He seem to hide His face from us as the Church complains Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thy self Isai 45.
even so must we be and that in all the faculties and powers of our souls and in all the members of our bodies Let us therefore have holy and heavenly thoughts holy and gracious speeches Let our speeches be always gracious Col. 4. 6. seasoned with salt with the salt of wisdom and discretion that it may Eph. 4. 29. minister Grace unto the hearers that others may be edified and bless God for our holy and religious speeches and discourses And let our affections be set upon heaven Col. 3. 2. Phill. 3. 20. and heavenly things and our conversation be in heaven but the word here rendered conversation is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City holding forth thus much that we are Burgesses Citizens free-Denizens of Heaven and therefore it is the property as well as the glory of all holy persons true believers to whom only Heaven belongeth to live in this world as if they were in Heaven already Sith God when we Eph. 2. 5 6. were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The meaning is thus there is a most strict union between Christ our glorious Head and us His members that which is done to the Head is done and belongeth to all the members therefore the members of Christ's body in right and in virtue of the infallible cause and in certainty and assurance of faith are already raised up and glorified and at the appointed time shall really and effectually be so Thus as members of so blessed an Head in Heaven let us so live in this world as if we were in Heaven already bending all our thoughts and desires all our speeches and actions that way having heavenly thoughts when we are about our earthly and worldly employments And so walk in that way which is called the way of holiness that holiness to the Isai 35. 8. Zeâ—h 14. 20. Lord may be written both on our hearts and foreheads for the Lord hath called us not unto uncleanness but unto holiness that God may establish our hearts unblameable 1 Thess 4. 7. 3. 13. in holiness before Him That our holiness may not be like the righteousness of the Israelites as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth Hos 6. 4. away therefore God threatned them That they should be as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth away as the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind Hos 13. 3. out of the floore and as the smoak out of the Chimney that is they should not be stedfast or established but quickly dispersed and brought to nothing But let us walk as becometh holiness Titus 2. 3. how much soever holiness is slighted and derided by the prophane ungodly wretches of this world yet strive we to go on perfecting holiness in the fear of 2 Cor. 7. 1. God For without holiness no man shall Heb. 12. 14. see the Lord that is to his comfort So that yeilding our members servants Rom. 6. 19 22. to righteousness unto holiness we may have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life To sum up this last briefly Hath God quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ That is not only so hath done spoken in the Preterperfect tense for the Future tense that He will assuredly do it or that it is as sure as if it were already done for that we do believe But this expression signifieth something more that as we are mystical members of the body of Christ quickned and raised up together with Him and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him How then should we have raised thoughts sanctified affections and a holy and heavenly conversation being cloathed with the long white robes of the Imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness to have the Moon Rev. 12. 1. which is in the lowest Orb that is all these sublunary and lower earthly things under our feet Therefore what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God c. And sith we look for such things to be diligent that we 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 14 may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless Wherefore as we are thus partakers Heb. 3. 1 2. 14. of the holy and heavenly calling let us consider the Apostle and great High Priest of our profession even Jesus the Son of God 6. 20. who as our forerunner is for us entered into the heavens and is gone to prepare a place for us so will He come again and Joh. 17. 17. 19. receive us unto Himself that where He is there we may be also that we may for ever behold the glory which His Father and our Father hath given Him Who when He was here upon earth prayed to His Father to sanctifie us through His truth his word is truth And for our sakes did he sanctifie himself that we also might be sanctified through the truth For both he that sanctifieth and they who Heb. 2. 11 are sanctified are all of one therefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren For our sake did he sanctifie himself the meaning is though He was perfectly holy and sanctified in His humane nature wherein for us He did accomplish all righteousness and all manner of holiness He did consecrate Himself to the death of the Cross to cleanse us from all our sins and to procure for us the gift of the Holy Ghost to regenerate us in a holy and permanent newness of life We are Gods house the Temple â—eb 3. 6. God's house under the Law was overlaid within with pure Gold Let us especially look to our hearts our inward parts and strive to cleanse our 2 Cor. 7. 1. selves from all filthiness of the spirit as well as of the flesh For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries Mat. 15. 19 â—0 c. These are the things which defile a man Oh these heart-wickednesses The heart is as a cage full of unclean birds The heart of man is deceitful Rev. 18. 2. above all things desperately Jer. 17. 9. wicked who can know it Let us give our hearts to God as He Prov. 23. 26. commands us For the Lord searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and hath 1 Chron. 29. 17. pleasure in uprightness God is the great heart-maker He must be the heart-mender Go to God in these or the like expressions and pray O create in me a clean heart O Psal 51. 10. God and renew a right spirit within me Let my heart be perfect with Thee 1 Kin. 8. 61. that I may walk before Thee in truth in righteousness and in
uprightness Jer. 30. 21. and may engage my heart to approach unto God to walk before Thee to do every thing as in Thy sight and presence Lord help me to keep my heart with all diligence and to wash Prov. 4. 23. my heart from wickedness that I may be clean that although vain and evil Jer. 4. 14 thoughts will pass through me yet I may not give them entertainment or suffer them to lodge within me Take Thou away this stony heart from me and give me a heart of flesh a heart Ezek. 36. 26. pliable and flexible and capable of being governed and guided by thy Spirit Vnite my heart to fear thy name Let Psal 86. 11. 119. 80. my heart be sound in thy statutes That so when my heart is sound Christ may set me as a seal upon his heart and as a seal upon his arm keeping me nearly Cant. 8. 6. and dearly joyned unto Him and refresh me by the comfort of the presence of His Grace setting me as a signet upon his right hand to have me always Jer. 22. 24. in His eye and in His heart to be present with me to guide me in His ways to bless me and to do me good that at last He may present me glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish For holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever as here in this life which is glory begun so especially in Heaven where Grace and Glory is consummate and made perfect into which place no unholy thing shall ever enter Holiness is the badge of Christs people Addition Isai 63. 18. they are called the people of his holiness Israel was holiness to the Lord Jer. 2. 3. The Spirit of holiness distinguisheth and setteth a mark upon the sheep of Christ they are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Eph 1. 13. Holiness setteth us apart for God and Psal 4. 3. Tit. 2. 14. for His Service to do His Will and to serve Him He hath set apart him that is Godly for himself to see and enjoy him for without holiness none shall see Heb. 12. 14. the Lord Our holiness is not the cause of our Salvation but it is the way thereunto Holiness hath none but gracious and honourable effects it filleth the soul with joy comfort and peace with joy unspeakable and full of glory with Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Isai 32. 17. peace and quietness and assurance for ever Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall Isai 35. 10. flee away God is glorious in holiness and glories most in the Attribute of holiness God stands upon nothing more than to appear to all the world to be a Exod. 15. 11. holy God therefore the Angels when they celebrate the glory of God cry out Holy holy holy is the Lord God of hosts Isai 6. 3. Let those therefore that draw nigh to God and make profession of his name labour to hold forth above all things the glory of his holiness in their lives and conversations EXERCITATION THE EIGHTH Jer. 23. 9. For because of Oaths swearing the Land mourneth IF the holy Prophet in his dayes cryed out as in the former Verse Mine heart within me is broken because of those cursings and oaths which do make the Land to mourn that is which draw down God's judgments upon the Land as it is evident in the following words the pleasant places of the wilderness are dryed up namely God did send drought and scorching heats and withheld the rain in its due season for those crying sins so it cannot be meant Metonymically the Land for the People of the Land but the Land mourned because the people had no hearts to do it Oh what cause have we now to break our hearts with sighting to have rivers Psal 119. 136. of water to run down our eyes because God's Laws are so broken and his name so highly dishonoured by hellish Oaths and Blasphemies by damned damning curses and execrations whose judgment 2 Pet. 3. 2. lingreth not and their damnation slumbereth not These as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed shall Verse 12. utterly perish in their own corruption These are raging waves of the Sea foaming Jude 13. out their own shame to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We read of a flying rowle which is interpreted a curse that goeth forth over Zech. 5. 2 3 4. the earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on that side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut as on that side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord of hosts and it shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsly by My name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Oh this dreadful denunciation O that prophane Swearers would consider it and lay it to heart hearing God's dreadful threatnings on themselves both Souls and Bodies and all that they have yea even their houses and habitations where they dwell and that for their sakes How many times doth the Lord God and how frequently forbid this horrid sin of Swearing Ye shall not falsly swear by My name Levit. 19. 12. neither shalt thou prophane the name of the Lord thy God I am the Lord. Where-ever in Scripture this is added I am the Lord it is to shew that God is faithful in revenging the breach of His Commandments and on the contrary that He is faithful in rewarding the observation or keeping His Commandments Our blessed Saviour biddeth us Swear not at all that is in our ordinary discourses but let your communication be Mat. 5. 34. 37. yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that evil one meaning the Devil who is the father of all lyes oaths and blasphemies Joh. 8. 44. So Saint James But above all Jam. 5. 12. things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth that is by nothing which is either in heaven or earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest ye fall into damnation No less punishment than everlasting damnation is here threatned against all prophane Swearers If of every idle word that we shall Mat. 12. 36. speak of the same shall we give account at the day of judgment how much more then of every horrid oath and wicked cursing Oh that the terror of 2 Cor. 5. 11. the Lord might awaken and perswade men The Lord is a Sin-revenging God a consuming fire a jealous God Who Heb. 12. 29. Isai 33. 14. can dwell with everlasting burnings who can dwell with devouring fire These even
into His rest hereafter Now a little to speak farther of the right sanctifying of the Lords day summarily and we have done Our care must be over-night having laid aside all our earthly affairs to begin to fit our selves for the Lords-day and His Service thereon Rising as early or earlier on the Lords day as we do on other days for our own businesses as David said O Lord thou art my God Psal 63. 1. early will I seek thee when we are dressing our selves let us have heavenly thoughts as to put on the garments of Christ's righteousness to be as a Bride trimmed to meet the Bridegroom of our Souls Then to retire our selves and pray to God that He will prepare our hearts aright for the preparation of the Psal 10. 17. Prov. 16. 1. heart is from the Lord. That God would enable us for to sanctifie His holy name in all our duties of worship for He will be sanctified of all that draw Levit. 10 3. near to Him Then if we are governours of families to call our family together and strive to prepare them likewise so to Psal 42. 4. Josh 24. 15. Acts 16. 14. Mat. 15. 10. go to the house of God together that we and our family may serve the Lord Attend diligently to the Word of God hear and understand and hear as for our lives so to hear as our souls Isai 55. 3. Deut. 30. 19. may live it is not a vain thing it is for our lives take heed also be not forgetful hearers of the Word but doers of it Jam 1. 22. that we may be blessed in the deed else we deceive our own souls and that is the greatest deceit and of most dismal consequence Let us joyn with the Congregation in Prayer Sing with the Spirit and sing with understanding also 1 Cor. 14. 15. If the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be administred having duely prepared ourselves let us receive it When the Sacrament of Baptism is administred Pray for the party baptized give thanks to God for adding one member more to His outward visible Church and remember we our vow made to God in our Baptism to be humbled for the breaking of it and resolve by God's Grace to perform it better for the future And depart not from the Church before the Minister hath pronounced the blessing And so let us not turn our backs on any of God's ordinances When we come home let us feed in fear and season it with meditation and speeches of holy things After Dinner let us meditate confer on and repeat what we have heard examine and catechize our families and strive to make that we heard to be our own ruminating upon it as those only were clean beasts under the Law which did chew Lev. 11. 3. the cud Then to return in season to the afternoon Publick Worship and demean our selves as in the morning When we return home then to do as before we did after dinner If we are enforced to walk through the fields then to contemplate the works of God His Providence and Mercies After Supper to confer read meditate sing Psalms instruct exhort encourage c. And close the day with Prayer craving pardon for sin and for the iniquities of our holy things Pray for more Grace to profit by all we have heard for it is God alone that teaches us to profit and that we may persevere therein Isai 48. 17. unto the end blessing God that hath given us one Sabbath-day more and hath in any measure assisted us in the performance of our duties Thus sanctifying the Sabbath God hath made it not only our duty so to do but also an essential means of His bestowing Mercies Blessings and increase of Grace on us in this our religious observation of the same Thus God blessed the Sabbath-day Isai 56. 6 7. When we lye down in our beds examine we our hearts how we are bettered what increase of knowledge and Grace what strength against corruptions what heavenly-mindedness more we have obtained And so repose our selves to sleep in the arms of our heavenly Father having heavenly thoughts in our hearts that we may be able comfortably to say How precious are thy thoughts to me O God that is my thoughts which I have of Thee how great is the sum of them when I awake Psal 139. 17 18 I am still with Thee Be not weary of Sabbath-duties and exercises like those wicked Jews who said When will the sabbath be gone that Amos 8. 5 Mal. 1. 13. we may go to our worldly businesses and what a weariness is this and so snuffed at it These men and women are far from tasting how gracious the Lord is and from those who by reason of use 1 Pet. 2. 3. Heb. 5. 14. have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil They see no such excellency and preciousness in Christ they find no sweetness in His ordinances to say with Peter Lord it is good for us Mat. 17. 4. to be here They are far from David's temper to have their souls to long yea even to faint for the courts of the Lord Psal 84. 1 2. and cry out when shall I come and appear before God our blessed Saviour for us spent a whole night in Prayer to Luk. 6. 12. God Heaven will be no Heaven to Rev. 4. 8. 11. such persons as these where we shall for ever be praising God And like as God rested the seventh day from all His works Heb. 4. 4. 10. as one would say God did retire Himself to the quiet enjoyment of Himself His glory and blessedness So we being by death freed from the works of this life from all our labours and toâ—ls from all sin and suffering from all sorrow and misery when God shall wipe away â—â—v 7. 17. â—â—â— 35. 10. all tears from our eyes and sorrow and sighing shall flee away then shall we altogether live with God in the perfect rest of glory For there remaineth a rest or keeping an everlasting Sabbath â—â—â— 4. 11. to the people of God Sabbath in Hebrew signifies Cessavit Addition quievit vacavit a Sabbath-day is a day of rest It signifies not such a rest as when one sitteth still and doth nothing but a resting and ceasing from doing that which he did before So God called this day a Sabbath which He dedicated and consecrated to His own publick Worship 1. Because on that day God rested from His creation of all those new species but not from conserving and propagating of them by the continual generation of individuals 2. Because the Sabbath is a representation of that spiritual rest from sin and of that rest in everlasting life 3. Because that we must on that day cease from all our secular and worldly employments that devoting our selves wholly to God's Worship He may work His work upon our hearts and exercise His works in us 4. That our
search wherefore the Lord hath done so unto us For God hath holy ends and purposes in all His dispensations towards us Hath God taken away a near Relation from me as a loving Husband tender Wife or a hopeful Child to instance in these which was the desire of mine eyes and the joy of my heart if God hath taken Ezek. 34. 16. them away with His stroke did not I dote or depend too much upon them did not my heart run out too much after them did I use them so as I should when I did enjoy them ask thy self these and the like questions Commune Psal 4. 4. with thine own heart and be still go to God in Prayer and say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto me what meaneth the heat of this great anger Deut. 29. 24. But be sure to fall out with thy sins and not with God So search and try thy ways and turn unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. with thy whole heart for He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children ver 33. of men Are they dead death hath passed and will pass upon all men for Rom. 5. 12. that all have sinned It is appointed to Heb. 9. 27. all men once to dye We must needs dye and are all as water spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14. 14. which cannot be gathered up again We are strangers and sojourners here as all our fathers were our days on the earth are but as a shadow and here is no abiding If we did not dye we should 1 Chron. 29. 15. always be subject to sin and misery death freeth the Saints from all for Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea so saith the Spirit for they Rev. 14. 13. rest from their labours and their works follow them But see if it be not for any particular sin of thine this affliction is befallen thee if upon serious search thou findest it so to be then be humbled for it repent and amend and walk more closely with God for the future That it may not be said of thee as formerly of Ephraim gray hairs are here and there Hos 7. 9. upon him yet he knoweth it not that is he considered not God's Judgments knew not nor was humbled for his sins waxed old in his wickedness yet did not he know it or lay it to heart God doth now empty thee from vessel to vessel Jer. 48. 11 and doth not suffer thee to be at ease to be setled upon thy lees O therefore let not the taste of thine old corruptions remain in thee to rellish of them and like them as formerly and thy scent not to be changed when thou art as worldly and wicked as ever Zeph. 1â— 12. For the Lord will surely search thee as with candles and punish thee and all those that are setled upon their Lees. Whatever was good and commendable in thy Deceased Relations that follow practice and imitate and make good use of This affliction of thine is a tryal Ezek. 21. 13. Isaiah 48. 10. God will try thee now in the Furnace of affliction This may be a sign unto thee that thou belongest unto God who hath his â—ire in Zion and his Furnace Isaiah 31. 9. in Jerusalem Although God may let some run on in outward prosperity and to have even more than heart can Psal 73. 7. Gen. 15. 16. Mat. 23. 32. wish and others to run on in sin till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities God would purifie thee Oh be thou purified and clensed hereby That the tryal of thy faith being 1 Pet. 1. 7 much more precious then of gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be sound unto praise and honour and glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ Thus we see that the afflictions of the Godly are for correction and for tryal Blessed are they whom thou chastenest O Psal 94. 12. Lord and teachest them out of thy Law When Instruction and Correction go together that is a happy and a blessed Correction Think also on the Saints of God who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6. 12. Labour to set Faith on Work yea let the tryal of thy Faith work in the patience and let patience have its perfect Jam. 1. 3 4. work that thou mayest be perfect and entire lacking nothing Thou canst not be a through-out and perfect and an accomplished Christian unless thou hast obtained this excellent grace of Patience see that thou abound in this grace also 2 Cor. 8. â— Q. But why are afflictions call'd temptations as blessed is the man that endureth Jam. 1. 12â— Jam. 1. 2. temptations And count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations I answer All temptations are not evil but some are tryals of our Faith and Hope in God if we can live by Faith and rest upon the promises and so they make much for our good And in this regard they are pronounced that fall into divers temptations Therefore ought we not simply to pray and without exception to be delivered from them but only from the evil of them As God led Israel 40 years in the Wilderness to humble them and to prove them to know what was in their Deut. 8. â— 13. 3. heart whether they would keep his Commandments or no. And to prove them whether they would love the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls So afflictions are called temptations because by them God tryeth our Obedience to notisie our faith and patience both to our selves and others whether we will follow him or not And therefore we may be assured that so often as we beat back or overcome the temptations we have so many undoubted testimonies of Gods love unto us So then Patience is from the acknowledging of Gods Wisdom Providence Justice and Goodness to be Obedient unto him in bearing all adversities and crosses or losses which the Lord hath brought upon us and through grief not to murmur or repine at any of his dispensations nor to do any thing against his Commâ—â—â—ements but in the midst of our grief to retain assured hope and confidence of Gods help and to crave aid and deliverance from him and in this confidence and acknowledging of Gods Will to moderate our grief Psal 37. 7 8 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil So we see that patience is a duty belonging to the First Commandement not only because it 's a part of that inward obedience which we owe to God and he immediately requires it to himself at our hands but also because that from our acknowledging of God our confidence in him and our love and fear of him do follow as necessary effects To this Christian patience impatience is contrary and opposed which impatience is when through ignorance or distrust of
Humility towards God and that is a holy submission which is joyned with the fear of God Submit your Jam 4. 7. Prov. 22. 4. selves to God By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life There humility and the fear of the Lord are joyned together Q. By what Arguments may a man be excited to the study of humility towards God A. 1. If he sets before his eyes the Majesty and Power of God 2. If he thinks on the nature of humility which makes the soul of man fit Isa 66. 3. Prov. 11. 2. to be the House and Temple of God and that it may be capable of wisdom that it may be a Sacrifice unto God that it may be the Receptacle of the Psal 51. 19 Prov. 3. 3 5. Grace of God for with the lowly is wisdom This humility is the mother of all other vertues and is also a singular Ornament 1 Pet. 3. 4. of the soul The Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price 3. If he is mindful of the promises made to the humble the Lord hath a respect unto them To this man will the Isa 66. 2. Lord look that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at His word The Lord will give grace to the humble Jâ—m 4. 10. and he will lift them up He that Luke 18. 14. humbleth himself shall be exalted 4. If he consider that humility is necessary to seek God and to turnaway His anger And when the Lord â—eph 2. 3. â— Cron. 12. 7. saw that they humbled themselves He said because they have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them c. 5. If he understand that humility is required in every duty towards God What doth the Lord require of thee but Mic. 6. 8. to love mercy and do justly and walk humbly with thy God As if the Prophet had said we can never walk with God please Him or be acceptable to Him without humility 2. Of Humility towards Man Out of conscience towards God we must behave our selves humbly towards man yea and the sence and acknowledging of our vileness and unworthiness before God makes us truly submissive and so doth dispose us to true humility in every respect Humility towards man is a vertue Definition whereby a man takes heed that he lift not up himself above his degree nor willingly commend himself as knowing that whosoever exalts himself shall Mat. 23. 12. Luk. 14. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 12. be abased but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted There are Three marks of humility towards men 1. A humble man affecteth not those outward signs of eminency as the uppermost Mat. 2â— 6 7 8 rooms chief seats greetings in the market the cup and knee c. like proud Haman who so stormed and was full of wrath because Mordecai Ester 3. 2 5 bowed not nor did him obeisance But in lowliness of mind let each esteem Phil. 2. 3. others better than himself I speak not to countenance sawcy pride neglect or contempt for we should give honour to whom it belongs Honour is Rom. 13. 7. in the person honouring not in the person honored What if a proud and unmannerly person sleights and neglects me shall I fret my self at it 2. A humble man beareth the contempt of himself so far as belongs to 2 Cor. 5. 12 13. himself So David when Shimei cursed him and slang stones he meekly reply'd let him curse it may be the Lord will look upon my affliction and will requite good for his cursing me this 2 Sam. 16. 7 to 12. day Lastly A humble man will not aspire Psal 131. 2 3. Jer. 14. 5. to high things Jeremy blamed Baruch for this seekest thou great things to thy self seek them not Next as there is humility towards God and towards man So also there is humility in condition and estate when a man is low and mean and poor in the world There is also a voluntary humility and the Popish Vow of Col. 2. 18. Beggery c. which have no warrant in the word of God and who required this at their hands It is humility in heart and spirit which is here meant This humility is the first step to Christianity Our Saviour said whosoever Luâ—e 9. 23. will come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. A man that is not humbled is not sit for any good duty God offereth abundant mercy to us in His Son Christ Jesus even the treasure of heavenly grace an unhumbled and a proud heart is not fit to receive it Satan hath so filled his heart with pride he hath no room to receive it he doth Luke 16. 11. not desire it but to get riches and honour credit and esteem in the world and to be revenged on those whom he apprehends have sleighted him this he desires and seeks after He careth not for the true riches and true honour which is from God alone Tell such a one of the plentiful Redemption wrought out by Christs death what doth he esteem it he hath no such feeling that he is in an undone and lost condition without it As in the Apostles days some were such proud worldly-wise fools who could not see the excellency of heavenly knowledge but esteemed the Preaching of the Gospel foolishness So St. Paul when he was at Athens the 1 Cor. 1. 21. Famousest University in the world was very much sleighted of those great Philosophers and Schollars some mocked Acts 1â— 18 32. and others said what will this babler say Even so it is in our days Others are so wise in their own conceit thinking they know enough already they are too good to be iustructed and too wise to be taught No no God hath promised the meek He will guide in Psal 25. 9. judgment and the meek He will teach His way He silleth the hungry with good Luke 1. 53. things Therefore blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Mat. 5. 6. for they shall be filled God will satiate the weary soul and replenish every Jer. 31. 25. sorrowful soul that is every contrite and humble soul which is sorrowful and broken for sin and hungreth and thirstest after Christ and His righteousness and the grace of His Spirit God will satiate and replenish them The Word is compared to Seed Mat. 4. 14. Now the seed can take no good root in the ground untill it be broken and turned up with the Plough So neither can the Word take any place in the heart before it be rent and broken for sin and from sin therefore the Prophet Joel bids them to rend their hearts Joâ—l 2. 13. Jer. 4. 3. And Jeremy bids them break up the sallow ground of your heart and sow not among thornes If that men will not thus rent
visibly seen of all shall pass sentence and execute it on all But the Saints are said to judg the world because they shall applaud approve and wholly subscribe to the righteous sentence of Christ Let us always live in expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus with Oyl in our lampâ— Grace in our hearts and so prâ—pared for it praying Come Rev. 22. 20 Luk. 12. 43. Lord Jesus come quickly Blessed it that servant whom his Master when He cometh shall â—ind so doing He shall say unto him Well done good and faithful Mat. 25. 21. servant enter into thy Masters joy But as for the wicked and ungodly they 2 Thess 1. 9. shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power Which brings us to the third head we mentioned at first which is Hell Having spoken to the first two 3 Hell Death and Judgment come we now to the execution of the sentence of Judgment which shall presently follow the sentence given the wicked shall go Mat. 25. 46. away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Whosoever is not found written in the book of Rev. 2. 15. life shall be cast into the lake of fire This place of the damned in Scripture is called by divers names 1. Hell as Mat. 5. 23. 2. A furnace of fire where shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42. 3. A place of torment Luk. 16. 28. 4. A prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. 5. A bottomless pit Rev. 9. 1. 6. A lake of fire Rev. 20. 15. 7. A lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Revel 21. 8. The place where Hell is we ought not to be too inquisitive to know sith it is not manifested in the Scripture But the extreme horrour and dreadfulness of the place is described unto us that we may use all the means which God hath prescribed in His word that we may never come there The word Hell in Scripture hath several acceptations 1. It is taken for the place appointed for the torments of the reprobates after thâ—â— â—ife So Luk. 16. 23 And being in hell in torments 2. For most deep and deadly sorrows Psal 18. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about 3. For Satan the Prince of Hell with the whole army of wicked Spirits Mat. 16. 18 The gates of hell shall no prevail against c A Metonymie signifying all the power and policy and strongest assaults of the wicked for heretofore they had their seats of Judicature in the gates of the City where the Elders the wisest and all the Sages met and these gates of the City were and still are the strength of the City 4. Hell is taken for the grave and the estate of the dead therein So we have it Psal 16. 10 Thou shalt not leave Acts 2. 31. my soul in Hell c. 5. For the belly of the whale wherein Jonah was shut up as in a grave Jonah 2. 2 Out of the belly of Hell cryed I c. By Hell-fire is signified the whole extream pain of the damned in Hell where 1. They are separated from the presence and glory of God 2. They are punished with eternal confusion and most bitter reproaches because all their secret wickednesses and sins are revealed 2 Thess 1. 9. Mat. 23. 41. 3. They have fellowship with the Devil and his Angels 4. They are wholly in body and soul tormented with an incredible horrour and exceeding great anguish through the sense and feeling of Gods wraâ—â— Isa 66. 24. to be poured out upon them for ever Hereupon is the punishment of the damned called hell sire a worm never dying but always gnawing on the Conscience weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth and utter darkness and such like By Hell-fire is not meant any bodily flame but these are Metaphors and resemblances for the weakness of our earthly and dull capacity that we may a little apprehend it and have a glimpse of it that so we may use our utmost endeavours to avoid it For as no tongue of Men or Angels can rightly set forth the joys of Heaven so no tongue can express the torments of Hell But these expressions of Hell c. signifie the seizing of the fearful and terrible wrath of the Almighty both on body and soul and all the powers and faculties parts and members thereof for ever For howsoever the body be subject to burning with bodily fire yet the soul being spiritual cannot burn and therefore Hell-fire is not a material fire A material fire yieldeth light but here is nothing but blackness of darkness for ever Hell-fire is a most grievous torment fitly resembled by fire which to our apprehension is the most direful and dreadful thing And torments by fire are of all others the most fearful and terrible Reasons Reasons for it 1. The quarrel with sinners is Gods own the controversie His own the injuries and indignities have been done to Himself and His own Son the challenges have been sent to Himself and His blessed Spirit And therefore no marvel if He take the matter into His own hands sith He hath been so provoked to revenge it by His own immediate Power 2. Revenge is His Royalty and peculiar Prerogative To Him belongeth Deut. 32. 35. 41. Heb. 10. 30 31. Jam. 2. 13. Rev. 14. 10. vengeance and recompence Thence the Apostle infers It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and that for these reasons 1. It shall be Judgment without Mercy there shall be a cup of pure wrath poured out upon them without mixture c. that is not a drop of sweetness and ease but all is poyson and bitterness there shall not be afforded â—â— drop of water to a Lake of fire a minute of ease to Eternity of torment 2. It shall be in fury without compassion that is in vengeance without any pity 3. It shall be in revenge and recompence in reward and proportion and a full and everlasting detestation For as the wicked did here hate God and set their hearts and courses against Him and His Laws in their eternity in all that time they lived and sinned here and so would have done if they had lived never so much longer So God will hate wicked men and set His face and fury against them in His eternity also and punish them there with everlasting destruction 3. The torments of wicked Angels whence can they come There is no creature strong enough to lay upon them a sufficient recompence of pain and punishment for their sins against Gods Majesty And for the disputes of School-men about corporal fire in Hell the degrees of it c. they are but the niceties of men ignorant of the terrour of the Lord Heb. 22. 29. who is Himself a consuming fire The Devils acknowledged Christ their tormentor when He did but rebuke them which wrang out from them Mat. 8. 29.