them with acting out of Fancy or humour or any thing but a fixed and stable Principle Besides what hath been spoken by way of Direction in answer to the Question some further Improvment of this Doctrine may be made Vse 2 1. By way of Information If true Christians may give an account of their Christianity 1. They then are no true Believers no true Christians of whose Religion no good account can be given either how they came by it or whereon it is grounded 1. How they came by it when they pretend to be Saints but cannot in the least tell how they came to be Saints have found no real change in themselves are the same they have alwayes been they have they think loved God and believed in Christ and had hopes of Heaven ever since they can remember but know not how any of these things were wrought in them or by what means such a Faith I dare say is but a Fancy and so is their Hope and their Love and whatever Grace they pretend to 2. Whereon it is grounded 1. When their Faith is not rightly grounded it is no better than a Fancy When it is built on the Authority of a Church or the Traditions of men and not on the Word of God or on the Word misunderstood or misapplied or divided or maimed when they believe Promises without respect to Commands believe Christ is their Saviour and yet never receive him to be their Lord believe they shall See God though they be not pure in Heart follow not after Holiness and such indeed is the Faith and Hope of Prophane Worldlings and whoever live in Contradiction to Gods Commands and yet expect the benefit of his Promises 2. When their Practice is not rightly grounded it is no better than Folly how fair soever and plausible it may seem When men set up a Religion meerly of mans devising contrive new wayes of Worshipping God which he himself never appointed and so indeed impose upon him and prescribe to him what they think must certainly please him This is unreasonable for men to think that their Inventions or others Traditions can be more acceptable to God than his own Institutions that Sacrifice can go further than Obedience would have done They would themselves be served according to their own minds and not their Servants pleasure and why should not God They would not have their Commands neglected that their Servants Will might be performed and how foolish is it then to adhere to their own Inventions though with the slighting of Gods Institutions and yet how few be there that are so addicted to Humane Observances but they are careless of Gods Appointments Gods Commands being the Great and only Warrantable reason of all Divine Worship whatever Worship is uncommanded cannot be but unreasonable 2. How great is their sin that Question nay Deride the Grace that is in Believers as not being a real thing count the most Serious powerfull Godliness to be no better than Humour of Fancy All the Religion they own consists but in a few outward Forms or some moral Actions and whatever is above this they look upon as not real and so they leave us a Lamentably empty Religion when they condemn our Faith as Fancy our Practice as Folly and casheer all our Comforts as meer Delusions This usually proceeds either 1. From the Atheism and Infidelity of such mens Hearts some Question all Religion and so the true Religion among the rest they are themselves for none and therefore Quarrel with all they think all Religion is but Fancy or Policy and so the Christian Religion too They do not really believe the Grounds of Christianity and therefore laugh at them that do 2. Or from Pride and Conceitedness of their own Wisdom and Reason they magnifie their own Notions are in love with their own Wisdom and so contemn all else like the Athenians Acts. 17.18.32 that laugh'd when they heard of Jesus and the Resurrection The high Opinion they have of their Reason makes them deny the reality of Faith what they cannot themselves comprehend they will not believe nor allow others to do it they will scarce allow of any thing between Demonstration and Fancy and this makes them Innovate so much in Religion and Scoff at the Faith by which they should be Saved 3. Or from Ignorance of Spiritual things and their not Experiencing the Power of Grace in their own Hearts They will believe nothing in Religion but what they have themselves felt They never found the Light of Divine Truths shining into their dark Minds and overcoming their Carnal Reason nor the Power of Grace renewing their Wills and subjecting them to Gods Will breaking the force of their sinfull Inclinations mortifying their Lusts regulating their Affections changing the habitual temper and disposition of their Spirits nor the Efficacy of Faith in the Purification of their Hearts their resting upon the Promises cleaving to Christ and fetching in supplies of the Spirit from him nor the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts enlarging them in Duties quickning them in his wayes supporting them under Burthens strengthning them against Temptations and comforting them under Afflictions and therefore they Question all these things and take them to be nothing else but canting Phrases and unaccountable Fancies A man that never was at Rome or Constantinople might at the same rate deny there ever were such places one that never tasted Honey might deny it to be sweet or a blind man laugh at Colours because he never saw them though contrary to the Experience of thousands that had with as much reason as they who live meerly by Sense and never Experienced any better pleasures deny a higher Principle by which Believers are acted and more Spiritual Comforts which they enjoy Vse 2 Of Exhortotion 1. Labour to Experience the reality of your Religion in your selves So live as that you may not be deceived and may know that you are not So act Grace as that you may feel it working and from thence conclude the Principle to be in you and may tast the sweetness of the comforts it brings with it Labour to be fully satisfied that you do not live by Fancy and act by Fancy think you believe and hope when you do not that Grace in you is as real a Principle as Reason is 1. This becomes you as reasonable Creatures as such you should know the reason of your own Actings upon what Grounds you do what you do and believe what you believe You would think a man very weak and foolish in the concernments of this present Life that could give himself no account of his own Actions or expectations should have high hopes of great things but not tell why he entertained them How unreasonable then is it for a man to hope for greater things in the other Life to engage in a Religious Course be diligent in Duties deny himself as to his Worldly Interest and yet not know why he doth so 2. It
is this Quest How may our belief of Gods Governing the world support us in all worldly distractions The Text which I have now read is the precious and sure foundation on which I am to build in that we find these things observable 1. A comfortable assertion the Lord reigneth i. e. Jehovah God or if you please our Lord Jesus Christ unto whom all power is given both in Heaven and in Earth For that he is particularly intended in this Psalm may be gathered from vers 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images and boast themselves of their Idols worship him all ye Gods which last words relate to Christ as the Apostle Paul assures us Heb. 1 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him 2. Here is an Exhortation to joy and gladness upon account of the Lords reigning Let the Earth rejoyce and let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof i. e. Let all the world rejoyce at least all those that are the subjects of this mighty Lord who have bowed to his Scepter and submitted themselves to his Government as a willing people in the day of his power Christ was the desire of all Nations and there is reason why he and his Government should be the delight and satisfaction of all Nations Both those in the Earth by which some understand the Continent and those in the Isles England Scotland and Ireland among the rest or if you please you may understand the Gentiles because that passage of the Prophet Isa 42 4. The Isles shall waite for his Law is by the Evangelist rendered thus Mat. 12 21. In his name shall the Gentiles trust 3. We have here the manner how the Lord administers his Kingdoms and mannageth his Government and that is laid down in two things 1. First with terrible majesty and mysteriousness this you have in the former part of the second Verse Clouds and darkness are round about him Which words do intimate to us the tremendous majesty of the Lord which may well strike an awe upon his Subjects and friends and much more fill his enemies with dread and horrour He was terrible at his giving forth the fiery Law upon Mount Sinai As we read Deut. 11 4. The Mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of Heaven with darkness Clouds and thick darkness So he is and will be still in his present and future appearances and dispensations Mala. 3 2. Who shall abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth well may that question be propounded for Mat. 12 3. His Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor and gather his wheat into the garner but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire And as these Clouds and darkness do signifie the terrible Majesty so the mysteriousness of his proceedings He often goeth so much out of our sight that we are unable to give an account of what he doth or what he is about to do Frequently the Pillar of divine Providence is dark throughout to Israelites as well as Egyptians so that his own People understand not the Riddles till he is pleased to be his own Interpreter and so lead them into his Secrets Psalm 77 19. His way is in the Sea and his path in the great Waters and his footsteps are not known c. The Lord mannageth his Kingdom and Government with perfect equity and unspotted Justice Righteousness and Judgment are the habitation of his Throne Righteousness whereby he preserves saves and rewards the good Judgment whereby he punishes confounds and destroyes the wicked These are the habitation of his Throne his Tribunal his Seat of Judicature These are the Basis or foundation which give unto his Throne is recritudinem stabilitatem rectitude and establishment His Throne is established in righteousness and the Scepter of his Kingdom is a right Scepter Though there be Clouds yet no blemishes though darkness yet no deformities Psalm 92 15. The Lord is upright he is our Rock there is no unrighteousness in him The Doctrine I shall speak to is this In the midst of all outward distractions and confusions Doct. Gods Governing the world may and should be the support and joy of his Saints In the handling thereof I shall observe this method 1. Enquire what Government is 2. Prove that God doth Govern the World 3. Shew why this should support and comfort his People 4. Improve the whole in a way of use I begin with the first of these Quest What is Government Answer I answer Government is the exerting or putting forth of that Power which any one is justly cloathed with for the ordering and directing of Persons and things to their right and proper ends In this description of Government are three things to be considered and spoken to In all Government there is an end fixed and aimed at Thus it is in Domestick or Family Government which Parents have over their Children by nature and Masters over their Servants by vertue of Contract The end of that Government is the good of the Family and every one that is a member thereof The Parent or Master ought not to be wholly addicted to himself nor to aime solely at his own honour pleasure and advantage but to desire study and by all lawful means to promote the good and welfare of the whole And just so it is with Political Government both in Cities and Provinces and Kingdoms or Empires When People did at first excogitate and constitute such or such a form of Government and place one or more at the Helm and submitted themselves to him or them no rational man can doubt but it was for some wise end Government and Governours are not set up for nothing but for an end which end is either supreme and ultimate or inferiour and subordinate The supreme and ultimate end is and ought and deserves to be the glory of God the exalting of his Name the preserving securing and inlarging of his interest the maintaining and promoting of Religion and Godliness None can shoot at a fairer mark nor drive a nobler design this is worthy of men of the best and greatest men It is the great end which God himself aimes at in all the works of his Hands He both made all things for himself and for himself likewise he doth uphold and order them And unto this end all Magistrates are in duty bound to have an eye and direct their rule and all their actions This is the great work of their place the main and principal business of their Office The good Lord give them all an heart to consider it and to act accordingly As they rule by God so they are obliged to rule for him they ought not so much to design the lifting up of themselves as the lifting up the Name of God and Christ in the world especially in their own Dominions That Magistrate who doth not make the glory of God
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
and strengthen the Hands and confirm the Faith of your fellow Saints when they see that you believe as they believe and hope as they hope and Practise as they Practise that they are not alone nor singular in what they do Though a true Believer ought to hold on constantly in the way of Faith and Holiness notwithstanding the opposition of all the World against him yet it may be no small Encouragement to him to find others of the same mind Acting at the same rate and upon the same Grounds Quest How God is his Peoples great Reward SERMON III. GEN. XV. 1. I am thy Shield and thy exceeding Great Reward ABraham is called the Friend of God Jam. 2.23 The Lord spake with him familiarly Gen. 17.22 he was made of Gods Privy Council Gen. 18.17 And in the Text The Word of the Lord came to him in a Vision Representations of things in a Vision differ from Revelations by Dreams a Gen. 31.11 And what was the word that came to this holy Patriarch in a Vision I am thy Shield and thy exceeding great Reward Words too great for any Man or Angel fully to expound Both the Hebrew and Greek carry the Phrase very high b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am thy superabundant very exceeding much râ—ward c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Text is a Climax it riseth as the Waters of the Sanctuary higher I am thy Reward thy great Reward d Mâ—rcâ—s tua manna nimis Grotius thy exceeding great Reward There are four things here to be spoken to 1. That nothing besides God can be the Saints Reward 2. How God is their Reward 3. How God comes to be their Reward 4. Wherein the exceeding Greatness of this Reward consists 1. That nothing besides God can be the Saints Reward 1. Nothing on Earth can be their Reward The glistering of the World dazles mens eyes but like the Apples of Sodom it doth not so much delight as delude The World is res Nihili guilded emptiness e Prov. 23.5 The World is made Circular the Heart in the figure of a Triangle a Circle cannot fill a Triangle The World is enough to busie us not to fill us f Fumus Ventus sunt omnia mundana Aug. Tom. 9. Job 20.22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits It seems a Riddle to have sufficiency yet not have enough The meaning is when he enjoyes most of the Creature yet aliquid deest there is something wanting When King Solomon had put all the Creatures into a Limbeck and went to extract and still out the Spirits * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they turned to Froth Eccles 1.2 All is Vanity God never intended we should dig Happiness out of the Earth which he hath cursed 2. Heaven it self is not a Saints Reward Psalm 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Angels and Arch-angels †Ibi sunt angeli archangeli Musc saith Musculus I but though these are for a Saints comfort yet not properly for his Reward Communion with Seraphims is excellent yet can no more make a Saints Reward than the light of the Stars can make day Quest 2. How is God his peoples Reward Answ In bestowing Himself upon them f Non tantum sua sed se nobis impâ—rtit The Great Blessing of the Covenant is I am thy God The Lord told Abraham Kings should come out of his loyns and he would give the Land of Canaan to him and his Seed Gen. 17. but all this did not amount to Blessedness That which made up the Portion was Vers 8. I will be their God God will not only see that the Saints shall be rewarded but his own self will be their Reward a King may reward his Subjects with Gratuities but he bestowes himself upon his Queen God saith to every Believer as he did to Aaron Num. 18.20 I am thy part and thy Inheritance and as the King of Israel said to Benhadad 2 Kings 20.4 I am thine and all that I have Abraham sent away the Sons of the Concubines with a few Gifts but he settled the Inheritance upon Isaac Gen. 25.5 God sends away the Wicked with Riches and Honour but makes over himself to his people they have not only the Gift but the Giver And what can be more As Micah said Judg. 18.24 What have I more So what hath God more to give than Himself what greater Dowry than Deity God is not only the Saints Rewarder but their Reward g Merces idem valet quod haereditas Calvin Job 22.25 The Almighty shall be thy Gâ—d So much the Hebrew word imports h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aurum lectissimum Junius Buxtorf k Perperam impiè delirarunt qui complementum Dei Eph. 3.19 interpretati sunt plenam divinitatem quasi homines fiant Deo aequales Calv. The summe of all is The Saints Portion lies in God Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance and of my Cup i Notant Grammatici Rectionem Plurium Synonymorum auxesim denotare Q. But how doth God give himself to his people is not his Essence incommunicable A. True the Saints cannot partake of Gods very Essence an Error of Montanus and the Familists The Riches of the Deity are too great to be received in specie But the Saints shall have all in God that may be for their Comfort they shall partake so much of Gods Likeness l 1 Joh. 3.2 his Love m John 17.26 his Influence and the Irradiations of his Glory n Joh. 17.22 as doth astonish and fill the Vessels of Mercy that they run over with Joy Quest 3. How God comes to be his Peoples Reward Answ Through Jesus Christ his Blood being Sanguis Dei the blood of God Act. 20.28 hath merited this glorious Reward for them Though in respect of Free Grace this Reward is a Donative yet in respect of Christs Blood it is a Purchase Eph. 1.14 How precious should Christ be to us Had not he died the portion had never come into our hands 4. Wherein the exceeding greatness of this Reward consists Quest 1. God is Merces ampla a satisfying Reward o Perfectionem omnium honorum in se uno comprehendit Rivet Gen. 17.1 Answ 1 I am God Almighty The word for Almighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies him that hath Sufficiency God is a whole Ocean of Blessedness which while the Soul is bathing in it cries out in a Divine extasie I have enough Here is Fulness but no Surfeit Psal 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness p Spiritualem vult Foelicitatem quando Facit ad Faciem se nobis fruendum exhibeat Deui. Calvin When I awake out of the sleep of death having my Soul embelished with the Illustrious Beams of thy Glory I shall be satisfied In God there is not only Sufficiency but Redundancy not only Plenitudo
a formed design to this purpose If such men were capable of being reason'd with tho it were to as good purpose to talk to a storm or reason with a whirlwind or a flame of fire I would ask them What are you altogether unatoneable will nothing divert you from this pursuit If any thing what will What more gentle thing than our destruction do you seek or will content you Is it our communion And do you so recommend your selves Do you not know Cain is said to have been of that wicked one who slew his brother 1 Joh. 3.10 And that whosoever hateth his brother is a murtherer and that no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him Is it not said Joh. 8.44 That such are of their father the devil and the lusts of their father they will do who was a murtherer from the beginning And in the forementioned 1 Joh. 3.10 In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother If all were like you under what notion were we to unite with them The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 10.20 21. I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords table and of the table of devils And in good earnest incarnate devils thô that Text do not directly speak of such have too much of devil in them to be participants in a communion that can seem desireable or is likely to be gratefull to serious Christians I must avow it to all the world it is not this or that external form I so much consider in the matter of Christian union and communion as what Spirit reigns in them with whom I would associate my self How can I endure to approach those holy mysteries wherein all are to drink into one Spirit and declare their union with the God of love with the Emmanuel God most nearly approaching us God with us collecting and gathering us in unto him as our common center whence the blessed Spirit of holy love is to diffuse it self through the whole body all enlivened by that spirit and form'd by it unto all kindness benignity goodness and sweetness With what significancy can I do so thô I were never so well satisfy'd with the external forms and modes my self if it be apparent I say if apparent I must cast in my lot and joyn my self with them were they generally such whose souls are under the dominion of the quite contrary spirit that fills them with malignity with mischievous dispositions and purposes towards many a sincere lover of God that cannot be satisfy'd with those forms and modes and who decline them only from a sense of duty to God and a fear of offending against the high authority of their blessed glorious Redeemer I know many are apt to justify themselves in their animosity and bitterness of spirit towards others upon a pretence that they bear the same disaffected mind towards them But besides that it is the most manifest and indefensible injustice if they charge the innocent or such as they are not sure are guilty if their own wrath and enmity be so potent in them as to enable their tainted vicious imagination to create its object or so to disguise and falsly clothe it as to render it such to themselves as whereupon they may more plausibly pour out their fury I say besides that how contrary is this vindictive spirit to the rules and spirit of the Christian Religion Is this to love our enemies to bless them that curse us and despitefully use us c How unlike the example of our blessed Lord when even in dying agonies he breath'd forth these words and his soul almost at once Father forgive them c Or of the holy Martyr Stephen Lord lay not this sin to their charge How unlike is that aptness to the retaliating of injuries to the Christian temper which the renowned Calvin discovers in an Epistle to Bullinger speaking of Luthers severity towards him If Luther a thousand times saith he call me devil I will acknowledge him for a famous servant of God which Passage both Bishop Morton and Bishop Davenant magnify him for and the former saith he herein spake so calmly so placidly so indulgently as if it were not a man but humanity it self that uttered the words Yea and such retaliation is what Paganism it self hath declaimed against a Maxim Tyr. Dissert 2. A noted Philosopher urges that against it that one would think should not need to be suggested to Christians somewhat so prudential as might not only work upon the principle of love to others but even that of self-love That then the evil must perpetually circulate and so must again and again return upon our selves As indeed if that must be the measure to revile them that revile us b 1 Pet. 2.23 c. 3.9 and render evil for evil railing for railing we should never have done It were a course which once begun could by that rule never find an end This then is the first part of the Answer to the proposed Question What may be most hopefully done c The endeavour of having our hearts knit together in love would surely do much towards it And this is agreeable to any the most private capacity No man can pretend his Sphaere is too narrow if his Soul be not for the exercise of love towards fellow-Christans And I hope 't is agreeable to all our principles Sure no man will say 't is against his conscience to love his brother And the same must be said of 2. That other expedient the endeavour to have our souls possest with a more clear efficacious practical faith of the Gospel Which was to make the other part of the answer to our Question And thô this is the more important part It is also so very evident that we do not need to make this discourse swell to a bulk too unproportionable to the rest it is to be joyned with by speaking largely to it Althô we have not the Name of faith in this Text we have the Thing It is not named but it is described so as that it may easily be understood both what it is and how necessary to our purpose 1. What it is or what measure and degree of it that would be of so great use in such a case We are told with great Emphasis The riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. Such as whereby 1. Our understandings are duly enlightned so as mentally to entertain aright the doctrine of the Gospel i. e. 1. Distinctly to apprehend the meaning and design of this mysterious revelation of God in Christ 2. And to be fully assured of the truth of it 2. Such again as whereby our hearts are overcome so as practically and vitally to
to the end and ye see what power he had with God in Prayer for wicked Sodom God communicated his Secrets to him as one Friend to another and Abraham made Intercession to him as Favourites of Princes for Malefactors So did he for Sodom and ye know how far he prevailed for he was a Righteous man Jam. 5.16 and such a mans Prayer prevaileth much And what was Abrahams Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith by Imputation Rom. 4. and this Faith living and working XV. We keep our selves in the Love of God when we declare a publick Spirit for the Cause of God in his Church against the Enemies of it by being zealous for his Glory and valiant for his Truth in our Station Judg. 5. This is lively asserted in the Song of Deborah and Barak who after she had praised some for their appearing and others for not appearing in this Cause dispraised the Lord she praised above all for his presence with his People and for that Spirit of Love he poured out upon them in these Words vers 31. So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might Now the Reason why this publick Spirit in the Cause of God is expressed by our Love to God is this Because God is so much concerned in it 1. As to his Honour to defend and deliver his People from his and their Enemies as the Midianites were 2. As to his Power in reducing thirty thousand to three hundred Jud. 7. as in Gideons case all that lapped He as a poor Barley Cake tumbled all the Enemies down and by a small company And a Woman in Deborahs case that is by her self and Jael Judg. 4.21 destroyed Jabin and Sisera's mighty Host To omit many other instances of publick Hearts in this case signally owned by God because they signally appeared for God Thus Moses Exod. 2.11 13. Judg. 5.9 This was their Love Thus saith Deborah My Heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer themselves willingly bless ye the Lord. Zebulun and Napthali jeoparded their lives unto Death in the high places of the Field and thus did Issachar ver 15. But Reuben Gad Manasseh Dan and Asher are branded for their Cowardise I say all this appearing in the defence of all that was dear to God and them is called Love to God Therefore we may in no wise exclude this Noble publick Spirit in the cause of God and his People from the Love of God for there is no principle in the World like to the Love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.8 Deum odisse in sacris literis peculiariter illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt Maimon Which love me and keep my Commandments Illa praecipuè quae ad arcendas pravas superstitiones pertinent Grot. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pij dicti sunt Ezek. 16.33 36 37. chap. 23.5 Jer. 2.2 I remember the love of the Espousals to animate and inflame the Soul to do great things for God This Spirit was marvellous in David whose very Name was from Love Therefore it is the duty of every Child of God to pray for the Spirit of God which only sheds all divine Love abroad in the Heart Rom. 5.5 which God inspires as he pleaseth XVI A great means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is to be Sincere and Sound in the Worship of God Mark this well for herein lyes the Love or Hatred of God as appears plainly in the second Commandement Exod. 20. ver 6. Therefore Idols and Idolaters are called our Lovers Hosea 2.5 7. Jer. 8.1 Hosea 13. They kissed the Calves ver 2. Therefore our Hankering and embracing of a false Worship provokes God to jealousie Therefore the Lord deals with Superstition and Idolatry in his People after the Law of Harlots and Adulterers The Scripture is full of this Language There is no higher Act of Love in God than to espouse a People to be his own and to give them a Rule of Worship of his own Institution and to hold them to it as he did Israel And when a People follows God and serves God according to his own appointments there are no higher Acts of Love towards him in Gods account God is enamoured with such a People God in his highest acts of jealousie was inraged against his Idolatrous people Psal 78.59 They kissed their Idols giving them all the tokens of Love and Homage 1 King 19.18 Job 31.27 They burnt their Children to them as the costlyest Sacrifice as Abraham would his Isaac in Love to God but God only tryed him by it Mark 7.7 Colos 2.22 Mat. 15.2 3 6. Rev. 17.4 5. he calls them his Hephsibah and his Beulah Isa 62.4 We see it also in the instance of good Kings how the Lord prized and praised them for this very thing for Reforming and setting up the true Worship of God as David Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah how the Lord prospered them because their Hearts were right and perfect with God in this thing On the other side how he hath branded and blasted all those that were false herein For this was David a man after Gods own Heart fulfilling all his Wills which is chiefly meant in the point of Gods Worship Act. 13.22 As for the Wills of men in the Worship of God by their Inventions Traditions and Commandements he tells you he hates them and they are Abomination to him And no wonder for what intrencheth more upon the Honour of Gods Wisdom and Soveraignty than this That he doth not know best how to appoint his own Worship but must be fain to be beholding to Man for his devices and dictates in the Case This though it seems very gay is Whorish and Poysonous this golden Dress and Cup is intoxicating XVII A great Means of keeping in the Love of God is keeping up the Communion of Saints in all the parts and duties of it What this is we shall see according to Scripture The Communion of Saints is our Participation of all the good things of God in common whereunto all the Saints and only they have right consisting in our Union to God as our chiefest good this is with God as a Father with the Son and Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 1.3 2 Cor. 13.13 1. We have Communion with the Father as Children and all in the greatest Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Rom. 8.16 17. This is procured by Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 only obtained by Believing Joh. 1.12 And maintained by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 Who walk not in darkness but in light 1 Joh. 1.6 7. 2. We have Communion with Jesus Christ the Son of God By which we are made partakers of him of his Nature and of his Grace and of his Glory all which is done by Faith that uniteing and marrying Grace and this works such Conjugal Love between Christ and his Church as makes them
design'd by God himself to succeed in the Throne of Israel yea and against his solemn Oath sworn unto him to bring him to him that he might be murthered 1 Sam. 20.31 This both griev'd and provok'd Jonathan ver 34. Or with that incestuous bloody Creature Herodias who commands Her Dancing Daughter to ask of Herod more than half His Kingdom viz. John Baptists head Mat. 14.8 3. When Parents meerly to gratifie their Humour Self-will Lusts Passions Fury chastise beat and almost kill their Children with unjust and immoderate lashes stripes punishments 1. Vnjust when the Parent hath no lawful cause or reason so to do What just Plea could that unnatural Saul make for casting his Javelin to smite his Innocent Son Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.33 After he had spit out the Poison of his Heart in his words he fills up the measure of his wickedness in this bloody deed suitable to his murtherous Heart 2. Immoderate when the sharpness of the punishment exceeds the greatness of the Crime Here the Lord the Righteous-Judge takes care by his Supream Authority that those that have authority over others should not according to their own Lusts Will and Pleasure rage and vent their fury and passion on criminals Deut. 25.2 3. Now if Justice oblige us to keep our mind free and compos'd in punishing the greatest Strangers and most hainous Malefactors that we may exactly proportion the penalty to their fault how much more should a Father whose Name breathes nothing but benignity and sweetness observe the same moderation when his business is to chastize the Child of his own Bowels And if not instead of reforming he doth but provoke his Child Thus much concerning Sinful Severity what it is and how far provoking in all which I neither have nor could bring one instance either Father or Mother in the whole Scripture that had the Character of a Godly Person that is charged with the crimson-guilt of a Sinfully severe Parent 3. What may godly Parents best do for the Conversion of those Children whose wickedness is occasion'd by their sinful Severity To this I answer 1. More generally Physician heal thy self To cleanse the polluted stream let 's begin at the puddl'd fountain 1. As much as may be cease your complaints to men of finding so much cause of grief and sorrow in your untoward Children instead of Joy and Comfort That they are pungent thorns instead of refreshing roses stabs instead of staffs Exclaim no more at least not morosely or in passion against thâ— pride Levity vanity frowardness obstinacy debauchery incorrigibleness of your wretched Children especially in the hearing of those Children 'T is too probable they will be apt to lay their own Bastards at their Fathers door and impute all their gross miscarriages to their rigid Fathers harshness contempt and want of Love Had not I been unhappy in so stiff a Father he might have been happy in a more complaisant Son Had my Father treated me with more Bowels 't is possible I should have readily answer'd his tenderness with a melting heart bended knee and sincere obedience 2. Instead of opening your mouths to men go immediately and in sincerity unbosom your whole Souls to God Cast your selves at his foot humbly acknowledge your great defects and failings in the management of that Authority that God the supream Father hath stampt upon you Humble your self deeply before the Lord for all your former Irregular and exorbitant Passions stabbing looks hard speeches morose behaviour partial demeanour dreadful Omens and forejudgeings of the sad fate of your at present disobedient Child Weep I say not not so much but not only for your Child but for your self Had the root been sound as it ought the branch had not been so rotten as it is Had the Father been more a Fig-tree the Son had not been so much a Thistle If the Vine hath the least taint of Sodom no wonder if the Wine hath an ugly tang of Gomorrha Weep I say and pray pray and weep and instead of a Bead drop a Tear at the close of every Petition for the full and free pardon of these thy Relational Sins in and through the Blood of that Son that never offended his and thy Father Begg and Begg earnestly for Grace Strength Wisdom which is first pure then peaceable that thou mayst be kept from the like misdemeanour for the future 3. Act towards your Children in all things as a Father Keep your Relation in your Eye 1. Love your Children as a Father A Man would think this advice were * 1 Thes 4.9 As touching Love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to Love Isa 49.15 needless It seems all one as if I should perswade the Sun to shine the Fire to burn nay a man to be a man This Law of Love to Children is written by the Finger drawn by the Pencil stampt and ingraven by the deepest impress of Nature on the Hearts and bowels of all Parents Indeed I have spent more than a few minutes in searching the Scriptures on this account and thô I find many express Texts that oblige us to Love God Christ our Neighbour the Brother-hood our Wives yea our Enemies yet I can light but on one that doth in express Terms command Parents to Love their Children viz. Tit. 2.4 where we find the young Women are to be taught to Love their Children For which the Best reason that I can give for the present is the same that he gave why the Romans among all their Laws had enacted none against the horrid Sin of Parricide viz. Because the Romans either could or would not suppose men to be such Monsters as to be guilty of so black a Crime The Scripture supposes that while we retain the Nature of men or own the Name of Fathers we cannot but love our Children Well then Love your Children but Love them as Fathers Fathers This very single Word contains an Iliad of Arguments Were I at leisure 't were easie to draw out all the Rhetoricans Topicks of Perswasion out of its Bowels Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Name is as an ointment poured forth it sends forth nothing but the perfume of Lâ—ve meekness tenderness Do but sincerely Love your Children as Fathers and then be sinfully severe if you can Love your Children not so much for their lovely countenance their pleasing Grace and sweetness which how charming soever is but a fading flower a skin-deep vanity but principally as those that are bone of your bone flesh of your flesh to whom you have communicated your blood and very nature And let not this Love be like a dead picture or Idol in your breast without Life or Action but a living active principle a spring that may vigorously and effectually influence all the powers of your Soul for the procuring of all that which is truly good to your poor Children Obj. But how can I possibly love such naughty
aversation It intimidates the Child destroyes his mettle and courage for any honest or honourable undertaking smothers yea extinguishes all his fire and vivacity transforms him into a meer sot mope dullard block utterly unfit for use and service nay more it often throws him into the deepest gulph of grief and melancholy sickness death and then it may be when too late the unhappy Parent will see cause to relent and abhorr himself for his unjust severity 6. Parents remember they are Children and but Children Their age may be some Apology for them Their Heads are green yours are grey More years may teach them better manners They are your Children your own Flesh Blood Bowels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle your Children If the stream be corrupt it derives it from your selves the Fountain Psal 51.5 The young Serpent came from the old Cockatrice 7. Since Severity will not do the feat see what sweetness mildness gentleness holy tenderness and indulgence will do Peragit tranquilla potestas quod violenta nequit The pillow may help to break the flint which the Hammer and Anvil cannot It prevail'd with flinty Saul 1 Sam. 24.16 The cordial may prevail where the corrosive cannot The sight of the pardon more commands the heart of the desperate Traytor than that of the Ax or Gibbet 8. To All these adde Scriptural admonition fervent Supplication Patient waiting on and humble Submission to the Will of God Mic. 7.7 8 9. Thus much concerning Sinful Severity we proceed to the Second and that is Sinful Indulgence Our Apostle knowing right well how apt Parents are to swerve from the golden mean of Parental discipline and whilst they Labour to avoid the Rock of Sinful Severity how prone they are to plunge themselves into the gulph of Sinful Indulgence doth in the same Text prescribe a Soveraign Antidote against that fatal pleurisie of fond Affection in these words but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Whilest the severe Parent is breathing a vein in his distemper'd Child he cautions him to take care he doth not pierce an Artery Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath But on the other Hand if the Child labours under an imposthume and needs the Lâ—ncet our Apostle doth here command the discreet use of it and â—â—ll by no means permit that the sinking Child should be sooth'd or stroakt and demulc'd into certain ruine Children must be nurtur'd thô they may not be provok'd Parents must not be cruel Ostrichès and leave and expose their young ones to harm and danger nor yet must they be such fond Apes who are said to hug their Cubs so closely as that they kill them with their embraces And that on this Account because 2. The wickedness of unconverted Children is too too often occasion'd yea and advanced by the sinful Indulgence of their godly Parents Sinful Severity with Saul hath slain it's thousands sinful Indulgence with David it 's ten thousands Poor cocker'd Children when 't is too late find the little Finger of a fond Mother to weigh far heavier and to sink the Soul far deeper than the weighty Loins of a severe Father and at a long run will find more of Sting in a Rod of Roses than in a scourge of Scorpions In the Stating of this case I shall proceed as before and shew you 1. What Sinful Indulgence is not And so 1. Natural ordinate moderate parental Love and such as is mixt with the most yerning bowels most deep and tender compassions is not sinful Indulgence Nay to be without these Natural Affections Rom. 1.31 is not only wretched Stoicisme but sinful cursed and more than brutish astorgy Even the Storks and Sea-monsters will teach us to love our Off-spring Love my Children I may and must 1. With all the sorts and kinds of Love of desire of Union and Communion with them of the sweet enjoyment of them of benevolence and good will willing ready and prepared to desire and wish them all good of beneficence and bounty Tit. 2.4 Gen. 21.19 1 King 3.25.26 1.7 10 18 19. 1 Tim. 5.8 actually endeavouring to do them all good possible both as to their Souls and Bodies All our Spiritual gifts must be for the profit of their Souls for their Direction Consolation Salvation and as for their Bodies their Backs must be our Wardrobes their Bellies our Barns and their Hands our Treasuries And with a Love of Complacency and delight Our Children may and ought to be the joy and rejoycing of our Hearts no greater joy than to see our Children like Olive-plants round about our Table specially if we see and find them walking in the Truth John 2. Ep. 4. John 3. Ep. 4. 2. With all the properties of parental Love viz. Sincere and unfained a Love not in word and tongue only but from the Heart in Deed and in Truth A forward chearful Love not drawn or driven but flowing as from a Fountain An expensive open-handed as well as open-hearted Love A fruitful Love producing not only fair Leaves Buds and blossoms of pleasing smiles and large promises but the mature fruits of beneficial performances An holy just fervent constant Love a most gentle dear tender compassionate Love whereby we are ready to Sympathize with them and forward to succour them in their misery to regard them when they neither regard us nor themselves To take in good part the desires of their Souls when they find not to perform To accept of a sigh in regard of a service a mite instead of a Talent a groan instead of a duty the very stammering of my Child above the eloquence of a Beggar Mal. 3.17 Looking on a returning Prodigal as a Son and pitying as a Father not punishing as a Judge Psal 103.13 14. Remembring their frame and knowing that both they and we are poor dust All this and much more is not sinful Indulgence To carry them in our Bosoms as Moses did the Israelites Num. 11.12 or so in our Hearts as to be willing to impart our very Souls unto them in and for God because they are dear unto us as Paul 1 Thes 2.7 8 11. To Bless them in Gods Name Faith Fear as Jacob did Gen. 49.28 To countenance and encourage them in and reward them for well doing 1 Pet. 2.14 Est 6.3 To Love those most that Love God most to give such Benjamins five messes a double treble Portion an Isaak's Inheritance this is not sinful Indulgence 2. What sinful Indulgence is It stands in the Excess and exuberancy of our Love and affections and in too much slacking and remitting the reins of Government When we do as it were abandon and give up our minds and studies to coax and please and gratifie the humours yea satisfie the Lusts of our foolish Children when we make their Wills our Laws our Rules when the doting Parent is led by the Heart shall I say or Nose by his audacious Child and must be at his
the Ministry of the Gospel promotes a mans own Salvation in so far as the work of Christianity is woven in with the right discharge of the Office of the Ministry Many Ministers can say that if they had not been Ministers they had in all appearance lost their Souls The Subject of the Ministers work is the same with that of a Christian's and above all men should he be careful of his Heart and Intentions that all be pure and spiritual No man in any work he is called to is under so strict a necessity of dependance on the influence and assistance of the Holy Ghost both for Gifts and Grace And are not all these great helps unto our own Salvation 2. The Second advantage is thou shalt save them that hear thee There is little hope of that mans being usefull to save others that minds not his own Salvation And therefore the Apostle puts them in this order thy self and then them that hear thee This description of the People them that hear thee saith that the principal work of a Minister is Preaching and the principal benefit People have by them is to hear the Lords Word from them though there be a seeing i. e. of their holy Conversation that is also useful Phil. 4.9 But the Apostle knew no such Ministers as were only to be seen in worldly Pomp and Grandeur and seldom or never heard Preaching Thou shalt save them The great End of both Preaching and Hearing is Salvation and if Salvation were more design'd by Preachers and Hearers it would be more frequently the effect of the action Thou shalt save them Thou shalt by the Lords blessing on thy Ministry be successeful in converting Sinners and in building up of Saints in Holiness and Faith unto Salvation Not that Ministers are of themselves able by all their Endeavours to carry on this great End they are only Gods Tools and Instruments 1 Cor. 3.6 7. Concerning this 1. We find that the Lord hath appointed this great Ordinance of the Gospel-Ministry for this end the Saving of men Eph. 4.11 12 13. It is through their Word that men believe Joh. 17.20 And Divine appointment of the Means declares both it to be usefull and the End to be hopefull 2. He hath also given many Promises of his presence blessing and success to follow and attend them whom he sends on this great Errand Christs first calling of the Apostles had this Promise in it I will make you Fishers of men which not only declared what that Imployment was he call'd them unto but it assur'd them of success in it At his leaving of them Matth. 28.20 he promised to be with them unto the End of the World and this Promise is as good to us as it was to them 3. He hath also revealed much of his Mind about Ministers Duty in order to this end of Saving men This also makes the End more hopefull 4. We find that the Lord doth qualifie and fit them whom he makes successeful He makes men able Ministers of the New Testament the Word of Life 2 Cor. 3.5 6. And still according to the success the Lord hath a mind to bless a man with gifts and qualifications and assistance are proportionably given The Apostles that had the greatest Harvest to gather in were made the strongest Labourers and though in a far inferiour degree the same method is observed by the Lord in dealing with and by ordinary Ministers It 's true that alwayes the most able and learned Ministers are not most successeful yet generally the most skilfull Labourers are most blessed Neither are the most Learned and able men for parts most fit and skilful in dealing with Souls at all times Now having opened the words we shall return to the Question to be resolved By what means may Ministers best win Souls In speaking to which I shall first shew What this Text saith unto this purpose 2ly And then give some further account thereof from other Scriptures 3ly And apply it both to Ministers and People 1. What this Text speaks about this matter It looks two wayes upon this Question 1. It gives a direct Answer unto it and points forth Duty 2. It gives an encouraging Promise of the good Effect and Fruit of the discharge of the Duty I shall carry on both together 1. Take heed unto thy self Wouldst thou be a saved and successeful Minister take heed unto thy self Such Warnings imply alwayes a Case of difficulty and danger wherein he is that gets them Take heed unto thy self in these things 1. Take heed that thou be a sound and sincere Believer The importance of sincere Godliness in a Minister is written in the deep wounds that the Church of Christ hath received by the hands of ungodly Ministers It hath been made a question Whether an ungodly Man can be a Minister but it is none That such men are in a most desperate condition Matth. 7.22 23. Depart from me not because you ran unsent or preach'd Error instead of Truth or preached poorly and meanly all great sins in themselves but because you work iniquity the usual expression of intire ungodliness What use the Lord may make of the Gifts for great Gifts he gives to the worst of men of ungodly men even in the Ministry of the Gospel is one of his deep Paths But no man can reasonably imagine that a walker in the way to Hell can be a fit and usefull Guide to them that mind to go to Heaven If a man would have peace in his Conscience and success in his work of the Ministry let him take good heed to this that he be a sound Christian There is a special difficulty for a Minister to know his Grace Gifts and Grace have deceived many with their likeness although the difference be great both in it self and to an enlightened Eye 2. Take heed to thy self that thou be a called and sent Minister This is of great importance as to Success He that can say Lord thou hast sent me may boldly adde Lord go with me and bless me It is good when a man is serious in this Inquiry It is to be feared that many run and never ask this Question so is it seen in their speed and success Jer. 23. I sent them not therefore they shall not profit this people at all is a standing rule to this day These things if found may serve to satisfie a Ministers Conscience that Jesus Christ hath sent him 1. If the Heart be filled with a single desire after the great end of the Ministry the Glory of God in the Salvation of men Every work that God calls a man to he makes the End of it amiable This desire sometimes attends mens first Conversion Paul was called to be a Saint and an Apostle at once Acts 9. and so have many been called to be Saints and Ministers together If it be not so yet this is found with him that Christ calls that when he is most spiritual and serious
be condemned Tit. 2.8 Deep and weighty Impressions of the things of God upon a mans own Heart would greatly advance this A Ministers Spirit is known in the gravity or lightness of his Doctrine But now we come to the second thing proposed to give some Answer to this Question from other things in the Word And I shall 1. Shew some things that must be laid to heart about the End the saving of Souls 2. And then shall give some advice about the Means 1. About the End the winning of Souls This is to bring them to God it is not to win them to us or to engage them into a Party or to the espousal of some Opinions and Practices supposing them to be never so right and consonant to the Word of God But the winning of them is to bring them out of Nature into a state of Grace that they may be fitted for and in due time admitted into everlasting Glory Concerning which great End these few things should be laid deeply to heart by all that would serve the Lord in being instrumental in reaching it 1. The exceeding height and excellency of this End is to be laid to heart It is a wonder of condescendence that the Lord will make use of men in promoting it To be workers together with God in so great a business is no small honour The great value of mens Souls the greatness of the misery they are delivered from and of the Happiness they are advanced to with the manifold Glory of God shining in all makes the work of saving men great and excellent Preaching the Gospel and suffering for it are Services that Angels are not employed in Mean and low thoughts of the great End of the Ministry as they are dissonant from Truth are also great hinderances of due endeavours after the attaining the End 2. The great difficulty of saving Souls must be laid to heart The difficulty is undoubted To attempt it is to offer violence to mens corrupt Natures and a storming of Hell it self whose Captives all sinners are Unless this difficulty be laid to heart Ministers will be confident of their own strength and so miscarry and be unfruitfull Whoever prospers in winning Souls is first convinc'd that it is the Arm of Jehovah only can do the work 3. The duty of winning Souls must be laid to heart by Ministers That it is their principal work and they are under many Commands to endeavour it It 's a fault to look on Fruit only as a reward of endeavours so it is indeed and a gracious one but it should be so minded as the End we would strive for Col. 1.28 29. which when attained is still to His Praise yet most commonly when it is missing it is to our reproach and danger when it is as alas it's often through our default 4. The great advantage there is to the Labourer by his success is to be pondered Great is the gain by one Soul he that winneth Souls is happy as well as wise Prov. 11.30 Dan. 12.3 Won Souls are a Ministers Crown and Glory and Joy Phil. 4.1 1 Thess 2. last How far is this account above all others that a man can give of his Ministry These things fix'd upon the Heart would enliven us in all endeavours to attain this excellent End 2. For advice about the Means I shall adde these few besides what hath been said 1. Let Ministers if they would win Souls procure and retain amongst the People a perswasion of their being sent of God that they are Christs Ministers 1 Cor. 4.1 It is not confident asserting of it nor justifying the lawfulness of our Ecclesiastical Calling though there be some use of these things at some times But it is ability painfulness faithfulness humility and self-denyal and in a word conformity to our Lord Jesus in his Ministry that will constrain People to say and think that we are sent of God Nicodemus comes with this Impression of Christ Joh. 3.2 A teacher come from God It is certain that these thoughts in people further the reception of the Gospel Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus 2. Let Ministers if they would win Souls purchase and maintain the Peoples Love to their Persons And this is best done by loving of them and dealing lovingly and patiently with them There should be no striving with them especially about worldly things yea meekness to them that oppose themselves 2 Tim. 2.24 25 26. It is of great advantage to have their Love how carefully doth Paul sue for it in several Epistles and condescend to entreat and make Apologies when indeed he had not wrong'd them but they only did imagine he had wrong'd them 2 Cor. 11. 3. It would further the winning of Souls to deal particularly and personally with them Not alwayes nor altogether in publick Col. 1.28 Acts 20.20 21. Great fruit hath constantly followed the conscientious discharge of this duty The setting of it up in Geneva did produce incredible Fruits of Piety as Calvin reports when the Ministers and some of the Elders went from House to House and dealt particularly with the Peoples Consciences And we are not without many Instances of the Fruit of this mean in our own time and in these Nations Blessed be the Lord for the Labourers and their success 4. Ministers must Pray much if they would be successeful The Apostles spent their time this way Acts 6.3 Yea our Lord Jesus preached all day and continued all night alone in Prayer to God Ministers should be much in Prayer They use to reckon how many hours they spend in Reading and Study it were far better both with our selves and the Church of God if more time were spent in Prayer Luthers spending three hours daily in secret Prayer Bradfords studying on his knees and other instances of men in our time are talk'd of rather than imitated Ministers should pray much for themselves for they have Corruptions like other men and have Temptations that none but Ministers are assaulted with They should pray for their Message How sweet and easie is it for a Minister and likely it is to be the more profitable to the People to bring forth that Scripture as Food to the Souls of his People that he hath got opened to his own Heart by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the exercise of Faith and Love in Prayer A Minister should pray for the Blessing on the Word and he should be much in seeking God particularly for the People It may be this may be the reason why some Ministers of meaner Gifts and Parts are more successeful than some that are far above them in abilities not because they preach better so much as because they pray more Many good Sermons are lost for lack of much Prayer in Study But because the Ministry of the Word is the main instrument for winning Souls I shall therefore adde somewhat more particularly concerning this and that both as to the matter
mans Conscience in the sight of God Paul's Preaching this is the principal thing to be aimed at and it is the proper source of all profitable Preaching To conclude You that are Ministers suffer a Word of Exhortation Men Brethren and Fathers you are called to an high and holy Calling your Work is full of Danger full of Duty and full of Mercy You are called to the winning of Souls an Employment near a-kin unto our Lords work the saving of Souls and the nearer your spirits be in conformity to his holy temper and frame the fitter you are for and the more fruitfull you shall be in your work None of you are ignorant of the begun departure of our Glory and the daily advance of its departure and the sad appearances of the Lords being about to leave us utterly Should not these Signs of the times rowse up Ministers unto greater seriousness What can be the reason of this sad Observation that when formerly a few Lights raised up in the Nation did shine so as to scatter and dispell the darkness of Popery in a little time yet now when there are more and more Learned men amongst us yet the Darkness comes on apace Is it not because they were men filled with the Holy Ghost and with Power and many of us are only filled with Light and Knowledge and inefficacious Notions of Gods Truth Doth not always the Spirit of the Ministers propagate it self amongst the People A lively Ministry and lively Christians Therefore be serious at heart believe and so speak feel and so speak and as you teach so doe and then People will feel what you say and obey the Word of God And lastly for People It is not unfit that you should hear of Ministers Work and Duty and Difficulties you see that all is of your Concernment All things are for your sakes as the Apostle in another case Then only I intreat you 1. Pity us We are not Angels but men of like Passions with your selves Be fuller of Charity than of Censure We have all that you have to do about the saving of our own Souls and a great Work besides about the saving of yours We have all your difficulties as Christians and some that you are not acquainted with that are only Ministers Temptations and Tryals 2. Help us in our Work If you can do any thing help us in the work of Winning Souls What can we do say you O! a great deal Be but won to Christ and we are made Make haste to Heaven that you and we may meet joyfully before the Throne of God and the Lamb. 3. Pray for us How often and how earnestly doth Paul begg the Prayers of the Churches and if he did so much more should we begg them and you grant them for our Necessities and Weaknesses are greater than his 2 Thess 3.1 2. Finally Brethren pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith THE CHAMBER of IMAGERY IN THE Church of ROME laid open OR AN Antidote against Popery Quest How is the Practical Love of Truth the best Preservative against Popery SERMON X. 1 PET. II.III. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious WHen false Worship had prevailed in the Church of old unto its Ruine God shewed and represented it unto his Prophet under the name and appearance of a Chamber of Imagery Ezek. 8.11 12. For therein were pourtraied all the Abomination wherewith the Worship of God was defiled and Religion corrupted Things relating unto Divine Truth and Worship have had again the same event in the world especially in the Church of Rome And my present Design is to take a view of the Chambers of their Imagery and to shew what was the occasion and what were the Means of their Erection and in them we shall see all the Abomination wherewith the Divine Worship of the Gospel hath been corrupted and Christian Religion ruined Unto this end it will be necessary to lay down some such Principles of Sacred Truth as will demonstrate and evince the Grounds and Causes of that Transformation of the Substance and Power of Religion into a Lifeless Image which shall be proved to have fallen out amongst them And because I intend their benefit principally who resolve all their Perswasion in Religion into the Word of God I shall deduce these Principles from that Passage of it in the first Epistle of the Apostle Peter Chap. 2. and the three first Verses The first Verse contains an Exhortation unto or an Injunction of universal Holiness by the laying aside or casting out whatever is contrary thereunto wherefore lay aside all Malice and all guile and hypocrisie and envy and all evil speaking the Rule whereof extends unto all other vicious habits of Mind whatever And in the Second there is a Profession of the Means whereby this End may be attained namely how any one may be so strengthened in Grace as to cast out all such sinful Inclinations and Practises as are contrary unto the Holiness required of us which is the Divine Word compared therefore unto Food which is the Means of preserving Natural Life and of increasing its strength As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Hereon the Apostle proceeds to declare the Condition whereon our profiting growing and thriving by the Word doth depend and this is an experience of its Power as it is the Instrument of God whereby he conveys his Grace unto us if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious See 1 Thes 1.5 Therein lies the first and chief Principle of our ensuing Demonstration and it is this All the Benefit and Advantage which any men do or may receive by the Word or the Truths of the Gospel depend on an experience of its Power and Efficacy in communicating the Grace of God unto their Souls This Principle is evident in it self and not to be questioned by any but such as never had the least real sence of Religion on their own Minds Besides it is evidently contained in the Testimony of the Apostle before laid down Hereunto three other Principles of equal Evidence with it self are supposed and virtually contained in it 1. There is a Power and Efficacy in the Word and the Preaching of it Rom. 1.16 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it 〈…〉 Pâ—â—â—r of God unto salvation It hath a divine Power the Power of God accompanying it and put forth in it unto its proper Ends for the Word of Gâ—d is quick and powerful Heb. 4.12 2. The Power that is in the Word of God consists in its efficacy to communicate Grace of God unto the Souls of man in and by it they taste that 〈◊〉 Lord is gracious that is is efficacy unto its proper Ends. These are Salvation with all things requisite
conscientious respect unto it Force and Fear rule all This is that Discipline in whose execution the blood of an innumerable company of Holy Martyrs hath been shed that wherein all the vital Spirits of the Papacy do act themselves and whereby it doth subsist and although it be the Image of Jealousie or the Image of the first Beast set up by the Dragon yet it cannot be denyed but that it is very wisely accommodated unto the present State of the Generality of them that are called Christians amongst them For being both blind and carnal and having thereby lost all Sense and Experience of the Spiritual Power of the Rule of Christ in their Consciences they are become an Herd not fit to be governed or ruled any other way Under the Bondage of it therefore they must abide till the vail of Blindness be taken away and they are turned unto God by his Word and Spirit for where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there alone is Liberty SECT VII Unto the foregoing particular Instances with respect unto the Church I shall yet add one more general which is indeed comprehensive of them all or the root from whence they spring a root-bearing Gall and Wormwood And this is concerning the Catholick Church What belongs unto this Catholick Church what is comprized in its Communion The Apostle declares Heb. 12.22 23 24. It is the Recapitulation of all things in Heaven and Earth in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.10 His Body his Spouse or Bride the Lambs Wife the glorious Temple wherein God doth dwell by his Spirit An holy mystical Society purchased and purified by the blood of Christ and united unto him by his spirit or the Inhabitation of the same spirit in him and those whereof it doth consist Hence they with him as the body with its head are mystically called Christ 1 Cor 12.12 And there are two parts of it the one whereof is already perfected in Heaven as unto their spirits and the other yet continued in the way of faith and obedience in this world Both these constitute one family in Heaven and Earth Ephes 3.15 In Conjunction with the holy Angels one Mystical-Body one Catholick Church And although there is a great difference in their present state and condition between these two branches of the same Family yet are they both equally purchased by Christ and united unto him as their Head having both of them effectually the same principle of the life of God in them Of a third part of this Church neither in Heaven nor in Earth in a temporary State participant somewhat of Heaven and somewhat of Hell called Purgatory the Scripture knoweth nothing at all neither is it consistent with the Analogy of Faith or the promises of God unto them that do believe as we shall see immediately This Church even as unto that part of it which is in this world as it is adorned with all the graces of the Holy Spirit is the most beautiful and glorious effect next unto the forming and production of its Head in the Incarnation of the Son of God which Divine Wisdom Power and Grace will extend themselves unto here below But these things the glory of this State is visible only unto the eye of Faith yea it is perfectly seen and known only to Christ himself We see it obscurely in the light of Faith and Revelation and are sensible of it according unto our participating of the graces and privileges wherein it doth consist But that spiritual light which is necessary to the discerning of this Glory was lost among those of whom we treat They could see no reality nor beauty in these things nor any thing that should be of advantage unto them For upon their principle of the utter uncertainty of mens spiritual estate and condition in this world it is evident that they could have no satisfactory perswasion of any concernment in it But they had possessed themselves of the notion of a Catholick Church which with mysterious Artifices they have turned unto their own incredible secular Advantage This is that whereof they boast appropriating it unto themselves and making it a pretence of destroying others what lies in them both temporally and eternally Unto this end they have formed the most deformed and detestable Image of it that ever the world beheld For the Catholick Church which they own and which they boast that they are instead of that of Christ is a company or society of men unto whom in order unto the constitution of that whole society there is no one real Christian grace required nor spiritual Vnion unto Christ the Head but only an outside profession of these things as they expresly contend A Society united unto the Pope of Rome as its head by a subjection unto him and his rule according to the Laws and Canons whereby he will grant them This is the formal reason and cause constituting that Catholick Church which they are which is compacted in it self by horrid Bonds and Ligaments for the ends of Ambition worldly Domination and Avarice A Catholick Church openly wicked in the generality of its rulers and them that are ruled and in its State cruel oppressive and died with the blood of Saints and Martyrs innumerable This I say is that Image of the Holy Catholick Church the spouse of Christ which they have set up And it hath been as the Image of Moloch that hath devoured and consumed the Children of the Church whose cryes when their cruel step-mother pittied them not and when their pretended Ghostly Fathers cast them into the flames came up unto the ears of the Lord of Hosts and their blood still cries for vengeance on this idolatrous generation Yet is this pretence of the Catholick Church pressed in the minds of many with so many Sophistical Artifices through the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive proposed with the allurements of so many secular advantages and imposed oftimes on Christians with so much force and cruelty that nothing can secure us from the Admission of it unto the utter overthrow of Religion but the means before insisted on A spiritual light is necessary hereunto to discern the internal spiritual beauty and glory of the true Catholick Church of Christ Where this is in its power all the paintings and dresses of their deformed Image will fall off from it and its abominable filth will be made to appear And this will be accompanied with an effectual experience of the glory and excellency of that grace in the souls of those that believe derived from Christ the sole head of this Church whereby they are changed from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. The Power Life and sweetness hereof will give satisfaction unto their souls to the contempt of the pretended order of dependance on the Pope as an head By these means the true Catholick Church which is the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all growing
of Jesus Christ THE CVRE of MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH-SORROW BY FAITH and PHYSICK Quest What are the best Preservatives against Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow SERMON XI 2 COR. II. VII Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow THe Brevity of a Sermon not allowing me Time for any unnecessary Work I shall not stay to open the Context nor to enquire whether the Person here spoken of be the same that is condemned for Incest in 1 Cor 5. or some other nor whether Chrysostom had good Tradition for it that it was a Doctor of the Church or made such after his Sin nor whether the late Expositor be in the right who thence gathers that he was one of the Bishops of Achaia and that it was a Synod of Bishops that were to excommunicate him Dr. Hammond who yet held that every Congregation then had a Bishop and that he was to be excommunicated in the Congregation and that the People should not have followed or favoured such a Teacher It would have been no Schism or sinful Separation to have forsaken him All that I now intend is to open this last Clause of the Verse which gives the Reason why the censured Sinner being penitent should be forgiven and comforted viz. Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow as it includeth these three Doctrines which I shall handle all together viz 1. That Sorrow even for Sin may be overmuch 2. That overmuch Sorrow swalloweth one up 3. Therefore it must be resisted and asswaged by necessary Comfort both by others and by our selves In handling these I shall observe this Order 1. I shall shew you when Sorrow is overmuch 2. How overmuch Sorrow doth swallow a man up 3. What are the Causes of it 4. What is the Cure I. It is too notorious that overmuch Sorrow for Sin is not the ordinary Case of the World A stupid blockish Disposition is the common Cause of mens perdition The Plague of a hard Heart and seared Conscience keeps most from all due sense of Sin or Danger or Misery and of all the great and everlasting Concerns of their guilty Souls A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of Sense and Understanding they do some of the outward Acts of Religion as in a Dream they are vowed to God in Baptism by others and they profess to stand to it themselves they go to Church and say over the Words of the Creed and Lords Prayer and Commandments they receive the Lords Supper and all as in a Dream They take on them to believe that Sin is the most hateful thing to God and hurtful to man and yet they live in it with delight and obstinacy they dream that they repent of it when no perswasion will draw them to forsake it and while they hate them that would cure them and will not be as bad and mad as they who feel in them any effectual sorrow for what is past or effectual sense of their present badness or effectual resolution for a new and holy Life They dream that there is a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell but would they not be more affected with things of such unspeakable Consequence if they were awake would they be wholly taken up with the Matters of the Flesh and World and scarce have a serious thought or word of Eternity if they were awake O how sleepily and senselesly do they think and talk and hear of the great Work of mans Redemption by Christ and of the need of Justifying and Sanctifying Grace and of the Joys and Miseries of the next Life and yet they say that they believe them When we preach or talk to them of the greatest things with the greatest evidence and plainness and earnestness that we can we speak as to the dead or to men asleep they have Ears and hear not nothing goeth to their hearts One would think that a man that reads â—n Scripture and believes the everlasting Glory offered and the dreadful punishment threatned and the necessity of Holiness to Salvation and of a Saviour to deliver us from Sin and Hell and how sure and near such a passage into the unseen world is to us all should have much ado to moderate and bear the sense of such overwhelming things But most men so little regard or feel them that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their Concern but hear of them as of some foreign Land where they have no interest and which they never think to see Yea one would think by their senseless neglect of preparation and their worldly minds and lives that they were asleep or in jest when they confess that they must die and that when they lay their Friends in the Grave and see the Skulls and Bones cast up they were but all this while in a Dream or did not believe that their Turn is near Could we tell how to waken Sinners they would come to themselves and have other thoughts of these great things and shew it quickly by another kind of Life Awakened Reason could never be so befooled and besotted as we see the wicked world to be But God hath an awakening day for all and he will make the most senseless soul to feel by Grace or Punishment And because a hardned Heart is so great a part of the Malady and Misery of the unregenerate and a soft and tender Heart is much of the New Nature promised by Christ many awakened Souls under the work of Conversion think they can never have Sorrow enough and that their danger lies in hard-heartedness and they never fear overmuch sorrow till it hath swallowed them up yea though there be too much of other Causes in it yet if any of it be for sin they then cherish it as a necessary Duty or at least perceive not the danger of Excess and some think those to be the best Christians who are most in doubts and fears and sorrows and speak almost nothing but uncomfortable Complaints but this is a great mistake 1. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken Cause All is too much where none is due and great sorrow is too much when the Cause requireth but less If a man thinketh that somewhat is a Duty which is no Duty and then sorrow for omitting it such sorrow is all too much because it is undue and caused by errour Many I have known that have been greatly troubled because they could not bring themselves to that length or order of meditation for which they had neither Ability nor Time And many because they could not reprove sin in others when prudent instruction and intimation was more suitable than reproof And many are troubled because in their Shops and Callings they think of any thing but God as if our outward Business must have no thoughts Superstition always breeds such sorrows when men make themselves Religious Duties which God never made them and then come short in the performance of
all their promises are yea and Amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1 20. The Covenant was made for his sake 't was ratified and confirmed by his death his bloud is called the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13 20. his bloud being shed the Covenant stands good unto eternity Here is vast encouragement to lay hold upon the promises If you come to God and ask Lord hast thou not made promises of pardon to the penitent and believing promises of grace to the humble promises of satisfaction to the hungry Souls promises of joy and comfort to the mourners In his Word God answered Yea. If you farther add Lord Let these promises be accomplished for thy Christs sake the answer is Amen it shall be so they shall be all fulfilled 10. Growing in the knowledge of Christ implies a more earnest looking for his Word appearing The day of this appearing is appointed it draws very near being hastned by the Prayers and sufferings of Saints by the Sins and security of the World Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.37 If Christ were better known this day would be more longed for by the Saints Innocency will then be cleared all enemies more then conquered salvation will be perfected the whole Church of Christ with all its members glorified Col. 3 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Thus you see what it is to grow in the knowledge of Christ and the telling you this is indeed a directing you how to grow in this knowledge In the second place I am to shew you what properties are required in this Knowledge 1. This knowledge of Christ would grow more and more certain The Apostle speaks of Riches of full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2 2. The truths of Christ are certain in themselves the mind should understand them as most certain there should be an assurance of their certainty a full assurance of it such an assurance is a rich thing a thing of great value for 't will have a great vertue and efficacy both upon the heart and life 2. This Knowledge of Christ should more and more 〈…〉 when he sees the treasures of Wâ—sdom in Christ he should be sensible of his own folly when he views the robe of Christs â—â—ghteousness he should be sensible that his own righteousnâ—â—â— are but rags When he studies Christs fulness and Power he should be sensible of his own emptiness and weakness Finally he should see himself to be nothing when he perceives that Christ is all in all Col. 3.11 3. This Knowledge of Christ should grow more Spiritual He is not to be known after a carnal manner and therefore Popish Images are very unfit representations of him not that his flesh is swallowed up of his Divinity as Servetus dreamed but his flesh is glorified and as transcendently glorious we must now look upon him We must also know him as the purchaser and bestower of all Spiritual gifts and graces that we may be further renewed by his Spirit the Apostle â—s thâ—◠〈◊〉 be understood when â—e sâ—â—s 2 Cor. 5.16 â—â— Though 〈…〉 after the Flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more therefore if 〈…〉 in Christ he is a new Creature 4. This Knowledge of Christ should encourage to a mâ—â—◠〈…〉 upon him when we see what a sure and everlasting foundation Christ is here we should build higher and higher till the top reach Heaven there is no fear that the foundation will not bear the superstructure We may safely depend upon Christ for a lasting peace with God for perfecting the work of grace and abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom He that believes in him shall never be confirm did 1 Pet. 2 6. Let 〈◊〉 this Râ—lyaâ—â—e be called a â—â—lling faith but without scoffing at her let the Church of Christ be permitted to lean upon her Beloved while she is so weak as she is in the Wilderness of this World Cant. 8.5 5. The Knowledge of Christ should raise him higher and 〈◊〉 Christians estimation The more we know of him new beauties will still be discovered in him He is greater than Jonas a Prophet grâ—â—â—â— tâ—â—â— Solomon a King who was the most famous King of Israel He is altogether lovely nay he is the Angels wonder Heavens darling the brightness of his Fathers glory Here is no danger of an over value of an excessive love Therefore let the Spark be blown up into a flaâ—â— that may not be quenched by many Flouds of Water that may be too strong for Death and Hell it self to conquer Cant. 8.6 7. 6. The Knowledge of Christ should have a great Aspect upon whatever else is revealed in the Word of God 'T is a great matter to know the truth as it is in Jesus Eph. 4 21. The Apostle tells us that he desired to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2 2. will plainly intimate that he lookt upon other things with a respect unto Christ and indeed without such a respect what knowledge can be profitable what knowledge can be comfortable Luther said In Christs Crucifâ—◠〈…〉 Theologia cognitio Deâ— There cannot be a right knowledge of God if there be an ignorance of Christ crucified 7. The Knowledge of Christ it should be operative still in a greater measure It is inexcusable to be slothful where the Master is so good the promised assistance so great the commands far from grievous and the reward eternal The better we know our Lord Jesus we shall sâ—â—â—â— him witâ— a more perfect heart with a more willing mind Obedience is reasonable pleasant necessary we should be stedfast and always abound herein Labour shall not be in vain 1 Cor. 15 58. 8 The Knowledge of Christ should cause great glorifying and joy Well may believers who have no confidence in the Flesh who worship God in the Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus Phil. 3 3. God in Christ is become their Father and he will not disinherit any of his Children 〈◊〉 he has adopted but they shall abide in the House forever nothing shall separate them from his love The marriage union between Christ and them shall never be dissolved Mansions are preparing for them in Heaven where there is everlasting light and pleasantness and they are fitting for these Mansions and shall not be long out of them Well may they love their Lord and believing rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1 â— In the third place the Directions follow how you may increase and grow in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ The directions are these 1. Be sensible of your remaining ignorance and how great the hindrance is how great the harm is that is the effect of it You that are the Children of light and of the day have much of night and darkness in you A perfect
because he cannot be at once in all parts of his Dominions but God is omnipresent filling Heaven and Earth If thou goest up to Heaven he is there if thou make thy Bed in Hell behold he is there if thou dwellest in the uttermost parts of the Sea there shall his Hand lead thee and his right Hand shall guide thee All things are within his reach wheresoever any thing is doing or to be done there God is who is present in every place and with every person He stands at our right hands and so may well guide them so to do will cost him no travel nor trouble In him we live and move and have our being not at a distance from him not out of him but in him 2. God can easily Govern the world because of his almighty Power he is stronger than all his Word is enough to accomplish all his will The wisest of men are foolish creatures and the strongest are weak Kingdoms and Nations have frequently proved ungovernable to potent Princes Such breaches have been made as they could not heale and such tempests have risen as they could not lay Nay that man is not found in the world who hath Power sufficient to Govern himself How often doth his will rebel against his reason Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor His judgement sees and votes for that which is good but his will chooseth what is worse his sensual appetite longs for it and that must be gratified whatever the cost be We sometimes see that wise men gracious and holy men cannot curb their own passions but they take heâ—d and hurry them into great and uncomely extravagancies But now God is of infinite Power as he hath an arm long enough to reach so strong enough to rule all things He binds the Sea with a girdle and stayes its proud waves saying hither shall ye go and no further He makes the wrath of man to praise him though it be more boisterous than the Sea and the remainder thereof he shall restrain Job hath sundry passages to this purpose worthy of our remark Job 26. take some of them thus He hangeth the world upon nothing He hath compassed the waters with bounds He divideth the Sea with his Power the Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof And then he closeth thus in verse 14. Lo these are part of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him and the Thunder of his Power who can understand The Power of his Thunder is great which discovered the forrest and makes the hinds to calve what then is the Thunder of his Power when God doth but whisper a rebuke into the eare of a man that maketh his beauty to consume like a moth what then can he do nay what can he nor do when he thunders from Heaven In short his Power is irresistible and his will in all things efficacious He can master all difficulties and conquer all enemies and overcome all opposition when he hath a mind to work who shall let him he askes no leave he needs no help he knows no impediment Mountains in his way become plaines his counsel shall stand and the thoughts of his heart to all generations 3. Thirdly God is fit to Govern the world upon the account of his wisdom and knowledg His eyes run too and fro through the Earth He observes all the motions and wayes of men He understands what hath been is and shall be Hell is naked before him how much more Earth His eye is upon the conclave of Rome the Cabals of Princes and the closets of particular Persons Excellently doth David set forth the divine Omniscience Psal 139. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising and understandest my thoughts afar off Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways there is not a word in my tongue but O Lord thou knowest it altogether thou hast beset me behind and before He knows not only what is done by man but also what is in man all his goodness and all his wickedness all his contrivances purposes and designs The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it do you ask who the answer is ready Jehovah He searcheth the heart he tryeth and possessâ—th the reins Those are dark places far removed from the eyes of all the world but Gods eyes are like a flame of fire they carry their own light with them and discover those recesses run thorow all the Labyrinths of the heart they looke into each nooke and corner of it and see what lurks there what is doing there O! what manner of Persons should we be with what diligence should we keep our hearts since God observes them with so much exactness Men may take a view of the practices of others but God sees their principles and to what they do incline them Yea He knows how to order and command the heart not only how to affright it with terrours and to allure it with kindnesses and perswade it with arguments but likewise how to change and alter and mend it by his Power He cannot only debilitate and enfeeble it when set upon evil but also how confirm and fix and fortifie it when carried out to that which is good The hearts of Kings are in the hands of the Lord and he turned them as the Rivers of Water 4. Fourthly God is fit to Govern the world upon the score of his long-suffering and forbearance Those that have the reins of Government put into their hands had need be Persons of excellent and cool Spirits for if they have a great deal of Power and but a small stock of patience they will soon put all into a flame That man who hath but a little Family to mannage will in that meet with trials and exercises enough How much more he that is set over a Kingdom and unspeakably more yet he that is to Govern the world especially considering the present State of the degenerate world and how things have been ever since Sin made an entry into it The whole world now lyeth in wickedness there is not a man in it but doth every day offer a thousand affronts to God and provokes him to his face Angelical patience would soon tire and be spent and turn into such fury as would quickly reduce all into a Chaos There is not an Angel in Heaven but if there were a commission given him he would do immediate execution and sheath the Sword of vengeance in the bowels of malefactors But now to his glory be it spoken God is infinite in patience slow to anger and of great kindness Though he be disobeyed abused grieved vexed pressed with the sins of men even as a cart is pressed that is laden with sheaves yet he spares and bears and waites How loath is he to stir up all his wrath and to pour out the Vials thereof He counts that his strange work when he goeth about it his bowels do
in his Spirit upon the consideration of Gods work both for their number and for their wisdom Psal 104 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all They are very many yet all very good notwithstanding their multitude and variety God miscarried in none there is an impress of wisdom upon them all 3. God governs all things powerfully where the word of a King is Solomon tells us there is power what power then doth the Word of God carry along with it He orders and rules turns and overturns things as he thinks good That is a notable and very comfortable place which we have Isa 33 11. The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations The counsel of the Lord doth so stand as that all things shall certainly fall before it that rise up in opposition to it The counsel of the Heathen when contrary thereunto is brought to nought and the devices of the people are made of no effect As the rod of Moses prevailed against the rods of the Magicians so do the thoughts and counsels of God against all other thoughts and counsels that run counter and bid defiance to them Psal 135 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that he did in the Heaven and in the Earth and in the Seas and in all dâ—ep places Gods will obtains and hath the upperhand every where Down Man down Pope down Devil you must yield things shall not be as you will but as God will We may well say who hath resisted his will many indeed disobey and sin against the will of his precept but none ever did none ever shall frustrate or obstruct the will of his purpose for he will do all his pleasure and in his way Mountains shall become a plain Many men think and some say they will do what they will especially great men who are advanced in place and armed with power they love to be arbitrary stat pro ratione voluntas their will is their own reason and shall be other mens Law but to say I will have my will is a Speech too lofty for a Creature When they exalt their wills God can bind their hands and break their necks How resolved was Pharaoh he would do this and that I that he would Exod. 15 9. The enemy said I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoile my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my Sword mine hand shall destroy them But God was full out as much resolved that as high and great and proud as Pharaoh was yet he should not have his will and God was too hard for him verse 10. Thou didst blow with the wind the Sea covered them they sunk down as lead in the mighty waters by the blast of God they perished and by the breath of his Nostrils they were consumed God did â—asily scatter and consume them as if they had been but dust or chaff the breath of Gods nostrils stopt the breath of their nostrils Nay God need not send forth a blast when he did but give a look the Host of the Egyptians was troubled When God hides his face from his people he troubles them and when he looks upon his enemies he can trouble them Nay more God cannot only bind the hands of men but he likewise can bind their wills yea and turn their hearts too as the Rivers of water He can make enemies to be at peace and Lyons to lye down with Lambs and Leopards with Kiddes and Egyptians to lend their Jewels unto Israelites yea he cannot only pacify them but reconcile them turning their enmity into friendship and their hatred into love Esau resolved to kill his Brother Jacob but he embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him Observe that passage which plainly speaks Gods power over the Spirits and wills of men Exod. 34 23 24. Gods command there was this thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God of Israel And his promise was this no man shall desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year The Jews were invironed with enemies and those enemies might very well desire their Land because it was a good and pleasant Land flowing with milk and hony and when all the males were gone up to Jerusalem and so the borders of the Country were left naked that was a fit opportunity for an invasion But saith God trouble not your selves do your duty go up when I bid you and I will take care and overrule in the case look you to your duty and I will look to your borders I will so order the Spirits of your enemies that not a man among them shall have any mind to give you a disturbance or to make an inroad into your Country And this may afford strong consolation to us in the very worst of times and when things are darkest that God whom we own and serve hath such a mighty and effectual influence upon the hearts and wills of men even of those that are his peoples most desperate and inraged enemies 4. God doth govern the world most righteously So the Text tells us Righteousness and Judgment are the habitation of his Throne It is true many times affairs are so mannaged and things at such a pass good men deprest so low and wicked men advanced so high vice encouraged and vertue frowned upon godliness trampled under foot and prophaneness rampant and triumphing that thereby some have been induc'd to question and deny a Providence and even good men have been stumbled as we may see in several precious and eminent Saints Joh Jeremy Habakkuk Asaph whose names stand upon record in the Sacred Scripture But it doth not become any of us to call the great and glorious God down to the bar of our reason nor to measure his dealings with our line It is not for us to be his Counsellors nor his Judges Rather where we cannot comprehend him let us adore him and give him the justification of faith still resolving with Jeremy to hold fast this conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord. And this is certain whatsoever advantages some wicked men may have as to temporal outward enjoyments yet even here good men have the better of them their lines are cast in more pleasant places so that they have no cause of envy nor complaint Have wicked men at any time the smiles of the world the favour of great ones waters of a cup full wrung out to them do they ruffle in Silks and glister with Jewels and abound with sensitive comforts The Saints though they be poor and afflicted and despised and counted the off-scouring of the world have the love of Gods heart which is most cordial better than wine and the graces of his Spirit which do outworth the gold of Ophyr and oftentimes the light of his countenance and beams of his favour which makes the most lightsome
this a middle state doth Beloved Conversion and Regeneration is a mighty work whatever the world think of it The Mind must be enlightned the Conscience must be awakened the Will must be inclined the Affections must be spiritualized and the Grace by which all these Operations must be effected as it comes from God so is it ordinarily conveyed to us through those outward Means which he hath instituted for that end on which God requires our constant and conscientious Attendance such as Prayer Reading and Hearing the Word read and preached These are the Posts of Wisdoms Gates where we are bound to wait Prov. 8.34 These are the healing Waters at which we must lie if ever we expect the Cure of our Soul-maladies In a word these are the ordinary Means by which God conveys his Spirit that unites the Soul to Christ Gal. 3.3 and thence communicateth the first formations of Spiritual Life Now a middle worldly Estate is the most subservient considering our corrupt state both as to our attendance upon and diligent improvement of these external Helps in order to Gods conveying his Grace to us 1. Take a man under that Extream of Poverty one that is forced either to beg or earn his daily Bread before he eateth it and withal consider him as in his natural state dead in sins and trespasses and without any serious sense of the inestimable worth of his Soul or weight of Eternity Alas how easily are such from the sense of their poverty drawn either to a total neglect of the â—eans of Grace or to a careless superficial attendance upon it Does not experience tell us that the pinching necessities of the Body easily induce them to conclude that they must have Bread for themselves and Families What say they we must live we must not starve but consider not in the mean time that there is a far greater Must for their Souls that they must have their sins pardoned that God must be reconciled that they must have Christ and his Grace and that their Natures must be changed and their sins subdued or else verily they must to Hell where they will not be allowed so much as a drop of water to cool their Tongues Luke 16.24 and in order to this that they must find time to pray read and hear Gods Word and they must meditate and take pains to acquaint themselves with the matters of their Souls But alas the feeling of their bodily wants have got a prepossession and stand as a strong guard to keep out every such serious thought from entring into their minds and if at any time they thrust in upon them how quickly are they ejected and the poor man is apt to think if he doth not speak it out that whatever may be the duty of his Betters as he calls them yet he presumes he may be excused and that he hath a sufficient Apology to live without minding suâ—h matters having so many worldly Cares and Concerns upon him These and such like are too frequently the prevailing Suggestions of those who are under that Extream of Poverty Well but then 2. Let us consider the other Extream and look to the Rich and here let me use the words of the Prophet Jer. 5.4 5. Therefore I said surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God But alas see what Return is made upon this Inquest Why he tells you These have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bond Poverty hath many hinderances but Riches through the horrible sensuality of mans Heart hath more as our Saviour intimates Verily I say unto you Mat. 19.23 24. that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not that Riches in themselves are any impediment to true and serious Godliness but only by reason of the depravity of our Natures that cleave so fast and are so closely wedded to and lifted up with things here below Vermis divitiarum est Superbia Aug. Pride being the Worm that naturally breedeth in Riches 'T is a hard matter to be high and humble Great and rich men are easily drawn to a neglect and contempt of the Means of Grace and to imagine that it is beneath their grandeur to have the worship of God in their Families or at best Difficile est ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur futuris ut de Jdeliciis ad delicias transeat Hier. that it is more proper for their Chaplains to manage than themselves these are too great to be dealt plainly with about the Concerns of their Souls and are apt to think Nathan was a little too bold when he said to King David Thou art the man 2 Sam. 12.7 I must profess when my thoughts have been taken up with such Objects they have been so far from being envied by me that of all conditions of men in the world I have looked upon them as the Objects of the greatest pity I mean such great and rich ones whose wealth and honour is imployed as a shield to defend them against the faithful monitions of such as are lovers of and well wishers to immortal Souls Hereby their lusts are secured and their Souls exposed to eminent danger Besides how open do they lie to such Soul-destroying Opinions viz. that there neither is nor need any other than an external baptismal Regeneration and that we are all Christians good enough by our natural and no necessity of any new Birth and that a little outward Reformation will secure us though we never mind heart-renovation and if men will not preach and prophesie such smooth things they shall not by their consent prophesie at all like those of old who say to the Seers see not Isa 30.10 and to the Prophets prophesie not speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits In a word when a sinner is converted and brought home to God the Heart must be search'd and ransack'd his false hopes and sandy foundations upon which they are built must be batter'd down Pride and Self-confidence must be brought low and a man must become as a little Child Now though our hearts are all of us opposite to this work Mat. 18.3 and nothing short of omnipotent Grace can thus bring the heart to stoop that it may enter in at this strait Gate that leads to life yet Greatness and Riches in the world through the corruption of mans Nature does much magnifie the opposition that is made against God on this account but now a middle state in the world is exempted from these additional hinderances Neither hath the Flesh nor the Devil that advantage to
obstruct this work of Regeneration that either of the other Extreams have 2. Another Requisite to our eternal happiness is a progress in this way of Life by maintaining an holy and heavenly conversation God hath said let who will or dare contradict it Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. This Holiness of heart and Life consists in our fiducial dependance upon Gods Promises and in a sincere and hearty respect to all Gods Precepts in the making the Word of God our Rule and the Glory of God with the Salvation of our Souls our main and ultimate end and this in the whole course of our Lives and Conversations This is that Trade of Godliness in which we must be exercising our selves whilst we live if we design to be really happy when we die Now a middle worldly Condition considering our present Case is the most advantageous and hath the fewest hinderances for our driving on with success this Trade 1. A man under the Extream of Poverty destitute of necessary Provisions for the supply of this Life and yet suppose him a godly man Psal 37.25 such a Supposition may be made though David tells us I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread From whence some though I judge upon a mistake would conclude that extream Poverty so as to be reduced to Beggery is a Condition that God never exposes his Children to But thus to say would doubtless be a condemning of the generation of the righteous one thing which God abhors some of whom in all Ages have been brought to such great straights that they have been necessitated to beg or starve And we read of some that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.37 destitute afflicted tormented of whom yet the world was not worthy So that I rather approve of that Sence of the foregoing Text which confines it either to Davids Experience in his time or rather to lay the Emphasis of the Matter upon the Word forsaken When Paul gives us a Catalogue of his Distresses he puts in this as an alleviation of his Troubles 2 Cor. 4.9 Psal 37.24 Persecuted but not forsaken which Sence also sutes best with the Context Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Now supposing a Child of God under the Extream of Poverty though de jure this ought not yet de facto it does prove very prejudicial to this Trade of Godliness and this many times several ways sometimes it does necessitate them to absent themselves from those outward means and those Soul quickning Opportunities which others enjoy whereby their hearts might be kept up warm and lively for God Are there not many at this day whilst you can spare so much time as to come hither in a morning to gather up this heavenly Manna that falls at your doors who are forced poor hearts to be hard at their Labours and that to get Necessaries for themselves and Families Sometimes though that is sad I confess are they overpowered by temptations to use indirect means for the relieving their wants which upon a review make sad work in their Consciences and set them many degrees back in the way of holiness Sometimes they are so dispirited with the weight of their Burdens that they are almost totally uncapable of doing any thing in their general or particular Callings not knowing how to pray nor how to work Oh the Temptations that such poor Souls are under to Distrust to Murmuring and Repining to Unthankfulness and Discontent every of which are very prejudicial to the life of Holiness 2. Consider the other extream riches Suppose a man to be great and in the main good and godly too a rarity but withal a singular blessing to the ages and places in which they live alass how difficult is it for such to thrive in Godliness when they are under the bright rays of worldly prosperity do we not too often sind that riches prove to a godly man what the Ivy doth to the Oak which indeed may seem to adorn it and set it forth more speciously to the eye of the beholder but sucks out that sap and nourishment that should feed and nourish the tree and if not timely look'd to may endanger its life few if any have been the better for their being rich but too many have been the worse What Temptations are such daily encountering with to carnal pleasure and sensuality to sloth and fleshly ease to pride and ambition all which so far as they are indulged prove to the detriment of serious religion how apt are such to be flattered nay even by good men to be cryed up as none such in their age if they speak but now and then a few good words and shew a little countenance to religion when upon a strict view it may be they have very little if any thing at all of the power of godliness which have given occasion to that unhappy saying that a little Religion goes a great way with great men whenas in truth that which might pass for great Religion in persons of an inferior condition should be esteemed but little in those whom God hath fixt in a higher orb and so are under greater Obligations from God and in a greater capacity of bringing more honour unto God 3. Another requisite to our eternal felicity is not only a progress Finis coronat opus Mat. 10.22 Rev. 2.10 Heb. 10.38 but a perseverance in the way of Faith and holiness to the end and that against all Temptations and Oppositions from within or from without he that endureth to the end shall be saved and be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of Life again if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him From all which you may conclude the necessity of Perseverance to salvation Now though a security from final and total Apostacy is the undoubted priviledg of Gods Elect and truly called ones 1 Pet. 1.5 such shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation yet such may and many times do in an hour of Temptation such an hour as this is in which God hath cast our lot fall fouly to the great dishonour of God and discredit of their profession to the hardening the wicked in their sin and wounding of their own souls and to the interrupting their peace and comfortable Communion with God many Christians may and do fall to the breaking of their bonds and like Eutychus who fâ—ll from the third Loft and was taken up for dead though Paul told them Acts 20.9 10. 1 Sam. 4.18 trouble not your selves for his Life is in him but they shall never fall as Ely did Of whom 't is said he fell backward to the breaking of his neck and the loss of his Life now a middle condition in
misery and the sadness of your condition lies in this that it layes you open without preventing Grace to many strong Temptations to dishonour and neglect God and Christ and your Souls and so makes way for your being miserable in both Worlds may you but obtain wisdom from God to hearken to his Calls to close with his Counsels and accept of the gracious proffers of Christ and Salvation by and through him which proffers are made as freely to you as to any in the World and then admit your poverty continued nay increased upon you yet it will be but for a very little while Luk. 16.20 21 22. and thou who with Lazarus art forc'd to lye at the rich mans Gate and glad when thou canst get but the crumbs and fragments that comes from his Table shalt be taken into Abraham's bosom and sit down at the right hand of God Psal 36.8 where are Rivers of pleasure for ever more and thou shalt hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on thee nor any heat but the Lamb shall feed you and lead you unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes Rev. 7.16 17. For the Lords sake think of this Things here below are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.18 for a little season whether they be good or evil and therefore not worth the minding in comparison with those eternal things which are just before you 2. Two Words to you that are rich and the first shall be that which you find 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy You have little reason to set a higher estimate upon your selves because God by the bounty of his Providence hath lifted you up above your Brethren either if you consider who it is that hath made you to differ 1 Cor. 7.4 and that you have nothing but what you have received as the Apostle upon another account expresseth it and received it not as an absolute Proprietor to do with what you have what you lift but as God's Steward to be laid out in the Service of your Lord who will shortly call you to a strict account and will say Luke 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward and that the more you have the greater is your debt and the greater account you have to make but that is not all your Riches and Honours which you are so apt to admire and dote upon if God give you not great wisdom in the management of them will be sad Riches as they will be temptations to you to forget both God and your selves and under your Salvation more hazardous as you have heard and if they should in this sence be for your hurt you will shortly wish you had rather have been amongst the number of those that beg their Bread at your door then thus as you do Coach it up and down and lie upon your Beds of Ivory and drink Wine in Bowls and Health and Carowse it with your huffing Companions Read James 5.1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you your Riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last days You that trust and pride your selves in your uncertain Riches and live in the neglect of God and your Souls apply this to your selves for it belongs to you A Second Word to you that are rich shall be that of Solomon Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with thy Substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase Let it not offend your Worships that I become a humble Monitor to you on this account It is true I have pointed at some of the inconveniences and evils that do attend and are incident unto your high Condition and upon an impartial view I question not but you will find many more but yet I must tell you that these are not inseparable concomitants If God gives you his Grace and once brings you to submit to the conduct of his Spirit without which you are undone your Riches may be so far from being hindrances that they may become excellent helps and advantages in your way heavenward Oh! if God gives you but hearts how many opportunities may you enjoy for the good of your Souls that others cannot Nay how much good may you be instrumental to do to the Souls and Bodies of others What influence may your Examples of piety have upon others in the places where you live How may you even by your Riches and Greatness be a terror unto evil doers and a praise to them that do well Rich and great men if they be good and gracious and lay out themselves for God and the good of others are great Blessings of the Age the Lord increase them Lastly I have three words to you that are in a middle worldly Condition you have heard that your Condition upon many accounts is the most eligible then I infer 1. See what interpretation you are to make of those Providences that have put a check to your endeavours and graspings at great things in the world and that you have greater reason to take this more kindly from the hand of God than you are aware of My Beloved I have known some that through an overvaluing of things here below have been reaching after great matters and God in the way of his Providence hath seem'd to concur with their ambitious desires placing them under such Circumstances giving them such a commodious Seat such a promising Trade that they have had a prospect of huge Matters in the world and have reckoned themselves and said well in a few years I question not but I shall be a man as they sometimes phrase it but all on a sudden some Accident or other happens that blasts all their hopes and makes them take down their wide Sails that stood ready spred to receive a prosperous gale and they are fixt possibly in a middle state neither very poor nor ever likely to be very rich and Oh how hardly are such disappointments born Much ado to comport with patience with such Providences Now do but consider what you have heard and you will find that God was kinder to you than you were to your selves Are you sure that if you had not been stopt in your pursuit it might not have been much very much to your spiritual and eternal detriment 2. Hence learn to be wiser for the time to come moderate your affections to the things of this world Jer. 45.5 Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not If God in the way of thy Calling and honest
was able to do them good he not only gave them bread in their hunger but nourished and comforted them and was a shelter to them in a strange Land as long as he lived As we should do them all the good we can so we ought to prevent any evil that might fall upon them Saul had been very defective in his duty to David both as a Prince and a Father As a Prince he ought not only to have protected but rewarded so deserving a Subject As a Father he ought to have cherished such an obedient Son who went whither soever Saul sâ—nt him 1 Sam. 18.5 But on the contrary he not only encourages some of his Followers to kill him but endeavours to take away his life by his own hand 1 Sam. 19.1 10. Now how doth David carry it in this case He endeavours to save himself as well as he could by withdrawing and giving place to Saul's wrath And when he in pursuing after him 1 Sam. 24.6 7. 1 Sam. 26.8 9. falls into his hands more than once he doth not only not destroy him himself but withholds those that would The tenderness that was in him toward such an enraged Enemy appeared in this that his heart smote him but for cutting off the skirt of his Garment tho this was done only to shew that he was in his power and that he could have done him a mischief if he would What effect this had upon Saul may be seen in the Story When David shewed him the skirt of his Garment and spake a few words to shew his innocency he tho a King and mightily enraged against him is melted into tears 1 Sam. 24.16 17. Saul lifted up his voice and wept saying Thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil There is nothing like to overcome the rough temper and rugged carriage of others sooner than a kind and gentle behaviour toward them When Paul came first to Thessalonica he found them or at least many among them Constat apud Graecos translatitiè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad mores ad animum accommodari Beza to be a rough and untractable people The Bereans Acts 17.11 are said to be more noble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of better breeding and more ingenious than they who upon Paul's preaching there took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gatheted a Company and set all the City in an uproar ver 5. Hence it is that he saith 1 Thes 2.1 2. That at his entrance in unto them he spake the Gospel of God with much contention that is on their part For as for his own part he was otherwise disposed It was the Rule he gave to Timothy 2 Epist 2.24 The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth This was his own practise at this time for ver 7. he says We were gentle among you as a nurse cherisheth her children As a Nurse bears with the frowardness and peevishness of Children and by all ways imaginable endeavours to quiet them and bring them to a good humour so did the Apostle with them And it is probable that those of them that did believe partly by the Apostle's Doctrine and partly by his Example were of the like disposition and carriage toward them that believed not And what the effect of this was in that place where the Gospel was so much opposed at first we may gather from what he says in his second Epistle to them Chap. 3.1 Pray for us that the word of the Lord may have a free course and be glorified even as it is with you 2. As we should do them all the good we can and prevent the evil that might hurt them so we ought to pray that God would do them the good and prevent the evil we cannot Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you And if for such much more for such who tho they may be in some particular instances prejudicial to us have a love to and kindness for us David complains Psal 57.4 That his soul was among lions and that he did lie among them that were set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth were spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword And of these or such as these he says Psal 35.15 They did tear me and ceased not What did David now Did he rend and tear as they did No ver 13. As for me when they were sick my cloahting was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom What could he have done more for his nearest Friend or dearest Brother So he says ver 14. I behaved my self as tho he had been my friend or brother Take an instance also of what was done for Friends who in a day of temptation did not the good they should When Paul came to Rome he preacht the Gospel among them for two whole years together Acts 28.30 31. And no doubt but that he that was sure that when he came Rom. 15.29 he should come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel was kindly received by them And we may well think that he who before he came to them did so earnestly beseech them for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the spirit Rom. 15.30 31. to strive with him in prayers to God that he might be delivered from them that did not believe in Judea did confidently expect that they would use not only that but other good means that he might be delivered from them that did not believe at Rome But it fell out otherwise For when a day of tryal came these Romans Faith did so far fail that not a man of them stood by him when he was in that great danger to be devoured by the mouth of the Lion 2 Tim. 4.16 At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me This must needs greatly affect and afflict him yet in the next words he prays that this sin might not be imputed to them I pray God it may not be laid to their charge You see this is the will of God and this hath been the Saints practise But if you find holy men as sometimes you may David and Paul uttering themselves in another manner against God's and their enemies Psal 59.13 2 Tim. 4 14 as if they desired evil to fall upon them either the evil was Temporal or Eternal 1. If the evil were Temporal they cannot be thought to desire it absolutely sub ratione mali as evil but as it had a tendency to their good Deliberata imprecatio mali sub ratione mali contra homines quae est formalis maledictio non potest non esse mala Ames Cas lib. 4. Augustine de ser D. in monte As David Psal 9.20 Put them
proposed was to shew the manner how all this good must be done that it may be the more effectual It must be done 1. Cordially What you do must be done as in the presence of him by whom actions are weighed Your prayers must not come out of feigned lips 1 Sam. 2.3 Psal 17.1 2 Cor. 2.17 What you speak must be as in the sight of God It is easie to use a few complemental words in speaking to Men or a few vain words in speaking to God for them as all are that come not from the heart When you are about this work you should endeavour to draw deep even from the bottom of your hearts Paul calls his prayer for the Jews his greatest enemies his hearts desire Rom. 10.1 2. Readily Titus is charged to put Christians in mind of this To be ready to every good work Tit. 3.1 Altho these good works be contrary to corrupt Nature Grace will make a Man ready to them The holiest Men have been alway the most forward in them When God had set that Mark of his displeasure on Miriam for chiding with Moses how ready was he to pray for her Moses cried unto the Lord and said Heal her now O God I beseech thee Numb 12.13 The Jews before the Captivity were grown to a height of wickedness 2 Chron. 36.16 They mocked the messengers of God and despised his word and misused his prophets and among the rest Jeremiah in particular who was sent to tell them of the approaching Captivity yet he was far from desiring that evil to overtake them tho they said Jer. 17.15 Where is the word of the Lord let it come now He appeals to God in the next verse That he had not desired the woful day He was so far from that that he prayed hard for that hard-hearted people How his heart stood this way you may see by Gods telling him again and again that he should not pray for them Pray not thou for this people Jer. 7.16 So again chap. 11.14 and once more chap. 14.11 till he tells him at last tho Moses and Samuel stood before him yet his mind could not be toward that people chap. 15.1 Such an admirable readiness was found in the Man of God against whom Jeroboam stretched out his hand saying lay hold on him for his crying in the Name of the Lord against his idolatrous Altar at Bethel God had dried up that hand which he stretched forth against the Prophet which brought him to intreat the Man of God to pray for him And the man of God besought the Lord and the Kings hand was restored again and became as it was before 1 Kings 13.6 3. Constantly It is not enough to use these means once or twice for a fit or when you are in a better frame than ordinary but it must be your constant course You find that when your bodies are full of evil Humors the use of a good Medicine once or twice doth not remove your Distemper therefore you steer to a course of Physick So must you do to remove or alter the tough Humors that may be in others you must use the Means constantly There must not only be a well-doing but a patient continuance in it Rom. 2.7 Gal. 6.9 If you find no good effect for a while be not weary of well-doing Say not I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord Prov. 20.22 Thus did David for a long time when Saul was his enemy he waited on the Lord and kept his way tho he was put to many a hard shift the while And God put a sweet song into his mouth at last when he had delivered him out of the hands of all his enemies and the hand of Saul Psal 18.20 21. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompenced me for I have kept the ways of the Lord. Use 1. If these these things be so have we not cause to take up a lamentation when we see Men professing themselves Christians make so little account of such duties as Christ hath by Precept enjoyned and by Example led them to how unsuitable to Christian-Doctrine is the practise of such as cannot or will not forgive the least injury This is far from endeavouring to overcome evil with good How can such say Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Some of old are said to leave out these words as we forgive c. fearing it 's like that doom Out of thine own mouth will I judg thee thou wicked servant If any be more hardy in our days they may know one day That God will not be mocked Nor is this all Are there not some that account it necessary to avenge themselves for a small offence it may be only for a word tho to the hazarding nay the loss of their own and others blood And to do thus is by many accounted to be of a brave spirit and he that will not do so is by some not thought worthy of the name of a Gentleman as if the name were allied to Gentilisme rather than Gentleness Indeed a Learned Divine speaking of this matter saith Gentility according to the vulgar Dr. Jackson of Justifying Faith chap. 13. parag 8 9. and most plausible notion retains the substance of Gentilism with a light tincture of Christianity But the Learned and Pious Bishop Davenant speaking of the same says Haec opinio est plusquam Ethnica This opinion is more than Heathenish For several Heathen Philosophers have given better counsel in the case than these Christian Gentlemen think fit to take and if it be more than Heathenish think what it must be There are others Est illa diabolica opinio quae invasit mentes omnium ferè qui se generosis somniant nimirum non posse se salvosue honore nominis sui existimatione ferre vel verbum contumeliosum sed teneri ad ultionem quaerendam etiam duello Davenantius in Col. 3. and too many too who altho they dare not go about to wrest the sword of Vengeance out of the hand of God who says Vengeance is mine to commit so great an evil as is the forementioned yet they will be adventuring to shoot their arrows even bitter words against such as do in the least offend them or stand in their way And O that we could say that such as make a greater profession than others and are in most things of good and exemplary Conversations were altogether free in this matter But this evil is Epidemical and the best I fear are too much infected with it The sad consequences of this we partly see already and may see more in time if God in Mercy prevent them not So that it is for a lamentation and like to be for a lamentation Use 2. Look about you and take heed that you be not overcome of evil 1. Let not imaginary evils overcome you as they will be like to do
as well as those that are real if they be so apprehended There is no observing man but may see what mischief hath come heretofore and doth come every day by such There always have been and still are some who beings weak or malicious do go about telling stories of this and that Man or Party and by leaving out or putting into their tale some circumstances or by setting an Emphasis upon a word innocently spoken do raise in others the highest Passions which hurry them away to speak and do things very sinful and unjust 1 Sam. 22. If Doeg had fairly represented the matter of Abimelech to Saul there would have been found such Circumstances in the Cafe as might probably have excused him in Saul's own judgment and have kept him from that barbarous Act of slaying so many innocent souls If David upon hearing what Ziba had told him of Mephibosheth had staid a while and heard what he could have said for himself he would not so soon have forgot the passing love of Jonathan his Father nor the Oath he made to him 2 Sâ—m 1.26 1 Sam. 20.15 not to cut off kindness from his house for ever But being then in such Circumstances as made him credulous upon a feigned story without more ado he presently gave away all that belonged to poor Mephibosheth to that false Man And how many that are or would easily be made very good Friends are separated or kept at a distance at this day by such means as these he is a stranger to the World that doth not see 2. If the evil be real yet be not overcome by it It may be it is not so great as it is apprehended But if it be it may be the Author of it did not think it would prove so offensive and hard to be born as you find it to be and then it would be a greater evil in you to return that to another which you find so hard to be born your self Christians should be more ready to receive one injury after another than to return one for another This I take to be the meaning of Christ When he says Mat. 5.39 Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also Julian the Apostate did blasphemously object against Christ that he did not observe his own Laws because when he was smitten by one of the Offenders with the palm of his hand he did not turn the other cheek but did expostulate with him that did it in these words If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil but if well why smitest thou me John 18.23 But Christ is the best Interpreter of his own Laws and by his practise hath told us what his meaning was in this He was so far from avenging himself by word or deed that he was ready and prepared to suffer farther at their hands so as not only to be smitten again but to be crucified And in this he is proposed to us as an Example 1 Pet. 2.21 22. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Object Will not such as are injurious grow more insolent and go from bad to worse if they be not dealt withal in their own kind Ans 1. If any have humanity or ingenuity in them they will be ashamed by your forbearing of them if they be void of these they will be more irritated and provoked by rendring evil for their evil and consequently you are like to endure more from them 2. If they should go from bad to worse yet you may not avenge your selves This were to take upon you to be Judges in your own Case God hath set up the Ordinance of Magistracy for this purpose Rom. 13.4 He is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Therefore in greater injuries you are to make application to him for a Compensation as Paul appealed to Caesar Acts 25.11 3. Altho a private person may not avenge himself yet in case he be assaulted by another that would take away his life if no Magistrate be at hand he may stand upon his own defence by the Law of Nature which Christ came not to destroy Provided 2 Sam. 3.33 34. that he endeavour to avoid his Adversary by flying if he may But if he press so hard upon him that he cannot he may defend himself wherein he should be as willing to save the others life as to preserve his own 4. God himself when other means sail doth often appear to vindicate the wrongs of such as suffer with meekness and patience He will not stand by as one unconcerned especially if his Name be interested in the matter When Rabshakeh came against Jerusalem he made a railing Oration to the People threatning what be would do but they answer him not a word for the King had said Answer him not Isa 36.21 A while after Hezekiah himself receives a Letter stuft with the like railing matter he reads it but turns from the Messenger and goes to the House of God and spreading the Letter before the Lord leaves the matter with him Isa 37.14 Then the Angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians One hundred and fourscore and five thousand ver 36. God commanded Jeremiah to put a Yoke upon his neck as a sign That the Jews should be brought under the Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 27.2 12. Hananiah a false Prophet comes and takes the Yoke off his neck Jer. 28.10 and breaks it before his face What doth the good Prophet do the while Doth he strive with him about the Yoke that he might not break it Or doth he use any undecent words when be had done it No 't is said ver 11. Jeremiah went his way but God sent him to Haraniah with this Message That for his Rebellion he should die that Year which accordingly came to pass in the seventh Month ver 17. Christians that would keep a due Decorum in their words and actions when they are injured should look well to their hearts and keep them with diligence for all sinful Miscarriages begin there When the heart is disordered by corrupt Affections the tongue and other Members will hardly be kept many good order Corfelle livoris amarum per linguae instrumentum spargere nisi amara non potest Bernardus Therefore the Apostle willing the Colossians to put off the evil of the tongue Blasphemy which is evil-speaking bids them first put off the evils of the heart anger and malice chap. 3.8 Whether the heart be inditing a good or a bad matter the tongue will be as the pen of a ready-writer If Choler be suffered to boil to a height in the heart the scum will be like to run over at the mouth If the heart be
commands must give place to a moral duty because they will not justifie our neglect of that Hence on the Sabbath-day we may and ought to lift our Neighbours Ox out of the pit Luke 14.5 and to perform any other act of necessary charity notwithstanding that positive command to worship God upon that day 6. That which God now requires of you and in doing of which you may most glorifie God and edifie your Neighbour that is undoubtedly your present duty Quest How shall we know this Ans 1. Always look within your Calling for your present duty for there it lies Don't go beyond your line Do your own business 1 Thes 4.11 We have different gifts and different talents according to the Grace that is given unto us Let every one attend to that which God hath fitted him for and called him to Rom. 12.6 7 8. 1 Pet. 4.10 11. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way Prov. 14.8 God hath appointed to every one his way of living in this World from the Smith that blows the coals Isa 54.16 to the King that sins upon the Throne That cannot be our duty which we are not called to We are not absolute Lords to do what we list No we are under command and must obey I am one in authority says the Centurion I say unto my servant do this and he doth it Luke 7.8 God hath the Supreme Authority over us We ought not to move one step but by his direction Our Calling is twofold 1. General As we are Christians so all Saints are of the same Calling Rom. 1.7 called to be saints We are all equally obliged to the duties of our Christian Calling i. e. to serve and worship God to believe in him to love and fear him c. 2. Particular So we differ in our Callings Some are called to the Magistracy some to the Ministry some are Masters some Servants some called to this some to that Trade or Occupation We are called to Christianity by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ We are called to some outward worldly Calling by God's special appointment in his Law Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work Exod. 20.9 Every man hath his work a full business which he must not neglect He must do all his work They walk disorderly who work not at all 2 Thes 3.11 living in pleasures and wantonness Jam. 5.5 having nothing to do Let all idle voluptuous Gallants consider this who spend their days in mirth and jollity scorn the thought of business they must needs be far from their present duty who are imploy'd in nothing or that which is worse than nothing We are called to this or that Imployment by Providence That we should be of some Calling is from the Word that we are of this or that Calling is from Providence Providence follows the Word and is a fulfilling of that some way or other Much of the duties of our Christian Calling do follow us into our particular Callings as duties of worship must be performed in our Families every day let our particular Calling be what it will So the same Graces must be exercised in our particular Callings which were required in our general Callings The same Graces do follow us into our particular Callings and into all the works of our hands They who do not keep up duties of worship in their Families will be as remiss in all duties of practical holiness in their lives They who are not frequent in prayer are never eminent in holiness And as no acts of worship publick or private do please God that are not performed in Faith and in the fear of God So no common acts of our lives are pleasing to God if not done in Faith and seasoned with that inward exercise of Grace that belongs to all the common actions of a Christian In shewing you your present duty in your particular callings I shall not insist so much upon duties of worship you know 'em That Prayer reading the Scriptures Meditation and discourse of what you hear out of the Word are all duties and you know when they should be performed Morning and Evening and as oft as your necessary occasions will permit Whether you do them I must leave that to God and your own Consciences But the present duty I would fix you in is that of Practical Holiness which is your constant duty every moment of the day I would clear up this to you and shew you what it is and where it lies that if it be the will of God you may be always found in it I say then That your present duty lies in a present exercise of Grace suitable to the present work and business in all its circumstances which you are at any time imploy'd in If you buy or sell it must be in the fear of God if you marry it must be in the Lord. Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do you must do it to Gods glory which cannot be if you do not act Grace in every thing you do The true Gospel-holiness of an action lies in that Grace that goes along with it 'T is Grace only that turns an action Heaven ward and God-ward you have no other way to sence your selves from the temptations snares and sins that border upon all the works of your calling but by keeping your selves in a due exercise of Grace being in the fear of God all the day long that is the way to eschew evil and to do good 't is the beginning of wisdom He acts like a Fool who acts without it The fear of God in Scripture is put for all the Graces of the Spirit and in that sense I now press it upon you You see your present duty lies in your present work in the daily business of your particular callings I suppose your callings are lawful that there are no Stage-players Conjurers Diviners Astrologers here Those who are of such callings their duty is to leave them and to betake themselves to some honest Imployment consistent with Grace and then Grace will help you out in it wonderfully I could name some other callings that I would hardly advise a Christian to But whatever lawful Calling you are of whatever Office you bear whatever Relation you stand in as Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants whatever your Trade Occupation or Imployment is there are particular Duties proper to your Callings which cannot be performed but by a suitable exercise of Grace by which you shew the respect you have to God in doing what you do regulating and moderating your selves and all your actions by that rule of the Word You may do the works of your calling and yet not do the duties of your calling if you seek only your selves your own profit pleasure c. this is not to serve God but your selves You must do what you do in Faith as to the Lord and then every thing you do will be an act of worship because it carries in it
in actually engage in it and you 'l find Religion carries Meat in its mouth 't is of a reviving nourishing strengthning nature it brings that along with it that enables the soul chearfully to go thorow with it Enter in at the strait gate You cannot judg of the way on this side the gate Most men stick at the strait gate Beg of God to draw thee thorow to lift thee over the Threshold and set thee in the narrow way as narrow as it is yet none who enter in at the strait gate by a true and thorow conversion did ever perish in the way God will lead thee and sustain thee and carry thee on to the end of thy Race Therefore be strong and shew thy self a man and keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses that thou mayst prosper in all that thou dost and whithersoever thou turnest thy self 1 Kings 2.3 Secondly How the well discharge of our present duty may encourage us to hope in God for his help and assistance in all future duties 1. 'T is promised 2 Chron. 15.2 The cause of desertion is from our selves God shews mercy for his own sake without any respect to any thing in us But all acts of judgment and wrath take their rise from something in our selves that provokes God to such severities Therefore let us keep close to our present duty and trust God who has promised never to leave us nor forsake us Heb. 13.5 6. vide Isa 40.31 vide Psal 84.11 and Isa 41.10 There is a special promise to the seed of Abraham of help and strength But they who neglect their present duty are greatly threatned Prov. 1.24 and Psal 52.7 vide 2. Present Grace is a pledg of future Grace To him that hath more shall be given Luke 19.17 26. Where God begins a good work he will finish it Heb. 12.2 Phil. 2.6 So Psal 25.3 10 14. Mat. 10.19 20. vide Judg. 13.23 The Lord is faithful who shall stablish you and keep you from evil 2 Thes 3.3 3. The experience of the Saints confirms this Psal 18.26 30 31 32. vide 'T was some such thing as this that David had Psal 119.56 4. The Saints made this an Argument in prayer Psal 38.20 21 22. vide Psal 119.30 31 94 121 173. vide Psal 25.21 3. A conscientious discharge of our present duty fits and disposes our minds to the next duty As there is a concatenation of sins so of duties as one sin leads to another so one duty leads to another the breach of one Commandment is virtually the breach of all James 2.10 1 John 4.20 As there is a revolting more and more Isa 1.5 a proceeding from evil to evil Jer. 9.3 waxing worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13 so a godly man goes from grace to grace from faith to faith from strength to strength Job 17.9 vide Therefore in all thy ways acknowledg him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.6 A man cannot act his Faith upon God for future preservation but in the discharge of his present duty Commit the keeping of thy soul to him in well-doing 1 Pet. 4.19 and then you 'l find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.16 6. By the well discharge of our present duty we may attain assurance of salvation Col. 3.23 24. vide 'T is Paul's motive to Timothy when he stirs him up to his present duty 2 Tim. 4.1 2 5 8. vide q. d. I am Paul the aged who have one foot in the grave ver 6. but you are a young man Timothy you are putting on your Armour but I am putting off mine I have finished my course and kept the faith I have discharged the duty of my place and by that means gained assurance of my salvation Henceforth is laid up for me c. He dates his full assurance from that time as the happy result of a well-spent life and exhorts Timothy to tred in his steps to make full proof of his Ministry Fight on Timothy and fear nothing that in the end of thy days thou maist have a comfortable sight of that Crown of righteousness which I am sure of Therefor let us all by patient continuance in well-doing wait for eternal life Rom. 2.7 These are the Scripture-grounds of hope for the time to come that God will help us and stand by us and strengthen us with might in our inward man giving us a sufficiency of grace answerable to all the occasions we may have for it Object May not Saints fail in future duties Ans They may and do fail and when 't is so their former neglects have no small influence into their present miscarriage But tho they may fall yet God upholds them with his hand that they don't fall utterly Psal 37.23 24. God gives them a heart that cannot totally depart from him Jer. 32.40 APPLICATION You see how the way of the Lord is strength to the upright He that is a doer of the word is like a house built upon a Rock which may be shaken but will never fall Mat. 7.24 25. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence Prov. 14.26 A Saint when he relies upon God for help to perform his present duty does not say as Sampson did Strengthen me only this once Judges 16.28 but promises to trust in God at all times hereafter Psal 62.8 to come again and again for help as often as there is need Every single act of Faith implies a universal trust reposed in God for all things at all times He that doth not trust God for every thing cannot trust in him for any thing because there is the same reason for one act of Faith as for another You must bare upon God's Infinite Power Wisdom and Grace in every act of Faith God is always the same in himself If you can believe in him now why not for ever What should discourage you hereafter that may not be objected now You have nothing now to object therefore conclude with David That goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life Psal 23.6 He that hath delivered will deliver Not that the doing a present duty does merit assistance for the future but God for our encouragement in well-doing hath graciously promised it This is a great motive to quicken us to our present duty O that every one of you would go home from this Sermon and set upon your present duty You that are Masters of Families take up Joshuah's resolution and say every one of you in the presence of God this day That I and my house will serve the Lord. Fly all appearance of evil declare against every thing that looks like sin let there be no lying swearing drunkenness or any sort of profaneness countenanced by you Be zealous reprovers in your own gates and walk within your houses with a perfect heart live
in a continual fear of offending God beg of him upon your knees to put you into such a daily exercise of grace as may be most suitable to your present circumstances Grace will help you at every turn If you thrive in your calling grace will teach you to give God the praise and to be thankful if you sink and go backwards grace will teach you quietly to submit how to bear with chearfulness all disappointments and losses you meet with how to receive evil as well as good from God Truly a man without grace is a burthen to himself and to every body else he knows not how to receive good or evil is in danger to be undone by one as well as the other The prosperity of the wicked slays them Prov. 1.32 their Table becomes a snare to them and that which should have been for their welfare a trap Psal 69.22 They will run themselves a ground one way or other and come to nothing at last God will turn their way upside down and bring confusion upon them But verily there is a reward for the righteous What I am pressing you to is your present duty what is past cannot be recalled Your present duty is to repent of past sins and to walk with God in your Callings for the time to come Be upright in your way admit nothing into your particular Callings that is inconsistent with the Principles of your general Calling as you are Christians So carry your selves every one of you that all that deal with you may know you are a real Christian Were there a greater savour of grace and of the power of godliness in your Shops did you buy and sell in the fear of God doing all things in Faith as to the Lord as in his sight conversing with others in the fear of God what a comely sight would this be what a Sermon would this be you would be living Epistles of that seen and read of all men and such Sermon-Notes gathered out of the Lives of Professors may make deeper impressions than those that are gathered out of the mouths of Preachers Godliness exemplified in practise shews it self more clearly in the thing than 't is possible for us to do in words Words convey Notions of things to our ears but a holy life holds forth the things themselves to our eyes Nothing is so like a man as himself Godliness in practise is godliness it self extant in the thing in its own substance and nature 't is visible grace 't is the very matter and subject of our Sermons standing forth in the Lives of Professors I wish we had more of this Divinity walking about our Streets more of these living Epistles seen and read of all men These are the Books that will convince gainsayers and provoke them to real holiness You hear good Sermons and read good Books but Doctrines without Examples edifie little You don't see and read that in the men of this Generation that agrees with Gospel-principles The truth is Saints are not so visible so legible as they should be We can hardly spell out any thing that savours of true Christianity 'T would pose a discerning Christian to pick out Grace out of the Lives of some Professors 'T is couched under such sinful mixtures is in such a worldly dress that it does not look like it self Hence it is that many real Saints go for Hypocrites in this World are suspected by good men and hated by bad men upon this account Let your light shine out more away with the Bushel that keeps in the light and take the Lanthorn of Prudence that only keeps out the wind Christian prudence will direct us in the right performance of our duty but true Christian prudence never takes us quite off from our present duty that is Hellish policy not Christian prudence that distinguishes a man quite out of his duty and pretends to give sufficient Reason for it too But God will catch that man in his own craftiness and turn his wisdom into foolishness There can be no Reason given against a present duty if it be duty and thy duty now Reason cannot countermand it You may go to Hell with all your Reasons in a wilful neglect of it But if God incline your hearts every day to make conscience of your present duty you will be always found in a holy frame and the blessing of God will be upon you you will flourish like the Palm-Tree and grow like a Cedar in Lebanon bringing forth fruit in old age you will always be fat and flourishing to shew the Lord is upright Psal 92.12 13 c. Quest What distance ought we to keep in following the strange Fashions of Apparel which come up in the days wherein we live SERMON XXI ZEPH. 1.8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the Princes and the Kings children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel THAT this Prophecy was synchronal with the Reign of good Josiah appears v. 1. And a heinous aggravavation it was of Judah's sin That they were unreformed under a Reforming-Prince Of him it was said That there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul 2 King 23 25. and with all his might according to all the law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him Of them it may be said That there was no Generation that turned from the Lord that departed from the Law of their God before them tho afterwards there were that equalled or exceeded their wickedness The Prophet therefore without the solemnity of a Preface immediately proceeds to sentence ver 2. I will utterly consume all things out of the land And how could more of wrath be expressed in fewer words Consumption and utter consumption and utter consumption of all things is certainly the abstract and epitome of final and total disolation To silence all Objections that might be made against this righteous sentence of God the Lord commands ver 7. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord for the day of the Lord is at hand he hath prepared his sacrifice he hath invited his guests 1. Judah was to be the sacrifice They that would not offer a Sacrifice of Righteousness shall be made a Sacrifice to Justice 2. The armed Babylonians were to be the Priests 3. And the Rabble of their Enemies were to be the hungry Guests who would not spare but glut themselves with the spoil of Judah to teach them and us in them That if God be not sanctified in the hearts Lev. 10.3 he will be on the heads of a People professing his Name Now in this day of the Lords sacrifice however the main of the storm and Hericane would fall on the heads of the Idolaters and those that sware by the Lord and Malcham ver 5. upon all the Apostates and such as shook off the worship of God ver 6. yet some
follows in the Text doth not seem to be a condition of freedom from the sharp and hazardous pain of Child-birth wherein the visible accidents are common to believing and Pagan women and because since God's sentence of the womans bringing forth in sorrow * Gen. 3.16 there hath been no promise upon any condition that the pain should be abated But experience hath taught us That choice holy women who have been the Lords most dear Servants have tasted of the denounced sorrow as deep as any others and some of them as Rachel and Phineas his Wife expired with their pangs Another Learned Critick mighty in the Scriptures ‖ Gataker Cinnus c. 15. p. 330. thinks that to say The woman shall be sav'd altho she be compell'd to bring forth and bring up children with sorrow which thing seems to be an argument of the divine wrath is an unusual construction and more forc'd Resolution But if by being saved from or out of that hazardous condition of child-bearing tho it otherwise carry the signatures of Gods displeasure upon it import only that it shall be no impediment to pious womens either temporal or eternal salvation however difficult that office of breeding and bearing may seem to be as the faithful Ministers not stop'd in their hard Province by honour or dishonour t 2 Cor. 6.8 but she shall be delivered with Gods favour for the best Then it agrees upon the matter with 4. Our translating of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consonant to the most Orthodox Expositors as not signifying the cause or means here but only the bare order or way to the end or wherein the issue is attainable So it is frequently used in the New Testament as of going in that way u Mat. 2.12 and 7.13 Believers continuing faithful in many afflictions antecedent to their entring into the Kingdom of God w Acts 14.22 in the letter and circumcision and in uncircumcision x Rom. 2.27 29. and 4.11 in the body of Christ y and 7.4 in a Parable z Luke 8.4 building the Temple in Three days a Mat. 26.61 Rom. 14.14 c. c. I might also produce many Testimonies from Ethnic Authors to the frequent use of this Particle in them as well as Scripture to signifie in * Plat. in Caes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 'T is plain here in my Text the Apostle doth not discourse of the cause of womans salvation but suggests that bearing and taking the word more largely b 1 Tim. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing up of children is the ordinary way wherein pious Wives apt to be suspicions and fearful should meet with saving-help from God who would lead them on therein to salvatian which of his Free Grace through Christ he had designed them to and prepared for them who sensible of the signal Marks of the Divine sentence in their child-bed sorrows are appall'd under the dreadful apprehensions of the first womans guilt and the sad consequent thereof to all of the same Sex ready to swound away in despair For as Abraham was of Gods good pleasure father of the faithful in uncircumcision c Rom. 4.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which could be no cause of begetting faith or any obstruction to justification So any yea every godly Wife whatever tho not permitted to teach in the Church as a little before my Text d 1 Tim. 1.12 yet in her honest Function Employmet and good work of child-bearing travail allotted to her by the righteous Governor of the World e Mar. 13.34 should in due circumstances be either temporally sav'd i. e. comfortably delivered from those pains so that she should no more remember the anguish for joy that a man or one of Mankind was born into the world f John 16.21 if God in his all-wise disposal of persons and things sees this to be best for her or else eternally sav'd by God in Christ who commandeth light to shine out of darkness g 2 Cor. 4 6. Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being found in her Journey Heaven-ward wherein she goes on with submission to Gods disposal in her proper Vocation Office and Duty for the propagation of Mankind It 's strange then that any should take this causally as if here the Apostle were opening the cause by which women shou'd be saved when rather the cause should have been explain'd why he chiefly mentioned this condition or state * Beza not by which but in which the woman might be saved For he had touch'd on the special punishment wherein the Woman was amercd for deceiving the Man and now he would subjoyn a Cordial to the imposed penalty or give support under it lest tremulous Wives should faint in their child-bearing pangs which however they might have the signature of Divine wrath upon them did not exclude them from happiness but as other Christians in a way of Tryal do pass into glory so religious Wives should not fall from the hope of salvation because through Christ in their Feminine state and Function of child-bearing tho they be not free from all spot of sin they have a blessed Cordial in their sanctified sufferings and shall by a comfortable separation of Mother and Babe be safely delivered of their burden in their appointed time if that be best for them and at the end of their peregrination in this life shall be eternally sav'd supposing they have sustained those troubles in Faith Charity Holiness and Modesty Having thus as well as I could making my passage clear through some difficulties weighed the import of the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these Four Respects 't will be convenient to say a little for the explaining of the compound word it relates to viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Child-bearing or bringing forth Children as expressing the most proper act of a good womans parturition rather than the child brought forth Yet some do not only take it more strictly as noting the very act of a womans being in Labour or Travail wherein are sharp throws and pains antecedent concomitant and subsequent but also more largely from the Apostles use of the word afterward in this Epistle as hath been hinted h Danaeus in loc 1 Tim. 5.14 as comprehending also the nursing and educating of Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord i Eph. 6.4 which is also very painful as Augustin's Mother Monica experienc'd when solicitous for his conversion till Christ was formed in him These burdens will then be born in a Christian acceptable manner if the woman be out of the rich grace and bountiful gift of God so qualified that she is endow'd with saving grace which is 2. The support and strength express'd as the way and means by keeping her Ornament to evidence her Title
as by abiding in Christ they are spiritually fruitful r Jo. 15.4 so they may well hope that in bringing forth their natural fruit they shall be evermore kept under Gods benign influence and blessing The promise in my Text is ensur'd upon Gods fidelity to all those good women who are interessed in it But all those who have evidence of their sincerity may be well satisfied as to their interest therein and the continuance in the exercises of the Graces of Faith Charity Holiness and Sobriety doth clearly demonstrate they are persons qualified with sincerity who in and through Christ in whom the promise is yea and amen shall certainly inherit it ſ 2 Cor. 1.20 Heb. 6.12 I may not enlarge having staid over-long already yet would crave a little further leave to make some use of what hath been said Applicat The Application of this last and chief Observation viz. That perseverance in Christian and Conjugal Graces and Duties is the best support to child-bearing women against in and under their Travail may briefly serve to teach care and administer comfort 1. This teacheth an holy care and that to Men as well as to Women We shall find they of either Sex may hence learn instruction 1. It may teach a lesson to Men whether they be in a single or a married state 1. They who are not yet married but are waiting to meet with good Wives of Gods giving they are concern'd to be careful as nigh as they can to choose such as are so qualified as to be interessed in the promise here of preservation and salvation in their child-bearing Plato * Cratyl p. 284. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. derives the Greek word for a Woman from that which signifies fruitful and a beinger forth And he that seeketh such an one to marry with only in the Lord t 1 Cor. 7.39 that things may go well with her in her child-bearing condition should consult well how she is endowed and stored with the Graces I have been discoursing of both for the good of her self and the seed she may have by him 'T is certainly of great importance to make choice of such a Yoke-fellow as may be assuredly entitled to this good and comfortable word that we have here before us for the support of child-bearing Wives in whose sorrows and joys good-natur'd and conscientious Husbands cannot but have their shares 2. They who have Wives already should take special care upon this account to discharge the duties of good Husbands towards their child-bearing Wives with all good fidelity viz. 1. To dwell with them according to knowledg giving honour unto them as the weaker vessels and as being heirs together of the grace of Life that their prayers be not hindred u 1 Pet. 3.7 yea and to labour daily with them both by their Christian Advice and Holy Conversation to engage their fruitful Wives more and more to the constant exercise of these Graces and Duties that their sorrows may be sanctified to them and they may see the salvation of God in their breeding and bearing of children And if the great and holy God should in his wise Government think it best to take them hence from a child-bed they may learn to submit to his disposing will and rest the better satisfied as having good evidence of their Souls eternal welfare 2. To endeavour as much as may be to discharge the parts of good Christian and tender Husbands towards their dearest Yoke-fellows in such a travailing condition laying much to heart those antecedent concomitant and consequent pains a state of pregnancy involves them in which these Husbands themselves in such a kind cannot have experience of That as it becomes them for the sake of their good and godly Wives they may as is sometimes said of some Sympathizing ones in a sort breed with them and for them by putting on as the elect of God bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering c. w Col. 3.12 and fulfil all the Duties of the Relation they are in readily and timely providing for them not only necessaries but conveniencies as they can for their longing appetites and for the heartning of their dear and suffering Wives apt to be cast down under apprehensions of their approaching sorrows and call in aid of faithful praying Ministers and pious Friends to make requests known unto God for them And if God hears prayers 3. To be heartily thankful to God upon his giving safe deliverance to their gracious Wives from the pains and perils of child-bearing When the kind Husband hath been really apprehensive of the sicknesses pains throws and groans of his dear Wife in her breeding and bearing a child to him by aids from above nothing can be more necessarily incumbent on him than to adore and be thankful to God who hath made a comfortable separation betwixt her and the Fruit of her Womb and that as a return to prayer and hearkning unto her groanings If he who was a Samaritan found himself healed of his Leprosie upon crying unto Christ for mercy tho the other nine likely Jews remained unthankful for the same benefit came and fell down on his face at Jesus his feet giving him thanks and returning to glorifie God with a loud voice x Luke 17.15 16 17 18. as expressive of his heartiest sense of the Divine Favour in the mercy received then certainly the Christian Husband having seen his loving Wife in the exercise of the Graces I have been discoursing of to pass through the peril of child-bearing and admirably preserved therein by Gods power and goodness is greatly oblig'd to return his hearty thanks to God who hath made good his word wherein he caused them to hope in granting so signal a mercy This giving thanks is acceptable unto God and a Duty indispensably incumbent on us * Nullum officium magis quam referenda gratia necessarium Seneca who are charged y Eph. 5.4 20. to give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Much more for a singular Favour earnestly sought for and granted through difficulty and peril Thus briefly I have touch'd upon the care of married men with reference to their child-bearing Wives in the fore-mentioned Particulars Again this Doctrine teacheth 2. A Lesson of care to Women Consider them as the Men either in a single or a married state 1. If yet in a single or unmarried state and by the fair Providence of God called to the change of their condition They are concern'd to take care they may be furnished with the above-mentioned qualifications to covet earnestly not only the best Gifts but to be found in the more excellent way z 1 Cor. 12.31 This sacred ambition or holy covetousness is lawful to Virgins and may commend them to good Husbands i. e. to covet earnestly those excellent Graces of Faith Holiness Charity and Sobriety that
if they are brought into the honourable state of marriage and in due time God do bless them with blooming hopes of the Fruits of their bodies and the unknown pains of a woman in travail come upon them a Gen. 38.27 Psal 48.6 1 Sam. 4.19 Micah 4.10 they may live by saith upon Gods power and promise and expect salvation in an happy separation 'twixt them and the Babes God hath enabled them to conceive in the appointed season Yea and then tho their pains should come as sharply upon any of them as they did upon Rachel and Phineas his Wife causing a separation betwixt their own souls and bodies their souls may go in a very sure way out of a great cross here to receive a Crown of Glory hereafter Believe it Virgins These Graces are the necessary qualifications to fortifie your tremulous souls apt to be full of fear * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. in Medea against all Occurrences if you have the real Ornaments of Christ's Spouse you need not torment your selves with carking thoughts your mystical Husband will take care of you to make what you greatly fear the matter of your joy 2. If you are already married and that in the Lord who hath opened your Wombs and given you power to conceive it behoves you as righteous Hand-maids of the Lord 1. To continue in the constant exercise of these Graces Certainly you who are blessed in being instruments for the propagation of Mankind when you find you have conceiv'd and grow pregnant are highly concern'd to put on and use these Ornaments A great work you are usually busie about in preparing your child-bed-linnen And I shall not discourage but rather encourage you to make necessary provision for your tender selves and babes I easily yeild according to the instinct of Nature as other Females and with the help of their Mates you ought to be somewhat indulg'd to make ready and feather your Nests wherein to lay your selves and your young b Luke 9.58 But the Modesty and Moderation you have heard of will not allow you above your rank to be costly in superfluous fine Feathers when Christs poor Ministers and Members up and down do expect your Charity Oh! I beseech you good Christian women let your chief care be lest you should die in your sorrows to be array'd in that truly spiritual fine linnen clean and white which is the righteousness of the Saints wherewith the Lamb's wife maketh her self ready c Rev. 19.8 This this is the principal thing the Grace of Faith Charity Holiness and Sobriety speak true Christian prudence And if you therefore take care to put on these you will be the most surely guided in a subordinate care about other circumstances And if God hath given any of you real proof already of performing his promise in my Text by vouchsafing temporal salvation to you it behoves you to take care 2. To record the Experiments he hath given you of making good his word to you in particular Hath God vanquish'd your fears wip'd away your tears and heard your prayers Engrave the Memorials of his goodness and faithfulness upon the tables of your hearts You have the great Example of our dear Lord and Master Jesus Christ who when he had been greatly troubled for Lazarus whom he loved groaned in spirit and wept making his requests known to his Father on his behalf which was graciously answered he with great devotion of heart lift up his eyes and said d John 11.41 with ver 3 35 38. Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me Let every ingenuous and grateful Mother whom God hath safely delivered from her child-bearing pains and peril imprint a grateful remembrance of so signal a mercy with indeleble characters in her mind Lord thou hast regarded the low estate of thine maiden when I was in an agony and well-nigh spent with repeated pains thou didst stand by me and my babe yea thou didst admirably help us making way for it to pass the bars into this world safely keeping us both alive yea and it may be when our friends verily thought with sadness that my child could not have seen the light and I should shortly have shut mine eyes upon it being ready to despair of bringing it forth then didst thou find a way for us both to escape e 1 Cor. 10.13 When the above-noted Gentlewoman * Mrs. Joceline Oct. 12. 1622. was made a Mother of a Daughter whom shortly after being baptiz'd and brought to her she blessed and then gave God thanks that her self had lived to see it a Chrsstian Having dedicated it to the Lord in his Ordinance she accounted it an additional mercy to her bringing her forth and so would have it communicated to others support As Paul when he was made sensible of great mercy in his deliverance by superadded Favours he thank'd God and took courage f Acts 28.15 so should every joyful Mother thank God and be of good courage for the time to come and good because by how much the more common the better it is She should communicate her rare Experiment to encourage others who are apt to look upon themselves as a most miserable Off-spring * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. in Med. when their pangs come upon them that they may be helped For well said the Greek Tragaedian ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Il. in Helen It becomes one woman to be at hand to help another in her labour Thus we briefly see this Doctrine teacheth care to men and women both in a single and a married-state It doth also 2. Administer comfort as to the good Wives themselves so likewise to the Husbands of such good Wives 1. To good Wives themselves who are qualified as you have heard but yet in an hour of temptation are apt to walk very heavily from pre-apprehensions of grievous pains yea and it may be from great fear of Death in their appointed sorrows that are coming upon them grown weary with their heavy burthens Whereas a constant abiding in the fore-mentioned Graces and Duties is a sure ground of good hope that you shall pass well through your child-bed sorrows which be sure shall be no obstacle at all to your eternal welfare And if you be eternally sav'd 't will be better for you than to be only temporally deliver'd Yes But you 'l say You shall have a rough passage And if as Sabina a Christian Martyr when she travail'd being in Prison you shall cry out as she was heard to do in her child-bearing throws whereupon some asked her how she would endure the torments her persecutors had prepared for her if she shrunk at those To whom she said I now bear the punishment of my sin but then I shall suffer for my Saviour It may be answered Notwithstanding be of good chear The Apostle certainly brings in my Text as an Antidote against discouragement and to chear up suspicious and fearful
women They are heart-reviving words to every drooping woman and should lead her with Sarah to judg him faithful who hath promised g Heb. 11.11 whereupon she may notwithstanding her state of subjection and sorrows be humbly confident in this great work of serving her Generation according to the will of God in child-bearing of preservation and salvation and God will lay no more upon her than he will enable her to bear and find a way for her escape either by a comfortable sanctified deliverance here or a blessed translation to Heaven to reap in joy what was sown in tears and those but temporary when the joys are eternal Further it doth administer comfort 2. To the Husbands of such good Wives i. e. such as continue in the Graces and Duties before and in their pregnancy or growing big hoping in Gods word that Root and Branch shall do well being under the blessings of the New-Covenant When they cannot but sympathize with their Wives in their sorrows they may chear up in humble confidence that the sting being took out of the punishment their Wives joys shall be encreased by the pains they undergo and that God will deliver them and hear their prayers and they shall glorifie him h John 16.21 Psal 50.15 And if after prayers and tears their dearest consorts should decease and depart from them out of their child-bearing pains Tho this be a most cutting and heavy cross in it self yet comfort may be gathered from it in the issue For indeed that 's the comfort of comforts which affords Life in Death that 's the Honey which is taken out of the dead carcase That supposing the worst which can befall us in temporals gives better security in those things which are eternal The Fruition of God in Glory is the highest end and when we and ours attain that after the serving of our Generation here according to the will of God and thereby glorifying his most sacred Majesty there is matter of geatest consolation and truest joy to holy souls In expectation of which let pious Husbands and gracious Childing Wives in their mutual Offices wait upon God with submission for a sanctified support when they stand in most need of divine aids Then such Hand-maids of the Lord may humbly hope they shall receive help in and under their child-bearing travail and in due time even a temporal deliverance supposing that to be best for them from those pains and perils taking comfort from that gracious word of the Lord by the Prophet tho spoken upon another account i Isa 41.10 with which I shall conclude Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness SERMON XXV Quest How may we best know the worth of the SOUL MATTHEW 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in Exchange for his Soul IN the Twenty first verse of this Chapter our Saviour foretels his sufferings together with many considerable Circumstances as the Place where at Jerusalem The Persons from whom the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes The Degree unto which he must suffer not only that he must suffer many things but that he was to suffer unto death and be killed by which enumeration of so many particulars he spake more plainly and preached to them the unwelcome Doctrine of the Cross A Doctrine so strange unto them as they had shewn themselves of a quite contrary Opinion expecting a worldly Kingdom and hoping for considerable advancement in it Peter in the name of the rest therefore cavils at it and enveighs against it and was probably suffered to be tempted himself and to become a Tempter to our Saviour that he might not be exalted above measure for what our Saviour had said ver 17 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church But our Blessed Saviour who had overcome the Devils temptations when they came immediately from himself Matth. 4. could not be overcome by them now they are suggested to him by another but shews that he continued his Resolution of suffering the utmost for us by his severe check given unto Peter under a smart compellation Satan This is that very same Apostle who but a few verses before had his Name chang'd from Simon to Peter and presently after here from Peter to Satan to shew how much he and all other differ when mightily assisted by Gods Grace and Spirit from themselves when left to themselves and become as other if not worse than other men And how easily do we slide into sin at unawares and how carefully need we to watch over our very zeal for Christ and Goodness when our very best Affections are subject to so gross mistakes and may deserve such severe reproofs Upon this occasion it was that our Saviour in stead of retracting his former resolves declares that he was not to be alone in them but they should all come to be of his mind and be conformed to his Will Nay that if they would be his Disciples in deed ver 24. If any man will come after me i. e. be in deed my Disciple alluding to the manner and custom of the Eastern Countreys when the Master or Rabbi was wont to go with his Scholers attending after him he must not only forego his Ease and resign his Will but leave his life in these things denying of himself as if his present pleasure or advantage were to be considered no longer of when they stood in opposition to Gods Glory or our Souls good And this is not only or barely asserted but convincingly proved least the Disciples shall cry again this is a hard saying as if ever they had cause to say so they had on this occasion Our Blessed Saviour is willing to abide the Tryal upon this Issue and to have it judged and determin'd by themselves Appealing in the words of the Text to their rational and wise faculties For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul In which words as to the form of them 1. Our Judgment and Consciences are called upon being we do so often vilifie our Souls and preferr the little things of this world now one thing then another before them to shew cause for our so doing and to bring forth our strong Reasons Of all sorts and ways of arguing this came most home and is closest when we are allowed to be as it were both Judge and Party and yet must condemn our selves This manner of Speech is only used when the case is very plain and obvious And we care not who hear it or determine it Thus God calls upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah to judge betwixt him and his Vineyard Isa
12.1 ult That he formeth the spirit of man within him Which proves its distinction from the Body and its spiritual Nature too and if mans Soul were only as the Soul of a Beast the forming of it would not deserve to be reckoned up with those stupendous Acts of stretching out the Heavens and laying the foundations of the Earth as we see it is in the forecited place Add to this that when our Blessed Saviour dyed the Evangelist says he gave up the Ghost Matth. 27.50 that is his Spirit or Soul And St. Stephen dyed with these last words Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 2. That the Soul is a spiritual substance is evident in that it is not produced out of matter as the Body of Adam was and all our Bodies are as is observed in the Relation we have of mans Creation Gen. 2.7 and in Solomons Observation upon it Eccles 12.7 speaking of Death after his most admired description of Old Age then says he shall the dust i. e. the body return to the Earth as it was there is the Original of that assign'd and the spirit shall return to God that gave it The Spirit or Soul is as certainly made by God out of no praeexisting matter as the Body is made out of matter Gen. 2.23 and if we grant the one why should we doubt of the other To be sure when Eve was brought unto Adam he says she is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh but he does not say she is a Soul of my Soul Whether the Soul be made by God mediante Generatione or by an immediate Creation though I am perswaded of the latter yet I shall not peremptorily determine Nec tum scitbam nec adhuc scio August libr. 1. Retr finding St. Austin in a plainer case concerning the Soul modestly professing his Ignorance 3. My third Argument to prove the Soul is a Spirit is because in it man bears the Image of God God is a Spirit John 4.24 and nothing corporeal as such can be said to be in his Image or Likeness Neither is any bodily thing as bodily capable of Wisdom Holiness Righteousness by which man resembles his Maker Now though these Scripture-proofs are sufficient to any that believe undoubtedly the verity of Scripture and such I speak to yet to name one or two of another Nature Therefore 4. Fourthly The Actions or Operations of the Soul are such as cannot proceed from any bodily Being as intellection and volition To abstract and reflect upon its self and its motions In one thought to meditate on Hell in the next on Heaven No Corporeal Agent can in less than the twinkling of an Eye or turn of a hand move or act on things so vastly distant The Opinion of the motion of the Orbs of the Planets and of the Firmament is antiquated and almost laught at because no Bodies can be conceived to move so swiftly and this motion of the Soul incredibly exceeds theirs 5. And lastly The Soul is a Spirit in that it is in the Body and one Body cannot be in another non datur penetratio corporum The Soul takes up no place as bodies do 't is tota in toto or at least negatively It is not by parts in the Body as material things are part here and part there whereas the Soul is so in any part that it is not the less in the other Thus these being premised 3. In what the Souls Excellency does appear I come now to that which is mainly intended viz. to shew whence we may know the excellency of the Soul For as to some other particulars which may tend to the further explaining the Text. As 1. How a Soul may be said to be lost And 2. What this Phrase giving an exchange for the Soul imports I shall take occasion to speak to them as they will fall with what we are yet to speak unto For I would not make the Porch or Entry too large or wide Though I may suppose that in what I have said enough may be discovered to prove what I am upon and that I have laid down such Principles as the worth of the Soul may easily be inferr'd from them Yet it will not be amiss to be minded of the force of them with the addition of such things as will abundantly serve our present purpose 1. In its Original The first thing that speaks the Souls Prerogative is its Original It is accounted no small priviledge to be nobly born to be descended from Princes or Persons Eminent in any kind yet man in his best Estate is altogether vanity Ps 39.5 Man is a worm Job 25.6 and the Son of man be he who he will is but a Worm his Generation is univocal and like begets its like But the Soul is the Off-spring of God Acts 17.29 In that sense the Heathen Poet and St. Paul from him is to be understood there is no pretence for the Body to be the Off-spring of God who is a Spirit If it be warily understood we may admit of what is ordinarily said of the Soul that it is divinae aurae particula I am sure 't is this part only in man that may be said to partake of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 'T is remarkable that the Soul at its Creation was not made according to any pattern or sampler taken from amongst the herd of the visible Creatures but 't is a kind of an Idea of God as true and as full a one as in matter can be borne and though man be lower than the Angels by reason of his Body which is as a clog upon the Soul or a flaw which this precious Jewel appears with Yet in some respect the Humane Nature may vy with the Angelical Nature and man is the Crown and Topstone of the Creation being added last of all by the all-wise Architect to his building of the World In the End 't is design'd for 2. The Excellency of our Souls appears from the End they are designed for It cannot but speak the dignity of the Soul that it alone of all the Creatures is chosen and set apart by God for such great purposes As 1. To glorify him 2. To enjoy him Men though otherwise of the lowest rank are ennobled when their Prince appoints them to Honourable Employments Now 1. The Soul of Man is made for to bring glory to God Not as the body of Man only as an Instrument which moves as the Soul would have it as the Ax in the hand of the Workman nor as the other visible Creatures who glorifyed God only as they afford us matter for Gods glory but all the Glory that God expects or can reap from all and every one of the Corporal Beings is entrusted with Man Man is the Creatures High Priest and by him they offer up all their Sacrifices of Praise and Thanks When in Psal 148. the Sun and Moon nay Storms and Tempests are call'd upon to praise
he calls our Souls ours and certainly they are ours so as nothing else is for we must forego all other things and be parted from them and have been and may be without them but without our Souls we never were nor cannot be And 't is thy only Soul thou hast to make thy darling and to be fond and careful of Most of other things we have double of as two Eyes two Hands and Feet c. but God hath given thee but one Soul Omnia Deus dedit duplicia animam vero unam If thou losest one of the members of thy Body the other in a great measure serves in its stead but thy soul must needs be more carefully looked to than thy right eye or thy right hand for nothing to be sure can stand in stead of it if it be once lost Oh remember this is the one thing necessary 5. You must answer for the loss of your Souls God hath entrusted them with you A great trust a great charge we must account for this Talent when our Lord comes David's Brethren asked him with whom he had left their Sheep God will ask every one of you with whom ye did leave your Souls Are not your Children nay are not your Goods many a man's Swine more cared for and look'd after than your Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza There are two words in the Text that are observed to be forensical and relate to a Court of Judicatory which the gaining and losing in the Text refers to The loss of his Soul will be as a Mulct or Penalty inflicted by the Just and righteous Judge upon every one that hath been careless of his Soul He that does not earnestly endeavour to keep his Soul whilst he lives the evil Angels when he dyes shall require it of him as you know the Soul of the Covetous wretch was adjudged to them How unconcernedly do we read or hear of such things But mutato nomine de te c. Yet but a little while and it may be thy case It may be the divertisements of the World will not let thee have the while to attend to what you hear but what are all the pleasures and enjoyments you can have might they be continued to thee as long as ever they were unto any but as the singing of a little longer Psalm before thy Execution Oh that my words therefore might be acceptable unto you I have shewn you the excellency of Souls as when the Disciples shewed to our Saviour the costly stones and curious Fabrick of the Temple Matth. 24.1 2. Our Blessed Lord told them the time was a coming in which not one stone should be left upon another but all should be thrown down The Application be not to all that hate us but to all that implacably hate God Oh awake arise bestir your selves watch and ward and above all call in the assistance of the Keeper of Israel that not only with all thy keeping but with all his keeping thy Soul may be kept by his Power through faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 SERMON XXVI The Leading of the HOLY SPIRIT opened With some Practical Enquiries resolv'd about it ROMANS 8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God OUR Apostle in the close of the preceding Verse had made use of a very powerful Motive to excite these Romans and in them all others unto Mortification if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live In this Verse he backs that Motive with an Argument to †Probatio est ejus quod proximè praecessit Calv. Probat quod dixit vivetis Esth evince its Truth and Certainty Such as are the Sons of God shall live such who are led by the Spirit viz. to mortifie the deeds of the Body are the Sons of God therefore such shall live Others consider these Words not so much as a Proof of the foregoing Motive but rather as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl another distinct Motive in themselves to promote Mortification Such who are led by the Spirit thereunto they are taken into the high and glorious Relation of being the Sons of God or the Children of God as 't is v. 16. Now what an inducement is this to Christians to live under and comply with the Spirits Leading as it directs and excites unto the mortifying of the deeds of the Body Both of these Connexions are good but I preferr the first If we take them apart and as they lie in themselves so they contain these three things in them 1. A Glorious Priviledge the being the Sons of God 2. A Description of the Persons to whom this Priviledge belongs they are such who are led by the Spirit of God 3. The Adaequateness or Commensurateness between the Persons describ'd and the Priviledge asserted As many as are led just so many and no more all such and none but such are the Sons of God 'T is Inclusive or Extensive to all of them Exclusive and Limiting to all others The words are an entire Proposition As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God The Subject hereof they that are led by the Spirit I am to speak unto as to the Praedicate they are the Sons of God that I shall not insist upon further than as 't is reducible under the Subject As many as are led by the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some render it by Aguntur as many as are acted by the Spirit Some by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. impelluntâ—r ad sanctas Actiones Piscat Impelluntur as many as are impell'd vigorously urg'd and mov'd by the Spirit The most by Ducuntur as many as are led by the Spirit We have the same Phrase with another Priviledge annext Gal. 5.18 If ye be led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Spirit ye are not under the Law It 's evident the Expression is allusive and Metaphorical And it alludes either to Guides such as lead the Blind or those that are in the Dark or Travellers that know not their way Or to Mothers and Nurses who take their Children by the hand such as cannot goe and therefore they lead uphold and help them Answerably to both of these Believers are led by the spirit of God with respect partly to their Spiritual Blindness and Darkness and partly to their spiritual Weakness and Infirmity The Holy Ghost is both their Guide and Director to keep them from wandring and also their Vpholder and Strengthner to keep them from falling The Point to be discoursed of is this That Gods spirit is a leading spirit to â—os and in all Gods Children The Acts and Operations of this Spirit are various and multiform Several of which are instanc't in in this Chapter the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath
be made a Possessor of Him in his Indwelling in us To be led by the Spirit is our partaking of his Directive Influence after we are made Possessors of him The First supposes the receiving of the Agent or Principle the second imports the Operation from that Agent or Principle The Greek Expositors do much insist upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Whom Oecumenius and Theophylact follow Ideo non dicit Qui spiritum Dei acceperunt sed qui spiritu Dei aguntur i. e. qui illius actui obtemperant Musc but with that Explication of it which I do not drive at Observe say They 't is not said as many as have received the Spirit are the Sons of God but as many as are led by the Spirit For as they glosse upon it many receive the Spirit at Baptism who yet afterwards not being led by the Spirit to and in an Holy Life their Sonship to God ceases But this stating of the Having of the Spirit I meddle not with I consider the Reception of the Spirit not only in an external Baptismal way but in that which is inward real and saving And even this I make to be distinct from his Leading For although these are never disjoyn'd and separated but do always coexist and accompany each the other all Circumstances concurring yet in themselves they differ both as to Order and Precedence and also as to Nature and Essence The Having of a Soul and then the having of the subsequent Acts of that Soul are different things so 't is in that which I am upon These things that are more general being premis'd I come to a more strict and particular Explication of this Leading of the Spirit What is it to be led by Him It notes something on the Spirits part and something on the Creatures part Both must be taken in in the opening and stating of it 1. Something on the Spirits part So it imports 1. His special Guidance 2. His powerful Inclination 3. His Cooperation and Corroboration 4. His Regency and Gubernation 1. His special Guidance To be led by the Spirit The special Acts included in the Spirits Leading 't is to live under the blessed Guidance and Conduct of the Spirit This is the Notion which does most obviously comport with Leading How is the Blind man led why as he has one to direct and guide him to and in the way wherein he is to go So here Of this act as done by God and his Spirit the Scripture often speaks And the Lord shall guide thee continually Is 58.11 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go Isa 48.17 Thou shalt guide me by thy Councel and afterward receive me to Glory Psal 73.24 Teach me to do thy Will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness Psal 143.10 Lead me in thy truth and teach me for thou art the God of my Salvation Psal 25.5 I will direct their work in truth and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them Is 61.8 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Psal 37.23 Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying This is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left Isa 30.21 Here 's the Leading of the Spirit What the Cloud was to the Israelites in the directing of them in their Motions what the Guide is to the Traveller who knows not his way that the Spirit of God is to Believers their Guide and Director in this their Journeying and Wilderness state II. His powerful Inclination He leads not only by a naked Guidance or Directive Light beam'd into the Understanding whereby Believers are brought to know God's Will and what they are to do Col. 1.9 that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his Will Quid est duci spirieu Dei Est a spiritu sancto soris Verbo intus Illuminatione doceri de Dei voluntate nec non efficaciter flecti ac Regi ad volendum faciendum ea quae Deo placent Par. in all Wisdom and spiritual Vnderstanding Eph. 3.10 Proving what is acceptable to the Lord But he leads also by the Efficacious Inclining of the Heart the bowing and bending of the Will the overpowring of the Affections to close with and follow his Guidance in the doing of what is good and in the shunning of what is evil Divines bring the whole of the Spirits Leading under two words Monendo Movendo he first counsels and directs as to what is to be done and then he excites and effectually enclines to the doing thereof Psal 119.33 teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes here 's the Informing and Directing Act of the Spirit v. 35 36. make me to go in the path of thy Commandments Encline my heart unto thy testimonies and not unto Covetousness here 's the Efficacious and Powerful Act of the Spirit They who feel and experience This in themselves they are the Persons that are led by the Spirit I shall have occasion to speak more of it in what will follow III. His Cooperation and Corroboration When one leads another both the person leading and the person led have their proper Action and Motion and both unite and concurr therein And so 't is in the Saints being led by the Spirit as to what is Holy and Good He Acts and They Act too something there is done on His part something on Theirs too and there 's a mutual conjunct efficiency or Agency in Both. He acts then they act acti agunt And the Act is Theirs and His too theirs Subjectively and Formally His in respect of Excitation to it and Assistance in it They do the thing but 't is by his Influxe Is 26.12 thou hast wrought all our works in us Philip. 2.12 13. Work out your Salvation for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure In short we move we act and the Spirit concurrs and cooperates with us therein and so we are led by him †Dicet mihi aliquis ergo agimur non agimus Respondeo imò agis ageris tunc benè agis si a bono ageris Spiritus enim Dei qui te agit agentibus adjutor est Ipse nomen adjutoris praescribit tibi quia tu ipse aliquid agis Serm. 13. de Verbis Ap. Austine when he is proving the Necessity of the latter from my Text does also prove the Reality and Verity of the Former The other Act of the Spirit Corroboration or Strengthning falls in with this in part So his Leading resembles the Mothers or Nurses leading the Child it being weak not able to go alone they take it by the hand hold it up joyn their strength with its weakness and so they enable it to go In like manner the strong and mighty Spirit of
God does as it were take weak Christians by the hand and communicate his strength to them by which they are enabled to do what is required of them As it follows in this Chapter with respect to Prayer likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lifts with us and against us at the other end of the Burden And so it is in all the Duties of Holiness the Spirit lifts with helps the infirmities of Believers and strengthens them thereunto I can do all things through Christ strengthning of me Philip. 4.13 That he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man Eph. 3.16 I may allude to that of Elisha 2 Kings 13.16 He said to the King of Israel put thine hand upon the bow and he put his hand upon it and Elisha put his hands upon the Kings hands So we put our hands upon the bow attempt to believe pray mortifie sin and the like and then the Holy Spirit puts His hand upon Ours to confirm and strengthen us in all these Was it not for this we could do nothing Joh. 15.5 was it not for this Leading we could not move one step in the path of Holiness IV. A Fourth thing included in this Leading of the Spirit is his Regency and Gubernation Where he Governs there he Leads So vice versa and his Leading is ever attended with Rule and Authority 'T is like a Generals Leading an Army who Authoritatively disposes and orders all its motions like Moses his leading the People of Israel who had the Rule and Government over them As to Christ they are put together Behold I have given him for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the People Isa 55.4 Such a Leading is this of the Spirit in Gracious Souls He has the Regiment of them He Commands and Orders them in their Course as he pleases they are subject to his Will steer'd by him in their Motions as the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl Ship is by the Pilot or the Chariot by him that drives it These are the Things on the Spirits part which do constitute his leading 2. To fill this up there is something on the Creatures part And that is their yielding up of themselves to the Guidance and Conduct of the Spirit Their free willing Bishop Halls Remains p. 147. Hollingsworth of the Spirit p. 65. spontaneous following of him in what he moves and dictates to them Without this 't is not Leading for that imports Motion after something that goes before And that Motion too must be Voluntary or else 't is being Hal'd and Dragg'd not Led This is the Disposition and Carriage of the Sons of God towards the Spirit He excites them to be Holy Heavenly-minded to resist and mortifie Corruption to Pray Hear Gods word perform other Religious Duties yea to take up their Cross in all they readily comply with him As David in that particular Case VVhen thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said thy face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 He will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths Isa 2.3 Draw me we will run after thee Cant. 1.4 Here 's the Spirits Leading and the Believers following of him It 's set forth v. 1. by walking after the Spirit it supposes a Principle of Life dead things may be drawn but they cannot properly be said to be led where the Spiritual Life is such do willingly conform to what the Spirit directs them unto But this I shall say no more of in this Explanatory part it being a thing that requires our Practice rather than any large Explication of it Thus I have opened the Nature of the Spirits Leading But it being a point of great Importance and the due stating of it being highly Necessary upon sundry Accounts I will further speak to these Four things about it Four things opened about the Spirits Leading 1. The Matter or Terminus what the Spirit leads unto 2. The Rule by which he leads 3. The Way and Manner wherein he leads 4. The Extent and Measure of it The matter of it 1. The Matter what the Spirit leads unto This is of great Extent but all may be reduc'd to these two things Truth and Holiness Truth is seated in the Vnderstanding and speaks the Spirits Leading of that Faculty Holiness reaches to the Heart within and Conversation without and speaks the Spirits Leading of Both in their utmost Comprehensiveness These he leads and guides unto but not in the least to their Opposites Error and Sin Every Agent is for that which comports and suits with his own Nature and against that which is contrary thereunto Therefore the Spirit being a Spirit of Truth and of Holiness this determines him to lead to these and to these only So his Conduct is stated in Holy Writ John 16.13 When he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth Eph. 5.9 The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and Truth Psal 23.3 He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Names sake This Holiness includes in it Holy Affections the Exercise of the several Graces and these the Spirit guides unto 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ The avoiding and mortifying of sin and this the Spirit guides unto If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live immediately it follows As many as are led by the Spirit shewing that the Mortification of sin is one special thing which the Spirit leads to Gal. 5.16 walk in the Spirit after his Guidance and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the flesh why because he always makes this the matter of his Guidance to keep men off from the Lust of the Flesh from all sinful ways and Courses He 's a Good and Holy Spirit in himself and therefore all his Motions tend to what is Good and Holy As Satan he being the Evil Spirit suitably to his Nature does excite and urge to what is Evil Acts 5.3 John 13.2 So e contra the Spirit of God He being the Good Spirit does excite and urge to what is Good and to nothing else How do they blaspheme this Holy Spirit who do wicked things and yet presume to say the Spirit leads them thereunto This must be laid down as a Principle of undoubted verity that the sole and whole tendency of the Spirits Leading is to Purity Obedience Universal Holiness and in no case to sin and wickedness II. The Rule by which he leads The Rule of it And that in short is the Written VVord God guides by the Spirit the Spirit guides by the VVord He is our Guide and the Word is our Rule The Spirit himself as to his own Actings has no External
God 1. By Sanctifying our Hearts and assimilating our Natures to the Nature of God for there can be no Communion where there is no likeness of Nature What Communion hath Light with Darkness or Fire with Water because there is no similitude in their Natures As the Elements that have symbolical qualities and some likeness in their Nature do easily pass one into the other by a Natural transmutation In this Communion with God there must be some suitableness and likeness between God and the Soul and that enmity and contrariety which is in our Natures to him must be removed by the sanctifying operation of the Holy Spirit in us 2. By elevating and raising the Soul above its Natural power and reach The Apostle distinguisheth between the Soul and Spirit in Man the Spirit is the superior part of the Soul and it is in the Spirit that we have our Communion with God who is a Spirit As the Union and Communion between the Soul and the Body in Nature is by the Superiour and most refined part of the Body which are the Vital Natural and Animal Spirits so our Union and Communion with God is by the Spirit the supreme part of the Soul and that elevated and raised by the Spirit of God above its own Natural capacity or power These are the principal wayes for Communion with God but then there are subordinate wayes which are the Ordinances and Institutions of God for that end For God hath in all ages been training up his people to this to have Communion with himself and therefore he did appoint Ordinances for that end under the Law there were Sacrifices and Altars and Solemn Feasts appointed of God especially the Sabbath-Day and a Sanctuary erected c. and all for this end that his People might therein draw nigh to him and have Communion with him And so in the New Testament God hath his Ordinances also appointed for this end as Prayer Hearing the Word Singing of Psalms Baptism and especially the Lords Supper which is therefore called the Communion as that Ordinance wherein we have a more special Communion with Christ and with God in him Quest But what is to be done more particularly on our part to obtain it and maintain it also Answ 1. In general we are to desire it and pant after it as the most beneficial and necessary thing in the World Many have it not because they desire it not They satisfie themselves in their converse with things below and the Communion they have with things sensible and natural and desire not this Communion with God Answ 2. You are to make it your scope and end in all the Ordinances you approach to to have therein Communion with God Many come to them out of custome some out of curiosity and others in hypocrisie and so find not that Communion with God which else they might obtain if they did make it their great scope and end David testifies his great longing that he had after the Sanctuary of God but it was for this end that he might there meet with God and have Communion with him as he expresseth it in the Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord to dwell in the House of the Lord that I may see the Beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Temple And again Psal 63. O God my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee that I may see thy Power and thy Glory as I have seen thee in thy Sanctuary which is in effect that he might there have Communion with God But to speak to this more particularly 1. If we would have Communion with God we must keep up the exercise of Faith in Christ for it is as I said by him that we have all our Communion with God therefore Christ had his Name Immanuel given to him which signifies God with us Let Faith look upon God as in Christ and so we may behold him reconciled we may behold him coming down to us in our own Nature we may behold him upon a Throne of Grace and as entred into a Covenant of Grace whereby we may with a greater freedome and boldness have access unto him which is the active part of this Communion with God and through Faith in Christ God also communicates himself by his Spirit to his People in Light Life and Love which is this Communion in the passive part of it The Apostle 1 John 4.15 saith to this purpose Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God This Confession is an act of Faith and if it be not only from the Mouth but from the Heart it leadeth the Soul into this Communion with God expressed in our part by our dwelling in God and on Gods part by his dwelling in us 2. Keep up a dayly exercise of Repentance that so no new Sin nor the Guilt of it in the Conscience may hinder and interrupt our Communion with God For who can say his Heart is clean He is pure from sin and therefore there is need of dayly Repentance that sin may not interrupt our Communion with God which it will do if we abide impenitently under it The Apostle speaks in this Chapter of Fellow-ship with God and here in the Text and afterwards adds If any man say he hath no sin he deceiveth himself So that this Communion with God may consist with the Being of sin but not with impenitence under it and therefore adds If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive it and we know that Confession of Sin is one great part of Repentance and when Sin is thus confessed and forgiven it need not hinder our Fellowship with God The Apostle also mentioneth in my Text Fellowship with God and the cleansing of us from sin by the Blood of Christ both these are put together so that to maintain this Fellowship with God we must be cleansed from sin which is done meritoriously by the Blood of Christ but on our part upon the Conditions of Faith and Repentance 3. Keep up a constant course of Prayer and praising God 1. Prayer Prayer is a special Ordinance for Communion with God and therefore so much commanded in Scripture Pray without ceasing saith the Apostle in one place Pray all manner of Prayer in the Spirit as he speaks in another place For if it be not a Prayer in the Spirit accompanied with Faith and fervour of Soul we may pray and yet have no Communion with God Prayer is compared to incense but it doth not ascend to Heaven but in the Fire of Holy Affection kindled by the Spirit And Christ therefore propounded several Parables to put men upon Fervency Faith and Perseverance in Prayer which are so well known that I need not mention them If the Soul draws nigh to God in any Duty it will be this And so Gods drawing nigh to the Soul is experienced to be much in this Duty of Prayer Christ himself
Opinion or Practise especially if they are not imposed as necessary For this hath made such woful Divisions in the Church the making things unnecessary and doubtful the necessary terms of Church-Communion Was the Church of Rome it self the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church as she stiles her self I could have Communion with it They that leave the Apostles shake the Foundation of the Churches stability and forsake the center of its Unity The Lord help us all to understand the way of Peace and Union in this miserably divided Age. Vse VI Lastly And now from all that hath been said we may take a prospect of Heaven Heaven is not a Turkish Paradise it is Communion with God that is the very Heaven of Heaven as the loss of it is the very Hell of Hell And this makes Heaven not desirable to the Carnal Man who hath no desire after or delight in Communion with God but it doth commend it the more to the Spiritual Man that he shall then enjoy that in its highest perfection which he hath been pursuing and had the fore-tasts of in this World Quest What is the best way to prepare to meet God in the way of his Judgments or Mercies SERMON XXVIII 1 John XII 28. Beginning of the Verse Father Glorify thy Name IN this Chapter we find the Lord Jesus under two very different Exercises in the one attended with much Solemnity in the other under great Perplexity much Courted much cast Down highly Honoured and exceedingly Troubled and he beareth both with wonderful Equanimity He is Feasted at Bethany v. 1 2. Anointed with Oyle of Spiknard very costly v. 3. Rideth Tryumphantly into Jerusalem v. 12 13. c. His Disciples bless and entertain him upon the way with Hosannas v. 13. Matth. 21.8 9. Strangers desire to see him and give him their Acknowledgments v. 20. And the Multitude throng after him v. 12. And strow his way with Palm Branches v. 13. But immediately the Scene is changed As our blessed Lord was not much affected with these things so contrary to all Expectation he enters upon a discourse of another Nature v. 23. The hour is come that the Son of Man should be Glorified Why Had he not been Glorifying throughout this Chapter yea But not comparably to what he here intends q. d. my Feast my Tryumph my applause bear no Proportion to the glory I am hasting to These are but Dull low Glories to what is at Hand The hour is come i. e. is near That the Son of Man shall be Glorified upon the Cross by Expiating the Sins of his Elect Glorified thereupon in Heaven at the right hand of the Father Christ had his Eye upon an higher Glory which would redound to him upon the Performing and Finishing our Redemption And a true Christian frame overlook's present Comforts and Honours from Men and fixeth mainly upon the Honour to be received from God in the way of Obedience here and hereafter Nor will our Lord Jesus pass over this Meditation till he have improved it 1. Inferring thence the Fruitfulness of his Death Verrily Verrily I say unto you v. 24. Except a Corn of Wheat fall into the Ground and Dye it abideth alone but if it Dye it bringeth forth much Fruit. Alluding to the Propagation of his Church by his Death 2. The Proportionable advantage of the Death of his Saints for his Sake v. 25.26 and Testimony and the disadvantage of forbearing and refusing to suffer for his Name But passing thence to the consideration of his Dreadful Agony and Passion ensuing v. 27. beginning His Thoughts are at a Stand his Soul is Troubled yea the Extremity of his grief stopt his Mouth so Amazing so Astonishing was the Fore-sight of his Sufferings At last Prayer breaks out Father Save me from this Hour and is presently Corrected But for this cause came I to this Hour q. d. I would escape but must not resist thy Will I 'd save my self yet not without a Salvo to thy purpose and councel I am in a Strait between Nature and Faith between Fear and Subjection between Death and Duty First Meer Trouble is no Sin Christs Soul was Troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Water when it is Mudded Jo. 5.4 7. Not that thier was any mixture of Sin in his Trouble it was such as might consist with his pure unspotted Nature If grief be not groundless if not extravagant no Sainted with unbelief or effected of disobedience 't is but Natures Weakness Grace induceth no Stoical Stupidity 'T is no property of the Gospel to make Men Sensless Secondly Fear of Death and sense of the Wrath of God are of all things most Perplexing Now is my Soul Troubled Now I am to conflict with the Father's Anger Mens Malice and Death's Pains and Terrours and now not my Flesh only but my Soul is Troubled Thirdly Extream distress of Spirit is of an amazing Nature Christ had not the Freedom of Prayer What shall I say and then what he did say was corrected Matt. 26.39 42. Fourthly No Extremity can Ordinarily or should really put an Holy Soul by the Plea of or hope in his Relation to God Christ calls God Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matt. 27.46 Fifthly Prayer must be suited to the Occasion Save me from the Hour c. A great Argument against most forms is that an Holy Soul cannot relish them nor can I see how God accepts them because they are impertinent or not full to the case Sixthly In our Extremitys we may be importunate must not be Peremptory with God in Prayer Our Saviour here Prayed not more Heartily then submissively Matt. 26.39 Our Text is the Result of the Lords Wrastling both with his own Soul and with his Father Here is first Christs Prayer Father Glâ—rify thy Name And the Fathers Answer in the next words but I meddle not with that now In the Text we have Two things 1. The Compellation Father 2. The Petition Glorify c. 1. The Compellation Father Prayer ought to be Ushered in with some Suitable Title of God which is expressive of his Supremacy our Reverence of him and Relation to him All these are Couched in the Single word Father Read Matt. 6.10 Malach. 1.6 Rom. 8.15 1. This Title expresseth God's Authority and Chirst's Allegiance both owned by him in this little Word 2. Relation The Lords Petitioners must ask so as to assure themselves of Acceptation which the Recognition of our Interest in God Read Isa 63 16. as our Father in Christ is very proper to Effect Hence the Rule of Prayer enters with Our Father And it is most Suitable to the Spirit of the Gospel that believers call God Father in Prayer having the Spirit of the Son poured out upon them to this End Gal. 4.6 2. The Petition Father Glorify thy Name q. d. Be thou rather Glorified then I Spared If I dye thy Glory will make amends for my Torment and
and must be Submitted to the Will and Glory of God Be sure Christ put these things in their proper place and behold his Life and all are resolved into the Fathers Will and Glory Nor did he undervalue himself or them in laying them at his Fathers Feet Certainly he was most tender of that which was most Valuable All the Baptist's Credit was to Vanish at Christs appearing upon the Stage VVell did he Bustle in his own behalf Nay he bare witness that he that came after him was to be preferred before him Jo. 1.15 and being demanded who he was he confessed and denyed not but confessed I am not the Christ v. 20. VVhat need all this but that John was render of the order wherein God had plac't him So v. 27. O that it were thus with us that we would lay down our Selves our Lives c. At the Feet of God and subordinated them to his Glory That we were willing that he be Glorified though we Suffer 4 Be we never so great and high yet our Father must do his Pleasure with us and get Glory by us Though Christ were a Son yet he Learned Obedience Heb. 5.8 Yea he was Equal with the Father in Nature Phil. 2.6 Yet having Covenanted to be the Fathers Servant in the Mediatory Dispensation he made himself of no Reputation c. v. 7 8. O let this mind be in us which was also in Christ v. 5. How was God pleased with Abrahams Resignation of his Son his only Son the Son of his Love of his Age his Darling Child Gen. 22.12 15 16 17 18. VVell as great as any of us think our selves we are not so great as Christ not so Considerable as Abraham let us be Content God should Glorifie himself by making us little and laying us low in the VVorld VVhat an abasement was it to Christ to be sold for 30 Peices of Silver See what himself saith of it Zach. 11.12 13. a goodly Price that I was Prized at of them yet he could bear in Submission to his Father O that high proud lofty Stately Professors who stand upon their greatness who affect grandeur would consider this Certainly the hight of Christians is a great part of the Controversy God hath with us in this Day Pray le ts bow our Spirits and lour our Top-sails willingly for God is bringing us down and for any thing I know he cannot otherwise have his VVill and Glory 5 See hence whither we must drive our perplexitys in Suffering if we would Conquer them even to this Holy Resignation of our selves into the Soveraign VVill of God Our Lord Jesus came to no Composure till he arrived at this Frame Compare with the Text the foregoing verse As long as you reluct against Providence expect nothing but Tumult He resisteth the proud c. James 4.6 7. who so proud as the unresigned Soul Well if we submit not God will fight against us and judge what composure we can then have When Jonah opposed the Lords Will had he any rest chap. 1.2 3 4. Job 9.4 'till we resign he 'l visit our Souls with darkness our Bodies with pain and our Matter with frustration and disappointment A Man that will Swim against Tyde and Stream and Wind may waste and spend his strength but the longer he strives the more unfeasable his Attempt is So while you strive against the Lords pleasure expect universal disturbance For when the debate is who shall yeild whether God shall abate his Will or we submit ours we may easily conceive how bitter unquiet and vexatious the greatest will be on our part Well but come and resign to the Will of God and all will be calm Isa 30.15 There are three things herein exceeding composing 1. Our spirits and thoughts are now come to a conclusion before there was a contest between Grace and Nature that would this would not submit this created unquietness but now Grace hath got the day the Soul is calm When there are two Armies in the Feild Fighting all is in a cumbustion but when one is conquered Peace ensueth That which created Christ's trouble was the struggle between his Natural and Divine Will Now that being concluded by resignation he is at rest 2. Now there 's no difficulty in our way for we follow providence 3. Having resign'd the burden of our suffering is roll'd upon God A resigned Soul casteth it self into his Arms as well as submits to his Will and now God is engaged if not to save us from the hour yet to help us in and through it 6. Lastly Let me advise the people of God to take this course If we must suffer Imprisonment loss of Goods or Liberty or Life let Providence find us in this frame Well then let 's be earnest with God and contend with our own spirits till we come to this temper till we can in some blessed measure say with the Lord Jesus Christ Father glorifie thy Name Friends it may be this Doctrine and Exhortation will find very slight entertainment with some but I will promise them they cannot meet God in the way of his judgments in any other frame If the Lord Jesus would not venture upon his Agony till he had attained it how shall we be able to meet our sufferings without it Quest T is true this was the frame of Christ but is it possible for us to attain it Ans Yea it is feasable It was not peculiar to Christ but t is common to his Member with him I have given several instances nor doth God oblige us unto impossibilities There are two things I have to say in the case 1. God gives this resignation sometimes unexpectedly If he surprize an holy Soul with affliction he 'l sometimes surprize it with submission and resignation Nay every Believer in suffering for the Name and Cause of God hath the promise of the Spirit to compose and carry him through Mark 13.11 Observe this promise takes place in persecution what then Take no thought what ye shall speak We must not confine this promise to the Spirits management of our Tongues only nay it extends much more to our Hearts and Thoughts If the Spirit dictate our words how much more will it influence our Souls And I add the Lord doth not say it shall be given before hand but in that Day 2. This Spirit of resignation is ordinarily the Blessing of Exercise Psal 131.1 2. As in all other Cases Grace is given in and upon our endeavour Hos 6.3 Psal 119.2 so in this Case And therefore 1. Do what you can to clear up your interest in God This once cleared submission is in a manner easie Why did Isaac resign himself to his Father Gen. 22. because he knew he was his Father My Father saith Jophtha's Daughter if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth Jud. 11.36 A dutiful Child will not dare not cannot prophane it's Relation by
thee unto the prejudice of thy best affairs and that he never be defective in ministring those supplies to thee which his own Glory the credit of Religion the publick Good and the great Duties of thy Place and Station do require And that he never call the out to any thing beyond thy Strength and Furniture but that he suit thy Strength and Spirit unto the Work and Burthens of thy Place and Day 1 Cor. 10.13 God will not be offended at thee for such trust as this supposing thy devotedness and thy due diligence and prudence in the choice and using of all meet Subordinate means and helps and thy fervent cryes to him 3 Think upon those Encouragements which God hath given to this trust Isa 26.3 4. Psal 112.7 thou hast Gods Promises and Engagements Heb. 6.17 18. 2 Pet. 1.3 4. Heb. 10.23 24. Psal 119.75 76. and these are certain suitable large and precious and the genuine product of infinite generous and resolved Love Thou hast those near and dear Relations which God hath assumed and owns to thee an Husband Father King c. Isa 54.5 10. 2 Cor. 6.18 Rev. 21.7 Thou hast the exhibition of his own Son Jesus Christ Heb. 10.19 23.4 14 16. 2.17 18. John 6.39 40. 1 Pet. 1.3 21. Rom. 8.32 35. Thou hast the earnest of the indwelling Spirit Eph. 1.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.5 and of that new Nature which he hath formed and cherished in thee as in 2 Tim. 1.7 Rom. 8.15 23 28. thou hast a sealed Covenant with Sacramental confirmations and experiences of prosperous trust both in others and thy self Psal 9.10 Rom. 15.4 Dan. 3.28 Heb. 11. Do then as David did Infer from known experience all that may strengthen regular Confidence for thus did he Psal 32.7 10. and thus did Paul 2 Cor. 1.8 10. The Lord is my Shield and Strength my Heart trusted in him and I am Helped Psal 28 7. And thou hast the Glory of thy God concerned in the prosperousness of thy Trust Ephes 1.12 Rom. 4.20 And now to close up all Why such manifold Encouragements to Trust in God if they were either Vain or Needless And how can any keep up their Trust in God without their deep and sober Thoughts about and their intent and most deliberate Pauses on these weighty things upon Record which God hath left to Justifie and Encourage your Trusting in him It is both Strange and Sad to see many Christians come to their Ministers with Complaints or put up Bills for Prayers in Congregations and to desire Solemn Days to be set apart for them whilst they rest only here as if they looked to be comforted and supported by some Charm or Miracle they look to be healed by a Word and they neglect their own Work they do not search into themselves that they may know whether or no the Grace of God hath made them capable of Trusting in the Lord as their God They bring not their Calamities and Dejections to the Test that they may clearly know under what hand of God they are cast and how far God hath hid his Face from them and how far not God enters not into their close and serious Thoughts that they may plainly see and know what there is in him to draw their Spirits forth to Trust in him Nor will they studiously revive that Sence of God upon themselves whereby their Trust in him may be Engaged Establish'd and Emboldned and yet they cry What shall we do to Trust in the Lord as our God Why Sirs I will tell you what to do 1. See that your Interest in God be cleared up this you may know by the prevalency of your Desires Pursuits and Satisfactions and by the Practical Resignments of your selves to him 2. See what this Interest in God refers viz. Nothing is desperately lost at present and all will be well at last and that all lies safe that can concern you see Psal 23.1 4. The truth is all that can be grateful great and sure may be inferred from hence 3. Accommodate and apply what you infer as skilfully and faithfully as you can to your distressing and discouraging Case and Circumstances there are Histories to tell us what God hath done and there are Doctrines to tell us what God is and can do and there are Precepts and Instructions to direct us what we are to do in what Cases upon what Grounds and Reasons and to what Ends and Purposes we may Trust in God and God hath given us marks to know what Interest we have in him and a Directory and Helps to get it if we have it not and he hath shewed us fully and plainly what it is and what at last it will amount to to want or have this Interest in himself and when as we have gotten it he hath taught us how to apply it fitly and how to bear our Spirits up in Hope and Trust thereby and after all this and much more shall we be negligent and lazy and cry out like Fools and Drones We know not how to Trust in God nor whether he be Ours or not let us not thus abuse our selves 4. Think on these Means and Helps whereby we may attain to an Ability and Faculty of Trusting in God and let them be most Faithfully improved such as the Word Sacraments Sabbaths Conferences Meditation upon the Word and Works of God but these need no Enlargements on them and my Limits are transgrest already READER Expect not Accuracy here I am very sensible of many Imperfections in this Sermon I am separated from my helps having my Bible only and my God to help me in my wandring Solitudes and Retirements these things are what I have discoursed with my own heart and if some Censure them others I hope will Pity and Pray for me and the God of Heaven accept and prosper these though weak Endeavours I had some Inferences prepared but because I would not be too tedious I forbear to add them so as to Enlarge upon them I will but mention these 1st Infer Hence it follows That Humane Souls are Excellent and Capacious Principles and Beings 2d Infer Graceless Sinners are under dark and dreadful Circumstances when God Afflicts and hides his Face from them they need not say Why cast down so much but rather why not more 3d Infer Excellent is the Temper and Condition that Grace puts Mens Souls into in that they are enabled prompted and directed to such ways to know and help themselves 4th Infer Right and due Thoughts of God do mighty Service to the Gracious Soul in all the Eclipses and Distresses that do or can befall it Psal 42.11 Infer I. Mans Soul is a Noble and Capacious Being Mark 8.36 37. It is called by Solomon the Lamp or Candle of the Lord searching all the Inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 It is the great Treasure that ought to be kept and used well for out of it are the Issues of Life Prov. 4.23 Its Joys
suffering or in the words of Phineas in such a case Jos 22.31 to deliver them out of the hand of the Lord i. e. to keep them from falling into it Now who is it that hinders Sin most and stops the Dam to prevent an Inundation of it but the religious part of a Nation It is they that reprove it and bear their Testimony against it and by their Authority so far as they are in a capacity suppress it and by their example discountenance it None so active none so zealous in opposing Sin as they that are most Holy They not only fear it in themselves but labour to prevent it in others if it were in their power they would neither Sin themselves nor let any else though they set themselves especially against the most crying Sins and which are most like to stir up wrath in God against a People And when Sin is that for which threatnings are denounced and punishments inflicted they that fear God among any People do most effectually keep off punishment by preventing Sin To prevent it therefore is their first care and if that cannot be they bewail it and mourn over it Ezek. 9.4 they sigh and cry for the abominations of a Land So David beheld the transgressors and was grieved Psal 119.158 Rivers ran down his Eyes because they kept not Gods Laws verse 136. and Jeremiah chap. 13.17 wept in secret places for the pride of his People This is not a direct and formal stopping the course of Sin in a Land in respect of others yet it is a kind of check to it so far as it keeps Sin from being so general as to overspread themselves while they thus lay to heart the Sins of others they are not themselves partakers of them nor sharers in the Guilt These Sins are not universal when there are some that testifie their dislike of them by their sorrow for them The more general Sin is the more dangerous and the more like to bring on Judgments when the godly themselves become guilty though not by commission of it yet by not bewailing it which is a degree of fellowship with it But when they mourn for Sin committed by others they free themselves from the guilt of approbation or connivance at or communion in it and so may be instrumental in keeping off at least more general Judgments 4. As they not only check the progress of Sin but propagate goodness to others as well as promote it in themselves this they do by their counsels admonitions example They make it their business not only to do good themselves but to make others good and bring them to Holiness as well as keep them from Sin and so not only themselves live in the exercise of these Graces to which the promises are made executing judgment and seeking the truth Jer. 5.1 but they labour to gain others to the same gracious conversation Grace wherever it is is communicative spreads it self what it can they that love God see so much loveliness in him that they would fain perswade others to love him too they that walk in his ways like them so well and find so much peace and pleasantness in them and expect such a reward at the end of them that they are solicitous to get others into them they know he whom they serve is bountiful enough and rich enough there is Glory enough in Heaven for all John 14.2 Mansions enough in Christs Fathers House for all and the multitude of Fellow-Servants will neither hinder their Work nor diminish their Wages nay they know that they that win Souls are wise they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 and therefore they are desirous to be in the Number of them It is their design to advance Gods Name and Glory and they would have others help them in the Work And indeed God often makes use of not only Ministers in their Preaching but private Christians in their conversation to promote the conversion of Sinners and commonly when he intends any great reformation among a People he makes use of those that are already gracious in carrying it on And godliness having the promises of the Life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 6.8 so far as the religious part of a People promote godliness advance Religion among them so far they are instrumental in procuring their welfare and keeping off their ruin 5. Sometimes the religious of a Nation may have an influence upon its publick welfare by doing some eminent service wherewith God is much pleased and to what he hath a special respect Psal 106.30 Princes stood up and executed judgment and so the plague was stayed Numb 25. Phineas hath turned away my wrath from the Children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed them not and verse 13. he is said to make an attonement for them by that Act not that any thing done by a meer Man can be a full satisfaction to Divine Justice for a Man 's own Sin and much less can it for the Sin of another but however as sometimes temporal evils inflicted upon Saints themselves because they have a respect to their Sins though they are not properly penal yet in a larger Sence are called punishments and sometimes vengeance Psal 99.8 thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions Moses himself seems to be included verse 6.7 here was vengeance on those who yet were pardoned which cannot therefore be strictly such so likewise some good the Saints do which is pleasing to God and accepted of him in Christ on the performance whereof he turns away his anger thereby to shew his approbation of what is done and to encourage to more and this may in the same large Sence be called an attonement though properly it be not so Yet this Act of Phineas hath something in it that resembles an attonement and may on that account be so called for his killing Zimri and Cosbi was a fulfilling that Law which required the Death of the Parties offending on such a kind and the holiness of God which had been contemned by the transgressors was in some measure vindicated and in the eyes of the People by their exemplary punishment Another instance we have in Joshuah chap. 7. the Lord was angry with Israel for Achans trespass verse 12 Joshuah hath him stoned to death verse 25. and then verse 26. the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger So when there was a Famine in the Land for Sauls killing the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.1 David hangs up seven of his Sons verse 9. and then verse 14. the Lord was entreated for the Land When such Sins as are publick defilements to a Land are not punished the whole Land becomes guilty and usually is visited with some publick judgment but when they are punished that judgment is either prevented or removed No question but Josiahs Zeal
with God for the preservation and welfare of their Land But Sirs if your Consciences give the lie to your pretensions and tell you that you are not Saints that you are Ungodly you then are they to whom in this Exhortation I am to apply my self If the truly Religious be a Defence to the Nation do you accordingly carry your selves toward them use them well make much of them be kind to them take heed of hurting them Be so far Disobedient for once to your Father the Devil as not Gratifie him to your own Undoing by Maligning Traducing Opposing or Persecuting those that fain would Save you and under God are your best Benefactors do not hinder them from being Godly from Serving their Lord and doing that whereby they are preventing your Ruin and promoting your Good Take heed of touching them or medling with them if the Argument would move you I would say take heed of it 1. For Gods sake Who hath an Interest in them whose Jewels whose Anointed Ones whose Children they are and whose Image they bear Psal 119.94 Mal. 3.16 Psal 105.15 If you do but own God as your Lord or pretend to do so you should have some respect to those that belong to him and they that have no regard for Saints have none for God himself they that hate them that are begotten cannot love them that beget 1 John 5.1 I know you will be ready to say they are not Saints but a company of Factious or Seditious or Hypocritical Persons whom you oppose I wonder what is become of all the Saints you dare not say you are such your selves and all that are not like you in Sin though never so much of the same Judgment with you you call Hypocrites Hath God no true Servants left in the Land or where must we look for them But what if the Dirt you throw upon the Factious be found sticking upon the Religious What if the Wound you give the the Hypocrites draw Blood from the Saints and those that you call the Enemies of the Nation appear to be the Friends of God It cost Zebah and Zalmunna dear for Killing those that resembled the Children of a King Judg. 8.18 Take heed of daring to put forth your Hands against those that do but resemble the Children of God least when you think not of it they prove to have been so But if this prevail not as I fear it will not yet 2. Take heed of Troubling Gods Holy Ones for your own sakes It is your Interest and your Wisdom as before no less then your Duty for they can do more for you and more against you then all the World besides Gen. 20.7 God bids Abimelech restore Abraham his Wife for says he he is a Prophet and he shall Pray for thee and thou shalt Live he was concern'd to use Abraham well when he might get so much by it and if not thou shalt surely Die thou and all that are thine his wronging Abraham should cost him dear Consider 1. Their Redeemer is strong Jer. 50.34 who that is the next words tell you the Lord of Hosts is his Name It is dangerous medling with any that have great Friends and Allies such may by their means be too hard for you though in themselves they be but weak He that is a Kings Son may be but a Child and so but feeble himself and not able to resist the force of One that is strong and violent but he hath a King for his Father One that hath a Sovereign Power and can Command Thousands and by him he may prevail over a strong Enemy The Godly may be but weak and mean and contemptible in themselves but they have a Friend nay a Father that is strong the Lord of Hosts is their Redeemer One that can deal with you over-top you crush you make you perish with the very Rebukes of his Countenance Psal 80.16 If he do but blow upon you your Breath goes out of you you Die and return to your Earth Psal 146.4 2. He will throughly plead their Cause so it follows Assure your selves God will certainly do it first or last here or hereafter Their Cause is his Cause he knows that for his Names sake they suffer Rebuke for his sake they are appointed as Sheep for the Slaughter Psal 44.22 They suffer so many unworthy things however upon other pretences yet really because they belong to him so that if you strike at them you strike at him if you touch them you touch the Apple of his Eye Zech. 2.8 Christ at the last Day will Judg you according as your Carriage hath been to his People and Interprets all done or not done to them as done or not done to himself Matth. 25. God may for a long time keep silence and let you alone but one Day will meet with you be sure in the other Life it may be in this and then can you either 1. Ward off his Blows when he lays them on you Can you withstand his Power grapple with Omnipotence Cannot he bring those Evils upon you which it is impossible for you to keep off or resist The Lord will come with Fire and his Chariots like a Whirlwind to render his Anger with Fury and his Rebukes with Flames of Fire Isa 66.15 2. Or Can you bear what he Inflicts Can your Hearts endure can your Hands be strong when he comes to deal with you Ezek. 22.14 Alas you cannot stand before the Messengers of his Wrath How are you brought down with a little Pain or Sickness A fit of the Stone or Cholick makes you almost Mad and how then will you endure if God himself once take you to hand if he fill you with his Fury and pour out his Wrath immediately upon your Souls Is it not then your Interest to favour Gods Saints to take heed of medling with them to their hurt when it is like the conclusion to be in your own when as they are your best Friends So they may prove your most Formidable Enemies by Engaging God against you who when they suffer wrongfully will not fail to take their part and be on their side and though he use you for a time as Scourges in his Hand for the Correction of them yet when he hath done with you is then ready to throw you into the Fire Isa 10.12 Remember then that as the Religious of a Nation ordinarily do most good to them so when they are abused and trampled upon they do most hurt because God pleads their Cause and espouses their Quarrel many a Judgment they bring down upon their Enemies that is God doth for them the Violence done to them is severely punished upon them that do it How was Aegypt Plagued for Israels sake and the Philistines and others after them and the Babylonians after them all Nay whoever hardned himself against them and prospered Gods Jerusalem is at one time or other a Burthensome Stone to all them that Burden themselves with it Zech. 12.3 The
House of Jacob is a Fire and the House of Joseph a Flame and the House of Esau as Stubble Obad. 1.18 God takes notice of the least Injuries done to his Children by their Enemies nay of their very Omissions and Neglects Deut. 23.3 4. The Moabite and the Ammonite were not to enter into the Congregation of the Lord to the Tenth Generation because they met not the Children of Israel with Bread and with Water when they came out of Aegypt and what then will become of them that grudg Gods Children Bread that robs them of their Spiritual Bread and Water of Life would take from them the Allowance their Father hath given them and so would starve their very Souls 3. Whoever shew'd Kindness to the Godly in vain A Cup of Cold Water given to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple or because he belongs to Christ shall not wants its Reward Christ takes the least Respect shewn them as done to himself Visiting the Prisoners Clothing the Naked Releiving the Poor are acceptable Offices and usually followed with some Blessing even in this Life And I wonder wherein are they that this Day Persecute Gods Children the worse for them or for any Countenance they have shewn them Nor are they ever like to be if it be not their own fault by stirring up Gods Jealousie and pulling down his Vengeance upon their own Heads Were but Truth effectually beleived what an alteration would it make upon the Spirits of Men How would those that are at present so unkind to the truly Religious become their Friends and Favourers And the Governours of Judah would say in their Hearts the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my Strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12.5 Quest Whether it be expedient and how the Congregation may say Amen in publick Worship SERMON XXXI The Text is Neh. 8.6 And Ezra Blessed the Lord the great God and all the â—â—ople answered Amen Amen OMnipotent and Eternal goodness never wants Instruments to deliver his Church from slavery or reform it from degeneracy All the Empires and Emperors in the World have served the Kingdom of God and been as Scaffolds set up about the House of God to be taken down when that is built up and finished They have been as Gibeonites and Nethamins to the Temple of the Lord. The Assyrian was Gods Rod upon Israels Back Persian was here Gods Shepherd whose Spirit was stirred up to raise up the Jews Alexander was a Servant and the Romans have been but Gods slaves to do his Will against their own The State of the Church at this juncture was the end of a desolation or beginning of a reformation The Jews had weathered out Seventy Years in Captivity wherein multitudes of them were wore off a Remnant being left God raised up Cyrus and moved him to set them free from Babylon according to the Prophesie of Isa 45.1 Two Hundred and Ten Years before Many of the People through lazy worldliness or despondency chose rather still to lie among the Pots in Caldea than return to Jerusalem to build their City and Temple though Cyrus gave them not only liberty by Proclamations but Accommodations for the Work But God raised up the Spirit of Zerobabel Joshuah Nehemiah and Ezra to carry it on This Ezra was a great Man of God one of the great Synagogue a Prophet a Scribe a Priest Some will have it that as Jehoiakim cut and burnt the roll Jer. 36.23 So the Caldeans burned all the Books of the Law and so Ezra restored them as a Prophet by Revelation or his Memory but this is false for Daniel 9.2 understood by Books the expiration of the Seventy Years and Cyrus himself read the Prophesie of Isaiah for Ezra 1.2 he says the Lord charged him to build his House at Jerusalem But he was a Prophet as he was directed by Gods Spirit to compose this History of his and a perfect Scribe living to Malachi's time he wrote the complete Old Testament and made a perfect Copy But here he Officiates as a Priest the Son of Seraiah Ezra 7.1 from Phineas Eleazar and Aaron to serve the Lord. When they had neither Temple nor Tabernacle they set up the worship of the God of Heaven in theopen Heaven which was neither Typical nor Topical but Natural and Evangelical Worship Upon the First Day of the Seventh Month in a Pulpit in the Street the People meeting as one Man Ezra 3.1 he read the Law of God and that distinctly giving the Sence of it verse 8. from Morning to Noon and all the Congregation stood attentively and at Noon probably he Dismissed them with a Blessing according to Numb 6.23 Gods command Bâ—â—â—re at the opening the Book Praying to God and praising him for his good hand over them and his good word before them he Blessed the Lord ere he Blessed the People and Ezra Blessed c. In which words there is 1. The Priests or Ministers Office Blessing And 2. The Peoples Office and all the People answered Amen Amen 3. The great God in the midst of this great Congregation the Object of the Priests Office and the Peoples also whence this Doct. That it is a lawful and laudable Practice for People in the conclusion of publick Prayer or Praysing God to pronounce an Amen This will answer the Question which is whether it be expedient and how the Congregation may say Amen in publick Worship 1. I will explain what is meant by Amen 2. Shew what warrant there is for the Practice 3. Deduce some inference from all 1. Then there is Amen Substantive and that is God himself who is what he is Alpha and Omega Truth it self Isa 65.16 he that blesseth himself in the Earth shall bless himself in the God Amen or of Truth Jesus Christ is God and the Amen the faithful and true Witness Rev. 3.14 he is that God in whom we may bless our selves his Being is of himself as God and he gives being to his Word 2 Cor. 1.20 all the promises of God being in him yeâ— and Amen whether Hebrew or Greek Old Testament or New Promises in him they are compleated and by him they are fulfilled 2. There is Amen Affirmative a Phrase used in the beginning of any momentous Truth as an asseveration what is Amen Matth. 16.28 Luke 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or verily Our Saviour hath this Phrsae peculiar to himself Amen Amen to give confirmation to the Doctrine and to raise our Attention and Faith or to show that not only Truth is spoken but by him who is Truth it self 3. There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Optative Amen which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be so Blessed be God by us and Blessed be we of the Lord or as Jer. 28.6 It is expounded Amen the Lord do so the Lord perform the words which thou hast spoken This Amen was used to be set to when good was spoken as 1 Kings 1.36 when David
commanded Solomon to be made King Benaiah said Amen the Lord do so Or when in Imprecations of evil as Numb 5.22 the Woman tried by the Water of Jealousie which sprinkled on the Curse it blotted out the Curse if she was Innocent if Guilty her Thigh presently rotted she was to say Amen Amen let it be so if I be Guilty and let it be so if I be Innocent So at the end of the Curses Deut. 27.10 and all the People shall say Amen they are loath to have the Curse come therefore they are commanded there to say Amen but they need no command to Seal the Blessings with Amen all are apt enough to Beleive and Wish them But here is a double Amen which hath the greater Emphasis and requires greater Attention and Intention of mind as Neh. 9.5 Bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and Blessed be his Glorious Name which is exalted above all Blessings and Praise Ever and Ever is answered by Amen Amen or let it be ratified in Heaven so on Earth And the Jews say that he that pronounceth this Amen as he ought is greater than he that Blesseth in the Name of the Lord he that pronounceth this Amen with all his might the Gates of Heaven flie open to him But there are Three evil Amens they call the 1. Abbreviated in the first Sillable or Letter and whoever so pronounceth it as to hasten his Amen his Days shall be soon passed 2. There is Amen cut off in the last Sillable suppressed 3. There is the Pupillar or Orphan Amen when it is pronounced at random impertinently and unseasonably without Understanding Prayer or Praise foregoing and so there is no Father to beget Devotion in them and so 't is an Orphan Amen and his Children shall be Fatherless that pronounceth such a lifeless Word and a Fatherless Amen But he that with knowledg and fervour pronounceth this Amen his Days shall be prolonged upon Earth as Buxtorff relates 2. Now I am to give you some considerations and arguments for the use of this Amen and the manner of it and they are Seven 1. It is lawful and laudable publickly to use it because it is connatural to Prayer and Praise I do not lay the lawfulness of it upon a Persian decree or a positive Injunction set on things no ways connatural to the Action for that is forced Meat and turns a Mans Stomack and his Conscience There is no need for a Rubrick by the Men of the great Synagogue or a Canon to command a Man to blush when it is only the natural passion that will command it So when the heart is warm in Prayer with serious and earnest affections a double Amen doth as naturally flow from us as Milk from a Mothers Breast to her Suckling and Amen comes from Amen which signifies to Nurse as if it were if not the Mother yet the faithful Nurse of lively Devotion Assent to Repetitions is essential unto Prayer and it is not signified publickly but by our Amen Not that we are obliged to speak it always and with a loud Voice quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur Tert. what Lungs had we need to have if God hear us for our loudness But when the heart is affected we see here how the People stood up and lift up their hands to Heaven naturally signifying they would lift the Name of God with all their might but they cast down themselves bowing down their Heads and worshipping the Lord with their Faces to the ground who can hold his Breath from a groan or sigh when matter and affection meet together The Israelites here could not withhold their hands nor Hannah hold still her Eyes when earnest in Temple Prayer nor can a zealous heart hold the Tongue from moving to an Amen at the end of Prayer and Praise There is no Child of God that can say our Father but lower or louder he must and will say Amen The Jews in time of Incense called themselves mutes in deep silent Prayer when they praised God on Instruments Semivocates but when in open Prayer and Praises then they were Vocates in their Amens 2. We have the practise of the Old and New Testament Beleivers for our example In Moses you had it in Numbers and Deuteronomy and David oft useth it in the Psalms yea this double Amen Psal 41.13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen God was Israels God accepting their Praises hearing Prayers fulfilling promises and this for Ever and Ever and be it Eternally ratified Amen and Amen to all Generations Psal 106.48 the same words are repeated with this exhortation let all the People say Amen Hallelujah And they had the same Praises and Petitions to offer therefore the same conclusion is suitable So the Prophet Jeremiah speaking of Gods Oath to give Canaan to the Jews says Oh Lord Amen or be it so Jer. 11.5 so Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 how can the Idiot the private Man who knows only his own private single Language say Amen to Prayer or Praise in another Tongue which not only imports the custom but the manner of saying Amcn to be with Faith and Understanding Eph. 3.21 to him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen Yea Jesus Christ a greater than Moses Prophets and Apostles adds this conclusion to his perfect form of Petitions in Matth. 6. so in his Book of Revelations chap. 5 14. the Four Beasts and Four and Twenty Elders who represented tho whole Church of Jews and Gentiles together cry Amen Yea that innumerable Company of those Triumphing Souls who had white Robes and Palms in their Hands as Victors over Temptations with the Elders and Angels fell on their Faces and worshipped God saying Amen Blessing and Glory and Honour and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Power and Might be unto our God for Ever and Ever Amen Rev. 7.12 So at the fall of Babylon as the Voice of many Thunders and Waters the Church cries Amen Hallelujah The Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth and hath Avenged the Blood of his Servants Rev. 19.4 Yea it lasts unto the mariage of the Lamb Rev. 22.20 still when the Bridegroom comes the Church cries Amen come Lord Jesus come quickly 3. Amen after Prayer and Praise is the Mans consent judgment and approbation of what is offered unto God it is the setting to of our Seal to all and our putting our Hands to bear a part in the Praises and to have a share in the Petitions It imports the desire of our Soul which is the formality of Prayer now all these are essential to these Duties and the pronunciation is but the publication of our reward Sense which is very significant in publick Worship Hearing is but the formal Sense in conceiving the Petitions but Speech brings them forth and is a more open profession and a more Masculine expression of Devotion Lamen 3.41 let us lift up our hearts
Congregation It is observed by Tertul. de Paenit that Sack is the same in Latin Greek and Hebrew to which we may add English also to shew all Nations are Sinners and need Repentance and Humiliation in Sack-cloth and Ashes and so Amen is the same in all Languages that all Nations might have the same Intelligible Language in their Devotions especially But the Papists will tell us that a Jewel is of equal value in an ignorant Clowns hand as it is off when in a Skilful Lapidaries a Petition to a Prince is of the same efficacy in ones hand who can neither write nor read as it is in a Scholars hand and all is true if God did not read hearts when Princes only read papers God required to be worshipped with an understanding Soul nay the Jesuits tell us the unlearned do merit and obtain more than they that understand because they have more humility and fervor But it is a strange humility and fervency to pass for a Grace which is not an Act of an intelligent Man 't is so far from Divine and Meritorious that it is not an humane Act. Cajetan more to the plain truth tells us that Organs which are a distraction to the intelligent Worshippers were yet retained to promote the unlearned Mens Devotions and Charms though not understood yet have power over Serpents and Devils so that Prayers and Praises in an unknown Language are with them Enchantments upon the only wise God and their Devotion is rather the breath of an Organ than the breathings and being filled with the Spirit 2. This informs us also that all publick administrations are to be in the matter of them intelligible as well as in the form of Language Ministers are not to use overstudied Phrases and singular Notions of their own Fancies which sometimes Men endeavour to pin upon their Auditors Prayer is putting the word and promises of God in suit and therefore plain Scriptural Pleadings are our best Arguments Any unintelligible or doubtful expressions do but lay a Stumbling-block in the way to hinder the hearers giving readily their Amen Therefore we must not only Pray with our own Spirits but with the Peoples understanding also 1 Cor. 14.15 our Seal must be and can be only set to Gods Covenant his trust goes before our Amen So God promiseth to give his People Pastors after his own heart which shall feed them with knowledge and understanding without which our Sacrifices are but the offering up of Swines Flesh or cutting off a Dogs Neck 3. All the Congregation must be unanimous of one Heart Sence and Soul or else they can never meet and center in one Amen but are in separation when they are together The Apostle tells us that the variance of Husband and Wife causeth their Prayers to be hindred 1 Pet. 3.7 when Passion is up Devotion is down or very opposite like the Mountains of Blessing and Cursing or Samaria and Jerusalem or Anah and Peninnah scolding under the same Roof But the true Jerusalem is a City at unity with it self Psal 122.3 one Lord one Baptism one Bread one Body one Soul one Spirit one Heart one Faith and one Request viz. Zec. 14.9 that the Lord may be King over all the Earth that the Lord may be one and his Name one Which will be when God shall give his People one heart and one way that they may fear him for ever Jer. 32.39 then there shall be as many Taches as Loops and Sockets as Tenons and all the Tabernacle be one Ex. 36.13 as the Jews when they Sacrificed they compassed the Altar round so when they feasted they sate round 1 Sam. 16.11 this Symphony and Harmony when it obtains will make one Amen when Gods Praises and the Saints Prayers shall be all one which will be when Christs Prayer shall be answered John 17.11 Let them be one as thou and I am one all heart-burnings shall cease when all our Fire shall be only upon Gods Altar and unite in one pyramedal Flame aspiring and terminating in the pure Love of God 4. To all this there must come in diligent attention and intention of mind for else they cannot consent to all and every part and as a Man who is to set his Hand and Seal to an Indenture will hear all the Conditions that he may know what he bindes himself to so we being to Seal all the Prayers with our lips and heart Amen had need mind what we Seal to How do many Frisk and Air their thoughts in Vanities like a wanton Spanel from his Masters Walk and come in from this false sent to the Quest with full cry and a dirty Amen This only mocks Gods All-seeing Eye and Hypocritical Colludes with the Congregation And when we consider how few hold pace with every Petition The Fourth Toletan Counsel that made a Canon against any using Hallelujah in Lent might have forbidden Amens also in publick Congregations considering that Jejune attention and intention of mind which accompanies the Devotions of the generality But when all Societies shall be intelligent unanimous intent and affectionate they may ought and will say Amens with Hallelujahs too though Lenten-Cannon forbid both Use 3. Is of Caution to beware of all that which may hinder this powerful Amen 1. Then beware of all Sin deliberate Sins dead our Faith and Spirits in Prayer Quantum a praeceptis tantum ab auribus dei distamus Tertul. de Ora. Dom. We are always as much at a distance from Gods hearing us as we are from hearing his righteous precepts If we regard Iniquity in our hearts God will not say Amen to our Prayers nor can we do it in Faith How can any say Amen to Deut. 27.15 17. Cursed be he that worships Images or removes his neighbours Landmarks For an unholy Person to say hallowed be thy Name is to Pray God to Sanctifie himself upon him and he that cannot have Charity to forgive them that trespass against him while he Prays God to forgive his trespasses he doth interpretatively Pray that God would not forgive his Sins 2. Take heed of too much Business for that dusteth us with so many thoughts which not only choke the word but stifle our Prayers 1 Cor. 7.38 the Apostle would have them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without cares that they might serve the Lord without distraction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these convulsive motions of distracting thoughts which pull us first on one hand then on the other the face of the Duty and the Soul is very distorted ill-favoured of an ill Scheme and Fashion all the Beauty of Duty is gone off nor can the Soul well sit close to the Lord and steady but sits tottering half on half off no setled Frame of Spirit can be maintained First one business then another comes and pulls us off to speak with us so as we are not at leasure to speak with God as Cypr. Epist 8. says it is strange we should think God should hear us when
we do not hear our selves 3. Beware of a lazy posture of the Body for the Soul is drawn into consent and sympathy with it verse 5. here the Jews stood up to shew their reverence and attention to the word of God They lifted up their hands bowed down their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground here was exalted Attention and Devotion and most humble veneration with intense affections and these could say Amen Amen But to see one sit and hang down his head and hang his hat on his nose or perhaps sleeping till he snore himself awake and then give a yawn or an idle Amen any one without breach of Charity may think him guilty of lazy Hypocrisie with detestation This is a mocking of God giving the Congregation a flap with this Foxes tail when they have cunningly slept over the greatest part of the Prayer and slipt out of the Congregation without removeal Irreligiosissimum est sedere nisi quod deo exprobamus quod oratio nos fatigaverit as Tertul. de Or. do says 'T is most indecent without a good Reason to sit at Prayer for 't is else in effect to tell God Prayer hath tired us out Use 4. Is of Direction and Exhortation how to keep up this Harmonious Amen in Publick Assemblies 1. Let Pastor and People never meet but premise some solemn preparations of Heart to meet the Lord. Rehoboam and most of the Kings of Israel and their People also Sin'd in this That they prepared not themselves to set their Hearts to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 12.14 he fitted not his Heart as the Hebrew Word imports it was no more fit to that Duty then an Ass is to play upon an Harp We should never offer God that which cost us nothing put off thy Shoes from thy Feet Vain Thoughts and Vile Affections and put on the Lord Jesus Christ e're you go into the Fathers Presence A Worldly Spirit coming off from common Employments is not fit for Communion with God A common Heart will never be inclosed in any Duty but runs wild of it self and lies open to all Incursions Vzzah was smitten though he touched the Ark out of a good intention but in an undue manner 1 Chron. 15.13 He did it not in Judgment nor according to Gods Order and Appointment 2. We must watch unto Prayer Matth. 26.41 for the Devil is there as to catch away the good Seed so to catch us away by every wandring Thought 1 Pet. 4.7 Peter and John were at Christs Transfiguration in the Mount Luke 9.32 but were sadly heavy with Sleep It is strange when they should have been taken up with Raptures and Extasies of Joy that they should be so Drossie and Drowsie But how hard a matter it is for to watch with Christ One Hour in Duty Grief might make them heavy in the Garden and yet Christ his Propassion and Sweating Drops of Blood was enough to have put them into an Agony of Compassion But alas neither the Garden nor the Mount is able to transport us or keep up Intention of Soul or Affection unless God keep Fire on his own Altar and blow up our Spark into a Flame 3. Our Intention cannot last long our Actions depending on the Body and those Spirits the finer Particles of the Blood separated from it by the Alembick of the Brain And as it is sometime e're they rise so their height and speed is soon over and then we run down into Flegm and Heaviness therefore in all Publick Duties solemn Fastings excepted for humbling Soul and Body we ought not to be too Prolix but to labour for strength rather then length thick and short as Davids Panting and Daniels Praying Chap. 9.19 Oh Lord hear Oh Lord forgive Oh Lord hearken and do defer not c. When weighty Petitions are sent up for thâ— whole Church they draw Universal Consent Not that we ought for Brevity 〈◊〉 to confine all Prayer to the Lords-Prayer as if no Bushel was a Bushel but 〈◊〉 Standard so to fall down at this and stand up against all others whereas it is 〈◊〉 diffused in Sense and so contracted in Words that the Text may very well admiâ— Comment in Conformity to its Sense and we need a more Comprehensive Mind then the Vulgar have to fill those words with 4. When all is done there is nothing done but all to do till we implore the good Spirit of God which he gave the Jews here Nehem. 9.20 And he bad them work for his Spirit was with them Hag. 2.4 And should remain among them when they Built the Temple Luke 24.49 Christ bad his Disciples tarry at Jerusalem till they were Endued with Power from on High there was no Preaching or Praying without this Spirit of Grace and Supplication Zech. 12.10 It is impossible the Organs of our Bodies or Faculties of our Souls should Praise God aright unless this Spirt of God fill them and blow them up He must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 1.19 tune the Praise and form the Prayer in us he must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James 5.16 inlay it and work it both in and out and he is the Master of the Choice to hold and keep us in Frame as well as set us in and enable us to drive all our Petitions home and through to a fervent Amen Deus solus docere potest ut velis se orari as Tertul. says None but God can teach us how to Pray tâ— God That Spirit of Adoption that enableth us to say Abba Father can only teaâ—â— us how to pronounce Amen Amen FINIS
then leave as some Guids do with poor Travellers deserting them in the midst of their Dangers no but he holds on repeats and lengthens out this Act to the very last True this depends upon Conditions on our part as ye have heard but yet these do not make the thing Vncertain and lyable to Intercision because 't is part of the Spirits Leading to direct encline and overpower to the performance of those Conditions So 't is secur'd as to the Continuance of it to all the Elect of God Every upright Christian may triumphantly say with David This God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guid even unto death Psal 48.14 The Cloud never left Israel till it brought them to the land of Promise so t is here 2. That it is managed and carryed on all along with Mixtures of all other Grace i. e. with the bestowing of inward Peace and Comfort and of all supplys necessary to the believing Soul 'T is not a bare naked Leading but such as is attended with the Conveyance of all Other Mercies According to that encouraging Text Isai 49.10 He that hath Mercy on them shall lead them even by the Springs of water shall he guid them Is not here Heb. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong Consolation for all who are led by Gods Spirit In the Sixth and last place it might be enquir'd 6. Enquiry Since this Leading of the Holy Spirit is a Special and Discriminating Act what Inferences may be drawn from it as being such I might instance in several if I had not already exceeded the Bounds of a Sermon Therefore take but this One That 't is not a thing much to be wonder'd at that Saints and Sinners do so much differ and that Saints and Saints do so little differ The Difference 'twixt the two Former is great Light and Darkness Heaven and Hell do not more differ than they That which the One Loves the Other hates in their visible Practices there 's little but Sin in the â—â—e there 's Holiness though imperfect in the other The One Curses Swears takes Gods Name in Vain lives a brutish Life minds not God the Other fears God avoids Evil desires to order Words Thoughts Actions by the Rule of the Word Prays Sanctifies the Sabbath does Good is not here a vast Difference There is indeed but can it be expected it should be otherwise they being led by Different and Contrary Spirits Oh upon this no wonder that their Actings and Courses are so different Men will and must Be and Do according to the Spirit which Guides and Governs them Therefore the Unregenerate and Wicked being under the Guidance and Power of the Evil Spirit they will do what suits with that Spirit e contra the Renew'd and Sanctifyed being under the Guidance and Power of the Holy Spirit they will do what suits with that Spirit And upon this Foundation there must be an Everlasting Difference and Contrariety betwixt them But then for Saints and Saints they do not thus differ As to lesser Matters there may be too much of Differences even amongst Them but as to the Fundamentals of Faith and Practice so there is an admirable Harmony Vnity and Consent amongst them Some live in one Age some in another some in one Place some in another yet there is a blessed Oneness and Agreement amongst them all They believe the same Truths performe the same Duties attend upon the same Worship walk in the same path of Holiness have and act the same Graces groan under the same burdens drive on the same Designs as Face answers to Face so do they to one another And whence is this why from this they are all led by one and the same Spirit Hence it is that they do so concurr in all the Necessary and Vital parts of Religion We having the same Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 There is one Body and one Spirit which actuates and animates all that Body Eph. 4.4 'T is One and the self same Spirit which worketh in all as the Apostle speaks in reference to Gifts 1 Cor. 12.11 As many as are led by the Spirit of God here are Many that are led but 't is but One Spirit that leads them all This is that which causes such an Vnanimity and Harmony in Gods people both in Matters of Faith and Practice Oh that the World might see more of the Thing and then the Reason thereof would be obvious SERMON XXVII Quest What advantage may we expect from CHRISTS PRAYER for Union with HIMSELF and the Blessings relating to it JOHN 17.20 21. Neither Pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word V. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me IN this Chapter we have the admirable Prayer of Christ offered up to the Father a little before his last and greatest Sufferings In this Prayer we may observe the design and the contents of it The design of it is to encourage his Disciples ver 1. These words spake Jesus c. He had spoke much in the former Chapters for their comfort and encouragement and in pursuit of the same design he lifts up his eyes to Heaven and pours forth this Heavenly Prayer in their hearing The contents that which he prays for is Union with him and the Father and the blessings relating thereto of which more particularly afterwards The words considered joyntly with the design and contents of the Prayer offer us this Observation Observ The People of Christ have great encouragement from his Prayer in reference to Vnion with God and the Blessings relating to it In the prosecution hereof 1. I shall give some account of the severals he prayed for And 2. Shew what encouragement we have to expect what he prays for For the first he prays for Vnion with Himself and the Father for Faith the bond of this Union for Holiness the effect of it for Perseverance that it may continue and not be dissolved and interrupted lastly for Glory the Consummation of this Union 1. For Faith that those may have Faith who did not or do not yet believe ver 22. That the World may believe that thou hast sent me He prays that those who were chosen to Glory as the end and so to Faith as the means may be brought to believe on Christ as sent of the Father to be the Mediator and so accept of him as their Prophet Priest and King 2. He prays for Holiness the growth and increase of it ver 17. Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth The word of Truth through the Spirit working with it and making impressions by it on the Heart is the instrument and mean both to begin Holiness in regeneration 1 Pet. 1.23 James 1.18 and to promote it where it is begun 1 Pet. 2.2
He praies that the Lord would make his word effectual to cleanse and sanctifie them more and more He would have those who are given to him to be sanctified truly separated from Sin the World and carnal Self truly consecrated and appropriated to himself truly offer'd up and imploy'd for him as those who are wholly his and cannot without Sacriledge be converted to other ends and uses than those that are his 3. He prayes for perseverance that those who are given him may hold out and continue to the end in Faith and Holiness and Union with Him and the Father that they may not fall away to unbelief or profaneness nor be ever separated from him with whom they are once united ver 11. Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me c. keep them in all dangers in all assaults in all tryals secure them from Sin from Satan from the World that they may be neither frighted nor enticed from me Through thine own name the name of God is that by which he is known as we are known by our names all those glorious perfections whereby he hath made known himself unto us his Power Wisdom Goodness Faithfulness Sovereignty Allsufficiency c. He would have all the infinite Excellencies and Perfections of God all by which he is called and known engaged for the security of his People that none of them may fall away and be lost Keep them by thy Power by thy Wisdom Goodness Sovereignty Allsufficiency c. Or if we take these words for an argument wherewith he urges this Petition it is of no less force Keep them for thine own names sake for the honour of thine own name so he engages the honour of God for the security of his people that none of them may fall away and that is the greatest the strongest engagement in the World and gives the best security that possibly can be The Lord will do more for his own Names sake than for all the works of his Hands than for all that is in Heaven and Earth besides His Honour is his Interest so that the Interest of God is thereby engaged to secure the Eternal concerns of his People Those men in the World that we are not secure of and can have no confidence in otherwise yet if their Interest do engage them for us we think our selves so far sure of them Interest amongst men is the strongest obligement if they understand it and have but so much respect to themselves as to be true to it Christ by his Prayer engages the Interest of his Father his Name his Honour for the security of his People that they may not fall away and be lost and if we acknowledge him to be God we cannot in the least suspect either that he knows not what his Interest is or that he will not be true to it When it is for his Names sake or his Honour to secure his people it shall certainly be done and this is that which Christ urges in this Petition 4. He prays for Glory ver 22 24. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them It is the Glory of Christ that he is the Son of God his only Son by Eternal Generation and Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 3. Joh. 1.14 Now such a Glory will Christ have for his people something like it though in a way below it he will have them to be Sons and Heirs of God Co-heirs with himself A wonderful Glory indeed and such a degree of it as could never have entred into the Heart of man to expect or believe if the Lord himself had not given assurance of it Rom. 8.17 And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt-Heirs with Christ All that are given him he will have to be adorn'd with his own title and be accounted and called Sons of God and all that are Sons he will have to be Heirs and joint-Heirs with himself not of some meaner part of his Fathers possession but even of his Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and Heirs of the Kingdom c. being Heirs they have hopes to inherit Tit. 3.7 They have a Title upon this account and so hope but Christ not satisfyed with this prays also that they may have possession ver 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me that they may behold it so as to partake of it this sight will be the highest the happyest enjoyment it will be an enhappying a glorifying sight a sight that will make them who behold it happy perfectly so eternally so The sight of Christs Glory will make them glorious 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is We are Sons that is a great Glory indeed but there is a Glory to come which is far greater so great that no expression can fully represent it to us or make it appear to be so much so great as indeed it is but this is the sum of it we shall be like him in Glory for we shall see how glorious he is The sight of our Glorious Redeemer will make us glorious like him When we are in the sight of that Glory wherewith he now shines at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty on high to which the greatest brightness of the Sun is less than a spark we shall be adorned with his beams and so made glorious A hint hereof we have in what is recorded of Moses who when he was admitted to a nearer converse with God it is said his face shined Exod. 34.29 35. His face was horned as the word imports it appeared in such a form as the raies of the Sun appear to us his face sent forth beams like the Sun there was such a radiant Lustre such a Glory in his face as the weak eyes of mortals could not bear could not look on When we are where Christ is and see him in the brightness of his Glory which is that he prays for the sight of it will transform our Souls from Glory to Glory as the Apostles expression is in reference to that of Moses 2 Cor. 3.18 a Glory will be derived upon our Souls from his Glory and upon our bodies too that Glorious Vision will be a transforming sight and change vile Bodies so that they shall be fashioned like unto his own glorious Body Phil. 3.21 5. He prays for Vnion That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us This Union is a Mystery a great depth such as I was loath to venture on if it could have been avoided what my shallowness can say of it briefly I shall comprize in