them There is a fear of God as a plague and punishment and that 's the fear of Devils James 2.9 Thou believest there is one God thou dost well the devils also believe and tremble There is a servile and slavish fear which however it may be in a Child of God especially at his first Conversion while under the spirit of bondage yet it is much of the nature of that fear that is of God as a punishment of sin that tormenting fear the Apostle speaks of 1 Joh. 4.18 That perfect love casts out that fear that is not afraid of offending God but of punishments only is that which is in Devils and that fear that apprehends punishments not as they are separat from God the chief Good but as painful and grievous to a mans self is slavish and servile but right fear is when apprehensions of the Majesty Greatness and Goodness of God fills the heart with holy awe and reverence towards him and the Faith of his Greatness seasoned with the Faith of his Condescendency makes the soul afraid to offend him or lose his favour on any terms All that I shall say from this shall be to exhort and perswade you to get some stamp of this reverential fear on your heart that ye be not of them of whom it is said Psal 36.1 O dreadful Character The transgression of the wicked says within my heart there is no fear of God before his eyes consider and think upon this the fear of God is the only Antidote the only preservative against an evil course the fear of God will make a man that when it is in the power of his hands to do evil he dare not do it Gen. 42.18 Joseph when his brethren in ward are afraid of him says to them This do and live for I fear God I might soon cut you off and who would challenge me for so doing but I fear God Nâ—hem 5.15 He would not be burdensom to the people as the former Governours had been they were chargeable to the people but so did not I says he because of the fear of God among Heathens there may be many Motives to keep men from this and that ill but all will be like Samsons cords if the fear of God be wanting ponder Gen. 20.11 when Abimelech says to Abraham What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing Abrâ—ham answers because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wifes sake There is no protection for me here for I see no fear of God among this people what will men not be if a suitable Temptation come in their way if they want the fear of God and how calm will the fear of God make men that have it It will make a Lion a Lamb a Boar a Calf O how tractable will it make the wild humours of men to have a stamp of the fear of God and therefore I say it again seek for it that it may not be said of you such a mans or such a womans walk says within my heart There is no fear of God before their eyes A 2. Word from the words abstractly considered is That as fear is due to God so this fear is eminently to be exprest in the service and worship of God For that thou mayest be feared is not to be understood as that folk should make a Bogâ—e of God but that their fear of him should bring them to worship and serve him and that their worship and service should be seasoned with an holy awe and dread of God I might touch here on several things on the one hand among other Characters of base and servile fear this is one when it drives from God and his worship and service which was the result of Adam's fear after his fall Gen. 3.8 When he heard God's voice in the garden he was afraid and hid himself This was the Sinai fear at the giving of the Law Exod. 20.18 When the people saw the thundring and lightning and heard the noise of the Trumpet they removed and stood a-far off they went further away from God that is never right fear that makes a Scar-crow of God that is only right fear that chases in to him But on the other hand how should service and worship to God be loaded and ballanced with fear of God when Jacob had some intercourse with God in a vision Gen. 28.17 He was afraid and said how dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven If we speak of the service of God in general and would serve him acceptably it must be with reverential and godly fear Heb. 12.28 Not with presumption yea the greatest on Earth as they are commanded to kiss the Son lest he be angry and they perish from the way so they are bidden serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Ps 2.11 and that King Dan. 6.26 could see that much though he came not a full length when he made a decree That in every dominion of his kingdom men should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel and for fear in duties of immediat worship such as ye are now about how is it pressed Psal 89.7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him and Psal 5.7 we will find those to be the two stilts so to speak that David walked on going to the publick Ordinances As for me I will go into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple The faith of Gods Mercy ballanced with Fear that it turn not in presumption and fear again under proped with Mercy that it degenerat not into despondency and there are many Considerations to press the seasoning and ballasting of the service and worship of God with fear whether partly we consider the Majesty of God compared with our baseness There are few folk that converse with God at Abraham's rate Gen. 18.27 Behold now says he I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord who am but dust and ashes and Solomon's rule Eccles 5.1 is keep thy foot when thou goes into the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few When there is a ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth such as Jacob had how dreadful a place should such a Sanctuary be Or whether partly we consider the Holiness and Purity of God compared with our Impurity This made Isaiah Isai 6.5 to say Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of polluted lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts And further the Consideration of the
the Depths he Prayed but out of the Depths he cryed to God in Prayer with that earnestness and fervour that a drowning man presently going to sink cryes for relief if any relief may be had The general Observation which I take from this is That the kindly result of sinking and surchanging exercise in the Saints is when it puts them to Prayer and to fervency in Prayer when being in the Depths Out of the depths they cry unto God This is the general Doctrine of trouble Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee c. And that I may so far as is necessary lay the Point in broad-band before you before I come to a word of Vse I shall deduce the Importance of it in a few particulars And 1. The Psalmist's practice who is content to be at exercise doth import That sleeping and idleness is a very unsuitable posture when the people of God are in the Depths to be at any time without exercise is very dangerous for as the Animal Life is still in motion so the Spiritual Life of a Christian must still be in exercise so in particular to be without exercise in a distress and particularly to be without Prayer is yet more dreadful an idle man in a difficult lot I can compare him to nothing but to that drunken man Prov. 23.34 That is as one that lyeth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast he is a desperat man drunk with some Distemper that is not at exercise in the Depths May I add the idle man in the Depths is readily the Guilty man that draws on the Storm and the Tempest Hence we have a sad Narration Jonah 1.5 where Jonah a Godly man fleeing from the presence of the Lord in the Storm is down in the sides of the Ship sleeping and one might think in the case he was in he might have an unsound Sleep there but the Text tells he was fast asleep and shall I add that 's a sad Posture vers 6. when a Pagan Ship-master reproves a Prophet Jonah what meanest thou O sleeper saith he arise and call upon thy God That then is the first thing imported that it is a dangerous thing to be sleeping and idle in the Depths 2. That the Psalmist when he is in the Depths cryes out unto God it imports That kindly Saints whenever they come in any Distress have no refuge but God It 's with God and his Saints as it 's with a Parent and a Child in a Croud as long as nothing ails the Child he will go beside any body but when he comes in a difficulty he will leave the rest single out his Parent to protect him so I say it 's with the Saints when any thing ails them they have no refuge no shift no gate to go but God Would ye know the Character of a Child of God in Distress ye have it in that fore-cited place 2 Chron. 20.12 we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee This is the Scope of the most part of all the Psalms A Saint is no sooner put to it but he puts at God a Cross is no sooner laid at his door but he tells it 's the wrong Door and he goes and layes it at God's Door the reason of this is double partly the difficulties of the Children of God may be so great that they are left allenarly upon God It is with them as it was with that hypocritical king when he said to the Harlot if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn-floor or out of the Wine-press What will become of the Saints in many difficulties and hard cases if God step not in David looked to all Airts and could find no relief Psal 142.4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul what follows I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge Kindly Saints must therefore look unto God in every Distress partly because whatever right means they have to make use of they must either begin at God or they will find they have followed a wrong method Saul pretended to this 1 Sam. 13.12 The Philistines will come down upon me and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I must begin at God saith he and as Saul pretended to it David really practised it 1 Sam. 30.7 whatever mind he had to pursue the Amalekites that had burnt Zâ—klag and taken his Wives captive he will do nothing till he consult with God That then is the second thing imported that as the Saints are not asleep are not idle in the Depths of trouble so they have no refuge but God A third thing imported in this that the Psalmist out of the Depths cryed unto God is this that there is no case of the Saints so desperate wherein Prayer is useless ye know what was that wicked Kings Determination 2 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer and how many in Heart and Practice in difficult Cases say so it is to little purpose to wait on God to look to God The Psalmist here was of another temper out of the Depths have I cried unto thee Lord saith he he finds it to good purpose to cry unto God So Jonah 2.4 I said I am cast out of thy sight and he had as much to say for his being so as any other the Waters compassed him about and went into his Soul The Weeds were wrapped about his Head he went down to the bottoms of the Mountains The Earth with her Bars were about him yet even then he sees not Prayer to be an useless Trade wherefore he adds yet will I look again to thy holy Temple Prayer is to good purpose for all that and no wonder for there is no condition of the Saints so low no Pit so deep wherein they can be caught but an humble Supplicant will from thence reach the Throne A David buried quick in a Cave a Daniel in the Lyons Den find that Prayer can win up to God and find audience for the high and lofty One who hath the Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool hath an Eye also to them who are of a poor and of a Contrite Spirit and trembleth at his Word Isa 66.1 2. and he who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth he raiseth the poor out of the Dust and the needy out of the Dung-hill and therefore no desperate case of the people of God renders Prayer useless But 4ly That the Psalmist out of the Depths cryes unto God it imports That as there is no case so desperate as it renders Prayer useless so it imports that it is the property
two of which I have spoken to in the Forenoon to wit that which is supponed here that God is a marker of iniquity and what it imports And secondly that which is proposed on this supposition That if God should mark iniquity as was explained men even the most godly men could not stand where somewhat was said to the importance of that Phrase Now I proceed in Explication of the Point from the Text for to that I confine my self in other four particulars The first and third in order shall be this That this assertion that men cannot stand before God marking iniquity is of infallible verity a most certain and infallible truth it is not a Bug-Bear to afright Children but the infallible truth of God This is hinted at in the Text partly in the Psalmist his proposing the matter to God If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand He proposes it to God who knows this matter better than any other and who is Supream Judge in the matter without whose determination a Decreet in our own favours will signifie nothing at all it imports O Lord let men dream what they will of their standing thou knowest that none can stand if thou shalt mark iniquity to punish it and particularly the infallible verity of this assertion may be gathered from the way of proposing it and that is by way of Question Who shall stand Which Question is a very peremptory denyal of the thing questioned for so the like Question is resolved Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Yea the proposing of it by way of Question Who shall stand Doth import a defyance to any to attempt it or to succeed in their attempt and indignation at the presumption of any that should dream of standing before God marking iniquity But in the fourth place as this assertion is of infallible verity so it is of universal verity This is held out in the Question for the Question is Who shall stand That is as the parallel Question is answered Job 14.4 None at all good or bad If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity none should stand for the Psalmist here a godly man is taking in himself with others as a man that could not stand himself without pardon And so the Phrase is Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified The best of men that are come of Adam by ordinary generation shall not be justified if thou mark iniquity Hence in Scripture it is clear that Saintship consists not in sinlessness but in sincerity for for Original guilt in that Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one and for a mans endeavours after he is brought in to God and is wrestling with corruptions to have these purged out says Solomon Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Eccles 7.20 There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not but as it is Jam. 3.2 In many things we offend all Thus ye see that Saintship doth not consist in sinlessness but in sincerity neither doth Saintship consist in the Saints their sins not deserving condemnation or in their being able to stand though they have sinned but in their sins being pardoned hence ye will find them sadly exercised in wrestling under the burden of guilt upon their gross out-breakings as David Psal 51. ye have them praying for the pardon of great iniquity Psal 25.11 For thy Names sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great Ye have them pleading for mercy upon the account of innumerable evils compassing them and their iniquities take hold of them and being more than the hairs of their head Psal 40.11 12. And when they are delivered from gross out-breakings ye have them with Paul Rom. 7. groaning under a body of sin and death till they attain to a song of thanksgiving thorow Jesus so that not only doth the Text hold out the infallible verity of this truth but the universal verity of it that if God mark iniquity none can stand The 5th thing I gather from the Text is that the infallible and universal verity of this assertion that if God mark iniquity none can stand might be gathered and closed with if men were eying God much this I gather from the Text where the Psalmist repeats the Name of God twice If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity And then again O Lord who c. Wherefore is this twice repeated in this assertion Certainly not by way of idle repetition condemned Mat. 7.21 in many that say Lord Lord nor meerly because the Psalmist is affected with that which he is speaking of for so the expression of affections or mens being affected with a thing is expressed by a doubled Exclamation which may come in in the own place when I speak of the pardon of sin but here it is to make this truth out that serious and frequent repeated thoughts of God is a mean to give folk a right sense of the desert of sin And to make out this consider partly that when we seriously think of God we know that he is Omniscient to find out that which is hid from the world Omniscient to find them guilty that are innocent to others Omniscient to know more of us than we know of our selves A consideration that John would have us marking 1 Joh. 3.20 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things If we know so much naughtiness of our selves by our selves what must God know who knoweth all things And Paul makes use of this consideration 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self to wit in the administration of his Office yet I am not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Partly if we will consider what is imported in the Names of God here made use of by the Psalmist We will find it further clear the first Name JAH is a diminutive from JEHOVAH that imports a Supream Independent Beeing The second name ADONAI signifies his Dominion and Lordship Ponder these well and what a dreadful sight will it afford of the unspeakable desert of sin A sinner in sinning rebels against a Supream Beeing from whom he hath his beeing This is made a great aggravation of sin to Belteshazzar the greatest Monarch on earth Dan. 5.23 Thou hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven the God in whose hands thy breath is thou hast renounced thy dependence on him from whom thou hast thy beeing Sin is also the casting off of the Yoke of his Dominion and Lordship it says upon the matter that which ye have asserted of wicked men Psal 12.4 They say with our tongues we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us That 's the Language of every sinner in sinning and not only doth the sinner by sinning cast off the yoke of God's Dominion but he
using sinful shifts to be out of it fell in these gross and scandalous sins of Adultery and Murther and he that fell in these sins after repentance for other escapes why might he not after repentance have fallen in these same sins over again if the grace of God had not prevented it for though Repentance for particular faults leave behind it an impression of the bitterness of these sins and make them to be loathed which will make it more improbable they will be relapsed in yet it is not impossible otherwise true Repentance being for all sin it should prevent relapsing in any Sin A 2d word which I shall say for clearing the case shall be this that as true repentance is not to be measured by relapsing in sin so it is contrary to Scripture to determine that relapsing in sin after Repentance is unpardonable It 's not the sin against the holy Ghost and therefore pardonable Isai 55.7 Our God will multiply to pardon Even as often as the sinner repents and comes agaâ—n to him to seek pardon were it till seventy times seven times as he bids us forgive others when they sin against us Matth. 18 22. and Hos 14.4 He hath promised to heal backslidings Now these are after Repentance when his people fall back in the same sins out of which they have been recovered by Repentance and for instances of this ye shall only ponder these two One is 2 Chron 18. Jehosaphat his joyning in affinity with Achab for which he is reproved by a Prophet Ch. 19.2 And his Repentance is apparent in the reformation he fell about And yet Chap. 20.35 He falls in the same Sin in joyning with Achaziah to make Ships to go to Tarshish in Eziongeber which were broken for which he was also reproved repented and was pardoned Another instance is that of Jonah A man that fled from the presence of the Lord when sent to Niniveh and is brought to Repentance for that sin in the belly of the Fish Chap. 2 Yet he falls in the same sin Ch. 4.2 Not in fleeing away from God but in repining at his mercy and in his opinion declaring it was needless to go to Niniveh and justifying his former fleeing away These are two clear instances of relapsing in sin after Repentance and Pardon for it This I would not have abused I may have occasion hereafter to speak to what prejudice relapsing in sin brings with it as that it will bring former pardon in question and under debate and though a penitent may be pardoned yet it 's dangerous to bourd with sin after God hath spoken peace to return to folly and to proclaim that all the bitterness folk have found in sin is nothing only I cannot conceal the truth of God from any that may be under a Temptation that having repented such and such sins they have relapsed in them and therefore as they question their Repentance so they think they are to expect no more pardon ye have it cleared from Scripture that these are but Temptations That God would multiply to pardon upon repentance Isai 55.7 And though folks have played the harlot with many lovers and among hands have rewed their wandrings they may return again unto the Lord Jer. 3.1 Now I have done with the first general head of this Doctrine concerning the remission of sin To wit the consideration of that which is pardoned I proceed to the second general Question and that is anent the Author of pardon or who it is that pardons iniquity even God There is forgivenness with thee says the Text That is as I exponed in the entry it 's thy property in opposition to all pretenders it 's thy Property and Prerogative when both the Law and the Conscience have condemned to pardon and forgive Sin This is a truth that was held fast in the Jewish Church when it was most corrupt Therefore Mark 2.7 When Christ pardoned the man sick of the Palsie The Scribes say Why doth this man speak blasphemies Who can forgive sins but God only And it 's one of God's Titles Exod. 34.6 7. That he forgives iniquity transgression and sin and he taketh it to himself as his Prerogative Isai 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions and Matth 9.2 c. Christ in curing the Palsie man paralels the pardoning of his sins with the healing of his disease as proofs of his Deity shewing that both were alike difficult and proved him to be God I must here clear a seeming difficulty that is That pardon of sin is attribut to others both Ministers and private persons It 's attribute to Ministers as John 20. 23. As the Father hath sent me even so send I you receive ye the holy Ghost whosoever sins ye retain they are retained and whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them But certainly it 's God only can loose a man from everlasting wrath due to him for sin and it 's the Word of God only can declare whom God will pardon Only as Ambrose sayes well Ministers are Judges in the matter of pardon but without any absolute Authority in that matter And for clearing of this ye would distinguish betwixt the external Court in the Church and the internal Court in the Conscience In the external Court in the Church Ministers have a power from Christ to remit scandals to scandalous persons upon their serious profession of Repentance to take in a man that hath fallen in a scandalous sin upon the profession of Repentance and to remit the scandal In the â—nternal Court of the Conscience Ministers have a Ministerial power upon scandalous sinners their repentance Ministerially to declare they are pardoned upon their Repentance they walking according to their Commission Whose sins they bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 16.19 and 18.18 But Ministers ex pleniâ—udine potestatis as the Pope speaks have not an absolute and illimited power to pardon whom and when and as they will They are but Delegats and must walk according to their Commission in pardoning of sin or rather pronouncing pardon of sin neither have they power of pardong sin upon conditions of their own devising such as Pennances Pilgrimages visiting of Rome in the year of Jubile c. where to mark it in the by the Papists method in this is preposterous They first pardon and then enjoyn pennance and such things as Christ hath not prescribed Neither must they take Money and dispence with Repentance a fruit of Faith upon which pardon is promised This is but a cheat to hold their Kiâ—chen reeking Caesar Borgia the Son of Alexander the sixth when he had lost an hundred thousand Crowns at the Dice he passed it in a sport saying Those are the sins of the Germans that is they had been purchased for the remission of their sins Again it is attributed to privat persons and for privat Persons their pardoning