the hint up and be doing follow him and he will bring thee through one iron-gate and through another and thou shalt find thy self at the last set free and know thy liberty and the things freely given thee of God O beg the Spirit for he is the cause of liberty it depends upon him as light upon the Sun and the Spring upon the Fountain he applyeth what Christ hath done for us knowing the deep things of God he revealeth them he only convinceth and answers objections c. The sixth Vse of the point shall be several admonitions or exhortations to them that are set free from this bondage thou hast had the Sun of righteousness shine upon thee and art gone forth from sin from that bondage those fears terrours darkness and distractions which sin brings upon poor creatures thou rememberest the time when thou couldst do nothing but sin against the Lord and grieve him continually thou couldst not cease to sin thou wast under the command of sin and now through grace exceeding rich grace the gates of the prison are open the Lord hath pluckt thy feet thy affections out of the snare What doth the Lord thy God require of thee this should be the next enquiry of the soul me thinks after so signal mercies First surely he expecteth thou shouldst give him the glory of all praise him and exalt him alone alas what are the calves of our lips they cost us nothing the poorest have this and the richest have no more in effect but this if thou be able to do little for Christ yet thou maist praise him thou maist admire his rich grace make his name glorious Truly Brethren I believe some of us are able to say by experience that our unthankfulness for the freedom we have had hath been an occasion of our being clapt up for all the design of God in Christ in redemption of poor creatures is to make his mercy and grace glorious as he did his power in the creation and wisdom Now how is it made glorious among us but by our acknowledgment of it our lifting up the Lord Jesus not only with our hearts but our tongues art thou brought back again into darkness and into the prison after some refreshing Consider wast thou thankful for what thou hadst we are all sick of the leapers disease in the Gospel ten were cleansed but where are the nine I doubt scarce one in ten of us do praise him according to what he hath done for our souls and those that do yet scarce for one act of his loving kindness in ten in bringing of-us forth it may be he delivereth us ten times from a dead heart before we once give him the glory O this Popish principle of pride that is in us is that which seals up our hearts and stoppeth our mouths from praises but opens it in complaints in discontents when we want such a mercy O if our fâ—eece be dry when others are wet we are ready to question why doth the Lord deal so with me rather then with another why have I not as much enlargement of heart as another as great gifts freedom of speech and utterance as great grace in any kind Why am I not set above these wretched carnal delights as well as others of his people as if God should do any thing for us out of respect to us we had deserved any thing at his hands whereas we may rather expostulate with our selves O why is it not worse with me then it is why am I in no sorer bondage then I am where I am once overthrown it is mercy I have not an hundred times been over-thrown with-my lusts So on the other hand it stops our mouths for returning unto the Lord for what he hath done for us we may many of us thank our selves for much of the bondage that is upon us that we so much complain of O if every time the Lord setteth our frozen spirits a melting every time he setteth our straightned hearts at large we instead of lifting up our selves we could and did but admire that grace magnifie him loath our selves would he not much more delight to enlarge us O therefore look to this Secondly Thèn look to it thà t ye stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free I speak not so much here to the yoak of Ceremonies which the Lord hath taken away altogether but I speak specially to our freedom from the dominion of our sins the freedom from the Law as a Covenant of life and from outward pressures and bondages you know our fears were great when we saw this cloud of blood but hanging over our heads and many of thè precious ones of God I know when I was little and scarce able to take notice of such things yet I have been an eye and ear-witness of the sad complaints made before the Lord of it Now hath God delivered us from this stand we fast in this liberty But first thèn for that of sin and our lusts hath thè Lord broken the yoak of them set thee free when thou didst groan under it O take heed of returning to folly any more hath he spoken peace to thy troubled soul loosed the cords of thy sins wherewith thou wast held and wilt thou be tampering with sin again This was the madness and perversness of Israel they would make them a Captain and return to Egypt again to the house of bondage when they had been but a little tryed in the Wilderness but we have no such discouragement upon us as to put us upon such resolutions but meerly the unfaithfulness of our own hearts and unsteadfastness of our own spirits the Apostle speaks of some who having escaped the pollutions of the world they did return with the dog to the vomit with the swine to the mire the condition of such a soul is worse then ever it was he brings seven other spirits worse then himself and the latter end of thà t man is worse then his beginning O whén the Devil can but fasten upon such a poor creature again that once hath gotten out of the prison like a cruel Jaylor now he will lay more fetters upon him now he shall be even over-whelmed with temptations now his feet his head and his heart and all shall be put in the stocks have their bolts and chains upon them Sinners you never make work for Christ but you make work for your selves lay a grievous foundation for much bitterness to your own spirits a little care a little watchfulness here may prevent heart-breaking afterwards which we do necessitate as I may say Jesus Christ to by our back-slidings to this end therefore flie sin as Moses fled from the face of his Serpent flie youthful lusts make hast away the Devil and sin will pursue hard and cast this golden apple in our way this and that occasion O take heed of them So the Apostle flie fornication and flie Idolatry c. Secondly
in the Gospel inculcate this upon the Disciples fear not him that can kill the body but fear him that killeth soul and body And so if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live these threatnings surely would not have been written to Believers except they were to make some use of them to be as an awe upon their spirits to keep them from sinning to be a quickning to their souls Now on the other hand it is true that there ought not to be in us such a fear as to distract us to drive us from to weaken our Spirits to disable us from duty to cloud and drown all our delight in his waies to blot out our apprehensions of his loveliness and compassion and bowels so as to beget hard thoughts in our hearts of God which will produce hatred of him such a fear ought not to be in us and though there may be a spice of it sometimes even in the best when they are not themselves yet this is not the prevailing principle in the soul but an holy fear of offending him which ariseth from a mixture of love towards him and holy reverence and awe of him and of his Majesty and Greatness and truly Brethren this is no enemy to spiritual liberty But I must not dwell so long upon things But secondly the main thing that I know most troubles a gracious heart is that he finds himself so much under the power of sin O I find not this freedom this liberty you speak of I am a wretch then under the power of my corruptions O the sad complaints to Christians to men continually from some poor disconsolate souls and to speak a little for their consolation if the Lord breath in it First Brethren you must know this that as sin hath had a time of settling and rooting there will be a time of unsettling it thou art of yesterday it may be and dost thou think to be so free the first day as they that have many years been wresting and fighting and praying and fasting and mourning and believing down their lusts This is a great mistake it is infinite mercy that thou hast thy hands let loose and thy feet out of the mire and clay and that thou art set upon a Rock that thou hast now a standing and liberty to fight thou must not expect a liberty from fighting and conflicting with sin while thou art in the flesh mind you the Apostles two or three verses of the same Epistle to the Romans he saith the Law of the Spirit of life the powerful working of the Spirit of life hath set him free from the Law of sin and death and yet a few verses before O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death thou groanest under the burthen whereby it appears thou art delivered in a great part thou art willing to be freed and when the will is disintangled the man is free in a great part Secondly Brethren know this for your comfort that your labour is not in vain striving against sin fighting with it you are sure to overcome though sin lie hard upon you you shall overcome it First the Lord he is able to break all the bonds if he will deliver Peter out of prison what shall hinder his chains shall fall from his hands the Iron-gates shall open of their own accord before him nothing shall be able to hold them It was somewhat hard for Israel to believe that they should be delivered out of Egypt and somewhat a strange Message of Moses at the first even as one should be sent to the great Turk to tell him the God of the Christians commands him to let them go but God tells him and them that he is that he is I am hath sent me the great God who is being it self and from himself he is what he is he is able to destroy the Egyptians dost thou believe this that he can subdue thine iniquities thy strong impetuous violent lusts Secondly then he will do it he heard Israel groaning under bondage and came down to deliver them he remembered his Covenant it was his faithfulness Brethren that brought him out the self-same day the Lord delivered them and the Lord will keep time to a day with thee that groanest under this bondage if thou werâ— but humbled if it had done its work upon thee for that and such like ends he would not suffer sin to prevail upon thee any longer for he letteth not lusts loose upon a soul to woorry it but to humble it make it out of love with sin to drive it to himself to make it for ever cleave closer to him now there is promise upon promise for this you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free he speaks this to his Disciples who did already know it in part know himself the truth the way and the life and the truth in opposition to shadows grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and it shall make you free how many promises are there as in the text therefore surely he will do it Now what an encouragement it is to fight when we are sure to overcome yea to endure hardship in this conflict But thirdly consider it is the very office of Jesus Christ the work which he received of his Father is to destroy the works of the Devil to destroy strong holds to lead captivity captive therefore he came into the world if it had not been for such poor creatures as are under bondage there had been no need of Christ he came to give himself a ransom for many and to preach deliverance to them and the opening of the prison to them that are bound you have heard already and therefore he was annointed of his Father and received the Spirit that he might set open the prison doors Now poor burthened souls if any such whose body ofsin and death presseth them down sore and they walk heavily goâ— to him spread your condition before him put him in mind wherefore he came into the world to set open the prison to loose the prisoners and thou hast an infirmity and haply been bound with it many years beseech him to exercise his Office towards thy poor soul the Lord loveth to hear his people earnest and importunate to plead it thus with him but if thou canst not yet be sure he will do the work which his Father hath given him to do and what is that but to set at liberty such prisoners as thou art that groan under the burthen and bondage of their lusts Fourthly Consider how pittiful a heart he bears to his people labouring under corruption when we are weak it may be sometimes the spirits of a poor creature are spent in labour in other services and he thinketh he should be as lively then as at another time but it is not likly so to be
transmit unto Posterity the Names Memories Gracious Conversations of eminenter Saints especially Ministers who in their several Sphears and Generations have shined like stars of the first magnitude streaming and issuing forth a more then ordinary and illustrious Light 2. The lives of morally honest Heathens are both recorded and read with profit not only by fellow pagans but by us Christians Who knows not that Plutarchâ— lives have in them many things serving for Caution and Imitation More advantage doubtless will redound by reading the lives of the Evangelically spiritually and really religious 3 We have the warrant of sacred Writ which being not only Doctrinal but in a great part Historical doth much incourage to a Practise of this Nature The 11. Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews you will find to be an Epitome of the lives of the Fathers Now where we have the Spirit of God going before we may well follow after 4. The extraordinary strictness exemplary severity unwearied industry and activity of this man of God in the waies and work of the Lord do exceedingly excite and strongly provoke to make him thus publike and to propose the holiness of his life and comforts in death for the direction and consolation of those whose faces are set towards Sion and to whom this account of him shall come 5. That God may have the glory of what he had done in him in a way of gracious discoveries and manifestations of what he had done for him in a way of clear providences and encouraging dispensations of what he had done by him in giving success unto his labours and letting him see the travel of his soul to his no small solace and satisfaction 6. That the Name of such a Pleasant Plant and fruitful Bough might be preserved fresh green and verdant in the memories of Gods people eâ—ough himself be witheâ—ed lopt off by the hand of death and foâ— a while laid in the dust As Abel so other Saints though dead may yet speak and be made known And O what a glorious thing is it when departed souls are lodged in Abrahams blissful bosom and dead bodies intombed in living Sepulchres sending forth a sweet and refreshing savour into the nostrils of surviving friends A flower may smell sweet after it is cropt and a way made for the Sun to shine after it is set Mr. John Murcot the History of whose life is now to be related was born in the antient Town of Warwick of Parents considerable for their Extraction more for their shining and pious conversation His Fathers name Job Murcot who applyed himself to the study of the Law which brought him in a competent and comfortable subsistence though since humbled by the calamitous inconveniences of these distracted times whose various revolutions have occasioned a wasting and undoing unto many His mothers name before her marriage with his Father was Joan Townsend of raised parts and eminent piety the happy mother of an hopeful son the renowned Root from whence apppeared and sprouted up this fair and flourishing Branch planted by the Rivers of water who brought forth his fruit in his â—eason his leaves did not wither and whatsoever he did the Lord made it to prosper His Parents were conscientiously careful of his education made it their business to season him with sound and solid Principles in his young and tender years which he greedily suckt in as having an early thirst after God and he who erst while hung on his Mothers breast for milk now hangs on her lips for instruction His Parents perceiving in this their young Timothy an ardent desire to be intimately acquainted with the Scriptures and in order thereunto with Academical learning were very prone to contribute their endeavours towards the ripening of these hopeful Buddings and promising Beginnings and therefore in the first place committed him to the care and tuition of an able and godly School-master Mr. Dugard who instilled instruction both with his lips and life desirous to make him not only a Scholar but a Christian It s hard to say 〈◊〉 which was more diligent and industrious the Master in teaching or the Scholar in learning Time was not mispent and prodigally expended in the eager pursuite of childish vanities he ran at his first seting out and did not lazily loiter when he should be minding his work yea when other boyes would be sporting and playing he would be studiously retired solitariness and meditation being unto him instead of recreation Being competently furnished for the University his Father sent him to Oxford where he continued his former diligence in his studies under the conduct and oversight of Mr. Button his faithful and religious Tutor in Merton Colledge About two years after his thriving abode there the Kings Forces possessed themselves of Oxford put all things into an hurry and ingaged the students in such perplexing snares that Mr. Murcot to disintangle himself out of these uncouth inconveniences fled from Oxford disguised and repaired to the House of Mr. Leigh of Budworth an antient grave able and learned man and Minister of that place and there studied hard both day and night allowing himself but four hours for sleep so intent was he upon his Book and so wholly taken up with religious Exercises The cloud being blown over he repaired the second time to the University and his former diligence which caused the eyes of many to fix and fasten on him as perceiving something more then ordinary in him and expecting more than ordinary from him Though means and maintenance were now very short yet it did not discourage and cause him to deâ—ist he did not unbend the Bow and slacken the string he still stood an end to his Oar and with wonted diligence prosecuted his studies it being his meat and his drink to do his Fathers will Having taken his degree he returned to his old friend Mr. Leigh and was several waies useful to him who now called upon him to appear in publike which he did not without much fear and trembling as being conscious to himself of his own inabilities for so ponderous an employment and loth to put to his shoulders lest he should sink under the burden But being pressed and egged on by his friends and a Call from the Inhabitants of Ashbury he entred into the Lords Vineyard put his hand unto the Plough and was ordained a Minister at Manchestâ—â— He professed to use his own words that he was drawn as a Bear to the stake complaining and often bewailing his want of a sufficient stock of University learning The Lord was pleased to own him in his first attempts and endeavours giving him a seal unto his Ministry by the conversion of two especially who being awakened by his sound Doctrine smart expression and powerful delivery sadly bemoaned themselves and mourned over their lost condition even in publike From Ashbury a call being cleared up he removed to Eastham in Woral and gained mightily upon the affections of many especially the godly
there is more in it and I know not but we may consider Virgins according to their state and condition here Now the Church is so called or compared to Virgins not in respect of their glorious unconquered outward condition as sometimes in Scripture even strange Nations yea Idolaters are called Virgins as Zidon thou shalt no more rejoyce O thou oppressed Virgin daughter of Zidon arise pass over to Chittim there also shalt thou have no rest So Babel Come down and sit in the dust O Virgin daughter of Babylon thou that as a Virgin hast hitherto abode in thy fathers house in a glorious beautiful condition thy pomp and glory now come down And so Egypt go up to Gilead and take balm O Virgin daughter of Egypt in vain shalt thou use many medicines thou shalt not be healed though the Papists make this a note of the Church the glory and outward splendor of it that is quite cross to that of our Saviour in the world ye shall have tribulation and how often have they been scatterd by Persecution Nor yet are they called Virgins because of their priding themselves and setting forth themselves as Virgins with their Ornaments Nor yet in respect of the first Constitution of the Church of Christ when they were all or most of them Virgins There were 12. and but one of them a Devil But I conceive It respects the condition of the visible Church as then it shall be specially And what is that how are they compared to Virgins Specially in these two things First Because all that profess the Lord Jesus and become visible S t s they profess to renounce their Idols the Apostle saith that he turned them from Idols to the living God Now Idolatry in Scripture is counted you know whoredom if they have been married to the Lord owning his Covenant or else fornication nothing more ordinary it is enough to hint it to you and therefore when there is a renouncing of Idolatry there the Scripture looks upon them as Virgins So when Judah and Israel had played the Harlot that is to say had worshipped and served Idols God chargeth their spiritual whoredom upon them But when they reformed as Judah did you know in many Kings daies Jehoshaphat Hezekiah c. And in the daies when Sennacher came up against them and blasphemed them the answer the Lord gave to Hezek by the Prophet was this the Virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee now having renounced her Idols he so calls her and having betaken her self to the shaddow of his wings alone from thence from the hole in the rock she despised the Assyr And secondly Because also now taking upon them the profession of Christ they escape and forego the pollutions of the world then gross scandalous sins they forsake even Hypocrites as well as others in which respects they may be called Virgins though their hearts be not right with God Secondly they had all of them Lamps they took their Lamps saith the text they have all of them a Profession of Christ they make a shew before men The Lamps I cannot take for any thing inward but meerly somewhat outward appearing unto men they are Christians outwardly all of them Even those really believers with the heart they do confess Christ with the mouth to salvation they are not ashamed to own him before men and their light of good works and knowledge shines before men that the world may see it there is the light of the Lamp And truly herein hypocrites may go far they have a form of godliness and as glorious a form as any others and they do as many good works materially good as others do and so they have a light shining before men as well as others So the Pharisees you know they made as many prayers did as much Alms fasted as often as others made a glorious shew here are Lamps Thirdly their lamps it seemeth were burning all of them Concerning the wise Virgins there need be no Question of it But for the foolish I think it will be gathered from that where they complain that their Lamps were gone out extinguished though it is true they were not fed with a right principle and therefore they went out yet they did burn they made a shew of heat and light also before men as Jehu you know did he seemeth to make a greater blaze in his zeal for God then Elijah himself did And so for light also knowledge aboundeth many times brethren in an hypocrites head a clear head and a muddie heart a sound head as the notion and a rotten heart may be together well this is the third I hasten Fourthly They all took them and went forth to meet the Bride-groom they all have their faces Zion-ward heaven-ward to meet Jesus Christ only the hypocrites they have faces one way and row another way as the Mariners do this I take to be their seeming to make for heaven all of them and the one to be as fair for it as the other for they go as it were hand in hand to meet the Bridegroom yea a hypocrite may go far indeed in externals as far as a child of God as afterward we shall have occasion to say you may have your faces Zion-wards and seem to go forth to meet the Lord Jesus and yet miscarry Fifthly When he delayed his coming until midnight they all slumbered and slept We must not understand this of giving up themselves to security and the wallowing in the sinful pleasures of the world the pleasures of sin for a season For this cannot sute with the truth of grace and therefore cannot agree to the wise Virgins he that is born of God sinneth not cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not work sin but his work is righteousness though he may have many by-blows in his work many mis-carriages yet his work is righteousness Nor can it for a great part stand with the very profession of a hypocrite to return again to the pollutions of the world which once he had escaped secretly haply he may rowl a sweet morsel under his tongue and be loth to part with it but the pollutions of the world which are open like wallowing in the myre will not stand with their profession therefore this is not meant by slumbering and sleeping but either Secondly Is meant by it the sleep of death in part for death is no more to the Saints though it be a sleep and a killing sleep to hypocrites our friend Lazarus sleepeth or else Thirdly Also partly a security and heaviness which groweth upon the Saints on this side death and me thinks the words seem to carry much for this there are two words they slumbered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they slept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter seemeth to be more then meerly Expository of the former The former signifieth only a little drowsiness when a man doth nap or nod a little as a man
hapness in it to behold him and not to enjoy him and therefore this is but the same thing with that in the New Jerusalem the holy City coming down from God even out of heaven as a Bride adorned for her husband and the Angel said come and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs wife where the Bride and Guests are one and the same surely onely considered under a divers notion according to the nature of the similitude or comparison and so it is in this place Yea that which seemeth farther off in the comparison of the prothesis in the apodosis cometh as near that is to say of young men the friends of the Bridegroom the children of the Bride Chamber they also are a part of the Bride for they are these Virgins also though in the comparison male and female are distinguished yet in Christ no difference Well then these virgins the wise virgins though considered here onely as accompanying the Bride the Queen to the Bride-groom Yet they are the Bride herself indeed now herein is the mystery of the Saints communion with Christ transcendent and wonderful that though they be marryed to him yet they are virgins still It is true an espousal of a virgin deflours her not but she continueth so until the consummation of the marriage though the Jews had another manner of custom sometimes to espouse by copulation though afterwards it was forbidden with them See Goodw. Antiq. Jud. yet when the Saints have the fullest nearest marriage communion with Jesus Christ yet they are virgins yea the purer their virginity is then the Idols of their hearts they are fully cleansed from according to that Gospel-promise I will cleanse them from all your Idols then it is done fully And this is the virginity of the Saints it lyes in their union and fellowship with Jesus Christ and none else thus saith Theophil from Chrys is a wonder that she should be marryed yet a virgin and the more for marriage communion the Church with J. Christ the purer her virginity is the more perfectly is she cleansed from Idols and all uncleanness The truth is brethren we are never virgins until we come to be espoused to him but all filthy fornicators and unclean persons wallowing in our filthiness and now when once the Lord Jesus lays hold upon us for his we begin to be virgins where again the transcendency of grace above nature which is the ground of the comparison if it reacheth not the thing compared to it And so though they go a whoring afterward from the Lord Jesus play the Harlots as he complains of Judah and Israel you know often in the Prophets that is to say by going after other objects of worship then himself other lovers yet when they return to their own husband again why then they become virgins Now though Judah had been wofully corrupted with Idolatry in the days of Ahaz that Ahaz There is a brand set upon him worthily by the spirit of God for he corrupted the people above measure shut up the doors of the House of God had Altars in every corner of the City in the open places as the Pharisees prayed in corners the places where many streets met impudent whoredoms in the face of the Sun they discovered their sin as Sodom yea they cut in pieces many of the vessels of the Temple and brought in so much filthiness into it as that they were sixteen days cleansing it Now they played the Harlot and therefore wrath was against them and all Israel for that But now when in Hezekiah his days the doors of the house were opened they repented he called upon them to turn to their God set up his pure worship again though to his own cost and charge for the daily burnt Sacrifice a high example for godly Princes you have the memorable story in 2 Chron. Well now when Sennacherib cometh up against them saith the Lord The virgin daughter of Sion hath despised thee before an Harlot an impudent one commiting abominations in the very corners of the streets now the virgin daughter of Sion here is indeed wonder upon wonder in this but I doubt I stay too long upon these things The next thing is the Bridegroom The Person that stands now in relation to the Bride who is it but the Lord Jesus Immanuel God with us Married to us in our nature taking that upon himself It is no mean Person brethren that is the Bridegroom but he who is God equal with the father and counteth it no robbery to be equal with him He who is the shining forth of his fathers glory the express image of his fathers person this is he brethren What shall I say brethren Alas I doubt I shall dishonour him by speaking of him 1. If you look upon his birth who can declare his generation It is that people do much look at in their marriages and there is somewhat in it though happily not so much as men place in it among men but here there is very much He is the Son of God The Jews lookt upon it as so high above him seeing no farther then Haman that they cryed out of blasphemy that he made himself equal with God he is the Bridegroom then the Son of God his own Son as the Gospel hath it his onely begotten Son He wâ—o by a divine infinite incomprehensible communication is one in essence and nature with his father he it is brethren that is the Bridegroom We by Birth what are we but the basest our Father an Amorite our Mother an Hittite yea a seeed of evil doers a generation of vipers worse then worms and the vilest And yet the Lord Jesus the Bridegroom bearing such a relation to such as we and taking us into such a relation to himself 2. If we look upon his beauty brethren Alas if we turn our eyes towards it we are dazled a beam or two he sheweth us in a glass darkly indeed that yet rightly understood would amaze us as to behold the glory of the Sun reflected by a glass or a piece of burnished mettal it dazleth us we cannot behold it when he saith he is the shining forth of his fathers glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shining forth of his fathers glory which considered as God-man is a glorious expression of his beauty But considered as he is the Son of God it falls much below it for the beam of the Sun though never so glorious is far below the essence of the Son but he is one in essence with the father He is as God-man the express Character of his fathers person A poor dull carnal eye that lookt no farther then the veil of flesh and saw him a man of sorrow acquainted with grief his visage marred more then any mans as he saith Smitten of God or a smitten God alas there was no beauty to be seen why he should desire him But his beauty is inward he is white
is he not upright and just and true hath he said it and will he not make it good hath he not said as many as come to him he will in no wise cast out and is â—is word worth nothing indeeed if a man fail once in his word we will hardly trust him the second time and if ever sinners or Satan can come forth and say that the Lord Jesus made a promise and was not as good as his word then you may indeed have a jealousie of him but they cannot they cannot the Devil will tell you his promise of the seed of the woman breaking the Serpents head he hath felt to his wounding and his promise of Satans falling down like lightning and there is not a sinner in hell can charge the Lord Jesus with breach of promise But it may be this is not enough to poor unbelieving souls therefore you shall have it written and sealed and witnessed there are witnesses in heaven and upon Earth and seals the Sacraments the broad seal and privy seal of the spirit yea there is an oath also to make it good what would you have more what can you desire more then this would you see the work done why is not the giving up of Jesus Christ to the death for sinners the greatest part of the work Sure if ever he would have baulkt there and yet you see it stuck not O therefore be not jealous of him who hath so freely and so largely laid out himself for sinners 3. Now then ye that are Saints indeed love the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints None have such reason to love him as they that have tasted of his love if there be any ingenuity in us love will beget love as one flame begets another because he hath set his love upon me saith the Psalmist therefore I will deliver him if we could love the Lord Jesus more we should be delivered more from those evils we mourn under How lamentable a thing is it how much love have we for Creatures and how little love for Jesus Christ did Husband or Wife die for us ransom us from the pit and hell I hope there are some of his people believe it that have more affection for Jesus Christ then ever they had for the Creature Ah blessed souls how infinitely are you engaged to him for so fully seizing upon your hearts O who are you that you should be able thus entirely to love the Lord Jesus and admitted to it but thus it is and magnifie his Name But alas for the most part the complaint of the people of God is they cannot love him O labour to get those carnal affections mortified the fore-skins of our heart taken away and our heart circumcised and then we shall love him you have a promise improve it for that end If we could but spare time to set our selves to it to study his heart towards us and ours towards him his excellency and loveliness we could not but love him O beg the spreading abroad of his love sheding it abroad not only upon our understandings but our affections for no further then he sheds it will it spread it will stay in the brain in the understanding if the passages between head and heart be not opened by him we shall never be affected and warmed by it Alas you will say our distances are so great that kils our love No brethren that cannot be the distances are not so great now for the relation between Christ and thy soul if thou believest is the nearest relation he is one Spirit with thee and therefore there is not such a distance and though in respect of dignity and worth there be a distance yet remember now we are 〈◊〉 part of himself and partake with him of his dignities also but however love knoweth not that over-much aw and respect as to kill it but it will be working towards the person beloved Mary Magdalen loving him holds him by the feet and weeps over him If a Prince will marry a begger surely he will take it well and expecteth it to be loved of her and he would not be pleased with such a dejection in respect of her own vileness as to quash her love yea brethren me thinks the meaner we see our selves the more we should love him for what can we do else but love him we have nothing else lovely or desirable but our love our hearts therefore Oh love him and abundantly love him O ye Saints of his whom he hath so loved Alas But our love is little in comparison of his love to us and this discourageth us It is true What proportion between the drop of a Bucket and the ocean Some there is but there is none between the largeness of Christ his heart toward us and ours towards him But shall our love perish and dry up because there is not as much in the little limbeck as in the fountain in the river as in the sea He is love it self brethren and therefore we must be contented to fall infinitely below in love but let us love him according to our measure Again if there be the whole heart to love the Lord Jesus it is as much proportionably for us if we could reach it as it is for him to love us with his whole heart as he is pleased to express it The Creature is infinitely less then Christ and therefore must needs have infinitely less love to him then he hath to us but yet there is nothing wanting where there is Totum therefore rather it should provoke us He hath loved us first aâ—d loved us more abundantly then we can love him therefore labour to get our hearts as much enlarged as we can in love towards him though we fall short of what we might attain to he will make up imperfections there is love enough in him and there is the advantage of his love being above ours that he can cover those imperfections in our love to him which if he had not more abundantly then he could not do What shall I say more Love is that which commandeth all it draweth all the affections along with it which way ever it turns thither the desires are bent there is the hope fixed there the delights are quâ— amat amat nihil aliud novit She that loveth loveth and knoweth nothing else O how shall we not be able to do any thing against sin for Christ if we loved him so entirely then our hearts would be in Heaven we could not grufle as many of us do then we should be more tender of his name and of his honour then now we are but alas I am not able to press these things home the Lord set them home You must love him brethren else you will have little joy of your communion with him which is to endure to eternity Again Labour to rejoyce in him and in his love rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous saith the Psalmist
fervor of affection towards them a Bridegroom rejoyceth exceedingly over his Bride though happily afterward he is not so much affected for it is our natures the imperfection of them that new things affect us more then old now with God there is nothing new nor old but his heart is the same and so is Jesus Christ his heart he rejoyceth over his people continually as a Bridegroom over his Bride not as a man over his wife but as a Bridegroom over his Bride now surely if a man do afterwards cool in his affections towards his wife and could be content to be separated from her yet upon the day of espousal or Marriage he will not be induced to it he rejoyceth over his Bride Why such is Gods heart and Christ his heart continually to his people But so much for this Therefore the Lord help us to conclude from those promises however it be however he may speak against us sometimes and act so as it seemeth to us to be against us as Jacob saith all these things are against me yet he will not part with any soul he hath espoused to himself Ahashuerus may put away the Queen upon a seeming scorn or contempt refusing to come at his command when he was in is cups but brethren though it may be thou hast and thou dost many times slight the call of Jesus Christ thou wilt not come nor follow him when he would have thee thou shalt follow him in darkness and lament after him when he is withdrawn but he will not put away It is said in that of Mal. the Lord hates putting away it is true it is firstly intended there of mens putting away their wives but surely if he hate it in us he will not admit it in himself though it is true he is above all Law given to us yet he hath set forth this mystery of his union with his Church by the Marriage-union I shew you a mystery saith the Apostle but I speak concerning Christ and his Church And as it holds in love and cherishing and nourishing and not hating so why not in this that he hates putting away the Lord cannot admit of such a thought of putting away such a soul if Satan would move for it the Lord hates it and hates him for it Be of good chear therefore thou poor drooping soul that hast received him accepted of his love closed with his wooing and intreating thee to be reconciled and given up thy self to him assure thy self he will never put away any poor soul Ob. Alas but you will say this is little comfort though he be thus unchangeable yet I may change and break the Marriage-Covenant with him or I have done it I fear and therefore in such a case he may put me away and yet not change for the change is in me For this brethren remember It is not the back-slidings of his people that can undo the match made between him and them did not Israel go a whoring after other Gods and is not that the breach of the Marriage-Covenant he speaks there of that Church a man will not receive his wife again likely in such a case yet return again to me saith the Lord and I will receive you If that the Lord had not foreseen those back-slidings in his people it had been somewhat if Christ had not fully satisfyed the father for them as well as for other sins it had been something if upon this account there were not forgiveness laid up in store enough with God for these things it were somwhat indeed And it is very observable brethren I speak the more because I know that poor creatures in this condition they are full of jealousies and fears and all that can be said is little enough to quiet and comfort first observe that the Lord speaks over and over and over again Israel had back-sliden in that Prophesie of Hosea as appears ch 14. 4. I will heal their back-slidings Well now they could hardly believe that God would receive them again they were so confounded they had nothing to say therefore he puts words into their mouths in that chapter teacheth them what to say but observe in the second chapter I will betroth them saith God I will I will you have it no less then three or four times which speaks the certainty and ardency of affection in doing the thing in answer to their doubtings I will do it saith the Lord. Alas saith the poor soul it will not sink with me that after such Apostacy and backslidings he will receive it I will do it saith the Lord again O! I cannot believe it saith the soul I will do it saith he again Yea 2. Observe there that he will do it and espouse them betroth them again as one very well hoteth he saith not he will receive them as a man may recive his Adulterous wife again but I will betroth them saith the Lord as if they were virgins pure and unspotted the Lord will receive them not upbraiding them with their going a whoring from him so the virgin daughter of Sion you have heard they are called upon their repentance as if they never polluted themselves so that if the Lord give thee but a repenting heart thy back-slidings will be as if thou hadst never started from him and from final departing he will keep them I say he will keep them here is the difference between this espousal and those between men and women there if the mans heart continue faithful happily hers may fall off and never close again and there is an end of the matter but here the Lord Jesus his heart is not onely toward his people but he keepeth their hearts with him that they shall not depart It is the very tenor of the Covenant of Grace I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me as long as God is faithful and the Covenant of Grace stands they shall not depart let Satan and sophisters say what they will Then in the next place this being made good there is a spring of comfort ariseth from this and that is in respect of troubles and crosses afflictions and losses the fading vanities of the world Thou mayest lose thy dear husband that is as dear as thy life But thy Maker is thy husband if thou believe and thou canst not lose him nor he will not lose thee Thy dear children they are but fading flowers that even wither in the hand and perish in the using as all these outward comforts do but here is a comfort never fades thou mayst be afflicted happily with the cooling of the affections of dear relations to thee why the Lord Jesus his heart is at the same pass alway to thee it is alway a day of espousal with him he rejoyceth continually as a Bridegroom over his Bride Methinketh brethren whatever your troubles are inward or outward here you may relieve your selves by having recourse to your interest in Jesus Christ your Redeemer and
that this is folly but the world counteth this the greatest folly that can be to make so much ado about the soul-affairs to trouble themselves so much about the interest in Christ they are the wise men that have heads deep and large to compass their designs for the world and to have a profession of Christ the thing may be of some use but the thing it self it is but a burthen they will never trouble themselves with a Lamp and a Vessel full of Oyl besides it is enough to have a Lamp But surely Brethren the Lord judgeth otherwise you see who is the fool in Christs sense and what will it avail if a man the world account him a wise man and he himself deem himself a wise man and Jesus Christ accounteth him a fool he never giveth names for nothing they are sure to answer them sooner or later the easiest course Brethren is not the wisest then the Sluggard were the wisest man 2. It may serve to reprove and convince us of much folly then that is among us Stultorum plena sunt omnia all Proressions are ful of fools and none more then the Profession of Jesus Christ for the higher the end the greater the folly in pretending to it and missing of it I doubt brethren all the Congregation are full of such fools as these are it appears to be so in the Prophets time Who is wise saith he and he will consider these things c. and Prudent and he shall know them Who is wise by this interrogation there is implied a paucity of them as in that Who is there among you that walks in darkness and seeth no light they are not very ordinary so again Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed May I not take up the Prophets complaint now and say who in this Congregation is wise who so wise as to consider their latter end to provide for it not to rest in a name in a profession Some I doubt not but there are who are able to produce their Evidences Christ in them the hope of Glory but are they so many as were to be wished brethren do you not take up short of Jesus Christ rest in the means as you have heard before 3. Then it shall serve to stir us up to awaken us to look about us for that is one thing also which that interrogation imports to stir us up to Consider our wayes and our Condition and State Whether we have this oyl in our vessel as well as in the Lamp surely Brethren For Motives 4. This is a very pressing one which our Saviour covertly giveth in the Text they were foolish virgins which took no oyl and the Prophet Who is wise and he will consider these things for men would not be counted fools of all things men had rather be wicked and counted so then be counted fools and will rather shew their wit in froth and jests and over-reaching then be counted fools you know the affectation of wisdom was the first temptation and ever since vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild Asses Colt we are most stupid Creatures and yet would have a name to be wise and are indeed contented to be fools in Gods account rather then we would not be wise men in our own account and the account of the world desperate fools this is cum ratione insanire if any thing be O brethren if we would be wise indeed take the advice of wisdom it self or the wonderful Councellor take heed of resting in this Condition without oyl in your vessels he is wise indeed that is wise in the latter end that thou mayst be wise in the latter end he that liveth in reputation of a wise man he thinketh himself so and dyeth a fool in the account of God himself and all others this is the fool in grain the more care to get and keep our vessels full of oyl the more wiser we shall approve our selves 2. Dear friends Consider seriously now You think you follow Jesus Christ and your Lamps are burning but what a sad disappointment will it be and confusion For hope disappointed confounds a man as it is in Job they are confounded because they hoped you hope for heaven now if you be disappointed and your Lamps go out in obscure darkness just when you have the most need of them O how will you be able to bear it O therefore whatever you do labour to get this oyl make sure of this brethren never give the Lord over follow him up and down in all the wayes of grace until thou have gotten thy vessel full thy heart filled with grace with his fear his love with humility self-denial O look to it that thou close with Christ that you do not mistake somewhat else instead of him beg the Spirit Brethren to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and you may have all grace to abound towards you and in you that having an al-sufficiency alway in all things you may abound in every good work your hearts being ful there being a Spring to eternal life that your Lamps may never be put out but you may appear wise in your latter end which trieth indeed which are the wise and which the foolish Virgins O be diligent in improving all the Ordinances for that end received ye the Spirit by the works of the the Law or by the hearing of Faith You have heard it is the dew wherein the Manna descends it is the vehiculum we come to hear all of us O take heed how you hear with what hearts you come before him and how you attend to this word do you know in what part of it the Spirit will descend will come upon the heart at which Sermon in which part of the Sermon O brethren if we come with vessels full conceited with Pride full of Earth stopped up with the world how can we expect this oyl should be poured into us therefore Come labour to bring your empty vessels to the Lord in his Ordinances for it is observable as long as there was an empty vessel the oyl run in the widows case and so it would be here he never sent a poor empty broken Spirit a poor Creature poor in spirit to come humbled and trembling in sense of its wants and worthlesness he never sent them away empty when the vessel is full he will not pour out the oyl it would be lost there is no room to receive it Again Labour to number your days brethren that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom to this wisdom to salvation this is a rich piece of skill that is not to be learned but in the school of Christ to number our days Consider the shortness of our time how short we cannot tell for ought we know this night he was a fool in grain
get this oyl in their vessels they slept away their opportunity the Gospel must be preached for a witness to all Nations and now they can have no cloak for their sin for their unreadiness for his appearing the â—ord will manage his affairs so as that every mouth may be stoped and confess before him That none of his own may be â—left therefore he sendeth a Cry before him for none that are unfit for entrance with him into the Marriage shall enter into it no soul shall go to heaven in a sleep they are not fit for it as you heard before nor when he cometh will he wait upon any now is the time of waiting to be gracious to poor souls then is the time of recompence either love or displeasure â—e will not tarry then and therefore it is said here in the Text those that were ready went with him in to the supper of the Lamb into the marriage those that had their Lamps trimmed and the door was shut if the Saints themselves should not be found ready in some measure he would not then stay love is impatient of delay then now he would not lose any and therefore he is long-suffering and patient long before he cometh for that very end because he would have none of his perish so also for the same reason doth he thus warn them by a Voyce a Cry to rouze them awake them lest if they should be found unready they might miss of entring with him For the Application Then brethren let us take notice of the goodness and tenderness of the Lord to his own people in awakening them though it may be it may disease them a little at first to have such a cry in their ears as not to suffer them to sleep when they would nestle themselves upon their pillow he is loath to leave them behind he will not lose any of them and therefore he rouzeth them If Jesus Christ had left his Church in Cant. 5. Or his Disciples sleeping and gone his ways their condition had been sad If death had come upon poor David while under that guilt in the matter of Vriah and in so deep a sleep how sad had his condition been and so for Jonas if the belly of hell had been his grave the belly of the Whale and he had not been awaked out of that sleep what had become of him he had miscarryed for ever or at least he had suffered great loss and therefore it is much tenderness in the Lord to his poor people that he will not let them sleep but he rouzeth them up 2. How easie should this make and how should it sweeten the severest of Gods dealings with us to awake us Suppose we have a dreadful sound in our ears when nothing else will do it the terrors of God displayed and set in battle array against our souls God writeth bitter things against us and all little enough to awaken us we are so secure it may be It must be the lowder voyce of the rod that must do it if other means will not and this seemeth not joyons but grievous at present but it brings forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness O! the end will be sweet when the soul thereby shall be awaked and kept awake and ready for the appearing of the Lord Jesus I know the people of God would not for a world that day should come upon them and finde them in such a frame so heavy so listless so untoward as they are sometimes and know not how to shake it off I but give the Lord leave to shake it off bear then the Cry though it be loud sometimes and seem offensive if this be the end to awaken thee O why shouldst not thou bear it thankfully and chearfully 3. If there be a Cry going before his coming Then brethren see whether or no you have not had this Cry in part sounding in your cars and what use you have made of it hath it awaked you or not The Gospel it is here the voyce of the watchmen that continually stir you up and tell you the day of Christ is coming is at hand If not the general yet your particular day the day of his coming to our souls particularly cannot be far off this is the daily cry in our ears and O that we could cry lowder and lift up our voyce with more affection to your souls but as such poor worms are able we cry to you we are messengers sent before his face the Cry is behold he cometh go forth to meet him Now brethren where are you Are you upon your beds still How many have been awaked by this awakening word the terrors of the Lord against them that sleep Have you done any thing to your further sitting for heaven Can you with comfort go forth to meet Jesus Christ open to him when he knocks Surely you have not made use of this Cry that hath been made Ah how many are sleeping as deeply as ever and do not yet dream of his coming though they know not but that he is at the door and this night their souls shall be taken from them 4. Then how should this stir us up every one to attend to the cry that is made and obey it now you have the cry made in the word this is our preaching to awaken you Look not upon Sermons only as the affectionate discourse of a poor creature that wisheth well to your souls but look upon it as the warning word of Jesus Christ as the Cry that goeth before his presence afterwards himself wâ—ll come and that speedily and how soon you know not and as he findeth you then so it will go with you O that the Lord would speak by his Spirit and rattle you up a little poor sleepy souls both wise and foolish virgins not that I desire the grief of yours or mine own soul for if I make you sorry who is it that must make me glad but you that are made sorry by me as the Apostle saith Yet dear friends as I hope I could be contented rather to be shaken out of a sleep my self then be found sleeping at the coming of Christ so had I rather it should be with you how shall I bespeak your poor souls this day I would fain prevail with one poor soul to shake off this drowsiness and sloath and sleepiness that is upon us O arise arise for your souls sake for your peace sake as you tender your comfort now you hear the Cry going before him think with your selves sometimes Can you look Jesus Christ in the face with such a frame of heart as you have every day O arise arise will such sleepy souls be fit to sing Allelujahs to eternity to God O arise arise Deborah to sing praises to the Lord awake then that sleepest you cannot else be fit for heaven this the first Consider secondly If this Cry will not awaken you you shall have a more dreadful sound in your
such persons of all others 4. It will be a word of Terror then to all hypocrites and formalists and all sinners in that this day of the Lord will surprize you and come upon you at unawares What maketh death so terrible to poor sinners when they come to it but the judgement which followeth it so that let a sinner have warning of it and it is terrible but when it cometh upon a sudden and unexpected this exceedingly addeth to the terror of it it amazeth astonisheth O what a terror must it needs be to the old world that when their hopes were in the spring in their verdure then all on a sudden the world was on a flood the fountains of the deep and the clouds above conspired to swallow them up And will it not be think you as great an astonishment when the world at the end shall look for nothing less and before they are aware the world shall be on a flame about their ears O then the sinners in Sion will be afraid and fearfulness will surprize the hypocrite put as good a face upon it now as you can How terrible is a sudden storm upon the poor Mariners which they never lookt for they are all inveloped in darkness the clouds and seas seem to come together How terrible was the coming of Gideon upon the Midianiâ—es on a sudden at midnight when all asleep likely to see and hear so many Trumpets blowing so many pitchers clattering so many Lamps burning such a cry the sword of the Lord and of Gideon all on a sudden O how terrible it was it put them besides themselves they knew not what to do they thrust their swords in one anothers bowels O that we had but hearts to believe how terrible a day it will be to us if it overtake us as a snare Yea surely it will have somewhat of amazement terror in it to the people of God themselves that shal be found sleeping with whom it shall be midnight in respect of security And though they may avoid the ruine and destruction of the day they shall have a share in the distraction and terror of it but poor sinners poor hypocrites poor formalists shall have the amazing terror and never come to themselves never recover themselves but perish for ever by it 5. Then knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men to this watching which is the main thing intended in the Parable And concerning which you have heard somewhat already having spoken so largely to the Privation or defect of this watching in the slumbering and sleeping of the Virgins Nor do I intend to insist largely upon this watching here only here I suppose it most naturally falls into this main part of the Parable Watching here is as much as diligent taking heed to our selves that that day come not upon us at unawares As a man that watcheth against an enemy is surprized he takes diligent heed so our Saviour take heed to your selves that that day come not upon you as a snare so take heed to your selves and the flock over which the Lord hath made you overseers c. Watch therefore saith he for after my departure grievous wolves will enter As a party of soldiers when they would take diligent heed to themselves lest they be surprized by their enemy they watch they express it that way so here then The Exhortation is brethren to us all To take diligent heed to our selves lest we be surprized by the coming of Jesus Christ for we know not when he will come there is no determined time and if we take not diligent heed it will come upon us unawares You have had some of the Motives to press this duty heretofore or the Caution against sleeping I pray you remember how you cannot be too often put in mind of them surely our Saviour cometh over with it so often again and again you have heard the danger you are in while you sleep But we will rather take up a Consideration or two from hence First the difficulty of the duty so continually to take so diligent heed If the good man had known what hour the thief would have come he might more easily have watched to have prevented him it is much more easie to hold out such a watch for a while then constantly now every hour being in danger because we know not what hour he will come this is more difficult which should not discourage us but whet us on to double diligence Jam per periculum animâ— Alexandri It is an easie thing to be a Christian as many are lazy droans listless sleepy Professors that alas alas would scarce ever be found upon their watch when ever he should come But it is a matter of great difficulty and will work all your faculties to the utmost to watch for his appearing 2. The dreadfulness of the thing if you be surprized would you have Jesus Christ find you with your ornaments laid aside find you naked how will you hold up your heads and look him in the face either you will perish with the foolish Virgins and I doubt that will prove the portion of many of our souls or else you will be saved but you must run through fear through some shame confusion distraction when you are taken unawares Besides you are not of the night but of the day saith the Apostle that that day should not take you at unawares 1 Thes 5. 5. And otherwise we give not God the end of his dispensations which is that we might watch What then should we do surely brethren There are two things specially for us to do according to the scope of this Parable which our Saviour thus applyeth because the foolish Virgins and the wise both by their sleeping suffered such loss the one lost all their precious souls all the world not being able to recover them the other lost their comfort and sweet peace and quiet and had much coniusion in their latter end the soul being in a hurry to make ready when it should go forth to meet the Lord Jesus should have nothing else to do but to dye Therefore this watching being opposed to both their sleeping I conceive there are two things specially in it First That you be sure to have your oyl in your vessels ready that we have grace in our hearts Take heed to your selves diligently then in the name of Jesus Christ that you give not sleep to your eys nor slumber to your eye-lids give not the Lord nor your souls rest until you have this Communication of Christ to your poor souls how many poor hearts that hear this word have not a dram of grace though you have long had a name to be Christians yet that hath been all Brethren What do you mean can you dye comfortably hopefully except you have grace in your hearts this oyl this Spirit of grace dwelling in you will any thing else enable you to lift up your faces before him but his
of Jesus Christ there should be a greater desire to be with Jesus Christ knowing you are absent now where there is such a desire and such a groaning surely that day will not come upon them so unexpectedly and terribly If we have not this assurance brethren methinks then the fear of this day of Jesus Christ should hold us in such bondage all our lives-long it should so keep us awake we should have little mind to sleep if we labour to keep upon our hearts fresh our own Condition but we should be up and working to make our calling and election sure and so we might be found doing and surely brethren that poor soul trembling that thus follows hard after Christ if the day come upon him before he have this assurance yet shall it be more comfortable to him then to a man that hath had more peace and fals asleep in the lap of it and so is overtaken Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. IN the former Verse we have a preparative Cry behold the Bridegroom cometh In this Verse we have the effect of it in part which is general to them all both wise and foolish then when that cry was made that dreadful sound was made in their ears it startled them rowsed them out of their sleep they arose from their bed of security and one as well as another all those Virgins those he had been speaking of all those that slept which were wise as well as foolish and foolish as well as wise And that it is thus generally taken it is further plain because afterward he cometh to divide them and the foolish said unto the wise while they were both asleep the one could not speak nor the other hear but now they were all rowsed they universally particle they all arose and trimmed c. It hath influence upon both parts of the Predicate The words are a plain Proposition the Subject is the Virgins the universality of the Subject all of them those Virgins that were asleep before That which is spoken of them is double they arose and they trimmed their Lamps And we have also the time when they did this then then when the Cry came they heeded not what Condition their Lamps were in before There are two things mainly noteworthy in the verse according to the two sorts of Virgins which divide this universal all those Virgins they were wise and foolish some of them were Virgins in deed the other in profession and appearance such now it is very considerable concerning them both That the Hypocrite should ever arise out of such a deep sleep considering that his heart was never awake is a matter worth our noting and that he that had nothing else but a Lamp and that even now wearing out yet should be trimming of it up for heaven On the other hand and it is as observable that the Child of God hath his Lamp to trim now at such a time as this is when the Cry is come he is summoned to meet the Lord Jesus who is near at hand Accordingly I shall take up a double Observation from the words That an Hypocrite a formal Professor may go very far towards heaven and salvation And I think this droppeth like honey from the comb without crushing or wrong to the Text. That a Child of God may have his Lamp to trim when he should use it The first of these A Hypocrite may go very far his Profession may carry him a great way and yet fall short at last You see here in the Text God doth not pluck away the vizard at first but letteth them proceed he could have discovered them when he pleased they take up their Lamps and they go forth to meet the Bridegroom more then many will be perswaded to that will hardly stir a foot for Christ they continue so doing until the Bridegroom tarried so long beyond their expectation then indeed they fell asleep then they rowsed again and trimmed their Lamps All these put together which are in the Text will make it appear that a Hypocrite may go far and fall short A Doctrine never more need for to be pressed then now And therefore though you have heard not very long since much concerning it and much more then I am able to speak and better for the matter yet let me also put you in remembrance of these things brethren and the Lord open all our eyes in a thing so nearly concerning us all I shall therefore propose what I have to say by way of proof of the Doctrine in several heads or degrees whereto a Hypocrite may reach the Lord give us all understanding in them First then a Hypocrite he may have much knowledge much light a head full of notion and this is one thing necessarily imported in the Lamps which the foolish Virgins had Some have thought their Lamps were dead they had no flame no light nor heat at all but I see no reason of it for it is said their Lamps were gone out which argues they were in before but I think this will hardly be denied but a Hypocrite may be a man of much knowledge do you not see it in the Pharisees were they not men of much knowledge and understanding able to teach others they had Moses's Chair and so the Scriptures the Doctrine of the Law men of great knowledge and yet our Saviour brands them for Hypocrites that is an aëry religion that lies in the head So the Jews the Apostle speaks to them by way of concession yielding to them what they had but shewing them where they fell short thou art a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God as we do now make our boast of Christ that we are Christians and cannot bear it to be accounted otherwise and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law there is the principle of their knowledge not a light within them by nature but to the Law and to the Testimonies they had their light from thence and so well grown in knowledge that they were confident that they were guides to the blind and therefore had no need to be blind themselves a light to them which are in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of Babes And not only he is confident of it but the Apostle yieldeth it that he had the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law and then he reasons ex concessis thou which teachest another teachest thou not self c. We glory in these days as much in our light as ever they did never such times of light though for my part I cannot see but much that passeth for light is gross darkness but suppose it be so there may be light enough a shining Lamp and yet but a foolish Virgin surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum doctrinis c. I know it is true where a people are void of knowledge they
loiâ—â—r nor stay in what he had received but pressed hard forward toward the mark of the priâ—e of the high calling he that aimeth short even at so much as will serve his turn and compass his design when he hath done that there is an end But I aâ—m at perfection saith the Apostle and so should we if we would keep our Lamps alive never rest 8. Be much in prayer pray hard for the supplies of his Spirit he hath promised them if we ask importunity will prevail if we be Strangers much more if Children it is the spirit that keepeth all alive and therefore pray for more and more of this Spirit of Jesus Christ See how Moses followeth the Lord with request upon request when he had been in the Mount and seen him face to face one would think this was enough to have stopped his mouth for a great while no sooner was he come down but he is praying for the guidance of that good Spirit O Lord shew me the way where in thou wouldst have us to go well God grants him this this satisfieth him not but he must have Gods presence with him an Angel would not serve his turn but his presence he must have and when this was granted this would not serve his turn neither but then O Lord shew me thy glory Prayer is the richest trading for heaven Build up your selves praying in the holy Ghost Ah it is the prayer of faith that fetcheâ—h in rich supplies from the Lord continually 9. Take heed of grieving this good Spirit then when we have his presence by any willing transgression this grieveth him our unthankfulness and slighting of him minding the world grieve him not for if he depart be sure our Lamps will be but in a sad taking 10. Then every day we must be trimming the Lamps of the Sanctuary were drest or trimmed every day he made them well as the Original word signifieth they were disordered burning every night there was somewhat wanting oyl and raising the week likely and removal of dross from them which they might contract he drest them and made them ready every morning the morality implied in this Type surely is this that we should daily dress up our Lamps they will need it every day renew our repentance renew our resolutions our walking clos 〈…〉 r with God to love him c. daily endeavour to draw nearer to him neglect your Lamps but a week or so and see what fearful work there will be Again such then as can say with Moses they have lived thus long and their sight fails not nor their strength c. They have great cause to bless the Lord. But though a Child of God is thus apt to decline his profession thus apt to grow dim his Lamp to want trimming yet it never goeth altogether out And what use should we make of this 1. It reproveth that opinion of falling away utterly from justifying and renewing grace the condition of all believers is here set down by the state of the wise virgins their Lamps indeed did decay and suffer an impairing but not altogether dye No this spring of grace once sprung in the heart springs up to eternal life though some interruptions there may be did he pray that Peters faith should not fail him and did he not pray for all believers indeed his faith did as near fail him as ever mans did but yet it revived again and so David and others 2. Yet do not abuse this Doctrine of grace as our hearts are exceeding apt to do If we cannot fall away utterly then if once Be sure we have the root of the matter in us if once we have Oyl in our vessels it will never be altogether spent our Lamps will never be blown out This is dangerous and next to desperate and therefore the Apostle in a like case with a kind of abhorrency at the thought of such a thing speaks thus shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid because he hath made us partakers of the sure mercies of David that will never fail shall we therefore neglect our worthy walking of them it argues a very ungodly frame of heart where this is to be found We should the rather be encouraged our hands strengthened to work out our salvation with so much the more earnestness were it not a very unchild-like and wretched frame of heart for a child to say Well I know my fathers heart towards me let me do what I will he will not cast me out of doors his inheritance is sure he may haply be mistaken and prove himself a Bastard and not a Son And so it is here Gods Children have all of them such child-like dispositions in them as they will hardly dare to make such an use of such a rich treasury of grace Or if they do they are like to smart for it 3. A word of strong Consolation to many a poor drooping soul If once thou have but grace in thy heart the oyl in thy Vessel it is never lost again though in its own nature it be loseable Thou art afraid some temptation or another from Satan the world or thy own heart will blow it out some blast or other will wither thee O thou shalt never be able to keep thy Lamp burning in the midst of so many contrary winds of lust and corruption but though thou canst not keep it alive the Lord can do it and he will do it Indeed while the Virgins slept for any care they took of their Lamp it might have gone out but the Lord kept it burning though it were but low and needed dressing Be of good courage then poor drooping foul and he shall strengthen thy heart didst thou ever know of any that had this oyl in their vessels that had the real work of grace upon them that did quite extinguish and dye surely thou didst not If the Lord do but seal it up to thee that thou art one of the wise Virgins believe it for thy everlasting comfort thy Lamp shall never be put out in obscure darkness 4. What shall we render to the Lord for this unspeakable grace towards us how hath he lifted up our condition above innocency it self in Adam he was made liable to fall away and the Lord did not engage himself to keep him we are made now in the second Adam in a surer Condition we have a better tenure in Jesus Christ which is the root of our stedfastness and standing because he liveth we shall live If Jesus Christ could die any more then might the Saints that are in him dye again altogether when once they are implanted into him O he liveth for ever and that Spirit of Christ which liveth and dwelleth in his people it never dyeth and faileth and he hath made it the very tenure of his Covenant he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him We it may be that
say some of them lave such misgivings which though they be not so clear as to amount to a knowledge condition and to put them on to a recovery out of it yet they may be enough to make them loath to search A man is loath to search his coyn he suspects he shall find many bad pieces there and haply thereby prove himself but a beggar finding all brass instead of gold A man is loath to take up the grave-stone he may suspect what he shall find within which he is not very willing to see it may be nor to endure the stench of it and therefore pleaseth himself with the paint and outward beauty of it and therefore no marvel if it be hid from his eyes Fifthly It is a righteous hand of God upon hypocrites they are even paid in their own coyn that since they have deceived others with fair shews and pretences and endeavoured as I may say to deceive the Lord himself that they should deceive their own souls and should be hid from themselves that they may go on the more securely until they see by woful experience that they are tumbled into the pit And surely this was one of the things which were hid from Jerusalems eyes the things which belonged to her peace the first iâ— not the chief thing was the knowledge of her self Luke 19. 42. is a choice place of saving as well as moral knowledge now they had neglected their time implyed the hypocrites drew near God with their mouths when their hearts were far from him thinking to put off God with such Idol-worship as if he had not been a God which searched the heart and could find it out therefore the Lord tels them well saith he now the things which concern your peace are hid from your eyes and this is one of them among the rest the knowledge of Christ the remedy is the other main thing O it is a fearful hand of God brethren when he giveth them up to blindness of mind so that they shall discern nothing which concerneth them and so not know their own conditions if the Lord hide who can find as if he search who can be concealed But so much for this first thing Secondly At last he shall be discovered to himself He shall see himself to be but an hypocrite this is many times so I mean not only in hell mens eyes shall be opened but at death or before death many times the hypocrites eyes are opened to see himself what he is It is true sometimes he may go down in peace to the grave such a peace as Satan and an hard heart and seared conscience gives but yet you see here in this Parable that before the coming of the Bridegroom they saw their Lamps were gone out and that they wanted oyl the great work the grace in the heart which before they cared not for I will not press it too far and say that because all the foolish Virgins here see that their Lamps were gone out therefore all hypocrites and formal professors before their death are discovered to themselves as well as to others that they are but hypocrites but it is so many times and ordinarily surely else I know not what can be the meaning of this part of the Parable was it not so with Judas was it not discovered to him when he was detected and his conscience so wounded that he could not but go and proclaim himself a wretch a traytor to his Master before all the Court if he were so blinded before by lust by covetousness as not to see what he did yet now his eyes were opened he saw what his condition was and the terrour of it was such that he went and hanged himself But how and when doth the Lord discover hypocrites to themselves Why truly brethren haply in the hour of affliction then the Alchymie gold being not able to endure the seventh fire discovers it self what it is so the hypocrite will he pray alway Or in the general by any other means whereby the Lord blasts their profession and maketh it wither then they come to see it was but a gourd under whose shadow they delighted themselves so you see God doth blast their profession Here it was not until their Lamps were gone out that they saw it that they wanted oyl while they could sparkle walk in the light of their own sparks think all is well with them while they can maintain their profession and keep up duties c. haply they see not the hypocrisie lies hid under those broad leaves but when they wither they become as trees twice dead then haply they come to see it Not that alway those whose professions wither do see theÌ„selvs to be hypocrites neither for they may turn down right prophane as many poor creatures have done and returned with the swine washed to the wallowing in the mirâ— and grow past feeling the conscience much seared and hardened but yet many times this is a means whereby God doth discover hypocrites to themselves sometimes they have had somewhat of a presence of God and now they have none now their leaf fals now as Saul they have no answer from God neither by Vision nor Prophet and now they see the woful case they are in now they are pluckt as I may say of their plumes their nakedness appears Not that a child of God may not want his presence and a great while too but there is then a sickness of love for him a mourning after him ordinarily or a sad complaint that they cannot mourn after him but an hypocrite he findeth a want of the former presence and his heart is little or nothing troubled for it he is contented to let it go Secondly It may be sometimes without any such affliction yet the Lord may discover to an hypocrite that he is no better that he is rotten at the heart though the guilt wear not away yet he can shew the soul that it is but Alchymie though the paint of the Sepulchre continue and be not washed away he can shew a man that he is an Hypocrite not but that a Child of God may think himself an Hypocrite sometimes under temptation but he is not so but when God revealeth it to the soul he setteth it on with an evidence indeed that it is so But why doth the Lord then discover Hypocrites before the day of the discovery of all things why truly it is First That they might have a taste of that bitter Cup which they are to drink the dregs of to all eternity the Hypocrites Cup if any be more deep then other this is it and if any more deadly dregs in it this is it Now God will kindle a beginning of hell in their consciences that as the Saints have some fore-tasâ—s of heaven and the joyes to be revealed to sweeten their Cup of affliction so Hypocrites might have some of the gall and worm-wood to imbitter all their delights in this
Formalist is it not better then that thou shouldst know it then be ignorant of it is not the knowledge of the disease half the cure if it be curable is it not better to disease thy self a little now then to go to hell in a golden dream Again the time must come that thou must know it when it is remediless if thou know it not there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed do not think your Figleaves will always hold before the everlasting burnings they will quickly scorch and burn and then your nakedness and shame and confusion shall swallow you up s 〈…〉 it not better for a man to know his wound before it prove incurable surely it is Again consider yet further the higher your confidence is now the lower will your hearts sink when you come to see your disappointment a fools Paradise the Proverb hath it is the wise mans hell you are foolish Virgins and please your selves with a light of your Lamp and can take as much delight as any other upon the best grounds remember Brethren it will be the cutting of your souls asunder when you shall find too late that you were so befooled out of your immortal souls You have had heretofore many of you the signs and marks whereby you may judge in some measure of your condition make use of them and the Lord give you to understand wisdom in the hidden part But when you have done all this is the result that you cannot find but your hearts are right with him Bâ—g of God to search you for indeed he only can search the deep things of a mans heart as it is in that 17. of Ier. and so the Psalmist tells him Lord for ought I can discern thou hast made me willing to part with all iniquity for Christ to receive him as my Lord but my heart is too deep for me O do thou search me and try me that if I be not willing thou wouldest discover it to me If I be that thou wouldst seal it up to my soul that which I know not shew thou me c. Lest any poor soul should gather discouragement from hence whose portion discouragement is not I wil speak a word to such to stay their hearts Some will be ready to say alas If this be so then sad may be my condion for ought I know I may long be hid from mine own iniquities and yet at last come to see I am an hypocrite and rotten 1. Consider it may be so indeed oftentimes and it may not be so look not only upon the black and terrible part of the cloud but upon that which may prove a door of hope to thy poor soul therefore be up and doing searching that thou maist find out the uprightness of thy heart and then be sure though thou maist see afterward much hypocrisie in thy heart thou shalt never see thy self to be an hypocrite truly I deny not but a child of God may come in an hour of temptation to misjudge his condition and mistake himself for an hypocrite when his heart may be sound towards God but if once sound for ever sound thou never wilt lose it again only be sure thou run not away with mistakes concerning thy self 2. If thou do now or hereafter see thy self an hypocrite yet there is hope concerning this thing to recover and restore thee out of this condition though hypocrisie be a dangerous sin yet it is not desperate 3. For the discovery of it when it is too late which some may catch at and say I here is a word indeed a killing word to my soul for I cannot but suspect or judge my self an hypocrite now I see my condition though I have been led by a deceived heart all this while therefore sure now it is past time for God ordinarily discovers hypocrites to themselves when it is too late First be sure thou make not a false judgement of thy self that thou be not now under an hour and power of darkness when thou canst not judge aright of thy condition thou maist upon the search be able to approve thy heart upright to the Lord though now thou take thy self for an hypocrite be not rash in so serious and everlasting a concernment as this is 2. Thou bewailest it mournest under it and this is no sign of the time being past usually then God seals up men under hardness if they sink not into dispair Why but did not Esau that sold his Birthright when the Blessing was gone seek it with many tears yea he sought the Blessing but he sought not Repentance they were not tears of repentance for his wickedness and prophanness in selling his Birthright if they had likely he had not miscarried thou mournest and what is the matter It is for thy hypocrisie O thou wouldst fain have a chanâ—ged heart a right spirit renewed in thee this thou breathest after this thy soul breaks for longing for be not discouraged brethren this is no sign the time is past But blessed be the Lord and magnifie his grace towards thee that he hath not let thee go on any further untill the time might have been expâ—red and the door of hope shut against thy soul thus of this Doctrine The next thing is the Question or Request that the foolish made to the wise Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are gone out c. Give us of your oyl This short Question is a double demonstration of their folly First that they had their oyl their grace to get at such a time as this when they should have been ready to have entred in with the Bridegroom Secondly that they sought to the creature and not to Christ for it Give us of your oyl From the first we may note thus much It is very great folly to put off the getting of grace untill the last Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and these things shall be added saith Christ the Wisdom of the Father Say our own hearts seek first the world and the pleasures of sin and afterwards the Kingdom of God when there is no more content to be taken in these things thus we walk contrary to God to Christ and therefore surely that is folly They are foolish Virgins indeed that had their oyl to get when if ever they should use it I will not stay upon it to give you more Scripture But a few Considerations by way of Arguments which if not singly yet put together I doubt not will amount to a demonstration of this folly First then this shall be first It may be had though it be difficult yet it is not impossible you see many daily some at least do obtain it Labour in vain we count him a fool that will take it upon him to wash an Ethiopian to wash a Boyl it will never be white or clean so if this were in vain it would speak men to be wise that do neglect it delay it
is called a new creature to shew us the great transcendent power whereby Jesus Christ is formed in a soul It is the Fathers proper work through the Son by the Spirit the Father giveth it the Son purchaseth it the Spirit applyeth it and works it Create in me a clean heart O God renew a right Spirit within me saith David holiness is a creation and peace is a creation he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace a creation is of nothing or somewhat utterly unfit to receive such a form or being so that the fruit of the lips they are weak and cannot reach such an effect it is Gods Almighty power and the same power that raised up Jesus from the dead that must raise a dead soul to believe in Jesus Christ When Rachel would have of Jacob that which was beyond his power to give he saith Am I in Gods stead that I should give thee children So may the people of God and Ministers say to some sometimes who come to them as if they could give them peace or comfort and expect that as soon as ever they speak a word presently all their doubts and fears should be quelled and subdued no no it is too heavy a weight you lay upon them it is a thing above their reach This the second Thirdly If they were able to do it they have no authority no commission to do it and therefore they may not do it Jesus Christ was annointed for this very end to do the thing I come to do thy will O God in the 40. Psal and what is that will Why that none that the Father hath given him should be lost or perish but his blood and Spirit should be given to them grace and glory should be given to them this is the will of God even your Sanctification and this will he came to do it was that the Father designed him to to deliver his people from their sins therefore was the spirit poured out in such a full measure yea without measure upon the head of this our high-Priest that it might run down to the very skirt of his garment to the very lowest Christian that belongs unto him It is not every member in the body nor any other but the head which is made the seat of the animal Spirits to communicate them to the least and lowest member Now it is not what men are able to do but what they have Commission to do that is authentick If they were able there is no Commission the Lord Jesus only came Authorized to open the Prison doors to Preach deliverance and to give deliverance to the Captives This the third Fourthly If all these did concur in men yet they might want a heart when all is done and then all the rest would avail little to us in our necessity and though it be true the Saints do retain bowels of mercy and do put them on and long-suffering and patience yet alas how short-nostrilled are the best of the Saints in comparison of God Moses his patience was at an end yet the weakest man and had often interceded for them yet ye Rebels must we fetch water out of the rock for you though the murmuring was not against him but against God If a sinner put off getting grace and coming to Christ until the last our patience will hardly hold out so long let the power of my Lord be great as thou hast said c. herein our weakness doth much appear we are ready to cast off and give up men if they come not in quickly and if afterward they do come in we are ready to shut our hearts against them But if there were a heart yet there is no power and that will answer all therefore if we go to the creature for grace we are like to have a denyal Before we apply this or else as a part of the Application shall be to speak somewhat by way of satisfaction to a doubt This seemeth to cross the Scriptures are not the Saints bound to communicate one to another to do good forget not is not this of a larger sense then meerly giving a little of our estates to them if in want So again when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren saith our Saviour to Peter and how can you say then that if we go to the Saints for grace we are like to have a denyal To this I answer the Saints may and ought to communicate their experiences to others as their necessity requireth the humble shall hear hereof and be glad how when his soul made her boast in God And so again the Psalmist as a type of Christ He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mierie clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings he hath put a new song in my mouth c. And what then Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in God And so saith the Apostle That ye may comfort others with the comforts wherewith your selves are comforted of God this is doubtless a duty to communicate our experiences and also to exhort one another while it is called to day as the Apostle hath it and to reprove one another this is a duty but this is far from giving of grace For the more distinct understanding therefore of this note only two or three particulars 1. For any merit of our works we cannot give for indeed there is none at all If we deserve any thing at the hands of God it is wrath and ruine it is meer mercy we are not consumed every time we approach this consuming fire with our filthy garments upon us because his compassions fail not when we have done all commanded if we could do it we are but improfitable servants but alas how infinitely short do we fail of what is commanded in many things in all things we offend all for who doth any thing as he should our sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory there must be a proportion in merit now they are light that is weighty they are for a moment that is eternal and a far more exceeding and eternal weight Now no man can give that which he hath not 2. The glory of our works That we cannot give away that is the Lords that others may see them and glorisie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. 3. The influence of them upon others hearts That we cannot give neither we may speak and do plant and water but it it God that giveth the increase the husband-man may plough and sow and harrow but he cannot give the rain of heaven former and later he cannot give power to the seed to dye and rise again it is beyond his reach who can touch the heart but the Lord he is the God of the Spirits whose dwellings are with our spirits especially and he can fashion them as he pleaseth
according to the meaning of the wise and foolish Virgins here but for that I shal leave it If that may be the meaning of the wise Virgins surely the foolish Virgins understood it not for it appears not that they went to him to buy but used some other impertinent endeavours as they went to the wise Virgins before and not to Christ Here is little ground for Papists to bottom their Doctrine of perseverance to be attained by their own industrie and pains for alway his price is not comprehended from being if it be from God from Jesus Christ it is alway excluded Come buy without money or without price as before except they purchase it of men But we may understand these words as many godly learned do for an upbraiding a mocking an Ironical consent as there are many instances in Scripture Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee but remember that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement And so that of Elijah he is a God cry aloud he is either in a journey or talking or some such thing that he cannot hear And so Micaiah spake to Ahab Go and prosper and the Lord shall deliver it into thy hand And that of Jesus to his Disciples sleep on now take your rest which is Ironical So as when Ahab would be humoured the Prophet speaks after his mind if so as it should seem he might perceive he spake not as he meant how long shall I adjure thee to speak nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord So these foolish Virgins they would have their grace from a creature and the wise answered them according to their humour and Ironically yield to them to send them to others though themselves had none to part with Aug. Ep. 120. and Calv. so understood them and so doth Beza and our Annot. The Note I would briefly hint to you from hence is this That such as trifle away the day of grace and are not serious in the work of getting grace the time shall come when they shall have none to pitty their misery If men may expect pitty or compassion from any it is either from the Lord who is a God of bowels and unspeakable unsearchable compassions Or else from the people of God who as the children of God do put on bowels of compassions as the Apostle speaks they are cloathod with bowels so that their compassions are eminent and to be seen by them that have to do with them but yet the time may come brethren if you now neglect so great salvation as is offered to you held out by Jesus Christ himself the Son of God speaking from heaven not froÌ„ the earth that you shall have no pitty from the Lord no nor from his people from God that is plain I will but name it because it may seem impertinent to the Text yet if it serve to no other purpose it may serve to shew us that the Saints if they do not pitty in some cases where it is evident the day of grace is past and men have wretchedly sinned it away that they have the Lord for their pattern for it therefore I mention it Then shall they call saith the Lord and I will not answer they shall cry c. I will mock when their fear cometh and laugh at their calamity Prov. 1. 26. It is spoken after the manner of men and sheweth the heavy aggravation of their misery that the Lord shall be so far from pittying them that he shall laugh at them So in the 2. Psal where the Annointed of God is lifted up upon Zion there are some that will not be bound will not have him to reign over them count it a bondage and a grievous one indeed the Lord shall laugh at them he shall have them in derision But for the people of God they expect it may be to be pittied in such a condition by them but they may meet with nothing but a mock though a holy one and indeed there is need of much holiness and in act too to mock and not to sin So here you see and so the Prophet by a spirit of Prophesie go and buy of them that sell But lest this may seem to be ground enough to build it upon because it is of doubtful interpretation therefore take another Scripture where he speaks of the Destruction of persecutors of the people of God such as Doeg was and there is the like reason for hypocrites when discovered undenyably and their Lamps gone out as here the righteous shall see it and fear and laugh at him when God should destroy him for ever and pluck him out of his dwelling place and root him out of the Land of the living then the righteous should see it and laugh at him have him in a holy derision yet with an holy awe of that glorious and fearful God who was so just in his judgements upon him And is it not just with God it should be so When such hypocrites have in their hearts despised the long-suffering and patience and tenderness of the Lord waiting upon them and made a mock and a jeast it may be at the intreaties of God at the earnestness of the Saints and their pressing so hard forward that now themselves in extremity should be mocked at by the people of God themselves This may be then in the first place a warning-word to all such trifling professors as all the while Jesus Christ stretcheth out his hands to them even all the day long they will not come to him they will sit under the shadow of their own gourd while it is green and not under the shadow of Jesus Christ they will sit by their own bottle their own cistern and not come to the Fountain which is opened for sins for uncleanness Remember Brethren there will come a day upon you wherein to the cutting and wounding of your souls you shall be sent to those empty things for comfort Papists will not now be perswaded but there is enough for them in their Church-treasurie and lay out their money upon them but when the Lord shall shew them their treasure is empty there is nothing in it it will not reach to pay the uttermost farthing no noâ— one farthing will it reach to pay then will the Lord and his people send such poor deluded souls to their Merit-mongers to their indulgences Now go to your treasurie of Merit for some sucker and râ—lief now go to your dry bottles see if there be any drop of water there to cool your tongues your inflamed souls with the displeasure of the Lord. As the Lord in the day of his peoples deistruction sends them to their Idols which they doted upon in a mocking way at their callings I will save you no more go to your Idols your gods that have eaten the fat of your sacrifices c. You have made lies
Table as his Spouse for ever as the poor man in the Parable his wife is compared to an Ewe Lamb which did lie in his bosome and eat and drink with him so shall the Saints surely because of this relation of theirs to the Lord Jesus Ah blessed are ye Believers ye that are ready for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Again Now the Saints are made ready for this glory now we are not able to bear it old Bottels will not hold this new Wine that he will drink with them in his Fathers Kingdom strong Duties were too strong for the Disciples then in their minority as I may say how much more the Duties of heaven everlasting Hallelujahs and admiring of God in Christ therefore they must be changed before they can be fit for that feast a little joy now would swallow us up so as to unfit us for any thing Alas the Apostle like a wise Nursing Father would not give strong meat to babes they could not bear it and so our Saviour when upon the earth they could not bear many things therefore he fed them with milk if you should give strong meats to children and wine what would sooner ruine them therefore saith the Apostle I speak the Wisdom of God in a Mâ—sterie among them that are perfect yet he had some things which he saw in his Vision that he could not or might not utter to them likely they could not bear them You see Israel could not indure to behold Moses face when it had but a beam of the divine glory within the cloud reflected upon him and the glory of the Angel astonished Iohn so eminent a man in saith and love and holiness therefore I say we shall then be fitted for this Communion the old Bottles be made new the capacities of soul inlarged the mouth opened wider then we can conceive and the body raised in power It must be an extraordinary stomack brethren that can continually sit at a Feast and dâ—gest it and never be satiated therefore it is that the Marriage feast the fulness of it is reserved for heaven and heaven is so compared in Scripture For the Uses of the Doctrine First then Behold what maner of love the Father hath loved us with that we should be made the Favorites a people so near to him that he will take any of us with him into the Marriage The Apostle admireth the condition of the Saints for what they have in hand already What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God that is to say made such his Word is operative he cals things that were not as if they were but saith he this is not all it doth not yet appear what we shall be until Christ who is our life appear then shall we appear with him in glory the Saints in heaven though their apprehensions as well as the rest of their capacities shall be inlarged heightened perfected yet shall not be able to comprehend the depth of the river of pleasures at the right hand of God no more then a Vessel that is put into the Sea can comprehend the Ocean and therefore they shall admire it then the Lord Jesus shall come to be admired in all the Saints their fulness will be unspeakable greater then that of the Saints here though sometimes they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory yet alas in both conditions far short of comprehending it therefore we should admire it Such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the heart of man God hath prepared Do you not see how Haman glorieth in it though he had little cause if he knew all that he among all the Courtiers was invited to the feast of Wine to the Queen he accounted it an high favour a significative testimony of his especial love to him above others Ah brethren you that are Saints indeed let me speak to you all in the words of the Angel to Mary you are highly favoured of God you shall all be admitted to this Marriage Feast be thou as poor in outward condition as may be and as poor in Spirit as may be never so low in thine own thoughts thou shalt enter into this Marriage Feast thou thinkest with the poor Publican Thou art not worthy to come near the place where his honour dwels nor lift up thy eys towards heaven nor be reckoned among his people nor come to his Table here below Well be thou as vile as thou canst in thine own eys thou shalt enter with the Lord Jesus into the Marriage Feast if thou be ready for his coming O admire this Love the Lord help poor weak creatures unbelief in this point that they may admire it what will he admit such a one as I such a vile creature such a grieving creature to his holy Spirit yea such as he hath once pitched his heart upon to love them they shall enter with him into this feast Saith Mephihosheth What is thy servant thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I c. 2. If this be so that the state of Glory or Kingdom of glory into which the Saints enter with Christ is such a Marriage-feast it shall be an invitation then to poor sinners to this Feast this Marriage Wisdom hath builded her house hewn out seven Pillars killed her beast mingled her wine made it ready a cup of mixture that is to say a cup made ready and now sends forth her Maidens to cry turn in ye simple ones c. O that the uncircumsicion of our hearts that are the Messngers may not hinder but the Lord Jesus by us brethren doth invite you sinners to this feast he would fain have his Table full of guests how welcome would he make man woman and child if they would but come he would cast out none that cometh to him no no in any wise whatsoever as I have told you sometime from the Text. But for the better understanding of this Exhortation I will note two things and then a little further press it upon us First then That we do not invite you to this Feast this Marriage in heaven to enter in with Christ continuing such as you are in your blood and uncleanness but we do first invite you to come to Jesus Christ here on earth that so you may enter in with him into the Marriage your union with Christ and your communion with him must begin upon earth though it end in heaven and this communion here is two-fold though both spiritual it is internal and external internal a fellowship with the Father in the Son a fellowship with Christ in his death the power of it that we may dye to sin and be free from the condemnation God will not have this Marriage-Feast for his Son in heaven filled with Goal Birds condemned creatures such as have their bolts and fetters upon them the nastiness of the prison upon them
think it is for carnal end for your corn and wine and oyl that you howl upon your beds you little think when you pray and seek after God it is for ends meerly that you might spend these things upon your lusts that you may appear to be some body be esteemed among men be of esteem among the Saints Well Brethren carry it as covertly as you can so that your own souls are juggled into a delusion it may be yet be not deceived God is not mocked men are apt to be deceived and think that their secrets of sinning their bread eaten in secret their morsels under the tongue shall never be discovered but the Lord seeth all this he knoweth you throughly he searcheth the hearts and tryeth the reins of the sons of men Secondly because he knoweth you therefore he doth not know you he approveth not of you it may be men do approve of you your praise may be among the Churches among the Saints but yet your praise may not be of God he loveth you not savours you not with that favour that he bears to his people indeed some love Jesus Christ had to the young man in the Gospel that was but near to the Kingdom of God he doth not disallow of a form and profession it hath its use the leaves of the trees of righteousness they may be for healing to others an holy profession and walking to the appearance of others may win others to Christ and yet a man may perish when all is done and a profession may serve as a Motive to quicken up themselves to look to the power if the power of godliness be not good and necessary why do men take up a form and if it be good why rest they in a form and neglect it but if there be no more he will not know such a man he doth not know him Thirdly What ever you dream of now he will pronounce that sentence upon you at that day O that dreadful sentence that he knoweth you not he never knew you Ah dear friends if the Lord would but single out any one of us and tell us we are the men what agonies would it put us into Ah Brethren this will make sinners ears tingle to hear this word from the Lord Jesus O let fearfulness surprize the hypocrites yea I tell you this will make your hearts to bleed and your heart-strings crack within you this will pierce you through with the sorrows of hell Ah dear friends if the voice of his Messengers discoursing of righteousness temperance and Judgement to come be so great as to make a Foelix a great man a stout hearted sinner tremble that was not converted O what will it be when the sentence is pronounced against them from the Lord himself for while you hear Preachers though it be terrible when the conscience is opened yet there is a Cordial at hand but when once pronounced by the Lord Jesus there is no more remedy if one word from the Lord Jesus when the Souldiers came upon him and he asked them whom they sought I am he saith he this struck them to the ground souldiers in such Garrisons in Countries kept by the sword they were won by use to to be men of stoutest spirits that would dare sometimes the very Devil himself and yet one word from Jesus Christ's mouth struck them to the ground O Brethren surely this word of sentence will speak men not to the ground but to the lowermost pit It will speak them dumb forthwith that they have nothing to say for themselves It will speak them into confusion and amazement it will speak them into the flames of hell in a moment O this roaring of the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who may abide If the Law was so terrible in the giving what will it be in the execution You read how the Mountains shook Moses himself trembled but the sentence of the Law is nothing to the sentence of the Gospel as this condemnation of hypocrites will be it is to men that have in appearance owned Christ followed him done much in his name and yet he will profess he never knew them they pretended acquaintance with him now but he will never own them You then Brethren that have only a semblance of holiness you seem to have somewhat and have nothing then shall be taken from you that which you seemed to have then your vizard will be pluckt off you pretend to be friends of Christ and of his people to be his Father Brethren and Mother but now will he profess he knoweth you not you that preach in the name of Jesus Christ and do not preach for his name for his glory but for your own he will not own you he will say to you he knoweth you not you rest in this your form this you are ready to plead and not stay your selves upon him he will not know you O but we do lean upon the Lord so you say but mark that of the Prophet you lean upon the Lord and say the Lord is among us and yet they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity the heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire that is to say their tongues may be hired to say any thing pass any judgement right or wrong and yet lean upon the Lord say you lean upon the Lord and yet will be drunk swear lye cheat over-reach be filthy and unclean allow your â—elves in c 〈…〉 mplative wickedness be sure the Lord will not know such You that regard any iniquity never so little never so secret in your hearts believe it the Lord will not own you he will not know you he will not here own you much less will he when it cometh â—o the judgement It may be thou mayest soar a higher pitch in respect of parts and gifts and confidence and pretend to live higher then other men as many men of higher dispensations they say now do but yet as the Eagle when at the highest pitch hath a learing eye after her prey below so have they such a learing eye a lingering heart after their iniquity and their mouths water at it but for shame O surely Jesus Christ will never own such fear and tremble at this word as many as it concerneth O how will such souls be filled with amazement when they made no other reckoning but to come to heaven if any men in the Countrey should be saved a man would have thought they should have been the men they have done much suffered much wrought wonders c. and yet when all comes to all the heart was never right with God and therefore the heart-searching Judge will never own them never care for them become of them what will he will never know their souls Secondly then it may be for a searching word to poor creatures O be not deceived God is not mocked he knoweth a Balaam to be a Balaam
sins pardoned and healed were back-slidings only thou must be content to endure something for the healing of those fearful wounds thou hast made in upon thy soul for there is no wound cured in a moment nor without any anguish and all that he laies upon thee is nothing the smart is nothing though the plaister lie long upon thee before it be healed to draw the sore to a head to break it to draw it to heal it there will be some time but he will heal thee poor sinner if he have made thee weary of this sin desirous of healing indeed And for you that are crying out of broken bones it may be there are some whose condition this is that do fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servants it is the greatest fear of thy soul to displease the Lord to grieve him happy soul with whom it is thus but thou art over-cast thou art clouded thou seest no light thy bones are broken thy spirit is wounded O who can bear a wounded spirit Be of good chear man remember this hath he not promised it that he will arise upon them that fear the Lord with healing in his wings he will heal those broken bones and the flesh wherein there is no soundness by reason of thy sins he will heal it and he is doing of it though thou art not sensible of it he pittyeth thee and knoweth how to pitty thee for himself was ecclipsed though the Son of righteousness that he might know how to pitty them that suffer in the like kind for the time to come he knoweth thy frame what thou canst bear and he will not let thee sink O thou of little faithâ— though he may fright thee as he did his Disciples the cloud will be over again only thou must wait for him he knoweth what it is to be without the light of his Fathers countenance as well as thou and he knoweth what thou canst bear therefore be not discouraged man and beside thou hast his promise for it only look to it that thou fear him that thou put not forth thy hand to iniquity that thou say not with that wicked King Why should I wait for the Lord any longer he that shall come will come in the best season When the mercy will be most sweet and seasonable himself may have most glory by it and thy soul most refreshing O but saith another I am not healed I doubt then for alas I find though haply I break not out as before to uncleanness actually yet I have eyes full of adultery still I find the dispositions and inclinations and yieldings of my heart strong to mine own iniquity still some to one and some to another â—or answer to this Is this thy burthen thy grief that it is so dost thou loath thy â—elf for it dost thou hate it wouldst thou fain have it rooted up thou art healed in the greatest part there is the core fetched up from the bottom though the wound be not altogether healed up it is the work of longer time then haply God hath been dealing with thy soul but be of good chear man lay thy self under the Sun of righteousness labour to improve the Covenant of grace wherein he shines most gloriously he hath promised he will circumcise thine heart and thou shalt be able to love the Lord with all thine heart and that he will subdue all iniquity for thee and see if he be not as good as his word in his own time which is the best time We have already endeavoured to open the main promise in this bundle and apply it with what advantage the Lord and your own hearts can tell you have heard at large that Jesus Christ is a Sun of righteousness and that he will ariâ—e with healing in his wings upon them that fear him So that there is Christ promised light and heat and healing reviving and quickning promised and through him And now we are come to speak to the liberty which is promised with Christ which is none of the least considerable Appendices of our justification through his blood and though you have not long since heard somewhat upon this subject however if you hear but the same things the Spirit of the Lord may breath where and when it pleaseth we may meet with him sometimes in hearing the same things that at another time he hath not been found in And ye shall go forth This is principally as I told you spoken to the Jew to the Jew first but also to the Gentile as all the Gospel promises they were first preached to the children of the Kingdom when the Gentiles were strangers from the Covenant of promises but now the Lord hath made them nigh in the blood of his Son that were afar off in Christ all the promises are Yea and Amen to them as well as to the Jews I told you at the first that we are not to confine promises made to times and persons except by unavoidable neceâ—sity where the matter promised is such and the promise such as can agree to no other time or person no persons or peoples condition can become like to theirs to whom the promise is made or are not capable of the thing promised as the promise of the Messiah to come of David and that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed c. therefore this is a promise concerning all the people of God as their conditions become alike yea all that fear the Lord in any of these senses we have already spoken to By going forth here some understand a going forth of this life or a going out of the grave which is a prison indeed to some though not properly so to the Saints but a place of repose until the appearing of Jesus Christ So Alap citing Tert. and Jer. the reason is because they took that which is spoken of the day of the Lord in the foregoing verse of the day of Judgement That day which should burn as an Oven but I do rather conceive that it is not meant of the day of the last Judgement but the day of the fearfull desolations of Jerusalem out of which yet the Lord did deliver and save his own people and the rather I conceive so because of the growing up like Calves of the Stall promised afterward now if that be the day there is no room then to grow any higher to spread any further but as the tree is cut down so it lies there is then in the words a promise of an inlargement from under restraint wherewith their spirits were bound up as I may say and were imprisoned and this we shall see I hope is very great only take here the note of observation from the words The Lord Jesus rising upon a soul brings inlargement to that soul or people ye shall go forth For the prosecution of this I shall propose this Method First give you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quod that it
the Lord who is most slighted in all this should pitty and make a way for their deliverance this is unspeakable rich grace that the Lord should as I may say study a course to make them willing to come forth to which end all the sad and fearfull Characters of this bondage in Scripture are to which end is the Law given that sin might appear to be sin and exceeding sinful and the bondage very great that they might thereby see themselves shut up to this end all those sweet invitations and powerfull expostulations with poor sinners in the Gospel O why will ye die why will ye perish and rot in prison since there is a ransom found for you the Lord takes no pleasure in your death and why will ye delight in your own death O what powerfull Rhetorick are these loving intreaties expostulations the yearnings of his bowels over them his tears over Jerusalem when they would not be gathered under his wings and all this to make the poor sinner willing and when all will not do that he should even put forth a power upon their wills and hearts inclining them to it by a sweet and yet strong though not compulsory influence of his Spirit upon them this is admirable what tenderness was there towards Lot that when he lingered and delayed the Angel took him by the hand and brought him without the City and bid him haste for his life truly there is not a soul delivered from this bondage but there is as much exercise of the patience and bowels of Christ toward them to make them willing yea to take them by the hand when they linger and make excuses as those in the Gospel I will follow thee but let me go and bid farewell to my friends I must not come off abruptly from my old Companions in sin but take leave of them handsomly I must go bury my father saith another but the Lord Jesus takes by the hand plucks us out as I may say by head and ears before we will come out Again consider how we have worn out our selves in the bondage and slavery of sin and with these fetters upon our souls or else spent so that now he may even say we our selves may say of our days there is no pleasure in them so Luke 4. 18. to set at liberty them that are bruised Dimittere confractâ—s in remissionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are not in Isaiah 61. neither Hebrew Greek nor Latine but they are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Luke as some conceive â—atabl and others read them vâ—lneratos persons wounded shattered worn out with the hard bondage and service they were put to bondage is a weary thing at the best but when a man is such a slave as that he must like a Gally Slave work like a horse in the service of sin O what pains sinners do take with both hands earnestly they come to iniquity and so exhaust their spirits the best milk and marrow in the bones so that they are as dry sticks that are good for nothing and yet that the Lord Jesus should to such proclaim liberty bring them forth that are able to do him no service in a manner so the thief upon the Cross and so the Jew that Andreas is said to convert hanging upon the Cross and so many a gray headed sinner that never ceased serving sin yet now c. Truly if the Lord Christ should set us free with a respect to any service we should do him afterward I doubt none would ever be set free for Brethren what can we add to him if thou be righteous it profiteth him not at all he is a God infinitely perfect in himself our goodness extends not to him all the best of Lebanon and the wood are not enough for a burnt offering so great a God he is and yet though he be not advantaged by our service when we are set at Liberty but what commandments he giveth us to observe and giveth us hearts inclineth our hearts thereunto they are for our own welfare as in that of Deuteronomy The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath for his good his advantage and so is all the services or if it were yet alas I say how are we broken many times with the bondage of sin so that we are fit for nothing the understanding and affections so weakned and wasted and besotted with sin that afterward we can do little for him because of that sad effect sin hath left upon our souls and yet he delivereth us this the fourth Vse 5. Then it shall it be for Exhortation and invitation this day to every poor sinner that is in bondage that they would close with this promise that they would go forth O Sinners that you would but accept of Deliverance and Liberty that now the Lord Jesus after so dear a purchase of it doth tender to you you see he is willing he came on purpose into the world to preach and proclaim liberty to the Captives Now art not thou a Captive and hast thou no minde to be set free And for some Motives to stir us up a little at least to a consideration of our condition and what we do all this while First Consider this is the acceptable year of the Lord as in that of Isaiah O it beginneth with the preaching of the Gospel indeed the acceptable year minde you acceptable to Jesus Christ It pleaseth him wondrous well if sinners be willing to come out of prison to be set at liberty there is many a poor soul that thinketh with himself I am willing if the Lord Jesus be willing that I shall go forth O it is the acceptable year of the Lord there is nothing more pleasing to him then to see the ransom he hath laid down for you sinners take effect and bring out many out of bondage the Apostle applyeth it to the times of the Gospel There is joy in heaven c. The Father of the Prodigal how willing was he and then it is the acceptable year to sinners too O how did men that were in bondage long for the Jubilee and breath and pant after it especially if their bondage were hard that set them all free Dear Friends Consider this is the great Jubilee proclaimed solemnly with the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel that every poor creature that will may go forth out of prison yea that if now they go forth the Lord Jesus is willing we should but if we shall trifle away this year of the Lord which we know not how long it may last to us either the Gospel may be taken away from us or else we from the Gospel or else the things which concern our peace in the Gospel be hid from our eyes that we shall never see them O that sinners would but consider this these seasons the Father hath kept in his own power that sinners might be afraid to
into fet ters under this Law So that if you look upon it in this subserviency to the Gospel though the creature may be put to much grief by it yet it is good when pardon is proclaimed that a Prince should cast those rebells into prison to make them willing of a pardon the Gospel is a savour of death to death you know and yet it is a sweet savour in them that perish and them that are saved the Gospel is never the worse for that and if the Law prove fetters to a poor sinner to keep him under bondage for ever and bind him over to everlasting Judgement this is through his own wickedness that he will not accept of deliverance in the Gospel where it is preached the Law is never the less good and holy But the second is the main thing how far we are said to be freed from the Law of God and how we are not freed from it First we are delivered from it as a Covenant of righteousness do this and live that is to say be thou exactly conformable to this Law for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of suitableness to this Law is a sin and every sin the wages of it is death if thou break it but in one thou art guilty of all Alas Brethren the Law was weak through our flesh and could not justifie it could discover sin as a glass but not purge it it could work wrath work it out but it could not pacifie therefore the Lord Jesus came and took upon him that name the Lord our righteousness and he is now saith the Apostle the end of the Law for righteousness It was a School-master to whip us to fright us out of our selves to Jesus Christ therefore every soul in Christ now is delivered from the Law as a Covenant of life that is clear but this was mentioned before Secondly Now from the rigorous exacting of obedience for according to the Law nothing is obedience except perfect if a man miscarry in one thing he is guilty of all there must be a doing of every thing written yea in the fullest most spiritual sense of it yea a continuance in every thing to the end or else it is not obedience but now the Lord accepteth of the desires of the upright heart he heareth the prayer of such as desire to fear his name the will now goeth for the deed where the poor soul striveth to do and is not able Dear friends how sad a condition were we in many times if the Lord did so rigorously exact our obedience how often do we come to pray and can say nothing in his presence can scarce sigh or groan and in hearing and speaking his Word though we do stir up our selves to watch O how often do vain thoughts run away with our hearts now if we were under this exacting of the Law what would become of us what had become of Paul when he did the things he hated the things he would not c. if he had been under the rigour of the Law If there be first a willing mind that imprimis Brethren doth legitimate all the following Items though never so weak now the Law is in the hand of Christ as a Father who pittieth and spareth us alas what had become of the best of us else long since thus we are delivered Thirdly From the curse of it Gal. 3. 18. our Saviour being made a curse for us so that the curse of it doth not lie upon us to sink us that is to say the weight of the wrath or displeasure of God Nor yet as a compulsion to obedience to this Law as slaves and very wretched sinners may do much for the fear and dread of this curse of God but this the Lord delivered his people from he maketh them a willing people he now sheweth them greater reason against sin then ever they saw now opens to them the grave they see the rottenness of it which they saw not before now he opens his treasures of rich grace in Christ and so by mediation of the understanding works upon the will sweetly inclining it to God though there be a moral swasion by apposition of object as a Lamb is led by a green bush up and down yet this is not all there goeth more to the taking away the stone in the heart and giving a heart of flesh which doth most what lie in the making the will flexible and plyable not so much in sorrow and tears and meltings which doth many times accompany it and sometimes not at all or very little Pharaohs heart was hardened for he obeyed not he was stiff and stubborn and therefore said to be a stone Now I say a moral swasion will not reach to this a man may use much oratory to a stone and yet it remaineth a stone still a Preacher may hold forth sin to be sin and exceeding sinful and hold forth Christ crucified by them and for them before their eyes and yet alas all will not do they remain stones still No no an enclining of the heart he turns the hearts of men whithersoever he will as he did the heart of Esau to Jacob upon his prayer there was more then a swasion and as he did the thief upon the Cross in the midst of his torments and agonies of death then to think upon a Christ then to have his heart towards him that never regarded him in his life-time and in the midst of a people reviling him as you know and upon the Cross suffering and dying and yet then to be wrought upon argues a wonderful divine power put forth upon the will Well then when the will is overcome we are made free to the service of Jesus Christ now we can delight in the Law of God after the inward man it was a weariness to a sinner to hear the Word specially if it came near to him he could not endure to be grated upon and a weariness to pray now he delights in these things So far we are delivered from the curse as the great inforcement of Obedience Fourthly From the provoking power of the Law as you have often heard now that Law that was the occasion of the rebelling of lust is hid in the heart that we might not sin against him this is a great change indeed in a child of God from the former condition when before God would put his yoak upon our souls we writhed and pluckt away our neck would not endure it now it pleaseth us to be under it it is sweet and easie to us now it is a provocation to obedience that before was a provocation unto sin But now on the other hand we are not set free from the Law as a Law a rule of holy walking of new obedience our Saviour did not by fulfilling the Law destroy it but accomplish it because we were not able of our selves to do it he under went the rigour of it and took away all the condemnation of
argument whereby the grace of Christ is as highly advanced as by any other whatsoever that he should therefore increase the strength of his poor weak children that they may draw more strongly from him and their hearts more enlarged to receive more abundantly from his fulness as a strong child will draw harder and harder still the arms of the trees as they grow stronger and stronger so they suck more juice from the root still to feed them and carry them on Now I say this is sweet to the soul and it may be a character also of our growth if we do grow in grace indeed we shall grow up into him we shall find a greater drawing of our hearts after him still and suck more strongly from him This the first Secondly another thing comprehended under this growing up into Christ may be this that all our growth is to his honour it ends in him who alone is exalted by it it is the honour of the head when the members grow and become by the communication of the animal spirits more vigorous and active and fit for the discharge of their several works this is the glory of the head this may be understood two waies First it is the end of the thing it self finis operis the thing doth much advance him when others behold such a fulness of strength and power flowing forth from Jesus Christ upon the members to see the members of a body languid and weak and withered it is not for the honour of the head specially if generally so though there may be also particular causes as obstructions and the like but these are not so visible What an honour is it to Christ to see a poor soul th 〈…〉 now is as weak as water like the poor man in the Gospel Lord help my unbelief that ere long through the supply of grace from Christ is able to say My Lord and my God to see a poor soul lie languishing under a lust and not be able to stir and yet ere long able to triumph over it to see a poor soul that ere while was cleaving to the ground and to the dust could not get up the heart and now after a while upon Eagles wings running without weariness and walking without faintness is not this to the honour of Christ But secondly It must be so intended by us else our growth is not right in the end our end in desires of and Gods end in working we must look to the end Brethren we desire strength against this and that corruption to wax more valiant in this fight to conquer to triumph over them we would have such a measure of knowledge such a measure of faith but what is our end is Christ the end in all this is it that we may more advance him Ah that soul that indeed groweth into Christ Brethren groweth downward into the root can be content to be any thing to be nothing that his blessed Saviour may be advanced so it was with John Ah so with David if the Lord will lay me aside and I must not build him a Temple but my son must do it it is the Lord why should I not submit So if Moses must not bring them into Canaan he is contented O he would not have Joshua in another case envy for his sake he wished all the Lords people were Prophets God would have the greater glory when the Lord ofâ—ered to make of him a greater people O what then wilt thou do to thy great name the enemies will say then that thou broughtest them out to destroy them he had rather die and perish and be nothing then God should be dishonoured O dear friends let this be considered if we grow we grow up into him I say it may serve for a piece of tryal though delivered in this place I would have my whole discourse as applicatory as may be Sixthly In a true growth we must know there is an uniformity as you know one member groweth in the body as well as another if it be a true growth where some of the members receive no nourishment but all the growth is found in the root this is a disease and not the effect of the principle of life within them as you see it in the Rickets a disease now ordinarily known by that name but this uniformity is two-fold First in respect of the Church And secondly of each particular member thereof in regard of the graces of the Spirit which are growing in them First then for the Church of Christ there is an uniform growth there that is to say the Lord Jesus doth not communicate his sap and vigour and vertue so to one as to spend it on him and leave another without but every wild Olive grafted into the Olive either visible or invsible Church the visible there is meant in that place of the Apostle in whom the whole body being c. they receive accordingly either the common influences of the Spirit with the Ordinances whereby they grow up in that which we call common grace and one as well as another there is none sure but thriveth more or less Secondly for the invisible there is none so grafted but he groweth he is one Spirit with the Lord and therefore sure must needs grow that hath a continual supply of the Spirit as the Apostle in that forecited place the Lord Jesus in his invisible body hath no withered arm nor legs whatever there be in the visible whatever dead and drie sticks may cleave to the visible Olive there is none so cleaveth to the invisible it is impossible a soul should hold the head and hold inward communion and fellowship with him and yet not to grow but this is but for the Church which thus uniformly groweth one member as well as another Now secondly for particular members they also grow and that uniformly also grow not in one grace only or in this grace or that grace nor in another no but they grow uniformly that a man should be all faith and no love it is impossible or all love and no knowledge it cannot be there must be an uniformity in growth if right that were more like a wen and its growth then growth of the body you would not esteem that a growth that a man should grow all in the eye and it should become as big as the body almost so that he could see wonderfully but in the mean time the rest of the parts are as small as when they were born grow in one grace and grow in every grace grow in sincerity and grow in humility grow in faith and grow in love grow in all A timpany a growth of one member more then all the rest is monstrous and so it would be in grace Now though through defect or super fluity in natural causes there may be a monstrosity in a birth or growth yet it cannot be in respect of Christ who doth alike extend his influence to the growth and increase
have known and therefore you deserve a rebuke for it and so it may be good mens faults now a daies but yet they dare not exclude them from the Kingdom of glory Secondly It is to be noted that no unclean thing shall ever enter into that place Children by nature are the children of wrath poor leprous polluted creatures and therefore if there be not a pardoning grace and cleansing mercy for them how can they enter into glory and because we cannot apprehend how it should be conveighed shall we therefore deny it are we not all of us pure receptives in the first grace and are not infants as purely receptives as we Yea are they not more purely receptives then we for though it is true they have the same seeds of rebellion the same spawn the same venomous poysonous nature with our selves miserable sinful off-spring of miserable sinful parents yet according to their own principles they cannot put it forth into such actual rebellion as we and do not the acts increase and strengthen the habits and the stronger the habits are the stronger the opposition is against Christ and therefore they are more purely receptive then we are and therefore Thirdly What hinders but they in as short a time as the thief upon the Cross may be brought to as high a degree of grace as he though in an unspeakable manner Was it not more then ordinary that John leaped within the womb at the voice of the mother of the Lord it was more then ordinary else the mother would not have wondered at it though a miracle it were truly Brethren every work of grace is a miracle and the greater miracle it is to work upon a desperate prophane hard-hearted sinner that hath all his life-time been working wickedness with both hands earnestly to make such an one in one day fit for heaven and glory as the thief upon the Cross where there is greater opposition is not this a greater miracle then the other Beside let it be considered I beseech you what our Saviour saith he that receiveth not the Kingdom like as a little child cannot enter into it It may be some will say this is nothing he compareth his Disciples to Doves and Sheep c. and so he doth to a little child this proveth nothing But let it be considered and weighed and then I leave it to the judgement of impartial persons he saith not only you must be like children and like Doves for innocency he saith not you must be like children for humility and want of envy for love no but ye cannot enter except ye receive the Kingdom as a little child the comparison lies in the receiving the Kingdom as well as in the qualities so that except little children did receive the Kingdom how can the Disciples be compared to them in receiving the Kingdom how can they be as I may say made the very standard in receiving the Kingdom of God we must receive it as little children receive it you never find such a like speech of Doves or Sheep that we must receive the Kingdom as Doves or as Sheep because they are not capable to receive the Kingdom it was never appointed nor prepared for them Now if little children be made as I may say the pattern for humility self-denyal which I tell you Brethren goeth far in Christianity O which is the first step humility the second humility the third humility it reacheth to the top of the Ladder and not only so but the very pattern in receiving the Kingdom of God Surely then such children as we allow as we must allow some else the comparison were not true nor rightly framed they must be allowed to be as holy as any others truly Brethren me thinks if we consider how much innocency there is in these little ones which is not in us O how we have rebelled all our daies which they never have done played the hypocrites before the Lord which they never have done dealt falsly in his Covenant which they never have done have such strong lusts in act and vigour and strong habits of sin pride and envy and hatred to oppose the workings of grace in us which they have none of me thinks it might easily be yielded unto that former supposition that many of them are saved and who dare deny it that they have grace and a great measure so as to be made the standard of receiving the Kingdom therefore they may quickly come to a great height but thus much for this reason I am carried further then I had any thought when I first minded it as an Argument Thirdly Another reason may be because the greater our growth is the more honour he hath from us and the more services and we the more comfort this doth much what concern the growth of such as are of years of understanding for to such I speak I give it therefore as a reason only of the growth of persons of understanding though some part of it may reach others First then hereby God hath the more service Alas what service hath a Father or Mother from a little child when it hangs upon the breast many a weary hand she hath with it in its frowardness but no help at all but when grown up it will do something so while a poor Believer is weak and feeble feeble knees and weak hands alas can scarce stand upon their legs every little wind of temptation or doctrine is ready to blow him over and stagger him he stands scrupling and trembling at every step and doubting he cannot set a foot before another but the Father is fain to take him by the hand and teach him to go as he did Ephraim this is the great time of Gods taking pains like a tender-hearted mother with his children and truly if his bowels were not as a mothers bowels yea much more infinitely he would never endure to handle us so tenderly in all our weakness and loathsomness now when we are grown up into Christ are strong in his might and power then we are able to do him some service and he expecteth it of us though the Lord knoweth we often requite him as Ifrael did after all his tenderness he nourisheth and bringeth up children feeding us with the bread of heaven Manna is our daily bread the Lord Jesus he maketh out somethng of him to us continually whereby we grow and presseth the promises by his own Spirit that they may give down their milk and sweetness to us and when all is done we rebell against him even to the breaking of his heart as he speaks after the manner of men but this costs the people of God dear whoever they be though it be true the Lord hath no need of our service we profit not him at all he can work deliverance for his people and Church if there were never a Hester to pray nor mediate to the King some other way he will do it yet he ordinarily useth
our selves with a hope-well which we ought not to do we should strive to this of Thomas My Lord my God my beloved is mine and I am his canst thou say so upon good grounds thou mayst be a justified and a sanctified person which is done by the direct act of faith which is acted upon the Word of Promise and Christ in that Promise which the poor soul doth close with taking Christ for better for worse but now this is by the reflect act of faith and is grounded upon experience of our own condition ordinarily I see I feel that I do believe that I have chosen the Lord Jesus for my portion and therefore he is mine and I am his I have many sealings of his love to me many kisses of his lips it is given to me to believe to be upright with him I can approve my soul to him as Peter Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee thus the soul by laying up those experiences that it hath of God and laying them together doth from all come through grace to be able to conclude that the Lord Jesus is his to a full assurance of hope and faith and what an heaven upon earth is this Well labour after it though your conditions may be safe without it yet not so comfortable to your selves nor so honourable to him nor so profitable likely to others all which considerations if well weighed and improved I presume are motives enough to it You have the first thing in this general Exhortation and that is wherein we are to labour to grow and increase Now for the Motives in a few particulars and truly the first shall be that in the very Text we must labour for it because he hath promised it therefore we must pray for it and use all other means for prayer is one as afterward we shall speak God had promised he would bring Israel into Canaan but they must fight for it first to dispossess the Canaanites and so he promiseth health and strength to his people as choice mercies but they must eat and drink and use Physick as often as occasion serveth and it is an encouragement so to do because God hath promised us those things so far as good for us therefore use the means he promiseth fruitfulness to the earth what shall the plough-man therefore cast the plough in the hedge and never strike stroak it is true if God bid them stand still and only see the salvation of God it is somewhat else they must work and serve providence in the use of means so here it is promised O saith the Apostle work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is he that worketh Labour to be more spiritual in prayer to grow therein for it is his Spirit that beareth the heavier end of the burthen he helpeth our infirmities let this be an encouragement to stir up our souls to it because it is promised think not Brethren it is enough to sit still and wait when this will fall into your mouths or that an idle complaining will do it no no you must be up and doing and labouring to use the means and the more because he hath promised Secondly Every man would grow and come on in other things therefore we should much more labour to grow in the best things you would your selves and have your children come on and thrive in body you think their meat is not well bestowed as we use to say if they should not prosper at all but should devour like Pharaohs lean kine and be never the fatter you would grow in your names and in your estates and every man would be adding bag to bag house to house land to land and here they never think they are come to a full growth O that the Lord would but make you half so dilgent in taking half the pains to grow in grace as they do that grow in the world how should we prosper It is observable that the Apostle saith of Gaius that good man he wisheth he may prosper even as his soul prospereth it seemeth the good man his inward man was renewed though haply his estate or his body might wax old and decay yet his soul prospered and he maketh that a pattern of the prosperity of his outward man may we not say on the other hand O that your souls did prosper even as your bodies prosper You are fat and flourishing and feed your selves without fear much pampering of the flesh but the poor soul O how lean and thin and consumpsit it is what fat purses and lean souls Brethren whatever you profess while it is thus I must tell you there is much preposterousness in your endeavours that all this ado should be made for a lump of clay and the soul the precious soul the price of the blood of Jesus Christ neglected men can rise at midnight and with endâ— to follow their business set it forward if need so require and other occasions c. O if we could be perswaded to use but the like diligence for the soul upon the like occasion Thirdly Consider if you grow not you decline either you increase or decrease either you ebb or flow wax or wain for it is like a man that rows against the stream if he go not forward he is carried backward So it is here we have a stream of lusts to row against and if we go not forward be sure we go backward and therefore if you observe it the Apostle doth threaten the Hebrews upon this account because they went not forward with Apostacy they were in danger of falling away quite from God that go not forward therefore consider this seriously and surely it will put us on to look to our growth there is not an Ordinance wherein we appear before the Lord but either we soften or harden we get something or lose something by it it returneth not in vain not the Word nor any other appointment of his Fourthly Another shall be this we cannot else withstand enemies bear crosses alas a child is over-born by a touch he cannot withstand a potent enemy therefore we must labour to be strong men whom resist saith the Apostle stedfast in the faith there is no stedfastness but by faith nor any resisting but by this stedfastness if we give ground the Devil will pursue the victory if we turn our backs upon him now we cannot keep our ground except there be some strength It s true every child of God is born with his armour on him as is fabled of the race of those Giants so the Saints have their breast-plate of faith to keep the heart and the shield to preserve the body but as they grow in strength so are they able to weild their shield yea it groweth stronger and more able to bear off a blow Alas our Saviour saw his Disciples were not able to bear a temptation at that time John 18. 8. therefore let them go
others that still they begin with bewailing their iniquities expressing their sorrow for them because no man was to appear before God but with pure hands and pure feet and therefore since we gather soil continually there is need of acknowledging our iniquities and then he is faithful and just to forgive them there is the exercise of Faith if any where else that is it whereby we wrestle with God in Prayer Prayer is indeed a wrestling with God as Jacob it was his faith whereby he overcame and got the blessing a man must pray in Faith else it is nothing worth at all God accepteth no service but where there is Faith mixed there is Love exercised toward God and to his people we go to him it is an acting of our desire toward him our delight in his presence and love to his Saints when we can pray feelingly for them And so Humility O saith Abraham Who am I dust and ashes And Jacob I am less then the least of thy mercies In a word all the Graces are set awork in prayer that is a working prayer indeed our thankfulness and all our supplications in all things are to be made known c. Every wheel is set a going in the soul if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectual prayer and therefore by the exercises of the Graces they are increased do you think that by acting Faith upon the Promises pleading them as Jacob did Thou saidst thou wouldst do me good c. and so in many other places Remember thy Word to thy Servant whereupon thou hast caused me to hope saith the Psalmist That this doth not increase Faith and so the acting of Love increase it therefore Luther a man of much Prayer was a man of much Grace of much Courage and Zeal and Faith and Diligence in the Service of God And that famous Servant of God Mr. Bolton It is said of him that six times a day he prayed and so others observe it when you will where you see a growing Christian indeed follow him to his Closet you shall find that man a man of much prayer So David and Daniel c. But Secondly There is another reason for it Because Prayer doth carry the soul to a nearer communion with God O it is the gaining acquaintance with God acquaint thy self with God that thou mayst have peace with him and thou shalt have prosperity and therefore when Job discovered such weakness in his impatiency saith that friend of his Surely thou restrainect prayer from the Almighty if thou didst maintain communion with God it would not be thus with thee Now whither should we go with empty vessels but to the fountain whither should poor weak wounded lame feeble creatures go but to him that hath all power to heal and strengthen them God hath treasures of grace it is true and he is not streight-hearted he giveth liberally but the treasury is lockt and prayer is the key and faith the hand that turns it we must to the treasury if we would be rich in grace rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which of us would be poor if we had a warrant to go to the Treasury to fetch what we please O what pains would there be the Treasurer should have imployment enough if God would but perswade us it is so in this case we should visit him more the great Treasurer of heaven the Lord Jesus in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid yea and of faith and all grace for of his fulness we receive grace for grace O how would we ply him give him no rest he would have much more of our company but that we have slight perswasions of these things and make use of prayer as a duty and a task many of us and not a singular means of improving our graces Brethren were we but as much in Communion with God as David we might have the strength of David it is but ask and have knock and it shall be opened the Spirit which works all this will not be denyed if you ask and ask not amiss as you heard lately God will expend willingly his treasures of grace upon us and pour out the fulness of his Spirit upon us but he will be enquired of for these things Well then if we would grow in grace we must be much in prayer I do believe some of us can speak it but too experimentally that when we have found corruptions prevail and our selves foyled and brought under this hath been the reason we have restrained prayer from the Almighty either we have neglected this duty or else we have been slight and slubbering shuffled it if not out of doors yet to the very door and generally observe it we can more easily find time for any thing then for prayer every other business hath its hours to attend upon but if any thing be neglected it must be prayer or else posted over Whereas alas it would no more hinder our business then our meal-times do which must be had and I know Brethren that some of us are able to say it that we have seen when the prospering presence of the Lord hath been with us we have come on more and done more in a short time then at another time in many times as long a time and yet so wretched hearts we have that we content our selves with any thing in this duty if we appear before the Lord we think it is enough we do not strive unto prayer and watch unto prayer and labour by blowing the green wood that will hardly kindle to get it on a flame before we go out of his presence O Jacob would not let him go without a blessing Brethren in what a sad manner do we many times rise off our knees with our hearts further off from God then we came is this to obtain a blessing no no we must take pains in this work if we would grow the Lord perswade our hearts Alas you will say you have prayed and prayed and yet for ought you can perceive you grow not To this I might answer many things First Dost thou find that hereby thou never gettest thy heart in a better frame art thou never wrought up to some sweet frame of heart in respect of faith and love and humility Why here is an improving this is the main thing in prayer when we can find our hearts wrought up to such a frame it is the very growth it self in a great part therefore thou art mistaken Secondly If thou do not find it may be sometimes such warnings and notwithstanding all the pains thon hast sometimes been blowing at the coal until thy arm ake with holding the bellows and thy heart akes and yet thou canst not get thy faith and thy affections into a frame but thou art as dead and dull as before Now in such a case observe it dost thou not gain thus much by it to have viler
daub and heal them deceitfully get it skinned over a little and so the world will do it building and planting and marrying and drinking and pastimes these may skin over the wound but it heals not and miserable is the condition of poor creatures so deluded but now they that are taught of God and learn they learn this effectually and practically that there is nothing in the creature that can do it Fourthly They learn this also that though all the world be but as a cloud without rain when the soul is a fire a Well without water a broken Cistern that leaks out all a Torrent a Brook that is dried up when the soul is parched and burnt up with the scorching heat of the displeasure of God O when the Lord setteth a soul in his sight and looks upon him as a consuming fire with his eyes as a flaming fire ready with a sight of him to devour him and he cannot get out of his sight O now the world all their comforts will not skreen them from his eyes but what will only the Lord Jesus he can be a cooling shadow to shadow us from this scorching heat and this the Spirit of the Lord perswadeth the soul we all of us will talk of it O Jesus Christ is our help and hope and look for salvation in no other but in him it is grown now so cusâ—omary a thing among us that it is in every mans mouth but to how few hath the Lord spoken this to our hearts that thus it is Fifthly Again another thing that we are taught of God before we come to Jesus Christ is this that he is willing to let out of his oyntments to heal he is willing to expend that precious balm of Gilead upon us else the soul will never come to him it is that that keepeth off many a soul a long time the Spirit of the Lord perswadeth the poor soul that though he hath been an enemy to Jesus Christ and grieved him and torn his wounds and rent his flesh with horrid oaths and blasphemies trampled his blood under foot have been never so horrid a transgressor yet he perswadeth him that the Lord Jesus is willing to receive sinners without exception if they come to him Suppose there was a Physitian whose skill were so great and his store of Medicines so inexhaustible and soveraign and his heart so large as that he proclaimeth to all that whosoever is wounded though never so desperately whosoever is sick unto the death one of the Stone another of the Gout another of the plague I will cure you all O then if poor creatures did believe this were perswaded of it they would come and not before O saith one mine is a plague sore and it is past cure mine is an hereditary disease saith another and so far gone I cannot be cured they come not and perish O mine is such a disease it will cost more pains and charge then I think he will be willing to be at to cure and therefore he cometh not to him and so perisheth just so it is in this case except the Lord do secretly insinuate it into the soul how willingly the Lord Jesus writ it upon his Spirit and that the Lord Jesus is willing to receive to heal to save the soul that will not come to him but thus much for these things which in the order of nature go before a coming to Christ now for the acts wherein it formally consist First then when the heart is thus made sensible of what is in himself working to death and what is not in himself nor in any other creature to save then I say there is from the teaching of the heart how able and willing the Lord Jesus is there ariseth a desire in the soul after the Jesus Christ not as if this did flow or were produced by the former apprehensions of a mans own necessities of Christ and of the fulness in him as a fountain and the openness of the fountain which is sealed to none that come for alas one grace though never so habitual and deeply rooted cannot produce another no not faith it self produce love but the Spirit which works faith works love in our hearts also much less then can a conviction be the cause of a conviction or a turning unto the Lord Jesus but it is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus when he hath so opened the eyes of an Hagar to see the fountain opened that was near her before but she saw it not and let us see that our bottle is dryed up and all other hopes in the creature perished then I say the Spirit inclineth the Will to come to Jesus Christ then he works sweetly though strongly an inclination a desire after him It is not in these things as in nature an ordinary providence concurring with the actings of the creature according to their necessities When Hagar saw the fountain she needs no further perswasion to go unto it her necessity was a cord strong enough to draw her yea a weight a spring to carry her swiftly to it but alas when we see the bottles dryed see that the creatures say it is not in us to be had and see there is a fountain opened yet such is the waywardness of our hearts yea such the enmity in our hearts against the Lord Jesus though the streams of his love toward us were as strong as death that we will not yet come to him we had rather sit down as you see some sullen creatures taken from their damms will rather perish then receive food at the hand of man such an indisposition and aversness to man there is and so it is in this case except the Lord Jesus come in by another act of his Spirit and bow the will and make us desirous of himself O then when this act of power is put forth the soul beginneth to long to desire after Jesus Christ O that I had him O that I might but have a sight of him then there is getting upon the tree by a low Zacheus then there is an ascending in this Ordinance and that Ordinance and everywhere the desire of the soul is for Jesus Christ this is a coming for the affections are to the soul as the feet to the body that which carryeth the soul in and out in all to this object or from that object O then when shall I come and appear before him Secondly In this coming to Christ is included a passing all other stands and rests on this side Jesus Christ many a poor soul cometh near to Christ and to the Kingdom of God and yet falls short of him as an arrow not drawn up to the head falls short of the mark and there it sticks where it fastens goeth no further So here some upon their convictions the discovery of their conditions run to this Ordinance to that to this duty to that as things that of themselves as performances should give rest to them and
where there is probability yea certainty of speeding if we come So the Lepers you know their argument If we stay here we must perish if we go we may escape So Esther she knew if she went not into the King at that time her neck was upon the block as well as the rest and if she did go in she might haply speed and prosper and therefore she ventures hard if the Scepter had not been held out to her it had cost her her life there but the body did lie at the stake as being starved for want or else designed to destruction by enemies but here soul and body lie at the stake and are in danger of perishing for ever there was only a possibility of escaping here is a certainty of escaping he will not in any wise cast him out O how cheerfully would Esther have run to the King if there had been such a Law that when ever the Queen cometh the Scepter should be held out to her so it is here there they ran a very desperate hazard but here is no hazard run here is a sure word of promise for it That heaven and earth shall pass away before a tittle of it shall pass away whoever cometh to Christ he will in no wise cast him out Seventhly It is a grief to the Lord Jesus that we should be thus wayward that we will not be perswaded of his good will toward us if we come to him that we should have such unworthy thoughts of Jesus Christ that he should make no more of his Word of promise his death his blood then to slight all falsifie all when poor sinners come to him according to his invitation he was grieved saith the Text because of the unbelief and hardness of their hearts It is said of the Jews O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. he wept over it when nothing would do to perswade them to close with him thou art grieved and Christ is grieved by this frowardness of thine Suppose the Father of the prodigal son in the Gospel had invited him to come to him promised him all the inheritance to put him in his bosom confirm his love to him no saith he I have mispent all I have undone my self fed upon husks as long as I could get them and now I am ready to perish not being able to procure them here I will sit and dye I cannot believe that thou wilt accept of me that thou canst ever love me or receive me more would not this grieve the father think you I know poor mourning soul thou wouldst not grieve the Lord Jesus I tell thee if thou wouldst not thou must come to him accept of his kindness and love believe his faithfulness and truth and so thy soul shall be established Vse 4. The fourth Use shall be then to exalt the riches of the Grace of Jesus Christ to poor sinners we might altus repetere and speak something to the purchasing of us at so dear a rate as his precious blood corruptible things as Silver and Gold are not worthy to be named the same day with the blood of Jesus Christ Alas there had been no possibility for us to come to him except there had been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paid and then to invite us to come to him and not only so but to draw us with the cords of a man and the cords of love that we should hear and learn of the Father be all taught of God which is the drawing of his Father without which we cannot come which what it is you have heard already formerly Brethren this is abundance of Grace yea more he hath promised and doth and will perform whoever cometh to him he will in no wise cast him out If the Lord Jesus had limited himself to such or such a sort of sinners that he would receive all that should not continue so many years in sin or sâ—all not rise to such an height in sin yet it had been much Grace to receive any but he excludeth none if any man come to Christ he will in no wise cast him out Are there not many souls in the presence of God that can set to their seals that this is a truth in Iesus if he would have cast out any what would become of thee and me who are the chief of sinners if he would have cast out such as have been drunkards covetous unclean effeminate what had become of them in 1 Cor. 6 Such were some of you and what would have become of some of us if he would have cast out all that have been bloody persecutors what would have become of Paul Ah poor soul bethink thy self in what filth and blood thou didst wallow before he put off his own comliness upon thee and then think if the Lord Iesus had limited his receiving of sinners that come to such or such a measure what then had become of thee O what abounding Grace is in the Lord Iesus towards poor sinners let us exalt it meditate much of it labour to heighten it in thy thoughts there will be no thoughts more sweet or profitable more melting of that stone in thy heart we so sadly complain of more indearing and engaging of the heart to the Lord Jesus then these are Vse 5. Vse 5. Then surely there is no falling away from Christ from justifying sanctifying Grace once received for what else is this coming to Christ but coming for righteousness for pardon for he is the Lord our Righteousness the Father hath found a Ransom now in his Son and this the poor sinner maketh after in Christ and for holiness also for he is made of God Sanctification as well as Righteousness and Holiness to the poor soul that cometh to him now he will never cast him out that cometh to him he will in no wise cast him out If he had said I will not cast him out except he sin to this or that degree after my receiving him it had been somewhat but I will not cast him out no in no wise will I do it O blessed bosom which will never shut out the poor soul that is once gotten in to it and if the Lord Jesus cast us not out when we come what can It may be some will say that we our selves may do it Christ will not do it I but the sinner himself may â—all off though he have been received of Christ put in his bosom warmed with his love it is true if a sinner were his own keeper it were somewhat like if it were left to the liberty of our wils whether we would abide in Christ yea or no we should quickly be lost again but it is not the Lord Jesus doth not only not cast us out except we cast our selves out but he holds us in his hand and the Father holds us in his hand and they are stronger then all None shall be able to pluck them out of his hand he lays hold upon the
wish it may be thou hast relations estate name as good as others yet thou canst not be satisfied all is nothing without interest in him thou runnest from Ordinance to Ordinance from one Congregation to another from reading to prayer yet findest no satisfaction in all I will say to that soul Thou hast an evidence and a clear one too he hath indeed received thee or thou wert never able thus to breath after him and though he may hold thee off for a while yet he will not shut thee out Thirdly Hath the Lord made thee willing indeed to have him to receive him as King and Saviour to be purified by him subdued to him as well as saved by him Alas I know not whether I am or no if not what then meaneth all thy stuffing thy bed with groans What mean those Rivers of tears shed over him what meaneth thy following so hard after him What is it possible that any man should make such heavy moan as some poor souls do for Jesus Christ and yet not be willing to have him If thou wouldest not have him me thinks thou wouldest rather run away from him then run after him what ascending is there up into this tree and that tree as the Lord Jesus passeth by in an Ordinance to get a sight of him and yet the poor soul will not be perswaded that he would have fain have the Lord Jesus when one sight of him would be so refreshing to them O go away rejoycing and triumphing in the Lord Jesus that ever he hath looked upon thee to make thee willing in the day of his power for surely thou art a willing soul who art so affected towards him and this willing Brethren surely is the very receiving of Jesus Christ it is the closing with him thus taking with one hand Christ for pardon and giving up a mans self to him with the other hand which is the thing thy soul groans for now if Christ Jesus be so willing to receive poor sinners and thou be so willing to receive him what can interpose to hinder or break the match surely nothing Fourthly Thou must be content to wait a while haply before thou have the comfort of thy coming to Christ before I say thou shalt suck the sweetness that floweth from him to thy soul for thou hast broken thy bones with sin which brought wrath upon thy soul as David complains O there was no rest in his bones and they must have a time to knit again A man will rather lie upon his bed a Prisoner a few daies then be a Cripple all the daies of his life therefore they say a Horse leg is incurable if broke he will not endure to be bound to lie quiet Submit to the Chyrurgians hand and skill the Lord Jesus will do it it is doing but alas such broken bones heal but slowly through many humors by reason of the abundance of sin in the soul may be it will be the longer but wait Remember the pains that Elijahs servant took to go up and down that steep hill Carmel with wearyness seven times and brought news of nothing at all until at last he sees a little cloud which filled the heavens So it may be with thee and it will recompence all at last there will be abundance of rain to refresh thy weary parched soul Fifthly Be frequent in acting of faith putting forth the acts of thy willingness to receive the Lord Jesus if he be willing to receive thee for hereby the habit of faith will grow stronger the little grain of Mustard-seed thou shalt see take strong rooting and spread it self and then the acts will be stronger and those will yet again strengthen the habit and by this means the grace will appear more visible So that at the last thou shalt even feel in thy very soul that thou dost believe if thou often put forth this act of recumbency upon him casting thy self upon the Lord Jesus into his arms at his feet and see if thou find it not that at last thou have not this witness in thy self that thou dost believe in the Lord Jesus And then happy soul thou mayest take the comfort of that condition Thou shalt never be cast out FINIS The first Table contains the General and Particular Heads as they follow in their order in the preceding Subject Circumspect Walking A Christians Wisdom THe Text opened Page 55. out of which this first doctrine is raised That it is a duty Christians are strictly charged with to walk circumspectly ibid. But first there is enquired what it is to walk circumspectly Here you have first the Matter of a Christians conversation expressed by walking which includes all a mans actions 1. Spiritual 2. Civil 3. Natural 55 56 This Latiude appears 1. In that walking is a motion 1. From other Principles 2. By other Rules then the men of the world walk by ibid. 2. There is a Terminus a quo from whence they walk and that is from sin ibid. 3. A Terminus ad quem and that is to God in Christ 57 4. This Motion is a progressive motion 5. It is a constant Motion 6. It it a pleasant ibid. Secondly Here you have the manner of this walking Circumspectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now to this exact walking 1. There must go a Rule 57 2. Knowledge to understand and wisdom rightly to apply the rule 58 3. Keeping close to the rule 1. In not following a multitude as most do 59 2. In not following the Examples of the Saints further then they follow Christ 60 4. There must be a mending not only the external part but the inside and the Spirit of the rule 61 5. Carrying an even course towards heaven ibid. 6. Making it a mans work to walk exactly with 1. A watchful eye 2. A trembling heart The second thing in the words of the Text That it is a duty so strictly charged upon the Saints proved 63 The Reasons of the third thing in the words of the Text. Why this duty is charged upon the Saints viz. to walk circumspectly 1. Because they are the children of the light ibid. 2. Because their steps are more eyed then other mens 64 1. In regard of God himself 2. In regard of men 1. Many men watch for their Halting 2. Some men are scandalized by their uneven walking Either good or evil Men. 65 3. Because all have erring hearts and naturally love to wander ibid. 4. Because there are many by-paths whereinto they may step awry 66. The first Use shews that among the much profession of Christ there is little power ibid. The second use reproves 1. The People of God that come short of this exact Walking 2. Those that instead of following God fully have their hearts divided 67 1. Some that content themselves only with the shews of religion 2. Some that are all for morality and honesty of conversation 68 3. Some that neither fear God nor reverence Man ibid. Thirdly Those are reproved
the heart of a sinner that was little worth before becometh a golden Vial full of odours it s concocted then the spices flow forth in the garden inclosed Seventhly the Sun dispels the mists and fogs which are unwholsom would poison the air yea and thick clouds which would muffle up the Sun from us we know this by daily experience So doth the Lord Jesus Brethren all the mists fogs and clouds of sin he dispels them for his name sake he blots out the transgressions of his people as a cloud It s the very heat Brethren of the love of Jesus Christ that consumeth as I may say melts away those clouds that they intercept not our communion and fellowship with him O! there is not a day but the streamings of our filthy hearts would gather into a thick cloud and cover his face from us were it not that the warm beams of his love did continually dispell them and scatter them we should never enjoy the light of his countenance an hour together if it were not for this and for his names sake he doth it And so the cloud of sorrow let the diseases of the people of God be what they will never so great and black clouds they are compassed about with their day is a day of gloominess and thick darkness how come these to be dispelled is it not the Sun of righteousness breaking forth on poor sinners that doth it one sight of Christ as reconciled to him puts an end unto all Eighthly the Sun is the cause of the sweet intercourse between the earth and the clouds and the clouds and the earth for its the Sun that exhales the vapours from the earth and draweth them up into the middle region of the air and there with the cold of the air its condensed into a cloud and hangs until it be dissolved and render it self to the earth again to make it fruitful and so the dew is in like manner begotten only is not far lifted up above the earth and with the cold of the night is congealed into little drops and so sweetly distills So the Lord Jesus he draweth out the hearts the affections of his people in prayers sweet breathings after himself and these prayers come down again sometimes on the same soul sometimes on another place they fall but abundance of sweetness and blessing and mercy is poured out by this means on poor creatures whereby they become fruitful Ninthly The Lord Jesus may be compared to the Sun for that the Sun Giant-like rejoyceth to run his race and who can turn him back alas all the clouds that gather about the Sun that to our apprehensions might haply seem to threaten a blotting of it out a clogging of it they are all below it It s true prayer once did hold him in his course and it looks like a word of command Sun stand thou still and so prayer may do much with Jesus Christ but not hinder him in his course riding on in his triumphant charriot conquering and to conquer enlightning poor dark places and people Before we come to the other we will a little apply this to our selves First then Brethren if the Lord Jesus be a Sun then they that have this Sun risen on them they are children of the day if the Sun be up it must needs be day and is not the Sun up Brethren among us is not the Lord Jesus gone forth as a Gyant to run his race among us we now have a day of Grace among us and how long or how short it may be I know not Brethren it seemeth to be declining in some respects and the shadows of the evening growing low O that we would be perswaded and stirred up to do the work of our day in this our day our great work which is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling I doubt if the Sun should set and the night come on you wherein no man can work you should have this work yet to do many of you especially brethren you into whose hearts the Lord Jesus this Sun of righteousness hath shone O how should you walk as children of the day not in surfetting and drunkenness I mean not with meat and fire only but with any creature-comforts and delights on this side Christ away then with all the works of darkness all practices which did suit better with the times of ignorance and blindness and now walk as becometh the light and the day that the Sun may not be ashamed to behold you Secondly Such as the Lord Jesus then hath not risen on they are yet in darkness children of the night and walk at uncertainties know not whither they go Alas many a poor soul thinketh he is as sure to go to heaven as he is to die when he is in the very rode to hell only some go in the broad trodden path open prophane impudent sinners some steal thither behind the hedge they are going to hell but in a closure walk hidden from others and from themselves Many night-Birds there are among us children of the night indeed though in one respect many of us may be said to be children of the day because Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel is held forth unto us as they are said to be the children of the Kingdom yet in respect of the inward revealing of Christ in the heart I doubt many of us are strangers to it though we fly about in the light yet we are but Owls and Bats darkness agreeth better with us our souls are full of darkness our works are nothing else but works of darkness How sad a consideration is this Brethren that in the midst of light we should be children of darkness 〈◊〉 noon-day when the Gospel is at the heighth and Christ the Sun as it were at the meridian we should be stumbling and groping as at midnight not knowing whither we go Then thirdly As there is this difference of persons where Christ cometh from them where he cometh not so it is in families and people Brethren what a sad people and family is that where they are all in Egyptian darkness Jesus Christ is not risen unto any soul among them they know him not experimentally but they are all in blindness Alas none can help another the Israelites and Egyptians though they dealed among one another in one family there was light in the other there was nothing but gross darkness that might be felt O who would live in such a family who would not haste out of such a condition you would think that a sad conditioned house that the light of the Sun and warmth of the Sun never entreth into of all places you would not live in it this is is nothing brethren to the total absence of Christ where neither Husband nor Wife nor Fellow-servant nor Children none of them have had the Lord Jesus shining into their hearts Gross darkness shall cover the earth saith the
Prophet But on Zion shall the Glory of the Lord arise Look into what families brethren you put your selves no man would content himself to live in a dungeon continually that family is worse where Jesus Christ hath never come Fourthly Then take notice how sweet a condition it must needs be to have an union and fellowship with Jesus Christ especially where that fellowship is constant truly light is sweet And it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun saith Solomon but alas that is nothing to a sight of Christ poor sinners in a dark condition when they become sensible of it will tell you what its worth to have a glimpse of Christ of the light of his countenance poor creatures that for half an year together are without the Sun will tell you how sweet a condition it is to have the Sun shining on them Mary Magdalen will tell you when she wanted her Saviour her Lord with many tears what a want it is and what a joy to have his presence O what light is there in that soul what joy what peace what comfort what warmth what melting over the Lord Jesus it is a little heaven on earth indeed this enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Fifthly We may hence learn then brethren whence cometh all our light and all our warmth and all our fruitful influences whereby we spring forth and bring forth abundantly it is from the Lord Jesus Thy heart was as very a dungeon as any full of darkness and bugs frogs and serpents and how came it to be lightned but that the Sun of God was pleased to shine on thee yea into thy heart more then another and freely with his presence to scatter those lusts thy soul was full of before Art thou enabled so much as to bud to think a good thought its from hence because that the Sun of righteousness hath arisen on thee thou hast received some influence from him doth it come to a blossom a good word holy communication its from the same principle doth the fruit knit and grow up into a ripeness increase into an holy action an holy walking with God whence is it but from the Sun of righteousness doth the Marigold open its according to the heat of the Sun do our hearts open are our hearts enlarged hence it is Brethren forget not the fountain we are apt to think the sparks are of our own kindling c. Sixthly Then Brethren we should hence learn to whom to your all give the Praise the Glory of all Let the Moon and Stars then fall down before this Sun as it was in Josephs dream they shine but with a borrowed light and the borrower is servant to the lender How do the Birds each morning chant and chirp when their little spirits are revived by the Sun rising on them and shall our mouths be sealed up when the Sun of righteousness hath visited our hearts quickned them enlightned them The Stars you know appear not when the Sun ariseth in his Glory O dear friends so should we when the Name of Christ cometh in competition with our names not appear be content to be nothing to decrease so he may increase Let him have the Glory of all Seventhly Then Brethren learn to prize the Lord Jesus set a true esteem on him should we want the Sun for one moneth what a value should we set on it it is true worth indeed brethren to value things by their enjoyment rather then by their 〈…〉 an t now thou hast the Sun-shine it may be many a sweet refreshing warming from the Lord Jesus O prize it every one is looking at and admiring a Comet but who considereth the Sun who admireth that prizeth that how much ado hath the Lord Jesus with us to bring us to this he is fain to put us in a dungeon to make us bear the iniquities of our youth to hide his face to make us walk in darkness before we will prize it what a grief is this to him is it not a trouble to our selves and what a folly is it Brethren to grieve the Lord Jesus and grieve our own souls when we might save all this O labour then to do it beg such a heart of Jesus Christ Eighthly Then Brethren shut not the windows against the shinings of this Sun of righteousness sometimes the Lord Jesus getteth within a sinner for all his fence and guard light cometh in at some chink beginneth to discover the condition in which he is sheweth him the filthy vermine that are ready to run away with his soul that the heart swarms withal that he saw not before and yet alas he maketh a shift to clap to the window to smother the light with both hands puts it away he desires not the presence of it this is a sad condition when men are ignorant and will be ignorant when the Lord Jesus would have healed them and they would not be healed O how canst thou tell whether ever thou shalt be healed till thou die O take heed Brethren of this it is the way to bring the blackness of darkness on you to provoke God to clap the everlasting chains of darkness on you wherein you may be reserved to the last day Oh it is a sad saying that Let him that is ignorant be ignorant still the time may come when the hour of darkness shall fall on your souls at the day of death that you would give a world then but for a glimpse of that light you now shut out and fence your selves against when your works of darkness and secret pleasures of sin for whose sake you have done it do fly in your face buffet you ready to tear your throat out hale you before the judgement-seat of Christ O then for a sight of Christ but he is far from you no he would have enlightned you but you would not Therefore now the things which belong to your peace are hid from your eyes He might pitty Jerusalem and weep over her but alas her condition was past cure I would the condition of many a poor soul here were not such yea Brethren the people of God themselves take heed of sh 〈…〉 ing out the light of this Sun of righteousness for what will become of the light in the room when its fullest of light if the windows be clapt too will it not be cut off will it not become a dungeon we complain many times of a dark and sad and dead condition the truth is Brethren we have shut him out we have thought Oh now we are full now we have knowledge and heat enough we have been so warmed with the influence of Christ on us now it matters not for altogether so strict a walking now we have gotten the light of his countenance this is a secret frowardness of our hearts and then he is provoked to withdraw and alas we are in darkness again Therefore take we heed Brethren how we hide the face of God in
saith he to them that sought for him if ye seek me let these go as yet they were not grown to that stedfastness but now what if the Lord should for holy ends give Satan liberty to sift thee to the very bran and thy faith be weak O what sad work will there be then in thy soul therefore our Saviour prayed that Peters faith should not fail him but yet you see how near it was and what it cost him and so except we be grown in wisdom and understanding we shall be ignorant of his devices and he will take us alive at his pleasure because we know not where he will have us nor what his methods of deceiving are that there we might watch And so for crosses it is not a child can bear the cross specially if great some little affliction they may bear as you see our Saviour did train up his Disciples to it by degrees at first only they threatned them and charged them not to preach in that name of Jesus Christ then afterwards when by that experience of the power of God with them they were somewhat grown then they were scourged and imprisoned and as strength grew so afflictions grew we are not able to suffer much for Christ while our faith is weak our love is small our patience inconsiderable therefore we must labour to grow in every grace of the Spirit Fifthly Because the stronger our graces are the more discernable they will be this was hinted before in the arguments of the point and this will put an end to many sad complaints that a child of God maketh concerning himself when his grace becometh more visible not only to others but to himself by reason of the greatness of it and the Spirit of God shining upon it to discover it O how comfortable may such an one walk Sixthly Consider the end of all the Ministry and Ordinances God hath given it is for our growth as in that place therefore he gave some Apostles some Evangelists same Pastors for the edifying of the body of Christ now hath the Lord been at all this pains rising up early and sending messengers upon messengers one after another and pouring out the gifts of the Spirit to befit them for that work and all to build us up and yet we are children and dwarfs What a shame is this to us and what a grief is this to God and is not this the way to make him repent of the good he hath done unto us and to withdraw them Seventhly A very hypocrite Brethren may grow in some things and therefore we had need look to it to go beyond them in our growth an hypocrite may grow in parts and gifts may learn to pray and preach most plausibly may make long prayers with those hypocrites though they grow not inwardly at all therefore take heed of sticking here or because thou growest more civilly escapest the pollutions of the world and yet alas art the same in disposition a swine in nature yea there may be a growing in assent to the truth such a saith as the Devils have which maketh them tremble and some kind of affection too as Herod had but by how much we see there is danger of being deceived by so much the more narrowly we had need to look to it that we grow there where there is no deceit grow in the spiritualness of service and duty in that of self-denyal humility and saving-faith and love Eighthly Wicked men grow worse and worse and why should not we grow better and better Shall Satans Kingdom so increase and grow strong and shall not the Kingdom of Jesus Christ grow stronger also how much the more need had we to stir up our selves in this respect considering how many grow worse and worse Ninthly The stronger we grow in the habits of grace the more easie will our acting of grace be to us we come off so hard with a duty as with prayer or the like what is the reason but because we are so weak in the Grace of prayer so unacquainted with it O how a man delights to do the things which he is befitted for and habituated to O how quickly are some mens spirits up in duty like tinder to the fire of the Spirit or like the spirits of wine or oyl quickly fired therefore God would have the fat offered up it would quickly take fire and when our services come off with delight and cheerfulness then the Lord is pleased with it so you see They rejoyced they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name of Christ and yet a little before were so weak that they all forsook him what a difference is here and so they rejoiced that God had given them such a willing heart to lay out themselves upon the Temple to build an House to the Name of God when a mans love and mercy is weak what he giveth it cometh hardly from him like drops of blood as we say but afterward he can freely willingly emptie his purse for Christs sake this is one way Brethren to make the Commands of God not so grievous to us as they seem to be until we be thus grown Again We must grow to our pitch before we can enter into the kingdom Mat. 18. 3 c. Therefore upon all these considerations let us be exhorted to make it our business to improve to grow to wax stronger and stronger day by day But thus much for the Motives For Helps that will be the next enquiry what we should do to grow in Grace since it is so necessary a work lying upon us all And I might speak distinctly First To the Grace which is inherent in us wherein our holiness consisteth and Secondly That wherein our comfort consisteth even the knowledge of our relative state to God But the main thing is that holiness those several Graces of the Spirit each whereof shining with its own lustre and yet by the symmetry and conjunction with the rest make up the perfect beauty of Holiness First then in general If thou wouldst grow indeed and art in good earnest in this matter thou must exercise Grace if thou wouldst grow what a rich treasury is that of the Mind above that of a mans Cheâ—t the more he useth of the one the more he hath the more he useth of the other the less he hath How did the Talent increase but with the using that is signified by putting them out to the Changers and so the Talent or Pound gained five Talents or ten therefore it is observed by so me that the Scripture in commanding or requiring any Grace of us doth directly and immediately command the Acts and the Habits obliquely as the Fountain to the Stream So Baxter saith The way to get away our indisposedness to Prayer saith Luther is to pray it away exercise that Grace according to the ability given and thou shalt find it grow it is much to be preferred before an idle complaining a diligent soul
heart puts his fear there yea and that Peace of God also placeth he as a pregnable garrison there that they shall never depart from him except the Lord could deny his Covenant for my part I see not how any soul that in truth is come on to Christ can finally apostatize though from some common grace they may withdraw which is true Grace though not of this kind which is saving But what then doth the Lord Jesus hold us to himself whether we will or no No Brethren But he maketh us willing in the day of his power so that we shall not any more be willing to leave him to depart from him nor is it an infringement of our liberty at all to be determined to one party either of the contradiction of contrariety as they use to distinguish them for God himself is determined to one part he cannot will any thing that is evil as evil nor the Angels in heaven established and confirmed and yet their liberty sure is much greater then ours well then the Lord Jesus he will never cast them out therefore they shall persevere when once they are in him in Covenant God hath put that principle into them that they shall never depart themselves he will not let loose any lust any temptation upon them that shall ruin them that were in effect in a moral sense a casting of them out in no wise whatsoever will he do it Vse 6. Sixthly Yet here let me put in a double Caution First Let sinners impenitent sinners that yet stand it out protract the time of their coming to Jesus Christ as Aug. O modo Domine take a warning word this day that is do not so abuse this sweet and pretious truth as to encourage themselves thereby in an evil way tush saith the drunkard the unclean person to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant it is time enough to repent Jesus Christ is so tender and so merciful to poor sinners that when ever we come to him he will not cast us out and though we do treasure up many bags and fill up the measure of sin fuller then others he hath made no limitation if we come to him he will not cast us out what a lamentable condition is that man in whose stomack turns an honey-comb into poyson to him here is the most precious cordial the very Spirits of the Gospel in this our Doctrine and see how sinners do turn it into a deadly potion to their souls what Spiders are we that can suck venom out of the sweetest flowers but suppose this be true that when ever thou comest to Jesus Christ thou shalt be received and not cast out in any wise is there any truth in the Hypothesis that lies hid which is either this that thou hast power to come of thy self at any time thy will at command if it be proper to say so of that which is the commanding faculty in the soul or else this that God will draw thee hereafter and give thee a will to come to Jesus Christ when thou hast lived a while longer in the pleasures of sin Ah poor soul thou little knowest the deceitfulness of sin and of thy own heart what is the reason that thou art not now willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ is it not because thou art held so fast in the embraces of thy darling lusts O that sin that kils with its embraces poisons with its kisses and tell me is that the way to get looser from thy lusts and so more ready to come to Jesus Christ to go on in sin to satisfie and fulfill the lusts of the flesh surely no thou knowest not the deceitfulness of sin whereby the heart is more hardened every act then before It may please him out of the abundant riches of his Grace to draw such a presumptuous sinner to Christ but it is to be admired me thinks thou shouldst rather tremble when thou thinkest I now put off my coming to Christ untill a more convenient opportunity and what if this never come what if my soul be taken from me this night now the Arrows of God are scattered among our dwellings and what if I never have a heart nor some time to come and repent but go on still and grow more and more hard and desperate and sinning and so perish O that sinners would consider this that forget God that they abuse not this Grace of Jesus Christ When did Jesus Christ tell thee how long he would wait upon thee to be gracious doth he not say to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts you may possibly out-live your day of grace aâ—d Christ is waiting upon you and striving with you and then it had been better for you you had never been born Secondly Another caution shall be to them that have come to Jesus Christ and are found in him that they take heed they abuse not this grace to wantonness If we shall not in any wise be cast out of Christ what need so much ado O what viperous natures have we that are ready to turn all to poyson this principle is in every heart among us therefore watch over it The Doctrine is Christs a truth in Jesus and therefore in its own nature hath no tendency to such a froward walking before God there is nothing in its own nature doth more tend to kil sin then grace the abundance of grace in Jesus Christ truly if grace love will not do it nothing will do it nothing runs the old man to the heart so home as this unsearchable love of God in Christ that if we come to him he will in no wise cast us out It is a wretched graceless conclusion to say no more of it to continue in sin that grace might abound the Apostle was well taught in Christs School and both by Revelation from Christ and personal experience in his own case he knew the power of the love of God in Christ the exceeding abundance of his grace and how doth he argue from mercy to duty So our Saviour himself who best knoweth the end of his grace of which he is the Author and Finisher come to me c. and I will give you rest And what then may they sit still and take their ease never trouble themselves more concerning their souls never care how to walk in well-pleasing to Christ No the next words are take my yoak upon you for it is easie and it is light It is no great matter he expecteth of us in comparison of what he might expect and in respect of the recompence of reward a Belial is a Monster in the Church of Christ a man without yoak like a wild-Ass snuffing up the wind and doing according to his own hearts lust I will be bold to say let men pretend to what they will that man that hath drunk deepest of the love of God in Christ and is most firmly rooted