deserves longing and expectation and delay naturally sharpens desire Thus Christ delayed and denied the Canaanitish woman not to repel her but to provoke her to more importunity After the strong strivings of her Faith and Prayer then O woman be it unto thee as thou desirest Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal. lxxxi 10. Delay enlargeth and stretcheth out the desire and the larger our desires of Christ are the fuller shall we enjoy him This made the Church before Christ long and expect and be earnest for his Comming Abraham he longed to see this day Ioh. viii Iacob on his death-bed O Lord I wait for thy Salvation It made the Prophets enquire diligently and search into the Promises It is the honourable style and title of the Saints in the Old Testament They were waiters for the consolation of Israel The Church like Sisera's mother look'd out at the window Why stay the wheels of his Chariot O that thou wouldst break the heavens and come down The Fathers expound it of the longings of the Patriarks for the Comming of Christ. Many Kings and Prophets desired to see this day Luk. x. That is the reason saith Gregory why the Saints complain'd Their dayes were shortned because they could not live to see Christ in the flesh They onely saluted the Promise afar off and dyed in the faith of it 4. Christ came not presently deferr'd his appearance to teach us the more to prize him now he is come and to rejoyce in him Hope deferr'd makes the heart sick Prov. xiii 12. but when it is accomplished 't is a tree of Life Hath he cost the Church so much longing and searching and praying Sure then the Church will welcom him gladly embrace him firmly retain him constantly Those that have been long without children when God sends them a son he is double welcom to them Isaac and Iacob and Ioseph they were long sued for before they were obtained and accordingly beloved Quod diu quaeritur solet dulâ—…ias inveniri saith St. Aug. The Church before Christ was like barren Hannah weeping and sorrowing and begging of a son now that Christ is born it becomes us to be like fruitful Hannah rejoycing at his birth Hannah's song saith S. Aug. 't is not Canticum unius foeminae pro filio sed totius Ecclesiae pro Christo. It becomes the Church to sing Hannahs song for the birth of Christ. The Church after much search hath found out not the lost Groat but an invaluable Treasure not a stray Sheep but the holy Lamb of God not a forlorn Prodigal but the onely-Begotten and Beloved of the Father it becomes us to rejoyce That 's the first He came not in the beginning of Time 2. Neither did he stay till the last period and end of Time that so in all differences of time Faith might have an employment Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. xiii 8. The Patriarchs they believed in Christum futurum in Christ afterwards to be exhibited The Apostles and the Saints of that Age they believed in Christum praesentem they enjoyed his bodily presence they saw and believed on him present amongst them Christians now they believe in Christum praeteritum come and gone again into heaven They that came before and they that followed after they all sung Hosanna The Patriarchs they went before the Christian Church that follows after both sing Hosanna Blessed is he that comes to us in the name of the Lord. As Kings when they go in State have their Ushers before them and their Attendants after them both honour their appearance Christ in this fulness of time is as the Sun at noon-tide East and West are both enlightned by him It shews us the efficacy of Christ and of his bloud it was effectual not onely when it was shed but before it was shed and after it was shed It sanctified and saved the Primitive Saints and the last upon earth shall be saved by it That 's the first fulness of time in the natural consideration of it In the middle of Time when the world was at the Zenith then Christ came II. There is another fulness of time that 's Constituta plenitudo temporis that time that was set and decreed and appointed by God For not onely Christ's comming but all the circumstances of Time and Place were forelaid and determined and Christ's comming into the world gave a fulness and accomplishment unto that Time That we may conceive how our Saviour's Comming brought a fulness to Time we must know there were foregoing times in which Christ was made known to the Church but yet there was an emptiness in those times His Birth and Incarnation gave a fulness to them There were three Preparative foregoing Times which Christ's Comming fulfilled 1. Was Tempus Promissionis that Time and Age of the Church when the Promise of Christ was first made and publish'd that was the time from Adam to Moses The Church of God lived and supported it self with that Promise That afterwards in God's good time Christ should be born Now Promises are all for hereafter they bring nothing in present Indeed Faith knows how to make use of them but in themselves they are but empty they exhibit nothing They give good Assurance but put us not into Possession A man may be rich in Bills and Bonds and Specialties but yet be in actual want as men lay up Evidences among their Treasures But Christ's comming fulfill'd those Promises gave a Yea and Amen to them The prayer of David was the prayer of the whole Church Think upon thy Servant as concerning thy Word in which thou hast caused me to put my trust It spread these Evidences before God as Hezekiah did the Letter that was sent to him Ey but Promises turn'd into Performances is a true fulness That 's the first the time of Performance is a real fulness to the times of Promises 2. A second Time was Tempus Typorum the time and age of the Church furnish'd with Types and Prefigurations of him that was the time of the Church under Moses It added to the former time That had but a Promise of him these Types resembled him described him to them seal'd up and assured his comming to them They were to the Faith of the Church as Signs to represent him as Tokens and Pledges to assure him to them But yet this falls short of fulness Seals and Pledges are good Assurances but actual Possession is a great deal better Annulus iste nihil valet haereditas est quam reposco The Writing and Seal is not the thing we look for the Estate and Inheritance is that we wait for Now Christ's comming fill'd up the imperfections and emptiness of these Types They had the emptiness of a shadow He brings the substance and fulness of the Body Col. ii 17. They were but shadows of things to come but the Body is of Christ. His comming fill'd the Temple as the cloud fill'd the
'T is the fundamental Promise of the Gospel And yet we see this manner of expression by It may be Who knows This is sometimes used by God in the Scripture I find four places wherein it is used besides this in my Text 1. The first is Ionah iii. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Well you will say This was the speech of an Heathen King one who was unacquainted with the ways of God and his gracious dealings Well to mend that there is 2. A second place in Daniel iv 27. Break off thy sins if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity That was the speech of the Prophet Daniel himself but yet it was to a wicked and prophane King Well there is yet 3. A third place that goes higher It may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Ioseph Amos v. 15. That 's a Speech of a Prophet and to Gods Visible Church and yet for all that it is but A may be Quis novit There is yet 4. A fourth place Zeph. ii 3. Seek the Lord ye meek of the earth it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's wrath That 's a Speech of an holy Prophet and to holy Men. The meek Ones Calvin renders the Saints They who have wrought his judgments done righteously yet 't is but fortasse to them but an half suspensive promise 'T is but Quis novit 'T is but It may be you shall be hid That 's a strange Promise What saith S. Augustine Si Deus fortasse non perdet malos sine dubio non perdet bonos potiùs illud eligamus ubi dubitatio nulla est in Psal. lxxvii What shall we think of this Speech Surely this inkling and intimation of hope it may be useful 1. It shews us deliquium spei the faintings and faltrings of hope upon some sins As we strengthen our sins so we weaken our hope Great sins are hardliest pardoned As Saint Peter spake to Simon Magus Repent said he of this thy wickedness if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Gross Sins make great gashes into the Conscience we can hardly attain to full assurance that God will pardon them 2. It shews magnitudinem periculi We may come to such a case be brought to so low an ebb beset with so many miseries that there is but small hope of delivery It made Amos cry out By whom shall Iacob arise Amos vii for he is small brought so low that there are small hopes to recover Son of â—…an can these dead bones live Lord thou knowest In such a case any hint or inkling of hope will be some comfort to us 3. This kind of Speech Quis novit 'T is remedium 〈◊〉 desperationem As this Speech doth not fully assure us so neither doth it wholly reject us If we be past hope we grow presumptuous and resolve to sin as they in Ieremy xviii 12. They say there is no hope we will walk on in our own evil wayes It is the lowest degree of hope if we have no more yet hold this fast I will wait and pray if I cannot get assurance yet I will not cast away my hope God may be gracious This is one degree of hope to know that God is intreatable and sin is pardonable and mercy is attainable and Hell is avoydable Part not with this hope lest thou fall into desperation 4. This Speech Quis novit It shews incertitudinem beneficii The judgment that is threatned is a temporal judgment and for the avoiding of that the most we can make of it is but a Quis novit We are not sure to escape it Indeed for spiritual judgments upon our Repentance we may know and be assured to escape them but deliverance from temporal judgments have not so certain a Promise What saith David Thou forgavest them O Lord and yet thou didst punish their own inventions It was so with the Jews The sins of Manasseh upon his Repentance were forgiven him but yet for all that even after Iosiah his Reformation God would not spare Ierusalem for those sins of Manasseh but cast them into Captivity No stronger are our hopes for temporal Prosperity As Ionathan said to his Armour-bearer It may be the Lord will work for us 1 Sam. xiv 6. Or as Ioshuah of his own prevailing for his Inheâ—…itance Iosh. xiv 12. If the Lord will be with us I shall prevail and drive them out 5. This Speech Quis novit It shews gravitatem peccati What sin is that The Violation of his Covenant when we deal falsly in that the forsaking of his Religion the embracing of a false Worship the choosing of a new God that that puts his People into a sad Condition Who knows that he will be merciful to such a sin We have nothing to relieve us but this Quis novit We cannot then plead for niercy by the Tenure of his Covenant In some sins we may sue out our Pardon of Course by Virtue of his Covenant So saith S. Iohn If we confess our sins God is faithful not onely merciful but faithfull We have his Covenant for it but if we falsify his Covenant and forsake it that breaks off our hold It was so with the Israelites when they made and worship'd the Golden Calf what saith Moses to the People Exod. xxxii 30. O ye have sinned a great sin peradventure I shall make an atonement for you It was but peradventure he could give them no better assurance And what saith he to God verse 33. If thou wilt forgive forgive as if he should say I cannot plead for pardon I can onely beg for it If thou wilt forgive forgive That 's the last particular The measure of their Hope Quis novit A SERMON ON PSAL. lxxviii 34 35 36 37. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer Nevertheless they did flatter him with their month and they lyed unto him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant THis Psalm we may term it a Psalm of Record or a Psalm to bring to Remembrance It is an holy Panegyrick or Song for the whole Nation and people of the Jews a solemn recital of the many memorable passages in that Common-wealth from their first settlement And it hath been the wisdome of Kingdoms and Common-wealths to have their Chronographos those who should Record and Register the several passages and affairs of their State to keep upon Record their beginnings and foundations their Acts and Monuments the good and ill events that have betided them And accordingly the wisdom of God hath authorised and employ'd his Sacred Pen-men and Secretaries to Enroll and Register up the several passages of his Church and to transmit them
Christians The Faith of the Patriarchs and Prophets was chiefly employed about Christs first Coming and Incarnation the Faith of Christians must now expect and wait for his second Coming in Glory to Judgment They listned to hear the first voyce gentle and meek as the voyce of a Lamb we must be attentive to hear his last voyce that is dreadful and terrible as the roaring of a Lion Answerable to these two Epoches and periods of the Churches Faith the Scripture tells us of two dayes of Christ. 1. The day of his Incarnation the Prophets and Patriarchs fixed most upon that Abraham rejoyced to see that day Iohn viii 56. Then 2. The Scripture tells us of a second day of Christ that is the day of his Coming to Judgment That is called The day of the Lord 2 Pet. iii. The day of Iesus Christ Phil. i. 6. It is called The dreadful day of the Lord Malach. iv 5. The great day of his wrath Revel vi 17. For this day must be the expectation and preparation of Christians S. Peter tells us 'T is our duty to look for and to hasten to the Coming of this day of God 2 Pet. iii. 12. That is the first thing I note here Christ forewarneth it Secondly He doth not onely forewarn it that one day sooner or later it will come upon us but he tells them of many signs and prognosticks of the approaching of it vers 25. there shall be signs of it and they certain and infallible and dreadful and dismal that will astonish the beholders Indeed the particular season and set time of it is reserved and concealed from us and that for great and good purpose but yet Christ hath furnished his Church with such signs and tokens of it in the fulfilling of which we may plainly conclude The day is drawing on and now approaching that we may resolve with S. Iohn 1 Ioh. ii 18. We know that it is the last time See saith S. Iames The Iudg standeth before the door Who knows how soon he will enter in upon us That 's the second he foretells the signs of it Thirdly He doth not onely forewarn it and foretel the signs of it but premonisheth and giveth a Caveat to us that we should carefully provide for it 1. Be the truth of his Coming never so certain 2. Be the signs and tokens of it never so manifest yet 3. If we look not well about us we may be surprised by it It may rush in upon us when we little think of it S. Paul tells us It shall come suddenly as the throes and travel of a woman with child 1 Thes. v. 3. Let a woman with child keep her reckoning never so carefully yet the just time and season of her travel she may not know she may be taken with those pangs when she little looks for them So then we have here a strict Caveat given us a warning-piece shot off to arouse and awaken us against the day of Judgment And it stands upon two Particulars 1. Here is a special Caution against a dangerous indisposition that will make us unfit for the entertainment of that day that is Gravedo cordis a spiritual surcharge and surfeit that our souls may fall into that will so clog and dull and oppress the heart that it can never heed nor expect or once think of the day of reâ—…koning that must come upon us That 's vers 34. 2. Here is a special direction to an holy preparation and â—…itting our selves against that day that is the duty of Vigilancy that we should keep Sentinel continually stand upon our Watch expect daily prepare hourly fit our selves carefully for the entertainment of that fatal day vers 36. The Text contains the first the â—…aution In it observe these particulars 1. The Caveat it self Take heed to your selves lest at any time 2. The distemper and indisposition to be avoided that is oppressing and overcharging our hearts 3. The Causes that will breed this surcharge of our hearts surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this life 4. The mischief that will follow if this Caveat be neglected That day may come upon us unawares and then wo be to us We come First to the Caveat In it three things 1. Is the duty of heedfulness and attention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed 2. The persons concerning whom this Caveat is given Your selves 3. The greatness and measure and strictness of this heed in this vigilant and watchful word of circumspection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lest at any time I. The first thing you must consider is the duty of heedfulness and attention Take heed saith Christ. 'T is the solemn watchword and warning of Scripture often urged and pressed upon us Take heed to thy self saith Moses that thine heart be not deceived Deut. xi Take good heed unto your selves Iosh. xxiii Take diligent heed Iosh. xxii Take heed and beware saith Christ Matth. xvi It is a warning always seasonable we all stand in need of it but especially in three Exigencies 1. If the duty we undertake the business about which we are employed be weighty and ponderous Matters of less moment and consequence may be slubbered and slighted but matters of importance require heed and attention Now matters of Religion that concern our spiritual state and condition the eternal welfare of our souls are of all others of highest consequence of greatest concernment Oâ—… set your hearts unto it saith Moses for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life Deut. xxxii 46. So again Deut. iv 9. Onely take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently And amongst all the duties of Religion the fitting of our souls for the day of Judgment the survey and examination of our consciences making 〈◊〉 our accounts against that day of reckoning it is a most weighty business That is the first enforcement of this duty of Heed the matter is exceeding serious 2 There is a second Exigent of this Care and Heed which makes this Caveat seasonable that is the approach of some great danger and miscarriage Safety may breed security but when we go upon hazards and dangers then we look about and arouze our selves to care and heedfulness Now there is no undertaking so beset with dangers as the duty of Religion and the managing of our spiritual condition The way of Piety is exceeding narrow and down-falls on both sides A Christian is Salutis funambulus The way to heaven it is no broad high way but a narrow path we may soon tread awry Especially the dangers of the last day the hazards that our souls must run at that great day of trial and account are most perilous 3. Above all this Caveat is most seasonable and necessary if the miscarriages we may fall into be irrecoverable and such as there is no getting out of them In those miscarriages that may be recovered and fetch'd about again there is some hope but if the danger we go upon be deadly and
with Proficiency in knowledge if thou go no further will fail thee at last 3. But what if our hearing go another step further and so it be an affectionate Hearing that we hear the word with great warmth of affection sure then we are past danger such kind of Hearing will go for currant and be well-excepted 1. If we bring with us to our hearing of the Word the affection of reverence Indeed that 's exceeding lovely A reverend Auditour is a comely Creature in Gods Church he beautifies the Congregation and makes it honourable As for drowzy and heedless and prophane Auditours such as with the same spirit hear Gods word as they would hear any common Discourses the Church and the Market-place is all one to them they shew no awful demeanour in hearing Gods Word we cry shame of them such are blots and spots in our Congregations But if we come with reverence into Gods House listen as to the voice of God with reverence and fear compose our selves to such a deportment as may suit with that sacred work which we are about we hope that will pass for a full discharge of our duty and make us good Christians beyond exception No verily Reverend Hearing without Religious Practising is but mocking of God The Son that Christ speaks of in the Gospel Matth. xxi 28. when his Father bid him go work in his Vineyard heard him and answered him very reverently said to him forthwith I go Sir but that was all He gave his Father a regardful and reverend answer but for all that he went not and is condemned for it So the young man in the Gospel that in all the haste would needs be a Disciple of Christ demean'd himself to Christ exceeding reverently Mark x. 17. He came running and fell down on his knees to Christ and calls him Good Master and desires to be instructed of him but that was all For when Christ injoyns him what to do he turns his back upon our Saviour refused to obey him So then a reverend hearing will not suffice if it stops there and comes short of practising 2. What if we bring with us another commendable affection in our hearing the affection of joy and gladness and delight in Hearing That is much indeed we hope that will be accepted As for those who are listless in this Duty who have no appetite find no rellish taste no sweetness in the word of God we condemn them for unworthy Auditours such as call the Word of the Lord A Burthen as they did in the Prophet Ieremiah's time It was a by-word with them so to taunt the Prophet What is the burden of the Lord Ier. xxiii Or like those whom the Prophet Malachi complains of Chap. i. 13. they cried out What a weariness is it to serve the Lord they snuffed at it Or as those in Amos his time Chap. viii 5. who would fain be rid of the days of Gods worship saying When will the new Moon be gone and the Sabbath that we may fall to our work again Such kind of Auditours have little hope to find mercy or acceptance with God Nay not onely such but thou mayst hear the word of God with joy and much pleasure account the Sabbath a delight and yet if thou restest there and failest in point of practice and obedience thy Religion is vain Ezekiel met with such kind of Auditours who took great delight in hearing him preach Chap. 33. 32. Lo saith God to Ezekiel thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words and doe them not Oh! they were much taken with Ezekiel's Sermons they were as Musick to them sweet aires delicate strains they were ravished with his eloquence but that was all the Musick is ended and so was all their Devotion Thus our Saviour compares some sort of Auditours to stony ground And what are they Such as hear the word and with joy receive it but it never takes root or fructifies with them Matth. xiii The seed rots under the clods as the Prophet Ioel speaks Chap. i. 17. Such Auditours were the High Priests Officers who were sent to apprehend Christ they were transported with his heavenly Sermons Never man spake as this man speaks Ioh. vii 46. but yet fell short of Salvation Nay Herod as wicked a man as he was was much delighted in Baptist's preaching Mark vi 20. 't is said He feared Iohn accounted him an holy man observed him and heard him gladly and yet Herod was a Reprobate for all that 'T is S. Augustine's Question Nunquid omnes qui delectantur mutantur Mistake not saith he many are delighted to hear Sermons that yet are never the better for them Delectare suavitatis est sed flectere victoriae There is that sweetness in the word of God which may much delight us but then the word hath got a full conquest over us when it bowes and bends us to the obedience of it That 's a second Hearing with delight is not the thing that God accepts if it falls short of Practice 3. But what if this hearing of the word of God doth so much affect us that it begets many good motions in us and we find our selves inwardly wrought upon many good thoughts and purposes are stirred up and quickned in us then we conclude we are right-good Auditours and have heard to purpose Indeed those that are never affected or moved with all that they hear dead-hearted men not all the words in Gods book can so much as stirr them such as Christ speaks of Matth. xi 17. We have piped unto you and you have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have not wept the Promises cannot allure them the Threatnings of Gods word cannot affright them brawny-hearted men nothing can enter into them No hope of such men Ey but we you should know are other-ghess men are much taken at a Sermon when we hear God thundering out Judgments we tremble at them when he offers his Promises we are much affected with them and for his Commandements we purpose to observe them Is not this sufficient No even such kind of Hearers if they proceed no further will fall short of heaven A man may be in that condition that Capernaum was even be lifted up to heaven sometimes upon some good motions and yet for all that with Capernaum be cast down to hell Balaam had his devout wishes very heavenly raptures and yet a Cast-away Agrippa had a great pang of devotion at S. Paul's Sermon he was well-nigh a Christian on the sudden but nothing came of it Felix was much wrought upon by S. Paul's preaching it made him to tremble and quake but he proved a Reprobate A man may be Sermon-sick and have a qualm come over his conscience and some gripes of remorse and yet recover again his old sinfull temper and never be converted Non concipi tantum sufficit sed nasci
professes of himself I delight to do thy will O my God thy Law is within my heart Psal. xl 8. So S. Paul I delight in the Law of God in the inward man Rom. vii Thus Solomon tells us that the course of Piety 't is a delightful course All her wayes are wayes of pleasantness Prov. iii. 17. If men serve and obey God they shall spend their dayes in prosperity and their years in pleasure Iob xxxvi 11. What Christ saith of himself is true in proportion of all Gods servants 'T is their meat and drink to do the will of God Ioh. iv Look upon the several parts of Gods Service those that are most tedious and irksome to a carnal man Gods servants take great delight and felicity in them 1. Prayer and pouring out our souls unto God how dull a thing is it to a carnal man 'T is as easie to make a stone mount upward as for a carnal man to raise up his heart in Prayer and to make it ascend up to the Throne of God But Daevid tells us how delightful it was to him O my soul is filled as with marrow and fatness when he called upon God 'T is a Saints heaven upon earth to enjoy this communion with God by devout Prayer 2. Reading and Hearing and Meditating on Gods Word put a carnal man upon it O 't is tedious and irksome to him he presently cryes out O what a weariness is it Ey but David counted Gods Word His Song in the house of his pilgrimage esteem'd Gods Word above his appointed food it was the very joy of his heart 3. The Lords Day and so the attendance upon the publick Worship a carnal man counts it but loss of time he hath no list to it he can tell how to spend that day to better purpose like those prophane ones in Aâ—…os viii When will the Sabbath be gone But a good Christian counts it and makes it his delight Isai. lviii They rejoyced to hear the joyful sound that call'd to the solemn Assemblies Psal. lxxxix What comfort did David take in it when he went to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day Psal. xlii 4. Bounty to the poor What saith a carnal man to it Just as Nabal Shall I take my bread and my flesh and give it to I know not whom But the Saints delight in it He will devise liberal things as Isaiah describes him He will draw out his soul to the hungry and satisfie the afflicted soul Isai. lviii Even the most painful works of Christianity a good Christian delights in them I will name but two 1. Mortification and suppressing our natural Lusts and evil concupiscence Flesh and bloud repines at that work but a good Christian delights in it The Spirit that is in him lusts against the flesh Gal. v. 17. delights to cross it to curb it and keep it under 2. The undergoing the Cross and bearing of Afflictions that saith hard to flesh and bloud Carnal men may seem to be Christians Usque ad Crucem as Luther speaks they will pass for good Christians usque ad Crucem til they spie the Cross. They will not suffer for Religion But the Saints of God take delight in persecutions Hear what S. Paul saith 2 Cor. xii 10. I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake And see it in the Apostles Acts v. They rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Christ. All these hard and difficult services the Saints count them high and noble Functions and delight in them 3. Look upon the Encouragements that Christians find in the service of God they will make it appear that the service of God is no such irksome service The world indeed thinks otherwise of it but S. Bernard gives the reason Vident punctiones nostras sed non vident unctiones This makes the world think the service of God to be an hard service they look upon the labours but they are not acquainted with the comforts and encouragements that sweeten these labours and make them pleasant to us Many Encouragements there are 1. His gracious Assistance God helps and assists his servants in all their works This he doth by putting their souls into a right frame of holiness He answers us with strength in our soul Psal. cxxxviii 3. Till then the faculties of our souls are like the members of our bodies when our shoulder is out of joynt every burthen is grievous but put it into joynt again and the same burthen will sit light upon it So grace sets us in a right frame and makes the Law of God connatural to us That breeds delight when we act according to nature A carnal man set him to do a spiritual work ye put him out of his element but a spiritual man is spiritually affected 2. A second Encouragement is Gods mercifull connivence When his servants that desire to serve him yet fail and fall short of what is their duty God winks at their sailings and passes by them See this graciously promised to us Mal iii. 17. I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serves him A loving father will not quarrel for every failing if his Son doth his best but wink and connive at him Indeed were it not for this there were no serving of him Did he not pass by our failings no flesh would be saved If he should mark all that is done amiss who may abide it But there is mercy with him that he may be feared Plsal cxxx Thus the Prophet Micah admires Gods gracious dealing with his children Micah vii 18. Who is a God like unto thee that passes by the transgressions of his people 3. A third Encouragement is the many heartnings and secret chearings that God vouchsafes to his servants in the course of their obedience He is no churlish Nabal sowr and harsh to his poor servants but puts life and heart into them 1. He vouchsafes his Presence to them as Boaz to his Reapers The Master's eye the chearfulness of his countenance is the mans encouragement 2. He speaks chearfully to their hearts He hath both his Agè and his Eugè for them Go on and Well done faithfull servant Thus he heartned Saint Paul Acts xviii 9. Be not afraid Paul for I am with thee and no man shall hurt thee Which made him work out his heart in the service of Christ. 4. A fourth Encouragement is his loving acceptance of our poor services Our faithfull endeavours our honest desires our sincere intentions are graciously accepted 1. He will accept half-service for whole imperfect obedience goes for good pay 2. He will accept endeavours for performances When we come short of the work yet if we went about it put our strength to it 't is well saith God 3. In some cases the Will shall stand for the Deed 2 Cor. viii If there be a willing mind it
the hatred of the whole Kingdom was upon him he was a man whose life was imbitter'd with sorrows 'T is one blessed end and issue of afflictions they wean us from the desire of life Prosperity glues us to this life Afflictions loosen us O mors quà m amara How bitter is death when we are at ease O mors quà m jucunda How pleasant is it when we are in torments These minores mortes fit us for the great Death S. Paul's fightings with beasts at Ephesus made him willing to grapple with this When the soul of man finds no footing on outward things then it wishes it had the wings of a Dove that it might fly away and be at rest Happy afflictions that fit us for death 2. Grief for the miseries of the Church That goes nearer In private sufferings a Christian can be more contented when it goes well with the publick but if the Church lies under misery that makes an Elias to call for death Old Eli who digested well enough his private sorrow yet when the Ark was taken He fell off from the seat backward and he died The Saints are loth to see evil days to outlive the prosperity of Gods people The Lord shall make thee see Ierusalem in prosperity all thy days 3. Sensus impotentiae An apprehension of an inability to do any more good Elias was tired and wearied-out with the gain-sayings of Idolaters he had conflicted with their obstinacy Ahab is hardned Iezabel enraged Baal restored Gods Prophets are persecuted he sees no success of all his pains he is weary of his life As the soul in the body if it be hindred of action it forsakes the body presently so the spirit of Elias finding he could not prevail it desires to relinquish an ungrateful world and to retire to Heaven 4. Praegustus coeli The anticipation and feeling of those joyes of that rest and bliss whetts the appetite of Elias to desire possession and fruition of them If there be so much comfort in lumine Prophetiae how much more is there in lumine Gloriae If Mount Carmel and the Visions there be so ravishing what is Gods high and holy Mountain and those Revelations No question Saint Paul's rapture bred in him an high measure of heavenly-mindedness If the assistance of one Angel feeding the Prophet was so ravishing what will be the society of innumerable Angels If Communion with God upon Earth be so gladsome how unspeakable will Communion in Heaven be Si bonus es Domine animae quaerenti quanto magis invenienti These were the grounds and occasions of Elias his willingness to die But 3. What evidences of this willingness to die will appear in Gods children and what is the strength and power of it 1. It will appear in encouraging them against the forethoughts of death the thoughts of death are not ghastly to them Their frequent meditations and desires of it make them acquainted with it and familiar to them Nemo timet facere quod se novit benè didicisse Gerson 2. It will free them from dismayedness at the approach of death make them willing to entertain it Gods calling them to death they presently hear Non clamores tantum sed susurros divinos statim percipiunt The very beckning of Gods hand makes them hasten to him It was no more 'twixt Moses and God but Go up and die Thus Saint Paul tell him of bonds I care not for death saith he 3. It will bear them out in the conflict and onset of death Makes a Christian smile at the face of it How peaceably died Iacob Aaron Moses and Simeon As Saint Bernard of Christs yielding up the Ghost Quis tam facilè quando vult dormivit 4. It makes them triumph over the most tormenting and cruel deaths The three Nobles in Daniel slighted the furnace Martyrs kissed the stake they would not accept of deliverance like valiant Souldiers that are desirous to be put upon desperate Services That 's the first Optat Elias wishes to dye so willing is he to it II. Orat He makes his prayer that he may die That imports more 1. Prayer is a deliberate desire Sudden wishes vanish and die in us Many have some pangs of mortification and leaving the world as Balaam had but would be loth God should take them at their word like him in the Fable No Elias and a Saint goes further it is their deliberate wish All things considered they judg it best for them they exercise their hearts towards it waiting with Iob groaning with S. Paul begging with Simeon their dissolution 2. Prayer it is a religious desire a matter of devotion and holy supplication tendred to God framed into their prayer A natural man or a wicked man may have wishes to die and deliberations So had Achitophel and Iudas but they presented not these desires in prayers to God The Saints die like Ioab at the horns of the Altar by prayer sacrificing their lives to God like old Simeon brought by the Spirit into the Temple and there praying for death 3. Prayer it is a restrained desire Prayer extends the will but restrains the power He is willing to die Oh that I had wings like a Dove but is not the disposer of his life to part with it at pleasure Were our lives our own we need not beg leave of God to lay them aside His Petition 't is a real Confession that our time is in Gods hand not in our own We may be waiters and suiters and in desires hastners but not executioners of our own death As Gregory saith we must like Elias be in ore speluncae or in ostio Tabernaculi with Abraham ready to receive death not to hasten it to us In preparation we must hasten not in execution Our hastning must not prevent Gods coming Hastening to the coming of our Lord Iesus 2 Pet. iii. 12. not before his coming That 's the second Orat. III. Resignat Take away my life it is an act of resignation He directs and tenders and resigns it up to him and that upon divers Reasons 1. Ob jus dominii He yields up his life to God as the Lord of it No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself whether we live we live to the Lord whether we die we die to him whether therefore we live or die we are the Lords Rom. xiv 7. placed here in our stations The issues of life belong unto him We are not Masters of our time or life David served his time according to the counsel of God Old Simeon begs his dismission 2. Ob fidem depositi He commits his life to be kept in the hands of God The Saints in their death do not utterly relinquish and for ever depart with life but they depositate and intrust God with it Thus Tertullian Our life is in deposito apud Deum per fidelissimum sequestrem Dei hominum Iesum Christum Those things that I have committed to him he will keep Our lives
led into heaven Angels are but Inmates in heaven in respect of us And heaven is said to be prepared for us not for Angels Mat. xxv Hell is prepared for the Devil and his Angels but not so Heaven this is not prepared for the Angels but for you The joyes of heaven are called A sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob not with Angels in the kingdom of heaven They are but Pocillatores but Servitours and Attendants upon our Glory 3. It is more comfort to the Apostles to see Men in Glory with Christ rather then Angels Angels in heaven were ab origine there never excluded but to see Men assumed this shews that the virtue of our Mediatour hath opened Paradise again quenched the fiery Sword reconciled us and given entrance for our banished Nature into the state of Glory It was comfort for the captive-Jews to see Daniel and his fellows advanced by the king of Babel and made chief in the kingdom for to see Hester made Queen and Vashti neglected so to see flesh of our flesh Men in the same captivity and condemnation reconciled glorified it bids us hope well for a gracious admission That 's the second their kind Two Men. III. Their specialty their Persons Moses and Elias Why not some other Saints but these must be singled out What reasons are there for their appearance rather then for others Divers reasons may be given reduce them to these four heads 1. Some reasons of this choyce are in respect of Christ. 2. Some in respect of themselves 3. Some in respect of the Apostles 4. Some in respect of the people to whom it was to be published 1. Moses and Elias appear at this Transfiguration respectu Christi in respect of Christ 1. Famulantur ut Domino These chief eminent Saints must do homage to Christ as to their great Lord. It added to Mordecai's honour that Haman the chief Prince must attend his triumph See here the two grand Pillars of the Church the most renowned Prophets Saints high in heaven wait upon our Saviour He calls for Elias see if Elias will come said they scoffingly Behold Elias and Moses are present all their dignity must stoop to him Moses was faithful as a servant of the house but Christ was Lord of the house Kings and Prophets and eminent Saints fall down before him as Ioseph's brethren all honour him all Sheavs bow down to this Sheaf all the Stars worship this Sun of righteousness 2. Attestantur ut Messiae They come and give evidence and testimony that he is the anointed Messias that was promised to the Church He receives testimony and witness from Moses and the Prophets Thus Philip Ioh. i. 45. We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Iesus of Nazareth Thus S. Peter brings Moses to witness For Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you Act. iii. 22. To him give all the Prophets witness Act. x. 43. And Christ accounts that Moses wrote of him Search the Scriptures they are they which testifie of me Ioh. v. 39. This they foretold now being exhibited they set to their seals of this glorious performance 3. Sociantur ut Legis Prophetarum complementa Moses and Elias attend and behold him as the fulfilling and accomplishment of Law and Prophets to intimate that Law and Prophets all aym at him and all concurr and joyn in him all like lines run to this center All the Patriarchs were Types of him all the Priests and Prophets were representations of him all their Rites and Ceremonies prefigured him all their Saviours and Deliverers were his fore-runners They were but shadows He in coming gave truth and fulness to them It was sorrow to Ionas that his Prophesie was frustrate it was joy to the Prophets to see all their predictions made good in Him To prefigure thee saith Moses I instituted the Passeover and effusion of Blood all my Rites and Ceremonies look'd at thee To foretel thee saith Elias was my message and Ministry All the Prophets from Samuel and after pointed at him Till his coming all things were empty and imperfect now they all clasp and close about him as their drift and argument He is AMEN 4. Venerantur ut Servatorem They appear to adore him as their Saviour and Redeemer Though they are already in heaven and glory yet they know to whose bloud they owe it who gave them entrance and access Moses himself could not convey himself into Canaan the type of heaven much less into heaven it self All the Elders and Saints fling down their Crowns at his feet all worship and are tributary to his glory Elias his Chariot was of Christ's sending as Iacob's came from Ioseph 2. Moses and Elias appear in respect of Themselves for these reasons 1. Conceive them ut eminentes Sancti Moses and Elias were persons of admirable holiness yet they attend and adore our Saviour Not only wicked and prophane men stand in need of him and acknowledg him but the holiest men and most aboundant in righteousness own him for their Redeemer As S. Ambrose speaks For Publicans and Harlots to be justified by Faith is no such wonder but for Abraham so rich in good works yet to stand in need of Faith and Christ it highly advanceth the glory of Christ. The purest Robe must be washed in this bloud the choycest Saint must draw grace from Christ. Abraham the Father of the Faithful was a Son of this adoption of grace 2. Conceive them ut Sancti mortui translati They were Saints out of this life Moses is dead Elias translated yet they do homage to Christ. To teach us that he is Lord of quick and dead While he is upon earth yet is he Lord of the spirits in Heaven Now he is in heaven he is Lord of all on earth All live to him He is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Iacob No state of time or place or condition excludes his Soveraignty All Knees in heaven and earth and under the earth must bow and prostrate to him The Pope who enlargeth his power to the world of spirits yet claims not that authority He hath not jurisdictionem but per modum Suffragii Christ hath an homage of Saints that are dead and translated He is Lord of all quick and dead must do him service 3. Conceive them ut Sancti Veteris Testamenti They were not living under the Gospel but under the Old Testament yet they acknowledg they belong as dependants upon this Messias He had an influence backwards to those former Saints as well as forward to the times of Christians They who went before and they who came after all sing Hosanna to this Son of David The Church of the Patriarchs acknowledged him for their Head All of them were partakers of this common salvation Christ Iesus yesterday to day the same for ever It was a dangerous and blasphemous error of the Manichees and Marcionites
flings down these Tabernacles sets up Christs onely In the new Ierusalem there is no Temple but the Lamb is the Temple Rev. xxi 22. Who is Moses and who is Elias but servants of this Tabernacle of which Christ is Lord We must not have not only Altare contra Altare but not Altare cum Altari Christ alone is the Lord all the rest are but servants 2. A second Error Moses and Elias must needs have Tabernacles and abide with Christ to make up this Glory Why Christ alone and his Tabernacle cannot that suffice us It is an Error so to affect the presence of the Saints as to account Christ an imperfect Saviour if they be wanting or our happiness insufficient if Saints be not joyned with him 'T is comfortable to have the society of the Saints but in point of salvation hereafter or comfort here we must know he is alone All-sufficient for us Whom have I in heaven but thee Nihil Domine praeter teipsum In this case though Abraham know us not and Iacob be ignorant of us and Moses and Elias they abide not Yet thou art the same Lord thou never failest The Court is where the King is though none of his followers attend upon him If Christ be not thine and vouchsafes his presence all the Saints and Angels in heaven cannot comfort thee If thou hast him were they all strangers to thee thou hast fulness of bliss in him onely The Sun alone is more refreshing then all the Stars in the Firmament 3. A third Error Peter will set up three Tabernacles One for Christ then for Moses then for Elias Christ indeed is first named but here is too much equalizing the servants with the Master Nimis perversum quod Mosen Eliam Collegas Christo facit cum omnes in ordinem cogendi ut ille solus emineat It is too fellow-like a provision to sort Christ and Saints in such Tabernacles of equality All Sheaves must fall down and worship this Sheaf All Saints must do homage and stoop and not state it in several Courts and quarters as petty Christs No Christ's footstool is a glorious Throne for the highest Saints Maldonate the Jesuit upbraids Calvin with making this construction of Peters good meaning But Calvin is not the first His own Cardinal Turrecremate conceits it before him How hath that Church pitch'd Tabernacles check-mate with Christ's The Virgin Maries Tabernacle is more frequented There must be a writ of Command from this to Christ's What Peter did in an astonishment and incogitancy these do wilfully and wickedly paralelling Saints with Christ the Law with the Gospel servants of the house with the Lord of it Three Churches there are built on Tabor and a Monastery 4. A fourth Error Christ and Moses and Elias in Glory must have three Tabernacles A strange weakness of this holy man What use have glorified bodies of these Tabernacles made with hands Indeed the Feast of Tabernacles was a Type of our heavenly joy but a poor shadow onely A Tabernacle it was a Travellers habitation their journey being past that was a refreshing their toyls over that was a shelter It was a Military habitation their warfare past that was their covert But there is no Tabernacle in heaven As Moses himself confesses Psal. xc Lord thou art our dwelling place The carnal thoughts of men think these earthly comforts to have place in heaven As the Sadduces thought If there be a Resurrection then there is Marrying and giving in Marriage So the Iews thought That if the Messias be then there must be carnal victory worldly pomp So the Turks promise themselves sensual delights In this sense it is true The kingdome of heaven is not meat nor drink nor any such comfort but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost We look for a Tabernacle and Building made without hands Those Eternal Mansions whose Foundations are Eternity and whose Walls are Salvation need not our poor Cottages THE SIXTH SERMON ON S. MATTH xvii v. While he yet spake behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold a voyce out of the cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him WE have seen the Progress of this glorious Appearance of Christ hitherto First In his holy Preparation He prayed Secondly In his glorious Transfiguration of his body Thirdly In his honourable Attendance of Moses and Elias Fourthly In the ravishing and ecstatical Contemplation of his Apostles Now Fifthly We come to the highest pitch and rise of Glory put upon him by God and unto which all the rest were subordinate and purposed the great Glory and Honour put upon him from heaven by God the Father in this magnificent and renowned Testimony This is my beloved Son As when Nathan and Zadock had attended Solomon to Gihon and there invested him in the Title of the kingdome with Applause and Shouting then David his father gives him the solemn Consummation in placing him upon his own Royal Throne and establishing his Succession by his own Approbation So here Moses and Elias having adored him on Mount Tabor now God the Father seals up his Glory Go forth O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother Crowned him Cant. iii. 11. This David spake of Psal. ii 6. I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion Vers. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Three times we see this glorious voyce came from heaven to magnifie Christ 1. In his entrance and initiation of his Mediatourship when he was baptized by Iohn then lo a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. iii. 17. 2. Here in the course and progress of his Mediatourship 3. At the end and closure of it before his Passion Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Now in this glorious Testimony given to our Saviour here in the Text there are two things 1. Is a fitting and significant accommodation and preparation for it A bright cloud overshadowed them 2. Is the publication and declaration of this glorious Testimony This is my beloved Son First is the preparation A bright cloud overshadowed them I. A cloud overshadowed them The overspreading of this cloud upon our Saviour and the Apostles was purposed of God for divers reasons 1. To correct the Error of Peter He would prepare Tabernacles to shelter Christ and those glorified bodies as supposing that those glorified bodies had need of shelter coverture God confutes this Error Here is an overshadowing and shelter from heaven not a Booth or a Tent pitch'd by man but framed by God an heavenly Cloathing miraculously framed As David speaks He layes the beams of his chambers in the waters and makes the clouds his charret Psal. civ 3. He cloaths himself with this aëry or rather heavenly Mansion Thus Solomon The heaven of heavens cannot contain him
as Christ's Prayer S. Steven's prayer procured Saul's conversion how much more shall Christs Father forgive them reconcile us to God recommend us to his mercy 2. By his Satisfaction he hath wrought this peace and made him well pleased having satisfied for us Satisfaction it is the making up of a wrong or injury or damage by the paying of a full recompensation Now the sufferings of Christ were 1. Of that Infinite value in their natural Dignity 2. Of that high esteem in God's valuation that by them the breach of Gods Law had a condign satisfaction by this performance Penal Statutes are never satisfied but by the mulct and forfeiture The Law of God that 's Penal the price of his Death the value of his Bloud that was laid down and in it God is pleased 3. By his Merit In him God is well pleased as Meriting for us Christ's actions had not onely the virtue of impetration or satisfaction but of abundant Merit to purchase favour for us Now the reason why Christs Merits do thus pacifie God is because his Merits do more please him then sin can displease him Praestando bonum acceptabilius Christs obedience gave God higher content then our disobedience can discontent him He is more delighted in his righteousness then he was offended by our unrighteousness This is like and beyond Noah's sacrifice A savour of rest in the nostrils of God I will curse the earth no more This is a main Argument against Despair Christ hath more pleas'd God then thou hast displeased him 4. By his Union God is pleased in him uniting us to him Not one hair of Christs head shall perish He is the Saviour of his Body Ephes. v. 23. When we are implanted into Christ then God looks graciously upon us As Isaac said unto Iacob Gen. xxvii 21. Come near I pray thee that I may feel thee my son whether thou be my very son Esau or not So when God feels us to be members and parts of his Son O 't is the voyce of my Son 't is a member of his Body then his Soul blesses us This Union makes us to enjoy a communion in all that Christ did As S. Bernard speaks Non alius qui foris-fecit alter qui satisfecit quia caput corpus unus est Christus Christus non potest habere membra damnata That 's the first Quibus modis See II. Quibus gradibus Take them in these three steps 1. In Christo placabilis Christs Mediation and Gods good pleasure in him makes him placable and appeasable and reconcileable Out of Christ God is a consuming fire Heb. xii 29. His thoughts towards us are onely thoughts of anger But his Son hath founded a new Covenant in which God is Intreatable sin Pardonable heaven Attainable This is one step of favour he hath wrought his Father to to enter a parley and treaty of Reconciliation He hath set up an Office to sue out our Pardon He hath set forth a gracious Remedy open'd a Fountain for sin and for uncleanness Non sic Diabolis God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself 2 Cor. v. 19. and hath sent Ambassadours vers 20. to treat and intreat for Reconciliation 2. In Christo placatus That 's more Our Peace and Reconciliation is actually obtained in and for him onely He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ephes. i. 6. Thus the Apostle Having slain enmity not only weakned it but overcome it He hath reconciled us unto God Ephes. ii 16. He presents us to God obtains our pardon knocks off our fetters discharges us out of prison cancels our bill seals up our pardon 3. In Christo continuo placandus Christ doth not onely set us in Statu quo and so leaves us but brings us into favour and holds us up in favour Christ is of perpetual use not at our first Reconciliation but in all our life This virtue of Christ 1. Makes our sins of another condition then when we were out of him They are not condemnatorta but our pardon shall be granted 2. Makes our actions though imperfect yet acceptable because done in him He is the Altar that sanctifies the Offering His Odours persume our Prayers In Numb vi 19 20. The Priest at the Offering was to lay his hands upon the hands of him who brought it and to wave it before the Lord So Christ he is to present our Prayers and all our Offerings and that makes them acceptable 3. Our persons they are look'd upon as in Christ and so with them God is well pleased Corollaries from hence let be these 1. In quo complacitum ergo non ex odio Patris morti tradendus Peter thought Christ must not dye We thought him forsaken of God No it was not hatred of his Son that brought him to death for he was most pleas'd with him in his death 2. In quo complacitum ergo gratuitum 'T is good pleasure and acceptation that 's all our tenure He had a Son who pleased him he needed not us 3. In quo complacitum ergo firma reconciliatio If Gods favour were in our selves we should soon forfeit all but our salvation is now put into Christs hands He is Sequester Dei hominum All 's entail'd upon him Oh let us bless Christ for making our peace Let us kiss him for whose sake God is well pleased with us 1. Osculo Fidei With the kiss of Faith Thankfulness Love 2. Osculo Gratitudinis With the kiss of Faith Thankfulness Love 3. Osculo Amoris With the kiss of Faith Thankfulness Love So much for the Excellency of his Mediation Now follows Thirdly The Authority of his Doctine Hear Him In it two things 1. The Designation of the Person Him 2. The Prescription of the Duty Hear First The Designation of the Person Him Christ he is appointed by God the Father to be the Prophet and Teacher of his Church Hence he is stiled in Scripture A Prophet Deut. xviii 15. A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up of your brethren like unto me Him shall you hear He assumes this Title to himself displaces all Rubbies One is your Doctour and Master even Christ Matth. xxiii So Heb. iii. 1. He is called The Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Maâ—…ch iii. 1. The Angel of the Covenant Now this Prophetical Dignity of Christ that he is the grand Doctour of the Church will appear if we make these four Enquiries 1. Enquire into his Authority who hath authorized him 2. Into his Sufficiencies 3. Into his Priviledges 4. Into his Discharge 1. For his Authority that is most full and ample He hath a Commission from heaven Warranted 1. By Predictions and Prophecies I will give thee for a Covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles Isa. xlii 6. to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house vers 7. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because
Ezek. ii The word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of man stand upon thy feet And the Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet Come we to the eighth and the ninth Verses Of which in short Vers. 8. And when they had lift up their eyes they saw no man save Iesus onely Vers. 9. And as they came down from the Mountain Iesus charged them saying Tell the Vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead We are now come to the closure and conclusion of this glorious Vision In it two things 1. The issue and end of it They saw Christ alone 2. The use they were to make of it A seasonable concealment of it for a time First For the issue and end of it And this offers to us a threefold Consideration 1. A cessation of all other Appearances Moses and Elias are vanished and withdrawn they see no man remaining 2. The continuance and abode of Christ. He stays and appears and continues amongst them 3. Their eyes are fixed upon him Him onely they behold And so from hence draw these three Conclusions 1. Moses and Elias the Law and the Prophets have but a temporary station and abode in the Church Christ being brought into the world they are withdrawn 2. Christs Office and Glory and Government in his Church 't is lasting and perpetual 3. The Eye and Observation and Faith of the Church is fixed upon Christ onely They look upon none other nor expect any other after him I. The Law and the Prophets they are determined by Christs Coming Moses and Elias they vanish 1. They were of a finite and limited duration not set over the Church as a perpetual Order but had their times fixed and bounded Three times there were that bounded them 1. The time of Reformation God had appointed a more exact and perfecter Government of his Church to succeed them When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away that which is imperfect must yield Thus we see Aaron he was call'd upon by God to dye and then Moses 2. The Fulness of time that was their stint till he should come who should fill up all things with his Coming 3. A third time was Adulta aetas Ecclesiae When that time is come the Heir is no longer under Tutours and Governours Gal. iv 2. Their Nature and Purpose was for a time onely 1. They had an use of Promising that Age was trained up all under Promises When the Performance came then all Promises were to be abolished 2. They had an use of Prefiguring and Typifying and Shadowing out of good things to come When the Body and Substance comes the Shadows and Figures cease Blossoms wither when the ripe Fruit appears 3. They had an use of Prophesying and Prophesie we know looks not upon present things but upon future When the truths of all Prophesies are fulfilled then they cease II. Christs Presence and Authority and Government in his Church 't is lasting and perpetual Moses and the Prophets have served their time and have given place but Christ remains for ever This the Jews believed We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever Ioh. xii 34. Hence the Gospel 't is called Evangelium aeternum And the time of the Christian Church it is called The last time because there is to be no more instruction in Religion no new Sacrifice or Priest or Prophet or Sacraments or Form of Government 1. He hath made a full accomplishment of all Prophesies and Predictions there is no looking for another 2. He hath manifested and revealed all truth to his Church This is the dignity that God reserved for his Son All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Ioh. xv 15. The Church of the Jews had all necessary Truths revealed But 1. Not so clearly 2 Pet. i. 19. That was but as a candle that shines in a dark place Christ brings all Truth to light by the Gospel Now the whole Wisdom of God shines in the Face of Iesus Christ. We understand more clearly then the Prophets themselves 1 Pet. i. 10. 2. Not so fully Indeed they had a Sufficiency for that present estate but now abundance of Truth covers the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea 3. They had Additions and the rule of Faith was increased to them But we are to expect no more the Word of God is sealed up and ratified 3. He hath accomplished and effectually wrought all the good that the Church can be capable of He hath offered up a full Sacrifice obtain'd the gift of the Holy-Ghost This was one cause of abolishing of the Law it was weak made nothing perfect They received not the Spirit by the hearing of the Law That comes by the Gospel And therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fulness of the Gospel III. The eye of the Church looks onely upon Christ fixes upon him and expects no other This is the main difference betwixt the Jewish Church and Ours They were all in expectation and were wayters for better times But our Faith hath him exhibited and presented and rests upon him Hence Christ forewarns them not to listen to or look after any other If any shall say unto you Lo here is Christ or there believe it not Matth. xxiv 23. Go not forth look not after him Oculis videntibus Iesum nihil dignum praeter Iesum The Sun arising darkens all the Stars so all the former Saints are obscured to the eye of the Church and he alone must shine in his full glory As when the King enters into any City all Authority is resigned up to him all Vice-royes and Lieutenants must resign up to him So Moses and the Prophets all yield up their place in the Church to Christ. Now follows Secondly The Use they must make of this Transfiguration and that is a seasonable concealment In it 1. The Injunction it self Iesus charged them 2. The Nature and Purpose of it Not to Publish it 3. The time how long Till the Resurrection First the Injunction Iesus charged them Observe It is the Dignity and Prerogative of Christ to prescribe to his Church a Law of Truth what should be published and taught in his Church and what should be concealed 1. He is Primarius Doctor Legislator He teacheth As one having Authority and it is in his power to propound what Truths he will He is Lord of our Faith and may propound to our Faith whatsoever he pleaseth All other are but subordinate and limited Teachers and must be regulated from this grand Doctour Eccles. xii 11. The Masters of the Assemblies receive all their words as given from one Shepheard Hence they are described with terms and title of Limitation 1. They are Apostles Messengers not going in their own names or publishing what pleases them but receiving tidings from him who sent them 2. They are Ambassadours They
we gain by Gods Presence is That it brings with it the Glory of a Nation It is the high dignity and renown and honour of a people that God abides with them as S. Paul speaks Rom. iii. 1. What advantage then hath the Iew What is the dignity of having God so near to them Much every way Thus Moses sets out the dignity of the Jews from this near reference 'twixt God and them Deut. xxvi 18. The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people And vers 19. To make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour This nearness of Gods Presence God compares in Ior. xiii 11. to a Girdle cleaving to his loyns As the girdlâ—… cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel that they might be unto me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory So likewise Isa. xliii 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee When God reckons up the dignities of his people this is the main Psal. lxxxvii 5. Of Zion it shall be said that he was born in her Thus Moses re-minds the Israelites wherein their dignity consists Deut. x. 21. He is thy praise and he is thy God There are many titles of Honour amongst men but this above all is the truly honourable Title that we have God near unto us Deut. iv 7. What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is to us While he vouchsafed his Presence to them how renowned were they When he withdrew himself and cast them off how became they a vile people the hatred and scorn and contempt of all Nations A 3 d. Advantage that Gods Presence brings 't is the Strength and Safety of a Nation I'sal xlvi 5. God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved He calls himself 1 Sam. xv 29. the Strength of Israel Balaam could not fasten a curse upon Israel while God was among them Num. xxiii 21. The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a King is among them It was this that encouraged the people of Israel against the Canaanites Numb xiv 9. Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not Though there were Giants and their Cities be walled up to heaven yet fear them not So again Moses encourages them Deut. vii 21. Thou shalt not be affrighted at them for the Lord thy God is among you a mighty God and terrible And so on the contrary when the people being in a great sin would needs go up to fight Moses dislwades them God had then withdrawn himself Go not up for the Lord is not amongst you Sampson wist not that God was departed from him and the Philistines prevail'd over him How did Moses lament when God said He would not go with them So doth the Psalmist Thou goest not forth with our Armies His Presence it is our Palladium our Shield and Fortress The Shields of the earth belong unto God Psal. xlvii 9. It was said to Constantine In hoc vinces Well then If so much good comes to us by Gods Presence amongst us it is worth the enquiry Wherein doth this Presence of God consist How is he said and known to dwell in a Nation I mean not now his substantiall Presence so he is present in all places that Presence fills heaven and earth Ier. xxiii Nor do we now speak of his glorious Presence where his Majesty and Glory shines that is in the heavens Heaven is his Throne No nor yet do we mean his miraculous Presence where he manifests himself in some extraordinary work of his Power thus the Israelites when they were in want question'd his Presence Is the Lord amongst us yea or no No besides all these he hath a gracious Presence by which he dwells amongst us Yes that gracious and merciful and beneficial Presence is that we speak of How shall that appear to us 1. God dwells in a Nation which he chuses to be his Peculiar people the people of his Covenant amongst whom he fixes his Sanctuary and establishes his Worship As David speaks The Lord hath chosen Iacob to be his Inheritance Thus Hosea calls the Nation and Countrey of the Jews The Lords Land Hos. ix 3. All the world is his dominion but by special purchase and possession so the Church is his That is like the Lords Demeans which himself holds in his own hand 2. The place of Gods delight that is the residence of his special Presence Delight fixes a man to his abode When we are such a people that God takes pleasure in us then he saith Here will I dwell for I have a delight in it The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation here will I dwell and rest in it Psal. cxxxii 3. There are we to reckon of Gods special Presence where he sets his Family that is the usual place of presence and abode Where we see God gathers to himself a Church is daily collecting to himself a people to know him and worship him there we may conclude God vouchsafes his Presence Thus Christ is described to walk among the Churches Rev. i. When it may be said of a place as God saith of Corinth Acts xviii 10. I have much people in this City there resolve that God is present When they grow thinner and thinner it is to be feared God is then removing 4. There we conclude is a place of Presence and abode where a man bestows most cost A Land-lord will keep up all his possessions so doth God the World but his chiefest care is for his Mansion-house Do we see a people enriched with his choysest blessings His eyes are over them continually no favour is too dear for them Surely God dwells among such a people 5. A man is said to dwell where his abode is most constantly Sometimes God makes his Progress and Excursions into other places as he did to Niniveh by the preaching of Ionah He may be sometimes as a way-faring man that lodges for a night Ier. xiv 8. He may shew some rare tokens of his being amongst them But when he pitches his Tabernacle where his Ordinances are constantly and he fixes them there that is the place of his Presence We have done with the first God's presence it is the happiness of a Nation II. The second Consideration is T is the bitter fruit of sin that causeth God to withdraw his presence and to turn away from us 1. This is the malignant effect of sin that it parts God and us makes a separation moves him to withdraw and turn away from us He rejoyces in the habitable parts of the world and his delights are with the sons of men Prov. viii 31. But sin and wickedness causes an alienation in him and estrangeth him from
us Thus Cain complained I am east away from thy face Gen. iv 14. So Saul upon his disobedience cryes out God is departed from me 1 Sam. xxviii 15. I will shew them the back and not the face Ier. xviii 17. It was the woful condition of mankind by nature we were strangers from God nay without God in the world So Paul tells them at Lystra that God suffered all Nations to walk and wander in their own wayes never owned or regarded them Our sins separate twixt God and us and he hides his face from us 2. Not onely the world of wicked men reap this fruit by their sins but Gods own people find this uncomfortable desertion when they grievously offend him he turns away from them This Moses shewed them in a visible Resemblance Exod xxxiii 7. The people there had sinned against God then 't is said Moses took the Tabernacle and pitch'd it without the Camp a farr off from the Camp thereby signifying God's displeasure against them and his departure from them Otherwise the Tabernacle was to be in the midst of the Host Numb ii But God was offended and withdrew himself from them 3. Yea not onely his visible Church but even God's Darling-Saints find this woful effect that their sins bring upon them that God stands aloof off and withdraws from them How often doth David mourn for this and pray against it Psal. x. 1. Why standest thou a farr off O Lord why hidest thou thy self in time of trouble So again Psal xxxviii 21. Forsake me not O Lord O be not far from me Upon his sin of Adultery O cast me not away from thy presence This the Saints often find and feel if they turn unto folly God turns from them stands afarr off not to hear them not to help them not to own them And Tertullian gives the reason Res delicata est Spiritus Dei he will not rest in a defiled soul. 4. Some sins of his people are of higher Provocations and so set him off far from us As 1. Bloud and Oppression and Violence That cast off Cain So God said He would remove Iudah out of his sight for the bloud-shed committed by Manasseh When you make many prayers I will not hear you for your hands are full of bloud Isai. i. 15. 2. A secure neglect of God's Offers of grace That turns him from us When he stretcheth out his hand to us and we will not come in and be reclaimed then saith God I will get me to mine own place Hos. iv 15. This cost the Spouse in the Canticles sorrow when Christ knock'd and still she refused to open to him at last I opened to my well-beloved but my well-beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone 3. Falsness in his Covenant When we corrupt that holy Religion which he hath committed to us that turns him from us See what that works Zech. xi 8. My soul then loathed them and their soul also abhorred me God will bear with many failings but once when we come to this height to adulterate his Worship ye may see what that will work in the Case of the Israelites Psal. cvi 39. They were defiled with their own works and went a whoring after their own inventions then he abhorred his own inheritance It made him forsake the Tabernacle in Shiloh the Tent which he had pitched among them Psal. lxxviii 58. This Sin 't is counted spiritual Adultery that dissolves the Marriage-knot 'twixt God and us and causes him to turn away and to divorce us 4. Incorrigibility under means of Reformation when God strives with us and we resist him It was the Case of the old World His Spirit would strive no longer with them but he cast them off The Prophet Isaiah notes it chap. lxiii 10. They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Thus God is giving over Judah Why should ye be smitten any more Isai. i. All that labour is spilt upon you III. Come we to the third Consideration It is the blessed fruit of repentance that it recovers Gods presence and causes him to return graciously to us When I name Repentance I understand a real cordial spiritual repentance that and that onely can re-gain us Gods favour and return him to us That you may better acquaint your selves with this necessary and soveraign duty not to enter upon any large discourse about it that duty will require of us these three Acts 1. Humiliation 2. Deprecation 3. Reformation I will exemplifie this to you by the repentance of the Ninevites 1. They put themselves to great Humiliation Ionah iii. The King himself came down from his Throne laid his robe from him and cover'd himself with Sack-cloth nay man and beast was covered with Sack-cloth prostrating and debasing themselves before an angry God We must put our mouths in the dust Lam. iii. be ashamed and abashed and even abhorr our selves in dust and ashes That is their Humiliation Next 2. Is their Deprecation they Cried mightily unto God Vers. 8. The spirit of lamentation and supplication must abound in us not content our selves with our ordinary perfunctory Prayers but we must strive and wrestle in prayer as it is said of Iacob he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication to him We must put our selves not onely to an exercise but to an agony of repentance Iacob wept Tears they are â—…udor animae the Sweat of the soul in this holy agony 3. Reformation That was a main point in the Ninevites repentance Vers. 8. Let them every one turn from his evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands Violence that was the sin of Nineveh they were an oppressing people It was this last that mainly prevailed with God See v. 10. God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and then it is said God repented He saw their Humiliation he heard their Deprecation but yet that which pleas'd him best was their Reformation He saw his eye was chiefly upon that That is the fat of the Sacrifice Such repentance is like to prevail with him Let him be turned away he will draw near to us again See two places Psal. xxxviii 18. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart he will save such as be of a contrite spirit Nigh how nigh Isaiah tells even to dwell with them that 's a constant presence Isai. lvi I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a conâ—…te spirit to revive the spirit of the humble Indeed 1. Repentance so pleasâ—… him that the very imperfect acts of repentance if they be true and sincere though not according to the strict standard of the Sanctuary are accepted by him David cried out Peccavi I have sinned and presently God absolved him The loving father meets his returning Prodigal Son half-way when he was yet afarr off and but making towards him 2. Repentance so
King David Let Ziba take all now the King is returned in peace Let the worldlings enjoy plenty here is the main comfort of a true Penitent God is returned to my soul in peace This Expression He will leave a blessing behind him it shews 2. Successionem Benedictionis Though he doth punish and chastise us yet here is our hope He will leave a blessing upon us 'T is a Penitent's comfort that God reserves mercy till afterwards that his anger 't is like a land-floud Non durabit aetatem that The rod of the wicked shall not alwayes rest upon his inheritance that he will do good to us at the latter end after our afflictions The end of that man is peace Psal. xxxvii Here is the contrary vicissitude in Gods dealings with the wicked there is a great difference betwixt these two wayes of God's proceedings To begin with a Judgement and to end with a Blessing that is his childrens portion and to begin with a Blessing and to end in a Judgement that 's the lot of the ungodly They shall suck up the dregs of Gods anger Sodom may have a fair morning a chearfull Sun-shine at the beginning of the day Gen. xix 23. but the day ended in fire and brimstone But the Church may have a foul morning but the Sun will break out upon them they shall have a fait evening God will leave a Blessing behind him Come we now to the Fourth Matter of Hope that 's the re-establishment of Religion and Gods Worship amongst them That we may have to offer a Meat-offering and a Drink-offering to the Lord our God 'T is a pregnant speech and contains many particulars I will name four of them 1. It is Finis Liberationis 't is the end we should aym at in seeking deliverance from any affliction That we may appear in his Temple and worship our God with an holy worship It was the end that Hezekiah set to himself when he prayed for recovery out of his sickness 2 Kings xx 8. What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord Then we ask Peace and Safety to purpose that we may enjoy the opportunities of serving God Zachary teaches us this lesson That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we â—…ight serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life S. Paul teaches us to pray for our Governours that we may live in peace and quietness Stop there will the worldly man say No S. Paul adds In all godliness and honesty Peace without Piety it is a carnal 〈◊〉 and it will not last long Pax 't is Sepimentum Ecclesiâ—… Peace it is Gods hedge about his Church If his Service prosper not he will break down the hedge take his Peace from us A Meat-offering and a Drink-offering to the Lord our God 2. It is Fructus Poenitentiae 't is the Fruit of Repentance Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings they were Sacrifices of Thanks giving When are they in season When we have appeased God by Repentance then our Services and Sacrifices shall be accepted We must Placare before we can Placere Till we be reconcil'd and in favour with God all our Oblations are Abominations but Repent and then God will accept thine Offerings An impenitenâ—… sinner is as if he blessed an Idâ—…l when he prayes but the prayers of a Penitent soul shall be accepted A Meat-offering and a Drink-offering to the Lord our God 3. It is Dedicatio Benedictionis They hope for a Blessing of Plenty and Prosperity and if they obtain it see they will devote it to his Honour and Worship Yes this is a right way to obtain a Blessing Devote it to his Service let him have the honour and then thou shalt have the comfort of it Saith Parisiensis As a Land-lord lets out his ground to halves let God have the glory and then thou shalt have the profit of his Blessing Peace and Plenty every man wishes for it it is every mans Prayer Ay but where are thy Vowes Dost thou promise to God to serve him with his Blessings and to consecrate them to him Imitate Hannah She prayed for a son and she devoted him to the Lord. The failing of this brings a forfeiture upon all Deut. xxviii 47. Because thou served'st not the Lord thy God with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies in hunger and want A meat-offering and a Drink-offering to the Lord our God 4. It is Solicitudo pietatis It argues an holy care for God's publick Worship that it be maintained and plentifully supported God challenges the Jews for neglecting of it when they returned from captivity They said the time was not yet come to build the Temple Hag. i. 2. they would stay till they had store build their own private Houses but let God's House lie waste Where is Ezra What 's become of Nehemiah Have we no Zerobbabel that takes care of God's worship before all other cares And is it not our fault We observe the Logicians rule but in a wrong way Primum in intentione is ultimum in executione the establishment of Religion was the first in our Promises but we see 't is last in our Performances But true Piety preferrs God's Service before all our Seekings 'T is the study of pious men if God will be good to us 1. God shall have the Glory of it 2. He shall not have a Verbal Glory but it shall be with Cost too 3. And we will provide not onely for a Present but for a Perpetual Worship Tantum de Materia Come we now to the other particular of the Text We have seen the matter of their hope now follows the measure of their hope and that is some what strange 'T is but a cold encouragement one would think puts all their hopes upon a peradventure 't is but Quis novit Who knows It may be so that 's all the Assurance 1. It is a strange speech seemingly contrary and inconsistent with God's goodness 'T is the excellency of every good nature to be ready to pardon and to be entreated Ionah thought God too ready to pardon I knew thou art a merciful God and wouldst forgive presently O the King of Israel is a merciful King 2. It is inconsistent with his present Invitation of them to Repentance And doth he prescribe Repentance at peradventure Who prescribes Physick so Take this Medicine who knows that it may do thee good 3. It is inconsistent with his present Encouragement v. 13. There he reckons up all his sweet Attributes The Lord is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repents him of the â—…vil and now he seeks to cross all and so disheartens their Repentance by a Quis novit 4. It seems contrary to his absolute Covenant and Promise to pardon Penitents Ezek. xviii If the wicked do that which is right he shall live
what we have done afore do the quite contrary It will make us resolve with the Church in Hosea ii 7. I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me than now So again Hos. vi 1. Come let us return unto the Lord. 'T is called a Conversion a full and pregnant word 1. Not a meer Aversion from some sin Repentance 't is not a meer cessation and giving over what we did before and there rest A man that is out of his way recovers not himself by a meer step and stay no he must go back again 2. 'T is not a meer Diversion give over this sinfull course and turn into another I will be no more prodigal but I will fall to some other carnal or sensual practice Here is alia semita sed eadem via a keeping of the same rode still though you change the track But 3. 'T is a full Conversion that brings him to the first point from which he strayed This Ieremie directs Chap. iv 1. If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return unto me It brings a man round about makes him quite another man 3. Repentance will put us to Enquiring That is a buisie word Inquiring and searching diligently S. Peter puts them together I Pet. i. 10. Our Saviour calls it Seeking and asking and knocking 'T is a consulting with others who can direct as Thus the Penitents in the Acts of the Apostles Chap. ii 37. enquired of Peter and Iohn Men and brethren what shall we do help and direct us So the Penitent Jaylor Acts xvi Sirs what must I do to be saved The Prophet Ieremiah shews them this duty Stand in the paths and ask for the old paths where is the good way And Isaiah quickens them to this enquiry Gh. xxi 12. bids them enquire of the Watchmen and what say they If ye will enquire enquire ye that is do it and do it again do it to some purpose 1. Enquire of the Guldes that God hath set up 2. Enquire of those that have strayed and wandered and lost him and now have found him what course took they And 3. It must be early Take the wings of the morning Early begingings may do much Isaiah gives us this Item The Watchman saith The morning comes and also the night if ye will enquire enquire Return come The days are short the morning spends the night hastens Early seekers seldom miss Late beginnings most-what fall short 4. Repentance it will quicken our memories They remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer It will make us re-call to mind all the good ways of God towards us Thus the revolting Church of Israel when she bethinks her self of returning to God she recounts how well it was with her when she kept her self to him Hos. ii 7. So the returning Prodigal Luke xv he remembred the plenty of his fathers house This remembring of Gods gracious dealings with us hath great force in the work of Repentance 1 It will upbraid us of our base unthankfulness Deut. xxxii 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and establisht thee 2. It melts our hearts into remorse and sorrow 〈◊〉 the love of Christ constrains us 3. It encourages and puts heart into our repentance I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High 5. Repentance will cause us to renew our Covenant with God that 's implied in Vers. 37. They were not stedfast in his Covenant That 's the true and principal work of Repentance it makes us enter into new Covenants with God Initial repentance that first enters us into the Covenant with God we engage and bind our selves over by solemn Covenant to become his servants Then our renewed repentance that bewayls the breaches of our first Covenants and binds us to him by new Engagements A sinner is a Covenant-breaker with God and a true penitent makes up those breaches and puts upon himself new bonds of obedience Here is the right method of Repentance Not onely bewail thy particular sin into which thou hast fallen but remember thou hast in thy Baptism entred Covenant with God Mourn for the violations of that recal to mind that great and solemn Engagement Thus when the people of Israel rebelled in the wilderness God commanded them to return to the Red-Sea again They were Baptized in the Red-Sea as S. Paul speaks Now that they had fallen from God God recalls them thither again to bewail the breach of Covenant that there they made with him The remembrance of that Covenant must work us to Repentance Renew that again not in the Ceremony and Sacrament but by thy new purposes and promises of better Obedience In this sense a Christian must be an Hemero-baptist wash himself every day in that holy Laver. We have seen the Several Acts in which their Repentance consisted Now follows the Second thing observable that 's the failings and defects of their repentance that made it unacceptable And they were four 1. It was fore-slowed and untimely 2. It was extorted and enforced 3. It was false and hypocritical 4. It was momentary and inconstant and â—…ickle I. It was untimely a delayed repentance First they sinned vers 10. They kept not his Covenant again vers 17. They sinned yet more still they went on Yet again vers 32. For all this they sinned still whiled off and delay'd and set back their repentance Even this is a malignant circumstance breeds a great flaw and blemish in our repentance the late date it bears Oh! repentance should be a timely a speedy and an early work 1. 'T is presently due as soon as we have sinned So Ratione officii by the law of right Reason a man is bound to be sorry as soon as he hath done evil It is Gods Due and he demands it presently Even in Lending Solomon bids us not put off till to morrow much more in paying thy debts 2. 'T is good repenting betimes Ratione inâ—…erti Do it while thou mayst do it while we have time In the morning sow thy seed Eccles. xi 6. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Hereafter Repentance may be hid from thine eyes We all pretend our resolutions are to repentance we grant we must repent and resolve to repent before we dye Be it so Be sure thou repent before thou dye and then thou must repent speedily for time to come is a most hazardous uncertainty The Jews have a rule He who vows to do any thing before he dyes he must do it speedily out of hand because he is not certain whether he shall live till to morrow and then his Vow is broken and he must answer for it 3. 'T is good repenting betimes Ratione facilitatis Timely repentance is the most kindly and gentle and easie repentance A wound is best taken when it is green deferr to
them 't is his hand that inflicts them And the Prophet Ieremiah makes it a point of Wisdom to acknowiedge this chap. ix 12. Who is a wise man that may understand this for what the land perisheth It is great wisdome to know from whom and for what our Afflictions are come upon us 1. It is an acknowledgement that God expects from us He looks we should see him in all our Sufferings and observe his hand in them Hear the rod and who hath appointed it Mica vi 9. and know whose hand it is that brings it 2. He challengeth these Afflictions to himself as his own special administrations Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos iii. 6. I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Isai. xlv 7. 3. He takes it hainously as a great indignity offer'd to his Providence that we will not acknowledge him in all our Sufferings Our Prophet complains of it vers 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see it give no testimony to his just proceedings See what construction God makes of this he accounts it no better then a reproach and slander cast upon him Ier. v. 12. They have belyed the Lord and said 'T is not he In all our Sufferings it must make us confess with old Eli It is the Lord and concludâ—… of our Affliction as David did of Promotion It comes neither from the East nor from the West nor any other point of the Compass but In the hand of the Lord there is a Cup and he reacheth it to us and pours it upon us A necessary Truth it is and yet we are exceeding backward to learn it And this backwardness in us is grounded upon two difficulties 1. This acknowledgment it is Confessio Fidei and all men have not this Faith to see and discern our calamities and miseries from whence they come Many feel the rod that cannot hear it feel the smart of it that cannot apprehend who hath appointed it With Belshazzar we can see the Hand-writing upon the Wall but we cannot read it and understand the meaning of it As the Jews when God spake from heaven Iohn xii 29. They said it thundred it was but a ratling in the Sky they made no more of it So a natural man without Faiths prospective can hardly look so high as to the hand of God The evil we suffer 't is but some distemper in nature or the malice of men or if it be more immediately from God then it is chance and fortune any thing rather then God that doth afflict us Whereas Faith and Piety overlooks secondary causes and fixes upon God Iob neither mentions Sabeans nor Caldeans in all his losses but acknowledges God in all his sufferings The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away This made Ioseph when he was shamefully entreated by his unnatural brethren acknowledg to them Non vos sed Deus 't was not you but God that lent me into Egypt 2. Men are exceeding loth to acknowledge their sufferings to be Gods judgements upon another difficulty 'T is Confessio reatùs it bewrays our guiltiness it carries with it an acknowledgment that all is not well 'twixt God and us but that he is become our enemy and fights against us Now naturally we are very unwilling to think that God hath any quarrel against us It is a deceit which we are exceedingly subject unto Prone we are to delude our selves with this false perswasion that God and we stand in good terms How hardly could Samuel dispute Saul out of this delusion and make him confess there was a breach 'twixt God and him We are very desirous in all our afflictions if it be possible to prove that God is not the Authour of them but some other cause Iudiciis Dei detrahimus ne peccatores nos esse cognoscamus saith Salvian As Pharaoh laboured a long time to prove that God sent not those plagues upon him but that Moses wrought them some other way his Inchanters could do as much as that came to It is no easie matter to make us acknowledge either our doings of evil to be sins against God or our sufferings of evil to be judgements from God Thy judgements saith David are far out of his â—…ght that makes him tush and puff at all his afflictions So then the point is briefly thus much The evils and calamities which we suffer they are Gods judgements 't is our duty so to esteem them to acknowledge them Acts of Divine Justice And that will draw from us three other Acknowledgments and clear and justifie Gods proceedings from three Imputations Are our afflictions Gods judgements Then 1. They are deserved by us God doth justly inflict them upon us Sine iniquitate 2. They are advisedly decreed and wisely ordain'd he brings them upon us Sine temeritate he doth not cast them upon us at all adventures and unadvisedly 3. They are proportion'd in a just and holy manner with a due measure and moderation he sends them upon us Sine furore not in rage and fury 1. Our miseries and afflictions they are Gods judgements and therefore deserved We must not charge God foolishly but acknowledg him to be righteous in all his proceedings Indeed while we have to deal with men In foro humanae Iustitiae we may have something to say We may charge them with violence and oppression and plead our innocency But when we consider Gods hand is in all that we suffer that will convince us of sin His judgements are evident convictions of our sinful provocations I know O Lord saith David that thy judgements are just Psal. cxix The violence of men doth not impeach the justice of God nor doth the justice of God warrant or excuse the violence of men Iehu must answer for all that bloud which was shed in Iezreel and yet Iezreel by Divine Sentence was devoted to destruction Hos. i. 4. Vos cogitâstis malum sed Deus vertit in bonum You thought evil against me but God meant it to good said Ioseph to his unnatural brethren that sold him into Egypt Their wicked designs were no impeachments to Gods holy purposes Quod homo facit improbè Deus facit justé The malice of men can be no prejudice to the justice of God We owe this dutiful acknowledgement to God in all our afflictions We must accept of the punishment of our iniquity Levit. xxvi 41. Thus the Church of God submits her self to Gods severity I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Micah vii 9. And so again Lam. i. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against him In all heavy calamities of warr and blood-shed of dearth and famine of sickness and diseases we may take up the Prophet Habakkuks question Was the Lord displeased against the Rivers Was thine anger against the rivers Was thy wrath against the Sea
excess hath brought this judgment upon you God usually meets with men in their own ways Covetousness and earthly-mindedness luxury and excess all of them are abuses of these good gifts of God To punish us in the loss of these is a proper punishment 3. This calamity of dearth and scarcity the failing of the creatures that the earth doth not give her increase 't is a proportionable judgment The creatures are made to be our servants we are made to be Gods servants As long as we do perform our service to him the creatures shall yield their strength and increase and prove serviceable to us But if we fail God how just is it then that the creatures should fail us As S. Aug. sweetly observes our Reason would not obey God therefore our Sense shall not obey Reason As Hushi said to Absalom Whom all Israel makes King and serves him will I serve excusing his seeming revolt from David so when the creatures start aside and revolt from us prove unserviceable to us 't is their real profession They must serve their grand Lord if we revolt from him they revolt from us The Father's words are these Lib. 13. de Civit. 113. Qui superiorem Dominum deseruerunt inferiorem famulum ad suum arbitrium non tenebant And de Nupt. Conjug lib. 1. cap. 16. Injustum erat ut ei obtemperetur à servo suo qui non obediverat domino suo 4. God oft-times singles out dearth and famine to punish a Nation with it is a deep and evident and apparent judgment War and oppression and captivity many other calamities mans hand is seen in them they are agents and instruments in bringing them upon us And in such calamities we can be content not to see Gods hand in them but to charge our sufferings upon the malice of men as if God and we were in good terms God oft-times loses the glory of such afflictions As indeed the heart of man is exceeding desirous in all afflictions if it be possible to prove that God is not the authour but some other cause As Pharaoh laboured a long time to prove that God sent not those plagues upon him but that Moses wrought them some other way his Enchanters could do as much as that came to till at last they cried out It is the finger of God Now in such a judgment as want and famine to weaken the strength of nature to make that fruitfull womb of the earth barren to us none but God can do it He onely can make the heavens as brass and the earth as Iron and restrain the celestial influences Can man bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion Iob xxxviii 31. Can any but God forbid the clouds to drop fatness No these Judgments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must cry out God fights against us 5. Famine it is a Scourge wherewith he uses to chastise a people as being a comprehensive Judgment like a chain-shot that bears all before it Many other calamities that are brought upon us by humane means are most-what avoidable by humane helps Wisdom or riches or strength may exempt or secure from some other annoyances but scarcity and famine that strikes at the life of every man All must beg daily bread The profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the field Eccles. v. 9. No King can help against this Judgment If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press said the King of Israel in the famine of Samaria 2 Kings vi 27. These extremities are unavoidable They will make us look up to heaven and say with Iehosaphat O Lord we have no might against this Judgment that comes upon us Neither know we what to do but our eyes are towards thee 2 Chron. xx 12. III. A third Extraction from the Text is Gods own children and servants are lyable to these extremities of want and scarcity which God brings upon the world as well as others The Prophet here in his own name and in the name of the Church hath a fearfull apprehension of them Indeed sometimes and in some Judgments God vouchsafes a special exemption to his Church and Children Instance in three cases 1. To preserve an holy portion of his People and a Nursery for his Church Isaiah acknowledges it Chap. i. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant we should have been as Sodom and like unto Gomorrah Still a remnant shall be saved And S. Paul applies it to the preservation of his chosen People Rom. ix 29. Gods Church must remain to all Posterity no Judgment must sweep them all away In this case when common Judgments are sent upon the world he exempts his own When the deluge came upon the old world an Ark was provided to save Noah and the holy seed When he visits them he doth it in measure he makes not a full end of them 2. God exempts his own People from common Judgments when the Judgments are sent in the cause of his Church to manifest and maintain that they are his People and that their sufferings from the world are most unjust then usually he puts a difference and exempts his own from common calamities Thus in all the plagues of Egypt Gosben was priviledged he put a difference betwixt the Hebrews and the Egyptians he passed over them when he plagued their enemies Thus in the case of famine Isaiah tells the enemies of Gods People Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Isai. lxv 13. Malachi assures them of this exemption and that God will make it appear Who are his Chap. iii. 17. In that day when I make up my jewels I will spare them as a man spares his own Son that serves him and then shall ye diseevn between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serves him not 3. In the pùnishment of those sins which his children have withstood opposed protested against and mourned for usually in that case God exempts such Saints and Servants of his This obtained Lot's exemption out of Sodom's overthrow he mourned for the abominations that were done in Sodom and S. Peter makes it a ruling case and argues from it 2 Pet. ii 5. If God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of Righteousness and in the overthrow of Sodom verf. 7. delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked thence he gathers this Conclusion vers 9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation This protected Ieremiah and kept him out of captivity This holy carriage exempted Baruch his life was given him for a prey Those that mourned for the abominations of the Land were marked out by God for escapal and deliverance
Inhabitation He dwells in â—…s A speech of great Emphasis importing the near and close and intimate conjunction and union 'twixt the Spirit and us And this Inhabitation is expressed in Scripture in a double Notion 1. It is Domestica familiaris habitatio 't is Habitatio ut in domo that is a near conjunction Thus the Church is called The house of the living God 1 Tim. iii. 15. And Heb. iii. 6. Whose house are we And again Ephes. ii 22. We are built for an habitation of God through the Spirit 2. It is Sacra Religiosa 't is Habitatio ut in Templo that 's more The first In Domo imports a near Conjunction The second In Templo inferrs a Sacred Presence Indeed Gods Presence makes us a Temple sanctifies and consecrates us to holy Uses 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know you not that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you Nay not onely our souls but our bodies are hallowed to be a Temple 1 Cor. vi 19. Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost For the understanding of this sacred Inhabitation let us consider 1. How the Spirit dwells in us 2. What this dwelling implyes I. How doth the Spirit dwell in us 1. This dwelling of the Spirit in us 't is like the Spirit it self wholly spiritual all in a mystical and heavenly manner As is his Essence so is his Presence onely spiritual Papists enforce a bodily Presence of Christ we must corporally receive him into our bodies No saith S. Cyprian Nostra Christi conjunctio non miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confoederat voluntates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. vi 17. 2. This Inhabitation is performed in us by the production and infusion of those saving Graces which the Spirit works in us As Luther speaks of the Soul 't is Officina Dei mei 't is the Work-house where the Holy-Ghost frames and fashions the new Man in us And though he dwells in us by every Grace yet there are two special Graces to which the Scripture ascribes the Inhabiting 1. Is Faith that 's the Grace that lets in God into the soul and gives him possession Ephes. iii. 17. He dwells in our hearts by Faith Infidelity excludes him Faith receives and entertains him 2. Is Charity by it the Spirit dwells in us God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him 1 Iohn iv 16. Love amongst men it is a cohabiting quality Amor congregat 't is an associating virtue t is the glew and cement of the world it makes men dwell together These two are the two uniting Graces Faith unites to God mystically Love morally 'T is the formal union of the soul with God 3. The Spirit dwells in us not onely by his gifts and graces but really The Holy-Ghost is present and applies and unites himself to a Christian. Our bodies are the Temples of the Holy-Ghost not of his Graces but of his own sacred Person The Fathers prove the Holy-Ghost to be true God in Substance because he hath a Temple None but God possesses a Temple And Habitatio 't is Actus Personae properly none but a person is said to Inhabit Indeed Substantially the Holy-Ghost is every where but yet Dwelling adds to his natural Presence a more special Habitude He is tanquam in suo where he doth Inhabit A stranger may be present in an house as well as the owner but to be there by special Interest as in his own Possession so the Holy-Ghost is present in a Christian. That 's the first Consideration How the Spirit dwells in us But II. What doth this Dwelling imply 1. Dwelling implies Propriety and special Right and Interest It is a Possessive word The soul and body of a Christian is Gods more immediate Possession he hath the reference of a lord and owner to it Thus S. Paul tells us 1 Cor. vi 19. Ye are the Temple of the Holy-Ghost and ye are not your own A Christian is Gods upon a fuller right and title then another man All are his as all wasts are the lord 's of the Soil but his lordship and mansion-house are more specially his Such a reference hath a Christian to God He is his not upon common tenure but by peculiar appropriation 2. Dwelling implies Residency and Continuance and Fixedness of abode A man is not said to dwell in an Inn or in the house of a friend though he sometimes be in them A stranger or a wayfaring-man saith the Prophet Ieremy turns aside to tarry for a night There a man dwells where he resides and abides constantly So then the Spirit dwells in a Christian that is he is constantly fixedly in him sets up his rest makes him his Mansion Here will I dwell for I have a delight in it Thus David expresses Gods residence in his Church Psal. cxxxii 13. The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation vers 14. This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Thus the Spirit fixes his abode inseparably to the soul of a sanctified man His Graces have 1. Firmitatem radicis they take root in us 2. Perennitatem fontis they are always springing never decaying The Annointing which you have received of him abides in you 1 Ioh. ii 27. His Grace 't is laid in oyl no waterish colours that will wash off presently Indeed for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some such endowments they are in a man Per modum actus transeuntis as Prophesie but Saving Grâ—…ces are Per modum habitus permanentis According to some Graces the Spirit comes and goes saith S. Gregory Recessurus venit venturus recedit sed sine quibus ad vitam aeternam non pervenitur in elecâ—…orum cordibus semper permanet Saving Graces are never vanishing That is a second residency 3. Dwelling implies Command and Authority and right of Disposal of all things He who dwells and possesses as an owner doth like the Centurion he saith to this Do and he doth it to another Go and he goes It was the law of the Medes and Persians That every man should bear rule in his own house Esther i. 22. So then Doth the Spirit of God dwell in us He must bear sway in us with all authority he must rule and govern and order all in the soul of a Christian. His motiâ—…ns they must be commands 'T is a rule in Oeconomicks Voluntas Superioris quomodocunque innotescit vim praecepti obtinet The Master of the house the glance of his eye the beck of his hand must find obedience 'T is that which Paul practiseth Gal. ii 20. I live yet not I but Christ lives in me Christ and his Spirit bore all the sway in S. Paul s life Christians must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted and managed all by the Spirit S. Paul expresses it Acts xx 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us Observe saith the Father here upon earth we have Masters and Mistrisses but in heaven Non habemus Dominum Dominam but onely our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ that must have mercy upon us Now follows Elisha's desire I pray thee let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me He answers not Elijah as Ahaz to Isaiah when he bad him ask a Sign no I will not ask Isai. vii 11 12. Elijah no sooner maks proffer but he lays hold on it 'T is good making use of Elijah while we have him with us unfold our wants to him that he may supply them Elijah must not always continue among us The times may come when we shall wish to see one of the days of the Son of man and it shall not be Oh in this thy day now the Angel is stirring the water yet Elijah is among us do as Elisha he makes haste petitions him presently Of which Petition take a double Consideration 1. Quid Supponit 2. Quid Petit. I. Quid Supponit Here are four Supposals 1. The first Supposal is Identitas Spiritus He supposes the same Spirit shall be settled upon him that rested on Elijah Here is a continuation of the same Spirit in a succession of men Elijah is taken away Yes but his Spirit shall remain The means and instruments of grace may be removed but the gifts of the Spirit shall continue still It is worth the observing God ties not himself to any personal perfections Oh we think If such a Saint dies what will become of the Church 'T is a loss but yet in diversity of men here is the same Spirit When Moses died his spirit rested upon Ioshua Aaron died Eleazar was invested and clothed with the same Spirit It must comfort us when we see glorious Instruments taken from us Paul a Luther c. yet the same spirit remains and breathes in his Church As it was said to the evil servant Tolle talentum da so of the good The Lord needs no mans person or parts he can set his Spirit upon another 2. A second Supposal is Portio Spiritus The Spirit of Elijah is apportioned out in a limited dispensation It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We receive but in part no man hath all in kind or degrees To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word Knowledge by the same Spirit to another the gifts of Healing to another Prophecie c. 1 Cor. xii 8 9. 10. The most enriched Saint hath but what he enjoys in measure they have indeed a fulness but then it is onely 1. A fulness of Capacity 2. A fulness of Sufficiency for their use but not of absolute Perfection Aaron had the Spirit poured on him others had it but sprinkled Quantum causa exigit propter quam datur Ambros. 3. A third Supposal is Inaequalitas portionum There is a single portion and a double portion Some have one talent some two another five There is not any Saint but hath one not any that have all but some more some less Benjamin's mess was five times as much as any of the rest of his brethrens 4. A fourth Supposal is Duplicatio in juniore Elisha the successour and junior may have a double Portion more then Elijah his predecessour God can cross his hands as Iacob did and lay his right hand upon Ephraims head who was the younger and his left hand upon Manassehs head who was the first-born Gen. xlviii 14. We cannot prescribe to God 'T is neither the age of men nor the precedency of times that is any thing but the Lord may be as bountifull to this Age as unto Antiquity It is no disparagement to Elijah that Elisha exceeds him After-ages may be furnished with more eminent men in some kinds then the more Primitive and Ancient times have been We worthily reverence Antiquity and rise up at the gray head but yet God may double some gifts on their successours Augustine Hierom the rest were most reverend yet Luther Calvin others more famous in their generation There is a double Use of a double Portion 1. For Founding 2. For Repairing and Reforming of Churches And as great a measure of the Spirit is as necessary for this as that Iohn must come in Spiritu Eliae to found the Gospel After-ages have the promise of the spirit of Elias too in reforming The one to preach Christ the other to resist Antichrist How do some slight our late Worthies These Novelists Modern Yester-day-Divines But Quis contempsit diem parvulorum And let no man despise thy youth As it is said of some good Kings none like David none like Hezekiah none like to Iosiah before or after Why because each excelled in some personal grace of zeal or piety or integrity So these late-ones were eminent in some things before all other that preceded Patres tum demum vincunt cum vincuntur à filiis Ancients would have gloried in their posterity and why enviest thou for their sakes That 's for the first Quid Supponit Now follows II. Quid Petit The summ of his Desire That a double portion of thy Spirit may be upon me In it observe two things 1. The Matter of his Desire that 's Elijah's Spirit 2. The Measure of it A double portion First The Matter of his Request Had many of us such a large Offer made us to ask what we would I fear we should not have pitched upon this request of Elisha for a spiritual blessing Elijah had a power of curing and raising from the dead health and long life some would have asked Elijah could cause plenty bring famine increase oyl others would have urged a supply of riches Elijah could bring down fire to consume his enemies others would have desired victory and safety The Lord implies that naturally these are our carnal desires in his reply to Solomon 1 Kings iii. 11. Because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thy self long life neither hast asked riches for thy self nor hast asked the life of thine enemies c. See here is one who passes by all these and knows how to frame a Petition aright that he is sure shall speed the prayer for the Spirit Oh 't is a great advantage to know what to pray for Docet dare qui prudenter rogat The choosing of the better part prevails with God Herod offers to the Damosel to ask what she will and she asks the head of S. Iohn the Baptist the life of her enemy Piety will ask the spirk of the Baptist. But why doth Elisha pitch upon this request Why begs he the Spirit 1. He had Spirium vocantem now he begs the Spirit enabling He was called to a spiritual Function now he sues for a spiritual enablement for the discharge and execution of it If God puts us into a Calling we must beg and seek for gifts answerable to it See Moses
how importunate was he with God for enablement Solomon call'd to the Kingdom begs a Kingly spirit How many are there who sue for the Calling but seldom crave the Enabling It must be so in every employment Art thou called to an Office beg wisdom courage fidelity Art thou a servant beg the graces suitable Art thou in any course of life go to God for enablement that he may make thee an able member in the Church or Common-wealth In every course of life we must labour for skill and prudence and sufficiency In thy Calling strive to excel to the edifying of the Church Gods Work-men have a wise spirit to work all cunning work Iacobs Sons were men of Activity therefore Pharaoh would employ them 2. He asks that which was fittest for Elijah to grant him Elijah had a kind of Universality of obtaining any thing but it was proper for him to give that which himself excelled in They are Dona dextrae that move most readily Dona throni not Bona scabelli With men we grant small requests and stick at great gifts but God gives his best gifts most readily 3. Elijah is now leaving the World Now Elisha sees what it was that comforted Elijah and stood him in stead Oh it was this that he had been an able and faithful Prophet an holy man it was that which made him leave the World thus peaceably comfortably willingly This makes Elisha crave the Spirit All outward things what comfort can they breed at our last parting Give me that that may breed matter of comfort at my last need make me such a Prophet that I may so live as I may die like Elijah Look upon a rich man dying see what comfort he gets by his riches or honours Look on a man replenish'd with Gods Spirit one who hath done God much service now ready to have his Lords Euge and to enter into that joy it will make thee wish one dram of grace rather then the whole World besides Judge of Elijah hid in Mount Carmel for Persecution and look on Baal's Priests ruffling in Iezabels Court it may tempt thee to wish their Honour Ey but stay a while see their Honour and Elijah's glorious Death or Departure it will make thee neglect the one to beg the other and chuse rather to die in Elijah's hairy Mantle then in all their bravery So much for the matter of his desire Now follows Secondly The measure of it A double portion of thy Spirit Why so What makes him desire a greater measure then Elijah had What Was it envy and carnal emulation to out-strip Elijah Or ambition to be more renowned in his Generation 'T is true a man may be proud of the Spirit desirous to set up himself But it was not so in Elisha What may we conceive rais'd his desires so high 1. Dignitas doni The excellency of these kind of gifts Spiritual graces deserve eager pursuits and vehement desires of them A man may beg too much of outward blessings but of spiritual gifts to save himself and others we cannot be too covetous in getting of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. xiv 1. Be zealously affected to spiritual Graces strive to excell for the edifying of the Church Solomon craves abundance of Wisdom but of Riches onely what is moderate and convenient S. Peter when he heard of the virtue that was in Christs washing then he saith to Christ Lord not my feet onely but also my hands and my head How preposterous are our desires generally We crave two Portions of outward Blessings but a little Knowledge little Abilities to do good content us well 2. Eminentia exempli The lustre of Elijah's example hath ravish'd him The Spirit that was so eminent and conspicuous in him it begets an holy emulation to attain and outgoe him Oh to see grace of any sort incorporate and incarnate in another man it provokes the endeavours of others makes them long to be excellent in such graces This stirred up Simon Magus to see S. Peter so glorious he would needs purchase such a gift When we see Religion clasped up in Books it works not so effectually when we see it reall and operative then it works kindly upon us makes others if they have any mettle in them to attain the like Those who damp and smother the gifts of God in them they hinder the progress and growth of grace in others To see men carry grace as men do a candle in a dark lanthorn onely for themselves it hinders emulation but to make it shine forth and to be radiant invites others to an holy ambition to out-strip and exceed and go beyond their Copies 3. Gustus initialis gratiae Elisha had some beginnings of these gifts before he had felt the sweetness and excellency of them it makes him therefore the more earnest and eager to be rich in grace They who have once felt the sweetness of Gods Spirit in any kind they cannot satisfie themselves in any stint but are earnest for more The true Relishes of Gods first gifts beget not loathing but longing makes men to cry out Lord evermore give us this bread and to desire That the word of God may dwell plenteously in them Grace it is always growing ascending They who content themselves with their first beginnings have cause to suspect they were not true and kindly How doth S. Paul pray for more enablements They who think they know enough know nothing as they should 4. Pondus officii He is now to undergoe a weighty service to become the main Prophet of the People of God 't is a burden heavy enough for Angels and Archangels The sense of this weight makes him call and begg for a double Portion There is no Calling but carries its burden and so craves help but the Prophetical Calling that 's an heavy Talent What knowledge and understanding what courage and resolution what patience and forbearance is required and all little enough for an Elisha's employment This made Solomon beg Oh 't is a great People give thy Servant therefore a large Heart It made Moses shrink his shoulder from under it They who in any kind are to govern others undergoe a weighty burden they must beg a double Portion 5. Ardor zeli His desire of doing much good makes him thus earnest for much enablement He desires to be a faithful Servant to bring in much gain to give up a large account of his Stewardship They who think any service sufficient any performance enough they may content themselves with small portions of gifts Here is one who is ambitious of gaining God much glory of saving many souls 6. Gravitas damni The loss of an Elias stirrs him up to crave a double Portion Elijah was set for the defence of Religion the burden of the Church rested on his shoulders Now that the Church hath lost him it inflames Elisha to get himself furnish'd for to do that service Oh when we see the Church loses her choisest Patrons and
Upholders it must not make us faint but double our endeavours that that loss may be recovered So Moses my servant is dead arise Ioshuah play the man now This made Elijah zealous before there is none left I even I onely am left 1 Kings xix 10 so it doth now Elisha The daily losses that the Church suffers should make us more forward in doing all the good we can 7. Sensus infirmitatum He desires a double Portion in respect of Elijah out of a sense of his own infirmities He conceived Elijah to be a man more able and sufficient even by natural parts and he was conscious to himself of his own insufficiency and therefore he judges a double Portion was necessary for him whereas a less Portion enabled Elijah A true sense of our unworthiness and infirmities will make us more zealously earnâ—…st for a larger enablement of Gods gracious assistance This made the Prophet cry out I am a man of unclean lips Isai. vi 5. Moses oft pleads his insufficiency Wouldst thou be stirred up and made more capable of grace in any kind Look not upon thine own strength but upon thine infirmities Lord I am a child and cannot speak who is sufficient for these things Saul got a new spirit when he said I am of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel and my family the least of all the families of the Tribe of Benjamin 1 Sam. ix 21. 8. Elisha's Ministery was likely to fall into difficult times Ahab and Iezabel had so spawn'd the Church with Idolatry and Sorcery and Persecutions that Elisha sees nothing but Opposition He is to encounter with a whole Nation of Idolaters There were seventy Sons of Ahab left in Samaria and a Succession of Persecutors like to continue According to the difficulty of the work he begs the larger enablement He shrinks not from the Service onely he beggs Assistance The rising of Persecution and Opposition must not discourage but provoke and stirr us up to solicite for greater enablement When times are peaceable less gifts may do good In a Calm any body may serve to guide the Ship but in a Tempest then all sufficiencies are little enough Thus the Church Acts iv 28 Now Lord behold their threatnings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word By stretching forth thine hand Verse 30. The Persecutions of the Church must not deterr but provoke us to a greater enabling of our selves In danger of Heresie be more grounded in Religion A double portion of Knowledge is then requisite Well then 1. Doth Elisha beg of Elijah If He draws from the Channel how should We have recourse to the Fountain Christ is not onely the Obtainer but the Soveraign Dispenser of all grace Goe to him now ascended Elijah ascended ceases his Intercession Christ now intercedes most of all He is set over all the Store-houses of God as Ioseph was over those of Pharaoh's in Egypt As therefore they to Ioseph so let us to Christ. When he ascended on high He gave gifts unto men Eph. iv 8. He it is who breathes out the Spirit Ever unfold thy wants to him beg supplies of him 2. If Elisha begs Prophetical Endowments which are variously bestowed then may we be more forward to pray for those necessary sanctifying graces of the Spirit A man may seek for those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God sometimes denie them But Faith Repentance Holiness those he will never deny They are covenanted for if thou seekest for them Thou mayst pray and pray to be a Prophet and not obtain pray for saving grace God will not reject thee These we should importune for most earnestly they being evidences of special favour pledges of Salvation 3. Doth Elisha thus seek for enablements to do the Church Service It should provoke others to joyn with Elisha in this request It is for thy good that Elisha prays that he might be fitted to save thee Oughtest not thou to joyn in obtaining this grace Thus S. Paul calls upon the Churches Pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel Let us pray that God would shed his Spirit richly upon his Ministers They who feed the Nurse do it for the Childs sake that sucks on her So should you pray that the Lord would encrease his Spirit on those that dispense the Word to you 4. Elisha he desires to imitate and exceed Elijah Elisha a Prophet sets Elijah a Prophet for his Pattern So in all Callings and Professions propound the Examples of the choisest Worthies that are before thee Art thou a Magistrate say Oh that the Spirit of Nehemiah may be doubled upon me Art thou a Master Oh that the Spirit of Cornelius whose whole Houshold was religious may be doubled upon me Art thou poor or sick Oh that the Spirit of Iob may be doubled upon me Art thou rich Oh that the Spirit of Abraham or 〈◊〉 may be doubled upon me Art thou a Child Oh that the Spirit of Isaac might be doubled upon me Art thou a Servant Oh that the Spirit of Eleazar might be doubled upon me Look upon the choisest Copies write after them imitate those that do excell in the way wherein God hath placed thee A SERMON ON S. LUKE xxi 34. Take â—…eed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares THe Chapter contains First A serious fore-warning that Christ gives to his Disciples of the approach and drawing near of the day of Judgment A Truth never unseasonable to be taught and believed in the Church of God but yet most proper and suitable to the times of Christianity The times of the Gospel in which we live are call'd The last dayes Heb. i. 2. Brethren the time is short saith S. Paul 1 Cor. vii The ends of the world are come upon us Christians 1 Cor. x. 11. Not but that the times before Christ had this warning given them and those Primitive Saints took notice of it Enoch that lived in the first age of the Church preached this Truth to the old World God by the Spirit of Prophâ—…sie reveal'd it and he by the eye of Faith clearly discerned it as if he had seen Christ coming in the Clouds Hear what S. Iude saith vers xiv Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of these times Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Iudgment And the Prophets spake so clearly of our Saviours coming to Judgment in Glory that the Jews as Tertullian observes mistook his second coming for his first they interpreted the predictions of his last appearance for his first coming into the world in his Incarnation The teaching of this Truth was not then unseasonable but yet of the two Ages of the Church the doctrine of the day of Judgment is most proper and agreeable to us
As Protarchus in Aristotle said Those stones were happy stones of which Altars were made Sure 't is an happy employment of what God gives to us that we give something of it again to God to maintain his Worship Superstition spares for no cost and shall Religion be close-handed The Jews that lavish'd out their gold Ear-rings and Jewels to make the Golden Calf were afterwards as forward to contribute their gold and silver for the Ark and Tabernacle Our Christian Worship it is more spiritual then that of the Jews but that discharges us not of this duty God's House his Ministers the Provision for his Worship they must be supported and honourably supplied This is strange doctrine to the world We count nothing too mean too homely for the Service of God If we remove the Ark put it in a Cart if we give place to it lodge it in a Cottage That Religion is best we think that is best-cheap 5. A fifth thing observable is that it was Cultus per sacrificium a publick worship by solemn Sacrifice a consuming and burning upon Gods Altar their Gifts and Oblations Burnt-Offering and Sacrifice was the most awful and solemn Worship the Church offered up to God before Christ. Moses gives Rules and Canons for this Service Nay as Christ saith of Circumcision we may say of Sacrifice It was not of Moses but of the Fathers all from Adam and downwards Abel Noah Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs abounded in this Service And it carries with it these significations 1. It was a real Recognition and acknowledgment of Gods Soveraign Dominion and of their Dependency and Subjection to him Mittite agnum dominatori terrâ—… Isai. xvi 7. Seâ—…d ye a lamb to the Ruler of the land as a Sacrifice of Homage and Subjection 2. It was a sad Remembrance and acknowledgment of sin and of the due debt and just desert of death by sin The slaying of the Sacrifice was a confession that they deserved death and destruction 3. It was a Protestation and Profession of their faith in Christ the great Atonement to be offered for them the true Lamb of God the great whole burnt-Offering to satisfie for sin 4. They were Testimonies and Professions of humble thankfulness for mercies received But then the Inquiry must be Where is our Christian-Sacrifice Have not Christians something to offer and sacrifice to God I answer These carnal and external Sacrifices of Beasts belong all to the Law of Ceremonies and so cease now and are out of date Christ hath put an end to them The Salt that did season their Sacrifices was Gods Institution now they want that Salt and so they corrupt and putrefy The Mannah that was kept longer then Gods appointment bred worms and corrupted such now are all Jewish Sacrifices Now they are no sweet savour but a loathsome stench in the nostrils of God But then have Christians no Sacrifice Yes verily The summe and substance of those Sacrifices is compleat in Christ. He is the onely Priest and Sacrifice of the New Testament He offered up himself once for all He gave himself as an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Eph. v. 2. A Sacrifice of that efficacy that it need not be offered often it was once offered and is for ever effectual S. Chrysostom compares the Jewish Sacrifices to weak Plaisters that must be often renewed Christs bloud was like a Soveraign plaister Semel impositum semper sanat once applied it perfectly cures us But yet though we have now no proper Sacrifice external and bodily yet we have still our Evangelical and spiritual Sacrifices For besides that every good work and holy action done for the honour of God is a Christian Sacrifice Feci Deo as David speaks makes it a Sacrifice As S. Augustine speaks Opus bonum quod fit ut sancta societate inhaereamus Deo Any good work that may joyn us to God and commend us to his acceptation that 's a Sacrifice Besides that a Christian offers up to God a fourfold Sacrifice 1. Sacrificium cordis contriti The Sacrifice of a Contrite heart in the practice of Repentance Thus S. Paul calls the Repentance and Conversion of the Gentiles The Offering up of the Gentiles or the sacrificing of them And David acknowledgeth The Sacrifice of God is a broken and contrite heart Psal. lâ—… The killing of our lusts the mortifying of our sins 't is an holy and acceptable Sacrifice and Service unto God A Christian hath 2. Sacrificium cordis devoti the Sacrifice of a devout heart that 's the Sacrifice of Prayer and our great Christian Sacrifice when the soul by prayer ascends up to heaven as upon the Altar of Incense Thus David acknowledgeth Let my prayer be as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening Sacrifice Psal. cxli. 2. Theodoret observes when Christ cast out the sheep and the doves out of the Temple and said My house shall be called an house of prayer he abolish'd all other Sacrifices and appointed prayer to be the solemn Sacrifice and Service of the Church 3. A Christian hath another Sacrifice that 's Sacrificium cordis grati the sacrifice of a thankful heart the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving unto God Thus we see Psal. l. God rejects their bloudy sacrifices in stead of them he tells them Whosoever offers praise and thanks to him he honours him Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the bloud of goats Offer unto God thanksgiving He takes away the first that he may establish the second And Heb. xiii 15. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name And in this kind the great sacrifice of the Christian Church is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the great commemoration of the great benefit of our Redemption The most religious and mysterious benediction and praising of God 't is the Cup of blessing and calling upon the name of the Lord. 4. A Christian hath yet another Sacrifice that 's Sacrificium cordis benefici the sacrifice of Alms-deeds and charitable communication the distributing to the necessities of our poor brethren that 's accounted by God a Christian Sacrifice The relief which the Philippians sent to S. Paul 't is called An Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God chap. iv 18. So the Apostle To do good and to distribute forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well-pleased Heb. xiii 16. These four 1. The Sacrifice of a Contrite heart 2. The Sacrifice of a Devout heart 3. The Sacrifice of a Thankful heart 4. The Sacrifice of a Charitable and Compassionate heart these are the Sacrifices of a Christian which God accepts of him We have seen the Performance of this Service Now follows Secondly the Success and Acceptance of it Abel and his Service is respected but Cain and his Offering is rejected We have seen them go hand in hand in this
will appear to you in these two expressions 1. Onely 't is Summum votum meum Of all my desires this is the chief of all my prayers and studies and requests this is the main and summ of them all That you live as Christians Observe the true spirit of Paul and such as he was the spiritual good and growth in grace of them that are committed to them is their main desire and care the height of their wishes S. Paul preferred their well-doing before the care and thoughts for himself He had even now spoken of his own life and death but he breaks off that discourse with this more serious exhortation As if he should say Let God dispose of me as he pleaseth that which goes nearest my heart and doth take up my thoughts is that you may prosper and grow in grace and this hath been the temper or rather the zeal of all Gods faithfull Prophets and servants Moses how did his spirit burn in him for his peoples good Blot me out of thy Book onely be gracious unto thy people do not cast them off He had rather God should destroy him then them S. Chrysostom saith That speech of Moses was a greater wonder then all the miracles he wrought in Egypt It was much in David to say Spare these Sheep and let thine hand be upon Me they were Innocents he was the Offender but in Moses his speech the people were the offenders he was most innocent and yet he prays Destroy me but spare them So Samuel though unkindly and ungratefully dealt withall by the people yet God forbid saith he that I should cease praying for you The Prophet Ieremiah was so earnest with God for the Jews that God is fain to forbid his importunity Pray not for this people The Apostle S. Iohn professeth it was his greatest comfort to see his Disciples thrive in grace I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in the truth Epist. iii. 4. S. Peter how doth he make it his main care to further the salvation of the people of God 2 Pet. i. 12. I will not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things Vers. 13. As long as I am in this Tabernacle I will stirr you up Nay I will endeavour that after my absence you may remember these things Like another Elias who prepared an Epistle before his departure out of this world to be sent to the King of Iudah who should reign afterwards 2 Chron. xxi 12. It adds to the joys of Gods servants in heaven that their people are proficient in the ways of piety And it seems by the Apostle it abates of their comfort if their people miscarry That they may give an account of you with joy and not with grief Heb. xiii 17. Why so If they have done their duties though the people miscarry yet they shall be rewarded the Physician hath his Fee though the sick man dies True true but yet sorry he is that he could not recover him Above all S. Paul is most abundant in these gracious expressions How earnestly doth he pray for the Churches to whom he writes Ephes. i. 16. I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers Again Ephes. iii. 14. For you I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Phil. i. 9. I pray that your love may abound more and more Coloss. i. 9. I cease not to pray for you and to desire that you may walk worthy of the Lord 1 Thes. iii. 12. The Lord increase you and make you to abound in love And again Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout Indeed this care for the Church took up Paul's heart and life he forgat all other things in respect of that 1. It was the aim and intendment of all his pains and labours We do all things for your edification 2 Cor. xii 19. 2. It was the summ of all his cares The care of all the Churches lay upon him 2 Cor. xi 3. It was the summ of all his desires Phil. i. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Iesus Christ. 4. It was the matter of all his joy Phil. iv 1. My brethren dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown 5. It was the matter of all his sorrow The disorderly conversation of some Christians wrung tears from his eyes I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. iii. 18. 6. It was the end of all his sufferings I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may obtain salvation with eternal glory 2 Tim. ii 10. 7. It was his very life to him to see them do well Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord 1 Thes. iii. 8. 8. It was the matter of all his thankfulness What thanks can we render unto God for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God Vers. 9. That 's the first expression of this Onely 't is Votum Apostoli 2. This Emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely admits of another expression it notes Summum officium populi the greatness of the duty which he charges upon them which is an holy and Gospel-like life and conversation Take it in these three Expressions 1. This duty it is Summè necessarium 't is a duty of the greatest necessity which he doth so earnestly call upon them for Men lay not this load and weight of intreaty upon perfunctory services that are but of slight concernment and more indifferent Thus we find this manner of speech used in the Scripture Be not afraid onely believe Mark v. And again Luke viii Believe onely and he shall be made whole So 1 Cor. vii Let her marry to whom she will onely in the Lord. All these speeches are strict provisoes and shew the duty enjoyned to be of great necessity Such is the duty of the Text. An holy and unblameable conversation 't is not slightly commended to us but strictly enjoyned and upon the most absolute necessity 1. Take it negatively without this duty there is no hopes of heaven Heb. xii 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord no salvation without it Then 2. Consider it positively as without it no salvation so upon it salvation is assured 'T is not a Sine quanon onely enough to hinder us from heaven if wanting but it is an effectual condition upon performance of which heaven is assured to us Psal. l. 23. To him that orders his conversation aright I will shew the salvation of God 2. As 't is Summè necessarium so this Onely imports another notion it shews the duty of the Text 't is Officium praecipuum 't is the onely One That 's a signification of the greatest excellency As David speaks of the Sword of Goliah There 's none to that such is this duty of an holy conversation As it is of greatest necessity so likewise it