our Death of Souls by the Famine of the Word of hearing the Word of the Lord in City and Country A great deal of do seems to be about the death of Bodies but ah Lord how many Thousand Thousand Souls have perished in this City and in these Nations in a few years past for want of hearing the Word of the Lord that is able to save the Soul Be not wrath very soar see behold we are thy People Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a Desolation and all our pleasant things are scattered Will the Lord refrain for these things Herein the Prophet seems to be toucht to the quick that Zion and Jerusalem was desolate and all these Soul-pleasant things were spoiled whereby Souls starved and perished and Soul-Famine and Pestilence was made a Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that whither soever they went from one City to another from one Sea to another 't was all alike This this the Prophet laid deeply to heart and so should we I urge it by way of proportion if we should deeply lay to heart bodily death then much more Soul-death and destruction A fide exorbitans puniendus saith the Civilian such as play the wanton from the truth must be punished answerably We have been and yet still are a fide exorbitantes such as play the unruly Persons from the truth Children of Belial which cannot bear Christ's Yoke full of Soul-itch for another Gospel and being thus lewd in spirituals answerably in spiritual liberties and enjoyments hath God punished us it is not a little peril unto us that we meet now although the hand of God affright such as would be looking after us This this we should deeply lay to heart that the Bread for our Souls fails from the House of our God The strokes of God and the strokes of Men together affright away the Pastors and so the Pastures of your Souls and yet all this but the just punishment of much spiritual wantonness and exorbitancy Secondly If temporal strokes which refer to the death of the body should be laid much to heart then Eternal strokes which make the everlasting destruction of the Soul should be deeply laid to heart much more Such a stroke as that Isai 63.17 O Lord Why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and such as that Prov. 17.10 A reproof entereth more into a wise Man than an hundred stripes into a Fool. Some Mens hearts are by the inward strokes of GOD made Judgment-proof that Plague Famine and Sword all the Ten Plagues that were inflicted on Pharaoh and Ten more to them will not stir them nor turn them no more than they stopped or turned him nor yet so much And what do you see in this day done on the hearts of Men by the hand of God abroad now of Sword Famine and Pestilence Do these enter the hearts of Men This speaks that Eternal strokes judicial wrath upon the Soul is abroad fiting Men for Eternal death much of which I fear the most of us are little aware O Juresalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen her Chicken and thou wouldst not but now they are hid from thine Eyes This was a Soul-mortal and an Eternal stroke and how Christ laid it to heart how he sighed and wept O Jerusalem And if our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish saith the Apostle and how long hath thâ—s stroke been upon the Souls of most Assemblies in these Nations and else where the Power of the Gospel hid and a spurious efficacy gone forth in the place thereof faithful Labourers fishing all night and can catch nothing scarce covert a Soul and unfaithful Labourers such as come not in by the Door but come in their own name these pervert many yea though they come with never so damnable Doctrines if denying the Lord that bought them yet flockt after O give me leave to tell you in this day of God's sore Visitation Hinc illae lachrymae these are Soul-Plagues which have brought our Bodily-Plagues these are Soul mortal and eternal strokes because we have not received the truth in the love of it and no Man of us have laid these to heart as we should Spiritual Plagues and Judgments have swept away Souls by thousands all the Nations over many years together and who of us have laid this Mortality to heart as we should See how the Prophet Isaiah layeth to heart spiritual strokes Isa 24.16 17. My leanness my leanness the treacherous dealer hath dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealer hath dealt very treacherously fear and the snare and the Pit are upon thee Treachery swearing for swearing thus in spiritual matters as Judas who betrayed Christ and as much as in him lay the Bodies and Souls of all Man-kind such treacherous dealers were the Jews which the Prophets much bewailed as great spiritual and eternal strokes and so should we as we see these on any Nation for these things are written for our learning that we should follow the foot-steps of the Flock It were well we that live in these last and worst times of the World could with the Prophet for like things sigh and say My leanness that we could sigh our selves lean this day before the Lord because of hypocrisie treachery and all Soul-villany and spiritual wickedness and the hypocrisie and treachery of our own hearts greatest of all and O how should we sigh and lament our selves lean for this ere the Plague sweep us away The next Use of this Point may be for Reproof and it may reprove two sorts 1. Such as are sensible of nothing 2. Such as are sensible of nothing to purpose First This may reprove such as are sensible of nothing or nothing sensible Temporal strokes are thick God and Man upon us Pestilence at home War abroad God and Man killing and slaughtering us one at Sea 'tother at land Is not this general Mortality God shoots his Arrows every where and how great is his dread fallen upon us In what Street of this poor City can one walk but dead Corps and Ghosts walk In what Fields about this City can one walk where death also doth not walk and as God's Bailiff seize and arrest and carry away to the great Bar above and to the Judge of all the World to receive all that they have done here in the Body good or bad At what corner of this City can we that live abroad creep in and not be met and saluted with trains of dead Corps carrying to the Grave to new Church-yards and New-exchanges old Burying-places being over-fatted and glutted and Corps inhumanely crowding one another out of their Places before the time and among all these sad salutations some righteous Men and merciful Men and Women taken away and we can tell their names and where they lived and so ends the story till the next Bill of Mortality come out with more taken away and then they
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
Spring as it is foolish so it is an endless work How can a clean thing come out of an unclean If the heart remain still filthy How is it possible to make the life holy Hence it is that the heart is so much called for to be cleansed and that sinck to be well lookt after because there is the seat of natural pravity and the very Core of all corruption Cut off branches as you would lop a Tree cut them off all and leave the roots through the sent of mud they will grow as Job saith every occasion and temptation so long as the nature remains unrenewed and unlookt to will make sin break out afresh and the Dog will return to his own vomit The Queens Daughter is therefore called upon to forget her Father's House or else she would be hankering to be there again They which came out of Egypt in body and did not come out spiritually as to their souls how unsteadfast were they and their righteousness as the morning dew and in their hearts went back again to Egypt If any Israelite having taken in War a Heathen Woman and beautiful that he had a desire to marry he was first to bring her home to his House and shave her Head and pare her Nails and was to put off the raiment of her captivity and then she was to bewail her Father and her Mother a full Moneth c. That is her Heathenish state wherein born and bred she was to bewail and taught by this paring of her Nails and changing the Raiment of her Captivity to look after deliverance from her inward captivity and for a new state a new Father and Mother and all new her hands yea her very Nails and all this but little enough to make her forget her Father's House and to forsake old haunts and customs and ways Who knoweth not but that Nails and Hairs and such excrements are most apt and ready to grow again and yet not more apt and ready than sin is though pared and shaved if it be not dealt throughly with in the heart and in the root Finally Without this deep sense of our natural condition Christ will not be precious to us nor indeed desirable who is the only Physician for this great cure We shall be righteous in our own eyes as the Pharisee and not care for any righteousness else but our own though we may talk of faith and of the righteousness of Christ as many Christians do We shall be as Country-people which are whole as a Fish and laught at all Physicians Till the Apostle Paul was smitten down from Heaven and his eyes opened to see this body of death of which he complains in my Text he was alive and brisk and who but he for a holy and a happy man But when the Commandement came in Authority upon him which he thought he had perfectly kept sin revived and he died 'T is the poor and blind and wretched and naked that Christ counsels to come and buy of him Eye-salve and Garments to cover their nakedness Rev. 3.17 18. As we are Proselites i.e. Comers to Christ so we are cured of our spiritual Leprosie and such Proselites we will never be but as we see and feel our lost state by nature and our great necessity of him Who looks after the things which they do not need Ho he that thirsteth c. and such will prise Milk and Water I cannot get a House in this Town wherein to leave drink-silver in my Masters name saith Mr Rutherford There is no sale for Christ in the north meaning at Aberdeen he is like to lie long on my hand ere any accept him Thus it is with all unsensible and unheart-broken sinners though at the brink of Hell yet will not come unto Christ that they may be saved from their sins and from the wrath of God FINIS THE REMEDIE OF NATURAL Corruption Being A SERMON ON Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THese words are an Answer to a sad Question the Question is in the words foregoing Who shall deliver me from the body of this death v. 24. That is from natural corruption the guilt and the dominion and Power of it This Apostle was at an utter loss in himself and as to all others and then God revealed an able Physician to him as these words of my Text tell us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is revealed to Sinners which dispair of all help in themselves or in any other Creature Such will thank God for him as here this wretched Man doth Mr. Rutherford speaketh of a sorrow that hath no eyes This Apostle's sorrow was such for a time Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He knew not of any deliveâ—er and then God became eyes to the blind and helped the sorrowful sinner and the blind sinner to eyes to see a Saviour and an All-sufficient one I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When Isaac was at a loss for an offering and Abraham also when the sorrow of both had no eyes God was sight and help to them both Here is the wood but where is the Sacrifice i. e. One to die My Son God will provide And he did so Donatum non petitum gratius est saith the Civilian A gift not asked is the most free So did God provide that offering for Isaac and so did he provide this offering for this Apostle and wretched Man and so he doth for every wretched Man which hath the benefit of him he is Donatum non petitum to every fallen Son of Adam that is raised by him He was found of him that asked not after him Secondly This may be further observed in these words That God doth not barely shew us the means of our good the proper means of our Souls good but enable us to make effectual use of them to that end If I should paraphrase upon this Text it would be to this effect Wretched man I am burdened much with a body of sin and death which is so heavy that I think oft it will one time or other sink me to the lowest Hell and I am as helpless as to all â—thers as impotent and miserable in my self O doubly wretched man that I am and am like to be who will who can deliver me Yet I have some help shewed to me I thank God but no body else he hath in my blinde and wretched conditiâ—n shewed me an able Physician by name Jesus Christ our Lord anointed and allowed under his own hand to help all such wretched Creatures as I am and he doth enable me to make use of him to my burdened Souls ease and rest This Scripture and such like shew that there is full and effectual relief for all burdened sinners who are ready to sink under the burden of their sin and misery Doct. The Doctrin
which I observe to prosecute from these words is this That Christ is the proper remedy of natural corruption I thank God through Jesus Christ c. He whom God the Father hath sealed sanctified and sent into this World for this end to Cure natural corrupâ—ion is Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle here calls him The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty unto the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 By Captives and such as are in Prison is meant sinners in their unregenerated condition who are under the power and slavery of sin and carried Captive by the evil one at his will and by broken hearted and poor he means such as are deeply affected and afflicted with the body of death natural corruption in the guilt and pollution of it these is Christ anointed with the Spirit of the Lord to relieve and help to bind them up and all their wounds and putrified soares and to heal them and to preach liberty to them and to bring them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God and such as are shut up under the power of sin and Satan as in a Prison to break down these strong holds and to open the everlasting Doors to himself the King of Glory to make a Prison a Palace a Slave a Son and Heir with him of all with this compare Isa 32.2 And a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim and the eares of them that hear shall hearken the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the Tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly Men in their natural condition may be in a calm as long as the strong Man ruleth all is at peace but these will be in a tempest and a terrible one first or last when their Consciences come to be convinced as the Apostles here was And then who is able and who is appointed to allay these storms To this the Prophet answers A man shall be a hiding place and a covert from wind and rain but so a Man that he is also God or else he could do nothing at these winds and storms That these things are thus spiritually to be understood appears by the next words v. 3 4. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim c. So that it means heart-storms and tempest and heart-help and Christ God-Man that is to be the helper and the great Covert in these storms and tempests and the great Rock for shade where the poor Soul is so scorched with the heat of God's wrath that he is ready to faint and die Blindness and deafness and rashness they all speak one thing the ill state we are in by nature blind deaf dumb and yet rash and mad and confident enough and the Man Christ Jesus who is called Emanuel God with us he is the appointed curer of all these Maladies This is a proof of the Point in hand in general I will descend to particulars of our fallen state and shew you that Christ is the appointed and proper remedy of all the diseases of our Souls There are three things complain'd of and supposed in the Apostles complaint in my Text one is a body of death that is our natural depraved state which is the filth of sin Secondly He complains of the Body of this Death that is the obligation of sin to the wrath of God temporal and eternal which we call the guilt of sin These two are expressed in his complaint Now there is a third thing supposed in these complaints of a bad state which is that he would fain have a better or else he would not have complained of this no more than other unregenerated Sinners do Now as to all these three Christ is the proper and appointed remedy and relief of miserable and wretched Man First As to the Body of Death i e. as to the fiâ—th of sin the depravation of our nature of which I spake in the other Sermon Christ is the remedy of this root and branch see Isa 51.9 10 11. Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord Awake as in the ancient days in the Generations of old Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon Art thou not it which hast dryed up the Sea and the Waters of the great deep that hast made the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away Now put all these borrowed words into plain English and what deep must this mean the drying up of which maketh the way to Zion where everlasting joy is obtained This deep must necessarily mean the bottomless Gulf of natural corruption shadowed fitly by the deep that hath in many parts no bottom and as Christ was he that went before our Fathers and dryed up that deep Sea and made it a way to go through to Zion and to the holy Land So it is he that dryeth up the deep Sea of sin in our nature and so maketh way to the holy state and the holy Church the true Zion in which is everlasting joy Now forasmuch as corrupt nature puts forth under some chief head and grand lust which is as King to all the Châ—ldren of pride as Pharaoh and his Princes to all the Body of Egypt Who fighteth against these Ans Christ He is remedy for root and branch of the Body of Death Art not thou it which hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon The Prophet speaketh still in allusion to Pharaoh and his Princes which he calls Crokâ—dile or Dragon that is a Sea-Dragon wherewith Egypt abounded This Sea of natural corruption hath some Sea-Dragons great Soul-devouring Monsters swimming and playing in it And who deals with these Ans He that dries up the deep that is Christ Art not thou he that hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon This Text leadeth us by the hand to that first promise made to Adam The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head which means our state of sin as headed and organised by Satan through any particular prevailing lust whatsoever our state of sin is there spoken of as headed by Satan who organiseth the old man as Christ doth the new And this surely is that great slaughter and the Towers falling which the Prophet especially pointeth at upon the fall of which the light of the Moon becometh as the light of the Sun and the light of
merciful Men are taken away As if the Prophet had said now the Lord is very angry indeed that he will not spare such as these which are so precious in his eye if any be Noah a righteous Man was preserved from the Flood And Lot a righteous Man preserved and plucked out of Sodom and had there been Ten righteous more the Cities might have been saved for their sake as the Ship full of Passengers for Paul's sake And Ebedmelech the Black more a merciful Man was saved from the destructions which destroyed Jerusalem and so was Jeremiah This should incite all People as they love their lives in this dying day to labour after grace and to be merciful Men and Women yea bountiful in this day of want for such as are ready to yield themselves thus to the Scepter of Christ and to follow him fully with all they have and are will certainly scape best such as yield all to the Lord will save all if any do You that become of prophane righteous and holy Men you take the likeliest way I know to escape well in this mortal time If you get not your lives you will get your Souls for a Prey no Plague shall come nigh that thus are you lodged safe in the Promise as soon as you become gracious and break off from your wicked ways by repentance And you that are gracious and godly think on 't as you love your lives in this day of mortality shew your Faith by your Works abound in this gift also of mercifulness many that are able and carry the Bag are abroad and I fear have carrâ—ed the Bag with them you that are here had need be the more merciful Man's poor will starve else Surely such as are ready to preserve the lives of others God will preserve their lives A Third Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That times of general security under present lesser punishments are of very evil presage If when God's Judgments are in the Earth righteous Men and merciful be taken away and none lay these drops of the storms to heart it fore-rells surely that the Storm will come and fall hard and Thunder and Hall much Surely some great Evils are at Door when little ones are made light of though I cannot call the taking away of one righteous Man in this day nor the taking away of one merciful Man or Woman in this day a little punishment Dictum cum vulgo I speak after you if lesser Rods make no Body feel great ones surely are a making Righteous Men are taken away and none consider that they are taken from great Evil to come Sometimes with a foolish Virgins slumber the good become bad in this that they lay not GOD's dealings to heart as they should but let Death like a Moth stilly take away one and then another and make no noise in Heaven about it good People are much in a hurry with this World one about his Farm and another about his Merchandise and whilst running here and there hither and thither the King of Syria is gone the matters which should have been close kept to the heart are slipt away out of the mind and made no use of And such a temper among the Lord's People as well as others is a sure fore-runner of some roufing Judgment at Door that may well awaken every Body the Storm begins to come in among you Citizens now I hope you will be awake anon the Plague hath kept in the out-parts a good while O that we in the in-parts within these Walls had been well awake then and laid matters to heart then as we should The Doctrin which I would stand on is this That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart Mortal strokes upon all good as well as bad should much affect all good and bad The Strokes of God in this Prophet's time when he spake the words of my Text began to be general God spared not righteous nor wicked and God thus promiscuously smiting the Prophet was troubled that Men were no more affected as well he might From whence I observe That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart No Man high or low good or bad but should much lay to heart all the strokes of God which bring death that great blow to Man's Beeing Mortality by Plague Sword Famine or any other way or by any other Disease should be well considered and well made use of especially if it reach the righteous as well as others The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but Prophesie Amos 3.8 Nature teacheth this in all Creatures that when such Creatures of prey are abroad which they know they are in danger of to be preyed upon to dread and tremble and to take all care they can to shun them and to save themselves The Prophet Mica who Prophesied in the same time with Isaiah which so complained in my Text complaineth just like him and almost in the same words Mica 7.2 The good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none upright among Men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every Man his brother with a Net c. As if the Prophet had said Good men perish out of the Earth and this is so far from being laid to heart and lookt upon as any judgment that all violences are used to take away the rest every one lieth in wait for blood yea the blood of his Brother as Cain lay in wait for his Brothers blood And where will this end And by this grief of this Prophet I gather that general Mortality the perishing of good Men and the perishing of others by violences and murders and such like ought much to affect the living and not the lives of all sorts to be taken away and made no more of than of Dogs or Hogs by the death of which there is an advantage By this Prophet Isaiah we may see this Doctrin again confirmed that general strokes should generally affect Isa 64 9 10 11. Be not wrath very soon O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we bessech thee we are all thy People Thy holy Cities are a Wilderness Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a desolation the holy and beautiful House our Fathers worshipped thee is burnt with Fire and all our pleasant things laid wast The Prophet â—n these words speaketh prophetically and beholdeth and representeth that which was to be as done namely the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and that state Persons and things one and all and how doth he speak of this general Mortality of Persons and things good and bad high and low Doth he speak of it slightly O no but with much complaint and strong cry and bemoans to God Be not wrath very sore O Lord be not angry for ever Zion is a Desolation Jerusalem a Wilderness c. In these Desolations as you know by the Scripture there was Death by Plague Sword and
have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart Psal 38.8 Secondly As God brings all afflictions for kind and quality on Men yea on good Men that is afflictions spiritual and temporal inward and outward on soul and body So he brings all afflictions for quantity and degree that is afflictions very great and of long continuance Were they not great and sore things done against Job Whilst he was yet speaking there came another and saith the Fire of God is fallen from Heaven i. e. A great Fire and hath burnt up the Sheep and the Servants and I only am escaped to tell thee Poor Job now indeed that Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven should be rained upon him as upon Sidom that so he might judg himself to deserve no better than the wicked Sodomites did What a degree of high Trial and what a great Twig in the Rod was this Yea God saith of the Devil that he moved him against Job without cause to swallow him up Job 2.3 that is saith the Margent when the Devil had nought against him nor able to bring his own malicious designs to pass against him yet read Satans Second Commission So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his Foot to the crown of his Head and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withall and sate down amongst the ashes and then his friends poured Gall and Vinegar into his Cup which altogether made his afflictions of the greatest magnitude indeed the greatest I think that ever meer Man had David tells us of the Lyon and the young Lyon upon him Psal 17.12 and of such as did set their mouths against the Heavens and bark and bite all good Persons and things and therefore the Lord's People returned hither that is when they could get no shelter from the wicked and Waters of a full Cup were wrung out to them Psal 73.10 And full Cups of misery speak the greatest punishments for degree and quantity Secondly God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men as great and sharp so of long continuance It hath been a sharp Winter this and of long continuance so doth God make in other matters some times Some Rivers * As Nilus that ancient River had their beginning with the World and so it may be will have their end not till the World ends And some afflictions have their beginning as soon as we and will have no end till we have yea some Rods extraordinary begin with some good People as soon almost as they begin to be and end not till they end their lives It is God's threat that if all his Laws be not observed and his glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God be feared and reverenced And who can call God his God but God's Children that then he will inflict upon his People great Plagues and of long continuance and such he did inflict and such he hath said in the new Testament also will fall out great troubles and of long continuance so long as if he heard no Prayers that every ones faith and patience shall faint and fail When the Son of Man shall come shall he finde saith upon the Earth Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove that is always so the next words expound it Mine eyes fail with looking upward GOD gave no answer that his faith was quite spent O Lord I am oppressed and bear all the burden alone Vndertake for me lend me a hand What shall I say he hath spoken unto me and himself hath done it and therefore it will never be undone I shall go softly all my Years in the bitterness of my soul Isa 38.14 15. That God inflicts punishments great punishments and of long continuance upon good People read 1 Kings 22.27 And the King of Israel said put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace His warrant you see had a long date Thus God sometime let loose wicked Men upon the best of his to fasten their teeth and scarce ever let go their hold till they have pluckt out their throats to lay them fast in all extremities like Joseph and there let them lie long till even their skin and bones rot And as God lets Men deal thus with their body so he lets the Devil sometimes deal thus with their Soul worry them and worrry them long even all their days 'T is but GOD's Commission given to the Devil and he will do it as 't is God's Commission given to wicked Men to torment and then they do it and without his Commission a Dog could not bark or shew his teeth against any child of God The Plowers plowed upon my back and they made long their Furrows Psal 129.3 And woe is me that I remain in Meshech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar my soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace Psal 120.5 6. God excommunicated Nebuchadnezar Seven Years and made him a Companion for Beasts and so sometimes he excommunicates his own People and makes them companions as David in Arabia with Black mores with Devils those black Fiends of the lowest Hell and so long The Reasons of this Point are these First That God may shew his Soveraignty I will not say hâ—s Justice We have all sin'd even the best Men and therefore God may bring all afflictions and miseries upon the best But I rather choose to say that God may shew what an absolute Lord of all He is and can set up what Man he will to be his mark to shoot at and then take him down and set up another Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head saith David Psal 40.12 Usually less than this number are our afflictions when most and therfore where God shews soveraignty he also sheweth justice Israel would none of me Psal 81.11 Therefore where God pronounced to Ammi I will have none of this People he was just as well as absolute and peremptory in his will Sometimes God smites a sinner as Joab smote Amasia under the fist Rib so as that he smites him not again maketh an utter end at a blow and no cause visible no more than in other of the Sons and Daughters of Men and of his People This properly we call soveraignty Thus may be smite any one for we have not any one of us all the priviledge of Antwarp who have two marts lasting six weeks apiece during which time no Man in his Person or Goods can be arrested No man hath such priviledge for a day in order to God he can arrest Person Goods and Life when he pleaseth and yet in all so that none can charge him with injustice Secondly Doth thus bring all afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men to try integrity The Sea pulleth up from its bottom all excrements as
or displeased We must dye said one of the Heathen so say I whether God be pleased or displeased with us to speak with reverence we must believe as the Cananitish Woman did when Christ called her Dog or else we sinck and perish Vse 4 Wherefore my last Use is to exhort you to seek this grace of faith that you may be able to believe God because of his own Word Job 4.41 And so to set your Seal to his Word and Works and by this be able to espy light in darkness which God is most ready to give Righteousness shall go before him and he shall set us in the way of his steps Psal 85. ult Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall look down from Heaven which words surely point at Christ and the Gospel by which God trains up sinners to believe in him to their Salvation in this World and in the World to come God preached Christ to Adam and taught him to take hold of him to his temporal and eternal Salvation Adam named his Wife Eva or Life And the promise is that we shall all i.e. Jew and Gentile be taught of God to this thing to glorifie the word of the Lord that is the essential word Christ and the written word the Scriptures God taught Noah to build the Ark concerning which one thing is most remarkable that the Door into the Ark was in the lowest story and so was under Water all the time of the Flood which surely was done on purpose to make and exercise faith purely in him which shut him in Seek faith in this height which my Text and Doctrin spake of 1 That you may be able in the greatest darkness to make light and sight The Jews in their daunces would say Blessed be thou O my Youth which hast not shamed my old Age and these were called Men of Performances Others would say Blessed be thou my old Age which hast gain-said my Youth and these were called Men of repentance Both would say Blessed is he that hath not sin'd and he that hath sinn'd and is pardoned Seek such a faith that thus you may see cause to bless God in every condition in Youth in Age in sickness in health when down and when risen again when you do not sin and when you do sin as being able to apprehend Christ and your pardon Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is pardoned blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin surely his Salvation is neer them that fear him that glâ—ry may dwell in our Land mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 58.9 10. What this kissing of Righteousness and Peace means you may see Vers 2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy People thou hast cover'd all their sin Selah The Psalmist by faith saw peace in Heaven towards the Lords People and that peace i e. All good should be on Earth to them also which keeps the heart in a ready chearful frame to serve God and to bless him in every state and therefore such a faith should be sought for Watch to preserve your faith who have this grace of graces How careful we are to preserve our eyes and much more to preserve our lives Faith is your best eyes by which you are able to look out of every hill into Heaven and faith is your best life by this we live spiritually and by this we have all the joy of our life that is worth any thing He that never saw the rejoyceing of drawing of Water never saw joy in all his life saith the Jewes so he that never saw the joy of faith which is called unspeakable and full of glory never saw joy in all his life and therefore you that have this faith and the great and unspeakable benefit of it preserve it all you can and make no shipwrack of faith and conscience and there you save all though you lose all beside Hence it is that David begs that God would draw out his loving kindness to them that knew him and his righteousness to the upright in heart with thee is the Fountain of Life and in thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 10. By which he means that God would more reveal Christ to him in his word and works for the better establishing of every grace and thus let us pâ—nt all our days that in his light we may see light and have our faith and integrity preserved for they live and dye together He that did bring the World by the Flood in oâ—ics first Chaos covered all with VVater he can and is ready to bring our faâ—len state by Christ the greatest piece of which is unbelief to some degree of restoration and bear up the Pillars thereof faith and every grace and all by his own hand And he that enabled Noah in Seven Days to furnish the Ark with all Creatures for a whole Year both for nourishment anâ— for sacr fice to weather it in all that dark time he can quickly inable us to store our Souls in this dark day with every grace to weather well this evil time and to stand compleat in all the will of God The Motives which may be used are these your own matters are or may be suddenly very dark most Mens sun claps in in this hour and every one either in point of estate or liberty or life begineth to walk in the Vally of the shadow of Death it would be well now in such times to have such a frame of spirit to keep up and to fear none ill to be able to say as David The Lord is my light and my Salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid though an Host encamp against me my heart shall not fear though War should rise against me in this will I be confident for in time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me and now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about Psal 27.1 2 3 Many Clouds are up and more still arising and some are already over-shadowing you Would it not be well if you were able indeed to say thus Though Waâ—s be though Famine though Pestilence though Imprisonment Banishment yet in all these will I be confident over these shall I be a Conqueror for in the times of these troubles the Lord will hide me and it may be now as dark and as dismal as things look shall my head be lifted up above all mine enemies round about God promised after the Flood was over that Day and Night should no more cease Gen. 8 22. which intimateth saith one upon that place that during the Forty Days Rain which made the Flood that the Day was as it were ceased and turned into Night by the great and thick Clouds and Tempests which were all over the World and Clouds and Darkness are usually
only to roar and cry out when we are beaten and over-burden'd he teacheth us to believe and to expect Songs to be given in the darkest Night Job 35.9 The true state and life of man is not to be shaken with tumults and distresses nor be lifted up with prosperity and ease said the Heathen and what can poise and even the Soul thus in all conditions but faith by which we know how to abound and how to want how to be high when low and how to be low when high if faith have its perfect work so will patience and then the Soul is entire and wanteth nothing no though all the things of this World he wanting Likewise we may learn from hence that we are never gone and quite undone till faith be gone For loe they lie in wait for my Soul the mighty are gathered against me they return at Evening they make a noise like a Dog and go round about the City behold they belch out with their mouth Swords are in their Lips for who saith he doth hear But thou O Lord shalt laugh at them thou shalt have all the Heathen in derision because of his strength will I wait upon thee for God is my defence Psal 59.9 The God of my mercy shall prevent me he shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies Things were very bad indeed when the wicked were at this height that they could belch out any thing and run every where as Dogs and tear God and Man and yet David was not quite ruined Because of thy strength I will wait upon thee A believer is strong enough as long as God is strong and wise enough as long as God is wise and rich enough as long as God is rich and lively enough as long as God lives Hanibal offered himself to make War with the Romans without an Army saith Seneca And truly a believer will himself make War with all enemies in the World and without any Army only by the strength of God and is never at a loss for an Army nor Counsel nor Provisions but saith as that Father of believers God will provide God will fight for you and ye shall hold your peace said Moses in a great strait Cain was not utterly lost when he had committed murder for so had David done But when he rejected the offer of grace and desired death as a despairing Creature He had a most glorious offer of grace Gen. 4.7 And if thou dâ—st well shalt thou not be accepted or certainly accepted and though thou dost not well yet a sin-offering lieth at the door so it should be read saith a great Scholar in the Languages of the Scripture Dr. Lightfoot And this great offer of grace he despised and so forsook his own Mercy and desired Death through a proud dogged spirit having lost the honour which was given to Abel Now therefore let it be that any one that fudeth me may kill me So should these words be read saith the same Author And now and not till now was Cain quite undone Use 2 This Doctrine in the next place may be for reproof and it may be for reproof of unbelief upon any account whatsoever seeing faith looks through all matters whatever As for the Jebusite the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Children of Israel could not drive them out but they dwell there to this day Judg. 15.63 David along while after drove them out And why could not these lame and blind be driven out It was their unbelief The enemy had gotten a strong Fort and the advantage of that City Jerusalem and yet had they had faith they might have lookt thorow these Forts and Rocks of Jerusalem and have conquer'd it as they did Jerico and other places as strong by faith Their sin was the same with Rubens Dan and Asher Sisaâ—'s Host was great and therefore they could not see through them and over them For the divisions of Ruben there were great thoughts of heart Gilead abode beyond Jordan and why did Dan abide in Ships Ashar continued on the Sea shore and abode in his breaches Judg. 5.16 17. Distresses are of several magnitudes but yet how great soever they be faith should be such as to master them and look thorow them but when it is not so then men betake them to their self ish shifts and every one is but for one Why did Ashar abide in his breacher 'T is a grand evil of this time every Man seeks his own and stands with all he hath to make up his own breaches but as to the publick and the common calamity of others Who hath a Heart or a Purse or a Hand which speaks plainly our unbelief and that we do not see through the dark Clouds which are come upon us but say in our hearts as David I shall one time or other surely perish by this and that great tryal and these Sons of Anack are walled up to Heaven and no dealing with them Necessity saith one of the Heathen maketh us more violent than valorous There are amongst us through many necessities many violencies both inward and outward spiritual and corporal unto great hurt every way but little true valour that which flows from faith which is that that doth business as we have seen Secondly This Scripture reproveth giving way to unbelief We flatter our selves in our unbelief as Jona in his passion and in many cases very desperately we think we do well to be unbelievers whereas the greater the difficulties be the more our duty is to believe Curse ye Meros curse ye bitterly that they came not out in a plunge to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 If thou think some great tryal shall encounter thee â—aith Seneca do not flinch but comfort thy self with this that surely thy death and suffering is of some great importance Great distress is no warrant for us to make great consult with flesh and blood but great consults with the promises and with our own experiâ—nces and to call much upon a cowardly and deceitful heart Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope in God for I shall yet see better things than these If unbelief were as profitable as it is self-pleasing and that it would further escapes out of distresses one might through self-love give way to it as Men do to many gainful sins but it doth not this but rather obstrucâ—e caâ—â—s as our Fathers unbelief in the Wilderness upon every occasion it caused God to swear against them that they should dye in the Wilderness It is not the giving way to unbelief but the exciting faith what ever the difficulty be that is the likely way to make escape As Caleb and Joshua said We be well able to deal with them for God is departed from them and they are bread for us and this is called following of God fully which God took well and honoured them with escapes from all dangers and they enjoyed the good Land To this agrees that Psal 37.40 And
the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him If giving way to unbelief in the least had been pleasing to God he would not have made the promise first to our Parents before he came to pronounce the curse upon them Now giving way to unbelief consists in two things construing all things in the worst and hardest sense our own matters towards God and God's matters towards us I have been a stubborn rebellious â—retch and surely God will never have mercy upon me Observe Moses upon thâ—s theme Destroy not this People remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not on the stubbornness of this People nor to theiâ— wickedness nor to their sin Deut 9.27 Ne respicias ad dutitiem the hardness that is the â—mâ—eâ—â—tency of this People but thy Covenant with Abraham And this is the great thing only to be eyed by poor guilty wretches O sirs such and such sins were nothing if I could be humbled for them but I am of a very hard heart Be it so yet should you believe in the word of promise that is in that God which hath said he will give a heart of flesh This People hath finn'd and they cannot repent saith Moses do not therefore look upon them for there is no loveliness in them but look upon thy promise to Abraham to be a God to him and to his Seed and what cannot a God do to mend the heart of man Lamech having made himself guilty of Polygamie reflected upon the sin of Cain as is thought of which Loin he was and consters himself a far more guilty wretch than Cain for that Cain had only slain one and that only his body but Lamech had destroyed many soul and body both by his evil example which now so generally was followed in the World and a hastner of the worlds destruction so that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold for his fin Lamech surely for his fin was to be avenged seventy times seven fold this is the sense of this Scripture as an able Expositor judgeth Sure I am that thus do poor guilty wretches please themselves to look upon all their sins in a very multiplying glass and to see them greater than any others and so conclude that if such and such despaired I have much more reason and this is no other but giving way to unbelief The Jews observe much how the providence of God complyed with the fire upon the Altar that it never went out they say that the Rain of Heaven though never so great never did put it out so we should much observe how the Lord by his Providence in his Word and Works complies with the weakness of our faith to strengthen and to preserve it that it go not out quite out and not be severely catching at every thing to weaken and to destroy our faith as if God's thoughts were as narrow as ours Secondly Way is given to unbelief when all wit and parts are used to argue down faith And the Angel of the Lord did wonderously and Manoah and his Wife looked on But the Angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah nor to his Wife then he knew it was an Angel of the Lord And Manoah said to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.19 20. God sometimes doth wonderously own us in all our ways and holdeth up our hearts evâ—n by sense he is so for us in every thing Another while he seems to be as much against us and Manoah that did look on and see God do wonderously seeth him no more and now the improsperous Man concludes that he shall die And just thus do many when God upholds them not by sense but with draws and seems to be as much against them as for them then conclude surely God is our Enemy and will destroy us and all is naught Sineca saith that there is no universal thunder I may say so in morals When God doth most against wicked Men yet some things of kindness he doth as we see in the example of Pharaoh And so on the other hand there is no universal Sun shine when God doth most for any Child of his yet he shall have exercise and tryal enough one way or other and therefore to argue when things do not run so stilly and calmly as they did that therefore God doth not respect us is to give way to unbelief The people of Israel as they were espying out their way met with many difficulties And they turn'd and went up the way of Bashan and Og the King of Bashan went out against them and all his People And the Lord said to Moses fear not for I will deliver him into thine hand and all his People and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon King of the Amorites Num. 21.33 'T is just thus spiritually as a tempted Christian is spying out his way to Heaven out starts some Og some strong lust or Devil and then is he ready to fear and despair and mistrust all and conclude all is naught and will be worse and worse which is arguing down faith from sense and giving way to unbelief The High Priest was train'd up against the day of expiation to learn how to take up his handful of Incense and lay it one the Altar and so how to order himself in every thing and was kept in a Room of purpose separated with abstinence so should you rather conster that you are training up to your Priestly work by your tryals how to take up your handful of Incense I mean the Promises and lay them on the Altar Christ and so make a sweet Saviour of rest to God and to your Souls That you may not upon any account give way to unbelief know that you cannot do so and be innocent that is free from sin in so doing There are two things that are indispensable duties as long as we live and that is to wait on the Lord and to keep his way to which the blessing is certainly fixed and no difficulty shall make it void The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged What is the use to be made of this read the next words Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Psal 37.32 33 34. There are two parts in Religion faith and obedience that we walk in all Gods ways and yet not rest in this but in Christ by faith and this we ought in all weathers to do and the good event of these is certain God will exalt us to inherit the Land flowing with Milk and Hony i.e. All good God will give us a lift to the possession of all that he hath promised And therefore it is to destroy all Religion and the recompence of reward too