Satan alas your own strength is insufficient to conquer for you 〈…〉 maintain the fight for you unlesse the Spirit of God put forth his actual help unlesse he take your part what one temptation of lust of doubt of feare is not too hard for you and what one temptation from Satan is not too strong for you Every little touch throws down or hazards the weak child so this c. But this is your comfort that in all your spiritual conflicts you are sure of the Spirits presence to own his own graces and to defend and secure them His gracious presence shall be sufficient for you 2 Cor. 12. 9. and his power makes it self manifest in your weaknesse he will be near to help you strengthen you to make you to resist and to conquer and to be more than conquerours through Christ that loved you We are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6. 10. 5. The Spirit helps them in the darknesses upon their spirits my meaning is In the darkness of our spirits in all the with-drawments of Gods favour and light of countenance and in all the sad apprehensions of their own spiritual condition when they think God is become their enemy and that themselves are forgotten of God and cast off by God and have no interest nor hope in Christ Now in these times the Spirit of God works and helps supplies supports stirs up faith against hope to believe in hope and against our own feelings yet to pray and trust and wait and look for God 6. He helps them in the captivities of their souls As when sinne or Satan In the captivity of our souls in this or that particular have been too subtile and too strong for them and have prevailed over them so that they are fallen and not able to rise even then in this condition doth the Spirit of God by his wonderful graces help them up again he makes them to see their sinnes and bewail them and raise them by renewing and strengthening faith on the Lord Jesus Christ Thus he dealt with David with Peter c. As the finding of us in our lost estate so the raising of us from our fallen estate is done by the help of the Spirit 5. The Spirit is yours in respect of his joyes â—r comforts You read of the He is ours in respect of his joyes and comforts joy of the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. And of the comforts of the holy Ghost Acts 9 31. And that Christ himself calls him the Comforter John 16. 7. The Spirit is given unto you not only to unite you to Christ not only to conform you unto Christ not only to lead you in the wayes of Christ not only to help you in the services of Christ but also to comfort your hearts in Christ The Spirit is a comforter in three respects He is a Comforter As he opens to us all the springs of comfort As he actuates our faith in theÌ„ As he applies them to our souls 1. He opens unto you all the true springs of comfort It is he who opens unto you the fountain of mercy and the fountain of the love and grace of God and the fountain of the blood of Christ 2. He actuates your faith to look on all these fountains of joy and wells of comfort as set open for the good and help of your souls 3. He applies all of them unto your souls he makes it evident that God loves your souls and that Christ died for your souls and that you are justified by faith in him and are reconciled and pardoned and accepted unto life and hereupon he fills you with all joy in believing even with joy unspeakable and glorious You cannot imagine what a comfort it is to have the Spirit of God to be our comfort for 1. His comforts are choice comforts There is no more comparison 'twixt the His comforts are choice comforts comforts of the world and the comforts of the Spirit than between the light of the Candle and the light of the Sunne they are the very comforts of God they are the very drops out of the Wells of Salvation they are drawn out from the proper and only grounds of joy They are comforts which of all other do most punctually answer the distresses of your souls 2. He can comfort you under all your discomfirts Who comforteth us in all our He cancomfort under all discomforts tribulations 2 Cor. 1. 4. Yea under the deepest and saddest disconsolations In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psal 94. 19. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death c. thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me Psal 23. 4. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds Psal 147. 3. 3. He can comfort you when there is none else to comfort you when you have He can comfort when there is none else to comfort neither father nor mother sister nor brother companion nor friend when you are in prison in exile in the losse of all yet he alone when you are alone can comfort your souls he can shew you the salvation of the Lord speak peace assure you of mercy and cause you to rejoyce 4. Hâ— can comfort you and none shall hindâ—r him neither men nor divels He can comâ—ort and none â—hall hinder â—im nor your own fears and doubts He can create your peace and joyes and make comfâ—rts for you and make you to drink of them And as none can take away your joyes so none shall be able to hinder them 6. The Spirit is yours in respect of his offices There are three special offices beloâ—ging He is ours in respect of his offices Three offices of the Spirit To make all the Ordinances of Christ effectual to us unto the Spirit 1. One is to make all the Ordinances of Christ powerful and effectual unto you Take the doctrines of the Gospel they are not effectual without the Spirit and take the seâ—ls of the Gospel they are not effectual unto you without the Spirit There are excellent precepts in the Gospel and excellent offers in the Gospel and excellent promises in the Gospel the Gospel commands us to repeâ—t to mourn to deny our selves to renounce all for Christ to come and believe on Christ but it is the Spirit which makes all these commands effectual and the Gospel offers Jesus Christ to poor sinners and thiâ—sty sinners and presents singular arguments to perswade and allure and draw the hearts of sinners but it is the Spirit which makes all those offers and all those arguments effectual and the Gospel promiseth all heavenly good of love of grace of peace of joy c. but it is the Spirit which makes all these effectual And therefore the New Testamâ—nt is called the mâ—nâ—stration nâ—t of the Letter but of the Spirit who giveth lâ—fe 2 Cor. 3. 6. And the Gospel hath excellent seals
the life of your comforts it is your Paradise and your Heaven here on earth 5. Maintain and justifie your Covenant-relation when once it is made manifest Maintain and justifie your Covenant-relation Four things we should alwayes maintain The unchangeableness of out Covenant-relation unto you against all the suggestions of Satan and against all the risings and oppositions of your own unbelief I here are four things especially which you should still maintain and make good for at them doth Satan most strike at 1. The unchangeablenesse of the Covenant-relation This God is our God for ever and ever He will be our Guide even unto death Psal 48. 14. For I am perswaded 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 Jesus our Lord. You are many times under Spiritual sâ—â—ences God seems not to regard your prayers and many times under Spiritual delaies God puts you off from day to day and many times under Spiritual desertions God hides his face from you and Satan in such cases puts it upon you to question and disown your Covenant-relation If God were your God it would not be thus But notwithstanding all these or any other trials of your selves yet God still maintains his interest in you and your relation to himself God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew saith the Apostle Rom. 11. 2. I am the Lord I change not Mal. 3. 6. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the housâ— of Jacob and will look for him Isa 8. 17. But Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb Yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me So Hosea 2 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever and Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 2. The tendernesse of your Covenant-relation The tendernesse of Gods love The tenderness of your Covenant-relation unto you and the tendernesse of Gods care over you Do not suffer Satan to raise jealousies and do not you nourish any jealousies about these if you do so you dishonour your God by them and make your soules to serve him with bitterness your God loves you with as tender love as ever Father loved his dearest child Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant childe my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 31. 20. His love is set upon you Deut. 7. 7. And he doth rest in his love Zeph. 3. 17. He loves you with an everlasting love and therefore draws you with loving kindnesse Jer. 31. 3. And your God hath a most tender care over you as a man hath over his jewels which are his chiefest treasures I will make up my jewels Mal. 3. 17. and as a man hath over the apple of his eye he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. 10. And as an Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreads abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings verse 11. So the Lord c. 3. The goodnesse of the Covenant relation that God still is and will be The goodnesse of the Covenant relation good unto you that he prepares of his goodnesse for and he prepares mercy and truth for you and layes up exceeding goodnesse for you reserves it for you and is never weary nor will ever turn away from you from doing of you good 4. The graciousnesse of your God in Covenant that as at the first when he took The graciousnesse of your God in Covenant you into the Covenant this was the work of his own grace so all along in the dispensations of the Covenant the Lord still acts in a way of grace towards you alwayes and altogether upon free termes he freely loved you and he freely chose you and he freely called you and still he freely blesseth you and doth good unto you and upon gracious termes he deals with you all the dayes of your life in all things for which you have to deal with him 6. Walk and live like a people who have such a God to be your God in Covenant Walk and live like a people in Covenant with God as your relation is different from all other peoples relation so your conversation should be different from the conversation of all other people as your condition is now higher than the condition of other people for God exalts you by making you to be his people so the word avouching signifies in Deut. 26. 18. so your walking must be better than that of other people and as your enjoyments and hopes transcendently exceed all other mens so your returns must be in some proportion answerable unto your great interest in so good a God and as God by becoming your God makes you high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour Deut. 26. 19. so hath he formed you for himself that you should shew forth his praise Esay 43. 21. You are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Which in time past were not a people â—ut are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy verse 10. Quest If any of you demand how that people should live and walk who have How a people in Covenant should walk God to be their God in Covenant Sol. I answer Such a people should walk 1. By faith in a continual dependance upon their living and giving God 2. In a singular love and delight in their good and merciful God 3. With holinesse before their Holy and Omnipresent God 4. With uprightnesse before their Omniscient and All-sufficient God 5. Without inordinate cares before their Faithful and Never-failing God 6. Without inordinate fears before their Almighty God 7. Without offence or grieving of their Loving God 8. With all contentednesse and well-pleasednesse of Spirit before their Wise and gracious God 9. With all humility before their Great and Merciful God 10. With all cheerfulnesse and gladnesse of heart before their Blessing and Blessed God 11. In all constancy of obedience before their Eternal God 12. In all the kinds of zeal for the honour of that God who hath so much honoured them as to be their God 1. You who are the people of God and have God to be your God in Covenant Live and walk by faith in dependance upon the living God you should live and walk by faith in a continual
mercy He did not leave me to my sinful heart and life he did pity and call me and brought me in to Christ and made me one of his people who aforetime was none of his people But I still finde such a body of sin such a law in my members warring against the Law of mind so many sinful corruptions within and so many strong and violent temptation without and so much weakness and insufficency in my self that fear I shall never hold out unto the end I shall one day faile and loose all my interest in God and in Christ and grace Consider To this sad complaint I would briefly speak three things There is a twofold fear 1. There is a twofold fear There is a a fear of unbelief and this is a vexing and distressing and disabling fear it loosens our confidence in God and in his A fear of unbelief this is to be resisteâ— promises It is a naughty fear and beware of it and resist it and bewaile it And there is a fear of tenderness and jealousie in regard of the Natural deceitfulnesse of our own hearts and of the supernatural weaknesse of our own strength this is a A fear of tenderness and jealousie is good good fear and blessed is the man that thus feareth alwayes The weak child feareth and thereupon cries out to the Parent to take him to hold him to support him and by his fear of falling he is preserved from falling So the child of God fears and thereupon he cries out unto his God! Lord help thy servant forsake me not make haste to deliver me keep me who cannot keep my self establish my goings Thou hast promised to keep and preserve the feet of thy Saints This fear is that fear which God hath promised to put into the hearts of his people that they shall not depart from him And indeed this fear is their strength the more of this fear the more safe they are Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Thou standest by faith Be not high-minded but fear work out your salvation with fear and trembling 2. Your standing or continuing in the Covenant doth not depend upon your own Our standing doth not depend upon our own strength strength nor doth God leave you unto that but it doth depend on his strength and on his power Ephes 3. 16. That he would grant you according to the riches of his grace to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Zach. 10. 12. I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name saith the Lord Though your strength be insufficient yet the strength of your God and of your Christ is sufficient for you 1 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness 3. The Lord is able to keep you from falling and to preserve you faultlesse before The Lord is able to keep you from falling the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Jude ver 24. Nay and he will keep you from falling Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Psal 56. 13. Thou hast delivered my feet from falling Psal 116. 8. He will keep the feet of his saints 1 Sam. 2. 9. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up Psalm 94. 18. 2. The everlastingnesse of the Covenant should be a Cordial to the people of God in the time of desertions when they are apt to question whether God be not Against desertion fallen off from them and hath forsaken them But consult these Promises and you may finde these fears removed Isa 49. 14. Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me ver 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee ver 16. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands Thy walls are continually befâ—re me Isa 54. 7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee ver 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer ver 10. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Use 4 Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant Then blesse God and not your selves for your standing and for your continuing inCovenant with him Blesse God and not your selves for your standing in Covenant with him There are three things for which we should blesse God 1. For his restraining grace 2. For his converting grace 3. For his confirming grace that he will and doth keep you stedfast to himself in Covenant O beloved we could never keep our selves nor establish our selves were it not for the goodness and the power and the love and the faithfulness of our God we should break with God and turn aside from him and leave all truly it is almost a wonder that the people of God do hold out in keeping Covenant with God considering 1. The daily and frequent discouragements which they meet with in the world the continual scorns and threats and persecutions and affronts to their persons and godlinesse 2. The manifold allurements snares and temptations unto sin and sinful wayes by wicked example and promises and hopes and connivencies wickednesse in judgement in practice is a general infection the common aire is infected with this plague it is therefore the more hard to keep our health 3. The malice of Satan and his power and subtilty is exceeding great he desires to sift and winnow us as wheat he threw down the third part of the Stars he helped to break the first Covenant There is not any one of the people of God but may say of him as David of his enemies Psal 118. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me 4. How strongly some of the people of God have been hazarded in the lasting part of the Covenant Solomon Peter Asa insomuch as many from their falls have erected the Doctrine of the Apostacy of the Saints 5. Those many remaining Principles for inconstancy and failing as spiritual pride unbelief hypocrysie and worldliness much of every one of these still in our hearts 6. Adde to all these the exceeding weaknesse in all our graces How little faith how weak love and how apt to be shaken and offended Truely we must acknowledge that what we are we are by the grace of God and that if we be strong we are strong in the
inwardly offer Christ to the heart and secretlâ—â—alls there Come unto Christ you are poor and you are thirsty and you are brâ—â—â—h and bruised in heart And such sinners as these doth Christ call to come unto him and live for ever He was anointed for you and is sent to you 3. The Spirit backs these offers and calls with expresse promises for though the He backes these offers with Promises sinner be exceeding glad to finde out Christ the Saviour yet he is exceeding doubtful whether he may close with Christ thus offering himself unto him therefore herein likewise doth the Spirit appear towards the working of faith viz. he doth clear up the promises of the Gospel so that the poor sinner may be convinced and satisfied that Jesus Christ is contented and willing to be his and that he may come and be kindly and graciously accepted of Christ Those passages Him that comes to me I will in no wise reject Joh. 6. 27. And let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Rev. 22 17. And a bruised reed will he not break Matth. 12. 20. Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11 28. All these and other promises and encouragements are set home by the Spirit upon the heart of the poor sinner so that he deemes that he hears Jesus Christ himself speaking alluring comforts unto his soul 4. The Spirit rests not here but proceeds further For notwithstanding all this The Spirit carries on the work further yet the poor sinner findes himself without all strength and saith he I am not able to believe though I see this Christ and his goodness and his love and his kindness and his graciousnesse yet I cannot believe yet I cannot come to him c. Now upon this there are two things more wrought by the Spirit in the heart of the poor sinner 1. One is Earnâ—st desires for faith O Lord give me faith He works earnest desires for faith perswade my heart bring in my heart draw it to Christ for Christ his sake 2. The other is The very gift or work of faith The Spirit by his mighty power gives an ability unto the heart of the sinner to come to him to receive him and thuâ— uniting faâ—th is wrâ—ught namely by the Spirit of Christ accompanying and blessing the Gospel as you have heard unto the soule of a sinner Therefore look well to your selves in this If your faith be not a faith which the Spirit of God works by the Gospel it is a false faith it is a faith of delusion and not of union it is a presumption of your own making a meere imagination of your own No faith will bring you to Christ but that faith which comes from the Spirit of Christ He works saiâ—h it self 2. That Faith which unites to Christ hath alwayes some particular operations upon the soule in relation to that union with Christ For the faith which is The peculiar operations of faith about this union wrought by the Spirit of Christ is no base quality nor is it any dead quality but it is Noble High and Active Now there are three things which this faith doth work in every one that hath it 1. An exceeding appreciation or esteem of Christ 2. A fervent desire to enjoy Christ 3. A separation of the heart It works from every thing that would hinder it from union with Christ 1. If your faith be this saith of union then it hath raised your hearts to exceeding An exceeding esteem of Christ high estimation of Christ other people have no high nor great thoughts of Christ What is thy beloved more than another beloved said they to the Church Cant. 5. 9. There is no beauty in him that we should desire him said they Isa 57. 2. Not this man but Barabbas said the Jews Joh. 18. 40. The Farme and the Oxen are preferred before him Luke 14. 18 19. But unto you who believe he is precious saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 7. Pretious faith makes us to look on Christ as pretious How did the Church look on Christ in that Cant. 5 why As the chiefest of ten thousand verse 10. As altogether lovely verse 16. How did those Believers look on Christ in Joh. 1. 14 We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth How did Paul look on Christ Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Beloved Never was there unbeliever â—â—o had high thoughts of Christ and never was there sound believer but he hâ—â— precious thoughts of Christ the Apostle tells us as much 1 Cor. 1. 23. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness verse 24. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God O sirs The excellencies of Christ are hidden excellencies from the men of the world and no eye can see them but the eye of faith there must be a light shining in the heart to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. When faith is wrought then a light is wrought to see the beauties of Christ the beauty of his Person the beauty of his Offices the beauty of his Love of his Death of his Righteousness of his Holiness of his Peace c. the vaile is removed and we do with open face as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. c. So that none like Christ he is the Pearle of great price and nothing like Christ no love like his no enjoyment like the enjoyment of him c. 2. If your faith be this Faith of union Then it hath raised in your hearts Exceeding desires to enjoy Christ exceeding desires to enjoy Christ I must have this Christ I cannot live without this Christ O Lord give me Christ I have nothing if I have not Christ There is nothing in heaven or earth that I desire in comparison of Christ I desire to be found in him saith Paul He is the desire of all Nations Hag. 2 7. You never had such desires towards Christ untill faith was wrought in you such high desires such longings such hungrings such thirstings nor such busie and stirring desires saw you him whom my soule loveth and I sought him whom my soule loveth and I will seek him whom my soule loveth Nor such unsatisfied desires Nothing satisfies you or puts an end to your desires but Christ desired by you 3. If your faith be this faith of union Then it did work in your hearts a A separation from all things which hinder union separation from all things which otherwise would have hindred yâ—u from union with Christ You know that whatsoever keeps things at
in a very good estate when he is in a very wicked estate and a man may think he hath every grace requisâ—te to salvation when indeed he hath not any one of them he may deceive himself about repentance and about faith and about love c. For there is no true grace but there is also a counterfeit of that grace which may look like it but it is not so Ahab humbled himself and so did Hezekiah but his humbling was of another sort David repented and so did Judas but Davids repentance was of another kind than his Simon Peter believed and so did Simon Magus but Peters faith was another kind of faith than his There are three Grounds or Reasons upon which men may and do deceive Three grounds oâ— this deceit themselves that their Faith is the true Faith which shall bring Remission of sinnes unto them when really their Faith is not that Faith unto which forgiveness is promised 1. They finde some things which are the Ingredients of true Faith which yet are They finde some ingredients of Faith which are but common ingredient but common ingredients which another faith may have that gives not title unto forgiveness of sins As suppose knowledge and assent unto heavenly truths these are in that faith which gives us the Remission of our sins though not as giving that Remission and these may be in a faith which shall never bring you to the Remission of your sins 2. They finde some affections like unto those which come from true faith Some And some affections 〈…〉 suddain joyes and delights and desires upon hearing the Word and yet these are not those joyes which do flow from faith but are suddain and tranâ—â—ent Raptures flowing only from their own self-deceiving perswasions and not from any certain knowledge of union with Christ 3. They finde some kinds of conforming of themselves unto the Word in matters And some 〈◊〉 to the Worâ— of practice reforming and doing many things and yet this is not that conformity and that obedience which flows from true faith For it is not internal but only external and it is not universal but partial Let the same word strike aâ— a separation 'twixt their hearts and their beloved sin and presse them to a strictnesse of holy walking their Faith will not be able to bring them up to a subjection therein unto the will of Christ 4. These things being premised I now come to set out before you that Faith What that Faith is which will certainly get the remission of sins Faith well seated for the truth and quality of it which will certainly get you the remission of your sins That Faith First It alwayes follows special contrition and humiliation for sin For Faith cannot act on Chrst as a Saviour untill I finde my self a sinner needing him to be my Saviour and therefore the ordinary usual way of the Spirit is to convince of sin and to lay us low in the sense thereof and to break down all our high imaginations and self confidences that we come to see no hope but in the free grace and rich mercy of God in Christ before he conveyes Faith into our soules Luk. 3. 5. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low c. Ver. 6. and all flesh shall see the salvation of God Acts 16. 29. He came in trembling and fell down ver 30. and said Sirs what must I do to be saved ver 31. and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 2. Is wrought in us only by the power and mighty working of the Spirit of Christ Faith rightly caused So the Apostle in Ephes 1. 19. called there the exceeding greatness of his power and the working of his mighty power The Spirit of Christ doth accompany and actuate the Gospel and it sets it on upon the heart for the truth and goodness of it with such Majesty Authority and Efficacy that the poor sinner is not able to resist and withstand the precept of Faith but is made willing and ready and yields up his heart to receive the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly It is alwayes raised by Evangelical offers and premises when the Lord And well grounded works faith indeed and draws the heart to believe on Christ the heart takes ground and encouragement for this from the Offers and Invitations and Commands of the Gospel Come unto me saith Christ this is his Commandement that we should believe And from the Promises He that believes shall be saved Come unto me and I will give you rest c. Fourthly In true Faith the whole heart or soul is carried out unto Christ True believing is a believing with all the heart the whole heart yields unto Jesus Christ And unites the whole heart to whole Christ the understanding admires at the glory and at the kindness and goodness and love of Christ the judgement is filled with choisest thoughts and highest estimations of Christ None like Christ and none but Christ the will falls in with Christ freely readily fully O Christ thou art my chiefest good and blessedness and Christ hath all the affections of desire love delight and joy these are taken up and filled with Christ c. Faith brings in all to Christ Fifthly True Faith sincerely sets up all Christ takes and sets up Christ as our Priest for Expiation of sins Reconciliation Intercession and him alone and as It sincerely sets up all Christ our Prophet to teach and instruct us and as our King to rule us to destroy his enemies in us to give us Laws to receive obedience from us Sixthly True faith eternally unites the heart to Christ neither earthly preferment It eternally unites to Christ on the one side nor persecutions and discouragements on the other side can separate the heart of a true believer from Jesus Christ In a word true faith which hath the promise of forgiveness of sins doth not only know Christ but approves of Christ not only approves of Christ but receives Christ not some of Christ but all Christ not with some part of the heart but with the whole heart not for a time but for ever not upon our conditions but upon his own conditions not occasionally and upon an exigence but freely and upon choice not only for safety but also for service nor only for profession but also for union and communion It matcheth us to Christ as a Wife to the Husband it unites us to Christ as Branches to the Vine it joynes us to Christ as Members to the head Beloved this is that faith which is necessary for the remission of our sins If you have not a Faith produced by the mighty working of the holy Ghost if you have not a faith planted in a broken heart if you have not a faith grounded on Gospel-offers and promises if you have not a faith which brings in all your heart to match with Christ if you have not a faith
and rebellion of their hearts there must be a mutual will and consent and agreement which cannot be till resistance in our hearts be removed that so our hearts may be made willing to comply with him and with his will and with his wayes and with his works Secondly That he may bring them all into union with Jesus Christ his people Bring them into union with Christ are a people given unto Christ from all eternity Thine they were and thou gavest them me Joh. 17. 6. And as they are given to Christ by an eternal compact so they must be given in to Christ in time by effectual vocation in a way of believing And for this reason also he will take away the hardness of their hearts which is imcompatible with closing with Christ Heb. 3. 7. To day if ye will hear his voice ver 8. harden not your hearts Thirdly That he may enjoy communion with them and they with him This is one Reason why he makes us to be his people that he might make known all Enjoy communion with them his love and goodness unto us and that our hearts might be taken up with him and set on him in love and fear and desire and joy and hope None of which will or can be unless the Lord were pleased to take away the heart of stone from his people c. Fourthly That he may bring upon them all the good which he hath promised unto And bring upon them all the good that he hath promised to his people viz. All the blessings of mercy and peace and comfort and joy of which they are not capable untill the Lord take away the hardness of their hearts Would you have the Lord to settle pardoning mercy on a hard heart and to speak peace to a hard heart and to revive with comfort and joy the soul of an hardened sinner who will hold fast his iniquities and who will not obey his voyce and will none of him This is as it were a foundation-work for the other works of the Covenant Sol. 2. Again the Lord himself doth again by promise undertake to take away God by promise undertakes it Because of the impossibility of it the stony heart from his people upon a twofold account First On the impossibility of the work without his own Omnipotency None but the Almighty can cure the stone of the heart neither Angels nor Men nor Ministry nor Self-power for the hard heart is too hard for all means whatsoever only the Lord is too hard for it he can subdue all the powers of sin and he can pull down all high imaginations which do exalt themselves and he can abase the pride of man and he can circumcise all the stoutness of the heart so that the rebellious shall submit themselves Secondly The other that his people when they are made sensible of their That men may not despair hardnesse may not despair but may apply themselves unto him who is able to work all their work in and for them and to heal all their diseases and to subdue all their iniquities Beloved a Promise of God in any kind is a singular foundation for Faith and Prayer And so it is in this business of hardness of heart if the Lord promise to take it away then the work is possible it may be done and it is likewise de futuro it shall be done As the Lord is able to perform whatsoever he promiseth to his people so he is faithful and will perform the same And both these are grounds for Faith and Prayer to go unto the Lord and beseech him and trust upon him that he will according to his word take away the hardness of our hearts Quest 3. How this can be affirmed for a truth seeing that much hardnesse How this can be since much hardness remains A difference betwixt the hardness remaining in the best and that in the wicked The godly are sensible of it of heart remaines in all the people of God all the dayes of their lives Sol. This hath been answered in part already in the manner how God takes away the hardness of heart from his people only I will adde that there is a vast difference 'twixt the hardness of heart remaining in the people of God and that hardness of heart abiding in ungodly men v. g. First Though hardness of heart in some degrees remains in the people of God yet they are sensible of it as their great evil and burden and do exceedingly bewail it and complain to the Lord of it and cry out Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy fear Isa 63. 17. But wicked men are unsensible of the hardness of their hearts they are past feeling and their consciences are seared as with a hot iron as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 4. 2. When a part of the body is feared with a hot iron it becomes utterly stupid and unsensible c. Secondly The hardnesse of heart remaining in the people of God it It is still mortifying in the best is still mortifying and decreasing the more they feel it the more they pray against it and never give over till they have obtained more grace and strength against it untill they find their hearts more tender and pliable But the hardness of heart in ungodly men as it is raigning so it is raging it still increaseth unto more hardness ungodly men sin more and more and still oppose the means of softning their hearts and the more they do sin the more they do harden their hearts and the more they do oppose the light and means of softning the more they do augment their sins and hardness Thirdly Though hardness of heart doth remain in the people of God yet Though it remains yet They do not willingly take those wayes that tend to hardening 1. They do not willingly and advisedly give up themselves to any wayes and courses which tend to the hardning of their hearts as to the neglect of the Ordinances to the omission of holy duties to the commission of sins against the light of the Word and of Conscience 2. They do cordially use all the means to work off the hardness of their hearts as frequent self-examinations humble confessions and self-judgings earnest Prayer for more Faith and fear and tenderness of spirit and the Lord doth Cordially use the means against it graciously â—ear them in these Requests But thus it is not with ungodly men whose hearts are hardened they practice wickedness and they sell themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord 1 King 21. 25. And give themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedinesse Ephes 4. 19. And trample under feet the light of the Word and the actings of Conscience and whatsoever stands in their way to restrain them from sinning and are so far from improving any means for the removing of the hardness of their hearts that they deride and scorn at them and reject and abhor
make you strong for any work of God That passage of Paul is observable 2 Cor. 12. 10. Wheâ— I am weak then am I strong this seems to be a contradiction but it is not so It is as if he had said When I find that I am weak in my self then am I made strong by the strength of Christ How so will you say How comes a man to be made strong by Christ who findes himself to be but weak I will sheâ—â—ou how this comes to pass 1. The sense of his own weakness is a means to put him upon much prayer to 〈◊〉 for strength 2. The sense of his own weakness is an occasion to put him upon faith in Christ to rely on him to make Christ his strengâ—h and to draw more grace and strength from him in whose strength he shall be able to do all things Thirdly Because the Lord hath a special compassion and a very tender regard to persons truely sensible of their own weakness The Lord hath a tender regard unto three sorts of men 1. Unto those that are sensible of their sins He bindes up the broken To whom God hath a tender regard in heart 2. Unto those that are sensible of their own unworthiness The poor Publican went home justified 3. And unto those that are sensible of their own weaknesse and insufficiency to do any good Concerning these God gives command Isa 35. 3. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees And Zech. 12. 8. He that is fâ—eble among them shall be as David And to these especially hath the promise in the Text a respect I will cause c. Secondly Not to despond or cast down their hearts by reason of the greatness or by reason of the multiplicity and by reason of the difficulty of the works and duties which God requires from them depth and breadth and length of mens obedience are nothing as long as there is depth and breadth and length oâ— Gods assistance I confess that these would be strong discouragements were we to traverse the wayes and works of God by our strength but they should not make any discouraging impression seeing our hands shall be made strong by the Almighty arm of God Is any thing too hard for the Lord he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that wâ— can ask or think Ephes 3. 20. according to the power that worketh in us God is pleased to charge all the essential duties of obedience upon the weakest of his people and there is no severity or injustice in this because as the strongest cannot do the least duty by his own strength so the weakest Christian shall be made able also to do the greatest duty in the strength of God Never say If I were so strong as such or such a one then I could do much but I am weak I tell you that the strong Christian without the help of God is but weak and the weak Christian with the help of his God is strong But to remove all dispondency of heart from weak Christians about their many What weak Christians should remember and great and continual works of obedience I would desire them carefully to remember and lay up four singular Adjuncts or ingredients in that helping and assisting grace which God doâ—h promise unto them 1. Coextention as to all the parts and times of duty 2. Sufficiency as to enabling for these duties 3. Redundancy or exuberancy there is help enough and to spare 4. Infallibility or certainty of enjoying that assisting grace if they look up to God for it First Coextention The helping or assisting grace of God promised unto his people is not limited or restrained to this or that particular duty not to this or that particular time of life but it extends to all our work and for all the dayes of our life First It extends to all the duties which God requires of us what the Apostle Assisting grace extends to all our works and at all times spake in another case 2 Cor. 1. 5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ That may be said in this case As our duties and services abound so the help and strength of Gods assisting grace abounds towards us Our duties are sometimes summed up 1. Into the love of God And 2ly Into the love of our neighbour and the promise of assisting grace extends to both these For the one see Deut. 30. 6. I will circumcise c. For the other see Isa 11. 6. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid c. Ver. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain Our duties are sometimes summed up into 1. Affirmative 2ly Negative the one is of the good which we are to do the other is of the evil which we are to forsake and you have the promise of assisting grace as to both of them For these see Rom. 6. 14. And Ezek. 18. They shall come thither and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof Our duties are sometimes summed up 1. Into active And 2ly into passive both these have assisting grace promised for the first Ye shall keep my judgements and do them For the second it is given unto you on the behalf of Christ to suffer for his Name Phil. 1. 39. Secondly It extends unto our duties for all the dayes of our life assisting grace is promised to come in as duties are to go on Isa 40. 31. They shall renew their strength Chap. 41. 1. Let the people renew their strength Chap. 46. 3. Hearken unto me O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb Ver. 4. And even to the old age I am he and even to hoary hairs will I carry you I have made and I will bear even I wiill carry and will deliver you Secondly Sufficiency There is a sufficiency in that assisting grace promised to enable the people of God effectually for the greatest and hardest duties which I shall clear by a few instances Said God to Abraham Gen. 22. 2. Take thy sonne thine only sonne Isaac There is a sufficiency in assisting grace whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt burnt-offering c. Was not this a very hard and difficult work to perform against which all the strength of nature might rise yea and grace itself might have disputed the lawfulness of it nevertheless Abraham was enabled to obey this command Heb. 11. 17. Again is it not a great work for a person to leave all that he hath and then to submit himself unto a suffering condition Yet the people of God have been enabled unto this Moses left all his honor and riches and pleasure and enjoyments in Egypt and chose rather to suffer affliction with the
do much more but all those gracious experiences without any assistance and influence from God will not be sufficient unto you Secondly We should especially depend upon God for his strength and sufficiencie then when we do meet with the greatest strength of opposition to the performing of any good work or works as David in another case when the people spake of stoning him he did then encourage himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30. 6. Or as Jehoshaphat when that great multitude came against him and God promised him deliverance said he Believe in the Lord your God and ye shall be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. So should we do when we meet with strong â—ppositions and hinderances when we are to work or when we are working the work or works commanded us of God we should now by faith look up to God and rest on his arme of gracious power to uphold our hearts and to cary us out unto our dutiful performances How many temptations do we many times meet with from Satan and how many threatnings and scoffs and reproaches and incounters do we meet many times with from ungodly men and from carnal parents and friends and from secret enemies of â—od and his wayes All which do tend to discourage our hearts and to weaken our hands and to interrupt or divert our feet from walking in Gods wayes and from doing of the works which God requirs of us in our places Now this is the time to look up to God and to trust on him to encourage and enable the heart to serve him to hold on in walking before him with all faithfulness wisdome zeal and patience now make use of that promise in Esa 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Zech. 4. 6. This is the wâ—rd of the Lord unto Zorobabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts Ver. 7. Who art thou O great mountain before Zorobabel thou shalt become a plain and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it Thirdly We should especially depend on God for his strength when we are most sensible of our own indispositions weaknesses streitghtened and insufficient hearts How often do we finde these things upon us how apt are we under them to shrink to complain to give over O but our work when we are not able to do our work is by faith to look up to God to quicken and enable us to do his work Psal 119 159. Consider how I love thy precepts quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness Esa 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come Object But I have no might or power at all to do any thing Sol. Consider now that precious promise in Esa 40. 29. He giveth power to the faint and unto them that have no might he encreaseth strength Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us c. Object But I have lookt up with such weak desires and with such a weak faith as I have and yet finde no more strength Sol. Read on ver 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength c. So Psal 31. 24. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. Object But did any servant of God ever finde him coming in with strength when sensible of his own weakness and calling upon him for help and strength Sol. See two places of Scripture instances for this Psal 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion fore ver Psal 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Fourthly We should especially depend on God for strength when we are called to do any work wherein the glory of God and the good of his Church and our own salvation are more singularly concerned First These are services and works of the highest and of the greatest consequence there is no work whatsoever wherein we can deal which is or can be of a higher nature for excellencie necessitie felicitie Secondly Miscarriages under these would prove very woeful and ruinous that Gods glory should faile in my hand or the good and safety of the Church in my hand and my own soul should perish by my own neglect Thirdly And of all works these do meet with the greatest opposition from without our selves and from within our selves the gates of hell are opened c. Yet for these hath God most of all engaged his power and presence and strength as you may see in the varietie of his promises and in the glory of his providences therefore when you are called to do any work which hath a neer and special respect to these things fall down and pray look up and depend as he said de deo nil sine deo we can know nothing of God without God so say I pro deo nil sine deo we can do nothing for God without God nothing for his glory without his assistance O Lord the work which I am now endeavouring thou knowest that it concerns thy name and glory the good and welfare of thy Church which is the apple of thine eye and the dearly beloved of thy soul and it respects mine own eternal salvation which thou wouldst have me work out with fear and trembling good Lord leave me not hide not thy self but appear in thy strength for the carrying on of these works come in with thy wisdom to direct me and with thy grace to quicken me and with thy spirit to lead and uphold and prosper me Fifthly When the work is extraordinary and universal of much difficultie and danger and requires more then ordinarie hight of spirit and courage and resolution now is your time not to consult with flesh and blood not to consider your own proportion of gifts and abilities but by faith to look up to him who commands the work and promiseth his assistance and presence for the work Exod. 3. 10. I will send thee unto Pharoah saith God to Moses that thou mayst bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt ver 11. And Moses said to God Who am I that I should go unto Pharoah and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Ver. 12. And he said Certainly I will be with thee Josh 1. 5. As I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not faile thee nor forsake thee Beloved as the weakest duties are above our strength so the greatest and hardest are below Gods strength it is not what you are but what your God is who commands you and what he will be unto you who hath promised his own power and strength Sixthly
in you may go to such a friend and say unto him Lend me so much money to pay a debt and he is able to help you and yet there are some wants that no friend nor man can be a help unto you in them When the famine was very grievous in Samaria a woman cryed to the King of Israel Help my Lord O King and he said If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barne-floor or out of the wine-presse 2 Kings 6. 26 27. As if he had said In this thy strait I am not able to help thee Beloved our wants may quickly rise above the power of man but they can never rise above the power of God every spiritual want exceeds the power of all creatures but no corporal or spiritual want exceeds the power of God you need knowledge your God is able to give it and you need wisdome your God is able to give it and you need mercy and grace and comfort and strength and deliverance and faith patience love meeknesse joy peace and friends and bread and house c. God your God is able to supply every want that is present or that is possible We read of the Israelites that being in bondage they wanted liberty and God gave it them and being near the Red Sea they wanted salvation and God gave it and being in the Wildernesse they wanted water the Rock is smitten and water is given and they wanted bread and God rained down Manna and they wanted flesh and God sent them Quailes c. If any man had such a friend who had power enough for all sorts of supplies let his wants and straits be what they may be yet he were able to help all O saith he I am well I have a friend who can help me in all my wants and straits Such a friend amongst men cannot I confesse be found but such a God may be found who can perform all things for you who hath power enough to help against all temptations and against all corruptions and in all afflictions and in all necessities yea and in all extremities 2. He alone can do you good you need none but your God to do you good He alone can do you good Omnipotency is of it self sufficient for all your helps and supplies as it can do all things so it can do all things from it self No creature is alone able or sufficient to be an help unto you without God but God alone is able to help you without any creature for he is omnipotent Suppose you be in danger God alone is able to deliver you suppose you be under trouble of Spirit God alone is able to comfort you suppose you need mercy God alone is able to pardon you suppose you be under outward wants God alone is able to supply you Omnipotency needs the help of none unto your help it can create salvation and command loving kindnesses and deliverances and any good 3. When God will do you good none can hinder him or you from the enjoyment When God will do you good none can hinder him of that good If he will blesse you you shall be blessed is there any power able to hinder Omnipotency as the Apostle spake in another case 1 Cor. 10. 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he So say I Will any contend with the Almighty God Can they binde his hand Are they stronger than the Almighty and Omnipotent God Isa 46. 9. I am God and there is none els I am God and there is none like me verse 10. My Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 40. 15. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a buckâ—â— and are counted as the small dust of the balance ver 17. All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him lesse than nothing and vanity Beloved you cannot put any supposition as a prejudice unto Gods Omnipotency you cannot say were my Adversaries not so many or mighty were my temptations not so high and strong were my distresses not so deep and low were my wants not so many and great then God could do me good and help me These are vain and weak suppositions in reference unto God for although the power of men and divels and the greatnesse of want and distresses may exceed out power yet nothing is too hard for God there are no difficulties there are no impediments unto the Omnipotent God If God be for us who can be against us saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 31. As if he should say if God will preserve you you shall be safe if God will blesse you you shall be blessed if God will do you good none can hinder 4. Then all his promises shall be accomplished unto you Those promises All his promises shall be accomplished unto you which are so many and so great and so precious which are your treasures your munition of rocks your hopes and confidences and the bonds and security which God gives unto you they shall certainly be performed unto you There are three things concerning God which do assure you of the performance of his promises First His Will the will of his goodness is in the making of all his promises and the will of his resolution is for the performing of them Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the oath to Abraham Micah 7. 20. 2. His unchangeablenesse or unfaithfulness I will not suffer my faithfulnesse to faile Psal 89. 33. My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Verse 34. He is faithful that promised Heb. 10. 23. 3. His Power or Omnipotency being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to performe Rom. 4. 21. Beloved your God doth never over engage himself unto you his goodness doth not surpass his ability he promiseth unto his people in general riches of grace and glory and he hath promised to some of his people in particular such blessings as exceeded all the possible capacities of reason and yet he easily brought all about he performed all for he is an Omnipotent God infinitely able to do c. 5. He can then raise and advance the work which he hath wrought he can He can raise and advance the work which he hath wrought bring forth judgment unto victory as it was said of Zerubbabel the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands also shall finish it Zach. 4. 9. Or as the Lord spake about the house of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 12. when I begin I will make an end So say I hath God begun in your hearts any work of grace hath he sowen the seed in rhe field hath he planted the Vineyard he is able to finish his work he who was able to give grace is able to make all grace to abound he that planteth grace is able also to water it and to increase it and to bring
present from the world and many afflictions too 4. Good Angels are present with you 5. A good conscience is continually present And lastly a good God is present in all his excellencies for your good 3. Although God be present every where ratione essentiae yet he is in a more God is in an especial manner present with his people special manner present with his people ratione influentiae There is the presence of his special providence and there is the presence of his special grace and thus he is every where present with and for his people Hence it is that ordinarily where you read of Gods presence with his people you shall finde some other special thing annexed to that presence as I will be with thee and blesse thee and I will be with thee and help thee and I will be with thee and deliver thee and I will be with thee and strengthen thee and uphold thee and save thee c. Jer. 15. 20. Hushai's presence with David was a burden 2 Sam. 15. 33. Jobs wifes presence was but a vexation unto him our friends presence is many times fruitlesse but Gods presence is a blessing comfort help indeed He is present with wicked men but the more present he is with them the worse it is for them the presence of his knowledge and the presence of his power and the presence of his wrath c. But the presence with his people is a very gracious presence and a blessing presence and a blessed presence he is alwayes present with them for good 4. Here is yet one comfort more unto you if your God be every where present Then you shall not stay long for any good you need and therefore present every where with you then you shall not stay long for any good that you need because your God is near unto you he is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth Psal 145. 18. What Nation is there who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Deut. 4. 7. The nearnesse or remotenesse of a friend is very material and considerable in our distresses and wants I have such a friend and he would help me but he lives so farre off and such a one is able to counsel me and comfort me but he is now absent and I may be undone before I can hear from him but it is not thus with you who have God to be your God he is alwayes nigh unto you As Christ said unto his Disciples Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the world So your God is present with you alwayes as long as you live in the world Do you want comfort the God of consolation is present with you very near unto you Do you want grace the God of all grace is present with you Do you want peace the God of peace is present with you Do you want mercy the Father of mercies iâ—s present with you Do you want friends the God of love is alwayes present Do you want safety the Omnipotent God is present with you Do you want any thing the All-sufficient God is alwayes present with you What the Apostle spake concerning the word of faith in Rom. 10. 8. It is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart That is as true of God in all his glorious excellencies for his people 11. Sovereignty or Dominion this is another Attribute of God he is I think Gods Sovereignty engaged for our good a thousand times in Scripture called the Lord the Lord c. and to him is Dominion ascribed Dominion for ever and ever 1 Pet. 4. 11. chap. 5. 11. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6. 15. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in heaven and his Kingdome ruleth over all Psal 103. 19. All that is in the heaven and the earth is thine thine is the Kingdome O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make great and give strength to all 1 Chron. 29. 11 12. One doth well distinguish of a twofold Sovereignty or Dominion in God There is A twofold Sovereignty 1. Jurisdictionis which is his Sovereign authority to govern all men and all Of jurisdictiâ—n creatures he may command what he will and forbid what he pleaseth and permit what he lists and appoint what punishments and what rewards as seem best to himself 2. Porprietatis which is his right or prerogative to dispose of all things and Of propriety persons and use them as he pleaseth and in this respect all the world and all in the world are his servants Gen. 14. 22. The Lord the most High God Possessor of heaven and earth And this Dominion or Sovereignty is natural unto him as he is God the God of all the world and Lord of all neither is it controled by men or Angels If God will destroy or abase or weaken or afflict or raise or blesse the creatures must yield unto his Sovereign Will And truly this is an unspeakable comfort to the people of God that their God The comfort of this is Lord of all and Lord over all that the Sovereignty is his alone and the Dominion is only his that their God is above all gods and that their God is above all Lords and that all the creatures in their whole being and working are under him that if he saith to one Go he goeth and if he saith to another Come he cometh and if he say to one Do this he doth it and if he saith to another Be still he ceaseth this is a comfort unto you against all the wicked in the world and as touching all the serviceablenesse of all the creatures in the World 1. If your God hath the Sovereign Dominion Then issues and events shall The issues and events shall not be as men contrive noâ— be as men contrive as they will or as they desire for there is a greater than they which rules and reigns in the Kingdome of men Be still and know that I am God Psal 46. 10. All the powers and all the policies and all the rage and malice of all the wicked on earth are under the Dominion of God he permits them and he restrains them and he confounds and destroys them thus far shall they go and no farther 2. Again If Sovereignty and Dominion are proper to God then you can never Then you can never be brought inâ—o any straits but God is able to help you be brought inâ—o any straits but God is able to help you and to deliver you for he is Lord of all He is the Lord of life and the Lord of safety and the Lord of deliverances and the Lord of comforts All the creatures are at his command if he will open
the hearts of men they shall pity you and help you in your wants if he saith to one Go and comfort such a Christian go and counsel him go and deliver him be a friend unto him he shall come unto thee and be this unto thee The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof 3. What shall I say more seeing Sovereignty and Dominion belong to your Then all the Ordinances of grace are at his command God Therefore all the Ordinances of grace and life are at his command and they shall yield out their strength and drop down their fatnesse at his will and pleasure he can open them and he can let out all their joyes and revivings and consolations they shall be effectual means of all-saving good unto you upon his command 12. He is and will be a good God unto you The Lord is good Psal 136. He will be a good God unto you Ten things concerning the goodness of God to his people He intends them good He will bring unto them the good promised He delights in doing good He accounts this his honour 1. Thou Lord art Good Psal 86. 5. And truly God is good to Israel Psal 73. 1. O how great is thy goodnâ—sse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31. 19. There are ten things concerning the goodness of God unto his people 1. He intends them good I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an un exâ—ected end Jer. 29. 11. 2. He will bring upon them all the good which he hath promised them Jer. 32. 42. 3. He delights in doing good unto them I will rejoyce over them to do them good Jer. 32. 41. 4. He looks upon his doing good unto his people as his honour and praise it shall be to me a name of joy a praise and an hâ—nour before all the Nations of the earth which shall hear all thâ— good that I do unto them Jer. 33. 9. 5. He thinks no good too good for them he will give grace and glory and He thinks no good too good for them He will never cease from doing good He will do them good every day He prevents us with goodness He doth more good than they seek for He reserves the best good to the last no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84. 11. 6. He will never cease from doing them good Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life Psal 23. 6. See also Jer. 32. 40. 7. He will do them good every day his mercy is nâ—w every morning Lam. 3. 23. Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits Psal 68. 19. 8. He is so ready to do you good that he oftentimes prevents you with his goodnesse before they call I will â—â—swer Isa 65. 14. 9. He doth them more good than they look for Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for Isa 64. 3. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream Psal 1 26. 1. 10. He reserves the best good to the last For besides all the good which he doth for his people in this life there is also an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1. 4. Eye hath not seen nor the eare heard c. 1 Cor. 2. 9. 13. He is a very kind God unto his people Thou art a God of great kindnesse He is a very kind God unto hiâ— people This contains foure things in it Nehem. 9. 17. He hath shewed me his loving kindnesse Psal 31. 21. His merciful kindnesse is great towards us Psal 117. 2. The kindnesse of God contains foure things in it 1. The sweetnesse of his loving nature unto his people without the least disdain of them and harshnesse towards them he will not bruise the bruised reed nor The sweetnesse of his nature despise the day of small things 2. The easinesse of the communication of himself and goodnesse unto them The easiness of his communications His favourable encouragings as waters flow out from a full fountain 3. His favourable encouragings and acceptance of them in their persons and addresses unto him as the father ran and embraced the returning childe and fell on his neck and kissed him 4. His respectful tenders helpful forwardnesse of dealing with his people His respectful tenders in all gentlenesse and elemency And therefore he is said to pity and spare his people as a father pities his childe Psal 103. 13. and spares his childe that serves him Mal. 3. 17. and to draw his people with loving kindnesse Jer. 31. 3. and to draw them with bands of love Hosea 11. 4. and to take them by the armes Hosea 11. 3. and gently to lead them and to carry them in his bosome Isa 40. 11. and to dandle them upon his knees Isa 66. 12. and to speak comfortably unto them Hosea 2. 14. In the Old Testament he would commune with his people and give out all his answers at the Mercyseat And in the New Testament he gives them audience at the Throne of grace and mercy and would have them in all their petitions to look upon him as their Father Our Father c. Though the distance be infinite 'twixt him and us yet he represents himself unto us altogether as a kinde God and Father and makes kinde promises unto us and gives us his own Twelve things may assure you God will be kind to his people His relations to them His love is exceeding great unto them His tender apprehensions of any unkindness offered unto you His daily passing by your failings Sonne to be our Mediatour that so we may still finde favour in his eyes There are twelve things which may assure you that your God is and will be a kind God unto you 1. His relations to you Thy Maker is thy husband Isa 54. 5. I will marry thee unto my self in loving kindnesse Hosea 2. 19. 2. His love is exceeding great unto you he loves you above all the people in the world and his choice delight is in you you are his Hephzibahs and Benlahs because the Lord delights in you Isa 62. 4. 3. His tender apprehension of any unkind and harsh injuries offered unto you he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye 4. His daily passing by the many failings and weaknesses he pities them and will not mark them nor insist upon them 5. His easie reception of you into favour if he sees but a tear in your eyes he His easie reception of you into favour will be gracious to the voice of your tears I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself I will surely have mercy on him 6. His sympathy with you in your distresses and afflictions in all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them His sympathy
heart is set upon it he serves it he is married unto it he delights in it now such a nature is an enmity against holinesse it stands in a peculiar opposition and contrariety unto it it is not subject to the Law of God nor can be subject saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 7. so say I it is enmity against the holinesse of God it is not subject unto it nor indeed can be 2. Another reason may be this The nature of holinesse holinesse is that work The nature of holinesse of God which utterly subverts the state of sinne breaks down all the powers of it crucifies the body of it separates 'twixt the heart and sinne changes the heart of the sinner turns the love of sinne into the hatred of sinne and the delights in sinne into sorrow for sinne makes us new creatures will not suffer the sinner to enjoy his old lusts and his old wayes brings a new frame of Spirit and a new course of life it is absolutely contrary and it is utterly destructive of the sinful condition and straitly binds the whole man to the whole will of God and all these things are grievous unto a natural man 3. A third reason of it may be this The obloquie and scorns and reproaches The reproaches and persecutions of the world against holinesse and persecutions of the world against holinesse the men of the world draw their arrows and spit all their venome against holinesse they hate it and deride it and opose it and discounterance and defame it and load it with all sorts of defamation and carâ—al men love the world and fear the world they love the praise of the world and the peace of the world and the ease of the world and the favour and opinion of the world men must suffer reproaches and persecutions and troubles if they will be holy but they cannot suffer in their names nor in their delights nor in their profits nor in their friendship and therefore they will not be holy I say no more to you but this if you will not be holy then you professe you will not be the people of God and that you will not have God to be God and he will not be your God nor shall you be his people and hence it follows that he will never shew mercy to you nor peace to you nor his salvation to you get thee a portion wherein thou canst but in him but in his mercy but in his Christ but in his glory thou shalt never have part nor portion Vse 3 Is the Covenant of God an holy Covenant here then is lively comfort for all holy persons let men judge of you as they please and deal with you as they list Comfort for all holy persons and oppose you as they do yet this is your comfort God is your God and you are his people Beloved never dispute it nor fear it if you be an holy people God is your God in Covenant for 1. Holinesse is in none but such as are in Covenant 2. All in Covenant have holinesse wrought in them holinesse is a Covenant gift it drops only out of the Covenant of grace and every one in Covenant resembles that God with whom he is in Covenant he is holy as his heavenly Father is holy And let me tell you if you have a share in the holiness of the Covenant you shall have a share also in the happinesse of the Covenant if the holy God be your God then the merciful God is your God and the loving God is your God and the blessing God is your God and the blessed God is your God and the everlasting God is your everlasting God Nay let me settle this comfort yet closer upon your hearts though as yet you want much in the degrees and measure of hoâ—inesse yet if there be holinesse in truth wrought in you be it never so little yet if it be true holinesse it is a true character that God is your God and that you are his people in Covenant Quest That is the thing which we so much fear how may it be known when there is yet so much rubbish of sinful corruption dwelling in us Sol. For answer to this remember that there are six things which do shew that your holinesse is true holinesse though it may be but weak and How may true holinesse be known It takes off the heart from all sin little 1. True holinesse though never so weak it fetches off the heart from all sin and sets the heart against all sin it works in compliance with all sin it takes off the heart from the love of every sin and raises in the heart an opposition and conflict with every sin though as yet it cannot expel all sin yet it will oppose all sin though as yet it cannot conquer all sin yet it will conflict with all sin the least degree of light opposeth all degrees of darknesse as the least spark of fire is contrary to a Sea of water 2. True holinesse though it can do but little yet it is an universal conformity to all the Will of God There is an answerablenesse 'twixt the whole Will of God It is an universal conformiâ—y to all the Will of God and the least and weakest true holinesse it approves all the holy and good Will of God it sets up all the Will of God it delights in all the Will of God it strives to come up in all well-pleasing in all things to all the Will of God 3. True holinesse is perfecting holinesse though it be not perfect holinesse It is perfecting holinesse yet it is perfecting holinesse it prayes and heares and looks up to the holy God to sanctifie us wholly to pour out his holy Spirit to make all grace to abound it sets up the holinesse of God as a pattern and strives for a fulnesse of holinesse to be holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. To purifie our selves as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. 4. True holinesse makes us to prize and love holinesse wheresoever we find it It makes to prize and love holiness where we find it and the more holy the more love to love an holy God an holy Christ the holy Ghost the holy Scriptures the holy Sabbath and all holy duties all holy persons be they rich or be they poor be they useful to us or be they strangers to us holinesse loves all holinesse 5. True holinesse is another nature a divine nature and makes the greatest It is another nature change and alteration in the soule that it is capable of It changes a mans heart and life service will affections and all The man is a new creature and is changed into the Image of Christ 2 Cor. 3. 18. 6. True holinesse is exceeding powerful there is a mighty power in it A It is exceeding powerful man never is able to come up to the Will of God Lord what wilt thou have me to do to deny
God power is necessary to give a being unto all undertakings The power of God If a poor man promiseth much yet there is no certainty of it because though he be very willing yet he is very unable the engagement exceeds his stock of ability But God is able to performe all the good promised to his people in the Covenant Rom. 4. 21. Abraham was fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able also to perform For the clear understanding of this remember four particulars 1. There is not any one promise of God but hath the power of God accompanying No promise of God but hath the power of God engaged for it it and engaged for it whether for temporal things see an excellent place for this Numb 11. 18. The Lord will give you flesh and you shall eat Ver. 19. Ye shall not eat one day nor two dayes nor ten nor twenty but a whole month Verse 20. And Moses said verse 21. The people are six hundred thousand footmen and thou hast said I will give them flesh for a whole month Shall ver 22. the flocks and herds be slain for them to suffice them or shall the fish of the sea be gathered together for them as if he had said But art thou able to make this promise good the Lord said unto Moses verse 23. Is the Lords hand waxed short Thou shalt see whether my word shall come to passe unto thee or not he did make it good Or whether the promise be for spiritual things there is the power of God accompanying it Micah 7. 18. Who is a strong God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity He is able to pardon all our sinnes and able to change our hearts and to subdue our iniquities and to write his Law in our hearts and to make all grace to abound and to keep us from falling and to preserve us to his heavenly glory We are kept by the power of God 2. This power is a supreme and over-topping power it is an exceeding power This power is a supreme power a power that cannot be hindred If he will blesse who can curse If he be with us who can be against us No creature can raise up and stay it it is such a power as beares down all before it All that Pharaoh could do could not make or hinder the power of God from delivering his people according to his promise nor all the Kings could hinder their possessing of promised Canaan 3. This power is independent it takes not in any assistance to help it but is alone This power is independent sufficient to it self and unto all its works and unto all the purposes of God there is enough of his power as to creation so to conversion and pardoning and blessing 4. This power is an enduring power it still abides in strength Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save Isa 59. 1. His power remains the same This power is an enduring power for ever 2. The Will of God in reference to the Covenant to perform what God hath promised Micah 7. 20. Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob. Jer. 33. 14. The Will of God I will performe that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel 1 Thes 5. 24. Faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it Phil. 1. 6. He that hath begunne a good work in you will performe it untill the day of Jesus Christ God was never forced to make it or to enter into this Bond but out of his own accord willingly became ours and this willingnesse was not extrinsecal depending upon the perswasion of another but it was intrinsecal arising only from his own entire love unto us Quest But the question may be concerning the kinds of Gods Will as to the performance The kinds of Gods will of this Covenant Sol. For answer unto that take these particulars 1. The will of God for the performance of his Covenant it is a peremptory and perfect Will it is a Will resolved a Will of purpose or according to purpose It is a peremptory and perfect will not an incompleat Will it may be I will and it may be I will not not a wishing but this is my purpose my decree I am resolved on it to blesse my people to bring upon them all the good of my Covenant 2. This Will is grounded on it selâ— it is a well-guided Will it doth not depend It is grounded on it self on any thing in us for then it might not be sure but only the good pleasure of his Will which is most sure Ezek. 36. 22. Not for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name-sake Isa 48. 11. For mine own sake even for mine own sake will I do it Deut. 7. 8. Because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworne unto your Fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand 3. This Will is fixed and unalterable must not the Covenant then be sure It is fixed and unalterable Psal 89. 34. My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Verse 35. Once have I sworn by my holinesse that I will not lye unto David And this willingnesse he hath expressed 1. In his promiseâ— yea promise upon promise that he will bring upon them all the good that he hath promised them Jer. 32. 42. and Jer. 33. 14. and Micah 7. 20 c. 2. In his Oath to all this I have sworn by my holinesse that I will not lye unto David Psal 89. 35. He confirmed it by his Oath saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 17. and an Oath for confirmation is an end of all strife ver 16. Luk. 1. 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fâ—thers and to remember his holy Covenant Ver. 73. The Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham surely God will not break his word of promise and lye surely God will not break his Oath and be perjured 3. This Covenant is gracious and therefore it is sure as the Apostle speaks It is gracious Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might bâ— by grace to the end the promise might bâ— sure to all the seed The former Covenant was not sure because it was of works and rested upon our own strength and performance but this Covenant iâ— sure because it is of grace and rests not on any sufficiency in us but only on the goodnesse and the sufficiency of Gods grace God in this Covenant doth promise to give us all things freely to work all our works in us and for us not to deal with us according to our deserts but according to the riches of his mercy 4. This Covenant is confirmed by the blood of Jesus Christ which is called It is confirmed by the blood of Christ the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. Matth. 26. 28. This
Holy Ghost is the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14. and he abides with us for ever John 14. 16. 4. The mercy of God is everlasting Psal 100. 5. his mercy is everlasting and Psal 103. 17. it is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and Psal 136. from verse 1. to 26. six and twenty times it is there said his mercy endures for ever 5. The goodnesse of God is everlasting it endureth continually Psal 52. 1. 6. The love of God is an everlasting love Jer. 31. 33. I have loved thee with an everlasting love 7. The kindnesse of God is everlasting Isaiah 54. 8. with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer 8. The righteousnesse of the Covenant is an everlasting righteousnesse Dan. 9. 24. 9. The forgivenesse in the Covenant is everlasting Jerem. 31. 34. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sinnes no more Micah 7. 9. Thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depth of the Sea 10. The grace or holinesse of the Covenant is everlasting it is called abiding seed 1 John 3. 9. and the immortal seed 1 Pet. 1. beiâ—g born agâ—in not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible it is living water John 4. 10. springing up to everlasting life ver 14. 11. The joy of it is everlasting Isa 51. 11. and none shall take it from us John 16. 22. 12. So is the Consolation of the Covenant 2 Thess 2. 16. Who hath given us everlasting Consolation and good hope throuâ—h grace 13. The life of the Covenant is everlasting Jâ—hn 3. 16. he that believes shall not perish but have everlasting life 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life For the opening of this excellent and comfortable adjunct of the Covenant remember 1. That the word everlasting hath two acceptions it doth denote Thâ— word everlasting aâ—eâ— for Aâ—ong duration A perpetual duration This Covenant is everlasting 1. Sometimes a long duration in which respect the old Covenant cloathed with figures and ceremonies is called everlasting because it was to endure and did endure a long time 2. Sometimes a perpetual duration and a duration which shall last for ever in this respect the new Covenant is everlasting it shall never cease never be broken never be altered 2. And it is an everlasting Covenant in a twofold respect 1. Ex parte faederantis in respect of God who will never break Covenant In respect of God with his people but is their God and will be their God for ever and ever 2. Ex parte confaederatorum in respect of the people of God who are brought In respect of his people into Covenant and shall continue in Covenant for ever and ever you have both these expressed in Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Mark the place it shews that the Covenant is everlasting on Gods part and also on our part on Gods part I will never turn away from them to do them good and on our part They shall never depart from me how so I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me even that fear spoken of in ver 39. that they may fear me for ever There are three things which I would deliver concerning the everlastingnesse of the Covenant 1. Some clear demonstrations of it from the Scripture 2. The reasons why the Covenant of grace is and must be everlasting 3. Some useful applications of this unto our selves 1. The demonstrations of the everlastingnesse of the Covenant in respect of the The everlastingnesse of the Covenant demonstrated From the consideration of God himself in relation to his people The election of God people in Covenant I shall present unto you four arguments to demonstrate that it is so 1. The first argument I will take from the consideration of God himself in relation unto his people as 1. his election of them 2. His love to them 3. His power for them 4. His presence with them 5. His promises to them 1. The election of God all the people in the Covenant are the elect of God thine they were and thou gavest them me saith Christ John 17. 6. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts 13. 48. Now there are three things in election 1. It is a gracious decree not depending on any forinsecal causes 2. It is an unalterable decree not raised on any mutable causes 3. It is an effectual decree letting forth and communicating all the things which will infallibly bring unto salvation Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate which if it be so then certainly the Covenant is everlasting forasmuch as everlasting life and all that conduceth thereunto is unalterably decreed in Gods election and from that effectually communicated unto all in Covenant 2. The love of God that God doth love his people is most clear in the Scriptures The love of God After what manner God loves his people As he loves Jesus Christ but after what manner doth he love them we read five things of Gods love to his 1. That God doth love his people after the same manner that he loves Jesus Christ himself and with the same love John 17. 23. That the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Ver. 26. I have declared unto them thy Name that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them 2. That God doth love his people with an insuperable and with and inseparable With an insuperable and inseparable love love Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakedness or perills or sword Ver. 37. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us Ver. 38. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nâ—r Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come Ver. 39. Nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 3. That God doth love his people with a most gracious love with a love With a most gracious love kindled only from love Deut. 7. 7 8. The Lord did set his love upon you because the Lord loved you Hosea 14. 4. I will love them freely that is upon the sole account and reason of my own love unto them yea his love was the only impulsive cause why he entred into Covenant with them and by oath engaged himself unto them Ezek. 16. 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was the time of love and I sware unto thee and entred into Covenant with thee saith the Lord
hath promised this unto his people Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you 2. Another is a sincere heart though hypocrisie be vanishing yet sincerity A sincere heart will continue there is faithfulnesse and stedfastnesse in sincerity and God hath promised to give this heart unto his people Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart and one way Zach. 8. 3. Jerusalem shall be called a City of truth and ver 8. They shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and righteousnesse Isa 1. 22. Then shalt thou be called the City of righteousnesse the faithful City 3. A third is entire and exceeding love this will hold out unto the death yea Intire love it is stronger than death and this hath God also promised to give his people Deuteronomy 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul 4. A fourth is the fear of himself which is the beginning of wisdome and The fear of God the deliverance from sinne this also God promiseth to give unto his people in that Covenant Jer. 32. 40. I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 5. A fifth is sound faith 1. Of union 2. Dependance both these he Sound faith promiseth They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed but abideth fast for ever John 6. 45. They shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the father cometh to me Zeph. 3. 12. And they shall trust in the Name of the Lord. Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by his faith 2. God doth expresly promise to keep his people from falling away from him God promiseth to keep his people from falling and that he will never leave nor forsake them 1 Sam. 12. 22. The Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name-sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people Psal 37. 24. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Ver. 28. The Lord forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever Psalme 94. 18. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up Hosea 14. 4. I will heal their back-slidings 2 Thess 3. 3. The Lord is faithful who shall stablish you 3. God doth expresly promise to strengthen and increase their grace The righteous God promiseth to strengthen and increase their grace shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17. 9. The path of the just shall be as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. He will make all grace to abound he will work in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age 4. God doth promise to confirm his people unto the end and to finish the work God promiseth to confirm his people to the end which he hath begun in them 1 Cor. 1. 8. He shall confirm you to the end that ye may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Jesus Phil. 1. 6. Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begunne a good work in you will perform it will perfect it he will carry it on untill the day of Jesus Christ 5. God doth promise to break down all which might else cause his people to God promiseth to over-power whatsoever may make his people tâ— break Covenant break off the Covenant There are but five causes supposable for the breaking off that Covenant on our part and God removes every one of them from his people 1. One is the power of sin but God hath promised to subdue our iniquities Mic. 7. 19. And sin shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6. 14. 2. A second is the power of Satan but God hath promised that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape 1 Cor. 10. 13. He hath promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his people Matth. 16. 18. He hath promised that the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. and that he will bruise Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. and resist the devil and he shall flye from you James 4. 7. 3. A third is the power of the world but said Christ to his Disciples John 16. 33. Be of good chear I have overcome the world and 1 John 5. 4. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even over faith 4. A fourth is the supposed liberty and inconstancy of mans will that a man if he will he may cast off his God and give over to be one of his people but this God promiseth to remove by giving of his own Spirit which shall cause us to walk in his Statutes and to keep his Laws and to do them Ezekiel 36. 27. and Jeremiah 32. 39. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever 5. A supposition that God will substract or with-draw his grace from his people Neither shall this be for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance so Rom. 11. 29. And Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be takâ—n from her Luke 10. 42. 2. A second Argument to demonstrate the everlastingnesse of the Covenant 'twixt God and his people shall be taken from several considerations of Christ From several considerations of Christ and believers and believers who are the people in Covâ—nant 1. Christs suretiship 2. Christs Mediatorship 3. Christs union with them 4. Christs love 5. Christs intercession 6. Christs promises and preparations for them 1. The suretiship of Christ in Heb. 7. 22. Christ is said to be made a surety The suretiship of Christ of a better Covenant so I conceive the word should be rendred viz. Covenant and not Testament for a surety is not of a Testament but of a Covenant A surety is one who is engaged and stands bound for another and is responsable for him as Judah for Benjamine Gen. 43. 9. I will be surety for him of my hands shall they require him And in matters of contract 'twixt person and persons a surety is taken in for this very end That the contract may be made sure and good may not faile but be truly and perfectly performed and the surety is a distinct person undertaking and engaging in the behalf of him who is of himself the more weak and insufficient contractor As to this consideration Christ is stiled the surety of the
possesseth and he is poor and dreams that Christ is his and died for his sins and made his peace but he is deceived there is no such matter at all Now there are foure things which do manifestly declare that the confidence That confidence is but a delusion Which is contrary to the Word which some men have that Christ dyed for them is but a delusion 1. When that confidence is contrary to the Word Every true and sound perswasion of our interest in Christ and in the benefits of his death is conformable to the testimony of the Word and every false perswasion or confidence is contrary to the Word as it hath no word of God to bottom upon so it hath the Word of God to unbottom and contradict it You are confident that Christ dyed to save you and to purchase the pardon of sins c. And yet you remain an ignorant and impenitent a disobedient and unbelieving sinner you still love your sins and will not forsake them your heart is hardened in sin and you mourn not for sin you despise the Gospel of Christ and truth of Christ and calls of Christ and paths of Christ and subjection to Christ and communion with Christ And yet you are confident that Christ died effectually 〈◊〉 for your salvation And what warrant have you thus to lay claim to him and to his benefits The Word saith Whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16 36. And he that believeth not shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And you believe not on him where is now your confidence the Word saith be converted and repent that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. And Christ saith that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name Luke 24. 47. But you repent not you do not you will not forsake your sins The Word saith that Christ is the Author of salvation to all that obey him Hebr. 5. 9. But you will not obey him he calls you off from your sins and he calls you off from the world and he calls you to fellowship with himself and he calls you unto holinesse but you will not obey him in any of these calls therefore your confidence in the benefits of his death is a meer presumption and delusion it is not warranted by the Word nay the Word is expressely contrary unto it 2. When that confidence is but natural and easily believed The right confidence Which is but natural and easily believed that Christ dyed for us it is supernatural and difficult we cannot give it to our selves it is a perswasion given unto us and it costs us many prayings and many tears and many bearings and many waitings upon God before we can attain unto it But a deluding confidence that is natural and easie the person never gets it by prayer never wrestled with God for it never attended the Word for it never conflicted with doubts and fears was never at any cost for it but was confident all his days no antecedent conflict no present conflict presumption is a work of our own a meer fancy of our own and a meer delusion of our own Thirdly When that confidence is fruitlesse and loose it produceth no love Which is fruitlesse at all to Christ nor fear to offend Christ nor care to please Christ nay instead of these there is a boldnesse to sin the more and to continue impenitent because Christ dyed for sinners and his death is sufficient to expiate the greatest transgressions whereas a right confidence of the benefits of the death of Christ makes men more holy and obedient 1 John 2. 3. We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Ver. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Fourthly When that confidence or assurance is easily swept away in time of Which is easily swept away in time of tryal tryal either by conscience or by afflictions or by sicknesse or by the approachings of death His confidence shall be rooted out of his Tabernacle and shall bring him to the King of terrors said Bildad in Job 18. 14. A deluding confidence usually ends in a despairing diffidence but so doth not a right and well-grounded confidence it will hold out in all afflictions and tryals whatsoever Rom. 8. 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yea it will hold out in death it self when all the hopes of the hypocrite shall perish 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Ver. 7. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Ver. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day From all this let us learn carefully to try our very confidences of our interest in Christ and in the benefits of his death remember but three things 1. Your interest is never the more for all your confidence confidence gives no propriety though sometimes it follows it 2. Your interest is the lesse if your confidence be false A troubled and doubting Christian may be brought in to Christ and partake of him and of his benefits when the bold confident presumptuous sinner keeps off and hides himself even because he is boistrously confident 3. You will certainly be lost if you rest in this confident delusion it is a broken bottome and a dream which will destroy you Case 2. What a person should do who as yet cannot certainly affirme What a person should do who as yet cannot certainly affirme that Christ dyed for him that Christ dyed for him and that he hath any interest in the benefits of his death Sol. This is the case of many troubled souls and their exceeding burden and fear unto whom I would commend 1. A few Cautions 2. A few Directions 1. Cautions Cautions to such Do not cashiere your title 1. Do not cashiere your title Though all this while you cannot clear your interest although you cannot conclude for it yet do not conclude against it nor yet despair for 1. This dark condition is incident to most if not all weak believers who are baptized in a cloud though they drink of the rock i. e. Christ indeed is theirs although they do not see him to be theirs and the blood of Christ was shed for them although the assurance thereof be not shed abroad in their hearts yea and pardon of their sins is sealed although as yet it be not revealed to them they do not finde this in a sensible experience but yet they
support and encourage you against all the temptations of Satan and fears of your own spirits God himself is your God and God himself for whom nothing is too hard and who is faithful in Covenant he it is who undertakes to find out and give out unto you every mercy for soul and body which you do or shall need Vse 2 Do not only believe this truth but also make use of it i. e. in the sense of all your wants whether spiritual or temporal Go unto God with boldnesse unto Make use of this truth his Throne of grace that ye may finde grace and mercy to help in time of need Remember that of the Apostle in Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God Do not vainly perplex your selves O it is impossible ever to get this sinful heart changed and this hard heart broken and those sins pardoned but â—â—nsider seriously 1. What is that which you finde promised in the Covenant Do you not expresly find the renewing of the heart promised there and the taking away of the hard heart promised there and the forgivenesse of all sins promised there 2. Who is it that undertakes to give these things promised Is it not God himself who can do it because he is Almighty and will do it because he is faithful it is not what strength and power you have for these things but what the sufficiency and fidelity of God is who undertakes to give them Object But he expects great matters from us before he will give them unto us Sol. 1. I will tell you what he expects from you he expects three things from you 1. That you acknowledge your own unworthinesse and his graciousnesse 2. That you come and pray unto him and intreat him to do these things for you 3. That you trust upon him as able and willing to help you according to his Word 2. And this which he expects from you if he hitherto hath not given them unto you yet he promiseth to give them unto you for praying Zach. 12. 10. I will poure upon them the Spirit of supplication for trusting Zephany 3. 12. I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord. Object But we must bring something or other and undertake something else God will not do all for us Sol. 1. What would ye bring to a Covenant of Grace or what should you bring but your hearts to receive what is promised in the Covenant of Grace to be given 2. All the finding and giving work belongs to God that is it which himself undertakes forgivenesse righteousnesse holinesse love joy and peace and these himself undertakes to give unto us The fountain is full and runs freely take your care only for a Vessel to receive and take in the waters which flow out of it Vse 3 Doth God himself undertake to give all the blessings of the Covenant to his people What a comfort is this unto all his people this God himself is your God Comfort to the people of God and your Father and he loves you above all the people in the world and binds himself by promise and oath unto you that in blessing he will blesse you If you were to make your choice of one to undertake your good in whose hands you would have your all to lie you would pitch on one 1. Who loves you as a friend as a father and as a near relation 2. Who is sufficient and able 3. Who is mindful and faithful 4. Who is knowing and wise 5. Who is like to live long Now First Doth not God love his people I have loved thee with an everlasting love God loves his people Jer. 31. 3. I am a Father to Israel and Israel is my first born Ver. 9. Is Ephraim my dear son I remember him still my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him Ver. 20. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Isa 49. 15. Secondly Is he not able to do you good he is the All-sufficient and Almighty God is able to do you good God nothing is too hard for him he is able to do above all that we are able to ask or think and can do whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth is it not be who stretcheth out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Abraham was fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able to performe Rom. 4. 21. Thirdly He knows all your distresses and wants your groans are not hid from He knows all your distresses him and all your tears are in his bottle he is mindful of his people Psal 115. 12. The Lord hath been mindful of us he will blesse us he is mindful of 〈◊〉 Covenant Psal 111. 5. He hath given meat to them that fear him he will be mindful of his Covenant Psal 105. 8. He hath remembred his Covenant for ever Fourthly He is the faithful God Deut. 7. 9. Know that the Lord thy God He is the faithful God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his Covenant to thousands of generations Heb. 10. 23. He is faithful that promised Fifthly He is the wise God God only wise Rom. 16. 27. Wise in heart Job He is the wise God 9. 4. And therefore will proportion and season out proper and peculiar mercies unto his servants Sixthly He is the unchangeable God there is not so much as the shaddow of Change in him Jam. 1. 17. The living God Jer. 10. 10. The Lord is the true He is the unchangeable God God he is the living God and an everlasting King Dan. 12. 7. liveth for ever 〈◊〉 If I do understand this Assertion aright it may suffice to take off all your fears and to draw on all your hearts to come unto your God with confidence who himself undertakes to give unto you all the good of his Covevant Can more be desired or can any thing else conduce further or better to your salvation Object We confess that here is enough in respect of God but that which makes us to fear is something in respect o ourselves our unworthiness against which God may take exception and for which he may deny to give unto us the good things which he hath promised Sol. This is the greatest doubt which still sticks with us and it is the strongest exception of our unbelieving hearts and unto which I shall endeavour to give a full resolution in the last General Proposition which now comes to be handled viz. SECT IV. Doct. 4. THat all these blessings which God doth promise to give unto his people All the blessings which God promiseth to his
that God will not one time or another remember thy sins and judge thee for them O no he saith that he will forgive iniquity and remember my sin no more 4. But dost thou not see that he remembers thy sins when his hand lies now so heavy upon thee O no this is no judicial remembrance but a paternal chastisement 5. But certainly God loves thee not nay if he had not loved me freely he would never have justified me freely 6. But thou hast nothing to do with Christ nor ever shalt thou have benefit by Christ Why this is strange that my sins are forgiven me for his Names sake yet that I should have no part in Christ and no benefit by Christ 7. But God is still displeased and angry with thee No for he hath taken away iniquity and therefore his anger is turned away from me 8. But God will not hear any prayer which thou makest nor mayst thou be admitted into any communion with him O but this is false for God himself hath said 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and will heal their Land Ver. 15. And mine eyes shall be open and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place 9. But what good will the pardon of thy sins do thee as long as thy sins rule and prevail over thee O but that God who pardoneth iniquity saith also that he will subdue our iniquities Micah 7. 18 19. 10. But I can and will charge thy sins upon thee and condemn thee for them O but what hast thou to do to charge sins when God hath discharged sins and what hast thou to do to condemn me if God hath forgiven me Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Ver. 14. Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed SECT VIII Vse 4 DOth the promise of forgiveness belong unto all that are in Covenant with God The last Use then shall be for Instruction unto all the people of God Instruction Duties of such whose sins are forgiven Bless much whose sins God himself hath forgiven There are five duties which do in a special manner take hold of you First Bless much How should the heart be filled with the praises of so good a God and be enlarged in the blessings of him Psal 103. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Ver. 2. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Ver. 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities Beloved 1. Set this mercy in comparison with other mercies and if you finde just cause to bless God for them surely you will finde more cause to bless God for this forgiving mercy You many times bless God for delivering your life from death and have you not more reason to bless God for delivering your souls from hell You many times bless God for delivering your bodies from pains and aches and have you not more reason to bless God for delivering your conscience from wrath and terror You many times bless God for a blessing which is but for a time and but for this life and have you not more reason to bless God for this blessing of forgiveness which reaches to eternity and unto everlasting life You bless God many times for peace with man and have you not more reason to bless God for peace with God Being justified by faith we have peace with God c. Rom. 5. 1. You bless God many times that all is well on earth and no cross befalls you have you not more reason to bless God that all is well at heaven and that no curse shall ever befall you You many times bless God that differences and suits are taken up between you and men so that you shall never be troubled and punished by men and have you not more cause to bless God that all differences are taken off betwixt you and God so that you shall never be questioned nor be damned by him 2. Set the unpardoned sinners condition and your pardoned condition together How cursed a condition that is and how blessed a condition this is and tell me then whether you have not great reason to bless your God When a sinner lives and dies an unpardoned sinner he lives under wrath and dies under wrath he lives an enemy to God he is a Christless person and an hopeless person all his transgressions stand upon Record and in their full power of guilt against his soul and all that curse and punishment which God hath threatned and which all his sins have deserved they shall certainly and perfectly and eternally be inflicted upon him God will question him and convince him and judge him and damn him and none shall ever be able to deliver him or help him he shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. Now all this would have been the portion of your cup had not the Lord in much mercy pardoned your iniquities and your sins for your sins were of the same kind and of the same guilt and of the same desert as the sins of others yet they are condemned and you are pardoned They dye and you live wrath is inflicted on them but mercy is bestowed on you they shall never see Heaven and you shall never see Hell they shall be damned for ever and you shall be saved for ever they have no reason to complain because the righteous God doth punish them only for their sins and you have reason to blesse because the gracious God hath mercifully prdoned your sins for his own sake Secondly Love much Love your God much who hath forgiven you much Love much He frankly forgave them both tell me therefore which of them will love him most Luke 7. 42. 47. There are six Reasons why we should love God 1. Because he is good 2. Because he doth us good 3. Because he loves us 1 Joh. 4. 19. We love him because he loved us 4. Because he sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sinnes 1 Joh. 4. 10. 5. Because he hath provided and promised a Kingdom to them that love him Jam. 1. 12. 6. Because he hath forgiven us our sinnes and that freely when we deserved it not nay when we deserved the contrary O how should this God be loved by you who alone share in his love in his Christ in his forgiving mercy how should your hearts be endeared unto him be knitted unto him be taken and affected with him The Schoolmen do distinguish of a twofold love Amor gratuitus such a love was Gods love to us in the forgiving of our sins Having forgiven you Col. 2. 13. the word signifies freely or graciously forgiven you all trespasses and Amor debitus such a love we do owe to God who doth
of our sins and judge and condemn and everlastingly punish us for the rest of our sins here would be small cause of rejoycing unto us 4. Again where were the hope of glory hath the unpardoned sinner any hope of heaven doth not every sin deserve the loss of heavenly glory and will it not effectually and eventually prove so unlesse God pardons it 5. Where is the liberty of accesse and boldness of approaching to God if any of your sins are unpardoned the very spirit of fear and bondage lies still on you that God is not reconciled to you but is your enemy and he will not own and bless you but will reject and curse you and will bring on you all the evil that he hath threatned Fourthly A fourth Argument to prove that God will forgive all the sins of We are to forgive all the trespasses against us his people is this We are to forgive all the trespasses of an offending brother in case he repent Luke 17. 4. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Now we are to forgive our brother as God forgives us Ephes 4. 32. Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us his forgiving is a pattern to our forgiving and he would have ours to be universal therefore his is so to us Matth. 18. 32. I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me Verse 33. Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee Thus have you heard the Assertion cleared by Scripture and Arguments that God will foâ—give all the sins of his people Now before I passe to the useful Application of 〈◊〉 unto our selves I would speak something unto a Question much agitated amongst the Learned and others viz. SECT II. Quest VVHether God which promiseth to pardon all the sins of his people doth Whether all sins be pardoned together at once pardon all their sins Simul Semel together and at once all sins past which his people have committed and all sins present which they do commit and all sins future which they may hereafter commit Sol. This is I confess a very nice question and hath if it be well weighed something of difficulty in it peremptorily to resolve it And there are very godly and learned men who have spoken and written differently concerning it and yet all of them consent in this That God doth forgive all the sins of his people If it might not be burthensome unto you I would 1. Present unto you the several opinions of men with their chief Arguments for their different opinions concerning this Question 2. Offer my own private thoughts concerning this Controversie First Some are for the Affirmative and their opinion is this that as soon as Some are for the affirmative any are made Believers in Christ and so are within the Covenant Actually all the sins which they have committed in time past and all the sins which they are guilty of as to the time present and all the sins of which they do come to be guilty of in time future they are actually pardoned unto them in general and in particular Neither are Believers ever henceforth to pray unto God for the pardon of any sin which they do or shall commit but only for the assurance of the pardon of them in their own Consciences neither is any future Repentance required to attain the forgiveness of any new and future sin but only for the more comfortable assurance of former forgivenesse unto our selves Nay Repentance is not required of God as an Antecedent work to pardon of sins but only as a consequent work and fruit thereof c. This is their Opinion Quest Now what might be the ground inducing unto this Opinion That all the sins of a believer not only past but also present and to come are pardoned ot once and The grounds for the affirmative actually unto them Sol. The chief which I do find in writing are these First The Covenant expressions Isa 43. 25. I even I am he which blotteth out thy transgressions Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more Ergo all is pardoned at once Secondly Again Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And Ver. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth And ver 38 39. Nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Joh. 5. 24. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Ergo all sinnes are pardoned at once or else they were in a state of condemnation c. Thirdly A believer even when he sinneth is still united to Christ and is cloathed with the righteousness of Christ which covers all our sins and dischargeth us from them so that no guilt shall redound to us Fourthly A believer is not to fear curse or hell at all which he might do if all his sins were not pardoned at once but some of his new sins were for a while unpardoned Fifthly Repentance is not at all required for our justification where our pardon is only to be found but only faith therefore pardon of sins is not suspended untill we repent of our sins Sixthly Again if new sins were not pardoned untill you do repent then we should be left to an uncertainty whiles our sins be pardoned or when they will be pardoned for it may be long ere we repent and more long ere we can know that we do truely repent of our sins Seventhly If all sins were not forgiven at once then justification is not perfect at once but is more and more increased and perfected as more and more sins are pardoned which as they conceive cannot consist with the true Doctrine of Justification These are the chiefest and strongest Arguments which I have read for the Affirmative Some for the Negative Opinion and I have delivered them rather with advantage than with any prejudice Secondly Neverthelesse there are others of the Negative and contrary Opinion unto this who although they do hold that God hath pardoned all sins past unto believers brought into Covenant with Christ and that he will pardon also all the sins of which hereafter they shall be guilty yet they do conjecture that all these are not forgiven at once unto them but upon though not for their renewed repentance for them and upon a renewed act of Faith on Christ for the particular forgiveness of new and particular transgressions unto them Neither do they lay any Popish reason of worthiness or merit in Repentance as some unjustly do charge upon them for the
Saints all along 5. And it seems to be a strong Guard against presumption and carnal security and looseness 6. And hath no direct natural appearance of inconveniencies in or from it Object Whereas they say this is Popish and Legal Sol. They speak ignorantly if not maliciously for they know that Jesus Christ in the Gospel-Commission joyned Repentance and Remission of sins It is as Popish to say Repentance is required for Assurance as for Remission for both are acts of grace Object But what if one should die before he repents Sol. And what if he should not dye That God who hath promised renewing mercy hath likewise promised renewed repentance Object But a man may be damned for the sinnes committed if all be not forgiven at once Sol. 1. As if a particular sin destroyed the state of Justification 2. What a sin deserves is one thing what it shall redundantly and eventually bring on the person is another thing 3. Though God doth not forgive all the sins at once yet he will certainly forgive them unto his people when committed and when repented of for God hath promised so to pardon them And no one promise of God can be shewed to the contrary It was Fulgentius his prayer Domine da poenitentiam postea indulgentiam Object But God justifies the ungodly therefore no need of subsequent repentance in relation to forgivenesse Sol. 1. Nay and put in too any Repentance or Faith at all for God justifies the ungodly 2. But he justifies the ungodly i. e. a man stands before God when he justifies him as a poor undone sinner having no righteousness of his own nor is Repentance required as the meritorious or as the material cause of Justification but as a meanes to enjoy what God hath pâ—omised to the believer Having thus waded through this great Controversie I shall now proceed unto the useful Application of the Doctrine That God doth promise to forgive all the sins of his people SECT III. Use 1. THe first Vse shall be of Information It may informe us of five Information things 1. Of that exceeding greatness of mercy which is in God 2. Of that exceeding love and kindness which is in God unto his people 3. Of what a heavy weight did lie upon Jesus Christ 4. Of the high Obligations which rest upon us who do enjoy this promise of universal forgiveness 5. Then multitude of sinnes is not absolutely inconsistent with pardon First In that God engageth himself by promise to forgive all the sins of all That God is a God of infinite mercy his people This doth manifestly declare unto us that he is a God of infinite mercy must he not needs be so who forgives such a number of sins and transgressions There are two things which discover unto us the infinite fulness and depth of mercy in God One is that vast Title attributed unto him and his mercy He is said to be of great mercy Psal 105. 8. and to be rich in mercy Ephes 2. 4. and to be plenteous in mercy Psal 86. 15. and to pardon abundantly Isa 55. 7. 1 Pet. 1 3. according to his abundant mercy and to keep mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 7. and to be of everlasting mercy Psal 100. 5. and to be of transcendent and incomparable mercy As the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Psal 103. 11. In like manner there are ascribed to his mercy and mercies a multitude Psal 51. 1. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies A depth Mich. 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea Not only an abundance but an exceeding abundance 1 Tim. 1. 14. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant Nay an over abundance where sin abounded grace did much more abound Rom. 5. 23. It did superabound c. 2ly The other is the vast quantity of sinnes of which the people of God have been guilty Who saith David Psal 19. 12. can understand his errors i. e. the number of a mans sins is so numerous that with all the Arithmetick he hath he is not able to cast up how often he hath sinned Nay David surveying the number of his own sins he is non-plused and professeth that they are innumerable and that they are more than the hairs of his head Psal 40. 12. And Ezra in his confession Chap. 9. 6. Our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasse is grown up into the heavens Now if the number of sins in respect of one person be so innumerable what then is the number of all the sins of all the people of God yet there is mercy enough in God to pardon all and every one of them To pardon â—â— their sinnes which they do know and all the rest which they do not know Secondly In that God doth pardon all the sins of all his people this doth likewise discover the exceeding love and kindnesse of God to his people The Apostle The exceeding love and kindness of God to his people saith in 1 Pet. 4. 8. That Charity or love covereth a multitude of sinnes and that he that converts a sinner shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. Certainly then it shews exceeding love in God to cover to blot out to forget to passe over to pardon all the multitude of sins in his own people To injure God is infinitely more than to injure man to offend and dishonour him is infinitely more than to offend and dishonour man and for God to passe by all this it must needs flow from his infinite love and kindness and therefore God is said Rom. 5. 8. To commend or highly to exalt his love toward us in that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us and to shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 7. And the forgivenesse of our sins is rightly attributed to the riches of his grace Eâ—â—es 1. 7. Thirdly in that God forgives all the sins of all his people this may inform us What a heavy weight did lie upon Christ What an heavy weight did lie upon Jesus Christ and of that wonderful power and vertue of his sufferings There is no man who is able to express the surpassing desert and burden in any one particular sin we finde many times that some one sin set on with the wrath of God doth drive us to our feet it is more unto us than the shadows of death it doth fill us with such distractions and horror that we can neither live nor dye we are not able to sustain it nor yet to decline it what work then would all our sins make within us if the Lord should in wrath return them upon us Now all the sins of all the people of God from the beginning of the world to the end thereof were in all their kinds and numbers and aggravations laid upon Jesus Christ he bare all our
circumstances and the heart is really sensible of the injuries against God in them O how much oft-times hath he been provoked and dishonoured Psal 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold of me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me Mark he is not able to look up and his heart faileth him O thinks he here is such a number of sins indeed will the Lord ever pardon all these I fear he will not I can hardly believe that he will There are three things which make it so difficult to believe that God will forgive all our sins 1. The weakness of faith which cannot presently apprehend and reach the heighth and depth and breadth and lenght of the love and mercy of God Simile a weak faith is like a weak eye which cannot behold the Sun in its glory so weak faith cannot so well behold God in the glorious manifestations of his exceedingly abundant grace but dazzles and doubts Is there such a treasury of mercies for a sinner is there enough in Christ for all these sins 2. The tenderness of conscience which being very sensible of a multitude of sins and feeling Gods displeasure and anger raiseth strong fears and exceptions against universal forgiveness of all our sins Shall I find mercy who do feel wrath Can I be perswaded that God will speak forgiveness to all my sins who do find him speaking such bitter things for some of my sins will he ever discharge me of all my sins who doth charge my sins with that strong displeasure upon my soul 3. The strong and manifold and subtile temptations and suggestions of Satan who knows how to heighten our sins and to diminish the mercies of God when he would bring us to despair as he doth know also how to diminish our sins and enlarge mercy when he would draw us to presumption O saith Satan here are such sins and here are so many of them that here is no hope at all for mercy the wrath of God you know is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. 18. For some of these sins hath God long since destroyed and damned multitudes of men What then will he do to you for all these sins here is sin upon sin and nothing but sin without any interruption and without any cessation for twenty thirty forty fifty years together are committed against many threatnings warnings examples punishments yea and against many calls of mercy and offers of grace which had they been accepted in time there might have been some hope but you went on and multiplied your transgressions against all these therefore for such a multitude of sins no mercy will be found 'T is true that God hath promised to pardon all the sins of his people but you are none of that number had you been so would you or durst you thus to have multiplied and increased your transgressions against such a God you would have repented long ago and besides all this think you that you should not have had news of forgiveness after so many tears and prayers and hearknings and waitings if God would have forgave those sins Fourthly Though it be very difficult to believe that God will forgive all our Yet it is very necessary to believe this promise sins yet it is very necessary to believe this promise of God and that upon a threefold account 1. The honour of God which is as much concerned in this Branch of the Covenant as in any other he doth lay forth in it as I hinted before the riches of his grace and the glory of his great goodness and his heart of mercies to the very full and besides this he seals this part of his Covenant with the same infallibility of truth and ratifies it with the same blood of Christ which though it respects the stablishing of the whole Covenant yet it is more frequently expressed to confirme the Branch of the forgiveness of sins as you may see in Mat. 26. 28. Ephes 1. 7. 1 John 1 7. Rev. 1. 5. c. that our faith might be the more strengthened and so give unto God the more glory in and for such a gracious truth And let me tell you one thing that what ground you have to believe that God will forgive you any one of your sins the very same you have to believe that he will forgive you all your sins and upon the same reason that you believe not the promise as to the forgiveness of all your sins upon the same reason you must deny belief of the promise as to the forgiveness of any one sin and so God lose all the glory of his rich mercies by your unbelief 2. The peace of your own consciences for suppose you did believe that God would forgive some of your sins but some others of your sins he would not forgive could this partial forgiveness settle and quiet your consciences would they not hold you under as much fear and bondage as if not one of your sins were forgiven surely it would because there is still in any unforgiven sins so much guilt and merit as will serve effectually to the everlasting destruction of your souls and bodies 3. The renewing of you again to repentance and bringing of you back again unto God for suppose you confine your faith to believe that God will pardon the sins which you have committed in time past and beyond this your faith will not stir tell me then I beseech you what will you do for the sins you have committed since conversion will you have them pardoned or will you not have them pardoned will you go on in them or will you forsake them will you still go away or will you return to your first husband surely you would have them pardoned surely you would renew repentance and return to the Lord your God but how can this be if you cannot or will not believe that God will forgive those sins as well as the former If you be perswaded that forgiving mercy is at an end and God hath no more mercy to forgive any more sins I dare assure you that where the hope of mercy ceaseth there the practice of repentance will cease But on the contrary when you can by faith see God willing and ready to pardon you and accept of you this will melt and this will move your hearts to repent and to return unto the Lord c. God hath yet thoughts of mercy towards me I will arise and go to my Father and say Father I have sinned against thee c. Secondly And this leads me unto the next Branch of the Exhortation which Make use of this truth is that we must not only believe that God will forgive us all our sins but we must make use of this truth in all our occasions What one day of our life have we not occasion to make use
God reaches as you have heard to the pardon of great sins 2. The instances or acts of mercy they are recorded grants of grace and mercy to great transgressions You know thus they have passed to David to Solomon to Mary Magdalen to Peter to Paul to the Corinthians As great sins as yours hath God pardoned yea and perhaps greater sins than yours 3. God is still of a merciful nature he is as able and as ready to forgive as ever the Fountain is as full and as open Although the Lord hath shewn mercy to many and great sinners already yet he reserves and keeps mercy for thousands nay for a thousand generations You are not the first great sinners nor yet the last great sinners on whom he hath or on whom he will shew mercy his mercy endures for ever 4. He calls upon such as have been guilty of great sins to leave their sins and to come in unto him and hath assured them that if they do so he will forgive their great sins Isa 1. 10. Hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and ye people of Gomorrah Ver. 15. Your hands are full of blood Ver. 16. Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings before mine eyes cease to do evil ver 17. learn to do well c. Ver. 18. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Jer. 3. 1. They say If a man put away his wife and she go away from him and she become another mans shall he return again unto her shall not that Land be greatly polluted but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return again unto me saith the Lord. Ver. 5. Will he reserve his anger for ever will he keep it to the end behold thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest Ver. 7. And I said after she had done all these things turn thou unto me but she returned not Ver. 12. Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am mercifull c. Secondly I now proceed to lay down some Directions what one should Directions how to get the pardon of great sins do who hath been guilty of great sins to get the pardon of them I will propose unto you no other Course or Practice than what you may read in the Scriptures that some have taken who have been guilty of great sins and have thereupon found mercy in the pardoning of them Quest What 's that will you say Sol. You shall find First That they have been greatly humbled and have greatly mourned for Be greatly humbled for them their great sinnings and then God did shew them mercy in the pardon of those sins Zach. 12. 11. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo Chap. 13. 1. In that day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse Jer. 31. 19. I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Ver. 20. I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord Psal 6. 6. I am weary of my groaning all the night I make my bed to swim I water my Couch with my tears and you know the Lord forgave his great sins Luk. 7. 38. Mary Magdalen stood at the feet of Christ behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears Ver. 48. And he said unto her Thy sinnes are forgiven thee Peter went out and wept bitterly for his great sin and that sin was forgiven And Paul fell down and trembled for his great sins and they were pardoned In all these instances you see great mourning for great sins and gracious pardon for them Go you and doe likewise and you shall find friendship Secondly That they have cordially and really forsaken their great sinnes they durst not continue in them but have loathed themselves and their abominations Cordially forsake them and have cast them away Ezâ—a 9. 14. Should we again break thy Commandements and joyn with the people of these abominations Isa 30. 22. Ye shall also defile the covering of thy graven Images of silver and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold then shalt thou cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Ver. 23. Then shall he give the rain of thy seed c. Hos 14. 8. Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with Idols I have heard him and considered him I am like a green firre tree from me is thy fruit found Judg. 10. 16. And they put away the strange gods from among them and served the Lord. Acts 3. 19. Repent and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out Thus did David thus did Manasse thus did Mary Magdalen thus did Paul and the Prodigal and thereupon did find mercy Such were some of you but ye are sanctified but ye are justified c. Lookst thou for mercy to pardon great sins and yet still goest on in thy trespasses c. Thirdly That they have earnestly prayed unto the Lord for the forgivenesse of their Earnestly pray for the pardon of them great sinnes Exod. 32. 31. O this people have sinned a great sinne and have made themselves gods of gold Ver. 32. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sinne and if not blot me I pray thee out of the book which thou hast written so Moses prayed Psal 25. 11. For thy Names sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity for it is great Dan. 9. 5. We have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled by departing from thy precepts Ver. 9. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesse though we have rebelled against him Ver. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and deferre not for thy Name sake Ver. 18. We do not present our supplications unto thee for our righteousnesse but for thy great mercies Luke 18. 13. And the Publican stood a farre off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to Heaven but smote upon his breast saying God be mercifull unto me a sinner In these Prayers for the pardon of great sinnes you may espy four Ingredients 1. That they have come from broken hearts sensible of their greatness 2. That they have come from humble hearts sensible of their own unworthiness 3 s That they have been sent up with believing hearts 4. That they have been plyed and followed with earnest and servent and importunate hearts which would have no denial and all of them found acceptance Fourthly That they have pleaded with God upon such grounds which have alwayes Plead with God upon prevailing grounds been prevalent with God for the obtaining of the forgiveness of their
ways of worldly advancements and advantages But the rule which a renewed heart sets up to guide and prescribe him is none other but that which God himself sets up for his people to walk by and that is his written Word Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Ver. 133. Order my steps in thy Word This rule he sets up for all matters of faith and for all matters of fact this I must believe because God reveals it and commands me to believe it this I receive for truth because God delivers it for truth and that I reject as erroneous because the Word of God condemns it as contrary to the truth And this work I do and that way I walk in because God sets it out in his Word for me and that I do not do and so and so I dare not walk for I have no Word of God for it nay the Word of God is against it why mans heart is right indeed it is renewed by grace but if a man will walk contrary to this rule if he will not speak and live according to this Word it is because there is no light in him Isa 8. 20. SECT V. Vse 4. DOth God promise to give unto all his people in Covenant with him a new heart and a new spirit then there is comfort and joy to Comfort to those that have a new heart all those who finde the new heart given unto them it is true that when the Lord doth renew the heart of any by his grace and separate them from the world unto himself that 1. They shall meet with many troubles and scoffs and reproaches and persecutions from the world All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecutions 2 Tim. 3. 2. They shall meet with many temptations and oppositions from Satan if he cannot hinder grace and conquer grace yet he will molest and disquiet grace 3. They shall meet with many conflicts and warrings within their own hearts and with many weaknesses and failings and tryals nevertheless their condition is a very happy and comfortable condition and there are eight Eight comforts proper to them choice comforts which are proper to every renewed person and which may cheer up his heart all his days v. g. 1. Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of the greatest matters which can concern the soul 2. This newness of heart is an unquestionable effect of our union with Christ 3. It is the noblest and highest elevation of the soul here on earth and the clear evidence of the presence of the Spirit of Christ 4. It enables you for all heavenly communion and serviceableness to Divine glory 5. God will own and accept of it and the fruits of it though but little and weak 6. He will strengthen and uphold and perfect it unto the day of Christ 7. He will poure upon every person who enjoys it all necessary blessings for this life and will take special notice of him and care for him in the days of adversity 8. Renewing grace shall without all doubt bring us at the last to eternal happiness First Newness of heart is a sure and infallible testimony of the best and of It is a clear testimony of the greatest matters which can concern the soul the greatest matters which can concern the soul There are six things which do concern the soul as nearly I think as any can and of every one of them is renewing grace a sure testimony 1. The love of God 2. The election of God 3. A relation to God 4. A change from death to life 5. The pardon of sin 6. The hope of glory 1. Of the love of God that the Lord doth indeed set his special love A testimony of the love of God his very heart upon a person 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Psal 146. 8. The Lord loveth the righteous for any to be made the sons of God this is an effect or fruit of the love of God now all the sons of God are new born they are born again of the Spirit Joh. 3. 5. Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us Ver. 5. even when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath quicked us together with Christ As it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods hatred and wrath for any to be left to his old sinful heart and lusts and ways so it is one of the greatest testimonies of Gods love when he pities them in their sinful condition and delivers them out of it and gives his Spirit to enliven and renew them by grace 2. Of the Election of God for this see two places 1 Thes 1. 4. Knowing Of election Brethren Beloved your Election of God Ver. 5. For our Gospel came unto you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost Eph. 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Holiness or renewing grace it is as one speaketh the counterpane of Gods decree of Election God by his own eternal prescience knows whom he intends for salvation and we by that work of renewing grace in our hearts come to know that eternal purpose of his grace concerning us it being given unto us an effect flowing from his Election and in order unto that happiness unto which he hath chosen us 3. Of our Relation to God as our God and our Father as none but his Of our relation to God people and children are holy so all his people and his children are holy Isa 63. 18. The people of thy holiness they are 1 Pet. 2. 9. an holy Nation and a peculiar people 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing Ver. 18. And I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 4. Of our translation from life to death See Isa 4. 3. He that is left in Of our translation from death to life Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Luk. 15. 32. This my son was dead and is alive again Rom 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God Renewing grace is one of the strictest differences between men of death and men of life not any man hath it but he who is made alive by Christ and is in the state of life no profane person hath it nor doth any hypocrite partake of it 5. Of the pardon of our sins if any
heart then remember these five Cautions First Beware of a self-deceiving opinion that you have it already and that you Beware of a self-deceiving opinion that you have it for your part stand not under the want and need of it This is that which undoth many hearers when we press Christ and faith upon them O they have believed on him And when we press repentance why they need no repentance they have repented long ago and when we tell them they must be converted they must be new creatures they must get new hearts O they need them not their hearts are as good as the best and they have very good natures and dispositions With this the Pharisees deceived themselves they were righteous and needed no repentance and so they rejected Christ and with this Laodicea deceived her self She was rich and increased and stood in need of nothing and yet she was blind and wretched and naked and poor Secondly Beware that you hearken not to the exceptions and prejudices of your Of hearkning to the prejudices of your old hearts old and corrupt hearts which are blind and cannot see the excellency of renewing grace and which also are averse and have a natural antipathy unto it You would not imagine untill you come to the trial what exceptions and oppositions there are in our hearts against their Conversion and Renovation Sometimes we look on it as a melancholly and troubling humour sometimes we look on it as a needless and vain preciseness sometimes we look on it as a proud and unsociable quality sometimes we look on it as too low and mean a state and practice for persons of our greatness sometimes we look on it as that which will expose us to the contempts and scoffs and reproaches of men sometimes we look on it as the grave of all our delights and profits sometimes we look on it as a business utterly impossible for any man on earth Now if any of these prejudices or if any other besides these prevail with us we will then sit quiet and contented with our old heart and will never be perswaded to look out for new hearts therefore beseech the Lord to deliver you from the lying vanities and prejudices of the old heart Thirdly Beware of consulting with worldly men or setting up the favours Of consulting with worldly men or frowns of them O if I should become a new man and lead a new life if I should regard holiness and life godly I should lose favour and hopes how would my Parents look on me what would my friends and acquaintance think of me what opposition would befall me how would men scoff and jear at me and what reports and reproaches would they raise of me let me tell thee plainly and faithfully that if the Lord doth not in much mercy mortifie and subdue this weakness that I say not wickedness of spirit in thee that thou art contented rather to enjoy thy old heart and courses with the applauses of the world than to yeild in thy heart to Christ and be willing and resolute to get thy heart renewed by the Spirit of grace although for this thou mayest meet with all sorts of afflictions and reproaches from the world thy poor soul will be for ever lost First Beware that you rest not on your own strength and sufficiency to renew or Of resting in your own strength change your hearts if you do two fruits there will be of it 1. You will either not seek to the Lord at all or if you do you will then seek him in a careless and unbelieving way 2. Another is you will but labour in vain you will never be successfull for you have no strength and sufficiency of your own Without me saith Christ ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. And it is God saith the Apostle that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure Fifthly Beware that you neither delay nor dally in using the means Of delaying and dallying in the use of means to get this new heart Do not say to morrow the next year when I am sick when I am old these may be too late and these may provoke the Lord to turn away his mercy and to deny his Spirit because you put him off he may therefore justly put you off Neither dally in the use of means one while attending another while neglecting one while being fervent and another while being remisse one week going forward and then for a year to fall backward but resolve to seek this new heart with all your heart and with all your pains following on and pressing forward and running till you enjoy this new heart which God hath promised to give unto them that seek it 3ly The wayes or meanes to get a new heart First Strive to be willing that God should make your hearts new that he The wayes to get a new heart should change and renew them by grace Pars est sanitatis velle sanari Jer. 13. 27. O Jerusalem wilt thou be made clean Joh. 5. 6. Jesus said unto him Be willing wilt thou be made whole O that we could get thus farre O Lord I am weary of my old sinful heart I am willing that thou shouldest heal it and reform it If the unclean person were willing that God should cleanse him from his filthiness and the proud person were willing that God should make him humble this would be a fair step to newness of heart Secondly Expresse this willingness in earnest Prayers to God who only is Express this willingness in earnest Prayer able to give a new heart Jer. 17. 14. Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me O Lord and I shall be saved Psal 51. 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me And let your Prayers have three Ingredients or Concomitants 1. Sincerity let them come from your very hearts let them be the desires of your souls My soule follows hard after thee Psal 63. 8. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Isa 26. 9. That the Lord may see that in very deed you would have your hearts changed and nothing will satisfie you till he grant you that request 2. Faith give up your earnest request for this in Faith 1. Of Credence that he can give it 2. Of Reliance that for his Christs sake and for his promise sake he will do it Lord It is thy promise to give a new heart and all thy promises in Christ are Yea and Amen none doth need the new heart more than I do and none can give that heart but thy self and thou hast promised to give it unto them that ask I come unto thee in the Name of Christ and do beseech thee for his sake to answer me according to thy Word thou art able and faithful thou wilt give what thou promisest to give to them
and the Spirit of God likewise puts out his hand he puts his strength to our strength or rather to our weakness we are to pray to mourn to believe to obey and that we may do these he comes in with a new influence help and power assisting us unto all these Fifthly by way of Confirmation sustaining upholding carrying us on from path to path from work to work untill we have finished all our work he leads us on in the course of holy obedience all the dayes of our life from first to last till we come to our journeyes end Psal 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me unto glory 2. Quest Why the Spirit of God thus leads the people of God Sol. Because First Of our ignorance we cannot see but by his light Why Gods Spirit leads Gods people Secondly Of our own inability or weakness even when strongest their own graces of themselves alone are not sufficient strength unto them which appears in the great falls of the best of them when left but a little unto themselves Thirdly Of the difficulties of their work and in their way and journey to heaven their work is very great and the encounters which meet them are very sharp there was a red Sea and a wilderness to pass through and strong enemies to be fought with and conquered before they came to Canaan So is it with Christians in their way to heaven c. Thus you see that the Spirit of God leads the people of God he is given unto them for a Guide and Leader and they do hearken unto him willingly desirously carefully constantly and follow their Leader But where is this leading work to be found who amongst us is led by the Spirit of God Many First Are led by their own hearts lusts they are at the command of every sinful motion Many are led Secondly By Satan they presently follow every temptation of his and his will and works they will do Many are Thirdly Led by the world by the example of it they will do as most men do by the fashions of it they will not be like no body but will attire themselves as the world doth by the pleasures of it by the profits of it as Balaam was led for reward even to curse the people of God Many are led Fourthly By their own judgement and by their own wills and they will not be controlled And many are led Fifthly By the spirit of error and not by the Spirit of truth They are led away with the error of the wicked 2 Pet. 3. 17. And follow their pernicious wayes 2 Pet. 2. 2. If all the men in the world were drawn out and stood under their proper Colours and Leaders how thin how few would be found to follow this best this only safe Leader the Spirit of God! but remember what the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye as it is a sure sign of salvation when we walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. and 4. so it is a sure sign of damnation when we walk after the flesh and not after the Spirit Thus have you the discoveries of the Spirit of God by his works Now follows the second way of discovery by which we may know whether we have the Spirit of God viz. 2ly By the qualities of the Spirit There are many qualities by which the Spirit of God is set forth unto us in scriptures Having the spirit may be known by the qualities of the Spirit all which virtually every one who hath the Spirit doth or may find in himself in some measure I should be too tedious if I should discourse upon every one of them therefore I will fix upon some of them e. g. 1. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of judgement and of burning 2. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of knowledge 3. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power 4. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of liberty 5. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth 6. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love 7. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of glory 8. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of goodness First The Spirit of God is the Spirit of judgement and of burning Isa 4. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the mid'st thereof by the Spirit of judgement and by the Spirit of burning In the former verse God doth make a promse unto the Reliques of Zion and unto the Remnant of Jerusalem that they shall be holy In this verse he declareth when this shall be namely In the day when he shall wash them from their filth and purge them from their blood Lastly he shews how this should be caused and that is by the Spirit of judgement and by the Spirit of burning Some by the Spirit of judgement do understand that Spirit by which God judgeth and punisheth the wicked others by it do understand a mind and power given to execute judgement or righteousness for the deliverance of the people of God from their enemies but with submission I conceive that by the Spirit of judgemen is meant â—â— judicial or Judge-like condemnation such a Spirit as enables us to sit in judgement upon our sinful lusts in the arraigning of them censuring disallowing and condemning of them even to death it self And so by the Spirit of judgment may be meant the efficacious fruit of the Spirit which in a way of execution separates sinful lust from the heart and by degrees consumes as the fire doth the dross And certainly this is a truth that such a Spirit as this is the Spirit of God in every man unto whom he is given viz. He is a Spirit of 〈◊〉 he sets up as it were a Judges seat into the heart and makes our selves to be the judges to give a righteous sentence that all our sins and lusts are such evils as are not to be endured not to be harboured any longer nay not fit to live but presently to dye and to be destroyed And he is also a Spirit of burning like as fire to the dross which separates it from the mettal and wastes and consumes it in like manner doth the Spirit work in our hearts a separation from our sinnes and a daily mortification of them Hose 14. 8. Ephraim shall say What have I any more to do with idols Isa 31. 7. Every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold Ch. 30. 22. Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body c. Beloved as this is one special end why Lord gives his Spirit unto his people viz. that they may judge and condemn and mortifie their sinful lusts so it is
inconsistent nor are they to be dijoyned Secondly If the Lord Jesus himself hath instituted some men particularly for his service and the benefit of his Church and hath committed the dispensation of Evangelical Ordinances unto them then no man under pretence that he hath the Spirit may slight and neglect the Ordinances but Christ hath instituted some persons in the Church for Ministerial service c. Ephes 4. 11. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and teachers Ver. 12. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ c. Ver. 13. till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ What need of these if the presence of the Spirit without these be sufficient 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secundarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Ver. 29. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers To these and not to all hath he committed the dispensation of the Evangelical Ordinances 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Matth. 28. 19. Go ye and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself c. and hath committed unto us the word of Reconciliation What are all these Ordinances instruted and fixed and that by the will of Christ and yet useless for men that have the Spirit of Christ Thirdly What mean those several passages in the Scriptures Jam. 1. 19. Be swift to hear 1 Per. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby 1 Thes 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit Ver. 20. Despise not Prephesying Luke 10. 16. He that despiseth you despiseth me c. Isa 59. 21. This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon them and my Spirit which I have put within thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord hence forth for ever Fourthly If the Spirit be given unto us to make the Ordinances effectual unto us then his presence should not take us off from Ordinances but the Spirit is given to make the Ordinances effectual they are so farre life unto us as the Spirit gives life unto them 2 Cor. 3. 16. The Spirit giveth life Secondly Having spoken these things I shall now look upon those forementioned Scriptures and see whether they conclude the needlesness of Ordinances after the reception of the Spirit Object Jer. 31. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me c. Hence the Anabaptists do conclude that there is no need of Teachers nor Anabaptists answered Learning Sol. First I would fain know Whether these people have among them a Church of Christ yea or no if they have then I would know Whether they have any The Scriptures opened Teachers of the Word and Labourers in the Word and Doctrine any teaching publickly in their Churches Secondly But to the place of the Prophet who sets out the difference between the Old Testament and the New 1. In respect of efficacy this he layes down in ver 33. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these dayes saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts c. 2ly In respect of Clarity that in the times of the new Covenant there should be a more clear and plentiful effusion of knowledge than in the old Covenant for when Christ came then did the Sun of Righteousness arise the light of which was sevensold to what the light was before his coming they before his coming had but a dark knowledge those after his coming had a more clear and full knowledge Object True and they had so much knowledge that they needed not to be taught they shall no more teach Sol. That expression is not to be taken litterally and absolutely as if those that live under the Gospel should need no teaching at all for we read an express promise relating unto Gospel-times to the contrary Isa 2. 3. Many people shall go and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go out the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem But the words are to be taken Restrictively and Comparatively therefore if you observe them it is not said only they shall no more teach every one his neighbour but they shall no more teach every man his neighbour saying know the Lord So that God doth promise under the Gospel such a measure of knowledge as that his people now shall not be Alphabetarii any more need to be taught the first Principles of the Doctrine of Faith any more these they should all of them clearly know and much more clearly than many or most living under the old Covenant or Testament Object 1 Joh. 2. 27. You need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things c. Sol. The Apostle having in the former words delivered many excellent and comfortable truths he concludes with a perswasion of their knowledge of and assent unto them q. d. you are the people of God you have received his Spirit you know these things to be true I write them unto you not as to the ignorant but knowing Christian you know them assuredly the Spirit given unto you hath enabled you to know and to acknowledge them so that no man needs to teach you them c. Object 2. Pet. 1. 19. Vnto which you do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in darknesse untill the day dawn and the day starâ—e arise in your hearts Sol. Untill the day dawn i. e. Pleniori apertiori cognitione quà m sub legis umbris fuerit 1. He commends the Jews for regarding the Prophetical writings 2. He prefers the Apostolical Writings which had more light in them 3. Vntil is gradual and not exclusive Fourthly lastly the Spirit is injured when any do Father upon him their odd Opinions and wild fancies and delusions and sometimes their abominable blasphemies which are not to be named amongst Christians but with detestation The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of holiness and to entitle him unto any errors or wickedness it is no less then to blaspheme and reproach him Fifthly The fifth Caution which I would
the more able we are to trust God and to look on his Promises with as much chearfulness as others do If able to trust God without carking cares only in their performances If we can bless and praise God when he takes away as well as when he gives Psal 56. 10. In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word Sixthly The more complyance with and contentedness in all the changes which do befall us in our journey to heaven in these dayes of our pilgrimage certainly If contented in all changes this declares a presence of much grace The Lord saith of Job that there was not a man like him in all the earth he was eminently good and upright and he it was who blessed God in his great changes Job 1. 21. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Chap. 2. 10. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil See Paul that strong Christian Phil. 4 11. I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content Ver. 12. I know how to be abused and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Fourthly A fourth duty which concerns you who have received the Spirit is Our hearts must be carried out to spiritual things this your hearts should be more earnestly and fixedly and entirely carried unto and laid out for spiritual things spiritual objects and treasures should be of more value with you and they should draw out your thoughts and affections to the utmost other things should be of small account with you If the Spirit be in you then the things of the spirit should be in you as wickedness is in the wicked man and the world is in the worldly man so should spiritual things be in a man of the Spirit In him i. e. his heart still in the mindings of his heart and in the projects of his heart and in the cares of his heart and in the desires and longings of his heart and in the delights and satisfactions of his heart he should be wholly given up to them and his soul should be resolved into them Psal 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee The spiritual man should be so addicted to spiritual things that he should spiritualize all things he should spiritualize the world and all his dealings in the world and he should spiritualize all the comforts of the world look on them as from his God and raise his heart more to God have much more delight and sweetness in him he should spiritualize all the afflictions and troubles of the world learn Righteousness and more holiness by them and more to live by faith Nay he should spiritualize all his fails grow more fearful selfdenying mournful watchful fruitful well he should spiritualize his conference and converse with all men edifying the good and admonishing the wicked comforting the weak supporting the feeble But to the main thing his heart should lay out it self for spiritual things O more of the favour of God and more of Jesus Christ and more of the fruits of the Spirit c. 1. The great Promises are of thâ—se 2. And the Promises of them are only unto you 3. They are the best portion and your best portion and your only portion 4. These are eternity or for eternity 5. The Spirit is given unto you to carry out your hearts for these 6. These are most suitable to a spiritual nature Now in the desires of spiritual things remember to 1. Desire grace infinitely more than gifts 2. Desire strength and power more than joys and comfort 3. Desire the means as well as the end 4. Desire all for the honour and glory of God SECT VII 5. Use DOth God promise to give his Spirit unto his people Then let us all be Let all look after the gift of the spirit perswaded to look after this great gift of God not to content our selves under the want of it but by all means to obtain it For the managing of this Vse I will present unto you 1. Some Motives to excite us 2ly Some Means to enjoy 1. The Motives to look after the Spirit of God e. g. First The Spirit and Christ come alwayes together If any man hath Christ The Spirit and Christ come alwayes together he hath the Spirit if any man hath the Spirit he hath Christ if any man hath not the Spirit he hath not Christ Christ and the Spirit ever go together Should not this provoke us to strive with God for his Spirit what sinner on earth would not have Christ what will become of us without Christ how happy is every soul in the enjoyment of him how miserable in the want of him how longing are the hearts of some for Christ and for the knowledge that Christ is their Christ But if the Spirit of God be yours then the Sonne of God is yours Here is a double portion at once a double gift at once the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ at once If you mind not the Spirit for the Spirits sake yet mind the Spirit for Christs sake your desires after him must come from the spirit and your union with him must come from the spirit and your knowledge of the person 〈◊〉 propriety or interest in him must come from the Spirit A man may think he hath Christ but if he hath not the Spirit Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. A man may fear that he hath not Christ but if the Spirit be given unto him then assuredly Christ is given unto him Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 4. Secondly Forgiveness of sins and the Spirit alway are given together Though The Spirit and pardon of sin go together forgiveness of sin be one thing and the Spirit in us another thing yet they are both given together A man hath not his sins pardoned and yet he remains unsatisfied without the Spirit and a man is not sanctified by the Spirit and yet his sins remain unpardoned but both are given together at the same time 1 Joh. 5. 6. This is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness 1 Cor. â— 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of of our God It is true that the blood of Christ is the only meritorious cause of the forgiveness of sins God forgives our sins for Christs sake but then it is as true that assurance of forgiveness and reconciliation of the Spirit are given together Hath God sanctified thy heart by his
on this Law in the true sense and spiritual interpretation thereof as particularly binding our souls Secondly A knowledge of approbation Though a man doth know the spiritual part and intent of Gods Laws yet if his soul rises up against them as A knowledge of approbation cruel as unjust as vain and unprofitable such a knowledge as this conjoyned with dislike and exception will never conduce to our obedience or walking in them but rather to disobedience to the knowledge of apprehension joyn the knowledge of approbation our judgements must comply with and acknowledge that Divine Excellency and equity in the statutes of God Rom. 7. 12. The Law is holy and the Commandement holy and just and good Psal 119. 138. Thy testimonies which thou hast commanded us are righteous and very faithful Thirdly A knowledge of Application we must know the statutes of God A knowledge of Applicatioâ— and approve of them as righteous and good and also we must apply the righteousness and goodness of them to our selves i. e. that they do concern every of us in particular as obliging of us and good for us As Eliphas spake to Job Job 5. 27. Lo this we have searched so it is hear thou iâ— and know thou it for thy good So say I you must hear and know the statutes of God how righteous they are how good they are how blessed they are what a command and power they have and this you must apply unto your selves not only as belonging to others and speaking to others but as belonging also to your selves to order your lives by them Psal 119. 4. Thou hast commanded to keep thy precepts diligently Ver. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes When you know that Commandement Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord in vain or that Commandement Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day c. You must know these Commandements as respecting you and obliging you that you must not swear and that you must not break the Sabbath but that you must know the Name of God and sanctifie the day of God c. 2. Quest What can knowledge contribute towards a walking in Gods statutes c for many know them and yet do not c. Sol. To this take briefly these Answers First Though possibly a man may know the statutes of God and yet not walk How knowledge contributes to obedience in them yet that knowledge is no cause of it Knowledge is in itself a help and furtherance to walking as the light is to working it is not any hinderance at all that which hinders knowing persons from obedience is not the light of their knowledge but the lust of their corrupt affections which bear down their knowledge Secondly Without knowledge of the statutes of God that which we call duty or obedience is neither practical nor acceptable 1. It is not practical Knowledge is a necessary previous quality unto acts Without knowledge obedience is not practical of duty It is impossible to obey the will of God if we know not the will of God Can a servant do the will of his Master who knows not the will of his Master our obedience in Rom. 12. 1. is called a reasonable service and rational it cannot be without knowledge without knowledge it is rather brutish than reasonable 2. It cannot be acceptable The Apostle saith in Heb. 11. 6. That without Nor acceptable Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him But faith there cannot be without knowledge there cannot be Faith for the acceptance of duty unlesse first there be a knowledge of Gods Command of that duty Thirdly There is an aptitude of knowledge of things to be done to put us upon the doing of those things For knowledge is a Spiritual light and spiritual light it is not only Representative but also operative it will work upon the conscience and will and affections to draw them up to that performance of what is known This you see in enlightned sinners who are made to see the will or commands of God that the light hath an influence upon their hearts and consciences and services to excuse or condemn them and so still it doth untill they do imprison or extinguish that light 4. At least knowledge may serve your thus far to put you upon prayer to seek the Lord to give you an heart to walk in his statutes If it be not able to make you to walk in his statutes yet it is in some measure conducing to lead out your desires to the Lord to write his Laws in your hearts and to cause you to walk in his statutes Thirdly As you must get the knowledge of Gods statutes if you would walk in We must have our hearts and wills sanctified if we will keep Gods Commandments them so likewise you must get your hearts and wills sanctified Our walking in Gods statutes is stiled newness of life Rom. 6. 4. That we should walk in newness of life and a service in newness of Spirit Rom. 7. 6. implying the necessity of a new spirit towards a new life You know that to the walking in Gods statutes there must be 1. A subordination of our wills to Gods will Gods will must not go one way and our wills run another way If our wlls be contrary to his this is a plain disobedience But now to reduce our will to the way of God this requires holiness or renovation in our wills forasmuch as the carnal will is enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8. 7. 2ly A conformity or similitude our walking and Gods Precepts must agree what is to be found in Gods Commands that must be found in our practice else it is not a walking in his stattutes you do not set them up as your Rule as your Copy if you do not commensurate your actions by them and to both these holiness of heart is required For the heart must be sanctified and renewed or else it can neither yield up it self nor conform itself to that holy will of God consider that passage of the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. â— 2. Through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience why doth not the Apostle say election to obedience but through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience not that we are not elected unto obedience but that there can be no obedience without the sanctification of the Spirit As there can be no action of life without a principle of life so there can be no actions of Spiritual life without the great principle of holiness in the heart and when God puts that holy disposition into our hearts this will as sweetly incline us to walk in the statutes of God as we were wont to be enclined to walk in ways of wickedness when we were under the power of an unholy and sinful disposition Four things a man shall find when
thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand v. 8. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the son of man Psal 16. 2. My goodness extendeth not to thee q. d. Thou art not benefited by any good works of ours c. I cannot add any thing thereby unto thee we receive all from thee but can give nothing unto thee by which thou mayest be bettered for thou art an infinite being and therefore we can add nothing to thee Secondly You must not do any good work thinking thereby to satisfie God for your evil works Many people when they have committed sin and injured Nor to satisfie God for our sins and dishonoured God then they fall a praying and a reading and a hearing and put on to works of piety and charity and their intention or end in doing of these duties is to make God amends and to make up the wrong which they have done him supposing that the good which now they do will ballance the evil which they have done and satisfie God Now though this be true that our sinnings do injure God and therefore its reason that after our sinnings we should be much humbled and be more circumspect in our walking and more diligent and upright Yet to act all these as satisfactions to God for the sinful injurious workes which we have done against him This is 1. Foolish 2ly Sinful First It is foolish forasmuch as nothing that we can do can amount unto It s foolish a satisfaction for the evil that we can do Because 1. All the good which we now do we ought still to have done and that which Reasons of it was still a duty can never be a satisfaction 2. There is more evil in the evil that we have done than there is good in the good which we do our sinful evil is perfectly evil and our best good is but imperfect good The evil that we do against God deserves hell and the good which we do deserves nothing the evil which is done needs infinite mercies to pardon it and the good which we do is so mixt with our sinfulness that that also needs mercy to pardon and accept it and that which needs mercy cannot be a satisfaction Secondly It is sinful For this is to take upon us the work of a Mediatour to whom alone that work of satisfaction doth pertain and he must be both God and It s sinful man or else he could not have satisfied for our sins Now to presume that our own imperfect obedience is able to satisfie God for our sins and to clear all our accounts and reckonings between him and us what is this but to lay aside the perfect satisfactions of Christ the only Mediatour and to set up our own weak righteousness as sufficient to compensate the Justice of God Thirdly You must not offer up any performances of yours as causes of mercy and Nor as causes of mercies and blessings blessings you must pray and you must mourn and you must repent and you must obey the voice of the Lord your God and you must walk in his statutes and do them and if you do so with upright hearts God will meet you with mercy and blessings Nevertheless you may not look on any performance of yours as causes meriting and purchasing any blessing unto you remember that excellent passage in Psal 25. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Commandements and his testimonies Yet Ver. 11. For thy Name sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great Here is mercy and truth for them that keep his Commandements and then here is not our obedience but his Name the cause of our mercy not for my obedience sake but for thy Name sake pardon mine iniquity c. So when Daniel fasted and prayed in an extraordinary way for mercy and for deliverance out of the Babylonian captivity he impleads not those works as causes of them nay as so he rejects them Dan. 9. 17. Now therefore O our God heâ—r the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lords sake Ver. 18. O my God encline thine ear and hear open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the City that is called by thy Name for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness but for thy great mercies There are four things to be observed about mercies and blessings What is to be observed about mercies and blessings 1. The Efficient Cause and that is only Gods own love and grace and mercy his own glorious love is the only efficient cause of all our blessings whether spiritual or temporal 2. The Final Cause and that is only Gods own glory all is from his mercy and all is for his glory he is the first and he is the last out of the sea of his mercy they come and into the sea of his glory they do return 3. The Meritorious Cause and that is Jesus Christ who by his blood hath purchased all things for us pertaining to life and godliness 4. The means by which not causes for which they are obtained and enjoyed They are means whereby blessings are obtained and such are our holy performances and walkings unto which God hath promised abundance of mercies and blessings and we shall enjoy them not Ratione facti for the worthiness of our doings but Ratione promissionis for the goodness and faithfulness of his promise unto our upright doing and walking Therefore take heed of looking on any doing and walking as meritorious causes of mercies and blessings For 1. All the good we can do is but what we ought to do and no duty of man can Why they cannot merit mercies be meritorious with God 2. All the good we do is done by the strength of Christ therefore it cannot merit seeing it is done not by our own strength but Christs 3. All the good we do finds acceptance only in and for Christ our prayers are accepted in him and our services are accepted in him and therefore they merit nothing of themselves 4. All good services must be done in faith or else they cannot be pleasing to God Heb. 11. 16. Now Faith and the merit of mans works are utterly inconsistent 5. Lastly All the blessings which you shall ever enjoy you must take them out of Gods promises or Covenant of grace and no gift flowing from that Covenant of grace but it is freely given unto us Fourthly You must not look upon any performances services acts of obedience They cannot make peace with God done by you as propitiations as able to make peace with God for the sins which you have committed against God When we have sinned against God we must humble our souls and repent and pray unto the Lord to pardon us and to be reconciled unto us and to take away iniquity and
obedience the Lord requires of me suppose it be to mortify sin or to walk in some parts of new obedience and I finde my self insufficient and without strength thereunto hereupon I do by faith 1. Apply my self unto Jesus Christ in whom is fulness and who filleth all Lord Jesus without thee we can do nothing and if thou be pleased to strengthen me I can do all things O give strength unto thy servant Simile thou art my head and the head is to give help and strength to the members of the body for all the works which they are to do I rely upon thee thy grace is sufficient let thy power be made manifest in my weakness Why such an act of faith as this such a living by faith on Christ will finde strength to cause us to do the work which God requires at our hands 2. Unto the Promise of God wherein God hath graciously engaged himself to be an alsufficiency unto his people and to be their strength and to strengthen them and to work all their works in them and for them Hereupon the weak Christian goes to God when he is to perform any work of obedience and he relies upon him by faith my God will help me I have his promise to subdue iniquity and I have his promise to cause me to walk in his Statutes and to do them Lord faithful art thou who hast promised and thou art able and willing to perform whatsoever thou hast promised I have no might nor power to do this which thou commandest but in the Lord there is righteousness and strength O Lord remember thy promise Remember thy word upon which thou hast caused thy servant to hope Be thou the help and strength of my soul work in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure Psal 119. Upon this the Lord hears and answers his servants and fulfills their desires and becomes their strength and alsufficiency Thirdly By meeting them in their way and work with special Evidences and Testimonies and fruits of Love and Peace and Acceptance and Joy Isa 64. 3. Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy wayes 56. 7. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar Joh. 14. 21. He that hath my commandements 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 unto him Now when the travailer in the wayes of Gods Statutes meets with these sweet fruits and tasts and manifestations of love and peace and joy they do make a strong impression upon his heart they do contribute a speciall strength unto him to walk on in those good wayes Nehem. 8. 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength Psal 116. 2. Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Fourthly By holding out unto them and assuring them of the great reward of happiness for all who do walk on in his Statutes Beloved three things are certainly true 1. That there is a Reward for the righteous God will render eternal life to them that continue patient in wel-doing Rom. 2. 7. 2. That it is lawful for the Christian travailer to look at the great Reward Moses had respect unto the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 26. What God doth promise freely to give unto his people upon that they may lawfully look 3. That great Reward propounded and promised and assured hath an influence upon their hearts it doth work strongly upon their heart that they faint not that they give all diligence unto the end that they take heed unto their wayes that they keep on in the path of life it makes them to run and to strive that they may obtain an incorruptible crown 1 Cor. 9. 25 26. and that eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Fifthly By Revealing his Arme in his Ordinances and blessing them with Power and Strength unto his people David speaking of the Ordinances saith Psal 84. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the wayes of them Ver. 7. They go from strength to strength You finde many Attributes given to the Ordinances of God they teach and direct us they enlighten and convert us they uphold and strengthen us they quicken and comfort us they animate and encourage us they raise and revive us they edifie and build us up all these effects they do produce when the Lord is pleased to accompany them with his presence and blessings And experimentally we finde them unto our souls God teacheth us by his word heales us by his word helps us by his word revives and quickens and enlargeth and strengthens us by his word we walk in the light of it and run in the strength of it and conquer in the power of it and renew our might in the comfort of it and hold up by the promises of it and are still more and more able to do the work of God by the several influences from the word of God The ordinances of God do weaken our corruptions and strengthen our graces and comfort our consciences and bear down all discouragements and oppositions they do enable faith in God and inflame love to God and preserve fear of God and kindle zeal for God and increase our delight in God and all these do cause us to walk in the Statutes of God and still to do them 4ly How far forth God doth in his promises engage the strength How far God engages himself to keep his people to walk in his wayes of his grace and help to cause his people to walk in his Statutes and do them To this I thus answer When God doth promise to cause his people to walk in his Statutes and to do them he doth thus far engage himself First To shew them his wayes and to teach them what they are to do and how they are to walk Esa 2. 3. Many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his wayes Psal 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in their wayes Ver. 9. The meek will he guid in judgment and the meek will he teach his way 32. 8. I will instruct theâ— and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go I will guid thee with mine eye Esa 30. 21. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying This is the way walk ye in it Nay he teaches in particular what they are to do Titus 2. 11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Ver. 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world Nay and he teaches them not only
of Gods help and strength for all his works Simile Just as if a man should voluntarily leap into the sea and think that God must keep him from drowning or as if a man should desire to be strong and yet refuse daily food which is a means of strength Thus it is when persons are foolish and proudly presumptuous When we do indeed rely on God by faith for his gracious assistance to enable us either against the doing of evil or for the doing of good we do then decline all sinful occasions which draw us on to sin and we do then apply our selves to all those means which God hath set apart and doth bless to convey his strength unto us There are three wayes wherein God reveales or gives out strength unto us 1. His word which begets and nourishes us which conveys life unto us and Three wayes wherein God gives out strength to us The Word Prayer strength which brings us in and builds us up O how diligent and conscientious doth faith make us to attend it 2. Prayer when our requests are put up to God and his answers come down to help and strengthen us O how doth faith enable us to wrestle with God to be strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man I as the Apostle speaks in Ephes 3. 16. 3. Heavenly conference where we help to edifie and establish and build up one another in our holy profession O how doth faith make us to prize and improve Heavenly Conference such opportunities Now consider your selves you who think you look up to God and do acknowledge him and rely on him for strength to cause you c. where may a man finde you complaining of weakness and in word extolling and desiring strength from God are you in the wayes of strength and are you seriously and conscientiously in them I doubt that some of you are in the wayes of weakness and not of strength not in Gods wayes but in Satans wayes not attending the doctrins of truths but the doctrins of lyes and errors not keeping close to Gods ordinances but roving out after such teachers as distil into you scorns and contempts of Gods Ordinances Is this to rely on God for strength when for lying vanities you forsake the paths of God and of his strength and of your own true peace Sixthly What shall I say more if you do indeed depend on God as your We must depend on God as our strength strength to enable you to walk in his statutes you shall then finde a spiritual rest or quietation in your hearts joyned with a spiritual liberty or freedom You cannot imagine how tumultuous and unsetled a mans heart is and how streightned it is and backward his heart is unto duties whilst he still sees holy and heavenly work to be done and no strength undertaking to enable him for that work or at least if he cannot believe that God will be his strength his thoughts are many times confounded and amazed and his very heart sometimes quakes and trembles But on the contrary when he can by faith see the sufficiencie of Gods strength and is able to fix and rely himself upon it then these two things Two things follow our dependance upon God will presently follow and appear 1. One is Quietation his whole soul comes into a calme and is cleared of all those boysterous storms of unbelieving fears my God is my strength the work is much but he hath help enough and will not faile me 2. The other is a Liberty and enlargedness he hath now a heart ready and free to set upon the work 4. Quest What one must be and do that so he may finde God to be his strength How to finde God to be our strength enabling him c. Sol. There are foure things which I would answer to this First If you would finde God to be your enabling strength then there must be a relation twixt God and you he must be your God if you would finde him to be your strength Psal 91. 2. I will say of the Lord He is my refuge and my fortress my God in him will I trust Micah 7. 7. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Psal 68. 28. Thy God hath commanded thy strength strengthen O God that which thou hast wrought in us Beloved the Lord calls upon us to be his people to take off our hearts from all other objects and to give them in unto himself and to exalt him in his soveraignity and authority which if we do he will be our God and will perform all the good of his Covenant unto us Now if any man saith I do not like to serve this God I would rather serve my sins and the world let not that man think to finde any good from God neither love nor mercy nor grace nor strength But if a mans heart doth like and consent chuse the Lord to be his God and him he loves and him he will serve he is now come into the bond of the Covenant and God is bound to finde him mercy to pardon him and grace to change him and strength to enable him for all the duties or works which he requires from him and he may in the sense of his sufficiency go to God and trust on him and wait on him and shall assuredly receive strength and power from his God to walk in his Statutes and to do them Secondly If you would finde the Lords strength to cause you to walk c. then you must get to him in the name of Christ not in your own name or worthiness or merit or goodness for which the Lord should give out his help unto you but only in the name of Christ that the Lord for his sake would make his promise good unto you for all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. And Christ hath assured you that whatsoever you shall aske the father in his name he will give it you Joh. 16. 23. I am weak Lord strengthen me for Christs sake I am insufficient without strength able of my self to do nothing O Lord help me O Lord work all thy works in me for Christs sake for Christs sake pull down my sins for Christs sake enable me to walk in all well-pleasing before thee c. Thirdly If you would finde the strength of God c. then you must be sure to keep your hearts upright with God that it is indeed your souls desire and endeavour to walk in Gods wayes and to do his work Object A man many times complaines that he can get no power from God against his sins and no power to do such and such duties Sol. I will tell you the reason of it because his heart secretly loves such a sin and is not willing to be parted from it and his heart secretly dislikes such a way of God and therefore the Lord
that seek thee I believe all this Lord help my unbelief c. 3. Perseverance hold on this request and against all the rebellious workings of your old heart and against all the fears and disputes and discouragements of your old hearts yet lift up one Prayer more and one Prayer more you shall certainly prevail if you can persevere in Prayer There are three Requests which a poor broken-heart is sure to speed in if he will pray alwayes and not faint One is for a Christ and another is for pardoning mercy and a third is for a new heart Thirdly Diligently and patienly attend the Word by which God converts Attend the Word and changeth and renews the heart Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting souls Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth Ephes 5. 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word How many old sinful hearts hath God convinced and converted by his Word that have come unto it with ignorance and been sent from it with knowledge that have come to it with hardness and have been sent from it with tenderness that have come to it with pride and have been sent from it with humility that have come to it with all manner of profaneness and have been sent from it with all manner of holiness with the Love of God and fear of God and hatred of sin and real purpose to walk with God in newness of obedience O therefore attend the Word of the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation and therefore the power of God to Renovation c. Fourthly Lastly beseech the Lord to give you the uniting faith that faith which will unite your hearts to Jesus Christ which will effectually bring you into Begge uniting Faith relation with him as Members of the Body of which he is the head as Branches of himself the true Vine Object Why what will this do may some of you say Sol. I will tell you what it will do it will infallibly bring in renewing grace to your hearts You can never be changed and renewed Creatures unless you be in Christ 2 Cor 5. 17. For our spiritual life is in and from him he is the Authour of life unto us as Adam was the authour of death unto us And he was anointed with the Spirit that we from him might be Anointed with the Spirit And if once you be united by Faith unto him you partake of his Spirit to sanctifie and renew and conform you unto himself He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. EZEK 36. 26. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh THese words are yet a further Declaration of the gracious will and intention of God towards the people of his Covenant Two things already hath God promised unto them one was to justifie them to pardon all their sins another was to sanctifie them to renew all their hearts And there are two more choice mercies and blessings which he doth graciously undertake to bestow upon them First One is to take away the stony heart out of their flesh Secondly The other is to give them an heart of flesh O what a mercy is it to be rid of the stone in the body which puts us to such exquisite pain and torment your mercy is infinitely greater to be delivered from the stone in the heart which is the depth of sin and the height of judgement There are three Propositions which these words do hold forth unto us viz. First There is a stony heart or an heart of stone in every man Secondly That God will take away the stony heart from his people Thirdly He will not only take away from them the heart of stone but he will also give them an heart of flesh CHAP. IX A heart of stone in every man Doctr. 1. THat there is a stony heart in every man I will take away the There is a stony heart in every man stony heart out of your flesh there it was else it could not be taken away the natural heart is a stony heart not Physically so as if it were so indeed but Metaphoriaclly so it is like the stone it is a hard heart spiritually hard that is meant by the stony heart Zach. 7. 12. They have made their hearts as an Adamant stone Isa 48. 4. Thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow brass q. d. Thy heart is exceeding hard like Iron which will not bow and like brass which will not change both which are explained in the first words of the verse Thou art obstinate For the opening of this Point I will shew unto you 1. Why the hard heart which is in every man is called a stony heart 2. What stonyness or hardness of heart is to be found in man 3. Several Demonstrations or Convictions that the heart of every man naturally is a hard or stony heart SECT I. Quest 1. VVHY is the hard heart called a stony heart Why called a stony heart It is so called for the resemblance which it hath with a stone and in five particulars 1. Unsensibleness 2. Unflexibleness 3. Resistingness 4. Heaviness 5. Unfruitfulness First Because it is an unsensible heart What sense is there in a Rock in a An unsensible heart Stone in the Adamant in Ephes 4. 18 19. hardened sinners are said to be past feeling and that expression past feeling seems to be taken from the hands of labouring men which are so thickned and hardned by pains that they can grasp nettles and thorns and yet not feel the sharpness nor sting the natural heart is in this respect a stony heart i. e. unsensible Though he hath as many sins upon the soul which makes the very Creation to groan and to travail in pain Rom. 8. 22. yet he neither complains nor feels he goes on fâ—om day to day and adds drunkenness to thirst and drinks up iniquity as water yet he saith What evil have I done and there is no iniquity in my doings though the judgements of God be very near him and the tokens do abundantly appear yet like Ephraim when gray hairs were here and there upon him he perceived them not Hosea 7. 9. Yea though the anger of the Lord be poured upon him and sets him on fire round about yet he knows it not nay though it burn him yet he lays it not to heart Isa 42. 25. Such a gross stupidity is there in the natural and stony heart What one spake of himself in an humble way Erubescenda video nec erubesco dolenda intueor nec doleo peccata inspicio Bern. in Med. cap. 12. p. 1200. nec geno This and much more may be said of him that hath the hard and stony heart he blushes not he grieves not he sighs not for his sins nay he rejoyceth and boasteth and makes
will you weary my God also said the Prophet Isa 7. 13. So say I Is it a small thing that you injure another but will you also injure the Spirit of God Simile If a friend should help you out of prison and heal all your diseases and sores and furnish you with clothes and money and house and lands do you not wrong him in saying upon every discontent What hath he done he hath never done any thing for me Why it is the Spirit of God who hath quickned you from the dead who hath delivered you out of the power of darkness who hath renewed and healed your soul who hath begun every saving grace in your hearts who hath been your life and strength and after all this is it meet for you to say What hath he done and he hath wrought nothing for us nothing why how came you to be so sensible of your sins how came your hearts to be broken and mournful whence came those desires after Christ and grace whence came those fervent prayers and importunate cries whence came those resolutions to walk with God and careful endeavours to honour and glorifie him O Christianâ— be humbled for thy rashnesse and for thy unthankfulness and for this injuriousness done unto the good Spirit of God disown him no more and deny not any work of his any more though it be but little yet do not disown it though it be sometimes hidden from thee yet do not disown it though it doth many times work but weakly do not disown it though it be put sometimes to a stand though thou dost not in every particular answer the motions and rules of the Spirit yet do not disown the work of the Spirit condemn every sinful work which is thine own but do not deny or dishonour any work that is his Secondly By not crediting the testimony of the Spirit Beloved sometimes By not crediting the spirit we do bear witness or give testimony for the Spirit as when we humbly and thankfully confess his workmanship in our hearts saying This is the Lords doing this he hath done for my soul c. Sometimes the Spirit bears witness or gives in testimony unto our hearts he bears witness saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 16. that we are the children of God and concerning this he gives in his testimony partly by his works of Faith and Regeneration which are to be found in all and only the children of God And partly by extraordinary assurance letting in such a ligâ—t and evidence and perswasion which abundantly clears up our Relation that without doubt God is our Father and we are his children If now after both these testimonies in assurance of the Spirit in after times of darkness and desertion and temptation we call the testimony of the Spirit into question and charge it for a false delusion do we not exceedingly injure the Spirit of God in some sort to make bim a lyer and a false witnesse Object But we do not do so and we dare not do so his testimony is true only How to know the testimony of the Spirit we fear that the testimony which we have found was not his testimony but a delusion either of Satan or of our own hearts Sol. O but what if indeed that testimony was not the delusion of your hearts but the very testimony of the Spirit which you have challenged and rejected as a delusion are you not then very guilty of great injuriousness unto the Spirit And that it was the very testimony of the Spirit of God may thus appear 1. It was a testimony after deep humblings of the heart for sin 2. It was a testimony after importunate cries and wrestlings for mercy and assurance 3. It was a testimony after your believing and closing which Christ offered and accepted 4. It was a testimony after the matching of the promises with your souls condition 5. It was a testimony that filled your heart with joy unspeakable and glorious and with a love most dear and superlative and with most humble and serious care and diligence how to walk more exactly and chearfully to the praise and honour of this most gracious God If it was thus it was no delusion it was indeed the testimony of the Spirit and you have dealt unkindly and unworthily thus to requite him and thus to disgrace his precious testimony Thirdly By disregarding and slighting the Ordinances of Christ Some people do think that because they have the Spirit therefore there is no need of Ordinances By slighting Christs Ordinances at least for them perhaps they hold that the Ordinances may be useful for others who as yet have not received the Spirit but yet they are needless for them who have received the Spirit And three places of Scripture they alledge for this Jer. 31. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord. 1 Joh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a most sure Word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts With your favour I will speak something in 1. Opposition to this Opinion it is the Opinion of the Libertines of old and of some now amongst our selves The Libertines answered who desire and endeavour to subvert the Ministry and the Ordinances of preaching 2ly In resolving the true meaning of those places of Scripture First I affirm that Gods giving of his Spirit unto his people was never intended by him to put a period unto any Evangelical Ordinance or to render them useless unto any of his people this may be demonstrated thus First From the scope of the Scriptures All Scripture saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 16. is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Iâ—struction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works ver 17. If the Word of God be given for these ends For Doctrine to teach us the matter of faith for Reproof to convince errors for Correction to condemn sin for Instruction to shew us our duties and to make us perfect To beget us Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth To build us up Acts 20. 33. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified then certainly the presence of the Spirit and the Ministry of the Word are not