his mouth and walk in the way that is pointed out by his Word and Spirit you shall have enough to direct you in all your ways 2. It doth warn us of all our dangers It doth not only in the general call upon us to watch Mat. 13. 37. and walk circumspectly Eph. 5. 15. but it discovers all those deceits particularly whereby we may be surprized diverted and turned out of the way There are snares in Prosperity snares in Adversity Temptations you meet with in praying trading eating drinking in your publick undertakings and in your private converse it shews your danger in all your ways before you feel the smart of them therefore give up your selves to God's direction reading hearing meditating believing and practising read hear it often then the deceits of Satan will be laid open and the snares of your own hearts Christians an exact Rule is of little use if you do not consult it Gal. 6. 16. Peace and mercy be upon all them that walk according to this Rule That order their conversations exactly the word signifies that try their work as a Carpenter doth by his square they examine their actions by the Word of God what they are now a doing therefore consult with it often then meditate of it ponder it seriously 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things If we would have understanding by the Word there must be consideration Man hath a discursive faculty to debate things with himself Why this is my duty what would become of me if I slep out of God's way here 's danger and a snare What if I should run into it now it is laid before me And then believe it surely Heb. 4. 2. The Word profited not not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Believe God upon his Word without making tryal You hear much of living by sense and by saith living by faith is when we bear up upon the bare Word of God and encourage our selves in the Lord but living by sense is a trying whether it be so or no as they that will not believe Hell shall feel Hell and they that will not believe the Word of God shall smart for it Heb 11. 7. Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark. It may be there were no preparations to the accomplishment of the Curse and Judgment the Word threatned it 's a thing not seen yet he prepared an Ark. When a man is walking in an unjust course all things prosper for awhile the misery the Word threatens is unseen Ay but if you would grow wiser by the Word than men can by Experience you must look to the end of things Psal. 73. 17. I went into the sanctuary of God then understood I their end And then practise it diligently A young Practiser hath more understanding than an ancient Notionallist Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments It is not they that are able to speak of things and savor what the Word requires but they that do what they hear and discourse of Gregory saith We know no more than we practise and we practise as we know these two always go together The Word doth us no good unless there be a ready obedience therefore this is wisdom when we give up our selves to God's direction whatever it cost us in the world Doct. 2. That young ones may have many times more of this wisdom than those that are ancient Divers instances there are Ioseph was very young sold into Egypt about 17 years of age and when he was in Egypt Psal. 105. 22. He taught his Senators wisdom speaking of the Senators of Egypt With how much modesty did he carry himself when his Mistriss laid that snare Isaac was young and permitted himself to be offered to God as a Sacrifice Samuel was wise betimes 1 Sam. 2. 26. It is said The child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men From his Infancy he was dedicated to God and God gives him wisdom to walk so that he was in favor with God and men yea God reveals himself to Samuel when he did not to Eli. David when he was but 15 years of age fought with the Lion and Bear and somewhile after that with Goliah when he was a ruddy youth Iosiah when he was but eight years old administred the Kingdom before he was twelve sets upon serious Reformation Ieremiah was sanctified from the womb Ier. 1. 5. And Iohn the Baptist leapt in his Mother's womb Luke 1. 35. In the 32d of Iâ—…b the Ancients Iob's Friends are spoken of pleading their Cause wise young Elihu brings wiser words and better arguments than those that came to comfort Iob. Solomon asked wisdom of God when he was young Daniel and his Companions those four children as they are called Dan. 1. 17 18. it is said The Lord filled them with wisdom above all the ancient Chaldeans And Timothy the Apostle speaks of his youth and bids him flee youthful lusts he was young yet very knowing and set over the Church of God Our Lord Iesus at 12 years old puzled the Doctors In Ecclesiastical Stories we read of one at 15 years of age dyed with great constancy for Religion in the midst of sundry tortures Ignatius pleads the cause of the Bishop when he was but a very youth but a man powerful in doctrine and of great wisdom and therefore he saith He would have them not look to his appearing youth but to the age of his mind to his wisdom before God And he saith There are many that have nothing to shew for their age but wrinckles and gray hairs So there are many young ones in whom there is an excellent spirit and in all Ages there are instances given of youth of whom it may be said That they are wise beyond their years For the Reasons why many times young ones may have more wisdom than those that are aged God doth so 1. That he might shew the freedom and sovereignty of his grace He is not bound to years nor to the ordinary course of nature but can work according to his own pleasure and give a greater measure of knowledge and understanding to those that are young and otherwise green than he will to those that are of great age and more experience in the world You have this reason rendred Iob 32. 7 8 9. I said days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom There 's the ordinary course But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Great men are not always wise neither do the aged understand judgment Though all men have reason and a spirit yet the Spirit of God is a wind that blows where he lists Those that exceed others in time may come behind them in grace He gives a greater measure many times of grace and knowledge to shew his
of heart to God The carnal mind is enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8. 7. We manifest our enmity to the Law of God by delays as well as by a downright opposition Neh. 〈◊〉 6. it is said the Work went on speedily why For the People had a mind to the Work Where there is an earnest bent of heart there we cannot linger and dally any longer But men have no love nor affection to God therefore do they delay and keep off from him 4. The love of the World rooted in us the love of present Delights and present Contentments This is so deeply rooted in our Nature that here we stick and are loth to come off kindly to the Work of God In Matth. 22. when they were invited to the marriage Feast of the Kings Son that is to the priviledges of the Gospel what did they plead The â—…arme Oxâ—…n Merchandise and one had married a Wife they were loth to be divorced from their dearest Lusts and to renounce the satisfaction which they had in carnal things that so they may walk with God in a way of strict Obedience II. Let me represent the hainousness of it because we are apt to stroke it with a gentle censure and to speak of this with soft words let us see what this dâ—…lay and putting off God is when he comes with a great deal of importunity and affectionate earnestness inviting us to partake of his Grace 1. 'T is flat disobedience to God You think 't is but putting it off for a while No it is flat disobedience Why God is as peremptory for the time and season as he is for the Duty it self God doth not onely say turn to me but to day even while it is call'd to day harden not your Hearts Heb. 3. 7 8. The Lord deals with us as the Roman Ambassadour dealt with Antiochus when he was shifting and putting off the matter that he might not give a direct answer to the Romans the Ambassadour draws a circle round about him saith he intra hunc let 〈◊〉 have an answer before thou passest from hâ—…nce so God will not onely have an answer but a present answer If he saith to day it is flat disobedience for you to say to morrow He saith now is the time of Salvation we are charged in his name and by his authority to do it now in this instant 2. 'T is Ingratitude and Unthankfulness for Gods Eternal Love Psal. 103. 17. From everlasting to everlasting thy loving kindness is great to them that fear thee From all Eternity God was mindful of us and before the World was With reverence we may speak it ever since he was God he was our God from Eternity to Eternity his loving kindness is great and shall we adjourn and put him off to an odd corner of our lives when he thought he could never soon enough think of us Shall the whole duration of God be taken up by his Love to us and shall we be content to grieve the Spirit of God and trample his Laws under our Feet for all this can you have hearts to abuse such a God and to deal so unkindly with him 3. It is base disingenuity we do not deal with God as we would have God to deal with us If we have any business or errand at the Throne of Grace we would be heard presently and are ready to complain if we have not a quick dispatch Psal. 102. 3. Lord hear me speedily here 's our Language when praying for any relief we stand in need of To day is a season for Mercy but to morrow we make always to be the season for Duty We would have God to tarry our sinful leisure till the heat of our Lusts be spent and fervors of Youth be abated yet we will not tarry his holy leisure We are bound but the Lord is hee whether he will answer us or no yet we murmur if God come not in at our beck we are always in haste if in any danger and want any relief we cry how long And shall God stand waiting till we turn from our evil ways If any cry how long God may as he doth Ier. 13. 27. when shall it once be 4. It is â—…ase self-love when we can be content to dishonour God longer provided that at length we may be saved Shall I say that this is to preferr our Salvation before God No but it is to preferr our sins before God And it shews that we are not willing to part with sin upon reasons of Duty or any real inclination of heart towards God but onely upon reasons of Interest that we may be saved yea never to part with it at all if you might have your wills Not but that a man may and ought to eye rewards and punishments It is part of the exercise of our saith to eye the reward and also to eye the punishment but this manifests an inordinate respect to the reward when we would enjoy our personal happiness and so that he obtained at length we care not how God be disobeyed and dishonoured You do but in effect say to God thus Let me despise thy Commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer then I will look after my Salvation when my Lusts are satisfied This is base self-love Christ did not redeem us onely that we might die well but that we might live well Not onely that we might be safe at last but glorify God here upon earth Not onely that we might enter into Heaven but do him service and that all our dayes Luke 1. 74. Being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life 5. It is great Injustice and Injury to God who hath been too long kept out of his right already Oh look back how ungratefully have you spent all your â—…ormer time too much time hath been spent already and you would delay longer 1 Pet. 4. 3. The time past may more then suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles c. It 's enough and should be more then enough and now you should not stay a moment As those that have delayed their journey when they begin and set out mend their pace that they may redeem their time and accomplish their journey so should we for the time past is more than enough to be spent in worldly vanity and carnal excess Rom. 13. 12 13 14. It 's high time to awake out of Sin God hath been encroached upon for a long time and that should and will be a grief of heart to you that you have not all this while acknowledged or paid your debt to your Lord. The thought of this should prevail with us the more because the payment of a debt to a man should not be delayed to put off a poor man till to morrow when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 28. And the wages of a Servant should not abide with us Lev. 19. 13. We
wholly neglectful of him and think they do not want God Psal. 14. 2. There is none that understands and seeks after God They have no affection or desire of communion with God They seek such things as their hearts lust after but it is not their desire or care to enjoy God But when the conversion of the Iews is spoken of Hos. 3. 5. it is said They shall return and seek the Lord their God At first conversion men are sensible of their great distance from God and are troubled they have been so long strangers to him Go to another sort of seekers they are sensible of the same thing in case of desertion it is clear Cant. 5. 6. My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone I sought him but I could not find him They never begin to recover until they are first sensible of their loss when they see Christ is gone they are left dead and comfortless yea all believers their seeking or looking after communion with God is grounded upon a sense of want in some degree and measure it is little they have in comparison of what they want and expect and therefore still the children of God are a generation of seekers that seek after God Psal. 24. 6. whatever they enjoy they are still in pursuit of more They are always breathing after God and desire to enjoy more communion with him A wicked man is always running from God and is never better than when he is out of Gods company when he is rid of all thoughts of God he runs from his own conscience because he finds God there he runs from the company of good men because God is there holy conference is as a prison he runs from Ordinances because they bring God near to his Conscience and put him in mind of God He avoids death because he cannot endure to be with God But men that have a sense and want of God upon them will be enquiring and seeking after him 2. This seeking may be known by the things sought What do we seek for Union and communion with God Psal. 105. 4. Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face for evermore It is an allusion to the Ark which was a pledg of Gods favourable and powerful presence so that which we seek after is Gods favourable and powerful presence that we may find the Lord reconciled comforting and quickning our heart Communion with God is the main thing that we seek after as to the enjoyment of his favour in the acceptance of our persons and pardon of our sins This is that the man of God expresseth in his own name and in the name of all the Saints Psal. 4. 6 7. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us That God would display his beams of favour upon the soul. So Psal. 63. 3. Thy favour is better than life And then his strength too that he may subdue our corruptions temptations enemies Mic. 7. 19. and that he may supply our wants inward and outward by his all-sufficiency Phil. 4. 19. God telleth Abraham I am God all-sufficient walk before me and be thou perfect 3. The formality of the duty may be explain'd with respect to Graces and Ordinances It consists in the exercise of grace and in the use of Ordinances 1 The Exercise of Grace Faith and Love Faith is often exprest by terms of motion coming running going seeking Thus is the whole tendency of soul towards God exprest by terms that are proper to outward motion Coming notes our serious resolution and purpose to make after God Going notes the practice or progress in that resolution Running notes the fervor and earnestness of the soul to enjoy God And seeking that notes our diligence in the use of means That faith is implied in seeking appears by comparing these two Scriptures Isa. 11. 10. To it shall the Gentiles seek Now when this is spoken of in the New Testament it is rendred thus Rom. 15. 12. In him shall the Gentiles trust So that it notes confidence and hope 2 It notes Love which is exercised herein which puts upon Sallies and earnest egressions of soul after the party loved Psal. 63. 8. My soul follows hard after thee It is grievous to those who love God to think of separation from him or to forbear to seek after him The great care of their souls is to find God that he may direct comfort strengthen and sanctifie them and to have sweet experience of his grace Thus the Spouse sought him whom her soul loved and gave not over till she found him 2. Again it is exercised in the use of the Ordinances as the Word and Prayer God will be sought in his own Ordinances Christ walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks If you would find a man mind there is his walk and usual resort When Christ was lost his Parents sought him in the Temple there they found him If you would find Christ look to the shepherds tents in the assemblies of his people Cant. 1. 7 8. there shall you meet him Only let me tell you in these Ordinances it is not enough to make Christ the object of them to worship Christ but he must be made the end of them To serve God is one thing to seek him another To serve God is to make him the object of Worship to seek God is to make him the end of Worship When we will not go away from him without him Gen. 32. 16. I will not let thee go unless thou bless me It is not enough to make use of Ordinances but we must see if we can find God there There are many that hover about the Palace that yet do not speak with the Prince so possibly we may hover about Ordinances and not meet with God there To go away with the husk and shell of an Ordinance and neglect the kernel to please our selves because we have been in the Courts of God though we have not met with the living God that 's very sad A Traveller and Merchant differ thus a Traveller goes from place to place only that he may see but a Merchant goes from Port to Port that he may take in his lading and grow rich by Traffick So a formal person goes from Ordinance to Ordinance and is satisfied with the work a godly man looks to take in his lading that he may go away from God with God that he may meet God here and there in this duty and in that and go away from God with God A man that makes a visit only by constraint and not by friendship it is all one to him whether the person be at home or no but another would be glad to find his friend there so if we from a principle of love come to God in these duties our desires will be to find the living God Again if God be not found in an Ordinance yet we must continue seeking you may find him in the next Sometimes God will not be found in publick that
and are inclin'd to believe but when these truths soak into the heart to frame it to the obedience of his will When the Lord had spoken of practical obedience Was not this to know me saith the Lord Jer. 22. 16. And this is to believe So for Love Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Every faculty must express Love to God Many will be content to give God a part God hath their Consciences but the world their affections Their heart is divided and the evidence of it is plainly this In their troubles and extremities they will seek after God but this is not their constant work and delight We are welcome to God when we are compelled to come into his presence God will not say as men you come in your necessity But we must then be sincere in our addresses and rest in him as our portion and all-sufficient good 2. For intention of Degrees To seek God with the whole heart it is to seek him with the highest elevation of our hearts The whole heart must be carried out to God and to other things for Gods sake As Harbingers when they go to take up room for a Prince they take up the whole house none else must have place there so God he will have the whole heart Again it may be considered as to the exaction of the Law and as a Rule of the Gospel 1. As an exaction of the Law and so Christ urged it to the young man that was of a Pharisaical institution to abate his pride and confidence Mat. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Certainly these words there have a legal importance and signification for in another Evangelist Luk. 10. 28. it is added do and live which is the tenor of the Law And Christs intent was to abate the Pharisees pride by propounding the rigor of the first Covenant The Law requireth compleat love without the least defect according to the terms of it a grane wanting would make the whole unacceptable As a hard Landlord when all the rent is not brought to the full he accepteth none It is good to consider it under this sense that we may seek God in Christ to quicken us that we may value our deliverance by him from this burden which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear a stragling thought a wandring glance the least out-running of the heart had render'd us accursed for ever 2. It may be considered as a Rule of the Gospel which requireth our utmost endeavors our bewailing infirmities and defects but accepts of sincerity There will be a double principle in us to the last but there should not be a double heart So that this expression of seeking the Lord with the whole heart is reconcilable enough with the weaknesses of the present state For instance 1 King 14. 8. My servant David who kept my Commandments and who followed me with all his heart and did that only which was right in mine eyes David had many failings and some that left an indelible brand upon him in the matter of Uriah yet because of his sincerity and habitual purpose God saith He hath kept all my Commandments So in Iosiah 2 King 23. 25. Like to him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart with all his soul and with all his might Yet he also had his imperfections against the warning of the Lord he goes out with a wicked King and dies in Battel So Asa 2 Chron. 15. 17. The high places were not taken away it was a failing in that holy King yet 't is said the heart of Asa was perfect all his days Well then when the whole heart is engaged in this work when we do not only study to know God but make it our work to enjoy him to rest in him as our all-sufficient portion though there will be many defects yet then are we said to seek him with the whole heart Secondly The reasons why God will be sought with the whole heart are 1. He that gives but part to God doth indeed give nothing The Devil keeps an interest as long as one lust remains unmortified and one corner of the soul is kept for him As Pharaoh stood hucking he would fain have some pawn of their return either leave your children behind no no they must go and see the Sacrifices and be trained up in the way of the Lord then he would have their flocks and herds left behind he knew that would draw their hearts back again So Satan must have either this lust or that he knows by keeping part all will fall to his share in the end A bird that is tyed in a string seems to have more liberty than a bird in a Cage it flutters up and down though it be held fast so many seem to flutter up and down and do many things as Herod but his Herodias drew him back again into the Fowlers net Thus because of a sinners danger 2. Because of Gods right By Creation he made the whole therefore requires the whole the Father of spirits must have the whole spirit We were not mangled in our Creation God that made the whole must have the whole He preserves the whole Christ hath bought the whole 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods And God promiseth to glorifie the whole Christians it would be uncomfortable to us if God should only take a part to Heaven All that you have is to be glorified in the day of Christ all that you are and have must be given to him whole spirit soul and body Let us not deprive him of any part Use. Well do we serve God and seek after God with the whole heart The natural mother had rather part with the whole than to see the child divided 1 King 3. 26. God had rather part with the whole than take a piece Either he will have the whole of your love or leave the whole to Satan The Lord complains Hos. 10. 2. Their heart is divided Men have some affections for God many times but they have affections for their lusts too the world hath a great share and portion of their heart Q. But when in a Gospel-sense may we be said to seek God with the whole heart Take it in these short Propositions 1. When the setled purpose of our souls is to cleave to God to love and serve him with an intire obedience both in the inward and outward man when this is the full determination and consent of our hearts 2. When we do what we can by all good means to maintain this purpose for otherwise 't is but a fruit of conviction a free-will pang Act. 24. 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all
men 3. When we search out our defects and are ever bewailing them with kindly remorse Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. When we run by faith to Christ Jesus and sue out our pardon and peace in Christs name until we come to be compleat in him Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledg of God SERMON IV. PSAL. CXIX 3. They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways STILL the Psalmist continues the description of a blessed man In the two first Verses Holiness which is the way to and evidence of Blessedness is considered with respect to the Subject and the Object of it the Life and the Heart of man The Life of man Blessed are the undefiled in the way The Heart of man They seek him with the whole heart Now Holiness is considered in the parts of it Negatively and Positively The two parts of Holiness are an eschewing of sin and studying to please God You have both in this Verse They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways First You have the blessed man described negatively They do no iniquity Upon hearing the words presently there occurs a doubt How then can any man be blessed for there is not a man that liveth and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. and Jam. 3. 2. In many things we offend all To deny it is a flat lye against the truth and against our own experience If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1. 8. The expression may be abused on the one side to establish the impeccability and perfection of the Saints on the other side it may be abused by persons of a weak and tender conscience to the hinderance of their comfort and rejoycing in God When they shall hear this is the character of a blessed man they do no iniquity they are very apt to conclude against their own regeneration because of their daily failings To avoid these difficulties I shall enquire 1. What it is to do iniquity 2. Who are the persons among the sons of men that may be said to do no iniquity First What it is to do iniquity If we make it our trade and practice to continue in wilful disobedience To sin is one thing but to make sin our work is another 1 Joh. 3. 9. He that is born of God doth not commit sin he doth not work sin And Matt. 7. 23. Depart from me ye that work iniquity That 's the Character of the Reprobate workers of iniquity So Joh. 8. 34. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Sin is their constant trade Psal. 139. 24. See if there be any wicked way in me None are absolutely freed from sin but it is not their trade their way their work When a man makes it his study and business to carry on a course of sin then he is said to do iniquity Secondly Who are those that are said to do no iniquity in Gods account though they fail often thorough weakness of the flesh and violence of temptation Answer 1. All such as are renewed by grace and reconciled to God by Christ Jesus to these God imputeth no sin to condemnation and in his account they do no iniquity Notable is that 1 King 14. 8. it is said of David He kept my Commandments and followed me with all his heart and did that only which was right in mine eyes How can that be We may trace David by his failings they are upon record every where in the word yet here a Veil is drawn upon them God laid them not to his charge There is a double reason why their failings are not laid to their charge partly because of their general state they are in Christ taken into favour through him and there 's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. therefore particular errors and escapes do not alter their condition Which is not to be understood as if a man should not be humbled and ask God pardon for his infirmities no for then they prove iniquities they will lye upon record against us It was a gross fancy of the Valentinians that held they were not defiled with sin whatsoever they committed though base and obscene persons yet still they were as gold in the dirt No no we are to recover our selves by repentance to sue out the favour of God When David humbled himself and had repented then saith Nathan 2 Sam. 12. 13. The Lord hath put away thy sin Partly too because their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise They set themselves to comply with Gods will to seek and serve the Lord though they are clogged with many infirmities A wicked man sinneth with deliberation and delight his bent is to do evil he makes provision for lusts Rom. 13. 12. and serves them by a voluntary subjection Tit. 3. 3. But those that are renewed by grace are not debtors to the flesh they have taken another debt and obligation upon them which is to serve the Lord Rom. 8. 12. Partly too because their general course and way is to do otherwise Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam Every thing works according to its form the constant actions of Nature are according to the kind So the new creature his constant operations are according to grace A man is known by his custom and the course of his endeavours what is his business If a man be constantly easily frequently carried away to sin it discovers a habit of soul and the temper of his heart Meadows may be overflown but marish ground is drowned with the return of every Tide A child of God may be carried away and act contrary to the bent and inclination of the new nature but when men are drown'd and overcome with the return of every temptation and carried away it argues a habit of sin And partly because sin never carries it away clearly but with some dislikes and resistances of the new nature The children of God make it their business to avoid all sin by watching praying mortifying Psal. 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue And then there is a resistance of the sin God hath planted graces in their hearts the fear of his Majesty that works a resistance and therefore there is not a full allowance of what they do This resistance sometimes is more strong then the temptation is overcome How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39. Sometimes it is more weak and then sin carries it though against the will of a holy man Rom. 7. 15 18. The evil which I hate that do I. It is the evil which they hate they protest against it they are like men which are opprest by the power of the enemy And then there 's a remorse after the sin David's heart
still with the Saints Have they not this wandring property to the last David acknowledgeth it though there were some good in him Psal. 119. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep Consider the Saints though they have sincerity yet not perfection And sometimes they wander through inadvertency they are overtaken Gal. 6. 1. as Noah was they do not run of their own accord And sometimes we err through the darkness that is in us though a child of God be light in the Lord yet he hath a great deal of darkness still It may be he is wise in generals but ignorant in particulars as the Heathens in general they had good notions of an Infinite and Eternal Power but they were vain in their imaginations Rom. 1. 21. in their practical inferences and discourses when they came to rest upon this God So a child of God may have a general sense of his duty but as to particulars he is apt to miscarry the mind may be blinded by lust and prejudice Sometimes they err through frowardness of their own lust there 's a law in their members which wars against the law of their minds Rom. 7. 5. There are boisterous lusts and a man hath much ado to keep his path Psal. 73. My foot had well nigh slipt therefore we had need God should keep us continually And the Lord hath undertaken to guide us Isa. 58. 11. The Lord shall guide thee continually And Psal. 48. 14. He will be our guide even unto death And Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel and afterwards receive me to thy glory We need this constant guidance and direction from God that he may still lead us and keep us from wandering and turning aside USE You see then what need we have of a guide and shepherd and of constant dependance upon God Of all titles this is the title given to the Saints they are a flock and the sheep of Gods pasture and Christ is called the shepherd of souls 1 Pet. 2. 10. There is no creature of such a dependance as sheep Dogs and Swine can roam abroad all the day and find their way home again at night but sheep must have a guide to keep them in the fold and to reduce them when gone astray Luke 15. The good shepherd brought him home upon his shoulders Lord saith Austin I can go astray of my self but I cannot come back of my self We need often to put up this request O let me not wander from thy commandments SERMON XII PSAL. CXIX 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee IN this Verse you have David's practice and the aim and end of it 1. His practice I have hid thy word in my heart 2. The aim and end of it that I might not sin against thee In the first His Practice observe these circumstances 1. The object or matter the word 2. The act of Duty I have hid 3. The subject the heart I shall open these Circumstances 1. The Object The word The revelation of Gods mind to his people it is called his Law his Testimonies his Ways his Precepts his Statutes his Commandments his Iudgments and now his Word whereby is meant Gods expounding his mind as if he himself did speak to us The expression is general and compriseth Promises Threatnings Doctrines Counsels Precepts All these must be hid in the heart 2. The Act of duty I have hid A thing may be hidden two ways Either to conceal it or else to cherish and keep it 1. To conceal it Hid so as the unprofitable servant did hide his talent in a napkin Matt. 25. So David typifying Christ saith I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and truth from the great congregation 2. To be kept as things of price as Jewels and Treasures are hidden in chests and secret places that they may not be imbezel'd or purloin'd And herein there may be an allusion to the Law which was kept in a Chest or Ark Exod. 25. 21. Thus the word is hidden not in order to concealment but safety As to the conceit of hiding our knowledg that we may not lose it by vain-glory which Chrysostom and Theodoret mention on the place it is a conceit so foreign that it need not to be mentioned What we value most preciously we save most carefully 3. The subject or place where the word is hidden in the heart Not the brain or mind and memory only but the heart the seat of affections To hide the word in our hearts is to understand and remember it and to be affected to it and with it Christ saith Joh. 14. 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me First we must have them and then keep them First we know them then assent to them and then approve them because of the Authority of the Law-giver and the excellency of the thing commanded and then respect them as a Treasure that we are chary of and having them still in our eye do thereby regulate our practice and conversation In short by holding it in our hearts is meant not only a knowledg of the word but an assent to it not only an assent to it but a serious and sound digestion of it by meditation not only a digestion but a constant respect to it that we may not transgress it as it is a rule nor lose it as it is a treasure but may have it ready and forth-coming upon all occasions The Points are these Doct. 1. One duty and necessary practice of Gods children is to hide the word in their hearts Doct. 2. That in hiding the word in our hearts there must be a right end Our knowledg of it and delight in it must be directed to practice 1. That one duty and necessary practice of Gods children is to hide the word in their hearts See it confirmed by a Scripture or two Josh. 1. 8. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night Job 22. 22. Receive I pray thee the Law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart By the Law is meant the whole word of God Lay up his words as we would do choice things that they may not be lost or embezled and lay them up as Treasure to be used upon all occasions In the heart let them not swim in the brain or memory only but let the heart be affected with it Col. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly Be so diligent in the study of the Scripture that it may become familiar with us by frequent hearing reading meditating conferring about it As a stranger let it not stand at the dore but receive it into an inner room be as familiar as those that dwell with you God complaineth of his people Hos. 8. 12. I have written to
acts of Duty but by every act of Mercy what 's the argument he urgeth for Sion Zech. 3. 2. Is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire The Lord rebuke thee Satan Have not I delivered Sion and shall I suffer that to be destroyed which I have delivered the Lord urgeth his own mercy and his former kindness USE To quicken us not to grow weary of dealing with God Let us go often to God Men think it an uncivil importunity to require to do more when they have done already Solomon gives us that advice Prov. 25. 17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee men waste by giving but God doth not when you have been with him and he hath done liberally for you yet he upbraids you not God that hath vouchsafed Grace you may desire the continuance of his Grace and to crown his own Grace II. Secondly Observe the mercy which he asks is Gods help in a course of holiness namely to walk worthy of the mercy Doct. 2. They that upon declaring their ways have found mercy with God their care should be to walk worthy of the mercy The Lord hath heard me what then teach me thy statutes So Psal 85. 8. The Lord will speak peace to his people but let them no more return unto folly Mark when God hath spoken peace when they have an answer of peace after you have prayed to God take heed of turning to folly do not lose the favour you have got walk more holily and more worthy of such a mercy Mat. 6. 12. forgive us our sins what then lead us not into temptation Upon supposition the Lord hath forgiven us our sins O let us not sin again Many would invite God to favour their ways when they have no respect to his ways which is in effect to make God a servant to our Lust but if you would have mercy from the Lord beg that you might walk worthy of the mercy The Children of God should do so upon a double ground in point of Prudence and Thankfulness In point of Prudence as they have smarted under their former folly and in point of Thankfulness as they have tasted the Lords Grace in his answer 1. When you have declared your way with brokenness and bitterness of heart you have experience of the evil of sin and when you know how bitter it is by sound remorse it is folly to return to it again Ioshua 22. 17. mark the reason Is the iniquitie of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed unto this day Our former sense of the evil of sin when declaring it should be a restraint to us else your cure is in vain A man that is recovered out of a deep disease is willing to escape the like again or as Christ said to the man that had an infirmity 38 years Go thy way sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee When a man hath had the bitter sense of the fruit of sin this will make him more cautious for the future they are foolish children that remember beating no longer than it smarts when they are scarce yet whole of the old wound Though God hath taken out the sting of the sin and granted us comfort yet remember your former smart that you may not fall into it again 2. Out of Thankfulness for Gods gracious answer Every answer of Grace leaves an obligation upon the sinner that he may not offend God again See what a holy argument is used Ezra 8. 13. Should we after such a deliverance as this break thy Commandment will you again relapse So Luke 7. 47. for her sins are forgiven her therefore she loved much Grace melts the heart When a man hath received much mercy from God his heart his wrought out into thankfulness and the more they have been in sin the more will they be in godliness when once they have tasted the sweetness of pardon and had an answer of Grace from God Thirdly Note They that would steer their course according to Gods holy Will had need of the conduct and assistance of his holy Spirit for he goes to God Lord teach me thy statutes Psal. 25. 4. Shew me thy ways O Lord teach me thy paths And Psal. 27. 11. Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies And Psal. 86. 11. Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name These places shew that he addrest himself to God that he might not follow any sinful course in the time of trouble and temptations that he might not dishonour God SERMON XXVIII PSALM CXIX 27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works IN the former Verses the man of God layeth forth his calamitous condition and beggeth comfort and audience not meerly to prosper his affairs but to better his heart Many will invite God to favour their ways when they have no respect to his ways which in effect is to make him a servant to their lusts But David's chiefest care was about Duty rather than Success therefore he desireth God to direct him how to walk in the way of his precepts his heart was much upon that In the close of the former Verse he had said Teach me thy statutes And here again Make me to understand the way of thy precepts c. In the words there is 1. A Request 2. An Argument Wherein is intimated 1. The fruit of Divine Illumination He should thereby see his wondrous works 2. His duty thereupon Then will I talk of them The word signifieth also to meditate Sept I will exercise my self It should be his delight to think and speak of the admirable goodness of God and the divine excellencies of his word and the pleasures that result from the practice of it 3. He intimateth the sincerity of his desire propounding this as his end That I may talk that I may be useful and edifying in my converse with others 1. The first thing that I shall observe is That David doth so often beg again and again for understanding Doct. That a sound and saving knowledg of the Truths of the Gospel is such a blessing as the children and people of God think they can never enough ask of him We have abundant proof of it in so much of this Psalm as we have already gone over 1. What is a sound saving knowledg 1. Such as doth establish the heart against all delusions and keepeth us on Truth 's side Many have some scraps of knowledg loose and uncertain motions but they are not setled and grounded in the Truth and therefore the unlearned and unstable are joyned together 2 Pet. 3. 16. Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction Unskilful and unsetled Christians lye open to every fancy they have not such a stock
of Truth as may keep them savoury and sound in the faith To be able to prattle a little in Religion is not sound knowledg but we must be grounded and setled in the faith Col. 1. 23. That is have not only some floating opinion but well grounded perswasion of the Truth so as we know we are upon firm ground and dare venture our souls upon it and may build surely and safely upon such principles He calleth it elsewhere Col. 2. 2. the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. When men rest contented with obvious Truths or a slight knowledg of the common and easie principles of Christianity there is not such an awe upon their practice nor any establishment of their judgments but like light chaff they are soon carried with the blasts of temptation and the wind of errors And therefore we need to ask again and again Give me an understanding of the way of thy precepts 2. A sound saving knowledge is such as causeth the soul to lye under the dominion life and power of the Truth and aweth and commandeth the heart into obedience Joh. 8. 32. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free When our knowledg freeth us from the slavery of sin In others that content themselves with a naked knowledg Truth is held captive and cannot break out with any soveraignty in their conversations Rom. 1. 18. Holding the truth in unrighteousness Lust beareth sway but Truth lyeth under fetters and restraint it may talk its fill like a man in bonds but it can do nothing 3. When it giveth us prudence how to practise This is that which David beggeth of God to understand the way of his precepts that is to be taught how to walk in each duty and point of conversation after what sort he may live and direct his life 'T is not sufficient to know the meaning of the Word in general to have a notional understanding of it but to reduce it to practice where and when and how we ought to perform each action Some have a naked module of Truth are wise in generals but fail in the application of the Rule and are to seek in the ordering of their steps and all particular cases 1 Pet. 3. 7. Husbands dwell with your wives as men of knowledg Then is a man a man of knowledg when he knoweth how to order the passages of his life in every relation according to the will of God The narrow way of obedience is hardly found hardly kept and easily mistaken especially where prejudices lusts and interests are apt to pervert us Therefore prudence to apply the Rule is necessary Psal. 119. 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes that I may keep it to the end Not only in the general points of faith and godliness but that it may season all our actions that we may be made partakers of the sweet refreshments that flow from it such a knowledg as endeth in a tast 1 Pet. 3. 2 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted c. So Psal. 19. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart when we do so approve and follow the Lords directions that we experiment the sweetness and are acquainted with the Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Such an understanding as begets judgment and feeling or maketh us to find power and comfort in the word 2. The Children of God think this can never be enough asked of God Why 1. Because of the excellency of Knowledg Light is comfortable and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun much more the light of the Gospel shining in upon our minds Oh what a pleasant thing is that when all Clouds vanish and the Truths of God are fully cleared up to the soul None knoweth the sweetness of it but he that hath experimented it Prov. 24. 13 14. My son eat thou honey because it is good and the honey-comb which is sweet to thy tast so shall the knowledg of wisdom be unto thy soul when thou hast found it The more perfect the operation of any faculty of the soul is the greater contentment the Conscience in the feeling of God's love the heart when it findeth liberty in the ways of God and the understanding upon the sight of the truth cause all doubts and scruples to vanish Therefore certainly they that know any thing of God will be pressing to know more of his Nature and Will one degree draweth on another Moses desireth God Tell me thy name Exod. 3. 13 14. Then shew me thy glory Exod. 33. 18. And he said I beseech thee shew me thy glory And Hosea 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. They are not cloyed but desire more The more men know the things of God the more they admire them the more they admire them the more they love them and the more they love them the more they desire to know of them And therefore do they insist so much upon this request Make me to understand the way of thy precepts 2. Because of the vastness and latitude of it Knowledg is a growing thing Religion cannot be taken up all at once we receive a little now and a little anon as narrow-mouth'd Vessels take in things drop by drop We read of Jesus Christ that he grew in knowledg We do not read that he grew in grace Luke 2. 52. He encreased in wisdom and stature as his body encreased in stature so his soul in wisdom And still Christians are growing in knowledg and understand more of the mysteries of the Gospel Though speculative knowledg may be at a stand and a man may see round about the compass of revealed Truths yet practical knowledg is never at a stand Directive affective operative knowledg is never at a stand but encreaseth daily And therefore the Apostle saith He that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. Many think they know as much as can be taught them surely they have no experience 3. Natural Blindness is an obstinate disease and hardly cured therefore again and again we had need to pray Open mine eyes Teach me thy statutes Make me to understand the way of thy precepts Our ignorance is great when it is cured in part The clouds of temptation and carnal affection cause it to return upon us so that we know not what we know Therefore open my eyes cause me to understand Yea the more we know the more is our ignorance discovered to us Prov. 30. 2 3. Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the Holy Job 42. 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Alas
sent Samuel to anoint David Samuel said How can I go if Saul hear it he will kill me And the Lord said Take an heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord That was a truth but not the whole truth Obj. But you will say Will not this justifie Mental reservation and Jesuitical Equivocation I answer There are two sorts of Reservations I may reserve part of the truth in my mind But the mental reservations the Jesuits plead for is this When that which is spoken is a lye if abstracted from that which is in the mind for instance If a Magistrate say Art thou a Priest no meaning not after the order of Baal So that which is spoken is a lye But if it be spoken with truth we may reserve part of it That in Samuel was not an untruth but concealing some part of the truth not fit to be discovered So Ier. 38. 24. to 27. Then said Zedekiah unto Ieremiah Let no man know of these words and thou shalt not dye But if the Princes hear that I have talked with thee and they shall come unto thee and say unto thee Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the King hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death also what the King said unto thee Then thou shalt say unto them I presented my supplication before the King that he would not cause me to return to Ionathans house to dye there Then came all the Princes unto Ieremiah and asked him and he told them according to all these words that the King had commanded so they left off speaking with him for the matter was not perceived 2dly We now come to the Blessing asked Grant me thy law graciously Where first the benefit it self Grant me thy law Secondly The terms upon which it is asked implied in the word Graciously 1. The benefit asked Grant me thy law David had the book of the Law already every King was to have a copy of it written before him but he understandeth it not of the law written in a book but of the law written upon his heart which is a priviledge of the Covenant of grace Heb. 8. 10. For this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts c. Doct. 1. Then is the Law granted to us when it is written upon our minds and hearts that is when we understand it and our hearts are framed to the love and obedience of it otherwise it is only granted to the Church in general but it is not granted to us in particular We may have some common priviledge of being trained up in the knowledge of Gods Will but we have not the personal and particular benefits of the Covenant of Grace till we find it imprinted upon our hearts Well then 1. Press God about this not only to grant his Word unto the Church but to grant it unto you unto your persons To reveal his Son in me Gal. 1. 16. There is a general benefit He hath shewed his word unto Iacob and his statutes unto Israel Psal. 147. 19. And there is a particular benefit Grant me thy law graciously The whole Church may be under a Covenant of grace and some particular members of it may be all that while under a Covenant of Works if they have only an external Law without to shew them what is good but not a Law within to urge and inable them to do it Lex jubet gratia juvat litteral instruction belongeth only to the first Covenant but when the word is made ours that 's a priviledge of the second Covenant The ingrafted word that is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 21. When it is received in our hearts and doth prosper there and fructifie unto holiness when it is written over again by the finger of the Spirit 2. See if this effect be accomplished if the law be granted to you It is so 1. When you have a sense and conscience of it and you own it as your rule for the governing of your own heart and life Psal. 37. 37. The law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide It is not in his book only but in his heart to guide all his actions 2dly It is so when you have some ability and strength to perform it Their hearts carry them to it as Psal. 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O God yea thy law is in my heart They have not only a sense and conscience of their rule but a ready spirit to perform it and set about this work cheerfully and heartily A ready and cheerful obedience to Gods Will is the surest note that the Law is given to us when the study and practice of it is the great employment and pleasure of our lives Doct. 2. The Law that is odious to the flesh is acceptable to a gracious heart What others count a restraint they count a great benefit and favour Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be They shun all means of searching and knowing themselves wishing such things were not sins or not desiring to know them to be so therefore hate the law and will not come to the light 3 Joh. 20. For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved As a man that hath light ware is loth to come to the ballance or Counterfeit-coin to the touch-stone or as a bankrupt is loth to cast up his estate They hate the directions and injunctions of the word as contrary to their lusts 1 King 22. 8. He doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil said wicked Ahab and therefore would not hear him and yet he was the Prophet of the Lord They are loth to understand their duty are willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. For this they are willingly ignorant of c. But now a gracious heart desireth nothing more than the knowledge of Gods Will how contrary soever to their lusts they approve it Rom. 7. 12. Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good The Law and Commandment that which wrought such tragical effects in his heart Therefore they desire the knowledge of it above all things Psal. 119. 72. The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver more than all earthly riches whatsoever it is the best thing they can enjoy to have a full direction in obedience 2dly The practice is welcome to their souls 1 John 5. 3. His commandments are not grievous They are to others not to them because of the suitableness of their hearts to a galled shoulder the least burden is irksome but to a sound back it is nothing love sweetens all USE Do you count the Law an enemy or a friend
must run in the way of Gods Commandments It noteth speedy or a ready obedience without delay We must begin with God betimes Alas when we should be at the Goal we scarce set forth many of us And it noteth earnestness when a mans heart is set upon a thing he thinks he can never soon enough do it And this is running when we are vehement and earnest upon the enjoyment of God and Christ in the way of obedience And it notes again when the heart freely offereth it self to God Now this running is very necessary as it is the fruit of effectual calling When the Lord speaks of effectual calling the issue of it is running when he speaks of the Conversion of the Gentiles Nations that know thee not shall run to thee And draw me and we will run after thee And in the day of thy power thy people shall be a willing people There are no slow motions but when God draws there 's a speedy an earnest motion of the soul. And this running as it is the fruit of effectual calling so it is very needful for cold and faint motions are soon overborn with every difficulty and temptation Heb. 12. 1. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us When a man hath a mind to do such a thing though he be hindred and justled he takes it patiently he goes on and cannot stay to debate the business A slow motion is easily stopt whereas a swift one bears down that which opposeth it so when men run and are not tired in the service of God And then the prize calls for running 1 Cor. 9. 24. So run that ye may obtain There is a prize which is eternal life in Christ Jesus the reward or Crown which he keepeth for us in Heaven They that ran for a Garland of flowers in the Isthmick Cames the Apostle alludes to them how would they diet themselves that they might be in breath and heart to win a poor Garland of Flowers There 's a Crown of glory set before us therefore we should so run that we may obtain and be temperate in all things we should keep down the body deny fleshly lusts and the like Use To reprove faint cold motions in the things of God Many instead of running lye down or which is worse go back again or at best but a very slow pace Christ is running to you to snatch you out of the fire and will you not run towards him when we have abated the fervor of our motion towards God then we lye open to temptation therefore let us not loiter run it is for a Crown If Heaven be worth nothing lye still but if it be run wicked men run fast to Hell as if they did strive who should be soonest there bewail your slowness and lameness in obedience SERMON XXXVI PSALM CXIX 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end THE man of God had promised to run the way of God's commandments but being conscious of many swervings beggeth God further to teach him In the words two things are observable 1. A Prayer for Grace 2. A Promise made upon supposition of obtaining the grace asked He promiseth 1. Diligence and Accuracy of practice I will keep it 2. Perseverance unto the end 1. In the prayer for grace observe 1. The Person to whom he prays O Lord. 2. The person for whom teach me 3. The grace for which he prayeth to be taught 4. The object of this teaching the way of God's statutes The teaching which he beggeth is not speculative but practical to learn how to walk in the way of God 1. David a man after Gods own heart maketh this Prayer the more Love any have to God the more they desire to know his ways Carnal men are of another spirit they say Iob 21. 14. Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The more ignorant the more quiet they that love their lusts cannot heartily desire the knowledge of those Truths which will trouble them in the following of their lusts We often consult with our Affections about our Opinions and where we have a mind to hate we have no desire to know Ordinary Professors a little knowledge serveth their turn some few obvious Truths but others such as David follow on to know the Lord. David that had a singular measure of knowledge already yet there is no end of his desire in this Psalm and shall we be contented as if we needed no more 2. Consider David a Prophet a Teacher a Pen-man of Scripture There was some Knowledg which the Prophets got by ordinary means and some by immediate Revelation as Daniel by vision and Daniel by reading of books Dan. 7. 〈◊〉 either by a new Revelation or by the study of what was already revealed and if extraordinary men were bound to the ordinary duties of Gods service as the means of their improvement and growth in Grace such as Reading Prayer Hearing Meditation use of Seals c. surely none can plead exemption or conceit themselves to be above Duties Now that they were thus bound we find by David's prayer for Knowledg Daniel's reading of Books namely that of Ieremiah and all of them meditating or inquiring diligently what manner of salvation should ensue 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Of which salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testifyed before-hand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow meditating and prying into the meaning of that salvation which by the motion of the spirit they held forth to others labouring to make these Truths their own and to get their hearts affected therewith In their prophetick revelations they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1. 21. forcibly moved by the spirit and carryed beyond their intention and the line of their natural strength but in other things they get knowledg by the same means that we do and as Believers were to stir up the gifts and graces which they had in the ordinary way of Duty waiting and crying for the Influences of the Lords grace You must distinguish then of what they did when they acted as Prophets and when they acted as Believers 3. David that had means external sufficient to direct him in the way of God as the Scriptures then written and the Ordinances of the Law the Expositions of the Scribes yet beggeth God to teach him So must we beg God to teach us whatever means we have It is true we have an advantage above the Old Testament Church as we have their helps and more and the Doctrin eof salvation is now clearer and the gifts and graces of the Spirit more plentifully dispensed since the price of Redemption is actually payed than before when God gave out grace and glory only upon trust yet still
our works for us Isa. 26. 12. Now this actual help is necessary 1. Partly to direct us Psal. 74. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory We need not only a principle within and a rule without but need also a guide Though we have grace in our hearts though we have the Law of God to direct us yet we need also a guide upon all occasions the Rule is the Scripture and the Guide is the Spirit of God 2. Partly to quicken and excite us by effectual motions The heart of man is very changeable and it is like the eye easily discomposed and put out of frame Deadness creeps upon us and we drive on heavily in the work of God Psal. 119. 37. Quicken thou me in thy way God doth renew the vigor of the life of grace upon all occasions 3. Partly to corroborate and strengthen that which we have received and make it encrease and grow in the soul and more firmly rooted there Eph. 3. 16. The Apostle prays That God would strengthen you with might by his spirit in the inner man the inward man the frame of grace that we have received needs to be strengthned encreased and be more deeply rooted in the soul. So 1 Pet. 5. 10. The God of all grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you Many words are used to shew how God is interested in maintaining and keeping a foot the grace he hath planted in the soul. 4. Partly in protecting and defending them against the incursions and assaults of the Devil The regenerate are not only escaped out of his clutches but appointed to be his Judges which an envious and proud spirit cannot endure therefore he maligneth assaulteth and besiegeth them with temptations daily therefore Christ prays Joh. 17. 11. Keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me When a City is besieged fresh supplies are sent in they are not kept to their standing-provision so it is not the ordinary power of God that doth preserve and keep us from danger there 's new relief and fresh strength We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Pet. 1. 5. Now we experience the help we have from God partly by the change and frame of our heart when we are acted by him and when we are not When God by the impulsions of his grace doth quicken and awaken our hearts we are carried on with a great deal of earnestness and strength but at other times we seem to be much bound and have not those breathings from the Spirit of God to fill our sails and carry us on with the same life and strength Yea in the same duty how is a Christian up and down carried out sometimes with a great deal of zeal and warmth but if God withdraw that assistance before the duty be over how do the affections flag So that we are like the wards of a Lock kept up while the key is turned but fall again when the key is turned the other way While the work of grace is powerful we are kept in a warm and heavenly plight Thus as to duties we need spiritual relief Likewise in temptations when we are ready to fall into such a sin with great proneness of heart and the Lord quickens and excites us by his grace It is often with a Christian as with David Psal. 73. 2. My feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt even carried away by the violence of Satan and importunate motions of our own lusts then the Lord gives grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4. 16. in the Original it is no more but this seasonable relief God vouchsafeth Object I but are we to do nothing when we are indisposed This case is often traversed in this Psalm 1. The Precept of God falls upon us as reasonable creatures and doth not consider whether we are disposed or indisposed and God's influence is not our rule but our help We are to stir up our selves the Lord complains Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of me And Timothy is bid to stir up the gift of God which is in him 2 Tim. 1. 6. God's assistance will be best expected in a way of doing Up and be doing and the Lord will be with thee 2 Chron. When we stir up our selves and set our selves to the work in the conscience of our duty we can better expect God's help and assistance 2. In great distempers there may be some pause Elisha would not prophesie when he was under a passion of anger therefore he calls for a Minstrel to sing a Psalm 2 King 3. 13 14 15. and as he plaid upon an Instrument the Spirit of the Lord came upon him He was under a passion offended with the King of Israel therefore he would not prophesie until his spirit was composed Certainly we are not to run head-long upon duties in the midst of these distempers Sailing is more safely delayed in time of an extreme storm When the heart is put into some great disorder in a great storm of spirit the distemper should first be mourned for and prayed against The Reasons why that from first to last he must make us to go in the way of his Commandments 1. God keeps this power in his own hands that his grace might be all in all and 't is the glory of his actions always to set the crown upon graces head Not only those permanent and fixed habits which constitute the new man but those daily supplies without which the motions and operations of the spiritual life would be at a stand are for grace When the Lord reckons with his servants about the improvement of their talents he doth not say My industry but Lord thy pound Luke 19. 18. He puts all the honour upon grace So 1 Cor. 16. 10. Not I but the grace of God So Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that still they are giving the glory to grace Acts are more perfect than habits therefore if we had only the power from God and acts from our selves we should not give all to God That acts are more perfect than the power is clear it is more perfect to understand than to have a power to understand power is in order to the act and the end is more noble than the means 2. This is a very great encouragement to us to set upon the exercise of grace in the midst of weaknesses and several difficulties and temptations wherewith we are encompassed because God will enable and assist us he will not leave us to our standing strength but he concurs Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling why for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure When God will concur to the will and to the deed to both when we have wind and tide he is very lazy that will not take his
would create Pain Use 2. Of Exhortation To press us if we would have God for our God then to seek his Favour above all things Wait with an affectionate earnestness in every Ordinance for some new Discovery some comfortable intimation of God's Word Psal. 130. 6. My Soul waiteth for thee what for outward Deliverances No but I wait for the Lord and in his Word do I hope Again in every Enjoyment it is not enough to have the Creature with God's leave so can all men have it 't is their Portion but you must have it with God's Love as a token from God wrapt up in the Bowels of Christ. God gives many Gifts to wicked Men but doth not give them his Love This we should look after that we may find our Comforts to be sprinkled with Love that if God deliver you out of any strait he may love you out of it Isa. 38. 17. II. For the manner I have sought thy Favour how with my whole heart Note Doct. When we pray for the Favour of God it must be with our whole heart There is this intended in it 1. The constant Favour and Presence of God we must pray for it for without Prayer Faith lies idle Heb. 4. 16. 2. They that pray for it their Hearts must be set upon what they pray It is not enough that our Tongues babble out a cold Form as many learn to pray as Parots speak by rote they say not pray a Prayer Iames 5. 17. Elias prayed earnestly in the Margent and so in the Original he prayed in Prayer A Man may take up words of course and say things after others which are not indeed the real desires of his Heart so they pray as if they prayed not slightly without any warmth and affection 3. It is not enough that our Hearts concur but our whole Hearts must goe along with this Work Many times we pray but with half a Heart 1. Partly when Prayer is a fruit of memory and invention but not the fruit of Conscience Common Illumination will tell us how Prayer is to be formed according to the Tenor of the Christian Faith so men may repeat words such as the Understanding judgeth fit without any answerable touch upon the Heart This is their Sin who are more carefull about Notions in Prayer than the Affections 2. A Man prays but with a piece of his Heart when he prays rather with his Conscience than with his Affections Will you distinguish this a dictate of Conscience must be distinguished from a purpose of Heart Conscience may tell us what is to be done yet the Heart have no liking to it Austin saith when he was a carnal Man he had some kind of Conscience and pray'd against his Sins but saith he I was afraid God would hear me The Favour of God is necessary but the Heart many times is not ingaged in the pursuit of it We oftner pray from our Memories than our Consciences and oftner from our Consciences than our Affections the Heart is not put into the Duty 3. When our Affections are divided to carnal Things and the comfortable part of spiritual Things No doubt there is no man but would have the Favour of God but it is with a condition that he may live as he does and be as he is and so the prevailing part of his Soul bends him to his present course he regards Iniquity in his Heart and Sin hath an Interest and lies very near he would have the Favour of God abtractedly but when he considers how his Lusts must be parted with there his Heart is divided Use O then look to it that you beg the Lords Favour with all your hearts God knows the Heart Rebeckah drest up Iacob so that his Father mistook him I but God cannot mistake his Eye is not dim as Isaac's he sees the Heart therefore let your Heart and whole Heart go out in the pursuit Quest. How shall we know when our Hearts are thus throughly bent if you seek him with all your Hearts Answ. Then you will observe how you speed when you look after him you will see what becomes of your requests I will hearken what God will speak saith David and will pray and look up as Elijah looked up to see the Cloud a-coming Again If we pray with the whole Heart there will be importunate arguings Desire will take no nay Psal. 63. 8. My Soul followeth hard after thee O it will be a painfull grievous thing to your Souls if you do not speed in your Prayers Not a slight motion or cold wish but such as deeply affects the Heart and not easily put off and satisfied with other things Wicked Men would have the Favour of God but they are easily put out of the humour Again then we pray with the whole Heart when there is such a desire as not to be discouraged but you venture again when the Lord seems to put off and give a check to your requests Isa. 22. 8. The desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee Still Desires grow hotter and hotter and when there 's a kind of impudence not to be put off Again such as does excite endeavours for the obtaining of God's Love and a sense of his Favour It will cost us pain and trouble when we are hard at work and will be diligent in this thing But when you rest in a few cold Prayers you are never hearty with God Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired what then that will I seek after and use a great deale of diligence to come by it III. The Fountain of all that we expect is Mercy All that seek God's Favour must expect it upon terms of Grace Be mercifull unto me We cannot say pay me what thou owest or give me for my money All whom God accepts to his Grace and Favour are unworthy Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat come buy Wine and Milk without money and without price Secondly They who are received to Favour still need Mercy to pardon Failings Gal. 5. The best are but Sanctified in part and have the dregs of Corruption always remaining and frequently stirring in them Use Let us thus deale with God Hosea 14. 3. Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously The summe of all our Requests is that God would be mercifull to us IV. The Rule and Ground of Confidence is according to thy Word God's Word is the Rule of our Confidence for therein is God's stated Course If we would have Favour from God and Mercy it must be upon his own Terms God will accept of us in Christ if we repent believe and obey and seek his Favour diligently he will not deny those who seek aske knock We would have Mercy but will not observe God's Directions We must aske according to God's Will not without
is one of the Love Errors of the Children of God like a Disease which is incident only to the best tempers 3. The Kinds of Fainting 1. There is a Fainting which causeth great trouble and dejection of spirit 2. There is a Fainting which causeth Apostasie and Defection from God and the Cause of Religion 1. There is a Fainting which causeth dejection and trouble this is spoken of Heb. 12. 5. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him There are the two Extremes Slighting and Fainting Now this is a fault in the children of God to be much perplexed in their Troubles but yet this may be incident to them Religion heightning their sense of Evils and their vehement desires of the comforts of God's presence increasing their trouble 2. There is a Fainting which causeth defection and falling off from God out of cowardice and carnal fear and cast off the profession of Christianity when they find it troublesom they grow weary incline to Apostasie this is not incident to the children of God Rev. 2. 3. Thou hast born and hast patience and hast laboured and hast not fainted not given over the Cause of God There is a Fainting which is a slacking or remitting somewhat in our spiritual course when Men begin a little to relent and to give way to coldness and lukewarmness and do not keep up their former zeal and fervency or diligence in heavenly things This may befal sometimes the Servants of God abate somewhat of their former forwardness Eph. 3. 13. when either they suffer themselves or those who are primarily instrumental in the work of the Gospel are cast into a suffering condition And there is a Fainting which makes totally and finally to abandon the ways of God Gal. 6. 9. He 〈◊〉 reap in due time if he faint not There it is not taken for some remissness which may beâ—… the best of God's Servants but a total defection 4. The Considerations which may preserve us from Fainting First It argueth that you are lazy love the ease of the flesh have small strength if you faint upon every appearance of difficulty and trouble Prov. 24. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small Sinners are not discouraged with every inconvenience occasioned by their sin but can deny themselves for their lusts sake and shall we be soon discouraged in God's service 2dly Others that have born far heavier Burthens do not sink under them The Lord Christ Heb. 12. 3. For consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Nay many of his precious Servants Heb. 12. 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin If against Sin are we only to praise their courage never shew our own or do we think to go to Heaven without conflicts when it doth cost them so dear 3dly We have given counsel to others Job 4. 5. But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled It is an easier matter to instruct others than to carry it well our selves The well will give counsel to the sick and those that stand on land direct those that are apt to sink in deep waters But should not we remember these things our selves 4thly God promises to moderate the Afflictions of his People and to sweeten the bitterness of them to take off the oppressing weight of their troubles lest their souls faint Isa. 57. 16. For I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made The consideration of Man's infirmity and weakness unable to hold out causeth the Lord to stay his hand he will not utterly dishearten and discourage his People that wait for him A good Man will not overburden his Beast 5thly When Reason is tired Faith should supply its place and we should hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. For Faith can fetch one contrary out of another and get water out of the Rock as well as out of the Fountain when probable means miscarry then it is a time for God to work and Faith should bear us out when Sense and Reason cannot 6thly Give vent to the ardor of your desires in Prayer Luke 18. 1. He spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint And Jonah 2. 7. When my sould fainted within me I remembred the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple Keep up the suit 't will come to an hearing one day though it be long ere God ariseth to the Judgment yet then make sure work of it 7thly By waiting upon God we learn to wait more Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Eternal blessings eyed and prepared for will support a fainting Soul in the worst evil 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause we faint not though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day The greatest troubles cannot make void thy hope if our spiritual state increase and our eternal hopes thrive III. DOCT. Though the Soul be in a fainting condition yet it will accept of nothing but God's Salvation Thy Salvation Psal. 94. 18. When I said My foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up And ver 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. Men may seek to get out of their troubles from wicked Men two ways either by carnal compliance or by the use of indirect means 1. By carnal compliance when Men violate and prostitute their Consciences for their peace sake 'T is said of some Heb. 11. 35. That they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection They might upon certain conditions have been freed from those cruel pains and tortures but those conditions were contrary to the Law of God We have God's deliverance upon better terms than Man's and it is better in its self 2. By using indirect means to get off the trouble this is making too much haste Isa. 28. 16. He that believeth shall not make haste Ravishing the Blessing rather than waiting for the issues of God's Providence Those that do so God will reckon them with the workers of iniquity Psal. 125. 5. As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon Israel They that shift for themselves lose the benefit of God's protection These are dealt with as open Enemies Now the Reasons of the Point are these First Because they are satisfied in God's Providential Government God never puts power in the hands of wicked Men but for his own holy ends Therefore while God continueth them they are
4. I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses They mutually made over their strength one to another So when God offereth to make over himself to us this is the tenor I will be for thee and thou shalt be for me as Hosea 3. He makes over himself with all that is his Now when God offers to make over himself to us and all that belongs to him to our use his strength power and love shall we stand demurring upon so blessed a contract and not give up our selves to the Lord God that needs us not will engage himself to us to be for us if we will be for him O! then let us resign up our selves and put our selves under the Power and Sovereignty of God 3. You never enjoy your selves so much as when you give up your selves to God it is not your loss but your gain it is a kind of receiving for you give up your selves to become his People to be sanctified to be preserved by his Grace and governed by his Spirit and all these are Priviledges they are rather a Gift for us For a Beggar to give up herself to match with a Prince she gets by giving you give up your hearts to God to be better Other things that are dedicated to God are only altered in their use as Gold and Silver dedicated to the Sanctuary But when a Man is given to God he is altered in his nature he is governed and fitted for God's use If there be any pretence of loss 't is this a right or power to live according to your own will I but that you never had by vertue of your Creation you are bound to live according to the Will of God God's Precepts they bind as a Law where they are not received as a Covenant and therefore you have no power to dispose your selves you are Gods whether you give up your selves to him or no. When you consider how much you gain you are interested in all the Priviledges of the Lord's grace it not only establisheth your duty but your comfort and encouragement If there were nothing but this free leave to go to God in all our straits and dangers I am thine save me this were a benefit not to be valued If God be yours you may expect salvation temporal eternal therefore the benefit of this Gift is not Gods but ours you give up your selves not to bring ought to God but receive from God 4 You cannot give other things to him unless you give up your selves to him 2 Cor. 8. 4. It is rendred as a reason of their forwardness in a good work They first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God When a man hath given himself to God all things else will succeed more easily in the spiritual life as for a Woman and Man in the conjugal Relation they are easily kind one to another when they have bestowed themselves one upon another As Quintus Fabius Maximus answering to the Ambassador that offered him Gold That it was not the fashion of the Romans to have Gold under their power but they were under a power that were owners and possessors of their Gold Apply it the first thing God looks after is the person 5. It is your honour to be in Relation to God therefore give up your selves Psal. 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid He repeats it thrice as if he were wonderfully pleased with the Relation Mean Offices about a Prince are accounted honourable in the World so to be in the meanest degree of service about God it 's a great honour therefore give up your selves to God 2 Secondly Live as those that are Gods The first thing we should do is to determine whose we are then to make good that Relation You are not your own that 's clear 1 Cor. 6. 19. therefore not to live to your own will your own ends your own interest All the disorder that is in the World it comes from a Man's looking upon himself as his own Psal. 12. 4. Our tongues are our own and therefore they take liberty to speak what they please And saith Nabal my bread and my wine When we are so eager to establish our own dominion and propriety then we miscarry As Bernard saith Horreo quicunque de meo ut sim meus we should be in utter detestation of living to our selves and rather be God's Bondmen than our own Freemen And as they are not their own so not the Worlds Iohn 15. 19. Because you are not of the world therefore the world hates you The World hates the Godly because they have other Principles and other Ends you should not conform to the World in judgment or practices for you are not of the World you are not the Flesh's Rom. 8. 12. We are not debtors to the flesh therefore this should not be your care and study to pamper and please the flesh You are not Satans for you are taken out of his power 1 Col. 13. Whose are you you are the Lords therefore your business should be to please God and honour God It is easie to say I am thine do we make it good in our practice This may be known two ways 1. When we make his glory to be the scope of our Lives Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ that 's my business and employment not to seek my own things but the things of Christ Jesus Do you give up your selves to be governed and ordered by his Spirit acting and living for his glory 2. When we walk so as God may own us with honour take his Law for our Rule as well as to fix his Glory for our scope Exod. 32. 7. saith God to Moses Thy people whom thou hast brought up out of Egypt Thy people God would not own them when they had corrupted their ways We would say to God Lord I am thine but alas we act not as the Lords but as if we were the Flesh's as if we were Satan's and Lust's and Passion 's and Anger 's by those cursed influences are we acted and sway'd in our conversations It is as sweet an Argument and as forcible a Reason as you can use to God in Prayer to say Lord I am thine if we could use it in good Conscience saith Chrysostom All men are so but how few can thus speak to God For saith he his servants you are to whom you obey and the servant of Sin lyeth when he saith I am thine Alas to most every kind of Sin may say Thou art mine Lust and Covetousness and Ambition may challenge us It is not words but affections and actions that must prove us to be the Lords then we are his when we seek to please him in all things Iudas was Christs in profession but the Devils in affection David saith I am thine but presently adds I seek thy precepts I endeavor to do thy
in the use of all these things Now let a carnal Wretch work upon this Principle and what inference doth he draw Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15. 32. See this other Principle The Grace of God brings salvation to poor Sinners Tit. 2. 12. How doth a gracious heart work upon it Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts c. O what shall be done for this God the Grace that offers such salvation by Christ Let a carnal wretch work upon this principle and he will take liberty to sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid Such kind of reasonings there are in the hearts of the Godly 2 Sam. 7. 2. saith David I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains God hath fenced me with his Providence What then Here I may sit down and rest and take my ease and pleasure and gratifie my sensual lusts No he doth not argue so but what shall I do for God that hath done so much for me Now see those ungracious Jews after their return how they reason Hagg. 1. 2. The time is not come the time that the Lords house should be built no matter for Gods House It is the Lords hand let Eli work upon that 1 Sam. 3. 18. Let him do what seemeth him good he draws from it a submissive patience O the Sovereign God will take his own way and the Creature must not murmure repine and set up an Anti-providence against him But now saith that carnal Wretch 2 Kings 6. 33. Behold this evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer he murmures and frets and grows impatient Solomon tells us Prov. 26. 9. As a Thorn goeth up into the hand of a Drunkard so is a Parable in the mouth of Fools A Thorn was their instrument of sewing now when a Drunkard should manage his Needle he wounds and gores himself so is a Parable in a Fools mouth a carnal heart wounds and gores himself with the most holy Principle of Religion The 2. Sort of vain thoughts are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 musings and here take notice the vanity of our thoughts appears First In the slipperiness and inconstancy of them We run from object to object in a moment and our thoughts look like strangers one upon another wondring like those vagabond Iews Act. 19. 13. so they are called because of their uncertain station and frequent removes Eccl. 6. 9. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandring of the desire in the Original 't is the working out of the Soul Usually we have a stragling Soul roving wandring here and there and all in an instant especially this roving madness may we take notice of when we are employed in holy things hearing prayer meditation It is strange to see what impertinent sudden discursions there are from good to lawful from lawful to sinful and how far the heart is removed from God when we are before him when a man hath brought his body to God his heart is turned back again These vain thoughts pursue and haunt us in Duties so that we mingle Sulphur with our incense it is Gregory's comparison even in our prayers and holy addresses to God Secondly The unprofitableness and folly of our musings Our thoughts are set upon trifles and frivolous things neither tending to our own profit nor the benefit of others Prov. 10. 20. The heart of the wicked is little worth all their debates conceits musings are of no value The tongue of the just is as choise Silver but all their thoughts are taken up about childish vanity and foolish conceits Prov. 24. 9. The thought of foolishness is sin not only the thought of wickedness but foolishness Thoughts are the first-born of the Soul the immediate issues of the mind yet we lavish them away upon every trifle Follow men all the day long and take an account of their thoughts O what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious to Psal. 94. 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity If we did judge as God judges all the thoughts reasonings discourses of the mind if they were set down in a Table we might write at the bottom Here 's the Summ and Total Account of all nothing but vanity Thirdly The carnality and fleshliness of our thoughts Phil. 3. 19. They mind earthly things How sweet is it to us to be thinking of worldly matters how to grow great to advance our selves here This carnal mind is very natural to us We are in our Element and do with a great deal of savour and sweetness think of these things it makes our heart merry but when we come to think of that which is good we are tired presently and it is very tedious to spend our thoughts upon them Good things come upon us like a flash of Lightning soon gone but on carnal things we can spend our thoughts freely These carnal musings are stirred up by carnal desire or carnal delight sometimes by a desire of worldly things so they are forming images and suppositions of those things they hope for As Faith works in a godly man forming images and suppositions of that happy time when they shall be gathered to God and all holy ones and rejoyce in his presence He hath a Faith the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. which represents his hopes to him so carnal men dream of preferment riches honours vain-glorious applause they are looking out after their hopes they send their thoughts as Messengers of the Soul to forestal the contentment of those carnal things which they do expect Sometimes they are employed by carnal delight when the thing we muse upon is enjoyed the complacency men take in any carnal enjoyment it is part of this vanity when we go musing upon our own worth and our own excellency as that King Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babel that I have built for the honour of my Majesty Men take some time every day to worship the Idol of self and dote and gaze upon their own excellencies and atchievements their wisedom and wit Hab. 1. 15. They gather them in their drag therefore they rejoyce and are glad Or else pleasing themselves in their Estates dialogizing within themselves as the word is Luke 12. 13. Soul take thine ease thou hast Goods laid up for many years c. Fourthly By the impiety and apparent filthiness of them When men are taken up with sin so as to act it over in their own minds delighting themselves in fansying of sin either by way of revenge or lust or any other such thing as an unclean person sets up a stage in his own heart 2 Pet. 2. 14. Eyes full of adultery or the adulteress their fancy is upon the beauty of women their soul is set upon it The 3. Thing is
take vengeance to the uttermost 2. 'T is a grievous calamity First 'T is an hard thing to be left to the will and lusts of men David was in a streight he chose rather to fall into the Lords hands than into the hands of men 2 Sam. 24. 14. I am in a great streight let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and not into the hand of man Men are revengeful proud insolent wicked men will soon exceed their Commission Zech. 1. 15. And I am very sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Deut. 32. 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely and lest they should say our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this God speaketh after the manner of men Secondly It is a great mark of our Fathers displeasure when he withdraweth hideth counsel from us leaveth us without support and comfort Mat. 9. 15. And Iesus said unto them Can the Children of the Bride-Chamber mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them but the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast Thirdly 'T is earnestly to be deprecated not only as a grievous calamity but as hoping for relief I will not leave you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iohn 14. 18. comfortless And Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you to the end of the World Use. Go then and represent your condition to God with humiliation owning his anger but with faith waiting for his help Tell him what a prey you have been to Satan desire him if he withdraw his Presence one way he will manifest it another in comforting counselling his own people tell him your weakness the enemies malice and implore his aid and assistance SERMON CXXXIII PSAL. CXIX VER 122. Be Surety for thy Servant for good let not the proud oppress me IN this Verse we may observe a Petition 1. Metaphorically expressed 2. Literally explained In the former branch we have First The Notion by which the help he expecteth from God is expressed 't is that of a Surety Be surety for thy servant Secondly The end and fruit of that help or the terms on which he expecteth it For good 2. In the Literal Explanation we have First The matter of the Petition Let them not oppress me Secondly An argument insinuated from the quality and disposition of his enemies The proud 1. From the Metaphorical Notion Be surety for thy Servant we may observe this Doctrine Doctr. In deep distress we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose for his peoples relief I. I shall open the Notion of a Surety II. Shew Why we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose 1. For the Notion of a Surety Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive me into thy protection for good Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suscipe servum tuum 'T is a Phrase taken from men when they are Sureties for a Debtor to take him out of the hands of a cruel Creditor who is ready to cast him into prison And thus the Prophet speaketh to God when he was in extream danger and could think of no help but God's First It implieth the danger imminent when a Sergeant hath attached a man and he is ready to go to prison and there is no means for him to escape unless some body be his Surety to answer all the challenges and demands of the Law In this sense Hezekiah used it Isai. 38. 14. I am oppressed â—…dertake for me He spake it when he was summoned to the Grave to pay the debt we all owe to Nature I am like a poor Debtor called to pay my debt speedily therefore Lord be my pledge deliver me out of this danger So doth David here when the proud were cruelly set upon his destruction we are driven to God alone and beat to the Throne of Grace by our miseries yea God lets the affairs of his people run on to loss and ruine till we be in the condition of a Debtor going to prison he reserveth himself for such occasions till brought nigh to utter ruine and all other inferiour reliefs fail And we must be content it should be so for there is no use of a Surety till we are attached Imminent danger giveth notice that the Lord is coming Secondly That this distress and misery cometh as a debt respecting Gods Laws and the higher Court where all things are decreed and sentenced before they are executed in the world so it is a Debt that must be paid and distress is Gods Arrest God is compared to a Creditor Luke 7. 41. therefore the miseries of Gods people are expressed by Chains Stocks Prisons Fetters words that relate to a judicial proceeding To Chains Lam. 3. 7. He hath made my Chain heavy To Stocks Iob 13. 27. Thou puttest my feet into the Stocks To a Prison Psal. 142. 7. Bring my Soul out of Prison To Fetters Iob 36. 8. And iâ—… they be bound in Fetters and holden in Cords of afflictions To a Debt that must be paid so is sin considered with respect to its punishment Matth. 6. 12. Luke 11. 4. Forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us God puts the Bond in suit the instruments are but as Sergeants and Officers to demand of us satisfaction for breach of Covenant with God They think not so neither doth their evil heart mean so but so it is in Gods purpose When you are in trouble God hath committed you to prison and there is no coming out without submission and humiliation urging the satisfaction of Christ. You are sent thither by Gods authority and there is no getting out without his leave Thirdly That the party is insolvent and is undone unless some Course be taken to satisfie the Creditor he cannot help himself by his own wisdom and strength out of the danger The Debtor in the Gospel had not to pay Matth. 18. 25. why else should we look after a Surety Iob 17. 3. Put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me Man is not able to stand alone under the weight of his afflictions 't is a burthen too heavy for us to bear We have no might 2 Chron. 20. 12. Gods people are often brought into such a Case when the principal is not solvendo the Surety answereth we are weak but he is strong we are not able to subsist They exceed us in carnal advantages if force be to be resisted by force they will easily overcome us unless another that is stronger than we undertake for us Fourthly That the Surety taketh upon him the Debt of the principal person and is to be responsible for it God hath taken our obligation upon himself to pay our Debts to oppose himself against all our wrongs He will take
not the device of mans brain So none understand by their proper skill and invention There are such knots as cannot be untyed and loosed but by imploring the help of the Spirit Use 1. To press us to be often with God for this teaching and make it our great request to him A gracious heart would fain learn the right way to Heaven Psal. 43. 3. O send out thy light and thy truth Directionâ—… how to carry our selves is a great Blessing 2. The blindness of our understandings should make us more earnest with God We are apt to mistake our way through the natural weakness of our understandings especially when lusts and interests interpose Ier. 10. 23. Lord the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps As Man understandeth not events so easily mistaketh present Duties 3. Our present estate The world is a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. compared with the light of Glory 't is but like a light that shineth out of a Room where a Candle is and a Room where a Candle is not seen the glimmerings of the Anti-Chamber of eternity Our own reason the counsel and example of others will easily misguide us So the more we depend upon God the more he will undertake to teach us Prov. 5. 6. Those that make their own bosomes their Oracle God is disengaged from being their Guide they need him not but the snares they run into will soon shew them how much they need him 4. How unapt we are to see Conclusions in the promises and to apply general Rules to particular Cases and times which most Christians cannot do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their inferences Rom. 1. 21. Are vain in their imaginations have their foolish hearts darkened 5. To bind all upon the heart and to lye under the Conscience of our Duty maketh the difficulty the greater many imprison the truth in unrighteousness Well then beg the constant direction and illumination of Gods holy Spirit cast your selves upon him in the sense of your weakness and see if he will refuse you say I am blind and ignorant Lord guide me 'T is dangerous to be left in any part of our Duty to our selves II. If we consider the words with respect to the Context And first the remoter Context where David speaketh like a man under trouble and oppression verses 121 122. Let not the proud oppress me c. Lord shew me what to do in this time of my oppression Doctr. Direction how to carry our selves in trouble till the deliverance cometh is a great mercy and should be earnestly sought of God Reasons 1. From the parties oppressing They that oppress watch for our halting as Ieremiah complained Ier. 20. 10. They accused the Prophet unto the Ruler and so to work his ruine if they could find him tripping in any thing Now when we are watched we need special direction that God would teach us to walk warily and safely Psal. 27. 11. Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies Or those which observe me they watch to get some advantage therefore that they may have no advantage against us we should not trust to our own single wisdom 2. Because the danger of sin is a greater inconvenience than the danger of trouble In times of tryals and troubles we are in danger of soul-losing and sinning as well as bodily danger therefore we have need to beg wisdom of God to carry it well under trouble because we are so apt to miscarry unless God guide us continually in our dark condition and take us by the hand and help us over our stumbling Blocks There are many sins incident to our condition First Uncomely passion and unadvised speeches therefore David prayeth in his trouble Psal. 141. 3. Set a watch before my mouth keep the door of my lips In our oppression we are under a temptation to hurt our own Cause by unadvised and passionate speeches when we have too great a sense of the temptation something or other breaketh out to Gods dishonour Secondly Some indirect course to come out of trouble Psal. 125. 3. Men that make haste out of trouble carve for themselves break prison before they are brought out Necessity is an ill Counseller and will soon tempt us to some evil way for our own ease some sinful compliance or confederacy The Devil tempted Christ when he was an hungry Matth. 4. 3. hoping to work upon his necessity Thirdly Private revenge or meeting injury with injuries We are apt to retaliate 2 Sam. 16. 9. Why should this dead Dog curse my Lord the King let me go over I pray thee and take off his head Revenge is soon up No man is troubled if a shower of Rain falleth upon us but if any cast a Bucket or Bason of Water upon us we are in a rage presently We can better bear any trouble from God than injuries from men Oppression maketh a wise man mad A revengeful spirit is contrary to our heavenly Calling Fourthly Waxing weary of our Duty and quite tired and discouraged in Gods service Heb. 12. 3. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners lest you be weary and faint in your minds Weariness and fainting belong properly to the Body and they differ gradually weariness is a lesser and fainting a higher degree of deficiency as when a man laboureth hungers or travelleth it abateth his strength and abateth the active powers or toileth the Spirits the principle of motion And from the Body 't is translated to the Mind to a less or higher degree of defection and is thus When troubles are many and long continued then we begin to grow faint and wax weary of the faith and service of Christ and sink under the burthen 'T is the Devils design to make us weary and tire us out in the service of God Fifthly Another evil is despairing and distrustful thoughts of God David after all his experiences of God though he had conducted him up and down 1 Sam. 27. 1. I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul He had a particular promise and assurance of the Kingdom and had seen much of Gods care over him yet after all this David doubteth of the Word of God Psal. 31. 22. I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest me As if he should say God hath no care of me nor thoughts of me and at that instant deliverance was coming Sixthly Questioning our interest in God by reason of the Cross. Our Lord hath taught us to say My God my God in the bitterest agonies when he was upon the Cross but few learn this Lesson Iudg. 6. 23. If God be with us why hath all this evil befallen us Sometimes we question the love of God because we have no affliction and anon because we have nothing but affliction as if God were not the God of the Valleys as well as of the Mountains
found out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first mover and a first cause but when and how the world was made they were left in uncertainties which was first the Egg or the Hen the Oak or the Acorn Heb. 11. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear A child is taught more than they could find out by their profound researches So concerning the Fall of Man Conscience will inform us of a distinction between good and evil and Heathens by the light of Nature could speak of Vertue and Vice as moral perfection and a deordination but nothing of sin and righteousness relating to a Covenant and whence this mischief began they knew not They complained of Nature as of a Step-mother observed an inclination to evil more than to good that vices are learned without a Teacher that man is born into the world crying beginneth his life with a punishment but the first spring and rise of evil was a secret to them but clearly discovered to us Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Mans restitution and redemption by Christ is wonderful indeed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory This could not be found by man how could they know the free purposes of Gods Grace unless God revealed them This is the Mystery of Mysteries which Angels desire to pry into 1 Pet. 1. 12. So excellent and ravishing a Mystery is this plot of salvation of lost sinners by Christ incarnate that the very Angels cannot enough exercise themselves in the contemplation of it So union with Christ and communion with him a Mystery that Nature could never have thought of Gods keeping a familiar correspondence with his Creatures Gods dwelling in us our dwelling in God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit Words we should not dare to have used if God had not used them before us it would have lookd like blasphemy to speak so if we had not the warrant of Scripture So the resurrection of the body and life eternal they are all wonders 2 Tim. 1. 10. But is now made manifest by the appearance of our Saviour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Heathens might dream of a life after death but could never understand it distinctly It is brought to light Their wise men saw it like the blind man who saw Men walking like Trees or a Spire at a distance no clearness no certainty Lord thy testimonies are wonderful Thirdly It is wonderful for purity and perfection The Decalogue in ten words compriseth the whole Duty of man and reacheth to the very soul and all the motions of the heart All the precepts of morality are advanced to the highest perfection Those fragments and sorry remainders of the light of Nature that have escaped out of the ruines of the Fall will shew us the necessity of a good life But the word of God calleth for a good heart a regeneration as well as a reformation not only abstaining from acts of sin but lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims that ye abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Not only the outward work but the spirit that is weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary Prov. 16. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits It mightily establisheth faith fear and love to God as the essential Graces When we consider Duty in the lump we have no admiting thoughts but when we look abroad into all the parts and branches of obedience whereunto the Law diffuseth it self then the holiliness which the Law requireth is admirable then we see it no easie matter to serve this holy and jealous God it is no easie matter to go to the bottom of this perfection Fourthly It is wonderful for the harmony and consent of all the parts All Religion is of a piece and one part doth not interfere with another but conspireth to promote the great end of subjection of the Creature to God The Law hath a mighty subserviency to the Gospel and the first Covenant shutteth up the sinner immediately under the curse that mercy may open the door to him The Gospel is first darkly revealed and still it groweth as the light doth till noon-day At first an obscure intimation The seed of the woman to Abraham In thy seed which after was repeated to Isaac to cut off Ishmael then to Iacob to cut off Esau yet not what Tribe Gen. 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the Lawgiver from between his feet till Shilo come yet not what Family of Iudah to David 2 Sam. 7. 13. I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever then Isai. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel then Iohn the Baptist Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world points with a finger to Christ. This while in short the Scriptures do so set forth the mercy of God as that the duty of the Creature is not abolished so offers Grace as not to exclude our care and use of means Justification and Sanctification promote one another all is ordered with good advice 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Thus the wonderful harmony order and consent of all the parts with respect to the great end which was the glorifying of God and the subjection of the Creature demonstrate the wonderfulness of Gods testimonies The glorifying of Gods Grace and Mercy in those that are saved and his Justice in those that are damned With respect to this God made man upright furnished with abilities to do his will but mutable and in case of a Fall to begin with a new Covenant He will have his mercy honoured without prejudice to his justice the comfort of the Creature established so as Duty not abolished not all of commands nor all of promises but these interwoven that they may serve one another A Promise at the back of a Command to make it effectual Command besides a Promise to cause humbling neither looseness nor rigour If the Covenant had been left to our ordering it had been a confused business Now it is wonderfully suited God keepeth up his Dominion and Sovereignty notwithstanding his Grace and condescension Justice hath full satisfaction yet Grace glorified Fifthly Wonderful for the
Christianity He that would please God had need of a tender Conscience that he may wholly frame himself to do the will of God and not only take care to be right for the main of his course but that every particular action should be orderly and regular for the man of God does not beg Grace here to chuse a right path but that his steps may be ordered This is the strictness of Christianity that a man should make conscience of every step that every action should be under the power of Grace and fall within the rules of the Word It needs to be so Why Because the Word of God is not only a general rule to shew us our path but a particular direction to order our steps Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path to my feet as well as my path Every action or step of ours is morally considered in its own tendency either a step to Heaven or Hell if good a step to Heaven if evil a step to Hell therefore we had need make Conscience of our steps Besides if we do not make Conscience of our steps we shall not make Conscience of our way for he that is not faithful in a little will not be faithful in much Every wry step is so far out of the way and the more we persist in it the more we wander Therefore see what is required of Christians 1 Pet. 1. 15. Be holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Creak and Turning of your lives In all manner of conversation A man that would approve himself to God must be good in all Conditions in all his businesses affairs all the Ages of his life young or old in actions civil sacred If his Condition be prosperous or adverse when in adversity or prosperity he must carry himself as a Christian he ought still to approve himself to be a hater of sin and a lover of what God loves In all his affairs not only in his religious actions but in his civil and common actions Godliness is not a Holy-day-Suit but an Apparel that is of constant wearing and therefore a Christian is to shew himself a Christian in all things though especially in those things which are solemn and most weighty a Christian in his prayers a Christian in his business in his recreation in his meals a Christian in the disposal of himself and condition a Christian in all his converses I lay this for a foundation Certainly here are steps spoken of the Holy Man would have them ordered and that by the strictness of Christianity so that no one particular action must allowedly be sinful You see what need there is of direction Careless and slight spirits that only look upon Christianity in the lump they think that truths are few and easie and that the art of holy living is soon learned and they do not see a need of this ordering our ways and to be willing to please God in all things But those that count the least sin to be a very heavy burthen a greater evil than the greatest temporal loss that make it their business to approve themselves to God in all things they put their hands unto will be earnest and importunate with him for his Grace 2. The necessity of the word of God Whoever will please God in all things and will purge his own soul and his life from sin must take the Word of God for his rule and direction Our lives are not to be framed according to our own fancies but Gods Word where the genuine holiness is recommended to us and which is the only proper means to work the heart to it I shall prove that the Word of God is the great Rule both to warn us of our dangers and to instruct us in our Duties and so it is the great means to sanctifie the heart I say it is the great Rule to warn us of our dangers Psal. 19. 11. Moreover by them is thy servant warned This discovers temptations inconveniences snares which otherwise we should never discern There are many dangers that wait for us on every side So Psal. 17. 4. Concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer It is the only proper means to keep us from the paths of the destroyer Alas otherwise if we do not strictly consult with his Statute and Rule we shall cry up a Confederacy with those that cry up a Confederacy against God we shall embrace the temptation which opportunity offers if he follow the guidance of his deceived and deceiving heart And the Word of God doth only discover our Duties to us Prov. 6. 23. For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life Mark what ever condition we are in whether in the night or whether in the day whether in this or that condition here we have a lamp and light here 's that which will shew us what God requires of us in every state and condition Now as this is the only Rule so it is the only appointed means with which God will associate the operation of his Grace for the converting and curing of the souls of men For when God had stated a Rule for the Creature it is fit the knowledge of that might be a means of sanctification so the Word is commended to us Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth If the Holy Ghost will sanctifie if he will beget not an Apocryphal and Bastardly Holiness that may be by the institutions of men and rules men prescribe but a genuine true holiness which is acceptable to God put them into a capacity to serve love and enjoy God Psal. 119. 9. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way By taking heed thereto according to thy Word A young man that is in the heat of his lusts and in the ruff of his sin is impetuously carried away how shall he do to break this boysterous violence and bring his heart into some competent way of obedience to God Why the Word of God is the only means the Lord interposeth by his Word and blesseth his Word Let a man read Seneca Plato Plutarch all the Philosophers he will have but cold and faint respects to holiness and to better things until he come to be exercised in the Word of God Man is not a Vessel that comes newly out of the Potters Shop but he hath a smatch of the old infusion of sin and he cannot have this taste and tang put out but by the Word of God sanctifying his heart and breaking the power of his lusts Psal. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. We are out of joynt unfit to please and serve God now how shall a man do to get his soul set in joynt again that he may be in a capacity to serve and enjoy God Why this restores the soul to a capacity
the Lord blesseth this institution and this means for it is not bare truth but instituted truth with which God will associate the operation of his Spirit By this Word of his that was indicted by the Spirit and penn'd by holy men that were moved by the Holy Ghost he doth joyn his virtue and power and efficacy of his Spirit to sanctifie the souls of men 3. They that make it their scope and business to please God in all things and take his Word for their Rule their souls will soon see a need for Divine direction and the establishment of his Grace This reason is taken from the temper of the persons that are to walk in this strict way according to his strict rule they are such as are naturally blind and naturally opposite to God now certainly such need to go to God for direction I gather that from these words Order my steps Every man is a poor blind Creature and hath a heart opposite to the ways of God he need beg this grace of God Lord encline my heart Every man is a blind Creature partly because our own spirits are blind crooked and unstable that we shall neither consult our Rule nor understand our Duty nor like it when it is represented to us until the Lord doth enlighten us A mans heart is naturally blind 2 Pet. 1. 9. He cannot see afar off he hath no skill in spiritual things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The heart is naturally full of darkness and then this darkness grows upon us Partly by prejudice or custome and many evil habits 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this world hath blinded mens eyes There are many inordinate affections that encrease upon us So 't is then that a man is blind by nature more blind by custome and inordinate affection is exceedingly blinded which have a great influence upon our judgments in all practical Cases Though we should know general Rules yet to bring them down to every particular action is very grievous and hard to bring the heart to But you will say When we have received the Spirit God hath put his Law into our minds this blindness is cured therefore why should such as David pray Lord order my steps c. Yes we are cured but in part non totaliter Grace doth heal us but in part much of the matter that clouded the mind before is yet upon us and when lusts are awakened by temptations we strangely forget our selves our own reason our senses and examples of others we are misled so that we know not what to do unless the Lord order our steps Well as we are blind so we are opposite too When we know our way what we should do yet we are apt to stumble at every Stone Naturally the wisdom of the Flesh is opposite Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God And so much as the wisdom of the Flesh still remains we are apt to be discouraged from walking with God according to his strict rule and in the way that he hath given us and we are extreamly slack that unless we be quickened by the lively and strengthning light of the Spirit alas how soon shall we miscarry Therefore this ordering is a strengthening against the reluctancies of the flesh Psal. 17. 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Alas when a man finds a good way he is either apt to lye down out of laziness or to stumble and fall and we cannot keep our footing against temptations Every man of experience seeth the need of this Therefore Lord direct me Order my steps The 4. Reason is taken from the value of the blessing here asked It is one of the chiefest blessings of his grace and favour to have his illuminating Afer he had said Lord be merciful unto me presently follows Lord order my steps To prove this must needs be a great blessing and favour It will appear out of the Words of the Text partly from the word order it makes our lives orderly and regular Alas what a confused disproportionable thing is a man that is half in and half out with the ways of God! His conversation is not all of a piece sometimes right and sometimes wrong there is not that beauty that harmony that holiness to be found in them Solomon tells us Prov. 26. 7. The legs of the lame are not equal so is a parable in the mouth of fools Baines on the place saith thus The man hath knowledge to speak well but he lives ill so his conversation is halting like the legs of the lame Sometimes his speculative light will encline him to do easie things but his practical endeavours will carry him another way there is no even and uniform strain of godliness Then is a mans Conversation ordered when all is carried on with a fair respect to his last end for it is the last end that fixeth a mans mind and cuts off impertinencies and inconsistences and makes a mans Conversation beautiful otherwise the man is tost up and down in a various uncertain motion distracted by a multiplicity of ends and objects that his will is in no composed and settled frame I remember David prays Psal. 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name It 's a blessed thing when a man is united when his conversation is all of a piece And Iames 1. 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways A divided mind will beget an uncertain life I say the last end of our lives doth unite all the parts of it and there 's a regularity and harmony between them But others their life is a mere Lottery the fancies by which they are governed they are jumbled together by Chance and they live at peradventure and hap-hazard and there is not a comely intire uniform order to a blessed end Again partly too from the reason here Order my steps according to thy word and let no iniquity have dominion over me This will prevent the dominion of sin perverse affections are apt to sway us but when the Lord supplies fresh directions the tyranny and dominion of sin is prevented and crushed in the Egg. Sin usually steals into the Throne by insensible degrees temptations and occasions reduce us to some evil practice Well and that produceth another then do multiplied acts get strength then they insnare us and when once the soul is insnared then this bondage daily encreaseth and is hard to be broken for by multiplied acts custome creeps upon us and that 's another nature and that which was but indifferent at first grows more difficult As Diseases looked to at first are easily cured otherwise they grow desperate so sins when they come to a slavish tyranny and custome they cannot help it All this is prevented by the seasonable warnings of the holy Spirit Partly too because this is only vouchsafed to Gods special people God as he loves any so he manifests himself to them this appears out of the Text for in the Verse before
and do them God hath promised this to some body and why not to you You are as fair for this promise as any and if God hath not excluded you why will you shut out your selves from the grace offered 4. There are in the Scripture excellent Incouragements and Motives from the reward promised to the pure Lactantius saith of the Heathen virtutis vim non sentiunt quia cjus praemium ignorant that they were Ignorant of the force of Vertue because they were not acquainted with the reward of it There is a great force in Scripture arguments in this kind See how the Scripture speaks of these promises they are so great so pure and so expresly binding in their Condition and Qualification annexed They are so great 2 Cor. 7. 1. that having such great and precious Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the Fear of God And then so pure 1 Iohn 3. 3. He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as Christ is pure 'T is not barely said he that hath hope in him but he that hath this hope 'T is not a Turkish paradise but a sinless estate not an estate wherein we shall be ingulfed in all sensualities but satisfied with the Vision of God and made like him Heaven is not only to be looked upon as a place of happiness but a state of likeness to God Once more so many and so expresly binding to purity in their Condition and qualification annexed See what the Word of God speakes to purity if we would injoy the favour of God and have him good to us Psal. 73. 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Who are they that God will be good to To Israel all are not Israel that are of Israel but those whose Consciences are cleansed by the Blood of Christ and study to be clean and holy in heart and life Those are Gods Israel How ever things fall out here how blustering and boisterous soever the times are yet God will be good to them that are his Israel If we would have his favour actually exhibited if we would have God to shine upon us we must look after purity Psal. 18. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward God will be to man as man is to God No degree of purity shall go unrewarded the holy use of the Creatures is their priviledge Titus 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure To the wicked all things are defiled and they have a curse with their blessings but to the pure these blessings are lawfully enjoyed and are sanctified to them and they receive every temporal mercy as a blessing of the Covenant Would we be accepted in our service Prov. 15. 26. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord but the Words of the pure are pleasant Words The thoughts and words of wicked men are an abomination to the Lord but the thoughts and words of the Saints are his delight God hath respect to the person and then to their services so that we must be pure in heart if we would have our services accepted of the Lord. Once more the pure are those that shall be employed with Honour for God 2 Tim. 2. 21. If a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel of Honour Sanctified and Meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work Again the purified and cleansed are meet to receive and retain the Word 1 Tim. 3. 9. Hold fast the Mysteries of faith in a pure Conscience None receive the word with such profit and retain it with such warmth as the pure in heart Precious liquors are not put into musty filthy vessels if it be 't is corrupted and spoiled presently Let a man be addicted to any worldly lust and he will soon lose all the sense of good he hath received Once more none pray aâ—…ight but the pure Zeph. 3. 9. For then will I turn to the People a pure Language that they may call upon the Name of the Lord and 1 Tim. 2. 8. Lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting and Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Then we draw near to God with Comfort being sure of audience Once more if we would be happy for ever more Who are they that shall see God Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God You shall see the question propounded in the Psalm 24. 3 4. Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord Who shall stand in his holy place And the question is answered in the third verse He that hath clean hands and a pure heart It standeth us upon to examine how it is with us since all the visible Church are not saved the Pure and Holy are they that shall see and injoy God Filthy Dogs and Impure and Unclean Swine are not suffered to enter into the New Ierusalem 5. Here are terrible threatnings the Word is impatient of being denied It would have holiness and purity upon any terms there is something propounded to our fear as well as to our hope Sometimes the Word of God threatens with the loss of happiness Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. If there were no more but this this were enough to terrifie us to be shut out from the presence of the Lord if it were rightly considered But O! How miserable will the poor Creature be that The Word threatens with the loss of the vision of God supposing the soul subsists this is enough to overwhelm us that we shall never enter into the place where God is Revel 21. 17. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth or worketh abomination But we hear of a Worm that shall never dye a Pit without a bottom a Fire that shall never be quenched and Torments that are without end and without ease God shall say I would have purged you but you would not be purged Whose heart doth not tremble at the mention of these things Oh! Then you see the Word is very pure The second Consideration that this pure Word must me valued and esteemed and loved by us Here I shall shew you what 't is to love the Word and then why I. What 't is to love the Word First Negatively 1. 'T is not an outward receiving or a loose owning of the Scripture as the Word of God many carnal men may so receive it or rather not contradict it They receive the Word of God not upon any divine Testimony and Evidence of the Spirit of God but upon the Authority and Credit of Men the Practice and Profession of the Nation where they Live and the injunctions of the Civil state or the Tradition of the Church This is the just account of most mens
them It is not arbitrary whether you will take the testimony of the Lord for your heritage or no. God cannot endure to be despised When Nabal despised Davids kindness I will cut off every one that pisseth against the wall so when the Lord hath made such an offer of himself and his Christ in Covenant and love hath gone to the uttermost to save and we turn back then snares and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup Psal. 11. 6 8. It would make a mans heart tremble to think of the Heirs apparent of the Land of Darkness that is wicked men God will give them their portion with hypocrites in everlasting Burnings therefore take heed of refusing this portion you can look for nothing but terrible things from God for his love is despised Well then go in Gods name and take hold of the Covenant Again this may be of use to press Believers to live answerable to such an heritage Am I an Heir of Heaven and so uncomfortable and dejected Can I have an interest in the Promises and be no more affected This returning upon our Hearts Rom. 8. 31. When the Apostle had spoken that we should be Co-heirs with Christ and laid forth the priviledges of the Covenant he concludes What shall we say to these things So Christians go home return upon your heart and say Have I an interest in him and live at such a low rate both for comfort and grace Do I walk in such a low and unsuitable manner Do I look upon this as the only sure heritage for my Soul Urge your heart with such Questions as these Doct. 2. The taking of Gods Testimonies for our heritage breeds joy and rejoycing in the heart Now this joy ariseth partly from the portion it self partly from the disposition of the Saints and partly from the dispensation of God 1. From the portion it self It is a portion that deserves to be rejoyced in it is so full and God cannot be possess'd without great joy A man cannot think of a little Pelf and worldly Riches that 's his own without some comfort and can a man think of these great things without comfort Consider both what we have in hand and hope and still 't is matter of joy In hand there 's reconciliation with God O to have God in amity with us Rom. 5. 1. If one have but a Great Man to his friend it comforts him that he hath such a prop and stay O but now to have God reconciled And then to have the care of Providence to have God engaged as a Father God caring for us to be under a Promise that he will never fail us till he hath brought us to Heaven And then to have Heaven kept for us those glorious things we rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God joy is pitched upon our hopes in many places something in possession and something in reversion this must needs breed a joy in our Soul Heb. 3. 6. The rejoycing of hope and Rom. 12. 12. Rejoyce in hope A Christian hath cause to rejoyce for what he hath in hand God's at peace with him he can go to him as a friend as a God in Covenant with him he is bound to provide for him as a Father and then at the end of all a glorious happiness that is to be enjoyed 2. It ariseth from the disposition of the hearts of Gods people partly from their esteem their faith their assurance they take it for their heritage they esteem it as their portion they believe it and reflect upon their own interest and all this causeth joy It comes from their esteem that which I esteem I will delight in Mat. 6. 21. Where the treasure is there will the heart be Affection follows esteem and above all the affection of delight A man may desire a thing that is nothing worth when he comes to enjoy it then he sleights it We are not acquainted with the imperfection of all worldly things until we come to enjoy them but delight that 's an argument of esteem the choicest affection And then it comes from Faith Many hear of such great promises but they hear like men in a Dream but now a Believer that hath a piercing sight that seeth the reality and truth of them his heart leaps within him Heb. 11. 13. It is said These all dyed in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them When a man is perswaded of the truth the reality and goodness of the promise O his heart leaps they hugged the promises here 's a promise that will yield Glory Heaven and Happiness and all that I stand in need of Spiritual sight makes way for spiritual perswasion and spiritual perswasion for holy rejoycing that 's the order In whom believing we were filled with joy Faith is the immediate ground and that is the reason why carnal men do not feel such lively joy they do not believe it Then it comes too from assurance and reflection upon their own interest when they can challenge it as theirs when it is made over to them The rejoycing of Faith is not only good in common but propriety is a ground of rejoycing and delight is nothing but a complacency in our portion 1 Sam. 30. 6. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 3. It comes from the dispensation of God for when we esteem the promises and delight in them then the Lord fills the heart with sweetness Rom. 15. 13. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing The Lord rewards delight with delight Thou shalt call the Sabbath thy delight in one place then presently thou shalt delight thy self there 's the promise There is a delight and rejoycing that is our duty and a delight and rejoycing that is Gods dispensation God loves to reward Grace with Grace Look as in a way of Judgment he punisheth sin with sin as when security is punished with sottish obstinacy and hardness of heart so it is a sweet mercy when Grace is rewarded with Grace when our delight in the promises is rewarded with a sweetness and tast of the promises Use 1. The portion of Gods Children and Religion is no dark gloomy thing The people of God have hidden joys As the Sun shines many times when it rains so though they be under affliction yet they have the shine of Gods face the comfort of Gods promises Let me shew the excellency of the spiritual heritage above the carnal A carnal heritage alas that 's a poor thing there is no strong consolation in it The comforts of wicked men are poor weak comforts they cannot comfort us in any affliction poor things soon overcome but to Gods people their heritage affords strong consolation in overcoming worldly Lusts in spoiling the relish of other pleasures overcoming worldly care and worldly sorrow in bearing us out in all afflictions nay the strength of
it is seen in overcoming the terrours of the Lord Death Hell Judgment to come the fears and doubts of our own Conscience it will not only swallow up the sense of poverty disgrace and affliction but will bear us out in life and death they have a joy that will help them to do and suffer the will of the Lord. When once they have tasted the Comforts of Gods presence other things will go down easie I might press you to look after this rejoycing of heart It makes much for the Glory of God for the Honour of our Portion that we do not repent us of our choice that we bear up chearfully And it is of abundant profit The joy of the Lord is a Christians strength it bears him out in doing for God To this purpose you should beware of sin that 's a clouding darkning thing men or Angels cannot keep their hearts comfortable that sin against God sin takes away all joy peace and the whole strength of men and an Angel cannot make the Conscience of a Sinner rejoyce therefore the Children of God must take heed that they do not allow sin In Act. 9. 31. They walked in the fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost Usually these two go together and the oil of Grace makes way for the oil of gladness and usually obedience concurrs to the establishing of our joy Above all look after Communion with God for he is the fountain of joy and the more Communion we have with him the more we rejoyce The more Communion in Prayer 1 Sam. 1. 6. when Hannah prayed she was no more sad Prayer hath a pacifying Virtue in it And then in the use of the Seals for these are assuring Ordinances now the more we revive the grounds of assurance the stronger the consolation that appears Heb. 6. 18. Act. 8. 39. The Eunuch when he was baptized went away rejoycing When a man hath an inheritance made over to him past in Court all things done the Title not to be made void then he goes and rejoyceth so when the promises have been confirmed by a solemn ratification it makes joy Then Meditation and Thanksgiving keep this joy alive Thanksgiving gives vent and Meditation that maintains it SERMON CXXIII PSAL. CXIX VER 112. I have inclined my heart to perform thy Statutes always to the end DAvid did not only feast his Soul with Comforts but also minded duty and service In the former Verse he had professed his comfort and joy resulting from an interest in the promise now he expresses the bent of his heart to Gods Statutes Ephraim is represented as an Heifer that is taught that would tread out the Corn but not break the Clods 'T is a fault in Christians when they only delight to hear of priviledges but entertain coldly inforcements of duty and obedience David was of another temper first he said I have taken thy testimonies for an heritage and then I have inclined my heart to perform thy Statutes always to the end In which Words you have all the requisites of Gods service I. The principle of obedience I have inclined my heart II. The Matter of obedience Thy Statutes III. The Mâ—…ner of doing 1. accurately to perform 2. the universality and uniformity always 3. constantly to the end I. That which the Psalmist bringeth in evidence for himself is The frame of his heart he beginneth there not with eyes or hands or feet but my heart Secondly This heart is spoken of as inclined poised and set to shew his proneness and readiness to serve God not compelled but inclined The heart of man is set between two Objects Corruption inclineth it one way and Grace another the law of sin on the one side and the law of Grace on the other when the Scales are cast on Graces side then the heart is inclined to Gods Statutes Now he saith I have inclined 't is the work of Gods Spirit to incline and bend our hearts as David expresseth himself vers 36. But 't is not unusual in Scripture to ascribe to us what God worketh in us because of our subservient endeavours to Grace as we pursue the work of God Certum est nos facere quod facimus sed Deus facit ut faciamus saith Augustine It is our duty to incline our hearts to Gods Law which naturally hang sin-ward but 't is Gods work God beginneth by his preventing Grace and the Soul obeyeth the impression left upon it Turn me and I shall be turned Ier. 31. 18. Yea he still followeth us with his subsequent and cooperating Grace we do but act under him I inclined my heart after thou hadst filled it with thy spirit when I felt the motions of thy Grace my consent followed preventing Grace made me willing and subsequent Grace that I should not will in vain Now what was his heart inclined to To perform thy Statutes not to understand them only or to talk of them but inclined to perform them to go through with the Work that is the Notion of performing Rom. 7. 18. how to perform we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it to be compleat in Gods Will to do his utmost therein this not by fits and starts but always a continual care and conscience to walk in Gods Law not suffering our selves for any respect to be turned out of the way Many have good motions by starts temporize a little their goodness is like the Morning Dew 't is thus not for a time but to the end an holy inclination while the fit lasteth is no such great matter this was to the last Some stop in the middle of the Journey or faint before they come to the Goal but David held out to the last Or this is brought as an evidence of his sincerity the Summ is a bent of heart carrying him out to perform whatsoever God doth command all the days of his life I shall speak of what is most material and observe this Point Doct. They that would sincerely and throughly obey God must have an heart inclined to his Statutes Here I shall shew 1. What is this heart inclined 2. The necessity of it 1. What is this heart inclined God expects the heart in all the service that we do him Prov. 23. 26. My Son give me thy heart not the ear or the eyes or the tongue but the heart the most considerable thing in man in his heart 't is terminus actionum ad intra and fons actionum ad extra 'T is the bound of those actions that look inward the senses report to the fancy that to the mind and the mind counsels the heart Prov. 2. 10. if wisedom enter upon thy heart 'T is also the well-spring of those actions that look outward to the life Prov. 4. 23. Matth. 15. 19. You have both these in one place Let thy heart keep my Precepts let thine heart receive my words Prov. 4. 4. In taking in we end with the heart the Statutes of God they are never well