and keep us from presumptuous sins O let not them get the dominion over us but keep us innocent from the great offence O Lord our strength and our Redeemer And sanctifie unto us all thy methods and proceedings with us fitting us for all further tribulations and trials whatsoever thou in thy divine pleasure shalt be pleased to impose upon us give us patience and constancy and resolution and fortitude to undergoe it that though we walke through the valley of the shadow of death we may fear no ill knowing that thou O Lord art mercifully with us and that with thy rod as well as with thy staffe thou wilt support comfort us and that nothing shall be able to separate us from thy love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. For whose sake we beseech thee be thou mercifull as to us so to all mankinde we are all O Lord the work of thy hands gratious God if it be thy will make us all the sheep of thy pasture thou hast made us all of one common mould Lord if it be to thy glory make us all partakers of one common Salvation but inspire continually thine universall Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord and grant that all they that do confesse thy holy name may agree in the truth of thy holy word and live in unity and godly love Thou hast promised O Lord that the gates of hell shall not prevail against thy Church perform we beseech thee thy most gratious promises both to thy whole Church and to that part of it which thou hast planted and now afflicted in these sinfull Lands and Nations wherein we live Arise O Lord and have mercy upon our Sion it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come for thy servants think upon her stones and it pities them to see her in the dust Lord maintain thine own cause rescue the light of thy truth from all those clouds of errours and heresies which do so much obscure it and let the light thereof in a free profession break forth and shine again among us and that continually even as long as the Sun and Moon endureth To this end blesse us all and above us all blesse all those to whom thou hast given a right for to govern thy people Lord enable them with thy power as well as thou hast invested them with authority to govern the people committed to their charge in peace wealth and godlinesse And thou in whose hands are the hearts of all men and turnest them which way soever thou wilt turne the hearts of the disobedient that the streams of their obedience may run within its proper channell and all flow to the ocean of thy glory And blesse thy Church with Pastors after thine own heart that they may feed thy people with knowledge and understanding that they may teach thy way unto the wicked and convert sinners unto thee and in all things and above all things they may seek thy honor and glory And for the continuance of thy Gospel among us restore in thy good time to their severall places and callings and give grace O heavenly Father to all the reverend Fathers of the Church and other Orthodox Clergy that they may both by their life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively word and rightly and duely administer thy holy Sacraments let thy blessing be upon the labours of all those whom thou hast commissioned to preach thy word as this day to thy people be with me the meanest and unworthiest of all thy servants O that thou wouldst work wonderfully in me for me and by me make me a happy instrument of much glory to thy name and of much good to thy Church and people And to all thy people every where give hearing ears understanding hearts conscientious souls and obedient lives especially to this Congregation here present that with meek hearts and due reverence they may hear and receive thy holy word truly serving thee in righteousnesse and true holinesse all the dayes of their lives And we beseech thee of thy goodnesse O Lord to comfort and succour all those that in this transitory life be in trouble sorrow need sicknesse or any other adversity these especially that are commended to our devotion we humbly recommend to thy Fatherly goodnesse those whom thou hast visited with thine hand upon the bed of sicknesse O Lord look down from heaven behold visit and relieve those thy sick servants look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy give them comfort and sure confidence in thee defend them from the danger of the enemy and keep them in perpetuall peace and safety through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hear us Almighty and most mercifull God and Saviour extend thy accustomed goodnesse to those thy servants who are grieved with sicknesses visit them O Lord as thou didst visit Peters wives mother and the Captains servant so visit and restore unto those sick persons their former healths if it be thy will or else give them grace so to take thy visitation here upon earth that after this painfull life ended they may dwell with thee in life everlasting And for those thy hand-maids that draw near to the time of their travel thou who art the presant help in the needful time of trouble stand by them and save them preserve them in the danger of Childe-bearing make them joyfull Mothers of gratious Children bring them to thy holy Baptism bring them up in thy holy and true Religion till thou finally bring them to thine everlasting kingdom And accept of the thankfull hearts of those thy servants whom thou hast delivered from the great pain and perill of childe-birth grant we beseech thee most mercifull Father that they through thy help may both faithfully live and walke in their vocations according to thy will in this life present and also may be partakers of everlasting glory in the life to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. And whoever else desire our prayers thou knowest all their names and all their several necessities whether at Sea or at Land in this Land or in others Lord we humbly recommend them all unto thee beseeching thee to visit them with thy salvation and according to the desire of their souls as it shall be for thy glory and their eternal good Lord grant them their hearts desire and all for Jesus Christ the righteous sake in whose blessed name and words we further call on thee as he himself hath taught and commanded and encouraged us in his holy Gospell saying Our Father c. SERM. I. PSAL. 130. v. 3. If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it I Will sing of Mercy and of Judgement saith the Kingly Prophet the two everlasting Armes O Lord by which thou upholdest and suppottest the beings of mortal Creatures the two everlasting wings by which the eternal majesty of Heaven covers immortal Spirits with unspeakable goodness which like the two
sin unrepented of is able to damne us and the least law transgrest is sufficient to procure our damnation whereas Christs infinite merit onely can obtain our salvation for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God St. Iames 1.20 By all which you cannot but understand the truth of our assertion namely it s the corrupt nature of man to do amiss together with the reasons thereof I shall briefly make some application to our selves and so in order pass on to the second doctrine propounded Use 1 Fall down to prayer and cry out with holy David Enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified if in the gold of Angels there was much dust found if those pure spirits were charged with folly what extremity of madness and intolerable ire may we expect as the wages of our unrighteousness For if thou Lord be extreme to mark what is done amiss who can abide it you have seen the doctrine cleared let us a little apply it and so pass on to the last conclusion Application Oh consider this ye that forget God lest he destroy you lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea Jeremiah 5.22 fear not them that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell saith our Saviour 10. S. Mat. 28. for patience provoked turns to the greatest fury and when the malevolous planet of Gods anger shall fall upon our heads like the flying roll in the 5. of Zach. it will dread nothing but everlasting destruction Oh how should all our pulses beat at the remembrance of Gods wrath for sins how contracted our span of of time and how trembling should our clay cottages appear how much better were it for us to measure out the ground by our length before him and in humility to kiss the rod then with impudent foreheads to stand it out against his vengeance how should we with speed lay hold and fix upon all means that may bring us near unto himself how willing should we be with the silken cords of his favour to be led to repentance seeing he is so loth to be severe and waits that he may be gracious to us and withal considering that if God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering which brings me to the fourth and last conclusion That if God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume like a moth saith holy David Ps 39.12 But it were well if onely his beauty were gone and his outward comeliness done away but he adds as a greater misery every man is but vanity and every way miserable for what happiness can be expected when Gods heavenly countenance looks with anger upon us for who can bind up that which God in wrath layes open who can speak peace to that soul whom he afflicts or if he withdraw who can comfort us and who can abide his justice when he is severe and looks upon us with the eyes of fiery indignation surely none for then the body will but begin the pain of the soul and the soul endure the grief of both then you may hear the Shunamites child cry out my head my head holy David complaines that his heart is melted like wax before the sun then it is that king Asa is sick indeed from head to foot that holy Iob is sitting upon the dunghil and cursing the day of his birth then oh then indeed it is that King David cryes out his strength is dryed up like a potsheard and that he is become like a Pelican in the wilderness there you shall hear Hezekiah chatter like a crane and mourn like a Dove for when God is extreme in his judgements man must needs be miserable in suffering even in the outward man and yet all these are but the beginning of sorrow as our Saviour saith in comparison of those calamities that will overtake us when our breath shal be turned into sighs our eyes into fountains of tears and our hearts like mournful harpes shall be hung upon the willowes of contrition and our organical musick into the voice of them that weep all which are but as so many doleful witnesses of our sufferings when God shall come to visit for our transgressions so that you see the doctrine cleared and the truth thereof in lively examples illustrated One word of application and then my whole discourse shall be concluded Application Oh be astonished and wonder at the rich mercy of God all you that go on in an uninterrupted course of sinning that God hath not long since made you the subjects of eternal wrath oh let the greatness of his patience encourage you not to go on but repent of your sins lest your destruction come unawares as an armed man and there be none to deliver you Let me therefore exhort all men to make their peace with him betimes before death makes a separation between them and their chiefest happiness before your souls be swallowed up in misery and drowned with an overflowing deluge of useless tears the onely Emblemes of a too late repentance which shall never be wiped off with the smallest remnant of mercy or drunk up with the least spunge of pitty and fatherly compassion for then the Lamb slain for the redemption of your souls repenting will be found no lese then Iudahs Lion enthroned to condemne both soul and body for wilful and impenitent sins so that we must all conclude with the words of my Text If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it Regi seculorum immortali invisibili soli Deo honor gloria Amen SERM. II. PSAL. 130. V. 3. If thou Lord be extreme c. Introduction THe glory of the Shepherd is the thriving of the Sheep as Saint Chrysostome saith and the fatness of Christs Lambs is the strength of their graces by the one the outward man is refreshed but with the other the inward spirit is rejoiced and in both the glory of God is highly exalted Heavens spotless eye endures not to behold leprous Souls with any other look besides that of vengeance nor can the Creature ever expect to see its Creators face without a renewed mind For without Holiness no man shall ever see God Heb. 12.14 We are but stubble to his consuming fire so that while we are in a state of sinning we are liable to damnation Heb. 10.13 It being a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God whose just severity will wound the hairy scalp of such as willfully go astray why then should we be so stupidly ignorant as
Cherubims seated upon the Ark of Gods glory cast continually their unspotted eyes upon the rotten raggs of Humane frailty aiming still at mans felicity How else could dust and ashes expect continued life from such dry bones as was and is still the foundation of mans body for should Heavens propitious eye glance forth nothing but renewed smiles upon our actions and mercy alwayes sit hovering over our Tabernacles we should quickly ingulf our spirits in the bottome of miserable security or on the contrary should but the direful hand of Omnipotency it self draw forth his glittering sword against our weak resistance unto what a paralytick posture would such an appearance strike us as coming from him whose very breath can speak us into nothing Oh then with what bowed knees and humble hearts should every soul of us kiss the very remembrance of a Iesus coming not onely to save them that believe but to work a present reconcilememt betwixt the Justice and Mercy of God the Father that now the one as well as the other or rather with united consent both together may conspire and joyn issue in the great work of mans redemption for could your drowsie spirits but lend an ear to the pleasant dialogue that continually passes betwixt these glorious Attributes now you should hear Justice calls for the Sanctuaries ballance to weigh all the actions of the sons of men and with a Mene Mene Tekel c. finde such dusty performances of no validity in Heavens account and so poor we being in Adam wilfully lost are now necessarily fallen short of immortal bliss Thus is our sentence irrecoverable and no door of hope left for our escape till Mercy that eternal beam of love stand forth and present the all-sufficient merit of a dying Saviour as full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world pleading that faithful covenant made by Justice it self that whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life Which faith is the golden pillar that bears up the stately structure of mans everlasting glory the only hand by which the promises of a better life are made ours the sure entail by which the inheritance purchased in common is become mine in particular it is the onely voice by which holy David could make an echo that would reach from the lowest deeps to the highest Heavens Out of the deeps have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice as you may see verse the first of this Psalme nay it is the very nerve and sinewe of all pious Devotion for if you peruse the whole Psalme you will find it is nothing else but a rehearsal of religious petitions and serious exhortations In his petitions you 'l find his soul big with holy affiance spiritual confidence grounded on Gods word promising and his own Experience tasting In his Exhortations like a faithful Physician he prescribes nothing but what is attested to with his own and others Probatum est making mercy both the beginning and the end the principal and the final cause of Happiness but in both he keeps the eye of humility placed upon the raggs of mans unworthiness as justly demeriting eternal wrath were God exact in remunerating our actions for so he closes up the summe of his requests in the words of my Text If thou Lord wilt be extreme to marke what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it In which words please to consider two general parts 1 An antecedent in these words If thou Lord be extreme to marke what is done amiss 2. A Consequent in the other words who can abide it Or if you will look on them 1 In the Thesis 2 In the Hypothesis 1 In the Thesis wherein you have Gods extremity in punishing 2 In the Hypothesis There you have mans misery in suffering And now my Text in its situation is not unlike a pleasant Grove presenting to your view variety of pleasant Trees each bough thereof being richly laden with delicious goodly fruit not onely delightful to the eye but beneficial to the Taste or if you will your Conceptions may behold most costly Arras enriched with the lively story of Gods bounty and mans felicity mutually interwoven in the same peece but if you list to change the scene and have the true parts more neerly acted you may gain a precious enterview of Gods omnipotency displayed in its several Dispensations and management of Humane affairs where Justice and Mercy the twins of royalty discovering on the one Hand Gods free benevolence in bestowing and mans utter unworthiness for so large a guerdon on the reverse parts your sight is presented with the Almighties just severity in punishing together with mans reaping misery the true fruit of his sin In fine that I may unbowel this sacred writ take the substance thereof distilled into these four observations 1 It s the Corruption of mans nature to do amiss 2 God is not alwaies extreme to marke and punish what 's done amiss 3 God can when he pleases be extreme in marking and punishing what is done amiss 4 If God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering These are the four streams that naturally run their division from this pleasant spring that voluntarily tenders its silver drops to refresh the heart of every pious Christian which makes me beg your patience and zealous attention whilst in order I make these glorious truths to pass before the spiritual eye of your intelligent souls And first of the First namely It s the corrupt nature of man to do amiss As its the nature of man to be doing so it s the corruption of that nature to be doing amiss and though God see and observe all the actions of discomposed and distempered man yet it s onely the obliquity of those actions his severity intends to reward with punishment for every action simply considered in it self is good and no way meriting unspeakable torment but every such action contracts eternal guilt as performed by and prersisted in of sinful man whose customary nature and naturall custome is to do evil for as things are in being so they are in operation Can a man gather grapes of thornes or figgs of thissles saith our Blessed Saviour Or can any man bring a clean thing out of an unclean was the question put by holy Iob. Ever since man eat the forbidden fruit man himself hath become a barren tree and cumbred the ground for ever since man voluntarily fell man hath been under a necessity of sin a necessity I say proceeding not from Gods peremptory decree but his feeble and corrupted will for its a voluntary necessity should I set open the door of this defiled cage and present to your view the misery lapsed mans unhappiness hath reduced him to or give you but a glimpse of those polluted birds whose habitation is in the house of every soul by nature or but read a Lecture of mans depraved condition I could do it in no other language then that of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of perverse and depraved minds till then all we preach or learn is but as new wine put into old bottles whose strength their weakness cannot contain or as a new peece in an old garment it may help a little to patch up our lives and actions but at length that natural acquired knowledge which with much study labour and sorrow we have obtained will but agravate our sins and make the rupture of our consciences the more desperate and wide therefore while others sit mourning over the loss of some terrene bliss which perhaps was gone before truly enjoyed let us bewail the true depravation of that real goodness once given to the first and now profered us by believing in the second Adam It were folly beyond compare for rebels to imagine that a pardon can be merited by resistance such sturdy okes must be cut down not bowed and cannot we make the case our own drawing this sure conclusion that while at enmity with God no peace of conscience no joy in the Holy Ghost and that we are traterous rebels beyond all contradiction and dispute For there is a double rebellion 1 Of the soul against God Rom. 3.10 As it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God c. and likewise he goes on shewing the totality of this rebellion verses 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. drawing up this conclusion ver the 16. destruction and misery are in their wayes and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes When once the reigns of loyalty are laid in the neck of licentious liberty there can be expected nothing but ruine and calamity you have already seen the defection that reigns predominant in the three principal faculties of every unregenerate soul from which it must necessarily follow if the streams abound with so much pollution the fountain and spring must needs overflow with corruption it is the unsanctified heart that occasions all unnatural heats and quarrels against God and his righteous Law Whence come wars and fightings saith S. Iames come they not hence 4. Iames 1. viz. from a lusting and unsatisfied principle that hath taken possession of our souls for ever since man eat of the forbidden fruit the envious one hath endevoured to steal the seed of Gods grace out of his heart that so he might with greater freedome have the larger room wherein to sow his own Tares so that no way can peace be expected from us but by true contrition and holy submission to carry our dead souls in the armes of faith to Jesus the onely true mediatour and beg of him to take away the partition-wall which our sins had erected that so our reconciliation being wrought by him we may have strong consolation through believing 2 As there is a rebellion of the soul against God so secondly it followes that there is a rebellion in the senses against the soul Rom. 7. c. 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me and if the great Apostle found such struglings within his sanctified spirit what reason sure have we to make complaint whose senses are continually boiling up with fiery passions and enormous lusts as might easily be made appear would your patience grant me the liberty but to particularize and shew you how each sense apart hath joyned in conspiracy against the soul and I le begin 1 With Hearing that once heavenly organ whose delight was in nothing when created but to hear the heavenly Anthems the glorious Quire of Angels continually sing with changeable parts and unspeakable ravishment in praise of their and his Creator or to receive the lively oracles and upright rules of life from the mouth of God himself but alas no sooner had the soul sinned then the ear was stopped from the former glorious sounds and that voice which before was pleasant to Adam innocent is now terrible and intolerable to the same person naked and what is now our imployment but to listen after those things rhat cannot profit or else to attend to that which will certainly bring punishment The most heavenly charmer with all his melting rhetorick cannot unstop the ear of an obdurate impenitent but he will persist in the hearkening to those diabolicall lectures whose doctrine is deceitful and application damnable whose propositions are to teach us to sow the seeds of sin and Uses to perswade us to reap the fruits thereof That this is a truth beyond control I need fetch no further arguments then your own sad experience whose daily practice bespeaks the woful knowledge you have thereof 2 The sense of Seeing also is not without its interest in complotting how by rebellion to ruine our souls Indeed I find it sometimes the threatning of Gods angry curse as the punishment of a rebellious people that seeing they may not see lest they should be converted and live Esay 9.10 though for the most part it is the subject of his complaint against both Prince and subjects Priest and people as you may see at large up and down that prophecy that by a kind of spiritual adultery the sight of men is divorced from that object which is best and do we not find that these optick nerves of ours which were made only to be the recesses of glorious and immortal objects are by us made the casements and inlets to all kinds of folly madness that now our blear eyes are either offended with every beam of light the sun of righteousness darts upon us so miserable is the decay of our sight in respect of its noblest capacity and operations or else in its luxuriancy and wantonness runs out glaring upon vain and unprofitable things to the breeding of base disorder and unreasonableness in our minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysost wicked men are unreasonable men are they not without understanding that work wickedness saith the Psalmist Psal 14.14 such is the extravagancy of our natural sight that it for the most part makes way to the blindness of our spiritual sight 3 Smelling which once was like that of a pleasant field which the Lord hath blessed is now by sinne become abominable to God and nauseous to our selves we lost the savour of that good ointment for which the Virgin daughters of Sion should love us Cant. 4.11 our smell is now become earthy and by a sinful dejection we bend our souls downwards for having in Adam lost the smell of those garments more pleasant then that of Lebanus we are now with holy Iob content to sit and enjoy the savour of a dunghil there is a filth and stench remaining in the heart and conscience of every impenitent sinner that the sweet perfumes of a pure mind and upright spirit which continually refresh the heaven-borne souls are forraign and have no alliance to them whose minds are orewhelmed with the turbulent cares of a tossed