mans abundance will not suffer him to sleep he is afraid of losing it a man that hath a great charge about him and walks through woods and dangerous places he is afraid of every one he meeteth lest he be robbed he will hardly sleep O you have precious souls to lose brethren And some of you have grace to lose which may in part be lost in its own nature it is looseable being but a creature depending continually upon a divine supply as the Ray upon the Sun If there be now such a care as this it will keep the soul awake but now if we grow confident and bold and do not fear alway we are then falling asleep so it is see it plainly in the Disciples that went with Christ into the garden to behold his Agony they were wonderfully heavy asleep the soul was asleep their graces were not upon the wing what was the matter if you mind it they were the men that above all others had been most confident and secure and had expressed it before Peter said that though all men should deny him he would not and when our Saviour told him he should deny him he was so blinded with his confidence now that he would not believe Jesus Christ but rather believed himself and his own folly he said he would rather dye for him then deny him Well when it cometh to the pinch he falls asleep Ah Peter sleepest thou thou of all other men methinks shouldst have waked with me wilt thou dye with me and yet cannot wake but fall asleep not one hour wake with me thou such a confident man and yet when it cometh to the pinch fall asleep And the two sons of Zebedeus with him they were very confident they would sit on the right and left hand of Christ in his kingdom Why can you drink of the cup I am to drink of Yea say they we can and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with yea they could Now those are the men above others that are asleep Who can tell but if some other of the Disciples that had been lower in their own thoughts and had walkt more tremblingly before him but they might have waked when those slept This another Fifthly Stupifying the head the senses with some injury it will lay a man asleep yea more then ordinarily into a swoun so that he feels nothing as for instance let a man have a great blow upon his head it stonyeth him he fals asleep under it he can feel nothing now his senses are lockt up as if in a dead sleep it is so here a great sin brethren it stupifies a mans conscience it maketh him past feeling for the present in a manner we would hardly think it it may be we would think that men are rather apt to fall asleep that have none of those great sins but onely of an ordinary nature they are apt to slumber and that great sins would rather awaken men and stir mens Consciences indeed it may be they may put a man to some more torment a little at present but afterward they do stupifie the deceitfulness of sin maketh hard as the Apostle saith specially if it lye unrepented of a while do you not see how David lay in a dead sleep a great while upon that his fall in the matter of Vriah all his senses closed up he could not open his mouth to speak to God O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise And so Jonah his sin was very great running away from God to Tarshish when he sent him to Niniveh and who more sleepy then he in the vessel up why sleepest thou thou sleeper said they alas the poor Mariners lookt upon themselves as lost men he feared nothing he was asleep Conscience asleep Soul asleep Fear asleep he was benummed with that great blow he had given his soul he was more sleepy and heavy then natural men themselves their Consciences were sooner awaked by the hand of God then his was a fearful condition Now be not mistaken brethren I mean not by great sins only such as are gross in our own account but the greatness of a sin lies in the liking of it indeed if there be a liking or love to a greater sin it maketh it so much the greater but if there be a less sin it maketh it very great even greater then the act of another sin that for the act is greater then it Sixthly Another Cause you know is surfeting and drunkenness Excess in the use of the creatures we use to say loaden bellies leaden heels the bellies being full the bones would have rest It is so in nature and so it is with the soul Lot when he was drunk he fell asleep and slept so deeply that his daughters played the harlots with him and knew nothing neither when they rose nor when they lay down truly brethren the drunkenness of the mind casts men asleep if a man be drunk with erroneous principles of loosness it casts him into a sleep presently the head is giddy with it but chiefly if a man be drunk with passions or drink or surfet of the delights of the creature abusing the world in using of it this was the sleep of the old world they never dreamed of the flood they believed it not at all Why they eat they drink they marryed they gave in marriage There is no Copulative between the words in the Text which they call an Asyndeton as if there were no distance of time between one and the other they made it their work and business to give themselves to these things And so it will be at the last day when Christ shall come This is the sleeping then surely in a great measure this day came upon the foolish virgins yea and wise too unawares and why might not this be a great part of their sleeping or a Cause of it they thought now they had made sure of the main work they might give themselves a little more liberty then before and might busie themselves in the world as well as others and so were excessively taken up with it and then the day of the Lord cometh unawares Therefore our Saviour giveth this caution take heed your hearts at any time be not overcharged with surfeting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and that day come upon you at unawares Alas men are too busie in the world to mind the coming of Jesus Christ or to wayt for him they are drunk and therefore fall asleep drunk with delights with love to these things care about them they have more then their load as we say of men drunk and therefore they sleep I wish this were not the sin of the Saints themselves Seventhly Another Cause may be the company of sleepy ones this may be the case at least to some and it is not unlikely but the foolish virgins and wise walking together the foolish might give such an
owned as eminently as any of the rest and more for his Comfort The lost groat was found again and the lost sheep was found again And so the Prodigal Son he ran far and lavisht away his Patrimony and yet he is restored again the winter may deform the face of the earth but the Spirit of God can renew it again in the Spring now he hath promised to give this Spirit and he sendeth forth his Spirit to find out the lost Child the lost sheep and therefore there is encouragement 2. Consider until this be done you are not fit for Heaven nor to enter with him you are not ready the wise Virgins trimmed their Lamps and then they were ready saith the Text and they that were ready went in with him happy creatures that are found ready with their Lamps burning at that day of his appearing which we know not whether it may be at hand A wicked man is not fit for heaven upon any terms it would be a place of no rest unto him no more then the Air is to the fish or the water to a man they are not con-natural and truly no more is a gracious man fit for heaven while his Lamp wants trimming Heaven is the inheritance of the Saints in light and is he fit for it that is even going out in darkness O no the Lamp must be shining and burning bright or else there is no suitableness to heaven 3. Hereby God will have much more glory by you then otherwise he is like to have for minde you it is the shining of our Lamps the glory of our conversations suitable to our profession that giveth occasion to the men of the world to glorifie him so saith our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your father which is in heaven This is all the Lord expecteth that he may be acknowledged and have the glory of all his grace of us we have the sweet and comfort and everlasting advantage of it and it cannot but be upon every believers heart to glorifie God it is indeed the end of our coming into the world now we cannot glorifie him so while our Lamps burn so low we are under declinings but when we are fruitful and abound in it as our Saviour saith herein is my father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit this is that which God is glorified by It may be we have some few good works but they are but a few and so few that scarce any can take notice to glorifie God for them methinks this should stick much with us Specially the nearer we come to glory our selves the more should we mind the glory of God the more zealous should we be for it O begin to lay about us to glorifie him here learn the work of heaven for ever if not before yet at least now we are ready to reap the wages of heaven the glory and joy unspeakable and Rivers of pleasures for evermore 4. Consider Is it not a shame for us brethren whose salvation is much nearer now then when we believed began to believe that our light should not be more dim our heat more abated our zeal for God the fervor of our affections surely it is a very great shame as if the nearer we come to the enjoyment of God the less desirable he were time hath been when we have some of us followed hard after God it is well if we have mended or held on our pace the time hath been haply when our Conversations have been bright and a beauty of holiness appeared in them and others have taken notice of it and glorified God it is well if we be not grown Luke-warm O what a shame is this the nearer we come to the Sun to be the colder hath not the Cry passed and awaked us and do we not finde that our Lamps are dim and we are in our profession very low O look to it that our last days be our best days and we go not out like a snuff But you will ask me what should we do to trim up these Lamps of ours First You must remember from whence you are fallen look up to the top of the hill where once you were and now you are undiscernably tumbled to the bottom you know not how O how much ground have you lost search and try brethren Commune with your hearts Consider your ways as David did and turn to the Lord. It will exceedingly shame us and that shame be a spur to us to consider how far short we are of that love that zeal that diligence and closeness of walking Secondly We must repent of it we must be humbled for our former miscarriages our declining to lose our first love the more love we have received the less we return to him again Is not this unworthy Besides how much might we have honoured the Lord if our light had shone before men if there had been a Majesty of holiness alway upon our conversation such as sometime haply there hath been and is not this matter of humbling Thirdly Then we must do our first works It is not a sorrow only for our miscarriage that is enough but we must do our first works If we have been zealous before and now are become Luke-warm be zealous and amend do our first works we have been more diligent and close in our walking with God now we are more remiss we must remember whence we are fallen and do our first works O why should we not labour to exceed the love of our espousals when we followed so hard after him our souls panted as the chased Hart after the water-brooks and this it may be before we had many hints of his love some sight of him likely else we should not follow him some touch upon our hearts as in Elisha his case and Sauls the people whose hearts God touched they followed but did one taste of his love then draw thee out so earnestly and now thou hast had many a smile many a sweet refreshing from his presence many a Ring broken between Jesus Christ and thy soul and wilt thou not now be as diligent and as earnest in following after him it is the nature of true Grace that as it cometh from heaven it will never cease until it reach to heaven again Fourthly We must beg earnestly of the Lord to work this and all our works in us and for us It is he that restored David his soul when it was even lost and so he doth ours he maketh them to return when they are even giving up O give him no rest until he send forth his spirit and give thee to be filled with that spirit with might in the inner man that thou maist burn and shine and the fulness and fruitfulness the burning and brightness of thy conversation may be a witness to all that behold it that of a truth the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in thee He
transmit unto Posterity the Names Memories Gracious Conversations of eminenter Saints especially Ministers who in their several Sphears and Generations have shined like stars of the first magnitude streaming and issuing forth a more then ordinary and illustrious Light 2. The lives of morally honest Heathens are both recorded and read with profit not only by fellow pagans but by us Christians Who knows not that Plutarchâ— lives have in them many things serving for Caution and Imitation More advantage doubtless will redound by reading the lives of the Evangelically spiritually and really religious 3 We have the warrant of sacred Writ which being not only Doctrinal but in a great part Historical doth much incourage to a Practise of this Nature The 11. Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews you will find to be an Epitome of the lives of the Fathers Now where we have the Spirit of God going before we may well follow after 4. The extraordinary strictness exemplary severity unwearied industry and activity of this man of God in the waies and work of the Lord do exceedingly excite and strongly provoke to make him thus publike and to propose the holiness of his life and comforts in death for the direction and consolation of those whose faces are set towards Sion and to whom this account of him shall come 5. That God may have the glory of what he had done in him in a way of gracious discoveries and manifestations of what he had done for him in a way of clear providences and encouraging dispensations of what he had done by him in giving success unto his labours and letting him see the travel of his soul to his no small solace and satisfaction 6. That the Name of such a Pleasant Plant and fruitful Bough might be preserved fresh green and verdant in the memories of Gods people eâ—ough himself be witheâ—ed lopt off by the hand of death and foâ— a while laid in the dust As Abel so other Saints though dead may yet speak and be made known And O what a glorious thing is it when departed souls are lodged in Abrahams blissful bosom and dead bodies intombed in living Sepulchres sending forth a sweet and refreshing savour into the nostrils of surviving friends A flower may smell sweet after it is cropt and a way made for the Sun to shine after it is set Mr. John Murcot the History of whose life is now to be related was born in the antient Town of Warwick of Parents considerable for their Extraction more for their shining and pious conversation His Fathers name Job Murcot who applyed himself to the study of the Law which brought him in a competent and comfortable subsistence though since humbled by the calamitous inconveniences of these distracted times whose various revolutions have occasioned a wasting and undoing unto many His mothers name before her marriage with his Father was Joan Townsend of raised parts and eminent piety the happy mother of an hopeful son the renowned Root from whence apppeared and sprouted up this fair and flourishing Branch planted by the Rivers of water who brought forth his fruit in his â—eason his leaves did not wither and whatsoever he did the Lord made it to prosper His Parents were conscientiously careful of his education made it their business to season him with sound and solid Principles in his young and tender years which he greedily suckt in as having an early thirst after God and he who erst while hung on his Mothers breast for milk now hangs on her lips for instruction His Parents perceiving in this their young Timothy an ardent desire to be intimately acquainted with the Scriptures and in order thereunto with Academical learning were very prone to contribute their endeavours towards the ripening of these hopeful Buddings and promising Beginnings and therefore in the first place committed him to the care and tuition of an able and godly School-master Mr. Dugard who instilled instruction both with his lips and life desirous to make him not only a Scholar but a Christian It s hard to say 〈◊〉 which was more diligent and industrious the Master in teaching or the Scholar in learning Time was not mispent and prodigally expended in the eager pursuite of childish vanities he ran at his first seting out and did not lazily loiter when he should be minding his work yea when other boyes would be sporting and playing he would be studiously retired solitariness and meditation being unto him instead of recreation Being competently furnished for the University his Father sent him to Oxford where he continued his former diligence in his studies under the conduct and oversight of Mr. Button his faithful and religious Tutor in Merton Colledge About two years after his thriving abode there the Kings Forces possessed themselves of Oxford put all things into an hurry and ingaged the students in such perplexing snares that Mr. Murcot to disintangle himself out of these uncouth inconveniences fled from Oxford disguised and repaired to the House of Mr. Leigh of Budworth an antient grave able and learned man and Minister of that place and there studied hard both day and night allowing himself but four hours for sleep so intent was he upon his Book and so wholly taken up with religious Exercises The cloud being blown over he repaired the second time to the University and his former diligence which caused the eyes of many to fix and fasten on him as perceiving something more then ordinary in him and expecting more than ordinary from him Though means and maintenance were now very short yet it did not discourage and cause him to deâ—ist he did not unbend the Bow and slacken the string he still stood an end to his Oar and with wonted diligence prosecuted his studies it being his meat and his drink to do his Fathers will Having taken his degree he returned to his old friend Mr. Leigh and was several waies useful to him who now called upon him to appear in publike which he did not without much fear and trembling as being conscious to himself of his own inabilities for so ponderous an employment and loth to put to his shoulders lest he should sink under the burden But being pressed and egged on by his friends and a Call from the Inhabitants of Ashbury he entred into the Lords Vineyard put his hand unto the Plough and was ordained a Minister at Manchestâ—â— He professed to use his own words that he was drawn as a Bear to the stake complaining and often bewailing his want of a sufficient stock of University learning The Lord was pleased to own him in his first attempts and endeavours giving him a seal unto his Ministry by the conversion of two especially who being awakened by his sound Doctrine smart expression and powerful delivery sadly bemoaned themselves and mourned over their lost condition even in publike From Ashbury a call being cleared up he removed to Eastham in Woral and gained mightily upon the affections of many especially the godly
whose hearts began betimes to be knit unto him and here likewise the Lord was pleased to water his labours with the dew of his blessing But me thinks I see a black cloud arising this bright star who shined full clearly and comfortably unto others is now himself eclipsed and He who was a skilful Pilot to direct others through the splitting Rocks and swallowing Gulphs is now himself plunged into the great deep the Lord persecutes him with his tempest and makes him afraid with his storm all his waves and his billows go over him But what might be the occasion of so sad a desertion 1. The folly and the vanity of his youth though not stained wiâ—h irruptions into grosser evils 2. His too far yielding at Oxford with those impositions which grate upon conscience and scourge it with severe remorse 3 The Lord would hereby ripen him and make him the more fiâ— for himself and service He must be frost-bitten that so he may be the more mellow and his fruit of a more delicious taste There are no Preachers so experimental spiritual powerful couragious awakening convincing converting compassionate comforting as those who have passed through the Pikes and have been sorely batâ—ered with showers of Hail-stones There are none so expert at binding up the broken bones as those who have been broken upon the wheel and made to roar out by reason of the disquietness of their hearts They know how to speak a word in season unto him that is weary who have themselves been weary and heavy laden sighing full sadly and groaning full heavily under the cold hill clouding and cutting expressions of Gods displeasure They know how to speak peace unto distressed consciences who have themselves been soundly frighted with the sounding of the Trumpet and the Alarm of War There are no Trees so firmly rooted as those that have been sorely shaken and made to bow and bend with the stormy wind and tempest of the wrath of the Almighty The scales many times stick so close even unto the Seers eyes that they will not be rub'd off but with a rough hand and a sharp file But will the Lord contend for ever will he be alwaies wroth Surely no and that lest the spirits should fail before him and the souls that he hath made There is a lifting up after a casting down The Lord turns for him his mourning into dancing gives unto him beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and with a soft hand wipes away the tears from his swoln eyes The instrumental means of scattering the darkness and distress that lay upon him and of restoring the former beams of light with which he was wont to be refreshed were the reading of Mr Tho. Goodwins Child of Light walking in darkness and other of his Treatises So that now we have the Lord shining on him in a way of consolation as he on others in a way of instruction and information About the 25. year of his age being resolved to change his condition and discoursing with a friend about it there was proposed unto him Hester the daughter of Mr. Ralph Marsden Minister of West-kerby of note and useful in his generation whom he afterwards took to him to be the companion of his life But before the consummation of the marriage the people of West-kerby Mr. Marsden departing this life gave him a call which upon examination and supplication being found to be of God was complied with The seed of Gospel counsels being sown with a diligent hand did not long lie buried under the clods but sprang up and put forth it self in visible fruit whâ—ch was a farther clearing of the â—all and chearing of the heart of this pains-taking Husband-man It s no new thing for external and bitter afflictions to accompany the sweet honey of Gospel-consolations How often do dashing showers fall upon mellifluous Hives and the fairest flowers that grow in Gods Garden How often are the labouring bees assaulted with a tempest whilest abroad and bringing home provisions against the ensuing winter What more usual then Sun-shines mixed with blustring winds and wetting rains Two Villages of the Parish of West-kerby are sorely visited with the Pestilence and the Lord scatters abroad the black tokens of his displeasure the product of which was many fasts tears prayers importunate requests that the Lord would shew unto his people why he thus contended with them Mr. Murcot hath his ears opened to instruction This thundering Providence awakens him to a more exact scrutinie and narrower search into his heart and waies and is now perswaded that he had been too lax and general in the administration of the sealing-Ordinances so that he resolves to forbear and draw back his hand unless the known godly will combine which occasioned many Fasts Conferences Debates However he perseveres in preaching work and waits on Providence to see how the Lord will dispose and encline the peoples hearts An Irish Lord quartering at West-kerby being bound for Ireland was observed to be a prodigious swearer belching out most horrid Oaths in great abundance Tidings are brought to Mr. Murcot in the morning as he is going to celebrate a solemn Fast The work of the day being over Mr. Murcot being lately with God in the Mount and now grown warm in his cause and quarrel is impatient of brooking these high dishonours that were done unto his Majesty Wherefore taking with him a friend he rides the same night six miles to a Magistrate procures a Warrant the trembling Constables at first are astonished to think of approaching in such a way to guilty greatness but being animated by Mr. Murcot they serve their Warrant which provoked a new rage to the multiplying of fresh oaths even without number to the great amazement of the standers by Notwithstanding the boisterous menaces and outrage of this great man his horses were seized on and kept till he paid 20 which was employed as a stock for the poor of the Parish so wickedly liberal was this Lord unto them This exemplary Act of Justice procured and prosecuted by Mr. Murcol's active zeal so danted and overawed his Lordship that during his abode there he held his mouth and tongue as it were with bit and bridle The prsence of a siâ— punishing Magistrate hath in it a co-ercive and restraining vertue so that the most debanched and profligate sons of Belial are afraid and confined with n some bounds of moderation who if remote and at a distance they lift up their heads with a mighty confidence and finding the reins lye loose upon their shoulders rush into all manner of wickedness as the Horse rusheth â—nto the battle Mr. Murcot wanted the advantage of a Magstrate upon the place had no other sword to fight withal save that of the Spirit yet such was his Integrity Gravity Austerity and his Activity in informing and exciting Magstrates to punish Offenders impartially that the people round about him had
frustrated Yet such was his zeal for God and love to the truth so transcending his own private concernments and the respects of men that preaching on that Text Thou knowest all things c. he vindicated the Deity of Christ from those vile aspersions and abhorred calumniations that were cast upon it and by the dint of argument battered down the blasphemous suggestions of contradicting Gain-sayers to the exasperation of those that were tainted and not as yet convinced of the errour embraced The day that he preached Captain Whitworth invited him to dinner some contests arose by reason of his preceding smart discourse insomuch that one in a fury and discontent rose up from the table and reproachfully reviled him with the unbeseâ—ming expression of foolish and ignorant Mr. Murcot in obedience to Scripture command doth not render reviling for revileing but seriously and sadly said I am so but as for you the Lord give you an humble frame which meek and mild answer so far convinced and silenced his Adversary that he quietly sate down at the Table again These harsh Ocurrences and uncomfortable incounters put a period to all Overtures concerning his removal to Chester so that now he saith I will be gone to Ireland I cannot live without the Ordinances at West-kerby nor like a Salamander in the fire at Chester His debate concerning a tranfretation to Ireland is now ripened in to a resolution Wherefore taking his leave of his people he imbarques himself in a small vessel though others of considerable Forâ—e and Burden presented the rather because she was bound directly for Dublin when others intended to make an halt at the I le of Man which was now to be assaulted and in order thereunto a Fleet and souldiers prepared Being near Holy-Head the wind though not contrary began to arise and grow impetuous and was but a degree below a down-right storm so that the master thought it most convenient to cast Anchor under the shelter of a rocky Iland till the force of the wind should be somewhat abated Mr. Murcot is desired by some godly Passengers to present their condition before that God in prayer who is the Hope of the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the Sea which he did with inlarged affections and desired success The wind is presently confined and made a Prisoner to Omnipotency and no wonder A more gâ—ateful Gale comes blowing into Gods bosom from the Region of a devout heart The groaning Gusts and swelling Surges are husht into silence and calmness when once the soft and sweet breathings of the Spirit approach the ears of the Holy one of Israel Jonah's prayer was a line to pluck him up out of the deep Mr. Murcots a bladder to keep him and many others from sinking into it The night coming on it was resolved to put to Sea hoping by the morning-light they would be near the Bar of Dublin and by this means be secure from those Piratical Rovers who were now abroad and much infested the Coast As they are thrusting into the Bay of Dublin a ship is espied near the head of Hoath and not without cause suspected to be an enemy for it presently made towards them and as they prepare to flie their Rudder is unhanged and they in danger of being made a Prey but diligence being used it is again fastened and before the Adversary approach so near as to make them feel the force of his sharpened claws he hath his Rudder also unhanged which being set to right again the Lord took away his heart that he ceased to pursue and gave over the chase and this he confessed being two daies after taken by a Man of War belonging to the Parliament Drawing near to the Bar of Dublin which as yet had not water enough to warrant a safe passage over it a small vessel which was there at Anchor weighs as fearing a surprisal and flies when none pursues Much of God will be seen by considering what this little bottom was and in what condition its trembling Passengers were A vessel of four guns set sail from Lever-pool water the same tyde with this Mr. Murcot was in but did not cast Anchor at Holy-Head as she did but chose rather to keep to Sea by which means they fell into the hands of an hungry Pirate who lay in wait to destroy Their four guns are not of force sufficient to beat off the assaulting enemy In the contest some powder is fired several Passengers are blown up into the air and fall into the Sea both Elements as it were conspiring their ruine the one by scorching and the other by suffocation Others are miserably wounded rent torn mangled who being taken out are put into this small vessel which the Man of War had by him How free is that grace that saves some whilest others are destroyed and keeps their feet from running into that snare in which others are intangled to their undoing The Lord hath more work for Mr. Murcet to do and therefore he shall not dye but live and declare the Name of the Lord. Arriving at Dublin he is hospitably and kindly entertained by Sir Robert King in his own house who conduced much towards his coming over A while after observing with a strict eye the Church at Dublin and approving its soundness in doctrine and severity in discipline he assayed to joyn himself unto them and was readily embraced they unanimously and chearfully giving unto him the right hand of fellowship And now like a slip placed in a rich soil he sprouted up apace which appeared by a visible increase of Gifts and Graces His leaves were not only broad and beautiful but his fruit was fair and full and of proportionable dimensions His Spikenard sent forth the smell thereof to the refreshing of many and his smell was as the smell of a Field that the Lord had blessed Preaching on a Fast-day before the Commissioners of Parliament he got cold and by a dangerous Feavour was brought to the brink of the Pit Being in a very great and ill-portending sweat his Physitians gave him over as thinking that his life and sweat would expire and cease together but the Lord had mercy on him and therein on many others especially his absent wife who was not yet come to him The means of his Recovery this His Nurse seeing him in such a deplorable condition resolved to try her skill and commit the success unto God wherefore mingling some Sack with his broth she gave it him to drink with which his wasted spirits are refreshed his sweat leaves him and with it his disease The Commissioners of Parliament having occasion to go into the West take him along with them as knowing that he would be of use to them and to the several places through which they were to pass and indeed so he was leaving a sweet savour behind him upon the spirits of many Being at Cork his continuance and fixing there was desired and
in infancy ought to be rebaptized when adult holding the Negative Dr. Harding refused both and nothing would serve him but his confused heap of Questions in one A known fallacy After much contest Pro and Con I was grieved to see so little Candor as I conceived in Dr. Harding and took the boldness to request of him to satisfie the Congregation that to the first of the two he would say I or no. When Dr. Worth prest him to it many times he would not answer no sooner had I spoken but he said To Mr. Murcot he would say No that is That no infants were to be baptized And to satisfie the Congregation would maintain it against me though not against him This much troubled me it being so beside my intention and against my resolution to turn aside from the main work to any thing of this nature And indeed it did I doubt through the subtilty of the wicked one put that Sermon put of the Peoples minds and prevent them of another the next week I did long refuse it telling him He did but now challenge all men and why not undertake Dr. Worth as well as me except he fought for Victory more then Truth but at last I yielded to undertake it with Dr. Worth though I must be the Forlorn The next Thursday that is May 26. as I remember was set for it the Question was agreed upon then a week before and the manner of managing it by way of Syllogism not long discourses which lead people into a maze The time came and yet notwithstanding former agreements in the face of the Congregation there was so little candor shewed as that two hours I am confident were spent before I could bring him to agree to the Question and manner of discoâ—rsing it A sad Omen what the issue was like to be All that he urged for the Negative which according to promise at last I prevailed with him to defend was That there was no Command or Example or thus No Institution Warrant nor Example for it in the Gospel ergo It was answered There was express warrant for Baptism in the Gospel and consequential warrant for the circumstance of time the age of the subject After a cavil rather then an Argâ—ment that for the time it must be in the womb or after Birth and then before the eighth day or upon it or after it which were as easily answered as said the result was he denyed my consequential Gospel-Warrant for the time and truly this was all he had to say against us there Now I was put to prove a consequential Warrant for Infants Baptism from the Gospel I first laid down Mat. 28. 19. to argue from a Scripture argued that from thence there was warrant to baptize all Disciples whatsoever and Infants were Disciples Ergo. I put not the Arguments in form in this Narrative much cavilling there was about Discipling He would have it only such Disciples as could learn and that Infants were not made Disciples according to Mat. 28. Dr. Worth urged according to that before if the word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie all Disciples whatsoever then Infants are such as are there intended but the former is true Ergo. Here Mr. Hacket unadvisedly tore a piece of the paper upon which the Arguments were written thinking he had torn off only a Syllogism of his own which he had written not willing to appear in the dispute in writing it seems some little of Dr. Hardings writing was on the other side or of mine which Mr. Hacket saw not else I believe he would not have torn it At this the Dr. takes occasion to break off crying out of Perfidiousness which the Lord knows was nothing but an Ignorance I am sure to me it was so He knew the best time to give over even before we came to the pitch of the Controversie so the people went away as much unsatisfied as they came except it were of the want of ingenuity in carrying of it on I am sure I was not a little troubled we should tire our selves and the people in six hours discourse to so little purpose I hope it will be a warning to me for the future The Dr. being full at stomack the last Lords day in the morning at Peters names a Text Heb. 6. beginning laies it aside instead of a Sermon calls for ink and paper writes down the following 13. Arguments for Infants Baptism professing I suppose else I know not to what end he took that pains to maintain the Negative against all these grounds thus he entertained the Congregation he had to the wearying of some of them and sent the paper either to Dr. Worth or in his absence to me but with no intimation to what end as I remember the Arguments are as followeth Paedobaptis Assert 1. Circumcisi sunt baptizandi At gò 2. Discipuli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. At gò 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 baptizandi At gò 4. Familiae At gò 5. Sancti At gò 6. Foederati At gò 7. Sanctificati At gò 8. Filii Dei At gò 9. Christiani At gò 10. Haeredes Regni At gò 11. Privilegiati seu privilegio peculiari supra caeteros the next word I cannot read At gò 12. Traditio seu consuetudo At gò 13. Promissum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At gò These I received about half an hour before I went to preach in the afternoon which though some diâ—traction to my thoughts I resolved to say nothing to but to mind that I prepared for the peoples greater edification only by way of Preface I let the people know I had received such a paper of Arguments for Infants Baptism some whereof I owned and some not but in the General I said what was said of Bellarmine That he had brought more arguments against himself then he could-answer so I thought of these and câ—utioned the people to beware what Doctrine they did embrace and gave some other suitable counsel to them And so I fell upon my intended Sermon This is the true state of the matter for the substance which I thought good to send conceiving there might be occasion for it there J. M. The allotted time of his continuance at Cork being expired he returned to Dublin to the great rejoycing of those whose very hearts were glued to him and whose thirsty souls longed after him A friend asking him in what measure the Lord had blessed his labours as to conversion-conversion-work and the gaining in of souls to God he answered That at his first coming to Cork he to his joy knew some and heard of others whose faces were set towards Sionâ— and began to enquire after the Lord till the bone of disâ—â—ntion was cast in with which the people were wholly taken up and then with a sorrowful countenance and with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven said The Lord pardon me that ever I yielded to that wrangling dispute Though Cork hath not his personal presence
yet hath it a large share in his affections supplications and endeavours for its good which he manifested by procuring an Order for the repairing of Christ-Church and setling Mr. Eyres in it The sickness beginning to break forth afresh at Dublin the Commissioners of Parliament send to the several Churches to humble themselves before the Lord and to return to them an Account of what lay upon their spirits as the provoking and procuring cause of this smart expression of rekindled displeasure The society Mr. Murcot was related to drew up their digested thoughts in certain Queries the most remarkable are here annexed 1. Whether denying neglecting flighting and countenancing of 〈…〉 ghters of Miniâ—ters of the publike Ordinances of God be not an Achan Exod. 4. 24. 5. 3. Lev. 26. 15 25. 2. Whether endeavouring to supplant the Ministry under pretence of all the Congregation of the Lords people being holy every one of them Numb 1. 6. 2 3. 5. 21 22. in opposition whereunto Aarâ—n is called the Saint of the Lord Psal 106. 16. so Deut. 33. 11. and abusing the Ministry be not a means to bring wrath without remedy 2 Chron 36. 15. which abuses are declared in the defence of the Worcestershire Petition especially in the Preface thereof And whether if Magistrates keep silence they do not thereby make the sin their own 1 Sam. 3. 13. Mr. Murcot is chosen with others humbly to present this Representation which he did with a resolved and clear confidenee as knowing the cause was Gods and truth worth the owning Shortly after the Church at Dublin the Lord being sought unto by solemn fasting and prayer with extraordinary chearfulness and unanimity nemine contradicente chose him to be their Teacher which being proposed to him he at first expressed his loathness to bow with his back to so great a burden yet took time to consider of the matter which he spent in private Fasting Prayer and clearing up his Call by an impartial preponderation of all considerable circumstances an account whereof under his own hand you have here annexed Jan. 31. 1653. The Question Whether I should answer the peoples Call to be Teacher For the Affirmative 1. The Pastors weakness in body and the peoples need thereby 2. The Church also increasing 3. Their unanimous consent in choice of me after solemn seeking of God for it For the Negative 1. My being a man of such uncircumcised heart and such polluted lips as the Lord knoweth c. 2. My being so weak and not able to convince Gain-sayers a very child in managing controversies if they arise in the Church especially in such a Congregation 3. My ignorance what a Teacher is 4. My being but a Novice as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 3. 6. But doubts 1. Whether in these former Objections I do not mind more the praise of men then the praise of God because of my weakness in parts 2. Whether it be not the burthen without any outward reward which sticks so hard If there were a great outward reward how would it then prevail with me 3. Whether it be love to Christ to indent as I may say and thus much I will do and no further 4. Whether God may not call first and fit afterwards Yet it was so with David so with Saul at first and so Solomon had his Spirit of wisdom given him afterwards and have not we the like priviledge to ask and have as he had Mat. 7. 7. Paul was ready to go or do what God would have him before he had received the Spirit Act. 9. 5. Whether God may not call and I not see it as Samuel 1 Sam. 2. 6. Whether I may not be willing enough and yet seem thus unwilling which is great hypocrisie 7. Whether I could be willing to have another set up rather then my self and therefore as unworthy as I judge my self yet I may judge my self better then he 8. Whether the evil frame of heart hath not been upon me since my denyal of it and the thoughts of yielding are they not pleasing and when any thing produced to the contrary of my mind doth it make me smile and lighten my heart Whether out of pride and delight to hear others good opinion of me and desire towards me or whether out of a secret hankering after the thing notwithstanding my opposing it or whether from the Lord is doubtful 9. Whether the people are not better Judges of my gifts then my self 10. Whether all this discouragement be not through unbelief of the Promises as in Moses Exod. 6. 12 30. 11. Whether this be not hypocrisie Before being called forward enough and when called how backward even as Moses Exod. 2. 13. 4. 10. 6. 12 30. 12. Time was when I entred upon this work with a very wicked heart much more wicked blessed be his name for his present grace and yet not humbled for this to this very day as I ought I doubt 13. Yet notwithstanding he hath manifested himself to give a better heart in some measure then before as I hope and why not now if I undertake more may he not do more as well as before O he did not give me up as some others who in the like condition have undertaken this work 14. I have been as it were checkt What wilt thou not venture thy self upon Jesus Christ and then the Lord made me willing to do it 15. To get strength against corruption is not likely to be done by turning the back upon any work of his 16. And is it not better I should perish by corruption or temptation in doing the work of Christ then not But can any perish that in truth give up themselves to his work Wednesday Feb. 22. meditating upon that of Moses that he said Send by whom thou wilt send God was angry Such thoughts I had God might testifie against me by leaviâ—g me to blasphemous horrid thoughts and an untoward frame of Spirit When he had answered him that Objection touching his want of eloquence Now saith he when he was angry with him Is not Aaron thy Brother he is a man of eloquence and he will be glad to meet thee So in this God hath joyned such an one as was able through grace to do that I doubted my sufficiency most in that is to say the managing controversies And then telling him they are dead that sought thy life which was the Core So who knoweth but this fear of opposition may be taken away So upon 1 Cor. 9. 17. If I do it willâ—ngly I have a reward c. And upon 1 Pet. 5. 2. Taking the overlight not of constraint or necessity but a willing mind And John 21. Lovest thou me feed my sheep did somewhat bow my spirit to a resolution to close with it Having though with some reluctancy at first taken upon him the oversight of the Flock of God he led them forth into green pastures by the sides of the pleasant waters and fed them not with
of so great weight 7. But negligent in preparation to holy duties publike and private 8. How empty and vain in discourses and unprofitable 9. How distempered in hearing publikely and in conferences with the Church 10. Vile thoughts even in the time of reading and meditation which are deep hypocrisie 11. Yet back-slidden even since the last Lords Supper 12. Yet little pure love to the Saints as Saints 13. Yet not a sensible heart of the dishonour of Christ in these times 14. Yet not a tender nor believing heart in holding out the word of reconciliation 20. In preparation for the Supper-Ordinance he would bring himsels unto the Test and to say the truth was very clear in the discovering and making out of his own condition being well acquainted with the way of Gods dealing with the soul and with the way of the souls closing with Christ Instance April 3. 1653. upon search I find 1. My self an undone creature 2. That the Lord Jesus sufficiently satisfied as Mediator the Law for sin 3. That he is freely offered in the Gospel 4. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy heartily consent that he only shall be my Saviour not my works or duties which I do only in obedience to him 5. If I know my heart I would be ruled by his word Spirit Behold in a few words the summe and substance of the Gospel 21. The Lord blessed his enquiries with gracious returns when he set himself seriously to clear up his interest in him Instance October 30. 1652. As I was questioning and searching whether I were a child of God or no me thought this was suddenly spoken in me or to me If I be not thy Father what am I then to thee Am I an enemy to thee which did much affect and melt my heart through much mercy In preparation for the Lords Supper Jan. 1. 1652. as I was upon the same Question within my self whether I was a child of God yea or no me thought this was suggested within me If I be not thy â—ather why dost thou follow me so hard and breath after me which also did much affect my heart at that time 22. He got ground on his corruptions and his grave-cloaths fell off apace while he was yet alive Several daies I find good recorded and no evil Instance Good Evil. In morning read a long Hebrew Chapter in closet-duty not altogether without his presence studied for my Sermons and the afternoon spent much what in preparation of my self for the Lords Supper and not altogether without his presence for blessed be his name he humbled me and melted me in the â—ight of my own vileness  About 7. weeks before his translation returning from London he found his Family in a languishing condition by reason of a feavourish distemper which had crept in among them It being the Lords wont to send some forerunning waves to dash against and wet us before he send that mountainous one with which he will overwhelm us His youngest child save one departs this life on Friday night being the 11. of Nov. 1654. How often are the little Lambs taken from the sides of their dams from whom they received life and carried to the place where they met with their deaths An hopeful branch must be lopt off before the Root it self dry up and wither Saturday morning that Chapter came to be read in course which contains Davids Fasting and mourning for his child whilst it lived c. Comparing his own condition with that of David he said Davids mourning went before but mine must follow after The duties of the Family being over he retires again into his study keeps the day as a Fast and being awakened by this affliction is put upon serious self-reflexions and searching endeavours to find out the cause of this smart-stroke of Gods hand an account whereof taken out of his Diary you have as follows God taking away my little babe Job November 11. 1654. Searching my waies c. 1. Not returning according to his multiplyed mercies to us not thankful enough the heart not endeared to him 2. More lax in watching over my thoughts 3. A foolish stupidity and security before this blow from the the Lord far from waiting for changes Jonah-like fast asleep 4. An unnatural heart to him and the rest insensible of his pains 5. Grown very slight in the Lords service though wofully distracted and dead in every duty almost yet not sensible of it nor humbled under it had lost of that spiritualness and heavenly-mindedness once I had through grace 6. Partial affection to the sons more then to the daughters therefore God took this away and smote the other His wife would have had the Funerals deferr'd till Munday but he would not give way saying I have other work to do tomorrow At even the people being come together he accompanied the Corps unto the grave into which he was observed to look very wishly as if he had been curiosly looking for a resting place for himself shortly to lye down in and had thus bespoken his dead child I shall shortly come to thee but thou shalt not return to me Coming home he was very raised and chearful and comforted his wife with this saying among many others Come love he has but got the start of us It being my work to track him and tread upon the print of his heels I must follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death which was not so frightful to him in its approach as to me uncomfortable in its description The time of his departure is at hand and no wonder He was ripe betimes and therefore gathered and taken into Gods Granary He had done his work and must therefore go to receive his wages and this I may be bold to say that he did God more service in a little time then many others whose line of life was twice as long as his He cannot be far off from his center because of the swiftness of his motion He was alwaies much upon the wing but towards his latter end he was wont to soar very high and took many a turn in Paradise every day and would be often hovering about the Casements of the Star-chamber which having delightfully peept and pryed into he came down again though not without much regret and grief yet solacing himself with this consideration that he should shortly meet the Lord in the air and then be ever with the Lord. During the time of his pilgrimage and abode in the Lords Vineyard he served his God and his Generation with all his might He ran faster then others and was therefore sooner out of breath He screwed up the peggs so high that the strings of his several faculties crack and can hold out no longer He did with so much vehemency and contention of spirit continually stir up himself to take hold on God and followed so hard after him that he sunk under the burden of his own
endeavours His late journey to London heated his blood and disposed his already-wasting body to a dangerous distemper which discovered it self on the Lords day in his forenoons Sermon which after his return from the Congregation he laboured to conceal from his wife by endeavouring to eat though it were much against his stomach she perceiving some alteration in his countenance and carriage said You are not well pray preach not again to whom he replyed away away hinder me not Whereupon he retired to his study and adventured to preach again in the afternoon though with some difficulty and apparent symptoms of sickness in his very visage It was upon the spirits of some that this was the last time they should ever hear him One seeing and observing him in his return said Thou art almost in heaven I shall never see thee more The Text which he preached on that day is considerable Psal 4. 6. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us The former part viz. the enquiry Who will shew us any good he finished in the fore-noon and urged several arguments why men ought to sit loose from all things that are here below His expressions argued in him affections disingaged from matters dreggy and terrene One foot is off the earth already the other will be so too shortly He takes his flight from earth to heaven and in the afternoon made entrance on the latter part of the verse Lord lift thou up c. a suitable subject for him to speak to who was now about to enter into the gloomy horrours of the grave Those bright refulgent beams of heavenly light are never more seasonable then when we are upon the borders of the Land of darkness Ten glorious fruits and effects of the lifting up of the light of Gods countenance he held forth the heads of which because of the spirituality of the matter and being the words of a dying man and experienced Christian you will find in the Margin Judicious Christâ—ans plainly perceived him at that time to be wonderfully raised and his spreading sailes to be sweetly swelled with the powerful breathings of the Spirit for he spake more like one neer the Throne and in the company of Angels then one in a Pulpit and surrounded with mortalls At even the people according to their accustomed manner came crouding and thronging to Repetition His wife in vain perswaded him to dismiss the Assembly in repeating his Sermons Singing and Prayer he spent about two hours time At Supper he did eat a little with his wife and that chearfully yet complained of an unusual heaviness in his head and soreness in his eys when endeavouâ—ing to lift them up and took little rest the ensuing night The next morning seeing that he must be sick indeed he blessed the Lord that he found him in his work The Physitian being sent for and consulted with said he had got cold and was feavorish the second night is passed over with as little rest as the first A day of Thanksgiving in private for his own return from London and his wives late safe delivery was designed to be celebrated about this time the consideration of which occasioned some sadness whereupon to his wife he said This is sad love this looks as if the Lord would not accept of an Offering of praise from our hands And then he called for the Notes of a Thanksgiving Sermon preached long before by Doctor Jones on that passage of Hezekiah Who rendred not unto the Lord according to the benefit The third day as a choice Christian friend who came to visit him was discoursing with his wife he fell afleep and two or three hours after awaking he called for his wife who coming to him and kneeling down upon the beds side he fixed his eys on her and said dost thou know that place I will give them the Valley of Achor for a door of hope Who said yes He further asked her if she kâ—ew the meaning of it who expressing her apprehensions he said yea there it is and then a little nodding his head and pointing with his finger at her said Remâ—mber this Our valley of trouble shall be our door of hope About the fifth day in letting blood he fainted and with a low voyce said What means this it was not thus with me at Sir Roberts Kings To his wife looking upon him he said Now Love it is a weaning time He was more careful of Gods Service then of his own attendance causing the servants to leave him that so their duty to God in ways of worship might not be neglected The seventh day being the Sabbath he inquired who carried on the work and seemed to affect retirement and secret converse with God upon his own day Most part of the second week was passed over in a silent submission and quiet waiting on the Lord. The thirteenth day in the morning being Saturday his pains were very violent for an hour and half and extorted from him that doleful complaint Lord how long Ah my bowels my bowels I have grieved bowels this speaks much I have wanted bowels I have not been so pittiful towards others The Doctor being sent for and staying longer then was expected he said Lord give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man At night he was much refreshed chearful all night and prone to discourse and praised without any complaining and withall said I would have given the whole world for so much ease in the morning The Lords day in the morning the Doctor coming to him and looking on him wept to whom Master Murcot said How is it with me Doctor You may do well Brother I hope if you can get any sleep Master Murcot Tell me true how is my Pulse Doctor I confess it is but bad but you may do well if you can sleep which he indeavoured a while though in vain by closing his eys To his wife looking sadly on him he said Love canst thou pray for â—leep for me what saist thou to which her swelling grief permitted her not to return answer The rumouâ— of his weak condition being spread abroad a Doctor was sent from my Lord Deputy to see if there were any hope of life who speaking to him he said Doctor I am spent with sweating To his Sister he said and that without any amazement and peâ—turbation of spirit Sister I must now tell you I am not for this world and then lifting up himself he said Lord remember me how I have walked before thee in sincerity with all my might He wished the Sabbath were over that so he might do something about his Will though little were to be done His wife seeing hearing these passages said to him Now I see that you know that you must leave us He answered yes Love whereat she weeping he exhorted her to a Resignation to which she answered The Lord hath
if you could as easily put by the coming of Christ as you can make a shift to smother the thoughts of it your hearts indeed might chear you and your condition were something like But he will come and though you be asleep in the Arms of your lusts know that your judgement sleepeth not and your condemnation slumbereth not And make what haste you can to be rich or to be honourable and such persons are not innocent make what hast you can in your career of sinning it travels as fast you and will be sure to meet you at the gates of death and hell if not sooner But it may be we think we have done this great work we are through grace acquainted with the Lord Jesus and his spirit which hath effectually wrought in us to believe in his name to love him the main is done with us and therefore sure we may have more liberty then others now Is it so but is this all that must go to watch for his appearing do we not find our hearts thrusting away from us that day and our hands fail and security setzeth upon us the Disciples were in danger to be surprized as well as others Is there any of us so liveth as that we could readily and cheerfully meet the Lord Jesus at an hours warning a daies 〈…〉 and who knoweth he shall have so much to set his house in order O there is need to press this duty upon us all brethren be our condition what it will we have yet somewhat to learn of it and shall have let us hear it as often as we can But I will leave what further may be said unto its proper place in the handling the Parable A word or two to the present occasion we are many of us now called to this sealing Ordinance And though we have been often stirrd up and taught our duty concerning it is there not need to chafe the oyl in upon our hearts our affections still Alas how often have we heard that what it findeth it sealeeth And yet do we not dare to come some of us with hard hearts with covetous hearts uncircumcised hearts I would not speak brethren to grieve the heart of any the Lord would not have grieved as they that have least cause will be most sadly assayling themselves with condemning thoughts but the Lord grant there be none found among us guilty kind As often as ever we come we hear how dangerous a thing it is to come unworthily prepared to it and yet the Lord knoweth how often we have thrust in here some of us without a wedding garment And that you have not been bound hand and fooe bound up in our grave-cloaths and cast out of his sight for ever it is unspeakable mercy O that this might melt us and humble us and though blessed be his holy name I believe there are many poor trembling souls who go about these things with trembling hearts least they should miscarry and grieve him and bring his blood upon their heads I doubt there may be some of us found whose hearts are far from such a frame had we not need then to be put in mind and remembrance again and again of these things It may be we have faith and love to Jesus Christ it may be we have humility and self-loathing it may be we have a mourning spirit over our sins that have grieved the Lord Jesus put him to all that grief for us it may be we have a thankful heart but are these graces now in action are they upon the wing how often have we been minded thereof that we must be actually prepared Alas alas haply some of us have not taken the pains with our hearts which we might and which others would have done if they had had the hearts which we have haply some of us have been striving but in our own strength and have done little haply others may have been helped in the preparing our hearts to seek him herein but by our pride or carnal confidence have lost our frame again It may be some of us brethren have not been very negligent but yet not so diligent as we ought O brethren how needful are these things bear with me if I do press you to them it is not tedious to me because I hope it is safe for you O! that I could do it with such a spirit and such bowels as the Apostle did the Lord set it upon all our hearts we are exceeding dull to believe and more dull to practise and do his will revealed to us Though the good be our own the glory onely his But I will not insist any further here the Lord give us understanding and believing hearts Now for the words of the Text. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to ten Virgins which went forth to meet the Bridegroom I shall begin according to the former method And first speak concerning Jesus Christ with respect to his Church And touching him there are many things in this Parable First he is the Bridegroom 2. His delay of his coming 3. The cry before his coming 4. The coming 5. The time of his coming at Midnight To begin with the first The Bridegroom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However it be that the scope of the parable be to stir up all men that profess the Lord Jesus to a perseverance in watchfulness to stand ready for his coming which being apprehended there is no necessity of pressing each particular in the parable yet I conceive according to our Saviour His opening of other parables we may insist upon the chief things therein as where HE would let us see what need we had to take heed What or How or Whom we Hear by the parable of the several sorts of Ground receiving the seed of the Word he not onely tells us the difference of the Grounds but what the seed is and who the Sower is or else in that parable of the good seed and the Tares he tells us particularly what is meant by each And therefore I must not here pass over this of the Bride-groom The Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom The note will be The relation between the Lord Jesus and his people He is the Bridegroom and stands in that relation to his people that this is so we need go no further then this parable for who else is it that cometh and with whom they that are ready do enter into the Mâ—rriage then Jesus Christ who is our life who appearing we shall appear with him in glory Again the foolish virgins cry to him Lord Lord open to us Who is the Lord but Jesus Christ as will appear by comparing this with that speech of our Saviour Not every one that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say to me Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name in whose name but in the name of Jesus Christ and in
yea all grace abound that you should have all things and all-sufficiency in all things yea and alway have it so that you may abound O brethren there is more riches in such a promise then in a thousand worlds if we could but live by faith in such a promise we should be fuller handed and freer hearted and more abound in good works of all kinds Well this is the sixth Seventhly He will present them to his Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing a glorious Church as there it is now alas Brethren the Saints sometimes lye among the Pots here the Apostle speaks of the top of the Saints perfection that which is due or which they are capable of There shall be no privation any more we are now but changing into his image from glory to glory then he will bring us to his father in full brightness of glory If the Church on earth brethren the glory of the Bride be so great as to be compared in her primitive purity to the glory of the Sun a woman cloathed with the Sun what will it be when Christ shall appear with him in glory No deformity shall there then be brethren but the Church shall be altogether lovely But here further by spot or wrinkle are meant the stain and deformity of sin onely or else the deformity of sin and suffering both Of sin if so then by spot we may understand any greater stain or blemish by wrinkle any less deformity by spot a gross sin by wrinkle an ordinary infirmity Or else by spot any sinful work by wrinkle any failing even in good works there shall be nothing but uprightness or else as some even Mr. Caryl making a double Metaphor yet to the like purpose there shall be no deformity which usually followeth age in things and persons In things an old garment is usually spotted and defiled In persons wrinkles use to deform them you know the moisture consuming the skin shrivels up and the beauty is gone now saith the Lord there shall be none of all this no such deformity no old things all shall be done away and all things shall become new they shall be like the purest garment in its gloss and lustre like the purest face in its flower no deformity at all Or else by spot we may understand sin and by wrinkle sorrow and so we know that sorrow will dry up the bones and marrow and moisture my flesh and my skin he hath made old that is to say by reason of sorrow it wrinkles the face breaks the beauty sarrows the Cheeks brings deformity upon the greatest beauty now there shall be no such thing sin there shall be none all pardoned yea all far removed none inherent as you heard before all glorious no deformity no vileness and then no sorrow neither to abate our fulness of joy but a merry heart a joy to swallow up now the wings shall be covered with silver and feathers with yellow gold yea those very afflictions wherewith we have been racked shall work out an exceeding and far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory specially if they be for Christ here is a priviledge indeed brethren nor any such thing any thing which themselvs or others may suspect to be a spot c. But then his presenting them to his father this is after the manner of men you know Isaac took his spouse and presented her to his father and brought her into his mothers Tent so will the Lord Jesus present his Church to his father here is my spouse now in that glory which I have put upon her the price of my blood this is my glory and he will not be ashamed to confess his people to own them for his Bride before his father at that day and then he will bring them into his fathers house there to abide with the Lord forever there to be swallowed up of his love and likeness forevermore O blessed soul that labours now under a body of sin and death and art loathsom in thine eyes lift up thy head this day draweth nigh every spot shall be done away yea there shall be nothing like a wrinkle upon thy soul O what will this be to the soul that is weary of sin indeed 4. Vse of the Doctrine shall be then to teach us the Dignity and Duty of a Gospel-Ministry Their dignity they are such as are intrusted with this great work to fit a spouse to Jesus Christ to reconcile her to him to espouse her to him they are no ordinary servants the Lord sends about such works yea even you see Eleazer was no mean servant the ruler of the house Princes send their Embassadors to treat about Marriages for them So we saith the Apostle in Christs stead as if he did beseech you To be the friends of the Bridegroom is no small priviledge but I will not stand upon this but rather a word or two of the Duty you may see how great it is that you may be the more moved to pray for them 1. Then the Duty lyes in this that we woo for Christ and not for our selves he that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom saith John but the friend of the Bridegroom envyeth him not that happiness but would further it what he can and that is his rejoycing this my joy is fulfilled saith he that people come in to Christ It is a sad thing brethren when we shall be found at the day of account to have spoken it may be but one word for Christ and two for our selves the Apostle tells us of some that should arise in the Church of Ephesus speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them I pray you mind to draw Disciples after them not after Christ It is sad I say when men shall compass the Sea and Land to make a Proselyte to an Opinion much pains laid out this way and when all cometh to all it shall prove but Copper and not gold but Jesus Christ is little beholding to them or if we preach Jesus Christ and intend our selves to lift up our own names and not the name of Christ O this is great unfaithfulness saith the Apostle Paul speaking of that Corinthian Church much like ours I am of Paul c. were you baptized into the name of Paul was he crucified for you c. Alas saith he I have done nothing but wooed you for Christ espoused you to one Husband and not to so many The children of the Bride-Chamber are never called together to prostitute the Bride to them but to rejoyce and celebrate the Marriage with more solemnity Yea by how much the greater honor it is to have the charge of the Bride by so much the greater sin it is to deal falsly with Christ in it and to draw them after our selves when we should draw men after the Lord Jesus 2. Their Duty is to present them to the Lord Jesus as a pure virgin having espoused
not think of him until he first think ofâ—hee nor work towards him until his heart hath been working towards thee and is not that demonstrate that he is willing to receive thee to make a match with thee though we be worms and no men have cause to cry out if we were never so holy Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him as to visit him with such salvation make him so near thy self in thy son Yea surely he is willing he would not have moved towards thee else he doth not use to mock poor Creatures to make them believe his heart is towards them and when their heart echo again and say thy face Lord will we seek then to shut up his bowels and shut out their desires Brethren take heed of too much being alive to the Law for that seemeth to be the savour of our spirit while unworthiness is the obstruction to our coming to Jesus Christ we must be dead brethren to the Law and the righteousness thereof all our performances and best duties else we cannot live to Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus never matched with a Creature because it was worthy of him of so near an union with him for alas what creature being but a creature can be wotthy of such an union with the Lord of life and glory No no he â—akes an Ethiopian and washeth her clean from her filthiness before he hath done with her nothing but that fullers sope will fetch out the spots Yea I will say one thing more that the Lord Jesus never Matched with any that thought themselves worthy of him there is an encouragement to such poor drooping soâ—lâ— did Paul think himself worthy of Christ nothing less nor any of the Saints He that will not have Christ freely is never like to have him I will love them freely saith he No saith many a proud sinner thou shalt not love us freely we hope to approve our selves worthy of thy love I tell you brethren such a soul hath not known what the meaning of grace is to this day Well then remember be you as unworthy as you can in your own apprehension all the mercies of God purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ they are freely offered and tendered to you this day to thee man to thee woman that art viler then the earth in thine own eyes yea to hard hearted sinners that see not themselves they are tendered to melt them down and if this will not do it nothing will do it O that I could speak of these bowels with such bowels as some of your hearts might be stirred and moved this day but so much for this second 3. Motive the Lord Jesus is not only willing thus to communicate himself to poor sinners but it is his delight so to do It is the satisfaction of the soul of Jesus Christ when he beholdeth the precious mercies purchased by his blood accepted of by poor sinners and to work mightily in them and to them He shall see his Seed and shall be satisfied the father is satisfied and the son is satisfied when they behold this this is all that they expect the father for his love such a love as the world cannot paralel a Sic without a Siout God so loved the world It is all he expecteth that those mercies which he hath purchased should be freely be bestowed upon and freely accepted of by poor sinners and it is the satisfaction of Jesus Christ also it is all he expecteth of us I say the continual streaming of that fountain opened for sin and for uncleaness they are as if he had said I have enough for all my pains my sweat my agony my eclipsing for the pangs of hell in my soul for my death and blood and burial all the contempts powred out upon me and the sorrow â—endured though there was never grief like mine yet this is enough saith he he shall be satisfied if he do but see poor sinners to receive him and so become his Seed close with him and so become his spouse for it is the same thing though clothed with a diverse Metaphor Brethren iâ— may be you would satisfie Christ another way you would do this and that for him Labour as abundantly as you can be as holy as you can perform your duties in as lively a manner as you can but when you have done all if you hang your peace and comfort upon this and not in your free acceptance of Christ and with Christ you seem yet to be marryed to the Law and not to Christ or at least you turn aside to your former Husband a Covenant of works this is a dissatisfactiou to Jesus Christ as if there were not riches of grace in him to swallow up all your unworthiness O Brethren that the Lord would perswade your hearts this day what a delight and satisfaction it is to him to see poor sinners come and lye at his foot and willing to receive him to match with him notwithstanding their unworthiness 4. Consider but how little a thing will do the deed and espouse thee to the Lord Jesus Alas you will say you find it a hard thing to believe as hard a thing as to keep the Law It is so in respect of our strength but many they mistake and think except they have such and such a strength of faith they have none at all nor do not close with him nor he with them If they could say with Thomas my Lord and my God or with the spouse my beloved is mine and I am his then there were some encouragement indeed Brethren if it be but as a grain of Mustardseed it will do the deed look upon me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved A look upon a woman to lust after her is Adultery in heart it is a heart union of two to one flesh for it is yet the heart the mind that seeth more then the eye the eye may look upon many things and discern nothing distinctly if the mind be upon another thing so here why should not a look after Jesus Christ to desire him when the soul hath a sight of him passing by in his Glory O that he were my Husband O that I were Marryed to him that he would accept of me O happy souls that enjoy seeking communion with him This Brethren at the first is enough to make a Match between us As the Lord Jesus is willing to have thee art thou willing poor trembling soul to have him have him thou shalt yea thou hast him already though this saith must grow up to a greater measure happily before thou cast discern it or have the comfort of it Only lest any should be mistaken I will here give a word or Direction or Caution First take heed of thinking thou art willing when thou art not for as there are many poor drooping souls who think they are not willing to have Christ when it is that their souls do ever break for
is he not upright and just and true hath he said it and will he not make it good hath he not said as many as come to him he will in no wise cast out and is â—is word worth nothing indeeed if a man fail once in his word we will hardly trust him the second time and if ever sinners or Satan can come forth and say that the Lord Jesus made a promise and was not as good as his word then you may indeed have a jealousie of him but they cannot they cannot the Devil will tell you his promise of the seed of the woman breaking the Serpents head he hath felt to his wounding and his promise of Satans falling down like lightning and there is not a sinner in hell can charge the Lord Jesus with breach of promise But it may be this is not enough to poor unbelieving souls therefore you shall have it written and sealed and witnessed there are witnesses in heaven and upon Earth and seals the Sacraments the broad seal and privy seal of the spirit yea there is an oath also to make it good what would you have more what can you desire more then this would you see the work done why is not the giving up of Jesus Christ to the death for sinners the greatest part of the work Sure if ever he would have baulkt there and yet you see it stuck not O therefore be not jealous of him who hath so freely and so largely laid out himself for sinners 3. Now then ye that are Saints indeed love the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints None have such reason to love him as they that have tasted of his love if there be any ingenuity in us love will beget love as one flame begets another because he hath set his love upon me saith the Psalmist therefore I will deliver him if we could love the Lord Jesus more we should be delivered more from those evils we mourn under How lamentable a thing is it how much love have we for Creatures and how little love for Jesus Christ did Husband or Wife die for us ransom us from the pit and hell I hope there are some of his people believe it that have more affection for Jesus Christ then ever they had for the Creature Ah blessed souls how infinitely are you engaged to him for so fully seizing upon your hearts O who are you that you should be able thus entirely to love the Lord Jesus and admitted to it but thus it is and magnifie his Name But alas for the most part the complaint of the people of God is they cannot love him O labour to get those carnal affections mortified the fore-skins of our heart taken away and our heart circumcised and then we shall love him you have a promise improve it for that end If we could but spare time to set our selves to it to study his heart towards us and ours towards him his excellency and loveliness we could not but love him O beg the spreading abroad of his love sheding it abroad not only upon our understandings but our affections for no further then he sheds it will it spread it will stay in the brain in the understanding if the passages between head and heart be not opened by him we shall never be affected and warmed by it Alas you will say our distances are so great that kils our love No brethren that cannot be the distances are not so great now for the relation between Christ and thy soul if thou believest is the nearest relation he is one Spirit with thee and therefore there is not such a distance and though in respect of dignity and worth there be a distance yet remember now we are 〈◊〉 part of himself and partake with him of his dignities also but however love knoweth not that over-much aw and respect as to kill it but it will be working towards the person beloved Mary Magdalen loving him holds him by the feet and weeps over him If a Prince will marry a begger surely he will take it well and expecteth it to be loved of her and he would not be pleased with such a dejection in respect of her own vileness as to quash her love yea brethren me thinks the meaner we see our selves the more we should love him for what can we do else but love him we have nothing else lovely or desirable but our love our hearts therefore Oh love him and abundantly love him O ye Saints of his whom he hath so loved Alas But our love is little in comparison of his love to us and this discourageth us It is true What proportion between the drop of a Bucket and the ocean Some there is but there is none between the largeness of Christ his heart toward us and ours towards him But shall our love perish and dry up because there is not as much in the little limbeck as in the fountain in the river as in the sea He is love it self brethren and therefore we must be contented to fall infinitely below in love but let us love him according to our measure Again if there be the whole heart to love the Lord Jesus it is as much proportionably for us if we could reach it as it is for him to love us with his whole heart as he is pleased to express it The Creature is infinitely less then Christ and therefore must needs have infinitely less love to him then he hath to us but yet there is nothing wanting where there is Totum therefore rather it should provoke us He hath loved us first aâ—d loved us more abundantly then we can love him therefore labour to get our hearts as much enlarged as we can in love towards him though we fall short of what we might attain to he will make up imperfections there is love enough in him and there is the advantage of his love being above ours that he can cover those imperfections in our love to him which if he had not more abundantly then he could not do What shall I say more Love is that which commandeth all it draweth all the affections along with it which way ever it turns thither the desires are bent there is the hope fixed there the delights are quâ— amat amat nihil aliud novit She that loveth loveth and knoweth nothing else O how shall we not be able to do any thing against sin for Christ if we loved him so entirely then our hearts would be in Heaven we could not grufle as many of us do then we should be more tender of his name and of his honour then now we are but alas I am not able to press these things home the Lord set them home You must love him brethren else you will have little joy of your communion with him which is to endure to eternity Again Labour to rejoyce in him and in his love rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous saith the Psalmist
genera vari he is truth itself as well as being it self and other things are no further true then they have some proportion to him which they also have from him therefore the mind having gotten such an Object as this to dwell upon wherein it may be swallowed up and satisfied with truth it hath its perfection 2. The will that hath for its Object good and it is not content with a partial good here and there a little but it would receive all good now the Lord he is good and there is none good but God he is the supream good the greatest good and the last in genere boni all goodness in the Creature whether honour proportionable or delightful or pleasant good alas what is it but a little reflection of his glory upon the Creature a little spark of his kindling a little drop to the ocean but this is but answerable to the capacity and comprehension of the soul Secondly there is also the everlastingness of the soul it liveth for ever and therefore a short good though never so full is not commensurate unto it there must be certitudo aeternae fruitionis which as well as fruitio incommutabilis boni to make up a blessedness which is the end the soul proposeth to it self So Aug. de Chro. for fuisse selioem miâ—erum It is the depth of our misery we are now cast down so low because we were once seated raised so high in honour so near to God and yet if we might spend but a time in hâ—aven and enjoy God and afterward forsake that habitation this world would be the â—ell of hels unto such a soul but there is an everlastingness in the good itself we enjoy and in our enjoyment of that good We 〈…〉 this then is the great end â—o know and to propound to a mans self to set as his 〈…〉 as his mark is a part of wisdom he that doth great things takes much pains for poor ends is a fool the end speaks a man a wise man or a fool as much as any thiâ—g But 2. Then there are the means to be used for the attaining of that end that is the next thing If a man have never so right an end and yet know not what means to use for that end or use them not aright he is a â—ool not a wise man As now a man would have health and he knoweth not that physick will avail him it is all one to him a cup of poyson or a purging potion is all one to him or if he have the means and use them not or not aright and so in any other thing whatsoever I briefly wrapt up the other two in this place Now to this great end the enjoyment of God the means what are they but more immediately the closing with Jesus Christ by faith in his blood for he is not received but in Jesus Christ nor to be enjoyed but in him and through him Now since we have lost the image and glory of God it would not prove good to us to enjoy him if it were possible for us so to do that is to say it would not be suitable to us as we are corrupted heaven would be hell to a wicked man if he could enter into that holy place a while And therefore there is a necessity that we close with Jesus Christ that in him we may be brought near being reconciled through the blood of his cross and the enmity slain that is in our hearts against God and a new nature put upon us the heart changed and made conformable to God that image and likeness restored which consisted in knowledge righteousness and true holiness that now to enjoy God in the fulness and holiness and joy it is suitable to this new man wrought in us by Jesus Christ suitable to that spiritual Christ which is founded in us and so is good to us therefore this is the great means I say the closing with Jesus Christ for righteousness and reconciliation and holiness that heaven may be suitable unto us that we may also by him be changed and made fit and able to bear the weight of glory which is there to be put upon us More mediately and remotely now the means of grace the Gospel and ordinances thereof wherein God is revealed in Christ therein he is revealed for righteousness for holiness he is preached therein in the Covenant and that sealed up to us in the other ordinances And all the means of grace are helpful for this end Well now before I go any further Let us see the wisdom and folly of a pretender and a real Saint that is a virgin indeed 1. Then for the end though miserable man would be happy yet we miss it in the end and if we miss the end all our endeavours are nothing Now a child of God his end is God as he is a glorious God and as he is a good God and here is wisdom indeed that is to say he aimeth at this to glorine God to exalt him that he may be glorified in him as well knowing that the glory of the Lord is that wherein his own good and salvation is wrapt up for wherein are the riches of his glorious grace manifested but in the pardoning and subduing of iniquity O for thy names sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great for his names sake Who is like unto thee a God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin And then the salvation of his soul he is wise that is wise to salvation that is wise for himself indeed in the main thing You see a man wonderful industrious takes great pains runs and rides is very earnest and what is his end in this to have a flea to catch a butterfly You would judge this man a sool the end will recompence the laborious use of the means Now a formal professer he will keep as much a do as another happily be at as much pains in duty spend as many hours in private happily some may be of Jâ—hu his stamp and strain as long as it will hold but what is it for Alas they seek a poor empty self they would have a name they would have their zeal for God seen they would have their ends satisfied it is the way to flourish What pains did they take to follow Jesus Christ up and down and all was for the loaves a poor end Suppose the end be a little stopping the mouth of a clamarous conscience for the present a poor end Is not this folly to shoot so high and aim so low But happily it will not be so easie to convince hypocrites that they miss it in the end though for my part I think it is that which we ordinarily miss it in did you at all feast to me saith the Lord or fast to me did you not bring forth fruit to your selves which are infinitely too low to be our own end for when we enjoy the most we can in our selves
shortness of our patience alas it is very short the Apostle to the Hebrews doth exhort them to hold out against persecutions to hold fast their confidence which hath recompence of reward Alas but it is tedious thus to run through fire and water to have wave upon wave and billow upon billow why it is true saith the Apostle But you have need of patience that when you have done his will you might receive the promise the promise of his coming the apearing of Christ who is our life Alas but can we endure it O it is long No saith the Apostle for yet a little while and he that shall come will come do not think it long think not he is slack he will not tarry O brethren a man under a hard bondage groaning as the Israelites did in Egypt thinketh every day seven until he be delivered and therefore the Prophet exhorts them to wait for the vision which was for an appointed time it would not tarry by the medicine you may gather the nature of the malady it was impatience under their bondage and trouble and therefore you find so many sad complaints in the Psalmist how long Lord c. how long wilt thou forget me for ever c. and so the souls under the Altar how long Lord holy and true wilt thou not avenge our blood And so under spiritual pressures suppose temptations from without or inward pressures a body of sin and death we are ready to cry out how long Lord how long How did Job long for death he had such wearisom nights and moneths of vanity when God made him possess the iniquities of his youth Well in this respect also he may be said to delay according to our apprehensions 4. In respect of the importunity of our desires as well as impatientcy under afflictions this is an impatiency too and might be a branch of the other but a man that hath not that pressure upon him yet if he be deeply in love with Jesus Christ and with his appearing O how importunate are his desires after it so that as the Apostle calls it there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a looking out after it with a neck or head stretched out as a man that looks for a thing stirring up himself stretcheth out his neck lifteth up his head that he may see as far as he can looking many a wishly look after the thing he desires or person he desires The proverb is true in this case etiam celeritas in desiderio mora est And in this case now a man is ready to think there is a delay when there is most swiftness when God is a most swift witness for or against such a person our desires run before it usually and so it seemeth to slack and come behind O when shall I come and appear before him in Sion Not only Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart c. but O how long wilt thou thou keep me prisoner in this Tabernacle of clay Now in all these respects he may be said to delay his coming but so much for the opening of the Doctrine Now for the Arguments I shall speak a little to them And the First may be this The time is appointed for his coming he hath appointed a time wherein c. which he will not anticipate so neither will he stay beyond it the Second shall be this it is to excercise his peoples patience to inure them to bear patience works experience and experience hope the richer the patience is the richer the experience is and the nearer we come to a full assurance of hope the riches of it Now the exercise of patience the spirit breathing in it to his people is that whereby it groweth and increaseth with the increases of God the patience of the Saints is one of their greatest exercises and therefore the Lord takes much pains with his people to make this jewel in their Crown shine gloriously Consider the patience of Job c. behold here is the patience and faith of the Saints and in another place it is ushered in with a Behold Now God will have our patience have its perfect work be as long and as broad as the tryals are And therefore he delaies his coming in that sense as you have heard this waiting for the reward after we have done the will of the Lord is harder then the other of bringing forth fruit with patience Another ground shall be 3. That the measure of the sufferings of Christ may be filled up in us the Apostle is said to fill up in his body the measure of the sufferings of Christ that is to say there is a proportion of sufferings for the body of Christ to undergo and he in his body filled up his measure in a great part not as if they were more righteous but his people being so nearly united to the head as that they and he make one Christ therefore the sufferings of his people are called the sufferings of Christ now there is a means to be filled up and this he will have filled because these less afflictions which are but for a moment they work out saith the Apostle not meritoriously a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory he was made perfect through sufferings and so must his sâ—ns which he bringeth to glory be made perfect through sufferings and drink of the brook in the way and so lift up their heads suffer with him and then be glorified with him now if there were not such a time as we count a delaying of his coming there would be no room for this 1. That the fulness of Christ may come in for there is a fulness of Christ as the Apostle cals it both of Jews and Gentiles as the several members of his body make up the fulness of his body and it is not compleat if any of them be wanting there is some of its perfection wanting indeed it is a glorious honour he puts upon the Saints and dear affections he sheweth and a near union that he accounteth himself not perfect without them until they be come in so this is the answer the importunate cry of the souls under the Altar receive how long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge us and judge our enemies there were white robes given them and it was said to them they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow-servants also and their brethren also which should be killed as they were should be fulfilled If a man bid many guests to a Feast they must stay until they all come to sit down together As Christ is imperfect that is to say without his fulness with his body so is the soul in a sort without its body and as the Lord desires the work of his hands as Job speaks touching the Resurrection thou shalt call and I shall answer c. the soul may desire also that work of his hands to be re-united
example and the wise not wise enough to avoid but would sleep for company and so it is still in the visible Church because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold some think this may be hinted in that place but sure it is that examples are very potent plus vivitur exemplis specially if a person be in repute a man of name or renown among the Saints a brother or a sister whose praise is in the Churches if such a one as this shall grow earthly and carnal and that carnality and earthliness damp the soul and bring a deadness upon the graces why how many wil be ready to think they may sure let the rayns as loose as they and may seek after the world as well as they Peters example you see when he dissen bled what a force it had thou compellest the Gentiles to live as as do the Jews by his example he did it when the Jews came down from Jerusalem therefore David complains indeed of the example of wicked wo is me c. And so Isaiah complains wâ— is me I dwell among a people of uncircumcised lips and I am such my self and they help it forward but indeed the examples o loose and cold and sleepy Professors are more mischievous especially if they have been more lively and insensibly decline and decay because we have the less suspicion of them and therefore they are notable quench-coals indeed This is another ground Eighthly And the last I shall speak to shall be this from all the former When the Lord his holy spirit is grieved by all these he withdraweth his spirit and then we fall fast asleep and alas if a man be waked out of a dead sleep except there be one watching by him or one that hath a Lethargical distemper apt to prevail upon him except he hath some to sit by him to keep him awake he falls asleep and such pains is the holy Spirit at sitting up with us to keep us awake Now if we do grieve him and he depart from us presently deep sleep fals upon us like an armed man and we cannot resist so the Disciples had grieved the spirit of God by their self-confidence nothing more and therefore he leaveth them well he will see what the end of this their trusting in lyes will do and he letteth them fall again and again and you see how woful sleepy and drowsie they were they could not watch one hour they fell asleep again and again three times after another though they were sharply reproved for it they were prickt and provoked to awake but it would not do alas the Spirit was withdrawn from them Thus much shall serve for the Arguments For the Use then brethren in the first place May it not serve to humble us surely this is one end of Gods leaving his people to such a drowsie frame that they may be humbled as it was in the case of his Disciples he would make them know how weak they were if he did but depart from them as confident as they were how should we be ashamed of our selves as a servant when he sleepeth when he should be about his business and is reproved for it alas he is confounded he hath nothing to say for himself so the Disciples they wist not what to say saith the Text What are you now saith our Saviour asleep now when it is a time to exercise your graces and to pray if ever you will pray are you now asleep He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame to himself and others it is a time of work and to be lazing and drowsing upon the bed it is a very shameful thing indeed O that the Lord would lay this as a Plaister upon our Souls as many as are drowsie or have been drowsie or sleepy to hold the Plaister on though it be a smarting plaister yet better it is for us to have some smart then to dye of the Lethargy better be cupped and scarified and anything Ah when God cures sin by sin it is a smarting cure like the curing of a poysoned wound with more poyson or fetching out of fire with more fire wherein the severeness of the Physician appeareth and his love to us who had rather we should smart then dye well be humbled for what we have done if this work be some smart unto us our many sleepy Sermons Prayers sloathfulness security we have been and it is well if we be not upon our beds now this very day if our souls be not asleep If you be the Lord humble you for it as he humbled his own Disciples that this may be your care But not onely so But let us all take notice of and be humbled for our great proneness to slumber and sleep Water the root brethren If we be awake and have not lately been overtaken yet remember we have the root within us water that with our tears be humbled before the Lord for it yea labour we to walk continually humble before the Lord for the sight and sense of it it will appear how apt we are to fall asleep if we consider that whatever our condition is we are apt to it For a prosperous state this is like a rocking and singing to the soul how quickly did the Church fall asleep in Constantine his days in his lap and the child in the mothers lap Outward prosperity inward prosperity Was not David slumbring when he said I shall never be moved and so Iob I said I should dye in my nest what not onely when he had an outward flourishing condition but when he had such a strength of grace as to inable him to do much for God to walk uprightly with him to be fruitful in good works then I shall dye in my nest I shall multiply my days as the sand he was even going then O this is matter of humbling indeed brethren that when we should be putting forth the fruits of his love unto our souls we should drop asleep But then a man would think this is more natural now to fall asleep in the Sun shine and in the midst of the sweet refreshings of the spirit of God as musick and delightful things which do mulcere they do perswade sleep if we have not somewhat to keep awake But a man would think now that an â—our of trouble and affliction except it be so great as to stupifie it should rather keep a man awaking as the Psalmist thou holdst me waking saith he in the night Now the Disciples they were in an hour of temptation and a great grief and trouble and though they knew now their Lord was ready to depart from them and now entering upon his agony yet alas how dead and lumpish were they they fell asleep though there may be some natural cause for grief of the soul to make the body heavy as it seemeth to be rendered as a reason for they were sad they were heavy with grief
a Mariner near his port rowleth up his sails or as a piece of cloth rowled up one turn more and we are turned into the grave What then It remaineth that they that buy be as if they possessed not and they that have inheritances by Lot also be as if they enjoyed them not they that have wives as if they had none for the fashion of this world the Scheme the Mathematick figure of this world passeth away Was it not this which cast Solomon into such a sleep He offended by women though the wisest King So Mat. 24. 37. They eat they they drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some observe It is a word used most properly of beasts living sensually in the delights of the slesh they feed themselves without fear as the Apostle Jude hath it out of measure and so in time there is a season for all things c. make not provision for the slesh c. O that there were more sobriety brethren and moderation among us appearing among us there would not be so much sleeping 6. Take heed of any sin unrepented of of continuing in it for surely that will damp the soul and cast it into a sleepe as you see in the cafe of Jonas David the brethren of Joseph O specially of such sins as stupifie and seal and harden sins of a high hand and against light against mercy with a high hand these are dangerous 7. Be often stirring up your selves as the Apostle speaks to Timothy stir up the grace of God that is in thee the gift in thee as fire under the ashes A man that is drousie had need to shake himself as Sampson did Ah brethren there is a carnal mind in us all which is death it deadens all that is good within us And except we do often stir up our selves labour to keep upon our hearts some quickning Considerations to press them home to hold them to the soul we shall do what we can we shall sleep or at least slumber And beg with David O quicken me according to thy word Alas life is his and all quickning and renewing grace is his therefore we should lye much before him for this mercy if we would not sleep indeed So much for this Use The next Vse of the Doctrine shall be an awakening word It may be brethren many of us that have this word alas are asleep and had need to be shaken and O that the Lord would even do it for us Alas It is not our word will do it it dyeth in the Ear and goeth no further as a bullet whose force is spent dyeth reacheth not the mark except the Lord add an Almighty force to it it will do nothing But I shall endeavour alittle this work by offering some considerations to you You that lye upon your beds 1. Remember in the first place that if Jesus Christ come while you are in this sleep you will be found unready what do you think that a sleeping will put your hearts into frame to meet the Lord Jesus with Surely no One of these two things will befal you either your works will be quite undone you will have your grace to get when you should enter into glory or never Or else if you have it not to get you will not have it in its brightness and lustre as Ornaments upon you ready to open to him to enter with him either your Lamps will be out or else they will be to trim when you should enter O that the Lord would inforce this Argument and his own exhortation Luke 12. 35. Stand ready therefore with your loyns girded and your Lamps burning wayting for his coming that you may be ready Do you think this can be comfortable to you 2. Do but consider seriously what danger we are in when we sleep when we give sleep to our eys and settle our selves to it when we strive not against it First The Philistims will be upon us as they were upon poor Sampson If Satan and our hearts can but sing us asleep then the Philistims are upon us as they were upon him and at last you see how sadly they destroyed him you see what danger Saul was in when he was asleep David might have taken his life from him And Sisera by a poor woman perished when asleep And so Ishboshâ—th when asleep Surely brethren the devil never lulls us asleep believe it but he hath some desperate design upon us which he cannot do when we are awake What danger were the Disciples in when they were sleeping when they should have prayed they were just entring upon the pikes and they were asleep and see what fearful work there was they were all scattered from him and Peter how fearfully he denyed him Could Satan think you ever have brought Lot to that wickedness if he had not been fast in a deep sleep It was strange sleepiness in him to drink so much of the wine Excess overthrew him Surely brethren if ever there were an hour of temptation this is one If it might be tolerable at any other time yet not at this for hell is broke loose the devil is come down and hath great wrath because his time is short O how he hunts after poor souls and who are so like to be drowned as poor creatures asleep Secondly Then God usually doth for sake a soul if he fall asleep As you see in the Canticles her beloved was gone he wayted upon her a great while she would not awake when she got up he was gone O what a sad case was Saul in When God had forsaken him answered him not by Vrim or Thummim and the Philistims were upon him it made him out of his wits almost Ah dear friends If the Lord being provoked by our unkindness giving our selves to sleep do let loose sin this or that lust upon us to worry us And himself depart and stand and see what the latter end will be this will be sad thou cryest to him he will not hear but is as one asleep to thee because thou wast as one asleep to him O what will you do in this day Thirdly Then he is least able to act grace when he hath most need of it because the spirit is withdrawn from him Jesus Christ is departed from him he cannot resist a sleeping he hath no strength A weak woman may drive a nayl through the Temples of a most valiant General then O what advantage hath Satan against us and sin against us The least temptation then 〈◊〉 too hard for us we have no strength to resist come what will come we are naked to receive the thrust And but that the Lord stays the hand of Satan that it shall not reach the heart how quickly would he give such sleeping souls their deadly wound 3 Consider yet further how we put the Lord Jesus to it to prick us and stir us up lest we should lye sleeping and sleep the sleep of death They say the Eagle will
Jesus knoweth it and he will acknowledge it O he is strict to mark what is good if but a little spark in much smoak or under much ashes when to all mens thinking the life is gone he seeth there is somewhat alive and awake within a Seed of God within and he will take notice of it for the comfort of his poor people If ever in any example we would have thought men had slept will and all we would have thought so of the Disciples that notable example that being so often shakt with such sharp and shameful rebukes yet they should forth with be asleep again as if they had not 〈…〉 heeded Jesus Christ at all yet at last when they came to themselves and could sleep no longer for the enemies were upon them Now sleep if you can lest this should too sorely assail them that they had slept so soundly under such awaking means as they had and be swallowed up of to much grief O saith our Saviour the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak he knew their Consciences would be ready to load them and Satan would help forward their overwhelming grief they wist not what to say to him nor for themselves and therefore our Saviour himself letteth them know that there was some willingness within them the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak and that he took notice of it and accepted according to what they had and not according to what they had not where there is a willing mind O here is comfort indeed to have to do with such a Master such a father such a Bridegroom as both knoweth and that little willingness that is in sincerity in his peoples hearts not to sleep though they themselves could not say so he puts an answer into their mouths to Satans accusing and the smitings of their own hearts and a plea in their mouths to himself to prevail with him for pity and sparing of them Remember this that though sleep and slumber and many woful interruptions are in thy service of God yet remember Jesus Christ he hath served without any such slumbrings and such imperfections and this is thine he will render unto man if he do acknowledge to God he hath sinned that is to say freely feelingly faithfully acknowledge it Ah brethren it was a time of prayer and a duty for the Disciples to pray when our Saviour prayed but they were all asleep if now their righteousness peace and salvation had depended upon themselves where had it been or if Jesus Christ had slept as well as they where had it been but he was wrestling and praying for himself and for them in himself at that time he never was heavy in his prayers he never fell asleep nor slumbred neither with this spiritual slumber he fulfilled all righteousness to a tittle O then remember this brethren this must be the ground of our grace and comfort you must have it in another and not in your selves And magnifie this rich grace of God in Jesus Christ that hath laid up for such poor sleeping sinners such a watchful Ordinance 6. Another word may be this though it be true in thy sleep thou art in great danger as you heard before which indeed is enough to alarm us continually yet if we do strive and stir up our selves aâ—d yet are overcome though sore against our wills and so are in danger of some deadly blow are weak and feeble and the least temptation may smite us to the ground much more then dreadful temptations and without all question Satan never lulls us asleep but he hath a design upon us to take away our life our God our Christ our peace our comfort our strength from us Yea to smite us to the ground at once and smite us no more As Abishai said to David and as he begged he might have leave so doth the Devil even beg O how fain he would have leave to smite us then as he moved the Lord against Job so continually this accuser and enemy whose work it is to devour O when he findeth such a prey how edged is his appetite but remember this for thy comfort and say not surely Satan will smite me to the heart at one time or another poor trembling soul the Lord that keepeth Israel and watcheth them he never slumbreth nor sleepeth Indeed if the Lord had slept as we are apt to think he doth when he with-holds from us his quickening or comforting presence for a time and were apt to cry out as I may say to awake him yet he never sleepeth he watcheth and wards many a secret thrust and blow that when we are asleep poor creatures we cannot be aware of and though thou mayest grieve him by a sloathful spirit and he may make thee smart other ways for it yet surely he wiâ—l not give up the life of dear Saints the price of this life of his dear dear Son to the will of Satan No they were bought at too dear a rate 7. Again O what a comfort it is to a child of God that he hath to do with such a Christ such a Bridegroom the wise Virgins belong to are espoused to as when they do sleep is willing to take so much pains to awaken them This indeed it should grieve us so much the more that we should put him to it yet it is a comfort and no weak one neither that he is willing to be at suh pains with us to awake us How long doth he stand at the door and knock before they will open they lye asleep still he cals them with the sweetest compellations My love my dove my undefiled O thou dear and precious soul it is I thy dear Saviour It is I whom thy soul loveth wilt thou rise and open to me I am wet with the dew of the night canst thou finde in thy heart to put me to stand without and induâ—e the cold and the injuries of the night and weather and keep me out of thy heart the place which I have chosen for my habitation and wherein is all my delight O what workings of his bowels are here one would think this were enough to awaken No yet she shifts and maketh excuses and very frivolous ones as people will when they are not very willing of a thing Well now a man would have thought the Lord Jesus might have been justly grieved so as to depart and leave her sleeping No saith the Text He came nearer and put his hand in at the hole of the door Poor souls he s 〈…〉 eth that the spirit is willing the flesh is weak that is to say So far as carnal we are weak the strength of the flesh maketh us weak and nothing else will do therefore he is fain to come and take her by the heart to touch her heart to begin to unbolt the door himself he cometh in some nearer sweeter powerful breathings of his spirit within that now she is overcome and
thee for the time past yet now sure I am I love thee and that love preferred Jesus Christ before his life If the heart be but upright if there be never so little at first yet it will grow it will continue the Seed of God will abide And if never so much if the heart be not right it will fall short of heaven as these Virgins they went far Well the Lord give us understanding in these things Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 WE have done with the former member that is to say the foolish Virgins trimming their Lamps going so far in a profession of Christ and yet fail when all is done Now we are to consider the second member included in this general and that is that Believers are now to trim their Lamps the wise Virgins were now to do it as well as the foolish the real as well as the formal professor I will only briefly note two things from this clause of the Verse First That though a Believers profession may decline and grow low and that towards his latter end or after he hath long professed Jesus Christ yet it is not altogether extinct it wants trimming indeed but it is not out with the foolish Virgins 2. When this profession groweth thus low it is the Believers duty to renew it to trim up his Lamp Of the first in the first place wherein are comprehended three notes which for brevity sake I wrap up into one partly because some of them have near affinity with what hath been already delivered and partly because I would not dwell too long upon the Text. First then That a Believer his profession may decline and grow low and need a renewing 2. That it may come to this pass after he hath long professed or near the time of his Calling for And 3. That yet notwithstanding it is not extinct altogether as the profession of the foolish is of which afterwards A word or two briefly to each of these First That a Believers profession may decline which is somewhat of kin to what we spoke before and therefore the less here The Lamp may grow low First then The light which appears to be in the Saints may grow low It may admit of mixtures sometimes of darkness which much dimmeth the light I mean they may be much corrupted in their judgements and turned aside from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ this is clear in the Galathians their â—ase ye did run well who hindred you what was the matter It was an errour and a gross one crept in among them to set up the Law and Moses with Christ as necessary to Justification and Salvation What aâ—mist is here about the Lamp this made it twilight with them 2. The lightsomness and joy of faith this also may wear away in great measure yet not altogether the faces of the Saints do shine by a reflexion of the countenance of God upon them as the face of Moses did when he had been with God in the Mount but alas though they walk long in the light of his countenance may it not be lost as we find the Psalmist complaining Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation he had it before but now he had lost it both which are implyed in that word restore And do we not find it in that 50. of Isaiah Who is there among you that walks in darkness and sâ—eeh no light Where is the lightsomness of the Lamp then the pleasant paraphrase upon the works of the grace of Christ in their souls so that they can see nothing at all Look what comfort it is to have a â—ight or a Lamp in the darkest night such comfort it is to have the smiling presence of the Lord. But now this is lost thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Gods face was clouded and his face was covered 3. Believers as they may lose in a great measure their joy of faith so may they lose their confidence of hope so that they may be ready to say many times their hope is even perished from the Lord and hath God forgotten to be gracious and will he be merciful no more this you may see in many cases of the Saints David I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul O I shall never see through this world of wickedness that is in mine heart but sooner or later I shall be swallowed up by it 4. A Believer may lose the degrees of those graces which are radical and which indeed more principally are like the oyl in the vessel yet that may grow low and then no marvel if the Lamp which is fed by them do grow low also As that of their faith how low may they grow in faith Indeed our Saviour hath prayed that their faith fail them not altogether but in a great part it may decline We see it in Asa one while he could trust in God when a great hoast of the Ethiopians and Lybians come against him By by when he was not so hard put to it he rests upon the King of Assyria for which the Lord reproveth him by the Prophet Where was Petersâ—aith â—aith when a little carnal fear turned him aside in so sad a manner and indeed it is the want of faith in the people of God that is the very root of all those turnings aside from the Fountain to the broken Cistern from God to the creature And so that of love as well as faith faith works by love and this also may deâ—line You find the Church of Ephesus She had left her first love and that Angel of the Church also he had it may be heretofore been full of love to Jesus Christ and that love very laborious in feeding the Flock of Christ but now his love was remitted May not every mans heart Seal to this that the Love of his Espousals to the Lord Jesus the love of our youth those springing affections are gone 5. Another is this A Believer may lose the fervor of all those holy affections that he hath had his desires his delight and joy his anger and hatred against sin loathing and abomination time hath been we could have cryed out for the living God their souls break for the longing they had to God but now the Chariot wheels drive more heavily We have felt sometimes the babe springing in the womb but now we can hardly feel in our affections languish towards Jesus Christ Solomon once had a zeal for the house of God when he laid out himself in building a house for his name but what was become of that zeal when he could build a house to Chemosh the God of the Moabites in favour of his Moabitish wives where was his zeal then So Laodicea was grown luke-warm theywere hot at first 6. The outward acts of grace they may be remitted which indeed are a great part of the profession It is not a bare confessing Jesus Christ the Lord with
loiâ—â—r nor stay in what he had received but pressed hard forward toward the mark of the priâ—e of the high calling he that aimeth short even at so much as will serve his turn and compass his design when he hath done that there is an end But I aâ—m at perfection saith the Apostle and so should we if we would keep our Lamps alive never rest 8. Be much in prayer pray hard for the supplies of his Spirit he hath promised them if we ask importunity will prevail if we be Strangers much more if Children it is the spirit that keepeth all alive and therefore pray for more and more of this Spirit of Jesus Christ See how Moses followeth the Lord with request upon request when he had been in the Mount and seen him face to face one would think this was enough to have stopped his mouth for a great while no sooner was he come down but he is praying for the guidance of that good Spirit O Lord shew me the way where in thou wouldst have us to go well God grants him this this satisfieth him not but he must have Gods presence with him an Angel would not serve his turn but his presence he must have and when this was granted this would not serve his turn neither but then O Lord shew me thy glory Prayer is the richest trading for heaven Build up your selves praying in the holy Ghost Ah it is the prayer of faith that fetcheâ—h in rich supplies from the Lord continually 9. Take heed of grieving this good Spirit then when we have his presence by any willing transgression this grieveth him our unthankfulness and slighting of him minding the world grieve him not for if he depart be sure our Lamps will be but in a sad taking 10. Then every day we must be trimming the Lamps of the Sanctuary were drest or trimmed every day he made them well as the Original word signifieth they were disordered burning every night there was somewhat wanting oyl and raising the week likely and removal of dross from them which they might contract he drest them and made them ready every morning the morality implied in this Type surely is this that we should daily dress up our Lamps they will need it every day renew our repentance renew our resolutions our walking clos 〈…〉 r with God to love him c. daily endeavour to draw nearer to him neglect your Lamps but a week or so and see what fearful work there will be Again such then as can say with Moses they have lived thus long and their sight fails not nor their strength c. They have great cause to bless the Lord. But though a Child of God is thus apt to decline his profession thus apt to grow dim his Lamp to want trimming yet it never goeth altogether out And what use should we make of this 1. It reproveth that opinion of falling away utterly from justifying and renewing grace the condition of all believers is here set down by the state of the wise virgins their Lamps indeed did decay and suffer an impairing but not altogether dye No this spring of grace once sprung in the heart springs up to eternal life though some interruptions there may be did he pray that Peters faith should not fail him and did he not pray for all believers indeed his faith did as near fail him as ever mans did but yet it revived again and so David and others 2. Yet do not abuse this Doctrine of grace as our hearts are exceeding apt to do If we cannot fall away utterly then if once Be sure we have the root of the matter in us if once we have Oyl in our vessels it will never be altogether spent our Lamps will never be blown out This is dangerous and next to desperate and therefore the Apostle in a like case with a kind of abhorrency at the thought of such a thing speaks thus shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid because he hath made us partakers of the sure mercies of David that will never fail shall we therefore neglect our worthy walking of them it argues a very ungodly frame of heart where this is to be found We should the rather be encouraged our hands strengthened to work out our salvation with so much the more earnestness were it not a very unchild-like and wretched frame of heart for a child to say Well I know my fathers heart towards me let me do what I will he will not cast me out of doors his inheritance is sure he may haply be mistaken and prove himself a Bastard and not a Son And so it is here Gods Children have all of them such child-like dispositions in them as they will hardly dare to make such an use of such a rich treasury of grace Or if they do they are like to smart for it 3. A word of strong Consolation to many a poor drooping soul If once thou have but grace in thy heart the oyl in thy Vessel it is never lost again though in its own nature it be loseable Thou art afraid some temptation or another from Satan the world or thy own heart will blow it out some blast or other will wither thee O thou shalt never be able to keep thy Lamp burning in the midst of so many contrary winds of lust and corruption but though thou canst not keep it alive the Lord can do it and he will do it Indeed while the Virgins slept for any care they took of their Lamp it might have gone out but the Lord kept it burning though it were but low and needed dressing Be of good courage then poor drooping foul and he shall strengthen thy heart didst thou ever know of any that had this oyl in their vessels that had the real work of grace upon them that did quite extinguish and dye surely thou didst not If the Lord do but seal it up to thee that thou art one of the wise Virgins believe it for thy everlasting comfort thy Lamp shall never be put out in obscure darkness 4. What shall we render to the Lord for this unspeakable grace towards us how hath he lifted up our condition above innocency it self in Adam he was made liable to fall away and the Lord did not engage himself to keep him we are made now in the second Adam in a surer Condition we have a better tenure in Jesus Christ which is the root of our stedfastness and standing because he liveth we shall live If Jesus Christ could die any more then might the Saints that are in him dye again altogether when once they are implanted into him O he liveth for ever and that Spirit of Christ which liveth and dwelleth in his people it never dyeth and faileth and he hath made it the very tenure of his Covenant he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him We it may be that
know not what it is to be almost gone and blown out at the brink of obscure darkness know not what that mercy is but such as have been made to believe that God would cast them into the bottomless pit that he would utterly destroy them and forsake them O how sweet a truth must this needs be that though their flesh and heart fail them yet God will never fail them whatever he may seem to do for a season but so much for this Doctrine The second Doctrine is this When a Believers profession groweth so low and he is declined specially at such a time it is his duty to trim his Lamp to renew his profession to look after a restoring So here they arose and trimmed their Lamps when the Cry came and this did the wise Virgins as well as the foolish Concerning the foolish Virgins I have nothing here to say nor shall I trouble my self or you with what haply might be spoken of the Hypocrites trimming his Lamp wherein it differs from the Believers The wise Virgins trimming I have spoke the last-day to that purpose shewing how far they might go But I will speak here to the wise Virgins because I would not dwell too long upon these things So you find Solomon his declinings were great and that at his latter end but he arose again and repented as appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs c. written after this his backsliding as is generally conceived And so the Church of the Philippians their love and care of the Apostle suffered a nipping a winter and had ceased to flourish as formerly but they renewed it again It hath flourished it again saith the Apostle Eurychus may fall down and almost beat his life out of him but it is still in him and there must be means used to draw it forth as there is pains taken with Trees that have a fit of barreness come upon them Spiritual life runs to the heart and there appears little or nothing without sometimes as conquered men do from their outworks to the Tower but it must be brought forth again we have a command for it to those two Churches in the Revelations Sardis had a name to live and was dead likely the most of them were dead and yet there were some things remaining which were ready to die and these must be strengthened the things which remain which were ready to die for their works were not perfect before God O it was hypocrisie that did eat them out of their life of Godliness it s a consuming thing indeed And so the Church of the Laodiceans their love was waxed Luke-warm neither hot nor cold neither dead altogether nor lively now saith the Lord be zealous therefore and repent But you will ask me here What it is to trim these Lamps that is here required I will speak but to two or three particulars First then In the trimming of the Lamp there is usually a supply of the Oyl if it wanted as when it hath burned long if it be not supplyed the oyl being spent it will not live except it be supplied And it was high time for these Virgins now to be awaked hereunto they might else have slept until all had been spent and the Lamp had gone out as well as the foolish grace being but a Creature it liveth by a continual supply of the Spirit of grace the first cause of it So then in the trimming of the Lamp there must be a fetching in of more grace a recourse to the fulness that is in Jesus Christ for the Lamp is ready to languish or dye else for want of oyl 2. There is a stirring up also of the grace which doth remain some oyl remaineth that must be made ready the ready passage between the Vessel and the Lamp the heart and the conversation it must indeed be cherished for being little haply it is ready to dye like a spark among much ashes stir up the gift that is in thee there is none that stirreth up himself to lay hold upon God The wick in the Lamp must be raised it being burned low so it is in this case It may be in such a declining condition of a poor soul there is more grace lying deep and low lying asleep in the habit more then the soul is aware of this must be stirred up faith stirred up and love to Jesus Christ and his people stirred up 3. In the trimming of the Lamp there is a taking away the filth and the dross that it gathers and snuffing the wick which would hinder the light and burning of it that it would be very dull and dim Now what is this brethren but the putting away those iniquities repenting of those evils whatever they have been that have thus far prevailed against their profession that security that carnality that self-confidence those things which laid them asleep which choaked the Lamp that it could not burn Whenever we are under any declining do but search and see commune with your own hearts and you will find there is some evil which lies close some soil we have gathered and hereby the spirit of grace hath been grieved and he is departed from us Now this snuff must be taken off deal not gently with it this filth and dross must be removed if we would trim up our Lamps For the Application then of this briefly in a word It may serve to stir us up every one to this duty If our Lamps be at present or shall hereafter come under any declining Alas brethren do we not slumber and sleep often and neglect all this while the trimming of our Lamps and will they not quickly burn low and dim and need a serious trimming of them I doubt this duty will be incumbert upon us and required of us oftner then we are aware of Do we know how soon the Bridegroom will come his voice goeth before him we have often heard but have we trimmed our Lamps to this day are our professions more glorious then formerly And for Motives hereunto consider First Such a restoring is a thing feizable hough the duty be thine yet the work is Gods he engageth to help yea to do it indeed he restoreth my soul saith David and it is for his own name sake for the glory of his Grace David had many decays and backslidings witherings and faintings but God restored his soul still and he is as ready to do it for his people now as ever he was therefore do not say alas this is a work too difficult or hard or there is no recovery my Lamp is so near extinct as there is no hope for me he that kindled it at first is able to restore it It is indeed a work of some difficulty and will cost you something but yet it is feizable Peter was at as low an ebb as ever poor Believer was what was become of his profession and yet Peter is recovered and after the recovery
world What comfort had Judas of his thirty pieces of silver when God opened his conscience and let him see his condition what an hypocritical dissembling wretch he had been to betray the Lord of life and glory with a kiss a sign of love and a bloody traiterous heart to sell his Saviour whom he had followed so long and acted by commission from him so long and his Master that had never done him hurt but good to sell him the Lord of life and glory for thirty pieces of Silver O this could not but gall and cut him to the heart the Devil helped him to a booty indeed but God added this sorrow with it Indeed of all sins God hath not revealed himself so terribly against any in Scripture as this and therefore when the soul cometh to see it that hath any knowledge of the terrors of the Lord displayed against it he must needs be for the present in a hell above ground this shall they have of my hand saith the Lord they shall lie down in sorrow Yea and sometimes he anticipates their death and they live in sorrow and wo and misery God doth as I may say set a mark upon them as upon Cain Secondly That they might be warnings to others for ever to take heed of Hypocrisie for when men that regard the work of the Lord and consider the operation of his hand shall behold a Judas hanged up in Gibbets being made a Magor Missabeb to himself doth it not preach aloud this Caution to take heed and beware of hypocrisie these things saith the Apostle were written for our ensamples that we might not do as they did so are these things acted for our ensamples that we might take heed or if they have not such terrors but their professions are blasted only and wither and they prove fearful creatures their latter end worse then their beginning is not this a warning written in Capital Letters that he that runs may read O take heed of rottenness at the root for all our fruit will give up as the dust as the Apples of Sodom we shall wither and come to nothing and go out like a snuff as well as them if we be not sound at the heart Thirdly It may be a stumbling block to some others who are ready to receive any prejudice against the ways of Christ and therefore they shall have a block to stumble upon O here you see what becometh of this preciseness and flourishing profession of Religion it is all but rotteness at the root it is better to take on fair and softly a soft pace in religion saith the Moralist or civil honest Man as good continue in a meer wallowing as being washed to enter into it again yea better saith the profane man and therefore he satisfieth himself in his carnal state which is wosul for suppose some professors wither yet do all Some they keep their leaf it shall never fail some lose their verdour but recover it again and what if some wither will you therefore offend against the generation of the upright saying they are all of the same stamp God forbid It is a sad thing to consider how many poor hearts are hardened in sin upon this very account which addeth to the Hypocrites doom but what if a discovered Hypocrite be so vile the condition so dangerous is not their own as dangerous if thou be prophane and a worker of iniquity there is no more entrance into glory for a Dog or Swine then for a Goat no more for workers of iniquity that professedly commit iniquity then for them who profess longer do much in his name and yet when all cometh to all they are found but workers of iniquity though secretly but so much for the second The third and last thing considerable in the Observation is That many times it is too late when Hypocrites are discovered to themselves this is plain in the Parable for the foolish Virgins all the time of the getting oyl in their vessels they complain not not see their want of it nor the going out of their Lamps but only when it was too late for before they could get it the gates were shut We must not here understand it generally of all Hypocrites as if none might be discovered to themselves while there is hope and so as to recover themselves for then it would follow they should none of them be pardoned for the Lord Jesus is the Prince exalted to give repentance and remission of sins Now if they never come to know themselves to be guilty of this great evil even their hypocrisie how should they repent of it and if they repent not of it how should it be pardoned It is true indeed there may be hypocrisie in a Child of God which he may acknowledge only in the general among his secret sins which he knoweth not of but I think where hypocrisie is so raigning a sin as to denominate a man an Hypocrite he must surely come to the knowledge of it and acknowledge it before the Lord or else how can he hope of pardon for it now I say there is pardon for all manner of sins only that against the Holy Ghost excepted and therefore sure some Hypocrites God doth uncase and unmask and rip up and shew them the abominations of their hearts that they may mourn over them and mourn after Jesus Christ and loath themselves for it and so be pardoned therefore remember this lest if God should come now and open any painted sepulchre any rotten-hearted Hypocrite among us when we see our wound we should faint away for though many times it is so that God discovers it not to Hypocrites until it be too late yet sometimes he doth and the sin in it self is pardonable therefore there is hope concerning this thing in Israel But for the making good this assertion consider either they are discovered not until judgement or else not until death or else not until their day of grace â—e expired many times though it be before death 1. If they be not discovered to themselves until judgement God never reproveth them of their hypocrisie and sets it in order with all its circumstances and aggravations until the day of judgement when the secrets of all hearts shall be displayed and all the nasty corners of sinners souls all the hidden things of darkness then surely you will all acknowledge there is no remedy it is past help there remaineth nothing then but a fearful looking for of their doom and some may go down in peace to the grave that is to say not a peace of God but of Satan a security and stupidity of conscience knowing nothing of their fearful condition which others also which are not so much as Hypocrites may do 2. If it be not discovered until the day of death or the time of deaths approach then though not alway yet ordinarily I believe it is too late and that is not a time that ordinarily God is
is called a new creature to shew us the great transcendent power whereby Jesus Christ is formed in a soul It is the Fathers proper work through the Son by the Spirit the Father giveth it the Son purchaseth it the Spirit applyeth it and works it Create in me a clean heart O God renew a right Spirit within me saith David holiness is a creation and peace is a creation he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace a creation is of nothing or somewhat utterly unfit to receive such a form or being so that the fruit of the lips they are weak and cannot reach such an effect it is Gods Almighty power and the same power that raised up Jesus from the dead that must raise a dead soul to believe in Jesus Christ When Rachel would have of Jacob that which was beyond his power to give he saith Am I in Gods stead that I should give thee children So may the people of God and Ministers say to some sometimes who come to them as if they could give them peace or comfort and expect that as soon as ever they speak a word presently all their doubts and fears should be quelled and subdued no no it is too heavy a weight you lay upon them it is a thing above their reach This the second Thirdly If they were able to do it they have no authority no commission to do it and therefore they may not do it Jesus Christ was annointed for this very end to do the thing I come to do thy will O God in the 40. Psal and what is that will Why that none that the Father hath given him should be lost or perish but his blood and Spirit should be given to them grace and glory should be given to them this is the will of God even your Sanctification and this will he came to do it was that the Father designed him to to deliver his people from their sins therefore was the spirit poured out in such a full measure yea without measure upon the head of this our high-Priest that it might run down to the very skirt of his garment to the very lowest Christian that belongs unto him It is not every member in the body nor any other but the head which is made the seat of the animal Spirits to communicate them to the least and lowest member Now it is not what men are able to do but what they have Commission to do that is authentick If they were able there is no Commission the Lord Jesus only came Authorized to open the Prison doors to Preach deliverance and to give deliverance to the Captives This the third Fourthly If all these did concur in men yet they might want a heart when all is done and then all the rest would avail little to us in our necessity and though it be true the Saints do retain bowels of mercy and do put them on and long-suffering and patience yet alas how short-nostrilled are the best of the Saints in comparison of God Moses his patience was at an end yet the weakest man and had often interceded for them yet ye Rebels must we fetch water out of the rock for you though the murmuring was not against him but against God If a sinner put off getting grace and coming to Christ until the last our patience will hardly hold out so long let the power of my Lord be great as thou hast said c. herein our weakness doth much appear we are ready to cast off and give up men if they come not in quickly and if afterward they do come in we are ready to shut our hearts against them But if there were a heart yet there is no power and that will answer all therefore if we go to the creature for grace we are like to have a denyal Before we apply this or else as a part of the Application shall be to speak somewhat by way of satisfaction to a doubt This seemeth to cross the Scriptures are not the Saints bound to communicate one to another to do good forget not is not this of a larger sense then meerly giving a little of our estates to them if in want So again when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren saith our Saviour to Peter and how can you say then that if we go to the Saints for grace we are like to have a denyal To this I answer the Saints may and ought to communicate their experiences to others as their necessity requireth the humble shall hear hereof and be glad how when his soul made her boast in God And so again the Psalmist as a type of Christ He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mierie clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings he hath put a new song in my mouth c. And what then Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in God And so saith the Apostle That ye may comfort others with the comforts wherewith your selves are comforted of God this is doubtless a duty to communicate our experiences and also to exhort one another while it is called to day as the Apostle hath it and to reprove one another this is a duty but this is far from giving of grace For the more distinct understanding therefore of this note only two or three particulars 1. For any merit of our works we cannot give for indeed there is none at all If we deserve any thing at the hands of God it is wrath and ruine it is meer mercy we are not consumed every time we approach this consuming fire with our filthy garments upon us because his compassions fail not when we have done all commanded if we could do it we are but improfitable servants but alas how infinitely short do we fail of what is commanded in many things in all things we offend all for who doth any thing as he should our sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory there must be a proportion in merit now they are light that is weighty they are for a moment that is eternal and a far more exceeding and eternal weight Now no man can give that which he hath not 2. The glory of our works That we cannot give away that is the Lords that others may see them and glorisie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. 3. The influence of them upon others hearts That we cannot give neither we may speak and do plant and water but it it God that giveth the increase the husband-man may plough and sow and harrow but he cannot give the rain of heaven former and later he cannot give power to the seed to dye and rise again it is beyond his reach who can touch the heart but the Lord he is the God of the Spirits whose dwellings are with our spirits especially and he can fashion them as he pleaseth
bottle a broken cistern wherein no water is you shall have a denial from the Creature but Christ never denied any that came in the sense of his wants and waited upon him for supply and so much for this Lest there be not enough for you and us they might well doubt indeed whether there would be enough for themselves and them for even now their own Lamps had need of a supply though the form of words seem to carry a doubtfulness in them there might be enough and there might not yet I cannot believe but the wise Virgins knew full well and so they do know at this day that there is not enough for them and others This is most sutable to the Analogy of Faith in other Scriptures The Doctrinal Note from thence will be this There are none have any surplâ—sage of Grace or more then will serve their own turn They have none to spare lest there be not enough for you and us and that this is so other Scriptures plainly speak If the righteous scarcely be saved saith the Apostle the righteous be he as eminent as he may in righteousness and holiness yet he is scarcely saved so as through many difficulties many a hard pull he hath when all is ready to fail him but that God never fails him else all were gone His flesh and his heart fails him many times Strive to enter in at the strait gate saith our Saviour for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Suppose that some men strive more then others yet all will be little enough they shall hard and sharp be saved they have none to spare he that gathered much had nothing over saith the Text concerning the Manna though some are more industrious painful Christians then others yet they have nothing over the very Angels in Heaven that have such a fulness as no Creature on earth yet hath yet they cannot spare a jot of their fulness though they be so full not a jot of their holiness how much more we then First Let a man begin never so yong to look towards heaven as young Timothy and young Sam. and yet they shall not have any more then what is necessary for themselves to have a man would think he that beginneth so yong should in time grow to be exceeding rich in faith and good works that if there were any works of supererrogation these should be the men but yet we find not in Scripture any of them in so high a strain 2. If a man be never so earnest diligent and forward zealous for God though he serve the Lord instantly night and day yet shall he have no grace to spare David was a man of strong affections as most Christians and as warm they were toward God as strong were his desires after him and love to him as will appear by his spiritual breathings and was as much in following after God and after grace in so much that when he was debarred from the Tabernacle and Ordinances where he used to behold the goings of God the way of God his glorious power and grace when shut out from these how sadly doth he take on you may see then by the stir and disquietness of his heart in the interruption that he was strongly bent to follow after Christ and yet at the close of all had he any to spare Yea 3. Let a man continue so to the end if it were possible without any interruption in his growth and yet he shall have no grace to spare had the Apostle any to spare who was a man labored as abundantly as any other yea more then they all and yet he was nothing and when all was done he would be found in Christ not having his own righteousness upon him he had not yet attained the resurrection from the dead But then 2. For the opening of the Point let us note this also That though a Christian may have more gifts of Grace then may be sufficient for Salvation yet he never hath more especially saving grace then is needful I mean he hath none to spare a man indeed haply might spare some of his gifts but none of his Grace though it is true whatever Talents the Lord bestoweth to fit a man for his Condition his place he should be answerable to the Lord and so they are necessary to the fruitful carrying on of his Calling or Condition yet to heaven they are not so necessary but all the Grace a man hath is necessary for him so necessary as he can spare none especially that Grace which is more particularly a mans own if I may so call it and that is sincerity and uprightness of heart others do partake with us in the sweet effects of the other Graces of faith and love c. but the sincerity of all without the rest are nothing this is more especially our own and who is there that could ever say that he had so much uprightness of heart that he could spare any of it can a man spare any of his life this is the life of Religion and Grace 3. Another thing to make this out will be this The greatest Grace where it is given usually hath the greatest corruption to wrestle with a spring-tyde of Grace a spring-tyde of Corruption strong workings of the spirit strong lustings of the flesh and strong temptations such as many of us never knew what they meant so that a Child of God indeed that is proved knoweth that he hath little enough for himself though it may be God hath given him more then to many others where sin abounds Grace abounds may there not be temptations to exercise the strongest Faith Some Goliah-lust or another which requireth all their faith and humility and patience to encounter with it we never turned Gods treasuries of temptation to know what he hath in store for poor souls 4. Let a Child of God have never so much Grace here yet he fals short of the resurrection of the dead short of that pitch which he ought to aim at Indeed if men could reach this fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ and go beyond it then there might be some thoughts of having somewhat to spare but until then we are alway on the wanting hand sure alway under emptiness Now though some be so bold as to plead for a perfection in our days we see by a divine hand upon them they are let loose to all manner of wickedness and except that were the perfection I understand not what perfection they are capable of 5. When they have attained to the top and pitch brethren yet alas if God should enter into judgement with us we should never be able to stand as you have it therefore the Apostle would be found in him when he had done all surely then brethren if when all is done there is such an imperfection incompleatness as to justification and eternal life that we must go out of all deny
according to the meaning of the wise and foolish Virgins here but for that I shal leave it If that may be the meaning of the wise Virgins surely the foolish Virgins understood it not for it appears not that they went to him to buy but used some other impertinent endeavours as they went to the wise Virgins before and not to Christ Here is little ground for Papists to bottom their Doctrine of perseverance to be attained by their own industrie and pains for alway his price is not comprehended from being if it be from God from Jesus Christ it is alway excluded Come buy without money or without price as before except they purchase it of men But we may understand these words as many godly learned do for an upbraiding a mocking an Ironical consent as there are many instances in Scripture Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee but remember that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement And so that of Elijah he is a God cry aloud he is either in a journey or talking or some such thing that he cannot hear And so Micaiah spake to Ahab Go and prosper and the Lord shall deliver it into thy hand And that of Jesus to his Disciples sleep on now take your rest which is Ironical So as when Ahab would be humoured the Prophet speaks after his mind if so as it should seem he might perceive he spake not as he meant how long shall I adjure thee to speak nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord So these foolish Virgins they would have their grace from a creature and the wise answered them according to their humour and Ironically yield to them to send them to others though themselves had none to part with Aug. Ep. 120. and Calv. so understood them and so doth Beza and our Annot. The Note I would briefly hint to you from hence is this That such as trifle away the day of grace and are not serious in the work of getting grace the time shall come when they shall have none to pitty their misery If men may expect pitty or compassion from any it is either from the Lord who is a God of bowels and unspeakable unsearchable compassions Or else from the people of God who as the children of God do put on bowels of compassions as the Apostle speaks they are cloathod with bowels so that their compassions are eminent and to be seen by them that have to do with them but yet the time may come brethren if you now neglect so great salvation as is offered to you held out by Jesus Christ himself the Son of God speaking from heaven not froÌ„ the earth that you shall have no pitty from the Lord no nor from his people from God that is plain I will but name it because it may seem impertinent to the Text yet if it serve to no other purpose it may serve to shew us that the Saints if they do not pitty in some cases where it is evident the day of grace is past and men have wretchedly sinned it away that they have the Lord for their pattern for it therefore I mention it Then shall they call saith the Lord and I will not answer they shall cry c. I will mock when their fear cometh and laugh at their calamity Prov. 1. 26. It is spoken after the manner of men and sheweth the heavy aggravation of their misery that the Lord shall be so far from pittying them that he shall laugh at them So in the 2. Psal where the Annointed of God is lifted up upon Zion there are some that will not be bound will not have him to reign over them count it a bondage and a grievous one indeed the Lord shall laugh at them he shall have them in derision But for the people of God they expect it may be to be pittied in such a condition by them but they may meet with nothing but a mock though a holy one and indeed there is need of much holiness and in act too to mock and not to sin So here you see and so the Prophet by a spirit of Prophesie go and buy of them that sell But lest this may seem to be ground enough to build it upon because it is of doubtful interpretation therefore take another Scripture where he speaks of the Destruction of persecutors of the people of God such as Doeg was and there is the like reason for hypocrites when discovered undenyably and their Lamps gone out as here the righteous shall see it and fear and laugh at him when God should destroy him for ever and pluck him out of his dwelling place and root him out of the Land of the living then the righteous should see it and laugh at him have him in a holy derision yet with an holy awe of that glorious and fearful God who was so just in his judgements upon him And is it not just with God it should be so When such hypocrites have in their hearts despised the long-suffering and patience and tenderness of the Lord waiting upon them and made a mock and a jeast it may be at the intreaties of God at the earnestness of the Saints and their pressing so hard forward that now themselves in extremity should be mocked at by the people of God themselves This may be then in the first place a warning-word to all such trifling professors as all the while Jesus Christ stretcheth out his hands to them even all the day long they will not come to him they will sit under the shadow of their own gourd while it is green and not under the shadow of Jesus Christ they will sit by their own bottle their own cistern and not come to the Fountain which is opened for sins for uncleanness Remember Brethren there will come a day upon you wherein to the cutting and wounding of your souls you shall be sent to those empty things for comfort Papists will not now be perswaded but there is enough for them in their Church-treasurie and lay out their money upon them but when the Lord shall shew them their treasure is empty there is nothing in it it will not reach to pay the uttermost farthing no noâ— one farthing will it reach to pay then will the Lord and his people send such poor deluded souls to their Merit-mongers to their indulgences Now go to your treasurie of Merit for some sucker and râ—lief now go to your dry bottles see if there be any drop of water there to cool your tongues your inflamed souls with the displeasure of the Lord. As the Lord in the day of his peoples deistruction sends them to their Idols which they doted upon in a mocking way at their callings I will save you no more go to your Idols your gods that have eaten the fat of your sacrifices c. You have made lies
your refuge now go and shelter your selves under them now go and see whether your gourds will shade you from the scorching of the everlasting burnings O how this will grate and gall a guilty conscience every such word will speak confusion and hell to the very heart of a sinner and this is that you must expect You that now cannot down with a searching powerful Ministry can abide the shining but not the burning of a John Baptist that will deal faithfully with you but you must be daubed and bolstered up you must have such as will speak peace peace to you right or wrong the time will come when God shall shew you that this hath been the ruine and undoing of your souls and then in contempt and scorn you shall be sent to them Go now to your Parasite-Preachers when the consoience is all on a flame and you see your Lamps are gone out and the Bridegroom is ready to come and there is but a step between you and hell Ah the woful condition of such a soul then may the Lord and his people say Now go to your daubers now see if they can heal your breaches see if they can bind you up if they can cool you and quench you you shall have it of Gods hand to lye down in sorrow and then see whether your daubers with untempered morter shall lull you asleep O how grievous will this be from the Lord when they shall have nothing but derision from him and from his people Now the people of God will pitty you and pray for you but the time may come if you know not the things which belong to your peace in this your day that they shall laugh at you they shall in a mock a holy scorn send you to your false refuges for help Go to them that buy go to your flatterers see if they can comfort you 2. This then is a comfort to the people of God that are now guided by the holy Spirit to go to Jesus Christ to the Fountain indeed to hang their souls upon him replenish themselves still from his fulness as it is in that first of John because Brethren there will come a day of distinguishing between such as have made the Lord their hope their strength and such as have dallyed and trifled and as the one shall have a mock from God and from his people the Believer that hath been used to make the name of the Lord his refuge he shall then find acceptance find a free access What time I am afraid saith the Psalmist I will trust in thee dost thou not love to be flattered wouldst thou have thy soul dealt faithfully with and not gently as is said concerning Absolom happy art thou when others shall be sent to their broken Cisterns thou shalt be admitted to the Fountain to the fulness of Jesus Christ to which thou usually hadst recourse as the wise Virgins here they trimmed their Lamps they got a new supply of oyl but the foolish are sent to them that sell to their flatterers their Mountebanks their money-changers to see what they can afford them In such a time as this thou shalt come to the true Physitian to the high-treasurer of heaven c. Verse 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEre it seemeth they had no more wit then to go to buy of them that sell How difficult is it to beat a man off his creature-confidence and refuges which he hath for his soul For these foolish Virgins here they had kindled sparks of their own and walked in the light of their own sparks a great while and all that while it was an exceeding hard matter to perswade them to the contrary but their penny was as good silver as other mens to perswade a painted hypocrite while his paint lasts that he is but a Sepulchre and full of rottenness and no resting in that conditlon is as hard as to perswade a man that looks upon his money baggs he is a beggar But now a man would have thought when this Lamp had gone out and they saw their sparks of their own kindling would not endure to eternal life that then they should have bethought themselves of a higher born flame a higher principle that would endure to get that oyl and that fire from heaven that would aspire and never rest until it reached heaven my meaning is that when they saw the profession and form which they could by their industrie and parts work out of themselves went out and failed them they should have thought of going to a higher principle but what do they do they go to the creature you see to the wise Virgins for oyl there they have another repulse they had none to spare for them By this a man would have thought they might have taken a hint that sure it is not to be had then from the creature we must look higher if any creature could furnish us tht wise Virgins the Saints indeed could furnish us but we have knockt at their doors and it is not to be had there And do they now bethink themselves of going to Christ no not at all Let it be considered yet further that they had a very sharp blow to rap their fingers off the creature which a man would have thought should have made them afraid of ever laying hold upon an arm of flesh again for this Irony or holy mock of them go to them that sell if they understood it so was a reproof as full of Vinegar as can be As that of our Saviour sleep on now saith he take your rest now they are at hand let us go hence they had little list to sleep after such a reproof as that and yet we see these foolish Virgins are so stupid that this mock of them it beateth them not off at all but to the Creature they go still to try whether there be any oyl to be had among them that sell the flatterers and merit-mongers they think not of going to Jesus Christ And whence doth this appear brethren but first From our corrupt nature which hath departed from the Lord and is now ful of enmity to him and is loth to return to him so proud we are that as long as we can find any thing in our selves we will go no further but when we see our own gourd is withered our torrent is dried up such is the enmity of our wretched hearts to God in the way of his Grace that we would go any whither for succour rather then to God to Christ the Jews would not come to Christ that they might have life they might have it for coming for but they would not they would take any pains in their own works men will rather put themselves to any pennance mortifyings and maceratings of the flesh as the Papists some of them do will be at any charge for their indulgences from men rather then they will go to Jesus Christ Thus the Lord complains of his
to this readiness a making the calling and election sure by adding faith to faith and grace to grace as it is in that place of the Apostle Peter Then when Simeon had gotten Jesus Christ into this arms of his faith as well as of his body and saw his salvation with the eye of faith as well as of the body then he cryeth out Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Now he was ready to enter into glory And so the Apostle Paul had such a perswasion and therefore he was ready henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of glory c. 2. There goeth many times if not alway to this abundant entrance as a readiness or preparation to it an earnest waiting of the soul for its change a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better There is many a poor heart when the body of death weigheth them down and tryeth them groan earnestly and could be contented to dye that sin might dye with them As Sampson said let me even dye with the Philistians if no other way will destroy their lusts But alas when they are to seek in point of assurance they look upon death as a dark passage that leadeth them they cannot tell whither this maketh them fly back this kills those desires nippeth them as soon as they put forth they come to no maturity But now when a man hath the right art of believing notwithstanding his body of death he groans under as the Apostle that yet he is perswaded through Christ it is pardoned and shall be utterly dissolved and not hinder him then he can bless the Lord and desires with Paul to be dissolved So many of the Patriarks it is said of them they dyed full of daies satisfied with daies that is to say they lived as long as they desired they had now a desire to be at home knowing that while they are present in the body they are absent from the Lord from that near and sweet and full Communion with him whereof they have had a little taste and earnest but if they know not that they shall be present with him by departure but for ought they know more separate from them no marvel if they go to death with drawing back Yet I deny not but a child of God may be ready before he desire it And may desire it before he be ready for this entrance I say a child of God may be ready before he desire it as in the case before mentioned and upon other grounds as Hezekiah and David that I may declare thy power to this generation may be ready and not have such an assurance but he is not ready for an abundant entrance until the Lord come with a full sealing of his love to his heart 2. He may desire it before he be ready as in some passionate impatient fit as Elijah 1 King 19. 4. weary of his life the King persecuting him and thinking he should fall by his hand would have God take away his life from him but he had not yet done his work And so Job God had not yet done with him he must pass through more changes and prosper and flourish again and hold forth his name to that generation before he departed he had not done his work But I speak of the serious settled well-grounded frame of a Believers heart upon a sound perswasion of the Love of God in Jesus Christ and a knowledge that he hath finished his course then for such a one to wait for his change when the blessed hour will come is a part of readiness for an entrance an abundant entrance into glory But this is not the portion of every child of God many Suns set in a Cloud c. For the second thing which are the arguments of the point they are such as these First because else Gods work would be in vain he hath prepared an inheritance for the Saints a Kingdom prepared before the world was and his work upon our hearts what is it but to prepare us for this Kingdom as the Apostle speaks he that hath wrought us to this self-same thing is God he hath wrought us to it there is no suitableness between heaven and an ungracious heart a glorious Kingdom and a vile filthy spirit therefore the Lord takes much pains with us to purge us to himself to purifie us to adorn us with the rich graces of his Spirit and all is to work us to heaven to salvation to prepare us for this entrance and therefore when God hath done this shall his work be in vain surely no not a soul that is so wrought up by the Lord to a heavenly frame and temper and nature that shall miss of an entrance when it is thus prepared else Gods work were in vain the greatest work of God 2. Because else the Lord Jesus would fail of his purchase and prayer for his poople who did buy us at so dear a rate as his own most precious blood was it think you to suffer us for ever to be at such distances from him whom he so dearly loved did his love to us draw him out of heaven to us and will it not think you draw us to heaven to him he will not have his Spouse that he hath redeemed with his blood to be absent from him any longer then is needful for his Fathers glory and their good It is a fruit of his death and of his prayer Father I will that where I am there they may be for they are the fulness of Christ and he accounteth himself as I may say imperfect without them and therefore he will have them there Indeed Brethren so dear is the heart of Jesus Christ to his people that he would not suffer so long an absence at so great a distance from them but that there is a necessity in it though at his first pitching his love upon us he looks at nothing but notwithstanding all blackness and deformity and loathsomness his love overcometh all Yet before they come to this Communion and fellowship with him they must be purified with spices and odors as those were for the King of Assyria and for other holy ends 3. Because else the promise of God and hope of the Saints would fail and heaven and earth shall sooner fail then the word of promise Christ hath promised not only to give life but eternal life God hath promised to give not only grace but glory there is a Crown laid up in the purpose and promise of God and if they should miss of this they would be made ashamed of their hope now this cannot be the Psalmist prayeth that he might not be ashamed of his hope which is virtually a promise it shall not be never any yet were disappointed that hoped upon right grounds Indeed if men make Promises to themselves of heaven let them live after the imaginations of their hearts or whether they truly believe or
no their own promises may fail but Gods promises never fail nor a lively hope founded upon them 4. That the poor weary tossed afflicted people of God may have rest in the bosom of the Father and the Son and holy Spirit there remaineth a rest to the people of God they have not their rest here expect it not but either from within or without or both we have our troubles the world casteth them out as the off-scouring of all things they are the despised hated mocked people the song of the drunkard the laughing-stock of the world and therefore because they cast them out the Lord will receive them If we have not persecution without we shall have our exercises what between corruption and temptation and sometimes the terrors of God and sense of his wrath sometimes breaking bones hiding his face from us there is no rest until we come to enter with him now we lie among the pots but then we shall indeed be made glorious like the wings of a Dove in sulness Now this is agreeable not only to the truth but the goodness tenderness bowels of the Lord to his people that his poor afflicted People should rest with himself when he hath by these filings and scourings and siftings and turnings up and down made them meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light So much for the Arguments For the Application of this that they that are ready do enter into Glory First it serveth to shew the blessed condition that the diligent lively prepared soul is in heaven Gate is ready to receive such a soul the bosom of Abraham of Christ opened ready to receive him he shall enter they have this priviledge that many that profess Jesus Christ have not many shall seek to enter but shall not be able that strive not as he doth Blessed is that servant saith our Saviour that his master shall find watching shall find ready for his coming why he will not leave any such soul behind they shall all enter into glory how blessed a condition this is may appear by many considerations more 2. Such a soul as this cannot be surprized so far as he is ready he is never surprized surprizals are terrible if Jesus Christ had come without any warning upon the wiâ—e Virgins while sleeping it had been terrible to them though they might have entred with him also but if we be ready that day will not take us at unawares indeed if a child of God be once ready he cannot be altogether surprized more though in part he may if he carry it not the better he will be still habitually ready if not actually so the foolish Virgins were not They still have the root of the matter though it may be under ground and hid from their eys and is not this a blessed thing as often as you think of the coming of Christ to think now let my Saviour come when he pleaseth I am through rich grace ready for him A servant when his work is done a Spouse when her ornaments are put on and the house trimmed and all ready for her Bridegroom now come when he will I am ready for him before the thoughts of his coming are troublesom and painful now they are pleasant and delightful 3. When death comes how shall they lift up their heads with comfort because their Redemption draweth near O how will they be able to welcome death welcome Jesus Christ welcome the kingdom of heaven it is their entrance into a kingdom though it be bitter indeed and terrible to the wicked and though there be some reluctancy in nature against death and a Paul would rather be cloathed upon then dissolved and since it is the birth of sin that brought it into the world no marvel if Grace it self have no delight in it yet considering that it is an entrance though narrow and pinching into Heaven into Glory the Saints that are ready for it they can bid it welcom As a poor weary tossed Marriner can bid his Port welcome though there may be some fear of Rocks or the like in his landing 4. Are they not blessed souls that shall enter that now all their distances between them and Jesus Christ shall be done away now he whom your souls loved and longed for yea your souls have many times broken within you for the longing for him now he cometh to take you to himself that you may be with him near him alway in his bosom Is not this a blessed Condition what tends all your striving and running and fighting your wrestling praying and weeping to but this now the end of your hope the salvation of your souls cometh upon you blessed yea for ever blessed is such a soul if Christ and heaven the Father Son and Spirit enjoyed in an unspeakable bosom-communion will not speak a man blessed nothing will but thus much for this first 2. Then methinks brethren now we should be putting the question to our own hearts now whether we be ready or no O here is blessedness indeed you cannot but judge that man or woman though a man of sorrow while in the world haply through temptations and a heavy body of death yet that shall enter in Glory when all is done sure you cannot but judge this man a blessed man that is ready for it for he and he only shall enter And can it be but you should reflect now and enquire of the Lord and of your own hearts Lord am I ready for this coming of Jesus Christ or am I not for one of the two I am Dear friends I shall not use any more arguments to you but these two or three considerations 1. How uncertain this coming of Christ to you to call for you is do you know when he will appear do you know brethren whether you shall be warned again called upon again to prepare for his coming this may be the Cry it may be the Cry is past with many of you already is it not high time to awake to look about you to consider whether you be ready or no 2. To consider That there will be then no time given to prepare If you be ready well and good you enter if not you are shut out as afterward we shall speak O then how can we satisfie our selves and quiet our Consciences with an ignorance how it is with us It is high time surely brethren to enquire 3. Except we do enquire we are not likely to take a course to make ready he that thinketh he is ready or careth not whether he be ready or no if he be unready now he is like to be unready for such a man will not set about the work O that the Lord would therefore perswade you this day to consider with your selves are you ready or are you not 4. There is very great need of this enquiry because alas many are ready and think they are unready and then cannot have the comfort of their Condition except
no more to do then will give you leave to maintain your communion with God and make sure of the main thing to get your souls ready and keep them ready for the appearing of Jesus Christ O that we would be perswaded to this end to have every day some converse with this his coming and to labour to work the thought of it upon our hearts that accordingly we may be affected with it as we find our selves ready or unready and so be carried out to make provision for it And how should we willingly submit to any dealings of God with us that tend to make us ready Therefore the Apostle would have them count it all joy when they fell into many temptations or trials this is the knocking of the torch this is the snuffers which must take off the wick of our Lamps and so trim them up we shall find one day we have more cause to be thankful for our afflictions if sanctified then for the contrary dispensation I do verily think there is nothing here below helpeth us forward more And labour to see all working together for this great end that we may be found ready at the appearing of the Lord Jesus And labour for a readiness for an abundant entrance into Glory As the Apostle exhorts them And though at present thou canst not find thou art ready be not discouraged for thou mayst be ready in a good part and for the main and yet not know that thou art ready only stick not here let not fear so overcharge thee as to hinder thee and weaken thy hands but make it thy work with thy whole might to make ready for his coming pray hard study thy heart much stir up thy soul and the graces that are there though much corruption do appear the ashes fly about their ears in this searching yet search and try and yet not so much blow the little spark as to blow it out but labour to cherish it increase it O Lord increase our faith then corruption will down then communion with Christ will rise higher and higher for it is with us indeed according to our faith therefore whatever we do take heed of what weakens our faith of discouraging desponding thoughts study promises the necessity of God in Christ O the unsearchable treasures of comfort that are in every promise in every letter of his Name Labour to live by faith brethren and as that groweth all the rest will come on and thou wilt come at last to be sensible that thou dost believe to feel it and know it and then thy readiness for Christ will be more then ordinary and thy entrance abundant into this Glory The next thing we are to consider in this coming of Christ is that they went in with him to the marriage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The note will be this That such as are ready for the coming of Jesus Christ they go in with him to the Marriage with the Bridegroom Here is to be noted then 1. The Marriage and 2. The going in with Christ the Bridegroom to the Marriage and some what said for the opening of them And then we shall confirm the Doctrine and apply it First The Marriage here what is meant by that Here then by Marriage we may understand a Marriage-feast the consummation of the Marriage and the Marriage-feast made in token of joy nothing was more ordinary then this at Marriages to make feasts As in the example of Sampson at his Marriage they made a feast And so Laban made a feast of seven daies long for the Marriage of his daughter fulfill her week and then I will give thee the other also And so again in Cana of Galilee you see they were at a Marriage-feast So now at the Mariage of the Lamb of the Lord Jesus there is a feast a Marriage-feast Yea but you will say this is not ground enough to understand here by the Marriage a Marriage-feast for they are distinct things It is true they are distinct but yet in ordinary practice they were not separated one from another but went so together that usually in Greek and Latin the Feast is comprehended under the word for Marriage if not principally signified in many places So in that of Laban he made a Feast saith the seventy Interpreters he made a Marriage So there was a Marriage in Cana of Galilee that is to say a Marriage-feast was made there And so it seems the Syriach renders it usually in the New Testament by a Feast as Grotius upon this place and Matthew in the beginning noteth Therefore here by Marriage we will understand a Marriage-feast So Esther 1. 3. The King made a Marriage-feast Now the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Feast both the kingdom of Grace and the kingdom of Glory The kingdom of Grace is a Feast and a rich Feast full of royal dainties as you may find by several Scriptures In that of Matthew The Kingdom of Heaven shall be compared to a certain King who made a Marriage for his Son which the Syriach well terms a Marriage-feast or Banquet which Matthew cals a Dinner and Luke cals a Supper and indeed it is both for the Father Son and Spirit do come in and dine and sup with us they do continually eat bread at his Table as Mephibosheth did at Davids Table 2 Sam. 9. 7. So it is clear Behold I make a Feast of fat things of wine on the Lees a Feast to all Nations what is that but the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Ordinances thereof and Christ held forth in them to be a Feast to every one that will come to him as the carkass is to the Eagles as the Lord sometimes in Scripture invites the fowls of heaven to a Feast he maketh for them that is to say to the dead carkasses of his enemies but here to the carkass of his Son who is slain for Sinners a crucified Christ is the carkass he is the fatted Calf indeed he is the kidneys of the wheat the fat the finest of it his flesh is meat indeed and drink indeed Now this must be spiritually understood not carnally the Kingdom of Heaven is not in meat and drink much less in eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ carnally as the Papists say but spiritually It is joy peace and righteousness joy in the holy Ghost here is the Feast If here below we must know that this Feast may be lookt upon either according to the externals or else the internals of it and yet in both respects spiritual The Jews that fell in the wilderness did all eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink and yet they fell in the wilderness The ordinances the word the sealing ordinances baptism and the Lords supper sitting at the Lords Table these are the externals of the Feast that many Carrion-Crow may come to And you see there in the Gospel He
filthy rags of your own services duties prayers alms as if those were a wedding-garment you that are more profane it may be and cloath your selves with violence as with a Cloak and with cursing as with a garment and so for all manner of prophane persons I would beg of you for Jesus Christ sake this day you would consider this doleful word the gate will be shut against you if you be found unready for the appearing of Christ Now there is none of you but your consciences will tell you that you are not ready for it can a drunkard a swearer a blasphemer be ready for the coming of Christ can you hold up your heads sinners when he appears and look him in the face with comfort Ah no. Either men believe not this coming of Christ to them or else because it is not present they put it far from them therefore they are not affected with it O that I could preach this day Brethren as if hell were at sinners backs as if the Lord Jesus were at your backs now ready to call for you out of this world that you may be a little startled That I would beg of you shall be this that you would without any more ifs and ands without any more delaies set about this work to make ready for his appearing lest the gate be clapt upon you you have too long delayed it already therefore now if ever set about the work What would you have us to do you will say I answer Brethren without any more delay to consider your waies and turn to the Lord to repent that you may believe and believe that you may repent O that you might have hearts to believe this terrible threatning that so your hearts might be shaken sinners out of your security for this is the reason you make nothing of all these things you do not believe that there will be a shutting out or you do not consider it and that your selves are as likely to be the men that have the door shut upon you as any others O therefore learn this day a necessity of believing if you would not be shut out a necessity of repenting you see they were shut out by reason of unbelief I know what answer your hearts will make to this If believing will do it you will never be shut out for you do believe and will believe and have believed alway you have had a good heart and a good faith towards God and Christ Brethren I tell you that you never lookt upon the Brazen Serpent for healing if you were never wounded It is for them thatare wounded You that are all faith now before God have touched your hearts and set your sins in order before you if ever God come and shew you your guilt there will be nothing but doubting and fears and terrors It is an evident sign to me that a sinner never did believe because he maketh so light a matter of it No no Brethren you do not come to him indeed the door stands open now and you are invited to come and enter in by the door by Jesus Christ into the Marriage-feast but you do not come to him O therefore be exhorted sinners now while the door stands open to come and enter in take heed you fall not short by your unbelief and then upon this faith in Jesus Christ will follow a Gospel-repentance a melting and mourning over the Lord Jesus whose love and bowels you have abused and the love of Jesus Christ will constrain you to another course of life then you have led quite contrary you will not be the same men O break off your sins by righteousness be abrupt in your repentance in greatest haste men think it is hard to break off in the midst of such a design for the world or suddenly to leave their companions in sin but by degrees they will do it O break off c. Again Secondly For you that have somewhat more then ordinary of a profession of Jesus Christ I beg of you to look to it Brethren that you have the main thing lest when all comes to all the door be shut upon you as upon those foolish Virgins me thinks if we did but consider how many poor souls of great hope have gone out and sunk under such a sad disappointment as this is it were enough to startle us all O look to your footing Brethren for Jesus sake look to your Evidences the day is coming that if we be not ready there will be no entrance for us let us pass for what we will here among men I cannot stand to press these things I have already spoken much to the same purpose before 1. I pray you consider that upon this moment of time for our lives in comparison of eternity are no more a hand breadth a shadow a vapor nothing you that have lived thirty sixty years in sin now it is past the season you have had in your pleasures what is it but like a dream when it is past but as short as this time is upon it depends eternity he hangeth the heavyest weights upon the weakest wires O Brethren me thinks if men did but believe this and it were present now and then upon their thoughts there is an eternity to be enjoyed or lost an eternity to be endured or avoided an endless happiness or endless misery this should make you see to it to make sure you be ready lest this gate be shut upon you Brethren you live to eternity and you dye to eternity how careful was that Painter of every line very exact took much time to draw a piece O saith he Eternitati pingo As you live here so shall you live to eternity If in sin Brethren you shall lye down in an eternal bed of sorrow in everlasting burnings shall your souls be rouled up together if you make it your work to make ready to be found ready for his appearing there is an entrance into everlasting joyes a feast which never shall have end 2. Though time be short whereupon eternity depends yet you have time Brethren though it is true none but the present time be yours that which is past is gone that which is to come you know not what it may produce whether you shall see it or no but you have a time now while it is called to day Ah Brethren some of us have had a long day our day of grace hath had already some six some seven some eleven hours and yet it is day with us we have not wanted time but we have wasted it trifled it away but since yet there is time let this stir us up O the long-suffering of God should lead you to repentance Ah blessed are your ears for they hear and your eyes for they see Brethren they see a crucified Christ held out before you with his arms stretched out all the day long ready to receive you they see the door open stand open for poor
he hath had no experience of them they never came to him to touch him that vertue might go forth from him to heal them and pardon them and therefore he knoweth them not that is to say he never had a touch of faith from them whereby they are said to know him for then he should have known them and have known that vertue went forth from him to heal them he had no acquaintance with them they never acquainted themselves with him but their hearts were alway estranged and far from Jesus Christ though they drew near with their lips their hearts never touched one with another they rested in somewhat else as gifts and miracles and therefore he knoweth them not by experience of communion with him and letting out his healing power upon them Seventhly and lastly He knoweth them not that is to say he careth not for them nor their souls to defend them save them let them do what they will be regardeth them not As in that first Psalm The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish by the opposite there it appeareth that Gods knowing the way of the righteous is to keep it from perishing the antecedent including the consequent many times in the Hebrew and so the perishing of the way of the ungodly the Consequent including the Antecedent his not knowing of their way or else it is all onâ— Thou hast known my soul in adversity this is one part of the meaning thou hast had a care of me in six and seven troubles to see that no more were laid on then I could bear to keep me that the Spirit that thou hast made did not fail c. so the righteous man knoweth the life of his beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knoweth it he is tender of it to keep it and so some understand that my sheep hear my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life I will know them to eternal life now many professors he knoweth not that is to say he regardeth them not what becometh of them let them sink or or swim shift for themselves take their own course he regardeth them not Now who these are among professors that the Lord knoweth not I believe you easily understand they are such as are meerly formal have a Lamp and no Oyl a form and no power But so much for this first Secondly The next Note from the words you may remember was That such as he knoweth not shall never enter into this Marriage-Feast the door is shut upon them and thâ—s is given as a reason wherefore our Saviour would not open it to them upon their crying Lord Lord but he answered and said I know you not there is no reason you should expect to have the door opened for I know you not and so in that of Matthew if he know them not he sends them away from him Depart from me for I know you not First Because many that profess Jesus Christ yet are very strangers to him and he to them and therefore they shall not have the door opened to them they never knew him nor he never knew them there was never any acquaintance now strangers that we never saw who useth to admit to a Marriage-feast they are the familiars and favorites if Jesus Christ knew them not surely they are strangers for he knoweth all his own children his own sheep let their condition be what it will under never such desertions and cloudings and questionings of his love he knoweth them A woman may forget her children but God cannot forget his people if once acquainted with them he writes their names before him yea upon his very heart they are written whither nothing can come to blot them out now many a professor is a meer stranger to Jesus Christ though he throng upon him yet never toucheth him he never had a sight of Christ a touch of him is a stranger to the righteousness of Christ to the holiness of Christ to the joy and peace Kingdom of grace and therefore surely he will not admit them he knoweth them not it is no place â—or strangers but â—or favourites they must be friends of the Bridegroom that must hear his voyce behold his beaâ—ty rejoyce in it for ever which every professor alas is not Secondly Because of the pride of heart which indeed is the great root of the former estrangedness of many a professor from Christ and Christ from them what was the reason the Prodigal would feed upon husks rather then go to his Father O his stomack was too big to acknowledge his failing to his father as long as ever he could hold out and you see it plainly in the poor woman that had spent all she had upon the Physitian a stout heart would not down while she had a peny And surely you see you see here these foolish Virgins they never went to Christ for oyl but up and down where they could beg or buy of any body they were too stomachful and slout so the Apostle They submitted not to the righteousness of Christ as if it were an act of submission and self-emptying indeed as it is to close with the righteousness of another to be righteous and stand before the Lord in this they would not do they would have heaven by their own works or never have it so the foolish Virgins would have oyl sowewhere short of Christ or they would go without and so they do Ah we are proud beggers proud of rags filthy rags and the Lord knoweth the proud indeed but it is afar off he will never admit them to the nearest commâ—nion with himself for ever therefore he will not open to them This is the case of many a professor who will spin his own web and 〈…〉 lk by sparks of his own kindling and not by the light of God they will to their Herb to heal them and not to Christ the Physitian of their souls and therefore if they be so stout let them take what followeth he will not regard them he knoweth them not near as his friends but afar off Thirdly They are all of them workers of iniquity and therefore he will not know them he approveth them not he careth not for them he will not admit them David that had but a spark of the holiness that is in Jesus Christ the holy one of God and God equal with his Father he would not know a wicked person Depart from me ye workers of iniquity away with you I am not company for you I am a companion to all that fear God both small as well as great though he were a King and a vile person he contemned be he as great as he would away with him from me what communion can light darkness have can they dwell together surely no Depart from me I know you not ye workers of iniquity into that holy place none that defileth can enter now
in this we may understand two things 1. That they do work iniquity some sin they live in if not many notwithstanding their profession of Christ and therefore they are workers of iniquity 2. That the very form of godliness and all their shew is but a working of iniquity First then they are workers of some iniquity or other and that either in an outward gross manner as gross hypocrites or else more closely and inwardly as close hypocrites and yet they are workers of iniquity and the Lord Jesus will not know them nor own them First then for gross hypocrites such as have their hands full of blood full of bribes their houses are builded by wrong and their chambers by unrighteousnesâ— and yet they bless themselves in being a people to God surely the Lord will not away with this such are the gross hypocrites among us that will all the week long make a trade of lying in their shops in their callings of sweaâ—ing forswearing of drunkenness and adultery and come and wipe their mouths with the Harlot and say hey have done no wickedness they are pure in their own eys yet not washed c. come upon these days and sit before the Lord as his people as if they were delivered to do all these abominations the drunkard will not believe nor the swearer but they are as good Christians as any though all have their infirmities and theirs are no more well th 〈…〉 e are lying words you trust unto they will deceive you for saith the Lord I will not hear when you make many prayers your hands are full of blood God doth not regard the services of such a people he examineth mens hands to see if they be hard with labouring in their iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if so it is not your words that are smoâ—ther then oyl that shall serve your turn Quid verba cum sacta videam to cry Lord Lord and yet go and serve and drudge for the Devil as if he were their good Lord will not the Lord search this out O surely he will not know such a person as this 2. It may be it is more secret there is not an hypocrite but he regardeth iniquity in his heart and in heart he works wickedness if not with his hands it may be he may wash his hands with Pilat but not his heart O how do mens mouths water after the pleasures of sin the stoln waters and bread eaten in secret if they durst do it for fear of being discovered and ashamed before men or for a galled conscience a secret lust a secret wound which bleedeth inwardly is not so visible is as deadly as any other now I say be it never so secret let Judas cover his Treasury never so close and Ananias and Saphira their double dealing their covetousness it is to no purpose burning lips and a wicked heart are like a Potsherd covered over with silver dross it maketh a glorious shew burning of lips with love much love shewed with it but the heart is wicked and therefore base as a Potsherd a vessel of dishonour fitted to distruction and shall never enter into glory but be dasht in pieces But Secondly the very form of godliness though in it self materially it be good yet as they use the matter to make it a cloak for their sin a fair skin over a belly full of Garbidge and filthiness it is iniquity it is iniquity saith the Lord even your solâ—mn meetings Incense is an abomination to me I am weary to bear them What was the matter why they did but flatterwith their mouths their hearts were not with him therefore the Lord hated it this is working iniquity working out a form of godliness with much pains and sticking there the prayer of the wicked is sin it is an abomination it will amount to no more then to filthy garments filthy rags and in these brethren the Lord will not know us O no workers of iniquity shall not dwel with him Dine and Sup with him in heaven the feast of new Wine he will not open to them and what greater iniquity then hypocrisie Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas an hypocrite when he thinketh he is at the best is at the worst then his hypocrisie is at the height and God will not admit any he knoweth them not Thirdly Not our part of the Conclusion that at that day it shall be declared openly to hypocrites that the Lord Jesus knoweth them not that is to say that he owneth them not notwithstanding all their seeming delight in his ways and their following of him in a profession yet this is the doom they are like to receive He knoweth them not this is also plain from this Text and also from that in Mat. 7. At that day that is to say the day of general Judgement or the day of death which is every particular souls Dooms day they shall say Lord Lord c. and then will I say to them Depart from me I know you not I never knew you First then Why is this so that at that day many Professors shall have this doom I know you not I never knew you it shall be thus declared from the mouth of the Lord Jesus himself it may be taken from the Office of Jesus Christ to be Judge God hath appointed to judge the world at that day by one even by Jesus Christ and therefore he shal pronounce the Sentence either with his own mouth or the ministration of Angels but rather me thinks with his own mouth this word shal go forth which shal be as a flaming two edged Sword to enter into the bones bowels of sinners and divide them in sunder for ever here sinners are shut up under sin they have chains of darkness upon their hearts already and hypocrites are lyable to this condemnation and are held with the cords of their sins and then shall be the time of the doom therefore then it shall be declared a Prisoner feareth what the sentence may be before he cometh to the triall and so hypocrites sometimes may have some foretaste some fearfulness may surprise them but they skin it over again but now it shall be declared by the Judge himself he knoweth them not and therefore they must depart from him Secondly For a confirmation of the words of his servants and an everlasting rebuke of their unbelief of his Word by them for this hath been the message of Christ to formalists in the mouths of all his Messengers your form of godliness will not carry you through all conditions it will fail you sooner or latter your fig leaves will not shadow you from the everlasting burnings the hope of the hypocrite shall perish and give up the Ghost God loatheth no sort of sinners more though they take themselves to be highly favoured yet they are deeply abhorred of God yet alas there is scarce an hypocrite but hath his shifts to put by an hundred
such thrusts as these by the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God and he hath a deceived heart within him telling him he hath fruit as well as leaves though it be not fruâ—t found from him and he hath had so many testimonies of his love to him he cannot conclude he is a person abhorred of God his hopes are high he will not believe not a word fasteneth upon him and he is apt to think the Minister too straite when he goeth to the quick and tels them if any iniquity be regarded in the heart the heart is not right with God they will not believe but keep their sin and doubt not of their salvation well now the Lord will dash this presumption of theirs the height of unbelief though they will not see their hypocrisie and their forlorn condition now he will make them see if the servants word will not convince them his shall and confound them also therefore he pronounceth it with a Verily I say c. that in the sinners own conscience he may be justified you see let Ministers say what they can be they never such Bonerges thundring from heaven upon men yet they will not be beaten off but at the very last come bouncing at the gate of heaven with a Lord Lord open to us The Ministers have often enough told them that when they cry the Lord would not hear them they would but appear before the everlasting burnings to be consumed they will not believe and therefore now the Lord Jesus himself he speaks he declareth it and with a full conviction to their consciences for he with his Word reacheth the soul and conscience so that now their confidence must needs be dashed not a word more hath a sinner then to say for himself and to confirm the words of his servants his faithful Messengers they have spoken as much as this cometh to before and it hath been slighted they thought God would be more merciful then those bloody Ministers are who wound and spare not but the Lord will now make them know that whose sins they retain clave non errante by a right application of the threatnings and terrors of God not one word of theirs shall fall to the ground but that they had the mind of Christ what ever you thought of them that is another Argument Thirdly For a Declaration and Vindication of his own Wisdom and Justice and Holiness his Wisdom in that now hypocrites shall see there was nothing could be hid from his eys he knoweth through and through even when they made the most dazling profession to the eye of the world that his piercing eye saw through all this saith the sinner there in that Psalm and it is the language of all hypocrites in heart Tush the Lord seeth not neither doth the God of Jacob regard it doth he look to the thoughts to a mans ends the secrets of his soul if he carry fair outwardly will not this pass the test yea with men but thou shalt know hypocrite that thou hast not to do with men but with God you may juggle so as to cast a mist before mens eyes but not before his and though you think you can yet he will now manifest it that you have all of you been a deceived people who have thought to deceive him he will now appear to be a God of wisdom and one that searcheth your hearts and will recompence into your bosoms the very secrets of your iniquity And so his justice and holiness because an hypocrite hath flourished long and hath had the use of many common gifts and flourished in the eyes of men made a great shew and God hath born with much patience Justice hath been as I may say asleep but now he will repay them into their own bosoms and so his holiness they thought God was such a one as themselves but he will reprove them and set their sins in order before them Now he will keep silence no longer that it may appear how he hateth all their hypocrisie that hath been fathered upon him and men have looked upon them as Saints yet now his holiness will endure no longer but shake them off they shall now see that such impure hearts he cannot away with to dwell with them though with much patience he did bear them here yet that he never knew them here never owned them cared for them here in the very height of their profession Fourthly Because now is the separating time nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest saith our Saviour in another place though chaff may go for wheat and gilt for Gold and alchimy for gold and dross and tin for silver now they shall be separated it is high time now to unmask the hypocrite he hath long enough deluded himself and others now therefore he will make it known himself will declare it to put an end to their false imaginations but enough for this Now to wind up all in a word of Application In the first place then it shall be a terrible word to all Formalists all gross and close hypocrites the Lord search you out this day and make it a word of terrour a shaking in your bones that you may be shaken off your security There are two or three things you shall see that are terrible to you herein It is your portion I must deliver it to you Let not any poor trembling child of God catch at the dogs portion no more then the dogs should at the childrens bread God would not have such sadned nor would I speak any thing to the grief of such as God hath wounded But for Hypocrites and Formalists let me speak it 1. He knoweth you 2. Therefore he doth not know you because he knoweth you And 3. He will not know you at that day First I say He knoweth you that is to say he understands you there are windows of Chrystal into your breasts all is naked before him with whom you have to do it may be you are a little affected with hearing the death of Jesus Christ that so innocent a person should be so unworthily treacherously and cruelly handled and now you take your selves to be such as have received the Spirit of grace and supplication and mourn over Christ whom you have crucified and it is nothing but a natural tenderness that would be as much affected or moved with hearing any sad story of another person Believe it Brethren whether you see this deceit or no the Lord knoweth it Your ends are deep in your actions which seem to be for Christ and with much self-denyal sometimes and yet even then in that self-denyal there may be an end for self at the bottom the commanding wheel that setteth all a work it may be this is too deep for any other to discern or for your selves sometimes yet the Lord seeth it he knoweth all the depth of your heart You pray and fast it may be when you are in any distress but little
though he profess never so much love to Israel And O if he would give me a house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord And O that my latter end might be as his Yet the Lord can see he is but a wretch for all this therefore Brethren I beg of you that it may be a searching word to us all Whether ever we have known him or be known of him have you ever touched him with the touch of faith for the pardon of your sins for the healing of your corruptions and have you found healing come from him yea or no have you known him the power of his death the power of his life and Spirit yea or no If you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his whose ever you be and he will not own you be sure Brethren for his sons for his friends to admit you to the feast except you be his indeed Ah dear friends I doubt many of us will be found with the foolish Virgins following after the creature resting in somewhat else beside the Lord Jesus Do not think your crying Lord Lord will do it this you may do and fall short did not Judas come with his hail Master and kiss him and yet his heart full of treason against him was this his kindness to Jesus Christ and do not many of us kiss him salute him with a kiss of love and homage or obedience in shew and yet in our lives deliver him up to be scourged by our loosness of carriage that there is no difference between us and other men open the mouths of the wicked and this constantly and without a returning to him will he own such a soul think you O how can we be contented to be uncertain in our conditions lest when all is done we should be disowned shut out at that day Thirdly Then Brethren let us all labour and be exhorted to it to study to approve our hearts to God more then to men a needful lesson to us all and it will be our wisdom surely for alas what if men know us and own us and favour us as Saints and precious people and Jesus Christ will not know our souls will this countervail O Brethren see to it that your praise be not of men but of God! O how apt we are to be lifted up and cheared if men think well of us and dejected if we suffer in their breasts if they disown us to be cast out of their hearts would go to our hearts it may be and we could not be quiet Alas what is this to that fearful sentence I know you not If Christ disown us what is it if all the Saints should own us and if he own us what should it discourage us though they none of them own us O labour to be more inward Christians and build your comforts upon the sure mercies of David in Jesus Christ No matter what is the rising way in the world which is the rising Sun Look to the mind of Christ keep a conscience void of offence toward him and make this your work to be found in him when all is done not in your gifts not in your duties not in your graces but in Christ O such a soul knoweth the Lord Jesus and such a soul is known of him and shall be known to all eternity Fourthly Here is an encouraging word to poor doubting souls It may be they are ready to pass this fearful sentence upon themselves sooner then many a wretched hard-hearted hypocrite to whom it properly belongs No matter man though thy gifts be not so great as another mans thou canst do little or hast not those sweet refreshings and enlargements which another hath Is thy heart approved to Jesus Christ canst thou approve thy soul to him that thou lovest him as Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee though it may be not so much as other Saints do nor so much as the great things he hath done for thee call for yet thou lovest him and wouldst fain love him more be of good 〈◊〉 for thou art known of him If any man love God he is known of God A Judas may be an open professor of Christ and come to him in the day And a poor Nicodemus at the first dare but come in the night it may be and was a very shallow Scholar in Christ's School which is the discouragement of many a poor soul And Judas in the mean time a renowned Teacher of others and yet behold how the one betrayes the Lord Jesus and the other sticks to him when he was dead and professeth him openly at such a time as that when there was most discouragement against it O therefore Brethren though your grace be weak and little at the first if there be the root of the matter in thee if thou canst approve thy heart thou lovest him there is nothing in heaven nor in earth thou wouldest have in comparison of him though thy infirmities be many temptations be many thou art a poor wearied creature it may be with thine own heart be of good comfort the Lord Jesus hath already owned thee and he will own thee in that day And me thinks Brethren as on the one hand when such bold confident souls that make no other reckoning but of salvation but they reckon without Jesus Christ when they meet with so sad a disappointment in stead of an admittance they meet with I know you not O how will their hearts dye within them So on the other hand when a poor trembling doubting Thomas that it may be knoweth not what to think of himself nor his condition he is searching and trying and praying and fasting and humbling running and pressing hard forward and can get little ground of his corruptions which much discourageth him O he walks tremblingly lest he should receive this fearful sentence at the last that the Lord Jesus knoweth him not hath never had any thing to do with him notwithstanding all his profession sin is in strength corruption prevails though it is the bitterness of his soul O when such a poor doubting creature that haply many times looks for nothing but a fearful sentence depart from me shall have this pronounced O come thou poor soul I know thee I have known thee from the beginning of the world though thou hast been doubting of my love yet I know thee though thou hast been made black with affliction and thy visage so marr'd as others knew thee not refuge failed thee no man cared for thee for thy soul yet I know thee though thou hast been wounded with many sins many temptations and walked under many a discouraged heart yet I know thee O how will this be as everlasting life from eternal death to such a soul So that the soul shall now have now more place for doubting the satisfaction shall come with a mandamus he will speak salvation to the heart that it cannot
the heart of a sinner that was little worth before becometh a golden Vial full of odours it s concocted then the spices flow forth in the garden inclosed Seventhly the Sun dispels the mists and fogs which are unwholsom would poison the air yea and thick clouds which would muffle up the Sun from us we know this by daily experience So doth the Lord Jesus Brethren all the mists fogs and clouds of sin he dispels them for his name sake he blots out the transgressions of his people as a cloud It s the very heat Brethren of the love of Jesus Christ that consumeth as I may say melts away those clouds that they intercept not our communion and fellowship with him O! there is not a day but the streamings of our filthy hearts would gather into a thick cloud and cover his face from us were it not that the warm beams of his love did continually dispell them and scatter them we should never enjoy the light of his countenance an hour together if it were not for this and for his names sake he doth it And so the cloud of sorrow let the diseases of the people of God be what they will never so great and black clouds they are compassed about with their day is a day of gloominess and thick darkness how come these to be dispelled is it not the Sun of righteousness breaking forth on poor sinners that doth it one sight of Christ as reconciled to him puts an end unto all Eighthly the Sun is the cause of the sweet intercourse between the earth and the clouds and the clouds and the earth for its the Sun that exhales the vapours from the earth and draweth them up into the middle region of the air and there with the cold of the air its condensed into a cloud and hangs until it be dissolved and render it self to the earth again to make it fruitful and so the dew is in like manner begotten only is not far lifted up above the earth and with the cold of the night is congealed into little drops and so sweetly distills So the Lord Jesus he draweth out the hearts the affections of his people in prayers sweet breathings after himself and these prayers come down again sometimes on the same soul sometimes on another place they fall but abundance of sweetness and blessing and mercy is poured out by this means on poor creatures whereby they become fruitful Ninthly The Lord Jesus may be compared to the Sun for that the Sun Giant-like rejoyceth to run his race and who can turn him back alas all the clouds that gather about the Sun that to our apprehensions might haply seem to threaten a blotting of it out a clogging of it they are all below it It s true prayer once did hold him in his course and it looks like a word of command Sun stand thou still and so prayer may do much with Jesus Christ but not hinder him in his course riding on in his triumphant charriot conquering and to conquer enlightning poor dark places and people Before we come to the other we will a little apply this to our selves First then Brethren if the Lord Jesus be a Sun then they that have this Sun risen on them they are children of the day if the Sun be up it must needs be day and is not the Sun up Brethren among us is not the Lord Jesus gone forth as a Gyant to run his race among us we now have a day of Grace among us and how long or how short it may be I know not Brethren it seemeth to be declining in some respects and the shadows of the evening growing low O that we would be perswaded and stirred up to do the work of our day in this our day our great work which is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling I doubt if the Sun should set and the night come on you wherein no man can work you should have this work yet to do many of you especially brethren you into whose hearts the Lord Jesus this Sun of righteousness hath shone O how should you walk as children of the day not in surfetting and drunkenness I mean not with meat and fire only but with any creature-comforts and delights on this side Christ away then with all the works of darkness all practices which did suit better with the times of ignorance and blindness and now walk as becometh the light and the day that the Sun may not be ashamed to behold you Secondly Such as the Lord Jesus then hath not risen on they are yet in darkness children of the night and walk at uncertainties know not whither they go Alas many a poor soul thinketh he is as sure to go to heaven as he is to die when he is in the very rode to hell only some go in the broad trodden path open prophane impudent sinners some steal thither behind the hedge they are going to hell but in a closure walk hidden from others and from themselves Many night-Birds there are among us children of the night indeed though in one respect many of us may be said to be children of the day because Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel is held forth unto us as they are said to be the children of the Kingdom yet in respect of the inward revealing of Christ in the heart I doubt many of us are strangers to it though we fly about in the light yet we are but Owls and Bats darkness agreeth better with us our souls are full of darkness our works are nothing else but works of darkness How sad a consideration is this Brethren that in the midst of light we should be children of darkness 〈◊〉 noon-day when the Gospel is at the heighth and Christ the Sun as it were at the meridian we should be stumbling and groping as at midnight not knowing whither we go Then thirdly As there is this difference of persons where Christ cometh from them where he cometh not so it is in families and people Brethren what a sad people and family is that where they are all in Egyptian darkness Jesus Christ is not risen unto any soul among them they know him not experimentally but they are all in blindness Alas none can help another the Israelites and Egyptians though they dealed among one another in one family there was light in the other there was nothing but gross darkness that might be felt O who would live in such a family who would not haste out of such a condition you would think that a sad conditioned house that the light of the Sun and warmth of the Sun never entreth into of all places you would not live in it this is is nothing brethren to the total absence of Christ where neither Husband nor Wife nor Fellow-servant nor Children none of them have had the Lord Jesus shining into their hearts Gross darkness shall cover the earth saith the
is a Sun in a special manner O Brethren have you not experience of it where and how come in your warmings on your spirits is it not in the Ordinances of Christ doth he not breath there and feed there with his people if a man should be so peevish as that he would not have the Suns influence except he did shine in his chamber did move there or shine on the earth or move there were he not most justly deprived of them Here Brethren here in the Word preached and heard in the Seals and Prayer and all the Ordinances of Christ he will be found of his people and above others in private be much in maditation of the sweetness the riches of his love to poor Sinners such as thou art this is to set our faces Brethren towards the Sun O how will this clear the eyes of an Eagle indeed one that is gloriously born of heaven though Owls are blinded by it How will this Brethren darken the beauty and glory of all things here You complain of earthliness and you are fast glewed to the world O beg of God that he would turn your eyes toward himself toward the Lord Jesus behold this Sun in his strength and glory and see if this do not make all things else dull to you to have no excellence in them in comparison of Christ that you shall cry out none but Christ none but Christ O Brethren this would make us sparkle like Diamonds lying under the influence of the Sun it s for want of this that Christians are like Diamonds in the dirt this will make us sparkle as Moses face did shine this Brethren is the way to contract the beams as in a burning glass and set the heart on fire with love to Jesus Christ then our affections will flame then shall we be a zealous people of good works otherwise not Fourteenthly Arise then and shine thou poor fearing soul that liest in the dust be inlightned lift up thy eyes thou that languishest and thy spirit is ready to faint within thee thou art even dying and couldst with fears of thy condition Oh thy light is come is not the Sun in the Firmament though he may be clouded from thee what though there be much darkness in thee of ignorance of discomfort thou walkest in darkness and seest no light the Sun may be up though it appear not it may be day with thee poor soul and thou a child of light and of the day though thou beholdest not the Sun nor the bâ—â—ms from the Sun if thou hast not the light of the Sun the light of his countenance thou mayst have the influence of the Sun notwithstanding that reacheth the parts where the light cometh not And be not discouraged at the enemies of Christ what though the clouds of ignorance errour prophaness and idolatry gather together and seem to threaten the Sun Alas how soon can he dispel them consume them with the brightness of his glorious appearance what if the Dogs do bark at the Moon the Church or at Christ the Sun will that hinder him in his course what though the People when they are scorched with the heat of the Sun as some Pagans are do curse the Sun can they hinder his course O no as a strong man he will run his race and who shall hinder it and those that will not be made fruitful he will burn up and consume therefore be not discouraged and thou that hast much deadness and coldness and hardness be not discouraged there is influence enough in Christ go to him labour to act faith on him set thy self under his influence wait on him in his Ordinances and see if it come not into thee to warm to melt to make fruitful in the work of the Lord. Now for the second which is that Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness But lest I should dwell too long on the Text if I should at large handle every part therefore I will rather sum up several things in one Observation and its this Vnto them that fear the Name of the Lord the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings or dâ—th arise with healing in his wings Wherein I will labour to unfold several things and then come to the Application of all to our selves First then What is meant by them that fear the Lord here in this place of the Prophet I conceive by the coherence of the Text that hereby are meant such as when the Prophet had denounced the fearful threatnings of Judgement The day of the Lord to be as a fire oven to consume the stubble c. they were afraid they feared the Lord and his judgements they were apt to be too much dismayed at it but he tels them that to them it should be a day of healing and liberty and light and refreshing to his people The people of God may and ought to be afraid of the judgements of God when they hang bound up in a black cloud but yet in the womb of a threatning and so Josiah was afraid and rent his clothes and humbled himself his heart was tender and he did tremble at this fearful word the judgement threatned against Hierusalem A stout stubborn brawny hard heart never melts nor moveth but such as those are afraid or else if judgement do break out and the decree bring forth the clouds pour out upon Sinners then they are afraid So David was afraid of the judgement of God executed on Vzzah and afraid of the Angel of the Lord. Now to such as these the Lord promiseth a Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing such fear hath torment in it and anguish and therefore hath need of healing but is this to be restrained either to their persons or to their conditions surely no the prophesies are Divine they are of the nature of the author with whom 1000 years are but as one day therefore we are to allow to them a greater latitude such as is agreeable to them they are not fulfilled punctually at once but have springing accomplishment and germinant throughout many ages though the height or fulness of them may refer them to some age and of all other prophesies it is most true of that of Christ with respect to the saving vertues of his blood to his people therefore for persons we must not confine it to them no nor for things to that sort of fear which seemeth to be meant by the series of the context but this as all other promises of God are applyable to any condition of poor creatures to which its suitable As that of Joshuah I will never leave thee is applyed to want in outward things and to encourage them to walk without covetousness Therefore Secondly Fearing of God may be meant such as God hath begun to work on hath convinced them of sin and of wrath by reason of sin there is a fear wrought in such an heart as the poor Jaylour came
in Winter the earth seemeth to be languishing and all things withered and dead when the Sun returneth how doth it heal it To it s here Beloved it is the Word and Spirit that opens the earth moistens the earth sweetly refresheth it calls forth the fruits thereof The fruits of the Spirit they are called as the fruits of the earth are called the precious fruits put forth by the Sun and by the Moon which shines by a derived influence from the Sun how precious are the fruits of the Spirit Brethren love meekness joy in the Holy-Ghost humility self-denyal these are the precious fruits put forth by the Sun the Lord Jesus by his Word and Spirit beating upon our barren hearts indeed he maketh the barren Wilderness to become a garden of God Again he healeth he reviveth the spirits which languish and are ready to go out as the poor Birds that in the Winter are hard put to it and some lye you hardly know where as if they were dead or dying when the Sun returneth how doth it refresh and revive their little spirits that were left before The night brings a heaviness and burthen along with it to the body but the morning when the Sun ariseth how doth it enliven and lighten Oh! so it s in this case many a poor soul can say by experience that when darkness hath been long on them they have no light no comfort no refreshing no breathing of the Spirit to their apprehensions in his Ordinances on their hearts O how have hands hanged down and their knees feeble and knock one against another for feebleness and that which was within them was ready to dye But now no sooner hath the Lord Jesus the Sun of righteousness looked on them but they have had their ankle-bones strengthened the joy of the Lord is their strength as Neh. 8. but I intend not here much to expatiate only these two or three things First then the first thing in this healing which is brought under the wings of the Sun of righteousness is pardon for our sins who forgiveth all-thy iniquities and healeth all-thy diseases these are exegetical one of another or may so be looked on Sin Brethren cuts off a creature from God and so maketh a wound which now is healed and made up when they are pardoned Make the heart of this people fat and let their ears be heavy their eyes closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their hearts lest they should be converted and I should heal them which Mark reads thus lest they should be converted and their sins be forgiven them So then forgiveness and healing are all one and its one thing surely included in that of the Prophet Hosea I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely the justification freely by his grace as the Apostle calls it Poor sinner thou that ever knewest what sin was what a wound it was to thy soul knewest that thy pardon is a healing to thee So then this arising with healing in his wings is by his Spirit in his Word he conveyeth the blood of Jesus Christ the merit thereof maketh it over to the poor soul that believeth to the doing away of all the guilt So as a Sun of righteousness properly he healeth and this is the first Secondly He taketh away also the anguish and trouble that did arise from sin to the soul as when a wound is healed you know the anguish and smart is taken away though while it is healing it may be when searched and tented there will be smart and sore yet afterward it s taken away by degrees I know some of you have felt and haply some at present may feel the grief of your wounds O! how they will throb and beat and burn and smart sometimes broken bones are nothing to a broken heart nor the broken flesh any thing to a broken bone the Lord heals the broken in heart he bindeth up their wounds I have seen his waies and will heal him saith the Lord he speaks to the condition of a poor disconsolate soul under the wrath of God He was wrath and smote him yea he hid him and was wrath O how this troubles a poor soul he cannot but have his heart full of darkness and terrour and trouble that hath the face of God hidden from him well saith the Lord though he did walk frowardly before me gave me not my ends in smiting him yet I will heal him and wherein doth this healing consist Alas in restoring joy and comfort to him the poor soul now was over-whelmed with sorrow his heart now was ready to sink and fail within him and lest it should so do he will heal him and how is this but by his Word and Spirit therein which is the comforting Spitit he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him Here is a healing indeed the healing of broken hearts and broken bones it s the work that the Father sent the Lord Jesus for into the world in an especial manner that he annointed him for poured out the Spirit upon him annointed him with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that he might speak in due season that he might bind up the broken spirits Now the Lord Jesus Brethren our dear Saviour he delighteth to do this will and work of his Father O! he loveth to be doing with broken hearts And O that we had some work for the Lord Jesus this day he is among us now to see if there be any heart in this condition that he may heal us it s his delight to do it Well this is a second he hath his cordials as well as his purgatives his lenitives as well as his corrosives Thirdly he cometh with healing under his wings as to take away the anguish so also to purge away the filth of it to heal the running putrifying sore that it may not run and defile and pollute all that a man taketh in hand How much more saith the Apostle shall the blood of Christ purge our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God With corrosives he eats down the proud flesh and the dead flesh he dryeth up the bloody issues then the person was healed when she touched Christ but the hem of his garment This is that which troubles many a heart more then the guilt of their sins and indeed the returning and recoyling of sin on them again and again occasioneth the questioning of their peace and comfort that they have had O how one cryeth out of this sin and another of that sin and walks heavily and sadly Well the Lord Jesus he will arise with healing under his wings for all these distempers Fourthly and lastly another healing is the taking away his anger manifested in outward calamities or diseases in a people or person I will heal their back-slidings and love them freely for mine anger is
it When we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly and while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us they are convertible terms a sick man a lame man a wounded man we cannot expect they should walk or work or run in a race it utterly unbefits us for any thing that is good this is a sad evil that is in sin as a disease or wound Thirdly There is filthiness and deformity in sin also O what a sight it were to see a poor creature full of running sores from head to foot all running and rotting what filthiness is here and and deformity So when a poor soul hath a lust a sore running and never ceasing how sad a condition is this Brethren how strangely will a fit of sickness change a person that the rarest piece of beauty in the world quickly becometh a gastly sight every part contracting its deformity from the sickness all withered and shrivelled joynts loosed the eye dead and dull the face thin the knees feeble the hand trembling and what not Brethren if the Lord open our eyes to behold in the glass of the word the deformities of sin and filthiness as we may see the lothsomness and ugliness of a disease we should for ever be haters of it but I will say no more to this head That sin is a disease a wound Vse 2. May be then to put us on to be more serious in viewing our selves in the glass of the Word the Law of God that we may see what creatures we are and loth our selves our wounds are so many that we are all one wound and all one disease there is no sound part in us how pale and lean do our souls sometimes look with envy at others how are we swelled with pride how great and unweildy are our bellies with this O how do some of our bellies cleave to the very dust we are bowed down as the woman in the Gospel O how lamely do we walk in the ways of God halting between two have a double object and one foot in the wayes of God and another in the way of sin alas how many wounds have many of us that we never searched to this day if we did but know them it would pluck down our feathers the proudest of us and for some of us we have great need of this admonition because alas until we see our selves wounded see our deformities we shall never care for healing for having his comeliness put upon us no nor can the people of God put a rate upon the mercy nor the rich exceeding rich Grace of God in Christ whereby they are healed except they have before their eyes the many wounds and running sores they are healed of When Paul saw that he was the chief of the Sinners then he advanceth the free Grace of God that it had abounded yea superabounded which a soul cannot admire the Lord for except he see and behold how sin hath abounded O then let us be all perswaded to this duty to eye our selves more often more seriously in the glass of the Law of liberty the Law of Christ and therein see how often how grievously we offend him see what deformities are upon us that it may be admired how the Lord can love such as we are and Sinners that are yet in sin that they may be willing to accept of pardon and deliverance in and through Christ for truly we are not any of us willing until we be reduced to extremity then the Marriner or Merchant will cast out his goods when there is necessity for it but not before Therefore let all of us be perswaded to this duty in the second place Thirdly Let us be instructed in this truth that healing is not in us I am the Lord that healeth thee saith God to Israel and therefore the Lord promiseth the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings which were needless if healing were in our selves some creatures if wounded healing is in themselves as some fish are said if wounded to heal themselves with their own slime a Dog licks himself with his tongue Brethren sins are not such wounds as will heal themselves of their own accord neither as if a man have a slight cut it may be he heedeth it not it heals of it self believe it the least sin the least wound thou makest in thy conscience in thy soul it will not heal it self nor will a lust heal it self and wear away of its own accord as some diseases will though no physick be administred It is a deadly disease it seizeth upon the vitals and then you know it is a matter of great difficulty and skill to cure it no nor can a man cure himself if he could to what end did the Lord Jesus undergo all why he was smitten for our transgressâ—â—ns if we could have been healed by any strength of our own no we were without strength when Christ dyed for us as the Apostle bath it and as to other things so to this great work did the Lord do any thing in vain much less then would he do the greatest thing that ever be wrought in vain alas who can pardon sins but he who can bind up the broken in spirit but he who was sent into the world for this very end who can pour wine and oyl into the wounds but the good Samaritan who can give rest for the anguish of the wounds but he we cannot heal our selves if the very marrow of our bones were distilled into continual tears and all our moysture it would not make a balm to cure a wound of sin nor a cordial to support in one swooning fit there are many considerations wherefore we cannot do it and therefore the Lord in pity and bowels toward us sent us his Son to be our Physitian because we poor sick creatures need the Physitian which we should not if we could heal our selves our wound is incurable and refuseth to be healed by us First alas We know not our diseases our distempers you know a disease is half cured if curable when it is known in the cause if a Physitian mistake the disease and mis-applications according to his mistake quite contrary to the disease this is the ruin of the Patient such Physitians are of no value and such should we all be and are For we cannot know our sins nor the plague of the heart who knows his errors if we discover one lust that it breaks out in such a manner that it cannot be hid yet there is ten for one that we never saw and how can we then heal them now the Lord Jesus seeth our hearts through and through and knoweth all the malig 〈…〉 y and poysonous humours that lye there and therefore knoweth how to purge them out we know them not Secondly We have no desire to have them healed at all we 〈…〉 w not what healing means being not sensible naturally of our distempers and sores that are
upon us no man desires that he knoweth not We think we are in health and strength of soul in as good a condition as any need nothing and yet are poor and miserable and blind and naked just like a poor man the strength of his disease works him off his senses as we say he thinkeeh he is well as ever in his life when alas he is drawiâ—g nigh the chambers of death his disease is so much the more dangerous Brethren sin 〈…〉 s our heads with such fumes of pride and self-confidence and carnal reasonings that we are ready to conclude all is well with us and I doubt many of us whom this concerneth will put it away from us upon this very account We are whole need not the Physitian so we have no desire to be healed the tender of a plaister by another to a man that thinketh he hath no wounds it is ridiculous they are more ready to mock at it then receive it so far are Sinners from providing an healing for themselves because they are not sensible of their need of it they desire it not Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways we are well enough without it yea more we have no desire to be healed because we are in love with our diseases not as a man that hath an issue he knoweth doth him good would not have it stopt but we have many bloody issues of sin and because of the pleasure and delight or proâ—t or humour or some things we please our selves with them for we are loath to part with them Augustine himself was loath to be healed so soon of his lust not yet Lord not yet said his heart when he prayed for healing the disease hath seized upon the will it self so that it is pleased and taken with the sickness the ill savour of our wounds the stench of them is sweet to us while we have a stinking nostril and therefore no marvel if we can never heal our selves there is need of this Lord Jesus to come with healing under his wings Thirdly We do reject healing and the Physitian When he would have healed us we would not be healed therefore much less can we do it our selves I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged c. Brethren how often hath the Lord Jesus called upon us all and have we not many of us as often refused Hath he not stretched out his hands all the day long all the day of Grace which hath continued long with us and we have been a rebellious a disobedient people we would none of his counsel either it is too mean as Naaman said when he was bid to go and wash in Jordan seven times and he should be cleansed What are not Abana and Pharâ—ar Rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel so proud dust and ashes the Lord opens a fountain for sin and uncleanness proclaimeth to every poor sinner who ever will let him come let his disease be what it will bathe in this Fountain he shall be healed what saith the proud sinner are there not waters of our own will not our own repentance do it we are very backward through the pride of heart to receive even gratis as that proud Papist said He would not have heaven gratis this Pope is in all our bellies therefore the Apostle calls it a submission they would not submit to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ So we look upon the blood of Jesus Christ as an unholy a contemptible thing will not trust wholly to this grace or else if not too mean yet the way that God goeth to work with a sinner to heal him it is too severe a bitter potion they must take down what must we so much bewail our selves must we search and try our ways rake in our wounds this we cannot indure this will cost us much smart and anguish as it did David and Peter and Ephraim poor foolish creatures we had rather dye of our wounds then to have them searched far from that temper of David we are Search me and try me though some of us I hope have been so exercised in the work of searching and mortification that we can many times say with the Psalmist Lord search us but alas many of us it is otherwise with we come not to the light lest our deeds should be discovered it would shame us you know Ahab could not indure to hear of his sins he hated Mâ—caiah and that cursed principle is in all our hearts we would be humored and daubed and have the hurt of our souls healed slightly because we cannot digest the severity and sharpness of the medicines we are afraid of the wrings and gripes the Prayers the Fastings it will cost us and therefore we are enemies to it 4. If we were never such friends to it if we would never so fain be healed it is not in our power it is above the sphere of our activity if the stripes had been laid upon us which were laid upon Christ when he was whipped with Scorpions alas every blow would have cut us in sunder and given us our portion in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever You see brethren that they fetched blood at every blow of our blessed Saviour who was equal with his Father having an infinite Power and Spirit to uphold him and yet O how he ran down with blood dropping upon the ground when the world was to be drowned and overwhelmed all the veins of the earth were as I may say opened so now the Lord Jesus when his Spirit was overwhelmed and amazed as I may say and the Lord in a manner would now swallow him up My God why hast thou forsaken me all the voins the channels of his body were opened O how the blows did even almost fetch away the soul of our Saviour witness that Out-cry what had become of poor man iâ— this had been laid upon him Beside who can pardon our sins is there any but God that can pardon sins and is not this a great part of healing who can speak peace but he He will speak peace to his people he can do it with one word of his mouth he createth the fruit of the lips peace peace assuredly he createth it peace who can subdue a lust all the maceration of the body that the frame of Nature will bear will not do it as it is said of Hierom though his hair did even stand upright with fasting and lying upon the ground yet all would not do to subdue concupilcence he should have taken Gods way and then his help would have come in no no I will subdue their iniquities they are too stiff-hearted for any but the Lord Jesus none could break the heart of sin but he by being broken himself for our iniquities nor can any do it to death though wounded and bleeding and the heart be broken but he himself
his blood our services healed as well as our souls before they be worth any thing therefore I say he himself freely prepareth the Lances to open the wounds convinceth the poor creature of his condition he himself takes the pains to open the vein to empty the creature of himself to cure him of that Plethory He it is tempereth the Physick is at the charge of it O the richest Cordials in the world tempered of his own blood and water by his own Spirit to support the poor creature when ready to faint he sitteth over his people even as a tender Father over a weak wounded childe and with what a heart you may imagine he provideth Messengers of his own to be with them to minister to them to watch over them and himself is alway at hand Ah dear Friends that ever the Lord Jesus should set so high esteem upon poor sinners when we were in such a loathsom condition as that he would dwell in flesh and take part of flesh and blood that so he might have somewhat to make a restorative of a healing medicine of that we might not perish one drop every drop of his most precious blood with respect to the value which the God-head put upon it is more then if a world of pearl could be decocted into a cordial and yet he spared it not that he should visit sinners with this salvation with his corrosives his cordials with his healing vertue and power and his heart so ready to put it forth from time to time this is unsearchable riches of grace to do all this freely Yea Eighthly and lastly it will appear in this that the Lord Jesus brings his heart full and his hands full of reward with him to a poor sinner so that he will be but healed you see foolish children when they have fallen and wounded themselves they must be hired to let the Father or the Chyrurgion heal it put a plaister upon it but cryeth out as undone had rather do any thing then be healed but alas who would do it to a stranger it may be thou seest a poor leprous creature lie languishing at thy gates and thou canst heal him but he is not willing either he is in love with his disease or distrusts your good will or faithfulness or something but he is not willing to be healed now where is there a heart so full of tenderness as to be willing to offer him a reward I will give thee thus much or thus much if thou wilt but let me heal thee for I pitty thy condition Brethren a King and his subjects fall out they rebel against the King in the war the subject is wounded even to the death except there be more then ordinary care taken of him now the King his heart relents he cometh to him in the prison and doth not upbraid him with his unkindness nor pride nor stubbornness but intreateth him he will give him leave to heal him that he will but suffer his wounds to be searched to be healed to be closed so that he may not perish he will pardon all that he hath done amiss begs of him to accept of him he will make him the second man in the Kingdom he shall be near to him if he will but suffer himself to be healed Is not this rich mercy indeed is there any such Paragon to be found Surely no but lo this is in Jesus Christ and more for he not only promiseth a reward upon our healing but maketh the poor creature willing also willing to part with his lusts and to speak the truth I take this to be the greatest part of our healing when a poor sinner that was in love with sin before loved his lusts as much as his life O his merry companions were as dear to him as his very eye or his right hand he could no more part with one then the other and so his gain of unrighteousness Now when the Lord by proposing of objects which have a great force but that is not all but by a sweet and yet powerful bowing of the heart maketh the poor creature willing to be healed so that now he cryeth out with Augustine How long Lord how long this man is in a great measure healed and this is the work and yet he rewardeth for this promiseth a Crown giveth grace and glory glory with himself fellowship with him to lye in his bosom to all eternity O here is unsearchable riches of grace Brethren I have only if so much brought you to the vein where these riches lie O that you would dig a little by serious contemplating upon it You will find more then I am able to speak Sixthly Another Use shall be this to warn us that we do not upon this score because that Jesus Christ will arise with healing under his wings upon poor sinners therefore to make bold with sin it is no great matter the healing vertue of Christ will be so much the more magnified O how desperate is this would you not think that man were out of his wits that upon presumption upon the skill and tenderness of the Physitian should without any care how or where wound himself and gash himself he hath a Physitian that will heal him you that dare be so bold to sin that grace may abound and make work for Jesus Christ know this this day you know not what the grace of Christ meaneth that make such a use of it how did this stir the Apostles spirit God forbid he doth as I may say recoil as a man startled at some horrid sight O the Lord forbid you should suck such poyson out of so sweet a flower This concerneth two sorts of persons First such as yet never knew what this healing vertue of Christ is only by the hearing of the ear they hear the Lord Jesus is able to heal the most desperate wounds and that he is willing and therefore they make bold to continue in sin they may go on to inflame the reckoning a little higher yet it is all one with Christ to pardon millions as mites to swallow up mountains as mole 〈…〉 it is true if thou respect his power but how dost thou know that he will do it for thee sinner or what hope hast thou or canst thou have while it is thus with thoe It s true if sinners do not sin away the day of grace he is willing but did ever Jesus Christ tell thee that thou shouldest be healed particularly though thou go on rebelling against him wound upon wound upon thy poor soul Surely no be not deceived sinners these are the insinuations of the wicked one this is such Gospel as the Devil preacheth when he preacheth Christ as an Angel of light but in the close you will find the Law instead of the Gospel such presumption and security usually endeth in dispair the time may come that you that make so little a matter of it may cry out and roar O your wounds you refused to be
is so Secondly the quid what this inlargement is which cometh along with Jesus Christ to a Believer Thirdly the quare why it is so And Fourthly the Vse of the Point First then for proof of this peruse a Text or two in that Evangelical Prophet who doth very eminently hold out Jesus Christ I the Lord have called thee in righteousness there is the Call of Christ And I will hold thee by thine hand or hold thine hand there is the support of Christ in that great work and will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant to the people for a light of the Gentiles He is indeed the Spirits of the Covenant the marrow of the Gospel the very Spirits of all the promises is Christ the speech is â—igurative Well but what is he to do To open the blinde eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house Minde you therefore the Lord Jesus was willing as I may say to be imprisoned in our body if I may so say or if not in other respects he was in prison that he might set his people free bring them out of the prison even as Paul when he might would not go free except they came and fetched them out of prison So here sinners would never go out except the Lord Jesus came and fetched them out A Prince for Rebellion casts his Subjects into prison in the dungeon there they lie and would lie and rot there their stomack is so great they will not ask for deliverance nay if they would they cannot set themselves free the Prince cometh with his own hands knocks off the bolts breaks the bars gates and bids them follow him so the Lord Jesus doth for sinners So again in that place of John If the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed there is much liberty and freedom and you will not hear of your being in bondage but saith our Saviour to set at Liberty is not the work of every one it is the Son that only can make you free and if he make you free you shall be free indeed The Lord Jesus you know came into the world not only to work out salvation for his people but to preach the salvation he did work out not only to shed his blood but to preach remission of sins through his blood as the Apostle hath it How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Which at the first began to be spoken to us by the Lord and afterward by those that heard him so that he himself preached salvation he himself did work it out for no other name is given under heaven now he preacheth this as a main part The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted He was anointed there is his Office and because anointed as a Prophet to preach it therefore the Spirit of the Lord was upon him poured out without measure he was gifted and fitted for it which though some understand of Isaiah as well as of Christ yet of Isaiah but as the type Well then to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Now surely if this be the substance of his preaching where he cometh and revealeth himself inwardly to a soul in a soul giveth himself to a soul there must needs be a going forth out of the prison out of the bondage wherein the poor soul was held so we have it in that place saith the Lord again even as in chap. 42. so chap. 49. of Isaiah I will preserve thee and give thee for a Covenant of the people c. That thou mayest say to the prisoners go forth to them that stand in darkness shew your selves and it is no more with God but dictum ac factum his words are operative words mark you they shall Go forth when the Sun of righteousness ariseth upon them his Commission is his work for to say to the Prisoners Go forth if he bid Lazarus come forth he cometh forth he calls the things that are not as if they were commands light out of darkness and so commands Deliverance and Liberty for his poor people that are bound I hope none will say this is all Old Testament proof for this is Gospel as clear as the Sun and to take away all ground of a cavil read but Luke and you shall finde this is the very Text our Saviour preacheth upon to the Jews tells them that day this Text was fulfilled that is to say that he was the anointed of the Lord the Spirit of the Lord was upon him because he was appointed to preach the Gospel to the poor to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and to set at liberty them that are bruised but I may not wast any more time it is but burning day light to hold a candle to the Sun It is written with a Sun-beam except you shut your eyes you must needs see it The second thing Is the quod what this inlargement or freedom is that is here promised and truly this is a large question and wherein most of our work will lie each of us in the general acknowledge a slavery a bondage we are under from which the Lord Jesus doth speak to his people to go forth yea brings them forth but we have not a distinct understanding of it and alas I am the meanest of them who make it their work to preserve knowledge yet as I have received I shall endeavour somewhat this-way to open the nature of this liberty That we may the more clearly proceed we must distinguish of freedom or liberty into Civil and Spiritual Civil is a freedom of maâ—s person from servitude of men so that he shall no more be under â—he yoke and thus the Jews misunderstood our Saviour when he spake of freedom If the Son do make you free you shall be free indeed why said they We are the seed of Abraham we are free-born and we never were in bondage to any man they meant sure they were never particularly sold for servants to any else bred in bondage to any to be their servants not meaning their publick state but private else they much did forget themselves for they had often been in captivity and bondage as in Egypt and Babylon and at present under the Romans but this is not the liberty we chiefly aim at nor may we extend it to this bondage any further then it is a curse now we know the Apostle tels us that if a man be called being a servant care not for it for such an one is the Lord his Free-man neither bond â—or free is there any difference they are all one in Christ therefore our Saviour did not come to break all yokes off the neck of
Servants or to deliver all such relations no but it is meant here surely of a spiritual Liberty a freedom of the soul from its thraldom nay himself cometh to be a servant did he not rather sanctifie such a condition and relation then abolish it Secondly Then taking it for spiritual Liberty that is to say a freedom from Spiritual evils the subjection whereunto is a bondage to the poor creature we must know yet further that we may take it either in a larger or in a more restrained sense in a more restrained only for that liberty and freedom which the Saints have ever had through the Lord Jesus since the Covenant of Grace was preached to them and they closed with it for we must know that ever before Christ came in the flesh Believers believed in him to come they had a liberty through him as to the main parts of it and necessarily to salvation though haply not in that degree that now ordinarily Believers indeed have that freedom but there were some yoaks upon them then which now we are delivered from they are broken from off the necks of the Saints yea and such as were pinching yoaks indeed but yet less considerable by far then those from which they were delivered and set free so that now we see there is a larger liberty and more glorious which the sons of God have which will better appear when we come to speak to the parts of it only this I thought good to premiâ—e lost any should think that liberty began only when Christ was revealed in the flesh for it was the smallest part that then was added though I say the other liberty from the sore condemning destroying bondage of the soul they had before haply is now heightned to believers and so much by way of premise For the opening of this spiritual Liberty we shall consider 1. It s Subject 2. Its Causes 3. Its Parts extensive and intensive if we may so speak that is to say the degrees of it First then for the subject of this Liberty they are all Christians that are so indeed therefore it is called Christian Liberty not only from Christ the Author but from the Subjects they are Christians Believers both Jews and Gentiles Bond or Free Male or Female Jerusalem saith the Apostle which is above is free which is the Mother of us all all such then as receive the Gospel as the poor are said to do all those upon whom the Sun of righteousness doth arise they are set free they do go forth for the partial subject of this liberty that will better appear when we come to speak of the parts of this liberty some are for the freeing the minde some the will some the conscience some the whole man but of this afterward Secondly Then for the causes of this liberty which is here promised we shall speak to some of them First then The principal efficient cause is the Father Son and Spirit the work of the Trinity ad extra are individed the Father it is that cals us to liberty Ye are called to liberty saith the Apostle use it not as a cloke to the flesh I marvel saith the Apostle that you are so soon removed from him who hath called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel The Apostle meaneth the calling to liberty which he cals the Grace of Christ and that Doctrine of the false teachers that would subject them again to the Law and Ceremonies and to that bondage subvert their liberty he cals it another Gospel And for the Son we have it If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free false Brethren came to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage And for the Spirit it is as clear The Law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death the mighty powerful working of the Spirit is called the Law of the Spirit as the powerful operation of Sin is called the Law of Sin and so in that place where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and so the Spirit of Adoption it is that succedeth the Spirit of Bondage and setteth us free from that Bondage Secondly The impulsive cause is meerly his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good pleasure yea his tender mercy his bowels So it is in the Original The bowels of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us there is the arising of the Sun of rightousness upon us and the effect of it you have before That we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness c. It is not misery is the motive only else he would do it for all as well as some for we are all of us in the same bondage naturally one as well as another Thirdly The meritorious cause is the blood of Jesus Christ no less then the blood of the Kings son is the price of the liberty of poor Slaves in bondage this must needs be tender mercy indeed rich love indeed so saith the Apostle That through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death that is the Devil no less then a Kings ransom is paid for the liberty of every poor creature that is made free and therefore he took upon him flesh and blood because the children were partakers of the same that he might die for them and to deliver them that for fear of death were in bondage all their life-time of which more afterward we are now speaking to the meritorious cause the price of his pretious mercy even the blood of Jesus Christ Fourthly The means of conferring or conveiging this liberty to poor Sinners is the Gospel of liberty the Covenant of Grace held out in the Gospel is the means and this is plain in many places As in that of Isaiah The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives if ever any preaching was the Gospel Christs preaching was and the Covenant who himself was given to be the Covenant to the people sure he would preach nothing but that or in subordination to that as he doth preach the Law too as would easily appear but we may not digress and so in thaâ— other place of Luke where either that or some of the fore-cited places in Isaiah are quoted Ye shall know the truth saith our Saviour and the truth shall make you free by truth there I take it is not meant indefinitely any truth whatever no nor a scriptural truth but the Gospel of truth which is called the truth Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ it is such a truth so pure and precious For his word is like
greater measure and therefore we may understand this of a general state of the Saints before the coming of Christ the arising of this Sun of righteousness indeed hath shone into the very chambers of death themselves to let us see thaâ— there is not that real terrour in it that otherwise except himself had gone through it and broken the bars of it and pluckt out the sting and sanctified it as a passage to our Glory as well as to his own we should still have been in as great bondage as they were in this respect and therefore Simeon saith Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word now he had embraced the Lord Christ not only in his bodily arms but had a clearer discovery also of him to his soul doubtless and the sence may help faith also But then secondly According to the measure of the faith of his people is the degree of their liberty from this bondage alas it is terrible to many of us yea such as do believe but their faith is weak and the perswasions of sense are strong and hold down the soul many times but the Lord Jesus came to deliver his people also from this bondage and according to the degrees of his manifesting himselfto the soul will the soul go forth from these fears and though Aristotle died doubtful whither he should go and yet cried out Ens entium causa causarum miserere mei Yet the Apostle and those that attained that pitch to know that when our tabernacles are dissolved we have an house eternal in the heavens to know the sting of death and victory of the grave is swallowed up by Jesus Christ it left its sting in his side to know that when we are dissolved we shall be with Christ and know how much better that will be to the soul that is well studied in these things and grown strong in the faith that is in Jesus he will desire to be dissolved and to be with Jesus O here is a going forth now a liberty and freedom indeed by the arising of the Sun of Righteousness upon us Ninthly A freedom or liberty from the Govenant of works What saith the Law Do this and live continue in every thing that is written now when the soul cometh to see how spirittual the Law is and how earnal he is and sold under sin that it binds not only the thoughts but the desires of the heart that there must not be so much as a vain thought pass through his soul but if there do this Covenant knoweth no mercy alas this keepeth the poor creature under much bondage and trouble and doubting concerning his condition now we must know that this is not a bondage of Gods putting upon us though he gave us the Law but of our own making the Lord gave the Law with Evangelical purposes it was added because of transgression it was added that the Covenant of Grace that it might convince poor creatures of their condition by sâ—n and not to be their Saviour or a Covenant of life to them When the Commandment came sin revived and I died saith the Apostle that is the work of it indeed but now we would needs make it to be a Covenant of works and look upon it so and therefore do what we did in obedience to this Law as for life expecting to be saved by our own works and so the Hebrews the Jews to whom that Law was first given we see how they would not submit they would not stoop to have this yoke taken off from them they would not submit to the righteousness of Ged but would have a righteousness of their own they had two strings to their bow and as long as either of them would hold they would not yield to be righteous by the righteousness of God in Christ the one was their freedom by Birth They were the seed of Abraham and not the seed of the Bond-woman and therefore what need they care for this liberty the other was their own works they made account their own penny was good silver enough though the Lord knoweth it was but reprobate silver they went about to establish their own righteousness they would be justified by a Covenant of works And so there were some that came and endeavoured to turn aside the Galathians to another Gospel by teaching them they should again put their necks under this yoke not only of Ceremonies though that be one thing to the Jews if not to the Gentiles that never were under it but it is the Law the Moral Law as a Covenant of Works else to what end doth he mention the curse therein And if ye be justified by the Law Christ shall not profit you you are fallen from the Doctrine of Grace Well now the Lord Jesus when he is revealed to a soul delivereth him from this though I must tell you it is an harder matter to get clearly off it then many do imagine and even the people of God themselves shall find that too often they are turned aside to the bondwoman from the free from the Covenant of Grace to a Covenant of Works Again from the Law as provoking for that is the Bondage chiefly the Apostle speaks of Rom. 7. But the more clearly and fully the Grace which is in Christ is revealed to us with the greater power he ariseth upon us the more fully are we set free from it Here we might discuss the question how far we are delivered from the Law and how far by Jesus Christ I will rather reserve that to another place and proceed to conclude this part Tenthly There is a kind of bondage the people of God are under even that weakness and straitness and deadness of heart towards God you know that sickness doth weaken a man exceedingly in so much that he can scarce go upon his legs he is a prisoner a great while under that weakness from all action to purpose let but a poor prisoner be under hardship a while in the prison and how feeble will he be and scarce worth the ground he goeth upon a while longer he is a prisoner under that weakness so it is here therefore saith the Psalmist Then will I run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart Now the Lord Jesus when he cometh in with pardon speaking peace smiling upon the soul filling the heart with joy unspeakable this joy of the Lord is the strength of the soul he goeth forth even as a man to his labour in the morning when the Sun ariseth that drousiness heaviness deadness under which he was a prisoner before being now removed Eleventhly There is a liberty and freedom also from outward afflictions for these are also an appendix of the Law a part of the execution of it and therefore the Lord doth set his people free from the fear of these before they come which is a kind of bondage upon them Secondly From the presence of
sin but it prevails not to for sake it O no if any of all this would have done it what need the Lord Jesus then be annointed for that work to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound surely the Lord would do no nothing in vain but so much for this Application Then it may teach us the vanity of all conceit of liberty or freedom or going forth before the Lord Jesus come and shine upon a mans soul then they shall go forth not before what is the reason that the most of men can satisfie themselves with their condition as they do but they have some conceit they are at liberty were sinners perswaded that they are under the dominion of sin and Satan c. could they eat or drink or sleep what a fearful thing would we think it if the Devil had but power over our bodies to carry them whither he pleased to shatter and shake them at his pleasure but what is this to the having power over the soul over the will the affections the mind by keeping them in blindness and yet sinners do not believe they are in such a bondage but think they are free nor do I think there is any one thing doth keep more poor creatures in bondage then this they think they are free but let us see a little the vanity of such conceits First Some are so gross as to think they are born free when as you heard before We are born the children of wrath we are all born in the house of bondage in the Prison House and therefore we as well as our Parents are under bondage Can a slave bring forth any other then a slave If many of us look to the Rock whence we are hewen as the Prophet speaks we shall find that our very Parents were the servants of sin and it may be lived and died so and what then were they the slaves to Satan and can we be Christ his Free-men by Birth It cannot be surely It is very strange that men that know their Parents to be loose wicked prophane earthly carnal crearuâ—es that yet should bear up themselves with this priviledge they are born free they are Christians by birth such men little know what goeth to make a Christian can the bond-woman bring forth children that are free Secondly Others have a fairer pretence for it then this they think they are free by birth because they had faithful believing parents we have Abraham to our Father and we being his seed how can we be in bondage I must confefs Brethren this is something to me for as Satan hath servants born in his house in his kingdom so the Lord Jesus hath in his if bond-men were born bond-men and servants were born in the house then God hath servants also born to him and his servants are free in that sense that they are his servants and therefore it is remarkable in that of Leviticus they must let their servants go free and their children also for they are my servants saith the Lord whom I brought out of Egypt which was a Type of our spiritual bondage mind you the Lord calls them his servants his children as well as others only note here two or three things for the clearing of it First that this is by grace and not by nature for by nature and natural generation no man can beget nor woman bring forth any child that is free no though they themselves through the riches of grace are made free yet their children by nature are the children of wrath as well as others yea though they belong to the Election of grace and be saved whether they die in infancy or come to the acknowledgment of the truth and believe as the Apostle did yet by nature they are the children of wrath a sad condition our poor children are in by nature if parents did but well lay it to heart but what then doth this hinder but that by grace they may be free though by nature they are bound as the Apostle himself by nature was a child of wrath under the curse of the Law that is to say and in bondage but by grace he was free and why might not the Lord by grace make him free sooner if he pleased as well as later is it not all one with him can he not make children free as well as men if he please are not men purely receptives in the first grace and are not children as passive and receptive as any But secondly there is a freedom invisible and saving and a freedom visible and both by grace the freedom invisible when a soul is actually set at liberty from the power of sin and the bondage of his corruptions or else visible when there is ground for our judging they are so freed now many are visibly free that are not invisibly free at all so there is many an hypocritical professor that carries it so like a free-man of Christ that it would puzzle the most discernable spirit to discover that he is under the bondage of sin or Satan and yet he is so invisibly haply but visibly he is free that is to say appears to be so appears to be in Covenant with God for that is the freedom therefore where-ever Christ is spoken of as to preach liberty it is said still he is given as a Covenant to the people so many appear to be in Covenant and so visibly are such that invisibly are not and so the children of such holy parents who are in Covenant with God are visibly free though invisibly they may be in bondage that is to say they are in visibly in Covenant with God that is to say we have ground to judge charitably and hopefully of them that they are in Covenant with God and if they so die that they are â—aved by vertue of that Covenant there which for my own part I know no other revealed way of salvation and therefore if we deny them this we must either say there is no grounded hope of their salvation and I would be loath to be such a durus pater infanâ—um to deny all visibility of salvation to them Or else we must say the Lord hath left nothing upon record whereby we might have any comfort concerning little ones that die in that condition which what an impeachment it were to the wisdom grace of God in Christ I wish men would impartially consider And if they will say they may be saved can it be without the invisible grace have they not corrupt natures and the seeds of all sin in them and can any unclean thing enter into heaven and therefore sure they must be freed from sin and will we grant them the invisible grace that they come under that which is narrower and shall we deny them that which is larger would you think that man himself that should yield that a man may be in the Kings bed-Chamber but he may
not be in the Pallace or a man be in this house and yet not in the City which is much more large and comprehensive But thirdly I conceive that this visible freedom of theirs is to be limited with the time until they come to discover the contrary as an hypocritical professor to us he is visibly a Saint and free until his leaf do fade and fall and that be taken from him which he seemeth to have as it is in that of the Evangelist now the child is upon his Fathers root the Lord owning them with their parents in the same covenant of grace yet if afterward when they come to understanding and by the rule of Christ they are to own the covenant themselves actually if they do disown it they shall be cast out as well as Ismael was and therefore it is I suppose that our Saviour reproveth the Jews when they stood now at age and should have minded what themselves had done now standing upon their own and not upon their Fathers root they should have owned the Covenant themselves and believed that so they might have been free indeed invisibly but though they never wrought the works of Abraham to believe in Christ to come and now in Christ come they should have believed but wrought the works of the Devil yet they bound themselves up with this that they were the children of Abraham they were so indeed and this in their infancy was ground for a believing hopefully of them specially if their Parents were Believers but now the Lord required themselves I say to own the Covenant and walk worthy of it else that would not stand them instead it is just as if a man that maketh a profession of Christ gloriously for a while and in the judgement of all that behold him he is a gracious man but yet he falls off draweth back to perdition the latter end of such a man is worse then his beginning yet he bears up himself O I am a Christian I have professed Christ as well as you and yet at present is thus stubborn and rebellious do you think this would satisfie any mans spirit concerning him is not here as much vanity of hope concerning his condition as in the other case O but some will say what a Doctrine is this can a man be free in any sense and yet come into bondage again and perish afterward are not the gifts and calling of God without repentance therefore that children should be free by vertue of this Covenant and yet afterward become the servants of sin and Satan and be so desperately wicked and prophane this seemeth derogatory to grace and that any that have been in Covenant of God and free should now be bound with everlasting chains of darkness It is no derogation from the truth nor from the grace that came by Jesus Christ that it should be so for mind you it is one thing to be free in the account of God and another thing to be free in the account of the Church and people of God God judgeth not as we judge visibly we judge and he judgeth that which is invisible now it is true one that hath been truly inwardly delivered from the bondage of sin and so gone out of prison he can never be reduced to such a condition cannot perish and so that man that is or ever was invisibly in Covenant with God can never come to that place of darkness but such as only visibly and in appearance did own the Covenant or were in Covenant may miscarry how many glorious professors that made a great shew for a time and sprang up as fast and flourished as much as any that yet now are the fuel for those everlasting flames what could men judge of them but that they were in Covenant with God and so free-men and delivered from the prison from the bondage yet alas were in the hold of sin to that day and why may it not be so and allowed in this case as well as in that may not the children of the Kingdom be cast out into outer darkness I could wish that were well considered the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness we will allow professors a communion and fellowship with us as free-men as men in Covenant with God whose profession so oftentimes prove rotten and unsound and think this profession is a sufficient ground to declare to us they are in Covenant with Christ and yet we will not allow Believers children to be in Covenant with God because afterward they come to walk contrary to this Covenant Nor do we think the declaration of God that he doth own them as his as his children his servants as holy to himself to be as sufficient to make it out they are in Covenant with God For my own part I see not the pretended difference but if there be any advantage in the visibility of being in Covenant with God I take it upon this hand for I do and shall make more of a word of God where the Lord hath said it that they are his in a way of grace though it prove to be but visibly not invisibly then I shall make of any mans profession in the world which can amount to no more then a visibility or at least I shall make as much of it Well but then suppose thou wert a child of Abraham of believing parents and so wert free and in Covenant with God visibly yet alas this will not now stand thee in stead to salvation no more then a profession of a temporarie faith will do an hypocrite thou workest the works of the Devil art a very drudge to Satan and the world and thy own hearts lusts and yet will hang thy hopes of salvation upon a being born free we are Abraham's seed if any seed of Believers since the Covenant should have been saved and freed inwardly and savingly by being the seed of such parents when themselves came actually to renounce it in works to deny the Covenant in works they might have it by Abraham but yet you see our Saviour tells them the Son must make them free before they could be free therefore this is a vain conceit the Lord perswade poor sinners against it Secondly some there are that because they feel nothing of such a bondage as hath been spoken of therefore they conclude there is no such thing upon them they do not feel any such thing as fetters and ginns upon them they never were under any such slavishness of obedience under any such terrours nor under the command of their lusts they think they are Masters of themselves and can command their passions and appetites as well as any others and therefore sure they are free This is a deceit also The more undiscerned the bondage is the more sure it is it was the slateliness of some Princes they would not be seen by their subjects nor make their persons too common they should feel the weight of
their loins but not see them to keep up an esteem among them if they had made themselves too common haply and too cheap it might have weakened their authority So it is in this case sin and Satan will not be seen haply in the business they know if it should appear to a sinner he is in bondage to them it were a dangerous step to dethrone him and devest him of his commanding power over a poor sinner for who if he did see himself thralled to so base and bloody an enemy as Satan is would endure it long and therefore he keepeth them in darkness from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God therefore it is the first work of grace to open the eyes as in the case of Paul who art thou Lord he knew not nor did he know his persecution was a sin he was so far from it as that he thought verily he ought to do many things against that way And truly so it is with many a poor soul they think they are as far from bondage in sin as he that is furthest whereas they are altogether in bondage A man in errour if of a lesser or greater moment he is in the snare of the Devil and yet he thinks himself free specially before admonition else fundamentals are written so clearly that after the first and second admonition if administred with such clearness and tenderness as it ought Dear friends I doubt there are some of us that it never came into our hearts seriously to consider scarce to suspect that we were in bondage do not your hearts bear witness to this truth believe it such are in the greatest bondage of all others ordinarily I know it is true that even from the child-hood under gracious education which the Lord hath promised a blessing to as one of his Ordinances with it may be instilled so insensibly as that a man may scarse ever know how it came to pass but yet that he is free he may know as the blind man said but I speak of sinners that it is too apparent alas if they did or could but search and try and ponder their waies that they are in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity and yet think highly of themselves as Magus did that they are some body O this is a grievous deceit Thirdly There are some that because they part with some sin they think they are free it may be they were before drunkards or blasphemers now they are reformed and not guilty in this kind therefore they think they are free they have gone forth when alas they are held in the cords of another lust it may be run from one extreme to another reel from one pit to another and truly one chain upon the soul will hold it fast enough one foot in the snare holds it as well as if the whole body were restrained if Satan have but one cord about us he takes us alive at his pleasure Because that they pass one Gate in the Prison they think they are presently out no Brethren there are iron Gates and Bars yet to be opened there are more lusts yet to be shaked off before you can look upon your selves as free Sampson must have his Dalilah Herod his Herodias though he did many things Fourthly Some think they are free because it may be they forbear the outward acts of rebellion so be they can keep themselves unblamable and unreprovable of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they heed not what is within Brethren what is it the better to have the hand and the foot out of the snare and the heart be intangled a man may through fear slavish fear of God or else fear of men fear of shame or the like forbear to act and yet the heart love and like the sin well enough The Dog is not offended with his vomit though he bring it up he liketh it well enough it is only some pain at the stomack which he cannot brook So you may pluck away the iron from the Loadstone but it hath a lingering after it still and so Phaltiel when his Wife was taken from him he parted with her indeed because he durst not otherwise chuse for the dipleasure of the King would wax hot against him he might lose his liberty if not his life if he had refused but saith the Text He went mourning after her he did it with an unwilling heart So may a man part with sin the practice of it but yet his heart cleaveth to it still he may cast it away when the coal is fired but yet he could be content if the fire were out to put it into his bosom again Brethren Is it thus with us we dare not let down sin haply swallow it for fear it prove bitterin the belly but yet we will roul it under the tongue as a sweet morsel surely this is not to go forth to be set free from this bondage therefore do not mistake your selves it may be thou dost not gripe and oppress in bargain dealing hardly or over-reach but thy teeth water at it thou couldst digest it well enough thou durst thou dislikest it not because it is sin and displeasing to the Lord thou art not yet free Fifthly Some think they are free because loose Libertines promise them liberty when themselves are the servants of sin Truly Brethren if ever hell were broke loose now is the time the Devil never enjoyed more chain then now specially as an Angel of light it is come to that pass now adays that men think they are never free until they have broken the bands of Christ and cast away his cords from them until they have broken the yoke of Christ from off their necks sons of Belial that will not endure to he yoked though never so easie O these Ordinances and Duties and Services they are a bondage they are poor and beggerly rudiments to which they will not any more be in bondage they will not any more be Priest-rid den as they call it and as for Sabbaths and Prayers and Hearing and Reading and Meditating these are poor empty things and a burthen it is to bear them they are weary and snuff at it as in Malachy It is true they are empty to them that have not communion with Christ in them Else as David saith in the like case The soul may there be filled with marrow and fatness But now mind what saith the Apostle When themselves are the servants of sin I do observe it and it is worth the noting in the example of such as would not have their necks under the yoke of Christ his Ordinances but live above them have the yoke upon them usually they are persons under the command of their lusts and are these likely persons to teach men the way to liberty surely no. Sixthly Some think they are freed and delivered if they do but attain that knowledge which the Apostle speaks of in the
the Lord who is most slighted in all this should pitty and make a way for their deliverance this is unspeakable rich grace that the Lord should as I may say study a course to make them willing to come forth to which end all the sad and fearfull Characters of this bondage in Scripture are to which end is the Law given that sin might appear to be sin and exceeding sinful and the bondage very great that they might thereby see themselves shut up to this end all those sweet invitations and powerfull expostulations with poor sinners in the Gospel O why will ye die why will ye perish and rot in prison since there is a ransom found for you the Lord takes no pleasure in your death and why will ye delight in your own death O what powerfull Rhetorick are these loving intreaties expostulations the yearnings of his bowels over them his tears over Jerusalem when they would not be gathered under his wings and all this to make the poor sinner willing and when all will not do that he should even put forth a power upon their wills and hearts inclining them to it by a sweet and yet strong though not compulsory influence of his Spirit upon them this is admirable what tenderness was there towards Lot that when he lingered and delayed the Angel took him by the hand and brought him without the City and bid him haste for his life truly there is not a soul delivered from this bondage but there is as much exercise of the patience and bowels of Christ toward them to make them willing yea to take them by the hand when they linger and make excuses as those in the Gospel I will follow thee but let me go and bid farewell to my friends I must not come off abruptly from my old Companions in sin but take leave of them handsomly I must go bury my father saith another but the Lord Jesus takes by the hand plucks us out as I may say by head and ears before we will come out Again consider how we have worn out our selves in the bondage and slavery of sin and with these fetters upon our souls or else spent so that now he may even say we our selves may say of our days there is no pleasure in them so Luke 4. 18. to set at liberty them that are bruised Dimittere confractâ—s in remissionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are not in Isaiah 61. neither Hebrew Greek nor Latine but they are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Luke as some conceive â—atabl and others read them vâ—lneratos persons wounded shattered worn out with the hard bondage and service they were put to bondage is a weary thing at the best but when a man is such a slave as that he must like a Gally Slave work like a horse in the service of sin O what pains sinners do take with both hands earnestly they come to iniquity and so exhaust their spirits the best milk and marrow in the bones so that they are as dry sticks that are good for nothing and yet that the Lord Jesus should to such proclaim liberty bring them forth that are able to do him no service in a manner so the thief upon the Cross and so the Jew that Andreas is said to convert hanging upon the Cross and so many a gray headed sinner that never ceased serving sin yet now c. Truly if the Lord Christ should set us free with a respect to any service we should do him afterward I doubt none would ever be set free for Brethren what can we add to him if thou be righteous it profiteth him not at all he is a God infinitely perfect in himself our goodness extends not to him all the best of Lebanon and the wood are not enough for a burnt offering so great a God he is and yet though he be not advantaged by our service when we are set at Liberty but what commandments he giveth us to observe and giveth us hearts inclineth our hearts thereunto they are for our own welfare as in that of Deuteronomy The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath for his good his advantage and so is all the services or if it were yet alas I say how are we broken many times with the bondage of sin so that we are fit for nothing the understanding and affections so weakned and wasted and besotted with sin that afterward we can do little for him because of that sad effect sin hath left upon our souls and yet he delivereth us this the fourth Vse 5. Then it shall it be for Exhortation and invitation this day to every poor sinner that is in bondage that they would close with this promise that they would go forth O Sinners that you would but accept of Deliverance and Liberty that now the Lord Jesus after so dear a purchase of it doth tender to you you see he is willing he came on purpose into the world to preach and proclaim liberty to the Captives Now art not thou a Captive and hast thou no minde to be set free And for some Motives to stir us up a little at least to a consideration of our condition and what we do all this while First Consider this is the acceptable year of the Lord as in that of Isaiah O it beginneth with the preaching of the Gospel indeed the acceptable year minde you acceptable to Jesus Christ It pleaseth him wondrous well if sinners be willing to come out of prison to be set at liberty there is many a poor soul that thinketh with himself I am willing if the Lord Jesus be willing that I shall go forth O it is the acceptable year of the Lord there is nothing more pleasing to him then to see the ransom he hath laid down for you sinners take effect and bring out many out of bondage the Apostle applyeth it to the times of the Gospel There is joy in heaven c. The Father of the Prodigal how willing was he and then it is the acceptable year to sinners too O how did men that were in bondage long for the Jubilee and breath and pant after it especially if their bondage were hard that set them all free Dear Friends Consider this is the great Jubilee proclaimed solemnly with the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel that every poor creature that will may go forth out of prison yea that if now they go forth the Lord Jesus is willing we should but if we shall trifle away this year of the Lord which we know not how long it may last to us either the Gospel may be taken away from us or else we from the Gospel or else the things which concern our peace in the Gospel be hid from our eyes that we shall never see them O that sinners would but consider this these seasons the Father hath kept in his own power that sinners might be afraid to
Take heed of returning to that Covenant of works or Covenant of life which was a yoak of our own making if our blessed Saviour hath been pleased to break it set us free shall we retâ—rn to that bondage again I doubt this is a great cause of much sorrow and heavy walking before the Lord of many a poor creature O he cannot do this and he cannot do that and therefore he doubts all is not well with him whether he have any thing to do with Christ It is true if he had made our doing our perfect obedience the condition of his Covenant it had been somewhat but he hath not but faith in him take from him for all ends and purposes not only for pardon but for strength for food for victory over our sin Now we go off this and therefore we move so heavily and cannot stir but are like a door off its hinges a Chariot off its wheels bring much bondage and trouble upon our selves and much of our time and pains is spent in poring upon this and getting healing again for this which might be spent in glorifying him Therefore beg of God to this end that he would establish you with his Princely Royal Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty the Son maketh us free by his Spirit and therefore David maketh that prayer as being sensible of this O beg this Spirit for establishment the Lord will be intreated he puts arguments into our mouths and giveth us the greatest encouragements to beg the Spirit of any other mercy that I know of as being the greatest mercy and the principal of all Gospel-grace and therefore being so great a gift poor sinners might be affraid to ask but saith he you are Fathers whose affections are finite and mixed you are not pure love yea you are evil and yet will give good gifts to your children much more will God give the Spirit this the Apostle is earnest with the Lord for that he would stablish and strengthen his people to every good Word and Work for grace is but a creature and so is weak cannot consist of it self without him therefore be earnest here Thirdly Since we are delivered from outward pressures the yoak that did gall the necks of the people of God as before hath the Lord set us above our enemies hath he before our eyes brought our Egyptians down in the red Sea of blood and shall we return thither again I speak not of the same bondage I hope the Lord will keep his people from that but I speak of a worse to be delivered from a tyrannie of man to return to a tyrannie and dominion of sin it is sad the heathens could say Servitus gravissima est sibi ipsi servire it is the heaviest yoak for a man to be yoaked with his own ends and interests to seek himself serve himself specially his sinful self to make provision for his lusts It was a sad character of Rome that Angustine giveth her Victrix gentium captiva vitiorum What are we the better for being delivered from that bondage if such as were humble then and low and meek and self-denying now are high and fierce and self-seeking proud and wanton and luxurious their whoreing hawking and hounding and spending their time in such sports which should have been laid out in publike service was lookt upon as a great evil God caused their houses and lands to spue them out I wish we be not beginning to come under that worse yoak now we are delivered from that of oppression was it not better for Israel to work in the Iron-furnace in the brick-kill then to be enslaved to their lusts in the wilderness and there to perish and was not Babylon better for them then to be at liberty and yet to become slaves to their lusts to their Idols Brethren I pray you let us look well about us every one it is true the day of the Lord it hath burned like an oven among us and many have been as stubble fully dryed put into it the bryers and brambles that did scratch and tear the people of God they are consumed God hath gone through them and consumed them and are we any thing the better are we not worse If we now melt away with the sweetness of our liberty grow luxurious and wanton wanton in opinions that men know not well what they would be but any thing so it be new and the thriving way and wanton in apparel are there not as many slaves to pride to vanity to self as there were then to the lusts of other men I beseech you which is the worse to be at the mercy of another mans lusts which can but reach the body and effect our sorrow for a time or the mercy of our own merciless lusts which will work our woe and ruine O therefore look to this then if set at liberty slie sin as he said to Lot flie for thy life c. slie fornication and youthful lusts c. said the Apostle The third part of the Exhortation then shall be to take heed how we abuse this our liberty as saith the Apostle not using our liberty as a cloak of malitiousness haply alluding to the manner of persons The Apostles scope in that place leadeth us to one part of the sense of this abusing of our liberty and that is to think they are so free now that they need not have their necks under the yoak of men at all for that goeth before exhorting them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher powers and subordinate powers is very consistent with this spiritual freedom was there ever any so free as our Saviour who is the Son that maketh us free and yet did not he submit submit to his parents was subject to them and subject to the powers under which he lived because his Kingdom was not of this world and would it suite with the head and will it not suite with the members But I hope I need not speak much to this But there is much more wherein we may abuse our liberty as children by a carrying it frowardly and rebelliously against their parents upon pretence of liberty and servants that are under the yoak it may be think they may do much in this case more then they have warrant to do because they are free it may be and their Masters haply in bondage under sin therefore shall they despise them No but count them worthy of all honour serving them in singleness of heart as unto Christ not for by-respects and ends for fear of their displeasure but for Christs sake to do it this is freedom indeed But to speak a little more generally many men think when once they have gotten their necks out of the yoak from under that bondage and those fears that they have been under they think now they are at liberty they are past
all the worst when they have gotten a little peace and therefore though before they walked mournfully before God and were diligent in following hard after him now they slack their pace grow remiss they have their consolations the loaves they would have and now they may take their ease O this is a horrible abuse of this liberty for therefore the Lord speaks peace that we might not return to folly and we quite cross because he hath spoken peace to us therefore give up our selves to folly is not this to walk contrary to him and will he not walk contrary to you is not this to make our liberty a cloak an occasion to the flesh a handle for the flesh to take hold of and so to bring you into bondage again and so make more work for Christ to set you at liberty again Brethren can we make our liberty a cloak to the flesh and do you think the Lord will not pluck that cloak over our ears and shew us our nakedness again and make us know how we come by it again before we have it and therefore take heed of this I beseech you lest your liberty degenerate into licentiousness Maxima libertate minima licentia said that Antient. But yet more particularly take heed of abusing of your liberty in the use of things lawful in themselves and indifferent it is a sign of a heart that hath little fear of offending God that dare walk just at the very brink upon the very line of destruction between sin and lawful liberty if it can be assigned You find the Apostle of another Spirit rather then offend his weak Brother he would never eat meat while he lived why how would he live rather upon herbs and fruits and such things then to eat flesh as long as he lived too I tell you Brethren in our daies though there is much discourse of liberty there is little true use of it when a man will offend all the people of God and his Brethren rather then he will part with an excrement and a woman rather then sorbear her spotting and painting and bedlam nakedness If the things be lawful in themselves which I think they are not or a man will rather grieve all the people of God then cross his humor this is sad Again Brethren one man may have a greater liberty then another in this case and another greater then he in another case as for instance now Abraham might look upon Sodom when it was flaming but Lot might not because there he had his desirable things lest it should draw back his heart from the journey now commanded him and so if a man do but observe when temptations and lusts meet together where his corruption lies what is the scum of his heart and what doth use to fire his lusts there he may not give himself such a liberty as another may whose temptation lies in another thing as if a mans temptation lie to excess in eating in drinking it is not lawsul for such a man now to look upon the wine when red c. to come in the danger of such a temptation and so if a man have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease to sin he may not behold an object that another may whose temptation lies not there In a word look to it Brethren that we serve one another in love this is opposed to using our liberty as a Cloak to the flesh to bear one anothers burdens Brethren we are not at liberty one from another we may not say with Cain Am I my Brothers keeper we ought not to despise the infirmities of the weak because they see not as we see and therefore are grieved and offended at many things that we make nothing of here we ought to bear their infirmities to cover them to labour to inform them and forbear them not despise them become all things to them that we may lawfully as the Apostle became all things but a sinner to gain them this is serving one another in love and the labour of love either to God or men is a free service indeed we are rather ready to serve our selves one of another for ought I perceive generally it is so then serve one another in love Brethren I doubt there is little love for Christ sake though there may be some for our own and then all the liberty we talk of it is but bondage the Law of love is a Law of liberty indeed but enough of this Fourthly Then look to it that we being free from sin we become the servants of righteousness that is to say that you give up your selves yield your selves unto God unto Christ as instruments for the holy Spirit to play upon as instruments tools weapons of righteousness for the Lord to make use of even as he pleaseth this is the end of all that liberty held out in the Covenant of grace that we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives Now hath the Lord then set thee free brought thee out of the horrible pit broken off the shakles knockt them off set open the prison what can we do less then this spend our selves now in his service O if men would but consider how much of their strength and spirits sin hath had while we were under that bondage Me thinks it should put us on so much the more earnestly specially considering how our service addeth nothing to him it is for our own good as you heard before and it is all he expecteth for delivering of us What poor Gally-slave would not most willingly yield to a Noble-man to be his servant where his service is honourable and pleasant and delightful so be he would redeem him why this is the very case Beside if we consider the fruit here and the reward hereafter the Apostle puts both together and I will not put them asunder the first-fruits and the harvest they have their fruit unto holiness the more we serve the Lord Christ the more easie pleasant and delightful will his service be the more our souls will shine with the beauty of holiness as the bondage groweth by continuance so doth the freedom by this service I dare say the more acquaintance any poor heart hath with a diligent close humble upright walking with God the more pleasant the waies of God are to him yea and the more holy that man groweth it must needs be so because he hath more communion with the Fountain of holiness even God in Jesus Christ and the Spirit also would you be holy Brethren would you be more and more freed from the remainders of bondage which are upon you Believe it the only way is to lay out your selves more in the service of Christ the Spirit of Christ will delight to be where he is entertained where his motions are received every hint is taken and followed and improved and the
was big with us and O what sharp travel he had such as never was nor can be the like again and he supplies the nourishment the Word and the Spirit he promiseth shall never depart out of his peoples mouths and this is that the Evangelist hath of his fulness we receive grace for grace the sincere milk of the Word is his he prepareth the sweet cup of consolation in the promises so many precious promises so many breasts a child of God hath to suck continually there he hath prepared nourishment for our faith and so in our tryals and experiences there is nourishment for our faith and for our humility and for our love and all this is from him Secondly But then beside this there is a forming power a power of concoction digestion and assimilation to turn these nourishments into the very substance for so the Apostle Some preach Christ of envy saith he supposing to add affliction to my bonds the Devil and his Angels of light preach Christ but with no good intent not to gain credit but dishonor to the Gospel at the long run we see it by too woful experience well saith the Apostle I know this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ if a man take never so much down if he have not a power to digest it and turn it into substance succum sanguinem he shall never grow by it alas do we not see many live under the Word the sincere milk of the Word and seem to draw as hard at the breast as any hanging upon the Ministers lips that should preserve knowledge and yet grow not come not on there wants this digesting faculty the Spirit of Christ to mix the word with faith then when it is so mixed and concocted it groweth indeed the Word groweth then the poor Believer groweth his faith groweth And so the Apostle in that to the Corinthians who beholding as in a glass there is the nourishment the Ordinances the beholding Christ in them but the power of concocting these turning them to strength is the Spirit we are changed into his image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord as there is not similitudinis but identitatis the glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth there is the truth in general that it is from Christ and more specially that this power is his in that one place to the Ephesians from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body he speaks of the growth of the Church in general but there is par ratio for the growth of each member for it is one part of the growing of the whole that the members grow in stature as well as in number and so in that place to the Colossians Let not man beguile you of your reward as a Judge of the race of masteries prescribes it is an exorbitant course to â—un out of the way and then promise you the reward for it this will be but a beguiling of you in a voluntary humility and worship of Angels c. and is worshiping of Saints any better then this voluntary humility and yet some there are that beguile poor creatures of their reward promising them if they run in this course they shall have it not holding the head me thinks an ingenuous Papist reading this should begin to suspect their way since to worship Angels and such voluntary humility as God never commanded as not to approach to Christ without a mediation of Saints which he never commanded is voluntary humility and so this is not to hold the head Christ Jesus from which from the head all the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increases of God it is the increase of God because he is the Author of it or else because of the greatness of the increase and its excellency for so the name of God is often used in the old Scriptures and their phrases the Apostles do often keep in the New You see the nourishment is ministred from the head as the sap is from the root of the tree and it is his effectual working whereby it is turned to an increase of our faith and love and therefore that soul that is not really and truly in the Lord Jesus though he may for a time flourish yet he will wither he may be green and yet be but a weed and they grow fast but they are not upon a right root they spring not from such a seed and therefore at their perfection they will be but wild Oates it may be or Tares which for a great while are so like to Wheat as some of the Antients speak that it is not to be discerned from it until it come into the ear and so many an hypocrite may have as broad a leaf as green a blade in externals not be behind any for enlargements and parts and notions of the knowledge of Christ and yet alas though he had more and more degrees this is not a spiritual growth this is not from the head from the root the Lord Jesus as a root of saving life I deny not but he giveth those gifts and parts but it is not as head of the invisible Church who alone shall be saved though as head of the visible Church there may be a communication of some fatness and sweetness of the Olive to them that is to say the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church which an hypocrite may enjoy yet be cut off when all is done and thereby he may make some progress of knowledge and a formality but yet this is no true spiritual growth this should make us look well about us and see if our water do arise from this fountain it will spread it self until it come to a river grow broader and broader Fifthly As it is from him and therefore we must be in him before we can grow with this spiritual growth so this growth in grace is a growing up into him and good reason if of him and by him be all things that to him should be all things also if Rivers be from the Sea they return to the Sea again there may be two things in this one expression of growing up into Christ who is the head First that we grow up into a nearer fellowship and communion with him who is the head and this is most sure whether the growth of the members where it is the faster do draw more and more yet from the head and other parts where the nourishment is prepared I shall not meddle with but this I am sure of the more grace any soul receiveth the more yet he may it is in order to further fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus which is indeed an
are we to believe Satan and the world when they shuffle us off from this work of casting up the accounts of our souls I think we may all of us or the most of us plead guilty here have we our times Brethren we set apart for this work of self-searching and tryal not an hour in a moneth or many moneths when we come to the Lords Supper an hour in a quarter or a day in a year yea do you ever perform this duty at all truly it is an ill sign when we are so backward to search the Lord perswade you to the duty you heard before how sad a thing it is to be at a stand not to grow and beside how canst thou be thankful if thou take not notice of it he loseth his glory and that will neither be for our advantage nor comfort And here I hope it may not be beside the Text to speak of growth under that other ordinary Simile of growing like trees or plants in Scripture nothing more ordinary then that where Believers are compared to trees of righteousness and branches in Christ the Vine and what is included in this comparison here as to the growth in quantity increase in quality and goodness and swiftness of it I hope I shall meet with in the other First then look whether you grow more into the root you grow downward for if a tree grow not in the root proportionably you know it will be top-heavy and every blast is ready to over-turn it that soul groweth to purpose that groweth then in the root more now what is this root but the Covenant of grace as you have heard when God would cut a people down by the root he would dis-covenant them now the Lord Jesus is the main of the Covenant and therefore called the Covenant he and his Spirit are the great promises of the Covenant Chrisâ— as he is tendered for righteousness for holiness for redemption and all Now there are three graces specially which respect the root Jesus Christ whereby we may be said to grow in the root and therefore let us labour to search and try our selves by them The first is Faith Brethren whereby indeed we are planted into him and as that grows so we are said to grow in the root time was when our faith was but as a grain of Mustard-seed but now hath it deeper rooting faster hold of Christ do we now embrace him more closely then we did time hath been it may be when we have understood little of the Covenant of grace and so consequently could give but an assent to what we understood of it and an answerable consent but dost thou now understand it more to give a firmer assent to the truth of the thing wherein the Lord hath promised to give his Son and with him remission of sins that he will remember them no more and blot out their iniquities thou assentest to this truth now more then thou didst before O the bloodiness of thy guilt was that which dismayed thee the horridness the filthyness the multitude the aggravations of thy sins now thou seest and consentest to the truth of it that God will swallow up all they shall be though scarlet as white as snow though the time was the sight of thy sins did as much amaze thee as the sight of the Egyptians did the Israelites O thou knowest not what to do now thou canst look upon them as swallowed up in the red Sea of the blood of Jesus Christ O a Sea of mercy a red Sea of precious redeeming blood what will it not swallow up dost thou find it O observe Brethren how you grow in your assent to it and so for mortification subduing iniquities because thou hast been prest and pestered with thy lusts thou hast been ready to â—ay all men are lyars in thy haste O notwithstanding this Covenant of grace I find my corruptions strong and lively but now thou dost not upon this account question the Covenant but assentest to it and closest with it consent as well as assent and so waitest upon God for the fulfilling of it until his time he that believeth maketh not haste though he make it not to grow yet this is all thy salvation here thou hangest thy hopes and off this thou wilt not be beaten though heretofore thou hast found alas thou couldst hardly fasten upon it at all do you find this Bretheen see in what degrees if we grow not here we grow not at all to any purpose Secondly And that which is indeed included in the former is that of self-denyal if any man will be my Disciple he must deny himself and take up his Cross Deny himself all that is desirable in himself all that he lookt upon as conducible to salvation whether his works or gifts or duties his priviledges or whatever It is true we had a root of our own in Adam but that worm of sin hath smitten the root and it is withered and it is but rottenness and therefore there is no growth to be expected from it but what will be rotten Now Christ alone in the Covenant of grace is the root and the more we grow off our own root the more we grow into him as the root Now consider this Brethren it may be the time hath been thou hast builded much of thy hopes and comforts upon what thou hast had in thy self O if thou couldst but do this and that thou couldst be quiet and take comfort in thy condition now though thou do more or do less whatever thou art enabled to do through him dost thou find that thou canst bless him for it and yet go out of all and be as though we had never done any thing counting all but as menstruous cloaths and yet not the less but the more encouraged that our own righteousness is not the bottom because then it could not be sure but we have such a root as never withers even Jesus Christ Alas how far short are we in this though we have seen it many times when we would be standing upon our own bottom that we cannot stand upon a thing that stands not under us but sinketh only upon the Rock Jesus Christ yet we have not learned this many of us I doubt this hinders our growth much as if a vessel be indeed afloat yet so shallow keepeth so near the side of the shore as that it ever and anon strikes upon the ground it can make no considerable progress and is in danger of smiting beside so it is in this case well consider then this hath been our case we could not launch out into the deep perfectly trust to that grace revealed in Christ we must have one foot upon the ground we must feel something of our own under us or else we could not be quiet is it thus with thee now that thou arâ— more come off this thou canst now though thou see nothing in thy self yea when there is most appearing in
grow in this Grace may he not say to us O ye of little Faith why do ye doubt why do you walk so pensively and hang the head to the dishonour of my Grace may he not say O ye of little Faith why do you perplex your selves and rack your selves with cares of the World what ye shall eat and drink and how ye shall be prvoided for doth not your heavenly Father take care of you O ye of little Faith why do ye in every perplexity and trouble as men at a loss run to this creature and that creature and not to the Lord wherein your help doth lie O ye of little Faith why do you when means fail then cast away your hope as if there were no help in God as if because the streams were dried up therefore the fountain must needs be dry also therefore Brethren labour to grow in this Grace if ever you would do any eminent service for Christ or honour him set the crown on him in any condition labour to be strong in Faith Thirdly In that Grace of Love labour to grow therein First to the Lord himself to Jesus Christ It may be thou dost love him and according to the measure of Faith and Knowledge of him the soul will love him usually but we must labour to love him much more love we take it kindly if it be from the meanest person and so doth the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints you cannot love him too much do you alway err in his love the more you love him the more you may for there is no end of his perfections his love his mercy his bowels towards you there is no searching of them you may go yet deeper and deeper and find a ground for the increase of your love still you love Relations Husband Wife Children and more for relation then for any excellency in them many times fond we are O that we could be so fond of Jesus Christ how sick of love was Rachel yea sick to the death for children and so is many a fond mother O we cannot live without them Ah how few are thus sick of love to Jesus Christ well lobour to love him and to this end First Labour to present the Lord and Jesus Christas most lovely to thee while thou entertainest hard thoughts of Jesus Christ thou canst not love him if thou thinkest thus with thy self I would fain have him but he is not willing to have me if thou look upon him as rigorous and cruel and one that delights in your blood it is impossible that you should love him O no labour to present him to your selves as one whose bowels are continually yearning over poor souls poor sinners one full of compassions full of mercy and tenderness he desires not the death of a sinner the Lord Jesus Brethren is altogether lovely it is true for his holiness his purity as well as his grace and mercy but this is that which most moveth to love at least while we are under weakness it is an high pitch to love him for the beauty of Holiness that is in him Think often then seriously upon it what dear thoughts the Lord Jesus had to poor sinners that rather then they should perish he would interpose between them and the everlasting burnings though be were sorely scorched for it O will not this draw love look upon him with his precious blood trickling down and one drop overtaking another O what haste did love make O how lavish was his love he would not spare any pains any travel of soul that sinners might live and can you but love him then O what an heart must that creature have that can look upon the Lord Jesus wrestling with strongest wrath of his Father so that he needed the Ministry of Angels at that time and yet not love him try see whether such considerations as these will not heighten your love to him we complain of want of love Brethren we cannot love a thing we know not or that we consider not see then if you do not find still some new beauty in him for which you should love him yet the more Secondly Let it be much upon your hearts how much he hath forgiven thee Alas saith the poor soul if I knew that that my sins were forgiven I should love him indeed abundantly It may be thou hast not a full perswasion of it but hast thou not a good hope through Grace and such a lively hope as setteth a working out the scum the pollution of thy heart more and more Is not this cause of great love to him why he hath not left thee to sink in despair and perish O how much did that sinner love him because he had forgiven her much therefore she loved much Dear friends could this be think you without her heart dwelt upon this consideration it was fresh upon her spirit O the more she considered it the more apparent were the riches of Grace towards her O so many Devils cast out of me would the Lord Jesus have such precious thoughts toward such a wretch as I what an Harlot a filthy unclean wretch and would he think upon me and pitch his love upon me and pass by many others that had it may be but one devil and make love to me that had seven O she could not hold her bowels within her were ready to break she must love him she must hang upon him even upon his feet she must wash him with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head though before as harlots use to do she had been much in tricking and trimming her head yet now they shall be dishrifled and now they shall be a Towel to wipe the feet of Jesus Christ O here is love kiss his feet if she may not kiss his lips and blessed soul that had such an heart given her Now Brethren consider this have not some of us had seven devils have there not been seven abominations in our hearts O it may be we have been fornicators adulterers filthy unclean wretches as vile wretches as ever breathed now consider this often is it so indeed hath the Lord looked upon such as we have been pitched his love upon the vilest of us and to make us so nigh to himself and shall we not love him O where are such workings of love towards the Lord Jesus as that poor woman manifested our hearts are dead and dry So the Apostle Paul His love of Christ constrained him O he was the chief of Sinners and the Lord did so eminently save him and call him out of darkness when he was in the very height of his wickedness that then mercy should â—eet with him that then a pardon should descend from heaven when he was fighting and rebelling against heaven and he should be conquered by the love of Christ whose heart was full of blood against him O this lying upon his spirit did indear his soul to
Jesus Christ Ah dear Friends I beseech you consider this some of us sure that hear this this day our hearts do tell us we have been the chief of sinners never viler then we and hath the Lord met with us not as an enemy but poured out upon us such a stream of love as we could no longer withstand it and yet do we not love him accordingly O labour to grow in love to Jesus Christ Thirdly Mind the particular experiences thou hast had of his love and tenderness to thee So the Psalmist I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice when he was in distress then he cryed to the Lord and he heard him therefore he would love him how many deliverances hath the Lord wrought particularly for us specially he hath kept us from sinning such a time and such a time so that thou didst not go on to the wounding of thy conscience the dishonour of his name and wilt thou not therefore love him O dear friends how often hath he shaken the rod over thee and yet hath spared and canst thou not love him yea though a child thinks the rod cannot stand with love yet when he cometh to lay away childish thoughts and to understand as a man he loveth his father so much the more that he hath chastened him and not suffered him to take the way of his own heart so should it be in this case But consider how many sweet experiences hast thou had of his love which it may be many a poor creature would have given a world for one of them many a kiss of his lips thou scarce ever appearest before him but thou hast a smile from him some refreshing some melting doth not this indear thy heart consider these things there is many a poor child of God that scarce ever findeth such sensible refreshings and yet hang upon him and loveth him and O it is pure love indeed when we hang upon him though he frown upon us though he seem to shake us off not to heed us nor regard us yet our souls it may be are sick of love for him we must follow him still But thou that hast such fore-draughts of his love sometimes yea many times O the remembrance of these me thinks should much increase love to him Now this is of very great moment for it will make us more abundant in the work of the Lord and with much more ease it will come off Paul laboured more abundantly then they all and it was nothing to him O he loved much and so it will be with us if we could get our hearts to it What was it think you that carried our Saviour so chearfully through all his travels and griefs and slightings of men O it was his love nothing is hard to love therefore labour to be like-minded to grow in love to the Lord Jesus But secondly To grow in love one towards another this is matter of rejoycing to the saithful over-seers of the Church of Christ we are bound to thank God alway for you Brethren as it is meet because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity or love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth So again as touching brotherly love you have no need that I write unto you for ye are taught of God to love one another and ye do the same thing to all the Brethren which are in all Maâ—edonia but we beseech you Brethren to abound more and more you have it in that place of the Apostle to the Corinthians that to be full of contention and dividing zeal is a sign not of growth but childishness I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ are you not carnal that is to say I could not write to you as spiritual as grown men but as carnal as unto babes in Christ such in whom the flesh did much prevail surely Brethren the way of love is the edifying-way and therefore the body is said to edifie it self in love knowledge puffeth up and from that pride cometh contention as the wise man speaks but love edifies O how would the Church grow and the Saints grow if all the heat and zeal and pains which is laid out in maintaining breaches factions separations one from another did all run in one stream to build up one another in our most holy faith to make that our business It is sweet when the members have that care one of another that out of a pure spirit of love to consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Now if there be rents and schisms in the body there will not be that â—are one of another and therefore no marvel if the Apostle note such nigro carbone mark them that caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine that you have received and avoid them set a cross upon their doors have no fellowship with them You know in the body if there be a breach a dismembering of the body or some members out of joint or fearful wounds there is a grief of the spirit and the growth is hindered So it is in this case when the Churches walked together with singleness of heart then were they multiplyed then they prospered and increased indeed the Holy-Ghost is grieved with bitterness and wrath and anger when the Sea was divided for Israel to pass through it was weakened but when the waters were united again they are said to return to their strength so when the waters run in one Channel which is love O how strong is the Church of Christ it groweth mightily then then the Egyptians the enemies of Israel are drowned in it but so many fractions so many streams it being divided into each of them is easily passable by the enemies the Lord give a Spirit of love O if there were but more love in Ministers to people how would they do more then they do or at least in another manner then they do And so in people if they would be more earnest for their Ministers then they are therefore if we would grow indeed labour to grow in love to all the Saints wherever indeed the image of Christ is and to love them with a pure heart unfeignedly as the Apostle saith Fourthly To grow in humility to grow downward to be willing to decrease so the Lord Jesus may increase Ah Brethren if we were put to it it may be we should find it very hard to be laid aside as I may say as David was to the building of the Temple because he was such a man of blood or as Moses was for his unbelief at the waters of strife O the daily working this upon our hearts what we were and what we are through grace in Jesus Christ what infinite riches of grace is manifested to the vilest of sinners this will make us lie low before him but enough of this before Fifthly In mercy in bowels and compassions to persons in
others that still they begin with bewailing their iniquities expressing their sorrow for them because no man was to appear before God but with pure hands and pure feet and therefore since we gather soil continually there is need of acknowledging our iniquities and then he is faithful and just to forgive them there is the exercise of Faith if any where else that is it whereby we wrestle with God in Prayer Prayer is indeed a wrestling with God as Jacob it was his faith whereby he overcame and got the blessing a man must pray in Faith else it is nothing worth at all God accepteth no service but where there is Faith mixed there is Love exercised toward God and to his people we go to him it is an acting of our desire toward him our delight in his presence and love to his Saints when we can pray feelingly for them And so Humility O saith Abraham Who am I dust and ashes And Jacob I am less then the least of thy mercies In a word all the Graces are set awork in prayer that is a working prayer indeed our thankfulness and all our supplications in all things are to be made known c. Every wheel is set a going in the soul if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectual prayer and therefore by the exercises of the Graces they are increased do you think that by acting Faith upon the Promises pleading them as Jacob did Thou saidst thou wouldst do me good c. and so in many other places Remember thy Word to thy Servant whereupon thou hast caused me to hope saith the Psalmist That this doth not increase Faith and so the acting of Love increase it therefore Luther a man of much Prayer was a man of much Grace of much Courage and Zeal and Faith and Diligence in the Service of God And that famous Servant of God Mr. Bolton It is said of him that six times a day he prayed and so others observe it when you will where you see a growing Christian indeed follow him to his Closet you shall find that man a man of much prayer So David and Daniel c. But Secondly There is another reason for it Because Prayer doth carry the soul to a nearer communion with God O it is the gaining acquaintance with God acquaint thy self with God that thou mayst have peace with him and thou shalt have prosperity and therefore when Job discovered such weakness in his impatiency saith that friend of his Surely thou restrainect prayer from the Almighty if thou didst maintain communion with God it would not be thus with thee Now whither should we go with empty vessels but to the fountain whither should poor weak wounded lame feeble creatures go but to him that hath all power to heal and strengthen them God hath treasures of grace it is true and he is not streight-hearted he giveth liberally but the treasury is lockt and prayer is the key and faith the hand that turns it we must to the treasury if we would be rich in grace rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which of us would be poor if we had a warrant to go to the Treasury to fetch what we please O what pains would there be the Treasurer should have imployment enough if God would but perswade us it is so in this case we should visit him more the great Treasurer of heaven the Lord Jesus in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid yea and of faith and all grace for of his fulness we receive grace for grace O how would we ply him give him no rest he would have much more of our company but that we have slight perswasions of these things and make use of prayer as a duty and a task many of us and not a singular means of improving our graces Brethren were we but as much in Communion with God as David we might have the strength of David it is but ask and have knock and it shall be opened the Spirit which works all this will not be denyed if you ask and ask not amiss as you heard lately God will expend willingly his treasures of grace upon us and pour out the fulness of his Spirit upon us but he will be enquired of for these things Well then if we would grow in grace we must be much in prayer I do believe some of us can speak it but too experimentally that when we have found corruptions prevail and our selves foyled and brought under this hath been the reason we have restrained prayer from the Almighty either we have neglected this duty or else we have been slight and slubbering shuffled it if not out of doors yet to the very door and generally observe it we can more easily find time for any thing then for prayer every other business hath its hours to attend upon but if any thing be neglected it must be prayer or else posted over Whereas alas it would no more hinder our business then our meal-times do which must be had and I know Brethren that some of us are able to say it that we have seen when the prospering presence of the Lord hath been with us we have come on more and done more in a short time then at another time in many times as long a time and yet so wretched hearts we have that we content our selves with any thing in this duty if we appear before the Lord we think it is enough we do not strive unto prayer and watch unto prayer and labour by blowing the green wood that will hardly kindle to get it on a flame before we go out of his presence O Jacob would not let him go without a blessing Brethren in what a sad manner do we many times rise off our knees with our hearts further off from God then we came is this to obtain a blessing no no we must take pains in this work if we would grow the Lord perswade our hearts Alas you will say you have prayed and prayed and yet for ought you can perceive you grow not To this I might answer many things First Dost thou find that hereby thou never gettest thy heart in a better frame art thou never wrought up to some sweet frame of heart in respect of faith and love and humility Why here is an improving this is the main thing in prayer when we can find our hearts wrought up to such a frame it is the very growth it self in a great part therefore thou art mistaken Secondly If thou do not find it may be sometimes such warnings and notwithstanding all the pains thon hast sometimes been blowing at the coal until thy arm ake with holding the bellows and thy heart akes and yet thou canst not get thy faith and thy affections into a frame but thou art as dead and dull as before Now in such a case observe it dost thou not gain thus much by it to have viler
ready to go out even in the socket but yet afterwards they are stirred up they trim up their Lamps shine more clearly and sweetly then before I say do not conclude therefore thou art no child of God because it is not altogether with thee as it hath been thou hast found thy heart much more large toward God much more tender c. Brethren we may lose our first love and grow cold and dead yea and it is possible for a child of God to dye under such a condition and yet not miscarry in the main though it is not so comfortable for him nor so honourable for God therefore take heed of concluding your state by what you feel at present it may be some temptation hath prevailed some distemper is upon thee therefore thou must heal that get that removed and thou shalt see thou wilt grow Thirdly Even then thou mayst be growing in the root for there must be a time for that Brethren when we are least in our selves and see we are nothing can do nothing specially being sensible of it O how this humbles us we are no losers by this our roots cannot be too much spread nor the foundation too much strengthened this driveth us the more to Christ maketh us the more seriously inquisitive after our state to be sure to look to our grounding and establishing upon him and this will fit us for further growth Fourthly In the next place know this that even then when there is nothing appearing thou thinkest thou art nothing hast nothing all seems to be withered no fruit appears even then the Lord seeth the root in the ground though wee see it not he takes notice of it and is pleased with it though Jobs friends think he was a withered branch cut off from Communion with God yet he had the root of the matter within him come into a garden in the summer how pleasant and how glorious it is furnished with all variety of plants and flowers in the winter there is nothing appeareth they are under ground but now the Gardener he knoweth what roots he hath there though they appear not and he can tell you what plants he shall have springing up in the spring and he is choice and tender of the places where they grow as if they did appear and put forth the Lord knoweth if there be but the root of the matter in thee if never so small if right he knoweth it and he knoweth the thoughts afar off long before we think them he knoweth our works afar off I know Abraham he will command his house after him to keep my Commandments the Lord knoweth what sinners would be if they lived and therefore many times cuts them off and he knoweth what his people would be and will be though for the present under a temptation under a cloud and seem to be all withered and dryed up Is this nothing Brethren he knoweth what root what seed he hath sown in the heart and that it will put forth Say not then surely thou art not regarded of God because thou dost not appear to thy self to grow at every moment Fifthly Alas but you will say if I did come on thus and thus as such an one doth it were something like I answer it is good to follow the pattern of fruitful and growing-Christians but what if God will not give thee that measure that he giveth another What if thou be but as a little finger in the body and such an one is as an arm canst thou expect then to grow as much as such an one is not he wise and knoweth best what measure is good for us Secondly For that thy desires are yet higher then thy growth it is good for thee desire growth as much as thou wilt and I could wish your desires were more earnest for then your endeavours would be more answerable then they are but if thy desires be in good earnest and thou makest it thy work to grow and come on and yet canst not reach thy desires should this discourage No thou shouldst be encouraged and bless the Lord that thy desires are kept up after more and more that you say not sufficit for this is the way appointed of God for growth that still the desires of his people should be uppermost and for my own part I think there is not a better sign of a growing then an eager stomack except it be a disease which can hardly be in spirituals though a man may desire also to hear more then he digests See the Church was following Christ and yet saith she Draw me I will run We go after thee but we would run Sixthly Growth is not sensible is not visible until afterward that degree which is in the motion is not perceived until afterward you see trees and plants and children they have grown but if you sit by them set your eyes upon them to see them grow and cannot discern it and should complain alas they grow not would you not bewray much weakness So it is in this case A Merchant it is true casts up his daily accounts what cometh in what goeth out but he doth take the state of his condition but now and then So should we though daily we examine our selves how we gain or lose such a day in all passages yet to examine the state of our growth in the general every day is to little purpose as I told you before the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation both the Kingdom of God in the administration of it groweth insensibly as the falling of the dew from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth and God will be as the dew to Israel So the seed sown is said to grow while he that sowed it sleepeth he knoweth not how it is vain to observe it while it is growing but afterward it will appear Seventhly Though it may be thou grow not in affections so much as thou thinkest thou maist grow notwithstanding in the understanding and in the will in the main part of the soul for the passions indeed they are the lowest part and yet we are apt to place most in them O if we can be but so and so affected 〈◊〉 a rapture of joy a melting into tears it may be with many of us is more then a sweet yielding Spirit to the will of Jesus Christ this is a great mistake It may be heretofore when the matter was new to thee thou wast more affected with it passionately then now thou art as you see new things do affect our nature most which as some well observe is the reason wherefore children are taken and affected with every thing at the first because every thing is new to them which men are not except with things which are so to them Beside as the blood groweth colder in old age and the spirits are not so agile there cannot be expected that vigour of affection in old persons and weak and sick persons as
displeasure when that cup of trembling and astonishment was to be put into his hand to be drunk off to the very dregs but yet he willingly undertook this took it off to the bottom that nothing might remain of the dregs to his people which potion put him into a bloody sweat filled him with horror and even astonished him but hath he done all this and is it possible he should now slight it by casting out any poor soul purchased with so dear a rate that now cometh to him O surely it cannot be Sixthly Because this would be to undo what the Father hath done For it is the Fathers work to draw a poor soul to teach them as you have heard before they can come to Jesus Christ No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him you could not have a desire towards the Lord Jesus not a breathing after the water-brooks the Fountain of life which is in Jesus Christ but that the Father hath breathed it into thee now the Lord Jesus if he should cast out a poor soul that cometh with such breathings after him would quench the Spirit would put out the light of Israel should destroy the works of his Father instead of destroying the works of the devil therefore surely it cannot be that he should cast out any poor soul that cometh to him that his Father hath drawn with the cords of a man and with the cords of love Is it the work of a Saviour to cut the cords whereby poor creatures are drawn to him and not rather of a murderer a soul-destroyer and can we have such hard thoughts of Christ our dearest Saviour O far be it from us this cannot be Seventhly He would hereby bring upon himself the imputation of delusion and mocking of poor sinners not only because of his Promise and offers of Grace but in two respects among others for I will not dwell too long upon these things First Because of the many invitations that he hath made to poor creatures to come to him O mind how he proclaims it to every one that thirsteth Come come buy wine and milk without money or monies worth you that have no worthiness nor any money to buy an acccptation come to the Waters and what then when they come to the Fountain to the Waters will the Lord Jesus shut them out cast them away is there any such imposture in him Come to me all that are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest what then is a poor soul perswaded of his burthen and where rest is to be had and cometh to Jesus Christ ready to sink at his foot and faint away under his burthen and will he there suffer him to perish and turn away his face from him I beseech you saith the Apostle as if God did beseech you by us to be reconciled to God ye rebels for so we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye run-aways what do you mean why will ye perish Why will ye dye saith he O house of Israel why now if a rebel turn and his heart relent and he would fain close with this Prince of Peace that would fain be at peace with him do you think he will turn his back upon him Surely no he might have done it to the thief upon the Cross that truly repented and believed as to any if he would but if he should do so then sinners had something to answer indeed that there is reason wherefore we should not come to thee who would come to be mocked to be deceived tantalized to have the fountain opened and stand open for any to come that will come and when we are willing then to rowl a stone upon it is not this deceiving the Jews indeed took Christ to be a deceiver and therefore they came not to him I wish we be not many of us Jews in heart though we be Christians in name our conversation witnesseth to our faces for why else do not sinners come to Jesus Christ except they look upon all these invitations of Christ as delusions but take heed that as they perished so we also perish not in the same gain-saying Secondly He would be convicted of imposture if he should reject any poor soul that cometh to him because it is he also that draweth them as well as the Father else they could not come So he saith When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me that is to say all that the Father hath given me I will draw to me and so he doth objective as the carkass draweth the Eagles together as the willow branch draweth the Lambs after it as a fair lovely object draweth the eye sweet melody draweth the ear and effective also for what the Father doth he doth also for he and the Father are one Now doth the Lord Jesus draw and perswade men send forth his Spirit which is his arm unbared and stretched out to lay hold upon the hearts of sinners to draw them to make them willing to accept of deliverance and salvation in him from the filthiness and power as well as from the guilt of sin and when they come will he shut them out were not this horrible deceit O surely Jesus Christ cannot so deceive poor creatures these are most unworthy thoughts of him Eighthly and lastly It is inconsistent with his bowels and tenderness which naturally he hath to poor sinners specially such as the Father hath given unto him could the Father shut out the Prodigal Son when he returned to him his bowels would not bear it he ran and met him c. Joseph made it a little strange at the first to his Brethren and spake a little roughly to them but mind you he could not hold he was fain to go into a place to weep egerere dolorem to empty his affection into tears for them to see those Brethren of his that had done him so much wrong dealt so hardly with him O when he heard them confess what they had done and their consciences smit them for it then doubtless his bowels were rowled together within him and for a while I say he made a shift to cover it and put some of them into prison but all this while his bowels were moved and was he not a type of Jesus Christ in this haply as I may say in other respects I shall not determine it but when a poor sinner cometh to Jesus Christ that hath sold him for a lust dealt hardly with him crucified him and now he is convinced of it he mourns for it and mourns over him did Josephs bowels yearn and do not the Lord Jesus his bowels is the love of women to be compared to the love of Jesus Christ O surely no he may seem for a while to turn his back upon a poor creature but all this while the fire of love is burning within and will burst out into a flame all this while what workings
it much growth to be gotten 637 Converted ones though suddenly dying yet can grow in grace 579 Covenant of works from this there is freedom 504 D Day of the Lord what is meant by it 412 Darkness is a part of bondage 494 Darkness what is meant by it 495 Denyal of self as that grows so we grow 594 Duties holy labour to be more spiritual in them 615 E End look unto it 571 Enemies they are who would pluck away Christ from us 426 Enemies cannot be withstood unless there be growing 619 Errour all the ground of it 597 Experiences particular of love and tenderness of mind 611 F Faculties of the soul see whether we grow in them 595 Faith as it grows so do we grow 593 Faith in this grace labour to grow 607 Faith what is it ibid. And wherein the nature of it lies 622 Family where they are all in Egyptian darkness is a sad one 422 Fear all is not banished out of the soul 553 Fear is a part of bondage 499 Fear distractive fear ought not to be in us 554 Feared the Lord. See Them Fellowship with Jesus Christ is sweet 422 Free-set many think they are by Jesus Christ and yet deceived 517 Free-going in the acceptable year three things did hinder 530 Free-set that we might be what is to be done 533 Freedom there is 1. Invisible Both by grace 518 2. Visible Fruitfulness what growth is there in this 600 G God himself is to be much dwelled upon 635 Going forth what is meant by it 478 Gospel is an incomparable benefit 526 Grace the riches of it to poor sinners 457 Graee is either 1. Relative 562 Or 2. Inherent 564 Grace will grow by the opposition it meets withal either from 1. Without 601. Or 2. Within 602 Grace relative labour to grow more and more in the assurance of it 616 Graces three which respect the root Jesus Christ 593 Grow as Calves of the Stall the comparison wherein it stands 559 Grow when is any thing said so properly 565 Grow up in Christ before this be there must be implantation into him 567 Grow in Grace they do though no sooner converted but they die 579 See Children Grow if you do not conclude one of two things 558 Grow many do worse and worse 589 Grow how to know it 591 Grow the Motives to it 617 The Helps to it 621 Grow we must according to our measure 638. And herein help each other 641 Grow many may though they perceive it not 627 Growing up into Christ what is there in the expression 570 Growing to such as think they are not Comfort 643 Growth spiritual the nature of it 562 and the Arguments to prove it 577 Growth the greater it is the more honour and service God hath 583 Growth compared to Trees or Plants 592 Growth is placed 1. In the Uuderstanding 596 2. In the Will 598 Growth wherein to look to it 604 H Head the Glory of it wherein it lies 571 Heal if we could our selves yet our wound is incurable 449 Healing what is meant by it 438 Healing what it brings 440 Healing is not in us 448 Healing concerns two sorts of Persons 470 Heart-softness in this labour to grow 614 c. wherein it lies ibid. Humility as it grows so do we grow 595 Humility in this Grace labour to grow 613 Hypocrites may grow in some things 620 I Inlargement promised to a soul what is it 481 K Knowledge In this Grace labour to grow 604 L Liberty spiritual 1. It s subject 482 2. Its causes 483 3. Its parts 485 4. Its degrees 508 Light our from whence comes it 422 Love to Christ works the soul to a kindly hatred of sin 465 Love to Jesus Christ herein labour to grow 608. And that for several ends 609 Love towards one another herein labour to grow 612 M Malachy what it signifieth 411 Members grow not alike in the same measure 573 Mercy in this Grace labour to grow 613 Ministry all for what end 620 Ministers are to labour to grow 639 O Obedience slavish is a bondage 498 Ordinances wait diligently on the Lord in them 427 Ordinances being used conscientiously and diligently tend to growth 629 P People under the influences of the Sun of Righteousness are in a growing condition 560 Planted in Christ such as never were grow worse and worse 590 Prayer is a great means to increase Grace 624 Prayer what is it 625 Professed the Name of Christ many have and yet are fallen 589 Profession of Christ such as make and grow not are in a sad condition 587 S Saints Communion is to build up each other 637 Sin is a comprehensive evil 442 Sin hath ill qualities and consequences 444 Sin is the first general part of bondage 490 Sin the guilt of it is a part of bondage 494 Sin is a grievous bondage 512 Sin though it lie hard â—pon any soul yet shall it be overcome 555 Sâ—ns yoak to such as are strugling under it comfort ibid. Soul-distempers hinder growth 632 Spirit how he is grieved 545. And therefore cautions not to grieve him 546 Spirit properly is not grieved ibid. Sun Christ is to his people 414 Sun wherein doth the resemblance between Christ and it hold 416 Sun they that have it risen upon them are the children of the day 421 Sun of Righteousness against its shinings shut not the windows 424 Sun that God would give such is cause of admiration 427 Sun of Righteousness why is Christ so called 431 T Them that feared the Lord what is meant by that 429 Things best in them labour to grow 617 Truth will set a man free 533 V Vnderstanding in this let us try our growth 596 W Walking holy with God herein labour to grow 615 Wings of the Sun of Righteousness what is meant by that 435 Wings of the Sun of Righteousness what are they 436 Wings why so called 437 Word of God to such as tremble at it comfort 475 Wounded them that are so Christ pittyeth 463 The last Table containing the general and particular Heads as they follow in their order in the foregoing Subject Christ his Willingness to accept humbled Sinners THe Text opened 651 Out of which this Point of Doctrine issues That the Lord Jesus will not cast out any poor soul that cometh to him 652 Here is observed First That coming unto Christ presupposeth 1. Hearing 2. Learning ibid. By Hearing is understood 1. The usual means of Salvation 654 2. Some whisperings motions and secret workings of the Spirit ibid. By Learning is understood first the opening of the understanding 655 and thus a poor soul is taught 1. That he is lost in himself 2. That he must not lie securely in this condition ibid. 3. That there is no help in the Creature 656 4. That nothing can skreen him from the wrath of God but Jesus Christ 657 5. That Christ is willing to let out of his oyntments to heal ibid. Now for the Acts wherein