Not only his body but his soul the greatest part of mans sin lay in his soul and therefore his greatest sufferings were in his soul or else what meant those Grumi those great drops of blood Why else so troubled so heavy unto death many Martyrs that have not had the thousand part of his strength have gone to the place of execution as to the bride chamber kissing the chain and stake and hugging death as it were about the neck with joy because their sufferings were only in the body when their souls were comforted the soul of Christs sufferings was in his soul Sixtly For sin First that he knew not Secondly that he hated Thirdly for sin in the indefinite that is all sin none excepted Hence it is that he was called a Winebibber a friend of Publicans a Traitor a Conjurer one that dealt with Divels 'T is true unjustly by man but justly by God because he had taken the sins of such miscreants upon him Mary Magdalen had seven Divels and yet saved by Christ Lastly If you look upon all those promises which the Father made to his Son viz. He shall see his seed prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand These I say deeply looked into prove more redundant to the advantage of the Church then of Christ himself as if the Deity could look besides it self as the highest end and was resolved to make man the treasury and the store house of all his loves which stupendious mercy the Angels are said to stoop down as the original bears it 1 Per. 1.19 wishly to look into You see we have here a large Field but my purpose is to point unto you only one plain proposition Doct. which you hear of every day viz. That the Lord Jesus Christ hath laid down his soul an offring for the sin of man or Christ died for the sins of his people That he died is plain or else why did the Earth tremble and why did the Sun hide his face as if he was ashamed to see what was done to the God of Nature and why did the graves open and the bodies of the dead arise and walke up and down the holy City That he died for sin is as plain for there is no death without sin Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death That he died for the sins of man is still as plain for he had no sin of his own 't is confest on all hands that he had done no violence neither was there deceit in his mouth Esay 53.9 That he died as an offering for sin is most apparent I might give you an hundred Scriptures but shall one for all And walk in love as Christ hath loved you Ephes 5.2 and hath given himself an offering a sweet smelling Savour As if the Apostle should say before Christ died all the World stunk in the nostrils of God such stinking and poyson us vapours did the sin of man send up to Heaven but after Christ died then was the Scene changed the World began then to smell like the Spring of the year of Hony-Suckles and Violets and Roses He gave himself an effering a sweet smelling Savour And indeed he was the substance of all those typical offerings and Sacrifices which were from the beginning of the World for they were either of things without life or things that had life he answereth them all Things inanimate were either dry or moist if dry as the shew bread then it was broken in pieces for an offering was ever the destruction of the thing offered Thus Christ was broken It pleased the Lord to bruise him saith the Text This is my body that was broken for you Things moist those were either wine Mar. 26.26 or oyle and they were poured out before the Lord thus it is said that he poured out his soul unto death Isa 12.53 If of things that had life then was the heart bloud taken from them for without shedding of blond there was no Remission Thus was Christ said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning of the World Heb. 9.22 Hence it is that John the Baptist upon the sight of him saith Rev. 13.8 Behold the Lamb of God Jo. 1.29 that taketh away the sins of the World The Lamb of God why not the Bullock the Goat or the Ram or the Calf of God seeing all these were Sacrificeable Creatures not onely because as some would have it a Lamb for innocency though that be true nor onely as others the substance of that typical anniversary Lamb the Pascal Lamb but because the Lamb was the daily standing Sacrifice of the Temple every morning and every evening through the year was there a Lamb Sacrificed at the Temple as the standing Propitiation for all Israel Thus much for the Doctrinal part We come now to the application Use 1 If it be so that Christ bath made his soul an Offering for sin then they do very ill that bring strange Offerings to the Lord. What else do the Papists when they tell us that a man may not onely merit for himself but supererogate for others and poor ignorant people amongst our selves who think to be saved by their good meaning by their good thinking and by their good serving of God as they say 't is true these are good things and to be incouraged but not trusted unto in point of justification We are all Isa 64.10 saith the Prophet as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses as filthy rags our best actions are rags but pieces of that perfection the Law requires there is no whole cloth in them they fail in their quantity again they are filthy rags polluted with original sin and so fall short in their quality and alas how are these things to be trusted to It was the Law when any brought his sacrifice unto God Deu. 15.19 21. vers He was to bring the firstling male of the flock but if it were halt or lame or blind or had any blemish he was not to offer it unto the Lord. What do these men do that trust to their own works but bring the halt and the lame and the blinde when there is a firstling male in the flock whose soul was made an offering for sin Use 2 Was Christ made an offering for sin surely then there is no small comfort for humbled sinners Hath the Lord affected thee with the sence of sin Christian look up to this offering It is with a man in the state of sin as with one looking through a Prospective Glass while he looks at the wrong end things that are great and nigh seem little and afar off but when he looks through the right end then things appear in their dimensions at the very end of the Glass Just thus it is while a man is in the state of sin though his sins be great yet they seem little and afar off is the danger Psal 10.5 vers Thy
be preserved And now My Lord we Your Countrymen look upon You as that Sun into whose bosom their flames have shed their lights as somtimes the expanded streams of Brightness came in and made a Periwig of Glory for Heavens greatest Luminary on the fourth of the Creations day of which we are daylie more assured whilst by Your great Humility though an Eagle of the highest Ayr yet You disdain not to fly in the Train of the meaner Birds of your Country to perch with them and feed in their Avearies their late Feasts and shew them an example of imping their large Plumes in pious and charitable extensions towards the feathering and feeding of many other naked and hungry Birds of the same Covie Among others your Orator is in Arrears as for your Attendance on and Countenance encouraging his work so for somthing hid in the bowels of the subject of both his Discourses The first represented David a great Man putting himself into Gods Inns of Court and there Professing himself a Student of the Divine as you in great Condiscention have done of the Common Law Thy Testimonies I have c. The second shewed Jesus Christ that Lapis Theologicus as the Scripture calls him in whose quest we never labour in vain Destin'd by Heavens Colledge of Phisitians to be Bruised nay Calcind to Dust and burnt up in the Furnace of his Fathers wrath that so the World might boast at last of an Vniversal Medicine for all Patients whatsoever Thus have we seen Blood issuing from one part of the Body stopt by opening the Cock and letting the Sluce fly from another Vein It pleased the Lord to bruise him In which Noble Science as in all others the End crownin the Action is not obscure to the very Hospitallers who pray that your Lordship may amply receive your Fees from Gods not earthly but heavenly Angels And if your Lordship as 't is not doubted but you do to the Law and Phisick and Davids study of Gods Testimonies and Isaiahs sublime Chymistry you will without all peradventure be Entitled by posterity the English Trismegistus But I am afraid lest dealing too long in Phisick I should make your Lordship a Patient If any thing in these Sermons or this Epistle be ill resented as Luther was said by some to call S. James Epistle Camp dec rat Epistola straminea well may be sit down quietly then with a worse character of his that desires to be numbred amongst the faithfullest of them that honour your Lordships Virtues and is in the work of the Gospel Your Honours most humble and faithful Servant Marmaduke James Right Honorable and Beloved THe shortness of the dayes the coldness of the season and the remoteness of our Countrey ha's prevented I suppose the supplies intended for you which ha's occasioned my being here upon short warning to serve you this day as one out of due course both besides yours and my own expectation which I trust will plead excuse if you have not a discourse so well digested as so honorable and solemne an Assembly might seem to challenge Concerning our Countrey much more cannot be presumed as additional to what ha's been spoken in the two years past without some injurie to the bounds of modesty and truth which by no meanes ought to be offered from the Pulpit yet mee thinks it is not handsom that such a Solemnity as this is should pass without some glance at least upon the present occasion which in a particular or two I shall by Gods assistance and your patience dispatch The first is that not many years past you heard from a learned Person that in the Memorables of our Countrey there was none found that had possest the chief Magistracy of this City But now behold one in the Chair that is not onely by his Office Gods Steward and the Protectors and this great Cities but your Countries Steward also an Honour that few Countries in England of late years have arrived to viz. That a Steward has been their Supreme Magistrate The next thing that I would commend to you is two places of Scripture which I seldom reade but the fresh thoughts of Nottingham and Nottingham-shire come in both of them are in the Psalms spoken of Canaan and Hierusalem That of the Countrey in the 144th Psalm the four last verses That our Sons may be as plants our Daughters as corner-stones our garners may be full our sheep bringing forth thousands in our streets our oxen strong to labour and that there be no complaining in our streets happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord. The other is spoken of the City in the 48th Psalm the three last verses Walk about Zion tell the towres thereof mark well her bulwarks consider her palaces that you may tell it to the generation following for this God is our God for ever and ever c. In these two Scriptures you have a description and a correction when David had described the prosperity of the Countrey in their Sons Daughters Sheep Oxen Plenty Peace hee begins to pronounce prosperity upon them but as one that had forgot himself and left out the main he corrects himself yea rather happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Just thus in the other Scripture when he had described the scituation beauty and strength of Hierusalem hee brings in the presence of God one would think strangely and independently as the complement perfection and summum totale of all that Cities happiness for this God is our God for ever and ever Truly Gentlemen this is the work that you and I have to do this day viz. to look upon all the reported beauties and virtues of your Countrey but as so many single figures till God the eternal Circle of Blessedness be added to them to make up the sum and therefore let it be our joint prayer that God may be our God our Countreys God for ever ever It is no difficult matter to shew that the obligements of God are as much upon you to be his people as ever they were upon Judah and Hierusalem to tell you if time would give leave that your Countrey doth match the Land of Canaan in plenty and pleasures and how farr that Town of Nottingham doth run parallel with Hierusalem Was Hierasalem set upon precipitious hills and is not Nottingham so and as the mountains stood about Hierusalem Psal 125. do they not so about Nottingham and as there were two famous Ascents in Hierusalem Mount Moriah upon which the Temple stood and Mount Zion where stood that lofty Tower of David incomparably perching over City and Countrey and is it nor so in Nottingham where upon one high rock as upon another Moriah stands that fair Church if my rule fail not some cubits bigger than the Temple and upon another yet higher mountain like that of Zion stands that ancient Castle over-topping Town and Countrey the lowest
God The first is that it was done with his own consent and therefore it is read by some Translations Si posuerit animam pro peccato If hee will lay down his soul an offering for sin Et volenti non fit injuria Secondly that hee should not be without some remuneration for this work for hee shall see his seed prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand If hee will lay down his soul c. May some man say was it a question did God the Father or did the Prophet that writ this doubt of this thing No beloved but it is usuall to express the great Acts of Christ the Mediatour by an If thus speaking of his death sayes he If I be lifted up I shall draw all men after me Of his ascension Jo. 12.32 If I go it is to prepare a place for you Jo. 14.3 Non contingentium eventus sed conditionem pacti certis simè implendi significat sayes one very well which manner of expression doth not signifie the contingency of the event but points out the nature of a covenant Thus much of the first The next thing which is the wages promised is in three things first he shall see his seed which is a Metaphor drawn from plants which being ripe do scatter their seed for the propagation of their kind thus from one grain of wheat sown doth arise up a whole eare which being sown again thence arises many more till a whole barne is filled with the increase of one corn Christ was that grain of wheat cast into the ground and dying hath brought forth a plentifull crop of Christians this expression therefore doth import the plenty of the Christian Church Now the Analogy holds in these particulars First as one corne brings forth many so from one Christ hath sprung up many Christians Secondly as the seed that comes up is specifically the same with that that was sown and is so like it both without and within that it cannot be distinguished from it so are Christians like unto Christ without and are therefore said to be conformed to his Image within saith the Apostle Little Children of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you Thirdly as the seed sown though it be pure seed there arises up with it many weeds as Poppy May-weed Tinetare Cattailes c. Which on the one hand either starve or on the other burn up the seed So in the Church of Christ are there many weeds of prophane Persons on the one hand and Hereticks on the other which much injure the Church for where God hath his Church the Devill will have his Chappel Master saith he didst thou not sow good seed in thy Feild Mat. 13.27 whence then are the tares Why sayes he the evil one hath done it Fourthly Though the Seed be sown pure Seed cleared and winnowed or screened from all chaffe and rubbish yet it grows up with stalk eare spire and blade mufled as it were about with chaffe So though Christ was a pure Corn yet that Seed those Christians that spring from him grow up with stalk spire and blade that is with sinfull corruptions blades indeed that war against the soule which is invelloped and set round about with infirmities Heb. 12.1 Not to be too Postillous Lastly Seed is of a perpetuating nature As we see from the creation of the World to this day there is nothing of those vegitables lost which God created at first because every thing hath a Seed a string or shadow whereby it doth propagate its kind So is it with the Seed of Christ which never did not never shall fail totally from the beginning of the World to the end thereof and though the Archers have shot at this Joseph and sorely wounded him yet hath his bowe abode in strength Gen. 49. â—3 and thus Sanguis Martyrum est Semen Ecclesiae the blood of the Martyrs hath been the Seed of the Church Secondly He shall prolong his dayes Some men may say how is that possible that he that was Eternall with his Father should have his dayes prolonged This phrase therefore is spoken to Christ as Mediatour Isaiah 9.6 alluding to the Seed of Abraham under the Jewish Pedagogy which worshipped God under divers Shadows Ceremonies and carnal Ordinances for a time Now saith God if thou wilt dye Heb. 9.10 thou shalt pur an end to those shadows and shalt have a people to worship thee in Spirit and in truth to the end of the World and from thence to eternity Burnt offerings and sacrifice thou wouldst not have but a body thou hast prepared me Psal 40.6 Thirdly The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Which is the work of mans redemption shall certainly be accomplished the same thing for which it is said It pleased the Lord to bruise him c. This is that which is meant by that which Christ almost every where expresseth He was come to do not his own will but the will and pleasure of his Father And hence it is that he said He had not lost one that his Father had given him but the Son of Perdition And those last words of his when he gave up the Ghost Consummatum est it is finished 't is done Jo. 17.12 't is done These words thus opened you see the highest Mercy and the highest Justice kissing each other Justice in that man having finned man must suffer though it be the Son of God Rom. 3.25 That he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus Mercy every word in the Text is big withall as David said Thy mercy is over all thy works Psal 145.9 even as oyle that being put into milk or wine or water swims at the top so mercy seems here to have got above justice triumphing over it First It pleased the Lord c. It seems then there was no necessity in God to save man only it was his pleasure so that the redemption of man is resolved into the same accompt that his creation was Rev. 4.11 for thy pleasure they are and they were created Secondly It pleased the Lord. It seems then there was no prevised merit in man nothing in man to attract the affections of a God to him only it pleased the Lord. Thirdly to bruise not by one blow to crush him as Corn under the milstone but by a gradual death to bruise or pound him as Corn in a morter as a man of sorrows to be worne away by degrees by a living death or a dying life for so it is rendred Conterere eum in infirmitate Fourthly Him viz. that was the Son of God God has many Sons some by creation as the Angels some by adoption as the Saints but he hath but one Son by generation and this was he so God so loved the World Jo. 3.16 that he gave his only begotten Son c. Fiftly His soul
both of the Father and the Son may be sealed to your souls by his holy Spirit Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you That ye may be united and carried together in the bonds and arms of that last-born 1 Cor. 13.13 but never dying Grace to your heavenly Country where her twin-sisters Faith and Hope shall cease but that of Love abide for ever Which is the hearty Prayer of him that is your most humble and faithful Servant and Countryman in the work of the Gospel M. I. PSALM 119.111 Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart THis Psalm is the most excellent Psalm of David excellent for the length of it consisting of so many Octonaries or parts as there are letters in the Hebrew Alphabet excellent for the matter of it all the parts of verses thereof conspiring with one consent to set out the dignity of the Law of God And indeed there seems to have been all divine frames upon Davids heart when he writ this Psalm Sometimes we find him in such raptures as if he was already set down in glory sometimes prostrate upon the earth in humble and penitential confessions of sin and deprecations against them sometimes wee finde him upon his legs looking backward and forward forward telling us what hee would do for time to come Having sworn I will perform it Psal 119.106 that I will keep thy righteous Judgments backward telling us what hee had done in times past to which this verse is to be referred Thy Testimonies have I taken c. These words contain Davids profession of that high esteem hee had of Gods testimonies and the reason thereof the profession in the former part of the verse Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever the reason in the latter part of the verse for they are the rejoycing of my heart The first of these which is Davids profession my purpose is to open to you as the doctrinal part the other in the application of our discourse The first which is Davids profession is one intire proposition in which wee have as in every proposition these two things considerable First the subject or matter treated of which is in the word Testimonies set forth by their relation unto God Thy Testimonies The second is the predicate or that which is spoken of that subject that is the word Heritage set forth by its duration An heritage for ever And first of the first This word Testimonies is that that is sometimes called The Word of the Lord The Way of the Lord Psal 139.9 The Will of the Lord sometimes Psal 143.10 Psal 119.1 The Law of the Lord The Commandements of the Lord sometimes The Fear of the Lord The Statutes of the Lord Psal 119.6 Psal 19.9 The Judgments of the Lord sometimes Psal 119.8 The Testimonies of the Lord. And it is observable Psal 119.13 that though there be an hundred threescore and sixteen verses in this Psalm yet there is not above two of them wherein one of these nine words is not named Some one may say Object What 's the reason that David should use so many words to express one and the same thing Frustrà fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora saith the Philosopher Truly Sirs I know not what better answer to give Answ than that it is the property of Love to give several Epithets to the object beloved thus when Christ was in love with his Spouse Thou art Cant. 5.2 saith hee my fair One my Love my Dove my undefiled Cant. 6.1 10. terrible as an Army with banners Thou art my fair One I but what if shee be fair if shee be not chast Thou art my undefiled but what if shee be fair and chast if shee be a scold a vexsome I but thou art my Dove without all gall without all bitterness but what if she be a Dove if she have never so much meekness if that arise only from flegmacy and baseness of temper that shee is sola socordia innocens no shee is full of spirit life and majesty shee is terrible as an Army with banners Thus as Christ delights himself with various titles to set forth the several excellencies of his Church so it is with David his heart is so in love with these Testimonies that hee knowes not what to call them Statutes Lawes Commandements Judgments c. Sometimes when hee considers of them in regard of the Author the great God from whence they came thus hee calls them The Word of the Lord The Way of the Lord The Will of the Lord when hee considers the divine soveraignty that they have over all Gods rational Creatures Angels and Men thus hee calls them The Law of the Lord the Commandements of the Lord when hee considers that great respect and reverence that a gracious heart yields unto them thus hee calls them The fear of the Lord when hee considers their stability and duration as those things which God hath ratified for ever thus they are called The Statutes of the Lord when hee considers that great decision and determination that they shall make at the last day concerning the quick and the dead thus hee calls them The Judgments of the Lord and last of all considering that testification that these make concerning God and man as I shall shew you by and by thus they are called The Testimonies of the Lord Thy Testimonies have I taken c. It is observable that David delights more in this word than in any of the rest and by these Testimonies is meant the Word of God at large but more strictly the Moral Law or the Law of the Ten Commandements You know when God gave the Law he writ it upon two Tables of stone and those two Tables are called Exod. 31.18 The Tables of the Testimony Then God took those Tables of stone and put them into an Ark Exod. 25.22 and that was called The Ark of the Testimony Then God took that Ark and put that Ark into a Tabernacle Num. 1.50 and that Tabernacle was called The Tabernacle of the Testimony so that this was so famous a Testimony that it calls every thing Testimony that toucheth it and gives a denomination to every thing that comes nigh unto it and it may be well called a Testimony Because it was delivered with a Witness when God came down upon Mount Sinai Exod 20.29 the mountain smoked and the earth trembled and there was great thundering and lightening and the sound of the trumpet and hundred of thousands of people that fled from it saying Let us not come near him lest wee die It may well be called the Testimonie Because as it testifies the perfection
and the holiness of Gods will for ever so also the Word of God witnesseth the several Attributes of God unto the world the book of Genesis is a Testimony of Gods power in making the world of nothing his Justice in drowning the world with water his mercy in saving Noah and his family c. The book of Exodus is a Testimony of that curious and stupendious providence that God exercised over his Church in bringing her out of Egypt through the red sea and that vast howling wilderness into the land of Canaan and so of the rest It is called Testimony in regard of that comfortable or dismal report it shall make for us or against us at the last day Whosoever shall not receive you Mark 6.11 nor hear my words shake off the dust off your feet for a Testimony against them and thus have wee dispatched the first thing propounded What is meant by Testimonies and why so called Wee now come to the second which is the predicate or what is said of these Testimonies that is they are An heritage for ever yet before wee come to that wee may a little take notice of the copulation of these two together in that word taken which some read chosen both the lections being emphatical enough to Davids purpose If the first I have taken thy Testimonies then thus as if David should have said I perceive the Lord hath a minde to give these blessed Testimonies to his Church the greatest gift that ever hee shall bestow except it be the Messiah to come and seeing that the Lord hath a heart to give for my part I am resolved to have a hand to take I have taken thy Testimonies or thus I have chosen thy Testimonies As if hee should say The Lord hath laid before mee two excellent things Here are my Crowns and Kingdoms on the one hand and his Testimonies on the other and if hee would put mee to my choice which I should chuse and which refuse incomparably have I chosen his Testimonies as an heritage for ever An Inheritance This is the highest expression almost that David could use to testifie his respect to these Testimonies hee had been a long time lifting and heaving at an expression but did never hit it till now In his younger time I suppose it was that hee compares it to hony Psal 19. and the hony-comb Sweeter are they also than the honey and the hony-comb hony is a fine thing but money is better money buy will hony and sugar and a hundred things more money answers all things now David goes a little higher and compares it to silver but silver may be drossie Psal 12.6 seven times purified in the fire I but there is a finer thing than silver and that is gold Psal 19.10 why faith hee It is much more to be desired than gold yea than fine gold I but yet there is a finer thing than Gold that is Diamonds Pearls and Rubies They are more precious than Rubies Prov. 3.15 but yet suppose a man hath silver and gold and rubies yet hee may not have all riches there are Cattel Camels Horses Sheep and Oxen these were the ancient riches of the world Psal 119.14 I have rejoyced in the way of thy Commandements above all riches But yet there is one sort of riches that is the sweetest of all riches that is spoil when a souldier overcomes his enemy and hath the pillage of the field or falls into a Garrison and takes the plunder thereof this is of all riches the sweetest for here is a double lust satisfied at once not only Covetousness but Revenge Psal 119.162 Thy Word have I rejoyced in more than in all spoil But yet Sirs suppose a man hath silver and gold and pearls and diamonds and all riches and all spoil Suppose a private man should arrive to an estate of twenty thirty forty fifty thousand pound Pray Sir saith hee can you help mee to a purchase I would fain have an Inheritance Alas these things may be taken from mee in a night I would fain turn my personal into a real estate have an Inheritance settled upon mee to descend to my posterity after mee now David is come to the heighth of what a mortal man could express Thy Testimonies have I taken as mine Inheritance for ever An Inheritance then is that summum totale that dimensum that lot that portion or proportion of estate a man enjoyes in this world whether it be bequeathed by gift or descend by succession this wee call an Inheritance now God who hath given the world to the children of men as an Inheritance hath reserved a special spiritual portion for his people in allusion to which it is called An Inheritance which is no less than heaven and glory and that it might be sure to them hee hath conveyed it all manner of wayes Hee hath decreed it for them In whom wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated Ephes 1.11 Hee hath bequeathed it to them by will Fear not little Flock Luke 12.32 it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom It descends to them by succession and therefore they are said to be born and to be begotten to it That hath begotten us to an inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Hence it is that all the children of God are said to be the first-born there is no yonger brothers in heaven to every son hee alloweth the liberty and the priviledge of primogeniture to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born Heb. 12.22 I Object but some will say What is all this to our purpose wee know indeed that heaven is a glorious inheritance if David had said The kingdom of heaven O Lord the kingdom of thy Glory I have taken for an inheritance that might be easily understood but that hee should say Thy Testimonies are my inheritance that wee cannot understand It is true indeed Answ that heaven is the actual inheritance of Gods people but it is as true that the Word of God is their virtual inheritance these testimonies are the deeds that convey this inheritance and how ordinary is it amongst men to call such the inheritance If one of you come with a breviat to a Lawyer and hee be dissatisfied in any thing Pray Sir saith hee will you show mee the inheritance that is the main deeds that leads to the inheritance and we know that many times these old dusty moth-eaten papers are as much worth as a whole Country Now an inheritance doth but these two things It discovers the estate what quantity of acres the butting and bounding c. It doth convey make over and assure the said Land to such and such a person and to his Heirs after him Just thus doth the Word of God it discovers heaven and glory unto us it is the terrier of the celestial Canaan it holds out all that bliss happiness and glory that is treasured up there for
the children of blessedness that exemption that is there from sin sorrows temptations tribulations persecutions c. It conveys and assures all the estate unto them insomuch there was never any childe of God could ever lay claim to God Christ to the Spirit to Grace to Glory but by these Testimonies Hence David knew what he said Psal 19.11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward That reward is no less then Heaven it self Hence it is that the Word is so often called The Gospel of the Kingdom Yea The Kingdom of heaven it self Repent Mat. 4.23 Mat. 24.14 for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 The Kingdom of God is come unto you Hence Paul Luk. 10.9 when he bids farewel to the Ministers of Miletus I commend you saith he to God and the Word of his grace Acts 20.32 that is able to give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified giving thanks unto God that hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Not only in the light of glory but in the light of grace and of these Testimonies For thy Law is a light unto my feet Psal 119.105 and a Eamp unto my paths And thus have we done with the second thing propounded to wit What is meant by this Inheritance and in what sense these Testimonies became David's Inheritance and so we come to the improvement of all by way of Application Use 1 If it be so that the Word of the Lord is his peoples inheritance Then we see the reason of its preservation to this day notwithstanding all those floods of malice that have been vomited out against it by Satan and his Instruments What is the reason that the Assyrian and Persian Monarchs and those bloody Roman Emperours that would have blotted out the name of this Book from under heaven could never effect it What is the reason that that Fox the Pope by all his subtilty could never destroy it somtimes setting the Church above it somtimes corrupting it with false glosses somtimes obscuring it from the people What 's the reason that those Locusts that are come out of the bottomless pit I mean the Seekers and Ranters and Quakers who crying up a light within them to destroy this glorious light without them could never effectuate Why you have the reason in the Text It is an Inheritance It is no easie matter to divide betwixt an Heir and his Inheritance A young Heir may be under a Cloud or a Sequestration for a time but Inheritances will revert God's entails are stronger then man's and so long as God hath an Heir a Childe upon earth it is impossible to destroy this Book this Inheritance Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one jot Matth. 5.18 one tittle shall pass from it Use 2 If it be so That these Testimonies are such an Inheritance then that man that hath an Interest in them hath little cause to be discontented in his condition If thou beest a rich man then bless the Lord that hath given thee both a portion in this life and that which is to come And if we have any Country-man here that is a poor man let him not say he is very poor having an interest in that which David prizeth above all his Crowns but let him say Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Use 3 If it be so That this Word of the Lord be such an Inheritance What is the reason that in these our days it is so slighted and the love of many grows so cold towards it We have a saying That rich men never want Heirs they may want children but they never want heirs Take the most mortified man and him that is the most withdrawn from the pleasures and profits of this life if he hear of any Inheritance fallen presently he saddles his Horse and rides away for possession for saith he it is an Inheritance If men did believe that this were such could they slight it as they do When the Son of man comes shall he finde faith in the earth Truly Sirs we have cause to think that the last age of the world is upon us I might stand here and lament over the sad Apostacy of these times and might take up the expostulation of the Prophet Jeremiah Ierem. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone away from me What evil Christian hast thou ever found in this Book that thy soul should loath it What is the reason Is it that of the Poet Inopem me copia fecit Hath plenty made thee poor Or Hath the abundance of this spiritual Manna given thee a surfet Or is it that of the Philosopher Nimis sensibile destruit sensum Art thou blinde by looking upon the Sun Or hath the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ put out mens eyes Well Sirs Let others do what they will you that are my Country-men you that fear the Lord amongst them hold fast this Book for it is your life and the length of your days and when any one attempts to seduce you from it say unto him as Naboth did unto Ahab Ahab was a King 1 Kings 21.3 and he proffered a valuable consideration and it was but for a temporal inheritance God forbid that I should part with the Inheritance of my forefathers Have all my Progenitors lived upon this estate and shall I now debauch it God forbid There is Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Job and David and Daniel and Paul and Peter and Latimer and our Countryman Cranmer and all these Patriarchal men and thousands more that are now sate down in the Kingdom of Glory by vertue of this inheritance God forbid that ever we should part with the inheritance of our forefathers And that I may fasten this Exhortation upon you we shall a little open to you in the conclusion of our discourse the famous example of David It is to be considered either first in the Practique or secondly in the Theory of it The Practique is considerable either first what the temporal estate that David had was Or secondly what of these Testimonies David knew For the first I believe that David had the greatest estate that ever mortal man had except it was A dam in innocency I know the story of Darius Alexander Caesar Charlemaine and those great and mighty men upon the earth yet under favour David seems to transcend them if these three things be considered David had a considerable bredth of ground over which he ruled he ruled over Palestina which was somtimes the seat of seven Kingdoms over the Philistims over Ammon Moab Amaleck c. and if you compare 2 Sam. 8. with the History of Josephus you will find him to be Lord of the greatest part of the Eastern world But If you consider the quality of his