thousands abide under the power of Satan and sinne Therefore when Gods mercy is spoken of in pardoning of sinne it is perpetually in respect of us not of Christ Thus you see judging of Gods mercy without Scripture-light into how many Doctrinal errors it may plunge us 4. For want of Scripture-direction the Papist and Antinomian oppose the mercy of God but in extream contrary wayes Though God be mercifull yet he hath so ordained that none shall partake of his mercies in time but those who by his grace are inabled to believe and repent as the way to salvation Now the Papist injureth the mercy of God for he will have his Faith Repentance with other holy works the merit and cause of his salvation disdaining to have eternal life as meer alms from God But the Antinomian to avoid this Scilla falls into Charybdis he affirmeth a mercy and that of Justification even while we are sinners before we do either believe or repent But the Scripture-mercy lieth between both In the next place Let us consider What Practical Danger we are in by conceiving of God as a mercifull God without Scripture-information And First We are apt to flatter our selves with Gods mercy though we allow our selves in our sins and iniquities whereas the Scripture speaks not a drop of mercy to such Have you not many dreadfull examples of Gods anger and terrour as well as mercy What was the casting of all the Angels into eternal blackness for one sinfull thought and that the first which they were guilty of giving them no space to repent no day of grace affording no means for their recovery Is not this an instance of Gods severity But you will say This was to Angels he is more mercifull to man But consider that example of Gods Justice in drowning the whole world save eight persons Doth not that proclaim God is just and angry against sinne as well as mercifull not to spare the whole world because it had corrupted its wayes but to drown such an innumerable company of men women and children yea to destroy the whole earth as it were Oh who can stand before the anger of God! Have we not also a formidable demonstration of Gods anger against Sodome and Gomorrah when fire and brimstone was rained from Heaven to destroy those Cities and all that did belong to them What had the little children done They could not be guilty of those unclean vices but God cutteth off all Many other instances of Gods wrath we have in Scripture especially the day of Judgement will be a dreadfull manifestation of it to the wicked and therefore the Scripture will informe us in that as well as of Gods mercy A second Practical Errour I shall conclude with that necessarily accompanieth the thoughts of Gods mercy without Scripture-direction is to encourage a mans self in his sinnes because God is mercifull Every wicked person turneth this honey into gall Paul speaketh of some who made those wretched inferences Let us sinne that grace may abound Take heed then of having any such wicked thought arising in thy heart God is mercifull therefore I will go to my lusts again Oh no the Scripture represents Gods mercies for another end to repent and be converted from thy evil wayes Rom. 2 Knowest thou not the goodnesse of God would lead thee to repentance Oh then do not abuse the mercy of God! for there is a time coming when there will be no more mercy It 's called the day of wrath thou shalt meet with nothing but terrour Ezek. 8. 18. The Scripture speaks of vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath and there is no greater sign of a vessel of wrath one fitted and prepared for destruction then to grow wanton by the mercies of God to be evil because he is good so much mercy abused will one day be turned into so much vengeance SERM. XXXVI That God not only can but doth actually comfort his People and how he doth it 2 COR. 1. 4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God IN the former verse we had the Reasons of our blessing of God set down by the description of that glorious attribute of his The Father of mercies c. In this verse the Apostle doth further amplifie the cause of this duty of Thanksgiving viz. from the effect and fruit of this property of his He is not only a God of consolation habitually and potentially as it were He is not a fountain sealed up but this Sunne doth alwayes irradiate its beams As he is a God of consolation so he doth comfort So that in the words we have the Effect or Causality attributed to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is comforting that doth never cease to do it that never withdraweth his consolations It 's his nature to be alwayes comforting As the Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he is alwayes tempting The word in humane Authors is used frequently of him who calleth another to him but in the New Testament either of him that intreateth and prayeth or of him that exhorteth or as in the Text of him that comforteth 2. The Subject of this consolation us That is either generally all believers or us Apostles and Officers in the Church For the Apostle might speak this to obviate that scandal which many were ready to take at the afflictions and persecutions of the Apostles as if they were hated of God and were nothing but impostors Therefore some part of this Chapter is a narrative of his pressures and apologetical in declaring the great goodness of God thereby to the Church 3. The particular wherein in tribulation Light can come into this dark dungeon 4. The Extent of this All our tribulation God can turn the hardest stones into bread All either of mind or body 5. The consequent Effect of this That we may be able to comfort them c. God many times doth in an exemplary manner exercise the Ministers of the Gospel that they may experimentally be able to instruct such who are tempted We begin with that efficiency given to God who comforteth is comforting and observe That as God is the God of all comfort so he doth actually put forth this comfort to those that are his Gods attributes may be truly affirmed of him though they never be put forth into act God would have been Omnipotent Mercifull Wise though he had not created the world only the creation of the world did demonstrate those Attributes Thus God may be called The God of comfort or a mercifull Father in respect of his Nature and Inclination though actually he doth not comfort any but God is a fountain communicating himself into streams of comfort he will make his people taste and feel what he is by Nature Now when it 's said That God comforteth you must understand this both in temporal and spiritual comforts
object matter into spiritual and temporal Spiritual are such as concern the welfare of the soul Temporal are such as relate to the body and the outward man for there is no external mercy but God hath promised it to the godly Therefore godlinesse is said to have the promise of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. In deed in the Old Testament temporal promises were more frequent and spiritual more rare and many times shadowed out by the temporal ones In the New Testament spiritual promises are farre more frequent and temporal ones more rare yet the New Testament doth abundantly testifie this That all things are the godly mans whether life or death 1 Cor. 3. 23. and that onely they have the promise of this life as well as that which is to come And certainly If God hath given us Christ as the Apostle argueth Rom. 18. how shall he not with him give us all things else So that we see the treasure of a Christian it lieth in Gods promises both for this life and the life to come So that as it falleth out sometimes a man may have little money for his present use and yet be very rich in bonds and bils Thus it is sometimes with a godly man though he hath a promise of all things yet for the present he may want all things As Abraham had a promise for the possession of the Land of Canaan and yet for the present had not where to set his foot as upon his own ground Onely we must distinguish between the spirituall and temporal promises these later are not absolutely promised but with the exception of the Crosse and with this limitation when they are good for us For seeing these earthly mercies are not ablutely and as indipensably necessary as Christand grace are so therefore no wonder if they be not absolutely promised If a godly man could not be saved unlesse he had riches and wealth unlesse he had health and strength then he was as sure to have them as he hath Christ but that not being so therefore it is that they have Christ and yet many times want other things They have the Ocean when they cannot have a drop Again Temporal good things are not absolutely good but conditionally and upon supposition though they may be good in themselves yet not to thee As wine may be in it self comforting but not unto a man in a feaver Thus it may be if thou shouldst have riches they would doe thee hurt if thou shouldst have health and strength thy corruptions also would be the stronger Those things are not called good because they make us good no we may make them good or evil But now Christ is such an infinite good that thy having of him can never be hurtfull to thee Yea when he finds thee evil he can make thee good It is good to informe our selves thus about the nature of temporal promises for we are ready to murmure and repine when we find not these promises made good to us whereas we should rather be thankfull and rejoyce in that God will not give us that which would doe us so much hurt And certainly if thou wert spiritual as thou shouldst be this would be enough to thee that spiritual things are absolutely promised that thou art sure to have Christ to have Heaven how sad and afflicted soever thy portion may be in this world Doth it not argue thy heart to be too carnal when thou mournest for want of outward mercies and yet Christ is thine God hath sanctified thee God hath converted thee Alas hath not God in this done more for thee than the greatest Emperours in the world that have not godlinesse What if thou hast not riches the greatnesse others have It may be they have not the Christ the grace that God hath bestowed on thee Onely when we say spiritual things are absolutely promised you must distinguish of spiritual things some are essential and necessarily conjoyned with eternal glory so that if he have them not he cannot be saved such is Regeneration and Justification Againe others doe much conduce to our eternal happinesse but are not inseparably joyned with it such are the degrees of grace spiritual consolation and joy as also the assurance of Gods favour These are precions-advantages more to be desired than the gold of Ophir but they are not absolutely promised to every godly man In the second general place We are to know that the promises of God they are the executions in time of what he had decreed to doe from all eternity Insomuch that from Gods promise we may argue to his predestination when God promiseth Justification and pardon of sinne to thee it is because he hath purposed this according to the counsel of his own will So when he promiseth to give grace to thee and the encrease thereof it is because he hath in mercy ordained thee for this If you ask then why is it such and such promises are fullfilled You must not have recourse to mans free-will or any workes that he doth but to the will of God and his gracious counsel Hence some expound that place Titus 1. 2. where it is said That God who cannot lie had promised eternal life before the world began of his decree to promise for it is not proper to say God promised before the world was Seeing then there was no men to whom the promise could be made therefore say they the meaning is He decreed to promise But there is another interpretation more probable which is to render the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the ancient ages alluding to the first promise that God made to Adam upon his fall concerning the womans seed which was Christ For till that promise was manifested there was no difference in respect of hope and comfort between lost mankind and the Apostate Angels The promises then of God are but Gods predestination put into execution Hence in the third place No wicked men have any promises of God belong to them Therefore the state of the Heathens Ephes 2. is said to be without Christ and without the promises which argueth as desperate a condition as when those of the old world were without the Ark there was a necessity of perishing It is true all wicked men who live within the Church they cannot in that sense be said to be without the promises as Heathens are for they are under the offer of promises they are under the external dispensation of them and because they manifest an outward acceptance of Gods offer with the conditions tendered therefore we may call them the children of the promise in an externall sense In which sense Rom. 9. 4. the Apostle speaking of the Israelites in the general saith Of whom is the service of God and the promises In this sense many were the seed of Abraham not onely after the flesh but of the promise also else circumcision the seal of the promise had not been
not man but God that called him and therefore they should take heed lest while they set themselves against his Office they fight against God himself The will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used sometime for the Effect and Object of his will being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 40. 8. and in many other places 2. For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very act of willing Rom. 9 15. And Lastly For the attribute and property in God whereby he willeth but this being the same with his Essence is infinite and so transcendently differing from mans will which is supposed to be a faculty distinct from the soul and so an accident having also many imperfections accompanying of it because it is the will of a finite creature It is not proper in this place to enter upon those great and large Disputes which are de voluntate or of the will of God Though it might be operosum yet it would not be operae pretium especially in this place where it is mentioned upon a particular consideration viz. as that whereby Paul was made an Apostle Paul doth not here attribute any thing to himself but all to the good will of God for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his beneplacitum his good pleasure both approving and procuring Paul's Apostleship From whence observe That it is the meer will and good pleasure of God that calleth us to any priviledge or office in his Church As for Paul's own particular he is often affected with this grace of Apostleship as he cals it which was vouchsafed to him whereas he had been the chiefest of sinners And lest it should be thought that Paul indeed might well attribute his Office and all to Gods grace because he was so notorious a sinner you may read that Christ speaks to all his Apostles that he alone not for their merits had appointed them to that Office Joh. 15. 16. Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you Let us illustrate this Doctrine And First Every priviledge we have in the Church of God we obtain it by the meer will of God And this must needs be so for our call to the Church-priviledges such as Justification and Adoption and Salvation are greater and higher mercies than any peculiar Office never so eminent If God hath called thee to sanctifying grace in an effectual manner this is far greater than to be made an Apostle Judas was chosen to an Apostleship but not to salvation and therefore his end was dreadfull The Scripture speaketh of a two-fold Call That general one which belongs to all the people of God who are his called ones and that according to his purpose and a special particular Call to some Office or Relation and both these are of the will and good pleasure of God For our effectual Calling as Christians This is frequently ascribed to be of grace not by works we have done Rom. 9 15 16. It 's not of him that willeth You see it 's not our will our power or strength but of God that willeth Thus Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us This consideration then should humble all the godly as Paul saith here An Apostle by the will of God so mayest thou a Believer by the will of God justified by the will of God it 's because God will have it so my will my power nor the will of any man else could not effect it for me And this is for the general as we are called to be believers But then more especially concerning Gods will as to particular Relations and Offices especially in Gods Church It is good to take notice of that old distinction which Hierom had long since concerning the Call of Officers in Gods Church For there are some saith he that were called only by the will of God and of Christ not at all by the will of man Thus were the Apostles they were appointed Officers by the meer will and appointment of Christ And therefore Gal. 1. 1. we see in what a special manner Paul was an Apostle by the will of God for he saith He was neither an Apostle of men or by men but of Jesus Christ nor of men that is he was not chosen by their votes and suffrage nor by men that is he was not as the ordinary Pastors who though called of God yet were made so by men as Timothy and Titus ordained Elders in every City where they had to do 2. There are those who have their Call of God but by men such as we now mentioned For though their Call was partly by the will of man yet not solely Therefore God is said 1 Cor. 12. to set these ordinary Officers in the Church as well as extraordinary As Joshua though appointed by Moses to be chief Magistrate to the people of Israel was as truly of God as Moses though not so immediately 3. There are those who are of men only but not of God and they are all such who by unlawfull and sinfull wayes get into the Ministry and so have an outward Authority and Office though they be wholly unworthy and unfit in themselves These are indeed by the will of God but it is a permissive will onely or by his just anger against an unworthy people Lastly There are those who have neither Call from God or men that are Preachers neither by the will of God or of men but their own self-will These are intruders that approve themselves that judge themselves fit without the advice of others These run and are not sent In the next place Let us consider how comprehensive this is when Paul saith An Apostle by the will of God and it is not useless for every Minister ought to say so I am a Minister of the Gospel by the will of God and the people ought to say Such an one is our Pastour by the will of God It is God that had a special hand that he should be our Pastor and we his flock And 1. It is more than a meer bare will of permission Paul did not mean Gods meer permitting and suffering of him to be so for thus all the false Apostles all the false and corrupt Teachers that are they are by the will of God It was by Gods will that any unworthy and corrupt Teachers have ever crept into the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. There must be heresies God will have it so but how It is only his permissive will whereby he suffers sinne to be It was a custom that some Church-officers had to say They were so permissione divinâ by divine permission as thinking themselves unworthy only God suffered it to be so Even as Bernard styled himself vocat us Abbas as if he had only the name not the reality but it is well if this was not proud humility To be sure as God sometimes suffers evil Governours in Civil Affairs so he doth
in Christ and submission unto his will For a Church being a visible Society there must be some external and visible sign whereby we may demonstrate our selves to be of the Church Hence Rom. 10. it 's said That with the mouth confession is made to salvation There may be many secret and hidden Atheists in the Church of God yet because they do externally profess the Christian Religion therefore it is that they are of the Church in respect of the external and visible state of it Thus Simon Magus and others while they did profess their faith in Christ they were under the name of a Church and believers and so of Saints 4. There is yet a further degree in this Church-Saintship and that is When besides this sacramental and external holiness there are some workings of Gods Spirit upon their souls So that the Christian Religion hath some kind of influence upon them They are not only titular Saints but they have some kind of inchoate and imperfect workings of Gods Spirit upon their souls which have a tendency to godliness or at least a resemblance and shew of it So that in the opinion of others and many times in their own perswasions likewise they are true Saints Now these may well enough be stiled Saints because the Scripture attributes to them such acts as have the name of holiness So Mat. 13. the temporary believer likened to the thorny ground is said to have faith and to receive the Word with joy Some are said in 2 Pet. 2. To escape the pollutions of the world Yea Heb. 6. some are said to be enlightned to have tasted the good Word of God to partake of the holy Ghost c. and yet for all that such were never true Saints For such that are so can no more finally apostatize than true starres can fall from the Heavens Comets and blazing Stars may have a great lustre for a while but being composed of terrestrial exhalations at last they fall into the womb of that Earth from whence they sprang Thus those who have only some imperfect common works of Gods Spirit abounding in gifts and many admirable abilities these may seem in Saintship to exceed many that are truly so but because there was never true and deep rooting when the storms and tempests shall arise this glorious building will not have so much as a stone left upon a stone Those uncomfortable Teachers injurious to the grace of God that do so peremptorily dogmatize the Apostasie of the Saints do yet never bring such Texts of Scripture or instances that do necessarily prove those to be true Saints that are spoken of Saul was never a true Saint Judas was never a true Saint and so no wonder of hopefull beginnings degenerated into such tragical and horrid beginnings Now whereas the former mentioned viz. those that are only baptized that give an external submission to Christs Laws especially if as too many do wallowing in all the wayes of the flesh and carnal excess if these I say may by all be proclaimed to be no real but nominal Saints all the world seeth they are Christians in name but beasts and devils in respect of real Saintship Yet the great difficulty and the constant wisdome of a Christian is exercised about the discerning this later holiness from that which is true To know when I am gone further than any hypocrite or reprobate can attain unto This as we are greatly to study and examine our selves in so we are to know that it is better to be deceived in any worldly matter than in this Lastly The ultimate and most compleat step of Church-Saintship in this life is When we go beyond all the former and are made partakers of the Spirit of God in the powerfull renovation of us so that from that holy and new creature within us our lives and actions are made really and solidly holy And this is indeed the true and proper Saintship to which only the promise of Justification and Glorification is made So that if thou didst enjoy the greatest Church-priviledges yea and the most admirable gifts therein yet if destitute of this Saintship thou art but a tinkling cymbal and the hottest place in hell will be filled with such seeming Saints SERM XX. External Holiness is not enough to bring us to Heaven without the inward renovation of the Heart 2 COR. 1. 1. With all the Saints that are in all Achaia VVE have heard what is the last and ultimate step in Church-Saintship without which all the former though they be in themselves great mercies yet because we take them in vain do become in some respect in the number of those whom God will not hold guiltless They are I say in themselves great mercies For when we are thus called by God unto the external means of holiness there is some hope and a possible way for salvation whereas without this there is necessary destruction It is here as in blind Bartimeus his case Mark 10. 49. for when Christ commanded him to be called to him presently some said to the blind man Be of good comfort he calleth thee that was a good encouragement Christ called him so whereas there are many thousands in the world that are left alone in their state of darkness but he vouchsafeth the means of grace to thee We may say Be of good comfort there is some hopes Christ calleth thee yet because many are called and of those many called few are chosen therefore this external holiness and Saintship is not enough unless there be the inward renovation of the whole man Unless thou art holy inwardly as well as outwardly this will make to thy greater condemnation That therefore which is the essential form and gives a constrtutive being to Church-Saintship is Regeneration or the work of grace upon a mans heart Indeed to an external state and visible condition of Church-holiness a profession of faith with submission unto Christs wayes is enough but that which maketh us indeed members of the body of Christ and invests us with right to all saving benefits that is only this inward real Saintship And to clear this more you must take notice First That even in real Saintship there is a great latitude and difference All are not Saints alike The Scripture speaks of babes of young men of old men It speaks of some that are spiritual and perfect others are imperfect and even carnal 1 Cor. 3. comparatively so that we must alwayes distinguish between the truth of grace and the degrees of it A Saint is a Saint though but a bruised reed and a smoaking flax This is good to be observed that we may not judge of Saintship by such degrees and high attainments but by truth and sincerity No there will be alwayes difference both in Illumination and Sanctification and that amongst the Saints themselves And this should teach a mutual bearing and forbearing of one another Let not him that is strong who doth farre surpass others though
there are sinfull and unjustifiable grounds of some persons who do not joyn themselves to any Church-society and that may be either from a Corrupt Opinions or a Corrupt Heart though they seldom be separated from one another First From a Corrupt Opinion As 1. Of those who call themselves Seekers confessing they cannot yet find a Church to which they may joyâ—… For they affirm That since the Apostles dayes there are no Churches and therefore till they can see Apostles Apostolical gifts and miracles with the like effusion of the holy Ghost upon persons they cannot own any Church But this is against those Texts of Scripture which speak of a perpetuity of the Ministry and the duty of receiving Sacraments till the coming of Christ which could not be if there were no Church 2. Another corrupt opinion is of those who call themselves high Attainers These make themselves above the Church-ordinances they need them not yea some Anabaptists in Germany made themselves above the Bible living wholly upon spiritual revelations and called those who would leave to the Scripture as a Rule Creaturistae as depending upon a creature But the Scripture and Ordinances are necessary to quicken grace in the most holy and there are none so spiritual but they need them daily to comfort or instruct them yet such have their publick Assemblies wherein they deliver their opinions to be received But if people ought to be above all Ministry and teaching then also above theirs And certainly if those places of being taught of God and having an unction which teacheth us all things be against our Ministry it is also against theirs 3. There may be a corrupt opinion which though it be not against Church-communion absolutely yet they judge it Arbitrary and not necessary Of this opinion Grotius seemed once to be for he is thought to be the Author of that Book which asserts Quod non semper communicandum per symbola and Rivet in his Dialysis against him chargeth this upon him that he was not a member of any Church acknowledging it a just hand of God upon him that at his death when a Minister was brought to him he was wholly sensless So that he who in his life time cared not for Church-communion could not have any benefit by a Minister of the Gospel at his death 4. The last corrupt opinion by which men may not joyn to a Church may be from a superstitious conceit whereby men thinking it impossible to have salvation in the world have imprisoned themselves as it were in Cells and holes of Rocks thereby to give themselves wholly to divine Contemplation Thus the Monks Eremites and Anchorites of old For though some of the most ancient are excused as being driven thereunto by persecution yet the latter seemed to be transported wholly with superstition and therefore in that they lived solely not coming to the publick Ordinances of God in a Church way it was not justifiable by Scripture Indeed if they took their times to come to publick Societies and receive Sacraments as Rivet affirmeth against Grotius Dialys pag. 106. pleading their example for being of no Church then they are to be excused à tanto though not à toto The second unlawfull ground of keeping from Communion with Church-assemblies is A prophane Atheistical disposition that look upon a Church and a Church-assembly as humane devices to keep men in awe or if they be not so eminently Atheistical yet their love to their lusts and pleasures to the world and contents thereof make them weary of the Sabbaths and publick Ordinances as those in Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat to sell How many are there that comes as seldome as ever they can to these publick Assemblies and when they do come it 's but for custom and fashion not that they ever found any spiritual good or expect and desire any Therefore let the Use be of Instruction that as ye are not to rest in any Church forms or external Communion to think that the very bodily doing of them will save you So on the other side Take heed of voluntarily and wilfully neglecting the publick Assemblies How have the godly when banished and driven from them bewailed their misery whereas thou dost voluntarily absent thy self Think how it may lie upon thee at thy death when thou shalt remember the many Sabbaths the many Ordinances thou hast neglected and now if God would give thee but one day or one hour to make thy peace with him thou wouldst judge it a great mercy The second Observation is from the Universality All the Saints There are none so mean so inconsiderable but this Epistle is directed to them as well as the most eminent From whence observe That the soul of the poorest and meanest Saint is not to be neglected That as the rain falleth upon the least spire of grass as well as the choisest flowers so ought all ministerial planting and watering to be to the meanest plant in Christs garden as well as the chiefest Though Christian Religion doth not abolish civil Polity nor the distinctions and relations of Magistrate and Subject of Master and Servant but strictly enjoyneth their respective duties yet in respect of religious considerations all are but as one Thus the Apostle notably Gal. 3. 28. There is neither bond or free male or female but all are one mark that in Christ Christ looketh upon all as one man And certainly if Christ in shedding his bloud for his people had an equal respect to the meanest with the greatest he died for the godly servant as well as the godly master the godly poor man as well as the godly rich man Then it behoveth all Christians to imitate him in this Whosoever is a Saint though he be never so contemptible do thou own and imbrace such else we do not love the brotherhood we do not love a godly man because he is godly but because he is great or rich or may advantage thee in the world Paul will not except or leave out one of the Saints in all Acbaia SERM. XXII How Grace and Peace and such like spiritual Mercies and Priviledges are to be desired before any temporal Mercies whatsoever 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ HItherto we have considered the Inscription we now come to the Salutation which is in these words and it containeth matter of prayer It is not any earthly or temporal mercy he prayeth for but what is heavenly and spiritual The Apostle Paul doth constantly use this Salutation only in both those Epistles to Timothy and Titus which were Church-officers he interposeth Mercy between Grace and Peace Calvin thinketh he putteth it in his Salutation to Timothy because of his dear affection and love to him but why should he do it to Titus also Certainly it ought to be considered that only to Church-officers he useth
this Salutation Some think because the work of the Ministry meets with much malice and froward opposition from wicked men which made Paul pray that God would deliver him from unreasonable absurd men who are led only by humours and passions not by Reason and Religion Therefore seeing those that do faithfully discharge their trust meet with little favour and love from men hence it is that he doth in a peculiar manner pray for mercy to them Others they think the word is inserted because of the great difficulty of the Ministry it being a burden too heavy even for Angels shoulders Insomuch that Chrysostome thought Few Church-officers could be saved Seeing then the work is so great so much grace is required to manage it and the best have failings therefore they need the mercy prayed for But this by the way Come we to the Text. In that we may consider the Matter prayed for And the Efficient Cause from whom it is to come The Matter and Benefit is set down in two words which though but two yet comprehend all that a godly heart can desire the first is Grace the second Peace In the original there is a defect and therefore most do supply it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Translators Grace be to you Though the Apostle Peter in the salutations of both his Epistles expresseth the word and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be multiplied and so Estius would supply it here but there is no inconvenience to keep to the former Interpretation 2. There is the Cause of this which is two-fold God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ All these parts shall be opened as we take them in order only let us first take notice of the Manner and End of this Salutation in the general That it is not for any earthly or worldly thing but what is spiritual The Grecians they used commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Salutations as the Latines Salve and are relating only to temporal welfare And indeed the Heathens knew no better but the Apostle would lift up our hearts to higher things The Apostle James Chap. 1. 1. writing to the dispersed Tribes useth the word only Greeting which made Cajetan among other reasons reject it as not Canonical as if such a Salutation savoured of an humane spirit But this is no Argument For the Apostles gathered together in a Councel at Jerusalem sending a Letter to the Churches abroad use no more Salutation than that only in that we are to comprehend whatsoever is more expresly in Pauls Salutation Seeing then it s only spiritual things which Paul here doth wish to them Observe That spiritual mercies and priviledges are to be desired above all earthly and worldly ones what soever The Grace of God and Gospel peace is infinitely to be preferred before any outward advantage Psal 4. 6 7. when David had represented the natural desire of every man unregenerated Who will shew us any good He presently demonstrates the clean contrary disposition of those that are godly and spiritual Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and Thou hast put more gladness into my heart then they have had when their wine or oyl increaseth By David you may judge of all the faithfull they esteem more of the love of God and the sense or perswasion of this more than the whole world Let the prophane bruitish men of the world say as some did in Chrysostomes time whom he reproveth Give me that which is sweet although it choke me So let me have my pleasures my lusts though they damn me The godly on the other side if raised up to this heavenly transfiguration as it were to have the spirit of Adoption enabling them to call God Father and to walk under the light of his grace and favour they will say It is good to be here So that the desires and earnest longings of mens hearts do divide the world into two parts Some and they are only few who with David say As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so do their souls after God Yea Their souls break for the longing they have to God at all times But then others they seek the things of this world in the first place Let them have their pleasures their wealth their honours then with the Reubenites they will sit down and go no further because they see the Land is a good and pleasant Land never desiring to go into Canaan To open this Doctrine consider First That all the while a man is meerly natural and dead in his sins he is not affected with nor can he desire any spiritual mercy Even as dead men are not affected with pleasant sights or melodious sounds No wonder then though we do out of the Gospel shew such all the glory of Heaven yet they will not fall down and worship Christ because they are no wayes sensible or apprehensive of a better good Can a Worm that crawleth upon the ground live the life of an Angel or a man Alas that knoweth nothing but to crawl on the ground and feed on the dust of the earth Thus it is with every carnal man speak to him of the savour of God of the light of his countenance he knoweth no more what you mean than the bruit beast doth what reason is Besides sinne hath so infected and polluted the heart and appetite of every natural man that he calleth good evil and evil good he takes sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet That as the Swine loveth to wallow in its mire and delighteth in that more than in the sweetest garden that is Or as they say of those blind Beetles that live in muck and dung but sweet things do presently kill them thus it is with every natural man he is not only not affected but he is contrarily disposed to heavenly things Rom. 8. The wisdome of the flesh is enmity against God The wisdome the best understanding parts and knowledge that he hath is as full of malice against holy things as a Toad of poison The Greek word doth not only signifie his intellectual but his practical wisdom and affection he doth not say He hath savoury knowledge of heavenly things Sapientia est sapida scientia And as Bernard Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt Heavenly things savour as heavenly earthly things as earthly But in every natural man his appetite and taste is wholly disordered he finds no excellency loveliness in heavenly things which yet to a gracious heart are matter of exceeding delight and ravishment Hence in the second place Till a man be regenerated till he be made a new creature and endowed with an heavenly heart he is no sutable subject for these heavenly things Every one then as he is affected and disposed so he judgeth if earthly then all his affections move that way if heavenly then they are turned the contrary way As you see in mixed and compounded bodies
comfortable and thankfull thoughts which shall constantly lodge in our souls And First To this duty of blessing of God there is required as the foundation stone A deep sense of our own unworthiness of the least mercy that God bestoweth upon us That is excellent of Jacob Gen. 32. 10. I am lesse than all thy mercies A man that would shoot his arrow high draweth it backward first The lower we are in our own eyes the more unworthy in our own thoughts then a very crum of bread a very drop of water will be acknowledged a great mercy Arminian Popish and Socinian Doctrins do all hinder a man in his thankfulness because they do not in a Scripture way level the mountains of our hearts they leave something of our own still that we must secretly uphold our selves with When God gave the people of Israel Canaan Deut. 9 4. How zealously doth Moses endeavour to take them off from their own righteousness They must take heed that they have not the least thought in their hearts about their righteousness Oh then consider what is that Locust and Caterpillar which devoureth all the sweet fruit of thy praise and thy joy in God Is it not want of a true consideration how unworthy thou art Wouldst thou not call thy self beast for murmuring and grieving under any burden God layeth upon thee if thou hadst a feeling of thy meanness and lowliness Those therefore who are constantly in a tender feeling and apprehension of their own unworthiness if God give them the least temporal mercy but especially if they have a drop of any spiritual mercy that the light of Gods countenance though but in glimpses shine upon them they cry out Who am I Lord and what am I that thou shouldst visit so unworthy a wretch Secondly He must not only be sensible of his unworthiness who would affectionately bless God at all times but he must also consider what wrath and vengeance he doth deserve Oh this would be like fire in thy bosom This would quickly cast out all those troublesom and disquiet thoughts What Oh my soul art thou disquieted for want of this or that What is thy own but hell and eternal torment Are any soul-mercies are any body-mercies thy own Canst thou claim a right to them No the Law curseth thee because thou doest not continue in all things commanded so that thou mayest be cursed in soul in body at home and abroad Nothing but temporal spiritual and eternal curses might compass thee about Now then if when God might thus curse and damn thee he doth bless and pardon thee What joyfull songs should this fill thy heart and mouth with I have deserved death but behold life my merit is hell and damnation but the gift of God is grace and peace As a malefactor when thou mightst justly expect punishment behold God doth to thee as to Joseph who under expectation of punishment is raised up to the highest honour in the Kings Court Oh then awe thy soul saying Why am I so foolish and bruâ—â—â—sh I am not in hell I am not howling in those eternal flames which I might not be kept a moment from and yet how impatient and unquiet is my heart A full perswasion then of what we deserve will provoke the soul to a cordial blessing of God for every mercy Thirdly There is required the regeneration and renovation of the whole man As a wicked man cannot pray to God so neither can he praise God Therefore though natural men may have it often in their mouths they bless their good God and I praise my God yet to praise God requireth a principle of grace within a supernatural root as well as to pray to God Indeed they may externally sing Psalms and give praise to God even as they pray but all this while there is nothing at the root all is dead within Psal 147. 1. Praise is comely for the upright It 's a comely sutable thing for a man of an upright and gracious heart to bless God but for a carnal prophane man it is as unseemly as a pearl on the swines nose God is dishonoured and not pleased Oh then that this might awaken every natural man Thou canst neither pray to God or praise him Thou canst neither receive gifts from God aright or return praise to him aright So that this must be looked to as the principal and chief of all Hath God put his own image into me Hath God bestowed the life of grace upon me Then praise is seemly and comely for me Even amongst men the Rule is Laudari à laudat is laudabile est Fourthly To bless God and praise him there is required an heavenly raised frame of soul For though the principle of Regeneration be the foundation in every one whereby he is enabled to blesse God yet that is more remote and habitually only Hence it is that many of Gods children though in a state of grace yet are not in a praising thankfull temper they are as so many clods of earth they are not affected with Gods goodness their souls are not enlarged and therefore they mourn because they are such blocks and lumps of earth Therefore besides the fundamental principle of Regeneration there must be proxim and immediate dispositions which are as the whetting of the tool like the Cocks stirring of himself and clapping of his wings before he croweth and of all dispositions an heavenly heart is the most excellent Why is it that in Heaven the glorified Saints do spend all eternity in blessing and glorifying of God and are never weary of it Is it not because all is made perfectly heavenly within them If the earth though a dull and heavy element be at last transmuted into air or fire it loseth it's former gravity and dulness and ascends upwards Thus the soul when freed from the clogs and burdens of the earth doth with more ease and speed lift up it self to God The Lark all the while she sits on the ground scarce sings but when she riseth from the Earth and the higher and higher still she flieth the more sweetly and earnestly doth she sing Thus it is necessary if thou wilt really and daily bless and praise God then raise thy self above the Earth The nearer to Heaven thy heart comes the sweeter will thy meditations be the more joyfull will thy thoughts be Hence Fifthly Joy and gladnesse of heart is required to blesse God The Psalmist often calls to sing with joy And the Apostle Is any man merry let him sing Psalms Jam. 5. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That heart which is filled with grief and sorrow is in no disposition to bless God As the strings of musical Instruments while wet and moist are not prepared to make any melodious sound To bless God with an heavy heart to praise God with a troubled disquieted soul is to contradict with our hearts what we say with our mouths Consider then that
though it be thy duty to humble thy self for sinne to confess and bewail thy iniquities yet it is also a duty To rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and till the heart be fitted by this joy thou canst nor bless God with that hearty affection as thou oughtst to do Psal 103. David saith Blesse the Lord O my soul and all within thee praise his holy Name All within thee You see to praise God is heart-work as well as lip-work all within us must move and be affected Thy heart cannot boil over as the Psalmist sometimes expresseth it unless this fire of joy doth inflame it Oh then know that a grieving disquieted soul cannot bless God it hinders you from that duty which the Apostle presseth Col. 3. 16. Admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts What an Heaven is such an heart where there are these spiritual hymns and psalms But alas how often is thy heart like an howling wilderness where the cries and dolefull sounds of unbelieving and distrustfull fears do torment thee Sixthly To blesse God there is required faith and a resting of the soul upon God as a reconciled Father Alas can the damned in hell bless God Could Cain or Judas bless God By no means because there is no faith there is no resting upon God as a Father Hence you see the Apostle addeth The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of all mercies To cursed and condemned sinners God is not a Father of mercies but of vengeance and fury a God of dreadfull judgments who is said to be angry with the wicked all the day long Hence David doth so often in the Psalms exercise those appropriating and applying acts of faith My God and my Tower my strong help and defence It was his faith that made him so thankfull For what is it to hear of Christ and all spiritual mercies by him if faith doth not apply them and make them my own And then we are stirred up to give God thanks for them insomuch that faith hath the greatest influence into our thankfulness Seventhly Faith of adherence is not enough to make the heart so throughly and affectionately thankefull as it should be unlesse also there be as some call it faith of evidence or a good and true perswasion that God is our God It 's the reflecting acts of the soul whereby it knoweth and is assured that God hath pardoned my sinne and hath forgiveth my iniquities that are like oil to the lamp of this duty David in some Psalms dependeth upon God and so many times the choisest of Gods servants they are supported to rest on him to build their hopes on Christ but then wanting this assurance not feeling this love of God shed abroad in their souls hence they are not fervent and zealous in these duties of blessing and thanksgiving as they ought to be Do you not see many of Gods people more forward to duties of humiliation and mourning more attending to self-debasement and self-abhorrency then they are to faith joy and blessing of God the one they are constantly in the other unless provoked and forced as it were they seldom accomplish Now this ought not to be so we are to rejoyce as well as tremble we are to put both together we are to bless God for pardon of sinne as well as confess sinne we are to rejoyce in giving of thanks as well as to humble our souls in acknowledging of our sinfulness Thou often saist Lord pity me Lord shew mercy to me but how seldom dost thou say O Lord I bless thee For thy mercy endureth for ever My heart hath been full of sorrow for sinne and now it is full of joy for the pardon of it I have prayed that my corruptions may be subdued and I bless God that prayer is graciously answered If you winne a mercy by prayer and do not wear it by praise you greatly offend God SERM. XXX Of Praising God and that for all but especially for spiritual Mercies 2 COR. 1. 3. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. FRom the method that Paul useth here and in the beginning of most of his other Epistles we have observed the Duty that lieth upon all the people of God to bē carefull and conscientious in this duty of blessing and praising of God which is as the legal ointment for the High-priest compounded of choice and sweet ingredients It 's an Angelical work to blesse God There remain further particulars that are constituent of this comfortable and profitable duty As First The heart that is duly fitted to praise God though it be thankefull for every mercy even the least mercy yet it keeps an order in its thankesgiving according to the dignity of its objects so that it praiseth God chiefly and principally for spiritual mercies and then secondarily for temporal mercies And this argueth the difficulty of this duty and that also only the regenerate and spiritual man can in a Scripture-way blesse God for he only doth preferre heavenly things above earthly When the Psalmist had spoken of outward mercies to a people Psal 144. 12 13 15. great mercies in sons and daughters rich abundance and plenty he corrects all at last Happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord. So that you see all the outward desirable mercies that are are but in a subordination to Gods favour When thou art breaking forth after this manner I bless God for my children for my health for my outward contents Oh but above all Lord that I have any spiritual mercy that thou hast loved my soul converted me to thy self saved me from the evil wayes of the world in this my soul is overwhelmed So then as we see it is in matter of Petition Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven Thus it is also in Thanksgiving whatsoever heavenly mercy God hath bestowed on thee bless God for that in the first place Thus the Apostle doth praise God in a most divine manner Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Insomuch that this may be a good Touchstone of the truth of grace in thee whether thy soul be most affected and enlarged towards God for soul-mercies that thou canst truly say O Lord in that thou hast made me in a saving manner to know thee in that thou hast revealed thy Son to me I do more rejoyce in this and bless thee for it then if thou hadst given me all the glory of the world Doest thou see a natural worldly man boast in his riches in his birth in his greatness above others and knoweth nothing at all of Gods favour and spiritual mercy to his soul This is like a beast that is crowned with Garlands but yet prepared for the slaughter Canst thou say O Lord I judge all the outward mercies I have to be but husks and empty
shels in comparison of that Manna that spiritual favour I am made partaker of As therefore the spiritual man when in outward miseries and straights is not so much grieved under those outward calamities as because he hath sinned and God is offended So neither in outward mercies is the same gracious soul so much affected with the comforts it enjoyeth as that the light of Gods countenance doth shine upon him that he hath an evidence of propriety and interest in Christ this he would not lose for all the Kingdoms of the world Let us press this the more because even the most holy are apt to be affected more with sensible mercies than spiritual Nature teacheth them the one but Grace the other For as we are apt to desire temporal things above spiritual so also to be affected with and bless God for one more than another But take these few Motives to provoke thee to bless God for spiritual mercies which are of two sorts External as the means of grace and the Ordinances or Internal the inward sanctification and justification of our persons As 1. That if thou hadst more mercies than Solomon if thou hadst all thy soul can desire in these outward things yet if without spiritual mercies thou judgest thy condition is cursed and to be lamented Therefore Psal 4. when the natural persons of the world cried out Who will shew us any good David as knowing a better and more solid good prayeth God would lift up the light of his countenance upon him And therefore he that hath the least drop of grace is more bound to bless God then he that may have all the glory and plenty in the world Oh then why art thou not more sollicitous saying what is this wealth without Gods favor What is it to say this house is mine this estate is mine but am not able to say God is mine but if God doth evidence himself to thee then over-look all thy outward comforts put the Ecce the Selah upon what is spiritual This is like the Sunne which is farre above all the Starres It is this that makes all outward mercies mercies they are no wayes good to thee but snares and temptations to draw out thy sins So that thy condemnation in hell will be the hotter if thou doest not enjoy spiritual mercies with them 2. Be in the first place affected with spiritual mercies Because Christ shewed his love to thee most in these it was for these he died The Scripture doth exceedingly commend to us the love of Christ in his death Now what are the effects of Christs death Are they chiefly to make us rich great or honoured in this world No it is for remission of sinne it 's for holiness and power over the Devil Certainly if Christ died to purchase these for thee thou art very unthankfull if thy heart be not most inlarged to bless God for them 3. Spiritual mercies are the chiefest object of our praises Because these onely can truly satisfie the soul these only are a sound cause of rejoycing The heart of a man is never satisfied with temporal mercies but the more he drinketh of them the more thirsty still he is When Solomon hath made an experience of all his Motto is That they are vexation of spirit as well as vanity whereas the pardon of sinne and the Spirit of Christ working in us these afford uninterrupted causes of joy 4. The soul-mercies will abide for ever thou canst not lose thy title and interest in them but all these earthly comforts are as the flower which presently withereth thou hast them to day and they may be removed to morrow Be sure then that thy blessing of God keepeth that method which the nature of mercies doth require above all things Let thy soul melt with joy in blessing of God for what he hath done to thy soul Lastly Consideration remembring and fixed meditation upon the mercies of God is that which will greatly inflame the soul to give all glory and honour to him The heart is not easily and quickly put into a blessing frame there must be polishing and fashioning of it and there is no such way for this as true consideration When David calls upon himself so much to glorifie God this implieth that he found his soul dull heavy and unfit for that duty The heart will not boil over in meditation unless it be long upon this fire Psal 45. 1. David there calls his inditing the boyling or bubling of his heart we are apt to forget Gods mercies or when we do think of them they are but transistory and ambulatory It is Gods goodnesse or I bless God and there is all whereas when we bless God our souls should be raised up into divine inflammations we should be as Elijah who was carried up to Heaven in a Chariot of fire whereas the soul is at other times abridged or epitomized but in short characters in the praises of God it should be voluminous as you see David in Psalms 103 104 105 106 and 107. very large in the enumeration of all Gods benefits which intimateth That the soul ought to be extended in all its dimensions while it sets upon this work And certainly meditation is like the birds sitting on the egge not leaving it till it hath produced a live young one This will so often work upon the soul that at last there will be heavenly and supernatural life for several aggravations will the meditating heart find in every blessing it doth possess As 1. It will admire the power and strength of God in every mercy especially in soul-mercies That God should change such a stubborn heart as thine was That God should give thee eyes to see that hast been blind so long That God should give thee life who wast dead and putrifying in the grave of sinne This will make thee wonder at the glorious power of God Again The Wisdome of God if that be considered in every mercy this will also greatly inlarge to thankefulnesse Gods mercies are not only mercies in themselves but they come in such fit seasons they are at such times and opportunities that this maketh them double mercies and so some have observed this difference between blessing and praising of God Blessing of God is because of the goodnesse of the mercy Praising is for the wisdome and curious workmanship of God as it were in that mercy As if a friend who also was himself the maker of a curious Watch should bestow it upon you as a gift you would not only thank him for his love but praise his skill and art likewise Thus we are not only to consider the mercies God giveth us but the wisdome that God demonstrateth at that very time making every mercy to be with an aggravation Again Meditation will inflame by apprehending of Gods freenesse in every mercy and our unworthinesse We could do nothing that may provoke God especially this we are to aggravate in our spiritual mercies as Paul doth often excluding
generation he was of the Father Therefore the Apostle asketh this Question To which of the Angels then much less men said he Thou art my Sonne c which must be in a peculiar transcendent sense for in a common general one Angels are called the Sons of God And indeed to be a Sonne by eternal generation and then afterwards by gracious communication doth imply a contradiction For amongst men he that is truly such a mans sonne by natural generation can never for any adventitious reason be properly called his sonne afterwards If then God be the Father of Christ by generation then he is not by any other supposed wayes of gracious communication And that Christ is a Sonne in a transcendent way to Angels and men appeareth fully by the expression of the Apostle Heb. 5. 8. Although he was a Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet learned obedience by those things in which he suffered From whence we say Christ was a Sonne not according to his Humane Nature for so he was to shew obedience Mal. 1. 6. but in that sense wherein he could not obey viz in his Divine Nature Therefore it 's a discreet Axiom or Proposition Although he was a Sonne This being laid as a foundation let us come to consider this as a ground of our comfort For you may say Why is God to besa blessed by us Because he is the Father of Jesus Christ For what doth that appertain to us Indeed to wicked and ungodly men who perish in their sins this makes no more for their comfort then for apostate Angels whose nature Christ took not upon him But as for the godly the true believer this is the foundation of all their comfort For First In that he is the Father of Christ by this means he cometh to be the Father in him For seeing Christ is ours then he who is the Father of Christ must be our Father also as will appear in the second place But the first consideration of comfort is That Gods paternal relation to us is grounded upon the Fathers relation to Christ Christ merited at Gods hands that he should be a reconciled Father with us for without Christ God is not the Father of mercies but a dreadfull and terrible Judge He is a consuming fire and we cannot with any confidence draw nigh to him but through Christ God assumeth a new relation to us of a Judge he becometh a Father So that we see this is the fountain of all our comfort Therefore is God a Father to us because he is to Christ and this is the reason why the Apostle mentioneth as you heard this Title so often with Doxologie because without Christ God is not a Father We cannot expect a drop of mercy or the least glimpse of favour from him Secondly This relation of God the Father to Christ is of great comfort to us because of our union with Christ When we by faith are made one with Christ then we have the same Father as he hath and this is a second ground of our comfort The Apostle calleth him The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because our Lord our Jesus therefore God is our Father The Devils and wicked men because they cannot truly say Our Christ therefore they cannot call God Our Father It 's then our union with Christ that doth entitle us to God a Father as well as Christ himself As it 's with the wise when married to an husband then the husbands father is her father and what relations he hath she is also received into Thus it is here when the soul by faith receiveth Christ he is thereby made the Sonne of God and a co-heir with Christ They have now the same Father Christ is become their brother to them Oh what an unspeakable and glorious priviledge is this that Christ should not disdain us or be ashamed of us but call us brethren and make us to have the same Father with him I Did faith improve this by lively meditation what joy and quietness would it produce in our hearts Thirdly This is greatly for our comfort Because though there be some distance and inequality yet we may upon the same general grounds plead the bowels of a Father and all the effects of fatherly love as Christ himself may Will not the Father deny Christ neither will he us Will not the Father reject Christ neither will he us he is become a Father to us as well as to him Indeed there is a great disproportion between Christ and us in this paternal relation he is by Nature we by Grace he is the only begotten Sonne we adopted sons he is perfectly holy and the meritorious cause of this relation for us Therefore the Socinian doctrine is to be abhorred who makes Christs Sonship and that of believers to differ only in degrees not in kind Yet in the general because by him God is made a Father we may improve it in what we have his promise for as Christ himself did Hence 2 Sam. 7. 14. what is spoken of Solomon as a type of Christ and in the general is true of all believers the Apostle Heb. 1. applieth to Christ as in such particulars 1. The fatherly love and bowels which Christ found from God in all his exercises and agonies the like may we expect to find Did Christ say when his Disciples left him That he should not be alone because the Father was alwayes with him The same may every true believer affirm when he may be left alone if in persecutions thy friends thy acquaintances forsake thee If father and mother as David said should leave thee yet this Father is alwayes with thee So that although thou art not comparable to Christ either in thy natures persons or graces yet remember the same fatherly love is common to both Hence Job 17. 23. That they may know that the love wherewith thou lovest me is in them In them by way of sense and experience by way of knowledge and certainty 2. As God is a Father to Christ thus in love so also he was in hearing of his prayers which he put up as man or as Mediator Father saith Christ I know thou hearest me alwayes John 10. And therefore in that wonderfull prayer of his that his soul poured out before his death his compellation unto God is Father And thus also God being a Father to us he will hear all our requests that are according to his will It is true God the Father heareth his only begotten Sonne Christ because of the full and absolute Image of himself in him There is no sinne no blemish nothing blame-worthy in Christ but in us there are many imperfections There is just cause to reject our prayers but yet because we are in Christ therefore for Christs sake and in his Name they are accepted his incense perfumes their prayers It is through Christs obedience that God smels a sweet savour in our holy performances So that Christ indeed he was heard for his own
to take away his mercies that is the effects of his mercy not the attribute of mercy This you must diligently attend to because the effects of Gods mercy are more and less but the attribute in God cannot be so God is not more or less mercifull neither doth Mercy as an attribute oppose Justice as an attribute but the effects of Gods Mercy may be and are contrary to the effects of his Justice 3. We must distinguish between Gods general mercy and his special His general mercy is extended to all the creatures The whole world is full of his mercies Psal 33. 5. So his mercy is said to be over all his works Would the world subsist for a moment when the Inhabitants thereof are so full of rebellion against God were it not for his mercy All that we see we hear we taste we feel is nothing but mercy His special mercy is to rational creatures men and Angels and that again is two-fold More special and most special More special is the vouchsafing of the Gospel and means of grace both to the wicked and the good This Kingdom of Heaven is set open for both But then there is the most special mercy and that is vouchsafed only to the elect by which means they are converted justified and shall be glorified and of this it is the Apostle speaks Rom. 9. 15. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Thus much may suffice for the Doctrinal information about this truth Let us in the next place take notice what is comprehended in this expression Father of mercies For this is a box of ointment to be opened and bestowed upon poor souls and while this glory of God doth pass by we can see but the back parts of it First When he is said to be the Father of mercies this implieth That he only giveth mercies and receiveth none So that as the father giveth being to the child but receiveth nothing of the child Thus God he is the Father of mercies because he is absolutely sufficient in himself he needeth nothing from any because then there would be a superiour to God And this consideration may greatly aggravate the glorious Nature of God in being mercifull in that he himself is like the Sun giving light but receiving none at all We cannot say of Angels they are the Fathers of mercies because though they be ministring spirits to serve us An Angel was sent to comfort Christ yet they need mercy as well as we The river needs the spring but the spring is the last and needeth not the river and so Angels and men they need mercy every way but God he needeth none only he is the giver of all It being more blessed to give than to receive even in this sense Secondly When he is called the Father of mercies it implieth The voluntariness and readiness in God to it Psal 103. Like as a father pitieth his children c. We do not intreat or hire a father to pity a miserable child his own bowels perswade him to it Now this is much more in God For as the Psalmist argueth He that made the eye shall not he see So he that giveth bowels and pity to parents shall not he much rather be mercifull So that as it is for holiness if all the holiness of men and Angels were put together it would be but a drop to what is in God So if all the mercy and all the compassions of all the fathers and mothers in the world were joyned together it would be nothing to God Oh what dishonour doth thy unbelieving fearfull heart do to this mercifull Father Thou thinkest he hath but the mercy of a man thou judgest of his bowels according to thy own no Gods mercie is as much above thy sinnes and miseries as his Essence is above thy being O nomen misericordia sub quo nemini desperandum But of that more presently Only when he is called a Father of mercies that denoteth the readiness in God and willingness in him and this is remarkable in Gods mercies over what is in mans our mercy is many times because the object miserable is of our own flesh and nature with us It moveth the heart to see one of the same nature with us to be thus miserable but God he is infinitly above man he hath no communion in nature with us and yet he is merciful Again Mercy amongst men is often because we have been under such miseries ourselves They that have the pain of the stone commiserate those that are in the like manner troubled because they know what it is Thus many eminent Ministers of the Gospel are exercised with soul-temptations and desertions that they may know how to mourn with bleeding bowels over those that are so tempted Thus the mercy of Christ as Mediator differs from the mercy of God as absolutely considered For he was tempted like us in all things sinne only excepted Heb. 4. 15. and the reason of this the Apostle giveth That he might be touched with a feeling of our infirmities Christ knoweth what the meaning is of every groan and every sigh that comes from a child in darkness crying out Why hath my God forsaken me Thus Christ as Mediator is mercifull in another way then God is yet this advanceth still the mercy of God that whereas his blessed and perfect Nature cannot know experimentally what it is to be miserable what it is to need mercy yet for all that his breasts are full and no womon is in greater pain to be eased of her burden then God to bestow his mercies Thirdly In that he is a Father of mercies a Father there is implied That he doth lay our misery to heart For although he cannot be passionately affected as man nor is sensible of our infirmities as Christ was yet this doth not hinder but that our misery is taken notice of as really so as to be succoured by him as if it were in the most compassionate Father that is That expression of God concerning the Israelites miseries under bondage is remarkable Exod. 2. 24 25. He heard their groaning he remembred his Covenant he looked upon his children he had respect or knew them See here ears eyes memory and mind all are affected with their trouble So Isa 63. 9. it is said In all their afflictions he was afflicted As then anger against wicked men though in God it be not the ebulsition of bloud about the heart or accompanied with a pale countenance yet it is more really and dreadfull in God than in man Therefore better have all the men of the world angry with thee than God So it is in his mercy in him mercy though it have not humane concomitants yet it 's more real operative and efficacious than all the mercifull fathers in the world is and thou hadst better have God shew mercy to thee than all the men of the world For In the fourth place when he is said to be the Father of mercies there
them Secondly In this expression of Father of mercies is not only comprehended the multitude of them but the diversity also he is the Father of all kind of mercies God hath an unexhausted treasure of mercy Therefore the Scripture calls God rich in mercy Ephes 2. 4. Though God be rich in wisdom in power yet the Scripture calls him only rich in mercy as if herein he did most excell Now from this treasury arise all kinds of mercies Do not say God may by his mercy help me in this particular and in that respect he can give me bodily mercies but can he give soul mercies He can give private mercies but can he give publick mercies Yes we have too low and narrow thoughts of God if we limit him to any kind of mercy he can do the greatest as well as the least Let us instance in some kind of mercies As 1. There are common mercies and there are special mercies Common mercies are those the whole world is full of He maketh the Sunne to shine upon the good and the bad Therefore our Saviour presseth us To love our enemies because God is thus mercifull even to his enemies Is not the whole earth every Village every Town full of the common mercies of God How come so many to live to subsist upon his cost and charges Whence is it that all the people in the world are provided for Is it not from the mercy of God Lam. 3. 22. It 's the Lords mercies that we are not consumed That famine warre plague and other judgements do not sweep away all the inhabitants of the earth That the whole world doth not fall into ruines This is from Gods meer mercy That all are not roaring in hell it 's the mercy of God Now this common mercy is the more admirable if ye consider what kind of persons they are to whom he is thus mercifull even to his very enemies that hate God and if it lay in their power would destroy him that he should not have a being Oh the mercy of God that is continued to many a prophane beast and many a malicious Devil to what is good Why is it that every liar is not stricken dead with Ananias Why is it that every drunkard quaffing in his pots doth not see a terrible hand-writing in the wall against him Why is it that the earth doth not open to swallow thee up while thy mouth is full of cursing and swearing Is not all this from the mercy of God Oh how little doth this mercy of God lead you to repentance whereas it is vouchsafed to you for that end Let it not be despised because it is common For though God be thus often mercifull yet sometimes his judgements are terrible to prophane men They are suddenly destroyed while they are in their drunken fits and it is Gods mercy that what hath befallen others doth not also come upon thee but after thy impenitent heart Thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath Now is the day of mercy but then will be a day of wrath There are special mercies such as the godly are only partakers of To be called to be justified to be sanctified c. Oh what heart or tongue can express the happiness of those who have these mercies How sacrilegious are those Doctrines that do not make God wholly and solely the father of these mercies but they make themselves and their own free-will to be yoynt-fathers with God in these mercies But as Austin of old urged If I cannot make my self a man which is the lesser can I make my self an holy man which is the greater If there is not the least temporal mercy that thou canst procure by thy own power not a morsell of bread not a drop of water canst thou by thy own strength obtain the greatest of all Though it be said The sword of the Lord and of Gideon yet it cannot be said the vocation the justification by Paul and by Christ but Christ alone doth these things in us and for us though by his grace we are also sanctified and inabled to do that which is holy Again There are soul-mercies and there are bodily-mercies There are spiritual and there are temporal mercies now God is the Author of both We may sinne by unthankfulness for either of them if thou takest thy bodily-mercies as due thy health thy sleep thy preservation from daily dangers in this thou wrongest the goodness of God for if he take away his hand but for a moment thou canst not subsist And as for soul-mercies whether the natural ones of it as thy wit thy understanding thy fancy thy senses God is the Father of them Or the spiritual ones there he is much more if thou hast repentance faith assurance a gracious contented heart in every condition these are mercies of mercies but God alone is the Father of them Furthermore There are preventing or privative mercies and there are positive mercies Now the Rule is Plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae more privative favours than positive Did not God prevent what innumerable evils might arise every day to destroy thee When we pray for daily bread in that we comprehend all kind of outward bodily mercies so that if the Lords hand were not alwayes giving we could not abide a day Now seeing that by sinne we are made obnoxious to all the curses in the Law To be cursed at home and cursed abroad How manifold are Gods preventing mercies to us What evil might every day bring forth to thee What a sad night might every night be to thee if Gods preventing mercies did not compass thee about Lastly We might instance in private mercies and publick mercies But what hath already been spoken may abundantly confirm us That God is the Father of mercies In the next place Let us consider the Property of Gods mercy And 1. He is infinite in mercy as well as in other attributes So that this fountain can never be drawn dry he hath mercy enough for thee and me and for all the humbled sinners in the world If all the Nations of the world are but as a drop to him so neither are all the sins of the world but as a drop to his mercy No sins are too many or too great for Gods mercy And truly this consideration alone is that which doth revive and establish the drooping soul for if it were but the mercy of a creature if it were finite mercy that thou hadst to do with woe and again woe would be unto thee The Prophet Isaiah speaks fully to this Chap. 55. 7 8 9. where there is an encouragement given to the wicked To forsake his evil wayes because God will have mercy yea he will abundantly pardon or multiply to pardon and whereas the sinner might think Surely God will never do so to such an hainous and wretched sinner as I am the Prophet tells us Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts but as the Heavens are higher
than the earth so are his ways viz. of mercy to our wayes As then the earth is but like a pins head in respect of the vast dimensions of the Heavens so are all our sins comparatively to Gods mercy If then thou hast great thoughts about thy sins saying They are greater than thou canst bear yet have as great thoughts of Gods mercy and know they are not greater than mercy can take away 2. As it 's infinite mercy so they are tender mercies bowels of mercies Psal 40. 11. David prayeth God would not take away his tender mercies from him Hence he is compared both to a Father and a Mother Oh take heed then of dishonouring God by hard distrustfull and unbelieving thoughts about him Think not of him as an austeer Judge who reapeth where he doth not sow The Devil and our guilty consciences are apt to represent God otherwise than he is Indeed while thou art secure and stupid in thy sins thou thinkest of God as an Idol-god having no eyes to see or thou presents him only a mercifull God to thy self as if he were not also holy and just but when once sinne burneth in thy heart like fire when God makes thee a terrour to thy self because of thy wickedness then all is turned Thou thinkest of the justice and vengeance of God only as if he had no mercy but when thy sins are a burden to thee and thou doest in the sincerity of thy heart forsake them then think of God only as the Scripture represents him then hearken what mercy comfort and peace he speaks to such a contrite soul as thou art 3. They are sure mercies to all the godly Isa 55. 3. They are called The sure mercies of David For all necessary mercies either for soul or body they are bound up in Gods promise and therefore they may well be called sure mercies even those thou hast not yet are as sure mercies as if thou wast already possessed of them Glorification and salvation are the sure mercies of God to thee though for the present thou art in a valley of tears sighing under thy miseries 4. They are free mercies such as God doth only for his Names sake when we have nothing but sinne in us that may justly provoke God to turn his mercies into judgments yet for his own sake he will be mercifull Though we have lost our grace yet he hath not that attribute of mercy Thus Psal 6. 4. Psal 31. 16. David still prayeth Save me for thy mercies sake So that this may greatly encourage thee when thou thinkest Oh what a barren and dry wilderness am I Oh what matter do I find in me to displease God for ever In the midst of these thoughts remember Gods mercies are free They have no other original or rise but from himself Think though I have degenerated from my holiness yet God can never lay aside his mercy But you will say Is this truth to be indifferently published to all May we tell every one that God is the Father of mercies to him Will not this be to make the heart of the wicked glad whom yet God would have made sad To answer it therefore first It cannot be denied but that God is very mercifull even to wicked men and that while they continue in their obstinacy Doth not experience confirm this And this mercy of God is not only seen in temporal things he giveth them health life and wealth so that they can never plead against God but also he is mercifull to many ungodly wretches and that in spiritual mercies he giveth them the kingdom of grace he giveth them the Ministry of the Gospel he alloweth them the day of grace whenas they might have been alwayes kept up in darkness Hence it is that the Scripture doth so often complain of the unprofitableness of the unthankfulness and forgetfulness towards him even worse than of the bruit creatures But in the next place There are the most special mercies of his complacency and delight and these are vouchsafed only to true believers So that we cannot properly say God is a Father of mercies to any but to the upright in heart For though wicked men do taste of many mercies from God yet he is not a reconciled Father to them They come not from him as a Father in Christ and therefore though in themselves they may be called mercies yet if you consider the event of them how the wicked abuse all mercies and increase their sins by them it will be at last confessed they were not mercies but judgements to them The mercies then which arise from Gods favour none have but those that are godly and we may in brief take these Characters of such who are Objects of his mercy First Such as are of a broken contrite heart for sinne such who forsake and cast it away in their lives To these only God is a Father of mercies For as for the wicked it 's said God is angry with the wicked every day To whom doth the justice of God the curse of the Law belong but to those that are thus guilty of sin The doubt then is not Whether God be mercifull but whether thou art the fit subject of mercy whether thou art the man God will honour Secondly Such only are the Objects of his mercy that have faith in him that hope in his mercy Hence David doth so often profess his trust in Gods mercy For there is either a pharisaical self-righteousness in us whereby we are apt to trust in our righteousness and in the works we do We see by the Jews of old and most Christians at this day that they are so full of themselves that they never trust alone in Gods mercy or else if sin be set home upon the conscience then many prove Cains and Judasses they flie from the mercies of God in Christ and damn themselves for fear of damnation so that presumption makes most and despair some few the unfitted objects of Gods mercy misery alone doth not prepare thee for mercy The Devils and damned in hell are miserable enough yet cannot obtain one drop of mercy but there must be a debasing of thy self because of sin and then raising up of thy self to catch hold on mercy SERM. XXXIV How God is the God of comfort yea of all comfort and consolations to all those that are his 2 COR. 1. 3. And the God of all comfort THe next ground why God is to be blessed is because he is a God of all comfort Now although this might seem to be the same with the former when he is stiled the Father of mercies Yet we may make that distinction which Aquinas upon the place giveth viz. That he is a Father of mercies because he doth either prevent or remove those miseries that our sins do deserve but he is the God of all conselation in that though our afflictions and tribulations be not taken away yet while we are in them he doth give many consolations and
soul hath been at the very borders of hell and hath been ready to be swallowed up with overmuch grief that then even then God hath caused joy to arise in the soul so that all his doubts all his darkness they are dispelled and as the Church said When their captivity was turned as the streams in the South they were like men in a dream Thus are they even astonished to see what a wonderfull alteration God hath made upon them turning a barren wilderness into a pleasant pool Thus God comforts as he teacheth none teacheth like him for he doth not only reveal the object to be known but prepareth and fitteth the subject to understand whereas man teacheth only by propounding Truths but cannot give a mind to understand Thus God also comforteth as no friend can no Minister can because God doth perswade the heart he can take away the fears and the doubts and so make all comfort to have an immediate illapse into the soul whereas even the Ministers of the Gospel though they bring the glad tidings of peace Though they have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to the afflicted soul yet they can bring this no further than into the ear they cannot make it at all descend into the heart insomuch that Ministers comfort in vain and the Sacraments they seal comfort in vain till God do alter and change the heart And thus much is considerable because it 's said The God of consolation Secondly What is implied in the word Consolation And 1. We are to know this is one of the sweetest mercies in all Gods store-house comfort and consolation and that in this valley of tears where we meet with so much discomfort where there are so many grieving and tormenting passages This makes the mercy to be of greater moment For what if a man had the abundance his heart can desire yet if he have no comfort in any thing a dead man yea a dead dog is better than such an one Insomuch that a mans whole life is almost for nothing but a comfortable life Comfort and delight is so great a matter that some Philosophers placed utmost happiness therein Look over the whole world and you will see not every man that is most wise or most great not every one that liveth in most abundance and most honour but he that liveth most comfortably liveth the life most to be desired Yea many time a Crown of gold is a crown of thorns and a cottage hath more comfort than a Palace So that the mercy here spoken of is the salt that seasons all conditions without this a man is no better than a Cain or a Judas without this every house and field is an hell When therefore it 's said The God of comfort here is insinuated the most desirable thing that can be Yea it 's no wonder to hear that if a man hath wealth and honours but without comfort that his life is a torment For although a man have true grace and be an eminent servant of God and therefore will be certainly blessed hereafter yet because he hath no comfort in his soul his condition is very terrible and sad As you see it was with Job yea with Christ himself though the only Sonne of God yet because without comfort when at the same time he was full of grace and holiness what grief and agonies did he conflict with So that your comfort is like oyl it 's called the oyl of gladness for it will be alwayes uppermost in the soul 2. Comfort is such a rare mercy that unless God give it it is not to be found in the heart of a man For how can comfort and sinne be together Every man hath by nature forfeited all his comforts There is not the least drop of comfort but every man hath outed himself of it so that man and the Devils are all alike in respect of deserts As the Devil cannot any where gather up so much as a crum of a comfort so neither might any man living The whole world might justly become an hell and not one drop of comfort to be found in it Therefore that God is a God of comfort to a believer it 's an unspeakable mercy for of himself cannot come any comfort nothing but briars and thorns nothing but hellish torments and despair will naturally arise in our hearts So that comfort is the more to be prized because we have lost all and might justly be as full of horrour and fears as we are of sin As sin hath abounded so not grace but vengeance might abound much more Hence In the third place Therefore is God a God of consolation because Christ hath made a full atonement for us by his bloud Such a glorious expression as this could not have been true in the world but for Christ if no Christ then no comfort Hence in the Text it is said The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and then followeth The God of comfort So that as we are to pray in the name of Christ so we are also in his name to offer up praise and thanksgiving It 's then through Christ alone that he is a God of comfort and indeed without Christ he is the God of all wrath and vengeance of all anger and judgements his holiness and justice is such that were it not through him he would be a consuming fire and the most holy man would not be able to stand in his sight So that it cost Christ dear to make a way and passage of comfort for us Lastly God through Christ being thus the fountain of all consolation hence it is that he doth most genuinely and properly of himself shew mercy and vouchsafe comfort Even as the Bee of it self makes honey but never stings except when provoked Thus if we walk not alwayes comfortably if we live not in holy joy and gladness of heart this ariseth from our selves The vapours that turn into storms and thunder come from our own bowels otherwise God would alwayes be communicating consolations to us we shut out the light from us we turn sweetness into bitterness Thus the Psalmist saith That God doth not afflict willingly The works of justice are commonly called alienum opus but Gods works of justice are his proper works as well as of mercy only our sins stirre him up and provoke him to the one but his meer goodness and mercy inclineth to the other so that now God would alwayes fill the hearts of his children with rejoycing did not they obstruct it themselves In the third and last place he is said to be the God of all consolation There is the extent of it All consolation which implieth 1. That there is no consolation but cometh from him no true and solid comfort but God bestoweth it As for that prophane and wicked mirth which the Devil stirreth up ungodly men unto that is not worth the name of joy it 's a madness for they descend quick as it were
to hell from these jollities all true comfort is from God 2. There is implied That God hath a store-house of all kind of comforts whatsoever thy necessity and wants are he can comfort thee It is not every comfort that will heal every wound but God hath a treasury of all if thy soul need comfort he can comfort that if thy body need comfort he can do that Oh then let not these consolations of God seem a small thing to you Job 15. 11. SERM. XXXV Some Propositions clearing the Doctrine of Gods Mercy from both Doctrinal and Practical Objections 2 COR. 1. 3. The God of all comfort VVE shall now put both these descriptions of God joyntly together having already considered them severally For seeing in the mercy of God is all our hope Christ hath this Rainbow about his Throne And although it may affect us to hear that God is Wise Omnipotent of glorious Majesty yet nothing is so sutable and proper for poor sinners as to hear of Gods mercy Therefore I shall at this time enlarge further about it and so conclude And that which I shall deliver shall be laid down in so many Propositions which will be to obviate either Practical or Doctrinal Objections And First The mercy and comforts of God this glorious Nature of his whereby he is ready to pity those that are miserable is so to be managed in the publick preaching thereof that it be a sovereign Antidote against all despair and yet a curb against all presumption For so it falleth out that we can hardly open the treasures of Gods mercy and discover the glory of his grace and goodness to the humbled sinner but presently the carnal prophane heart is ready to encourage himself thereby It is therefore the part of a wise Dispenser of this glad tidings to consider the subjects with whom he hath to do and accordingly to publish terrour to whom terrour is due wrath to whom wrath is due And then on the other side peace to whom peace belongs mercy to whom mercy belongs Though therefore God style himself The God of the fatherless and the widow that he is pitifull to such as are miserable Though very wicked it may be and prophane yet this is with a general mercy onely his peculiar and special mercies are onely to those that fear him If then a man go on wilfully in his ungodly wayes if he will still retain his transgressions he must not think to find God mercifull to him he will find David's prayer fulfilled Psal 59. 5. Be not mercifull to any wicked transgressour This bread is for children not for dogs yet how difficultly can we keep such off from applying this mercy to themselves Those are commonly most confident of it to whom it doth not belong therefore beastly men are barred off from coming near this Mount This pearl is kept from Swine When we meet with broken contrite hearts here we display the mercy of God with all our might To such we say Gods mercies are infinitely more than their sinnes That although they had the sinnes of all the men in the world yet they were but as a drop to the Sun-beams of his mercy which will quickly dry them up To such we say God doth as easily pardon great sinnes as little as the Sun doth enlighten one place with as much ease as another To such we say That it 's their duty to hope in Gods mercy that they cannot dishonour God more than by looking upon him as one who is hardly brought to remit offences That it is Gods will we should come to this fountain and drink abundantly of it We tell them that they cannot think so much of sinne to condemn them as they may of the multitude of Gods mercies to save them To such we say That when they have thought all they can yet there is more in Gods mercy than they can go to the bottom of God is said to forget sinnes but he cannot forget his property of mercy Thus you see that mercy is so to be held out as the cloud was in the wilderness it was light to the people of Israel to guide them but darkness to the Egyptian The Doctrine of mercy is indeed matter of terrour to every presumptuous sinner for he hath nothing to do with it but it is full of beauty and reviving to the wounded heart Hence the whole drift of the Scripture is to represent this grace and mercy of God to an humbled sinner This is the main scope of it For who could or dare think of God any otherwise but a consuming fire till the Scripture hath revealed him otherwise And indeed the Parable of a Shepherd fetching home his lost sheep is comfortable yet Christ exceedeth that Shepherd for he sought for his sheep as goods that he needed that he wanted but Christ doth for us whom he doth not want he is well enough without us Again that also is a refreshing Parable of the Father entertaining so mercifully his prodigal Sonne but yet Christ exceedeth that Father also for there the Sonne came first and humbled himself and intreated for favour but God he doth first seek us out by his mercy We do not choose him but he chooseth us Though Vorstius doth distinguish of special grace to believers calling one ordinary which God vouchsafeth to those who seek him in the use of means and another extraordinary which God he saith sometimes but rarely vouchsafeth and that is while men never think of God yea in wayes of opposition to God as the Gentiles and Paul yet indeed we may say of all that are converted That God thinketh of them before they think of God It is he that prevents them his grace finds them out and prepareth them for mercy Again Christ compareth himself to the Physician but what Physician healeth as he doth Other Physicians they make their Patients sick and bleed to help them to health but Christ he himself is wounded and his bloud is shed for to save us All this is to shew That we cannot imbolden and incourage the sincere converts enough but the more hopefull and confident thoughts he hath of Gods mercy the more pleasing it is to God Secondly We must not judge of Gods mercy without Scripture-light and guidance for if we do we sholl thereby encourage our selves in wicked wayes and yet say God is mercifull And truly this is the poyson that many suck down they judge of Gods mercy according to their own humane pity and compassion and thereupon never consider his Justice his Wisdome his Holiness as well as Mercy So that this is diligently to be considered that we must not apprehend of God as full of mercy and comfort any otherwayes than the Scripture doth manifest him and that will be salt to season you against the abuse of Gods mercy so as to turn his grace into wantonnesse How many are there undo themselves for want of a Scripture consideration of Gods mercy both Doctrinally and
Practically As In the first place What is the reason that some have imbraced that old and unsavoury Doctrine of Origen That all both men and Devils after so many years in hell shall be released from those torments Why is this But because these misericordists conceive of Gods mercy without Scripture-grounds They think it doth not stand with the pity and compassion of God to let so many thousands of his creatures lie roaring in hell and he never deliver them But is not this against Scripture which calls it everlasting fire and that there shall never be any coming out of that prison That of their torments there shall be no end Again in the second place There are those that do with open mouth cry down the Calvinists as blasphemous against Gods mercy and making God to be more unmercifull and cruel then any Tyrant that ever lived Because say they such do hold God did by absolute and irrespective fatal Decrees appoint the greater part of mankind to sinne and then for their sinne to damne them As Tiberius desiroes to put a vestal Virgin to death caused her violently to be defloured and then because she was defloured he put her to death But First Here is a false and an odious representation of the Calvinists Doctrine and if their opinion as they truly state it out of the Scripture be thought to be against the nature of Gods mercy it 's because they do not consider Gods supream dominion his Justice and Holiness as well as his Mercy But that the Calvinists do not any wayes diminish the gracious and mercifull Nature of God by their opinions in the Doctrine of Election efficacious Conversion c. will easily appear to those that are candid and ingenuous I suppose Election to be an Act of mercy relating to our misery in Adam's fall though the learned Doctor Twiss disputeth much against it Lib. 1. contra Armin. digr 9. For 1. They hold That there is no man is damned but for his sinne Their destruction is of themselves Neither do they say That God by any Decree compelled Adam to sinne at first but Adam sinned as voluntarily and as freely as if God had made no permissive Decree about his fall It is true indeed we say That God hath predetermining Decrees efficacious about what is good permissive about what is evil but yet we say These Decrees do not alter the nature of second causes but according to the nature of them so is Gods providence attempered thereunto Therefore we acknowledge that of Austin's Malevola est illa misericordia quae facit esse miserum ut misereatur That is cruel mercy which makes miserable that it may shew mercy Adam did voluntarily sin so that God was not to be blamed Neither do we call those Decrees of God Absolute and Irrespective as if hereby all means were excluded from accomplishing the end we are elected to When God elects a man to salvation we say in this Election is comprehended holiness as the way to happiness And therefore to impose such an Irrespective Decree upon the Calvinists as if their meaning was God had decreed to save some men whether wicked or not wicked That it was all one whether prophane or godly This is an horrible calumny It is true we say it 's Absolute because God did not look to any thing in us as a cause or a merit antecedently to his Election yet we say God elects to faith and holiness as well as to salvation Therefore we do not injure the mercifull Nature of God but they do his holy just and wise Nature yea they diminish his grace and mercy in our Election and attributing too much to man For whereas the Apostle saith Rom. 9. It is not of him that willeth or runneth but of God that sheweth mercy They will make it to be as well of him that runneth as of God that sheweth mercy And though in words they seem to give the priority to Gods grace and mercy yet in reality they do not If then that of Austin be true Gratia non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo then all those are enemies to the grace and mercy of God who take in the least measure from it 3. We do not enervate the mercy of God in holding the Election of some onely to eternal life because God might justly if he had pleased damned all and none could have accused him for want of mercy For hath not God bound up in chains of darkness all the apostate Angels Are not every one of them condemned to eternal torments Yet they are more noble and excellent creatures than man is Oh then the mercy of God that any is saved seeing that all might justly be damned Lastly Not to enlarge on this God is mercifull in this Absolute Election duly explained because hereby a very great number are sure to be saved God by this Decree of his will so work in time that they shall be called justified and at last glorified for Election will obtain Now doth not this Doctrine more commend the mercy of God than the Arminians Conditional Decrees Notwithstanding which no man in the world may be saved For notwithstanding Gods Decrees and Will to save all men notwithstanding Christs dying for all men yet they acknowledge it possible not any one man be saved For God they say leaveth a man to the good use of his Free-will he doth not alter or change by his efficacious and wonderfull grace any mans heart and if God do no more who then can be saved They cannot instance in one Heathen that ever yet used his naturals well thereby to partake of supernaturals So that if all be left to man and God should not shew mercy no one man would be saved Therefore our Doctrine is a mercifull one and theirs is cruel In the third general place The Socinians they blame all the Orthodox as evacuating the mercy of God because we say that the Justice of God being satisfied through the bloud of Christ as a ransome we thereby obtain remission of sinnes Now they say how absurd and contradictory is this God is satisfied by a just paiment to pardon sinne and yet it 's the meer mercy of God to forgive it But to this we answer That though the pardon of sinne be of Justice to Christ yet it is wholly of mercy to us It is not any thing we could do that might procure pardon if we could merit or satisfie the Justice of God by the works we do then indeed it would not be of grace and mercy to us but this Justice is only between Christ and the Father So that it 's wholly of mercy to us both in respect that he hath found out a Saviour for us as also in applying the benefits of Christs death For though Christ become into the world yet how many eternally perish It is therefore unspeakable mercy to thee that thy sins are pardoned that thou art converted and so many
That spiritual comfort comes alone from God is plain because the Spirit of God is called the Comforter We cannot have one drop of heavenly consolation till Gods Spirit infuse it into us If the children of God could have comfort when they will would they walk so disconsolately and cry out of their dark troubled souls as they do but then even earthly comfort to take delight in the lawfull contentments God doth allow us to take delight and joy in these corporal mercies this is also from God Eccles 2. 24 26. Eccles 3. 13. Eccles 5. 18. You see the Wiseman affirmeth it often That a man cannot take any joy or delight even in those lawfull things unless it be given him of God All comfort then of all sorts ariseth from him But let us consider the way or manner of Gods comforting For as it is a great and profitable Question to examine How God doth convert and sanctifie so also how he doth comfort And First You must lay this foundation That God doth comfort two wayes either immediately when he doth by himself work upon the soul Or mediately when he comforteth by such means as he hath appointed thereunto Let us then in the next place consider What are those immediate workings of God upon the soul whereby he maketh the heart joyfull For David Psal 4. saith God had put more joy into his heart then any man can have in the abundance of all temporal mercies And First Therefore God doth comfort by illuminating and opening the understanding and opening the understanding to know and see the grounds and reasons of comfort And certainly this is of great conducement to have the heart comforted when the understanding is rightly convinced of the grounds of comfort For as the dark night is apt to beget fears and terrours so darkness in the understanding is a great cause of all that terrour and disconsolateness which Gods own children may many times lie under So that as God in conversion and humiliation for sinne begins with conviction upon the heart so also in consolation and comfort The great impediment to a godly mans comfort is want of spiritual knowledge and conviction about the causes of comfort As it was with Hagar in the wilderness she sate weeping for her child and gave over all as desperate till God opened her eyes and made her see a fountain Thus the broken heart judgeth it self in a wilderness destitute of all comfort seeth nothing but matter of despair and damnation till God enlighten the understanding about comfortgrounds in the Gospel As for example when the Spirit of God enlightens us to receive comfort it giveth us the eye salve 1. To look upon Christ revealed in the Gospel as the full cause and ground of all our comfort as well as on sinne Generally the people of God in the first workings of the soul look upon nothing but their sins behold nothing but sinne but God will not let them alone in this agony he enlightens them further that they shall see Christ as well as sinne the Gospel as well as the Law he giveth them eyes to behold the brazen Serpent when stung Hence the Spirit of God John 16. 9 10. doth not only convince of sinne but of righteousness also The Devil he indeed moveth in those troubled waters of thy soul and would keep thee off from Christ as the Disciples did the blind man but the Spirit of God will not leave the soul in these wounds in these straits but doth carry him up from the mount of cursing to the mount of blessing And certainly the wise men could not more rejoyce to see the starre than the godly heart doth to behold Christ after the storms and tempests in his soul Hence the Apostle Gal. 1. calleth it The revealing of the Sonne in him This then we are inabled to do by God not only to know sinne in the terrour and sting of it but also Christ in his fulness and excellency How was Paul affected with this 2 Cor. 2. 1. I desire to know nothing but Christ crucified This therefore is a special work of God to make us look with both eyes to make thee see sinne as well as Christ and Christ as well as sin 2. As God doth convince the soul of Christ what a full and glorious Saviour he is so also in the second place Of our duty to receive him and to lay hold on him And this is a further step to comfort when God doth so farre open the eyes as to see not only a full and sufficient Christ but also that it 's a duty in particular to apply this Christ and to rest upon him for comfort and salvation This is a further discovery still Paul said Gal. 2. Who gave himself for me and loved me And Thomas said My God and my Lord. It is one of the blessed truths discovered in the Reformation out of Popery That it is not our duty to believe in the general onely that Christ is a Saviour but to rest on him also for the pardon of my sinnes That this is the Faith that justifieth That this is most acceptable and precious unto God That unbelief not only in the general but as it faileth in this particular in not applying in not appropriating Christ to the soul is that which will damn a man Oh then what blessed and comfortable light is that which God bringeth into the soul when he shall make thee see that though a sinner though burdened though unworthy yet it 's thy duty to go to Christ to be eased That he commands thee with that woman not only to touch the hem of his garments but to lay hold on Christ himself This particular faith is that which the soul is hardly convinced of Though others may draw nigh to Christ yet may I But he cometh at last to be perswaded of this truth 3. God comforts by enlightning the mind that a comfortable joyfull life arising from peace with God is a most acceptable thing to God that it brings honour and glory to God and that on the other side to walk heavily and in a dejected manner is to dishonour and reproach God That God doth not only look to our gracious walking but also to our comfortable walking and that we demonstrate the Kingdom of Heaven to be begun in us in joy as well as in mortification Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is righteousnesse and joy in the holy Ghost You see Joy as well as Righteousnesse The children of God they are not quickly perswaded of this they think such as they are may not walk comfortably It 's not for them to rejoyce but at last they come to see that they were sinfully kept up by slavish fears and servile dejections that the Kingdome of God requireth Consolation as well as Sanctification Thus you see the first general way how God comforteth viz. by enlightning the mind Secondly and principally God comforteth By preparing and fashioning the heart by making it
like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me So thou shalt call to others to come and see the wonderfull mercies which God hath vouchsafed unto thee But to pour this oyl into the wounds of those that are afflicted consider First That the Lord Christ in all his dispensations still accommodateth himself to the capacity of his people He regards what they can bear like the wise Physician doth not give the strongest Physick that may be to expell the disease but looketh to the infirmity of his Patient We see Christ did this in the promulgation of the truths of the Gospel if that Sunne of righteousnesse had appeared at first in his noon-day light weak eyes would have been offended thereat he did not injoyn them those high observances of fasting c. at first To which purpose also Luk. 5. 27. he useth that notable similitude how no man putteth new wine into old bottles but the bottles break There is regard to be had to the Auditours Paul said 1 Gor. 3. 1. I could not speak unto you as spiritual but as carnal And indeed all may observe that Christ did communicate the knowledge of divine things to the Disciples by degrees I have many things to say unto you Joh. 16. 12. but you cannot bear them now As the Nurse cheweth her meat for the Infant doth not give it whole to him thus did Christ as a Doctor to his Auditours still accommodating himself according to the receptivity of the subject In like manner thus also God doth in laying afflictions upon us He takes notice how frail thou art if this suffering should be brought upon thee it would bruise thee to pieces or if it lay longer on thee it would make thee put out thy hand to wickednesse and therefore he taketh it off in due time If the fourth day would consume thee the third day thou shalt be freed from it The Apostle speaketh fully to this 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able Above your strength that is not our own natural strength for there is not the least temptation the least affliction but if left to our selves we should fall under it The voice of a maid to Peter before ever he came into any danger made him deny Christ with cursings and swearings Therefore he meaneth the strength which Christ will furnish us with So that the sense is as any temptation cometh so your strength also is supplyed And indeed as long as Christ makes us stand upright so long the affliction cannot hurt us but when we bow and yeild to carnal reasonings then we miscarry As a Pillar as long as it stands firm and upright will bear any weight but when it begins to bow or grow crooked and sloping then it presently falleth We have then here a text full of comfort It is not every affliction every suffering thou maist be exercised with but that for which God hath furnished and prepared thee with strength for We have a notable explication of this Isa 20. 28. where under a parabolical similitude of the divers waies of the Husbandman to thresh out his Corn the lesser grain not requiring such weight as the other is signified that God maketh a difference in our afflictions some are more knotty and difficult then others and therefore they need more strong Physick to free them from their disease The cart wheel is not turned about upon the cummin a rod will serve to beat them out A word will do more to some then a blow to others Secondly God in his dispensations doth not only keep to an equality but he doth superabound his mercy doth overflow The Lord alwaies giveth full heaped measure overflowing In all things Christ hath an overplus There cannot be an hyperbole in his goodnesse to us As Luther said Celum gehenna non patiuntur hyperbolen So neither do the riches and grace of God in Christ For if first we confider Christ comparatively with Adam the one is the original of condemnation the other of justification There we shall see that Christ is not only equal to Adam but exceedeth him transcendeth him You may read Rom. 5. 15. where the Apostle making a Divine collation between Adam and Christ as two heads when he had instanced in Adam how powerfull he was to conveigh sinne and condemnation to all then on the contrary he instanceth in Christ and there he makes an how much more still on Christs side If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God through Christ hath abounded to many And Vers 17. If by one death reigned upon many much more they which receive abundance of grace shall reign in life Here you see that though sinne by Adam be very terrible and dreadfull in it self yet if compared with Christ it is but as the Nations to God like a drop or the small dust in the ballance Therefore Christ thought it not enough to remove the evil Adam brought upon us but to do it abundantly with a how much more Thus also if we speak of the grace of Christ in pardoning of sinne we do not meet with grace just equall and no more to remove the guilt of it but it doth overflow Even as the light of the Sunne is not only enough to inlighten thy eyes but for all the world besides Rom. 5. 20. Where sinne abounded grace hath much more abounded Hence the Prophet compareth Gods mercy in pardon of sinne to the Heavens comparatively with the earth which is but as a punctum to it thus are all our sinnes to the grace of God So likewise the righteousnesse of Christ is not a garment too narrow for us or that will just serve to cover our nakednesse and no more but it is an infinite righteousnesse as it is in Christ though the application of it to us be according to our necessity Thus Christ calleth to the Church Cant. 5. I. to drink of his wine abundantly Hence it 's called riches of grace and unspeakable riches of grace And Christ said He came that his people mght have life and that they might have it more abundantly Thus the power of God the favour of God is in abundance Heaven and salvation is in abundance As Christ is our overflowing fountain in all other things so in this of consolation likewise Hence some have received so much comfort from God that they have not been able to bear it They have said They had enough more would even overwhelm For there are those who dyed by joy especially when suddain as well as by grief In the next place let us consider the grounds Why God is thus mercifull that he not just only proportions his comforts to our sufferings but maketh them to exceed And First Because God in these administrations doth chiefly regard his own honour and greatnesse not our deserts Now because God is a great God therefore his mercy is great
mercy his comforts are great comforts Though thou art not worthy to have such yet it beseemeth Gods glory and greatnesse to give such Wonder not then at the supports and comforts which Gods people may have even in the Whales belly where there seemeth to be no hope For consider who it is that giveth them from what fountain they flow even the Lord Christ the fountain of all fulnesse for his people and then you will say Our cruce is too little to receive all the oyl he could create for us So that the afflicted soul hath this encouragement in prayer Lord I ask no more then a great God is able to give though I am unworthy to receive it yet thou art worthy to be exalted as the great God who can as easily give great comforts as little comforts God can as easily give an Ocean as a drop Secondly It belongs to the faithfulnesse of God in his Promises to make comforts abound where sufferings For by what reason God out of his faithfulnesse will give any support at all by the same reason he will double and treble his consolations as need requireth It is a rule among the Schooles Sicutse habet simpliciter ad simpliciter ita magis ad magis maximum ad maximum Now then as God hath promised and ingaged to support under sufferings so also as these do abound his comforts must abound otherwise his people would be overcome by their temptations which is against his Promise For as such a degree of heat will not warm cold water unlesse it be made more intense so neither will comfort simply unlesse made more and increased serve against grievous afflictions An ordinary boat would not be like the Ark when that deluge of waters did overflow This support this joy thou hast now would not serve if God should exercise thee with greater tryals The widows food of Sarepta might have served her in an ordinary way but when the famine came and no supply could be had then her stock would quickly be spent Therefore urge God and say Lord if thou bringest me in a wildernesse thou wilt provide Manna for me by what reason thou givest me any comfort give me more now that my sufferings are more Thirdly If God should not increase the strength and comforts of his people according to the increase of their afflictions then he who is the fountain of all pity and wisdom should be exceeded by man who is but a cistern receiving from this fountain For such is the care and compassion of a man to his beast that he will say no more burdens on it then it can bear and when he puts it to more labour he giveth it more meat to strengthen it Now shall man do thus to his beast and not God to his Children So the Artificer the Refiner of gold when he throweth his gold into the fire he lets it be no longer then the drosse is purged away it shall not stay a moment longer then will serve for the preparing it to excellent use And shall not the great God of Heaven use such wisedom to his people when in afflictions which are called their fire to try them Lastly If God should not give proportionable comfort in sufferings his glorious end would not be obtained in bringing these upon us For these are to demonstrate and draw out our graces That we may be more then conquerours Rom. 8. And That we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 1 Cor. 10. more then bear It is not enough meerly to conquer afflictions but we are more then conquerours For there is no conquerour but hath some losse but the Children of God lose nothing for they are advantaged every way both here and hereafter So that as their sufferings are an effect of their Predestination thus also their support and consolation floweth from the same fountain Shall God as the Authour of grace be more deficient in his works then as he is the Authour of nature If then in the course of nature we live and move and have our being yea every thing hath a natural delight and facility to its works of nature shall not the godly in the exercises of grace which are most put forth in the times of trouble God will provide that all thy sufferings shall not be in vain But you may say Have the people of God in their sufferings alwaies such overflowings of comfort Are they not many times afflicted without and destitute within We have answered this heretofore informing that Job yea Christ himself had sufferings without and sufferings within Their afflictions did abound but their joy did not We distinguished and explicated that case only we shall now give some Reasons why God at least for a time may leave a suffering people without consolation because then they were omitted As First God in thy troubles may deny thee comfort to teach thee that they are his gift This cooling wind bloweth when he pleaseth We might think that comfort was our desert that God could not be just to leave us without it when it is for his cause we are troubled but God will let thee know that when thou hast suffered to the utmost thou hast but done thy duty God is not beholding to thee And therefore if he giveth thee these cordials know it 's of his mercy thou hast not merited them And when thou hast them receive them thankfully Secondly Doth God deny thee thy desired comforts consider whether thy sinnes have not deserved it For although thou sufferest for him yet it may be much unbelief much impatience much frowardnesse hath risen in thy heart now these misty foggs will obscure the glorious beames of his favour God is ready with his comfort but thou art indisposed Thy heart is like an untuned Instrument and so there cannot be any melodious sound Thirdly If thou hast no comfort it may be God delayeth and puts off that so they may be the more welcome when they do come Thus God doth not answer prayers presently that when the mercy doth come it may be the more esteemed Christ delayed to raise Lazarus that when he was restored to life the mercy might be acknowdged the greater When Paul and his passangers for a great while had not seen the Sun this made them rejoyce the more when they did behold it Fourthly Doth God deny thee comfort it may be it is to try whether thy obedience be pure Whether thou wilt serve him though he giveth thee no wages Comfort is for our refreshment it is to encourage us We like Children cannot live without these breasts now if denyed these though we have a stone for bread yet thou wilt not give over suffering for Christ then thou shewest thy self upright indeed For we are apt to look to consolations more then duty to regard comfort more then obedience Now when thou canst say O Lord I will not repine I will not be weary of righteousnesse or deny the Name of
than Christ Oh say I find my heart so inordinate so glewed to these dear relations I have I find them so cleaving to my heart that much prayer faith and meditation cannot cast them out What a shame is this I look upon the Martyrs I see wives children estates goods were nothing Christ was all Heaven was all Oh how unworthy am I to be compared with such glorious servants of Christ I have not the Martyrdom of the heart and how then can I endure that of the body SERM. LII How Salvation is promoted and advanced by our Sufferings for Christ 2 COR. 1. 6. Which is effectual in enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer WE are now come to the third particular in this Text which is the amplification of the end specified of the Apostles sufferings especially the latter viz. Salvation which Salvation is effectual Wherein we may take notice 1. What is attributed to Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The manner how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in enduring with the object of the same sufferings We also suffer I shall at this time only consider the Attribute or what is predicated of our Salvation it is effectual The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contested about Some especially Estius is very industrious to prove that it should be rendred passively Thus which Salvation is wrought And it is true indeed among prophane Authors the word is used passively but in the New Testament in some places it must needs be rendred actively For whereas the word is used four times in the New Testament in all which places we translate it actively yet he contends for the passive sense as Gal. 5. 6. Faith which worketh by love he will have it which is wrought by love Whereas Vasquez granteth it may be rendred actively So Jam. 15. 16. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate The effectual prayer he would have the prayer wherein the Spirit of God doth so powerfully move us that we are acted rather than act Even as afterwards in the Church those who were possessed by the Devil were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But though in this place he may argue something probably yet in the two other places Ephes 3. 20. According to the power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which worketh in us Col. 1. 29. Striving according to his working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which worketh in me mightily Here he cannot with any colour understand it passively It is true there is another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the active sense used so 1 Cor. 16. 9. Heb. 4. 15. but that doth not hinder but that this in the middle voice may be rendred actively Certainly though Greek Authours do not yet the Apostle useth the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actively as 2 Thess 2. 13. The Mystry of iniquity worketh For whereas the same Estius would have it passively It is wrought or is in agitation that is no wayes probable for 1 Thess 2. 13. the word of God is there said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It effectually worketh in them that believe So also the word is used actively 2 Cor 4. 12. and Rom. 7. 5. It is not then necessary that the word should be used passively Hence Erasmus and our Translators render it actively it is effectual yet I rather joyn with those that think it more genuine to understand it passively in this place Which salvation is wrought by patience in afflictions And this is consonant to other Texts of which I shall instance in one afterwards Certainly Chrysostome aggravateth the passive signification he did not say saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the active sense if it be retained cometh to the same purpose with the passive For the Apostle contends that by afflictions for Christs sake our salvation is advanced Salvation puts forth it self and thereby is more exalted by these sufferings which certainly must be of unspeakable comfort to think that by these I am the more prepared for Heaven and my glory will the more increase Only you must remember alwayes that these sufferings have no causality or meritoriousnesse in them it is onely the gift and grace of God hereby to increase our blessednesse for after all our sufferings we are unprofitable servants and might be thrown into hell Observe That the salvation of believers is promoted and advanced by their sufferings for Christ Let none with Simon the Cyrenean be compelled to bear Christs crosse let them not grudge and repine thinking they suffer more than Christ will ever make them amends for that they are losers by him for no lesse than eternal salvation is exalted hereby thou hast gold and precious stones for parting with this earth The Text I promised to confirm this truth and is a parallel with mine is 2 Cor. 4. 17. where the Apostle sheweth the unspeakable benefit that we have by our afflictions for God Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more and eternal weight of glory It is but a light affliction light in comparison of hell torments Are thy sufferings like to the sufferings of the damned in hell yet thou hast deserved them And then light in comparison of the weight of glory There is no proportion between that everlasting blessednesse and thy afflictions If thou shouldst for millions of years endure such torments as the Martyrs did yet that was not equivalent to one hours being in Heaven Again he saith It is but for a moment All thy afflictions are not eternal afflictions Thou shalt not for ever and ever be thus in a suffering condition compare it with eternity It is but a moment Now these afflictions thus diminished by him do yet work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory Oh the goodnesse of God not the merit of man that blesseth such contemptible things with an everlasting reward It is true the Papists do most arrogantly from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inferre that afflictions have a causal and meritorious influence upon our salvation that we are to abhorre such thoughts as that we should have Heaven Per modum eleemosynae but coronae Not by way of alms but by way of a crown for our striving and conquering But let men presumptuously dispute this in their Books when they are to give up an account to God and to stand before his barre they will then plead mercy and not justice but the Word doth not signifie causality onely that order God hath appointed that by these sufferings we shall come to glory And indeed to inter any causality or merit from that Word would be plainly to derogate from the Apostles intention which is to shew the great disproportion that is between these light afflictions and that eternal glory there is no equality between them whereas if they had a meritorious causality there must be a condign proportion between them But let us pursue this comfortable Doctrine
the person of a regenerate man because he cals himself carnall and yet this Authour though of the same judgemen with them will by a naturall man understand a babe in Christ or a weak Christian The Apostle I say making this distinction between these two saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned Now there must be alwayes some proportion between the faculty and the object The eye cannot see musick nor the eare heare colours nor doth a Beast understand reason but then the spirituall man having received the Spirit of God he judgeth all things and such have the mind of Christ There is then that Heavenly and holy wisedome which if we receive from above if we plow with this Heifer we are able more exactly and certainly to judge of Gods proceedings then otherwise we could do for as God giveth it to his people to understand the mysteries of the Gospell when they are hid from other mens eyes so to the godly it is impart given to understand the wayes and workes of the Lord that thereby they may prevent those delusions or deceits which otherwise they are lyable unto Whereupon it is that because in this particular as well as in other we know but in part we have heavenly wisedome but in part Therefore it is that we do so often miscarry As in all civill Governement there are arcana imperii secrets of state which only the wise favorite is admitted unto the single and credulous Subject he believeth the pretences and appearances of things Thus God also though in a wise and just manner hath his secrets in governing of his Church he proceedeth in such methods that to the judgement of flesh and blood do appeare very improbable and unlikely ever to produce any blessed end and hence it is that the carnall wise men of the world are so often taken in their own craft and wherein they deale not only proudly but wisely God is above them whereas if they had understood the method of Gods proceedings they would not have been found so foolishly to fight against God but the godly have Scripture wisedome and prudence and therefore are not wholely in the dark but while they follow them are kept from those bogs and pits which others are very ready to fall into we may instance in some of those Divine Maximes of state As 1. The understanding of this truth will prevent much false judgment viz. When we consider that God delights to carry on the great things of his Church in a contrary way to humane thoughts and expectations let us instance in that main foundation of all our comfort and duty Christ Crucified with the benefits and effects flowing from him Was not this the master piece of Gods wisedome and power and mercy yet how contrary and unsuitable to the judgement of flesh and blood for God to be made Man and Man not in a glorious externall way as the great Potentates of the world but in a most abject and ignominious way and then by such an accursed and reproachfull death to procure our pardon of sinne and acceptation with God it hath so much absurdity in it to flesh and bloud that to the Jewes it was a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness Non pudet quia pudendum omnino credibile quia prorsus impossibile What the thoughts of men were about Christ while working out our redemption appeareth Isa 13. 2 3 4. There is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men we did esteem him smitten of God So that generally all the Nations of the Jewes were deceived about a Messiah yea the Disciples themselves were full of prejudices in this Point This then is Gods way to do the great things of his Church in a super-humane way So that even then when the things themselves are not super-naturall yet the manner of accomplishing them is wholely above nature What therefore God speaketh in one case to his people about the pardon of sinne Isa 55. 8 9. is true in all the rest of Gods administrations My thoughts are not as your thoughts For as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my wayes higher then yours By this it is plain that a Dwarfe is as able to reach to the Heavens as we are to comprehend Gods wayes so that whatsoever God doth for thee whether body or soul it is a mystery All will be wonderfull and marvelous in thy eyes As he said that was not worthy the name of eloquence which did not beget admiration in the Hearers So the Lord accounteth of nothing as beseeming his Majesty which may not put the soul in admiration possess thy soul with this principle and thou wilt not be often in thy complaints I looked for this and hoped for that but God hath taken away that I never dreamed off 2. Another Rule is That when God hath promised to do any thing for his people yet he doth for the most part seem to go contrary to it especially at first as when Abraham was promised a great Posterity David a Kingdome they met at first with nothing but what did make against these so that his providence did seem to gainsay his promise Now if this be not known how quickly will the godly be deceived The world was a great Chaos and confusion before it was made so glorious as now it is 3. This will prevent mistake also when we consider That God doth usually hide himselfe and deny help till every thing be desperate and then he cometh to help When the poore creple that lay so many years and could not be put into the Poole said I have no help then Christ healed him Christ did not provide Wine at the Marriage Feast till all was spent Moses cometh when the â—aske of brick is doubled in the Mount the Lord will be seen Would not this truth alone deliver thee from many conclusions as if God had forsaken thee and would be mercifull no more What if Christ do with thee as that Woman of Canaan to put thee off to call thee Dog Is it not to provoke thy faith and importunity more 4. The Heavenly Artist remembers this Rule also That God will sometimes alter his ordinary wayes do things because of his soveraignty and prerogative What Disputes and different thoughts had Job and his friends about Gods dealing with him in his particular wherein both Job and his friends were at a loss only Job spake more rightly then they Yet God discovereth his greatness and Najesty to Job thereby informing of him that he did not sufficiently consider his own weakenesse and Gods infinite greatness 5. And lastly God delights to put his people upon a life of faith and that in temporall and spirituall mercies The just shall live by his faith This faith doth exalt God and debase man now saith and sense they are opposite one flyeth up to Heaven the other crawleth on the ground and therefore
life You may see this practised by the Church of Israel when she had smarted for her carnall confidence and dependance on outward helps so as to neglect God see in what an humble gracious manner she maketh her confession to God Hos 14. 3. Asshur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the workes of our hands ye are our gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Oh blessed and self-emptyed frame here the Church repenting and turning unto God of all the sinnes which she was guilty of doth instance in her carnall confidence as that which had most provoked God and therefore she doth renounce and disavow all civill confidence and trusting Asshur shall not save us c. And 2. All religious confidence They will no more make their applications to their gods and then here is the reason because in thee the fatherless finds mercy By this proclaiming that they looked upon themselves as so many poore fatherless Children that had not wherewith to help themselves If then an whole Nation do thus how much more ought every particular Christian though great though rich yet respectively to God to look upon himself even as that Infant the Prophet speaketh of New borne and exposed to danger and no wayes able to succor it selfe Thus he that would trust in God must begin here and lay his foundation thus low even as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 5. 5. She that is a widdow indeed and desolate trusteth in God We cannot come to rest upon God till we look upon our selves as desolate and destitute of all humane succour The Bohemians when they lost their famous Captain Zisca called themselves Orphanes Thus when our helps our outward supports are removed then we are driven to look up unto God and not before The Heathens had a custome when they went into their Temples to pray that none would go in with a Sword or money in their Purse which was to denote that they did not put confidence either in strength or wealth but did rest upon their gods for relief only We then that are Christians who have the Word of God to be a guide unto us ought to have low thoughts of our selves and of all Creatures accounting of them as nothing respectively unto God 2. To trust in God is required in the next place a practicall Meditation concerning the greatness and goodness of God how infinitely able he is and how willing to help his people It is the not attending to this but the looking unto the power and strength of second causes that maketh us so full of distrust in God Is it not then for this reason that the Scripture doth so often delight to represent the greatness and majesty of God That all the Nations are but as a drop to him that they are less then nothing that he created the world out of nothing All this is to raise up the heart that it should have high and hopefull thoughts about God This maketh David attribute so many metaphoricall titles to God that he is his strength his rock his fortresse and strong tower Did we meditate upon these things did we with Abraham not consider the dead wombe but the power of God with what dependence on God and quietness of mind should we pass our lives But now we are tossed up and down with many waves we are like Noah's Raven sent out of the Ark we know not where to set our feet and all is because we do not settle on God omnis motus fit super immobili The soul cannot move unless it have a stedfast and immoveable foundation to stand upon and that is not the Creature but God only Thus David Psal 16. 8. I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved and therefore Verse 2. expressing this act of trusting in God he saith thou art my Lord Adonai The word signifieth that which is the basis the foundation that keepeth up all things Oh then let nothing be great in thy thoughts but God Grotius Prologom in Epist ad Rom. would make that faith which the Apostle doth so much commend in his Epistle to the Romanes to be nothing but an high and eminent esteem of Gods power c. So that faith in this respect and not the obedience of Christ as apprehended by faith is by him that imputed righteousness Paul doth so much instance in But he is deceived therein and layeth this as a foundation for his other errors about Justification Though we do easily grant that in faith there is a most raised and elevated apprehension about the majesty and power of God 3. To trust in God there is required a peculiar and particular appropriation of God to our soules as our God as our Father to say as Thomas to Christ my God and my Lord. Thus David in the forementioned Psal 16. 2. when he had pressed God with this Argument to preserve him because he trusted in him he declareth what his trusting is Oh my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord. Thus we are particularly to apply and to say Thou art my Father thou art my God And this is the reason why the people of God are so full of distrust of despondent and dejecting feares They cannot say Oh my soul thou hast said to God thou art my Lord yea we look upon him as a judge that will condemne 4. To trust in God there is required some experimentall knowledge of God to be acquainted with his former works of mercy and deliverance to them for when we have both Gods promise and his providence seconding it this maketh us to have more vigorous trusting in God as David argued God had delivered him from the Bear and Lion and therefore would from the Philistin Thus the Apostle at the 10. Verse from the present deliverance doth argue that he trusteth he will deliver also Thus Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will trust in thee It is for want of experience and practicall knowledge about God that maketh us so full of diffidence 5. To trust in God there is required a faithfull and diligent use of all those meanes that God hath required and by this it is fully distinguished from presumption which many take to be in their trusting in God for when you hear such who live impenitently in evill and ungodly wayes yet say they trust in Christ with all their heart for the pardon of their sinnes they do desperately presume for if they did trust in God they would be constant in the use of those meanes God hath required 1 John 3. 3. He that hath this hope in him purifieth himselfe as God is pure It s not their trusting in God but presumption which maketh thee expect such glorious priviledges and dost not walk in the way thereunto 6. To trust in God there is required a sound judgement and right understanding
especially when we speake of spirituall mercies such as justification and reconciliation with God Aegid Coninck de arteb supernat de spe a Popish Writer maketh a threefold hope or trusting in God One he calleth Pelagian and that is when we rest upon God only because of our own merits and our own strength and this he doth reject as well he may for this is not to trust in God but in our selves A second hope he calleth Lutheran and that is when he trusteth only in the grace of God excluding all merits this also he rejects and thereby also the only hope the Scripture commends to us The third hope he cals the Catholick trusting in God and that is partly upon the grace of God and partly upon our own merits yet wrought also by the grace of God But to think of merits or to speak of merits when we come into the presence of so great and holy a God whose Law we break daily and in all our best duties faile exceedingly is to play the Pharisee and not the Publican who yet only was accepted with God The second way of trusting therefore viz. only in the grace of God excluding all our own strength is that which is approved of by the Word of God So that till we be sound in our judgement about this Point we cannot rightly trust in God In the next place a second main particular to cleare the Doctrine about this trusting is to consider the excellency of their grace that so we may thereby be the more exercised therein For 1. It is many times put for the whole worship of God because he that doth trust in God he will be sure to performe all those other duties God doth require Thus Psal 115. 9 10. when the house of Israel and Aaron are exhorted to trust in the Lord by that is meant the whole worship of God even as to fear God is sometimes also put for the whole service of God The excellency and dignity of the grace appeareth herein 2. It is therefore excellent because the Lord so delighteth to put us upon the daily practice of it Insomuch that whatsoever he doth for his people either in spirituall or temporall mercies they do obtaine it wholely by trusting What is that great way whereby we are justified before God how come we to obtain this blessed priviledge It is only by faith And what is this faith but a trusting and resting upon Christ alone So that the most noble and essentiall consideration in justifying faith is that it doth make the soul rest and depend on the Lord Jesus God would not justifie us by any other way by working by doing but by trusting which doth greatly demonstrate the acceptableness of this grace to God So also for temporall mercies that assertion twice or thrice used The just shall live by faith doth in part relate to those temporall promises which God maketh for the preservation and support of his people and now God will have these performed to such who wait on him who trust on him It is not the just shall live by love by repentance but by faith God therefore would have us wholly depend upon him for every mercy we have hence we are commanded to pray for our daily bread trust not in thy store or treasure trust not in thy labour and skill but be every day at the Throne of grace begging for every mercy thou desirest Oh but what dishonour is there to God in this respect Doth not the rich man look more to his revennues then Gods promise Doth not the Tradesman look more to his custome and his gaines then Gods power yea the labouring man is apt to trust in his health and strength as if he needed not to depend upon God all the while he hath that Sanitas pauperis est patrimonium a poore mans health is his patrimony his freehold and he is apt to make it his god to trust in What excellency then is in this grace when no mercy either spirituall or temporall can be obtained but by the exrecise thereof For the soul you must trust God and the mercies thereof for the body you must trust God and the mercies thereof And observe the deceitfullness of thy heart herein who trusteth in Christ for thy justification and salvation but art full of disquieting cares and feares about thy externall preservation and maintenance Oh foolish and unwise which is greater salvation then rayment and food and yet thou art perswaded God will do the greater but doubteth about the lesser 3. It is excellent because it doth indeare God to us and in a peculiar manner obligeth God to look to us For when the soul can say O Lord I renounce all other helps I trust not in any other support I leave all things to adhere to thee this doth in particular manner ingage God to look upon us as his own and so to defend us Thus David argueth Psal 16. 1. Preserve me O Lord for I trust in thee Psal 7. 1. In thee O Lord I put my trust save me so 1 Chron. 5. 20. it is said of the Sons of Reuben when they were in great distress yet the Hagarens were delivered into their hands because they did put their trust in God It is also attributed unto Hezekiah as a great and glorious honour to him 2 Kings 18. 5. That he trusted in the Lord God of Israel and Verse 7. The Lord was with him and he prospered Therefore the committing of our selves into Gods hands is a speciall way to secure us 4. The excellency of this grace is seen in the difficulty of it and transcendency to flesh and blood for if Aristotle could say homo was magis sensus quam intellectus more sense then understanding putting forth the acts thereof more then of reason we may say much rather he is more reason then faith The difficulty of it maketh the People of God oftner in distracting feares and carking cares then in any other sinnes David who professeth his trust in God yet how often tempted to difidence Asa a good man 2 Chron. 16. 12. is blamed that in his disease he sought not to God but to the Physicians It was lawfull for him to seek to them but because he rested wholly on them and not on God therefore is he thus taken notice of seeing then it s our duty to use meanes and not to expect that God will in a miraculous and immediate manner work all things for us Hence is the great difficulty in this matter so to use them as not to put confidence in them Alas all the Creatures all the second causes by their own power without Gods blessing could do us no good our cloathes would not warme us our food nourish us unless God command it Hence our Saviour saith Man doth not live by bread alone but by every word proceeding out of Gods mouth Matth. 4. 4. It is not then the Creatures it is not the conditions and
us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us THe Apostle having formerly discovered his humane feares and diffidence under that great trouble which came upon him in Asia doth now recollect himself and revive out of his swoonings The Sunne that was in an Eclipse doth now begin to shine forth in glorious lustre He had informed us that the end of that heavy tribulattion was That he should not trust in himself but in God And now in this verse we see this blessed effect took place in him For by the experience of Gods mercy to him at this time he is encouraged to trust in God for the future he hath doth and will deliver One favour from God is a pledge of more to come In this verse then we see Paul got above and conquering that weaknesse and imbecillity which he found in himself and acknowledging the goodnesse of God and his power to him Paul found God able to raise the dead by what he had done to him in his particular In the Text then we may take notice of 1. Paul's solemn acknowledgement of the goodness and power of God to him in delivering of him And 2. His Encouragement from thence to trust in God for the future In the former part we have his celebration of Gods goodnesse to him and this he aggravateth from the hopelesnesse and desperatenesse of his estate which he calleth a Death not a sicknesse but a death Yea Chrysostome observeth That he doth not say Who hath delivered us from such dangers but such death to shew the extremity Chrysostome reads it in the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deaths but the general Copy is otherwise Now Paul doth not onely call it death but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such death The word is used in the New Testament about three times besides in this place and it is alwayes applied to the great aggravation of a thing so as we are to admire it as if the like had never been heard of Thus Revel 16. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such an Earthquake as never had been before James Chap. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ships very great And Hebr. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great salvation then which there cannot be a greater The Apostle therefore in using this word doth intend to aggravate the goodnesse of God towards him to leave out no circumstance that may not heighten the mercy It is not enough with him to take notice of the mercy but the aggravation of his mercy and this maketh his heart seven times hotter as it were in praising of God than otherwise it would be From whence observe That the children of God do not onely acknowledge the mercy of God to them but they also consider of every circumstance that may make the mercy appear greater They will take up every crumme and the fragments as it were that Gods miraculous power may be more demonstrated They doe not content themselves with a beholding of the mercy in the bulke but they weigh every particular ingredient and so of one mercy make many mercies That as the godly in their humiliation for sinne thinke it not enough to humble themselves in the general but they endeavour to bring to minde every circumstance that may aggravate it and so make themselves more abominable and loathsome in their own eyes Thus they do also in matter of thanksgiving They doe not take the mercy in the grosse but they looke through it and about it to espie out every particular that may be like a coale of fire in their bosomes Thus we have the thankfull Psalmist Psal 136. severing every particular mercy of God to Israel by it self and then addeth For his mercy endureth for ever Sihon King of the Amorites for his mercy endureth for ever Og King of Basan for his mercy endureth for ever He reckoneth them up one and by one though he might have satisfied himself with that expression vers 24. Who hath redeemed us from all our enemies But a gracious heart dare not rob God of his glory in any one benefit that he hath from him For if he must say with Jacob He is lesse than the least of his mercies It is not for him to passe it by for every little mercy is farre above his deserts to him belongeth all the curses of the Law whatsoever is not hell and damnation cometh from the meer bounty of God But let us illustrate this truth in the particulars shewing wherein the people of God use to make their aggravation And First The children of God use to enlarge their thoughts in praises of God from the low weak and impotent condition they of themselves were in Now the more the disease is found out to be desperate and incurable the greater is the art and skill of the Physician Thus Psal 136. 23. Who remembred us in our low estate The blackest Eclipse makes the Sunnes light when recovering more glorious The lower and weaker in thy self the more is God thereby acknowledged So Psal 34. 6. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him This aggravateth the mercy of God that though a very Lazar yet God would not despise him So Psal 142. 3. When my Spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path Nothing is more ordinary then such passages in the Psalmes to aggravate the goodnesse of God towards the godly from the lownesse and the impotency they were in Oh if God had not come in at that time I had utterly perished How many low conditions have many of Gods people been in sometimes in respect of their outward sometimes in respect of their inward yet God hath delivered them from those whales bellies Your affections to praise God will be very cold and dull till you possesse your soules with this thought Oh how low was it with me Little did others know how it fared with me One step further would have cast me into utter horrour and then when I could bear no longer God supported me Many Psalmes may the chilren of God make as it were I was in such a sad temptation but God rescued me For his mercy endureth for ever I was in such an outward streight and the Lord made a way to escape For his mercy endureth for ever Thus the thoughts of thy low condition will greatly advance the help of God vouchsafed to thee Secondly The people of God doe aggravate the mercy of God not onely from the greatnesse of the danger they were in but also their sinfulnesse their unworthinesse that ever God should cast an eye of pity on them and this they doe whether in temporal or spiritual mercies And truly this is an excellent way to enlarge the heart in blessing of God when we shall consider how unworthy we are we that deserved cursing to meet with blessing See this humble frame in David 1 Chron. 17. 16. when
it had beene better if Gods help had come sooner if he had not deferred so long but this is as if the patient should take upon him to direct the Physician when is the fittest time for the administration of his medicinal helpe Fourthly The people of God aggravate their mercies By comparing them with others miseries I have health how many are in paines and exquisite torments I have sufficiency and fullnesse how many Lazar's are there that would be glad of the crummes that fall from my Table As those Lepers that were ready to be famished but unexpectedly met with full provision in the Syrian's Camps said We doe not well 2 King 7. 9. let us informe the Kings houshold For alas they were ready to eat their own children through the famine while these had all plenty In the same manner mayest thou reflect with thy self How many are there even of the deare servants of God that are naked hungry persecuted and destitute of all hope There is scarce any so afflicted or in a low condition but he may look upon others who are more miserable than he This therefore will greatly sharpen thy affections to blesse God When thou shalt compare thy mercies with others miseries especially if you doe consider it in spirituals How many thousands sit in Paganisme and know nothing of Christ How many lye roaring in hell for the same sinnes or lesse sinnes it may be that thou hast committed Thus if thou set thy self to aggravate the mercy of God from every consideration thou wilt finde the circumstances will increase upon thee as the widows oyl did and thou wilt see thou hast more cause to blesse Ood then ever thou didst apprehend at first If I say thou didst this thou wouldst no more complaine of the coldnesse and chilnesse that is upon thy heart Nothing doth so much dull the heart as resting in generals blessing God in generals Take every mercy as thou wouldst some Watch or curious worke of Art and view every piece every part or as those that hehold some admirable Image they are intentive to every part thereof to observe the beauty life and proportion thereof Oh it is this and this onely will draw out thy soul and make thee have rivers of water flowing from thee It is this that will make thee say with Elihu Job 32. 18. I am full of matter the Spirit within me constraineth me my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles Thus five words of praise coming from an heart aggravating Gods mercy are more effectual then five hundred in a formal general way SERM. LXXV Privative and preventing Mercies are to be accounted of as Positive 2 COR. 1. 10. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver IN this Text we have Paul celebrating the goodness of God to him in that extream trouble mentioned before wherein was observed First The holy thankefull temper of Paul studying to aggravate the mercy of God He leaveth out nothing unexpressed which may not make for the great exaltation of Gods goodness towards him There remaineth a second Doctrine which is That the children of God are to account of the privative and preventing mercies as much as positive Paul cals this deliverance a deliverance from such a death so great a death yet he was not actually killed he was onely in danger of it but because had not the mercy of God prevented death had surely seised on him Therefore this mercy of preventing death he doth judge to be as it were a positive deliverance from it That as we see God doth deal with his people He accepteth of a willing mind for the deed And Heb. 11. 17. Abraham is said to offer up his onely begotten sonne because it was in the immediate disposition and preparation of his heart he had done it had not God prevented it So it is here with the people of God Those mercies which keep off the dangers that are immediately issuing out upon us they take as if the mercy was it self positively done to them Divines have a saying Plures sunt gratiae privativae quà m positivae There are more privative favours of God than positive and this they apply to spiritual things And indeed if we consider how many sins God may keep thee from which others fall into how many temptations God doth preserve thee in which swallow up others we must needs acknowledge that we are no more able to reckon up these preventing mercies of God than we can count the stars or reckon up the sand upon the sea-shore That this truth may affect us and cause us more to imploy our thoughts in a thankfull way towards God concerning all that evil which might come upon us if God did not interpose Let us take notice of these particulars First That there are some mercies God doth vouchsafe to his people which do suppose evil to be actually come upon them As when Joseph was delivered out of prison Jonah out of the whales belly the Lord did not prevent which he could have done if he had pleased but suffered them to overtake those children of his Yea all the troubles which do befall the godly he could have prevented them if he had pleased He that can deliver out of them can also stop them from coming but God out of wise ends both relating to his own glory and the good of his people doth bring these exercises upon them Then on the other side There are mercies which do not suppose evil actually to come upon us but ready and prepared to fall on us if the Lord did not forbid That as we see it was with the Angel when he had his drawn sword and was ready to strike Jerusalem with the plague as well as other places the Lord did mercifully command the Angel to put up his sword Now no doubt but David did account this preventing mercy this stopping of the plague to be as great as if they had been delivered in the midst of it For in regard of the preparation to this judgement they were but as so many dead corpses So that the people of God are of too narrow and streightned a spirit when they look onely to what troubles they have been in and God hath delivered them Oh consider further how many might have fallen upon thee yea would certainly have bruised thee had not the Lord kept them off Secondly These preventing mercies do empty themselves in a two-fold chanel For they are either Temporal evils or Spiritual evils that these mercies do relate unto and thus preventing mercies do compasse us about all the day long what evil might not have fallen upon thee every moment This disease that casualty such a sudden and unexpected calamity Insomuch that thou canst not hear of any misery fallen upon any living but it also might have come upon thee Doth any sit mourning and wringing their hands crying out O ye that passe by see if
there be any afflicted with bitterness as I am And is not this thy case Is not thy house a house of mourning for dead fathers or dead husbands as well as others Is not all this from the preventing mercy of God The second chanel in which these mercies may be discovered is In spiritual things And certainly here we may cry out also That they are more than can be numbred For what sinne what temptations what terrours and troubles of heart what wounds and gashes of soul do any of the godly fall into and thou mayest not also be plunged into the same Who maketh thee to differ Why must not the branch ingraffed in insult over that which is broken off but take heed and tremble Is it not because God may break off those also Oh then with bleeding and melting hearts acknowledge and say O Lord what would have become of me if left to such a passion if forsaken in such a temptation Why is it that I have not the guilt the condemnation that others lie under Is it not because thy goodness did keep me Even as David was preserved in respect of that businesâ— of the men of Keilah he asketh of God Whether they would deliver him into Saul's hands and God telleth him they would certainly do it thereupon David will not commit himself to them It is thus often in respect of thy soul if thou go to such a place if thou art put into such a temptation if placed in such a condition or relation God knoweth that this would prove a snare to thee it would be a ruine to thee Therefore the Lord doth so order by his mercy that thou shalt not come into that condition Divines have one kind of grace that they call Gratia praeveniens which doth prevent us it cometh upon us before we have any thought any will or desire about it As God said He was found of those that sought him not And truly such preventing grace we do not only need at our first conversion but all our life long as much as our daily bread Grace must prevent our mind our will our affections otherwise some sinne some lust or other would immediately fasten upon us Let then the godly soul remember what a deep and vast ocean this is of preventing grace the bottome whereof thou canst never dive into As Paul said By the grace of God I am what I am so saith Austin he might have added By the grace of God I am not what I am not It 's the grace of God that thou art not a withered tree a barren wilderness It is the grace of God keepeth thee from Hypocrisie and from Apostasie what a sinner and evil wretch thou art not it is wholly by the grace of God Thirdly Although the godly do thus judge of preventing mercies as well as of positive mercies yet because we are apt to account of mercies by sense and feeling we have hence it is That the godly are exceedingly-forgetfull many times about preventing mercies It is often said We never prize a mercy till we want it How precious is health to a diseased man ease to a tormented man And so also we never account any evil grievous but while we feel it while it is upon our backs and thereupon we are most sensible of such mercies which do take off this burden from us Thus it is indeed because we judge of all things according to our sense but if we did let judgement work then the godly soul would be likewise greatly enlarged for the keeping of evil as well as removing of it The evil we never felt yet because ready to come upon us had not the mercy of God kept it off is affectionately taken notice of by that soul which delights to search out the works of God towards it The godly ought not be so bruitish as to be taught only by thorns or to be like the horse which must have alwayes the bit and bridle Preventing mercy is as real a mercy as a positive one God is as truly good in keeping of evil from thee as removing of it Shall God therefore lose such of his glory and honour because thou wilt judge only by sense Fourthly That therefore the children of God may know It is their duty to go further in the way of praise to God then usually they do Let them consider these ensuing rules concerning preventing mercies And 1. Perswade thy self of this That whatsoever evil thou hast deserved by thy sinnes and is not brought upon thee look upon this as a preventing mercy and be affected wit it as much as with any positive mercy And truly this very particular may be like a live coal from the Altar to warm and purifie thy heart For hast thou not deserved all the curses threatned in the Law As soon as ever as thou hast sinned may not the Law of God immediately challenge thee take thee by the throat and hale thee to hell Well if so consider this preventing mercy of God that keepeth thee from them Mayest thou not truly say remembring the deserts of thy sinne not onely the God who deliuereth from so great a death but also so great an hell and so great a damnation Were not thy heart like a clod of earth like a stone how greatly wouldst thou be affected in this particular saying It 's the Lords mercy I am not in the grave It 's the Lords mercy I am not roaring in hell for the Law curseth me I have transgressed that there is nothing keepeth off the execution of that dreadfull sentence but the meer mercy of God And therefore if thou wert dead and raised again if damned in hell and yet delivered out Would not thy mouth and heart be filled all over with blessing and praising of God Why not then when God keepeth thee out of this destruction every moment It 's observed as the demonstration of Gods great power and mercy that the waters of the sea being higher than the earth yet they are so checked and bounded by the power of God that they do not overflow the earth This is the meer preventing mercy of God Insomuch that Luther said The Inhabitants of the earth are as wonderfully preserved from destruction by the sea as the people of Israel were in their passage to Canaan when the waters stood like walls on both sides And thus it is in any mercy we enjoy if we consider what the Law threatens how that curseth what we have deserved It 's a wonder of wonders that every houre we doe not fall into hell Therefore if thou findest thy heart not affected with these preventing mercies lay this particular close to thy soul 2. Consider That whatsoever evil doth actually fall upon any other in the world and not on thee this is a preventing mercy Is another sick and not thou Is another poor not thou This is a privative mercy For what reason can there be given of thy difference from others but onely
continuing his Mercies to us as well as his conferring Mercies upon us 2 COR. 1. 10. And doth deliver THe Apostle having thankfully acknowledged the goodness of God to him in what was past he cometh to celebrate what was for the present for we see in this Verse the goodness of God extending it self to all differences of times If God should but once help us but once deliver us we should immediately fall into utter destruction Therefore the Apostle observeth that the mercies of God are chained together God doth not only begin to do good but he continueth it Hence he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth deliver Indeed Beza speaketh of the Syriack Interpreter as not reading this passage and also some Coppies and therefore addeth Fortassis hoc redundat it may be this is superfluous Chrysostome also taketh no notice of it but it being so generally received in most Copies and the Apostle nameing the past and future time it is likely he would also celebrate the goodness of God which he did injoy for the present for if the Lord did not continually deliver all our former deliverances would do us no good The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is observed by Varinus to be customarily used in Homer for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep keeping being a kind of deliverance Hesychius renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the most eminent and principall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save and hence in the Scripture Christ who is the Sauiour is called Rom. 11. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Sion shall come the deliverer Now when Paul speaketh thus in the present tense he doth deliver it supposeth that that as he was as yet in troubles as he saith We suffer even to this present hour 1 Cor. 4. 11. Paul needeth deliverance continually because he is in troubles continually though happily for the present they were not so great as those he formerly conflicted with Again In nameing the present tense he implyeth That if God did not daily keep him the same or the like decumane waves would overwhelme him But lastly With which sense I close this signifieth that it is not enough for God to vouchsafe mercies once to his people unless he continue to do so all the day long From whence observe That Gods continuing of his mercies is as necessary as his first bestowing of them If the Lord should deliver us from any evill and afterwards leave us to our own strength and wisedome to preserve our selves how inevitable would our ruine be Therefore we must turne this Text into Prayer O Lord thou who hast delivered still deliver go on and continue thy helping hand To illustrate this let us consider 1. In what particulars this word in the Text is used in the holy Scriptures for we are apt to look only to bodily deliverances to externall mercies Whereas we shall find a soul deliverance and spirituall deliverance principally spoken of in Gods word and for which Christ is called the deliverer so that the consideration of this should raise us up into spirituall and heavenly Meditations And 1. For a bodily deliverance This Paul speaketh off 2 Tim. 4. 17. I was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the mouth of the Lion a Lion and the mouth of the Lion he was in the very mouth little hope of salvation When the danger is so extreame whether he meant it particularly of Nero or whether by that he would allegorically express some eminent danger to be sure he meaneth Gods helping hand and that in bodily misery Thus also Paul 2 Tim. 3. 11 enumerating severall persecutions he concludeth but out of them all God delivered me Although therefore spirituall evils are judged by the godly the greatest evills and spirituall deliverances the greatest deliverances yet the godly being men consisting of flesh and blood they also are sensible of externall evils and thereupon do greatly need Gods mercies towards them in their outward deliverances Davids Psalmes do for the most part glorifie and praise God in respect of temporall deliverances and therefore such Psalmes have the most powerfull influence and do most affect the heart when we come to be in the same dangers and feares with him so that in all our outward deliverances we are to acknowledg God only not our own wisedome or our own power Not unto us Lord but unto thy name be all glory given 2. There is also a spirituall deliverance the Scripture mentioneth and this ought diligently to be headed by us 1. There is Christs sperituall deliverance of us 1 Thess 1. 10. in respect of the wrath and vengeance to come we are there said to wait for Jesus which deliuered us from the wrath to come What is that wrath to come even the day of judgement wherein God will be avenged upon all impenitent wicked men adjudging them to those externall torments prepared for the Devill and his Angels Oh how little do men think of the wrath to come so they may enjoy their present pleasures their present lusts and advantages they never remember what wrath is to come for all this Oh let the prophane man say to his soul in the midst of all jollities well for all this there is wrath to come put not this out of your mind day and night but to the godly the Apostle saith he hath delivered us from this wrath to come We may truly say with Agag The bitterness of death is over yea the bitterness of Hell and damnation is over Oh what an unspeakeable deliverance is this who art thou that God should deliver thee from that wrath which consumeth so many thousands how can the believing soul ever let this mercy slip out of his mind When others shall hear that dreadfull sentence depart ye cursed into everlasting fire then shall they be called to inherit everlasting glory Though now for the present for want of saith those future things are not realized to us Yet at that great day when we shall see all these terrible things transacted before our eyes Oh the thoughts of heart that then will work in us what outrages to Mountains and Hils if possible to save them from this wrath The godly are said to be already delivered from it because Christ hath purchased their deliverance and they have right thereunto by the promise of God so that they are as firmely to conclude of it as if it were already done Even as we are said to sit already in heavenly places with Christ 2. There is a spirituall deliverance from the Bower of sinne and Satan We are by nature captives and slaves unto him we are in bondage to every lust and we greedily fullfill the desires of our own corrupt hearts But by Christ we obtain a deliverance we are set free faom the power our former sinnes had over us Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and translated us into the kingdome of
experience of Gods goodness and power to his people formerly may incourage them to trust in him for the future Paul was delivered by God and therefore he trusteth he will deliver him Thus David also argued 1 Sam. 17. 37. God had delivered from the Lion and the Beare therefore also he trusted he would from that uncircumcised Philistian Hence at another time David professeth He will remember the mercies of God which had been of old for these are of great use to keep the heart fixed for the future We have the Apostle expressing his confidence even concerning others and that in the matter of grace and salvation from the foundation God had already laid that spirituall building Phil. 1. 6. Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will performe it till the day of Jesus Christ That this hope in Paul concluding from one deliverance to another was fixed upon may see also at another time 2 Tim. 4. 18. Where having acknowledged Gods mighty prefervation to him in that he was delivered from the mouth of the Lion he addeth And the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work How greatly then are the people of God to be reproved for their diffidence and distrust who though they have the Word of God and the workes of God the promise of God and the providences of God upon which to quiet their soules concerning all events to come yet upon every new trouble are as much tormented and perplexed as if they had never heard or known any thing of God To amplyfie this consider 1. That although we have in many particulars found the goodness and power of God to us yet every new trouble every new danger is ready to startle us and to overwhelme us The Children of God in any new exercise are many times as much to seek as if they had never been delivered by him They are ready to feare that now they shall sink though hitherto preserved Even as David when his trust in God was weakned then he cryeth out He should one day perish by the hands of Saul all the great deliverances vouchsafed to him did not settle his heart for the future Such therefore is the diffidence and sinfull fear which is ready to surprize us upon any new tryall that we are apt to think though God hath done thus and thus for us yet can he conquer this temptation can he help out of this trouble This is worse then all the rest and can he deliver herein Even as we read of the people of Israel who had the experience of so many wonderfull preservations and miraculous mercies bestowed on them in the Wilderness Psalme 78. 19. yet questioning Whether he could furnish a Table in the Wilderness and Verse 20. Behold he smote the rock and waters gushed out can he give bread also See here how they limited God to one mercy and to one deliverance now this was so great a sinne that the Psalmist cals it a speaking against God it was Blasphemy and he addeth an aggravating particular yea they speak against God as if this were a greater sinne then all their former rebellions therefore it is said Verse 21 22. The Lord heard this and was wroth his fire was kindled against Jacob Because they trusted not in his salvation Oh let this be a dreadfull instance never to be forgotten by thee how often doth thy heart say such things God hath hitherto maintained hitherto delivered hitherto provided for me and mine But Can he furnish a Table in this Wilderness can he succour me in this exigency that I am now plunged in Oh take heed of such distrusting thoughts it is speaking against God it is a kind of blasphemy 2. Although the promise of God be ground sure enough for us to trust in yet such is our weakness and infimity that experiences and sensible props do wonderfully promote our faith Could we act purely and perfectly from Divine Motives the promise of God would be as good to us as all the experiences in the world for it is the word of him that cannot iye and therefore nothing of sense or reason is so sure as that of faith But because we consist of a body as well as a soul therefore as in other things God doth condescend to our weakness so here also The Sacraments and miracles were vouchsafed by God to confirme our faith not that they add any certainty to the promise or can bring more authority to it only in respect of our imbecillity so they became helps to our faith Thus also when we have great and glorious promises which may abundantly satisfie us so as to conquer all distrustfull and perplexing thoughts yet experiences joyned with these and when we see him fullfilling with his hand what he hath spoken with his mouth this doth greatly add to our confidence It is true our Saviour saith John 20. 29. to Thomas who would not believe unless his sense did confirme him Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed because such do give more glory and honour to God As Abraham did who regarded the power of God resting on that and considered not Sarahs dead Wombe Yet they are not wholly cast off by God who do believe and see also There is a time when we are to trust in God before we can have experience of Gods dispensations such is the time of conversion Then the soul being brought into the deeps of the Lord then it being in divers and sad agonies the heart is more difficultly brought to trust in God For all things are then new the soul never felt such temptations before it was never in such feares before it is ready to cry out Never any was in the like case with me what will be the issue of those wonderfull things in his soul he knoweth not All this diffidence is because at that time the believer had no experience of Gods dealings is not acquainted with the deep mysteries of God in bringing us to salvation our with the depths of Satan who indeavours our destruction But when once the soul cometh to have more experience of Gods works upon it selfe and is more acquainted with the wayes of God then he comes to hope whereas before he was ready to cast off all in despaire If then God hath from year to year trained thee up in many experimentall discoveries of soul-mercies and body-mercis how inexcusable wilt thou be if thou are ready to be shaken and to loose thy hold upon every new trouble Gods promise should be enough to thee thou needest no more If a man that is faithfull and able should assure thee so much thou wouldst rest contented How unworthily then dost thou deale with God when his word and his workes put together yet do not compose thy heart Oh remember is not he the God that created light out of such darkness as did once cover thy soul Is noâ— he the God that helped in
seeke out fit words that may be as so many Nailes fastned by the Master of the Assemblies so it is your duty to be as diligent in prayer for a blessing upon it That to your selves to your families to your neighbours it may be a quickning and converting word Thus Paul in that forementioned place pray for us that the Gospell may have a free course and be glorified Oh what auditor doth his duty in this respect thou complainest of the dullness and frowardness of people how much good seed falleth upon stony ground see if thy soul may not be charged with negligence herein hadst thou prayed more earnestly hadst thou sought the Lord more there might have been a more plentifull harvest When the Ministers faithfull Preaching and the Peoples fervent Prayer go together then Satan will fall like lightning before them 3. You are to Pray for their qualifications that their gifts and graces may be quickned That they may be filled with boldness and the spirit of power not fearning man or sinfully pleasing him It is a very hard thing to be qualified with all abilities and graces for the ministeriall imployment who is sufficient for these things and the work we have to do is unpleasing and distrustfull to all naturall men Now how difficultly can men subject to weaknesses and infirmities do such angelicall work Thus Paul himself who professed he dyed daily and attained to such a measure of grace as to bid others follow him yet see the reason Eph. 6. 20 21. why he desireth the Ephesians to pray for him viz. that I may open my mouth boldly that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak Lastly You are to pray even for their salvation for their office being so great and they standing accountable for their own and the peoples soules their salvation is the more improbable Chrysostome speaketh very sadly to this point as if very few Ministers would be saved because of their office however we find Paul awing his heart with this and keeping down his body using all meanes to suppress the very begining of sin 1 Cor. 9. 17. lest when he had Preached to others he himself might be a cast-away These offices in the Church though some do ambitiously intrude into them looking for glory and advantage thereby yet such who consider the difficulty of the office the necessary qualifications and due administrations thereof do tremble under it and like Moses and Jeremy are affraid to take such an office upon them but men whose spirits are hardy and confident matter not the danger thereof As you see in great high Buildings how Masons and other Artificers can stand upon an high Pinacle and their head never be giddy nor have any feare but those who are not accustomed to that way do exceedingly tremble thus men who are accustomed to high thoughts of themselves that have great confidence of their own abilities they can work on these Battlements and their heads never go round whereas men of deep modesty and humility are afraid to climbe so high Use of Admonition to our people generally how greatly is this duty neglected how many instead of praying for them curse and revile them but no wonder at this seeing many never pray for themselves they never pray nor their families pray and then how can you help us by your prayers Let this particular move thee that by prayer for a blessing upon our Ministeriall labours thou wilt find the benefit redound upon thy own soul It will be a quickning ministry to thee whatever it be to others to thee it will be soul-saving Do you pray that your corporall bread may nourish your body and will you not much rather that your spirituall bread may be the bread of life to you All lyeth not in hearing writing and repeating but add to these effectuall prayers SERM. LXXXI How and why we should praise God for all his Mercies vouchsafed to us 2 COR. 1. 11. That for the gift bestowed upon us by meanes of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf THis latter part of the Verse containeth the reason or finall cause of his request for the unanimous publick paryers of the Corinthians viz. That as by the prayers of many his deliverance hath been obtained so also by them publick praises and thanksgivings may be given to God in his behalf The sense of the words is very plaine and clear only the Grammaticall Construction hath caused great variety of Interpretations I shall indeavour to clear every obscurity as it cometh in order In the words there is 1. The end it self and that is that thanks may be given 2. The Object matter for which and that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift viz. of deliverance from that great death 3. The Subject by whom this gift is obtained and that is by many 4. The Persons who are to give thanks and that is also many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Lastly In whose behalf and that on our behalf Let us take these parts of division as they come in order And First We meet with the finall cause That thanks may be given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in the passive sense and therefore noted to be an unusuall and a very rare phrase it being every where else used actively Observe That when by prayers we have obtained mercy it is our duties by praises and thankfullness to acknowledge the same to God Prayer must not be alone when it hath prevailed with God like Castor and Pollux prayer and praises must go together Phil. 4. 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God Here you see supplication and thanksgiving must go hand in hand It s no less Gods command to praise him for mercies then to pray to him and this truth is the more to be pressed because of our horrible negligence herein In our distresses in our exigences we call and cry unto the Lord but in our mercies and deliverances we forget him and do not own the Author of our favours and benefits This is notably represented in that History Luke 17. 17 18. Where often Lepers that were cleansed there was but one did returne and give glory to God by thanksgiving and he was a Samaritan also So that those from whom it was expected did neglect this duty We see by this how backward we are to praise God though very forward and earnest to pray to him in our miseries Those nine Lepers that regarded not to praise God yet they lifted up their voices and said Jesus Master have mercy on us and thus while we are in any exigences then our hearts are very hot and lively Then we cry and pray Lord hear us our trouble is great but if the Lord do vouchsafe his mercy to us then God may say where is the man where is the woman that was cleansed that was healed that had this or that mercy and deliverance
for they have not returned to glorifie me It is love to our selves it 's a self-seeking that makes us pray but it would argue love to God and an honouring of him when we returne praises to him It is therefore the duties of Ministers to press you upon the duty of praising of God as well as of praying unto him Many are horribly negligent in both some are more often in prayer then they are in thanksgiving Whereas God is said to inhabit the praises of his people Psalm 22. 3. as well as he is the God that heareth prayers Psalm 65. 2. God dwelleth in the praises of Israel that is in or amongst Israel continually praising of him or else it is to shew that as a man dwelleth in his house constantly residing there so God is daily administring matter of praises to his people implying thereby that there is no time no place no condition wherein we ought not to bless and praise God Those many Psalmes which David made declare how necessary a duty it is and how much the people of God are to exercise themselves therein Hence it is that David professeth he will never intermit this duty as we are to pray without ceasing so to praise God without ceasing Psalm 145. 1 2. I will bless thy name for ever and ever I will bless thee every day See what an ardent affection David hath to this For although the Apostle James saith Is any man afflicted let him pray is any man merry let him sing Psalmes James 5. 13. implying thereby that there are speciall times wherein one duty is to be exercised more than another yet there is no time wherein the Lord doth not give his people occasion to give thanks to him That your hearts may be both rightly instructed in the manner of this duty and awed against all slothfullness therein take notice of these ensuing particulars 1. What is required to this Duty And 2. The Motives thereunto And First To praise God there is required an acknowledgement by faith that God and God alone is the Author of all the mercies both temporall and spirituall that we do enjoy Hence an Atheist can never be thankfull because he owneth no God the giver of mercies And the practicall Atheist who liveth as if there were no God he like the Swine eateth indeed upon the fruite that he findeth upon the ground but never looketh up to the tree from whence it falleth Now this practicall Atheisme doth raign every where and that causeth the universall ingratitude that is in the world men take these mercies as so many debts belonging to them They look upon them as the things of a naturall course not as the dispensations of a free and voluntary Agent even the great God who giveth them and denyeth them at his pleasure David therefore in his Psalmes doth so often magnifie God by many glorious Titles thereby professing that From God cometh every good and perfect gift Hence also the Apostle James Cap. 4. 15. maketh it the duty of every one in their daily resolutions to buy and sell or to go to such a place to say if the Lord will declaring hereby that it is from God that we are inabled to performe any naturall or civill action I also add that it must be an acknowledgment of God alone because in spirituall mercies many corrupt Teachers have divided the kingdome between Gods gracious power and mans mans free-will Therefore the Papists the Socinians the Arminians these do either in whole or in part destroy the very foundation of thanksgiving to God in respect of spirituall mercies especially in that whereby one man differs from another That which the Apostle doth so evidently attribute to God only 1 Cor. 4. 7. that they appropriate to themselves the good use of free-will or the improving of grace offered is made mans work and then certainly we are to glory more in our selves then in God But if we are to give God thankes for every morsell of bread we eate shall we not much rather for every spirituall mercy to the soul It was Tullies observation that though their Ancestors praised God for their prosperity and success yet they never did for their vertuous actions thinking that absurd as if unless they were not done by their own power there was no commendation due to them and too much of this Heathenish and Philosophicall leaven doth still soure the minds of many Learned men in the Church Know then so much as thou settest up a free-will beyond Scripture bounds so farre thou takest off from the duty of praising and blessing of God Besides we say God must be acknowledged in every mercy temporall and spirituall Thou that prayest God would give thee thy daily bread wilt thou not praise God when he doth it yet how sottish and brutish are many persons and Families when they go to meales and rise from meales and no thankes or praises are given to God should not the example of Christ move thee when he had but some loaves of Barly and a little Fish yet he blessed God before he did eate thereof How then cometh it about that there should be such unthankfull wretches that take their food and yet never thank God that giveth it Thou wouldst account that poore man a proud or unworthy person to whom thou shouldst give some food in his necessity and he never so much as open his mouth to give one word of thankfullness to thee Thou dealest more frowardly and wickedly with God And if for temporall mercies then much more for spirituall if thy meate thy drink thy rayment be Gods mercy much more is thy regeneration thy justification which do so far transcend the power of nature 2. To this duty of praising God is not only required These generall acts of faith whereby we own him for the Jehova and the Creator of Heaven and Earth but also those particular Acts whereby we do apply and appropriate him as our God in particular For it is this particular applying Act of faith that maketh the heart full of praise and thanksgivihg Therefore you may observe David in his Psalmes not only calling God a buckler a refuge a strong tower but his buckler his strong tower his God Neither can we be thankfull in spirituall mercies about pardon of sinne support in temptations till with Paul Gal. 2 we say Who loved us and gave himself for us and this is one reason why we urge the People to take heed of diffidence not to give way to distrust and doubtfull perplexities of soul because while these are predominant they cannot walk thankfully and give the glory that is due to him 3. Love to God Because he heareth our prayers will raise up the heart exceedingly to thanksgiving Psal 116. 1. I will love the Lord because he hath heard my supplications That God should hear the prayers of one so unworthy and polluted as thou art that God should do thee good who art so evill this freeness
that is not probable It is then for that deliverance vouchsafed to Paul that they are to be thankfull and the reason is clear because mercies vouchsafed to Paul were their mercies also From whence observe That the mercies vouchsafed to the pastors and guides of the Church are to be accounted the Churches mercies What advantage comes to the shepherd it redounds to the sheep The rain that fals upon the mountains descendeth to the benefit of the valleys Your life your comfort is bound up in theirs Paul indeed said We live if you stand fast It was his comfort his life to see them preserved from Apostasie by persecution 1 Thess 3. 8. And on the contrary the Church may say of her guides We stand fast if you live As mercies to the publick Magistrates are to be accounted the peoples mercies so the mercies of Church-officers are to be reckoned the Churches If the Pilotes be in danger it can never be well with the ship When Elijah was taken away the cry was The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof So great a mercy was one Prophet accounted to be We have a notable instance of the holy care of the Philippians about their Pastor Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 26 27. when he was sick unto death how heavily did they lay it to heart Insomuch that Epaphroditus was exceedingly grieved that they had heard of his being sick he knew it would so greatly afflict them Yea Paul accounted it a mercy to him also that God did heal him For though Paul did recover many out of their diseases yet this gift was not when they pleased and it was least of all extended to those that were of their intimate acquaintance but rather to such as were brought to them that so the truth of their miracles might be more manifested Use of Instruction How happy and blessed a thing it is when people are able to do their duty herein To look upon all the favours and good providences of God to the Ministers of the Gospel as their own mercies their health encouragements preservations as their owne but how bitterly doth Satan fill the hearts of some men who out of love to their lusts and their errours look upon their godly guides as the greatest burthens and would heartily rejoyce in any evil that should befall them This is clean contrary to those gracious loving and indeared affections which ought to be in people to their spiritual shepherds SERM. LXXXIV Of our Glorying and Rejoycing in our Gifts and Graces Why and how it is lawfull and how not 2 COR. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-wards THis verse as appeareth by the raciocinative particular or note of inference For is brought in as a reason of something which went before But Interpreters do differ about the coherence thereof Some make this to be a reason of that hope and trust he formerly spake of which he had in God Though he did trust in Gods mercies yet not in them alone but in his own endeavours also Hence Aquinas from this saith That hope doth arise from the mercy of God and mans merits But this doth not consist with Scripture Others do make it part of his Apologetical Narration defending himself as against that crime of inconstancy and levity which was cast upon him because of his promise to come to them which yet he did not and therefore they think these words look backward and not forward Calvin and others which is most probable referre it to the words immediately preceding viz. their prayers and praises to God in his behalf This is given as a reason why they should be thus tender about him because he had obtained grace to be faithfull he had not sought himself or his own glory he had not walked in hypocrisie and fraud but had been kept by the grace of God in all sincerity in his conversation in the world not only at Corinth but every where else Now it is a great motive and encouragement to pray for such The Apostle useth this argument Heb. 13. 18. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things The connexion then being thus discovered we come to the Text absolutely considered and therein we may consider 1. The ground and reason it self 2. That which is affirmed and predicated of it And this is set down in the fore-part of the verse and therefore we shall begin with it The words are This is our rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is rendred by most our glory or our boasting The Apostle doth very often use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seemeth to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the neck and so is a metaphore signifying for the most part pride and loftinesse taken from horses whose pride will be discovered by their neck and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that for the most part it is taken in an ill sense Hence Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with Budaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a proud boaster and bragger but with Paul it is used sometimes in a good sense as here For the word is used in a three-fold sense gradual to one another 1. To rest and relie upon a thing 2. From thence to rejoyce and to be glad in it 3. From thence to declare and publish this with boasting Now though Paul did not put confidence and trust in his good and sincere conscience yet from the perceiving of that he did rejoyce Whereas then we see Paul rejoycing and glorying from the testimony and evidence of that grace he had in him We may observe That an holy glorying and rejoycing in the graces of God we perceive in us is allowed and lawfull I say an holy glorying for the heart may quickly degenerate into a proud sinfull boasting Therefore this truth must be warily bounded So that the dejected and tempted soul may be quickned to its duty of comfort and not to deny the work of grace that it may feel and the proud pharisaical spirit may be debased The valley must be exalted and the mountain made low It is true indeed we have the Scripture saying Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdome 1 Cor. 1. 31 And if Abraham had not wherewith to glory who can have Yea the Apostle saith expresly Rom. 3. 27. That glorying is excluded by the law of faith But in what sense this is to be understood will appear when we come to manifest how many wayes it is not lawfull to glory or to rejoyce no not in our gifts and graces Only this Text maketh it plain that in some sense our graces may be matter
Chap. 3. he sheweth their folly by many convincing and piercing arguments in falling off thus from him and Chap. 4. 15. puts them in mind that they had other thoughts of him once Paul was once a blessed man and his preaching blessed preaching Where is the blessedness you once spake of Yea he saith their affections were so vehement and hyperbolical That they would have pluckt out their eyes their dearest and tenderest part and have given them him if this could have done him good yet how quickly did these boiling affections turn into ice They will receive other mens doctrines rather than his And if we see the Apostles of Christ that had their call immediately from him that were furnished with a large measure of the Spirit and inabled to do such wonderfull miracles before their eyes may come to be contemned and vilified and that by their own people who had once so highly honoured them No wonder if ordinary Pastors and Officers do often meet with such entertainment in the world Yea was it not thus with Christ himself Did not he find the grosse mutability of the people when one while they honour him crying Hosanna and at another time Crucifie him If they do thus to the green tree will they not much rather to the dry And shall the servant be above his master To inlarge this Consider First That it is an imbred corruption in all inferiours to be mutable and changeable to their Superiours Wise men do observe this mobility in the people even to their best Governours so unthankfull and ingratefull are people by nature Is not this plain in Moses What a faithfull Governour had he been to the people of Israel like a tender father he even carried them in his arms God had honoured him exceedingly before their eyes working many miraculous mercies for them by his means yet how often did they murmure against him which was a great sinne because as Moses telleth them Exod. 16. 8. Your murmurings are not against us but the Lord. Yea they are ready to fall off from Moses and to make themselves a Captain that they may go again into Aegypt Thus the people also dealt with David when they were in bitterness of spirit for the losse of their wives they spake of stoning David Among the Heathens there are plentifull examples of this unthankfull mutability Camillus and Themistocles with others which made the latter say when they had cast him off after all the good service he had none for them That they did with him as beasts doe in a storm runne to a tree to shelter themselves and when that is over they fall a browzing on it and breaking the boughs thereof How many of their famous Worthies have the Heathens banished most ingratefully and then in their necessities intreated them to come again Which made one wise Roman say when perswaded to enter upon some publick design for the common good but dangerous deny saying Why should wise men venture themselves for fools The Athenians were impetuous to put Socrates to death and after he was dead then they were grieved and impatient till they had destroyed those that were the Authors of it Now if it be thus in civil affairs no wonder if there be more changeableness and more ingratitude in Church-matters For in the faithfull discharge of our spiritual office there we directly oppose the natural inclination and love of men to their sinfull pleasures we deal chiefly with the inward man and the matter we propound for the Doctrine of it to be believed is wholly transcendent to their humane apprehensions and the goodness of it is altogether supernatural Yea contra-natural take man in his sinfull naturals Hence it is that spiritual governing is far more difficult than civil men being more willing to receive what maketh for their bodily good and welfare then for their souls and spiritual estate Secondly This inclination to changeablenesse and mutability in matters of Religion hath greater temptations in rich and famous Cities than in villages and small parochial places Now Corinth as you heard was a famous and rich City eminent for trading yea and for earning and gifts Hence Paul doth in none of his Epistles so much debase the wisdome of the world indeavouring to exalt Christ above all things as in his Epistles to these Corinthians and it seemeth they did a bound with many excellent gifts and abilities as the Apostle many times witnesseth Now this was their snare and temptation this made them proud of their knowledge this made them admire gifts more than grace this caused them to make parties and factions some cried up one teacher some another So that their wealth and gifts did prove a great temptation to them and by this means Paul came to be undervalued Thus it falleth out many times in great and populous places where are variety of Ministers and of gifts and a people raised up in knowledge and wealth it is very hard for them to keep in a constant real esteem of sound and soul-saving truths but with the people of Israel to be weary of Manna to desire even garlick and onyons above it The Gospel was at first preached and planted in Cities and their Churches were first constituted it being a long time ere the little villages in the Countrey did receive the Christian faith Hence to this day say some we call Heathens Pagans à pagis from villages because they did last of all receive the Christian faith But then they have this advantage that they are freed from those many temptations that are in the Churches of Cities for they having not many Officers nor hearing variety of gifts are not so tempted to be alwayes lusting after some new thing as in the fore-mentioned places yet for all this they have the same corrupt inclination and if they have not the temptation brought to them they will seek out for the temptations and hence many villages are quickly poisoned with corrupt and erroneous wayes For the Devil he goeth up and down roaring to seek whom he may devour whether in Cities or villages Now let us consider of the Causes which make such a change and alteration and that many times in those who are very good or at least apparently so And 1. This ariseth from the ficklenesse and inconstancy that is in many men There are few that profess Religion that do obtain to a sound mind that are well rooted in the first principles of Religion They content themselves with general and confused apprehensions and therefore can speak of those things which yet they have no clear understanding about Now how can such straws and feathers as these but be blown away with every wind of doctrine It is the Apostles expression Ephes 4. 14. implying that it is childishness levity want of a serious weighty and solid judgement that maketh us leave the faithfull Ministers of God and greedily run after false teachers 2. An overhasty and unadvised receiving of the
People 1 COR. 1. 14. That we are your rejoycing as ye also are ours THis is the Second particular in the Text and doth contain the Specification wherein this acknowledgment of the Corinthians did consist viz. That he was their Rejoycing However some false teachers had endeavoured to take off their affections from him yet they had acknowledged him to be their Father and Master by whom they were faithfully instructed in the wayes of Godliness and for this they did blesse God and rejoyce that they had such a Teacher which was so great a mercy that few did enjoy the like Now the Apostle addeth That this rejoycing was mutual he did as well rejoyce in such apt and obedient Schollars Chrysostome observeth this Addition to be a great Expression of Pauls Modesty and Humility for that the Corinthians should glory and rejoyce in such an eminent Teacher as Paul was It is no wonder but that he should rejoyce in them who were so inconstant and so uncertain in their affections to him yea who were to be blamed so much in Doctrinalls and practicalls This may make us admire But sayes Chrysostome This Paul doth for humility sake that he might not procure envy us if he thought two arrogantly of himself therefore he assumeth them into a co-partnership with his glory and rejoycing The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lieth already bear opened There is nothing difficult in the words onely when Paul and the Corinthians are thus said to be one anothers rejoycing we are to understand that the Act is here put for the Object of it as often in the Scripture Thus rejoycing is put for the Object Matter and Cause of our rejoycing and if you say We are to rejoyce in God onely in the Lord not in men that is true We are to rejoyce in God onely as the Author of all our good yet we may in men as they are instruments used by God to communicate his benefits to us Thus a people may rejoyce in a faithfull Minister not principally and originally but secondarily as the Instrument which God hath made very successfull to their souls The Observation then is That it is a most happy and blessed thing when Minister and people can upon just and holy grounds rejoyce mutually in each other When the people can bless God for the Ministerial gifts and graces bestowed upon their Pastor and he again can praise God that he hath a willing teachable and obedient people ready to receive the Ordinances of Christ in the power and purity of them This is a rare priviledg Oh there are but few Churches of which the Ministers may say as Paul to the Colossians Chap. 2. That he doth rejoyce in beholding their order and faith in Christ To meet with a people that are neither ignorant heretical nor prophane but willing to walk according to Christs rule and his order this is to see heaven upon earth The Apostle findeth such matter of joy not onely in those Corinthians but in many other Churches For as he had more Labours more Oppositions more Persecutions than others so also God gave him more joy and comefort in beholding the spiritual successe of his Labours for this was the onely comefort of his spiritual heart to see men imbrace Christ and to live worthy of the Gospel it was not his own Glory Honor and greatness that he aymed at which is an excellent example to us Ministers of the Gospel that our Matter of joy should not be any earthly riches or wealth any great fame or worldly esteem but that we are to win people to Christ alone not our selves Thus the Apostle calleth the Philipians his joy and crown Phil. 4. 1. and 1 Thes 2. 19 20. speaking of his ardent affections to see their face by way of interrogation the more emphatically to express himself he saith What is our hope or joy or crown of rejoycing Are not even ye And then addeth positively the same thing for or rather surely certainly ye are our rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not a note of reasoning for then the Apostle would prove Idem for Idem as they say but of Affirmation and asseveration Ye are our crown of rejoycing Grotius saith It is an allusion to Kings who on their solemn festival dayes have not an ordinary but extraordinary Crown to wear for the greater pomp and glory Such extraordinary honor would the Thessalonians be to Christ at the great day But let us consider this in the general and then amplifie it respectively to Minister and people And First The Relation of Pastor and people is by divine Institution Christ himself hath appointed the Office it self and the application of it to this or that man through the desire of the Church so that as Churches are of Gods gathering They are his creature in a more special manner than the world is so likewise are the Officers and spiritual Guides to teach them 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set in his Church Apostles and Teachers Thus Act 20. 28. The Holy Ghost is said to set them Overseers over their flock â—eeing therefore that this relation is built on a Divine Foundation no wonder if managed according to Divine Rules that it is the cause of exceeding great joy These Relations are respectively for supernatural and spiritual ends and effects The Minister is for illumination Conversion Edification for the destroying of the power and Kingdome of Satan as also the establishing and promoting the Kingdome of grace in the hearts of the people The people also they are to be matter of encouragement to him they are to be helpfull and assistant in their way that Godliness may flourish that the ends of the Ministry may not be frustrated The Apostle sometimes taketh notice of the great usefulness and serviceableness even of some women in that kinde For though Ministers be compared to Light to the Sun and Starrs yet in this there is a difference The Starrs give Light and Influence into these sublunary things but receive no benefit at all from them again but the Ministers of the Church even though as eminent as Paul yet they acknowledg the manifold benefits and that in a spiritual way which they may receive from their people again now then how happy is it when there is a reciprocal and circular helping of each other when spiritual guides do convert edifie and quicken up their people and again the people do assist help and quicken up their Officers certainly as spiritual delights are greater than any bodily ones because the objects are more excellent and usefull so should this mutual rejoycing in our spiritual joy surpass all the delight that we take in our natural and civil relation neither the delight of a Wife in her Husband or of a Childe in his Father should be equal to the joy of a people in Faithfull Officers And so è contra the Reason is evident because the effects of this Relation are spiritual heavenly and
of their hearts all the purposes and intentions of the soule in holy duties shall be made manifest it shall then be discovered who was faithfull and who was insincere and wilt thou anticipate this day Little doest thou thinke how much such as feare God in truth doe bewaile that partial hypocrisie and insincerity which is within them how greatly they feare lest they should deceive themselves and doe holy duties for false ends and not out of pure respect to God himselfe Such then shall have praise of God and their integrity manifested before Angels and men Thirdly There will be a change of mens thoughts as to the godly In respect of their external estate and condition They have for the most part the evil things of the world when the wicked enjoy the glorious things thereof Are not afflictions troubles and miseries as inseparably following the people of God as the shadow doth the body Doth not our Saviour fore-warn his Disciples of the great trouble that they shall meet with in the world Doth not Paul himself say 1 Corinth 15. 19. If we have hope in this life onely we are of all men most miserable Of all men Because other men will follow the pleasures and profits of the world Other men will suck out the honey that is to be had in the creatures They will escape all misery and persecution by becoming any thing in Religion and thereby save themselves out of danger but as for the godly they are as sheep appointed for the slaughter all the day long Their tender conscience and feare to sinne against God putteth them into many losses and disadvantages which the men of the world can imbrace Now it being thus with them this doth exceedingly prejudice men against godly men Their outward condition is many times dangerous they seeme to be cast off even by God himselfe as if he did not love them or owne them for his and this keepeth off many from walking in the pathes of holinesse If the applause honour and great things of the world did accompany the power of godlinesse then all would strive to enter in at such a broad gate but because it is with them as with Christ they appeare with no external glory and lovelinesse upon them Hence it is that of all men they will not owne such or joyne to such But this great day will make you have other thoughts of their condition when you shall see their sackcloth taken off and robes of honour put upon them when you shall see these Lazarusses with no more sores on them or desiring crummes from the Table but placed in Abraham's bosome This will make you then to wish Oh that we had endured the same hardship gone through the same wildernesse seeing they have now arrived at such a blessed Land as they are In the third and last place The thoughts and apprehensions of men about Christ will be greatly changed at that day from what they have at present in two particulars especially First When Christ is offered now to us and we may be made partakers of him yet we refuse him we will not receive him we had rather have our lusts than Christ we love father mother and life it selfe more than Christ Such low thoughts have we of him now But oh the time is coming when Christ and onely Christ will be in request At that day he is happy who shall have an interest in Christ Those Gadarens that intreated Christ to depart out of their coasts regarding their hoggs more than he with what confusion will they behold him at that day We shall then see there is good reason for that Doctrine He that loveth father more than me or he that loveth life it self more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 10. 37. For happily flesh and blood may for the present say This is an hard saying who can beare it To love Christ more than father that begat me and maintaineth me from whom happily I may expect great and large gifts Or better than life which is above all earthly mercies Will Christ be as good as these to me Shall I not lose by loving him more than these But if a man consider what Christ is How he will appeare at that day How happy are they who can claime an interest in him Then they will see reason why Christ should be preferred above all Now we are for Barabbas rather than Christ Now Christ knocketh at the door to come in and we will not open to him But who is there then that would not cry out Oh let Christ justifie me let him sanctifie me let him save me Thus the stone that is now refused will be the head corner-stone Secondly Many deceive themselves in their thoughts about Christ apprehending onely love and willingnesse in him to save They never thinke of Christ but as a Saviour Though never so polluted by sinne yet they call him their good Saviour their blessed Saviour but at this day thou wilt then have other thoughts Thou wilt then see he can damne as well save he can be a Lion as well as a Lambe This mercifull Saviour will be a severe and just Judge Thus Revelat. 6. 16 17. you have the great men and rich men of the earth hiding themselves in Dens and calling to the Mountaines and Rockes to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lambe for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Thus you see that your thoughts about Christ at that day will be wholly changed You that thinke onely of mercy that speak onely of mercy that look onely upon Christ as a Saviour What trembling will this be to you when you shall see him come as a Judge with ten thousand of Angels when you shall heare him pronounce his terrible sentence upon ungodly men then how will your hearts melt within you Then you will beginne to say within your selves Oh that we had not made an Idol-Christ that we had not fancied a Christ to our selves This is not such a Christ as we looked for This is not such a Christ as we expected Even as the Jewes looked for another Messiah then was indeed to come which proved their destruction So also many doe fancy to themselves such a Saviour made up onely of mercy at that great day And therefore whereas they promise to themselves peace they will meet with horrour and desolation And thus much for those particulars The next general Proposition is That there will be a wonderfull change upon mens thoughts in reference to Gods dispensations and his providence in this world Gods proceedings here below have beene the subject of many Heathens disputes Yea David and Jeremiah were ready to stagger and fall with the consideration of Gods various dealings in this world especially that particular went deep into them why God should let the wicked live in all prosperity and at hearts ease and in the meane while the
when the Cedars are so weak Use of Exhortation To take heed of this sinne in a special manner as being so reproachfull to a man much more a Christian so opposite to the Attribute of God whose faithfulnesse and truth is so often celebrated that it is impossible for him to lie Yea it cometh so immediately from the Devil that there ought to be no communion with him in this thing Never call any lie profitable for it will not prove so at last What if by it thou escape danger here and be cast into Hell hereafter What if thou gaine the world here and lose thy soule hereafter Will not this be a dreadfull and dismall lie to thee Remember that place Prov. 12. 19. The lying tongue is but for a moment Hence Prov. 13. 5. A righteous man hateth lying For that lying tongue is but for a moment hereafter it will scorch in hell it will burne in those eternal flames SERM. CXV GOD is True 2 COR. 1. 18. But as God is true our word towards was not yea and nay IN this Verse the Apostle giveth a reason why he did not use Lightness or purpose things according to the flesh viz. Because the word he preached was not so much his word as that which came from God the Supream truth and therefore as no Falshood could fall on God so neither upon his Word that floweth from him Some indeed understand the Word Paul here speaketh of of his Promise to come to them as if he did thus solemny affirm That he was not unfaithfull in his Promise But the ensuing words do evidently declare That he meaneth his Preaching that his Doctrine was not mutable and changeable For the malevolent Adversaries that he had to do with they took occasion from the altering of his purposes or at least deferring of his Promise in that Particular about coming to them to charge his whole Doctrine with the same levity and inconstancy to bring all he Preached into Question because of that Whereupon the Apostle being far more solicitous for his Doctrine and his Office then his own credit or glory doth especially fortifie that and confirm the Truth of that so that by this we see the nature of evil men Whatsoever failings or weaknesses may be in a Minister they presently charge his doctrine with it and blame his Ministry whereas Gods truth is truth and thou art to receive it though the Minister may be false and unworthy but of this wore in its time The Apostles Argument in this Text to confirm the truth of the Doctrine he preached is from the truth of God the measure and Rule of all truth if his word be a lye then God must be said to lye which is heynous blasphemy to speak but God is true This Expression is taken by some to be only Enunciative and Affirmative barely asserting the truth of God as if the meaning were God is true from whom we have received our commission to preach the Gospel and therefore that also must be true Others and they speak more probably take it to be an oath that the Apostle doth here use a sacred oath for the confirming of what he saith and so it is the same with the Hebrews form of an oath The Lord liveth and Heinsius maketh those expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Tim. 4. 9. to be equivalent to this We take it there to be an oath but because we have Paul using an oath again at the 23d Verse I shall wave that respect at this time and consider it only enunciatively attending to that Attribute and Property which this oath is built upon and that is Gods truth God is true From whence Observe That God is true God hath many glorious Attributes There is his Omniscience his Omnipotency his Justice and his Mercy and there is also his property of Truth which is of great use and Influence in our comeforts and Duties This truth of God is often celebrated in the Scripture Yea he is not onely said to be true but truth itself Deut. 32. 4. he is so essentially truth it self that the Word saith It is impossible for him to lye Heb. 6. 18. For he being truth in the abstract no falshood or lye is compatible with him Abstractives admit of no mixture though Concretives may Light in it self or whiteness in it self admitteth not of any darkness but as it is in subjects so it doth Now God as he is said to be Light and that there is no darkness in him at all 1 John 1. 5. So God is truth and in him there is no falshood at all But let us discover this Doctrine in particulars And First There is a twofold Truth A Metaphysical Truth and a Morall or Ethicall truth A Metaphysical truth is the truth of Being and Entity and thus the Scripture doth often celebrate the truth of God making him only to be the Jehovah He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Am that I am For if that rule be true Ens verum convertuntur then where is the chiefest and Infinite Entity there is also the Supreamest Verity This true being of God is often opposed unto Idols and the Heathens Gods which have no true being at all And that God is true in this sense is the very fundamental Article of all Religion Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is This truth of Gods being is often to be remembred against that Atheisme which doth reign in most mens hearts How could they live in such excess of riot did they believe there was a God But secondly there is a moral or Ethical Truth and that is Two-fold either Verity or Veracity Verity is when we speak or barely affirm that which is true Veracity is in our Promises when we faithfully perform them Now this Twofold truth is eminently in God There is the truth of his assertion and that is revealed in his Word which is also called truth So that whatsoever is affirmed there can no more deceive us than God himself And then there is the truth of his Promises and the Truth of his Threatnings the truth also of Prophesies and Predictions in all which God will be found true When every man is a Lyar God is true then in what he saith in what is foretold in what he promiseth and in what he threateneth Never let the prophane and secure sinner flatter himself hoping it will prove otherwise than the Word speaketh There is no threatening of God will prove a lye 2. There 's a Division of truth into truth increated and created Increated truth is God himself and he is called truth because Gods understanding is the measure and rule of all other Truths Nothing in the world is true but as it is consonant to his knowledg It is otherwise with us Our understanding is not the measure of the truth of things but there truth is the measure and rule of our understandings then is
to charge it upon all other Ministers as if they were all alike It was for this that Paul doth not only apologize for himself but his Associates also But how unreasonable is this grant that some were truly blame-worthy must all be so If in the Old Testament there were many false prophets that daubed with untempered mortar that cried peace peace to sinners when destruction was at hand shall we therefore condemn the good Prophets who reproved even the greatest and most mighty for their sins Because Judas was a thief and for filthy lucre sake betrayed Christ shall we condemn all the Apostles making them to be no better Must Sylvanus and Timotheus be accused Because they thought Paul was inconstant and light yet thus it falleth out continually and that from these Grounds First The policy and enmity of false teachers who like Haman think it a small matter to destroy one Mordecai unlesse they root out the whole race of the Jews Thus the false Apostles concluded Though Paul was disgraced and vilified yet if Sylvanus and Timotheus be in esteem and authority our Kingdom will fall to the ground It is therefore the adversaries design to cast dung in the faces of all the faithfull Ministers of Christ that so there might not one be left that should be usefull in their place A second Ground is From the injudiciousnesse and indiscretion of people who are credulous and apt to believe all rumours and reports How could it be that the Pharisees by their calumniating Christ as an Impostor and a Blasphemer should prevail with the greater part of the people to be on their side because they were blinde and led by the blinde they would not make use of their own judgement they would not examine and try whether things were so or no. And then the third Ground is From the natural enmity that is in all wicked men to the Office of the Ministry when faithfully discharged That is a burden to them they must needs say with Ahab to such faithfull Michaiahs We hate him because he alwayes prophesieth evil Alas godly Ministers cannot give any comfort cannot promise peace to such ungodly persons therefore they have hatred against them and are glad to receive any false report concerning them Ministers are compared to Light and to salt now the Light must needs be offensive to distempered eyes and Salt to soars Thus if the Ministery be powerfull to enlighten to convince to reprove no ungodly man can endure this Therefore it is that the office of the Ministery when faithfully managed is so great a trouble to wicked men They are thievs therefore cannot endure this light they cry out with Ahab hast thou found mee O my enemy Every Sermon that is powerfull is as bitter as gall and wormwood to them and therefore there being such an enmity and ill-will against them it is no wonder if they be quickly prejudiced and will not believe there is a godly or faithfull Minister in the whole Church of God But I hasten to the Last Observation and that is It is a most blessed and happy thing when all the Ministers of God agree with one consent to advance Christ As Luke calleth it chap. 1. The mouth of all the holy Prophets which have been since the beginning of the world It was but one mouth as it were They all agreed in the same Doctrine Paul and Sylvanus and Timotheus they all preach the same Christ they were not yea or nay This accord and agreement among the Ministers of the Gospel is of so great concernment that our Saviour in his valedictory prayer doth with much efficacy and vigor press this Petition That his Disciples may be one and one in the most near manner imaginable even as the father and son are one I shall not enlarge on this because heretofore much spoken off only I shall instance in some usefull Effects and consequences of this happy Agreement Only before I do that we have cause to take notice of the goodness of God and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifold wisdome of God whereby he hath provided many Offices many Officers for his Church and those variously gifted and all for the spiritual benefit of our soules some are Barnabasses some are Boanergeses Thus as the Kings Daughter is said to be cloathed with needle work of divers colours so hath God richly adorned his Church with variety of abilities that if men be not converted the greater will be their condemnation For whereas Auditors are of divers appetites some are for doctrinal Preaching some for affectionate some are for legal terrible Sermons others for sweet Evangelical discourses if Christ send Embassadours thus qualified every way what can they look for who are not by these several baits allured and taken For this cause we have Christ himself upbraiding the Jews that no kinde of heavenly way would please no kinde of dressing the Word of life was acceptable to their palates Matth. 11. 18. John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he hath a devil The son of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a friend of publicans and sinners Hereupon he compareth them to children playing in the markets saying we have piped to you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented Thus nothing would do any good to them Admire then Gods goodness that hath thus abundantly provided for thee Do not simply and enviously compare one Ministers gifts above another but adore the mercy of God that useth all the different abilities of men for the Churches good This premised we may from the harmony and Agreement of Ministers in advancing Christs Kingdom see First The greater Confirmation of the truth If out of the mouth of two or three witnesses then how much more out of the mouth of many thousand witnesses is every truth abundantly confirmed How canst thou give way to any atheistical thoughts whether there be a God or a day of Judgment or an heaven or an hell when thou shalt hear so many thousands of Gods servants in all ages witness to this thing All the Prophets and Apostles men renouned for holiness for miracles they all preached the same Doctrines that we do to you And therefore consider with thy self what a cloud of witnesses thou gainsayest by thy unbelief 2. The greater consent and harmony the greater defence there is for the truth The old rule is vis unita fortior Our Saviour confirmeth it when he saith A Kingdome divided against it self cannot stand What advantages do the enemies of Gods Church make by the Divisions and different Judgments of men in the Reformed Church The Papist doth confidently conclude that all will turn to them at last for say they you have so many Sects amongst you and one saith he hath the spirit of God and another he hath but all contrary to one another Now although it were easie to recriminate yet this difference
of God like Peters Angel doth break up all the strong bars of any prison we are in any difficulty we are afflicted with As Dalilah gathered Sampson loved her when he would manifest where his strength was so may we assure our selves of Gods love to us by revealing his promises oh if you bring the promises you binde the hands as it were of the Almighty he can do nothing against his promises when therefore any thoughts of Gods Majesty of Gods purity and holinesse may affright thee run to his promise and as the people of Israel when amazed under the terrible lightnings and thundrings at Gods presence in giving the Law cried out Let not God speak any more to us but Moses so do thou let not thy Majesty speak thy Justice speak thy Holinesse speak but thy Promise let that speak and we will hear Lastly The freenesse of Gods grace is made very glorious and resplendent in the promises of grace Free-grace is more than love or goodnesse and bounty for Adam while in the state of integrity had those but free-grace is only where a miserable and hopelesse sinner is Now to such an one belong only curses and threatnings when therefore in stead of a threatning like a roaring lion to devour thee thou meetest with a gracious promise to embrace thee this must needs rejoyce thy heart Go to the spring head of every promise and thou wilt finde it to be alone free-grace The Scripture useth these Arguments as equivalent to have a thing by grace to have it by a promise and to have it by faith for grace is the originall and fountain Promises are on Gods part the active and communicative means faith on our part is the receptive and applicative so that when we enjoy any mercy by Gods promise thereby is excluded all works and all boasting and thus God is altogether exalted and man debased Again if we come to the second particular there we shall see how that our Amen subscribed to the promises or our firm beleeving in them doth give glory to God and this is the more to be pressed because we are apt to have low thoughts of faith as we see in Popery where Charity is far preferred before it and withall to beleeve is accounted an easie thing Thus also the Papists charge us as if we made the way to heaven a broad way because we say they must beleeve that is the soul and life of all And further it is good to presse this because the people of God look upon faith as was hinted before only as their ease not as bringing any glory to God Hence though they never doubt whether they should repent of sinne or love God yet they do very much doubt about their duty of beleeving Now all this preposterousnesse ariseth from the want of consideration in this particular that Faith giveth glory to God as well as procureth mercies to our selves yea to beleeve in the promise is the great and signall eminent way of giving glory to God First because by beleeving in Gods promises we thereby proclaim our dependance upon him in all things that we live both spiritually and corporally upon him only so that faith in this consideration is the great duty of the first commandment That requireth us we should have no other Gods besides him Thus faith doth it taketh off from all supports of sence of second causes of all humane advancements and setleth us upon the promise of God alone Now must not this needs give glory to God when God alone is set up no creature no other help is looked upon This is that which maketh faith in the promises so difficult because it is so hard to be weaned from the breasts of the creature we know not how to swimme without these bladders Though we have ten thousand promises to support us yet one crosse providence doth more to unsettle us then all these promises to confirm and quiet us Some have observed that all the letters in the Name Jehovah are literae quiefcentes teaching us thereby to rest our souls alone upon him it may be that is too curious howsoever faith may be called the acquiescent or quietative grace therefore to beleeve in the promises is to give glory to God Secondly By beleeving in the promises we glorifie God because hereby we manifest him to be truth it self the supream and infallible truth Therefore the Scripture maketh the contrary to this a very hainous sinne highly dishonouring God as when it is said John 3. 33. He that receiveth the testimony of Christ which is by faith hath set to his seal that God is true Then on the contrary he that doth not receive it he setteth to his seal that God is a lyar Oh execrable blasphemy so much unbeleef is so much giving the lye to God and if this be so hainous a sinne then beleeving doth God as much honour And truly it must be unpardonable if we who do upon a mans promise rest our selves contented and never doubt of the performance especially when a just and honest man that we should not much rather rely upon God of whom the Scripture saith It is impossible he should lye Thirdly Herein doth beleeving in Gods promise so exceedingly glorifie God because it exalteth that Evangelicall way of our justification and salvation which God above all things purposed for his own glory The works of Creation are for the demonstration of Gods glory Whether we eat or drink we are to do all for the glory of God But the way of mans salvation is in a more signall and eminent manner ordered for Gods glory This is the mystery that hath astonished all the world This is that glorious truth which the Angels desire to search into more and more Now by faith this glory of God is published and acknowledged Take the despairing sinner look upon the damned in hell do they give God the glory of his grace and of his wisedom and mercy Do they with cordiall ravishments speak of the unsearchable riches of Gods grace in Christ No they cannot do it therefore the Beleever only is he who giveth God the glory due to him for all Gospel-wayes and all Evangelicall Priviledges Therefore hath God exalted Faith above all its fellow-graces because that above all graces doth give God the glory due to him Indeed in the state of Integrity their love of God had the preheminence as it shall also have in Heaven but in the state of grace there Faith hath the Excellency God hath taken off the royal Crown from that Vasthi and put it upon this Esther this despicable grace as it were and which hath no Pomp at all in it Only as it is said of Christ who being poor made many rich So this poor grace doth not onely enrich us but every way advanceth the Glory of God Insomuch that from the unbeleever God hath no more glory than if he had never sent his Sonne into the world No more
instances what weaknesse is upon the best if the Lord forsake them but for a while Peter was so confident of his immoyeablenesse that he thought though all others should deny Christ yet he would stand it out but how sadly did he fall to the great bit ernesse of his soul Thus the godly appear sometimes like Trees in the winter which though having some life in the root yet outwardly have no apparent difference from those that are stark dead and all is because they have not that establishing grace they use to have Let not then the strong man in grace glory in his strength nor the swift man in the wayes of Heaven glory in his swiftnesse and fervency for he is alone supported by the power of God Yea which is the more observable you may see them falling and staggering in those particular graces wherein they seem to be most corroborated Abraham is the Father of the faithfull and yet he discovered much carnal fear in Abimelech's countrey Moses was the meekest man upon the earth yet in what a froward passion when he struck the Rock which so provoked God that thereby he had onely a sight of Canaan and was not permitted to enter thereinto Peter is noted to have the greatest fervency and zeale of all the Apostles and yet how surprized with cowardize and sinnefull feare In these graces of all other you would not have thought they should stumble and and fall But behold how it is the arme of the Lord that doth beare us up Secondly This truth is demonstrated from those wonderfull dispensations towards his best servants Many are the temptations that they are assaulted with and all this is to shew their impotency to them to discover their infirmities to them that so they may be humble alwayes in their own eyes Thus Abraham and Jacob they were in constant exercises no sooner were they delivered from the Lion but a Bear met them one wave followed another And what was the end of all this but to keep them in continual dependance and waiting upon God David also was constantly in a wildernesse where no water was and Gods end herein was to make him see his salvation was in God alone Yea Paul himself though by the grace of God he was so preserved that after his conversion we read of no other extraordinary fall he had yet lest hereby as also from many other glorious priviledges he enjoyed he should be puffed up above measure 2 Cor. 12. he had the buffetings of Satan and a thorn in the flesh to make him go out of himself and to rest on Christ only So that Gods end in putting them upon these trials is to instruct them wherein or in whom their strength doth consist Thirdly That it is God alone who doth stablish the most holy will appear If you consider how great the power subtilty and malice of the Devil is who is set against them more than any others As Christ told his Apostles Satan had a desire to sift them as wheat Luk. 22. 31. Thus the Devil doth with the greatest violence oppose those that are more esteemed for gifts and graces than others These like Uriah stand in the fore-front of the battle for if they â—alâ— if they become a stumbling block and a reproach God is more dishonoured wicked men are more hardened then if many weak Christians should fall and therefore those that are remarkably godly they are to be so farre from high-mindednesse and self-confidence that indeed they are to be in the greatest fear and watchfulnesse for it is such as thou art the Devil aimeth at The trees full of fruit have the greatest violence made upon their boughs Now alas what is a godly mans strength to the Devils violent assaults and subtil insinuations if God did not strengthen him What defence hath a sheep against a roaring Lion Observe that reason expressed 1 John 4. 4. You have overcome Antichrist saith that Apostle but why Because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world In you that is emphatical It 's Christ dwelling in us that keepeth off Satans victorious power and all his instruments Thus also 1 John 5. 5. It is faith that overcometh the world which alwayes relieth on a power without us for faith as it is a grace doth not but as it receiveth strength from Christ As the Vine and Ivy are not supported of themselves but by those trees they lean unto Fourthly It is plain that God alone doth establish the most able believers from that providence of God whereby he many times leaveth such to themselves that in their own experience and acknowledgement of others they may see all help is from God alone This truth the godly are not alwayes so practically convinced of as they should be Hence they are apt to be puffed up sometimes with secret delight and complacency in themselves for which God doth leave them to themselves that they thereby falling may know what they are of themselves and what they are by the grace of God Thus it is noted of Hezekiah a man full of integrity in Gods wayes 2 Chron. 32. 31. God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart Even this good man did not know how base false and deceitfull his heart was and therefore God left him and we see the blessed effect of this mercifull desertion vers 26. Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart Is not here then a plain instance that God many times in much mercy leaveth the godly to themselves that so they may have full sentiments of this truth upon their hearts This also was the case of Peter who did not answer his name of a Rock in this case and had the Church been built on him as the Papists boast it had fallen all into pieces for it was Christs looking upon him that recovered him not any strength of his own But how cometh Peter thus to stumble and fall It was because of his self-confidence and presumption in his own power yea some have said that Christ left him meerly to himself not for any preceding sinne in Peter but only by way of meer dispensation that hereby an example of humility and holy fear might be left upon record to all ages But that Peter's sinne of gross confidence did deserve this graduall dereliction is more than probable only we grant that as God doth sometimes tempt so also forsake sometimes for sinnes antecedent sometimes from his meer soveraignty and holy wisdome thereby to teach man that which otherwise would not be acknowledged It is indeed a Rule that Deus neminem descrit nisi prius deseratur God forsaketh none that doth not forsake him which may be granted as true if we speak of a desertion by way of anger and punishment but of a desertion by way of mercy and triall or thereby to make way for greater dispensations of his glory so it is not alwayes true
not perfect grace yet thou hast not perfect holinesse yet but thou waitest upon the Lord till it be accomplished and so do here Oh but I am afraid I shall never have it I shall dye without it that is more than thou knowest how suddenly and graciously doth God use to rebuke these windes and waves when we little think of it yet know thy interest to heaven is not shaken Thou wilt indeed want much comfort but not thy title to heaven Thou art as sure to go to heaven as if thou wert assured of it And withall remember that the faith of dependance and recumbency upon Christ only is more noble than assurance in that thou givest God most glory In this thy own interest is satisfied And lastly know that heaven is coming to thee and thou going to it when not only sin but all fears shall be removed away Thou shalt then dispute thy condition no more thou shalt not then question thy graces or Gods grace to thee but shall put on the Crown of glory never to be molested and disquieted any more SERM. CXXXVIII Of Grace as it is the Earnest of Eternall Glory 2 COR. 1. 22. And given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts THis is the third and last similitude by which that gracious confirmation of beleevers in Gods promises is declared and if we consider them relatively to the discourse precedent we shall easily see what great reason there is that the promises should not be only yea and Amen in themselves but in bs also Seeing we have this special work of Gods spirit anointing sealing and giving us an earnest of the things that are promised Now as you heard though the same prividedge be meant under this threefold similitude yet every one hath its proper notion and therefore the earnest here spoken of may differ from sealing thus That the sealing of Gods Spirit doth assure of us that which is already wrought in us as seals confirm contracts that are already made though hereby also is implyed a certain continuance and perseverance in that state which is sealed but the earnest spoken of in the text doth principally relate to the future So that whereas the childe of God might object what if I be sealed and assured for the present of my good condition yet who knoweth what may fall out thereafter I may apostatize I may provoke God to leave me and so this seal be as it were defaced But though the word sealing doth also imply continuance for it is till the day of redemption yet the word earnest doth more properly speak to that Objection Thou hast the earnest given thee of that inheritance which shall be hereafter So that in the words we may take notice of the mercy it self the efficient cause of it and the subject receiving it The mercy it self is said to be an earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is used in two other places in the New Testament as is to be shewed It is properly an Hebrew word though from the Hebrews communicated to the Phenicians which being great Merchants brought it into Greece so that the Grecians adopted it for their ordinary wood yea some Latinists as Plautus and Terentius do use it as Grotius on the place affirmeth Varro speaketh of it lib. 4. de ling. latinà where he saith the same mony for divers respects may be called dos merces arrabo and corollarium and addeth the word arrabo is brought from the Grecians but Scaliger in his Notes upon the place correcteth him for that saying Ne graecum verbum quidem sed merum Syriacum The Hebrew root from whence it groweth is gnarub to mingle and so by a metaphor it signifieth to buy and sell to make contracts and to assure them by earnests because in this action the buyer and the seller are as it were mingled together Some have translated it pignus which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pledge pignus It is so called either à pugno say some because the pledge is delivered by the hand or else as Martinius Lexi pignus from pago or pango because in such covenants and contracts there is an agreement established But Hierom of old and others of late do no waies approve of rendring it a pledge but an earnest for there is this difference in the civil law between arra and pignus an earnest and a pledge an earnest is part of the price that is to be paid down and so goeth to make it up but a pledge is given for security by the debtor to the creditor and taken away again when the debt is paid Now this metaphor doth no waies hold in this case for God is not a debtor to us when he giveth us his grace he doth not borrow of us neither when the promise is fullfilled is this grace taken away for in heaven grace is not abolished but perfected Indeed Aquinas upon the place maketh this Observation That as a pledge must be saith he equivalently worth to the debt so it is here grace wrought in us especially the Spirit of God bestowed upon us is equivalent to glory But that is false that in our graces wrought by Gods Spirit there is an intrinsecall condignity and equality to everlasting glory It 's therefore more proper and suitable to call it an earnest which was commonly used two waies either in civill commerce or matrimoniall contracts called therefore in the latter subarrhatio The end and use of it was to secure the full payment of the debt or fullfilling of any promise made and in this sense it is true in the Text God knowing our pronenesse to doubt about his promises as also how uncertain and fearfull we are doth give us his grace here as a sure earnest of our eternal happinesse So that by this earnest we are not to understand extraordinary and miraculatous gifts of Gods Spirit for many had them who yet never could enter into glory but the special works of grace sanctifying These are fitly called an earnest though there be also some dissimilitudes as is to be shewed insomuch that he who findeth he hath grace here may certainly conclude he shall have glory hereafter for though there be some who hold that some may have true faith and yet totally fall off and that only the elected beleever shall persevere yet that is built upon a sandy foundation In the second place you have the efficient cause of this and that is the spirit of God Some indeed make this by way of apposition The earnest which is the spirit as if the spirit it self both in this and the other Text were the earnest which may be received provided that by the spirit we mean not only the person of the spirit but the gracious operations thereof for the people of God partake of both Eph. 1. 13. They are said to be sealed with that holy spirit of promise called so not because it is the spirit promised for that is too frigid though it be
some by election also and that there are persevering sons and apostatizing wherein election maketh the difference which opinion some attribute to Austin is wholly inconsistent with Scripture and Austin himself in other places if that were his opinion The godly then are to look upon the grace of God wrought in them as the effect of Gods immutable and unchangeable love which will certainly obtain its end Secondly Their certainty of salvation and so of perseverance therein is built upon the many promises of God which are made to this very end as that famous one Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me What can be more pregnant than this God covenants he will not turn from them and withall to put such fear in their hearts that they shall not turn from him So also Phil. 1. 6. being confident of this very thing that he who hath begun a good work in you will also finish it His confidence was not in them for alas we should prove the prodigals and lose all but it is in Gods grace and that because he had begun for none shall say of him he began to build and could not finish So that the wisedom mercy and glory of God is interested in our perseverance and indeed if our sinnes should hinder him from continuance of his grace why did they not from the beginning at first were we not then objects of his displeasure So that in our conversion the greatest work was done then we had as Chrysostome saith upon the place the beginning and root of what was to come Lastly The union that is between Christ and a beleever being indissoluble doth necessarily infer the certainty of his salvation a member of Christs body shall not be taken from him and thrown into hell for from this union as their bodies shall necessarily rise to glory so their souls also shall be prepared for the same SERM. CXL Of Swearing 2 COR. 1. 23. Moreover I call God to record upon my soul that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth THe Apostle having made a short but happy and admirable digression occasioned from his discourse vers 17. about the calumny of levity and carnal reasonings and motives concerning his promise to come to them doth in this verse return to that matter again plainly informing of them that it was not any inconstancy or carnal respect in himself that made him delay his coming but the fault was wholly in themselves they were not yet prepared for his coming which for the greater confirmation and authority he doth attest with a solemn and sacred Oath It is true Chrysostome doth beginne the second Chapter at this Text and so the Syriack Yea Beza saith We ought to beginne the second Chapter here In which respect Calvin and Musculus comment upon it accordingly but the matter is not worth a contest In the words you may observe 1. An Oath And 2. The Matter of an Oath 1. The Oath is a very compleat and perfect one I call God to witnesse upon my soul Of the Oath first As for Pelagians and others who affirm an Oath to be unlawfull under the Gospel at least and that in these or the like expressions Paul doth not swear because he doth not use the Preposition per or by or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek it 's an absurdity afterwards to be refelled The Oath in the Text is an Assertory Oath wherein God is expresly called upon as a witnesse and withall an Execration is added Upon my soul that is Let God damn my soul if it be not true he doth not mention his soul as part of the Oath as if that were a witnesse as well as God but he mentioneth it as a pawn or pledge and so it is lawfull to name some creatures that we love or are dear to us in an oath not that we may swear by them but as pledges So that this Oath is both Assertory and Execratory not that these make two distinct kindes of Oaths for one doth necessarily imply the other He that calleth upon God as a Witnesse doth thereby imply him a Judge and an Avenger if he swear falsly Onely I call it an Execratory Oath as well as an Assertory because the Execration is mentioned whereas for the most part in Oaths it is not expressed If you say What reason or urgent necessity was here for Paul thus to make such a deliberate and solemn Oath I answer Very great The adversaries of Paul did accuse him and traduce him for a vain and inconstant person which hereby did redound to the dishonour of the Ministry the hinderance of the Gospel the destruction of Christs Church therefore it was necessary for him to take this Oath That no carnal motive made him delay his promise but a wise and spiritual consideration of their good Thus at another time speaking of his earnest affections to his brethren after the flesh Rom. 9. 1. he sweareth after this manner I speake the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing witnesse in the Holy Ghost So in this Epistle again 2 Corinth 11. 20. As the truth of Christ is in me Rom. 1. 9. For God is my witnesse that I make mention of you alwayes in my prayers Gal. 1. 20. The things that I write unto you behold before God I lie not Thus you see by many instances the holy Apostle making use of an Oath but alwayes upon necessary occasions for Gods glory and the edification of others From whence observe That it is lawfull even under the Gospel to swear after a right and godly manner upon necessary and urgent occasions I say under the Gospel for some have granted it lawfull under the Old Testament as they say to circumcise to sacrifice was but under the Gospel they hold it absolutely forbidden So that the handling of this truth about swearing or a lawfull oath is of great importance both for doctrinal information against Pelagians Socinians some Anabaptists who hold it unlawfull under the Gospel As also of direction to know wherein an Oath doth consist and whether many formes used commonly by people are oaths or no. And then withall it is of great practical use if possible to remove that ungodly and wicked custome of ordinary swearing without any due consideration of the nature of an oath For how general and epidemical is this sinne Old and young yea little children can swear as soon as speake rich and poore yea men glory in their oaths and deride at the strictnesse of such who will be so precise as to abstaine from them They looke upon oathes as the glory of their speech and becoming a Gentleman But Solomon's description of a godly man will abide good when such prophane miscreants shall lie for ever roaring in hell
What is implied in Gods being our Father 120 What in the expression Our Father 121 God is the Father of mercies 140 What is implyed in Gods being the Father of mercies 141 142 143 144 Fear of Death vid. Death Flesh Faith and Flesh passe different judgments upon afflictions 274 c. Of the phrase walking according to the Flesh 520 VValking by principles of Flesh makes men unconstant 521 VVhat are the principles of Flesh 521 522 523 Forme How the Forme of a thing may be a note or mark of it 61 G Glory of God 'T Is the duty of all Christians especially Ministers to lay out themselves for the Glory of God 500 501 Propositions clearing it 501 502 503 What is required to enable us to doe all things for Gods glory 504 Glorying vid. Rejoycing God Of the Names of God 117 God alone can give grace and peace to his people 118 119 God a Father especially to true believers 120 What it implies ib. He is a Father to the weakest as well as strongest believer 121 He is a true God 536 He is the Father of mercies V i de Father Godly Truly Godly though eminent yet humble 37 Godlinesse and a Godly life is very convincing and of great advantage 455 456 Why oft not convincing 456 457 Grace Four acceptions of the word Grace 66 Grace to be desired before all other things 100 Seven propositions discovering the nature of the Grace of God 100 101 102 What are the opposites of Grace 102 Who are fit subjects of the Grace of God 103 104 105 Many erre about the Grace of God and yet are extreamly opposite one to another 105 Four Scripture-characters of the Grace of God 106 107 What is requisite to a certain knowledge of our being in a state of Grace 395 396 What to an experimental discerning of our Graces 397 398 The godly ascribe all to Grace 433 Propositions clearing it 433 434 What is that Grace which the Apostle exalts above fleshly wisdome 434 435 436 What are the Graces which the Apostle acknowledgeth in his Ministay 434 435 436 437 c. Grace the earnest of glory Vid. Earnest Growing In what things believers are to be alwayes Growing 497 498 H Hope OF Paul's Hope concerning the Corinthians 245 Hope Divine and Moral 246 'T is great encouragement in a Minister to see good grounds of Hope in his people ibid. What things are they which made Paul have such an Hope of the Corinthians and other Ministers of their people 247 248 249 Humility Humility in the godly though eminent 37 Wherein it discovers it self 38 39 What are the grounds of it 39 40 I Jesus OF the name Jesus 24 How Christ is a Jesus a Saviour 25 565 What kind of Saviour he is 26 He is a Lord. 122 Four propositions clearing it 123 124 125 What is implyed in his being a Saviour 565 566 567 To whom he is a Saviour 567 568 Inconstancy Inconstancy a great sinne in all especially in Ministers 510 546 547 548 c. Of its sinfulnesse in civil respects 511 512 Its aggravations 513 514 Its sinfulesse in spiritual respects 515 516 Motives against it 517 518 The causes of it 553 Joy A two-fold Joy direct or reflex 175. 'T is either spiritual or corporeal 176 Judgement-day vid. Day K Knowledge CErtain Knowledge vid. Assurance L Learning LEarning an excellent qualification 7 Sometimes through the corruption of man 't is made use of for the promoting the Devils kingdom ibid. 'T is not from the nature of Learning 8 Learning not sufficient without the Spirit for the understanding of the Scriptures ib Lord. Christ our Lord vid. Christ Lying Lying not consistent with godlinesse 530 Propositions concerning the nature and kinds of Lying 531 532 533 Means against it 534 The causes of it 534 535 M Means MEans to be made use of notwithstanding our trusting in God 355 Two propositions clearing it 355 356 How we should make use of Means and yet rely wholly upon Christ 356 357 358 Meditation Meditation upon Gods mercies very usefull 133 Mercies Of the variety of Gods Mercies 144 145 146 The properties of Gods Mercies 146 Who are the fit object of Gods Mercies 147 'T is dangerous to conceive of Gods Mercies without Scripture-light 155 Mercies acknowledged by believers not only in general but with all their aggravations 330 331 VVherein they use to aggravate their Mercies 331 332 333 334 Mercies not only positive but privative and preventing to be accounted of 335 Propositions clearing it 335 336 c. Rules to affect our hearts concerning preventing Mercies 337 338 339 Mercies are not only bestowed but continued by God 340 Reasons of it 342 343 All Mercies come from God 369 God is the Father of Mercies vid. Father Minister It is a Ministers duty by all lawfull means to promote the Church he is related to 81 Ministers meet with much opposition from worldly professors 260 261 Mercies vouchsafed to Ministers are to be accounted as Church-mercies 378 Ministers ought not to use fleshly wisdome 423 Godlinesse in a Minister especially advantageous 454 455 456 'T is an happy thing for Minister and people to rejoyce in one another 468 Propositions clearing it 469 470 How a people ought to rejoyce in their Minister 470 471 VVherein a Minister hath cause to rejoyce over his people 473 474 475 c. VVhere a Minister hath hopes of doing good he is encouraged to abide 490 Propositions clearing it 490 491 492 A Ministers hope of doing good should be matter of joy to him 493 Ministers especially ought to lay out themselves for the glory of God 501 502 503 A Ministers changeablenesse makes his Ministry uselesse 546 Propositions clearing it 546 547 548 c. VVhere there is any fault in one Minister the people are apt to lay it upon all 572 'T is an happy thing when all Ministers agree to advance Christ 273 The effects of that agreement 573 574 The true Ministers of Gods truth always the same 575 Ministers have no dominion over their peoples faith 684 What is not implied in that truth 684 685 VVhat is 686 687 Ministers ought to comfort their people 689 Propositions clearing it 689 690 Reasons of it 691 'T is of great consequence that the young Ministers should have the guidance of the more experienced 49 Ministry What are the graces the Apostle acknowledged in his Ministry 435 436 437 438 c. Gods presence with the Ministry renders the people inexcusable 448 449 Propositions clearing it 450 451 Wherein the successe of a faithfull Ministry is seen 451 452 A constant Ministry necessary for every Church 495 For what ends 495 496 497 VVhere the Ministry hath wrought spiritually 't is esteemed highly 509 The failings of Ministers are oft cast upon the Ministry 541 Propositions illustrating it 541 542 543 VVhere the work of the Ministry is great the help of others is required 571 Ministerial power is to be managed with much prudence 678 The Ministerial
Though a bruised reed breaketh him more though but a smoaking flax yet ready to quench it this I say is adjudged by those who labour under it worse then death more bitter then death We have a remarkable instance for this in Heman Psalme 88. where Verse 14 15 16. he maketh bitter complaint under soul-terrours Why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted and Verse 3. he saith He was free from amongst the dead as the slain that lye in the grave whom God remembreth no more Yea his temptation doth so overcloud him that he seemeth to question the truth of our Doctrine v. 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee This good man must needs be greatly dejected when he doubteth of this for nothing is more ordinary with God then to shew wonders to the dead and therefore had he but possessed his heart with this truth he had been able to walk on those waters whereas now he is ready to sink had he concluded saying Oh my soul why art thou cast down within thee what though thou art dead yet it is God that raiseth the dead the dead have cause to praise him this would have revived him Yea God for the most part will not come in to help till we look upon our selves as dead even as Christ did delay till Lazarus was dead and putrifying in the grave that so his glorious power might be the more discovered in restoring of him to life Indeed the Psalmist might have argued that if God should â—uite forsake him suffering him to be swallowed up in despaire Do those that despaire do they praise thee Do the damned in Hell blesse and glorifie thy name If then in these sad and bitter temptations upon thy soul thou wouldst have some worke to get into then remember this truth God raiseth the dead Thus we have heard in what particulars this Doctrine is true let us now consider what is implyed in this expression God raiseth the dead And 1. It supposeth That Gods own Children may be brought into an helplesse and hopelesse estate They may be in a Wildernesse so that if God doth not extraordinarily provide Manna for them they will perish for you must know that this is attributed to God chiefly for the godly mans sake For though the wicked may sometimes be delivered from imminent dangers yet that is by the generall providence of God who doth in Heaven and Earth what he pleaseth but the godly are delivered from the speciall love of God and his peculiar promise to them of being their God So that it is in this case as it is in the Resurrection all men shall be raised from the dead even the wicked as well as the just only the wicked shall be raised by the power of God as a just judge but the godly as Members of Christ and from that speciall Covenant of grace God made with them and upon this foundation Luke 20. 37. doth Christ prove the Resurrection because he is the God of Abraham the God of Isaack and the God of Jacob. These are mentioned rather then Noah or Enoch when yet God was also their God because to those the promise of grace was either at first made or afterwards repeated As therefore because God is a God in Covenant he will raise up their dead bodies so from this relation he will raise thee up from thy extreame necessities yet this supposeth that God though he loveth us so as to deliver from evill yet he will not alwayes prevent the evill 2. Here is implyed That God hath an immediate soveraignty and dominiâ—â— over all conditions and estates be they never so bitter and hopelesse We cannot say of the true God that he is the God of the Vallies but not of the Hils also When that Lord would not believe God could on a suddaine provide such incredible plenty he was severely punished for it The Israelites also are taken notice of for limiting God Psal 78 9. Though God had given them water yet say they Can he furnish a Table in the Wilderness Oh how often are we guilty of such distrust though God hath done thus and thus yet can he do this also But he raiseth the dead he hath a command over all things Hence God is said 1 Cor. 1. 28. To choose things that are not thereby to confound things that are So that there is no tentation no affliction but God can command it and work what he pleaseth out of it for thy good he can raise up Children to Abraham out of stones he can make Grapes to grow of Thornes and Figs of Thistles 3. There is implyed That our extremities are Gods opportunities They are the proper time to work in and not before Why doth he not say God that healeth the sick that comforteth the sorrowfull but instanceth in the utmost of all that raiseth the dead but to shew that it is commonly Gods way to delay his help till it be at the very outmost Christ would not turne water into Wine till all was spent When the poor creeple that lay so long by the Poole side said I have no man to help me then Christ healed him It became a Proverbe in the Church of old In the Mount the Lord will be seen God lets Abraham alone till he was lifting up his hand to give a mortall blow and then God appeareth providing also a Ram in Isaacs stead Thus it was also with Abraham God provideth him a Son out of a dead Wombe that so his glory may be more exalted commonly a godly mans Isaacs his joyes and comforts are brought out of the dead Wombe of the Creatures What more is to be said herein will come in seasonably in the next Verse Let us from the premisses make this Use Doth God raise even the dead and may such put trust in God Then shame and reprove thy saying oh me slow to believe oh me dull and heavy about Heavenly duties for though my afflictions are but weak and ordinary there is nothing above measure or strength in them yet I am ready to faint how can this be forgiven to me As the Apostle said in another case you have not yet resisted to blood So it may be thy exercises have never been so grievous and extreame so as thou art to be accounted as a dry bone as a dead man and yet I have much ado to trust in God in these inferior tryals Cry out unto the Lord to help thee in these weak graces be ashamed when any little trouble is apt to disquiet thee to discompose thee Oh say if it were the worst condition that could come upon me if it were the heaviest tryall that could fall on me yet I was to trust in him who raiseth the dead SERM. LXXIV We are not to consider Gods Mercies in general onely but their several Aggravations also 2 COR. 1. 10. Who delivered