angerly nor dealt more roughly than in this Case John 2. But if it be as it was always in him rightly guided it proveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 8. 7. the flame of God in which the Soul like Elijah mounts up to heaven in a fiery chariot 2 King 2. 11. Judg. 13. 20. or the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flame of the Altar It 's the fire on the Altar a live coal whereof we find the glorious Seraphim having in his hand Isa 6. 6. all the holy Angels being a flaming fire Hebr. 1. 7. but those Seraphims have in a special manner their Name from Burning and are thereby in the upper rank of those Celestial Hierarchies and proportionably zeal makes us God-like Angelical sets such divinely inflamed Souls far above the ordinary forms of Christians as the fire is above the dull earth and other inferior Elements 2. And yet as essential to a Christian is inkindled in the breast of the weakest and youngest Christian for there is warmth even in conception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51. 5. my mother did conceive me or as the word is did warm me and in the very first kindlings of our spiritual conception and new birth in our first conversion when there was otherwise so much smoak there was some of this Divine fire yea very much of it yea and then usually more lively felt glowing and working for God and against sin than it may be afterwards What a fire did it make of those new converteds conjuring books Act. 19. 19. Had it then been a dilute flame and not more than ordinarily hot it would never have so burnt asunder those strong cords of sin and Satan which till then we were bound with as while frigus doth congregare bomogenea heterogenea calor doth congregare bomogenea segregare heterogenea So necessary is this natural radical heat and so unseparable are life and warmth that we cannot first ascend to the highest pitch no nor secondly reach the lowest degree of true spiritual life without some greater or lesser measure of it 3. At least not to any degree of lively activity How nimble and active is the fire whilst the torpid dull earth either sinks down or abides still and stirs not How listless are we to move and unable to do any thing to purpose whilest frozen and benummed with cold but when well warmed how pliable and active The warm wax then works and the melted metal runs And when the Prophet had his lips once touched with a live coal from the altar Isa 6. 6 7. then instead of his former wo is me v. 5. you hear him presently saying here am I send me v. 8. like the Seraphim that touched him with it who had Six wings v. 2. to express the greater readiness and swiftness of those heavenly Ministers as in Ezekiels vision we find their appearance to be like lamps and burning coals Chap. 1. 13. and accordingly we find they had wings to their hands and their feet sparkled for heat and hast v. 7 8. They ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning v. 14. and so we must be fervent in spirit if we would serve the Lord to purpose Rom. 12. 11. be zealous if you would repent or amend Rev. 3. 19. as John Baptist the Preacher of repentance was a burning and shining light John 5. 35. And hence it is that God useth to inkindle this Divine flame in the hearts of those of his Servants whom he raiseth up to any more extraordinary and heroick service and employment We read of Baruch as a special repairer of Jerusalems wall but we read then withal that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flagrante animo instauravit he did much but he was warm at his work and hot upon it Nehem. 3. 20. Apollos Acts 18. 25. was fervent in spirit and then he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. Fervet opus Phineas Elijah Jeremiah Numb 25. 7 8. 1 King 19. 14 14. Jer. 20. 9. Luke 1. 17. 2 King 19. 31. Isa 9. 7. 37. 32. John Baptist Luther Knox all noted to have been very active in their generations and that they were very zealous too In Scripture when some great thing to be done is spoken of it 's said the zeal of the Lord shall do this and it is the zeal which he inkindleth in the hearts of his more eminent servants that must go through with any such more noble atchievements whilst it either breaks or burns through all difficulties and oppositions as whilest the man that creeps or slowly goeth up the hill is wearied before he goes to the top of it another that putting to his strength runs up with more ease ascends it or as whilst a cold blunt-pointed iron cannot enter if sharpned especially if made red hot makes its way easie In the cold winter and cool night we freeze and sleep It 's the warm day and summer when we are abroad at our work and the heat of harvest that ripens and Isa 18. 4. brings in the crop The Palm-trees which are the ensignes of victory delight to grow in hot soiles on the contrary Bernard well observes that Adami voluntas non habuit fortitudinem quia non habuit fervorem Great is the proportion of activity in the hotter Elements above that which is in the more cool and heavy And proportionably there is a far greater riddance made of God◠work by them that are warm than by them that freeze at it When God washeth away the filth of the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem it 's by the spirit of burning Isa 4. 4. It 's hot water that washeth out such souler stains and defilements And accordingly it adds much to the valuableness of zeal that God so highly valueth and esteemeth of it that as he makes it the end he aims at in mercies bestowed he redeems us to make us a people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. So when angry he is pacified by it So he professeth that the heat of Phineas his zeal had quenched the fire of his wrath against Israel Numb 25. 11. that he accepts it and is prevailed with by it The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much James 5. 16. and without some measure of this lively warmth best duties avail nothing The richest sacrifices if not burnt with this altar-fire and Berengosius Bib. Patr. Tom. 2. pag. 550 551 552. the finest flowr and sweetest oyl if not baked in this frying pan as some of the Ancients apply it have no relish make no sweet savour in Gods nostrils No are very distastful He that is a spirit therefore will be served in spirit and in truth had rather you would let his work alone John 4. 24. than that you should freeze at it He will have the dull asses neck rather broken than offered to him in sacrifice and the slow creeping snail is among the unclean creatures His infinite
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 7th verse to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 8th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what was gain I counted loss for Christ But as though he had said that is not enough nor spoken strongly enough I have more to say and that more confidently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quin etiam certè an asseveration not more unusual than strong and expressing his stronger resolution upon further deliberation no fewer than five Greek Particles put together and yet no Pleonasm nor any of them expletive unless to set forth his fuller certainly and setledness in this particular 2. From an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 7. what things or those things to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 8. The indefinite is risen up to an universal to an All things not only his Jewish Priviledges in the former Verses but even to his best Christian Graces in this Nor did he think that he De justificat lib. 1. cap. 19. blasphemed in saying it though Bellarmine be bold to say that we do in so interpreting it 3. From an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have accounted in the time past v. 7. to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this 8th verse I do account them so for the present as not altering his judgment or repenting of his bargain as sometimes men do of a formerly over-valued novelty which afterward they have lower and yet wiser thoughts of But it was not so with him as appears from 4. The 4th step from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of this verse to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter end of it For Christ he accounted all things not only loss which yet in themselves might be precious as many things are with the Seamen in a storm with an unwilling will cast over-board then parts with but afterwards grieves for but upon his better experience and estimate both of him and them even vile dogs meat in comparison of the bread of life 5. Nay fifthly from an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did not only account them loss in his judgment and readiness to lose them but he had actually lost them And yet 6. Which is the sixth Emphasis he accounted himself no loser but an happy gainer by the bargain as the last words of the verse express it They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I may win and his winnings were clear gains for so according to the Greek it is to be rendred That I may gain Christ In which words we have these two particulars 1. The purchase or thing valued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. 2. The price that he rated it at and was willing to come up to and that was to the loss of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. 'T is pitty these two should be parted that so rich a Pearl should want such a wise Merchant rightly to value it And therefore as I find them together in the Text so I shall put them together in the observation that I shall handle out of it and it is this That there is a surpassing worth and excellency in the knowledge Doct. of Christ Jesus our Lord for which all things are to be accounted loss for a Believer The first branch whereof contains the Doctrinal part and the latter may serve for the Application To begin with the first There is a surpassing worth and excellency in the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. For the subject of which Proposition by the knowledge of Christ 1. Subj Jesus we are to understand the knowledge of whole Christ his Person God Man in Himself and Offices the Prophet Priest and King of his Church In all which Faith finds transcendent Soul-ravishing excellencies and mysteries Nor this barely speculative and notional though even herein it Neg. hath an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all other learning whatsoever So that Porphyrie needed not to have pittied Paul's rare parts as cast away upon the foolishness of preaching If I would be a Scholar I would be a Christian I would read the Scripture though I were so graceless as to do it only for the excellency of the matter the strength of the argument the variety of choicest stile and story all in it met together which I so over-prize in other Authors though asunder If it were but only for bare learnings sake I would learn Christ and his Gospel For what are all your fine-spun abstractions extractions subtilties demonstrations to this great mystery God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels 1 Tim. 3. 16. c. Here is work for a Doctor Angelicus study for an Angel If they who always behold the face of God in Heaven have yet their Matth. 18. 10. face towards the mercy-seat and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Peter Exod. 25. 20. expresseth it 1 Pet. 1. 12. even stoop down earnestly desiring to have a look what an advancement of learning is it to us whose Eyes you know what the Philosopher compared to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metaphys l. 1. c. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an unvailed face to behold the glory of the Lord in the glass of the Gospel The bare Theory whereof is so noble and transcendent But this knowledge I said is not barely speculative and â—â—tional but 1. Fiducial And so in Scripture we have knowledge put for faith Affirm Fiducial Isa 53. 11. John 17. 3. the knowledge of Faith whereby we apply Christ to our selves and know him to be ours as Paul here did when he saith the knowledge of Christ Jesus but he adds my Lord. And so For Christ v. 7. and For the knowledge of Christ here Cum ait propter excellentiam cognitionis ejus intellige excellenti am justitiae ejus quae nobis donatur imputatur Zanchy in the Text are put for the same It 's a knowledge whereby I gain Christ v. 8. and have him and am found in him v. 9. and not only an ability to conceive and discourse of what is in him and comes by him for so the Devilish Renegado may be enlightned Hebr. 6. 4. The Devil himself could say I know who thou art the holy one of God Luke 4. 34. The greatest Scholars have not always been Christs best Friends Time was when the greatest Rabbies were his worst Enemies Lucian and Porphyrie acute men but sharpned against him He was one of the wits of the World that said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that took cognisance of the cause but only to condemn the innocent Unless thou lookest at Christ with Faith's Eye the more quick thine is and the more earnestly thou lookest on him thou wilst either more despise him or despair or Isa 53. 2 3. prove more
Gods people value Gods Ordinances in the enjoying of them and other mercies together Especially upon the restoring of them after that their sins had deprived them of them The men of Bethshemesh were at their Wheat-harvest and that of it self was a merry time but it was their chief Harvest-joy when they saw the ark of God brought back to them 1 Sam. 6. 13. though through their undue entertainment of it as I shall shew hereafter their mirth was turned into mourning and their harvest as the Prophet speaketh became a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow And so afterward you may observe how the Jews having Isa 17. 11 in their Captivity learnt to know the worth of Ordinances by the want of them as several Nations make their account of years from some high prized matter and occurrence as the Israelites from Abraham or their deliverance from Egypt the Greeks from their Olympiads the Romans ab urbe conditâ So they from the restoring of Gods Ordinances And so Ezekiel begins his Prophecy Ezek. 1. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year c. which very good Interpreters expound of the thirtieth year since the book of the law Junius Grotius was found and the Covenant thereupon renewed and Gods worship restored by Josiah after the sad vastation which had been made by fore-going Kings and especially by his Father Manasseh Such a price did they then set on such a prime mercy as afterward in Judas Maccabeus his time upon the dedication of the altar which Antiochus had profaned they instituted their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Mac 4 5 9. John 10. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Castellio qui ex Scripturâ Ciceronem facit as * In John 10. 22. Maldonat saith of him affectedly translates Renovalia and which our Saviour seems not to dislike but by his presence to approve of It was an anniversary feast kept eight days with great gladness as 2 Macc. 10. 6 7. in the feast of Tabernacles and of the solemnities of that feast Authors write great matters The Author of the second of the Maccabees tells us of this that as in the feast of Tabernacles they bare branches and fair boughs and palms also and sang Psalms c. which feast as Josephus tells us they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light because of their burning lights all those whole eighth days to express their greater joy and so he saith of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in this festival entertainment of his Citizens he omitted no kind of pleasing delight but with joyful Hymns and Psalms and costly Sacrifices he honoured God and delighted them So highly did they esteem of the restoring and enjoying such a mercy and oh that once we of this Nation might upon the purging of the Temple and reforming of Gods now wofully profaned Ordinances have the occasion and opportunity of such Encaenia of such a joyful thanksgiving-festival Meanwhile in our want of it let us be learning to take out this first part of our lesson and duty which is highly to value and esteem of Gods Ordinances 2. And the second is when and while we enjoy them in our due use of them to expect much good and blessing in and by the enjoying of them By faith in obedience to Gods command and confidence in his promise of being with his Ministers to the end of Matth. 28. 20. the world to apply our selves to him in his Ordinances is as our duty so a promising pledge and effectual means of a blessing by them Here as well as in other Cases according to thy faith be it Matth 9. 29. unto thee In an humble dependance on God and good thoughts of him hope much and have much Open thy mouth wide and God will fill it Thou canst not out-think Gods infinite goodness or the power of his good word which hath done very great things whereas on the contrary like them Mark 6. 5. we weaken as it were Christs power and hinder the efficacy of his Ordinances by our unbelief Because we have but little faith we receive little and if none we get nothing But the Patients good hopes and perswasions help much to his Cure It would certainly do very much to ours if we had better thoughts and perswasions of God and his Ordinances when we apply our selves to either whilst infidelity applies the Medicine cool and so rendreth it less useful and it 's but just that whilst through despondency or neglect we cannot or will not give God the praise of his being able or willing to help us he should be as unwilling to make them able to bless us But therefore as it 's said of Jehoshaphat that his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord and accordingly he prospered 2 Chron. 17. 6. so in our use of Ordinances we should labour by faith to get our hearts raised up to high expectations of blessing by them for great expectations are great obligations with God as well as with ingenuous men as when the Creeple gave earnest heed and looked on Peter as expecting to receive something from Act. 3. 4 5 6. c. him though he had not silver or gold for him yet he got an Alms much more precious and useful When therefore we go to hear think and say in faith with them Isa 2. 3. Let us go up to the house of the Lord and he will teach us his ways and so in Prayer say with them Micah 7. 7. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me I will go to the Sacrament and hope that I as well as other hungring Souls have shall find there a feast of fat things and of wine on the lees at least Isa 25. 6. some Crumbs some drops as God shall see it best for me to refresh me And this is the both easiest and surest way to come by them God delighting not to discourage by disappointing the faith and Psal 147. 11. expectation of his people but to honour them that honour him and therefore it is that upon this ground he honours faith above all other graces and believers above all other men And thus as they are institutions of God and means of our best good in subordination to Christ it is our advantage and duty highly to value Gods Ordinances which was the first part of my task BUT how then did Paul and may we so undervalue them as St. Maries Jan. 29. 1659 60. to account and call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Is not this Blasphemy to call the Bread of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some expound the word Dogs-meat and that loss which is the means of the saving of our souls Yes if they be so deemed and called as considered according to the former particulars For which as
which thou shouldst especially desire and expect from them It 's no good thou gainest by them But on the contrary 3. Much hurt and dammage for if not for the better it will certainly be for the worse 1 Cor. 11. 17. and that every way both in point 1. Of sin 2. Of misery 1. Of Sin and hence it is that we often find worst men under best Ordinances Sowrest grapes brought forth where most cost hath been spent Isa 5. 2 7. strong Physick if it do not Cure strengthning and enraging the Disease and so 1. For more spiritual or rather devilish sins seldom shall you meet with more keen anger and rage or more invenomed malice and hatred against God and Godliness than in such men who having enjoyed means of Salvation not being by all Christs intreaties prevailed with to be reconciled friends prove most inveterate Enemies So we find the men of Penuel Judg. 8. 8. yea the young Children in Bethel 2 King 2. 23. to have been virulent scoffers and from the Scribes and Pharisees downward greatest pretenders to Gods worship most malicious persecutors 2. Nor are sensual lusts though 2 Sam. 12. 4. expressed under the notion of a traveller wont to be strangers to those whom we now speak of Paul writes of such fornication to have been among the Corinthians with whom he had stayed and preached longer than in most other places as was not so much as named 1 Cor. 5. 1. among the Gentiles And Peter and Jude speak of false Prophets 2 Pet. 2. 10 12 13 14 18 19 20. Jude 4 8 10 16 18 19. and Professors in the Church as in this kind abominably guilty whom we should never have so well understood if our Libertines and Ranters in the former and present age had not imitated and out-acted in their loathsome practises to the most impious defiling of the Church and scandal of the Gospel God in his just judgment revenging their rejecting of Christ and his Holy Spirit by suffering them as the Gentiles of old to give themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness yea with Ephes 4 19. the blasphemous pretences of Gospel-liberty and holiness I do not now insist on all that either open or secret uncleanness either of profane sinners or close Hypocrites amongst us which God and their own Consciences and it may be other men are privy to This that I have said is sufficient to have shewed that dead Trees grow the more corrupt and rotten by being often rained upon 3. I only add a third sin which they who gain not Christ by the enjoyment of his Ordinances take occasion to lull themselves asleep in and that is carnal security and presumption and obdurateness that they are not only Sermon and Ordinance-proof can rebel against the light Job 24. 13. but think they have by them gotten a protection and plea which will hold at the last Judgment-Bar to secure them against the accusations of all their other abominations that Christ hath preached in their streets as you heard out of Luke 13. 26. and those other fore-mentioned instances and so it cometh to pass that these blessed helps prove their greatest hindrances and diversions in the way to life whilst taking up with outward attendance on Ordinances as the way they sit down and rest in it and so never come to their intended journeys end or rather most dangerously mistaking the way to Hell for that to Heaven before they be aware come to a sadder end of it than they ever thought of and so as I said they find best helps to prove greatest hindrances of their peace and salvation And heaviest aggravations both of their sin and condemnation Of their sin when at an higher rate because against greater light And of their Condemnation which will be exceeding heavy when Gospel-Grace neglected pronounceth the sentence and the wrath of the meek Lamb proves heavier than rocks and mountains Revel 6. 16. But this leads me to 2. The second thing propounded that by Ordinances without Christ gained by them we come to be worse as in point of sin so of judgment and this temporal spiritual and eternal I confess the Case is very sad when our Physick proves poyson It was one of the saddest Curses that David could imprecate against his worst Enemies that their table should become a snare and what should have been for their welfare a trap Psal 69. 22. and yet that 's sadder which the Prophet expresseth that the acceptable year of the Lord should become the day of vengeance of our God Isa 61. 2. and yet another Prophet fore-tells it will so be that very day in which the Sun of Righteousness would shine upon some should burn like an Oven to others Mal. 4. 1 2. and a third assureth us that the Lord God is a witness against Sinners even out of his holy Temple Micah 1. 2. not only from Mount Sinai Calvin in loc but even Sion too God thunders in judgment against such that make not sure of Christ for their shelter And that Earth is nearest to a Curse and its end is most sure to be burnt that drinketh in the rain from heaven and yet brings forth nothing but briars and thorns Heb. 6. 7. which make fewel for the fire even the savour of life proves to such the savour of death 2 Cor. 2. 16. A surfeit of Bread some say is most dangerous but how deadly will it be if a surfeit of this Bread of life The Cure is desperate when as Austin speaks ipsa medicamenta convertuntur in vulnera if my Medicine wound De Temp Serm. 55. me and the word of life kill me And yet so it doth if Christ be not gain'd but rejected Ordinances though enjoyed will be so far from proving means of Salvation that they or rather our abuse of them will be the inlet and means of 1. Heaviest temporal judgments both to persons and nations Scripture for this is pregnant and instances too frequent In the giving and instituting of Ordinances Passover Law Gospel Lords Supper Promises are join'd with Threats The burden of the valley of Vision Isa 22. 1. The Controversie of Zion Isa 34. 8. the quarrel of God's Covenant Levit. 26. 25. and the vengeance of his Temple Jer. 50. 28. are very reverend and terrible and speak loud to this purpose Holy Ordinances are sharp-edged tools and we had need of great care how we handle them as being in great danger to wound our selves with them if we do it not dextrously Such showrs that should quench the fire prove Oil to kindle it This in part made the Elders of Bethlehem tremble at the Prophet Samuels coming to them and the Widow of Sarepta in a passion to 1 Sam. 16. 4. 1 King 17. 18. say to the Prophet Elijah what have I to do with thee O thou man of God Art thou come unto me to call my sins to remembrance and slay my Son This the men
of God by accident often do as the Prophet Jeremiah was set over Nations and Kingdoms as well to root up and pull down as to build and to plant As soon as ever Jer. 1. 10. Matth. 3. 10. the Gospel began to be preached to the Jews then was the axe laid to the root of their tree if they brought not forth fruit to hew them down and the sharper the Axe the sooner it cuts the barren tree down and the more powerful the Ministry is the speedier it doth the same to an unfruitful and rebellious people as the purer the air the sooner sometimes it dispatcheth a corrupt Consumptive body This was sadly exemplified in the destruction of the Jews their City and Temple when as Nazianzen faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their defiled Orat. 1. filed Altars first burnt their City and their blood was not only mixed with their Sacrifices but shed instead of the blood of their Sacrifices The present state of that forlorn people in this kind is most sad and so of the other Eastern Churches The death of seventy thousand of the Bethshemites for their rude entertainment 1 Sam. 6. 19. Hos 4. 15. 5. 8. Jer. 7. 12. Isa 29. 1. of the Ark. That Bethel became Beth-Aven that Shilo was forsaken that a Wo was proclaimed to Ariel to Ariel the City where David dwelt That that peoples abuse of Ordinances brought them to such a pass that they must perish without Remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. and without pity for so v. 15. when God out of compassion had afforded Ordinances and they abused them he v. 17. sends Enemies which would shew them no mercy nor have any compassion These are sad instances of this Truth and strong proofs that as the Prophet saith Gods fire is in Zion and his furnace in Isa 31. 9. Jerusalem to consume Enemies as well Domestick as Strangers though the latter there especially meant For although the usual Psal 128. 5. word was The Lord bless thee out of Zion yet it hath proved as true the Lord curse thee out of Zion too for in the Revelation we shall find the seven Angels that have the seven Plagues and pour out the seven vials of the wrath of God upon the Antichristian State came out of the Temple and that the Angel took coals of Revel 15. 6. 16. 1. fire from the Altar and cast them upon the Earth from which came such thundrings and lightnings and Earth-quakes in the World Revel 8. 5. Temple-Ordinances if profaned and despised nay if not walked worthy of bring down heavy judgments and it were well if it were sadly considered whether this amongst and above other sins of ours did not cause our present Earth-quakes and unsettlements and so repented of as to prevent future and now impendent heavier judgments which so sorely threaten us for so we find it of old when Israel was so stupid and obstinate that like to dull and froward Scholars line must be upon line and precept upon Isa 28. 9 10 11 17. precept to them that God laid judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet and because he was fain to lisp as it were and stammer and speak to them with another tongue and they yet would not understand and obey therefore he would bring Strangers and Enemies upon them of a deep speech and a stammering tongue which they should not understand A most heavy judgment which Isa 33. 19. the Lord keep us from that such vexation do not make such froward dullards as we are understand doctrine as some read and interpret Margin English Annot. that 19th verse of the 28th of Isaiah To conclude this we may certainly conclude upon it that as in the former part of this point we shewed as God's Ordinances duly entertainâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 walked worthy of use to bring in outward mercies wiâ—◠〈…〉 if abused they will as certainly pour in upon us heaviâ—â—◠〈…〉 judgments for as Gods way is in the Sanctuary Psaâ—◠〈…〉 in the sea too v. 19. as to conduct Israel into Canaan 〈…〉 overwhelm Egyptians even with heaviest temporal miseries 2. But with more heavy spiritual judgments they are judgments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude v. 4. and such are the permitting and giving over to stupid senslesness most enormous outragious sins obstinate obdurateness and final impenitency in them But of these we spake before Only consider them here in genere poenae as judicially but most justly inflicted as the recompense of mens ingrate and impious neglect and despising of God in the profane abuse of his holy and blessed Ordinances Sion sinners usually are the greatest Sinners and Ordinance-despisers as of all most obstinate so their case most desperate and it 's a righteous thing with God to leave them so The very Remonstrants who will not allow God the liberty and freedom of his Decrees do yet freely subscribe to the equity and justice of this dispensation that when means of Salvation have been non-improved and despised men may by God be judicially and irrecoverably hardned that he may by his Prophets justly say we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed therefore forsake her Jer. 51. 9. Nay we read him saying it even to Jerusalem Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more Ezek. 24. 13. Nay it is a Gospel-Sanction and we read it in the very end and close of the New Testament in the two and twentieth of the Revelation after all the fore-going Revelation in that Book yea after the full manifestation of the will of God in the whole Scripture when he now comes to seal the Canon of it v. 18 19. if any notwithstanding all this will still continue ignorant and obstinate he seals him up under this most heavy doom He that is unjust let him be unjust still He that is filthy let him be filthy still v. 11. God with such hath as a Physician gone through all his methods of Physick and if by none of them the Cure be wrought it 's given over as desperate as in that place of Jeremy 51. 9. Or as in Isaiah as an Husband-man he hath been planting and dressing and watering his Vineyard if after all nothing but sour grapes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what could I have done more or rather as some otherwise and it may be better render it what is 〈◊〉 to be done in so desperate a Case Isa 5. 4. but what he adds and answers v. 5. but to take away the hedg that it may be eaten up and trodden down Or as a founder of metal he hath been about melting and refining and purging their dross from them but the bellows are burnt and the lead is consumed and the dross not taken away Reprobate silver then call them for the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6. 29 30. Ezek. 22. 18 19 20. The saddest judgment that in this life can befal a man and
Chaldee and Syriack Henifii exercit Sacr. on Luke 21. 16. is to deny and to deny is to betray as Ambrose makes it his Title De proditione Petri cum de negatione agitur Peter became an half Judas the denier little better than the betrayer of Christ But the chast Spouse makes it the matter of her grief and complaint that she should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one that is vailed Cant. 1. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garb of an Harlot Cen. 38. 14 15. but would kiss her beloved in the open street Cant. 8. 1. you would almost think beyond a Womans modesty And of the true Israel which God hath chosen Isa 44. 1. one shall freely and openly say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel v. 5. as not ashamed of their best Parentage and Kinred but with their own hand enrolling themselves in their chief Captains Musters not only in word and open profession with the Primitive Christians proclaiming Christianus sum but also in their practice and conversation shewing forth the vertues 1 Pet. 2. 9. of him that hath called them so that they may thereby be known to all they converse withal and all that see them may acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61. 9. Thus in these and the like respects outward appearances and professions of holiness are not to be undervalued which was the first thing propounded 2. But the second more near to my present purpose is that these are not to be rested in as able in themselves to commend us to God but are to be accounted loss for Christ For notwithstanding the Pharisees were herein conspicuous and indeed over-glaring our Saviour for all that even when he speaks of these their outward formalities Matth. 23. doth again and again cry Wo to them Wo to you ye Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites and when God and Christ in Scripture pronounceth a Wo against any it speaks them in a most deplorable lost condition I do not remember any one instance where it was not irrecoverable It 's Wo even to Scribes Matth. 3. 7. 23. 33. and Pharisees if they be Hypocrites if a generation of vipers as John Baptist and our Saviour calls them foris pictae intus venenosae as he glosseth it If it be but a bare form it 's but a thin lank thing and may well be counted loss in comparison of Christ who is substance as 1. These bare forms and shews are only outward But Christ is within us Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Sodoms apples See Chrysoft Hom. 8. in 1 Thess When it is called A form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3. 5. that expression holds forth two things First that nothing is wanting on the out-side but secondly that there is just nothing within Should there be any thing wanting without it would not be a compleat but a defective form And therefore Pharisees Hypocrites herein use to be elaborate and accurate to compleat the Pageant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6. 1. as on a Stage in a Theatrical ostentation See Hammond Annot. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 16. that they may appear And for that purpose the outside of the Cup and Platter is made very clean and the Sepulchre very fairly whited and painted Matth. 23. 25 27. But now a Jew is not one that is outwardly but is one that is inwardly whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. Now the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart 1 Sam. 16. 7. and therefore is not so taken with out-sides as to be imposed upon by them His Spouse as her outward raiment is of needle work so she is all-glorious within and the inside of Gods Temple was all Gold and Psal 45. 13 14. 1 King 6. 18 21. Cedar materials precious and incorruptible True worth is modest and like the Windows of the Temple is narrowest outward takes up with privacy and retirement from the World and delights not to make too great a noise and glaring in the World think it enough that oftentimes God seeth it in secret now and for rewarding it openly is content to stay till the last pay-day and therefore looks at the Pharisees open praying in the streets as a trivial devotion and esteems him who sets out all on the bulker without any thing in the Ware-house within a very poor man and next door to a Bankrupt is so wise as to set a due price and value on Christ who is the treasure hid in the field Matth. 13. 44. and therefore esteems all these gayes but loss and dung in comparison of him because first but bare out-sides and therefore at the very best 2. Empty of all substantial reality as in themselves so in any comfort and support we can have by them Of all others fearfulness is ready first to surprize Hypocrites in a day of evil Isa 33. 14. when men hate them because they have a shew of Godliness and God more abhors them because they have but a shew who will not be put off with words though they swear to them Jer. 5. 2. But his eyes are on the truth and reality v. 3. And must this then come in competition with Christ in whom God is well pleased How great soever the sound was yet how hollow when nothing within but emptiness How faint will that poor mans heart be who hath indeed a rich and costly sute on but is within deadly sick and wounded Like your Flowers which spindle up all into Flowers usually die at the root so these out-side men that are all for the Gay-Flower with Nabal then have their 1 Sam. 25. 37. hearts die within them for want of an inward substantial support Suh unsavoury salt though it retain its whiteness is good for nought but to be cast to the dunghil and therefore may well be accounted dung But then how infinitely more worth is Christ who is substance Prov. 8. 21. And the Comforts of his spirit real and substantial It 's Compositum jusfasque animi sanctique recessus and inâ—octum generoso pectus honesto firm interest in Christ and solid substantial sincerity and reality of his grace only that will then support them when such neat woven Cobwebs will fail us and such shadows fly away 3. Especially if they be not only thus hollow and empty but as often they prove Covers of a great deal of under-hidden impiety and all other abomination as the Pharisees painted Sepulchre Matth. 23. 14 27. was within full of uncleanness and rottenness And their long Prayer was but a pretence the more cleanly to devour Widows Houses In Tertullian's Language Impietatis secreta superficialibus officiis obumbrant We delight in
which Vse reacheth down to the foot covereth us all over and hath not one Rev. 1. 13. speck in iâ— Wo to all such as cover with a covering but not of my Isa 30. 1. spirit saith the Lord. Besides the Robe of Christs Righteousness all other coverings of the best suits of your moral vertues have spots and rents at best are more narrow than that a man can wrap himself Isa 28. 20. in them so as perfectly to cover his nakedness Oh therefore that we might be all found in him not having our own righteousness Phil. 3. 9. but that which is through the faith of Christ And seeing that now at last we have gone through all the forementioned particulars and seen the comparative nothingness of them all in comparison of Christ what remains but that we should with our Apostle so esteem of them and labour for our justification and acceptance with God so to be found in Christ as to be able to say with him Christ Jesus my Lord. Dominus meus Deus meus Christus meus Amor meus omnia He may well be All when as by an induction of particulars we have proved all else besides him as to this are nothing nay less and worse than nothing when but loss and dung Nor need we be puzled with Photius his question if they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss how could he add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnibus istis meipsum multavi I have suffer'd the mulct of all Beza these Could it be a Punishment or Mulct to escape a loss The answer is easy To natural and carnal self they were gain v. 7. and therefore the losing of them was loss which flesh and bloud counâ—ed an heavy mulct and punishment But to Paul now better informed confidence in them would be a loss indeed in the loss of Christ and our selves together and so according to the phrase Act. 27. 21. we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gain a loss be gainers by such See Grotius in locum losings if by a lesser and only a conceited loss we escape a greater and that a real one Though we lose much for Christ yet sum up all and we shall not be losers by him by renouncing all confidence in every thing else which will either make or at least leave us miserable â—o lay hold of Christ and his righteousness which alone can justifie us and make us happy And therefore what according to the sense of flesh and bloud was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he presently checks and tâ—â—ns into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By suffering the loss of other things he proved a great gainer by winning of Christ Oh! had we but Paul's eyes we should discern this incomparable beauty and excellency in Christ Had we but his sense of Christs fulness and Alsufficiency we should see a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transcendent Excellency in the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord above all other knowledge and with a free and joyful heart should readily and roundly come off with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whom Tu satis es nobis sine to nihil est I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win or gain Christ To God by Jesus Christ be all glory Amen SERMON XIII ON PROV 8. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their Treasures THey are the words of Wisdom v. 1. and that by Wisdom At St. Maries Jan. 6. 1655 6. At St. Pauls Apr. 6. 1656. in the beginning of this Book of the Proverbs especially in this Chapter is meant Jesus Christ the Essential Wisdom of the Father is so plain and the Arguments to prove it are so pregnant that we need not to doubt of it whatever the Socinians plead to the contrary But it will serve my purpose in what I intend in my handling of this Text to take it complexively See Arnoldus in Catech. Racco qu. 22. pag. 212 213. c. for Christ and his Grace which is true saving Wisdom as sin and iniquity in this whole Book is commonly called folly and Sinners fools And so the Text without further Preface commendeth Christ and his Grace to us by a fourfold excellency which in all other things that we account good we are wont to be wonderfully taken with and why should we not be more taken with in Christ in whom they are to be found in greatest Eminency They are 1. Reality and therefore called substance 2. Perpetuity No such things as we use to call Moveables but a lasting everlasting inheritance That I may cause to inherit c. 3. Fulness I will fill their Treasures 4. Freeness of the conveyance for heirs and inheritors are not wont to be purchasers of what they inherit All this in Christ and all promised to those which love him That 's the qualification of the persons to whom all this is promised which I shall take notice and make use of in the application The first particular affordeth us this instruction That there is a Doct. true solid substantial reality in Christ and his grace in himself and to them that love him for so the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I may cause to inherit But what Is it to inherit the wind for such a kind of inheritance some come to cap. 11. 29. some empty airy vanity No you may say it 's here meant of outward riches which Obj. in that Non-age of the Church God used to promise to his children and by them to train them up to obedience And so not only in our ordinary speech Rich men are called substantial men but also in Scripture phrase at least as we translate it our possessions riches or treasures are called our substance Jer. 15. 13. and otherwhere very frequently Nay as some conceive this Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here substance is given to Gold and Rubies Pro. 20. 15. and therefore accordingly here in the Text by substance in the beginning of the verse is meant nothing but that which is expressed by treasures in the end of it and by neither of them any other thing meant but outward wealth and riches which in those dayes God frequently promised to his people and they whilst they walked with him more usually enjoyed In answer to which I only hint these few particulars Sol. 1. That if Godliness then have the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come it will be the more desirable And if Christ the wisdom of the Father include outward riches in this his promise I hope he will be more valuable when he is as an aple of gold thus set in a picture of silver 2. I add that although God in that non age of the Church did more frequently promise and bestow on his people outward mercies and riches yet never so as to be their true inheritance
that in the very forefront I light on is Aarons Frontlet in the Text. Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the ingraving of a signet sanctitas Jehovae or sanctum Domino Holiness to the Lord. For the literal sense as meant of Aaron I find no difficulty some would who doubt whether both words were ingraven on this golden plate or the word Jehova only But P. Fagius rightly concludes for both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord both ingraven to let Aaron know what God was and what he should be especially in his holy Ministrations God was holy and he would have him so especially when he came before him For the mystical signification as applied to Christ the High-Priest 1 Pet. 1. 19. John 1. 29. of our profession it agrees fully That spotless Lamb took away the sins of the world who had none of his own so full of holiness he that on his very fore-head all might have read this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord. For such an High-Priest it became us to have who was holy and harmless and separate from sinners Hebr. 7. 26. And therefore passing by both these the moral application of it especially to Ministers and partly to all Christians will be the subject of my present discourse Which that it may be more orderly give me leave in this Aarons Frontlet out of this and the adjacent verses to observe and handle these particulars 1. Quid what 's expressed and required and that 's Holiness 2. Vbi where it 's to be sought and seen on his very forehead and the forefront of his miter vers 37 38. 3. Quomodo how ingraven there with the ingraving of a signet 4. The Finis cui to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all this to the Lord. 5. The Finis cujus for what cause that the peoples holy gifts might be accepted and the iniquity of them pardoned vers 38. And of these now briefly 1. The thing here ingraven on the Priest in the Law and required of the Preacher of the Gospel is especially and above all Holiness Not outward riches and greatness they to us but like wings A Sanctus Valerius in the Church of God is a better man than a Valerius Maximus to the Ostrich which she cannot fly with but only flutter and get the faster away By these we only get to outgo other men but by themselves they do not help us to fly up to heaven our selves or to carry others along with us No nor so much inward gifts of Learning and such like abilities though such polishing necessary to the Priest yet it 's not it but Holiness that 's here ingraven in his Crown Knowledge without Grace Learning in the head without Holiness in the forehead is but like a precious stone in a Toad's head or like flowers stuck about a dead body which will not fully keep it from smelling the less half by much of a Minister's accomplishment And therefore they that have it only at best are but like a ship ballasted only on one side that thereby sinks the sooner Or like David's messengers their 2 Sam. 10. priestly garment which should be talaris is cut off by the middle to their greater shame And yet well were it if many were not seen daily go so half naked and yet not ashamed of it The Mathematicians observe that a man that compasseth the earth his head goeth many thousand miles more than his feet but in ascent to heaven the feet would have the greater journey I so it is whilst we rather go about to compass the earth than to get up to heaven our heads outgo our feet our knowledge our practice but yet in the Church of God although there be sixty Queens and eighty Concubines and Virgins without number yet his Love and Dove is his undefiled one and she is but one Cant. 6. 8. And therefore I envy you not your sixty-Queens and eighty Concubines and Virgins without number your numerous numberless perfections of Arts and Tongues had you skill in as many Languages as ever Mithridates could speak or in as many Authors as Ptolomy's library could hold had you the life and strength of Paul or the eloquence of Apollo's preaching had you Chrysostom's tongue or Austin's pen had you all the perfections that could be named or thought of I should not be like profane Porphyrie who accounted it pity that such an accomplished man as Paul was should be cast away upon our Religion nor like profane parents in our days that think much to offer to the Lord a male any that have strength of body or mind but the halt and the blind the impotent of body and Mal. 1. it may be more in mind Cripples and blocks whom they know not what else to do with are they which they think fittest to bestow on the Ministry but cursed deceivers at length learn not to envy God your choisest jewels for the ornament of his Sanctuary for can they be better bestowed Much less brethren and Gospel-Bezaleels do I envy you your rarest endowments and perfections if you will please but with him to employ them in the helping up of Gods Sanctuary I envy you not all your such like Queens and Concubines and Virgins only upon this double condition first that you commit not folly with them and still that your undefiled one be your love and dove that whatever other engravings you have otherwhere about you yet that holiness be as here engraven on your crown on your heart and fore-head ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord. Holiness But what is that In general a sequestring and setting either person or thing apart for God whether from common or profane use and in both respects be we holy that bear the vessels of the Lord Isa 52. 11. 1. We Ministers should be holy as separated to the Lord from worldly employments not as though I approved the slow-bellied Romish Monkery of our dayes or yet condemned the Monks of old for having honest callings to be employed in or least of all found fault with St. Paul for tent-making Acts 18. 3. and Working with his own hands 1 Cor. 4. 12. Idleness is unlawful in all And Pauls particular case to avoid scandal made his course in that kind both holy and commendable But yet this notwithstanding this first part of holiness required calls for 1. a sequestration from such homely and sordid imployments as will make our selves and Ministry contemptible St. Jerom saith that sacerdos in foro is as bad an eye-sore as Mercator in Templo both to be whipt out A Minister and a Market-man are not unisons It 's not spade or mattock but the sword of the spirit that must be seen in our hands which is that we should both work and fight with It had been shameful if true that which Litprandus avoucheth of the Bishops Apud Baron Anno 968. Num. 11. c. of
strange fire Lev. 10. 1. upon new Mercies new sins instead of new wayes Israel when but now delivered from Egypt begins to worship strange Gods which their fathers knew not Jer. 19. 4. new Gods Judg. 5. 8. And Judah when newly returned from Captivity fall a marrying strange wives Ezra 10. 2. When David's at rest from his wonted enemies then a stranger comes with whom he was not before acquainted 2 Sam. 12. 4. And when the Christian Church was rid of Heathenish Persecutors their old bad Neighbours then Superstition and Idolatry crowd in who before were strangers Never are we more in danger of being foiled with a renewed charge or a new on-set than when we are ready to cry Victoria To prevent which God's care of our safety is very observable in these two particulars in Scripture 1. That when he intends a perfect Rescue to his delivering Mercy he joyns guiding Mercy his preventing and following Grace keep company Thy rigteousness shall go before thee and Psal 40. 2. the glory of the Lord shall be thy Reward He both leads the Van and brings up the Rear Isa 58. 8. v. 10. Thy Light shall rise in Obscurity there the Prison door is opened and Light is let in but he had need be led by the hand when he is got out and therefore vers 11. it 's added and the Lord shall guide thee continually answerable to that 2 Chron. 32. 22. The Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem and the Lord guided them on every side and they had need of it for vers 25. when God did but a little leave him the better to prove him you know how desperatly he stumbled at the first step and therefore in all our Deliverances let this be one of our Prayers Lord as thou hast delivered us so do not now leave us but still lead us as thou hast reached me thy hand to pluck me out of the Snare so lend me it still to lead me in the Way which when come out of straits we are in most danger to go astray from as a man whilst in a narrow deep Lane cannot so readily go out of his way but when got out to a wide Common As Hos 2. 6 7. where there are many paths which may deceive him he hath most need of a Guide Nor have we more need of Deliverance from danger when we are in it than we have of Guidance when got out of it which God therefore in mercy grants when he means to compleat his Mercy 2. And secondly therefore also is wont not to perfect a Mercy or Deliverance at the first nor it may be at all in this life but leaves a Canaanite when Israel is in Canaan an Hadad a Rezon and a Jeroboam whilst Solomon sits peaceably on his Throne to allay the heat of the Pot which else would boyl over Few such Mornings like that 2 Sam. 23. 4. in which there is no Cloud or if so in the morning yet not usually so all the day to keep us the better in who else would be running out and playing the wantons in the Sunshine Christ was never lost but once in the Crowd Luke 2. 43. Nor God ever so often as in the crowds of his Mercy and therefore somthing we shall have that we do not pine and yet not all that we would have that we do not surfeit Something he gives to incourage but still somthing he withholds the better to nurture us and to force us still to wait upon him who else like ill-nurtured children when they have got all they desire should be then most like to run away farthest from him some Worm in our fairest Apple and some Blemish in our greatest Beauty some bitter in our greatest sweet to make all medicinal In our greatest enjoyments somthing shall be wanting or cross to our desires which may be as a constant Memento and really say sin no more because else we shall be then ready to sin more than ever For first it is not in the nature or power of Affliction unless Reas 1 sanctified to mortify Corruption that as soon as we are freed from the one we should be rid of the other The Winter-frost may nip the Weeds and keep them under ground but yet so as that they sprout out again the next spring Solomon speaks of a Fool in the Mortar and Jeremiah of Dross in the Furnace This Cripple in the Text though after thirty eight years weakness he had been healed by Christ did not yet know Christ at the first and some may never and then no wonder if notwithstanding all they prove never the better but much the worse 2. For that Corruption which Affliction doth not heal it doth at most but curb and when that Curb in a Deliverance is removed the Corruption is the more fully and violently manifested and exerted as Antichrist when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was taken away was more openly discovered 2 Thess 2. 7 8. And Joâ—dan when the Preist's feet were once out of it and so that Dam as it were broken down runs down his Channel more violently than before In times of danger and trouble Conscience often proves a Shrew and will chide and God's angry and we fear will strike The Angel stands in the way with a drawn Sword to stop us and when seen will make a Balaam stand still Thus then these pricking Thorns hedge up the way and a stormy day shuts the door and keeps us in but the next fair blast that opens it makes the wanton run out with the more eagerness As the hunger-starved Man with his food the longer he was before kept from it the more greedily he now falls to it as much as he pined before he surfeits now as they are wont to say of Sailers that they are not more calm in a Storm than they storm in a Calm or when got to Shore 3. As in this case the Affliction was but a Curb so the Deliverance and Mercy proves a Snare adds Fewel to that Flame which the former rainy day quenched or at least kept down strengthen's the recovered man's Lust which Sickness weakned affords matter for the rich man's Pride which his Poverty humbled entertains the Wanton and Worlding with other company whom Straits and Dangers for that time inforced to seek after God and made him glad of his acquaintance As in Bloud-letting upon the return of the Bloud we are then most ready to faint I wish that after our Bloud-shed upon the return of Mercies our former Reformation that seemed to have some life in it do not quite dy away and that Ephraim and Manasseh do not continue Brothers still the one's Name signifieth Plenty or Fruitfulness and the other's Forgetfulness that in the plenty of restored Mercies we did not forget our Misery and our selves and our God altogether The Lord make good that Promise Job 5. 24. to us that when being kept long from home we may visit our Tabernacles and not sin to which we are
not thy Father that hath bought thee c. Thy God and Saviour that hath redeemed thee and doth Jeshurun when grown fat begin to kick to forsake God that made him and lightly to esteem the God of his Salvation vers 15 18. but what follows vers 19. When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and daughters It 's an unmanly sin man loaths it a most ungodly sin God abhors it in all especially in a Jeshurun and that signifieth an upright people it 's matter of highest provocation if he find it in his sons and daughters With others this despising of the riches of the goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God treasures up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 4 5. And even in the dearest of God's children God so ill takes it that if the most upright Hezekiah make such returns he shall smart for it 2 Chron. 32. 25. compared with 2 King 20. 17 18. Let them so ungratefully abuse such a mercy the very worst of the Heathens shall rather have it than they continue owners of it Ezek. 7. 24. A return in this case God expects but it 's a return of praise and obedience and not a return to our sin that 's most hateful ingratitude 2. Most desperate Obstinacy as standing out against God when he hath gone through a full course of all means of the very last and most likely and which usually are wont to be most effectual for when God hath delivered his people from straits he hath endeavoured to fasten on them all obligations to obedience besides the tye of the Word in his Command there hath been the bond of affliction in their by-past misery and the thick cord of love in their present deliverance and shall this three-fold cord be so easily broken It 's not the Heroick Impetus of the Spirit of God coming Judg. 15. 14. Matth. 8 28. with Mark 5. 3 4. upon us as sometimes upon Sampson but from the insult of some evil spirit more fierce than ordinarily as in the Gospel that none of all not all these chains and fetters can hold us nor any thing tame us a tough bad humour which strongest Physick cannot purge and which is the Physicians last receipt for such are Afflictions and Mercies Sometimes indeed afflictions are the last as pinching and pineing Poverty at last brought home the Prodigal Luke 15. As a Winter-frost helps to kill these Weeds which in Summer sprung up and multiplied When Lenitives will not do corrosives searings cuttings off sometimes work the Cure But what hope if after all the Gangrene creep on still It may be you will say sometimes that may be preserved in Sugar that will not in Brine and when God hath not been before in the Wind and Earthquake and Fire he may be after in the still voice 1 King 19. 11 12 13. And therefore God that he may leave no means unessayed like a careful tender-hearted Father to a stubborn Child whom he would not lose will try whether mildness as a Summer-Sun will not melt that heart which harshness as a winter frost hardned You are told of a stone that will move at the gentle touch of a finger more than with the violent rush of your whole body and such stones sometimes are our hard hearts and therefore God that delights not in the death of a sinner and with the goodness of whose Nature this sweet way of Mercy most agrees is willing as at first to begin with it so after other sharper means used at last to end with it When after the Israelites want of Food he in Mercy gave them Bread from Heaven he saith it was that he might prove them whether they would walk in his Law or no Exod. 16. 4. So that if after Judgments we have a return of Mercies we had need take heed for it may be then we go upon our last and strongest trial In Afflictions God indeed strongly tryeth us whether we will cleave to him in want of Mercies but by Mercies he maketh fullest tryal of us whether we will serve and obey him whether we will set upon our Journey for Heaven in such fair Way and Weather when we have nothing to hinder us and whether we will build when the Scaffold is built and all Tools and Materials ready that we want nothing that might help us And then Isa 5. if after all Mercies yet sour Grapes what can God do more but quite extirpate If after tryal thus made of all means of the last and best we continue as ill or prove worse than before then Reprobate silver call them for the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6. 29 30. Meneh Meneh Tekel Dan. 5. 25 to 30. Vpharsin God hath again and again numbred and weighed us and we are found light nay heavy-hearted and immoveable and what then follows Peres thy Kingdom is divided the Lord knows so is ours miserably And the Lord grant that which is added do not follow and is given to the Medes and Persians that God give us not up to our Enemies who after all this variety of powerfullest means will not yet give up our selves to him in a way of Obedience For if after we are made whole we sin again as we are over prone which was the first point it cannot be avoided but that every way both in point of sin and misery it will be worse with us which was the second point here implyed Of both which the Use and Application should have been in Vse the more full opening and inforcing the other two things here enjoyned 1. A serious and heedful Consideration and Review of the Mercy received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold thou art made whole saith our Saviour he sets an Ecce upon it as to set forth the remarkableness of the Mercy so to put him in mind of his Duty and that was to take a diligent and exact survey of the Mercy and because being made whole speaks a former Disease and a present Cure he is called to think of both of them together and to compare them together how weak before he was and how well now before not able to crawl he can now rise up and walk he that could not before carry himself from the Porch to the Pool can now carry his bed from the Pool through the City He that for many years together was made sick with delayed Hopes and quite cut to the heart with vexatious Disappointments hath with the speaking of a word his Health perfectly restored and his longing Desires in an instant fully accomplished All this our Saviour would have him wisely behold and consider and for ever remember with all thankfulness And would he not have us of this City and Kingdom behold with the like care a greater Cure Indeed I cannot say to England thou art perfectly made whole we are yet come short of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that perfect Soundness which Peter told the Jews
Believer's estimate there is but one main chief good and that 's to draw near to God and all other things are only good reductive as either they may be reduced to this or we led 1 Sam. 25. 8. Esther 8. 17. to God by them Some call it a good Time and the Scripture calls it a good Day that 's a day and time of feasting and rejoycing but if they be Festivals rather than Holy Days times in which we run a whoring from God rather than draw near to him account that day to thee the worst in the year in which thou runnest furthest from God and let that ever be accounted good Company and good Employment c. in and after which thy heart was most drawn out after God but if more deaded and straitned God and thy Soul more estranged by it either certainly it was bad in it self or at least unhappily it proved not good to thee If Jacob take a Wife of the Daughters of Heth what good will my life do me said Rebekah Gen. 27. 46. And what good will the goodliest Beauties and most delightful Objects in the World do thee if as the Daughters of Heth did Esau's so they draw off thine heart from God whom to draw near and keep close to is so good as nothing is good without it nothing so bad as that which comes most cross to it And this for direction of our Judgment in a right estimate of true goodness 2. Of our practice in our earnestest pursuit after our own happiness Let this Text It 's good for me to draw near and keep close to God be ever our Vade mecum to quicken us still and ever to draw nearer and cleave faster Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you saith the Apostle Jam. 4. 8. The Promise is very heartning that in these our approaches God as the Father to the Prodigal will meet us the half way but therefore it layeth a greater engagement upon us to mind the Duty Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. Happy that we may that such as whose unworthiness is such as their place is with the Publican to stand afar off and whose Guilt Luk. 18. 13. is such as with Cain may make them run from God may have liberty and boldness of access to draw near to God that the Exod. 3. 2. Bush should burn and not be consumed was not so great a Miracle as that such dry Stubble as we are should draw nigh to that God which is a consuming Fire and not perish in everlasting Burnings That Blood of Sprinkling which hath quenched the Fire of God's Wrath being sprinkled on us hath so cooled the inflammations of our wounded and afrighted Consciences that we with humble boldness may draw near We had need therefore look to it that we do And here now the faithful Soul breaths out the Psalmist's Prayer Lord cause me to know the way for I lift up my Soul unto Psal 143. 8. Psal 27. 8. thee Thou sayest unto me Seek ye my Face and my heart ecchoes back again Thy Face O Lord will I seek When thou callest to us Return ye back-sliding Children from our Souls we return this Answer Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Jer. 3. 22. Lord our God Thou hast fastned Cords of Love upon our Hearts thou hast savingly touched them that they strongly move towards thee they cleave to thee or they follow hard after thee as it is Psal 63. 8. But the distance between thee and us is great the obstacles many and the way hard we are to be found yet so to walk in it as by it to attain to these blessed Approaches and therefore here the main Query is in what way and by what means we may so draw near to thee as to cleave close and abide with thee for ever SERMON XXXI PSAL. 73. 28. III. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries Decemb 2. 1649. It is good for me to draw near to God THe best Prospect to take View of the Creature 's Beauty is at a greater Distance and in a transient Glance whilst nearer standing and longer looking discovers Blemishes and Deformities in choicest Beauties But Moses bids Israel stand still if they would see God's Salvation Here Juvat usque morari when gotten upon the Mount to a Glymps of this Transfiguration Peter thinks it's good to be here He was â—â—t well awake when he spake of making a Tabernacle he should have said a Mansion Which I hope will excuse my longer dwelling upon this Text which speaks of our drawing near to God with whom it 's best to abide for ever In two former Sermons I have â—â—deavoured to shew how Good how every way Good it is to draw near to God and that it might come the nearer to us I have endeavoured also to set it home in the Application Now as to that Question which in the Close of the last Discourse was but barely propounded viz. In and by what Way and Means we may draw near to God I say as to that Question when Thomas was stumbling on it our Saviour returns this full Answer John 14 5 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me We come to God by Christ Heb. 7. 25. But of this before And therefore it now only remaineth to shew by what Means and after what Manner we may by Christ thus draw near to God And here let me Premise in general That 1. First it must be in due time according to that Isa 55. 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near That Glorious God who in the perfection of his Essence and Majesty is at an infinit Distance from us and yet further removed by our sins is pleased so far to humble himself and stoop to us as graciously to look towards us and sometimes especially to draw very near to us as the Sun from on High in the Firmament by darting down his warm Light and inlivening Beams especially in his Summer-approaches In the Ministry of his Word God holds out his Hand Rom. 10. 21. and by the Inspirations of his Spirit he lays hold on our Hearts In both our Beloved puts in his Hand by the hole of the Door Cant. 5. 4. and saith as unto Thomas Reach hither thy Finger and put thy Hand into my Side Or as to his Spouse Cant. 2. 13. Arise John 20. 27. my Love my fair One and come away When thus Christ by his Spirit comes a Woing to the Spouse and after this manner whispers in thy Heart he is come very near thee as our Saviour said even at the Doors And now that this Door stands Mark 13. 29. open and Christ is coming out to meet thee now come forth ye Daughters of Jerusalem and behold King Solomon Cant. 3.
used were poor these Instruments weak these Men sinful and therefore might rather have hurt than helped us And therefore through them we look up to thee and both for them and any help we have had by them in all that 's past we bless and praise thee And for the present and for what 's to come in all straits and Trust occasions when we have either most or least of the Creature 's help we will trust thee and cast the stress of all our Salvation upon thee At this Anchora Sacra let us ride in greatest Storms when all other Anchors break or come home In desperate cases let not the Romans relie more on their Triarii than we on a blessed Trinity Eleazar smote the Philistines and wrought a great Victory when the Men of Israel were all fled and gone 2 Sam. 23. 9 10. and he but a weak Shadow and Type of Christ our true Eleazar the help of God as that name signifieth who can recover deep Consumptions help at desperate Plunges rescue us when all else have quite deserted and left us Other Props and Supports often fail us sometimes ruine us Jer. 2. 37. Vallus vitem decipit like the weary Man that leans his hand on the Wall Amos 5. 19. and it either totters and fails him or a Serpent in it bites him But what Peace Peace perfect Peace is there in staying the Soul upon that everlasting Rock Isa 26. 3 4. Safe standing on so sure ground Good laying hold where there is so good hand-hold Good hanging on that Nail fastned in a Eliakim sure place on which we may hang both Issue and Off-spring both Cups and Flaggons Isa 22. 23 24. Our selves and all our not only lesser but even greatest wants and burdens Jacob here did so both for himself and his Posterity and though now fainting and dying yet he could quietly lay down his weary Head in his Father's Bosom and there pour out his Soul in this sweet warm breathing I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. SERMON XXXV GEN. 49. 18. II. Sermon Preached at St. Maries Octob. 13. 1650 I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. BUt this leads me to the fourth Particular at first propounded That the Israel of God in all their straits should Doct. 4 wait for his Salvation Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee saith the Church Isa 26. 8. Wait on the Lord Psal 27. 14. And Jacob here by a Spirit of Luther Pererius Faith and Prophesie as he foreseeth the miseries of his Posterity that they had need of Salvation so he foreseeth also how God from time to time would raise up Judges and Kings and others to deliver them and so he comfortably and confidently waits for it nay prevents the danger with expectation of deliverance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Preter Tense even long before I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. So old Jacob here which old Simeon Luke 2. 30. otherwise expresseth Lord mine eyes have seen thy Salvation which two Speeches of these two old dying Men set out the difference of the two Testaments The one saith Lord I wait the other I have seen but both the same Salvation So that now that our Saviour is come we see that which So Luke 2. 25 38. they waited for But because he is to come again a second time and till then perfect Salvation will not fully be come but mean while many difficulties and dangers will be coming between as we shall have need so it will be our duty in this present condition with Jacob here to be waiting for God's Salvation Which waiting contains in it three Particulars 1. An earnest desire 2. A confident expectation of it And 3. a meek staying of God's leasure and attending upon him for it 1. An earnest desire and out-going of the Soul to the Salvation that it waits for The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used In the rise of it as Oleaster and Foster observe hath an affinity with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so signifieth an extended stretching and reaching out of the Soul And in the use of it is joined with others that signifie a diligent seeking Psal 69. 6. an earnest defiring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 26. 8. an ardent breathing as the heated Labourer or Traveller doth after the cool shadow Job 7. 2. Such a breathing and even breaking of the Soul there is in waiting as the Watchman that in a cold dark night waits for the Morning Psal 130. 6. with many a long look and longing desire as David's Soul went out to Absalom in his long absence and Sisera's Mother upon 2 Sam. 13. 39. his long stay looks out at the Window and cries through the Lattess Why is his Chariot so long in coming Why tarry the Wheels of Judg. 5. 28. his Chariots And such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it Rom. 8. 19. such an out-looking and longing such an out-going and reaching stretching out of the Soul such breathing and panting in Waiters at Court are wont to be Suiters most fervent Prayers and ardent Desires after God's Salvation doth he work in them that wait for it and expect from them that being in straits stand in need of it And this 1. That he may have the honour of the Gift whilst all eyes with long looks are up to him and all hands stretched out towards Zech. 9. 1. him thereby proclaiming that they expect all from him as Psal 145. 15. 2. That hereby also it may appear that they are sensible of their need This poor Man cryed saith the Psalmist Psal 34. 6. pointing at himself as a poor Begger whilst he is crying for an Alms. The dry Earth saith it's thirsty when it gapes for Heaven's Rain and so do we under pressures and burdens tell God as fainting Jacob here in the Text that we are spent and out of breath when we breath after his Salvation as Isa 38. 14. O Lord I am oppressed ease me or undertake for me 3. That so he may the more hasten the Mercy and Deliverance When the Child crieth earnestly the Mother comes running in speedily Nor is our Heavenly Father oft wont when his Children cry aloud to stay long When Israel in Egypt sighs and cries and groans by reason of their bondage their cry came soon up to God Exod. 2. 23 24 25. and it was not 〈…〉 they came out of that Furnace As it 's said of that travailing Woman Rev. 12. 2. which signifieth the Suffering Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she cryed travailing in Birth and pained to be delivered Clamabat parturiens Her crying out in her Pains was both a sign and a means of her delivery now at hand And truly for this very end God oft-times quickens throws to force our cries that so he might hasten the Birth On purpose he multiplies and aggravates Afflictions and Burdens that he might quicken
our desires and call out our more earnest Cries and Groans the more to quicken the earnings of his Bowels towards us and so the more to hasten our deliverance Which tells us in these times of our perplexities and dangers Vse what bad Friends we are to our selves and what Enemies to our Salvation in our neglect of this first Particular of waiting for it 1. In want of these stronger out-goings of the Soul and these warmer breathings after that Deliverance and Mercy which we stand in so much need of not that our outward peace and safety were either in it self or in our deliberate esteem less desireable no less than Health and Life is to a Man in a Lethargy But that Disease makes him sensless so as that when he stands in most need of it he is least of all affected with it and so lieth still as dead without desires of it or any other way making out for it O the deadness of our hearts such a Lethargy I fear hath too much seized on us Our Straits are many our Dangers very great and yet our Hearts very dead because of later years we have been accustomed to troubles and now like a Man before tired out with labour and watching fallen into such a deep sleep as he cannot be wakened We are very far from an awakened frame of Spirit to look up to God and to look out for Salvation and the right way to come by it as the Prophet complained though we fade like a Leaf and our iniquities like the Wind are ready to take us away as a blustering Wind doth the fading Leaves from the Trees in Autumn yet there is none that calleth upon God that stirs up himself to take hold of him Isa 64. 6 7. We are very secure in the midst of danger The drunken Man is asleep on the top of the Mast in the midst of the Sea And although Prov. 23. Dan. 7. 2. the four Winds of the Heaven strive upon the great Sea from all quarters of the World nothing but Storms and Tempests 〈…〉 ever yet those sweeter gales are very silent a spirit of Prayer is very much down and when the said as Jonah 1. 2. Wind is down the Showr is wont to pour down The Lord grant it may not be a Showr of Fire and Brimstone that Sodome's sins may not bring upon us a Sodom's overthrow But so much for the first particular of this waiting viz. an earnest desire 2. The second was a confident expectance For waiting is an act of Hope and Hope the Daughter of Faith and Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11. 1. the very subsistence of things hoped for Faith assures and thereupon Hope expects and thereupon also waits My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him Psal 62. 5. Waits as long as it expects and no longer as long as you expect a friends coming so long you will wait though it be very long but give over looking for him and then you will wait no longer When that desperate Courtier in a pang of despair said Behold this evil is of the Lord which he will not and we cannot remove and so despair of remedy then what followed but that desperate conclusion why should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 King 6. 33. But a meekned Believer because he expects much is very willing to wait long and in this patient waiting he continues confidently expecting according to that Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord and I will look for him Believing Waiters are men of great hopes and expectations Mordecai is confident that enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews Esther 4. 14. Our God whom we serve is able yea and he will deliver us said Daniels three fellows Chap. 3. 17. and fainting Jacob here in the Text though whilest he foresaw the strength and prevalency of Enemies and the sins and sufferings of his posterity and especially of the Tribe of Dan which he now speaks of yet as old Simeon having it revealed that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ Luke 2. 25 26. So old Jacob here seeing for certain a great deliverance by Sampson and a greater by Christ in the midst of all disheartning discouragements whilest he expects he waits and whilest he waits he expects Gods Salvation This did he and this should we and that in greatest straits wait and look wait and look to God 2 Chron. 20. 12. nay wait and look for much from God as the Cripple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looked on the Apostles expecting to receive something of them Act. 3. 5. Especially when Peter had before in the 4th verse said to him look on us And the very same word God saith to us when we ly before him in a more miserable condition look unto me and be ye saved Isa 45. 22. As the Stung Man looked on the Brasen Serpent in assurance of cure and the Servant on the hands of his Master in expectance of a langess so our Lord and Master in this our waiting posture would have us by Faith look to him not only with desire but with expectance of Salvation And this as very much making also 1. For the Glory of God which was much advanced in the former particular by having the Eyes of all Creatures looking to him in way of desire but much more in this when they are fixed on him in expectation That spake him an alsufficient Soveraign but this proclaims him a gracious and bountiful one for otherwise with men some may be so able that much is desired of them but withal so strait-handed that it 's but little which is expected from then but how glorious is our God that is as gracious as great not more powerful than bountiful from whom his servants may promise themselves as much as they ask My God will hear me Micah 7. 7. yea expect more than they desire as being both able and willing to do more than we can ask or think Ephes 3. 20. This glory of his free and rich Goodness is his great Design especially in the Covenant of Grace and therefore it is that he makes choice of the recumbency and expectance of Faith by which he will dispense not only eternal but even temporal Salvation as that which in so doing much sets forth this his Glory 2. And secondly as much furthers and facilitates our Deliverance for great Expectations are great Obligations even with Men of generous spirits to do much for them that rely much on them and promise themselves much from them that the others good thoughts may not exceed their goodness and this sometimes to those that can plead no Merit that it might appear to be mere Goodness and Mercy If thus with ingenuous Men then much more than so with an All-Gracious God who hath professed that he delights in them that trust and hope in his Mercy Psal 147. 11. and therefore takes pleasure to answer
in the Event not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us but then it will be for as Sin entred into us at the first union of Body and Soul so it goeth not out till their last dissolution But being then parted As to the Body for fins of omission this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam clog the Soul from doing duty nor as to sins of commission doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul as being a fomes and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution And as to the Soul though wicked Mens Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin which is the greatest imperfection And what a gain this is a holy Heart will tell you when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust would give a whole World to be rid of it even exchange his life for Death because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it And as Death ends the Believer's sin So also all that misery which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with No more inward sorrows or fears or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself no more temptations from Satan no more molestations or persecutions from the World or if any he is no more sensible of them There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. And if you say that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints I say but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities which are the greatest miseries for they in the wicked are not then ended but as to their greatest extremities then begin But for the Godly no more then any of these They then cease from all their Labours Revel 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds Isa 57. 2. not one bodily pain or disquieting thought more as Mr. Knox on his death-bed being asked whether his See his Life pains were great answered that he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all trouble and the beginning of endless Joys Serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer having all his former sins and miseries so well and for ever ended 2. And whatsoever of both kinds if he had lived longer he might have fallen into most happily prevented The Apocryphal Solomon saith that Enoch was speedily taken away lest wickedness should have altered his understanding Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture that Josiah was that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. of which some expound that Dr. Hammond Revel 14. 13. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord namely at that time there meant because after that time there would be greater misery It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been if they had lived any longer yea and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in if they had not died the sooner But when they were now falling a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger and with a wary hand snatcht them out of it and took them into his own Bosom out of the reach of it Blessed Father Happy Child And gainful Death that put them into harbor when the storm was coming that would have sunk them prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss 2. Secondly Positively in bringing in reallest Gains 1. Of Grace made perfect and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it Faith then completed in Vision and Hope in Fruition and therefore called the end of our Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation as the consummation and perfection of both and for Love what was here imperfect shall then be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God and one another when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will And we who think how well it is with us when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God's Commandments and feel how burdensom it is to lye under the burden of Sin and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to what unvaluable a gain shall we esteem it when all these cloggs shall be taken off and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision whither the Spirit is to go to go without hinderance and Ezek. 1. 12. weariness Now a true Christian estimates Gain not by that of Mony as it 's called Judg. 5. 19. or other commodities which the Men of the World traffique in but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith James 2. 5. and God's fear Prov. 22. 4. Which is the * Luke 16. 11. true and the †Prov. 8. 18. everlasting Riches as our Saviour and Solomon calls them and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest he accounts himself the greatest gainer and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected 2. And happiness completed and that will be then also if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body which will not be till the last day But at Death Paul makes account that when he departs hence he shall be with Christ which he esteems to be best of all v. 23. of this Chapter in a more full Vision and Fruition of God and what attends that Estate and in what else can be our best happiness Mr. Mede indeed saith that he remembers not that Death is On Rev. 14. 13. Diem mortis diem mercedis indigitari ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward Nor it may be is it so said in those express words nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and compleat payment of it which is reserved to the Resurrection-day But I am sure if Paul said true that upon his departure he should be with Christ that the greatest part of the reward is then given and that not only