God not Synagogues of the Devil And when some objected their want of gifts for prayer he gave them such Directions and Instructions both for matter and manner that in a short time the blessed fruits and effects thereof was very visible many being able to pour out their Souls in prayer unto God with proper Words and melting Affections He always charged them to be upon their knees in prayer Gods familarity with us should not make us saucy towards him but to ingage us to keep our distance and to serve him with a more holy fear and filial reverence The Lord gave him a large seal unto his Ministry in so much that he was the Spritual Father of many whom he begat to Christ in the Gospel When he altered his condition he sought and found a meet help for him every way a neighbour Ministers Daughter to whom he was Married and with whom he lived Religiously and comfortably to his dying day and the blessing of God was upon his Marriage giving him by his vertuous Wife ten Sons and three Daughters She is now left a desolate Widow like the chast Turtle mourning for the loss of her Mate and her Children Orphans but he laid up for them Treasure in Heaven a stock of prayers to the God hearing prayer and they have the Promises God is the Husband and Judg of his Widow and Father to the fatherless out of his holy Habitation their Fathers God will be their God and his seed will be blessed after him Leave thy Fatherless children unto me and let thy Widows put their trust in me saith the Lord. In the government of his Family he was very exact and shewed a rare example of piety to his whole Family He began with God first in his own closet and suffered none under his roof to live without secret prayer When it was a convenient time for the whole house to meet together he came from his Study and summoning them to Duty he expounded one or two Chapters and examined his Children and Servants what they did remember encouraging the diligent reproving the negligent which being done he called upon God for them and with them In prayer he was always fervent vehemently wrestling with the Lord for his blessing In his daily prayers he begged hard for Mercy for King and Kingdom for Church and State he sought the prosperity of Zion earnestly and would not brook a denial Duty being ended he retired shortly upon it into his Study where he commonly abode till Dinner and when he crav'd a blessing upon his meat it was in the presence of his whole Family he was very sparing in his diet and at Table ever turning his discourse Heavenwards and would lead his guests and family from their mercies to the God of Mercies At every meal he preached as it were a short Sermon and Thanks being returned unto God he hastned again into his Study allowing himself no recreation but what arose from reading praying and instructing others He spent most of his time in studying the Scriptures searching out the Mind and Will God in them Well knowing that all humane writings had their defects but the Book of God was perfect and infallible He common-plac'd all his reading this was a store-house for present and after uses At night he carefully kept good hours for Evening-prayer so that his family did not serve God between sleeping and waking A Chapter being read and prayer offered up unto the Lord he withdrew himself again into his Study where as he began so he closed the day with secret Devotion When he lay down in his bed it was with some heavenly discourses which took up his time till he fell asleep His first thoughts in the morning were of God His meditations before his uprising were improved heavenward He rose early and would discourse in the day how his reins instructed him in the night season 'T is a thousand pities that so many precious thoughts as Gods Saints have of God should be lost and not recorded A godly Gentleman of the Inner Temple told a Reverend Minister that he would not lose his morning-thoughts of God for all his worldly estate which yet was a very fair and great one But his observation of the Lords day was most strict and religious The fourth Commandment is the hedg and mound about the whole Law Break down this and you violate all the rest The Jews stiled the sabbath the Bride of the Synagogue This holy man of God decked himself up for it as a Bridegroom to meet his Bride The Sabbath was his delight and he was exceeding careful not only in his own person but that all in his family and under his charge should sanctifie it unto the Lord. He had no worldly business no worldly discourses on that day but he and his whole houshold spent the whole day in the Service of God Blessed is the man that doth this and the son of man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it In his house 't was the Lords day indeed the Queen of daies all his children servants and whoso lodged within his gates were wholly taken up in reading hearing repeating meditating praying and singing of Psalms that day On the Sabbath evenings he examined his childrens servants proficiency by the Sabbath-ordinances and laboured mightily to awaken their consciences and to put them upon early seeking of God He was very communicative of his knowledg As a Fountain freely yields its water and the field its corn and the garden herbs for the use of man so did his heart and tongue disperse abroad his spiritual gifts and experiences to the edification of others He would talk with any child or servant that so he might drop into them something of the mystery of godliness Frequently would he take his younger children into his closet and offer up particular supplications for them he would not indulge any of them in a sinful action 'T was his judgment that a Father might wink at any thing saving sin against God Therefore in his use of the Rod he designed their good He first convinced them of the dishonour they had done the Lord the danger they had brought upon themselves and professed that as God their heavenly Father had not so neither had he any pleasure in chastising them that sin being bound up in the heart of a child 't was the Lords Ordinance that the rod of correction should drive it out and therefore he always accompanied the rod with prayer that so they might have the spirit and blessing of the rod and correction might be seconded with conversion and crowned with universal reformation He seemed by his indulgence and kindness to his servants a Father rather than a Master He was very compassionate on their Souls and pressed them powerfully to secure the main their interest in Christ And some of them have cause everlastingly to bless God they came under his roof and stood related to so pious and good a Master The tenderness of
his conscience and great zeal for the purity of Gospel-worship kept him from conformity Hereupon with some thousands of his brethren he was slain by that fatal Axe the Act of bartholomew-Bartholomew-day O! when will the living God give them resurrection Lord revive thy work in the midst of our days in the midst of judgment remember mercy These Abels tho dead are yet speaking The Bush burns and is not consumed Certainly God hath some great work for them who tho sentenced unto death are yet alive We hope in the living God who quickneth the dead who hath delivered them from many and great deaths we hope I say that he will yet deliver them from this death also For sometime after his silencing Mr. Ball lived in the same Parish where he had been formerly Minister and when the Oxford Act came forth he removed five Miles farther Where he peaceably behaved himself and won upon many of a different perswasion by his moderation sweetness of deportment and holy and unblameable conversation He bore a singular love to all that lookt heavenward tho of a different perswasion from himself therefore kept up a brotherly and Christian correspondence with that worthy Conformist in whose Parish he lived He judged it his duty to preach and that necessity was laid upon him a wo unto him if he did not preach the Gospel Hereupon be neither could nor would be idle but preached frequently and studied to preach in such times and places as were least offensive to authority It grieved him to hear his spiritual children complain they wanted Bread when he had it for them Very many reaped the fruit and benefit of his labours since he was outed his publick Ministry as Cambridg Epping Bayford and other places to which he was related He spent himself in doing good to Souls for maintenance he relied upon that providence which feeds the fowls and cloathes the Lillies and was of blessed Mr. Hierons mind That God who feeds the Ravens would not starve his young Hierons And indeed his numerous family were maintained to a miracle He sought not the world but his God He did his masters work trusting to his bounty for wages and would often say he never lived better than when he knew not how to live He liv'd by faith upon Gods promises committed his ways unto God and had a firm perswasion that the Lord would provide for him and his which was verified He kept a Diary of Gods providences to himself and family of mercies and afflictions of supports and deliverances This quickned him unto thankfulness these experiences strengthned his faith and made him abound in hope in the Lord his God When his goods were seized on for preaching contrary to Law this holy man took that spoil patiently and joyfully knowing that he had a better and more enduring substance reserved in the Heavens and that those losses sustained for Christ and a good conscience would prove gains at last and work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory If he was concerned it was for his enemies whom he pitied from his Soul and for whom he prayed as his Lord and Master that they might be forgiven because they knew not that they did the Devils work His great labours in his Masters Vineyard shortned his days but drew him the nearer and sooner to his rest In his sickness his patience was most exemplary bearing his pains with a Christian fortitude resigning himself for life and death unto his Lords disposal For him to live was to glorifie Christ to die gain So he might be farther useful and serviceable in his Ministry he was well contented with life but to be dissolved and to be at home with Christ being better for him in case of unserviceableness this was earnestly desired by him To such as visited him in his languishing he gave serious counsels of providing in health for sickness in life for death in time for eternity He was much in prayer for the afflicted Church of God bitterly lamenting the case of England mourning for those great sins committed in the midst of us and trembling at the thoughts of those heavy Judgments hanging over our heads He sadly and sorrowfully laid to heart the unnatural breaches among Protestants the divisions of Reuben the quarrels and enmities among Joseph's Brethren especially now the Canaanite was in the Land He was grieved at the heart for the unbecoming lives of many Ministers and of multitudes of professors of so pure a Religion whose lives indeed are a flat contradiction to it and for whose abominations God would certainly visit unless there were speedy sincere and extraordinary humbling and reforming with seven worse plagues than ever But the Lord took him from the evil to come after he had languished for some time in a Consumption and breathed ardently after Heaven and Glory He was called upon as the Witnesses to come up hither He had long waited for his blessed charge and that salvation he had believed prayed and expected the Lord his Master whom he had faithfully served put him into the possession of at last He left this life for a better this vale of tears for a Paradise of joys for rivers of evelasting pleasures the eight day of September and in the year of our Lord 1681. and the 58th year of his age Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Spiritual Bondage AND FREEDOM John 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed CHAP. I. The Text opened The Doctrine inferred thence The first Branch of it handled FOR the making of our passage clear to this Text we must look back a little upon the foregoing Verses where we shall see that Christ is a preaching to the people and what the success of his preaching was In his preaching amongst other things I would desire you specially to take notice of Two things that he delivers concerning himself which I mention because I would by no means have you to let them pass because they are of great moment to your Souls One is that in ver 12. a very precious place Christ was sent to give light to the World i. e. to bring them out of that darkness which they are in by nature 'T is just as if a man stood in some dismal dark place where he can see nothing knows not where he is nor whither to go and one comes to him with a light and if he does but follow it it brings him into the open view of things So Christ those that follow him he leads them into the light of life into the light of spiritual life that he shall see spiritual things which no man doth or can that does not follow Christ and into the light of Eternal life where at last he shall see and be with God for ever So that all that live without Christ they
they do what they can to make good their Fortifications against him to keep out such a Word from entring and such a Conviction from fastning and it sets up its own carnal plea's and excuses and delaies and self-righteousness c. and all to keep out Christ from setting up his Throne but all before he hath done tumbles like a Babel and crumbles into dust before him 'T is true there is a great deal of strength put out against him the sinner calls all his shifts together and the devil calls all his devices together to resist but Christ is resolved to have the day And therefore mark how he is described as one that goes forth with invincible Power in this Work Psal 45. 3 4 5. So Rev. 6. 2. He went forth conquering and to conquer Beloved we must offer this Freedom to you tho we of our selves have no power to prevail with you but he in whose Name we come he can break your gates of Brass and cut in sunder your bars of Iron Vse And now doth the Lord Jesus Christ offer this Libâ—â—â—â— you Oh then I beseech you let 〈…〉 â—â—cepted of you Oh Beloved 't is offâ—◠〈◊〉 to this end that it should be accepted 〈◊〉 â—ot that it should be made light of as if tâ—â—â—e were no great matter in it whether you had it or had it not I therefore urge that Scripture upon you now Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven What shall Christ make such an offer to you and will you not close with it Will you that are in Bondage perish in your Bondage when you might be set free Is it such a good condition that you are in that you should desire to stay in it The prison and bondage of the Body tho it be nothing to this that your souls are in yet how glad are poor Creatures to hear that there is any hope or way for deliverance out of that Oh sirs let not Christ lose his love let him not lose his labour let him not lose his longing fain he would have you set at liberty And therefore don't hug your chains as if you were loth to part with them Lay this to your heart that Freedom is offered you how can you shift it but you must close with it now If it had not been offered there had been some excuse but will you put it off now it hath been offered yea when it hath been offered particularly to every one of you that there is none of you have been excluded from this gracious Invitation and when it hath been offered with a notwithstanding notwithstanding all the great and grievous sins which you have lived in as it was said to Judah Jer 3. 1 2. Thou hast played with many lovers yet return to me saith the Lord And when it hath been offered frequently not once or twice but often How often would I have gathered you saith Christ to Jerusalem God hath seen you neglect this Salvation such a Sermon and such a Sermon and yet he hath sent again and again and again to you And when it hath been offered with so much importunity and earnestness that you have never been pleaded with about any thing in this World as you have about getting this Freedom And when it hath been offered to you so freely that you shall be redeemed at anothers cost and not at your own you have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without price I say when it hath been offered and thus offered why what 's your duty from all this but to close with it 1. Close with it thankfully What Is there yet Freedom for me for such a one as I Oh blessed be God! admired be his Mercy adored be his Name 2. Close with it throughly Take heed of doing it by halves take heed of parting with your sins but as Pharaoh would part with the children of Israel he would yield to this and that upon force but he never came up to Gods terms 3. Close with it quickly before your day of Grace be at an end before it be too late to look out for it Oh sirs stir stir for your souls for the Lords sake quickly quickly you may else be undone to all eternity Opportunities of grace are not long liv'd and when they are over you will wish you had improved them and then there will be no fetching them back I commend that awakening Scripture to you Heb. 12. 15 16 17. Look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat fold his birth-right For ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears That may be lost in a little time that can never be recovered But because this closing with Christ is a great Subject and of so great importance and because I know there is a great deal of backwardness in the heart of man to close with Christ and for fear lest you should not have as mueh said to you as can well be spoken by man to perswade you to accept of this soul-delivering Jesus whom I preach unto you this day give me leave to carry on the Vse somewhat further by way of motive And tho many things might be insisted on to stir you up yet I will single out this one thing especially namely to beseech you to consider how guilty you will be if you don 't close with Christ and what grievous sinners you are and will be found to be at the great day of his appearing 1. You are guilty of Ignorance You 'll shew your ignorance of Christ that his worth and excellency was never seen by you that you never took him to be a Pearl of great Price for if you had to be sure the next thing would have been to make him yours Matth. 13. 45 46. Beloved there is none that ever refused Christ that knew him I don't mean that knew him after the flesh or that saw him with the eye of the body there were many that beheld him so and had no desire to him Joh. 1. 10 11. but none that ever knew him in a spiritual manner but fell in love with him He draws all the hearts and all the affections of them to whom he hath been revealed by the Holy Ghost It is therefore certain that you dwell in darkness to this day if you have no mind to close with Christ for if you were brought into the light you would follow him 2. You are guily of unthankfulness What! to make such a sad requital to Christ for all his kindness towards you as to prepare
imperfections you can't say yet I am well my heart is clean enough No I know 't is your grief that you are no better Yea but go on to touch Christ still keep the finger of Faith upon him and you shall find by that time he hath done that you shall be made perfectly whole he hath begun to cure you already and he will finish what he hath begun 5. Observe how quickly Christ healed them Luke 13. 13. immediately which shews what a speedy Alteration the Lord Jesus can make in your condition 'T is it may be very sad with thy Soul now but how soon if he please can he bring you to a better pass If he speak but a word 't will be done therefore wait with patience for a recovery and a reviving in thy Soul think of this it may be done immediately for ought I know Why then should I be out of hope 6. Observe again That Christ healed them of whatsoever Diseases they had Matth. 4. 23 24. 't is that which lies many times very heavy upon the Souls of some What such a sinner as I be received I find mercy one in my condition why my case is an extraordinary case for Sin and Guilt and Misery But mind here he healed all manner of Sicknesses as if the Evangelist should have said he healed all manner of sinners that come to him for that is the spiritual meaning of it see Matth. 12 31 7. Observe that he healed those who could not be healed of any other Luke 8. 43. the poor Womans case was desperate as to any other Physician she could not be healed Very like the words may be delivered in the same language that her Physicians had spoken to her they might tell her when they had tried all means Now you cannot be healed and yet Christ healed her Beloved a sinner may be given up for Desperate and a Soul may give up its case for Desperate and yet healing may come from Christ for all that And therefore take heed both to others tho they be very wicked and as to your selves too tho your condition be very sinful and very sad that you do not cast away all hope tho it looks never so much like a condition that cannot be healed take heed don't undervalue Christs skill when thou sayest this sinner cannot be turned this condition cannot be got out of thou forgettest how thou undervaluest Christs skill 8. Observe again You find that when Christ had healed them they had an inward perceiving of it See Mark 5. 29 33. she felt in her she knew what was done in her Oh! how ignorant are many of this who profess that they have come to Christ and have touched him and some of them I believe have done so Ah! but how many be there even of Gods own Children that have not that feeling that knowledg of it as to say Sure enough I have been healed by Christ otherwise it could not be thus and thus with me as it is blessed be God I feel the healings of Christ within me I know there is some feeling some sense of it in those who are healed and therefore examine you that think you are in this healed condition What do you feel What Knowledg have you of any such thing done in you I observe in mine own experience that when it comes to this close question If a Minister of Christ ask some who are too ready to look upon themselves as converted when they are not Well pray what have you inwardly found or felt of such a change They have nothing to say 9. Again observe what a running and striving and crowding there was by them to come to this healer See Mark 3. 9 10. and chap. 6. 54 55 56. Oh! that we could see this forwardness and diligence in people to get spiritual healing from Christ Oh Friends did they do thus for their bodies and will you not do it for your Souls Christ suffered it to be thus when he was upon Earth that they that came for healing should throng in upon him to teach us how earnestly we should make out to him for our precious Souls 10. One thing more observe That Jesus Christ would certainly have us to look after this healing by him in a special manner on the Lords dayes and while we are gathered in religious Assemblies for you shall find how he went into their Synagogues and healed on the sabbath-Sabbath-days See Luke 13. 10 c. Mark 1. 21 c. Beloved I beseech you mind this well for I bring it to you that you may be very careful to improve your Lords days opportunities of meeting together in Gods Worship and Ordinances that you may get healing from Christ on these days Beloved these are such kind of days as you read of Luke 5. 17. Wherein the power of the Lord is present to heal persons Oh! that this day in this Assembly you may have healing from Christ 6. Another excellent name by which this Freedom is called is Light Isa 9. 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great Light they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined This Scripture is a Prophecy that Freedom by Christ should be made known unto us blind and ignorant Gentiles and the Apostle tells them there in 1 Pet. 2 9. who were now partakers of this Freedom that God had called them out of darkness into his marvellous Light What a marvellous Light this is we shall speak some thing to it when we come to shew the many wonders that are to be observed in this Freedom but for the present let us consider a little the name it self Light what an excellent thing is that Eccl 11. 7. Truly the Light is sweet The excellency of Light will appear by comparing it with it's contrary and by considering it in it self what 's the contrary to Light Why Darkness Now you know that this is a thing in which there is neither Beauty nor Order nor Safety nor Comfort 't was one of Egypts Plagues and the last but one of all the Plagues they had which shews what a dreadful thing 't is the saddest Afflictions outward or inward are compared to Darkness The Devil is called the Prince of Darkness Hell it self is called the place of Darkness And then if you consider Light as it is in it self why 't is one of the desirablest things that is in the World You have not a house but they will have Windows in it to let in Light this was the first thing which God made and as soon as he had made it he commended it Gen. 1. 3 4. God saw the Light that it was good God himself is said to dwell in Light 1 Tim. 6. 16. Heaven it self is compared to Light Col. 1. 12. 't is called the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Now this Freedom by Christ is Light and therefore sure 't is an excellent Freedom To make out this let us consider a
ws never done in any before nor never shall be in any for the time to come What is said there in Joel 1. 2 3. of a great Judgment which the Lord threatens I may say of this great Redemption Hear this ye old men Hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers c. And what God speaks to the Children of Israel about their Freedom out of Egypt I may well apply to this Freedom Deut. 4. 32. For ask now of the days that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon earth and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Consider Three things here and you will see that this is an incomparable Freedom 1. The other greatest deliverances that you read of which God gave to his people they were but the types and shadows and forerunners of this Freedom Particularly see it in that deliverance out of Egypt you that are acquainted with the story of it know what a great deliverance that was 'T is seldom spoken of in the Scripture but there is a glance upon the greatness and famousness of it 'T was so great that they were charged never to forget it Deut. 8. 14. And to that end the Lord appointed that they should begin their reckoning of the Months of the Year with that Month in which this deliverance came Exod 12. 1 2. And on the 4th day of that Month in the Evening of it which was the very day on which the Lord brought them out of their Bondage they were to keep the Passover every year throughout their Generations for a Memorial of it ver 6. 14. compared And it was such a great deliverance that Moses and all the children of Israel sung together unto the Lord in solemn praises and thanksgivings for it admiring the riches of his mercy towards them in it as you may see in Exod. 15. 1 c. And it was so great that it put the wicked Nations of the Earth into a trembling to hear of it ver 14 15 16. And again it was so great a deliverance that the Lord made use of it as the great and strong tie to bind them to himself in the strictest obedience And therefore when he gave them the Ten Commandments he set this engaging Preface before them I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage And then he gives them the Moral Law and in them to us by whom the aforesaid Preface is now to be understood spiritually of his bringing us out of the spiritual Egypt and the spiritual Bondage And therefore we are to be obedient unto him But now beloved tho this deliverance was such a great and glorious work as you must needs say it was to bring a matter of Six hundred thousand Men besides Women and Children with all their Herds and Flocks out of the Iron Furnace in Egypt where they had been strangers and slaves for Four hundred and Thirty years together and that with such a mighty hand and stretched-out arm as brought destruction to their enemies and redemption to his chosen people yet I say this was but a type of this Freedom by Christ This and all else that Moses did as Gods instrument among them was but to hold forth better things that were afterwards to be done by Christ See Heb. 3. 5. The like might be said of their deliverance out of their Seventy years Captivity in Babylon but I would only instance further in one great Freedom that was among the Jews by the appointment of God himself and that was That every 50th year which was called the year of Jubilee of which you read Levit. 25. there was to be a general Release and Liberty was to be proclaimed throughout all the Land so that they who had sold or mortgaged their land or possessions were then every one to return to them again and every Hebrew Servant was then to have his Freedom So that this year was a great and a famous year amongst them and 't was welcomed with a great deal of joy insomuch that it was called by them the Acceptable year Why this also was to point out this Freedom by Christ you shall find it alluded to in Isa 61. 1 2. where the same expressions are used by Christ in his setting forth his Redemption as were spoken of that year of Jubilee He saith he was sent to proclaim liberty to the Captives and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So that other Deliverances and other Freedoms were but to usher in this They were but the Harbingers of this great salvation and in the reading of them you must have your thoughts upon this not only to read them as stories that did but concern that people but as shadowing out the great Gospel-redemption 2. Again 't is an incomparable Freedom thus In that no misery is like that misery which this Freedom brings us from If ever there were a Wretch indeed he is one that lies in that condition out of which Christ was sent to deliver us 't is such a condition that if one were truly sensible of it he would not be in it one day for the whole World I mean our natural condition which is such a miserable state that if God bears everlasting love to any person to be sure he brings him out of it and if he intends everlasting wrath to any then he leaves them in it 3. Again In that no mercy is like to that mercy which this Freedom brings us to as they shall have misery enough and enough that continue in the Bondage so they shall have mercy enough and enough that partake of this Freedom they shall have mercy in abundance they shall be monuments of mercy for ever and therefore God gives them this Freedom by his Son that he may convey to them such riches of Grace and Mercy as that all the common goodness which is bestowed upon the whole World in general is as nothing in respect of that mercy which one single redeemed person hath and shall have bestowed upon him But what this mercy is we shall hear particularly when we come to speak of the Priviledges of this Freedom Property 2d This Freedom is an unconceivable Freedom that is 't is an unknown thing Here take notice 1. What I do not mean by this 2. What I do mean by it I do not mean by this as if the Saints knew nothing of it Oh! yes blessed be God they do see 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redemed with corruptible things c. but with the precious blood of Christ So Colos 1. 26 27. The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest unto his Saints Mark those words 't is now made manifest to his Saints and God
would make it known to them he was resolved that his people in the days of the New Testament should in a special manner have it revealed to them see also Eph. 2. 6 7. and cap. 3. 8 9 10 11. Yea beloved 't is so made known now as that there is not one Child of God upon Earth but hath the knowledg of it and none are altogether ignorant of it but such as are in their lost condition 2 Cor. 4. 3 4 6. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believed not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine upon them For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our heart to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ And therefore look you to it you that live in darkness and have none of this saving-light shining into your hearts that cannot tell what to make of Christ and the Gospel you may see from this Scripture what a case you are in and to what company you belong for the present God is teaching his people in these mysteries It is written that they shall be all taught of God and so they are tho not to alike degree That which I do mean when I say that this is an unknown Freedom is in these three things 1. That Gods people themselves don 't know it in that full manner and measure as it is to be known Surely there is more in it than they do understand even they who see and know most of it Nay 2. That which any of the people of God upon Earth do know of it as yet is but little in comparison of what is in this Freedom and therefore they are said to know but in part 1 Cor. 13. Now you know that but a part of a thing is very short of the whole They that have attained to the highest degree of spiritual understanding had need pray that they might be carried further and further still as Paul doth for the Ephesians cap. 1. 17 18. and 3. 18 19. Nay 3. The Saints in Heaven it self will never be able to take in all that concerns the glory of this Freedom tho they shall know it there clearly yet they cannot know it fully 't is that which is too great for any but God to comprehend just as it is He only knows his own Love and his own Mercy to the utmost yet this shall be no diminution of the Saints happiness that they cannot even there fully reach the knowledg of it for they shall know as much of it as it is possible for a Greature to know they shall be like Bottles cast into the Sea that tho they cannot take in the Sea yet they shall take in so much as shall make them so full that they cannot hold a drop more but if they could take in more there is more still to be taken in So that indeed this is an unconceivable Fredoom the Saints do admire it and they will admire it for ever Now our admiring of things doth not only proceed from our being affected with them but also from hence that there is more in them than we can well dive into so we cannot go to the bottom of this Freedom nor ever shall for it hath no bottom So that the truth is here we are all posed Saints and Angels are posed to conceive what this Freedom comes to You may go to some in the World that can scarch out deep Mysteries that can expound Riddles but this is such a Mystery and such a Riddle as no Creature in Heaven or Earth is able exactly to unfold I may say of it as 't is in Rom. 11. 33. O the depth c. Other Freedoms you can fathom but this you can't 3d Property It is the most honourable Freedom you know when God redeemed the Children of Israel out of Egypt he did it in an honourable way take it in these three things 1. He gat honour to himself Exod. 14. 17 18. by this he declared himself to be above all gods and above all great Ones of the Earth God should never have done this work if the Egyptians and all their Idols could have hindred it You know what a fierce on-set they made upon Israel at the Red-Sea to bring them back again but instead of that they never went back again themselves the waters covered their Enemies there was not one of them left what a name did the Lord make himself at that time 2. He honoured his Promises the Children of Israel had had many Promises of Deliverance which by reason of the anguish of their spirits in their Bondage they could not tell how to believe they called the Faithfulness and Truth of God into question as we are too ready to do when we are in great straits instead of trusting in God firmly as they should have done when once they had a word from God what depth of distress soever they were in they did not rely up-God's Promise Exod. 6. 6 7 8 9. But when God delivered them he honoured his Promise for all that he shewed that he did remember it by the performing of it Exod. 12. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self-same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt You must know that this place looks back chiefly to the promise that God made to Abraham that tho his seed should be afflicted in Egypt yet he would bring them out after such a time Gen. 15. 13 14. Now here in this 12th of Exod. you see how God honoured his promise he kept his word to the very day Obj. But how did God honour his promise and how were they delivered the self-same day when as in that place of Genesis there is just Four hundred years spoken of that they should be in Egypt and in the other of Exodus 't is Four hundred and Thirty years It seems therefore that God failed of his promise Thirty years Ans No God forbid that we should think so Heaven and earth shall pass away but one tittle of his word shall not perish But you must know that there may be Two Reasons why the Thirty years are not mentioned in the promise to Abraham 1. Because 't is not an unusual thing amongst us to swallow up a lesser number in a greater As if a man ask you how old you are you say so many years and tho there be some odd weeks or months you omit them putting the greatest number for all So the Thirty years are to be understood in the Four hundred as the Text in Exodus with which the other is to be compared doth shew 2. I suppose the Lord might of purpose conceal these Thirty years tho he did
as much intend them as the other that his people might not precisely know the very time when their deliverance should be that it should be this year or this day to teach them still to depend upon him for deliverance even when they might think that their deliverance was nearest We must trust God for deliverance but the very time when it shall be we must leave that to him He useth to reserve that in his own breast But to go on 3. In that deliverance God honoured his people Deut. 4. 34. Isa 43. 3 4. He gat them a Name and made them high above all Nations They were a People that all the World did talk of that heard what God had done for them how he had redeemed them and how he had chosen them and how he went before them Well now beloved you see this was an honourable deliverance that God gave to them but this Freedom by Christ is the most honourable Freedom of all God never so honoured himself by any deliverance as by this nor did he ever so honour his promises nor did he ever so honour his people For the first see John 12. 28. for the second Luke 1. 68. to 74. for the third Luke 2. 32. They are so honoured by this that they that partake of this Freedom are said to be made Kings to God Property 4. This Freedom is a Heavenly Freedom They who are interested in it are said to be partakers of the heavenly calling Heb. 3. 1. And they are called the heavenly Jerusalem cap. 12. 22. and Jerusalem which is above Gal. 4. 26. 'T is such an Heavenly Freedom that the very Angels desire to look into this salvation which it brings 1 Pet. 1. 10 11 12. Other Deliverances were earthly or at most the best and greatest of them as I said were but types and shadows of better things but this Freedom is all made up of Heavenliness I shall make out this by Four things a little 1. It is the Sons Freedom 2. The Souls Freedom 3. The Saints Freedom 4. The Scripture-Freedom 1. I say 't is the Sons Freedom that which the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God hath procured 'T is the Son that makes free You have had this largely opened to you Now what an heavenly Freedom must this be that God imployed his own Son in and sent him from Heaven on purpose about it When the Lord would redeem his people out of Egypt he sent Moses and Aaron for that work and they were but Men but when he would give this Freedom he sent one that was more than a Man 'T is true he raised up Christ from amongst the Jews according to the flesh and the humane Nature did not come immediately from God but 't was made of the Seed of David Yea but God was manifested in this flesh and upon this account he is said to come down from Heaven John 3. 13. and to come out from God and to come forth from the Father cap. 16. 27 28. So that in this Freedom beloved there came one from the Throne of God yea one that was God to give it to us 2. 'T is the Souls Freedom the Freedom of the Soul Now you know they must be all heavenly things that can reach that to do it any good In other Deliverances they were the Bodies of men that were set free but in this Christ brings Souls out of Prison and Bondage And indeed herein lies the very main of all the excellency of this Freedom that it is a Freedom for Souls If I should have said nothing else about it but only this That the precious Souls of Men and Women are redeemed by it you must needs have said 't is an excellent Freedom Yea beloved all that I have said or have yet to say or can say runs into this Oh blessed joyful heavenly Freedom by Christ What a thing is this What to bring salvation to Souls to set the Heart Mind Will Understanding Affections Conscience at liberty that when all was bound within with spiritual Chains and Fetters that were Ten thousand times stronger than those that are made of Brass and Iron that when the Soul sat in darkness and in the shadow of death there should be redemption for that that Christ should pity lost and undone souls Oh heavenly heavenly heavenly Freedom Well may I use those words to you here which the Angel used to the Shepherds Luke 2. 10 11. Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savioue which is Christ the Lord. Here 's a Saviour for your Souls Where are your Souls Sirs by Nature What a condition are they in Oh! they are kept the closest Prisoners that ever were in the deepest darkest Dungeon that ever was and this Prison they are cast into for Debt for Theft for Murder for Treason and no Debt like this Debt for 't is the Debt of Sins and Iniquities and no Theft like this Theft for 't is for robbing God of his Glory and no Murder like this Mruder for 't is for destroying your own Souls and no Treason like this Treason for t is against the Crown of Heaven And yet if you will repent and believe the Gospel here 's a Freedom for your Souls out of all this Methinks it should be even with us in the hearing of this as 't is said in Luke 19. 37 38. that we should rejoyce and praise God with a loud voice And if we should not be affected with this Freedom one might think as ver 40. that if we should hold our peace the stones would immediately cry out 3. It is the Saints Freedom Indeed 't is to make sinners free but it is not the Freedom of sinners That is as long as persons are out of Christ they cannot truly call it theirs 'T is the portion and priviledg of the children of God A wicked man may have it but a true Believer hath it The one is under a possibility of it but the other is in possession of it Rom. 5. 2. They have their standing in this Grace They stand upon Gospel-ground Now what a Heavenly Freedom is this that none but Saints enjoy The men of the World may enjoy other Freedoms but one must be in Christ to enjoy this It belongs to the holy Company Eph. 2. 19. Ye are Fellow-Citizens with the Saints Indeed this Freedom doth not find us Saints but it makes us so And therefore hereby you may know whether you have any thing of it Do you think that you are made free by Christ and abide ungodly To be sure you deceive your selves The Lord Christ never redeemed any Soul to leave it where he found it he puts it into a contrary state to that which it had before he found it in darkness but he puts it into Light he found it in Death but he puts it into Life he found it in Wickedness but he puts
condition but if ever he were a liar he is a liar in this and God will judg him and his instruments for bringing up this evil report upon the good Land which he hath given his people Beloved be not discouraged by this slander from looking after this heavenly Canaan as the Children of Israel were from entring into the earthly Canaan when the Spies that went to search the land had spoken evil of it to them for as Caleb said to them the same I say to you The Land is an exceeding good Land I mean now the state into which Christ hath brought believers is even in this World a joyful state You shall see how it was prophecied of in the Old Testament that it should be so Psal 67. read vers 1 2. where he speaks of the coming of this Freedom God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all nations and what follows why vers 3 4 5. Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy there 's the joy that it brings with it So Isa 35. 10. this chapter is to he understood of Gospel Freedom and Salvation and mark what Joy here is now The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Obj. But where can you shew us the people in the New Testament that live so comfortably and joyfully by this Freedom and that in this World Why turn to Rom. 5. 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and vers 10 11. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the attenement Obj. But it may be they were a people that met with no great afflictions if they had it would have spoiled their joy tho they were in this Freedom Well for that I 'll give you a full Scripture see 1 Pet. 1. These were scattered abroad by persecution vers 1. They had manifold temptations vers 6. And in v. 7. the Apostle speaks of the tryal of their Faith by fire Yet in vers 8. how comfortable they were for all this In whom tho now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Sirs you that are out of this Freedom are hindred by it from abundance of joy you don't know what true joy and true comfort is without it 5. It is good to make us taste the sweetness that is in the ways of God 't was the Spouse of Christ the redeemed company that uttered that in Cant. 2. 3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste Duties Ordinances are sapless things without this but they are refreshing yea ravishing things with it What made David say that a day in Gods Courts was better than a thousand otherwhere 't was because he was in this Freedom Why did the Lord call his Ordinances that should be under the Gospel A feast of fat things a feast of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well fined Isa 25. 6. But because he knew they would be so to Souls that should be brought into this Freedom Oh this is that which will make a Prayer sweet and a good Sermon sweet and a Sacrament sweet and Grace and the Exercise of it sweet You that are in the Bondage of sins may come and hear precious truths but you cannot tell what is in them for savour and relish that Bondage hath put your mouths quite out of taste as I may say to you there 's nothing so sweet as that which is most bitter and that is sin if your palat were not vitiated by this Bondage you would call it as the Scripture calls it viz. The gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity Acts 8. 23. 6. This Freedom is good to make us spiritually useful Indeed one that hath it not may be useful and very useful for earthly respects and if he should be taken away by death there might be a great miss of him the family might want him or the Parish may want him But spiritually useful such a one is not nor can be any otherwise then as a wooden leg can be useful to the body which tho it helps it a little yet 't is but outwardly it hath none of that life or motion that the true members have But now they whom Christ hath made free oh what a deal they are good for upon a spiritual account they are useful persons to bring up a Family for God they are good for the Souls of their Relations You that are out of Christ you may be good for the bodies of your Children you may be good to provide them Meat and Drink and Cloaths and to take care of them when any of them fall sink that they may not want attendance or the like or you may be good to train them up in a civil way and to lay up for them what you can for a Portion in this World or to put them to a good Trade or help them to as rich a match as you can and in these kind of things your usefulness to them is at its journeys end As for the poor Souls of your Children you forget them because you never rememberd your own it may be you 'l say to your Children sometimes you must be a good boy or a good girl and there 's all the good counsel that they shall have of you but alas you take no care to tell them which way they must be good indeed and truly if God should take you away from them and leave them Fatherless and Motherless their outward man would miss you sadly it may be but their Souls would not you were never good for them but they who are in this Freedom are good for the Souls of their Family And beloved they are very useful persons to promote a good work when they see it would tend much to the Glory of God to have it carried on and to take occasions and opportunities of speaking to others about everlasting concernments and to mourn for the sins of the times and places in which they live and to stand in the gap when the Wrath of God is breaking in upon a Nation and when God takes away one of these oh what a miss there is of them and what a loss 't is upon the best account If God had pleased a hundred wicked men might have been better spared than one of these The least of these
Service blessed be his Name but should you not do him more You bring forth some fruit but should you not bring forth more 'T is not enough for you to be gracious but you should be zealous Christ as I may so speak hoped you would when he gave you this Freedom see Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That so many are gone to Hell for refusing this excellent Freedom Oh what a sad thing 't is to think how many Souls have perished for want of closing with Christ 'T is true they had other sins but whatever other sins they had they would have been forgiven if they had not neglected this great Salvation that made them that they could not escape As the receiving of this Freedom by Faith hath been the Salvation of many so the refusing of it by unbelief hath been the Damnation of more tho poor wretches they are not here to be told of it because they are now gone to their own place Oh! the price that they had once in their hands but now they have lost it for ever and it may be some of these might be your Friends and Relations the Wives of your own bosoms and the Children of your own bodies Well if they were they are perished without hope there 's no fetching them back again you may perhaps mourn to think what is become of them but now they are past recovery your prayers can do them no good and your tears can do them no good and now you must labour to rest satisfied with this that the Will of the Lord is done and that he is glorified tho it be in their eternal destruction 4. That so many sinners tho they are yet on Earth will shortly be in Hell too for the same sin For alas how many be there of those who are yet alive that are making light of Christ and of this excellent Freedom and many of them will go on to do so to their dying day and so come to the same pass to which the unrepenting sinners before them have brought themselves The generations of Christ refusers is not all gone they that were in the ages that are past are swept and snatch away but there are others that stand up in their room there 's a succession of these ungodly hard-hearted sinners that tho we offer Christ and Salvation to them and beseech them as for our lives to be reconciled to God yet they go on and 't is to be feared will go on in the broad way that leadeth to Destruction 'T was a sad word that Christ spake to them in Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Mark he doth not say you do not come but he delivers it in a kind of hopeless expression you will not come As if he should say I see some of you are of that temper that as you are you will be you are in your sins and you will be in your sins let them that hear me mark it concerning you if you do not dye out of me I pray God it be not so with some of you that are here Really Sirs 't is matter of mourning to see how some of you trifle in the things of your Souls would it not grieve ones heart to think that some of you that have attended upon all this that hath been preached upon this Text should yet look after a Christ no more than you do I am this day to finish this work and I am afraid of divers of you that this Text will leave you as dead as it found you Well the Lord be witness between you and me whether I have not set Life and Death before you and whether if you perish it be for want of being sufficiently told of the misery of your Bondage of sin or of the excellency of the Freedom by Christ Beloved 't will be a sad thing when such a Text as this is done to leave any of you undone Vse 4. Of Examination You have heard much of this excellent Freedom put this question home to your selves every one of you Am I got out of prison yet How shall I know that you 'l say Ans Take it in three things 1. If a man be got out of Prison he hath made his peace with those that cast him in suppose it be for debt that one hath been laid up and you see him afterwards out of prison and you ask him why you were a prisoner how got you out Why saies he I have compounded with my Creditors I have made my peace or I have got an able surety to be bound for me So Sirs have you made your peace with God for your great debt of sin Have you got Jesus Christ to stand bound for you Why then you are no longer Prisoners but if you have not peace with God through Christ you are in Prison still for the condition of your Souls see Zech. 9. 11. As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water God sends forth none out of Prison but by the Blood of that Conant which Christ hath made with God on the behalf of the Prisoner that he will pay the debt for him 2. Another sign that a man is got out of Prison is That he bears a great love to him that freed him If one comes and sees him lye there in a sad condition and hath compassion upon him Well saith he I 'll procure your Freedom for you I 'll undertake it he will have a great respect for that person to be sure when he hath done it Oh! saith he if it had not been for this Friend I had perished I have reason to make much of him Sirs if you don't prize Christ you are in Prison still you have not his Freedom if he hath not your best Love Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Mark how those words his dear Son are brought in with the mention of this Freedom and I look upon them as to be understood not only in reference to his Father but also those who are freed by him As if he should say Dear to his Father and dear to us too 3. If a man be got out of Prison or Bondage he is afraid to go thither again he thinks what a sad condition he had when he was there and he desires he may not come there again so do you fear and watch lest any sin bring you into Bondage again Is there no lust that you would be any longer a servant to Do you dread the thoughts of holding secret correspodence with any false way Why then you are made free You may say as 't is in Psal 124. 7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the