where the benefit so far exceeds all possible thankfulness Ought you to serve and obey him Doubtless he hath for that purpose redeemed you with his precious Blood And truly there is no obedience nor service so full and so cheerful as that which flows from love Should you study conformity to Christ and labour to be like him Yes for this is to walk worthy of Christ then there is nothing assimulates so much as Love Men delight in their society whom they love and by their society they do insensibly contract their customs and become like them These Virgins that love Christ for his Graces they love to converse with him and by conversing with him they receive of his Graces and have a smell of his Persumes Not only do they by the smell of his Garments or such imposed Rights obtain the blessing but likewise smell like him by the participation of sanctifying Grace of his Wisdom and Holiness in a pure and godly Conversation abstaining from the impure Lusts and Pollutions of the World of his Meekness and Humility Never think that one and the same Soul can have much Pride and much of Christ ever the more Grace a man hath the more sense hath he likewise of his own unworthiness and Gods free mercy and consequently the more humility If you love Christ you cannot chuse but be like him in love to your Brethren This is expresly compared by the Psalmist to the precious Ointment poured upon Aaron's head that ran down to the very skirts of his Garments Our Head and High Priest the Lord Jesus hath incomparably testified his love to Believers whom he is pleased to call his Brethren they are far from equalling him either in love to him or one to another but they do imitate him in both This is his great Commandment That we love one another even as he loved us which is exprest both as a strange motive and a high example 'T is not possible that a Spirit of Malice and implacable Hatred can consist with the love of Christ. Finally should you be ready to suffer for Christ Yes Then love is that which will enable you and if you were inflamed with this fire then though burned for him that fire would only consume your dross and be soon extinguished but this would endure for ever By these and the like Evidences try whether you indeed love the Lord Jesus Christ and by these fruits You that profess to love him testifie the sincerity of your love and be assured that if you be now found amongst these Virgins that love him you shall one day be of the number of those Virgins that are spoken of Rev. 14. 3 4. that sing a new Song before the Throne of God If you hate the defilements of the World and be not polluted with inordinate affection to the Creature it shall never repent you to have made choice of Christ he shall fill your hearts with peace and joy in believing When you come to his House and Table he shall lend you home with Joy and sweet Consolation such as you would not exchange with Crowns and Scepters and after some few of these running Banquets here below you shall enter into the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb where Faith shall end in sight and Hope in possession and Love continue in perpetual and full Enjoyment where you shall be never weary but for ever happy in beholding the face of the Blessed Trinity To whom be Glory Amen SERMON IX PREFACE HOW true is that word of our Saviour who is truth it self Without me ye can do nothing severed from me as that branch that is not in me They that are altogether out of Christ in Spiritual Exercises do nothing at all 'T is true they may Pray and hear the Word yea and Preach it too and yet in so doing they do nothing nothing in effect They have the matter of good actions but it is the eternal Form gives being to things they are but a number of empty words and a dead service to a living God for all our outward performances and worship of the Body is nothing but the body of worship and therefore nothing but a Carkass except the Lord Jesus by his Spirit breath upon it the breath of life Yea the Worshipper himself is Spiritually Dead till he receive Life from Jesus and be quickned by his Spirit If this be true then it will follow necessarily That where numbers are met together as here pretending to serve and worship God yet he hath very few that do so indeed the greatest part being out of Christ and such being without him they can do nothing in his service Rom. VIII 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be THE ordinary workings and actions of Creatures are suitable to their Naure as the ascending of light things and the moving of heavy things downwards so the vital and sensitive actions of things that have life and sense The reasonable Creature 't is true hath more liberty in its actions freely chusing one thing and rejecting another yet it cannot be denied that in acting of that liberty their choice and refusal follow the sway of their nature and condition as the Angels and glorified Souls their nature being perfectly holy and unalterably such They cannot sin they can delight in nothing but in obeying and praising that God in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consisteth still ravish'd in beholding his face The Saints again that have not yet reach'd that home and are but on their Journey they are not fully defecated and refined from the dross of Sin there are in them two parties Natural Corruption and Supernatural Grace and these keep a strugling within them but the younger shall supplant the elder Grace shall in the end overcome and in the mean while though it be not free from mixture yet it is predominant The main bent of a renewed Man is Obedience and Holiness and any action of that kind he rejoyces in but the Sin that escapes him he cannot look upon but with regret and discontent But alas they that be so minded are very thin sown in the World even in Gods peculiar Fields where the Labourage of the Gospel is and the outward profession of true Religion unanimously received Yet the number of true Converts Spiritual-minded Persons is very small the greatest part acting Sin with delight and taking pleasure in Unrighteousness living in disobedience to God as in their proper Element and the reason is The contrariety of their Nature to our Holy Lord. The carnal mind is enmity against God The mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some render it the Prudence or Wisdom of the Flesh. Here you have it The Carnal Mind but the word signifies indeed an act of the mind rather than either the faculty it self or the habit of Prudence in it so as it discovers what is the frame of both those The minding as it
World 'T is no easie thing to carry a very full Cup even and to digest well the fatness of a great Estate and great Place They are not to be envyed that have them even though they be of the better sort of Men it s a thousand to one but that they shall be losers by the gains and advancements of this World suffering proportionably great abatements of their best advantages by their prosperity The generality of Men while they are at ease do securely neglect God and little mind either to speak to him or to hear him speak to them God complains thus of his own people I spoke to them in their prosperity and they would not hear The noises of Coach-Wheels of their Pleasures and of their great Affairs so fill their ears that the still voice wherein God is cannot be heard I will bring her into the Wilderness and there I wall speak to her heart says God of his Church There the heart is more at quiet to hear God and to speak to him and is disposed to speak in the Stile here prescribed humbly and repentingly I have born Chastisement The speaking thus unto God under Affliction signifies 1. That our Affliction is from his hand and to the acknowledgement of this Truth the very natural Consciences of Men do incline them Though trouble be the general Lot of Mankind yet it doth not come on him by an improvidential fatality Though Man is born to Trouble as the sparks flie upward Job 5. Yet it comes not out of the dust It is no less true and in it self no less clear that all the good we enjoy and all the evil we suffer comes from the same hand but we are naturally more sensible of evil then of good and therefore do more readily reflect upon the Original and Causes of it our distresses lead us unto the notice of the righteous God inflicting them and our own unrighteous ways procuring them and provoking him so to do and therefore it is meet to speak in this submissive humble Language to him It is by all means necessary to speak to him he is the Party we have to deal withal or to speak to even in those afflictions whereof Men are the intervenient visible causes They are indeed but instrumental causes the Rod and Staff in his hand that smites us therefore our business is with him in whose supream hand alone the mitigations and increases the continuance and the ending of our troubles lie Who gave Jacob to the spoil and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord against whom we have Sinned So Lam. 1. 14. The yoke of my Transgressions is bound on by thy hand Therefore it is altogether necessary in all afflictions to speak to him and as its necessary to speak to him it is meet to speak thus to him I have born Chastisement I will no more offend These words have in them the true composure of real Repentance humble Submission and holy Resolution I have born Chastisement that is I have justly born it and do heartily submit to it I bear it justly and take it well Lord I acquit thee and accuse my self this Language becomes the innocentest person in the World in their suffering Job knew it well and did often acknowledge it in his precedeing Speeches though sometimes in the heat of dispute and opposure to the uncharitable and unjust imputations of his Friends he seems to overstrain the assertion of his own integrity which Elihu here corrects you know he cries out I have sinned against thee what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of man and Chap. 9. If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own Cloaths shall abhor me Vain foolish persons fret and foam at the miscarriage of a cause they apprehend to be righteous but this is a great vanity and inconsiderate temerity in not observing the great and apparent unrighteousness in the persons managing it But though both the cause and the persons were just to the greatest hight imaginable amongst men yet still were it meet to speak thus unto God in the lowest acknowledgements and confessions that righteousness belongs unto him and unto us shame and confusion of face so says the Church Lam. 3. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandments Though affliction is not always designedly intended as the Chastisement of some particular Sin yet where Sin is and that is the case of all the Sons of Adam affliction coming in may safely be considered in its natural cognation and alliance with Sin and so press forth humble confessions of Sin and resolutions against it And thus in Lev. 26. 41. They shall except of the punishment of their iniquity shall take it humbly and penitently and kiss the Rod. Oh! That there were such a heart in us That instead of empty words that scatter themselves in the wind our many vain discourses we hold one with another concerning our past and present sufferings and further fears and disputing of many fruitless and endless questions we were more abundantly turning our Speech this way in unto God and Saying We desire to give thee Glory and take Shame to our selves and to bear our Chastisement and to offend no more to return each from his evil way and to gain this by the furnace the purging away of our dross our many and great iniquities our Oaths and Cursings and lying our Deceit and Oppressions and Pride and Covetousness our base love of our selves and hating one another that we may be delivered from the Tyranny of our own lusts and passions and in other things Let the Lord do with us as seems good in his eyes speaking to God in Ephraims words Jeremiah 31. 18 19 20. words not unlike these would stir his bowels as there As it is said that one string perfectly tuned to another being toucht the other stirs of it self when a stubborn Child leaves strugling under the Rod and turns to intreating the Father then leaves striking nothing overcomes him but that When a man says unto God Father I have provoked thee to this but Pardon and through thy Grace I will do so no more Then the Rod is thrown aside and the Father of Mercies and his humbled Child fall to mutual tenderness and embraces What I see not teach thou me c. The great Article of Conversion is the disengagement of the heart from the love of Sin In that posture as it actually forsakes whatsoever it perceives to be amiss so it stands in an absolute readiness to return to every duty that yet lies hidden upon the first discovery that is here the genuine voice of a repentant Sinner What I see not teach thou me c. This is a very necessary suit even for the most discerning and clearest sighted Penitent both in reference to the Commandment and Rule for discovering the general nature and several kinds of Sin and withal
not only those hidden from Men but even from my self as is clearly his meaning by the words precedeing who knows the errors of his Life Therefore is it necessary that we desire light of God The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord says Solomon searching the innermost parts of the Belly But it is a Candle unlighted when he does not illuminate it for that search Oh! What a deal of Vanity and love of this World Envy and secret Pride lurks in many of our hearts that we do not at all perceive till God causeth us to see it leading us in as he did the Prophet in the Vision to see the Idolatry of the Jews in his very Temple by which they had provoked him to forsake it and go far from his sanctuary and having discovered one parcel leads him in further and makes him enter through the Wall and adds often Son of Man hast thou seen these I will cause thee see yet more abominations and yet more abominations Thus is it within many of us that should be his Temples but we have multitude of Images of Jealousie one lying hid behind another till he thus discover them to us Oh! What need have we to entreat him thus What I see not shew thou me Now in both these both in the knowledge of our Rule and of our selves though there may be some useful subserviency of the Ministry of Men yet the great Teacher of the true knowledge of his Law and of himself and of our selves is God Men may speak to the Ear but his Chair is in Heaven that Teaches hearts Cathedram habet in caelo Matchless Teacher that Teacheth more in one hour than Men can do in a whole Age That can cure the invincible unteachableness of the dullest heart Gives understanding to the simple and opens the eyes of the Blind So then would we be made wise wise for Eternity learned in real living Divinity Let us sit down at his feet and make this our continual request What I see not teach thou me And if I have done c. That 's any iniquity that I yet know not of any hidden Sin let me but once see it and I hope thou shalt see it no more within me not willingly lodged and entertained This speaks an entire total giving up all Sin and proclaming utter defiance and enmity against it casting out what is already found out without delay and resolving that still in further search as it shall be more discovered it shall be forthwith dislodged without a thought of sparing or partial indulgence to any thing that is Sin or like it or may any way befriend it or be an occasion and incentive of it This is that absolute renouncing of Sin and surrender of the whole Soul and our whole selves to God which whosoever do not heartily consent to and resolve on their Religion is in vain and which is here the point their Affliction is in vain whatsoever they have suffered they have gained nothing by all their sufferings if their hearts remain still Selfwill'd Stubborn Untamed and unpliable to God And this makes their miseries out of measure miserable and their sins out of measure sinful whereas were it thus qualify'd and had it any operation this way towards the subjecting of their hearts unto God Affliction were not to be called misery but would go under the Title of a blessedness Blessed is the Man whom thou correctest and teachest him out of thy Law That suiting with this here desired I have born Chastisement What I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do it no more Oh! Were it thus with us M. B. how might we rejoyce and insert into our Praises all that is come upon us if it had wrought or advanced any thing of this kind within us this blessed compliance with the will of God not entertaining any thing knowingly that displeases him finding a pleasure in the denial and destruction of our own most beloved pleasures at his appointment and for his sake whatsoever is in us and dearest to us that would offend us that would draw us to offend him were it the right hand let it be cut off or the right eye let it be pluckt out Or to make shorter work let the whole Man die at once Crucified with Jesus That we may be henceforth dead to Sin dead to the World dead to our selves and alive only to God SERMON III. PREFACE THere is no Exercise so delightful to those that are truly godly as the solemn Worship of God if they find his powerful and sensible presence in it and indeed there is nothing on earth more like to Heaven than that is But when he withdraws himself and witholds the influence and breathings of his Spirit in his service then good Souls find nothing more lifeless and uncomfortable but there is this difference even at such a time betwixt them and those that have no Spiritual life in them at all that they find and are sensible of this difference whereas the other know not what it means And for the most part the greatest number of those that meet together with a profession to Worship God yet are such as do not understand this difference Custom and formality draws many to the ordinary places of publick Worship and fills too much of the Room And somtimes Novelty and Curiosity to places not ordinary has a large share But how few are there that come on purpose to meet with God in his Worship and to find his power in it strengthning their weak Faith and weakning their strong Corruptious affording them provision of Spiritual strength and comfort against times of trial And in a word advancing them some steps forward in their Journey towards Heaven where Happiness and Perfection dwells Certainly these sweet effects are to be found in these Ordinances if we would look after them let it grieve us then that we have so often lost our labour in the Worship of God through our own neglect and intreat the Lord that at this time he would not send us away empty for how weak so ever the means be if he put his strength the work shall be done in some measure to his Glory and our Edification Now that he may be pleased to do so to leave ablessing behind him let us Pray c. Isaiah XXVIII 5 6. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a Crown of Glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his People And for a spirit of judgment to him that sittest in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battel to the gate ALL the Works of Divine Providence are full of Wisdom and Justice even every one severally considered yet we observe them best to be such when we take notice of their order and mutual aspect one to another whether in the succession of times or such passages as are contemporary and fall in together at one and the same time
As when the Lord brings notable Judgments upon the â—roud Workers of Iniquity and at the same time confers special Mercies on his own People who is there that may not perceive Justice and Mercy illustrating and beautifying one another It is true the full reward and perfect rest of the Godly is not here below they would be sorry if it were nor is this the place of Plenary punishment for the ungodly Men may look for a Judgment too yet the Lord is pleased at sometimes to give some resemblances and pledges as it were of that great and last Judgment in remarkable passages of Justice and Mercy at one and the same time and such a time it is that the Prophet foretells in this his Sermon which concerns the two Sister Kingdoms of Israel and Judah Having denounced a heavy Calamity to come upon Israel under the name of Ephraim he comforts those of Judah under the name of the residue of his People They not being so grosly corrupted as the other were he stays them with this promise In that day saith be when the other shall be overwhelmed as with a Deluge The Lord of hosts shall be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people The promise is made up of three benefits yet the three are but one or rather one is all the three to them The Lord of hosts it is he that shall be their Honour Wisdom and Strength He shall be a crown c. But first a word of the Circumstance of time In that day That Sovereign Lord who at first set up the Lights of Heaven to distinguish times and seasons by their constant motion and likewise by his Supream Providence ruling the World hath fixed the periods of States and Kingdoms and decreed their Revolutions their rising ascending and their height with their decline and setting hath by a special Providence determined those changes and vicissitudes that befall his Church That which the Psalmist speaks in his own particular Psal. 31. 15. holds of each Believer and of the Church which they make up in all ages and places I said thou art my God my times are in thy hand a sure and steady hand indeed and therefore he builds his confidence upon it ver 13. They took counsel against me but I trusted in thee And upon this he prays in faith That the face of God may shine upon him and the Wicked may be ashamed Thus then as many as are looking after a day of Mercy to the Church of God Pray and Believe upon this ground That the time of it is neither in the frail hands of those that favour and seek it nor in the hands of those that oppose it how strong and subtile soever they be but in that Almighty Hand that doth in Heaven and Earth what pleaseth him If he have said now and here will I give a day of refreshment to my people that have long groaned for it a day of the purity and power of Religion If I say this be his purpose they must have somewhat more than Omnipotence that can hinder it when his appointed time comes to make a day of deliverance dawn upon his Church after their long Night either of affliction or of defection or both they that contrive against that day-spring are as vain as if they would sit down to Plot how to hinder the Sun from rising in the Morning And they that let go their hopes of it because of great apparent difficulties that interpose betwixt their eye and the accomplishment of that work they are as weak as if they should imagine when mists and thick vapours appear about the Horizon in the morning that these could hinder the rising of the Sun which is so far out of their reach and comes forth as a bridegroom and rejoyces as a mighty man to run his race says David Those mists may indeed hinder his clear appearance and keep it from the eye for a time but Reason tells us even then that they cannot stop his course And Faith assures us no less in the other That no difficulties can hold back God's day and work of mercy to his people But you 'll say All the difficulty is to know whether the appointed time be near or not 'T is true we have no particular Prophecies to assure us but certainly when God awakes his Children and makes them rise this is a probable sign that it is near day I mean when he stirs them up to more than usual Hopes and Prayers and Endeavours it is very likely that he intends them some special good but yet more when he himself is arisen as it pleaseth him to speak that is when he is begun to appear in a more than ordinary manner of working by singular and wonderful footsteps of Providence This is no doubt a sign that he will go on to shew remarkable mercy to Sion and that the time to favour her yea the set time is come Ps. 102. 13. Howsoever then let the wonderful workings of the Lord move those of you that have any power and opportunity to be now if ever activâ—â— for the greatest good both of the present Age and of Posterity and you that can be no other way useful yet you shall be no small helpers if you be much in Prayer let both your hopes and your fears serve to sharpen your Prayers Be not too much dejected with any discouragement neither be ye carnally lift up with outward oppearances for the heart of him that is lifted up is not upright in him Hab. 2. 3. But live as the just do by your faith and if the deferring of your hopes should sicken your hearts as Solomon speaks yet stay and comfort them with the Cordial of the Promises This you are sure of you have God's own word engaged for it that in those latter days Babylon shall be brought to the dust and the true Church of Christ shall flourish and increase and this Vision is for appointed time as Habak says of his at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it it will surely come it will not tarry In that day In the day of Ephraims or Israels Calamity denounced in the former verses which as most do conceive was when the Assyrian opprest them and in the end led them Captive in the Reign of Hosea as you have the History of it 2 Kings 17. At which time Hezekiah was King of Judah as you find in the following Chapter and in that notable Reformation wrought by him with those blessings that followed upon it is found the accomplishment of this promise to Judah In that day c. The parallel of God's different dealing with these two Kingdoms at the time there specified in that day does afford divers Lessons which might be here not impertinently taken notice of Only this Though Judah also had its own corruptions when Hezekiah came to the Crown yet it pleased the Lord to spare them
and work a peaceable Reformation making Israels punishment their warning Truly that Nation with whom the Lord deals thus graciously is vilely ingrate if they observe it not with much humility and thankfulness and with profit too If the Lord should answer your desires and hopes with a Reformation in a peaceable way and should yet lengthen out your long continued peace and should make this little past shaking of it cause it to take root the faster if he should I say do this where would ye find fit praises for such a wonder of Mercy especially considering that in the mean while he hath made other Reformed-Churches Fields of Blood and made as it were the sound of their stripes preach Repentance to us But certainly if the hearing the voice of the Rod prevail not we shall feel the smart of it as this people of Judah did afterwards because they were not so wise as to become wiser and better by Israels Folly and Calamity We are expecting great things at our Lord's hands and our provocations and sins against him are great yet there is none of them all puts us in so much danger of disappointment as Impenitency Were there more Repentance and personal Reformation amongst us we might take it as a hopeful fore-runner of that publick Reformation which so many seem now to desire The Lord of hosts This stile of his you know is frequent in the Prophets in their Predictions of Mercy and Judgment intimating both his Greatness and Majesty and his Supream Power for accomplishing his Word No created Power can resist him yea all must serve him The most excellent Creatures can have no greater honour The greatest are not exempted nor the meanest excluded from serving him In the 12. of the Acts 23. you find one of the noblest Creatures and a number of the Vilest made use of at the same time in the same service Because Herod did accept of the Sacriledge of the People and gave not back to this Lord of Hosts his own glory The Angel of the Lord smote him and the Vermine devoured him And in Egypt you know the employing of the destroying Angel and what variety of Hosts this Lord of Hosts did employ to plague them What madness then is it to oppose and encounter this great General even in doubtful cases to run on blindly without examining lest peradventure a Man should be found a fighter against God And on the other side it 's great weakness to admit any fear under his Banner If a Man could say when he was told of the multitude of the Ships the Enemy had against how many do you reckon me how much more justly may we reckon this Lord of Hosts against multitudes of Enemies how great soever They are to him as the drop of a bucket and the smallest dust of the ballance 't is ignorance and mean thoughts of this mighty Lord that makes his enemies so confident and it is the same evil in some degree or at the best forgetfulness of his Power that causeth diffidence in his followers Isa. 51. 12 13. Now the same Lord of Hosts you know is likewise called the God of Peace he is indeed pace bello insignis The blessing of Peace and the success of War are both from him and to him alone is due the praise of both Shall be a Crown c. He shall dignifie and adorn them by his special presence to wit In the purity of his Ordinances and Religion amongst them the profession and flourishing of that shall be their special glory and beauty For as the other two benefits concern their civil good Justice flourishing within and Wealth and Opulency from without so doubtless this first this glory and beauty is Religion as the chiefest of the three and the other two are its attendants In the 26 Ps. ver 8. The Sanctuary the place of their solemn Worship is called The place where God's honour dwelleth or the Tabernacle of his honour And Psalm 96. 9. The glorious Sanctuary or the beauty of holiness And the Ark of God you know was called the glory The glory is departed from Israel said the Wife of Phineas for the ark of God is taken Pure Religion and a pure Worship is the glory of God amongst his People and consequently their glory Now referring this Prophesie to Hezekiah's time the accomplishment of it is evident in that work of Reformation whereof you have the full History 2 Chron. 29. 30 31 c. If it be thus that the purity of Religion and Worship is the Crown and Glory of a People and therefore on the other side that their deepest stain of Dishonour and Vileness is the vitiating of Religion with humane Devices then to contend for the Preservation or the Reformation of it is noble and worthy of a Christian. 'T is for the Crown of Jesus Christ which is likewise a Crown of Glory and Diadem of Beauty to them he being their Head it is indeed the true glory both of Kings and their Kingdoms Labour then for constancy in this work let no man take your Crown from you you know how busie the Emissaries of the Church of Rome have been to take it from us or at least to pick the Diamonds out of it and put in false counterfeit ones in their places I mean they stole away the power of Religion and fill'd up the room with shadows and fopperies of their own devising 'T is the Vanity of that Church to think they adorn the Worship of God when they dress it up with splendor in her service which some magnifie so much yet may most truly be called a glistering Slavery and Captivity Then is she truly free and wears her Crown when the Ordinances of God are conformable to his own appointment It is Vanity in Man I say when they dress it up with multitude of gaudy Ceremonies and make it the smallest part of it self whereas indeed its true glory consists not in pomp but in purity and simpliciâ—y Apoc. 12. We find the Church under the name of a Woman richly attired indeed but her ornaments be all heavenly the Sun her cloathing and her Crown of twelve Stars needs she then borrow sublunary glory No she treads upon it the Moon is under her feet There is another Woman indeed in that same Book arrayed in Purple and Scarlet deckt with Gold and precious Stones and having a Golden Cup in her Hand but that Golden Cup is full of Abominations and Filthiness and she her self the Mother of Abominations Apoc. 17. 4. The Natural Man judges according to his reach but to a Spiritual Eye there is a most genuine beauty in the Service of God and Government of his House and when they are nearest to the Rule the Word of God then is it that the Lord himself is the Crown and Diadem of his Church A Crown c. Again we consider this personally as belonging in particular to every Believer They are all made Kings and Priests
shine because this Sun arose first in their Horizon Christ came of the Jews and came first to them The Redeemer shall come to Zion says our Prophet in the former Chapter but miserable Jerusalem knew not the day of her Visitation nor the things that concerned her peace and therefore are they now hid from her eyes She delighted to deceive her self with fancies of I know not what imaginary grandeur and outward glory to which the promised Messiah should exalt her and did in that kind particularly abuse this very Prophesie so doteing upon a sense grosly literal she forfeited the enjoyment of those Spiritual Blessings that are here described But undoubtedly that people of the Jews shall once more be commanded to arise and shine and their return shall be the riches of the Gentiles and that shall be a more glorious time than ever the Church of God did yet behold Nor is there any inconvenience if we think that the high expressions of this Prophesie have some spiritual reference to that time since the great Doctor of the Gentiles applies some words of the former Chapter to that purpose Rom. 11. 29. They forget a main point of the Churches glory that pray not daily for the Jews Conversion But to pass that and insist on the Spiritual sense of these words as directed to the whole Church of Christ. They contain a powerful incitement to a twofold act inforc'd as I conceive by one reason under a twofold expression neither of them superfluous but each giving light to other and suiting very aptly with the two words of command Arise for the glory of the Lord is risen and shine for thy light is come I will not now subdivide these parts again and cut them smaller but will rather unite them again into this one Proposition The coming and presence of Christ ingages all to whom he comes to arise and shine In this proposition may be considered the nature of the duties the universality of the subject and the force of the reason First the nature of the duties what it is to arise and shine Arising hath either reference to a fall or to some contrary posture of sitting or lying or to one of these two conditions that are so like one another Sleep or Death and to all these Spiritually understood may it here be referr'd This is the voice of the Gospel to the Sons of Adam Arise for in him they all fell The first sin of that first Man was the great Fall of Mankind it could not but undo us it was from so high a Station Our daily sins are our daily falls and they are the fruits of that great one Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity says the Lord to his people Hosea 14. 1. for these postures of sitting and lying the Scripture makes use of them both to signifie the state of sin Says not St. John The world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19 Are not the people said to sit in darkness mentioned Matth. 4. 16 which is directly opposite to Arise and Shine In the darkness of Egypt it is said the people sate still none arose from their places In the gross mist of Corrupt Nature Man cannot bestir himself to any Spiritual action but when this light is come then he may and should arise Now for Sleep and Death Sin is most frequently represented in Holy Writ under their black Vizors To forbear places where they are severally so used we shall find them jointly in one Eph. 5. 14. Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead which place seems to have special allusion to this very Text. The impenitent Sinner is as one buried in sleep his Soul is in darkness fit for sleep and loves to be so That he may sleeep the sounder he shuts all the passages of light as enemies to his rest and so by close Windows and Curtains makes an artificial Night to himself within not a beam appears there though without the clear day of the Gospel shines round about him The senses of his Soul as we may call them are all bound up and are not exercised to discern good and evil as the Apostle speaks Heb. 5. 14. And his leading faculty his understanding is surcharged with sleepy Vapors that arise incessantly from the inferiour part of his Soul his perverse affections nor hath his mind any other exercise in this sleepy condition but the vain business of dreaming his most refined and wisest thoughts are but meer extravagancies from Man's due end and his greatest contentments nothing but Golden Dreams yet he is serious in them and no wonder for who can discern the folly of his own Dream till he is awake He that Dreams he eateth when he awakes finds his Soul empty and not till then Isa. 29. 8. Now while he thus sleeps his great business lyes by yet spends he his hand-breadth of time as fast while he is fast asleep as if he were in continual employment judge then if it bâ— not needful to bid this Man Arise Lastly This voice may import that Man is Spiritually Dead God is the life of the Soul as it is of the Body while he dwells there it s both comely and active but once destitute of his presence becomes a Carcass where besides privation of life and motion there is a positive filthiness a putrefaction in the Soul unspeakably worse than that of dead Bodies Corruptio optimi pessima And as dead Bodies are removed from the sight of Mon dead Souls are cast out from the favourable sight of God till Christ's saying Arise revive them The Ministers of the Word are appointed to cry Arise indifferently to all that hear them and Christ hath reserved this priviledge and liberty to joyn his effective voice when and to whom he pleases A carnal Man may shew his Teeth at this but who is he that can by any solid reason charge absurdity upon this way of dispensing outward and inward Vocation I will not here mention their idle Cavils the Scripture is undeniably clear in these That Man is naturally dead in Sin The Gospel bids him Arise and it is Christ that is his life and that raises him Thus we see in some measure what it is for Men to Arise Now being risen they must Shine and that two ways jointly and publickly as they make up visible Churches and likewise personally in their particular Conversation First then What is the shining of the true Church Doth not a Church then shine when Church Service is raised from a decent and primitive Simplicity and decored with Pompous Ceremonies with rich Furniture and gaudy Vestments Is not the Church then Beautiful Yes indeed but all the question is whether this be the proper genuine beauty or no whether this be not strange fire as the fire that Aarons Sons used which became vain and was taken as strange fire Methinks it cannot be better decided then to refer it to St. John in his Book of the Revelations We find there
the Descriptions of two several Women the one riding in State arrayed in Purple deckt with Gold and precious Stones and Pearl Rev. 17. 3. The other in rich attire too but of another kind Cloathed with the Sun and a Crown of twelve Stars on her head the others decorement was all Earthly this Womans is all celestial what need she borrow Light and Beauty from precious Stones that 's Cloathed with the Sun and Crowned with Stars she wears no sublunary Ornaments but which is more noble she treads upon them the Moon is under her Feet now if you know as you do all without doubt which of these two is the Spouse of Christ you can easily resolve the question The truth is those things seem to deck Religion but they undo it Observe where they are most used and we shall find little or no substance of Devotion under them as we see in that Apostate Church of Rome This Painting is dishonourable for Christ's Spoâ—se and besides it spoils her natural Complexion The superstitious use of Torches and Lights in the Church by day is a kind of shining but surely not commanded here No it is an affront done both to the Sun in the Heaven and to the Sun of Righteousness in the Church What is meant then when the Church is Commanded to shine or be enlightened These two readings give the entire sense of the word first for having no light of her self she must receive light and then shew it be enlightened and then shine she is enlightened by Christ the Sun of Righteousness shining in the Sphere of the Gospel This is that Light that comes to her and the Glory of the Lord that arises upon her hence she receives her Laws and Form of Government and her shining is briefly the pure exercise of those and conformity to them And the personal shining of the several Members of a Church is a comely congruity with pure worship and discipline and it is that which now is most needful to be urged every Christian Soul is personally engaged first to be enlightened and then to shine and we must draw our Light for our selves from that same source that furnishes the Church with her publick Light There is a word in the Civil Law Uxor fulget radiis mariti the Wife shines by the rays of her Husbands Light Now every faithful Soul is espoused to Christ and therefore may well shine seeing the Sun himself is their Husband he adorns them with a double Beauty of Justification and Sanctification By that they shine more especially to God by this to Men And may not these two be signified by a double Character given to the Spouse in the Cant. 6. 20. She is fair as the Moon and clear as the Sun The lesser Light is that of Sanctification Fair as the Moon That of Justification the greater by which She is as clear as the Sun The Sun is perfectly Luminous but the Moon is but half enlightened so the Believer is perfectly justified but sanctified only in part his one half his flesh is dark and as the partial illumination is the reason of so many changes in the Moon to which changes the Sun is not subject at all so the imperfection of a Christians holiness is the cause of so many waxings and waneings and great inequality in his performances whereas in the mean while his Justification remains constantly like it self This is imputed that inherent The Light of Sanctification must begin in the understanding and from thence be transfused to the affection the inferiour parts of the Soul and from thence break forth and shine into Action This is then the nature of the Duties Arise and Shine The Universality of the subject which was the second head is this That every Man that knows Christ is here engaged to shine too neither grandeur exempts from the duty of shining nor doth meanness exclude from the priviledge of shining Men of low condition in this World need not despair of it for it is a spiritual Act great Men need not despise it for it is a noble Act to shine by Christ's Light In the 3 verse of this Chap. it is said to the Church Kings shall come to the brightness of thy rising To what end but to partake of her Light and shine with her And indeed the regal attire of Christ's Righteousness and the white Robes of Holiness will exceeding well become Kings and Princes Give the King thy Judgements O Lord and thy Righteousness to the King's Son The Third and Last thing propounded was the force of the reason that Christ's presence engages to Arise and shine wherein it is supposed that Christ declared in the Gospel is the Light which is said here to come and the Glory of the Lord which is said to be risen so that now it should be more amply cleared how Christ is Light and the Glory of the Lord and what his coming and rising is but of these afterwards I shall close now with a word of exhortation Arise then for the Glory of the Lord is risen The day of the Gospel is too precious that any of it should be spent in sleep or idleness or worthless business worthless business detains many of us Arise immortal Souls from moyling in the dust and working in the Clay like Egyptian captives Address your selves to more noble work there is a Redeemer come that will pay your ransome and rescue you from such vile service for more excellent employment It is strange how the Souls of Christians can so much forget their first original from Heaven and their new hopes of returning thither and the Rich price of their Redemption and forgetting all these dwell so low and dote so much upon triffles how is it that they hear not their well beloved's voice crying Arise my love my fair one and come away Though the eyes of true Believers are so inlightened that they shall not sleep unto death yet their spirits are often seized with a kind of drowsiness and slumber and sometimes even then when they should be of most activity The time of Christ's check to his three Disciples made it very sharp tho'the words are mild What could you not watch with me one hour Shake off believing Souls that heavy humour Arise and satiate the eye of faith with the contemplation of Christ's Beauty and follow after him till you attain the place of full enjoyment And you others that never yet saw him Arise and admire his matchless excellency The things you esteem great are but so through ignorance of his greatness his brightness if you saw it would obscure to you the greatest splendor of the World as all those Stars that go never down upon us yet they are swallowed up in the surpassing light of the Sun when it arises Stand up from the dead and he shall give you light Arise and work while it is Day for the Night shall come wherein none can work says our Saviour himself Happy are
lives and fall in love with it but he is no less abhorred by the Searcher of hearts than pleasing to himself Surely this mischief of Hypocrisie can never be enough inveighed against When Religion is in request it s the chief malady of the Church and numbers dye of it though because its a subtile and inward Evil it be little perceived It s to be feared there are many sick of it that look well and comely in God's outward Worship and they may pass well in good Weather in times of Peace but days of Adversity are days of Trial. The prosperous Estate of the Church makes Hypocrites and her Distress discovers them but if they escape such trial there is one inevitable day coming wherein all secret things shall be made manifest Men shall be turn'd inside out and amongst all Sinners that shall then be brought before that Judgment Seat the deformedst sight shall be an unmasked Hypocrite and the heaviest sentence shall be his Portion Oh! That the consideration of this would scare us out of that false disguise in time and set us all upon the study of Sincerity precious is that Grace in God's esteem a little of it will weigh down Mountains of formal Religion in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Which of us have not now brought Hypocrisie more or less into this House of God Oh! that it were not with intention to nourish it but with desire to be here cured of it for he alone that hates it so much can cure it he alone can confer upon us that sincerity wherein he mainly delights If we have a mind indeed to be indued with it it is no where else to be had we must intreat it of God by humble Prayer in the name of his Well beloved Son by the assistance of his Holy Spirit Isaiah LX. 1. Second Sermon Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee TRuly light is sweet and it is a pleasing thing to behold the Sun says the Preacher Eccles. 11. 7. But the interchange of Night with Day adds to its beauty and the longest Night makes Day the welcomest as that People well knows whose scituation in the World gives them a five or six months Night all of one piece It is reported of some of them That when they conceive their Night draws towards an end they put on their richest Apparel and climb up to the highest Mountains with emulation who shall first discover the returning light which so soon as it appears they Salute with Acclamations of Joy and welcom it with solemn Feasting and all other Testimonies of exceeding gladness But such is the Lethargy of sinful Man that he stirs not to meet his Spiritual Light and which is worse when it comes upon him it finds him in love with Darkness instead of his shouts of Joy for this Light many a cry must be sounded in his Ears to awaken him and it is well too if at length he hear and obey this Voice Arise shine for thy light is come c. It is clear that the words contain a Command and the Reason of it The Command to a twofold act The Reason under two Expressions proportionately different Good reason the Church should arise when the Lord's Glory is risen upon her and it is very congruous she should be enlightned and shine when her light is come Of those two Acts or Duties somewhat was formerly spoken and the reason likewise was made use of so far as relative to those Duties and tending to their inforcement But the meaning of the Phrases in which the Reason is exprest was rather at that time supposed then either duly proved or â—â—lustrated so that it will be now expedient to consider simply in themselves these latter words Thy light is come c. So far as this Prophesie hath respect to the reduction of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity that Temporal Deliverance and ensuing Peace and Prosperity was their Light and that Divine Power by which it was effected was this Glory of the Lord. And indeed both these expressions are frequently used in such a sense in Holy Writ When I waited for light there came darkness says Job in his 30 Chapter 26 ver So Isaiah 58. 20 and many other places And the Glory of the Lord for a singular effect of his Power Joh. 11. 40. Isa. 60. 18. and elsewhere But this literal sense is but a step to elevate the Prophet to a sight of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom which is usual with him as our Saviour himself testifies of another of his Prophesies These things said Esaias when he saw his Glory and spoke of him Joh. 12. 41. It was a sight of that same Glory that makes him say Thy light was true c. In these words there are three things concerning Christ represented to the Churches view First His Beauty and Excellency in that he is called light and the glory of the Lord. Secondly The Churches Propriety and Interest in him Thy light and risen upon thee which hath a restrictive Emphasis as the very next verse doth clearly manifest as he is originally the Glory of the Lord and the Light of the Lord Lumen de lumine so he is Communicatively the Churches light â—nd her Glory too as it is exprest in the 19th verse of this same Chapter Thy God thy Glory Thus hath she both his worth and her own right in him to consider Thirdly His Presence or her actual Possession He is come and is risen and in these the Church and each faithful Soul may find a double Spring of Affection the one of Love the other of Joy The transcendent Beauty of Christ makes him the choicest object of Love and her Property in him or Title to him together with Possession is the proper Cause of solid Joy First then this Excellency is exprest by these two Characters light and the glory of the Lord. Concerning which it will be fit both to demonstrate that they are the proper Titles of Christ and here to be taken for him as also to shew what they signifie in him Indeed the Apostle in his second Epistle to the Corinthians 3 Chapter insists much in extolling both the light and the glory of the Gospel And in the 4th verse of the next Chapter speaks of the light of the Glorious Gospel but he immediately imitates whence it hath this Light and Glory the glorious Gospel of Christ says he who is the Image of God So that it is most unnecessary to enquire whether the Messiah or the Word that reveals him be rather here couched under these terms of Light and the Glory of the Lord. These two agree so well altogether and these words agree so well to them both that it were an injury to attempt to sever them All the difference will be this Christ is that incomplex and substantial Light The Gospel that complex Light wherein he appears but not to be guilty of dark terms especially in a
1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he dwelt in a Tabernacle among us and we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Fathers glory and the Character of his Person And under these expressions lies that remarkable mystery of the Sons Eternal relation to the Father which is rather humbly to be adored than boldly to be explained either by God's perfect understanding of his own Essence or by any other notion It is true he is called the Wisdom of the Father but this Wisdom is too wonderful for us He is called the Word but what this Word means I think we shall not well know till we see him Face to Face and contemplate him in the Light of Glory mean while we may see him to be the Glory of the Lord in a safer way and sufficient measure to guide us on to that clear vision reserved above for us We saw his glory says that sublime Evangelist but how could this excellent glory be seen by sinful Men and not astonish and strike dead the beholders He was made Flesh and dwelt among us says he and so we saw his glory That Majesty that we could never have lookt upon he veiled with humane flesh that we might not die yea live by seeing him There he stood behind the wall and shewed himself through the Trellis In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily for who could have endured the splendor of the Godheads fulness if that Cloud of his Body had not been drawn betwixt And through it did shine that Grace and Truth that Wisdom and Power in the work of our Redemption whereby he was clearly manifested to be the glory of the Lord. Surely we need not now ask the Church or a believing Soul what is her beloved more than another or if we do well may she answer He is the chiefest among Ten Thousand and altogether lovely for he is the Light of the World and the glory of the Lord. Let not the numerous Titles of Earthly Potentates be once admitted into comparison with these If we believe David in his 62 Psal. 9. verse the stateliest things and persons in the World being Ballanced with vanity it self are found lighter than it and shall we offer to weigh them with Christ. If we knew him righly we would not sell the least glance or beam of this Light of his Countenance for the highest favour of mortal Men though it were constant and unchangeable which it is not it is ignorance of Christ that maintains the credit of those vanities we admire The Christian that is truly acquainted with him enamoured with the brightness of his beauty can generously trample upon the smilings of the World with the one foot and her frownings with the other if he be rich or honourable or both yet he glories not in that but Christ who is the glory of the Lord is even then his chiefest glory And the Light of Christ obscures that Worldly splendor in his estimation and as the enjoyment of Christ overtops all his other joys so it overcomes his griefs as that great Light drowns the Light of prosperity it shines bright in the darkness of Affliction no dungeon so close that can keep out the rays of Christ's love from his beloved Prisoners The World can no more take away this Light than it can give it Unto the just ariseth Light in Darkness sayeth the Psalmist and When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me says the Church in the 7th of Micah 8 verse And as this Light is a Comfort so it is likewise a Defence that suffers no more of distress to come near the godly than is profitable for them Therefore we find very frequently in Scripture where this Light and Glory is mentioned Protection and Safety joyntly spoken of The Lord is my Light and withal my Salvation whom shall I fear says David Psal 27. 1. The Lord is a Sun and he is a Shield too Psal. 84. 21. And truly I think him Shot-proof that hath the Sun for his Buckler And for glory Upon all the Glory shall be a Defence says our Prophet in his 4. Chapter 5. verse And the Prophet Zach. where he calls the Lord the Churches Glory in the midst of her he calls him likewise a Wall of fire round about her Zach. 2. 4. The only way then to he safe is to keep this Light and this Glory intire to part with any part of this glory is to make a breach in that Wall of fire and if that be a means of safety let all Men judge No keep it whole and then they must come through the fire that will assault you Nor is this Light only defensive of the Church that embraceth it but likewise destructive of all adverse powers see a clear Testimony for this in the 10. of Isaiah 17 18. verses And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame speaking there of the Assyrians and it shall burn and devour his Thorns and his Briers in one day and shall consume the glory of his Forrest and of his Fruitful Field both Soul and Body and they shall be as when a Standard bearer fainteth c. Let ever then the Church of God entirely observe this Light and Glory of the Lord and she shall undoubtedly be preserved by it But to close in a word first to those that know this Light and then to those that are yet strangers to it You who know Christ glory in him perpetually well may he be your glory when he is the Glory of the Lord There are some that pretend love to Christ and yet a taunting word of some profane miscreant will almost make them ashamed of him how would they die for Christ that are so tender as not to endure a Scoff for him Where is that Spirit of Moses that accounted the very reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt O learn to glory in Christ think highly of him and speak so too Methinks it is the Discourse in the World becomes Christians best to be speaking one to another honorably of Jesus Christ and of all Men the Preachers of his Gospel should be most frequent in this Subject This should be their great Theam to extol and commend the Lord Jesus that they may enflame many hearts with his love and best can they do this who are most strongly taken with this love themselves Such will most gladly abase themselves that Christ may be magnified and whatsoever be their excellencies they still account Christ their glory and they are richly repayed for he accounts them his glory this would seem a strange word if it were not the Apostles They are the Messengers of the Churches and the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23.
the Spirit of God let us have recourse to the Throne of Grace by humble and earnest Prayer in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ. Psal. XLII 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his Song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life MAN is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards saith Eliphaz Job 5. 7. And as it is the corruption and sinfulness of his Birth and Nature that has exposed him to trouble so Nature usually sets him at work to look out for such things as may preserve and deliver him from trouble or at least mitigate and temper the bitterness of it And because there is not any one worldly thing that hath either certainty or sufficiency enough to serve at all times therefore worldly and natural men are forced to make use of variety and are but badly served with them all The believing Soul hath but one comfort whereon he relies but it 's a great one which alone weighs down all the rest Bread strengthens and Wine makes glad the heart of Man Psal. 104. 15. But God is the strength of my heart says the Psalmist Psal. 73. 20. and the gladness of it too Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than they have when their corn and wine increaseth and therefore while the rest are seeking after some scattered crumbs of goodness in the Creatures Who will shew us any good He fixes his choice upon this one thing The light of God's countenance and it is the constant assurance of this that upholds him waves beat upon him yea and go over him yet the Lord will command his loving kindness to shine upon him In this Psalm we may perceive the Psalmist full of perplexed thoughts and that betwixt strong desires and griefs and yet in the midst of them now and then some advantage and intermixing strains of Hope with his sad complaints for immediately before we heard nothing but the impetuous noise of many waters deep calling unto deep In the former verse we have there as it were a touch of the sweet sound of David's Harp Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time In the words we have David's confidence and David's purpose the one suiting very well with the other His Confidence in God's loving kindness Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness And his purpose And in the night his song shall be with me It is true those words in the night his song shall be with me may be taken as a part of the expression of his confidence taking his Song for the matter or subject of the Song the goodness of God as if he should say both in the day and in the night I shall find the sweet fruits of God's favour and loving kindness But not excluding that I rather take it intended as his resolution that it should be his custom in the quiet Season of the Night to look back upon God's goodness manifested to him in the actions and occurrences of the Day and thus encertaining his Soul with that secret discourse he would stir it up to the praises of his God and withal would joyn Prayer for the continuance and further manifestation of it David as is hinted before intermixing strains of Hope not that faint and common hope of possibility or probability that after stormy days it may be better with him but a certain hope that shall never make ashamed such a hope as springs from faith yea in effect is one with it Faith rests upon the goodness and truth of Him that hath promised and Hope raising it self upon Faith so established stands up and looks out to the future accomplishment of the promise Therefore the Apostle Heb. 11. 1. calls Faith The substance of things hoped for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the evidence of things not seen of all other wavering hope here 's they say true Spes est nomen boni incerti But this can say The Lord will command his loving kindness c. The Lord will command What a sudden change is here Would you think this were the same man that was even now almost overwhelmed Thus Faith always conquers though seldom or never without hard conflict not only assaulted by troubles without but which is worse by Incredulity within nor assaulted only but many times brought under yet does it not succumb and give over knowing that even after many foils yet in the end it shall overcome His confidence you may consider first oppositely and then positively or simply in it self Oppositely both to his present trouble and to his complaints wherein this trouble is exprest and that is fitly implyed though it be not in the Original Though the multitude and weight of Jobs Afflictions did force out of him some bitter words and made him look back upon the day of his Birth and curse it yet Faith recovers him from his distemper and makes him look forward with joy even as far as to the blessed day of his Resurrection Job 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God The former words of impatience he spake indeed but he adheres to these and wishes that they were written with an Iron Pen and Engraven to abide for ever Therefore we hear of him again in Scripture as a righteous and patient man but of these words of his impatience not a word In the 77 Psalm what sad Expostulations are these the Psalmist uses Will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies But see how he corrects them ver 10. Then I said this is my Infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High Thus Jonah 2 Chap. ver 3 4. much like this but there literally true And here deep calls unto deep yet in the midst of those deeps Faith is not drowned you see it lifts up its head above water Yet the Lord will command c. Yea though it takes particular notice of God's hand in the affliction yet it goes not to another hand for comfort Thy Waves and thy Billows yet that same God whose Waves are like to destroy me will ere long command his loving kindness to shine upon me Though he slay me yet will I trust in him A wonderful expression of Faith He says not though he afflict me sore but though he slay me not though evil men or Satan should do it but though he slay me yet will I trust in him What troubled mind can imagine any thing harder against it self than this 1. Learn then to check these excessive doubts and fears by some such resolute word as this Turn the promise first upon thy self and then upon God
his Soul keeping it from sinking in the deeps of Afflictions Yea that big word which one says of his morally just Man is true of the believer Si fractus illabatur orbis Though the very Fabrick of the World were falling about him yet would he stand upright and undaunted in the midst of its ruins In this confidence considered in it self we may observe the Object of it The loving kindness of the Lord. 2. The manner or way by which he expects to enjoy it The Lord will Command it 3. The time in the day His loving kindness He says not return to the House of God for deliverance from the heavy oppression and sharp reproaches of the Enemy which would have answered more particularly and expressly to his present griefs but his loving kindness And the reason of thus expressing himself I conceive to be two fold 1. In the assurance of this is necessarily comprised the certainty of all other good things This special favour and benignity of the Lord doth engage his Power and Wisdom both which you know are infinite to the procurement of every thing truly good for those whom he so favours Therefore it is that David chuses rather to name the streams of particular mercies in this their living Source and Fountain than to specifie them severally Nor is it only thus more compendious but fuller too which are the two great advantages of Speech and this I take to be the other reason 2. A Man may enjoy great deliverances and many positive benefits from the hand of God and yet have no share in his loving kindness How frequently doth God heap Riches and Honour and Health on these he hates and the common gifts of the Mind too Wisdom and Learning yea the common gifts of his own Spirit and gives a fair and long day of external prosperity to those on whom he never vouchsafed the least glance of his favourable Countenance yea on the contrary gives all those specious gifts to them with a secret curse as here as he gave a King in wrath to his people so he often gives Kingdoms in his wrath to Kings Therefore David looks higher than the very Kingdom which God promised him and gave him when he speaks of his loving kindness In a word he resolves to solace himself with the assurance of this though he was stript of all other comforts and to quiet his Soul herein till deliverance come and when it shall come and whatsoever mercies with it to receive them as fruits and effects of this loving kindness Not prizing them so much for themselves as for the impressions of that love which is upon them and it is that Image and Superscription that both engages and moves him most to pay his tribute of praise And truly this is every where David's temper his frequent distresses and wants never excite him so much to desire any particular comfort in the Creature as to intreat the presence and favour of God himself His saddest times are when to his sense this favour is eclipsed In my prosperity I said I shall not be moved And what was his adversity that made him of another mind Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled This veriâ—ies his position in that same Psalm In thy favour is Life Thus in the 63. Psalm at the beginning My Soul thirsteth for thee in a dry Land where there is no water not for water where there is none but for thee where there is no water Therefore he adds in the 3. verse Thy loving kindness is better than Life and all that be truly wise and of this mind will subscribe to his choice Let them enjoy this loving kindness and prize it that what ere befalls them their happiness and joy is above the reach of all calamities let them be derided and reproached abroad yet still this inward perswasion makes them glad and contented as a rich Man said though the people hated and taunted him yet when he came home and lookt upon his Chests Egomet mihi plaudo domi With how much better reason do Believers bear out external injuries what inward contentment when they consider themselves truly enricht with the favour of God And as this makes them contemn the contempts that the World puts upon them so likewise it breeds in them a neglect and disdain of those poor trifles that the World admires The Sum of their desires is as that Cynicks was of the Sun-shine that the rays of the love of God may shine constantly upon them The favourable aspect and large proffers of Kings and Princes would be unwelcome to them if they should stand betwixt them and the sight of that Sun And truly they have reason What are the highest things the World affords What are great Honors and great Estates but great Cares and Griefs well drest and coloured over with a shew of pleasure that promise contentment and perform nothing but vexation That they are not saâ—isfying is evident for the obtaining of much of them doth but stretch the appetite and teach Men to desire more they are not solid neither will not the pains of a Gout of Strangury or some such malady to say nothing of the worst the pains of a guilty conscience blast all these deligâ—tâ— What relish finds a Man in large Revenues and â—â—aâ—ely Buildings in high Preferments and honour able Titles when either his Body or Mind is in anguish And besides the emptiness of all these things you know they want one main point Continuance But the loving kindness of God hath all requisites to make the Soul happy O satisfie us early with Goodness or Mercy says Moses That we may rejoyce and be glad all our days Ps. 90. 14. There is fulness in that for the vastest desires of the Soul satisfie us there is solid contentment that begets true joy and gladness and there is permanency all our days It is the only comfort of this Life and assurance of a better This were a large Subject to insist on but certainly the naming of his loving kindness should beget in each heart an high esteem of it an ardent desire after it And if it do so with you then know that it is only to be found in the way of holiness He is a holy God and can love nothing that 's altogether unlike himself There must always be some similitude and conformity of nature to ground kindness and friendship and to maintain it that saying is true idem velle idem nolle firma amicitia What gross self flattery is it to think that God's loving kindness can be towards you while you are in love with Sin which he so perfectly hates How can the profane Swearer or voluptuous Person or the Oppressor and Covetous or the close Hypocrite worse than any of them rest upon the loving kindness of the Lord in the day of troubles No sure But the terror of his wrath shall be added to all their other calamities and they shall find it heavier than all the
c. And having done this he sends his Word the Message of Reconciliation to Rebels and sends his Spirit into the hearts of these whom he hath appointed to Salvation to change their Spirits that they perish not in Disobedience he brings them near that were far off having slain this enmity by the Death of his Son As many of you then as have hitherto heard this Message of Reconcilement in vain be perswaded at last to give ear to it This is all that Gods Ambassadours require according to their Instructions from himself That men would lay down that enmity against him and not be so foolish as wilfully to perish in it 2 Cor. 5. 20. Consider that this enmity is 1 Unjust 2 Unhappy Unjust it is being against him who is the chief object of Love who is altogether Goodness both in himself and towards his Creatures it is too much not to love him with most ardent and superlative affection but to entertain enmity against him is madness as he said to one who asked why are the beautiful loved it is a blind man's question Certainly we are blind if we see not cause enough not only to desist from enmity but to be inflamed with his love one glance of his amiable countenance is sufficient to cause the most rebellious heart to yield and lay down arms and for ever devote themselves to his service No we know him not and therefore it is we hold out against him is he not the living spring of all our comforts Have we not from him life and breath and all things And is he not ready to forgive Iniquity Transgression and Sin Let mercy melt our hearts to him those sweet rays of love Let his loving kindness overcome these stubborn Hearts or Spirits of ours among Enemies the weaker usually seeks first for Peace but here the Mighty Almighty God comes to intreat agreement with sinful Clay But if this prevail not then think how unhappy this enmity is you that are so afraid of men and these weak men of men like your selves whose breath is in their Nostrils will ye not tremble at his power and be afraid to continue in terms of Hostility against him who is the Lord of Hosts who hath power of the Soul and Body both to kill both and cast them into Hell What is the stoutest of men but as Stubble to the flame of his Wrath Our God is a consuming fire the sinners in Zion are afraid says the Prophet who shall dwell say they with devouring fire and everlasting burnings Then if you would not perish when his wrath is kindled take that word of Eliphaz Job 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee And to you so many as he hath taken into friendship with himself look backward to the gulf you have escaped and forward to the happiness you are appointed too and let the joynt-consideration of both awaken your Hearts and Tongues to Praises How can your Hearts contain such a wonder of Love as he hath manifested to you and not run over in Songs and Praise And as you owe him praises so study being made his friends to become more like him that same idem velle idem nolle to love and hate the same things with him will be a sure testimony of friendship And because carnality or fleshly and earthly mindedness is here made the Character of Enmity mortifie these affections nail them to that Cross of Christ whereby the enmity was taken away And further being once admitted into friendship labour for a further degree of Intimacy with him and forbear every thing that may hinder that use frequent converse with him for that both entertains and increases friendship If any thing fall out on your part as it too often does that may occasion any strangeness betwixt you and your God rest not till it be removed and if you walk in this way it shall undoubtedly at length bring you where you shall abide in his presence for ever and shall no more fear any breach or interruption of enjoying him To him be praise Amen SERMON X. Rom. XIII 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake THE Wisdom and Goodness of God that shines in the natural order and dependence of things in the frame of the great World appears likewise and commends it self to us in the civil order he hath instituted in the Societies of Men the lesser World As out of the same Mass he made the Heaven and the Earth and the other Elements betwixt them one higher than another and gave them different Stations and Qualities yet so different as to be linkt and concatenated together Concordia Discordia and all for the concern and benefit of the whole Thus for the good of Men hath the Lord assigned these different Stations of Rule and Subjection though all of one Race Acts 17. Raising from among Men some above the rest and Cloathed them with such Authority as hath some representment of himself and accordingly communicating to them his own Name I have said you are Gods And the very power that is in Magistracy to curb and punish these that despise it the Apostle useth as a strong and hard Cord to bind on the duty of Obedience a Cord of Necessity but he adds another of a higher Necessity that binds more strongly and yet more sweetly that of Conscience wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Observe 1. This is the main consideration that closes the discourse the great Cord that binds on and fastens all the rest all the arguments foregoing therefore are mainly here to be prest Have a reverent and conscientious respect to the Ordinance of God in the Institution of Government and to the Providence of God in his choice of those particular persons whom he calls to it Contain thy self in thy own Station and submit to those set higher by the Lord in obedience to him This indeed is the only true Spring of all obedience both to God and to Men for him and according to his Ordinance to regulate the outward carriage without the living principle of an enlightned and sanctified conscience within is to build without a Foundation This is the thing God eyes most he looks through the surface of Mens Actions to the bottom follows them into their source examines from what perswasives and reasons they flow he sees not only the handle of the Dial but all the Wheels and Weights of the Clock that are the cause of its motion and accordingly judges both Men and their Actions to be good or evil as the inward frame and secret motions of the heart are in his own Worship the outside of it may have the same visage and plausable appearance in a multitude conven'd to it and concurring in it and no humane eye can trace a difference and yet oh what vast difference doth Gods eye discover
amongst them he sees the multitude of these that are driven to his House by the power of Civil and Church Laws or carried to it only with the stream of Company and Custom and those I fancy take up the most room in our Churches But he sees here and there where such are in any corner that Worship him in singleness of heart out of conscience to his holy Command and of their many obligations that dare not let pass any opportunity they can reach of doing service to their Lord and that dare not slight his Word And thus coming for conscience sake they do present their Souls to receive his Word give their hearts up to receive the impression of it put themselves under it to be stampt by it according to that Rom. 6. 17. But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered you So likewise he sees those that bear his Name to his people the Ministers of his Word If they Preach constantly and live blamelessly and are diligent and irreprovable in all the external parts of their walking This last satisfies Mens questions in their inspection and visitings but Gods enquiry and visiting searches deeper he asks from what heart all this comes if from a holy conscience of the weight and high importance of their holy calling and a faithful respect to the interest of their Masters Glory and his Peoples Souls And thus he as Supream Judge sits and considers the proceedings of Judges and Magistrates not only whether they do that which is Just for often they cannot easily or safely do otherwise but whether they do it with regard to him or not that is whether they Judge righteously for conscience sake or not whether they do consider him as sitting above them when they sit down upon the Bench or Seat of Justice and do indeed truly speak righteousness Psal. 58. Or if in heart they work wickedness if they have any corrupt end or hearts that are not straight he sits on their heart and Judges it Or if this be done either for base gain or vain-glory or by compulsion or outward necessity or danger of censure or if it be this latter and inward necessity of Conscience which makes a true willingness Thus people if they obey for Wrath which is for fear of the Magistrates Sword more than for Conscience of the Lords command God accounts not this Obedience but in his Judgement it goes for no better than Rebellion It is to be feared too many Magistrates and others have in this Natien embrac'd the Reformation not at all for Conscience sake but only for Wrath fear of Laws and Authority But although we are not able to follow forth this search to the full that being the Lords own Prerogative yet truly where it is evident to us that there is nothing of Conscience though in civil things it may pass yet in things that are peculiarly matters of Conscience in Religion men ought to be somewhat wary according to the utmost of due discerning and are possibly somewhat to blame in promiscuous admitting of such whose Carriage yea whose Profession and Religion speaks aloud that their compliance was wholly constrained Obedience only for Wrath and not for Conscience If Civil Authority is to be obeyed most for Conscience than Church Authority that is more Symbolical with Conscience and hath nearer reference to it ought to aim most at that Conviction and Conversion is our Work and not Constraint to bring people both by the Word and by a way of Discipline suiting and backing it to a sense of Sin and Spiritual thoughts of God and his Holy Law that they may be subject more for Conscience than for Wrath. And ye People labour more to find the actings of that holy fear of God and conscience of his Will in all your ways study to have an inward Light a practical sanctifying Light directing you and be not meerly held in as Beasts by the Authority and Laws of men but learn to know and be sensible of the Soveraign Authority of the most high God and his Law and to have respect unto all his Commandments If this were once done how regular a motion would it keep amongst all Superiours and Inferiours of all sorts in Families and States the one commanding the other obeying in God It would be as sweet Musick in the Celestial Quire of their Lives and Affairs right informing and right moving Consciences would be as continual Teachers within directing all in Obedience and would make it both more constant sweet and pleasant as natural motion whereas it it grievous and violent that is from wrath or outward power and therefore lasts not as the Israelites worshipt God aright while their good Judges lived and run after Idols when they were removed Again This same obedience for conscience ennobles and sublimates mens action even in Civil things makes them have somewhat Divine turns all into Sacrifice to God when all is done for God even Servants and Children obeying Masters and Parents Subjects Magistrates for his commands sake And still thinking in the whole course of their regular due Carriage in their very Callings This I do for God my ordinary Labour and Works and my just Obedience to Men I offer up to him This is the Philosophers Stone that turns actions of lower Metal into Gold I set the Lord always before me Ps. 16. Obs. 2. Kings and other Powers of the World who are the Enemies and sometimes the enraged Persecutors of our Holy Religion mistake their quarrel and are very wrongfully misprejudiced against it and upon that false supposition do hate and oppose it suspecting it as an Enemy to their Dignity and Authority whereas there is nothing that doth so much assert their Just power as Religion doth Civil Laws may tie the hands and tongue to their obedience but Religion binds all due subjection to them upon the very Consciences of their people therefore they are both ingrate and unwise in using their power against Religion which it so much strengthens Their power should strengthen it both by way of due return to correspond with it in that and even for its own Interest receiving a new Establishment to it self by Establishing Religion Even that Master of Irreligious Policy confesses that the profession of Religion is a friend to Authority but if the shadow of it do any thing that way we see contrary to his prophane supicion the substance and truth of it doth it much more Obs. 3. If for Conscience sake subjection then sure in nothing against the true Rule of Conscience and prime Object of Conscience the Authority and Law of God That is the first and highest and the perpetual unalterable engagement to him binding Kings and Subjects high and low and if they leave their Station we ought to keep ours still in a streight subjection to God for the extent of Friendship and all other Relations and of all Subjection and Obedience is to be ruled and bounded
assimilates the Soul to him makes it Divine and therefore Bountiful full of Love to all So these two contradict not Love the Lord with all thy heart and thy Neighbour as thy self If all our love must go to God what remains for our Neighbour Indeed all go upwards and be all placed on him and from thence it is refounded and regulated downwards to men according to his Will But Self-love brings forth Pride and Cruelty and Covetousness and Uncleanness and disdain of others and all such kind of Monsters so it is the main breaking of the Law All that can be said will not perswade men to this till the Lord by his Love teach it and impress it on the heart Know that this is the Badge of Christs Followers and his great Rule and Law given to them and if you will follow him that you may come to be where he is then study this That as our Lord Christ loved us so also we ought to love one another SERMON XI PREFACE GReat and various are the Evils that lodg within the Heart of Man Hence proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries Murders and many other mischiefs as our Saviour specifies there they come forth apace and yet the heart is not emptied of them But was this heart thus at first when it came newly forth of the hands of its Maker Surely no Man was made upright but he found out many Inventions Soon did the heart find the way to corrupt it self but to renew it self is as impossible as to have been the Author of its own Creation easily could it deface the precious Characters of Gods Image but it passes the Art of Men and Angels to restore them Only the Son of God who for that purpose took on him our Nature can make us according to the Apostles Phrase partakers of the Divine Nature It is he alone that can banish these Unclean Spirits and keep possession that they return no more Have not they made a happy change of Guests that have those Infernal Troops turn'd out of Doors and the King of Glory fixing his abode within them This is the voice of the Gospel Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may enter in But small is the number of those that open where this voice is daily sounded yea some there are that grow worse under the frequent Preaching of the Word as if Sin were emulous and as is said of Vertue would grow by opposition The truth is too many of us turn these serious Exercises of Religion into an idle Divertisement Take heed that Formality and Custom and Novelty do not often help to fill up many Rooms in our Church It were indeed a breach of Charity to entertain the fullness of your Assemblies with ill Construction No it is to be commended But would to God we were more careful to shew our Religion in our Lives to study to know better the Deceits and Impostures of our own hearts and to gain daily more Victory over our secret and best beloved Sins Let our intentions then be to meet with Christ here and to admit him gladly to dwell and rule within us if he conquer our inward Enemies those without shall not be able to hurt us if he deliver us from our sinful Lusts he will still our own distrustful fears And that such may be the fruits of our meeting let us turn our selves towards the Throne of Grace with humble Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ the Righteous Psalm LXXVI 10. Surely the wrath of a man shall praise thee The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain WHat Man is this said the Passengers in the Ship that even the Winds and the Sea obey him Christ suddenly turns a great tempest into a greater Calm Matth. 8. 27. Surely those are no ordinary words of Command that swelling Waves and boisterous Winds in the midst of their rage are forc'd to hear and taught to understand and obey them Therefore the holding of the Seas in the hollow of his Hand the bridling of the Wind and riding upon the Wings of it we find peculiarly attributed to the Almighty But no less if not more wonderful is another of his Prerogatives to wit His Soveraignty over all Mankind the divers and strange motions of the Heart of Man admirable is it to govern those both in respect of their Multitude and Irregularity Consider we what Millions of men dwell at once upon the face of the Earth and again what Troops of several Imaginations will pass through the fancy of any one man within the compass of one day 'T is much to keep eye upon them and to behold them all at once but far more to Command and Controul them all yet if they were all Loyal and willingly Obedient were they Tractable and easily Curbed it were more easie for us to conceive how they might be Governed but to bound and over-rule the unruly hearts of men the most of them continually are either plotting or acting Rebellion against their Lord to make them all concur and meet at last in one end cannot be done but by a Power and a Wisdom that are both Infinite That God whose Name we often mention but seldom think on his Excellency is alone the Absolute Monarch of mens Hearts and the Ruler of all their Motions he hath them Limited while they seem most free and works his own Glory out of their attempts while they strive most to dishonour him Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee c. The Psalm is made up of these two different sorts of Thoughts the one arising out of Particular Experience and the other out of a General Doctrine These drawn from Experience are set down in the verses precedeing the Text and in it with those that follow is the Doctrine with a Duty annexed to it which two are Faiths main Supporters by past particulars verifie the Doctrine and the generality of the Doctrine serves to explain the particular Experiences to all wise observers There is not a Treasure of the Merits of Saints in the Church as some Dream but there is a Treasure of the precious Experiences of the Saints which every Believer hath right to make use of and these we should be verst in that we may have them in readiness at hand in time of need and know how to use them both to draw comfort from them to our selves and arguments to use with God The words contain clearly Two Propositions both of them concerning the wrath of Man the former hath the event of it Surely the wrath of Man shall praise thee The latter the limitation of it The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain That the Vertues and Graces of men do praise the Lord all men easily understand for they flow from him his Image and Superscription is upon them and therefore no wonder if of them he has from them a Tribute of Glory Who knows not that Faith praises him Abraham
Winds blowing from all Quarters and upon the Globe of the Earth being in the middle of them is written Immobilis This fitly resembles the Church Why It seems to be the sport of all the Winds but is indeed so Established that all of them yea the very Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Now the more the Churches Enemies labour and moil themselves to undo her the more doth their weakness and the power of her Lord appear so that thus the wrath of man doth praise him When was the Church free from the Worlds wrath To say nothing of the Church of the Jews Did not those Wicked Emperours of Rome think to have made the Christian Church short lived to have drowned her newly Born in Floods of her own Blood And in latter Ages who knows not the Cruelties that have been practised by the Turk in the East And the Proud Prelate of Rome in the West By which she hath sometimes been brought to so obscure and low a point that if you can follow her in History 't is by the tract of her Blood and if you would see her 't is by the light of those fires in which her Martyrs have been burnt Yet hath she still come through and survived all that wrath and still shall till she be made perfectly Triumphant Further Mans wrath tends to Gods praise in this That God giving way to it does so manage it by his sublime Providence that it often directly crosses their own ends that conduces manifestly to his Pharaoh thought that his dealing more cruelly with the Jews in their tasks and burdens was wisdom Let us work wisely says he But whereas their ordinary servility was become familiar to them and they were tamed to it that same accession of new Tyranny did prepare and dispose the Israelites for a desire of departure and their departure made way for Pharaoh's destruction Undigestable Insolency and Rage hastening to be great makes Kingdoms cast them off which would have been far longer troubled with their wickedness had it been more moderate surely then the wrath of man commends the wisdom of God when he makes him by that contrive and afford the means of his own downfal Job 18. 7. The steps of his strength shall be straightened and his own counsel should cast him down says Bildad And that is a sad fall as that Eagle that was shot with an Arrow trimmed with her own Feathers But to close this point It is out of all question that the deserved punishment of mans unjust wrath doth always glorifie the Justice of God and the more he gives way to their wrath the more notable shall be both their Punishment and the Justice of it and though God seems neglective of his people and of his praise while mans wrath prevails yet the truth is he never comes too late to vindicate his care of both And when he defers longest the Enemy pays dear Interest for the time of forbearance In his Eternal Decree he resolved to permit the course of mans wrath for his own Glory and when the period which he hath fixed is come he stops mans wrath and gives course unto the Justice of his own Nor is there then any possibility of escaping he will right himself and be known by executing Judgment Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee And that is the Third thing propounded The Infallibility of the Event The Author of Nature governs all his Creatures each in a suitable way to the Nature he hath given them He maintains in some things a natural Necessity of working Contingency in others and in others Liberty But all of them are subject to this Necessity of effecting inevitably his Eternal purposes and this Necessity is no way repugnant to the due Liberty of mans Will Some entertain and maintain the Truth some Plot others act and execute against it some please themselves in a wise Neutrality and will appear so indifferent that it would seem they might be accepted of all sides for Judges of Controversies And all these find no less Liberty to wind and turn themselves whither they please than if no higher hand had the winding of them Shall not only the Zeal of the Godly but even the Wrath of the Enemy and the cold Discretion of the Neutral all tend to his praise whose Supream Will hath a secret but a sure and infallible sway in all their Actions whilst some Passengers sit some walk one way some another some have their faces towards their Journeys end some theirs back turned upon it this wise Pilot does most skilfully guide the Ship to arrive with them all at his own Glory Happy they that propound and intend his Glory as he himself does for in them shall the riches of his mercy be glorified they that oppose him lose this happâ—ness but he is sure not to lose his Glory for all that to wit the Glory of his Justice His right hand shall find out all his Enemies surely the wrath of man shall praise thee The consideration of this truth thus in some measure unfolded may serve to justifie the truly wise Dispensation of God against our Imaginary Wisdom were the matter referr'd to our modelling we would assign the Church constant Peace and Prosperity for her Portion and not consent that the least air of trouble should come near her we would have no Enemies to molest her nor stir against her or if they did stir we would have them to be presently represt and these in our Judgment would be the fairest and most glorious tokens of his love and power whose Spouse she is But this carnal wisdom is enmity against God and to the Glory of God which rises so often out of the wrath of his Enemies Had God caused Pharaoh to yield at the very first to the release of his people where had been the fame of those Miraculous Judgments in Egypt and Mercies on the Israelites the one setting out and illustrating the other Where had been that Name and Honour that God says he would gain to himself and that he did gain out of Pharaoh's final Destruction making that Stony-hearted King and his Troops sink like a stone in the waters as Moses Sings Observe his proud boastings immediately foregoing his Ruin I will pursue says he I will overtake I will divide the spoil my lust shall be satisfied on them I will draw my sword and my hand shall destroy them Soon after the Sea quenches all this heat Commonly big threatnings are unhappy presages of very ill success That Historian says well of God and indeed as he abhors these boastings so he delights in the abasing of the lofty heart whence they flow and it is his Prerogative to gain praise to himself out of their wrath Hast thou an arm like God says the Lord to Job then look upon the proud and bring them low Job 40. 9. When Sennacherib came up against Jerusalem his blasphemies and boastings were no less vast and monstrous than
the number of his Men and Chariots good Hezekiah turned over the matter unto God spreading the Letter of Blasphemies before him God undertook the War and assured Hezekiah that the Assyrian should not so much as shoot an Arrow against the City but return the same way he came 2 Kings 19. And the Deliverance there promised and effected is conceived to have been the occasion of penning this very Psalm Surely when an Angel did in one night slay 185000 in their Camps that wrath and those threats tended exceedingly to the praise of the God of Israel The hook that he put in Sennacheribs Nostrils as the History speaks to pull him back again was more remarkable than the fetters would have been if he had tied him at home or hindred his march with his Army Who is he then that will be impatient because of Gods patience and Judge him slack in Judgment while the rage of the Wicked prevails a while Know that he is more careful of his own Glory than we can be and the greater heighth mans wrath arises to the more Honour shall arise to him out of it Did not his Omnipotency shine brighter in the flames of that Eurnace into which the Children were cast than if the Kings wrath had been at first cooled Certainly the more both it and the Furnace had their heat augmented the more was God glorified Who is that God said he blasphemoâ—sly and proudly that can deliver you out of my hands A question indeed highly dishonouring the Almighty but stay till the real answer come and not only shall that wrath praise him but that very same Tongue though inured to Blasphemy shall be taught to bear a main part in the confession of these praises Let that Apostate Emperour go taunâ—ing the Head and Tormenting the Members of that mystical Body his closing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast overcome O Galilean meaning Christ shall help to verifie that whether its course be shorter or longer Mans wrath ends always in Gods praise In like manner the closing of the Lions mouth spake louder to his praise that stopt them than if he had stopt Daniels enemies in the beginning of their wicked design so hot was their rage that the Kings favourable inclination to Daniel of which in other cases Courtiers â—se to be so devout observers yea his contesting and pleading for him did profit him nothing but they hurried their King to be execution of their unjust Malice though themselves were convinced that nothing could be found against him but only concerning the Law of his God Dan. 6. verse 14. It is said he set his heart upon him to deliver him and laboured to do it till the going down of the Sun and then those Counsellers and Counsels of darkness overcame him but upon this black night of their prevailing wrath followed immediately a bright morning of praises to Daniel's God When the Lions that were so quiet company all night to Daniel made so quick a Breakfast of those accursed Courtiers that had maliciously accused him Even so let thine Enemies perish O Lord and let those that love thee be as the Sun when he goes forth in his might The other Proposition concerns the limiting of this wrath The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain To take no notice for the present of divers other readings of these words the sense of them as they are here very well rendred may be briefly this that whereas the wrath of Man to which God gives way shall praise him the rest shall be curb'd and bound up as the word is no more of it shall break forth than shall contribute to his glory Here should be considered divers ways and means by which God useth to stop the heady course of Mans wrath and hinder its proceeding any further But only Let us take out of it this lesson That the most compendious way to be safe from the violence of Men is to be in terms of friendship with God Is it not an incomparable priviledge to be in the favour and under the protection of one whose power is so transcendent that no enemy can so much as stir without his leave Be perswaded then Christians in these dangers that are now so near us every one to draw near to him remove what may provoke him let no reigning sin be found either in your Cities or in your Villages for he is a holy God Is it a time to multiply provocations now or is it not rather high time to be humbled for the former What shameless Impiety is it to be now Licentious or Intemperate To be Proud to Oppress or Extort To prophane Gods Day and Blaspheme his Name All these sins and many others abound amongst us and that avowedly Without abundant of Repentance for these we shall smart and the wrath of our Enemies though unjust in them shall praise God in our Just punishment though doubtless he will own his Church and be praised likewise in the final punishment of their wrath that rise against it There is a remarkable expression in the 99 Psalm of Gods dealing with his people he was favourable to them though he took vengeance on their Inventions A good Cause and a Covenant with God will not shelter an Impenitent people from sharper Correction 'T is a sad Word God speaks by his Prophet to his own people I my self says he will fight against you A dreadful Enemy and none indeed truly dreadful but he O prevent his anger and you are safe enough If perverse Sinners will not hear yet let those that are indeed Christians mourn in secret not only for their own Sins but let them bestow some tears likewise upon the sins of others Labour to appease the wrath of God and he will either appease mans wrath or howsoever will turn it jointly to our Benefit and his own Glory Let the fear of the most high God who hath no less power over the strongest of his Enemies than over the meanest of his Servants let his fear I say possess all our hearts and it will certainly expel that ignoble and base fear of the wrath of man See how the Prophet opposes them in that 8th of Isaiah Fear not their fear says he nor be afraid but sanctifie the Lord and let him be your fear and let him be your dread fear not but fear This holy fear begets the best courage the breast that is most fill'd with it abounds most in true Magnanimity Fear thus that you may be confident not in your selves though your policy and strength were great Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm but confident in that God who is too wise and vigilant to be surprized too mighty to be foiled and too rich to be out-spent in provision who can suffer his Enemy to come to the highest point of apparent advantage without any inconvenience yea with more renown in his Conquest And so a Christian who is made once sure of this as easily
which some Christians hang too much upon there is in simple trust and reliance on God and in a desire to walk in his ways such a Fort of Peace as all the assaults in the World are not able to make a breach in And to this add that unspeakable delight in walking in his fear joined with this trust The noble ambition of pleasing him makes one careless of pleasing or displeasing all the World Besides the delight in his Commandments so pure so just a Law Holiness victory over Lusts and Temperance hath a sweetness in it that presently pays it self because his Will 'T is the Godly Man alone who by this fixed consideration in God looks the grim Visage of Death in the Face with an unappal'd mind It damps all the joys and defeats all the hopes of the most prosperous proudest and wisest Worldings As he said when shot Avocasti ab optima demonstratione It spoils all their Figures and fine Devices But to the Righteous there is hope in his Death He goes through it without fear without Caligula's Quo vadis Though Riches Honours and all the Glories of this World are with a man yet he fears yea he fears the more for these because here they must end But the good man looks Death out of Countenance in the words of David Though I walk through the Valley and Shadow of Death yet will I fear no Evil for thou art with me SERMON XIII Matth. XIII 3. And he spake many things unto them in Parables saying Behold a Sower went forth to sow c. THE rich bounty of God hath furnisht our Natural Life not barely for strict necessity but with great abundance many kinds of Beasts and Fowls and Fishes and Herbs and Fruits has he provided for the use of man Thus our Spiritual Life likewise is supported with a variety the Word the food of it hath not only all necessary Truths once simply set down but a great variety of Doctrine for our more abundant Instruction and Consolation Amongst the rest this way of Similitudes hath a notable commixture of profit and delight Parables not unfolded and understood are a Veil as here to the multitude and in that are a great Judgment as Isa. 6. 9. cited here but when cleared and made transparent then they are a Glass to behold Divine things in more commodiously and suitably to our way all things are big with such resemblances but they require the dexterous hand of an active Spirit to bring them forth This way besides other advantages is much grac'd and commended by our Saviours frequent use of it That here fitted to the occasion multitudes coming to hear him and many not a whit the better He instructs us in this point the great difference between the different hearts of men so that the same Word hath very different success in them In this Parable we shall consider these three things 1 The Nature of the Word in it self 2 The sameness and commonness of the dispensation 3 The difference of the operation and production The word Seed hath in it a productive Vertue to bring forth Fruit according to its kind that the Fruit a new life not only a new habitude and fashion of life without but a new nature a new kind of life within new thoughts a new estimate of things new delights and actions When the Word reveals God his greatness and holiness then it begets pious fear and reverence and study of conformity to him when it reveals his goodness and mercy it works love and confidence when it holds up in our view Christ Crucified it Crucifies the Soul to the World and the World to it when it represents these rich things laid up for us that blest Inheritance of the Saints then it makes all the lustre of this World vanish shews how poor it is weans and calls off the heart from them raising it to these higher hopes and sets it on the project of a Crown and so is a Seed of noble thoughts and of a suitable behaviour in a Christian as in the Exposition of this Parable 't is called the Word of the Kingdom Seed an Immortal Seed as St. Peter calls it springing up to no less than an Eternal Life This teaches us 1st highly to esteem the great goodness of God to these places and times that were most blest with it Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgment unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them 2. That the same dispensation is to be Preach'd indifferently to all where it comes as far as the sound can reach And thus it was very much extended in the first promulgating of the Gospel their sound went out through all the earth as the Apostle allusively applies that of the Psalmist 3. This teaches also Ministers liberally to sow this Seed at all times according to that Eccl. 11. 6. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand c. Praying earnestly to him that is the Lord not only of the Harvest but of the Seed time and of this Seed to make it fruitful this is his peculiar work So the Apostle acknowledges 1 Cor. 3. 6. I have planted Apollo's watered but God gave the increase 4. Hence we also learn the success to be very different This is most evident in men one cast into the mould and fashion of the Word and so moulded and fashioned by it another no whit changed one heart melting before it another still hardned under it So then this is not all to have the Word and hear it as if that would serve turn and save us as we commonly fancy The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Multitudes under the continual sound of the Word yet remain lifeless and fruitless and die in their sins therefore we must enquire and examine strictly what becomes of it how it works what it brings forth and for this very end this Parable declares so many aâ—e fruitless We need not press them they are three to one here yea that were too narrow the odds is far greater for these are but the kinds of unfruitful grounds and under each of these huge multitudes of individuals so that there may be a hundred to one and it is to be feared in many Congregations it is more than so Whence is then the difference Not from the Seed that is the same to all not from the Sower neither for though these be divers and of different abilites yet it hangs little or nothing on that Indeed he is the fittest to Preach that is himself most like his Message and comes forth not only with a handful of this Seed in his hand but with store of it in his heart the Word dwelling richly in him yet howsoever the Seed he sows being this Word of Life depends not on his qualifications in any kind either of common Gifts or special Grace
People mistake this much and it is a carnal conceit to hang on the advantages of the Minister or to eye that much the sure way is to look up to God and to look into thine own heart an unchang'd unsoftned heart as an evil Soil disappoints the Fruit. What though sowen by a weak hand yea possibly a foul one yet if received in a clean and honest heart it will fructifie much There is in the World a needless and prejudicial differencing of men out of which people will not come for all we can say The first bad ground is a High-way Now we have a Commentary here whence we may not nor will not depart it is authentick and full Ver. 19. They that understand not gross brutish Spirits that perceive not what is said are as if they were not there sit like Blocks one Log of Wood upon another as he said This is our Brutish multitude what pity is it to see so many such as have not so much as a natural apprehension of Spiritual Truths The common Road of all Passengers of all kind of foolish brutish thoughts seeking nothing but how to live and yet know not to what end have no design trivial High-way hearts all tentations pass at their pleasure prophane as Esau which some Criticks draw from a word signifying the threshold the outer step that every foul foot treads on These retain nothing there is no hazard of that and yet the Enemy of Souls to make all sure lest peradventure some word might take root unawares some Grain of this Seed he is busie to pick it away to take them off from all reflexion all serious thoughts or the remembrance of any thing spoken to them And if any common word is remembred yet it doth no good for that is trodden down as the rest though the most is pickt up because it lies on the Road. So exprest by St. Mark 4. 4. The second is Stony ground Hard hearts not softned and made penetrable to receive in deeply this ingrafted word with meekness with humble yieldance and submission to it the Rocks yet in these there is often some receiving of it and a little slender moisture above them which the warm air may make spring up a little they receive with Joy have a little present delight in it are moved and taken with the Sermon possibly to the shedding of some tears but the misery is there is a want of depth of Earth it sinks not No wonder if there is some present delight in these therefore the Word of the Kingdom especially if skilfully and sensibly delivered by some more able Speaker Let it be but a fancy yet it is a fine pleasant one such love as the Son of God to die for Sinners such a rich purchase made as a Kingdom the Word of the Kingdom such Glory and Sweetness therefore the description of the new Jerusalem Apoc. 21. Suppose it be but a Dream or one of the Visions of the Night yet 't is passing fine it must needs please a mind that heeds what is said of it There is a natural delight in Spiritual things and thus the word of the Prophet as the Lord tells him was as a Minstrels voice a fine Song so long as it lasts but dies out in the air it may be the relish and air of it will remain a while in the Imagination but not long even that wears out and is forgot So here it is heard with Joy and some is springing up presently they commend it and it may be repeat some passages yea possibly desire to be like it to have such and such Graces as are recommended and upon that think they have them are presently good Christians in their own conceit and to appearance some change is wrought and it appears to be all that it is but it is not deep enough they talk possibly too much more than those whose hearts receive it more deeply there it lies hid longer and little is heard of it Others may think it is lost and possibly themselves do not perceive that it is there they are exercised and humbled at it and find no good in their own hearts yet there it is hid as David says Thy Word have I hid in my heart And as Seed in a manner dies in a silent smothering way yet it is in order to the fructifying and to the reviving of it it will spring up in time and be fruitful in its season with patience as St. Luke hath it of the good ground not so suddenly but much more surely and solidly But the most are presentany Mushrome Christians soon ripe soon rotten the Seed goes never deep it springs up indeed but any thing blasts and withers it little root in some if Trials arise either the heat of Persecution without or a Tentation within this sudden Spring seed can stand before neither Oh Rocky hearts How shallow shallow are the Impressions of Divine things upon you Religion goes never farther than the upper surface of your hearts few deep thoughts of God and of Jesus Christ and the things of the World to come all are but slight and transient glances The third is Thorny-ground This relates to the Cares and Pleasures and all the Interests of this Life See St. Mark 4. 1. and St. Luke 8. 5. All these together are the Thorns and these grow in hearts that do more deeply receive the Seed and send it forth and spring up more hopefully than either of the other two and yet choak it Oh! the pity Many are thus almost at Heaven so much desire of Renovation and some endeavours after it and yet the Thorns prevail Miserable Thorns The base things of a perishing life drawing away the strength of affections sucking the sap of the Soul Our other Seed and Harvest our Corn and Hay our Shops and Ships our Tradings and Bargains our Suits and Pretensions for Places and Employments of Gain or Credit Husband and Wife and Children and House and Train our Feastings and Entertainments and other Pleasures of Sense our Civilities and Complements and a world of those in all the World are these Thorns and they overspread all The lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life And for how long is all the advantage and and delight of these Alas that so poor things should prejudice us of the rich and blessed increase of this Divine Seed The last is good Ground A good and honest heart not much fineness here not many questions and disputes but honest simplicity sweet sincerity that is all a humble single desire to eye and to do the will of God and this from love to himself This makes the Soul abound in the fruits of Holiness receiving the Word as the ground of it different degrees are indeed some thirty some sixty and some an hundred fold yet the lowest aiming at the highest not resting satisfy'd yet growing more fruitful if thirty last year desiring to bring forth sixty this
This is the great point we ought to examine it for much is sowen and little brought forth our God hath done much for us what more could be done Yet when Grapes were expected wild Grapes produced what becomes of all Who grow to be more spiritual more humble and meek more like Christ more self-denying fuller of love to God and one to another Some but alas few All the Land is sowen and that plentifully with the good Seed But what comes for the most paâ—t Cockle and no Grain In felix lolium We would do all other things to purpose and not willingly lose our end not Trade and gain nothing buy and sell and live by the loss not plow and sow and reap nothing How sensible do we feel one ill year and shall this alone be lost Labour that well improv'd were worth all the rest Oh! how much more worth than all Shall we only do the greatest business to the least purpose Bethink your selves what do we here why come we here if we still remain as proud and passionate and as self-will'd as before what will all great Bargains and good Years and full Barns avail within a while That word Thou Fool this night shall they fetch away thy Soul how terrible will it be We think we are wise in not losing our labour in other things why 't is all lost even where most gained What amounts it to Cast up Vanity and vexation of Spirit is the total sum and in all our projecting and bussling what do we but sow the Wind and reap the Whirl-wind Sow Vanity and reap Vexation This Seed alone being fruitful makes rich and happy springs up to eternal life Oh that we were wise and that we would at length learn to hear every Sermon as on the utmost edge of time at the very brink of Eternity for any thing we know for our selves or any of us may be really so however it is wise and safe to do as if it were so Will you be perswaded of this It were a happy Sermon if it could prevail for the more fruitful hearing of all the rest henceforward we have lost too much of our little time and thus with the Apostle I beseech you I beseech you receive not the grace of God in vain Now that you may be fruitful examine well your own hearts pluck up weed out for there are still Thorns some will grow but he is the happiest man that hath the sharpest eye and the busiest hand spying them out and plucking them up Take heed how you hear think it not so easie a matter Plow up and sow not among Thorns Jeremiah 4. And above all Pray Pray before after and in hearing dart up desires to God he is the Lord of the Harvest whose influence doth all the difference of the Soil makes indeed the difference of success but the Lord hath the priviledge of bettering the Soil He that framed the heart changes it when and how he will There is a curse on all grounds naturally that fell on the Earth for mans sake but fell more on the ground of mans own heart within him Thorns and Briars shalt thou bring forth Now 't is he that denounc'd that Curse that alone hath power to remove it he is both the Soveraign owner of the Seed and changer of the Soil turns a Wilderness into Carmel by his Spirit and no ground no heart can be good till he change it And being changed much care must be had still of manuring for still that is in it that will bring forth many Weeds is a Mother to them and but a Step-mother to this Seed Therefore Consider it if you think this concerns you â—e that hath an ear to hear as our Saviour closes let him hear The Lord apply your hearts to this work and though discouragements arise without or within and little present Fruit appear but Corruption is rather stronger and greater yet watch and pray wait on it shall be better this Fruit is to be brought forth with patience as St Luke hath it And this Seed this Word the Lord calls by that very name the very Word of his patience keep it hide it in thy heart and in due time it shall spring up And this patience shall be put to it but for a little while the day of Harvest is at hand when all in any measure fruitful in Grace shall be gathered into Glory SERMON XIV 2 Cor. VII 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God IT is a thing both of unspeakable sweetness and usefulness for a Christian often to consider the excellency of that estate to which he is called It cannot fail to put him upon very high resolutions and carry him on in the divine ambition of being daily more suitable to his high calling and hopes Therefore these are often set before Christians in the Scripture and are prest here by the Apostle upon a particular occasion of the avoidance of near Combinements with Unbelievers He mentions some choice promises that God makes to his own people and of their near Relatition to and communion with himself And upon these he enlarges and raises the exhortation to the universal indeavour of all holiness and that as 〈…〉 hi 〈…〉 In the words are 1. The Thing to which he would perswade 2. The Motive The Thing Holiness in its full extension and intension Purging our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God The purging out of filthiness and perfecting of holiness expâ—est as usually they are distinguisht those two parts of renewing grace Mortification and Vivification But I conceive they are not so truely different parts as a different notion of the same thing the decrease of sin and increase of grace being truely one thing as the dispelling of darkness and augmenting of Light So here the one rendred as the necessary result yea as the equivalent of the other the same thing indeed purging from filthiness and in so doing perfecting holiness perfecting holiness and in so doing purging from filthiness That Perfection by which is meant a growing progressive advance towards perfection The words without straining gives us as it were the several dimensions of Holiness The breadth purging all filthiness the length parallel to Mans composure running all along through his Soul and Body purging filthiness of the flesh and spirit the highth perfecting holiness the depth that which is the bottom whence it rises up a deep impress of the fear of God Perfecting holiness in the fear of God Cleanse our selves It is the Lord that is the sanctifier of his people he purges away their dross and tin he pours clean water according to his promises yet doth he call to us to cleanse our selves even having such promises Let us cleanse our selves He puts a new life into us and causes us to act and excites us
and dilated And this word signifies both a high raised Soul and is sometimes taken for proud and lofty but there is a greatness and height of Spirit in the Love of God and Union with him that doth not vainly swell and lift it up but with the deepest humility joins the highest and truest Magnanimity it sets the Soul above the Snares that lie here below in which most men creep and are intangled in that way of life that is on high to the Just as Solomon speaks Good reason hath David to join these together and to desire the one as the spring and cause of the other An enlarged heart that he might run the way of Gods Commandments Sensible Joys and Consolations in God do encourage and enlarge the heart but these are not so general to all nor so constant to any Love is the abounding fixed spring of ready Obedience and will make the heart chearful in serving God even without those felt comforts when he is pleased to deny or withdraw them In that course or race is understood constancy activity and alacrity and all these flow from the enlargement of the heart 1. Constancy A narrow enthralled heart fetter'd with the love of lower things and cleaving to some particular sins or but some one and that secret may keep foot a while in the way of Gods Commandments in some steps of them but it must give up quickly is not able to run on to the end of the Goal but a heart that hath laid aside every weight and the most close-cleaving and besetting sin as it is in that place to the Hebrews hath stript it self of all that may faulter or intangle it it runs and runs on without fainting or wearying 't is at large hath nothing that pains it in the race 2. Activity Not only holding on but running which is a swift nimble race it stands not bargaining and disputing but once knowing Gods mind there is no more question or demur I made haste and delayed not as in this Psalm the word is Did not stay upon why and wherefore he stood not to reason the matter but run on And this love enlarging the heart makes it abundant in the work of the Lord quick and active dispatching much in a little time 3. Alacrity All done with chearfulnes so no other constraint is needful where this over-powering sweet constraint of love is I will run not be hail'd and drawn as by force but skip and leap as the Evangelick promise is that the Lame shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart Isaiah 35. 6. The Spouse desires her Beloved to hasten as a Roe and Hind on the mountains of Spices and she doth so and each faithful Soul runs towards him to meet him in his way It is a sad heavy thing to do any thing as in obedience to God while the heart is straightned not enlarged towards him by his Divine Love but that once taking possession and enlarging the heart that inward principle of obedience makes the outward obedience sweet 't is then a natural motion indeed the Soul runs in the ways of God as the Sun in his course which finds no difficulty being naturally fitted and carried to that motion he goes forth as a Bridegroom and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race This is the great point that our Souls should be studious of to attain more evenness and nimbleness and chearfulness in the ways of God and for this end we ought to seek above all things this enlarged heart 't is want of this makes us bog and drive heavily and run long upon little ground Oh! my Beloved how shallow and narrow are our thoughts of God Most even of those that are truly Godly yet are led on by a kind of instinct and carried they scarce know how to give some attendance on Gods Worship and to the avoidance of gross Sin and go on in a blameless course 't is better thus than to run to excess of Riot and open Wickedness with the Ungodly World But alas this is but a dull heavy and Languid motion where the heart is not enlarged by the daily growing Love of God few few are acquainted with that delightful Contemplation of God that ventilates and raises this flame of Love petty things bind and contract our Spirits so that they feel little joy in God little ardent active desire to do him Service to Crucifie Sin to break and undo Self-love within us to root up our own Wills to make room for his that his alone may be ours that we may have no Will of our own that our daily work may be to grow more like him in the Beauty of Holiness You think it a hard saying to part with your Carnal Lusts and Delights and the common ways of the World and to be ty'd to a strict exact Conversation all your days But oh the reason of this is because the heart is yet straightned and enthralled by the base Love of these mean things and that is from the ignorance of things higher and better One glance of God a touch of his love will free and enlarge the heart so that it can deny all and part with all and make an entire renouncing of all to follow Him it sees enough in Him and in Him alone and therefore can neither quietly rest on nor earnestly desire any thing beside Him Oh! that you would apply your hearts to consider the excellency of this way of Gods Commandments our wretched hearts are prejudiced they think it melancholy and sad Oh! there is no way truly joyous but this They shall sing in the ways of the Lord says the Prophet Do not Men when their eyes are opened see a beauty in Meekness and Temperance and Humility a present delightfulness and quietness in them whereas in Pride and Passion and Intemperance there is nothing but vexation and disquiet And then consider the end of this way and this race in it rest and peace for ever 't is the way of peace both in its own nature and in respect of its end Did you believe that Joy and Glory that is set before you in this way you would not any of you defer a day longer but forthwith you 'd break from all that holds you back and enter into this way and run on chearfully in it the perswasion of these great things above would enlarge and greaten the heart and make the greatest things here very little in your eyes But would you attain to this enlarged heart for this race as you ought to apply your thoughts to these Divine things and stretch them on the promises made in the Word above all take Davids course seek this enlargement of heart from Gods own hand for it is here propounded and said before God by way of request see what is my desire I would gladly serve thee better and advance more in the way of thy
to stand in the gap lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting Hearts are still as unhumbled and lives as unreformed as ever new intestine troubles are most likely to arise few or none laying it to heart and with calm lowly Spirits mourning before God for it Ephraim against Manasseth and Manasseth against Ephraim and they both against Judah and for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still But generally men ought to be less in descanting one on another and more in searching and enquiring each into himself even where it may seem Zeal yet Nature and Passion may more easily let in the other but this Self-search and Self-censure is an uneasie task the most unpleasant of all things to our Carnal Self-loving hearts but the heavy hand of God shall never turn from us nor his gracious face turn towards us till there is more of this amongst us Most say their Prayers and as they are little worth they look little after them enquire not what becomes of them But M. B. would we continue to call and find favourable answers we must be more within the heart made a Temple to God wherein Sacrifices do ascend but that they may be accepted it must be purged of Idols nothing left in any corner though never so secret to stir the Jealousie of our God who sees through all O happy that heart that is as Jacob's House purg'd in which no more Idols are to be found but the holy God dwelling there alone as in his holy Temple Behold the Lords hand is not shortned c. Much of all knowledg lies in the knowledg of causes and in practical things much of the right ordering them depends on it the true cause of a disease found out is half the cure Here we have the miseries of an afflicted people reduced to their real cause that which is not the cause is first removed Behold the Lords hand is not shortned c. We are not only to be untaught this errour that we think not so but to be taught to believe and think on that truth that God is still the same in Power and Goodness to keep up the notion of it in our hearts so we may call in past experiences and relations of Gods former workings for his people and that with much use and comfort He that brought forth his people out of Egypt with an out-stretched arm as still they are reminded of that Deliverance by the Prophets and called to look on it as the great instance and pledge of their restorement by the same hand can again deliver his people when at the lowest Isai. 50. 2. where the like words to these And in this belief we shall not faint in the time of deep distress our own or the Churches knowing the unalterable invincible infinite power of our God that all the strength of all enemies is nothing and less than nothing to his their devices knots of straw What is it that is to be done for his Church if her and his glory be interested in it There remains no question in point of difficulty that hath no place with him The more difficult yea impossible for us or any humane strength the more fit work for him because it is hard for you shall it also he hard for me saith the Lord in the Prophet And where Jeremy uses that argument in Prayer he hath his answer returned in the same words as the Eccho to the Prayer resounding from Heaven Jer. 32. 17 27. and that in relation to the great reduction of the Jews from Babylon as is expressly promis'd ver 36 37 c. And there the Prophet gives that first great example of Divine power the forming of the World ver 17. Behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power Men think 't is an easie common belief and that none doubt of the Omnipotency of God But oh the undaunted confidence it would give to the heart being indeed firmly believ'd and wisely used and applied to particular exigencies Men either doubt or which upon the matter for the use of it is all one they forget who the Lord is when their hearts misgive them because of the Churches weakness and the Enemies power What is that upon the matter Remember whose is the Church Gods and what his power is and then see if thou canst find any cause of fear Isai. 41. 14 Fear not thou Worm Jacob and ye men few or weak men of Israel So the word is I will help thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel So Isai. 51. 12. I even I am he that comforteth you there is the strength of it who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man which shall be made as grass And forgettest ver 13. the Lord thy Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth c. Do but think aright on him and then see if it be possible for thee to fear All thy little doubts and despondencies of mind will fly and vanish away before one clear thought of thy God Though the World were turning upside down it shall go well with them that fear him And as this apprehension of God strengthens Faith so it quickens Prayer it stirs thee up to seek to him for help when thou knowest and remembrest that there it is there is help in him power enough and no want of readiness and good will neither if we apply our selves to seek him aright his hand is as strong to save and his ear as quick to hear as ever and in this that his ear is not heavy is both signify'd his speedy and certain knowledg of all Requests sent up to him and his gracious Inclination to receive them Now these perswasions do undoubtedly draw up the heart towards him Again as they strengthen Faith and quicken Prayer they teach us Repentance direct us inward to Self-examination to the searching and finding out and purging out of sin When Deliverance is delayed for we are sure it stops not upon either of these on Gods part either shortness of his hand or dulness of his ear Whence is it then Certainly it must be somewhat on our side that works against us and prejudices our desires So here thus you see the clear aim of it Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear What is it then that hinders Oh! it is this out of all doubt Your Iniquities separate Old sins unrepented of and new sins still added as all unrepentant Sinners do now this separates between you and God for he is a Holy God a Just God hates Inity and between you and your God that pleads no connivance at your sins but rather nearer inspection and sharper punishment he will be sanctified in these that are near him in them especially their sin is greatned much by that
condition of the Church Know this to be the great obstructer of its peace making him to withdraw his hand and hide his face and to turn away his ear from our Prayers and loath our Fasts Isai. 1. 15. Jer. 14. 12. The quarrel stands sin not repented and removed the Wall is still standing Oaths and Sabbath breaking and Pride and Oppression and Heart burnings still remaining Oh! what a noise of Religion and Reformation all sides are for the Name of it and how little of the thing The Gospel it self is despised grown stale as trivial Doctrine Oh! my Beloved if I could speak many hours without intermission all my cry would be Repent and pray Let us search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord our God Oh! what Walls of every ones Sin are set to 't Dig diligently to bring down thine own and for these huge Walls of publick National guiltinesses if thou canst do nothing to them more compass them about as Jericho and look up to Heaven for their downfal Cry Lord these we our selves have reared but without thee who can bring them down Lord throw them down for us a touch of thy hand a Word of thy mouth will make them fall Were we less busied in impertinencies and more in this most needful work it might do some good who knows but the Lord might make his own way clear and return and visit us and make his face to shine that we might be saved FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Samuel Keble and are to be Sold at the Great Turks-Head in Fleet-Street over against Fetter-Lane end A Weeks Preparation Towards a Worthy Receiving the Lord's Supper Preparation to a Holy Life or Devotion for Families and private Persons by the Author of the Weeks Preparations to the Sacrament A Collection of private Forms of Prayer out of the Common Prayer-Book for Morning Noon and Night and other special occasions being in a different Method from any former by the Author of the Weeks Preparation to the Sacrament Together with the Holy Feasts and Fasts as they are observed in the Church of England Explained and the Reasons why they are yearly Celebrated A Table to all the Epistles and Gospels in the Book of Common-Prayer so that you may find any Text of Scripture being contained in them This Table may be put into your Common Prayer-Book without new binding Rules for our more Devout Behaviour in the time of Divine Service in the Church of England An Explanation of the Terms Order and Usefulness of the Liturgy of the Church of England by way of Question and Answer recommended to be learned after the Church Catechism God's Revenge against Murther in thirty Tragical Histories by John Reynolds Heresiography or a Description of all Heresies and Sectaries of the latter times by E. Pagit much enlarged The Innocent Lady The Interpretations of Dreams by Artimedorus Degrees of Marriage that which is Ordered to be had in all Churches The Book of Bertram the Priest in English A Persuasive to the stricter Observation of the Lord's Day in pursuance of His Majesty's Order and Direction to Preach by Matthew Bryan LLD. The Education of young Ladies and Gentlewomen c. The new Youths Behaviour containing First His Duty towards God in Meditation and Prayers for Morning and Evening with some short Rules for a good Life Secondly Decency in Conversation amongst Men c. Ogleby's Aesop. in Two Vol. The Worth of a Penny or a Caution to keep Money c. Epictetus Enchiridion made English in a Poetical Paraphrase by E. W. FINIS Gen. 3. 5. Sophoclâ—'s Hos. 5. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4. Psal. 119. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The Nature of it * Palge Maijim Pelagus aquarum 3. The Measure 4 The Subject To Baal Shemin Balsamus sic suibus sic male nardus olent Matchiavel * Judg. 9. 20. Psal. 24. 7. * Deus neminem alium quam seipsum sinit de se magnifice Sentire Herodot Julian * Invenit insomni volventem publica cura fata virum casusque urbis cunctisque timentem securumque sui Ille velnt rupes unmota manebat Archimedeâ— Lapiâ— super Lapidem in Theatro 2 Cor. 10. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Linquenda tellus domus placeus uxor c. * Ezek. 8. Behind the Wall