an ill case there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him c. v. 7. yet says the Lord to him my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Let our condition be what it will let it seem never so sad let our tryals and afflictions be never so many and great yet God's grace i. e. his favour his accepting grace is sufficient to comfort us yea and his sanctifying strengthning and supporting grace to uphold us When says David I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my Soul Psalm 94. 18 19. The Lord alone and his favour is a full compleat and more than sufficient counter-comfort to all troubles and calamities whatsoever and the light of his countenance does not onely put more joy and gladness into their hearts upon whom it is lift up than in the time when others Corn and Wine increases but it puts more joy than the greatest decrease of them can occasion sorrow Habuk. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. yea it alters the very nature of the evils themselves that they are not what they were that sickness is not sickness as it were hence it is said Is 33. 24. And the Inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity And hence Matth. 9. 2. our Saviour there bids the man sick of the Palsie be of good cheer his sins being forgiven though his sickness was not yet cured and so had he cause had it never been cured In six yea in seven troubles this keeps all evil from touching us Job 5. 19. And therefore how earnestly how importunately at all times but more especially in evil times should we implore these mercies CHAP. IV. The second Doctrine observable as more general LOoking upon these words as being the burden of the Psalm and that which the Church and people of God do so often and earnestly beg and intreat again and again no less than three times v. 3 7 19 in this one Psalm thence we observe Doct. 2. Spiritual blessings special Ter repetitur haec precatio ut fieri solet quando animus in invocatione ardet Strigelius peculiar mercies are to be prayed for with all earnestness not onely simply to be asked to be sought but in such a way and after such a manner viz. frequently and fervently often and earnestly again and again with ardency and ut most importunity For thus the Church and people of God seek them here for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine these were Spiritual blessings choice special and peculiar mercies Soul-benefits and they are earnest and importunate for them they beg them once and again and again as if they would not be denied them and as if they were resolv'd not to be put off without them But what are we to understand by Spiritual blessings by special peculiar mercies By these we are to understand in a word such as these here specified and such like as for God to turn us from our sins to himself to take away our iniquities and receive us graciously for him to be our God and for us to be his people and vouchsafe us his favour Spirit grace his accepting grace and his sanctifying and renewing grace pardon of sin and power against sin the blessings of the Covenant the sure mercies of David such as we find recorded in these and the like places Jer. 31. 33 34. 32. 38 39 40. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 c. Micah 7. 19. c. And such blessings such mercies are thus to be prayed for thus to be sought R. 1. Because God thus commands us to seek them and unless we thus seek them we do not seek them as he enjoyns Psal 105. 4. Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Math. 6. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness c. first not onely in regard of order of time but earnestness of endevours we are commanded to seek these not onely before other things but more than other things As these must be first so chief and most in our pursuits So Joh 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for the meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the father sealed not that we are forbidden to labour for things necessary to this life for that we are and ought to do but the meaning is that we must mainly and chiefly labour for that meat that endures to everlasting life that is for Christ and his benefits those things appointed by God for refreshing and sustaining the soul to eternity So that this is to be understood comparatively rather for the meat c. preferring the one before the other as when it 's said Matth. 9. 13. I will have mercy and not sacrifice he excludes not sacrifice but preferreth mercy So Luke 11. 9. And I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you By these expressions Christ enjoyns earnestness and perseverance in prayer for it is not a bare simple repetition of the same thing but a gradation and it is meant of things necessary to salvation and the whole scope of the place is to stir up to earnestness Ask and Scopus est oportere nos constanter orare cum ardore do not onely ask but seek yea and not onely seek but knock Thus when the Lord prescribes unto Aaron and his Sons to bless the children of Israel which was by supplicating his face and favour this they were to implore again and again as in that form Numbers 6. 25. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee v. 26. The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace R. 2. Because others have thus sought them even with all earnestness as the Church and people of God here and so others elsewhere The Prophet David tels us Psalm 119. 58. he intreated the favour of God but how with his whole heart I intreated thy favour with my whole heart So how often in the same Psalm does he beg of God to quicken him and to teach him his statutes nine or ten times the one and seven or eight times the other So how importunate is he for pardon Psalm 51. 6. according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my trnsgressions v. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity clense me from my sin v. 7. Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me c. v. 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities c. And how importunate was Jacob for the
affectu and entirest affection of your hearts Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously vouchsafe the removal of our sin and favourable and gracious acceptance with thy self that sins guilt may be pardoned its power subdued its pollution purged and thy grace obtained that is in effect that God would turn them again and cause his face to shine So that what his people seek elsewhere that the Lord prescribes here and prescribes it as the onely way of their weal. And so in many other places as Jer. 4. 14. that Jerusalem there might be sav'd from those evils and miseries which else would certainly and unavoidably come upon her to her utter ruine he prescribes and invites her seriously and unfeignedly to repent of her wickedness O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Those vain thoughts of help and succour by other ways and means with neglect of the main And how often that poor sinners might live does the Lord who swears he had no pleasure in their death invite them to turn from their way Turn ye turn ye Ezek. 33. 11. 18. 3. from your evil ways and repent and turn from all your transgressions cast them away from you and Jer. 3. 22. 4. 1. c. put your abominations out of my sight c. and so much does our happiness and good our being blest depend upon and consist in the face and favour of God that when God would have his people blest this he prescribes and directs as the very way and means and platform thereof And the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak Numb 6. 22 23 24 25 26. unto Aaron and unto his sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace What goodness and kindness is it in God that as he is most blessed himself so he will have his people blessed also and not be blessed alone and that they may be so he prescribes this as the very form thereof and in these phrases the Priests and Levites were to bless Israel that is to wish them all good all happiness and salvation all being Benedicere est fausta et salutaria precari To pray for and wish all happiness and good summ'd up in the love of God in the manifestations of his favour and therefore because this and onely this was their blessedness therefore in different phrases it is prescrib'd again and again to be supplicated for them R. 4. Because when the Lord hath purposed to make a people happy and to have it well with them indeed this he hath still promised as the onely effectual way and means thereof As to Israel I will heal their back-sliding I will love Hosea 14. 4 5. them freely for mine anger is turn'd away from them It is very observable that what the Lord had before prescrib'd as the onely way of their weal v. 2. that he here promises v. 4. for to Sâ—nare defectiones idem est quod et omnem tollere iniquitatem siâ—ut saepâ—ùs precati sunt Israelitae Zanch in locum heal their back-sliding and love them freely and turn away from them his anger it is to take away all iniquity and receive them graciously Their sins were their sicknesses and the Lord the great Physician that they might recover promises to heal them that is not onely not to impute but pardon what was past so by his grace to prevent the same for the future And I will be as the dew to Israel c. My favour and grace shall be to them as dew to the grass c. Thus when the Lord promises happiness and welfare to those that were carried captive he tells them he will acknowledg them and set his Jer. 24. 5 6 7. eyes on them for good that is manifest to them his favour and they shall says he return unto me with their whole heart See also Ezek. 36. 25 26. c. Micah 7. 19. Zâ—char 12. 10. c. R. 5. Because Jesus Christ himself the eternal Son of God was sent and came into the world to procure our happiness and weal and our being sav'd this way by calling us to repentance and saving us from our sins and by bringing us to God and procuring for us his favour and gracious acceptance As he himself who best knew what was his errand and what he had in commission hath told us I am come to call sinners to repentance and this the Angel witnessed of him that his name should be called Jesus for he should save Matth 9 13. his people from their sins and so his Apostles Acts 3. 26. after Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you but how in what way and by what means in turning away every one of you from his iniquities and for this purpose was the son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil and he is 1 John 3. 8. 4. 10. said to send his Son to be the propitiation for our Rom. 5. 2. sins and by him we have access into the grace wherein we stand And the Apostle Peter gives us this account of Christ's sufferings that they were to bring us to God to recover us into his favour 1 Pet. 3. 18. and friendship again as our onely happiness and felicity R. 6. Because the Lord hath and doth still send his Ministers to be instrumental of peoples happiness and weal this way as by opening their eyes and turning them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they Acts 26. 18. may receive forgiveness of sins and so be reconciled to God and brought again into his favour and hence their ministery is called the ministery of reconciliation And hence that great Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 18 20 knowing no better nor more effectual way of peoples weal it is said Acts 26. 20. that he shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God c. yea he makes preaching repentance towards God and faith towards our 2 Cor. 5. 18 20 Lord Jesus Christ the very summe of his preaching and that in preaching these he had kept Acts 20. 20 21 27. nothing back that was profitable to them but had declar'd to them all the counsel of God And what way were the Prophets of old sent to prevent peoples ruine and to bring it to be well with them was it not by calling and inviting them to return to the Lord to turn from their evil ways unto him I might give you multitudes of places to this purpose but that it is needless they
Israel and thus bless the house of Aaron yea thus bless us all both small and great Let this blessing O Lord be upon high and low rich and poor mighty and mean upon Prince and people upon Court and City and Countrey upon our Metropolis our chief and Mother-city yea and upon all her Daughters our other Cities and upon the whole Nation yea the three Nations and then shall we be blessed indeed yea Psal 115. 15. the blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth Thus though we cannot turn our selves we may yet pray unto God to turn us and intreat his favour the want whereof as aggravating their sin the Prophet Daniel confesses and bewails All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that Dan. 9. 1◠we might turn from our iniquities c. They could not turn of themselves but they might have prayed to God for grace to turn CHAP. XI The second Branch of Exhortation to adde to our Prayers our Endeavours ANd let us not onely pray but earnestly endeavour after this not onely beseech it but strenuously pursue it and follow after it let us joyn to our prayers our pains and to our desires our labour care and industry setting about it and setting our selves seriously to it and laying out our selves to the utmost for the attaining of it that we may be converted and turn'd again from our sins to God and that he may cause his face to shine on us In all labour says Solomon Prov. 14. 23. there is profit but the talk of the lips tendeth onely to penury that is nothing comes of that As the door turneth upon his hinges so doth 26. 14. the slothful upon his bed that is because of his sloath he is still where he was and hangs where he did comes not off and this is his undoing The desire of the sloathful killeth him for his Prov. 21. 25. hands refuse to labour Many wish well to themselves Immoritur optando nihil operatur non utitur mediis quibus potiri optatis queat c. Remus in locum and they say they do desire grace but refuse to labour and this kills them for grace is not had with wishing If ever we would be savingly converted we must not onely wish and desire it but labour and strive after it we must up and be doing use diligence The want of this the Lord complains of concerning that people as the cause of their ruine They will not frame Hos 5. 4. their doings to turn unto their God c. not so much as set about it nor set themselves to it nor see what they can doe They will not so much as endeavour and bend their course that way Non adjicient studia sua ut convertantur ad Deum suum Video me operam ludere quia mihi negotium est potiùs cum brutis animalibus vel cum saxis quà m cum hominibus c. Calvin in locum nor shew their good will nor make use of these means which tend towards it not do what they can do and might and therefore I do by my Prophets but spend my labour in vain and I have to do as it were but with beasts and stones rather than men Indeed I am their God by profession and I have shewn my self so by the care I have had of them and the many good offices I have done for them and yet though I am their God and the fountain and well-spring of all their good and their happiness is to turn to me yet they will not so much as once frame their doings to turn unto me And this is an heavy aggravation of peoples impenitency and leaves them altogether inexcusable when they will not endeavour nor so much as make use of the means as in reference to so great a concern not do what they might do we are not able indeed to turn our selves no conversion is too great a work and lies beyond our line and we should get a due sense thereof so as to drive us to God for help but yet we may endeavour it and attempt something as in reference to it something we may do but what you will say may we do and what would you have us for to do I shall shew you in several particulars 1. Attend constantly on the ministery of the Word wait still upon God in his ways and in the use of those means he hath instituted appointed and set apart to be instrumental as to that great work of turning you again to himself and of bringing you into favour and recovering again his face Do as those impotent folk they could not indeed heal themselves yea but they could and did lie at the Pool waiting for the moving John 5. 3. of the waters that they might be healed Get there still where Christ walks and where he works as Zacheus he got up into a tree in the Luke 19. 4. way where Christ was to pass and who knows but Christ may look upon thee as he did upon him and it may be a time of love and he may say to thee though in thy bloud live and bring saving conversion salvation home to thy soul It is good being in God's ways how many hath he savingly and graciously met there and his power hath been present to heal them to convert and save them The very work and business that he sends his Ministers about it is as he told Paul when he had converted him from a Persecutor to be a Preacher and as you have heard to open sinners eyes and to turn them from darkness to Acts 26. 18. light and from the power of Satan unto God c. And how many thousands of souls are there who have experienc'd this and for whom it hath been effected by their means and why may it not be effected for thee also The word is called a word of grace a converting word and wait on it for God to make it so to thy soul Of his own will says the Apostle begat he us by the James 1. 18. word of truth and why by the same word may he not beget thee if thou attend upon it God sends his Ministers to help people in this great work And a Vision appeared to Paul in the night Acts 16. 9. there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us Now be sure then to be there where he vouchsafeth such help which is the best help and better a thousand times than the having such come that might help you in other matters as in your estates and in matters of the world though it was to compass never so much of it And how sad must their condition then needs be and how inexcusable will they be found at that great day who refuse this help who carelesly neglect or despise the Ministery appointed for so blessed an end how deservedly and
first calling and bringing home to God and then there is an after or progressive which is the continuation and going on forward in the first throughout the whole course of our lives and where this after does not succeed the first was never sincere Indeed at our first conversion we are turn'd to God but by our continuing the same we are turn'd more and more till we return to that state in which 2 Cor. 3. 18. we once were and that is not till death and therefore this turning is a continued act and daily exercise all this life And there is indeed matter enough to hold our repentance work all our lives both in regard of the sin of our natures hearts and lives our daily infirmities which as we daily renew so are we to renew our repentance and to persevere and continue therein to the end so as not to turn aside again from God and his ways to the crooked ways of sin nor from the holy commandement for it had 2 Pet. 2. 20. 21 22. been better for such not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandement delivered to them and the latter end with them is worse than the beginning Not but that the best Converts have their slips and falls their deviations and wanderings here for in many thins we offend all James 3. 2. Galath 6. 1. and are sometimes overtaken in a fault c. but it is not habitual though they may fall and go astray they get up again and turn into the way the high-way of the upright is to depart from evil A Sheep may fall into the mire but Prov. 16. 17. does not as a Swine wallow therein an ordinary habitual customary turning away or turning aside from God to the crooked ways of sin is inconsistent with true conversion and such as do so God says his soul shall have no pleasure in Hebr. 10. 38. Psal 125. 5. them but he will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity And thus I have now shewn you more particularly what kind and manner of turning that is which is so effectual as to a peoples being saved And now I shall proceed to the second thing I propounded to do which is to give you the Reasons why for God so to turn a people again and cause his face to shine is the onely way of their being sav'd CHAP. VIII The Reasons and Grounds of the point THat for God to turn a people again and cause his face to shine is their onely way to be saved appears R. 1. Because this is the way which the Church and people of God here betake themselves to They earnestly desire to be saved that though it was ill with them at present that yet it might be well with them for the future And what do they do what way do they go what course do they take to effect this why this they do they earnestly intreat again and again that the Lord God of Hosts would turn them again and cause his face to shine Surely had there been any other more effectual way of their weal they would have made use of it but they as inspir'd by God betaking themselves to this and being so importunate for this this must needs be the onely soveraign and most effectual way thereof R. 2. Because this is the way which others also have betaken themselves to as the Church in the very close of the Lamentations Turn thou us Lam. 5. 21. unto thee O Lord say they and we shall be turned renew our dayes as of old that is vouchsafe us thy favour again and so by doing these for us change our present sad condition into that happy state our fathers formerly enjoyed Thus in this way they seek their weal and so elsewhere Turn us O God of our salvation and Psalm 85. 4. 67. 1. cause thine anger towards us to cease and God be merciful to us and bless us but how would they be blest and cause thy face to shine upon us Wherein they plainly allude to the manner of blessing prescrib'd by God himself to Aaron Numb 6. 23. Jerem. 31. 18. So Ephraim Turn thou me c. And thus Moses sought the weal of Israel Psal 90. 13. Return O Lord how long c. and v. 14. O satisfy us dearly with thy mercy that is thy favour thy loving kindness for so the same word is rendered elsewhere as 63. 3. Because Benignitate tuâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy loving kindness is better than life c. that we may rejoyce and be glad all our days and v. 17. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us or loveliness some read the pleasantness or Jucunditas Domini pleasing look that is his amiable favour and grace let the Lord our God love us and delight in us let that beauty be upon us which shines in his favour The face is the seat of beauty and love shining in God's face is his beauty upon us By this expression says Calvin upon the place we may gather how incomparable a thing the love and favour of God is David was often under sore tryals and afflictions and what does he still crave for his succour and relief and that he might be sav'd it was God's favour Psalm 4. 6. 31. 16. 119. 132 135. c. that he would make his face to shine upon him and lift up upon him the light of his countenance R. 3. Because this is the way which the Lord himself who knows best what tends to his peoples weal prescribes and invites them to as the onely soveraign way thereof As in that known place Hos 14. 1 2. which contains in it the very way and platform of a peoples weal and being saved O Israel return unto the Lord Hosea 14. thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity The Lord here minds Israel how ill his iniquities had dealt with him how they had even overthrown him and laid him low made his condition exceeding sad this is all he got by them and yet the Lord would have it well with him again and that it might be so what does he advise him it is to return unto him as Continet haec supplicatio unicam consequendae salutis viam viz. si Deus auferat peccata c. Pareus the fountain of all his happiness and welfare and bids them as it follows v. 2. Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously c. This the Lord prescribes himself as the onely way of their weal as if the Lord had said It is ill indeed with you at present but if you would have it well with you then do thus and say this turn to the Lord and say unto him and say it not onely with your lips but with the ferventest Non ore tantùm sed intimo cordis
light of thy countenance let us but enjoy that Psal 4. 6. good and that shall be in stead of all thy favour Lord thy face one good look from thee one smile from thy countenance vouchsafe us but this and for other things do what seems good to thee we leave them to thy wisdom to dispose as thou pleasest 5. The more to excite us to supplicate these let us consider he onely can effect these and vouchsafe these 1. He onely can turn us again to himself as was hinted before This is God's work the work of no less than an almighty power an omnipotent arme we can easily indeed and of our selves turn aside and turn away from God but it is onely the Lord God of Hosts that can reduce us the arme of Jehovah himself must be revealed to effect this who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Isa 53. 1. Lord revealed The Lord himself must speak and that with a strong hand so to instruct us as not to walk any longer as we have done or as others do as the Prophet Isaiah expresses it For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand or Isa 8. 11. as it is in the Hebr. in or with strength of hand In fortitudine manûs which denotes the strong and powerful operation of the holy Ghost in the Prophet and some others together with him and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people that is that I with others of the godly Jews should not follow the manners and practices of the greater sort of that people and it must be the Lord 's speaking his instructing and that with strength of hand that must effect this else all our speaking and preaching be it never so earnest and often is but with a weak hand and ineffectual and people will walk and go on still as they did we may tell people they should profit or declare to them what is profitable but it is the Lord God onely which can teach them to profit or what is profitable that is effectually So we may shew them the way they should go but the Lord God only can lead them in the way they should go I am the Lord thy God which teacheth Isa 48. 17. thee to profit or what is profitable as the Dutch read it which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go Every one therefore says Joh. 6. 45. Christ that hath heard and learned of the father cometh to me and so by me to him This is never done indeed 'till God does it and therefore how earnest should we be in our addresses to him that he would do it for Ministers can not do it nor can we our selves do it unless the Lord comes in with his help Acts 16. 9. It is there said a vision appeared to Paul in the night there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us our great work and business is to help people to help them in the main in their chiefest and greatest concerns to help their souls to help them as to God to turn them to him to further their being brought home to him and their being reconcil'd unto him but our help will signifie little unless the Lord help as the King said to that woman unless the Lord help how should 2 King 6. 26 27. I help 2. He alone can cause his face to shine we can indeed cause it to frown but he alone must make it smile We can raise those mists and clouds which obscure and hide his face and interpose between us and him and his favour but he alone can scatter and dispell them your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you Isa 59. 2. c. that is have caused him to hide his face from you you have done this but I onely can and must do the other viz. remove that which separates and discover my face and display my favour you can procure my displeasure but I onely must manifest my love you can erect a partition-wall between me and you but I onely can throw it down O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Ephraim by Hos 13. 9. the iniquity of his covetousness could cause God Is 57. 17 18. to hide himself and to be wrath but God alone could restore comforts to him and to his mourners David he could lose the joy of God's salvation but God onely could restore it I create Psalm 51. 12. Is 57. 29. the fruit of the lips peace peace c. We can marre our peace but God onely can create it and therefore to him we must seek and earnestly sue as the Church here and David and the people of God often elsewhere Lord lift thou up Ps 4. 6. 31. 16. the light of thy countenance upon us make thy face to shine upon thy servant c. 6. As he onely can do these so let us consider how infinitely able he is to do them he being as he is here described the Lord God of Hosts Job 42. 2. I know says Job that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be withholden from thee that is whatever thou hast purposed and decreed can by no means be hindered or kept from being perform'd Is any thing too hard for the Gen. 18. 14. Lord If any man says Paul be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away and 2 Cor. 5. 17 all things are become new and what follows And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and that was a great work indeed to reconcile heaven and earth yea heaven and hell as it were to reconcile us when we were such desperate enemies to heal a breach that was great like the Sea and which all the creatures in heaven and earth Angels and men could never have effected any thing as to the making of it up and all things are of him who hath done so great things already viz. which concern this new Creation greater than the first all things be they never so many or never so great he can make new heavens and new earth and new hearts and new spirits yea all new and how should we then resolve with David I will cry unto God most high Psal 57. 2. unto God who performeth all things for me and can perform all things for thee be they never so many never so great all things that concern thy weal thy happiness thy soul thy salvation thy conversion and restoring thee into his face and favour here and to eternal felicity hereafter We read often in Scripture of that Phrase and it is very observable of God's commanding such and such things such and such mercies and blessings as of his commanding deliverances for Jacob of his commanding strength of his Psal â—4 4. 68.
love to others it must be by endeavouring by all possible ways and means their conversion and so their salvation Thus Paul made appear the sincerity of his love to Israel his hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel being this that they Rom. 10. 1. might be saved And so David to his son Solomon he tells us he was his father's son so were Prov. 4. 3 4 5 c. others but he in a special manner was so being singularly loved and of such a one we use to say he is his father's son and how did he manifest the truth of his love why he taught me also and said unto me let thy heart retain my words c. Get wisdom get understanding c. And we can never approve our selves sincerely to love others but in this way for if to love be to desire and endeavour the good of those we love how can it consist with the neglect of their chiefest good And that this is to love a very Heathen saw To love says he is to desire good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist things for those whom we love and according to our utmost ability to endeavour to accomplish them and what good things to conversion and salvation and therefore while we neglect these we do but indeed hate whom we may pretend to love Many Parents they think they love their children why because they cocker their children and provide well for them as to the world and allow them high fare and fine cloaths and it may be can tumble in silver and gold but such in the mean while neglecting their souls and the means appointed by God for their conversion and salvation they shew plainly Peremptores potiús quám parentes they do not in truth love them but rather hate them and so will be found and accounted of at the last day And how well may such Jud. 16. 15. children say to their Parents what Delilah sometimes said to Sampson in another case How can ye say ye love us when your hearts desires and prayers are no more to God for us that we may be converted and sav'd when you neglect our souls our jewel our darling our principal one and take no more care of our chief good our spiritual and eternal good of that which if we should fall short of it would avail us nothing though you should all your days gather Pearls for us or could procure the gain of a whole world for us The Lord commands Thou shalt Levit. 19. 17. not hate thy brother in thy heart and how is this prevented Thou shalt in any wise rebuke him and not suffer sin upon him so that not to rebuke not to use those ways and means appointed by God for to reclaim and reduce thy brother when he sinneth is to hate him for thereby the guilt of his sin is still suffer'd to be upon him to his soul's ruine which to suffer as it is hatred in thee so the sorest judgement upon thy brother 7. Consider others unserviceableness till they be converted they are altogether unprofitable Rom. 3. 12. Ezek. 15. 4 5. like that Vine branch in Ezekiel that was meet for no work and that girdle hid in Euphrates that was good for nothing and like Salt Jer. 13. 10. Matth. 5. 13. which has lost its savour and is fit for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot And should we not do our utmost to get others out of such an estate that is so unprofitable wherein they neither can please God nor truly profit themselves or others wherein all their works even their best are but dead works and their Omnis vita infidelium peccatum whole life sin and is this an estate to let them lie in to let them alone in God forbid That 's very observable to this purpose which Paul says of Onesimus viz. that in time past i. e. all the Philem. 10. 11. while before his conversion he was unprofitable but after his conversion then profitable profitato Philemon yea to Paul himself before profitable to none neither to himself nor others but now to all to master and Minister and now he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicit nunc taâ—â—messe planc qualis vocatur answers his name which he never did before to which the Apostle seems to allude 8. Beasts if fallen or strayed and so in danger Exod. 23. 4. Deut. 22. 4. to perish were to be help'd and reduc'd and not men not souls does God take care of beasts would he have us keep them from perishing and not much more men souls but shall we let them alone in the errours of their minds and in the corrupt practices of their lives to stand or fall sink or swim live or dye no matter what what uncharitableness cruelty and hard-heartedness would this argue c. and therefore upon all these considerations let us lay out our selves to the utmost as to so good and blessed a work making use of all possible ways and means as may further the same as instructions exhortations admonitions reprehensions exemplary conversations c. and with and to all let us be sure to joyn our fervent prayers and earnest supplications for unless the Lord comes in with his help and makes successful what we do what can it avail if the 2 Kings 6. 27. Gen. 9. 27. Lord help not as that King said to the woman how should we help God shall perswade Japhet c. It is of God that sheweth mercy and Rom. 9. 16. as God gave to every man else had we the wisdom of Angels what would it avail without God and therefore we must address our selves to the most High and cry unto him who as he hath performed this for us can also for others but of this I have occasionally spoken something before and therefore shall not enlarge here and as we should endeavour this unto all as occasion serves so more especially to our relations and those whose good we have stronger obligations upon us than ordinary for to seek as we who are Ministers whose proper work in a more special manner it is in reference to our people and so Parents in reference to their children and all relations in reference to each other yea if children be converted themselves and their Parents as yet unconverted they should in a special manner indeavour their conversion onely what they do they are to do in an humble way and to mannage it after a reverent manner as beseems that honour that is due to Parents from their children It is controverted by some whether children may not be instrumental of greater benefit to their Parents than they have receiv'd from them and certainly if they prove instrumental as to their conversion they may for to be instrumental of regeneration and a spiritual birth is far better than of generation and a natural birth and to be instrumental to an happy glorious and eternal life than to a
onely asleep but dead and yet quickened and not onely dark but darkness it self in the abstract and yet made light in the Lord. If sinners indeed had never heard of any great sinners that God had turned again from their sins to himself or that it was not better with them then than before when they served their lusts they might have the more plea but there are many presidents in sacred Writ and if with mourning and humiliation thou turnest with them thou shalt be happy with them We find in the 15. of Luke that the Prodigal there went a great way off from his father he took his journey not into some neer adjacent parts but into a far countrey and there he spends all makes himself a meer bankrupt so that he falls to feed Swine and feeds on the husks that the Swine did eat and yet could not have his belly full of them neither and yet this Prodigal he is brought to himself and brought home again to his father and there he is kist and embrac'd and has the best his fathers house can afford How exceeding far had Manasseh turn'd away from God yea how exceedingly had he turn'd against him we scarce read of any that ever did worse read 2 Chron. 33. from the 1. v. to the 10. 2 Kings 21. from the 1. v. to the 17. It is said he used inchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards and wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger he made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom c. and yet Manasseh is made a Convert and turn'd again to the Lord the Lord he turns to Manasseh and turns Manasseh again to himself So what a persecutor was Paul he breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord c. Acts 9. 1 2. yea as himself says he was exceedingly mad against them Acts 26. 11. and yet this persecutor is turned to be a Preacher and to prosecute what he formerly sought to destroy Mary Magdalene had seven Devils lodging Numerus certus pro incerto in her that is many and yet Jesus Christ casts them all out and makes that heart where so many Devils had lodged fit for himself to lodg in who had the seven Spirits of God and she who had been so vile and miserable he appears Mark 16. 9. first to and makes the first witness of his resurrection And such were some of you what 1 Cor. 6. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haeceratis quilibet such kind of things he does not say such men or women but such kind of things as if the Apostle knew not how to stile them nor what to call them and therefore he puts it in the Neuter Gender such kind of things O they were sad and strange kind of things indeed and yet of such kind of things God makes something of yea makes blessed things of but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God It matters not much whither or from whence we are fallen if the Lord undertake but to raise us nor whither we are wandered or Junius before his conversion is said to be an Atheist but afterward became very pious stiled the Glory of Leyden where we are wilder'd if he undertake but to reduce us nor how far we are turned aside or turned away if he undertake but to turn us again no matter what is the sickness if he be but the Physician and undertakes the cure he can do good of any one be it who it will that is very encouraging to poor sinners which he said to Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7. My grace is sufficient for thee it is sufficient for the greatest of sinners his accepting grace is sufficient and his sanctifying renewing grace is sufficient one is sufficient against all our unworthiness and the other is sufficient against all our uncapableness and unfitness one is sufficient to put God upon doing what is to be done and the other is sufficient for to do it one as to motive the other as to efficacy he can make dry bones live and is Ezek. 37. 5 6 7. Matth. 3. 9. able of stones to raise children to Abraham he can change condition and disposition pardon and purge justifie and sanctifie yea do every thing and perform all things And therefore let all even such as have turn'd farthest aside from God be encouraged to go unto God and to call upon him and cry unto him to perform all things for them for all things are of him and to Psal 57. 2. perform this for them to turn them again and cause his face to shine Say Lord thou commandest us to turn O do thou make us to turn it is thy precept that we should turn Lord according to thy promise give us grace for to turn Turn us and we shall be turned convert us and we shall be converted we have turned aside after the world and vanity and sin yea after Satan but O turn us again to thy self we have turned aside to our own ways and after our own lusts but O turn us again to thee and thy ways thou sayest Return ye back-sliding children and I Jerem. 3. 22. will heal your back slidings and Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God that thou mayest cause us and inable us to return for the way of man is not in himself it is not in man Jer. 10. 23. that walketh to direct his steps turn us therefore and we shall be turned and thou who givest us space to repent give us grace to repent and to turn to thee and that with a true hearty real and universal turn Lord every thing within us is turned from thee and is averse to thee yea is turned against thee and therefore do thou by thy grace cause all to turn again to thee mind will heart affections all within us and all without us that so we may not be half but whole Converts and our conversion may not be partial but total and universal of the whole man and from all evill and to all that is good Salvation is said to belong unto the Lord and his blessing Psal 3. 8. to be upon his people and let us beg that the Lord would thus save us and not onely us our selves but others also ours his people and that this blessing may be upon us all the blessing of turning us all again to himself and of causing his face to shine the blessing of saving conversion and of Divine favour and affection that the Lord would thus save and bless the Nation this Kingdom Church State Cities Towns Families houses hearts even with the great Gospel-blessing of Jesus Christ raised from the Acts 3. 26. dead in turning us all from our sins and iniquities to himself Lord thus bless the house of