with him every Believers name and every one of their wants and necessities and for every one of them makes requests unto his Father 4. Christs Intercession in Heaven is the presenting of his will unto his Father He presents his will unto his Father for the application of the good which he hath purchased on the behalf of his servants Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am c. When you pray for mercy for grace for strength for deliverance for any good then Jesus Christ appears for you Father he is one for whom I undertook for whom I died and satisfied whom I have reconciled unto thee on whose behalf I purchased and merited all this now for my sake and upon my account hear him and answer him This is the Intercession of Christ when his blood speaks good things for us Heb. 12. 24. and obtains the application of all which he hath merited for us 5. The Intercession of Christ is powerfully and effectually prevailing and it is alwayes It is powerfully and effectually prevailing so God the Father is well-pleased with him and with us in and for him and accepteth of our persons and grants our Petitions for his sake Joh. 11. 42. I know that thou hearest me alwayes Rev. 8. 3. There was another Angel that came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne verse 4. And the smoake of the incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand 6. This work of Intercession is a fixed permanent continued work My meaning It is a fixed and permanent work is that as long as there remaines any one Elect person any one Believer on earth untill every one of them be gathered up into heaven so long doth Christs Intercession continue even untill Jesus Christ hath brought them all and every one into his Fathers house and setled on every one of them eternal glory and saith Now you do perfectly enjoy as much and all that I have suffered for and purchased on your behalf 2. Now follows the Vertues and Benefits of and from the Intercession of Christ The benefits of Christs Intercession Accesse unto the Father 1. Accesse unto the Father with whom we may freely hold communion and unto whom we may put up all our requests with confidence Heb. 10. 19. Having therefore boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus verse 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vaile that is to say his flesh verse 21. And having an high Priest over the house of God verse 22. let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith In this Scripture the Apostle exhorts the faithful to seek and to hold up communion with God in heaven And for this end propounds several Arguments 1. Their Liberty by Christ Christ hath opened Heaven for us by his blood so that by this blood we may enter into the Holiest unto the presence of the most holy God by faith in him And we may freely speak all our minds unto him in Prayer so the word boldness signifies a freedom of speech telling God all our mind all our griefs all our fears all our desires 2. The Ground of this Liberty In the price and purchase of it even the blood of Jesus 3. The extent of this Liberty All that are brethren enjoy it all that are the Children of God and Members of Christ are Brethren and though some are strong and others are weak yet they are admitted to come and enter into heaven freely to pour out their prayers 4. There is way made for them a new way that is of grace and upon the account of Christ and a living way Christ ever lives to make intercession for them and to help them and it is consecrated for us set apart on purpose for us 5. They have Christ still for their Priest who once offered Sacrifice for Believers and reconciled them and doth still intercede for the reconciled And he is a Priest over the house of God he hath authority to bring whom he pleaseth and to speed and help them And therefore he presseth them to draw near with a true heart sinners though weak and with full assurance of Faith being setled and fully confident to be accepted through Jesus Christ and find favour and audience and dispatch by his blood and intercession 2. Encouragement against all the shortnesse imperfections and mixtures of our holy Encouragement against our imperfections services and performances Our best services are very weak and imperfect more is to be done than what we do and much sinfulness mingles with our very prayers there is the Candle and the Snuffe the Fire and the Smoake the Gold and the Dross the Wheat and the Chaffe enough in our best doings to undoe them and us to move the holy God to hide his eyes and stop his ears at our Prayers But Jesus Christ our Intercessor covers those imperfections and takes away the dross in our sacrifices and by his Merits makes them to be an acceptable offering unto the Lord and a sweet savor unto him Exod. 28. 36. Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it Holinesse unto the Lord. ver 38. and it shall be upon Aarons forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall alwayes be upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. So Jesus Christ c. Rev. 8. 3. He is that Angel having the golden Censer and much Incense to offer it witâ— the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne Though in respect of our selves and our own services as performed by us we cannot expect acceptance nor answer yet in respect of Christ our Intercessor that promise shall be made good Isa 56. 7. Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt-offerings and their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar 3. A security against all charges objections and accusations and condemnations Security against all accusations Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth ver 34. who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died or rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us This sin and that failing may be objected against us but Jesus Christ maketh Intercession Father for my sake forgive it and passe it by Heb. 9. 29. Christ is entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us and who can appear against us
Israel Jer. 31. 9. As the Sonne as God manifested in the flesh he is your Christ Christ gives himself to be yours And as the holy Ghost so also he is yours Oh what a Covenant is this wherein the covenanted have such a propriety The eternal God is my God The All-sufficient God is my God The holy Ghost is my God The merciful God is my God The omnipotent loving gracious God is my God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is my Father and Jesus Christ God the Sonne is my God and God the holy Ghost is mine I have an interest in him and them and I have a communion and fellowship with them 3. Engagement of himself with all that he hath and all that he can do What Engagement of himself a God can be or can do for your good Thus farre doth God engage unto his people when he makes a Covenant with them to be their God he makes over himself and all by bond unto you what I am I am to you and for you and what I have or can do it shall be for you I am the holy God I will be Holinesse to you I am the merciful God I will be merciful to your transgressions I am the gracious God I will shew favour to you and will freely love and blesse you I am the All-sufficient God and I will be a Sunne and a Shield unto you I am the Omnipotent God I will up old you by the right hand of my power I am All and will be All in All unto you I am God blessed for ever and I will be Blessednesse to you for my Covenant with you is the engagement of my self and of all good unto you 4. Perpetuity I will be a God unto you or I will be your God in a Covenant of Grace it is as if he should say I will be a God unto you as long as I am God Perpetuity I am God for ever and I will be your God for ever This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48. 14. I will love you and blesse you for ever Did I not say aright when I told you that Gods engaging of himself to be our God in the Covenant was the soul the life the summe of the Covenant what can we have more or desire more A God to be our God a merciful gracious blessed blessing God to be our merciful gracious our blessed our blessing God and all this as long as he is God for ever and for ever 3. In this Covenant he promiseth that we shall be his people Jer. 31. 33. I will be their God and they shall be my people So Ezek. 11. 20. They shall be He promiseth we shall be his people my people and I will be their God Zach. 13 9. I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God This is the Covenant This mutual engagement on either side is it I will be your God and you shall be my people This is a Marriage I will be your Husband and you shall be my wife I take you to to be my Husband and I take you to be my wife This Reciprocal consent and this Reciprocal agreement Thou shalt be mine and I will be thine Thou shalt be for me and I will be for thee Hos 3. 3. this makes the marriage So the Reciprocal acceptance consent and agreement betwixt God and us makes up the Covenant between us in the very formal and vital nature of it Here are two questions unto which I would speak a few things Quest 1 What this expression of the Covenant imports you shall be my people or what it is to be a people in Covenant with God What it is to be a pâ—ople in Covenant As there is some singular thing in that Covenant expression I will be your God or I will be a God to you So there is some special thing in that Covenant expression likewise you shall be my people or you shall be to me for a people And if I mistake not there are three things in it Sol. 1. A Separation you shall not be any others nor for any other but for my self Three things in it A separation and this is expressey declared Deut. 29. 12 13. That thou shouldest enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself and chap. 7. 6. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a spâ—cial people unto himself and chap. 16. 6. The Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Come out from amongst them and be ye seperate saith the Lord And I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty 2. A dediâ—ation of our selves to God A kinde of consecration wherein we choose him to be our God and binde our selves to him to be his A willing A dedication of our selves to God choyce Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God verse 18. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people Isa 63. 19. We are thine thou never barest rule over them they were not called by thy name Isa 64. 9. Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people Psal 116. 16. Oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant Psal 119. 94. I am thine save me c. 3. An obligation to hearken unto him to obey him and to walk with him An obligation to obey him Deut. 27. 9 10. Take heed and hearken O Israel this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God Thou shalt therfore obey the voyce of the Lord thy God and do his câ—mmandments and his statutes which I command thee this day Jos 24. 22. Ye are witnesses against your selves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses Quest 2 How we come to be his people whether by any voluntary act of our own or How we come to be Gods people in Covenant by the sole effect of his grace because he saith ye shall be my people For the resolution of this know that the Covenant may be considered two ways Sol. 1. As to the Platforme of its constitution which shews of what forme the contracting is when God declares that he as a God makes over himself unto his The Covenant may be considered As to the Platforme of its constitution As to the real execution of it people and his people make over themselves unto him 2. As to the real and effectual execution of this in an actual and mutual acceptation of each other and obligation of themselves to each other Thus considered you must distinguish betwixt the act of voluntary consent in the people or persons covenanting with God and betwixt the cause of that willing consent election and estimation There is a voluntary consent in
all his hope and all his trust and all his delight and all his desire and all his fear and all his service c. 3. You may know whether God be your God By your choice and pecul'ar By your choice and peculiar enjoyments enjoyments or at least by your desire of them your Covenant enjoyments your desire to enjoy Covenant-mercies and blessings if God be your God in Covenant you do enjoy him and such things from him as no othe people in the earth do enjoy what peculiar things do we enjoy I will tell you 1. You enjoy that loving-kindesse and favour as none else do enjoy Remember The loving kindness of God me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people Psal 106. 4. 2. You enjoy that pardoning mercy as none else do enjoy Thou hast forgiven Pardoning mercy the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sinne Psal 85. 2. 3. You enjoy that power of renewing grace which none else do enjoy That Power of renewing grace cleansing from sinne Jer. 33. 8. That subduing of sinne Micah 7. 19. That freedome from sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are under grace Rom. 6. 14. That newness of heart Ezek. 36. 26. 4. You enjoy that peace and comfort which none others do enjoy He will Peace and comfort speak peace unto his people Psal 85. 8. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God Isa 40. 1. Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion for lo I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord Zach. 2. 10. Object Oh But we have handly found any of these Covenant enjoyments Sol. I answer every one to whom God is a God in Covenant 1. Either hath expresly found every one of them 2. Or his great desires and longings of heart are after these Covenant enjoyments O a reconciled God a loving God a pardoning God a sanctifying God a Peace-speaking God c. above all things else whatsoever these are most eminently and most earnestly and most constantly to be found in the hearts desire of that person who indeed hath God to be his God Let the conscience speak and bear witnesse whether this be not so All you who have God to be your God and who are his people this day Now tell me you who heare this Sermon and perhaps think that God is your God what are your enjoyments your portions your possessions what Covenant-gift or work is to be found in your souls And what are the great things after which you so pant and sigh Is it the favour of God is it the mercy of God is it renewing and subduing grace I have nothing untill I have these and I cannot be satisfied untill I have these O Lord be my God O Lord forgive iniquity remember me graciously love me freely heal my soul c. 4. You may know that God is your God and that you are his people by your By the conformity of your wills to Gods Will. subordination and by your conformity of your wills to Gods Will Beloved the Covenant betwixt God and us takes in these two things 1. Subordination For it is an agreement betwixt a Superiour and an Inferiour betwixt the great God who is the Lord of all and poor miserable man who is inferiour to him and is to subject himself to his God as to his Lord and Soveraign to be ruled by him and guided by him 2. Conformity of will for it is a Covenant of love in which both parties have as it were but one heart and one mind and one will between them and so in this Covenant if we have God for our God and if we be his people what God likes that do we like and what our God loves that do we love and what our God hates that do we hate and what our God wills that do we will and what God would have done that would we have done This Covenant is an agreement and mutual consent in all things It will not permit us to give limits to God because he is our soveraign Lord Nor will it admit contrarieties and contradictions 'twixt God and us And therefore in this Covenant God writes his law in our hearts i. e. he puts into our hearts such spiritual principles as makes our will delightfully conformable unto his Will Alas if there be an opposition 'twixt our hearts and God a contradiction in our minds and wills unto his mind and Will this enmity plainly testifies that he is not our God and that we are none of his people if you be at that point that your judgement and your will and your lusts shall rule and sway and govern and command and that God must stoop and yield to your thoughts and to your pleasures and to your wills c. But by this it appears that he is your God and that you are his people if God doth rule and you do obey if he commands and you do hearken if his mind rules your judgement if his Will rules your will if his love rules your love if his Law rules your lives O Lord what thou lovest I love what thou commandest I approve good is the Word of the Lord the Commandment is holy and just and good 5. You may know whether God be your God in Covenant by the sweet By our sweet contentment in the manifestations of God to us contentment and satisfaction in the manifestations of your God in any part or branch of his Covenant into your souls If the Lord at any time be pleased to answer the desires of your souls in Covenant-love or in Covenant-mercy or in Covenant-grace or in Covenant-strength or in Covenant-peace O what a heavenly satisfaction is this But a glimpse of the favour of your God but a taste of the mercy of your God never so little of grace or peace which is an Ambassage a Letter a Token from God that he is your God this is such a life to you it is such a rejoycing it is such a cordial it is such a sweet day to your soules It is a thousand times more than to hear news that the highest of earthly preferments is yours or that the largest of earthly possessions are yours Covenant-manifestations are most precious unto all who are in Covenant Psal 35. 3. Say unto my soul thou art my salvation 6. You may know that God is your God and that you are his people by your dependance on God as your God in Covenant you will go to him and By our dependance on God as our God in Covenant rest on him in all your occasions I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me Psal 57. 2. Thou art my God early will I seek thee Psal 63. 1. So this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us Isa 25. 9. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will
us in you As a Parent who begers the children he looks unto those children and maintains and keeps them All your graces are the births of the Spirit of grace and as they are the effects of his power so also are they the objects of his care and therefore as they receive life from his presence in the Ordinances so shall they receive strength and growth and stability from his continual influence upon them We are sâ—rengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Ephes 3. 16. As we are changed from our shameful condition to glory by the Spirit so by the same Spirit are we changed from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. 3. The Spirit is yours in respect of his works or operations And truly this The Spirit is theirs in respect of his works and operatioÌ„s consideration makes out an exceeding happinesse unto the people of God in as much as the participation of all their happiness depends upon the workings of the Spirit of God in whom they are interested by this Covenant of grace There are five choice works which the Spirit doth for all the people of God Five choice works which the Spirit doth for all Gods people He doth unite Christ and them who have God to be their God 1. He doth unite Christ and them Although the benefits by Christ are unexpressibly precious yet the fruition of them is impossible withâ—ut a precedent union with Christ forasmuch as union is a necessary foundation for Communion you must be in Christ and being his himself and all his benefits become yours Now it is the Spirit which makes up this union as love makes the union 'twixt Christian and Christian and as faith makes up the union from us to Christ for we are planted into Christ and are espoused unto Christ and live in Christ by faith so the Spirit makes the union 'twixt Christ and us there being no other way for him to be joyned unto us and to become Relatively ours but by his own Spirit it is the Spirit which doth let out the heart of Christ to us and who doth bring in our hearts unto Christ it is the Spirit by whom Christ applies himself unto us and apprehends us and by whom we also do apprehend and apply Christ by his Spirit he takes hold of us and by the same Spirit it is that we take hold of him In a word it is the Spirit by whom Christ speaks to our hearts and by whose light we see the excellencies of Christ and the great love of Christ and who gives Christ as it were into our hands and mightily allures and prevails upon our hearts to give themselves unto Christ again as Christ had never been effectually revealed unto you but by the Spirit so you had never been effectually brought to Christ but by the Spirit you had been Christlesse for ever without him And now consider the happiness in having this Spirit which hath wrought so effectually as to unite Christ and you and you and Christ that Christ is yours and you are his by him are you perswaded and drawn and brought into the possession of Christ and all the benefits by Jesus Christ 2. He doth conform us unto Christ We all saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3. 18. beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image He doth conform us unto Christ from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. As by the Spirit we do discern a most glorious nature of holinesse in Christ so by the Spirit we are changed into the same image of holinesse Hence are we said to be born again bâ— the Spirit John 3. 5 6. and to be renewed by the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And to be sanctified by him 1 Pet. 1. 2. You read that Christ was conceived by the holy Ghost and he was anointed by the Spirit So is every Christian he becomes a Christian by the Spirit and he is anointed by the Spirit The oyntment indeed is first poured upon our head and then upon us but as it is the same spirit in us which is in Christ so it is the same anointing only it is in Christ as the head and without measure and as in the pattern unto which we are conformed by the Spirit As by the unction of the Spirit we become like Christ in nature so also in Relation God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba-Father Gal. 4. 6. Now judge of the blessednesse of having the Spirit He is the cause of our union and he is the cause of our unction he brings us into Christ and he anoints us with the same grace wherewith Christ himself was anointed so that we are like Christ himself we are anointed with the same Spirit and therefore we must needs be excellent and choice persons and very lovely in the eyes of God 3. He doth reveal unto us the highest and the choicest things of salvation He is called the Spirit of Revelation Eph. 1. 17. because he opens He revealeth to us the choicest things of salvation and reveals those things unto the people of God which are hid from the eyes of others There are five precious things which the Spirit reveales unto you He reveals 1. The mystery of life unto you even Jesus Christ who cannot be known The mystery of life or acknowledged but by the Spirit Flesh and blood cannot reveal him No man can confesse him No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. But we speak the wisdome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory 1 Cor. 2. 7. 2. The love of God unto you The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts The love of God by the holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. He makes the greatnesse of the love and your propriety in it known unto you and the exceeding riches of grace c. 3. The presenc of Christ within you Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. Christ without nay Christ The presence of Christ within us is not discerned by us without the Spirit 4. The wonderful glory prepared for us Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared The glory prepared for us for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. 5. The most precious gifts bostowed on us In this life we have received the The most precious gifts bostowed on us Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. The sight of your own graces is by the assistance of the Spirit O what
dependance upon your engaged and promising God 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by faith not by sight Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by his faith Psal 115. 9. O Israel trust thou in the Lord he is their help and their shield ver 10. O house of Aaron trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield ver 11. Ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield And mark the reasons annexed why every one of these should trust in the Lord ver 12. The Lord hath been mindful of us you have had experience of his goodnesse for the time past and therefore trust in him and you shall every one of you finde him to be your good God still for the time to come therefore still trust in him he will blesse us he will blesse us He will bless the house of Israel he will blesse the house of Aaron ver 13. He will blesse them that fear the Lord both great and small There are six Arguments to perswade you unto this one duty viz. to depend Arguments for it upon your God by faith 1. Because he is your God and your Father and this comprehends within He is your God and Father it all the foundations and grounds for your faith and dependance He is an infinite all-sufficiency and goodnesse and he undertakes all your helps and supplies and stands engaged unto you for whatsoever is necessary to life and godlinesse and gives unto you so many promises as so many bonds and assurances that he will do you good and besides all this he is able to performe them and likewise faithful in his word yea and besides all this he loves you above all the people in the world and looks on you with tender compassions 〈◊〉 loving kindnesses and assures you that he will do you good for his own Names sake What can there be more and what can he said more to draw and perswade any to depend on a God and to rely upon him 2. Because you are his people Should not a people seek unto their God You are his people saith the Prophet Esay 8. 19. Whether should children go but to their father I am a Father to Israel and Ephraim is my first-borne Jer. 31. 9. And wilt not thou cry unto me My Father Thou art the guide of my youth Jer. 3. 4. Upon whom should the wife depend but upon her husband why The Lord is married unto you Jer. 3. 14. Thy Maker is thy husband Esay 54. 5. And how is he married unto you why In righteousnesse and in judgment and in loving kindnesse and in mercies and in failhfulnessâ— Hosea 2. 19 20. Truly even this alone that you are his people lays bond enough upon you to depend and trust upon your God for what is it to be his people but to choose him alone to be your God and for to acknowledge him by trusting upon him and loving of him and obeying of him if he be a God not worthy of your trust you are a people not worthy of his love and care 3. Because your God hath given unto you that choice grace of faith for this God hath given faith for this end end to act all along upon the Covenant of grace that he hath given faith unto you it is unquestioanble otherwise you were not his people now your faith is given unto you for foure ends One is for entrance that you might become his people and choose him for your God A second is for acquaintance that you as such a people might hold communion with such a God A third is for discovery that you might be able to finde out and behold all the undertakings and promises of your good God A fourth is for reliancâ— that you might be able to trust upon him for all that good which he hath promised unto you Faith is the eye which is given for to see our good and it is the feet which are given us to carry us to the fountaine of our good and it is the hand which is given to lay hold to take to receive all the good which our God hath promised us 4. Because it concerns you above all people to honour your God And how can you It concerns you above all people to honour your God honour him if you will not trust him faith hath if I may so expresse my thought all the glory of God in its hand you cannot possibly put more honour upon God than by believing and depending on him this is indeed to set him up as a God as the original of all c. 5. Because you know his Name How often have you found it good for you You know his Name to draw near to God And when you have laid the whole burden on his promises by faith you have alwayes found him a very faithful and helpful God Now saith David They that know thy Name will trust in thee 6. Have you any other to depend upon Every creature naturally is in a You have no other to depend upon state of dependency it is weak and wanting and an insufficiency to it self and therefore it must lean upon some stronger prop than it self And do not you finde it so with your selves finde you no wants at all can you be a sufficiency unto your selves under those wants will any or can any but God supply the wants of the people of God Most of your wants are above all Creature helps 2. You who are the people of God should walk in an exceeding love of your Walk in an exceeding love of your loving God good and loving God Matth. 22. 37. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy minde 1 John 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us Deut. 11. 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Psal 31. 23. O love the Lord all ye his Sairts There is a love of desire O God thou art my God my soul thirsts for thee Psal 63. 1. Of delight Delight thy self in the Lord Psal 37. 4. In thy presence is fulnesse of joy Psal 16. 11. Of Admiratâ—on who is a God like unto thee Micah 7. 18. Of Satisfaction I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse Psal 17. 15. Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us John 14. 8. Thy favour is better than life Psal 63. 3. Of Adhaesion never to part with God nor forsake him I held him fast I would not let him go Cant. 3. I and you should love as with the choicest kinde of love Foederal love so with the highest degrees of love you should love him more than all the world and more than all your friends and more than all your kindred more than father or mother sister or brother and more than your nearest relation than husband or wife and more than all your possessions and more than your own safeties and more
character of Gods people the people of God As Jesus Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God when with power he was raised from the dead by the Spirit of holinesse Rom. 1. 4. So are we really manifested or declared to be the sonnes of God when we are regenerated and renewed by the holy Ghost Titus 3. 5. Holinesse is as it were the mark of Christ and seal of the Spirit and the Character of all the people of God 4. You who are the people of God should walk with uprightnesse before the Walkwith uprightnesse before the omniscient God Omniscient and Al-sufficient God This is that which the Lord himself prescribed when he made a Covenant with Abram Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect And David presseth it upon Solomon 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my sonne know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde So Deut. 18. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Loâ—d thy God Beloved This is a special duty which concernes you who are the people of God the Lord your God doth insist upon this and though he beares with you in many things yet assuredly he expects this from all his people To be upright and to walk uprightly Quest But you may demand What is it to be perfect or upright and to walk so To walk uprightly is before God Sol. I answer it is 1. To walk without guile This is the periphrasis of an upright man that To walk without guile he is one in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32. 2. that is his heart is sound and real there is truth in his inward parts he is one who loves God with his very heart and hates sinne with his very soul and so to walk uprightly it is to walk plainly To walk before God in truth as Hâ—zekiah expresseth it in Isa 38. 3. Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. It is not to make a shew a pretence as if we would follow the Lord as if we would obey his voice as if we would order our conversation according to his Word but it is unfeignedly to endeavour this to walk in all well-pleasing before God He that walks uprightly he doth chuse the wayes of God for his wayes and sets up the Will of God revealed in hâ—s Word as the rule of his course and cordially strives to come up unto that Will of God 2. To waâ—k with a single respect unto God without mixture of wayes and mixture To walk with a single respect to God of ends upright men are therefore stiled simple men Matthew 10. 16. That is simple which is without mixture which is not partly one thing and partly another thiâ—g partly gold and partly drosse partly honey and partly wax pattly mire and partly water but it is Homogeneal all alike to the substance of it So upright men are single or simple men they have but one heart and but one object and but one way or path and but one end or aim God only is tâ—â— great object of 〈…〉 and Gods way only is the path of their life and Gods glory is only the end of their working and walking It is not sinne and God it is not the world and God it is not a trade of sinne and a trade of holy profession it is not their own praise and Gods glory their own benefit and Gods honour that they mingle together This is hypocrisie But it is God only whom they set up and his waies only wherein they walk and his glory only which they seek And therefore the course of all their actions hath a sincere reference and subserviency thereunto so that God may have glory 3. To walk uprightly is to walk fully and wholly with God Beloved this is a very truth To walk fully and wholly with God That when a mans heart is false and unfound there is then aninequality and disproportion 'twixt the Will of God and his hearâ— this heart cannot possibly extend it self to the extent of Gods Will nor raise it self to the height of Gods will the will of God seems too large and too strict some one thing or other it requires too much and something or other it forbids too much but if a person be upright his heart and Gods will be commensuerable though the act be short yet the heart is not short the heart of an upright man is as full of obedience as Gods Commands are of righteousnesse and he strives to come up fully and wholly to the Will of his God Mr servant Caleb hath followed me fully Numb 14. 24. They seek him with their whole heart Psal 119. 2. They are perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us go on to perfection Heb. 6. 1. They go from strength to strength Psa 84. 7. I strive if by any means c. Phil. 3. 11. O Christians This perfect walking with God this becomes the people of God and this is most pleasing to God when your hearts indeed are set on God and let out for God and continually set on the Word of God when your wayes are still the wayes of God and your works the works of God and your paths the paths of God when there is no way of wickednesse wherein you may be found and when there is no path of holinesse and righteousnesse wherein you are not to be found when you love your God with all your hearts and serve your God with all your might when you would not willingly do the least evil but fear it nor knowingly omit or neglect the greatest duty but assay and comply with it when your weaknesses are your griefs and the highest pitches of holinesse are your desires and aimes when though you fall yet you will rise and when you have got some ground you must still go further when you are exactly careful to do your utmost in the fruits of righteousnesse and give glory to God alone when you study your services and his praises alone this is to walk uprightly this is to be perfect with your perfect God this is to be wholly his as he is wholly yours this is to bestow all on him who bestowes all on you this is to value the enjoyment of your God alone as a sufficient portion and satisfaction that you need not at all to swerve from him and this is to count your God most worthy of your hearts and of your lives this is the honour of your Covenant-Relation the delight of your God the beauty of your lives the path of your peace the joy of your conscience and the fore-runner of your glory 5. You who are the people of God should walk without inordinate care before Walk without inordinate care before your faithful God your careful faithful never-failing God Matth. 6. 31. Take no thought saying What shall we eat or what
of regeneration and the Lords Supper seals a further communion with Christ in his graces in his life and in his death in his death and in his resurrection what shall I say every Covenant Ordinance is instituted either for the begetting or for the increasing and perfecting of holinesse Nay let me adde one thing more every dealing of God with his people in Covenant it is to further holinesse his dealing in the way of promises is that by them that we might be made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. His dealing with them in his calling of them to Christ is that they might be new creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. His dealing with them by his Spirit is that they might be born again John 3. 3. His dealing with them by afflictions is that their sinnes might be purged away Isa 27. 9. and that they may be partakers of his holinesse Heb. 12. 10. 7. The Covenant is very strict against all unholinesse against external unholinesse It is very strict against all unholinesse in Conversation and against internal unholinesse in affection or heart 2 Cor. 6. 17. Be ye separate and touch no unclean thing Jude ver 23. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil Rom. 8. 9. Abhorre that which is evil Psal 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Titus 3. 11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men ver 12. Teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Quest Now if you should demand why God makes a Covenant which is thus Why it must be a holy Covenant Because it must be sutable to his nature holy Sol. I answer first because his Covenant must be sutable to his own nature the which it were not if it were not holy His nature is holinesse it self and he will never set up a Covenant to make us unlike himself 2. He sets up a Covenant to shew and communicate his love unto us and Else he could not communicate his love to us therefore it must be a holy Covenant to purge away our sinfulnesse which he is of purer eyes than to behold and which his soul hates 3. He makes a Covenant with us that he and we might have a communion Else we cannot have communion with him together that we might have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne but what communion can there be 'twixt light and darknesse 4. He makes this Covenant to restore us again and to repaire his own The Covenant is to repaire Gods image in us image in us and to conforme us unto himself but our conforming unto him is by the transforming of our mindes by changing us into his own image from glory to glory by making us holy as he is holy 5. It would be infinite dishonour to God if his Covenant were not a holy Covenant Else it would be unworthy of him it would not be worthy of him God intended in making this Covenant to magnifie himself in praise and glory but he should lose all praise and glory if he had made a Covenant which were not holy ot which would dispense with holinesse unholinesse being the only dishonour to God and the pulling down of his glory God in this Covenant promiseth riches of mercy and grace and glory to his people but how absurd and dishonourable were it thus to do if his people should continue a vile and profane and sinful and sensual people if there were no difference 'twixt the precious and the vile 6. He makes a Covenant and brings people into it that so they may be Else not meet to be partakers of glory made meet to be partakers of the glory that is prepared and shall be revealed unlesse the Covenant were holy and did work holinesse we could never be fitted and prepared nor made meet for a glorious enjoyment of God and communion with him seeing that every one who hath that hope purifieth himself as he is pure 1 John 3. 3. And without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. And except a man he born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God John 3. 3. Vse 1 If the Covenant be a holy Covenant then no unholy person hath as yet an interest in the Covenant You are pleased in the having of all that mercy and of Then no unholy person hath as yet an interest in â—he Covenant all that goodnesse and of all that graciousnesse of all that happinesse in this Covenant O but you have no portion in God nor in any of these if you be unholy persons for all unholy persons are out of this holy Covenant I do not say that an unholy person is simply excluded from hopes of being brought into the Covenant but this I say if a person still remain unholy he is still out of the Covenant because all actually in Covenant with God are made holy they have a new heart given unto them There are two things shew persons are not in Covenant 1. Privative unholinesse 2. Counterfeit holinesse 1. Visible unholinesse shuts men out of this Covenant Now there are seven things which do shew that a man is as yet absolutely He is absolutely unholy unholy 1. When his heart doth secretly loath the Majesty and presence of holiness he Whose heart doth secretly loath the presence of holinesse Who loaths the generation of the Saints Who can reproach the beauties of holinesse Who will venture the losse of Gods favour rather than forsake his lusts Who opposeth the Ordinances because they presse holinesse Who counts it a disgrace to be holy Who lives in open profaness looks on holinesse as his enemy that would rent off his heart from sinful lusts which he doth infinitely prize and favour 2. When he loaths the generation of the Saints utterly declines their fellowship and can by no means agree with persons of holinesse even upon this account only because they are so but opposeth disgraceth reproacheth them and is glad if he can make them odious 3. Who can reproach the beauties of holinesse and offer despite to the Spirit of grace making holinesse the peculiar object of his scoffs and mocks and derision these are the Saints the holy ones c. 4. Who will rather venture the loss of Gods favour and mercy and the promises of salvation than that he will forsake his sinful lusâ—s and unholy wayes hates to be instructed and reproved and reformed 5. Who therefore opposeth and would subvert and supplant all the Ordinances of Christ because they press and urge holinesse and because they discover and reprove unholinesse and will not suffer him to go on quietly and desperately
Our life 3. Our peace 4. Our hope The Titles of Christ 5. Our Shepherd 6. Our Father 7. Our friend 8. Our Brother 9. Our Head 10. Our Husband 11. Our King 12. Our Saviour Verily the Covenant must needs be everlasting 'twixt us and our God who have such a Christ so engaged for us so mediating for us so strictly united to us so exceedingly loving of us so continually watchful and careful and helpful ever loving ever praying ever helping and resolved to save us 3. A third Argument to demonstrate the everlastingnesse of the Covenant shall From the Spirit of God which every one hath who is in Covenant with God be taken from the Spirit of God which every one hath who is in Covenant with God Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you Now there are ten works which the Spirit of God doth for all the people of God 1. He doth change their hearts 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2. He doth mortifie their sinful lusts Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body 3. He makes known the things of God unto them and teacheth them all things 1 Cor. 2. 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit 1 Joh. 2. 27. Teacheth you of all things 4. He doth powerfully enable them for all the works of obedience Ezekiel 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my judgements and do them 5. He doth dwell in them Rom. 8. 11. and he dwells in them for ever Joh. 14. 17. and dwelling in them he makes them a fit habitation for God Ephes 2. 22. 6. He doth guid and lead them Joh. 16. 13. The Spirit of truth he will guid you into all truth Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God 7. He doth sustain or uphold them Psal 51. 12. Vphold me with thy free Spirit 8. He helps them in their infirmities Romans 8. 26. and supplies them Phil. 1. 19. 9. He beares witnesse that they are the children of God and if children then heires Heires of God and joynt Heires with Christ Rom. 8. 16 17. 10. He Seals them unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4. 30. and moreover abides in their hearts he is the earnest of their inheritance untill the Redemption of the purchased possession 4. A fourth Argument to demonstrate the everlastingnesse of the Covenant From some considerations in the people of God They are born again of incorruptible seed Partakers of the divine nature They are the house built upon the Rock They are delivered from the power of darknesse Their hearts are set on God and only on him 'twixt God and his people shall have respect to some considerations in the people of God 1. They are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. 2. They are partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. and of the life of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 11. 3. They are the house built upon the Rock which fell not because it was builded upon a Rock Mat. 7. 25. and that Rock is Christ who is a sure foundation Isa 38. 16. 4. They are delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of Christ Colossians 1. 13. And his Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome unto the Sonne he saith Thy Throne is for ever and ever Heb. 1. 8. 5. Their hearts are superlatively set on God and only on him Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none that I desire upon earth besides thee God is my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. 6. They are strenghthened with might by his Spirit and rooted and grounded in They are strengthened with might They are the Pillars in the Temple of God They are the inheritance of God love Ephes 3. 16 17. 7. They are the Pillars in the Temple of God and shall go no more out Revelations 3. 12. 8. They are the inheritance of God his portion his peculiar treasure and purchased with the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 19. He would never pay so dear a price for them and then put them off Isa 49. 25. And Israel mine Inheritance Zach. 2. 12. The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion Deut. 32. 9. The Lords portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance Psamle 135. 4. The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure 9. The commands and wayes and communions with God are no burdans to them The commands of God are not burdensome but delightful to thē not grievous because they are born of God and love him 1 John 5. 3. But pleasing and delightful The Law of God is written in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. Psal 119. 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes Ver. 24. Thy Testimonies are my delight Cant. 2. 3. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste 10. They hate evil Psal 97. 10. and loath their abominations Ezekiel They hate evil 36. and have crucified the flesh with the lusts and affections thereof Galations 5. 11. They are a people who live by faith and are much in prayer that God They live by faith and are much in prayer would work all his works in them and for them that he would not leave them nor forsake them that he would preserve and uphold and confirm and stablish them unto the end They work out their own salvation with feare and trembling 2. The reason why the Covenant which God makes with his people is an everlasting Reasons of it In respect of God Covenant and shall be so 1. There are reasons for this in respect of God 1. His Wisdome hath contrived this Covenant in a way of everlastingnesse His wisdome which appeares in three particulars 1. He layes the foundation of it not upon our selves but Christ not on our will and power but on the power and sufficiency of Jesus Christ 2. He engages himself for himself and for his people to keep them unto himself and from falling and to continue them to be his people for ever not only to give them grace but to preserve that grace not only to beginne a good work but also to finish it 3. He promiseth mercy to pardon the sins of his people and grace to heal their back-slidings None of these were in the Covenant of works and therefore that lasted not but all these are in the Covenant of grace and therefore it is everlasting 2. His purpose his purpose in making of this Covenant was to exalt and glorifie His purpose and magnifie the greatnesse of his love and the riches
you and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people and in the very Covenant Exod. 20. 6. shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me The Preface made before the renewing of the Law upon the breaking of the Tables 3. Upon the breaking of the Tables of that Covenant before they were written again there is such a preface made by God as can no way fit any Covenant but that of Grace as you may see in Exod. 34. 7. The Lord the Lord gracious and merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiveing iniquity transgression and sin 4. The Ceremonies were Appendices of the Moral Law especially of the first and second Commandments as given to the Israelites and what did those The Ceremonies were Apendices of the moral Law ceremonies shadow out even Jesus Christ and Redemption and Reconciliation and Remission and Salvation by him c. Moses is said therefore to write of Christ Joh. 5. 46. 5. Many other Arguments might be brought as that if those people were not Many of them under that Covenant were saved in a Covenant of Grace then none of them could be saved for a sinners salvation is in no Covenant but that of Grace and yet many of them under the Covenant which God made with them were saved Acts 15. 11. We believe that through grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they c. I now proceed to the Second Particular 2. Quest Wherein that Covenant of Grace under which the Fathers lived Wherein these Covenants agree doth consent or agree with the Covenant of Grace under which we now do live Sol. They do consent and agree in three Particulars 1. In the Parties God was one party and fallen sinners were the other party in the Old and so they are in the New Covenant Before the coming of Christ In the Parties which respects the Old Covenant none but sinnerâ— were lookt on and brought into Covenant and after the coming of Christ which respects the New Covenant none but sinners which work not but beâ—ieve in him that justifieth the ungodly are taken into Covenant The Grace of God is manifested towards sinners in the one and towards sinners in the other Covenant 2. Both these Covenants had a Mediator who stood between the parties at a In the Mediator distance and reconciled them even Jesus Christ who is said to be the same yesterday and to day and for ever You have him promised to Adam and made known to Abraham who saw the day of Christ and rejoyced Joh. 8. 56. and prophecied by of Moses Act. 3. 22. Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear c. he was promised to the Fathers and expected oâ— them Luk. 1. 69. He hath raised up an born of salvation for us in the house of his Servant David Vers 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been siâ—ce the world began And verse 72. To perform the mercie promise to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant Vers 73. The oath which he sware unto our Father Abraham c. 3. They do agree in the main Promises the spiritual promises of good things In the main Promises Rom. 15. 8. Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers Some think that the Fathers under the old Covenant were fed only with temporal Promises Indeed they had many temporal Promises and some were of special Blessings and Gifts as the land of Canaan c. Nevertheless they had the same spiritual Promises which we have under the New Testament Forgiveness of sins besides that place formerly mentioned in Deut. 4. 29 30 c. you read of frequent Promises of forgiving of sins upon their Sacrifices in Levit. 9 and 2 Chro. 7. 14. If my people shall humble themselves c. I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin Eternal life both promised and enjoyed Many shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God Matth. 8. 11. They embraced the promises of a better Country even an heavenly vers 11 13 16. Prepared for them a City We hope to be saved even as they Acts 15. 11 c. 3 Quest Wherein they differ and wherein the betterness of the New Covenant Wherein they differ of Grace doth consist Sol. Although both these Covenants do agree in substance and end yet they differ very much as to the particular from of administration or dispensation I will touch only on Five differences 1 In Obscurity and Perspicuity 2 In Burdens and Liberty 3 In Weakness and Efficacy 4 In Restraints and Extent 5 In Time and Duration 1. The New Covenant is a better Covenant than the Old because there is a In Obscurity and Perspicâ—ity greater Perspicuity in the new Covenant and a greater Obscurity in the old Covenant Hence 't is that the Gospel is called The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began But now is made manifest Rom. 16. 25 26. He doth not mean that it was kept secret or hid or covered absolutely from the beginning of the world to that time but he speaks comparatively that iâ— Now Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by faith in him appears most clearly the Sun is risen and shines without any cloud Behold the Lamb of God Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself He that believes shall be saved We are saved by grace c. I am the way the truth and the life There was not comparatively such clearness in expression in the Old Testament Hence it is that the Apostle speaking of both these Testaments in 2 Cor. 3. he tells us of a vail on the one Testament vers 14. and of an openness in the other Testament vers 18. We with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord c. Let me give you a few Instances that you may the better understand this 1. Consider Jesus Christ it is true that he was revealed in the Old and in the New Covenant but yet with a marvellous inequality of light he is called the Seed of the woman and the Root of Jess and the Oyntment and the Mighty God and the Childe to be born But the clear expression of him is in the New Covenant Luk. 2 11. This day unto you is bern in the City of David a Saviouâ— which is Christ the Lord. Joh. 1 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father Acts 11. 38. God hath anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and
the effect and fruit of Christs sufferings and satisfaction for us Then you see whether to go under the sense of the guilt of your sins and See whether to go under the sense of sin and what to trust to what to trust unto when the Law of God sets upon you and Satan gives in against you and your own wounded consciences charge on you the guilt of great and many sins O it is a dreadful time indeed with you what shall I do and what will become of me whether shall I flie who can give me ease I cannot satisfie justice and I cannot escape justice and I cannot bear the strokes of justice I would do any thing I would suffer any thing for a time But O distressed sinner these will not and these cannot help thee Why then my condition is desperate So it is for ought that thou canst do but is there not a God in Israel so say I to thee is there not a Mediatour hath not he suffered hath not he died hath not he shed his blood for the Remission of sins In him we have Redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins And If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins And herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins And therefore in your agonies of Conscience in the troubles of your soules under the guilt of your sins look up to Jesus Christ whose blood was shed for the Remission of sins and offer him up and hâ—s blood up to God See O Lord this is thy Christ who appeared once to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself and who was once offered to bear the sins of many Here is my satisfaction and here is the price laid down for my sins and here is the blood without shedding of which there is no remission O Lord pardon O Lord forgive my sins all my sins for his Name sake c. 3. I now proceed unto the third Effect or Benefit flowing from and depending upon the sufferings of Christ our Mediatour and that is Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. Reconciliation God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Whereas formerly we lay under the wrath of God deserved by sin we are now by Christ delivered from that wrath God is appeased and we are received into favour and friendship with him Rom. 5. 10. When we were sinners we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Ephes 2. 14. He is our Peace Isa 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him The Socinians deny all this they deny that God was ever angry or displeased with us or that any of us did lie under his wrath or that ever Christ did appease pacifie remove the wrath of God or wrought Reconciliation 'twixt God and us Against which Opinion of theirs I shall lay down these Conclusions Conclusions layed down against the Socinians There was a real breach betwixt God and Man by sin 1. That there was a real breach or difference or enmity made between God and Man by reason of sin and we were under his wrath for it The Scripture is clear for this calling sin an enmity Ephes 2. 16. Having slain the enmity thereby Rom. 8. 7. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God It is not subject to the Law of God c. Sinners enemies It when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. Those whom he calls Sinners verse 8. he calls Enemies verse 10. Col. 1. 21. You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mindes by wicked works yet now he hath reconciled Here you see that by reason of sin we are alienated and we are enemies Alienated in respect of the near union and conjunction which once we had with God and enemies in respect of that hostility which did arise 'twixt us and God by reason of sin Sinners do hate God as their enemy and God doth hate them as his enemies and their wayes are an abomination unto him Prov. 15. 9. And truely because sin is in its own nature the greatest dissimilitude with and repugnancy unto the nature of God as it therefore breaks up all friendship so it likewise raises up the strongest alienation and hostility But besides this the Scripture doth as clearly hold out the wrath of God under which men lie by reason of sin Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth not the Son the wrath of God abideth on him He saith not Non veniet super eum sed manet Jamdudum enim involvit omnes Adami filios illis supe incumbet donec removeatur per Christum Mediatorem saith Austin Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who hold the truth in unrighteousnesse Doth God reveal and threaten and inflict wrath upon sinners and yet is he not wrath with sin or with sinners Eph. 2 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others How often do we read of the provocation of God by sin and of Gods abhorring of people for sin and of casting them out of his sight and of the separation which sin makes and of his forsaking and punishing and damning of sinners certainly then sin makes a real breach and enmity 'twixt God and us 2. That Jesus Christ as our Mediatour did step in between God and us and Jesus Christ did step in betwixt God and us to make up the breach He did appease the wrath of God made up the breach and slew the enmity and reconciled us again Now here observe two things 1. Jesus Christ did appease the wrath of God against us He did pacifie him and took off all provocation on our part and displeasure therefore on Gods part All the peace-offerings in the Old Testament upon which his wrath fell off and ceased were but Types of Christ who was the real and true Peace-offering by whom God is appeased and pacified with us Hence is that of the Prophet Isa 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him It was Christ who made peace for us and as Christ is called our Peace and Peace-maker so he is called our Appeasor or Appeasement Rom. 3. 25. whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiatory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2. 2. And he is the Propitiation for our sinnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 placamen not placationis testimonium but placamen effectivum Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is placare to appease a person and so to appease him that wrath and displeasure in him is removed or taken off God be mercifull to me a sinner said the Publican Luke 18. 13. Be merciful to me the word signifies Be propitious be appeased be pacified And truely upon the account of this part of Reconciliation by Christ we are
by the Grounds By the grounds and causes and order of attaining that certainty and Causes and Order of attaining unto that certainty of knowledge and perswasion that Christ died for him For your help in this take notice of three Particulars 1. A right and undeceiving assurance that Christ died for us hath two sure Grounds One is the Testimony of the Word the other is the Testimony of Conscience renewed The Word saith Whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life Renewed conscience saith but thou believest yea thou believest aright thy faith work by love Ergo. 2. A right and undeceiving knowledge it hath very choice causes it ariseth from Faith and it ariseth from the Spirit of Christ no man can give himself this assurance or certain knowledge that Christ died for him As no man can say that Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost So no man can say Christ is my Lord and my Saviour but by the Holy Ghost 3. A right and undeceiving assurance that Christ died for me is attained in an orderly way It is not the first work to be found in us but it follows many precedent works in the soule as the sealing follows the writing viz. it follows 1. Deep sense of sin and misery 2. A Spiritual Conviction of our own impotency and insufficiency and absolute need of Christ 3. Earnest desires after Christ and for faith to lay hold on Christ 4. Many conflicts 'twixt weak faith and doubtings and fears 5. Peculiar supplications for the evidencing of the love of Christ and for particular perswasions of our interest in him and in the benefits of his death 6. Attendance upon God in the Ordinances of Christ c. Seventhly You may know that Christ died for your sins by the concomitant presence of some choice qualities in every person rightly assured of Christs dying By the concomitant presence of some chief qualities for him v. g. 1. A tender mournfulness of heart Zech. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn as a man mourns for his only child Never did the child mourn more c. There is a two-fold mourning and both necessary one from sense of sin as grieving God the other from the sense of love in pardoning sin 2. An exceeding joy Rom. 5. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the Atonement 3. An inflamed love Luke 7. 47. Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much For is not Causal but Illative q. d. therefore she loved much None so loved as this loving Christ 4. A sweet Peace and Tranquillity Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ when we know that our peace is made by Christ presently peace ariseth in the conscience the storm is over and we are at land Now conscience excuses comforts supports answers c. all is well the Sword is sheathed 8. Lastly you may know that Christ died for you by the fruits and effects By the fruits and effâ—cts which flow from it which do flow from that certaine knowledge and that particular assurance v. g. 1. Singular loathings of sin Rom. 6. 1 2. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein 2. Utmost service for Christ 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us acts us fills us carries us on as men possessed or as a ship with the winde Act. 21. 13. I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus 3. Special delight in Christ and in the word of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious as if he had said the man that knows that the Lord is gracious and gracious to him and hath tasted of the sweetness of his love to his soul must needs delight in and long after the Word as the Babe doth after the milk of the breast 4. Yet more desires to partake of more from Christ Phil. 3. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death verse 12. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus 5. Watchful fear by no means to offend or displease Christ so loving a Christ so kind so good a Christ so unwilling and so affraid is the assured person to sin against Christ any more that he could be content presently to dâ—e and to be with Christ where there is no more a possibility to offend him c. 6. Answerable returns unto Christ who suffered and died for me v. g. He loved me and I therefore love him He abased himself for me and I abase my self for him He gave himself for me and I give my self to him He obeyed his Fathers will for me and I obey his will He suffered for me and I am willing to suffer for him in my name in my body in my life He rose for me and I live to him He justified me and I justifie him He pleades foâ— me in Heaven and I plead for him on Earth He hath purchased glory for me and I give glory to him c. Thus have you heard the Decision of this great Practical Question how a person may know that Christ died for him Now beâ—â—re I shut up this Discourse I will propound and give answer unto some Cases of Conscience in relation to this Point in which I am â—iscoursing 1. How one may know that he is deluded in his Conscience that Christ dyed for him 2. What one should do who as yet cannot certainly affirm that Christ died for him 3. Whether every one for whom Christ effectually dyed doth sometime or other in this life attain unto the certain evidence thereof 4. Whether a person having attained to the certain knowledge of Christs dying for him may ever after that doubt and question the same again and whether new doubtings overthrow a certainty of knowledge 5. What advantage any Christian hath by the certain knowledge that Christ died for him as his Mediatour Case 1. How one may know that he is deluded in his Confidence that Christ How one may know he is deluded in his confidence of Christs dâ—ing for him A twofold confidence dyed for him There is I confess a two-fold confidence about the Application of the Death of Christ One arising from Faith and the Spirit of God who beareth witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God The other ariseth from presumption and the spirit of Delusion wherein a person dreams that he eats but he is empty and dreams that he
people Ver. 34. And they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Jerem. 32. 39. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their children after them Ver. 40. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart and I will put a New Spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh Ver. 20. That they may walk in my Statutes and keep my Ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Hosea 2. 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving-kindnesse and in mercies Ver. 20. I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. Hebr. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people c. Quest But why is God pleased to promise to give unto his people in Covenant Why God gives spiritual blessings as well as â—emporal His people have souls as well as bodies spiritual blessings as well as temporal Sol. The Reasons are these First Because his people have souls as well as bodies and their souls do stand in as much need of spiritual blessings as their bodies do of temporal blessings Every mans soul since the fall of Adùm is in a fourfold miserable necessity which cannot be relieved but by spiritual blessings 1. In an estate of spiritual death out of which it cannot be relieved but by the donation of spiritual life a quickning by the Spirit of Christ is necessary for a soul dead in trespasses and sins 2. In an estate of spiritual enmity and that enmity cannot be slain but by the death of Christ nor any atonement peace or reconciliation enjoyed but by his blood 3. In an estate of offence and guilt which expose the soul unto wrath and punishment by reason of which the soul needs exceeding riches of grace and mercy to forgive and acquit the sinner 4. In an estate of pollution and bondage being held under the power of sinful lusts in which regard the soul needs the Lord Jesus to be redemption and liberty unto it and the soul can never be freed nor free but by Christ and his Spirit John 8. 36. If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death If a man had all the blessings of the world riches honour friends health pleasures c. they could be of no help or relief unto his soul at all notwithstanding all these the soul still remains sinful and miserable Give the soul Christ and grace and mercy or else you give it nothing it must perish for ever without them And therefore doth God give unto his people spiritual blessings because the soul needs them and they are sutable to the spiritual necessities of the soul Secondly His people are people of another life they have the promise of eternal His people are for another life life 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life Titus 1. 2. Inhope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens But what of this will you say why hence it follows that therefore God will give unto them spiritual blessings and why spiritual blessings because spiritual blessings are necessary for them in relation unto that eternal life Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other Name given under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Loe here is a necessity of Jesus Christ for our salvation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Loe here is a necessity of faith for salvation Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God Hebr. 12. 13. Follow holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord. Joh. 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Loe here is a necessity of holinesse and regeneration for salvation and they are congruous and fitting us for salvation or eternal life Colos 1 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light It is meet to enjoy grace before we come to enjoy glory it is meet to have a conformity to Christ on his Crosse before we come to have a conformity to Christ in his Crown c. Thirdly His people are designed and set apart for special duties and services His people aâ—e set apart for special duties the which they can never performe without spiritual gifts and blessings They are to glorifie their God Isa 43. 6. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth Ver. 7. Even every one that is called by my Name for I have created him for my glory Ver. 21. This people have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise They are to deny themselves and to take up the Crosse of Christ and to follow him they are to crucifie the lusts with the affections thereof they are to suffer losses and reproaches and persecutions and perhaps death it self they are to fight the good fight of faith to resist temptation to quench the fiery darts of Satan to overcome the world they are to live by faith against hope to believe in hope to walk in all well-pleasing before the Lord. They are to have daily communion with God and their hearts are to be set on him and on things above Can any of these duties and services be performed by them without spiritual strength or can they partake of spiritual strength unlesse and untill God doth give unto them spiritual gifts or graces Fourthly All the people in Covenant with God they have his image restored They have Gods image restored to them unto them they behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. They are made partakers of the Divine nature
platted a Crown of thorns they put it on his head and a Reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying Hail King of the Jews so Acts 2. 13. Others mocking said these men are full of new wine And they are said in Hebr. 10. 29. to tread under foot the Son of God and to count his blood an unholy thing How amazing is this reproach and thus is it with all who sin the sin against the Holy Ghost the precious blood of Christ his holiness his truth his commands his ways his servants are the objects of their mockings and scorns and reproaches Thirdly This opposition is made against Christ and the Gospel after and against the clear Convictions of the Holy Ghost They who sinne this sin 1. Have had such a light in them as to know Jesus Christ Joh. 9. 41. Jesus said unto them If ye were blinde ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth Joh. 7. 28. Ye both know me and whence I am Hebr. 6. 4. who were once inlightened They that sin this sin do know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Redeemer and that there is salvation in him and in no Name but his and that the way which he prescribes for salvation is the true way of life and after all this they crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame 2. The Holy Ghost hath not only illuminated their minds but hath also raised them to a kind of approbation of Christ and his truths and his ways so that they have taken upon them the profession of Christianity and side with the Gospel for a time 3. By the operation of the Holy Ghost they have attained unto some spiritual taste and experience as you may see Hebr. 6. 4. Have tasted of the heavenly gift Ver. 5. And have tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come Fourthly And yet after all this they fall away Hebr. 6. 6. Reject Christ and his truths and ways and will go on in the ways of their sinful and worldly lusts This is that sin which shall never be forgiven not only because God is pleased to shut the door of mercy against it but also because persons guilty of this sin do thrust themselves into such a desperate hardness of heart and they reject Christ in whom alone pardon is to be had that as the Apostle speaks Hebr. 6. 6. It is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance 2. Secondly They do put themselves out of a capacity of the forgiveness of their sins who will not repent of their sins i. e. who will not forsake them They who will not repent of their sins but will still persist and continue in them though they be convinced though they be reproved though they be threatned though they be assured of the inconsistence of forgiveness with impenitency This point will manifestly appear upon a threefold consideration 1. Of Gods professed resolution contrary to the presumption of mercy in the impenitent sinner indeed this sinner presumes to promise mercy unto himself though he goes on in his sins but the Lord protests that he shall have none Deut. 29. 18. Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormewood Ver. 19. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkenness to thirst Ver. 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven Ver. 21. And the Lord shall separate him to evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the Law So Psal 50. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Ver. 22. Consider this ye that forget lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver 2. Of Gods restriction of his promise of forgiveness only upon condition of repentance only to such as forsake their sins where do you find it otherwise in the whole Bible Isa 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings cease to do evil learn to do well Ver. 18. Come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon 3. Of Gods peremptory sentence in case of impenitency Exod 34. 7. that will by no means clear the guilty i. e. the impenitent in absolving he will not absolve i. e. whosoever finds mercy they shall not Ezek. 18. 21. Cast away from you all your transgressions for why will ye dye O house of Israel Psal 63. 21. God will wound the head of such an one as goes on still in his wickednesse Luk. 13. 3. Except ye repent ye shall perish Jer. 13. 10. This evil people which refuse to hear my words which walk in the imagination of their hearts Ver. 14. I will dash them one against another even the father and the son together saith the Lord I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Eccles 8. 13. It shall not be well with the wicked Isa 65. 20. The sinner dying an hundred years old shall be cursed then certainly not forgiven O think of this you who still go on in the hatred of holiness in profaning of the Sabbath in drunkenness in whoredom in pride in lying in any ungodly course who mock at reproof and despise instruction who flatter your selves with hopes of forgiving mercy Be not deceived for God is not to be mocked for whatsoever a man sowes that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 7. and Rom. 2. 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds Ver. 8. Indignation and wrath Ver. 9. tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil Thirdly They do put themselves out of a capacity of forgiveness of their sins who do delay and defer their work of repentance When some sinners are convinced They who delay theâ—r repentance of the inconsistence of mercy with impenitency and of the necessary presence of repentance for forgiveness then seeing it must be so and mercy cannot be otherwise had
sinnes Repenting sinners confesse their sins First You shall find Repenting sinners confessing their sins Ezra 9 6. O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens Ver. 10. And now O our God What shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandments c. Psal 51. 3. I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Ver. 4. Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Dan. 9. 4. I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadful God c. Ver. 5. We have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements c. Ver. 8. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day Luk. 15. 18. I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee Ver. 19. and am no more worthy to be called thy Son c. Secondly Now these penitently confessing sinners you shall expresly find And are under the promise of forgiveness to be under the promise of the forgiveness of sins I Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Psal 32. 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne Selah 3. The third and last part of Repentance is conversion or turning from Conversion from sin to God sin unto God Ezek. 33. 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes Repenting in Scripture is to this purpose styled a putting away of sins Isa 1. 16. and a casting away of our sins Ezek. 18. 31. and a forsaking of our sins Prov. 28. 13. and a departing from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. and a turning to repent of sin and to continue in sin are a contradiction as if you should say that a man leaves his sins when yet he holds them fast and will not let them go Two things you also read of this part of Repentance 1. One That truly penitent persons do forsake their sins they turn from Penitent persons forsake their sins them they put them away Isa 30. 22. Ye shall defile the covering of thy graven images of silver and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth Thou shall say unto it Get thee hence Hos 14. 8. Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with Idols Judg. 10. 15. And the children of Israel said unto the Lord We have sinned Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee Ver. 16. And they put away the strange gods from among them and served the Lord. Job 34. 31. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more Ver. 32. That which I see not Teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Jonah 3. 8. Let them every one turn from his evil way Ver. 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way 2. The other That they who do penitentially turn from their sins are They who turn frâ—m sin are under the promise of pardon under the promise of forgiveness of sin Prov. 28. 13. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall finde mercy Many men confess their sins who yet do still love to keep their sins and therefore shall miss of mercy but the way for mercy is to forsake their sin as well as to confess sin Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and let the unrighteous forsake his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Thus have I opened unto you the integral parts of Repentance which doth certainly bring us within the capacity of the promise of forgiveness of sins Secondly I shall now proceed to handle the Qualifications of every one of The right qualifications of those parts of Repentance these parts of Repentance by which you may know that you do in truth act every one of them and consequently are under the promise c. And the rather do I insist on this because many persons do think that they are sorry for their sins and do think that they do rightly confess their sins and do think that they forsake their sins and thereupon do presume upon forgiving mercy whereas really they are still under the love and power and service of their sins and do not repent at all all which you shall find in every part which I have mentioned clearly instanced in Scripture First For mourning and weeping and afflicting the soul persons have acted something in this way and yet have not repented in truth and therefore have missed of forgiveness Mal. 2. 13. This have ye done again covering the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying insomuch that ye regarded not the offering any more All this was but hypocrisie for notwithstanding all these tears they dealt treacherously every one against his brother Ver. 10. And profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved and married the daughter of a strange god Ver. 11. Isa 58. 3. Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no knowledge Ver. 5. Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul c. Secondly For confession of sins some have done this and yet they have not rightly and penitentially done this Exod. 9. 27. Pharaoh said I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked see what a confession is here but then see Ver 34. when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart he and his servants Thirdly For turning from sin some have pretended thus far and yet have not truly acted therein Psal 78. 34. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God Ver. 35 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues Ver. 37. For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Jer. 2. 20. Of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy hands and thou saidst I will not transgress when upon every high hill and under every green Tree thou wanderedst playing the harlot Thus you see that some have pretended to all the parts of Repentance and yet have not acted up to any one part in truth Therefore I will now deliver unto you the right qualifications of all
Saints all along 5. And it seems to be a strong Guard against presumption and carnal security and looseness 6. And hath no direct natural appearance of inconveniencies in or from it Object Whereas they say this is Popish and Legal Sol. They speak ignorantly if not maliciously for they know that Jesus Christ in the Gospel-Commission joyned Repentance and Remission of sins It is as Popish to say Repentance is required for Assurance as for Remission for both are acts of grace Object But what if one should die before he repents Sol. And what if he should not dye That God who hath promised renewing mercy hath likewise promised renewed repentance Object But a man may be damned for the sinnes committed if all be not forgiven at once Sol. 1. As if a particular sin destroyed the state of Justification 2. What a sin deserves is one thing what it shall redundantly and eventually bring on the person is another thing 3. Though God doth not forgive all the sins at once yet he will certainly forgive them unto his people when committed and when repented of for God hath promised so to pardon them And no one promise of God can be shewed to the contrary It was Fulgentius his prayer Domine da poenitentiam postea indulgentiam Object But God justifies the ungodly therefore no need of subsequent repentance in relation to forgivenesse Sol. 1. Nay and put in too any Repentance or Faith at all for God justifies the ungodly 2. But he justifies the ungodly i. e. a man stands before God when he justifies him as a poor undone sinner having no righteousness of his own nor is Repentance required as the meritorious or as the material cause of Justification but as a meanes to enjoy what God hath pâ—omised to the believer Having thus waded through this great Controversie I shall now proceed unto the useful Application of the Doctrine That God doth promise to forgive all the sins of his people SECT III. Use 1. THe first Vse shall be of Information It may informe us of five Information things 1. Of that exceeding greatness of mercy which is in God 2. Of that exceeding love and kindness which is in God unto his people 3. Of what a heavy weight did lie upon Jesus Christ 4. Of the high Obligations which rest upon us who do enjoy this promise of universal forgiveness 5. Then multitude of sinnes is not absolutely inconsistent with pardon First In that God engageth himself by promise to forgive all the sins of all That God is a God of infinite mercy his people This doth manifestly declare unto us that he is a God of infinite mercy must he not needs be so who forgives such a number of sins and transgressions There are two things which discover unto us the infinite fulness and depth of mercy in God One is that vast Title attributed unto him and his mercy He is said to be of great mercy Psal 105. 8. and to be rich in mercy Ephes 2. 4. and to be plenteous in mercy Psal 86. 15. and to pardon abundantly Isa 55. 7. 1 Pet. 1 3. according to his abundant mercy and to keep mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 7. and to be of everlasting mercy Psal 100. 5. and to be of transcendent and incomparable mercy As the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Psal 103. 11. In like manner there are ascribed to his mercy and mercies a multitude Psal 51. 1. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies A depth Mich. 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea Not only an abundance but an exceeding abundance 1 Tim. 1. 14. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant Nay an over abundance where sin abounded grace did much more abound Rom. 5. 23. It did superabound c. 2ly The other is the vast quantity of sinnes of which the people of God have been guilty Who saith David Psal 19. 12. can understand his errors i. e. the number of a mans sins is so numerous that with all the Arithmetick he hath he is not able to cast up how often he hath sinned Nay David surveying the number of his own sins he is non-plused and professeth that they are innumerable and that they are more than the hairs of his head Psal 40. 12. And Ezra in his confession Chap. 9. 6. Our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasse is grown up into the heavens Now if the number of sins in respect of one person be so innumerable what then is the number of all the sins of all the people of God yet there is mercy enough in God to pardon all and every one of them To pardon â—â— their sinnes which they do know and all the rest which they do not know Secondly In that God doth pardon all the sins of all his people this doth likewise discover the exceeding love and kindnesse of God to his people The Apostle The exceeding love and kindness of God to his people saith in 1 Pet. 4. 8. That Charity or love covereth a multitude of sinnes and that he that converts a sinner shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. Certainly then it shews exceeding love in God to cover to blot out to forget to passe over to pardon all the multitude of sins in his own people To injure God is infinitely more than to injure man to offend and dishonour him is infinitely more than to offend and dishonour man and for God to passe by all this it must needs flow from his infinite love and kindness and therefore God is said Rom. 5. 8. To commend or highly to exalt his love toward us in that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us and to shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 7. And the forgivenesse of our sins is rightly attributed to the riches of his grace Eâ—â—es 1. 7. Thirdly in that God forgives all the sins of all his people this may inform us What a heavy weight did lie upon Christ What an heavy weight did lie upon Jesus Christ and of that wonderful power and vertue of his sufferings There is no man who is able to express the surpassing desert and burden in any one particular sin we finde many times that some one sin set on with the wrath of God doth drive us to our feet it is more unto us than the shadows of death it doth fill us with such distractions and horror that we can neither live nor dye we are not able to sustain it nor yet to decline it what work then would all our sins make within us if the Lord should in wrath return them upon us Now all the sins of all the people of God from the beginning of the world to the end thereof were in all their kinds and numbers and aggravations laid upon Jesus Christ he bare all our
for ye are bought with a price 1 Cor. 19. 20. 2. Of all the Services of the Elect He hath delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him in holiness and righteousness Luk. 1. 74 75. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. 3. Of all Graces for the Elect the donation of the Spirit as to all the effects of grace is the fruit of his death and purchase not only eternal glory but renewing grace is purchased by Jesus Christ Thirdly The Lord doth put several duties and services upon his people which God hath several services for his people are impossible for them to perform unless he did give them a new heart an heart changed and renewed by grace They must deny themselves they must love the Lord their God with all their soul and all their might They must hate every evil way They must walk uprightly They must be contented in all conditions They must resist temptations and wrestle against principalities and against Rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places They must overcome evil with good They must love their enemies bless them that curse them and do good to them that hate them They must be ready to do every good work They must take up the Cross and suffer reproaches and losses they must persevere to the end It is impossible for a natural heart to perform these Is there not then a necessity of renewing grace to enable the heart for these Fourthly Again The people in Covenant they have a new and choice relation They have a new relation and must have natures sutable to it No people have such a relation as they and unless they were renewed by grace they could never hold that relation God is their God and their Father and they are his children they are his sons and daughters 2 Cor. 2. 18. I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty and Ver. 16. Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people this is their relation but then mark what he infers from this in Ver. 17. Wherefore come from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you q. d. Holiness is necessary for this relation you must be separate you must be renewed you must have no communion with sin you must be another kind of people you cannot hold communion with me nor will I own you for my people and children if you do so c. And Christ is their head and they are his body this is another relation Colos 1. 18. He is the head of the body the Church Now is Christ the head of profane and ungodly men Is he the head of the dead or of the living Do not the head and the body agree in the same kind of nature and life Are not they who are joyned to the Lord one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. Certainly as all who come from the first Adam do bear his image so all who are of the second Adam do bear his image Ergo. They must be a redeemed and sanctified people Fifthly I will adde one reason more why God will give unto all his people The congruity of it as to their Conversation a new heart and it is this The congruity of it for that conversation which they are to have amongst men both good and bad First For good men they are to have society and communion with them With good men in all holy things and in all holy duties their hearts should be knit unto them in love their delight should be in them as in the excellent of the earth and you know the mutual comfortings and edifyings and strengthnings and spiritual supportings which believers should be to one another But this requires a new heart untill that be given there can never be that love that delight c. Secondly For wicked men the people of God are to shine amongst them as With wicked men lights Phil. 2. 15. and to win them by their godly walking at least to stop their mouths and make them ashamed that falsly accuse their good Conversation in Christ they are to convince them and reprove them c. But all these things would fail they could not be if God did not renue and change the heart of his people by grace c. SECT II. Vse 1. Doth God promise to give unto all his people a new heart and a new Then many are not Gods people they have their old hearts still spirit here it follows that many people are not the people of God in Covenant because they have not a new heart given unto them but they have still their old hearts and old spirits their old corrupt lusts which they obey and serve and which they will hold fast and will not forsake For the managing of this Use I will briefly shew you two things 1. The infallible Characters of an old and unclean heart 2. The woful miseries of people still retaining those old hearts 1. The Characters of an old or unrenewed heart Characters of an old heart The Scripture gives us five Characters of an old heart i. e. of an heart never yet changed or renewed by grace First Ignorance generally the sinful estate is set out by ignorance 1 Pet. 1. 14. Not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance Ignorance Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Acts 17. 30. The times of this ignorance God winked at There are three things of which if a man be ignorant he is unquestionably in an old sinful estate 1. Himself if he knows not what a wicked wretched vile and miserable heart is within him and how accursed he is by reason of it 2. Jesus Christ and the mystery of salvation in and by Christ 3. The excellency and necessity of the new creature of Regeneration and renewing grace this man is still in his sins he is in the gall of bitterness he is dead c. The first work of the Spirit is to open the eyes and to turn men from darkness to light Acts 26. 18. And to give knowledge of salvation Luk. 1. 77. To enlighten the understanding Eph 1. 18. There begins the first change and dawning of Christ and grace therefore if that be not done the old heart remains Secondly Carnal security and quietness a perpetual silence and rest Luk. Carnal security 11. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his Palace his goods are in peace where sin reigneth and still keeps possâ—ssion all is quâ—et the man feels not his burden nor wounds not wants nor
of sin and Satan nor send out such high works of services as it doth 2. That it doth conferre an ability or power on the soule to what end else is it given unto us if by it we have no more power than what we had before in our natural condition When we are renewed by grace we are said to be quickned who were dead which necessarily implies that there is a power imprinted in us when we are renewed Now there is a two-fold power given when renewing grace is given 1. One is to do such things which no natural or unregenerate person ever did or could do 2. Another is to do such things which we our selves were not able to do before God did renew our hearts by grace First take me the bravest Heathen that ever was or the most accomplished Hypocrite that ever was and consider what they have done how far they have gone if you are not able to go beyond them in doing some things which they could not rise unto assuredly your hearts were never renewed by grace As Christ spake Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven Matth. 5. 20. So say I except you be able to do more than the choisest Heathen or exquisite Hypocrite or any unregenerate person in the world your hearts were never changed by renewing grace Object Will some say unto me what do you mean for many unregenerate men have gone very farre and so high that it is a question whether some of the people of God have risen so high Sol. First Let them go as farre as unregenerate men may or can go yet every regenerate or renewed person goes farre beyond them and the demonstration of it is this renewing grace is the highest elevation and perfection of mans nature common gifts with which alone unregenerate men are possessed are farre below and behind it in excellency and abilities Secondly But plainly to open my mind unto you there are six things unto which renewing grace doth enable a man and unto which no unregenerate person could ever attain 1. Self-denial in a mans opinion and affections and worth and ways and ends 2. Sincere love of Jesus Christ and of all that do belong to Christ 3. A cordial compliance with the whole revealed will of God 4. A submission of the whole heart to Christ in all his offices and with all his conditions 5. An unfeigned hatred of every sin 6. To live by faith upon the promises of God in all the contingencies and occurrences of the world No unregenerate person ever did or could in that estate rise unto any one of these things and every renewed person doth attain unto them in the truth of them therefore if you find a power to do those things assuredly your hearts are renewed by grace Secondly Moreover you may discern the presence of renewing grace by that power and ability to do such works as you your selves were never able to do before Heretofore you were not able to shed a tear for sin to forsake any one beloved sin to send up an affectionate prayer to God to prize Christ above all and to thirst after him to take any delight in God to suffer any reproach for Christ But now ye are able to mourn for your sins and to abhor them 2 Cor. 10. 4. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds To forsake the dearest lusts and to cry mightily to God and to take delight in him and in his will and ways and to prize Christ above all and to hunger and thirst after him as the only chiefest good and happiness and you can do for Christ and you can suffer for Christ c. Do you find it thus with you then are your hearts renewed by grace Seventhly You may know whether God hath given a new heart by the By new works new works and the new means of working We say that ut res se habent in essendo sic se habent in operando All works and operations are answerable to the nature in us the old nature finds out old works and the new nature finds out new works Before the Prophet healed and seasoned the spring of water it did send out bitter and unwholsome water but afterward the waters the spring being healed were sweet and wholsome 2 Kings 2. 21 22. So before the Lord doth heal our old hearts the works flowing from them are bitter corrupt vile abominable that which is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3. but when he heals the heart by renewing grace there are new works of holiness and righteousness answerable to a renewed heart whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit Now then take a survay of your former Works and of your former Conversation and compare them with the present works and course of life and be your selves the Judges what newness you find in them Have you left your former works of uncleanness of drunkenness of profaning the Sabbath of scoffing at holiness of mispending your precious time in gaming 's and in vain pleasures Are you not still to be found in the same paths and ways and works of wickedness Are there not still the same fruits growing out of the old root and the same stream flowing out of the same corrupt spring How can ye say that you have new hearts when still you live old lives and go on in the old course of sin Beloved this is most true that a new life ever attends a new heart if the heart be changed the life will be changed newness of heart will appear in newness of Conversation Did Paul did Mary Magdalen did Zacheus did any of whose Conversion you read in Scripture lead such lives as formerly Did they not put off concerning the former Conversation the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Eph. 4. 22. Have they not had their fruit unto holiness Rom. 6. 22. Therefore let no man deceive himself saying though I walk as in former times and live still as I have lived yet my heart is as good as the best thou dost but delude and destroy thy self in this vain boasting for the Tree is known by his fruits it is impossible that thy heart should be a new heart as long as thy Conversation remains a wicked Conversation Object But you may say Do you not see that hypocrites do appear in good works and yet they are wicked persons and good men sometimes appear in evil works and actions and yet they are not wicked Ergo. This appearance in new works cannot be a sure sign of a new heart Sol. To this I answer First Whatsoever the good works may be which a wicked man may do I shall not at this time dispute but this may suffice you that where there is no newness of life there is no newness of heart Secondly It is not this or that particular
ways of worldly advancements and advantages But the rule which a renewed heart sets up to guide and prescribe him is none other but that which God himself sets up for his people to walk by and that is his written Word Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Ver. 133. Order my steps in thy Word This rule he sets up for all matters of faith and for all matters of fact this I must believe because God reveals it and commands me to believe it this I receive for truth because God delivers it for truth and that I reject as erroneous because the Word of God condemns it as contrary to the truth And this work I do and that way I walk in because God sets it out in his Word for me and that I do not do and so and so I dare not walk for I have no Word of God for it nay the Word of God is against it why mans heart is right indeed it is renewed by grace but if a man will walk contrary to this rule if he will not speak and live according to this Word it is because there is no light in him Isa 8. 20. SECT V. Vse 4. DOth God promise to give unto all his people in Covenant with him a new heart and a new spirit then there is comfort and joy to Comfort to those that have a new heart all those who finde the new heart given unto them it is true that when the Lord doth renew the heart of any by his grace and separate them from the world unto himself that 1. They shall meet with many troubles and scoffs and reproaches and persecutions from the world All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecutions 2 Tim. 3. 2. They shall meet with many temptations and oppositions from Satan if he cannot hinder grace and conquer grace yet he will molest and disquiet grace 3. They shall meet with many conflicts and warrings within their own hearts and with many weaknesses and failings and tryals nevertheless their condition is a very happy and comfortable condition and there are eight Eight comforts proper to them choice comforts which are proper to every renewed person and which may cheer up his heart all his days v. g. 1. Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of the greatest matters which can concern the soul 2. This newness of heart is an unquestionable effect of our union with Christ 3. It is the noblest and highest elevation of the soul here on earth and the clear evidence of the presence of the Spirit of Christ 4. It enables you for all heavenly communion and serviceableness to Divine glory 5. God will own and accept of it and the fruits of it though but little and weak 6. He will strengthen and uphold and perfect it unto the day of Christ 7. He will poure upon every person who enjoys it all necessary blessings for this life and will take special notice of him and care for him in the days of adversity 8. Renewing grace shall without all doubt bring us at the last to eternal happiness First Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of It is a clear testimony of the greatest matters which can concern the soul the greatest matters which can concern the soul There are six things which do concern the soul as nearly I think as any can and of every one of them is renewing grace a sure testimony 1. The love of God 2. The election of God 3. A relation to God 4. A change from death to life 5. The pardon of sin 6. The hope of glory 1. Of the love of God that the Lord doth indeed set his special love A testimony of the love of God his very heart upon a person 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Psal 146. 8. The Lord loveth the righteous for any to be made the sons of God this is an effect or fruit of the love of God now all the sons of God are new born they are born again of the Spirit Joh. 3. 5. Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us Ver. 5. even when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath quicked us together with Christ As it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods hatred and wrath for any to be left to his old sinful heart and lusts and ways so it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods love when he pities them in their sinful condition and delivers them out of it and gives his Spirit to enliven and renew them by grace 2. Of the Election of God for this see two places 1 Thes 1. 4. Knowing Of election Brethren Beloved your Election of God Ver. 5. For our Gospel came unto you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost Eph. 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Holiness or renewing grace it is as one speaketh the counterpane of Gods decree of Election God by his own eternal prescience knows whom he intends for salvation and we by that work of renewing grace in our hearts come to know that eternal purpose of his grace concerning us it being given unto us an effect flowing from his Election and in order unto that happiness unto which he hath chosen us 3. Of our Relation to God as our God and our Father as none but his Of our relation to God people and children are holy so all his people and his children are holy Isa 63. 18. The people of thy holiness they are 1 Pet. 2. 9. an holy Nation and a peculiar people 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing Ver. 18. And I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 4. Of our translation from life to death See Isa 4. 3. He that is left in Of our translation from death to life Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Luk. 15. 32. This my son was dead and is alive again Rom 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God Renewing grace is one of the strictest differences between men of death and men of life not any man hath it but he who is made alive by Christ and is in the state of life no profane person hath it nor doth any hypocrite partake of it 5. Of the pardon of our sins if any
but a mock of sin so utterly unsensible is he of sin Secondly Because it is an unflexible heart you may bow a stick and melt An unflexible heart the brass and bend the very iron but you cannot bow nor bend the stone the stone may be broken in pieces yet you can never so mollifie it as to make it to bow it is naturally hard and naturally unyielding Thus it is with the heart which is hard it is unflexible and unyielding it will be what it hath been Ezek. 3. 7. It will not hearken it will not obey it will receive no instruction advice counsel let God speak and do what he will let men speak and do what they can yet a hard heart fears not God nor regards man God sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh with a command to let Israel go he rejects this command Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice c. Then they shew wonders before him yet he will not yield then God sends plagues upon the fruit and corn and cattle and servants yet he will not yield nor obey Thus when the Israelites fell sick of the stone I mean when their hearts became hardned then they became unflexible and unyielding 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. The Lord sent Prophets to them early and late but they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Word and misused his Prophets You may read in Amos the 4th how God dealt with them in manifold ways of judgement yet there was no yielding in ver 6. He sends them cleanness of teeth and want of bread yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord in ver 7. He with-held rain from them yet ver 8. have ye not returned unto me in ver 9. He smites them with blasting and mildew yet have ye not returned unto me in ver 10. He sent the pestilence among them after the manner of Egypt yet have ye not returned in ver 11. He overthrew some of them as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the rest were as a fire-brand pluck't out of the fire yet have ye not returned O this is the hard heart which when God speaks it will not hear when God calls it will not yield though God intreats it by mercies yet it will not yield to leave sin though God threatens it with wrath for continuing in sin yet it will not forsake sin though God plucks away mercies after mercies though God lets down judgement after judgement though he wounds the conscience though he throws it into hell yet it will not yield to obey the voice of the Lord to turn from sin Thirdly Because it is a resisting heart the hard stone doth not only not A resisting heart receive impression but it resists and turns back the stroaks even so when the heart is hard it doth not only not admit the Word but instead of yielding it opposeth the Word and resists the Spirit of God Jer. 44. 16. As for the Word which thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee Ver. 17. but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth Zach. 7. 11. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Ver. 12. And made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the Law Acts 7. 51. Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart ye do always resist the Holy Ghost Hence it is that sinners of hard hearts are said to make light of the Word to despise it to reject it to mock at it to contradict it to blaspheme and speak against it as the Pharisees and the Jews c. Fourthly Because it is an heavy heart the stone is naturally heavy descending A heavy heart and inclining downward if you will find it you must look for it in the earth and if you throw it up it will fall down again to the earth that is its center thither it inclines and there it resteth So the hard heart it is an heavy heart not only heavy in a way of indisposition and untowardliness to what is good no mind to pray or hear or repent c. but also heavy in a way of inclination it is an heart which inclines downward to worldly lusts and sinful lusts in them it delights and rests as in its center Although sometimes in an exigence of outward trouble and inward anguish of conscience it seems to be lifted up yet upon the cessation of their working it returns again to its old love and practice of sin Fifthly Lastly The hard heart is called a stony heart because it is a barren A barren heart and unfruitful heart What fruit is to be gathered from the stone or rock Cast the seed on it let the rain come down from heaven upon it let the Sun shine with its beams upon it yet the stone is a stone still a barren and unfruitful lump of earth And thus is it with an hard heart though the man lives under many precious means of grace and manifold helps and daily opportunities and though others are wrought upon by the Word the Word brings forth in them the fruits of knowledge of godly sorrow of repentance of faith of love of newness of heart and life c. yet in him it is unfruitful though he lives under it many years yet his heart is ignorant still and proud still and earthly still and filthy still he is not humbled nor changed nor reformed at all Thus you have some Reasons why the hard heart is called a stony heart Now in the next place lets enquire Quest 2. What kinds of stonyness or hardness of heart is to be found in man The kinds of hardness in man that so we may the more admire at the greatness of Gods mercy who promiseth to take it away out of our natures Sol. For this know that there is a threefold hardness incident to the heart of man 1. One is Natural 2. The second is Habitual or Contracted 3. The third is Judicial or Penal First Natural hardness of heart is that Tomb-stone of sin and death Natural hardness it is one part of that wretched nature conveyed unto us by the fall of Adam by which our hearts are made dark and unsensible of our sins and untoward and disobedient and gain-saying and unyielding and refractory and obstinately set against the commands and ways of God and the strivings of his Spirit and all his dealings either in ways of mercy or in ways of judgement This natural hardness as it is in every man by nature so it is in every part of man in every faculty of his soul In his understanding there is a wonderful incapacity and stupidity and inapprehensiveness of them though distinctly opened and often revealed truths and ways of God In his memory there is such a hardness that all the heavenly delivery of the mind of God in things pertaining to salvation fall away as
to do any thing according to the Word indeed the heart is so hard that unless the Lord himself be pleased to put out his Almighty power it will never yield unto any saving operation of the Word Sixthly I will adde one Demonstration more of the hardness of mans heart The unsensibleness of it which is this the unsensibleness of that hardness of heart naturally the heart is so hard that it doth not and cannot perceive its own hardness indeed when grace comes into the heart then a spiritual sensation comes into the heart then we can feel our sins and feel our hardness and complain of the one and bewail the other O Lord why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear Isa 63. 17. But while men are in this natural sinful condition they are not sensible of their finful burdens nor are they sensible of the unsensibleness of their stupidity and hardness of their hearts They are sensible of this loss and of that want and can complain of this and take on for that but when did you ever hear a natural man complain of his hard heart O I have such an heart so full of sin and yet I cannot mourn for sin so unteachable so untractable so resisting so opposing the Word of God and ways of God! What shall I do whether shall I go O it is a burden that I cannot bear c. Why this unsensibleness that our hearts are hard it is a demonstrative conviction that they are hard and indeed no heart is more hard than that heart which is not sensible that it is hard Now I come to the useful Application of this unto our selves SECT II. Vse 1 IS there a stony heart in every man is the heart of every man naturally a hard heart Then wonder not to see so little good done upon men wonder Wonder not to see so little good done upon many By private instructions not 1. That our own private instructions and counsels and intreaties and reproofs usually come to nothing How often do we find parents abounding in cares and watchings and teachings and advising and checking and correctings of their children and when they have said and done all they can they fall a weeping and a sobbing and sighing why what 's the matter O nothing will work on my childe and what 's the reason of it thy childe hath a hard heart and an hard heart is an unteachable and an untractable heart Publick pains 2. Wonder not that Simile the publick pains and labours in the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ many times proves but like rain that falls upon the house top or upon the rocks little or no fruit comes of studies of prayers of doctrines of exhortations of reproofs but people remain still what they were as proud as vain as profane as impudent in sins as before And Ministers are apt to be discouraged and complain that they spend their strength in vain and labour for naught Isa 49. 4. And some imagine if other Ministers came into their room the matter would be much mended and other Ministers do come and then awhile they fall a weeping and complaining What a people are these that no part of the Word of God will work on and no kind of delivery of the same will take hold of them if we intreat them they slight us and if we plainly reprove them they grow worse Now I say wonder not at this Christ himself met with such kinds of people when he preached here on earth and he did hit upon the right cause of all this untowardliness and aversness and that was the hardness of mens hearts I have heard some preach that if Ministers would use clear convictions in their preaching that their hearers would be taken for they were reasonable creatures alas that they should proclaim their own ignorance that men are rational creatures a Philosopher can teach us but that men are sinful creatures and have hard hearts the Scriptures teach us and all the convictions and demonstrations of the will of God will never make impression unless the Lord take away the stony heart out of them 3. Wonder not that all the Providential Dispensations of God work not better amongst men you see many times that personal affections do no good at Providential Dispensations all though one loseth husband wife children estate he fears not he returns not he mends not wonder not at this for the man hath an hard heart You find many times publick judgements in a Nation and God pouring contempt and wrath upon it and on all sorts of men and yet the Inhabitants thereof do learn no righteousness but he that was ignorant is ignorant still and he that was filthy is filthy still and he that was proud is proud still and men grow more wicked under the judgements and plagues of God upon them wonder not at this for their hearts are hard hearts and nothing whatsoever will or can effectually work as long as the heart continues hard Thou mayst pity and pray and weep and fear but persons of hard hearts will do none of these untill God take away the stony heart from them Vse 2 Is there a stony heart in every man then let us make a stand and wonder at the exceeding patience of the Lord and his long-suffering that he can Wonder at the exceeding patience of God bear so much and forbear and hold in his wrath and not make an end of sinners and utterly destroy them You cannot possibly comprehend what affronts and injuries the hard heart puts upon God and what continued provocations that heart daily sends forth and raiseth against him O what careless neglects of his commanding will What proud slightings of his severe threatnings What contemptuous refusals of his gracious offers of mercy What audacious resistances of his Spirit What desperate boldness in sinning What an obstinate course and progress in offending of him What unteachableness and barrenness after all the pains that God takes with it all the cost that he is at to work upon it for good and yet the Lord is patient towards it and renews offers of grace and sends early and late and there is line upon line and precept upon precept and yet he doth not leave the sinner for all this but for a long time stands at the door and knocks and waits that he may be gracious and gives him time and expects him when he will consider and hearken and return Truly the hardness of mans heart is wonderful which will not bow after so many gracious dealings of God and the patience of God is more wonderful who will bear so many and so long affronts from a proud and hard heart If the Husband-man hath a piece of ground which after all his Tillage still bears bryars and thorns he will cast it off If the School-Master hath a Scholar which after long teaching and instructing continues dull and uncapable he will meddle no more with him Sir I can do
and open to the strength of temptations And certainly all these will cause or occasion exceeding hardness of heart therefore if you would be rid of a hard heart beseech the Lord to cure you of a proud heart which is above counsel and without fear Thirdly Vnbelief of heart Take heed saith the Apostle Hebr. 3. 12. lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Unbelief but Ver. 13. Exhorting one another daily lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin One said well that Unbelief will in time make a man an Atheist When a man believes not that there is a God or that God is true in his threatnings or in his promises this man will not fear to sin where there is no faith there is no fear and where there is no fear of God there is no fear to sin against God and where there is no fear to sin there the heart will let out it self to all wickedness and who can now question but all this will cause exceeding hardness of heart Fourthly Hypocrisie of heart this likewise breeds and strengthens hardness Hypocrisie of heart When a man will dâ—ssemble with God and godliness pretends love to them and zeal to them and yet secretly his soul loves sin and keeps up a way of wickedness and bears down the light and actings of conscience this man doth wofully obdurate his own heart and fears his conscience by speaking lies in hypocrisie Fifthly Deceitfulness of sin Hebr. 3. 13. Lest any of you be hardned through Deceitfulness of sin Lib. de Consc p. 1749. Edit Basil the deceitfulness of sin Bernard doth notably describe the degrees by which a man steps up unto hardness of heart 1. Saith he the man with much ado ventures to commit a sin and this sinful act or work it is importabile oh the terror and hell that it is unto him 2. Then after a while when the terror is off he ventures to sin again and now that which was importabile becomes grave it is only a burden but not a terror unto him 3. Then after some little time he commits the sin again and now that which was grave becomes love it is no such great matter vulnera non sentit verbera non attendit 4. After a lesser space he returns again to folly and now leve becomes dulce non solum non sentit sed placet that sin which was light is now become delight and pleasant 5. And after this Dulcedo becomes consuetudo that which was pleasant to him now becomes constant with him it is no more to sin than it is to eat and drink 6. And at last Consuetudo vertitur in naturam whereas at the first it did almost seem impossible to draw him to commit the sin now it proves more impossible to restrain him from sinning sic itur in aversionem duritiem cordis thus the sinner makes way for the hardning of his own heaâ—t Take heed of this and keep far from this and break off all progressive ways of sinning or else you will never get off hardness of heart but you will dye and perish under it Sixthly Wicked Society From this you must be removed if ever you would Wicked society have hardness of heart removed wicked company will easily entice you to sin and will cunningly lead you on to more sin and will teach how to plead for sin and how to despise and reject the counsel of friends and the commands of God to turn from sin 2ly You must take such Medicines you must use such means as are proper Medicines for cure to cure the stonyness or hardness of your hearts Now these means I shall reduce unto 1. Meditations 2. Practical Actions 1. The solemn and serious Meditations First Consider and Meditate upon the multitude and greatness of our sins which Serious Meditations Of the multitude and greatness of oursins are 1. A separation from God O what is this to be in such a condition wherein a mans soul is separated from God and blessedness 2. A vexing and a provocation of God What is it to provoke the Lord to wrath and to kindle his displeasure against you 3. A rebellion against God and trampling under feet his holy and righteous will 4. A dishonouring of God it had been better that thou hadst never been born than that God should lose so much of his honour by thee 5. An exposure to the curse of God who may every moment damn thee for thy wickedness and transgression 6. An unutterable madness to set thy delight on that and serve that and take pains to accomplish that which only brings all misery and destruct on on you Secondly Consider and Meditate on the wonderful evil of an hard heart by which Of the evil of an hard hearâ— 1. You are so unlike to God he is tender and thy heart is hard he is sensible of thy sinnings but thou art not sensible of them he is troubled at thy sins but thou art not troubled for thy sins he cryes out against them but thou cryest not out for them forty years long was I grieved c. 2. You are unlike to Jesus Christ the Son of God Christ did gâ—ieve at the hardness of mans heart and yet thou dost not grieve at the hardness of thine own heart he shed tears and wept over the hardness of Jerusalem and yet thou weepest not at the hardness of thine heart he complained of this yet thou complainest not of this 3. You are unlike to the Holy Ghost the Spirit of God thy hard heart grieves him who hath moved so often and striven so long with thee yet thou grievest not but rejoycest thy hard heart vexes the Spirit of God and yet thou art not sensible at all 4. You are worse than the Divels who tremble but thou fearest not by reason of any Word that God doth speak nor of any wrath or judgement which God hath threatned 5. You have been more brutish than the very beasts they are teachable and they are tractable and they are sensible of love and anger but nothing doth thee good thou art unteachable and untractable and unsensible and stupid 6. You maintain an enmity and contradiction to God whom you are bound to obey as creatures as redeemed c. Thirdly Meditate of the judgements upon hardned sinners the judgements Of the judgements of God upon hardned sinners 1. Threatned by God against them Job 9. 4. They shall not prosper Prov. 28. 14. They shall fall into mischief Rom. 2. 5. They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Prov. 29. 1. They shall be destroyed suddenly and without remedy 2. Executed Pharaoh drowned in the red Sea Saul falling and dying upon his own Sword the King Zedekiah his eyes put out and bound with chains and carried into Babylon the Jews scattered over all the world Jerusalem a desolation by the Romans Julian killed with
the testimonies of Gods reconciled favour O how doth the tender heart take on and judge and condemn it self if at any time it fall into sin O what a fool what a beast and why have I dealt thus with my God! why did I deal so unkindly with my kind God is this my love unto him is this my fear of him is this my tenderness of his glory O my soul what hast thou done why hast thou broken the bonds of friendship what hath the Lord been to thee that thou hast thus sinned against him And now the man falls a weeping and lamenting as if his heart would break and after some respite he thinks of his father again but he is ashamed to come to him and yet he will go to him and return with weeping and supplications O I cannot live thus I will home again to my fathers house and say I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy son Luke 15. Though shame and confusions belong to me yet mercies and forgiveness to him Dan. 9. O Lord heal my backslidings and forgive my backsldings and reoeive me graciously Hose 14. 2. And return again in mercy and make thy face to shine upon thy servant for the Lords sake Thus have I opened unto you the first Character or evidence of a heart spiritually soft and tender it is a heart filled with shame for sin and with grief for sin and with fear to sin and with zeal against sin and with care to be kept from sin and with restlestness till it can find God mercifully pardoning sin O that such tenderness and that such fruits of tenderness might be found in all our hearts Secondly A second Character by which we may know that we have the true The activity and life and power in conscience spiritual softness and tenderness of heart is the activity and life and power in conscience when God gives any one a soft and tender heart he gives him a conscience arrayed and enabled with other qualities and powers than in times past The Conscience heretofore was asleep but now it is awakned heretofore it was blind but now it sees heretofore it was silent but now it speaks heretofore it was loose and large but now it is strict and narrow heretofore it was dull and weak but now it is quick and powerful heretofore it was stupid and senceless but now it is apprehensive and active But I must not speak of all things about this that which I will pitch on is this the speciall Activities of Conscience where the heart is indeed tender 1. Concerning the good estate and welbeing of our souls 2. Concerning particular facts as to our doing or walking First Where the heart is tender there Conscience becomes active to clear out The conscience is active to clear our state the good and safe estate and well-being of our souls It will not suffer the poor soul to delude and deceive itself in matters of life and death to lay no grounds nor to venture all upon false bottoms and grounds of salvation and damnation of favour and wrath O saith Conscience thy soul is immortal and is for eternity and there are wayes to that eternity of Gods making and of mens making there is a reall relation to Christ and there is a seeming relation to Christ there is the power of godliness and there is the form of godliness there were virgins with oyle and there were virgins with lamps only there are some which believe and are saved and there are some that believe but for a time and perish If a man mistake himself he is undone for ever hereupon it is that Conscience in tender hearts dares not take up the estate of the soul upon trust and proud confidence and vain pretences or common grounds or every appearance but puts them on and makes them to study the Word of God and to prove what is the good and acceptable will of God and what indeed are the marks which do accompany salvation what are the infallible tokens of life of union with Christ of the new creature of a child of God born of the Spirit it causeth us to search our hearts and try our wayes to prove and examine our selves whether Christ be in us of a truth to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling it will not suffer us to be careless sluggish dallying delaying c. Conscience takes those saving promises of the â—ord as unquestionable that a man must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that will be saved and that he must repent that will have his sins pardoned and that he must be regenerated and born again who will enter into the kingdom of heaven And hereupon Conscience puts us on if our hearts be tender exceedingly to make clear and evident the assumption I do truely believe I do truely repent I am born again and my sins are pardoned and my soul shall be saved A tender heart would be sure that it is in a state of life and favour Secondly Where the heart is tender there conscience is alive in respect of the particular facts of our lives whether good or evil For good actions which concern us in our places and callings Conscience puts us upon the careful and sincere practice of them will not suffer us to omit and neglect them but enclines and hearkens unto them although danger and trouble be incident unto us for the performance of them Act. 4. 19. But Peter and John answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye ver 20. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. 21. 13. Then Paul answered What mean you to weep and break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Josh 24. 25. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. For evil actions Conscience puts forth itself against them partly by warning It is evil if thou do it not partly by threatning It will be bitter unto thee it wlll deceive thee and break thy peace and confidences partly in striving with us and presenting argument upon argument consideration upon consideration Gods favour on the one hand and Gods displeasure on the other hand the happiness of walking uprightly the shortness of sins deceitful pleasures c. and all to keep us from sinning which if they prevail not then Conscience begins to be unquiet and it smites for sinning and accuses and condems and The respectiveness of our hearts to the Word of God troubles and vexes and
the Spirit of God Sol. One may know that there is a true work of grace although very How a true work of grace may be known though weak By loving Gods image weak First By his apprehension and love of the image of God of this work of the Spirit in whomsoever he finds it His very soul values such a person and doth close with him and is knit unto him 1 Joh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren Every one that hath truth of grace doth highly prize all that have grace counts them the excellent of the earth and is most delighted Psal 16. 3. and satisfied in the society of such Secondly By the choice of his heart he chuseth God to be his God and the By our choosing God to be our God wayes of God to be his wayes I have chosen the wayes of truth Psal 119. 30. I have chosen thy precepts Ver. 173. Although he doth not serve his God in fulness yet he doth in sincerity although he cannot walk in his wayes exactly yet in these wayes he will walk he is a servant to none but his God and traveller in no wayes but his Thirdly By the desires of his soul They are holy and heavenly and spirituall though his work is little yet his desires are great though his enjoyment ares By the desires of his soul small yet his desires are high and amongst others there are these five desires where there is truth of grace viz. 1. An earnest desire of Gods love and favour Psal 106. 4. Remember me Five desires in the tâ—uth of Grace O Lord with the favour which thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation 2. An earnest desire of Christ a hungring and thirsting after him I will seek him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 3. O that God would give me Christ O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. 3. An earnest desire to walk in all well-pleasing before God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes Psal 119. 5. they do not keep them but they desire to keep them Lord increase our faith 4. An earnest desire for more grace as Paul Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Ver 14. I presse toward the mark A desire of the Word that we may grow thereby is a sign of the new birth 1 Pet. 2. 2. 5. An earnest desire that he might not sin against his God Psal 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements Fourthly By the conflicts in himself Though there be not a present victory By the conflicts in himself yet there is a present war in every one who hath truth of grace Truth of grace will make a man 1. To love the Law of the Spirit of Christ and to joyn and take part with his good motions and directions and commands The good that I would do saith Paul and I delight in the law after the inward man Rom. 7. 19 22. 2. To hate and oppose the Law of sin Though he doth evil yet he hates it what I hate that I do and though he cannot subdue his sins yet he will oppose them He oppâ—seth and resisteth the pride the filthiness the passions the frowardness the hardness the unbelief of his heart Fifthly By the griefs and complaints of his soul He is grieved that yet sin By the griefs and complaints oâ— his soul hath so much power in him and cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and he is grieved that he is so low and weak and short in obedience unto his loving Christ that he can love him no better fear him no more trust on him no stronger and magnifie him no more And he is grieved that he cannot grieve that he cannot believe that he cannot walk up to the Rule of Christ and unto the desires of his soule By the endeavours and actings of his soul Sixthly By the endeavours and actings of his soul He that is weakest in grace is acting according to the proportion which he hath received Simile As old father Latymer said to his fellow-sufferer I am coming as fast as I can brother So the weakest in grace he is stirring and he is doing as well as he can he is doing his Masters will and if he could do more and better service assuredly God should have it from him and glad he is if he can mend one 3. Quest Why no Christian should be discouraged because of the weak measure Why we should not be discouraged because of our weakness in grace All grace is weak at first of grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God Sol. You should not be discouraged for these Reasons First All the graces of the Spirit do begin in weakness we are at the first but babes in Christ and then young men and strong and then Fathers 1 Joh. 2. 12. 13 False grace is too suddain and too ripe it begins where it should end and therefore it ends usually as soon as it begins But true grace is first but weak nevertheless it shall encrease Secondly It will not rest so but gets from weakness to strength and from Yet its growing strength to strength as the Sun in the firmament Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Thirdly The weakest grace doth bring God some honour it will make a It brings God some honour man to honor God inwardly and outwardly Rev. 3. 8. Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name 1. Inwardly by setting up his will and authority in the heart by loving of him fearing of him and trusting on him though but weakly 2. Outwardly by abandoning every evil way by exercisâ—ng our selves in godliness by countenancing the rules and wayes of Christ and walking before God in truth Even the Children in the Temple cryed out Hosanna to the Son of David Matth. 12. 15. whereupon Christ applyed that of David Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ver 16. Fourthly The weakest grace is the workmanship of the Spirit of God Not It s the workmanship of the spirit of God only our rejoycing but our tears not only our assurances but our very groans are from him Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered So Phil. 2. 13. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure To will any good this comes from the Spirit of God as well as to do any good Fifthly The weakest grace is able to unthrone sin and dispossess Satan and to set up a throne in the heart for Christ to hold
will you weary my God also said the Prophet Isa 7. 13. So say I Is it a small thing that you injure another but will you also injure the Spirit of God Simile If a friend should help you out of prison and heal all your diseases and sores and furnish you with clothes and money and house and lands do you not wrong him in saying upon every discontent What hath he done he hath never done any thing for me Why it is the Spirit of God who hath quickned you from the dead who hath delivered you out of the power of darkness who hath renewed and healed your soul who hath begun every saving grace in your hearts who hath been your life and strength and after all this is it meet for you to say What hath he done and he hath wrought nothing for us nothing why how came you to be so sensible of your sins how came your hearts to be broken and mournful whence came those desires after Christ and grace whence came those fervent prayers and importunate cries whence came those resolutions to walk with God and careful endeavours to honour and glorifie him O Christianâ— be humbled for thy rashnesse and for thy unthankfulness and for this injuriousness done unto the good Spirit of God disown him no more and deny not any work of his any more though it be but little yet do not disown it though it be sometimes hidden from thee yet do not disown it though it doth many times work but weakly do not disown it though it be put sometimes to a stand though thou dost not in every particular answer the motions and rules of the Spirit yet do not disown the work of the Spirit condemn every sinful work which is thine own but do not deny or dishonour any work that is his Secondly By not crediting the testimony of the Spirit Beloved sometimes By not crediting the spirit we do bear witness or give testimony for the Spirit as when we humbly and thankfully confess his workmanship in our hearts saying This is the Lords doing this he hath done for my soul c. Sometimes the Spirit bears witness or gives in testimony unto our hearts he bears witness saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 16. that we are the children of God and concerning this he gives in his testimony partly by his works of Faith and Regeneration which are to be found in all and only the children of God And partly by extraordinary assurance letting in such a ligâ—t and evidence and perswasion which abundantly clears up our Relation that without doubt God is our Father and we are his children If now after both these testimonies in assurance of the Spirit in after times of darkness and desertion and temptation we call the testimony of the Spirit into question and charge it for a false delusion do we not exceedingly injure the Spirit of God in some sort to make bim a lyer and a false witnesse Object But we do not do so and we dare not do so his testimony is true only How to know the testimony of the Spirit we fear that the testimony which we have found was not his testimony but a delusion either of Satan or of our own hearts Sol. O but what if indeed that testimony was not the delusion of your hearts but the very testimony of the Spirit which you have challenged and rejected as a delusion are you not then very guilty of great injuriousness unto the Spirit And that it was the very testimony of the Spirit of God may thus appear 1. It was a testimony after deep humblings of the heart for sin 2. It was a testimony after importunate cries and wrestlings for mercy and assurance 3. It was a testimony after your believing and closing which Christ offered and accepted 4. It was a testimony after the matching of the promises with your souls condition 5. It was a testimony that filled your heart with joy unspeakable and glorious and with a love most dear and superlative and with most humble and serious care and diligence how to walk more exactly and chearfully to the praise and honour of this most gracious God If it was thus it was no delusion it was indeed the testimony of the Spirit and you have dealt unkindly and unworthily thus to requite him and thus to disgrace his precious testimony Thirdly By disregarding and slighting the Ordinances of Christ Some people do think that because they have the Spirit therefore there is no need of Ordinances By slighting Christs Ordinances at least for them perhaps they hold that the Ordinances may be useful for others who as yet have not received the Spirit but yet they are needless for them who have received the Spirit And three places of Scripture they alledge for this Jer. 31. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord. 1 Joh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a most sure Word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts With your favour I will speak something in 1. Opposition to this Opinion it is the Opinion of the Libertines of old and of some now amongst our selves The Libertines answered who desire and endeavour to subvert the Ministry and the Ordinances of preaching 2ly In resolving the true meaning of those places of Scripture First I affirm that Gods giving of his Spirit unto his people was never intended by him to put a period unto any Evangelical Ordinance or to render them useless unto any of his people this may be demonstrated thus First From the scope of the Scriptures All Scripture saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 16. is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Iâ—struction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works ver 17. If the Word of God be given for these ends For Doctrine to teach us the matter of faith for Reproof to convince errors for Correction to condemn sin for Instruction to shew us our duties and to make us perfect To beget us Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth To build us up Acts 20. 33. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified then certainly the presence of the Spirit and the Ministry of the Word are not