loose his hand and cut me off And so the Prophet Jonah because his message was crost which he had delivered concerning Nineveh therefore he desires to live no longer in the world Therefore now O Lord says he I beseech thee take away my life from me for it is better for me than to live in Jonah 4.3 In others of worse principles it is commonly more frequent and ordinary but it is such as is very grievous and dangerous in them Those that with for death lightly and rashly and discontentedly they know not what they wish for as having not leisure to recollect themselves To wish for it as an opportunity of nearer and fuller and closer communion with Christ and enjoyment of him as a cessation and period to sin as an exemption from temptation this is very good and praise worthy and such as the Scripture leads us unto But to wish for it out of murmuring and impatience and discontent it is no way allowable especially according to the circumstances which such persons may possibly be in which is of strangeness and unacquaintedness with God and unpreparedness for another world Oh! it is a mad thing indeed to desire death in such a case as this is let their condition here in the world be otherwise never so lamentable because that then they do change but out of one bad condition into another yea out of a less evil into a greater as it follows after in the next verse to the Text. As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand upon the wall and a Serpent bit him such is the fruit of such desires as these And that 's one expression of this rash and unadvised desiring of the day of the Lord in those who do so desire it as proceeding from a principle of discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from a principle of presumption of their own innocence This is that which hypocrites sometimes do They seem to desire the day of the Lord as if they were ready in a manner to try it out with the Lord and to justify themselves at his Tribunal There are some persons that are so full of carnal confidence and conceited of their own righteousness as that they dare even to plead and contend with God himself and think to do well enough with him Such an one as this was that young man in the Gospel that said he had kept all God's Commandments from his youth upward and such an one also was the Pharisee that thanked God he was not like other men And such also were the people of the Jews that stood upon their own righteousness Now such as these might well have a woe to be denounc'd against them Woe unto him that strives with his maker as the Prophet Isaiah sometimes expresses it It was that which Job in all his innocency durst not do as himself professes Job 9.15 Whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but would make supplication to my Judge This is that which these considerate persons will not vouchsafe to do but rather think to carry it out by the strength of their own deserts as having nothing which might be charged upon them Thirdly From a principle of ignorance of the nature of the thing it self They know not what death is in the properties and consequences of it nor they know not what judgment is in the strictness and severity of it And therefore it is that at a distance they think favourably both of the one and the other and seem as if they were desirous of them Which is a very sad case to be so Thus do they desire the day of the Lord without understanding either the day of death or general or particular judgment Again further Take this day of the Lord in the other sense for the day of captivity and National desolation as it may be also taken And so there is a woe likewise belonging to those which do desire it or at least which so carry themselves as if they were little affected with it Thus it was with some of the Jews at this present time they were so far from being humbled under the predictions and prognostications of this condition which was threaten'd to them as that they were in a manner at a point about it and did in some sort wish for it so it happens to be sometimes with divers others of the like temper and disposition with them They do sometimes according to the discontents which may be upon them wish for war and wish for calamity and wish for confusion it self as conceiving that such extremities may be some kind of help and relief unto them But alas they do not know what they wish for in so wishing Such desires as these are rash and unadvised in them and have a woe attending upon them as it is here exprest It is not safe to give way but to the first beginning and entring of Judgment because we know not where they will stop or stay when we once dye I have not desired the woful day thou knowest it as Jeremy speaks in another case So it concerns all persons in this case to be able to say in this particular Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly or foolishly because ye do not consider it or attend to the circumstances of it That 's the first explication Secondly Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it scoffingly and scornfully because ye do not believe it This is another sense which may be founded upon this expression Desiring it in their mouthes but not in their hearts and so desiring that it might come as yet thinking it would not come and therefore mocking at the coming of it Such persons as these there are also sometimes in the world the Prophet Esay makes mention of them to us Isa 5.19 They say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Therefore as they laugh at the Day of the Lord so accordingly they laugh at the Word of the Lord and his Message concerning that day as the Prophet Jeremy has it in Jer. 17.15 Behold they say unto me Where is the word of the Lord let it come now That is Where is that which the Word of the Lord has so much threatned and spoken of as that which shall come to pass Not onely scoffing at Judgment it self but likewise at all the fore-runnings and monitions of it This is an high piece of wickedness and impiety indeed yet such as the sons of men are now and then subject unto Where they have not so much grace as to avoid Judgment they have at least so much vileness as to despise it and to make a mock and derision of it and of those that proclaim it They desire it
his God so long both are implyed in this Thou art my God from my Mothers Belly First He here blesses God for being his God so Early My God from my Mothers Belly That is as soon as I had any being in the World He might have if he had pleased fetch 't it higher if we speak of Gods Decree in Election and have said from the beginning of the World Yea before the Foundations of the World were ever laid As Psal 90.2 But he speaks here rather of the Execution and Manifestation of this his Decree God is then our God properly when he manifests Himself to be our God by some special work of Grace in our Souls and by giving Himself unto us And so he is pleased to do to divers in the very first dawnings of nature in them The Prophet Jeremiah he was Sanctifyed in the womb Jer. 1.5 Before I formed thee in thee Belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the Womb I Sanctifyed thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations And so likewise John the Baptist he had the same Grace and Favour also Timothy It is said that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And Obadiah 1 Kings 18.12 I thy Servant do fear the Lord from my Youth This is the goodness of God to many persons to be early in his beginning of Grace which he works in them Thus there can be no other ground or reason assigned of it but onely his own free-Grace and good Pleasure and will towards them who as he is free in the thing it self so also in the time of Dispensation And there is a double use which we may make of this Observation First To inform and satisfy us as concerning the time of Conversion and beginning of the work of Grace which is a Question which does many times trouble and perplex many a Soul to know the distinct reason when God first brought him home to Himself For this It is not in all kind of Persons discernable by them Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not which is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the work of God who maketh all Indeed for those who have a great part of their time lived profanely or a meer civil life in them because the change is more Eminent the time is more Conspicuous too but for those whom it hath pleased God to Sanctify in their Infancy and tender years and to carry them on sweetly imperceptibly in the tract of a godly and Religious Education all their Life in these it is not so easily distinguished neither should it trouble them when it is not If the time be up it is no matter when it is first begun It is not the change of a mans Course but the change of his Nature which is here required And that is done in those to whom God is a God from the womb Their Nature is changed in them though their Course it may be has been the same all their days to wit godly and Religious nay it is so far from being a Cause of trouble as that indeed it is rather an argument of greater comfort to them that God has loved them so soon Secondly Another use is Ingagement to all such in a special manner to love God so much the more And so much for that He blesses God for being his God so Early Secondly He Blesses God for being his God so long This is also implyed in this Expression Thou art my God from c. That is thou art my God still from whence we may note thus much That those whom God is a God too once he is a God too them always Those whom he takes into his Care and Tuition and Custody at first those he also preserves to the End There is no time wherein he Ceases to be a God unto them And therefore t is here without any sign of time Eliattah Thou my God that hast been and art and wilt be through all Generations This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 So Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the Womb c. The Ground of this in God is First His Vnchangeable Nature who is Yesterday and to Day and the same for ever If God were Alterable and subject to Varying he should then love us one Day and hate us the next to it For I am the Lord I change not Therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed Secondly His Free-Grace who shews Mercy where he will If Gods Goodness were founded in us then he should Change and Vary as we do but this it is not There is nothing moves Him to be our God but onely because he will be so Thirdly His Exactness in all he does who loves to finish there where he has begun Ye know how it is with Exact men when they have begun a thing they love to perfect it and so here This should stir us up to the Observation and Acknowledgment of Gods goodness in this particular He has the perfection of all Love in him for he begins betimes and he Continues long and what could we desire more There are many which are good friends at last but they are a great while a comming on and before they can be perswaded to it There are others which are good for a while but they quickly give over But now the Lord he fails us in neither He is our God from our Mothers Womb. Even all our following and succeeding days And this it should teach us proportionably in the Second place to keep close to Him and as he continues constant to us so for us also to persevere to Him and to walk in the Constant ways of thankfulness and Obedience to Him And thus have I after somewhat long Travel brought this Child with Gods gracious Assistance at length to the Birth And have shown you here the several particulars in which David tenders his Acknowledgment and Sacrifice of Thansgiving to God For the Blessings of the Womb for the Blessing of the Breast for the Blessing of the Cradle and for the Blessings of the Covenant That is for common Mercies for ancient Mercies and for primitive Mercies and for constant Mercies Consider what I have said And the Lord give you understanding in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XVI Psal 10.13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God He hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it Their cannot be a better Evidence of a Good and a Gracious heart then to be tender and sensible of Gods Dishonour and having first of all sufficiently bewayled its own Distempers and Infirmities to lay to heart the Enormities and Miscarriages of other men Like Righteous Lot whose Soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked while he dwelt amongst them seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds as the
altogether He lets them alone as to Sinning and suffers them there to take their Pleasure and therefore will let them alone as to Punishing and will suffer them there to take their Course and to take their Rest and train them up in their Vain and false Conceit wherewith most People Chear up themselves and thereby are so much the more hardned and confirmed in their Evil ways even to Destruction it self These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes Psal 50.21 The Sum of all comes to this That Atheism and Blasphemy and Profaneness and Looseness of Carriage it is no more but a very Cheat and proceeds upon wrong Principles It is onely what men think and fancy to themselves in their own minds that puts them upon it otherwise it would not be so with them as it promises to be If they had due and right thoughts of God they would have better Carriage and behaviour towards Him And withall it shews the Baseness and Sordedness which is in mens Natures that there is nothing which does restrain them from Sin but Punishment if that at all does it where they think they are free from that they care not what is done by them Those who have any principles of Grace and Ingenuity in them they would not willingly do that which is Evil though there were no Judgment or Hell to follow it out of that inward and inbred Antipathy which they have unto it out of an Hatred and Loathing and Detestation of Sin it self but most men are of other principles If they can think that God will not require it they care not what Insolences and affronts they offer even to his Majesty it self For a Close and Conclusion of all at this present time This whole Verse if we please may be further taken in a way of Complaint and Expostulation which David makes with God as to his present forbearing and remitting of wicked men therefore doth the wicked contemn God c. That is wherefore dost thou let Him contemn this and suffer Him to do so without Executing of this Vengance upon Him As Jeremiah and Habakkuk and others of the Servants of God do sometimes reason with Him to the like purpose But this I cannot now stand to insist upon and perhaps that Sense which I have already handled is more proper and Naturall and therefore I will not practise this So much for the whole Text. Wherefore doth the Wicked c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XVII Psal 68.21 But God shall wound the Head of his Enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses There 's nothing wherein Gods Providence does more difference it self in the world then in his Dispensations to his Church and People And that as we may consider it especially in a double reference The one is as to their own protection the salvation and preservation of themselves And the other to their enemies confusion the destruction of those which are opposites and Adversaries to them And each of these are in a very good part of it the Scope and Drift of this present Psalm which we have here before us The former is laid down in the verse immediately preceeding He that is our God is the God of salvation and to God the Lord belong the issues from death The latter is exhibited in this Text which I have now read unto you Where by way of Antithesis or opposition God shews his carriage to his people to be different from his carriage to his enemies For whereas he loaded them with benefits upon these he heaps Judgements But God shall wound the Head of His enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on c. This is the Coherence of the words IN the Text it self we have three General parts considerable of us First The Persons threaten'd and they are in General God's enemies in particular such as those who go on still in their trespasses 2ly The evil it self which they are threaten'd withal and that is wounding or smiting Thirdly The place or part with they are threaten'd in the Head Scalp we begin in order with the first viz. The Persons Threatn'd Gods enemies and pertinacious sinners such persons as will not be reclaim'd from their vitious and inordinate courses These are those which the Psalmist does here threaten with judgement Obstinacy and persistence in sin it shall not escape punishment but God will sooner or later be avenged upon it This is the Point which we have here before us and we have it further declared unto us in sundry other places besides as Levit. 26.18 If ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me then will I punish you seven times more for your sins so Deut. 29.19 20. He that blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man c. so Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgement Again Prov. 29.1 He that being often reprov'd hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroy'd and that without remedy In these and the like places of Scripture does God threaten the pertinacious sinner and such an one as persists and goes on still in his trespasses And there 's very good ground for it which may appear in these following considerations First Because he multiplies sin Secondly because he aggravates it Thirdly because he confirms it He makes his sins more numerous He makes his sins more heynous He makes his sins more settled and harden'd and difficult to be removed therefore draws on the punishment of them First I say Because he multiplies sin he contracts a new guilt He that goes on in his Trespasses he adds sin to sin iniquity to iniquity drunkenness to thirst and so from hence runs further upon the score and in arrears with God Look therefore as a Creditor when his Debter goes on still in his debt without any payment or satisfaction of him he thinks it time for him now to call him to an account Even so it is with God to sinful men when they still proceed in their iniquities and provocations of Him He will punish them because they still provoke the eyes of his Glory against them and by frequent commissions do as it were dare his Divine Majesty to execute vengance upon them There 's an Affinity and Concatenation of sins one with another so that they which make bold with some are likely to fall into more if they do not the better
purpose Such as those they should account themselves not Owners merely but Stewards whom God hath betrusted with such Opportunities as whereby others might be the better for them This is that which they should be so much more effectually perswaded unto from the Examples which are set before them The Commemoration of our several Benefactors is not onely an acknowledgment of the good things which have been done by them but also a Provocation to our selves likewise to do the same or the like as God inables us from the Consideration of their Example going before us As those who are accountable to God not for Rules onely but also for Examples And to Incourage us so much the more herein let us Consider that there is nothing lost by it What ever is done in this kind it is not cast away but Sown and accordingly it shall have a Plentiful Crop and Harvest returned for it God will be in no man's Debt whosoeve he be but whosoever layes out any thing in Obedience to his Commandement he shall receive a full Recompence of it in the accomplishment also of his promise Lastly Ther 's another Remembrance which we may yet further make of God to this Purpose It is God that gives thee power to get Wealth and it is God that gives thee power to loose it and to want it and to be content to be without it The power of Patience and the power of Contentment is of God And indeed it is as Great a Power which is as requisite to the one as to the other to this as to that To be able to say with Holy Job The Lord giveth and the Lord takeeth Blessed be the name of the Lord to be so far sensible of the Reality of all these things here below as of the Reality of better things above to be willing to descend and to come down from a Great Estate without murmuring without Repining without Impatience and Discontent This is also the Gift of God St. Paul had learn'd to want as well as to abound Ther 's an art and Mistery in that also Which is much both to be desired and imbraced And accordingly as any do by Faith waite upon Him for it shall they have this Benefit and Experience of it And so I have done also with the Second General part of the Text as with the whole Text it self Thou shalt Remember the Lord c. SERMON III. Deuter. 11.12 A Land which the Lord thy God careth for The Eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the Year even to the End of the Year It is a part of the Geat love and kindness of God towards his People not onely to be careful to provide good things forthem but also to give them some assurance of the Goodness of those things which he provides before he bestows them That so they may have them as it were in Hope before in Injoyment and in Expectation before in Fruition Partly thereby to Incourage them in the Customes of their present Obedience And partly thereby also to Satisfy them in the meanness of their present Condition And this is that which we may observe to have to do here in this present Scripture with the People of Israel in reserence to the Land of Canaan which he had provided for them and promised to bring them unto He raises their Hearts and Spirits and Affections and desires after it by giving them beforehand a Comfortable Description of it And this Text which I have now read unto you is a part of this Description Being an Account which is given by Moses of this Land of Promise not onely as the Proper Inheritance of the Children of Isarel but also as a Tipe and Figure of the whole Church of God in all Ages and Generations of the World c. THis Text which we have now before us is an Account which is given by Moses of the Land of Canaan that Land which was a long time promised and at last bestowed upon the Children of Israel not onely as their proper Inheritance but also as a Tipe and Figure of the whole Church of God in all Ages and Generations of the World So that what was true of that Considered in the Literal sense is true of this also in the Mystical and Spiritual Which is that which we shall now principally take notice of at this present time Forasmuch as the bare Letters of it contains in it either very little or no matter at all or at the best that which is but short and Impertinent It is here represented to us under the Notion of a Double Advantage which may serve to make up to us the parts of the Text. First From the Interst which it hath in God's Affection The Land which the Lord thy God careth for Secondly From the Interest which it hath in God's Inspection The Eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from c. This is Considerable in the Church of God and such a Land wherein the Church does at any time Continue and Reside We begin with the first of these Parts Namely the Interest which such a Land as this is hath in Gods Affections The Land which the Lord thy God careth for This is true not onely of the Land of Canaan which then was and Considered in the proper sense of it but also of any other Land together with it which is the Place and Residence of the Church and Ordinances and People of God This is Reductively and Interpretatively and Proportionably the Land which the Lord thy God careth for When it is said here that he careth for it this word Care it may admit of a threefold Explication First as a word of Respect He cares for it that is he regards it Secondly as a word of Providence He cares for it that is he looks after it and takes care for it Thirdly as a word of Solicitude He cares for it i. e. is Anxious about it First As a word of Respect The Church of God and such a Land where the Church resides God cares for it that is he regards it and has an Esteem for it It 's Precious and of great Account with him Therefore he is pleased sometimes in Scripture to put such names and Titles as these upon it which do import as much in it of his Portion and Inheritance and Jewels and peculiar Treasure c. Which are such things as in the Course of the World People do commonly care for and set an high value upon them This does God in reference to his Church The Lord Regards and Esteems his Church above all other Lands and Nations in the whole World besides Thus in Psal 132.13.14 The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath defended it for his Habitation This says he This is my Rest for ever Here will I dwell for I have desired it And so again Psal 87.2.3 The Lord loveth the Gates of Zion more then all the Dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are
God First That God would bless him in his Estate and give him sufficient Maintenance That thou wouldest inlarge my Coast Secondly That God would bless him in his Imployment and give him proportionable Assistance And that thy hand might be with me Thirdly That God would bless him in his Person and vouchsafe him Gracious Preservation And that thou wouldest keep me from Evil that it might not grieve me All these three particulars are here Considerable of us in this Text thought the first of them we shall onely speak to at this present time The First is this That God would be pleased to bless him in his Estate and subsist me in the World That thou wouldest inlarge my Coast Vt dilataveris terminos meos A phrase that suits very well here with your own Language and Occasions and is proper unto them This is that which Jabez would here have an Extention of the Bounds of his Estate and the Possessions which he injoyd to a just measure and Proportion when he desires that his Coast should be inlarged we are to understand it in a Qualified sense not for such an Inlargement as men of the world commonly seek after without any Bounds or limits at all An unsatiable desire which like the Horse-leach that Solomon speaks off cryes nothing but Give Give Prov. 30.15 Or like those that the Prophet speaks off and denounces a Wo unto them which joyn House to House and lay Field to Field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth Esay 5.8 Such kind of persons as these they would have their Coast inlarged like the Sea There 's no measure at all of their desires which surely is such a kind of inlargement as the Lord does not approve and therefore we are not to understand it to be meant here in this Text. But we are to take it in a more restrain'd Acception That thou wouldest inlarge my Coast that is that thou wouldest bless me with a fair and competent Estate This was that which Jabez in this Scripture did seem to desire at Gods hands in this Expression And there are two things here answerable of us from it First That this is a Blessing considered in its own nature and such as in a strict way may be desired Secondly That it is such a Blessing that if it be desired at all it must be desired and desired from God himself Whosoever would have it they must wait upon Him for it as Jabez here did he calls upon the God of Israel that he would inlarge his Borders for him First I say it is a Blessing in it self considered in its own nature and such as may be in a sort desired A fair and large Estate here in the World This we gather from the reasoning and practise of Jabez here in this place That it is so and may appear unto us not so much by the Inclinations and Affections of men themselves which are many times in this point irregular as rather by the Representations which the Scripture it self makes of it First As promising it for a Blessing sometimes to those that do well as we may see in Deut. 28.1 If thou wilt harken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God c. Then all these Blessings shall come upon thee Blessed shalt thou be in the City and Blessed shalt thou be in the Field Blessed shall be thy Basket and Blessed shall be thy Store So again 't is said of Spiritual Wisdome Prov. 3.16 That length of Days is in her right Hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour It is true it is but in her left hand but in her right hand it is notwithstanding And for Incouragement of men in labour and Industrious following of their Callings it is said That the diligent hand shall make Rich. So again Secondly on the other side The Contrary is threatned for an Affliction as in the same fore-named Chapter in Deut. So likewise in other places As Habb 1.8 Ye looked for much and loe it came to little c. That it is a Blessing indeed and so in that regard may be desired which I need not stand much to prove may appear further upon this Account First As an opportunity of Receiving Good And Secondly As an opportunity of doing Good and of Receiving as Appears by that of our Saviours Luk. 16.9 Make ye friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that so when ye fail that is when ye Dy they may Receive you into Ever lasting Habitation What 's the meaning of that what Are Riches alone of themselves able to do this no but by the Friends which they make in the improvement and Dispensation of them He that Conscionably Scatters his Estate amongst the poor Servants of God he has so many Prayers to the Bargain which are put up for him to the throne of Grace not onely for the increasing of his Temporal Estate but likewise for the promoting of his Spiritual c. Thus we see how t is an opportunity of Receiving Good It s so also of Doing which if we compare them is somewhat more then the former It being a more blessed thing to Give then to Receive as the Scripture speaks The Comfort of a great Estate is not as most men make it to be onely to look upon it with his Eyes and to please themselves in the Injoyment of it no more but so No but as a Greater opportunity of greater Services and of doing greater Good This then serves to teach us in what respects principally to desire it if so be we ever desire it at all and also upon what terms to injoy it and to be partakers of it namely with Thankfulness and Improvement which is that which makes it to be a Blessing indeed Honour the Lord with thy Substance and the first Fruits of thine Increase So shall thy Barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine as Solomon advises to this purpose in Prov. 3.9.10 There was never more need for it then now in these present times of want and distress which many people abroad in the world are perfectly pincht withall it being that which is the proper result of such a Mercy and Blessing as this is which is bestowed upon us For consider seriously with our selves Why should God multiply us while hedeminishes others Why should he add to us while he takes from others Why should he make us to abound while he causes others to want If it were not for this reason that we might be so many Stewards and disposers of his Goodness to others through our hands and so many standing Monuments and Patterns and Examples of the freeness of his Mercy and love in these respects Alas what is it for men at any time to have an inlarged Coast and not to have an inlarged Heart To be amplified in their Estates and yet to be straiten'd in their Bowels To have Great comings in to themselves and
That thou wouldst keep me Jabez when he would now be freed and preserved from approaching dangers and evils which hung over his head he goes to the right person for the effecting of it and that is God himself As all kind of evils of punishment is ordered and disposed of by God No evil at all in the City that the Lord hath not done sayes the Prophet so all evil of the same nature likewise is to be removed and prevented by God or else it cannot be done unto thee at all As it is he that must inlarge our coast and He whose hand must be with us so it is He also that must keep us from evil and preserve us if ever we be kept All other means besides without Him are in vain and to no purpose at all This shews us what to think of such persons as have other shelters to defend themselves by which as the Prophet Esay speaks of them have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell are at an agreement that say when the overflowing scourge shall pass thorow it shall not come unto them for they have made lyes their refuge and under falshood they have hid themselves such as these shall not prosper in that way wherein they flatter themselves Their Covenant shall be dis-anulled and their agreement shall not stand c. There can be no hope or confidence for them but onely in God alone who has these things in His own disposing This does not exclude the use of means on our behalf which in their place are to be used by us we may not thrust our selves upon evil or carelesly fall into it and think it enough for us to desire God to keep us from it This is to tempt his providence rather then any thing else No but with indeavour on our part to betake our selves humbly to God and to rest and relye upon Him for it as Jabez here does I might here also take notice of the word which in the Hebrew Text is very Emphatical Gnazthea Hand of strength and activity or helping thereunto but I pass over that And so much of the Request That thou wouldst keep me from evil The second is the Amplification of it in these words That it may not grieve me Here was in his Name Jabez which as I have shewn signifies forrowful but he would not willingly have grief in his hands His mother bare him in sorrow in the verse before the Text but he desired not to live in sorrow From evil that it may not grieve me Mark here how he expesses himself in these present words before us He does not desire absolutely and wholly to be kept from evil That almost as the world commonly goes might seem to be a kind of petition but he desires to be kept from the trouble and vexation of it it is not from evil that it may not touch me but from evil that it may not grieve me It is not to be delivered from the Condition but onely to be delivered from the Affection This is that which we may accordingly desire of the Lord in such cases as these are That if he shall bring us at any time into sorrowful and sad conditions yet at least that he would keep us from sorrowful and sad hearts This is that which seems strange to Nature but Grace does very easily apprehend it God can suffer us to fall into evil and yet keep us from the Grief of the evil God can give a man a comfortable spirit in a sad and sorrowful estate and oftentimes does And this is that which Jabez rather then fail would obtain in this place so far forth as conveniently might be that he might be kept from evil but if not from evil wholly yet from evil at least in the sad effects and consequents of of it from evil that it might not grieve Him Thus for the better opening and unfolding of it to us may be taken with these following explications First He desired to be kept from grief That is from the Extremity of the Affliction so as to sink or to overwhelm his spirit Jabez could not imagine to have evil and not to have grief with it but hoped not to have it in the excess and violence of it And this he desired that though God in his Providence should afflict him yet he would not afflict him beyond his strength or lay upon him more then he could well and patiently indure This is that which we are subject unto if God doe not prevent us from it to be cast down upon every occasion and to be discouraged and put out of heart almost upon the smallest affliction and therefore is there need of prayer to God to support us and uphold us to this purpose and to keep us within bounds This is one thing which Jabez here intended Secondly When he desires to be kept from grief that is from the sinfulness of Grief and that inordinancy and distemper of minds which we are commonly subject unto through our corruption in such conditions Lord keep me from evil that it may not Grieve me That is that I may not be fretful in it that I may not be sinful under it that I may not be offensive by it That it may not grieve me nor I may not grieve thee nor thy holy Spirit occasionally from it This is the main and principal desire of every good Christian in such cases as these and where God is pleased at any time to doe this for us it is that which may very well satisfie us and quiet us and give us contentment whatsoever he does else besides A man's spirit it will help his infirmities as Solomon speaks and if our mindes be once well in us all things else shall be well with us what is it that we would to care for more And thus now we have also the third particular whereof this Prayer of Jabez is made up to wit for a Blessing in reference to his Protection and Personal Preservation That thou wouldst keep me in evil And so likewise we have done with the first General part of the Text viz. The Vow or Prayer it self both in the General Proposition of it at large as also in the particular explication of it in the several branches The Second is an Account of the Answer or Return which is made unto this Prayer That we have in these words And God granted him that which he requested which words may be looked upon by us two manner of wayes Either first of all in their common and general notion as they doe include in them God's manner of dealing in his answer of prayer at large Or Secondly in their restrained particular notion as they doe point out to us God's answer of prayer in these particulars which are here mentioned before us and which Jabez here beg'd at God's hands First To take them and to look upon them a little in the General God granted him that which he requested what 's the meaning of that
That is He gave him the very particular thing which he asked and beg'd of God in prayer That which Jabez petition'd that was that which was bestowed upon him God does grant things some times in the Equalities and answers Prayer so but here he did it in the very thing it self This was a very high and large favour from God Especially if we shall consider what kind of Petitions these were for they were all such as were founded upon no more then Conditional promises and such as God with very good Credit might very well deny to his Children as having better things then these in store for them to supply them and make them up Yet notwithstanding all this was God pleased hereafter to answer Jabez's Prayer in these very particulars and to grant him what he desired Thus he is likewise pleased to do many times with other men though upon different Grounds and Occasions There are divers and sundry respects in which the Lord in his Providence does so order it as to grant men the very particular Petitions which are asked and desired by them as namely First Sometimes in a way of Anger and Judgment and Vengeance it self This is his Course commonly with his Enemyes and those whom he hates Wicked and Ungodly men They sometimes are very bold with him and in this manner they go to God in their distress and are very importunate with him and nothing will many times serve them but the very having and injoying of the things themselves which they call unto him for Now here in this case does God many times give them what they ask but not in Mercy but rather in Judgment Not hereby to accomodate them but rather so much the worser we may see it for instance in the Israelites Gods dealing with them to this purpose He still satisfied them for the most part in their Murmerings and what they call'd to him for that he commonly bestowed upon them But what were they ever a whit the better for it at last and in Conclusion Now they were a great deale the worse God gave them that which they desired but yet he made it to be a Curse unto them And that which they thought to be their Happiness it did indeed turn to their greatest Afflictions As we may see when they askt for Quayles and Mannah c. They had the Vengeance of God with them This is the Case and Condition oftentimes of many other wicked Persons in Gods dealing and Dispensations to them Yea not onely does he thus with his Enemies and wicked men but even with his Children also Especially there where they are inordinate and unreasonably importunate in their desires He gives them that which they ask with some tincture of his Displeasure and so as from thence taking occasion to withhold better things from them then those which they pitcht themselves upon Peremptory Petitions sometimes pass with God for the granting of them but to the excluding of choycer things then those which are desired in them It is a dangerous thing for us to Limit the Holy one of Israel as this Psalmist speaks We had a great deal better if we could see it trust God with the disposing of things to us and providing for us then rashly to carve out for ourselves whatsoever we have a fancy unto whereby we do exceedingly wrong and prejudice and straiten our selves It is better a great deal for us to be at Gods ordering then our own and to have Him to restrain us then for us to limit Him Secondly God does grant the particular thing which is askt and begged in Prayer sometimes in a way of Tryal and Magnanimity and Nobleness of Spirit Hereby he leaves men Vnexcusible and that they may have nothing to say for themselves Especially in such cases when they provoke him and put him to it As for Example now in matter of Vows and Promises which they make unto God upon the Condition of Granting their Requests God will give them that which they desire to try them and to see how well they will keep terms with him and that further he may so much the more work and win upon them As here now Jabez because he Vowed unto God that if God would bless him in the particulars mentioned he would thus and thus serve him therefore probably did God grant his request in part so much the rather to overcome him and to conquer him by his Gracious dealings with him and to try whether he would now be as good as his word and promise which he made unto him Thus we are to look upon many Blessings which God in his Providence does cast upon us and accordingly to make this use and improvement of them to be the more faithful to our Ingagements and Vowes wherein we have tyed our selves to God Seeing He is not wanting to us why should we be to him Thirdly God does grant the very thing which is requested many times in a way of incouragement to Hopeful and Ingenuous men and commers on to the ways of Religion That he may hearten men so much the more in the ways of Godliness and Christianity at their first entrance upon them he is pleased many times to pleasure them in the particular granting of their Requests Thus we see our Saviour in the Gospel did with many which came there unto him when they came to him for such and such Recoveries and to be healed of such Sicknesses and Diseases he was pleased to condescend unto them that so thereby he might the better intice them and draw them on to Religion it self It is in this Case with God to his People as it is with a Father towards his Children The Child that is but tender and under Age he is willing to please that in every thing and to give it where it is not hurtful for it and the very thing which it cryes for But the Son which is come to years of Discretion he refuses and puts him of in his desires with somewhat else Even so does the Lord with his He will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax. Young and tender Christians which are but first comming on to Goodness and New-beginner in the ways of God and but newly acquainted as it were with this Exercise of seeking to him such as these they know not well how to brook a denyal from him They would be ready to think he neglected them and rejected them if He did not hear them in the very thing therefore to such as these he grants them the very particular business which they request of Him But as for his old and well experienced servants which are better acquainted with him and more inured and accustomed to Him such as these He is pleased now and then to put off for the particular petitions and to make it up in somewhat besides Yet fourthly and lastly for explication God gives the very thing which is requested sometimes even to his choycest servants and to
those who are best acquainted with Him and that in a way of special favour and indulgence and respect unto them This is that which we shall meet with in Scripture Thus of David Psal 21.4 He asked life and thou gavest it him even length of dayes for ever and ever Thou hast given him his hearts desire and hast not with-held the request of his lips There 's his hearts desire in regard of the efficacy of the blessing and there 's the request of his lips in regard of the Determination of the Blessing and both were granted to David So in Job 22.27 28. It is said of a Godly man that is carefull to be acquainted with the Almighty that he shall make his prayer and God will hear him He shall decree a thing and it shall be establish'd unto him Decree it that is pitch upon it for the particular thing which he shall desire and this shall be confirm'd unto him The Lord does two things in this business out of favour to his people First he stirs up in their hearts such desires to come from them He puts it into their minds to ask such things of Him and then He comes off to grant them those things which in particular they desire as he did here in this place to Jabez according to that place of the Psalmist in Psal 10.17 Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear Prepare their heart by suggesting such petitions to them and cause thine ear to hear by granting their petitions which doe occasionally come from them This is such a favour and mercy as there 's no man almost of all the servants of God but it is likely has had experience of it some time or other in his own particular and can witness hereunto This sometimes may be discern'd in part aforehand that it will be before it is That God will grant us that which we have requested before He grants it in very deed in the thing it self I say it may be in part foreseen and pre-apprehended according to the frame of spirit which is upon us God's manner of working in us and his beginnings of it and leading us to it in his providence and doings for us already God grants us what we request in the heart preparatory to his granting of it in the performance The best improvement which we may make of this to our selves is accordingly to do in like manner with God if we would have Him to grant us our requests let us do likewise not to deny him his yea because he is so willing to grant them let us be as willing to doe so likewise else we shall deal very unequally and unreasonably with him If wee 'l be on the begging hand we must be on the giving hand to or else all is in vain we must hearken to that which God commands and injoyns unto us as it is in Mic. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee even to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These and the like are the things that God does require of us and to be practised by us But here by the way it may be pertinently demanded How may it appear unto us when God at any time grants our requests in the very particular thing which he desired that He does it out of favour towards us rather then upon any of those principles and considerations which we mentioned before I answer threefold ye may know it thus First By the disposition of our minds as to the things themselves which we ask and pray for For here our desires are very sober and modest and subordinate still to the good will and pleasure of God referring our selves wholly to his providence and wisdom for us and not absolutely and peremptorily causing and bringing him to ours Secondly By the satisfaction of spirit which we find upon our prayers made and that resting and relying upon Him which we find in our selves As Hannah when she had prayed to God for a son and God intended to give her one her mind was no more solicitous about it but she did in a manner certainly expect it and make account to have it given unto her Thirdly By the efficacy which it has upon us after it is granted and we come to enjoy it That which is granted in love to us has a gracious impression upon us and makes us the better for the granting of it Forasmuch as God loves and delights to perfect and accomplish His works in us and towards us By these and the like discoveries may we clear it whether God grants us those things in love and favour to us yea or no. And thus now I have done with those words in the common and general notion of them as they doe include in them God's manner of dealing in His answer of Prayer at large The second is in their restrained and particular notion as they doe point out to us God's answer of prayer in those particulars which are here mentioned before us and which Jabez beg'd of God to do And this we may take notice of in al the three particulars themselves God granted him that which he requested in inlarging his Coast in lending him His hand in keeping him from evil God granted him subsistance in his Estate God granted him assistance for his work God granted him preservation for his person First Subsistance for his Estate Upon his request he inlarged his Coast God is not altogether deaf to such prayers as are made unto him to such a purpose as this When his children beg their daily bread of him and those things which are necessary for them and convenient for their supportment in this life He is ready to hear them herein and to grant them those things which they ask of him This he does as so many Incouragements of them in his Service and to make them so much the more willing thereunto that he may shew that they do not serve him for nought but that he is ready to give them a very large and plentiful reward and that even here in this Life Therefore let us take courage from hence to go to God upon such suites as these are and to beg them confidently and chearfully at his hands with a Submission and resignation to his wisdom He will not stick to enlarge our Coasts so far forth as may be fitting for us but will give us what we request in this particular Secondly As to Assistance of him in this work God granted him what he requested here also for his hand to be with him This is that which he is wise ready to do with the rest of his Servants Those which beg inablement from God to those Services which he calls them to shall find him ready and willing thereto He will stretch forth his hand unto them and assist them in that which is at any time
since through means of that deliverance vouchsafed unto us I say it behoves us to provoke our selves to all kind of Thankfulness in this regard and to take advantage of this Annavasary Commemoration which is appointed to this purpose That it may not be onely a matter of Course and Formality which we cannot well decline but may have a real Influence and Impression upon us to raise our Hearts in the praysing of that God who hath done so great things for us Secondly As to matter of Faith we are to improve it to that likewise having had Experience of God's Goodness hitherto to be ready to expect as much from him for time to come That he that hath kept the feet of his Saints will do so still Sutable to the manner and Carriage of the expression here in the Text which is not in the time past but in the Future Not he hath kept onely but he will and therefore will because he hath experience of former Mercies should teach us to trust and to depend upon God for following as 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Thirdly and Especially To Fruitfulness and Obedience God having done so great things for us we should indeavour to do somewhat for him And being thus Delivered out of the hands of our Enemies should study to serve him as now without Fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our Life And this for the keeping of the feet of his Saints In the deliverance of his people Now further Secondly For the Wicked's silence in Darkness in the Disappointment of his Enemies we may observe the Parallel in this also Here was both Darkness and silence in Darkness Darkness there was in the very Letter It was a work in the Dark And that both as to Place and Time in which it was wrought There was Darkness in the Place For where did these Wicked Conspirators prepare their Devices Surely it was in the Seller and in the Vault which they had fitted to that purpose They dig'd deep to hide their Counsell from the Lord and their work was in the Dark saying who seeth us and who knoweth us as the Prophet speakes in Esay 29.15 And there was Darkness likewise in the Time For it was the Night which they chiefly made choyce of for the carrying on of their wicked Designes A time and place of Darkness sutable to a work of Darkness And then there was Silence as to this Darkness When they were Discovered they were in a manner Confounded and knew not what to say for themselves As others were silent in a way of Astonishment at the Horridness and Strangeness of the Fact so were themselves silent in a way of Confusion being Prevented and Disappointed of it and as a Reproach not onely to their Persons but also to their Religion the Principles whereof led them and carryed them thereunto in the full extent and improvement of it But that which made them chiefly to be so was the last thing of all And that is That by their strength they could not prevail Neither by the strength of their interest and Combination Nor by the strength of their Wit and Conspiracy God infatuated their Counsels and turned all their Wisdom into Foolishness And in the things wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Their strength it was proved to be Weakness both ways both to the hurting and spoyling of us And as to the helping and securing of themselves as sayling in either I will Conclude all at this time with these words of the Prophet David in the name of the People of Israel which are applyable likewise to our selves Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with Benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death SERMON IX Job 20.11 His bones are full of the Sins of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust The Scope of this present Scripture which we have here in hand is to set forth to us the miserable Estate of an Ungodly Person And for sureness sake it takes him in his full Latitude and Compass from his Youth to his riper Years from the Beginning of his Life to the end of it wherein the Evil of his sinful Courses does continually pinch upon him His bones are full of the Sins c. IN the Text it self there are two General parts observable First The State or Condition of a Wicked man Secondly The Extent or Amplification of this his Condition His State that 's exprest in these words His bones are full of the Sins of his youth The Amplification or extent of it in these Which shall lye down with him in the Dust We begin with the first General viz. The State or Condition His bones are full of c. Wherein again two Particulars more First The Sin and Secondly The Punishment of the Sin The Sin That is Youthfulness in the Miscarriage of it The Sin of his youth The Punishment of his Sin that is Exprest in this that his Bones are said to be full of it First For the Sin here mentioned It is the Sin of the youth The word in the Hebrew Text is Gnalumaw which signifies properly his Youths and being applyed to a matter of Guilt Youthful prankes These are things which are laid to the Charge of evil men By Sins of youth for the better opening of this passage to us we may understand two things Especially either the kinds of Sin or the time of Sin The kinds of Sin that is such Sins as are more Especially proper and incident to that particular Age and Condition of Life to wit his youth The time of Sin that is such Sins as are indifferent to any Age but which for the Commission of them have been Acted very Early and betimes First The Sins of youth it does denote the kinds of Sins by way of Specification and does signify such kind of Sins as are more proper and peculiar to that Age as some Sins there are Corrupt Nature though it cleave to all Conditions of Life in the whole latitude and Extent of it yet it does not Act and put forth it self alike in all but as is it varies to other things besides In Constitution in Improvement in Place and the like so amongst the rest in matter of Age and the periods of Life There are the Sins of Elder years and there are the Sins also of Youth which are to be observed and taken notice of by us and to be understood and avoyded Thus 2 Tim. 2.22 Fly Youthful Lusts Such Lusts namely as Youth is more Especially subject unto St. Paul would have Tymothy a Young man Especially to take heed of those These they are of divers sorts ' I le instance briefly in some few of the Cheifest of them which may give us an hint of the rest
Age has the Comfortable Reflexions of a Gracious and well spent youth to support and refresh it self with all That when the Body Languishes and the outward man Decayes and as it was once with good old Barzillai we can neither Taste nor Hear nor Discern betwixt good and Evil in a natural way yet we can then live upon the thoughts of that good we have done in our Youth with Gods Gracious acceptance in Christ this will be a sweet thing indeed Hoc viverebis est vita posse priore frui This is to live Twice to injoy the Comfortable reflexions of our Life already past Secondly As the Improvement of this point reaches to Young-ones themselves and to those which are in their Youthful Condition so to those also who have the Care and Government of Youth committed unto them and are in special manner intrusted with them as Parents and Tutors and Governors and Masters c. To have a more watchful Eye upon them and care of them And that still not onely in reference to the Condition at present but to that also which is to come hereafter That while their Younger years are regulated by you their Elder years may bless God for you which in such cases they will be ready to do we read of such an Expression in the Psalmist All my Bones shall praise thee and say Lord who is like unto thee Psal 35.10 Thus shall it be with those which are in Age as to their Godly Governors and those who have had the Educating of them in their Young years Their Bones shall magnify God in their behalf as acknowledging the good they have by them On the other side those which have been Careless and Negligent in this particular their Bones shall be ready to Curse them as we may so express it as carrying that guilt upon them which they have contracted from their Neglects and which if they had done their Duty to them they might happily have avoided and Escaped He that Rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his tongue Prov. 28.23 Youth as I noted before it has commonly this Disparagement upon it that it is impatient of restraint and Admonition And many times they are in that Condition they have those that reprove them but hereafter when they come to be Old they will acknowledg them and give thanks unto them but when their Bones are full of marrow then they think reproof to be a Burden but when their Bones shall be ful of Sin and as it is here exprest the sin of their youth to wit in the Evil consequents of it then they will think reproof to have been a great Advantage and Favour if they might have formerly been but partakers of it which should incourage us so much the more in this particular Thirdly For those who are now in years and in their old Age. Here 's somewhat also which concerns them and especially such whose case it is with this Person in the Text. That their Bones are full of the sins of their youth even to perswade them as soon as may be to make their peace with God and to cleare scores and Arreares with Him not onely repent of sins which are at present upon them and which they have lately been guilty of but of sins past and gone a great while since even the sins of their Youth for otherwise these will prove very tedious and greivous unto them Say with David Psal 25.6.7 Remember thy loving kindness for they have been ever of old Remember not O Lord the sins of my Youth according to thy mercy remember me for thy Goodness sake O Lord. Here 's remember and remember not remember thy Mercy but do not remember my Sin remember Loving-kindnesses of old on thy part but do not remember Trespasses of old on mine Therefore be careful to look to this In all Humiliation for sin in all renewals of your Covenant with God Say with David Remember not the sins of my Youth In any thing which at any time troubles and afflicts you look back still upon your former Age and consider whether or no ye stand right with God as to the time of your Youth for certainly God does oftentimes call many people to an account for their Miscarriages then though it may be many years past and when they have forgotten it and think that He has forgotten it too will he bring it to Remembrance Ye may bring this down to the particular passages and occasions of your lives whatsoever they be Thou art troubled it may be with some strange Afflictions and hand of God upon thee in this or that particular And perhaps thou wondrest at it for thou hast often sought God about it and Humbled thy self before him for it and desired the removal of it and call'd to others for their Help and Assistance and Prayers to God for thee in it and yet still it sticks But consider seriously with thy self Is there nothing betwixt God and thee of an old Account which thou hast not yet repented of before Him Thou hast it may be a stubborn Child How wast thou thy self to thine own Parents in thy Youth Thou declinest perhaps strangely in thine Estate and thou canst not imagine how it should be so How didst thou come by it when thou wast a Young-man and what Foundation didst thou lay for it in thy Younger-years Thou hast these and these Diseases upon thee consider whether thy former Intemperance hath not been a Cause and Occasion of them and accordingly expose thy self to Repentance for them And so of the rest I am not able to specify all I instance in some as a Direction to you for the rest which must be done by every ones Person according to his particular Occasions But still remember this that God often reckons for old Sins which are long agoe past Yea and that also after conversion and grace wrought in the Heart where there is not an explicit and actual repentance of them they may be sometimes troublesome to a Christian in the effects and consequents of them though the Person be for the general justified and in a state of reconcilement and habitually acquitted from them yet such especially as the sins may be if there hath not been a distinct and particular Humiliation for them they may have a feeling of them in their bones Look as General Nations may be punished for the sins of former Ages as Israel in Davids time for Sauls sin in slaying the Gibeonites so particular persons may be afflicted for the sins of former times in the compass of their lives unrepented of by them And look as it in matter of the body that those who have been too venturous in their youth they smart for it in their Age so likewise in regard of the soul and mind Especially At sometimes and upon some occasions above the rest As bones which have been formerly broken they will ake against weather even so it is also with
lie within the compass and reach of every particular person amongst us Every Christian may thus far be a Statesman and it becomes him so to be and every private Person may in this sense much dispose of the Kingdom as to that peace which we are to procure to the Kingdom in General which as I Conceive may be brought about in a likely way by these means and ways viz. First By every ones Lamenting and Bewailing of his own private Sins and the abominations of the Land wherein he lives every Sin unrepented off is a quarrel which God has against the Kingdom and for which he threatens the Destruction of it And therefore the way to reconcilement is Mourning and Humiliation for it this is the counsell which the Lord gives by his Prophet in Zeph. 2.1.2 c. Gather your selves together yea gather your selves together O Nation not desired and before the decree bring forth before the day pass at the Chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you c. This gathering of our selves here together is not so much a gathering of our Persons as it is indeed a gathering of our thoughts and recollecting of matters with our selves to consider how things are with us neither does it imply this onely but also doing it with some Affection so as to be grieved and afflicted in our selves where we are conscious that we have done any thing amiss this is one way and means to procure Atonement and Reconciliation betwixt God and the Kingdom wherein we are Secondly This is not all but further there is required Amendment and Reformation for time to come Humiliation without Reformation is of no Efficacy or avayl at all as being indeed but false and Counterfeit and such as consequently is unaccepted of God The Prophet Esay has given us an item to this purpose in Esay 32.17.81 The work of Righteousness shall be peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and assurance for ever And my People shall dwell in a peaceable Habitation and in sure Dwellings and in quiet resting Places See here the work of Righteousness is peace So 2 Chro. 7.14 If my People shall humble themselves and Pray c. And turn from their Evil ways then will I be Merciful to their Iniquities and heal their Land Mark turn from their Evil ways Thirdly Intercession and Supplication and Prayer we should all here improve that interest which we have in God to this purpose That he would be pleased not onely to be reconciled to our own Persons in particular but also to the whole Land in General whereunto we belong Pray for the peace of Jerusalem as the Prophet David calls upon us to do and for the peace of it in the first place with Heaven that the Lord himself may have no Controversie against it ye which are the Lords Remembrancers keep not silence and give him no rest till he has broken down the Partition-wall and reconciled himself to us Certainly this is such a Business as may well deserve our greatest Importunity and wrastling with God that may be And that 's the Second use of this point seeing when he gives Quietness c. Therefore to teach us all to be diligent in the use of all those means whereby God may be reconciled with the Land and kingdom wherein we live Thirdly This gives us an account of the present Evils and troubles which are amongst us from whence they proceed namely from hence that God himself is angry with us and hath hidden his face from us we are subject to fasten our Eyes onely upon Second and External Causes to say t is this thing and t is that thing and to think of any thing rather then of that which we should be most sensible off but this is the true ground and reason of all because the Lord himself is at variance and at difference with us as 't is exprest concerning Israel in Deut. 32.30 How should one chase a Thousand and two put ten Thousand to flight except their Rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up And so Esay 42.24.25 Who gave Jacob for a spoyl and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient unto his Law Therefore he hath powred upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and it hath set him on fire round about c. Let us therefore here be advised of the true cause of so many troubles amongst us A Disease when it is found out in the cause of it it is half cured And so here this is the way to make us look after God and to put in practise that former Duty which I urged of seeking peace with him when we shall consider that all the Evil which is upon us it does arise from his difference with us as indeed it does It 's true he makes use of Instruments but these Instruments they are carryed on by his Providence and he has the ordering and regulating of them It is because God is angry with us that he suffers so many Divisions amongst us and that he permits us to sheath our Swords in the Bowels one of another as we do now in this Land and Kingdom And therefore let us still carry it as high as this and take notice of the true ground and Original of all Fourthly It carryes a word of Comfort in respect of our present Condition and the Calamities which are now upon us as it signifies thus much unto us that they are disposed off by an higher hand then the hand of our Enemies and so consequently that it is not in their Power to continue them to us There are no doubt dayly Plots and Conspiracies by those which are ill-wishers to Sion for the Continuing and advancing those Broyles and Differences which are amongst us and for the hindering of all means which may tend to peace and accommodation of things to us but here 's now the Comfort of all that these things are not in their Power but are over-ruled by God himself When he gives Quietness who then can make Trouble If the Lord notwithstanding all this will but speak a word of Peace to his People all Counsel and desirs to the contrary shall be sure to come to nought you know how it was with our Saviour sayling in the Ship with his Disciples when there was a great Tempest arose in the Sea insomuch that the Ship which they were in was almost ready to be sunk and cast away As soon as ever he once arose and rebuked the Winds and the Sea it is said there was a great Calm Matth. 8.26 Mark there was not onely a stilling of the Tempest that the Winds and Sea and Waves were not so Violent and Boisterous as they were before but on the otherside there was a great Calm a quite opposit and contrary Condition Thus did Christ in those Tempests of Water and how
with Sins they are never a whit the less Hainous because they were committed long ago Sin it is the same for the nature of it even then when men have forgotten it even so is it also with Mercy it is still the same considered in it self and accordingly deserves to be as much acknowledged as if it were never so lately conferred and as a Penitent man will do the one so a thankful man will do the other He which is a true Penitent person he will not onely be humbled for those Sins which he has committed lately but for those Sins which he has committed formerly for the vanity of his Childhood and for the refractoriness of his Nonage and for the Sins of his youth even so he which is a true thankful person he will not onely acknowledge those Mercies which he has received but lately but as well those Mercies which he has received many years past and David which did the one he did also the other and both as we may see in one place together Psal 25.6.7 Remember O Lord thy tender Mercies and thy Loving-kindnesses for they have been ever of old Remember not the Sins of my youth nor my Transgressions Thirdly He remembers Primitive or Original Mercies those Mercies which he had at first in the very entrance and beginning of his life when he first came into the World and were likewise the Ground and Foundation of all the rest And this is that in like manner which is to be done by every thankful man besides It concernes us very much to acknowledge Gods goodness as in his ancient love so also in his first love and beginnings of good will towards us Such was this here which David makes mention of in this present Scipture When he speaks of his coming out of the womb and when he speaks of his hanging upon the breast they were original mercies which contains two things in it First a Precedency of Order And Secondly an advantage of Derivation They had the right of Primo-giniture and they had the right also of conveyance being first themselves and causing others also to come after This mercy of coming out of the womb it opens the womb of Gods mercy as I may so express it and hath the Dignity of the first born amongst many Brethren And therefore is so much the more to be acknowledged and recorded by us as we shall shew in this regard It is with mercies as with judgements one makes may for another and the first is so much the more considerable as it induces and brings in the rest when God hath begun to punish he will proceed when I begin sayes he I will make an end And so also also for mercies when he begins to shew mercy he will proceed also Therefore let us take notice of first mercies they are the pledges of Gods goodness to us ye see how it is with men in the world for their ordinary affairs they use to stand much upon an handsel which they are ready to account and reckon upon as a fore-runner of more good unto them and so may we also here in the dispensations of Gods providence towards us It is a very great incouragement of us when God bestowes the first blessing upon us and he does expect accordingly that ye should be very much affected with it and thankfull to him for it We should do in the exercise of our thankfulness as again in the exercise of our repentance and humiliation He which will be a right penitent indeed and perform this work of Godly sorrow in that right manner he should do and as God requires of him he must not onely take notice of some few actual sins which carry in them the nature of streams but he must takes notice of his original sin also which carries in it the nature of a fountain he must ransack his heart to the bottom and deal with himself for his first sin of all The sin of his Nature and the sin of his Birth and the sin of his Conception As David I was born in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Ps 51.5 And this which is the root and spring and fountain and cause of all the rest must be lamented and bewayl'd in him So he which will be thankful indeed he must not onely acknowledge those mercies which are bestowed upon him in a succession but the very first mercy also which he injoy'd not onely the mercies of his life but the mercies also of his birth and first being Thus does David here Lastly He takes notice of constant mercies those which were continued to him from the first moment of his being till now through the whole course of his life to this present He takes notice of the goodness of God to him in the full latitude and extent of it And this is another thing also which we are likewise hence instructed to do If we would shew our selves truly thankful consider the providence of God to us in every passage of mercy which he shews us Take notice not onely of one mercy but more and take notice not onely of some few mercies but many yea as near as we can of all Nay further take notice of Gods mercies even in crosses and troubles and afflictions themselves as David here though he was a man of sorrows in sundry particulars of his life yet he acknowledges that God was his God all his life-time notwithstanding that There 's a great piece of thankfullness which is due from us even for the worst and crossest of providence which happen unto us so far forth as God doth oftentimes bring greater good out of evil and sanctifie afflictions to such a purpose as to make us so much the better for them He which is a true child of God indeed he will see ground of thankfulness to him even for any thing whatsoever befalls him because all things work together for good to them that love him as it is in Rom. 8.28 And all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies as it is in Psal 25.10 Thus David not onely here in this Scripture but also in other places as Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits c. And Psal 48.14 This God is our God for ever and ever He will be our guide even unto death our God for ever and ever and our guide even to death it self He takes notice of Gods goodness all along And thus have we here seen the acknowledgement which David here makes in the General notion and representation of it he takes notice of common mercies He takes notice of ancient mercies He takes notice of primitive mercies He takes notice of constant mercies The Second View of it is the specification of the several particulars as they are here laid before us in the Text and they are these following First The blessings of the womb in his birth and first coming into the
Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Jesus spake unto him have I been so long time and yet hast thou not know me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then shew us the Father And Apostle Paul in the 2 Cor. 4.6 God who Commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give the light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Secondly To seek the face of God is to seek the presence of God this follows upon the former as when we know a man we desire to have his Company if he be such an one as we approve off and may be useful to us even so it is here Besides Gods Common and General Presence which extends to all sorts of Persons there 's a special and Gracious presence which is peculiar to his People and is accordingly sought after by them which is here called his face This is desireable of us in reference to two things especially The Creatures and the Ordinances First To seek the presence of Christ in the Creatures and the Comforts which are conveyed by them without which they are not truly Comfortable It is not the things themselves which we partake off that are able to chear and refresh us unless it pleases God Himself to appear in them and with them It is his presence which is the Happiness and Blessedness of every Condition and that puts a liveliness and chearfulness into every Comfort It is the Face of God that puts a Comfortableness into the face of Friends the face of Friends is very pleasing and Delightful one to another as Iron sharpens Iron as Solomon tells us but it is Gods face that makes it to be so as joyning with them and so it is as to any other Comfort or Refreshment besides Therefore seek his presence in the Creatures that 's the first Secondly Seek his face in the Ordinances and the Duties and Exercises of Religion This is that which we should cheifly look after we should not come to such matters as these are onely out of fashion and custom and formallity but to injoy communion with God in them thus David in Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary There are many that come to the Sanctuary and to the Publick Assemblies of Gods people but it is to seek for other faces it is not to seek for the face of God they come hither onely to stare and gaze and look about them to look upon this face and to look upon that to see and be seen This is an high profanation of the Ordinance of God and a perverting it from the proper end and intendment of it but we see here what is the main scope of every Gracious and Religious soul in such approaches as these are Thy face Lord will I seek that I may have sellowship and converse with thee in thine own ordinance as we have it expressely in the 4th ver of this present Psalm One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire into His Temple In the word in the Sacraments in all the Ordinances to have the presence of God that 's the second Explication to seek the face of God that is to seek the presence of God Thirdly To seek the face of God that is to seek the favour of God Men commonly shew their Affection in their Countenance and therefore the one is put for the other And so here thus Psal 24.6 This is the Generation of them that seek thee of them that seek thy face O God of Jacob so Psal 105.4 Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore And Psal 4.6 There be many that will say Who will shew us any good Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance upon us and Gods Gracious favour and countenance is that which it concerns us above all other things to seek after First That we may walk more serviceably and do that which God requires of us with greater intention It is the Masters countenance which puts a nimbleness into the servants work and makes it to come off the more freely and readily from him Assurance it hath a great influence upon obedience and in that respect to be pursued by us Secondly That we may walk more chearfully and have more peace and comfort in our selves Psal 30.5 In his favour is life yea his Loving-kindness is better then life as it is in Psal 63.3 Look as the face of the Sun puts a clearness and liveliness into every thing which before was dead and disconsolate so does the face and gracious presence of God into the hearts of his poor servants which were before as it were in a dead and a dark condition It quickens them and raises them and revives them and puts life into them This is that which makes an Heaven upon Earth as the contrary is no better then Hell That 's Hell where God withdraws his Gracious presence That 's Heaven where he is pleased to shew his face Thirdly That we may walk more Profitably and beneficially towards others the more that we are sensible of Gods Favour to our slves the better shall we be able to comfort and chear up our Brethren and to comfort them with the Comfors wherewith we are comforted of God Therefore above all things we should pursue it and seek after it we see how desirous men are usually of the favour of great ones many seek the Rulers favour or the face of the Ruler as the words run in the Text Pene mashal But every mans Judgment cometh from the Lord Prov. 29.6 And therefore there is reason to seek his favour above any one else Therefore says St. Paul do we labour or are ambitious to be accepted of Him Because we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ We should seek for Gods favour now that we may injoy it hereafter when we shall most stand in need of it Thi is that which concludes and comprehends every thing in it It is the most compendious way to Happiness that is in the Word our usual manner and practise is to pitch upon some particular comfort which we have a mind unto as Riches or Health or Peace or some such things as those let us but seek the Favour of God and we shall have all these things in it to the bargain And that 's the Third Explication to seek his face i. e. to seek his favour Fourthly and Lastly To seek the face of God that is to pray and call upon Him If we look into Scripture we shall finde how the work
their Impressions and Reflections upon the Night Secondly Lye down with God in the Evening That which we think of last we shall be ready to think of first and as we conclude the foregoing day so we are likely to begin the following Therefore it should be our care as much as may be to have God and the things of God in our thoughts when we set our selves to rest A Godly soul should fall asleep in Gods arms like a child in the mothers lap it should be sung and lull'd asleep with those songs of the night which I before mentioned to you And this will make him the sitter for Converse with God the next day after When I awake sayes David I am still with thee that is as I said I am yet with thee Namely Habitually and in preparation of mind which is mainly here intended Though sleep does for a while interrupt me yet it does not altogether indispose me to Communion with thee This is the happiness of a Christian that is carefull to lye down with God that he findes his work still as he left it and is in the same disposition when he rises as he was at night when he laid to rest As a man that windes up his watch over night he finds it going the next morning so is it also as I may say with a Christian that winds up his heart This is a good Observation to be remembred especially in the evening afore the Sabbath Thirdly Observe God in the Morning A man that would be with God when he wakes must observe how God is with him We shall find sometimes that God himself doth awaken us and does desire communion with us as the Scripture it self doth inform us Thbs Isa 50.4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the Learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary he wakeneth morning by morning wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned There are certain holy Motions and Excitements of God to the Heart as a Master that calls up his Schollar to the learning of his Book Now it concerns us to listen unto them It is our weakness when we neglect to do so That God speaks once ye twice but man perceives it not as Elihu complains in Job in Chap. 33.14 15. c. We should hear when God speakes as old Eli to young Samuel in God's calling of him And thus we see also how we may attain to this Blessed Condition which is here commended unto us For the pressing and further inforcing of this point upon us and a close of it for this time let us be perswaded and advised to take heed of three things First That we think it not Arbitrary Secondly That we think it not Impossible And Thirdly Not Superfluous First Let us not think it to be Arbitrary when we press such a performance as this It is that which many are apt to do who think it is good Counsel but that they may follow it or leave it as they please as a matter of Indifferency No but ye are not to think so It is a Duty which God requires of you It may be you will say yes of Scholars and Ministers who are Speculative and Contemplative Persons but other men have other things to think off and to busie their thoughts withall Nay but indefinitely of all Ranks and Conditions of men those that are not Schollars yet they are Christians and must walk accordingly in the ways of Christianity Every one a Soul to serve and a God to serve and an Heaven to purchase and an Hell to shun and an account to make and therefore let none exempt themselves from that which is so absolutely required and expected from them Secondly Let us not think it impossible for that 's another obstruction to Indeavour It is true it is somewhat difficult as all other good things are but yet it is in a decree Feeble and which Gods servants through his Assistance have in some proportion attained unto and do dayly and Continually still attain A Christian has in some sort a kind of Power over his thoughts which another has not Thirdly Do not think it Superfluous men that are unacquainted with Religion they many times look upon such points as those as meer nicities and fansies and speculations which have no reality in them but those who are exercised Christians have experience of them and accordingly it concerns us to be for our particulars that we may walk in the fear of the Lord and in the Comforts of the Holy Ghost Indeed there is a kind of Monkish Devotion which goes abroad sometimes in the World which is full of high flown Raptures and empty speculation which reach no further then the Fancy and the Brain but the Religion of a good Christian is Spiritual and reaches to the Heart and has a bottom and foundation for it and this is that which here in this Discourse is commended unto us And so I have done with the First sense which may be put upon this Awakening here in the Text as it may be taken in the Natural signification which is cheifly here intended when I awake i. e. awake from sleep and Bodily rest Now there are two more behind which I will but onely name and Conclude The one is by taking it Morally when I awake that is awake from Sin Thus a Christian is never from God but when he is overtaken with some Spiritual Distemper when he is awake that is he has Grace active and vigorous in him he is then and so far forth carefull to draw near to God The other is by taking it Mysticall when I shall awake that is from the sleep of Death I shall then be still with thee The generall and final Resurrection it gives the servants of God a perpetual and indissoluble Conjunction with God so as never to part from Him Thus David Psal 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in Righteousness when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And so Paul when he had discoursed of this to wit the last Resurrection of the Saints he says so shall we ever be with the Lord. They are now with him in their Souls but they shall then be with him Soul and Body for ever and ever So much for that and so also of this present Text. When I awake I am still with thee SERMON XXVIII Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy There is nothing which God is more willing that his people should beleive concerning Him then his favour and good will towards them as he bears a special Love and Affection to them in his own Breast and takes a great deal of Camplacency and Contentment in them so he desires that they should apprehend it and be themselves perswaded of it for their own particulars for which purpose he takes all occasion that may be for the expressing of it to them and
ought to have done And therefore I may have my Thoughts troubled and disquieted in my self For Answer hereunto thus much If it be such a Failing in us as is voluntary and Observed and Discerned in us then we ought not to question Gods Providence but rather be humbled in our selves for it and making up the breach betwixt God and our selves in that particular apply our selves to him with so much the more eagerness and intention If it be such as is secret and not discerned only feared and suspected in our selves God is not a Captious Master one that makes advantage of every thing against us but accepts of our Desires and Endeavours to do that which is pleasing in his sight Therefore let not this Discourage us so as to promote Distraction in us but let our Thoughts still be Establisht and remember still to have them Establisht upon this Ground to wit The Committing of our Works to the Lord. We must put these two Clauses in their Connexion There are many their minds are quiet oftentimes and free from any great trouble which is the Ground and Foundation of it Security may attend any Presumption and Apprehension of Danger and it may be the present injoyment of some outward help This is that which supports them but ours should be a dependance upon God And this for the matter of Duty The Second is the Matter of Priviledge And thy Thoughts shall be Established Thus is that we think when any thing troubles our Thoughts to work it out by our Thoughts themselves But alas that is no way which is consequent and following hereupon That man which in a Right manner does commit his works to the Lord he has from hence a blessed quietness and security of mind happens unto him When we follow God with Faith He follows us with Comfort and abundantly recompensesour Trust and Relyance upon him into our own Bosoms Being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God c. Rom. 5.1 Faith is a satisfying Grace and it has this Issue and Effect with it as proper and peculiar to it that quiets and settles the heart of that person who is the Subject of it Hannah when she had prayed to the Lord it is said Her Countenance thereupon was no more Sad 1 Sam. 1.18 so abundantly was she satisfyed in her self upon that Performance And so shall we likewise be in the practise of it It will comfort us and quiet us and satisfie us upon all occasions whatsoever See what the Prophet David observes to this purpose concerning a Good and Godly man Psal 112.7 8. He shall not be afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is Established he shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his Enemies It is doubled again and again for the certainty and confirmation of it to put it out of doubt And thus much of the first Explication Thy Thoughts that is the Workings and Agitations of the Mind it self The Second is the Result of these workings of the Mind in the things themselves Thy Thoughts shall be Establisht That is indeed thy purposes and Contrivances and Works themselves wherewithal thy Thoughts are imployed They shall be Establisht that is Prospered unto thee And so we shall have the Sence clear and plain Commit thy Works unto the Lord and those Works shall be Establisht The Prospering and Establishing of a mans Works it has always been counted a great advantage it is that which the Prophet David Prays for in the behalf of the Church Psal 90.17 Let the Beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and Establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea the work of our hands Establish thou it This is that now which is promised to trusting and relying upon God and this Committing of our Works unto him thy Thoughts i.e. thy Works c. Let us learn then here the way which leads and directs us hereunto As we all desire to have Establisht Thoughts and Establisht Works as all men naturally do so let us take that course which does properly lead unto it Let us commit our selves and our Works and our ways and all that belongs unto us to the Gracious Providence of God that so we may have a Blessed Sabbath and Tranquillity in our minds and have all our affairs succeed unto us And especially let us be carefull to do it whose Thoughts and Works meet together in a more special and peculiar manner That is whose Works lie in our Thoughts it concerns us to do it more than ordinary and above any other else besides As we ever desire to have our studies blest and to have any good and Fruit to come of them so let us be especially carefull to commit them still to the Lord. Commit them to him as the End of them and the Scope which they are directed unto When we make our selves the End of them we cannot expect so to prosper in them But when we make him the aim of all he will return it graciously upon us And commit them to him as the Helper of them and as he that must give them Life to them without whose assistance all is in vain The Preparations of the heart are of man but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord Prov. 16.1 And commit them to him as the Blesser of them and as he that must give success unto them without which they come to nought What 's the reason that many Schollars they take a great deal of pains in their Studies and many has no good comes of it All their learning is lost unto them in regard of any good they do with it or Comfort which they can take in it it is because they are neglectfull and failing in this present performance of Committing their Works to the Lord. To Conclude Let us by the way take notice of the great Happiness and Felicity of a Christian in all his ways He is secure and safe having Committed himself to God and so need not to fear any thing Quam securus dormit sues Chrysologus qui Deum meruit habere custodem quam nescit curas quam depacit auxores Oh how securely does that man sleep who has got the Lord to be his keeper How void of cares How free from troubles c. Let it make us in love with Religion and Christianity and the exercise of Godliness which does contain so much excellency and advantage within the bowels of it Let us not lay our happiness and contentment in the world and the comforts thereof nor our confidence in any outward subsistence but rather in such things as these which have a bottom and foundation in them even the Attributes and Perfections and Promises of God Himself But so much also for that namely The Second General Part of the Text in the inforcement of the Duty required And so likewise as breifly as could be of the whole Verse it self Commit c. SERMON XXXII Prov. 17.3 The
Furnace This we may be sure and take notice of for our instruction we are not born Christians but made so Christiani Non nasciuntur sed siunt It is not a business of Nature but a business of Art Nor of Humane Art neither but Divine as we shall see more hereafter out of the following words of the Text The Lord tryeth the hearts And therefore this may discover to us the vanity of all such persons as have other conceits of it which think to be Gold and Silver as they come out of the impure Earth without refining in their pure Naturals No it will not be If we have no other Principles in us than which we brought with us into the World we shall never be Currant Coin in God's Account no such as he will one day take or accept from us But he will reject us and cast us away at the Great Day and time of Payment Therefore I say let us here take notice of our Conditions in this particular and see what we are Take the best of us by nature and there we are nothing but Dross no Gold nor Silver at all in us but such as is counterfeit And take us when Grace has refined us and we have many gross and drossy Intermixtures still adhering to us which will not be removed but by those means which God has sanctified and set apart for such a purpose a these here before us in the Text. These are here under a Double Specification The Fining Pot and the Furnace which have their answerable Preparations even in Spirituals The Fining Pot that is the Word of God And the Furnace that is the Rod of God Either of these does the Lord as he sees sitting take an occasion to purifie his Servants by First By his Word he desires to begin with that The word of the Lord tryed him Psal 105.29 And so it does many more besides This it has a Special Vertue through the power of God's Spirit joyning with it to reform and better the heart and to purge away its dross from it Heb. 4.12 For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart This it will shew a man his Corruption of Nature and discover to him the wickedness which is in his heart As we have divers instances hereof in the Disciples that went to Emmaus Did not our hearts burn within us And St. Peter's Converts When they heard it they wee pricked at their hearts And so the Jayâ—oâ— and divers others to whom the Word of God has been instead of a Fining Pot to separate their Corruption from them as to discover it to them Secondly By Affliction that is his Furnace Isa 58.10 I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction Affliction is God's Furnace wherein he purges and purifies his Gold and takes away the dross of it And accordingly does the Scripture represent it Therefore it is called the Fiery Tryal which is to try us 1 Pet. 4.12 And the tryal of our faith which is much more precious than the gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire c. 1 Pet. 1.7 Therefore we should so look upon it and be perswaded of it and of God's Intendments in the imposing of it The Furnace it is not for the hurt of the Gold but for the advantage to make it more pure and useful and precious to form it in some Vessel of Service and Honour sit for the Master's use and so are Troubles and Afflictions to the people of God which should make them the more patiently to bear them when he lays them upon them It is true that this is an harsh Doctrine to Flesh and Blood and we are all ready to shrink at it but Grace it will close with it so far forth as it is prevailing in any measure in us And so it should We should look upon the Furnace not so much in the heat of it but in the improvement the end of setting it up and the effect which follows upon it and then we shall be satisfied exceedingly by it as the Apostle intimates to us Heb. 12.11 There is no chastisement which for the present is joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it brings forth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness to those which are excercised thereby This is that which we should look upon such Dispensations as these in the love and Wisdom of God which does appoint them and the blessed and happy Fruit which does arise from them And further labor also to be bettered by every hand of God upon us that so therein we may close with his gracious Ends If God casts us into the Furnace to come out of it better then we went in be sure of that otherwise it will be so much the worse for us Yea if we be true Gold indeed it will be so with us Corruption it is hardened by Affliction but Grace it is refined Take a man that has a wicked heart and crosses they do not make him better but make him worse more impatient and obstinate and Rebellious and standing out against God and contesting with him like that wretched Jehoram 2 Kings 6 ult But a man that hath a true work of Grace wrought upon his Spirit he will be so much the better more wary of himself more compassionate to others more meek and humble tractable and obedient and thankfull These things will follow with it But so much for this as also of the First General in the Text viz. The Propsition The Fining pot c. The Second follows which is the Reddition But the Lord Tryeth c. According to the usual manner of Speech it should not be but but so But we will take it as lies before us where this Adversative Particle hath a Threefold Emphasis in it First an Emphasis of Proportion Secondly an Emphasis of Exception Thirdly an Emphasis of Designment or of Appropriation An Emphasis of Proportion First by taking but for so And so it signifies thus much unto us that the Lord is no less able or carefull to try the hearts of the Sons of men then the Goldsmith is his Silver and Gold As that does the one so does this also the other so the Lord tryeth the hearts When we speak of Gods trying of the heart it may be taken two manner of ways Either first of all in a way of Discovery or Secondly in a way of Purification He tries them to make known what is in them and he tries them to remove that which is corrupt and amiss from them to each purposes he tries them First In a way of Discovery He tries them so as to discern them and make known what they are This the Lord does and this he is said to do in Scripture not only here but elsewhere Thus Exod. 16.4 I
There are many devices in the heart of man The Second is the Qualification of this Propostion or the Check as I may so call it which is put upon it in these words Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Wherein again two Branches more First The simple Assertion Secondly The Additional Opposition The Simple Assertion that is in these words The counsel of the Lord that shall stand The Additional Opposition or Correction that is in the word Nevertheless We begin with the former viz. The Simple Assertion The counsel of the Lord that shall stand The Counsel of God in Scripture as before the Devices of Man does admit of a Double Acception and Interpretation in which it is taken Either First For the Word and Truth of God Or Secondly For the Purpose and Decree of God Now according to either of these Notions does it hold good that God's Counsel shall stand And that also as pertinent to this Scripture First For God's Word and Truth This is sometimes called his counsel Act. 20.27 I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God says St. Paul to the Ephesians And Luk. 7.30 The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves where the same word also is used and that likewise to the same effect as applyed to God's Word and Truth which is called his Counsel as depending much upon his Counsel for the discovery and manifestation of it As Ephes 3.9 10 11. speaking concerning the Gospel The Mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God but now made known by the Church According to the Eternal Purpose which he Purposed in himself This Counsel of God taken for his Doctrine and Truth it shall be sure to stand and that in Opposition to all the Fansies and Devices of men which labor to obscure and pervert it Veritas magna est prevalebit The Truth is great and so shall prevail as it is commonly declared Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one Jot or Tittle of God Word shall pass away The Reason of it is this because it is an Emanation of himself As God himself is so is his Word All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is Preached unto you says the Apostle Peter in 2 Pet. 1.24 25. And so the Apostle Paul to the like purpose 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our word towards you was not yea and nay but in him was yea For all the Promises of God in Him i.e. in Christ are yea and Amen c. Therefore let us stand for this Truth and hold to it all that may be which the more we stand by it the more it will stand by us yea and make us our selves to stand at another Day Humane Error it shall fall before Divine Truth as Dagan sometime before the Ark. And so it needs must in regard of the different basis and Foundation on which each of them stand Look what difference there is betwixt God Himself and man the same difference is there also betwixt mans Conceits and Devices and betwixt Gods own Counsels and Discoveries which should teach us therefore to hearken unto these rather than unto them And so for Gods Doctrinal Counsel and that Truth which he propounds to be beleived So for his Praeceptive Counsel likewise and that Law which he propounds to be obeyed This may be referred to this Head also of the Counsel of his Word and has the Name given unto it As Prov. 1.25 Ye have set at naught all my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof And so Jer. 23.22 If they had stood in my Counsel In his Counsel that is in his Commandments As God will make good the Counsel of his Truth against mens Errors and Corrupt Devices So he will make good also the Counsel of his Commands against mens Lusts and Corrupt Practises And thus much for his Counsel in the First Notion as it may be taken for the Counsel of his Word either in its Propositions or Injunctions either of which are in Scripture called his Counsel and said also to stand The next and which I conceive is more agreeable to the Scope of the Text which therefore I will insist upon though the other is not to be excluded is the Counsel of Gods Purpose and Decree and which most usually and commonly is exprest by this Appellation The Counsel of his Will as it is called in Eph. 1.11 This especially is sure to stand indeed And so the Scripture does signifie to us in sundry places of it as to instance in one or two amongst the rest Thus Psal 33.12 The Counsel of the Lord stands for ever the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Esai 46.10 11. My Counsel shall stand and I will fulfill all my Pleasure I have spoken it I will also bring it to pass I have purposed it I will also do it In Job 23.13 He is in one mind who can turn him And what his soul desireth even that he doth And Psal 115.3 Our God is in Heaven he hath done whatsoever he pleased And again in Psal 135.6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased that he hath done in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and in all deep places Thus is the Scripture sufficiently pregnant in the Assertion of this Point before us This is a General Truth and may be extended to two Particular Heads Either First As to matter of Predestination and the Concernments of the Life to come Or else Secondly As to matter of Providence and the Transactions of this Life Present If we take it in either of these References The Point holds good as a clear and undenyable Truth That the Counsel of the Lord shall stand First In matter of Predestination Gods Counsel it shall stand here in Rom. 9.11 That the Purpose of God according to Election might stand And 2 Tim. 1.19 The foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knows them that are his Ephes 2.11 In whom also we have obtained an Inheritance being Predestinated according to the Purpose of him that worketh all things after the Counsell of his own Will In Rom. 11.7 The Election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded This is a Point which I shall not stand long upon at this time as being not the main drift of the Text although it be not excluded neither yet I cannot but give an hint of it It is that which we should hold fast and keep close to notwithstanding the many Devices which are in the heart of man to frustrate it and bring it to nothing We should cherish it as our great Comfort and Support in Spiritual Desertion and the many faylings which are in our selves whilst bewayled and striven against our uncertainty and infirmity and
come to him no more Thus we find it recorded in the Gospel concerning divers that came to Christ that they served him just thus Joh. 6.66 From that time many of his Disciples went back and walk'd no more with him This must needs be very grievous and displeasing to him because it is such as casts a reproach upon his service and makes it to be ill thought of in the world As when a servant shall run away from his Master and come no more unto him especially there where he is well used and hath all the encouragement given him that can be this carries a great deal of disparagement and ignominy with it Even so is it here in mens carriage to God in this particular when they shall absolutely take their leaves of him and resolve to make no further addresses to him this is the height of miscarriage in them which therefore all those that fear God should be very cautious of being guilty in themselves And so much of the first particular considerable in this First General to wit the things themselves which God does charge these people withal in their assertion and resolution The Second is the censure which he passes upon them in the proper word of expostulation wherefore He charges them in it with unreasonableness and as such as they were able to give no good account for it in themselves And there are two things again in this First to signify that it was without reason They had no cause at all for it Secondly to signify that it was against reason They had very much cause to the contrary each of these are in this word Wherefore First to signify that it was without reason They had no cause at all for it that they should carry it thus towards God so as to withdraw and to depart from him for he had give them no occasion nor provocation at all We know how we reckon it amongst men and in the affairs of the world For people to be strange there where there is no occasion given them of strangeness it carries some uncouthness with it and puts them sometimes to their plunges and musings and thoughts in themselves who are the objects of it To study and find out a ground and reason for it from whence it should proceed Even so as we may say was it here with God in respect of his people he cannot devise what should be the cause of this their strange minds Wherefore to signify it is without reason But Secondly Wherefore also to signify it was against reason There was all the reason that might be to the contrary First their relation My people For strangers not to come at me were no strange thing but for relations to do so it is strange The more claim we make unto God the more observant should we be of him The Lord does still very frequently in Scripture lay a great emphasis upon that My people my people have committed two great evils my people have forgotten me c. And here my people came not unto me and say too that they will not what an unnatural thing is that Secondly The great things which they have received from me and which I have done for them It is strange in regard of that also and very unreasonable Every kindness is a strong engagement every courtesy is an obligation to duty The love and favour of God it is of a constraining and of a compelling nature and yet for all that it did not work or prevail here What a monstrous and prodigious thing was this contrary to all sense and reason and apprehension and imagination whatsoever There 's nothing which can be said to justify it or be a pretence and colour for it And so I have done also with the Second General Part of the Text which is the Ezpostulation Wherefore say my people we are Lords we will come no more unto thee The Third and last is the invitation to the view and consideration of both which we have prefixt in the beginning of the verse by way of introduction but I have reserv'd it rather to be handled in the conclusion as the fittest place for it in reference to our handling in these words O ye Generation see ye the Word of the Lord. By Generation here he means the people of the times in which the Prophet at that time lived And it has a kind of reflexion with it upon the sinfulness and wretchedness of it As who should say into what an age and time are we fallen And so we find our Saviour himself sometimes to use it and his Apostles with him A sinful and an adulterous Generation a crooked and perverse Generation a Generation of vipers and of evil-doers and the like Still they took notice of the temper of the Age and Generation in which they were and so is it requisite likewise upon occasion for others to do the same with them But that which is chiefly here observable is that which this Generation is invited unto namely to see the word of the Lord. One would have thought it should rather have been hear it for that 's the sense which is receptive of words rather than seeing But the Holy Ghost knew what he said and accordingly was pleased to make choice of such an expression as was most emphatical and agreeable to his purpose And so says rather see it as that which had the greatest efficacy and influence with it upon the mind Segnius irritant animum demissa per aurem quam quae sunt ocuâ—is subjecta So then see it that is understand it consider it mind it and attend unto it They had heard the word of the Lord often enough with their outward ears but that had done no good at all upon them they were little the better for that So then now therefore he calls upon them to see it that is in a special manner to take notice of it And which seems also to be included in it to judg of it and to consider the weightiness and seriousness of it That there was some ground and reason and cause for that which he said There are many words which are sometimes spoken by men especially in their anger and wrath which would not so well endure the test or examination of them which they would be ashamed that others should see them in the sense whereof we now speak Yea but these words of God were not such he cares not who hears them and he desires that every one may see them and be witnesses of them especially those who were themselves more particularly concerned in them Hear ye the word of the Lord. And it has a respect to a twofold Branch whereunto it is to be referr'd First the word of the Lord as it did respect his own justification Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of darkness judge ye of the truth of that Secondly as it did respect Israel's condemnation Wherefore say my people we are Lords we will come no
behind in these words which I have now last read unto you Strangers have devoured his strength yet he knows it not c. IN this present Verse before us we have two General Parts considerable of us First The sad and miserable condition of Ephraim simply in it self Secondly The aggravation of it from his senslesness and stupidity in it His condition it self that we have laid forth in these words Strangers have devoured his strength and gray hairs are here and there upon him The aggravation of it from his own senslesness and stupidity in it that we have also in these He knoweth it not We begin with the First viz. The condition of Ephraim simply consider'd And that we have again laid forth in two Branches First in their miserable captivity Strangers c. Secondly in their symptoms of ruine Yea gray hairs c. First I say here 's the captivity of Ephraim Strangers have devoured his strength which is as I have heretofore intimated an expression both of their sin and punishment one with the other and each word it has its several emphasis of aggravation in it Their strength and their strength devoured and devoured by strangers there 's the greatness of the good they are deprived of there 's the manner of their deprival of it and there 's the persons by whom Each of these are very pertinent to the purpose and do well deserve our handling of them First The good they are deprived of that 's here exprest to be their strength which carries a great matter in it and does imply either what it was really and indeed or else what it was according to their apprehensions and estimations of it That which they looked upon as their strength which they did reckon and value themselves by that was that which now upon their rebellion and trespassing against him God did remove and take away from them He delivered their strength into captivity and their glory into the enemies hand as we find that expression used Psal 78.61 Look whatever it is that wicked men make to be their reliance that will God the soonest scatter and spoyl and disappoint them of And look whatever it is which may be most advantageous to them that will he soonest snatch away from them It was not any thing which he was here contented to punish and exercise them in no but in their very strength it self And the reason of it is this because they just deal so with him God sits the punishment to the sin in this dispensation for we must still remember that these are both involv'd in one another and so we shall still handle them all-along in the prosecution of this Scripture Strangers had devour'd Ephraim 's strength as to matter of sinning and so strangers do devour Ephraim 's strength as to matter of punishing The one follows upon the other For as much as the expression is here carried in a a single person though indeed referring to an whole Nation therefore we may if we please for the more orderly proceeding in it take notice of it in both notions and so we shall both in the Personal Notion and in the National In reference to particular persons as it is a censure upon such and such men singly considered and in reference to the whole Nation as it is a censure upon such and such a people considered at large First of all Take it in the Personal Notion Strangers have devoured his strength And so it is more particularly a censure upon such kind of persons who have past the flower of their years in vanity and sinfulness that have now gray hairs upon them here and there that is are entring into the lists of old age and when they do reflect and look back upon their former time they find it to be spent in nothing but that which is contrary to God and which has no affinity with him Strangers have devoured his strength that is have devoured his youth The first piercing of the Vessel that has been given to Satan and to the World and Lust If God will have any thing he must now be content with the very lees and dregs of all which have run out it may be twenty thirty forty years in the world and yet do not think all this while of conversion to God They are a Cake as yet not turned and their strength it has been devoured by strange and exorbitant courses This is a sense which may very well be fasten'd upon these words and accordingly we shall take notice of them namely to shew what a sad and lamentable thing it is for men to spend their youth and the strength and prime of their time in the waies of sin It is that which the Scripture does every-where declaim against and does also provoke to the contrary To speak distinctly of it there are these three evils in it First It 's very disingenuous Secondly It 's very hazardous Thirdly It is very grievous and uncomfortable in the reflexions upon it when men shall call themselves to a serious reckoning and an account about it First I say It is very disingenuous when men shall give that to their lusts which is due to God When men shall bestow their best upon vanity and reserve their worst for him How contrary is it to all ingenuity and good nature Certainly if we have any thing better than other to bestow one would think that God should rather have that from us than any thing else As he is Himself the best so he deserves the best from us the best of our time and the best of our strength and the best of our imployment Now to deter him to put him off with the worst when the other is gone how sordid and unworthy is it Cursed be the deceiver which hathin his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing saies the Prophet Malachi in Mal. 1.14 This is the case and condition of that person that refuseth to give God his youth and that chuses rather to bestow it upon strange and unwarranted waies It is in this respect very disingenuous Secondly It is very hazardous a man receives a great venture that does put it to such a case as this He that forbears to give his youth to God he knows not whether God will receive him and accept of him in his old age or no that is whether or no he will bestow his grace upon him which he hath before so often rejected Examples are but very rare and scarce of this kind for any to be called into the Vineyard at the last hour especially which have been called before and have refused to come at that call and invitation of them Indeed some persons as have heretofore in the daies of their youth been denied the opportunities of Conversion and turning to God they have at last through his grace and goodness had the means afforded unto them whereby they have been wrought upon and converted but those which have
onely see that such things are done but also see the great evil in doing them and the mischief that will likely follow upon them Thirdly Let us get into our hearts the love of God and a tenderness of his Honour We that love the Lord hate evil says the Psalmist in Psal 97.10 The more we take delight in him the more we shall lament any thing that is opposite and contrary to him as I in part hinted before Those that can see sin and not bewail it or 〈◊〉 affected with it they shew that they have not the love of God in them as our Saviour says of the Jews Joh. 5.42 The way then to attain to the one is to labour for the other That we may cry for these abominations get in us this love of God To perswade us so much the rather hereunto let us but consider the great benefit which hereby is likely to come to us as it is here set before us Even to have a mark set upon our foreheads and to be kept from the stroke of the destroying Angel in the midst of Jerusalem We would all of us fain be priviledged and secured in these dangerous times of infection and common contagion Now therefore let us not neglect the means and course which God has prescribed for it let us every one humble our selves seriously in his sight because of our own and others sins and do all we can for the amendment and reforming of our lives If we will not do it now when will we do it Now that the wrath of God is from Heaven revealed against us and does vent it self as we see it does amongst us Oh Beloved I beseech you by all means let us now labour to get an interest in Christ and to be reconciled to God through him that so he may set his mark of favour and protection upon us in the evil day and may say These are mine whom I own and take especial care of Especially that he may mark us out for salvation and eternal life what-ever becomes of us here The foundation of the Lord standeth sure and he knows them that are his and will know them effectually and distinctly own them from all other men It is a sad and miserable case for any one to be out of Christ at any time even in the best and healthfullest times that are and when the Land is clearest and freest from judgments or the appearances of them But what to be out of Christ now and not to have his stamp and impression upon us at such a time as this is in a plague and a time of common mortality What a fearful what a desperate thing is this Who that rightly considers of any thing would wilfully suffer himself to continue in such a condition No but rather make all the haste that may be to know him and to close with him and to lie down before him Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish out of the way If his wrath be kindled yea but a little Blessed are all they that trust in him Psal 2.12 As for this business of mourning and lamenting of sin in particular we have so much the greater cause to apply our selves to it as God is willing to accept it at our hands Who would not then be safe where a little crying yea sighing would save him being done in truth and sincerity as it is here intimated that it will do Had we not better cry for sin than cry for punishment Cry by way of prevenâ—â—on than cry then when-as all the crying we can make will do us no good Oh let us learn to be wise betime and to close with the first occasions and opportunities of mercy Where we cannot do what we would do let us do what we can There are many abominations abroad in the world that it may be we cannot remove them yea but yet for all that we can bewail them we can lament them and mourn for them and that at least is required of us and to be performed by us It is the great goodness of God to his poor servants that he takes delight in the reality of their affections and good desires where they have nothing more in their power and counts them not so much by what they are as what they would be Where they strive against sin they would be Where they strive against sin they want it where they hate it they are free from it where they grieve and mourn for it they are freed from the imputations of it And why should we not then all that may be endeavour to nourish and cherish such affections as these in our hearts Seeing God himself has such regard to the persons in whom they are we our selvâ—â— should not be wanting to them in these occasions which are now upon us but desire the Lord himself who alone is able to do it to bestow them and work them in us who bestows the spirit of mourning and lamentation upon whom he pleases So much may satisfie to have spoken of the second General part of the Text and so of the whole Text it self in the words which I have now explained Go through the midst of the City c. and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof SERMON L. AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light It is the manner and practice of carnal and presumptuous persons either to expect an absolute freedom and exemption from the judgments of God for coming upon them or else at least very much to mitigate and extenuate those judgments to themselves for their suffering of them That is either to nullify the day of the Lord in hope to escape it or else to mollify the day of the Lord in hope to endure it Now accordingly does there a double work lye upon the Servants of God the Prophets and Ministers of the Church in the course of their Ministry in order to the suppressing and subduing of this presumption in them The one is to declare the certainty of this day as unavoidable And the other is to declare the misery of this day as unsupportable The former was that which we have had exhibited to us the last day out of these words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail c. and they shall not escape it There we have the day of the Lord in its certainty and unavoidableness The latter is that which we have now before us at this present time in the words of the Prophet Amos to the people of Israel Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light And here now we have the day of the Lord
in its severity and unsupportableness IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First an awakening Commination Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Secondly a convincing Expostulation To what end is it for you Thirdly an express Conclusion or Determination The day of the Lord is darkness and not light We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Commination in these words Woe unto you c. In which passage there are two terms to be explain'd by us First what is here meant by the day of the Lord. Secondly what is here meant by the desiring of this day of the Lord which is here censured and threaten'd in this people For the former the day of the Lord Jom Jehovah it may be here reduced to a threefold explication First to the day of death or personal dissolution Secondly to the day of captivity or National dissolution Thirdly to the day of Judgment or general Account Each of these are the day of the Lord and may promiscuously one with the other be understood of us here in this Scripture Now Secondly for the other term which is the desiring of this day and as it is here censured and threaten'd in this people this it may be taken three manner of ways First for their desiring of it rashly because they did not consider it Secondly for their desiring it scoffingly because they did not believe it Thirdly for their desiring it desperately because they did not fear it All these kinds of desire in reference to this day of the Lord in either of the fore-mentioned considerations are here condemned in them First Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly and foolishly because ye do not consider it Such desires as these of this day there are sometimes to be found in the world whether in reference to death and judgment or in reference to common and publick calamity First take it in reference to death and judgment There are divers persons sometimes which we meet withal who do seem very much to desire the day of the Lord in this sense though in the mean time if they duly consider it they have little cause or ground to do so Such as Job sometimes speaks of that long for death whiles it cometh not and dig for as more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3.21 22. Indeed there is a desire of such a day as this which in the right constitution of it is very noble and commendable and is sometimes made the character of the true servants of God to breathe after death and departure out of the world and to wait and long for the coming of Christ to Judgment Thus old Simeon when he had seen Christ come in the flesh and now had him in his arms he sings his nunc dimittas Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.29 30. And St. Paul he desired to depart and to be with Christ as in it self much better than to abide here in the flesh Phil. 1.23 And the Prophet Elijah as some interpret it out of an holy zeal he cryes out It is enough now Lord take away my life first for I am not better than my Fathers 1 King 19.4 Thus have the servants of God sometimes desired the day of the Lord as it concerned their own death and dissolution And this desire of theirs has been looked upon as very warrantable and commendable in them So likewise as it has concerned the last and general day of account they have desired this day of the Lord also And it hath been remarkable in them so to do Look as it was the character of the Servants of God in the days before Christ to desire and wait for his first coming his coming in the flesh Therefore Abraham is said to have seen his day and to have rejoyced and Simeon before-mentioned to have waited for the consolation of Israel So it is also now the character of God's servants in these days since Christ to desire and wait for his second coming his coming to Judgment These are compared to faithful Servants that wait for the coming of their Master and that with desire Thus Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus come quickly And the souls under the Altar they hasten his coming also Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 6.10 So St. Paul tells us that Christ will give a Crown of righteousness to him and not unto him only but also to all them that love and desire his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 So that it seems such persons as these are there have sometimes been and are still in the world which do desire this day of the Lord and that as having no woe belonging to them neither for so doing but rather the contrary which have not been threaten'd but rather encouraged for such desires as have been in them to this purpose But yet these here in the Text they have a woe denoune'd against them for their desire of the day of the Lord and so have many others besides as those who desire it rashly and foolishly as not considering for what end they do so We may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First from discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from presumption of their own innocency Thirdly from ignorance or misapprehension of the nature of the thing it self These people here in the Text they seemed to desire the day of the Lord thus and so are condemn'd and declared against for their desiring of it as that which is unwarrantable and unjustifiable for any to do so First They desired the day of the Lord that is the day either of death or judgment and in particular of their own personal and present departure out of a principle of discontentedness in their own conditions Because they had not all things to their mind and just as they would have therefore forsooth they would presently be gone and leave the world they wish for death and departure hence out of a spirit of impatience Thus it hath been sometimes even with some of God's Servants themselves when he has left them to themselves such fits of distemper as these have now and then discovered themselves in them Thus some have suspected it of Elijah in the place before alledged when he prayed to God to take him out of this present life it was out of the rediousness which he did conceive from Ahab and Jezebel's persecutions So Job though at other times noted for his admirable patience yet for the time he was surprized with this distemper Chap. 6.8 9. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let
wantonly and they desire sawcily and they desire it perversly as it seems here to be intended Well but what 's the lot and condition of such kind of Persons Here 's a Woe denounced against them as signifying them to be miserable creatures and such as are most deeply involv'd in Gods judgments of any others besides Those who to the rest of their wickedness add this of scoffing at Gods judgments either in this world or that which is to come they are such as are exposed to the greatest tuine and destruction that can be and whomsoever God spares else he will be sure not to spare them Now therefore be not Mockers lest your bands be made strong says he Isa 28.22 Surely he scorneth scorners Prov. 3.34 And those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 2 Sam. 2.30 God will judge them though they scorn him and he will judge them because they scorn him their scorning it shall promote their condemnation and hasten that really which they desire should be hastned feignedly We see here there is nothing which the nature of man does commonly more abominate than contempt and how can we think then that the Lord himself will put it up How will he endure to be contemned either in himself or else in his Servants and not rather pour forth the fiercest of his wrath upon such kind of persons As he threatens there in that place Prov. 1.24 25 26. Because I have called and ye have refused I have stretched out mine hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I will also laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh As wicked men mock at Gods threatnings so he also mocks at their punishments and as they laugh at his intimations so he laughs at their destruction He that sits in heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision Psal 2.4 The Lord shall laugh at them because he sees their day is coming Psal 37. 13. Be not deceived says the Apostle God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not sneered at as the word properly signifies it is an expression of scorn which cannot be fastned upon God He is not mocked that is he is not mock'd effectually nor he is not mocked that is he is not mock'd securely mock'd he is in regard of mens endeavour he is mock'd on their part but he is not mock'd on his own part and in regard of the thing it self Those that mock him they do not escape or go away with their mockery of him This is a point which falls heavy upon the times in which we live from the great guilt which is in them in this particular in that there are so many people that make a scoff of the most serious things that are in the world that make no other use of the Word of the Lord than to despise it not of the Judgment of the Lord than to deny it nor of the day of the Lord than to deride it and to scoff at it which seem with these people here in the Text to desire indeed the day of the Lord but with a tang of Atheism and Profaneness putting it far from them at such time as they draw it near unto them drawing it near with their lips when-as their hearts in the mean time are far enough from it or rather drawing up the lip against it in a kind of scorn and detestation of it Well let all such as these look to it in time lest they hasten Gods judgments upon themselves a great deal sooner than themselves are aware of which such courses as these do tend to And that 's now the second explication of the passage here before us Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it scoffingly because ye do not believe it Thirdly Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it desperately because ye do not fear it And here now the word desire is to be taken in a qualified sense and not so much actively as passively Ye desire the day of the Lord that is ye care not though that day should be not that they did absolutely wish for it but out of an hardned and obdurate and desperate spirit which was in them they did not matter it though it were but were content to run the hazard of it This is another sense which we may likewise put upon this present expression There are some people who are so far addicted and given up to their lusts which do possess them and prevail upon them especially some kinds of them above the rest as Voluptuousness and Sensuality and Intemperance and love of the World that for the injoyment of them they care not what becomes of themselves but are content to venture even the loss of their Souls for ever which defie the judgments of God shoot up arrows of provocation against Heaven sell themselves to do wickedly commit all uncleanness with greediness and resolve to do whatever they have a mind to in despight of Hell it self yea even of God himself who threatens them with it which cry God damn them and let him do so it is all one to them These are sad and lamentable creatures as any alive monsters rather than men yet such as this latter age of the world hath more especially brought forth which accordingly may be taken notice of by us This woe here in the Text it reaches such as these especially in the fullest latitude and extent of it being such as of all others are most irrecoverable inasmuch as they cast away the means of recovery from them and choose death rather than life to be administred unto them Such as these they are in the nearest condition even to the Devils themselves and are in a manner even in Hell it self before their time from the beginnings and initiations of it And thus we have had the threefold explication of this present expression and a threefold wo which is here denounc'd against three sorts of persons Wo wo wo to such inhabitants of the earth To those that desire the day of the Lord rashly because they do not consider it And to those that desire the day of the Lord scoffingly because they do not believe it And to those that desire the day of the Lord desperately because they do not fear it To those which desire it either in jest or desire it in earnest which desire it in jest because they mistrust it and which desire it in earnest because they mistake it And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text which is the awaking Commination in these words Wo unto you that c. The Second is the convincing Expostulation in these To what end is it for you Lamah-zeh lakem Ad quid hoc verbis And there are two things especially here in this First here
's a calling of them to an account for their desire What end have you for it Secondly it is a discovering to them the fruitlesness of their desire What good have you by it The former in the notion of an Expostulation The latter of a Conviction First To look upon it in the former notion and that is by way of Expostulation What end have you for it or in it namely in this desire of yours for the coming of the day of the Lord. The Prophet Amos here calls them to an account for this desire which was in them From whence there 's this general truth to be observed by us That our desires should be still such as are rational and well-grounded in us Those that desire any thing they should know for what end they desire it or else it should not be desired by them To what end is it for you says the Lord here to this people namely when he speaks here of something which was desired by them The reason of it is this Because we are rational our selves at least in our principles we are so as men but we 〈◊〉 â—o more especially as Christians and therefore should every thing be rational that comes from us Loose and unreasonable desires do not become reasonable creatures Those who have light in their understandings by nature and this also elevated and enlarged by Grace for the guiding and directing of them they should be very much ordered and regulated in this particular Therefore let us by the way learn from hence a good rule for our practice to this purpose We may not think that we may desire what we please indefinitely or without any restraint that quicquid libet licet that whatever we have a mind to it may be pursued by us no but we must rather first see what ground and reason we have in us for such desires and restrain and bound our selves by such arguments and considerations as these In all inordinacy of appetite or desires which rises up in us put to our selves this question which the Prophet Amos puts to this people To what end is it for you to desire it And this will be an happy means for the ordering and regulating of it Our desires and affections and inclinations they are such things as for which we are accountable both to God and our selves So much for that as this passage carries in it the force of an Expostulation To what end is it for you i.e. To what end is this desire for you The Second is as it has the force of a Conviction To what end is it for you that is To what end is this day for you which you seem to desire There 's no good or advantage at all which can come to such as you by it by laying an emphasis especially upon the persons And so there 's this in it That the day of the Lord however it may prove to others yet it is no way desirable of wicked and ungodly people and such persons as live in their sins For you says the Prophet that walk in ways of sinfulness and opposition and rebellion against God for you to desire that day wherein he will call all men to account for that which hath been done by them here The day of Judgment and the second coming of Christ it is very sad and ridiculous in you This will the better appear unto us by considering what those things are which do especially make this day desirable of those who do rationally desire it the Saints and Servants of God We may reduce them to three Heads First as it is a day of Absolution Secondly as it is a day of Redemption And Thirdly as it is a day of Salvation for each of these it is to all good Christians and Believers First It is a day of Absolution wherein they shall be quitted and discharged of any thing which shall be laid against them Christ who is their Judge shall be also their Advocate and plead their cause for them and pass a sentence of discharge upon them Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect in that day This now makes it ery desirable to those who have an interest in it But wicked people have not this interest it belongs not to them They have no share in pardon or absolution and consequently have no ground to wish for that day when absolution shall be granted which themselves have no share or interest in No more than Malefactors have cause to wish for the day of Assizes and the coming of the Judge to sit upon them which being duly considered makes nothing at all indeed for them Secondly As it is a day of Redemption it is to God's children desirable so and they are call'd upon in that respect to desire it Luke 21.28 Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh The day of the Lord is such a day as this is wherein those who are true Believers shall be redeemed from all those evils which here they were encompast withal And especially from the greatest evil of all which is the evil of sin which did here so much trouble and disturb them and makes them to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death This day it is desirable of God's children in reference to this as a blessed day indeed unto them when as the fetters and shackles of sin shall be knocked off from them But now as for carnal and profane persons To what end is it for them to desire it What should they desire the day of the Lord that do not care for the fear of the Lord What should they desire that day which is a day of redemption from sin whose desire all their life-time is rather to continue in sin and to have all advantages and opportunities afforded them for the committing and following of sin Thirdly As it is a day of Salvation and the accomplishment of universal happiness it is upon this account also desirable of the Servants of God The day wherein God himself shall be glorified in his Saints because indeed the day wherein his Saints shall be glorified by him But what 's this now to those which walk in ways of sinfulness and impenitency What have they to do to desire to be glorified by God that do not care for glorifying of God Or what have they to do to partake of the life of Glory that are strangers to the life of Grace or to what purpose should they desire the end that despise the means and the ways that tend to that end So much for that And so I have done also with the Second General Part of the Text which is the convincing Expostulation laid down in these words To what end is it for you The Third and last is the express conclusion or determination in these The day of the Lord is darkness and not light which is to be understood by us of the day of death and
endless darkness Lastly By way of extent or explication to shew unto us the full nature of this business wherein it does consist There are two Branches of the sentence of condemnation and which the judgment of the great day does extend unto The one is positive to the punishment of sense and the enduring of exquisite torments and so in that consideration it is called darkness The other is privative in the punishment of loss and expulsion from God's glorious presence and the comfort of his countenance and so in that consideration it is said to be no light And thus we have seen this passage in each expression of it both Affirmative and Negative darkness and not light And so much may be also spoken of it as consider'd simply and absolutely in its general Proposition We may further Secondly look upon it relatively and in its particular scope as directed more especially to the persons above mentioned who desired this day of the Lord. To these the Prophet Amos here declares that this day it is darkness and not light And here again in this reference it carries a threefold force or emphasis with it First an emphasis of Information to those which were ignorant and did not know that this day was Secondly an emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know what this day was Thirdly an emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate which knew it but laid aside the thoughts and considerations of it and would put it to the venture First I say This expression The day of the Lord is darkness and not light it has an emphasis of information to those who were ignorant and which did not know it as if he had said thus unto them You seem to desire the coming of the day of the Lord as if thereby you should get some great good to your selves but alas as the case stands with you you have no cause at all to do so for there will be no advantage from it to you The proper object of desire it is good and not evil it is light and not darkness But this day of the Lord as it is circumstanced it is that which is quite contrary it is evil and not good it is darkness and not light that ye may rightly understand it The world has other notions commonly of death and judgment than those which they should have but the Scripture and word of God is the best instructer of them in this particular and that gives them a true account and estimate of such things as these are if they will hearken unto it Secondly An emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know it Profane persons as I shewed before they laugh'd at those things thought there was no such thing indeed as the day of the Lord and therefore scoffingly and in scorn call'd for it Well let it come We would fain see this day that you speak of and threaten us withal Well says the Prophet to these ye have no great cause to be so full of this confidence and security if ye consider all for I can tell you there is somewhat more in this day than you are aware of there 's no playing or jesting with it This day of the Lord it is darkness and not light what ever you may think of it it is so and so you will find it The word of God is powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword and the threatenings of the word having the spirit of God going along with them and setting them home upon the conscience have an ability in them to conquer and confound the most impartial mockers Thirdly An emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate and though they knew and in some sort believed such a day as this was yet did not fear it but were hardened in their hearts against it To such as these the Prophet here declares the horridness and unsupportableness of it That though they may think they could grapple with it and hold out against the extremities of it yet in conclusion and when it comes to the trial they will find it to be too heavy for them and above their strength whether the day of common and publick calamity or the day of trial and general judgment Who may abide the day of his coming or who shall stand when he shall appear as it is Mal. 3.2 And again Rev. 6.16 17. They shall call to the mountains to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Take this day in reference to the Jews for their particular and it was full of astonishment in each acception whether we take it for the day of their Captivity or for the day of their Messias The day of their Captivity it was a doleful day unto them insomuch as the Prophet Jeremy made it the sole matter of his Book of Lamentations And the day of the Messias that was an heavy day like wise that it proved their final rejection for since that time they are mark'd out to the world for a persidious people and hardly known for a people The Vse of all to our selves and so to draw to a conclusion comes to this We have heard how the day of the Lord is darkness and not light that is terrible and full of horror in the whole latitude and extent of it whether we take it for the day of death and general judgment or whether we take it for the day of captivity and National visitation Now what remains but that accordingly we should be sensible and apprehensive of it in this representation and from thence to prevent the terribleness of it to our selves For this is the nature of such things as these are that the terribleness of them encreases with the security about them and the less grievous they are thought to be afore-hand the more heavy are they when they happen and come to pass And on the other side preparations for them do take off from the dreadfulness of them We should therefore labour to get a stock of Grace against such times as these are and in this day of the Lord's mercy and respite and intermission prepare for the day of his wrath and judgment and visitation We should labour and endeavour to make our peace with God in Christ who alone can take off the terribleness of that day from us and make it of a day of darkness to be a day of light We should cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light in the abandoning of all wicked and sinful courses and in the practice of all spiritual and heavenly Graces We should walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof as
the Apostle advises us in Rom. 13.13 14. Take heed of having too easy and favourable thoughts and apprehensions of such things as these are of death and judgment and calamity as if they had no great matter in them for it will not appear to be so when they shall come in good earnest Wo unto you that in this sense desire that is diminish and despise and disregard the day of the Lord which is a kind of desire interpretatively as being next to it for you have no ground or cause for it The day of the Lord being dark and not light yea very dark and no brightness in it as it is here exprest And further here consider the great difference which is betwixt man and man in this particular for whiles this day of the Lord is said to be thus and thus it is still to be taken in a variety of Emphasis according to the variety of Persons which are concern'd in it The same day being occasionally and respectively either one or t'other unusquisque sibi est aut tenebrae aut lumen says St. Austin Every one is to himself either darkness or light Si pius lumen si impius tenebrae Those which are gracious and truly religious to such the day of the Lord whether in death or judgment it is a day of light and joy and of comfort in death as it translates them to Glory and in Judgment as it finishes Glory to them On the other side to those which are wicked and ungodly and profane and atheistical to them it is a day of darkness and horror As the cloud which we read of in Exod. 14.20 It was light to the Israelites whiles it was darkness at the same time to the Egyptians A direction to one and an obstruction to the t'other Where by the way take notice of the unhappiness of all wicked and ungodly persons in the perverting of those things which in themselves have the greatest excellency by making a contrary use and improvement of them There 's nothing which wicked men partake of but it 's either the worse for them or they for it The Word of the Lord and the Table of the Lord and the Temple of the Lord and the Day of the Lord. The Word of the Lord they make it reproachful and instead of the savour of life to them to be the savour of death The Table of the Lord they make it to be vain and contemptible and instead of discerning the Lord's body eat and drink to themselves their own damnation The Temple of the Lord they make it execrable and instead of the house of Prayer a den of thieves The Day of the Lord they make it terrible and instead of a day of light a day of darkness As they profane the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of devotion so they contemn the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of judgment and visitation So much for that and so much also of the whole Text. SEVERAL SELECT SERMONS Upon Various Texts out of the NEW TESTAMENT Sermon I. MATTHEW 5.20 That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It was that which was laid to the charge of our Blessed Saviour whilst he converst here upon Earth as is also since to some of his servants in conformity to him that whiles he preacht the Doctrine of the Gospel he did nullifie the vigour of the Law and the Precepts of it That which the Pharisees were more especially guilty of themselves which was to make the Commandment of God of none effect by their Traditions they most falsly and injuriously and unhappily object to Christ as if he came into the world for this purpose to destroy the Law and the Prophets Now therefore did it very much concern him to clear himself of this accusation which we find him to do in this present Scripture by shewing that he was so far from nullifying or destroying the Law as that he did so much the rather strengthen it and confirm it and further inforce it by the sense which he put upon it as leading men to a stricter and exacter observation of it than as yet they had been acquainted withall and this is the scope in particular of this Text which we have now in hand Our Saviour had for the general profest it in the 17th verse of this Chapter Think not saith he I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Now in this verse before us he proves and demonstrates what he there profest For I say unto you That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness c. IN the Text it self there are two general Parts First The Preface or Introduction Secondly The Doctrine or principal matter which is delivered in it The Introductory Preface that 's exprest in these words For I say unto you The Truth and Doctrine which is delivered in these words Except your Righteousness c. We shall a little invert the Order of these words in the handling and begin first of all with the second Branch of them as that which is principally intended and that is the Doctrine or Truth it self which is here propounded and delivered to us Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees c. Wherein we have a disparagement of the Righteousness of such and such persons in order to Eternal Salvation so as that these who do partake of no more but only that shall never partake of this The word Scribes is the name of an Office amongst the Jews who were noted especially for their Learning and Knowledge in the Law The word Pharisees that is the name of a Sect who were noted especially for their life and conversation Now the Righteousness of either or both together is here declared to be very defective And the point which arises from hence is briefly this That Pharisaical Righteousness is unsufficient to bring a man to Heaven If a man have no more Righteousness in him than of the Scribes and Pharisees he shall never enter into the Kingdom of God For the better opening of the present point unto us there are two things to be done by us First To shew what this Pharisaical Righteousness is and wherein it consists Secondly To shew the Defectiveness and Insufficiency of this Righteousness in reference to Eternal Salvation and what it is which makes it so to be as is here by our Blessed Saviour declared concerning it First What this Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was or is which is thus insufficient Now this may be reduced to these two heads either first the matter and substance of their Righteousness or secondly the manner and circumstances Their Righteousness it was observable and remarkable in either of these particulars but yet defective in each First For the matter and substance of their Righteousness it
Secondly whose c. That is thou shalt not know whose they shall be nor to whom thou shalt leave them First They shall not be thine A man's wealth lasts no longer than his life neither has he longer comfort from it This is plainly intimated and signified to us in these words for the Lord from hence does argue this covetous and rich man to be no better than a fool because he took so much pains for and promised himself so much comfort in that which he should never have liberty to enjoy Whose shall these things be which thou hast provided That is thou shalt have no refreshment nor delight from them When a man's foul's taken away the comfort and sweetness of his estate is taken away with it I need not stand to prove this unto you it is a thing which experience confirms and ye all know it well enough without any example all the business is to live proportionably to it and so to behave our selves as if this were a truth Seeing men they have their wealth for no longer time than their lives it concerns them then to enjoy it and to use it to the best advantage This is that which the Preacher continually presses in Eccl. 2.24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour So again in Eccl. 5.18 It is good and comely for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour which is his portion There is a vanity and a curse which God has laid upon many men that they shall be rich and nothing the better for it They are not the better for it here because they do not use it and they cannot be better for it hereafter because the nature of the things will not permit it They vex themselves to get their wealth they vex themselves to keep it and yet have no comfort by it Who would provide such things as for which he should never be the better And again let us then learn to provide for a better estate to lay hold on eternal life and to lay up in store for our selves a good foundation against the time to come to be rich in good works willing to distribute ready to communicate as the Apostle gives charge to Timothy about rich men Godliness it has the promise of this life and of that which is to come A man that lays up grace he shall be sure to have the comfort of it here in the sweetness of a Christian conversation and he shall be sure to have the comfort of it hereafter in the happiness of a glorious reward When he dies he has the things he has provided nay then so much the more whereas a worldly man when his soul is once taken away his wealth shall not be his own That 's the first thing implied in this expostulatory question These things which thou hast prepared they shall not be thine It 's a question of determination Secondly Thou shalt not know whose they shall be It 's a question of ambiguity The wealthiest man that is cannot be sure who shall be his heir No man when he goes out of the world can tell whose his goods shall be this is another affliction For a man might be ready to say though I shall not have the benefit my self yet I shall leave them to those that shall my children and my posterities after me nay but says God Thou knowest not whose they shall be neither whose if ye take it numerically for the particular individual persons nor whose if ye take it qualitatively for the nature and condition of the persons neither of these persons doest thou know First Thou doest not know it for the individuals what particular person shall enjoy There 's many a man leaves a very fair estate for his children and his children never enjoy it They fall into dishonest hands many times and among ill Guardians which secure all to themselves and the poor Orphans have little benefit and comfort from it Whose shall those things then be which thou hast provided Therefore men should especially leave behind them to their children the blessing of God and the interests of the Covenants of Grace a good education other things do well in their place by way of incouragement but these things are the main Again if ye take it qualitatively whose according to this sense Solomon which had experience has told us Thou knowest not whether to a wise man or a fool to one which will make good use of it or to one which will trifle it away How many heirs are there in the world yea in this City whose Parents and Progenitors have been careful to provide them an estate and they have squandred it away in ungodly courses And this is the fourth General to wit the Expostulatory Inference Now the close of all shall be this which I desire ye to take notice of namely what course the Lord here takes to fasten upon this covetous rich man apprehensive of his miserable condition and that is as ye have seen hitherto by setting death afore him and bringing him near to his grave which yet he does not in meet gross terms by propounding to him the mortality of mankind and telling him he was a mortal creature Though one would think that were sufficient to make men take heed but he comes nearer and closer to him and tells him in plainer terms that indeed he should now die Death in the notion and death in the speculation only that 's but a weak Argument The best way to make men reflect upon their evil courses is to approximate death unto them and to shew it approaching because that then 't is no time to dissemble A man may before put a good face upon his time and perhaps laugh it and sport it out in his health but when there 's no remedy but a man must certainly stand before the great and fearful Judgment feat of the Glorious and Omnipotent God when this must be done indeed and it is not only spoken of when 't is a thing which cannot be avoided but is certainly irreversibly concluded This is a terrible thing And therefore we have all cause to consider seriously of it I or this is the misery of all that we do not here set our thoughts on work Eternity because it is as soon spoken as another word therefore it easily slips and passes our cogitations whereas indeed it is a thing in it self of infinite vastness and not able to be comprehended Again death is a common thing and the way of all flesh and therefore in our health it 's ready to be slighted by us But when it shall ever come to our own particular we shall find a great alteration I will shut up this exercise with those words of the Preacher Solomons as pertinent and agreeable to this purpose in Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O Young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer
thee in the daies of thy youth and walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that after all these things God shall bring thee to judgment Preached at Mr. Bacon 's Reading at Gray's-Inn SERMON IV. LUKE 13.8 9. And he answering said unto him Lord let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it And if it bear fruit well and if not then after that thou shalt out it down Our blessed Lord and Saviour whiles he was conversant here upon earth was careful to apply himself to these persons whom he converst withall with the greatest Advantage that might be to their spiritual good not only by putting of them in mind of that which was to be done by them but also by calling them to an account of their Improvement of such Intimations And this is that which he does here in this Scripture which we have now before us where for the better and more effectual insinuating and working of his doctrine into them he does represent unto them spiritual Truths by common and ordinary resemblances and such kind of expressions as they were most familiarly acquainted withall These words are the speech of the Vine-dresser interceding with the Lord of the Vineyard in the behalf of his barren Fig-tree They are a Parable and so do carry somewhat more in them than is in the bare letter and sound The Exposition and Interpretation whereof is briefly this The Vine-dresser that 's the Minister The Vineyard that 's the Church The Lord of the Vineyard that 's God himself The barren Fig-tree that 's any fruitless and unprofitable soul within the vail of the Church or person or people which have not thriven under the Means of Grace and opportunities of being better which God hath been pleased at any time in his providence to afford unto them IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Vinedresser's Petition and Request it self which he here notes Lord let it alone this year also Secondly The Terms or Conditions which his Petition proceeds upon and these are twofold The one is taken from himself Till I shall dig about it and dung it and the other is taken from the Fig-tree upon the supposition either of Amendment or Incorrigibleness If it bear fruit well if not then after that thou shalt cut it down These are the parts of the Text. We begin with the first of these parts viz. the Vinedresser's Request and Petition it self wherein again observe two things more First The matter of the Request or the thing it self which is sued and petitioned for and that is mercy and forbearance towards it Lord let it alone Secondly The Determination of the Time for the exercise and continuance of this forbearance and this for one year more This year also First To speak of the former viz. The matter of the Request or the thing it self petitioned for and that is the forbearance of the Fig-tree Lord let it alone This was begg'd and begg'd by the Vine-dresser in the behalf of it From whence we may observe thus much That it is the special work of faithful Ministers and Pastors and Labourers in God's Vineyard to divert and keep off that wrath and vengeance and judgment which he threatens and which is near to their people Thus does the Vine-dresser here in the Text The Owner of the Fig-tree which was God himself He had threatned it with destruction as he justly might for it's great unfruitfulness after so long and continued expectation These three years I come seeking fruit on this Fig-tree and find none Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground Now comes in the Dresser of the Vineyard with this seasonable Motion and Request in the very nick of time Lord I beseech thee let it alone and for this once be more favourable to it This is that which belongs to Ministers and Pastors in regard of their Office not only to be the Conveyers of Instruction but also of Protection Nor only to defend from sin but also from punishment This is that which we shall observe and find all along in Scripture as Joel 1.13 when there was a Famine brought upon the Land the Vine dried up the Fig-tree languished the Pomegranate withered c. Who are there invited to bewail it and lament it and mourn under it why ye shall see it is the Dressers of the Vineyard And that which were so not in the literal sense but in a spiritual Gird up your selves and lament ye Priests Howl ye Ministers of the Altar Come lie all night in sackcloth ye Ministers of my God These were they who were called upon to be sensible of the present Judgment And so again in the second Chapter of the same Prophecy of the Prophet Joel and the 17th verse c. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach Wherefore c. So Isa 62.6 7. I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night ye that make mention of the Lord as ye that are the Lord's Remembrancers keep not silence and give him no rest till he stablish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth This was the practice of Moses that faithful servant of the Lord and Governour of God's people still upon all occasions when God's anger was kindled against his people he comes in and intercedes for them and speaks in their behalf that the Lord would be pleased to spare them and forbear them and shew pity towards them This was the practice also of Samuel as we may see an instance of it 2 Sam. 12.29 When the Israelites had committed a great sin and God had exprest his displeasure against them for it they desire him to pray for them and he does not refuse it as thinking himself engaged to it upon the account of that Office and place which he sustained as a Prophet amongst them God for bid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you The ground hereof is this First Because Ministers are middle persons as it were betwixt God and the people They mediate and deal betwixt both as it is declared expresly of Moses Exod. 19. v. 1. He told God the words of the people and he told the people the words of God He is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee as God said of Abraham to Abimelech in Gen. 20.7 This is one thing which makes for this work to be performed by them and then which we may add hereunto the Affection which does belong unto them from this Relation This it makes for it also When a Child is in any danger who should sooner speak for it than the Father When a Sheep is ready to be swallowed up who should sooner interpose than the Shepherd When a City is ready to
be betrayed who should sooner bestir himself than the Watchman and Governour of it Why thus it is now with those who are Ministers and Pastors of the Church They are Fathers they are Shepherds they are Spiritual Watchmen and what not to work them and to ingage them hereunto This very expression in the Text carries an Argument with it wherein they are called Dressers of the Vineyard who are much concerned in the safety of Those Trees that belong unto it as a piece of their own handy-work Men are usually chary of plants of their own watering of Trees of their own setting and of any thing which hath been matter of labour and pains unto themselves destroy it not for there is a blessing in it Isa 65.8 It was God's Argument which he used to Jonah That he had pity on the gourd which he had not laboured for nor made it to grow and how much more did it then concern him to have pity on Nineveh Surely as people are specially and principally the workmanship of the Lord Ye are God's husbandry Ye are God's building 1 Cor. 3.9 so they are also in part and subordinately the work of the Ministers also I have planted and Apollo hath watered as it is in the sixth verse also of that chapter You know how it is sometimes with Nurses and Servants who have taken a great deal of pains about the Child they are very chary and tender of it and bear a special affection to it And when Parents are about sometimes to correct it why they step in presently to save it and take it out of the Mother's hand that she may not deal so sharply with it They plead for it and promise for it and give their word for it and are very earnest in its behalf to keep it and preserve it from the Rod. Why thus now likewise is it with faithful Teachers and Ministers of the Church of Christ They are Nurses as it were to God's people and have the bowels of Nurses towards them as the Apostle Paul expresses it of them in 2 Thes 2.7 And so accordingly do save their children from the stroke of God's anger upon them by interceding for them This it first of all shews us how that Ministers are not the worst members of any Nation or State whatsoever especially such as are faithful and conscionable in the discharge of their places no but they are special savers and preservers of the Lord's flock They do not only serve to instruct God's people but to protect them not only to shew them their duty but to keep off their ruine They are shadows against the heat They are coverts from the storm They are Advocates and Pleaders and Interceders with God for his people upon occasion of any evil or mischief which is near unto them of Sword of Restilence of Fire of Famine and the like Such as these they stand in the gap they make up the breach they wrestle and tug and contend with God for their people that he would be gracious to them and they many times fare the better for their prayers in such respects This accordingly calls for answerable carriage towards them for the farther incouragement of them in such Offices as these are not to slight them not to grieve them not to do any thing which may lessen or take off their affections towards them for while they do so they do ill consult with their own safety and preservation We know how ill David took it from the hands of Nabal that when he had been a great safeguard and protection to him and all his family that they were not hurt nor mist any thing as long as he was conversant amongst them but was a Wall to them both by day and by night yet that base and ungrateful Carle he thought much of a little refreshment to be given to him and his souldiers which we know how dear it had also likely to have cost him even to the destruction of himself and all his houshold These who are preservers of others have need to be kindly used and entreated by them upon all occasions It is a sad thing for people to have them rising up against them which should rather speak for them When Moses shall come to that pass as to say Respect not their offering I have not taken one Ass from them nor done them any hurt and yet they deal thus with me in Num. 16.15 When Jeremy shall come to that pass as to say Remember Lord that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them and yet thou knowest how they carry it to me in Jer. 18.20 23. Thus it has been sometimes in the world and very sad whenever it has been so as that which is unsuitable and agreeable to that which is required and and may be expected from them Secondly Here 's an Item also for Ministers and those who are by their place Vine-dressers in a spiritual sense to teach them what is required and expected from them likewise and that is to put on such bowels as these are upon themselves and to draw them out upon all occasions Ministers are not only to labour for Ministerial Abilities but also for Pastoral Affections nor only to endeavour to keep their people from Eternal Destruction by teaching and admonishing of them but also as much as they may to keep them also from Temporal Destruction by praying and pleading for them and by being earnest and importunate with God for the diverting of Judgments from them Because a Faithful Ministry it is a business of great security in the improvement of it to those places in which it is Again further it also shews what we should be especially our selves for our own particular Those that must plead for others they had need themselves to be in very good terms of favour and speculation and not to have too much business chargable upon them A Minister had need of all others to walk most closely with God to perfect his communion with him to keep his heart most upright before him and to approve his waies unto him not only for his own salvation and the good of his own soul in particular but also for the preservation of his people and the keeping off of danger from them that so he may with a great deal more freedom and boldness and liberty of spirit come to God and speak in their behalf How shall a Minister ever confidently desire that God would be pleased to let alone his people when as the Lord hath it may be much adoe even to let him alone himself and not to destroy him Therefore it concerns us especially of all others to be men of good Acceptation men of desires or greatly beloved as it is said of the Prophet Daniel for his particular Dan. 9.23 And so much may suffice to have been spoken of the first particular in this first General to wit the matter of the Petition or Request which is
here made by the Vine-dresser in the behalf of the Fig-tree that is of the Ministers in regard of the Flocks belonging to them which is the Forbearance of them Let it alone The Second is the Determination of the Time for the exercise and continuance of this Forbearance and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This year also There 's a special Emphasis in this which is not to be passed by us We 'l take things as they lye before us and as they offer themselves to us to be handled by us And first This we have here intimated to us the Patience and Forbearance which is in God towards the sons of men for some time even of his own accord This also here in the Text it is a Relative particle which has respect to some former indulgence of this Lord of the Vineyard towards this Fig-tree whiles he says Let it alone now also it does imply that he had for some time let it alone already and so indeed he had as we may observe out of the foregoing verse He had spared it and let it alone for three years together in all which time he had looked for fruit from it but yet had found none That which we may observe from hence is this That the Lord does not presently proceed to Judgment upon people for their unfruitfulness but is willing and content for some time to let them alone and to stay waiting and expecting from them Here was one year looking for fruit and none then yet it is let alone He comes the next year and is also disappointed yet forbears it still one year more to try what it will do and is still disappointed and yet is still patient with it And this I say sets forth unto us the patience of God towards a people ere he proceed in judgement against them This is observable in him in divers instances and examples of it which we meet with-all in Scripture Thus it was with the Old World God did not presently bring the I lood upon them but gave them a fair warning of it long before Gen. 6.3 The Lord said My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also as flesh yet his daies shall be an hundred and twenty years According to that of St. Peter in 2 Pet. 3.20 where it is said That the long-suffering of God waited in the daies of Noah whiles the Ark was in preparing And so for Israel he was very patient towards them 2 Chron 36.15 16. The Lord God of their Fathers sent unto them by his messengers rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place But they mocked his messengers and despised his words and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against his people and there was no remedy And so for Jerusalem our blessed Saviour expresses himself after this manner towards it O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Luk. 13.34 35 c. This the Lord is pleased to do upon divers considerations First out of his Nobleness and Royalty and Generosity of mind as we may so express it To shew that he does not take pleasure or delight in the death of sinners as he hath sometimes told us He loves not to destroy there where he can any way spare His long-suffering it is salvation and has that in the scope of it not only eternal but also temporal which does sometimes also follow upon it Therefore he loves to give them all the fair quarter and advantage that may be and which they are oâ—â—ble of from him There may be now and then in Trees some accidental Impediments upon them besides the natural barrenness of them which may perhaps for a year or so keep them from being so fruitful And therefore the Master of the Vineyard will not at the first cut them down but let them alone rather for a while that he may see how it will be with them and whether they 'l be constantly so yea or no. Secondly The Lord does thus with many people that thereby he may leave them so much the more inexcusable and may be justified in his proceedings against them when he comes to judgment indeed that all mens mouths may be stopp'd and that they may believe so much the more fully in God If the Lord should cut men off presently so soon as he is provoked to do it they would be ready to say he dealt too hardly and rigorously with them now therefore for a while does he forbear them Thirdly Sometimes to exercise this patience of the Vine-dressers themselves which labour and take pains about these Fig-trees God will hereby sometimes prove them and God will sometimes hereby trouble them as St. Paul observes it in himself from the non-proficiency and impenitency of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12. ult And by his own patience and forbearance of such persons God will leave them his Ministers to a spirit of patience and forbearance in themselves in conformity to God's own example The Vse which we may make for our particular of this observation is briefly this namely that we should not therefore think our selves at any time to be wholly free or exempted from judgment because it does not presently light upon us for we may be mistaken in so thinking There 's many a man and there 's many a people which God spares it may be the first year and the second year and the third year and yet at last cuts off in the fourth spares in one hand and yet cuts off in another Forbearance is no acquittance as we use to say there 's a let us alone speaking even in anger and wrath and indignation as we find it hinted unto us in Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned unto idols let him alone But of this we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter out of the following words and therefore I shall pass it over here That 's one thing which is signified in this expression Let it alone this year also to wit some former forbearance which the Lord and owner of the Vineyard had vouchsafed of his own accord Secondly whiles he says here this year also here is implyed a further desire of continued patience and forbearance The Lord of the Vineyard as I shewed before had hitherto let the Fig-tree alone of his own disposition inclination Now the Vine-dresser desires him that he would do as much for one year more upon his request and intreaty for it From whence we learn thus much that those who are faithful Workmen and Labourers in the Vineyard of the Lord they desire as long as may be to keep off God's judgments from his people if they cannot wholly and absolutely prevent theâ— yet at least that they may for a while respite â—â—â—m and so lengthen out their tranquillity to them This
had the better of Mary even at this present time for to be conscionably employ'd in ones Calling is more acceptable to Christ than to be formally employed in Religion The many things in this sence are a great deal more necessary than the one thing Thirdly and lastly Seeing this better part taken in the full extent and latitude of it is such as shall not be taken away from us here 's that which may serve to justify God's servants in their choice and embracing of it against all gainsayers whatsoever and may free them from all kind of censure which is apt sometimes to be cast upon them for it It is not only the good part but the lasting part and the better in regard of that Take Religion and compare it with the world and it is better upon even terms if we consider them but in the nature and condition of the things themselves But if we shall add now this to the rest That the World that 's transitory and that Religion that 's immovable this does make it transcendently above it and far superior to it And consequently it does so much the more advance the judgment of those that choose it and lay hold upon it They are from hence so much the wiser and so much the more to be commended and so will appear to be in conclusion against all contradiction Is not he the wisest man who prefers a certainty before an uncertainty and a perpetual inheritance before an annuity which is only for some time Why this is the case and condition here of such persons as make choice of Religion rather than of such things as are inferior It is both the better and it is also the longer as is here signified to us And both these considerations taken together are sufficient to justify it which therefore our Saviour here uses for the defending and justifying of it He hereby wholly stops the mouth of Martha in her quarrelling and contending with her Sister in the pursuit and prosecution of it Here are divers and sundry arguments at once to make it more effectual It 's one thing in opposition to many things It is necessary in opposition to superfluity It is the better part in opposition to the worst And it is that part which shall never be removed or spoyl'd or lost or diminished in opposition to that which shall be taken away from us That 's the Second Part of the Text to wit the Amplification And so I have done with the whole Text and the whole Verse it self But one thing is needful And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her SERMON IX LUKE 22.31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren It was the care and manner still of our Blessed Lord and Saviour in the converse which he had upon earth here with his Disciples to forewarn them of future evils that so being no strangers to them they might be the better prepared for them and armed against them Thus he did as to the matter of his own Death and Passion The Son of man must suffer many things and be slain Luke 9.22 And thus he did also as to the consequents and influence which this Passion of his was likely to have upon the shaking of their Christian Faith and Courage and Resolution in this Scripture which we have now before us at this present time The whole Text which I have now read unto you consists of three Principal Heads First a Christian's Danger Secondly a Christian's Safety Thirdly a Christian's Duty The Danger of a Christian that we have in the first Verse Simon Simon Satan hath c. The Safety of a Christian that we have in part of the next But I have prayed for c. The Duty of a Christian that we have in the close of all And when thou art converted c. Our business at this present is with the first only of these three which will take up all our time And that is a Christian's Danger in these words Simon Simon c. This Verse is a Spiritual Alarm wherein our Blessed Saviour gives warning to all Believers of the attempts of their spiritual enemy We may in it take notice of two General Parts First the Person warned And Secondly the Warning it self which is given unto him The Person warned that is Peter Simon Simon The Warning it self which is given him that is of the conspiracy of Satan both against himself and all others which were such as he was Behold Satan hath desired to c. We begin with the First General Part viz. The person warned which is the Apostle Peter Simon Simon Where we may observe the doubling of the word as carrying some special intimation with it And that in three particulars First the greatness of the danger Secondly the security of the person warned of the danger Thirdly the affection of the Monitor or of Him that gives the warning First The greatness or nearness of the danger Where danger is but small or remote there is not need of that quickness men may take their time and leisure for the escaping and avoiding of it but where it is more grievous and imminent there is greater need of warning and admonishing of it and that with all the speed that may be And so does our Saviour here Simon Simon because the danger was now at hand and the enemy ready to surprize him As Delilah to Sampson The Philistines be upon thee Sampson when she awoke him out of his sleep And as God to Abraham when he was ready to slay his Son Abraham Abraham he doubles his name unto him This was the case here As ye would do with a man who has the house on fire about his ears and himself ignorant of it hasten all that may be to deliver him Even so does our Saviour with Peter And it teaches us what we should do likewise upon the same occasions even save them with fear pulling them out of the fire as the Apostle Jude speaks in Jude ep ver 23. There are some souls that there 's no delaying or dallying with them but if ye will save them at all ye must save them quickly ye must deal roundly and nimbly with them if ever ye intend them any good Forasmuch as of themselves they are running upon the very brink of destruction their judgment lingers not and their damnation slumbers not as it is in 2 Pet. 2.3 They are almost in Hell's mouth This is that which is here taught us by our Saviour in this expression of ingemination Simon Simon And so we have it in some other places of Scripture likewise in the same circumstances Thus Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye ye house of Israel And so Cant. 6.13 Return return O
carries more credit with it and makes the conquest so much the greater As the Syrians there resolved in the Story Fight neither against great nor small but against the King of Israel So does Satan in a manner resolve in his assaults And then Secondly As there 's the greatest Victory so likewise the greatest Advantage When such as these are conquer'd there 's a great many conquer'd at once in regard of their influence they draw on many more with them As the Dragon's-tail in the Revelation that drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven When some more eminent Christian falls and is foyl'd by Satan hereby men are ready to fall from his example and to take pattern by him for running into the like miscarriages He is like a troubled Fountain and like a corrupted Spring as Solomon makes the comparison in Prov. 25.26 You know if a Spring be corrupted it corrupts many things else which isues from it Even so it is here when a person of eminent goodness is corrupted this corruption it derives it self to many more else Therefore it may be worth our observation the changing of the number which we spake before of even for this reason also Our Saviour does not say Simon Simon Satan hath desired thee but he hath desired you that is many of you because the one followed from the other whiles Peter was corrupted many more were likely to follow him and to be corrupted with him And then again besides all this there 's the scandal which hereby comes to Religion which Satan also very much delights in He knows that the falls and slips of eminent Christians as they make great wounds and gashes in their own consciences so they bring also an ill report upon the ways of Godliness and cause the name of God to be so much the more dishonoured and blasphemed And this is pleasing to him being the wicked one he desires that wickedness may be improved to the greatest extent and there may be as much of it as may be The Use of this to our selves is 〈◊〉 to teach Christians not to trus to their own habitual Graces nor to the number or measure of them as to think that from hence they are safe from Satan's assaults nay but therefore are they so much the more liable and exposed unto them and if they look not better to it by fetching help and strength from Christ will be ready to be foyl'd by him Satan has desired to have you even you which are strongest Christians you are the butt and mark which he shoots at It is true he could be content with any rather than fail Your adversary the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour Oh! but if he can but devour you he is then made indeed And therefore emphatically called there in that place your adversary 2 Pet. 5.8 Satan he is the enemy of mankind Host is humani generis But he is the enemy of the Church more especially the enemy of the seed of the Woman the enemy of those which are good and of those which are best that so none may be secure Secondly We learn hence not to pass unchartable censures upon the servants of God which are under temptations as to conclude them therefore to be none of his servants because it is so with them for it is no good argument nay the argument rather holds to the contrary in some cases and conditions It is not a disparagement to be tempted but to be overcome by temptations We see that the best that are they are sometimes assaulted Satan has desired you Yea and sometimes they are foyl'd too as God in his Providence suffers it to be that so we may take no offence at this neither so as from hence to stumble at Religion or the profession of it We should not be too much scandalized at the slips and falls of God's people which now and then we observe in the world but understand them and rightly consider them in the occasions and circumstances of them Eminent Christians they have sometimes eminent failings because as their Graces are greater so their temptations are stronger and the attempts are more upon them than upon other men Weak and slender Grace where it is let alone and left to it self may be able to hold up there where stronger Grace being assaulted shall yield Therefore by the way from hence we may learn to judg aright both of our selves and other men There are many Christians which being at present freed from temptations are apt to think that they have greater Grace than some others of their Brethren but in deed and reality it is otherwise and so they are to make account It is not the want of an enemy which makes a valiant and couragious Souldier but rather heart and courage to resist him there where he is That 's the Second Part of the Gradation you i. e. you eminent Believers rather than other Christians The Third is you Apostles and Ministers rather than other eminent Believers for Peter and the rest with him they had all these three capacities upon them they were Christians they were eminent Christians they were Apostles and eminent Ministers And in this latter notion as well as in the two other before did Satan desire them As his aim is at Believers so especially his aim is at Ministers in the rank and company of Believers If he can have them he has then what he would We read in Zech. 3.1 That when Joshua the High-Priest stood before the Angel of the Lord Satan stood at his right-hand to resist him This is the case with the rest of God's servants in this respect They are of all other men most subject to the resistings of Satan and to impetuous assaults from him As there are divers and frequent instances of it both in Scripture and also daily experience And we cannot wonder at it why it should be so if we consider all There 's very great reason for it why Satan should most desire to have them of all other men And that is this because they are such who by their office stand in his light whose very work is an overthrow of his Kingdom and tends to the subversion of it therefore he 'll be sure to meet with them in a way of revenge as he has occasion for it They are those which spoyl his work in his tempting of others and therefore if he can he will fasten upon them more especially We see in the affairs of men a Thief if he can kill the Watch-man an enemy if he can destroy the Sentinel then he thinks he has done enough for himself to make his work go on succesfully And so does Satan in these spiritual invasions The consideration of this Point is very useful both to Ministers and people First to us which are Ministers to be so much the more watchful over our selves and our own hearts and jealous of Satan we should not be ignorant of his devices
Matth. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church yea the first promise of all Gen. 3.15 The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head This as it is matter of great encouragement to us in general so in particular is it an encouragement to us in all our spiritual combats and conflicts that we may not faint or be dejected in our minds and so give up our selves as lost Forasmuch as at the last we shall overcome and go by the best And so St. Peter himself at some time and in some place improves it in the counsel which he gives to Believers upon this occasion 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Your adversary the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the Faith knowing that c. And so likewise the Apostle James Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Thus have we this Adversative Particle in all its several Antitheses or Oppositions here considerable of us The opposition of the place The opposition of the Actions The opposition of the Success Which latter now leads me from the First General Part to the Second here in the Text to wit The matter of Christ's Prayer or the thing it self requested by him in these words That thy Faith fail not This Passage may be consider'd of us two manner of ways First in the Negative what it is not And Secondly in the Affirmative what it is For the Negative First to consider that what it is not Where we may observe that it is not that Peter might have no temptation befall him that one would have thought had been more sutable When he had said before Satan hath desired to have you we might have expected he should have said next But I have prayed that he shall have nothing to do with you But we do not find him to say so no but rather that thy Faith may not Fail From whence we may observe thus much that God does not always keep his children from temptations but rather gives them Grace against them that they may not be foyled by them Thus he did here with Peter he suffer'd Satan to tempt him but withal he kept up his Faith Thus we shall find him to do with other of his Servants in Scripture Thus he did with his Servant Job he suffer'd Satan in some measure to set upon him when he desired to have him but yet withal he gave him Grace to overcome him and Job came off at last as a Conqueror As the Lord himself bears witness of him in Job 2.3 He still holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without a cause Thus he did also with his Servant Paul There was the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and he besought the Lord that it might depart from him But what was the answer which was made unto him My Grace is sufficient for thee c. I will not with-hold the temptation now but I will give thee the Grace which in effect shall be all one or better for thee In Heb. 12.47 We find it to be there recorded as a part of the condition of those Believers and Worthies of old that they were tempted And so it is likewise the condition of many others still This it pleases God to suffer and permit upon divers considerations First for their greater abasement and humiliation The Servants of God are apt sometimes where Grace is not more watchful in them to be advanced and lifted up in themselves now therefore does the Lord now and then let Satan loose upon them to humble them and to bring them into Order This we shall find to be expresly signified concerning Paul himself and that by himself which makes it so much the more remarkable in 2 Cor. 12.7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh c. lest I should be exalted above measure He repeats it twice both in the beginning of the verse and in the end of it that we might the more take notice of it Paul he was a man which had been taken up into the third Heaven and there had heard unspeakable words which it was not lawful for a man to utter as was signified in the fourth verse of that Chapter Now as he had been lifted up in his person so he was apt also through the remainders of corrupt nature still abiding in him to be lifted up likewise in his spirit Therefore for the prevention of this was there given unto him this thorn in the flesh this messenger of Satan c. which was as troublesome and grievous to him as a thorn in the flesh And it is worth our observation that it is said to be given unto him It is not only it was sent unto him or it was laid upon him or inflicted upon him or the like no but it was given unto him which has the force of a gracious dispensation included in it A Gift being in the true nature of it a matter of favour both proceeding from love and affection in the person that gives it and tending to some good and advantage of the person whom it is given unto Thus are temptations as it pleases God to order them to those which are his for which reason he suffers them to be upon them And as for other good purposes besides so amongst the rest for this which we now speak of either to prevent or to subdue pride in them and to root it out of them This was the case here with Peter in the Text Peter he had too good a conceit and opinion of himself and of his own stedfastness yea above all other men besides as himself expresses it now therefore would Christ have him to be tempted that so by this means he might be abased Secondly As to breed humility so also to breed compassion and tenderness of spirit to others Christians as they are apt sometimes to be too well opinionated of themselves so also to be now and then too harsh and rigorous towards their Brethren And these distempers they do commonly go together There are none which are more uncharitable towards others than those which are most indulgent to themselves Now temptation cures them of this it makes them full of bowels and pity towards others in the like condition As it is noted of the High-Priest that he was to be one who could have compassion on the ignorant or who could reasonably bear with them for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity He that is sensible of his own infirmities will be the more compassionate and bearing towards others This is that which is taken notice of in Christ though he had no infirmity of sin in him at all yet as to temptation to sin he was not freed from it And that for this very reason as the Apostle expresses it thereby to make him so much the more
Secondly Does he say I 'll only come see you and then leave you behind Give you a visit for a short time and then take my leave wholly of you He does not say so no but I 'll come and take you up to me to continue still with me Christ will not absolutely forsake his Church which he has purchas'd and redeem'd with his own blood But though for a time as need requires he may perhaps absent himself from them yet he will find out a season when he will be inseparably joyned unto them and they to him as we shall see afterwards in the Text. The Parents of Christ they left him behind them in their journey as they came back from Jerusalem before they were aware But Christ himself will not do so wih his children when he comes again unto them as we may very well gather from this expression we have here before us Thirdly He does not say neither that he will devolve them and put them off to somebody else to take care of them no but he will receive them to himself This place which he prepares for them it is not abroad in another man's house no but it is at home in his own He does not put his children as it were to board send them forth out of his own doors to live with strangers but he does take them and receive them into his own proper habitation that they may be as it were under his own eye And thus we have briefly taken notice of the Negative and what is not here declared Now further Secondly To consider the Affirmative and to come more close to the expression it self which is here before us I will receive you to my self This is to be understood of his last and final reception of them at the day of Judgment There is a reception of Believers to Christ in some sort long before namely a reception of them in their souls which is the chiefest of all and preparatory and introductive to the other As soon as ever the servants of God do depart this present World they are immediately taken up to Christ in this respect This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise says our Saviour to the penitent Thief whiles he hung upon the Cross and was ready to be crucified Luke 23.43 And I desire says St. Paul to depart and to be with Christ implying that when he did depart he should indeed be so Phil. 1.23 And again When we are absent from the body we are declared to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 Thus there 's a reception of the Saints to Christ before his coming But tha which is here spoken of in this place is that reception which is made at the resurrection in their perfect and constant consummation of happiness both in body and soul When their whole person shall be glorified taken up into the full enjoyment of God and Christ to all eternity This reception we find to be more particularly described unto us in 2 Thess 4.15 16 17. Where it is said that the dead in Christ with those Saints which are then alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air That catching up is this receiving which is here mentioned Now this it is not to be till the second coming of Christ and then it shall be When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Coloss 3.4 Whiles it is said here tha Christ will at this time receive his Disciples and with them all other Believers and take them to himself this reception that we may take it in the full and competent notion does imply two things in it both Admission and Entertainment He will receive them that is he will give them room And he will receive them that is he will give them Heaven There 's both of these in this receiving and both of them to be regarded by us First By reception we are here to understand admission He will receive them that is he will give them room He had said before that he had prepared a place for them And now he says that he will take them into that place which he had so prepared He had made his House ready for them And now he admits them into it and gives them a share and part in it This is a great piece of his respect to them The taking of any one into ones house and giving them a being with themselves is counted a great matter of favour and so indeed it is Therefore Lydia upon her conversion to Christ that she might testify her respect to the Apostles who had been the instruments of that conversion to her she thought she could not do it better than by such a way as that was If ye have judged me says she to be faithful to the Lord enter into my house and abide there Acts 16.15 Now this respect does Christ manifest to those that belong to him he takes them home to hisown house As the Beloved Disciple did his Mother Joh. 19.27 He took her unto his own home But Secondly As is here imply'd Admission so likewise Entertainment Here 's not only room but welcome in this expression When Christ says that he will receive them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text it will admit of such a sense as that likewise to be put upon it Those whom Christ takes home o himself they shall have a supply of all necessaries and accommodations whatsoever unto them and have every thing to their hearts content and desire What a great comfort is this in the due thoughts and digestions of it The Servants of God here in this world they are subject to many wandrings and aberrations and scatterings and tossings to and fro subject to many dangers and hazards which they are ready to fall into They cannot promise themselves safety or security any where here below Oh but there 's a time a coming when they shall be put out of harms-way and no evil shall light upon them or happen unto them Christ will take them up to himself and then they shall be as safe as Christ himself and in as good plight as he The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and no torment troubleth them Wisd 3.1 Their souls yea and their bodies too even their whole persons They are safe being under God's keeping This is a reason of Christ's carriage towards his Servants in his Providence over them as concerning either their stay or abode here in this present World And it gives us an account of his taking them sometimes out of it It is that he may provide for them better than they are here likely to be provided for He houses them before a storm and he removes them and takes them away from the evil to come Their dwellings and their habitations are here and so consequently their persons in them are subject to a great deal of casualty and
there he told them of this day in which God had appointed to judg the world c. in Act. 17.30 31. And when he preached before Felix the Governour it is said he reasoned of temperance and righteousness and judgment to come Act. 24.25 so considerable a point is this among many others to be discours'd about 3. Here was the order and method of this practice Beginning first with the terror of the Lord and laying a ground-work there that 's the right method of the Ministry to begin with the Preaching of the Law and shewing them their lost condition in regard of themselves And so from thence to proceed and go on to the Preaching of the Gospel and the free grace of God in Christ First The threatnings of the law to terrifie men and then the Preaching of the Gospel to allay them Thus the Apostles did discharge their Ministry towards the Corinthian and all others after the compleatest manner that might be for principle for matter for order Terror is never more terrible than when it comes in expectation of the contrary when people shall go on in their sins and the fulfilling and prosecution of their lusts in hope of escape and presuming that they shall never be called to any reckoning about them and then at last shall be surprized with judgment before they are aware this will be very terrible indeed Therefore there is great cause for this seasonable and timely perswading of them and to save them with fear pulling them out of the fire as the Apostle Jude speaks in the Epistle of Jude and the 23d verse And this again we may conceive them to have done upon a threefold Consideration which is further observable of us and improvable by us First Out of faithfulness to God Secondly Out of affection to Gods people And thirdly Out of respect to themselves 1. Faithfulness to God Knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men that we may discharge the Duty to him who has intrusted us with this Message and laid this charge upon us that we should be careful to declare it Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet As we were allowed of God to put in trust with the Gospel even so we speak says the Apostle not as pleasing men but God which tryeth our hearts says the Apostle Paul as himself and others in 1 Thes 2.4 c. 2. Affection to Gods People Knowing this terror we perswade men that so thereby we may thus better secure them and prevent them from future destruction We admonish them because we love them and bear a special good will unto them and would have them to avoid the evils which are likely to follow upon this judgment being neglected by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being affectionately desirous of you that is of your good and welfare we were willing to impart unto you not only the Gospel of God but also our own Souls because ye were dear unto us says the Apostle in 1 Thess 2.8 There 's no greater expression of true love and affection than in the faithful discharge of the Ministry in waking and rouzing Admonitions Indeed it is not always thought so The world for the most part has other opinions of it counts it a matter of enmity and ill-will and disaffection yea but it is not so if it be duly and seriously considered It 's rather the quite contrary It is an argument of the greatest love and there 's the greatest love shown and discovered in it because by giving warning of the danger we prevent the evil it self 3. Respect to our selves that 's another thing in it and to our selves not in a corrupt sense but in a good and warrantable sense to our selves i.e. to our own souls as we desire to tender them Knowing the terror of the Lord that is the account which we must give to the Lord of our neglect He had mentioned as I said before in the foregoing verse Christ's Tribunal which he had said That not only they but himself also was top be cited to with them and to receive what they had done in the body We must all appear now therefore even for this alfo would he not neglect his duty towards them That of the Lord in the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. cap. 3. v. 18. is very peremptory to this purpose where he tells him That if he gives not the wicked man warning to save his life the same wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand Where Ministers shall forbear to admonish and to give notice of what is to be done or not to be done by such and such persons they do by this neglect and omission run an hazard of their own safety and salvation who whiles they know the sad effects and evil consequences of such and such courses yet do indulge and sooth men up in them nay says Prosper though they live holily themselves yet if they neglect to admonish others they shall be sure to smart for it Et quid ei proderit non puniri suo qui puniendus est alieno peccato And what will it avail him not to be punish'd for his own sin who shall yet be punish'd for anothers De vit contempt lib. 2. c. 20. Thus you see how the Apostles reason does consist and hang very well together for the practice of that which he did in the Preaching and publishing of the Gospel and inviting men to close with it Knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade c. This account of the Apostles practice may be further amplified and illustrated to us from some other Considerations besides which do likewise lye in the Text and are very pertinent to be observed by us As first From the principle and foundation whereupon it was laid and that was Knowledg Knowing we perswade c. And indeed that 's the best perswasion of all which does arise and proceed from hence and we never do that we should do at least in that manner as we should do in the Ministry till we hold our felves to this till we speak what we do upon good assurance and certainty of that thing which we speak about And this is done most successfully when we keep within our own sphere and compass and cognizance and apply our selves to that which our calling and profession leads us unto otherwise we may chance to miscarry and perswarde that which is contrary not without danger to others and prejudice likewise to our selves Ministers do then perswade most effectually when they perswade most knowingly when they know what they perswade to This is that which St. Paul here did and which he did likewise in other places And he had learn't it first from his Master even from Christ himself Joh. 3.11 Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen c. So Peter 2 Pet. 1.16 and Paul our Gospel came to you in much assurance 1
Thes 1.5 This is that which becomes a servant of Christ as the best principle of all to work upon namely his own knowledg and experience of those things which he speaks of But of this we may have occasion to treat more anon out of the words themselves 2. As here 's an account of his practice from the principle of it so likewise from the matter and the thing it self which was handled by him which is by beginning with terror and laying judgment before them and the last judgment in particular This is the course which is taken by him for the more effectual progress of his Ministry to lay the ground-work and foundation in this And it so was likewise with him elsewhere Thus he dealt with the men of Athens Act. 17. 30 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every-where to repent because he bath appointed a day in which be will judg he worlds So he began likewise with Felix Act. 24.25 He reasoned before him of righteousness and temperance and judgment of come So Heb. 6.2 Amongst the rest of the first Elements of Christain Religion we find there reckoned eternal judgment as that which is mainly and principally to be known and studied by a Christian as preparatory and introductory to many other Doctrines besides 3. We may likewise here take notice of the order and method which is observed by him in all this which is first of all informing himself and then instructing of others Here 's scientes prinsquaâ—â— suademus First Knowing and after that perswading There are some which invert this order Begin first with perswading and then come to knowing aftewards Which will be teachers before they are learners which will take upon them to instruct ere themselves are sufficiently instructed But this is not the Apostles method here in this place who begins at the right end and that which is most natural and probable to know before he makes known And thus much by way of preparation of these words in their dependance and connexion We come now closer to the parts themselves Where we have these two particulars considerable First The work it self and that is we perswade men Secondly The principle of this working or the Motive that put them upon it Knowing the terror of the Lord. We begin with the last first which is first in the order of the words as it is also in the nature of the thing and that is the nature or principle of working Knowing the terror of the Lord. Wherein again two particulars more First The object propounded and that is the terror of the Lord. Secondly The apprehension of this object in reference to the mind c. Knowing the terror of the Lord. The Vulgar Latine gives it Timorem Domini the fear of the Lord which is a little more mollified and restrained The Arabick Interpreter for fail puts them in both Timorem reverentiam Domini Terrorem takwi trabbi wa-hashaitiho Erasmus simpliciter terrorem which is also followed by our own Translators as best agreeing with the drift of the place which is that which we will now keep unto 1. I say here 's the Object propounded The terror of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was that which the Apostle knew and desired also to make known unto them for their edification and spiritual improvement It 's called the terror of the Lord emphatically and exclusively as hereby shutting out any other terror besides which does not so well consist with this for we must know that there are sometimes false terrors as well as true There are terrores Satanae as well as terrores Domini and these are very cautelously to be distinguish't one from the other The Devil as he has his false comforts and raptures and elevations so he has likewise his false fears and astonishments and dejections whereby he does sometimes depress and keep down the hearts of Gods People in his uncomfortable representations in his suggestions to despair in his dreadful prognostications and the like These are such kind of things as are very sad and terrible and which St. Paul also knew well enough and was sufficiently acquainted withal He was not ignorant of Satans devices whereby he labours to affright men and to take them off from doing of their duty and that work which does belong unto them through their too much attendance hereunto But he does not make any of these to be a ground for his ministerial perswasions no but the terror of the Lord those terrors which God himself makes and which are of his allowance and approbation What kind of terrors are those may it be here demanded Let us hear of them what they are and what is meant here by them in this expression which we here meet withal in the Text. For these there are divers kinds of them we may reduce them briefly to three heads which as I think will reach this phrase in the full extent and latitude of it 1. The terror of the Word in the threatnings and comminations of it wherein is revealed from Heaven the wrath of God against all unrighteousness as the Apostle speaks in Rom. 1.18 This is one terror of the Lord and a very great terror it is if it be duly considered there 's a mighty power in the work of God set on by the assistance of Gods Spirit for the terrifying of the most secure sinner and driving him out of that condition and presumption and stupidity of mind in which he lyes The Word of God is powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit c. Heb. 4.12 And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God c. says the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.4 This we see in Paul to Felix who whiles he Preach'd before him astonish'd him and caused him to tremble 2. The terror of Divine Impression upon the heart and conscience This is sometimes called in Scripture the terror of the Almighty which Joâ— and David Heman and such as these did sometimes partake of when God himself appears as an Enemy and does immedlately wrestle and conflict with the inwards of any poor soul and write bitter things against it This is likewise the terror of the Lord and such as does indeed carry a great deal of terribleness with it but yet that 's not all which is meant here in this place 3. The terror of Judgment and more especially of the day of Judgment that 's likewise the terror of the Lord and it is that which is also principally intended here in this present Scripture which relates to that which was mentioned in the verse immediately preceding We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive c. Now knowing the or as some that terror of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the demonstrative particle we do therefore perswade so that the terror of the Lord is as
what I would have done why therefore thou hast it that so thou mayst have nothing to object or to pretend at that day Fourthly Sometimes to harden men and to give them up to themselves that those who will not be better they may now be worse As Pharaoh when God took off his Plagues he hardened his heart every mercy to him it was a greater judgment upon him that which was a mercy in the nature of the thing it was a judgment in the improvement to the person and so it is to many others And therefore it follows in the Verse next the Text After thine hard and impenitent heart c. which very often go together with Temporal favours Men from hence are more incouraged in evil and more slack and remiss in good there 's none are worse commonly than those who are bad after some special favour shewen unto them either in deliverance from some eminent danger or in the obtaining of some eminent advantage and accomodation in one kind or other And God sometimes where he accepts not the person he does in this manner dispose of the event and does thus manage his Providence towards them Fifthly and lastly and more especially which is also most agreeable to the Text and which we shall come to in the close of it and therefore will but name it here that so hereby he may more kindly and effectually work upon them and lead them by his Goodness to repentance These Dispensations in their own nature have a mollifying quality and property in them The consideration of this present point may be thus far useful to us seeing God is oftentimes thus gracious and indulgent even to wicked men as to bear with very much in them and to bestow many courtesies upon them let none therefore from hence conclude of the goodness of their state and condition in regard of God It is no infallible argument to any of Gods love and favour to them because they have great things here in the world or escape outward crosses and afflictions which others fall into this is no good argument at all nay it is many times rather the contrary and as it may happen a token rather of displeasure The reason why Godforbears punishing and afflicting of many people it is because he looks upon them as incorrigible and such as upon whom there 's no good likely to be done Why should ye be smitten any more thou wilt revolt still more and more Isa 1.5 And Hos 4.14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall So the reason why he heaps outward blessings upon them here it is because it is all he means to give them and he makes account it is their portion which they must also make account of too They have their reward that 's the character which the Scripture gives of them which is the greatest punishment that may be if it be duly and thoroughly considered and attended unto And so the Gospel sets it Luk. 6.14 Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation which are rich and nothing but rich nor have nothing else to say for your selves but only that which are rich in Treasure but are not rich in Faith which are rich in Goods but are not rich in good works which are rich to the world but are not rich to God You which are rich and only rich thus with these exceptions and limitations wo be to you indeed even from the mouth of Christ himself if there should be any such amongst you and wo be to you upon this account Because you have received your consolation and there 's no more behind for you to expect Beloved we should all labour to see upon what terms we enjoy that which we enjoy and not so much take care to have the things themselves which we aim at as to have them in mercy and favour to have outward prosperity so far forth as we do partake of it to be seasoned and sanctified to us and sprinkled with the love of God in Christ which is the cream of all And then we may take some comfort and delight and contentment in it which otherwise we cannot do And this will be discern'd by us according to the effects which it hath upon us for further improvement there 's nothing which we are the better for which we are not the better with and the better by which does not draw us nearer to God and make us more fruitful to him in using it to his honour and glory our Parts and our Estates and our Interests or whatever we can name Therefore let us look to it that so as Jabez desired for himself we may be blest indeed and that the Lord may not from henceforth curse our very blessings to us as he hath sometimes threatned to do Mal. 2.2 I will send a curse upon you saith the Lord of Hosts and will curse your blessings yea I have curst them already because ye have not laid it to heart Again From hence we learn likewise as how to judg of our selves so likewise how to judg of others which is not so much according to the enjoyment of common things which there is no cause to envy them for as many sometimes are apt to do The Spirit of God gives divers hints against it in regard of our proneness hereunto It was that David himself was subject so much unto Psal 73.3 I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked But he was afterwards of another mind when he once went into the Sanctuary of God ver 17. and so he labour'd to make others also Psal 37.1 Fret not thy self because of evil doers neither be thon envious against the workers of iniquity And so Psal 49.16 Be not thou afraid when any one is made rich when the glory of his house is increased And Solomon Prov. 24.1 Be not thou envious against evil men neither desire to be with them Alas they are but common mercies and such as the worst partake of God is oftentimes very gracious to them thus Which is the first Particular here considerable his carriage and behaviour even to evil men which is to bestow great riches of goodness and of patience upon them The second is the miscarriage and unanswerableness of evil men again to him and that is signified in their despising of these riches of goodness from him This is that which wicked and worldly men are very apt to do and which frequently they also do They slight and contemn and despise these gracious and merciful dispensations of God towards them And this they may be conceiv'd to do three manner of ways especially First By non-attendancy and unthankfulness Secondly By non improvement and unfruitfulness Thirdly By misimprovement and incorrigibleness First By non-attendency and unthankfulness those
sense and meaning of the Scripture as they have thought after a spiritual manner and in the mean time departed from the power and scope of it by leading lives opposite and contrary thereunto But the Spirit of Christ here by the Apostle requires of us to make the Word of God the Rule of our life Secondly We may not content our selves neither with some Discourses an inlargements of speech as tending to Piety which is another thing which many are subject much to rest in and to satisfie themselves withal There are many which if out of the strength of parts or the advantage of company and education and converse they can speak commendably and plausibly in Religion that they have then discharged themselves and done all which is required of them nay but it is not this which will serve the turn neither This walking in the spirit it does imply more than simple discourse or Amplification of speech in Divine and Spiritual Points it is not talking but walking which is here commended unto us not the walking only of the tongue but of the whole man Thirdly It is not only good meanings and intentions as some please to call them which should content and satisfie us neither There are many which go no further than these pretend they have as good a mind to God-ward as any other though they do nothing which savors of so much in them promise and vow and resolve and are full of good purposes but such as at last come to nothing at all in them Now all such as these are cut off by this Exhortation Walk in the spirit It is not enough for men to have good intentions but they must have answerable actions it is not enough for men to have good purposes but they must have answerable performances they must do that which they do resolve on Indeed it is true in some cases God accepts of the will for the deed and the intention for the performance it self namely there where we are extrinsecally hinder'd and debar'd of an opportunity of performance as we may see for Abrahams offering up of his Son God was well-pleased with his willingness thereto and accordingly accepted it and so for Davids building of the Temple God took it very well from him that he had a mind and desire to do it though he did not do the thing it self as being prevented by Divine Dispensation This his Son Solomon signifies concerning him in 2 Chron. 6.8 The Lord said to David my Father Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my Name thou didst well that it was in thine heart Mark thou didst well because it was in thine heart to do so God looked upon it as well-doing good actions are good intentions incarnate because there was well-purposing and well resolving for as the thought of foolishness is sin so the thought also of goodness is grace and so to be accounted but yet where there 's opportunity for action there 's somewhat more which is required of us We must not rest our selves in good desires but endeavour to bring them into accomplishment what we can through the infirmity of the flesh and that 's the first thing implied in this walking viz. Activity c. Secondly Here 's implied strength in opposition to faintness and remisness he that walks he moves strongly so must a Christianin his course of Christianity He must labour to express some strength and vigor therein he must be able to do somewhat more than other men and the generality of people in the world in the subduing of corruptions in the bearing of afflictions in the performance of duties it does not become such an one as has the Spirit of God in him to be overcome or yield there where perhaps another would be foil'd no but as he has been made partaker of a nobler and higher principle so to put forth the vertue of it in his whole life and conversation both to the Honour and Glory of God as likewise to the greater advancement of Religion it self Thirdly Here 's implied also constancy in opposition to declining and giving back walk in the spirit that is continue and go on in goodness and proceed still from one degree of grace to another here 's improvement and perseverance in Holiness which is commended to us under this expression as it is said of the People of God Psal 84.7 That they go from strength to strength till they every one of them appear before God in Zion So it should be with us in our Christian course we shoul never give over till we come to our journeys end till we attain the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.9 Forgetting those things which are behind press forward Phil. 3.13 There are many which begin as it were in the spirit but they end in the stesh as the Apostle speaks of these Galatians they set upon that which is good but they do not persist and persevere in it Now this is that which he does here over and above require of them and in them of all others besides which pretend to Christianity And so now I have done with the first Particular in this first General viz The Affirmative Injunction or Precept which the Apostle here commends to these Galatians and in them to our selves Walk in the spirit The second is the Negative or Prohibition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do not or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh I put them both together because the words will bear either and I find them both in our own English Translation the one in the Margent the other in the Text. According to the former so it has in it the nature of a Prohibition or Dehortation as shewing what should not be According to the latter so it has in it the nature of a Promise or comfortable intimation as shewing what shall not be We may if we please take notice of both And first of the former sense as it carries in it the nature of a Prohibition and as shewing a Christians duty Do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh the Subjunctive for the Imperative Where we may by the way observe this in the general how careful the Spirit of God is to set us and keep us right and what means he uses thereunto Here 's precept upon precept and line upon line and negative upon affirmative one thing after another to make it so much the more full and effectual to us one would have thought it might have been enough to have said this Walk in the spirit no more but so for whiles we do thus we are not likely to do much amiss as we shall hear afterwards but the Apostle is not content with that he adds this to it moreover And do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh This he does upon a two-fold ground First His own tenderness and jealousie over us Secondly Our falseness and the slipperiness of
to Duty and the doing of that which God requires of them in their several places Great and strong lusts are hinderances to any noble performances and high atchievements which are to be undertaken by us The Apostle tells us in the verse immediately following to the Text vers 17. of this Chapter that from the flesh lusting against the spirit the Galatians were disinabled from doing the things which they would and so they were and all others with them whereas on the other side where these are kept down there is strength and ability thereunto namely to serve God with so much the more strength All these laid together do shew us the happiness of this particular condition and the truth of this point in hand to wit the benefit and advantage of not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh Again further we may here also take notice that as it is a benefit in it self simply considered so it is such as is apprehended and counted so by all those which have the Spirit of God in them Those which are the true children of God they look upon this as one of the greatest mercies which can happen unto them to be freed from the power of their lusts This is also implied in the Text it was not only so in the thoughts of the Apostle but also in the thoughts of the Galatians to whom he here wrote or else he had said nothing to the purpose and it had been to no end to signifie as much unto them that by walking in the spirit they should have this benefit confer'd upon them if they had not thought it to be a benefit indeed But now he uses argumentum ad homines and speaks to them in their own Element to their heart as the Hebrew phrase hath it He knew he should now please them and bring that which would be acceptable to them when he should tell them of being freed from their lusts and so he did A good and a gracious heart looks upon this as the greatest mercy and priviledg in the world which he longs for and most eagerly desires as the Apostle Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord which is such as makes him willing to desire even death it self where in he shall indeed partake of this priviledg Again Moreover observe this as another thing implied in these words That the reward of Religion lyes within the compass of Religion The Apostle had stir'd up these Galatians and in them all other Christians to an holy Life and spiritual Conversation to walking in the spirit Now what does he here for their encouragement signifie to be the reward and recompence hereof unto them Why namely this that they should not fulfil the lusts of the flesh He does not say ye shall have such and such outward comforts heaped upon you riches and honours and the like nor he does not say ye shall have Heaven at last given you and ye shall be free from condemnation though this also be true no but ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh If we had no other recompence of a godly life but only that which is emergent from it and immediate to it yet this were enough to satisfie us in it and to perswade us to the leading of it And so much for that which is here supposed and implied in this expression I come now in the second place to that which is exprest which is the words of the Text And ye shall not fulfil c. This for the right handling of it we must take in its conjunction and connexion with the words before and as dependent thereupon Walk in the spirit and so ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh the one prevents the remedy against the other the more spiritual any are the less carnal and the more we are guided by the spirit the less we shall yield to the flesh This truth and expression may be made good to us according to a various explication which may be given of it First Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have so great a mind and desire to fulfil them ye shall be restrained in regard of inclination though Grace and the exercise of it does not as I said before wholly extirpate all cortuption out of us and make it cease to be whiles we live here in this world yet it does qualify the dominion of it and makes it cease to be in that measure and degree wherein it was in us before And as sinful acts do increase the habit of sin in us as we have formerly shewn in the point above so the other side do gracious acts dminish this habit and make it less It is the avantage of that man who is imploy'd and taken up in well-doing that he has not that lust and propensity in him to that which is evil as another has Godliness it puts our mouths out of taste to the pleasures of sin as on the other side sin does make goodness to be disrelish't by us Look therefore how far a man is freed from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh by having little or no desire unto them so far is he freed from them also by this course of walking in the spirit which is advantageous and effectual to this purpose to mitigate the desire of sin in them Secondly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have temptation to fulfil them ye shall be kept from lustful and sinful suggestions and provocations The reason why many fall into sin now and then is because they have strong temptations and instigations to it because the Devil is very busie with them and it pleases God someimes in his Providence to give them up into Satans hands But now when men are careful to walk in the spirit they do very much provide for themselves in this particular Satan has not that power over them and advantage which otherwise he would have in the neglect of it nor they are not so much under the power of temptations as they would be if they did not thus walk This is true upon a ouble account both on Gods part and on Satans on Gods part who in this case does not so much give them over to temptation and on Satans who in this case has not that incouragement to fasten his temptation upon them First I say on Gods part who in this case does not so much give them over to Satan to be tempted Take a man that neglects his daily walk and converse with God that does not look so strictly and narrowly to his steps as it becomes him to do it pleases God now and then for his exercise and tryal and partly his correction to let Satan loose upon him and to suffer him to molest and trouble him with sad temptations not only for sin
the Election of Grace Now therefore come Lord Jesus and make way for thy last coming by this preparation Whiles the Church desires Christ would come she supposes other things as antecedent and preparatory hereunto before the full accomplishment of that coming and so in desiring his coming it self she does implicitly desire all those things which make way for it and which are sure to be there when he does come and such is this which we now speak of the hastening of the number of Converts and the bringing in the full number of the Elect. We are to take this Prayer in the full latitude and extent and comprehensiveness of it and so as including this in it amongst the rest which is in a special manner considerable of us as pertinent to this purpose Those that are good themselves they desire that as many others as may be may be good with them besides themselves and partake of the same happiness that they do partake of Therefore come in reference to this for the Conversion of the Jews and for the accomplishment of the fulness of the Gentiles which whensoever thou meanest to come are both of them sure to be effected aforehand And then further which is also pertinent hereunto for the speedier meeting of all the Saints together which have ever been in the world from they very first beginning of it As Christians desire to have a full enjoyment of Christ himself which is the main and chiefest of all so they desire likewise to have an enjoyment one of another Now this is that which shall follow upon Christs coming there shall be a general and universal meeting and gathering together of all the Members of Christ in all ages and generations whatsoever He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe at that day 2 Thes 1.10 Christian friends they are now separated and scattered one from another some in this place fo the world and some in another some are yet remaining alive and others are taken away by death but then when Christ shall come to judgment they shall all meet and never part When they shall meet the Lord in the air they shall likewise meet one with another The ascending of Believers to Christ it shall not be personal only but collective in a body and community and in a way of mutual society and communication And so the Scripture it self seems to carry it as 2 Cor. 4.14 He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you With you not only as to your conditions but also as to your persons not only as to the likeness and participation of the same blessed state and heavenly life but likewise as to the enjoyment and possession of the same blessed place and heavenly communion we and you shall be present together And so in 2 Thes 2.1 We beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him Mark the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our own gathering together the one inferring the other When our Lord Jesus Christ shall once come all his Members shall be then gathered together both to him and one another Heb. 12.22 Tou are come unto Mount Sion the city of the living God c. This will be a blessed and glorious time when-ever it shall happen and his coming so much the more desirable and to be longed after in this particular Especially if we shall further add the circumstances and qualifications that shall attend it which shall be with al lthe sweetness and amiableness and loveliness that can possibly be imagined The Servants of God here in the world they do not meet many times when they do meet though they come together in their persons yet they do not always come together in their affections through the reliques of corruption which is in them and the imperfection of Grace There are oftentimes many jealousies and prejudices and censures and misconstructions amongst them which makes even the Communion of Saints it self to be less pleasing and acceptable But now when Christ himself shall come all these evils shall be taken away and removed there shall be a perfect accord and agreement and correspondency of one with another and a perfect delight and contentment and complacency of one in another And therefore in this regard also does the Church here say Come that is come to reconcile us and unite us and to make us friends one with another which here in this present world and before thou doest come we are so much averse to This is a third account of this Prayer and Petition here before us in this present Text. Fourthly For the execution of justice and vengeance upon wicked and ungodly men and especially such persons as do please themselves in their present impunity which grow bold and impudent in sinning occasionally from God's temporary indulgence and sparing of them who because judgment is not executed speedily therefore have their hearts fully set in them to do evil as the Preacher speaks which think they may speak what they list their tongues are their own and think they may do what they list and no body restrain them because that vengeance does not presently fall upon them Come and come in reference to those come to assert thy Soveraignty to manifest thy Power to make good thy Truth to testifie thy just Wrath and Indignation and severity against sin Come as thou hast threatned to do with ten thousand of thy Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst men of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him as it is Jude 14 15. This is another reference which we may conceive of in this Word of Invitation The Church desires that Christ would come for the destruction of Antichrist and of all her implacable Adversaries and Enemies whatsoever This shall be effected when-ever Christ does come That wicked one and Man of sin with all his adherents for so we must take it the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming as the Apostle Paul tells us 2 Thes 2.8 and his coming is desirable for it The servants of God are thus far impatient in the delay of God's just executions and therefore hasten them and call for them and seem to be weary of Gods forbearance Thus Rev. 6.9 10 11. The souls under the Altar that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony that they held and they cryed with a loud voice How long O Lord holy and true doest thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth and white robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them That they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and
signifies 408 Counsel Listning to good counsel a threefold Argument of VVisdom 224 How far the counsels of God may be known how not 258 Means tending to the knowing of Gods counsels 258 Company The danger arising by bad Company 368 Cities Why God often sends greater judgments on them than other places 401 D Despise The ways wherein God is despised 114 119 Whence despising of God springs 116 The danger of despising God 117 Dregs What they signifie 135 Death Comfort against it 192 Sinful in three cases to desire it 413 Discord The evil of it implied 197 198 Whence it springs 222 Delight What in Christians God delights in 208 The properties of Gods delighting in his people 209 Signs of Gods delighting in us 211 The ground of it or what it is 220 A threefold delight respecting Religion 221 Doubtings Whence they arise 211 Day The Sabbath a pleasant day 218 Day of the Lord taken three ways 412 A threefold wicked desiring a day of the Lord or death 412 The day of Judgment desirable on a threefold account 416 Darkness What it signifies in Scripture 352 Day of the Lord darkness to wicked men with the ground thereof 41 Day of the Lord darkness and not light threefold Emphasis in it 148 Devouring What signified by it 379 Despair Motive to a despairing sinner to hope 385 The evil of despair 385 386 Whence it springs 386 E Eye Look on Christ with a fourfold eye 7 Gods Eye what it signifies 20 Gods Eye hath three properties 21 Examples Bad their evil 46 Examination Why we should be much in self-examination 245 England See Nation Deliverance from Gun-powder-treason a great Mercy 52 62 Error Prejudicial to the soul 303 394 377 On the right and on the left hand what 302 Ezekiel Why called the son of man 401 Feasts The evils oft attending them 79 When laudable 78 Faith Incouragements to it 150 Fruitfulness Arguments to it 189 Fear The advantages of holy fear 212 Forgetfulness Of God opened in four particulars 287 Formality See Hypocrite It s consistency with prophaneness 345 The dreadful evil of it 375 Setting of the face its different notion 402 G God His standing What 6 His face What 84 140 What the hiding of his face implied 85 96 VVhy resembled to the Sun 151 How to know he is our God 111 VVhat his being our God implies 111 God speaks to the hearts of men three ways 138 298 To seek Gods face VVhat 141 His wings VVhat 149 The ways wherein despised See despise God See forward Grace or Holiness See Godliness VVhy God will certainly perfect it 113 Whence indisposition and averseness unto it springs 384 A Christians duty disposition and priviledg to grow in it 306 Motives to recover decaying grace 306 307 A threefold difference between saving-grave and meer morality 308 Helps to recover decaying and strengthen weak grace 309 God What kind of shield he is 153 Gods comforts What 165 Why called the most high 183 Gods right hand What 183 Gods songs in the night What 202 Gods counsel how taken 253 What Gods saying signifies 278 A double object of Gods guidance 301 Godliness See Grace The gain of Godliness 224 Guide How to discern between the guidance or dictates of Gods Spirit and the spirit of delusion 303 H Hearing The right hearer 139 300 Why many get no good by hearing the word Preacked 139 140 385 Heart The speaking of the heart What 119 Gods trying it What 245 How taken 252 How a grieved heart eases it self 362 Discovery of a tender heart 365 Humbling Humbling considerations 251 253 392 Head What it signifies in Scripture 124 127 Head and tail how taken 273 Hypocrite See Professor See Formality Terror to Hypocrites 246 Condemned by God and often by conscience described 347 348 371 Its odiousness 347 Its danger 349 Hell How taken 282 How to escape it 288 Heathens What to think of those who never heard of Christ 287 I Inheritance Implies three things 50 Justification Why no condumnation to justified persons 95 Infancy Mercy vouchsafed in it See Mercy Judgments When God will pour them upon a people 133 Pouring out Judgments What Ibid Why God sometimes brings great Judgments upon his own people Ibid Dregy judgments What 135 How Christians foresee them 363 Who most like to be secured and who to be exposed under publick judgments 409 410 411 Joy When holy 177 Infirmities Whence they flow 178 Men have their especial infirmities 179 Wherein infirmity consists Ibid Impenitency See Presumption The evil of it 268 Ignorance Several sorts of it supplied 383 K Knowledg THe difference between saving and meerly notional Knowledg 148 L Loving-kindness Of God taken two ways 143 146 The excellency of Gods loving-kindness 144 Love How to keep our selves in the love of God 146 M Gospel-Ministers WHy called Angels 7 Caution to them 280 402 386 362 Direction to them 404 405 366 Ministerial Qualifications 399 A sad judgment to be deprived of their persons 403 Magistrates Why compared to a head 272 Mercy Outward when given in mercy 33 Outward Mercies in themselves good things 36 40 Mercies attending our Births See Births Mercies attending Infancy See Infancy The especial mercies of God 146 295 The extent of pardoning mercy 295 Meditation Whence holy meditation proceeds 170 311 Its objects 172 Helps to it 173 175 How taken 174 Its excellency above other duties 175 Motives to it 176 See its excellency When right 364 Melancholy The evil of it in a Christian more than others 220 Mind Express'd in Scripture by bowels the reason of it 360 Why a Christian minds heaven and heavenly things 311 Marriage Touching mixt ours 368 N Touching Natural ability 294 295 397 Nation Wherein a Nations strength lies 378 A Nations gray hairs or the fore-runners of a Nations period 382 O Orphans Gods care of them 110 Obedience The properties of true obedience implied 141 Prayer AGainst praying to Angels and Saints departed 25 137 Why God oft answers prayer in kind 42 When answer of prayer in kind is done in love 43 Special seasons of prayer 138 204 Acceptable prayer 177 The power of it 213 A pleasant comfortable duty 217 Neglect of it a great evil 356 Presumption See Impenitency Whence it springs 28 98 123 263 264 350 One branch of it 348 350 Caution to presumptuous sinners 305 Peace The excellency of peace with God 96 How to get and keep pease with God 92 281 A threefold peace 221 276 279 Christian peace considered as a grace and as a priviledg 277 On what a sinners peace is grounded 278 Parents Mothers if able ought to unrse their children 109 Patents duty towards children 110 248 Promises How God makes good temporal promises implied 158 Preaching What power God puts forth in it 299 Providence How far we may and how far not know its events 258 260 Pride In Habit and naked Shoulders and Breasts reproved 265 Pardon The extent of pardoning mercy 295 God pardons repeated
their eyes and may take away the rebuke of his people from off all the earth that there may be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more pain which is the condition consequent to Christs appearing as we have it Rev. 21.4 Alas this present world it has a great deal of trouble annext unto it and commonly the Servants of God have the greatest share and part in it and therefore we cannot wonder that they should so desire the coming of Christ which makes for their release and discharge from these Calamities And therefore it has such Titles and Appellations fastned upon it as whereby it is exprest unto us it is call'd the Regeneration When the son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory Matth. 19.28 It is call'd the time of refreshing and restitution of all things Act. 3.19 21. It is call'd the time of the glorious liberty of the Children of God in Rom. 8.21 And last of all it is call'd Emphatically the day of redemption in Ephes 4.30 And God's Children are upon that account call'd upon to lift up their heads even by Christ himself When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh in Luk. 21.28 Can we wonder to see Prisoners desirous of being releaed from their Bonds or Captives to be redeemed from their captivity and in that regard longing for their coming which should do it for them No more can we wonder to see Christians upon that account desirous of Christs appearance which has this benefit ensuing upon it The world in which they are being a place of great Bondage and Captivity That 's the first Consideration He comes to put a period to this world both to sin and likewise to affliction Secondly This desire of the Church as to Christs coming it is founded upon a respect to her self and her own immediate advantage which hereby is much furthered and promoted and so is very much concerned in it First In the helping of her infirmities and the removal of her weaknesses from her As there is the wickedness of the world in regard whereof the coming of Christ is desirable to put an end unto it as we shewed in the former particular so there is the weakness of the Church which does make for it also as we may take notice in this even the best of God's Servants they have distempers hanging about them and cleaving unto them and the best things that are whiles they live here below in the flesh they are vitiated and corrupted unto them they cannot now serve God with that purity and fervency and liberty and freedom from distraction as they desire to do But Satan he is apt to disturb them and to interpose and mingle himself with the best things which are done by them This is that which is very grievous and troublesom to a gracious heart which by Christs coming shall be freed from these distempers Secondly As to the increase of their Graces and the perfecting of Holiness in them they desire it for this also Those Graces of the Spirit of God which the children of God in this world do partake of but in an imperfect degree they shall then be compleated to them when Christ shall come in his Glory When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 There shall be Grace without the mixture of sin and Grace in the fullest latitude and extent of Grace Thirdly As to nearer and closer union to Christ and communion with him The Church as I hinted before in this present life is no more but contracted she is to be married in the world to come therefore she desires Christs coming for the perfecting of her Espousals and as the approach of the day of marriage which is to be consummate in Heaven that 's the time whereunto this is reserved Ye are dead says the Apostle Paul and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Col. 3.34 And so the Apostle John 1 Joh. 3.2 Beloved we are now the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like to him for we shall see him as he is The state of this present world is a state of distance and remoteness from Christ as the Scripture expresses it While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord For we walk by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.6 7. But the day of Judgment and the Resurrection that 's a time when we shall be brought nearer to him and come into the full enjoyment and fruition of him And this is that which makes the Church to cry come as longing and waiting for this We know how it is in the world Friends and especially Spouses they are not satisfied in one anothers Affections without the enjoyment of one anothers Persons and society and converse with one another and so it is also with the Spouse of Chrise and her Beloved He says come to her and she says to recompence and requite him come to him also as we may see at large declared unto us in the Book of the Canticles which was especially pen'd to this purpose First Christ says come to her in his wooings and invitations of her to communion with himself Cant. 2.11 Arise my love my fair one and come away and she says also come to him upon the same terms and conditions likewise Make hasts my beloved and be thou like a young roe or hart upon the mountains of spices Cant. 8.11 Fourthly In order to the Body for the perfection and consummation of that also she crys come also with regard to this The souls of Believers in Heaven they do cry come also as well as these on Earth and the Church Triumphant as well as the Church Militant And that upon this present consideration That there may be a speedy re-uniting of soul and body together Thuogh the spirits of just men have an union to Christ already in part even in the state of separation from the body yet this does not satisfie them and content them without the Glory of the Lody too And there is still a natural inclination of the soul to its own body for the perfection of the person which makes it accordingly desirous of the second coming of Christ and day of Resurrection Thus we see how the Church desires Christs second coming in reference to her self which is the second consideration Thirdly In reference also to others that they may partake of the same happiness with her self For the perfecting of the Saints and for the compleating of the Body of Christ She desires that Christ would hasten to bring in the number of his Elect. There are many persons and people that for the present remain unconverted who yet do belong to