the Lords lawful Governours and Government whether Civil or Ecclestastical in Church or Commonwealth This was the sin of Corah Dathan and Abyram and their copartners mentioned in Num. 16. God had chosen Moses and Aaron to be the cheif Leaders and Governors of his people and placed the Government in their hands both as to the Civil and Religious administration thereof Korah and his companions gather themselves together against them and told them they took too much upon them seeing all the Congregation was holy every one of them and that the Lord was among them wherefore then should they lift up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord But see how highly incensing and provoking was this unto the Lord Separate your selves saith he to Moses and Aaron from among the congregation that I may consume them in a moment and now the Lord he will shew who are his and who are holy and a strange work will he do these men must not dye the common death of all men nor be visited after the visitation of all men but a new thing will the Lord make The earth must open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them and they must go down quick into the pit and so they did and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Nor did the punishment of this Insurrection end here but the Lord causes a grievous Plague to break in upon the Congregation And Moses said to Aaron in the 46. verse Take a censer and put fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an attonement for them and why all this haste For there is wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun And Aaron did so and stood between the dead and the living and the plague was staied Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred besides them that died in the matter of Corah So highly displeasing is it unto the Lord for persons to oppose his lawful Authority and Government which he hath put into the hands of his faithful Ministers and Servants Under which consideration undoubtedly must those Scriptures be comprehended that enjoyn subjection and obedience whether to the Lords Civil or Ecclesiastical Rulers and Governors Rom. 13.1 Tit. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. 1 Thess 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7 17. O that this were seriously and timously considered and laid to heart by all such who flye in the face of Christ and carry themselves contemptuously against his lawful Governours and Government which he hath set in his Churches I mean the Churches of Christ making unjustifiable and dishonorable rents schisms and divisions in the body whereof they are members which should be as the seamless coat of Christ woven from top throughout Joh. 19.23 Of such who despise the Lords Government or Dominion I may say without wronging or injuring of them as Peter of some scandalous backsliding Professors in his time who were spots and blemishes in their feasts of Charity Presumptuous are they and self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 13. And while they promise themselves liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption vers 19. They despise Dominion The word it seems signifieth a removing of a thing from its place with some scorn and indignation They would remove the Lords Governors or Rulers over them with scorn and indignation And whereas they are said to despise dominion that is more then to despise their Rulers for they despise not only the Lords Governors but the Government it self And to speak evil of Dignities or to reproach Dignities is in the Original it see us to blaspheme Glories to speak reproachfully of Dominions which are placed in glory amongst men or which are set over them by the Lord in eminency power honour and authority Hence it is that lawful Magistrates ruling in the fear of the Lord are said to be Gods Psal 82.6 And the Lords Ministers and Messengers of Churches are said to be the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8.23 And as stars in his right hand are the Angels of the seven Churches Rev. 1.20 All holding forth that Glory and Dignity which the Lord hath conferred upon them And for any persons to rise up as Korah and his complices did against Moses and Aaron though it be in a presumption of their own holiness Numb 16.3 Such are like to perish in the gainsaying of Core as Jude expresseth vers 11. of his Epistle It being very observable how the Psalmist does express this act of Korah's Insurrection or rising up against Moses and Aaron to be no less then an envying of them They envied Moses also in the camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram And a fire was kindled in their company the flame burnt up the wicked Psa 106.16 17 18. That example also of Miriam and Aarons speaking against Moses is not to pass without its due observation neither Numb 12.1 7 8 9 10. The Lord giving that testimony of Moses his servant that he was faithful in all his house Wherefore then saith he were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and Miriam became leprous as white as snow Let such therefore who are guilty in this matter consider how provoking a sin this is unto the Lord and whether they may not have a hand in pulling down this sore visitation among us 14. A Fourteenth Pestilential and highly provoking sin is the sin of Prophanation of Gods holy things and an Over-curious presumptuous speculation and prying unwarrantably into the Secrets of God This was the sin of the men of Ashdod for which the hand of the Lord was so heavy upon them visiting them with greivous plagues when they took the Ark and brought it into the house of Dagon the Temple of their Idol-god and set it by Dagon so sore was the hand of God on them that he smote them with Emrods and destroyed them and such a deadly destruction there was throughout all the City insomuch that the cry of the City went up to heaven 1 Sam. 5. The Ark was a Chest or Coffer which was made of Shittim or Cedar wood overlaid round about with gold whose cover called the Mercy-seat was also of pure gold on which was two glorious Cherubs of gold from whence God gave his oracle Numb 7.89 These Cherubims were placed at the the two ends of the Mercy-seat and they spread out their wings on high which covered over the Mercy-seat with their face one to another Exod. 37.1 2 6 7 8 9. In this were the two Tables of the Law or Testimony put written with the finger of God Exod. 25.16 21. Deut. 10.3 4 10. Between the Cherubims God was said to sit Psal 80.2 There will I meet with thee saith the Lord and
will commune with thee from above the Mercy-seat between the two cherubims which are upon the Ark of the Testimony verse 22. Now this Mercy-seat on which God did thus sit between the wings of the Cherubims was a figure of Christ by whom our transgressions of the law are forgiven and covered who is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 And therefore called the Propitiatory Rom. 3.15 To this glorious seat where Gods presence with his Church was manifested the Throne of God is answerable in the Christian Church in the presence of which Throne his people are and serve him day and night in his Temple Rev. 7.15 17.8.3.21.3 5. Now this Ark being thus a type or figure of Christ and of his Church and of his glorious presence with the same it s no wonder if the Lord shall so severely punish the prophanation of it when men shall set it in the Temple of Dagon Surely if the Ark stand there Dagon must fall yea and it shall fall before the Ark of the Lord which is called the Ark of his strength Psal 132.8 And when the Ark set forward then Moses said Rise up Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee God cannot endure to have his holy things prophaned that the abomination of desolation shall stand in his holy place that men shall set their thresholds by Gods thresholds and their posts by Gods posts by defiling his holy name with their abominations Wherefore saith the Lord I have consumed them in mine anger No surely the place of the soles of his feet where he will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever and his holy name he will not suffer to be defiled but he will beautifie the place of his sanctuary and make the place of his feet glorious Isa 60.13 comp with Ezek. 43.7 8. Let men take heed then of offering strange fire before the Lord which he commandeth them not lest there comes out fire from the Lord and devoureth them as in the case of Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron who for this cause died before the Lord. And what said Moses to Aaron thereupon This is that that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Lev. 10.1 2 3. So likewise when men will be presumptuously and unwarrantably prying into the secrets of God see how severely the Lord hath punished this evil as in the case of the men of Beth-shemesh said whom the Lord sorely smote because they looked into the Ark of the Lord even he smote of the people Fifty thousand and threescore and ten men and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter And the men of Beth-shemeth said Who is able to stand before the holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6.19 20. So dangerous a thing it is to be over-curiously presumptuous in looking into the Areana Dei the secret and hidden things of God which he hath not revealed Therefore it was that the Lord had commanded that Aaron and his sons even they and not others should take down the covering vail and cover the Ark of the Testimony with it And thus do unto them saith the Lord that they may live and not die when they approach unto the most holy things Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered lest they dye Numb 4.19 20. See also Levit. 8.35 So exact was the Lord for the keeping of his charge It is sad to consider how wise some men have seemed to be above that which is written calculating persons and things and times for the meridian of their own brain like those lying Prophets which the Lord sent not nor spake unto wherefore he complained that they prophesied unto the people a false vision and divination even a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart Jer. 14.14 So in Ezek. 13.6 7 8 9. They have seen vanity and lying divination and they made others to hope that they would confirm the word See now the severe punishment of the Lord against such Behold I am against you saith the Lord God and mine hand shall be upon the Prophets that see vanity and that divine lies they shall not be in the Assembly of my people neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel neither shall they enter into the land of Israel But setting aside such gross lying Prophets it is sad to think how many professing the fear and knowledge of God have been over-curiously prying into Gods secret counsels and the hidden purposes of his minde limiting and prescribing the holy one of Israel advancing and extolling the idle phantasies and enthusiasmes of their own brains more then the declarative mind and will of God contained in the Scriptures of truth But whatever may be mens pretensions to high inward unscriptural revelations of God let us not be believing every such spirit but trying the spirits whether they are of God or no and for this reason Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 And what saith Peter We have also a more sure word of prophesie more sure then the voice which they heard to come from Heaven when they were in the Holy Mount whereunto ye do well saith he that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the Day dawn and the Day-star arise in your hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 Ever remembring that in Deut. 29.29 That secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever 15. The fifteenth and last thing that I shall briefly speak of as a Pestilential destroying sin is that of Adding or Diminishing from the Word of God for which the Lord Jesus hath threatned such dreadful plagues and punishments For I testifie saith he unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophesie of this Book If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this Prophesie What solloweth then God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book That man may be said to add that shall mix other things besides what the Lord Jesus hath revealed by his Angel He addeth that adjoyneth a lye For whatsoever is patched to the Scriptures of mens inventions that it might be accounted as divinely revealed or the pure Oracles of God is a lye Such are the Papal unwritten traditions or other writings of men whatsoever which are made with them of like Authority with the written word of God and which added
unmortified corruptions Ephes 6.18 By it Crosses are prevented removed or sanctified yea all things are sanctified unto us and we are so kept and preserved that we fall not into temptation 1 Tim. 4.5 Mat. 26.41 Yea often times we obtain much more good then we desire or expect Solomon begged onely of the Lord an understanding heart and God gave him both riches and honour which he asked not 1 King 3.13 So able is the Lord to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think Ephes 3.20 So that of Prayer we may say it is a Key to open the door of Gods treasure house a present remedy for an oppressed mind a giver of strengh to the weak and an especial means to make a man fit to live knowingly fruitfully and serviceably to God in every state and condition Col. 1.9 10. What shall I say of it but as one saith well and truly It is Consolatio flentium cura dolentium sanitas aegrotoraem A Comfort for them that mourn the joy of the sorrowful and health for those that 〈…〉 force and efficacy what will 〈…〉 hath it not done It goes through the 〈◊〉 and ceaseth not until it come unto the Lord and if entreaties will not do it will with reverence be it spoken lay commands upon him Isa 45.11 Yea it doth as it were bind up the hands of the Lord and hinder him from executing his judgements overcoming him that overcometh all things Let me alone saith the Lord to Moses or suffer me that my wrath may wax hot against them to wit the Israelites that I may consume them Exod. 32.10 Abrahams prayer had saved Sodom from being destroyed had there been found ten righteous persons therein Gen. 18. Yea it is very observable that the Lord did not leave granting till Abraham left off petitioning By prayer Jacob was delivered from the wrath and fury of his Brother Esau Gen. 32.11 Jonah out of the Fishes belly Jonah 2.10 The three Children from the fiery Furnace Daniel from the Lions Den Dan. 3.6 Jonahs and Pauls Mariners from the danger of the Seas and Joseph and Paul and Silas and Peter and others out of Prison Act. 5.16 By Prayer Eliah stayed the Rain three years and six months and again obtained Rain so that the earth yeilded her fruit James 5.17 By Prayer Elisha had the spirit of Eliah doubled upon him and procured Bears to destroy the mocking Children 2 King 2. raised from death to life the Shunamites Son So Chap. 4. Had the eyes of his Servant opened so that he saw Mountains full of Horses and Chariots of fire round about him and smote the Syrians with blindness which came to take him Chap. 6. By Prayer Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still in the midst of Heaven until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies Josh 10.12 13. By Prayer Isaiah brought back the Sun ten degrees in the Dial of Ahaz 2 King 20 11. By Prayer David frustrated the wicked counsel of Achitophel and often put his enemies to flight 2 Sam. 15.31 and 16.23 and Psa 56.9 by Prayer Hezekiah was delivered from the King of Assyria and his health restored unto him again Isa 37. and 2 King 18. The Ninevites were delivered from the judgements threatned against them Jonah 2. Peter raised Tabitha and Paul Eutichus that had fallen down by sleeping Act. 9.40 and 20.10 The Centâ—rians Servant the Cananites Daughter and Lunatick persons were healed men blind received their sight the stammering and deaf were made to hear and speak Lepers were clensed and certain persons being dead were restored to life again So much availeth Prayer with the Lord if it be servent But to bring it a little more close as to the present visitation of the Lord See of what force and efficacy it hath been with the Lord to appease his wrath and stay the execution of his judgments When the Children of Israel fell a murmuring and had greatly provoked the Lord by their unbelief insomuch that the Lord threatned to smite them with Pestilence and disinherit them Moses falls a pleading and interceeding with the Lord for them Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word Numb 14.12 19 20. So that only those men who brought up the evil report upon the land dyed by the Plague before the Lord vers 37. So in the case of Korah Dathan and Abiram when the Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron saying they killed the people of the Lord This so greatly incensed the Lord that he bad them go up from the congregation that he might consume them in a moment Hereupon the Text saies they fell upon their faces and Aaron according to the command of Moses takes his Censer and puts fire therein from off the Alter and put on Incense and made an attonement for the people for there was wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague was begun And Aaron stood between the dead and the living and the Plague was staid Numb 16 45 46 47. This sheweth how greatly the Prayers and actions of Gods Servants do prevail with him when they are faithful fervent and according to his will Jam. 5.16 1 John 5.14 and foreshewed also the power and efficacy of Christs meditation for poor sinners who is represented by the Angels standing at the Altar having a golden Censer and much Incense given unto him to offer it with the prayers of all Saints Rev. 8.3 For God heareth him always John 11.40 And he it is that makes intercession for the transgressors Isa 53.12 and is the attonement or propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.1 and for his sake God before whom the Pestilence goeth in wrath remembreth mercy Hab. 3.2 5. And as the blood of the Paschal Lamb figuring the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 5.7 stayed the Angel which destroyed the Egyptians from touching the Israelites Exod. 12.23 Heb. 11.28 So the smoke of Aarons incense figuring the meditation of Christ Psa 141.2 Rev. 8.4 Stayed the Plague here from the Israelites which survived That as it is written of the Pestilence in Davids time The Lord repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed the people It is enough stay now thy hand 2 Sam. 24.16 So in this verse the further efficacy and effect of faithful fervent prayer for the removal of this sore visitation of the Lord is clearly held forth in that Prayer of Solomon at the Temples dedication If there be in the Land Famine if there be Pestilence whatsoever Plague whatsoever Sickness there be what Prayer and Supplication soever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and
THE Best of Remedies FOR THE VVorst of Maladies OR Spiritual Receipts and Antidotes for the Preservation of a Plague-sick Sinfull Soul Wherein is shown Sin is the Cause and Repentance the Cure of the Pestilence Seasonably Published by a Lover of Peace and Truth and one that desireth that all would though the Lords hand seems to be withdrawn as to the late universally raging Pestilential Disease forsake those Provoking Sins which call for Vengeance and Judgements on the Sons of Men. R. A. LONDON Printed Anno 1667. THE CAUSES CURE OF THE Pestilence THe first Sin which I shall insist upon so highly provoking unto the Lord to send the destroying Pestilence among a people is the sin of Oppression When the Supream Powers and Authorities of a Nation do exercise a Usurpation or Oppession over the Bodies and Consciences of the people of God This was the sin of Pharoah who tyrannized not onely over the Bodies but over the Consciences also of the Children of Israel He sets Task-masters over them to afflict them with their burdens And the Egyptians made the Children of Israel to serve with rigour and made their lives bitter with hard bondage in Morter and in Brick and in all manner of service in the field all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigour By reason of which bondage the Children of Israel sighed and cryed and their cry came up unto God Exod. 1.11 13 14. comp with Chap. 2.23 So Chap. 3.7 The Lord said I have surely seen the afflictien of my people which are it Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their Task-masters for I know their sorrows And in the 9th Verse Behold the cry of the Children of Israel is come up unto me and I have also seen the Oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them This was an oppression that Pharoah and his cruel Task-masters did exercise over their bodies The oppression that he exercised over their souls and consciences did evidently appear in this The Lord he called and commissionated Moses to go unto Pharoah and he with the Elders of Israel were to say unto him The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go we beseech thee three days journey into the Wilderness that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God Exod. 3.18 This they often prest upon him And the reason wherefore they so much urged it is very observable in the 3d. Vers of the 5th Chap. Let us go we pray thee three days journey into the Desart and sacrifice unto the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with Pestilence or with the Sword That is Lest he slay us and destroy us with Pestilence and with the Sword as in Judges 8.21 Pharoah he hardens his heart and is disobedient unto the word of the Lord. And Pharoah said who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go They be idle saith he therefore they cry saying Let us go and Sacrifice unto our God Exod. 5.2 8 17. But the Judgments of God pursuing him at the very heels and the greivous swarm of Flies coming into his house and into his servants houses and into all the Land of Egypt so that the Land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of Flies then he calls for Moses and Aaron that they might go and Sacrifice to God but where in the Land that is in his own Land the Land of Egypt But what said Moses It is not meet so to do for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God Lo shall we Sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us We will go three days journey into the Wilderness and Sacrifice unto the Lord our God as he shall command us It is not meet or it is not right so to do as being not so appointed of God who called into the Wilderness to Sacrifice Exod. 3.18 Shall we Sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians That is The Beasts which the Egyptians do worship and do abhor to kill or to see killed for Sacrifice And the Sentence twice repeated may imply two senses 1. Shall we Sacrifice to our God such things as the Egyptians Sacrifice that would be an abomination to the Lord Or 2. Shall we Sacrifice such things as God requireth that would be an abomination to the Egyptians The Scripture often calling the Gods and Services of the Heathens Abominations As Deut. 7.25 and 12.30 31. 2 King 23.13 Ezra 9.1 Isa 44.19 Now the principal Sacrifices of the Hebrews were Oxen and Sheep Gen. 15.9 And all Shepherds or Sheep-keepers were an abomination to the Egyptians Gen. 46.34 For the Egyptians abstained from Sheep and Sacrificed Goats By all which it is very evident that Pharoah denying the Israelites to Worship as God had appointed them did oppress them not only in their bodies but in their Consciences likewise which drew down the dreadful Judgments of God upon him and his Land among which this of the destroying Pestilence For proof whereof see Exod. 3.19 20. I am sure saith the Lord that the King of Egypt will not let you go no not by a mighty hand And what follows I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders c. So Exod 9.13 14 15. Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews Let my people go that they may serve me for I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart c. and especially in the 15. Vers For now will I stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the Earth And in the 12. Chap. and 29. Vers See what a dreadful slaughter the Lord made accordingly in the Land of Egypt And it came to pass that at Mid-night the Lord smote all the first-born in the Land of Egypt from the first-born of Pharoah that sat on his Throne unto the first-born of the Captive that was in the Dungeon and all the first-born of Cattel and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a House where there was not one dead See further the severity of God in punishing this sin of Oppression Jer. 34.17 Therefore thus saith the Lord ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour Behold I proclaim a liberty for you saith the Lord to the Sword to the Pestilence and to the Famine and I will make you to be removed into all the Kingdoms of the earth So highly displeasing it is unto the Lord for a people to be oppressed either in their civil or spiritual liberties and enjoyments according to that in Psa 12.5 For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him at safety from him that puffeth at him And
further in Isa 49.25 26. A dreadful place to all cruel Oppressors of Gods people saith the Lord there I will contend with him that contendeth with thee and I will save thy Children And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine And Amos 2.6 Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof Why Because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes So Isa 52.4 5 6. Thus saith the Lord my people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause Now therefore what have I here saith the Lord that my people is taken away for nought they that rule over them make them to bowl saith the Lord and my name continually every day is blasphemed Therefore my people shall know my name therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. By which it is very evident that the Lord does not onely intimate unto us how sorely he plagued the Egyptians because they had grievously afflicted and oppressed his people which voluntarily and of their own accord went down into Egypt but also that he will much more grievously plague the Assyrians that carried them away out of their own Land the Land of Canaan which he had given them for an Inheritance and there dealt so cruelly and unmercifully with them So sorely displeasing is it unto the Lord when those that rule over his people shall make them to howl that is to cry bitterly to mourn and lament so ely as it is rendred Jer. 4.8 and Ezek. 21.12 To this agrees that in the 50th Chap. of Jeremiah and the 33 and 34. Verses Thus saith the Lord of Hosts The Children of Israel and the Children of Judah were oppressed together and all that took them Captives held them fast they refused to let them go Their Redeemer is strong the Lord of Hosts is his name he shall throughly plead their cause that he may give rest unto the Land and disquiet the Inhabitants of Babylon What we may understand by the Lords pleading of the cause of his people here and disquieting the inhabitants of Babylon that oppressed them that of Jerem. 51.35 36. doth evidently declare The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon shall the Inhabitants of Sion say and my blood upon the Inhabitants of Chaldea shall Jerusalem say Therefore thus saith the Lord behold I will plead thy cause and take vengeance for thee and I will dry up her Sea and make her Springs dry When the Lord shall plead the cause of Sion then will he take vengeance for her that is he will avenge himself of his and her cruel oppressing enemies According to that which the Lord of Hosts the mighty one of Israel speaks in Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies This is the time when he will make his Arrows drunk with blood and his Sword to devour flesh And then what follows Rejoyce O ye Nations with his people for he will avenge the blood of his Servants and will render vengeance unto his Adversaries and will be merciful unto his Land and to his people As it is in Deut. 32.42 43. This is that time which is called by the Prophet Isaiah The day of the Lords vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversies of Sion Isa 34.8 called by Jeremiah the vengeance of the Lord our God the vengeance of his Temple Jer. 50.28 And take notice then how severe the Lord will be He tells us that his Sword shall be bathed in Heaven and it shall come down upon Idumea and upon the people of his curse to Judgement By Idumea we are to understand Edom or the Edomites who were the highest Kindred of the Israelites but notwithstanding they were their greatest enemies and oppressors And therefore said the Lord by the Prophet Obadiah Vers 10. For thy violence meaning the Edomites against thy Brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever And these are a Type and Figure of all the enemies of the Church of God who indeed do boast and brag that they are descended and born of the Church crying up the Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord setting up a Worship of their own devising and are in the practise of Sacraments and Ordinances as the true Church and Spouse of Christ yet indeed and in truth do hate persecute and oppress the true spiritual and sincere worshippers of Jesus Whereby it is very evident what dreadful plagues and punishments the sin of oppression doth bring upon a Land and Nation 2. The second Pestilential sin is the sin of Persecution and hatred against God and his people As God hath his Arrows of his deliverance for the preservation of his people against their enemies 2 King 13.17 So he hath the Arrows of his Indignation and wrath which Job being under a spirit of desertion and temptation apprehended were within him the poison whereof he said did drink up his spirit Job 6.4 So David in the like condition That the arrows of the Lord did stick fast in him and his hand pressed him sore Psal 38.2 And the Prophet Jeremy in his Lamentations He hath bent his bow saith he and set me as a mark for the Arrow He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins Lam. 3.12 13. I say whatever might be the apprehensions of these holy and righteous men yet surely the Lord has his arrows of his sore displeasure and wrath which as the instruments of death he hath prepared and ordained against the Persecutors Psal 7.13 And this of the destroying Pestilence is one of the sorest and sharpest of them as reckoned amongst his four sore judgements Ezek. 14.21 And as the wicked do bend their bow and make ready their arrows upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart Psal 11.2 So the Lord he has his bow and arrows and his Bow is bent also and his arrows he hath ready Psa 7.12 which he sends out and scatters his enemies with Psal 18.14 With these he breaks their bones and pierces them through Num. 24.8 yea makes them drunk with their blood Deut. 32.42 These are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies Psal 45.5 The Instruments and means that the Lord makes use of against his enemies are piercing yea so piercing that the heart the closest and strongest part even that wherein life consisteth shall be peirced thereby The arrows of the Lord are like the swords of Saul and Jonathan which did execution and returned not empty 2 Sam. 1.22 You think by flying away and hiding your selves in the thickets of the forrest you shall be secured from the stroke of these arrows of Gods vengeance but know if
you are Gods Enemies and persecutors his hand will find you out yea his right hand will finde out those that hate him and he will make you as a fiery oven in the time of his anger Psal 21.8 9. For wickedness burneth as fire and it shall devour the briars and thorns and shall kindle in the thickets of the forrest and they shall mount up as the lifting up of smoke for through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts the land shall be darkned and the people shall be as the fewel of the fire no man shall spare his brother Isa 9.18 19. I say if you be the Lords Adversaries then if the Scriptures be true and cannot be broken you shall assuredly be broken in peices yea out of heaven will the Lord thunder upon you 1 Sam. 2.10 And if that will not do he will throw you into the deeps as a stone into the mighty waters as he dealt with the persecutors of his people Neh. 9.12 I cannot let pass those dreadful imprecations which the Prophet David thundereth out against his and the Lords Adversaries under the person of Judas Set a wicked man over him saith he Let Satan stand at his right hand let him be condemned and his prayer become sin and his days few and his children fatherless and vagabonds begging their bread and such like prophetical direful wishes And why all this Because that he remembred not to shew mercy but persecuted the poor and needy man that he might even slay the broken in heart Psa 109. to ver 17. so Psa 69. verse 22. and onward Let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their loins continually to shake Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them Let their habitations be desolate and let none dwell in their tents Add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come unto thy righteousness Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous Now what 's the reason that David devoteth his and the Lords enemies to such dreadful destructions why even for this cause For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded By all which he meaneth that the wicked laid grievous afflictions and punishments upon such whom the Lord in his fatherly love had chastised whether you understand it of Christ or of his afflicted and persecuted members This is a sin that is highly provoking unto the Lord drawing down the wrath of God to a Kingdoms inevitable desolation and destruction as upon Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36.15 16. where it is said That the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers or prophets rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy or no healing because on the one side the people repented not and on the other side Gods Justice required that their impenitency should be most severely punished It s a similitude taken from sick bodies that are incurable For as Stephen said truly whom they stoned which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just one meaning Christ of whom saith he ye have been now the betrayers and murderers Acts 7.52 And therefore it was that our blessed Saviour took up that sad lamentation and complaint O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not And what follows Behold your house is left unto you desolate Matth. 23.37 38. Persecution is the certain fore-runner of a Nations desolation and destruction And God does usually retaliate the sin of persecuting and destroying men upon their own heads Let their way be dark and slippery and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them Psal 35.6 As the fire burneth the wood and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire so persecute them with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storm Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord let them be confounded and troubled for ever yea let them be put to shame and perish That men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most high over all the earth Psal 83.15 16 17 18. And who are they whom the Psalmist imprecates these dreadful judgments to fall upon but Gods Enemies and Persecutors For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head they have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said Come let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance God has his hidden ones such whose life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 whom the Lord esteems as his jewels keeping them in faithful and safe custody hiding them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man which betake themselves to the Lord for refuge to be hid and secure under his tuition and protection Psal 27.5 and 31.20 And these are they that the enemies of God did consult and conspire against even to extirpate them and to root them out of the land But see how just the Lord is in the exeution of his righteous and terrible judgements upon such Thou shalt take up this proverb saith the Lord against the King of Babylon and say How hath the Oppressor ceased the golden City ceased the Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked and the Scepter of the Rulers He that smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke mark that he that ruled the Nations in anger is persecuted and none hindereth Isa 14.4 5 6. O that this were seriously laid to heart by the persecuting spirits of this generation whether Gods controversie with the Kingdom at this time in this sore visitation of the Plague among us doth not in a great measure spring from this evil and bitter root so heinous and provoking sin it is unto the Lord. 3. The third pestilential destroying sin is the sin of Murder and Blood-shed that is exercised upon the people of God See Jer. 50.11 12 13. the dreadful threatnings of the Lord against Babylon for this very sin Because ye were glad saith the Lord because ye rejoyced O ye destroyers of mine heritage because ye aro grown fat as the heifer at grass and bellow as bulls Mark they were the destroyers of Gods heritage that was their sin and now what must be their punishment
Your mother shall be sore confounded she that bare you shall be ashamed behold the hindermost of the Nations shall be a wilderness a dry land and a desert because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited but it shall be wholly desolate every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues So in Jer. 51.34 35. The Church complains there that Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon had devoured her and crushed her and made her an empty vessel and had swallowed her up like a Dragon and filled his belly with her delicates and cast her out What then is the Churches dreadful imprecation hereupon but that which was mentioned before The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon shall the inhabitants of Sion say and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea shall Jerusalem say Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will plead thy cause and take vengeance for thee c. And Babylon shall become heaps a dwelling place for Dragons an astonishment a hissing without an inhabitant And in the 33. Verse The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor it is time to thresh her yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come So Rev. 18.4 God calls his people there to come out of Babylon and wherefore that ye be not partakers of her sins saith the voice from Heaven and that ye receive not of her Plagues So in the 8th Verse Therefore shall her Plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with Fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her And what was Babylons great sin They have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy said the Angel of the waters Rev. 16.6 So Rev. 17.6 And I saw said John in a Vision the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the earth Rev. 18.24 And what follows Allelujah salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments for he hath judged the great Whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand And again they said Allelujah and her smoke rose up for ever For the speedy execution of which righteous judgements of God upon this insatiable and blood-thirsty Whore it is that the souls under the Altar that have been slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held are said to cry with a loud voice saying How long Lord holy and true dost not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth To which answer is made That they should rest yet for a little season until their Fellow-Servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Rev. 6.9 10 11. That is slain by Antichrist and his Ministers who having Apostatized from the faith should arise in the Church of Christ soon after this and by their spiritual pride and tyranny oppress the Church and persecute and kill the Lords faithful Witnesses in like manner as the Gentiles the Jews and other false Christians had formerly done Rev. 11.7 and 12.15 17. Yet this is very observable as that which may minister matter of strong consolation to the Saints suffering under Antichrists bloody persecutions that there is the determinate time of Gods appointed Judgments and that however for a while the Lord defers his punishments yet he certainly hears the Prayers of his faithful servants and at last will be fully avenged on their Adversaries And though Antichrists rage and tyranny is very great yet it is limited according to the purpose and decree of God who hath determined the number of Martyrs which number being once accomplished not one drop of blood shall be more spilt by that man of sin that Son of perdition who Satan like worketh with all his power compelling men by Fines confiscation of Goods Imprisonments Banishments and the like to submit unto his ways and laws 2 Thes 2.3 9. and that under fair and glorious pretences too for the suppressing of Errors and Heresies for the beating down of sin for the working of men to conformity and uniformity and the bringing of them into obedience unto the Church which to do if the Ecclesiastical power is not sufficient the Magisterial power must be made use of But it is very evident that the Antichristian religion consisting for the most part in Will-worship and in humane traditions and inventions could never have subsisted to this day had it not been supported by an Arm of flesh when as our Lord Jesus with his Apostles and Disciples never sought to the Civil Magistrate or Powers of the World upon that accompt nor is the Kingdom of Christ to be erected and established in this way of humane force and power The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are not carnal 2 Cor. 10.4 It is the powers of the world that shall destroy the holy people Dan. 8.24 It is the Little Horn the Romish Antichrist that shall make War with the Saints and prevail against them until the Ancient of days come and that judgment be given to the Saints of the most high and that the time come that the Saints shall possess the Kingdom Dan. 7.21.22 It is he that shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the Saints of the most high c. Vntil the Judgment shall sit and then they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end Dan. 7.25 26. And in one day shall Babylons Plagues come death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Rev. 18.8 The severity of the Lord against this sin of bloodshed and cruelty that is exercised on the Saints of God is further set forth in that of the Prophet Amos Chap. 1. Vers 11. Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof and why Because he did pursue his Brother with the Sword and did cast off all pity and his anger did tear perpetually and kept his wrath for ever For this also hath the Lord a controversie with the Land because by killing and stealing c. they break out and blood toucheth blood Therefore shall the land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish Hosea 4.1 2 3. So in the Psal 94.5 6. They break in pieces thy people O Lord and afflict thine heritage they slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless yet they say the Lord shall not see And what then O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self Lift up thy self thou Judge of
the earth render a reward to the proud So highly provoking is it unto the Lord for any to have a hand in the destroying of Gods heritage As the Psalmist saith When the Lord shall make inquisition for blood he will remember them and not forget the cry of the humble or of the afflicted 4. The fourth pestilential and highly provoking sin is the sin of Idolatry which is the worshipping of false Gods or the true God in a false manner This is that sin that hath greatly incensed the Lord to send this sore Judgement of the Plague or Pestilence and the Sword among a people Judg. 5.8 It is said they chose new gods then was war in the gates When Israel forsook the Lord and his true worship and fell to the worshipping of the Idol-Gods of the Heathen then the Lord ever and anon punished them with war And as the Sword so the Pestilence brake in among them for this very sin Psal 106.28 29. They joyned themselves also to Baal-Peor and eat the sacrifices of the dead Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them See Num. 25.2 to which this in the Psalmes doth referre It is said they called the people to the Sacrifice of their Gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods And Israel joyned himself to Baal-peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel so that there died in the Plague no less then four and twenty thousand and many more had been destroyed had not Phinehas stood up and executed judgement and turned away the wrath of the Lord and so the Plague was stayed as in the 30. verse of that 106. Psalm comp with Num. 25.11 Baal-peor was the Idol-god of the Moabites and the Daughters of the Moabites they called or invited the people to the sacrifices or offerings of their gods they allured the people by fleshly baites to defile their bodies and souls with whoredom and idolatry and the people they participated or communicated with them in their idolatry which sin God in a special manner had forewarned them of Exod. 34.12 13 14 15 16. Take heed to thy self lest thou make a Covenant with the Inhabitants of the Land whither thou goest lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee But ye shall destroy their Altars break their Images and cut down their Groves For thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God Lest thou make a Covenant with the Inhabitants of the Land and they go a whoring after their gods and do sacrifice to their gods and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice and thou take of their Daughters unto thy Sons and their Daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy Sons go a whoring after their gods And hence it was that the Apostle Paul dehorted the Corinthians lest they should be guilty of the like sin and so incurre the like punishment 1 Cor. 10.8 Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed meaning spiritual as well as corporal uncleanness and fell in one day three and twenty thousand though there was four and twenty thousand fell in all but three and twenty thousand of them fell or perished in one day So when Moses was in the Mount with God and the People had made them a Molden Calf and gave it Divine Adoration saying These be thy gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt How did the wrath of the Lord begin to wax hot against them for to consume them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them yet saith the Lord Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them And the Lord plagued the people because they made the Calf which Aaron made See Psal 1◠23 comp with Exod. 32.4 and 35. verses 〈◊〉 whence was that dehortation of the Apostle likewise in that 1 Cor. 10.7 Neither saith he be ye Idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play The word is used for laughing or rejoycing Gen. 21.6 here it is meant of their singing and dancing about the Golden Calf they had made as in the 18. and 19. verses of Exod. 32. as aforesaid So Jer. 19.3 4 5. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will bring evil upon this place the which whosoever heareth his ears shall tingle And wherefore will the Lord be so severe Because they have forsaken me saith the Lord and have estranged this place and have burnt incense in it unto other gods whom neither they nor their fathers have known nor the Kings of Judah and have filled this place with the blood of Innocents they have built also the high places of Baal to burn their Sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal which I commanded not nor spake it neither came it into my mind Therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that I will cause them to fall by the Sword before their enemies c. and their Carkases will I give to be meat for the fowles of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth and I will make this City desolate and an hissing every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the Plagues thereof So Ezek. 33.25 26 27. Wherefore thus saith the Lord ye eat with the blood and lift up your eyes towards your Idols and shed blood and shall ye possess the land c. Thus saith the Lord God As I live surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the Sword c. and they that be in the Forts and in the Caves shall dye of the Pestilence For I will lay the Land most desolate and the pomp of her strength shall cease Hence it is said that in Horeh they provoked the Lord to wrath so that the Lord was angry with them to have destroyed them Deut. 9.8 And Deut. 32.16 to 21. They provoked him to jealousie with strange gods with abominations provoked they him to anger They sacrificed to Devils not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods that came newly up whom their Fathers feared not Of the Rock that begat them they were unmindful and had forgotten God that formed them What then And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his Sons and of his Daughters And he said I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be For this sin of Idolatry it was that the Lord brought evil upon the house of Jeroboam smiting all his house in so much that he left not to him any that breathed but took them away as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone for saith the Text He made him other gods and molten Images to provoke the
Lord to anger and did cast the Lord behind his back See 1 King 14.9 comp with Chap. 15.29 and 30. c. Add to this that in the 44. of Jeremiah the 7. and 8. Vers Thus saith the Lord the God of Hosts the God of Israel Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls to cut off from you man and woman child and suckling out of Judah to leave you none to remain In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands burning incense unto other gods c. that ye might cut your selves off and that ye might be a curse and reproach among all the Nations of the earth So highly provoking is this sin of Idolatry unto God as you many see further Exod. 20.4 5. Deut. 6.14 15. and 32.21 which I say that we may not be mistaken concerning it doth consist not only in the worshiping of Idols and false gods but of the true God in a false manner It may be thou wilt not be so gross to fall down and give divine Adoration to an Image yet if thou dost worship God before and by an Image thou art an Idolater The Image which the Jews made of the true God is condemned of God himself Exod. 32.8 and they that made it were punished as Idolaters 1 Cor. 10.5 7. It 〈…〉 a dotage in Popery to distinguish between Idol and Image and to make the Picture of a false god onely to be an Idol not considering that the making of an Image or the likeness of God or of any Creature in Heaven or Earth for a religions end to give it divine adoration and worship or to worship God by it is Idolatry forbidden by the Scriptures even by the Lord himself Deut. 5.8 9. Thou shalt not make thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing c. Thou shalt not bow down thy self unto them nor serve them 2ly Idolatry may be said to be all humane inventions and traditions of men thrust into the divine worship and service of God Deut. 12.32 Whatsoever I command you saith the Lord that observe and do thou shalt not add thereto c. So said our blessed Saviour In vain they do worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men And you transgress or reject frustrate and make void the commandments of God by your traditions Matth. 15.3 9. Mark 7.9 Therefore all traditions and superstitions contrary to the Word of God are to be avoided and abhorred by all who will be found worshipping of God in spirit and in truth according to his own institution and prescription 3ly The setting the heart inordinately upon any creature by fearing loving and trusting in it more then in God and above God is Idolatry in Gods account Phil. 3.19 The Apostle complains of some whose God was there belly and the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of setting up of Idols in the heart Ezek. 14.2 4. 4ly The Immoderate love unto and the distrustful care for the things of this life falls under this denomination of Idolatry Hence it is that the Apostle saith That no unclean person or covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God Eph. 5.5 the one makes his lust the other his mony his God And the Apostle in Col. 3.5 among other the sins and lusts of the flesh calls Covetousness Idolatry For which things sake saith he the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience All these kinds of Idolatries by the Apostle Peter are exprest I conceive under the name and title of abominable Idolatries 1 Pet. 4.3 Hence it is I suppose that John in the conclusion of his Epistle hath this exhortation to the beleivers of his time Little children keep your selves from Idols Now all Idols being vanities and the work of errors which in the time of their visitation shall perish Jer 10.15 Then it must needs follow That they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy Jon. 2.8 And this is the fourth Pestilential sin so highly provoking the Lord 5. The fifth pestilential destroying sin is the sin of Covetousness consisting in a greedy inordinate desire after gain unto which evill whosoever is subject is the servant and slave of all other sins So insatiable and unsatisfied he is that like the man that hath the Dropsie the more he drinketh the more he thirsteth This sin of Covetousness is called Idolatry Col. 3.5 and Ephes 5.5 Because the covetous person not only prefers his treasure before God but doth place the happiness and felicity of his life in his substance like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.15 16. And what sin is there that is more provoking unto the Lord or that pulls down more the wrath of God upon a Nation or Kingdom as I instanced before then the sin of Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience Col. 3.6 So abhorring a sin it is unto the Lord Psal 10.3 The wicked blesseth the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth And therefore I finde it rankt with those other aforementioned so highly provoking sins of Bloodshed Oppression and Persecution Jer. 22.17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to do it And what before Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in cedar Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgement and justice and then it was well with him c. Jer. 22.13 15. The like woe or denunciation of judgement against this vile provoking sin you have in Isa 5.8 9. Woe unto them that joyn house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that is for the poor to dwell that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth And mark what follows In mine ears said the Lord of Hosts of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without inhabitants O that our great Builders and Inclosers of our times would seriously lay this Scripture to heart How many houses now hath God made desolate in City and Suburbs how many great and fair dwellings now stand empty without an inhabitant You have the like woe denounced in Micha 2.1 2 3. Wo to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds c. and they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage And what follows hereupon Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold against this Family do I devise an evil from which ye shall not remove your necks neither shall ye go haughtily for this time is evil Mark I pray you it s said they covet fields and houses and take them by violence If they do but fancy or get a mind to such and such a piece of Land to such a House or
come near to you to Judgement and I will be a swift witness against the Sorcerers and against the Adulterers and against False-swearers O that these things were seriously laid to heart by the prophane Cursers and Swearers and False-swearers and the Damme-creatures of our times O that they would consider how their cursed hellish hideous new-invented unheard of Diabolical oaths do now make the Land mourn and those that dwell therein to languish and how near the Lord is come unto them in the terribleness of his judgment Is it not very evident that the Lord for these things hath a controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land 7. The seventh Pestilential destroying sin is the sin of Adultery Fornication and such like corporal uncleanness See this in that 25. of Num. 1 6 7 8. verses When Israel abode in Shittim it is said the people began to commit Whoredome with the daughters of Moab And Zimri and Cosbi being taken in the very act of uncleanness Phinehas the Son of Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest when he saw it he rose up from amongst the Congregation and took a Javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the Tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly So the Plague was stayed thereupon from the Children of Israel yet those that died in the Plague as was mentioned before was no less then Twenty and four Thousand So in the 12. of Gen. 14 15 17. When Abraham came into Egypt with Sarai his wife a fair woman to look upon and she was no sooner beheld by the Egyptians and the Princes of Pharaoh but they commended her before Pharaoh and saith the Text the woman was taken into Pharaohs house that is she was taken away from Abraham into the Royal Seraglio or Palace to be fitted and prepared there according to the Custome of those Countries that the King might take her to Wife as Hest 2.9 In the mean time God provided for Abrahams entertainment and his Wives chastity together for Pharaoh entreated Abram well for her sake And in the 17. verse is is said The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his House with great Plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife What kind of plagues those were is uncertain but doubtless they served as well to hinder and obstruct the abusing of Sarai's body as to punish the King and his Domesticks and Courtiers trespass This great deliverance David celebrateth in Psal 105.14 When they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another People He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm But this is observable that if the Lord was so severe to punish this filthy sin of Adultery or Uncleanness when it was but designedly or intentionally committed and Pharaoh knew not that Sarai was Abrams wife with what severity may we think will he proceed against such who deliberately knowingly delightfully and impudently live in the perpetration and commission of it and when did this sin of Whoredom Adultery and Fornication ever walk upon down so brazen-faced with such an imperious worish forehead as in the men and women of our generation so unsatiable they are in their filthiness and uncleanness Upon which account may not the Lord say to this City of London yea to the Land and Nation in general as he did to Jerusalem in the Prophet Jeremy's time How shall I pardon thee for this thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods When I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses They were as fed horses in the morning every one neighed after his neighbours wife Through lustfulness like wanton horses And mark what follows Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Go ye up upon her walls and destroy but make not a full end take away her battlements for they are not the Lords c. Jer. 5.7 8 9 10. And may we not think the Lord may justly have a controversie with the inhabitants of this Land as he had with the children of Israel in the Prophet Hosea's time And wherefore Because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land But by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing Adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Therefore shall the land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish c. Hos 4.1 2 3. So that good Prophet Jeremy Mine heart saith he within me is broken because of the Prophets all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness For the Land is full of Adulteries Jer. 23.9 10. And in Jer. 13.27 I have seen thine Adulteries and thy neighings the lewdness of thy Whoredoms c. What then Wo unto thee O Jerusalem This though it may have reference to their sin of Idolatry as before which may be called spiritual Adultery yet it cannot exclude that which is corporeal which God will severely punish For Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge as such who shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Heb. 13.4 and Eph. 5.5 Thus we see how highly provoking this sin of uncleaness is for the bringing down of National judgements even this of the Pestilence among a people 8. The Eighth Sin that provokes the Lord to send the Pestilence among a people is the sin of Infidelity distrust and murmuring against God notwithstanding the great and marvellous works which the Lord hath wrought for the salvation and deliverance of his people See to this purpose the 13 and 14. chapters of Numbers There were certain men the heads of the children of Israel who by the commandment of the Lord was sent to search and spie out the land of Canaan and being returned they made a rehearsal thereof to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation and brought an evil report upon the land which they had searched saying The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature And there we saw the giants the sons of Anak which come of the giants and we were in our own sight as Grashoppers and so were we in their sight This evil report caused all the congregation to lift up their voyce and cry and to murmure against Moses and Aaron saying Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey were it not better
of Egypt And mark what follows Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion Which caused the Lord to take up that bitter complaint Jer. 2.12 13. Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid Why what 's the matter My peo have committed two evils They have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Water and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water All other things to relye upon besides God will prove but as broken Cisterns Therefore said David at another time when his faith and confidence was strong in God I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me Through thee will we push down our enemies through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us Psal 44.5 6. Yea we have the Lord himself declaring that the salvation of his people must proceed from himself and not from any secondary causes Hos 1.7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by horses nor by horsemen Take we heed then of any presumptuous relying on our own strength or of strengthening our selves in the strength of any creatures whether Armies or Parliaments or Navies or any sinful confederacies or Associations of men whatsoever Isa 8.9 Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord Jer. 17.5 But let us say with the Church Hos 12.3 Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our Gods As if they had said We will not put our trust any more in men we will confide no more in any humane means nor send abroad for help and confederacies all besides thee being vanity and the relying on it apparent ruine Therefore we will trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength For he bringeth down them that dwell on high the lofty City he layeth it low he layeth it low even to the ground he bringeth it even to the dust The foot shall tread it down even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy Isa 26.4 5 6. So dangerous and destructive a thing it is to have a heart lifted up putting confidence in an arme of flesh and not relying on the Lord our God For it is he that sheweth strength with his arme and that scattereth the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luk. 1.51 11. The eleventh provoking Pestilential destroying Sin is the sin of Apostacy Back-sliding and Revolting from God Jer 2.18 19. And now what hast thou to do saith the Lord in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-sliding shall reprove thee Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts So in the 36. verse Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt And now behold how the Lord for this did threaten that his judgement even this of the Pestilence should overtake them Jer. 42.13 14 15 16 17. We will not dwell in this land say they nor obey the voice of the Lord your God No but we will go into the land of Egypt where we shall see no war nor hear the sound of the trumpet nor have hunger of bread and there will we dwell And now therefore hear the Word of the Lord ye remnant of Judah thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt and go to sojourn there What then Then it shall come to pass that the Sword which ye feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt and the Famine whereof you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt and there ye shall dye so shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there they shall dye by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them And says further that as his anger and fury had been poured forth upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem so should his fury be poured forth upon them when they should enter into Egypt and they shall be an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach and should see the place meaning the land of Judea no more So in the 19. verse O ye remnant of Judah go ye not into Egypt and now I have this day declared it unto you but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God c. Now therefore know certainly that ye shall dye by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn So in the 44. Chap. of Jer. 13. ver For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence To which I shall add that in the 14. of Jer. 10. and 12. vers Thus saith the Lord unto the people Thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Then said the Lord unto me Pray not for this people for their good When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence So dreadful and dangerous a thing it is for a people brought out of Egyptian bondage and darkness to long after the Flesh-pots the Leeks and the Onions and the Garlick of Egypt again For if any man draw back saith the Lord my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 And as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 O that this were well considered by all such who have Apostatized and Revolted from the Lord and his ways in this sinful and back-sliding generation Who as the Prophet Hosea says Are profound to make slaughter though the Lord is a Rebuker of them all Hos 5.2 Who once did appear to be forward Assertors of the Cause of righteousness and truth but now say a Confederacy with all such as say a Confederacy Isa 8.12 Who once did seem to escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
treacherous and vile put up Davids prayer unto the Lord. in Psal 139.23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting If there be any pernicious hurtful or oppressing way in me and lead me upod the way of eternity upon that way which may lead me to eternal life But know that if thou wilt be careless and neglectve still of this so necessary a work and put the Lord upon it he will then make a very strict and diligent search and see what will be the sad event and consequent of it Zeph. 1.12 And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees that say in their heart The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil And what follows Therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation they shall also build houses but not inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards but not drink the wine thereof Then the mighty man shall cry bitterly And God wyll bring distress upon men that they shall walk as blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung and at that time neither their their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wroth but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie For he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land And when is this time that the Lord will make this strict and diligent search as with candles ver 7. declares it It is in the day of the Lord when he prepareth a sacrifice and shall bid his guests And in that day of the Lords sacrifice then will be punish the Princes and the Kings children and all such as are cloathed with strange apparel that leap on the threshold and fill their Masters houses with deceit O England then be exhorted to consider thy ways that thou mayst find out thy hideous provoking abominations before the Lord make a speedy riddance This is the first spiritual Receit I would prescribe unto thee The Second Receit Having made this diligent search lnto thine own heart and found out thy soul-pestilent sores then the next spiritual Receit I shall prescribe unto thee Is a good draught of a sound and sincere Repentance Which if sound and sincere will operate these four things in thee First A kindly mourning in secret before the Lord 1. For thine own iniquities 2. For the sins and abominations of the times Secondly It will breed a hatred and abhorrency in thy heart against those evils together with an humble confession and acknowledgement of them Thirdly A willing forsaking and renunciation of them Fourthly A returning unto the Lord with all thy heart Surely as to this Receit we may write a Probatum est it s a tried Receit a sure Remedy a soveraign Plaister for this running sore Repent and turn your selves from all your trangressions saith the Lord so iniquity shall not be your ruine Ezek. 18.30 So in v. 32. Turn your selves and live ye for why will ye die O house of Israel But more particularly to the several branches of Repentance as they are laid down First then see that the true sense of thy sin does work thy heart to a kindly mourning and sorrowing for the same in secret before the Lord. This sorrow and contrition for sin will I say evidence the soundness and sincerity of thy Repentance when thou canst mourn before the Lord not onely in respect of the danger which thou hast incurred by reason of thy sins to wit the curses of this life temporal death and eternal plagues and torments in another world but also that thou hast so unkindly grieved and provoked so good a God so compassionate a Father so gracious a Redeemer so blessed a Sanctifier and incurred the loss of so great a God even the favour of so good and gracious a God that taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked Ezek. 33.11 This is that godly sorrow that the Apostle Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 7.10 11. that worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of the notable effects whereof are there also demonstrated and declared which will be of such singular efficacy and force to quench the fire of the Lords indignation and wrath now broken out among us In the seventh of Ezekiel the Lord threatning the final desolation of Israel telling her that her end was come and that he would judge her according to her ways and recompence upon her all her abominations That the Sword was without and the Pestilence and Famine within and that he that was in the field should die with the sword and that he that was in the City Famine and Pestilence should devour him In verse 16. he tells us That they that escape of them meaning those that should escape the common calamity of the Sword Pestilence and Famine they shall be on the mountains like Doves of the valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity that is for his own iniquity shall every one mourn as Doves of the valleys The word signifieth a making a stir by sighing whining and howling So Hezekiah in the time of his sickness tells us That he did mourn as a Dove Isa 38.14 Such will be the gratious temper and disposition of soul of the Lords escaped ones They shall mourn every one for his own iniquity as Doves in the Valleys in their secret retirements with the Lord the sence and remembrance of their sins in dishonouring and grieving so good and gratius a God will make them to sob and sigh and even to howl before the Lord. So did Ephraim when he repented and turned unto the Lord. I have surely heard Ephraim saith the Lord bemoaning himself Jer. 31.18 In this spirit and temper will the Loeds escaped remnant be found in So in Israels restauration when the Lord shall gather them from the Coasts of the Earth in what spirit shall they then be found They shall come with weeping saith the Lord and with supplications will I lead them as in the 9th vers of the same Chap. with weeping for their sins and with supplications or petitions unto the Lord for mercy and pardon And suitable to this is that in the 3d. of Zephan 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful saith the Lord for the solemn assembly to whom the reproach of it was a burden Those that are sad and sorrowful because they are obstructed and hindered from meeting in the Temple of God in the Assemblies of his Saints for the solemn worship and service of God when they must converse with and among such scoffing Companions which make but a mock and derision of God and his Word In this gratious temper
can we see the mournful soul that is deeply afflicted for its sins under this sore visitation of the Lord Are not men and women as proud and vain and carnal and jovial now as before Is there any crying mightily unto God Any turning from their evil way or from the violence that is in their hands Do we see any loosing of the bands of wickedness undoing the heavy burdens the letting the oppressed go free and the breaking of every yoke And where are any bowels of compassions drawn out toward the poor and needy but in vain are all fastings and formal devotions if these things are neglected which are essential as to that acceptable fast which God hath chosen Isa 58.6 7. See then that ye be true mourners in Sion and let the sence of thine inquities work in thee a true contrition and brokenness of heart For the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Psal 38.18 This is the heart that he will heal Psal 147.3 The heart that he will bind up Isa 61.1 That Evangelical sacrifice which he will not despise Psal 51.17 Now to get thy heart melted into this mournful frame Take these helps 1. Be looking up unto Christ whom by thy sins thou hast peirced Zach. 12.10 2. Apply the New Covenant-promises for the taking away of the stony heart out of thy flesh and the Lords giving of thee an heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 36.26 3. Get a sence of the unspeakable misery thou art lyable unto by reason of thy sins Rom. 6.23 whether it be Pride Oppression Idolatry Adultery Apostacy Cursing and Swearing or such other of those pestilential sins before mentioned or whether they be lies railings scoffings at Gods people rotten speeches bedlam passions goods ill-gotten time ill-spent prophanation of the Lords-day 4. Consider also that thy heart hath been the Fountain or rather the Sinck from whence hath issued many foul streams where all ill hath been forged all evil words and wicked thoughts ingendred then by the rule of proportion let thy heart be a fountain of sorrow for sin 5. Consider the heart of Christ he had not taken a heart of flesh but for sin which for thy sake was filled with that unexpressible sorrow and greif that if all the godly sorrow of all the righteous souls from the beginning of the world to the end thereof in heaven and in earth dead or alive were collected into one heart they could not countervail the depth of his anguish And shall his blessed soul fall asunder in his blessed breast assaulted with all the wrath of God and the most dreadful torments of Hell shall his soul be like a scorched hearth and so pressed with the flames of Gods revenging wrath which wrung from him those bloody drops and ruful crys My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And shall thy heart be as a stone within thy breast and never be moved Oh prodigious hardness and worse then heathenish ingratitude 6. Consider if thy heart be not wounded here in this world in some measure truly it shall hereafter be filled with such endless honour that it would grieve and break ten thousand hearts to imagine or think of it Is it not better then to mourn a little here in this life for sin then to have our hearts inlarged to endure to all eternity the extremity of the wrath of God in the unexpressible horrour of hell Is any man so sensless to think he shall go to heaven in a bed of down and never be touched for his sins When Hezekiah a man of a perfect heart complained and chattered like a Crane Isa 38.14 When David a man after Gods own heart roared all the day long Psal 32.3 When Job a perfect and a just man complained that the Arrows of the Almighty were within him and that the venome thereof did drink up his spirit Job 6.4 Nay when Christ himself that holy and just one that pure and immaculate Lamb did so cry our in the agony and bitterness of his spirit 7. Consider again that if thou getst this broken heart into thy breast thou shalt bring down the glorious Majesty of Heaven God Almighty with his Chair of State to sit in thy soul For he hath a twofold habitation to wit heaven and the humble heart Isa 57.15 8. Add hereunto the practise of the Saints of God They poured out tears as men do water out of Buckets 1 Sam. 7.6 Mary Magdalen washed Christs feet with her tears Luk. 7.14 The Publican strook on his breast with a sorrowful acknowledgment of his sins Luk. 18.13 And surely if thy hands and eyes and tongue and heart have been instruments of Gods dishonour then by the Rule of proportion thou shouldst have the works of thy hands instrumental demonstrations of repentance Thine eyes fountains of tears and thy tongue uttering and thy heart suffering greif And if for outward lolles and crosses thou canst weep tears as David for his Son Absalom and with what wringing of hands tearing of hair bitter crying do many express the inward and intollerable sorrow and greif of their hearts Then certainly the loss of Christ and of the favour of God which is infinitely better then Husband Wife Child or any the most desireable thing in the world how should this break thy heart and draw tears from thy soul Thus having got thy heart melted into this mournful frame out of a deep sence and apprehension of thine own sins Then Secondly Thou wilt come to mourn kindly upon the accompt of the common sins and abominations of the times As David in the 119. Psalm 136. vers Rivers of waters saith he run down mine eyes and why because they keep not thy law Or as others read it Mine eyes gush out with rivers of waters I weep and shed abundance of tears even for the wickeds sake whom I pity and especially for the law of God which greiveth me to the heart to see violated and broken So the Prophet Jeremy Oh that my head saith he were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughter of my people O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them Why what is the matter good Jeremy of this so sad and mournful a wish and that thou wouldst leave thy people and go from them Why there is cause and reason enough might he say They be all Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous men And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evil to evil and they know not me saith the Lord Jer. 9.1 2 3. So deeply was the soul of this good Prophet of the Lord affected and afflicted upon the account of the publique National abominations and defilements In like manner it is said of
loath themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations So in the 36. of Ezekiel speaking of the restauration of Israel how that he will take them from among the Heathen and gather them out of all Countries and bring them into their own Land and save them from all their uncleannesses in the 11. verse Then saith he shall ye remember your evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations This shall be the temper and spirit of the Lords escaped remnant they shall loath themselves in their own sight for their iniquities or for all the evils that they have committed as it is Ezek. 20.43 They shall even abhor and detest themselves for their iniquities which will appear so odious filthy and abominable in their sight As the Israelites loathed the Manna in contempt counting it base or vile in comparison with other meats Num. 25.5 Or as Job loathed his own life when his soul would chuse strangling and death rather then life Job 7.15 16. This indignation or bitter hatred against sin is made a fruit or note of true repentance 2 Cor. 7.11 Now soul examine the soundness and sincerity of thy Repentance hereby Did the sighs of thy sin ever work in thee a hatred and abhorrency in thy soul against sin Did it ever make thee to abhor thy self in dust and ashes to loath thy self in thine own sight An impenitent person may refrain from sin but a true converted and penitent person will hate sin An impenitent person may forbare to swear but a true convert feareth an oath Eccles 9.2 A wicked person may abstain from some gross evils but the godly person will abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thess 5.22 A wicked person may leave some evil but the godly and such as love the Lord will hate evil Psal 97.10 A wicked person may abandon some evil way but the truly repenting person hateth every false way Psal 119.104 A wicked and an impenitent person may refrain from telling a lye but the godly and such as are truly converted will hate and abhor lying vers 163. A wicked man may perhaps check himself for his unclean thoughts but the godly man hateth vain thoughts vers 113. And as David in the case of a wicked person so will the godly say upon the account of all and every sin Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred Psal 139.21 22. Now to work this hatred detestation and aversion in thy will against sin Take these helps Consider First What sin is in it self Secondly How God is provoked with it Thirdly How thou art hurt and prejudiced by it First Consider then what sin is in its self Sin in its self is fouler then any Fiend or Divel in Hell because it made that so as fire is hotter then water that is heated 2ly It is extreamly ill nothing comes nearer it for take sin in the abstract so it s a greater ill then the damnation of a mans soul For when two ills fight together that which conquers must needs be the greater Now when a man hath lain in Hell ten thousand years he is as far from coming out as ever for the eternal duration in Hell cannot expiate sin 3ly It is most infectious and therefore compared to a Leprosie For the first sin that peeped into the world stained the beauty of it No sooner was sin committed by Adam but the Stars seemed impure in Gods sight the creatures were all at variance the earth full of Briars and Thorns and all things subjected unto the Curse 4ly It is most filthy and therefore compared to the most vile things that can be named To menstruous raggs To the vomit of Dogs and whereas no dirt or filthy thing can stain a Sun-beam sin stains a more glorious creature which is the soul of man 5ly It is of a hellish nature that it draws out and takes into it self the wrath of God being full of cursed consequences 1. Privative the loss of Gods favour the blood of Christ the guard of Angels peace of Conscience then which what can be more obnoxious 2. Positive It brings all misery spiritual hardness of heart blindness of mind horrour of conscience despair c. with all temporal losses and crosses here and hereafter eternal torments both of soul and body in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever more Rev. 21.8 Secondly Consider how God is provoked with it For 1. Each sin is the only object of Gods infinite hatred what infinite of infinites of hatred hast thou then upon thy soul with all thy sins when each sin hath the infinite hatred of God upon it 2. Each sin is against the Majesty of that dreadful God of Heaven and Earth who can turn all things into Hell nay Heaven and Hell into nothing by his word Now against this God thou sinnest and what art thou but dust and ashes a lump of filth and of uncleanness and all that is naught And what is thy Life but a Span a Bubble a Dream a Shadow of a Dream and shall such a thing offend such a dreadful and glorious Majesty 3. Every sin strikes at the glory of Gods pure eye which cannot look upon iniquity Hab. 1.13 4. Sin is that which killed his Son the least sin could not be pardoned but by Christs carrying his heart blood to his Father and offering it for sin 5. Each sin is an offence to all his mercies This aggravated the sin upon Ely 1 Sam. 2.29 and upon David 2 Sam. 12.8 9. Mercy is the most eminent Attribute of God and therefore the sin against it is the greater With what aggravations then are our sins committed in the time of the Gospel Thirdly Consider how thou art hurt and prejudiced by it Each sin I mean unrepented of kills thy soul which is better then all the world It robs thee of abundance of joy and comfort and will cause thee to walk heavily in the bitterness and anguish of thy soul perhaps all thy days as David and Hezekiah did And how dreadful was that example of Francis Spira who after his backsliding lived a while in exquisite horror and after died in despair And know that thine own conscience will one day accuse thee for every sin thou livest wilfully in though now it seems hid unto thee and thy conscience is more then a thousand witnesses And for the sins which peradventure thou now livest in and accountest but petty and venial many poor souls are at this instant burning in hell fire By all which thou mayst clearly see what misery and hurt does attend on thee continually for the same And therefore when any bait of Satan or old companions would allure thee to sin take this Dilemma Either I must repent and then it will bring more sorrow then the pleasure or profit did good or if I repent not it
will be then the damnation of my soul These few things among many others may if seriously pondered upon be an effectual means to work thy heart to this hatred and detestation of sin and a loathing of thy self for the same which as it will evidence the truth of thy repentance so will it be an excellent preservative against the now pestilential destroying Sickness Now when the sight and sence of thy sins hath wrought thy soul to a kindly mourning and sorrowing for the same before the Lord and that for all kinds and sorts of sins to wit 1. The weaknesses frailties and pollutions of thy nature even thy proness and inclination to sin for though these being unconsented unto are no actual sins yet are they matter of true sorrow grief and humiliation to a sincere Christian that he is such a polluted and unclean creature and so apt to fall into all sin if he be not restrained and prevented by Gods grace 2. For the sinful acts and habits of thy unregenerate life with all the aggravations belonging to them 3. The slips and relapses of thy most regenerate life and the infinite frailties and infirmities that still adhere to it And that thy soul is wrought also to a real hatred and destation of all sin so that now thou beginest to loath sin as a thing not onely hurtful but ugly and abominable a soul and beastly thing and that which is most contrary not onely to the pure and unspotted essence and being of God but also contrary to and unbefitting the nature and excellency of a reasonable creature as man is I say when these gracious dispositions of soul of grief and hatred for sin are wrought in thee then wilt thou not be ashamed from a contrite and wounded heart to make an humble confession and acknowledgement thereof before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father begging pardon and forgiveness for them Then wilt thou own thy self a vile sinner who hast worthily deserved his wrath then wilt thou make an ennumeration of the particular sorts of thy sins of which thou knowest thy self guilty Then wilt thou aggravate those sins upon thy self by all the circumstances and heightning accidents of them comprizing all thy unknown and unconfest sins under some such penitentiary speech and expression as that of Davids Who can tell how oft he offendeth cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal 19.12 And as thou art to confess unto God and give glory unto him Josh 7.19 whom thou hast cheifly and principally offended so art thou commanded also to confess unto men James 5.16 Confess your faults one to another And that for these reasons 1. That so we may be capable of one anothers prayers 2. Because it may be our sins are such as have injured others and then confession unto them is the first degree towards reconciliation Matth. 5.24 Or if they be onely against God yet the confession of them to the Lords faithful Ministers and Servants will not be improper but in some kind necessary to such as desire the absolution and forgiveness of them Jam. 5.15 3. Because in sin there is the guilt and the corruption the one to be pardoned the other cured The first being confest to God to obtain his pardon ought also if it have been offensive and scandalous to the Congregation to be acknowledged to them that that expression of repentance may make satisfaction to them for the ill example and avert and deter from sin whom it had invited to it And surely the disclosing of the particular state of thy sinful sick soul and advising with others especially the Physicians of the soul how and by what means a cure may be wrought how a raging sin may be subdued the occasions and temptations to it avoided cannot but be very profitable comfortable and advantageous as to the prosperous constitution and health of thy soul The necessity of which confession and acknowledgement of sin will further appear not onely from the practise of David Psal 51.3 4. Psal 32 5. Ezra Chap. 9.6 7. Nehemiah Chap. 9.32 Job 40.3 Jer. 14.7 Daniel 9.4 5. and other holy men in Scripture but also from such express Texts of Scripture as these If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 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 sin Psal 32.5 So Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his Sins shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And this leads me to the Third particular as that which will evidence the soundness and sincerity of our Repentance Thirdly If thy Repentance be sound there will be a willing forsaking and renunciation of all sin an abjuring of all thy former evil ways both of the sins themselves and the occasions which were wont to bring thee to those sins 1 Thess 5.22 For all thy fear and trembling at the wrath of God to come for sin thy sorrow for sin thy hating and loathing of sin will not make thy Contrition full and perfect unless thy will also do his part and resolve to forsake and leave it For true Contrition or dying unto sin is such a compunction of the heart for the same as is joyned with a purpose will and resolution to leave and forsake it The gratious soul will hate every false way Psal 119.104 and not tolerate or allow it self in any known evil or bosome corruption whatsoever Psal 18.23 It will not say as Lot said of Zoar Is it not a little one Gen. 19.20 Or as Naaman the Syrian The Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing when I bow down my self in the House of Rimmon 2 King 5.18 It will not account any sin little which will bring upon us the great wrath of so infinite a Majesty It knows and beleives that the weight even of little sins as it were small sands will sinck the ship of our souls as well as our greater and grosser sins That small leaks in Ships and small breeches in Walls being neglected will endanger the loss both of Ships and Cities And that such Tradesmen as in their accompts regard not small sums will quickly prove Bankrupts Disobedience though in never so small matters as in eating of an Apple and gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath looking into and touching of the Ark are yet in Gods account no small matters For how severly hath he punished all these then which what can we imagine slighter But gratious souls know that it is not the smallness of the thing that lessens either our obedience or disobedience but that it is Gods Commandment that ties to obedience in lesser things as well as in greater which Command of his is despised as well in the breach of the lesser as of the greater I say then the truly repenting soul will
were not carnal but mighty through God 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons which they used by the Gospel of Christ to convert men and to bring them under the Kingdome and obedience of Christ were not carnal that is such as natural and worldly men are wont to make use of either by eloquence or deceit or by force to bring others in subjection under them but mighty or powerful through God in moving and convincing of the hearts of men by his Spirit Act. 16.14 Surely if these things were seriously laid to heart we must needs acknowledge that the sins of professing people as well as others have been highly provoking unto the Lord as to the drawing down of this sore visitation of the Plague among us And this may put us to silence that we murmur not and will justifie the righteousness of God in the way of his severity as he now comes forth against many of his own people For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.23 And what says the Lord by the Prophet Amos. All the sinners of my people shall dye by the sword which say The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us Amos 9.10 So the Lord by the Prophet Jeremy complains For among my people are found wicked men they lay waite as he that setteth snares they set a trap they catch men As a Cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich They are waxen fat they shine they overpass the deeds of the wicked they judge not the cause the cause of the fatherless yet they prosper and the right of the needy do they not judge And mark what follows Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 25.26 27 28 29. And who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers Did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient unto his law And consider well what follows Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Jsa 42.24 25. So Jeremy the 12.7 I have forsaken mine house I have left mine heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies And what may we gather from all this Surely thus much That no near relations as to God or any external priviledges can yeild a protection from a sin-deserved correction Remember Lots wife Luk. 17.32 Vengeance closely waits on disobedience Punishment doth dog impiety For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep saith Paul to the Church of Corinths speaking of eating and drinking unworthily at the Lords Table 1 Cor. 11.29 30. God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity with any approbation or tolleration as to his own peculiar people If his children forsake my law speaking of David and his seed as a Type of Christ and the true spiritual seed and walk not in my judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments What then says the Lord Then will I visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with stripes Psal 89.30 The Lord hath laid righteousness to the rule and waighed his justice in a ballance and his judgments are right and in faithfulness he doth afflict Psal 119.75 His sentence is past forth and stands irrevocable Tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil Rom. 2.9 If we sin we shall suffer How Aut a Deo vindicante aut ab ipso homine penitente as one says excellent well Either from God revenging or themselves repenting For he that repenteth himself of his sins doth punish himself for his sins And now O England if thou repent not let me say unto thee as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 10.2 to the men of that generation What wilt thou do now in the day of thy visitation and in the desolation that shall come from far To whom wilt thou flee for help and where will ye leave your glory O then bethink thy self yet before it be too late before the wrath of the Lord break out so that their will be no remedy O gather thy self together O Nation not desirous before the Decree bring forth before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon thee before the whole Land be devoured by the fire of his jealousie before he make a speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land As the Lord by the Prophet Zephaniah exhorts Chap. 1.18 Chap. 2.1 2. O then return unto the Lord thy God for hou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn unto the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously Hosea 14.1 Suitable to which is the Churches exhortation Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Hosea 6.1 This is the way the Lord himself propounds for the removal of his sweeping devouring Judgments Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Joel 2.12 13. Let the King lay his robe from him and cover him with sackcloth and sit in ashes let man and beast be covered with sackcloath let there be some demonstrative tokens of a more then ordinary sorrow and humiliation for each and every ones so highly provoking sins Let all cry mightily to God yea let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not This will move Gods repentings towards us this will divert his wrath Jonah 3. and the latter end Jer. 31.20 And that you may not question the truth and certainty of it in the least will you consider that the Lord stands engaged by his unalterable word and promise to make it good If I shut up heaven saith he that there be no rain c. Or if I send Pestilence among my people if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways What then will he do Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land 2 Chron. 7.13 14. Wherefore let that counsel be acceptable to all which Daniel gave to King Nabuchadnezzar O King break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility Dan. 4.27 As if he had said If thou wilt follow the
season then to be acting faith in the mighty power and providence of God Surely it is an easie matter to trust God when we have Meal in the Barrel and Oyl in the Cruse and Money in our Purse but wilt thou trust God and rely upon his power in the want and absence of all As the Prophet Habakkuk when the Fig-tree did not blossom nor fruit could be found in the Vines when the labour of the Olive did fail and the Field did yeild no meat when the Flocks were cut off from the fold and there were no Herd in the stall when there was an utter consumption and deprivation of all things then to be rejoycing in the Lord and joying in the God of our salvation Then to say the Lord is my strength and he will make me to walk on my high places Then to say the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want as David and though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Psal 22. then to live beleivingly trustingly and dependingly upon God This is a high Act of Faith in the Power of God And O that I could minister a word of support unto thy soul in such a condition Well be not faithless but beleiving live still in the faith of the all-sufficiency of God That his hand is not shortned that it cannot help neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear there 's no diminution of his power or is there any unwillingness in God to hear and help in a time of need Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil saith the Psalmist when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about Psal 49.5 So say thou thou poor doubting and disponding soul Why should I fear in this evil day why should I distrust that God and doubt of his power and all-sufficiency to help me now who hath fed me and cloathed me and sustained me all the days of my life Why should I not be casting my care upon him who hath not only promised but is able also to take care of me 1 Pet. 5.7 Why do I not cast my burden upon the Lord who hath graciously promised and he is able also to sustain me and will never suffer the righteous to be moved Psal 55.22 This was a great stay and support to Abrahams faith when God promised to make him a Father of may Nations He considered not the deadness of his own body being about 100. years old nor the deadness of Sarai's womb He staggered not at the promise of God through unbeleif but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform Mark I pray you he did not only beleive the promise but the ability of God also he fixt his faith in the power and all-sufficiency of God Rom. 4.19 20 21. He was assured that God was as able as he was faithful in the performance of his promise God had said unto him but a little before Abram I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect and now Abram would not question it in the least he knew his grace was all-sufficient for him and that his strength could be perfected in his weakness As the Lord told Paul in another case 2 Cor. 12.9 And has left it for ever upon record as a most precious cordial of comfort to refresh and support the most fainty distressed and disconsolate soul To wit When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them And that they may not think he wants power to perform what he hath promised saith he I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the values I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water Isa 41.17 18 19. Surely this promise is very applicable to poor needy thirsty hungry souls upon the accompt of temporal or spiritual refreshment And the Saints have beleived it Though I walk saith David in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou wilt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me Psal 138.7 Yea though I walk through the valley of the shaddow of death though I should be in the most dark dismal and uncomfortable condition yet I will fear no evil thou art with me thy presence shall support me thy rod and thy staffe they shall comfort me Psal 23.4 Though he slay me saith Job yet will I trust in him I will maintain mine own ways before him He also shall be my salvation Job 13.15 So when the enemies of God are high and the Church of Christ very low O this acting of faith in the power of God is of great use O God how long shall the adversary reproach shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever Why withdrawest thou thy hand even thy right hand and that 's the hand of power and strength surely pluck it out of thy bosome For God is my King of old consider it I pray you working salvation in the midst of the earth Thou didst divide the Sea by thy strength thou breakest the heads of the Dragons in the waters Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in peices and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness Thou didst clean the fountain and the floud thou driedst up mighty rivers Psal 74.10 11 12 13 14 15. What cannot the Lord do when he hath a purpose to save his people and to destroy his enemies Thy way O God is in the sanctuary who is so great a god as our God Thou art the God that dost wonders thou hast declared thy strength among the people Thou hast with thine own redeemed thy people the Sons of Jacob and Joseph Psal 77.13 14 15. Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoyce in thee Psal 85.6 This raised up the Churches hopes in the stormy and tempestuous times of persecution and why The Lord reigneth he is cloathed with majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himself c. The flouds have lifted up O Lord the flouds have lifted up their voice the flouds lift up their waves What then The Lord on high is mightier then the noise of many waters yea then the mighty waves of the Sea And so said Jethro when Moses had told him what the Lord had done unto Pharoah and to the Egyptians for Israels sake and all the travel that had come upon them by the way and how the Lord delivered them Now I know saith he that the Lord is greater then all gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them This is the Churches comfort that though their enemies are high and proud and imperious yet the Lord is above them
Ezod 18.8 11. This was the Argument that good King Jehosophat used in prayer with the Lord when a great multitude of enemies came against him O Lord God of our fathers art not thou God in heaven and rulest not thou over all the Kingdomes of the Heathen and in thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee Art not thou our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy freind for ever O our God wilt not thou judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee And the Lord did thereupon shew forth his mighty power and that this great multitude was not able to withstand him For he set ambushments against the Children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir that came against Judah and they were smitten and every one afterwards helped to destroy another 2 Chron. 20. O then be acting faith in this great and powerful Jehovah that he would make bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the Nations that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God Isa 52.10 Fear and tremble before him whose mighty power hath limited and bounded the proud and imperious waves of the Sea that hitherto shall they come and no further and here shall its proud waves be stayed Jeremiah 5.22 comp with Job 37.11 Fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell Matth. 10.28 It is he that makes the pillars of heaven to tremble and to be astonished at his reproof Job 26.11 And learn to depend on this Almighty being for preservation in all streights and exigents whatsoever who can preserve without means as Elijah forty days and forty nights 1 King 19.8 by strange and miraculous means even by the help of Ravens that fed him 1 King 17.4 by the ministery of Angels vers the 5. and the 6. of that 1 King 19. Chap. By small means as the widows meal in the barrel and her little oyle in her cruse 2 King 17.14 Against means as Daniel in the Lions den Dan. 6.22 By ordinary means wherein his powerful blessing is to be desired else we may eat and not be satisfied Hag. 1.6 And let us praise him withal our strength for his almighty power Rev. 4.11 Worthy art thou O Lord to receive glory and honour and power Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory 1 Chron. 29.11 And let us be speaking of his power to make known to the Sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and whose dominion endureth throughout all generations And for the adversaries of the Lord let them know that they shall be broken to peices and that out of heaven God shall thunder upon them 1 Sam. 2.10 And that his power and his wrath is against all them that do evil Ezra 8.22 And let it be matter of consolation and encouragement in our prayers that we call on that God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think Eph. 3.20 In our perseverance That the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth who fainteth not neither is weary will renew our strength that we shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint Isa 40.31 Because he upholds us in our integrity Psal 41.12 The Garrison that keeps us is the power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 And none can take us out of his hand because he is greater then all Joh. 10.29 In times of Temptation For our strength is in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 't is he that strengthens us in the inward man And when God shall help us with a little help Dan. 11.34 then our strongest temptations shall not prevail but we shall be more then conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.37 In times of Affliction Know that he that is Almighty orders them for the kind whether on our souls or bodies names or estates Amos 3.6 For the measure whether great or small Jer. 30.11 The time sometimes but an evening heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the mourning Psal 30.6 Sometimes ten days The Devil shall cast some of you into prison and ye shall have tribulation ten days Rev. 2.10 Sometimes our sorrows shall be for years Psal 90.15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil He orders the Deliverance there is an appointed time for that also Josephs feet must be hurt with fetters and lye in irons until the time that the word of the Lord came and tried him and then the King sends and looseth him and makes him Lord of his house and Ruler of all his substance Psal 105.19 20 21. There is a time when the Prisoners shall be loosed out of their pit and turn to their strong hold even the Prisoners of hope Zach. 9.10 11. Lastly what great consolation doth this minister in respect of death our bodies shall not always rot and consume we must awake and sing though we dwell in the dust Isa 26.19 And our vile bodies shall be chaanged and fashioned like unto his glorious body even by the mighty and absolute power of Christ according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3.21 All created powers being derived from him and subordinate unto him 1 Chron. 29.12 and 2 Chron. 14.11 2. Act faith in the mighty power of God and that in times of sickness and of this sore visitation of the Lord. Know that this is the Lords prerogative royal to kill and to make alive to bring down to the grave and to bring up again 1 Sam. 2.6 This the Lord challengeth as his own sovereign peculiar right I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand Deut. 32.39 In Psal 90.1 2 3 Saith the Church there Lord thou hast bin our dwelling place in all generations Before the mountains were brought forth c. even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God And what follows Thou turnest man to destruction and sayst Return ye children of men The consideration of this mighty power and the Churches acting faith in the same did put her upon pious thoughts of returning unto the Lord Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up And what follows After two days will he revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Hos 6.1 2. Consider then in the first place whoever thou art that art thus under the chastising hand of
furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O King They served God and they knew that God was able and of power sufficient to protect them in the service of him Dan. 3.1 11 16 17. To this purpose when our dear Lord would encourage his Apostles and the subsequent Ministers of the Gospel to be faithful in the execution of his commands and the trust committed unto them He tells them that all power was committed unto him in Heaven and in Earth And therefore go teach all Nations and Baptise them c And teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you allway even unto the end of the World Mat. 28.18 19 20. As if he had said Do you faithfully and couragiously execute the Commission I have given you and be assured you shall never want my all-sufficient power and presence to support you I will make all the power I have in heaven and earth concurring in a way of serviceableness unto you O come let us sing unto the Lord saith the Psalmist let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation Shall we fear to serve that God who is the Rock of our Salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving c. Why For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods in his hand are the deep places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also the sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the dry land If the Lord whom we serve is so great a God so great a King above all Gods above all Angels Princes and Potentates of the World and above all that is called God O then with what thankfulness and chearfulness of spirit should we come into his presence O come let us Worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Why for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands whom he makes to lye down in green Pastures and leadeth besides the still waters Psa 95.1 to 7. So in Psa 96.6 it is said Honour and Majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary Where is the beauty of Gods face seen and his power and strength displayed as in his Sanctuary to wit his Tabernacle his Temple the Congregations and Assemblies of his Saints God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence by all them that are about him and why why who in Heaven can be compared unto the Lord Who among the Sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord Psa 89.6 7. And therefore it is that the Lord hath spoken saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me Lev. 10.3 When a fire went out from the Lord and destroyed Nadab and Abihu the Sons of Aaron for offering strange fire before the Lord Lev. 10.1 2 3. To which I suppose that place in the Hebrews hath a special reference where the Saints being exhorted to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear urges this as a strong motive thereunto for our God saith he is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. Thus you see how requisite it is to be acting Faith in the power and soveraignty of God when we draw nigh to him in the solemn duties of his Worship and service and what an encouragement it is to be fearing the Lord and serving of him in sincerity and truth with all our hearts considering what great things he hath done for us 1 Sam. 12.24 5. Act faith in the mighty power of God in times of suffering So the Apostle James speaking of the cruelties that were exercised against the Saints in those days how they had condemned and killed the just and they could not resist them He exhorts them to be patient to the coming of the Lord and why to the coming of the Lord Because when he comes he will come with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 When he comes hee 'l take to him his great power and reign Rev. 11.17 When he comes he will come with ten thousand of his Saints What to do To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed c. Jude vers 14 15. When he comes he will come with fire and with his chariots like a Whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire Isa 66.15 When he comes he will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you Isa 35.4 And then the hand of the Lord the power of God shall be known towards his servants and his indignation towards his enemies Isa 66.14 So the Author to the Hebrews when he exhorts the Saints to a patient suffering and undergoing of the Cross of Christ what Argument does he use even this For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.37 The Apostle would have all the suffering Saints to be acting faith in a powerful Redeemer even in him who is mighty to save That will tread down the people in his anger and make them drunk in his fury and will bring down their strength to the earth Isa 63.6 So the Apostles when the Priests and Rulers of the people had laid hands on them and put them in hold for teaching the People and Preaching through Jesus the resurrection from the dead and had further threatned them for speaking any more in the name of Jesus and had let them go what Arguments in Prayer do they use Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things The Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done And now Lord behold their threatnings Act. 4. Though they had to deal with great and potent Adversaries yet they well knew that God was above them and that their rage and fury was not so much against them as against the Lord Jehovah himself and against his Christ whom he had anointed to be the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church who could easily break them with his rod of Iron and dash them in peices like a Potters Vessel They knew that the Lord whom they served was able to deliver them as Daniel out of the Lions mouths So it is said of Moses and laid down as a singular act of Faith in him that he forsook Egypt and feared not the wrath of the King for
he endured as seeing him who is invisible Heb. 11.27 Now this was an act of Faith in the power of God He knew that though he might incur the wrath of an enraged King by refusing the honours and dignities of his Court yet his eye being fixt upon a most powerful invisible Lord God that was sufficient to uphold him under all the sufferings he might undergo for his sake And that this Lord was able to strike through Kings in the day of his wrath Psa 110.5 In which spirit of faith and confidence David brake forth when he said Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me Psa 138.7 So Paul that tried Apostle and courageous sufferer for Christ For which cause saith he I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have beleived and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day He acts faith in the ability and all-sufficiency of God to carry him through all difficulties and hardship for Christ 2 Tim 1.12 And upon this score it was he so much incouraged his Son Timothy in the faith as to a suffering state for Christ Be not therefore ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord nor of me his Prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God as in the 8. vers of that Chap. Whether he meant Christ the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Or whether he would have him bear those afflictions patiently as God afforded him power and strength yet surely it cannot exclude but take in the exercise of his faith in the power of God in all his sufferings for Christ whose power will ever be manifested in weakness And therefore it is that we are exhorted to be looking up unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God at the right hand of Gods power For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Now this looking up unto Jesus is not only a looking up unto him as a pattern and example of patience in our sufferings and persecutions for his and the Gospels sake but we must look upon him also as made perfect by suffering who for the suffering of death is now crowned with glory and honor as him whom God hath highly exalted and set at the right hand of the throne of God where he must sit and reign till all his enemies be made his foot-stool or as the Apostle expresseth it Till he hath put all his enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.25 Thus you see how necessary it is to be Acting faith as in the blood of Christ so in the power of God And that First In times of great difficulties and straights 2. In times of sore sicknesses and deaths 3. In times of great sinning 4. In times of serving and worshipping of God 5. In times of suffering for God Thirdly We are to Act Faith in the faithfulness of God Know therefore saith Moses that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations Deut. 7.9 The consideration whereof made the Psalmist break forth into this pious interrogation or expostulation rather Psal 89.8 O Lord God of Hosts who is a strong Lord like unto thee or to thy faithfulness round about thee Consider then that this Faith in the faithfulness of God is to be acted upon several accounts First Upon the account of the unchangableness of Gods love and the immutability of the Covenant of Grace which he hath made with us in his Son and which he hath ratified and confirmed unto us in his most precious blood See the 89. Psalm speaking of David as a Type of Christ The Lord promiseth there That the enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him And that he will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him But my faithfulness saith he and my mercies shall be with him Ver. 22 23 24. So in the 30 31 32 33 and 34. Vers of that Psalm If his Children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments If they break my statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes But what follows Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips So David in the 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Now that Gods love in Christ is unchangable as it is founded upon the immutability of the New-covenant of Grace appears 1. Because it is dearer then a Mothers love to her sweetest and most tender Babe Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee 2. It is stronger then the Mountains Isa 54.10 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee 3. It is as constant as the courses of the Sun Moon and Sars of the Day and of the Night Jer. 31.35 36. Thus saith the Lord which giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar the Lord of Hosts is his name If those ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever 4. It is as sure as God himself Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the sun before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful witness in heaven We give much credit to the word of an honest man much more when we have his oath for it This the Author to the Hebrews makes the ground or foundation of a Beleivers strong consolation Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
I may say as David said to Abimelech the Preist concerning the Sword of Goliah There is none like to it 1 Sam. 21.9 A most incomparable weapon if we have skill to use it Let us consider a little then what Prayer is as to the derivation and definition of it I find that Prayer comes of a word in the Hebrew which signifieth Appeal whereby we refer the Cause of our selves or others unto God as unto the Supream Judge calling upon him appealing unto him for right presenting our selves and our cause unto him as to one who hath power to determine Causes and to whom appeals may be made And if you would have a breif description of it it is the pouring out of the humble penitent beleiving soul before the Lord 1 Sam 1.15 Or as one very pithily defines it It is Devotae animae cum Deo colloquium that is It is the talk or conference of the devout soul with God For a man barely to speak in the air and his heart have no approaches unto God in it this is no Prayer in Gods account I cannot therefore let pass that excellent saying of Bernard Cum oramus cum Deo loquimur cum legimus Deus nobiscum loquitur Si vis cum Deo semper esse semper ora semper lege that is When we pray we speak with God when we read God speaketh with us If thou wilt always be with God then always pray and always read More plainly and fully It is a work of the spirit of Christ in the beleiving soul by which we desire of God alone things lawful and needful with confidence to obtain them through the alone mediation and intercession of Christ to the praise and glory of his name So then if thou wilt pray aright and find acceptance with God therein thou must pray to him and to him alone in the name and through the alone mediation and intercession of Christ by the powerful and immediate help and assistance of his own spirit and that beleivingly from the heart with understanding and feeling of our wants in fervency of spirit forgivingly reverently and perseveringly Without which ingredients never think of putting up an acceptable Prayer unto God with any confidence or assurance to be heard at the throne of grace I shall touch a little upon the particulars for the help of such poor souls whose desires are to grow into a more spiritual acquaintance with God First then If thou wilt pray aright thou must pray to God and to him only and that in the name of Christ God alone is to be invocated and prayed unto not Saints nor Angels Christ in his prayer which he taught his Disciples would have us direct our Petitions unto God our Father which is in Heaven Luk. 11.2 Mat. 6.9 And why to God alone 1. Because God onley is Omni present every where present in all places and at all times But this is inconsistent to any creature to be ubiquitary or present in all places But that God is so see Jer. 23.23 24. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord see Psal 139.7 8. God is not only the God of the hills but of the valleys also 1 King 20.28 2. Because God as he is Omni-present so he is Omniscient he knoweth all things all the hearts of the Sons of men So said Solomon in the prayer he made at the Dedication of the Temple For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men 1 King 8.39 So Jer. 17.9 I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.13 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Prov. 5.21 Doth he not see my ways and count all my steps saith Job Chap. 31.4 There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Job 24.21 22. So Psal 94.9 10 11. He that planted the ear shall he not hear he that formed the eye shall he not see he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity 3. God is stiled a God hearing prayers Psal 65.2 and this David could speak experimentally Verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my prayer blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Psal 66.19 20. 4. As he is a God hearing prayer so he is most able to help Psal 52.2 I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me He shall send from heaven and save me Eph. 3.20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen So Asa when a mighty host came against him in his prayer lays hold on Gods power and ability to help Lord saith he it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord God for we rest on thee and in thy name we go against this multitude 2 Chron. 14.11 So Jehosaphat when a great multitude of the Moabites and Amonites came against him he sets himself to seek the Lord as able and all-sufficient to help him And said O Lord God of our Fathers art not thou God in heaven and rulest not thou over all the kingdomes of the Heathen and in thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee O our God wilt not thou judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon the 2 Chron. 20.6 12. 5. Prayer is a Divine Worship and a Spiritual Sacrifice God would have us to call upon him in the day of trouble Psal 50.15 And if we should be seeking help from any other he will take it very ill at our hands If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god saith the Church shall not God search this out for he knoweth the secrets of our hearts Psal 44.20 21. In every place Incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering saith the Lord. Mal. 1.11 So Psal 141.2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of mine hands as an evening sacrifice There was given to the Angel that stood at the Altar having a golden censer much incense That he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was
before the throne of God And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Rev. 8.3 4. By this Angel we are to understand Christ our Mediator called the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant or the Angel of Gods presence Mal. 3.1 and Isa 63.9 who alone is the High Preist of Heaven and offereth and presenteth our prayars with the incense of his merits and intercession upon the golden Altar that is upon himself unto God for a sweet smelling savour as is testified Rom. 8.34 Eph. 5.2 Heb. 14.14 See also Rev. 5 8. 6. In God onely we ought to beleive therefore he onely is to be called upon He that commeth to God must beleive that he is c. Heb. 11.6 The same Lord who is ever all is rich unto all that call upon him For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.12 13. Again we are to pray unto God in the name of Christ which is not rudely and customarily to say these words Through Jesus Christ our Lord c. but in confidence of the merits and intercession of Christ to call on God our heavenly Father For since the fall of man none are called to come to God or have promise to speed but in the name of a Mediator I am the way the truth and the life saith Christ no man commeth to the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 And there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.15 John calls him the Advocate he who pleads our cause with the Father 1 Joh. 2.1 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 In Christ alone we have access to the throne of grace Or as the Apostle expresseth it Through him we haue an access by one spirit unto the Father Ephes 2.18 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Eph. 3.12 And what saith Christ himself Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Joh. 16.23 So Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye do in word and deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him Angels or Saints departed do not nor cannot present our prayers before God Abraham is ignorant of us Isa 63.16 Christ onely is our Mediator and High Priest who getteth an acceptatation of our prayers before God Heb. 4.14 Rev. 8.3 Again We are to pray in the name of Christ through the spirit Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy ghost Jude ver 20. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit Ephes 6.18 No praying aright but in and by the Spirit God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.14 And prayer surely is a principal part of his spiritual worship Is it not sad then to consider how carnal and formal worshippers do deride and make a mock at the Spirit of God! O say they you cannot pray but by the spirit So for Faith that also is a necessary ingredient in prayer James speaks of the prayer of faith that shall save the sick Jam 5.15 So also 1 Tim. 2.8 and Matth. 21.22 And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer beleiving ye shall receive Now this faith will work to the purifying of the heart For if we regard iniquity in our hearts God will not hear us Psa 66.18 We haveing therefore gracious promises from God that he will grant our requests that he will be very gracious unto us at the voyce of our cry Isa 30.19 That when we call he will answer Isa 58.9 and deliver us out of all our afflictions Psal 34.19 We must come unto God beleiving his word for that he is true and faithful as Sarah who received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised Heb. 11.11 But if hope to speed does not accompany our prayers they are vain Let not the doubting and wavering man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord Jam. 1.6 7. Yet know withal that this hope sometimes is very weak and feeble and many times seems to be overwhelmed in the godly Ps 13.1 2.31.22 and 77.7 8 9. Again As it must be a prayer of Faith so it must be from the heart with fervency of spirit Prayer is not a lip labour nor a formal devotion but it is the sighs and groans of a broken and penitent heart Hanna spake in her heart when her voyce was not heard 1 Sam. 1.13 Moses is said to cry unto the Lord when we find not one word that he uttered with his mouth Exod. 14.15 Hence is the exhortation that we be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 And it is said that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. 5.16 As the things we beg are of more excellent use for us so must we be more eager and importunate with the Lord for the obtaining of them I cried unto the Lord with my voice with my voyce unto the Lord did I make my supplication I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble Psal 142.1 2. This shewed the earnestness and ferventness of his spirit in prayer So Ps 80.1 Give ear O shepherd of Israel thou that dwellest between the cherubims shine forth Before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us This ariseth from the consideration of the necessity and excellency of what we desire as also from a burning zeal of Gods glory and hearty love of our brethren in opposition to a spirit of hypocrisie formality sluggishness and vain-babling Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion For the time to favour her yea the set time is come And what then For Sions sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth Ps 102.13 com with Isa 62.1 Again when we pray we must pray with understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 Blind devotion is no way pleasing to God The soul without knowledge is not good Prov. 19.2 God will not be superstitiously and ignorantly worshipped Acts 17.22 23. The blind and the lame was not to come into the house of God If ye offer the blind for
forgive and do c. 1 King 8.37 38 39. And the Lord gave approbation to this prayer of his as you have heard Thus you see in what way the Lord hath usually been found for the diverting of his judgments and in which he hath ingaged himself to hear and to be entreated Shall we consider a little then what is the general spirit of the Nation at this time now that the hand of God lies so heavy upon it Is there any preparation now of meeting God in this way of humble and faithful supplication O England where are thy tears where are thy strong crys unto unto the Lord Will not the King of Nineveh rise up in judgment against thee and condemn thee He commanded that Man and Beast should be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God and turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that was in their hand and God was entreated and turned away from his fierce anger that they perished not What thinkest thou O England of thy sins Have they not been crying sins May not the Lord speak unto thee and say as unto Cain Who slew his Brother what hast thou done The voice of thy Brothers blood cryeth unto me from the ground Gen. 4.10 Or as James in his time to the rich ungodly men of that generation Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and be doth not resist you James 5.4 5 6. May it not be said of thy sins as is said of the sins of Babylon That her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities Rev. 18.5 Surely thy sins have been crying sins they have entred into the ears of the Lord they have reached unto heaven God hath heard thy hideous Oaths thy new hellish invented Oaths thy horrid execrations and cursings thy revilings and blaspemings But whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high may it not be said of thee as of railing Rabshekah Even against the holy one of Israel And if thy sins have cryed so loud mayst thou not think that thy tears and crys for pardon should found as loud in the ears of God But where are thy repentings and mournings where are thy weepings and supplications Surely I tremble to think what still mine ears do hear and mine eyes see how few of those sins are left which cause the Land to mourn and the Lord to have a controversie with the inhabitants thereof May it not be laid to thy charge even now when thousands are swept away by this destroying judgement that when God calls to weeping and mourning to fasting and praying behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine playing and gaming ranting and roaring cursing and swearing pride and voluptuous living And what said the Lord Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye Isa 22.12 13 14. Nay is it not most sad and lamentable to consider as it is very credibly reported that some under the hand of Gods visitation do dye swearing and cursing in a most dreadful and desperate manner Well then consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in peices and there be none to deliver before the whole land be devoured by the fire of his jealousie and that he make a speedy riddance of all such as dwell in the land But for you who have received an anointing from the holy one and are acquainted with the divine art of prayer and holy conference and familiarity with God be much in the exercise of this heavenly skill be now improving to the utmost your interest in God lift up your voice with strength stir up your selves and take hold of him And if your consciences tell you you have fallen by your iniquities even in the late Apostacy Take with you words and turn unto the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously Say unto him Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our gods Hosea 14.1 2 3. Say unto him O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us do thou it for thy names sake for our back-slidings are many we have sinned against thee O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonished as a mighty man that cannot save yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not Jer. 14.7 8 9. Say We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy raggs and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away But yet O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are thy people Isa 64.6 8 9. Thine enemies roar in the midst of the Congregation they set up their ensigns for signs They have east fire into thy Sanctuary they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground They said in their hearts let us destroy them together O God how long shall the Adversary reproach shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever Why withdrawest thou thy hand even thy right hand pluck it out of thy bosome Wilt thou refrain thy self for these things O Lord wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore Psal 74. And let the Preists the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people Joel 2.17 18. Yea let the Lords Watchmen whom God hath set upon the Walls of Jerusalem never hold their peace day nor night even those who make mention of the Lord and are the Lords remembrancers let them not keep silence And give him no rest till he establish and make his Jerusalem a praise in the earth Isa 62.6 7. Till the heavens drop down from above and the skies pour down righteousness and the earth open and bring forth salvation and righteousness spring up together Isa 45.8 Till the Lord of Hosts be exalted in judgement and God
that is holy be sanctified in righteousness Isa 5.16 Thus much for the fourth soveraign Receipt The Fifth Spiritual Receipt 5ly The next Spiritual Receipt and especial preservative against this Pestilential sickness which I shall recommend unto thee is this Have thy dwelling now in the secret place of the most high Psal 91.1 or as it is further exprest in the 9. ver of the same Psalm Make the Lord thy refuge even the most high thy habitation In Pestilential and contagious times and when the sickness comes near to our own houses most men and womens thoughss are busied about their habitations and dwellings where they shall remove and have their beings so as they think they may be most safe and secure from the stroke of Gods Visitation and therefore they will chuse especially such as are more able and wealthy the best country where is the best aire and most healthful soil and the best company and food and such other accommodations as may probably conduce to the keeping of themselves in a sound and healthful constitution In some cases such provisions as these may be necessary expedient and lawful And therefore it is upon my heart now to direct thee where thou mayst take up a most secure and safe habitation and that is in God in the secret place of the most high under the shadow of the Almighty and let me tell thee whoever thou art that seekest security and protection elsewhere and takest not up thy dwelling in God thou wilt be frustrated in thy expectation Shouldst thou hid thy self in the top of Carmel Amos 9.3 Or take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea Psal 139.9 even there his hand will find thee out and the stroke of his indignation will light upon thee The only way then to secure thy self is not to be flying from but to be flying unto God to be living and dwelling in God God as he is a secret place so he is a secure place Every man would be there especially in times of danger where he may be most secret and secure But what may we understand by making God our habitation or by dwelling in the secret place of the most high The words are very comprehensive and of a large extent but I shall reduce them under some following heads after I have toucht a little by way of explanation or opening of them By the secret place of the most high we may understand Heaven the seat and throne of God which the Scripture holds forth under these three denominations or expressions To wit His high place his holy place his secret place His high place Psal 93.4 The Lord on high is mightier then the noise of many waters Psal 97.9 Thou Lord art high above all the earth above all people Psal 99.2 The Lord is high above all Nations and his glory above the heavens Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high Psal 113.5 heaven is a high place So it is his Holy place in Psal 46.4 they are joyned both together The River the streams whereof make glad the City of God is said to be the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high So in Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy And mark what follows I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit c. In Psal 68.5 A Father of the fatherless and a Judge of the widows is God in his holy babitation that is in heaven his holy habitation or the habitation of his holiness and of his glory as it is termed Isa 63.15 So here it is called his Secret place the secret place of the most high and heaven may very fitly be called Gods secret place as well as his high and holy place because God and Christ and the things of heaven and eternity they are secret hidden and mysterious things Great is the mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 So in Col. 1.26 The Apostle calls it The mystery hid from ages and generations but now saith he is made manifest to his Saints and the Saints themselves they have hut an imperfect sight of God We see but his back part Exod. 33.23 but as through a glass darkly We know but in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.9 10 12. Hence it is that God is said To dwell in that light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen or can see 2 Tim. 6.17 2. Jesus Christ may be said to be Gods Secret place 1. In that he is said as before To be the mystery which was kept secret since the world began Rom. 16.25 2. In respect of that incomprehensible union that is betwixt the Father and the Son Joh. 17.21 3. Because the declaration or revelation of the Father is from Christ who is in the bosome of the Father Joh. 1.18 and that 's a Secret place And the Apostle speaks of a life that is hid with God in Christ Col. 3.3 4. In respect of Christs eternity with the Father The Lord possessing him in the beginning of his way before his works of old Then was Christ by him as one brought up with him Prov. 8.22 30. 5. Christ himself is said to be A hidding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest Isa 32.2 3. The Church which was figured by the Tabernacle may be said to be Gods Secret place his dwelling place God hath desired it for his habitation This saith he is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Psal 132.13 14. To which purpose is that in Psal 27.5 where we read of the secret of his tabernacle In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me which hath reference to the Sanctuary or Ark the place of Gods abode or visible presence so to be hid in his pavilion the Prophet declares the assurance he had being shrouded under Gods protectio n hide me or keep me safe as in the most holy place of thy Sanctuary Where none might enter but the High Preist and that alone once every year and not without blood neither which he offered for htmself and for the errors of the people Heb. 9.7 And this is called Gods secret or hidden place Ezek. 7.22 As his Saints are called his hidden ones Psal 83.3 So Psal 31.20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence or thou hidest them in the hiding place of thy presence where thou always looks unto them in secret favour which the world knoweth not of So then to dwell in the secret place of the most high is to dwell in God in Heaven in Christ in his Church to have a conversation with God in the heavens As the Apostle expresseth it Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in Heaven To have our affections on things above Col. 3.2 to live a
heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psa 73.26 Then wilt thou not know nor desire nor love any creature but purely as subordinate to God If this were but setled in our hearts how would it ballast them and keep them steddy that they would not be tossed up and down with the various occurrences of this life neither lift up with Prosperity nor cast down with adversity for whether we have more of these things they make no considerable addition to us God is our happiness and not the creature or whether we have less of these things it is no diminution to our happiness we still have our portion We are but as a man that hath turned his estate into money though he hath not houses nor lands nor flocks nor herds yet he hath that which answers all things Eccles 10.19 So it is with one that hath God for his portion whose is the earth and the fulness thereof He can with Habakkuk rejoyce in God in the deprevation and absence of all other things Hab. 3.17 18. And say with Paul As sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 Give twenty pounds to a poor man and you make him take so much from him and you undoe him but it is nothing in a rich mans Purse that hath thousands coming in yearly Let an unbeleiver loose the World and he looseth all he complains with Laban that his gods are gone let him have these things in abundance and he is transported like Haman but these are small things with him whose portion is the Lord And therefore call nothing prosperity or pleasure but his love and nothing adversity or misery but his displeasure When any thing would seem lovely and desireable which is against him call it Dung And hear that man as Satan or the Serpent that would entise thee from him and count him but vanity a worm and dust that would affright thee from thy duty to him 3. Then mayst thou be said to dwell in God to have thy constant abode with him When thou shalt prize all opportunities of communion with God in his Ordinances as Prayer Reading and Hearing the Word of God So David As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Psa 42.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Psa 63.1 2. and 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God So Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the House of the Lord. This to do is our Duty and our Priviledge 1. It is our Duty and part of that homage which we owe to God as our Lord and Lawgiver by prayer to acknowledge our dependance on him Psal 65.2 and our subjection to him by sitting down at his feet to receive the Law from his mouth to take our instructions from him Deut. 33.3 2. It is our Priviledge which cost two of the greatest gifts which heaven could afford Eph. 2.17 the Son of God that we might have acceptance The Spirit of God that we might have assistance What greater priviledge are we capable of then at any time to go and reveal our cause to God and to pour out our complaints before him Jer. 20.12 To have leave to beg any thing of him Luk. 11.13 To ask Counsel of him Psal 119.24 There being in our communion with God a transfusion of spirits the Lord communicating his Spirit or Divine Nature to us therein 2 Cor. 3.18 Besides our own pressing necessities which should daily provoke us hereto And the oftner we come to God the more welcome shall we be Cant. 2.14 and the more boldness and liberty of access we shall have dis-use and in-frequency breeding a strangness betwixt God and the Soul and deading the heart to communion with him 2. A Mans House is the place of his safety security and strength We use to say a mans House is his Castle then we make God our habitation when we make him our refuge and our strength So did David I will love thee O Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler the horn of my salvation and my high tower Psal 18.2 God was his strength his defender in all adversities God was his rock where he fled for refuge when hunted and pursued by his enemies his fortress or strong hold wherein he was safely kept and preserved his sheild to overshadow and defend him The horn of his salvation that is the strength of his deliverance and the high tower or strong tower of his protection wherein to his righteous soul did run and was safe Prov. 18.10 In the 61. Psal 2. and 3. David prayeth That God would lead him to the rock that was higher then he For thou hast been a shelter for me saith he and a strong tower from the enemy So in the Psal 71.3 Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort Be thou to me for a rock of habitation where I may continually fly unto in all my difficulties and distresses See also Psal 31.2 With what confidence in God was the Chuch carried forth upon this account God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will not we fear though the earth he removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof Psal 46.1 2 3. By the changing of the earth and removing of mountains are often meant the alteration of States and Polities Hagg. 2.21 22. Jerem. 51.25 Rev. 6.14 By which we are given to understand That in the time of the greatest mutations and revolutions in time of the greatest toffings and tumblings turnings and over-turnings the Church would not be dismayed but confidently expect deliverance from God Well then if thou wilt make God thy habitation thy place of security and strength thy rock and thy fortress Thou wilt make him thy only rock thy only stay and trust thou wilt seek help and deliverance in all thy streights and trouble from him and from him only He only saith the Psalmist is my rock and my salvation he is my defence I shall not be moved And from hence it is that he encourages his soul To waite only upon God telling us that his expectation was from him Psal 62.6 7. Nor would he trust in his Bow nor on his Sword to save him Psal 44.6 Now then dost thou make God thy only rock thy only
refuge Dost thou flye unto him in all thy streights and to him only or hast thou recourse to some other rock to some other refuse Take heed of trusting in man and making flesh thine arm There 's a curse denounced against such Jer. 17.5 Dost thou go down into Egypt to strengthen thy self in the strength of Pharaoh know then that thou trustest but upon a broken staff and a bruised reed as Rabshekeh said to Hezekiah 2 King 18.21 even in a shadow And that the strength of Pharaoh shall be thy shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt thy confusion Isa 30.2 3. Dost thou put thy trust in Princes or in the Sons of Men know that thou trusts but in a shadow likewise Judg. 9.15 and that there is no help in them their breath goeth forth they return to their earth in that very day their thoughts perish Psal 46.3 4. And that its better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man yea then to put confidence in Princes Psal 118.8 9. Dost thou trust in graven Images and say to the molten Imares ye are our gods know thou shalt be turned back and be greatly ashamed yea confounded Isa 42.17 Psal 97.7 Is thy trust such as is the hope of hypocrites know that the hypocrites hope shall perish and be cut off and his trust shall be as a spiders web Job 8.14 Dost thou make gold thy hope and say to the fine gold thou art my confidence trusting in the abundance of thy wealth and strengthening thy self in thy wickedness know that this is an iniquity to be punished by the Judge for that thou deniest God that is above Job 31.24 28. Yea further know That God shall destroy thee for ever and take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living And the righteous shall see and fear and laugh at thee and say Lo this is the Man that made not God his strength Psal 52.5 6 7. Dost thou trust in thine own beauty and play the harlot and pour out thy fornications know that God will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged and will give thee blood in fury and jealousie and throw down thine eminent places and break down thy high places and strip thee of thy cloaths and take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked and bare and execute judgments upon thee Ezek 16.15 36 38 41. Dost thou trust in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these and notwithstanding Steal Murder and Commit Adultery and Swear falsly and Burn Incense unto Baal and Walk after other gods and stand before the Lord and say thou art delivered to do all these abominations know that these are lying words that will not profit but consider rather what the Lord did to Shiloh where he set his name at the first for the wickedness of his people Israel Jer. 7.4 8 12. Dost thou trust to thine own righteousness and commit iniquity know that all thy righteousness shall not be remembred but for thine iniquity which thou committest thou shalt dye for it Ezek. 33.13 Dost thou trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men know that therefore a tumult shall arise among the people and all the fortresses shall be spoiled Hos 10.13 14. Dost thou trust in thine own purity and say stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier then thou know that thou art but a smok in Gods Nose and a fire that burneth all the day Isa 65.5 and that the Lord hath put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the moth Job 4.18 19. But after all this perhaps thou wilt say Thou wilt trust in thine own heart for that will not deceive thee wilt thou do so know then thou art but a fool for thy labour in Gods account Prov. 28.26 Thy heart will deceive thee for it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jer. 17.9 Thus you see that God alone is to be trusted in and to trust in any thing else will be but as an Egyptian Reed to lean unto And as God alone is to be our rock and our refuge so are we to make him our rock and our trust at all times So is the Exhortation Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Psal 62.8 So Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength At what time I am afraid saith David I will trust in thee when his enemies were ready to swallow-him up In God I have put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me Psal 56.3 4. And what said Job Though be slay me yet will I trust in him I will maintain mine own ways before him Job 13.15 Is it a time of evil tidings thou wilt not be afraid if thy heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112.7 Dost thou fear the Lord and yet walk in a dark disconsolate estate even then art thou to trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God Isa 50.10 And as thou art to make God alone thy rock and thy refuge and trust in him at all times so with all thy heart Not leaning to thine own understanding but in all thy ways acknowledging him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.5 6. Yea the Lord shall help thee and deliver thee he shall deliver thee from the wicked and save thee because thou trustest in him Psal 37.40 This David acknowledged Psal 22.4 5. Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Well then wouldst thou have God to be a help and defence unto thee Trust in him He is a Buckler or a sheild to all those that trust in him Psal 18.30 Prov. 30.5 For who is God save the Lord or who is a rock save our God Psal 18.30 31. 1 Sam. 2.2 He is the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 Wouldst thou be stedfast and unmovable as the rock whereupon the Church is builded against which no storms nor tempests no nor the gates of hell shall ever prevail Trust in God They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever Psal 125.1 Wouldst thou possess the land and inherite Gods holy Mountain see that thou trust in him Isa 57.13 Wouldst thou be fat and flourishing and not cease from bearing of fruit and that blessedness shall be thy portion Trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river whose leaf shall be green and shall not cease from yeilding fruit Jerem. 17.7 8. Pro. 28.25 And as David Psal 40.4 Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud nor such as turn aside to lies 3. A mans House or Habitation is the place of his Secresie Where does the Husband and the Wife or a man and his freind unbosome themselves communicate their thoughts and the very secrets of their hearts each to other but usually and for the most part in their Houses in their private Chambers and Closets So it is with the Man or Woman that makes God their habitation They 'l go to God and in their Closet and close retirements with the Lord how will they unbosome themselves and lay open their very hearts and most secrets thoughts and spread them before the Lord. So did Hanna in the bitterness of her soul she prayed and wept sore and in her secret retirements she poured out her soul before the Lord 1 Sam. 1.10 15. meaning the trouble and anguish of her heart So David when his spirit was overwhelmed within him then he cried unto the Lord and poured out his complaint before him and shewed him all his trouble Psal 142.1 2 3. So Jeremiah 20.10 11 12. when he lay under evil reports and defamation and his familiars watched for his halting what course does he take He goes to God and opens his cause unto him or discovers his cause unto him as to an Advocate or Patron O Lord of Hosts saith he that triest the righteous and seest the reins and the heart let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I opened my Cause So is it said of Hezekiah when he had received the Letter of railing Rabshekah and read it he goes up into the House of the Lord and spreads it before the Lord in this manner O Lord God of Israel which dwellest between the Cherubims thou art the God even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth thou hast made heaven and earth Lord bow down thine ear and hear open Lord thine eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacharib which hath sent him to reproach the living God This hath been the manner of the Servants of the Lord who have made God their habitation they go to God in secret and pour out their souls before him O saith Job that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments Job 23.3 4. Holy Job even now a Proverb or a Prodigy rather perceiving his freinds discourses were fuller of reproaches then consolations neglects to answer them and resolves to get him to God the onely support and refuge of the miserable The soarest strokes cannot drive away gracious souls from God but rather draw them nearer unto him they seldome or never think themselves near enough unto God its Sun and Sheild and Center O that I knew where to find him that I might come even to his Seat And Gods Judgment-seat where he sits to hear and determine Causes is not terrible or unapproachable to a Beleiver who knows it to be a Throne of Mercy as Job did here And happy are all that can say so For we must all appear defore the Judgment-seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 11. and it will be terrible to all those that do not often resort thither before hand And it is good to have our hearts and mouths fill'd with Arguments when we come to plead and expostulate and reason out our great concernments with our God who hath all good things lying ready by him and waits only for Prayer to come and fetch them away Not that God stands in need of our informing him concerning our necessities which he knows better then we but because hereby we give some proof that we are not altogether strangers at home as many careless ones are but know something of our selves and our own cases and of him and his dealings towards us If our mouths then be fill'd with arguments we may be sure of an Answer God will not sit still and say nothing he will not sit like an Image like a dumb Idol as the Abominations of the Heathens their Dii Stercorei their Dunghil Gods as they are called Deut. 29.17 must of necessity do they can do no otherwise though men fill their mouths with Arguments and empty their veins of their blood before them 1 King 18.28 Go boldly then to the Throne of grace plead with God and fill your mouthes with arguments spread thy complaints before him and open thy cause unto him for when ever you do so beyond all peradventure God will answer There 's no fear that he will interpret this sawciness and presumption in thee and so answer thee with his fists about thine ears or with his foot to kick thee out of his presence there is no fear that he will smother thee under the waight of his greatness or dazle thee with his beams or burn thee with his flames or drive thee from the judgement seat as Gallio did the Jews Act. 18.16 No he never beats his people lower then their knees and thence suffers them yea helps them to rise again nay he will lay his hand upon thy head yea under thy feet to do thee good he will stroke rather then strike a pleading soul He will strengthen thee and put mettle into thee He will not plead against thee with his great and absolute power So he dealt with Daniel a man that had great intimate acquaintance with God Chap. 10.19 How was he strengthened when the Angel touched him The Righteous may plead and dispute with him even at the bar of Equity and Justice and the Judge cannot but pronounce and pass sentence in their favour Thus righteous Jeremiah pleaded with him Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Jer. 12.1 And he invites his people to come and plead freely Isa 43.26 Put me in remembrance saith the Lord let us plead together declare that thou mayst be justified if thou haste any thing to say for thy self say on Yea Idolaters shall have this permission to plead for themselves and their dumb Idols if they have any thing to say for them Isa 41.21 Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong reasons saith the King of Jacob Shall Idolaters have this liberty and not the true Worshippers that worship him in Spirit and in truth The wicked shall they have it and not the righteous Yes doubtless this is that boldness of speech 2 Cor. 7.4 mentioned as the great priviledge of the Saints especially now under the new Testament Heb. 4.16 Accedamus cum loquendi ubertate ad thronum gratiae Letus come boldly unto the throne of grace Heb. 10.19 Having
therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus a right and freedom to enter in with our persons hereafter and now by our Prayers let us draw neer with a true heart with full assurance of faith He hath given us two great friends of his for our Advocates the one at his own right hand in heaven moving and negotiating and always appearing for us the other seated in our breasts his holy spirit making intercession for us Yea the Fathers own heart is full of love brim full and running over and he loves to hear his children reason it out with him and he doth of set purpose delay to grant their requests sometimes because he loves to hear often from them to hear their voices and see their faces Cant. 2.14 to hear what they can say for themselves and so he dealt with the woman of Canaan in those several repulses he gave her Mat. 15.22 23. Acquaint thy self then with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Job 22.21 O the secret intimate and heavenly familiarity that is betwixt God and the gratious beleiving soul It is said of Moses that the Lord spake unto him face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend Exod. 33.11 That is plainly familiarly The like phrase is used of speaking mouth to mouth My servant Moses saith the Lord is not so who is faithful in all mine house With him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches Numb 12.7 8. Well then if thou makest God thy habitation thou wilt not thou canst not be a stranger to God thou wilt have some intimacy with him some secret talk and communion with him thou wilt ever and anon be opening thy heart unto him and be pleading and expostulating the case with him Daniel could not be restrained from this though he knew the decree or writing was signed that whosoever should ask any petition of any God or Man for thirty days save of the King Darius he should be cast into the Den of Lyons But he goes into his House and kneels upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Dan. 6.10 he would rather dye then omit his wonted Worship and that close intimate communion he had with the Lord in prayer And it must needs be so for howsoever natural men and worldlings out of their obnoxiousness and secret terror do slavishly retire and do not willingly neither dare they draw near to that God which to them is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Yet all these who have truly tasted how gracious the Lord is shall find their hearts out of a secret sence of Gods love unto them first kindly inflamed with infinite desire to live under the comfortable influence of his pleased countenance to enjoy his holy Majesty with constant peace and an humble spiritual access and acquaintance continually His spirit of Prayer infinite love yea all his loving kindness protections preservations bounty patience divine illuminations spiritual blessings exercise of repentance temptations and troubles from Satan pressures and oppressions from the world loss of inward peace faintness of faith want of spiritual strength assault of some special sin sweetness of meditation daily favours showred down without number and above measure the forethought of the great and last account motions of the blessed spirit spiritual desertion c. but above all the unutterable and inexpressible blessedness goodness and excellency of that highest Majesty it self are and should be quickening and powerful motives to drive us frequently and incessantly unto God Object But perhaps thou wilt say It is true the righteous may be thus familiar with him plead with him and not be cast in their suit But where are those righteous ones And who are they for it is not so with me God be merciful to me a greivous sinner I dare not be so bold with him Mine iniquity stops my mouth Answ I answer Every one that hath a share in yea a sincere desire after the righteousness of Christ is righteous before him and may in that righteousness plead and prevail and as a Prince have power with God For this is his own righteousness of his own contrivance and appointment The righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.8 9. A righteousness spun and woven out of his own bowels and the obedience of his dear Son a better then ever came upon the back of Angels for which the personal and legal righteousness of a Paul of an Angel is to be abandoned Evangelical being far better then Angelical righteousness Thou canst not miss a blessing in his garments who is not ashamed to be called thine Elder Brother who came to change cloaths and places with thee and to take all upon himself that thou mightest escape The Father cannot but be well pleased with the smell of his Sons raiment and he sits too upon a Seat of Judgement and must do thee right and Justice it self which will not be twice paid is as much for thee as much thy freind as Mercy Rom. 3.26 He is just and yet nay therefore a justifier of him that beleiveth in Jesus So that if thou art not utterly shut up in unbeleif if there be but the least spark of true faith alive in thy heart thou mayst go boldly and plead and prosper Object 2. But I have nothing to say for my self my heart is dryed up like a Potsheard and withered like grass I have sin'd away all arguments and must never open my mouth any more before him Answ True not to boast but to plead thou mayst And hast thou nothing to offer not a sigh nor the groanings of thy soul Let the sighings of the Prisoner come before thee saith David Psal 79.11 And for the oppression of the poor and for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord himself Psal 12.5 I will set him at safety from him that puffeth at him We own help from the spirit when we are enlarged He helps us even when we are straightned Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought no not Paul and the Apostle but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 with unutterable straightnings Our enlargements may be but the flowings of the Gifts of the Spirit but our inward pinchings and coarctations may be the Intercession of the Spirit it self the more immediate operations of the Spirit And we forget that there is such a Prompter behind the Hangings such an Interpreter as his Title signifies as well as a Comforter Ille suggerit vobis omnia He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance Joh. 14.26 such an Interpreter I say to make known the mind of God to us and ours to him and as he betrayes the secrets of God to the Saints so he rips up their hearts before God
Spouse enjoyeth by Christ To wit that she is not only freed and delivered from evil but made partaker of his goodness in that all the works of his Prophesie Preisthood and Kingdom his Death Resurrection Ascention and all the fruits of them are communicated unto her by the Gospel which she feedeth upon by faith to the abundant refreshing and satisfaction of her soul Fruits signifying good works and the Graces of Gods Spirit which are to the benefit of our selves and others Mat. 3.8 10. Gal. 5.22 which is also applied to the Doctrine of the Gospel Joh. 15.16 and signifieth a comfortable reward Psal 58.11 and Prov. 27.18 So David he expresseth his delight in God by the Delight he took in his words or promises rather How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter then honey to my mouth Psal 119.103 How sweet I am not not able to express the sweetness of them How sweet unto my taste unto my mouth that is unto the mouth of my heart and soul for otherwise the spiritual promises yeild but little sweetness unto the bodily mouth They are more sweet and pleasant unto my mind then honey is to my mouth He meaneth that he never tasted any meat with his mouth how good or pleasant soever it were as he felt Gods word sweet and comfortable to his soul To which agrees that in Psal 19 8 10. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart More to be desired are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb And in Psal 119.11 Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever for they are the rejoycing of my heart Yea so delighted was he in the Lord that he would never think of him but his meditation of him should be sweet Psal 104.34 His soul should be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and his mouth should praise him with joyful lips when he remembred God upon his bed and meditated on him in the night watches Psal 63.5 6. What more pleasant and delectable to the palate then marrow and fatness and such was the meditation of God to his soul even in the night watches in the darkest and most dismal season of Gods dispensations To this agrees that in Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures There 's a river of pleasures and delights that flow from God which as a well of living waters and an ever-springing in-exhaustible fountain of life and all divine graces can never be drawn dry but the streams thereof are always running To make glad the City of God Psal 46.4 Hence it is that the souls Communion with Christ and its spiritual participating of Christ in his Ordinances is held forth under the term of Supping with Christ If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Revel 3.20 I will communicate my self unto him have mutual fellowship with him I will dwell in him spiritually really operatively by my grace and he shall dwell in me by faith feed upon me receive strength and nourishment from me and so come to participate of my divine nature Hereby then mayst thou come to know whether thou makest God thy Habitation or not Men take delight in their habitations there they solace and recreat themselves and Husband and Wife take mutual comfort and contentation in each other Consider then what delight thou hast in God in Christs in his way and worship his ordinances and holy appointments Job 27.10 Dost thou take delight in approaching to God Is thy delight in the Law of the Lord and in that Law dost thou meditate day and night Psal 1.2 Rom. 7.22 Are his testimonies thy delight and thy counsellours Psal 119.24 Is his word unto thee the joy and rejoycing of thine heart as it was to that good Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 15.16 And dost thou delight to do the will of God as Christ did his Fathers Psal 40.8 What fellowship and society is there betwixt Christ and thy Soul Our fellowship saith John is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 The baptized and new added members to the Church continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Act. 2.41 42. They held communion with Christ and each with other in breaking of bread 1 Cor. 10.16 They assembled together prayed together praised God together sung together suffered and rejoyced together Act. 4.31 and 2.47 and 16.25 and 5.41 Consider then what entertainment thou hast with Christ does he invite thee to come unto him and does he bid thee welcome when thou comest does he bid thee eat that which is good and that thy soul should delight it self in fatness Isa 55.1 2. Wast thou never at dinner or supper with him when he killed his beasts mingled his wine and furnished his table and hath he not bade thee to eat of his bread and drink of the wine which he hath mingled Prov. 9.1 2 5. Christ keeps a plentiful table you 'l hardly find such another noble and generous house-keeper When he prepares a dinner he kills his oxen and his fatlings Mat. 22.4 and will entertain thee with a second course also He has his fruit that 's very sweet to the taste his flagons and his apples the one to stay thee the other to comfort thee And as Princes and great Persons have he has a noble Banquetting house too or house of wine for to welcome thee and if then he finds thee but a little sick of love he will not shun to put his left-hand under thy head and with his right-hand to embrace thee yea his Banner over thee shall be love Cant. 2.3 4 5 6. But now if their be no such intercourses of love and mutual delight betwixt Christ and thy soul If thou art still a stranger unto him and knowst not what it is to have communion with him or to be supping with him If when he has bidden thee to the wedding and hath made all things ready and sent out his servants to call thee and thou shalt make light of it and refuse to come and chuse rather to go to thy Farm or Merchandise and be feeding still upon thy husks or be making excuses and telling him thou hast bought five yoke of oxen and thou must go to prove them or hast married a Wife and therefore thou canst not come Or if thou shouldst do worse then this take his servants and entreat them spightfully and slay them Mat. 22.5 6. comp with Luk. 14.16 Let me tell thee thou wilt incense him greatly even to send forth his Armies to destroy thee I say if thy heart is dead and drowsie and estranged to God and void of love and dutiful affections to Christ thou art far from dwelling in the secret place of the most high and making him thy
absolution for no unclean thing shall enter into his presence then we must be sure to cloath our selves in the white raiment of this our Elder Brother So for the Eye-salve with which our eyes must be anointed if we will be cured of our blindness and see the way to everlasting happiness Surely this is of excellent use and worth the buying and where are we to get it but from Christ He is given for a Covenant to open the eyes of the blind and to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in darkness out of the Prison-house to lead them in the paths of life Isa 42.6 7. and Pro. 8.20 It s in vain to go to our own prudence or carnal wisdom that will more entangle us and darken us and lead us out of the way according to that of Christ Joh. 9.39 I am come into this world for Judgment that they that see not should see and that they that see that is in their own wisdom should be made blind Christ made an Eye-salve for the cure of the blind person Joh. 9.6 of his spittle and clay a compound matter proceeding from his mouth and the earth whereby he made the blind man see Christ somewhat follows the same method in his compositions of Eye-salve which he uses towards his spiritual blind souls that he takes to cure First He gives us the knowledge of our selves and of our own earthly matter and that we savour in our unregeneracy nothing but of earth and earthliness Next he brings us to the knowledge of himself and his word which proceedeth out of his mouth and so makes us a happy composition and Eye-salve whereby we come to see our poverty our shame and nakedness and all our spiritual wants and also where remedy is to be had to heal and to save us from all our maladies And indeed this is as great a blessing as Christ can bestow upon us to be truly sensible and to have a clear sight of our condition it is the next stop to amendment it is ignorance and blindness that makes us err and go astray but true saving knowledge will keep us close to Gods Commandements If we take any other Eye-salve to anoint our eyes with save what Christ hath prepared for us in the Treasury of his Word we may take Bird-lime instead of Eye-salve which will close our eyes the faster They are not the traditions of men nor the wisdom and understanding of the wise that will make this precious ointment but it is a spiritual extraction and ointment drawn out by the spirit of Christ out of the holy Limbeck of his Word and applyed by him unto the blind patient that will make him see the glory of God and his grace and to praise him for it to all eternity Thus you see there are rich and precious commodities to be had in Christ and Christ sets them to sale and invites us to come and buy them of him and there is a spiritual and heavenly commerce that is driven betwixt Christ and the beleiving soul And no marvail for where else shall the soul in all its exigents and straights have recourse if not unto Christ In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 And in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily vers 9. And as he is full of grace and truth so it is Of his fulness that we all receive and grace for grace Joh. 1.14 16. Thus I have shewed you in several particulars what it is to dwell in the Secret Place of the most high and what it is to make God our Habitation 1. To have our fixed Habitation and Abode in God 2. To make God our Refuge and Strength 3. To make God the place of our Secret Retirement 4. To make him the Place or Object of our delight 5. To make him the Place of our Negotiation and Commerce Which to do will assuredly intitle and interest us in the promises of protection and preservation even from this sore Visitation of the Lord the noisome Pestilence Psal 91.1 3. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noysome Pestilence He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy sheild and buckler Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the Pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day So in the 9 10. vers Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the most high thy habitation There shall no evil befal thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Which promises though it cannot be denied but they had a special reference unto Christ yet so to Christ as not excluding his members For the head cannot be severed from the body but head and members make one perfect and entire body Now if we are the Body of Christ and Christ the Head of this Body as so it is Col. 1.18 24. then surely all the good and comfort that the head partakes of cannot but be communicable to the rest of the body For from the head all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God Col. 2.19 So that I conceive there is not a promise in the Word of God that is made unto Christ the Head but all the members of his Body are interessed and concern'd in it And so much does the prayer of our deer Lord import That they all may become one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us I in them and thou in me that thy may be made perfect in one Joh. 17.21 23. Is it promised to Christ that he shall have a kingdom and that all People Nations and Languages shall serve him Dan. 7.14 Psal 72.11 The same is promised to the Saints that shall out-live Anti-christs rage and tyranny Dan. 7 2â— 27. Isa 60.14 Is it promised unto Christ that they that dwell in the Wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust Psal 72.9 The same is promised unto the Saints who shall continue faithful to Christ in the latter day Isa 60.14 and 49.23 and Revel 3.9 Is it promised that those that will not he shall raign over them shall be destroyed And that God will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him Luk. 19.27 Psal 89.23 The like is promised to the Jewish and Gentile Gospel-church in the latter day To wit That the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve her shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted Isa 60.12 Is it promised to Christ That he shall break his enemies with a rod of Iron and dash them in peices like a potters
vessel Psa 2.9 Rev. 19.15 The very same is promised to the Gospel-suffering enduring over-coming Saints in the latter day Rev. 2.26 27. Is it prophesied or fore-spoken of Christ that out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword even a two edged sword that with it he shall smite the Nations Revel 1.16 and Revel 19.15 The same is prophesied and fore-told of the Gospel-Saints in the latter day Psal 149.6 7 8 9. Is it promised to Christ that God will answer him when he calls upon him that he will be with him in trouble deliver him and honour him And with long life will satisfie him and shew him his salvation Psal 91.14 15 16. If this should be applicable only to Christ in that place which I conceive ought not to be yet are the same promises made to Gospel beleivers in other places of Scripture Psal 50.15 Isa 42.2 and 65.24 Mat. 7.7 Job 5.19 Psal 34.17 19. Joh. 12.26 Eph. 6.2 3. Object But these promises of temporal preservation and deliverance of honour and long life were made upon the accompt of Legal Obedience Answer True If upon the accompt of Legal then surely upon the accompt of Evangelical obedience For Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 If therefore thou dwellest in the secret place of the most high thou mayst beleive thou shalt abide under the shadow of the Almighty and be delivered from the noysome Pestilence That is thou mayst beleive thou shalt have glorious protections and sweet heavenly refreshments from the Lord. Shadow signifying both protection and refreshment as here in this place so Numb 14.9 Isa 30.2 Psal 121.5 Isa 51.16 and 49.2 and 4.6 and 25.4 and 32.2 Psal 17.8 and 36.7 And in particular a preservation from the noysome Pestilence So then if thou makest God thy Habitation thou mayst beleive that no evil shall befal thee nor that any Plague shall come nigh thy dwelling that is no punishment or plague no affliction cross or calamity shall come unto thee from the Almighty as to hurt thee This is the fift Spiritual Receipt and special preservative against this Pestilential Sickness The Sixth Spiritual Receipt 6ly The sixth Soveraign Antidote and Preservative against this Infectious Disease is this Get a merciful tender pittiful and compassionate heart This as it will demonstrate us to be like unto God himself who is the fountain of mercy Be ye merciful as your Father also is merciful Luk. 6.36 So it will denominate us to be such as are righteous before God Psal 37.21 who live in the power of that Religion that is pure and undefiled before God And surely if thy heart is melted with the sense of Gods everlasting mercy to thy self thou canst not but have thy heart drawn forth compassionately towards such as are in misery necessity and distress But if the world hath locked up thine heart and congealed the bowels of thy compassions towards thy poor brethren let the blaze of thine outward profession shine never so fair and manage the duties of external holiness never so demurely and keep the times and tasks of daily duties with never so great austerity nay though thou be able to amuse weaker Christians with some affected strain'd and artifical fervency in Prayer for by the meer power of hypocrisie and vain-glory a man may pray sometimes to the Admiration of others especially less judicious I say for all this if the holy heat of Brotherly love doth not warm thine heart and upon occasion work affectionately in thy soul thou wilt discover thy self to be rotten at the heart-root and that there is little of the true love and grace of God in thee or hope of salvation For the dissolving therefore of thy frozen heart and the enlarging of thy bowels of pity towards the poor Brethren of Christ Jesus without which never think hereafter to look him in the face with comfort or to find mercy at the great day Consider well that place in 1 Joh. 3.17 Who so hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him And above all other motives of mercifulness to the poor necessitous and distressed members of Christ methinks that Argument which Paul presseth to this purpose in 2 Cor. 8.9 should melt the most flinty heart For ye know saith he the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich Shall the onely dear innocent Son of the All-powerful and ever-blessed Lord and King of Heaven and Earth dis-inrich as it were and disrobe himself of the Royalty and Majesty above and become so poor that whereas the Foxes have holes and the birds of the Air have nests yet he not where to lay his head that through his poverty and pouring out his heart-blood he might crown us with the inestimable riches of heavenly glory with joys and pleasures for evermore And shall not we worms and wretches most unworthy the least bit of bread we put into our mouths part with something of our superfluities to releive the fainting soul of him for whom Christ died and which he will take as done unto himself Mat. 25.40 Though it be but a cup of cold water only Mat. 10.42 Besides the last and everlasting doom at that great and dreadful day to wit either the glorious sentence of absolution Come ye blessed or the dreadful sentence of condemnation Go ye cursed c. shall be pronounced upon the godly according to the effect and fruit of their faith which works by love Or pass upon the Reprobates for omission and neglect of this most excellent duty of mercifulness to the poor members of Christ Mat. 25.40 41. Consider withal as an inflaming Motive to draw forth the bowels of thy compassions to poor needy and necessitous souls that by laying out thy self cheerfully seasonably liberally and yet but according to thine ability towards such Deut. 15.10 2 Cor. 9.7 Prov. 3.27 28. 2 Cor. 9.6 Prov. 11.25 2 Cor. 8.13 14. Act. 11.29 Thou shalt hereby become a Creditor even to thy most glorious and bountiful Creator For he that hath pitty upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Prov. 19.17 Now what a Motive I say is this to be merciful that we shall make God himself our debtor the ever-springing fountain of bliss and Lord of all goodness who doth all things like himself omnipotently bountifully above all expectation as becomes the mighty Soveraign of Heaven and Earth If he works he makes a World If he be angry he drowns the whole face of the earth If he love the heart blood of his dearest Son is not too dear If he stand upon his peoples side he makes the Sun to stand still and the Stars to fight If he repay he gives his own all-sufficient
himself Before the day pass as the chaff that is very swiftly suddenly like chaff the day is passing away therefore whiles ye have time yet before the day that runs and wears away so fast does bring forth the Decree produce and make appear what God hath decreed against you O Nation undesirable search your selves yea search your selves very narrowly whiles the heat of the Lords wrath doth not yet come upon you whiles the day of the Lords wrath doth not yet take hold of you This is further inculcated and prest by the Lord in the Prophesie of the Prophet Haggai chap. 1.5 7. Is it a time for you O ye to dwell in your ceiled houses that is in your stately and sumptuous houses for pleasure and delight and this house lye waste or desolate meaning the Lords house Now therefore thus saith the Lord of of Hosts Consider your ways Or which is more agreeable to the Original Set your heart upon your ways Observe and consider well how it fares with you by reason of your sins Had they considered or set their hearts aright upon their ways this might have prevented the execution of Gods judgements mentioned the 9 10 and 11 verses thereof For want of this the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah ch 1. takes up a bitter lamentation and complaint 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 The Ox knoweth his ower and the Ass his masters scrib but Israel doth not know my people saith he doth not consider They were more brutish and void of understanding then the beasts or brute creatures For want of this consideration it was that every one turned to his course of sin as the horse rusheth into the battel breaking and running through like a water flood as the word is properly used And why Because no man said What have I done And the Lord complaineth further That the Stork in the Heaven knew her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow did observe the time of their coming but his people knew not the judgement of the Lord Jer. 8.6 7. This is that consideration which we ought to have of our selves But what strangers are most men and women to their own hearts who enters into such a serious thought as to say What have I done Seneca reporteth of Sexius how every night before he slept he asked his own heart What evil this day hast thou amended what vice hast thou resisted in what part art thou bettered Surely such a course as this would prevent the fearless and heedless running into many gross enormities and sins and so prevent the ruine and destruction of many a poor sinful soul This course the Church took in the Lamentations Wherefore doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord Lam. 3.39 40. Fall then in good earnest upon this work of self-examination and think it better to know thine own infirmites and thy soul-sicknesses and sores then to know the whole world and all the wonders thereof It is one of the best parts of wisdom to know thy self This will beat down thy pride and keep the humble and lead thee to the true knowledge of God It will cast out and keep out sin and preserve thee from many temptations It is the beginning and foundation of grace and repentance Lam. 3.40 And will prevent the severe stroak of Gods judgements as in that of Zephany 2.1 2. And saith the Apostle If we will judge our selves we shall not be judged of the Lord Surely did we but know what the heart of man is while unregenerate and in its natural estate what a sink a sea of sin and filthiness it is how deceitful above all things and desperately wicked as Jeremy hath it Jer. 17.9 what infinite intricate windings and turnings there are in the dark laborinths of mans heart what a multitude of vain thoughts do lodge within it Jer. 4 14. What swarms of lusts and uncleaness issue out from this corrupt and putrified fountain Mat. 12.34 comp with chap. 15.18 19 verses What a deal of self-sophistry and imposture is wrapt up there by which millions of souls are inwraped in the snares and shackels of Satan I say did we rightly know and were not strangers to these things it might put us on with all seriousness and readiness this so weighty and profitable a work But O where is the man almost that knows or sets himself in good earnest for to know and find out the Plague of his own heart O what a many of Plague-sores and running issues are in the hearts of men and women at this day and yet they are insensible of them Every one almost is sensible of the Plague-tokens or sores when they seize upon the body and most people fear and dread this contagious disease because of the loathsomness of it but for the Plague of the Heart the Soul-sickness and sores O where is there any knowledge or discerning of it where is there any sense of the loathsomness and infectiousness of it And yet without this how can we expect a healing and the removal of this severe stroke of the Lord according to Solomons prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 King 8.37 38 39. If there be in the land famine if there be pestilence c. whatsoever plague whatsoever sickness there be what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man or by all the people Israel and mark what follows which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of the children of men Now this prayer of Solomon had its confirmation from the Lord 1 King 9.3 So that this knowledge of the Plague of the heart is a necessary qualification or ingredient to go along with that prayer which shall be prevailing with the Lord for the removal of the Pestilence out of the land or Nation wherein it is But if the men of this generaration are still unacquainted with the plagues or sores of their own heart if they be still as vain as proud as oppressing as Superstitious as Idolatrous as Adulterous as Murderous as Blasphemous as Rebellious and Disobedient against the Lord and his commands as reviling and persecuting the way of truth and holiness as ever can it be expected that the hand of the Lord should be removed or the fire of his his indignation which now burns so very hot among us should be quenched Set thy self then in good earnest upon this heart-searching work whoever thou art that would escape this severe stroke of the Lord. And if thou knowest not how to deal with thy heart it is so