and in largeness or enlarging me Jah heard me Jehovah is for me I will not fear what Man can do unto me Jehovah is for me among my Helpers and I shall perceive them helping me It is better to trust in God than in free-born Princes Vers 10. All Nations compassed me about but in the Name of the Lord I will cut them off 11. They compassed me yea they compassed me but in the Name of the Lord I will cut them off 12. They compassed me like Bees they are extinguished as a blaze of Thorns in the Name of the Lord therefore I will destroy them 13. Pushing thou pushedst at me to cast me down and the Lord helped me Jah is my Strength and my Song he is my Salvation 15. The Voice of Praise and Salvation is in the Tents of the Holy the right hand of the Lord doth mightily 17. I shall not die but I shall live and declare the Works of Jah 18. Reproving Jah reproved me but he gave me not up unto Death 19. Open to me the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Root to estimate also to be in horror also it is rough or stern because in Israel the Gate was the Seat of Justice and therefore terrible to accused Persons to which Gate of Judgment and Condemuation the Prophet here abudes rough Gates of Righteousness I will enter them I will confess Jah 20. This terrible Gate is the Lord's the Righteous shall enter by it 21. I will praise thee because thou heardst me and wast my Salvation 22. The Stone which the Builders refused was Head of the Corner 23. This was from the Lord and marvellous in our Eyes 24. This day the Lord made or magnified we will rejoice and be glad in it c. Now this I take to be a Psalm of Praise for David's deliverance in this day of Trial where under the Name of Jah Christ is signified and not only here but in all other Places as he appeared to the Patriarchs in the Promise under the Law To insist upon a full explication of this Text would require as long a Discourse as the whole we here intend and therefore I shall only give the sense in a short Paraphrase When I was in the strait of my Warfare and Trial I prayed and Christ enlarged my heart if the Lord be for me I will not fear what the Arm of Flesh can do for he will teach me to discover my inward Enemies it is better to trust in him than in the wisdom of Man or free-will Offerings All Perswasions and Opinions touching the Worship of God came about me pretending to speak in the Name of the Lord as Job 's Counsellors did One said I ought to be more righteous in Works another said Faith without Works was the sure Guide this said Lo Christ is in the Chamber that in the Wilderness they flutter'd and were busy as Bees about me but I * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cut off or destroy so read here but in the pure Hebraism it is he circumcised read above thirty times in Scripture and always I take it circumcised save here except once in Phil. 3.3 Psal 90.6 10. and once in Isa 53.8 And for as much as Circumcision was a rowling away the reproach of Egypt from Israel Jos 5.9 I so read it namely a circumcising of the Heart which is the rowling away the carnal use of Duties not the Duty it self for hence we find that David in the very assault was earnest with God in Prayer rowled away their fleshly Deceits Satan sets my sins before me but God upheld me Christ was my strength therefore in dying I did not die but live again and will declare the mighty Works of Christ Indeed Christ did reprove me and as a Friend afflict me but would not let Death destroy me Open O Lord open to me the terrible Gates which lead into the Righteousness of Christ I will enter them boldly I will not be afraid even in the Jaws thereof I will judg and condemn my self and confess that Christ can save to the utmost This Gate be it never so terrible is the Lord's Christ entred by it and it is become the true Gate and who enter not by it are Thieves and Robbers but the Righteous shall enter by it and be saved Here I was straitned here I cried to thee and blessed be thy Name that thou heardst me The Builders in me pretended they would raise a Temple in me for thee to dwell in they wewed and squared Stones in their own Wisdom they adorned them with specious out-sides of Merit and Form Free-Grace they despised they thought it ridiculous that a Man should save his life by losing it but it is become the Foundation-Stone in the turning of the Corner upon which the whole Building standeth This is of the Lord he alone hath done it and wonderful are the Mysteries of Salvation This is the acceptable Day of the Lord he hath made it glorious and we will rejoice in it The Prophet Isaith thus Comfort ye comfort ye my People saith your God speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem and proclaim unto her that her Warfare is compleated for her Iniquity is become acceptable for she received from the Hand of the Lord the Double of all her Sins The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness Make smooth the Way of the Lord. Every Valley shall be exalted every Hill shall be made humble and the Glory of the Lord shall reveal it self and all Flesh shall see him in Vnion Three in One for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it And besides these in the Analogy of the Flood of Noah the everlasting Covenant he made with God on the behalf of all breathing Animals is a Type of this also the Sacrifice of Isaac the passing the Red Sea and Wilderness-State Job's great Affliction and his three miserable Comforters and indeed the whole Course of that Book must indeed fully express these things also Hezekiah's Sickness Recovery and Prayer and lastly Jonah's Shipwrack in the Whale's Belly three days and nights together with his Prayer But we pass them over VERS 4. 1. Contemned in his own Eyes despised Thus most read but some as our English In whose Eyes a vile Person is contemned But neither doth this fully answer to the Hebrew or Context or indeed to Gospel-Rules or Scripture-Precepts for who shall be Judg of the Vileness of another For neither hath God given a Law or Character to us whereby we may discern or condemn any as vile but rather to judg and condemn our selves as is written Judg not that ye be not judged Seek not a Mote in thy Brother's eye but a Beam in thy own Again What have we to do to judg them without And therefore thus to judg condemn and lastly to contemn in our own Spirits were proud and Pharisaical oft contemning them more worthy than our selves as the Pharisee did the Publican and so render our selves contemptible before
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 12. And now this doth bring us to that Combat which indeed is our Magnum Oportet our great Necessary where we must encounter with Spiritual Enemies with Satan in the appearance of an Angel of Light yea and also with our own perverse Perswasions cunningly trimmed and set forth by the old Serpent the Deceiver from the Beginning which we have hitherto esteemed as Children of Light So as this War is not only against Satan our Lusts and open professed Enemies but even against our Works and Ways which we once esteemed familiar Friends and had walked taking sweet counsel together in the House of God who now being deluded by Satan ignorantly become Enemies whilst they perswade the Soul That there is no entring into the Land of Rest but by its own Sword and Bow and so fight Satan's Battels So as a Man's Enemies are of his own Houshold the Father at variance with the Son and the Daughter with her Mother and which is most strange the Hand of Christ our Lord and Captain in all this even setting us at these variances in our selves Matth. 10.33 and sending the Sword into our inner parts so as our chiefest Friend our Preserver and Life sends the Sword and Divisions and our Enemy and Destroyer seeks Peace and Concord and yet is that of Love and this of Malice for indeed this is the Battel in which He that shall loose his Life shall save it and he that will save his Life shall loose it And our Wilderness State is for no other end than to prepare us for this Warfare by weaning us by little and little from Creature-Dependencies for our Captain wonderful in Wisdom and Goodness on set purpose leads the Armies of Israel into a dry and desart Place to the end he may bring them into Wants and Distresses and when they cry to him he gives them Bread from Heaven and Water out of the stony Rock thence teaching them that they cannot deliver their own Souls but that he both can and is gracious and ready to help in the time of need and so undermines natural Confidence inures them to hardship strengthens Faith and Grace drawing them by degrees into acquaintance with that Song of David If the Lord had not bin on our side may Israel say if the Lord had not bin on our side when Men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick for as the Sons of Israel could not prevail in War against the Cananites until all that rebellious and faithless Generation was spent whom God had sworn If they shall enter into my Rest So is it impossible the Soul should overcome in this Warfare as long as any of these Principles or Perswasions remain that dare affirm either that it must prevail in its own Sword and Bow or yet despair that Free Grace can or will effect it so as under our Legal State our Lord like a wise and experienced Captain trains up and inures his Souldiers to such manner of straits and service before-hand as in the great Day he will call them unto 13. But now to come to the Crisis 't is every way miraculous in the Manner in the Power in the Effect for is not that manner of fighting strange where the safety depends in casting away all Arms Offensive and Defensive and is not that Power wonderful which converts the loss of the Field into Victory and makes them that are overcome more than Conquerors And is not that effect most admirable of all that makes Death Life and Life Death and yet most assuredly this is the success of this Warfare and though it must seem ridiculous in the Eyes of a Son of Pharaoh who can perceive no more of it than a Man born blind can of Colours yet is there none that hath fought the good Fight but can set his Seal to these things nor none that hath made good improvement of the Wilderness preparative Discipline but hath so express an Image thereof as he can consent with us neither let any of the Camp of Israel think of this as if some strange thing had hapned unto them for it must come upon all the Children of Election for if done to the green Tree shall it not be done to the dry for saith the Apostle We see Jesus made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death that he might tast death for all Men for it became him in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through suffering and therefore as he suffered so must we as he was made perfect so we as he died so must we die and as he arose so must we as it is written Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that as many of us as are baptized into Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death and if we have bin planted in his death together so shall we also be in his Resurrection knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him namely that old Nature we brought out of Egypt and which so often murmured in the Wilderness Again buried with him in Baptism wherein ye are also risen with him through the operation of God who hath raised him from the Dead Whence it is manifest That as Christ fought this good Fight and died in it so must we and as he did it for the Universal Church as Lord and Saviour of all so must we every one in particular before we can arise with him into the glorious Birth of the New Creature And as the old Serpent took advantage of the Seed of Abraham in Christ and bruised his Heel that is his Body unto the death thereof so must it happen unto every particular Member of Christ's Body and as the bruising of his Heel was the bruising of the Serpent's Head to eternal Darkness so the bruising of Christ's Heel in his Members shall be the treading down of Satan under their feet and therefore blessed is he to whom it shall be given to lay down his Life as a good Souldier of Christ in this Combat without reproach to his Conscience Warfare or Captain wherefore altho the name of Death be terrible to the Soul as the natural death is to the Body yet seeing we have such an Exampler to follow let us not be afraid for if the God of Armies be on our side why should we fear any Enemies As long as the Lord of Life is with us we can have no cause to fear Death Nay rather let us rejoice that Christ hath called us to be his Companions in Suffering and Death knowing that we shall also be partakers of his Resurrection Life and Glory Were it not ignominious in a Souldier that after he had inrolled his Name promised Fidelity learned the use of his Arms and had long lived upon his Pay and done little for it should in the day of Battel the Prize even immortality set before him and Victory
and to speak my own sense I judg this the very great and critical Point of sowing the good Seed in Sorrow which shall come again rejoicing and bringing its Sheaves with it for neither can Prayer Charity Humility or any of the practical Sisterhood in this State sow in Hypocrisie Vain-glory Merit and such Canker-worms but only in that acceptable Obedience I will do all I can and call my self the most unworthy of thy Servants my Faith is dead my Performances without life yet I will obey Rev. 14.12 Here is the Patience of the Saints here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus Christ And a Voice from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their painful labours and yet their Works shall follow them Behold the Harvest vers 14. is at hand 23. But yet this Battel being thus far succesfully atchieved yet do not say thy Warfare is wholly finished only that abundantly great is thy advantage for thou hast gotten a strong City the Bulwarks whereof are Salvation but yet Christ who enrolls thee now as a free Volunteer requires thou shouldst still watch and stand upon thy Guard for so inveterate and restless an Enemy is Satan as he will never give thee rest as long as thou art in this Body and is grown so crafty that he knows both where thy weak part is and how to form fit Weapons against it And tho this is not that we shall now insist upon yet against one most desperate snare we shall briefly enter a Caution which is That as soon as thy Enemy perceives thou hast escaped all his Stratagems laid to entangle thee in the Fetters of Superstition he next seeks to make thee drunken with the pleasant Wine of Free Grace and therefore suggests that seeing Duties are of no force but Grace alone effects Salvation and Peace therefore there is no need to be longer conversant therein for they are but legal and thou art dead to the Law and consequently free from them and so to weary thy self in that which profiteth not is to spend thy time and strength for nought Now this is not a less dangerous than pleasing Temptation even a voluntary rendring back to Satan a strong City which with much labour and sorrow thou by the help of thy affecting Friend hadst forced from him for to speak freely what is upon my heart I say No Man can make right use of Duties and Spiritual Weapons until he have found the nakedness thereof namely that they cannot to any purpose offend an Enemy or defend a Friend till they receive both Edg and Temper from Free Grace for to trust in their legal Force is but a painful labouring in Tears and sowing in Sorrow a Thorn in the Flesh but having received a due temper in Grace they reap in Joy therefore it were uttermost Folly yea spiritual Madness after Wisdom hath taught the right use of Ordinances and saving Vertues to cast them off in pride of Spirit like that Husbandman who plows in the sweat of his Brows visits his Corn early and late but now when it grows white towards Harvest breaks down his Fences and lays it open to the wild Boar Beasts of the Field and Birds of the Air not foreseeing Winter and Want shall break in upon him as an armed Man or like a Man unskilful yet at his Weapon but will seek out and provoke a strong and subtil Enemy tho often buffeted for his pains and sometimes through want of skill woundeth himself but being come so expert and redoubted at Arms as his Foe dares not openly withstand him but by subtilty seeks to entrap him casts away his approved Weapons and falls asleep in full security giving his Enemy the advantage he desired namely to bind him fast and imprison him in the Darkness of Egypt and Fetters of Sensuality where he may wallow for ever if his affecting Friend do not in tender mercy drive him forth as he did Lot out of Sodom and indeed so bountiful is our Captain as he will not willingly lose one Hoof that hath followed him throughout the warfare of his Cross but will save at least some of these by Fire 1 Cor. 13.15 He shall suffer loss but himself shall be saved yet so as by Fire of which more hereafter But I fear some may have ran beyond the limits of Compassion for but to have nibled at the Bait is of great loss and doubtless to swallow it greedily without remorse is as great a desolation as a Son of Adam can pull upon himself even utmost licentiousness full-summ'd prophaneness and boldness in Sin beyond what nature in a natural way dare perpetrate whom I take it the Apostle defines thus For many walk of whom I have often told you and now weeping They are Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose End is destruction whose God is their belly and whose Glory is their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3.18 Again Jude 18. They the Apostles told you there should be Mockers in the last times who should walk after their own Lusts these be they who separate themselves not having the Spirit But ye Beloved build upon Faith and pray in the Holy Ghost love God look for Mercy through Christ and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire Now these are them Paul speaks of in the former Texts and again another thus 2 Pet. 2.17 Wells without Water Clouds carried in a Tempest to whom the Mist of Darkness is reserved for ever for when they speak great vanity they allure through the Lust of the Flesh through great wantonness those escaped them conversant in Error whom whilst they promise Liberty are themselves slaves to Corruption and their latter end worse than their beginning For better had it bin for them not to have known God or Christ or an Ordinance than after having tasted the Heavenly Gift and bin made partakers of the Holy Ghost to fall back to such bold prophaneness or sensuality as is not known or heard of among Heathens Trees twice pluckt up by the Roots Brands in the Fire scarce capable to be plucked forth therefore I say watch and be sober be not high-minded but fear cast not away thy Soul 's fair hopes in Ordinances but hating the Garment spotted with the Flesh always take part with the Law of the Conscience in its Warfare against the Law of the Members But of this more anon Now it even of course falls out that the Soul which in the former Warfare was most rebellious and yet is at length subdued should be most subject to this Temptation for Man by nature is apt being convict of one extream to run out unto the other and besides as a Man soweth so shall he reap And hence as Experience confirms as a Man begins his Warfare so oft-times he finisheth it that is
He that in his natural state walks in full riot sinning boldly in contempt of God and Piety if God shall yet bring this Man under Conviction by strong hand his Call is usually in great terror and this usually puts him upon a more legal and superstitious way of Worship and not seldom more out of a servile fear of punishment than a true love of God or Good so as the old root of Concupiscence is not pluckt up but brought under by fear of Wrath and therefore as formerly he found that by contempt of God and Duties Wrath was exasperated So now by a more servile Fear and rigid Obedience he seeks to procure Peace and therefore is superstitious in all things rigid toward others and ready to persecute all not of his own length and measure Now if this Man be called to this War he contends stubbornly accounts free Grace a meer Harlot as Judah did Tamar believing there is no way to redintegrate what former contempt wounded but by an over-acted Zeal which might countervail it and thence as one strong hold fails him he raises another and makes every one a false Christ and runs after every one that saith Lo here or Lo there he is and often perisheth in the way But if through Mercy he escape this Snare yet is he very liable to the second temptation for now perceiving the large Arms and free Heart of Grace he for a while like Seed sown in stony ground rejoyceth in it blesseth God as large in bounty but withal hasting to the other extream despiseth his former folly in trusting to Duties counts them foolish and smiling at his former zeal therein applauds his own Wisdom in discerning their nakedness and setting him at freedom from a needless Yoke And now his servile Fear being removed the Roots of his former licentiousness not as we said before extirpated but only lopt and kept under by fear of punishment sprout forth to the great abuse of the Heavenly Gift unto wantonness Yet ought not this to discourage any Man from repenting of his evil ways for the Lord delighteth not in the death of a Sinner as it is written Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked turn from all his sins and keep my Statutes and do what is lawful and right he shall thereby live and not die all his transgressions he hath committed they shall not be mentioned to him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live But yet upon the whole it is good to be forewarn'd and watchful over such Temptations as are most incident to that manner of sowing he hath sowed And therefore I say it behoveth all Men to remember their Creator in the days of their Youth before the evil days come and Years draw nigh when God shall say I have no pleasure in them for because when I called they refused and set at nought all my Counsel I will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh Therefore I say when God calls delay not say not in thy heart I have yet time enough to repent and turn to the Lord for few if any so hoping have found the way of Godly Sorrow but if thou hast lost some time in riot and prophaneness and at length a strong hand forceth thee to repentance let it be sincere and hearty not for fear of punishment but for love of him that called thee and his Christ that died for thee and tho thou lay thy Foundation in legal Fear yet mayest thou by Prayer Faith Experience and Patience convert it into reverential Love Which endeavour for legal Fear is often servile and servile Fear is an hypocritical bridling Sin for base ends and as soon as Grace stops the cries of Guilt it slacks the Reins and Lust takes its career but Love digs up the Root of whatsoever thing is hateful to its Beloved and is most pleasing to God and Man Fear I say of the sin-revenging God may as with an Anvil and Hammer break a flinty heart in pieces but every piece is still Flint but Love like Oil shall make it supple and plaint and the more as Grace and forgiveness of Sin manifest themselves it loves and becomes more obedient But if yet thou hast not obtained Love yet do not hope to expiate thy former evil life with any Righteousness of thy own and above all esteem not the persecuting or reproaching a Brother any kind of Merit but if he hath offended thee forgive him as thou desirest God should forgive thee And again while legal Duties bear a high rate in thine Eyes yet still let what is thy own Act be of mean account Know God will try it and it will be found light in his Ballance and so being humble in thy own eyes walking in consumption of the Arm of Flesh in love with thy Brethren and watching for the day of thy Tryal thou shalt find favour and God shall deliver thee in six Evils and the thus Hast thou bin formerly licentiously wicked and now art a Convert If thou dost hope to clear Scores with God by restraining thy Lusts excedency of Merit and yet but a servile fear and terror of the Sword of Justice it is the Spring and Plumet of thy Obedience it must fall out that when Grace shews it self to the taking away the Fear that also thy Obedience ceases and thy Lusts again break forth and in the mean time thou art in a miserable state first Because servile Fear and a wounded Spirit are thy Tormenters and yet best Friends upholding thee from uttermost Perdition Secondly Because Grace which is the only true Balsam against Sin and Guilt is become thy most perfect Poison so as it is of Grace not to let thee see Grace But on the contrary I say tho thy Sins were as red as Scarlet tho thou hadst been a Beast of Ephesus yet if in true and sincere Obedience thou turn to God converting thy servile Fear into Love Self-confidence into Self-condemnation and thy eager persecuting Spirit into brotherly Affection thou mayest in this well-fought Fight wash thy self as white as Snow and free thy self from the evil of this last Temptation because the Love of God will more powerfully restrain thy rebudding Lust than Servile Fear can yea the Lord himself will be thy Keeper as he hath promised Because thou hast kept the Word of my patience I will keep thee in the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth 24. Now this Warfare is in sundry places and divers manners represented in the holy Scripture in Allegory in Proverbial Speeches and Prophecies The Fathers did not only see it in Prospect but by Faith which makes things afar off as present in the Promise did enjoy it and obtained a good report And of this we shall now join some few Texts and more hereafter as occasion offers Our Psalmist hath many Passages touching this whereof one thus Psal 118. Out of my Straits I invoked Jah
than a Teacher abounding more in Alms in Charity in washing of the Feet of the Saints and those other Vertues which will not suffer her to be barren in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ than a Master in Arts yet is not skilful in the greater Mysteries of Redemption but well skilled in a naked Christ and in chearful Obedience freely cast in her two Mites into his Treasury and consequently gives more than many others of far greater Abilities 17. And now the consideration of this reneweth upon us the great Commandment of Love more strongly than before For it is not enough only to love but also to honour And what then shall we say of our selves if we convert Honour into Dishonour and Love into Hatred Persecutions Envyings Defamations May not two of different Minds or Ways in many things both fear the Lord And shall that difference which is not manifestly decided in the Word but from the doubtfulness thereof and abilities of the Professors springs up into two Opinions break this so positive and often enforced a Command of Honour and Love Whence is it that some doubt in Mind touching the Service of God Is it not for fear of offending And is not that Fear rooted in the Fear of God How then shall we persecute and compel a Doubter seeing it is also a plain Text He that doubteth is damned because it is not of Faith Neither surely doth this Text need an Interpreter When ye so sin against your Brethren and wound their weak Consciences ye sin against Christ Canst thou give Bail for the Sin of another drawn into the Offence by thy means Canst thou bring back thy weak Brother for whom Christ died and is now perished by thy inducement If thou canst not who will plead thy Cause In what City of Refuge wilt thou hide thy Head from the Avenger of Blood Shall it not be less tolerable for thee than for him in the Day of Judgment And therefore I judg it a safe and excellent Rule Honour them that fear the Lord. 18. Here another Query offers namely Seeing this Fear Jara is an initiating Grace so necessary through the whole Warfare as without it no attaining of the immoveable State why the Psalmist did not at first require it and impose it as a Requisite To which I answer Tho it is not expresly named yet it is fully required for if it make every poor Cottage of Clay honourable where it is found much more is it self honourable and desirable If it was gross Idolatry in the Pharisees to prefer the Gold to the Temple and Gift to the Altar because those were the Sanctifiers and these but sanctified by them it is without controversy that the Gift which maketh honourable is more honourable than the thing by it made honourable Secondly The reason why it was not before required was not because it was not of special use before for as the Apostle hints all godly Conversation ought to be coupled with Fear and which is more our Obedience is vain without it our Warfare must miscarry and we left without the Seal of Sonship But because that even now a time draws near wherein its Master-piece-Service will be required And again because it now ought to appear in a renewed or rather regenerated State dying to tormenting Fear and living in the Love of Christ For in this great Crisis of our dying with Christ he makes all things new and not only so but he permits Satan to send for his Principalities of Darkness in new counterfeit Angels of Light For under the Legal State whilst it was Do this and live his Text was Live upon carnal Ordinances Stones made Bread and not to have regard to the Words or Spirit proceeding out of the Mouth of God but to walk on confidently and without fear in the Merits of his own Arm like the rich Man Soul take thy rest But now these Strong-holds being broken down he flies to a new Text teaching free Grace to Security and Presumption Fear not to dash thy Foot against a Stone for Angels shall bear thee up And now against this regenerate or Gospel-Fear which takes more of Love is the best Weapon for verily under the Law this Fear did oft-times put on frowardness and when Satan persuaded Confidence in superstitious Works and posted on to Idolatry this Fear armed the Conscience and it thrust thorns into the Flesh resisting the Pride thereof and convincing it was not able to perform what was required and consequently urged it to such Duties of Humiliation and Contrition as the Law required and still wrought more by fear and terror of Evil and Judgment to come than by the more gentle and noble Principles of Love But now the Table 's turned the whole Man and Pride of the Flesh become vile in its own eyes Do this and live abolished and in place thereof Believe and be saved and a Canopy of Love spread over them Satan also changes the Weapons of his Assault for if in the way of his old Deceit he should say Do and live one Whisper of free Grace would have rendred his Temptation ridiculous if he should sollicit the Arm of Flesh to buckle on its Armor again it would cry out O thou Deceiver from the beginning I am bruised and broken in thy Service I am less than a Worm And therefore he now comes in a new Disguise knowing his former Visage was discovered-and detested instead of Do and live he saith Stand still and live and for Work out thy Salvation by thine own Arm Work not at all thy doing and working is rotten and filthy they contaminate and hinder the work of the Spirit in thee sit still and let Grace make a perfect Work And now I say is the time that the regenerated Fear of God girds up its Loins to resist this Hypocritical Mocker with its two-edged Sword Legal and Evangelical threatning and entreating How darest thou O Worm as thou knowest thou art tempt the Lord thy God whom by late experience thou perceivest is a consuming Fire How canst thou hope for Salvation without giving all diligence to make thy Election sure in fear and reverence Then turning the other Edg I grant as the Tempter said Do and live is abolished but consider who brought it about if it was it self then go on and boast but if it was another then forget not how from thee a perishing Wretch he took that heavy Burthen which pressed thee deep as Hell and laid upon thee another which was easy and light and wilt thou not bear it for his sake Consider how he raised thee from Death and made thy dead Carcase a living Member of himself and wilt thou take his Members and make them the Members of an Harlot in Sloth and Lust If he hath given thee much dost therefore owe him less If all thy legal and painful diligence could not deliver thee will Abuse of Grace and Contempt of thy Deliverer carry thee to the far end
of Elshaddi and blessed him and hence he says Jehovah is here and I knew not Next he feared Jara and found that the terrible or rough Gate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Heaven was here i.e. in reverential fear And lastly upon assurance of God's Promise vows in the very same words of the Promise For saith God I will be with thee c. And saith Jacob If thou wilt be with me and keep me and bring me back c. then shalt thou be my God this Stone shall be thy House and in reverential fear I will serve thee all my days and of all thou givest me I will dedicate a tenth to thy immediate service Which is as much as I cannot preserve my self nor make my way prosperous but thou canst enable me to do all things and if thou wilt vouchsafe so to do upon this Pillar of thy Promise I will build in reverence and fear I will serve thee a tenth I will devote for Charity Mercy and Judgment and nailing my Ear to thy Door Post I will never change nor forsake thee And so well pleasing was this Vow to God as after Gen. 31.13 he calls himself the God of Bethel and minds Jacob of his Pillar and Vow and Gen. 33.1 He again minds and requires him to go and live in reverential fear upon the Promise as he had sworn 21. And now this I take to be the Oath our Prophet meant in Spirit fore-seeing what would be the Evangelical Vow namely not to vow in our own strength but as one vile in his own eyes able of himself to do nothing and verily if this was not his purpose he seems to have matched these two Precepts together in a jarring discord Be vile in thine own Eyes yet swear and change not But rather in Jacob's way seeing thou my Friend my Shepherd my Lord hast brought me to death and hast shewn me that God was there and I knew it not and seeing he that delivered me and promised me to be with me naked and vile as I am and that reverential fear is well pleasing to him I am resolved upon the strength of his Promise through which I shall be able to do all things to serve him in fear and reverence all the days of my life and will give him the Tenths of what he gives me back again that is unto his little Ones for who giveth to them in the name of one of his Disciples giveth unto him 22. Before we examine how this Exposition will agree with our Text we inquire how it agrees with Gospel Doctrine touching Oaths First our Lord I say unto you Swear not at all not by Heaven nor Earth nor Jerusalem Which is as much as thou swearest by that thing in whole creature but God knows and if thou perform not thy Vows it shall bear a severe testimony against thee Neither says he swear by thy Head because thou canst not make one hair white or black That is thy Head will witness against thee that thou vowed'st great performances and yet knowest thou art not able to do any thing not so much as to make one hair to any defect of any sort Let your communication be yea yea nay nay for what is more is of sin Now this Yea and Nay seems to be a modest purposing to perform a thing proceeding from a sense of our own infirmity for Yea yea is I am able I can Nay nay is I am not I cannot and both together make up this if God enable me yea if not nay This I gather from other Texts 2 Cor. 1.17 where the Apostle having appealed to his own and their Consciences that in sincerity and grace he had preached the Gospel to them he adjoyns When therefore I was thus minded did I use lightness or what I purposed did I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay But God is true our word to you was not Yea and Nay for Jesus Christ was not preached to you Yea and Nay but in him was Yea For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen That is my preaching the Gospel to you was not in uncertainty if I can I will but God being true who commanded me to preach my words were sure Yea and not Nay and so are all the Promises of God in Christ which fully confirms Yea is strength Nay is weakness and Yea yea and Nay nay such a mixture of both as drives away all confidence of performance in that subject where they meet and consequently in Man dwelling in Houses of clay Again Jam. 4.13 Go to ye that say To day or to morrow we will do thus or so whereas ye know not what will be to morrow for ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that But now ye rejoyce in your boasting all such rejoycing is evil And after admonishing rich Men not to boast in their heaped up merits and all to patient waiting upon God he adjoyns Chap. 5.12 But above all things my Brethren swear not neither by Heaven Earth or any other Oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation Which is do not in the pursuit of your natural and lawful vocation purpose any thing but in a reverent submission to the will of God and if so in Temporals much more in Spirituals And to go further is pride and a forgetfulness that in the Lord ye live move and have a being or that if he withdraw his breath ye all vanish Ye that are rich in your own merit weep mourn and look for a day of slaughter Ye of the Brethren be patient watch for the coming of the Lord Judg your selves and not others Consider the History of Job Above all things beware of being confident in your own strength resolve upon nothing but in hopes of the Lord giving strength Do not say I will go and hear such or such and I will hearken and profit and buy the Truth but if the Lord vouchsafe me his Presence thus will I do So our Lord I am the Vine ye are the Branches without me ye can do nothing And again Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me That is without him nothing through him all things 23. And this I take to be a Gospel Vow or rather a humble diffidence in our selves and a lively hope in Christ that through him we can do what shall be acceptable to God brought into the Gospel in the place of Legal Vows For seeing the Law answers to the Gospel line for line there was not one line in that which hath not his fellow in this calling to each in the true harmony of Type and Antitype Shadow and Essence And therefore seeing in the Gospel swear not was utterly abolished by our Lord in his very first Sermon in the Mount and in the same Crisis the communication by Yea yea and Nay nay brought