recoilings and clashings of our will with our condition is a main hinderance unto our rejoycing in and acting Faith upon the Lord Jesus under a sad providence And the great reason why some persons are under such great dissatisfaction in their own spirits that they know not how to bear the troubles of their state is because their wills are not brought to their condition but they go about to bring their condition to their wills and when any thing considerable comes in upon them that doth not suit with their wills it causeth royls disquiets and disturbances of spirit and discomposure of heart and such a Soul will never rejoyce in Christ in an evil day Now Christians if you would get into the Life of Faith you must then bring your will to your condition be what it will own the disposing hand of God that makes the change whatever your change is and yield obedience to the Lord's will that hath the over-ruling power of your state and keep your spirits within the confines of the will of God otherwise a cross or a tryal in your outward condition will make a great alteration in the inward frame of your spirit I will give you a few Instances for the clearing of this Paul was a man that rejoyced and gloried in Christ Jesus when he had almost nothing else left him in this world many times his heart was made sad among the Churches of Christ that he came to make glad and as to losses who met with more says he I was in perils oft and in hunger and in distress and in nakedness and yet this man he glories in tribulations he counted it all joy when he fell into divers tribulations how came this about that this man was got thus into a rejoycing in Christ Jesus when the whole world frowned upon him He tells us Phil. 4.11 12. his will was brought unto his condition I speak not says he in a complaining way in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content for I know how to want and how to abound Says he if God empties me my will is brought to my condition I am willing to be emptied if the Lord will make me poor and take away what I have I am willing to be made poor my spirit is brought to my condition He that can live in the confines of the will of God will live comfortably and rejoyce in the Lord at all times Another instance for this is Job Job you know was a man that was sorely tryed I think as much as ever man was upon earth now Job's will was brought to his condition and hence came he to rejoyce in the Lord Job 1.21 Now Job's wife's spirit was not brought to her condition she could not tell how to be contented for she said unto him Chap. 2.10 Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God and die but he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil As if he had said It was the Lord that filled me and shall not the Lord empty me We were satisfied when the Lord was filling of us and shall we not be satisfied now the Lord is emptying of us Another instance is that of good old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 Samuel told him every whit and held nothing from him and he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Why if the Lord will strip me says he I am willing to be stript if the Lord will take away my Children and take away my comforts and break up my house It is the Lord I am contented if the Lord will do so let him my will is brought to my condition Let him do as seemeth him good So David 2 Sam. 15.26 But if he say thus I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him And thus it was with our Lord Jesus the greatest instance of all Father says he not my will but thy will be done Let my Father chuse for me I will not bring my will into competition with his If he will have me to drink off this Cup I will drink it if he will have me to lay down my life I will if he will have all my glory obscured it shall be so if he will have me a man of sorrows his will be done and not my will You do not know Christians what an alteration of heart and what an alteration of life this living in the will of God will make 8. Captivate and throw out all the suggestions of sense and reason upon the rising difficulties of your state If that reason speak over your hearts in a strait and sense give the ruling word over your spirits in your condition it will certainly cause you to repine and murmure and to sin against God Sense and reason are great enemies unto our peace and comfort If sense and reason have liberty to speak and to be heard in your hearts they will certainly lay your spirits under a discouragement and drive you off from the Lord. Thus it was with Israel when they were in the wilderness as soon as they were come out of Egypt where they had their Rivers and their Pools and their Ponds of Water and where they had their Flesh-pots and were fed to the full They came into a howling wilderness into a dry and barren place where they had no Wells of Water where there was no plowing nor sowing then they fell a murmuring and chiding of Moses and said Wherefore hast thou brought us hither into this place to slay us for it is not supposed to be rational that we can live here in this wilderness but if we abide here we must die Numb 11.4 5 6. And the mixt multitude that were among them fell a lusting and all the children of Israel wept again saying Who shall give us flesh to eat We remember the flesh that we ate in Egypt freely the Cucumbers and the Millons c. And Psal 78 19. Yea they spake against God They said Can God furnish a Table in the wilderness And Numb 20.12 Bebold there is no water for the Congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and they chod with Moses saying would to God we had died when our Brethren died before the Lord and why have ye brought up the Congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our Cattel should die there and wherefore have ye made us to come out of Egypt to bring us unto this evil place It is no place of sowing seed or of Fields or of Vineyards or of Pomegranats Here you see sense and reason spake over their condition and how did it lay their Souls under discouragement And if you do but review at your leisure the great murmurings of this people when they were in the wilderness it was something or other that sense and
A TREATISE OF Rejoycing in the Lord Jesus in all Cases and Conditions Wherein is manifested 1. What the Lord Jesus Christ is to and doth for Believing Souls which may be a constant ground of their Joy and Rejoycing 2. What are the grounds of that Darkness which is upon Believers about their Interest in Christ hindering this Rejoycing 3. What Believers should do in the interim until they can have the evidence of their Interest clear 4. How Souls may know their Interest in Jesus Christ Together with A Christians Hope in Heaven in one Sermon and Freedom from Condemnation in Christ in two Sermons being the last Preached By Robert Asty late Minister of Jesus Christ in Norwich Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce LONDON Printed by Tho. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. TO THE Congregational Church of Christ In the City of Norwich Dearly Beloved IT is much to be lamented in any day if many of the righteous are taken away by death Isa 57.1 as being signal of evil to come more when many Eminent Ministers of the Gospel are so removed whereby Vision faileth and most of all when the Sin of a People and impending Judgment threaten their being benighted and no prospect is given of others to fill up the places of those who are transplanted to Eternity I know you cannot but have many searchings of heart for your deep share in this matter of Lamentation the Lord having in so short a measure of time called home to himself from among you so many faithful Teachers as that Spiritual man Mr. Armitage Judicious Mr. Allen and now this Laborious Mr. Asty who served you in the Gospel But it is some matter of refreshment that they being dead yet by their Printed Labours they still speak to you It was the earnest desire of some amongst you that the ensuing Sermons of Mr. Robert Asty might be Published they were taken from his mouth by the Pen of a Ready Writer and not polished by his own hand yet may be exceedingly useful to all for the promoting of Faith Obedience and Comfort Indeed the chief purport of this Treatise is to raise the Joy of those who are interested in Christ and that in every state and condition It directeth unto the right Object of Joy the Lord and so to an everlasting ground of Rejoycing I shall add a few words of Counsel to you for whom I have a great respect 1. Improve the remembrance of those Gospel Truths which you heard from the mouths of your Ministers now at rest Their Labours were not intended by the Lord only for a present relief to your Souls during their speaking but for afterward Rev. 3.3 Remember how thou hast Received and Heard and hold fast Beware of losing or growing indifferent as to the practical owning those Gospel Principles which you have been grounded in be tenacious there hold them fast for Christ addeth If thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee 2. Keep up lively Affections towards God when your Gospel-Ministers are withdrawn from you When David was exiled from the Ordinances of God yet then had he the most earnest pantings of Soul after Enjoyments of God Psal 42.1 2. 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee Beware of coolings in Affection to the Institutions of Jesus Christ when you want them and let nothing short of God satisfie when you enjoy them Beware of leaving your first love Rev. 2.4 5. 3. Maintain frequent Spiritual Communion each with other when some Gospel Administrations are wanted This is prescribed as a means for the prevention of Declinings or Departures from God Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day Daily Converses each with other duly managed may not only preserve from Spiritual Decaies but quicken Affections and blow up the spark of your graces into a mighty flame 4. Wait uncessantly in Prayer for the Return of God's Ark to you The less you have of Preaching the more should you be in Praying and others for you that Gospel-Light may shine among you as in former daies and the Answer will rejoyce many and should grieve none for what hurt can it be to any real Christian that Christ is Preached to others I shall only add 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you So prayeth he who is Yours in the Lord Jesus Sam. Petto Octob. 23. 1681. SERMON I. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation OF the Stock and Parentage of this Prophet we have no clear account in Scripture It may be implicitly to hint unto us that we should alwaies look more to the Message than to the Messenger and that nobleness of birth and greatness among men do not greaten the Word of God Indeed Epiphanius tells us with some confidence that this Prophet was of the Tribe of Simeon and that he lived in the time of the Babylonish Captivity but there is but little grounds for this conjecture The time also of this Prophet's Prophesying is very uncertain Some Hebrew Writers do expresly tell us that he lived in the time of the Reign of King Manasseh and there is some probability for this assertion but however this is clear that he comes from the Lord of Hosts he was his Prophet and he speaks in his name in much power and plainness to this people not fearing the face of man and spares not to deal closely with that incorrigible Spirit that was among them who had slighted the Lord's Message that was delivered by his Predecessors before him and was now near unto destruction Whether it was in the time of the Reign of Manasseh or any other King modern Expositors are very modest in their conjectures and apprehensions not seeing the thing clearly and absolutely determined in Scripture but this is certain it was at that time when God was about to raise up that bitter sharp cruel fiery fierce enemy the Chaldeans to come out against this people as you may see chap. 1. v. 6. It was at that time when God had born so long with their provocations that the time of his patience was even almost expired It was at that time when their sins were so multiplied and encreased as that they were near unto ruin destruction and desolation was at the door Now this Prophet understanding the mind of God and seeing upon good grounds that the Decree was past against this people as one who was faithful unto their interest among whom and unto whom he was the Lords Prophet as one that would approve himself faithful unto the Lord he takes upon him the boldness to expostulate the case with God why he should suffer such a
wicked and vile Nation as the Chaldeans were to prevail and prosper against his own inheritance though they were sinful and unworthy and he cannot rest neither can he give God any rest until he hear something further of his mind The Lord is pleased to condescend to him in the beginning of the second chapter and to make answer to the anxiousness and earnestness of his Spirit in this great affair at the second verse And the Lord answered me and said Write the Vision and make it plain upon Tables that he that runs may read it Verse 3. For the Vision is for an appointed time at the end it shall speak and shall not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come and not tarry In short the Lord makes this Answer to him that though he did make use of the Caldeans as a Rod in his hand to scourge his own People with yet when he had done his work upon his Israel he would take his Rod and throw it into the fire that he would deal with all the Enemies of his People according to their desert Desolation might come for a while upon the Lord's People but they should be raised out of their ruins but utter desolation and destruction should come upon the Enemies of his People they should at length be brought down and suffered to rise no more In this third Chapter according to his name which signifies Wrestler he wrestles with God and is another Jacob that will not let the Lord alone until he bless him Habakkuk encompasseth God and in his prayer wrestling with him closed in upon him And he gathers up in this third Chapter the great Experiences that Israel had of God when he walked with them and led them by a strong hand n the wilderness and he urged those old Experiences that this People had of God upon God at this time how he had dried up the mighty waters and rode in Chariots of Salvation through the Sea for them and how he caused the Sun and the Moon to stand still until the Enemies of the Lord were cut off consumed And he gathers in upon God upon those Experiences waiting for the same power and the same wonderful appearances and actings for their deliverances out of the present and succeeding troubles that were or should come upon them as God had appeared for them and delivered them out of all their troubles of old And though he tells us that at the first sounding of the words of God's displeasure he was filled with shakings and with trembling and with quivering yet within a little time he recovered his Spirit and in the exercise of Faith upon God he glories rejoyces and triumphs in God alone in the midst of most sinking most discouraging Providences When indeed I heard saies he verse 16. my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entred into my bones But see what he saies in the 17th and 18th verses Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation He saw shakings coming upon the whole Earth that did even put the Foundations as it were out of course he saw God's Besom in his hand ready to sweep away all their comforts an East-wind was rising that would blow upon their Spring and make all their Spring-buds to blow off Well saies he let it be so or as ill as can be supposed to be or as ill as the creature can be as to its state in this world yet I have God on my side and all is well I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation This verse is a most noble strain of a heavenly Spirit in the high and constraining exercise of Faith upon God in a most dismal day of darkness The Prophet gets upon the Ruins of the Creature and rejoyceth in his whole Christ He gets upon the Ashes of his house that was burnt here and sings of his Building that cannot be burnt in Heaven He gets into his withered Vineyard and into his barren Fields and there sings The Lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place I have a goodly Heritage It seems a very strange speech that he should in the former part of his Prophecy be speaking of the sad dispensations of the Lord towards them and cap. 3.17 speak of great failures that were like to come upon them in reference to all their terrene comforts and enjoyments and yet speak of rejoycing and joying in the Lord It is a strange speech to talk of joy and rejoycing here where he had almost nothing in this world left him or supposed to be left him yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation We say of some men It is strange how they live their Trades fail and their Estates are gone and yet they bear up Why 't is a mystery how they live how they have wherewithal to defray their charges surely they have some secret friends that feed them and maintain them that their neighbours know not of Why after the same manner we may speak concerning the Lord's People They have enemies on every side and they are broken again and again and yet behold they live and their Joy none can take from them although they are numbered to sorrows and distresses every day Why my Text tells you the mystery of their living and of their living in joy and peace and comfort in the midst of all their losses troubles and discomfortures I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Saies the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.10 As sorrowful yet alwaies rejoycing c. This verse doth open something of the mystery of the verse that we have chosen to be our present Text As sorrowful yet alwaies rejoycing and while they seem to be poor they make many rich they seem to have nothing but yet indeed they possess all things yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy inthe God of my Salvation I will rejoyce in the Lord. The word in the Hebrew is a very full word I will rejoyce exceedingly in the Lord Or My heart rises like the Sea with surges when 't is enforced with the wind Or My heart is like a boiling Pot when it seetheth Or how shall I express it I will rejoyce in the Lord I will magnifie my self in God or make my boast of God in all disasters and under all discouragements I will joy in the God of my Salvation I will joy That word also is very full and it signifies in its grammatical sense my heart shall leap or skip for joy My heart shall sally forth in my God and take heart in the Lord who never fails I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation One of the Antients speaking upon this Text saith Although saith he all the Elements should threaten us and conspire and swear
Apostle Neither life nor death c. shall separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.38 The life of a Believer after grace is full of provocation and it may be he continues to provoke God as long as he lives There are provocations and unkindnesses in his way to the Lord all his life long till he come to the end of his daies and yet says the Apostle Life shall not separate Now this is a great ground of rejoycing that thou mayest look unto thy Jesus and see him alwaies loving of thee Thy waies are very uneven and unconstant and thou canst not keep in so good a frame as thou wouldest do yet still Jesus loves thee thou art full of wandrings still Jesus loves thee why here 's a love that marches through all opposings Secondly It is a Love that heightens under all our sorrows I mean as to the communications and dispenses of it or the actual and saving discoveries of it unto the Believer it heightens under all our sorrows that the greater our troubles are the more he loves and the more pitiful our state is the more compassionate he is he sees a Believer it may be lying under great distresses of body or in great Agonies of spirit why this draws out his love he loves thee more he is the more pitiful and the more compassionate to thee as he sees that thy state is a sorrowful state and thy condition a troubled condition and indeed the Believer never hath such discoveries and evidences of the love and kindness of God to him as when he is in a low condition Jesus Christ he did come you know into a wilderness to walk with Israel And let their troubles be never so many Jesus Christ would not leave them but the greater their troubles were the more was his love discovered and the more did his faithfulness to them appear and they never had such an eminent and signal appearances of God with them as when they were in their Wilderness Travels Jacob a holy man never had so much of God nor never had such a sight of God as when he was in a low condition Gen. 28.15 Behold I am with thee and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again to this Land and will not leave thee till I have done what I have spoken to thee of And Gen. 31.42 Here the good man was in a great strait he was afraid that he should be cut off Ay but says he The Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac he it was that rebuked thee yesternight He did charge thee that thou shouldest speak no hurt no evil unto me And when Israel Exod. 3. came into a groaning captivity and bondage when their bondage grew very great and unsufferable then did the Lord wonderfully discover himself v. 7. And the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their Task-masters and am come down to deliver them c. And Psa 34.16 The Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his Ears are open to their cry Here is a supposition of a condition that the Soul is in or may be brought into that makes it groan and cry Well for your comfort know that then in a special manner is the Eye of the Lord upon you and his Ear open to you And Psal 56.18 Thou tellest my wanderings c. Thou tellest my flights so some read it I have never an enemy to pursue me but the Lord takes notice of it and seeth whither the enemy hunts me and drives me he takes notice of the fury of the oppressor that comes out against me Thou tellest my wanderings and puttest my tears in thy bottle Every tear in a sorrowful condition Jesus Christ bottles up he keeps it in remembrance God's Peoples highest visits of favour and grace their choicest experiences and the most comfortable manifestations that they have of God have been when they have been in a low condition In prosperity there God many times lets the Soul walk more at liberty ay and he hath less of God in prosperity then in adversity there he is left to walk by his own light as I may so say and he bears up himself more upon his own comforts he stands then as it were more upon his own legs but in a weak condition and in an afflicted state in a time of trouble then is the Lord present discovering himself more fully to him and hence it is that the Saints have had their highest Joys in the prison and have been made to sing in the flames They have commended the sharpest distress that ever they were brought into in this world to be such as could never separate Christ and their Souls the love of your Jesus is so great that it will leap into a furnace to keep you company It is such as it will come into any strait and hazard to support and bear up your spirits Lo this is your friend your comforter that you have O believer to rejoyce in Jesus his heart is alwaies towards you and the love of his heart it heightens under all your sorrows let darkness grow upon your state the light of his love will shine through it and give you a light that you shall see your way let your disconsolations be never so many in the creature the love of Jesus Christ will countervail all for if the creature be taken away Jesus Christ will be the more and in the want of all things he will discover himself so as shall answer all to your Souls 3. As his love is such as heightens under all our sorrows so it abides unmixed in all seasons as it is a love that cannot be diverted so it is a love that cannot be adulterated but it is alwaies a sweet alwaies a pure love a heart easing a soul pacifying a soul rejoycing love none can throw any bitterness into the love of Jesus but it is alwaies a pure clear Chrystal love that hath no mixture in it it is not thus with the love of friends the sweetest the best the firmest friends that ever man had upon earth there is some mixture in their love They will sometimes rejoyce your hearts and sometimes they will make your hearts sad loving friends may sometimes frown and be churlish and unkind and you may go to them with your hopes and expectations and be disappointed you may soon weary out their love and they may discover such a mixture that their hearts seem sometimes to be alienated But it is not thus with the Lord Jesus but his love is alwaies a pure clear soul satisfying love there is light in him and no darkness at all there is sweetness in him and there is no bitterness at all There are as I said before things that may encourage you but there is nothing that will discourage you in Jesus no not unto eternity now believer this is
and shall further be glorified upon him and in him I have thought sometimes that many a poor Believer is just as Hagar was when her Bottle was empty and she sate down weeping that now she must die Why she need not fear famishing when there was a well of water near her that she and the Lad might drink their fill Ay but she did not know this well of water to be so near her So the Believer's state is safe and good ay but he does not know it Jesus Christ deals with his People as Joseph did by his Brethren he fed them and nourished them and comforted them a great while but would not discover himself to them that he was Joseph their Brother A Believer that hath an Interest may yet want the evidence of that Interest Thirdly Evidence of Interest is attainable and it is the will of God that Believers should give all diligence to make it clear It is possible that a Soul may come to see his own standing in Christ Jesus and know unto his full satisfaction and rejoycing in all conditions that he is interested in him Many Scripture-Saints have delivered it to us upon record that they did attain to an evidence of their Interest The Spouse in the Cant. did attain an evidence of her Interest Cant. 2.16 My Beloved is mine and I am his Job had a clear sight of his Interest Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth c. David had his Interest cleared up to him The Lord is my Light and my Salvation whom shall I fear Psal 27.1 Paul was assured of his Interest in Christ 2 Cor. 5.1 2. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven And it is the mind and will of God that Believers should give all diligence to clear their Interest 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates And 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and your election sure There is the command which implies a possibility of attaining it The possibility of it doth further appear in that the Father and the Son have both sent forth the Spirit to be a Comforter to be a Witnesser to those that are in Christ and his Office it is an Ensuring Office The Spirit he comes being sent forth by the Father and the Son into a poor heart that is full of fears doubts questionings and misgivings and doth settle this Soul in the stedfast belief of his abiding Interest in Christ Jesus and Christ's everlasting relation unto it This you may see Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God And Ephes 1.13 In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise And a considerable part of the Scripture is given forth to this end to clear up a Believers Interest in and Relation unto Christ that he may know his standing in him 1 John 5.12 13. There is Life in the Son says he and I write unto you that ye may know that ye have an Interest in the Son and so have life from him and this is that which the Lord's People have gloried in Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth ' us not c. And this is one end of that grand Ordinance of the Lord's Supper to seal and ensure Believers It is not only an Ordinance of Communion but it is a sealing Ordinance wherein the Lord Jesus does come and set upon the heart clearing up the Soul's Interest in himself and telling of him what he hath done for him and sealing all that hath past upon his Soul It is sometimes hereupon made a feast of fat things It is an Ordinance of Joy It is not a converting Ordinance but it is an Ordinance of comfort unto those that are converted being often owned by the Lord as a sealing Ordinance to confirm all that hath formerly past between God and the Soul So as an evidence of Interest is attainable and it is the will of God that Believers give all diligence to make it clear Fourthly The Interest and Relation that one Believer is owned in with Christ is not different in its nature and properties from what every Believer is owned in but all that are interested in Christ are equally interested in him If you speak of the Interest and Relation absolutely it is the same Jesus Christ is not more one believers than he is anothers Jesus Christ hath not given one believer a greater propriety in himself then he hath given another believer but all are equally interested in and related unto Christ all have an equal share in Christ All have an equal standing in Christ in point of interest and relation Indeed if you speak of interest and relation quo ad effectum as we say if you speak of it in reference to improvement and effects there indeed there is a difference between believer and believer One believer may improve Christ more than another and one believer may grow up in Christ more then another and one believer may in point of application and enjoyment possess more of Christ more of the Grace of Christ then another believer doth but they are all equally interested in and related unto Christ Jesus and the interest that one believer hath is as pleadable and as improvable as the interest that another believer hath Jesus Christ is equally a Head and a Husband and a Brother unto all his People and they are equally Members of the same body in point of interest though not in point of growth saies the Apostle in 1 Cor. 6.17 But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit It is spoken in general let him be an Apostle let him be an eminent Saint or let him be a meaner or more obscure Saint let him be a strong believer or let him be a weak believer if he be joyned to the Lord he is one Spirit alike joyned alike related and alike interested Fifthly The believers interest in Christ is abiding and can never be crush't it can never be broken it can never be violated but the evidence of interest though once obtained and seem clear may be obscured and darkned A Christians joy that is passing away it is transient but as to his interest that is inviolable and inseparable none can disunite Christ and the believer being once Gospelly joined So you have it spoken out by the Apostle Rom. 8.35 and so on Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No saies he they
full my Jesus is full though I am robbed he is not robbed though I have little or nothing Jesus Christ he hath all and Christ is all and all his fulness is mine Sense of Interest will raise your hopes and expectations upon Christ Jesus My friends now we look upon Christ and have low thoughts of him we look upon Christ and our expectations are not raised upon Christ We come to an Ordinance where Christ is discovered and displayed in the riches of his Death and in the glories of his Life and our hearts are not raised upon this why but because we have not the sense of our Interest The sense of Interest will raise your expectations and will comfort you against the thoughts of death Now Lord says good old Simeon lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.29.30 And says the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all The sense of Interest will lay you in against all fears of the approaching Judgment instead of being afraid of it it will make you long for it when the Soul comes to see and know and be ascertained that the judge of the Court is his friend and is in relation to him and hath loved him so as to lay down his life for him and hath ever been designing upon him in a way of love and grace this Soul will not be afraid to appear before him but will long for the day when he shall come to see his Jesus clothed with glory So as a clear evidence of interest in Christ obtained maintained and gospelly managed will be of singular advantage unto a Christian in his whole Christian course SERMON V. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation THe Proposition was this Doct. That there is enough in Jesus Christ alone for the Souls full rejoycing and triumph whatsoever his state and condition is in this world Now we proposed First To give you several introductory particulars by way of premise These we have dispatched And shall now proceed to consider what are the grounds of a believers darkness about his interest 2. It may be said in the second place if there be such solid and substantial grounds of joy in Christ Jesus for the believing Soul at all times and in all conditions what is the reason then that believers are so often in a dark dubious uncomfortable shattered state that they are seldom able in any stedfastness of spirit to look up unto Christ Jesus and glory in him Ans 1. I answer The darkness of the believers interest doth oft-times arise from a looking more unto such things in the examination of himself as argue the height of an interest then to such things as do discover the truth of an interest They do fix upon such things as are discoveries of a grown state in Christ when as they should fix upon such things as do discover an in-being in Christ they propose to themselves that corruption must be so and so brought under and mortifying work must be carried on to such a height or else they can have no grounds of their interest in Christ they propose to themselves such a measure of love as must be flaming to Christ at all times or else they think they have no love at all they think they must have such a measure of faith as to believe without staggering or else they have no part in Christ Now hereby they â—o ensnare their own Spirits and encrease their darkness But you should look more at such things as argue the truth of an interest then at those things that do argue the growth and improvement of that interest Secondly Darkness of evidence doth oft-times arise from the believers viewing his wants and overlooking his present receits Jesus Christ hath done a great deal for him and hath given out a great deal to him and hath made a wonderful change in him he cannot deny it if he be put to it but he overlooks all this and considers his present wants his weaknesses his short comings his failings his smallness of strength his staggering before a temptation the uncertainty of his Spirit in his walking with God and he bears the stress of his condition upon his present wants not considering what Jesus Christ hath already done nor considering that the work is gradually carried on Now Christians if you would lay your selves fair for the Spirits Gospel evidence in your souls then you must take in the encouragements of your condition as well as your discouragements you must not only insist upon your discouragements but consider also what Jesus Christ hath done and what a change he hath begun to work and what have been the movings of your souls towards him from divine influences upon your Spirits Thirdly The darkness of evidence or obscurity of interest do oft-times arise from the prevailings of sin in the heart upon which Christ suspends Sin that rallies that gathers head in the Soul that presses forward and the Soul gives way to the temptation and is overcome and upon it darkness does arise this was Davids case David was assured ay but sin prevailing in his heart drove him into the dark that all the joys of the holy Spirit were for a time taken from him 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And Nathan said unto David thou art the man thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul c. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight I have done all this for thee saith the Lord thou hast despised my commandment and done evil in my sight So the Lord Jesus speaks unto the Soul I have thus and thus manifested my self to thee I thought it not too much to take thee into communion with my self I thought it not too much to dandle thee upon my knee and to give thee the assurance of all that I have done for thee But thou hast wickedly departed from me and broken my Commandments and it is just with the Lord now to suspend prevailings of sin will cause a suspense You know that Absolom upon his rebellion was excluded for a while from his Fathers House he must not see his Fathers face just thus it is with a Soul when it hath turned aside into some way of folly after it hath provoked the Lord the Lord he hides himself from him he won't let him see his face he must not come into his presence to see him and to rejoyce in the light of his countenance as formerly he had done The prevailings of sin after Grace do many times cause a suspense Fourthly Darkness of evidence is occasioned from the Souls crediting the reports of Satan that lead him to deny what Jesus Christ hath done for him and in him upon undenyable demonstrations of the power of his Grace in his
Lord Jesus Christ and this works up his heart to the frame he is in and causeth him to move towards the Lord and makes him unsatisfied without Jesus Christ Now my Friends bring your Soul-state into an examination by this What change is there wrought in your hearts Do not eye your profession so much as your hearts Consider what work hath past upon your Souls Are you spiritually renewed Have you received Life from Christ Is there such a real spiritual Change wrought in your Souls as doth amount to a New Creature And have you received of the Divine Nature from Christ And is there a living Spring that moves your Souls in all your motions towards Christ If so it argues an Interest but if the Spring of your motion be from without it is a sign that it is artificial and not living and so it argues no Interest in Christ Jesus Secondly Interest in Christ mixeth concerns and may be discovered by reciprocal acts in a mutual Interest The Interest that the Soul hath in Christ is never alone but the Soul that is interested in Christ Jesus hath Christ Jesus interested in him so as the Interest is mutual and upon a mutual Interest concerns are mixt so as Christ and the Believer have one concern between them Christ is interested in the Believer's concerns and the Believer is interested in Christ's concerns The Believer concerns himself for Christ and Christ concerns himself for the Believer The Believer is interested in all that Christ is and in all that Christ hath and Christ is interested in all that the Believer is and in all that the Believer hath The Believer hath a room in Christ's heart and Christ hath a room in the Believer's heart The believer hath a propriety in Christ and Christ hath a propriety in the believer saies the Spouse I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine the interest is mutual Jesus is my Jesus saies the believing Soul Christ is my Christ he is my Saviour and I have an interest in his love and grace and I have an interest in his life in his power in his strength fulness and Christ he hath an interest in me also he hath an interest in my love he hath an interest in my heart and in my strength and in all that have and am and the interest being mutual mixing concerns it may be discovered by reciprocal acts that is as Christ makes over himself to the Soul so the Soul makes over himself unto Christ 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us he hath set his love upon us and there will be a reciprocal acting in the Soul towards him he will also set his love upon Christ Christ indeed is the first mover and so the glory must be given unto him but the interest it is mutual and the acting is reciprocal The Lord Jesus Christ he makes over himself to the Soul to be his The Soul he accepts of Christ when tendered and that is not all but he makes a return unto Christ devoting himself unto him yielding and resigning himself unto Christ to be his to walk in his waies Ezek. 16.18 there you may see the actings of Christ towards the Soul saies he I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness yea I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine I sware unto thee there the Lord did pass over himself to the believer Now there are reciprocal actings in the Soul towards him Deut. 26.17 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his waies and to keep his Statutes c. and the Lord v. 18. hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised here are reciprocal acts now Christian if thou wouldst make a discovery of thy state to know whether thou art interested in Christ Consider what interest Christ hath in thee what interest he hath in thy heart what a share he hath in thy affections and what a place he hath in thy life is there a kind of sacredness in thy heart for the Lord Jesus Christ in a holy resignation to him So there is in the Soul that is interested in Christ Cant. 4.12 A Garden enclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed She is under a peculiar dedication to and reserve for her Lord whom she hath devoted her self unto and is as a Garden enclosed Now Christian if thy heart lieth in common and there be no sacredness upon it and no secret reserve of it it speaks but sadly for thee but where there is a dedication unto Christ and if you can find Christ interested in you it is an evidence that your are interested in Christ for we can never move towards Christ till he first moveth towards us We can never choose Christ until Christ hath first chosen us If that thou canst find thy heart open for Christ and towards Christ it is a clear evidence that Christs heart hath been first opened to thee all our love to Christ is but the reflection of Christs love to us Mary did not call Raboni till Christ first called Mary So as if thou findest thy heart under a dedication to Christ that Christ is thy joy and delight and hath full rule and liberty in thy heart that thy heart is opened or at least opening and there are outgoings of Soul in thee towards the Lord Jesus Christ It doth argue that thou hast an interest in him and that he hath begun to draw thee that he hath cast the skirt of his Grace over thee and made thee his Thirdly The Soul that hath an interest in Christ is brought under the ruling power of Christ so as he chooseth him to be his only Lord. That Soul hath as yet no interest in Christ that despiseth the government of Christ that resuseth obedience unto the Scepter and dominion of Jesus Christ these you know are reckoned among Christs enemies that say concerning him this man shall not reign over us you have a clear Scripture for this Isaiah 63.19 We are thine How did it appear that they were the Lords Because it was implicitely and tacitly asserted that the Lord did bear rule over them And how did it appear that they were none of Christ's and Christ none of theirs Because he did never bear rule over them neither were they called by his name So then those that slight and despise the Scepter of Christ Jesus and refuse allegiance to this glorious King of Heaven are none of his Subjects and so have no part nor interest in him but now that Soul that hath an interest in Christ is brought under the rule of Christ and Christ doth exercise and display an over-ruling power in his heart that brings him unto his foot and he is enabled to live in a professed subjection to the Scepter and Kingly power of Christ Jesus upon this interest the Soul hath in Christ his
Spirit is satisfied in the government of Christ he is reconciled unto all the commands of Christ and he delights in the dominion of Christ and he freely and chearfully resigns up himself unto the Scepter of Jesus Christ Lord saies the Soul here I am rule over me Christ never interests a Soul in himself that he doth not bear the sway in its heart and command the powers of its Soul Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power When Jesus Christ makes a willing people that is displays the power of his Grace and brings home a Soul and gives it an interest in himself he subjects the heart unto his Government he makes the Soul freely willing to be ruled by the laws and by the Authority of Christ Jesus no laws seem so desirable unto him as the laws of Jesus no rule no Scepter so pleasant as the Scepter of Christ and all the commands of Christ are chosen by him as being equal righteous holy pleasant and good the Spirit is reconciled to Christ Jesus in the whole of his Gospel Government over the heart of the Christian My Lord and my God saies Thomas these alwaies go together My God and also my Lord. And this particular I ground upon and gather out of my Text he is become the God of my Salvation how shall I know that He is my Lord saies the Prophet I will rejoice in the Lord the title Lord notes Dominion and Soveraignty Now the Soul that is interested in Christ rejoyceth in the Dominion and Soveraignty of Christ Jesus I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation The inference that is drawn from this Scripture for our present purpose is this that the Soul that is interested in Christ will rejoyce in the dominion of Christ or doth receive Christ Jesus as a Lord and as a Lord doth rejoyce in and under him Indeed there may be much weakness in his obedience I don't say that he doth exactly and to a tittle walk up to the rule to fulfill every command of God No I know there is a great deal of weakness in the strongest believer upon earth and through the strength of corruption and the violence of temptation he may sometimes be fovled and born down ay but when he is so still his heart is right and he loves the commands of Christ that he cannot come up to and he honours the rule of Christ and to his utmost makes way for the sway of the Scepter of Christ in his Soul though he may be born down by temptation yet his love remains still unto every command of Jesus Rom. 7.25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Saies Paul I am born down I am overcome but I don't justify my self herein but I bless God saies he that my heart is secured my love doth not abate I have not waved a command through my dissatisfaction in it I have not been disobedient to a command because I judged it unreasonable or were dissatisfied in it No but my heart that stands right for those commands that I cannot reach in my life with my mind I my self serve the law of God So Romans 1.9 saies the Apostle For God is my witness whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son so as you see the Spirit that stands clear and is under a constant and full engagement though it may be the life doth not discover that evenness that it should with my Spirit saies he I serve the Lord. It may be said in the case of the temptation of a believer as was said concerning the Spouse I sleep but my heart awâ—kâ—th thus it is with many a poor Soul he may be brought into a sleepy condition and he staggers and stumbles in his way he finds it so difficult but saies he while I sleep my heart awaketh his declensions do not arise from dissatisfaction but his love is reconciled to the command still and he honours those precepts that he is not able to come up to Now Christian bring your condition to this touchstone if thou hast a heart that doth slight the government of Christ and if thou canst not bear the strict rule and dominion of Christ Jesus over thy Soul if that thou hast thy exceptions against the Scepter of Christ Jesus being lifted up in thy heart it is a sign that thou art not yet interested in Christ thou never didst bear rule over them they were not called by thy name I pray remember that that rule that thou despisest is the only saving rule and that power that thou refusest to stoop to is the only saving power the only blessed and blessing power But on the other side if thou canst find that thy heart is open unto the Lord Jesus Christ as he is the Lord as he is invested with all power as the Father hath given all Authority unto him if thy heart be open to him and thou dost love his Laws in their holiness and strictness and his Government and Rule for its closeness and if way be made in thy Soul for the Throne of Christ to be set up it argues thou art interested in Christ for those that are Christ's doth the Lord bear Rule over Fourthly The Soul's Interest in Christ may be known by the distance that the heart standeth in from the power and interest of his former state that Christ Jesus hath overturned The Soul before his coming over to Christ was under the Rule of another Lord and was in subjection to another Interest to the power and interest of sin and that bore sway in his heart and commanded his life he yielded up himself a servant to sin and devoted himself unto the service of sin This the Apostle speaks out Rom. 6.16 17. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine which was delivered to you And in 19 and 20 verses you have it again And says he When you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness He doth plainly shew that they were formerly servants to another Interest they were engaged in the service of sin they acted sin as in a service as a servant observes and respects and obeys his Master so doth the natural heart observe respect and obey sin and it is his Lord it hath the commanding power of his Soul and it is a most pleasant service to the sinner though he will find it a sad service in the latter end yet it is a most pleasant and a most delightful service therefore a sinner's walking in sin and gratifying the lusts of the flesh is called his pleasure the pleasures of
hate that do I if then I do that which I would not I consent unto the law that it is good c. The old man it was rising and rebelling in him and did improve all its strength and its whole interest in his heart to draw him aside now saies he at this time when I was under those shakings then my heart was in the way of Christ and I consented unto the law that it was good that which I did not was that which I would do And though I found a law in my Members that was warring against the law of my mind yet saies he I delight in the law of God after the inward man there is my delight the inclinations the habitual inclinations of my Soul were not changed nor turned but the secret workings and breathings of my Soul are towards the Lord Jesus Christ And thus it was with David David had many temptations and rubs in his way that had like to have turned him out of the way but yet saies he Psal 119.20 My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times and Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him And saies the Prophet Isaiah 26.9 With my Soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early the night season was a dark time and it is probable his Spirit was very much endangered at that time by temptation dark times are times of temptation and his Soul at that time was almost overwhelmed in the conflicts of his Spirit with the divisions of his heart in the night season Now saies he when it was thus darkness about me temptation arose upon me with my Soul saies he have I desired thee Then did my heart stand clear for Christ though I could not discover my self as I would Now Christians if you would make a judgment of your own state do you fix your eye upon your hearts and consider how they stand and secretly observe the habitual inclinations of your hearts do you as the expression is Acts 11.23 Cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart Those that are interested in Christ do with purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord. There is not only some good thoughts rise in their hearts now and then they have not only some scant desires after Christ or some sudden motions upon their Spirits towards him but the bent of their heart is towards Christ at all times the breathings and longings of the heart is after Christ Now those that are under such an influence from above as to secure the habitual inclinations of their Souls for Christ against all contrary invitations and drawings these are such as have indeed an interest in Christ and this is the influence of the interest on Christs part upon your Souls Seventhly A Soul that is interested in Christ is so concerned in the concerns of Christ as dishonours unto and dishonourable reflections upon the Lord Jesus Christ bear hard upon his Spirit My Brethren the Souls interest in Christ is a oneing interest an interest that makes you one with Christ and the Soul will be a sharer and partner with Christ in all his dishonours in all his griefs and in all his afflictions Jesus Christ speaks sometimes of being wounded and of being grieved and of being offended Now the Soul that is really interested in Christ is offended where Christ is offended The Soul that is really interested in Christ will grieve over for whatsoever doth grieve Christ either in himself or others he will be wounded with that which doth wound Christ and will mourn over that which is an occasion or matter of mourning unto Christ and doth bear heavily upon his Spirit that which doth reflect dishonour upon the name and glory of the Lord Jesus I remember what was spoken of our Lord Jesus in reference unto his Father and the concerns that he was oned in Psal 69.9 For the zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me both these passages are applied unto Christ Jesus in the New Testament John 2.16 17. there you may see the first passage applyed unto him And his disciples remembred that it was written the zeal of thine House hath eaten me up Jesus Christ you know came into the Temple that was his Fathers House of Worship and there he saw his Father dishonoured there he saw his Fathers Worship corrupted and adulterated and defiled and he saw there great reflections upon his Fathers glory and he was even eaten up with it his holy zeal and passion for his Fathers glory that he was concern'd in did carry him out even beyond himself to make him disregard and neglect himself The zeal of thine House hath eaten me up And saies he the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me This you have applied to Christ Rom. 15.3 For even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen on me Jesus Christ he took up sin and he bore that sin upon himself that was a dishonour unto his Father and that was a wound unto his Father and that his Father said he was loaden and pressed with as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves he took up this dishonour and reproach and bore it upon himself he was wounded for our transgressions he was afflicted and chastened for our sins the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me Christ he came and he mourned over sin and he expressed the sorrow of his heart for that whereby his Father was dishonoured now the Soul that is really interested in Christ is so oned with Christ as he hath fellowship with him in his dishonour and in his reproaches and in all his sufferings he is a partner with Christ in his griefs he is a griever with Christ and a mourner with Christ and a complainer with Christ if there be any thing in his heart or waies that do offend Christ he is offended and disturbed with this as soon as he espies it and he cannot bear it because it offends the Lord Jesus that he is oned with and this is that that makes true Christians walk up and down with such sad hearts what is the matter Why there is something that they have espied in their hearts that is offensive to Christ and they cannot bear it and know not how to get rid of it and there is something in their walk and conversation that doth reflect upon the honour of the Lord Jesus and their Souls are wounded with it And as to the sins of others that which is a reflection upon the name upon the honour and glory of Christ lyes hard upon their Spirits saies David Psal 119.136 Rivers of water run down mine Eyes because they keep
these things that we have laid down in truth though not in high degrees and measures you may be comforted Many Persons they wrong their case and so darken themselves thereupon by looking more unto the height of those things that are notes of evidence then the truth of them Now examine your selves I say by the truth of these things though you cannot yet find that you have overcome temptation that you have got into an holy triumph over temptation yet if that you can find that under all contrary inclinations and drawings the habitual frame and inclination of your heart is secured for Christ you may be comforted though you cannot find that you are able to do much towards the repairing of the glory of Christ in your place yet if you have a heart that is deeply affected with the dishonour that is done to Christ because Christ is dishonoured thereby you may be comfotted Though Christians you can find in your searches but very little of Christ in your hearts yet if your Souls are restlesly carried out after Christ in all your seekings of him that you must compass something of Christ or you cannot be satisfied this seeking heart and restless Spirit after Christ is a note of evidence to you and though you cannot live up to Christ as you would yet if your preparations and reformations be heart-preparations and heart-reformations that the work is begun and going on in you this may be matter of comfort to you and so you may go on to all the other particulars that I have given you look more to the truth of them then to the height and degree of them if you would upon them come to a right understanding of your present state Secondly If upon a search you can find but some of those things that have been given you as evidential of an interest you may be comforted though for the present you cannot speak of them all upon a particular experimental sense The Lord he speaks unto one Soul by one word and he speaks unto another Soul by another word and we don't know what particular word the Lord will make use of nor what particular of all these the Lord hath singled out and made of use advantage and comfort unto any of you but if the Spirit of the Lord hath singled out any one of them and given you a hint of interest thereupon you have cause to rejoice in the Lord and if the Lord hath given you but the least hint of his love and the least intimation by any word of Grace of your interest let not this be lookt upon as a small thing Take heed of refusing the consolations of the Lord when they are offered to you remember him of whom it is said Psal 77.2 My Soul refused to be comforted Thirdly Know this that full assurance and clear evidence of interest is gradually brought into the heart as the light of Grace comes in gradually so also does the light of comfort which is a light unto your Souls to discern Christ and to take comfort in him now the Lord it may be at first let in a little light as it were through the cravis don't set light by this thus doth the Lord work he gives in a little light at one time that doth as it were put the Soul between hope and fear and by and by he comes in with a little more light and then with a little more light and so gradually he carries on the Soul until he hath led him unto a clear evidence and given him a full assurance of interest so as if you have but yet the day star in your hearts don't despise it if you have yet but the beginnings of the light of consolation don't judge this small though comparatively to what some do enjoy it is but small yet let it not be small in your apprehensions but know that the light of interest gradually comes in encreases I may liken the light of interest unto the Prophets Cloud that was at first but like a mans hand and it was a great way off there was some hope of rain upon it but they did not know what would come of it but this was the beginning of such a Cloud that brought abundance of rain So thou hast Christian a little light that is glimmering in thy heart that sets thee it may be between hope and fear well let not this be small to thee for though for the present thou canst not come to a full assurance yet thou dost not know what this will come to thou doest not know what a growing light this is and how much it may encrease in thy heart Now unto those that have as yet but a little light in their Souls some small hopes through grace of an interest but they dare not positively conclude nor they dare not absolutely deny they have not that full assurance that some have neither are they left wholly in the dark unto these Souls I would speak something by way of encouragement and something by way of direction First By way of encouragement to those that have a little hope through grace and have some small glimmerings of their interest and some buddings of their evidence though it is not yet fully blown let such hearts consider First That if thou hast any thing that is a note of evidence or gives thee hope through grace any thing I mean that is in truth know that though it be never so small yet thy interest in Christ is as great as his is that dwells in the height of assurance my friends your interest in Christ is not the less because your evidence of interest is very small but your little evidence that is in truth or this little word of grace that the Spirit hath spoken that gives you some hopes about your condition doth give you as full an interest in Christ as he hath that hath the highest measures of assurance in this world The young Child that can but run to his Father and cry Father Father he hath as full an interest in and relation to his Father as the grown Child that in understanding and judgment is able to reflect upon and improve the relation and so it is with thy Soul in thy union with Christ though thou canst but look up unto the Lord and cry unto him that he would help thee though thou canst but just cry Father though thou art not able to improve thy interest as some others can yet if upon the least hint of grace from the Spirit thou art able to cry Father thy interest is as good and as great as that Souls that is able to rejoyce in Christ in full evidence Christ is yours and you are Sons you are heirs as well as others and you have the same Spirit and the same Fountain of Grace to go to under the smallness of the evidence of your interest Secondly You are under the same preservable maintainable care that those are that dwell upon the top of
assurance Jesus Christ doth not take the less care of you because your interest is very dark and cloudy for the present but his care over you is the same he is alwaies opening his watchful eye upon you and he is alwaies doing for you alwaies defending of you see what he saies Isaiah 40.11 He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd he shall gather the Lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young O alass they are scarceble to believe that they are Lambs in the flock of Christ they would hope so and they dare not wholly deny it but that Christ hath a part in them and hold of them but it is all they can do to say so but be it so they are under as much care as any He will carry them in his arms he will gently lead those that are with young Christ Jesus in one single act doth equally respect all those that are interested in him be their evidence of interest more or less clearer or more clouded Thirdly Again The comprehensions of Christ upon the union are not proportioned unto but do far exceed our apprehensions of him in the union Christ doth not say I will be unto you as you are unto me and as you do so will I do and as you be so will I be and according to your apprehensions so will I be unto you but he does exceeding abundantly for us above our faith and above our hope it may be we can but say unto him Lord help and though we are so weak he will not do the less but he will prosecute and manage the interest on his part upon your Souls though your apprehensions may be very small of him you have a very full satisfying Scripture for this Eph. 3.20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we are able to ask or think according to the power that worketh in him So that Jesus Christs actings towards us and dealings with us and comprehendings of us are not proportioned to our apprehensions of him not according to our faith and hope and not according to our prayer but saies he he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think and that according to the power that worketh in him So that though you cannot at all times make faith of that power yet that power is working and though your apprehensions be very small yet the comprehensions of Christ are very great it is in Heaven that we shall know as we are known we are fully known here but our selves know but in part Fourthly The weaknesses discovered upon your interest and the provocations given will be covered and forgiven by the Lord Jesus in the strength of the love of his relation to you or interest in you The Soul that is in relation is not able in a clear Gospel way to live up unto his standing in Christ Jesus but he oft-times walks very dishonourably unto his interest and very unbecomingly to his hopes of evidence well Soul though it be thus the Lord Jesus Christ will display such love on his part as shall cover and forgive all the Father will not disinherit his Child because he doth provoke him and because he doth grieve him by many foolish and unchildlike acts but the love of the relation on the Fathers part will forgive the Child The Husband won't give a bill of divorce to his Wife because he finds failings in her waies but the love of the relation doth bind him and influence him to cover all her weaknesses and continue his kindness to her if we have a member that is full of pain and puts us to a great deal of smart and puts us much out of order we do not presently call for the cutting off of this member but we bear with the pain and smart remembering that it is a member now thus it is my friends between the Lord Jesus Christ and you though there are weaknesses discovered in your waies yet he will remember that you are interested in him and though he meet with provocations from you yet he will remember that you are his Children and that you are in relation and that will engage him to cover and forgive all though I speak not this to give any a liberty to indulge themselves and I hope none of you will abuse discoveries of grace so I am sure an honest heart will not but for your terrour if your temptation be thereunto know that though Jesus Christ will not proceed in the utmost of his displeasure against you to give you a bill of divorce yet there are rebukes and there are frowns that are as bitter as death that the Soul may meet withal from Christ upon his high provocations though we don't presently cut off a member that is full of pain yet we may see cause to send for the Surgeon to make an incision and so verily will Jesus Christ be forced to do in your hearts that give your selves such an allowance Psal 89.31 32 33. If his Children forsake my laws and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail c. Fifthly Know that your interest in Christ is not dissolvible as the evidence of your interest is loosable Christian it may be the Lord hath singled out some word that he hath made use of by his Spirit to give you some hopes in and about your interest in and relation unto Christ I would hope that all hath not been spoken to you in vain but if the Lord hath given you some hint by his word of your interest possibly within a little while all this will be lost again and thou maist be as much in the dark as ever thou wert since thou camest into Christ well Christ will not disown thee and Christ will hold thee up that thou shalt never be left to disown him still thy interest is sure in Christ Jesus though light is coming and going in thy Soul and thy evidence is sometimes coming and sometimes going yet know that thy interest is firm and inviolable Sixthly Thy present interest in and relation unto Christ in a state of Grace is a certain and infallible pledge of thy future possession of Christ in glory Christian thou hast now a little hope through grace O make much of it thou dost not know what is in it There is not only matter of consolation in it but it contains a pledge of Heaven and of thy full possession of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory for ever therefore saith Christ He that believeth on me hath everlasting life believing that gives the interest thereby the Soul is united to Christ now upon the union he hath everlasting life he hath the pledge of it his union is the
pledge of it and he is reserved for eternal life and he is going on to perfection to enjoy eternal life The Lord is in grace and by grace fitting of him for a glorious enjoyment of himself for ever now these things are for thy comfort in thy present condition whilest the light of evidence is but glimmering in thy heart Secondly Some few things briefly I shall give you by way of direction First Have you the least intimation of the Lords love to you and of your standing in his love be thankful for these small appearances of light in your Souls I say be thankful Christians there is a great deal in a little and small word of evidence or in a small word of hope Therefore take every hint that the Lord gives and wear it with thankfulness bless his name for it that is the way to have it encreased Secondly Joy and triumph in the Lord upon the present evidence that you have living up to it I say live up to the light that you have in a holy joy and rejoycing in Christ Jesus get into the Prophets Spirit and into his frame here in the text To joy in the Lord and to rejojce in the God of your Salvation and learn Christian to live up unto a small measure of assurance and that is the way to have a greater Thirdly Acknowledge all sense of interest to be given forth in a way of grace I say acknowledge that not only the grace of your union but also the light and comfort of your union is dispensed in a way of free grace The Lord is pleased to give out all manifestations of interest in Christ in a way of grace John 14.22 Judas saith unto him not Iscariot Lord how is it that thou manifestest thy self unto us and not unto the world He must speak this upon a reflect act or else he could not speak with that confidence Lord that thou hast manifested thy self to us and not to others this is to be acknowledged unto free grace Fourthly Have you a little light of your Interest do you gather in upon Christ from that little that you have for more Christians though you have but a little light for the present and are weak in assurance for the present yet there is a full measure of assurance to be given out There is not only the Soul's comfort from a reflect act by the light of the Lord upon his own grace that is wrought but there is the immediate Testimony of the Spirit that is ready to be given out which is a Witness not argumentative or in a way of argumentation but it is a Witness and Evidence that is given in by and in the immediateness of his own presence in the heart of the Believer Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God He bears witness in some immediate act in the Soul It is a clear undeniable soul-satisfying Divine Testimony that the Spirit gives in the Soul that resolves all its doubts and clears his whole Interest and settles him in the full enjoyment of the Lord Jesus and enables him to act upon it And then Fifthly and lastly Have you a little evidence of your Interest for the present Christian do you improve this little unto the comforting of your Souls in Christ in all straits and unto a living upon him in all the necessities of your present condition Jesus is yours and you are interested in him the Lord hath given you some little hope of this this hope through grace Christians should be improved by you upon all occasions you should run out unto the Lord Jesus and have recourse to him and venture upon him you should glory in him and live upon his fulness and rely upon his power and faithfulness Jesus that is so full is your Jesus and Jesus that is so free is your Jesus and Jesus that is so faithful is your Jesus you have some sight of this and some hope of this through grace the Lord now expects that you should come and live upon him in all conditions and comfort your Souls in him in all disconsolations when you are weak and when you are tempted and when you are tryed and when you meet with discouragements from without then to retire to the Lord Jesus and act Faith upon him SERMON IX Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation I Shall now proceed to help and direct those Souls that are able to reflect upon their own Interest and standing in Christ that they may live upon Christ and glory in him in all conditions and under all changes of Providence that though they have none else though they have nothing else in this world but the Lord Jesus Christ to live upon their hearts may be full of joy and comfort And before I come particularly to speak unto this I shall premise and propose several considerations that may help to clear the way to what we design to speak to and to encourage your hearts unto a living upon and glorying in Christ when you have nothing else to rejoyce in First Consider that all the comforts of an outward condition are held at great uncertainties and continued at the soveraign pleasure of the great disposer of Heaven The Lord hath not fixt us unchangeably in the enjoyments and comforts of an outward state but he reserves a soveraign power in his own hand to remand from us what at a time he was pleased to command down upon us And all the comforts of an outward condition they are mutable and we are exposed unto a variety of changes of condition in this world All our outward comforts they are exposable unto the spoil and the very foundation of our Joy in this world is avertable He that hath to his own apprehension a mountain that stands strong that he thinks can never be moved is exposed to the soveraign alterations of the great Ruler of Heaven that he may have his mountain overturned in a moment and he that is lifted up on high and seems to himself to be so upon the advance that he shall never fall The Lord can suddenly like unto Job lay him in the dust We are full one day and the Lord may empty us before the next we are rich to day and we may be poor before to morrow we are comforted to day on every side and we may be left naked destitute and broken before to morrow As to our Stocks they are losable and spendable and as to all Lands and Inheritances they are saleable and morgageable uncertain riches they make to themselves wings and flee away they have the wings of fire or the wings of Thieves or the wings of this providence and the other to flee away with The Lord he suffers one man to run away with so much of such a man's estate and suffers another to run away with another part of his estate that those that were
nothing but ruines that when he returned he found nothing but emptiness a heap of Ashes What does David do then he exercises Faith upon Jesus Christ and encouraged himself in the Lord his God And this is the exercise of Faith that the Prophet speaks of in our Text and that which he is driving Believers up to When the Figg-tree shall not blossom c. What is here left here is nothing for sense to live upon yet says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Such a noble exercise of Faith was found in the Woman of Canaan in the midst of all discouragements she had discouragements from the Disciples of Christ they were not so kind to her as they might have been but that was not all but she met with discouragements from the Lord Jesus Christ himself unto whom she made her applications he seems to give her a repulse and checks her forwardness and yet she goes over to the Lord Jesus and in a bold act ventures upon him alone Why Christians whatever are your discouragements from Sense yet in the face of all rebukes to cast your self upon the Lord Jesus and comfort your Souls in his All fulness is the most noble act of Faith that you can put forth 12. The great improbabilities of relief and succour after grace whatever your case is are not answerable to the improbabilities that your Souls were in before grace and Christ Jesus helped you then Christ came thorow them all and with ease removed them to do your Souls good Do but consider you that sit down with your hearts full of discouragement upon the loss of a creature or upon the emptyings of providence do but consider how unlikely and improbable your condition was of help and succour before you did believe on Christ you were then covered over with the shadow of death you were then in a hopeless condition Who had then any hope of you When you were seen marching in the fury of your spirits against the Lord Who would have thought that there were hope in the Lord for you You were at the very brink of Death and at the very brink of Hell there was as it were but a hairs breadth between you and Hell and who would have thought that you should have been recovered And then the Lord Jesus he broke thorough all the improbabilities of your state to save you and do you think that he cannot break thorough all the improbabilities of your present state to comfort you He came leaping over greater mountains of opposition and discouragement and impossibility I mean as to other help I say he came leaping over greater mountains of impossibility in his first dealings with you than there are for him to come thorough in his after-dealings with you Cant. 2.8 The voice of my Beloved behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills These mountains and these hills did lye between Christ and you that were the improbabilities or I may call them the impossibilities of your state as to help and relief in a rational consideration and apprehension Now Jesus Christ he skipt over this mountain and the other mountain that lay in his way and he came unto your Souls to do you good and if Jesus Christ hath done this do you think that he will not do the lesser When you were without grace did he bring grace into your Souls and do you think that he cannot comfort you now when you want comfort Do you think that he cannot bless you with the annexed blessings of your state when he hath brought in the great fundamental blessings of your state Christians you should reason thus I was once ready to die and the Lord Jesus came and saved me I was in a Soul-undone state and Jesus Christ hath set me up and what hath he set up my Soul and cannot he set up my Body Hath he made up the great breach that was upon my spiritual condition and cannot he make up the breaches that are in my outward condition Jesus Christ came and pluckt me out of the fire when I was burning and the fire was so hot that none could take me out but Jesus Christ he came and snatcht me out of the paw of the Lion and the Bear and none could rescue me but he and he that came over all these impossibilities to save you do you think that he cannot make up a breach in the loss of a relation or make up a distress in your outward condition the Lord that hath done the greater can easily do the lesser 13. Again To rejoyce only in visibles and sensibles is to go no further than those may go that have no interest in Christ I pray consider it To have your spirits born up only by sensible supports is not to exceed those that are strangers to Jesus Christ that have not an interest in Jesus Christ as you have For your spirits to rise and fall only as the creature ebbs and flows this is to do no more than a carnal man doth Is this living upon Christ Is this to make Christ your Joy and Christ the Peace and the Comfort of your Life Says Christ in another case To love those that love you and to do good to those that do good to you if you do no more Publicans and Sinners do this The Christian is under peculiar and distinguishing blessings and it is expected that he should peculiarly and distinguishingly live under the distinguishing blessings of his state Matth. 6.31 32. Wherefore take no thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek Why says Christ to be so thoughtful about our outward condition as others are is to place our selves in common with them Says he After these things do the Gentiles seek It is the case of a Gentile to say when his outward comforts are gone O now must I die now there is no further help for me I must now perish this is the language of a Gentile that hath no interest in Jesus Christ O you that have interest in Jesus Christ what will you take up the language of a Gentile O no! having a God to go to you must live upon that God that you have given up your selves to God doth expect a distinguishing acting under the distinguishing blessings that he hath brought into your condition therefore know that to rejoyce only in visibles is to set your selves in common with those that have no interest in Christ and is not this to dishonour your interest and to reflect upon the Lord of your interest to live in joy when the Creatures are about you and to sit down discouraged when Creatures are taken from you 14. Faith exercised upon the Lord Jesus will have an universal influence upon all other graces in your hearts Christians do but once exercise faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ under a sinking
and of your troubles and then you will see them to be but small You go Christians and stand below Christ and there you look upon your troubles and afflictions and then indeed they seem very great ay but get upon the all-sufficiency of Christ and then view them get but upon the mount and look down upon all your losses and crosses and they will seem little things then What is this loss that I have sustained to what I have in the Lord Jesus Christ what is my poor empty vessel to the great fulness that is in the Ocean of the Lord Jesus If you did stand upon the all-sufficiency of Christ and look upon the disasters of your outward condition they would seem to be but like a little Vessel brought to the great Sea that is presently filled and yet there is no lessening of the water in the Ocean but the Sea is as full as ever 4. Alwaies keep the invisibles of Christs Grace and of Christs glory in your Eye It is something a strange thing but t is the mystery of faith I say keep invisibles in your eye faith knows the meaning of it faith will espy an invisible thing that which sense can discern nothing of faith will espy and keep sight of now this was one way that Moses had to get up into a living upon the Lord Jesus by faith he kept invisibles in his Eye he saw him that was invisible Heb. 11.27 he endured as seeing him that was invisible and what is the description that the Apostle gives of faith in a Gospel exercise that we are speaking of but that which I have told you the discerning of invisibles Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Faith in its exercise will ransack among the promises the promises both of grace and glory and there will espy a great treasure and shew the Soul this as that which is his and belongs to him now Christian view the promises of grace and the promises of glory that are in the hands of Jesus Christ and see the invisible graces and the invisible comforts and the invisible blessings that are contained in them and never lose the sight of these invisibles but keep them alwaies in your eye and then you will see a glorious Jesus that your Souls will love to dwell upon and you won't dwell from him 5. Never ground your faith your hope upon your experiences but upon the promises which is alwaies attended with a wonderful working power If that you ground your faith and your hope upon your experiences if your second trial be greater then your first your faith will be posed and you will sit down under discouragement indeed there is a holy and Christian use that is to be made of your experiences but you must never ground your faith and hope upon them for God is alwaies an out-doing God he will out-do his own act he will go further in one act then he will do in another if you ground your faith upon your experiences when you come into a new streight that you never came into before your faith will fail do but consider this in the Israelites if they had gone no further then their experiences what a loss had they been in nay upon this account they were at a great loss they only considered what God had done for them and did not consider what he could do and what a boundless power was working through the promise for them and therefore though they were delivered through the Red Sea yet say they can God spread a Table in the Wilderness Moses what hast thou brought us into the Wilderness to destroy us there is no Bread here there is no Water here how can we subsist They never had experience of the wonders of Gods power in those particular cases and therefore their experiences could not carry them through but they were to exercise faith upon the promise that had a boundless power working with it and that would have told them that God can spread a Table in the Wilderness and can command a rock to give out water for the Israelites necessity and that can tell you that there is no streight too great for Jesus to deliver you out of Faith in the promise will tell you that you never experienced you never saw to the utmost end of Christs power yet you never saw into the midst of his treasures of grace you have seen but a little way Faith in the Promise will tell you this therefore never ground your Faith and Hope upon your Experiences though they have been large but upon the Promises that have alwaies a boundless power working with them Sixthly And then consider That it is your duty to come and claim the grace of Christ and put in upon your Interest according to your exigency I say if you would live by Faith upon the Lord Jesus then claim the grace of your Interest according to the exigency of your state Sirs are you interested in Jesus then Jesus is yours all Jesus is yours all that he is is yours for you and all that he hath is yours and for you Now if you would live by Faith upon him then come and put in bring your claim and say the power of Jesus Christ is mine and the grace of Jesus Christ is mine 't is for me 't is under special promise to me and 't is under peculiar engagement to me it is mine to live upon I will lean upon the Arm of the Lord's strength I will glory in his fulness in my own emptiness There must be in the exercise of Faith a peculiar claim that the Soul must lay unto Christ and a peculiar improving of the fulness of his Interest according to the emptiness of your state And thus Christians you may be supported whatever you meet withal in this world Suppose you sustain a loss why in a fresh application to Christ you will have it made up in him and if a great failure and disappointment come in upon you in a renewed act of Faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ applying something of his fulness and sweetness you will have your condition filled so as it is emptied in the creature it will be filled with grace and with Christ SERMON XI Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation WE are now upon the directing of the Believer that is able in some measure to make out his Interest in this Jesus to live upon him and to rejoyce in him in all trials Of the Directions five or six I have already given you and shall now proceed 7. In the seventh place If you would live by Faith upon Christ so as to fetch in joy and comfort from him in every condition then labour to bring your will to your condition and keep your spirit within the confines of the will of God under all the various disposes of providence The
in a strait Remember therefore that when such a stream is dried up the fountain is full still and the fountain can send out more waies than one The fountain that issued out a stream in such a place can issue out a stream in another place as long as the fountain is full there is no fear of want and if you would come to live upon the Lord Jesus Christ in a strait you must keep your eye upon the fountain that is ever full and overflows SERMON XII Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will Joy in the God of my Salvation VVE are upon the Directions 10. In the tenth place if you would live by faith upon Jesus Christ so as to fetch joy and comfort from him under the saddest providences of your state then consider the unchangeable love of Jesus Christ that meteth out and manageth unto blessed ends all the losses crosses trials and tribulations of your state The hard thoughts that we have of our troubles and the hard thoughts that we have of the Lord when we are troubled do drive us off from him and lay our Spirits under great discouragements O saies the Soul live upon Jesus Christ and rejoice in him How can I do that when he comes out against me as mine enemy he writes bitter things against me he is undoing of me he is breaking and spoyling of me and what can I rejoice in him The hard thoughts that the Church had of the Lord was that that did so much overwhelm her Spirit when she came into a low condition his mercy is clean gone and he hath forgotten to be gracious he will be merciful to me no more his mercies are shut up and fail for evermore and such bitter expressions as these are and how can we now rejoice in this Lord and all this while you understand not the Lord nor the design of the Lord and by your ignorance you come to wrong your own Spirits in your present condition by overcharging them with a discouragement that the providence rightly considered as stated by the Lord administers not for do but consider that there is unchangeable love engaged in and mixed with every adverse providence the Lord he strikes and he wounds in a way of love he breaks in upon this comfort and the other and makes breaches in your condition in a way of love and grace the Lord he takes away a creature comfort from a Christian to make more room in his heart for Christ The Lord he puts him into the furnace that he may purify him from his dross the Lord he purgeth him to make him partaker of his holiness The Lord he shakes him and shakes his creature standing and his relative standing under a creature consideration and condition that he might take faster hold upon Christ Jesus he sends out every tribulation upon you with a charge to do you good and to use you kindly as David when he sent out his Army gave them a charge deal gently for my sake with the young man Absolom So saies Jesus Christ unto every Cross that befals you use my Servant kindly for my sake treat him well saies the Lord unto a loss work for the gain of such a Servant of mine saies the Lord unto such a Cross do you try and do you refine and do you purge and do you better my Servant he saith unto such a tribulation go and do such Servants of mine good there is unchangeable love and grace that meteth out and manageth unto blessed ends all the crosses of your condition Job 5.17 Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty We say crost is the man and broken is the man and undone is the man that is so and so dealt withal ay but saies God happy is the man there is a blessing under the cross there is love and grace in the trial that thou dost not consider Christian and this will be more advantage to thee then all the disadvantages that the Cross can bring in upon thee in its self considered Proverbs 3.12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a Father the Son in whom he delighteth So as there is love in all the Lords corrections and Isaiah 48.10 Behold I have refined thee but not with Silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction I have put thee into the furnace saies the Lord there is my love working towards thee there is my love speaking to thee there have I been refining and purging and purifying of thee to make thee more excellent gold for my use this is the design of the Lord Heb. 12.5 6. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children My Son despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth and Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten and Rom. 8.35 36 c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword None of these things shall do it saies he So as if you would come to a rejoycing in the Lord in a trying hour then consider the unchangeable love of Jesus Christ that doth mete out and manage the Crosses that you are called to bear It was good for me saies David that I was afflicted and again saies he Psal 116.10 I believed therefore have I spoken I was greatly afflicted I said in my hast all men are lyars what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits Surely the Prophet had not only the remove of the affliction in his Eye but also the design of God in the affliction that he saith what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits I will take up the cup of Salvation and bless his name he hath greatly afflicted me and sorely distressed me I will take up the cup of Salvation and bless his name here doubtless was an eye upon the design well then if you would come to live rejoycingly in the Lord in all conditions consider his unchangeable love that doth order and dispose the trials that you are exercised with 11. In the eleventh place Consider the auxiliary relations that Christ stands in to your Souls and the grace that is dispensed upon them You look Christians in an evil day below the comforts of your state and that is the reason you are so hurried in your own Spirits you pore upon an emptying providence and don 't consider the filling relations that Christ is unchangeably enterered into with your Souls relations of grace that are alwaies comforting and alwaies relieving and that have new supplies of grace alwaies springing up in them for your assistance I will give you a touch of some of them The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Father of believers he was promised under that name
in Isa 9.6 Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father So Isaiah 8.18 Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel behold I and the Children we are the Lords Children And Isaiah 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not O Lord thou art our Father our Redeemer thy name is from everlasting this is spoken of Christ Jesus Now the relation of a Father it is a relation of pity it is a relation of love it is a relation of tenderness when the Lord tells us he stands in this relation unto us he tells us that he will exercise the tenderness the pity and the kindness of a Father unto his Child Now a Father a tender-hearted Father he will consider his Child in all conditions in all his streights and though it be a rebellious Child yet still he will consider it and he will exercise the pity and the tenderness of a Father to it this you may see in David to Absolom Absolom was a rebellious Son that proclaimed war against his Father and would have cut off his Father and yet see how Davids bowels did work towards his rebellious Son when he heard he was dead O Absolom my Son my Son would to God I had died for thee O Absolom my Son my Son these were the workings of his heart towards rebellious Absolom now if there be so much tenderness in a Father in the flesh towards his Children much more in Christ to his Children Saies Christ Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Why the Fathers in the flesh cannot out-love Jesus Christ they have not a larger heart for their Children then Christ hath for his again Jesus Christ he is stiled the Husband of Believers now that is a relation of great care and tenderness the faithful wise able loving Husband how will he defend his Wife and how will he provide for his Wife and how will he safeguard his Wife and how will he pity his Wife in all her exigencies she shall be as his own Soul Eph. 5.28 29 30. So ought men to love their Wives even as their own bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself and no man ever yet hated his own flesh this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church So as all believers they are betrothed and married unto Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ as a loving able wise tender-hearted Husband will secure and defend and provide for those that are married to him much more then the Husbands in the flesh can do for their Wives Again Jesus Christ he is our Brother our elder Brother Now a Brother under the law was not to see any of his younger Brethren under decay and in a low condition but he was to relieve him if thy Brother be waxen poor and fall into decay then thou shalt relieve him was a Scripture law now saies Christ I am not ashamed to call thâ—m Brethren and he will be a most loving tender-hearted faithful Brother unto all his Brethren whatsoever their streights and their trials are Christians do but propose those aiding relieving auxiliary relations of grace that Christ stands in to your Souls and exercise faith upon them propose them I say to your faith and exercise faith upon them do you consider in your own imaginations what if you had such a Father so wise so able so loving so tender hearted how should your heart rejoice in him why Christian you have all that you can imagine in Christ as a Father to you O you would think if you had such a tender Husband such a kind hearted Husband how would you take comfort in him Christian thou hast all in Christ Jesus that thou canst imagine and much more abundantly imagine the lovingest faithfullest Brother that ever was upon earth and thou hast more in Christ Jesus then can be imagined Christ stands in all these relations to thee and these relations are obligations unto him according to the relation will he act and dispense and according to the obligation of every relation shall the dispense be so as he is not only a Husband but you may believe that he will do all for you being betrothed to him that the relation of a Husband obligeth him to and he will do all as a Father for you that the relation obligeth him to he will do all as a Brother that the relation binds him to And know Christians that you can never out-live the love and the grace of the relations of Christ neither can you ever burthen the love of any of his relations you can never overcharge his love there is a natural love arising in the heart of a Father towards his Children a growing springing love every day that notwithstanding many provocations still the Father keeps his heart upon his Child so though there are provocations in your way unto your heavenly Father yet his heart is kept towards you and his heart is the heart of a Father and his heart is the heart of a Husband and his heart is the heart of a Brother and you can never burthen his love nor out-live his grace nor over-believe the fulness of these relations of grace that he stands in to your Souls Now then if you would come to an exercise of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ then consider the auxiliary relations of grace that he stands in to your Souls and what is dispensible upon those relations and wait upon him for the fulfilment of all 12. Again If you would come to live a life of faith upon Christ Jesus rejoycing in him under a strait and trial of providence then take up a promise and believe it upon the bare faithfulness of God and never dispute with the difficulty or apprehended impossibility of it There are sometimes great mountains of difficulty that lye before the promise you must not consult with these Christians but consult with the promises as they are in the hands of the faithfulness of God and believe the truth of every promise because God hath spoken it how unlikely and improbable soever unto sense and reason the accomplishment of it is don't say how can this be how can such a promise be fulfilled It is not likely it should be fulfilled to me so unsuitable and so unanswerable but eye the faithfulness of God that made the promise and believe it upon Gods bare truth because he hath spoken it when you have nothing else to encourage you to take it up Thus it was with Abraham the Father of believers Rom. 4.18 19 20 21. Who against hope believed in hope and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about
that will keep up your spirits O pray unto the Lord that he would encrease your Faith Pray for the encrease of this grace above all and be earnest with him that he who hath been the Author would be the promoter of your Faith And for your encouragement Christians let me tell you that the more you believe in Christ Jesus the more 1. In the first place you will glorifie Christ every act of Faith glorifies Christ Jesus it doth glorifie his Fulness it glorifies his Alsufficiency it glorifies his Advancement and Enthronement at the right hand of the Father it glorifies him in his Gospel-Offices as he is intrusted with the Fulness of all grace for you Nay 2. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ doth engage Jesus Christ to come in for your help Every act of Faith doth not only glorifie him but engage him it will awaken his Power and cause him to arise and open his hand and give out more liberally and freely He says therefore unto his Servants many times According to your Faith be it unto you Nay 3. This living upon Jesus Christ is the only way to make your lives comfortable in this world What had this Prophet to comfort his heart with but only this the Lord Jesus Christ resting upon him alone The Figg-tree that was withered and his creature-comforts were gone emptiness and nothingness was before him well says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Behold this it was that made his condition comfortable why Christians you will never have comfort in your own spirits under a loss under a cross and in a time of temptation if you have not Faith upon Christ Jesus and there fix your Souls Nay let me add 4. In the fourth and last place That hereby you shall have confirmation and establishment and settlement in the greatest shakings of providence that may be brought upon your condition And therefore O Christians let me in the winding up of all once more call upon you to live upon and to glory in Christ Jesus alone As to all your comforts in this world you cannot promise your selves they shall abide with you God may empty you from vessel to vessel till he have taken all these away but now there is enough in a naked Jesus to take comfort in there is enough in Jesus Christ alone for you to glory in O come and draw your comforts from Christ and do not draw them from the creature do not draw them from secondary helps but draw them from the fountain do not sit down at the streams but away to the fountain to the Ocean that is alwaies full In every strait have your eye upon Jesus in every cross keep your eye upon Jesus in every loss keep your eye upon Jesus under every strait and trial have recourse to Jesus and acquaint your selves more with him that you may be in the Prophets frame here To rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of your Salvation THE SAINTS Hope in Heaven In one Sermon Together with Freedom from Condemnation in Christ Jesus Discovered in Two Sermons Preached Octob. 2. 1681. being the last that were Preached By Robert Asty late Minister of Jesus Christ in Norwiâ—h Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth V. 34 Who is he that condemneth LONDON Printed by Tho. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. THE HOPE OF THE Saints in Heaven Colos 1.5 For the Hope which is laid up for you in Heaven whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel THis holy Apostle being in bonds for the sake of Christ understanding by Epaphras that this Church with whom he had taken much pains in the Lord was in danger to be carried off from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel by some Seducers and false teachers that would set up the abrogated institutions of Moses with the institutions of Christ makes it his business to confirm them in the faith that they had received after the inscription and salutation the Apostle gives thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for what he had done for this people he declares how much they were upon his heart he could not cease praying for them and he rejoyced in their faith and in their love as you may see v. 3 4. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying alwaies for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the Saints and he speaks of their hope in this 5th verse which saies he is laid up for you in Heaven by hope he doth not mean the grace of hope as 't is sometimes to be taken in the Scripture but he means the object of hope or the thing hoped for as sometimes hope is to be understood as in Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith And Titus 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope So as the hope that he speaks of which is laid up in Heaven is Heaven itself and the glory and blessedness of it that did belong unto them that had laid hold upon Jesus and upon eternal life in laying hold upon Jesus There are some to make out the dependence of these words with the preceding do thus understand them we give thanks unto God for your faith and for your love which is an evidence that you have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for you Some others thus we are rejoyced in your faith and in your love which you have received and wherein ye stand fast for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven Some others they understand the Apostle expressing in the fourth verse the causes and grounds of his giving thanks to God for them and rejoycing on their account and that is their faith and their love which are illustrated in the fifth verse both in the final cause and also in instrumental cause the final cause is Heaven and the blessedness thereof which their faith and their love will issue its self in the instrumental cause is the word of the truth of the Gospel by which faith and love have been wrought in them and by which they were making meet for the heavenly inheritance It is only a short discourse that I intend upon the words The Proposition from the words is this Doct. That the Saints have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for them They have the glory and the blessedness of Heaven to seed and to feast their expectations upon whilest they are here There is a world beyond this world where the Saints have their treasure where their great estate and their inheritance lyeth Some things they have here but truly as the Apostle saies 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable if that there were nothing more then is to be enjoyed here
not for me only says he but for you also rest with us You shall come into the same Rest with us Ministers and People that are faithful in Christ Jesus shall all come into the same Rest a Rest that none of the troublers shall be able to disturb Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them The labours and the pains that you take here they are very many We were driven by God into this condition in the sweat of our faces to eat our bread Well but this is but for this life You have a Hope that is laid up in Heaven for you of a blessed and a glorious Rest wherein you shall have freedom from all your labours you shall have freedom from all the disturbances and pressures that you have here 4. There is a fulness of Joy that is laid up in Heaven for all Believers Says the Prophet Isa 66.11 That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory If that there be such a time a coming wherein this may be true of the Saints here upon Earth it will be much more so in Heaven for Heaven will heighten all it will heighten all your joy and heighten all your comfort and not only heighten the joy and comfort that you have but that succeeding Saints shall have when the whole Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord still there shall be a disproportion between Earth and Heaven When the voice saith Come up hither that which follows is Enter into your Master's Joy Matth. 25.21 Here the Lord for the bearing up of the hearts of his People sends down a little joy into their spirits he sends down the Comforter unto them and he comes and now and then speaks a reviving word now and then he gives a drop of consolation and it may be it is upon the end of the Rod too and this is counted a great matter and truly it should be so with us But there is a hope of another manner of Joy or other measures laid up in Heaven for you Joy it shall be the Air that the Saints shall breath in it shall be the very Orb that they shall move in the very Elements that they shall dwell in their hearts cannot hold all it shall be overflowing it shall be round about them 1. The Joy that is laid up in Heaven for the Saints it is that that shall be fully satisfying They shall have enough of it they shall be filled with it to the full so as there shall be no room for more Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore But shall the Saints have enough of this yes Psal 17.16 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The Soul hath not its satisfaction here when it hath a little it is enlarged to bless God but it hath not enough it would have more still a little more communion with God But in Heaven there is satisfaction to the full When I awake that is in the morning of the resurrection when this mortality is blown out of his eyes when he comes to open his eyes in the other world then shall I be satisfied with thy likeness 2. The Joy that is laid up in Heaven is unmixed Here there is a mixture with your Joy you have a little joy and a great deal of sorrow you have a little peace and a great deal of trouble you have darkness with your light and you have vexation and crosses with your comforts But in Heaven there is nothing to cross there is nothing to grieve there is only joy there is no mixture with your joy It will be pure joy 3. And thirdly That Joy that is laid up in Heaven will be permanent It is such as you shall sit down in and that which you shall partake of to eternity Here your joy is not only mixed with sorrows but it meets with great overwhelmings it is coming and going it is partaken of here at great uncertainties but now in Heaven it will be alwaies the same 4. There is in Heaven laid up for you absolute freedom and full liberty of Soul in the Service of God Here 't is not so when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak and how often are our hearts ready to die within us The Spirit will not hold out we can hardly watch with Christ one hour bodies tire and spirits tire but now there will be a fulness of strength in Heaven and there will be liberty of spirit proportionable to all strength and to all grace the Soul will be in absolute freedom for God and the body under an absolute freedom too answerable unto all the freeness of the Soul now the body is a great clog to the Soul it is a great hinderance that you cannot do for God and you cannot lay out your selves for God as you would but there will be no weariness in Heaven in your Spirits though you shall serve night and day world without end the promise is Isaiah 40.31 That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint The Saints rejoyce as they can experience something of this here but the fulness of this promise will be in Heaven there you shall mount up indeed as with wings there Soul and Body shall be in all liberty in the service of God Now what would Saints give to have their Spirits in a freedom and full liberty for God but one day O they would count it a corner of Heaven if that they could have their Spirits set in full liberty for God but one of his daies that they may serve God and delight themselves fully in the service of God a whole day But Sirs in Heaven you shall be fully delighted in the service of God to eternity all clogs shall be taken off from your Spirits 5. The Saints have a hope laid up in Heaven for them of an eternal abode in the glorious pallace of their Father here their dwelling is uncertain they have no sure dwelling place upon earth their Landlords sometimes warn them out of their Houses and command them to seek a new dwelling sometimes God turns them out of their Houses they may be driven out of their Houses here by the Sword they may be driven out by fire but the Lord he hath chosen Heaven as the place of their perpetual residence Deut. 1.33 Who went in the way before you to search out a place The Lord went before Israel in the Wilderness by Fire and by the Cloud to search out a place for
beloved Son of God all the while but yet there is a time a coming when all those that are discharged in Gods Court in Heaven shall be cleared both in the Court of their own consciences and also before the whole world We shall observe this method in our brief handling of it 1. To shew you the truth of it from Scripture 2. To give you the properties of this discharge that is given out by God to believers 3. The ground upon which God proceeds in the discharge 4. The time when the Soul is taken into this priviledge and hath the discharge given out to him And then the Application 1. Scripture clears this That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ they are absolved they are discharged by God Believers are so but as for all those that are in their Sins they are under the sentence of condemnation it hangs over them and it follows them where-ever they go John 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already really condemned he hath the sentence really denounced against him he is really declared a dead man in the sense of the law as we say when the judge hath denounced sentence of death against a Malefactor he is a dead man so every one in his sins is a dead man he is condemned already There is indeed this difference between him and one that is in Hell he that is in Hell is condemned and executed but the sinner upon Earth is condemned and not executed The Sinner in Hell is condemned and executed and there remains no hope for him The Sinner upon Earth he is condemned and yet there is hope that comes in at the door of the Gospel which gives some probability that if he will bestir himself the sentence may be removed the patience of God is exercised and it is drawn out into a great length and it is to lead the Sinner to repentance Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance After the Sentence God waits upon the Sinner and will not suffer the law presently to take hold and to do its work the hand of Justice that is held from smiting the Sinner is not presently executed and in the patience in the forbearance and long-suffering of God there is a pardon that is tendered and a way discovered whereby the Sinner may come to get free from the doom that was upon him but the sentence that hangs over the head of every unbeliever as John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not sâ—e life but the wrath of God abideth on him the wrath of God that hangs over his head it hangs over his head in that ancient sentence that was denounced against man upon his first transgression Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or thou shalt die the death here is the sentence here is the doom and God abideth by his word to this day hereupon saies the Apostle Gal. 3.10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them being under the works of the law you are under the curse because the broken law doth denounce a curse against all the breakers of it so as all those that are unbelievers all those that are under the first Covenant all those that are in a state of sin before God they are condemned already But now all those that are in Christ Jesus have this sentence of death taken off they are absolved and discharged by the Lord saies the Prophet Isaiah 38.17 For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back It is spoken by God after the manner of men when a man gives out the bond of another and freely dischargeth him of the Debt the Bond is cancelled and thrown away it is cast behind his back for wast-paper never more to be made use of the Debt never more to be brought into question again nor yet the Debtor upon the account of the Debt Now says he thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back thou hast given me a discharge that they shall no more lie against me Rev. 2.17 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna Manna of old was a type of Christ The Apostle to the Corinthians clears it Now says he he shall eat of the hidden Manna he shall feed upon Christ every overcomer shall have communion and fellowship with Christ and that is not all but I will give him a white stone The Lord in this expression doth allude unto the Custom that was amongst the Romans when a person upon his tryal was found guilty he had a black stone given him in token of his condemnation and he that was discharged and cleared he had a white stone given him in token of his absolution Now says he I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which none knows but he that receiveth it I will discharge him says the Lord Every overcomer every one in Christ he hath a white stone given him by the Lord. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus 2. We shall proceed to shew you what are the properties of this discharge that the Lord grants unto those that are in Christ First It is a real discharge It is no imaginary thing It is a real truth that the Apostle doth here affirm There is says he therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The absolution of a Believer is as real as his sinning was real as his condemnation was real he was really a sinner and he was really condemned on the account of his sin and he is as really discharged You have the word of the Lord for it The same word of truth that tells us there is condemnation to every Unbeliever tells us that there is no condemnation to the Believer But you have not only the Word of God for it but you have your discharge under hand and seal And therefore the Apostle tells us that those that believe they are sealed by the Spirit of the Lord. The Seal of the Spirit it is God's Seal Eph. 1.13 In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation in whom also after that you believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise And again Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of Redemption He comes and gives you a sealed pardon he gives you the Seal of God's pardon upon your own hearts And hence the Apostle speaks with as much confidence as man can speak upon a sure testimony 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that
in against him at last that after-reckonings may undo all No saies God when I forgive sin I do it with this resolve of grace never to remember it more and therefore Psal 103.12 As far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgressions from us east and west can never meet together so the sins of a believer that are forgiven by God shall never return again never return again to his Condemnation The sense of them may return again and again for his humiliation but the sins themselves shall never return again unto Condemnation for God having once blotted them out will never more write them down therefore Rom. 11.29 The gifts and callings of God are without repentance God doth all in wisdom in righteousness and in judgment he knows what he doth he sees all before and he sees after at once and therefore there can never be any repentance in God for him to recede from his own act of grace but having once absolved the poor sinner he shall remain so to eternity Micah 7.19 Thou wilt cast their iniquities into the depth of the Sea That which is thrown in at the Havens mouth may be washt up again but now take a milstone and carry it into the vast Ocean and cast it into the depth of the Sea and it will never be seen more and thus the Lord to illustrate his own grace doth make use of such comparisons to speak to our understanding This act of his grace is done in Judgment and God will never repent of it it is an irrevocable act Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus VVE made entrance upon these words and gave you this Proposition from them Doct. That all those that are in Christ are acquitted absolved and discharged by God We have given you the properties of this discharge that God gives out unto the believer in Christ And shall now proceed Object But you will say if that believers be thus fully and irrevocably discharged by God how comes it to pass that they are the persons that God doth so much afflict in the world that they are seldom free but followed with adversity upon adversity trial upon trial and yet all their sins done away Ans I answer Though Gods People are the People of affliction and adversity ordinarily in the world yet their afflictions are not from wrath but from love and consistent with his pardoning grace you must distinguish between punishments that are satisfactory and punishments that are monitory You must distinguish between wrathful proceeds from justice and fatherly corrections and chastisements God doth afflict his people upon two accounts in the world sometimes for sin and sometimes for the trial of grace God I grant doth sometimes Chastise his people for sin that Scripture clears it to me Psal 89.30 31 32 33. If his Children forsake my law and walk not in my Judgements if they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their transgressions with rods and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail c. Here you see God doth chastise for sin he hath reserved to himself a power so to do that if his Children break his law if they transgress and walk contrary to it they shall hear of it they shall feel the smart of his rod ay but it is such a chastisement and visitation as is consistent with the stability of his Covenant for that is not shaken thereby it is such a chastisement as is consistent with unchangeable love and grace and by these afflictions God carries on his work in them the more to humble them and to recover the Soul and to bring it to a due consideration of its self and waies in order unto a closer walking with God and sometimes again afflictions are for the exercise the trial and the improvement of grace and all that God might be the more glorified 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the tryal of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour c. Afflictions stir up patience and patience that encreaseth experience and experience hope so as under the trial grace is made to abound and much glory is brought forth to God Obj. Ay but you will say further The believer is taken near to God and forgiven but he sins again don't his renewed transgressions break his pardon Ans Renewed and repeated transgressions they are found in those whom God pardons and they may break their peace and take away the comfort of their pardon but they don't null the pardon of God Their pardon that is continued that is renewed as their transgressions are renewed so as the obligation to punishment obligation to Hell and the wrath of God that returns no more upon their head really before God it returns no more for the pardon that is given forth of God takes it off but the sense of the pardon and all the comforts of the pardon may be lost for a considerable while This seems clear to me from that of the Prophet 2 Sam. 12.13 David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die God had blotted out the sin of David and yet if you look into the 51 Psalm you will find there that the comfort of his pardon was gone he was not able to read it nor to make Faith nor to take any joy from it O says he Verse 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness That seems to be a strange voice in his ears the voice of joy and gladness that he had so often heard from the Lord he was a stranger to O! says he that I could hear that voice again Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit V. 12. The joy of his pardon was out of sight and till God returned again to him with fresh consolations and till the Comforter came again to visit him he was not able to apply a Promise nor to take in the comfort of his pardon although the Prophet had told him that God had pardoned him But the obligation to condemnation that doth not return For says the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.1 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Christ lieth there in Heaven to secure the state of a Believer and he keeps up the torrent and stream of God's love to the Soul though the manifestations of that love are under a soveraign over-rule and dispose But 3. We proposed to give you the ground upon which God doth proceed in the giving out of this discharge unto those that are in Christ And that is the merits and the satisfaction the propitiation and atonement
saith the Lord so as I will never cast thee off I will never give thee a Bill of Divorce I will be thy Husband for ever and thou shalt be my Spouse for ever The relation is alwaies pleadable And in your near and intimate union with himself as you stand in relations of grace to him so you stand in relations of grace to the Father You are the Adopted Children of God God the Father of Christ is your Father and he is alwaies your Father and you are alwaies his Children nothing can come between nothing can cause him to cast you out and disinherit you having received you into this firm into this intimate union you are Heirs being made one with Christ you are Joynt-Heirs with Jesus Christ Heirs of God once an Heir and for ever an Heir so as all the blessed things of the purchase of Christ Jesus and the whole Inheritance of Christ Jesus is before you 't is yours and for you And now Christian what a ground of rejoycing is here for you What though your outward comforts are coming and going they are fading and vanishing It may be you have your hands full of them to day and to morrow they will be gone and you shall see them no more for ever yet know that you have an abiding ground of Joy in Christ Jesus for he it is that maintains your union with himself he hath not only united you but he keeps you in union and he maintains all the gracious relations of the union both with him and also with his Father so as though you have not a Friend upon Earth you may go and say well I have a Friend in Heaven I have not a Father upon Earth ay but I have a Father in Heaven I have not a Husband upon Earth ay but I have a Husband in Heaven I have not a faithful Brother upon Earth ay but I have a sincere hearted Brother in Heaven the relations of Grace they hold and they are alwaies pleadable and improveable And then Eightly In the eighth and last place Jesus Christ is making glorious provisions in Heaven and will in due time glorify all his people with himself for ever saies Christ Jesus It is expedient for you that I go away 't is for your good it was for your good that I came and it is for your good that I staid so long and it is for your good that now I go away For I go to prepare a place for you In my Fathers House are many mansions and I go to make these mansions ready for you I go to Heaven as your fore-runner Consider Jesus as your fore-runner that is entered in for you before-hand making Heaven ready preparing the Crown and the Kingdom for you now though you be robbed of your earthly comforts you cannot be robbed of your Heavenly glory you may be spoiled of your Treasures here upon Earth but you cannot be cheated of your Treasures in Heaven Why Jesus Christ is there to secure it and he hath it in possession he is there as your fore-runner he is there to make all ready I will Father saies he that those that thou hast given me be with me where I am and the glory that thou hast given to me be bestowed upon them that they may be one as thou Father and I are one Now under all your vicissitudes and changes and emptyings and spoylings in this world look up to Christ Jesus and see Heaven sure in him and see glory sure in him and see a Crown and a Kingdom sure in his hand take comfort then Christians in all your necessities here below in the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Prophet do you alwaies glory and rejoyce in him Vse All that I shall super-add shall be only in a sentence or two unto Sinners for as to Saints how they should come to improve Christ Jesus and to live by faith upon him in all conditions I shall shew you afterward if God gives the opportunity but here in a word let Sinners consider how miserable their state and condition is Why Sirs you have heard that there is an abiding ground of joy in Christ Jesus for the believer whatsoever his state is But do you consider that none of this belongs to you all this comfort belongs to Saints not to you you have no part in it there is an abiding ground of terrour of sorrow and of bitterness that belongs to you because you are apart from Christ that hath such a fulness of all joy in him for believers Take heed therefore how you content your selves in a Christless state and how you bless your selves whilest you are remote from Jesus Christ and without a part and interest in him thou art not under the blessing but under the curse there is the flaming Sword that hangs over thy head and there is the hand writing that is over thee upon the wall Let then the Sinner tremble on the consideration of his perishing condition in which he is out of Christ And let it be an inviting word to all of you who have not yet made your close with Jesus that you enquire after him that you earnestly pursue after him for your rest and your peace your comfort and your blessedness it is all in him and can only be obtained by a closure with him SERMON IV. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will Joy in the God of my Salvation THe Proposition that we are upon from the words is this Doct. That there is enough in Christ Jesus alone for the Souls full rejoycing and triumph whatsoever his condition be in this world Before I come to that which I further proposed to consider and speak to viz. how the believer should be helped to live a life of faith upon Christ Jesus unto his spiritual joy and comfort in all conditions I shall alittle insist upon and labour to clear to you the Souls interest in this Jesus that hath such abiding grounds of joy at all times in him saies the Prophet here in the text Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation I shall insist upon the Pronoun my and labour to clear the believers standing that he may know his interest and that he is indeed united unto Christ Jesus it is not in Christ at large that a Person can glory in but it is in Christ under or in a peculiar Gospel relation unto his Soul it is not in Christ in general but in Christ that his Soul is interested in that he can rejoice in in all conditions and this I suppose is an inquiry that all of you will be desirous should be spoken to viz. Qu. How the believer may know that he hath an interest in Christ Jesus That this glorious and blessed Jesus this full Jesus is his Jesus his Saviour That he may be able to say with the Prophet here Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation
Ans In speaking unto this inquiry we shall observe this method 1. To premise several particulars to you by way of introduction unto the resolving of the inquiry 2. We shall shew you the grounds and the occasion of the darkness that is upon the Spirits of believers generally in and about their interest in Christ 3. We shall shew you what the believer should do in the interim until he can have the evidence of his interest clear And then 4. Give you some discoveries how you may come to know whether you be indeed and in truth interested and stated in Christ Jesus 1. As to the premises 1. In the first place you may consider that Christ is enjoyable and only enjoyable upon an interest in and Gospel relation unto him There are many that comfort themselves in a general notion of Christ that he is a Saviour and please themselves well with the thoughts of it but they will not find this relieving another day It is only upon interest and relation that Christ is savingly enjoyed It is propriety and interest that gives the Soul real ground of glory and rejoycing in Christ in the worst of conditions And all the saving benefits of Christ they are dispensable and only dispensable upon a Gospel interest A Soul can lay no claim to any thing that Christ hath I say he can lay no saving claim unto any of the sacred blessings that Christ hath to dispense out but upon a Gospel interest in him neither can the thoughts of Christ be really comforting unto the Soul without respect unto this relation that we are speaking of Jer. 31.33 But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and so Zach 13.9 I will say it is my People and they shall say the Lord is my God here you see is a mutual interest and relation the Lord doth make over himself unto his people And the Lords people they are owned in a near and intimate relation with and unto the Lord now this becomes the ground of the dispensing of all the saving benefits of Christ and this becomes the solid and the foundational ground of all the believers hopes and expectations from Christ I say this interest and relation it is the ground and visible foundation upon which the Grace of Christ is dispensed and the saving blessings of Christ are communicated Do but see what interest and relation carries with it Ezek. 16.8 And I entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine and then saies he washed I thee with water yea I thorowly washed away thy blood from thee and anointed thee with Oil c. And in Ezek. 34.11 12.13 14 15. For thus saith the Lord God behold I even I will both search my Sheep and seek them out as a Shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is amongst the Sheep that are scattered so will I seek out my Sheep c. You see here the Lord does manifest a signal care and it is grounded upon interest upon relation They are my Sheep saith the Lord and therefore I will seek them up therefore will I gather them They are my Sheep therfore will I preserve them from Wolves They are my Sheep therefore I will feed them and lead them into green pastures by the still waters and John 17.9 10. I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine c. I pray for them saies Christ and I will see after them whilest they are in the world that they shall not be devoured and destroyed there and what is the ground of the prayer of Christ and of the care of Christ Why they are mine saies he they were thine Father saies he and thou hast given them me and now they are mine and they are thine still saies he and therefore Father look after them also and then interest and relation it is the solid ground of our great expectations from the Lord in all our goings to him and dealings with him I am thine saies the Psalmist O save me and Isa 63.8 9. For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lie so he became their Saviour in all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love in his pity he redeemed them c. And v. 18. We are thine thou never bearest rule over them they were not called by thy name And Joel 2.17 18. Let the Priests say spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say to the People where is their God It is interest you see that they ground their expectations from God upon it is upon a Gospel interest and relation that the Grace of Christs fulness and the sacred blessings and priviledges of all his offices are given out and dispensed unto Souls and without this interest and relation the thoughts of Christ would not at all be comforting nor relieving but the Soul might think on Christ Jesus and be troubled as you have it Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was overwhelmed And so a person remembring Christ Jesus and knowing no interest in him must needs be troubled to think that there is such a Saviour and he hath no interest in him to think that there is such a glorious fulness in him and he hath no right to approach to that fulness and to expect from the all-sufficiency of Christ Jesus the thoughts of this must needs trouble a poor Creature Thus all the blessings of Christ Jesus and all communicable grace is dispensed upon an interest and relation so as it is of great weight and importance for every one of you to consider whether you have an interest in Christ or no for if you have no interest in him you can have no solid ground of expectation from him 2. A believer that hath an interest in Christ may yet be without the sense of that Interest Interest and evidence of Interest do not alwaies go together but a Soul that is in Christ may be full of fears and doubts and questionings of spirit in and about its Interest Interest is absolutely necessary to Salvation but the sense of Interest is not so Sense of Interest is indeed necessary to our consolation in Christ Jesus but sense of Interest is not absolutely necessary to our safe state in Christ Jesus but a Soul that stands sure in Christ may be in the dark in and about his standing A Soul that is under the everlasting and unchangeable Love of Christ may yet be in the dark in and about that Love that is glorified