three concurr in Elijahs speech Kings 1. 19. 10. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts there 's his zeal why for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant there 's his Truth perverted they have thrown down thy Altars there 's his Worship overturned they have slain thy Prophets with the Sword there his Servants are wronged So that zeal mainly is concerned when God suffers loss in any of these things if his Truth be perverted his Worship overturn'd his Servants be despitefully used vexed and grieved then zeal presently shews it self in opposing these things or in grieving for them 1. Zeal seeks to preserve the Truth of God inviolable Truth is a precious depositum Trust and Charge which God hath committed to the keeping of his People and without zeal to defend and propagate and maintain it though with the greatest hazard it will never be kept and you will never be faithful to God We are a kind of â—…offees for the present age and Trustees for the future and the charge of Gods Truth is put into our hands and we must see it be transmitted to the World pure and undefiled therefore Iude ver 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints When others would violate the Truth we must contend with them Ier. 9. 3. They are not valiant for the Truth A Christian needs not only the labour of an Ox that he may be diligent but the valour of a Lion that he may appear for God in defence of his Truth when it is invaded and inâ—…roached upon and especially doth this concern the Officers of the Church this zeal they should have for the word Titus 1. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holding fast the faithful Word The word signifies to be good at holding and drawing that is when others would wrest it out of our hands we should hold it fast as a staff that an other would take out of our hands we hold it faster and wrestle with him so should we wrestle contend and hold fast the truth when others would draw it from us And Phil. 1. 27. Striving together for the Faith of the Gospel O! we should not let one dust of truth perish This is to be zealous for the Truth standing to and striving for the defence thereof in our way and place If God had not raised up zealous Instruments in every Age to plead for his Truth what a sad case would the Church have been in Truth would have been buried under a great heap of prejudices and Christs Kingdom have been crusht in the very Egg and Religion strangled in the cradle But there 's a cloud of Witnesses gone before us in every age God sets up some of all Sexes Ages Conditions that have owned his despised and oppugned Truths and have not counted their lives dear so as they might give their testimony to the Truth of God Rev. 12. 11. and have more greedily embraced Martyrdom then Others honours and dignities in the Church as Sulpitius Severus observes they have with greater desire affected the glory of Martyrdom and Suffering for the Truth that they might be faithful to God and the Souls of Men in future Ages and to preserve Gods Truth inviolate they have greedily sought this honour to suffer for God And Ignatius he could say come saith he I desire the Beasts that are prepared should be let loose for me it is better to dye for Christ then to command the ends of the Earth And Basil when the Arrian Emperour threatned those that did oppose his Religion should dye the Death the wild Beasts let them be let out would to God it were so that I had the honour to dye for the Truth of Christ This was notably for the encrease of Christs Kingdom and thus the Lord hath inspired his people with a Holy Love and Zeal 2. For his Worship that that may not be corrupted but his Institutions kept Pure Zeal is conversant about that too Exod. 20. 5. Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God In the first Commandment God forbids a false God in the second he forbids the false Means of Worship as before the false Object Now because the Means of Worship are apt to be perverted the Lord shews how jealous he was for his Worship I am a jealous God if the Institutions of God be perverted then I will visit the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the Third and Fourth Generation of them that hate me The Children are considered in that Commandment because usually the interest of Families is our great snare when an Idol is set up or a false means of Worship the chiefest false worship is an Idol and the greatest sin is put for all the rest before an Idol the Imagination or Invention of men when that is set up The Lord speaks of the interest of Families because men are apt to think they shall undo them and their Families if they contend in this matter Now be you zealous of my worship for I will visit the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children That the interest of Families might not abate our zeal the Lord takes the Family into the Curse for the violation and likewise into the Blessing for zeal for his Institutions And so Christ saith Iohn 2. 17. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up We should be zealous for Gods Worship Ministers they should Preach zealously and Magistrates govern zealously to purge Gods house and Christians pray zealously every one of us as far as the bounds of our calling will permit should be zealous for Gods Worship Quis comeditur zelo Domus Dei saith Austin Who is he that is eaten out with the zeal of Gods house He that desires that no humane invention may be blended and mixed with Gods Worship and would fain amend what 's amiss This zeal is the only right and acceptable Principle of Reformation our great indignation against all false worship whatever I remember the story of Valentinian who was afterwards Emperour when according to the duty of his place being Captain of the Guard to Iulian the Apostate and Emperour he was engaged to attend him into the Heathen Temple of Fortune and the Priests were to sprinkle the lustrating and holy-water for that Ceremony was common to the Heathens with the Papists and a drop of it lighted upon Valentinian he struck the Priest that did it and said thou hast defiled me thou hast not purged me he thought his garments to be contaminated and not his body sanctified and he tore off his Belt renounced his honour rather then he would do any thing that should be contrary to his Religion and for this Iulian sent him into banishment and within a year and few Months the story tells us that he received the reward of his holy Confession and owning of Christ the Roman Empire For the
knowledg when it is so apt to break out When these living waters run out of the belly it 's a sign of a good spring there Col. 3. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another It 's a sign we have gotten the riches of understanding for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks So Prov. 16. 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips When our speech hath weight and worth in it and we are ready upon all occasions it argueth a good stock of the word You know a man that puts his hand in his pocket and brings up gold at every draught it 's a sign he hath more plenty of it than silver So when we are ready to bring out gracious discourses it argueth a treasure and stock within 2. It argueth a good esteem of the word Things that are dear and precious to us we use to discourse of them What we love admire and affect the tongue will be occupied about such things John 3. 31. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth And 1 John 4. 5. They are of the world therefore speak they of the world I know it is spoken in the first place of ordinary Teachers All men whose original is of the earth they savour of it in their speech when they speak of divine things there is some earthiness in it The other Scripture is meant of false Teachers they savour of the world all their teaching doth savour of their affections But both places give this general truth What a mans affections are upon it is most ready in his mouth Therefore it argueth we are affected with the word of God when we are declaring it upon all occasions 6. It is for our benefit to be talking of good things to others The breasts that are not suckt do soon grow dry but the more they are milked out and drawn the greater is the encrease so in spiritual things we gain by communicating By discourse truths are laid more in view We find in any art of common learning the more we confer about things with others the more understanding we get our selves Prov. 11. 25. The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself It is spoken of Alms it is true of spiritual Alms as plain Experience shews by watering and refreshing others the more we are comforted and refreshed our selves The loaves were encreased in the dividing Solomon compares Conference to the whetting iron upon iron the more one iron is whet upon another both are sharpned so by Conference our gifts are encreased Earthly goods the more they are given out we have the less in view and visible appearance though God can increase them but now in heavenly and spiritual things in the very giving out to others they are encreased upon our hands USE 1. To shame us for our unprofitableness in our relations and converses for these are two things wherein a Christian should take occasion to declare the Judgments of Gods mouth 1. In our Relations that we do no good there in declaring the Judgments of Gods mouth to one another Surely every Relation is a Talent and you will be accountable for it if you do not improve it for your Masters use The husband is to converse with his wife as a man of knowledg 1 Pet. 3. 7. and the wife to gain upon the husband 1 Pet. 3. 2. and both upon the children and servants The members of every Family should be helping one another in the way to heaven With what busie diligence doth an Idolatrous Family carry on their way and their course See Ier. 7. 18. The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire c. saith the Lord. Every one will have his hand in the work and are quickning and inflaming one another Fathers Children Husbands Wives all find some employment or other about their Idolatrous Service O that every one would be as forward and zealous and helpful in the work of God O that we were as careful to train and set our families a work in a course of godliness Christians should reason thus What honour hath God by making me a Father a Master of a Family Every such a one hath a charge of souls and he is to be responsible It will be no grief of heart to you when by your means they become acquainted with God Ye are my Crown and my rejoycing says the Apostle of the Thessalonians converted by his Ministry It will be a crown of honour and rejoycing in the day of the Lord when you have been instrumental not only for their prosperity in the world but of their encreasing in grace 2. In our converses how little do we edifie one another If Christs question to the two disciples going to Emans were put to us Luke 24. 17. What manner of conversation had you by the way What cause should we have to blush and be ashamed Generally our discourse is either 1. Prophane and sinful there is too much of the rotten communication which the Apostle forbids Eph. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearer Rotten discourse argueth a rotten heart Or 2. Idle and vain as foolish tales The Apostle bids Timothy 1 Tim. 4. 7. To refuse prophane and old wives fables or vain complements though we are to give an account for idle words Mat. 12. 36. Or else like the Athenians we spend our time in hearing and telling news Acts 17. 21. Or we please and solace our selves with frothy flashes of a wanton wit and jesting that is not convenient which the Apostle forbids Ephes. 5. 4. The praise of a Christian lyeth not in the wittiness but in the graciousness of his conversation That which is Aristotles vertue is made a sin with Paul foolish jesting You should rather be refreshing one another with what experiences you have had of the Lords grace that is the comfort and solace of Christians when they meet together But when men wholly give up themselves to move laughter all this is idle and vain discourse It is not enough to say it doth no hurt but what good doth it do doth it tend to the use of edifying A Christian that hath God and Christ and his wonderful and precious benefits to talk of and so many occasions to give thanks he cannot want matter to discourse of when he comes into company therefore we should avoid vain discourse Or 3. We talk of other mens matters or faults as the Apostle speaks of those 1 Tim. 5. 13. That wandred from house to house that not being idle only but tatlers also and busie bodies speaking things which they ought not Levit. 19. 16. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people The Hebrew word signifies a Merchant or one
for they will grow upon us and therefore it makes for the encouragement of you that they should sooner begin with God 2. It makes for the encouragement of those that have the Education of Youth as Masters of Families Parents and the like Do not say it is too soon for them to learn No Age is too soon for God 2 Tim. 3. 5. Thou hast from thy Infancy learned the Scriptures When we suck in Religion with our milk it 's a great advantage those things we keep with us that we learn young Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it When the new Vessel is seasoned with this precious liquor it will keep the taste tender Twigs are bent this way when they are as Wax capable of any impression Use 3. Caution for young ones If young men should obtain this benefit to grow wiser than the Ancients notwithstanding this yet they should learn to shew reverence to the aged Iob 32. 4 5 6. And then to ascribe it to God saith he ver 8. There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding It is not the sharpness of our wit but the inspiration of his Grace he is the Author of all this wisdom that is wrought in us Use 4. To humble the Aged that have not made conscience of their time and ways and therefore are more blockish than many Children Isa. 65. 20. There shall be no more an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days Old men that are ignorant of the mysteries of Faith after they have long sate under the Word of God and have many advantages to improve their youth Heb. 5. 12. When for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat In this sense God is said to take away the understanding of the Aged that is by a just judgment for their unfruitfulness and unprofitableness under the means of Grace They that are much younger than you are wise in comparison of you when they excel you for ripeness in wisdom for solidness and setledness in manners in a course of godliness Those old men that draw near to the Grave before they have consider'd either the end wherefore they came into the world or the state into which they shall be translated when they go out of it those are Children of 100 years old that have nothing to reckon Age by but wrinckles and gray hairs Doct. 3. That the way to increase in spiritual understanding is to be studious in practical holiness The Word that will give you understanding will keep you out of all snares sufficiently direct you to true happiness But how shall we get it refer it to practice practise what you know and you shall know more it must needs be so 1. Because these are such as have God's Promise Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self They that make conscience of their ways season their course in the fear of God that take Gods direction with them God will tell them they shall know what doctrine is of God 2. They have a greater clearness of mind and understanding therefore must needs discern holy things why because they are freed from the clouds of lust and passion which do insensibly blind and make them stay in generals Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Saith Nazianzene Where there is purity there 's brightness where there 's a pure heart there 's a great deal more clearness in the understanding Reason and Fancy are dark unless a Man have a command over his Passions and Affections over his Passions of Anger Fear Grief and over his Affections of Love and Joy and Appetite towards sensual delights unless he be able to govern these things he will never truly discern the mind of God for the seasoning his course in living a holy life that of the Apostle is notable 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance unless they be able to govern their affections in the use of worldly delights pleasures and profits they will never have this practical knowledge and therefore the only way to know divine things as Nazianzene well observes is conscientiously to keep the Commandments of God If you would know the Will of God do not spend your time in heaping up Notions but framing your heart to obedience governing your affections by the fear of God and suiting your hearts to the Word of God Alas Those that seek knowledge out of ambition curiosity and vain ostentation and lie under the power of vile affections get but very little true spiritual light they may have the understanding of Teachers but not the understanding to season them and guide them in their communion with God 3. The more we practise the more Religion is exemplifi'd and made sensible so that we come to understand more of the sweetness of it and on the other hand the more of difficulty is in it when there is nothing but bare Notions and naked apprehensions There we have a double advantage an exact Rule and more experience of the sweetness of Religion Prov. 3. 17. All her ways are ways of pleasantness When we practise what we know then we come to know the sweetness of entertaining communion with the Lord and they know more of the difficulty of Religion they know where their hearts are more averse and more in danger whereas others that soar aloft in Notions and idle and lofty speculations have not this experience 4. They that practise study things with more affection than others mightily help their understanding The more piety and zeal any man hath the more will the Lord bless his Studies Paul profited in the Iewish Religion above many of his Equals why Gal. 1. 14. Being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my Fathers A man that hath a zeal in any thing will profit more than others so he that hath a zeal for the things of God profits above others A blunt Iron if red hot will pierce through an Inch-board sooner than a cold Tool though never so sharp so those that have blunt parts in comparison of others yet if they have zeal and good affections they will pierce deep into the mysteries of Religion they that have sharper parts want the fire of zeal 5. The more fruitful any Grace is the more doth it abound with us and therefore when your knowledge is fruitful you will find it increased by laying out your Talents Col. 1. 10. Be fruitful in every good work always increasing in the knowledge of God First he presseth knowledge in order to practice then he presseth
his Law and Grace which are means in the nearest vicinity with our End Psal. 37. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart Phil. 4. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce 3. Delight if not right set of all the affections it is apt to degenerate We have a liberty to delight in earthly things the affection is allowed the excess is forbidden Thou maist delight in the Wise of thy youth in thy Children Estate in the Provisions heaped upon thee by the indulgence of Gods Providence Pleasure is the sawce of life to better digest our sorrows It is allowed us but it must be well guarded We are most apt to surfeit of pleasant things and to miscarry by sweet affections Sorrow is afflictive and painful and will in time wear away of it self Pleasure is ingrained in our natures born and bred with us and therefore though we may delight in the moderate use of the refreshments of the present life in Estate Honour Reputation yet we should take heed of excess that our hearts be not overjoyed and too much taken up about these things Carnal joy is the drunkenness of the mind it besotteth us maketh us unmindful of God weakens our esteem of his favour and blessing it chaineth us to present things Pleasure is the great Witch and Sorceress that inchants with the love of the world maketh us unmindful of the Countrey whence we came and whither we are a going therefore we should be jealous of our delight and how we bestow it USE 3. To exhort us to this delight in Gods Statutes or this spiritual rejoycing 1. Here is no danger of exceeding the greatest excesses here are most praise-worthy In other things we must exercise it with jealousie feed with fear rejoyce as if we rejoyced not a man may easily go beyond his bounds when he rejoyceth in the creature but here enlarge thy heart as much as is possible and take thy fill of pleasure Cant. 5. 1. Eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved This is ebrietas quae nos castos facit chast Flagons Eph. 5. 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye fill'd with the Spirit 2. We shall never be ashamed of these joys 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. All carnal joys have a turpitude affixed to them and therefore affect to lye hid under a vail of secresie The world would cry shame of him that would say of his bags or his dishes Here is my joy as much as men affect these things yet they desire to conceal them from the knowledg of others 3. We shall be never weary of these joys The delights of the senses become nauseous and troublesome our natural dispositions become weary and importunate a man must have shift and change pleasures refreshed with other pleasures But these delights add perfection to Nature therefore when fully enjoyed they delight most A good conscience is a continual feast a dish we are never weary of The blessed spirits in heaven are never weary of beholding the face of God God is new and fresh every moment to them The contemplation of such excellent objects doth not overcharge and weaken the spirits but doth raise and fortifie them It is true the corporeal powers being weak may be tired in such an employment as much reading is a weariness to the flesh but the object doth not grow distastful as in carnal things How shall we get it 1. Get a suitableness to the word Every man's delights are as his principles Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit A man is much discovered by his savour and relish of things All creatures must have suitable food There must be a sutableness between the Faculty and the Object spiritual things are spiritually discerned 2. Be in a condition to delight in the word A guilty soul readeth its own doom there it revealeth themselves to themselves accuseth and condemneth them As Ahab said of Micajah He prophesieth evil against me and therefore could not endure to hear him Joh. 3. 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh he to the light lest his deeds should be reproved 3. Purge the heart from carnal distempers lust envy covetousness love of pleasures these are Diseases that need other diet than the word Such persons must have other solaces they cater for the flesh to please the senses An earthly heart will not delight in spiritual things Doct. It standeth Gods children upon to see that they do not forget the word I. What is it to forget the word A man may remember or forget two ways Notionally and Affectively 1. Notionally when the notions of things formerly known are either altogether or in part worn out Jam. 1. 25. He is like one that looks his natural face in a glass but goeth away and straightway forgetteth what manner of person he was 2. Affectively when though he still retain the notions yet he is not answerably affected nor doth act according thereunto Thus the Butler did not remember Ioseph that is did not pity him Thus God is said not to remember the sins of them that repent when he doth not punish them and to forget the afflictions of his people when he doth not deliver them and we are said to forget God Psal. 106. 21. when we do not obey him and to forget his word when we do not remember his commandments to do them Psal. 103. 18. In this place both are intended the Notional and Practical remembrance II. The Reasons why we should not forget his word 1. Meditation will fail else A barren lean soul is unfit to enlarge it self in holy thoughts shall never grow rich in the spiritual understanding Col. 3. 6. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all knowledg c. Men of small substance grow rich by continual saving and holding together what they have gotten but if they spend it as fast as they get it they cannot be rich Luk. 2. 19. Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart 2. Delectation will grow cold unless the memory be rubbed up ever and anon When they fainted under affliction the cause is intimated Heb. 12. 5. Have ye forgotten the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto children Distrust in straits is from the same source Mar. 8. 13. They remembred not the miracle of the loaves for their hearts were hardened Ye see and hear and do not remember David was under great discomfort till he remembred the years of the right hand of the Most High Psal. 77. 10. Lament 3. 21. This I recall to mind therefore I have hope 3. Practice and conscience of obedience will grow more remiss Nothing keepeth the heart in a holy tenderness so much as a presence of the truth and when
the godly should smother their grief and not go to God with it their sorrow were able to choak them It is no small ease that we have a God to go to to whom we may freely open our minds Prayer hath a pacative virtue as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 18. prayed unto the Lord and wept sore and mark the event the woman went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad c. An Oven stopped up is the hotter within but vent and utterance giveth ease to the heart if it be meerly by way of complaint to a friend without expectation of relief much more to go to God and lay open our case before him 2. To seek our comfort elsewhere from earthly things it is a vain and evil course 1. It is vain for God is the party with whom we have to do In many troubles the creatures may be instruments of our wo but the principal party is God Strike in with him and you stop the mischief at the head Pro. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him In other troubles God hath a more immediate hand as sicknesses and terrors of conscience our business then lyeth not with the creatures in sickness not with Physicians first but with God In troubles of spirit we are not to quench our thirst at the next ditch but to run to the Fountain of living water not to take up with ordinary comforts that 's an attempt to break prison and to get out of the troubles before God letteth us out He is our party then whoever be the Instrument 2. It is evil that we refuse to come to God when he whippeth us into his presence and beateth us to the Throne of Grace Dan. 9. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth When men are ready to dye and will not so much as confer with the Physician they are either stupid or desperate Afflictions summon us into his presence God sendeth a tempest after us as after Ionah Now that trouble which chaseth us to God is so far a sanctified trouble 2. The hope of relief from God who alone can and will help us He put his mouth in the dust peradventure there is hope Lam. 3. 29. Now this hope is from God's Power and Will 1. His Power God can quicken us when we are as good as dead because he is the well-spring of life and comfort Other things give us life but as water scaldeth when it is the instrument of heat but God alone can help us God is the great quickner That I might trust in him that raised the dead and I am the resurrection and the life 2. His will When we are humble and tractable in our afflictions 1. It is some hope if we have nothing to bring before God but our grief and misery for be is pitiful A beggar will uncover his sore to move your bowels so many times all the reason that a poor pitiful afflicted person can bring for himself is lamenting his case to God how discouraged he is and apt to faint as David represents his case My soul cleaveth to the dust and elsewhere Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful let thy salvation O God set me up on high Justice seeketh a fit object but Mercy a fit occasion 2. It is a greater ground of hope when we are humbled under Gods hand and have a due sense of our condition that is are convinced of our emptiness weakness nothingness or emptied of self-conceit and carnal confidence Deut. 32. 36. For the Lord shall judg his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left Gods judgments are to break our carnal dependencies 3. Still the hope encreaseth when we acknowledg his Justice and Wisdom in all our troubles Levit. 26. 41. If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity kiss the rod wherewith they are corrected be glad it is no worse and see that all this cometh from a Just and Wise God 4. There is farther hope when we can cast our selves upon his Faithfulness and Omnipotency in the face of all discouragements Christ's question to the man long possessed was Mark 9. 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth God's Power is exercised when glorified by faith and dependence 5. When we submit to whatmay be most for his glory Carnal prayers though never so earnest fail when we are too earnest upon our private end and the means which we fancy Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truths sake USE In deep calamities run to God lay forth your case feelingly and with submission to the Justice of his Providence trusting to his Power and submitting to his wisdom without obtruding your model upon God but leaving him to his own course and this is the way to speed Take heed 1. Of a stupid carelesness under the Rod it is a time of seeking after God a summons to the creature to come before him Now if we think to sport away our trouble without looking after Gods comforts it is a desperate security Jer. 5. 12. They have belyed the Lord and said It is not he neither shall evil come upon us neither shall we see sword nor famine 2. Take heed of despondency The Throne of Grace is set up on purpose for such a time Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Open your case before the Lord. 3. Take heed of pitching too much upon outward things either as to the time or way of deliverance Lust is vehement but the more you seek the more comfortable will be the issue Psal. 51. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of thy Ierusalem 2. We come now to David's supplication or petition thereupon where observe 1. The Request it self Quicken thou me 2. The Argument According to thy word 1. The Request it self Quicken thou me which noteth either the renewing of comfort or the actuation of graces the restoring or putting life into his affairs 1. The renewing of comfort Quicken me revive me or restore life to me again and this either by outward deliverance so quickning is used Psal. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth where deep trouble is compared to the grave and deliverance a kind of resurrection or recovery from the dead or by
shall I do so or shall I not to desire him that is Lord of all to give us leave who is the Fountain of Wisdom to give us Counsel who is the disposer of all Events to give us a blessing 3. The declaring of our ways is necessary that we may be sensible of Gods eye that is upon us and so act the more sincerely Certainly it is a great advantage to make God conscious to every business we have in hand when we dare undertake nothing but what we would acquaint him withal There are some to whom the Prophet pronounceth a wo Isa. 29. 15. Wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us For the opening of this place surely none can seriously be so vain and grow up to such sottish Atheism as to think to hide a thing from God but they are loth solemnly to draw it forth in the view of conscience to revive a sense of Gods Omnisciency upon themselves We are said to deny that which many times we forget and will not think of So that those which hide their counsels from God are those that will not take God along with them In short this declaration is not necessary for God who knows our thoughts a far off Psal. 139. 2. not only our words and works but purposes before we begin to lift up a thought that way But this declaration is necessary for us to encrease the awe of God upon our heart and that we may undertake nothing but what we will solemnly acquaint the Lord with Well then this declaring our ways is an act of dependence Secondly By his ways may be meant all his straits sorrows and dangers and so this declaring it is an act of holy friendship when a man comes as one friend to another and acquaints God with his whole state lays his condition before the Lord in hope of pity and relief We have liberty to do so to tell God all our mind Heb. 10. 19. Let us come with boldness by the blood of Iesus and Heb. 4. 16. The word signifies with liberty of speech speaking all to God your whole state and condition if you have any sins to be pardoned any miseries to be redressed that where you are doubtful you may be helped by Gods counsel where you are weak you may be confirmed by his strength where you are sinful you may be pitied by his mercy where you are miserable you may be delivered by his power This is holy friendship to acquaint God with our doubts wants griefs and fears and we may do it with more confidence because we go to him in Christs name Joh. 16. 23. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name it shall be granted unto you It is no fiction or strain but a real truth Will Christ deceive us when he saith Verily And then whatsoever you ask you have liberty to go to God for the removal of any fear the granting any regular desire or for satifying any doubt Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name our prayers by this means are Christs request as well as ours For instance if you send a child or servant to a friend for any thing in your name the request is yours and he that denies a child so servant denies you so saith Christ Go to the Father in my name God cannot deny a request in Christs name no more than he can deny Christ himself therefore you may use a holy boldness Thirdly By ways is meant temptations and sins and so this declaring is an act of spiritual contrition or brokenness of heart Sins they are properly our ways as Ezek. 18. 25. the Lord makes a distinction between my ways and your ways God hath his ways and we ours Our ways are properly our sins Now these saith David I will declare that is distinctly lay them open before God This is a part of our duty with brokenness of heart to declare our ways to acquaint God fully how it is with us without dissembling any thing It is a duty very unpleasing to flesh and blood natural pride and self-love will not let us take shame upon our selves and out of carnal ease and laziness we are loth to submit to such a troublesome course and thus openly to declare our ways Guilt is shy of Gods presence and sin works a strangeness Adam hid himself when God came into the garden and when he could shift no longer he will not declare it but transfers the fault upon Eve and obliquely upon God himself and ever since there are many tergiversations in mans heart and therefore it is said Job 31. 33. If I have covered my sin as did Adam Iunius renders it more hominum after the manner of men but Adam's name is used because we shew our selves to be right Adam's race apt to cover our sins The same expression we have Hos. 6. 7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant in the Hebrew 'tis like Adam so if I covered my sin as did Adam this is the fashion of men Now David brought his heart to this resolution with much strugling Psal. 32. 5. I said I will confess my sins he forced himself and thrust his backward heart forward by a strong resolution for we are loth to deal thus openly plainly and truly with God being shy of his presence and would fain keep the Devils counsel and come with our iniquity in our bosom But though this is a troublesome displeasing exercise to flesh and blood yet it is profitable and necessary For us thus to declare our ways 1. Because it is made to be one of the conditions of pardon and the act of Repentance that 's necessary to the pardon of sin Prov. 28. 13. He that hideth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsakes them shall find mercy so it runs And 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Gods Justice is satisfied by Christ but it must be glorified and owned by us So Jer. 3. 13. I am merciful saith the Lord only acknowledg thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God God hath mercy enough to pardon all only he will have it sued out his own way he will have his mercy asked upon our knees and have the creature stoop and submit And David Psal. 51. 3. I acknowledg my transgression 2. It is the only means to have our peace setled If you would not have your trouble and anxious thoughts continued upon you go open your selves to God declare your ways Psal. 32. 5. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin As soon as David did but take up a resolution presently he felt the comfort of it If David had confest sooner he had come to his case sooner Distress of conscience is continued upon us until this be
when you have them in their frame and see how one suits with the other and what a sweet harmony there is between all the parts of Religion then they are very good 3. More experimental that you may taste the sweetness and power of the Truths that you know Phil. 3. 10. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death When we feel what we know that is a mighty confirmation The senses give the best demonstration It is a disparagement to know Christ and be never the better for him to have a knowledg of all the Excellency of Christ and how suitable he is to the soul yet to feel nothing of comfort and quickning in our consciences 4. More Practical 1 Joh. 2. 3 4. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments He that faith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him Otherwise it is but a talking by rote a man savingly knoweth no more than he practiseth He that doth but speak after others it is a rehearsal rather than a knowledg What is practical light It is directive and perswasive 1. It is directive A man grows more prudent and more able to guide his course according to the rules of Religion Faith is opposed not only to ignorance but to folly O ye fools and flow of heart to believe A man may be a knowing man yet a very fool in Spirituals if he hath not a knowledg how to guide him to trust in God fear God love God and serve God Hosea 14. 7. 2. That is practical knowledg when it is perswasive when it hath a lively force and efficacy upon the heart 2. Point Those whom God maketh to understand the way of his precepts see wondrous things therein Psal. 119. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law VVonders are such things as do transcend our capacity so all things about God are above the sphere of men as the things of men are above the capacity of Beasts Now the more understanding and insight we have in these things the more we wonder Wonder usually is the fruit of ignorance how then can knowledg breed wonder The word discovers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so but the manner how it is and the wisdom of the contrivance is that which begets reverence and admiration in a gracious soul as Nazianzen saith of the eternal generation of Christ Let the eternal generation of God be adored in silence It is a marvellous thing to know that there are Three in One The Son from Eternity begotten before all the World c. So when we look into these things our knowledg doth only shew that they are but what they are and how great they are that exceeds our capacity and therefore we wonder 1. The Doctrines of the Scripture are wonderful concerning God and his Works The nature of God is a depth which we cannot fathom no more than a Nutshel can empty the Ocean Psal. 139. 6. Such knowledg is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it It is above our capacity for a finite thing cannot comprehend an Infinite The Creation of all things out of nothing we believe it upon the testimony of the Word but it is too wonderful for us to search it to the bottom yea the framing of the body in the Womb so many different things out of the same Seed as flesh and bones and muscles and in such an order and proportion Psal. 139. 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well If the commonness did not abate our observation we would wonder at it So his Providence in governing every creature to their proper ends especially his care over us and conduct of us Many O Lord are thy wondrous works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred Psal. 40. 5. But especially the redemption of mankind is wonderful 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory The mysteries of the Gospel every time we think of them should strike admiration into our hearts It could not sink into the head of any creature how to satisfie Justice and to make up the breach between God and us That a Virgin should conceive the Word be made flesh That Justice and Mercy should so sweetly be brought together and conspire in the salvation of a lost sinner all these are wonders and when we come to believe them indeed to draw forth comfort from them these are wonderful to us The Law of God is wonderful Look to the Precept or the Sanction Look to the Precept A wonderful purity there I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Law is exceeding bread Ver. 96. of this Psalm When a child of God sees how the Law reacheth every thought every motion every operation of his soul What wonderful purity is here So a marvellous Equity The law is holy just and good and the commandment is good Rom. 7. 4. God hath given us such a Law if a man were free yet to ennoble his nature and live happily he would chuse such a Rule Then to see such wise precepts so ordered that in Ten words God should comprise the whole duty of man Deut. 4. 6. Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the Nations First God hath provided in his Law respects to himself First The Law provides for God then for the Creature In the first Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods before me there 's the Object of Worship In the second Thou shalt not make to thy self a graven Image c. the means of Worship Then the manner of Worship in the third Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain Then the time of Worship in the fourth Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day See how the Lord hath built up his Law Then as to men see first God provides for those Vice-Roys that do represent the great God as our Parents natural and civil Honour thy father and thy mother c. then our ordinary Neighbour and there first for his life and then for his relations Thou shalt not kill shalt not commit adultery then for his goods Thou shalt not steal then for his good name When a man sees the Law of God in all its explications when he considers the harmony and correspondence that is between all the parts of the Law then he will cry out O wonderful Come to the Sanction by
strength that is he observes all our temptations our conflicts how weak we are and he intercedes with God night and day he stands at God's right hand to get out this strength and the Holy Ghost applies it to our heart in the Ordinances for so it is said Eph. 3. 16. To be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man USE To press us to be dealing with God for this strength what shall we do 1. Be weak in your own sense and feeling The way to be strong is to be weak 2 Cor. 12. 10. When I am weak then am I strong The Bucket if we would have it fill'd with the Ocean must first be empty Saith Austin Nemo erit à Deo firmus nisi qui seipsum sentit infirmum God strengthneth those that are weak in their own feeling and sense of their own nothingness Heb. 11. 34. Out of weakness they were made strong out of weakness felt and apprehended 2. There must be a full reliance upon God's strength alone Psal. 71. 16. I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God And Eph. 6. 10. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And 2 Tim. 2. 5. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Iesus Whatever is in God and in Christ is for our use it is forth-coming for our encouragement and help We have firm grounds for this reliance the infinite power of God and the merit of Christ which is of infinite value What cannot the power of God do the strength of God is ingaged for our relief and succour 3. Use the power that you have and then it will be increased upon you The right arm is bigger than the left why because of Exercise it 's fuller of spirits and strength To him that hath shall be given Mat. 13. 12. and he shall have abundance The more we exercise grace the more we shall have of it Prov. 10. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright The more we walk with God the more strength 4. Use the means for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Isa. 40. 31. Because God doth all O it 's the greatest engagement that can be to wait upon God in the use of means that we may draw out treasures of grace in Gods way Phil. 2. 12. Work out your salvation for it is God that worketh in you c. See that you keep not off from God why for he doth all 5. Avoid sin that lets out your strength as bleeding lets out the spirits of the body When you grieve the Spirit of Christ which is to strengthen you you cast away your strength from you Let us then wait upon God for help for when all things fail God faileth not II. I now come to the Argument Strengthen me according to thy word Gods word binds him to relieve his people in distress There are two promises one is 1 Cor. 10. 13. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able A good man would not over-burden his beast certainly the gracious God will not suffer temptations to lye upon us above measure Another promise is in Isa. 57. 15 16 17. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones He hath promised comfort and relief to poor broken-hearted sinners you are called by name in the promise it is spoken to people in your case Again Upon such a word and promise of God is Davids prayer grounded A Prayer grounded upon a promise is like to prevail you may put an humble challenge upon God plead his Word to him It is strange fire else you put in the censer when you beg that which God never undertook to grant David often saith according to thy word Again The word of God is the only cure and relief for a fainting soul. When David was languishing away under deep sorrow then Lord thy word did bring strength 1. This is the proper cure Natural means cannot be a remedy to a spiritual distemper no more than a fine suit of apparel to a sick man or a posy of flowers to a condemned man Natural comforts carry no proportion with a spiritual disease nothing but grace pardon strength and acceptance from God can remove it They that seek to quench their sorrows in excess and merry company take a bruitish remedy for soul-diseases Oh foolish creatures that think to sport away or drink down their troubles it is as foolish a course as to think that to sew up a rent in the garment will cure a wound in their body And 2. it is an universal cure we have from the word life comfort strength It is the word that must guide us and keep us from fainting quicken us and keep us from dying This is a full remedy in conjunction with the power of God and makes the sore joyful in the midst of outward troubles Psal. 56. 10. I will rejoyce in God because of his word Lastly This word must be applied to the conscience by God himself Strengthen thou me according to thy word He goes to God that he would apply his word that it might be for his strength for we can neither apprehend nor apply it further than we receive grace from God The word is Gods instrument and worketh not without the principal Agent SERMON XXX PSALM CXIX 29. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy Law graciously THERE are two Parts of Christianity destructive and adstructive the destructive part consists in a removing of sin the adstructive part makes way for the Plantation of Grace there 's eschewing evil and doing good We are carried on in a forward earnestness in the way of sin but there 's a great backwardness and restraint upon our hearts as to that which is good The one is necessary to the other we must come out of the ways of sin before we can walk in the ways of God In this prayer David respects both 1. In the first he instanceth in one sin the way of lying not only lying but the way of lying as being conscious to himself of his too often sinning in this kind Now he would not have this setled into a course or way therefore he beggeth remove it the guilt the fault of it 2. As to the adstructive part for the regulating of his conversation he begs the favour and grant of the Law and that upon terms of grace David had ever the book of the Law for every King of Israel was to have it always by him and the Rabbies say written with his own hand But grant me thy law graciously that is he desires he might have it not only written by him but upon him to have it imprinted upon his heart that he might have a heart to observe and keep it That 's the blessing he begs for the Law and this is begged graciously or upon terms of grace meerly according to thine own favour and good pleasure
Alas if men were to sit brooding a Religion themselves what a strange business would they hatch and bring forth if they were to carve out the worship of God they might please themselves but could never please God Vain men indeed are ready to frame God like themselves and foolishly imagine what pleaseth them pleaseth him also they still conceive of God according to their own fancy And this was the reason why the wisest Heathens having no revelation no sense of Gods will but what offered it self by the light of nature they would imploy their wits to devise a Religion but what a monstrous Chimera and strange fancy did they bring forth Professing themselves wise they became fools Rom. 1. 22. Though they knew there was a great and eternal being by the light of nature yet the Apostle saith they became vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their imaginations how this infinite being should be worshipped therefore what they carved out was not an honour but a disgrace they devised Gods and Goddesses that were Patrons of murder theft and all manner of filthiness and brought out Bacchus the God of riot and good-fellowship or the Patron of boon companions And Venus the Patroness of love and wantonness But now God hath shewed us his will he hath shewed us what is good and what he doth require of us Micah 6. 8. Now that the Gospel is a revelation from God it appears by the matter which is so suitable to the nature of God it hath such an impress of Gods Wisdom Goodness Power upon it that plainly it hath past God it is like such an infinite and eternal being as God is in the worship and duties prescribed it is far above the wisdom of meer man though very agreeable to those reliques of wisdom which are left in us So that this is that true Religion which surely will please God because it came from him at first and could come from no other And also besides the evidence it carrieth with it and the impress and stamp of God upon it we have the word of those that brought this Doctrine to us and if we had nothing else if they say Thus saith the Lord c. we are bound to believe them they being persons of a valuable credit that sought not themselves but the glory of him that sent them When the first messengers of it were men of such an unquestionable credit that had no ends of their own but ran all the extreme hazards and displeasures surely it cannot incline us to think they did seek God's glory by a lye Yea they did evidence their mission from God by miracles that God sent them surely this doctrine is from heaven I and still God in his Providence shews it from heaven both in his Internal government of the world he blesseth it to the comfort of the conscience or to the terrifying of the conscience for it works both ways Wicked men are afraid of the light lest their deeds should be made manifest Iohn 3. 20. and also to the comforting and setling the conscience that we may have great joy by believing in Christ. This for his Internal government And then his External government by answering of prayers fulfilling promises accomplishing prophecies Psal. 18. 30. As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all that trust in him Put God to the tryal by a regular confidence in an humble walking and he will make good his promises I and make good his threatnings When people are ripe for judgment God will fulfil the threatnings of his word and will accomplish what is spoken by the Prophets and Apostles and God will reveal his wrath from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. 18. So that here are plain signs that this is a doctrine revealed from God and God can best tell us how he is to be worshipped and pleased Secondly Besides God's revelation it notably performs all that which a man would expect in a Religion and so suits the necessities of man as well as the honour of God Why 1. That is the true Religion which doth most draw off the minds of men from things temporal and earthly to things coelestial and eternal that we may think of them and prosecute them The sense of another world an estate to come is the great foundation upon which all Religion is grounded All its precepts and promises which are like to gain upon the heart of man they receive their force from the promise of an unseen glory and eternal punishments which are provided for the wicked and contemners of the Gospel The whole design of this Religion is to take us off from the pleasures of the flesh and the baits of this world that we may see things to come It 's the excellency of the Christian faith that it reveals the doctrines of eternal life clearly which all other Religions in the world only could guess at There were some guesses but still great uncertainty but obscure thoughts and apprehensions of such an estate But here life and immortality is brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Alas there 's a mist upon it in all other representations they seem to see it yet see it not but this is brought to light in the Gospel it makes a free offer of it upon condition of faith in Christ Iohn 3. 16. it quickens us to look after it all its design is to breed in man this noble spirit by looking upon things that are above and not upon things on earth Col. 3. 1 2. and it endeavours with great power and perswasiveness that we may make it our scope that we may neglect all present advantages rather than miss of this and make it our great design that we may look not to the things which are seen but to the things unseen 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. This is the way of truth because we believe it will make the worshippers of it everlastingly happy which all men by nature have enquired about Now it is but reason that a man's work be ended before he receive his wages and if God will reward the vertuous that it should be in the other world for our work is not ended until we dye and we have a presagiency of another world there is another world which the soul of man thinks of Now this is that which Christianity drives at that we may look after our reward with God and escape that tribulation wrath and anguish which shall come upon every soul that doth evil 2. That doctrine which establisheth purity of heart and life as the only means to attain this blessedness certainly that 's the way of truth Psal. 24 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity There is no true holiness no subjection of heart to God but by the Christian
only rejoyce in things for a season Iohn 6. 35. There are many that look for all their vertue and their experience from their notions in Religion Thus they run from doctrine to doctrine from way to way so remain unmortified Thirdly Take heed of the first decays and look often into the state of your hearts A man that never casts up his estate is undone insensibly therefore look often into the state of your hearts whether you encrease in your affections to God in the power of holiness or whether you go backward It is the Devil's policy when once we are declining to humble us further and further still as a stone that runs down the hill therefore take heed look to the first declinings A gap once made in the conscience grows wider and wider every day and the first declinings are the cause of all the rest Evil is best stopt in the beginning And therefore when you begin to be cold careless in the profession of godliness and not to have the like savour as you were wont to have take heed A heavy body moving downward still gets more strength it goes down and moves faster still O therefore stay at first The first remitting of your watch and spiritual fervor is that which is the cause of all the mischief that comes upon many so that they are given up to vile affections and lying errors It is easier to crush the egg than kill the serpent He that keeps his house in constant repair prevents the fall of it therefore look to your hearts still Our first declinings though never so small are very dangerous Pliny speaks of the Lioness lib. 8. cap. 16. first she brings forth five Lions then four then three then two then one and forever afterward is barren Thus we first begin to remit of our diligence in holy things and are not so frequent in acts of communion then this and that goes off till we have but little left us and then all is gone and men grow worse and worse I may resemble it to Nebuchadnezzar's Image the head of gold the breasts of silver the thighs of brass the feet of iron and clay still worse and worse So men are imbasing by degrees and fall off from God and their savour of the ways of God Fourthly Often review your first grounds and compare them with your after-experiences and what fresh tasts you had then of the love of God to your souls Heb. 3. 14. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end The first rejoycing of faith the sweet sense that you had O how precious was Christ to you then when first you came out of your fears Revive this upon your heart this will stir you up to be faithful to God When the love of Christ was fresh upon your hearts your motions were earnest Many begin like a Tree full of blossoms give great hope of fruit We should labour to keep up this affection and that a cursed satiety may not creep upon us USE 2. If those that have chosen the way of God and begin to conform their practice ought with all constancy to persevere then it reproveth 1. Those that take up Religion only by way of essay to try how it will suit with them they do not intirely and by a resolute fixed purpose give up themselves to the Lord. You should resolve upon all hazards Not take up Religion for a walk but for a journey Not like going to sea for pleasure if they see a storm coming presently to shore again but for a voyage to ride out all weathers Thus you should do stick to the ways of God and at first make God a good allowance that neither tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword nor any thing may separate you from Christ Rom. 8. 35. We should count all charges and resolve upon the worst 2. It reproves Aguish Christians whose purity and devotion comes upon them by fits Hos. 6. 4. Their righteousness is as the morning-dew The morning-dew that cannot endure the rising sun it is soon wasted and spent when the sun ariseth with his heat and strength whereas our righteousness should not be like the morning-dew but like the morning-light 3. It reproves them that are only swayed by temporal advantages that are off and on As the Samaritans when the Iews were favoured by Alexander and other Princes then they would deny the Temple that was upon Mount Gerizim and say that they were brethren to the Iews but when the Iews were in danger then they would disclaim them Thus many are swayed by temporal advantages either intending or omitting the conscience of their duty as they are favoured by men But we are to stick to God's testimonies II. Let us come to David's prayer O Lord put me not to shame It is in the nature of a deprecation or a prayer for the prevention of evil The evil deprecated is shame By shame some understand the reproaches of wicked men Lord let me not suffer their reproach for I have stuck unto thy testimonies A man that doth not stick to God's testimonies that is not zealous and constant will be put to shame before God and man and made a scorn by them and lie under great reproach therefore Lord prevent this reproach These reproaches are grievous to be born It is against the spirit of man to be contemned especially when he doth well But certainly this cannot be meant he would not so earnestly deprecate this I should think at least not in such an expression O Lord put me not to shame He speaks of such a shame wherein God had a great hand It is true God may suffer this in his Providence Well then this shame may be supposed to result either from his sin or from his sufferings First From sin I have stuck unto thy testimonies O suffer me not to fall into any such sinful course as may expose me to shame and make me become a reproach to Religion Observe Doct. The fruit of sin is shame Shame is a trouble of mind about such evils as tend to our infamy and disgrace Loss of life is matter of fear loss of goods is matter of grief and sorrow but loss of name and credit is matter of shame and therefore it is a trouble of mind that doth arise about such evils as tend to our infamy and disgrace Now this infamy and disgrace is the proper fruit of sin To prove it by Scripture Reason and Experience To prove it by Scripture Shame entred into the world by sin though they were naked yet till they had sinned they were not asham'd Gen. 2. 25. with Gen. 3. 10. there was verecundia an awful Majesty or an holy bashfulness in innocency but not pudor A fear of reproach and infamy that came in by the fall To prove it by Reason There are two things in sin folly and filthiness and both cause shame it is an
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
for a while to comply with something which God hath commanded They do not take up his ways by choice but upon compulsion and the urgings of conscience which they no way liked 2ly Those that have their affections divided between God and the world halting between two they have some affection to spiritual things The favour of God and holiness as the only means to make them happy but the world and their lusts have the greater share They are troubled a little would have the favour of God but upon their own conditions The prevailing part of the soul bendeth them to carnal interests as the person that was told That he must take up the Cross and follow Christ he is offended Mat. 11. 21. The young man turned away discontented when he heard the terms Mat. 19. 21 22. They like Gods offers but not his conditions to come up fully to his mind They are loth to enter into Gospel-bonds These do not intirely give up themselves to God they have but an affection in part to the comforts of the Gospel but not to the duties of the Gospel 3ly Those that will do many things but stick at one part of their duty to God Men may suffer much for God sacrifice some of their weaker lusts but whilst any one sin remaineth unmortified there is possession kept for Satan As Saul destroyed the Amalekites but kept the fattest of the cattel and spared Agag Herod will not part with his Herodias Psal. 18. 23. David saith I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity Either some lust of the flesh or of the eyes or pride remaineth There are some tender parts of the soul which are as the right hand and the right eye men are loth to have them touched They do not unfeignedly comply with Gods whole will Use 2. Is to press you to give up the whole heart to God in a course of obedience Let us believe in God with all the heart Act. 8. 32. If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest c. And Prov. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart This is the main thing of Christianity when there is not only a naked assent but when we embrace Christ with the heart and there is a full and free consent to take him to all the uses for which God hath appointed him So for love Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might When we delight in God and find full complacency in him as our all-sufficient portion without reserving any part of our hearts for other things So for obedience 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts But now how shall we know that we give God all the heart in an Evangelical sense Answ. 1. When our purpose is to cleave to God alone and to serve him with an intire obedience both of the inward and outward man purely and sincerely without hypocrisie Psal. 51. 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom And Phil. 3. 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Iesus and have no confidence in the flesh 2ly When we do what we can by all good means to maintain our purpose and are watchful and diligent and serious in this purpose 2 King 10. 31. Iehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart for he departed not from the sins of Ieroboam which made Israel to sin See the contrary in Paul Act. 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men They bended all their studies and fervency of their spirit this way with all earnestness of endeavour to come up to Gods Law 3ly When we search out our defects and bewail them with a kindly remorse Rom. 2. 29. when we run by faith to Christ Jesus and sue out our pardon and peace 1 Ioh. 2. 1. My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous SERMON XXXIX PSALM CXIX 35. Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments for therein do I delight DAVID in the former verses had begged for light now for strength to walk according to this light We need not only light to know our way but a heart to walk in it Direction is necessary because of the blindness of our minds and the effectual impulsions of grace are necessary because of the weakness of our hearts It will not answer our duty to have a naked notion of truths unless we embrace and pursue them So accordingly we need a double assistance from God the mind must be enlightned the will moved and inclined The work of a Christian lyes not in depth of speculation but in the height of practice The excellency of Divine Grace consisteth in this That God doth first teach what is to be done and then make us to do what is taught Make me to go in the path c. Here you have Davids prayer and an Argument to enforce it 1. His Prayer Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments 2. His Argument For therein do I delight The Argument is taken from his delight in the ways of God This Argument may be looked upon as the reason of making the request or the reason of granting the request 1. As the reason of asking Those whose hearts are set upon obedience they will be earnest for grace to perform it acceptably Now saith David I would not be denied this request for this is all my delight to do thy will 2. As the reason of granting And there he may be supposed to lay forth his necessity and his hope 1. His Necessity though God had done much for him yet he needed more still God had given him scire knowledg to know his duty velle to delight now he begs perficere to practise to bring it to an issue Though he had grace in some measure yet he still needed an increase God must work in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 12. Sometimes God gives one where he gives not the other Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Or else you may suppose him here to lay forth his hope the granting of one grace makes way for another for God will perfect what he hath begun and where he hath given a disposition to delight in his ways he will give grace to walk in his precepts Ioh. 1. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace upon grace or grace after grace his giving
11. It is spoken to them who have high thoughts of their Troubles low thoughts of God's Comforts 4. Uncertainty in Religion Principles must be fixed before they can be improved and we can feel their influence and Power But People will be making Essays and try this and try that God's grounds of Comfort are immutably fixed God will not change his Gospel-Laws for thy sake and therefore unless we would have a Mountebanks Cure we must stand to them Ier. 6. 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls When we have tried all we must come home at length to these things and our uncertainty in Religion will be none of the meanest causes of our Troubles 5. They look to Means and their natural Operation and neglect God And God onely will be known to be the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. Blessed be God even the father of our Lord Iesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all our tribulation Use 3. Is to exhort us 1. To prize and esteem the Scriptures and consult with them often There you have the Knowledge of God who is best worth our knowing and the way how we may come to enjoy him wherein our Happiness lieth It is a petty Wisdom to be able to gather Riches manage your Business in the World ordinary Learning is a good Ornament but this is the excellent deep and profound Learning to know how to be saved What is it I press you to know the Course of the Heavens to number the Orbs and the Stars in them to measure their Circumference and reckon their Motions and not to know him that sits in the Circle of them nor know how to inhabit and dwell there Oh how should this commend the Word of God to us where Eternal Life is discovered and the way how to get it Other Writings and Discourses may tickle the Fancy with pleasing Eloquence but that Delight is vanishing like a Musicians voice Other Writings may represent some petty and momentany advantage but time will put an end to that so that within a little while the advantage of all the Books in the World will be gone but the Scriptures that tell us of Eternal Life and Death their Effects will abide for ever Psal. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandments are exceeding broad When Heaven and Earth pass away this will not pass that is the Effects will abide in Heaven and Hell Know ye not that your Souls were created for Eternity and that they will eternally survive all these present things and shall your Thoughts Projects and Designs be confined within the narrow bounds of Time Oh no let your Affections be to that Book that will teach you to live well for ever in comparison of which all Earthly Felicity is lighter than Vanity 2. Be diligent in the Hearing Reading Meditating on those things that are contained there The Earth is the fruitful Mother of all Herbs and Plants but yet it must be tilled ploughed harrowed and dressed or else it bringeth forth little Fruit. The Scripture containeth all the grounds of Hope Comfort and Happiness the onely Remedy of Sin and Misery our Rule to walk by till our Blessedness be perfected but we have little benefit by it unless it be improved by diligent Meditation Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate day and night This must be your chief Delight and you must be versed therein upon all Occasions Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law it is my meditation all the day when we love it and prize it it will be so for our Thoughts cannot be kept off from what we love and delight in 3. Reader hear meditate with a Spirit of Application and an aime of Profit Iob 5. 27. Hear it and know thou it for thy good as the Rule of your Actions and the Charter of your Hopes Rom. 8. 31. What shall we then say to these things That you may grow better and wiser and may have more advantages in your Heavenly progress take home your Portion of the Bread of Life and turn it into the Seed of your Life It is not enough to seek Truth in the Scriptures but you must seek Life in the Scriptures it is not an Object onely to satisfy your Understandings with the Contemplation of Truth but your Hearts with the enjoyment of Life and therefore you must not onely bring your Judgment to find the light of Truth but your Affections to embrace the goodness of Life offered Think not ye have found all when you have found Truth and learned it No except you find Life there you have missed the best Treasure you must bring your Understandings and Affections to them and not depart till both return full SERMON LVII PSAL. CXIX 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy law IN these Words are 1. David's Temptation 2. His Constancy and Perseverance in his Duty notwithstanding that Temptation 1. In the Temptation observe 1. The Persons from whom the Temptation did arise the Proud The wicked are called so for two Reasons 1. Because either they despise God and contemn his Wayes which is the greatest Pride that can fall upon the heart of a Reasonable Creature Rom. 1. 30. haters of God despitefull proud 2. Or else because they are drunk with worldly Felicity In the general Scoffing cometh from Pride What is Prov. 3. 34. He scorneth the scorners and giveth grace to the lowly is Iam. 4. 6. He resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 2. Observe the Kind or Nature of the Temptation he was had in derision This may be supposed either for Dependance on God's Promises or for Obedience to his Precepts Atheistical Men that wholly look to the pleasing of the Flesh and the Interest of the present World make a mock of both We have instances of both in Scripture 1. They make a mock of relyance upon God when we are in distress think it ridiculous to talk of relief from Heaven when Earthly Power faileth Psal. 22. 7 8. They laugh me to scorn saying He trusted in the Lord. The great Promise of Christ's coming is flouted at by those Mockers 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days mockers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the Creation Such Scoffers are in all Ages but now they overflow These latter times are the dregs of Christianity in which such kind of Men are more rife then the serious Worshippers of Christ. At the first Promulgation of the Gospel while Truths were new and the Exercises of Christian Religion lively and serious
of a soft Heart which must be asked of God 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self when thou heardest the words of the Lord against this place There was an high peace and calm at that time but a tender Heart relenteth at the Threatnings Beg of God to sosten thy Heart 2. There needeth eminent Holiness for such a Frame that we shine as Lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Phil. 2. 15. The Mourners must not be infected and tainted themselves but save themselves from an untoward Generation condemn the Sins of the Tâ—…es by their Conversation 3. We must have a Fear animated by Faith By Faith Noah was moved by fear concerning things unseen Heb. 11. 7. The danger of the Floud was unseen as yet and they married and gave in Marriage We must not judge of things by the present or by carnal Appearance there is a righteous Judge in Heaven Faith in his Word will shew us our Danger for God's Threatnings are all fulfilled and the more we seek to establish our selves by carnal Means the more our Ruine is hastened 4. There must be a grief set awork by a Love to God and the Souls of Men. In Calamities the true temper for Humiliation is a due Sense of our Fathers Anger and Brethrens Miseries in Sins our Fathers Dishonour and Man's Destruction those who are the same Flesh with our selves Now it should trouble us to see them in the way to eternal Ruine Of some have compassion making a difference And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted with the flesh Jude 22 23 verses SERMON LX. PSAL. CXIX 54. Thy Statutes have been my Songs in the House of my Pilgrimage DAVID had in the former Verse expressed his great Trouble because of the increase of the Wicked and their Defection from the Law of God Now he sheweth what comforted him the Children of God have a great deal of divine Consolation from the Word in the midst of all their Sorrows and Evils of the present Life David's Comfort is here expressed 1. By the Matter or Object of it thy Stdtutes 2. The Degree of his Rejoycing intimated in the Word Songs The Effect is put for the Cause Joy and Mirth which usually breaketh forth into singing or the sign and indication for the Thing signified 3. The place where he rejoyced in the House of his Pilgrimage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wheresoever I sojourn 1. By God's Statutes is meant his Word in general more especially the Precepts and Promises in the one we have the offer of Life in the other the way and means how to attain it In the Word is both our Charter and our Rule in both regards it is matter of Rejoycing Psal. 19. 8. The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the Soul Nothing is commanded there but what is equitable in it self and profitable to us 2. By Songs a Metonymy of the Effect for the Cause or the Sign for the Thing signified such Pleasure Joy and Contentment as other men had in Songs David had in the Word of God Travellers use to lighten and ease the tediousness of the Way by Songs thy Word doth comfort me wonderfully Or you may take it literally the Themes and Arguments of his singing Profane Spirits must have Songs suitable to their Mirth as their Mirth is carnal so the Songs of carnal Men are obscene filthy and fleshly but an holy Man his Songs suit his Mirth and Joy he rejoyceth in the Lord and therefore his Songs are divine thy Statutes are my Songs Singing of Psalms is a delectable way of Edification which God hath not onely instituted in the Scriptures but Heathens saw an use of it by the light of Nature Aelian lib. 3. nat Hist. cap. 39. telleth us of the Cretians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a spiritual Channel wherein our Mirth may run Iames 5. 13. Is any merry let him sing Psalms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is the Harmony that is a natural Delight the Matter that is a spiritual Comfort I cannot exclude this because it is one way of expressing that Delight which we take in the Word but I prefer the former for David speaketh of the Comfort he took in keeping God's Precepts when they were violated by others 3. In the House of my Pilgrimage you may take it literally for the time of David's Exile when banished by Saul or driven from his Palace by Absalom when he fled from place to place and wandred up and down in great distress then God's Statutes by which his Life was directed Innocency vindicated Hopes confirmed both of present Support and seasonable deliverance were as Songs to him his real and cordial Solaces Wheresoever the Believer is or whatsoever his Case and Condition be he hath still matter of Rejoycing in the Word of God So had David when he was exposed to continual Wandrings without any fixed Habitation Indeed the Children of God in Babylon say Psal. 137. 4. How shall we sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land The meaning is not to exclude their own spiritual Delight and Solace but they would not gratify the carnal Pleasure of the Enemies with a Temple-song or subject Religion to their sportive fancies and humours Rather Metaphorically for the whole Course of his Life whether spent in the Palace or in the Wilderness in whatsoever place he was he was still in the House of his Pilgrimage so he accounted his best and his worst Condition compare verse 19. I am a Stranger in the Earth and Psal. 39. 12. I am a stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were with 1 Chron. 29. 15. We are Strangers before thee and Sojourners as were all our Fathers Not onely when hunted like a Partridge upon the Mountains but also when he was at Rest and able to offer so vast a quantity of Treasure for the building of the House of God Two Points are observable 1 Doct. That the Godly count this World and their whole Estate therein the House of their Pilgrimage 2 Doct. That during this Estate and the Inconveniencies thereof they find matter of Rejoycing in the Word of God 1 Doct. That the Godly count this World and their whole Estate therein the House of their Pilgrimage I shall not handle this Doctrine in its full Latitude having spoken largely thereof in the 19 Verse onely now a few Considerations 1. Here is no fixed Abode there where we live longest we count our home and dwelling not an Inn which we take up in our passage but the place of our constant Residence in this World We are onely in Passage and so should consider it Heb. 3. 14. Here we have no abiding City but we look for one to come whose builder and maker is God Here we stay but a little while passing through to a better Country The Mortality of the Body and the Immortality of the Soul
Songs to him in the House of his Pilgrimage in the Night the Name of God was his Meditation I have remembred thy Name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law In which Words observe 1. David's Exercise I have remembred thy Name O Lord in the night 2. The Effect and Fruit of it and have kept thy Law The one may be considered as the Means the other as the next and immediate End Remembring and thinking is but a subservient help and means to promote some higher work 1. In the first Branch you have 1. The Act of his Soul I have remembred 2. The Object about which it was conversant Thy Name O Lord. 3. The Season In the Night 1. For the Act of his Soul I have remembred Remembrance is an Act of Knowledge reiterated or a second Agitation of the Mind unto that point unto which it had arrived before Or more plainly Remembring is a setting Knowledge awork or a reviving those Notions which we have of Things and exercising our Thoughts and Meditations about them 2. The Object was God's Name That is either God himself as Psal. 20. 1. The Name of the God of Iacob defend thee or that by which God is known His Wisedom Goodness and Power especially those Notions by which he hath manifested himself in the Word 3. The Season In the Night Some take the Night metaphorically for the time of Trouble and Affliction It is often a dark time with the People of God a very dark Night and then it is comfortable to them to think of his Name according to that of the Prophet Isa. 50. 10. He that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him stay himself upon the Name of his God I think it is meant literally that the Man of God took such Pleasure in the Name of God that what time others gave to Sleep and Rest he would give to the Contemplation of his Glory In the Solitude and Darkness of the Night he sustained and supported his Spirit with the thoughts of God and thereby took up a Courage and Constancy of Resolution to keep his Law 2. The other Branch I have kept thy Law That is with a good and sincere heart set himself to the keeping of it this is spoken partly to intimate his own Seriousness in this Work and partly God's Blessing upon his Endeavours therein 1. His Seriousness and Sincerity in the Work There is a twofold Remembrance of things 1. Notional and Speculative 2. Practical and Affective The Notional and Speculative Remembrance of things is when we barely think of them without any further Profit or Benefit But the Practical Powerfull and Affective Remembrance is to be affected with matters called to mind as the nature of them doth require as when we Remember God so as to Love him and Fear him and Trust in him and make him our Delight and Cleave to him and Obey him And we are said to Remember his Commandments when our hearts are set upon the Practice of them Verba Notitioe connotant Affectus we must not think of God indifferently and by the bye but we must be answerably affected and act accordingly Thus did David I remembred thy Name and kept thy Law 2. God's Blessing upon his Endeavours for he presently addeth in the next Verse This I had because I kept thy Precepts Our Heavenly Father who seeth what is done in secret will reward it openly Matt. 6. 6. And the blessing of Time well spent in secret or a few serious thoughts of God in the night will publickly appear in their Carriage before Men. If we be frequently and seriously with God when we are Solitary the fruit and benefit of it will be manifest by our holiness and heavenliness when we are in Company Your most private Duties do not lose their reward As a mans pains in Study will appear in the accurate Order Strength and Rationality of his Discourse so his Converse with God in private will be seen in the fruits of it in his holy profitable and serious Conversation The Points are three 1. Doctr. Remembring God is an especial help to the keeping of his Law 2. Doctr. God is best Remembred when his Name is studied 3. Doctr. Those that have spiritual Affections will take all occasions to remember his Name I have remembred thy Name in the night season saith holy David 1. Doctr. That Remembring God is an especial help to the keeping of his Law I. What is it to remember God 1. It supposeth some Knowledge of God for what a man knoweth not he cannot remember The Memory is the Cofferer and Treasurer of the Soul what the Understanding taketh in the Memory layeth up and actually we are said to remember when we set the Mind awork upon such Notions as we have formerly received And particularly to remember God is when we stir up in our minds clear and heart-warming apprehensions about his Nature and Will 2. It supposeth some Faith that we believe him to be such as the Word describeth him to be for spiritual Remembrance is the actuation of Faith or in this case the improvement of that Wisedom Power Goodness Holiness Justice and Truth which we believe to be in God Otherwise without Faith those thoughts which we have of the greatest matters affect us no more than a Dream doth a Sleeper These things are supposed in Remembrance 3. It expresseth a reviving of these thoughts or an erection of the mind to think upon what we know and believe Man that hath an ingestive hath also an egestive Faculty and can lay out as well as lay up bring forth Truths out of the mind when it is usefull for us and whet and inculcate them upon the heart he may call to mind or ponder upon them 4. Let us see the kinds of this Remembrance 1. I must repeat that Distinction it may be done Notionally and Speculatively or else Affectively and Practically Notionally when Men have a few barren Notions or dry sapless Opinions or Speculations about the Nature of God always mens Remembrance is as their Knowledge is and Faith is Now there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of Knowledge Rom. 2. 10. and dead Faith Jam. 2. 20. Affectively and practically we Remember God when there are such lively and powerfull impressions of his Name upon our hearts as produceth Reverence Love and Obedience It is not enough to grant the Doctrine own the Opinions that are sound and Orthodox concerning God but we must have a reverential and superlative Esteem of him All men confess a God with their mouth and think they believe in him but the fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal. 14. 1. what Testimony do their hearts and actions give A Man's course of Life and Conversation is like an Eye-witness his Profession is as a Testimony by Report now one Eye-witness deserves more credit than many by Hear-say Plus valet unus oculatus Testis c. How would you walk
so shake and tremble that he may cry out in his sleep I but the man doth not awake and rouze up that he may avoid the danger so the Word of God may work so far that they begin to fear they are even dropping into the Pit they have anxious thoughts about their Eternal Condition but still they sleep till their security overcome their fear and so this work comes to nothing And therefore be not contented to have some motions upon thy Soul now and then some involuntary impressions but see what they come to Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest c. When Christ hath awakened thee and thou beginnest to be startled in the sleep of thy security rouze up thy self and be serious 3. Actuate thy thoughts by a sound Belief and Application of Eternity that you may not lose your Convictions First by a Belief and then by an Application This is that which doth actuate and enliven all those Truths that set on the Work of God First by a Belief of Eternity Surely there is good and evil there is hope and fear therefore there is Heaven and Hell Say there are two States a State of Nature and a State of Grace and these two States have respect to two Covenants a Covenant of Works that worketh bondage and binds me over to punishment and a Covenant of Grace and both these do issue themselves at length into Heaven and Hell This is the great Sum of our Religion And Conscience and Reason will tell me there is a World to come there must be a time when God will deal more severely with Sinners than he doth in the present Life Enliven your thoughts by strengthning your belief of Eternity for this is that which doth set home all the Exhortations of his Word and which makes our thoughts serious And then Secondly by a serious Application of these things to your selves if you would have these Hopes apply the offer of Heaven to work upon your Hope and the Commination of Hell to work upon your Fear The offer of Heaven If I would be blessed in Christ surely I must mend my course now Act. 3. 26. He hath sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities When there is an offer that comes in with power upon the heart then Christ is sent to turn me from my sins that I may be the inheritor of an everlasting Blessing and shall I not let go my sins I have often flattered my self with this sure I am willing to be saved but I cannot be saved if I live in my sins otherwise I am no more willing to be saved than the Devils for they are willing to be saved from the wrath of God for ever a Creature is willing to be eased of his Torment and every one would have eternal Life evermore give me this Life Now let Christ doe his work to turn you from your sins So by working upon your Fear here God hath threatned me with eternal Damnation if I do not hearken Now scourge thy Soul with that smart Question Heb. 2. 3. How shall I escape if I neglect so great Salvation How shall I escape the damnation of Hell if I turn back upon his Offer if I deal slightly with God in a business which so nearly concerns my Soul 4. Issue forth a practical decree for God in the Soul When the heart is backward we have no remedy left but to decree for God David makes a decree in the Court of Conscience Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord. I said I determined I would go and lie at God's foot and humble my self So I said set down a Resolution which shall be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians never to be reversed that thou wilt for this present and ever hereafter wait upon the means and give way to the work of God upon thy Soul resolve that you will go and lie at God's feet and say Lord turn me I am as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoak Jer. 31. 8. Thou hast forbidden me to despair and commanded thy Creature to come to thee for Grace here I cast my self at the foot-stool of thy mercy and resolve you will keep up your endeavours in all the means of grace in hearing the Word prayer c. though no sensible Comfort comes yet in obedience perform holy Duties At thy command says Peter I will cast out the Net Luke 5. Be diligent and frequent in waiting upon God and look with more seriousness and earnestness of Soul after the business of eternal Life SERMON LXIX PSAL. CXIX 61. The bands of the wicked have robbed me but I have not forgotten thy Law IN the words observe 1. David's Tryal 2. His Constancy under that Tryal 1. His Tryal is set forth by two things 1. The Persons from whom it came The bands of the wicked 2. The Evil done him have robbed me 1. The Persons The bands of the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a Cord and also a Troop or Company not of Souldiers onely but others 1 Sam. 10. 5. Thou shalt meet a Company or Troop of Prophets it is the same word Those that interpret it Cords or Ropes understand it some one way some another Aben Ezra the griefs and sorrows prepared for the wicked have taken hold of me and parallel it with Psalm 116. 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold of me Others understand it of the Snares the wicked laid for him But the word is better translated by the Chaldee Paraphrase Catervae the Bands in our old Translation the Congregations of the wicked he meaneth the multitude of his Enemies leaguing together against him 2. The Evil done him they have robbed me A Man may suffer in his Name by Slander in his Dwelling by his Exile in his Liberty by Imprisonment in Limbs or Life by Torture and Execution in his Estate by Fine and Confiscation Many are the troubles of the Righteous this last is here intended There are the Depredations of Thieves and Robbers but they do not spoile for Religions sake but the supply of their Lusts the plunderings of Souldiers by the licence of War when Laws cease so men are robbed or have their Goods taken from them by violence or else it may be by pretence of Law by Fine and Confiscation as it is said Acts 8. 3. Saul made havock of the Churches and entring into every house haling men committed them to prison Acts 9. 1. Saul breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples desires letters of the High Priest that if he found any of this way whether men or women he might bring them bound to Ierusalem At that time the favourers of the Gospel suffered much rapine and spoil of Goods Applying it to David's case some think it fulfilled when the Amalekites spoiled Ziklag 1 Sam. 30. and took the Women captives and the spoile of the
Prayers should be mingled with a thankful sense and acknowledgment of his mercies Psal. 4. 6. In every thing let your requests and supplications be made known with thanksgiving Do not come onely in a complaining way Col. 4. 2. Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving They are not holy requests unless we acknowledge what he hath done for us as well as desire him to do more Nothing more usual than to come in our necessities to seek help but we do not return when we have received help and relief to give thanks When our turn is served we neglect God Wants urge us more than Blessings our Interest swayeth us more than Duty As a dog swalloweth every bit that is cast to him and still looketh for more We swallow whatever the bounty of God casteth out to us without thanks and when we need again we would have more and though warm in Petitions yet cold rare unfrequent in gratulations It is not onely against Scripture but against Nature Ethnicks abhor the ungrateful that were still receiving but forgetting to give thanks It is against justice to seek help of God and when we have it to make no more mention of God than if we had it from our selves It is against Truth we make many promises in our affliction but forget all when well at ease 3. God either takes away or blasts the Mercies which we are not thankful for Sometimes he taketh them from us Hos. 2. 8 9. I will take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and I will recover my Wool and Flax why She doth not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl and gave her Silver and Gold Where his kindness is not taken notice of nor his hand seen and acknowledged he will take his benefits to himself again We know not the value of Mercies so much by their worth as by their want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A thing too near the eye cannot be seen God must set things at a distance to make us value them If he take them not away yet many times he blasts them as to their natural use Mal. 2. 2. And if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of Hâ—…sts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart The Creature is a deaf-nut when we come to crack it we have not the natural blessing as to health strength and chearfulness Acts 14. 17. or if Food yet not gladness of heart with it Or we have not the sanctified use it is not a mercy that leadeth us to God A thing is sanctified when it is à bono in bonum if it cometh from God and leadeth us to God 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours for you are Christs and Christ is Gods You have a covenant right an holy use 4. Bless him for favours received and you shall have more Thanksgiving is the kindly way of Petitioning and the more thankful for Mercies the more they are increased upon us Vapours drawn up from the Earth return in showrs to the Earth again The Sea poureth out its fulness into the Rivers and all Rivers return into the Sea from whence they came Psal. 67. 5 6. Let the People praise thee O God yea let all the People praise thee Then shall the Earth yield her increase and God even our own God shall bless us When Springs lye low we pour a little water into the Pump not to enrich the Fountain but to bring up more for our selves It is not onely true of outward increase but of Spiritual also Col. 2. 7. Be ye rooted in the Faith and abound therein with thanksgiving If we give thanks for so much Grace as we have already received it is the way to increase our store We thrive no more get no more victory over our corruptions because we do no more give thanks 5. When God's common Mercies are well observed or well improved it fits us for acts of more special kindness In the story of the Lepers Luke 17. 19. thy Faith hath made thee whole he met not onely with a bodily cure but a Soul cure Luke 16. 11. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches When we suspect a vessel leaketh we try it with Water before we fill it with Wine You are upon your tryal be thankful for less God will give you more Means or Directions 1. Heighten all the Mercies you have by all the circumstances necessary to be considered by the nature and kind of them spiritual Eternal Blessings first the greatest Mercies deserve greatest acknowledgment Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Christs Spirit Pardon of sins Heaven the way of Salvation known accepted and the things of the World as subordinate helps Luke 10. 20. Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Then consider your sense in the want of Mercies what high thoughts had you then of them The Mercies are the same when you have them and when you want them onely your apprehensions are greater if affectionately begg'd they must be affectionately acknowledged else you are a Hypocrite either in the supplication or gratulation Consider the Person giving God so high and glorious A small remembrance from a great Prince no way obliged no way needing me to whom I can be no way profitable a small kindness melts us a gift of a few pounds a little parcel of land Do I court him and observe him There is less reason why God should abase himself to look upon us or concern himself in us Psal. 113. 6. He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth We have all things from him Consider the Person receiving so unworthy Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant 2 Sam. 7. 19. Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto Consider the season in our greatest extremity is Gods opportunity Gen. 22. 14. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen when the knife was at the throat of his Son 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Consider the end and
it to whom he pleaseth We were at first endowed by him with a reasonable Soul and Faculty of Understanding Iohn 1. 4. In him was life and this life was the light of man All Life is of God especially that Life which is Light The Reasonable Soul and the natural Faculty of Understanding cometh from him and if it be disordered as it is by Sin it must be by him restored and rectified it is all God's gift Now Man is fallen from that Light of Life wherein he was created his Maker must be his Mender he must goe to the Father of Lights to have his Light cleared Iames 1. 17. and his Understanding freed from those mistakes and errours wherewith it was obscured All Knowledge is from God much more saving Grace or a sound Knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel Many Scriptures speak to this Iob 32. 8. There is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Though the Dyal be right set yet it sheweth not the time of the day except the Sun shineth so the Spirit of man will grope and fumble in the clearest Cases without a divine Irradiation God inlighteneth the Mind directeth the Judgment giveth Understanding what to doe or say So he challengeth it as his Prerogative Iob 38. 26. Who hath put wisdome into the inward parts or given understanding unto the heart The exercise of the outward Senses is from God who gives the seeing Eye the hearing Ear much more the right exercise of the internal Faculties an understanding Heart is much more from the Lord Prov. 2. 6. The Lord giveth wisedom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Dan. 2. 21. He giveth wisdome to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding Certainly all true Wisdome is from above Iames 3. 17. The wisdome that is from above is first pure c. he distinguisheth there between the Wisdome that is not from above and that which is from above Man hath so much Wisdome yet left as to cater for the Body and the concernments of the bodily Life called thine own wisdome Prov. 23. 4. therefore he saith verse 15. This Wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish but for Wisdome that concerneth the other World and our everlasting concernments that is of God that 's from above The Wisdome that is exercised in pure peaceable fruitfull self-denying Obedience all that have any of this Wisdome should acknowledg God and all that would have it should depend upon him and run to the Fountain where enough is to be had Man's Wit is but borrowed and he holdeth it of God Vitia etiam sine magistro discuntur he needeth no Teacher in what is evil and carnal but in what is holy and spiritual he needeth it 2. It is a singular favour to them on whom God bestoweth this heavenly wisdom and so puts a difference between them and others It is a greater sign of friendship and respect to them than if God had given them all the world Mark 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to others it is not given This is no common benefit but a favour which God reserveth for his peculiar people so Iohn 15. 15. I have called you friends for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you That is the highest argument of friendship not to give you wealth and honour and greatness but to give you an inlightened mind and a renewed heart God may give honour and greatness and a worldly estate in judgment as Beasts fatted for destruction may be put into large pastures but he doth not teach his Statutes in Judgment it is a favour though he useth a sharper discipline in teaching Psalm 44. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest him out of thy Law If God will teach his Child not onely by the Word but by the Rod and useth a sharp discipline to instruct in the lesson of Christianity it is a greater favour than if God did let him alone and suffer him to perish with the wicked in his wrath The prosperity of wicked men is so far from being a felicity to them that it is rather the greatest Judgment and to be punished and rebuked by God for all that we do amiss and thereby to be reduced to the seâ—…se and practice of our Duty is indeed the greatest favour and mercy of God and so the most valuable felicity and evidence of Gods tender care over us so Prov. 3. 31 32. Envy not the oppressor and choose none of his ways for the froward is an abomination to the Lord and his secret is with the righteous You are depressed and kept bare and low but your adversaries flourish and grow insolent you cannot therefore say God hateth you or God loveth them if the Lord hath given you the saving knowledge of himself and his Christ and onely given them worldly happiness it is a great token of his love to you and hatred to them that you need not envy them for you are dignifyed with the higher priviledge 3. Prayer is the appointed means to obtain it There are other means by which God conveyeth this heavenly wisdom as by study and search dig for wisdom as for silver and for understanding as hid treasures Prov. 2. 4. Dig in the mines of Knowledg Attend upon the word which is able to make us wise unto Salvation Mark 4. 24. Take heed what or how ye hear with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you and unto you that hear shall more be given But all are sanctified by Prayer Prov. 2. 3. Cry for knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding Bene orasse est bene studuisse saith Luther so to pray well is to hear aright God giveth understanding by the ministry of the Word but he will be sought unto and acknowledged in the gift otherwise we make an Idol of our own understanding Prov. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding in all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Let us not make a God of our own wisdom do not seek it in the means without Prayer to the Lord let not us study without Prayer nor you hear without Prayer nor go about any business in your general and particular callings without Prayer II. Prop. This benefit cannot be too often nor too sufficiently asked of God 1. Because of our want we never know so much but we may know more of God's mind and know it better and to better purpose To know things as we ought to know them is the great gift 1 Cor. 8. 2. If any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know that we may be more sanctified more prudent and orderly in governing our hearts and lives that we may know things seasonably when they concern us in any
may discern much of faithfulness in their Afflictions this will appear to you by these Considerations 1. In the Covenant of Grace God hath promised to bestow upon his People real and principal Mercies those are promised absolutely other things conditionally God doth not break his Covenant if he doth not give us temporal Happiness because that is not absolutely promised but onely so far forth as it may be good for us but eternal Life is promised without any such exception unto the Heirs of promise Eternal Promises and Threatnings being of things absolutely good or evil are therefore absolute and peremptory the Righteous shall not fail of the Reward nor the Wicked escape the Punishment but temporal Promises and Threatnings being of things not simply good or evil are reserved to be dispensed according to God's Wisdome and good pleasure in reference and subordination to eternal Happiness It is true 't is sad 1 Tim. 4. 8. That godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come but with this reference that the less give place to the greater if the Promises of this life may hinder us in looking after the Promises of the life to come God may take the liberty of the Cross and withhold these things and disappoint us of our worldly hope A man lying under the guilt of Sin may many times enjoy worldly Comforts to the envy of God's Children and one of God's Children may be greatly afflicted and distressed in the World for in all these Dispensations God looketh to his end which is to make us eternally happy 2. This being God's end he is obliged in point of fidelity to use all the means that conduce thereunto that he may attain his eternal purpose in bringing his holy ones to glory Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God Good what good it may be temporal so it falls out sometimes a man's temporal good is promoted by his temporal loss Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it for good they sold their Brother a slave but God meant him to be a great Potentate in Egypt It may be spiritual good Psal. 119. 71. 'T is good for me that I have been afflicted but to be sure eternal good to bring about his eternal purpose of making them everlastingly happy And in this sense the Apostle saith all things are yours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Ordinances Providences Life Death all dispensed with a respect to their final Happiness or eternal Benefit not onely Ordinances to work internal Grace but Providences as an external help and means for God having set his end he will prosecute it congruously and as it may agree with man's nature by external Providences as well as internal Grace see Psal. 125. 3. The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the back of the righteous God hath power enough to give them grace to bear it though the Rod had continued and can keep his People from iniquity though the Rod be upon them but he considereth the imbecillity of man's nature which is apt to tire under long Afflictions and therefore not onely giveth more Grace but takes off the Temptation He could humble Paul without a Thorn in the Flesh 2 Cor. 12. 7. but he will use a congruous means 3. Among these means Afflictions yea sharp Afflictions are some of those things which our need and profit requireth they are needfull to weaken and mortify Sin Isa. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged to increase and quicken Grace Heb. 12. 10. But he chasteneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Without this Discipline we should forget God and our selves therefore that we may return to God he afflicts us Hos. 5. 6. In their afflictions they will seek me early and come to our selves Luke 15. 17. The Prodigal came to himself Afflictions are necessary for us upon the former Suppositions namely that God hath ingaged himself to perfect Grace where it is begun and to use all means which may conduce to our eternal welfare that we may not miscarry and come short of our great hopes 1 Cor. 11. 32. When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world The carnal reprobate World are left to a looser and larger Discipline Brambles are not pruned when Vines are New Creatures require a more close inspection than others do Self-confidence and spiritual Security is apt to grow upon them therefore to mortify our Self-confidence to awaken us out of spiritual sleep we need to be afflicted and also to quicken and rouse up a spirit of Prayer We grow cold and flat and ask mercies for forms sake Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them And that we may be quickened to a greater mindfulness of heavenly things the best of us when we get a carnal Pillow under our heads are apt to sleep secure God will not let us alone to our ruine but afflicts us that we may be refined from the dreggs of the Flesh and that our gust and relish of heavenly things may be recovered and that we may be quickened to a greater diligence in the heavenly Life Look as earthly Parents are not faithfull to their Childrens Souls when they live at large and omit that Correction which is necessary for them Prov. 29. 15. The rod and reproof give wisdome but a Child left to himself bringeth his Mother to shame The Mother is mentioned because they are usually more fond and indulgent and spare many times and marr the Child but our heavenly Father will not be unfaithfull who is so wise that he will not be blinded by any passion hath such a perfect love and does so fixedly design our eternal welfare that he rebuketh that he may reform and reformeth that he may save 4. God's faithfulness about the Affliction is twofold in bringing on the Affliction and guiding the Affliction 1. In bringing on the Affliction both as to the time and kind when our need requireth and such as may doe the work 1 Pet. 1. 6. Ye are in heaviness for a season if need be When some Distemper was apt to grow upon us and we were straggling from our Duty Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray Some disappointment and check we meet with in a way of Sin which is a notable help in the spiritual Life where God giveth an heart to improve it 2. As to guiding the Affliction both to measure and continuance that it may doe us good and not harm 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Violent Temptations are not permitted where the Lord seeth us weak and infirm as Iacob drove
as the little ones were able to bear so when the Temptation continued is like to doe us hurt either God will remove it 2 Thess. 3. 3. Faithfull is the Lord who will establish and keep you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evil the persecutions of unreasonable men are there intended or else support them under it 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee Use 1. Is to check and reprove divers evils which are apt to grow upon our Spirits in our Troubles 1. Murmuring and repining thoughts against God's Providence Why should we murmur and complain since we justly suffer what we suffer and 't is the Lord's condescention that he will make some good use of these Sufferings to our eternal Happiness that we may be capable of everlasting Consolation His Justice should stop Murmurings Lament 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins If he complain he can complain of none but himself that evil choice he hath made for his own Soul which it may be he would never have thought of but upon this occasion His Punishment here carrieth no proportion with his Offence 't is Punishment in the singular number Sins in the plural one Punishment for many acts of Sin and a living man on this side Hell what 's this to everlasting Torments Life cannot be without many Blessings to accompany it while living we may see an end of this misery or have time to escape those eternal Torments which are far worse The form of the words sheweth why we should thus expostulate with our selves Wherefore doth a living man complain why do we complain God hath not cut us off from the land of the living nor cast us into Hell 't is the punishment of Sin and 't is far less than we have deserved Again the Faithfulness of God checketh Murmurings God knoweth what way to take with us to bring us to glory therefore trust your selves in God's hands and let him take his own methods Commit your souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour 1 Pet. 4. 19. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is a Creatour he doth not love to destroy the work of his hands as he is faithfull in his Covenant he will take the best and safest course to bring you to Heaven 2. Let it check immoderate sorrow and uncomely dejection of spirit he is just in the Afflictions of his People but yet so that he is also faithfull he is a Father when he beateth and indulgeth when he smiles and when he frowns Afflictions do not make void our Adoption they rather increase our confidence of it Heb. 12. 5. Whatever we doe upon other reasons we should not suspect his Love because of our Afflictions God's strokes do not make void his Promises nor doth he retract his gift of Pardon when he chastiseth Mere Crosses and Troubles are not an argument of God's Displeasure but acts of his Faithfulness so that we have reason to give thanks for his Discipline rather than question his Love In the book of Iob 't is made a mark of his Love as in those words which are so frequent Iob 7. 17 18. Lord What is man that thou art mindfull of him that thou chastisest him every morning and tryest him every moment We are not onely beneath his Anger but unworthy of his Care as if a Prince should take upon him to forme the manners of a Beggers Child 't is a condescension that the great God should deal with us and suit his Providences for our good 3. This should check our fears and cares his Judgments are right and full of faithfulness he will bear us through all our Tryals and make an advantage of them and perfect that Grace which he hath begun and finally bring us to eternal Glory The Lords faithfulness in keeping Promises is often propounded as a strong Pillar of the Saints Confidence 1 Cor. 1. 9. Faithfull is God by whom ye are called 1 Thess. 5. 24. Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will doe it He dispenseth all things with respect to our eternal welfare But I am afraid of my self I have provoked the Lord to leave me to my self but the Lord will pardon weaknesses when they are confessed 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is just and faithfull to forgive them speaking to reconciled Believers and when we fall the Lord hath ways and means to raise us up again that we perish not by checks of Conscience 2 Sam. 24. 10. And David's heart smote him when he had numbred the people Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my ways c. by the Word as Nathan roused up David Thou art the man God that foresaw all things hath ordered them so that nothing shall cross his eternal Purpose and Promise made to us in Christ. Use 2. Let us acknowledge God's Justice and Faithfulness in all things that befall us for Motives consider 1. 'T is much for the honour of God Psal. 51. 4. that under the Cross we should have good thoughts of God and clear him in all that he saith and doth see love in his rebukes 2. 'T is for our profit 't is the best way to obtain Grace to bear Afflictions or to get deliverance out of them When God hath humbled his People exercised their Grace he will restore to them their wonted Priviledges he waiteth for the Creatures humbling Levit. 26. 41 42. For means 1. You must be one in Covenant with God for to them the Dispensations of God come marked not onely with Justice as to all but Faithfulness Psal. 25. 10. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that keep his Covenant 2. You must examine your selves the Lord complains of the neglect of this that when they were in Affliction they would not consider Ier. 8. 6. No man said What have I done If you would consider you would see cause enough to justify God Lament 3. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain Let us search and try our ways and turn to the Lord. 3. You must observe Providence and your hearts must be awake and attend to it Psal. 107. 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Eccles. 7. 14. In the day of adversity consider 4. You must be such as value not your happiness by the increase or decrease of worldly Comforts but by the increase or decrease of Grace in your Souls 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause we faint not because though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day If you value your selves by your outward Condition you will still be imbrangled you should more highly esteem of and be more solicitous about the welfare of your Souls in a time of Affliction than of all things else in the world and you will more easily submit and more wisely consider of his doing and the better understand
Some to revive the pristine Purity others the old peaceable Spirit God hath so counterballanced all Parties that they may be mutually helpful But not that we despise and contemn any other and seek to destroy and subvert another and so make way for great mischiefs Every one hath enough to humble him and enough to render him useful to humane Society Therefore we must not set at nought our brother Rom. 14. 10. God hath made him something which thou art not and given him an ability to do something thou canst not do or wouldst not submit unto Contempt is the fruit of Pride there are none but deserve some respect Scorn is the bane of humane Society Secondly It betrayeth it self in contention with Equals Wrath and contention cometh by pride Prov. 13. 10. Every one seeks to be eminent and would excel Not in graces and gifts that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy emulation but in rank and place We set too high a price upon our selves and when others will not come up to our price we are troubled We ascribe too much to our selves and when we meet not with that respect and honour which we affect we fall into contention and break out into strifes supposing our selves neglected We see it often what a make-bait this is in the world if others do not accommodate themselves to our sense if they approve not all things we say if their Opinion differeth a little or it may be nothing from ours Men pertinaciously obstinate in their Preconceptions will not change Opinion upon apparent evidence But now humble men are always peaceable they can better give and take these respects which are done to one another than others can The Apostle saith Ephes. 5. 21. Submit your selves to one another in the fear of God There is a service of love which every one oweth to another for their mutual good and advantage and is called Submission though it be to Equals because our proud and lofty spirits look upon it as below us There are none living whom God alloweth to live only to themselves Now that there may be an equality we are to stoop and condescend to one another others are to live to us and we to them 1 Pet. 5. 5. Be subject one to another and be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble This mutual subjection to another in the duties of love can never be obtained till we learn to moderate our esteem of our selves and heighten our esteem of others we can neither advise nor instruct nor esteem one another nor maintain peace in our Relations and perform all Christian offices to each other till this spirit prevail with us Thirdly By undutifulness to Superiors or those that are preferred in honour before our selves Proud men would be admired of all well thought of and spoken of by all and preferred above all and if it be not so they are discontented and a secret enmity and malignity invadeth their spirits and setleth it self there it is an apparent fruit of natural corruption Iam. 4. 5. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Men cannot endure either the real or reputed excellency of others The proud creature would shine alone Therefore we are secretly nibling at the credit of others blasting their reputation and desire by all means to lessen them or that they should be lessened and where this disposition prevaileth into any degree of strength and tyranny it groweth outragious Prov. 27. 4. Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious but who is able to stand before envy For when we are grieved at the prosperity and excellency of others we seek to undermine them by all the means we can devise As when the Brothers of Ioseph sought to put him out of the way And when Saul envied David he was still plotting his destruction So when the Pharisees envied Christ If we let him alone all men will run after him This brought them to crucifie the Lord of glory Anger venteth it self in sudden flashes and Wrath in some present act of violence but Envy is injurious and treacherous Anger and Wrath suppose some offence but Envy is troubled at the goodness and excellency of others Anger and Wrath are assuaged by degrees and when the raging Billows and Tempest ceaseth there is a Calm but this groweth by time and is exasperated more and more the longer those whom we envy are in good condition Now this affection reigned in us in our natural estate Tit. 3. 3. and remaineth in some degree in the best 4. Another expression of Pride is impatiency of Admonitions and Reproofs that is the cause of the wickeds hatred of the Godly because their lives are a real reproof Ioh. 7. 7. The world hateth me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil Heb. 11. 7. But surely it argueth a proud spirit when men cannot endure friendly counsel and will not have their privy sores touched but they grow fierce and outragious especially when they excel others in Rank and Power As when the Prophet reproved Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. 16. Art thou made of the King's Counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten so 2 Chron. 18. 23. He smote him on the cheek and said When went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee So the Pharisees hated Christ because of his free Reproofs Ioh. 9. 40. Are we blind also They cannot endure to hear of their faults especially from one in an inferiour condition and think every reproof to be a reproach though never so wisely and compassionately managed and that it is beneath their rank to stoop to it though Iob despised not the cause of his maid-servants Job 31. if they had any thing to say against him And David stopped upon Abigails motion 1 Sam. 25. 26. 5. Take heed of building too securely upon earthly enjoyments as if your Estate were so firm and secure that it could not be altered because you are high and great in Wealth Power Honour and Esteem Confidence in our outward Estate is a sure note of Pride Psal. 10. 4 5. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts His ways are always grievous thy judgments are far above out of his sight as for all his enemies he puffeth at them He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved I shall not be in adversity There the Psalmist chargeth Pride on the wicked and such a Pride as ariseth from confidence in outward prosperity and mentioneth a double effect not only slighting their Adversaries but God himself 'T is no matter for any terms of peace or moderation towards their Adversaries his ways are always grievous Therefore are they violent fierce and high and severe towards them do not need the protection of God therefore cold flat negligent in Prayer yea scorn to implore God by Prayer for any Blessing They are so high in Place and Power
Father of our Lord Iesus Christ As if God could not be glorified by them where there is not this Amen Well then if David did so earnestly desire the company of God's children so should we 3. Though it be so great a blessing yet often it falleth out that theâ—… are great discords and estrangements between those that fear God and know his Testimonies godly men may be strange one to another David complaineth Psal. 69. 8. I am become a stranger to my brethren and an alien to my mothers children And Psal. 38. 11. My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore They stood afar off then when wicked men had wounded him Now this may come to pass 1. Through carnal Fear As the Godly may be deterred by the fear of the Proud Therefore he desireth they may recover their courage An afflicted condition as it might increase the violence of the Proud so it might diminish the affections of the Godly Affliction is harsh to flesh and blood and good men in their sharpest conflicts may be deserted not only of those who make fair profession but are really Godly and stand in the gap alone Christ himself hath paved the way he was left alone so Paul complaineth 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all did forsake me I pray God it be not laid to their charge The Godly may forsake our fellowship though they wish well to us when we are persecuted as the rest of the Herd forsake the wounded Deer they may shrink from us and our afflictions 'T will be a great mercy if owned in our Troubles Paul took notice of Onesiphorus's not being ashamed of his chain when some turned away 2 Tim. 1. 15 16. 2. They may be alienated by Prejudice Persons truly godly may be deceived by the Proud His enemies had depraved his cause as in the former verse his enemies represented him as a strange person so they might be seduced by their slanders and so engage against him till they were disabused and reduced As now he beggeth God in mercy to do for him the equity of my cause being known let them join themselves to me As Iob to his Friends Job 6. 29. Return I pray you let it not be iniquity yea return again my righteousness is in it That is in this matter every good man would desire this but David was the head of the Party and chief of the Godly's sight often it falleth out that the Godly may take distaste and offence at us 3. There may be some offence given by us Chrysostom and Theodoret think it relateth to David's sin after he had committed Adultery with Bathsheba and plotted the Murder of Uriah Theodoret thinks that he was withdrawn or separated from the Communion of the Church according to his foul Fact and therefore prayeth for a redintegration and that they might return to intimacy with him again and he gathereth it from Symmachus's Translation who doth not read it let them turn unto me but let them converse with me as freely as before Thus the Disciples were offended with Paul till God hardned their hearts towards him Acts 9. 13. Saul was ashamed to see any of those whom he had persecuted Ananias was afraid as the Lamb to come near the Wolf till God prepared both by an internal vision so verses 21 26 27. 4. From difference in Iudgment about lesser things we should Philip. 3. 15 16. be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing There should be an union in heart way and scope Rom. 14. but often it doth fall out that Passion because of lesser differences may occasion an unkindness between very Brethren Acts 15. 37 38 39. And Barnabas determined to take with them Iohn whose sirname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus That Paroxism between Paul and Barnabas 5. From the Providence of God permitting it for wise reasons Iob owneth God in it Job 19. 13 14. He hath put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me So doth Heman Psal. 88. 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me thou hast made me an abomination to them Partly to humble us and try us for our depending too much upon man and making us our selves again with our Party A winnowing storm may be sent to this purpose we think our Faith and Resolution strong now God will try how we can stand alone And partly to drive us to God With thee the fatherless find mercy Hosea 14. 3. Psal. 60. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Psal. 12. 1. Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth the faithful fail from among the children of men We shall not have too much comfort by any creature To turn us to believe in God alone We are prone to look to the creature and to have our hearts drawn away from God And partly to conform us to Iesus Christ John 16. 32. Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone Mat. 26. 56. But all this was done that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled Then all the Disciples forsook him and fled This is part of the bitter Cup. 4. When this falleth out we should use all due means to recover those that have deserted us and draw them into us again the favor is worth diligence A man would not be cast out of the hearts of God's people the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only embrace it when 't is offered to us and fairly droppeth into our mouths but pursue it with earnestness We must pursue it as a man pursueth something running from him to take it 't is explained Psal. 34. 14. Seek peace and pursue it If the issue answer not our first attempt we must seek it again not giving the cause for desperate lest despair quench our endeavors 5. One great means to recover a good understanding among God's People is Prayer David goeth to God about it Lord let them turn to me The Lord governeth hearts and interests both are in his hands and useth this alienation or reconciliation either for judgment or mercy God when he pleaseth can divert the comfort of godly Friends and when he pleaseth he can bring them back again to us The Feet of God's Children are directed by God himself if they come to us 't is a blessing of God if not 't is for a
Wretches who are in that everlasting estate would give if they might be trusted with a little time again that they might provide for Eternity how happy would they think themselves if God would but try them once more if careless Creatures would but anticipate the thoughts of another world how soon would they discern their mistake how miserably will you bewail your selves when you have lost Eternity for poor temporal Trifles What comfort will it be to you that you have been merry here lived in pomp and ease when you must endure the wrath of God for evermore and wish for any allay of your torments Luke 16. 24. Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame 'T is better to believe than try provide against it than try 6. If you be Christians indeed you have not the spirit of this world Christianity as 't is acted by us is but the exercise of Faith Hope and Love Now the eternal fruition of God is the matter that all these graces are conversant about Faith believeth that there is an Eternal Being and that our happiness lieth in the fruition of him Heb. 11. 6. Love is that which levelleth and directeth all our actions to this blessed end that we may see God and enjoy him as our portion and felicity Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee Our desires are after him our delights in him 't is our work to please him our happiness to enjoy him The truth of his eternal Being is the object of our Faith so the apprehension of him as our chief good and felicity is the object of our love so as he is capable of being enjoyed and our participated Eternity is the object of our Faith this is the end of all our desires and labors and the expectation of this fortifieth us against all the difficulties of our pilgrimage and so directeth us what to mind be and do 2 Cor. 5. 9. Therefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord. Directions What shall we do Direct 1. Meditate often and seriously of Eternity There is a great deal of profit gotten by this Meditation nothing doth more promote the great ends of the Gospel than this Meditat on 1. For Christ nothing makes Christ precious but serious thoughts of Eternity he being the onely means to deliver us from wrath to come which is the great evil of the other state and procure for us the eternal enjoyment of God which is the good of that estate Psal. 84. 11. He is a sun and a shield and no good thing will he with-hold from them that live uprightly You can make a shift without Christ in this world you are by ordinary means well provided against the evils of this life and well fortified with the good things thereof but in death Christ will be to thee gain and advantage 2. It would promote the great change What will make a proud man humble a vain man serious a covetous worldling heavenly a wicked man a good man let him think of Eternity where only the humble the heavenly are favoured and accepted 2 Cor. 3. 11. 3. What would check Temptations either from the Pleasures Riches or Honors of the world these are not eternal Riches nor eternal Pleasures nor eternal Honors transitory things are not our business nor our scope Heb. 11. 25. 4. What would quicken diligence and put life into our endeavors but the meditation of Eternity Every thing should be laboured for that hath an everlastingness in it the travel of your souls should be laid out upon those things Isa. 55. 2. Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfies not So John 6. 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth but that which endureth to life everlasting Surely serious diligence is necessary Shall I trifle away that time which I am to improve for Eternity Direct 2. Let the enjoyment of an Eternal God be your end and scope 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not to things which are seen but to things that are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal When you have set eternal things before you then make your choice on the one side there are eternal joys on the other eternal torments Now vain pleasures lead to the one solid godliness to the other By the neglect of God you run the hazard of a miserable Eternity By the choice of God for your Lord and portion you get an interest in a blessed Eternity only let me warn you 1. To chuse End and Means together Mat. 7. 13 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it They must be coupled both quicken each other the intention of the end quickens to a diligent pursuit and an earnest use of means and the use of means will sooner give you to understand what your condition will be than a bare reflection upon the End 2. Do not confound principal and subordinate Means so as one should justle out the other The primary means of going to the Father is Christ. John 14. 6. Iesus saith unto him I am the Way and the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me The secondary means is holiness Heb. 12. 24. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Direct 3. Be resolvedly true to your End which is the enjoyment of God and that will quicken you the more and direct you for the End is both our measure and our motive In short do all things from eternal Principles to eternal Ends the eternal Principle is the grace of the Spirit the eternal End is the pleasing glorifying and enjoying of God Philip. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Iesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God Actions carried on from eternal Principles according to an eternal Rule for an eternal End cannot miscarry SERMON XCIV PSAL. CXIX VER 89. Latter Clause Thy word is setled in heaven THis will bear two senses 1. Relating to God's Decree made in Heaven 2. That an Emblem of its Constancy is in Heaven 1. It may be referred to God's Decree Thy word is setled in Heaven in thy Mind and Will The words of temporal Kings are on Earth and therefore their Laws and Edicts are subject to many changes and are often revoked and altered either by themselves or by their Successors but the Word of God is above all changes and alterations as being decreed in Heaven 'T is preached on earth believed on earth
Commandment came sin revived and I died The Commandment the Law of God breaks in with all its terrors and curse upon the Soul by strong conviction and the man is given for gone lost and dead You know the way to the bowels is by the mouth and the stomach and so by other passages There 's no way to the affections but by the ear then to the understanding and then passeth to the apprehension the judgment and conscience and heart From the apprehension to the Grammatical knowledge then they come to the judgment then to the conscience and when conscience is set awork usually there 's some feeling 2. Conviction where 't is strong and serious where 't is not levis mollis it cannot be without some compunction The eye affects the heart Can a man be sensible of a lost condition and of the necessity of a change without being troubled at it without making a serious weighty business of it Are Heaven and Hell such flight matters that a man can think of the one or the other without any commotion of heart Pray do but bethink your selves I shall solve the particular Cases but I must establish the general one especially if he be convinced of his being obnoxious to one and doth not know whether he shall have the other yea or no. Certainly whoever is instructed or convinced will smite upon his thigh and bemoan himself as Ephraim Jer. 31. There 's none ever came to Christ the spiritual Physician but they were in some degree heart-sick none ever came for ease but they felt a load upon their back If there be conviction and compunction this will be felt 3. But then the degrees are various some are more some less some earnestly sollicitous or deeply in horror Some are brought to God by the horrors of despair and are convinced with a higher and more smart degree of sorrow before ever they come to settle but all are serious and anxious There is certainly a difference some mens conversion is more gentle others more violent To some Christ comes like an armed man and doth powerfully vanquish Satan in their hearts to others there 's a great deal of difficulty and conflict which must needs impress a notice of it self Some are sweetly drawn others are snatched out of the fire To some the Spirit comes with a mighty rushing wind to others by a gentle blast sweetly and softly blows open the door God opened the heart of Lydia we read of no more Acts 16. 14. But when he comes to the Jaylor he had more horror of conscience and more sorrow and desperation and was ready to kill himself saying What shall I do to be saved ver 31. The Lord bids us to put a difference to have compassion of some and to pluck others more violently out of the fire Iude 23. So here the Lord's work is various it is to some more gentle but to others it is with a greater horror 4. I answer That no certain Rule can be given as to this different dispensation why some are so gently used and others so violently brought home to God Sometimes they which have had good Education and left Errors of Life have left Terrors of Heart as being restrained from gross Sins at other times they have had most Terrors because they have withstood so many means and because they do not know when God works upon them Sometimes those which are called to greatest services have had most Terrors that they may speak more of the evil of sin having felt the bitterness of it 2 Cor. 5. 10. Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men Sometimes it is quite otherwise they which have been called to some eminent publick service for God they may not drink so deeply of this Cup but are spared that they may be kept more entire for their publick work which serves instead of sorrow and trouble of conscience Again sometimes men and women of most excellent and acute understandings they are most humble as having clearest apprehensions of the heinousness of sin and terror of wrath at other times on the contrary these horrors and fears come from ignorance as fears arise in the dark and weak spirits are apt to be terrified and have a knowledge of the remedy as soon as they know their disease the work may be more gentle Sometimes these Terrors fall on a strong body as being best able to bear them sometimes on a weak the Devil taking advantage of their weaknesses and manifold infirmities Many times in hot and fiery natures their changes are sudden carried on with extremities but sometimes soft natures whose motions are slow and gentle by degrees are surprized and impressions of grace are made insensibly Thus God acts as he will but in the general all are serious and sollicitous 5. Because no certain Rule can be given the Measure must not be looked after but the effects we are not so much to look to the deepness of the Wound as the soundness of the Care The Means only respect the End therefore the End must be considered and many times the Effects are visible and more evident in fruit and feeling Now if we give sound proof that we are converted I am contented If the work be done that sufficeth which way soever it be done though usually it is done by some notable and powerful impression upon the heart Look as the blind Man said Iohn 9. 25. Which way my eyes were opened I know not but this I know that whereas I was blind I now see So if the renewed soul can say How the work was done I cannot tell I have been waiting upon God and have felt the fruits of his grace upon my heart 6. The Effects of this first work are these 1 A hearty welcoming of Christ Jesus into the soul they do not take up with comfort on this side Christ Mens troubles are known by their satisfaction If Honour satisfie Men then Disesteem and Disrespect was their trouble however they did palliate it with Religious Pretences If Riches satisfie Men then Poverty pinched them If the prosperity of the world satisfie Men it was worldly adversity was their trouble though it crept under Religious Pretences But if we see the necessity of a Saviour receive him into our hearts and believe in him with all our hearts desire and delight and all is carried after Christ and after the refreshings of his Grace and are satisfi'd with none but Christ and our hearts pant for him as the Hart panteth after the water brooks you ought to bless God that he hath left the impression of the effect though he hath not left the impression of the way Psal. 42 1. But now when desires after Christ are either none at all or cold and faint and easily put out of the humor and only provoke you now and then to put up a cold Prayer or express a few faint wishes or heartless sighs that though you have a desire after Christ yet it is
he will not be tied to any order he gives to every one that measure of understanding which he sees fit Indeed his ordinary course is to bless the Teachers of his People with an increase of knowledge for he hath promis'd a more especial presence with the publick gift than with the private Mat. 28. 20. I am with you to the end of the world Yet many times private Believers excel their godly Teachers in wisdom and piety Wisdom is not so tied to the Teachers but that God is free to the giving as much nay more to those that are taught Though the general course is in the ordinary way that Teachers should know more than the Taught yet God sometimes doth work extraordinarily to shew his Prerogative and absolute Soveraignty and things revealed to Babes may be hid from the wise and prudent to shew that it is at his disposing to hide and manifest as he pleaseth 3 Obser. Thirdly The equity and proportion that he observes in the dispensation of his Soveraignty for David ascribes it to God but observes that this came to him as a blessing upon the use of means For thy testimonies are my meditation God gives knowledge to whom he pleaseth but those that meditate most thrive most There are three sorts of Meditation 1 of Observation 2 of Study and Search 3 of Consideration or inculcative Application and all these conduce to make us wise 1. There 's a meditation of observation when a Man compares the Word and Providence and is still taking notice how such a Promise is accomplish'd such a Threatning made good this Man will grow more wise and more understanding than others Psal. 107. 43. Whoso is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. That is he that is comparing the Prediction and Event God's proceedings either in justice or mercy according to his Word how he doth punish and reward his People and what visible Comments his Works are upon his Word he hath a clearer discerning than others and they will see more cause to adhere to God and yield him more faithful obedience than others 2. There 's the meditation of study and search they that are inquiring into the Word of God to find out his mind Eph. 5. 17. Be ye not unwise but understanding what the Will of the Lord is They that exercise themselves in the Word to find out his mind shall have more of his blessing than those that rest in hearing and reading For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you and unto you that hear shall more be given Mark 4. 24. It is spoken of measuring to God in Ordinances as we measure to God in the use of means so the Lord will measure out to us in his blessing and the influences of his grace 3. There is a meditation of consideration when we consider that which we read and hear how it may be for use and practice and of what moment it is for our eternal weal or woe The Scripture calls it consideration 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things Psal. 50. 22. Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver The more Men consider things with application to their own soul the more wise will they grow and the more understanding in the things of God and able to apply all for their own direction he will see more than the Teacher ever could express when he gives forth the general doctrine of Faith and Manners But let any meditate upon it and urge his own heart and he shall find something the Teacher thought not of and this principally is the sense spoken of in this place A Man that urgeth his own heart with what is taught when he hath a general doctrine applies it to his own soul and reflects the light of it upon his own heart meditates upon it by serious and inculcative thoughts will ever find something either the Teacher saw not or seeing expressed not see further into this truth than the Teacher was aware of the life and success of all means doth lie in this meditation 4 Obser. Fourthly I have more understanding than my Teachers We learn this that private means is a duty and must be joined with publick meditation with hearing Many content themselves with publick Ordinances but make not conscience of private means as secret Prayer and debating with themselves by serious inculcative thoughts returning upon their own heart O make conscience of this private duty you may prosper and thrive more in a way of grace When the Apostle laid down the priviledges of a justified estate Rom. 8. 31. he concludes Now what shall we say to these things implying we should urge our own heart upon every general doctrine or rouze up our selves with such a smart question Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation 5 Obser. Fifthly We learn again That it is good to submit to God's Institutions though the persons employed in them be never so mean yet if they be cloathed with lawful Authority by a conscientious attending upon God's Ordinance we may get a great deal of wisdom more than the Teacher ever had as they set your thoughts awork Surely if a Teacher corrupt as they sit in Moses Chair though they are corrupt yet as far as they do God's message they are to be regarded certainly we are not to turn back upon one meaner gifted if godly or be a discouragement to those that are weak though they are not so able and have not so strong a gift God may make a mean Teacher a means for the increasing of knowledge 6 Obser. Sixthly We learn The glory of all profiting it must not be given to the Instruments but to God for the Scholar may become wiser than the Teacher That is God may give more grace by an instrument than the instrument hath in himself to shew that all is of him that it doth not lie in the Teachers gift All profiting must be ascribed to God therefore the glory of all must redound to him to his grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me If never so able it is still from God Secondly The Reason I have more understanding than all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my meditation Point That meditation is a great help towards gracious improvement David grew in such a manner as that he did excel all his Teachers and he giveth this reason of it For thy Testimonies are my meditation The Scripture calleth for this 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all So consider what I say and the Lord give thee
us with a dear price 1 Cor. 6. 20. From all which there resulteth a natural duty which we owe to him as our Sovereign and he may command us what he will 2dly There 's the Bond of voluntary consent that our duty may be more active and urging upon our hearts God doth not only interpose his own Authority and command us to keep his Laws diligently Psal. 119. 4. but requires a consent on the creatures part all the treaties and tenders of grace are made to draw us to this consent that we may voluntarily and by the inclination of our own hearts present our selves before the Lord and yield up our selves to his service Rom. 6. 13. 3dly Besides this there 's the bond of an Oath which is the strictest way of voluntary resolution and highest engagement that a man can make therefore when the heart is so backward and hangs off from God and duties we owe to him it is good to declare our assent in the most solemn way That the Saints have made use of purposes thus solemnly declar'd in case of backwardness appears in Scripture David when his heart was shy of God's presence and had sinned a way his liberty and peace and so could not endure to come to God what course doth he take he issues forth a practical decree in his soul and bound his heart by a fixed purpose that he would come to God Psal. 32. 5. so Acts 11. 23. he exhorteth them with full purpose of heart to draw nigh to God it should be the fixed resolution of the Soul And Ier. 30. 21. Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord We should lay the strongest Bonds and Engagements we possibly can whereby God's Authority may be backed and his Right confirmed by the most solemn assent that we can make 2. In regard of our fickleness and unconstancy we are slippery off and on with God A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways Jam. 1. 8. We have unsetled hearts and when we meet with temptations from without we shall soon give up at the first assault and so be now for God anon for Satan therefore this is a lawful and sanctified means to help us to constancy Indeed before we come to this fixed setled purpose we lie open to temptation and when our first heats are spent we tire and wax weary in the Lord's service therefore we had need make the most sacred Engagements to God that we may keep to God and persist in our duty Now a solemn Oath seems to be most serviceable for this use why for it implies a severe and dreadful imprecation In an Oath God is not only invoked as a Witness but as a Judge We appeal to his Omnisciency for the sincerity of our hearts in making promise and to his vindictive power as a Judge if we shall act contrary to what we have sworn Saith Plutarch Every Oath implies a Curse or a desire of vengeance in case of the breach of that Oath therefore it is said Nehem. 10. 29. They entred into a curse to walk in God's law that is a curse in case of disobedience And this was supposed to be the meaning of that Rite by which they were wont to confirm their Covenants Ier. 34. 18. When the Calf was cut in twain they did as it were devote themselves thus to be cut in twain and torn in pieces and to be destroyed as that creature was if they violated the Covenant thus solemnly sworn and though this Imprecation or Execration should not be exprest yet every promissory Oath necessarily implies a Curse in case of unfaithfulness Well now this is a good means to keep us constant when we have bound our selves to God upon such strict terms therefore some derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hedge because it is as a hedge to keep us within the compass of our duty and confirm our hearts in that which is good Well then because of our fickleness it is not enough to leave the soul to the meer bonds of duty but confirm our resolution by an Oath I may illustrate this by that passage when Hooper the blessed Martyr was at the Stake and the Officers came to fasten him to it saith he Let me alone God that hath called me bither he will keep me from stirring and yet because I am but flesh and blood I am willing tie me fast lest I stir So we may say in this Case though the Authority of God commanding his right in us and sovereignty over us is reason enough to enforce the duty we owe to him and bind the heart and sway the conscience yet because of the weakness of our hearts we should make this bond the more urging upon us by a solemn consent thus ratified and confirmed by the solemnity of an Oath Vow or Promise made to God 3. It will be very profitable because of our laziness by resolution we are quickned to more seriousness and diligence When a man hath the bond of an Oath upon him then he will make a business of Religion whereas otherwise he will make but a sport and a thing he only regards by the by O but when his heart is fixt this is the thing he will look after Psal. 27. 4. When our heart is set upon a thing we follow it close and when it is so set upon a thing as that we have bound our selves by the strictest bonds we can lay upon our heart it will engage us more seriously Doct. 2. That this help of an Oath or holy Vow should be used in a matter lawful weighty necessary 1. In a matter lawful There is a Vow and Covenanting in that which is evil as those that bound themselves with a curse that they would not eat nor drink until they had killed Paul Acts 23. 12. And many will make a Vow and Promise with themselves that they will never forgive their Neighbor such an offence And we read of a Covenant made with Death and Hell whether it be meant of the King of Babylon or no as he is called Death and Hell by the Prophet some evil Covenant is intended thereby and thus a Vow is made the bond of iniquity and must be broken rather than kept or indeed it must not be made To vow that which is sinful this is like the hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog offered to the Lord for a Vow Deut. 23. 18. 2 It must be in a matter weighty necessary and acceptable unto God There are two things come under our Vow and Oath 1. That which is our necessary work Religious Obedience to God in the way of his Commandment For this is not a rash and unnecessary Vow but that we were sworn to in Baptism this is that which David promiseth here I have sworn and I will perform it to keep thy righteous judgments And this is the Vow which Iacob made though there was something of a particularity
mind and the freest from restraint Isai. 32. 8. The liberal man deviseth liberal things The unclean man is devising unclean things the earthly man is always talking with himself about building planting trading these things take up his mind You cannot judge of a Fountain by the Current of Water at a distance six or seven miles off it may receive a tincture from the Channel through which it passeth but just at the Fountain where it bubbles up there you can judge of the quality whether sweet or bitter water so you cannot judge of the Soul by things that are more remote and where by-ends may interpose Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murthers adulteries fornications c. Evil thoughts come first other things come from the heart but not so immediately therefore thoughts being so considerable we should make conscience of them Thirdly They are considerable from their kind here are the roots of all evils Every thing that we do every deliberate act that is done by a reasonable Creature argueth some foregoing thought every temptation is fastened upon the heart by some intervening thought Before sin be formed brought forth and becomes a compleat sin there are musings which are as it were the incubations of the Soul or fitting abrood upon the temptation Isai. 59. 4. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity The mind sits abrood upon sin It is thoughts that bring the heart and object together First men think then they love then they practise Beating the Steel upon the Flint makes the Sparks fly out so when the understanding beats and knocks upon the will by pregnant thoughts by inculcation that stirs up the affection These are the Bellows which blow up those latent sparks of sin that are in our Souls therefore if you would make conscience of acts you should make conscience of thoughts It is the greatest imprudence that can be to think to do any thing in reformation when we do not take care of our thoughts See when God adviseth us to return to him Isai. 55. 7. he saith Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteouus man his thoughts In vain do we lop off the Branches and let the Root live If we would forsake our way we must first forsake our thoughts When certain Fowl pestered a man he asked How he should be rid of them The answer was The Nest must be destroyed and they must be crusht in the Egg so here 's the best way of crushing the Egg by dashing Babylons Brats against the Wall so much is implyed in that place Ier. 4. 14. Wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Wash thy heart begin there Medicines applied to the outward parts will do no good unless the inwards be cleansed and purged so until the soul be cleansed and purged from these evil thoughts outward reformation will be to no purpose Fourthly They are considerable in regard of their number they are most numberless acts of the Soul Isai. 57. 20. The Sea is always working so the heart of man is always casting forth mire and dirt Gen. 6. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil continually There is a Mint in us that is always working towards that which is evil This is a means to humble us The Lord knows the best of our thoughts are but vain this is that which raiseth the account in Gods Book of remembrance which makes us more admire the riches of his Grace even to the very last Let him forsake his thoughts Isai. 55. 7. What then I will multiply to pardon Certainly if thoughts be sins God must not only pardon but multiply to pardon Use 1. To humble us all the best of us from first to last Vanity of heart sticks to us O how many carnal thoughts haunt us where ever we go As thou walkest in the streets up and down whereupon do thy thoughts run The common vain thoughts should be laid to heart Have we not a God a Christ to think of sweet and precious promises Heaven and Glory and the great concernments of our souls and yet with what Chaff do we fill our minds We go thinking of every toy and trifle grinding Chaff instead of Corn every day O how do we throw away our thoughts rather than God should have them upon every vain thing It is very irksome a little to retire and recollect our selves and think of God Christ and Heaven but what a deal of vanity do we take into our minds If our hearts were turned inside outward and all our thoughts liable to the notice of men as they are to the notice of God what odious Creatures should we be and have we no reverence of the Great God The Lord knows our hearts he knows we have thoughts enough and to spare more than we know what to do withal and he knows we are backward to exercise them upon him and things that lead to Communion with him These thoughts are aggravated from the time as upon Gods Day for then we are not to think our own thoughts Isai. 58. 13. A Christian is then to sequester himself only for God Nay our vain heart bewrayeth it self in solemn Duties a man cannot go to prayer but the vanity of his thoughts will trouble him and run about him when he is hearing the Word how do we course up and down like Spaniels hither and thither Yea to humble our selves because of our wicked thoughts our desperate thoughts against the Being of God Psal. 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Though we cannot open our eyes but the Creature presently doth shew us something of God and call upon us whether we look upward or downward yet how do we vent this thought if there were no God then we could live as we lift without check and restraint Thoughts which arise within us against the truth of the Gospel as if it were but a well devised Fable Thoughts against the purity of Gods Laws that we need not be so strict that it is but nice folly that we shall do well enough without repenting believing minding the work of our salvation Yea we have thoughts against the light of Nature filthy unclean thoughts such as defile and stain the heart Of earthly thoughts how natural is that in musing upon that esteem honour greatness that we shall have in the World How do carnal thoughts haunt us and this not only when we are in our natural condition but even after Grace And Christians are mistaken that do not think those thoughts evil though there be no consent of the will I confess there are thoughts cast into the mind by Satan but these not resisted these cherished fostered they become ours though they are Children of Satans getting and may be cast in as the tempting of Christ was by injection of thought but then we entertain these things as Weeds thrown over the Wall
glorified it and will glorifie it again There was the innocent inclination of his humane Nature Father save me from this hour and the over-ruling sense of his duty or the obligation of his office But for this cause came I to this hour We are often tossed and tumbled between inclinations of Nature and Conscience of Duty but in a gracious heart it prevaileth above the desire of our own comfort and satisfaction the Soul is cast for any course that God shall see fittest for his Glory Nature would be rid of trouble but Grace submitteth all interests to Gods Honour that should be dearer to us than any thing else were it not selfishness and want of zeal that would be our greatest interest SERMON CXXXIV PSAL. CXIX VER 122. Be Surety for thy Servant for good let not the proud oppress me USE It informeth us what reason there is to pray and wait with submission to the will of God God will answer us according to our trouble not always according to our will He is wiser than we for he knoweth that our own will would undo us If things were in our own hands we would never see an ill day and in this mixt estate that would not be good for us But all Weathers are necessary to make the Earth fruitful Rain as well as Sun-shine We must not mistake the use and efficacy of prayer We are not as Sovereigns to govern the World at our pleasure but as Supplicants humbly to submit our desires to the supream Being Not to command as Dictators and obtrude any module upon God but to sollicite as servants Do good in thy good pleasure to Zion Psal. 51. 18. If we would have things done at our pleasure we should be the Judges and God only would have the place of the Executioner Our wills would be the supream and chief reason of all things But this God cannot endure therefore beg him to do good but according to his own good pleasure 1. Let us submit to God for the mercy it self in what kind we shall have it whether temporal spiritual or eternal If God see ease good for us we shall have it if deliverance good for us we shall have it Psal. 128. 2. or give us strength in our souls or hasten our Glory We should be as a Die in the hand of Providence to be cast high or low as God pleaseth 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 2. Let us submit for the time Though Jesus loved Lazarus yet he abode still two days in the same place when he heard he was sick Iohn 11. 6. It is not for want of love if he doth not help us presently nor want of power Christ may dearly love us yet delay to help us even in extremity till a fit time come wherein his Glory may shine forth and the mercy be more conspicuous He doth not sleight us though he doth delay us he will chuse that time which maketh most for his own Glory Submit to Gods dispensations and in due time you shall see a reason of them 3. Let us submit for the way and means We know not what God is a doing Iohn 13. 6 7. Then cometh he to Simon Peter and Peter saith unto him Lord dost thou wash my feet Iesus answered and said unto him What I do thou knowest not but thou shalt know hereafter No wonder we are much in the dark if we consider first that the Worker of these works is Wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isai. 28. 29. infinitely beyond Politicians whose projects and purposes are often hidden from us therefore much more his Secondly That the ways of his working are very strange and imperceptible for he maketh things out of nothing Rom. 4. 17. And calleth those things that be not as though they were one contrary out of another as light out of darkness 2 Cor. 4. 6. meat out of the Eater Enemies catched in their own Snare Thirdly That his end in working is not to satisfie our sense and curiosity Isai. 48. 7. They are created now and not from the beginning even before the day when thou heardest them not lest thou shouldest say Behold I knew them Isai. 42. 16. I will bring the blind by a way they know not I will lead them in paths that they have not known He chuseth such a way as may leave enemies to harden their hearts Mic. 4. 12. But they know not the houghts of the Lord neither understand they his counsel for he shall gather them as the Sheaves into the Floor Secondly I now come to the literal explanation and there we have I. The evil deprecated Oppress me II. The persons likely to inflict it The proud I. The evil deprecated Let not the proud oppress me The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them not calumniate me The Septuagint take this word for oppression or violent injustice and therein are followed by St. Luke Chap. 3. 14. Chap. 19. 8. Doctr. Oppression is a very grievous evil and often deprecated by the people of God 1. I shall shew you what oppression is It is an abuse of power to unjust and uncharitable actions That it is an abuse of power appeareth by the object of it who are those that are usually oppressed that is either the poor and needy Deut. 24. 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers within thy Gates the fatherless and the widow are mentioned Ier. 7. 6. Ye shall not oppress the stranger the fatherless and the widow the stranger Zach. 7. 10. And oppress not the widow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and Exod. 22. 21 22 23. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless Child if thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all to me I will surely hear their cry 2. The Subject or Agent by whom 't is practised The proud the mighty rich great man at least comparatively in regard of the wronged party Eccl. 4. 1. And on the side of their oppressours there was power but the oppressed had no comforter Job 35. 9. By reason of the multitude of oppressours they make the oppressed cry and by reason of the arm of the mighty Secondly The base and mean when they get power into their hands to oppress the rich noble and honourable Isai. 3. 5. And the people shall be oppressed every one by another and every one by his neighbour the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable It is commonly more insolent and cruel and contemptuous and despightful Prov. 28. 3. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food When men do unjust and uncharitable actions as when men bear it proudly or insolently towards them throwing them out of
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
Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us He doth not say Upon me but upon us as the common language of all the Saints The favour of God is so dear and precious to the Saints that they can compare with the affections of carnal men take them at the greatest advantage He doth not consider their worldly things in their decrease but he considers them when they are encreased and he considers them in the very time when they are encreased in the Vintage and Harvest time the shouting of Vintage and joy of Harvest are proverbial and the comforts of this life when new and fresh most invite delight They that place their happiness in these things cannot have so much joy as they that have a sense of their interest in God Now shall we be wholly strangers to this temper and disposition of soul 3. If we be backward to seek after the favour of God the Lord whips his people to it by his Providence for sometimes their spiritual disposition may be marr'd Hos. 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early The Lord withdraws his gracious presence for this reason not that we may seek ease or freedom from trouble but that we may seek his face and the applying of his Grace to our Consciences 4. God is not wholly gone neither is the desertion total when there is such a disposition in the heart He hath left something behind him which draws you after him The estimation of Gods favour keeps his place warm till he come again it keeps room in the soul Psal. 88. 13 14. Unto thee have I cried in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me But when they can digest such a loss with patience it is an indifferent thing whether they have any sense of Gods love yea or no. 5. We find it to be a sad thing to lose any worldly comfort and shall we lose the favour of God too and never lay it to heart and live contentedly without it It is a sign we despise that which the Saints value and which is the principal blessing you will not have cheap thoughts of the consolation of God Iob 15. 11. 6. Unless we seek Gods favour all our labour is lost in other Duties 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from Heaven c. This is put in among other conditions and without this the promise is not made good to us Many seek to the Lord in their distresses but it is only for redress of temporal evils or obtaining necessary temporal supplies but do not seek his face then their prayers are but like howlings but like the moans of Beasts Hos. 7. 14. They do not seek reconciliation and communion with God but only ease and riddance of present trouble Those are not holy prayers 7. It is the distinguishing point that will separate the precious from the vile to have a tender sense of Gods favour Psal. 24. 6. This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Iacob There are many thoughts of Interpreters about that place I find though they differ in it yet they all agree in this sense that they are the true Israelites the true Iacob's posterity that cannot brook Gods absence that seek his face that will not let him go but strive with him till they get the blessing These are not Israel in the letter but Israel in the spirit Iacob said I will not let thee go unless thou bless me Gen. 32. 36. Such diligent Seekers of God should we be never to give over till we find him Or as Moses said Lord if thy presence go not with us carry us not up hence We will not stir a foot without thy favour and presence III. They that are sensible of the want or loss of the favour of God have liberty to sue for it with hope and encouragement to find it For so doth David Make thy face to shine Whence comes this liberty First Because of Gods promise because of the mercy of God pawned to us in his promises He hath told us none shall seek his face in vain Isai. 48. 19. and Prov. 8. 17. and Psal. 22. 20. One that seriously and diligently is seeking after God before he hath done his search he shall have some opportunity to bless and praise the Lord some experience of Grace shall be given to him if he conscionably diligently and seriously seek it Secondly Because of the mediation of Jesus Christ you may come in his name and seek the favour of God Psal. 36. 7. How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings Interpreters upon that place conceive the shadow of Gods wings does not allude to an ordinary similitude of a Hen that when Vultures and Kites are abroad covers her little Ones gathers her Chickens under her wings No but they think the allusion to be to the outstretched wings of the Cherubims and this is the ground of our trust and dependance upon God Let the Sons of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings there to find God reconciled in Christ for the Throne of Grace was a Figure of that propitiation He is called the propitiation God propitiated and reconciled in Christ is the Throne of Grace interpreted However that be it is clear Psal. 80. 1. Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth When they would have God hear they give him the title of one that sits upon the Mercy-Seat reconciled by Christ. Though the Cloud of sin doth hide Gods favour from thee he can make it shine again and here 's our ground the merciful invitation of Gods promise and then God propitiated in Christ. Use. O then let us turn unto the Lord in prayer and in the use of all other means humbling our selves and seeking his favour 1. Waiting for it with all heedfulness Psal. 130 6. My soul doth wait for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning and he repeats it again I say more than they that watch for the morning Look as the weary Centinel that is wet and stiff with cold and the Dews of the Night or as the Porters that watched in the Temple the Levites were waiting for the day-light So more than they that wait for the morning was he waiting for some glympse of Gods favour Though he do not presently ease us of our smart or gratifie our desires yet we are to wait upon God In time we shall have a good answer Gods delays are not denials Day will come at length though the weary Centinel or Watch-man counts it long first so God will come at length he will
Souldiers being weary of this Pagan Emperour assoon as he dyed chose Iovinianus that had been banished and a fellow sufferer with him who recalled him and other Christians from their exile and after having reigned not full eight Months he dyed and Valentinian was chosen Emperour in his stead 3. The Third thing we should be zealous for is Gods Servants when they are opprest we should own and cherish them as good Obadiah did the Prophets who hid them by fifty in a Cave and fed them with Bread and Water 1 Kings 18. 4. And Ionathan owned David though his Father was greatly displeased with him and flung a Javelin at him 1 Sam. 20. 32. And Hester pleads for the Jews when they were doomed to Destruction Hester 7. 3. And Nicodemus pleads for Christ that he might not be condemned unheard Iohn 7. 50 51. When the Council was ready to condemn him Nicodemus saith to them he that came to Iesus by night being one of them doth our Law judge any man before it hear him And then they went their way That stopt the persecution for that time Certainly they have little zeal for God that can see good men perish before their eyes and have not a word to speak for them This Nicodemus that was before infirm and weak that sneaked unto Christ that came to him by Night gets courage in the time of need to speak for Christ. 3. What are the Acts of zeal with respect to these Objects 1. It quickens us to our duty and makes us publickly active for God Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing O how remiss and sluggish would we be otherwise in matters of Gods Kingdom and Glory if we had not a strong degree of Love to stir us up to appear for God in the worst times and in the way and places that 's proper for us Paul when he saw the whole City given to Idolatry it is said his Spirit was stirred in him Acts 17. 16. He could not contain and again Acts 18. 5. Paul was pressed in spirit and testified to the Iews that Iesus was Christ. That heroical act of Phineas when he saw the Laws of God broken and no body ready to vindicate the honour of God he took a javelin in his hand and thrust the offenders through Numb 25. 7. And the Lord saith afterwards ver 11. Phineas the Son of Eleazar the Son of Aaron hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the Children of Israel in my Iealousie He had an extraordinary call to do that he was High-Priest but he went then upon jus zenorum So Elijah 1 Kings 18. 40. He took the Prophets of Baal and brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there There was an extraordinary call but we are all to be active in spreading and defending the Truth and promoting the purity of Gods worship and welfare of his People as far as our calling and places permit 2. It maketh us spare no cost yea it judgeth that best done for God which costs us most as David would not serve God with that which cost nothing 2 Sam. 24. 25. That 's worth nothing that cost nothing in Religion Iezebel she was zealous for Baal and maintained 400 of his Priests at her Table In the Primitive times they sold all things that they had and had all things common And the Israelites they offered so plentifully to the Tabernacle that Moses was fain to forbid them to put a stop because there was enough given for the Advancement of Gods worship Exod. 38. 8. And therefore certainly they are cold and have little zeal for God that love as the Corinthians did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Gospel without charges would be at no cost for Christ. This was Pauls case there the poor Saints of Macedonia which had but from hand to mouth they ministred to him and maintained him when he was at Corinth a rich and opulent Town Paul would depart from his right rather then prejudice the Gospel Therefore they that will be at no cost for Christ maintaining his Truth upholding his worship relieving his People have no zeal 3. It vents it self by holy Grief and Anger when any of these are violated 1. With holy Grief we should be touched and that to the quick with other mens sins when they neglect their duty pervert all that is right and honest and seem not to be concerned with the glory of God 1 Pet. 2. 7 8. It is said of Lot his Righteous Soul was vexed at the wickedness of the Sodomites and he vexed himself not with Sodoms injuries but with Sodoms impurities he could not redress the evils but he mourns for them So the Prophet Ieremiah for the stubbornness of the People Ier 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore c. Though they would not hearken amend nor any way regard these things yet it grieved him exceedingly So you shall see the like of Ezra Ezra 10. 6. He mourned because of the Transgression of them that had been carried away The Transgression of Gods People was very grievous to him Thus we read of Ely 1 Sam. 4. 13. Ely sate by the way side watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God The Glory of God was dear to him and when Religion is in danger God dishonoured it leaves a mighty impression upon the hearts of those that have a zeal and strong love to God 2. It vents it self by indignation and holy anger As Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple and shewed his divine power therein Iohn 2. 15. And remember them O God that defile the Priesthood Nehem. 13. 29. And Exod. 32. 19. Meek Moses yet his anger waxed hot and he cast the Tables out of his hand And Ezra 9. 3. When I heard this thing I rent my Garment and my Mantle and pluckt off the hair of my Head and of my Beard and sate down Astonied Thus deeply are Gods Children affected with Gods publique dishonour though not occasioned by themselves but occasioned by others and this is to have a zeal for God 4. The Qualifications and Concomitants of this holy zeal I 'le name three 1. It must be accompanied with knowledge and discretion that is to say there must be a distinct knowledge of the Cause that we take up else we may be Factors for the Devils Kingdom when we think we are acting for God and be persecuting the Saints when we think we are destroying his Enemies It must be out of the knowledge of the Cause of the evil to be renounced and the good to be established There is a blind zeal Iohn 16. 2. Whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God good service The Pseudo-Christians the Literal Christians have a blind zeal against the serious Christians
yourselves in this Psal. 103. 17. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his Righteousness upon Childrens Children Yea not only in the changes of your outward Condition is here an everlasting spring of comfort but also in the Ups and Downs of your spiritual condition and the clouds which now and then darken your Comfort and Hope in God In a time of Desertion we seem to be dead and cast off yet remember God loves to be bound for ever 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made an everlasting Covenant Though we are not so punctual exact and faithful but are subject to many Errors and Failings yet God will mind his Eternal Covenant Psal. 89. 33 34. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Lips Death doth not dissolve it nor desertions break it off Now for the second Notion by which the Word of God is expressed thy Law from whence Observe Doctrine That the Word of God hath the Nature and Force of a Law 'T is often so called in Scripture not only the Decalogue which is the abridgement of all Moral Duties but the whole Scripture is Gods Law Isa. 51. 4. A law shall proceed from me and Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the law of God And the Gospel is called the law of Faith Rom. 3. 28. Here I shall shew you how necessary it was that God should give man a Law both as we are considered apart and with respect to Community And then shew that the Word hath the force of a Law 1. Consider man apart Surely the reasonable Creature as 't is a Creature hath a superior to whose Providence and ordering it is subject so all the Creatures have a law by which the bounds of their motion are fixed and limited Psal. 148. 6. He hath established them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not pass Prov. 8. 29. He gave the Sea his decree that the waters should not pass his Commandment The Sun Moon and Stars are under a law all the Creatures are ballanced in a due proportion and guided and fixed in their Tract and Course by an unerring hand which is a kind of law to them As a Creature Man is subject to the direction of Gods Providence as other Creatures are but as a reasonable Creature he is capable of Moral Government for so he hath a Choice of his own a power of refusing Evil and choosing Good Other Creatures are ruled by a rod of Iron necessitated to what they do by an act of Gods Power and Sovereignty but man being a voluntary Agent is governed by laws which may direct and oblige him to good and warn and drive him from evil This law was at first written upon mans nature and that was sufficient while he stood in his integrity to guide him and inable him to serve and please God in all things propounded to him The law written on the heart of man was his Rule and Principle But that being obliterated by the Fall it was needful that God should give a new law to guide man to his own blessedness and to keep him from erring The Internal principle of Righteousness being lost the laws of men could not be sufficient for they have another end which is the good of humane Society They aim not at such a supernatural end as the enjoyment of God their laws reach no further than the ordering of mens outward Conversations and meddle not with the inward workings and motions of the heart of which they can take no Cognisance these may be inordinate do a great deal of mischief Therefore as the Wise God directed men to give laws to order mens Actions so he would himself give laws to order the Heart which man cannot reach Lay all these together and there is a necessity that God should give a law to man 2. But much more if you consider Man in his Community as he is a part of that spiritual Community called a Church All Societies of men from the Beginning of the World have found the establishing of Laws the only means to preserve themselves from ruine There is no other way against Confusion and would God leave that society which is of his own Institution that of which he is the Head and in which his honour is concerned without a law Deut. 32. 9. The Lords portion is his People which was set apart to serve him and to be to him for a Name and a Praise surely a people that have God so near them and are in special Relation to him have their laws by which they may be governed and preserved as to their Eternal good unless we should say God took lesse care for his own people then for others This necessity is the greater because this Society is spiritual though made up of visible men yet combined for spiritual ends Commerce and Communion with God and that mostly in their spirits which maketh this society the hardest to be governed and this the most seattered and dispersed of all societies throughout all parts of the Earth and therefore should be knit together with the strongest bonds Surely then there needeth a Common law whereby they may be united in their Conjunction with Christ the head and one another that it may not be broken in pieces And this to be given by God that he may preserve his own Authority and Interest among them This law is the Scripture those sacred digests in which God hath discovered not only his Wisdom and Justice but his Will and Imperial Power what he will have us do The one sheweth the Equity the other the Necessity of our Obedience surely this is his law or none The Church to whom the law was given God hath constituted the keeper of its own records never acknowledge another nor can any other make any Tolerable pretence Now having brought the matter home 2dly I shall shew you wherein it hath the Nature and force of a law as we commonly take the Word and here I shall 1. Shew you wherein it agrees 2. Wherein it differs from the ordinary laws of men 1. Wherein it agreeth 1. A Law is an act of Power and Sovereignty by which a Superior declareth his Will to those that are Subject to him There are two branches of the supream power Legislation and Jurisdiction giving the law and governing according to the law so given And so Gods power over the reasonable Creature is seen in Legislation and in the administration of his Providence there is his Jurisdiction In the Scripture he hath given the law and he will take an account of the observance of it in part here at the petty Sessions hereafter more fully and clearly at the Day of General Judgment But for the present here is Gods power seen over
thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in Secret c. We have more inlargement there because we represent our own Case to God Mourn apart Ier. 13. 17. My Soul shall weep in Secret places We are flat cold loose careless in private strive to speak with the same power life holiness in private as you would in publick 4. What you would be in Prayer you must be out of Prayer Prov. 26. 7. The Legs of the lame are not equal so is a Parable in the mouth of a Fool. As the legs of the Lame one doth not answer another They are devout all of a fire in their Prayers but neglectful of God in their Conversations Eph. 6. 18. Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance Prov. 28. 9. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law even his Prayer shall be an abomination He doth not live his Prayers We must live in the same frame 5. You must pray as affectionately for Heavenly as you would for Earthly things A Carnal Mans Mind and Heart is upon Worldly things and Spiritual things lye by contrary to Matth. 6. 33. where we are bid First to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof c. And Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple They have no savour for other requests but can find tender affections for safety ease sloth other Petitions do but bear these Company there is their business with God if God will give these things we will give a discharge for other things So that their prayers do not come from Grace but Nature Thanks to his natural Necessities for all the Affections he hath in Prayer 6. We must not onely have our Flashes and good Moods So Balaam Numb 23. 10. Let me die the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his So those Ioh. 6. 34. Then said they unto him Lord evermore give us this bread Strange strivings for the present but it is onely for Priviledges 'T is vanishing Iob 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he alwaies call upon God They would have Heaven without Holiness Pardon of sin rather than power against it or a new heart He will pray when he seeth his Time as men take strong-waters in a Pang he hath a praying fit upon him in Adversity not in Prosperity Hosea 5. 15. In their Affliction they will seek me early 7. As you Pray to God so you must intirely Trust him Iames 1. 6 7. Let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven with the Wind and tossed A Carnal Man wavereth he would fain have help from God but his heart runneth upon other things Hosea 7. 11. Ephraim is like a silly Dove without Heart they Call to Aegypt they Go to Assyria Their Hearts are for seeking to other Refuges however they call to God among the rest Ahaz would not ask a sign that would engage him to depend upon God and keep him from running to other shifts Sometimes he thinketh Prayer will do it and by and by desponds dareth not trust God upon his Prayers he knoweth not what course to take whither to shift for himself or to tarry Gods leisure But one that commits all to God is fixed Psal. 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil Tydings his Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. He is freed from Anxious Cares SERMON CLXIII PSALM CXIX VER 145. I Cryed with my whole Heart hear me O Lord I will keep thy Statutes SEcondly Here is the Petition Hear me or as it is in the Heb. Answer me not in Words but Deeds Doctrine Gods Children when they pray are earnest for an Answer To give you some Instances Psal. 85. 8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak A Gracious Heart doth not make Prayer a vain babling or an empty prattle but a Gracious Exercise that will in time get an Answer and obtain a good return or blessing from the Lord. Therefore they are listening and hearkening after News from Heaven if they can hear any thing from God how he receiveth their Prayers and what he will do for them Micah 7. 7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation My God will hear me They are not only waiting but observing and watching what cometh in upon prayer for they are certain 't is not breath poured out into the Air but a petition commended to their God who hath promised to hear them So Hab. 2. 1. I will stand upon my Watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say to me He compareth himself to a Watchman that is spying abroad if he can get any intelligence of any approaching Comfort So Psal. 5. 3. I will pray and look up as Elijah if he could spy a Cloud any preparation towards Mercy Reasons 1. Because they dare not take Gods Name in Vain as all do that pray cursorily and never regard what cometh of it like foolish Boys that knock at a door in wantonness but have no business and therefore will not stay till somebody cometh to open the door 'T is a great sin to take Gods Name in Vain in any Act of Worship much more in Prayer Now all do so that go about this duty as a task not as a means to do their Souls good or to obtain Blessings from God when I hear meerly that I may hear or receive the Lords Supper and rest in the act of receiving Every Ordinance must be gone about in Faith and Obedience expecting the ends of the Duty as well as being imployed in the Acts of it If you do it in good earnest and with respect to Gods institution you must do so All the Ordinances come under a fourfold Notion as Duties as Priviledges as Means as Talents As Duties injoyned and a part of our homage and Obedience to God this will breed an awe upon our Conscience to keep us to a due and constant observance of them 't is not a matter Arbitrary but our necessary Duty As Priviledges this keepeth us from weariness that we may not consider them as a burdensome task As Means of our growth and improvement that notion is necessary that we may not rest in the work wrought but look after the Grace dispensed thereby As Talents for which we must give an account which will quicken us to more earnest diligence in the Improvement Some do not look upon them as Duties and so neglect them Others not as Priviledges and so do not prize them are not Joyful in the house of Prayer Others not as Means and so rest in the bare performance without looking after the fruits to
sends a tempest after us Oh how frequent and earnest should we be in the practice of this Duty 1. This is a time proper for it Prayer is a duty never out of season though some seasons are proper and solemn to it God is alwaies to be prayed unto Iob 27. 11. when freed from Trouble and Inconvenience we are not freed from Prayer still we must profess Dependance Subjection and maintain our Communion but this is a special Season Iames 5. 13. Is anyone afflicted let him pray 2. Though Afflictions drive us to the Throne of Grace yet if we come seriously and heartily we are not unwelcom to him those very Prayers which necessity doth extort from us are accepted by God and valued by him as an acceptable piece of worship therefore such as look toward God ought not to be discouraged though Afflictions drive them to it though they sought him not before or not in good earnest before provided that alwaies they find other errands and be careful to maintain a constant Communion with him Most that are acquainted with God are taken in the briars Jesus Christ in the daies of his flesh had never heard of many if their necessities had not brought them to him their Palsies and Possessions and Feavers Deafness Dumbness thanks to these as their awakening occasions a man will say say you come to me in your necessity God is willing to receive us upon any Terms 3. How desperate in appearance soever our Condition seem to be yet crying will bring Relief or help may be found in God for them that cry to him Iudges 3. 9. When they cried the Lord raised up a deliverer to the Children of Israel who delivered them even Othniel the son of Kenaz Iudges 3. 15. And when the children of Israel cried to the Lord the Lord raised them up a deliverer Ehud the son of Gera. So Psalm 107. frequently From that unto thee Doctrine IV. In our Troubles we must have recourse to God and sue to him by Prayer and Supplication for help and deliverance in due time 1. Because he is the Author of our Trouble in Miseries and Afflictions Our business lyeth not with Men but God by humble dealing with him we stop wrath at the Fountain head he that bindeth us must loose us he is at the upper end of Causes and whoever be the Instruments of our trouble and how malitious soever God is the party with whom we are to make our Peace for he hath the absolute disposal of all Creatures and will have us to acknowledge the Dominion of his Providence and our Dependance upon him in Treaties of Peace between two warring Parties the address is not made to private Souldiers but to their Chief The Lord hath taken away saith Iob chap. 34. 27. When he giveth quietness who then can make Trouble 2. He challengeth this Prerogative to be the God of Salvation Psal. 3. 8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord and therefore if we would be saved we must seek it of him Others cannot help if he help not for he hath all means and creatures and second causes at his Command if we lean to means they may fail but if we rely upon God he will never fail Therefore whatever means God offereth for our help Prayer to God is the best means and first to be used 3. There is Comfort in dealing with God whatever our Case be 1 Because of his All-sufficient Power 2 Because of his good Will and readiness to help 1 Because of his Power and All-sufficiency so that he hath waies of Deliverance more than we know of and can save his own when men do count their case desperate Dan. 3. 29. There is no other God that can deliver after this sort Let the streight be never so great the burden heavy and the Creature weak and at a desperate loss yet God can find out waies and means to do his people good 2 For his good Will and readiness to hear Psal. 65. 2. Oh thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come The readiness of God to hear Prayer doth open a door of access to all people who are sensible of their burdens and necessities He hath ever shewed himself ready to hear the cries and groans of his people and wo be to them against whom they cry Psal. 22. 5. They cried unto thee and were delivered Their cries and groans are not hid from him and cannot be shut out Psalm 106. 44. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction and he heard their cry 1. Use. To reprove divers sorts 1. Some seek to help themselves by impatiency fretting unquiet behaviour in their Troubles this doth increase their Misery Go pour out your hearts before the Lord that giveth ease Phil. 4. 6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Iesus Your wrestling with Trouble within your selves doth but imbroyl you the more 2. Some trust in outward helps seek to men and means as Asa to the Physitians not to the Lord 2 Chron. 16. 12. It is not unlawful to use means but we must depend upon the Lord for the Blessing Seek to him first otherwise looking to man proveth a snare many waies as it tempts us to comply with their Lusts to neglect God maketh way for the greater sorrow in disappointment The Creature is vain in it self made more vain by our Confidence Psal. 60. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man You will be brought to it at last The more earnestly we seek God the more Confidence we way have of the Creature 2. Use. To inform us of the Priviledge and Duty of the Godly 1. Their Priviledge they have a God to go to The worldly man sigheth and cryeth he knoweth not to whom but the Godly man presenteth himself in his Lamentations to God my friends scorn me but mine eye poureth out tears unto God Iob 16. 20. He hath a Father in secret a Friend in a corner they need not go to Men nor to Saints and Angels they have God himself and can challenge him by his Office as the Judge of the World to help poor Creatures Psal. 94. 2. Lift up thy self thou Iudge of the World render a reward to the proud Yea by his peculiar Relation to them Psal. 5. 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray They do not cry unto him as a stranger but one in Covenant Relation with them 2. Their Duty to make God their Guardian and Saviour in all their distress when in their own sense they are near perishing Mark 8. 26. Arise save us we perish 2 Kings 19. 19. Now therefore O Lord our God I beseech thee save us out of his hand that all the Kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art
are my Meditation We see things in transitu and know them only by hear-say without Meditation To move the Will we had need deal seriously with our own hearts e're we can gain them to a Consent Thoughts are the spokesmen that make up the Match between the Soul and the Temptation they were given for the like office in good things they are the first Acts of the Soul to set a-work all the rest Things lye by till we take them into our Thoughts and Consideration at leisure that we may know what is their tendency and how they concern us You cannot Imagine the Gospel should work as a Charm and Convert us we know not how before Consent and Choice There is a propounding and debating of terms the greatest matters will not work on him that doth not think of them God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are looked upon in a cold and remiss manner without this serious Consideration And to excite and quicken and stir our Affections Meditation is useful We complain of deadness and we our selves are the Cause because we do not rouse up our selves excite and compel our selves expostulate with our selves Isa. 64. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy name and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Man hath a power to whet Truths upon his own heart and if he will not make use of it and reason for God with our selves we are justly left under the power of deadness and stupidness of Spirit 2. 'T is a great help to our Graces Faith takes root by Meditation Matth. 13. 5. The seed forthwith sprang up because it had no deepness of earth A careless slight heart is no fit soil for Faith to grow in 2. Hope is made lively by Consideration of the thing hoped for 3. Charity is inflamed by the sight and frequent view of Divine Objects in their Beauty and Amiableness 3. The Duties of Religion Reading and Hearing are effectual by Meditation The Use is for Exhortation to press you to Meditation 't is the Mother and Nurse of Knowledge and Godlinss the great instrument in all the Offices of Grace otherwise we take up things by hear-say this digests them and maketh them our own 1. It preventeth vain thoughts both as it stocketh the heart with Truth for good seed thick set and well rooted destroyeth the weeds and as it seasoneth the heart with a Gracious disposition and inureth it more to holy thoughts whereas those that do not use to Meditate how are their Minds pestered with swarms of vain thoughts which wholly divert it and turn it aside from God Man is mindless of holy things and if they turn into the heart by accident their entertainment is cold and careless as a man would be used that cometh into an house full of enemies 2. How great an affront is it to God to omit this part of Communion with him it is irkesome to think of him Saints find it otherwise Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Some God is said to be near in their Mouth and far from their Reins Ier. 12. 2. frequently spoken of but seldom considered by them That soul that hath a sincere and unfeigned love to him will take some time to solace itself with him alone to be sure God taketh it kindly at our hands Mal. 3. 16. A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name that have frequent and high thoughts of God in their hearts without which Love will presently languish and grow cold 3. What a neglect it is of Gods Messages of Love that you will not consider them Matth. 21. 5. And they made light of it And Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation He hath laid out all his Eternal thoughts upon a way of Salvation and manifested it to you and you entertain it with so much scorn that you will not set your minds to it and think it worthy a few sad and sober thoughts What Is it so tedious to think a thought of your own greatest Concernments Surely Man is strangely deprav'd to refuse this 4. What a likely means Meditation is to do you good I know 't is the Lord inclineth the Heart and our Thoughts work no further than God is in them yea he giveth us to think 2 Cor. 3. 5. But as it is our Duty so 't is a very proper means to improve our Graces and our Comfort for a constant steady continued view of truth surely will work more than a glance A transient view cannot leave such an impression upon us as a steady view We taste things better when they are chewed than when they are swallowed whole Meditation goeth over things again and again and pryeth into every part And as 't is a constant light so 't is an argumentative Consideration of things When one scale is not heavy enough we put in weight after weight till we gain our point bring off the Heart from such a vanity ingage it to such a pursuit by our own arguings with our selves Prov. 12. 14. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his own mouth Acts 17. 11 12. And these were more noble then they of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so Therefore many believed because they had searched with all readiness of Mind 5. This is an Argument should prevail with Gods Children that we may know our growth in Grace by the frequency continuance and efficacy of holy thoughts At first good thoughts are few and rare the heart is so crouded with vanity that there is no room for God or his Word for these things keep their interest in the heart and draw the mind after them so that dayes pass over our heads and we forget God Psal. 10. 11. Or if they arise in our minds they find little entertainment there but are gone as soon as they come 'T is the Policy of the Enemy of our Salvation to draw our minds from one thing to another that good thoughts may pass over without fruit and benefit Or if we force our selves to continue they do not warm the heart only weary the brain But now when truths are ever with us they improve us Psal. 119. 98. Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then my Enemies for they are ever with me Prov. 6. 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee We have them always ready and at hand They that are sound at heart can pause with delight on heavenly things 'T is a good note of some progress 't is a sign the heart is heavenly carried out with a strong and prevailing love to heavenly things that earthly profits and vain pleasures have not such a hand over us as they were wont to have You have gotten the mastery
wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared unto glory Meet for Heaven Ripe for Hell Saints like a shock of Corn in season so when sinned enough then away to Hell But this Exhortation is like to be lost because no body will apply it let us see then the Character of wicked men Secondly They seek not thy Statutes Doctrine They are wicked men who seek not Gods Statutes Here I must Enquire I. What it is to seek Gods Statutes II. Shew why they are wicked that do not seek them I. What it is to seek Gods Statutes There 1. The Object or thing sought is Gods Statutes those Rules and Counsels which he hath given us to guide us in our service of himself and pursuit of true Happiness These are all enforced by his Authority and Enacted as Laws and Statutes which we cannot transgress without violation and contempt of his Authority Now he saith statutes indefinitely because they must all be regarded without exception for they all stand upon the same Authority It is said of Ezra that good Scribe Ezra 10. 7. That he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it that is to be throughly informed of and to practice whatsoever was injoyned in the Law of God so must we prepare our hearts to do all And because our Christian Law is broader and comprizeth Gospel too which is the Law of Faith we must take care of all which God hath given us in charge and all that is adopted into our Rule of Faith and Repentance as well as Moral Duties and because there are minutula legis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore our chief care must be about the weighty things and those of greater moment must be sought most earnestly Therefore it is said Mar. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof these concern the change of our Estate 2. The Act of seeking the word implyeth earnest and constant endeavour I seek for that which I mind and pursue with all my heart and use all means that I may obtain it till I do obtain or find it thus we are bidden to seek that which is good Amos 5. 14. Seek good and not evil that ye may live And Zeph. 2. 2. Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the Earth which have wrought his Iudgments seek Righteousness seek Meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger So Christ Ioh. 5. 30. I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent me And here the Psalmist speaketh of seeking Gods Statutes 1. It implyeth earnest Endeavour for a mans heart is upon what he seeketh that it be the business of our lives not a thing done by the by but our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our work is to please God and to this all other things must give way Many think it is a foolish thing for them to Trouble their heads with matters of Religion and to lay bands of strictness upon themselves but it must not only have its Turn and Respect among other Affairs but be indeed as the great Affair of our Lives There is no business of such weight and necessity because the saving of our Souls lyeth on it and therefore it must be followed in good earnest as a man when he is seeking a thing quitteth all other cares and mindeth that only 2. Constant Endeavour seeking till we find as the Woman for her lost groat Luk. 15. 8. What woman having ten pieces of silver if she lose one piece doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it So we must not content our selves with our first and cold essay as many if they find not success upon some fair attempt give over all care of Religion as if it were a tedious thing not to be endured now seeking implies a resolute Diligence and persevering Endeavourstill we find 3. The End of seeking after Gods Statutes it is to have them and keep them as Christ saith Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me First hath then keepeth to have the Commandements is to know them to understand our Duty and prove what is the Revealed Holy and Acceptable Will of God concerning us Rom. 12. 2. that it may have the Authority of a Principle in our Consciences To keep them is to endeavour Actual Obedience thereunto and to regulate our Practice thereby for both these ends do we seek and in both these respects do men shew their wickedness 1. We must make it our business to know the tenour and compass of our Duty and we are said to seek after this because it will cost us pains ere we can obtain it All Knowledge will cost us industry especially Divine and Practical Knowledge as he that applyeth his heart to the understanding of his Duty will soon find Prov. 2. 4. If thou wilt seek for it as for silver and search for it as for hid Treasures Now this the wicked cannot endure they indulge the laziness of the Flesh they know they that increase Knowledge increase Sorrow if they did know more of their Duty they should be troubled for not observing it for Knowledge will be urging Duty upon the Conscience it bringeth a great Obligation along with it and as an Obligation so an Irritation or Provocation it will call upon them to do that which they have no mind to do Yea and further a self-condemnation and Accusation or sting for not doing it or breaking any of Gods Statutes therefore to prevent their own Trouble they are so far from secking Light that they would shut it out and quench those Convictions that break in upon them therefore the Language of wicked men is Iob 21. 14. Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes the language of their Hearts and Lives if not of their Tongues They do not only erre in their Minds but erre in their Hearts they have no Will to know would not Trouble themselves about Religion or acquainting themselves with God neglect the means of Grace 2. We must make it our business to observe them or our serious study to keep at a distance both in heart and practice from every known sin eschewing what the Lord forbiddeth and endeavouring every good Duty which the Lord commandeth This will cost us pains indeed and requireth much seeking to get such a frame of heart and whoever tryeth it will find it long e're he can attain to it Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not He sought for his words imply that but he could not do as he would there was not a total omission but a coming short of his Aimes we must
respect to the end now if they do not make the Everlasting injoyment of God their end the Scriptures are of little use to them a trouble rather than a comfort because they disturb them in pursuing their lusts but a man that would injoy God get to his Holy Hill is apprehensive of the benefit 2. They are not affected with their wants and therefore esteem not the Word For the great benefit of the Word is to teach us a remedy for sin and misery now they that mind not the misery and danger in which they stand go on carelesly and despise the Word of God Prov. 22. 3. A prudent man forseeth the Evil and hideth himself but the simple passe on and are punished They little think of the evil which is near them and so slight the Counsel of God Secondly Those that will not believe them that find sweetness in it as if all were phantastical and imaginary Are the wisest and most serious part of mankind deceived And hath the carnal fool only the wit to discern the mistake Surely in all reason it should be otherwise These tell us of those delights and transports of soul in meditating on the Promises in purifying their Hearts by the Precepts and though a stranger intermedleth not with their Joyes yet surely these find them All that is spiritual and supernatural is suspected by those who are drowned in matters of sense Iohn 12. 29. A voice from Heaven is Thunder the motions of the Spirit fumes of Wine Acts 3. 13. Joy in the Holy Ghost but a fancy c. Thirdly Them that count it an Alphabetary knowledge fit for beginners David was no Novice yet he rejoyced in the Word as one that found great spoil the more conversant he was in these Holy Writings the more he delighted in them No 'T is not only Childrens meat there is not only Milk there but strong Meat also Heb. 5. 14. 'T is our Rule to walk by till our blessedness be perfected The continual store-house of our comforts Rom. 15. 4. 'T is the continual means of growing into Communion with God in Christ. Use. II. To exhort us to delight in the Word of God 'T is the work and mark of a Blessed man Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he Meditate day and night As far as the necessities of the present life will bear it they are still getting more Knowledge of true Blessedness and the way that leadeth to the Injoyment of it This is their business and pleasing Study His work is to form his heart to a sincere uniform impartial obedience and as he doth increase in Godliness by the help of the Word his soul is more satisfyed all the joyes of the World to this are nothing to him Are your Hearts thus set to know the Lord and his revealed Will and the way of Life SERMON CLXXVII PSALM CXIX VER 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy law do I love IN this Verse the Man of God sheweth his Affection to the Word by the Hatred of those things which are contrary to the Word Observe here First Affection set against Affection Secondly Object against Object First Affection against Affection Hatred against Love Love and Hatred are natural Affections which are good or evil according to the Objects to which they are applyed Place Love on the World Sin and Vanity and nothing worse place Hatred on God Religion Holiness and it soon proveth an hellish thing But now set them upon their proper objects and they express a gracious Constitution of Soul let us hate Evil and love Good Amos 5. 15. and all is well Man needeth affections of Aversation as well as Choice and Pursuit Hatred hath its use as well as Love Love was made for God and things that belong to God and Hatred for Sin 't was put into us that at the first appearance sense or imagination of Evil we might retire our selves and fly from it and is any thing so evil as sin so contrary to God so baneful to the Soul The office of Love is to adhere and cleave to God and whatever will bring us to the injoyment of him and the office of hatred is that we may truly and sincerely turn from all evil with Detestation according to the nature and degree of evil that is in it The Emphasis of the Text is notable I hate and abhor it must be a thorough Hatred which David Psal. 139. 22. calleth a perfect hatred Secondly Here is Object set against Object As Love is opposed to Hatred so the Law to Lying for the Word of God is Truth and requireth truth of all that submit to it pure sincerity and simplicity Some render the word more generally the Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hate and abominate iniquity other Translations render it not so they expound it so that one kind is put for all the rest and fitly for every sin is a falsehood and often called in this Psalm a false way and a lye and will fail and beguile all them who are delighted with it and the purport and drift is that we should admit omit commit nothing which is contrary to the Word of God which is the great object of an holy mans Love The Points are three Doctrine I. They that love the word of God must hate sin Doctrine II. That a slight hatred of a sinful course is not enough but we must hate and abhor it Doctrine III. That among other sins we must hate falshood and lying and all kind of frauds and deceits For the first Point Doct. I. They that love the Word of God must hate sin This implyeth four things 1. That our Love must be demonstrated by such effects otherwise it is but pretended if we do not avoid what it forbiddeth for our love to God and his VVord is mostly seen in Obedience and dutiful Subjection to him and it for Gods Love is a Love of Bounty our Love is a Love of Duty he is said to love us when he blesseth us and bestoweth on us the effects of his special Grace and Favour we are said to love him when we obey him These Propositions are clear in Scripture That our love to God is tryed by our love to the VVord And our love to the VVord by our hatred of Sin Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And Verse 23. If any man love me he will keep my words On the contrary our Enmity to God and his VVord is determined by our love to Sin Enmity to God Col. 1. 21. Enemies in your minds by evil works To his VVord Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law neither indeed can be Habitual sin argueth a Malice or Hatred of God and his holy Law and actual Sin an actual Hatred 'T is finis operis if not operantis whether a man thinketh so or no 't is the intent of the
Precepts that we may order our Practise accordingly There must be an habitual Aim and Purpose to please God 3. Patience a resolute continuance till our service be over This is the way I have chosen and here will I stick until the great reward come in hand Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for honour and glory and immortality Eternal Life And Luk. 8. 15. The good ground brought forth fruit with patience That distinguished the good ground from all other grounds they had some little liking of it but never came to a serious choice but the good ground though there be several Weathers between Sowing and Reaping it cherisheth the Seed that it is ready at Harvest time so we pass through many Weathers before we come to our Harvest of Happiness and Rest. Doctrine II. That man which makes Conscience of Gods Commands is encouraged to seek help from him in straits First Such a one may be in great straits as David his own hand could not help him therefore he flies to God The Lord permits it that he may be trusted alone in his own hands he will break our carnal Dependancies and that his ways may be chosen for their own sakes and not for temporal Reward and that his Love to his own People may not be shewn too sensibly that the misteriousness of Providence may leave a room and place for Faith therefore doth God darken the Glory of the Godly with Afflictions and put them into straits that their own hand cannot help them Now in these straits those that make Conscience of Gods Precepts they are encouraged to seek help from Gods hand Why Partly because Integrity breeds a confidence so that a man which hath been faithful with God can look him in the face It breeds a confidence in Life 2 Cor. 1. 12. and in Death Isa. 38. 3. when they are sick weak and know not what to do they can fly to God And then Integrity also it entitles to Gods Protection all that heartily and sincerely depend upon God Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely An upright plain-hearted Man that trusts himself under the shadow and protection of Gods Providence he hath no shifts and tricks this man shall walk safely God is engaged to defend him But the perverse that fly to their shifts God will disappoint them and shew them their folly Gen. 17. 1. I am God All-sufficient walk before me and be thou perfect Do you uprightly serve God and study to please him and you need not seek else-where for a Patron or for one to defend you and plead your Cause And partly too because they are exposed to the greater difficulties because they are faithful with God and trust themselves alone with his protection for so the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 10. For therefore we labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God Faith begets faithfulness their dependance is upon God and their faithfulness costs them dear and so they suffer reproach because they did trust themselves in Gods ways by Gods providence As you stand in need of Gods protection you shall have it God will not forsake us in our greatest needs as the World will but in our greatest extremities when all carnal dependencies fail us he will not then is the time for God to shew himself He hath still a Providence and Fatherly care over thee but his power is especially engaged at such a time If you will take care of your Duty he will take care of your safety for he will either keep you out of Troubles or sustain you under Troubles SERM. CLXXXVII PSALM CXIX VER 174. I haue longed for thy Salvation O Lord and thy law is my delight IN this Verse you have a twofold Assertion or Protestation First Of a Vehement desire of the Salvation promised I have longed for thy Salvation Secondly A great Love and Complacency in the Word of God and thy law is my delight This Verse may be understood either of Temporal Salvation or Eternal Salvation the Words may be accommodated to either sense The context would seem to limit it to the former and so an enforcing of the second request of this portion Verse 170. Deliver me according to thy word Many Interpreters both Iewish and Christian carry it for the other Iewish Rabbi David Kimchi expoundeth it thus thy Salvation soeculo futuro and the last Clause thy law quia medium est ad salutem Christian Chrysostom Theodoret Calvin and because these senses are not contrary but subordinate I shall insist upon both 1. Let me handle the words as they may be understood of Temporal Salvation and so the sense will be I have long expected thy deliverance and yet do desire and wait for it the Preterperfect Tense as Vatabilus noteth includeth also the present for a long time I have expected thy deliverance and do expect help from thee and the other Clause thy law is my delight though this help seemeth to be delayed yet thy counsel is my Consolation and perpetual Delight The Words thus understood yeild us two Points Doctrine I. That Gods people do look to God for deliverance and longingly expect the accomplishment of it Doctrine II. We should delight in the Promise before the Salvation cometh For the first Point That Gods people do look to God for deliverance and longingly expect it The Point shall be discussed in these Considerations I. What Longing for Gods Salvation implyeth II. The Encouragements and Reasons of it III. What singular thing there is in this longing Expectation since 't is natural to all to seek Deliverance out of Trouble I. What it Implyeth 1. A sense of our Impotency or Insufficiency to save our selves and help our selves out of Trouble by any ways and means that we can find out and use Psal. 3. 8. Salvation belongeth to the Lord. Ionah 2. 9. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation and Deliverance of all kinds is Gods Prerogative Royal and Gods proper work none can save and give peace when he commandeth Trouble and when he will save his People none can let 'T is an evidence of mens neglecting a Deity when they would help and save themselves in all Conditions without depending or imploying a God Iob 40. 9 14. Hast thou an arm like God then I will confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee Alass if we look else-where how soon are we disappointed Man is a mutable Creature his Affections change or his power may be blasted an Arm of flesh is soon dried up besides the distraction and uncertainty that we have while we depend upon man and look to man we involve our selves in greater miseries and meet with a shameful disappointment at last Sometimes man will not if he can sometimes cannot if he would If he will and can yet he shall not help us without God for what can the Instrument do without the Principal Agent the sword without the man that weildeth
of his People may be tryed and yet his Enemies reckoned with 3. He hath Love enough God doth concern himself in all our Affairs 1 Tim. 4. 10. We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe A protector and deliverer yea 't is said he saveth Man and Beast Psal. 36. 6. The object of his providence is very large all Creatures have their Being and Preservation from him much more Man much more his Children they are allowed to believe a special providence and the more they depend upon him the more is his care assured to them 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all your care upon the Lord for he careth for you The Lord is free from all passions of Care and Sorrow but we shall find no less proof of his keeping off danger or delivering us from danger than if we were solicitous for our selves surely our Father is not unmindful of us 3. Because there is no difficulty that can fall out to check this Confidence which is built upon Gods undertaking and sufficiency to make it good 1. Not any danger from men though of never so dreadful an appearance 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us The danger was Trouble in Asia a great danger pressed above measure and above strength great Trouble was at Ephesus where the people in an Uproar were ready to tear him in pieces so that he received the sentence of Death in himself yet God found a way and meanes to save and he came off safe and sound 2. Not any appearance of Anger from God himself Iob 13. 15. Though he slay me yet I will put my trust in him Sometimes Trouble may represent God as the party dealing with us yet Faith can take him for a Friend when he seemeth to deal like an Enemy and we must resolve to adhere to God and his wayes and trust his power with submission to his good will and pleasure and believe that he hath more respect and care over us than is seen in the present dispensation III. 'T is natural to all to seek deliverance out of Troubles Isa. 51. 14. The captive exile hasteth that he may be delivered and that he should not die in the pit How then is it any part of Grace to Long for Gods Salvation I Answer 'T is proper to the Godly to love no Deliverance but what God sendeth by his own Means in his own Time and to wait for it in Gods way 1. There is somewhat of Grace in it that they look for Salvation from God alone as the Author and are resolved to take it out of his hands whencesoever it cometh Man naturally would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live upon himself be sufficient to his own happiness and so they are vexed when they are left upon God and put upon dependance and submission and waiting upon him for they think it little worth to wait upon God as long as any other shift will serve the turn As Ahaz when troubled with the fear of Rezin and Pekah and the Prophet assureth him of Gods Salvation and biddeth him ask a sign Isa. 7. 11 12 13. I will not tempt the Lord. I will not trust the Lord he meaneth though he useth that pretence his expectation was fixed on the friendship of his Confederates if he had asked a sign of God he must wait for the issue in Gods way now Ahaz could not indure to trust God alone he depended on the Assyrianâ—… and not on Gods Salvation he believed nothing the Prophet spake but counted it vain and frivolous and was resolved to go another way to work 2. Gods salvation as to the means not by our shifts that maketh a breach upon our sincerity Gen. 17. 1. I am God almighty walk before me and be thou upright A man that doth not trust God cannot be long true to him you go off from God to the Creature by distrust and unbelief Heb. 3. 12. this is making more hast than good speed Isa. 28. 16. it plungeth us in sin 't is the greatest Hypocrisie that can be to pretend respect to God and shift for our selves 't is to break prison to get out of Trouble before God letteth us out 3. In his own Time thy Salvation they resolve to wait till he sendeth it carnal men when other means and expectations fail will seek to God they are beaten to him but if their expectation in waiting upon God be delayed they wax weary and faint as that King put on Sackcloth for a while 2 King 6. 30. afterwards said This evil is from the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer They give it over as an hopeless service 4. That in the height of Trouble they still go to God and will not cast away their confidence and dependance come what will come Isa. 26. 8. In the way of thy Iudgements we have waited for thee our desires are to thee and to the remembrance of thy name They still look to him and though often disappointed will seek Salvation from no other they still cleave to Gods way Psal. 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forsaken thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant They persevere in prayer Psal. 88. 13 14. Unto thee have I cryed in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee Lord Why castest thou me off why hidest thou thy face from me They will not give over but shew their vehement Longings after God whereas wicked and carnal men when great Troubles continue are driven to despair and give over all hope Use. In times of Trouble let us look to God and continue looking all the time that God will exercise our Faith and Patience and express our Longings and Desires of Gods salvation in humble and earnest prayer 1. 'T is no time to look else-where for God will shew us that vain is the help of man by many disappointments Isa. 48. 11. I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour He will break all Confidences till we come to this he shall be my salvation As Iob resolved when God brake him with his Tempests and pursued him with his Waves and was ready to slay him as he thought In all extremities this should be our fixed ground of Faith that Salvation and Deliverance is to be expected from God only Ier. 3. 23. Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the hills and the Mountains truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel God will teach us this Lesson e're he hath done with us Usually there is no serious dealing with God till we find the vanity and inability of all other dependancies looking to the Hills and Mountains strength of situation Forces all these will fail us 2. 'T is no time to dally with God and his service any longer for when Troubles come close and near the spirit of Prayer should