the godly should smother their grief and not go to God with it their sorrow were able to choak them It is no small ease that we have a God to go to to whom we may freely open our minds Prayer hath a pacative virtue as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 18. prayed unto the Lord and wept sore and mark the event the woman went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad c. An Oven stopped up is the hotter within but vent and utterance giveth ease to the heart if it be meerly by way of complaint to a friend without expectation of relief much more to go to God and lay open our case before him 2. To seek our comfort elsewhere from earthly things it is a vain and evil course 1. It is vain for God is the party with whom we have to do In many troubles the creatures may be instruments of our wo but the principal party is God Strike in with him and you stop the mischief at the head Pro. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him In other troubles God hath a more immediate hand as sicknesses and terrors of conscience our business then lyeth not with the creatures in sickness not with Physicians first but with God In troubles of spirit we are not to quench our thirst at the next ditch but to run to the Fountain of living water not to take up with ordinary comforts that 's an attempt to break prison and to get out of the troubles before God letteth us out He is our party then whoever be the Instrument 2. It is evil that we refuse to come to God when he whippeth us into his presence and beateth us to the Throne of Grace Dan. 9. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth When men are ready to dye and will not so much as confer with the Physician they are either stupid or desperate Afflictions summon us into his presence God sendeth a tempest after us as after Ionah Now that trouble which chaseth us to God is so far a sanctified trouble 2. The hope of relief from God who alone can and will help us He put his mouth in the dust peradventure there is hope Lam. 3. 29. Now this hope is from God's Power and Will 1. His Power God can quicken us when we are as good as dead because he is the well-spring of life and comfort Other things give us life but as water scaldeth when it is the instrument of heat but God alone can help us God is the great quickner That I might trust in him that raised the dead and I am the resurrection and the life 2. His will When we are humble and tractable in our afflictions 1. It is some hope if we have nothing to bring before God but our grief and misery for be is pitiful A beggar will uncover his sore to move your bowels so many times all the reason that a poor pitiful afflicted person can bring for himself is lamenting his case to God how discouraged he is and apt to faint as David represents his case My soul cleaveth to the dust and elsewhere Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful let thy salvation O God set me up on high Justice seeketh a fit object but Mercy a fit occasion 2. It is a greater ground of hope when we are humbled under Gods hand and have a due sense of our condition that is are convinced of our emptiness weakness nothingness or emptied of self-conceit and carnal confidence Deut. 32. 36. For the Lord shall judg his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left Gods judgments are to break our carnal dependencies 3. Still the hope encreaseth when we acknowledg his Justice and Wisdom in all our troubles Levit. 26. 41. If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity kiss the rod wherewith they are corrected be glad it is no worse and see that all this cometh from a Just and Wise God 4. There is farther hope when we can cast our selves upon his Faithfulness and Omnipotency in the face of all discouragements Christ's question to the man long possessed was Mark 9. 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth God's Power is exercised when glorified by faith and dependence 5. When we submit to whatmay be most for his glory Carnal prayers though never so earnest fail when we are too earnest upon our private end and the means which we fancy Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truths sake USE In deep calamities run to God lay forth your case feelingly and with submission to the Justice of his Providence trusting to his Power and submitting to his wisdom without obtruding your model upon God but leaving him to his own course and this is the way to speed Take heed 1. Of a stupid carelesness under the Rod it is a time of seeking after God a summons to the creature to come before him Now if we think to sport away our trouble without looking after Gods comforts it is a desperate security Jer. 5. 12. They have belyed the Lord and said It is not he neither shall evil come upon us neither shall we see sword nor famine 2. Take heed of despondency The Throne of Grace is set up on purpose for such a time Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Open your case before the Lord. 3. Take heed of pitching too much upon outward things either as to the time or way of deliverance Lust is vehement but the more you seek the more comfortable will be the issue Psal. 51. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of thy Ierusalem 2. We come now to David's supplication or petition thereupon where observe 1. The Request it self Quicken thou me 2. The Argument According to thy word 1. The Request it self Quicken thou me which noteth either the renewing of comfort or the actuation of graces the restoring or putting life into his affairs 1. The renewing of comfort Quicken me revive me or restore life to me again and this either by outward deliverance so quickning is used Psal. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth where deep trouble is compared to the grave and deliverance a kind of resurrection or recovery from the dead or by
a poor little hearsay Knowledg availeth not They abhor themselves when they have more intimate acquaintance none so confident as a young Professor that knoweth a few Truths but in a weak and imperfect manner the more we know indeed the more sensible we are of our ignorance how liable to this mistake and that that we dare not trust our selves for an hour 4. Because of the profit that cometh by knowledg All grace from first to last cometh in by the understanding God in the work of grace followeth the order which he hath established in Nature Reason and Judgment is to go before the will and therefore when the work of Grace is first begun in us it beginneth in the Understanding Renewed in knowledg Col. 3. 10. So the encrease of grace 2 Pet. 1. 12. Grace be multiplied unto you through the knowledg of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. As the beginning is by light so is all the gradual progress of the spiritual life strength to bear afflictions strength in conflicts is by powerful reasons yea the perfect change that is made in us in glory is by the vision of God We shall see him as he is and shall be like him If we had more knowledg of God and his ways we should trust him more fear him more love him more Trust him Psal. 9. 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee If God were more known he would be better trusted 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed I dare trust him with my soul. More feared 3 Joh. 11. Beloved follow not that which is evil but that which is good He that doth good is of God he that doth evil hath not seen God Right thoughts of God would not let us sin so freely one Truth or other would fall upon us and give check to the temptation as feared so loved more The more explicite thoughts we have of his excellency the more are our hearts drawn out to him Joh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. Christ would not lye by as a neglected thing if he were more known in all his worth and excellency USE The first Use is to press you to get Knowledg and look upon it as a singular Grace if the Lord will give you to understand and apply the comfort and direction of his Holy Word Joh. 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you To be taught the mind of God is a greater act of friendship than if God should give a man all the treasures of the world To make himself known so as you may love him fear him trust him When we can apply this for our comfort O then cry for knowledg lift up thy voice for understanding seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures Prov. 2. 3 4. Go to God and be earnest with him Lord make me to understand the way of thy precepts We can walk in the ways of sin without a Teacher but we cannot walk in the ways of God And cry lift up thy voice We are earnest for quickning and enlargement but be earnest also for understanding Now a large prayer without endeavours is nothing worth Dig in the Mines of knowledg search into the Scripture do not gather up a few scattered notions but look into the bowels Silver doth not lye in the surface of the earth but deep in the bottom of it and will cost much labour and digging to come at it If we would have any good stock of knowledg which will prevent vain thoughts carnal discourse abundance of heart-perplexing scruples and doubts and much darkness and uncomfortableness of spirit it will cost us some labour and pains The more knowledg we have the more are we established against error 2 Pet. 3. 17. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness The more you have of this divine saving knowledg the greater check upon sin Psal. 119. 11. I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee One Truth or another will rise up in defiance of the Temptation The greater impulsion to duty the more of the Law of God the more it urgeth the conscience Prov. 6. 22. It maketh us more useful in all our Relations 1 Pet. 3. 7. Husbands Dwell with them according to knowledg c. Parents Eph. 6. 4. Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Friends Rom. 15. 14. And I my self also am perswaded of you my brethren that ye also are full of goodness filled with all knowledg able also to admonish one another Magistrates that they may discern Christs Interest Psal. 2. 10. Be wise now therefore O Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth When Solomon asked Wisdom the thing pleased the Lord. And lastly More comfortable in our selves that they may comfort and build up one another whenever they meet together USE 2. To press you to grow in knowledg None have such confidence and rejoycing in God as those that have a clear sight and understanding of his will revealed in his word Let your knowledg 1. Be more comprehensive At first our thoughts run in a narrow channel There are certain general Truths absolutely necessary to salvation as concerning our misery by sin and the sufficiency of Christ to help us but if we might rest in these why hath God given us so copious a Rule The general sort of Christians content themselves to see with others eyes get the knowledg of a few truths and look no farther why then hath God given so large a Rule Fundamentals are few believe them live well and you shall be saved This is the Religion of most This is as if a man in building should only be careful to lay a good foundation no matter for roof windows walls If a man should untile your house and tell you the foundation standeth the main butteresses are safe you would not like of it A man is bound according to his capacity and opportunity to know all Scripture the consequences of every Truth God may and doth accept of our imperfect knowledg but not when men are negligent and do not use the means To be willingly ignorant of the lesser ways of God is a sin VVe should labour to know all that God hath revealed 2. More distinct why Truths are best known in their frame and dependance as Gods works of Creation when viewed singly and apart every days work was good but when viewed alltogether in their correspondence and mutual proportion to each other were very good Gen. 1. 31. So all Truths of God take them singly are good but
many of the Promises contradict sense as when the Soul is filled with anguish because of the guilt of sin 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness And the power of sin 1 Thess. 5. 24. Faithful is he who calleth you who also will do it Supported in great distresses 1 Cor. 10. 13. He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able That we may be able to stand in the judgment 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithful by whom ye are called into the fellowship of his Son Iesus Christ. Here is a Christian 's great security and support God's Faithfulness testified by Christians now and in all Ages confessing they have found by their experience the Word of God to be true for they have transmitted Religion to us by their constant consent and left it to us under a seal of God's Faithfulness and therefore we should persevere in our duty to God 2dly As represented by an Emblem we should consider it for 't is an help to frequent Meditation as being always before our eyes and they are without excuse who see not God in this thing Every time we set foot on the ground we may remember the stability of God's Promises and 't is also a confirmation of Faith Thus 1. The stability of the Earth is the effect of God's Word this is the true Pillar upon which the Earth standeth For he upholdeth all things by the word of his power Psal. 33. 9. For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Now his word of Power helpeth us to depend upon his word of Promise God that doth what he pleaseth never faileth in what he promiseth We see plainly that whatever standeth by God's Will and Word cannot be brought to nought Whence is it how came this world to have a being 't is the work and product of that God whose word and promise we have in Scripture certainly the power of this God cannot fail 't is as easie for him to do as to say 2. Nothing appeareth whereon the globe of the earth and water should lean and rest Job 26. 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing Now that this vast and ponderous Body should lean upon the fluid Air as upon a firm foundation is matter of wonder the question is put in the Book of Iob Chap. 38. 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof Yet firm it is though it hang as a Ball in the Air. The Globe of the Earth is encompassed with the Regions of the Air and the Celestial Spheres and hath no visible support to sustain so heavy a Body hanging in the midst of so vast an Expansion yet God hath setled and established it so firm as if it rested on the most solid Basis and Foundation fitted so strange a place for it that being an heavy Body one should think it would fall every moment yet which whensoever we would imagine it it must contrary to the nature of such a Body fall upwards and so can have no possible ruine but by falling into Heaven Now since his word beareth up such a weight all the Churches weight and our own burden leaneth on the promise of God he can by the power of his Word do the greatest things without visible means Luke 7. 7. But say in a word and my servant shall be healed Therefore his people may trust his Providence he is able to support them in any distresses when no way of help and relief appeareth 3. The firmness and stability offereth its self to our thoughts The earth abideth in the same seat and condition wherein God left it as long as the present course and order of nature is to continue Psal. 104. 5. He hath laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be moved for ever God's Truth is as immoveable as the earth Psal. 118. 2. The Truth of the Lord endureth for ever Surely if the foundation of the earth abideth sure the foundation of our salvation laid by Jesus Christ is much more sure Heaven and earth shall pass away but not one tittle of the word and law of God till all be fulfilled Mat. 5. 18. If the Law given by Moses be so sure much more the promises of salvation by Christ. 2 Cor. 1. 20. For all the promises of God in him are yea and amen 4. The stability in the midst of Changes Eccl. 1. 4. One generation passeth away and another cometh but the earth abideth for ever When man passeth away the earth stayeth behind him as an habitation for other comers and abideth where it was when the Inhabitants go to and fro and can enjoy it no more All things in the world are subject to many Revolutions but God's Truth is one and the same The vicissitudes in the world do not derogate from his fidelity in the promises he changeth all things and is not changed though there be a new face of things in the world yet we have a sure Rule to walk by and sure promises to build upon and therefore in all conditions we should be the same to God and there is no doubt but he will be the same to us 5. In upholding the Frame of the World all those Attributes are seen which are a firm stay to a Believer's heart such as Wisdom Power and Goodness Wisdom Prov. 3. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the heavens Look on it 't is the work of a wise Agent So for Power this great Fabric is supported by his Almighty Power His Goodness is seen in that he hath made the earth to be firm and dry land that it may be a fit habitation for men this is a standing Miracle of Goodness Luther saith we are always in medio rubri maris kept as the Israelites were in the midst of the Red Sea The Psalmist telleth us Psal. 24. 2. He hath founded the earth upon the seas and established the world upon the floods That part of the world whereon we dwell would suddenly be overwhelmed and covered with waters were it not for the goodness of God for this the order of nature sheweth in the beginning of the Creation Gen. 1. 7. that next under the Air were the waters covering the whole Surface of the Earth but God made such Cavities in the Earth as should receive the waters into them and such Banks as should bound and bridle the vast Ocean that it might not break forth Gen. 1. 9. and so now by his Providence the water is beneath the Earth and the Earth standeth firm upon that fluid body as upon the most solid foundation which as it is a work of wise disposal and contrivance so an effect of the goodness of God for the preservation of mankind And though once for the sins of the world these
seen in their deliverance and therefore before God doth appear for his Children he bringeth them very low Thus Paul 2 Cor. 1 9. We had the sentence of Death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead and Psal. 136. 23. He remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever His Mercy and Power is the more glorious in our rescue All that I shall say by way of Use on this point is this 1. That when we are a small people and persons of no Interest we have a liberty to use it to God you may make use of your weak and low Condition as an Argument of Pity so doth the Prophet Amos Iacob is small so doth David here and elsewhere Psal. 109. 22. But I am poor and needy deliver me for thy Names sake and Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful let thy salvation O God set me on high It is some ease to acquaint a friend with our griefs that can onely pity us much more when we have liberty to go to God who can and will help us and will allow us to complain to him though not of him 2. When God's ends are accomplished there is hope Isa. 10. 12. When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion when he hath chastised his People and brought them to his purpose then he will reckon with his Enemies When Heaven is minded more and Earth less We naturally mind earthly things and please our selves with the dreaming of an happy estate in the World The Appetite of Temporal dominion and Wealth and Honour and Peace is natural to us and very hardly subdued and therefore we would fain flourish here and do not comfort our selves in our Crosses with the Meditation of the Glory of the World to come but are alwayes feeding our selves with desires and hopes of earthly happiness and of turning the Tide and Current of Affairs that things may again smile upon us and when frustrated and disappointed of this hope our Soul fainteth Your Worldly Happiness will be a snare to you while you are thus affected Matth. 6. 33. Prepare for Heaven and God will give you so much Happiness by the way as will be needful and fit for you Again when we are Mortified and the Cross hath purged out sin Isa. 27. 9. the Cross hath done its work So when we are humble Lev. 26. 41. If then their Uncircumcised hearts be humble and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity to be meek in Spirit and to trust in the Lord is a fore-runner of Mercy Zeph. 3. 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor People and they shall trust in the Name of Lord. When you bring honour to God by your Sufferings Iam. 1. 4. but let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing When 't is most for Gods Glory to 〈◊〉 Deut. 32. 36. For the Lord shall Iudge his People and repent himself for his Servants when he seeth that their Power is gone and there is none shut up or left 2. Doctrine Gods people when they are brought low are usually a very despised people the most despised people under Heaven Here I shall shew 1. That this is the usual Lot of an Afflicted people 2. But especially of the people of God 3. The Tryal is very grievous to them 1. An Afflicted People are usually a despised People Psal. 123. 4. Our Soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the Contempt of the Proud They that are proud and have all things flow in upon them according to their own will contemn and slight others and take no notice of their burdens unless it be to increase them they pour vinegar on the wound The Heathens had a reverence for places stricken with thunder because the hand of God had touched them but here 't is not so Iob 12. 5. he that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thoughts of him that is at ease While we are burning lamps shining in Riches and greatness we shall have enough to look after us but a poor broken dying lamp a snuff that is ready to go out every body holdeth their nose at it Whilst the enemies are Honourable Great tumble in Wealth and the excess of Carnal delights they despise those that are mean and low and faln under God's hand 2. The People of God much more common sufferers may meet with some pity in their Calamity but the godly are subject to reproaches and mockings in their troubles and this many times proveth the heaviest part of the Cross and maketh it most grievous to be borne 'T is so partly because faln from their great hopes carried on in a way of Religion Where is their God Their fasting prayer As if all were now delusions and phantastical Impressions And partly because the presence of God is sensibly gone from them The presence of God among his people maketh them Wise Couragious Prosperous How should one chase an hundred and a hundred put a thousand to flight But when God leaveth them they grow despicable and ridiculous above all others Hosea 14. 2. Return to the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by this iniquity All that honoured her shall despise her because her nakedness is seen Lam. 1. 8. A dispirited Judgment-blasted people shall be contemned And partly because the cause for which they suffer may be strangely disguised and ill-represented to the World Satan was first a Liar and then a Murtherer Ioh. 8. 44. Elijah was thought the troubler of Israel They may not only persecute but say all manner of evil against us falsely for Christs sake Matth. 11. 19. Christ is called a Glutton a Wine-bibber and Stephen a Blasphemer And partly by Satans instigation by this means he maketh the despisers increase their sin and hasten their Judgment and so he disswades and discourages many weak Christians from owning the despised wayes of Christ yea it taketh off much of the cheerfulness and Courage of the strong in the profession of Godliness 3. 'T is very grievous Contempt maketh our other tryals more sharp Every man thinketh himself worthy of some respect and would be somebody in the World and therefore when we are laid aside as if dead and useless the temptation is the greater Saul could better bear death than contempt 1 Sam. 31. 4. Draw thy sword and thrust me thorough lest the Uncircumcised come and abuse me Zedekiah was afraid of mocking Ier. 38. 19. Lest they deliver me into the hands of the Chaldeans and they Mock me but not only as we are men it is grievous to us but also as Christians because this contempt reflecteth upon our hopes and the Worship of God it hindreth our service while we were esteemed we did more good and had greater advantages It may revive the sense of guilt God saith
ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is A man that desireth to follow God fully would fain know the whole latitude and breadth of his duty A child of God is inquisitive He that desireth to keep all doth also desire to know all It is his business to study the mind of God in all things gross negligence sheweth we are afraid of understanding our duty 2. By often searching and trying his own heart that he may find where the matter sticketh Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways that we may turn unto the Lord. Compleat Reformation is grounded on a serious search A chief cause of our going wrong is because we do not bring our hearts and ways together 3. Desire God to shew it if there be any thing in the heart allowed contrary to the Word Iob 34. 32. That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more And Psal. 139. 23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked thing in me and lead me in the way everlasting He would not hold on in any evil course There is no sin so dear and near to him which he is not willing to see and judg in himself 4. When they fail through humane infirmity or imprudence they seek to renew their peace with God 1 Ioh. 2. 1. My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous They sue out their discharge in Christs name If a man were unclean under the Law he was to wash his clothes and bath himself in water before evening and not rest in his uncleanness Now if we still abide in our filthiness and do not fly to our Advocate and sue out our pardon in Christs name it argueth that we have not a respect to the Commandment 5. They diligently use all holy means which are appointed by God for growth in faith and obedience 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and coming up to a greater conformity 6. A care of their bosom-sin to get that weakned Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity Such as are most incident to us by temper of nature course of life or posture of interests the right hand must be cut off the right eye plucked out Mat. 5. 29 30. If thou seekest to cross that sin that is most pleasing to thine own heart seekest to dry up that unclean issue that runneth upon thee by that and the other signs may we determine whether we have a sincere respect to all Gods Commandments 2. The next Circumstance in the Text is the fruit and benefit They that have an intire respect to Gods Laws shall not be ashamed There is a twofold shame The shame of a guilty Conscience And the shame of a tender Conscience The one is the merit and fruit of sin the other is an act of Grace This here spoken of is to be understood not of an holy self-loathing but a confounding shame This shame may be considered either with respect to their own hearts or the world or before God at the day of Judgment 1. With respect to their own hearts and thus the upright and sincere shall not be ashamed There is a generous confidence bewrayed in Duties in Troubles and in Death In Duties they can look God in the face uprightness giveth boldness and the more respect we have unto the commandments the greater liberty have we in prayer 1 Joh. 3. 21. If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But when men walk crookedly and loosly they sin away the liberty of their hearts and cannot come to God with such a free spirit A man that hath wronged another and knoweth not how to pay cannot endure to see him so doth sin work a shieness of God 2. In Troubles and Afflictions Nothing sooner abashed than a corrupt conscience they cannot hold up their heads when crossed in the world a burden sits very uneasie upon a galled back their crosses revive their guilt are parts of the curse therefore they are soon blank But now a godly man is bold and courageous Two things make one bold Innocency and Independency and both are found in him that hath a sincere respect to Gods commandments Innocency when the soul doth not look pale under any secret guilt and when we can live above the creatures it puts an heroical spirit or Lyon-like boldness into the children of God 3. In Death To be able to look death in the face it is a comfort in your greatest distresses When Hezekiah was arrested with the sentence of death in the mouth of the Prophet here was his comfort and support O Lord thou knowest that I have walked before thee with a perfect heart And Job 15. 16. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him 2. Before the world a man will be able to hold up his head that is sincere It is true he may be reproached and scoffed at and suffer disgrace for his strictness yet he is not ashamed Though we displease men yet if we please God it is enough if we have his approbation 1 Cor. 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment To depend on the words of man is a foolish thing There is more ground of rejoycing than of shame You have the approbation of their consciences when not of their tongues In the issue God will vindicate the righteousness of his faithful servants Psal. 37. 6. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon-day There will be no cause in the issue for a Christian to repent of his strict observance of Gods commands Eph. 3. 18. 3. Before God at the day of Judgment 1 John 2. 28. And now little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming He is the brave man that can hold up his head in that day Wicked men will then be ashamed 1. Because their secret sins are then divulged and made publick 1 Cor. 4. 5. Iudg nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 2. Because of the frustration of their hopes Disappointment bringeth shame Some do many things and make full account of their acceptance with God and reception to glory but when all is disappointed how much are they confounded Rom. 5. 5. Hope maketh not ashamed because it is not frustrated 3. By the contempt and dishonour God puts upon them banishing
acts of Duty but by every act of Mercy what 's the argument he urgeth for Sion Zech. 3. 2. Is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire The Lord rebuke thee Satan Have not I delivered Sion and shall I suffer that to be destroyed which I have delivered the Lord urgeth his own mercy and his former kindness USE To quicken us not to grow weary of dealing with God Let us go often to God Men think it an uncivil importunity to require to do more when they have done already Solomon gives us that advice Prov. 25. 17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee men waste by giving but God doth not when you have been with him and he hath done liberally for you yet he upbraids you not God that hath vouchsafed Grace you may desire the continuance of his Grace and to crown his own Grace II. Secondly Observe the mercy which he asks is Gods help in a course of holiness namely to walk worthy of the mercy Doct. 2. They that upon declaring their ways have found mercy with God their care should be to walk worthy of the mercy The Lord hath heard me what then teach me thy statutes So Psal 85. 8. The Lord will speak peace to his people but let them no more return unto folly Mark when God hath spoken peace when they have an answer of peace after you have prayed to God take heed of turning to folly do not lose the favour you have got walk more holily and more worthy of such a mercy Mat. 6. 12. forgive us our sins what then lead us not into temptation Upon supposition the Lord hath forgiven us our sins O let us not sin again Many would invite God to favour their ways when they have no respect to his ways which is in effect to make God a servant to our Lust but if you would have mercy from the Lord beg that you might walk worthy of the mercy The Children of God should do so upon a double ground in point of Prudence and Thankfulness In point of Prudence as they have smarted under their former folly and in point of Thankfulness as they have tasted the Lords Grace in his answer 1. When you have declared your way with brokenness and bitterness of heart you have experience of the evil of sin and when you know how bitter it is by sound remorse it is folly to return to it again Ioshua 22. 17. mark the reason Is the iniquitie of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed unto this day Our former sense of the evil of sin when declaring it should be a restraint to us else your cure is in vain A man that is recovered out of a deep disease is willing to escape the like again or as Christ said to the man that had an infirmity 38 years Go thy way sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee When a man hath had the bitter sense of the fruit of sin this will make him more cautious for the future they are foolish children that remember beating no longer than it smarts when they are scarce yet whole of the old wound Though God hath taken out the sting of the sin and granted us comfort yet remember your former smart that you may not fall into it again 2. Out of Thankfulness for Gods gracious answer Every answer of Grace leaves an obligation upon the sinner that he may not offend God again See what a holy argument is used Ezra 8. 13. Should we after such a deliverance as this break thy Commandment will you again relapse So Luke 7. 47. for her sins are forgiven her therefore she loved much Grace melts the heart When a man hath received much mercy from God his heart his wrought out into thankfulness and the more they have been in sin the more will they be in godliness when once they have tasted the sweetness of pardon and had an answer of Grace from God Thirdly Note They that would steer their course according to Gods holy Will had need of the conduct and assistance of his holy Spirit for he goes to God Lord teach me thy statutes Psal. 25. 4. Shew me thy ways O Lord teach me thy paths And Psal. 27. 11. Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies And Psal. 86. 11. Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name These places shew that he addrest himself to God that he might not follow any sinful course in the time of trouble and temptations that he might not dishonour God SERMON XXVIII PSALM CXIX 27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works IN the former Verses the man of God layeth forth his calamitous condition and beggeth comfort and audience not meerly to prosper his affairs but to better his heart Many will invite God to favour their ways when they have no respect to his ways which in effect is to make him a servant to their lusts But David's chiefest care was about Duty rather than Success therefore he desireth God to direct him how to walk in the way of his precepts his heart was much upon that In the close of the former Verse he had said Teach me thy statutes And here again Make me to understand the way of thy precepts c. In the words there is 1. A Request 2. An Argument Wherein is intimated 1. The fruit of Divine Illumination He should thereby see his wondrous works 2. His duty thereupon Then will I talk of them The word signifieth also to meditate Sept I will exercise my self It should be his delight to think and speak of the admirable goodness of God and the divine excellencies of his word and the pleasures that result from the practice of it 3. He intimateth the sincerity of his desire propounding this as his end That I may talk that I may be useful and edifying in my converse with others 1. The first thing that I shall observe is That David doth so often beg again and again for understanding Doct. That a sound and saving knowledg of the Truths of the Gospel is such a blessing as the children and people of God think they can never enough ask of him We have abundant proof of it in so much of this Psalm as we have already gone over 1. What is a sound saving knowledg 1. Such as doth establish the heart against all delusions and keepeth us on Truth 's side Many have some scraps of knowledg loose and uncertain motions but they are not setled and grounded in the Truth and therefore the unlearned and unstable are joyned together 2 Pet. 3. 16. Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction Unskilful and unsetled Christians lye open to every fancy they have not such a stock
understanding heart to judg thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judg this thy so great a people And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing Oh beg it of God 1. The way of Gods statutes is worthy to be found by all 2. So hard to be found and kept by any 3. It is so dangerous to miss it that this should quicken us to be earnest with God 1. It is so worthy to be found it is the way to eternal life and escape eternal death and in matters of such a concernment no diligence can be too much Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise to depart from hell beneath It is the way that leadeth to life and true happiness 2. It is so hard to find and keep it is a narrow way Mat. 7. 13 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it There is defect here excess a gracious spirit that would keep with God in all things is sensible of the difficulty there are many ways that lead to Hell but one way to Heaven 3. It is so dangerous to miss it in whole or in part in whole you are undone for ever in part in every false Religion such disadvantages so little of Gods presence and the comforts of his spirit 1 Cor. 3. 15. If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire A man should look after the most clear and safe way to Heaven 2. Doct. That Divine Teaching is earnestly desired by Gods children How often doth David repeat this Request These expressions are strange to us who as soon as we have gotten a little knowledg think we know as much as we need to know and are wise enough to guide our way without further direction but they are not so to the People of God Reason 1. It is an hard matter to understand a thing spiritually and as it ought to be understood there is an understanding of things litterally and a spiritual discerning 1 Cor. 2. 14. A natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There is a knowing things at random and by a general knowledg and a knowing things as we ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know there is a knowing the truth as in Jesus Ephes. 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Iesus It is not every sort of knowledg that is saving a man may go to hell with speculative light that never reacheth the heart such as is practical and operative the Scripture presseth knowledg and the modus of it 2. Gods children are sensible of their own insufficiency and so of the need of a constant dependance upon God sound and saving knowledg is ever humble they have clearer light than others and so best see their own defects Prov. 30. 2. Surely I am more bruitish than any man and have not the understanding of a man and are too most sensible of corruptions and see most of the excellency of the Object 1 Cor. 8. 2. If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know they study their own hearts and so are conscious to many weaknesses they know how easily they are misled by the wiles of Satan and the darkness of their own hearts whereas a presumptuous Formalist goeth on boldly and in the confidence of his own wit runneth headlong into Temptations 3. Their strong affection to knowledg they desire to know more for there is more still to be learned in the Word of God though taught in part they see what a small measure of knowledg they have attained unto till they attain the Beatifical vision they are never satisfied Hos. 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord still increasing and bettering their notions concerning the things of God 4. Their great care that they may not go astray nor offend in matter or manner or Principle and end they whose hearts are set upon exact walking would fain know what God would have them to do in every action and in every circumstance Lord teach me let thy holy Spirit guide me and direct me in performing acceptable obedience to thee It was Davids resolution v. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart Now we have his prayer for direction in this verse Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes I would know it that I may keep it 'T is a very troublesome condition to a child of God when he is in the dark and knoweth not what to do and is forced to walk every step by guess and cannot find the ground sure under him The conflict between duty and danger doth not trouble so much as between duty and duty John 12. 35. He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth Oh it is a sad Judgment to wander in a maze of confusions and to be like those that thought to go to Dothan and found themselves in Samaria 2 Kings 6. 20. Well then the Use is Have we this temper of Gods People do we look after spiritual Knowledg such as will not only store the head with notions but enter upon the heart are we sensible of our weakness and Satans wiles and that God that hath begun the work must perfect it do we make it our happiness to grow rich in knowledg and better our apprehensions concerning God and the things of God would we understand every point of duty that we may fulfill it as face answereth to face in water so should heart to heart the heart of one child of God to another Doct. 3. All that teaching that we expect or get from God must still be directed to Practice Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end 1. This is Gods intention in teaching therefore should be our end in learning The end of sound knowledg is obedience Deut. 4. 5 6. Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it Keep therefore and do them for this is thy wisdom Others do little more than learn them by rote when they know them only to talk of them or fashion their notions and plausible opinions that they may hang together 2. It is not the knowing but obeying will make us happy We desire to know the way that we may
Reproaches was one Ingredient Now lest we should be puffed up by vain conceit the Lord humbles us with infirmities necessities reproaches 2. Another sin for which God humbles us is carless walking When we are negligent and do not take notice of the Carnality that grows upon us and the fleshly frame and temper of heart which breaks out into our lives the Lord suffers others to Reproach then they gather up our filth that we may see what cause we have to take our ways to heart Every man that would live strictly had need either of faithful Friends or watchful Enemies either faithful friends to admonish him or watchful enemies to censure him They shew us the spots in our garments that are to be washed off Many times a Friend is blinded with Love and grows as partial to us as we are to our selves will suffer sin upon us and not tell us of it then the Lord sets spies upon us to watch for our halting Ier. 20. 10. and therefore we need go to God and pray Psal. 27. 11. Lord lead me in a plain path because of my observers They lye in wait and seek to take us trapping in ought they can We can no more be without watchful Enemies than without faithful Friends How ignorant should a man be of himself if others did not put him in mind sometimes of his failings Therefore God makes use of virulent Persons in the World as a Rod to wash the dust out of our Garments 3. To humble us for our censuring For if we have not been so tender of others Credit the Lord makes us to see the bitterness of the affliction in our own case by giving us the like measure that we have meeted unto others Matth. 7. 1 2. that is we shall find others as hardly think of us as we have of them Good thoughts and speeches of other men are the best preservative of our own good Names God will take care of them that are careful not to Judge and Censure And therefore it is no great matter whether the report be true or false but a Christian is to examine have not we drawn it upon our selves by Slandring others For God usually payeth us home in our own Coin He that is much given to censuring seldom or never escapes great Censures himself It is said in the Psalms Let his own words grieve him that is fall upon him How do our own words fall upon us Why the Lord punisheth us for our censuring of others O then humble thy self before God for the reproaches thou hast cast upon others Eccles. 7. 21. Take no heed to all the words spoken against thee lest thou hear thy Servant curse thee that is speaking evil against thee Hard sayings and speeches of others against us may put us in mind of Gods just hand of measuring to us as we have measured unto others and therefore we should be the more patient if they wrong us it is but in the like kind that we have wronged others God will humble us for our censuring which is so natural and rife especially with younger weak and more unmortified persons Secondly The Lord doth it as to humble us so to try us 1. The first thing he will try in you by such a grievous Affliction and such vollies of reproaches is your Faith when all the World is set to condemn you What Faith 1. Our Faith in the great day of Accounts that is one great Object of Faith and when the World is set to condemn us our Faith is tryed to see if we can rest with the vindication we shall have in the day of our Lord so much you may see 1 Cor. 4. 3 4 5. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans Iudgment Therefore judge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and then shall every man have praise of God Every man that deserves it and is qualified for it shall have Praise with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was a very small thing to be judged of mans-day because he expected Gods-day for the clearing of all things here in the World Sin and Error often get the Major Vote Tollite impios was the cry of the Rabble against Christians If there was any trouble it was for the Christians sake take away the ungodly meaning the Christians because they denyed the Heathen Gods Now what was their comfort the day of the manifestation of all things So when we are looked upon as the Pests of Mankind yet when we can comfort our selves there will come a day of the manifestation of the Sons of God that is enough the great day of Judgement is at hand so this will set all things right again 2. To try our Faith in more particular Promises The Lord hath promised to provide for the health and credit of his People so far he hath promised for their safety and their daily bread for their maintenance and any earthly Blessing that is good for us Now the Lord will see if we can trust him with our credit as well as for other things Psal. 119. 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me for I trust in thy word I say the Lord hath in his Covenant undertaken to preserve a Christian in all his interests and concernments so far as shall be for his glory and our good and so far we receive it And a Christian when he gives up himself to God gives up every thing he hath to God in a way of Consecration to Gods use God is the Guardian of my Body and Soul I give up my Estate and Life that he may watch over me night and day and I give up my name and credit Psal. 31. 20. Thou shalt keep them secretly in a Pavilion from the strife of Tongues that the Lord may take a charge of our Names as well as our Persons and Estates Now the Lord requires a trust in us according to the extent of the Covenant that is to say a waiting a confidence that our lives are not in mans power that he can turn the hearts of men and give you favour in their eyes when it is for his glory and your good Psal. 37. 5 7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass There is the trust that is required O many times we seem to lose our Estimation amongst men and to be buried under Calumnies and Reproaches but it will not be long Your Person and Cause may be obscured it may have a Winter night of trouble but a Morning of Resurrection both of Persons and names will come it will be brought forth as the noon day the Lord is able to do this the integrity of your hearts will be made known and you will be absolved by God Our Lord Jesus was a Pattern to us of this
Hope in him to be born out in his Work Now if God hath specially excited your Faith it is not a foolish Imagination or vain Expectation like as of them that dream it is God's Word you build upon and it is by a Faith of God's operation he raiseth it in us 2. The Prayer of Faith is the Voice of the Spirit and God heareth the Voice of the Spirit always who maketh requests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the will of God Rom. 8. 27. He that searcheth and trieth the hearts knoweth what is a groan of the spirit and what is a Fancy of our own what is a Confidence raised in us by the operation of his own Spirit For there may be a mistaken Faith seemingly built upon the Promises whenas it is indeed built upon our own Conceits Now God is not bound to make that Faith good But when we can appeal to the Searcher of Hearts that it is a Faith of his own working surely we may have confidence Now how shall we know that it is a Faith of God's raising 1. If the Promise be not mistaken and we do not presume of that absolutely which God onely hath promised conditionally and with the limitations of his own Glory and our good which are joyned to all Promises which concern the present Life In temporal things God exerciseth his Children with great uncertainties because he seeth it meet to prove our submission in these things for our Happiness lieth not in them Those things wherein our Happiness doth consist as Remission of Sins and Eternal Life are sure enough and that is encouragement to a gracious heart 2 Tim. 3. 18. God hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion and will deliver me from every evil work In the Old Testament when God discovered less of Heaven he promised more of Earth but in the New Testament where Life and Immortality are brought to light we are told of many Tribulations in our passage yea the eminent Saints of the Old Testament that had a clearer view of things to come than others had were more exposed to the Calamities of the present Life because God thought the sight of Happiness to come sufficient to countervail their Troubles and if he would give them Rest in another World they might well endure the Inconveniencies of their Pilgrimage Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better countrey that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city The holy Patriarchs lest their Countrey flitted up and down upon this hope but to us Christians the case is clear Rom. 8. 18. For I râ—…on that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4. 17. For this light affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2. When the Qualification of the Person is not clear we must not absolutely promise our selves the Effect Ionah 3. 9. Who can tell whether God will turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not So Ioel 2. 14. Who knoweth if he will return and leave a blessing behind him In this Clause I put Believers who have sinned away their Peace and Assurance 2 Sam. 12. 22. Who can tell if God will be gracious unto me that the child may live He speaketh doubtfully Zeph. 2. 3. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords fierce anger Amos 5. 15. Hate the evil and love the good it may be the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Ioseph In such cases the Soul is divided between the expectation of Mercy and the sense of their own Deservings and can speak neither the pure Language of Faith nor the pure Language of Unbelief half Canaan half Ashdod There is a Twilight in Grace as well as in Nature God in these cases raiseth no other Confidence to heighten Mercy and try how we can venture upon God and refer our selves to his Will when we have any business for him to do for us Mat. 8. 2. Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. And the king said to Zadok Carry back the ark of God into the city if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him 3. In the Promises of Spiritual and Eternal Mercies when God's Conditions are performed by us we may be confident and must give glory to God in believing and being persuaded that he will fulfil them to us 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Rom. 8. 38 39. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. I am persuaded there is no doubt The stronger our Confidence the better 2. When God raiseth in our Minds some particular express Hope as in some cases he may do to these things that are of a Temporal nature and are conditionally promised and where our Qualification is clear he will not disappoint us 2 Cor. 1. 12. Though the Promises of Temporal things have the limitation of the Cross implied in them and are to be understood in subordination to our Eternal Interest and God's Glory without which they would not be Mercies but Judgments yet his usual course is to save deliver and supply them here Psal. 9. 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee And when God by his Spirit doth particularly incline his People to hope for Mercy from him he will not fail their Expectations Where the Qualification is uncertain yet the Faith of general Mercy wrastleth against Discouragements as in the case of the Woman of Canaan There is the Plea of a Dog and the Plea of a Child in grievous Temptations to fasten our selves upon God God will make good the Hope raised in them by his Spirit Use is for Direction what to do in all our Distresses Bodily and Spiritual Our Necessities should lead us to the Promise and the Promise to God 1. Be sure of your Qualification for David pleadeth here partly as a Servant of God and partly as a Believer First Remember thy word unto thy servant and then wherein thou hast caused me to hope There is a double Qualification with respect to the Precept of Subjection with respect to the Promise of Dependence The Precept is before the Promise They have right to
heard all these things and derided him They flouted at him when he hung on the Cross Matt. 27. 39 to 44. They that passed by him reviled him wagging their heads and saying Thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three days save thy self if thou be the son of God come down from the Cross. Likewise also the Chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said He saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the son of God The Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth So Acts 17. 32. Some mocked and said What will this Babler say Well then since it is an usual Evil which God's Children have suffered it should be the less to us Little can the Wicked say if they cannot scoff and little can we endure if we cannot abide a bad word There needs no great deal adoe to advance a Man into the Chair of Scorners if they have wickedness and boldness enough they may soon let fly 2. This as well as other Afflictions are not excepted out of our Resignation to God We must be contented to be mocked and scorned as well as to be persecuted and molested It is mentioned in the Beatitudes Matt. 5. 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil falsly against you for my sake 3. Railing and Calumniating will never prevaile with Rational and Conscientious Men to cause them to change their Opinions To leave the Truth because others raile at it is to consult with our Affections not our Judgments Solid Reasoning convinceth our Judgments but Railery is to our Affections and a Rational Conscientious Man is governed by an inlightened Mind not perverse and preposterous Affections Eph. 5. 17. Be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Therefore an Honest man will not quit Truth because others raile no he looketh to his Rule and Warrant A Man will not be railed out of Errors nay often they are the more rooted because ill-confuted 4. It is the Duty of God's Children to justify Wisedom Matt. 11. 19. Wisedom is justified of her Children What is it to justify Wisedom Justification is a Relative word opposed to Crimination so to justify is the work of an Advocate or to Condemnation so it is the work of a Judge The Children of Wisedom discharge both parts they pleade for the Ways of God and exalt them so much as others deny them they value them esteem them hold them for good and right When they are never so much condemned and the more despised the more zealous the Saints will be for them I will yet be more vile 5. Carnal men at the same time approve what they seem to condemn they hate and fear Strictness Mark 6. 20. Herod feared Iohn because he was a just man and an holy and observed him They scoff at it with their Tongues but have a fear of it in their Consciences they revile at it while they live but what mind are they off when they come to dye then all speak well of an Holy Life and the strictest Obedience to the Laws of God Numb 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Matt. 25. 8. Give us of your Oyl for our lamps are gone out Oh that they had a little of that Holiness and Strictness which they scoffed at whilst they were pursuing their Lusts. How will men desire to die as carnal and careless Sinners or as mortified Saints Once more They approve it in Thesi and condemn it in Hypothesi All the Scoffers at Godliness within the Pale of the visible Church have the same Bible Baptism Creed pretend to believe in the same God and Christ which they own with those whom they oppose All the difference is the one are real Christians the other are Nominal some profess at large the others practise what they profess the one have a Religion to talk of the others to live by Once more They approve it in the Form but hate it in the Power A Picture of Christ that is drawn by a Painter they like and the forbidden Image of God made by a Carver they will reverence and honour and be zealous for but the Image of God framed by the Spirit in the hearts of the Faithfull and described in the lives of the Heavenly and the Sanctified this they scorn and scoff at 6. Their Judgment is perverse not to be stood upon They count the Children of God foolish and crack-brain'd the Crimination may be justly retorted their Way is Folly and Madness for they goe dancing to their Destruction Though there be a God by whom and for whom they were made and from whom they are fallen and that they cannot be happy but in returning to him again yet they carry it so as if there were no misery but in Bodily and Worldly things no Happiness but in pleasing the Senses The beginning progress and end of their Course is from themselves in themselves and to themselves They pour out their hearts to inconsiderable Toys and Trifles and will neither admit Information of their Errour nor Reformation of their Practice till Death destroy them They neglect their main business and leave it undone and run up and down they know not why like Children that follow a Bubble blown out of a shell of Soap till it break and dissolve Now should those that are flying from Wrath to come and seeking after God and their Happiness be discouraged because these Mad and Merry Worldlings scoff at them for their diligent Seriousness surely we should deride their Derisions and contemn their Contempt who despise God and Christ and their Salvation Should a Wise man be troubled because Mad-men raile at him if they glory in their shame Phil. 3. 19. we must not be ashamed of our Glory nor ashamed to be found praying rather then sinning If they think you fools for preferring Heaven before inconsiderable Vanities remember they can no more judge of these things then a Blind man of Colours 7. If some dishonour others will honour us who are better able to judge Psal. 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Some have as low an Opinion of the World as the Carnal World hath of the certainty of God's Word They who labour to bring Piety and Godliness into a creditable Esteem and Reputation will pay an hearty honour and respect to every good and godly man 2 Cor. 6. 8 9. By honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers yet true as unknown yet well known as dying but behold we live as chastened and not killed contumeliously used by some and reverently by others vilified and contemned counted
Goodness and they are made to be remembred as it after followeth there he is ready to doe the like Works when his Church standeth in need thereof Now they must be sought out for there is more hid Treasure and Excellency in them then doth at first appear he that would reape the Use and Benefit of them should take Pleasure to search out matter of Praise for God and Trust for himself Of all other study this is the most worthy Exercise and Employment of Godly men to study and find out the Works of God in all their purposes and designs there is more pleasure in such Meditations then in all other the most sensual Divertisements 3. The End is to be strengthened and confirmed in the way of our Duty in Dependance upon God and Adherence to him or that Faith may be strengthened in a day of Affliction and our Hearts incouraged in cleaving to the Ways of God 1. Dependance upon God which implyeth a committing our selves to his Power a submitting our selves to his Will and a waiting his leisure all these are in Trust and all these are encouraged by remembring his Judgments of old 1. Committing our selves to his Power is Trust and Dependance Our God is able to deliver us from the fiery Furnace Dan. 3. 17. Rom. 4. 21. Being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform Now this is abundantly seen in his Judgments of old Isai. 51. 9. Awake awake put on strength O arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old Art not thou he which hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon which hast dried the Sea and the waters of the great deep If God will but take to himself his great Power and bestir himself as in ancient days what should a Believer fear 2. Submitting our selves to God's Will is a great Act of Dependance submitting before the Event Now how may a Believer acquiesce in God's Providence and injoy a quiet Repose of Heart he knoweth not what God will doe with him but this he knoweth he hath to doe with a good God who is not wont to forsake those that depend upon him he hath Wisedom and Goodness enough to deliver us or to make our Troubles profitable to us Now his Judgments of old do much help to breed this composedness of Mind Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee they that know any thing of God's wont and have learned from others or experimented themselves or by searching into the Records of Time have found with what Wisedom and Power Justice and Mercy God governeth the World will be firmly grounded in their Trust and Reliance on thee without applying themselves to any of the sinfull aides or policies of the World for succour or troubling themselves about success for God never forsook any Godly man in his Distress that by Prayer and Faith made his humble and constant Applications to him 3. If you take in the third thing tarrying or waiting God's leisure for he that believeth will not make haste Isai. 26. 16. God will tarry to try his People to observe his Enemies till their Sins are full and tarry to bring about his Providences in the best time 1 Pet. 5. 6. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you i. e. deliver you in due time It may be he will not at all afford temporal Deliverance but will refer it to the time when he will judge the world in Righteousness Acts 17. 31. Now what will relieve the Soul ingage it to waite his Judgments of old at the long-run the good Cause hath prevailed the suppressed Truth hath got up the buried Christ hath risen again and after labours and patience the Fruit sown hath been reaped therefore in due time he will look upon our Afflictions in the Sanctuary we understand the end of things The beginnings are troublesome but the end is Peace 2. Adherence to God this followeth necessarily from the former for Dependance begets Observance Till a Man trusts God he can never be true to him for the evil heart of unbelief will draw us from the living God Heb. 3. 12. but if we can depend upon him Temptations have lost their force The great Cause of all Defection is the desire of some present sensible Benefit and we cannot tarry God's leisure nor wait for his help in the way of our Duty Now if God's People of old have trusted and were never confounded it is a great engagement in the way of his Judgments to wait for him without miscarrying A Case of Conscience may be propounded How could David be comforted by God's Judgments for it seemeth a barbarous thing to delight in the destruction of any it is said Prov. 17. 5. He that is glad of calamities shall not be unpunished Answ. 1. It must be remembred that Judgment implies both parts of God's Righteous Dispensation the Deliverance of the Godly and the Punishment of the Wicked Now in the first sense there is no ground of scruple for it is said Psal. 94. 15. Iudgment shall return to Righteousness the sufferings of good men shall be turned into the greatest advantages as the context sheweth that God will not cast off his People but Judgment shall return unto Righteousness 2. Judgment as it signifieth Punishment of the Wicked may yet be a Comfort not as it importeth the Calamity of any but either 1. When the Wicked is punished the snare and allurement to Sin is taken away which is the Hope of Impunity for by their Punishments we see it is dangerous to sin against God Isai. 26. 9. When thy Iudgments are abroad in the Earth the Inhabitants of the world will learn Righteousness the Snare is removed from many a Soul 2. Their Derision and Mockage of Godliness ceaseth they do no longer vex and pierce the Souls of the Godly saying Aha aha Psal. 40. 15. It is as a wound to their heart when they say where is your God Psal. 42. 10. 3. The Impediments and Hindrances of worshipping and serving God are taken away when the Nettles are rooted up the Corn hath the more room to grow 4. Opportunity of molesting God's Servants is taken away and afflicting the Church by their Oppressions and so way is made for the enlarging of Christ's Kingdome 5. As God's Justice is manifested Prov. 11. 10. When it goeth well with the Righteous the City rejoyceth but when the Wicked perish there is shouting Psal. 52. 6. The Righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him Loe this is the man that made not God his portion Rev. 18. 20. Rejoyce over Babylon ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her when the Word of God is fulfilled surely then we may rejoyce that his Justice and Truth are cleared SERMON LIX PSAL. CXIX 53. Horrour hath taken hold of me because
him according to his declared Will We continually depend upon him every moment In him we live and move and have our being Acts 17. 28. and surely Dependance should beget Observance and therefore Men should be loth to break with God or carefull to reconcile themselves to him on whom they depend every Moment Acts 12. 20. Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon but they came with one accord to him and having made Blastus the Kings Chamberlain their Friend desired peace because their Country was nourished by the Kings Country Therefore it is extreame Unthankfulness Stupidity and Brutishness for them to carry themselves so unthankfully towards God who giveth them Life and Being and all things The Bruites themselves who have no capacity to know God as the first Cause of all Being yet take notice of the next hand from whence they receive their Supplies Isa. 1. 3. The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib and in their kind express their Gratitude to such as feed them and make much of them but Wicked men take no notice of the God who hath made them and kept them at the expence and care of his Providence and hath been beneficial to them all their days but as they slight their Law-giver so they requite their great Benefactour with unkindness and Provocation 4. It is a disowning of his Propriety in them as if they were not his own and God had not power to doe with his own as he pleaseth The Creature is absolutely at God's dispose not onely as he hath a Jurisdiction over us as our Law-giver and King over his Subjects but as a Proprietary and Owner over his Goods A Prince hath a more absolute Power over his Lands and Goods then over his Subjects God is not onely a Ruler but an owner as he made us out of nothing and bought us when worse then nothing and still keepeth us from returning into our original nothing and shall those who are absolutely his own withdraw themselves from him and live according to their own Will and speak and doe what they list what is this but a plain denyal of God's Propriety and Lordship over us as those Psalm 12. 4. Who have said With our Tongues will we prevaile our Lips are our own who is Lord over us surely it should strike us with horrour to think that any Creatures should thus take upon them Sin robbeth God of his Propriety in the Creatures If we consider his natural Right Sin is such an Injury and Wrong to God as Theft and Robbery if we consider our own Covenant as we voluntarily acknowledge God's Propriety in us so it is Adultery breach of Marriage Vow and with respect to the devoting and consecrating our selves to him so it is Sacriledge 3. It is a contempt of God's glorious Majesty What else shall we make of a plain contest with him or a flat contradiction of his holy Will for whilst we make our depraved Will the Rule and Guide of our Actions against his holy Will we plainly contend with him whose Will shall stand his or ours and so justle him out of the Throne and pluck the Crown off his Head and the Scepter out of his Hands and usurpe his Authority and so slight the Eternal Power of this glorious King as if he were not able to avenge the wrong done to his Majesty and we could make good our party against him 1 Cor. 10. 22. Do we provoke the Lord to Iealousie are we stronger then he Isa. 45. 9. Woe to him that striveth with his maker let the Potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth surely they that strive with their Maker will find God too hard for them Now all these and many more Considerations should make a Serious Christian sensible when he considereth how God is dishonoured in the World 2. Their Punishment This relateth to the Sanction by Penalties and Rewards They that forsake the Law have quite devested themselves of all Hope and cast off all dread of Him The Law offereth Death or Life to the Transgressors and Observers of it Deut. 30. 15. Behold I have set before you Good and Life Death and Evil. Now this is as little believed as the Precept is obeyed and thence cometh all their Boldness in sinning and Coldness in Duty 1. God allureth us to Obedience by Promises of this World and the next which if they were believed Men would be more forward and ready to comply with his Will As to the Promises of the next World he hath told us of Eternal Life Surely God meaneth as he speaketh in his Word he will make good his Word to the Obedient but the Sinner thinketh not so and therefore is loth to undergoe the Difficulties of Obedience because he hath so little Sense and Certainty of fulfilling the Promise The Apostle telleth us Heb. 11. 6. That without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently serve him implying that if the Fundamental Truths of God's Being and Bounty were believed we could not be so careless as we are not so barren and unfruitfull as we are but Unbelief lyeth at the botton of all our Carelesness 1 Cor. 15. 58. Be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. They that know what a Reward is prepared for the Righteous cannot but be serious and diligent themselves and pity others and be troubled at their neglect Oh what a good God they deprive themselves off and throw away their Souls for a Trifle But because the Lord knoweth how apt we are to be led by things present to Sense that work strongly upon our Apprehensions and that things absent and future lie in another World and wanting the help of Sense to convey them to our Minds make little impression upon our Hearts therefore God draws us to our Duty by present Benefits Even Carnal Nature is apt to be pleased with these kind of Mercies Protection Provision and worldly Comforts Psal. 119. This I had because I kept thy Precepts Matth. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come But alas the naughty Heart cannot depend on God for the Effects of his common Goodness Men distrust Providence and therefore take their own Course which is a grief and trouble to a gracious Heart to see they cannot depend on God for things of a present Accomplishment 2. The other part of the Sanction are his Threatnings and Punishments Now in what a direfull Condition are all the deserters of God's Law besides the loss of Heaven there is Eternal fire which is the portion of the Wicked
preference of Christ above other things Phil. 3. 7 8 9. I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledg of Christ c. Christ is apprehended as more necessary for the Soul it cometh to him under an apprehension of a deep want and with a broken-hearted sense of misery we are undone without him We are not so though we want or lose the World God can repair us here will at last save us without these things Luke 10. 42. but one thing is needfull Christ is esteemed more excellent the rarest Comforts of the World are but base things to his Grace but dung and dross in comparison not onely uncertain but vain and empty as to any real good Iob 27. 8. For what is the hope of the Hypocrite though he has gained when God taketh away his Soul Christ is more beneficial to a poor Sinner in him alone true Happiness is to be found therefore we must suffer any thing rather than offend our Saviour Rom. 8. 39. No Creature is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus our Lord. 2. No true Love Religion without self-denial in one kind or another is a Christianity of our own making not of Christs We call out the easie safe part of Religion and then we call this love to God and love to Christ. No the true Christian love is to love God above all Now one branch of loving God above all is to part with things near and dear to us when God calleth us so to doe We must be contented to be crucified to the World with our Lord and Master Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother or Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me An underling love Christ will not like or accept 2. On this condition we possess and enjoy the good things of this World namely to part with them when God calleth us thereunto We are not absolute Owners but Tenants at will Haggai 2. 8. The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The absolute disposal of the Riches and Wealth of the World belongeth unto God who hath all these things with the power to dispose of them as he pleaseth Therefore he is to be eyed acknowledged and submitted unto in the ordering of our Lot and Portion Hos. 2. 9. I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax given to cover her nakedness God still retaineth the dominion of the Creatures in his own hand and we have but the Stewardship and Dispensation of them he will give and he will take away at his own pleasure They are deposited in our hands as a trust for which we are accountable therefore if God demand there should be an Act of voluntary submission and subjection on our part If we enjoy them as our own by an original right exclusive to God we are Usurpers but not just Possessors we have indeed a subordinate right to prevent the incroachment of our fellow Creatures but that is but such a right as a man hath in a Trust or a servant to his working Tools Surely God may dispose of his own as he will if we give it for God's Glory or lay out our wealth in his Service God's right must be owned 1 Chron. 29. 14. For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee If God take it away by immediate Providence it was his own Iob 1. 21. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away if by men if we lose any thing for God it is his own that we lose 3. Our gain in Christ is more than our loss in the World both here and hereafter So his promise Mark 10. 29 30. Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal Life Our Religion promiseth us Spiritual recompence in this World and Eternal in the other but exempteth us not from Persecutions He that hath an heart to quit any thing for Christ shall have it abundantly recompensed in the world with a reward much greater in value and worth than that which he hath forsaken sometimes more and better in the same kind as Iob's estate was doubled and Valentinian that left the place of a Tribune or Captain of Souldiers for his conscience and got that of an Emperour If not this he giveth them a greater portion of his Spirit and the Graces thereof more peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and this is an hundred fold better than all that we lose Now this we have with persecution Iohn 16. 33. These things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the World you shall have Tribulation But then for the World to come then all shall be abundantly made up to us in Eternal Life when we shall reign with Christ in his heavenly Kingdom This is all in all to a Christian that which is lost for God is not lost Surely in Heaven we shall have far better things than we lose here 4. Because the wicked never overcome but when they foil us of our Innocency Zeal and Courage The victory of a Christian doth not consist in not suffering or not fighting but in keeping that which we fight for a Christian is more than a Conqueror Rom. 8. 37. Scias hominem Christo deditum mori posse vinci non posse He may lose goods lose life yet still he overcomes whilst he is faithfull to his Duty Those that were as Sheep appointed to the slaughter and killed all the day long they were oppressed and kept under yet were more than Conquerors The way to conquer is by Patience and Zeal though we be trodden down and ruined not by getting the best of opposite factions but by keeping a good Conscience and Patience and Contentedness in sufferings If God be honoured if the Kingdom of Christ be advanced by our sufferings we are victorious Rev. 12. 11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death That is an overcoming indeed to dye in the quarrel and be the more glorious Conquerors As long as a Christian keepeth the faith whatever he loses in the contest he has the best of it 2 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith c. Our victory is not to be measured by our Prosperity and Adversity but our faithful adherence to God though the Devil and his Instruments get their will over our bodies and bodily interests yet if he get not his will over our Souls we conquer and
art mindfull of him and the son of man that thou visitest him The lowest Heaven affordeth us Breath Winds Rain the middle or second Heaven affordeth us Heat Light Influence and the third Heaven an eternal Habitation if we serve God In Earth all the things daily in our view speak to God's praise if we had the leisure to hear them these Creatures and Works of his that are daily in our view represent him as a mercifull God This is the Lesson which is most legible in them whether we sit at home in our Houses or go abroad and consider Land or Water Go to the animate Creatures the Beasts of the Field Psalm 36. 6. Thou preservest Man and Beast Job 12. 7 8. But ask now the Beasts and they shall teach thee and the Fowls of the Aire shall declare unto thee Or speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this His Providence reacheth to an innumerable multitude of Creatures giving them Life and Motion and sustaining them and relieving their Necessities and doth largely bestow his Blessing upon them according to their Nature and Condition And this Goodness of God shineth forth in all his Creatures not onely what he doth to them themselves but in what he doth about them for Man's sake they were defiled with Man's Sin and therefore he might in justice have abolished them or made them useless to Man or Instruments of his Grief but they are continued for our Comfort that we might live in a well-furnished World Now come to Man himself good bad wicked godly His Sun shineth his Rain falleth on the evil and good just and unjust Matth. 5. 44. great Mercy is still continued to the fallen Creature even to the impenitent Acts 14. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that be did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness What was God's Witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth good much patience is used mens Lives continued while they sin and means vouchsafed for their reclaiming Food Raiment Friends Habitations Health Ease Liberty afforded to them and all to shew that we have to doe with a most mercisull God who is willing to be reconciled to the sinning Creature Go to the godly and what is all their Experience but a constant course of Mercy David's admiration declares it Psalm 139. 17. How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are more in number than the sand He was in a maze when he thought of the various dispensations of God's Providence there was no getting out The Lord filleth up his Servants lives with great and various Mercies even in their Warfare and Pilgrimage here in this World abundance of unvaluable Mercies that if we do but consider what we do receive we must needs be confirmed in this Truth by our own Senses Every thing is a mercy to a Vessel of Mercy 2. Wherein God expresseth his Mercy to them in Creation and Providence 1. In creating them it was great Mercy that being infinitely perfect in himself from all Eternity and so not needing any thing he took the Creatures out of nothing which therefore could merit nothing and communicated his Goodness to them for thy pleasure they are and were created Revel 4. 11. 2. In preserving and continuing them so long as he seeth good the Heavens continue according to his Ordinance the Beasts and Fowls and Fishes continue according to his pleasure all the living Creatures need many things for their daily sustentation which their Creatour abundantly supplyeth to them and therefore the whole Earth is full of his Mercy One Creature the Scripture taketh notice of Luke 12. 24. Consider the Ravens for God feedeth them And Again Iob 37. 41. He feedeth the young Ravens when they cry and wander for lack of meat And Psalm 147. 9. He giveth to the Beast his food and to the young Ravens which cry Why is the Raven made such an instance of Providence above other Fowls or other living Creatures some say it is Animal sibi rapacissimum others other things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 casts its young out of the Nest assoon as they are able to fly and put to hard shifts for themselves all this sheweth his Mercy how ready he is to supply the miserable V. Prop. His Goodness to all the Creatures should confirm his People in hoping for saving Grace or spiritual good things Why all the business will be to shew you the force of this Argument and that it is a prop to Faith 1. We may reason from the less to the greater our Lord hath taught us so for food and cloathing Matth. 6. 28 29 30. And why take ye thought for raiment Consider the Lilies of the field how they grow they toile not neither do they spin And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these Wherefore if God so cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more cloath you O ye of little faith From Fowls and Lilies they have no arts of tilling spinning are not of such account with God as Mankind as his People So for Protection Matth. 10. 29 30 31. Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows The Reasoning is good if he hath Mercy for Kites he hath also for Children who are not onely in a higher rank of Creatures but in a renewed Estate and reconciled to him by Christ become his Friends and Children whom he tendereth as the apple of his Eye much more when they come for spiritual Benefits pleasing to the Lord 1 Kings 3. 9 10. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing Now all these amount to a strong probability if not a certainty It is a mistake to think that Faith onely goeth upon Certainties no sometimes it is mightily encouraged by Probabilities These must not be left out for if I want any spiritual Blessing is it not a great incouragement to remember God's mercifull Nature shining forth in all his Works if kind to his Creatures will he not be kind to me if he causeth his Sun to shine upon the Wicked will he not lift up the light of his Countenance upon my Soul if his Rain fall upon their Fields will he not let the Dew of his Grace fall upon my barren Heart Though
is pleasing in his sight and that is the ready way to come to Knowledge and sound Judgment Iohn 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy Truth thy word is Truth John 3. 21. He that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Men that have a mind to maintain an Opinion or suffer an evil Practice are prejudiced and byassed by the Idol that is in their hearts and so do not see what may be seen and what they seem to search after Therefore David urgeth this as an Argument in the latter end of the Text I have believed thy Commandments That is to say Lord I know this Word is thine and I am willing to practise all that thou requirest The great thing that is to be aimed about Knowledge is not onely that we may know and be able to jangle about Questions or that we may be known and esteemed for our knowledge but that we may practise and walk circumspectly and in evil days and times know what the will of the Lord is concerning us to desire knowledge as those that know the weight and consequence of these things as I shall shew more fully hereafter Those that would have good Judgment and Knowledge must be willing to understand their Duty and practise all that God requireth that they may neither doe things rashly and without knowledge and deliberation for then they are not good how good soever they be in themselves Prov. 19. 2. Also that the Soul be without knowledge is not good Or doubtingly after Deliberation For he that doubteth is in part condemned in his own mind Rom. 14. 23. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat We must have a clear Warrant from God or else all is nought and will tend to evil Then it is the Spirit of God satisfieth these desires when we earnestly desire of him to be informed in the true and perfect way Iohn 6. 45. They shall be all taught of God He hath suited Promises to the pure and earnest desire of Knowledge Then it is the Lord who sendeth means and blesseth means as he sent Peter to Cornelius Acts 10. and Philip to the Eunuch Acts 8. All is at his disposal and he will not fail the waiting Soul He hath made Christ to be Wisdome for this very end and purpose that he might guide us continually 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdome and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 3. You must seek it in the Word that maketh us wise to Salvation and by the continual study of it we obtain Wisdome and Discretion There we have the best and safest Counsel It maketh wise the simple Psalm 19. 7. No case can be put so far as it concerneth Conscience but there you shall have satisfaction Col. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all Wisdome You must not content your selves with a cursory reading but mark the end and scope of it that you may be made compleatly wise by frequent reading hearing Meditation upon it and conferring about it There you find all things necessary to be believed and practised therefore you must hear it with Application reade it with Meditation 1. Hear it with Application the Lord blesseth us in the use of instituted means both light and flame are kept in by the breath of preaching Where Visions faile the People perish men grow bruitish and wild It is a Dispute which is the sense of Learning the Ear or the Eye by the Eye we see things but by reason of innate Ignorance we must be taught how to judge of them Iames 1. 19. Wherefore my Brethren let every man be swift to hear take all occasions And we must still apply what we hear Nunquid ego talis Rom. 8. 31. What shall we then say to these things Job 5. ult Loe this we have searched so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Return upon thine own heart 2. Reading Scriptures is every man's work who hath a Soul to be saved Other Writings though good in their kind will not leave such a lively impression upon the Soul All the moral Sentences of Seneca and Plutarch do not come with such force upon the Conscience as one saying of God's Word God's Language hath a special Energy here must be your study and your delight Psalm 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works These make you wise unto Salvation your Tast is not right when you relish and savour humane Writings though never so good more than the Word of God A draught of Wine from the Vessel is more fresh and lively that Conviction which doth immediately rise out of the Word is more prevailing We suspect the mixture of Passion and private Aims in the Writings of others but when Conscience and the Word are working together we own it as coming from God himself besides those that are studying and reading and meditating on the Word have this sensible advantage that they have Promises Doctrines Examples of the Word ready and familiar upon all occasions others are weak and unsetled because they have not Scriptures ready In the whole work of Grace you will find no weapon so effectual as the Sword of the Spirit Scriptures seasonably remembred and urged are a great relief to the Soul No diligence here can be too much If you would not be unprofitable sapless indiscreet with others weak and comfortless in your selves reade the Scriptures We have sic scriptum est against every Temptation Besides you have the advantage to see with your own Eyes the Truth as it cometh immediately from God before any art of man or thoughts of their head pass upon it and so can the better own God in what you find 4. Long use and exercise doth much increase Judgment especially as it is sanctified by the Spirit of God You get an habit of discerning fixing directing guiding your ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5. 14. Who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern good and evil As men of full age by long use and exercise of the Senses of seeing smelling tasting have acquired a more perfect knowledge to discern what food is good and wholsome and what is unwholsome so by much Attention Studying and Meditation men who have exercised the intellectual Faculty to find out the scope and meaning of the Word of God do attain a more discerning Faculty and understand better the Truth of the Word and can judge what Doctrine is true and what false and more easily apprehend
may discern much of faithfulness in their Afflictions this will appear to you by these Considerations 1. In the Covenant of Grace God hath promised to bestow upon his People real and principal Mercies those are promised absolutely other things conditionally God doth not break his Covenant if he doth not give us temporal Happiness because that is not absolutely promised but onely so far forth as it may be good for us but eternal Life is promised without any such exception unto the Heirs of promise Eternal Promises and Threatnings being of things absolutely good or evil are therefore absolute and peremptory the Righteous shall not fail of the Reward nor the Wicked escape the Punishment but temporal Promises and Threatnings being of things not simply good or evil are reserved to be dispensed according to God's Wisdome and good pleasure in reference and subordination to eternal Happiness It is true 't is sad 1 Tim. 4. 8. That godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come but with this reference that the less give place to the greater if the Promises of this life may hinder us in looking after the Promises of the life to come God may take the liberty of the Cross and withhold these things and disappoint us of our worldly hope A man lying under the guilt of Sin may many times enjoy worldly Comforts to the envy of God's Children and one of God's Children may be greatly afflicted and distressed in the World for in all these Dispensations God looketh to his end which is to make us eternally happy 2. This being God's end he is obliged in point of fidelity to use all the means that conduce thereunto that he may attain his eternal purpose in bringing his holy ones to glory Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God Good what good it may be temporal so it falls out sometimes a man's temporal good is promoted by his temporal loss Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it for good they sold their Brother a slave but God meant him to be a great Potentate in Egypt It may be spiritual good Psal. 119. 71. 'T is good for me that I have been afflicted but to be sure eternal good to bring about his eternal purpose of making them everlastingly happy And in this sense the Apostle saith all things are yours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Ordinances Providences Life Death all dispensed with a respect to their final Happiness or eternal Benefit not onely Ordinances to work internal Grace but Providences as an external help and means for God having set his end he will prosecute it congruously and as it may agree with man's nature by external Providences as well as internal Grace see Psal. 125. 3. The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the back of the righteous God hath power enough to give them grace to bear it though the Rod had continued and can keep his People from iniquity though the Rod be upon them but he considereth the imbecillity of man's nature which is apt to tire under long Afflictions and therefore not onely giveth more Grace but takes off the Temptation He could humble Paul without a Thorn in the Flesh 2 Cor. 12. 7. but he will use a congruous means 3. Among these means Afflictions yea sharp Afflictions are some of those things which our need and profit requireth they are needfull to weaken and mortify Sin Isa. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged to increase and quicken Grace Heb. 12. 10. But he chasteneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Without this Discipline we should forget God and our selves therefore that we may return to God he afflicts us Hos. 5. 6. In their afflictions they will seek me early and come to our selves Luke 15. 17. The Prodigal came to himself Afflictions are necessary for us upon the former Suppositions namely that God hath ingaged himself to perfect Grace where it is begun and to use all means which may conduce to our eternal welfare that we may not miscarry and come short of our great hopes 1 Cor. 11. 32. When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world The carnal reprobate World are left to a looser and larger Discipline Brambles are not pruned when Vines are New Creatures require a more close inspection than others do Self-confidence and spiritual Security is apt to grow upon them therefore to mortify our Self-confidence to awaken us out of spiritual sleep we need to be afflicted and also to quicken and rouse up a spirit of Prayer We grow cold and flat and ask mercies for forms sake Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them And that we may be quickened to a greater mindfulness of heavenly things the best of us when we get a carnal Pillow under our heads are apt to sleep secure God will not let us alone to our ruine but afflicts us that we may be refined from the dreggs of the Flesh and that our gust and relish of heavenly things may be recovered and that we may be quickened to a greater diligence in the heavenly Life Look as earthly Parents are not faithfull to their Childrens Souls when they live at large and omit that Correction which is necessary for them Prov. 29. 15. The rod and reproof give wisdome but a Child left to himself bringeth his Mother to shame The Mother is mentioned because they are usually more fond and indulgent and spare many times and marr the Child but our heavenly Father will not be unfaithfull who is so wise that he will not be blinded by any passion hath such a perfect love and does so fixedly design our eternal welfare that he rebuketh that he may reform and reformeth that he may save 4. God's faithfulness about the Affliction is twofold in bringing on the Affliction and guiding the Affliction 1. In bringing on the Affliction both as to the time and kind when our need requireth and such as may doe the work 1 Pet. 1. 6. Ye are in heaviness for a season if need be When some Distemper was apt to grow upon us and we were straggling from our Duty Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray Some disappointment and check we meet with in a way of Sin which is a notable help in the spiritual Life where God giveth an heart to improve it 2. As to guiding the Affliction both to measure and continuance that it may doe us good and not harm 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Violent Temptations are not permitted where the Lord seeth us weak and infirm as Iacob drove
as the little ones were able to bear so when the Temptation continued is like to doe us hurt either God will remove it 2 Thess. 3. 3. Faithfull is the Lord who will establish and keep you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evil the persecutions of unreasonable men are there intended or else support them under it 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee Use 1. Is to check and reprove divers evils which are apt to grow upon our Spirits in our Troubles 1. Murmuring and repining thoughts against God's Providence Why should we murmur and complain since we justly suffer what we suffer and 't is the Lord's condescention that he will make some good use of these Sufferings to our eternal Happiness that we may be capable of everlasting Consolation His Justice should stop Murmurings Lament 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins If he complain he can complain of none but himself that evil choice he hath made for his own Soul which it may be he would never have thought of but upon this occasion His Punishment here carrieth no proportion with his Offence 't is Punishment in the singular number Sins in the plural one Punishment for many acts of Sin and a living man on this side Hell what 's this to everlasting Torments Life cannot be without many Blessings to accompany it while living we may see an end of this misery or have time to escape those eternal Torments which are far worse The form of the words sheweth why we should thus expostulate with our selves Wherefore doth a living man complain why do we complain God hath not cut us off from the land of the living nor cast us into Hell 't is the punishment of Sin and 't is far less than we have deserved Again the Faithfulness of God checketh Murmurings God knoweth what way to take with us to bring us to glory therefore trust your selves in God's hands and let him take his own methods Commit your souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour 1 Pet. 4. 19. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is a Creatour he doth not love to destroy the work of his hands as he is faithfull in his Covenant he will take the best and safest course to bring you to Heaven 2. Let it check immoderate sorrow and uncomely dejection of spirit he is just in the Afflictions of his People but yet so that he is also faithfull he is a Father when he beateth and indulgeth when he smiles and when he frowns Afflictions do not make void our Adoption they rather increase our confidence of it Heb. 12. 5. Whatever we doe upon other reasons we should not suspect his Love because of our Afflictions God's strokes do not make void his Promises nor doth he retract his gift of Pardon when he chastiseth Mere Crosses and Troubles are not an argument of God's Displeasure but acts of his Faithfulness so that we have reason to give thanks for his Discipline rather than question his Love In the book of Iob 't is made a mark of his Love as in those words which are so frequent Iob 7. 17 18. Lord What is man that thou art mindfull of him that thou chastisest him every morning and tryest him every moment We are not onely beneath his Anger but unworthy of his Care as if a Prince should take upon him to forme the manners of a Beggers Child 't is a condescension that the great God should deal with us and suit his Providences for our good 3. This should check our fears and cares his Judgments are right and full of faithfulness he will bear us through all our Tryals and make an advantage of them and perfect that Grace which he hath begun and finally bring us to eternal Glory The Lords faithfulness in keeping Promises is often propounded as a strong Pillar of the Saints Confidence 1 Cor. 1. 9. Faithfull is God by whom ye are called 1 Thess. 5. 24. Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will doe it He dispenseth all things with respect to our eternal welfare But I am afraid of my self I have provoked the Lord to leave me to my self but the Lord will pardon weaknesses when they are confessed 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is just and faithfull to forgive them speaking to reconciled Believers and when we fall the Lord hath ways and means to raise us up again that we perish not by checks of Conscience 2 Sam. 24. 10. And David's heart smote him when he had numbred the people Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my ways c. by the Word as Nathan roused up David Thou art the man God that foresaw all things hath ordered them so that nothing shall cross his eternal Purpose and Promise made to us in Christ. Use 2. Let us acknowledge God's Justice and Faithfulness in all things that befall us for Motives consider 1. 'T is much for the honour of God Psal. 51. 4. that under the Cross we should have good thoughts of God and clear him in all that he saith and doth see love in his rebukes 2. 'T is for our profit 't is the best way to obtain Grace to bear Afflictions or to get deliverance out of them When God hath humbled his People exercised their Grace he will restore to them their wonted Priviledges he waiteth for the Creatures humbling Levit. 26. 41 42. For means 1. You must be one in Covenant with God for to them the Dispensations of God come marked not onely with Justice as to all but Faithfulness Psal. 25. 10. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that keep his Covenant 2. You must examine your selves the Lord complains of the neglect of this that when they were in Affliction they would not consider Ier. 8. 6. No man said What have I done If you would consider you would see cause enough to justify God Lament 3. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain Let us search and try our ways and turn to the Lord. 3. You must observe Providence and your hearts must be awake and attend to it Psal. 107. 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Eccles. 7. 14. In the day of adversity consider 4. You must be such as value not your happiness by the increase or decrease of worldly Comforts but by the increase or decrease of Grace in your Souls 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause we faint not because though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day If you value your selves by your outward Condition you will still be imbrangled you should more highly esteem of and be more solicitous about the welfare of your Souls in a time of Affliction than of all things else in the world and you will more easily submit and more wisely consider of his doing and the better understand
6. Though the Lord be high yet he hath a respect to the lowly and the proud he knoweth afar off Partly as he is the Portion of the afflicted and oppressed Psal. 140. 12. I know the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor When Satan stirreth up his Instruments to hate those whom the Lord loveth the Lord will stir up his power to protect and defend them So Psal. 10. 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand the poor committeth himself to thee thou art the helper of the fatherless When they have layed forth their desires poured forth their heart before the Lord they quiet themselves 'T is God's office practice nature to relieve poor helpless Creatures that commit themselves to his custody 3. Innocency giveth confidence in Prayer when we are molested and troubled without a cause The testimony of Conscience giveth boldness towards God and men 2 Cor. 1. 12. and Heb. 13. 18. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly If God's Children would carry it more holily and meekly they might cut off occasion from them that desire occasion and in their addresses to God experience more humble confidence But is not this a revengeful Prayer Answ. No First Because directly they pray for their own deliverance that they may more freely serve God by consequence Indeed by God's shewing mercy to his People the pride of wicked ones is suppressed Psal. 119. 134. Secondly As it concerneth his Enemies he expresseth it in mild terms That they may be ashamed that is disappointed their counsels hopes machinations and endeavors And therefore it is not against the Persons of his Enemies but their Plots and Enterprises and shame and disappointment may do them good They think to bring in the total suppression of God's People that would harden them in their sins Therefore God's People desire he would not let their innocency be trampled upon but they disappointed that the Proud may be ashamed in the failing of their attempts Thirdly The Prayers of the Faithful for the overthrow of the Wicked are a kind of Prophecies so that in praying David doth in effect foretell that such as dealt perversly should be ashamed as a good cause will not always be oppressed Isa. 66. 5. But he shall appear to your joy but they shall be ashamed They met with despiteful usage at the hand of their Brethren for their loyalty and fidelity to God Fourthly Saints have a liberty to imprecate vengeance but such as must be used sparingly and with great caution Psal. 71. 13. Let them be confounded and consumed who are adversaries to my soul. Malicious Enemies may be expresly prayed against SERMON LXXXVII PSAL. CXIX VER 78 79. But I will meditate in thy precepts Let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy testimonies WE now come to David's Resolution But I will meditate in thy precepts The word Precepts is not taken strictly but largely for the whole Word of God DOCT. It is a blessed thing when the Molestations we meet with in the World do excite us to a more diligent study of the Word of God and a greater mindfulness of spiritual and heavenly things I. I shall shew what advantages we have by God's Word and Precepts for the staying and bettering of our hearts II. How this cometh by deep and serious meditation III. How Afflictions and Troubles in the Flesh do quicken us to it 1 In the Word of God there are notable Comforts and Supports as also clear directions how to carry our selves in every condition I shall shew what good thoughts do become as a ground of comfort and support and direction 1. That God hath a fatherly care over us Be once persuaded of that and Trouble will not be so grievous and hard to be born This our Saviour opposeth to worldly cares and fears Matth. 6. 32. Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things And Luke 12. 32. Fear not little flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom There are two Notions and they are both Christian which are the great support of the heart under any Trouble Adoption and particular Providence The Heirs of Promise are cared for in their Non-age And by the way once be persuaded of this and it will allay our distrustful cares Carking and shifting is a reproach to your heavenly Father as if your Child should beg or filch God knoweth our wants is able to relieve them willing to supply us this God is my Father 2. That the humble Soul which casts it self into the arms of God's Providence shall either have a full and final deliverance or present support Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength To wait on the Lord is with patience and tranquility of spirit to expect the performance of the Promises Now these shall have what they wait for or a supply of strength yet enabling them to bear up or hold out when they seem to be clean spent Psal. 123. 2. Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master and the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us 'T was in a time when they were filled with the contempt of the Proud let us be patiently submissive to God's dispensations there is hope of help 3. That God doth wonderfully disappoint the designs of wicked men Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just and guasheth upon him with his teeth The Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming Haman's Plot was destroyed so was the Conspiracy of them that would have killed Paul There is no wisdom nor counsel nor understanding against the Lord Prov. 21. 30. What is God now a doing in Heaven but defending his own Kingdom Psal. 2. Wherefore doth Christ sit at his right hand but to promote the affairs of his Church and to blast the devices of the wicked Mat. 18. The gates of hell shall never prevail against it 4. That the Proud are near a fall Prov. 16. 5. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord Though hand join in hand they shall not go unpunished Sometimes they seem to be supported by such combined Interests so woven in the Laws and Constitutions of a Nation but who can keep up him whom God will pull down Pride is a sure note and forerunner of destruction Prov. 16. 18. Prov. 15. 25. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud but he will establish the border of the widow Weak and oppressed Innocence standeth upon surer terms than the Proud though they excel in Wealth and Opulency 5. That God will never leave us wholly destitute and to difficulties insupportable Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee
is the best Judge of opportunities therefore all must be left to his will and pleasure Faith will not count it long for to the eye of Faith things future and afar off are as present Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen 'T is said Isa. 28. 16. He that believeth shall not make haste Sense and carnal confidence must have present satisfaction but Faith contents its self with Promises Love will not count it long For seven years to Iacob seemed as a few days Gen. 29. 20. Sufferings for Christ would not be so tedious where love prevaileth Patience would not count it long Cannot we tarry for him a little while Heb. 10. 37. Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We love our own ease and therefore the â—…ross groweth irksom and tedious 3. God is a God of Judgment Isa. 30. 18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment Blessed are all they that wait for him Mercy will not come one jot too soon nor one jot too late In the fittest time for God to give and for us to receive Heb. 4. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the time of need We think we stay for God but he stayeth for us If we were ripe for mercy God is always ready for he is a present help Psal. 46. 1. God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble I come now to the second Clause His longing desire after it Saying When wilt thou comfort me That is David was ever and anon repeating and saying Lord When The Hebrews express their wishes by way of question Oh that thou wouldest comfort me III. DOCT. When our Hope and Help is delayed we may complain to God for want of comfort 1. What is the comfort which David intendeth In the general Consolation is opposed to Grief and Mourning Sin hath woven Calamities into our Lives and filled us with Griefs Troubles and Sorrows so that we need comfort Comfort is either Eternal Spiritual or Temporal First Eternal 2 Thess. 2. 16. Everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Luk. 16. 25. Remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Secondly Spiritual which is of two sorts 1. Comfort against the Trouble of Sin In which respect the Holy Ghost is called the Comforter In this respect the Holy Ghost biddeth them comfort the penitent incestuous person 2 Cor. 2. 7. 2. Against Affliction So God is said to comfort those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7. 6. and Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God Thirdly Temporal So God is said to comfort those whom he freeth from Afflictions Psal. 71. 21. After deep and sore Troubles Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side So the Lord comforteth his People not by word only but also by deed not only by speaking comfort to them but also by relieving them and refreshing them and freeing them from their Troubles So Isa. 52. 9. Sing ye waste places for the Lord hath comforted his people he hath redeemed Ierusalem Though God's People lay low for a time yet his blessing can exalt them beyond all expectation and bring about such happiness as may make them forget their sorrows and miseries This is intended here Lord when wilt thou give that deliverance which I pray for and wait for at thy hands Let it not seem strange that temporal deliverance should be owned as a comfort to God's People Partly because they are Acts of God's Providence and Dispensations of his Grace sought not in a way of Faith and Prayer Zech. 1. 17. The Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet chuse Ierusalem Partly because by these he seemeth to own them and confirm them in the priviledge of his peculiar care and that they have an interest in his favor which by sad afflictions seemed to be annulled and made void But hereby God giveth proof of his favor to them Psal. 86. 17. Shew me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me That in their affliction Godliness may not suffer nor wicked men be hardned in their insolency Partly as hereby Promises are made good and so Faith confirmed Isa. 57. 18. I will heal him and restore comforts to him and to his mourners Partly as they are helps and encouragements to love and praise God and to live in a thankful course of holiness when not stopped or diverted by fear of enemies Isa. 12. 1. In that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me We may serve God more cheerfully then Partly because as they have seen his Wisdom and Justice in their Troubles so now his Power and Grace and Truth in their Deliverance They are more comfortable because there is much of God discovered in them Psal. 115. 1. Lastly because they are comfortable to the natural life They are not so divested of all humane respects Yet therein the Saints moderate themselves they do not count these things their highest consolation so 't is said of the wicked Luke 6. 24. Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation And Luke 16. 25. Thou receivedst thy good things Yet a sense they have otherwise how can we be humbled under Crosses or give thanks for Blessings 2dly We may complain of the delay of comfort God's Children have done so Psal. 6. 3. But thou O Lord how long Psal. 13. 1. How long wilt thou forget me Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me So ver 2. How long shall mine enemies triumph over me Psal. 94. 3. Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves Reasons 1. Partly because Prayer giveth ease 't is a vent to strong affections 2. It reviveth the work of Faith Hope and Patience 3. Though God knoweth when to bestow Blessings yet he will not blame the desires of his Children after them USE Well then let us seek comfort and complain not of God but to God Complaints of God give a vent to murmurings but complaints to God to Faith Hope and Patience 1. Refer the kind
any thing for something cannot come out of nothing therefore we must stop in some first Cause and Eternal Being 3. That Eternity belongeth to God is to be seen in all his Attributes for if God be Eternal his Wisdom Power and Goodness are Eternal also First His Wisdom is Eternal for all things are present to the knowledge of God Things come to our knowledge successively some before and some after We see and know things according to their duration and existence We compute by days and years yesterday to morrow last year and next year one Generation passeth and another cometh but in God's understanding there is no succession of before and after Known to God are all his works from the beginning Acts 15. 18. God that doth all things in time knew them all before time otherwise his knowledge was not infinite and eternal they are all present to his understanding Hence is that expression 2 Pet. 3. 8. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day All those differences of Duration which to the Creatures are longer or shorter are all alike to God for all things are constantly present to God and under his view and prospect Indeed the Lord is pleased to condescend to our shallow capacities and to give us leave to express his Duration in our own terms whil'st he calleth himself yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And Rev. 1. 4. From him which is which was and which is to come Yet in proper speaking God always is I am is his Name and all things to him are present either past present or to come Time hath no succession to him he beholdeth at once what is not at once but at several times there is nothing past to him to come to him but all present He knoweth the end of all things before he giveth them a beginning 2dly His Power is Eternal Therefore 't is said Rom. 1. 20. that his Eternal Power and Godhead is clearly understood from the Creation of the world and seen in the things that are made how could else so many things be educed out of nothing and still kept from returning into their original nothing if there were not an infinite and eternal power then and still at work So Isa. 26. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Iehovah is everlasting strength We may depend upon him for his Arm is never dried up nor doth his Strength fail there is no wrinkle upon the Brow of Eternity God is where he was at first he continueth for ever a God of infinite power able to save those that trust in him 3dly His Goodness and Mercy they are Eternal Psal. 136. 't is often repeated For the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever 'T is true à parte antè his mercy did not begin of late but was towards us before we or the world were from all Eternity we were thought upon that he might do us good himself 'T is said With an everlasting love have I loved thee and therefore with loving kindness I have drawn thee Jer. 31. 3. Whomsoever God draweth to himself in time he loved them before all time and à parte post it holdeth good his love and affection continueth the same and shall do for ever he is not weary of doing good nor is his mercy spent you have both Psal. 103. 17. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him The mercy was decreed and prepared before the beginning of the world and we shall have the fruits and effects of it when the world shall be no more 'T was from everlasting for God foreseeing the Fall of Adam provided us a remedy in Christ and having all lapsed Mankind in his prospect and view did out of his free love chuse some whil'st others are passed by to life and salvation by Christ. That God did from Eternity decree and purpose this is manifest because he doth in time effect it otherwise he should not work all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes. 1. 11. or else his Will would be mutable willing that in time which he willed not from Eternity whereas in him there is no variableness or shadow of turning And that his mercy is to everlasting appeareth because he doth in time convert and sanctifie them and so brings them to glory and blessedness for the eternal God will make his people eternally happy with himself 4. That God sheweth himself as an Eternal Being both as a Governor and Benefactor First As a Governor His Eternity is seen in his Government in threatning eternal misery to the wicked and appointing eternal happiness to the godly Mat. 25. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life everlasting The joys of the blessed are everlasting there shall never be a change of nor an interruption in their happiness but after millions of years they are to continue in this life as if it were the first moment Thy Crown will be thy Crown for ever Thy Kingdom thy Kingdom for ever This Glory will be thy Glory for ever Thy God will be thy God and thy Christ for ever We affect the continuance of this life though it be a life of pain and misery Skin for skin and all a man hath he will give for his life Oh! how much more valuable should this eternal life be which is a life of uninterrupted joy and felicity On the other side the punishment is everlasting the loss is eternal the wicked are everlastingly deprived of the favor of God The Disciples wept when Paul said Ye shall see my face no more Oh! how much more terrible will it be to be banished everlastingly out of God's presence Mat. 25. 41. Besides the pain will be eternal as well as the loss This worm never dieth this fire shall never be quenched Mark 9. 44. Neither Heaven nor Hell hath any period or end either of them are eternal Now this way God ruleth and governeth the creature as becoming his infinite and eternal Majesty The Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no further than some temporal punishment their highest pain is the killing of the Body their highest Reward is some vanishing and fading Honour or perishing Riches but God's Law concerneth our everlasting estate our eternal well or ill being eternal life or eternal death is wrap'd up in these Commandments These are Rewards sutable to the Eternal Majesty of the Law-giver And if thou do evil there is an eternal loss of Heaven and an eternal sense of the wrath of God If you believe and obey the Gospel there is eternal salvation provided for you for Christ is the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. 2dly As a Benefactor he sheweth himself also an Eternal Being There is a double beneficial goodness of God common and special His common goodness runneth in the channel of Creation and common
defence against the evil of trouble If God did leave us to shift for our selves and never express'd himself in his word for our comfort then we were more excusable though not altogether if we did shift and turn aside to crooked Paths because we are under an obligation to obey whatsoever it cost us But when he hath offered himself to be our shield and our hiding place to stand by us be with us carry us through fire and water all dangers and difficulties shall we warp now and turn aside from God Gen. 17. 1. saith the Lord I am God alsufficient walk before me and be thou perfect there is enough in God why should we trouble our selves or why should we run to any practices which God will not owne Use 4. It presseth us to depend upon Gods protection Shall I urge Arguments to you 1. This is one Every one must have a hiding place Saith Solomon The Conies are a feeble folk yet they have their burroughs and holes All Creatures must depend upon somewhat especially the Children of God that are exposed to a thousand difficulties you must expect to have your faith and patience tryed if ever you come to inherit the promises and during that time it is good to have a hiding place and a shield 2. Your hearts will not be kept in safety unless you make God your strong defence When Phocas fortified Cities to secure his ill-gotten Goods a voice was heard Sin within will soon batter down all those Walls and Fortifications Unless God be our hiding place and shield the strongest defences in the world are not enough to keep us from danger All the shifts we run into will but intangle us the more and drive us the more from God and to greater inconvenience 2 Chron. 28. 20. As the King of Assyria to Ahaz He distressed him but helped him not so many run away from Gods protection and seek out means of safety for themselves and will not trust him but seek to secure themselves by some shifts of their own they do but plunge themselves into troubles so much the more and draw greater inconveniences upon themselves There is a great deal of sin and danger in departing from God and he can soon blast our confidences All those places of safety we fancy to our selves can soon be demolished and battered down God will blast our carnalshifts 3. It is a thing that we owe to God by virtue of the fundamental Article of the Covenant If you have chosen God for your God then you have chosen him for your refuge Every one in his straits runs to the God he hath chosen Nature taught the Heathens in their distress to run to their gods You may see the Pagan Mariners a sort of men usually not much haunted with religious thoughts yet when the storm arose the Sea wrought and was tempestuous danger grew upon them and they were afraid they called every man upon his God Jon. 1. 5. they were sensible that some Divine Power must give them protection It immediately results from the owning of a God that we must trust him with our safety and so if we have taken the true God for our God we have taken him for our refuge and hiding place Ruth 2. 12. A full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to trust When Ruth came to profess the true God by taking the God of Israel for her God it is exprest thus she did commit her self to his Providence and protection and therefore Covetousness because of its trust in Riches is called Idolatry it is a breach of the fundamental Article of the Covenant taking God for our God 4. This trust ever succeeds well It will be of great use to you to still and calm your thoughts and free you from many anxious cares and in due time it will bring deliverance according to his promise How may we thus trust in God Why commit and submit your persons and all your conditions and affairs to his Providence This is to trust in God to make him your hiding place and your shield These Notions are often used in Scripture 2 Tim. 1. 12. Prov. 16. 3. Psal. 37. 5. If there be a thing to be brought about for you commit it and submit it to God he is able wise loving and faithful he will do what shall be for the best commit your comforts your health liberty peace your all into Gods hands for he is the Authour of all let the Lord do what he will This is to trust in God when you can thus without trouble or anxious care referr your selves to the wise disposal of his Providence 1. No hurt can come to you without Gods leave No Creature can move or stir saving notonly by his permission but by his influence others may have a will to hurt but not power unless given them from above as Christ told Pilate The Devil is a raging Adversary against the people of God but he is forced to ask leave to touch either Iob's Goods or his Person he could not touch his Skin or any thing that belonged to him without a Commission from God Iob 1. Nay he must ask leave to enter into the Herd of Swine Matth. 8. 31. And Tertullian hath a notable gloss upon that If God hath numbered the Bristles of Swine certainly he hath numbered much more the Hairs of the Saints if he cannot enter into a Herd of Swine he cannot worry a friend of Christs without Gods leave 2. Consider how much God hath exprest his singular affection and his care and Providence over his people There are many emphatical expressions in Scripture that 's one Matth. 10. 29 30. The very hairs of your head are numbered Mark he doth not speak of the heart or hands or feet those that we call parts which are necessary to the conservation of life but he speaks of the excrementitious parts which are rather for convenience and ornament than necessity What 's more slight than the shedding a hair of the head Thus he expresses the particular care of his people Again Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye No part is more tender than the eye and the apple of the eye how hath Nature guarded it that it may receive no prejudice So Isai. 49. 15. Can a mother forget her sucking Child c. See how his tender affection and yearning Bowels are exprest passions in Females are most vehement therefore God alludes to mothers affections And mark it is not to a Child that can shift for it self but a sucking Child that is wholly helpless that was but newly given her to draw her love Nature hath left tender affections on the hearts of parents to their tender infants yet if a woman should be so unnatural yet will I not forget thee saith the Lord. Now shall we not trust him and make him our hiding place Isai. 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it I will
48. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction that is not so throughly silver is not refined till all the dross be consumed and wrought out of it and when should we see good day if God should so refine us 4. They are not reckoned to dross but metal that walk answerable to their profession and obligations to God as becometh his peculiar people to do they are not satisfied with common mercies A man may have the world at will and yet be a cast-away they must have something peculiar and distinguishing Psal. 119. 132. Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do to them that love thy name things that can never be given in anger They do not rest in common Grace Heb. 6. 9. But we hope better things of you and things that do accompany salvation Those good moods in Hypocrites and Temporaries Nor content themselves with a common conversation 1 Cor. 3. 3. Are ye not carnal and walk as men 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot Matth. 5. 46. If you love them that love you what reward have ye do not even the Publicans the same You should do something rare and singular not in an ordinary loose rate III. That it is God's business in heaven to put away the wicked as dross to sever them from the purer metal 1. God hath many ways and means to do it partly by his Judgments he doth it more and more Matth. 3. 12. His Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor and gather his Wheat into the Garner but he will burn up the Chaff with unquenchable fire As the Chaff from Corn so Dross from Metal Isai. 4. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughter of Zion and shall have purged the bloud of Ierusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning that is by the Judgment executed upon the evil among them Ezek. 20. 38. And I will purge out from among them the Rebels and them that transgress against me This God doth by destroying wasting Judgments 2. Partly by the censures of the Church 1 Cor. 5. 9. Put away from among your selves that wicked person And partly by the stroke of the Civil Magistrate and their punishments Prov. 25. 4 5. Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the Finer Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness Thus doth God do it now but he will fully and finally do it at the last Judgment when there shall be a perfect separation of them and all the wicked shall be cast away as refuse Matth. 25. 32 33. Before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his left hand there is a congregation and then a segregation never to meet more nor be mingled more Now God doth it in part but then more fully 2. The Reasons First God doth so lest the silver it self should be turned into dross We are apt to corrupt one another natural corruption within meeting with examples without Isai. 6. 5. Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips As a man that hath the matter of a Disease prepared coming into infectious Company is soon infected Gods choicest people have much dross in them therefore the Lord needeth to purge out their dross the purest Church is apt to contract pollution and to degenerate and the choice Plants of the Covenant-Stocks to run wild were it not for these dispensations Secondly That impunity may not harden the wicked and encourage others God suffereth it as long as he judgeth it expedient Eccl. 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil Psal. 9. 16. The Lord is known by the Iudgments he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Men sin the more freely and securely when a Judgment doth not presently overtake them when sinners go on without any mark of Gods vengeance but God will in every Age clear his Providence by bringing of Judgments upon wicked men Thirdly The nearer they are to God the more hateful their provocations are and more severely punished Amos 3. 2. You have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities For their sins the valley of vision is brought to barrenness They sin against the clearest light the dearest love the highest engagements to the contrary and therefore when they are mingled among his people as dross with the silver God putteth them away Use. Is to inform us that God in his judicial proceedings will distinguish he will divide the dross from the other metal that he may destroy the one and preserve the other David prayeth Psal. 26. 9. Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men that God would not lay him common with the wicked God hath his Harvest for cutting down for cutting and binding together those that sinned Now David prayeth That he that had severed himself in his course of life might not be gathered with them in their punishment God will distinguish his Judgments are for the destruction of the worser sort and the amendment of the better When he severeth the dross he hath a care of the silver Though never so terrible to the wicked still he will be comfortable to his own 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust to the Day of Iudgment to be punished His own Jewel that lyeth hidden among them when all is shaken round about them God can hide them in the secret of his Presence and preserve them as he did Lot and Noah His own are wonderfully preserved in common Judgments several Scriptures speak to this Eccl. 8. 12 13. Surely it shall be well with them that fear God but it shall not be well with the wicked And Iosh. 3. 10. Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you and he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites Isai. 3. 10 11. Say unto the righteous It shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him God will make a difference between good and bad Use 2. That a few wicked men may bring a great deal of hurt and mischief as Achan upon Israel two dry sticks may set a green one
on fire as the whole metal is melted that the dross may be severed Use. 3. All Judgments on the visible Church are to sever the dross from the Gold God suffereth them a while to be mingled and then come trying Judgments to separate the one from the other which is a comfort to us the Church is the purer for these Judgments Isai. 1. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee and I will surely purge away thy dross and take away thy tin So Mal. 3. 3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness He will send such Judgments as will destroy the incorrigible wicked ones and purifie the rest 'T is a comfort against persecutions we murmure under them know not how they shall be turned away God who is the purger of his Church will find out some way And 't is a comfort under his Judgments they are not to destroy but to purge God intendeth only our purging how hot soever the Furnace be therefore let God alone with his work Use 4. Is to teach us to wait upon God in the way of his Judgments He is putting away the wicked of the Earth like dross it is not only a work that he hath done or will hereafter do but he is always doing of it We should observe how God hath already done it and so by faith we should look upon him as still about it First He beginneth with his people he is purging away of their wickedness Isai. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged But many shall cleave to them by flatteries and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white Dan. 11. 35. Now when God hath employed wicked men to fann and purge his people then their turn cometh next Ier. 25. 29. For lo I begin to bring evil on the City which is called by my name and should ye be utterly unpunished Ye shall not be unpunished for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the Earth 1 Pet. 4. 17. If punishment begin at the house of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear Prov. 11. 31. Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner When the Lord hath performed his work upon Mount Zion and Ierusalem then he will reckon with his Enemies he beginneth with his Church and maketh an end with their Enemies his Enemies drink the dregs of the Cup and their end must needs be unspeakably terrible Use 5. Let us see we be not put away like dross when Gods Judgments are abroad in the Earth 1 Cor. 11. 32. We are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world We shall put that out of question if we do two things First If we be faithful to God and cleave to Gods people truth and interest how great soever our tryals be Psal. 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet we have not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in the Covenant To consume in the melting is the property of dross but the pure metal is the more united and cleaveth together the more closely Secondly If you are refined by all these tryals Isai. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged A Christian loseth nothing by his afflictions but sin which is better parted with than kept We come now to the second Branch of the Text and that is the effect it had upon David's heart Therefore I love thy testimonies This use he made of all Gods Judgements Doctr. A gracious heart that observeth the Providence of God and the course of his judicial dispensations will find more cause to love the word of God than ever before 1. Because thereby he hath sensible experience of the truth of it Gods Providence is a Comment upon his Word the effect is answerable to the prediction and the word that God hath said is fulfilled to a tittle Now the more confirmation the word receiveth the more is affection encreased The Apostle telleth us That the word spoken by Angels was stedsast Heb. 2. 2. because every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward the punishment of the transgressours of the Law was a proof of Gods authorizing their Doctrine the same Law made formerly is valid We see the word doth not threaten in vain and they that slight it smart for it Now I see the word of God is to be valued for God will make it good even to a tittle 2. Because if we love not the word we may see great danger likely to ensue even those terrible punishments by which he purgeth out the dross should make us fall in love with Gods Law If we would not perish with the wicked of the earth we should not sin with the wicked of the earth if we partake of their sins we must partake of their plagues Psal. 2. 11. Kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way if his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are they that trust in him When we see the danger of being enemies to God or unsound with him we have need to learn this wisdome of shewing all affection and reverence and respect to Christ and his ways and submit to him heartily there is no safety in any other course If a spark of his wrath light upon us how soon will it consume us The stupid world regardeth not this to love his ways the more God giveth out proofs of his anger against those that despise them Many are cut off in the mid way sooner than they did or could expect and yet they do not grow one jot the wiser 'T is dangerous to stand out against God his cause work or people 3. It doth indear the mercy of God to us because he hath dealt otherwise with us who in strict Justice have deserved the same Gods Judgments on the wicked commend his Mercies to his Children Rom. 9. 23. The Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction serve to shew the greater love of God to the Vessels of mercy the torments of Hell inflicted on the wicked do the more set forth his love to the Saints to whom he hath appointed the joys of Heaven So the severity of God in his present Judgments doth imply the love of God to his chosen people who can take comfort in the promises when the threatnings are accomplished upon others this might have been our condition too but that Grace hath made the difference Well then as it doth indear the mercy of God to us so it calleth upon us more highly to love and prize him and his word because of this distinction 4. 'T is not only a means to set off the love of God to us but even his Judgments upon others may be a necessary act of love
fear of thee 'T was not the fear of man that put him into such an Agony and Consternation We are always disswaded from the fear of man but we are exhorted to the fear of God Matth. 10. 28. And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell The one is a snare Prov. 29. 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe But the other is a duty The great preservative of the soul from spiritual dangers is the fear of God We are tuti si cauti securi si attoniti saith Tertullian the fear of God maketh us circumspect and so bringeth safety to us yea the one is the cure of the other Isai. 8. 12 13. As one Nail driveth out another or as Moses's Rod did eat up the Rods of the Magicians so doth the fear of God against all contrary fears and terrours whereby the heart may be turned from God Man can only kill the body but God can cast both soul and body into Hell fire So that we may set God against man Soul and body against the body only and Hell-fire against temporal punishment As that holy man said Da veniam Imperator tu Carcerem comminaris Deus autem comminatur Gehennam thou threatnest Bonds and imprisonment he threatneth everlasting damnation therefore 't is God is to be feared Psal. 76. 7. Thou even thou art to be feared and who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry Not man in comparison of God man against man may stand and wicked men in the time of his patience may stand but when God judgeth who can stand Now of God there is a double fear filial which draweth us to him and servile which driveth us from him Exod. 20. 20. And Moses said unto the people Fear not for God is come to prove you and that his fear may be before your face that ye sin not Fear not with a slavish fear but an awful fear composed of reverence and love III. The ground of his fear I am afraid of thy Iudgments The great severity which God did exercise in punishing the evil doers and purging out the dross when God doth smite the wicked and call them to an account for sin he warneth his own people to stand in awe As here thou puttest away the wicked like dross when the threatning is made good and terrible Judgments are abroad every one needeth to look to himself not only to love Gods testimonies but to stand in awe of his Judgments We need all affections to keep us within our duty both fear and love Doctr. That when God is angry and his Iudgments are abroad in the world it becometh his own people to observe them and have a deep awe and sense thereof Here I shall shew you 1. How far the people of God do and ought to take notice of his Judgments 2. This fear that is wrought thereby whether it be an infirmity or a duty 3. The Reasons why it becometh them to have a deep awe and sense of these things 1. For the first His ancient Judgments in former times ought to be laid to heart by us especially when like sins abound The Scripture referreth to the days of Lot and Noah and biddeth us remember Lot's wife Luke 17. 26. to 32. God biddeth his people But go ye now to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel Ier. 7. 12. And the Apostle tells us that all the punishments that befel the stubborn Israelites are for our caution and warning 1 Cor. 10. 1. to 10. And all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come so he concludeth in verse 11. And the Apostle tells us That Sodom and Gomorrha were an example to those that after should live ungodly 2 Pet. 2. 6. A people might easily read their own doom and destiny if they would blow off the dust from these ancient Providences and mark the prints of Gods Justice and Truth in them and how the Word of God was verified upon them for these are but Copies and Patterns The desert of sin is still the same and the exactness of Divine Justice remaineth still the same These Providences are pledges of the same wrath of the like for substance to come upon us also if we walk contrary to God Others have smarted why not we God is impartially and immutably just Gal. 3. 20. He is but one always consonant unto himself like unto himself his Power is the same so is his Justice and therefore we should take warning Exemplo qui peccat â—…is peccat he that will plunge himself in a Bogg or Quagmire where others have miscarried before him is doubly guilty of folly because he neither feareth nor will take warning by their example This is one great benefit we have by the Historical part of the Word that it doth not only preserve the memory of the Saints that we may imitate their Graces and enjoy their Blessings but also records the sins and punishments of the wicked that we may know God hath owned the Historical part of the Word and fear for our selves Heb. 2. 1 2. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to these things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward Rom. 1. 18. the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness So the Historical parts are also to justifie the Prophetical 'T is not only a Register and Chronicle of what is past but a Kalender and Prognostication of what is to come God might have blotted out the memory of Sinners that it should be no more thought or heard of but he would secure it upon record for our learning as some Malefactors their bodies are not buried but Quarters set upon places of greatest reâ—…ort Ut qui vivi noluerunt prodesse morte eorum Respublica utatur Or as Lot's Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt to season after Ages So that our flesh may tremble at the old Judgments that Adam for one sin was turned out of Paradise the old World swept away with a Flood Dathan and Abiram swallowed up of the Earth Achitophel and Iudas brought to the Halter Herod eaten up with Worms for his pride And all these have their use Secondly Judgments that light upon other Countries ought to be made use of by us because usually they go in a Circuit The Cup of trembling goeth round Ier. 25. 32. And because by this means we may learn to be wise and have all our schooling at
our Cause as his own Psal. 9. 4. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause and in his own time and manner will shew it to the world and justifie us against our enemies Oh how should our hearts rejoyce in this that he will be the party responsible make our Cause his own and be liable to the Suit as a Debtor is to the Creditor He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. He that despiseth you despiseth me Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9. 4. And Isai. 63. 8. And he said Surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Fifthly God is a sufficient Surety Here we may consider two things The satisfaction of Christ and The power of Gods Providence in respect of both which he is a Pledge and Surety every way sufficient for our comfort safety and deliverance 1. I would not leave out Christs satisfaction though it lye not so full in this Text for as God hath a hand in all our sufferings and all our affairs are determined in an higher Court this satisfaction is necessary to answer the Controversy and Quarrel of Gods Justice against us Thus Christ the Second Person is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Surety Heb. 7. 22. Christ is the surety of a better testament There is a double sort of Surety by way of caution and satisfaction as Sureties in case of Debt and Sureties for good behaviour the one for what is past the other for what is to come The example of the one we have in Paul for Onesimus Phil. 18. If he hath wronged or owed thee ought put it upon my account I Paul have written it with mine own hand and I will repay it An example of the other we have in Iudah for Benjamin Gen. 43. 9. I will be Surety for him at mine hand shalt thou require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee then let me bear the blame for ever In both these respects Christ is a Surety he is our Surety as a Surety undertaketh for another to pay his debt and he is our Surety as he hath undertaken that his redeemed ones shall keep Gods Laws be carried safe to Heaven Of his Suretiship by way of caution we speak now Though Theodoret understand that in the Text undertake for me that I shall keep thy Laws but 't is more proper to consider the Speech as it referreth to the payment of our debt by virtue of this Suretiship Solomon hath assured us Prov. 11. 15. that he that is Surety for another shall smart for it or be broken and bruised The same word is used concerning Christ Isai. 53. 10. he was our Surety and was bruised and broken suffered what we should have suffered we have a right to appear to Gods Justice but our Surety having made a full satisfaction for us God will not exact the Debt twice of the Surety and the Principal When the Ram was taken Isaac was let go Iob 33. 24. Deliver him from going down to the pit for I have found a ransom Well then as our punishment is a due Debt to Gods Justice the Lord Christ undertaketh or is become a Surety for us not only our Advocate to plead our Cause but our Surety to pay our Debt from a Judge become a party and bound to pay what we owe Isai. 53. 4. Surely he hath born our griefs 2. The power of Gods Providence If God undertake for us his Bail is sufficient none of our enemies can resist his Almighty power surely he is able to deal with our enemies Isai. 23. 4. Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battel they are matter to feed the fire not to quench it He rescueth us just as going to prison If he put himself a pledge between us and our enemies he will defeat all their oppositions and machinations against us and stand between us and danger as an able Bail or Surety doth between the Creditor and poor Debtor Well then Suretiship as it noteth our necessity so Gods engagement and his ability and faithfulness to do what he undertaketh We must set God against the enemies Isai. 51. 13. And forgettest the Lord thy Maker he hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundation of the Earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour Dan. 3. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace We have the Almighty to be our Saviour and Protector why are you afraid of a man God against man is great odds if we had Faith to see it man is mortal God is immortal man is a poor weak Creature but God is Almighty what is he not able to do for us Surely he will not leave his friends in the lurch his power is such that he is able to keep us safe and sound II. The Reasons Why we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose 1. From Gods Covenant where in the general there is a mutual engaging to be each others In our several capacities we engage to stand by God and owne his Cause and God is engaged to stand by us We make over our selves Bodies Souls Interests all to God God quantus quantus est as great as he is is all ours therefore if he be ours we may pray him to appear for us and owne us in our distress and trouble Our friend is a friend in distress A gracious heart by virtue of this mutual and interchangeable Indenture appears for God and taketh his Cause though never so hated as its own The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psal. 6. 9. We are his Witnesses Isai. 43. 10. Surely it is too high a word for the Creature but God taketh our Cause as his is Surety for us by virtue of the general tenour of the Covenant he is our God jure venit in auxilium nostrum his Covenant engageth him to undertake for us More particularly God undertaketh to defend and maintain his people as to be a rewarder so to be a defender Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward And Psal. 84. 11. For the Lord is a Sun and a shield This defence is sometimes expressed with respect to the violence of assaults in the world by the Notion of a shield So with respect to the process of the Law by the Notion of a Surety Isai. 52. 3. we have the term of a Redeemer So that we have leave to pray him to fulfil his Covenant Engagement 2. Gods affection is such that he will refuse no office that may be for his peoples comfort We are often disswaded from Suretiship especially for strangers by the wise man by great vehemency and instance Prov. 6. 1 2. My son if thou be surety for thy friend if thou hast stricken thy hand
blind guesses Promises are the eruptions and overflows of Gods love he cannot stay till accomplishment but will tell us aforehand what he is about to do for us that we may know how to look for it Use 2. Is to exhort us to rest contented with Gods word and to take his promises as sure ground of hope I shall shew you how you should count it a word of righteousness what is your Duty and that first you are to delight in the promise though the performance be not yet nor like to be for a good while Heb. 11. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being perswaded of them they embraced them Oh how they hugged the promises at a distance and said in their hearts O blessed promise this will in time yield a Mâ—…siah Iohn 8. 56. Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and saw it and was glad Yâ—… hold the blessing by the root this will in time yield deliverance Heb. 6. 18. not only yield comfort but prove comfortable Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies I have taken fâ—… an heritage for they are the rejoycing of my heart For your Duty Secondly You are to rest confident of the truth of what God hath promised and be assured that the performance will in time be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 13. Faith is not a failable Conjecture but a sure and certain Grace Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God So Psal. 140. 12. I know that God will maintain the Cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor There is a firm perswasion I know I shall find this to be a truth Men who are conscionable and faithful in keeping their word are believed yet being men they may lye Rom. 3. 4. Let God be true and every man a liar Every man is or may be a liar because of the mutableness of his Nature from interest he will not lye but he can lye If we receive the testimony of men the testimony of God is greater Surely God cannot deceive or be deceived He never yet was worse than his word Thirdly You are to take the naked promise for the ground of your hope however it seem to be contradicted in the course of Gods Providence when 't is neither performed nor likely to be performed 't is his word you go by whatsoever his dispensations be Many times there are no apparent evidences of Gods doing what he hath said yea strong probabilities to the contrary 'T is said Rom. 4. 18. That Abraham against hope believed in hope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham had the promise of a Son in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but there was no appearance of this in Nature or natural hope of a Child both he and Sarah being old yet he believed 'T is an Antanaclasis an elegant Figure having the form of a contradiction he goeth upon Gods naked word Then Faith standeth upon its own Basis and Legs which is not probabilities but his word of promise Every thing is strongest upon its own Basis which God and Nature have appointed For as the Earth hangeth on nothing in the midst of the Air but there is its place Faith is seated most firmly on the word of God who is able to perform what he saith Fourthly This Faith must conquer our fears and cares and troubles Psal. 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. He must fix the heart without wavering Psal. 56. 4. In God I will praise his word in God have I put my trust I will not fear what man can do unto me The force of Faith is seen in calming our passions and sinful fears which otherwise would weaken our reverence and respect to God Fifthly Above all this you are to glorifie God publickly not only in the quiet of your hearts but by your carriage before others Iohn 3. 33. Put to his Seal that God is true 't is not said Believed or professed but put to his Seal We seal the truth of God as his Witnesses when we confirm others in the faith and belief of the promises by our joyfulness in all conditions patience under crosses diligence in holiness hope and comfort in great streights Numb 20. 12. God was angry with Moses and Aaron because ye believe not to sanctifie me in the eyes of the Children of Israel We are not only to believe God our selves but to sanctifie him in the eyes of others as when the Thessalonians had received the word in much assurance in much affliction and much joy in the Holy Ghost The Apostle telleth them They were examples to all that believed in Achaia and Macedonia 1 Thess. 1. 5. The worthiness and generousness of our Faith should be a confutation of our base fears but a confirmation of the Gospel But we are so far from confirming the weak that we offend the strong and instead of being a confirmation to the Gospel we are a confutation of it Use 3. Is reproof to us that we do no more build upon this word of righteousness 1. Some count these vain words and the comforts thence deduced fanatical illusions and hopes and joys phantastical impressions Psal. 22. 7 8. All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the Lip they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Nothing so ridiculous in the worlds eye as trust or dependance or unseen comforts Ungodly Wits make the life of Faith a sport and matter of laughter 2. Some though not so bad as the former they may have more modesty yet as little Faith since they are all for the present world present delights present temptations With many one thing in hand is more than the greatest promises of better things to come 2 Tim. 4. 10. they have no patience Afflictions are smart for the present Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous Yea they do not deal equally with God and man If a man promise they reckon much of that Qui petat accipiet c. They can tarry upon mans security but count Gods nothing worth They can trade with a Factor beyond Seas and trust all their Estates in a mans hand whom they have never seen and yet the word of the infallible God is of little regard and respect with them 3. The best build too weakly on the promises as appeareth by the prevalency of our cares and fears If we did take God at his word we would not be so soon mated with every difficulty Heb. 13. 5 6. Let your conversations be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me There would be more resolution in trials more hardness
are express I. It is implied That God doth for a while hold his hand and not seem to mind his work though the least sin deserveth the greatest plagues even when it is first committed yet such is Gods patience and long-suffering that he will not at first punish even the sins of his enemies but will let them ripen and come to an height before he smite This he doth 1. To shew his bounty and goodness to all his Creatures He will not easily destroy the workmanship of his hands even the provoking wicked but giveth them time to repent and change their Course Rev. 2. 21. I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not The worst have leave to repent means to repent time to repent and if they have not the Grace to repent they may blame themselves Rom. 9. 22. He endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reprobate taste of Gods common goodness as they are Members of the World are forborn for a long time till they be fear and rotten through fit for the burning Nay let me observe this God that is very quick with his people is very patient towards them that perish God is quick with his own people he will visit their iniquities with scourges and will not suffer sin to lye upon them and therefore they are chastened every morning Yet this God is very patient to them that know no better profess no better have had no experience of his ways and though they finally perish 't is long first till their sins do even extort vengeance out of his hands 2. To chastise exercise and prove his own people he beareth with the wickedness of their enemies First To chastise them for their sins that they may be brought low and their souls be humbled to the dust Certainly this God expects before he will appear for us 1 Pet. 5. 6. Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God And because his people are backward to this work he permitteth such instruments as will not spare but lay on to the purpose Isai. 10. 5 6. O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against an hypocritical Nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets When God is angry with his people he can easily find a rod for them yea not only a rod but a staff which is a more heavy instrument of correction He can find instruments sufficiently exasperated and full of malice severe Executioners and he lets them alone till they have done his work though they manage his Controversie with cruel minds and evil and destructive intentions Sometimes God punisheth his people with Divisions among themselves and though they are very troublesom one to another yet a sheep cannot worry a sheep as a wolf will they do it to the purpose in a most cruel and despightful manner Now though he will reckon with wicked men for their violence for transgressing their bounds and going beyond his revealed will and approbation Zech. 1. 15. yet not till his work be done upon Mount Zion and Ierusalem Isai. 10. 12. When the Lord hath done his work upon Mount Zion and Ierusalem I will punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria He will not cast the Rod into the fire till we have felt the smart of it and be throughly humbled under his mighty hand Secondly To exercise his people that they may not contract Rust and languish and grow idle in Heavens way Alas when we live at ease and have no body to trouble us God is little owned loved and acknowledged the Throne of Grace lyeth neglected and unfrequented and therefore he permitteth enemies to keep us in breath Psal. 59. 11. Slay them not lest my people forget Things in conceit do not leave such an impression upon us as things in feeling Scipio would have Carthage stand to whet and exercise the Roman Valour We need vigilant enemies as a Guard upon us that we may be kept awful serious mindful of God constantly in the exercise of faith and dependance Wicked men have their ministry and service to be as Goads in our Sides and Scourges on our Backs to whip us to our duty and make us mend our pace heavenward Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest him out of thy Law chastened by the molestations of the wicked for all along he complaineth of the delay of vengeance on the Persecutors and in the next Verse he saith Until the pit be digged for the wicked As condemned men are suffered to live till their Gallows and Grave be made ready if they trouble us in the mean while 't is to reduce us to a sense and practice of our duty and that we may not securely go on in a course of vanity and sin Till that be done the Pit is not ready for the wicked and ungodly Oppressours they dig their own Pit by their sin and oppression Thirdly To prove his people as well as to exercise them To prove their faith and their patience their faith to see whether they can live by faith and not by sense and present appearance whether we are perswaded that there is a just and righteous God that is the supream Governour of the World notwithstanding all the oppositions and confusions they groan under Hab. 2. 3 4. Because it will surely come and will not tarry Behold his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith that is the Lords purpose in delaying to perform the vision is to try and discover who are the losty and unsound and whocan subsist and hold out by faith on Gods Being and Providence and Promises and World to come and so wait upon God in hard times without fainting If God should smite as soon as his enemies provoke him faith would be of no use and the whole world would be governed by sense To believe the justice and mercy of God though for the time we do not see any manifestation of it that 's the tryal of faith We know there is one that sits above and seeth all Though the World be in an uproar and they that work wickedness are set up and God's servants persecuted yet we know that God will reckon with them in due time And secondly To prove their patience in bearing the present difficulties and tarrying the Lords leisure Rev. 13. 10. Here is the patience and faith of the Saints that is a sensible proof of it when a powerful enemy carrieth all before him there would be little use of such a Grace but for such times This is submission to God when we are resolved to tarry for his season though we know it not and will wait as long as God will have us wait
excuse for him to say I do but as others do he is to reckon his hours by the Sun not the Town-Clock to take Gods direction not the voice of the multitudes as one of their stamp and at liberty to comply with their fashions 2. The course of Gods dispensations which is to exercise and try his Children before he crowneth them None go to Heaven without their tryals 3. The Duty of Gods Children intimated in the cautions and descriptions and injunctions of the word Exod. 23. 2. Not to follow a multitude to do evil nor to walk according to the course of this world Ephes. 2. 2. the lust of men 1 Pet. 4. 2. nor the corruptions of the times Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this world c. Many such hints every where that shew it a crime c. 4. The opposition of the wicked should make us the more couragious for then it is put to a plain contest who shall have the better Christ or Satan therefore we should discover that he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world 1 Iohn 4. 4. Wicked men have their end and purposes if they can overcome the Disciples of Christ and discourage them from owning their profession We are to be more than Conquerours Rom. 8. 37. Use 2. We ought to be so far from being involved in the Conspiracy of others against God that our zeal should encrease by others declining and we should love Religion when it is commonly despised That is our commendation esse bonum facile est c. Till we are in termino we have our difficulties till we are gathered to Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Gun-shot Our business is not to give way to evils but to resist them with the greater courage Indeed it is hard for a man to keep himself free from the infection of the times he lives in We all complain of the badness of the times but let us not make them the worse for us If we would be good in bad times we need 1. Much holiness and heavenly mindedness that we may be burning and shining lights conducting men to Christ as the Star that shone at Christs birth Phil. 2. 15. That ye be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation among whom ye shine as lights in the world Noah by preparing an Ark condemned the world Heb. 11. 7. This is the way to appear for God in the lustre of real Grace when we are taken off from other means 2. Much faith or foresight of things to come Heb. 11. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark. To see the ruine of the wicked when prosperous this kept David in his integrity Psal. 73. 17. I went into the Sanctuary then understood I their end When he was once able to look through their Honours and Greatness and Riches by the light of the Sanctuary he overcame the temptation which did so greatly press and shake him So here in the Text It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above gold yea above fine gold There is a Worm in the root they are under Gods curse Iob 5. 3. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation which predicteth their ruine though little appearance of their fall 3. There needs much zeal and strong love to God When prophaneness is in fashion let us give check to it in our place either as Magistrates by appearing against evil Doers as Nehemiah contended for God Neh. 13. 11. Then I contended with the Rulers and said Why is the house of God forsaken And Verse 17. Then I contended with the Nobles of Iudah and said unto them What evil thing is this that ye do and prophane the Sabbath Day Not like Gallio that cared for none of these things As Ministers more active against sin Isai. 58. 1. Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice as a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Iacob their sins As Governours of Families careful of our selves and Families Iosh. 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. As private Christians give out more of the lustre of Grace Mat. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 1 Pet. 2. 12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil Doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation Not only stop the mouth of iniquity but bring about the conversion of wicked men Thus should every one of us in our place glorifie God and strive to make the times better Rom. 12. 11. Not sloathsul in business servent in spirit serving the Lord. That is a good time serving the Lord can make a change if we would ply this means Thus did David serve his Generation Acts 13. 36. For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell asleep When you dye people will be able to say We miss such a man he was zealous against Sabbath-Breakers and Drunkard and Swearers one that owned the people of God a friend to Religion 4. Caution that we be not carried away with a deluge of corruption Gal. 2. 13. The other Iews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation Example hath a kind of compulsion in it the best men can hardly stand out against it It secretly insinuateth it self weakeneth our love to God abateth our care therefore we cannot be enough watchful that we be not secretly tainted as a man in the Sun tanns unawares As in times of common Contagion every man is careful of his Diet and Company so should we watch to keep our Garments clean and unspotted of the world 5. Sincerity not dissembling as Iosh. 14. 8. I wholly followed the Lord my God not loving the ways of God on foreign respects but their own internal reasons otherwise a man soon miscarrieth for these Motives will be changed and those very inducements that moved him to take up Religion will move him also to cast it off None but the solid Christian will hold out whilst light Chaff is carried about with every Wind and the carnal minded cuts the Coat of his profession to the fashion of the times A false heart cannot long hold out Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely but he that perverteth his ways shall be known that is to his shame cannot long dissemble his Nature 6. A fixed resolution that we may not be easie and merely do as others do It is the resolved man that encounters temptations and maketh them fly back as Arrows shot against a brazen Wall though others fall I
thy heart for entertaining the light and power of these truths and in due time God will shew thee other things In the mean time bless God that whatever is necessary is plain to them that are docile and heedful and willing to do the will of God As in the world the most necessary things are at hand the less necessary are hidden in the bowels of the Earth so in Scripture necessaries are facile and easie 2. Let us use this method in learning and teaching of others In learning our selves First Be sure to get a clear understanding of and firm assent unto the main plain truths of Scripture That there is one God Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is That Jesus Christ is the Son of God Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent It is a corner truth that enliveneth all Religion Matth. 16. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God then Upon this Rock will I build my Church John 6. 69. We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God This is the great enlivening truth that hath influence both on faith and obedience We must believe that he is able to bring us to God Iohn 14. 6. Heb. 7. 25. and must be obeyed Heb. 5. 9. that every man needeth this Christ to bring him to God Acts 4. 12. There is a necessity of his merit that God may be propitious of his Spirit as the foundation of a new life that we may be reconciled to God that we should live holily because there is a day of account when every one shall receive according to his works We should bestow more cost upon the main truths to get a clear distinct knowledge of them there must be a removing of Rubbish and digging to lay the foundation of the knowledge of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ before there can be any safe building or going on unto perfection Heb. 6. and firm assent to them For he is the best Christian that doth most clearly understand and firmly believe these things Not the Opinionist the Disputer he that best promotes the interest of his party or side which are the distempers now afoot in Christendome Those truths well accepted would so purifie the heart as we should sooner discern Gods interest in other things and be able to find out that So for teaching our Children God reckons on it from his people Gen. 18. 19. For I know Abraham that he will command his Children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Iustice and Iudgment Deut. 6. 6 7. And these words that I command thee this day shall â—…e in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Train them up in wholesome truths in the nurture and admoniâ—…ion of the Lord Ephes. 6. 4. how to carry themselves towards God in matters of Religion how towards men in righteousness civility and good manners chiefly that they may be instructed in the knowledge of Christ and salvation by him 3. Let the entertainment we have upon our first entrance into the study of Religion encourage us to follow on to know the Lord that we may see more into his mind and counsel concerning us When we are first serious we have notable experience of light and comfort and power this is a bribe to draw us on further more light for it is a growing thing Prov. 4. 18. The path of the Iust is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day more taste 1 Pet. 2. 3 4. If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming as to a living stone c. It should sharpen and put an edge upon our desires more power Iames 1. 18 19. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creation wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath You saw the entrance and your first acquaintance with the word succeeded well Doctr. II. By the word of God we get light or our understandings are enlightened Prov. 6. 23. For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life 1. Light is a great benefit This is the perfection of the rational Nature the benefit that we have above the Beasts He teacheth us more than the Beasts of the field They are guided by instinct ruled by a Rod of Iron we have Reason and in it more resemble God who is light and in him is no darkness at all 1 Iohn 1. 5. we come nearest to our happiness in heaven it is called The inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. Our knowledge is perfected and the vision of God is our happiness 1 Cor. 13. 12. For now we see through a glass darkly then face to face now I know in part then I shall know even as also I am known 2. This light hath excellent properties First It is lux manifestans it manifesteth it self and all things else How do I see the Sun but by the Sun by its own light how do I know the Scripture to be the Word of God but by the light that shineth in it commending it self to my Conscience So it manifests all things else By this light a man may see every thing in its own colours it layeth open all the frauds and impostures of Satan the vanity of worldly things the deceits of the heart the odiousness of sin Ephes. 5. 8. 13. All things that be reproved are made manifest by light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light It sets out the odiousness of sin as a breach of Gods most holy Law enmity against the Great God the procurer of his eternal wrath Nothing manifests things as this light doth Secondly It is lux dirigens a directing light that we may see our way and work As the Sun lighteth man to his labour so doth this direct us in all conditions Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths It directs us how to manage our selves in all conditions in prosperity adversity in all affairs paths steps in all the particular actions of our life it filleth us with spiritual prudence the wayfaring the fool a man of parts that is a stranger the man of mean parts all may meet with plain and clear directions hence to guide them in the way to Heaven Thirdly It is lux vivificans a quickening light Lux est vehiculum influentiarum Joh. 8. 12. I am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of
Saints and the blessed means to pluck up their Spirits Whilst there is a God in Heaven we are not at an utter loss So Verse 9. I will say unto God my Rock Why hast thou forgotten me Why go I mourning because of the Oppressor David first reasoned with himself yet the Distemper continued but when he comes to reason the Case with God in prayer then he gets ease Thirdly The violent passions of anger envy and revenge against Oppressours these are all naught and do a world of mischief Anger discomposeth us and transports the soul into uncomely motions against God and men makes us fret and male-content it tempts us to Atheism Psal. 73. maketh us weary of well-doing Psal. 37. tempts us to imitation of their wicked Course The Devil worketh much upon spleen and stomach and discontent and we are apt to run into these Disorders Now how shall we do to get rid of these Distempers By prayer in which we get a sight and prospect of the other world and then these things will seem nothing to us acquaint our selves with God and the process of his Providence and so we shall see an end of things Psal. 73. 17. then all is quiet And as for revenge too that is an effect of the former when we plead before God we see the justice of what is unjust and hard dealing from men to be justly inflicted by God and so the heart is calmed The Lord bid him curse 2 Sam. 16. 11. There is reason enough for this dispensation in the upper Tribunal whereunto when we appeal we should render no man evil for evil Rom. 12. 17. We ought not we need not 't is Gods work Deut. 32. 35. Vengeance and recompence are mine Nay our very praying is a committing our selves to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. In prayer we vent our zeal and that hindreth us from venting our carnal passions 'T is a resignation of our Person and Cause to him under unjust sufferings not out of malice desiring judgment and vengeance on Persecutors that is to make God the Executioner of our lusts to establish that which we would prevent in prayer But Saints in prayer labour only to shew their faith and meekness and to leave things to the righteous Judge to do what is for his own Glory and their good Fourthly For the other evil impatience and despair 't is a very great evil and contrary to faith and hope and dependance which the Christian Religion doth mainly establish and maketh way for the worst evils either total Apostasie from God or Atheism or self-destuction Now this is very incident to us when oppressions lye long upon us 2 King 6. 33. This evil is from the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer So Ier. 2. 25. But thou saidst There is no hope Desperately No for I have loved Strangers and after them will I go I will take my own course there is no hope 't is in vain to wait upon the Lord any longer And if things do not grow to that height yet the Children of God grow weary and faint in their minds Heb. 12. 3. Now we keep afoot some hope while we have an heart to call upon God The Suit is still depending in the Court of Heaven when it seems to be over on Earth and we see there is cause to wait for Gods answer He that shall come will come Hab. 2. 3. God may tarry long but will never come too late Thus why 2. But how is this to be asked First This is not to be asked in the first place as our main blessing Matth. 6. 33. First seek the Kingdom of God If we seek our ease and temporal felicity only that prayer is like a brutish Cry Hos. 7. 14. They howled upon their beds for Corn and Wine A Dog will howl when he feels any thing inconvenient You will never be freed from murmuring and quarrelling at Gods dispensations and questioning his love if this be the first thing that you seek and so your prayers will become your Snare Besides the great dishonour to God it argues the great disorder of your affections that you can be content to have any thing apart from God Psal. 105. 4. Seek ye the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore In all Conditions that must be our great request that we may have the favour of God Secondly It must be asked with submission 'T is not absolutely promised nor intrinsecally and indispensably necessary to our happiness but if the Lord see it fit for his own Glory and our good We cannot take it ill if a friend deny us to lend a Summ of Money which he knoweth we will lay out to our loss and detriment God seeth it fit sometimes for his own Glory and our good to continue us under oppression rather than to take us out of it There are two Acts of Providence relieving and comforting the oppressed and punishing the Oppressors Sometimes God doth the one without the other sometimes both together sometimes God will only comfort the oppressed we cry to him in our afflictions and God will not break the yoke but give us a supply of strength to bear it Psal. 138. 3. In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and hast strengthened me with strength in my soul. He giveth you strength to bear the burthen if you continue in your integrity Sometimes God doth punish the Oppressor yet that 's no relief and reparation to you you must bear it for you are to stand to Gods will and to wait his leisure to free you from it Thirdly Your end must be that God may be glorified and that you may serve him more cheerfully So 't is in the Text Deliver me from the oppression of man then shall I keep thy precepts Psal. 9. 13 14. Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Sion and I will rejoyce in thy salvation So David beggeth salvation in order to praise Temporal mercy should not be loved for it self nor sought for it self but as we may glorifie God by it that 's to be our end Lord I seek not my own interest but thine If you have a carnal end you miss Iames 4. 3. Because you ask to consume it upon your lusts that we may please the Flesh as sweetly and quietly as we did before live in the height of pomp and splendor gratifie our lusts without disturbance or see our revenge or if a meer natural end the meer conveniency of the outward man we bespeak our own denial Fourthy We must pray in faith that God can and is ready to deliver from the oppression of man and will do so in due time when 't is good for us First God can deliver us Though our Oppressors be never so mighty and strong God can break
not be at our beck We have deserved nothing but must wait for him in the diligent use of the means as Benhadad's servants watched for the word Brother or any thing of kindness to drop from the King of Israel 2. Work for it for I press you not to a devout sloth All good things are hard to come by 't is worth all the labour we lay out upon it There is no having peace with God any sense of his love without diligent attendance in the use of all appointed means 2 Pet. 3. 14. Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless And 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure That comfort is to be suspected that costs nothing but like Ionah's Gourd grows up in a night that comes upon us we know not how IV. Gods Children when they beg comfort also beg Grace to serve him acceptably For teaching Gods Statutes is not meant barely a giving us a speculative knowledge of Gods will for so David here Make thy face to shine and Teach me thy Statutes And why do they so 1. Out of gratitude They are ingenuous and would return all duty and thankfulness to God as well as receive mercy from him therefore they are always mingling resolutions of duty with expectations of mercy and when they carry away comforts from him are thinking of suitable returns And while they take Christ for righteousness they devote and give up themselves to his use and service The nature of man is so disposed that when we ask any thing we promise especially if a Superior Hos. 14. 2. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips The Children of God resolve upon duty and service when they ask favour So Psal. 9. 13 14. Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my trouble that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the Daughter of Sion We are thinking of honouring and praising God at that time when we seek his favour 2. The Children of God do know that this is the cause of Gods aversion from them that his Stautes are not observed and therefore when they beg a greater experience of Gods special favour they also beg direction to keep his Statutes They cannot maintain and keep up a sense of the love of God unless they be punctual in their Duty He knows nothing of Religion that knows not that the comfort of a Christian depends upon sanctification as well as justification and the greater sense of obedience the fuller sense of the love of God and the degrees of manifesting his favour are according to the degrees of our profiting in obedience for these go along still Jesus Christ is King of righteousness and King of peace He is Melchizedeck King of Salem he pours out the Oil of grace that he may pour out the Oil of gladness Heb. 7. 2. But especially see one place Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Christ was then most sweetly comforting his people but 't was not his mind that they should be emboldned thereby to cast off Duty No he says the only way to assure them that they were not delusions and to clear their right to these comforts was this He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him That 's the way to get confirmation and evidence of the love of God 3. This is a notable effect and evidence of Gods favour to guide you in his ways therefore 't is a branch of the former for whom the Lord loveth he teacheth and guides Rom. 8. 14. As many as are the Children of God they are led by the Spirit Others are left to their own hearts counsels And Psal. 25. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant The communication of Secrets is a note of friendship Now the secret of the Lord the knowledge of his Covenant and what belongs thereto it is to those that fear God There 's the qualification 4. He sheweth that he does not desire a greater proof of Gods love He would chiefly experience the good will of God to him in being taught the mind of God The most sleight that which David prizeth But if our hearts were as they should be we would prefer this before all other good things sanctification to be taught of God For First 'T is a better evidence of Gods favour than worldly comforts Pardon freeth us from punishment sanctification from sin and pollution sin is worse than misery and holiness is to be preferred before impunity Christ in the work of redemption considered the Fathers interest and honour as well as your salvation The taking away of worldly comforts doth not infringe our blessedness yea when it is accompanied with this benefit it maketh way for the encrease of it Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law All the comforts of the world are not worth one Dram of Grace The loss of them may be supplied with Grace and man be happy comfortable and blessed for all that but the loss of Grace cannot be supplied with temporal things We cannot say Blessed is the man that hath lost Grace for the worlds sake Again all the riches and honours heaped upon a man cannot make him better they may easily make him worse but Grace can never make us worse but always better more amiable in the eyes of God and fitter for communion with him These may be given to those whom God hateth Psal. 17. 74. But this is the favour of his people Grace is never given but to those whom he entirely loveth These may be given in wrath but sanctifying Grace never in wrath The more we have of these things the more wanton and vain Deut. 32. 15. They are often used as an occasion to the Flesh Gal. 5. 13. prove fewel to our lusts encrease our snares temptations difficulties in Heavens way Luke 18. 25. Our Table becometh a snare Psal. 69. 22. But the saving Graces of the Spirit make all easie and help us towards our own happiness Secondly Profiting in obedience or sanctification is a greater effect of God favour Sanctification is a greater priviledge than Justification Perfect and compleat holiness and conformity to God is the great thing which God designed as the glory of God is holiness Exod. 15. 11. Moral perfections exceed natural and of all moral perfections Holiness is the greatest 'T is better to be wise than strong to be holy than wise Beasts have strength Man hath reason but holy Angels a holy God Sanctification is a real perfection
pronounced against evil men but the Lord doth not put the Sentence in execution The Sentence is past against them both sententia Legis the sentence of the Law and so it is said he is condemned already Iohn 3. 18. Nay there 's Sententia Iudicis the Sentence which the Judg passeth upon a Sinner for he ratifieth the Sentence of the Law what is bound upon Earth is bound in Heaven Well the Warrant for Execution is signed yet the Execution is suspended for just and wise reasons Sin is not less odious to God because wicked men do not presently feel the punishment of it There are many righteous ends why Execution should be delayed Partly With respect to the Mediator into whose hands the Government of the World is put Exod. 33. 2 3. I will send an Angel before thee I will not go up with thee lest I consume thee by the way compared with Exod. 23. 20 21 22 23. Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him But if indeed thou obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy to thy enemies and an adversary to thy adversaries for my Angel shall go before thee that was Christ whom they tempted in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted him and were destroyed of Serpents Partly that the Elect might not be cut off in their unregenerate condition that the Wheat may not be plucked up with the Tares which they might be if Sentence should be speedily executed against every evil Doer there would be no room left for conversion Therefore God is â—…t slack as men count slackness but only waits that all tâ—…ose that belong to the purpose of his Grace might come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. He is long suffering to usward to those that were such as the Apostle was that belonged to the purposes of Gods grace And it is delayed too that his wrath may be glorified in the confusion of the Reprobate Rom. 9. 22. He endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction that he may shew the Glory of his power against them they are hardened and strenghthened in their wickedness by their prosperity When all the favours of God have been abused and the riches of his goodness set at naught they have nothing to say for themselves And Sentence is delayed that the little good they do in the World may not be hindred God knows how to use all his Creatures even the wicked have a ministry and service under his Providence The Lord would not destroy their enemies all at once lest the Beasts of the Field should encrease upon them Deut. 7. 22. They serve as a Hedg of Thorns to a Garden of Roses for his people A dead rotten Post may support a living Tree It may be God will bring some that belong to his Grace out of their Loins Hierome saith Many times an evil Shrub may bear sweet Fruit. And God hath righteous ends too that his people may be humbled and that their perverse humours may be broken for so saith the Lord Isai. 10. 12. When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Sion and on Ierusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria When he hath sufficiently humbled and purged his people then he will do it And whenever this temptation comes when you see Sentence delayed go to the Sanctuary as David did Psal. 7â—… 17. then you will understand their end There you will see Sentence is not speedily executed but it is surely executed As a Chimney long foul will be fired at length Psal. 55. 19. Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God when they are high and prosperous but God will hear and afflict them even he that abideth of old he whose Essence and Providence hath been always the same he will in due time execute his righteous Judgment and the longer he stays the more heavy the longer he is about drawing of his Bow the deeper will his Arrows pierce they are but treasuring up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. As in Iehojadah's Chest the longer it was e're it was opened the more Treasure there was in the Chest so they are treasuring up wrath c. The Fire that hath been long kindling burns the more grievous at last Secondly There are other punishments besides outward afflictions Invisible Judgments are most fearful blindness of mind hardness of heart terrours of Conscience Tertullian ad Marg. Cogitemus ipsum magis Mundum Carcerem esse exiisse eos de Carcere quà m in Carcerem introisse intelligemus Majores tenebras habet Mundus quae hominum corda excaecant graviores Catenas induit Mundus quae animas hominum obstringunt 2 Cor. 4. 4. Nihil infelicius felicitate peccantium No such misery as to be condemned to this kind of happiness no blindness like a blind understanding no chains like an obstinate will no torments like terrours of Conscience under which a man lives for his further punishment that he may be his own Tormentor Cain had rather dye a thousand deaths than be let loose as a Vagabond here upon Earth and be delivered over to the Hell of his own Conscience Those that are under torments of Conscience will call upon the Mountains and Rocks to cover them The third Consideration is this Providence must not be viewed by halves but in its whole frame and connexion Do but wait a little and you shall see God will shew himself a righteous God When we view the dealings of God by pieces we are apt to break out into those Complaints Psal. 73. 11 12. Doth the Lord see how doth God know Is there knowledge in the Most High Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches c. I but stay a while and you will see There is a God that judgeth in the Earth Psal. 58. 11. I remember the Poet Claudian who had a little tincture of Christianity though a Heathen as appears by his Words when he saw Drones and unworthy men greater than the worthy and vex the pious laetose diu florere nocentes vexarique pios doubted num inesset Rector c. whether there were any Governour of the World any Judge that took notice of things here below incerto florent mortalia casu and thought all things were delivered over to blind Chance but saith he at length Abstulit hunc tandem Ruffini poena absolvit Deos tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant The gods were absolved for they are lifted up on high that their fall may be the greater Men give another judgment of the work of God when it is brought to
Psal. 94. 15. Iudgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it Sometimes they are asunder Earthly Judges may refuse the justice of righteousness a Judg may suspend the act of his own judgment but they shall not long be severed God will bring forth his righteous Judgment Zach. 8. 17. These things I hate saith the Lord. And then in regard of his Providence God will not be unmindful of his promise Psal. 9. 7 8 9. He hath prepared his Throne for judgment and he shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to his people in uprightness Courts of Justice among men are not always open they have Term-time but God is always ready to hear Paintiffs They make Complaints amongst men and they are delayed so much and so long that they are discouraged But we have a friend that is always ready to hear Psal. 48. 10. Thy right hand is full of righteousness for defending his people and punishing his enemies Use 3. To press us to acknowledge this Justice of God that he governeth all things righteously especially when you are under his mighty hand The Lord takes it ill when you question any of his Providences Ezek. 18. 25. Are not my ways equal He will be clear when he judgeth Psal. 51. 4. God will be justified in all that he hath done or shall do for the punishment of sin and therefore when the hand of God is upon you take heed you do not reproach God When his hand is smart and heavy upon you remember affliction opens the eyes of the worst men Nebuchadnezzar that knew no God but himself no happiness but in pleasing his own humour yet when he was whipped and scourged hear him speak Dan. 4. 37. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase Pharaoh Exod. 2 27. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked These Acknowledgments and Confessions come from wicked men as Water out of a Still forced by the fire But if affliction opens the eyes of wicked men surely when we are under Gods afflicting hand we should give him the glory of his Justice and acknowledge that he is clear in all that he brings upon us He takes it ill when we murmure and tax his Judgment Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me And Lam. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandment And when we submissively stoop and accept of the punishment of our sin after he hath been provoked then God will plead for us Lev. 26. 41. When we stoop humbly under Gods correcting hand and bear it patiently and say God is just in all this then it will succeed well Observe the Justice of God especially his remarkable Judgments upon others The Church is brought in acknowledging of it Rev. 15. 3. Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints And Rev. 19. 3. True and righteous are his Iudgments Not that we should sit Crowners upon other mens souls and judge their spiritual condition and misinterpret Providence I look upon it as a great sin of a faction and perverse humors But clearly when mens sins are so great that the Judgments of God have overtaken them we ought to say Iust and true art thou O Lord and just in all thy Iudgments I might shew here is much to keep the Children of God in awe the Lord is a righteous God though they have found mercy and taken sanctuary at his Grace the Lord is impartial in his Justice God that did not spare the Angels when they sinned nor his Son when he was a Sinner by imputation will not spare you though you are the dearly Beloved of his soul Prov. 11. 31. The sinful courses of Gods Children occasion bitterness enough they never venture upon sin but with great loss If Paul give way to a little pride God will humble him If any give way to sin their Pilgrimage will be made uncomfortable Gods hand may be smart and dismal Eli for negligence and indulgence there 's the Ark of God taken his two Sons slain in battel his Daughter in Law dies he himself breaks his Neck O the wonderful Tragedies that sin works in the houses of the Children of God! And David when he intermedled with forbidden fruit was driven from his Palace his Concubines defiled his own Son slain a great many calamities did light upon him Therefore the Children of God have cause to fear for the Lord is a just God and they will find it so here upon earth he hath reserved liberty to visit their iniquity with Rods and their transgression with Scourges I might press you to imitate Gods righteousness 1 Iohn 2. 29. If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of God You have a righteous God and here 's the thing you should copy out SERMON CLV PSAL. CXIX VER 138. Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful IN the former Verse the Prophet had spoken of the righteousness of God now God is essentially righteous and therefore all that proceedeth from him is righteous A Carpenter that hath a Rule without him and a Line to measure his work by may sometimes hit and sometimes miss but if you could suppose a Carpenter the motion of whose hand were his Rule he could never chop amiss So must we conceive of God his Act is his Rule Holiness is his Essence not a superadded quality his righteousness is himself therefore from this righteous God there proceedeth nothing but righteousness and from this faithful God nothing but faith He discovereth his Nature both in the Acts of his Providence and the Institutions of his Word We cannot reason so concerning men that because they are righteous nothing cometh from them but what is righteous because righteousness is not their nature but an adventitious quality therefore good men may make ill Laws for though they be meant for good they may be deceived And sometimes wicked men may make good Laws to ingratiate themselves and for the interest of their affairs but God being essentially necessarily good holy and righteous his Laws are also good holy and true Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful In the Words observe I. That there is a Revelation of Gods Will in his Word Thy Testimonies II. The Authority wherewith his Revelation is backed Which thou hast commanded III. The intrinsick worth and excellency of these Testimonies it is double They are 1. Righteous 2. Very faithful In the Hebrew righteousness and faithfulness that is very right and very faithful the one word is referred to the Agenda in Religion the other to the Credenda they are worthy to be obeyed
first laid in his Everlasting Decrees The Terms of Life and Salvation held forth in the New Covenant are to continue for Ever no change to be expected From the beginning of the World to the end thereof the Covenant of Grace cannot cease The Obligation still continueth men are for ever bound to love God and their Neighbour There shall no time come when the Law of loving God and our Neighbour shall be Reversed and out of Date The Covenant is essentially the same under all the diversity of Administrations And as the Priviledges so the Duties are of an Eternal Obligation Among men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is just at one time that is not just at another Law givers cannot alwayes live to see their Laws executed and men cannot foresee all occasions and inconveniences and therefore often repeal their Laws but God is wise he hath made an unchangeable Law and he forbiddeth things intrinsecally Evil and commandeth things intrinsecally Good 2. As to the Effects of it in case of Obedience or Disobedience In case of Disobedience Eternal Wrath lighteth on them that reject this Covenant that walk contrary to it they shall be Eternally Miserable 2 Thes. 1. 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord. Not a Temporal but an Everlasting Destruction and Mark 9. 44. The worm shall never die and the fire shall never be quenched An Eternity of Torments because they despised Everlasting Mercy and rejected the Authority of an Everlasting God Having offended an Infinite God their punishment abideth on them for ever If they will stand out their day 't is fit their recovery should be hopeless 2dly The Benefits are Eternal in case of Obedience There is Everlasting Grace Everlasting Comfort and Everlasting Life 1 Ioh. 2. 17. The World passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever The Spirit is given as a Comforter that shall abide for ever Iohn 14. 16. and 2 Thes. 2. 16. God who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation and good hope through Grace And 't is fit it should be so because 't is built upon Gods unchangeable Love and Christs Eternal Merit and Intercession Gods Love is an Everlasting Love Ier. 31. 3. The efficacy of Christ's Merit never ceaseth Heb. 13. 8. His continual Intercession ever lasteth Heb. 7. 25. and Rom. 8. 39. Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. He liveth for Ever by which we continue for ever in the Favour of God and the Covenant standeth firm between him and us the Fountain of Comfort is never dryed up Use Is to Inform us of the difference between the Laws of God and the Laws of Men There are many differences some of which I shall touch by and by this Expression offereth two 'T is Righteousness and Everlasting Righteousness First 'T is Righteousness Men have and do often decree wickedness by a Law not only in the first Table where man is most blind but also in the second not only in their Barbarous Worship their sacrificing of men but also in their humane Constitutions The Lacedaemonians held it lawful to steal if he were not taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very Act. In Cyprus they held it lawful for their Virgins if they were poor to Prostitute themselves to get a Dowry or Portion By the Law of the 12 Tables a man might kill his Wife if she smelt of Wine or Counterfeited his Keys And among the Romans if a slave had killed his Master all his fellow-slaves were put to death with him though never so Innocent By the same Laws a Father might thrice sell his Child they might tear their Debtors in pieces if they were not solvent Thus blind were men in their own concerns and what made for humane Commerce Much more in the way of pleasing God and the Interest of the World to come Bless God for this righteous Law Again Secondly 'T is Everlasting Righteousness not only Righteous at the first giving out but Righteous in all Ages and Times and should we slight this rule that will hold for ever In the World new Lords new Laws Men vary and change their designs and purposes Priviledges granted to day may be repealed to morrow but this word will hold true for ever Our Justification by Christ is irrevocable that part of Righteousness is Everlasting Be sure you are Justified now upon terms of the Gospel and you shall be Justified for ever your Forgiveness is an Everlasting Forgiveness and your Peace is an everlasting Peace Ier 33. 34. I will remember your sins no more So the other Righteousness of Sanctification 't is for ever Approve your selves to God now and you will approve your selves at the Day of Judgment 2. Use is Exhortation 1. Let this take us off from seeking things that have no Continuance in them The Everlastingness of the Word is opposed often to the Transitory Vanities of the World 1 Pet. 1. 23 24. All flesh is grass and the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away but the Word of the Lord indureth for ever Why should we hunt after that glory that soon fadeth So 1 Ioh. 2. 17. The World passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever All these things Change and move up and down by divers Circumrotations we sit fast and loose in the World but in the Covenant of Grace all is sure 2. Let us choose this Word to live by that we may be partakers of that Everlasting Good which cometh by it Oh let us regard it Eternity is concerned in it If the Righteousness of God be Everlasting let us begin betimes to get interested in it and persevere in it to the end Let us begin betimes for we have but a few dayes to live here in the World and so either to express our thankfulness or lay a foundation for our eternal hopes Therefore let us set about the work the sooner And let us persevere our care to keep this law must be perpetual not like Temporaries many will carry themselves well and godly for a while but afterwards fall off this doth not become an Everlasting Law there is the same goodness in Gods Law that there was at first 3. Let us comfort our selves with the Everlastingness of the Priviledges offered to us in Gods Word The redeemed of the Lord should have an Everlasting joy Isa. 35. 10. And the Ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads Let other things end and change as they will our right by the new Covenant changeth not Sometimes we are in request in the World and sometimes in disgrace but Gods love is everlasting and sure We are not in with him to day and out to morrow he hath dealt with us upon sure and unchangeable terms nay when you die you may comfort
ruine of Bodies and Souls and all that they have Their Mirth is the Mirth of Fools Eccl. 7. 4 5. Their service the sacrifice of Fools Eccl. 5. 1. 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have done very Foolishly Therefore give me Understanding 2. Knowledge is our cure The state of Grace is called a state of Light Eph. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. So that the new estate is described by Light a directive and a perswasive Light 't is very notable in Eph. 5. 14. Arise from the dead and God shall give thee light And Act. 26. 18. To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God In our natural estate we are all over darkness slaves to the Prince of darkness doing the works of darkness and were posting on apace into utter darkness and therefore 't is Light must cure us and guide us into a better course Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Second Reason is Because of the excellency of Understanding Therefore we should make it our request to God Here are four Considerations 1. Knowledge in the general is Mans Excellency 'T is our priviledge above the Beasts many of them excel us in beauty of Colour in strength and nimbleness and vivacity and long Life and acuteness of sense but we excel them in knowledge And so God hath taught us more than the Beasts of the field Man is a rational Creature his Life standeth in Light Ioh. 1. 4. In him was life and the life was the light of men Other Creatures have Life but not such a Life as is Light are not indowed with a reasonable soul and a faculty of Understanding The more of Knowledge there is increased in us the more of Man there is in us 2. Divine Knowledge is better than all other Knowledge To know Gods Nature and Will to know how God will be pleased and how we may come to injoy him all other knowledge doth but please the Fancy this doth us good to the heart Ier. 9. 23 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me as not in strength so not in natural wisdom Here I may take the Argument of the Text Men do not properly live if they want the Light of Heavenly Wisdom without Divine Knowledge a man is little better than a Beast The Indowment of Reason was not given us meerly to shift for our selves or provide for the animal Life other Creatures do that better by Instinct and natural Sagacity and are contented with less No Mans Life was given him for some other end to know and serve his Maker 3. Of all the knowledge of God Practical knowledge is better than speculative not so much subtlely to be able to discourse of his nature as to obey his Will Ier. 22. 16. He Iudged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord The Knowledge of God is not measured by sharpness of Wit but by serious ready practice not strength of Parts but a good and honest Heart so to understand as to keep them Psal. 111. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and a good Understanding have all they that do his Commandments They understand best not who can discourse most subtlely but who live most holily When our Faith is more strong our Reverence of God increased our Obedience more ready then is our Knowledge sound When we follow those Courses which we know God delighteth in Ier. 9. 24. and study to please him in all things 1 Ioh. 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him He that doth not make Conscience of his Duty he knoweth no such Sovereign Being as God is that hath power to command to save and to destroy Tit. 1. 16. They profess that they know God but in works they deny him So 1 Ioh. 3. 6. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him Well then in giving his Word Gods end was not to make trial of their Wits who could most sharply conceive nor of their Memories who could most firmly retain nor of their Eloquence who can most neatly discourse but of their Hearts who will most obediently submit to him that 's knowledge indeed which tendeth to use and practice Scire malum non est malum look as to know evil is not evil for God knoweth evil yet his knowledge is not evil So scire bonum non est bonum to know that which is good doth not make a man good This is the distinction between Understanding and Will the Understanding draweth the Object to its self but the Will is drawn by the Object to it If I understand any thing I am not in a moral sense that which I understand but if I Will any thing or Love any thing I am what I Will and Love This is the difference between the two faculties 4. Transforming Regenerating Saving Knowledge is the best part of Practical knowledge I add this because general knowledge may produce good life or some outward Conformity in the unregenerate 2 Pet. 2. 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Those that are destitute of the saving knowledge of Christ they may cleanse their External Conversation by that Rational Conviction though not Spiritual Illumination though strangers to inward Mortification and be unrenewed in Heart yea avoid gross sins perform external Duties O but the lively saving light such as subdueth the Heart to God such as maketh a thorough change in us that 's the best 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. When we so know Christ as to be like him this is like heavens knowledge 1 Ioh. 3. 2. And when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Common Truths have another efficacy when they understand them by the lively light of the spirit when men know the Torments of Hell so as to flee from them Matth. 3. 7. Flee from wrath to come as a man would out of a ship that is sinking or a house falling so when we see Heaven so as it maketh us seek after it Heb. 4. 1. so to know Christ as to be made like him this will do us good and this is one of Gods best gifts Use. Oh then beg this gift of God Lord give me understanding Eyes Do not beg Riches and Honours and great things in the World but beg for understanding 't is pleasing to God
Trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me So Col. 4. 2. Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving We are to gather up matter of Praise to God we should not be so barren in gratulation if we did observe more of these experiences You would not only be glorifying God by way of invocation but Commemoration you may Commend him to others from your own experience Psal. 34. 8. O taste and see that the Lord is good 1. Use. Is to reprove them that throw away their Prayers and never look after them that play with such a Duty as this as Children that shoot away their Arrows and never look where they light Surely this argueth great Contempt and low Thoughts of God Formality in prayer and Stupidness of Heart It bespeaks low thoughts of God and of his Providence for if they did believe such a particular Providence reacheth to all persons and things they would study to produce some of these Experiences to be able to say I was in such a streight and God delivered me Psal. 34. 6. This poor man cryed unto the Lord and he heard him Great Formality in Prayer for if we pray not out of Course but in good earnest we cannot but hearken after the speeding of our requests Great stupidity of Spirit hearts that have any sense of life in them are observing Gods dealings and suit their Carriage accordingly Lively Christians are putting Cases 2. Use. Is to press us to hearken after the Answer of our Prayers Gods Children do so and get much Comfort thereby and Evidence of his Love Psal. 66. 18 19. But verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my Cry 't is no small favour and respect we have from Gods love to us 't is a great owning of our Persons our Mercies are the sweeter there is a double lustre and beauty put upon them when they come in the way of prayer out of the hand of God not by a Common Providence but by Covenant and by vertue of the Covenant put in suit by us as well as granted by God which is a pledge of God's respect to us To this End 1. Be perswaded that God will hear you and answer you when you pray according to his Will 1 Ioh. 5. 14. And this is the Confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us This is absolutely necessary for all that will pray aright and mind what they do for none can come to God aright but those that are perswaded they shall be the better for coming to him Iames 1. 5. Pray in Faith nothing wavering There must be a relying upon God if indeed we pray to him He that expects little in Prayer will neither be much in it nor serious about the answer of it 2. This Answer must be heedfully observed Careless Spirits will not easily discern it Psal. 130. 5 6. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his Word do I hope My soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the Morning I say more then they that watch for the Morning As those that watched in the Temple for the dawning of the day this earnest waiting is an happy Token when we make much of prayers they are not lost Therefore as they watched for the Word Brethren so must you wait upon God for some discovery of his Love by a gracious answer and return unto your Prayers 3. Sometimes God giveth an answer presently sometime it may be after some competent space of time 1. Sometimes presently as Cornelius in the time of Prayer and while the duty is a doing God giveth in some tokens of Acceptance as an Angel was sent to Cornelius at the ninth hour which was the hour of prayer to assure him that his prayers were heard and duties accepted Acts 10. 3. Peter and Iohn went up to pray at the ninth hour Acts 3. 1. So Daniel Whilst I was speaking and praying and Confessing my sin yea whilest I was speaking in prayer the Man Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly The Lord is ready to answer the prayers of his servants in the very instant of their praying So Acts 4. 3. While they prayed they were filled with the Holy-Ghost The Cases brought are singular and extraordinary as to the token and manner of Assistance but as to the substance of the Blessing 't is the common practice of Gods free Grace Isa. 58. 10. When they call I will answer while they are yet speaking I will hear Acts 12. 12 18. A Company was met together in Prayer when Peter in Prison heard of the time of his Deliverance 2. Sometimes a good while after the prayers are in Gods book Mal. 3. 16. Now these must be waited for My God will hear me Mich. 7. 7. We cannot say assoon as the prayer is made for he saith I will wait for the God of my Salvation Paul prayed thrice for the removal of the Messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12. then God said My grace is sufficient for thee We must knock again and again God heareth assoon as the prayer is made but he taketh his own time to dispatch an answer Abraham prayeth for a Child but many years pass over till he hath him in his Armes 4. When God giveth an Answer own it as an Answer sometimes we will not take notice of what is before our Eyes out of deep distress of Spirit 't is said Iob 9. 16. Though I had called and he had answered yet would I not believe that he had hearkned to my Voice Thus we mis-interpret Gods dealings in our troubles that we will not own Gods work as an Answer 5. Consider the several ways how God giveth Answer to his Peoples prayers 1. Extraordinarily as in Ancient time so an Angel was sent to Cornelius to tell him his Prayers were heard So to Daniel so to Abel Heb. 11. 4. probably by Fire from Heaven by Vision to Abraham by Voyce or visible token to Moses and the High-Priest in the Tabernacle of the Congregation from above the Mercy-seat But these returns were proper to those times 2. Ordinary and this several wayes 1 Either by granting the Mercy prayed for as to Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 27. For this Child I prayed and the Lord hath given me the Petition I asked of him So to David Psal. 21. 2. Thou hast given him his hearts desire and hast not with-holden the request of his lips So often to his People when they have humbly sought to him Sometimes instantaneous at the very praying 1 Sam. 7. 9 10. And Samuel cryed unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him and as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering the Philistines drew neer to Battel against Israel and the Lord discomfited the Philistines Or by degrees when God is preparing Instruments before he giveth Consummate deliverance Acts 7. 34. I have heard their groanings and I will send thee into Aegypt Their
we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation The word spoken by Angels was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was only worth questioned no but the truth also because so little believed therefore so little thought of less desired least of all pursued and sought after 2 Pet. 1. 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Iesus but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty Use. Oh study to be informed more and more of this great Truth le ts think of and often consider the unerring Certainty of the Scripture 'T is a Truth not to be supposed and taken for granted but known that you may build sure Man is apt to suspect Evangelical Truths as being cross to his Lusts and Interests You will find it of use not only in great Temptations when we are apt to question all Psal. 73. 13. but in ordinary practice in every Prayer Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith 'T is not an Assurance of our particular estate or our Title to Eternal Life but a full Assurance of the Word and Promise of God that is necessarily required in every one that will draw nigh to God Let us ask in faith nothing doubting Iam. 1. 7 8. 2. Do not content your selves with a light Credulity but grow up to a full perswasion 2 Tim. 3. 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And Col. 2. 2. That their hearts being comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding Not a fluctuating doubting Knowledge but a full perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel Luk. 1. 4. That thou mayest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Col. 1. 23. If thou continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel a rooted perswasion that 't is the undoubted Truth of God the firmness of Faith should answer the firmness of Gods Word There are several degrees of Assent Conjecture Opinion weak Faith and receiving the Word in much Assurance 1 Thes. 1. 6. There is Belief Confidence Assurance and full Assurance Belief is grounded on Gods Word in general and all the Truths and Propositions therein contained Confidence on the Promise the one goeth before the other Fidelity is before Dependance and Belief for the Promise is first a Truth and so to be considered before it can be conceived under the formal notion of a Promise full Assurance is grounded on the Fidelity and Immutability of God no man believeth so far but he may believe more Doct. III. That Experiences of former times should give us encouragement to trust God for what is future Thy Testimonies I have known of old saith David So the Children of God make use of them See Davids Instance 1 Sam. 17. 36. Thy servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistian shall be as one of them Moreover David said the Lord hath delivered me from the paw of the Lion and the paw of the Bear and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine Thus he argueth from former experience to future deliverance I trust in the same God who is able to give the same strength and why should I not look for the same success So Iacob Gen. 32. 10 11. I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of the Truth thou hast shewed to thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands deliver me I pray thee from the hands of my brother Esau. So Psal. 23. 5 6. Thou hast prepared a table for me in the presence of mine enemies Surely goodness and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life He hath been good to me and if it be for his glory he will be still good to me he hath been my God and will be my God and shall be my God for ever 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust he will yet deliver us In all respects of time we stand in need of deliverance when one is past another cometh there have been dangers there are dangers and there will be dangers but God hath doth and will deliver It is a Trade God hath used an Art he is versed in and never at a loss about Our God is a God of Salvation and is excellent in working of it Reasons of the Point I. Gods Constancy and Unchangeableness God is the same alwayes like himself for Mercy Power and Truth he is never at a loss what he hath done he can do and will do I am is Gods Name not I have been or shall be his Providence is new and fresh every Morning Lament 3. 23. God is but one God Gal. 3. 20. Alwayes like himself as he hath delivered so he doth and will Isa. 59. 1. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear No decay in him when we give to another we give from our selves we waste by giving the Creatures are at a stint and soon spend their allowance but God cannot be Exhausted there is no decrease of Love and Power no wrinkle upon the brow of Eternity II. Experience begets Confidence Rom. 5. 3. And patience experience and experience begets hope The heart is much confirmed when it hath Faith and Experience of his side If we were as we should be the Promise should be beyond all Experiences for it is the Word of him that cannot lye Experience addeth nothing to the certainty of the Promise nor any Authority to it only in regard of our weakness 't is an help and sensible Confirmation against our distrustful Cares and Fears Sense and Experience is not the ground of Faith we must believe God upon his bare word yet 't is an encouragement Ioh. 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed Then more encouraged when felt Christ. We have a double proof and experience 1. What God is able to do for us 2. What God will do again when his own Glory and our need requireth it 1. We know what God can do former Deliverances are as so many Monuments and significations of his Power Isa. 51. 9. Awake awake O arm of the Lord art not thou he that cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon awake and put on strength as in the ancient dayes Rahab is Egypt Psal. 87. 4. the Dragon Pharaoh Ezek. 29. 3. the Dragon or Crocodile of Egypt Can he do this and not do that Upon every experience we that learn by sense should be more strongly perswaded of Gods Power 'T
imports his knowledge accompanied with a tender Love This is often spoken of in Scripture Exod. 2. 28. God looked on the Children of Israel and had respect to them So Exod. 3. 7. And the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task-Masters and have known their sorrows Acts. 7. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people or seeing I have seen the very sight of God is a comfort and support to a sinking Soul it is some comfort to us to have our crosses known to such as we are assured do love us if they condole with us though they be not able to help us so that the Lord looketh upon us with a merciful pitiful Eye 2. As God will cast the Eye of his Pity on us so he will put forth the Arm of his Power as he hath a merciful Eye so he hath a powerful Hand ready to help though sometimes we see nothing of this 2 Chron. 16. 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to shâ—…w himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him there is his Care and effective Providence 2. Be sure you keep up your Qualification I do not forget thy Law Many times when men in their Prosperity do not regard God and his Commandments he regardeth them in their Streights for though we forget the Duty of Children he doth not forget the Mercies of a Father but surely he will not forget them that do not forget his Law Therefore it is not credible that God should forget us and our Condition that we should be more mindful of his Law than he of our Affliction he that puts us in mind of his Law will also put himself in mind of the troubles we endure for the keeping of it for certainly God is more mindful of his part of the Covenant then we can be of ours See Christs Argument Ioh. 17. 10. And all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them Doctrine IV. We may ask Deliverance from Temporal Troubles not only Support but Deliverance So doth David 1. God hath promised Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of Trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me 2. Much of God is discovered in it His Wisdom 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of Temptation We are at a loss many times but God is never at a loss His Power Dan. 3. 17. If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King when the wrath of the King was great and the fiery furnace burning before them His Goodness God is sufficiently inclined to it by his own Grace and delights to do it Psal. 149. 4. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with Salvation he loveth the Person of Believers and loveth their Prosperity and Happiness and delighteth to see them do well in the World he hath pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants Psal. 35. 27. which is a good incouragement to pray for it 2 Sam. 14. 1. Ioab perceived that the Kings heart was towards Absalom Yea not only his Love but the constancy and unweariedness of his Love 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivereth us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us there are all respects of time Solomon saith Prov. 25. 17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee Men waste by giving but I AM is Gods Name we still need and he is still a giving 2 Tim. 3. 11. Thou hast fully known my persecutions afflictions which came unto me at Antioch c. But out of them all the Lord delivered me So many Troubles so many gracious Experiences of God Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all Iob 5. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven shall no evil touch thee Seven is the number of perfection God can and doth deliver us as often as we need deliverance When Clouds return after the Rain or one evil treadeth on the heels of another he hath a succession of Mercies for our succession of Sorrows We are dismayed when we see one trouble is over and another cometh we have the same God still the same certainty of his Mercy in delivering Many times God so delivereth that the Troublers of his people shall come in their room Prov. 11. 8. The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead As the Leprosie of Naaman went to Gehazi His Faithfulness which he hath laid at pledge with us that he will make a way to Escape 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way for you to escape that you may â—…e able to bear it His Dominion and Soveraignty Psal. 44. 4. Thou art my King O God command deliverances for Iacob he hath all things at his Command all second causes the hearts of his Enemies 3. We have greater opportunities to serve God Psal. 119. 134. Deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep thy precepts Luk. 1. 74 75. That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life Use. They are too nice that think we may not ask of God temporal Mercies it is lawful to ask them if we ask them lawfully with a submission to God and for his Glory that we may serve him more chearfully so you may ask a deliverance out of your Troubles Doctrine V. Those that would have God to deliver them out of their Afflictions should be sure they do not forsake their Duty All the Evil that David suffered could not weaken his love to the Law of God nor draw him from the Obedience of it and what was the issue He pleadeth this in Prayer to God Reasons 1. Because if we do so the nature of our sufferings is altered both as to God and Man as to Man we do not suffer as evil doers 1 Pet. 4. 15. But let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an evil doer or as a busie body in other mens matters which will much darken our Comfort and Glory in suffering though for the main you have an interest in God if by your miscarriage you have deserved the stroke of humane Justice as to God your sufferings are not Castigatory but Probatory Rev. 2. 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tryed not punished but tryed 2. Because
to plead and standeth to judge his people He will bring matters under a Review and will powerfully shew himself against their Oppressors To this pleading Iob alludeth when he saith Iob 23. 6. Will he plead against me with his great power if he should use his Almighty and Invincible power against me he would easily ruine me So Ezek. 38. 22. I will plead against him with Pestilence and with Blood against Gog and Magog that is the Sythians Turks and Tartars So that you see that God's pleading is not by speaking or by Word of Mouth but by the Veugeance of his Providence against those that wrong his people So against Babylon Ier. 51. 36. Thus saith the Lord Behold I will plead thy cause and take vengeance for thee But that this is a mixt act of Patron and Judge see Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute Iudgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousness When Gods People provoke him to anger by their sins he casteth them into Troubles and then their Adversaries are Chief and their Cause is much darkned and obscured all this while God is pleading against them but it is not the Enemies Quarrel but his own Vindication of abused Mercy and Goodness but when once the controversie is taken up between God and them by their Submission and clearing his Justice and imploring his Mercy then God will plead their Cause and take their part against the instruments of his Vengeance and clear their righteous cause who only sought their own ends in afflicting them when God hath exercised their Humility and Patience he will thus do and how I pray you will he plead for them the Text saith there by executing Judgment for them that is by putting his sentence in Execution and then will restore to them their wonted priviledges and own them in the publick view of all and make manifest they are his he will bring them forth to the Light and they shall see his Righteousness 3. The Effect of God's pleading which is the clearing of God's people and the convincing of their Adversaries which God doth partly by the Eminency and Notableness of the Providences whereby he delivereth his people and the markes of his Favour put upon them Nehem. 6. 16. And it came to pass that when all our Enemies heard thereof and all the Heathen that were about us saw these things they were much cast down in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God Their own Judgments were convinced of their folly in opposing the Iews the extraordinary success shewed the hand of God was in it by such incredible and remarkable occurrences doth God bring about their deliverance So Micah 7. 10. When God shall plead her cause then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me where is the Lord thy God mine eyes shall behold her now shall she be trodden dâ—…wil as the mire of the streets Those who mocked her Faith should be confounded at the sight of her Deliverance Thus God delights to make the happiness of his people Conspicuous So Rev. 3. 9. Behold I will make them which are of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Iews and are not but do lie behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee He will make their Enemies to know that he hath loved them and ask them forgiveness for the wrongs and outrages done to them Partly by the Convictions of his Spirit undeceiving the World and reproving them for the hatred and malice against his People Ioh. 16. 8. The Comforter when he is come shall reprove the world of Sin of Righteousness and of Iudgment The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Comfort but Convince or Reprove put them to silence so as they shall not in Reason gainsay The Object the World the Unconverted if not the Reprobate The things whereof Convinced of Sin and Righteousness and Judgment of the Truth of Christs Person and Doctrine This was spoken for the Comfort of the Disciples who were to go abroad and beat the Devil out of his Territories by the Doctrine of the Cross that were weak men destitute of all Worldly sufficiencies and Props and Aids Their Master suffered as a seducer their Doctrine cross to mens carnal Interests for them in this manner to venture upon the raging World was a heavy discouraging thing Now the Spirit should come and convince the opposing World so far that some terrified before brought to Evangelical Repentance Acts 2. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart soon desire to share in their great Priviledge Acts 8. 18 19. And when Simon saw that through laying on the Apostles hands the holy Ghost was given he offered them money saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost but he was yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Some almost perswaded Acts 26. 28. Then Agrippa said unto Paul almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian. Some forced to magnifie them who did not joyn with them Acts 5. 13. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them but the people magnified them Some would have worshipped them being yet Pagans Acts 14. 11 13. And when the people saw what Paul had done they lift up their voices saying in the speech of Lycaonia the Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men Then the Priests of Iupiter which was before their City brought Oxen and Garlands to the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people Others bridled that were afraid to meddle with them Acts 5. 34 35. Then stood there up one in the Council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a Doctor of Law had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the Apostles forth a little space and said unto them Ye men of Israel take heed to your selves what ye intend to do as touching these men That Christ that Messias that Righteous Person one able to Vanquish the Devil thus without any visible force and with mere Spiritual Weapons by this conviction of the Spirit did the Lord subdue the World to the owning and receiving Christs Kingdom at least not go on in an high hand to oppose it God cleared Christ as righteous and Lord. II. The Necessity of this pleading 1. Because the People of God are often in such a Condition that none will plead their Cause unless the Lord plead it and therefore we are driven to him as our Judge and Patron God's design is not to gain the World by Pomp and Force but by spiritual Evidence and Power and therefore as to Externals it is often worse with his People than with others for the World is upon their Tryal and
should his Mercy and Truth fulfilled Secondly To Frequency and Constancy therein Frequency in this Duty doth not beget a Satiety and Loathing but rather a greater delight to continue in it But here arise two Questions Quest. I. What Time must be necessarily spent in Acts of Worship and Adoration Prayer Praise and immediate Converse with God Answ. 1. 'T is a Truth that our whole time must be given to God for a Christian is a dedicated thing a living Sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. Now the Beast offered in Sacrifice with all the Appurtinances was Gods a Christian by the consent of his own Vows is not master of any thing After a Vow of all we must not keep back part as did Ananias and Saphira A Christian hath given his whole Self Time and Strength to God 2. Though our whole Time be given to God yet for several Uses and Purposes Gods Service is not of one sort and he is served in our Callings as well as in our Worship Man in Paradise was to dress the Garden Gen. 2. 15. as well as to Contemplate God Common actions may become Sacred by their End and Use. Isaiah 23. 18. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. 3. These several Duties must not interfere and clash one with another for Gods Commands are not contrary but subordinate We must not so attend upon Religion as to neglect the service of our Generation as Instruments of Gods Providence nor suffer the Lean Kine to devour the Fat the World to incroach upon Religion 4. The particular Seasons for each Duty are not determined and set down in Scripture 1. Partly Because God trusteth Love and will see whether we have a mind to Cavil and Wrangle and Dispute away Duties rather than Practise them 2. And Partly Because he would leave something to the Conduct of his Spirit and the Choice of Spiritual Wisdom Psal. 112. 5. A good man will guide his affairs with discretion 3. And Partly Because mens Occasions and conditions are different and he would not have his Law to be a snare 4. And Partly Because there are so many occasions to praise God that if we do not want an Heart we will be much and frequent in this Duty 5. Though there be not express Rules there is enough to prevent Carelesness and Loosness God calleth to us in very large and Comprehensive terms always continually and in every thing The Example of the Saints who Night and Day were praising God Paul and Silas at midnight sang praises to God Acts 16. 29. So Psal. 119. 62. At midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee because of thy righteous Iudgments And in the Text seven times a day Besides there are daily solemn services Personal and Domestick to be performed Matth. 6. 11. Watching dayly at my gates Prov. 8. 34. Morning and Evening they were to offer a Lamb Numb 28. 4. 6. There are general hints and limits enough to become love Psalm 71. 14. But I will hope continually and will praise thee yet more and more Enough to keep the Heart in good plight and maintain Faith and Hope in God and keep up a spiritual entercourse of Communion with God by dayly offering up prayers and praises to him Quest. II. Whether it be Convenient to state and fix a time David had his set times so had Daniel and surely all Occasions Opportunities and Abilities considered it may be an help to us and make the spiritual Life more orderly to have set stated fixed times for the performance of this Duty Thirdly To suit Gods Word and Works together Laws and Judgments Rom. 1. 18. God hath revealed his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness Heb. 2. 2. Every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompense of reward Deliverances and Promises fetch all out of the Covenant Psal. 128. 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion that relateth to the Covenant made to the Church This cheeketh Atheisme sweetneth our Duties allayeth our Fears and resolveth our doubts and helpeth us in the delightful exercise of praising God SERMON CLXXIX PSALM CXIX VER 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them ALL that live in this World find this life a Warfar Iob 7. 1. Much more must the godly expect difficulties and conflicts Psal. 34. 19. Many are the troubles of the Righteous to the eye of Flesh no Condition seemeth worse and more obnoxious to misery then the Condition of those that serve God yet in reality none are in a better Estate what ever happeneth they are at Peace built on the corner-stone which God hath layed in Zion and therefore in all the Commotions and Troubles of the World they are safe This is that which David here observeth In the former verse he had told us that it was his custom to praise God seven times a day for his righteous judgments and now he sheweth the reason namely from the ordinary course and tenour of these Judgments or dispensation of his Providence which was to give peace to them that keep his Law Great peace c. In these Words you have I. A priviledge great peace have they II. The Qualification that love thy Law III. The Effect nothing shall offend them Let me open these Branches the Priviledge is peace and that is threefold First External Secondly Internal Thirdly And Eternal First External in the House the City or Countrey and Societies where we Live in this sence 't is taken Psalm 122. 6 7. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee peace be within thy walls Now this is not all that is meant here for this is a common benefit though often vouchsafed for the sake of them that love God as Musick cannot be heard alone though intended but to one person yet others share with him in the benefit of it Or if you understand it of his own personal peace or being at amity with men they do not always enjoy that Gods best Children are often forced to be men of Contention that is passively they are contended with and troubled in the world Ier. 15. 10. And therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all men 'T is not always to be had but we should indeavour to live in peace with all men Secondly There is Internal peace arising either from Justification Rom. 5. 1 or Sanctification Isa. 32. 17. The Fruit of Righteousness is peace or from Contentment with our condition Phil. 4. 7. By Justification we have peace when God is reconciled and made a Friend By Sanctification we have peace when we walk evenly with God And by Contentment we have peace when our Affections are calmed and rightly ordered or set upon more worthy and noble objects So that we are not troubled at the loss of outward things these are the ingredients necessary to internal peace which is I suppose principally
the World little in regard of outward interest and so lye open and liable to offences little in regard of their spiritual growth and so apt to take offence yet they are dear to the great God who is their Patron and will take their quarrel into his own hands And it will be a thousand times better they had been the persecuted ones than to be persecutors Thirdly With respect to the double faculty the devil seeketh to work upon which is our irrascible or concupiscible faculty our eschewing or pursuing power the flesh with its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5. 24. 'T is passions and lusts what we render affections and these are suited to the Temptations that most Men are usually overcome by such are the Terrours and Allurements of the World the Terrours of the World that works upon our Passions the Allurements of the World that works upon our Lusts. First The Terrours of the World are apt to draw men to dislike God and distaste the way of Godliness Certainly By these the Devil seeketh to get us into his Power and Reach Therefore 't is said 1 Pet. 5. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the Faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren that are in the World Satans Temptations are conveyed to the Godly thorough Afflictions hoping by these to prevail with them to make them quitt the Truth and their duty to Christ and grow weary of the ways of God and it doth the more prevail when they think they are the only sufferers This should not be for the drift of Christianity 't is to take us off from the hopes and fears of the World and a full third part of the Scriptures serveth to comfort us in Tribulations and Afflictions for the Gospels sake and if we were not exposed to troubles these would be as unsuitable and needless as bladders and arts of swimming were to a man that standeth on dry land and never meaneth to go into the deep Waters But yet they are an usual stumbling block to those that have not overcome the sensual inclination and are not dead to a worldy interest 2. The Allurements of the World or the baits of sence present things have a strange infatuation upon us 2 Tim. 4. 10. And Demas hath forsaken us having loved the present World The troubles of the World are not so dangerous as the snares of the World though many be discouraged by troubles yet many times others are gained by the Patience Courage and Constancy of Gods Servants in Persecutions The offence may be more easily disproved as not justifiable for men may have a secret liking of the Truth and a purpose to own it in better times but by the baits of sence men are inveigled and tempted to dislike Religion it self as contradicting their Lusts and nourish a base Opinion of it in their hearts in Troubles and Persecutions there is not a dislike of Religion it self but of the hard Terms upon which it must be received and cherished And besides the mischief is greater they that cast off the Profession and Practice of Godliness upon some great Earthly hopes involve themselves in a more hainous sin then they that shrink from it out of some great fear for those things we fear as Afflictions Torments and Death they are in themselves destructive of our Felicity and therefore it cannot be said how much nature abhorreth them But those things which we hope for and desire are such that nature may easily and without great inconveniency be without them As great Riches Splendour of Life Noble Affinities and Marriages for these things are not absolutely necessary to the Worldly life but only conduce to the greater coveniency and felicity thereof Not our Worldly Being but our well-being is concerned in them Our being may be kept up and supported in a far meaner Condition thence It is that great dangers when they are at hand and difficulties sustained and the fear of them doth often sway us against the Conscience of our Duty but if we lose our great Worldly hopes or be cut short in our Condition and Worldly expectations 't is no great matter Wise and Gracious men may easily bear it with a quiet and well-composed Mind The sin of those that stumble at great and worldly hopes is questionless the greater Transgression for they are only inticed and drawn away by their Pleasures and Lusts which all good Christians are obliged to deaden and mortifie But though to fall out of Fear be not so hainous a sin yet a great and hainous sin it is for Grace should govern Fear as well as hope If the Coertion and bridling of it be difficult it doth not excuse a toto but a tanto only and 't is hard to set a Christian in joynt again that is faln by Fear witness those Terrors that do haunt men when once they are gotten into the snare As Peter went out and wept bitterly it cost him much sorrow at heart Christ is fain to direct a special message to him by name Mark 16. 7. Though it doth not exclude all hopes of Repentance and Pardon yet it needeth great Mercy on Gods part and Repentance on ours Indeed the Church is bound to consider mens weaknesses and to judge of the fault according to the violent shock and incursion of the Temptation because we know not our own strength and how soon we may be surprized in like kind and need indulgence our selves Gal. 6. 1. But God is not in our Condition nor obliged to recover all that lapse in this kind and therefore useth his Mercy according to his own pleasure Sometimes he recovereth them and sometimes not but for the other Temptations what excuse is it capable of Heb. 12. 16 17. Secondly Let us consider how a Believer is preserved Unsound Professors are turned by Scandal from the wayes of Godliness which they seemed to walk in but for the sincere Believer there may be many stumbling blocks laid in his way but he falleth not at them escapeth those hainous sins into which others fall through his love to Gods Commandments Observe here three things 1. 'T is not Light but Love that keepeth them from stumbling the light of saving knowledge is a great matter for it sheweth us a sure rule to walk by and sure Promises to build upon but love must joyn with it to assist us that we may escape those snares for many fail because they receive not the Truth in the love of it 2 Thes. 2. 10. Till light be turned into love it hath not such a powerful influence upon us Certainly a man is better held by the Heart than by the Head Rom. 8. 39. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. The love of God is not principally taken there in a passive sense for the love wherewith we are beloved of God but in an active sense for the love wherewith we love God For Affliction and
idle Words Matth. 12. 36. I say unto you that for every idle word that men speak they shall give an account thereof in the Iudgment Men esteem little of their Words yet when they are put into Gods Ballance they may weigh heavy not only wicked Words but even idle Words such as serve for no good purpose or for no lawful end and in your account they will come in as so many sins and sit heavy upon you if you have not received Pardon before it is a strict Sentence But what is this Idle Discourse such as wanteth the solidity and substance of truth such as tend to no use and benefit de jure God may Condemn you for these though de facto upon Repentance he pardoneth greater sins Or possibly such are idle Words as come from a vain idle frame of heart for he had spoken before in the 35 Verse that a Good Man out of the good Treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an Evil Man evil things Now such idle words are a Note of the wickedness of the man of the evil Treasure that is in his heart for these he is responsible at the Day of Judgment as for a vain Conversation and the unfruitful works of Darkness However we must not open a gap to Licentiousness as when the Apostle forbiddeth Prophane discourse he enjoyneth Profitable discourse as the only remedy Eph. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers As much as may be holy Conference should be mixed with all our Discourses and Converses otherwise they are accountable to God And 't is very notable the Apostle forbiddeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish jesting Eph. 5. 4. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which is not convenient but rather giving of thanks As he condemneth filthiness or words contrary to Christian Gravity Decency or Modesty so he condemneth foolish Talking which is impertinent superfluous and vain Discourse And then jesting not all honest Mirth or use of Wit but an intemperate Use when men give up themselves to a frothy Vanity that they cannot be serious or too tart Reflections upon the personal Imperfections of others or to impious justs by wresting the Scripture to express the conceptions of a vain and wanton Wit In the General there must be a great guard on all jesting lest it degenerate and that we entertain one another with Thansgiving and discourses of the Love of God and his manifold Mercies to us for 't is not an easie matter to keep within bounds of cheerful and allowed mirth Hearts that are kept sensible of Gods goodness are desirous to express it to others whenever occasion offereth and vain and idle Communication is nothing so pleasing to them 2. Positively We are to edifie one another as David professeth here that his Tongue should speak of Gods Word his Conferences and Discourses should be filled up of no other matter 1. Because our Tongue is our Glory Psal. 10. 9. My heart is glad and my Glory rejoiceth Compare Acts 2. 26. My heart rejoyceth and my tongue was glad Now why is our Tongue our Glory not only as 't was given us for the use of tasting meat and drink so the Tongues of the brute Beasts serve them but because thereby we must express the Conceptions of our Minds So Speech is the excellency of man above the Beasts but Christianity giveth us an higher Reason because thereby we may express the Conceptions of our Minds to the Glory of God and the good of others Iam. 3. 9. Therewith we bless God even the Father That 's our Glory that we cannot only think of God but speak of God his Word and Works 2. Because Conference and edifying Discourse is one means of spiritual Growth and spiritual improvement to our selves and others To our selves Prov. 16. 21. The wise in heart shall be called prudent and the sweetness of his lips increaseth learning The more he venteth what he knoweth the wiser himself groweth and learneth by teaching others for the more he draweth forth his knowledge the more 't is impressed upon his own heart 'T is a Truth he that watereth shall be watered and our gifts as the Loaves are encreased in the breaking or as the Widows giving Oyl to the Prophet was inriched by it not only as we occasion others to draw forth their knowledge but as our own is confirmed and strengthened by using it as to him that hath shall be given Matth. 25. 29. As venting of sin and folly increaseth sin and folly so doth venting spiritual knowledge still increase it 2 Others 't is a great benefit to them when we communicate our experiences to them Luk. 22. 32. When â—…ou art câ—…verted strengthen thy Brethren When he was Converted by Repentance he should be more careful to convert and strengthen others that they fall not in like manner or help them to recover out of the Mire of Sin And the Apostle saith 2. Cer. 1. 4. That God comforteth us that we may be able to comfort others in trouble by the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God The Lord Comforts one that another may be Comforted as in the Coelestial Bodies whatever light and influence the Moon and Stars receive they bestow it on these inferiour Bodies they have their light from the Sun and they reflect it again on the Creatures below Or as the Official part in the Body as the Heart and Liver receive and convey and derive the Bloud and Spirits to all the other parts so a Christian when he is strengthened in himself ought to convey his Comfort and strength to others 'T is mighty edifying when we have found the usefulness of the Word to speak of it to Gods Praise if we have gotten direction in doubtful Cases or benefit by it in the Mastery of our Lusts and the Promises have affoorded any support and deliverance in our distresses we are debtors of the Comfort and Experiences we have and are stewards to dispence it to others Many take a glory that they have Cordials Strong-waters and Medicines in their Closets and Repositories that may be a relief to the Bodies of others So should we delight to refresh their Souls with what hath done us good The Humiliation and brokenness of Heart which thou hast found may be powerful to perswade others of the bitterness of Sin David when he had smarted for sin saith Ps. 51. 13. I will teach transgressours thy ways and sinners shall be converted into thee He had found it how bitter a thing it was to provoke God by Sin and he could tell them such stories of it as would make their hearts to wake and cause them to hate it The Faith and Knowledge which God hath given thee may direct and preserve others thy Temptations may conduce to the succouring of others who are Tempted 3. 'T is a mighty comfortable Duty that hath much
it That is one Lesson God hath been teaching his People in all Ages that Salvation belongeth unto the Lord they must take their Deliverance out of his hands He sits at the upper end of Causes and saveth his People when he will and how he will and by what means he will and till he take their cause in hand how sadly do the most hopeful attempts and expectations miscarry for to give Salvation is a Divine Property given to no Creature and must not be usurped by them looking to man is the readiest way to miscarry 2. It implyeth a dependance upon his fatherly Care and powerful Providence and a perswasion that he will guide us unto Heaven in a way that is most convenient for us The great Cause of Gods Anger against his People in the Wilderness was because they believed not in God and trusted not in his Salvation Psal. 78. 22. He had undertaken to bring them into Canaan but they mistrusted his Conduct either that he had not power enough or enough Fatherly Love and Care to do it and therefore his Wrath was kindled against Iacob and his Anger was hot against Israel and so do they greatly dishonour and provoke God by their distrust who do not believe that God will bring them out of every streight in a way most conducing to his own Glory and their welfare Now Gods Children are so satisfied in his Conduct that in their worst Condition they can cheerfully depend upon God and look and long for salvation from him Hab. 3. 18. I will joy in the Lord I will rejoyce in the God of my Salvation Luk. 1. 47. My spirit doth rejoyce in God my Saviour They are satisfied in his Love and Power Psal. 13. 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy Salvation 3 Holy Desires vented in Prayer there we express and act our Longings Words are but the Body of Prayer but Desires are the Life and Soul of it The Children of God are described once and again to be such as love his Salvation Psal. 40. 16. Now there are but two Acts of Love Desire and Delight the one concerneth the Object as future the other as present either to Faith or to Sense they rejoyce in it as present to Faith in the Promise as well as when they enjoy it But the Desire we are now upon this is vented in Prayer there they express their Vehement Longings for his Salvation Psal. 35. 3. Say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation Gods saying is doing He speaketh by his Providence and this is that the Saints long for they plead with him Psal. 119. 94. I am thine save me for I have sought thy precepts 4. It expresseth waiting Gods Leisure and submission for the kind time and means of Deliverance Lam. 3. 26. 'T is good to hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of God They continue looking and waiting Isa. 30. 18. Blessed are all they that wait for him We must wait in the middest of manifold disappointments when Means miscarry 't is in his power to rescue his People from the greatest dangers and hath a Prerogative to save and deliver those whom Reason and Probability have condemned and given over for lost As the Israelites Exod. 14. 13. Stand still and see the Salvation of God They were enclosed the Mountains on each side the Egyptians behind the Sea before yet what cannot the Salvation of God do There is an holy obstinacy in Faith trusting him in all dangers Nay when God himself appeareth as an Enemy cutting off our Hope and hewing and hacking at us yet we must wait upon him all strokes come from the hand of God and no wound given by himself is above his own cure Iacob when he fainted was forced to interrupt his speech and utter this Ejaculation Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O God! In short God hath ways of deliverance more than his People know of and can save his own when they count their case desperate Psal. 68. 20. He that is our God is the God of Salvation and the issues from death belong unto him The escapes from Death and imminent destruction II. The Reasons and Incouragements of looking and longing for Gods Salvation 1. God hath bound himself by Covenant as our God 't is his Covenant Stile to be the God of our Salvation Psal. 68. 19 20. in the one Verse he is called the God of our Salvation in the other 't is said he that is our God is the God of Salvation If he be the God of salvation he will be the God of our salvation for whatever God is in himself that in the Covenant he will be to his People you shall see the blessing of his People is inferred out of his Title Psal. 3. 8. Salvation belongeth to the Lord thy blessing is upon thy people Selah If God can save and the salvation be a blessing to his People he will save them and deliver them 't is true this Title doth mainly concern our Eternal Salvation but the conduct of his Providence by the way is aimed at in the Covenant as well as our entrance into Heaven at the end of the Journey Promises relating to Temporal things are put into the Believers Charter but the dispensing thereof is left in the hands of their Wise and Tender Father Now Temporal Deliverance being a part of our Charter if it be not alwayes performed 't is not for want of Power or Truth but out of Wisdom and Love God doth what is most convenient for us 't is in a Wise Hand if it be good for me I shall have it Now this is a mighty incouragement to look and long for Gods salvation he shall have the stateing of it for Time Means and Kind of Deliverance but we must look for it 2. We must look to God for Deliverance because he is every way able and fitted and furnished to make good his Covenant-undertaking He hath Power enough Wisdom enough and Love enough 1. Power enough 1 Sam. 14. 6. There is no restraint in the Lord to save by many or by few The same supported Asa 2 Chron. 14. 11. The same supported the three Children Dan. 3. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace Now a Desire is mightily quickned by this Confidence God hath promised to do what is good and 't is in the power of his hands to do this for us 2. He hath Wisdom enough to bring it about in such a way as may be most for his Glory 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of Temptation 'T is an Art he is versed in how to distinguish between his People and their Enemies to bring it about so as may be most for his Glory What is the usual work of Providence but to give salvation according to his Covenant in such a way as the beauty of his providence may be seen the patience and Faith
of these things This is the Assurance of Faith spoken of Heb. 10. 22. I know I shall find this to be a Truth Men are Conscionable and faithful in keeping their Word much more God who can neither deceive nor be deceived 2. You are to delight in the promise though the performance be not yet nor like to be for a good while neither performed nor likely to be performed Heb. 11. 13. They saw them afar off and yet being perswaded of these things they embraced them And Ioh. 8. 56. Abraham saw my day and was glad You hold the Blessing by the root where you have the promise Heb. 6. 18. 3 You are to take the naked promise for a ground of your hope however it seem to be contradicted in the course of his providence 't is his Word you are to go by and stand by and according to which you must interpret all his Dispensations 'T is said Rom. 4. 18. That Abraham believed in hope against hope When Faith dependeth upon God naked Word then it standeth upon its own Basis and proper Legs every thing is strongest in its props and pillars which God and nature hath appointed for it He hangeth the Earth upon nothing in the midest of the Air but there is its place So Faith standeth fast upon his Word who is able to perform what he saith 4. This Faith must conquer our Fears and Cares and Troubles Psal. 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. And Psal. 56. 3 4. In God I will praise his word in God have I put my trust I will not fear what man can do unto me The force of Faith is seen in calming our passions and sinful Fears or else it is but a Notion and our Reverence and Respect to God will be weakened by it 5. When Faith hath done its work in the quieting of our own hearts you must glorifie God in your Carriage before others Ioh. 3. 33. Put to his Seal that God is true that is when we confirm others in the faith and belief of the promises by our joyfulness in all Conditions Patience and Contentedness under the Cross Diligence in Holiness Hope and Comfort in great streights You shall see Numb 20. 12. that God was angry with Moses and Aaron because they believed not to sanctifie him in the eyes of the Children of Israel We are not only to believe in God our selves but to sanctifie him in the eyes of others As the Thessalonians by receiving the Word in much Affliction much Assurance and Joy in the Holy Ghost were Examples to all that believed in Achaia 1 Thes. 1. 5 6 7. Thus we should do but how few do thus believe Some count these vain words and the Comforts thence deduced Fanatical illusions or Fantastical impressions nothing so ridiculous in the Worlds Eye as Trust and dependance on unseen Comforts Psal. 22. 8. He trusted on the Lord that he should deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Ungodly Wits make the life of Faith a sport or matter of Laughter Some have more modesty but as little Faith they are all for the present World 2 Tim. 4. 9. present delights please them but present Temptations altogether unsettle them Heb. 12. 11. cannot bear present smart nor despise the present World Rom. 8. 19. any thing in hand is more than the greatest promise of better things to come they do not deal equally with God and man if man promise they reckon much of that but cannot tarry upon Gods security count his promise little worth they can trade with a Factor beyond Sea and trust all their estate in a mans hand whom they have never seen and yet the Word of the infallible God is of little respect with them The best build too weakly upon the promise as appeareth by the prevalency of our Cares and Fears Heb. 12. 4 5 6. If you did take God at his Word you would not be so soon Mated with every difficulty there would be more resolution in Trials more hardiness against ttoubles A man may boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me If we had Faith to believe it it would more effectually quiet our hearts and minds in all our streights necessities and perplexities it would calm our desires and fears we would not desire the best things of the World nor fear the worst SERM. CLXXXVIII PSALM CXIX VER 174. I have longed for thy Salvation O Lord and thy law is my delight WE now come to the second Acceptation of the Word Salvation as it implyeth Eternal Salvation and so the Points are two Doctrine I. That we should vehemently Long and earnestly Wait for Eternal Life Doctrine II. That we should not only Long for Salvation but delight in the way which leadeth us to it For the first Point That Longing for Salvation is the Duty and Property of Gods Children The Reasons are taken from I. The Object of these Desires II. The Subject of these Desires III. The Use of these Desires IV. The State and Condition of the present World I. The Object The Object of Desire is Good considered as absent and not yet obtained Good All desire that it should be well with themselves This Desire is confused and general not the hundredth part Longeth after the true Good Psal. 4. 6. Who will shew us any good Some are carried by Ambition others by Covetousness others by Sensuality 1 Ioh. 2. 16. All that is in the World is either the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye or pride of Life And Isa. 53. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray we have every one turned to his own way As the Channel is cut so Corrupt Nature finds a vent But now Gods Salvation is the true good and ought to be desired and will be desired by all his Children It Importeth a freedom from all Misery and an Injoyment of all Good and a freedom from all Misery there sin and sorrow shall be no more and all Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes Rev. 21. 4. the blessed Spirits above have none of our cares and fears and sorrows here we are sighing and they are praising we sinning and they pleasing God we full of infirmities and they are perfect and without blemish And in the full enjoyment of all good Psal. 16. 11. At thy right hand is fulness of Ioy and in thy presence pleasures for evermore Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Alas the preparations to this Estate in the World are far above the vain delights of the Flesh much more the pleasures there these the soul longeth for though they are thankful for a refreshment by the way yet they long to be at home II. Reason is taken from the Subject of these Desires and there we have 1. The Suitableness 2. The Experience 3. Our