flesh of his flesh that I may walk all the day thus cloathed with these reflexions then when we come to sin when temptation is offered it may be the devil will say such a one did it that is wiser then thou and such a one that is a fellow of the same calling then this positive actual reflexion upon the soul that thou art in Christ this would make thee say O but how shall I do it Jesus Christ died for me Jesus Christ hath washed me in his blood I am one with him What if the children of darkness do so is it fit for a childe of light what if sinners do so is it fit for a man that God hath called out of sin and out of the world is it fit for him to do so We seldome carry those reflexions about us when The Saints should reflect upon their high condition we go abroad among the snares of the world therefore we fall into sin for the older we are in grace the more full of snares the world is I could shew that you can name no place in the new Testament where our priviledges and relations are mentioned but as the holy Ghost mentions them to raise up the soul for comfort so expresly to stir us up to holiness 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! I am perswaded that the Primitive Saints in the new Testament did generally look upon themselves distinct as a Common wealth and a people redeemed out of the world and in the light of that they did so walk they did alway speak so of themselves We are the first fruits of the spirit we are the sons of God we are redeemed and bought with a price We are the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but when he shall come we shall be like him O this gives comfort but what then what follows He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure This hope is somewhat like that reflexion I am speaking of when there is an actual hope in the soul of being with the Lord and an actuall positive perswasion that I am the Lords then a man will purify himself as God is pure I might mention a hundred places in the new Testament 2 Cor. 6. Come out from among them seperate your selves and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be your father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is very comfortable that we shall be his sons and daughters and that he will be our Father What then In the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God If we be the sons and daughters of God and he be our Father therefore we should be holy in soul and body and spirit I remember a little Story of a great Monarch though I do not much trouble you with them but it doth a little illustrate what we speak of walking with his son a Prince the great Emperor seeing little poor children to play and tumble in the dirt he said to his son Why dost not thou go and play with them Saith he I would if I did see any Kings and Princes children play with them he reflected upon himself that he was a Prince a Kings son and it was not fit for them to tumble in the dirt So you may say when you see Drunkards and Whoremongers and Extortioners if the devil tempt you in your hearts and say Why dost not thou do so why dost not thou get money as yonder man doth or labor to be great in the world O say do the sons of God use to do so to cozen and cheat and be drunk and lie If the Saints did so then it were another thing but shall I that am a Prince that am a son of God shall I be a Scullion and wallow in the dirt Therefore I say it is enough to an honest heart to propose a pitch that is above him that he never attained and what will he do he will seek and not give over till God have wrought it God wrought it in most of the Saints of old therefore let us labor with the Lord that we may have such considerations alway about us O how gloriously should we walk if we had still actuall considerations I am a son I am a daughter of God! How humbly should we walk towards our brethren how weaned from this world what Pilgrims would we be here upon earth doubtless we run and lanch into the world by forgetting of our relations and stations so that as in Gen. 6. The sons of God married the daughters of men We walk as the sons of men and miscarry as the sons and daughters of mem If we did alway walk and look upon our selves as the sons and daughters of God we should in some poor measure express something of the sons and daughters of God in every word and carriage and action towards God and men c. Expositions and Observations on PHILIPPIANS 2. 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves THe Lesson that the Lord gave you and me lately to consider of and to do was rightly to love the Saints to love Saints ought to love though they be not beloved our brethren and the way you remember was that we should not make that the ground of our love to our brethren because they love us but because we are beloved of God we should love though we be not beloved of men He that will not love his brethren till he be loved of them nor no further nor no longer then he is beloved he shall never love them much nor love them rightly at all because all goes upon a wrong ground and by a false rule And therefore we should set upon the practice of that duty in these times of division that whatsoever man I look on as a Saint or see the Image of God in him I should indeavor to bring my heart to love him If he love not me let him look to that I shall not answer for that that shall be laid on his score but if I love not my brother that shall be laid on my score and as my account so my comfort I mean true spiritual comfort both here and hereafter it is not in this that I am much beloved but that I love much I spake to you of that more at large then and I hope you will indeavor to bring your souls to be doers of this blessed truth as
many I will give you but one more that is in the book of Ruth you shall have there a good woman that had two daughters in law her sons were both dead and so she was going to return to her country she was in a strange country with them and she takes her leave of her two daughters Chap. 2. 8. Naomi said to her two daughters in law Go return each to her mothers house the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me that is they had been kind to her sons and to her for they lived in a strange country now Farwell The Lord grant that you may finde rest each of you in the house of her husband Then she kissed them c. And they said surely we will return with thee to thy people we will go along we will not leave thee No daughters saith she do not so for I cannot bear other children for you to marry as the law was then If I should lie to night with an husband and have children you would not stay so long therefore I pray abide and go not And it is said Orpah kissed her mother in law and lift up her voice and wept and left her but Ruth clave unto her Orpah was perswaded and wept and took her leave but Ruth clave to her and said Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whether thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God Where thou dyest will I die and there will I be buried the Lord do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me So I say you see here that when there was a competition a kind of parting then Ruth abiding with Naomi that is called cleaving It is a glorious thing that when the seeming servants The honour of cleaving to Christ of Iesus Christ shall depart from him when there is a division among professors then to be able to cleave to Iesus Christ That you may understand it conceive that in the wayes of Iesus Christ many times there are such times that abundance of hypocrites as well as Saints abide with him they are sometimes still like the waters of Shilo there is no persecution or trouble in them it may be there is a great deal of honour and wealth and riches with them and many times a great party of the world sticks to him but there is a little tripp and step in the ways of godlines when there is a parting when hypocrites like Orpah shall weep and repent and so shall go with Christ no longer if they do one shall loose his friends another his trade another his wife and shall lift up their voices and weep and take their leaves then is the beautie of Christianity and the blessednesse of a Christian to be able to cleave to the Lord in such a time as this is This was the exhortation of the good man Barnabas that he gave to the people as you shall read Acts 11. 22 23. When he was come and had seen the grace of God he was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. I have oft marvailed with my self why Barnabas that is said to be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost coming as a stranger to a congregation of good people where he saw the grace of God among them why he should choose this and no more but onely pitch upon this exhortation that seeing they were godly and had received the grace of God he should say I have no more to say but this one word understand it well that is that with full purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord. Indeed the reason was as I conceive if you compare it with Chap. 14. 22. Barnabas was a man to whom God had discovered much of the doctrine of Tribulation and persecution that belonged to the Gospell For take notice of it by the bye I look on the people of God liâ—e the servants of God that did go to build the Temple some were appointed to hew stone some to digge them up and some to carry them home some to build them up some to cast accounts and to keep reckoning So the Lord Iesus in his Kingdom no man knows the reason why he cuts out distinct parcells of work to his people and thereupon supplies them with his spirit and reveales truthes to his people some to manage such a thing no man knows the reason God fastens the doctrine of justification upon some that they cannot rest night nor day and one that may be unwilling to die for another point but not for that Another about Church-government Another upon sanctification none knowes why but God fits them for their work by his Spirit according to his blessed will Therefore we should not censure or sleight godly men because our master doth not imploy them about such a work as he doth us It may be my thoughts are upon sanctification anothers upon justification So God cuts out the work as it pleaseth him Now this Barnabas it seemes did not speak much as we read of but he had a mighty apprehension of persecutions and tribulations that the Saints should suffer in this world Therefore in Acts 14. 22. he and Paul confirm the souls of the Disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God In every Sermon as we may say Barnabas had something to strengthen the souls of the people to go thorow tribulation and affliction It may be another Apostle had his Spirit upon another work It may be in reference to this he gave them this exhortation desiring them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord As if he had said Now you are in prosperity for so they were and are all ready to hear the Gospell and receive it O saith he but there is a time a coming to trie you and you must not think to run to heaven between two feather-beds but as all the Saints before had their share so every one that will live in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution As there is a Statute in heaven for all men once to die so if you be Saints you must live in tribulation and persecution and that is the way as Christ was made perfect by sufferings so you must come to salvation Therefore when those things come I have not much to say to you but O then remember to cleave to the Lord for then you shall see hypocrites in droves going away from Iesus Christ and leaving him one stumbling at this another at that one is offended at the Crosse that it takes away his credit another for his profit another his liberty another his trading but brethren I beseech you with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. See how a company in Iohn 6. with one word
glorifies himself many times and a man knows not how in the world he comes to do it or why he did it or how he came about it so God doth many glorioous things by us and we are not aware This is the Lord this is the greatness of his power God in some actions he either carries a man and doth his work by a man without a man as it were or else he doth it above him There is no good almost that thou doest but thou shalt clearly see that it is above thee that it is God thou wert never able to speak or to do or to go through any such thing but the Lord went through with it It may be some of you understand not what it is to do a thing without you it is too spiritual but there are Christians that may and can say God did it without me I was as a block I know not how I was scarce active with God God did all O great and glorious is that power look which way you will what that power is in changing thy nature in destroying old Adam what that power is in resisting temptations what that power is in wrestling and prevailing with God what that power is to uphold thee in the wicked world and to preserve thee to the last day Consider it every way it is great wondrous glorious and mighty and exceeding mighty is that power that works in them that believe even the power of the Spirit of God The Spirit is called power Power it self as it were not that I deny the person of the Spirit thereby as if the Spirit were nothing but the energy or working of God that is not the meaning but he is called power because as it were he is nothing but power whatsoever he doth he doth powerfully and gloriously and effectually Angels work in little common outward things marke the difference between the assistance of the Spirit and of Angels The Angels are ministring spirits sent out to wait upon the Saints How do Angels work for us Angels make not prayers in us Angels never subdue one sin in me they can never bring peace to my conscience and soul Angels converse not in spiritual things but in outward things Angels keep thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone they keep thee from breaking thy neck they keep fire from thine house but spiritual things are done by the Spirit of God the exceeding greatness of power is by the Spirit Therefore consider of this word be not such poor low-hearted creatures to be afraid of every ill and to be discouraged from going about any good thing I say consider the power that dwels in you and indeavor to give glory to God to magnify the blessed Spirit that works in you to admire it for the more you admire the Spirit the more vile you will be in your selves and the viler you are in your selves that you attribute all to the Spirit the more glory God shall have and then things will be as they should be in the best order for God and man Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love c. THe Apostle in this Chapter and especially in that going before exhorts the Saints to walk worthy of their calling that is to walk humbly and meekly c. towards God and men and there he shews sometimes the good they should follow and the evil they should leave promiscuously which is meant by walking worthy of their calling And here in this first verse saith he I beseech you be followers of God as dear children He puts in this motive to all the holiness he speaks of before and after that as dear children of a blessed father they would hearken to him that they would hate all the evil and cleave to all the good he had proposed to them so that the Lesson is this That The Do ∣ ctrine Our spiritual priviledges should as much ingage us to holiness as they should help on our comfort My meaning is this you know in this wicked world wherein we are this is one Gospel way that we use and practise and have been taught that whensoever we came near the Lord especially then we should indeavor to raise up our souls by the consideration of our Gospel-priviledges and the relations between us and God When you and I come to pray we study as much as we can to look on him as a father and we do well and to look on our selves as sons and daughters as those that are in Christ as those that have their sins pardoned and covered in him to look on our selves as the Spouse and Wife of Christ And all the relations we can make out and all the priviledges that are laid down in Scripture we seek to own them whereby to get up our souls to some joy and comfort before the Lord and this is a good and blessed thing when we do so for the Lord would have his children as to live holily so he delights to see them live comfortably The Lord takes delight in the prosperity of his people But here now you and I miss we do this out of a kinde of Self-love because we would have comfort we make use of our priviledges and plead our relations but we should also make use of them to move us to holiness and to resist sin and evil as well as to raise us to comfort and consolation And thence it is that we are so oft foyled with sin because we walk as men as the children of men as the Scripture saith we forget in what a station God hath put us in what grace and glory we stand through Jesus Christ Therefore when we are walking and conversing in the world we look on our selves as men we think of our neighbours what they would have done in such a case and it may be we thinke of natural reason it may be of corrupt reason but we do not state our selves all the day as sons and daughters of God Man naturally doth not love to reflect upon himself which saith Dr. Preston is the difference between a man and a beast take two or three children it may be one is a Lords son and another the son of a Begger they reflect upon themselves you shall see by their carriage the poor childe carries himself respectively to the other the other carries himself disdainfully to him So all people every one hath a kinde of conclusion upon himself from natural considerations Such a one carries himself high he reflects so upon himself Why he thinks he is a man of such parts of such fortunes and breeding and feature and the like and he carries himself accordingly It is so with all mankinde Now if we would have the Spirit of God shine upon our souls and draw such conclusions alway that lie in our breasts that I am a son a daughter of God one in Christ married to Christ bone of his bone and
heavenly things in the language of Scripture a thing that if we could grow up to we should overthrow a thousand distinctions in Divinity we mistake things taking them in the old Notion John 14. what is the difference between the world and the people of Christ I will send thc Spirit which the world cannot receive The world are men that have not nor cannot receive the Spirit of God and the Saints are those that do and have received the Spirit of God You read in 2 Joh. 2. 18. of men that had made a great profession that were faln off that were faln away saith he They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us There are many faln away saith he but they were not of us Why What are you might some say We saith he have received an unction an anoynting and it abides with us And ye need not that any should teach you that will teach you all things They that fall off they were not of us Why they have not the Spirit of God therefore they were not of us So when the Apostles preached sometimes it is said that some of them believed and some did not and at other times it is said when they preached that the Spirit of God did fall upon the people that is they were converted they were born again they were made Saints So in Rom. 8. where the Apostle speaks of being in Christ and out of Christ which is the great point of all and salvation and damnation hangs upon it This is his language they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So in the language of the spirit of God the maine thing that belongs to a Saint it is not as we ordinarily account it there are a hundred things that we call Religion that God doth not A drunkard may be stricken with terrour in hearing the word and we say such a one is converted and it may be not and there are hundreds of other people that may pray twice a day and hear Sermons and repeat them and out of a naturall principle of devotion may have affections this is not Christianity or Gospel Religion There are abundance of professours among us that the Holy Ghost will not own because they have not the spirit Therefore the maine way whereby we may judge of a Saint or a sinner is whether he have the spirit of God in him or no. O such a one doth great things he prayes and hears and reads and disputes much I but hath he the spirit or no But you will say How shall I look for that How shall I know that I will tell you how A man may know the spirit The Spirit in us to be known by its own evidence in himself clearly by the evidence of the same spirit And a man that hath the spirit may know the spirit in another by the spirit There is a kind of Sagacity among the Saints whereby they having the spirit are able though not expresly and clearly to behold the spirit in another We are the sons of God but the world knows us not worldly men know not the Saints from Schismaticks and Hereticks and usually spirituall people receive those names from the world Schismaticks and Hereticks and the like But a man that hath the spirit of God he can see as clearly as a natural man can with his eyes How can a poor lamb know the dam among a thousand There is a Sagacitie in nature and so there is here in grace they have the same spirit As when Elizabeth and Mary were talking the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaped hearing the words of Mary that then had the Lord Jesus conceived in her I give you but a little resemblance from naturall things The Saints know it and their fellowship is in the spirit Our communion is in God and not in such a Covenant or meerly in outward duties but our communion is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ and in the spirit with all his Saints Therefore labor for the spirit of God Truly God is now coming I am confident it is his designe in these latter times to exalt his spirit and to pull and throw down every thing that exalts it self against the spirit that stands in his light and Eclipseth the glory of it And though the world which cannot receive the spirit of truth do either blaspheme or else do set little by it yet surely it is the will of God that all his children should honour it These thousand yeers learning and naturall parts and morall good works and supersticious good works have been exalted Now in these later times Our Sun shall be turned into darkness and our Moon into blood That is as the learned * Calvin interpret it all the glorious things that we had before the pouring out of the spirit that we made Suns and Moons of God will blast them I speak not against learning simply it is usefull especially in a Common-wealth but as far as learning intrencheth upon the spirit of God God will blast it learned men shall be laid by as Cyphers God will blast their labours that we might honour the spirit There is one place that comes to my heart with much sweetness Psal 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy law is very broad We have seen an end of all perfection of learning of common gifts of naturall parts we have seen God blast these one after another but Gods law is very broad The morall law the law of the letter is broad much more the law of the spirit of life in Christ that is extolled more and more therefore all must down to extoll the spirit of God Truly Religion is a hundred wayes mistaken by people I could give a hundred instances especially in your Catechismes where it is asked What is Religion It is such and such Christian Religion or Gospel Religion under the New Testament consists of two things Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit of God These are the two pillars of our Religion in the New Testament And this is all we have to preach to you and as far as any thing hath not relation to these two things it is not the Ministery of the Gospel it is not Gospel Religion We speak much of reformation and it is to be desired but among other errours in Religion this is one many think that the main point in Religion is the setting up of government whereas our main reformation is in pulling down and not in setting up for we have a world of institutions set up that will never hold And among those latter institutions that good people have set up I believe that there are not many will hold but these will the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the pouring out of Gods spirit And as many as tend to this and flow from this without scruple I think
but now London must there my wrath shall be poured out The Lord grant that it may not be so but I greatly fear it Secondly The Lord brings them to imprisonment the Lord took them prisoners Verse 11. The husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days And then comes their plunder Their houses shall be turned to others with their fields and wives together For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this Land saith the Lord. O if the Lord should say This is the City to be visited and make war against it and then take you prisoners take the aged men the Aldermen Common Councellers and all prisoners and then plunder all and say their fields and their wives shall be turned to others That were sore that you should not onely lose your goods but your fields that your houses and trades and shops should be taken away and your very wives Thus the Lord did with others I will not say that he will do so with you Now there were stumbling blocks in Ierusalem before it was destroyed so there are in this City it is filled with stumbling blocks every little difference in opinion is a stumbling block that some men become Atheists because every Saint doth not agree one with another And then there is the fear and horror that did fore-run this misery Verse 24. But in a word the course that the Lord would have them take and that therefore I shall speak of that you may beseech the Lord that this poor City may prevent those evils One thing is the Lord would have them seriously and sincerely humble themselves before him to acknowledg their sins and bewail them Verse 26. Saith the Lord O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an onely son Not a formal day of fasting and humiliation for that is almost become all form but really humble thy soul and call upon the Lord that the Lord would be pleased to turn away his wrath Then the second thing laid down is That we should hearken to instruction Be thou instructed O Jerusalem least my soul depart from thee be ready to hear the Word of the Lord be ready to hearken what Gods will is how he may be glorified and we preserved Then thirdly here is a word that I exceedingly desired to open but I must but name it Verse 16. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls saith the Lord. This is the way to save you Stand in the wayes ask for the old way What is the meaning of the old way That is Iesus Christ That was the old way of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Iesus Christ and the way of righteousness and holiness and truth He alludes as I take it to the Patriarchs for that is called the old world and the old way Saith he Ye are not like your fathers heretofore Abraham he was not covetous and full of oppression they were willing to hear that which was for their good and they were not the worse for their afflictions Look to the old way and labor to get such a Spirit as the Saints had heretofore that were in Iesus Christ What of all this notwithstanding this counsel that the Lord had given them what if they will not turn to him what if they will not amend Then there is a terrible word that we read of in Verse 8. Lest my soul depart from thee It is not sin onely that makes Gods soul depart from a people nor their hardness nor wickedness but when they refuse all means and helps then his soul departs from them Therefore Be instructed saith he lest my soul depart or lest my soul be disjoynted as it is in the Margin What is the meaning of that It is a terrible word we have that word expounded in Ierem. 15. 1 2. See what it is for to have Gods soul to go from a people I beleeve that Gods soul is not gone from us if we will hearken to him and do not give our selves up to wrath and rage against Gods people Then said the Lord to me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde or my soul could not be towards this people There is before the ferventest blessed prayer for this people that I know in the Book of God Ieremy prayes And now their destruction was coming saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel should come before me my heart could not be on them I have put them out of my heart my minde and soul is gone from them I will never be troubled more with them What follows Cast them out of my sight let them go forth And if they say Whether shall we forth Then thou shalt tell them such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword such as are for the famine to famine and such as are for captivity to captivity Let them go whether they will some of them will be hanged some killed some to the sword some starved they can come to no good because they are gone out of my sight My heart and soul is from them that is the last gasp that is hell above ground Therefore the sum of all is That we hearken to God for these things were not written for Ierusalem onely but for our instruction God hath laid down their sin and wickedness and their oppression and the blessed remedy that they should have taken and if we take it not but go on in our wickedness we see what we may expect That when that shall come on us which God if it be his will forbid you may remember that you were told before I have one thing in my sad and serious thoughts to comfort me that this shall not befal this City and that is this That the Lord delt with them according to the administration of the Old Testament and so went by Cities and Nations but now every man and every person that calls upon God is respected in every Nation and City whatsoever But this comes in and cools it wonderfully and puts me to a non-plus If we in this City did go according to the administration of the New Testament I am perswaded that the Lord would not send desolation upon the City but because we would go according to that old administration we have chosen it and said so and do so Now as they chose that administration to deal with God he chose that to deal with them for the Lord will deal frowardly with the froward the Lord will deal with men according to their own law Those that sin against the Law of Nature shall be punished so those that sin against the Law of Moses shall be punished so those that go according to the administration of grace shall be delt with accordingly Now we are going according to the old administration
and he wondred that there was no intercessor That is God suffered all this truth to faile and Justice to fall back and every thing to go to wrack and ruine God would see if any man would intercede any man among our Magistrates or Ministers or Citizens if any man would plead for God and for his people and for his truth but he saw none and wondered Truly God wonders and men may wonder to see what abundance of people follow God and good lives in the time of prosperity and when adversity comes and wicked men and al the powers of hell conspire against godlinesse to see how few shew themselves for God God wonders at it Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing and was clad with Zeale as a cloak The Lord comes and Arms himself just as valiant souldiers in the wars when a party is gone forth they stand to see what they do how they come off but if there be none that will stick to it but run away they buckle on their armour So the Lord stands to see where is the man that will stick to it in these cases and if there be any God rejoyceth in it if there be none God himself comes in Therefore be sure of this when the Lord suffers his Son or any thing that belongs to him to come to these low conditions when truth failes in the street and equity is perverted it is not that God means to suffer the wicked to have their wills for God hath sworn that Christ shall reign but to trie us a little space whether we will couragiously stick to God and his cause or basely for fear of men comply with the world 3. For the compendious destrution of the it enemies There is a third reason God as it were keeps silence and holds his peace in the middst of the greatest troubles to this end that God may as it were gather the wicked into one fagot into one bundle that they may be destroyed together There is a great deal of ado to gather the Saints in this world and truly there is some ado togather the wicked So God withdraws himself from his people yet he hath a hook in their hearts he holds them up secretly by his Spirit that they shall not leave him yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left them and all their Ordinances and his Gospell and every thing and then the wicked come together and insult whereby God may come upon them at once and destroy them as we finde ten Nations in this Psalm And so in Genesis God stirs up the Nations against Abraham and his posterity and there are ten Nations that God promiseth to cut off before Abraham at once the Perrezites and the Iebusites and the Canaanites c. So God heaps them together and burns them like stubble Those that burn stubble have rakes and they gather it to heaps and then they fire it This is the way of Gods keeping silence among his people and sitting still in the midst of their miseries thus God gathers their enemies on heaps as stubble that he may burn them together Therefore from this that I have said I have three words to say to you and to my own soul Vse 1 The first of all is that if the Lord should take any such course in our dayes that you would learn hence to awake God to call upon his Name to be earnest with him Truly there are a generation of people now I leave them to the Lord to judge them as I shall alway for we have all one master but there is a people that throw away the ordinance of prayer and they professe to live immediately upon God without ordinances without prayer and without all the rest I do not know what their perfections may be therefore I cannot judge but this I know as far as ever I had experience that the chiefest way of communion with God is spirituall prayer Build up one another on your holy faith and Pray in the Holy Ghost saith Iude. And therefore though you be ancient Christians and grow spirituall and see a great deal of formality in your prayers as some pray so many times a day and that out of forme not that they should not pray so oft in a day that is well take heed that out of any pretence you be not remiss for truly it is the readiest way to heaven and to attaine happiness and the clearest conduite to bring grace to the soul and the love of God and the shining of his face that I have yet known I yet know no better therefore take heed of the temptations of Satan that you do not upon any pretence either throw away prayer or be remisse in it Vse 2 Secondly if the Lord should leave his Church and people as we know not what he will do it may be God is going to take a napp let me warne you from the Lord and his word for that is the excellencie of the word by it thy servant is forewarned take heed of distrust and unbelief and impatience towards God God doth take a napp sometimes it is for his glory and for your good but yet cleave to him say as it is here in the Psalm O Lord who is like unto thee Do not think that the Lord will leave his people for God hath you know made a Covenant with his Son that he shall inherit all nations he shall subdue all his enemies under his feet All the enemies hitherto that have risen against his Church God hath subdued them and either our Gospell is vaine and our preaching vaine and our faith vaine and all vaine or else God will exalt his Son and his people and Saints and ordinances maugre all enemies though ten Nations as it is in this Psalm fight against them nay though ten thousand if there were so many in the world God will awake and subdue them and if there be no man in the world that will plead their cause God will do it Therefore live by faith and not by sense take heed of living by sense there is nothing that more poysons and imbitters our hearts and spirits and lives then the beholding of things by sense that as one good man speaks I wish saith he sometimes that I were quite bereft of reason that I might exercise faith We are used to sense and such a man doth this and this and here is conspiring in this and that place and all to overthrow Christ and the power of the Gospell What of all this Look by faith what God hath said and Covenanted and promised and keep up your spirits by faith Vse 3 Then lastly I would admonish all in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take heed of betraying Gods cause or people or your own salvation by your fleshlinesse I
him and they weary me and he can help it and I cannot why he should do thus to suffer me to pray and I cannot overcome There are many reasons the Lord hath given in to my soul from time to time but of all reasons this is the chief that the Lord thereby would inure us to live by faith The Lord comes many times when we are compassed about with grace and holinesse and can go as you do into your Gardens and take now one Flower and then another and make a posie of grace I behold my love to the Saints and my delight in God and my uprightnesse in my calling and I make a posie of them God comes and dashes it all every jot and what shall I say now Now for a man to be able to take up a promise that the just shall live by his faith that is I am still as just as ever I was and I am assured of it in a sort as much as ever without the least graine of any thing felt or seen and I bear up my profession and all my works as if I had those views of graces that once I had now all is gone Whereas ordinarily when God dasheth all this way what is the fruit of it Then a man concludes I am an hypocrite I am a damned creature I cannot believe then I must sit in a holy moping why because sense is gone faith is gone almost faith stays no longer then sense and that is a signe that you alway lived by sense God takes occasion many times to dash all that ever is in us and that ever hath been done by us God will write hypocrisie upon it he will make us read so at least dost thou see what thou art There is no creature more carnall and in that thou hast done there is this crookednesse and that hypocrisie there is this guile and that all is naught Then the Lord by this teaches one to go a high-lone without crutches one of these faintings teacheth one to go without a staffe alone And therein also is the glory of God that is glorious in all his works of creation and providence glorious in war knapping the spear asunder but his glory in the Gospell is more that usually when God hath shewed a Saint his confusion and wickednesse to magnifie his grace the more then ordinarily God takes these times to do more for a poor soul then ever he did at any time the Lord will then give a new seal of the pardon of sins and new discoveries of the mysteries of the Gospell and of Iesus Christ in the midst of these confusions But it is the hardest thing in the world to live clearly by faith when sense is gone there is that I drive at all this while I see poor creatures moping every where and when sense is out then their candle is out as Iob saith How oft is the candle of the wicked put out So that Saint that lives by sense his comfort is no longer then he sees and feels grace he hath assurance of Gods love no longer then he feels grace So there are but few of you that have a root of faith that in all the ebbings and flowings of grace your comfort and strength and assurance by Faith goes on in its course as before Now desire the Lord to bring you to this clearely that according to this blessed proverb you may live by faith Expositions and Observations on MATTHEW 19. ult But many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first THe occasion of this speech of our Saviour was there was a young man a very rich young man that came to Christ and would learn the way to heaven of him And our Lord he cuts him out a task too hard for his carnall heart among the rest to give all that he had to the poor The young man was very sad and went away because he was very rich It may be a poor man might have done it but the more riches men have the more loath they are to part with it Whereupon saith our Lord you may see how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven A Camell may go thorow the eye of a needle as soone Whereupon his Disciples replied in a vanting way crowing over the man Master what shall we have we have done gallantly we have forsaken all that we have and have followed thee what shall we have therefore Saith our Lord Christ You shall have a large reward I confesse I say unto you Ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones And every one that hath forsaken houses or land or children or father or mother or wife for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold here and shall inherit everlasting life For saith he he puts this correction upon it here is a large reward as if he should say if the young man had followed my advice he had been no loser nor you shall not but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first As if he should say I would not have you to be proud and to crow over that poor man that is run from me because you are old Disciples it may be that man may come back again to me and be my best servant when you may run away for many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first And thereupon our Lord in the next Chapter on purpose to this end to bring down their spirits he expresseth himself in a whole parable of a man that hired servants and he that came at the last hour received as much as he that came at the beginning of the day he takes down their spirits from being too high over poor sinners So that is the lesson that I desire you seriously to consider of the text it self shall be the Doctrine that Many that are first shall be last I say many sinners and slow professors shall be first and formost in the ways of godlines and many old professors that have been once zealous shall be last and lowest in the formes of Religion and godlinesse I need not tell you that there are severall formes of godlinesse There are as Iohn saith fathers and young men and children there is the weak and the strong the spirituall and the carnall Now God I say hath cast it so that ordinarily the weak shall outrun the strong the childe shall go before his father the young green slow professors shall be in heaven and the way to heaven before the old professor and they that were first shall be last and they that were last shall now be first For the opening of it it is to be understood two ways First of all you are to understand this that the first shall be last and the last first not as an universall generall rule that every young professor shall outstrip an
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul
in your souls I know God many times by these broken words may do your souls good but this is a thing that I confess my soul is so full of that I am not able to express it to vent and open my self The mischief and misery that befals people by soaring above the Scriptures above the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel ye hear that they do themselves and others and the safeties and security that will be to your souls in keeping to the plain simple way of the Gospel of Iesus Christ I had another short lesson but I am loath to thrust out one duty with another It is a rule by which I would alway walk I cannot now handle it but only mention it to you and if God lead us by his blessed Spirit we may learn a little of it I thought to shew you The Oneness that is betwixt us and Iesus Christ Methinks it is a more glorious Truth then we have judged it to be that poor Saints are one with Christ The Lord Iesus Christ is anointed and so are they we have the same unction with Christ we have the same name with Christ we have the same Offices with Christ we have the same love of God with Christ we have the same Spirit with Christ and the same Kingdom with Christ in Heaven The Church is the fulness of Iesus Christ Christ is not properly a Christ without his Members This is a glorious thing to consider how the poor Saints and Iesus Christ make up one compleat Body He is no Christ as it were were it not for his members The Church is the fulness of him that filleth all in all It is said of the oyl that was poured on Aaron It ran upon the skirts of his garments So Christ being anoynted that oyl runs on us As he is a Prophet so are we as he is a King so are we as he is a Priest so are we onely with this difference That in all things he might have the preeminence He is the highest King the best Prophet the most excellent Priest But otherwise whatsoever Christ is that are we whatsoever he hath that we have nay we have his name So also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. We head and members are called Christ And the least Saint of God is a Prophet as well as the greatest and a Priest as well as the greatest and a King as well as the greatest Nay he is as real a Prophet Priest and King as the Lord Iesus was onely in all things he must have the preeminence We have a share in all his actions we are one with him in his graces in his life and death and resurrection and ascention There is nothing in Christ there is nothing that Christ is or hath but we are one with him in it Therefore this use we should make of the Scriptures not to be as babies always to read a Chapter morning and evening but you that are experienced Christians when you have a truth hinted to you be alway at the Scriptures to beat it out As for instance go home now and study that Oneness that Vnion that is between Christ and us and beat it out to the utmost and what the excellency of the Spirit of God in the New Testament is and not to tie your selves to read so many Chapters a day but be alway studying the Scripture As David saith Blessed is the man that exerciseth himself day and night in the Law of God Thus the spiritual man doth not so much read Chapters as compare Scripture with Scripture and is bolting out spiritual truths till they be fully fixed and fastened upon his soul I shall it may be if God will explain that union to you further in the mean while search for it and so I shall leave it here and hear what the Lord hath further to say to us Expositions and Observations on IERE 6. 1 2 c. O ye children of Benjamin gather your selves to flie out of the middest of Jerusalem and blow the Trumpet in Tekoa and set up a signe of fire in Beth-haccerem for evil appeareth out of the North and great destruction I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman c. I Shall desire leave at this time a little more familiarly then usually to tell you what I conceive is the will of the Lord because I do not expect to speak to you any more I remember a little before the Lord had brought us together before the desolation of that * Bristol City which indeed was greater then any man can imagine unless he had been there present the Lord by his providence guided me to expound Matth. 24. concerning the desolation of Ierusalem little thinking or imagining that the desolation of that place had been so near And now that word that was then spoken by providence was as I perceived afterwards a very great stay and refreshing to the souls of the people in their trouble By providence also not by any way of prophesie I never was addicted that way but by providence reading this Chapter in my family and seriously considering of it me-thoughts the Lord represented to me in a way a little more then usual the state of this City wherein you now live and are to live and that by the state of Ierusalem which is here laid down throughout the Chapter For though we cannot tell you now of Cities and Kingdoms as the Prophets did by revelations and visions and the like yet what is written is written for our instruction And the Lord hath given us examples of his judgments that we may learn from them what to think and how to judg of other places and Cities and Kingdoms that are parallel that are like to those that the Lord hath visited or destroyed heretofore Therefore I shall briefly lay down the condition of Ierusalem as it is here in this Chapter Here are things spoken promiscuously because here in the Prophets there are but the heads as it were of their preaching therefore for method and your memories sake I will digest the condition of Ierusalem and what is here said of it and about it into these heads briefly But first of all before I speak of Ierusalem it-self ye are to observe the condition of the Prophet that the Lord had set among them which is laid down at Vers 27. I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and try their way The Lord compares the Prophet to a tower in the City that is a watch-tower A tower for strength as it is Iere. 1. 18. I have made thee an iron pillar and brazen walls That though he preached contrary to their corruptions yet they could not touch him And a tower for watchfulness because the Prophets did watch as out of a tower all the City and all in it and the enemies that were against it So the Prophets were called Seers in those days eying the sins of the
people and eying the judgments of the Lord and eying what comfort on the otherside God gave to any among them The Prophets I say were towers and should be still They are called trumpets here I will send a trumpet and cause it to blow but the people will not hearken They are watchmen to give warning to the people so they should be I leave it to you to judg for you know the state of this place better then I whether we be so or no. The next thing in this Chapter is The state of Ierusalem what kinde of place it was I mean in respect of the building of it and the scituation of it for I mean to gather up the whole Chapter in a little method take it as it is described Verse 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman His meaning is not for any spiritual beauty in her as appears in the whole Chapter but in an outward sense in respect of scituation and gallant building it was a magnificent place and no man was able to count the towers about it It was a stately gallant place and therefore was like a delicate woman A stately place full of case and pleasure and trading and good creatures and altogether exact as a delicate Gentlewoman nothing was wanting so Ierusalem was and yet for all that you afterwards see how the Lord did deal with her So by the way let me tell you this for I speak in the sight of God That the greatness of your City the fairness of it the riches of which you were wont to boast how you did rule all Kingdoms besides you could make Kings and Parliaments and do any thing you have such Ships and Towers and Armies and Armed men you see what God saith of Ierusalem when he was going to destroy her I have likened her to a fair delicate woman and yet all could not excuse her If the Lord come against you all your riches and power and trading and gallantry cannot excuse you Thirdly Here is all the good in Ierusalem the Religion and godliness the Lord acknowledgeth that too and the Lord will not forget any good thing among them that you shall see in Verse 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far country your burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet unto me Ierusalem did not forget the service of God they had their worship and sacrifice and they had sweet Cane from Sheba The Lord complains in Isaiah 42. that the people did bring him no sweet Cane it was their maner in their sacrifice I acknowledg saith God you have a great deal of Religion and you talk of Reformation among you and Government and Discipline and I know not what yet notwithstanding this shall not hinder but for all your villanies and wickedness this is the City to be visited for all this It is not a little grain of Wheat that can cover a Mountain of Chaff It is not a little formal fained hypocritical service of God and a quarter and talking and a clutter about Reformation that can hinder the proceedings of God against a people that are really sinful and that have really and grievously revolted The fourth thing here laid down though promiscuously that I shall endevor to gather up for you orderly it is the sins of Ierusalem I shall speak of no more then is laid down here and they are in this place four Here are four great sins that God mentioneth The first is the oppression observe that word in Verse 6. For thus hath the Lord of Hosts said This is the City to be visited she is wholly oppression in the midst of her He saith not There is oppression in the middest of her or in her but she is wholly oppression As if he had said She is built with oppression her very fabrick is oppression She is oppression it self oppressing the poor and the Saints and the upright in heart there is nothing but railing against and slandering of them as we see after Now the Lord opens that She was oppression that you may know the meaning of it he tells you after As a fountain casteth out her waters so she casteth out her wickedness violence and spoyl is heard in her before me continually is grief and wounds saith the Lord. She is oppression as a fountain casteth forth water What is a fountain It is a hole in the Earth that casts out water so saith the Lord I see nothing in Ierusalem from one day to another from one yeer to another and from one end of the City to another but oppression I see one oppress another I see it full of wounds and griefs and bruises especially to my poor Saints there is nothing but oppression And I leave you to judg this day whether this City at this time be not so She is wholly oppression from the least to the greatest there is almost nothing else to be seen Then the second sin the Lord layes down is in Verse 13. That every one is given to covetousness Mark that word and let every one of your own consciences apply it For from the least even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness O this covetousness there can be no Reformation either in Church or Common-wealth as things are because of covetous people If there be any good course taken by Magistrates to reform any business in Courts or Offices because of the covetousness of people the business is marred you all know it And so far outward Reformation of Churches and the like because of covetousness you all know that the business of Reformation is marred Ministers have lost themselves There are many godly men that had room in the hearts of Gods people some in this City and in the Assembly that had room in the hearts of Gods people before these times and before they had all things in their own hands and became reformers of the Church now because of covetousness all is marred that no business can be looked upon Now the Lord look upon us and indeed though we see not him he sees us and looks on us Then the third sin is laid down in Verse 13 14. that is The false dealing of the Prophets the Ministers From the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth falsly How is that They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace The Prophets deal falsly they are become hypocrites they tell the people they are in a gallant way of Reformation when the Lord knoweth both according to Scripture and sound Reason they are in the way to destruction they tell them now the Church and Reformation is going up when the poor Kingdom was never in such a sad condition They deal falsly that is hypocritically What a stir is there here about Schismaticks and Hereticks and about Reformation and what consulting and working in the City