altogether He lets them alone as to Sinning and suffers them there to take their Pleasure and therefore will let them alone as to Punishing and will suffer them there to take their Course and to take their Rest and train them up in their Vain and false Conceit wherewith most People Chear up themselves and thereby are so much the more hardned and confirmed in their Evil ways even to Destruction it self These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes Psal 50.21 The Sum of all comes to this That Atheism and Blasphemy and Profaneness and Looseness of Carriage it is no more but a very Cheat and proceeds upon wrong Principles It is onely what men think and fancy to themselves in their own minds that puts them upon it otherwise it would not be so with them as it promises to be If they had due and right thoughts of God they would have better Carriage and behaviour towards Him And withall it shews the Baseness and Sordedness which is in mens Natures that there is nothing which does restrain them from Sin but Punishment if that at all does it where they think they are free from that they care not what is done by them Those who have any principles of Grace and Ingenuity in them they would not willingly do that which is Evil though there were no Judgment or Hell to follow it out of that inward and inbred Antipathy which they have unto it out of an Hatred and Loathing and Detestation of Sin it self but most men are of other principles If they can think that God will not require it they care not what Insolences and affronts they offer even to his Majesty it self For a Close and Conclusion of all at this present time This whole Verse if we please may be further taken in a way of Complaint and Expostulation which David makes with God as to his present forbearing and remitting of wicked men therefore doth the wicked contemn God c. That is wherefore dost thou let Him contemn this and suffer Him to do so without Executing of this Vengance upon Him As Jeremiah and Habakkuk and others of the Servants of God do sometimes reason with Him to the like purpose But this I cannot now stand to insist upon and perhaps that Sense which I have already handled is more proper and Naturall and therefore I will not practise this So much for the whole Text. Wherefore doth the Wicked c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XVII Psal 68.21 But God shall wound the Head of his Enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses There 's nothing wherein Gods Providence does more difference it self in the world then in his Dispensations to his Church and People And that as we may consider it especially in a double reference The one is as to their own protection the salvation and preservation of themselves And the other to their enemies confusion the destruction of those which are opposites and Adversaries to them And each of these are in a very good part of it the Scope and Drift of this present Psalm which we have here before us The former is laid down in the verse immediately preceeding He that is our God is the God of salvation and to God the Lord belong the issues from death The latter is exhibited in this Text which I have now read unto you Where by way of Antithesis or opposition God shews his carriage to his people to be different from his carriage to his enemies For whereas he loaded them with benefits upon these he heaps Judgements But God shall wound the Head of His enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on c. This is the Coherence of the words IN the Text it self we have three General parts considerable of us First The Persons threaten'd and they are in General God's enemies in particular such as those who go on still in their trespasses 2ly The evil it self which they are threaten'd withal and that is wounding or smiting Thirdly The place or part with they are threaten'd in the Head Scalp we begin in order with the first viz. The Persons Threatn'd Gods enemies and pertinacious sinners such persons as will not be reclaim'd from their vitious and inordinate courses These are those which the Psalmist does here threaten with judgement Obstinacy and persistence in sin it shall not escape punishment but God will sooner or later be avenged upon it This is the Point which we have here before us and we have it further declared unto us in sundry other places besides as Levit. 26.18 If ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me then will I punish you seven times more for your sins so Deut. 29.19 20. He that blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man c. so Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgement Again Prov. 29.1 He that being often reprov'd hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroy'd and that without remedy In these and the like places of Scripture does God threaten the pertinacious sinner and such an one as persists and goes on still in his trespasses And there 's very good ground for it which may appear in these following considerations First Because he multiplies sin Secondly because he aggravates it Thirdly because he confirms it He makes his sins more numerous He makes his sins more heynous He makes his sins more settled and harden'd and difficult to be removed therefore draws on the punishment of them First I say Because he multiplies sin he contracts a new guilt He that goes on in his Trespasses he adds sin to sin iniquity to iniquity drunkenness to thirst and so from hence runs further upon the score and in arrears with God Look therefore as a Creditor when his Debter goes on still in his debt without any payment or satisfaction of him he thinks it time for him now to call him to an account Even so it is with God to sinful men when they still proceed in their iniquities and provocations of Him He will punish them because they still provoke the eyes of his Glory against them and by frequent commissions do as it were dare his Divine Majesty to execute vengance upon them There 's an Affinity and Concatenation of sins one with another so that they which make bold with some are likely to fall into more if they do not the better
since through means of that deliverance vouchsafed unto us I say it behoves us to provoke our selves to all kind of Thankfulness in this regard and to take advantage of this Annavasary Commemoration which is appointed to this purpose That it may not be onely a matter of Course and Formality which we cannot well decline but may have a real Influence and Impression upon us to raise our Hearts in the praysing of that God who hath done so great things for us Secondly As to matter of Faith we are to improve it to that likewise having had Experience of God's Goodness hitherto to be ready to expect as much from him for time to come That he that hath kept the feet of his Saints will do so still Sutable to the manner and Carriage of the expression here in the Text which is not in the time past but in the Future Not he hath kept onely but he will and therefore will because he hath experience of former Mercies should teach us to trust and to depend upon God for following as 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Thirdly and Especially To Fruitfulness and Obedience God having done so great things for us we should indeavour to do somewhat for him And being thus Delivered out of the hands of our Enemies should study to serve him as now without Fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our Life And this for the keeping of the feet of his Saints In the deliverance of his people Now further Secondly For the Wicked's silence in Darkness in the Disappointment of his Enemies we may observe the Parallel in this also Here was both Darkness and silence in Darkness Darkness there was in the very Letter It was a work in the Dark And that both as to Place and Time in which it was wrought There was Darkness in the Place For where did these Wicked Conspirators prepare their Devices Surely it was in the Seller and in the Vault which they had fitted to that purpose They dig'd deep to hide their Counsell from the Lord and their work was in the Dark saying who seeth us and who knoweth us as the Prophet speakes in Esay 29.15 And there was Darkness likewise in the Time For it was the Night which they chiefly made choyce of for the carrying on of their wicked Designes A time and place of Darkness sutable to a work of Darkness And then there was Silence as to this Darkness When they were Discovered they were in a manner Confounded and knew not what to say for themselves As others were silent in a way of Astonishment at the Horridness and Strangeness of the Fact so were themselves silent in a way of Confusion being Prevented and Disappointed of it and as a Reproach not onely to their Persons but also to their Religion the Principles whereof led them and carryed them thereunto in the full extent and improvement of it But that which made them chiefly to be so was the last thing of all And that is That by their strength they could not prevail Neither by the strength of their interest and Combination Nor by the strength of their Wit and Conspiracy God infatuated their Counsels and turned all their Wisdom into Foolishness And in the things wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Their strength it was proved to be Weakness both ways both to the hurting and spoyling of us And as to the helping and securing of themselves as sayling in either I will Conclude all at this time with these words of the Prophet David in the name of the People of Israel which are applyable likewise to our selves Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with Benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death SERMON IX Job 20.11 His bones are full of the Sins of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust The Scope of this present Scripture which we have here in hand is to set forth to us the miserable Estate of an Ungodly Person And for sureness sake it takes him in his full Latitude and Compass from his Youth to his riper Years from the Beginning of his Life to the end of it wherein the Evil of his sinful Courses does continually pinch upon him His bones are full of the Sins c. IN the Text it self there are two General parts observable First The State or Condition of a Wicked man Secondly The Extent or Amplification of this his Condition His State that 's exprest in these words His bones are full of the Sins of his youth The Amplification or extent of it in these Which shall lye down with him in the Dust We begin with the first General viz. The State or Condition His bones are full of c. Wherein again two Particulars more First The Sin and Secondly The Punishment of the Sin The Sin That is Youthfulness in the Miscarriage of it The Sin of his youth The Punishment of his Sin that is Exprest in this that his Bones are said to be full of it First For the Sin here mentioned It is the Sin of the youth The word in the Hebrew Text is Gnalumaw which signifies properly his Youths and being applyed to a matter of Guilt Youthful prankes These are things which are laid to the Charge of evil men By Sins of youth for the better opening of this passage to us we may understand two things Especially either the kinds of Sin or the time of Sin The kinds of Sin that is such Sins as are more Especially proper and incident to that particular Age and Condition of Life to wit his youth The time of Sin that is such Sins as are indifferent to any Age but which for the Commission of them have been Acted very Early and betimes First The Sins of youth it does denote the kinds of Sins by way of Specification and does signify such kind of Sins as are more proper and peculiar to that Age as some Sins there are Corrupt Nature though it cleave to all Conditions of Life in the whole latitude and Extent of it yet it does not Act and put forth it self alike in all but as is it varies to other things besides In Constitution in Improvement in Place and the like so amongst the rest in matter of Age and the periods of Life There are the Sins of Elder years and there are the Sins also of Youth which are to be observed and taken notice of by us and to be understood and avoyded Thus 2 Tim. 2.22 Fly Youthful Lusts Such Lusts namely as Youth is more Especially subject unto St. Paul would have Tymothy a Young man Especially to take heed of those These they are of divers sorts ' I le instance briefly in some few of the Cheifest of them which may give us an hint of the rest
Age has the Comfortable Reflexions of a Gracious and well spent youth to support and refresh it self with all That when the Body Languishes and the outward man Decayes and as it was once with good old Barzillai we can neither Taste nor Hear nor Discern betwixt good and Evil in a natural way yet we can then live upon the thoughts of that good we have done in our Youth with Gods Gracious acceptance in Christ this will be a sweet thing indeed Hoc viverebis est vita posse priore frui This is to live Twice to injoy the Comfortable reflexions of our Life already past Secondly As the Improvement of this point reaches to Young-ones themselves and to those which are in their Youthful Condition so to those also who have the Care and Government of Youth committed unto them and are in special manner intrusted with them as Parents and Tutors and Governors and Masters c. To have a more watchful Eye upon them and care of them And that still not onely in reference to the Condition at present but to that also which is to come hereafter That while their Younger years are regulated by you their Elder years may bless God for you which in such cases they will be ready to do we read of such an Expression in the Psalmist All my Bones shall praise thee and say Lord who is like unto thee Psal 35.10 Thus shall it be with those which are in Age as to their Godly Governors and those who have had the Educating of them in their Young years Their Bones shall magnify God in their behalf as acknowledging the good they have by them On the other side those which have been Careless and Negligent in this particular their Bones shall be ready to Curse them as we may so express it as carrying that guilt upon them which they have contracted from their Neglects and which if they had done their Duty to them they might happily have avoided and Escaped He that Rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his tongue Prov. 28.23 Youth as I noted before it has commonly this Disparagement upon it that it is impatient of restraint and Admonition And many times they are in that Condition they have those that reprove them but hereafter when they come to be Old they will acknowledg them and give thanks unto them but when their Bones are full of marrow then they think reproof to be a Burden but when their Bones shall be ful of Sin and as it is here exprest the sin of their youth to wit in the Evil consequents of it then they will think reproof to have been a great Advantage and Favour if they might have formerly been but partakers of it which should incourage us so much the more in this particular Thirdly For those who are now in years and in their old Age. Here 's somewhat also which concerns them and especially such whose case it is with this Person in the Text. That their Bones are full of the sins of their youth even to perswade them as soon as may be to make their peace with God and to cleare scores and Arreares with Him not onely repent of sins which are at present upon them and which they have lately been guilty of but of sins past and gone a great while since even the sins of their Youth for otherwise these will prove very tedious and greivous unto them Say with David Psal 25.6.7 Remember thy loving kindness for they have been ever of old Remember not O Lord the sins of my Youth according to thy mercy remember me for thy Goodness sake O Lord. Here 's remember and remember not remember thy Mercy but do not remember my Sin remember Loving-kindnesses of old on thy part but do not remember Trespasses of old on mine Therefore be careful to look to this In all Humiliation for sin in all renewals of your Covenant with God Say with David Remember not the sins of my Youth In any thing which at any time troubles and afflicts you look back still upon your former Age and consider whether or no ye stand right with God as to the time of your Youth for certainly God does oftentimes call many people to an account for their Miscarriages then though it may be many years past and when they have forgotten it and think that He has forgotten it too will he bring it to Remembrance Ye may bring this down to the particular passages and occasions of your lives whatsoever they be Thou art troubled it may be with some strange Afflictions and hand of God upon thee in this or that particular And perhaps thou wondrest at it for thou hast often sought God about it and Humbled thy self before him for it and desired the removal of it and call'd to others for their Help and Assistance and Prayers to God for thee in it and yet still it sticks But consider seriously with thy self Is there nothing betwixt God and thee of an old Account which thou hast not yet repented of before Him Thou hast it may be a stubborn Child How wast thou thy self to thine own Parents in thy Youth Thou declinest perhaps strangely in thine Estate and thou canst not imagine how it should be so How didst thou come by it when thou wast a Young-man and what Foundation didst thou lay for it in thy Younger-years Thou hast these and these Diseases upon thee consider whether thy former Intemperance hath not been a Cause and Occasion of them and accordingly expose thy self to Repentance for them And so of the rest I am not able to specify all I instance in some as a Direction to you for the rest which must be done by every ones Person according to his particular Occasions But still remember this that God often reckons for old Sins which are long agoe past Yea and that also after conversion and grace wrought in the Heart where there is not an explicit and actual repentance of them they may be sometimes troublesome to a Christian in the effects and consequents of them though the Person be for the general justified and in a state of reconcilement and habitually acquitted from them yet such especially as the sins may be if there hath not been a distinct and particular Humiliation for them they may have a feeling of them in their bones Look as General Nations may be punished for the sins of former Ages as Israel in Davids time for Sauls sin in slaying the Gibeonites so particular persons may be afflicted for the sins of former times in the compass of their lives unrepented of by them And look as it in matter of the body that those who have been too venturous in their youth they smart for it in their Age so likewise in regard of the soul and mind Especially At sometimes and upon some occasions above the rest As bones which have been formerly broken they will ake against weather even so it is also with
with Sins they are never a whit the less Hainous because they were committed long ago Sin it is the same for the nature of it even then when men have forgotten it even so is it also with Mercy it is still the same considered in it self and accordingly deserves to be as much acknowledged as if it were never so lately conferred and as a Penitent man will do the one so a thankful man will do the other He which is a true Penitent person he will not onely be humbled for those Sins which he has committed lately but for those Sins which he has committed formerly for the vanity of his Childhood and for the refractoriness of his Nonage and for the Sins of his youth even so he which is a true thankful person he will not onely acknowledge those Mercies which he has received but lately but as well those Mercies which he has received many years past and David which did the one he did also the other and both as we may see in one place together Psal 25.6.7 Remember O Lord thy tender Mercies and thy Loving-kindnesses for they have been ever of old Remember not the Sins of my youth nor my Transgressions Thirdly He remembers Primitive or Original Mercies those Mercies which he had at first in the very entrance and beginning of his life when he first came into the World and were likewise the Ground and Foundation of all the rest And this is that in like manner which is to be done by every thankful man besides It concernes us very much to acknowledge Gods goodness as in his ancient love so also in his first love and beginnings of good will towards us Such was this here which David makes mention of in this present Scipture When he speaks of his coming out of the womb and when he speaks of his hanging upon the breast they were original mercies which contains two things in it First a Precedency of Order And Secondly an advantage of Derivation They had the right of Primo-giniture and they had the right also of conveyance being first themselves and causing others also to come after This mercy of coming out of the womb it opens the womb of Gods mercy as I may so express it and hath the Dignity of the first born amongst many Brethren And therefore is so much the more to be acknowledged and recorded by us as we shall shew in this regard It is with mercies as with judgements one makes may for another and the first is so much the more considerable as it induces and brings in the rest when God hath begun to punish he will proceed when I begin sayes he I will make an end And so also also for mercies when he begins to shew mercy he will proceed also Therefore let us take notice of first mercies they are the pledges of Gods goodness to us ye see how it is with men in the world for their ordinary affairs they use to stand much upon an handsel which they are ready to account and reckon upon as a fore-runner of more good unto them and so may we also here in the dispensations of Gods providence towards us It is a very great incouragement of us when God bestowes the first blessing upon us and he does expect accordingly that ye should be very much affected with it and thankfull to him for it We should do in the exercise of our thankfulness as again in the exercise of our repentance and humiliation He which will be a right penitent indeed and perform this work of Godly sorrow in that right manner he should do and as God requires of him he must not onely take notice of some few actual sins which carry in them the nature of streams but he must takes notice of his original sin also which carries in it the nature of a fountain he must ransack his heart to the bottom and deal with himself for his first sin of all The sin of his Nature and the sin of his Birth and the sin of his Conception As David I was born in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Ps 51.5 And this which is the root and spring and fountain and cause of all the rest must be lamented and bewayl'd in him So he which will be thankful indeed he must not onely acknowledge those mercies which are bestowed upon him in a succession but the very first mercy also which he injoy'd not onely the mercies of his life but the mercies also of his birth and first being Thus does David here Lastly He takes notice of constant mercies those which were continued to him from the first moment of his being till now through the whole course of his life to this present He takes notice of the goodness of God to him in the full latitude and extent of it And this is another thing also which we are likewise hence instructed to do If we would shew our selves truly thankful consider the providence of God to us in every passage of mercy which he shews us Take notice not onely of one mercy but more and take notice not onely of some few mercies but many yea as near as we can of all Nay further take notice of Gods mercies even in crosses and troubles and afflictions themselves as David here though he was a man of sorrows in sundry particulars of his life yet he acknowledges that God was his God all his life-time notwithstanding that There 's a great piece of thankfullness which is due from us even for the worst and crossest of providence which happen unto us so far forth as God doth oftentimes bring greater good out of evil and sanctifie afflictions to such a purpose as to make us so much the better for them He which is a true child of God indeed he will see ground of thankfulness to him even for any thing whatsoever befalls him because all things work together for good to them that love him as it is in Rom. 8.28 And all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies as it is in Psal 25.10 Thus David not onely here in this Scripture but also in other places as Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits c. And Psal 48.14 This God is our God for ever and ever He will be our guide even unto death our God for ever and ever and our guide even to death it self He takes notice of Gods goodness all along And thus have we here seen the acknowledgement which David here makes in the General notion and representation of it he takes notice of common mercies He takes notice of ancient mercies He takes notice of primitive mercies He takes notice of constant mercies The Second View of it is the specification of the several particulars as they are here laid before us in the Text and they are these following First The blessings of the womb in his birth and first coming into the
his God so long both are implyed in this Thou art my God from my Mothers Belly First He here blesses God for being his God so Early My God from my Mothers Belly That is as soon as I had any being in the World He might have if he had pleased fetch 't it higher if we speak of Gods Decree in Election and have said from the beginning of the World Yea before the Foundations of the World were ever laid As Psal 90.2 But he speaks here rather of the Execution and Manifestation of this his Decree God is then our God properly when he manifests Himself to be our God by some special work of Grace in our Souls and by giving Himself unto us And so he is pleased to do to divers in the very first dawnings of nature in them The Prophet Jeremiah he was Sanctifyed in the womb Jer. 1.5 Before I formed thee in thee Belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the Womb I Sanctifyed thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations And so likewise John the Baptist he had the same Grace and Favour also Timothy It is said that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And Obadiah 1 Kings 18.12 I thy Servant do fear the Lord from my Youth This is the goodness of God to many persons to be early in his beginning of Grace which he works in them Thus there can be no other ground or reason assigned of it but onely his own free-Grace and good Pleasure and will towards them who as he is free in the thing it self so also in the time of Dispensation And there is a double use which we may make of this Observation First To inform and satisfy us as concerning the time of Conversion and beginning of the work of Grace which is a Question which does many times trouble and perplex many a Soul to know the distinct reason when God first brought him home to Himself For this It is not in all kind of Persons discernable by them Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not which is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the work of God who maketh all Indeed for those who have a great part of their time lived profanely or a meer civil life in them because the change is more Eminent the time is more Conspicuous too but for those whom it hath pleased God to Sanctify in their Infancy and tender years and to carry them on sweetly imperceptibly in the tract of a godly and Religious Education all their Life in these it is not so easily distinguished neither should it trouble them when it is not If the time be up it is no matter when it is first begun It is not the change of a mans Course but the change of his Nature which is here required And that is done in those to whom God is a God from the womb Their Nature is changed in them though their Course it may be has been the same all their days to wit godly and Religious nay it is so far from being a Cause of trouble as that indeed it is rather an argument of greater comfort to them that God has loved them so soon Secondly Another use is Ingagement to all such in a special manner to love God so much the more And so much for that He blesses God for being his God so Early Secondly He Blesses God for being his God so long This is also implyed in this Expression Thou art my God from c. That is thou art my God still from whence we may note thus much That those whom God is a God too once he is a God too them always Those whom he takes into his Care and Tuition and Custody at first those he also preserves to the End There is no time wherein he Ceases to be a God unto them And therefore t is here without any sign of time Eliattah Thou my God that hast been and art and wilt be through all Generations This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 So Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the Womb c. The Ground of this in God is First His Vnchangeable Nature who is Yesterday and to Day and the same for ever If God were Alterable and subject to Varying he should then love us one Day and hate us the next to it For I am the Lord I change not Therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed Secondly His Free-Grace who shews Mercy where he will If Gods Goodness were founded in us then he should Change and Vary as we do but this it is not There is nothing moves Him to be our God but onely because he will be so Thirdly His Exactness in all he does who loves to finish there where he has begun Ye know how it is with Exact men when they have begun a thing they love to perfect it and so here This should stir us up to the Observation and Acknowledgment of Gods goodness in this particular He has the perfection of all Love in him for he begins betimes and he Continues long and what could we desire more There are many which are good friends at last but they are a great while a comming on and before they can be perswaded to it There are others which are good for a while but they quickly give over But now the Lord he fails us in neither He is our God from our Mothers Womb. Even all our following and succeeding days And this it should teach us proportionably in the Second place to keep close to Him and as he continues constant to us so for us also to persevere to Him and to walk in the Constant ways of thankfulness and Obedience to Him And thus have I after somewhat long Travel brought this Child with Gods gracious Assistance at length to the Birth And have shown you here the several particulars in which David tenders his Acknowledgment and Sacrifice of Thansgiving to God For the Blessings of the Womb for the Blessing of the Breast for the Blessing of the Cradle and for the Blessings of the Covenant That is for common Mercies for ancient Mercies and for primitive Mercies and for constant Mercies Consider what I have said And the Lord give you understanding in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XVI Psal 10.13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God He hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it Their cannot be a better Evidence of a Good and a Gracious heart then to be tender and sensible of Gods Dishonour and having first of all sufficiently bewayled its own Distempers and Infirmities to lay to heart the Enormities and Miscarriages of other men Like Righteous Lot whose Soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked while he dwelt amongst them seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds as the
behind in these words which I have now last read unto you Strangers have devoured his strength yet he knows it not c. IN this present Verse before us we have two General Parts considerable of us First The sad and miserable condition of Ephraim simply in it self Secondly The aggravation of it from his senslesness and stupidity in it His condition it self that we have laid forth in these words Strangers have devoured his strength and gray hairs are here and there upon him The aggravation of it from his own senslesness and stupidity in it that we have also in these He knoweth it not We begin with the First viz. The condition of Ephraim simply consider'd And that we have again laid forth in two Branches First in their miserable captivity Strangers c. Secondly in their symptoms of ruine Yea gray hairs c. First I say here 's the captivity of Ephraim Strangers have devoured his strength which is as I have heretofore intimated an expression both of their sin and punishment one with the other and each word it has its several emphasis of aggravation in it Their strength and their strength devoured and devoured by strangers there 's the greatness of the good they are deprived of there 's the manner of their deprival of it and there 's the persons by whom Each of these are very pertinent to the purpose and do well deserve our handling of them First The good they are deprived of that 's here exprest to be their strength which carries a great matter in it and does imply either what it was really and indeed or else what it was according to their apprehensions and estimations of it That which they looked upon as their strength which they did reckon and value themselves by that was that which now upon their rebellion and trespassing against him God did remove and take away from them He delivered their strength into captivity and their glory into the enemies hand as we find that expression used Psal 78.61 Look whatever it is that wicked men make to be their reliance that will God the soonest scatter and spoyl and disappoint them of And look whatever it is which may be most advantageous to them that will he soonest snatch away from them It was not any thing which he was here contented to punish and exercise them in no but in their very strength it self And the reason of it is this because they just deal so with him God sits the punishment to the sin in this dispensation for we must still remember that these are both involv'd in one another and so we shall still handle them all-along in the prosecution of this Scripture Strangers had devour'd Ephraim 's strength as to matter of sinning and so strangers do devour Ephraim 's strength as to matter of punishing The one follows upon the other For as much as the expression is here carried in a a single person though indeed referring to an whole Nation therefore we may if we please for the more orderly proceeding in it take notice of it in both notions and so we shall both in the Personal Notion and in the National In reference to particular persons as it is a censure upon such and such men singly considered and in reference to the whole Nation as it is a censure upon such and such a people considered at large First of all Take it in the Personal Notion Strangers have devoured his strength And so it is more particularly a censure upon such kind of persons who have past the flower of their years in vanity and sinfulness that have now gray hairs upon them here and there that is are entring into the lists of old age and when they do reflect and look back upon their former time they find it to be spent in nothing but that which is contrary to God and which has no affinity with him Strangers have devoured his strength that is have devoured his youth The first piercing of the Vessel that has been given to Satan and to the World and Lust If God will have any thing he must now be content with the very lees and dregs of all which have run out it may be twenty thirty forty years in the world and yet do not think all this while of conversion to God They are a Cake as yet not turned and their strength it has been devoured by strange and exorbitant courses This is a sense which may very well be fasten'd upon these words and accordingly we shall take notice of them namely to shew what a sad and lamentable thing it is for men to spend their youth and the strength and prime of their time in the waies of sin It is that which the Scripture does every-where declaim against and does also provoke to the contrary To speak distinctly of it there are these three evils in it First It 's very disingenuous Secondly It 's very hazardous Thirdly It is very grievous and uncomfortable in the reflexions upon it when men shall call themselves to a serious reckoning and an account about it First I say It is very disingenuous when men shall give that to their lusts which is due to God When men shall bestow their best upon vanity and reserve their worst for him How contrary is it to all ingenuity and good nature Certainly if we have any thing better than other to bestow one would think that God should rather have that from us than any thing else As he is Himself the best so he deserves the best from us the best of our time and the best of our strength and the best of our imployment Now to deter him to put him off with the worst when the other is gone how sordid and unworthy is it Cursed be the deceiver which hathin his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing saies the Prophet Malachi in Mal. 1.14 This is the case and condition of that person that refuseth to give God his youth and that chuses rather to bestow it upon strange and unwarranted waies It is in this respect very disingenuous Secondly It is very hazardous a man receives a great venture that does put it to such a case as this He that forbears to give his youth to God he knows not whether God will receive him and accept of him in his old age or no that is whether or no he will bestow his grace upon him which he hath before so often rejected Examples are but very rare and scarce of this kind for any to be called into the Vineyard at the last hour especially which have been called before and have refused to come at that call and invitation of them Indeed some persons as have heretofore in the daies of their youth been denied the opportunities of Conversion and turning to God they have at last through his grace and goodness had the means afforded unto them whereby they have been wrought upon and converted but those which have