King 21. 19 20 21. to tell him in short that God would ruine him and his family and all that belonged to him v. 27. Ahab hears those words he rends his cloths puts sackcloth upon his flesh fasteth lyeth in sackcloth and goes softly Here 's the best of a carnal man if his dread of God in his Judgements worketh thus far and to a temporary abstaining from some gross sins it is all you read not a word of Ahabs tending to inquire of the Lord not a word of any cordial humiliation or resolved reformation 2 King 22. 11. Josiah findeth the Book of the Law and heareth there of the wrath of God he rends his cloths so did Ahab but he resteth not here v. 13. He tends to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people and for all Judah c. was this all No chap. 23. He sets upon a real and effectual reformation with all his might Thus you see how the dread and awe of God upon the heart of a child of God doth not drive him from God but unto him it doth not stupifie but quicken him it doth not put him upon a formal temporary particular reformation but upon a fixed real general reformation Pharaohs fear flartled him and put him upon sending to Moses to pray for him and put him upon some good thoughts and resolutions at present but yet Pharaoh notwithstanding this was one who feared not the Lord. But thus much may serve to have spoken to this branch of Application I come now to the last branch I will shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation I will reduce all to three particulars 1. To such as have not this fear of God in Exhort their hearts to perswade them to labour for it 2. To such as have this fear of God to perswade them 1. To labour to grow in this habit and exercise 2. To live like excellent persons and to shew they have this excellent blessing 3. Lastly To the men of the world in general to perswade them 1. To an undervaluing of all other excellencies 2. To a true value of this excellent thing and these excellent persons 3. To give them of the fruit of their hands and to suffer their works to praise them in the gates In the first place let me press a word of 1 Branch Exhortation upon such as yet fear not Goâ— to perswade them to it It is a frequent precept in holy Writ Levit. 19. 14. Fear thy God I am the Lord ch 25. v. 17. 43. Eccles 5. 7. Matth. 10. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Rev. 14. 7. Eccles 12. 13. God calls to you Fear God Solomon calls to you Fear God Our Saviour calls to you Fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The Angels in Heaven call to you Fear God All the Prophets and Apostles call to you unâvoce and this is that which they say Fear God The meaning of this you have heard Not only dread the great and living God in the secrets of your hearts but let all your conversation savour of this fear so comport your selves in your whole carriage both towards God and towards your neighbours as you may evidence to the world not only that you have a natural sense of that infinite distance which is between your Creatour and you and the power that he hath over you but that you may shew that you have this gracious habit of fear wrought in you and that you fear God in the Scripture phrase You see this is a great picce of the will of God concerning you pressed upon you again and again in holy Writ Give me leave to inlarge a little in pressing it upon you I shall first give you some Arguments Secondly I shall offer you some directions in the case from the text And what I have said furnisheth me with two great Arguments 1. This is Wisdom This is Grace Job 28. 28. â—â—e fear of the Lord that is wisdom Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge That man who hath nothing of the fear of God in him hath nothing of God nothing of the Grace of God in him On the other side that person who hath in him the fear of God hath all that is an holy that is a gracious man There can be no more said of any than that he or she are persons not fearing God Nor can there be better said of any that he or she is a person fearing God 2. Secondly You have heard a person fearing God is the most excellent person in the world Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Others may call themselves excellent and the men of the world may call the proud happy but the truly happy the truly excellent person is one fearing God I might add a third 3. This is the only person who deserveth to be praised and whose works will truly praise him Let others be commended and admired for beauty for riches and honour and another for learning as the end of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments So that person that truly answereth this end and doth fear God and keep his Commandments will upon the best evidence which is that of Scripture and reason appear to be the person that is most worthy of praise and commendation Now if I could say no more than this to engage any to this study yet in other things this would be enough Every one naturally desireth the things that are excellent and is naturally covetous of honour and praise Would you have that which is in it self most excellent that which will make you above all others excellent that which most truly deserveth praise and will make you the truest objects of praise Oh get this fear of the Lord Give me leave to add another Argument or two 4. In the fourth place Consider the many Promises made in Scripture to the fear of the Lord Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth daies Prov. 14. 26 27. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15. 16. Little with the fear of the Lord is great gain v. 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ch 22. 4. By the fear of the Lord are riches Psal 112. Psal 128. are full of Promises to the man that feareth God The things promised in these and those many other Promises annexed to the fear of the Lord are such as every one defireth Who would not have long life riches and honour Either you believe the Scriptures or you do not believe them if you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God you must assent to whatsoever Propositions are revealed in them as Propofitions of eternal and
he foreknew such a day he believed it he hoped for it and rejoyced So Hearing in Scripture often indeed most ordinarily signifieth much more than bare hearing viz. hearkening attentive hearing believing obeying So for words signifying Passion Thus the wrath and anger of God in Scripture when it is threatned doth not only signifie Gods just will to punish but also his acts of vindicative justice I will bear the indignation of the Lord saith the Prophet because I have sinned against him That is I will bear those punishments which the wrath of the Lord hath brought upon me So here The fear of the Lord doth not only signifie an inward awe and dread of God caused by the Spirit of God in the hearts of creatures upon the apprehension of Gods Majesty Greatness Power Glory Goodness or other Attributes but it also importeth all those external acts all that outward deportment and behaviour which naturally flow or which according to the divine rule should flow from that principle So that the woman fearing Jehovah is not only she who in the contemplation of the Majesty Power Greatness Glory Justice and Goodness of God reverenceth and dreadeth him carrying in her heart a continual awe of the great God of Heaven and Earth which makes her heart and thoughts stoop and bow at the meditation or hearing of him in consideration of that infinite Majesty Glory Greatness and Power which naturally require that homage from every reasonable nature but also in the whole of her conversation in all her actions both before and towards God and men in obedience to that principle of Religion Fear exerciseth her self in all things to keep a good conscience void of offence not daring to do any thing which may provoke this God to displeasure whom she thus dreadeth and being exactly careful to do all things which and as he commandeth This is the woman fearing Jehovah so far as we have yet discovered her But this is not all which this term importeth Once more 3. It is very ordinary as in other Writings so in holy Writ by a figure called Synechdoche to express a part of a thing for the whole Look as the Philosopher saith of moral virtues Virtutes sunt concatenatae the Virtue like beads are all strung in a chain and none can properly be denominated virtuous who in some degree or other hath not all habits of virtue So I may say in matters of grace The graces of Gods Spirit are in a chain too Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of the chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. A man cannot have one but he must have all of them nor from a single habit can any be denominated a gracious person in regard of this concatenation of grace It is ordinary in Scripture to find a gracious person expressed Synechdochically under the notion of one singular special habit of grace especially some one more principal operative habit Now of all habits there are none more operative than those of Fear and Love None that take more hold on the souls or whose influence upon it is more evident Hence in Scripture it is very ordinary to find an holy gracious person expressed under the notion of one fearing God or one that loveth God Divines have observed that the former is more common to the Old Testament which gives account to the Church of God under its Paedagogical estate when the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace was more terrible and the latter to the New Testament where it is more sweet Thus the grace and godly conversation of Obadiah 1 King 18. 5. of Job Job 1. 8. of the whole body of severer professors Mal. 3. 16. is expressed and so very frequently and in the New Testament where the dispensation is more sweet and gentle it is more ordinary to express the same things under the notion of believing and loving 1 John 4. 21. He that loveth God John 21. 15. Simon Son of Jonas James 2. 5. lovest thou me Jam. 1. 12. To them that love him 2 Tim. 4. 8. Those that love his appearance So Rom. 8. 28. and in many other places But yet though as the Apostle speaketh we be come now to Mount Sion and we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of Adoption teaching us to cry Abba Father And as the Apostle saith Perfect love casteth out fear Yet those texts must not be understood of an awfull reverential fear and dread of God such as even the holy Angels have Nor yet of that filial fear of God which every child of God hath and must carry with him even to the gates of Heaven but only of servile slavish fear for even under the New Testament we shall find the servants of God expressed under this Notion A godly man in Thesi is thus described One that feareth God and worketh Act. 10. 35. Act. 10. 22. Righteousness So also Act. 13. 26. Cornelius in particular is thus described A man that feareth God and we shall find that the fear of God is so eminently necessary to the constitution of a godly man that any wickedness by warrant of Scripture may be presumed of those that want it Abraham thus excused himself to Abimelech for his not trusting his people with his life and the honour of Sarah I said the fear of God was not in this Gen. 20. â—1 place And on the other side Joseph gives this as a sufficient security to his brethren that whatever they feared he would do them no wrong This do and live For I fear God Gen. 42. 18 So that you see it is but a reasonable figurative way to express the whole of inherent grace under the notion of The fear of the Lord and to express the whole course practice and exercise of godliness under this single habit or act as a common head and this I think enough to have spoken for the explication of the subject in the Proposition and to give you the true notion of a woman or a person fearing the Lord or as the Hebrew phrase in the Text is The fear of the Lord. It is in short An eminently gracious godly woman Or if you will you may take it more largely thus A woman or a person who being possessed of all the graces of the holy Spirit of God communicated in regeneration and being grown up to some degree of perfection in those spiritual habits eminently lives in a diligent caution and taking heed of whatsoever is contrary to the holy will of God and a diligent and exact performance of all those duties of an holy life and conversation which those sacred principles command and produce in obedience to the whole revealed will of God This is the woman of whom this text speaketh The Woman the fear of Jehovah Let me now come to the second thing to inquire what is said of this person That which in short is said of
unweariable in her attendance upon Sermons such especially where the Truths of God were opened most lively and with least vanity and in fullest evidence of Scripture she ordinarily heard three or four Lecture Sermons in the week and three on the Lords day till her distempers so prevailed upon her that she could not attend them without that heaviness which she was loth to discover and which was her great affliction This her love to the Word argued that she had chosen the Promises in it for her portion and had cast her Soul upon them how else were they so precious to her She was indeed a Lady exercised with her doubts and fears and love-jealousies rather evidences for than against this adherence to her dear Lord. I have seen her in great agonies and conflicts and almost refusing to be satisfied but could never find that they argued more than an earnest thirsting after further evidences of divine love than it pleased God for some time to vouchsafe her She was possessed indeed of a Noble Estate and so had not that temptation as others to distrustfull cares for the things of this life yet so far as she could she exercised this act of faith never caring for to morrow nor considering what it might bring forth But freely spending her whole revenue in pious and charitable works that of it I mean which she could spare from the frugal expenses of her houshold prosessing she desired no more than to make her accounts of Receits and Disbursements even at the years end Her love to God was beyond the love of Women whether we view it in the more secret motions of her soul or in more imperate acts What sighs what heart-breaking sadness have I been a witness to from her when she lay at any time under apprehensions of any degrees of divine desertions or any suspicions of the truth of Grace in her own heart What tears in such dark hours have I seen flow from her eyes in her Closet more privately What groans have I heard from her while we have been praying more publickly On the other side if at any time she could have laid hold upon any good Word of God if she had found any more freedom of spirit or heart or felt what she judged an Efflux of divine love upon her Soul What a chearfulness did we all the day see in her countenance what freedom did we discern in her converse It was no hard matter for me from the observation of her converse and countenance in the day-time to judge how it had sared with her Ladyships spirit in her addresses to God that morning Her dread of God was exceeding great I have sometimes trembled to hear with what earnestness she would adjure me to be faithfull to her in the business of her Soul and not to suffer sin to rest upon her Her fear indeed was for some time too too servile favouring too much of the spirit of Bondage but it was afterward more constantly Filial in all things discovered by a reverential sense of the great and glorious Majesty of God and a fear of wilfull sinning against him Nor was this Excellent Lady's Religion such as to evince it to the World she was put to flee to the plea of a good heart as a Sanctuary Out of the abundance of Grace in her heart her mouth spake her whole outward man moved in a just conformity to her external profession She was exemplarily diligent and devout in all Religious performances Prayer was her great delight To that form are the first spiritual words which the Childe of God speaketh The first account we have of Saint Paul after his conversion was Behold he prayeth and this seemeth to have been the first study of this Excellent Lady In the external performance of which she found some difficulty to relieve her self in which she had furnished her Closet with most valuable English books which contained Forms of Prayer upon several occasions in none of which she could find a full satisfaction but ever and anon she was still at a loss for words fitted to the altering complexion of her spirit To help her self she procured her Pastor to draw up several Forms fitted to the frame of her Soul at several times And in this work when I was come into her Family she often imployed me but still she remained dissatisfied that she gave us so frequent troubles and that after some years owning her self to be Gods childe she should in any exigent be at a loss for words to take unto her self and to say Abba Father I humbly advised her to a praevious study of the more general matter and method of Prayer and of the Divine Promises which are the sacred Obligations which Prayer puts in suit As to the former I drew up for her Ladyship a Scheme which she kept hanging before her in her Closet to her dying day describing to her the plainer and more ordinary method and the more general matter of Prayer and commended to her some Books which gave the fullest account of the Promises After some small exercise of her self in both of them she needed her Prayer-books and Forms no longer but was able as occasion ministred it self to pour out her Soul to God according to her necessities without any further Monitor than the Spirit of Supplications in conjunction with the pious workings of her own breast And indeed after this she was no friend to Forms she judged that they could never be used with that warmth of affection which attends the words of a good Christian formed in his own heart That whoso limited himself by them would never from his performance in duty understand any thing of the frame of his heart And that no knowing person could have other need of them than as a Supplement for his own laziness neither studying the Scriptures nor his own Heart Whatever be determined as to her judgement in the ease her Ladyship for 15 or 16 years before her death would not allow her self the use of them She prayed much in her Closet Thrice each day in Communion with us in the Family She was as diligent in hearing the Word ordinarily hearing three Sermons on the Lords Day and more Lectures in the Week-day till her increasing distempers of late years more indisposed her Her Sabbath day service and the hearing of one weekly Lecture which her Ladyship at her own charge erected and maintained she continued while she was able to go down stairs yea and after that in her Bed-chamber to her dying-day Once every month she in Communion with us received the Lords Supper and that not without praevious preparation before she came and most ardent devotion when she was present at that sacred Institution Of her private Fastings and extraordinary times of Prayer I shall say nothing though in them she was not wanting Her love to the Ministers and servants of God was beyond comparison she had not only like the Shunamite prepared a Table a Bed
sentences some therefore interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 axioms or remarkable sentences specially calculated for the regulating of our conversations These Solomon repeateth as the dictates of his parents to him Prov 1. 8. He bringeth in his father speaking My Son hear the instructions of thy Father and forget not the law of thy Mother Now that he might shew that that general admonition had an influence upon him he in a great part of this sacred peice of holy writ recordeth the instructions of his Father and in the beginning of this Chapter he also recordeth the Law of his Mother So this Chapter begins The words of King Lemuel the prophecy which his Mother taught him Interpreters generally agree that this Lemuel was Solomon there was no King of the Jews named Lemuel Nor need any stumble at the name who wistly considereth that at his birth the Lord named him Gedidiah which not onely argues him to have had another name beside that of Solomon 2 Sam. 12. 25. Apud eos Deus Deo Cui est Deus whether so many as some talk of I know not but the import of that name is much the same with that of this in the text That signified Beloved of God this may either be translated God is with them or to God or who hath God for his God as Critical writers have observed The learned Mercer rejecteth the first Etymology as jejune yet it is owned by the Hebrew Doctors and followed both by Munsterus and Clarius c. Mercer rejecteth it as onely significative of the time when Solomon ruled over Israel while God was yet with them before their Apostacy either of the latter is probable enough signifying either a man set apart for God or a man who had God for his God Which by the way may controul the severe sentence which some Popish Authors give against this excellent person as to his eternal state I conclude then and thatwith the generality of Interpreters that the former part of this Chapter containeth Solomons repetition of some excellent Maxims instilled into him by his mother Bathsheba which she fitteth to his future capacity of being King over Israel Where by the way we may observe the advantage of good principles instilled into children in their youth They may in the heat and vanity of their youth bury these instructions but they often have a resurrection and are afterwards to advantage remembred They are like seed thrown under the clods which upon the next kind showre will discover themselves In this Chapter Bathsheba perswaded her Son Solomon 1. To take heed of two species of Luxury both of them such as persons under his circumstances are exceeding prone to offend by in regard of the great affluence of the world upon them and which have a very ill influence upon persons of that Eminency not only with reference to their bodily life and health but with reference to their publick duty The summe of this first Instruction you have v. 3 4. Give not thy strength unto women nor thy waies unto that which destroyeth Kings It is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink wine 2. Secondly She exhorteth him to the performance of those positive duties which concerned him in his Regal Capacity The execution of justice and shewing of mercy v. 8 9. Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed for destruction Open thy mouth judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy From the tenth verse to the end is the second general part of the Chapter where you have the character of a vertuous woman whether those also were the words of Bathsheba as some think instructing Solomon her Son in the choice of a wife and by him recorded for our instruction Or whether they Originally be the words of Solomon from the pattern of his excellent Mother describing a desirable woman which is the opinion of others is as unprofitable to dispute as difficult to be determined You have the character of a vertuous woman from the tenth to the nine and twentieth verse In these last verses you have both the conclusion of that discourse and also of this whole Book of divine Aphorisms In it you have 1. The Elogium or commendation of a vertuous woman Many daughters have done vertuously but thou hast excelled them all Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised 2. Secondly An advertisement or admonition to the world to take notice of her and to honour her according to her value Give her of the work of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates In the former part we have observable 1. A short description of an excellent woman There are many good women many that have done vertuously Who then is this same excellent woman who had made her self high or to ascend above the â—â—st as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is this beloved above another beloved The text tells you A woman the fear of the Lord we translate it A woman fearing the Lord. I shall anon take further notice of the Hebraism 2. A Second thing which you have remarkable is the order or method which Solomon useth in commending of her which is per modum comparationis comparing her with other women and shewing her Superlative excellency and in the words of the text you have a double comparison The first of persons Many daughters i. e. many women have done vertuously but Thou hast excelled them all or hast ascended or lifted up thy self above all where you have 1. A Concession in those words Many Daughters have done vertuously he grants there were many who in there kind had done worthily and there was an honour due to them 2. A Position asserting the supereminent excellency of this person But thou hast excelled them all Solomon speaks of this woman as David his Father of the sword of Goliah There is none to it There is none to her This is she that is the chiefest of ten thousand 2. Secondly you have a Comparison of adjuncts from which persons may be commended Vertue Favour Beauty and the fear of the Lord. Concerning Vertue or Strength or Riches or Diligence for all these things are comprehended under the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he speaketh nothing at all diminutively he only asserteth an excellency in the fear of the Lord above all these they are as Starrs ordinary Starrs that have their lustre She as the Sun out-shining them all in glory For the other two he speaketh more diminutively of them Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain so not worthy to come into any noble Elogium of any person that indeed is not explicitly spoken but necessarily understood as you may gather from what followeth But saith he A woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised It is a short elliptical speech as much as if he had said but the fear of
the Lord hath nothing in it will deceive but much that is of real and abiding worth and that which maketh the person possessed of it truly worthy of honour and commendation The second part of the Text I called an Advertisement or admonition to the world to take notice of such persons and to give them their due honour Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates I shall little insist on that I intend not to discourse every Proposition into which the words of my Text might regularly be resolved There are onely two which my eye is upon which I think contain much of the will of God revealed in this Text other things in it will fâ—ll in more collaterally they are these Of all persons or of all women the person the woman fearing the Lord is the most excellent person Propos 1. or most excellent woman That concerning such it is the will of God Propos 2. that the fruit of their hands should be given them and their own works should praise them in the gates The Demonstration of the truth of the first Proposition is what I intend for the chief subject of my discourse something of the latter will fall in in the application of my discourse This then is the Proposition Prop. That of all persons of all women in the world that person that woman that feareth the Lord is the most excellent person Many saith Solomon have done vertuously but thou hast excelled them all thou hast made thy self to ascend above them all She shall be praised In the opening of this Proposition 1. I will enquire into the true notion of the person here extolled A woman fearing the Lord or A woman the fear of the Lord according to the Hebrew phrase which as I shall anon shew you is not without its Emphasis Thus I shall open the subject of the Proposition 2. I shall indeavour to demonstrate the Superlative excellency of this Person above others So I shall confirm the Praedicate and under these two heads I shall bring whatsoever I shall speak to the Proposition before I come to the Application of it 1. The first thing to be inquired is Who is this woman fearing the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it in the Hebrew this I shall open to you in three particulars In the Hebrew the Abstract is put for the Saepius abstractum ponitur prâ— concreto seu substantivum pro adjectivo cum insigni Emphasi energiâ Glassius Concrete which argueth a great Emphasis It is in the Hebrew very Emphatical word for word A woman the fear of the Lord. Some think it a meer Ellipsis of the Verb Substantive and to be expounded by Cui est that is A woman that hath the fear of the Lord. But others more probably think there is in this way of expression a special Emphasis and that it signifieth an eminent degree of that quality or adjunct which is so exprest in the subject to which it is applied A way of speaking very familiar to the Hebrew tongue Thus Haggai 2. 8. Christ is called The desire of all Hag. 2. 8. Nations that is eminently desirable Thus a Shepherd is said to have been an Abomination Gen. 46. 34 to the Egyptians Gen. 46. 34. that is highly abominable his employment such as the Egyptians above all others detest So Psal Psal 140. 12. 140. 12. Let not an evil speaker Heb. a man of tongue be established Nor is it unusual in other languages Thus in Latine we call one Scelus that is eminently vile in English we call one a Beauty that is eminently Beautiful So here a woman the fear of the Lord that is a woman eminently fearing the Lord. So that whatsoever qualities we shall find in Scripture expressed under this common head of the fear of the Lord or whatsoever actions we shall find according to the phrase of holy writ expressed under that notion this form of expression signifieth a person eminent for those qualities or in those exercises and the phrase signifieth much more than an ordinary dread of God To open this yet a little further 1. There is a natural dread of God which all creatures have and the worst of men are not without something of it For fear being in us a passion necessarily moving upon the apprehension of an imminent evil As the infinite superiority of God over his creatures makes every rational creature presently apprehend it in his power to do it harm it must necessarily dread him especially considering the natural conscience of guilt which every such creature hath exposing it to the stroke of his just as well as almighty Arm. 2. There is a slavish fear of God such the Devils have they fear and tremble saith the Apostle this doth but gradually differ from the other 3. There is a filial reverential fear of God like that wherewith the child feareth his Father The Angels have a reverential fear of God though they know themselves confirmed in goodness and in no possibility of offending him yet they fear God with a reverential fear arising from the apprehension of the superlative excellencie of the great Creatour above the first-born and most excellent of his Creatures Thus the children of God fear him and not only with a reverential fear but with a filial fear they fear lest they should offend him This last is the most excellent fear of God Now of it there are different degrees according to the different manifestations of the Spirit of God to his Saints and Christians different proficiencies in grace Now this way of expressing this excellent quality signifieth One possessed of the most excellent kind of fear and also in the most eminent degree And this I take to be the particular Emphasis and Energy of the term in this place 2. Secondly It is a known Rule in Divinity That words in holy Writ signifying any notions of the senses and affections yea and of the intellectual part also there used must be understood not to denote only the particular acts of that sense Verba sensus affectum effectum denotant or faculty which they properly express but all the actions and the deportment of the whole soul and outward man also which are any way directed by that sense or regulated by that affection or passion and our duty in order to it or consequently from it Without the true understanding of this Rule we shall not be able fully to comprehend the true sense of an infinite number of Scriptures Thus it is said Psal 1. 6. with reference to God that he knoweth the way of the Righteous The meaning Psal 1. 6. is he loveth approveth watcheth over the way of the righteous Thus Psal 16. Thou Psal 16. wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption that is to corrupt to experience corruption So John 8. Abraham saw my day and rejoyced John 8. the meaning is
approvable to the reasonable nature of man than their contraries have some true real worth and excellency in them and persons possessed of them may in their degrees be justly judged more excellent and valuable than those that want them But the person fearing Jehovah is yet the most excellent person Others upon the aforementioned accounts have ascended to use the Hebrew phrase or do excel many others in the world But the person that eminently feareth the Lord hath as the text speaketh eminently ascended above them all Amongst them all there is none like to that person and that brings me to the next thing which I promised you in the explication and demonstration of the Predicate of the Proposition Quest 2. What there is in this supereminent Quality The fear of the Lord which so raiseth the price of its subject that the person which hath it by reason of it so much out-shineth others In my former discourse I gave you the just value of all valuable things in the world this only excepted which make one person in the world considerably to differ from another in any degree of excellency without making any rebatements for the accidents to which those things are subjected I shall anon make that rebatement My present work is to rate The fear of the Lord and shew you the true value of it In the general I must say of it as Job hath spoken before me Silver shall not be weighed Job 28. 15. for the price thereof it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire The Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for Jewels of fine Gold No mention shall be made of Coral nor of Pearls for the price of wisdom is above Rubies the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it nor shall it be valued with pure Gold Or in the words of Solomon Happy is the man that findeth wisdom Wisdom and Prov. 3. 13 14 15 c. Grace and The fear of the Lord are much the same in the dialect of Scripture and the man that geiteth understanding for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold she is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her Length of daies are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to all that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 8. 11. All the things that may be Prov. 8. 11. desired are not to be compared with her Lest you should doubt what is meant by wisdom Job expoundeth both himself and Solomon Job 28. 28. Job 28. 28. The fear of the Lord that is wisdom But lest you should judge these empty wordâ— blowing up a thing beyond its due value let us but rationally consider The fear of the Lord and the person blessed with it and we shall find these were not vain words I shall demonstrate to you the superlative excellency of this spiritual quality and the person indued with it if you please with me to consider these six or seven things 1. The particular fountain or spring head from which it floweth 2. The particular subject which it blesseth â—r channel in which it runneth 3. The excellent object to which it moveth 4. The admirable end towards which it worketh 5. The noble actions to which it principleth 6. The admirable use of it not only in reference to God and our selves but also with reference to others in our political converse 7. The train of good things which ordinarily attend it I shall speak something to each of these in their order Let us first then consider the particular fountain or spring-head from which the fear of the Lord floweth The Apostle telleth us That Jam. 1. 17. every good and perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of Lights I told you before that health strength beauty honour riches favour with men and those other things before mentioned of a less valuable consideration came from God The Lord raiseth up one and pulleth down another The blessing of the Lord maketh rich It is as true and in a more eminent manner concerning The fear of the Lord Jer. 32. 40. I will put my Jer. 32. 40. fear into their hearts God is the Author of every good gift and thing but in a different manner Divines distinguish betwixt a more general love of God to his creatures which they call his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his more special distinguishing love which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to dispute that distinction it is most certain that there is a Will in God freely to do good to the Sons and Daughters of men which we call his Love It is as certain that this free and just Will of God is not to do alike good to all to some he willeth to shew some particular grace and mercy which he willeth not to others Upon the first account He maketh his Sun to shine Mal. 5. 46. and his Rain to fall upon the just and unjust He leaveth not the Heathen without a testimony of his love giving them fruitful times Acts 14. and seasons From this fountain flow riches honours and all other effluxes of his goodness which we call the gifts of common Providence Divines rank them under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things for this life yea and there are some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts and spiritual means such as knowledge and the fruits of restraining grace our natural endeavours only supposed such are the habits of moral vertues all these flow from the more general common love of God But now there are others flowing from a special distinguishing love in reference to the spiritual and eternal advantâ—ge of our souls From his Convenant-love and such is this supernatural quality And I will make an everlasting Jer. 32. 4. Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me Now this is enough in the first place to evince the excellency of the fear of the Lord and the superlative excellency of the person possessed of it above the value of such as are possessed of more inferiour gifts Let us but argue rationally and after the manner of men If there be any excellency in the favour of a man or if the collation of a mans favour doth imprint any excellency upon the person upon whom it is bestowed then certainly the more any one hath of that favour or the greater and higher degrees he hath of it the more he hath of excellency The story is known of the Emperour who displeased his Courtier by giving him a Ring when he
most excellent capacity and that is the most excellent person whose better and more excellent part is so ennobled and made excellent But the fear of the Lord ennobleth the more noble and excellent part and that in the noblest and most excellent capacity Thirdly The truth of the Proposition will appear if we consider the excellency of the object to which this excellent quality moveth the soul and for an union with which it prepareth it The force of the demonstration dependeth upon the principle That the more excellent any object is towards an union with which any quality is subservient and working the more excellent that habit or quality is which is a principle so justifiable to reason and allowed by common consent and judgement that I need not insist on the proof of it Take all other qualities or advantages which the creature can afford they serve us no further than to the creature preparing us for an union with that For instance Beauty is an amiable gift of God but wherein doth it serve us it indeed may commend the woman to an husband but it will not at all commend her to Christ Wisdom and Knowledge are rare habits and prepare us for an union and endearment to and with wise and learned men but they commend not a soul at all unto God The like may be said of those other distinguishing excellencies before mentioned But now this excellent habit The fear of the Lord commendeth the soul to the Creator and prepares it for a glorious union with him who is the supreme good and unquestionably the most excellent object The beautiful the knowing the wise person may be abominable to God a child of wrath and abhorred by him but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him saith the Apostle Reason teacheth us to judge those the most excellent persons in the world who upon a just account are most approvable to the wisest and most excellent persons of the earth and those things the most excellent which render any so acceptable upon this account if there were no other we should set a great rate upon knowledge vertue and wisdom above what we set upon beauty and riches and bodily strength c. because they commend us to the more judicious rational and wiser part of the world By the like parity of reason certainly if we will but use our reason and accordingly form our judgement we must judge the fear of the Lord the most excellent quality and the person who feareth the Lord the most excellent person he alone is the Jedidiah the person whom God loveth the soul whom God careth for This and this alone is that which commendeth the Creature to the Creator Fourthly That is the most excellent quality which directeth to and prepareth the soul for the most excellent end There is an end to which the wise Creator hath ordained and designed every thing which he hath made and there is an end which every rational agent propoundeth to it self in working and there is an end or issue which every thing will have The great end of man in point of action for which God hath created him is the glorifying of his holy Name The wise man saith God made all things for himself And the Apostle saith For him are all things God in working worked for the best ends cause he could work for no greater wrought for himself The Apostle saith of man particularly We are created in Christ Jesus unto Eph. 2. 10. good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them Mans great end in point of fruition and priviledge is the enjoyment of God here in the influences of grace hereafter in the beatifical vision of his glory There now are the great ends of man the ends for which God hath created him and which the wiser sort of men will propound to themselves Besides these great ends of man there are also some little ends of humane actions to which men direct much of their action such as the obtaining of a comfortable beeing and subsistence in this life c. An end though in it self considerable yet exceeding little in comparison with the former as every one will judge who hath but learned to compare Time with Eternity and the soul with the body and outward man Take now all those other things before mentioned as things either in reality or vulgar estimation raising the price of one mortal above another this only excepted the highest end they move towards which they dispose and prepare the creature for is no more than a sweet and happy beeing in this life and that too according to the various humours of men as one fancieth happiness to lie in riches a second in pleasure a third in intellectual or moral virtue Bodily strength and health are great blessings of God but what further fruit do they bring forth than what tasts well to a mortal pallat what do they signifie more than that such as are blessed with them pass the time of their mortality with less pain sorrow and trouble than those that want them Beauty is an amiable gift but hath it any further influence upon mans felicity than this that whose are blessed with it stand in a nearer capacity to some creatures favour than others more deformed and uncomely to whom being united by marriage or some near degrees of affection they shall probably in the world have a life of more content pleasure and outward satisfaction than others who are not under so lovely circumstances Come from them to the indowments of the mind knowledge prudence a diligent industrious or active spirit c. and indeed what ever else can be named this fear of the Lord only excepted they neither direct the soul to its best and noblest end nor any way prepare and dispose it for the obtaining of it unless in a very remote capacity What 's the issue of knowledge wisdom but this that the persons thus far blessed stand upon better ground to live in the world than other men as well in regard of the satisfaction these habits give to the mind as of the light that ariseth from them to direct a mans converse and the usefulness of such a person unto others The same might be said of moral vertues Riches Honours great Relations c. They none of them look beyond this life nor contribute any thing to an happiness beyond it Nay it were yet something if they perfectly blessed a man so long as he is circumseribed with the limits of time and mortality but how little do they if I shall evidence they come short of this than which there is nothing of more easie demonstration For to us who are Christians there 's something more required even to such an happiness than an affluence of worldly contentments We know and believe that there is a God that this God is the chiefest good and consequently building upon the rational principle of all Philosophers we
of moral vertues or if some of those other things do dispose and principle any to religious actions yet it is but to such actions more imperfectly considered It is true knowledge is an excellent thing and hath its use not only in fitting a man for greater perfections in natural and civil actions but also for religious services it prepareth men for prayer hearing the Word c. and the habits of moral vertues prepare men for vertuous actions commanded in the word of God and which are to be performed in obedience to the command of God but now Grace the fear of the Lord disposeth and prepareth the soul for the most perfect performance of religious duties such as are truly religious in all circumstances so as they shall be acceptable unto God Every one who giveth to the poor or doth a just action doth not that which is acceptable to God but he alone who doth those things from a principle of faith or in the fear of God and in obedience unto God doth that which God accepteth So saith Peter In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Every one that worketh righteousness from the fear of the Lord principling his soul to such righteous acts is accepted of God So as this fear of the Lord upon this account is the most noble and excellent habit as it principleth the soul to its most noble acts and to the truest and most perfect performance of them being that without which as the principle it is impossible a soul in its highest acts of devotion should please God The vertuous actions of men yea the religious actions of formalists devoid of this principle are no better than splendid sins as Augustine called the moral of the Heathens so that by the same reason that we judge knowledge prudence or any other intellectual or moral habits more excellent than other ornaments of a man as sitting and disposing persons for more noble and brave actions We must also judge The fear of the Lord more excellent than them all because it further ennobleth the soul preparing and disposing it yet to and for more brave and excellent acts as such whereby we most answer the end of our creation in glorifying of God and wherein or in the performance of which in such manner as this directeth we are acceptable unto God 6. But let us further consider this noble and excellent quality in the aspect which it hath upon us not only in the performance of our duty to God under which respect we have already considered it but in the influence which it hath upon us in our civil and political converse with men David Psal 16. 3. calleth the Saints which are in the earth the excellent Indeed they are so and that not only as Saints as persons prepared for God as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Saints in that place seems to import but also upon a rational view and a truly civil and political consideration Persons fearing the Lord have not only the best souls and are not only best considered in themselves and in reference to God but they are also the best neighbours This will appear to you upon the digesting these two considerations 1. That the Word of God considered as a systeme of precepts fitted for the maintaining of humane society is the most excellent body of such political precepts with all possible advantages of comfort to such as are engaged as câ—â— relates in such societies 2. Secondly which I told you in opening the subject of the Proposition That the person fearing the Lord is a person who having the dread of God upon his heart exerciseth himself in a strict observance of the Divine Law in all things to keep a good conscience both towards God and towards man 1. The first is a most demonstrable truth take all the Laws of the wisest Nations and Law-givers that ever were in the world pick out the best of those of the twelve tables at Rome amend what is deficient there by those of Solon and Licurgus refuse Justinians Code Search all the bodies of Laws in the world and out of them all make one Systeme one body of political and domestick precepts it will not prove so fitted for the comfortable and advantageous living in humane society as the Law of the Lord contained in the holy Scriptures is I durst appeal to the reason of a Cato or Aristides in the case Let but any person out of the Book of God draw out those precepts which it hath given concerning Magistrates and Subjects Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants or any political 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then let him but suppose such a City in the world where within doors all Parents and Children all Masters and Servants all Husbands and Wives lived exactly according to those Rules and without doors the Publick Magistrates and the people governed by them the Ministers and their respective flocks neighbours and friends behaved themselves each to other according to those prescriptions and let him fancy if he can and soberly tell me if he can what could be wanting to the beauty honour and comfortable living of such a society So true in this case also is that of David Psal 19. 7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect The Statutes of the Lord are right It were easie to demonstrate this in particular were it not too large a digression Now I say in the second place That a person fearing the Lord is one who doth exercise himself in this in a strict observance of the Divine Law to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men Whence it must necessarily follow that the fear of the Lord is the most excellent quality and the person fearing the Lord the most excellent person considered in a political as well as a religious capacity The best neighbour husband wife parent child c. as well as the best Christian Let us but use our reason a little Is not that man or woman best prepared to and fitted for humane society who is under the highest obligations imaginable To do no kind of wrong to another To give to every one his due and that in every capacity and as he hath occasion even to his enemies and to the worst of men without any respect to his particular prejudices to do all possible good and who accordingly so liveth so walketh The person fearing God 1. As to these things is under the highest imaginable obligations 2. Thus he walketh thus in a great measure he liveth giving still allowance to humane infirmities 1. I say first he is as to these things under the highest imaginable obligations This will be evident to you if you will consider that the Law of the Lord which he owneth as his only Rule requireth these things at his hands that this Law is not only in his eye but in his heart that he stands obliged
to him but as his pronâ—ness to rest in that as sufficient hindered him from accepting of the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith This very thing kept the Jews from submitting to the Righteousness of God This made our Saviour tell the Pharisees and other Jews that Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of God but the children of the Kingdom should be cost out Now in the fear of the Lord there is no snare it keepeth the soul from sin but no way exposeth the soul to sin 2. Those other distinctive excellencies are great snares as they expose the person possessed of them to great suffering and give him no satisfaction and comfort in suffering These sufferings which usually attend those other excellencies flow from the envy malice jealousie covetousness or ambition of others If a man or woman excel their neighbour in riches favour knowledge honour c. they presently become the objects of their envy and hatred this ariseth from the pride of our fellow-creatures that will not allow them patience to be excelled It were endless to tell you what some mens riches and honours and favour of men have cost and what beauty hath cost others and what is most sad Their sufferings afford them no satisfaction proportionable to their smart they under them bear the whole weight of their cross with their own shoulders It is true the fear of the Lord too doth not indemnifie the persons possessed with it from trials of scourgings and cruel mockings no not from the fiery trial which the Apostle would not have believers think strange Saint Paul had both troubles without and fears within And it was said of old That he who departeth from evil maketh himself a prey Which is a sentence verifieth it self still and will hold so long as there is a World to hate us which hated Christ first And the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord or any of the seed of the Serpent in the world which will be till our Lord hath trodden all his enemies under his feet But as usually the sufferings of Gods people on this single account are not proportionable to those others mentioned so neither are they without such a proportionable comfort and satisfaction as makes them indeed no sufferings to them The Martyrs fire is become a bed of Roses The sufferings of this life not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed 4. A fourth thing which evineeth the vanity and deceitfulness of those other excellenciet is their subjection to vicissitudes and changes I take this to be a principle adjudged by reason That supposing a thing to have in it some grains of excellency yet if it be subject to diminution putrifaction or any kind of consumption there must be a proportionable deduction and abatement from its excellency For we reasonably judge that any thing which hath any intrinsecal goodness in it it is the more excellent by how much it is more during and of longer continuance Now take all those excellencies which I mentioned as contradistinct to this fear of the Lord They all of them have an uncertainty in them which must necessarily with considerate persons abate of their true value Though beauty be but a pittiful thing yet how much more valuable were it than it is if we did not see it a flower which upon every frost or cold wind every sickness and disease will fade how much more valuable were strength than it is if age and sickness would not make it abate and riches if they would not take to themselves wings and flee away and honour if it were an indelible character But alas all these things are gourds they come up and they perish too in a night Beauty lasteth but a few years if in the mean time no disease abate or take it away Strength hath no longer date Riches are subject to the hand of violence who may plunder them and to the thief who may break through and steal the goods which we had thought laid up for many years They are also subject to the disposal of divine Providence who often declares them moveables and disposeth of the stock of this world this or that way as it pleaseth him Honours depend upon the wills of Princes and are given and taken away when and as they please There is nothing of a certainty or of a perpetuity in any of these things But now the fear of the Lord is subject to no such accident I will saith God put my fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from me It is a thing as I have shewed you of infinite value and is not subject to any change at all It is a Jewel with which when the soul is once adorned it never putteth it off any more but weareth it till it entreth Eternity and puts on the Crown of Glory for evermore It is the seed of God of which the Apostle speaketh which abideth in men and keepeth the soul that it cannot sin the sin unto death It is the well-spring of living water which when once it springs up in the soul it springeth up unto eternal life It is a Jewel that will not be debased gold that will not admit of rust O the excellency of grace above all the perishing excellencies of other things which as the Apostle speaks of those beggerly elements perish with the using We may say of this fear of the Lord compared with other excellencies as the Prophet speaketh of the grass and the flower compared with the word of the Lord The grass withereth and the flower fadeth but the word of the Lord endureth for ever Beauty withereth and strength withereth Riches fade and Honours fade and all other created excellencies wither and fade but the fear of the Lord abideth for ever 5. Lastly All those other excellencies fail the persons which have them in the most needful times If there were something of vanity in beauty some deceitfulness in favour some emptiness in all those other things which I mentioned yet much might be spoken for them would they but serve a soul in an evil day But if this be found true of them that like Swallows they all leave us in Winter and are furthest off from giving us that satisfaction which we desire from them and they in appearance promise us in a time when we have most need of them certainly this must needs depreciate them in the view of every rational eye Now that they do this is demonstrable past all denial We have two evil daies I mean evil to our sense the day of Affliction and the day of death In the day of affliction be it bodily or spiritual external or internal what do all things in the world signifie or wherein doth one man differ from another save only by the fear of the Lord. The beautious face hath lost its lovely colour The strong mans finews are loosed The knowing man is ignorant how to give himself
ease The prudent man is not wise enough to remove the distemper nor yet under it to comfort himself None of them by their knowledge learning wisdom can save themselves from death nor redeem their souls from the pit As dieth the fool so also dieth the prudent man leave this life and what profit hath the poor creature of all those fine things which before differenced him from his neighbour wherein doth he now differ he is alike laid in the grave with him But in these hours the fear of the Lord is excellent and of infinite advantage to the soul that is blessed with it 1. In a day of Affliction It is true grace and the fear of the Lord doth not deliver a man from the common incidents of that mortal condition into which sin hath brought us it doth neither free us from troubles without nor yet from fears within but it giveth the soul comfort and satisfaction in this hour Lord remember saith Hezekiah how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart A man fearing God in an hour of affliction is quite another man from one under the same kind and degree of affliction that he is fuller of strength fuller of comfort more satisfied with his condition 2. In the day of Death It is true the first curse must have its verification We have sinned and we must die But dieth the child of God as a fool dieth dieth a man fearing the Lord as the man who hath no fear of God in his heart surely there is a great difference in their latter end Even Balaam had some sight of this when he desired that he might die the death of the righteous that his latter end might be like his See that famous instance of David a man indeed according to Gods own heart yet you know how he failed both in the matter of Bathsheba and Vriah He comes 1 Sam. 23. to his death bed and the Scripture recordeth his last words He considereth the Rule which God had set him that he who ruled over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord that his light should be like the light of the morning c. He considers again that his house had not been so with God as it ought to have been what comforts him Thou hast saith he made a Covenant with me well ordered and sâ—re in all things c. This and this alone is that which in these hours of distress can relieve a poor creature and the worst of men will give in their evidence to this They will at their dying hour and when they lie upon beds of sickness cry out Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain They will then agree with Solomon to warn their friends to fear God and keep his Commandments telling them this is the end of all This now is sufficient to have spoken in the Explication or evidence of the point which may all be summed up in this one Argument Whoso is possessed of that quality which both in it self considered absolutely and in respect of all circumstances is the most excellent person But that man or woman in whom the true fear of the Lord is and dwelleth most eminently is possessed of the most excellent habit whether it be considered in it self more absolutely or with respect to circumstances Therefore that person is the most excellent person I come now to the Application of the Point In the first place what you have heard Use 1 may serve to evince the vulgar mistake concerning the excellent of the earth and also to abate those high conceits which men ordinarily have of themselves who in the little things of the world differ a little from their neighbours The world if this Doctrine be true is greatly mistaken both in their judgements concerning the most excellent things and concerning the most excellent persons 1. I say first in their judgements as to the things that differ and are more excellent than other If you should run to and fro the streets of your City and ask every one whom you meet Friend let me have your opinion what do you judge the most excellent thing in the world it is very like they would not all agree in their answers some would say Pleasures and a satisfaction of their lusts Others would say Riches if a man had as much money as he could spend a plentiful estate to live on Others would say Honour and Favour if a man be great at Court a favourite to Princes they will judge him the happiest man alive It may be others would judge Learning and Knowledge is most excellent or Moral Vertue is the most excellent but where shall we find a person who would say The fear of the Lord is the most excellent thing Some rare person possibly might be found who would say with David There be many that say who will shew us any Psal 4. good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Or with Solomon after he had tasted of all those sweet things which the world affords Eccles 12. 13. Hear the conclusion of all Fear God and keep his Commandments But the most of men would neither like David's nor Solomon's judgement in the case Nay even of those who would say Grace is the most excellent thing how few are they whose practice would not condemn them in what they speak with their mouths Man naturally loves desires valueth chuseth approveth the things which he judgeth most excellent The low opinion which the most men have of Religion and the fear of the Lord their little endeavours for it and pursuit after it are plain instances let men say what they will that they judge other things more excellent Yet could you meet with any who had the sentence of death in himself any strong apprehensions that he must in a short time go down to the pit and upon whom the terrours of Hell had seized this man would tell you that of all things the fear of the Lord is most excellent which is enough to evince the truth of the thing and that nothing but the violence of temptations and prevalence of corruptions makes men to judge otherwise 2. As what you have heard leadeth you to judge truly concerning the best things so it leadeth you also to a true judgement concerning the best persons What the Prophet complained in his time is true in our time We call the proud happy We judge them the best that are the richest the most honourable and who are dignified with the greatest titles Thus oft-times we call a covetous worldling a griping Vsurer or Extortioner a swinish drunkard a sordid unclean person a prophane swearer a blasphemous curser one that rends the sacred Name of God with unheard of oaths revilings blasphemies The best men in our Cities in our Parishes and yet we contend our Parishes to be particular Churches and these the members of them Away with such more than Pagan Non-sense The Heathens would not
Earth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 â—vil Prov. 16. 6. By Prov. 8. 13. 16. 6. the fear of the Lord 〈…〉 from evil That man feareth the Lord 〈◊〉 â—â—th not only a reverence and dread of â—od upon his heart but in whom this dread worketh to make the person that hath it to take heed of every sin and to perform every duty to avoid all that the Lord forbiddeth and to do all that God commandeth This it is for a man or woman to fear Jehovah But you will say â—â— this be so where is that person to be found of whom this can be predicated or how shall any person satisfie himself that he is by the fear of the Lord distinguished from another This is a great question and the Holy Ghost having thought fit to express the whole of Grace and Godliness by this notion the resolution of it will exceedingly tend to the satisfaction of such souls as thirst after righteousness To which purpose now I shall lay down some few Conclusions which will open this thing to you 1. A true fear of God in what soul soever it is found is not only the product of sense but the operation of faith This is one great and material difference betwixt that fear and dread of God which may be found in a natural man and that which is sound in every true child of God There is a terrour and awe and dread of God which as I told you before sometimes seizeth the hearts of the greatest Atheists and most debaucht wretches in the Earth But this dread is ordinarily but the effect and product of sense the poor wretch seeth some terrible work of God and trembleth or feeleth something of the weight of Gods hand Hence as soon as the impression is off his sense the fear and dread of God is also off his heart And thus it will be with all that fear which is but the product of sense The natural mans fear is not at all caused from faith neither from the habit of faith which is within us nor from the object of saith which is without us I mean the Word of God he doth not fear God because of what the holy Scriptures tell him concerning God he believeth not that But now the fear of God in a gracious soul is the issue of saith A Christian knows the Scripture and what that revealeth concerning God and now the Lord having by his Spirit wrought up his soul to give a firm and stedfast assent to what is revealed in his Word he feareth the great God as much when he seeth or feeleth nothing of the greatness of his power in his works of Providence as when he is under the greatest demonstrations of sense It is the precept of Solomon Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at all times Indeed he that is not in the fear of the Lord at all times doth truly fear the Lord at no time for where fear is the operation and fruit of saith the effect is as abiding and permanent as the cause now the cause of the fear of the Lord in that person is his firm assent to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures concerning God The Word of the Lord abiding the same for ever and the Propositions in it having an eternal verity and the seed of God also once cast in the soul abâ—ding at all timâ—s in it it is impossible but this soul should have a fear and dread of God upon his heart in health as well as in sickness in prosperity as well as in adversity in a time of the greatest liberty as well as in a time of the greatest straits when the Providence of God may propose the greatest objects of terrour unto him If the soul of any at all times dreadeth and reverenceth the great God of Heaven and Earth and that by reason of what the Word of God revealeth and it believeth concerning him this is an excellent sign that the true fear of God is in that soul Though it is true the various workings of Divine Providence may make this fear as to the servile part of it higher and greater at some one time than at another 2. Although the true fear of the Lord in any soul be not consistent with a course of deliberate sinning against God and defying the Divine Majesty yet it is confistent in the same soul with many sinnings both of ignorance and of infirmity If there were none feared God but such as were wholly free from sin there were no such excellent person in the world as I have been discoursing of For who liveth and sinneth not against God But I must open this General 1. I say the fear of God is not in any soul consistent with open defiances of the Divine Majesty or constant courses of deliberate sinning There are some in the world that live in an open defiance of Heaven the Atheistical blasphemer the prophane swearer and curser and such like eminent sinners Every one that cometh near them may say the fear of God is not in these persons No nor with any course of deliberate or presumptuous finning when a man is free and under no height of temptation to do this or that thing which he knoweth to be what God hath forbidden him to do and yet he will do it and doth do it and that not once only but again and again from one day to another making a course of it how dwelleth the fear of God in that soul God hath said he that doth these things shall die he shall be plagued in this life and he shall die eternally The poor wretch knoweth this and yet presumptuously doth these things how can the dread or fear of God be in any judgement of charity judged to dwell in this soul 2. But I say the fear of God is consistent in the soul with much sin either sins of ignorance or sins of infirmity Experience teacheth this 1. For sins of ignorance a servant may truly fear his master and a child his father and yet they may both do many things that their superiours would not have done if they do not persectly know their will It is so betwixt the child and servant of God and his Father and Master which is in Heaven 2. I say it is also consistent with much sinning of weakness and infirmity Sins of infirmities are of two sorts 1. Such as are of pure weakness and infirmity which are failures in such things as through our natural weakness and impotency we cannot perform 2. Such as are mixt with something of wilfulness but yet the great cause of our admission of them is some original weakness and infirmity in us Such now are those sins which we commit upon the prevalence of some affection or passion in us whether love or fear or anger c. Lust prevailed on David fear on Peter and truly it is hard to say what sin that is which upon this account a soul truly fearing
God may not fall into He that considereth that Lot and Noah were surprized with Wine and Lot committed incest Abraham fornication or adultery rather what David did in the murther of Vriah and taking of Bathsheba to his bed what Peter did in the hour of temptation and what Job did in his passion will I say be at a great loss to fix upon such a sin concerning which he can say this is a sin which one fearing God cannot be guilty of On the other side there is no sin which a child of God can live in making it his constant course and practice 3. Though the fear of God will constrain a soul to every duty yet even the soul which truly feareth God may either through ignorance or through weakness fail much in the performance of his duty I say the fear of God will constrain a soul to the performance of every duty By duty I mean whatsoever God commandeth to be done your reason teacheth you this Will any of you think that your child or servant feareth you who will not do every thing which you command them The Centurions servants feared him he said to one go and he went to another come and he came to a third do this and he did it Every soul that feareth God doth likewise But yet I say even that soul which truly feareth God may yet fail much in the performance of something of his duty And that 1. Through ignorance or forgetfulness The child that truly feareth his Father may possibly not know or if he hath known he may have forgotten something that his Father would have him do So may a child of God We know in part saith the Apostle and what we do know we through forgetfulness of our duty do not alwaies attend to in the hour when we should do it 2. Secondly Through wantonness we have the best of us wanton hearts which are easily led aside from our duty and while we are in the world we are incompassed with a multitude of temptations we are subject to be flattered from our duty by the Sirens of the world and to be frowned from our duty by the frowns of the world And indeed if the flatteries and frowns of the world have no influence upon us yet our spiritual duty is a thing that agreeth not with flesh and blood it pincheth our flesh and that is very ready to say to us Spare thy self or to suggest to us that God doth not expect from our hands or at least will not strictly insist upon such measures of duty as the holy Scriptures seem to lay out for us but God will give us leave for five hundred to set down fifty Who liveth and doth not fail much in his duty But yet as to this point of duty something will be seen more in a soul truly fearing God than in another soul 1. First The soul fearing the Lord will not live in a constant neglect or omission of any known duty It is one thing to omit a duty at this or that time another thing never to perform it A man or woman fearing the Lord may under the force of some temptation or in a multiplicity of business erre by omitting a morning or evening sacrifice of prayer or praise or in the strict observation of the Lords day But it is not possible that such a one should live in a constant violation of the Lords Sabbath or without God in the world from day to day and from week to week never so much as calling upon his Name the reason is because the fear of the Lord in his heart biasseth him to his duty and though some worldly distraction like a rub to a Boul turneth him out of his road yet when he is over that the biass works again and his soul turneth to his course Again 2. Secondly A soul truly fearing the Lord will hardly omit such duties as God in his precept hath put some special Emphasis upon For as it is in our commands to our children though we may command them many things yet there may be some things that we lay a greater firess upon that our children or servants understand our special will to be that we should be careful in them So it is in the precepts of God there are some which 〈…〉 Lord hath in his Word laid a great Emphasis upon them Our Saviour justifieth this distinction when he telleth the Pharisees They tithed Mint and Annis and Cummin but neglected the greater and weightier things of Gods Law Now here the soul truly fearing God will be very strict and will very rarely omit these And hence possibly it is that souls truly fearing God are generally found very strict in the matter of his worship both as to the thing and as to the manner of the performance God having in his Word more Emphatically and severely declared his will in these things So in matters of Righteousness and Mercy and in all such other things as are the weightier things of Gods Law Thus far I have shewed you how the fear of the Lord in any soul where it is works both 1. In reference to the Word of God it trembles at that 2. In reference to sin 3. In reference to duty I shall proceed yet a little further in this Argument giving you some notes of a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearing the Lord. 4. Fourthly A person fearing Jehovah will have upon his heart a great awe of Divine Judgement or whatsoever looketh like such There is no person truly fearing the Lord but in some measure understandeth what that Lord is and being possessed with a true notion of God it is as natural for the rational creature to fear him in the least roarings of his judgements as for the beasts of the Forrest to tremble when the Lion roareth For as their trembling proceedeth from a natural sense of their subjection to the Lion and the Power he hath over them So doth this persons dread proceed from the apprehensions he hath of the Greatness and Majesty of the Divine Being as also from what he believeth of his severity and justice Besides this There is no soul truly fearing God but hath been at some time or other less or more under the spirit of bondage or some way or other felt the weight of Gods hand and as we say Ictus Piscator sapit and it is natural for a child that hath been once smartly whipped to fear the hand of the Father or the Master a second time So it is for the child of God having once felt the weight of Gods hand he trembleth at every lifting of it up whether it be against himself or others Now it is true the natural fear of a meerly carnal man as well as the reverential fear of the child of God will discover it self upon this occasion and it may offer a foundation of a new question How that reverential fear of God in his judicial dispensations which is and ought to be found in a
child of God may be distinguished from that slavish and astonishing terrour which may fall upon the vilest persons in the world Let me have your patience to add a word or two to this before I shut up this branch of Application 1. In the first place take a carnal man who hath in him no more than a natural dread of God he is seldom or never affected at the lifting up of the hand of God only when it falls down heavy upon himself Look as men in correcting their children they lift up their hands first in order to their stroke so the great God is set out to us in Scripture Take the vilest of men they tremble when the hand of the Lord is upon them in some remarkable judgement that they feel the smart of Gods Rod but they seldom take notice of Gods hand lifted up Isa 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see c. There are three waies by which Gods hand may be said to be lifted up 1. In the comminations of his Word applied by his Messengers God in his Word hath revealed his wrath plentifully against sinners Now it is Gods usual method especially as to Nations and such Nations where the Name of God hath been published as of old to raise up his Prophets to give people warning so more lately to raise up some Ministers amongst such a people faithfully and powerfully to apply the threatnings of Gods Word to such a people Now here Gods hand is lifted up This now the child of God that truly feareth him will see and take notice of and suit himself accordingly You see it in the instances of almost all the good Kings of Judah But others will not see this lifting up of Gods hand Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet Ahab conmands Elijah to prison and so doth Zedekiah serve the Prophet Jeremiah 2. Again the hand of God may be said to be lifted up when God sendeth either some lesser judgements as fore-runners of greater or else by some signs in nature doth indicare iram declare his wrath Now this lifting up again of the Lords hand the natural man will not see There is that which God chargeth the Jews with by his Prophet Amos ch 4. 6 8 9 10 11. God sometimes shews his signs in the Heavens and alters the course of nature as an indication of his wrath Of this nature was the Ecclipse at our Saviours death the Ensis flammivomus seen hanging over Hierusalem many prodigious Comets and other signs taken notice of by all Histories before Gods eminent pouring out of his wrath upon a place Take now a child of God when he sees these things he is afraid though he dare not venture to give a particular judgement of them yet they make him to tremble and reverence God as believing he is doing some terrible work c. 3. A third way whereby Gods hand may be said to be lifted up against a person or Nation is when God makes some other like sinners examples of his vengeance Our Saviour taught us this when he made to his Disciples that improvement of the Judgement of God fallen upon the Galileans and upon those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell telling the people that except they repented they should all likewise perish Now a man or woman truly fearing God takes notice of these liftings up of Gods hand and fears but usually another never trembleth till the vengeance of God overtakes himself he puts the evil day far from him and will give no heed to such lesser judgements as usually forerun greater nor yet will he take notice of any signs of Gods approaching wrath nor mind the beginnings of it upon others But this is but the first thing and not universally in all points true But 2. Secondly If he doth at all take notice of any of these things he feareth with a superstitious or with a meer servile fear Fear much prevails according to the natural constitutions Persons naturally melancholick are prone exceedingly to fear and where you find natural men thus complexioned it is not extraordinary to find them affrighted sometimes at the signs or beginnings of Divine Vengeance but one of these two faults their fear hath It is either 1. Superstitious Or 2. Meerly slavish Superstitious without any ground at all from the words of God Such are these fears raised by Astrologers and Star-gazers and vain observers Thus it is given as the character of a wicked man That he feareth where no fear is Psal 53. 5. i. e. where Psal 53. 5. there is no true ground of fear no true and just ground And Prov. 28. 1. He fleeth when none pursueth him Or else 2. His fear is a meer servile fear and that in a very great excess God threatens his people that in case they were sound disobedient 〈◊〉 would Lev. 26. 36. send a faintness upon their hearts and the sound of a shaken leaf should chase them And such ordinarily is that fear of Judgement which falls upon the hearts of natural carnal men Or if not a judicial punishment yet a meer excess of natural passion 3. Though a natural man may fear Divine Judgements yet his fear never brings him closer to God A carnal mans fear of Gods Judgements hath many effects upon him and those very various according to the different temper of persons Some are made by it desperate and to defie the God of Heaven as Julian the Apostate they say threw up his Dagger to Heaven and cried Vicisti Galilee Thou hast overcome me O thou Galilean Others their fear hath such an influence upon that like those rebellious Israelites Jer. 42. they will presently resolve to remove from that place which God makes the Theatre of his Judgements Thus in times of Plague or other contagious Diseases or War they will remove from their habitations Yea though upon a rational view of things a prudent man would see no great cause for it Fear upon others hath such an effect as Nabals fear had upon him to kill him his heart upon it saith the text grew dead as a stone Others it may be their fear hath an influence upon to bring them to some hypocritical humiliation So Ahabs fear made him walk softly and put on sackcloth But the fear of Judgements never hath such an operation upon a meer carnal man as to make him take up any serious thoughts of searching what the quarrel is which God hath against him and throughly humbling himself before God for his sins which have been the cause of his wrath and to turn from them by any serious resolutions or indeavours after reformation This was the influence that Josiahs fears had upon him Indeed you shall see the difference betwixt the best of natural men in their fears of Judgements and the child of God in those two instances of Ahab and Josiah Ahab was a most wretched Prince God sends a Prophet to him â—1
he who said If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 102. 3. never thought that himself should 2. Secondly Therefore this Righteousness of Sanctification is taken in an Evangelical sense and so it signifies 1. That universal habit of holiness of which the child of God is possessed teaching him to hate and strive against every sin to love and to press after every good work and to endeavour to do the whole will of God though it may be in many things he doth offend and this is that Righteousness which the most solid Interpreters judge here to be chiefly intended that which the holy Psalmist elsewhere calleth a respect to all Gods Commandments Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I shall have respect to all thy Commandments I will not restrain the text to this but this doubtless is a great part of Davids meaning I will live an holy and righteous conversation having a due regard to all thy Commandments and keeping up in my soul a true hatred of every sin and of every false way Though I want the fulness which sinful men have though I be in a sad and afflicted condition though I be in the dark and cannot behold the light of thy countenance though my oppressors and my enemies be many and cruel and bloody yet will I not live like wicked and ungodly men who live more at case and have a greater degree of fulness but I will keep on the course of an holy life and conversation and then I shall behold thy face either here or hereafter either before I fall asleep in death or when I shall awake in the resurrection This righteousness then is the righteousness of a good conscience that which Saint Paul calls a living in a good conscience before God And again he tells us herein he did exercise Acts 23. 1. himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men The Chaldee Paraphrast reads it Truth In truth will I behold thy face Truth is opposed to Hypocrisie and to all falshood of conversation And indeed none can without presumption hope to see God but he who looks to behold his face in the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to him 2. In the righteousness of an holy life and conversation Without holiness saith the Apostle none shall see God 3. But there is yet a third thing which some understand by righteousness in this place Alii per justitiam intelligunt innocentiam versus hostes Lor. and in other texts is most certainly understood by it It is the particular habit of Justice and Innocency i. e. having an innocent heart and a righteous cause against unrighteous men I will come to thee O God who art a God of Justice and a Protector of innocent persons Holy David at this time was afflicted either by the persecution of Saul as some think or the rebellion of Absolom as others judge both of them rose up against him without a cause on their part not for my wickedness nor for my sin as he elsewhere saith Now saith David though my enemies be many and great and cruel yet I have done them no harm I have as to them a righteous heart and against them a righteous cause I will bring this righteous cause before thee This is the righteousness of which he speaketh v. 3. Let thine eyes behold the thing that is equal thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing So probably v. 1. he prayes Hear the right O Lord where the same word is used This sense will afford us this note Those who make their appeal to God in any cause and seck his face hoping to behold his face directing countenancing or assiting them must be sure their cause be a righteous cause One of the Hebrew Writers reads I will behold thy face for Alms the Rabbies so interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they say to give Alms is both a piece of righteousness and a fign of it Indeed whosoever goes to God goes for Alms. But I shall discourse no more as to this term In Righteousness 1. In the Righteousness of my Lord the Mediatour 2. In the Righteousness of an holy conversation 3. In the Justice Innocency and Righteousness of my cause This is all comprehended in the term Righteousness I now proceed Will I or shall I behold thy face The word indifferently signifies the act of the body and of the mind Psal 58. 10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance that is when he shall with his bodily eyes see the righteous God revenging him upon sinful men Exod. 18. 21. Thou shalt provide there it doubtless implieth an act of Moses his mind weighing and considering what persons were fittest for Magistrates 2. But it sometimes signifies not a bare intuition but a most curious careful scrutiny or beholding It signifieth to contemplate Now when a man contemplates he doth not barely look upon a thing but he sixeth his eyes and thoughts and studies upon it from this word Prophets we are called Seers and it is a word often applied to their vision in which their minds were wholly taken up and their souls as it were wrapt up in exrasies Star-gazers from this word had their name in Hebrew And Criticks tell us our English word Gaze hath its original from it Now you know we use that word Gaze to express the action of them who are a long time looking upon a thing fully steadily and busily Further yet the word sometimes signifies to behold with delight and Pleasure To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple Psal 27. 4. That was a pleasant sight Psal 84. 1. I will behold thy face in righteousness that is with the eye of my body or mind or both I will diligently constantly earnestly behold I will take pleasure in beholding Thy face The word used here signifies any outward superficies or exterior countenance of a thing being applied to God it signifies the manifestations of divine love whether in the gracious issues of providence or in the more inward influences of divine love God hath neither essential nor integral parts as we have he hath no head no hands no face these things only agree to God by analogy The face is the more noble outward part of as man most conspicuous and by which he is most known in which more than by any part else a mans temper and particular inclination and disposition to us is known So the face of God signifies 1. The favour of God in the sensible manifestations of it When we are angry we turn away our faces from our neighbours and being reconciled again to them we again look upon them So is the Lord in Scripture set out to us Psal 13. How long wilt thou hide Psal 13. thy face So when God is expressed as in favour with and reconciled to
innocent manner That which he fixeth upon as his comfort is 1. Gods present inabling him to perfect holiness in his fear and to wait for the manifestations of divine light 2. His sure hopes that if he should fall asleep in death not satisfied yet there would be a resurrection from the dead and in that glorious morning he should awake and then he should be filled with the manifestations of God this is the substance of the words Now suppose your selves to hear David speaking the same thing more copiously O Lord my soul is in a sad and perplexed condition without are fightings within are fears mine enemies are many and proud and cruel as Lions they are men of power and estate whose bellies are filled with hid treasure I am poor and empty hunted like a Partridge upon the Mountains First Saul rose up against me now mine own Son is in rebellion and my soul also O Lord walks in the dark and seeth no light I cry but thou hast not heard me I am at a loss to know what thou determinest to do with me If I had all that my proud and potent enemies have all their treasure all their substance all the good things of this life all their sweet morsels I could not be satisfied with all those husks while I want thy favour and the light of thy countenance But this shall be my work this shall be that which I will study and look after I have fixed mine eyes upon thy love and favour let the men of the world look after that let them look upon their great estates I will behold thy face and labour for the light of thy countenance and that I may obtain it I trust not in my own righteousness in the righteousness of my Lord I will behold thy face I will endeavour in thy strength to live an holy and righteous conversation perfecting holiness in thy fear and in all things endeavouring to live up to thy mind and will discovered to me and for this cause which I am through thy providence managing against those who have risen up against me I will manage it righteously with all integrity and innocency toward them who are so fierce and cruâ—l against me And in this resolution O Lord in my affliction it will be a great stay unto me if I may but find the conunuance of thy strength inabling me to labour after the perfecting of the renovation of thine image in my soul and to wait for the further shinings out of the light of thy countenance if I can but find thee thus appearing to my soul I shall at present endeavour to be satisfied knowing that it will not be long before I shall fall asleep in death and from that sleep I shall awake in the morning of the resurrection and then I shall be abundantly satisfied with thy likeness seeing thee face to face and rejoycing in thy presence for ever more The words thus opened will afford us many Propositions some I shall but lightly touch upon hastening to what I intend for the subject of a fuller discourse First From the tacit Antithesis hinted in those words which our translation supplies necessary to give you the full sense But as for me What will satisfie a man of the world will 1 Obs not satisfie a child of God Different natures require different food Swine will seed upon Acorns and offal Dogs will feed upon bones and excrements But man feeds upon none of these A different genius and disposition requires a different object to give it satisfaction Gold and Silver satisfies a covetous man Wine and strong drink satisfies a drunkard The Philosopher despiseth and throws away these things to attend to contemplation and the knowledge of the reasons and causes of things The child of God is of a different nature of a different disposition and inclination and complexion from other men he is made a partaker of the Divine Nature he hath a new name a new will new affections new dispositions given to him Sinners indeed are of several complexions give one wealth enough and you satisfie him give another objects enough for his lust give him sensual pleasure enough and you satisfie him give a third honour and preferment enough he asks no more give the best of them enough of humane learning and knowledge and he will be content whether he hath any portion in Christ whether he findeth any joy and peace of conscience whether he seeth any thing of the light of Gods countenance yea or no. It is said of Abraham that he gave the Sons he had by Keturah portions and sent them away they were not at all concerned for the promise of which Isaac was heir Wicked men are like Esau they will sell their birth-right for a morsel of bread The child of God cannot be thus satisfied as Abraham replyed upon God asking him What he should give Protestatus sum me sic ab eo nolle satiaâ—i Luther him What canst thou give me so long as I go childless So do they say Lord what canst thou give me while I want thy presence Luther protested God should not put him off with worldly affluences he judgeth all fulness Omnis copia quae non est Deus meus est cgestas Aug. cmptiness excepting only the fulness of him who filleth all in all the reason of this is his spiritual ilumination and knowledge to discern things that differ the convictions and different apprehensions which the holy Spirit hath wrought in his soul which make it morally impossible to him to rest satisfied with less than an infinite God and a portion in him Oh! how thin is this number in the world how small is this generation of those who in truth seek the Lords face where almost is the person to be found to whom God might not give a portion in this life only and quietly send him away without any repining at all who would noâ— fall down and even worship the Devil for a great estate for a little momentany pleasure for some considerable degree of honour or some other moveables and transiâ—nt vanities of this life how few are they who would look any further than to have such a portion of substance as they might have plentifully whiles they live and divide the rest unto their babes Amongst all the complaints and murmurings we hear in the world how few are they that complain for want of the presence and influence of God we hear men complain for want of estates honours c. but ah how few for want of grace how few for want of the sense of divine love for want of the enjoyments of God c. Secondly From those words I will behold thy face in righteousness observe There is no beholding of Gods face but in righteousness 2 Obs Whether it be in a way of duty that we behold God or whether it be in a way of comfort We must still behold him in righteousness in the righteousness of Christ
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
David You will find these words to be a part of his dying speech Although my house be not so with God that is not so spotlâ—ss as the morning when the Sun ariseth when the Sun ariseth without clouds yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant well ordered and sure in all things for this is my desire and salvation although he make it not to grow The words speak much of Davids adherence and strong fiducial application of his soul to the Covenant but little of a fulness of joy and peace I think we may determine thus much that if David did ever recover his fulness of peace the Scripture hath not recorded it that we might learn to serve the Lord with fear and to walk before him with trembling yet neither is this the Lords constant dealing Peter denyed his Master cursed and sware yet afterward Christ shewed him special favour After Christs resurrection the Angel bid Go tell his Disciples and Peter that he went before them into Galilee Mark 16. 7. Divines think those words and Peter are put in to assure Peter under some dejection by reason of his fall of the Lords favour to him notwithstanding his backshding Peter was designed for a great service of his Master in the work of the Gospel to which a sad and dejected spirit would not a little have discomposed him Thus much may serve for the second Proposition which I told you was no more than implied The third follows While a child of God doth not behold the face 3 Prop. of God it is his duty to watch for it Two terms must here be opened 1. That of beholding Gods face 2. That of watching for it There is a twofold beholding of Gods face 1. By faith in righteoussness 2. By sense in assurance 1. There is a beholding of God by faith Faith in Scripture is sometimes expressed to us by the action of the mouth He that eateth my flesh Joh. 6. 54. and drinketh my blood saith our Saviour dwelleth in me and I in him Sometimes by the action of the hand by receiving and laying Joh. 1. 12. hold upon Christ and the Covenant To as many as received him he gave power to be called the Heb. 6. 18. Prov. 3. 18. John 6. 35 37. Sons of God Sometimes by the action of the feet Coming so often in Scripture Come unto me you that are weary and heavy laden and he that cometh unto me I will in no wise Isa 50. 10. Cant. 3. 8. Psal 37. 7. Zech. 12. 10. cast away And so in many other texts Sometimes by the actions of the whole man thus it is called a staying a leaning a trusting resting committing our selves unto God So also sometimes it is expressed by the action of the eye Now by this vision of faith it is impossible that one should be a bâ—liever and not see God Indeed the fight of this eye may possibly at sometimes be clearer and quicker than at other times it may sometimes be more full and bright at another time more dim and weak and imperfect but faith is this very visive faculty if I may so speak and a child of God must thus behold the face of God though not actually or not gradually to such a degree at one time as at another yet habitually it must alwaies have a power thus to behold God though sometimes it exerts it more seebly sometimes more strongly yet more or less a gracious soul in this sense at all times doth behold the Lords face even in its darkest hours Isa 8. 17 I will wait upon him who hidâ—s his face from the house of Jacâ—b and I will look for him 2. There is another Vision which I called the Vision of Sense which is the beholding of the Lords face in the reflections of divine love for this David prayes Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and often in the Psalms Make thy face to shine upon us Now in this sense as I have shewed you it is very possible that Gods dearest children may not see his face and this is that beholding the Lords face of which the Proposition is to be understood during the ecclipse or want whereof it is the duty of the child of God to watch for his likeness So I told you here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be and is sometimes in Scripture translated so By the Likeness of God I understand as before either his likeness in us which the Apostle calleth the Image of God in knowledge righteousness and holiness or Gods sensible manifestations of himself when a believer wants these when he cannot bebold the face of God in such sweet apprehensions it is even then his duty to watch for Gods likeness for Gods likeness in either sense as it signifieth both holiness and comfort I say to watch for it it is a metaphorical expression and signifies 1. Negation of sleep 2. Industrious dilâ—gence to keep our selves in a capacity fit to receive what we desire 3. Patient expectation 1. He who watcheth sleepeth not It is an ordinary metaphor in holy Writ to express death and sinning by sleep the latter only is here meant So saith the Spouse I sleep but my heart waketh 2 Thes 5. 6. Let us not 2 Thes 5. 6. sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead And look as it is in sleeping None lives and sleepeth not Eph. 5. 14. Some set themselves to sleep some strive against it sometimes yet fall asleep through heaviness Some by some more for in means are made to sleep So it is as to fin some are greater sinners sleep more than others but none liveth and sinneth not against God but one man sinneth wilfully and presumptuously sets himself to sin his life is nothing eâ—e another sets himself against sin yet through that heaviness which is in him from original corruption the remainder of the body of death he often falleth asleep and sometimes through Rom. 7. 23 24. the methods devices and depths of Satan and the allurements of the world as from so many sleepy potions given him he falls into a sleep Now he who watcheth in a spiritual sense doth not sleep in the first sense according to that of the Apostle He that is born of God sinneth not The child of God in his dark hours ought to take heed of wilful sinning against God thougâ— he walks in the dark of a divine desertion yet he ought to take heed of a sinful conversation he must be able to say with David I am become like a bottle Psal 119. 83. in the smoak yet do I not forget thy Statutes And with the Church All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined Psa 44. 17 18 19. from thy way though thou hast sore broken us
enough for our salvation without the broad-seal of assurance This is sure to all the seed Rom. 4. 16. Rom. 4. 16. Hence the Apostle calleth Hope an anchor of of the soul sure and stedfast The certainty of Heb. 6. 19. the anchor depends upon the ground where it is cast The certainty of hope depends upon the infallibility of the Word Now the promise is not made to them that see by the vision of sense but to them that believe to them who behold God by the stedfast eye of faith To him that believeth Joh. 3. 18 36. John 3. 18 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life And again He is not condemned And to him that ordereth his conversation aright I Psa 50. 23. will shew the salvation of God And often to him that waiteth for God What are we that the bare word of the Lord should not satisfie us It is a quaint notion I have somewhere met with that God the Father had nothing but Christs word in security for all the souls whom he took up into Heaven from Adam until Christ had died No price was paid for them only Christ had given his word to his Father that in the fulness of time he would come and would die for them upon this security he took them all into Heaven Hath the word of Christ been taken for the salvation of so many thousand souls Christian and dost thou think it hard to take it for the salvation of thy single soul Ah! will a Christian say God forbid I should not take his word but I do not know that word was made to me nor that I have any share in it I answer thou knowest it is made to them that believe to them that order their conversation aright to them that love God to them that wait on him that thirst after him Canst not thou say thou believest or if that be not so clear to thee canst thou not say thou lovest God that that thou thirstest after him that thou art afraid to sin against him I must confess if thou beest able to satisfie thy self in none of these thy case is hard but if thou canst see any thing of these though thou dost want such a satisfaction from sensible reflections as thou desirest yet thou hast a sure word of promise which can never fall thee and therefore though thou mayest breath and thirst after the sensible consolations of God yet if God in his wisdom thinks fit to deny thee them thou oughtest to be so far satisfied as to be thankful not to repine not to murmure but meekly to commit thy self to God and quietly to wait upon him even whiles he hâ—des his face from thy sad soul This is the first reason 2. Again They ought to be satisfied because it is the will of God It is Gods will they should want these comfortable reflections and it is Gods will that under the want of them they should not repine but trust in the Name of the Lord and stay themselves upon their God Isa 50. 10. that they should wait Isa 50. 10. Isa 8. 17. upon him that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and look for him Isa 8. 17. Such is the wisdom justice and goodness of God in all his dispensations of which we ought to be assured that it should stop every mouth and make all flesh silent before him The consideration Lev. 10. 3. of the will of God hath continually satisfied the people of God under all his severer Psal 39. 3. dispensations towards them This silenced Aaron when he had lost his two eldest Sons in the entry of their sacerdotical office though they were sadly cut off in their iniquity This made David hold his peace 1 Sam. 3. 18. he considered that it was the Lords doing to try his patience This silenced old Eli under that dreadful denunciation against his whole family It is the Lord saith he let him do 2 King 20. 19. what seemeth to him good This silenced Hezekiah when he heard that his posterity should be rooted out and carried captives into Babylon This satisfied the Disciples Act. 21. 14. when they heard they should see their beloved Pauls face no more they said The will of the Lord be done And this ought to silence every soul that hath learned to resign up his will to the divine will and to say Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven 3. Thirdly If we consider it wistly we shall find all imaginable reason concurring to quiet the soul under such dispensations This may be reduced to two heads 1. God in such dispensations doth the soul no wrong 2. God under such dispensations yet is exceeding good to his people 1. First I say God in such dispensations doth the soul no wrong Reason will tell us we cannot justly complain where no injury is done us Why saith the Church in the Lamentations should a living man complain a Iam. 3. man for the punishment of his sin A man a living man a man punished for his sin hath no reason to complain In thy darkest hours thou art yet a living man and but punished for thy sin This is that which the housholder in the Parable objected to the murmuring labourer Friend saith he I do thee no wrong didst not thou agree with me for a penny Mat. 20. 23. take therefore what is thy own and go thy way is it not lawful for me to do with my own what I please Three things are there said to satisfie the labourer 1. He did him no wrong therefore he had no cause to complain 2. He had agreed with him for a penny that was all was his own 3. He might do with his own what he pleased All these things Christian are applicable unto thee Doth the Lord hide his face from thee doth he deny thee the light of his countenance and only inable thee by faith to devolve thy soul upon him and patiently to wait for him is this all he will please to grant thee I say first God in these dispensations doth thee no wrong what hast thou earned Canst thou challenge these sensible manifestations at Gods hand as due to thee in point of justice if whatsoever influences thou receivest from God must be acknowledged influences of grace not debts much more these God therefore in denying them to thee in with-holding them from thee does thee no wrong at all if he should resresh thee with them it were superabounding grace but if he denies them to thee he doth thee no injury Again May not God do what he pleaseth with his own May man do do it and is God less free are not these sensible manifestations the gales of his Spirit and shall not that like the wind blow where it pleaseth are they not his sealings and shall not he set his seal where he pleâ—seth especially when in one sense he hath sealed thee to the day of redemption as
truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express
of death should take the terrour of it off our spirits no man is afraid to go to sleep why should we be more afraid to die but for unbelief and a reproving conscience 2. Were it indeed a perpetual sleep there would be less of relief in it but there shall be an awaking out of this sleep though the night be long there shall be a morning This doctrine of the Resurrection is indeed the great argument of comfort against death The Apostle having mentioned it to the Thessalonians to relieve them as to their sorrow for their friends asleep in the Lord concludes wherefore comfort your solves with these words 3. But yet the feast to which we shall awake in the Resurrection is of a further consequence to relieve us under disturbances of this nature This was that which cleared the Martyr that although he had an ill Supper he should have a good breakfast The sleep of death is not like the sleep the Prophet speaks of When a man dreams he is at a feast and when he awaketh behold he is an hungry Indeed there is no dreaming in this sleep but when the child of God awaketh from it in the resurrection he shall awake to a feast not an imaginary but a real feast where he shall be filled with the likeness of God to all eternity 3. Branch Lastly What we have heard administers great consolation to such as mourn for their friends fallen asleep in the Lord. Have we had any friends who have made it their business to behold the face of the Lord in righteousness and to watch for the Lords likeness who herein have exercised themselves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and possibly have had their sad hours for a long time sitting in darkness and seeing no light and whose Candle possibly hath at last gone out in obscurity as to visions of peace They have indeed died breathing and thirsting after God hoping and trusting in God and quietly committing their selves unto him but not being able to say Lo this is my God I have waited for him this is my God I have waited for him I will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation I say have we known any so have we had at any time any such friends under such circumstances possibly we have been troubled and have had sad thoughts for them but there is no reason what though they have fallen asleep they shall awake what though they fell asleep not satisfied they shall be satisfied with the Lords likeness when they awake they shall be satisfied There are thousands that die without any such troubled thoughts Some it may be with bold and groundless confidences who will awake with terrour and trembling There be many that shall in that day say Lord Lord open unto us have we not prayed in thy name and prophecied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils to whom the Lord shall say Matth. 7. Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity But there is no soul who hath truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who hath walked strictly and closely with God and made it his or her business to serve the Lord in truth to mortifie his or her lusts and corruptions but though it may live in the dark and it may be die in some dissatisfactions but that soul shall awake in a glorious resurrection and so awaking shall be satisfied and filled with the consolations of God Mourn for loose walking Professors who have lived here without any fear of God or any care to please God and yet when they die have talkt of full perswasions and been full of presumptuous confidences but be not troubled for holy and gracious souls whose lives have been full of faith and holiness though it may be they have had their fears while they lived and a dark hour when they died hath clouded them yet doubt not of them mourn not for them those persons have not died without hope do not you mourn as those without hope their salvation is certain whether it hath been ascertained to them or no hoping in God committing their souls unto God trusting in him walking with him they shall not be ashamed trouble not your selves for them though they fall they shall rise though they sleep they shall awake though through a too much love-jealousie or through the wise dispensation of God when they fell asleep they were unsatisfied yet when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied inessably plenteously abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and in the joy of that glorious day they shall forget all their former sorrows Vse 4. What you have heard may be applied by way of Caution 1. To all ungodly impenitent sinners such as never beheld the face of God in righteousness nor at all watch for his likeness yet live without any fears it may be with strong confidences and doubt not of being satisfied with the Lords likeness in the resurrection of the just Oh! the presumptuous groundless hopes of an infinite number of Hypocrites they make no question of salvation and think it great uncharitableness for any to doubt of their eternal welfare yet whoso observeth their lives seeth them neither exercising a good conscience towards God nor man instead of walking in righteousness they live in all manner of wickedness yet they will tell you they hope to be saved by Jesus Christ they are of the number of those whom the Apostle speaks of who are dead in trespasses and sins who still have their conversation in the world according to the power of the Prince of the Air who lives and works in the children of disobedience and walk fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind without Christ and his righteousness strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no true ground of hope living without a God in the world in all neglect of duty towards God and man yet these men hope to be saved these men hope in the resurrection that they also shall be filled with the likeness of God I shall but offer one text of Scripture to such bold presumptuous sinners it is that in Deut. Deut. 29. 18 19 20. 29. 18 19 20. Lest there should be amongst you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these Nations lest there should be amongst you a root that beareth gall and wormwood And it cometh to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the
Lord shall separate him to evil out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this Book of the Law c. None can hope for the savour of God here or hereafter but those only who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and who live an holy and righteous conversation before God declining all manner of sin and wickedness and doing the whole will of God and such who in this course of life through the grace of God inabling them shall be found believing in God and waiting for him in those waies of holiness and well pleasing in his sight Others indeed may pretend that they hope but indeed could you look into the secrets of their souls you would find them without any true hope not attending to the eternal concerns of their souls while they are in health and at liberty they are perfectly careless neither hope nor fear much when God alarums them with a conviction a terrour of conscience or a sickness that looks as if it would determine their daies then they begin to consider and as drowing men lay hold of every rush every twig never considering whether it hath in it strength enough to bear them they lay hold upon every thing as a ground of hope God made them and therefore they hope he will not damn them as if Hell were prepared for none Christ died for all as if supposing that were true all therefore should be saved They have been good Church-men paid every man his own they have been no drunkards no swearers c. These and such like foundations of hope they lay but saith Job Where is the hope of the Hypocrite when the Lord takes away his soul And again Job 8. 11 12 13 14 15. Can the Rush grow up without mire or the Flag without water while it is yet in its greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the Hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a Spiders web he shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not indure 2 Branch Again as I before hinted to you what you have heard must be cautiously understood and practised by Gods people I told you that such as fear the Lord such as are inabled by him to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness though they see not Gods face in visions of peace though they live though God calleth them to die in the dark yet they should be satisfied but how satisfied you have also heard not so as to sit down and think they have enough and never look after the light of Gods countenance no this is impossible it is their duty to be so far satisfied as not to murmure not to repine but not to be so satisfied as not to cry and pray unto God for further discoveries of himself unto their souls But it is more than time I should shut up this discourse Vse 5. Lastly This Doctrine may be applied by way of Exhortation and it looks upon all persons 1. Vpon unrighteous creatures Such as are in a state of sin without the imputed righteousness of Christ without any care of themselves as to a righteous conversation That they would return from the vanity of their courses unto God and labour for a state of Righteousness There are many Arguments in Scripture to inforce this The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11. But I shall only insist upon what I find in the text You have heard what I mean by righteousness and may easily apply what I have already said to inform you what it is to be in a state of righteousness viz. 1. To be clothed with the righteousness of him who is the Lord our Righteousness 2. To lead a conversation holy in every thing and conformable to the mind and will of God Watching against sin and all temptations to sin and watching to all duty both those of an holy communion with God and those of an holy conversation before God Two great Arguments to inforce this Exhortation may be drawn from my discourse 1. This is the only way to behold the Lords face No way to behold Gods face in this life but in righteousness No hopes hereafter to behold his face in glory but in righteousness Men may please themselves with dreams and flatter themselves with vain hopes but no man in this life seeth any thing of God no man enjoyeth any thing of God but the righteous man The Lord heareth not sinners the Lord accepteth not the unrighteous person nor can any without righteousness ever hope to behold the face of the Lord in glory Those who are not clothed with the righteousness of Christ shall indeed behold the Lords face in the day of Judgement but it shall be his angry face and it shall be against their will that they behold the Lords face then for they shall hide themselves in mountains and rocks and dens and shall cry to the mountains and to the rocks to fall on them and to hide them from him who sitteth on the Throne They indeed shall be filled but it shall be with their own waies for the recompence of their hands shall be given them and with the Lords wrath and vengeance on them for their sins for this they shall have at the Lords hand they shall lye down in sorrow Those alone who while they lived beheld the face of God in righteousness shall enjoy any thing of God here or in the life which is to come They only shall hear that blessed sentence Come you blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you This is my first Argument 2. It is no small thing that righteous persons have enough in this life even in their darkest hours to give them satisfaction A sinner hath not enough when he is at the fullest to give him a satisfaction his eye even then will not be satisfied with seeing nor his ear with hearing nor his hand with griping he will never have enough yet in his life he takes his portion Son remember saith Abraham in that Parable Luk. 16. 24. that in thy life time thou hadst thy good things But now see the state of a child of God take him when he is lowest he hath what is reasonably enough to give him satisfaction it may be he hath not at all times his overflowings of joy his spiritual superfluities as I may call them but he hath the perpetual feast of a good conscience Are not these two things enough to perswade some soul into a study and lâ—bour after righteousness is it nothing to have communion with God to behold his face it is the happiness of the blessed Angels to be ever beholding the face of God and certainly man is not capable of a
that he was so troubled he could not speak Psal 77. 4. 2. That the Lord had silenced her Ladiships tongue by his own hand laid upon it in a continual course of afflictions Now though God indeed requires of us the homage of our lips Let me hear thy voice saith Christ to his Spouse Cant. 2. 14. for it is comely And Take unto you words and say saith the Prophet yet he doth not expect this homage where by his providence he dischargeth our tongues of it 3. That there is a praying without the voice which also the Lord heareth Groaning Psa 102. 5. Psal 6. 8. hath a voice Psal 102. 5. and weeping a voice Psal 6. 8. Hezekiah chattered like a Crane yet the Lord heard him In short I besought her Ladiship to consider that the business of prayer was in Scripture expressed by wrestling with God by lifting up the eyes hands heart unto him by pouring out of the soul before him all which might be without the use of words Thus Hannah prayed and was 1 Sam. 1. answered yet spake not a word And I doubted not but her Ladiship thus could and did pray 4. Finally I desired her Ladiship to observe that in Gal. 4. 6. God is said to send his Gal. 4. 6. Spirit into our hearts teaching us to cry Abba Father And Rom. 8. 26. that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities with strong cryes and groans Rom. 8. 26. which could not be uttered Now groans at least are the language of the hearts There is indeed another assistance of the holy Spirit teaching us what to pray for but this floweth not from the Spirit in a way of special grace but as it is the author of spiritual gifts which those might have who had no true interest in God nor had received the Spirit of Christ as a spirit of Sanctification With these and such like considerations I endeavoured to satisfie her Ladiship who yet could hardly be satisfied because she could not pay so full and perfect an homage to God as formerly she had done but her unweariable adversary again reneweth his assault The next news which I heard was this 4 Tempt Sir I have seriously thought upon what you told me and am convinced that though I spake never a word yet if I could keep my heart lifted up to God if I could wrestle with him with my Spirit this were acceptable prayer but whatever you may think I cannot do this When at any time I compose my self to prayer I am tortured with pain that I cannot do it at other times through drewsiness I fall asleep c. By this time her Ladiships tormenting distemperatures prevailed upon her to a great degree so as night and day she had little rest beyond the influence of Anodines stupifying her sense As soon as she had taken these she used to compose her self to secret prayer by and by the operation of the medicine overtook her and inforced sleep when the operation of the Anodine ceased her pains returned and she awoke and then whenever she composed her self to it her pains disturbed her only this she added to her complaint to find out any cause of which for a while posed me That although at first when she composed her self to look up to God she found not much pain yet when she was entered once into her duty she was sure to be racked with the increase of her pain I know that the Devil is but a small friend to our communion with God and would in what he could hinder it I also knew he had a natural power God permitting the exercise of it by which he could disturb bodily humours and divert them to an affected part but not willing to impute it to a praeternatural cause unless quite at loss upon further deliberation I conceived there might be this natural cause of it This good Lady desired when she served the Lord to serve him with her spirit and when she addressed her self to God summoned up all her spirits to do it with the more intention of mind and fervour of spirit Now this I conceived might be a natural cause of the increase of her pain at such a time in regard that her spirits which were wont to serve her body in the supportation of her under her affliction were at this time drawn up to another imployment and the several parts of her body at present left destitute it might give a natural advantage to her infirmity but this was but my particular fancy I told her 1. That short ejaculations were most suitable to her present condition and were heard of God as well as longer prayers for we are not heard for our much speaking 2. I minded her of a speech of Mr. Rutherfords If I were in health I would desire but to cast one long look toward Heaven 3. I told her it was unreasonable for her Ladiship to conclude her self to want the strengthening influences of the holy Spirit because as to this or that act of duty possibly she might not discern such an influence of it It was likely that if her Ladiship examined as to many other duties she might find it and that with an evidence not to be denied 4. I further told her the influence of the spirit was most eminently seen in its workings in strengthening the soul to those exercises of grace which are most proper for our day the present condition and dispensation I meant under which we are and that Faith and Patience were those graces the exercise whereof God more peculiarly requires of his children in a day of affliction and if her Ladiship found the Spirit of God infusing or exerting these habits she need not doubt of the strengthening influences of the Spirit With these things her Ladâ—ship for a while seemed satisfied but her distempers still increased and during the violence of them put her into a great disorder Satan still followed his game and soon after she tells me 5 Tempt Ah Sir you told me that Faith and Patience are those graces the exercise of which is most proper to my condition and if I found the holy Spirit infusing or strengthening me to the exercise of these habits I might be assured that I was not without the strengthening influences of the Spirit though I did not find such an assistance as I desired to every particular duty But Sir you see I am very impatient restless in my self froward with every body about me I cannot be silent under the hand of God nor keep my self from roaring c. And for Faith Sâ—r you know I have told you I have no assurance sometimes indâ—ed I have had what I judged a flash of the light of Gods countenance Once I remember after you had been praying with me and in your prayer mentioned and pleaded many promises it pleased God as I thought to seal some of them to my soul and at some other times that first word which God was pleased to seal unto my
soul 1 Col. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory hath been returned to my soul and comforted me but I cannot call this assurance doubting quickly returned and now Satan would have me let go also my hold on Christ but I am resolved not to let it go until I die shall I not so resolve I beseech you Sir tell me should I not so resolve To this I replied 1. That I rejoyced to hear her Ladiship acknowledging that God had sometimes sealed promised unto her soul that those impressions did not abide constant was not to be wondred at it being rarely the lot of any child of God to walk in the constant light of his countenance but I humbly conceived her Ladiship had great ground to call these impressions of the Spirit of God upon a threefold account 1. They were made upon her soul after earnest prayer 2. They came to one in a dark sad and afflicted condition and to an awakened conscience and to one who had for some time desired to walk close with God and this after long and patient waiting for God 3. The return of that word in which the Lord had made her soul first to hope was a great evidence to me that the Author of the first was also the Author of the second impression 2. I rejoyced more to her Ladiships grant that her Faith of adherence was strengthened and so strengthened as she was resolved not to let it go until she died In which resolution I humbly besought her Ladiship to persist I intreated her Ladiship to consider that there are not two better marks of a strong Faith than 1. The resistance and repelling of temptations to doubt 2. The casting of our souls upon God and adhering to the promise though we want incouragement of sense with Abraham to believe in hope above hope This indeed is a strong faith and gives much glory to God And indeed I thought I never was a witness to the actings of a stronger faith than that of this noble person in the midst of her saddest torments of her darkest hours when she was even distracted through pain and terrours she would cry out to all our amazement It is my strong hold I will not let it go no I will not let it go I am resolved I will not let it go let Satan suggest what he will it is my strong hold I have committed my self unto Christ c. Thus she would cry out bitterly weeping while she spake in great Agonies of her spirit 3. As to Patience I desired her Ladiship to consider that the grace of patience was not a Roman fortitude carrying one out under an affliction without any expression of passion this an Heathen might do without any assistance of distinguishing grace and some distempeâ—atures were such as the best Christians could not so bear them David roared Job complained Christ himself cryed out My God My God Patience is a sacred influence of grace by which we are inabled in the hour of affliction to hope in God whom we see not and meekly to submit to him under his severer dispensations without any murmuring repining or any frowardness of behaviour I told her that although her Ladiship did sometimes roar out through extremity of pain and were restless through torments yet the grace of patience was evidently made manifest in her soul in her humble owning the Justice of God kissing his rod never repining nor murmuring at his dispensations only desiring strength to bear what he would please to lay upon her and her willingness to die or live as he should please to order for it was now patience in her to be content to live finally in her willingness in obedience to Gods command and ordinances though she earnestly desired death yet to use all means though she had no hope of cure to prolong a miserable life so long as God pleased 4. Finally I told her that although possibly sometimes in the height of her distempers some speeches might sound some impatience and unbelief when the extremity of her pain had almost totally deprived her of the use of her reason yet God would not impute this to her for he weighs our performances with our temptations So the Apostle saith You have heard of the patience of Job he that looks in the story will find much in Job which we should call impatience he cursed the day of his birth chap. 3. And we find in his story many other very passionate and distempered speeches yet the Apostle saith not you have heard of the passion and frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job Though Job sometimes were very impatient yet the Lord considering Jobs patience with his temptations records him as a patient man and so patient as to be propounded to his Saints in following ages as an example of patience he saith not you have heard of the passion or frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job In short I told her Ladiship that we who were spectators could not but judge her in the free use of her reason full both of faith and patience for her few distempered hours as they were not in number equal to the rest so neither would her tender Father judge her for them By these and other Arguments through Gods assistance she seemed at last satisfied that although she yet wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet she was not without the strengthening influences of it But yet her adversary would not leave her his next temptation was from her apprechended want of Gods quickening grace to which purpose she replies again 6. Tempt Sir I remember you told me that though I wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet if I found its quickening influences I had no reason to despond but Sir I want these my head and my heart is dull there is no life left in my spirit I lift up a lifeless soul to God in prayer never was any in so dull and dead a condition as I am To this I replied 1. That if her Ladiship found the strengthening influences of the holy Spirit they would evidence a state of justification and favour with God now those were evident in her Ladiship how else did her Ladiship in her dark condition commit her self unto God rest upon him and patiently wait for him 2. That as to quickening grace it was seen 1. In exciting the soul to duty 2. In inclining the soul in duty so as it performeth it with alacrity delight and vigour and for the latter it works in us by assisting us in the improvement of our natural parts and powers now this assistance might be wanting to her Ladiship through the indisposition of those Organs by and through the means of which the Spirit perfecteth these operations and her Ladiship must consider that her spirits were tired with succession of pain and stupified by anodines medicines which her learned Physician thought proper for her for the allevation of her pain which otherwise would soon have
infallible truth whether the Proposition be dogmatical or promisory c. And indeed if you so believe you cannot but judge your selves reasonably engaged to labour for this fear of the Lord which shall most certainly have such a train of blessings waiting upon it 5. I will add one thing more There is no such preservative from all evil both of sin and punishment Evil of punishment is sensible evil Evil of sin is the greater evil but not so obvious to sense while the poor creature liveth here As to the former the evil of sin there 's no such preservative against that Prov. 16. 6. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil It is of the nature of fear well rooted in the heart to lay a restraint upon us from provoking the person of whose power we are afraid And 't is impossible that a soul should truly fear God and yet boldly knowingly and deliberately provoke him to vengeance There is no such preservative from the evil of sin as the fear of the Lord is Nor is there any such preservative from evils of punishment This indeed followeth upon the other for all punishment is the fruit of sin Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but be that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief It is not he that feareth alway but he that bardneth his heart that falleth into mischief I shall add but one thing more 6. Lastly There is no such remedy against the slavish fear of the creature as this filial and reverential fear of God Isa 7. You shall find v. 3. That God sent the Prophet to meet Ahaz His business was to incourage him aâ—d to delâ—ver him from the fear of the two potent adversaries Rezin and Pekah chap. 8â— v. 13. saith he Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts So out Saviour Maâ— 10. 10. and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And indeed it is but a reasonable thing A greater fear doth as naturally swallow up a lesser as a greater pain of the Stone or the like drowneth the lesser and causeth it hardly to be discerned Now this is no small advantage The bondage of fear which in this life we are subject to is no small bondage and it is no small blessing to be delivered from it But let this be enough to have spoken by way of motive to perswade people to this fear of Jehovah I have spoken so much concerning the excellent habit that me thinks I cannot but in charity judge there is by this time kindled in your hearts some desires after it and hear you whispering How should I get this fear of the Lord In order to it let me commend to you something of Meditation Observation Caution Faith Prayer 1. The first thing is Meditation as to which in this case let me commend to you a double Object The Word of God The Works of God The Word of God Deut. 4. 10. I will make them to hear my words that they may learn to Deut. 4. 10. fear me all the daies they shall live The holy Scriptures as to the matter of them have much in them which hath a natural tendency to affect the hearts of men and women with this dread of God 1. They tell you what God is what a great and glorious Majesly what a pure and holy God he is what a just and severe God he is How infinite his Power is that he killeth and saveth alive whomsoever he pleaseth throws to Hell and brings to Heaven whom he pleaseth from whence every rational soul must necessarily conclude the subjection of his poor feeble nature unto him and this apprehension as to any thing is the foundation of fear in us I mean of all reverential and servile fear They likewise tell you what God is in his Goodness and Mercy and the apprehension of this is the foundation of all filial fear 2. They tell you what God hath revealed that he will be and shew himself to be both to all impenitent and presumptuous sinners and to all those who are his children And 3. They tell you much what God hath been towards all sorts in the ancient issues of his Providence Now I would have you not only to read these but to meditate on them Meditation is the souls stand upon its object it s weighing of matter proposed and attention to it The want of this is one great cause there is so little dread of God in the world Have not men the Scriptures What house is there amongst us in which are not many Bibles Do they not read them many do but they do it in a vain formality without a due digestion and meditation so as the notions of holy Writ leave no impression upon their hearts Would men but allow the Word to have a place in their hearts did the Word of God dwell in them it were impossible one would think but this savour of it should be left behind men could not talk and walk as they do 2. Let the Works of God be also the matter of your meditation Come and see saith the Psalmist what desolations he hath wrought in the earth The truth is the wheel of Providence hath turned so strangely in the world since the world had an existence that if men could give themselves leisure to think of its motions to consider them in their causes in the manner of their revolution in the things brought to pass by them one would think it impossible but that it should affect their hearts with a dread of the Divine Majesty But of this more by and by 2. The second thing which I shall commend to you is Observation Observation of the motions of Providence I remember it is reported of Waldus the Father of those famous Christians the Waldenses that he was converted by seeing the sudden death of one of his companionâ— in the daies of his vanity Would we but obsâ—rve how Providence is every day ratifying the Promises cutting of blood-thirsty and deceitful meâ— who he hath said shall not live out half their daies bringing the Councils of Ahitophels to folly striking sinners dead in their full career of sin and sending them down in a moment to the pit and many other waies men could not but fear that great and glorious Name but we see and do not see These and such like examples are daily before our eyes and we observe them not and therefore we fear not God Christians if you would fear God observe the workings of his Providence much how in his great works he is daily confirming his Promises to his people and his threatnings to his enemies If the Word of God will not make you fear him yet surely his works must his works by which you see him justifying and giving a Being to his Word 3. If you would get this fear of God take heed of those things which have a direct tendency to harden your hearts from his fear 1. Take heed first of Atheistical Principles