from the beginning as the good Angels continued in their first estate Men that are engaged in an evil course often continue in it without retractation they are no changelings always the same that 's no honour to them Luther when he was charged with apostasie for appearing against the Pope Confitetur se Apostatam esse sed beatum sanctum qui fidem Diabolo datam non servavit He confesseth he was an Apostate but a holy and blessed one that he did not keep touch with the Devil Constancy must ever be understood with respect to a right choice for to break faith with Satan is not matter of dishonour but of praise We must go on with an accurate prosecution for that giveth us experience and causeth us to find joy and sweetness and power in the truth and is a great means of constancy If men would be constant the next thing they must do is to practise that Religion they chuse and live under the power of it Holiness is a great means of constancy 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience As precious liquors are best kept in clean vessels so is the mystery of faith in a pure conscience Men may be stubborn in their opinions out of natural courage and the engagement of credit and interests but this is of little worth without practical godliness their Orthodoxy and rightness in opinion will not bring them to heaven nor shall they be saved because they are of such a sect or party But then all must be closed up by persevering in our resolutions otherwise all our former zeal will be lost I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me and then now I have stuck unto thy testimonies O Lord put me not to shame 2 John 8. Look to your selves that ye lose not those things which ye have wrought All that a man hath done and suffered watching striving praying they come to nothing unless we stick to it and persevere Under the Law a Nazarite was to begin his days of separation again if he had defiled himself if he had separated himself for a year and kept his vow within two days of the year he was to begin all anew Numb 6. 12. and the interpretation of that type I cannot give you better than in the Prophets words Ezek. 18. 24. When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be remembred When they turn head against their former profession it comes to nothing Thus you see what a perfect dependence there is between this Verse and the former In the words there is 1. A profession I have stuck unto thy testimonies 2. A prayer O Lord put me not to shame First For the profession I have stuck to thy testimonies Saith Chrysostom he doth not say I have followed thy testimonies but stuck or cleaved stuck so fast that nothing could remove him no difficulties tryals shakings he was still firm Doct. Those that have chosen the way of God and begin to conform their practice thereunto ought with all constancy to persevere therein First We have the same reasons to continue that we had to begin at first there 's the same loveliness in God's ways Christ is as sweet as ever Heaven is as good as ever if there be any difference there is more reason to continue than there was to begin why because we have more experience of the sweetness of Christ you knew him heretofore only by report and hearsay but now when you have walked in the way of holiness then you know him by experience and if you have tasted 1 Pet. 2. 2. then certainly you should not fall off afterwards Upon trial Christ is sweeter and the longer you have kept to conscience heaven is nearer and would a man miscarry and be discouraged when he is ready to put into the Haven Rom. 13. 11. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed The nearer we are to the enjoyment of any good the more impatient in the want of it As natural motion we find swifter in the end because it 's nearer to the center but Violent motion is swiftest at first as when a stone is thrown upward it is swifter at first but when the impression of the external force is more spent then the motion is weaker It argues that you are not seriously through with God if you should break with him after some profession of his Name now your motion should be more earnest more strong towards him I speak this because we are so apt to cast off our first faith 1 Tim. 5. 12. and to lose our first love Rev. 2. 4. and to grow remiss and lazy and neglect our first works 2 Chron. 17. 3. Iehoshaphat is said to walk in the first ways of his father David We see many at the first are carried on with a great deal of affection and zeal and there are many promising beginnings of a very flourishing spring but yet they are no sure prognostications of a joyful harvest why consider with your selves we have the same reasons to continue as to begin yea much more as heaven is nearer In a marriage-relation true affection encreaseth but adulterous love is only hot while it is new If our hearts be upright with God we will encrease with zeal for his glory and love to his testimonies Secondly The danger and mischievous effects of apostasie and falling off that 's another reason why we should stick to his testimonies 1. It is more dishonourable to God than a simple refusal for you bring an ill report upon him as if he were not a good Master A wicked man that refuseth grace doth not so much dishonour God because his refusal is supposed to be the fruit of his prejudice but now you that cast him off after tryal your apostasie is supposed to be the fruit of your experience as if the Devil were a better Master when you have tried both you return to him again Tertullian in his Book de Poenitentia hath this saying After you have tried God you do as it were deliberately judg Satans service to be better or at least you do not find that in God you did expect Therefore the honour of God is mightily concerned and lies at stake when you fall off after you have seemed to begin with him with a great deal of accurateness And God pleads for himself and stands for his credit which seems to be wronged by this apostasie Ier. 2. 5. casting off his service for the Idols of the Nation What iniquity have your fathers sound in me that they are gone far from me And Mic. 6. 3. O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me What can you complain of God Is God hard to be pleased backward to reward What cause of distast have you found in him for implicitely you do as it were accuse him 2.
to the sutableness and proportion which it carrieth to our necessities and desires The Cock in the Fable preferred a Barley-corn before a Jewel the Barley-corn is more sutable to its natural appetite So believers have not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God 2 Cor. 2. 12. therefore the way of Gods Testimonies is more sutable and proportionable to that nature which they have Their wealth and worldly things they indeed sute with the sensitive nature but that is kept under therefore the prevalent inclination is to the word more than to the world 2. There is nothing in the enjoyment of worldly things but they have it more amply in the exactest and sincerest way of enjoyment by the word and walking in the way of its precepts Satans baits whereby he leads men to sin are Pleasure and Profit when bonum honestum the good of Honesty and Duty is declined there remains nothing but bonum utile and jucundum the good of Pleasure and Profit If we be moved with these things it is good to look there where we may have them at the highest rate and in the most sincere manner Now it is the word of God believed and obeyed which yieldeth us the greatest profit and the greatest You have both in one Verse Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than the honey and the honey-comb Because of the Profit it is compared to Gold and because of the Sweetness and Pleasure we have by it 't is compared to Honey 1. The word of God will truly enrich a man and make us happy The difference between Gods people and others doth not lye in this that the one seeketh after Riches the other not they both seek to enrich themselves only the one seeketh after false and the other true riches as they are called Luk. 16. 11. and so differ from one another as we and the Indians do who reckon their wealth by their Wampenpeage or shells of fishes as we do ours by Gold and Silver the one hath little worth but what their Fancies put upon it the other hath a value in nature or to speak in a more home comparison Counters glass Beads and painted Toys please Children more than Jewels and things of greater price yea than Land of Inheritance or whatever when we come to mans estate we value and is of use to us for the supply of present necessities So worldly men preferring their kind of wealth before holiness and the influences of Grace they do but cry up Bawbles before Jewels To evidence this and that we may beat the world with their own notions and so the better defeat the temptation let us consider what is the true Riches 1. What is indeed true Riches 2. Why these are the true Riches I. What is indeed Riches 1. Gracious Experiences or Testimonies of the Favour of God He is a rich man indeed that hath many of these So it is said Rom. 10. 12. God is rich to all that call upon him it is meant actively not passively it only noteth that God doth give out plentiful experiences of his grace 2. Knowledge Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom Col. 3. 16. And the Apostle mentions the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. this is a treasure indeed that cannot be valued and he is a very poor soul that wants it 3. Faith Jam 2. 5. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith He is a rich man that is emptied of himself that he may be filled with God 4. Good works 1 Tim. 6. 10. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded c. but rich in good works Oh miserable man that hath nothing to reckon upon but his Money and his Bags so much by the year and makes it all his business to live plentifully in the world laying up nothing for Heaven and is not rich in gracious Experiences Knowledg Faith and Good works which are a Christians Riches II. Why are these the true Riches 1. That is true Riches which maketh the man more valuable which gives an intrinsick worth to him which Wealth doth not that is without us we would not judg of an Horse by the richness of his Saddle and the gawdiness of his Trappings and is man a reasonable creature to be esteemed by his Moneys and Lands or by his Graces and Moral perfections 2. That is Riches which puts an esteem upon us in the eyes of God and the holy Angels who are best able to judg One barbarous Indian may esteem another the more he hath of his shells and trisles but you would count him never the richer that should bring home a whole Ships lading of these things Luk. 12. 20. Such a fool is he that heapeth up treasure to himself and is not rich towards God that hath not of that sort of Riches which God esteemeth We are bound for a Countrey where Riches are of no value Grace only goeth currant in the other world 3. That is Riches which steads us in our greatest extremities When we come to dye the Riches of this world prove false comforts for they forsake a man when he hath most need of comfort In the hour of death when the poor shiftless naked soul is stripped of all and we can carry away nothing in our hands Grace lyeth near the heart to comfort us 'T is said by a voice from Heaven of those that dye in the Lord their works follow them their wealth doth not Our Graces continue with us to all Eternity 4. That is the true Riches which will supply all our necessities and bear our expences to Heaven Wealth doth not this but Grace Mar. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Heaven and earth are laid at the feet of Godliness 5. That is true Riches which will give us a title to the best Inheritance The word of God is able to inrich a man more than all the Riches of the World because it is able to bring a man to an everlasting Kingdom All this is spoken because there is an evil desire that possesseth the whole world they are vehemently carried after riches and as they are encreased so are they delighted but saith David My delight is to encrease in knowledg and grace if I get more life more victory over lusts more readiness for Gods service this comforts me to the heart Now how do you measure your thriving by worldly or spiritual encrease 2. Here is the true delight Spiritual delight in spiritual objects far exceedeth all the joy that we can take in worldly
that 's proper to the children of God Heb. 11. 13 14 15. It is made the fruit of their faith because they were perswaded of the promises therefore they confessed themselves pilgrims and strangers on earth The voice of Nature saith It is good to be here let God do with Heaven what he pleaseth Natural men are contented with their present portion and cannot endure to think of change and therefore though they are travelling to Eternity yet they are not pilgrims in affection But now Gods children are so in condition and in affection too they count Heaven their home and the world to be a strange place They are Pilgrims in affection in a threefold regard 1. Because they are most sensible of their frailty The frailty of the present life is a common lesson but not easily believed None have such a sense of it upon their hearts as they that are taught by God Psal. 90. 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom And Teach me to know how frail I am saith David Worldly men though they are of this opinion and cannot deny it yet they do not consider it in seeing they see not their minds are taken up with other things they are not sensible 2. The term is proper to the children of God because they are unsatisfied with their present estate they would not abide here for ever if God would give them leave Wicked men are pilgrims against their will but Saints are ever looking for longing for groaning for a better estate Rom. 8. 23. We which have the first-fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption the redemption of our body They desire and groan to be clothed upon 2 Cor. 5. 2. 3. The notion is most proper to them because they have an interest in a better inheritance Wicked men are sure to go out of the world but they are not sure to go to Heaven Now the children of God they know there is an inheritance kept for them here they have the right but there they shall have the possession 1 Joh. 3. 1. So that well might I form the point thus That godly men are and count themselves to be strangers and pilgrims upon earth Others are in a journey but they are not sensible of it and they have no home to go to and no desires to part with the world Now take some instances of this That this is proper to Gods children to count the world a strange place and Heaven to be their home Those that had the best right and the greatest possessions here they will do so Those that had the greatest Right Heb. 11. 9. Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange countrey What right could there be greater than that which was demised and made over to him by God yet in the Land of promise he lived as in a strange place So David here and in other places that had so ample a possession he was King over an opulent and flourishing Kingdom yet Psal. 39. 12. I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were Not only he that was a wandring Partridg and flitted up and down but David that was setled in a Throne he that was so powerful and victorious a Prince But you will say possibly David might speak this when he was chased like a Flea upon the Mountains when he was hunted to and fro like a Patridg no but when he had peace and was fully setled in the Throne when he could offer so many Cart-loads of gold and silver 2 Chron. 29. 13. then he doth acknowledg Lord I am a stranger Jesus Christ who was Lord Paramount he tells us I am not of this world Joh. 17. 14. He was a stranger to his brethren and an alien among his mothers children Psal. 69. 8. He that was Lord of all had neither house nor home He passed through the world to sanctifie it for a place of service but his heart and constant residence was not here to fix it as in a place of rest And so all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ and say as David in the Text I am a stranger upon earth We do not dwell upon earth but only pass through it But why do the children of God count themselves to be strangers here 1. They are born elsewhere Every thing tends to the place of their original as men love their native soyl things bred in the water return thither Inanimate things tend to their center a stone will fall to the ground though it be broken in pieces with the fall Wind that is imprisoned in the bowels of the earth raiseth terrible convulsions and earthquakes until it get up to its own place All things seek to turn thither from whence they came And so grace which came from Heaven it carrieth the soul thither again Ierusalem from above is the mother of us all Heaven is our native Countrey and therefore thither is the tendency and aim of the gracious soul that is born from above It is very notable the contempt of the world is usually made the fruit of our Regeneration 1 John 5. 4. Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and 2 Pet. 1. 4. Made partakers of the divine nature that we might escape the corruptions of the world through lust There is somewhat of God in it then and that which comes from God carries the soul thither where God is In the new nature there 's a strong inclination which disposeth us to look after another world therefore 't is said Begotten to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. As soon as we are made children we begin to look after a childs portion There is another aim when we are born again then the heart is carried out to God 2. There lies their inheritance Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Why he hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in earthly places why is it said only in heavenly places There was their beginning and there 's their accomplishment The main thing Christ aimed at was that we might be translated to heavenly places Christ will set us high enough and therefore he will not give us our portion in the world that 's an unquiet place Here we are not out of Gun-shot and harms-way he would not give it us in an earthly Paradise there Adam enjoyed God among beasts he would give it us in the most glorious manner that we might enjoy God among the Angels The world is not a fit place Here God will shew his bounty to all his children it is a common Inn where Sons and Bastards are entertained a place of trial not of recompence Gods foot-stool and not his throne Isa. 66. 1. The World is Satans walk the Devils circuit Whence comest thou from compassing the earth Job 1. a place defiled with sin Isa.
for which the new creature was made and they are ever tending towards that happy state wherein they shall grieve God no more 3. Hope was made for things to come especially for our full and final happiness God fits us with graces as well as happiness not only grants us a glorious estate but gives us grace to expect it Hope would be of no use if it did not lift up the head and look out for a better Estate than the world yieldeth Hope fastens upon Gods title in the Covenant I am thy God Now God could not with honour take this title and give us no better than present things Heb. 11. 16. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city Mark the Apostles reason Many expound these words so as if the meaning were but this That they did only express Gods condescension that he would take his title not from the Potentates of the world but from a few wandring Patriarchs that God was not ashamed to be called their God Alas the words have a quite other sense rather it expresseth an answerable bounty Unless the Lord would give them something answerable to their hopes more than was visible in the lives of the Patriarchs God would be ashamed to be called their God Do but look upon the slenderness of their condition if that he gave them in the world were all their reward what is this to own that magnificent title I am the God of Abraham c. No now he hath something better than all the honours and riches of the world now he may fitly be called their God Christ builds the doctrine of the resurrection upon the same argument God is the God of Abraham c. therefore they shall have a blessed estate in soul and body Matth. 22. 32. To be a God to any is to be a Benefactor and that according to the extent and largeness of an infinite and an eternal Power USE 1. Are you strangers and pilgrims David and such as he was that were of his stamp counted themselves strangers upon earth If you be so 1. You will always be drawing home and would not desire to stay long from Christ. A traveller would pass over his journey as soon as he can and be hastning homeward Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Is there any looking longing waiting for your blessed estate It is no hard matter to get a Christian out of the world his better part is gone already his heart is there Do your hearts draw homeward Are your desires stronger and stronger every day after eternal life Natural motion grows swifter and swifter still as it draws nearer and nearer its center So certainly a Christian if he had the motions of the new nature he would be drawing homeward more every day 2. What provision do you make for another world if you are strangers Many bestow all their labour and travel about earthly things and neglect their precious and immortal souls They are at home all their care is that they may live well here O Christians what provision do you make for heaven A traveller doth not buy such things as he cannot carry with him as Trees Houses Houshold-stuff but Jewels Pearls and such as are portable Our Wealth doth not follow us into the other world but our Works do We are travelling to a Countrey whose Commodities will not be bought with gold and silver and therefore are we storing our selves for heaven for such things as are currant there Men that make a voyage to the Indies will carry such Wares as are acceptable there else they do nothing Do you make it your business every day to get clearer evidences for heaven to treasure up a good foundation 1 Pet. 6. 8. and do you labour every day to grow more meet for heaven Col. 1. 12. That 's the great work of a Christian to get evidences and a meetness for heaven These are the months of our purification we are now to cleanse our selves for the embraces of the great God When we grow more mortified strict holy heavenly then we ripen apace and hasten homeward Psal. 84. 7. They shall go on from strength to strength c. every degree of grace it is a step nearer and therefore do you grow more meet for this blessed estate 3. In the fulness of your worldly enjoyments do you mind your Country He that was going pilgrim to Ierusalem cryed out O! this is not the holy City So whatever enjoyments you have do your hearts call you off and say Soul this is not thy rest this is not that thou shouldst take comfort in thou art bound for heaven Do you miss your Countrey and your Parents The men of the world would have their portion here here 's their rest but when you have most of the world at will are you strangers 1 Cor. 7. 31. Using this world as not abusing it that is so making use of Gods bounty as expecting a greater happiness How do we use the world as not abusing it When we use it as a type as a motive and as a help to heaven As a kind of Type The enjoyment of temporal things should stir us up to a more serious consideration of heavenly as the Prodigals husks put him in mind of bread in his fathers house The company of your Relations puts you in mind of the company of God and Christ. The Cities of the Amorites their Walled Towns put the Patriarchs in mind of a City which had foundations Heb. 11. 26. If an earthly City be so glorious what 's the heavenly City These are the comforts of a strange place You abuse them when you forget home and therefore take heed If the creature be sweet heaven is better And when you use them as a Motive to serve God more cheerfully the more you find him a good Master 1 Tim. 6. 17. Trust in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy To make you more earnest in good works 2 Sam. 17. saith David there I dwell in a house of cedar and the ark of God within curtains When you have such kind of reasonings stirr'd up within you What do I for God that hath enlarged my house here And when you use them as a Help your Worldly enjoyments as Instruments of piety and charity Here 's a man's tryal what he doth in a full condition whether his heart be for home still yea or no when he hath the world at will if then he be treasuring up a good foundation and encouraging himself to serve God faithfully 4. What is your solace in your affliction and the inconveniences that you meet with in your pilgrimages Doth this comfort you Home will pay for all Heb. 10. 34. Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Do you reckon upon a more enduring substance Though the World frown upon you as
a step-mother yet you remember you have a better home From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross Doth this comfort you in the midst of the molestations of the World They do not know your birth your breeding your hopes nor your expectations Strangers may be abused in a foreign place when we come home this will be forgotten The Saints walk up and down like a Prince that travels abroad in disguise though he be slighted abused he doth not appear what he shall be You have a glorious inheritance reserved for you this is your Cordial and the reviving of your souls and that which doth your heart good to think of and so you can be contented to suffer loss and inconveniences upon these hopes The discourse between Modestus a Governour under Valens and Basil in Nazianzen his twentieth Oration is very notable I shall only transcribe what is exactly to the purpose in hand When he threatned him with banishment I know no banishment saith he who know no abiding-place here in the world I do not count this place mine nor can I say the other is not mine rather all is Gods whose stranger and pilgrim I am This was that which supported him in the midst of those threatnings Therefore from whence do you fetch your support 5. If Religion be kept up in heigth and majesty the World will count you strangers they will stand wondering at your conversation 1 Pet. 4. 4. Men gaze upon those that come hither in a foreign habit that do not conform to the fashions of the countrey and so a child of God is wondred at that walks in a counter-motion to the studies and practices of other men as one that is not conformed to the world Rom. 12. 2. What do you discover of the spirit of your Countrey so as to convince others Thus much by way of enquiry namely Whether we are strangers yea or no USE 2. Behave your selves as strangers here upon earth 1. Avoid fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. these cloud the eye and besot the heart and make us altogether for a present good they weaken our desires of heaven 't is the Apostles argument As strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts The flesh-pots of Egypt made Israel to despise Canaan and so this is that which will take off our hearts from things to come from the inheritance of the Saints in light and from that blessed estate God hath promised 2. Grasp not at too much of the World but what comes with a fair Providence upon honest endeavours accept with thanks 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare c. The Devil hath you upon the hip when you make that your business and scope not he that is but will be rich that fixes that as his scope Then the heart is filled with sins and the head with cares 3. If an Estate comes in slowly remember a little will serve our turns to heaven more would be but a burden and snare Those that have their portion here most of Worldly things what do they get by it a little belly-cheer Psal. 17. 14. and they leave the rest to their babes Dainty cheer is no great matter and to leave our posterity great is but to leave them in a snare Children are under a Providence and a Covenant as well as we and it is blasphemous to think we can provide for them better than God 4. If God give abundance rest not in them with a carnal complacency Psal. 62. 10. If riches encrease set not your heart on them Suffer not thy heart to rejoyce in them as your only portion so as to grow proud of them so as to count them your good things Luke 16. 25. you that are strangers have better things to mind 5. Keep up a warm respect to your everlasting home It is not enough to despise the world but you must look after a better Countrey Many of a slight temper may despise Worldly Profits their Corruptions do not run out that way Heb. 13. 14. We have here no abiding city but we seek one to come Desires thoughts and groans these are the harbingers of the soul that we send into the Land of Promise By this means we tell God that we would be at home 6. Enjoy as much of Heaven as you can in your Pilgrimage in Ordinances in the first-fruits of the Spirit in communion with Saints Grace is but young-Glory and joy in the Holy Ghost is the Suburbs of Heaven and therefore you should get somewhat of your Countrey before you come at it As the Winds do carry the Odors and sweet-smells of Arabia into the neighbouring-provinces so by the breathings of the Holy Ghost upon our hearts do we get a smell of the upper Paradise it is in some measure begun in us before we can get thither and therefore enjoy as much of Heaven as possibly you can in the time of your pilgrimage We have our taste here it is begun in union with Christ and in the work of grace upon the heart And in Ordinances Prayer brings us to the throne of grace it gives us an entrance into Gods presence Heb. 10. 19. the Apostle calls it a boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus A Christian enters heaven while he is here in the world In the word preached Heaven is brought down to us The Gospel is call'd the Kingdom of Heaven And by reading we do as it were converse with the Saints departed that writ what we read Meditation it brings us into the company of God it puts our heads above the clouds amongst the midst of blessed spirits there as if we saw Jesus Christ upon the throne and his Saints triumphing about him Communion of Saints it is Heaven begun therefore you that are strangers should much delight there A man that is abroad would be glad to meet with his own Countrey-men we should be glad of company to go with us to Heaven these are to be our companions for evermore therefore we should converse with them here II. I proceed to the latter clause Hide not thy commandment from me Here 's his Request To make short work of it I shall endeavour to make out the connexion and sense of these words in these Propositions 1. Every man here upon earth especially a godly man is but a stranger and passenger Every man is so in point of condition he must go hence and quit all his enjoyments in the world wicked men whether they will or no but a godly man is so in affection and cannot be satisfied with his present state This I have insisted upon 2. It concerns him that is a stranger to look after a better and more durable state Every man should do so He that lives here for a while is concerned his greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest therefore Eternity should be his scope A godly man will do so Those whose hearts are not set
but is compared also to things that are of absolute necessity bread and water It is called bread of life and water of life Bread of life we cannot live without it Job 23. 12. I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food Food is that which keeps us in life and enables us to action and work And as water Isa. 12. 3. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation This is as water to a fainting Traveller Christians the soul is better than the body and eternal life is to be preferred before life natural therefore the necessities of the soul are greater and should be more urging than the necessities of the body The Famine of the Word is threatned as a very great evil Amos 8. 11. Now because the necessities of the Saints are so great therefore have they their hearts carried out with such longing after the Statutes of God And this necessity is not only at first when they are weak but it continueth with them as long as the imperfection continueth with them and till they come to heaven Every grace in a child of God needs encrease and support There is something that is lacking to their faith to their love to their knowledg 1 Thes. 3. 10. The Apostle saith That I might perfect that which is lacking to your faith They that are above Ordinances are not acquainted with their own hearts they are not men of spiritual experience they do not know the weaknesses and languishings a child of God is incident to it is wholly inconsistent to the nature of grace Wherever there is life there must be food because of the constant depastion of the natural heat upon the natural moisture Though the stomach be never so full at present yet anon it will be hungry again so because of the constant combat that is between the flesh and spirit whereever there is spiritual life it will be sensible of the necessity of food Well then it is hunger and necessity that sharpens appetite being sensible of spiritual languishing and need to repair strength daily therefore are their hearts carried out Thus you see the reasons of this vehement affection Secondly The reasons of the constancy of this respect 1. Because it is natural and kindly to the regenerate therefore as it is vehement so it is constant For it is not a light motion but such as is deeply rooted not a good liking but a through bent of heart it is that which setleth into another nature Now that which is as a Nature to us is known by its uniformity and constancy 2. They love the word for its own sake as it is Gods word therefore they ever love it Other men love it for foreign reasons as out of Novelty which is an adulterous affection or out of publick countenance as it is in fashion and repute and therefore are soon weary of it He that loves a woman for foreignreasons as Beauty and Portion when these cease his love ceaseth USE 1. Is to reprove the coldness and cursed satiety and loathing of the word of God that is abroad There is a plenty of means even to a surfeit Men are Gospel-glutted Christ-glutted and Sermon-glutted and therefore are at a very great indifferency and under a mighty coldness as to the word of God Usually we are more sensible of the benefit of the word in the want of it than we are in the enjoyment of it 1 Sam. 3. 1. The word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open vision When the publick Ministry of the Prophets was rare and scarce then it was precious and sweet When the Papists denied the use of the Scripture in the Vulgar tongue O what would we give then for a little scrap and fragment of the word of God in English a Load of Hay for a Chapter in Iames. So in times of restraint how savoury is a godly Sermon But now visions are open men begin to surfeit of the word In semet ipsam saith Tertullian semper abundantia contumeliosa est Plenty lesseneth the price of things As in Solomon's time gold and silver were as dirt in the streets 1 King 10. 32. so the word of God though it be so precious and excellent yet when we have plenty of it line upon line precept upon precept by Gods indulgence then we begin to be glutted People grow wanton when they have abundance of means This is the temper of English professors at this day they are guilty of surfeiting of the word and that 's very dangerous either of a people or person Now that there is such a fulness and satiety appears partly By seldom attendance upon the word We do not redeem time to hear the word when brought home to our dores we seldom step out to hear it They use to say a surfeit of bread is most dangerous surely a surfeit of the bread of life is so When men are full and begin to despise the word as if not worth the hearing God usually sends a Famine to correct that surfeit of the Word Amos 8. 11 12. I will send a famine of hearing the word of the Lord and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it Usually that is the way that God taketh for a glutted people that scorn and neglect the word when they might gather it like Manna from heaven every day they may ride many miles before they hear a saâ—…oury Sermon and then those that were not for the word or desirous to be rid of it may long for a little comfort and reviving by it and cannot enjoy it 2. Men bewray this satiety and fulness of the word by fond affectation of luscious strains wholesome Doctrines will not down with them unless it be cooked and saweed to their wanton appetites O Christians the spiritual appetite desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2. 2. unmixed milk give them plain simple milk without human mixtures and compositions The relish of the word is spoil'd by the garish strains of a frothy Eloquence A plain solid truth is more sutable to a gracious heart A man that hath a natural instinct to the word delights in the simplicity of it An Infant hath a distinguishing palate and knows the Mothers milk and pukes and casts when it sucks another so certainly if we had true spiritual life we would be delighted in the word for the words sake the more plain it is provided it be sound I am not for a loose careless delivering of Gods Message but it is the sound plain and wholsom Ministry which suits with a gracious appetite It argues a distempered heart when we must have Quails and Dainties and loath Manna Consider in heaven where we have the most simple apprehension of things we have the highest affection to them No need of
it All the Generations past were but are not and the present is but will not be and within a little while who of us can say I am no our place will know us no more but God eternally saith I am not I have been or I shall be but I Am. Look a little backward and you shall find Man's Beginning step a little forward and you shall overtake his Dissolution but God is still I Am he is one that is All before all after all and in all He beholdeth from the Mount of Eternity all the Successions and Changes of the Creature and there is no succession or mutation in his Knowledge Well then here is an Answer for Pharaoh and the Israelites and all of you to study on I Am that I Am. I am the Fountain of all Being that do unchangeably and eternally exist in my Self and from my Self 2. God hath described his Name by his Attributes To go over all the compass of a Sermon will not permit I shall single out three from all the rest his Power Wisedom and Goodness they are manifested in all that God doth 1. In Creation Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goodness of God is seen in the usefulness of the Creatures to man the Power of God in the stupendiousness and wonderfulness of his Works his Wisedom in the apt structure constitution and order of all things first he createth then distinguisheth then adorneth The first work was to create the Heavens and Earth out of nothing there is his Power his next work is a wise Destination and Ordination of all things he distinguisheth Night from Day Darkness from Light Waters above the Firmament from Waters beneath the Firmament the Sea from the dry Land there is his Wisedom then he decketh the Earth with Plants and furnisheth it with Beasts and storeth the Sea with Fishes the Firmament with Stars there is his Goodness Let us examine these more particularly beginning 1. With his Goodness The Creation is nothing else but an effusion of the Bounty and Goodness of God he made the World not that he might be Happy but that he might be Liberal he made the World not by Necessity but at his Pleasure Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created God was happy enough without us he had a fulness and absolute sufficiency within himself his great aim was to raise up Objects out of nothing to whom he would communicate his Goodness the Heavens and Earth were made that Man might have a place for his Exercise and a dwelling for his Rest and in both might love honour serve and glorifie his Creatour God sits in his Palace among his best Creatures and thither also will he translate Man at length if he be obedient and observe the ends of his Creation thus his Goodness appeareth 2. His Power he brought all things out of the womb of nothing The powerfull fiat was enough Isa. 40. 26. Lift up your eyes on high who hath created these things and bringeth out their host by number and calleth all things by their names by the greatness of his might for that he is strong in Power The force of the Cause appeareth in the Effect and God's Power in the Life and being of the Creature There is no Artificer but he must have Matter to work upon or else his Art will fail him and he can do nothing all that Man can do is to give some Shape and Form or to fashion that in some new Model which had a Being before but God made all things out of nothing the inclination and beck of his Will sufficeth for his great Works we have great toil and sweat in all things that we doe but behold what a great Work is done without any pain and travel it is troublesome to us to carry up a little piece of Stone or Timber to any Building of ours but God stretched out all these Heavens in such an infinite compass by the Word of his Power and hangeth the Earth upon nothing 3. His Wisedom The admirableness and comely variety of God's Works doth easily offer it to our thoughts In the frame of the Work you may easily find out a Wise Workman Psal. 136. 5. Sing praises to him that by Wisedom hath made the Heaven and the Earth for his mercy endureth for ever so Prov. 3. 19. The Lord by Wisedom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he established the Heavens the Wisedom of God appeareth in the order of making and order of placing all the Creatures In making them in simple things God begun with those that were most perfect as his first Creature was Light which of all Qualities is the most pure and defecate and is not stained by passing through places most impure then all the other Elements In mixt Bodies God took another method from imperfect to perfect first things that have a Being as the Firmament then Life as Plants then Sense as Beasts then Reason as Men first God would provide the places of Heaven and Earth then the Creatures to dwell in them first the Food then the Creatures to be sustained by it Provision was made for the Inhabitants of the Earth as Grass for Beasts and Light for all living and moving Creatures Plants have a growing Life Beasts a feeling Life then Man was made last of all Creatures as most excellent Thus God would teach us to go on from good to better Man's Palace was furnished with all things necessary and they were plac'd and dispos'd in their apt Cells for the beauty and service of the whole and then like a Prince he was sent into the World to Rule and Reign There are not so many Animals in the Earth as in the Sea to avoid the great waste of Food which would be consumed by the Beasts of the Land to the prejudice of Man but there is no end of these Considerations Onely let me tell you Power is most eminently discovered in the Creation Rom. 1. 20. The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead the first Apprehensions which we are possest with and which are most obvious are the infinite Greatness and Power of the Creatour 2. These are manifested in the whole structure of his Word his Power in the Histories and Prophecies which declare what God hath and shall doe his Wisedom in the Precepts and Counsels and discovery of such Mysteries his Goodness in Promises Institutions and provisional Helps More particularly in the Law-part of his Word his Goodness that sheweth Man what is good Micah 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good his Power in threatning such Punishments and promising such Rewards and in the wonderfull efficacy of his Word in the Conscience his Wisdome in stating such a Rule that hath such an admirable fitness for the governing and regulating of Mankind
and Troubles but have much peace and quietness of spirit in believing Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing 3. As Peace exceedeth Consolation so doth Joy exceed Peace and begets a more notable sense of it self in the Soul In Peace all things are quiet so as we feel no anxious tossings of mind no gripes and fears of an accusing Conscience but in Joy true Joy more some lively motions of heart accompanied with a more lively pleasure and delight In Peace the Soul is in such a condition as the Body is when nothing paineth us but in Joy as when the corporeal Senses are mightily moved with such things as delight and please them as at a Feast the Soul is filled with perpetual suavities so great many times as cannot be told 1 Pet. 1. 8. Ioy unspeakable and full of glory Well then This is Comfort if you consider it with respect to the sense of God's Love or the hopes of glory such a lightning and easing of the heart as sheweth it self in alacrity in God's service and courage in Tribulations 1. These Comforts though not absolutely necessary to Salvation yet conduce much to the well-being of a Christian and therefore not to be despised 'T is as Oyl to the Wheels Iob. 15. 11. If neglected and not sought after with earnest diligence they are despised which cannot be without great sin 2. It follows after holiness as heat doth fire The Oyl of grace will breed the Oyl of gladness There are certain spiritual Pleasures which do attend a course of Obedience Holiness is our work Comfort our reward Holiness is God's due Comfort our profit and interest Acts 9. 31. Walked in the fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost Grace carrieth us out to honour God Love to him breedeth Comfort 'T is strange if it be not so there is some unusual impediment 3. Though our main Comfort be in Heaven yet whilst we are here in the world we have some foregoing Consolation as an earnest and pledge of more to ensue and as the solace of our Pilgrimage Psal. 117. 54. Here is not onely the offer but the sealing of Pardon and Peace to the Soul 4. Comfort is more needfull at some time than at others and God dispenseth it suitably to our tryals necessities and wants In great Afflictions and Temptations there is a larger allowance because they need greater Comforts 2 Cor. 1. 5. a drop of Honey is not enough to sweeten a Hogshead of Vinegar The Lord reserveth the Comforts of his Spirit for such a time The more humble and frequent in Prayer Grace is more exercised drawn forth into the view of Conscience 2. Comfort is to be asked of God for 't is his proper gift 'T is his Name The God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. and 2 Cor. 7. 6. The God that comforteth those that are cast down 'T is well that our Comforts are in the hand of God we should have little of it if it were in the disposal of the Creature Consider 1. That natural Comforts are the gifts of God 1 Tim. 1. 17. He giveth us richly all things to enjoy and sets forth the bounds of our habitation where and how much we shall have and giveth and taketh these things at his pleasure raising up some from the Dunghill pulling down others from the Throne of Glory 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. That Prosperity may never be without a Curb nor Adversity without a Comfort God will acquaint the World with such Spectacles now and then All things are at his dispose 2. That moderate delight and contentment that we have in our earthly Blessings is his allowance The Creature without God is like a deaf Nut when we crack it we find nothing Eccl. 2. 24 25. and Eccl. 3. 13. 'T is the gift of God and 't is one of the chiefest earthly mercies that in this valley of Tears where we meet with so many causes of grief and sorrow we take comfort in any thing Without this a Crown of Gold will sit no easier than a Crown of Thorns upon the head of him that weareth it yea a Palace becomes a Prison and every place an Hell to us 'T is not abundance of Honour that makes a man happy but Comfort Luk. 12. 15. If God send leanness into the Soul or a spark of his wrath into the Conscience all is as the white of an Egg unsavory A secret Curse eateth out all the contentment of it He that liveth in a Cottage is happier than he that liveth in a Palace if he have Comfort there 3. For spiritual Comfort which ariseth either from the sense of his Love or the hope of Glory we cannot have one drop of it but from God His Spirit is called the Comforter All the World cannot give it if he doth not give it us He hath an immediate and soveraign power over the hearts of men if he frown nothing can support us When the Sun is gone all the Candles in the World cannot make it day We can procure our own sorrow quickly bu the onely can comfort us None but Divine comforts are Authentick 3. The means of conveying and procuring this comfort 1. The means of conveying it on Gods part is his word David pleadeth that where the remedy of his misery was discovered and offered We read often in this Psalm how David revived his comfort by the Word and Rom. 15. 4. Comfort of the Scriptures There is the matter of true spiritual comfort 1 Cor. 14. 31. That all may learn and all be comforted This follows from the former God is the God of comfort And we should not have the heart to come to him unless he had opened the way to him by his promise The World cannot give it to us Philosophy cannot The word of God can And this comfort is both strong and full for measure and matter 1. Matter There the Death of Christ is laid down as the foundation of comfort If we consider God as Holiness it self and we nothing but a mass of sin and corruption you will see there can be no reconciliation without satisfaction given Mercy must see Justice contented one Attribute must not destroy another Justice hath no loss 't is fully satisfied in Christ and that 's the ground of our comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. There are the promises of deliverance protection support the liberties and privileges of Christians laid forth These are the breasts of comfort Isa. 66. Suck of these and be satisfied In short our great comforts are God's presence with us while we are in these Houses of Clay Our presence with God in his Palace of Glory 1 Thes. 4. 17 18. We shall ever be with the Lord. And comfort one another with these words Secondly The means on our part receiving the sweet effects of Gods mercy and word and that is Prayer We cannot have it without dealing with God in an humble manner Whatever God giveth he will
Wretches who are in that everlasting estate would give if they might be trusted with a little time again that they might provide for Eternity how happy would they think themselves if God would but try them once more if careless Creatures would but anticipate the thoughts of another world how soon would they discern their mistake how miserably will you bewail your selves when you have lost Eternity for poor temporal Trifles What comfort will it be to you that you have been merry here lived in pomp and ease when you must endure the wrath of God for evermore and wish for any allay of your torments Luke 16. 24. Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame 'T is better to believe than try provide against it than try 6. If you be Christians indeed you have not the spirit of this world Christianity as 't is acted by us is but the exercise of Faith Hope and Love Now the eternal fruition of God is the matter that all these graces are conversant about Faith believeth that there is an Eternal Being and that our happiness lieth in the fruition of him Heb. 11. 6. Love is that which levelleth and directeth all our actions to this blessed end that we may see God and enjoy him as our portion and felicity Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee Our desires are after him our delights in him 't is our work to please him our happiness to enjoy him The truth of his eternal Being is the object of our Faith so the apprehension of him as our chief good and felicity is the object of our love so as he is capable of being enjoyed and our participated Eternity is the object of our Faith this is the end of all our desires and labors and the expectation of this fortifieth us against all the difficulties of our pilgrimage and so directeth us what to mind be and do 2 Cor. 5. 9. Therefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord. Directions What shall we do Direct 1. Meditate often and seriously of Eternity There is a great deal of profit gotten by this Meditation nothing doth more promote the great ends of the Gospel than this Meditat on 1. For Christ nothing makes Christ precious but serious thoughts of Eternity he being the onely means to deliver us from wrath to come which is the great evil of the other state and procure for us the eternal enjoyment of God which is the good of that estate Psal. 84. 11. He is a sun and a shield and no good thing will he with-hold from them that live uprightly You can make a shift without Christ in this world you are by ordinary means well provided against the evils of this life and well fortified with the good things thereof but in death Christ will be to thee gain and advantage 2. It would promote the great change What will make a proud man humble a vain man serious a covetous worldling heavenly a wicked man a good man let him think of Eternity where only the humble the heavenly are favoured and accepted 2 Cor. 3. 11. 3. What would check Temptations either from the Pleasures Riches or Honors of the world these are not eternal Riches nor eternal Pleasures nor eternal Honors transitory things are not our business nor our scope Heb. 11. 25. 4. What would quicken diligence and put life into our endeavors but the meditation of Eternity Every thing should be laboured for that hath an everlastingness in it the travel of your souls should be laid out upon those things Isa. 55. 2. Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfies not So John 6. 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth but that which endureth to life everlasting Surely serious diligence is necessary Shall I trifle away that time which I am to improve for Eternity Direct 2. Let the enjoyment of an Eternal God be your end and scope 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not to things which are seen but to things that are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal When you have set eternal things before you then make your choice on the one side there are eternal joys on the other eternal torments Now vain pleasures lead to the one solid godliness to the other By the neglect of God you run the hazard of a miserable Eternity By the choice of God for your Lord and portion you get an interest in a blessed Eternity only let me warn you 1. To chuse End and Means together Mat. 7. 13 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it They must be coupled both quicken each other the intention of the end quickens to a diligent pursuit and an earnest use of means and the use of means will sooner give you to understand what your condition will be than a bare reflection upon the End 2. Do not confound principal and subordinate Means so as one should justle out the other The primary means of going to the Father is Christ. John 14. 6. Iesus saith unto him I am the Way and the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me The secondary means is holiness Heb. 12. 24. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Direct 3. Be resolvedly true to your End which is the enjoyment of God and that will quicken you the more and direct you for the End is both our measure and our motive In short do all things from eternal Principles to eternal Ends the eternal Principle is the grace of the Spirit the eternal End is the pleasing glorifying and enjoying of God Philip. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Iesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God Actions carried on from eternal Principles according to an eternal Rule for an eternal End cannot miscarry SERMON XCIV PSAL. CXIX VER 89. Latter Clause Thy word is setled in heaven THis will bear two senses 1. Relating to God's Decree made in Heaven 2. That an Emblem of its Constancy is in Heaven 1. It may be referred to God's Decree Thy word is setled in Heaven in thy Mind and Will The words of temporal Kings are on Earth and therefore their Laws and Edicts are subject to many changes and are often revoked and altered either by themselves or by their Successors but the Word of God is above all changes and alterations as being decreed in Heaven 'T is preached on earth believed on earth
them under sadness and horror Iudas threw away his 30 pieces of Silver when his guilt star'd him in the face I have sinned in betraying innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. When God is angry the creatures cannot pacifie him and make you Friends as when a man is going to Execution with a drooping and heavy heart bring him a Posie of Flowers bid him smell of them and comfort himself with them he will think you upbraid his misery so in troubles of Conscience what good will it be to tell a man of Riches and Honours the remedy must be according to the grief so that if outward things could satisfie the heart they cannot satisfie the Conscience our sore will run among all the creatures and there 's no salve for it Secondly They will not stead us at the hour of Death when a Man must launch out into Eternity and set Sail for an unknown World Can a Man comfort himself then with outward things that a Man is great rich and honourable beautiful or strong or that he hath wallowed in all manner of sensualities If Men would look to the end of things they would sooner discern their mistake Deut. 32. 29. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end So Ier. 17. 9. At his latter end he shall be a fool He was a Fool before all his life-long but now he is so in the account of his own heart So Iob 27. 8. What hope hath the hypocrite though he hath gained when God cometh to take away his soul The poor Man would fain keep his soul a little longer no but God will take it now and he doth not resign it but God takes it by force And 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin The dolors and horrors of a guilty Conscience are revived by death and then the weakness of worldly things doth best appear our wealth and honour and pleasure will leave us in the dirt when the soul is to be turned out of doors our vain conceits are blown away and we begin to be sensible of our ill choice if Conscience did not do its office before death will undeceive them When a man dyeth he shall carry nothing away with him his glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. He shall be eaten out by Worms as others are when he cometh to go the way of all the Earth then for one Evidence for Heaven one dram of the favor of God as Severus the Emperor cryed out I have been all things but now it profits me nothing 4. 'T is of no use to you in the world to come Gold and Silver the great Instruments of Commerce in this world are of no value there all civil distinctions last but to the Grave some are high and others low some are rich and others poor these distinctions will last but awhile but the distinction of good and bad lasts for ever their works follow them but not their wealth outward things cannot save your souls or bring you to Heaven 5. In this World it will not prevent a Sickness or remove it The honorable and the rich have their diseases as well as the poor yea more they are bred upon them by their intemperance All your Houses and Lands and Honors and Estates cannot ease you of a Fit of the Gout or Stone nor an aking Tooth nor keep off Judgments when they are Epidemical There were Frogs in Pharaoh's Bed chamber as well as among the meaner Egyptians and all the King's Guard could not keep them out Well then all these things shew 't is of a limited use indeed they serve to make our Pilgrimage comfortable and to support us during our service that 's the best use we can put them to but the use the most put them to is to satisfie a sensual appetite or please a fleshly mind Psal. 17. 14. The utmost that these things can procure is a back well cloathed and a belly well filled This is but a sorry happiness to feed a little better than others to provide a richer Feast for the Worms yea a Prey for Hell Take all created perfections not as subordinate to grace but separate from it it serveth but to please the appetite or the fancy make the most or best of it Secondly By their time and period as to continuance All these things perish in the using like Flowers they wither in our hands while we smell to them The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And whosoever liveth here for awhile must look for changes and reckon to act several parts in the World Whatsoever was wonderful in former Ages 't is lost and past with age things that now are are not what they once were Psal. 102. 26 28. They shall perish but thou shalt endure for ever saith the Psalmist speaking to God Yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years have no end Christ he hath no end but Men will soon see the end of all perfection The World and all things were made ea lege ut aliquando pereant that they might at length fail and come to an end That which you now have you cannot say it shall be yours this time twelve month or it may be a month hence we hold all things by an uncertain tenure God may take away these things from us for Man is compared to Grass and the glory of Man to the flower of Grass 1 Pet. 1. 24. What is the glory of Man Riches Wisdom Strength Beauty Credit all these things are called the Flower now the Flower fadeth before the Grass and withers the neglected stalk remaineth when the leaves of the Flower are shed you may be gone and they gone if they continue with you till death then you must take your final farewell of all your comforts Thus you see all perfection will have an end Fourthly Here is the confirmation from Sense I have seen Consider it 1. As 't is matter of sense or experience 2. As 't is an observation upon experience First The vanity of the Creature is matter of sense and plain experience We have seen and others have seen all outward things come to their final period goodly Cities levied with the Earth mighty Empires destroyed worldly Glory blasted Honours vanished Credit and Esteem shrunk into nothing Beauty shrivelled with Age or defaced by Sickness yea all manner of greatness laid in the dust We trample upon the Graves of others and within a little while others will do the same over ours All things have their times and turns their rise and ruine there 's no man that converseth with the world but he will soon see the vanity of it David found it not only by clear reason but by his own experience I have seen saith he and so will you say too within awhile these things will fail when you have most need
of the spiritual Shepherd and this comforts us when we are in the shadow of death in our crosses in confusions and difficulties when we have nothing else left but the promises this is a reviving to the soul. 2. It is a comfort and refreshing to us in spiritual troubles that arise from the guilt of sin and want of the sense of God's love Isa. 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God What shall he do Shall he compass himself about in his own sparks O how miserable are we then no but let him depend upon God according to his promise The Word of God is a great part of his Name let him stay his heart upon the Word of God when he walketh in darkness and seeth no light Now that the Word of God is such a light such a sure and clear direction I shall 1 give a direct proof of it from Scripture 2 Some Types of it 3 Prove it by experience 4 By Reason 1 For the proof from Scripture you have the Notions of the Text So Prov. 6. 23. The commandment is a lamp and the law is light It is that which keeps us from stumbling So 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place The world is a dark place ay but now here 's a light that shines in a dark place and that 's the Holy Scripture the sure word of prophecy it sheweth us our way to Heaven and prevents us from stumbling into Hell 2 To prove it by Types Two Types I shall mention one is Israel being directed by the Pillar of a Cloud the other is the lamp of the Sanctuary 1. The Type of Israel's being directed by the Pillar of the Cloud by day the Pillar of Fire by night till they came into the Land of Canaan Exod. 13. 21. still they moved up and down hither and thither as the Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire went before them thus our whole course is to be ordered by God's direction See how this Type is exprest Neh. 9. 19. The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to shew them light and the way wherein they should go Mark when they were in the wilderness the Pillar of Cloud and Fire shewed them the way where they were to go this is an Emblem of the safe conduct the Church may expect from Christ Jesus in all Ages God's Pillar departed not from them by night nor day so while we are travelling in the wilderness of this our Pilgrimage his Word and Spirit is continued to us When they entred into Canaan that was a Type of Heaven then this Pillar of Cloud was removed It is notable Iosh. 14. when Israel passed over Iordan we do not read the Pillar went before them but the Ark of God was carried before them so when the Church comes to Heaven the resting place then this conduct ceaseth the Word hath no more use Jesus Christ as the great Shepherd leads his Flock into their everlasting Fold 2. The other Type was the Lamp of the Sanctuary we read of that Exod. 27. 20 21. There was a great Lamp hung upon the Vail to distinguish the Holy of Holies from the other part of the Tabernacle and was fed with pure oil-olive and this lamp was prepared and trimmed up by the Priest daily Now what did this Lamp signifie mark the application this pure oil-olive signifi'd God's pure Word without the mixture of Humane Traditions this hung up in the Vail shin'd in the Church and every day it was prepared furnished set forth by them that are called thereunto for the use of the faithful 3 Let me prove it by experience that the Word is such a sure direction 1. Because natural men have a sense of it and upon that account fear it see Iohn 3. 20 21. Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Natural men will not come to the Word they fear it as discovering and therefore never feel it as refreshing Evil doers hate the light they are afraid of the Word lest it should convince them and discover them to themselves therefore they stand off and shun all means of closing with it there is such conviction in the oar a secret jealousie of the searching power that is in the Word of God 2. Godly men do find a great deal of comfort and satisfaction from this light as to all the doubts and fears of the soul. Psal. 19. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes All their scruples vanish here 's an apt and fit doctrine accommodated to the heart of man A man hath never true and rational delight till he is fully satisfi'd in point of Religion till he can have rest for his soul and commodious notions of God Now if you would have rest for your souls Ier. 6. 16. here it is the children of God find it There 's a fair compliance in this doctrine with all those natural principles and ingrafted notions within us concerning God and his Will they find satisfaction in it to Conscience though not to fond curiosity the one is necessary the other dangerous and unprofitable Christians there 's a great deal of difference between these two satisfying Conscience and satisfying Curiosity as much as between quenching the thirst of a sober man and satisfying the lust and appetite of a Drunkard Here 's enough to satisfie Conscience a fair accommodation of excellent truths to a reasonable nature truths becoming God truths suiting with the heart of man and therefore here they find it to be light that is a sure direction The wicked feel the discovery of it and the Saints feel the impression of it 3. We have this external and outward experience to assure us of our rule and light that shines in the Word of God because those that go against this light and direction do sensibly miscarry and are sure to split themselves upon some Rock or other Our first Parent Adam when he hearkned to the voice of the Serpent rather than the voice of the Lord destroyed himself and all his Posterity As long as he obeyed the Word of God he remained in a blessed estate in Paradice but when he gave heed to other counsels he was cast out of Paradice and rendred liable to many sorrows yea eternal death So all that walk in the imagination of their own hearts and have not light from the Word they presently run themselves into sundry mischiefs The young Prophet is an instance of this 1 Kings 13. 21. To go to particular instances would
the World too Here 's the difficulty how a Christian that hath not a Foot of Land yet should be Heir of all the World All things are theirs saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 21. And it is said of Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful and whose Blessing comes upon us that through the righteousness of Faith he became Heir of the World He was re-established in the right which Adam had before the Fall that whereever God should cast his portion he should look upon it as made over to him by Grace as a sanctified portion belonging to the Covenant and in this sence he was Heir of the whole World All Creatures are sanctified to a Believer and the comfortable enjoyment of them fall to our lot and share and therefore 1 Tim. 4. 5. it is said commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving to them that believe and know the truth Mark Believers only have a Covenant right to Meat Drink Land Money and the things that are possess'd in the World to make use of the good Creatures God hath bestowed upon them Others are not Usurpers I dare not say so all men have a Providential right it is their portion God hath given them in this world but they have not a Covenant right Whatever of the World falls to their share comes to them in a regular way of Providence that shall be sanctified and truly without this Covenant right if we had all earthly possessions it would be a mere nothing and no Blessing Once more Providence is theirs even those things which are against us afflictions death not only life but death 1 Cor. 3. 22. as part of their portion Ordinances are theirs all the gifts of the Church Paul Apollos Cephas all for their benefit and Graces are theirs the righteousness of Christ and the Graces of the Spirit they are all a part of their portion made over to them by virtue of Gods testimony As to the righteousness of Christ It is said of Noah Heb. 11. 7. that he became an Heir of the righteousness which is by Faith The great Legacy which Christ hath left is his righteousness As Elijah when he went to Heaven left Elisha his Cloak or Mantle so when Christ went to Heaven he left the Garment of his righteousness behind him as a Legacy to the Church in confidence whereof we appear before God Look as Fathers leave Lands to their Children and such as they have so Christ hath left us what he had In the outward Estate we are despicable Silver and Gold he hath not left us that 's no solid portion but he hath left us his righteousness and obedience as a ground of our acceptance with God No Monarch in the World can leave us such a portion it cost Christ very dear to purchase it for us Then the Graces of the Spirit we have Grace enough to maintain our expences to Heaven and carry us on till we come to the full enjoyment of our portion Thus God in Covenant Heaven Earth whatever is great and magnificent the Ordinances of the Church the Graces of the Spirit all these belong to our heritage 't is a full portion 2. It is a sure portion both on Gods part and ours On Gods part there we have his Word and that 's better than all the assurance in the World He hath magnified that above all his name Psal. 138. 2. If we had but Gods single word that 's enough for God is very tender of his word more than of Heaven and Earth and all things he hath made Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away Then we have it confirmed with an Oath Heb. 6. 6 7. God thought our heritage could never stand upon terms sure enough therefore he condescended to give us an Oath over and above his Word An Oath is given in a doubtful matter But now because Unbelief possibly might not be satisfied with Gods bare word he hath interposed by an Oath and pawned all his Holiness and Glory laid them at pledge with the Heirs of promise that they might have strong consolation for that 's the effect of Gods Oath when the Lord swears As I live saith the Lord as if he should say Take my life in pawn count me not an excellent glorious holy God if I don't accomplish this for you I will make good this promise There is no inheritance in the world so sure as this made over to the Heirs of promise And then on our part there 't is made sure God will maintain our right to this inheritance we should imbezil our inheritance lose it every hour if it were wholly committed to us but mark Thou art the portion of mine inheritance thou shalt maintain my Lot O Lord Psalm 16. 5. An heritage is either wasted by the prodigality of the Owner or else wrested from us by the violence and cunning of others Now for the prodigal disposition of the Owner Indeed we should spend our patrimony apace soon imbezil our portion if we had the sole keeping of it for we are Prodigals But mark under the Law Exod. 25. 23. an Israelite though he might alienate his inheritance for a while till the year of Jubilee came yet God forbids him to sell it away for ever So we blot our Evidences often we cannot read our Title there 's an interruption of Comfort a kind of Sequestration from the priviledges of the Covenant for a while but Jesus Christ is our Guardian to look after them that take the promises for their heritages And then it cannot be wrested from us by the violence of others All heritages in the world are liable to violences Princes have been driven from their Kingdoms and Men from their Heritages but this is a Heritage God will maintain he hath engaged his own power Iohn 10. 28. No man is able to pluck them out of my hand It shall not be wrested from us by any Pleas in Law The Devil would soon pick a flaw in our Title there are so many temptations and accusations but now God will maintain our right and possession of the priviledges of the Covenant He is deeply engaged to maintain their right whose hearts depend upon him they may take away life but not the favour of God 3. It is a most lasting and durable inheritance as being eternal I have taken thy testimonies for my heritage for ever You know all estates are valuable according as they last a Lease for years is better than to be Tenant at will an Inheritance is better than a Lease Our inheritance lasts for ever and ever All other heritages determine with life but then ours begins this heritage of Gods testimonies A worldly portion may crumble away and waste to nothing before we dye but these testimonies will give us a good Estate when all things else fail A Believer when he is stript of all and reduced to bare promises is a happy man and when
things Do you find the word afford maintenance in distress and want of all things The Covenant is a store-house that never fails when all else fails God is alive still and the Promises are the same when the Field yields no Meal when there are no Calves in the Stall c. yet then you can live upon your Covenant interest and comfort your selves in the Lord your God Hab. 3. 18. Though the course of Nature may fail yet the Covenant of God doth not fail for that 's beyond the course of Nature or beyond the common Providence of God when you can see that â—…ll the accideâ—… which fall out in the world can never take your portion from you you hâ—…e eough to live upon when you see more in the Promises thâ—…n the Creature can take away from you and can see all made up in God As the Children of Israel in the Wilderness had no house but Lord thou art our dwelling place Psal. 90. 〈◊〉 Faith gets a living from Promises when nothing comes to hand in sense and outward feeling and nothing can be taken from us but what the Covenant can restore again and to fetch quickning and support from Heaven Use 3. For Exhortation to press you to take Gods promises for an heritage the poorest that are born to nothing may put in for a share Take these Motives 1. Consider Every man hath an heritage he hath a chief good Psal. 4. 6. Many say Who will shew us any good There is something that Man takes to be his happiness The Soul in its self is a Chaos of desires like a Sponge that sucks and thirsts it hath not sufficiency in its self it was made for something without our selves Now Man being such a needy Creature is always looking abroad for a happiness for a portion to maintain and keep him up in comfort and life Every Man must have a portion Men are not Men without looking after something to maintain them as a Portion Now there is no Portion like this like the testimony of the Lord there is none so full as this Gods Covenant Notion is Alsufficiency here 's all things to be found in God When God came to indent with Abraham I am God Alsufficient He that hath the testimony of the Lord for his Portion hath Gods Alsufficiency engaged to give him every thing he stands in need of 2. This is a Portion will go along with you where ever you go If you go into Exile a foreign Land into Prison into the Grave your heritage will follow you there Your Estate though it lay in Jewels cannot be carried safe with you but this Portion you may carry with you they cannot plunder and deprive you of it There 's a notable Expression Prov. 14. 14. A good man shall be satisfied from himself A very strange Expression it is the highest Sacriledge and Usurpation that can be to be sufficient to our selves it is an incroachment upon God Man when he first fell from God self was the next Pretender to seek that in our selves which is only found in God how is it meant a good man shall be satisfied from himself What! shall the Lord be laid aside Shall he be sufficient to his own happiness No it is not meant in opposition to God but in opposition to external things that lye without him He is satisfied from himself that is from the comfort God lets into his own heart A godly man is independent his comfort doth not hang upon the Creature if you take away the Creature you do not take away his Portion As the Philosopher could say when all were bewailing the loss and spoil of the Enemy I carry all mine with me so a Christian carries all his treasure about him There 's the same Expression 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 A Christian hath a Substance that is out of the reach of spoiling since inward Comfort is far better than Riches and all this Lumber that is without 3. All other things will never give you satisfaction A worldly heritage may give us a belly full but cannot give us a heart full Psal. 17. 14. Their bellies are filled with hid treasure They which are rich and great in the world have more Dishes at their Tables but these have a more delicious Feast in their Souls that have chosen God for their Portion All other heritages do but yield more matter for sin more fewel for wickedness to be spent upon Lust Pride Luxury Appetite that 's all the difference The heart of man is not satisfied with these things and yet if the heart could be satisfied Conscience could not for that 's a sore place still our Sore will run upon us Thus you see there is no heritage like this that lieth out of the reach of the world and that will fill up the whole heart and yield satisfaction You know all other things cannot help us in many worldly Cases in sickness spiritual Comfort doth only relish of sweetness A man doth never relish the Comfort of the Covenant as when he is under sickness and deprived of other things For all other heritages we know the best of them at first but this is a heritage that grows upon us here we have the Pledge and Earnest of our inheritance an Earnest is a small thing to bind the Bargain in lieu of a greater Summ. 4. This heritage sanctifies all our heritages O it 's a sad thing to enjoy a heritage with a curse and the wrath of God First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added then they are cast in over and above as Paper and Packthread into the Bargain and are cast in in a sanctified way A man may grow worse for every other portion all the world will not bring one Dram of Grace but this improves the world and betters us 5. Again this is a good sign of adoption when we have the Spirit of Gods Children both in Gods gift and our choice When men take the promises for their portion 't is a sign they have a good spirit There is no mark put upon them that have an excellent disposition and dexterity to grow great in the world but to be labouring and striving after an interest in the testimony of the Lord it 's a sign we have a Childs spirit 6. Again this is a peculiar portion and always goes along with the favour of God Other things a man may have with the hatred of God God giveth gifts to all his Creatures Isaac had the inheritance but the Children of the Concubines had gifts so every Creature may have common gifts a common portion abundance of supplies in outward things but no right in the Promises of God and all this may be without the love of God 7. Again they that refuse this heritage the Lord will cause his vengeance to seize upon
our Cause as his own Psal. 9. 4. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause and in his own time and manner will shew it to the world and justifie us against our enemies Oh how should our hearts rejoyce in this that he will be the party responsible make our Cause his own and be liable to the Suit as a Debtor is to the Creditor He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. He that despiseth you despiseth me Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9. 4. And Isai. 63. 8. And he said Surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Fifthly God is a sufficient Surety Here we may consider two things The satisfaction of Christ and The power of Gods Providence in respect of both which he is a Pledge and Surety every way sufficient for our comfort safety and deliverance 1. I would not leave out Christs satisfaction though it lye not so full in this Text for as God hath a hand in all our sufferings and all our affairs are determined in an higher Court this satisfaction is necessary to answer the Controversy and Quarrel of Gods Justice against us Thus Christ the Second Person is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Surety Heb. 7. 22. Christ is the surety of a better testament There is a double sort of Surety by way of caution and satisfaction as Sureties in case of Debt and Sureties for good behaviour the one for what is past the other for what is to come The example of the one we have in Paul for Onesimus Phil. 18. If he hath wronged or owed thee ought put it upon my account I Paul have written it with mine own hand and I will repay it An example of the other we have in Iudah for Benjamin Gen. 43. 9. I will be Surety for him at mine hand shalt thou require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee then let me bear the blame for ever In both these respects Christ is a Surety he is our Surety as a Surety undertaketh for another to pay his debt and he is our Surety as he hath undertaken that his redeemed ones shall keep Gods Laws be carried safe to Heaven Of his Suretiship by way of caution we speak now Though Theodoret understand that in the Text undertake for me that I shall keep thy Laws but 't is more proper to consider the Speech as it referreth to the payment of our debt by virtue of this Suretiship Solomon hath assured us Prov. 11. 15. that he that is Surety for another shall smart for it or be broken and bruised The same word is used concerning Christ Isai. 53. 10. he was our Surety and was bruised and broken suffered what we should have suffered we have a right to appear to Gods Justice but our Surety having made a full satisfaction for us God will not exact the Debt twice of the Surety and the Principal When the Ram was taken Isaac was let go Iob 33. 24. Deliver him from going down to the pit for I have found a ransom Well then as our punishment is a due Debt to Gods Justice the Lord Christ undertaketh or is become a Surety for us not only our Advocate to plead our Cause but our Surety to pay our Debt from a Judge become a party and bound to pay what we owe Isai. 53. 4. Surely he hath born our griefs 2. The power of Gods Providence If God undertake for us his Bail is sufficient none of our enemies can resist his Almighty power surely he is able to deal with our enemies Isai. 23. 4. Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battel they are matter to feed the fire not to quench it He rescueth us just as going to prison If he put himself a pledge between us and our enemies he will defeat all their oppositions and machinations against us and stand between us and danger as an able Bail or Surety doth between the Creditor and poor Debtor Well then Suretiship as it noteth our necessity so Gods engagement and his ability and faithfulness to do what he undertaketh We must set God against the enemies Isai. 51. 13. And forgettest the Lord thy Maker he hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundation of the Earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour Dan. 3. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace We have the Almighty to be our Saviour and Protector why are you afraid of a man God against man is great odds if we had Faith to see it man is mortal God is immortal man is a poor weak Creature but God is Almighty what is he not able to do for us Surely he will not leave his friends in the lurch his power is such that he is able to keep us safe and sound II. The Reasons Why we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose 1. From Gods Covenant where in the general there is a mutual engaging to be each others In our several capacities we engage to stand by God and owne his Cause and God is engaged to stand by us We make over our selves Bodies Souls Interests all to God God quantus quantus est as great as he is is all ours therefore if he be ours we may pray him to appear for us and owne us in our distress and trouble Our friend is a friend in distress A gracious heart by virtue of this mutual and interchangeable Indenture appears for God and taketh his Cause though never so hated as its own The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psal. 6. 9. We are his Witnesses Isai. 43. 10. Surely it is too high a word for the Creature but God taketh our Cause as his is Surety for us by virtue of the general tenour of the Covenant he is our God jure venit in auxilium nostrum his Covenant engageth him to undertake for us More particularly God undertaketh to defend and maintain his people as to be a rewarder so to be a defender Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward And Psal. 84. 11. For the Lord is a Sun and a shield This defence is sometimes expressed with respect to the violence of assaults in the world by the Notion of a shield So with respect to the process of the Law by the Notion of a Surety Isai. 52. 3. we have the term of a Redeemer So that we have leave to pray him to fulfil his Covenant Engagement 2. Gods affection is such that he will refuse no office that may be for his peoples comfort We are often disswaded from Suretiship especially for strangers by the wise man by great vehemency and instance Prov. 6. 1 2. My son if thou be surety for thy friend if thou hast stricken thy hand
day of the Lord is near or already begun when the smoke foresheweth the fire is a coming and the Decree ready to break forth these are mourning times 2. The reasons why this is the duty and property of Gods Children they do it out of obedience 't is their duty and they do it out of an innate disposition 't is their property First 'T is their duty because God hath commanded it Now all Gods Commands are equal and full of reason And there is a great deal of reason why God should lay this kind of duty upon the Creature First That it may be an allay to zeal That is an excellent and well-tempered zeal when grief is mixed with anger as it is said of Christ He looked about with anger and was grieved at the hardness of their hearts When we are angry at the sin and mourn for the person and mourn over him Zeal against the sin that shews our love to God and our commiseration of the person that shews our love to man Samuel spared not Saul in his sin yet mourned for him And all the Prophets of God you shall find when they were threatning the people for their sins were grieved lest their threatnings should be accomplished False zeal hath malice and mischief it mourns not for the person because it coveteth his shame and destruction Now it is the great wisdom of God he would have this temper mixed There must be anger for the offence done to God and a grief that our Brother hath offended The world is apt to cry out upon the Children of God as persons peevish and rancorous but this is a rare vindication when they see you as apt to mourn as to chide that all your expostulations with them come rather from Conscience than interest 't is an excellent allay and praise to publick zeal Secondly God would have us mourn for the sins of others to engage us to seek redress and reformation We should soon neglect the duty that we owe to the Age and place where and when we live were it not for this that the want of it would be burthensome to us and the abounding of iniquity will cost us bitter tears upon Gods Command and upon zealous endeavours to get a publick reformation Ezra first mourns bitterly then reforms zealously Ezr. 9. 6 7. I plucked off the hair of my head and rent my garment and said O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee O God for our iniquities are encreased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens c. Zealous actions which few practise in their own case yet sins of others you see work an afflictive grief and shame in those that fear God These were the actions of Ezra when he was bewailing the sins of others and this made him so resolute and active in the reformation that is described in the next Chapter Their love begets sorrow and their sorrow care Who would not seek to redress the evil which is burthensom to him Many times the world is angry because we are so clamorous for reformation and repentance You have liberty enough say they and may serve God in your own way and go to Heaven quietly why should you trouble your self about others But can a man that grieveth for the abominations of the times be silent till they be redressed A Christian is troubled about the salvation of others to see so many thousands of souls carried to Hell by Droves and hurried to their own destruction Can pity and remorse behold this without care and endeavours with God and man to get it remedied Certainly the Children of God are not impertinently active and pragmatical Publick reformation is not only a relief to their souls but to their bowels They are troubled therefore thirst and long to see it redressed 2 Cor. 7. 11. Godly sorrow saith he what carefulness it wrought in you He speaketh of their publick Church sorrow Till they mourned they neglected the discipline of the Church and let incest go without censure Oh my Brethren until we mourn for publick Disorders we shall not mourn over one another We think 't is enough to keep our selves free and to make a little Conscience of our own ways Always private sorrow will beget publick care If thou hast wept sore in secret places thou wilt be earnest with God and man to remove the occasion of thy grief Thirdly The Lord requireth this to keep our hearts the more tender and upright 't is an act God useth to make us more careful of our own souls to be troubled at the sins of others at sin in a third person It keepeth us at a great distance from a temptation This is like quenching of fire in a Neighbours house before it comes near us Thou runnest with thy Bucket There is no way to keep us free from the infection so much as mourning The soul will never agree to do that which grieved it self to see another do And as it keepeth us upright so also humble fearful of Divine Judgment tender lest we our selves offend and draw down the wrath of God He that shruggeth when he seeth a Snake creeping upon another will much more be afraid when he cometh near to himself In our own sins we have advantage of Conscience scourging the Soul with remorse and shame In bewailing the sins of others we have only the reasons of duty and obedience They that fight abroad out of love to valour and exploits will certainly fight out of love to their own safety at home So God would have us more abroad more against the sins of others that our hearts may be more set against those sins with which we our selves are apt to be foyled Secondly This is their disposition as well as their duty it must be so and it cannot be otherwise with the Children of God for several reasons First From the tenderness of Gods Glory which is more dear to them than all their own interests A Christian hath a great affection to the Glory of God is very tender of that he cannot endure it should be violated for his heart will even break within him Can a man see an injury done to a person whom he loves and not be troubled Jesus wept for Lazarus because he loved him and they say Behold how he loved him Iohn 11. 36. They that love God can they hear his great name rent with so many blasphemies So many affronts put upon his Grace the Laws of God trampled under foot and not lay it to heart Gods Glory is more dear to them than their own lives They had neither had any standing in Nature nor Grace had it not been for the Glory of God God made all things for himself therefore when the Name of God is violated his Authority despised his Laws broken and set at nought and no more regarded or esteemed than a Ballad or a Song they cannot but express their tenderness and great affection to God
that scoff at the Mourners in Zion they count it melancholy and mopishness to be so often and seriously humbling themselves before the Lord. The world deals perversely with the people of God they provoke their sorrow and then upbraid them with it You should bear them company mourn with them pine in consort with those Doves of the Valleys Better be a Mourner than a Mocker and Scoffer Others there are that yet can make a shift to hold out some profession of Religion yet can delight in the company of prophane carnal persons Would a man willingly put himself upon occasions of grief Are you like Lot whose soul was vexed day by day Do but consider how much your temper differs from theirs David saith Psal. 119. 115. Depart from me ye evil Doers Others there are that by censures and bitter invectives seek to make the Sinner rather than the sin more odious This is to exercise malice and pride not Christian affection We should not censure but mourn Tears flow from charity censures from pride and by this means you lose a duty for a sin which is a sad exchange Others again are apt to laugh at them and to make sport with the sins of others but do not mourn This is a vile abuse and yet we are many times guilty of it Men laugh at drunkenness and make the slips of others matter of boasting and vain talk This should rather set our hearts a bleeding and mourning He were a monster rather than a man that could see a man take a fall even to the breaking of his back or neck and turn it into a jest or a man wound himself and he make a sport of it And shall we be more kind to the bodies than to the souls of men Oh consider the danger of these practices as much as in him lyeth he hath put himself into Hell and wilt thou laugh at it Use 2. Is Tryal Are we so tenderly affected I know every one is not of a like tender constitution and cannot weep rivers of tears but tell me or rather tell God I cite thy Conscience to make answer to God When thou didst ever go aside into thy Closet or some secret place to lay to heart the dishonour done to God or the affronts put upon his Grace Do not tell me thou hast declaimed against the sin of the times that thou hast not cried up a confederacy with them that cry up a confederacy against God There may be somewhat of faction and interest and obstinacy in those things but when hast thou mourned and wept sore in secret places Do not tell me that thou hast joyned in publick Fasts Hasty and transient sighs do not wound the heart Hast thou ever done it in secret or hast thou often done it It may be thou hast resented injuries and spread them before God and so there is a spirit of self-love and revenge that breaths into thy prayers Men will be hot in their own cause but what hast thou done in this Duty 'T is a plain question and therefore I hope it will have the more force upon the Conscience True zeal for injuries done to God would ease it self by tears rather than anger True Penitents will not satisfie themselves only with publick humiliation to which Law custome and example may draw them but will make conscience of this Duty in their Families yea in secret where no eye seeth them but Gods mourn apart Zech. 12. 12 13 14. and bring home publick provocations to their own doors Ier. 11. 17. Use 3. Is to exhort you to get this practice and to get this disposition of the Saints 1. There is a great deal of need to practise it now whether we look upon the sins or dangers of the Nation the sins such horrid blasphemies and reproaches cast upon Gods Servants his Ways Truths Doctrines according to godliness I think in the wisest judgment that a man can make never was there such a dangerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper of any Nation as of ours at this time Never were sins boiled up to such an height and consistency as now such snarling at reformation that was hopefully begun Now sin walketh in the Streets with a bold face drunkenness swearing and prophaneness seem to triumph and with the more pretence because the stricter sort have so much dishonoured God and Religion Church-affairs are much out of order And for our dangers we hear again of wars and rumours of wars and God knoweth what may be the issue and effect of them Acts 13. 41. Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which ye will in no wise believe though a man should tell you of them The danger of a Nation doth not lye in outward probabilities so much as in the threatnings of the word He alludeth to the horrible devastation of Iudea by the Chaldeans and applyeth it to the despising of the Gospel Would any believe that the Temple and City should be destroyed and the people of God carried captive that not one should remain yet this came In the time of Noah when they abounded in all things who would have thought of a Flood Many would say as that Nobleman If the Windows of Heaven were opened how could this be Who would have believed the horrible dissolution by the Romans or thirty years agone that which is now faln out in Germany Never think that our Armies and Forces are so strong as to withstand the threatnings of the Gospel for our horrible contempt God may blow upon all these props in an instant Therefore weep and mourn for the pride and rebellion of the Daughter of your people So for our private place What sins are there among us Some have withstood the ways of God though they have had convictions yet held out against them Some are prophane many defects in all Orders Paul was mightily troubled because the Church of Corinth was so much out of order he bewailed it with many tears 2 Cor. 2. 4. Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears So may I speak and you think of these things 't is time to mourn By way of motive consider First This is the best way to enter our protestation and dissent against the iniquity of the times When we cannot help a thing 't is good to retract it and commit it by tears to God for then it shall not be laid to our charge When the Corinthians mourned for incest committed among them and sorrowed with a godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 13. Ye are verily clear in this matter many of them did not only not approve but abhor that foul act before but they were not clear till they mourned and purged the Church from the imputation So you are not clear till you have done this Duty Secondly God may take occasion to punish you from their sins We are all Fuel fit for the burning Gods dispensation is not unrighteous as
also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another As long as we have these hearts that we have we cannot wholly except against the Justice and Equity of these Laws and Rules of Commerce between God and his Creatures It is true all truths are not alike evident but they that seriously mind the one will be led on to the other at least will find none contrary to such Conclusions as may be drawn from principles naturally known and will be encouraged to go on till God reveal more to them This is so evident that the wiser any among the heathen are the nearer they come to this Rule and have framed something like it for the regulation of men though with great mixtures of their own folly The perfect discovery of Mans duty God reserved to himself and his own Writings else where there is but fict a rectitudo and pict a Iustitia poor Counterfeits in the Laws of Civil Nations and Institutions of Philosophy Sapientia eorum abscondit vitia non abscindit there was only a little hiding and disguising of sin that it might not appear too odious In short the less knowledg any Nation or Society of men have of this Law the more brutish and barbarous they have been and so accounted to be by all that have known what civility and humane converse mean And on the contrary the more polite and civil the nearer they came to it Whom would you judge to be more civil the Romans or the Scythians the wife and good man or the Sot and Fool Even among us the more punctually any keepeth to this Law the more he differeth from others as much as an Angel from a Man or a Man from a Beast The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12. 26. It is as clear as the Sun whether men will or nill they must acknowledge it and do when they are serious for they approve them while they hate them wish their latter end like theirs intrust them more than others presume more from them than others Out of all I conclude That the very frame and constitution of the reasonable and immortal Soul and Body of Man doth dictate the Equity and Justice of this Law and it doth result from the Image of God wherein man was created Thirdly That Law is just and righteous the violation of which men judge to be justly punished I use this Argument because under punishment men are serious for it rubbeth up and reviveth the sense of a Divine Power Now for the violation of this Law God hath judged Persons Families Nations and Kingdoms and Conscience is sensible of the Justice of Gods Judgments exercised upon them God is clear when he judgeth Psal. 51. 4. his eminent Judgments carry light and conviction with them and wherefore have his Judgments been executed Rom. 1. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Heb. 2. 2. Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward There is a fear after some notorious breach even in those that are not acquainted with God a shyness of his Presence ever since Adam run to the Bushes so it is All which doth seal the righteousness and truth of this Law and how justly God may reckon with us about it Fourthly There is an intrinsecal righteousness in all the Duties commanded in Gods Law Besides the will of the Law-giver there is a Justice in the things themselves By what measure will we take Justice We usually understand it to be to give every one his due So doth the Law it commandeth us to give God his due and man his due Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law The Law is comprized in one word Love to love God himself and his Neighbour is there not Justice in all this The natural relation we have to God calleth for love to him for he made us and is the strength of our lives and the length of our days Deut. 30. 20. That thou mayst love the Lord thy God and that thou mayst obey his voice and that thou mayst cleave to him for he is thy life and the length of thy days Self-love and self-preservation if that be not a natural principle nothing is Our Neighbour we are bound to love because of Consanguinity they are our own flesh and blood and God hath bidden us to do to them as we would to our selves Matth. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets There is an universal Consanguinity between all Mankind which hath its root in the communion of one and the same Nature and in the dependance and derivation from one common Stock The eminence of the Divine Nature is the foundation of the honour which we tender to it and the equality of our nature is the foundation of the Justice which we use to one another So that here are natural immutable Obligations and grounds of right Go to particulars How equal is it that we should acknowledge but one God They are drunk that see double strangely depraved that see more That we should not worship him before an Idol which is very apt to taint our minds with a gross opinion of God as if he were some limited finite Being It is a great lessening of reverence to see what we worship Not to take Gods Name in vain by a false Oath that breedeth Atheism and contempt That there should be a day to remember the Creator of all things every days work is no days work but there must be a limited time For reverence to Parents all Nations call for it For Murder Adultery Stealing false Accusations Mans interest will teach him the necessity of those Laws that forbid these things Contentation is a Guard to all the rest it is fit the God of the Spirits of all Flesh should give a Law to the Spirit Thou shalt not covet Yet this is the Law of God to which Scripture is subservient and all the admonitions reproofs exhortations dehortations examples directions histories of the obedience and vertue of some with their rewards of the disobedience apostasie rebellion of others with their punishments all is to inforce this Law The Doctrine of Christ and redemption and reconciliation by him I bring not under this first Head because that is a favour and priviledge and the Justice and Equity of Gospel Precepts will soon appear when once we have consented to the Law that it is good But of that in the next Head Thirdly For the truth and faithfulness of Gods Testimonies This may be considered either in revealing or performing making or making good his promises First For truth and faithfulness in making such offers and promises of pardon and eternal life in case of obedience and threatning a curse and everlasting punishment in case of
draweth Light out of Darkness is able to revive our Credit and Esteem if not in this World yet in the World to come we shall be glorious though our condition be never so contemptible here Our reward is not in this Life When we die the Beggar is carried into Abrahams bosom would you be in Dives his condition or Lazarus To wallow in Ease and Plenty and go to Hell and be cast out with the Devil and Damned Spirits or to be poor and despised here to be carried by Angels into the presence of God hereafter So at the day of Judgement Matth. 10 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father in Heaven we shall be publickly owned 8. Great contempt shall be poured upon those that now contemn you When Hâ—…non offered injury to Davids Servants he took severe Revenge of it God will require an account of all the Wrongs and Affronts are put upon his Servants The wicked shall be made the Scorn of Good Men and Angels Psal. 52. 6 7. The Righteous also shall see and fear and laugh at him Lo This is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness But I am like a green Olive Tree c. 3. Doctrine That though our Condition be small and despicable yet we should be still faithful in our respects to God and his Word 1. The Temptation will not excuse us esse bonum facile est ubi quod vetat esse reâ—…tum est our Tryal is expresly mentioned in the promise as necessary for our Crowning Iam. 1. 12. When he is tryed when the Temptation is over the Tryal is past 't is no praise for a woman to be chast that hath no Suitors Adam was tempted by Eve and Eve by Satan yet both bore their burden Si taceret Deus â—…queretur Satan c. why should we hearken to Satans Suggestions rather than Gods Admonitions 2. God observeth what we do in our Trouble Psal. 44. 20 21. If we have forgotten the Name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange God shall not God search out this for he knoweth the secrets of our hearts If we slacken our service to God or fall off to any degree of Apostacy the Judge of hearts knoweth all God knoweth whether we have or would deprave and corrupt Doctrine Worship or Ordinances or whether we will Faithfully adhere to him to his Word and Worship and Ordinances whatever it cost us 3. God and his Law are the same and therefore though our condition be altered our Affections should not If we love the Word of God upon intrinsick Reasons there is the same reason we should adhere to it with Love still as to embrace it out of Love Ver. 142. Thy Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness and thy Law is the Truth Among men that may be just to day which is not so to morrow because they and their Lawes alter but Gods Law is the Eternal rule of Righteousness that never alters 4. In our poor and despicable condition we see more cause to love the Word than we did before because we experiment supports and comforts which we have thereby Rom. 5. 3. Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience c. 2 Cor. 1. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. God hath special consolations for his afflicted and despised people And makes their consolation by Christ to run parallel with and to keep pace with their sufferings for Christ. 1. Use. Carry your Duty still in Remembrance The first step of defection is to forget what God hath commanded There is an oblivion and a darkness for the present on the Mind so that a man knoweth not what he knoweth as Hagar saw not the Well that was before her till God opened her eyes therefore revive the grounds of your Adherance if you would constantly adhere to God The Temptation cometh afresh upon you every day with all the inticing Blandishments so should the reasons of your Duty It helpeth our perseverance to consider how strong and cogent they are and what wrong we should do to God and Religion to consent At first a man beholds Temptations with Horrour but being familiarized our thoughts are more reconciled to them therfore recollect your selves and remember the Reasons you first had to put you upon your Duty and if you duly consider them they will be strong and cogent to repel the Temptation that would take you off from it 2. Use. It sheweth who are Lovers of the Word and who not On the one hand some love the precepts of God when they are in Honour and Esteem have many to joyn with them and they see peace and plenty follow the Profession of it But rather than they will indure trouble and contempt forsake it The Samaritans would be Iewes when the Iewes were favoured but in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes when the Iews were in trouble they would be called Sidonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dedicating their Temple not to Iehova but Iupiter Iosephus These never received the Love of the Truth On the other side when a Man loveth it alike in all times and in all conditions when Rich when Poor in Liberty and in Bonds when the wayes of God are countenanced or when despised 't is all one to him they love it not for outward Respects but internal Reasons SERMON CLIX. PSALM CXIX VER 142. Thy Righteousness is an Everlasting Righteousness and thy Law is the Truth IN this Verse the Word of God is set forth by a double Notion of Righteousness and Law accordingly two things are predicated of it as it is Righteousness 't is said to be an Everlasting Righteousness and as it is Law 't is said to be the Truth Both imply our Duty as there are Truths in the Word 't is mans Duty to Believe them as there are Commands 't is Mans Duty to Obey them I shall treat First of the Notions Secondly of the Predications 1. The Notions And there the Word is first called Righteousness thy Righteousness Gods Righteousness is sometimes put for the Righteousness which is in God himself as Verse 137. Righteous art thou O Lord. Psal. 145. 17. The Lord is Righteous in all his ways And sometimes for the Righteousness which he requireth of us as Iam. 1. 20. The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God That is the Righteousness which God requireth of us and here in the Text. Once more that Righteousness which God requireth of us in his Word 't is sometimes taken in a limited sense for the Duties of the second Table and so usually when 't is coupled with Holiness Luk. 1. 75. Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is Created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness Holiness giveth God his due and Righteousness giveth man his due Sometimes 't is taken in a more general sense as
peace that guardeth Heart and Mind Phil. 4. 7. 2. For the degree 't is many times in a great Measure injoyed it may be more or less as our Interest in Gods favour is more or lessened in us and 't is not perfect in this Life There may be Clouds and Interruptions but as our holiness increaseth so doth our peacâ—… a little holiness a little peace but they that love thy law have great Peace Obj. How have Gods Children great Peace None seem more troubled and harrassed with outward Afflictions nor walk more Mournfully then they do Ans. 'T is true this Peace doth not exclude Trouble from carnal men in the World they may have little outward Peace yet they shall have as much of that as God seeth good for them Iob 5. 23 24. but inward peace which is peculiar to them They have God for their Friend are quieted with a true sense and apprehension of his love and favour to them 'T is true as to this inward peace Gods Children may sometimes be without it they that love the Law have a greater sense of sin than others Wicked men swallow sins without remorse but they are very apprehensive of displeasing God But we must distinguish between the time of settling this peace and when 't is settled for a Time they may walk sadly their peace is not grown up light is sown for the Righteous many times they sow in Tears but reap in Joy sometimes their love to the Law is intermitted so their peace may be interrupted But their worst condition is better then a carnal mans best as the darkest cloudy day is brighter then the brightest night there is some comfort and staying upon God in the worst Condition Use. I. Let us from hence see the sad condition of carnal Men this Clause love thy law is exclusive and confineth it to one sort of men The unjustified the unsanctified want this Peace God saith of them they should not enter into my Rest Psal. 95. 11. The Rest is begun in this Life in Reconciliation with God and Peace of Conscience and perfected in an Everlasting Refreshment in that to come Their sins are not pardoned and therefore continually Fear they have often refused Gods peace and therefore cannot injoy comfort with any security nor bear Troubles with any patience and quiet of Mind nor come into Gods presence with any cheerfulness nor wait for eternal Rest with any certain hope There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa. 48. 22. Psal. 57. 20 21. 'T is not allowed to wicked men nor vouchsafed to them 't is true they may have a peace but 't is either in sin or from sin they do not mind the condition of their Souls a blind presumption that meerly cometh from Gods forbearance or Worldly Happiness in Prosperity Carnal Men seem to be in as great quietness as the Children of God as the deep Sea in a Calm which seemeth to be as quiet as other waters until a storm and tempest doth arise then troubled and cannot rest Use. II. To perswade us to love the Law of God by this Argument because we shall have great peace for the Promise is made to this love But you will say How must we shew love to the Law of God that we may obtain this Effect I Answer Practice the Duties it calleth for in order to peace 1. Accept the Articles of peace that are proclaimed between God and Mankind in and through Christ. Eph. 2. 17. There is peace preached not only to them that are afar off but to them that are nigh there is not only a price paid but an offer made Imbrace it lay hold upon it by Faith God is in good earnest with you 2 Cor. 5. 20. Oh love this good Word 't is the gladest tydings that ever sounded in the ears of lost sinners Now is your time agree with your Adversary while he is in the way before you be cast into Prison Luk. 12. 58. If you lose this opportunity and do not imbrace the offered friendship God will be exceeding Angry Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation 2 Chron. 30. 8. Therefore give the hand to the Lord. 2. Perform the duty of Thankfulness which God requires Matth. 11. 29. Peace is the Fruit of Sanctification as well as Justification 't is not to be found elsewhere Isa. 32. 17. 3. Be much in Communion with God and trading with Heaven Acquaint thy self with God Iob 22. 21. 4. Be tender of your peace when 't is once settled of doing any thing that may cause War between God and the Soul Psal. 58. 8. Take heed of venturing your peace for the Vanities of the World those sinful and foolish Courses which will lay you open to Gods Wrath and Displeasure Psal. 37. 11. The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of Peace SERMON CLXXX PSALM CXIX VER 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them I Now come to the effect nothing shall offend them the Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no scandal in them the Apostle Iohn applyeth the same phrase or form of speech to him that loveth his Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no occasion of stumbling in him the meaning is they shall not be in danger of those snares and temptations which the world is full of and which frequently bring other men to sin and ruine or nothing shall wound or hurt them or cause them to fall in their journey to Heaven Doctrine That the Love of Gods Law is a great means to carry a Believer streight on his way to Heaven what ever Temptations he hath to the Contrary Here I shall enquire First What scandals and offences are Secondly How a Believer is preserved First What scandals and offences are I answer Scandals literally signifieth Temptations or Inducements to sin any stumbling-block or hinderance laid in a mans way by which the passenger is detained or diverted Or at which if he be not careful he is apt to stumble or fall spiritually it signifyeth any thing that may discourage or divert us from our duty to God or may occasion us to fall to the great loss or ruine of our Souls Now concerning these scandals or offences I shall give you these distinctions with respect to the subject there are three sorts of scandals 1. Taken but not given 2. Given but not taken 3. Both given and taken 1. There is offence taken where none is given thus Christ himself in his Person Sufferings Doctrine may be an offence to the carnal and unbelieving World In his Person as he is said to be in the 1 Pet. 2. 8. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them that stumbled at the Word being disobedient whereunto they were also appointed He that is to the Believer a Corner-stone Elect and Precious is to the obstinate prejudiced unbeliever with allusion to those that Travel
Heaven in order in one whole Body is like an Army in Rout and most are forced to get home in straggling Parties Now every tender Soul should Long for Gods Salvation to get up to that Counsel of Souls who with perfect Harmony are Lauding and Praising God for evermore Heb. 12. 23. Use. I. Is to reprove them that are loth to leave this woful Life and do not long and prepare for a better God driveth us out of the World as he did Lot out of Sodom yet we are loth to depart as if it were better to be Miserable apart from God and Christ then happy with them Surely they are far from the Spirit of true Christians who would live alwayes here are at home in the World and cannot endure to think of a remove There are two Causes of this 1. An Unmortifyed Heart 2. An Unsettled Conscience 1. An Unmortified Heart they are not yet weaned from the World their Hearts are set upon satisfying the Vile Lusts of the Body carry it as if their Portion lay in this World Psal. 17. 14. sucking yet upon the Worlds Dugg they have no longing nor desire for that Happiness and Glory which God hath provided for them that love him they desire no other Portion than what they have in hand 2. And the other cause is an Unsettled Conscience some fear the state of the other World rather than desire it and long for it there are two degrees notknowing for certain it shall go well with us and not knowing for certain but that it shall go ill with us both suppress this desire especially the latter Use. II. Is to Rowse up our languid and cold Affections that they may more earnestly be carryed out after heavenly things that we may seek after them with more Fervency and Constancy and Self-denial The Motives to press us are these 1. God giveth Heaven to none but to those that Look and Long for it Men may go to Hell against their Wills but none go to Heaven against their Wills In a Punishment there is a force offered to us but not in a Reward We suffer what we would not as Christ saith to Peter another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not Ioh. 21. 18. But happiness must be imbraced pursued and sought after Well then let the concernments of the other World more take up our Hearts and Minds and stand as at heavens Gate expecting when God will open the door and call you in Christ will appear to them that look for him Heb. 9. 28. 2. The Children of God Long to see God in his Ordinances Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of God all the dayes of my Life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple And Psal. 42. 2. My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal. 63. 1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Now if there be so Great and Longing a desire to see the glory of the Lord in a Glass wherein so little of his Glory is seen with any comfort and satisfaction how much more to see him immediately face to face if a Glimpse be so comfortable what will the immediate Vision of God then be surely if this be Salvation every one of us should long for this Salvation 3. If it be not worth our Desire 't is little worth the Estate being so excellent such a compleat Redemption from all our Troubles so perfect and so full an happiness in Body and Soul will not you send a groan or an hearty Act of Volition after it 't is great ingratitude that when Christ hath procured a great state of blessedness for us at a very dear rate we should value it no more he procured it by a life of Labour and Sorrow and the Pangs of a bitter Cursed death and when all is done we little regard it surely if we choose it for our happiness there will be longing and looking for it No man will fly from his own happiness a mans heart will be where his Treasure is Math. 6. 21. if you prize it you will sigh and groan after it the Apostle saith Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you count it better to be there than else where you will be desiring to be there and longing to be there for we are always longing for that which is better chiefly for that which is best of all there is the best estate the best work the best company all is better if you count it so it will be no difficult thing to bring you earnestly to desire it 4. All the Ordinances serve to stir up this longing after Heaven and to awaken these desires in us the Word is our Charter for Heaven or Gods Testament wherein this rich Legacy is bequeathed to us that every time we Read it or Hear it or Meditate upon it we may get a step higher and our Hearts more drawn out after Heavenly things In Prayer whether in Company or Alone 't is but to raise and act these heavenly Desires there we groan and long for Gods Salvation In the Lords Supper we come solemnly to put our selves in mind of the new Wine we shall drink in our Fathers Kingdom Matth. 26. 29. to put a new heavenly Relish upon our Hearts 5. The Imperfection of our present Estate We are now imperfect and streightened like a Fish in a Pail or small vessel of Water which cannot keep it alive it would fain be in the Ocean or swiming in the broad and large Rivers So we are pent up cannot do what we would there is a larger Estate when filled up with all the fulness of God that Holiness we have now maketh us look for it and long for it and surely Holiness was never designed for our Torment 6. We are hastning into the other World apace and therefore we more desire it Natural motion is in principio tardior in sine velecior the nearer to fruition the more impatient of the want of it When a Man is drawing home after a long Journey every Mile is as tedious as two We are drawing nigh to the other World let us leave this willingly not by force let not Trouble chase us out of it but Love and Desire draw us out of it God doth loosen our Roots by little and little that we may now be sit for a Remove the Pins of our Tabernacle are taken down insensibly and by leisurely Degrees Now as fast as we are going out of this World we should be going into another the inner Man Renewed day by day