have not been moved and smitten with it The threatnings of the Lord by Moses did not move the heart of Pharaoh but rather he was the more hardened Answ The cause of this is 1. Their own unbelief although they have yet they lay not the threatnings to heart but put the evil day far from them As the hammer breaks not the hard stone except it be laid to it with some force the old world laid not to heart the threatning of the deluge by Noah Mat. 24.39 but the Ninivites believed the threatning by Jonah and repented Jonah 3.5 2. Love of some gainful sin keeps the will in an obstinacy against the Word that they will not be convinced of the sinfulness of their wayes they love darkness more than light and therefore they hate the light of the Word which makes their daâ—kness manifest Joh. 3.19 The Crafts-men in Ephesus Acts 19. have such love to their gainful idolatry that they will not be convinced of the absurdity and unreasonableness thereof 3. Pride and arrogancy will not suffer some men to be informed of the truth that is contrary to their own opinion and way and so because they will not be informed they cannot be convinced such was the pride and arrogancy of the Pharisees Joh. 9.34 4. Preposterous love of sinful company and society doth make some men sensless and fearless of the judgements threatned against such a society Lot his Sons in Law out of their love to Sodom were not moved with his preaching and threatning of sad judgement against that City Therefore as ye would be convinced of the evil and danger of sin by the Word of God and by his severe threatnings lay them to heart by believing Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God forsake the love of sin though never so gainful or pleasant and forsake all communion and fellowship with the workers of iniquity in their works of darkness Object 2. But wicked and reprobat men may be heart-smitten at a time with a convincing Sermon as Felix was How shall we discern the smiting of our heart by the Word to be from mercy and from a purpose to heal the soul wounded and pierced with sorrow and fear Ans 1. A wicked and reprobat person may be heart-smitten with grief and fear for some great and hainous sins whereof they are convinced not only by the light of the Word but also by the light and sorce of a natural conscience as was Cain and Judas Yea the morning light is to the adulterer even as the shadow of death Job 24.17 but the children of God their heart will smite them even for smaller offences Davids heart smote him for the cutting of Sauls garment and Paul is convinced not only that his persecution of the Saints was a sin but also that his inordinat concupiscence and its first stirrings was a transgression of the Law Rom. 7.7 2. In wicked and obstinat sinners the pain of heart-smiting lasteth not but as a Sea-sickness it evanisheth in a short time and is forgot as in Pharaoh Exod. 9.27 But it is not so in the children of God though their pain and remorse of conscience continues not alwayes in a sense of present grief and pain yet it remains in their memory they remember the gall and wormwood and in the remembrance thereof their heart is kept humble Psal 38.17 I am ready to halt and my sorrow is continually before me Wicked and obstinat sinners when the terrours of conscience are over at a time they do return like a deceitful Bow to their old posture and way but the godly with penitent Peter not only do weep for their former sinful courses but also they forsake the company of evil doers 3. The wicked and obstinat sinners when they are smitten with the word of reproof do hate him who reproves in the gate as Ahab did Elijah but the godly take well with the word of reproof as with a precious ointment that makes them afterward to shine in their conversation Psal 141.5 4. Wicked men who continue obstinat in their sins make no good use of their former heart-smiteing and pain of conscience like some men having at a time a great pain in their stomack and head from former excess in drinking make not good use thereof to shun the occasion of excess and riot in time coming but the children of God make better use of heart-smiting when they are again tempted to run in the excess of riot they remember their former distempers and consider the peace they have in their conscience for the present and do make good use of that admonition given by our Lord Joh 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee Vse 2. It is our duty to take well with the word of reproof although it smite yet it will do good and heal again when it is received by an obedient ear and heart for to such it is an ear-ring and ornament of gold and adorns them in their after-conversation Prov. 25.12 It is as the lopping of a luxuriant branch it doth the tree no evil but makes it more fruitful Prov. 27.6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend It is a fearful thing to despise the word of reproof in the mouth of those who have a calling from God for in that case God many times takes the rod into his own immediat hand and smites the obstinat sinner severely and visibly as he did the old world who contemned the reproof of Noah as he did Sodom who contemned the reproof of Lot as he did Amaziah who rejected the counsel of the Prophet 2 Chron. 25.16 as he did severely punish the people of Israel who despised the counsel of the Prophets 2 Chron. 36.16 and Jerusalem who persecuted the Prophets that spake unto them Luk. 19.42 Therefore the faithful Ministers of God must not desist from their seasonable reprovings though possibly at first they be not well received yet afterward with the true children of God they shall be entertained as Medicaments for their recovery Prov. 28.23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour then he that flattereth with the tongue To this purpose saith Cyprian Though some people like way-ward sick children baul and cry against the Physician yet let him wait on and do his duty if the child shall recover he will be ashamed of his perâ—ishness and be the more thankful to his careful prudent and patient Physician vociferetur licet post tamen gratias aget although saith he the child cry out in the time of his pain yet afterward he will render thanks Observ 3. Earthly-mindedness is very displeasing unto God he shall smite the earth and men are much displeased with those whom they smite Because worldly-mindedness is a great impediment to our hearing and obeying the good Word of God Mat. 13.22 So is it unto Prayer which is a lifting up of the soul unto God and earthly-mindedness is like a paise or weight of
endure amputation and mortification of their sinful lusts which are as a gangren'd hand or foot therefore they are not healed but choose rather to pine away in their beloved lusts than to have them cut off and so to have their souls saved 2. Hardness of heart and stupid security without apprehension of the danger and vileness of their sins makes them carlesse to seek to the Lord for healing their souls Mat. 13.15 For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them 3. Willfull rejecting of the counsel and direction of the great Physician of our souls given to us by his faithfull Ministers Jer. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed Mat. 23.37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolat c. 4. A false conceit and imagination of our own righteousness and soul-health is a great impediment to the healing of the soul as the Phrenetick man who thinks himself whole seeketh not the Physician for healing Matth. 9.12 They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick that is they that are sensible of their souls distemper through the malady of sin are sensible also of a necessity to be healed The outward means of Soul-healing are the Word specially the Gospel-promises Psal 107 20 He sent his Word and healed them Isai 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One c. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humhle and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isai 61.1 The Lord God hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is an outward mean for healing a broken heart because it is a visible sign and seal of our Communion of Christs Body broken for us and of his blood shed for us and his offering of his Body and our receiving of it by Faith is the special mean to heal the broken heart by the vertue of his Body broken for us Prayer is a mean blessed of God for healing a broken heart Moses Num. 12.13 cryed unto the Lord in behalf of his leprouse sister Miriam saying heal her now O God I beseech thee And 2. Chron. 30.18 19 20. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord for healing and forgivness to the People who had prepared their hearts to eat the Passeover but had not been punctually cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary conform to the Law cerimonial And it is said the Lord hearkned to Hezekiah and healed the people The inward means of healing the Soul are specially two 1. Repentance Jer. 3.20 Return ye backsliding Children and I will heal your backslidings Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved Repentance cleanseth the wound and leteth out the malignant humor 2. Faith is a special mean for Soul-healing it is as the hand that applieth the healing-plaister it applies the blood of Christ wherewith the Soul is cleansed Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved As the Haemoroise Woman when she touched Christ was healed by the healing vertue that came out of him so when a humble broken-hearted sinner doth lay hold on Christ and the promise made in him healing vertue comes from him whereby guilt and obligation to eternal punishment is taken away in our Justification and the fever of corruption is much abaited by the work and power of Sanctification The manner of Gods healing the broken-heart is 1. Freely without any merit in man procuring the same for Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again Rom. 11.35 To this purpose saith the prophet Isai 43.25 I even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake c. 2. He healeth powerfully so that when he puts to the hand of his invincible grace for healing no distemper of the will can resist him for he takes away willingness to resist and so he begins his healing in cureing the malignancy of the will Jer. 17.14 Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned This efficacy of Gods grace in healing Souls is called the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power It is a power exceeding and overcomming the power of our corruption at the time when God is pleased 〈◊〉 exert it 3. God heals the Soul gradually in â—espect of indwelling corruption although as is most probable God justifies a sinner at once from the guilt of all his sins actually forgiving him all his bypast sins and giving him a right and claim through Christ unto the remission of sins to come Yet the healing of the soul from the vilness of indweling corruption in the course of Sanctification is by degrees for so long as the children of God are on Earth there is in them grace and corruption and each of them lusteth one against another Gal. 5.17 4. He healeth perfectly and fully all his Patients at the end of their life from all stain of Sin and diâ—temper of Conscience through the stirring of inward corruption as the Jewish Women were fully purified after Child-birth before they were presented in the Temple so our blessed Lord and Physician after our new Birth and Regeneration doth purifie us in the course of Sanctification and at death having closed the course of our purification doth after death present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Jud. Epist 24. Obj. One possibly may say my heart is broken with sorrow for my sins and yet their is no healing of my soul nor peace and quietness in my Conscience I may say as Jer. 4.14 19. I looked for the time of healing and behold trouble Ans God is debtor to none for healing he healeth the broken in heart but not because their heart is broken The distemper is meerly from our selves but our healing is from his free Grace with some sinners he deals more roughly than with others according to his Wisdom and good Pleasure Isai 28.27 Paul is cast down to the ground but the heart of Lydia is gently opened some are sooner cured and comforted to preveen despair others are keept long under cure and exercise of Conscience to preveen pride and presumption Therefore wait upon the Lord thy Physician with all patience and submission 1. Because he hath promised to heal the broken
City compassed about with bushy trees as even at this day the Jews call a Christian Natzar It is said out of his roots because at the time of Christs birth tbe family of David the son of Jesse was like a root hid under the ground in time of Winter because after the captivity of Babylon none of the Tribe of Judah had the government but at that time the Maccabees of the Tribe of Levi were the supreme Rulers at the birth of our Lord Herod the Great the son of Antipater slew all of the Sanedrim who were for the most part of the royal Tribe of Judah then was fulfilled that Prophesie of the Patriarch Jacob concerning the departure of the Scepter from Judah and of a Law-giver from between his feet when Shiloh was born into the world Gen. 49.10 At our Lords birth the family of David in respect of any outward splendor was like a root hid under the ground in Winter-time but the Lord who quickens the dead made this root to sprout and bring forth this Plant of Renown even the Lord Jesus Christ Observ 1. It is the duty of the people of God to raise up their thoughts from any temporal deliverance promised or received unto the meditation and consideration of that spiritual and eternal redemption wrought be Jesus Christ This is clear from the coherence of this Chapter with the preceeding 1. Because all our temporal mercies and deliverances are nothing in comparison of that precious full and eternal redemption purchased by Jesus Christ if we consider the price of our Redemption even the precious blood of the Lamb of God of infinite worth and value above all things corruptible 1 Pet. 1.18 19. we are redeemed and delivered from all our enemies Luk. 1.74 and it is an eternal redemption that in the effects of it endureth for ever Heb. 9.12 2. Temporal deliverances are common to the wicked as well as to the godly in which respect Christ is called the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4.10 3. Wicked men may receive a great temporal deliverance who are yet reserved for wrath to come 2 Pet. 2.4 Jud. v. 13. Cursed Cham was delivered from the deluge and many damned Sodomites were delivered by Abraham from captivity at the rescue of Lot from his enemies Obser 2. Our blessed Lord humbled himself to a low condition here on earth he was as a rod or small twigg out of the family of Jesse one of the smallest in the Tribe of Judah Consider well his Humiliation 1. It was voluntar and free Philip. 2.7 8. he emptied himself as he laid aside his upper garment to wash the feet of his Disciples so he laid aside outward state and glory that he might suffer for us and wash us in his precious blood 2. It was a gracious and bountiful Humiliation and Exinanition on our behalf that by the merit thereof he might enrich us with his unsearchable and durable riches even with the graces of the holy Spirit obtained to us by the merit of his death 2 Cor. 8 9. Though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be made rich and thereby also to exalt us unto glory and set us in heavenly places together with himself Heb. 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings The merit of his Humiliation was as a Ladder fixed on the earth for us to ascend thereby unto glory 3. He came in a low condition for the comfort of many of the godly who are born and live in a poor and low condition here on earth their low and despicable condition in the world shall not be any prejudice to the salvation of their souls for Christ shall be all to them and all in them Colos 3.11 Lazarus a poor man and Onesimus a servant are accepted of God in him 4. He became low and subjected himself to infirmities that thereby we might have confidence of pity and help to us in the day of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 16. He knoweth from experience what it is to have an heart overwhelmed with grief or astonished with fear for his soul was in an agony Luk. 22.44 and he was sore amazed through fear and very heavy in heart through grief Mark 14.33 5. He came in a low condition to teach us to be content in our lowest estate in thy low Cottage be content and look to the Heir of heaven born in a poor out-house though thou have course fair be content and look to him who in his ordinar entertainment had but a few barley Loaves and some small Fishes at the evening of the day though thou get a hard bed look up to him and be content for he had not whereon to lay his head Mat. 8.20 Vse 1. Be not offended at Christs low estate Blessed is the man saith our Lord that is not offended in me remember 1. he was brought low for our cause he was bruised for our iniquities our lifting up of our selves in the pride and rebellion of our hearts against God brought him low to suffer and satisfie the Divine Justice in our nature for us Should a Debter be ashamed of or despise his Cautioner brought low only by his suretyship for his debts and not for any of his own person 2. That thou may not be offended at his outward low condition look by the piercing eye of Faith into the inside of Jesus Christ in him the God-head dwels bodily Col. 2.9 His Humane Nature was like the vail that hid what was within the most holy place but draw aside the vail and by Faith behold in him the most holy One that Mercy-seat and Propitiatory in whom and by whom we get a gracious answer of peace from the Father Joh. 16.23 Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you He is our propitiation 1 Joh. 2.2 By Faith look through the vail of the Humane Nature and behold in him the pot of heavenly Manna which descended not only from the clouds as that Manna in the wildernesse but from the third heaven to give life unto the world By Faith behold in him the rod of Aaron the high Priest ever blossoming for he is our great high Priest living for ever in the most holy place Heb. 7.24 and by the special assistance of the holy Ghost according to his promise Mat. 28.20 he maketh the preaching of the Gospel by his Ministers not only to blossom in a fair outward profession but also to be fruitful in the conversation of his people 3. Consider although our blessed Lord was born and lived in a low condition yet some glimpses of the glory of his Divine Nature did now and then at his own pleasure break through the vail of his Humane Nature although he was low in the place of his birth yet at the
same time he was attended by an heavenly host of Angels and was worshipped both by the wise men that came from the east and by the shepherds after he was tempted as a man in the wilderness yet the Angels ministered unto him as the Son of God after his sleeping as a man in the ship he rebuked the Sea and the Winds as the Son of God yea in his lowest condition upon the Cross he by the power of his God-head did shake the earth and raise the dead Vse 2. Meditate oft-times for thy comfort upon his lowing and humbling himself in his birth life and death look upon it as the greatest token of his love Jacobs service in so low a condition was a great token of his love to Rachel but the Prince of Glory even Jacobs Lord was in the form of a servant near-by thirty four years to espouse us who were by nature enemies to God Look upon his low condition and humiliation as a special mean to engage thy heart and affection to himself who took upon him thy nature to make thee partaker of the Divine Nature by a conformity to God in holiness in this life and in glory and happiness for ever in the other life Look upon his humiliation as thy pattern in thy behaviour to thy inferiours he condescended to us in our low estate therefore be not high-minded neither in a supercilious arrogancy stand upon your punctilio's but let the like mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who humbled himself to do us good So should we after his example condescend to do good one to another Phil. 2.3 4 5. VERSE II. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. FOr the better clearing these words we would answer three questions 1. Seing God gave him the Spirit not in measure Joh. 3.34 How is it that the graces of the Spirit bestowed upon him are here stinted and limited to the number of six 2. Seing he had these graces from all eternity being equal in understanding wisdom counsel might and knowledge with the Father how is the Spirit said to rest upon him in his Incarnation as if he had not been endowed with those graces before that time 3. What is meant by these several graces and gifts mentioned here I answer to the first The graces reckoned up here are such as were bestowed upon him as Man and Mediator in our nature at his Incarnation and were requisit for him in the Government of his Church and people although all other graces were habitually and eminently in him as humility meekness patience c. yet such graces are mentioned here as in a special manner qualified him for the actual discharge of the Mediatory-office as for that spoken of our blessed Lord Joh. 3.34 He received not the spirit by measure it is not to be understood simply as if the Humane Nature of Christ by way of transfusion had received an infinit measure of grace for a finit creature cannot receive such a measure seing every thing is received according to the measure and capacity of the receiver but it is spoken by way of comparison with all the intelligent creatures Angels or Men who received not such a measure of the graces of the Spirit as Christ did in his Humane Nature wherein he was anointed above his fellows Psal 45.7 Eph. 4.7 To the second Question I answer Our blessed Lord in respect of his Divine Nature was of infinit understanding wisdom counsel might and knowledge but these graces in a finit measure were communicat to the Humane Nature in the personal union thereof with the Divine Nature in his Incarnation but in a measure far above the capacity of Angels or Men because the nearer the creature is united to God the perfection of it is the greater therefore it is even so among believers in the Church here on earth some of them are more perfect then others because united to God by more of faith and love then others and in Heaven the Saints glorified are more perfect then the Saints militant on earth because they are united and near to God in the facial vision of God by full knowledge and perfect love Now of all creatures the Humane Nature of Christ was and is most perfect because united and nearest to the Divine Nature in a personal union To the third I answer We understand by the Spirit of understanding his large capacity in perceiving and up-taking what was incumbent for himself to do and suffer as our Mediator and also what the elect should do for attaining eternal life through him By the Spirit of wisdom we understand the gift of active prudence whereby he was enabled for doing and performing the duty which he understood was incumbent to him as our Mediator Psal 40.8 9 10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation By the Spirit of counsel we understand his ability to reveal the eternal counsel and purpose of the Father concerning the way of mans salvation Joh. 6.40 And this it the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life By the Spirit of might we understand that power and dominion over all creatures given to him as Mediator and Head of his Church Mat. 28.18 All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth An exceeding power of invincible grace toward the Elect in their effectual calling and conversion Eph. 1.19 and also a power and mighty force to subdue his obstinat and incorrigible enemies 1 Cor. 15.25 For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet By the Spirit of knowledge we understand not only his certain and infallible knowledge of all things to be done and suffered by him for the salvation of lost man but also his knowledge and dexterity for instructing his Church in the truth and way of salvation As in the Breast-plate of the High Priest was Vrim and Thummim rendered by the 70. Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manifestation and Truth So our Lord knew the truth and had a transcendent gift of a convincing gravity and authority as also a perswasive clearness upon the spirits and hearts of his hearers Psal 45.2 Grace is poured into thy lips Mat. 7.28 29. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine For he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes Luk. 24.32 And they said one to another Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures This knowledge infused into the Humane Nature of Christ was not an absolute Omniscience which is incommunicable to any
perswasion of divine and supernatural truths Go to him for light and knowledge the spirit of knowledge rested on him Prov. 1.23 Prov. 2.3 4 5. Rev. 3.18 He is by Office the great Doctor of Israel and will give his Spirit to perswade the heart to receive and imbrace the precious truths revealed in the Word even unto all who seek to him for instruction and humbly submit to his discipline and correction Hast thou a prophane loose and godless heart void of the fear of God go to him on whom was poured the spirit of the fear of the Lord that he may put the fear of God in thy heart that thou mayest be sanctified throughout in spirit soul and body in a conformity to him on whom the spirit of the fear of the Lord did rest To this end he died that he might ratifie and confirm that promise of the new Covenant I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32.40 Vse 2. Seing these graces and gifts of the Spirit were given to Jesus Christ the Mediator for the benefit of his Church it is our duty to search our selves and try if we have received of the spirit of Christ because if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 And hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 As a member of the body not animated by the soul is not formally and properly a member thereof so a man not quickened by the Spirit of Christ is not an actual member of his Mystical Body the Church His Spirit is a Spirit of understanding If thou understand the fundamental and necessary saving truths and followest Christ by saith as a Schollar following and maintaining the opinion of his Teacher and if thou set thy heart to follow him by obedience in the way of his holy Commandments as a Servant following the direction of his Lord For a good understanding have all they that do his Commandments Psal 111.10 If thy understanding be seconded with an hatred of every false way Psal 119.104 then mayest thou be assured the Spirit of Christ is in thee even the spirit of sound judgement and understanding The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of spiritual and heavenly wisdom which is pure without guile and peaceable without faction and sedition Jam. 3.17 It is true there is a wisdom that passeth under that name in this present world but it is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3.19 there are many wise in their own generation but are fools in the great business of Regeneration such as put forth all their wit and pains for attaining the deceitful pleasures of sin which is called a plowing of iniquity Job 4.8 a sowing to the flesh Gal. 6.8 a drawing of iniquity with cart-ropes Is 5.18 a travelling with iniquity Ps 7.14 and making provision for the flesh Rom. 13.14 Such as lay forth all their wit and pains for attaining uncertain riches or unconstant honour of a present world these men are like unto stupid Idiots preferring base mettal to the Pearl of price and the others are like to mad men running with all their speed into a precipice or gulph for their own destruction Such men are worldly wise who lay all the stress of their trust upon the uncertain insufficient and perishing things of this world as that miserable worldling Luk. 12.20 Such also who are nimble wits to meddle in all business except the business of their own salvation of such fools we read Prov. 20.3 And there be also too many hypocritical fools that have a frame and set form of some good holy words without any foundation of new obedience in their heart and without good works in their life and conversation such a man was that foolish builder Mat. 7. and the foolish Virgins Mat. 25. But has thou that wisdom which is from above which appears in the choice of the best thing Mat. 13.46 in active intentions for attaining the chief end even Gods glory and thine own salvation which appears also in strong desires following after the means of salvation Ps 27.4 One thing have I desired and that I will desire c. It appears in an heavenly conversation and minding things that are above Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath and in providing wisely for the time to come by doing works of piety and charity 1 Tim. 6.19 If thou be wise in this manner then thou mayest be assured thou hast received of the Spirit of wisdom that rested on Christ thy Head The Spirit of Christ was a Spirit of sound counsel if thou has received of that Spirit thou wilt not give pernicious counsel to others as Jonadab did to Ammon to further them in any sinful course nor wilt thou give counsel against others to their hurt or ruine as Achitophel did against David But thou wilt give good counsel as Daniel did to Nebuchadnezar Dan. 4.27 If thy counsels be according to the Word of God as the testimonies of God were Davids faithful counsellers Ps 119.24 then mayest thou be assured thou art of the Spirit of Christ who according to the Word of God did delight to do the will of the Father Ps 48. If thou rejectest with an holy indignation evil counsel and suggestion though given by a friend when he would disswade thee from duty to God or to men in God this is an evidence thou art of the Spirit of Christ who rejected such evil counsel Matth. 16.24 Hast thou power and might to resist the onsets and bickerings of inward corruption It is an evidence thou art partaker of the vertue of the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.37 We are more then conquerors through him that loved us Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Hast thou power and ability to walk equally and evenly both in prosperity and in adversity humble and moderat in that and patient in this thou art partaker of the Spirit of Christ who was of a moderat and sober mind when they would have made him a King he withdrew himself Joh. 6.15 he was patient in adversity as a sheep before the shearer Is 53. Art thou able through his grace to do Christian-duties with some measure of sincerity fervency and cheerfulness then art thou of the Spirit of Christ for it was his meat and drink to do the will of the Father Joh. 4.34 If the Spirit of sound and heavenly knowledge be in thee not only wilt thou have the knowledge of simple apprehension in thine uptaking the literal sense of Scripture truths but also thou wilt have a knowledge of discerning the sublime majesty the admirable simplicity and infallibility of Divine Truths both in promises and threatnings far above all humane Writings that thou wilt say from perswasion never man spoke as he spoke and thy knowledge will be
joyned with an high estimation of Divine Truths more then men has of thousands of gold of honey and of spoil or plunder as was in David Then mayest thou be assured thou art partaker in some measure of that Spirit of knowledge that was poured forth and rested on Christ thine Head Ps 119.72 103 162. Thou art one of his sheep effectually called and elected to be set on his right hand for his sheep know his voice Joh. 10.4 If the Spirit of the fear of the Lord be in thine heart a fear with humble submission to the will of God both for doing and suffering his will Is 50.10 a fear joyned with hope and confidence on his mercy Ps 145.11 a fear joyned with reverence in his holy worship Ps 5.7 a fear joyned with zeal provoking others by word and good example to worship and fear the Lord Act. 10.2 3. Then mayest thou be assured thou art of the Spirit of Christ for the Spirit of the fear of the Lord rested on him there was in him a fear joyned with submission in the day of his sad affliction for he said not my will but thine be done there was in him a fear joyned with active and passive obedience Philip. 2.8 a fear joyned with confidence even in his greatest desertion and sad complaint my God my God c. a fear joyned with reverence in prayer Luk. 22.44 and a fear joyned with zeal provoking others to fear the mighty God above all things Mat. 10.28 Vse 3. Here is sure ground of unspeakable comfort to the Church and company of Believers against all their fears from the worldly wisdom and power of the enemies of the Kingdom of Christ there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord Pro. 21.30 The spirit of wisdom in him who is set over the house of God doth far surpass and over-reach all their wisdom falsly so called the enemies of the people of God said Let us deal wisely with them Exod. 1.10 but the Lord in the depth of his wisdom turned their cruel policy to the good and increase of his Church and People it was as the heavy weight unto the Palm-tree to raise them the higher and as the inundation of Nilus to make them the more fruitful in every good work there is no counsel against the Lord for he throughly sees the devices and plots even in the heart of the enemies Is 10.7 He is the stone with the seven eyes Zachar. 3.9 he can discover their secret designs as he did to his servant Elisha 2 King 6.12 He discovered the secret conspiracy against Paul Act. 23.16 The power of the wicked is finit and limited but his power being God is infinit and there is no proportion between finit and infinit He can limit their power and say as to the proud waves come no farther though he permit them to come to the neck yet they shall not drown them Is 8.8 Their Head the Lord Jesus Christ is now far above all the waters of affliction and persecution he can restrain their malice he cuts the horn of the wicked he breaks their teeth Ps 3.7 although they bark yet they bite not or if he permit them to bite yet their bite is not deadly like that of some mad dogs he can put a bridle in the jaws of Sennacherib he can defeat their counsels and contrivances as he did that of Achitophel turned it to folly and ruine to himself he did defeat and wonderfully disappoint the counsel of Haman against Mordecai according to that of Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carried head-long and in his unsearchable wisdom he turns their malice to the praise of his great Name who is mighty to save his people maugre all opposition Ps 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee There is no might nor power worldly that can overthrow the Church of Christ The gates of hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16.18 Because it is built on him who is the Rock of Ages and is the strength of all who by faith are built on him they are kept by the Father Joh. 10.29 and by the power of God through saith 1 Pet. 1.5 The Church and company of Believers is compared to a strong City fortified with strong Walls and with a deep and broad Ditch Isa 26.1 Isa 33.21 because the mighty Lord is in the midst of them It is true the Lord doth not alwayes shew his might in holding off the trouble from them yet he makes manifest his might and power in upholding them under troubles and in strengthning them to patience and long-suffering with joyfulness they are cast down but not destroyed persecuted but not forsaken perplexed but not in despair 2 Cor. 4.9 Psal 46.5 He that dwells in the bush though he suffer fire to enter into it yet he keeps it from being consumed because he strengthens his own children to bear afflictions Isa 41.10 Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Likeas a Physician holding his Patient by the hand doth encourage him under the present pain and throws from a bitter potion by confirming him in the hope of better health thereafter Joh. 16.20 2 Cor. 4.17 Sometimes he comforts them with a sense of his love shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which as a cordial doth preserve and revive them that they faint not altogether in times of great trouble 2 Cor. 1.3 4. As a tender father speaketh more kindly to his sick child then he was wont to do formerly in time of his better health so the Lord speaketh comfort to them by his Spirit according to the word of promise when they are in a desolate condition like unto a wilderness wherein they have none or few to speak a word of comfort unto them Hos 2.14 Stephen the Martyr had never such a manifestation of Gods gracious presence as in the day of his greatest affliction and persecution Acts 7.56 And the young Confessor Theodorus as testifies Eusebius felt never more sweetness then in the time he was upon the rack Consider the merciful Lord moderats their afflictions in the specie or kind in not sending alwayes his sorest plagues Sometimes in the number he lays not on all his rods he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east-wind Isa 27.8 Sometimes in the degree and measure in not afflicting them in extremity The Lord hath chastised me sore saith David but he hath not given me over to death Psal 118.18 And he moderats the afflictions in respect of the time and endurance Psal 125.3 The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity The Lord by the spirit of wisdom and power turns all their afflictions in end
after we have once received it this provokes God to leave us to our own managing of grace received and we being left to our selves do soon and easily miscarry in the exercise of grace Peter failed in the exercise and confession of faith after he had been very confident of his own strength Matth. 26.33 he denyed the Lord at the voice of a damsel 2. Excessive worldly fears make our saith greatly to abate in respect of the degrees of it at one time and another Mark 4.40 3. Ingratitude when we neglect or forget to praise God for his assistance and help in our former gracious actings and when we begin to sacrifice to our own dragg then it faireth with us in any new occasion of acting as with Samson after his strength had departed from him We imagine from former experience of Gods help notwithstanding our unthankfulness that we shall be able to act and exercise grace as in former times but we find in our sad experience that God to punish our ingratitude doth leave us to our own counsels and miscarryings in duties as he did leave Samson Judg. 16.20 4. Our inadvertance unto the first beginnings of a decay in grace makes us insensible untill the decay become visible to others and in end sensible to our selves as it was with Ephraim Hos 7.9 Gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth not till there was a visible change upon all the hairs of his head Quest 2. What shall be done for preveening a decay in the degrees of grace Ans 1. The exercise of the graces and gifts of the Spirit is a blessed mean to preveen such a decay this mean Paul did use Act 24.16 and all that are strong in the faith should do the same Heb. 5.14 Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil because sluggishness and carelesness to do spiritual duties when God gives occasion and opportunity doth make us more and more remiss till in end we are overcome with a spirit of slumber 2. Be not discouraged from setting about commanded duties because possibly at first thou finds not such vigor or quickness of spirit as is requisit it was strange and strong delusion in some in these latter times that they would not pray to God till first they should find an impulse of the Spirit for prayer but should not the precept of God commanding the duty be sufficient for moving us to endeavour after it Were it not a folly in a weak sick person that had little or no appetite to meat to resolve he would forbear to eat untill he should get sharpness of appetite such forbearing were the ready way to make him lose all appetite and in end his life but as eating little and little brings forward appetite so thy doing duty from conscience to Gods Commandments brings forward and increases thy desire to spiritual duties and in end procures thy delight in them Have not the children of God many times at the beginning of prayer been sad and heartless and yet before they have ended as the countenance of our blessed Lord was changed in prayer so their hearts and countenances have been changed to joy and cheerfulness as we see Ps 6. and Ps 13. by comparing the end of the Psalm with the beginning thereof Therefore though thou find not such an impulse and strong motion for the duty as thou would yet make conscience of obedience to the holy Commandment and go about duty trusting to him who hath promised to bless the diligent and when God besides the Commandment calls thee forth to duty by strong motions upon thy spirit neglect not the call of such invitations but let thine heart come forward to the duty lest otherwise thou provoke the Spirit of God both to withdraw those good motions and also his assistance which thou mightest have had for doing the duty if thou hadst embraced the opportunity Cant. 5.1 2 3. 3 Observe well the beginnings of a decay and fainting in duty and at first run by prayer to Christ for quickening thee to duty and for preventing a farther decay as Peter did when he began to sink notwithstanding he was in the way of duty he cryed to Christ and was helped Mat. 14.32 4. Whenever thou enters upon commanded duty pray for the assistance of the Spirit for without him we can do nothing Joh. 15.5 because an habit or stock of grace is not sufficient without the assistance of his Spirit impowering and enabling us to mannage the stock of received grace 1 Cor. 15.10 His grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me As it is not enough that the Ship be furnished with Tacklings and Sails unless there be a prosperous gale of wind upon the Sails there is no progress VERSE III. And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. SOme read it God shall make the Messias to be of a sweet smell to all who believe among whom he shall be preached in the Gospel according to that 2 Cor. 2.16 We are a savour of life unto life to those that are saved And so they take the words in a passive signification that Believers and the fearers of the Lord shall receive from him a sweet and pleasant sent of his excellencies and bounty through the Preaching of the Gospel Others whom we follow rather understand the words in an active signification to wit that God shall make him of a quick sentiment and sagacity of judgement to discern who fear God and serve him uprightly Thus our blessed Lord did discern Hypocrites and Pharisees notwithstanding all their fair outward pretences of gravity in their smooth speeches He did also discern a true Nathanael before he had seen him with his bodily eyes Joh. 1.48 Likewise he discerned the hypocrisie of many fair professors Mat. 22.18 John 2.24 By the fear of the Lord we understand all things that concern the service and worship of God as ordinarily in holy Scripture the fear of the Lord is taken if we compare Deut. 6.13 with Matth. 4.10 Observ 1. Spiritual discretion in the matters of God is from the Spirit of God for it is said he shall make him c. As the Lord Christ the King of Saints had that gift in a special and superexcellent manner from the Spirit of God so all his subjects in the Church have in some measure the gift of discerning truth and error good and evil from the same Spirit 1 Cor. 2.14 15. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual judgeth all things This is evident by induction 1. It is the Spirit of the Lord which openeth the understanding to perceive and discern heavenly truths Mat. 13.11 Mat. 16.17 Luk. 24.44 As it
is not enough that an object to be seen in a due distance be set before the eye unless the same be inabled to see it for blind men see not what is set before them so it is not enough that the object of faith be set before us in the Word unless the eye of our understanding be opened to perceive it 2. The Lord makes us by the inward illumination of the Spirit and by the light of his Word to discern and put a difference between temptations and duties as for example when it is born in upon the spirit of an unlettered and unqualified man in these our days to preach the Gospel a spiritual-discerning privat Christian looks upon it as a temptation from the Spirit of errour and not upon it as a duty because he knows and discerns by the Spirit of the Lord from the holy Word 1 Tim. 2. and Tit. 1.9 The Minister of the Gospel should be a man able to teach and to convince the gain-sayers 3. The Spirit of the Lord makes us to discern between sin and duty Abâ—shai through want of this gift of spiritual discerning thought it a duty incumbent on David to kill Saul because God in a providence by appearance had cast his enemy into his hand but holy David by the Spirit of God discerned it to be a sin if he should make such use of that opportunity and he looked upon it rather as an occasion to try his loyalty to King Saul and to stop the mouths of calumniators who spake of him as an enemy to the King 4. He makes us to discern the opportunities of speaking and doing things in due season it was the Lord that put it in the heart of Jacob to seek the blessing in time for soon after he went out from his father Isaac his brother Esau came in Gen. 27.30 It was the Lord who put it in the heart of Abigail both for her own and Davids good to meet David in the way before he came to the house of Nabal 1 Sam. 25.5 He makes us to discern our own spiritual estate that we are under the banner of his love and makes us by a reflex act to know the saving graces of the Spirit bestowed upon us 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God 5. He gives us the gift of wisdom and discerning matters civil and moral He gave sagacity unto David to smell out Joabs subtilty and to perceive his hand in suborning the woman of Tekoa 2 Sam. 14.19 He made Solomon in his sagacity to discern between the true and counterfeit mother by the affection of the one and the unnaturalness of the other Thus God put it in the heart of King James of blessed memory to smell out the Powder-plot and horrid treason Anno Dom. 1605. from a word in an unsubscribed Letter by one of the Conspirators to the Lord Mont-eagle desiring him to keep himself out of the Parliament-house on such a day whereon there would be a sudden clap or blast which the King by an act of special discerning given him of God did presage was to be by Powder and so after a narrow search the Plot was discovered and through Gods gracious providence and the Kings sagacity was disappointed 6. God gives the gift of skill unto men both in their publick and privat imployments as the spirit of Government to Rulers whether supreme or subordinat and also to men for their privat imployments Isa 28.26 Vse 1. This should humble us under the sense of our own silliness and want of knowledge of many things that we may and should know in respect of the many means given to instruct us in things that differ and also to humble us when we compare our knowledge with others who know much more than we though we have had the same or greater opportunities for learning Socrates upon a time shewing the universal Mapp of the World to that vocky young man Alcibiades said unto him Look there and see how little your parcel of ground is in like-manner the knowledge of any particular person is very little in comparison of that vast and universal knowledge men would have had if they had continued in that first estate of primitive integrity Vse 2. To convince many in this generation of petulant and luxuriant spirits or the wits as they are called who are of quick understanding in many curious and unnecessar speculations which the Apostle calls the Raveries of a sick and distempered mind 1 Tim. 6.4 and yet how slow and dull are they to discern and take up the necessar and fundamental truths of Religion Of such men we may speak in the words of Eliphaz Job 15.2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind How many are quick and sagacious in their worldly matters and no man is able to over-reach them but they have little or no understanding in the great bargain of Salvation to these I may say as our blessed Lord said to the Pharisees This ye should have done and not left the other undone Vse 3. As thou wouldst have the gift of spiritual discerning 1. Pray to the Father of lights to open the eyes of thine understanding Psal 119.18 Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law 2. Labour diligently to keep thine heart pure from carnal lusts which as gross vapours many times obscure the judgement that it cannot discern spiritual matters in the right colours but oftentimes the judgement is miscarried to a wrong sentence by a deceived heart The intemperat person discerns not the evil of intemperance nor the incontinent the evil of his unclean ways because these vile lusts do distemper their judgement The worldly-minded man discerns not the excellency of things heavenly because his heart is not purged from the love of the world and his surfeit of worldly cares obstructs the smelling and rellishing of things heavenly to his taste 3. Beware of curiosity in desiring to know things unnecessar or secret which God hath reserved to himself Deut. 29.29 for it is just with God when men misimploy the quickness of their natural understanding many times so to blunt their understanding in order to supernatural truths that they become more dull and incapable even than many others whom they despised as silly ignorants As the sharper the edge of the new polished Knife be if it be used to cut hard Metalls especially at first it becomes so blunt that it cannot cut such things as are soft and more easie to cut even by these who had not such a sharp edge as themselves seemed to have had Observ 2. Our blessed Lord is quick of understanding he has a piercing eye to discern the hearts of all his subjects Heb. 4.13 All things are naked in his eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as blemishes and bruises are
clearly seen upon the carcase after the skin is taken off Rev. 2.18 His eyes are like unto a flame of fire for pierceing and his feet are like brass for crushing his enemies Vse Therefore let us walk humbly and circumspectly in the fear of our Lord who observes our most secret counsels courses and wayes 1. Look to thy thoughts and purposes although men see them not yet the Lord is of quick understanding to perceive them and see through them Is 10.7 Luk. 24.39 2. He knoweth the secret frettings of the heart at his Word when at any time thou murmurest against the Word preached because contrair to thine opinion or interest Luk. 5.21 22. he knoweth the secret fretting of the heart against his holy Commands when they are contrair to flesh and blood and to our carnal desires Numb 14.27 he knoweth our frettings at the reproof of his Ministers Exod. 16.7 8. he seeth our frettings of heart at the prosperity of others Gen. 4.6 and our frettings against our own personal afflictions Jonah 4.9 3. He knoweth our secret speeches Ps 139.4 our secret reasonings of unbelief Mat. 16.8 our secret whisperings and backbitings to separate friends Ps 50.20 21. Mat. 9.11 4. He seeth our most secret actions Job 26.6 Ps 139.12 2 Sam. 12.12 Joh. 4.18 He knew Judas his secret bargaining with the Pharisees and said to him What thou doest do quickly Remember as now he knoweth so there is a day when he will judge the secrets of all hearts he will make many then to know what now they will not believe and lay to heart for their more humble and circumspect walking in time coming then shall the damned acknowledge their sins and their neglect of the day of their merciful visitation on earth which convincing light of conscience will not comfort them but confound them with shame and horrour Observ 3. Our blessed Lord improved and exercised his quickness of understanding not about the matters of this present world but especially in matters of Religion pertaining to his spiritual kingdom for it is said he shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. In the dayes of his Humiliation on earth he would not interpose as a Judge in civil debates Luk. 12.24 nor in criminal causes Joh. 8.10 because the condition of his Kingdom and Government is spiritual the Ordinances of his Kingdom are spiritual to wit Word Sacraments and Prayer the Benefits and Priviledges are spiritual Rom. 14.17 Righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost The duties are spiritual to wit repentance faith hope love and new obedience the end of the Administration is spiritual to wit to make a man wise unto salvation and the means whereby his Kingdom is enlarged are spiritual Zechar. 6.4 2 Cor. 10.4 Vse 1. The use of this Doctrine is specially to correct four errors which arise from the mistake of the nature of the Kingdom of Christ 1. The jealousies of the secular powers of this world as if the Kingdom of Christ within his Church were not consisting with their civil power Herod the King was troubled when he heard that the King of the Jews was born Mat. 2.3 But our blessed Lord shews them they need not be so jealous and fearful Joh. 18 36. My kingdom is not of this world It is in it but not of it but of men separate from the evil of the world Augustine Tractat. on John sayeth to the powers on earth Venite credendo nolite metuere saeviendo Come to Christ by believing and do not fear by raging against the Church He who giveth an heavenly Kingdom doth not by his Government in the Church take away mortal Kingdoms from them whatever has been the pride violence and usurpation of Church-men on the civil Government in divers Ages it was altogether from their own corruption and not from the nature of the Kingdom of Christ who clearly teacheth his subjects in his spiritual Kingdom to give unto Cesar that which is Cesars and to God that which is Gods Mat. 22.21 Our blessed Lord and King of Saints teacheth them not only subjection and subordination at all times to lawful Authority but also obedience to all their lawful commands Tit. 3.1 and forbids them to use their Christian liberty as a cloak of maliciousness against lawful Authority 1 Pet. 2.16 2. This Doctrine serveth to correct the incroachments of the spiritual Guides at any time upon the civil Authority as was that of Pope Gregory the 7th because Henry 4th the Emperor would not come to a synodical Answer for his investiture of Church-men in Ecclesiastical Dignities For this cause did the Pope excommunicate him absolve the Subjects from their Allegeance stirred them up to rebellion and in end gave the Imperial Crown to Rodolph Duke of Swabland Pope Alexander the third did insolently insult and trample upon the Emperor Fredericus Barbarossa and blasphemously to his wicked purpose abused that place of holy Scripture Ps 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon c. This is not to be quick and active in the fear of the Lord as our blessed Lord was but in the pride and violence of their own sinful courses How far is such insolent usurpation from the precept and practice of Christ and his Apostles and also from the humble subjection of the primitive Christians unto lawful powers How disadvantagious such pride and violence has proven unto the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ and propagation of the Christian Religion sad experience has made it evident both in former and latter Generations Such violent dealing has made many men become either open enemies to all true Religion or hypocrites and secret bitter enemies waiting for a time of revenge Devout Bernard his advice to Pope Eugenius 4th was Seing thou art appointed to be a planter in Christs Vineyard know that thou has need of the Dible and not of the Scepter If thou be content with Christs Legacy to wit Feed my sheep thou shalt not inherit glory and pomp but care and labour It serveth to curb the inconsiderat zeal of too many who would have this Kingdom to be propagat by force of armes they consider not that it is spiritual about Religion and the fear of the Lord and suitably to be enlarged by spiritual means and midses such as are especially the preaching of the Word Mat. 28.19 frequent and fervent prayer to God 2 Thes 3.1 a Gospel-like conversation 1 Pet. 2.12 1 Pet. 3.1 and patient suffering persecution for the truth without tumult or sedition Phil. 1.12 Phil. 1 29. Revel 13.10 Therefore it was a bold and arrogant speech of Nestorius unto Theodosius the younger Give thou to me O Emperor the earth purged from hereticks and I shall give unto thee heaven scatter thou the hereticks and I shall with thee scatter the Persians thy enemies These speeches became not a Church-man whose weapons are not carnal but spiritual our blessed Lord though he had power and might would not command fire
to destroy the Samaritans who refused to receive him into their City Luk. 9.55 56. 4. And it is of good use to correct the obstinat unbelief of the Jews who wait for a Messias in outward pomp and glory they mistake the nature of this Kingdom by misunderstanding such places of holy Scripture wherein the Spirit of God speaks of the inward beauty of his Kingdom in an allusion to the outward beauty of earthly Kingdoms Psal 45.3 But if they were not prejudged and obstinatâ— they might learn something of the nature of this Kingdom from Isa 53.2 and Zechar. 9.9 where the Prophets foretell that the Messias shall not come in outward pomp and glory Vse 2. The Spiritual Guides and Ministers of the Church in imitation of Christ the chief shepherd of our souls should go about the business of this spiritual Kingdom and therein especially exercise their quickness and activity this was most minded by the holy Apostles Act. 6.4 Col. 1.28 29. The sense of the burden of this great work made the Apostle Paul to cry out Who is sufficient for these things It was the Apostles counsel 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate on these things and give thy self wholly unto them Famous Gerson lib. de vit Spirit speaking to Church-men Tell me saith he whether it is a more holy thing to serve the world by thy self and to serve God by a Viccar and Substitute or to serve God by thy self and the world by a Substitute Pope Damasus compared the Ministers of the Church who to attend their worldly affairs did commit their flocks unto Substitutes or Suffragans he compared them I say unto some wanton women who having full breasts yet that they might give themselves to their pleasures did give out their Infants to be nursed by others VERSE III. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes c. IN the former part of the vers we have the manner of our blessed Lord his judging and governing his subjects with great wisdom and prudence In these words we have his equity and justice set down negatively vers 3. and positively vers 4. Whereas it is said here He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes it may be demanded if it be a fault for men to judge according to their seeing and hearing because men on earth cannot ordinarily understand any cause or action till first they have it in their sense and imagination Answ Certain it is that Judges should determine according to matters alleadged and proven and therefore must judge according to things heard or seen Deut. 1.16 17. The Priest under the Law was appointed to look with his eyes upon the leprous person before he judged and pronounced sentence whether he was clean or unclean But Judges would not be rash to judge according to fama clamosa the common report because in so doing men judged amiss of the Apostles themselves who were commonly but falsly reported to be seditious persons Acts 17.6 As also of their Doctrine calling it heresie Acts 24.14 Whereas a flagrant report is only a ground for inquiring but not for a judicial sentence Deut. 17.4 Neither must men in Judgement judge according to the seeing of their eyes as by looking to the person of the poor man to take no notice of his cause Deut. 1.17 nor should they judge partially out of respect to the man whom they see to be of outward grandour or prosperity in the world Lev. 19.15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honour the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour Our blessed Lord judged not of the Pharisees according to his hearing of their fair words nor according to their seeming holiness but he judged righteous judgement of them that they were a generation of vipers The words may be also taken for the way of judging that was peculiar to Christ wherein he excelled all the Judges of the earth in so far as he needed not the help of the outward senses of hearing and seeing because he did discern and judge the secrets of the heart Solomon in judging which of the two women was the true mother of the child made good use of hearing both the one and the other but our blessed Lord knoweth the hearts and thoughts of men though they speak nothing Joh. 2.24 yea he knew the wickedness of their hearts notwithstanding their flattering speeches of dissimulation Vse This equity of our Lord in Judgement serveth for our imitation both in publick and privat Judgement Men in publick Judgement should not upon hear-say and baâ—e information proceed to a sentence of absolution or condemnation but they should inquire diligently if the matter be so as is reported God himself doth teach Judges this duty by his manner of proceeding to judge Sodom Gen. 18.21 and by his precept Deut. 13.14 For if it were enough upon hear-say and common report to judge and condemn then innocent persons should suffer many times Jeremiah was reported to be a factious man who by his preaching did weaken the hands of the people and Paul to be a seditious man that stirred up the people neither should Judges be rash upon hearing only the one party to pronounce sentence against the other for if it be enough to accuse who shall be innocent Prov. 18.17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him Such rashness in judging was contrair to the Law of the Jews Deut. 1.17 Joh. 7.51 Job searched out the cause which he knew not Job 29.16 It was contrair to the Law of Nature and of Nations among the Heathens Alexander the Great in time of judging laid his hand closs upon the one of his ears that he might reserve it as he said for the party that was accused Neither should they judge according to the seeing of the eye as they perceive the party to be a friend or an enemy rich or poor a great or a mean man Levit. 19.15 Deut. 33.9 because the Judge who is a respecter of persons is easily byassed and perverted in judgement Prov. 28.21 The partial Judge saith Shew me the man and then I will shew you the Law but the impartial and unbyassed Judge saith I will shew you the Law be the man what he will It was Tertullian his complaint against the Judges of that time persecuting the Christians there is saith he inquisitio nominis sed non examinatio criminis an inquiry after the name if they be called Christians but no examination of the crime It was well spoken by the Heathen Judge Aristides fitting in Judgement when one of the Competitors pleading before him said This fellow hath also done great wrong to thy self in speaking evil of thee My friend said Aristides I pray thee tell me only the wrong he hath done unto thee for I am Judge here to do right unto thee and not to judge the personal wrongs done
For comfort to the poor who are despised and oppressed let them not be altogether discouraged nor despair of redress but let them quietly without tumult noise or sedition make their address and appeal to the supreme Judge and Lord who judges righteously Ps 10.14 The poor leaveth himself upon thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Thus did our blessed Lord 1 Pet. 2.23 not cry bitterly against the oppressor but cry quietly to God who will comfort the oppres'd and redress the wrongs done to them Job 35.9 10 14. Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him yet judgement is before him therefore trust thou in him Observ 2. God avenges the cause of the meek and humble in spirit for it is said here he shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth David was meek and silent when foul-mouthed Shimei railed against him and was confident God would do him good for his cursing and one time or other give to the insolent and insulting railer a sad reproof as the Lord did afterward by Solomon punishing him In like manner the people of Israel were silent at the blasphemous railing of Rabshekah and God gave a sad reproof both to him and his Master by that extraordinar and visible judgement upon that great Army Vse 1. For admonition to proud insolent brawlers not to injure and affront the meek and therefore insult over them as silly base-spirited men because they are quiet and do not render evil for evil although they are sensible of the wrong done to themselves yet they are sensible of their duty to God and his holy Commandment Rom. 12.19 Avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. And from sense of the wrong done they lay it forth in secret before the Lord who will reprove for them and speak by his judgements in their behalf as many times he has plagued the wicked who oppress the meek of the earth yea sometimes he punishes even the godly when they out of a fit of envy do wrong to the meek God gave a sad reproof by a visible judgement to Miriam when out of envy she spoke against meek Moses Numb 12. Vse 2. For admonition to these who are wronged and oppressed in any manner or measure let them study to be of a meek spirit and of a quiet deportment avenge not thy self by contumely or injury for if thou do so God will look on and suffer thee to be doing but in so doing thou wilt spoil and marr thy own cause not unlike to some poor ignorant Countrey-men who presuming to speak for themselves at the Bar of Justice do oft-times marr their own Cause But if thou be meek and patient God will stand up in his own good time he will plead thy cause and make thy just possession of thy good name and estate to out-live the unjust calumny oppression or violent intrusion of thine adversaries Ps 37.6 11. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noon day the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace Mat. 5.5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth VERSE IV. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked WE have heard of our Lords wisdom and sagacity for governing his subjects we have heard also here of his justice and equity now he speaketh of his power and faithfulness in governing In these words and he shall smite c. we have 1. a description and designation of the Word of God the rod of his mouth 2. The power of the Word preached and applyed he shall smite c. 3. The subject matter or object that he shall smite the earth 4. The sad judgement of God upon such as continue obstinat in their evil wayes he shall slay the wicked By the rod of his mouth is meant the Word of God inspired into the Prophets and Apostles by the Spirit of God as men do communicate their mind and thoughts one to another by the expression of the tongue So God in an extraordinary manner did communicate his mind and counsel by the inspiration of the holy Ghost 2 Tim 3.15 2 Pet. 1.19 Justine Martyr compares the inspiration of the Spirit unto a quill or pen descending from heaven and he compares the Prophets and Apostles unto a Sittern or Lute touched by it and sending forth the sound of heavenly Doctrine therefore what they spoke the mouth of the Lord is said to have spoken it Is 1.20 because the Spirit of God did direct them both in the matter and manner of expression Observ 1. The word of God is fitly called a Rod 1. in respect of its usefulness for describing and pointing forth to us our heavenly inheritance Jer. 51.19 Israel is called the rod of his inheritance men measured their earthly inheritance with a measuring rod or with a line or cord In like-manner the Word of God but more especially the Holy Gospel doth point forth to us our heavenly inheritance in and with Christ for which cause it is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4.23 2. The Word of God is compared to a rod for direction as a man by a rod in his hand points out the way wherein the passenger should walk So the word of God sheweth unto us in this time of our sojourning the way wherein we should walk toward our Countrey that is above to wit the way of repentance of faith in Christ and of new obedience Act. 3.19 Act. 16.31 Heb. 5.8 3. It is compared to a rod for correction as the shepherds rod serveth to smite the sheep when they go astray So the Word of God doth sharply convince the understanding and withall smites the heart with sorrow for erring and departing from the Lord Isa 58.1 2 Tim. 3.15 4. It is compared to a rod because it strengtheneth and comforteth the fainting spirit and weary heart as a weak or weary man leaneth upon his rod or staff the sweet promises of the Gospel are like unto the honey touched and applyed by Jonathans rod it did revive him and quicken him unto the pursuit of his enemies therefore it is called the rod of his strength Ps 110.2 The promises of the Gospel do minister comfort to Believers in their greatest extremities Ps 23.4 Ps 119.92 as the rods Gen. 30. laid before the sheep in the troughs or gutters made them to conceive with young So the promises of God laid forth in the Word before believers in their weak and feeble condition maketh them to conceive with comfort in the hid man of the heart Vse 1. For admonition not to despise the holy Word which is called here the rod of his mouth although it be spoken by weak men who carry this heavenly treasure in earthen vessels who would refuse precious gold though offered in a
pot of earth Ministers are the Lords Heraulds and the affront done to the Heraulds doth reflect upon the Prince who sent them David was highly provocked by the affront done to his Ambassadours 2 Sam. 10. And he punished it severely 2 Sam. 12.31 In like manner our blessed Lord taketh the contempt done to his Ministers as done unto himself Luk. 10.16 Vse 2. For exhortation to receive this sacred Word as the Word of God It is the rod of his mouth the whole Scripture is given by inspiration 2 Tim. 3.16 It is the Lanthorn which sheweth us the way to Heaven Psal 119.100 2 Pet. 1.19 It is the rule of our faith Joh. 20.31 and of our obedience and conversation Gal. 6.16 It worketh effectually only in these who with a single heart receive it as the Word of God 1 Thes 2.13 Observ 2. The Word of God is powerful He shall smite c. This is evident 1. From these things unto which it is compared as Jer. 23.29 to fire which so smiteth and pierceth the hard rock with heat that the same is rent in pieces and to an hammer which breaks the hard stone It is compared unto a sword Heb. 4.12 which opens up and discovers the heart like the Anatomists razor and sheweth the inward vileness of our hearts 2. It is evident from the high Elogies given to the Word it is called the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 12 8. and the reproof of wisdom doth come home to the heart and smite it soundly The wise reproof given by Nathan to David in a parable did smartly smite the heart of David The Word is called the power of God Rom. 1.16 not that any natural power is inherent in the letters or syllables of the words as may be seen Acts 19.15 but because God doth ordinarily with the power of the Holy Ghost accompany his own sacred Ordinance spoken in simplicity of words and in sincerity of affection unto the hearts of his Elect that so they are powerfully induced to believe the Word and tuâ—n unto the Lord Acts 11.21 3. It is evident from examples as in Josiah humbled at the heart by the reading of this word 2 Chron. 24 27. The convert-Jews were pricked at the heart by this word Acts 2.37 We have a memorable example of the power of the Word recorded by Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria an eye-witness of the same At the first Council of Nice saith he there came out of curiosity thither an Heathen Philosoph who was a subtile and acute Logician but a great adversary to the Christian Religion some of the learned Fathers there reasoned with him by way of School-disputes but he by one or other distinction did elude the force of their Arguments whereupon one of the most simple in that famous Council being a very pious though not a learned man came against him like David against Goliah and in great simplicity of words with much zeal saith to him O Philosopher in the Name of Jesus Christ hearken to these things that are truths there is one God who made Heaven and Earth who made man of the earth and breathed life into him who created all things visible and invisible by the power of his Word and upholds all things by the same this Word and Wisdom which we call the Son of God having pity on man in his lost condition was born of a Virgin and by his suffering of death hath delivered us from eternal death by his resurrection he applyes to us eternal life and we look for him to come and to judge us according to the things done in the body O Philosopher believest thou it to be so Then he without all contradiction as astonished with the power of the Word could only answer this that it was a truth indeed which he had spoken Thereafter the aged Father desired him to follow after himself and to receive Christian an Baptism the seal of his faith into that saving truth whereupon he immediatly followed and turning himself toward his Schollars that came along with him and to the other hearers said So long as men did deal with me by bare words only I did oppose words to words and by artifice of words I did elude what they spoke but when power came forth from the mouth of the speaker my naked words could not resist divine power neither could man withstand God and therefore saith he to his Schollars believe ye in Christ and together with me follow this aged man in and by whom God hath spoken to me at this time Ruffinus Hist Lib. 1. Cap. 13. relating this History saith It was from God for verifying that place of holy Scripture 1 Cor. 4.20 The kingdom of God is not in word but in power for when the Spirit of God is with the Word we see it can so smite the heart that it brings all our imaginations captive to it 2 Cor. 10.4 Quest How doth the Word of God smite the heart Ans 1. By light shewing and convincing the understanding of the errours and dangers of our sinful wayes for by the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom 7.7 And in the Word as in a mirrour the vileness of sin which is compared to things most vile as to the dross of mettal to the scum of a pot to putrified sores to leprosie to dung to swine wallowing in the mire and to a dog licking up his own vomit but the vileness of sin is most seen in the mirrour of the Gospel because nothing could cleanse us from the filth of sin but the precious bloud of the Son of God And the danger of sin is seen in consequents thereof to wit all misery in this life not only the first but also the second death and damnation eternal unless it be preveened by true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ Luke 13.5 Joh. 3.18 2. The heart is smitten after conviction by grief and sorrow Acts 2.37 The convert-Jews being convinced of the wickedness and hainousness of their sin by Peters Sermon were pricked in their hearts cried out from fear Men and brethren what shall we do And the afâ—â—gâ—ted Jaylour being afrighted from apprehension of the dangeâ— of his sins cried out Acts 16.30 Sirs What must I do to be saved In like manner Felix the Governour being convinced of his sins and afrighted with the apprehension of Judgement to come did tremble Acts 24.25 3. After the conscience is awakened with fear then the will is pained and confounded with shame and displeasure Jer. 31.18 19. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death Vse 1. For admonition unto men of an hard and stupid heart to resort often unto the hearing and reading of the Word of God for who can tell but God one time or another will smite the earthy and obdured heart and open it as he did the heart of Lydia Acts 14. Object 1. But many have heard the Word and yet their hearts
grace are more hardened by the Word of God through the fault of their own natural perverseness and corruption bending them the more against sins forbidden in the Word and Law of God Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence 2. If wicked men continue obstinat in their evil wayes they shall be destroyed in the great day according to the threatnings of the Word Ps 7.12 13. Ps 9.17 Rom. 2.16 Vse For admonition Therefore let us not be obstinat in any sinful course but obey in time that warning 2 Chron. 30.8 Be not stiff-necked but yield your selves unto the Lord and serve the Lord your God that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you Quest What call ye obstinacy in sin that I may know whether my sin be of infirmity or obstinacy Ans 1. The obstinat man is one who goeth on in his sinful course notwithstanding frequent reproofs of the Word of God spoken by the Ministers thereof and secret challenges from his own conscience such was the obstinacy of some Jews Jer. 44.16 17. As for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth c. The obstinat man being reproved speaketh or in heart resolveth that he will act the evil deed over again Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go Such obstinacy provokes God in his justice to give a man over unto himself Ps 81.13 and when God gives him over Satan finds such a man and drives him on in his sinful course as he did the swine into the lake of perdition 2. He is an obstinat man who notwithstanding God has met with him by some sad judgement in his evil way whereof he is convinced in conscience yet goes on in it as Balaam did toward Balak with whom in end he perished such an obstinat wicked man was Ahaz who in the time of his great distress did trespass yet more and more against the Lord 2 Chron. 28.22 This obstinacy is a fearful sin and presagious of a sad ensuing judgement Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy 3. When a man hardens himself against the frequent challenges and reproofs of his own conscience he provokes God to give him over unto a mind past feeling to commit sin with greediness Therefore despise thou not such warnings for if our heart condemn us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.20 It is meet for us under such challenges to say unto God as Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more VERSE V. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins IN these words is set down that great and necessary qualification required for right governing of people to wit righteousness and faithfulness this breeds and entertains great respect and confidence in the hearts of the Subjects toward their Governour The righteousness and faithfulness of Christ in governing his Church and people is evident especially in these four 1. His veracity and faithfulness in all his assertions for he is the faithful witness Rev. 1.5 and a faithful witness will not lye Prov. 14.5 2. His diligence in doing faithfully whatsoever was commanded him of God it is said Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful in all the house of God making all things according to the pattern shown in the mount In like manner our blessed Lord was diligent and faithful in doing all things for the good of his Church according to the eternal counsel and decree of the Father Joh. 17.26 And I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it 3. His carefulness in keeping all these who by saith and well-doing commit their souls to him Jacob was faithful and careful in keeping the sheep of Laban Our blessed Lord the great shepherd of our souls keepeth all his sheep who hear his voice and follow him by obedience Joh. 6.40 Joh. 10 27 28. 4. It comprehends also the righteousness and faithfulness in keeping and performing lawful promises Rahab was righteous and faithful in performing her promise made unto the spies our blessed Lord is righteous and faithful in performing all his promises in his own due time Heb. 10.23 1 Joh. 1 9. By the girdle of his loins and reins we understand 1. The delight which Christ hath in his faithfulness he looks upon his own faithfulness as a special point of his honour and glory as the golden and embroidered girdle was an ornament of Kings Job 12.18 2. His readiness and forwardness to perform all his promises as one girded and prepared for his journey therefore he is said to wait that he may be gracious Isa 30 18. and to stand at the door ready to enter in when it is opened Rev. 3.20 3. It signifieth the firmness and immutability of his promises his faithfulness cleaveth fast to him as a girdle to the loins or reins not like Ezekiel his girdle that by time was marred and spoiled but all the promises in Christ are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Conclus 1. Seing our blessed Lord is righteous and faithful in all his assertions though some of them may seem strange and incredible to sense and humane reason not yet purified and elevated by the light of saith it is our duty to captivat sense and humane reason unto all his assertions 2 Cor. 10.4 5 as to believe the unity of his essence with the Father because he who is the faithful witness hath asserted it Joh. 10.31 I and my Father are one To believe his eternal existence before all time even his personal pre-existence with the Father before his coming forth in his Incarnation and assuming of the Humane Nature because he himself who is the truth hath asserted it Pro. 8.30 I was by him as one brought up with him He was co-eternal with the Father and yet in the fulness of time came forth from the Father into this inferiour world to take on him the vail of flesh and thereby consecrat an entry for us into the most holy place Joh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world Heb. 10.19 20. It is our duty to believe his individual operation with the Father in the works of Creation and Providence not as a cause social with the Father but as one prime cause with him because he himself who is righteous and faithful hath asserted it Joh. 5.17 19 20. My Father worketh hitherto and I work c. To believe the resurrection of the dead upon his own testimony full of veracity Joh. 5.28 The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth But we are not too curiously to enquire about the
his own good time can easily recompense all our temporal losses even in this world if it seem good in his eyes Is 61.7 For your shame you shall have double and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion therefore in their land they shall possess the double But certainly in that day of restoring all things all losses shall be recompenced though not in specie yet in value exceeding them very far therefore reckon with thy self that all the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 Object 4. The faithful Lord hath promised to deliver out of temptation 1 Cor. 10.13 yet I am daily infested with sinful thoughts and sometime brought into bondage with my own consent Ans Yet it is the better that such thoughts are a grief to thy spirit as Hagar was to Sarah be of good courage the Lord in his own good time will cast out the bond-woman and her child even thy in-dwelling corruption and all the off-spring of it reverence the wisdom of God in suffering thy soul to be molested with these incursions and bickerings of that impure spirit he permits it that the grace of humility and prayer mâ—y be the more exercised by thee all the Canaanites were not driven out of the land of Canaan by the wise providence of God permitting and ordering it for good that the wilde beasts should not multiply in the land So the Lord in his wisdom permits the in-dwelling and stirrings of corruption within thy soul to preveen the encrease of pride and to keep thee humble and watchful and to stir thee up unto daily prayer for encrease of strength in the inner man Therefore give it not over but resist daily trusting to that promise Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Thou art engaged into a good cause to fight against thy lusts although through the wiles of Satan at a time thou mayest be brought into bondage yet despair not of victory in end mourn as Peter did after his denyal in the high Priests Hall and if thou mournest bitterly for thy bondage it is not altogether voluntary when thou mourns for it there is some resistance to it from grace in thy will and he that gives grace to resist shall give victory in end Rom. 7.24 25. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The father of the possessed child brought his son who had been infested and molested from his childhood and when the child was a-coming to Christ the unclean spirit did vex him and rent him but he went forward to our blessed Lord who charged that soul spirit to come out of him and enter no more into him Mark 9.17 c. So it may be thou art never more infested than when thou hast a resolution to go to Christ and walk after his Commandments yet rise up by repentance and resolution of new obedience who knows but thy mighty Lord will rebuke that unclean motion and say as he did to that unclean spirit I charge thee to come out of him and enter no more into him Object 5. But in the mean time my soul faints within me under great afflictions and desertions because there is neither appearance of comfort nor out-gate Answ As faithfulness cleaveth to his loins as a girdle so let faith in thine heart cleave to him and his promises for as the lungs like bellows do cool and refresh the heart that it faint not through much heat and labour so faith breathing the faithful and gracious promises of God into the fainting soul doth revive the same Psal 27.14 Psal 42.5 Psal 119.81 When the Mariners in the Ship with Paul Acts 27. saw no light outward for directing their course they did cast out their Anchors and waited for the day so when thou who fears the Lord walkest in darkness and hath no light trust in the Name of thy faithful Lord and stay thy self upon thy God Isai 50.10 Remember for thy encouragement thy blessed Lord is faithful and compassionat Mat. 15.32 he had pity on the multitude who had continued with him three days without any bodily refreshment and would not send them away fasting lest they should faint in the way much more thy Lord full of compassion will not suffer a poor humble soul that hath been waiting on him by sincere obedience and for him by a lively hope purifying the heart and thirsting more and more for righteousness to depart out of this life without some refreshment in the inner man but as he did to that old expectant Simeon Luk. 2. he will give him Christ his Saviour into the arms of his faith that he may depart in peace in the hope of salvation VERSE VI. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them FRom this vers to the 10. is set down the great and admirable effects of Christs powerful government by his Spirit and Word to wit a strange change and metamorphosis of persons who before the light of the glorious Gospel did shine in their hearts were of a sensual and brutish disposition and of a wild and savage conversation who were rebellious against God and had an antipathy one against another who were like Wolves in oppression like Leopards and young Lions in fierceness like the Asp and Cockatrice in bitterness of spirit and venomousness in conversation but these after their conversion by the light of the Gospel shall live in obedience and peace with God and in concord with others who before them were in a state of grace The wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion c. that is they shall be so daunted by the power of grace with the Gospel that they shall live in a sweet communion and fellowship with these who were in Christ before them and also with these who sometimes were also bitter and malicious enemies to the godly even such as had been like Asps and Cockatrices shall be converted and made partakers of the meek and lowly Spirit of Christ The cause of all this change will be the light of the glorious Gospel as it is said in the end of vers 9. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea As at the Sun-rising the wild beasts do return to their dens and caves so the light of the Gospel in such as are effectually called according to the eternal purpose of God will make their wild and beastly affections to hide themselves for shame and they shall have no pleasure in the unfruitful works of darkness and they shall cast away all their idol-lusts Isai 31.6 7. Hos 14.8 Observ
in our blessed Lord his time did contract dust and fuilÈie and their feet had need of daily washing so our affections are not so closly united to God but many times they are open and enlarged toward the world which defiles the heart and puts even men converted unto a daily necessity of repentance and cleansing from all uncleanness of the flesh and the spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 But in Heaven there will be perfect purity of heart like Angels not a wandering motion there we will be far above the world which defiles the heart and far above the vain shadows of this present world which now and then interveening draws our eye and heart off God but at our change into glory nothing can or will interveen between God and us our minds and our hearts then will be wholly and unchangeably set upon him 4. Though now after conversion there may be some calmness in the conscience yet it continues not alwayes alike some of the godly do say as Job 7.4 I am full of tossing to and fro as David Ps 42.7 All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me and as Hezekiah Is 38.13 As a lyon so will he break all my bones c. But at our last change to glory in heaven there will be a perfect and an everlasting calm like that of men tossed at Sea when they come within a safe Harbour for the salvation of God will be a perpetual bullwark unto them 5. The body of the godly in this life is subject many times as a drudge unto a corrupt and imperious will but at our last change as the will of the godly will be wholly and sweetly subordinat unto the will of God so in the day of resurrection the body with all its members shall be a Temple filled with the Holy Ghost then there shall not be a wrong look in the eye nor an impertinent word in the tongue nor a wrong step in all the course of our bodily motion and conversation the body now is weak and sickly but then it will be ever healthful and strong now it is weary and subject to fainting but then it will be agile as Augustine speaketh it will be in an instant of time wheresoever the spirit shall desire to be then shall our bodies and tabernacles of clay be conform to the pattern shown in the mount when our blessed Lord was transfigured Philip 3.20 Vse 1. For conviction of many who think they are in a state of grace when in the mean time they are carryed away with sense and masterful passions like brute-beasts toward the fulfilling of their sinful lusts some are like Lyons in fierceness some like Bears in their inconsiderat wrath some like evening Wolves in their cruel covetousness some like the Asps in the venom of their tongues and others like the Crocodiles in dissembling their cruelty with false shews of pity that the more easily they may destroy the simple ones but such men would consider in time how far they are from being of the meek Spirit of Jesus Christ now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Vse 2. For exhortation to all such who are yet the old men like Moab not changed from their Lees consider 1. in Gods accompt ye are compared to Beasts before this happy change spoken of here be wrought in you and as it is truly said it is better to be a beast than truly compared to a beast 2. Ye can have no evidence that ye are in Christ but from this change If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and if any man be not a new creature he is not yet actually in Christ and it is not possible to be with him in glory after this life except ye be in him first as new creatures in this life for as there is no condemnation to them that are in him so there is no salvation to them that are not in him who is the Saviour only of his mystical body Eph. 5.23 3. If there be no change from thy state of corrupt nature death in its approach will be terrible like a Serjeant at Armes to apprehend a rebel in his act of rebellion and straightwayes to hale him before the Kings Bench Psal 7.12 13. 4. There is no coming to heaven without this change as lepers under the Law were not admitted into the assemblies of the people of God before they were cleansed from their leprosie So there will not be admission into the assembly of the first-born in heaven untill you be cleansed from your sins and all your presumptuous thoughts of salvation without cleansing the heart and conversation are but vain imaginations and groundless phantasies Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Vse 3. For confort to all such in whom God by his Word and Spirit has wrought a real change from their former vain and sinful conversation be of good comfort he who has begun the good work of grace in thy soul will finish it untill the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 he is the wise builder and will perfect his work of free grace begun in thee in this life though thy knowledge of God and of thy happiness in him be but in part yet in the other life it will be full like the light of the Sun at noon-day 1 Cor. 13.12 Now thy knowledge is mediat as through a lattesse then shall it be immediat and intuitive 1 Joh. 3.2 we shall see him as he is In this state of grace our will is not only mutable by nature but also of a mutable condition even after we are in a state of grace and has a proneness and liberty unto evil but in heaven our will shall be of an immutable condition fixed alwayes upon God and subordinat unto his will necessarily yet most freely without all force and co-action for then it will be our meat and drink to do the will of our heavenly Father then there will be perfect purity in the affections we shall be presented to the Father altogether faultless Jude Epist 24. then shall there be full joy and everlasting delight in God himself the supreme good There will be an everlasting calm in the conscience not so much as an air of temptation or whisper of any inordinat motion and all the members of the body will be weapons of righteousness like vessels in the temple above wholly consecrat to God Therefore let the children of God in all the outward changes they see in this unconstant world and in some inward changes they feel now and then in themselves in respect of their spiritual condition yet hold fast their confidence in God and rejoyce in the hope of that unchangeable condition that abides them in heaven Quest Some will say I have a purpose to change and have some wishes for it as a thing necessar in this life before
I can be changed into that state of glory in that other life but seing this change is not ordinarily upon a sudden as was that of Paul what shall I do as previous in order to such a change Ans 1. Thou would be first from the threatnings of the Law convinced of thy extreme danger if thou be not changed from thy former evil wayes Psal 7.11 12 13. and thou must believe the faithful promises of such benefits as will attend thy change to wit peace of conscience in this life Psal 119.165 Gal. 6.16 and eternal happiness in the life to come Ezek. 18.21 Rom. 8.13 2. Thou wouldest observe according to the threatnings of God his sad judgements accordingly falling upon some sinners that were obstinat and would not change from their former evil wayes some drunkards have been taken away suddenly others cloathed with rags and made visible documents of the revenging justice of God against excess and riot Likewayes some unclean persons have been seen pyning away in vile diseases and others of them brought to a morsel of bread through the whoorish woman Thou who art a drunkard or harlot observe this and change thy way lest a worse thing befall thee who has the advantage of such a severe warning from others it was said to Belshazzar Dan. 5.22 And thou his son O Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this 3. Observe also some changes in thine own outward condition It may be thou hath met with some sad dispensations from providence when thou was running in the excess of riot which were like the Angels opposition unto Balaam in his way to Balaak make good use of such sad occurences before wrath be poured forth upon thee in the great day even to the uttermost and harden not thine heart against such warnings Job 9.4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and prospered If God at any time has changed thine adversity into prosperity observe it and let the riches of his bounty lead thee to Repentance and to a change from thy former evil wayes and say as Ezra 9.13 14. Seing that thou our God hath punished us less then our iniquities deserve and hath given us such deliverance as this should we again break thy commandments 4. Be thou resolute against all the impediments of a future change especially against the bitter mockings of such as sometimes were thy prosane companions in iniquity who will speak all manner of evil against thee after thy change because thou wilt not run with them to the same excess of riot 1 Pet. 4.4 they will possibly call thee a vile hypocrite but labour thou to be of a sound and honest heart in all manner of conversation exercising thy self as Paul did Act. 24.16 to keep a good Conscience void of offence both toward God and man in all things willing to live honestly Heb 13.18 then shalt thou not need to be ashamed of thy fair profession Ps 119.80 let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed 5. Be thou also resolute against the counsels of the evil men who would pervert the right ways of the Lord and draw away thine heart from entring into them as Elimas the sorcerer would have drawen away Sergius Paulus the Deputy from the way of the Christian Faith Act. 13.10 but resist thou such evil suggestions at the very first as our blessed Lord did the counsel of Peter Mat. 16.23 6. Be thou resolute against discouragements suggested by worldly men to hinder thee from the way of Godliness and going forward into that heavenly Canaan as the unfaithful spies did discourage the Israelits from going to that earthly Canaan Num. 13.32 They alledge the way of Godliness is a melancholious and comfortless course of life whereas on the contrary true joy and mirth comes to the soul after our change and conversion Luk. 15.32 It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found The Eunuch after his conversion to the Christian Faith went on his way rejoycing Act. 8.39 7. In order to thy future change thou must believe that infallible proposition If we change from our former evil ways God will turn from his wrath and pardon the iniquity of our former evil wayes Isa 55.6 7. Jer. 18.7 for a man will not change his way unless he think to be the better and happier by the change 8. Lastly thou must be frequent in prayer to God that he would produce this happy change in thee for though a man by a general concourse of divine help may do some Acts previous to the special change and conversion from the state of Nature into Grace yet can he not without the concourse and strong influence of the special help of supernatural Grace change himself from the state of nature into the state of grace Jer. 13 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Although some previous dispositions be ordinarly antecedent in order of time yet are they not the causes of our change and conversion which is wrought and brought forth by the invincible grace of God changing and inclining our will to the obedience of his holy will Jer. 17.14 Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me and I shall be saved August citing this place saith well In vain do vain men say I will heal my self no saith he let us say heal me O Lord and I shall behealed Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned He preveens us by his grace and makes us willing and thereafter followeth us also with his grace lest we should will in vain Observ 3. A true and real change from the state of corrupt Nature unto a state of Grace is visible and evident in these four effects held forth in the text 1. A communion and fellowship with the godly already converted They shall dwell with the Lamb c. 2. A chearful submission to the Word of God though preached by weak men A little child shall lead them 3. Honesty and righteousness in their purchase and contentment with their own portion The Lyon shall eat straw like the Ox. 4. Peaceable-mindedness and a meek conversation They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain 1. Evidence Sincere and real Converts will delight themselves most in the society of the godly because they are forbidden to have any intimat fellowship with the ungodly 1 Cor. 5.11 If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one no not to eat 2 Thes 3.14 If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed It was the care of the Saints on earth to shun
to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ We must not consult with sense and humane reason nor with flesh and blood in difficult duties commanded by God but follow the example of Abraham Rom. 4.19 20. and of Paul Gal. 1 16. Neither must we consult with humane reason and Philosophy as our dictator in the great mysteries of the Christian Faith such as are the individual unity of the divine essence in the three blessed Persons the eternal generation of the Son the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and from the Son the personal union of the divine and humane nature of Christ and the resurrection of the body in the great day It is ground enough for us to believe the truth and reality of these great and deep Mysteries that God who cannot lie hath revealed them in the holy Word but we must be sober in our enquiry of the manner and although we cannot by humane reasoning attain to the natural knowledge and science of these divine truths and although through our infirmity and ignorance we imagine them to be contrary to Natural and Philosophical verity yet after better consideration we conclude that Supernatural verities are not contrary to Natural truths because God the prime verity is the Author of all real verity and he cannot contradict himself only by the light of divine revelation and the inward light of Faith we perceive and take up these sublime divine mysteries which we cannot discern by the light of Natural reason though never so refined as the light of the stars and the light of the Sun are from God the Creator and the light of the Sun is not contrary to the light of the Stars for both of them are lightsome bodies yet we see many things by the light of the Sun to which our eye cannot reach by the light of the stars Therefore let us submit our faith to divine revelation in the Word and not oppose the barkings of humane reasonings against revealed truths It may be well said to these men who Idolize humane reason and Philosophy which Tertullian said of the Hereticks in his time in his book of the resurrection of the flesh Chap. 3. Take from them these things of humane Wisdom wherein they agree with the Heathens that so they may determine their questions from the Scriptures alone and they cannot stand in the debate It may be justly said to them which Augustine said to the Manichees Lib. 17. against Faust Chap. 3. Your tergiversation and prevarication is every way confounded say plainly that ye believe not the Gospel for when ye believe in the Gospel what ye have a will to and ye believe not what ye will ye believe rather your selves then the Gospel But although humane reason cannot conceive the truth of these great mysteries yet it is our duty without all contradiction to believe the holy Scriptures and by a pious and modest silencing of all humane reasoning to submit by faith to the Word of God The more silent humane reason is in these great mysteries the obedience of faith is the more conspicuous and it well becomes humane reason that is an hand-maid to Divinity to be silent when her Mistriss speaketh Augustine frequently in his disputes with the Pelagians who did too much extol the strength of humane reason doth repeat this saying credam ut intelligam Let me once believe it is spoken by God then shall I understand it to be a truth evident in respect of divine testimony though I see no evidence in the things themselves Bernard Epist 190. What is more against reason than to endeavour by thy low and silly humane reason to transcend and surmount supreme reason to wit the testimony of God himself who is the prime verity 4. As thou would be led by the Ministry of the Word come to the reading and hearing of it with an honest heart that is with a serious and sincere purpose to obey the counsel and direction of it though it should cross thy opinion design humour or interest Luke 8.15 Thou must not come as these proud men Jer. 42 who pretended a purpose to obey but when the answer given by the Prophet was not according to their desire and design they in their pride disobeyed it but come with that disposition and earnest wish that David had Psal 119.5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes then mayest thou be confident it shall be well with thee both in this and in the other life Psal 73.24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Likewise whosoever submits sincerely to the Word of the Lord will have a due respect unto his Ministers and Messengers 1 Thes 5.13 For when the message is commended unto the conscience of the hearers it makes room also in the heart for receiving the Messenger for his Master's and the works sake Rebekah was very civil and courteous toward Abraham's servant who came to suit her in marriage to his Master's Son Gen. 24. and shall not believers be kindly affectioned toward the Ministers of the Gospel who are friends to the Bridegroom Jesus Christ and do suit them in marriage unto him 2 Cor. 11.2 I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ Evid 3. The third evidence of a true change and conversion to God in the days of the Gospel is set down in these words vers 7. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox that is the man who before his conversion lived like a fierce lion upon violence and rapine who made no conscience what way he purchased his livelihood after his conversion shall forsake his unlawful way of purchase and thereafter shall live on the fruits of his own lawful labours as also he shall be well satisfied and content therewith as his allowance from God even as the Ox eateth straw and provender the fruit of his labours and is well satisfied and in his own manner content therewith From this evidence of true conversion we infer clearly these two conclusions 1. Men truly converted will forsake their former evil ways of purchase by fraud or oppression and will make conscience of the way of their purchase in time coming 2. They will study contentment in their lawful purchase whether it be great or small Conclus 1. As a true Convert will forsake in his purpose and endeavour every former evil way because he knoweth mercy from God is promised only to such Prov 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Isai 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon So the man that hath been an oppressour or fraudulent in
worthy godly men Joseph and Daniel did not reject the great favours offered and conferred on them by heathen Princes Quest 2. May a true convert be displeased with â—ad afflictions lying on him for the present and if he may How can he be said to be content with his present condition with which he is displeased Answ He may be displeased with affliction as a thing bitter and hurtful to his natural condition and yet be content with it as it is an act of his heavenly Father's will the sick patient is displeased and hath no contentment in the potion of Medicine being considered simply yet is he well pleased and content with it as being prescribed by the skilful Physician in order to his better health Although impatient desires to be delivered out of adversity are inconsistent with Christian contentment under it yet humble desires of a delivery with submission to the good will of God do well consist with it as we see in our blessed Lord. Luk. 22.42 He said Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done but we may not use any unlawful means for our own delivery out of affliction as wicked Ahaziah did 2 King 1. yea far rather we should say with Job shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Quest 3. Is it a sin not to rest content with the measure of knowledge and grace bestowed by God upon us already and may we not desire to have more of knowledge and grace than we have for the present Answ 1. It is a sin if our discontentment with our small measure of knowledge and grace or our desire to have more proceed from the bitter root of vain glory or envy to the end we may have praise with men as we see others of more eminent gifts have thus Simon Magus desired the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost 2. As the children of God do not desire increase of gifts and graces from any fretting discontentment at what they want but rather from an humble desire to have more of spiritual gifts that thereby they may glorifie God the more and edifie others So they humbly submit the measure of these gifts and graces unto the wisdom and will of God they are thankful for the little they have already received and praise his free grace with Paul 1 Cor. 15.10 by the grace of God I am what I am and withall they reach forth unto these things which are before Phil. 3.13 2. The chief ground of true contentment is the favour of God Psal 4.6 7. Psal 30 5. Psal 63.3 Hab. 3.17 18. And that the favour of God is a soul-satisfying portion is evident from these reasons 1. That which satisfies the soul of man must be a good universal to give contentment unto all the faculties of the soul pleasant sounds delight the ear but not the eye and pleasant colours delight the eye but not the ear but a soul receiving God and his favour hath an universal satsifaction to wit of light to the mind of love to the will and of delight and joy to the affections they have as much of the enjoyment of God as they are capable of in this life and would have more if they were more capable 2. The soul-satisfying good must be such as is intimat to the soul worldly and sensual objects stick for the most part in the sense and imagination but do not affect the reason with any solid contentment they are as Saul's armour unto David loose and shuffling but the sense of Gods loving kindness is united to the understanding and ravishes the heart with joy so that ouâ— of the abundance of the heart they say as Psal 103.1 My soul and all that is within me or that is in the midst of me bless his holy Name 3. The soul-satisfying good must be that which is the supreme good because any inferiour good cannot fully satisfie the desire so long as the soul knoweth of one superiour and better as Moses was not satisfied with what he saw on this side of Jordan until he was at the top of Pisgah so there is not a full and compleat satisfaction unto the soul till we come to mount Sion that is above our greatest satisfaction in this life is to enjoy God by faith by love by peace in the Conscience and joy in the heart which are the first fruits of eternal life 4. The soul-satisfying good must be permanent because the very apprehension of a change doth interrupt our present contentment as may be seen in the intervals of chronical diseases the fear of returning fits disquiets the heart even in time of health all worldly objects are like a summer flood passing away Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever and doth the Crown endure to every generation But the gracious presence of God is like unto the Sun shining more and more unto the perfect day of our full happiness in heaven Psal 89.33 My loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Jer. 32.40 I will not turn away from them to do them good Joh. 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life John 13.1 he loved them unto the end 3. The means to attain unto true contentment are 1. Withdraw thy heart from seeking oâ— placing thy contentment in the things of this present world because worldly pleasures are deceitful riches are uncertain and worldly honour doth evanish like smoke for worldly glory shall not descend after a man into the grave Psal 49.17 2. Make God and his favour your portion then whatsoever be your present condition or portion in this world ye shall have inward contentment because God himself is a full unchangeable and everlasting portion Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him that is depend on him alone for satisfaction Psal 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and portion for ever In all thy wants or losses worldly thou mayest and shouldest rest content in him who is thy alsufficient portion Hab. 3.17 18. Although the fig tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation As a man who hath lost a small portion put to adventure at Sea doth yet rest content and rejoyceth in the stock he hath abiding sure at land 3. Be moderat in your worldly desires of things worldly Prov. 30.8 feed me with food convenient Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation be without covetousness c. Nature is content with little Job 6.5 Doth the ox low over his fodder And grace is content with less even in tribulations and worldly wants it can rejoyce in God alone Rom. 5.3 We
together it groweth up in sanctification and becometh an holy Temple to the Lord wherein he delights to dwell but division and discord in the Church is both unpleasant and unprofitable Contention and division amongst the rowers in the ship and vain presumption in the passengers to take the oars into their own hands greatly hinders the progress of the Ship in her way What is the cause the Gospel was spred so far in the Apostl's time in one age only their sound went through all the world Rom. 10.18 and the Christian Church was wonderfully enlarged The reason is they were then of one mind and heart and the spiritual Guides had nothing so much before their eyes as the glory of God that he might be known in his rich mercy and grace and in the conversion of sinners that they may be saved they sought not themselves nor their own glory and pomp in the world but the glory of Christ their Lord and Master they were of one heart and rowed one to anothers hand they did not strive one against another in a bitter emulation but did strive together one with another in a godly emulation for furthering the Gospel It is true even in the Apostles times there was division in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 1.12 but Paul and Cephas were no ways the the Authors or Abettors of these divisions they did not foment them by their own contentions or by bitter emulation and popular ambition Paul sharply reproved it 1 Cor. 1.13 and condemned it as a course not of spiritual but rather of meer natural and carnal men 1 Cor. 3.4 5. And Peter requires them 1 Pet. 2.1 2. to lay aside all prejudice and to drink-in the sincere milk of the Word like new born babes who look more to the breast than to the face of the Nurse Division and discord in a Church hath many times proven as St. Jerom observed in the Donatists the occasion of errour and pernicious heresie which eats like a canker when the stones are divided one from another in the building then the rain getteth place and though not perceived at first yet in end undermyneth the wall consumeth the timber and in end bringeth ruine a small lake in the ship at first through the joyntours of the boords if not timously and carefully stopped doth drown the ship and also the passengers Division in Churches one from another doth entertain heresie and the Authors thereof What was the cause that great Heretick Marcion whom Tertullian calleth murem ponticum the rat that did rent and consume the Church of Pontus was received and kindly entertained in the Church of Rome after he had been excommunicate by his own father The cause thereof was that division between the Roman and African Church for Rome would have appeales to be made unto them from beyond the Sea this was the cause the Hereticks fleeing from the Eastern Church got shelter in the Western that by so doing they might maintain their pretended priviledge to revise and recognosce all causes Ecelesiastical What was the cause those who fled from the Western Church were countenanced and welcomed in the Eastern Was it not their division from the Western Church and their bitter emulation that thereby they might maintain their emulation of supremacy which ambition both in the Western and Eastern Churches proceeded from the pride of some chief Church Rulers both in the one and other Church In the Eastern Church It is true some godly and learned men have given and sometimes do give connivance to errour and heresie not out of any evil intention but out of their excess of moderation and charitable inclination being deceived by the insinuations of subtile Hereticks and Shismaticks but such connivance proved oft-times very unprofitable yea exceeding harmful unto the Christian Church because those dissembling Hereticks who seemed at first to be officious followers and flatterers of those good men afterward when these godly men that did tolerate them were gathered to their Fathers these deceivers began openly to vent and violently to press upon others their opinions as doctrins and matters of Faith which formerly they had desired to be in charity tolerated as privat opinions therefore we would beware of the beginnings of division Schism and all bitter emulation for if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 Let us remember and consider for our up-stirring to live in peace and concord one with another 1. Our God is called the God of peace our Redeemer the Prince of peace the Holy Ghost the Spirit of peace and of spiritual Communion and the more peaceable we are we become the liker to our heavenly Father to our elder Brother and to the Holy Ghost the Comforter 2. We are all members of one mystical body How unnatural a thing is it for one member of the same body to bear another Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim it is called an eating of their own arm Is 9.20 Such contention and division is like two sandy-stones grateing one upon the other till they be crumbled into nothing this fury and madness is a great grief of heart to the godly and sober-minded and a matter of rejoicing to the common adversaries of the truth thereby they think to spoil us of the truth and they cry out as Moab did against Israel 2 King 3.23 They have smitten one another now therefore Moab to the spoil 3. Consider often and seriously peaceable mindedness is an individual companion of true Religion Jam. 3.17 The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated Let us labour for christian moderation in our Opinions and Disputes and decline extremities Basil the great said truly that divers men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through an immoderat desire of opposing and counterpoising the opinoins and assertions of others are oft-times drawn away from the golden midst and afterward cannot retire although possibly they would for fear to offend their party whose opinion they have once espoused Let us beware of that too simple credulity to tatlers and whisperers who make it their business to separate chief friends but as Solomon saith Prov. 25.23 The north wind driveth away rain so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue And above all let us pray to God for much of the Spirit of Christ for he was of a meek and lowly Spirit that he would build the walls of Jerusalem and that peace may be within her walls and prosperity within her palaces Ps 51.18 Ps 122.6 7. VERSE IX For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea IN these words is set down the instrumental cause and ordinar mean of this great conversion and change in their disposition and conversation to wit the abounding and large knowledge they shall have by the preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ whereby life and immortality shall
be brought to light and they shall know there is no name under heaven whereby they can be saved but the Name of Jesus Act. 4.12 Quest It may be asked at what time was this prophesie fulfilled For answer Consider the Gospel or Doctrine of the glad tidings of salvation in Christ was a mystery hid from the Gentiles and other heavenly Truths and Ordinances were communicat only to the Jews Ps 147.19 20. Rom. 3.2 There was not a Church among the Gentiles before the time our blessed Lord gave commission to preach unto them Mat. 28.19 It is true there were some proselytes at diverse times before the birth of our Lord in time of the Patriarchs was Melchizedeck though some think he was Shem and Job in Moses his time was Jethro in Joshua his time Rachab in the time of the Judges Ruth in the time of David Ittai the Gittit in Solomons time Hiram and in Jeremiahs time Ebedmelech these were but the first fruits of the Gentiles and drops in comparison of that great flood of Converts foretold Is 2.2 It shall come to pass in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it After the birth of our blessed Lord and his sending forth the Apostles to teach all Nations the knowledge of the Gospel did abound in many parts of the world as the sea abounds with waters it was foretold by our blessed Lord that this prophesie should be fulfilled in a great part even before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Mat. 24.14 and it was fulfilled Rom. 10.18 Their sound went unto all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Col. 1.23 which was preached to every creature which is under heaven for the Gospel was preached by the Apostles even to the greater part of the habitable world so far as it was known at that time according to that ample Commission given by our Lord to his Disciples Mat. 28 19 20. Therefore faith Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 22.8 Whosoever he be that requires miracles at this time he himself is a great wonder and prodigy who believeth not when all the world believeth the Gospel But before the end of the world these Nations which sometimes were Christian and are now overspread with Turcism and Mahometism as at this day Assyria and Egypt and many Nations living at this day in Paganism shall be converted to the Christian Faith and the Gospel shall be preached unto many Nations which were not known in the dayes of the Apostles as it is at this day both in the Eastern and Western India Observ The preaching hearing and knowledge of the Gospel is the ordinary mean of conversion and of a Gospel-like conversation 2 Cor. 4.6 God hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Thess 2.14 God hath called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ This is evident from instances of divers persons converted to the Faith of Jesus Christ and to the way of Sanctification by the preaching of the Gospel Act. 2.37.47 Act. 16.14.33.31 It is also evident from the denominations the Gospel getteth as 1. The word of grace Act. 20.33 Not only because it is sent to a Nation or People out of Gods free-grace Matth. 13.11 It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given But also by it as the ordinar instrument the holy Spirit worketh the sanctifying and saving grace of believing and turning to the Lord in all come to years of discerning and appointed for Salvation Act. 11.21 The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds c. Gal. 2.8 He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision the same was mighty in me towards the Gentils Therefore now in these dayes after that this sacred instrument and testimony is sealed and reposited by God in his Church the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3 15 as the only authentical Record and invariable Rule of the Christian Faith if any man shall pretend to the inward revelation of the Spirit without or contrair to the written Word it is Enthusiasm and a delusion of his own private spirit neither let any man think it is enough to have the outward revelation of the written Word without the inward operation of the holy Spirit enlightning the understanding by Faith to perceive and assent unto the truth revealed in the Word and enclining the will by love to receive and retain it in the heart for the Lord openeth both the understanding and the heart Luk. 24.45 Act. 16.14 The Gospel is called the word of life Act. 5.20 Because the Gospel is the seed of the new life 1 Pet. 1.23 Faith and belief to the threatnings of the Law is as the Plough to rent the fallow-ground of our heart but Faith conceiving and embracing Christ in the promises of the Gospel is the seed of our regeration Jam. 1.18 Of his own will beg at he us by the word of truth It is called the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 Because in the Gospel remission and reconciliation in the blood of Christ is offered unto all who repent and believe in him Act. 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And it is called The word of Salvation Act. 13.26 Because it is the ordinar mean of Salvation Rom 1.16 2 Thess 2 13. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth That the Gospel is the ordinar mean of Conversion to the Faith of Christ is evident from Reason and clear consequences from Scriptural truths 1. Hope of life and immortality is a strong motive to turn men from the broad way that leadeth unto death and to everlasting destruction Now the Gospel sheweth unto us life and immortality in Christ Jesus Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 2 Tim. 1.10 The grace of God is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 2. By the knowledge we have of Christ and by believing in him as he is offered in the Gospel we are turned from an estate of condemned rebels unto an estate of persons justified and reconciled in the blood of Jesus Christ Isa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall
to them that repent and believe the Promise as the sight of a Corner-stone is very comfortable to a weary person sinking under an heavy burden as the sight of the brazen serpent in the wilderness was most comfortable to those who were stung with the fire serpents In like manner the Lord Jesus Christ the true Manna is sweet and precious to Believers 1 Pet. 2.7 He is sweet in the Promises sweet in the first-fruits of eternal life when by the holy Spirit he sheds abroad his love like precious oyntment in our hearts when he gives peace to our Consciences and joy to our hearts in the hope of Salvation but the heart cannot conceive how sweet and comfortable this true Manna will be in Heaven when we shall be filled with the full and everlasting Fruits of his glory then shall we say as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons glory It was true that was told me on Earth by the Ministers of the Gospel but the half was not told me of that I do now see and enjoy in Heaven 3. They gathered the Manna in the morning so by Faith bring in Christ the true Manna early to feed and refresh thy soul acquaint your selves in time with him for he will not make new acquaintance at his second coming with any who neglected to come to him in this their day He will say to the foolish and sloathful Virgins Depart from me I know you not Mat. 25. Bring Spiritual hunger with you it is a sauce to provoke appetite after Christ the true and hid Manna Joh. 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the Son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed Bring Faith with you for by it we seed on Christ and draw vertue from him for our spiritual nourishment and preservation unto eternal life Joh. 6.35 And Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thrist 4. God ordained a Pot full of Manna to be kept in remembrance of his special providence toward them in the wilderness that from the remembrance of it they should praise him and by Faith depend on him and his care in time-coming so lay thou up in thy memory any experience of refreshment at any time by the Word or Sacrament and depend on him for time-coming in all thy wants spiritual or bodily when thou findest any faintness or failing of Spirit and no liveliness in thy soul for the time then remember thou bygone experience of former refreshment Our Lord saith to you as to his Disciples Mat. 16.8 9. O ye of little faith why reason ye among your selves do ye not yet understand neither remember the five Loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up c. Remember ye not the former experience ye have had of spiritual refreshment by the holy ordinances of God Then say thou to thy disquieted Soul as Psal 42.6 O my God my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar And resolve thou and conclude as the Prophet doth vers 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Seeing our blessed Lord is the Truth in his lips was never found guile truth and faithfulness cleaveth to his reins as a girdle Isa 11.5 In all thy doubts of acceptance into his favour or perseverance in his favour I speak to thee who art humbled under thy sins and in thy fear and unbelief standest aloof from him consider he is the Truth and hath promised acceptance to all who wearied of their sins come unto him Joh. 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wayes cast out And as he hath promised acceptance so he hath promised the grace of perseverance Joh. 10.27.28 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand Object I cannot deny my own sense for I am weary of sin and yet I find no sensible rest and quietness to my soul notwithstanding the promise of rest Ans 1. Consider well the ground of thy weariness that thou be not wearied only of sin as it carrieth along with it a burden of wrath and punishment thus Cain was wearied when he said my punishment is heavier then I can bear but also that thou be wearied of it as an unclean and vile thing as it is an offence against thy gracious God then if thou be thus wearied come to Christ the precious corner-stone laid in Sion and although thou get not rest to thy sense as thou wouldest yet make not haste to depart from waiting on him he that believeth shall not make haste Isa 28.16 wait on and adhere to the promise made to all who cast their burden upon Christ the precious corner-stone laid in Sion because those who rest on his promise and on him in whom all the promises are yea and amen shall not be ashamed of their hope 1 Pet. 2.6 Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone Elect Precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded 2. Consider there is a fourfold rest 1. The rest or acquiescence of faith to the faithful promise of God as a debtor hath some rest in his mind when the Creditor promiseth to forgive him the debt although he hath not yet gotten his acquittance and discharge 2. There is a rest in hope of the thing promised though there be some commotion in the Spirit through weakness of Faith untill the promise be performed to their sense this rest is like unto some rest the ship that was formerly tossed with the waves has now at Anchor although not without some agitation and commotion 3. There is a rest and peace in the soul from the full assurance of Faith when the heart is perswaded by the holy Spirit and a lively faith resting on Jesus Christ that their sins are forgiven them and that they are reconciled in the blood of Jesus Christ such an assurance had Paul Rom. 8.38 39. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This rest is like the quietness a great debtor has in his spirit after he hath received his discharge out of the hand of his creditor 4. There is the rest of vision and fruition in Heaven when we shall ee and enjoy God and be satisfied to the ull with that fulness of joy and with those pleasures
or predestinated 1 Pet. 1.20 This manner of death of our blessed Lord upon the Cross was necessary 1. That he might be answerable to that type of the brazen Serpent lifted up in the wilderness Job 3.14 And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up 2. That by this manner of death he might deliver us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree He underwent a temporary curse to deliver us from the eternal curse and wrath due to the transgressours of the Moral Law Although there be no proportion between the suffering of a temporary curse and the suffering of an eternal curse due to us yet the dignity of the person suffering did give infinit value to the merit of his suffering Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And the person suffering being the Son of God made the vertue and efficacy of his death to be of infinit power to purge away our sins and reconcile God to us 1 Joh. 1.7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 3. Our blessed Lord died upon the Cross that by this shameful death he might merit our exaltation unto favour with God in this life for he made our peace with God through the blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 and that he might merit our exaltation unto everlasting glory in the life to come Heb. 12.2 For the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross this joy and glory set before him as Mediator was that glory and triumph he should obtain over all his and his Churches enemies It should be our great desire and endeavour with the Apostle to know Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 To this knowledge all humane learning should be subservient It is of special use 1. It will inflame thine heart with love to the Father whō gave him to the death of the Cross for thee that thou shouldest not perish but believing in him thou might be reconciled with God and get eternal life It will inflame thy heart with love to the Prince of glory when thou considerest for whom he suffered this ignominious death of the Cross It was even for thee who by nature was an enemy to God at first by a wicked inclination and after thou camest to the years of discretion thou wast a rebel by thy wicked actings and works Men sometimes have died for their friends as Codrus and Curius for the good of their countrey but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 when thou considerest the painfulness of his death hands and feet were pierced and nailed to the tree of the Cross In the hands and feet which are the extremities of the body the sinewes meet together and convey the pain to all the parts of the body And the purer and finer the complexion be the sense of feeling is the more quick as a sound and cleanly body is more sensible of the cold piercing Air than a gross humorous body Look in narrowly to the inside of his sufferings even the greatness of his soul-sufferings they cannot be conceived how extreme they were therefore the Greek Church in their publick prayers said For the sake of Christs unknown sufferings have mercy upon us O Lord. We may know something of them from his expressions my soul is exceeding sorrowful Thou may see something of them in his bloody sweat our raging fever in our sinning brought on him this bloody sweat that thereby he might cure us of the burning fever of sin we hear something of his soul-sufferings from his most sad complaint to the Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me we had forsaken God days without number and he was deserted of comfort for a time to satisfie for our sinful desertions and bring us into a communion of favour and glory with God Consider the shamefulness of his death He was exposed to the publick shame and reproach of his enemies and of all the beholders and shame to an ingenious spirit is worse than death it racks and breaks their heart Psal 69.20 Reproach hath broken my heart Consider his willingness to die Isa 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting Phil. 2.8 He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Consider for what end our blessed Lord suffered all this pain and shame his back was furrowed with stripes and scourges that by his stripes we might be healed his head was crowned with thorns to get us a crown of immortal glory he suffered all this pain and shame to save thee from extreme and endless pain and shame How should a sick patient love his Physician that preveens a dangerous fever And how should a malefactor love the man who kept him from the shame of the pillory How much more should we love our blessed Lord who by the death of the Cross hath saved us from that unquenchable fire and hath preserved us from eternal shame and confusion 2. The frequent and serious meditation on the Cross of Christ will keep thine heart humble with godly sorrow for thy bygone sins that crucified the Lord of glory Zach. 12.10 And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son c. It will mortifie the love of sin in thee for time coming sorrow and shame are two mortifying passions as a debtor is sorry and ashamed of the distress his surety was put to for his debt and he is very sparing to take on new debt 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hemmeth us in and makes us strait-laced not to dispense with our selves to debord toward any thing may offend him who died such a death to satisfie divine justice for our debts and sins It will mortifie thee to the World to the deceitful pleasures thereof and to such things as take up the thoughts and affections of too many Gal. 6.14 But God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Joy in the Cross of Christ suppresseth and in end quencheth all sinful joy as sweet odours bear down the stench of noisom and corrupt vapours so the sweet smell of Christ crucified doth bear down our vile lusts This joy in the Cross of Christ surpasseth even all
yet hid from many Nations and many outwardly called are not drawn and called effectually Matth. 22.14 Matth. 23.37 2. It is taken by way of restriction to the subject-matter spoken of in the same place as 1 Cor. 9.22 I am made all things to all men to wit in the use of my Christian liberty in matters indifferent 3. It is taken for very many though not simply for all individuals of men Joh. 11.48 If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him that is very many will believe on him 4. It is taken for all kinds as Act. 10.12 Peter saw in a vision a great sheet wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts on the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 5.9 Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation So it is taken here for all kinds of men rich and poor male and famale Jews and Gentiles as it is taken Joh. 11.51 52. He prophesied that Jesus should die for that Nation and not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad Joh. 10.16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd Gal. 3.28 There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Col. 3.11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Augustine understands this place of these who are predestinat to salvation or of all kinds of men To the third I answer there is an outward drawing and calling by the preaching of the Word Matth. 23.37 Our Lord saith O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy children together c. and ye would not There is an inward drawing by the cord of Faith and Love wrought and fastned in the heart by the Holy Ghost Act. 11.21 The hand of the Lord was with these Preachers and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. The outward drawing by the word without this inward drawing by the Spirit is not effectual for mans conversion Act. 13.45 The unbelieving and envious Jews were not drawn by the Word preached by Paul but they contradicted and blasphemed his Doctrine Heb. 4.2 But the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Although the word preached be a mean sufficient in its own kind that is a sufficient outward mean yet is it not simply sufficient for conversion As Plowing and Sowing are sufficient outward means for fruitfulness but are not effectual without the first and latter rain This effectual drawing is a drawing upward of the soul by faith unto an union and communion with Jesus Christ in his merits Joh. 6.65 No man said our Lord can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father The grace of faith is given to us from above it is like a cord cast down from the Rock of our Salvation to save man from drowning and destruction in his sins it is a drawing of the heart upward unto Christ by faith in this life and a bringing of the soul to the enjoyment of glory in the life to come Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The sense of Christs love in dying for us is like the heat descending from the Sun and drawing up the purified vapours It is like the Load-stone drawing up the hard and heavy Iron The sense of Christs love in dying for us softens our hard hearts and turneth them toward himself 2. As it is a drawing of the heart up to himself by faith and love so it is an obediential drawing by love and obedience to the wayes of his holy Commandments It is not a drawing only toward an outward profession of the truth from the custom of others or hope of worldly applause or benefit as Simon Magus was baptized that he might retain the respect and following of many Samaritans his old followers who had now been baptized neither is it a drawing to the profession of the truth only for fear of worldly loss as many of the Persians became Jews in their outward dissembled profession for fear of the Jews But this inward drawing and believing is from love to God in the will Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power that is when thou together with thy Word exerts the power of thy invincible gâ—ace thou wilt make thy people willing and obedient to follow thee in the wayes of thy Commandments 3. It is an equal and uniform drawing both of the inner and outer man all the powers of the soul like so many wheels anointed and moved by the Spirit of God are drawn after the Spirit according to the outward drawing of the Word as it is said of that extraordinary drawing by the Spirit Ezek. 1.20 Whithersoever the Spirit was to go they went The understanding is enlightned by heavenly knowledge and light within by the Spirit of God according to the outward light of the Word 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The will is strongly inclined to embrace Christ and is sick of love to enjoy him Cant. 3.8 The affections like the inferiour wheels are moved and carried toward Christ by an inlightned understanding and by a vehement inclination of the will Cant. 5.4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him Although the drawing and motion toward Christ beginneth from within yet it stayeth not there but draweth also the outward man unto Christ the members of the body become weapons of righteousness Rom 6.13 As the motion of the Clock is first within and thereafter perceived in the regular motion of the Hand of the Horologe and in the sound of the Bell so the inward drawing and motion of the soul is perceived in our outward regular actions and gracious communications 4. It is a most sweet and delightful drawing the God of all grace by his preveening grace maketh us first willing and then by his subsequent and assisting grace draweth us most sweetly with delectation in our hearts after him It is as when one is drawn forward to a place from the sent of precious odours Cant. 1.3 4. It is as the speedy mounting of an Eagle upon wing from the smell and fight of the dead carcase so the sight and sent through faith of Christ crucified doth most sweetly and willingly draw an hungry soul unto Christ to be fed
and refreshed out of the fulness of the merit of his death Mat. 24.28 For wheresoever the carcase is there will the Eagles be gathered together Augustine in his Tractat. on this place â—aith It is a drawing as the shepherd going before draweth the sheep after him by holding forth a green branch in his hand so our blessed Lord worketh in the hearts of the elect that gracious disposition of his own sheep to hear and follow his voice and thereafter by the sweetness of the object propounded to them to wit Christ the Branch of Righteousness and by the inward operation and strong impulse of the Spirit he maketh them follow the outward call of the Word Joh. 10.4 When he putteth forth his own sheep he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice 5. It is an invincible and irresistable drawing it is not only by moral swasion of motives taken from benefit or prejudice to their souls but it is by a powerful perswading and efficacious inclining of the heart Gen. 9.27 God shall perswade Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Hos 2.14 Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her or to her heart Although there is in all men a corrupt principle of resistance to the will of God yet when God is pleased to exert that exceeding greatness of his power toward them that believe Eph. 1.19 Actual resistance is overcome by the insuperable grace of God Jer. 17.14 Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me and I shall be saved Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Augustine calleth the operation of grace in our conversion to the wayes of God victrix delectatio an overcoming delight like a sweet and strong smell overcoming and bearing down corrupt vapours and exhalations this grace of God in conversion is rejected by no hard heart because willingness to resist is taken away as Augustine speaketh well to this purpose Therefore humble penitents should look up by faith to Christ on the Cross as he is held forth to them in the Gospel The persons stung in the wilderness looked to the brazen serpent and were healed so whatever thy sins hath been and whatsoever be the sting of thy guilty conscience confess thy sins with purpose and active endeavours for amending thy wayes draw near by faith to Jesus Christ and thou shalt be healed Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Although thy faith be weak yet if convinced of thy sins and mourning for them thou look to Christ alone for salvation thou shalt be saved Isai 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else which place speaketh expresly of Christ if we compare vers 23. with Phil. 2.11 All that looked to the brazen serpent in the wilderness were not alike quick-sighted yet all who looked were healed So all stung with sorrow in their hearts for their sins if they fix their eye and heart upon Christ crucified they shall be saved though faith be weak in the measure for our salvation doth not depend upon the strength of our faith but upon the strength and power of Christ in whom we believe And if thou be truly drawn by faith to Christ then Christ and his Cross will be great in thine eyes and estimation far above all things here below As a man lifted up to an high mountain esteems things below in the valley to be but small so a soul elevated by saith to Christ and to things that are above esteems little of all things on earth in comparison of Christ and his unsearchable and durable riches Phil. 3.8 I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ And the true believer glorieth most in the Cross of Christ who endured the Cross and despised the shame to save us poor souls from extreme and everlasting pain and shame Gal. 6.14 As we believe the merit of the Cross of Christ so let us labour to feel more and more of the power of his Cross crucifying sin in us and drawing our hearts from the vanities of this present world and quickening us to serve and honour him who spared not his life but gave it to the death of the Cross for us To him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise c. Amen Soul-healing vertue in Christ to the broken in heart SERMON III. PSAL. 147.3 He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds THe holy Prophet stirreth up his own heart and the hearts of others from the consideration of the glorious attributes and works of the Lord to praise his great Name and amongst these works for the manifestation of his compassion and mercy toward poor mourning sinners because he healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds This our blessed Lord applyeth to himself as a work of mercy common to him with the Father Luk. 4.18 He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted As in healing the diseases and wounds of the body there be these three considerable 1. The Physician 2. The Patient 3. The Cure it self So it is in healing the diseases of the soul and wounds of the spirit of man We have all these three in these words 1. The Physician is the Lord himself Jehovah He. 2. The Patient The broken in heart and wounded in spirit 3. The Cure He healeth The Lord God is the soveraign Physician who according to his good pleasure healeth all distempers He healeth a distempered civil State by restoring civil Peace Psal 46.9 Psal 147.14 A distempered Church by restoring Unity Peace and Love Isa 30.26 Jer. 30.17 Jer. 32.39 He healeth breaches in families by restoring domestick Peace and Amity He healeth distempers through bodily diseases Ezod 15.25 2 Kings 20.5 He healeth Souls distempered through the guilt and sting of an evil conscience Psal 103.3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases Jer. 3.22 Return ye backsliding Children and I will heal your backslidings In all our distempers it is our wisdom and duty to go to God and to his Son Jesus Christ the Soveraign Physician for healing sick Souls Psal 61.2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher then I. Psa 60.2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble thou hast broken it heal all the breaches thereof for it shaketh especially when the soul is in an high fever and distemper of grief and fear through bypast sins Psal 41.4 I said Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul
for I have sinned against thee We should use the outward means ordained by God for healing our souls such as are the hearing of the Gospel receiving the holy Sacrament of the holy Supper and daily Prayer these are through Gods blessing strengthning and healing Ordinances but we must not rest on the outward performances or on the abilities of the Minister thereof as if there were any Intrinsecal vertue in them for healing a sick and fainting Soul The Word was preached by Christ himself and yet no healing followed Matth. 23.37 Luke 19.42 The Sacrament of Baptism was ministred by Philip the Evangelist to Simon Magus and yet there was no healing of that gall of iniquity in his heart when a people look too much to the instruments who preach the Word or minister the Sacraments it provokes our jealousie God many times to withhold assistance from the Ministers and a blessing from the outward means to the people for all these outward Ordinances are but empty cisterns till they be filled by an influence of power and life from himself Joh. 6.63 It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing The outward Ordinance without the Lords special presence and blessing is like the staff of Elisha in the hand of Gehazi they do not quicken a dead soul nor awake the sleepy and secure soul 2 Kings 4.31 Therefore inusing the outward means for healing our souls we should go by Prayer to the great Physician himself that by his Spirit he would go along with the outward Ordinances If thou go to him thou needest not despare of healing for in his own due time he will heal all that come to him Jer. 17.14 Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed There is no soul-disease incureable to him though in it there were a complication of infirmities and distempers Isai 1.16 18. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. Though thy sins were inveterat through custom from thy child-hood like the Lunatick child Mark 9.21 Though incurable through all the counsel of friends like the disease of that sick woman Luke 8.43 Therefore come your selves to him and let parents bring their stubborn children in their prayers to Him the great Physician who can heal perverse spirits and make crooked things straight even when parents and friends has despared of their recovery from their soul-distempers and evil wayes In all distempers and wounds of spirit from outward grievous afflictions come to this Soveraign Physician though creatures neither can nor will heal thee yet he will come near to the afflicted who under affliction bodily are most afflicted in their spirit for their sins Psal 27.10 Jer. 30.17 Hos 2.14 I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her When the godly are in a desolat and wildernesse-like condition and few or none to comfort then the Lord in an acceptable time comes in to the soul with comfort all the moral Instruments of our comfort and healing are but as an Apprentice who can do nothing without their masters secret information and direction therefore the broken-hearted would come to Jesus Christ who had a calling from the Father Luke 4.18 to bind up and heal the broken in heart he healed Inveterat bodily diseases as one of twelve years one of eighteen and one of thirty eight years for the comfort of all poor humbled sinners who formerly have accustomed themselves to do evil He is a skilful Physician to apply several Medicines for healing several diseases He has Corrosives to awake these who are in a spiritual Lethargy even the spirit of burning and judgement Isai 4.4 He has sharp afflictions as a scourge to tame and daunt proud and vain men who are in a spiritual Phrency and distempered with an heady conceit of their own righteousness Job 36.8 9. If they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded He has Lenatives and Restauratives to poor fainting Souls even the sweet promises of the Gospel Isa 57.11 Matth. 5.3 4. Matth. 11.28 Though this great Physician the Lord Jesus Christ in the Humane Nature be locally in Heaven yet he can heal broken hearts on earth by the vertue and presence of his Spirit through the power of hiâ— Intercession at the Fathers right hand 1 Joh. 2.1 2. If any man sin we have an Aduocat with the Father Jesus Christ the Righâ—eous and he is the Propitiation for our sins He healed the Centurions sick servant at a distance Matth. 8. And the Son of that Noble man Joh. 4.51 at a distance also As the Sun in the Firmament though at a distance from the Earth doth quicken and revive the Creatures by the influence of light and heat so the Sun of Righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ doth by the influences of his Spirit and Vertue quicken and revive a soul fainting under the burden of sin 2. The Patient under Gods Cure is the broken in heart or wounded in spirit The broken heart is called also in Scripture a contrite spirit Ps 51.13 Is 57.15 When the heart that was sometime whole and hard like a stone is broken into pieces like a grain bruised between the upper and nether milstone so the heart of a truly humbled sinner is crushed between the sense of divine justice displeased with its sins and the sense of divine love manifested in the Gospel it is called a bruised spirit Isa 42.3 When the heart is bruised and bowed down so with the burden of many and manifold sins that from the deep sense of greif and shame for them they have not the confidence to look up to God Psal 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up c. It is called a wounded spirit Prov. 18.14 because the Lord of hosts provoked by our sins doth justly wound the guilty conscience with pain that the wounded spirit can get no rest Psal 38.3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin It is called a soft and tender heart sensible of the danger and vileness of sin Josiah his heart was tender and humbled at the hearing of the Law 2 Chron. 34.27 A rent heart Joel 2.12 When the love of sin is emptied out of the heart by repentance as water out of a rent vessel and it is called an heart of flesh plyable and yeelding to walk in the commandments of God Ezek. 36.26 27. The necessity of a broken heart is evident from the text because it is the broken heart only that God healeth 1. God taketh speci-notice of the broken in heart Psal 56.8 Ezek. 9.4 2. He preserveth the broken in heart in the midst of common calamities Psal 34.18 Ezek. 9.4
shall the innocent Cautioner be wounded and sore distressed and shall not the Principal debtor be wounded with sorrow for the debt he himself contracted shall our spotless Cautioner suffer shame and reproach and shall not our hearts be broken with grief and shame for our sins which put the innocent Lamb of God to open reproach Psal 22.6 7. Psal 69.20 7. Pray to God for a soft and broken heart it is promised in the New Covenant Ezek. 36.26 27. Pray for the influence and insuperable operation of the grace of God upon thy hard heart that thou may know in thy self what is the exceeding greatness of his power to them who believe according to the working of his mighty power c. Ephes 1.19 The influence of his overpowering and overcoming grace will be as Aqua-fortis to cut and divide an heart of iron we are like little children within the house that can shut the door of the heart upon our selves but cannot open it Therefore we must cry to him who both opens the dark understanding Luk. 24.45 and also the heart and affections Act. 16.14 that he would open our hard hearts by his preveening grace and by his subsequent grace he would keep them open and enlarge them by love toward himself and his holy Commandments 3. The cure of the broken in heart he healeth them and bindeth up their wounds God healeth these that are of a broken heart with sorrow under great afflictions upon their persons or outward estate Hos 6.1 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up The Lord healeth these that are thus wounded by giving them patience and strength in the inner-man to bear the visitation of the Lord in the day of their trouble Psal 138.3 In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthendst me with strength in my soul Sometimes he comforts them with inward peace and joy that exceeds the pain they have from outward tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 5. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation c For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ and sometimes by delivering them in their greatest extremity 2 Cor. 1.9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us The Lord healeth also in a more special manner those whose hearts are broken with sorrow for their sins This is the healing we should desire most as David did in the time of his great sickness Psal 41.4 I said Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Our greatest care should be of soul-health 1. Because our care should be greater to have the soul healed than the body or outward estate This was David's first and greatest desire in the time of sore sickness Ps 39.8 13. he first prayes for deliverance from his sins and then with submission for deliverance from his bodily disease Deliver me from all my transgressions O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more The soul is more precious than the body as men are more careful to have an Apostem in the inward and noble parts healed than a scratch in the skin of the body so our first and greatest care should be to have the diseases of our souls healed 2. If the spirit be healed and if a man have peace with God and his own conscience he will be able patiently to bear the infirmities of the body But a wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 As a man having an Ulcer in his back is much disquieted even with a little burden but if the back be sound and whole he can walk quietly under a great burden So when there is no health nor peace in the conscience a very small affliction doth disquiet and perplex our hearts but when we have inward health and peace in the conscience we are able through the Lord who strengtheneth us to walk patiently and quietly under a great affliction Psal 23.4 Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Psal 138.7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me 3. Unlese ye have a care of your souls-healing in this life there is no coming to perfect soul-health and salvation in Heaven as the Lepers under the Law were not admitted into publick meetings till first they were cleansed and healed so no unclean thing shall enter into the New Jerusalem Rev. 21.27 That we may the better understand what this soul-healing is and how the cure is performed we would consider that sin in Scripture is compared oftentimes to sickness Isai 1.5 and in many places to leprosie 1. In bodily sickness there is a privation and want of health so in sin there is want of Original Righteousness which was the sound constitution of man in the state of innocency 2. In bodily sickness there is a collision of humours like contrary waves making a commotion in the body so in our corrupt hearts there is a contrariety of unruly lusts one desiring this visible and sensual good and another lust carried after another sinful object 3. In sickness there is consumption and a tendency unto death unless it be preveened so in sin there is a tendency unto eternal death unless it be preveened by the pardon of our sins in the blood of Christ 4. In sickness bodily men oftentimes become weaker and weaker so unless they be restored by sanctification sinners grow worse and worse 2 Tim 3.13 Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Therefore by healing is meant specially these two 1. The forgiving of sin to these who are broken in heart with sorrow for it Isa 33.24 And the inhabitant shall not say I am sick to wit unto the second death the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity 2. The sanctifying of a broken-hearted man and healing him by degrees from in-dwelling corruption which many times over-mastered him these two acts of soul-healing are set down Psal 103.3 Bless the Lord who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases By the remission of sin the soul is healed and recovered from a state of guiltiness and obligation to punishment eternal and by sanctification it is recovered from pineing away in iniquity The impediments of soul-healing are 1. Waywardness and frowardness of men who cannot endure to have their wounds touched and ript up by the word of reproof Prov. 1.30 31. They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices They cannot
in heart and in zeal to the glory of his Truth he will perform his promise Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise Our patience is the thing he willeth and after the proof of our patience we shall receive the good promised he doth not heal us to our sense at the first David had not health and peace in his Conscience at the first upon the breaking of his heart for these two heinous sins Psal 51.8 12. The Lord in his wisdom suspendeth healing and comfort after the heart is broken to the end in time coming we may be more careful to keep a good Conscience which is the box wherein the precious Jewel of Peace and inward Joy is preserved from rubbs and defilments 2. Consider the more patient thou art thy inward pain will be the less a sick man from his Impatience that he is not healed so soon as he expected doth both increase his pain and offend his Physician and afterward when God gives to his impatient Children any case from trouble they are ashamed of their former Impatience whereas patience and submission to God about the time manner and measure of our healing and delivering will preveen the shame that ariseth from our impatience in times of trouble and delayed relief Rom. 5.4 5. Patience worketh experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed 3. Consider that our wise God to manifest his Soveraign Dominion and free Grace doth sometimes heal at the fiâ—st even gross offenders as the Publican Luke 18. And the notorious Thief Luke 22. Sometimes he doth keep lesser offenders for a long time under pain and terrour of Conscience In rich mercy he pitieth some of his Elect that are in an high rageing Fever of sin and like to perish in it As also in his Wisdom he keepeth lesser offenders for a long time under exercise and disease of Conscience lest they should think little of lesser sins which oft-times prove an inlet to greater sins 4. Consider his Wisdom who knoweth well when and how to deliver his own Children out of tryals and troubles 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations 5. Consider his Faithfulness 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Limit not the holy One of Israel to means or times The Physicians of our bodies will not take it well to be limited by their patients to this or that time of healing but wait thou on him at all times in the use of the lawful means and wait for him in hope who can tel but he will heal and comfort thee in thy greatest extremity with unexpected and abounding consolations Isai 41.17 18. When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thrist I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make the wilderness a pooll of water and the dry land springs of water Quest How shall I know if I be in the way of recovery from the fever of my corruption and in the way to perfect Soul-health and Salvation Ans 1. As the recovery of some health in the body is known by the beating of the puls when it is more equal and regular than it was formerly so if thou be in the way of Soul-health whereas thy former motions and wayes were unequal thou was once much for the lesser duties of the first Table as the Pharisies were in their precise payment of Tithes but they neglected the substantial duties of the second Table as Mercy Faith and Judgement At other times thou seemed very zealous of the duties of the second Table as the deputy Gallio was of the Emperours honour and service but as for the matters of God and true Religion he accounted them but trifles and cared not for them but if thou be in the right way to perâ—ect Soul-healing the respect of thine heart will be equal and uniform toward all the Commandments of God Psal 119 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandments Act. 24.16 And herein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Though thou may fail sometimes out of Infirmity and Inadvertence yet the disposition and inclination of thy will is found in all thy wayes to honour God Heb. 13.18 Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly 2. As in a begun recovery of bâ—dily health the former fever and thirst is in some measure abaited so it will be with thee if thou be in the way to Soul-health whereas sometime thou didst drink-in Iniquity with greediness as the Ox doth water thou was insatiable in thy sinful desires even when thy body was wearied in thine Iniquity thy will was not weaâ—ied of it but now if thou be in the way of recovery and ammendement thy former desire after sin will be much abaited and thou wilt hate even wandring and stragling motions Psal 119.113 I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love 3. As natural appetit groweth in these that are in the way of recovery to bodily health and their right tast begins to be restored so whereas formerly the good Ordinances of God were loathsome to thee in the time of thy rageing Fever in sin as Manna was to the people of Israel in their feverish sits of Impatience and Discontentment Now if thou be in the way to Soul-health the Word of God will be sweet to thy Soul Psal 119.103 How sweet are thy words unto my tast Yea sweeter than honey to my mouth Thy former sins will be bitter to thee as wormwood as a man scunners much afterward at the Dish which did overset and distemper his stomach so thou wilt abhore thy former evil wayes which did distemper thee and bring pain to thy Conscience Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Rom. 6.20 21. For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed 4. The man in the way of recovery from bodily sickness begins to have a stomach to digest grosser meats whereas in the time of sickness he tarrowed at every thing So if thou be in the right way to Soul-health begun peace in thy Conscience will make thee digest even great afflictions and wants 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this
yet the infinite worth of the Person being the Son of God gave infinite worth and value to his sufferings for a short time for taking away the eternal punishment and for procuring to us an eternal and exceeding weight of glory according to that of Heb. 9 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God Purge our Conscience from dead works to serve the living God As our blessed Lord was lifted upon the Cross so let us lift up our minds and hearts to him and as Paul had the Philippians alwayes in his heart Philip. 1.7 So let us carry Christ crucified alwayes in our hearts 1. This should be our great care and study with the Apostle Paul who studied nothing so much as the knowledge of Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 And Philip. 3.10 That I may know the fellowship of his sufferings For this end the holy Sacrament of the Supper was institute to bring often to our remembrance the death of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 11.26 2. Serious and frequent thoughts of his Cross will mortifie sin in us Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ Thoughts of the great grief and shame brought upon the Innocent Lamb of God by our sins should pierce our hearts should we rejoyce in that which made him cry out My Soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death God forbid we should glory in that which procured the shame of the Cross to him The thoughts of his Cross will mortifie our impatience in all our afflictions when we look to him who with so great patience endured the Cross and with insuperable courage despised the shame of the World This will mortifie our love to the perishing vanities of this present world Gal. 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world As a dead man is not affected with the pleasures of the world and the world is crucified to him as a man has no pleasure to look upon the limbs of a malefactor hanged up in the high way 3. Thoughts of the cross of Christ have an active and attractive Vertue they will quicken our Faith and draw us nearer to Christ where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered Matth. 24.28 The sweet smell of the cross of Christ draweth Believers to him It will quicken our love to Christ and our obedience Can. 1.3 4. Thy name is as oyntment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee draw me and we shall run after thee A thankful man cannot but love his servant that has suffered much for him how much more should we love our blessed Lord who suffered so much for us who by an evil Nature are born enemies to God The consideration of his death will quicken our hope and dependance upon God for all things needful in time coming Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things It will quicken our love to all who belong to Christ especially in the time of their distress as the love of David to Jonathan in the remembrance of his great kindness did make him enquire after these that belonged to Jonathan that he might shew kindness to them 2 Sam. 9.1 The consideration of this great love of Christ in dying such a death for us by the power of his Love will subdue our sinful lusts and make us by patience to overcome difficulties and afflictions in suffering for his Name Rom. 8.37 Nay in all tbese things we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us This Heavenly fire of his Love in our hearts like lightnings will quench that earthly fire and exhalations of unclean lusts 4. Serious and deep thoughts of the cross of Christ will comfort and encourage us against all our enemies whether devils or wicked men because Christ upon thâ— câ—oss hath spoiled principalities and powers Col. 2 15. Satan our arch-enemy is both bound and spoiled by the Captain of our Salvation He may and will molest us like an enemy besieging a City and making frequent assaults but he shall not prevail to get possession John 10.28 They shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand The true Believers may and will be molested by wicked men tempting them to sin and persecuting them with tongue or hands because they will not run with them in the excess of riot 1 Pet. 4.4 But be of good comfort for even all the wicked in the world are subiected to him by the merit and power of his Cross Phil. 2.8 9 10. Joh. 16.33 These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the world The thoughts of the death of Christ will comfort us against the severe charge and sharp challenges of a guilty and accusing Conscience Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather thâ—t is risen again who is even at the right hand of Gâ—d who also maketh Intercession for us It will comfort and encourage against the fear of death seing our blessed Lord by his death on the Cross hath taken away the sting and curse from our death 1 Cor. 15.57 But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 4. The necessity of the death of Christ upon the Cross even so must the Son of man be lifted up It was necessary our Lord should die 1. There was a necessity of immutability in respect of Gods decree to save lost man by the sufferings and death of Jesus Châ—ist Heb 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you 2. There was a necessity in respect of infallibility to fulfil the Prophesies concerning his death for our sins Isa 53.12 He hath poured out his soul unto death Dan. 9.26 The Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself 3. To fulfil and to be answerable by his death and bloody sacrifice to the typical sacrifices Heb. 10.4 5 6 7. For it is not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sins c. And Rev. 13 8. he is called The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to wit in these mystical and typical sacrifices before and under the Law 4. There was a necessity for him to die this kind of death on the Cross whereof see more in Serm. Joh. 12.32 Though there was a necessity for our blessed Lord to die yet he submitted to it most willingly he poured out his soul unto death and frequently
it is said in the New Testament he emptied himself and gave himself to the death Gal. 1.4 Eph. 5.2 Tit. 2.14 This kind of necessity agreeth well with a spontaneous willingness though not with a liberty of indifferency toward the opposit act And seing our blessed Lord submitted himself willingly to this necessity in order to our salvation let us also when-ever in a necessity of divine providence we are called to undergo this or that cross willingly and chearfully submit our selves to the necessity of his wise providence Let us say as our Lord did Not my will but thine be done Let us say as David did 2 Sam. 15.26 Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him And with these loving Professors Acts 21.14 When Paul would not be perswaded we ceased saying the will of the Lord be done 5. There is a resemblance in the consequent and effect of their looking to the brazen Serpent and of believers their looking to Christ on the Cross 1. These Serpents in the wilderness were deadly the Septuagint Interpreters calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so in sin there is the bite of the old Serpent when a temptation to sin is fastned on our hearts and we give consent to it Jam. 1.15 When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death The bite of the Serpents was painful before they looked up to the brazen Serpent there was a burning inflammation and pain from the sting so it is in sinneâ—s after they have sinned the sting of an evil conscience remains burning and tormenting them from the sense of guiltiness and the fear of wrath to come and fear hath torment 1 Joh. 4.18 2. They were pained at the heart before they looked to the brazen Serpent so before a sinner can look by faith to Jesus Christ and so be healed there must be pain and grief at his heart in some measure of sincerity for offending the just and gracious God Mat. 9.11 12. Jesus said unto them they that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Two sorts of persons are not healed at the first to wit those that are lethargick or phrenetick sensless of sin or conceitful of their own righteousness The Church of Laodicea is convinced first of her security and vain imaginations before she be invited to be healed Rev. 3.19 And the Pharisee conceited of his own righteousness returned to his house not justified Luke 18. As the lethargick is ordinarily cured by casting him into a fever and then he being sensible of his distemper is healed by the Physician so our great Physician puts secure and sensless sinners oftentimes to a sharp fever and exercise of conscience by discovering covering sin and wrath to them and thereafter heals them as he did the Jaylor Act. 16.30 31. The Phrenetick and conceity soul the Lord heals by beating them with the sharp rods of affliction Job 36.8 9 10. If they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded he openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity They were healed by looking up to the brazen Serpent so by faith in Christ Jesus we are healed from our sins Act. 16.30 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved He is the only Physician that is both able and willing to heal the broken in heart As the People stung were healed by their looking up as a condition appointed and required by God But they were not healed for their looking up as a cause meritorious of healing so Faith is appointed and required as an instrument or condition without which there is no Justification and Salvation but it is not the cause meritorious but looks to Christ alone as the procurer of our Justification and Salvation in his blood The sick Woman was healed of her bloody flux through her touching of Christ but not by any vertue in her touching for the healing vertue came from Christ himself alone Mark 5.30 Luke 6.19 He healeth us of all the stings that disquiet and torment our spirits of which there be four 1. The sting of a guilty and tormenting Conscience spoken of Job 20.12 2. The sting of outward great afflictions not only in the Wicked but also in the Godly to wit a fear and apprehension of wrath in the affliction Job 6.4 The arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God do set themselves in array against me 3. The sting of temptation 2 Cor. 12.7 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh 4. The sting of death 1. Cor. 15.56 At that time our sins that were quiet from tormenting us as the viper was for a time Act. 28. at death they leap on our Consciences to torment them with fear of the second Death Therefore let us look to Christ crucified that we may be healed of all these stings Isai 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Look to him who shed his blood for the remission of sins who has reconciled us in the blood of his Cross and this look will calm the Conscience from the sting of guiltiness Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. When thou art disquieted with the sting of afflictions look to Christ who by the merit of his sufferings hath taken away the curse and wrath from thy sufferings and maketh them medicinal and profitable for thy soul Heb. 12 10. He chastiseth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness 3. Against the sting of temptations and sharp tryals look to his rich and free Love Rom. 8.37 He will give strength to resist 2 Cor. 12.9 He will give outgate 1 Cor. 10.13 4. Against the sting of death look by Faith to Jesus Christ who is the Saviour of his body Rom. 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Look by Faith to him interceeding at the right hand of God for preserving us Believers unto eternal Life Rom 8.34 Joh. 10.28 As by his death he purchased our peace with God so by his Intercession he perpetuats that peace Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the outermost that come unto God by him seing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them 4. All that looked to the brazen Serpent were healed although in such a great number of men all were not alike quick-sighted so all Believers though not alike strong in Faith by looking to Christ crucified are saved from their sins There is no exception of infants in the life of Faith although in the estate of Grace and for the time they be not able by a reflex act to discern their own estate as infants are refreshed with bodily food although their hand be not so
sending him the love of the Son in coming into the world that by the merit of his death we may be justified and saved and the love of the Holy Ghost in anointing and qualifying him for these great effects as the Bee passeth thorow many flowrs in the Garden but stayeth longest on these where it getteth most hony so we should often meditate upon the mystery of Gods free love in Jesus Christ All the Scriptures are faithful sayings and worthy of all acceptation yet this saying is eminent above all 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners We should turn away our eyes from looking to any thing as meritorius of justification and salvation but we should look unto Christ alone and his righteousness for the salvation of our souls because life eternal is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 And we are saved by grace through Faith in him Eph. 2.8 This doctrine from the force of truth upon the Conscience and for quieting the heart in the remembrance of our own unrighteousness the learned and worthy reformed Divines have maintained according to the holy Scriptures and the learned Bishop Andrews in his Serm. on Jer. 23.6 saith piously and soundly That if men would set God before them in his justice and their own souls in their guiltiness they would interpose nothing between the revenging justice of God and their guilty souls but the alone righteousness of Jesus Christ yea some of the Roman Church have acknowledged that justification and salvation is to be sought only in the Lord Jesus Christ as was evident from that directory for visitation of the sick reprinted at Venice one thousand five hundred seventy six the priest is directed to propone this question to the sick person Believest thou that none can be saved by their own merits or any other way than by the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Priest is directed to instruct the sick person that there is no other way of salvation but by Faith on Jesus Christ alone Bellarmin lib. 3. of Justif after a long debate he concludes It is safer for the uncertainty of our own righteousness and for shunning the danger of vain glory to put our confidence only in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ Ferus a learned and moderat Divine commenting upon the parable of the Labourers in the Vine-yard Mat. 20. speaketh to this purpose God promised freely and he rewardeth freely therefore if thou wouldest keep Gods favour toward thee make no mention of thy own merits for he will give all things out of his own mercy nevertheless thou must not be the slower to do good works yea rather thou shouldest be the more zealous of them seing we have so bountiful a Lord. Quest Is there no more required for justification but only Faith in Jesus Christ Is there no more required for inheriting eternal life but to receive him and to rely on him Answ Some of late even Divines of the reformed Church have spoken very rashly to say no worse of some eminent and Orthodox learned men of the Reformed Churches as if they did not require in the believer new obedience and sanctification It is true they require according to the Scriptures that by Faith alone in Christ and his righteousness they should look for justification but they require new obedience and sanctification in the believer as a necessary antecedent unto eternal life The Harmony of learned Divines of the reformed Church in the Doctrine of justification See in learned Hornbeck his Institut Theolog. Cap. 11. and they affiâ—m that as our sins were imputed to Christ the Surety and Mediator of the New Covenant so his Righteousness is imputed to believers for justification therefore it is not as some in their expressions complying with the Papists have spoken a fancy or Justitia Putativa a supposed righteousness but it is real of God the Father accompting his Sons Righteousness unto the sinner and by that accompting making it his to all effects as if the sinner himself had performed it as speaketh the learned and famous Arch. B. Vsher in his Sum of Christian Religion upâ—n this Subject Because saith he this Righteousness is in Christ not as in a person severed from us but as in the head of the Church the second Adam from whom therefore it is communicated unto all who being united as members unto him do lay claim thereunto and apply it unto themselves Rom. 5.19 Rom. 10.4 And though saith he it be not fit to measure heavenly things by the yard of reason yet it is not unreasonable that a man owing a thousand pound and not being able to pay it his Creditor may be satisfied by one of his â—riends And answering to that question how then doth the soul reach after Christ in the act of justifying Even as a man saith he fallen into a river and like to be drowned as he is carried down with the flood espyeth the bough of a tree hanging over the river which he catcheth at and clingeth unto with all his might to save him and seeing no other way of succour but that ventureth his life upon it This man so soon as he had fastned upon this bough is in a safe condition though all troubles fears and terrours are not presently out of his minde until he come to himself and seeth himself quit out of danger then he is sure he is safe but he was safe before he was sure Even so it is with a believer Faith is the espying of Christ as the only means to save and the reaching out of the heart to lay hold upon him God hath spoke the word and made the promise in his Son I believe him to be the only Saviour and remit my soul to him to be saved by his Mediation So soon as the soul can do this God imputeth the righteousness of his Son unto it and it is actually justified in the Court of heaven though it is not presently quieted and pacified in the court of conscience that is done afterwards in some sooner in some later by the fruits and effects of justification Quest Is there an infallible and inviolable connexion between true faith on Jesus Christ and salvation by him Ans Yea for it is said here That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life And it was said â—y the Apostle Paul unto the Jaylor Acts 16. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt he saved Christ is said to dwell in the heart by faith Eph. 3.17 As there is a local union between a man and the house wherein he dwells and resides so there is a spiritual and real union between Christ and a believer and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ and to assure believers on Christ of the certainty of their salvation it is said in the present tense Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life Believers are as sure
of it by their claim of faith on Christ as if they were already in present possession of it yea it is said in the preterit tense Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also glorified Quest May not one have true justifying and saving faith in his heart and yet not know that he is justified Ans Yea he may have the direct act of faith whereby he is justified and yet not have the reflex act of faith whereby he knows and is assured of the gift of Faith freely given to him of God by which act he is Assured of his justification as an Infant has the truth of life natural in him though for want of ripeness in judgement he doth not by a reflex act of understanding know the same Yea a true and justified person may be so overwhelmed in spirit with the fears of his former great and many sins though he embrace Christ and rely on him wholly and only for salvation that yet he may so faint in his fears that at the time he doth not discern the truth of the life of grace and faith in his Soul as a person in the time of his bodily swouning and fainting doth not discern the truth of a natural life in his body Notwithstanding the true Believer in such times and cases cannot discern the truth of the life of faith in himself yet other godly discerning Christians perceiving his sincere desire after the means of Salvation and his appetite toward the Gospel which is the immortal seed of the new life do very rationally conclude that he has the truth though not the vigor of the life of grace and faith in his soul as these who look on and see an Infant greedily sucking the breast though the Infant it self has no knowledge to discern its own life yet they truely conclude from its natural appetit to the means of life that it has life because as new born babes they desire the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 Quest What are the effects and signs whereby I may discern the truth of faith when we have not the vigor of it Ans We discern it by the effects 1. The true Believer has an high estimation of Christ and a low estimation of himself He is precious to Believers 1 Pet. 2.7 Paul had an high estimation of Christ that he came into the world to save sinners and a low estimation of himself as being the least of Saints and chief of sinners The true believer esteems highly of the Gospel whereby life and immortality is brought to light through Christ He accounteth all things but loss yea but dung and unsavory in camparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord Phil. 3.8 2. The true believer as he rejoices most in the cross of Christ so he mourns for his sins whereby he crucified the Lord of glory he looks upon him whom he pierced with his grievous sins and he mourneth as one mourneth for his only Son Zach. 12.10 3. True faith is a Magisterial grace and labours to quiet our unruly affections and passions as an awful Master by his presence quiets the unruly Scholars for faith receiving Christ in the heart to dwell there commandeth all the affections to be still and to do nothing that may disturb and grieve the Spirit of Christ the Spouse after shee has found her Beloved saith to her heart and affections I charge you O yee daughters of Jerusalem c. that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please That ye neither interrupt his delight in me nor my delights in him Cant. 3.5 4. True faith purifieth the heart and labours daily to keep it clean by the bessom of repentance Act. 15.9 God put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith The Lord is said to dwell in the heart by faith Ephes 3.17 And after the believer has received him he endeavours daily to keep the house clean where he dwells by faith the heart is espoused unto Christ as a chast virgin 2 Cor. 11.2 And when the believer is tempted to any vile lust he saith with Joseph how can I do this and sin against my Lord to whom I am espoused for ever in holiness and righteousness 5 True faith on Jesus Christ worketh by love Gal. 5.6 It commands us and in an holy violence constraineth us to love the Father who has forgiven us much to love the Son who shed his blood for the remission of sins anâ— to love the Holy Ghost who is the sealer and confirmer of our justification and remission Faith on Christ commands us and by a commanded act requires us to love one another 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another As lines drawn from the circumference the nearer they come to the Centre they are the nearer one unto another so believers the nearer they come by faith to Jesus Christ the Centre of our souls rest and happiness they are the more united one to another in love yea when by faith we look upon Christ as our great example faith doth command us to love even our enemies with the love of benevolence and beneficence when we perceive our blessed Lord both prayed for his enemies and also healed Malchus ear and in a special manner to love all saints with a love of complacency and delight as fellow-members of the mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour It is therefore the wisdom duty and comfort of believers to examine themselves that they be not only sound in the doctrine of faith but also sincere in the grace and work of faith that they may have rejoycing in themselves from the testimony of a good conscience Gal. 6.4 True and sincere justifying and saving faith receiveth Christ entirely to dwell in their hearts the sincere believer receiveth him in all his Offices as a Priest to bless the soul where he dwells with all spiritual blessings as a Prophet to teach him by the Word and as a King to rule him by his Law and holy Commandments As he receiveth him by faith so he intertains him by love as he receiveth Christ by faith so he gives up himself by love unto him as Christ dwells in him by faith so he dwells in Christ by love and delight he intertains him by obedience in the course of Sanctification as an honest Subject who sometime was a rebel to his Prince the more he rests upon the word of the Prince for his remission he is the more ready and active to obey him in all time coming for though faith rest on Christ alone and on no other for Justification and Salvation yet it rests not from the duties of obedience in the course of Sanctification the true believer in the preparation of his
in reason should be so to grieve the Kings Secretary that has past their gift gratis through the Seals 3. The Spirit of God is the comforter And shouldest thou grieve him who many a time has comforted and supported thee in the day of thy trouble and grief If thou grieve the Comforter to whom wilt thou go in the day of new troubles on thy spirit for comfort and strength Vse 1. Therefore grieve not the holy Spirit in whom ye live 1. By your unruly passions he is the Spirit of love and peace grieve him not by your envy and malice one against another it was a grief to Moses his spirit who was a man living in the Spirit to see the Hebrews at strife one with another the holy Spirit is a Spirit of purity and vile thoughts and motions in the heart entertained with delight grieveth him as the daughters of Heth did grieve Rebekah he is a liberal Spirit as he is called Psal 51.12 and our base nigardness and unmercifulness toward the poor doth much grieve him 2. Grieve not the Spirit by speaking or doing against the light of your conscience which being inspired by the Word of God is the counsel of the Spirit thus did Ananias grieve the Spirit Act. 5.3 4. and the Rulers Act 7.51 3. We grieve him by our unbelief in new exigents of trouble notwithstanding our former experiences of his power and bounty as the Disciples grieved our Lord Mat. 16.8 9. It is no small grief to thy friend if thou distrust him in a small matter when thou hast had experience of his kindness in great matters 4. We would by all means beware of mocking the work of the Spirit in others it was a great grief to Sarah that Ishmael mocked her son Isaac so this mocking of the work of mortification and holiness doth greatly grieve the Spirit of God any Artificer is grieved to hear the work of his hands to be undervalued and despised by others so the Spirit of God is greatly grieved and displeased to see holiness which is his own proper work in all who live in the Spirit to be undervalued and despised by the men of this present world who mind not the things of the Spirit but of the flesh Labour to be spiritual and like to the Spirit by whom we live we are said to be sealed by the Spirit Ephes 1.13 and there is an impression of the seal upon the wax so if we live by the Spirit and be sealed by him there will be an impression of holineâ—s and purity in some measure answering to the Spirit by which we are sealed Let us be spiritual in our intentions toward the honour of God with any gift of the Spirit bestowed upon us for our Lord saith of the Spirit Joh. 16.14 He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Let us labour to be spiritual and heavenly-minded often conversing in our hearts with God Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in Heaven like Pilgrims who being abroad do often mind their own native country let us be spiritual in our delights for they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.5 Let our delight be most in God and things heavenly as in spiritual benefits spiritual ordinances and spiritual duties let us labour to be spiritual and sincere in the worship of God for the Father seeketh such to worship him Joh. 4.23 Vse 2. The duty propoâ—ed walk in the Spirit that is walk by the power and grace of the Spirit according to the light of the Word inspired and dictated by the Spirit this Word in the original signifieth to walk foot for foot after the leading and teaching of the Spirit by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as young children walk after the footsteps of their father in the same path though not with steps equal to the father or as School-boyes learn the A B C and first elements which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one letter after another In like manner we learn precept upon precept and thereafter do construct and set the actions of our life and conversation together aright according to the rule of the Word of God so that by walking in the Spirit is meant the course of sanctification and of new obedience required by God of us in the covenant of grace as it was said by God to Abraham the father of the faithful Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou upright God promiseth in the new covenant of rich and free grace that he will both give unto his people power to walk in his commandments and also actual assistance in walking Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes To this duty we engage our selves in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper to walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we renew our engagement made in Baptism The duty of new obedience is called a walking 1. Because in waâ—king there is a place from which we walk and turn fâ—om so in the course of new obedience we must forsake our former evil wayes Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts 2. There is the way wherein men do walk so the man renewed by the Spirit doth walk in the way of Gods commandments Ezek. 20.19 I am the Lord your God walk in my statutes 3. A light according to the which men walk so in ouâ— Christian walking the light is the Word of God Psal 119.105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path 4. In walking through a wilderness and dangerous places men have need of a skilful guide as Hobab was to the people of Israel in the wilderness So men renewed hath need of the holy Spirit to guide and lead them by his strength from one duty to another Therefore David prayeth so often for quickning in the wayes of Gods commandments for it is not enough that once we be quickned to a new life but we have need also to be quickned thereafter and stirred up to the duties of a new life Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way 5. As in bodily walking there is an end and place toward which we walk so in our spiritual walking we walk from strength to strength aiming at perfection and the seeing and enjoying of God in mount Sion that is above 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Phil. 3.13.14 I count not my self
God and man as Paul walked Act. 24.16 To have a good conscience and to be alwayes willing in all things to live honestly as the Apostle did Heb. 13.18 It is a constant walking at least in respect of a fixed purpose and resolution Psal 84 7. They go from strength to strength Phil. 3.12 Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus The impediments of walking are 1. Want of light for if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him Joh. 11.10 Therefore said our blessed Lord to the Pharisees Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22.29 Therefore as we would walk in a right way toward the Kingdom of Heaven we would labour to understand the holy Scriptures which shew us the way of truth and righteousness and we should daily pray with the holy Prophet Psal 43.3 O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy Tabernacles And we should pray with holy David Ps 143.10 Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness 2. Fetters are a great impediment to walking so our unruly and excessive passions as the excessive fear of creatures excessive desires of worldly good things excessive joy and delight in worldly pleasures are a great impediment to spiritual and heavenly walking as servants gazing and fixing their eyes upon some Pictures in their way are stayed in their walking and in going about their business Against this impediment we would pray to God for liberty and enlargement of spirit from that bondage to our masterful affections and we would turn David's resolution Psal 119.32 into a supplication O Lord enlarge thou my heart and then shall I run the way of thy Commandments It should be our daily prayer to the Lord with holy David Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way 3. A heavy burden is a great impediment to walking so when men over-burden their spirits with the care of worldly things they walk not in the way of righteousness but many times step aside after the wages of unrighteousness the love of the world hindered the rich young man to walk after Christ Luk. 18.23 Therefore that we may walk readily and chearfully in the wayes of Gods Commandments we should cast all our care upon him for he careth for us 1 Pet. 5.7 And we should pray daily as Psal 119.36 Encline my heart unto thy Testimonies and not to covetousness 4. Fainting is a great impediment to walking Jonathan fainted in his way till he tasted of the honey Great difficulties and discouragments in the way of Holiness and uprightness are like the Sons of Anak that discouraged greatly the people of Israel from walking up the hill that thereafter they might enter into the promised Land Against this impediment of fainting in the good and perfect way from the many troubles and discouragements thou meetest with therein recollect thy self and be encouraged from the Lords faithful promise Isai 40.29 He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength In all the bitter mockings thou meetest with from profane men who not only mock thee but speak evil of thee because thou wilt not run with them to the same excess of riot yet be thou resolute and stedfast in thy spiritual and Christian walking as David did Psal 119.51 The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy Law Yea walk the more sincerely and spiritually in conversing with God by prayer Psal 69.12 13. I was the song of the drunkards but as for me my prayer is unto thee O Lord in an acceptable time When the child of God has least acceptance or communion with profane men then is he most acceptable to God and hath most of his countenance which preserves his soul from fainting at their bitter scoffings look often unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who endured such contradiction of sinners lest we looking too much to men who wrong us should faint in our minds Heb. 12.2 3. Be encouraged in all thy faintings from the hope of that Crown of Righteousness laid up for all these who walk with God as Enoch did Walk with God in heavenly meditations and walk thou before God as Abraham did in faith and obedience the hope o◠that Crown strengthened the heart of Paul against fainting 2 Cor. 4.16 17. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Therefore seing there is an infallible connexion between spiritual life by the Spirit and spiritual walking in the strength and by the direction of the Spirit according to the Word as there is a conjunction of the stream with the fountain if we live in the Spirit let it be manifested by our walking in the Spirit and if the Spirit dwell in us the Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies and raise them up to follow the Lamb where-ever he goeth To him with the Father and Holy Spirit be all praise honour and glory for now and ever Amen Circumspect walking SERMON VI. EPHES. 5.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise VERS 16. Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil AS Salvation is the end of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls So our walking in the way of holiness and good works is the way to salvation the Lord Jesus Christ is properly the living way that leadeth and guideth believers to salvation and good works are the meeths and evidences that we are in Christ the Captain of Salvation Eph. 2.10 For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them The Christian walking is discribed here 1. Positively See that ye walk circumspectly 2. Negatively not as fools 3. By way of opposition to the walking of fools in two qualifications required in circumspect walking But as wise redeeming the time 4. The motive to a Christian and circumspect walking is taken from the evil of the times Because the dayes are evil To walk circumspectly signifieth as the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth an accurat and exact walking like a man walking upon the ridge of a mountain without declining to the one hand or to the other Deut. 5.32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left 1. In our zeal we would walk circumspectly not
side 3. Pride and self-confidence maketh even the godly sometimes rash and uncircumspect in their walking Peter from self-confidence in his own strength was rash and uncircumspect in his going into the High Priests hall 4. Forgetfulness of death and judgement and the accompt we must make to God of our walking in the time of our sojourning here doth make men walk at random in their evil wayes as Jerusalem sometime did Lament 1.9 Her filthiness is in her skirts she remembereth not her last end Amos 6.3 Ye that put far away the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near Means and Helps for a circumspect walking are 1. Sound knowledge of the good and acceptable will of God from the word of light and salvation because the word of God is the rule and measure according to which we walk circumspectly in obedience to the holy commandments like children walking in one step after another according to their grounds and elements in learning Gal. 6.16 And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them When we walk according to this rule we walk circumspectly for we need not be ashamed when we have respect unto all his commâ—ndments Psal 119.6 This rule keeps us from wandering rashly into the paths of wicked and profane men Psal 17.4 Concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the pathes of the destroyer 2. As ye would walk circumspectly look to God in all your wayes he is now a witness and one day will be thy judge Gen. 17.1 Walk before me saith the Lord and be thou upright He seeth in secret therefore walk circumspectly in secret although no man did see thee yet the Lord ponders and considers all thy wayes Prov. 5.21 The wayes of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings The all-seeing wise God pondereth all the steps of humane actions in their desires intentions and courses though thy profession be never so fair before the world yet he ponders the intention of thine heart he saw the hypocrisie and crooked walking of Jehu notwithstanding his fair and large profession of zeal for the Lord He ponders the time of thy sinning and unrighteous walking if it be after mercies received Deut. 32 13 15. Jer. 5.7 When I had fed them to the full they then committed adultery The Lord ponders if thy unrighteous walking be in a time of affliction when thou should walk humbly and circumspectly he observed wicked Achaz in his trespassing more and more in the day of his distress 2 Chron. 28.22 he ponders the place where thou walks in thy ungodly way Isai 26.10 In the land of uprightness will he deall unjustly that is in a place of uprightness where he might have seen the good example of some men walking uprightly and circumspectly before God and the world yet he will walk in the way of injustice 3. Walk circumspectly in respect of the holy Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 The Apostle will have women in the Church-assemblies to carry themselves decently in respect of the Angels who are frequently there to behold and admire the wisdom and mercy of God revealed to his Saints in the holy Word they â—re ministring Spirits to the heirs of salvation â—nd our uncircumspect conversation and walking is very displeasing unto them as the rash speeches and actions of an inconsiderat pupil doth much grieve his Governour and Tutor 4. Walk circumspectly in respect of the godly because by thy rashness and failings thou wilt make the hearts of the righteous sad Paul was much grieved with Peters dissimulation at Antioch by thy rashness and failings through uncircumspect walking thou stumbles the weak who by thy evil example are drawen from the way of righteousness Many were drawn away by the example of Peters dissimulation Gal. 2. and how fearful and dangerous a sin it is to give offence to the weak we may clearly see Matth. 18.6 Paul would rather never eat flesh than he should stumble his weak brother by eating thereof 1 Cor. 8.13 Walk circumspectly in respect of wicked men who watch for thy halting who will magnifie themselves when thy foot slippeth and speak evil not only of thee alone but also of thine holy profession and of all the Saints as if they were all hypocrites David by his uncircumspect walking opened the mouths of adversaries 2 Sam. 12.14 Therefore pray thou daily as David did Psal 27.11 Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me iâ— a plain path because of mine enemies or observers 5. As ye would walk circumspectly remember frequently the Lords former mercies toward you that so ye may not deparâ— from his wayes and so sin against the God of your mercies This consideration Ezra holds forth to the people of God that in time coming they may walk more circumspectly Ezra 9.13 14. Seing thou our God hast given us such deliverance as this should we again break thy commandments and joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations The remembrance of former mercies made Hezekiah after his recovery from a dangerous sickness to walk softly and circumspectly all his years in the bitterness of his soul Isai 38.15 And our blessed Lord holdeth forth this consideration to the man that was healed of a longsome disease Joh. 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more c. 6. Fear of thine own weakness and fears from the many temptations and snares in this present evil world is a special mean to make thee walk circumspectly fear to slip and fall maketh men walk circumspectly in slippery places Rom. 11.20 Be not high-minded but fear therefore walk circumspectly and humbly with thy God in the remembrance of his former mercies in the remembrance of thy former sins in the conscience and sense of thy present weakness and in the fear of many and manifold temptations in this evil world as a man walketh circumspectly looking well to every step in the midst of snares 7. As ye would walk circumspectly be not rash to venture upon temptations Cyprian saith truly Nemo periculo proximus est diu tutus no man near to the temptation and danger is long safe his advice is good that men would be circumspect like mariners at Sea who in time of a calm do not cast anchor beside a rock because they know not how soon a storm may arise and dash the Vessel against the rock so a Christian would be circumspect though his affections be quiet and still for the present time yet if he venture upon the place of temptations and snares he cannot tell how soon the wind of temptation may arise and bring the shipwrack of peace and a good conscience 8. As ye would walk circumspectly at all times and in all places remember often the necessity of our compearance after death before the tribunal of Jesus Christ this consideration made Paul circumspect both in his personal and ministerial conversation 2 Cor. 5.9 10. Wherefore we labour
that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Not as fools The Apostle speaketh more particularly of our Christian walk and that negatively that we walk not as fools 1. Not as the atheistical and profane fool who walketh without any serious thoughts of God in his heart Ps 14 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good Ezek. 8.12 They say the Lord seeth us not Psal 94 8 9. Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the ear c. Therefore be not profane and godless fools but fear God and depart from evil Prov. 3.7 2. Be not vain and arrogant fools walking in the imaginations of your own evil hearts Prov. 12.15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes 3. Walk not in the way of the licentious fool aâ—ter the lusts of uncleanness or drunkenness Prov. 7.7 The young man that followed the strange woman is said to be simple and void of understanding he is a mad fool running in the way of riot and uncleanness to his own destruction Walk not in the way of drunkenness and excess for the Scripture saith that drunkards are benummed and besotted fools Hos 4.11 Whoredome and wine take away the heart 4. Walk not in the way of worldly-minded and covetous men who set up their rest upon the things of this world and make no conscience of their purchase for the Scripture calleth such men fools Jer. 17.11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and at his end shall be a fool Luk. 12.20 But God said unto him Thou fool c. 5. Walk not in the way of strise and contention for such men are in the Scripture-phrase fools Prov. 20.3 Every fool will be medling Prov. 26.17 He that passeth by and medleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears he doth at first rashly engage himself into the quarrel and is afraid how he shall come off fairly without prejudice to his credit or estate 6. Walk not in the way of malice for the Scripture calleth malicious and wrathful men fools Eccles 7.9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosome of fools 7. Walk not wilfully and obstinatly in any evil custom or way for such men the Scripture calleth fools who will not be reclaimed by the rods of God upon their backs Prov. 27.22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestel yet will not his foolishness depart from him Jer. 5.3 4. But they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return therefore I said surely these are poor they are foolish 8. Walk not in the way of malicious dissimulation though such dissemblers may be esteemed witts and active men in this present world yet in Gods account they are fools Prov. 10.18 He that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth slander is a fool 9. Walk not in the way of slothful men who delay from time to time to go about the great business and work of their own salvation such persons in holy Scripture are compared to the foolish Virgins Mat. 25. 10. Walk not in the way of bare formality resting upon the performance of some outward duties only because such men are compared to the foolish builder who built upon the sand such fools are these who rest on the hearing of the Word but prepare not themselves to do it Mat. 7.26 11. Walk not here and there departing from a known and received truth in the matter of Religion for such wavering and unconstant men are called fools Gal. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you But as wise The Apostle 1 Cor. 3.18 speaketh of a twofold wisdom an heavenly wisdom when a man preferreth his duty to God unto all things worldly such was the wisdom of Paul Act. 20.23 24. The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God This wisdom is thought foolishness to the worldly man whose mind and heart is fixed on things earthly And there is a worldly wisdom when men in their practice and endeavours do prefer the good things of this life unto the best things of the life to come as Demas did this wisdom is foolishness in Gods account for what avails it a man to gain all the world and lose his own soul This Christian Heavenly wisdom standeth 1. In mens proposing to themselves a good and happy end of their actions when they propone to themselves as the great and supreme end of all their actions the glory of God of whom through whom and for whom are all things 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God when in the next place they propose to themselves that subordinat end to wit the salvation of their own souls Phil. 3.14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and when they propose to themselves the good of others by following their own example in well-doing Mat. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 2. True Christian-wisdom stands in a serious deliberation and search out of Gods Word what are the fitest means for attaining these ends as by well-doing and suffering for well-doing to glorifie God 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified When we search and consider from the Word of God that true repentance lively faith and sincere obedience are the means whereby we attain salvation Acts 3.19 Acts 16.31 Rom. 2.6 7. 3. It stands in a careful and timous applying of the means necessary for these great ends So if ye be truly wise Christians ye will be diligent and active in using the means whereby God may be glorified and your souls saved Jam. 3.13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of
sleep till they had done evil How many have taken opportunity from the weakness of others of their cruel revenge as Simeon and Levi did How many have taken occasion from the simplicity of some or from the desolat condition of others as of Widows and Orphans to oppress them and by their ruines build up an estate to themselves Such men should redeem the time by repentance and restitution in time Prov. 23.10 11. Remove not the old land-mark c. for their Redeemer is mighty Job 20.19 20. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly he shall not save of that which he desired As for the present time we should improve it to well-doing without delay God in holy Scriptures urgeth the opportunity of the present time Joel 2.12 Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me with all your heart Psal 95.7 To day if ye will hear his voice c. 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the accepted time c. The husband-man takes opportunity of the season for plowing and sowing so should we of plowing up and renting our hearts by repentance and of sowing in righteousness the sea-faringman taketh the opportunity of a fair wind so should we take the opportunity when the Spirit of God breatheth upon us by the Word without delay to depart from our sins and to advance toward the Port of eternal Salvation Because 1. The neglect of the opportunity given us for well-doing doth provoke God to withhold the like opportunity in time coming Joh. 7.34 Ye shall seek me and shall not find me Esau came not in time to get the blessing and he never got another opportunity for it Jerusalem would not in time know those things that belonged to her peace and therefore in time coming they were hid from her eyes Luk. 19.42 Felix made not good use of the opportunity he had for hearing Paul preach and he never got another convenient season Act. 24.25 2. Though thou may have afterward an opportunity of the outward Ordinances yet through thy former neglect of them thou provokes God to reject thy offerings and outward duties the Lord would not accept of the people of Israel their offer to come up the hill afterward because they had neglected the former opportunity of Obedience when he had commanded them to come up Numb 14.40 41 42. 3. The time is uncertain in respect of the opportunity of the means of grace for thou cannot tell how short a time the mercat and offer of free grace may endure the Lord may send a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord Amos 8.11 12. The time of thy life is uncertain how many have been well and in health the one Sabbath but removed by death before the other 4. Consider seriously though the Lord may be found of thee on thy sick and death-bed after the many slightings of opportunities in the dayes of thy health and prosperity yet shall it be to thee with much pain and wrestling as the people of Israel were put to the pains of fourty years abiding in the wilderness which might have been saved by the timous pains of fourty days Num. 14. As a man that neglects the opportunity of a fair and favourable wind for sailing may possibly wait on a long time before he have the like opportunity Yea though a man may repent truly and sincerely upon his death-bed yet it is not without much fear and jealousie that he hath not so much forsaken sin through any true spiritual aversness from it as from a meer want of power to act sin in the body as he was wont formerly to do A wise Christian should redeem and improve the time in order to time coming he should make timous provision for the time to come as Joseph in the time of plenty laid up provision for the time coming of famine There be four things especially we would make provision of 1. Of the word of the holy commandment and threatning against the time and hour of future temptations Psal 119.11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee And when we are tempted to this or that sin we would make use of the commandment forbidding it and of the threatning against it we would lay up provision of the Word of gracious promises against a time of temptation to doubts and fears of acceptance as these promises Is 55.1 Mat. 11.28 Joh. 6.37 and against the fears of final Apostasie we would lay up provision from the word of promise Joh. 4.14 Joh. 10.28 We would lay up provision of gracious promises against temptations in an hour of daâ—kness and desertion as that Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee Psal 89 31 32.33 If they break my statutes c. Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail And lay up the word of admonition against a time of senseless security 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Lay up that word Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling and that of 1 Joh. 5 18. He that is born of God keepeth himself 2. Make provision of good works though not as a ground of confidence yet as a matter of comfort for time coming Luk. 12.35 Provide for your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not 1 Tim. 6.18 19. Charge them that are rich that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life For although good works do not make way and usher us into glory for Christ the Forerunner only doth that by the merit of his death Heb. 6.20 Yet they are attendants accompanying persons justified even unto eternal life Rev. 14.13 Blest are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 3. Lay up provision of thy observations of Gods sad dispensations upon men going on obstinatly in their sins Job 9 4. Who hath hardned himself against him and prospered as on Pharaoh Senacherib Antiochus Epiphanes Herod the great and Julian the Apostat Lay up this observation as provision against temptations to walk on in any course of rebellion against the known will of God Hezekiah advised the people of Israel well from the sad experience of great desolation brought upon their Ancestors by their great sins 2 Chron. 30.8 Now be ye
not stiff-necked as your fathers were but yeeld your selves unto the Lord and serve the Lord your God c. Lay up provision of thy own personal experience of sad afflictions upon thy self in a time of thy former strayings from God and of the good such afflictions did to thee in stopping thy course of defection Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word And in a time of renewed afflictions be patient and submit to God who chastiseth his own children to this end especially that he may make them partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 In time of great affliction lay up provision from thy experience of his strength supporting thee and of his wisdom and power in delivering thee that in time coming thy heart may be established by confidence and dependence on him in new troubles Psal 42.6 O my God my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar 2 Cor. 1.9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us 4. Lay up provision of self-denial and resolution for evil times of persecution to come Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself c. And he must be resolute as Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus From this Doctrine of Redeeming the time three sorts of persons are justly to be reproved 1. Slothful Idlers who redeem not the time but from day to day delay to put heart and hand to the work of their own salvation like the sluggard Prov. 6.10 Yet a little sleep a little slumber Such men are like to spend-thrifts who neglect the appointed time for redeeming their morgaged lands and afterward when they would they have not the opportunity Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able 2. Such as trifle away their time as the Athenians did Act. 17.21 As these tatling widows did 1 Tim. 5.17 and as these busie bodies 2 Thess 3.11 Such also who spend more time in their excessive recreations and gaming 's than in their necessary and lawful employments especially such who spend much of their time in dycing and carding Such of old were severely fined by the laws both of Heathen and Christian Emperours and by the Canons of the Council of Eliberis were suspended from the holy Sacrament as witnesseth the learned Ductor dubitantium such prodigal triflers of precious time are like to some foolish persons who spend upon conceits and fancies the moneys that should have been imployed to redeem their morgages so these men play away their time which should be employed to redeem their former time that was ingaged to their former foolish courses 3. The debauched wasters of time in the works of darkness as uncleanness drunkenness oppression covetousness pride malice c. Such men redeem not the time but prodigally cast it away they are like unto profuse wasters who do not redeem the wodsett but take on more debt and in end bring themselves to sinful shameful and desperat poverty So these prodigal wasters and debauchers of their time bring themselves in end to an everlasting want of all comfort as the rich glutton did Luk. 16.23 24. Therefore let all sorts and conditions of men take with the warning to improve their time to the glory of God and to the advantage of their own salvation 1. Such as are in their adolescency and growing age they would improve their young years to the glorifying of their Creator Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Offer the first fruits of your age unto God that your after-age may be sanctified and blessed of the Lord if the first-fruits be holy the whole lump of your time and age will be holy Rom. 11.16 Plato to this purpose speaketh indeed like a divine Philosoph in his first book of his Repub. Young age saith he pâ—st over in vertue and in honest imployments is a comfortable nurse to entertain and cherish their old age but he that wasteth and debaucheth his young years when he comes to old age the remembrance of his former miscarriages in the time of his youth doth greatly afright him as infants awaked out of their sleep by loud noises are greatly terrified and afrighted In like manner those men that sleeped sometimes securely in the sins of their youth shall be awaked in their old age with the terrours of an accusing conscience and afrighted with the dreadful found of death and judgement and shall not have rest to their souls until they repent of the sins of their youth and by â—aith rest on the Lord Jesus Christ whose blood cleanseth from all unrighteousness 2. Such as are in their prime and meridian of their time who are now in their full strength of body and mind Improve your time well honour God with the strength of thy body give not thy strength and the flower of thy time to uncleanness and drunkenness like these cursed men Isa 5.22 Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine by so doing they weaken the spirit and consume the body they turn the good gifts of God unto rebellion against himself as if a souldier should employ his levy-mony to buy armes wherewith he might fight against his King who gave it Reuben the beginning of Jacobs strength abused his own time and strength therefore his dignity and excellency was taken from him but Joseph improved well his youth and strength of body therefore God blessed him and his bow abode in strength in despight of all that shot at him Now is the time wherein your senses and judgement are ripe and quick use your time and judgement well that ye may have comfort in old age when senses and judgement will fail as they did in old Barzillay but if your quickness be set on edge upon vain inventions ye will be forced in your old age to say as Rom. 6.21 What pleasure have we or fruits in those things whereof we are now ashamed 3. And such who are in their decrept old age stouping toward the earth and the grave let them not imploy their short time and their affections wholly upon the things of the earth when by the course of nature they are near to be removed from it Let them not be busie in the things of the world and careless of the work of their own salvation I say to them as the Lord of the Vineyard said to those Matth. 20. Why stand ye all day idle ye are come to your eleventh hour your time is near run the night of death is near hand wherein no
thy Law 4. In evil times when a man is made an offender for a rash and inconsiderat word Isa 29.21 then preserve thy self by silence except thou have a call from God to speak Psal 39 1. I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me Amos 5.13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evil time And pray often to God to set a watch before thy mouth not to suffer thy heart to comply with the workers of iniquity and that the Lord would preserve thee from being taken with their worldly baits and allurements Psal 141.3 4. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth keep the door of my lips encline not my heart to any evil thing to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties 5. In evil times of wrath and imminent judgement by reason of impiety and iniquity abounding in the land draw near to God by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ Zeph. 2.1 2. Gather your selves together yea gather together O nation not desired before the decree bring forth before the day pass as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords anger come upon you Be humble and tremble in time at the threatning of wrath that ye may have rest in your souls in the day when the cup is poured forth Hab. 3.16 When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entred into my bones and I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble when he cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troops They who tremble not in the time of a threatned judgement yet when the judgement is poured forth even these who were stout-hearted sinners in the day of wrath poured forth they become like Pashur Magor-missabib fear round about When thou hast repented of thy sins which together with the sins of others have provoked the Lord to great wrath then flee by faith in to the mercy of God manifested in Jesus Christ who is the only Ark of Propitiation Heb. 11.7 Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his soul When the evil day of wrath is come and the judgement is incumbent then humble your selves under the mighty hand of God 2 Chron. 7.14 If my people which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked wayes then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land 2 Chron. 30.8 Now be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were but yeeld your selves unto the Lord and enter into his sanctuary which he hath sanctâ—fied for ever and serve the Lord your God that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you Thus Rehoboam and the Princes did humble themselves and the Lord gave them some deliverance 2 Chron. 12.6 7. 6. That thou may not faint in evil times wherein sin persecution and misery do abound guard thy heart with the hope of that eternal rest when thou shalt rest from all thy labours 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not c. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen Heb. 10.34 Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance Which is purchased to us by the merits of the sufferings of Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be everlasting praise honour and glory for now and ever Amen The Believer his Prospect through the dark Valley of Death SERMON VII 2 COR. 5.1 2. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven THe Particle For points at the connexion of these words with the last verse of the preceeding Chapter wherein the Apostle gave the reason of his not fainting under all the pressures and afflictions he suffered in the body because he looked not so much by present sense to the things he suffered here as by faith and hope he looked to things eternal in heaven to wit unto an eternal rest and an immortal Crown of Glory which not seen by sense yet he believed was reserved for him in heaven Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 And the light afflictions in this present life are not to be compared with these eternal things not seen nor perceived by sense Rom. 8.18 What these eternal things are the Apostle describes in part in the two first verses of this Chapter even an immortal and glorified body in the day of the resurrection therefore he faints not but hath Christian courage in all the pain and shame he suffereth at the hand of men now in his frail and mortal body for we know saith he although our earthly house of the tabernacle of the body shall be dissolved when all the pins and joynts will be dissolved yet we have a building of God and we look for an house even a glorified body not of mans making and giving though our frail body be framed in the womb by the Lord yet the glorified body is of the Lords making and giving in a more special manner because in the day of our resurrection he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 It is an house eternal and well situat in the heavens where it will not be subject to storms and tempests as it is in this life my assured knowledge saith he of that future happy condition stirreth up in my soul an earnest desire and longing to remove out of the body that I may be clothed upon with glory in my soul after death and with immortal glory both in soul and body at the day of resurrection By earthly house here is meant our body called an house of clay Job 4.19 because the body of the first Adam of whom by propagation we have our bodies was formed out of the red earth from which man was called Adam it is underpropped for a time by meat drink sleep and sometimes by medicine to fill up the breaches and to repair the decayes of this house of clay which in end will fall down to the dust of the earth It is called a tabernacle because the soul dwells in the body for a time as the Ark did reside in the Tabernacle built for
As also having sincere love in your hearts toward all the Saints 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren 6. Be thou prepared as these faithâ—ul servants Luk. 12.36 who trussed up their garments that they might be the more expedit and ready to open the door to their Lord at his return In like manner do thou retire thy heart in time from the excessive love of the things of this present world that it be not entangled thereby but set thy heart upon God and things above for as Plenishing or Houshold-stuff fixed fast in the wall is ordinarily broken before it can be removed so a worldly-minded man his heart is broken with grief and worldly sorrow when he is removed from his present enjoyments his spirit is rather taken from him against his will then by him freely commended and chearfully put over into the hands of his Heavenly Father Luk. 12.20 Conclus 2. The future glory of the bodies of the Saints in Heaven is not only sure and certain in it self in respect of the object promised by God but also in respect of the subject to wit believers on the Lord Jesus Christ who may and should be assured of it for it is said here by the Apostle not only in his own name but also in the name of all believers on Jesus Christ We know we have an house c. It is expressed in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have to signifie the certainty of it in a believer so Joh. 3 36. He that believeth in me hath everlasting life This assurance Job had Job 19 27. Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another c. And David Psal 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The reasons are 1. Because not only the soul but also the body of a believer is a part of the mystical Body of Christ who is the Saviour of his whole body Eph. 5.23 2. As the body of believers is an instrument and vessel of honour to God in this life so these same bodies shall be vessels of glory in the other life that they may receive there according to their service done unto God here in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 3. The bodies of the Patriarchs do now rest in their graves and as we may be assured they shall be raised unto glory Matth. 22.32 Joh. 5 28 29. So all true believers on Jesus Christ may be assured that their own bodies also shall be raised in glory unto eternal life As we would be assured of glory to our bodies in heaven let us use our bodies here as temples to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Now the body is used as a temple to the Holy Ghost 1. by separating it from the service of sin and iniquity as the temple of Jerusalem which sometime was a threshing-floor before it became a Temple to God it was separate from that common use So our bodies must be separat from the service of iniquity before it can be consecrat to the service of God 2 Cor. 6.16 17. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God c. wherefore come out from among them and be ye separat saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you 2. As the temple of Jerusalem was not only separat from a profane or common use but was also dedicat and consecrat unto the service of God and spiritual employments in like manner our bodies should be presented and dedicat to the service of God according to the duty of our Christian calling Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service As all the vessels in the Temple whether great or small were holy so should all the members of our body be employed unto righteousness Rom. 6.13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God Our eyes should be turned away from beholding vanity and imployed to behold the power and wisdom of God in the works of Creation and Providence our ears should be circumcised and tuâ—ned away from hearing profane or obscene speeches and turned to hear what may be profitable for our edification our tongues should be turned away from all unsavoury communication and should minister grace to the hearer 3. The Temple was guarded and kept by the Porters lest any thing should enter or creep into the Temple which might defile it 2 Chron. 23.19 In like-manner should we watch over the Ports of our eyes and ears that nothing enter in by them which may defile the soul which is the very sanctuary within the temple of our body No stranger was admitted unto the temple of Jerusalem Act. 21.28 so we should not admit willingly any strange thought or stragling motion which would turn the heart away from God Ps 119.113 I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love If through our inadvertence such motions creep in or through violence rush into the soul and molest the body then as our blessed Lord in his zeal did scourge out the buyers and the sellers out of the Temple we should in a holy indignation and commendable self-revenge cast out these thoughts that would sell our bodies and the members thereof unto iniquity If thus ye be careful to use your bodies as a temple to the Holy Ghost then may ye be assured the Holy Gâ—ost who dwelled in the soul and over-ruled the body in the day of resurrection will fill his temple with glory even as the temple of Jerusalem was first built by Gods command and thereafter filled with the cloud and sensible presence of God himself But these who dishonour God in the body and members thereof as by blaspheming the Name of God by uncleanness by drunkenness or other sins acted by the subserviency of the body can such persons or dare they say We know we have an eternal house in heaven Yea do they not know and are convinced from the threatnings of God and from their own conscience bearing witness to the truth and justness of the same that if they live and dye in their sins without repentance and amendment of life there is a bottomless dark prison with torments everlasting prepared both for their soul and for their body Gal. 6.8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption Conclus 3. There is a great difference and opposition between the bodies
God and the care of all their concernments unto their wise Lord who can raise up a Joshua in the place of Moses and an Elisha in the place of Elijah and also enable them with the spirit of their Calling It is also a natural and pious desire of godly Parents to live that they may bring up their young children in the knowledge and the fear of the Lord and under God provide for them nevertheless when they perceive it is Gods will to remove them by death from their children they willingly submit themselves to the will of God and as they cast themselves and the care of their soul upon the God of their salvation so with confidence they commit their children to God who taketh this title unto himself to be the father of the fatherless And I know well the God of truth doth not assume empty titles but is fully answerable unto them in the work of his gracious and fatherly providence 3. A cause of their unwillingness to die is sometimes their want of full assurance of the remission of their sins and of the salvation of their souls but if they had this they profess they would be most willing to die For answer to this scruple I confess it is no wonder the child of God desire this full assurance because the more they have of a well-grounded assurance they have the more of inward peace and comfort yet though thou have not that full assurance which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the full assurance of faith yet if by thy true repentance thou hast forsaken thy former evil wayes and hast brought forth fruits meet for repentance in the amendment of thy life and by faith cleavest to Christ and to the merit of his perfect righteousness I say unto thee as our blâ—ssed Lord said unto the Ruler of the Synagogue Mark 5.36 Be not afraid only believe Remember that of John 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned And Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life That full assurance called in a borrowed phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like that of a Ship coming in to the Harbour with full Sails before the wind yet some Ships in time of a storm will come in safe also with a piece of a Cross-sail Bless thou God for thy faith of adherence to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the promises of salvation in him if with Job thou can say with an upright heart Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Consider I beseech thee for thy comfort that God is more zealous of his own honour in performing his faithful promise made unto believers who depend upon him by faith and obedience than thou canst be of thine own salvation as he takes no pleasure in the destruction of a sinner so he takes much pleasure in thy turning and trusting in him if thou die leaning by faith on him and his promise of salvation then shalt thou be saved and carried by him out of this wilderness unto that Paradise which is above as it is said Cant. 8.5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved If the Son of God the beloved of the Father be also thy beloved and if thou die leaning on him then shalt thou come out of the wilderness of this world and shalt be filled with his everlasting love and fulness of the purest joy and delight in the Kingdom of Heaven Quest What are the means and helps to make the children of God willing to remove out of the body Ans 1. A special mean is that set down here in the Text to wit the assured knowledge of a far better estate after this life Moses a little time before his death went up to the top of Pisgah Deut. 34. and there the Lord shewed unto him the pleasant and plentiful land of Canaan that was on the other side of Jordan after which sight he willingly died there in like-manner the Lord our God for their further encouragement elevats the minds of his children by the eye of faith toward their eternal rest in Heaven then their hearts are so affected with love and desire to be there with Christ that they say as Paul did Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Old Simeon a long expectant of glory waited for Christ the consolation of Israel and when he got him in his arms he said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2.29 30. In like-manner faith embracing Christ the Saviour and the hope of salvation in him and with him doth depart in peace 2. The seal of the Holy Spirit in the work and course of our sanctification doth encourage and make us willing to die as the Seal of earthly Kings make sure to men their earthly possessions so the King of kings by the Seal of the Holy Spirit as our Sanctification is called Eph. 1.13 maketh sure unto believers their heavenly inheritance which is said to be among them which are sanctified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 26. â—8 Therefore as ye would die willingly in the hope of that heavenly inheritance be very careful that your gift thereof pass not only through the Common Seal of the outward Ordinances of hearing the Word and receiving the holy Sacraments but also through the Privy Seal of purifying and sanctifying the heart for Blessed are they that are pure in heart they shall see God Mat. 5.8 and without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 There is no coming unto the heavenly inheritance without regeneration as a child yet unborn cannot actually have the possession of an inheritance 3. The earnest of the Spirit which is also called The first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 maketh a man willing to die as a man receiving though a small earnest-peny out of the hand of one that is faithful and able to perform the whole bargain at the term doth trust to his faithful promise and withal having received some earnest of the promised sum the nearer the term of performance is he is the more joyful In like-manner the child of God having sometime received an earnest or first-fruits of his salvation in the sense of Gods love shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost some peace in his conscience by faith in Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners and some joy of the promised salvation from a lively hope to be with Christ the nearer he is to the term of his removal he is or may be the more joyful so it was with the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 5 8. He also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit therefore we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. These first fruits of the Spirit in the soul are like unto these few clusters Joshua and Caleb brought from the valley of Eshcol they