And the suffering of Christ without the Gate was not without some Allusion to the placing of this Altar without the Tabernacle Vide Heb. 13.12 And as the situation of the Altar so the Sacrifice upon this Altar not without a Mystery for besides those many Sacrifices which were diversified according to the several natures of the Occasion here was one Sacrifice appropriate to this Altar the continual Burnt-Offering a Lamb of the first year in the Morning a Lamb of the first year at Even Exod. 29.38 Numb 28.3 And the Spirit of Truth takes up this description of Christ more frequently than any John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world 1 Pet. 1.19 Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or spot Revel 5.6 The Lamb that was slain c. Revel 13.8 The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And between this Altar and the Sanctuary stood the Laver of Brass not only typifying the Sacramental Initiation by Baptism but that Purity and Cleansing that is required of all those that partake of this Altar before they enter into the Sanctuary John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God As the Blood of Christ cleanseth from the Guilt of our Sin so it cleanseth us from the Power of our Sin before we are to expect an admission into the Sanctuary It was as well Water to cleanse as Bloud to expiate 6. The typifying of Christ in the Priesthood of Aaron and his Successors High Priests Divers of the Ceremonies especially in the Consecration of them were meerly relative to their natural pollutions and the cleansing of them Heb. 7 27. Offering Sacrifices first for their own Sins such was the Sin-offering Levit. 9.7 Levit. 8. â—4 Others in reference to their service and designation thereunto and exercise thereof as their washing with Water Levit. 8.6 Their anointing with the holy Oyl Ibid. Verse 12. The Ram of Consecration Ibid. Verse 22. Their residence at the door of the Tabernacle seven days Ibid. Verse 33. And some parts of his Garments But there were some things that in a special manner were typical of Christ 1. The Breast-plate of Aaron bearing the Names of the Children of Israel called the Breast-plate of Judgement Exod. 28.29 And Aaron shall bear the Names of the Children of Israel in the Breast-plate of Judgment when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually importing not only the nearness of the Church and redeemed of Christ unto him but also his continual presenting of their Names their Persons in his Righteousness before his Father 2. The Plate of Gold upon the Mitre engraven with Holiness to the Lord Exod. 28.38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of their holy things that they may be accepted before the Lord. As our Persons are accepted by God in the Righteousness of Christ presented for them to his Father so our Services are accepted in the strength of the same Mediation Christ presenting our Prayers and Services to his Father discharged of those Sins and Defects with which they are mingled as they come from us 3. His Solemn Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies Levit. 16. Wherein we shall observe 1. A most special Reconsecration almost of all the things incident to that Service before it was performed the Priest was to make an Atonement for himself by the Blood of the Bullock Verse 11. and for the Altar Verse 18. which signifie that Purification of the Humane Nature of Christ from all Sin Original and Actual from all Sin even in his Conception that so he might be a fit High Priest Heb. 7.26 For such a high priest became us who is Holy Harmless Vndefiled Separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens The difference was this Aaron notwithstanding his first Consecration to his Office needed a new Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies and exercised that high Type of Christ's Ascension and Intercession But Christ being once Consecrate needed no new Consecration Heb. 7.28 For the Law maketh men High Priests which have infirmities but the Word of the Oath which was since the Law maketh the Son who is Consecrated for evermore 2. This was to be done but once in the year Some services had frequent iterations but those special Services that were but once in the Year were Types of those things that were to be done but once though remembred yearly such was the killing of the Passover Christ by one Offering hath perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 3. This great Atonement not made but by Blood Heb. 9.7 The high Priest entred not without Blood Livit. 26. And this Atonement was to be made upon the Horns of the Altar Levit. 16.18 viz. The Golden Altar of Incense Exod. 30.10 Hence Christ called the Blood of sprinkling Hebr. 12.24 The Offering that was to be used in this solemn Atonement for so much as concerned the Sins of the People were two Goats which were to be presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle Levit. 16.7 And Lots to be cast one for the Lord the other for the Scape-Goat the former was to be the Sin-offering for the People and his Blood to be brought within the Veil Verse 23. And the other was to bear the Iniquity of the Children of Israel but to be sent into the Wilderness Ibid. Vers 21. Although in the Sacrifice of Christ his Body only died and his Soul escaped yet both were but one Sacrifice he did bear our sins in both his Soul was heavy unto death as well as his Body crucified and as God had prepared him a Body in order to this Sacrifice Heb. 10.5 So he made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa 53.10 4. As after all this the Priest entred into the most Holy and presented this Blood of Reconciliation before the Mercy Seat and no Man was to be in the Tabernacle when he goeth in Levit. 16.17 So Christ having trodden alone the Wine press of his Father's Wrath Isaiah 63.3 Is entred into the Holy Place not made with Hands now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 And as the People did representatively by their Mediatour Aaron pass into the Holiest so our High Priest hath consecrated for us Access into the Holiest by a new and living way through the Veil of his Flesh Hebr. 10.20 Who as he is our Advocate with the Father John 2.1 To bear our Names before him as the High Priest did the Names of Israel to present his own Blood before the Father of Mercy as the High Priest did the Blood of the Sin-Offering before the Mercy Seat to bear the Iniquity of our holy things as the High Priest did upon his Forehead so likewise to present our Prayers to the Father Ephes 2.18 Through him we have access
without any actual Causality upon the things These though they are not so much as accidentally differing in God yet in our Apprehensions there is a difference so that we conclude there is not only a Prescience in God of all things that shall or may be Known unto the Lord are all his Works from the beginning but likewise a Predetermination by his Divine Will of all things that shall be and of the several means conducing to it And this Counsel of God is in truth the supream Cause of all things for as that Power whereby all things do move themselves or other things is put into them by the great maker of all things by the mere and immediate act of his Will as hath been before observed so the managing of all these several Powers to the production of the several things in the World is the act of the same Will of God they move in their several Series according to that Counsel of the great God of Heaven Now this Counsel of God is represented to us in the Scripture under these several qualifications 1. An Eternal Counsel 2. An Immutable Counsel 3. A Free Counsel 4. A Wise Counsel 5. An Active and Irresistible Counsel 6. An Universal Counsel 1. It is an Eternal Counsel a Purpose and Counsel before the Foundation of the World the indivisible and unsuccessive act of his Will. It is true the Counsels of Men as their Conceptions are successive one consideration supplying the defect or imperfection of the former and oftentimes the Counsels of Men are taken up pro re nata principally because they have not either the power to manage all the Emergencies and Ingredients into an Action according to their own Wills nor to foresee those Accidents that might enervate or impede the fruit of his Counsels but the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore as nothing can have a Being without his Will so nothing can impede or hinder the Counsel of his Will. 2. From hence it follows that it is an Immutable Counsel otherwise it cannot be Eternal for what began to be otherwise than it was before cannot be Eternal The Change of Counsels and Purposes among Men arise from one of these Causes either from an intrinsecal Unsetledness and Unconstancy which is their imperfection or from some extrinsecal Emergency which either was not forâ—seen or cannot be mastered but neither of these can fall upon God. It is true what he wills he wills freely and therefore ex natura rei he might not have willed it yet what he wills he wills from all Eternity with him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning I the Lord change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed And as there is no ground of change in himself so neither is there any possibility of change from any thing without him because the same Act of his Will which is his Counsel is the cause and measure of the being of all things and therefore it can no more hinder or alter his Counsel than it can give it self a Being against his Will. But because there be some things that owe not their Formality to the Counsel of God as Sin which how far it falls within the Counsels of God shall be hereafter considered yet that cannot any way elude the Counsel of God as shall be hereafter shewn Therefore those several passages in holy Scripture that tell us that God repented of Evil when Man repented of Sin Joel 2.14 Jonah 3.4 are not to be understood of the Nature or Counsels of God for in that respect Balaam spoke a Truth of God Numb 23.19 God is not a Man that he should lye nor the Son of Man that he should repent For the same Counsel of God which appointed Jonah to be the Instrument of Nineveh's Repentance ordained likewise their turning upon that preaching and ordered the diversion of that Judgment which the same Counsel had ordered to be imminent but not executed But because there was the execution of such a real change which in Man is ordinarily the effect of a change of purpose or repenting therefore it is called a Repenting yet the very same Counsel that appointed the denunciation of an imminent Judgment appointed their repenting upon that denunciation and that diversion upon that repenting 3. It is a Free Counsel it is nothing else but the act of the Will of God. It is true the determination of that Will imposeth a necessity of the existence of the thing willed yet the determination it self was an act of the freest Agents This excludeth any Stoical Necessity 4. It is a most Wise Counsel And this is evident even in the lowest and most inconsiderable execution of this Counsel and therefore Isa 28.29 the dispensation of this Counsel of God even in the sowing and threshing of Fitches concludes this also cometh forth from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working This Wisdom is eminent in this 1. In that it doth not only predetermine the End or Event but likewise all those Means that are conducible to the bringing to pass of this End. It is true God by an act of his Power might and sometimes doth per saltum bring to pass his own Purpose by his own immediate Power but this is not the ordinary course of the execution of his Counsel but produceth the End Decreed by Decreed Means Acts 27. Paul's dangerous Voyage is predetermined to end in a safe Arrival Verse 24. Yet Verse 31. Except these Men abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved This Perswasion of Paul's becomes prevalent and they stay The Counsel of God that determined the Ship 's safe arrival predetermined the stay of the Men in the Ship to be the means of that safety and the perswasion of Paul to be the means of their stay Here is the Link of God's Counsel coupling the Event to his Purpose with subordinate and purposed Means When I see a Counsel of God discovered that had not its compleat Execution in many hundreds of years after and observe how many thousands of strange connexions of Accidents do intervene between the Counsel discovered and the Execution of it although till the execution the event seems as unlegible as any thing in the World nay oftentimes these Antecedents that seem most probable of any to the producing of the expected Event with a contrary wind quite driven off and blasted yet when after all these several Meanders of Successes I see the Effect come to pass even by most improbable and accidental Means I must needs acknowledge this seeming Confusion is methodically managed by the same Counsel that predetermined the End I must conclude as the Wise Man doth in another case Eccles 7.14 God hath set the one over against the other to the End that Man should find nothing after him Let us consider it in the great Business of our Redemption by Christ God in his Eternal Counsel had appointed Man to be partaker of
even seeming Disappointments and Frustrations of the Love of God to Man and the glory of God in him improved to the higher manifestation both of his Love and Glory This is the Lord 's doing and let it ever be marvellous in our Eyes 4. The Congruity of it even to that nature that is in Man. The great God could have over-ruled his Creature to his own Will by his own Power but he rather chuseth to bring him up unto him by such means as are congruous to the nature of his Creature and let in a supernatural Light and Life by natural means and instruments The Son of God takes upon him Flesh and in his Flesh reveals the way and means of Life 1 John 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon c. In this Flesh he evidenceth his Love to Mankind suffers dies for them As the Discovery of the Truth by him was most proportionable to our manner of Understanding so was that Love which he shewed to us most winning upon our Wills In this is the love of God made manifest that when we were enemies Christ died for us Greater love than this sheweth no Man. Thus he winneth us with the cords of Love and maketh us willing in the day of his Power especially when this Light and Love is carried home to the Heart with the strength of his own powerful Spirit Man is a compounded Creature of Senses Passions and Spirit and though his Excellence consist in the latter and to the higher Perfection he attains the more spiritual he is yet as he owes even the service of his more inferiour Faculties to his Lord so they were not uselesly placed in him even in reference to his supreme End there is the Excess usually Man is inordinate in the former especially his Senses and that is much evidenced by the proneness of Man to Idolatry and sensual Worship Exod. 32.1 Make us gods that may go before us this Malady the Wise God that knows our frame doth not only cure with severe Comminations and Prohibitions but diverts it he gave the Jews outward Sacrifices and Observations he hath given us Christians his Image in his Son to divert us from Idolatry his Love and Compassion revealed even in our own flesh to take up our Affections and yet by these leads us up to a higher pitch John 6.63 Even by sensual Objects and Expressions he leads up to spiritual It is the Spirit that quickens the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life And this is most evident in the whole Life of Christ for though he still winds up his Auditors to the high and spiritual conceptions yet he is contented to use those motives that work upon the Senses and Passions Miracles Tears Parables Importunities Signs diversity of Tongues Visions of Angels sensual Convictions to Thomas John 20.27 Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and to all his Disciples Luke 24.39 Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self Thus although the Power of God could have wrought his Work in his by an immediate hand he rather chuseth such Means as may bear Congruity with the humane and reasonable Nature of his reasonable Creatures CHAP. VIII Of the great Work of our Redemption What it is How effected and for whom NOW we come to consider the great Work it self of our Redemption by Christ 1. What it is 2. How effected 3. For whom 4. How applyed 5. The Effects wrought by it 1. For the first Man by his Sin incurred a Guilt which bound him over 1. To a necessity of losing the Favour and Presence of God which was to be attained and kept only by Obedience 2. To a necessity of undergoing the wrath of God as the just reward of his Disobedience That Redemption that we now consider must supply both these 1. There must be a deliverance from that Wrath which was justly sentenced upon Man for his Disobedience And because it is impossible that the Punishment could be removed unless the Guilt were likewise removed some course must be taken to remove that Guilt And because the Guilt of any one Offence doth everlastingly disable that person that hath contracted it to avoid or expiate it and puts it wholly and everlastingly in the power of that Person that is offended to be judge of his own Satisfaction for if it were imaginable that an offender could for the future as far out act his Duty as in his Offence he came short of it it is not conceptible to be satisfactory without the acceptation of him that is offended hence it is that unless our offended Creator to whom we owe our Obedience to the utmost extent of our Beings accept a Satisfaction for our Guilt it is not possible nor imaginable that the Guilt of any one Sin can receive any Expiation It is true he might have released it of his absolute Power without any Satisfaction but that he would not do as is before shewen then that he accepted any Satisfaction it is a wonder of Mercy but that he should propound it himself and such a Satisfaction as Christ and to accept it it is a Wonder of Wonders And for this reason the foundation of our Redemption is ever attributed to the Love of God 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them The very foundation of Man's Redemption from his Guilt and Punishment by Christ was the Love of God in sending and accepting his Son's Satisfaction 2. But if we had only a Remission of our Guilt though that might have removed our Punishment it had not cured our Loss therefore to set Man right there must not only be the removal of the Wrath of God which made us miserable but his Favour and Reconciliation without which we could not be happy And because though our Debt were paid yet we could never come to the Favour and Acceptance of God unless his Image the Rule which he planted in Man to attain Happiness were again restored to Man and because that is impossible for us to do we by our Sin contracted Blindness as well as Guilt and Weakness as well as Blindness and therefore as we must up to our Creator for Acceptation of Satisfaction for our Guilt so we must to him to provide our Righteousness Though we had found Christ Sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 and Christ a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 before we could be delivered from our Curse so had we found that we had been still short of our Happiness unless we had also found him as well our Righteousness as our Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 We put on the new Man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Colos 3.10 And we were predestinate to be conformable to his image Rom. 8.29 5. This Love of God breeds in us an undervaluing of all things in comparison of him And this is a natural effect of Love for according to the measure of our Love is the measure of the Estimate of the things loved If God be the choicest and chiefest Object of our Love it will like Moses his Rod devour and confound the rest especially when they come in competition with it If we have disorderly Passions and Affections and Lusts This Love of God will mortifie them for Christ is our Life Mortifie therefore your earthly members c. Colos 3.4 5. It will crucifie the flesh with the Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 I will pull out a right Eye and cut off a right Hand if it offend Matth. 5.24 I will teach a Man to hate his Mother Wife Children Brothers Sisters yea his own Life when it comes in competition with his Saviour Luk. 14.26 To esteem his outward Privileges Learning Reputation c. and all things but loss and dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Philip. 3.8 nay the best of our Obedience Prayers Righteousness It makes this humble Confession O Lord I owe unto thee the strength of my Soul and when I have paid it I am but an unprofitable Servant Thy Goodness to me is none of thy debt to thy Creature but my most exquisite and perfect Obedience is due to thee And behold I have brought before thee these Services what there is in them worth the accepting is thy own the work of thine own Spirit the purchace of thine own Blood the rest alas is mine and is an Object rather for thy Mercy to pardon than thy Justice to accept 6. It works true Sorrow for any sin committed for as it cannot chuse but be sensible as of any injury committed to the God he loves so most especially of such an injury as is done by himself 7. The Love of God is the only true Principle of all Obedience Faith works by Love Ephes 5.6 And Christ died not only to redeem us from our Iniquities but to purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 And we are created in Christ unto good Works Ephes 2.10 And this is the will of God your Father eve◠your sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 And it is as impossible that where the true Love of God is these can be wanting as it is for the Sun to be without his Light. The Love of Christ is a constraining Love 2 Cor. 5.14 And he died for all that they that live should not from henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again Our Obedience to Christ is the true Experiment of our Love to him John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments 1 John 2.3 So our Love is the only true Principle of our Obedience Deuteronom 6.4 and 10.12 And now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to walk in his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul. The Love of God cannot be without his Fear and Obedience Now the Qualifications arising from this Love will be 1. A Sincere Obedience because it proceeds from a Principle within for the Obedience is formed in the Heart before it is formed in the Action Love cannot be dissembled because its residence is in the Soul the action that proceeds from Love must needs be therefore sincere 2. A Perpetual Obedience because the Principle within is perpetual and increasing for the more a Man loves God the more God is pleased to discover his Goodness to him and consequently his Love increaseth and consequently his Obedience 3. Vniversal Obedience for it is the same Principle within that looks universally upon all The Obedience is upon this ground It is the Will and the Command of him whom I love that ingageth my Obedience and wheresoever I find that impression there is my ground If the thing commanded be more unsuitable to my Constitution Occasions Exigencies yet it hath the Impression of my Lord upon it I will by his strength and Grace obey it If I love him his Will and not my own must be the measure of my Obedience And this is the reason why the breach of one Command of God knowingly is the breach of all because if my Obedience to the rest had been rightly principled upon the Love of God the same Love would have ingaged me to the obedience of this my Obedience therefore to the rest is not Obedience but a Pretence or Shew Some Commandments of God do include in them a greater suitableness to the Rational Nature of Man than others such are the Laws of Nature the Decalogue some are such Commands as seem only to be Experiments of our Obedience such were the Ceremonial Commands the Command to Abraham to sacrifice his Son to the Young Man to sell all he had But where this true Principle of the Love of God is there will follow Obedience to both though the more hard the Command the greater measure of Love to God is required to a full performance of it It teaches Obedience where the thing commanded is of it self full of Beauty as all Moral Commands are because but the Abstract of his Image and it teacheth to obey where the Command seems to carry nothing in it but asperity and unusefulness for it hath made the Will of God the measure of its own Will. Now concerning the Subject of our Obedience how far it extends and what the Rule of it is vide infra CHAP. XI Why or by what reason the act of Faith worketh our Vnion with Christ and so our Justification in the sight of God. HITHERTO we have seen those motions of God to his Creature and the motion of the Creature unto God again and both these must needs end in Union and this Union can be no otherwise than in the Son in whom the Divine and Humane Nature were united in one Person in whom the distance and difference between God and Man were filled up and reconciled And by virtue of our Union with him as our sins are made as it were his in point of Imputation and Satisfaction so we have all that communicable 〈◊〉 that was in Christ his Righteousness Phil. 3.9 the Righteousness which is of God by Faith his Life Galat. 2 2◠his Death Galat. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ his Spirit Rom. 8.9 his Resurrection 〈◊〉 2.6 hath raised us up together and made us sit 〈…〉 him in heavenly places Colos 2.12 Buried 〈…〉 Baptism wherein also ye are risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God of his Sonship
and execute the most exquisite satisfaction it can for those Lusts of the Flesh Now as any Man that hath so much command of his Mind as a little to call it off from this drudgery cannot chuse but conclude the extream unfitness and uncomeliness of such a transposition of his Faculties so when it pleaseth God to open our Eyes that we can see the state and frame of our Minds and Souls as once the Prophet's Servant's Eyes were opened to see that better sight of the heavenly Host we should see more confusion discrepancy and disorder in our Souls more cruelty mischief and filthiness by reason of the rule of those Lusts within us than if we should see the Slaves of a once well-governed City in a Rebellion mastering their Lords and making them serve to their basest Commands rifling their Treasures burning their Habitations and turning all places Orders and things into ruine and confusion And therefore the study of the reducing these Rebels to their former subjection even by strict severity and discipline which is the Business of Mortification cannot chuse but be a most rational Work. Now from this disorder that ariseth in the Soul by the Old Man which is nothing else but the inverting and displacing of those powers and motions of the Creature from that beautiful and conformable Place and Order wherein God had once set them proceed all those enormities and confusions that are in the World James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Lust hath made a disorder and tumult within and there it cannot rest long but works the like without also God hath set every thing in his place and order and bounded it with certain Limits and Rules and as long as they keep within their Places Orders and Rules there is Beauty and Concordance with it self and other things but when that Order and Rule of things is broken then follows Confusion and Deformity and as the things so displaced disagree with other things that are in their Places and Orders so those must needs disagree with them much more must things that are out of their Places and Orders disagree one with another When a Man over-mastered by any Lust meets with another Man over-mastered with the same or any other Lust there must needs be a discord between them these are the Works of the Flesh ad extra Gal. 5.19 2. The Lust of the Eyes The wise Man tells us The Eye is not satisfied with seeing Prov. 27.20 Eccles 1.8 And this is natural to the capacity of that sense and may be useful But that which is principally meant by this Lust is the over-eager prosecution of such Objects as are most delightful to the Eye viz. of Wealth which is Covetousness and of Honour or High Place which is Ambition These two Lusts are prosecuted upon a double ground 1. As things pleasing to our sight insomuch that the Wise Man concludes that the greatest good in the most substantial of them is the beholding of them with the Eyes of the Owner Eccles 5.11 But this is not all for we see even in â—ind Men the same desire of Wealth and Glory as in others Therefore 2. A mistaken Over-vaâ—â—ation of them as things of the most absolute use and safety The natural Man makes himself as he is constituted in this Life his chiefest End and according as the several judgments and dispositions of Men they take up several ways for the improvement or security or pleasure of their temporal Being here the Voluptuous Man the Covetous Man the Revengeful Man the Ambitious Man have all one End viz. Self But Self discovers it self several ways according to the several Dispositions and Principles that are in those several Men Wealth and Honour they are the Blessings of God and of excellent use to our present subsistence and may be desired and endeavoured for with moderation in order to our preservation posterity and safety But then it becomes a Lust when they are overvalued and consequently over eagerly prosecuted and then by degrees the Man is so captivated with it and habituated to it that as he placed his Felicity in his temporal Being here so he placeth the security strength and life of this Felicity in his Honour or Wealth and so makes it his God Colos 3.5 For as it is agreeable to our corrupt Nature to make that our Idol wherein or whereby we find the greatest sensible good conveyed to us be it an Onion or a Calf or a Crocodile as was the use of the Egyptians so if we once exceed those Bounds of Moderation which we ought to bear towards any sensible good it believes an Idol for it takes away part of that Portion of Love and Duty which we owe to God Prov. 18.10 11. The same that God is to a Man that is righteous the same doth a covetous Man make his Riches viz. his strong City It is impossible but Man must needs find himself a depending Creature upon somewhat without him he cannot live without Meat Drink Cloathing support against Injuries Violence and Want he hath lost the Knowledge of God upon whom in truth his dependance is and therefore fastens upon that which is most visibly in his way for his support Riches and External Power and this he concludes and resolves to compass per fas nefas even through the destruction and blood of those that stand in his way And having attained to some convenient proportion yet partly through the emptiness and deceitfulness of the Object which we pursue partly through the insatiableness of that Lust which we endeavour to satisfie we rest not in the pursuit though we grow secure in the enjoyment Soul thou hâ—st much laid up c. Luke 12.19 And thus this Lust robs God of that which is most due and dear unto him our Dependance and our Love so that it is impossible to serve them both Luke 16.13 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon For that which a Man most values will be sure to have most of his Heart Matth. 6.21 Now if there were the true Knowledge of God in our Hearts this Lust would die of it self If a Man considers that this Life consisteth not in the multitude of the things we enjoy Luke 12.15 That our heavenly Father who knoweth our wants requires us to cast our Care upon him Matth. 6.32 1 Pet. 5.7 That Promotion cometh not from the East nor West but it is God that setteth up one and casteth down another Psal 75.7 That he giveth all Creatures their Meat in due season Psal 145.16 That except he build the House they labour in vain that build it Psal 127.1 That he hath commanded us to cast our Burdens upon him and he will sustain us Psal 51.22 to commit our ways unto the Lord and trust in him and he shall bring it to pass Psal 37.5 that Riches are his Gift and commands us to trust in the Giver
not the Gift 2 Tim. 6.17 that though he give the possession of what we desire he can deny the fruition of what we possess Eccles 2.24 That a Man should enjoy good in his Labour is the gift of God Eccles 4.19 He can grant us Quails but with it can send leanness into the Soul Psal 106.15 and can increase the Wealth to the Owners hurt Eccles 5.13 That it is not the Bread I eat but the Word the Commission of God to his Creature that maintains my Life Matth. 2.4 He can make holes in our Bags and blow upon our Labours Hab. 1.6 9. That he will withhold no good thing from them that fear him Psal 84.11 Psal 35.10 Though Men of low degree are Vanity yet Men of high degree are a Lie and therefore though Riches increase yet he hath commanded me not to set my Heart upon them Psal 62.9 10. These and the like Considerations deeply digested will make a Man to carry a loose affection and pursuit of Riches or Honour and put the Soul upon such Resolutions and Contemplations as these O Lord thou hast brought me into this World wherein is great variety of all things and I see the men of this World hunting and pursuing after Wealth and Honour and Power and making it the business of their Lives and in this their pursuit often disappointments and if successful yet full of anxiety and if they attain any measure of what they pursue yet are still unsatisfied in what they have attained and yet consider not that there is a Lie in their right hand and what Profit hath he that laboureth for the Wind A Wind that may swell and torment but not satisfie the Soul And it is evident that oftentimes though thy Providence succeed their Desires and Ambitions so that they seem to have rolled up their Stone almost to the top of their Wishes yet the encounter of it may be a small and seemingly inconsiderable Circumstance tumbles all down again if not to their ruine yet to their vexation and disappointment And thus we walk in a vain shadow and disquiet our selves in vain and spend that stock of Time and Life and Strength and Opportunity in unprofitable unsatisfactory Labour till the Night overtakes us and then whose shall all these things be Luke 12.20 Blessed be thy Name that in the midst of all this variety those many things about which we are careful and troubled yet thou hast shewed us that there is one thing needful Luke 1â— 42 and hast shewed us what it is and how to attain it and this shall be the greatest Business of any because of greatest Consequence to work out my Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 To give all diligence to make my Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 That when the terrible Cry of Death and Judgment shall come I may have Oyl in my Lamp before the Door be shut and may be able to give my Lord an account of my Stock with Comfort and Joy. It is true the condition of my Nature stands in need of outward supplies for my defence and preservation and the wise Dispensation of thy Providence as it hath fitted this our Habitation on Earth with things useful for our Pilgrimage so it hath made Industry and Diligence the way to attain them he that will not labour let him not eat and the same Wise and Bountiful Hand hath not only furnished our way with supplies for our necessity but with provisions for our delight I will therefore diligently go on in that course wherein thy Providence hath cast me for it is the â—avel thou hast given me to be exercised withall Eccles 3.10 But I will not make this the End the Business of my Life The one thing necessary shall be always in my Eye and that it may be continually my Work I will endeavour to improve even my worldly Imployment into a spiritual by doing it in Obedience to the Command of God and that Order which he hath set in the World by walking conscionably in it as in the presence of God by casting my Care upon him nothing solicitous concerning the success but leaving it to him that governs all things by observing the passages of his Wisdom Mercy and Power in the passages and Successes of it by recumbence and resting upon his Promise for a subsistence Psal 37.3 Verily thou shalt be fed by my Patience and Contentedness with whatsoever Condition he shall cast me into and a chearful Resignation of my self into his hands who hath given me Christ and how shall he not with him give me all things else If he is pleased to straiten my Condition and make my Labours unsuccessful and feed me with Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction yet if he afford me the Light of his Countenance the assurance of his Favour the pardon of my Sins the sound hope of Eternity blessed be his Name In the midst of my Exigences I shall learn with the Prophet Hab. 3.7 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation I shall learn with Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 I shall improve my Necessities and Exigences to take off my Soul from the over-greedy pursuit of these Inferiours to establish and settle my Heart in the hope of that eternal weight of Glory the Contemplation and Expectation whereof is able to swallow up the momentany Sufferings as well as Pleasures of this Life with Job 14.14 to wait till my change come to magnifie the Mercy and Bounty of my Lord who whiles my sins deserve the loss of all is pleased to continue unto me that which is best and makes my Wants not so much the Punishment as the Cure of my Sin and though he brings me into a Wilderness yet there he speaks comfortably to me I shall learn to make his Will the measure of mine own and whiles I remember that he is the absolute Lord of his own Creature that he manageth and ordereth all the Events and Concurrences in the World by a most Wise and most Righteous Providence that he feeds the young Ravens when they cry Creatures that need a liberal supply and yet have no means to procure it that he is pleased to reveal himself in his Word unto me in such terms as are most comprehensive of Power and Mercy I will learn to wait upon him patiently chearfully and dependingly If it be his Pleasure to enlarge his hand I shall thankfully receive it as a free addition if not yet I will not change my Wants my Necessities my Scorns accompanied with the Favour of God nor sell the least degree of the Light of his Countenance for all the Supplies of Glory and Abundance that Heaven and Earth can afford If I can but
is bitterness in the end fit to implore a Pardon and fit to receive it because it now knows how truly to value it And though thy greater sin deserve thy greater Sorrow yet thy very failings sins of daily incursion Erroâ— in Circumstances of Actions defects and wants of intention in Duties do all deserve as true Sorrow though not so great and therefore cherish and encourage thy Conscience to be vigilant in this by observing her rebukes even concerning these and let not the reflection of these pass without as particular an Humiliation of thy Soul before God for them for they are sins against the Duty and Gratitude thou owest to thy Creator and it will make thy future Conversation more exact and more comfortable sorrow of Heart for those smaller offences as it will make presumptuous sins the more hideous and the more abhorred so it will waste the number and measure of those smaller offences which like swarms of flyes cover our daily Actions of all kinds 3. To seek out for that which can only pacifie thy Conscience and remove thy Sorrow which cannot be but by removing the Guilt And now let thy Soul search the whole Compass of Heaven and Earth and where canst thou find any thing that can remove thy Guilt of the smallest sin imaginable but him alone against whom thou hast committed it and where canst thou find any means for obtaining remission from sins but by that means which he himself hath prescribed and where hath he prescribed any such means but in his Word and where in his Word but in his Son Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest If then I stay at home I find nothing within me but a troubled and chiding Conscience and it will be impossible for me to remove this Guilt I will therefore venture my Soul upon the free Promise of God in Christ and with the Lepers in the Famine conclude If he save me I shall live and if he kill me I can but die 4. To fall upon thy knees before the great God and to beg for thy Life and for thy Peace O Lord my sin hath brought a Guilt upon my Soul and that Guilt hath raised a Storm in my Conscience but if thou who art only offended and therefore canst only forgive speak the Word to thy Servant Be thou clean and to my Conscience Peace be still my Guilt and with it that Tempest that is within me will be removed Do it I beseech thee for thy Truth and Promise sake thou canst not owe Remission to thy Creature but thou hast been pleased to ingage thy self to thy Creature upon Repentance to have mercy and forgive and upon that Promise of thine will I hang though thou seem to reject me Do it for thy Mercy sake thou that hast commanded me to forgive my Brother till seventy times seven times if as often he turn and repent hast infinitely more Mercy towards thy Creature than thou requirest from it Do it for thy Glories sake thou hast said it is the Glory of a Man to pass by a Transgression and what can be glorious in thy Creature that hath not a resemblance of thy own mind and Image nay do it for thy Justice sake thou hast been pleased to give a publick Sacrifice for all our sins against thee even thy Son by an eternal Covenant with a Proclamation That whosoever will may come and take of the water of Life freely and thou hast been pleased as it were to deposite a Pardon in thy Sons hand for as many as come unto thee by him and to lay upon him that Chastisement of our Peace and though I like a Man have gone aside yet thy Gifts are without Repentance That satisfaction therefore which thou out of thy abundant Love wert pleased to give unto thy self I beseech thee accept and as it will be the Glory of thy Mercy so it will be the Honour of thine own Justice for if we confess our sins thou art Just as well as Faithful to forgive us our sins in him that was the price of our Peace Set a Watch upon thy Spirit As the Soul is the Life of the Body so the Spirit is the Life of the Soul that active Principle which works by the Will the Affections and Conscience This appears by the frequent Denomination of the Spirit and by its contradistinction to the very Soul Ephes 4.23 Spirit of the mind Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord. Prov. 16.2 The Lord weigheth the Spirits Eccl. 7.8 The patient in Spirit is better than the proud in Spirit Isaiah 57.15 to revive the Spirit of the humble 16. The Spirit should fall before me and the Souls which I have made James 4.5 The Spirit that is in us luâ—â—eth to liuâ—â—y Heb. 12 23. The Spirits of Just men made perfect 1 Thes â— 23 I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body c. Heb. 4.12 dividing between the Soul and the Spirit Rom. 8.16 The Spirit beareth witness with our Spirit And here we take not Spirit physically for those Instruments whereby the Soul works but for that Principle of activity which works in the Soul these Disorders that sit upon the Spirit principally are two 1. In the Defect Deadness and Depression in the Spirit The Spirit is that which only can hold Communion with God he that will worship him as he must worship him in Spirit and Truth so with his Spirit and without that mingled with thy Prayers they are dead and cannot come at him and without thy Spirit brought to his Word and to his Ordinances they cannot come at thy Soul. As the Spirits of thy Blood are those that unite sensible Objects to thy Soul so the Spirit of thy Soul is that which can only bring home Divine impressions from God to thy Soul or expressions from thy Soul acceptably to God. Upon such occasions awake thy Spirit and mingle it with thy Services and shake off that Dulness and Heaviness of Spirit it will make thy Prayers uneffectual and thy Services unprofitable 2. In the Excess Elation and Pride of Spirit And from this Capital disease in the Spirit proceed those others of Envy the Spirit that is in us lusteth after eâ—y The Spirit of Revenge Luke 9.55 Ye 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 what Spirit you are The Spirit of Murmuring and Discontent These are but the productions of the Spirit of Pride when it meets with any thing that crosseth it If it meet with any Person that sensibly exceedeth the Person in whom it is in worth esteem or other Accessions then it is turned into Envy and that Envy into Revenge And this was the very Original of the Devils immediate action upon our first Parents his Pride though it made him lower by his fall it made him not more humble And from hence
to him but he is but what he was before he had it and when he loseth it will be what he was before he left it in all points save meerly outside and vulgar opinion He looks upon himself under the Beauty of his external Ornaments as a little Clay drest up in Gallantry that that may more justly make him proud that made it than him that wears it that alters not the Soul or Body that is under it nor is become part of it he looks upon his Strength or Beauty or temperature of Body as that which a few years will lay in the Dust and the Worms will master it as that which is not able to contest with the least Distemper either within it or without it and yet the good that is in it while it lasts is but a borrowed good He looks upon his Knowledge Vnderstanding and Wisdom as that which is infinitely short of what it was or what it might be the most that we know being infinitely short of what we know not and what we should know that his increase of Knowledge is but an increase of his Account an aggravation of those sins which would be of lesser magnitude had they not been committed against a greater Light that the most of what we know and that makes up the most of Men great in their own conceits is that which will be utterly unuseful after this life Of what use will those Volumes of Learning concerning Human Laws Physicks the Mathematicks Natural Philosophy and the Knowledge of the Contemperation of mixt Bodies be when the Earth with the works thereof shall be burnt up Political dispensations shall cease either the things shall not continue and so the knowledge of them be useless or the truth shall be more compendiously and clearly discovered to us and so the Labour to acquire them unnecessary It looks upon the best practical Habits or Actions it doth as things that need an expiation rather than deserving a reward it finds in it self a little small Grain of Gold in them but so covered and stifled with dross and filth that that which is good is scarce worth the accepting Finally he looks upon nothing as his own but the sin of his Nature that hath stained and polluted the sin of his Life that makes him odious in the Presence of God the sin of his Services as that which adulterates and spoyls them and whatsoever is useful or comfortable in his external Accessions whatsoever is beautiful in his Body or Soul he looks upon as anothers not as his and blesseth him for it carries the glory to him takes upon himself the shame and abhorrence of his own Deformities and magnifies the patience of his Creator in sparing him and his bounty in lending to him whatsoever of good he finds in himself or any way belonging to him And out of this right and sober judgment concerning himself and the reflection of the mind thereupon spring those Vertues of Humility Meekness Gentleness Patience Moderation Contentedness Thankfulness Quietness whereby a Man entertains all the Dispensations of God with such a frame and Temper of Spirit as he expects In thy addresses to God it will teach thee Lowliness and Reverence remembring thee of thy own Vileness and his Perfection and that infinite distance between thee a Man a sinful Man and Him the great and glorious God Gen. 18.27 Now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord that am but Dust and Ashes Luk. 18.13 the Publican standing a far off would not lift up his eyes to Heaven In the midst of Blessings either of this Life or that to come it will teach thee Admiration and Thankfulness 2 Sam. 7.18 What am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto Psal 8.4 When I consider the Heavens c. What is Man that thou art mindful of him that a sinful Man that owes so much to God and performs so little should receive such Blessings such Mercies and such Bounty from the hand of an injured God. In the midst of the severest Afflictions it will teach thee Patience and Quietness of mind and Contentedness when the Soul shall sit down and consider it self and justifie yea and magnifie God in this very dealing with her O Lord by that light that thou hast lent me I do see my self and therein behold nothing of my own but Deformity and Rebellion against thee unthankfulness and vileness and now I eat but the Fruit of my own ways and thou art just when thou judgest Nay thou dealest not with me according to the severest Rule of Justice thou hast punished me less than mine iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 I have forfeited all unto thee but thou hast not taken all from me I have deserved that thy whole fury should be poured out upon me but thou hast afflicted me in measure thou hast left me my life thou hast left me my hope thou hast left me some Light of thy Countenance which is better than my Life thou hast left me Liberty and Encouragement to pour out my Soul before thee and dost entertain it if thou hadst deprived me of all this yet thou hadst not been unjust and in that thou hast left me these or any of these or any other mercy thou art gracious Nay more than all this I find in that very thing wherein thy hand lyeth heaviest upon me a mercy and that thou hast afflicted me in very faithfulness Psal 119.75 in love Rev. 3.19 and for my profit and advantage Heb. 12.10 that I should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 my heart began to grow wanton to be lingring too much after the World to be taken up too much with Vanity and things that must perish to me and I to them I began to grow confident upon my Wit my Wealth my Power to grow negligent cold and careless in my Duty to thee in my Dependance upon thee in my Obedience to thee The Consolations of God the Presence of my Saviour my Life by Faith my hope of Glory began to grow small unto me Job 15.11 And this I plainly see was the state of my Soul and therefore I desire to receive these thy Afflictions not only as Punishments but as Medicines as Messages as well of thy care of me and thy mercy to me as of thy Justice upon me that they may not only be an exercise of my Patience but an Object of my Thankfulness of my Joyfulness that they may not only be a conviction of thy Detestation of my sin but a pledge of thy Love to my Person I shall therefore endeavour to bear thy hand as becomes me with Patience because I deserve them with Thankfulness because they are moderate and with Comfort because they are thy Ministers sent me for my good and as I shall thus learn to entertain them so I shall endeavour to use and improve them to that end thou sendest them to take me off from the World to bring me
that belongs to another thy heavenly Father knoweth thou hast need of all these things he is thy Father and therefore is willing to furnish thee with what shall be convenient for thee and he is thy Heavenly Father that wants not Power to do it he can supply thee in the ordinary way of his Providence and if there be need he can do it by the extraordinary work of his Power he can command Water out of a dry Rock as to the Israelites or out of a dry Bone as to Samson he can give thee Bread from Heaven he can feed Elijah by a Raven and can extend the Widows Barrel of Meal and Cruise of Oyl as large as the time and exigence of her Necessity Save thy self therefore the trouble of an unnecessary Care but commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Thy Care may rob thy self of thy quietness and may rob thy God of his due but it is thy Dependance only upon him that can with ease and contentedness supply thy wants Diligence and Industry in that lawful Employment wherein his Providence hath placed thee is thy Duty and therefore observe it but Sollicitousness and Anxiousness is thy Sin and therefore avoid it Learn to obey him in what he commands and learn to wait upon him in what he promises 2. In our Love Set not thy Heart upon thy Wealth Psal 62.10 nor make it thy Treasure for if thou dost it will be master of thy Heart for where thy Treasure is there will thy Heart be Matth. 6.21 and if thy Heart be full of thy Wealth there will be no room for thy God Matth. 6.24 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon and If any Man love the world the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 If the World have thy Love it will command thy Service and controll whatsoever opposeth that Command and break through all those Fences which seem to bridle or hedge in the pursuit of that World which thou so lovest Hath God set apart a time for his own Service thy love of the World will rob him of his own time Amos 8.5 When shall the new moon be gone that we may sell corn and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat and in the day of his fast thou wilt exalt all thy labours Isa 58.3 Doth he require a portion of our Goods for his Service thou wilt be ready to rob God of his Portion Mal. 3.8 or deceive him in it and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing Malach 1.14 Hath he set apart a peculiar place for his Worship thou wilt be ready with Jeroboam to set up Calves in Dan and Bethel 1 Kings 12.26 to secure thy self in the enjoyment of thy temporol Advantage Hath he imprinted his own Superscription and Image upon Man with a strict prohibition of the violation of that Image Gen. 9.6 Yet if thou become one that is greedy of Gain it will prompt thee to take away the Life of the Owner that thou mayest be his Successor Prov. 1.19 Job 31.39 It will make thee grind the faces of the Poor sell them for a pair of old Shoes set Justice to sale sell thy Master with Judas for a small inconsiderable Gain And thus the Love of the World is the root of all evil for as all the Good in Man is the Conformity to the Will of God so whatsoever interrupts this Conformity must needs be an original of Evil and this is done by the Love of the World which makes a Man reject this Conformity when it is inconsistent with that imperious Love of the World. 3. In our Confidence And this is always a concomitant of our Love to them and our Care for them for these grow out of a mistaken over-valuation of them and as that carries on our care for them and love of them so in the fruition of them upon this mistaken Estimate grows a Confidence in them Psal 49.6 They trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Prov. 18.11 the rich man's wealth is his strong city and as an high wall in his own conceit And this was the ground of the rich Man's solacing himself in the Gospel Thou hast enough laid up for many years eat drink and be merry And from hence it is likewise that Covetousness is Idolatry for that is in truth thy God upon which thou most trustest if in a time of Prosperity thy Confidence is high and built upon thy Power or thy Wealth or thy carnal Confederacies and if in the dissipation of these thy Soul dies within thee and thy Hope is like the giving up of the Ghost it is plain the World is thy God for thy Confidence doth rise and fall and live and die with it Therefore take heed of laying the weight of thy Confidence upon the World Psal 62. Trust not in oppression c. Power belongeth only to God. Prov. 11.14 Riches profit nothing in the day of wrath 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches If God give thee Wealth and Riches look upon them as his Blessing and look upon that good and usefulness that is in them as that which comes not from themselves but from the Blessing of God and which he can when he please withdraw from them and then they will be so far from being a ground of Confidence as that they will be thy snare and occasion of thy ruine and not a foundation of thy strength Look upon them as things that cannot benefit thee in themselves whiles thou hast them unless he makes them instrumental and as things which will not abide with thee when he calls for thee or for them for Riches make themselves wings and flee away Prov. 23.5 If thou lean upon them they are a Reed and sink under thy Confidence and a broken Reed that will hurt thee in thy Dependance upon them They will disappoint thy Confidence in them and thy Confidence in them will pierce thee Jer. 2.3 The Lord hath rejected these thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them 3. Vnseasonableness 1. In thy Order of seeking of them seek them not in the first place but seek first that one thing which is necessary It is not necessary for thee to be rich but it is necessary for thee to be saved Lâ—t that which is of thy greatest Concernment be the subject of thy first Endeavour Matth. 6.33 Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall he added unto you Thou hast but a short time here and upon the improvement of that little span of time depends thine everlasting condition of Happiness or Misery And if thou imploy the first-fruits of thy Life in the gain of this World which will certainly die with thee if not before thee who can tell if thou shalt have time enough left for the great
Job 33.14 he useth a sharper and louder Messenger he speaks that he may not strike and if he strikes it is unwillingly Lam. 3.33 and that he may not destroy and destroys nor rejects not till his strokes prove fruitless Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 He endures with long-suffering even the Vessels ordained to wrath Rom. 9.22 His Spirit did strive with the old World Gen. 6.3 was grieved forty years with the passages of a rebellious people Psal 95.10 pressed with our sins as a Cart under sheaves Amos 2.13 and yet no final destruction That admirable Expostulation of God's merciful Patience Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I see thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim I am God and not man. As if he should have said 'T is true thou art Ephraim and Israel a People that I have known of all the Families of the Earth Amos 3.2 a People that I have chosen and thou art called by my Name but by how much the nearer thou art unto me by so much the greater is thy Ingratitude That which in another People would be a Sin is in thee Rebellion and Apostasie Admah and Zeboim were a People that knew me not that never entred into Covenant with me they had no light to guide them but that of Nature and when they sinned my wrath broke out in the most eminent Judgment that ever was heard of But thou hast been a Vine of my own planting and watering and dressing and yet thy fruit hath been the fruit of Sodom thou hast made me to serve with thy sins and according to the number of thy Cities were thy Gods O Israel Jer. 11.13 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1.3 And should I not be avenged upon such a people as this How can I How can I not make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim If a man as thou art should but once shew but a grain of that ingratitude unto thee which thou multipliest towards me days without number thy Revenges would be as high as thy Power and thou wouldest justifie thy severest dealings with him nay if I thy Lord that can owe thee nothing but Wrath should withdraw but any of my own Blessings from thee thou art ready to throw off all and presently to upbraid me with thy unuseful Services What profit have I if I be cleansed from my sins Job 35.3 And how canst thou after all this expect any thing from me but that my Wrath should burn against thee like fire till thou wert consumed and that I should stir up all the fury of my Jealousie towards you O but Ephraim I am God and not man and therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed my Mercy and my Patience are not the narrow qualities or habits of a mortal Man but the infinite Attributes of an Infinite God. Though I can see nothing in thee but what deserves my wrath I can find that in my self that sends out my compassion a heart turned by returning upon my own Mercy and repentings kindled upon the considerations of my own Covenant with thy Fathers kindled by a Sacrifice that thou little thinkest of even the Sacrifice of my own Son I will not therefore execute the fierceness of my anger although it be thy duty to repent Sinner yet I will repent of my wrath even before thou repent of thy sin it may be my long-sufferings will as it should do lead thee to repentance Rom. 2.4 But if after all this thou despisest the riches of my Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering know that thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and that day will surely find thee and then thou wilt find that every days forbearance and patience that thou hast had and abused hath ripened and improved thy Guilt and made thy sin out of measure sinful and will add weight and fire to my wrath which like a Talent of Lead shall everlastingly lye upon that treasure of thy Sin and Guilt 2. His Pardoning Mercy Those tender and pathetical Expressions of God's Mercy in pardoning Sin upon Repentance and turning to him carry more weight than it is possible for our Spirits to arise unto Isa 1.18 Come now and let us reason together though your sins were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be like wool Isa 43.24 25. Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy 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 for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways Jer. 3.12 Go and proclaim these words Return thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity c. FINIS A Catalogue of what Books are Printed and Publish'd written by Sir Matthew Hale Kâ— sometime Chief Justice of the King's Bench and are to be Sold by Will. Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-lane THE Primitive Origination of Mankind considered and examined according to the Light of Nature Folio Contemplations Moral and Divine in Two Parts Octavo An Essay touching the Gravitation or non-Gravitation of Fluid Bodies Octavo Difficiles Nugae Or Observations touching the Torricellian Experiment Octavo Observations touching the Principles of Natural Motions especially touching Rarefaction and Condensation Octavo The Life and Death of Pomponius Atticus with Observations Political and Moral Committed to the Press since his Death viz. 1. Pleas of the Crown or a Methodical Summary of the principal Matters relating to that subject Octavo 2. A short Treatise touching Sheriffs Accounts Octavo 3. Several Tracts 1. Three Discourses of Religion viz. 1. The Ends and Uses of it and the Errours of men touching it 2. The Life of Religion and Superadditions to it 3. The Superstructions upon it and Animosities about it 2. A short Treatise touching Provision for the Poor 3. A Letter to his Children advising them how to behave themselves in their Speech 4. A Letter to one of his Sons after his recovery from the Small Pox. Octavo * Of this the Author hath written more largely in his Origination of Mankind * All which and divers others the Author hath largely prosecuted in another Work in the 6. first Parts This he hath likewise more largely handled in the 7. Part of the same Work. Of the Law of Nature the Author hath written a particular tract * That the Willing still continues the same shall be and is and hath been are the several relations of the thing willed which is capable of these successions of duration they are not relations that may fall upon that will which is incapable of them or upon the acts of it V. Originat 1. c. 2. * Of this the Author hath written a large Tract which he finished but a little before his Death and it was the last Work he meddled with This the Author hath elsewhere considered in two or three several little Tracts upon this Subject Of thiâ— the Author hath pâ—oâ—â—ssâ— and more largely wâ—â—tten in other Works Jam. 1.17 Mal. 3.6 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.26