〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a house and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distribute Which makes the sense run thus according to that family distribution which God hath made to me The holy Ghost distinguisheth gifts into good and perfect both come downe from above but under a diverse notion the one as common to all the World the other as proper to his Family they are good gifts in themselves which bade men have their health their wealth their learning all good gifts but not perfect gifts they want one thing as our Saviour spake to the young man in this case and this one thing the maine of all to wit the speciall love of God fatherly mercy rapt up in them Family distribution is fatherly goodnesse speciall mercy a perfect gift Choyce indowment is mans blessednesse Doct. This God gives All the posterity of Jacob were blessed but Joseph was a Nazarite amongst his Brethren saith the Text i culled out by speciall providence from all the rest and choicely indowed and imploid the very creame of Love dished out to him The pretious fruits brought forth by the Sun and the pretious things which put forth by the Moone and the chiefe things of the ancient Mountaines c. And observe here the prime blessing is brought up in the Reare that which makes all other gifts perfect and the favourable acceptance of him that dwelt in the bramble the favour and love of God wrapt up in every thing wee have is that which makes them full mercies and this had Ioseph Deut. 83.16 he had top favours blessings came upon his head upon the top of him that was a Nazarite from his brethren This kind of providence died not with those persons and times but lives still in an Evangelicall sense Christ goes through this World and picks out here and there one from among his brethren and makes him a Nazarite indowes him with choyce mercies Family dispensations bespangles him with such Jewells as they weare above in his own Court riches of the body and riches of the minde and inlayes them all with the good will of him that dwelt in the Bramble This was prophecied then when the Patriarchs had their speciall indowments and touched in their kindnesse the Scepter shall not depart from Judah c. and unto him shall the gathering of the people be Gnammim peoples Gnammim binding his foale unto the Vine and his Asses colt unto the choyce Vine Gen. 49.11 Christ doth gather and select still even among the Gentiles As far as us Gentiles doe these words looke To him shall the gathering of the peoples bee Not one people to wit the Iewes but peoples Jewes and Gentiles A choyce Vine Christ findes out amongst us Trees of speciall vertue and noble blood and spirits above all Trees and ties his foale to these unites himselfe to this body by the same spirit by which he so indowed and ennobled that ancient people of the Iewes Choyce indowments being mans blessednesse and this sesable that which God gives now I would fasten this naile in the temple with a word of use Vse Content not your selves with common blessings covet the best gifts seeke family favours childrens mercies or you cannot be happy We place blessednesse here t is not here t was here but is not now t is risen t is above there must your industry lie Seeke those things which are above where Christ is at the right hand of God The mercies of Gods owne family make us and none else Such dispensations as have the speciall love of God wrapt up in them Let no man thinke this an unpossible thing to attaine the things that are above will come down to the conservation of the whole the naturall Heavens will descend the supernaturall will too Christ though at the right hand of God will come down and sit at your right hand and guide you and impart the things that are above to you clothe you in the habit and fashion of that countrey if sought to and desired But the plague is our hearts are carnall and lust onely after low things we place blessednesse in our belly and worship Dagon Dagan frumenti Deus a belly-god The Apostle alludes to this where he saith Whose God is their belly Red pottage lusted after the birth-right is nothing How affection workes is not heeded by you yet your life is in it and it goes to the heart of God to see how you lavish and lay it out for that which is not of any nobility or worth in order to such creatures as you are Wherefore doe you spend money for that which is not bread not white bread not living bread not that bread which came down from Heaven not such as the family above feede on You that feed on such mercies owe much to God I will touch this and conclude You that are like Joseph Nazarites among your brethren separated from thousands of your owne flesh and bone and made great endowed with Noble gifts and imployed in Noble workes to attend upon the great King of all the world as his onely favourites your should doe as Joseph Goe saith he haste ye to my father and tell him thus saith thy sonne Joseph God hath made me Lord of all Egypt come down to me tarry not Genes 45.9 divine mystery is in all this and it hints your duty goe haste you to Heaven and tell your father what honour is by the Lord Jesus bestowed on you that he hath made you Lords over all Egypt over all your lusts which did keepe you in bondage that he hath put his owne ring upon your hand and his owne Gold-chaine about your necke and made you secundi the next to him in all the world and onely in the Throne is greater then you t is a sweet thing to be going often to Heaven and telling there how much we feele of it upon earth Choice endowments call for choice duty as we are winged we should mount There were choice vowes under the old covenant Deut. 12.11 Some choice offerings that upon some choice mercies received they performed to God You have received choice mercies make choice vowes understand me Gospelly make sweet Gospell raptures of all Noble favours received Your Roman dames had some Jewels worth millions which they called uniones because they were incomparable and had none like them singulars such as had no fellowes and these they bequeathed when they died as an inheritance to posterity they were of so great worth God hath given unto you such precious Jewels uniones singular gifts such as cannot be fellowed in many of your brethren weare these Jewels every day though it was the fashion of the Roman dames to weare their uniones upon great daies hold forth all your choice gifts choicely to the great glory of Christ My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the onely one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her the daughters
ENGLAND Faithfully watcht with In her Wounds OR Christ as a Father sitting up with his Children in their swooning state Which is the summe of severall Lectures painfully preached upon COLOSSIANS 1. By Nicho. Lockyer M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX I will stand upon my watch and abide upon the tower and intensely fix my meditation to perceive what he will speak in me and what I shall answer when upon my argumentation Hab. 2.1 But watch thou in all things bear evils fulfill thy Ministery 2 Tim. 4.5 Published according to Order LONDON Printed by M. S. for John Rothwell at the Sun and Fountain in Pauls Church-yard and Ben. Allen at the Crown in Popes-head Alley 1646. To the distressed DOMINIONS OF ENGLAND EVery Creature since the fall is very unruly * Paerae Adam all the earth is wilde 't is the Scriptures Motto upon the creation and of the more magnitude any way the more unruly the bigger in bulk or brain the bigger bent upon it to destroy all neither God nor self excepted The misery of the creatures is distinguished in this point by Solomon oft into folly and madnesse there is a kinde of madnesse in all inferiour creatures and as such are cast into prison Job out of the grate of his own prison saw such a truth and instanceth some of the creatures below him instead of all the rest though not so meekly I think as should have been considering whom he spake to Job 7.12 Am I a Sea or a Whale that thou putt'st gnalai mishmar a prison upon me Job grants madnesse in creatures below him and their imprisonment upon this ground to be just but saw not his own strong distemper by which he did so criminate Christ which neither the Whale nor the Sea nor any creature else below man doth which was not only madness but folly and madness i. reason forced into more then unreasonablenesse Kingdomes and Nations may for their magnitude be fitly compared to Whales and Seas and the one as easily as the other doth the great God cast into prison when mad and truly thus have the Dominions of England for the generality been a great while and 't is well if all our bleeding hath any whit asswag'd it and therefore though wee have suffered much and yet may much more we cannot look out at the grate of our prison and criminate him that cast us in A contented person cannot be miserable no more can a contented Kingdome Contentednesse hath much when she hath but a house over her head A prison-house is a house * Yea a pit is a house beth habbor Jer. 37.16 although not all-out so well furnished and accommodated as other houses there is something harder fare lodging and usage but yet some shelter and some nourishment to keep life beside opportunities to cry out at prison-windows to enlarge short allowance and many a refreshment comes in at windows when dores are shut and the man still a prisoner The prison-house of the Whale is its own element which lessens much his bondage so I may say to these Nations our prison-house hath been our own Land which considering how small 't is how wasting and desolating our triall and how neer many big mouths which gape after us is the unexpressible love of Christ this mercy is more then all our misery Besides we have not been close prisoners we have had the liberty to cry out at our prison windows and have got many refreshments from Heaven this way in our greatest straits and hardships which indeed also addes much to the magnitude of our mercies Some stars which seem but small and scarce to twinkle with any visible rayes at first looking upon yet biggen much both in magnitude and lustre by a fixed eye upon them So truly will all the mercies of Christ to England in those Christians eyes who can seriously fix upon them Misery look't upon as mixed with mercy is as course earth inlaid with precious Ore very delightfull and gainfull but otherwise lookt on it imbitters and worsens those on whom it is of which great evill England take heed Many now complain much of bad times which should amongst Christians have a Christian construction but to speak properly in this point times are bad only to bad hearts and unto them indeed they are very bad Sinners have worsen'd very much I grant in these few yeers of Gods heavie hand upon us more I think then in many yeers before thousands look now very black in the face as neer death wrath and cutting off which lookt but a little while ago as Cedars in Lebanon and as if they would have liv'd a long life even life for evermore From marad which signifies to rebell comes marud which signifies poor afflicted cast out They which rebell under the hand of God against the will and wayes of God may talk and vaunt of impoverishing afflicting and casting out others but Christ will bring all these upon them The trialls which were upon England in the Bishops time occasioned many apostates so have those which have been lately upon us between the King and Parliament which generation of men are the sharpest swords to kill a Land * When changes in a kingdome make changelings i. from Christ so the Hebrews call an Apostate Deut. 21.18 Moreh signifies saith Mr. Ainsworth one that turns inwardly to the worse and such a one I may call Morah novacula a Razor If there be any Razors in a Kingdome to cut the throat on 't these are they The Eastern parts of the world had a prison which they called Maphecheth from Haphach vertit to turn because evertuntur sontium corpora the limbs and bodies of men were wrested and turned out of joynt But though these prisons were bad yet those are far worse which wrest and turn the soules of men out of joynt i. further off from Christ and his will then they were before and yet so hath thy prison poor England done to many Such sad events of Gods hand call every heart in his place to be a faithfull watch-man to be more then vigilantes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Shepherds which gave tidings of Christ were called Sub dio degere Livers in the field One may be vigilans in his bed as the Critick speaks though he stir not out of his house but our condition calls every one in his place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to watch at home and abroad in the city and in the field to lay out and lie out to know no canopy so glorious as the open heavens my meaning is we should so intend the good of Church and State publike and private so watch over all as to give out all in the work At this height for thy welfare England and the glory of Christ I have sincerely aimed and endevoured and shall do in the few daies and little strength I have left An acceptable testimony of what I have done let this labour
your affections burn and your hearts beat to be redeemed That 's well then there is but one step more believe and you are redeemed out of bondage and this will be wrought it will spring and grow insensibly out of those pantings and breathings which are upon you I have seen the bondage of my people and I have heard their cry saith God When bondage makes crying out O what shall I do and who shall deliver me Enemies are got into a body and are deadly strong a body of death besets my soul and in the midst of this body shall not I loose my soul Now the sinner is turned from iniquity and now the redeemer comes to Sion Let the redeemed admire and adore the redeemer this one thing I will touch and give up the point and I am the rather induced unto it because 't is the use made in my text In whom we have redemption through his bloud Which words are spoken in way of admiration and thanksgiving and are but the continuation of that thanksgiving which is begun in the verse fore-going The redemption of the soul is precious silver would not reach it gold would not reach it onely the precious bloud of Christ would do it precious bloud must stirre and precious spirits leap from this consideration as high as heaven and spurtle up in Gods face Freedome binds man all must be sent to heaven that is saved from hell Let the redeemed say this and say that saith the Psalmist Redemption is obligation who ever hangs by his harp a redeemed person must not because he hath his advantage with him above all others his lesson set and laid before him yea his instrument tuned and put into his hand his lips are opened as the Psalmist speaks 't is but stirre thy tongue and matter cannot be wanting nor affections be able to lie still He that died for us must be perfumed and carried home honourably and buried in his own countrey as Jacob was he that died for you on earth must be perfumed by praises and carried to his own countrey and buried in heaven You must not bury Christ in his works but take him up out of his works and words and carry him to heaven and bury him there Nature abhorres burying things in their own bloud you must not bury Christ in his own bloud but take him up out of his bloud and bath him and perfume him and lay him to sleep in the arms of his father The redemption we speak of here and would have you thankfull for respects your souls and your bodies what mercy comes to either is a blessing from Christ as a Redeemer Not a deliverance in these bloudy times but from the bloud of Christ from that great redeemer that sits in heaven Bodily redemption is but the outside of soul-redemption I hope the blindest sight will be able to see the out-sides of mercy Blind wretches look upon temporall redemptions which now Christ makes and see if you can blesse him for these you had not had the lives of your bodies nor the livelihood of your estates at this houre had not your redeemer pleaded for you had not he pleaded for you w th his bloud you had been all ere this tumbling in your own bloud you had had your bloud trod under foot by those which have long trod under foot the bloud of Christ One redeemer works all redemptions for soul and body one redeemer pleads in soul-cases and in bodily cases See a full plain place Prov. 23.18 Enter not into the fields of the fatherlesse for their redeemer is mightie he shall plead their cause with thee It is but one redeemer that pleads for us in spirituall things and in corporall and therefore in all mercies both spirituall and corporall let Christ be honoured and praised Coloss 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his bloud THe way of grace is here considerable life comes through death God comes in Christ and Christ comes in bloud to save The choisest mercies come through the greatest miseries prime favours come swimming in bloud to us Through a red sea Israel came to Canaan Many a man lost his life and much bloud shed the very land flowing with milk and honey made to flow with bloud ere Israel could inherit the promise seven nations were destroyed ere the land of Canaan was divided to the Israelites Acts 13 19. Israel came to Canaan through bloud and kept in Canaan through bloud Samson was strangled in his own bloud like Christ to keep bloud and life in that blessed people The harlot had her life by a scarlet thread and so had the rest of her faith As the promised land so the promised crown came swimming to David in bloud how many men died and how near was David death many times ere that promise of his honour did live Josephs garment was dipt in bloud and he dead alive for so many years and this was the way to his greatnesse and to the saving of the life of all the holy seed Sinne makes mercie so deadly hard in bringing forth to cristen every precious child every Benjamin Benoni every sonne of Gods right hand a sonne of sorrow and death to her that brings him forth Adam's sweets had no bitter till he transgressed Gods will one mercie did not die to bring forth another till he died One creature was a felicitie for another and none a death to or for another mercy generated mercy and man fed upon the cream and top of all and yet the bottom as sweet as the top mans felicitie was no creatures misery under him they were happy in him and he in them and all in the presence of God to each I will rain bread from heaven saith God to Moses and this was an extraordinary thing then and yet ordinary to Adam before his fall spiritually understood he had all his provision without cost or toil his felicity descended from heaven upon him as dew heaven and earth opened and not any ones sides or veins and so mercy streamed upon him he had his felicity with no more hardship then Angels Man would have his pleasure and God would have his too divine pleasure hath turned the course of love The sea hath runne so many thousand years in such a channell yet God can when he will turn it into another though so broad and big an element The sea is bottomlesse but not boundlesse 't is ordered by the pleasure of God and so is mercy the will of God bounds it orders it keeps it in and lets it forth through what channells it will life through death heaven through hell The first covenant was sealed with life the tree of life was the seal of Adams first grace and favour the second covenant is ratified with death the tree of life must die or else none could live by eating of it 't is not life out of life now as out of the first covenant but life out of death and this necessarily because
Christ we may conclude full successe that is in the thing and in the circumstance of time Christ doth so much as God intends and in such a time in so many dayes he was to make the world and he did it to a punctum of time and rested with his Father and in so many years he is to make a new world First and second resurrection are timed in word so shall be in work the two beloved cities wil be built one after another in their predicted time and he will do it exact to a punctum of time and then give it up all to his Father and rest with him and his Church for ever Time is in Christs hand as well as the work of time the Father hath put all into his hand my times are in thy hand The great world may say to Christ My times was in thy hand in so many dayes didst thou bring me forth and so many years wilt thou uphold me And the new world may say My time is in thy hand in so many years thou wilt bring me forth You murmure that things go no faster on the time of the new world is in Christs hand and it should be rest enough to a saint in all troubles to look up and consider in whose hands worlds are transacted God moveth in one that answers his will exact that observeth his work and his time Lo I come as it is written in the volume of thy book Search how it is written concerning Christs creating this new world and you shall see that he will come and do it exactly Lo I come as it is written saith Christ but not as impatient spirits expect instruments must be blamed when they take not their time I mean instruments which we imploy for our good in this time of distresse but the heart must be quieted in this that Gods agent exactly keeps his time This is not all your consolation you may argue for the choisest mercies upon this ground that God is your Creatour in Christ Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may live Psal 119.73 from such power you may argue to such love from great power you may argue for great love Thou didst create me in Christ according to such a noble being do thou new create me in Christ for the restauration of this being as if the Psalmist had so said this I think may be his meaning and the strength of his argument Many of you are weary of your being you do so sinne but you might have more comfort in your being if you did look up and consider who gave it and what obligement lies upon him by it he gave your being in Christ and he will restore this being in Christ if you plead it to him as David Thine hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may live Thus do thou say to God A child of God may argue love and compassion from any thing that Gods hand doth to him upon this very ground because he doth all that he doth to him in Christ To ungodly persons Sinners the Scripture pressetn obedience to Christ upon you from this point upon pain of death that all things are made in and by him how able is he to take away being from all which gave it to all Reade Proverbs 8.31.32 After that Christ is there mentioned in state as the Creatour of all this he inferreth upon it viz. Now therefore hearken unto me O ye children that is children by creation for blessed are they that keep my wayes Heare instruction and be wise and refuse it not He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul So he concludeth as Christ is complete to attract love the same will be his sufficiency and advantage to aggravate our sliding off him for thus Christ will say to sinners at the great day I am a first-born I am the Image of the Father I am a Redeemer I am a Creatour and yet though all these thou regardest me not all excellencies sleighted shall be turned into so many rods to lash your dead souls The sins you love will destroy your being and your being being destroyed you will fall into your Creatours hand again and what being do you think he will give you then God dealeth with you as you are you are naturall and he fetcheth argument against you from nature as what is more naturall to you then your being the lower God stoupes to stirre you and you yet unmoved the more obstinate you are you are no new creatures therefore God argueth with you simply as creatures and then you shew your selves blocks you use no art about a block but to burn it and so doth God when sinners become sots and blocks and understand not so much as the principall of their naturall being though opened and urged upon them by a God blockish souls think on this you will have a very hot sermon to warm you when you come to your place Coloss 1.16 And that are in earth BEing and disposition of being are from Christ he createth all and disposeth all You make creatures and then you place your creatures and preferre them as you think good and so doth Christ and he telleth you where some in Heaven and some in earth he suiteth place to person pure persons are placed in Heaven and impure in earth where we are placed is that which I am now come to tell you in earth for by him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in earth c. What kind of room we live in here these words command me to set out unto you and then to ask you how you like it 1. Low 'T is a low room we are in here the earth is the lowest element lower then the aire lower then the water and yet as earth comprehendeth both these 't is but Gods footstool Swear not by the earth for 't is his footstool a footstool speaketh the lowest service such is the earth and all things in it of the lowest use to God 't is a kitchin below stairs to scour vessels in and 't is a conveyance for the filth that cometh off there is a gutter out of earth into hell to carry away all things that offend hell is the sink which belongeth to the earth God hath more noble service done in one moment in Heaven then in all the earth in all the age of it though it be now many thousand years old In this lower room wherein we are here is nothing done but kitchin work washing and scouring killing stripping and fleaing that which is fat Earth is the slaughter house that belongeth to hell hearts that are made fat are killed on earth and rosted in hell We dwell in Gods kitchin and the devils slaughter-house in earth this is low and this is the first thing earth speaketh a lower room 'T is common Lions and Bears Wolves and Men are all in one room in earth Frogs and
owne it is least considered when so but not least of importance for God hath some great designe upon the man when hee strikes every stroke himselfe Sometimes God stands behind Shimei and le ts fly at a man and wounds deeply and then t is not so easie to see him because an earthen breast-work is before him Sometimes he appeares in the front in person himselfe like Goliah and makes the incounter by duell hand to hand with the Creature the creature smites and God smites Name State Flesh and Spirit God would faine be seene and knowne of the soule when he does thus if it cannot be he lets the creature lick himselfe whole if he can Afflictions from man immediately are here meant and not such as are from God immediately Creatures of the same kind are used to spit in one anothers face to scratch and teare one another a Cat a Cat a Dog a Dog a Man a Man Creatures of the same kind to say no more are used to tread upon one anothers toes to afflict one another All earth beares thornes chuse out what earth you will sift it how you will appoint it to what you will to be a pillow for repose a breast a bosome a bed of flowers to solace in yet there will grow up thornes and pricke Creatures one by creation one by redemption yea one by mutuall election differ fall out afflict one another man afflictes man that was Pauls case here saint afflicts saint husband afflictes wife wife curses husband things made and chosen of purpose to delight sad thornes will grow in ones bosome here You cannot take a rose to smell to here out of any Garden but hath prickles unlesse the Rose of Sharon All is vanity yea vexation all below us all equall with us onely that all excepted which is above us which onely is indeed all and in him is light and no darkenesse sweet and no bitternesse in that earth growes no thornes Man afflictes man yea man oppresseth man that is affliction in strength malum multiplex a manifold evill which is the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here used t is translated by some compression a den of theeves a nest of hornets many afflictions in one or under one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.25 simul malis vexari to be vexed with many evills together 't is spoken of Moses who cast himselfe upon oppression with Gods people in Egypt which expression sets out fully what oppression is 't is some vitall wounded some maine part trod upon as name state body soule something brutishly bruised and torne that maims or marres livelyhood internall or extenall some such thing troden to death as hath many little ones in the belly of it t is a Kid killed and seethed in such liquor as should nourish many in Mother-milke t is a Mother-mercy destroyed whilst in travaile for the good of the whole Good name is a mother-Mother-mercy many are nourished by it so is estate so is the body so is the soule all these travell perpetually in this world for the tranquillity of the whole and of the maine to beare up great things Heaven and Earth the glory of God and the welfare of every relation wherein such a creature stands any of these therefore torne and ript up whilest thus in travaile for the good of the whole is cruelty and oppression Oppression speakes injury but no small injury not the dashing ones cloathes accidentally or intentionally as one goes by but it alwayes notes something that dashes the person in one main thing or other 't is a Dog that flies at the throate at something that is vitall and teares that at something that tends to throw downe the person and welfare of such a creature 'T is a diabolicall quality insinuated by a cursed spirit whereby one creatures being is too blessed in the eye of another Men one in birth from the Earth yet wisdome hath ranked them variously upon it some higher some lower some have much some lesse all have wisdomes portion and therefore it should be accounted enough and content but it doth not one mans mansion is not fine enough anothers not big enough one person better beloved better indowed better succeeded if hee were dead dead in esteeme or dead in being all these deepe waters would turne and run into my cisterne if Abel were dead if Iacob were dead if Mordecai were dead then I should be all and have all I should be the onely favorite in the world and so quietly abide Yee kill and desire to have and cannot obtain James 4.2 oppression is a bloudy spirit striking still at something that is vitall at the person livelyhood or life it selfe if one will not fall without the other 'T is an evill springing from the root of all evill to wit covetousnesse yee kill and desire to have 'T is a man of the Earth saith the Psalmist and hee would be alone upon it though there were no Rivers and houses in it for delight but such as hee hath made with the bloud and bones of all such as live neere him That the man of the earth may no more oppresse Psalme 10.18 the word oppresse signifies to terrifie and so you have it noted in the margent intimating what an oppressor is t is a brute that terrifies all that come neere him to eate or drinke by him that he may have all alone and what hee cannot eate or drink he puddles and spoiles Oppression is made vi aut dolis by force or by fraud man can use both as hee is advantaged and as his game lies Parts internall are all subdued by that lust which rules and taught to tumble and set this or that poore innocent soule for their master Innocency sleepes the most securely of any thing dreams of no affrighting things of no injurious usage but from Dogs and Beares and Wolfes from beasts not from any man innocency thinkes every man a man not a Fox nor a Serpent nor a Crocodile where as an oppressor conjureth his wits his parts his practises and so himselfe into all these to catch his prey Therefore is an oppressor imblazed by the Scripture in a Lyon couchant as one lurking for his prey as one whose words are Oyle yet sharpe speares as one who shootes his Arrowes in darkenesse and hits privily the upright in heart Over-reaching is oppression t is strong parts setting their feete upon weake and wringing bloud out of a brothers Nose 't is grinding the face of the poore words and dealings which are the face of a man to the World all by craft and wile ground to such dust as to choak and cheat the man that utters them What fraud cannot doe force externall is pressed to second Oppression commands all within and without to squeese out her will where shee fastens it turnes Iudges into evening Wolfes Kings Nebuchadnezzars into Beasts and gives them Nayles like Eagles-clawes that is makes them turne all their externall advantages
great world over all the little world into every roome of the soule into joynts and marrow and set downe himselfe where he will in conscience in affection in what inward part he sees good in some one part or in all parts that is the greatest good in the world when truth is in the inward parts i. not in one faculty but in all not onely in the understanding but in the conscience in the affection in every faculty this Christ loves mightily and what hee loves hee can accomplish there is no torture upon him affection larger then power as t is usually with us All power is given to him to worke without to worke within in Earth in Heaven that is in the more internall and heavenly part Hee giveth wisdome to the heart I will give my Lawes into your mind By Lawes is meant all grace and yet all this made a gift and given into the soule that desires it Christ gives things into the hand yea into the heart all precious things and derives them into all parts and when all this is done in us and the like laboured for to be done by us in all others then is internall operation in power or then Christ workes in us mightily which terme pointing onely at a gradation in the same operation hath raveld out it selfe according to what is difficult in unfolding the former A concluding Speech WHich worketh in me mightily The concurrence of this power wee have had in our measure all along our labour which I would should be much acknowledged to Christ by vertue of which wee are now come to our period of this Verse and of the whole Chapter Our pace in this long journey hath been slow that you might all goe along with mee in the well understanding and imbracing of weighty things and yet how many notwithstanding our double industry are left behind in the blindnesse and mis-beliefe of their soules I know not If our Gospell be hid after all pains fully to lay it open such soules have great reason to feare themselves Child-bearing is no easie worke to any but doubly hard to some so that life out of death may that which comes forth betweene the legges be called This birth though but a hard-favoured child hath beene hard travell to us 'tas made many a sigh and groane many a heart pang and crying out to God What you will doe with the child now borne whither you will be a Pharaoh or a Pharoahs Daughter to it murther it or keepe it alive in your hearts I know not This I know that no man can spill all the blood of any child of God some will stick upon you doe what you can to tell the murtherer at the great day Sighes and groanes are the teares of the heart the heart venting it selfe at the mouth when it cannot at the eyes and other lesser pores every drop that hath fallen from our heart and head from our Eye-lids or Eye-brows shall be all gathered up and put as marginall notes along by all our labours and all put in one Volumne together and this volumne put in your hand at the great day and opened Leafe after Leafe and read distinctly and exactly to you and your soules made to attend regard and remember better then here many of you have done and when all is thus read over this booke shall be closed and this question solemnly put to you all now O soules what have you profitted by all Words Prayers Teares Sighes Groanes As Conscience can answer to this for nothing else may then speake so shall your sentence be and I shall be called out to give witnesse to the justice of it and say Amen Lord Jesus righteous is all that thou hast pronounced upon these soules Our labours lost if this were simply all truly 't were nothing but our labours lost and your soules are lost and yet what is losse to you shall be gaine to us for wee are a sweete savour to God both in them that are saved and in them that perish As wee dresse and as wee water Trees in the Lords Vinyard so shall wee have our wages and not as these Trees beare if Trees be dressed and watered well though they never beare well wee shall have a good Vintage You Londoners are Trees watered choisely indeede 'T is storied of the Plane Tree that at its first transplanting into Italie 't was watered with Wine to make it take and prosper in those parts of the World you are Trees watered with Wine I cannot say that you have beene so watered by mee I dare not but this I can humbly and truly say that if our choisest strength and spirits may bee nam'd in steade of Water Wine or if the blessing which hath gone along with these Waters at any time have turned them into Wine in vigour upon your soules then hath God by mee watered your Rootes with Wine and yet if after such costly watering you grow not nor beare not certainly such Trees are neere unto cursing which sad effect that my Ministey should be an instrument to hasten to this place or to any soule will make mee to continue mourning still in secret for you all and so spend and end my dayes * ⎠* FINIS TABLE MAn is in soule misery page 1 So naturally judicially universally p. 2 3 Whether sensible of soule misery moved and what demonstrates insensibility p. 3 4 5 Christ snatcheth soules out of Hell P. 7 Christ moves swiftly throughly preventingly ravishingly to save p. 7 8 9 Whom Christ hath snatcht out of Satans power p. 10 11 12 That power which workes irresistibly to save the soule with much ease can save our body p. 13 Ignorance makes prophanenesse p. 14 Ignorance pollutes will the practicke understanding the conscience and is the Divels element p. 15 16 The darke Church of England spoken to p. 16 17 Christ carries soules to Heaven p. 18 Christ saves laboriously fatherly surely p. 19 20 Satan carries soules to Hell and how p. 22 23 Demonstrations of Christs Kingdome in this world p. 25 26 Some not far from the Kingdome of God and yet never come there p. 30 31 Love gives forth preferment to all Gods children p. 32 God gives orderly purely solacingly p. 32 33 The folly of men that looke after humane favour to rise p. 34 35 The blessednesse of them which are beloved of God p. 36 37 What redemption meanes p. 38 39 40 41 Bodily bondage lookt after but not soule bondage p. 42 43 What a spirit of bondage and a state of bondage are p. 43 44 What men in bondage and those which are out of bondage should doe p. 45 46 The choicest mercies come through the greatest miseries p. 47 48 Grounds to give God the glory of his way let it be how t will p. 50 51 52 53 Great things comming to us in way of hardship exhorted to prepare for hardship p. 54 What sin meanes p. 55 56 What reconciliation notes p. 56 57 What
and fortunes favour persons as they will troubles may be great but yet your mercy will be certain many may sink under them but surely you will not if the mercy of a God be enough to keep your head above water Others have nothing sure you have all sure the mercy of God sure in which is all If Ephraim be a dear sonne then my bowels are troubled for him and I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Dear children of God rejoyce in these sad times your blessednesse hath as sure a foundation as truth it self if God can insure any thing you will never miscarry Your blessednesse will be certain let times and states turn and overturn as they will yea your mercies will be great What God is in heart to any he is in hand where he loves much he gives and forgives much Dear children of God I cannot tell exactly how great you will be you will all have a kingdome let this kingdome stand or fall the naturall sonne and the adopted sonnes have all kingdomes and the one doth not envie the other but joyes in it the naturall sonne is still moving and mediating that this wretched world may have as full a demonstration of this as can be that the naturall sonne and the adopted sonnes may be loved with the same love and honoured with the same honour is one passage of Christs prayer and dear children read it often I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me John 17.23 Your mercies will carry correspondency with Christ and can you tell what felicity the sonne hath in the father And if you can such a felicity will you have in the sonne I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Dear sonnes of God tell the world your greatnesse in your meannesse that you are beloved as Christ and shall be as happy as he let men and devils do their worst We are ready to impart to you our own souls because you are dear unto us 1. Thess 2.8 God is ready to impart his own soul to you because you are dear the greatest things are given to the dearest souls Coloss 1.14 In whom we have redemption c JUstification hath here a double expression proper and borrowed and so 't is called redemption proper and so 't is called forgivenesse of sinnes The cause of justification hath here likewise a double expression remote and proximate Remote Christ noted in these words in whom c. Proximate his bloud which is not put abstractively but concretly or comprehensively In whom we have redemption through his bloud c. Justification according to its double expression I purpose to prosecute and in that order which here by the holy Ghost laid down beginning first with its borrowed expression Redemption In whom we have redemption c. Redemption notes four things a person in bondage a prise paid a release and a free state all which it may be I may little open to you Redemption notes bondage a destressed state and such a distressed state to wit one thing under the burthensome and destructive power of another so was Israel under Pharaoh Egypt was a house of bondage many together under a burdensome destructive power and it was to preach their spirituall condition and their stubbornnesse occasioned that strong way of instruction God made a fescue of the body to point to the soul fallen man is a soul slave under the burdensome destructive power of sinne and wrath lust carries him captive to sinne sinne carries him captive to wrath and wrath carries him captive to hell which is the great house of bondage for eternitie where many are together under a tormenting destructive power as long as God is Prisons have various rooms but some more sad then others much lower and darker then others hell is the dungeon of the house of bondage which fallen man is in all the rooms are under the same roof under the same power and wrath and doores out of one into another and but a wall between room and room but a wall between a man in sinne and a man in hell this is a sad condition yet universall not a child of Adam free born Jews and Gentiles all are under sinne so many men and so men slaves I am carnall and sold under sinne saith the Apostle As a slave is sold from one bondage to another so one sinne sells my soul to another and all sinne sells me to the displeasure of God me thinks this is the Apostles fancie of the thing I am upon Not a man but in miserie and not a miserie but in sinne sinne is the great house of bondage here in which we are all in which you are and I am I am carnall and sold under sinne and so are you and this is the case of all naturally which is intimated in the text In whom we have redemption the Apostle puts in himself and those to whom he wrote Fallen man is under the power of sinne and under the power of wrath sinne can do what it will with the soul and so can justice with soul and bodie and yet be just Sinne is Gods enemie and hath made God mans enemie man is under the power of the greatest adversarie in the world a punishing power is fallen mans keeper and it follows him whithersoever he goes some dead have a waking ghost to tell under whose custody they are as after a man is brought home to God and goodnesse mercy follows the man to the end of his dayes whereever he goes and the man under the custody of love and of a friend for ever so before brought home to God man is a prisoner to wrath and under the custody of a ruining power and this follows him up and down the world to the end of his dayes They shall follow close after thee Jer. 42.16 Or cleave after you saith God speaking of sword and famine Wrath is ordered to follow close after sinners as its prisoners lest they should escape away before satisfaction be made This as the other I spake of ere while is a generall condition as all are under the power of sinne so are all under the power of wrath and not a man but a captive to divine displeasure naturally ceased upon by justice and under custody for hell if no redemption come The house of bondage hath three rooms sinne wrath and destruction and they all lie one within another There is a bondage of sinne and a bondage of wrath and a bondage of corruption as the Apostle calls the languishing state of the whole creation and all these mutually depending and a common condition the earth perishing every creature upon the earth perishing man the noblest creature under the bondage of sinne wrath and destruction and all hinted here in these words we have redemption that is from sinne wrath
according to the will of God Verily unlesse a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alive but if it die it bringeth forth fruit John 12.24 God hath taken counsell of his will and turned the sea of love into a new channell the first covenant gave out all favours without bloud but the second through bloud through Christs bloud and our own Christs cup is called Gods will and our cup is called Christs will the will of God orders both these and therefore is Christs cup when full of bloud said to be Gods will not my will but thine c. And our bloudy cup also called Gods will if any suffer according to his will c. Great favours to come through great hardships is the will of God Means carry proportion to their end death to make death the death of Christ to make the death of the serpent bruising to bruise it was so proportioned by God It shall bruise thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel Nature hides her choise things closest and bids art use pains sutable to prise to obtain them and so doth grace she hides life in death our life is hid saith the Apostle where In bleeding dying Christ Wisdome orders great things to be obtained with great pains grace and glory in bloud in Christs bloud and our own Christ gets heaven by suffering and all that will live godly with him shall suffer too Means are generally proportioned to their end so by God to Christ and so by Christ to us This world is thrown upon men which is providence disposing sutable to things disposed this world is worth nothing and comes for nothing but the world to come is invaluable and the way to it proportionable the bloud of Jesus Christ and the bloud of his people the one per modum meriti the other per modum congrui Things are prised rather as they come then as they are farre fetched and dear bought makes all the prise and gives all the worth with us weak creatures upon this ground the Scripture when it speaks of our great fortune tells the great prise it cost as eying our weaknesse who look more at what things cost then at what things are and as knowing if any thing will work and take with us this will To him that loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his own bloud Rev. 1.5 Man is a legall creature and looks much at what is given for a thing and prises this more then that which comes for little he values things more under a notion of prise then under a notion of freenesse What did this cost why it cost Christs own bloud Fancie works foolishly in weak brains colour is more then the cloth and scarlet colour a generall taking colour and therefore is Christs garment dipt in bloud and he admired in this habit Who is this that comes from Edom with garments died red from Bozra Use Let no man be offended if mercy come any way to sinners though through never so much bloud and misery Sinne had totally and finally closed up every wombe of grace and it could not enter into the imagination of any creature that ever any dramme of mercy should find any way to them that the earth opens after much sweating and labouring and that heaven opens after much sweating and bleeding to send forth favours to sinners is beyond the expectation of men and Angels Mercy lay buried under impossibility of resurrection impossibilities reduced to difficulties and grace become fesable though with much cost is admirable Deadly sentence was with redoubled strength passed and not with a syllable of revocation for any lost creature to make the least guesse at any restauration By dying thou shalt die c. Here is the grave of a whole world of felicity and a stone rolled upon it daring all powers in heaven and in earth to open it if they can and that grace notwithstanding so buried should rise and become atainable is admirable I wonder that all the world is not bleeding and howling in hell and every one catching his bloud as it falls and writing out his fall in capitall letters to the glory of justice to all eternitie 't is wonderfull to me that it is not the whole imployment of all the creatures in this world to drown one another in bloud to stab tear and rend one another in pieces without any ceasing as that world below doth that there are not two hells a higher and a lower an upmost and a nethermost and that this is not as bad as that that all of this side heaven is not hell out-right Murmuring spirits be patient you think much to see so much spoil and bloudshed in the land 't is the way of God to bring great things to man through the bloud of prime brave persons are brave things brought forth Is there a braver person then Christ in the land or in any land and yet through his sides and through his bloud must great and gallant favours come You eye your pain and not Gods pleasure his way is in the deep the Leviathan tumbles there in the sea in the red sea in bloud and death to life and glory do ye think to justle God out of his wayes as ye justle a man Murmuring is spirit justling against spirit a bad against a good and the worst will have the worst for God treads such to death as will not give him his way You know that God fell out with his own people deadly when they disliked the way of hardship which he had cast them into to humble them and to do them good under heathen princes Let a wise man propose such an end and such a way to it let it be what it will red or white fair or foul you honour him in all and with joy look for good in this way give God this honour Wisdomes way to great things is in bloud in the bloud of some prime persons to the life and welfare of many One or two things may make us give God the honour of his way to such an end let his way be never so sad in our eye God alwayes makes his way most just to what end soever he bends mercy comes clothed but like your sinne when it comes clothed in scarlet your sinnes are crimson scarlet sinnes you die mercies red and bloudy 't is not God Justice treads upon sinne properly upon man accidentally as he lies under it if no body did ly under sinne justice would tread no body to death to bring life into the world nor shed a drop of any ones bloud to bring the greatest blessings to us God goes after man because man will not go after God justice follows sinners because sinners will not follow righteousnesse God doth not step a step in a way of punishment but as you lead him and to trace you in your wayes of sinne all wayes of bloud and death you chalk out to him you lead love out of his way and
make him become bloudy God is love fury is not in him naturally but love he delights not in the death of any God is nothing but life and so is his motion naturally and therefore called a fountain of life nothing runnes from him naturally but life if death runne out of the fountain of life 't is because of poyson cast in by you Generation in bloud one mercy to die to bring forth another is such a generation as was not known in the beginning God never appointed things thus to generate but life to bring forth life and such a happy creature to bring forth such a happy creature all happinesse to live each speak out fully the vastnesse of the fountain and the similitude of the stream to it The sinne of the first Adam cost the bloud of the second and all the bloud that ever since hath been shed to keep any good alive in the world Murmuring souls you are blind justice steres the ship when it sails in bloud with jewels to you you would never open your mouths at all the bloud that is shed in the land no nor at all the bloud that ever hath been shed in the world if your eyes were but open to see this first thing God makes his way most sure to such an end let the means proposed to it be what they will through bloud and death or hell I will surely do thee good saith God to Abraham and yet they must into hardship so much and so long and yet still the end sure and this hart-bleeding condition the onely sure way to it and no other way would have been sure to such an end Certainty of an end with us depends upon the standing or falling of such a thing but the certainty of Gods end which he proposeth doth not stand upon the standing or falling of this or that but upon the resolution of his will I will certainly do thee good One may die another may die and yet whilest the will of God remains resolute to such an end the end will live and the dying of such prime persons is onward to it and without which it could not be Heaven and earth shall passe away but not one tittle of Gods will shall fall to the ground The certainty of Gods intention you see depends upon his will heaven and earth may die which are greater bodies then man and yet Gods intention live because his will lives I must say again that murmuring spirits are blind they can see nothing certain in these uncertain times they think that all that God intends must bleed and die because all that men intend bleed and die and the very men too Blind creatures the certainty of what God intends doth not depend upon any of these when all is in bloud and dead God is alive and on in his way to his end the unspeakable good of many God alwayes makes his way most honourable to such an end let difficulties in the way be what they will though God may cast much hardship upon us yet he casteth no disgrace upon himself nor upon his way His way is honourable and glorious saith the Psalmist all his wayes are so when he goes in bloud for he speaks of the execution of justice there when he goes in the death of one thing to the life of another he goes in in state and glory God is alwayes tender of his name when he seems not tender of any person his sonne his onely sonne scoffed crowned hanged used in all the cruellest and basest manner that men and devils could devise and yet this sonne so used by men was so managed by God and all his hardship that the name of God was made wonderfull honourable in all Noble persons stand not upon losse but upon their honour they value not life they will step every step in bloud rather then prosecute their designes basely An honourable spirit is naturall to God he bringeth nothing about basely he eyes not the bloud of men nor the bloud of his sonne nor the bravest bloud that ever ran in bloud vessels but what he eyes is the accomplishment of his will honourably Murmuring spirits you are blind and you are base so you may but have your own ends the fafety of your lives and states you care not how God brings this about whether honourably or dishonourably Unruly hearts are unfit to order weightie matters such spirits must be guided by better then their own what is done with dishonour to God saves a little bloud and forfeits a great deal God will manage his way with honour though he drown and burn worlds and turn all the creation into bloud Our spirits should move like Gods that his will may be done by me to his honour What is my bloud What is God break my back with standing upon it and squeez out my bloud so that it may but colour his garments scarlet and honourable Finally God makes his way most beneficiall when most bloudy and difficult Who can expresse the benefit that redounds to the Church by the bloud of Christ the like I may say of the bloud of Christians the benefit which redounds to God and to man is not to be expressed The like I may say of the bloud that is now shed in England Truth by fiery trialls is made famous Christ is clothed with scarlet and crowned with glory here a mans life is his glory and this given to Christ in flames is double glory put upon Christ a mans bloud veins are the lowdest trumpets on earth to sound out any thing What a noise hath Christs bloud made all the world over And so the bloud of Martyrs is it dried up yet What virtues and graces smell so sweet and look so glorious as those that are died rose-colour with bloud with the bloud of that earthen breast in which they grow Bloud hath a very crying voice it cries up guilt to heaven and so it cries up grace in heaven and earth it makes Christ terrible holinesse immortall truth eternall what is written in bloud never goes out and all that reade wonder I have but one thing more to say and that is for as much as great things come in a way of hardship to fallen man that you would all prepare for hardship London dost thou not see England dost thou not feel that thy mercies come in bloud that thy redemption is likely if ever to be through much bloud but through much more then yet is shed who can say Men die dayly bloudy clouds go up and down and fall upon this citie and that and shalt thou London escape the storm Londoners Londoners are you prepared to welcome in your mercies in bloud You have had a Thames of water bringing in wealth to you for a great while are you prepared to have a Thames made of your bloud to bring in brave wealth to you for another while God hath stirred up some brave spirits amongst you I would all were such and yet I see many
Christs army is invisible The devil is true enough to his cause they need not have such hard thoughts of him he is not false to his own kingdome as they are Christs hosts certainly fight against them but when will they see and confesse this their blindnesse and stubbornnesse will break all their backs which is sad but what must to the sword let it to the sword Let us admire justice upon our adversaries and mercy upon ourselves let us all shout and say Christs army is a brave army Christs army is very great Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm Psalm 89.10 by Rahab is meant Egypt the generation which now are slain and the holy Ghost goeth on and telleth us how we should attribute victory to the glory of the invisible power and not to any fleshly arm Thou hast broken Rahab c. A like Scripture you have Hosea 1.7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battell nor by horses nor by horsemen Therefore let us lift up our hearts and tongues now and say to Christ that we are saved by the Lord our God and by his invisible host and not by men Coloss 1.16 All things were created by him and for him c GOd upholdeth our way we have travelled through many things and we are now come to the end of all the end of this verse and the end of the whole creation to wit the glory of Christ for all things that were created by him were created for him Some things are for Christs use and some things for his delight but all for his glory Any motion maketh action but onely such motion maketh divine action as bringeth all to Christs end Christs work is here mentioned and so is mans What is made by Christ must be by us made for him The Law of Gods action we are to stand upon All things must be for Christ Doctr. Things may be distinguished in their kind but not in their last ends There is one kind of flesh of men another of fish another of beasts saith the Apostle and things may be distinguished in their place as some high and some low and things may be distinguished by their parts as some learned and some unlearned but none must be distinguished in their end all creatures all places all parts must be for Christ The Law is universall nothing is absolutely given but all the creation is put out to use for him ten talents five talents one talent not one thing in the world for mans use but must be for Christs not one thing in the world made for man but must be by man made for Christ Christ in a few dayes made man work for all his dayes things are not to be for Christ to day and against him to morrow but for him for ever His praise endureth for ever In good times in bad times all things must be for him as long as they are Christs glory must be everlasting as ours shall be when he cometh to order all the creation for us Scripture expressions must have their extent Men misunderstand this phrase in the Text that think Christ must have all things for him when all advantages serve All things must be for Christ in all times till times shall be no more and then all things are to be for us Man hath a great deal of work upon him and considereth it not he is to take every thing by the hand and lead it home every thing on earth that he medleth with and lead it home to Heaven husband wife children goods meat drink by him and through him and to him are all things Some things are further from God then others and yet all I meddle with I must up with in one notion or other and away with it to him There is but one carrier to Heaven in all the earth and that is man and he is loaded with a witnesse he must carry all that is by God and through him to him and this he must do though he sigh and grone till his back break and he die and then he will have a porters pay You have some carriers for letters and then you have creatures of a lower rank to carry other things but Christ hath but one carrier for all man must carry his words his works his letters and all else here below to him Divinity is high in its scope the glory of Christ is the highest thing and nothing maketh at it but man but he must make at nothing else Man is not to ask what things are made of but what things are made for the former belongeth to Christ and the latter to us 'T is an earthen world this but mans work is to make it heavenly 't is an earthen boul but wants a by as to run right and man is to put in one to make it incline Heaven-ward and to run true to God that made it Low things have a high scope and yet as high as 't is man must make at it upon pain of death we may use any thing but take the glory of nothing if an Herod a King feed on this dish he dieth for it Benjamin must have a dish of dainties alone what fit may be given to instruments but divine glory this is Christs dish he alone must feed on these dainties if any taste of this hony though but with the tip of his staff he dieth for it and worms the meanest creatures shall be strong enough to do it Some points will bear dispute but this will bear none whether I am to give glory to Christ yea or no in all God hath set a King in Sion and 't is sinne to say may I crown him I must crown him with glory though I take off mine own crown to do it The foure and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne and worshipt him that liveth for ever ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthie O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.10 11. There is no place for the dispute of meum and tuum in this point with Christ for all is his all mine are thine as he said to his Father so we are to say to him all ours are his the very crowns we wear the things we have that render us most glorious in the eye of men must be for Christ all our crowns must go to his crown Many will die by this law for every man seeks his own I and mine must live and so must Christ and his Skinne is dear all must go for this but nothing for Christ which is the life of a beast and not of a Christian This time discovers thousands nothing must be for Christ because times call for all for
over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world Job 34.13 These things speake the nature of providence what it is 't is a divine condescension to the necessity of the creature Christ becoming an ark for every species and for every individuall power floating upon mercy with the whole creation in its bosome Providence is power made out of mercy into food and raiment for the body grace and glory for the souls Providence is either common or speciall Common providence Common providence is the naked supportation of being and but a little more at best That the wicked in hell are is providence but it were better for them they were not that their misery did nihilate them unlesse their mercy were more Common providence is an act of power dispensing things commonly the heavens give their wealth to all and so do the earth and the sea the sunne lights good and bad all in and out of the world God upholds all that fall There is a generall compassion upon our fallen condition by which it is upheld and lies in the way of speciall compassion Some things Christ carries upon his back others in his bosome the one is common providence and the other is speciall He upholds all things by the word of his power he carries all things saith the originall Common providence lasts but for a time God will not alwayes be good to bad men The triumphing of the wicked is short saith Jobs friends They flourished like a gree Bay-tree but were suddenly gone saith the Psalmist of the wicked Divine dealings shall be exactly suitable to condition wicked men as they have not a drop of grace so they shall not have a drop of mercy to cool them though now they have a great deal Providence is very promiscuous for a time all comes alike to all but 't will be very proper precise and distinct in its way divine dealing shall speak the man the hand of God shall plainly speak out the heart of man as the Lord will be known so shall men be known by the judgements which he executeth this is a Cain the brand of a vagabond is upon him this is a Judas the character of perdition is upon him providence marked the one and pointed out the other 't is he that dippeth with me Both these examples rypifie that divine carriage shall be such to all of that side as plainly to speak out love and hatred Goats shall be known by their places providence will be so exact If the Bore cannot be known by his hair and his tusks yet he shall be known by the knife that is in his throat and his roring Time shall be when this expression in him all things consist shall loose its latitude above half the world shall be shut out of the common providence of God utterly and then will be the devils harvest O what a deal of businesse will he have then and how will hell enlarge it self when he shall have the ordering of all his own in the world as he will Speciall providence Speciall providence is wisdome ordering all things about man to an eternall good using the rod and the staffe to comfort giving and taking away clothing and stripping the body to make the soul divine Providence seems to be a heap of confusion but it hath alwayes a proper scope and all its acts which to us are strange still make very directly to it There are two sorts of vessels in the world and these are fitted to their proper end saith the Apostle one to honour and the other to dishonour not an act of God in the world but it hath a fitting scope in it not an act of God about a Christian but it hath a fitting scope to shape his soul for Abrahams bosome to fit in Christs arms for ever A man is not to measure speciall providence by an externall successe of action towards him as most do but by an internall successe how doth poverty or riches health or sicknesse better the heart Right-hand providence is speciall providence Why with-drawest thou thy hand even thy right-hand pull it out of thy bosome Psal 74. When that hand orders all to me upon which I shall stand for ever and orders all so as to bring me there and set me there this is speciall providence David speaks much of Gods right hand towards him then is a right hand upon me when all is ordered to bring my soul to its right end and this is in Christ In him all things consist In him grace is upheld ordered and brought to glory Grace cannot live without Christ glory cannot live without Christ In him all things consist Speciall providence is perpetuall but yet with respect to our abiding in him with whom it is in him all things consist and out of him Saints cannot consist If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and withers which men gather and cast into the fire saith Christ Christ carrieth as he is leaned upon cast burdens upon him as many as you will and he will bear them all lean not upon him and he will let you fall and all your burdens upon you Christ cannot endure to have his children out of his bosome if they keep in his arms he carrieth them for ever and is never wearied with them but let them go out of his arms and he is tired with them presently Speciall providence worketh in order to faith though it work not simply or faith Christ doth all freely but yet in his own way Go teach all nations to observe whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alwayes to the end of the world In such a way Christ walketh walk out of that way and you will never meet him This is divinity not understood mens ignorance is to be pittied when we presse dutie as in order to which Christ moveth they say we presse it as merit for which Christ must move unbelief destroyeth speciall providence à tanto licet non à toto in part though not in whole Some things Christ doth to the soul when it doth not beleeve and that is to make faith and other things he will not do till it doth believe and yet doth all freely In him not out of him do we consist Use Having opened unto you the doctrine of providence I will give you the use of all 'T is a hard time many are much put to it I have nothing to subsist saith one and so saith another What hast thou not Christ to subsist with In him all things subsist and canst not thou make a subsistence in him Extremities put poore hearts besides themselves this is the misery of miseries when the soul cannot see in whom all is My husband is dead my trade dead but Christ is alive and therefore all is alive a husband is alive in Christ a trade is alive in Christ better then any you can drive to maintain It was enough to Jacob that Joseph was alive though
he and his were ready to starve Let it be enough to every distressed heart that Christ is alive though trade and husband be dead Christ hath all yet though every one else be robbed in him all things be upheld and in him you shall be upheld Ob. In him I may have soul-subsistence but as for bodily subsistence surely that will fail for the meal in the barrell is almost quite spent and when this is gone surely I shall want my bread Canst thou trust Christ for thy soul and canst thou not trust him for thy body If thou canst but look up to Christ as all things do though not as noble things do yet thou wilt have meat Sol. The eyes of all things looke up to thee and thou givest them meat Cry but as Hagar and thou wilt have drink Seek but as the young Lions they seek their bread of God and thou wilt have bread If thou canst but rore as they do thou wilt be heard and bleat and bellow as the cattell of Ninivie some deliverance will come out Christ is never put to it though you be he will find one thing or other to make provision for all The eyes of all look unto thee and thou feedest them Providence hath meat in her mouth for all Ob. Meat may be given but the time may be long first and my cheeks begin to grow pale already my servants cry my children cry my guts cry for hunger surely I and mine shall starve Sol. No thou shalt not providence works oportunely thou shalt have meat in due season these all wait upon thee and thou givest them meat in due season Ob. It cannot be means are gone and friends are gone Sol. That is nothing Christ is not gone providence maketh strangers friends enemies friends ravens to feed others whose property it is to devoure and to feed them seasonably morning and evening Among enemies the children of the captivity found friends and found favour for a tender conscience in Babylon Ob. A little relief may be to me possible onely enough to hold life and soul together but under such sparing providence life will be worse then death when mercy is ministred nothing answerable to my necessity Sol. Let not this terrifie in Christ all subsist and subsist well thou maist not possibly have so much as thou hadst nor so fine as thou hadst but as long as Christ is thou shalt subsist well and thine own heart shall say so Providence doth not alwaies give alike but doth alwayes do enough for the best condition of being and yet let me tell thee further this Providence bringeth in sometimes a great deal more then we expect See a brave instance in Jacob Gen. 48.11 And Israel said unto Joseph I had not thought to see thy face and lo God hath shewed me also thy seed Providence is plentifull and bountifull as well as seasonable and bringeth in twise as much twenty times more then we think of enough in supply necessity yea enough to satisfie desire Jacob had corn for necessity and he had also the sight of Joseph and his posterity and the life of Benjamin and many gallant mercies more which bordered uppon these even to the utmost of desires so literally was that promise fulfilled to him thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing Desire is vaster then necessity in most creatures in man it is I am sure and yet providence is so bountifull that it satisfies this Providence not onely brings about what one needs but what one wishes yea more providence doth prepare things and bestow this and that which the heart cannot wish nor expect it doth prevent us with loving kindnesse Two things must be eyed to mak Christ giue out himself plenteously for your sweet subsistence the first is interest I am thine save me saith David God is very tender about his own a child shall have any thing Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou barest to thy people O visit me with thy salvation Union draws out all the fulnesse of Christ what goes beside the pipes which are laid into the founntain are but drops and by means of these pipes too these droppings are upon the world Christ would not give forth a drop of favour to the world were there not some in it nearely allied to him all wicked mens mercies are but as it were some droppings of the great mercies of Saints this kingdome would not consist were there not some Saints in it all the upholding it hath is long of them that are united to him from whom he cannot break off England use thy Saints well they are thy pipes and veins to heaven through which thy great blessings fall upon thee All art must be used to advance interest in Christ out of the favour of God and you will be outed of all whether it be the case of a person or a whole nation You are not my people and I will not be your God Lo-ammi Lo-eli This man is none of my child let the devil look to him let his own father provide for him this Kingdome is not my people let it bleed to death and 't will will God say England look to this or thou art lost and all the world shall not save thee let thy reformation be such as to render thee Christs Church that he may say England is my people or thy consumption will kill thee Friendship in Heaven is all to the lively-hood of a Nation or of a person here every thing will run crosse whilest the great wheel is out with one lets all set things right with Christ and all will run well let disadvantages be what they will But thou Israel art my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend fear not for I am with thee and they that warre against thee shall be as nothing Interest must be made and then maintain'd or else life becometh uncomfortable When souls grow loose they find the evill of their way Christ is tender in providence to tender hearts 'T is harder to bring ones heart so near God as one should and then 't is harder to keep it there but yet how difficult soever the soul shall know it is a bitter thing to depart a spirit of love and union abates and then flowers that smell sweet in the breast close and Christ withdrawes My soul cleaveth after the Lord thy right hand upholdeth me Psalm 93. The spirit of union must not be checked it must work after the Lord freely In this way the soul hath a right hand upholding it and this maketh and keepeth the life contentfull Grace is a pursuit of Christ they live most sweetly that runne most swiftly after him check this pursuit and you die Unbelief maketh fear fear setteth the soul at a stand shall I go forward or shall I stand still Now God is displeased the heart tortured for its basenes Englands fearfulnesse to pursue Christ hath deprived her almost of subsistence and tumbled her
grace that goeth forth in height goes forth very exact Of his fulnesse we receive and grace for grace Fulnesse works exactly to make the recipient fully like it self grace for grace The best wine is kept till last Full dispensations are best the best wine these are kept till last and they are kept by Christ thou hast kept the best wine till last Grace goeth forth free but not without order no soul hath fulnesse presently though Christ be fulnesse alwayes Vessels of mercy are narrow mouthed weak hearts I speak to you to keep you quiet O ye of little faith You have but little faith and yet complain that ye have not great mercy fulnesse comes in by opening the mouth wide that dead soul that can spread himself upon the living neeses seven times perfect life comes in by spreading our souls upon him that is perfect Every thing in Christ is mine when faith saith this in the heart then every thing indeed actually becomes mine The eye of Christ becomes mine to see the hand of Christ becomes mine to work and the feet of Christ becomes mine to walk Our right lies as concealed till faith acts there is much in the fathers house but the soul starves till it remember it self and own its father I will return unto my father and then I know I shall have bread enough what he hath I shall have strong acting of faith makes Christs fulnesse yours Fulnesse would fill your vessells but your hands jogge and that runnes besides which should runne in There is never a time you come to these waters but here is powring out enough to fill you all but every ones hand jogges almost so that much precious water is spilt and every one returns empty Jacob is ready to draw water to water all to fill the bellies of all the cattle but Rachel will do it her self she is shie and modest and will not take help Christ is willing to draw out his fulnesse and to fill every heart but we are shie and modest and will be doing all our selves and not trouble Christ we will be drawing out of this thing and out of that duty to fill our souls and not out of Christ Let my beloved come into his garden and do his work himself for I can do no more Blow O north-wind Blow O south and make my spices flow out for I beat and blow and nothing will come out but sinne and shame this brings in fulnesse fulnesse comes out of nothing I am nothing preaching nothing hearing nothing but Christ all and this makes him all unto the soul the clearer in self deniall the fuller in the fruition of Christ You rest in your works and stagger at the promise through unbelief and how is it possible that fulnesse should fill you You are full of self and you cannot be full of Christ the promises are pipes from the fountain which are laid of purpose to fill you and you stagger at them I would every bleeding heart did know what wounds him and who is his greatest enemy he thinks 't is Christ and alas t is not thou hast not a dearer friend in the world then Christ is nor one that pities thee more thou art the greatest enemy to thy self and thine own unbelief keeps thee low this is the secret leak in the vessell which thou hast not yet found out thou hadst been full else long ere this Christ is full and art not thou full Search thy soul certainly there is some leak unbelief is long ere it be seen but when it is no monster like it 't is more uggly then Sathan then that cage of unclean birds below as that without which Sathan nor sinne could do any hurt A stubborn child that had blasphemed was to be brought forth and those that heard him to blaspheme were to lay their hands on his head and he was to be stoned Unbelief is the frowardnesse of the heart which makes you to blaspheme God and his gracious word bring forth this froward child and lay your hands upon the head of it and cast stones at it at the throne of grace say Lord this is that child that hath blasphemed thee that hath dishonoured thee more then any evil stone it to death from heaven this suit you must pursue and follow which would be filled with the spirit Finally fulnesse speaks such dispensations as make and settle peace in the soul and Christ is King of peace he is King of Salem he hath the command of peace he can still the raging sea with a word of his mouth so he can a raging conscience and he must be looked upon and acknowledged according to such a transcendent abilitie and then he gives out as he hath in him fulnesse to supply the necessity of the soul Lord I know that thou canst do whatever thou wilt Now Christ works richly Christ will have his prerogative acknowledged grace is his own to dispose as he will all his wealth is his own he can advance a soul at his pleasure if there be no word which the soul ever yet heard that hath spoken peace Christ can create words and make them so drop from his lips as to make peace Devils are at the command of Christ and Angels are at the command of Christ yea the holy Ghost is at the command of Christ he can breath and blow with this wind where he lists Christ is met half way as it were when the soul can thus look toward him when Prerogative is fully acknowledged Coloss 1.18 He is the head of the body HEad speaks fulnesse and that which bears upon this to wit Office of the one we have spoken of the other we are now to speak Divine ordination fills vp one vessell and then makes channell out of that for others Office is a conveyance of gifts for a publick good something to draw out one to the use of many Christ doth bear Office to the creature which is more humilitie then can be exprest he is head The word speaks rule Christ hath government upon his shoulders the government of the choisest body which God hath in the the world He is the head of the Church Every corporation hath priviledge but none more then the Church Jerusalem is free yet not lawlesse she hath a head Universall bodies are great the invisible catholick Church takes up heaven and earth and yet not masterlesse all under rule and Christ is the head of this great body Christs rule is universall God ruleth in Jacob to the ends of the earth saith the Psalmist Yea to the ends of heaven There is a throne in the Church militant and Christ sits upon that there is a throne in the Church triumphant and Christ sits upon that We have such an high priest who is let down on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens Hebr. 8.1 There is majesty below and above and Christ sits as head upon them all every knee bows to him The rule of
it and require it Reade these words over and over I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words into his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to passe that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Deut. 18.18 19. Coloss 1.18 He is the head of the body the Church SOmethings have a generall glory look upon a pearl when you will where you will and it shines and sparkles upon you so doth Christ Christ is looked upon before in reference to the world here in reference to such as are taken out of the world in the former he is looked upon with respect to the creation and here with respect to the Church and in both admired as great and glorious Christ wears a garment without seme a generall glory his working-day suit is all full of pearls Consider Christ under any notion in reference to this world and you consider him in his working suit in his countrey cloaths in his travelling apparell and yet in this shining earth heaven the Church is filled with his glory he is head in the one and in other Christ makes a similitude between the worlds between this and that above there he is all fair and so he is here condition suits as the sunne goes in the same height we and they above can see nothing but a perfection in the sunne that shines upon us and no lesse moves desire amongst us Man hath an exact eye though not an exact heart he will see much ere he will love a little Things must be very clean which you swallow persons must be very complete and without exception which we set over us whatever we be our selves which are to move under them The sunne shines in order to draw and gain Nature is full of art to cavill unlesse things have all glory they have no glory if there be any hole in the coat love goes out and gets gone there but there is none in Christs Criticks must be convinced and then they will stand still and consider perfection makes conviction in the most criticall spirit and till the soul can tell no longer how to take exception at others it will not begin to take exception at it self Use Sinners we proffer you gold that is tried gold that hath no drosse gold that is all gold Look upon Christ under any notion and make exception against him if you can look upon him in reference to his words and he shines in them all look upon Christ in reference to the old creation in reference to the new creation or in reference to heaven and what can you except against him nothing Why do you not love Christ then It must be because you will not or because you cannot Some persons are convinced of the worth of Christ yet maintain motion towards other things as dearer and will do this your will shall hang you the thing which you love better then Christ shall be the gallows Stubborn hearts find no compassion Christ will plead for no man that will not love him although he know him and have other encouragements to draw him on to him My people would none of me and I will none of them Persons which are overmastered with a bad heart and cannot do what they would find mercy from the Lord but others are let alone to live as they will and die in their shame complaining hearts Christ is perfect in glory would you love him Christ shines in the world and he shines in the Church in the Church militant and in the Church triumphant he is great every where would you love him Yes This is accepted Christ accepts according to that you have and out of this smoke shall come a flame Holy desires is Christ conceived in the wombe of the soul do but stay a little time and thou wilt feel the babe leap in the wombe doth it not now O how strongly doth that soul come to love Christ which would love him but cannot Coloss 1.18 He is the head of the body HOw God doth suit things is here considerable such a body and such a head Christ is the head os the body God doth nothing at randome divine dispensations are exactly proportioned one thing is fitted to another and this is the thing I would a little stand on The wayes of the Lord are equall mercy runnes into vessels of mercy I have set my king upon my holy hill of Sion Such a body such a head a holy people have a holy king my people have mine anointed over them I have set my king upon my holy hill The world is full of variety of condition so is divine action shaped every one hath as he is Iron hearts have an iron scepter to order them and hearts of a more noble mettall have a scepter of gold every one hath a suitable offendant Gods way in this world is nothing else but a tracing of man you eat but the fruit of your own way when 't is most bitter A people of wrath have a king in wrath there was dispensation exactly suited This is the carriage of God through out the world he doth not work at randome he squares action to the thing he works about and fits one thing to another I am sent to lost sheep saith the Saviour God directs a Saviour to lost man and a Physitian to sick man and to blind and hardned men which think they see Christ is sent to move in justice to them justice naturally suits all her actions to the subject about which she works as mercy doth I am come for judgemen into the world saith Christ to shape action to person to suit dispensation to condition The Deitie speaks out it self in apt action Some men cannot and others will not understand God in his word such must be dealt with another way men that will not reade words have apt works annexed to explain them Divine action suited to humane renders God as it were visible to men born blind let him that did cut off other limbs have his own cut off and be served just as he hath served others and he will see a righteous God presently which could not see it before and you will have him speak good divinity presently by virtue of such apt action annexed to the word which could not understand a word of divinity before As I have dealt with others so God hath requited me said Adonibezek it is a rare artist that can draw out himself and yet this is naturall to God by words and works together he will draw out himself so plain that any one shall runne and reade him God can cut and hew a block so by line so exact by the line of the word and the manners of men that you or any one else the very block it self shall tell who and what hand did it So God hath requited me
Persons that cannot reade are set to spell words by works their own works by Gods works God can draw out himself in any attribute to any mans understanding in justice in mercy God can suit action to any person to any condition and so exactly that at first sight every eye shall see himself Divine action is to make conviction Christ worketh so as to convince the world he fitteth his hand to stop any mouth Some are not onely blind but stubborn and dogged and now is man an Asse which was Balaams case and now God opens the mouth of an Asse to rebuke him The Asse rebuked the madnesse of the Prophet An Asse is a dogged wilfull beast and so was Balaam and God suits him in reproof to convince One Asse was upon the back of another and the worst a top and God tooke his advantage as they lay one upon another and useth one Asse to convince the other one is wilfull to go on and the other is wilfull and stops 'T is not easie to convince stubborn souls God must more immediately and more exactly speak then ordinary in this work Divine action suited is an immediate speaking from Heaven and proud hearts fall at the sight of this when nothing else will do it Some must have every thing openly told to their face ere they will be convinced and take shame and God doth use this way with the world to convince them Who shall declare his way to his face and who shall repay him what he hath done saith the Scripture of God in order to wicked men Job 21.31 Justice suited to sinne in word and work speaks sinners sinne to their face that they cannot possibly deny it Sinners look to your selves God will be even with you walk as craftily as you will with the froward he will be froward Some men swell in pride and yet please themselves in their way that they shall carry all before them without controll Lofty hearts you shall find a high and lofty one to deal with you The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and this is the speech of a lofty God Esay 2.12 title is advanced brows bended a souldiers face put on by God when flesh swelleth and groweth proud The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon the proud c. A stern spirit shall see nothing but a stern God Sinne is a lie sinners perish in the heat of their pursuit one fire kindleth another ere firy spirits are aware they are cast into everlasting burning and this is the way of God to fit things one to and for another Tophet is prepared for the King the Kings of Israel made a Tophet for the burning of little ones and God suiteth this wicked action with righteous justice and maketh another Tophet for them you sacrifice your children to the devil and I will sacrifice you as if the Lord had said God maketh burning for burning bloud for bloud tooth for tooth Poore distressed England comfort thy self thy Princes and Nobles make a Tophet for thee they burn thy houses thy goods and sacrifice thy little ones and great ones to devillish men and God will fit them home if they repent not he will make a Tophet for them he will burn their honours their powers and sacrifice all to destruction he will turn them out of all as they turn thee and thine Because thou hast dealt by taking vengeance thou shalt know my vengeance saith God to Edom. In great extremities it is hard to keep poore hearts quiet the spirit woundeth it self when men wound the flesh God is just to me in this and that I was thus and thus Is God just to thee and will he not be just to them that spoyled thee Hath he paid thee home and will he not do it to them that are worse then thee Justice in the exactnesse of it doth but hint her self to the godly it doth but nod upon them as it were but she strikes full blowes at the wicked she prosecuteth her own nature in full strength and maketh a compensation upon these creatures because none made nor to be had any where else Weep not for your selves but weep for them that have spoyled you Heaven and Earth shall reade the justice of God against the bloudy wretches of England and Ireland They that kill with the sword shall be killed with the sword Stand still and be quiet let God alone to suit wicked mens plagues if thou dost not see them paid in their own coyn then do not believe me England justifie Christ he hath fitted one thing to another such a body hath such a head like Priest like people like Prince like people You cry out of your king and I cry out of you Are not Gods wayes equall Say no who dares You will not have a man rule over your bodies according to his will and you let the devil rule your souls as he will Looke into your hearts the best of you all do you not make truth a slave to be at the beck of your reason and at the beck of your lusts you make Christ a slave and he giveth you to be slaves you make your spirituall king a slave and your temporall kings make you slaves Doth not Christ fit you in your kind Our king is so and so misled saith one and siths and whispers take it to thy self so art thou misled by many base lusts every one reapeth as he soweth can a man gather figs of thistles England dost not thou reap as thou hast sowed Hast thou not had the guilt of bloud upon thee a great while hast not thou the guilt of the bloud of many abroad and of many faithfull ministers and Christians at home upon thee which could not swallow thy basenesse Hast thou not made truth bleed this many years and that Christ maketh the bleed a few moneths and a few years is it not fit and right To justifie God is the first step to repentance men that can do nothing but wrangle at divine action forget the main work Do not bite the stone that is thrown at thee but bite thy heart for one is as hard as the other I dare say Pride meriteth much but can bear but little but justice will have its way for all that Men that cannot be silent shall have their mouths stopt misery becometh mortall when impatience groweth strong the burden killeth when the soul will use no shoulders to bear it No life so bitter as that which taketh all ill at Gods hand this is hard and that is hard c. and yet all is no harder then thy heart nor yet so hard God doth not an action without us but to suit it to something within us This point may be usefull respecting time to come and the mercy you look for You look for great things but how are ye fitted for them Christ doth fit one thing to another Great things are already but you prise them
empty creatures Use Relief is contrived very freely for fallen man Weak hearts should comfort themselves with this point Sinnes lode some souls that they can get no ease Conscience saith too little or else too much sometimes it is asleep and saith nothing sometimes it is awake and crieth perpetually as apprehending no remedy this is a deadly wound and I would I could heale it Misunderstanding makes sorrow unkind we measure mercy by our own comprehension which hath killed many Sinners take heed what thoughts you take up of the kindnesse of God God doth not come to shew great kindnesse as you do with great unwillingnesse and upon hard terms It joyeth God and pleaseth him to meet prodigalls to kisse them and cloth them notwithstanding all unkindnesse undutifulnesse unnaturalnesse Guilt makes horrour and horrour makes distraction distracted persons whip and cut and wound themselves Dolefull conditions would be pitied above but sinners have no pity to themselves to think so What sovereigne balm is in Christs merit if sinners would be pleased to use it It is pleasing to God to do good but 't is not pleasing to us to receive it the devil is too hard for us all Observe Sathans wiles we shall perish by thousands else though God be pleased to provide salvation for sinners and what a pity is that Tempted souls stirre up the grace of God and believe the word of the Gospel you please your selves in the thought of your sins and in the ruine of your souls through unbelief but God is nor pleased with it God is pleased to contrive your salvation and it would adde to his pleasure to see his contrivement please you and save you Action hath circumstance yours hath Gods hath and yet scarce a soul considers this and yet these are the twigs in our rod that whip us or the rayes in our sunne that chear us Deniall of free grace hath foure aggravations 'T is ingratitude Bounty is sleighted Manna is light bread the smiling face of God hath no lustre God puts out his hand and the sinner lifts up his heel which is grosse ingratitude Love should gain love when God smiles we should smile upon him when the King of glory comes we should open the everlasting doores our thankfulnesse respecting divine favours is the reception of them our ingratitude is the rejection of them Israel would none of me Free grace is the sweetest dish in wisdomes house presented to make two merry together 't is wine upon the lees 't is the fat of the kidneys of wheat 't is the fatted calf and the best garment 't is the heart of God held out 't is the glory of heaven visible to gain hearts what heart hath that man that is not taken with these Unkindnesse sinks deep into sweet spirits God is such a spirit Unkindnesse grieves God this unkindnesse most of all that the fairest of ten thousand should make love to a black-moore that a king should make love to a begger and yet be rejected Your unkindnesse is your ingratitude 'T is rebellion to deny free grace Now we are upon a step higher to beat unkind souls then we were before The harlot Rahab by faith received the spies and perished not with the rebels with them that believed not say you Not to receive what God freely proffers is rebellion it is mans will fighting against Gods the King of kings warred against within his own dominions the King kept out from his own chair of state to wit the soul Shall not God dwell in his own Will you keep him out of his purchase that which he hath paid such a dear rate for The workings of our heart we observe not we are undone by this carelesnesse who strives within and who is thrust out Is it Christ or who is it 'T were worth the inquiry to know who 't is that is resisted by the soul now and then Man through carelesnesse continues a rebell against Christ and knows it not gain-sayings of free grace speaks you all rebels and so you are called by the Psalmist as well as in the place forecited Men and women study your own hearts and tell me how they move It is pleasing to God to embrace you is it pleasing to you to accept him Why not now then your rebellion will be written in heaven if you turn off Christ from time to time Rebellion hath its degrees It is rebellion to abide in unbelief one houre The land in which we live is divided it is deadly to behold The Kings side say we are rebells the Parliaments side say that they are rebells by such an account we are all rebells and truly that 's my fear that we are all rebells to Christ and that this is the reason he makes no better use of us but one to destroy another It were well if spirituall rebellion were looked after betimes 't will end us all else Eternall peace and eternall truth are worth nothing men tread underfoot the bloud of the Sonne of God the grace by which they should be saved and take pleasure in unrighteousnesse and no pleasure in the good pleasure of God which is ready to save them 3. 'T is groundlesse wickednesse to deny the free-grace of God Some action hath reason and then the creature can stand upon his defence But sinners what reason have you for rejecting free-grace You refuse many things for cost you cannot refuse free-grace upon this ground you may have it for nothing God doth cloath lillies and souls alike though they do not spin to make their own apparell yet have most royall habit Every one of Gods children are rich but rise to it out of nothing they have clothing of the best lodging of the best feeding of the best and all for nothing None go so richly none lodge so delightfully none fare so daintily as those that embrace the good pleasure of God Some things yield but a little of what you seek and expect and therefore you decline them but you cannot reject free-grace upon this ground Free love is full love nothing is so full it hath all fullnesse in it It pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell What thing of all the things which you are in love with hath all fulnesse in it Things with which you are taken have commonly but one excellency and but a little of that You love some for their wisdome and yet they have not all wisdome and all knowledge You love others for their strength and fortitude and yet they have not all power nor all might yet so hath free grace it hath all kinds of graces in it and the complement of all these The Sonne that smiles upon us is all light and in him is no darknesse Ungracious hearts think of this it will be put home upon you why you have no grace why you have no wedding garment when the great marriage day comes you will presently be espied by one that will then view all here 's a man hath
no grace What 's the reason Could he have none or would he have none To one I answer saith God he might have had grace and life and it would have pleased me to have enriched him with these To the other I will answer saith conscience This wretched soul would have no grace he loved iniquity and hated righteousnesse therefore is he here unrighteous he thought himself rich and vvell cloathed and therefore stands here novv poor and naked 'T is remedilesse wickednesse to deny free grace The miseries of man are many and yet there is but one remedy Free grace hath balm for every wound which rejected every wound is mortall The least sinne is death The wages of sinne that is of every sinne is death For bodily distresses there be many remedies if men will not pitty me when I hunger ravens may If Christians will not pitty when I am sore dogges may but in soul distresses there is but one remedy to wit what God will please to do if God will please to do nothing for me none else will or can No eye pittied thee to do any of these for thee Gods eye pitilesse and there is no eye pittifull nor can be to the soul 'T is storied of the balm that it groweth in the Holy-land and no where else which is the reason of that speech Is there no balm in Gilead Mercy for your souls is in the pleasure of God and no where else Sinners make no more of the favour of God then of the favour of man I live not upon one the heart layeth this conclusion and swelleth and lifteth up the heel Ah wretches you cannot say so of God you live upon one yea upon one thing in God upon the smiles of his countenance upon this that he is free in mercy that it pleaseth him to save souls This point hath been applyed to convince and humble and it may also be applyed in the next place to chear and revive There are burdened hearts I beleeve among you but let no distresse discourage you How great soever the wants of any be let them come to God it pleaseth him to lay out for you Are your wants more then Christ hath where withall to supply What ever Christ hath or can do and what is it that he cannot do it pleaseth God to the heart that he should imploy it for you Men under guilt fancy hard thoughts of God my sinnes are great and God will not pardon yes he will he is ready to forgive it pleaseth him to forgive he hath furnished Christ of purpose and laid out all upon this very designe which is reall demonstration of his pleasure this way If distresse lie any otherwise yet it should not distract because free grace speaketh supply to any distresse that you can mention t is a fountain a fountain open every one may draw and yet none draw drie Your straits are many and you cannot tell which way to get out remember the point in hand that it pleaseth God to contrive relief To undo knots is a troublesome thing especially such knots as unbelief knitteth in the soul and yet God is pleased with this work he is a God of peace made up of peace his whole pleasure as well as his whole imployment lieth this way The God of peace establish and strengthen you saith the Apostle The Apostles words are of great emphasis the Godhead bendeth strongly and delightfully this way to settle poore weak souls which can do nothing themselves Doubts cavills and complaints are many and God quieteth all because his pleasure and delight is in the peace and tranquillity of poore souls He is a God of peace his pleasure is to make peace and a Heaven where he cometh 'T is the pleasure of things to do things naturall to them 't is the pleasure of wicked spirits to torment and vexe and to make hell where ever they come and in this sense the devil may be called the God of warre so 't is the pleasure of God to do things naturall to him to comfort and cheere poore souls to strengthen and establish them to make a Heaven where ever he cometh as a God of and a God at this work Coloss 1.19 For it pleased the Father c. THe reason of what Christ is to man is rendered by the Spirit of God in this Text the cause of his greatnesse and fulnesse to maintain it is the will of God it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell 'T is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word speak will and delight such a pursuit and such action as wherein there is transcendent souls rest Behold my servant which I have chosen my beloved which my soul hath willed Esay 42.1 In whom my soul is at rest saith the Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same word here in my Text which noteth that the will and the delight of God are in the furnishing of Christ for us Scriptures compared the word you see soundeth double the will and the pleasure of God are wrapt up in it which we shall unfold one after another Doctr. God shapeth every thing to man according to his own will The will of God is absolute he moveth by a perfect rule his motion is without errour and yet guided in all by that which is no guide in us his own will We have many things from earth from Heaven and all shaped out to us according to the will of God Things below man Things below man are many and various and yet God turneth and windeth them all according to his will Can you tell how many good bodies come out of the earth to wait upon one bad Not one of them would do this but that God giveth them such bodies and shapeth them by his will to such qualities and properties and to such ends and purposes as to give their life to keep up dying man That which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but God giveth it a body as he willeth 1. Cor. 15.38 Things equall to man 'T is the like respecting things equall to us No creatures would serve one another man would not serve man member would not serve member the eye would not serve the hand nor the hand any other part were they not all shaped to this by the will of God God hath set the members in the body every one of them as he willeth 1. Corinthians 12.18 A foot with so many toes a hand with so many fingers a head with so many hairs bodies with such variety of members soules with such variety of gifts have all their shape according to divine will But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will 1. Corinthians 12.11 One hath much wisedome another much knowledge another but a little of either onely enough for a toe to be carried and guided by a bigger and nobler member and yet as much
ever according to that Ephes 1.10 That in the dispensation of the fulnesse of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ which are in Heaven and which are in earth Gathered together in one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to renew the state and condition of all Angels and men in and under one head which is here mentioned Jesus Christ That Angels have the same common head with Saints and so consequently the completion of their state in the same head together with us is apparent Col. 2.10 And yee are compleat in him which is the head of all principalitie and power Angels are of the quire above together with the Saints and they all sing one tune and they are of the fellowship below also they are brought in as joynt members of the universall invisible Church You are come to mount Sion to the Citie of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels The condition of the greatest states is here considerable The noblest creatures are beholding to Christ things in heaven as well as things in earth Nothing is absolute but God men are noble Angels are noble but they all lean upon one more noble then themselves or else they would fall and become as ignoble as those cursed spirits below us Man is a little lower then Angels Angels a great deal lower then Christ their being is founded in his greatnesse and is confirmed in his goodnesse That grace which is redemption to the lower world is confirmation to the upper There would be no place for pride if this point were well digested None apter to swell in spirit then man man sets us up externally a little and then the Devill sets us up internally much few but swell and break eternally when gotten high in the world I wonder at it were you as high as heaven as high as Angels yet were ye below Christ The body of Heaven in its brightnesse is under his feet Exod. 24.10 What is under Christs feet he can trample upon at pleasure pride is no small sin and yet it growes up the Lord knows from very small things What hast thou that thou hast not received What have things in heaven which they have not and hold not from Christ The lesse may be said for sin the greater 't is and the worse that heart in which it growes Pride is a grand plague 't is one that hath taken leave of Christ and conscience to humor himself but Ah Lord when will this man content himself A man will sooner breake his heart then content his heart which pursues the proud lusts of it A soule devoted to it self is as cruell a Master to serve as the Devill to pursue the dictates of a proud spirit is endlesse work and hell enough for any creature if there were none else to come Soules in this consumption should consider their disease and their cure The remedy of every vice is in Christ this tree hath leaves to cure all diseases There is no distemper in the spirit but Christ may be considered under such a notion as to rectifie it Consider Christ as the keeper up of Angels and 't is enough to keep down the spirit of any man COLOSS. 1.20 Whether they be things in earth c. AS the expression points at things in heaven 't is usefull you see as it speaks of things in earth 't is more proper to us The latitude of divine love downward is as large as upward it reacheth all things in heaven and all things in earth That he might reconcile all things to himself whether things in heaven or things in earth The grace of reconciliation as it works towards things on earth is very vast as it works towards creatures above 't is unexpressible a man cannot tell how many love smiles upon in heaven and therefore generally exprest all things a universall term to note the vastnesse of that kindnesse So as it works towards things on earth 't is inexpressible 't is called all things to note the vastnesse the unexpressible company which Christ embraceth here below A man cannot tell the number of spirits in earth which Christ doth reconcile to his Father in heaven Grace works unexpressibly vast to us ward Doct. Grace doth abound The Lord is upon many waters Psal 29.3 As providence externall so providence internall doth reach forth it self to many Many bodies are saved from sinking in the sea because the Lord is upon the waters So many soules are saved from sinking into hell because the Lord moves upon these many waters too The world is full of troubles as the sea of waves not one but meets with enough to over-turn all if God did not uphold the whole world would fall into a consumption and die as big a body as 't is if God did not uphold Not one nor two nor three but all creatures share in upholding mercy or else all would sink 't is so in a proportion in spirituall respects Satan is an industrious creature to overthrow mans welfare he goes about seeking whom he may devoure none would escape hell if God were not exceeding rich in mercy Satans desire is to destroy all and his malice is attended with such art that it would certainly bring forth its end did not the speciall providence of Christ prevent which it doth and doth it to many the grace of Christ unto life is powred out upon many souls There are many last which are made first as well as many first are made last Many are eternally saved out of the power of Satan as many are prey'd upon by him Grace did work more compendiously then now it doth before Christs coming in the flesh lost sheep of the house of Israel found all that dropt from heaven and they were but few the Lord knoweth one of a City and two of a Tribe But since a great dore of love is opened and many hundred soules in one City yea many thousands in one Countrey come in to the Lord Jesus Christ The white sheet of mercy that is let down from Heaven now is great saith the Text and it hath all manner of beasts in it and the Apostle makes a Comment upon it as I do My vision saith he speaks the grace of Christ working now very richly God hath shewed me that I should call nothing common or unclean He speaks it in the case of Saul not a man so vile so bloody and malicious but the blood of Christ may reconcile him to God the love of God doth now so richly work Mercy is infinite and it works so God shews mercy to thousands from generation to generation Abrahams seed are as the stars of heaven for multitude God hath but one Son but Christ hath many he brings many sons to glory Infinite mercy generates infinitely what is in Christ derives it self to all the nations of the earth Aarons rod buds Christs blessing buds it multiplies into many blessings and spreads all the world over In thee
and commendation for vertue to some of all sorts in the world to every creature under heaven Which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven A man advantaged with his own experience and with the experience of all others may notwithstanding run against all Finally things have their stedfastnesse of motion not simply as they are advantaged but as advantages are compleat A Watch that hath some wheels true work and others not will go so long and then stand still run so long and then break if every wheel be not compleat work you have a fault in the motion Persons that have most advantage have none compleat wheels are something mended in Saints and set agoing but not finished The old man is outed but not quite the new man Christ is introduced but not fully What our Saviour said of societies that may I of persons ye are clean but not all Satan when he comes findes much in us and of this takes hold and drawes aside A Christian is neer heaven but not quite in it past danger when quite in heaven and not before Some work about a Christian is compleat some again not The work of justification is now compleat but the work of sanctification is not yet compleat the guilt of sin is done away but the filth of it is not and this rusteth the wheels and makes man in his best state vanity a light and an uncertain creature as in his being so in his motion The point in hand is necessarily true i. so that the thing which I say cannot be otherwise that man advantaged is an uncertain creature in a good course Vse If men advantaged are uncertain towards good what will men be that are altogether disadvantaged men in a state of blindnesse perversnesse unsoundnesse Some hold not on others wil never begin good this is the plague of a blind soul God unknown is bid to depart Christ unknown is bid to leave the coasts to give place to Swine the sweetest wayes of Christ unknown men will never set foot in them The Levites Concubine lay forced to death and her hands saith the Text lay upon the threshold of the door Judg. 19.27 so do many souls Satan forces them to death at the door of good their hands as it were upon the threshold of Gods House so neer entring in and yet there Satan with one wile or other forces them to death Ignorance generates prejudice and now you shall see a blind man fencing to keep off Christ and salvation from coming to his house 'T would make a mans soul bleed to heare with what weak things many ignorant hearts are kept off from making so much as profession of some courses that are good they are fools or knaves all that go in such wayes meaning such persons as strive to come neerest the rule of the Gospel Persons are studied not the way that they go in the men are giddie and of no account therefore away with what they professe this is the proprium of a weak brain If Christ himself were present this man would stumble at him and lose his soul rather then he would take acquaintance of such a silly outside Christ hath his glory within so have Saints and the way they walk in The entrance into it as the Wise-man saith gives understanding to the simple Taste how good Christ is in his wayes begin the life of Christ and the Gospel No I will not Ignorance begets wilfulnesse and now Christ knocks no more Ignorance is a great deal of disadvange to a holy course but wilfulnesse a greater This is the strong hold of Satan the Devill crowned and all powers internall and externall united and fighting to keep the crown upon his head Many things torment but one thing gains a Sinner that is the beauty and sweetnesse of the Lord Jesus High spirits shut their eyes and shut their mouths they will stand in no capacity of remedy they will not come neer such a person nor such a place not they Why Christ is there Let who will be there I will not This is rebellion in open act and the Psalmist explains the nature of it 'T is a man setting his heart awry and such a soul surely can never move well a Watch set wrong cannot be stedfast in following the course of the Sun and time of the day And might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation a generation that set not their hearts aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God Psal 78.8 A heart set awry is a desperate disadvantage to an even course where such a temper is men should think of the patience of Christ his love overcomes a stubborn soul O that goodnesse and mercy should wait to embrace a froward heart that will not continue no not begin good Ignorance is a great disadvantage to a steady course wilfulness a greater but Hypocrisie the greatest of all A double minded man is unstable in all his wayes and yet he hath many more then any sinner besides An hypocrites soul is like some wild Downs that have many cross ways upon them some this way some that but none to Christ and therefore the soul loses it self but cannot fix An Hypocrite is one that observes the winds not sweet gales within but gainfull gales without from the world his principles put him upon uncertainties he is ever about to sow but never sows the wind still turns so crosse when or where he will have a harvest I know not Things must be equally poised to make steady and certain motion and in this an Hypocrite is more disadvantaged then any man for he hath a great sail and a little bottome a great head and a little heart great broad wings and a little light body like a Butterfly and as steady in his flight Have you not observed the flight of a Butterfly how in and out he is The reason may be because body and wings carry no proportion 'thas wings big enough and broad enough for a body of some bulk which wanting it cannot master and steer its course steady in the aire Sinners have their proper punishment here as all sins have one common punishment hereafter to wit hell so they have their proper punishment here I may say of all sins but Hypocrisie that they are simply a not coming to Christ but I may say of an Hypocrite that he is one come and gone seemingly come and really gone and Cains curse is gone after him he ranges in forlorn places and things having seven more forlorn spirits in him then he had Truth and integrity is the soul of the soul this is quite dead in an Hypocrite A lie will choose a lie the heart a lie will choose any lying principles and ah what a many lies be there now in the world I am affraid of mens integrity lies are so generally taking and mis-leading now the spirit is as the things it strongly cleaves to Hitherto we have spoken to persons
matter of joy And yet there are no other prospects here below take what house what place what advantage you will to look abroad upon things here below you cannot look besides ruine and desolation that this shall be repaired and all these broken cisternes mended and filled and all made to run eternally into my soule this may doe something upon the soule when it can rise and reach so high and this is hope My flesh shall rest in hope Hope is a soule at rest concerning all things within and without concerning spirit and flesh that they shall be all perfectly well The soule of man naturally sits up much now distracted creatures can take little rest this is not well that 's not well all will be worse the world will sinke and I shall be undermost you may guesse by despaire what hope is Despaire is a soule wracking it selfe with what is Job 13.14 and with what will be 'T is one taking his flesh in his teeth torturing and tearing all under his own apprehension of things God is gone he will never returne if he doe 't will but be to send me to my place Hope is the correction of these distempers God is hid he is not gone I shall see him though not now every bone that is broken shall rejoyce every filthy issue in my soule shall be dryed up I will waite upon the Lord that hideth himselfe from the house of Jacob and I will look for him this is hope hope has the command of her selfe but will not have the command of God Shee has every thing that would rebell at her foote but Christ in the highest esteeme of any of his daughters Can he give bread Will he give a crum to me No I shall eate this morsell and die groane this groane and my heart-strings will breake You never heard hope speake such a word shee is a childe that speakes just like her father Our God is not come indeed yet but he will come and he will not tarry though he puls down quickly yet he takes time to build up and this time hastens Despaire looks upon mercy at a stand hope sees it coming and coming a great pace My beloved comes skipping upon the mountaines i Certainly coming and swiftly coming Hope hath but bad externall feeling but all other senses most acute Shee can see a great way heare a great way and the like In a dark day when fogs are never so thick shee can look through them and behold the land that is far off When shee is in the belly of hell shee can look towards Gods Temple When burthens presse that sense hath nothing but torture nothing but devils to shake hands with yet then shee can see a God amongst a thicket of Devils though shee cannot come at him as shee would though I cannot come to him he will come to me where ever I am though thousands incompasse me yet I will not feare that is I will not despaire of one to come to relieve me Hope will carry more burthens then any grace without sinking In perils by sea in perils by land c. In povertie in nakednesse distressed in all kinds with a witnesse but not cast downe Hope is never cast downe shee will cast downe any thing men devils but is never cast down her selfe Hope is a hardie long-lived grace 't will live in famine when ' thath not a bit of bread 't will live in sicknesse in warre in death The righteous hath hope in his death Hope was never knowne to have her heart-strings breake 't is semper vivens Death is the King of feares and yet it pales not the countenance of hope hope walks in the valley of the shadow of death and feares none ill i expects no hurt Hope can fee no ill no hurt in any thing not in death not in the grave that house is something darke indeed but I shall not alwayes lie there saith hope Thou wilt not leave my soule in grave though thou kill me I will hope in thee though thou burie me I will hope in thee I shall rise as Christ did this vile body shall be changed and made like Christs glorious bodie and then set for ever where his is The flesh doth rest in hope Hope is conversant about no ill but about all good and most about that which is noblest 't is appetitus excellentis boni cum fiducia obtinendi therefore is hope so often put for heaven it doth so often goe to heaven and is so much taken up there Looking for that blessed hope and for the glorious appearing of that great God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 and so by the Author to the Hebrewes urged To lay hold on the hope that is set before us You see hope is put for heaven and the reason is because so much conversant there Hope feeds delicately shee hath a table below and this is nothing but the word of Christ My soule hopeth in thy Word Shee hath a table above and this is nothing but Christ himselfe and the state he weares above this shee looks upon oft and smiles to her selfe when no soule alive is aware Rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God The two termes of hope are hell and heaven shee goes from the one to the other and in this way turnes the one into the other and this is all her worke shee goes into every house of mourning where Christ is and takes exact notice of every distresse corporall and spirituall and then bids the mourner be chearfull all teares shall be wiped from thine eyes there is a house eternall in the Heavens though this cracke and moulder and there thou shalt sigh no more Hope is that good Angel that carries Lazarus and lays him in Abrahams bosome 't is that grace which makes heavie afflictions light long afflictions short by shewing the soule what they worke about a far more exceeding and an eternall weight of glory Hope can speake nothing but Heaven and glory to a distressed heart I conclude as I began Hope is a glad expectation of good i of all good but especially the highest and the noblest good Drooping hearts thinke of this point how usefull is this grace for you you have taken a house by the borders of hell continually affrighted with evill spirits that walke up and downe in your soules and yet you love to dwell here Terrors take hold sometimes 't is a heavie stroake then the soule refuseth comfort Sense of fin is good but it s a wound of it selfe that must be carefully drest oft with the leaves of the tree of life 't will rankle and kill else Sinner dost thou know thy state Yes Dost thou know it exactly Yes Why whither shalt thou goe when thou diest To Hell Hast thou no hope of any other thing No. Why wouldest thou stand still all this while and let thy soule bleed to death Was there no Balme in Gilead No word in all the booke of God
is beastly yet very common The Land is full of mercies and full of nothing but brutes that tread upon them Brutishnesse in a man is sensualitie a sensuall person is one killed with kindnesse one that eats mercies but doth not taste them weares mercies but doth not feele them seeth mercies but doth not understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord nor never will he is cursed to the dust as the seed of the Serpent to goe upon his belly upon his appetite and upon no higher principle through this world to feed onely upon dust and upon no nobler thing for making a God of this world You wonder at the plague and at the sword but this is the greatest judgement in the Land that no man sees the mercie that shines upon him All the judgements that are in the Land are but to cast shadowes upon mercies that you may see them well and carry them and your soules to Heaven together There should not be a judgement more among us did you see mercy as you should there should not a man more die did loving kindnesse live in our hearts The heart of this Land is eaten out with long tillage God now dungs it that things may grow well 'T is so with our soules Our hearts are eaten out with vanities nothing will come up that is divine not spring up as high as Heaven God pluckes up all to pluck up your hearts to Heaven 't will be well if this be effected although it be not till all be dead When all is dead if then a mans soule grow alive to God blessed am I though there be but this one thing alive of all I have England is dead God is burying it Our hearts are quarred with fulnesse and become stones no musick can be playd upon a stone God makes musick to himselfe with justice seeing wee can make none to him with mercie he sets us to throw stones one at another hard heart against hard heart to dash out one anothers braines to kill a companie of men Canini appetitus of a dog appetite whose belly is as the grave and as hell which cry give give but never returne Know the state of the generall and bleed inwardly Doe you see a love returning spirit in any ranke from the highest to the lowest I England am made a mirror of mercie a thousand thousand wounds and yet not dead What pen shall I take and what book Where shall I write this love that it may be ever in Gods eye and mine owne Doe you see such a spirit stirring for the glory of Christ Wee fall in person we fall in purse and we fall and flat in spirit too nothing rises in any man that I see but that which throwes all downe Pride and selfe Ego magnus not ego Paulus I great not I little and low this may be every mans motto Big spirits are the worst in the world to stoop and to take up every thing of Gods and give it to him Big proud spirits admire themselves such as are taken up with admiration of themselves can never be good at this dutie of admiring God Look over all the Kingdome and people in the world and tell me a people more pinned to and doating upon its selfe then we are What a Clergie What Magistracy What an Armie have we So big so acute so perfect as not to be exprest This puts by the other quite what a Christ have we how strong how wise how gracious Do ye heare mens mouths filled with this with admiration of Christ What ornaments doe I weare in my soule or upon my outward man but Christ hath put them on all Know the state of the generall and know your own state in particular Doe you as Paul here admire the goodnesse of Christ in all the goodnesse that is upon you That you are stopped and ceased from wickednesse That you are turned to Christ Yea not nakedly so but turned into noble services for Christ Intrusted with many Talents above your brethren for the good not onely of your selves but many more I would willingly admire this if it were so but alas for me Ob. I am not yet stopped nor turned from my wicked course I am a swearer still a drunkard still a gracelesse uselesse wretch still Why then admire that thou art not in hell Sol. there is no man alive no man of this side hell but hath some mercie yea much mercie to admire say that I a swearer am not yet in hell in the proper place for blasphemers O what a mercie is this That sin and judgement are not closed unseparably all this while in so many yeares O what a wonder is this There is not a greater aptnesse for fire and stubble to close then for sin and judgement in a wicked soule that the cover of the tinder-box should be open and striking of fire a great many yeares and a great many sparkles falling of both sides and some in and yet not take that thou a naked gracelesse soule open to the wrath of God and living in a Land where wrath is powring out by plague sword and other judgements and yet that thou shouldest escape here is a big wonder indeed blind soule canst thou see it No I have no more then others have nor yet so much this cuts the throat of holy admiration How wofully is this creature plagued Others mercies are his judgements he cannot see what he has because others have more Canst thou not see what thou hast thy selfe No hold thy mercies neere thine eyes Canst thou not see them now No. Why then I feare that thou art beside borne-blind mad-blind as those wilfull Pharisees and Scribes this is a sad condition There is no recovery of sight when the eyes are struck out If this be not thy plague there is the more hope for God will take the businesse in hand to make thee see in a more strong way then now 't is done by me if all meanes have not been used alreadie as what a potent course is taken up in this case Hosea 11.3 I taught Ephraim to goe taking them by the armes but they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man and with the bands of love and I laid meat unto them God will one time or other take hold upon thy conscience and lead thee about from mercie to mercie and point thee to them particularly one after another O ungratefull soule I did this for thee and I did that I saved thee from breaking thy leg such a time from breaking thy necke such a time from such a desperate sicknesse such a time c. Thus doth God to persons that are asleepe in ingratitude to awaken them and thus he doth to them that are dead Goe and tell David I took thee from the sheepfold c. After that soule miscarriage God set one to talke with him with a witnesse to tell him who raised him and to what and what use was expected of
of blood of skuls and broken bones among many groning and tumbling to and againe with their bowels out holding up their hands Sir be mercifull I beseech you be mercifull and doe what you can to relieve me No I will not Now says Christ write downe the man for mercilesse What shall I say of this generation they are mourned to and yet lament not I have spoken to them saies Christ I have mourned to them but words teares stirre not when the most speaking things to move compassion move not then are a people written downe for mercilesse They have not remembred the afflictions of Joseph or condoled gnal Sheber over the breaking or the tearing to pieces of Joseph so t is very lively alluding to the state of Joseph whom his father thought to have beene torne with wild beasts When the extremity of misery moves not the least compassion the tearings and rendings of Kingdomes Townes Estates Persons then God writes downe men mercilesse Ye remembred not the tearings of Joseph When persons see the anguish of the soule of Joseph as one with death-pangs upon him and yet compassionate not this is written down We saw the anguish of his soule when he besought us and we would not heare we saw his heart-blood as it were ready to come out and yet we had no heart to pity surely we are judged as mercilesse wretches Genes 42.31 The order of trialls hintes the order of judgements sinners looke to your selves If Saints have their sad boutes their bloudy dayes surely you will have your turne too Men that love their sinnes love not to heare that ever they shall be whipt for them Evill is acted with confidence that it shall never be judged hee that sits in Heaven doth not regard since the beginning all things are as they were I have bin a sinner this twenty yeares and yet all is well This is grosse folly Christ laughes at it but we should mourne that men have no more grace hee sees that your day is comming yea hee sees that you cannot avoid it whilest in this state and therefore makes no more haste to take hold of you A creature that is fast in any Engine we lay we make not hast to come and breake the neck on 't and kill it outright because we know 't is fast and therefore wee come slowly Security is Satans deadly Engine you are fast in the bonds of iniquity justice is sure of you therefore it doth not make haste to come and break your neck and to dispatch you utterly When your day comes it will be a bloudy day indeed a day as long as a yeere as long as eternity a day that will never have night When your prisoning and chaining time comes your chaines will be everlasting your bout will be long mercy makes Justice therefore the longer a comming but if you presumptuously abuse this mercy even this mercy shall be shortned common mercy is shortened to desperate soules as it is lengthned to common penitents when they do but commonly humble themselves that is as poore brutes as in the case of Nineve And therefore you have a day of the Lord mentioned by the Prophet Zephany as hastened the great day of the Lord and hastening greatly to such a Generation of sinners as now I am speaking to Zephany 1.14 The great day of the Lord is neere it is neere it hasteth greatly the mighty man shall cry there bitterly t is a day of wastnesse mens bloud shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as dung the whole Land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie and hee shall make a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the Land Your day when it comes will be like this day a day of dispatch that will make riddance of you wholly body and soule and if you slight this that I tell you now and goe on in your sinne know that this great day of the Lord hasteth greatly sinners t is neer t is neer But sinners merry sinners can you tell how neere t is How neere your sad day is No you can looke up into the Heavens and when the Skie lookes so and so you can tell what the next day will be and t is so saith Christ There will be stormes to morrow and they are so 't will be a wet afternoone and t is so And observe how our Saviour makes use of all this to a proud secure Generation Yea and why even of your selves judge you not what is right Luke 12.57 you can judge thus and thus and judge right respecting the Heavens why can you not judge thus of your selves Intimating 't were possible if men did but observe themselves their hearts and their lives as they do other things men if they would do this they might be able to give a neere guesse when a storme or a black gloomy day is neere them Looke sinners round about you do you see nothing in your lives that lookes like bloud and death Do you feele nothing in your consciences that speaks a storme a breeding The worme that never dies begins to live crawle and stirre here dost thou feele it knaw terribly now and then what and continue in thy sinne why hell certainly is not far off One may smell some fire sulphurous matter burning one may smell it and if in the next roome one smells it so hot that one can hardly indure the roome The fire below is brimstone dost thou not smell it in thy conscience How hot is the smell so hot as thou canst not indure that roome why then the fire is fast by thou art in the next roome to Hell Consolation issues from this point to all godly people under the Lords hand your turne is come now to pledge Christ hee dranke to you in a bitter Cup a great while agoe and a great many farre better then you have pledged him and you are honoured to do the like 'T is a great honour to drinke of the same Cup that Christ did Can yee be Baptized with the Baptisme that I am Baptised with and this asked when they talked of great honour to fill up that which is behind of his draught let what will be in it things never so bitter t is wholesome t is healthfull life is in our deadly Cup the bravest life springs out of our cruellest death If this be not enough think on this t is but thy turne 't will be over quickly the Cup will be taken out of thy hand and given to another Thou art sad but for a season And now for a season if neede be you are in heavinesse saith Peter there was necessity thou shouldest be in heavinesse for a little time and how long this time and season is the Scripture tells us 't is but a momens and then it resolves it selfe into everlasting consolation COLOS. 1.24 The Afflictions of Christ c. AFflictions are from God immediately or from man God strikes sometimes and uses no hand but his
to plume and prey upon whom they will It doth as the Devill where he raignes there is not a power in Hell but hee makes a fleshhooke on 't to teare and torture and fulfill his bloudy will so not a faculty not an office not any vires within or without but by oppression are all made tormenta killing instruments and to know none no not one like himself a man no not one like God but chaine him and rack him Thy Princes are roaring Lyons thy Iudges are evening Wolfes they know not the bones till the morrow Zephany 3.3 Here are all powers externall and internall combined and seconding one another Vse Matter of caution and matter of admiration may spring from this point Oppression hath beene opened and now wee have seene the nature of it wee should all take heede of so foule an evill especially men of place 't is an Aspe a Frogge that useth to craule up into Princes and great mens bed-chambers where it may lie softest and warmest and be best accommodated Cruelty is nothing without strong instruments it can doe nothing with strawes but vex and burne it selfe The Devill is a great Courtier hee gets among great men and there hee can shew himselfe as hee is play the Devill and make great earthquakes rend and teare whom hee will righteous and wicked what hee will body or soule at what compasse hee will Townes Cities Countries set whole Kingdomes a groaning bleeding dying Parts commend themselves to place place swells the soule too big for any due compass unlesse Christ bee gracious oppression is the first borne of pride in place after it comes to the Crowne 't is that child that will inherit all the outrage of greatnesse They are great mountaines that do crush Who art thou O great Mountaine before Zorubbabell great spirits and parts in great place The Devills children should be all strangled in the wombe or else they prove very long lived we should not have had so many bloudy oppressors at this day if pride had seasonably been bewailed As your naturalia so your praeternaturalia get such nests as to maturate themselves oppression maturates it selfe in high places there it can do all it will strike full blowes home blowes Oppression maturated is the crying'st provocation in a Land and brings downe the cryingest judgement Civill war a body tearing out its owne bowells see Zachary 11.5.6 Thus saith the Lord feede the flocke of slaughter whose possessors slâ—y them and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say Blessed be the Lord for I am rich and their owne Shepheards pitty them not therefore I will no mâ—â—â— pitty the inhabitants of the Land saith the Lord but loe I will deliver the men every one into his Neighbours hand and into the hand of his King and they shall smite the Land and out of their hand I will not deliver them which words meane civill war as the learned interpret which is the greatest judgement of all externall judgement doubly torturing for brother to sheath his sword like those Levites in the bowells of a Brother Father washing hands in the bloud of children and children washing hands in the heart-blood of Fathers wee may guesse our sinne by our punishment oppression set us together by the eares oppression corporall oppression spirituall our possessors to wit Prince Peeres Prelates did slay us as the Prophet speakes body and soule and held not themselves guilty Their steps trod in wrath will continue till it end us all and God will not deliver Matter of admiration also issueth from this point Let 's admire two things the badnesse of men and the goodnesse of God When wee see any praeternatural's any thing that nature did not properly intend any monstrosity in a thing if it bee but in a finger in a hand in a toe much more if in any maine part which maims the shape and almost varies the species wee wonder much as to see a Dove with a Bores tuskes to see a Lambe with a Serpents taile to see a man with a mouth and a throate as wide as a Sepulcher and a Tongue in it a fire of Hell and the spittle under the roofe of this Tongue the poyson of Aspes c. Wee wonder at what nature did never intend should wee not much more wonder at those monsters which grace did never intend such grace as workes toward man We meet a thousand thousand such monsters fore-mentioned in a spirituall sense and never make one thought stand still a jot divinely to consider it Spirituall monstrosity should affect us much to behold so noble a creature as man and his noblest part to wit his heart turned into a beast all his inside like a Wolfe or a Beare and onely his outside and scarce that like a man The worse some are the better others should be to make it up that God may not be altogether a loser in the greatest and costliest workes of his hands A tender heart will admire sigh and bleed over a hard O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets here is a patterne worth the following Christ beholds a company of bloudy tyrants stony-hearted hypocrites and he admires sighs mournes over them 't were but the discharge of our duty to mourne over this malicious bloudy Age wherein we live O England England thou that hast opprest to death many brave Prophets and worthies of other rankes sent unto thee When others kill and crucify Christ we should sit like Mary and weep over them Wee should admire the badnesse of men and the goodnesse of Christ Creatures in our own skin and of our own forme and yet Wolfes and Lyons how great is the power and goodnesse of Christ to preserve his people amongst such These wild beasts differ in their property from all more boundlesse more restlesse every way the more should that power be admired that keepes us Other creatures of prey keepe their place to wit the desert where no noble creatures trade is there range they keepe their time the night is their day Thou makest darknesse and it is night wherein the beasts of the forrests doe creepe forth the Sun ariseth they gather themselves together and lay them downe in Dens Psal 14.22 They are wild creatures and they keepe a wild place and a wild time when and where they may finde prey proper without injury to more noble creatures These wild Beasts before mentioned goe forth at all times when the Sun is downe and when the Sun is up into all places into Cities into Houses up to mens bed-chambers and pull persons out of their beds and sucke their bloud O the providence of God that keepes thee London from these Beasts of prey that hath saved thee and thy little ones from cruel oppressors so long This providence is lengthned and the mercy is by so much the more strengthned upon you the more to be laid to heart How often have these beasts of prey in great droves and with open mouthes
sizes some bigger some lesser two talents five talents ten talents concerning the glory above t is disputed whether it be graduall but concerning the glory of a Christian here it is a resolved thing that it is graduall there is migration in our glory here going from glory to glory from strength to strength Milke and strong meate babes and full age crums and Flagons love and abounding in love Our Kingdome comes our Kingdome here is a comming Kingdome Mercies are all shaped by Love it is the property of Divine Love to higthen dispensation still till shee hath lifted the soule beloved fully into her bosome Grace t is in the beginning little a graiâ—â— of Mustardseed in progresse great in the end all to wit Heaven which is all now doth Love fully possesse her beloved and now she rests and not till now beyond Heaven there is no gradation no step higher Love hath got her full end which is the full possession of what shee makes out to and now rests Love shapes Mercy so as fully to bring about her end and that is to bring the soule shee loves into her bosome to the full fruition of her selfe of whatsoever shee is you may see this demonstrated in Christ the Father loves him and he gives him mercies greater and greater and never leaves till hee hath lifted him fully into his bosome to his right hand i the fruition of all John 5.20 The Father loveth the Sonne and showeth him all things that himselfe doth and hee will show him greater workes then these that yee may marveile My Father hath given me great things already but hee will give me greater for he loves mee and this will drop and drop till it hath dropped out all it will never rest till it hath brought mee into his bosome The love of God carries the same property and proportion to a Christian and this makes the grouth of a Christian necessarily as the grouth of a Crocadile of which it is written that hee groweth alwayes so doth a Christian till hee bee transplanted into Heaven Vse T is trying this point what truth is in you Your graces are not so great but you may have greater if this be not regarded as you taste not grace what tang it has so you understand not grace what order t 'as Spirituall fulnesse speakes a deluded heart hee that hath goods enough enough for many yeares enough to make his felicity for ever and therefore rests is a foole hee knowes not his state what hee has nor what he wants Blinde men 't is observed do not dreame so much as men that see because fancy in the day hath not so much nor so lively impressive imployment to set it at worke in the night but blinde soules dreame more a great deale then they that see This is one of their dreames among many I have enough grace to bring me to Heaven I hope and I care for no more I love not to be pragmaticall Some make a great deale of stir and run mad t is extreame naught this I like it not Answ this is one extreame but there are two extreames and vertue in the midst of them dost thou eye t'other extreame Some die with heate others die with cold Thou seest others too hot may'st not thou be too cold grace in the true knowledge of it is inviting 't is like some Liquids drinking makes thirstinesse and longing for more drinke every degree of grace possessed makes discovery of greater degrees not possessed One Chamber of Christ hath a window looking into another far bigger and more glorious Thou art entered into one thou sayest dost thou looke into another more glorious and long to enter into it if thou be a stranger to these things thou art a foolish Virgin that possibly hast knocked at the doore of Christs house a little but art yet indeed entered into no roome when Christ had opened the nature of spirituall bread unto his followers that they did indeed understand it they fell a longing presently for more what they had discovered much more behind which they wanted and therefore cryed Lord evermore give us of this Bread Vse This point is upbraiding the light which shines upon us is more glorious then that which shined upon our Fathers that which hath beene hid from Ages and from Generations we have made manifest to us wee have mercies according to externall communication of the biggest what have you according to internall communication this will be looked after This is a day of great things a time wherein Christ brings about great things to our doores our fathers day was a day of small things yet if they were judged for despising their day of small things how much more shall you be judged that despise the day of great things t is the Apostles argument to the Hebrewes and must be mine to you Despite is a spiritull act deliberate disaffection to the loveliest things The posture of our spirits wee least looke at and this Christs Eye is most of all fixed upon Externall carriages are all measured and titled from the heart God rules in the inside of his enemies hee unbowells this Generation and Christens it in blood according to its spirit We offer despite to the spirit of grace we tread under foot the bloud of the Lord Jesus can wee tell whether this iniquity will be blotted out till this Generation die The heart fired against truth abides so t is part of that unquenchable fire below God allowes Satan to bee fueler in such a soule till they both come to burne together in hell Love lost Christ cares not for the person let him be what he will if hee be the greatest man in the World he will burne to death in that fire which burnes in his breast against Christ Our love now to be least when greatest love is tendered can you imagine that this iniquity will be quickly forgotten great heare makes great thunders t is so now the Sun of love shines mighty hot and now wickednesse thunders and so will Justice and righteousnesse too believe it COLOS. 1.26 But now is made manifest c. THe word notes two things appareo et splendeo vision and shining vision that is according to Gospel speech still in the letter and in the spirit the understanding of words which one reads by workes which one feeles a voyce behind one interpreting that before one circumcision outward in the flesh and this explained by circumcision inward in the spirit There is a narrative and an operative light that which makes one talke well and that which makes one walke well that which enables one to produce bookes for his authority in discourse and that which enables one to produce his soule and his life for authority here is my soule and my life reade if it be not so as I say let men and Angells all the World reade if they will The Manifestation which our Apostle speakes of here is the latter for he speakes of such
mens hands are something tyed up now by common distresse but with the tongue we are killed all the day long men spit blood which is a sad signe and they most which pretend most to more then ordinary knowledge and yet are brute beasts as the Apostle Peter speakes in many things and speake evill of things they know not 2 Pet. 2.12 who saith he shall utterly perish in their owne corruption This is so certaine that it is called an evident token of perdition by the Apostle Matter of admiration and thansgiving might also be suckt from this point if we had time to lie longer at the brest though all men forsake Christ yet shall not Christians utterly one might go this way and make sweete Musick Our mercy is eternall our miseries but for a moment Christ doth but hide his face when he seemes most out with us he doth not cast off nor put away he hates that in order to his Spouse though he give her to the Rod yet t is not to the black Rod to a fatall stroake Our prime mercies are married to us which is as sure as the being of any thing will afford a marriage Knot holds we know till the very being molders which thing should take us much it much tooke Solomon that God had spoken well of his house for a great while The eternity of mercies is that which makes them Heaven such is the Sun that shines upon you Saints COLOS. 1.27 To whom God would make known THe title of the Gospell the subject the object the end of it are all in this verse before us to consider some of these other verses have led us to the consideration of already they will be passed by here others present us with fresh entertainment and there we shall sit down a while and feed The Gospell is nam'd according to its nature a mystery Moses vailed to a carnall Jew Christ vailed to a carnall professour a Sunne shining full in the face of thousands and yet onely seen by one or two of them one in a Tribe two in a City one in the midst of many and yet seen but by one There is one in the midst of you whom ye know not whom ye see not that 's the originall John 1.26 This is a mystery indeed this title was given in the verse before and then opened The subject of the Gospell is here specified and amplified specified to wit Christ Which is Christ c. The Gospell hath Moses vertue in her bosome he had one sat in his bosome which did wonders wither and restore Put thy hand into thy bosome saith God and when he tooke it out his hand was leporous as Snow Put thy hand into thy bosome againe saith God and he did so and behold his hand was turned as his other flesh Exod. 4. 6 7. Moses had a notable one which sat in his bosome the same hath the Gospell and can doe as he did to wit put hands and hearts into his bosome and make them leprous and white as Snow that is make persons see their filth and cry out unclean uncleane and then can put these very leprous creatures into his bosome againe and bring them out white and ruddy incarnate Roses as that of Sharon in the Gospell the Gospell is the poole that hath no lesse then an Angell the Angell of the covenant stirring and healing cripled creatures in it t is Bethesda a house of effusion of the bravest liquid blood and spirits in the world to wit Christ crucified this is the subject of the Gospell Christ the subject of the Gospell is here amplified by his Throne and by the revenew belonging to it Christs Throne is in the hearts of his people which is Christ in you and this is a mystery indeed This world lies in wickednesse it lies overflown with the deluge of sinne and wrath the Dove hath an Arke in which she rides and flotes above this deluge to wit the heart of Saints here he abides till this deluge be dried up and the curse of the earth taken away and all things restored again and then hee will resigne his Throne to his father Christ is specified from his Throne and from the revenue of it which is great and honourable a vast estate which is cald here riches to whom God would make known what is the riches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not from Pluto to note riches which are from beneath of which commonly the divell is in some kind the author but the word notes here heavenly riches of which God is not in some kind but in all kind the authour and therefore called riches of glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of splendour fame the state of a Christian lies in orientall Pearles all his goods lands beds hanging all full of sparkling precious Stones all riches of glory The end of the Gospell is here set down doubly ultimus ultimatus Salvation and that which is necessarily conducing and subordinate to this to wit affection and affiance the one of which is named in the end of the verse hope and set out in state as it fastens upon its highest and last object Christ in Heaven the hope of glory The other is mentioned in the beginning of the verse and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire to know affection to divine revelation above all things to be well acquainted with the glorious mystery which belongs to faith and salvation to all which the will of God hath given concurrence in order to us Gentiles after a speciall manner To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery c. Would make known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies desirous to know Longing passions stir when the soule is made alive A Christian is a hungry thirsty man Hee bares alwaies and yet travels alwaies ever bearing and yet ever budding and blossoming as some Apple-trees which have buds and blossomes upon them at the same time when full of ripe fruit The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life his affection action his motion Heaven-ward hath life in it everlasting life t is as a tree that is growing above ground or under ground upward or downward in root or branch alwaies T is an expression in opposition to an hypocrite or one which beares much one yeare and dies the next His love withers it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall off as the Apostle expresses it as blasted blossomes The affection of a Christian doth not so t is as that tree of life in Eden pleasant fragrant growing alwaies yea t is that tree of life Christ in the soule Christ in you The dishes at Wisdomes table are all very delightfull and all carriage and entertainment there is very drawing which is the ground we run still after him In this mountaine shall the Lord make a feast of fat things a feast of Wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow and to hint to you that
doe the will of God this very phrase is used by the Apostle to the Romans There is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exquirere the word notes diligent and painfull searching out of things through search till what is searcht after be found out but thus these did not doe and therefore were blind and as full soules they were idle and overly in the seeking after truth and so sutable was their light and life and therefore cast off How contrary to right judgement and to the welfare of this Land are they that seeke not after God themselves but seeke after lies and hate and persecute them that doe otherwise and labour to possesse authority that such as are desirous to know more of the Lords will and are earnest endeavourers to doe it better and better are the onely overthrowers of the Land and therefore worthy to be throwne out on 't T is against reason and against nature as well as against religion Bees throw out drones out of their hives but doe they throw out them that are diligent most diligent to bring in most and best honey Men that thus speake and act should be thought of as they are and made to taste of the fruit of their bad zeale the Land would soon be a sorry place for thee if such as thou hatest were out on 't What is hungring and thirsting after the world ripping up the bowels of conscience to finde out more mysteries of iniquity more crafty wilds in trading and traffiquing for gaine diggers and searchers in the earth plunderers of Saints sanctity conscience and Christ are men of these spirits the onely safety and the onely blessing of a Land God forbid it should enter into any soule to thinke so Such as would be desirous to know and cannot must remember this one thing the heart must stand right to doe or else the former cannot be desires to know springs from integrity of intention to doe My soule breaketh for the longing it hath to thy Commandements at all times Davids spirit was set for action the influence of this made that strength of affection soule-breaking and soule-longing There be many damps and earth-quakes in an unsound spirit these put out lights flames and blazes A heart unsound hath love bending still some other way then to that truth to which it seemes to pretend water that hath fit and full passage under earth will not spring and bubble up above it Our Saviour speaking of trying times saith that the love of many will wax cold When earthly things are going the heart as it is earthy and hypocriticall will be most greedy after them and die in order to the pursuit of Divine things to save the life of carnall let us all take heed of this I le speake a word to a case of conscience and conclude I am desirous and industrious to know and to get Divine things but I can make nothing of it I am ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth To this I answer Honey dewes you know fall in very small drops so small that t is too bigge a word to call them drops if I knew what else to call them distillation as Balme very small In the warres which Alexander mannaged in Jury the holy Land where this Balme grew history saith the whole Army thought it well if they could gather a spoonfull in a Summers day So if we can in the length of our whole life by all our travell and industry searching and seeking get but a little of the Balme of Gilead a little more of the knowledge and love of Christ then we have we should account it well and not dejectedly complaine COLOS. 1.27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery c. ANy mercy any thing that is or imports the least kindnesse to man now may be called riches riches of glory at such a great distance is man now from God But the Gospell is great riches to wit as much as man hath lost and more it sets man as high as ever he was and higher which is riches of glory indeed considering how glorious once man was It must be a great deale to set up a broken man but to set him up higher then ever he was before fallen is glorious riches i. unexpresseable The Gospell in the intention of it is nothing but love A voice of joy a voice of gladnesse a voice of the Bridegroome and a voice of the Bride a voice of them that shall say God is good and his mercy endures for ever Jeremy 33.11 This is the Gospell and you see that there is nothing in it but joy and gladnesse the Gospell is a salutation of love of the sweetest love it holds forth bosoming love i. marriage love a voice of the Bride and the Bridegroome saith the text i. the strongest love glorious love it holds forth love not to last for a little while but to last as marriage love yea to last longer then that can doe mercy enduring forever saith the Text which is rich and glorious that will hold its strength and its warmth it s a breast and bosome worth the being in that will never be cold The Scripture useth three words which will fitly serve to open this expression in the Text what glorious riches the Gospell is The Gospell is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ kind to man or a word holding forth man friendship which no other subject beside doth that 's a rich and a glorious booke which when I open smiles upon me as such a creature and no where else to be read the like Man is a very miserable creature and yet as miserable as he is nothing speakes to him no volume writes about him but onely the Gospell not with any matter of hope any other Volume no sooner opened but man reads his doome in every line The booke of the creatures opened which is a great Volume and yet not a line in it that smiles upon man nay any one may better looke into the booke of creation then man man no sooner lookes into this Volume but all the creatures fall a bleeding presently as having espied their murtherer thou hast murthered me saith one creature and thou hast murthered me saith another and this is the bloody tone to the very teeth of man throughout all the creation The gronings of the whole creation are throwne as it were by each creature in the face of man they all hold up their hands together against man and say this is he that hath destroyed us There is not a sinner upon the face of the earth but is in some degree in Cains case beset with all the creatures every bush ready to fly in his face to scratch and accuse him all the creatures are out with huy and cry after man as their murtherer which was the reason why Cain was so fearfull everywhere he came the whole
creation was up in an outcry against him Man is the prime creature miserable and yet the prime creature cryd out upon to be more miserable man is not miserable enough yet let me overwhelme and drown all saith the Sea let me not leave a man alive saith the deepe Let me open my mouth and eate up all the men in the world saith the earth Let me breake forth and burne all saith the Heavens There is a strong propensity in all the creation to make an utter end of man without the least compassion towards him in any breast There is a joynt conspiracy in the creation just as there was in Noahs latter time to swallow up all and the creation shall obtaine its will upon all the wicked world at last and when that time comes you shall see what Gospell is in the creation not a dram of mercy shall any wicked soule finde so will Heaven and earth and the deepe conspire And as for the Law that is a Volume which heigthens all this cry and avers the justice of the creation in its cry and cries out for blood stronger then it Not a dram of any compassion to be found in the breast of any thing towards man no not scarce in man to man Acts 21.1 2. The Apostle after he had escaped shipwracke wondred to finde man-friendship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being cast upon the Island of Melita the inhabitants there saith he made a fire for us because of the raine and because of the cold and they shewed us no little man-friendship he wondred having escaped the Sea that the people of the Island had not eaten him up and therefore the words that follow are observable When we came to land then we knew the name of the Island Melita quasi Melifluae insula i. an Island flowing with honey because he had found flowing mercie double kindnesse by Sea and Land The Gospell holds out this man friendship t is a Volume full of compassion to man so doth the Apostle expresse it Titus 3.4 But after that the kindnesse of man-friendship of God our Saviour appeared expressing the Gospell The Gospell is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a volume that holds forth Christ not onely as compassionate but as very facile this way and that is riches of glory indeed Love and kindnesse in order to any but Christ are wrought things there is a great deale of art to make some persons smile and it is so generally in point of kindnesse and mercy there must be a great deale of art used to any but Christ to bring them to it men must be heated and warmed againe and againe to make them beath and bend strait to my purpose but Christ is facile this way Titus 3. But after the gentlenesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or facilenesse of God our Saviour appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is gentle and facile towards man ready to be brought on to doe him good in the saddest state the word is so translated Galat. 5. The fruit of the Spirit is gentlenesse Christ gives and forgives very much and he doth it without much 〈◊〉 easily chearfully t is his meat and drinke to doe his Fathers will yea and t is his meat and drinke to doe our will so farre forth as it doth conduce to righteousnesse and unto holinesse t is his meat and drinke to give us meat and drinke although it be his body and blood Love comes from Christ just as showers from Heaven and not as water out of a pump I will come as the formes and the latter Raine saith the Prophet and every word of this Gospell and not such another word in any other Book to be found As the formes and the latter Raine i very naturally Love comes from Christ just as leafes out of a Tree those leafes you reade of in the Revelation which are good to heale bud out naturaly and that but an illustration how love comes from Christ it growes and buds out of it selfe where no body can by any art fetch it out and then when buded out smiles and lookes greene upon men truly this is riches of glory indeed and yet thus doe the greatest acts of mercy come from Christ to man The Apostle to the Hebrewes mentions a great act of mercy and he mentions this very circumstance with it to wit how facile it comes But God willing more abundantly to shew his love to man and immutability of his counsell did make an Oath To this great act of mercy solemne swearing to seale and establish man God comes off very willingly or with much strength of affection and so the word is reade sometimes hee was strongly carried this way to sweare to establish and make weake hearts strong God was in such a temper in this very act as he was when he gave up his life J have a sacrifice and O how I am prest together within my selfe till it be sacrificed which expression shewes the great willingnesse of Christ to drinke off that deadly Cup. You have the same word used where the Apostle sayes love constraines mee This is the riches of the glory of the Gospell it holds forth compassion with much strength i bowels sounding very loud The Apostle fastens upon this circumstance to no to the kindnesse that comes from God to be exceeding riches because it goes forth so facile Eph. 2.7 That in Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his grace in his gentlenesse or facilenesse towards us This doth note exceeding riches indeed that Christ should bee facile in kindnesse towards man that arch Rebell The Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an expression used by the Father of his Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set forth that infinite rest he had in him for person and action as our Mediator t is a terme that notes such large affection as is competent onely to God such as is a Heaven to him The Gospel holds forth Christ in this very frame of love towards man even as one in Heaven when he thinks of bringing man thither which spirit is called a thing of highest glory Luke 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glory in the highest things what are those highest things Peace in Earth And what next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rest and solace in men which is a high thing indeed and may well be called one of the highest things of glory that God should finde rest in man As God speakes of Christ so doth hee of those that are in him this is my beloved Sonne in whom J 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solace my selfe have had my Heaven from all eternity And such a thing is it now for God to looke in Christ towards sinners it is a Heaven to him t is his rest to lie in the bosome of a sinner to lie in the place where his Sonne lies though in a Manger which is riches of glory indeed riches which make glory T is the pleasure and the grace of
of convictions make a man fall at the feet of Christ or flee in his face Hast thou found me O mine enemy Wounds that goe to the heart if they let not out corruption and pride they make men desperate and bleed them to death desperately a proud man stab'd to the heart by the word if it be not sanctified to let out his pride he will spet the blood of his soule in the face of him that wounded it Are you Gentiles in heart then be so in name doe not miscall yourselves T is a thousand pities that many are called Christians You doe onely but flatter them that flatter themselves enough and too much you helpe hug soules to death The name of a Christian given to such a one that hath not the nature of a Christian is satans chariot in which he hath carried thousands to hell asleepe Let persons and things be called as they are let us name things according to their nature let Divinity have its name Morality its name Barbarity its name You give men their severall distances as they stand ranked by a common providence one to another but we doe not give men their distance as they stand all rankt by speciall providence in order to God and the highest greatnesse Let us follow Christ in this say some are neere some are far off some are in the Kingdome of God The Kingdome of God is in you saith he to some t is neere you saith he to others t is far off from you saith he to others Let us give all persons and things their due distances in order to God as they discover themselves Doe not waste breath vainely to make a gale a pleasant gale to blow soules faster to hell Iitten gnatsabeth Prov. 10.10 which are sailing thither but too fast of themselves He that winks with his eye causeth sorrow saith Solomon dabit dolorem he will give sorrow he that puts out his owne eyes and others to he will give a great deale of sorrow to others and yet keep a great deale more for himselfe and yet this is common blind lead one another neither knowes whether Make not a bad condition hopelesse t is not so in it selfe here A Gentile simply as a Gentile was without hope because out of roade of God Enter not by the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not Matth. 10.5 6. but goe rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel said Christ when he sent forth the word The preaching of the word is the meanes of life to whom this is denied death is concluded the people necessarily perish where this vision must not come This was our condition but t is not now the channell of love is turned toward us not from us life is come amongst us as the expression here is the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles or in them saith the originall The expression notes effectuall mercy is now revealed an efficacious proffer a light of life shines amongst us such as makes sight and makes blessednesse to us as much as to the Jewes so is this expression explained Matth. 4.16 t is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great light and that which they did see they which sat in darknesse saw great light Matth. 4.16 All this was shadowed in giving the promise to Abraham before Circumcision and before the Law to note that the Uncircumcision to wit the Gentiles should be partakers of the promise as well as the Circumcision And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospell unto Abraham that is before the Law saying in thee and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blest Gentiles you that see your selves such Dogs Wolves Lyons effectuall mercy is tendred to you You that lie in the high way and villages blinde lame halt you are invited the others had their excuses some had bought Oxen others Farmes others had married wives the meaning is covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse carnality did cut off the carnall Jew and nothing but this will cut off you too Undervalue every thing in order to Christ which now invites you to him the creature hath our hearts which is a strange act a man stretching out himselfe for the grave The lust of the Gentiles spoyles them t was shadowed by the Prodigall if any of you be come to your selves like him to returne and looke after Christ you may finde grace and mercy as he did If you finde your hearts averse Christ will by his Word if you attend it perswade them And he reasoned in the Synagogue every Sabbath saith the Scriptures of Paul and perswaded the Jewes and the Greekes Acts 18.4 the Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of perswasion now to the Greekes that is to the Gentiles as well as to the Jewes Perswasion notes the power of the Word the Word carried to the heart and this Christ hath engaged himselfe to doe Hosea 2.14 Gnal libbah Therefore behold I will allure thee and bring her into the wildernesse and speake comfortably to her the word is to the heart I will allure her and speake to her heart God in them ingaged himselfe to us and stands obliged now to every poore soule that complains of his aversnesse to Christ to allure these soules and to speake to their heart COLOS. 1.27 Which is Christ in you AS there is an externall society body with body so there is an internall society spirit with spirit God is a spirit and sutes his society he moves about corporeals but holds communion and fellowship onely with spirits drawes out himselfe here his face and his heart that is communion where one drawes out his heart If any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercy Phil. 2.1 the latter explaines the former what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the communion of the Spirit meanes to wit such an internall operation as whereby the spirit of man is made like the Spirit of God for bowels and mercies and so for all other Divine dispositions a drawing out his owne heart and his nature in ours partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a communion of the Spirit and a communion of the Divine nature I thinke the termes are expository and note the Spirit so effectually operating in the soule of man as imparting its owne nature to it such an operation or communication of Christ as this is called Christ in us because he leaves his Image and similitude in us as you say sometimes of children his fathers spirit is in him and this is spoken similitudinaliter not formaliter because of that similitude and onenesse of disposition that is between father and child God was in Christ that expression poynts not at the Divine essence nor cannot be proper speech so applied but at Divine existence noting how the persons in the Trinity doe act one in and by another
not we but Christ in us that doth it he is all in all as well as all for all He bids this and that be done and 't is so his words wash us Take away the filthy garments from him set a faire Mitre on his head Zach. 3. Christ lays out all and demands nothing which is admirable Behold I have refined thee but not for silver Esay 48.10 I chose thee in the furnace of affliction c. If one referre this Text to Egypt or to Babylon 't is of much life When I did good to you in Egypt and owned you it could not be for gaine and wealth for yee had none 't was a furnace of affliction a state of oppression and bondage for my owne sake I saved you there and so I will in Babylon and so he doth every sinner that Christ doth good to any sinner purifie cleanse and cloath him cannot be for any thing in him because he chuseth us as the Text saith in a Furnace of affliction in a stript condition in a state of captivity Captives have not store of treasure to ransome themselves this well deserves a note of admiration in the front Behold I have refined thee but not for silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction Finally this may be assured thee that Christ will compleat thy purification speedily take speed as the Gospell doth The heart is deep nothing in the world like it things of depth are not emptied nor filled presently as men call presently but allow Christ the liberty of his own Idiome and dialect in speaking and so he is not slack nor long a consummating the acts of mercy no he is not long in consummating the acts of Justice though he be longer ere he accomplish this then that a great deale The Lord is not slack as men call slacknesse saith Peter and yet hee speaks there about wrath consuming wrath and yet he goes a great deale slower about this being as I may say unnaturall to him then about kindnes and mercy being things in which he delights If God be not slack as men count slacknesse in consumamting justice upon wicked men surely he is not slack as you poor sinners count slacknesse in consummating grace and mercy impatient Creatures think a little time a great while unbeleeving Saints do this as well as unbeleeving sinners Doe but allow God so much time in order to all thine enemies internall as Jerome of Prague did in order to all his enemies externall and I will assure thee in such a compasse of time thou shalt triumph over them all cito vos omnes vt respondeatis mihi post centum annos c. thy strongest enemy cannot live above an hundred yeares once in a hundred yeare men devils sins vos omnes as he speaks they shall all answer to you for all the inâ—ury they have done to you you shall judge and burne them which have burnt you so long COLOS. 1.28 Jn all Wisdome VVHat these expressions as conjoyned with the foregoing import and then the termes of it in themselves may both worthily fall under consideration that which they import as conjoyn'd with the former is that the heart of man is very hardly throughly wrought upon all variety of action warning teaching all duration of action warning teaching termes Participly exprest to note the continuation of those acts all art skill and exactnesse of action wisedome all wisdome all these used to reach the heart throughly and to bring a sinner home to Christ The soule of man is with much difficulty throughly brought home to Christ Doct. There be many devises in the heart of man as Solomon speakes which make this that I say I will note some of them Every thing hath its defence the heart hath many and all usefull by which it beares off the power of Divine things from seasing and taking hold of it the heart will carpe and catch at the Ministery of the Word this is one device by which the power of truth is destroyed the dish that holds the meat is not turn'd well and therefore the meate in it overturnd the braine crackt the minde triffles out it selfe 'tas no power to pitch and fix upon things of weight this habit lost toyes and trifles only sute and take up the heart divine ordinance toyed with their heart is pluckt out that which hath no heart cannot go to the heart if a sinner by any art and craft can pull out the heart of an Ordinance he will abide there is no doubt unstir'd in his sinne There is a spirituall frensy and madnesse is not easily cure'd the old man sits at Table and playes with his fingers hee can scarce see what meat is before him and yet every dish is out of order one speakes too quick another too slow one too plaine an nother too darke the stomack is poysoned a worme is under the tongue the eare itches therefore every thing preached is beside the Text no word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bene significans the soule doth haerere in cortice choke it selfe with a shell teares Sermons into particular sentences sentences into words words into sylables sylables into Letters strips expression starke naked from matter and then hunts a shadow to hell this expression is used Mark 12.13 they sent to Christ certaine of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch him in his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hunt him his words so the word signifies that soule that hunts Christ and his Ministers in their words is hunted by the divill from the matter a criticall spirit hath as many dores to run away from Christ and the power of truth as there be words in the Greek Lexicon This brings mee to speake of another device of the heart the old man can evade he can catch others very nimbly and get loose himselfe as nimbly The Serpent that dealt with Eve could turne in and out bend to and againe wrigle every way at pleasure that Serpent is in our bosome it was an emblem of our heart which will turne twenty wayes to evade the power of truth that which hath such a property to bend every way is not easily broken things that will bend double will wave double and treble force ere they will breake The art of evasion that the heart hath to put by the sword of the spirit and to save the life of sinne is of great compasse and depth and runs it selfe into many branches which I cannot run after now summarily see a little of this art shadowed by the carriage of Saul 1 Sam. 19.16 Saul had heard that David was at his house and sent him to kill him there and Michal let him downe at a window and laid an image in the bed and told the messengers that came to search that David was sick and thus turned the messengers away and then they were sent againe to fetch David in his bed that Saul might kill him in his bed and by this time David was gone far
the Lord Jesus as you would blesse God highly for your sinne makes many miserable but your selves most though yet you feele it not surely Justice hath espyed us all carnall for Paul Apollo for Cephas for this thing for that for nothing cordially but our lust Sinners can you consider your selves can you consider this time you of this place your advantages are great do you know them it will not be long ere our glasse be out ere we meete before Christ the Sword of Justice is at all our breasts all that you have heard will be repeated all that you have rejected will be chronicled with the bloud of your soules to beare witnesse against you as long as Christ and your soules are Opportunity is more then eternity 'tas not so much time in it but 'tas more advantage you shall answer for all advantages which are the waightiest things in the world facility to Christ is now doubly needfull soule hardning blowes are strucke apace the Ax is to the root hypocrites are not so borne with now as formerly but ript up and carried forth from the sincere like Judas and Ananias and Saphira our misery is mercy in this sinkes are loathsome yet t is well that Christ so workes that basenesse cannot hide it selfe Drunken soules and drunken bodies pride covetousnesse malice blasphemy all sorts of sinnes that lay hid a great while now shew themselves in their colours speedy action and through action is now expected upon paine of speedy and through detection and rejection COLOS. 1.28 That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus THis terme perfection is not found in some Greeke copies but read onely thus That we may present every man in Christ T is a reading very honourable compared with other copies for it intimates that to be presented at the great day in Christ is all You may call such a soule what you will that is Noble holy unblameable unreproveable in Gods sight as this terme perfect is interpreted at the 22 verse of this Chapter or if there be any tearme amongst us more significative you may use it and apply it to him that is set downe before God in Christ you may call him eximium adultum a man come to full age a man singular chosen out from among thousands by royall favour such a one in whom the eye of God can see nothing amisse no defect no excesse no presence of sinne no absence of grace a man come to his journeys end all this the originall word will beare As soone as one comes into Christ then a mans journey as a Christian begins the soule that is thus come into the Arke when the Arke leaves floating and tossing the soule and lands it selfe and its fraught upon the mountaine in that place above where God Angels and just men made perfect are then t is come to its journeys end then is man a perfect man All our perfection is in Christ Perfection is of things above or below both are in Christ There is a creation here which gives all parts of a perfect creature and therefore cald perfect new all new Old things are past away and all things are become new but this is not till the soule be in Christ He that is in Christ is a new creature A man whilst in himselfe whatever parts he hath or advantage of externall tuition he is an old creature that is adhering to and led by that which God of old condemned in the Angels and in Adam private will selfe will and worth which is the originall of all evill within and without A man in Christ that is a man in the grace and strength of Christ renounceth this to wit himselfe his owne will which is the seat and spring of all carnall lusts and in no other strength whatsoever can he doe it My grace is sufficient The old man is bed-ridden never goes out of his chamber never out of himselfe what ever brave things you discerne him doe or say nor can Perfection here is the through death of selfe I am crucified Crucifixion speakes many deaths head hands feet sides brest all wounded nailed it notes much paine but through worke all powers and parts of selfe tortured crying out eloy much anguish and great earth-quakes but selfe at last quite giving up the ghost I am crucified the heart blood of all that may speake me in any thing that is good is out and this through death of selfe is wrought with no other engine but Christ that with which selfe is crucified is with Christ I am crucified with Christ This is the stone that slaies Goliah that sinkes into the braine of the Gyant Our being in Christ is the death of sinne and the life of grace as Jonas being in the Whale was the death of his pride this makes personall action truly pure that is of such rise and of such reach as fully suits the Gospell and without which none can be or act The Apostle gives this bound to sanctity if any be sanctified here t is in Christ to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1.2 Sanctification and glorification is in Christ There is a fulnesse here and a fulnesse hereafter a perfection of quantity and a perfection of quality a perfection of quantity is that which Divines call a perfection of parts as a child hath every finger and every toe every limbe of a man though these not growne to a mans maturity Then there is also perfection of quality which Divines call a perfection of degrees when all parts and gifts are throughly come to maturity the eye so strong and so cleare as able to behold all things that are in God to blesse the soule and so the eare hearing all things the tongue tasting all things the hand feeling all things that are in and from that blessed being to make the being of the soule like it all this perfection is in Christ and this by the pleasure of God It pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell grace glory Whatsoever God gives forth here whatsoever he gives forth above Christ is the continent in which t is laid With thee is the fountaine of life and in thy light shall we see light Psal 36.9 There are streames and broad rivers which runne to soules here the fountaine of these is with him that is the whole that God is to man in this world or will be to man in the world to come which is explained in that which followes with thee is the fountaine of life meaning Christ in thy light we shall see light In Christ wee have all the blessednesse that God gives in this world and in him we shall see that is actually possesse all that God gives above Therefore t is that David saith All my springs are in thee those that runne above and therefore also are the rivers of pleasure there said to be at Gods right hand the place where Christ sits In Christ wee stand and see God here in
a noble life as we pretend to when we professe a religious life this life is according to every dram drawne from Christ 't is not from the speciousnesse of our owne action nor from other folkes incouragement This time is full of straits externall ingagements byasse men much about internall and externall things if this temptation were over saith one I would take a better course No thou wouldst not courage to the things that are noble springs not from any earthly advantage if all secular authority in the Land should say they would secure thee for any dammage that thou shouldest suffer in pursuite of such a Religious cause yet would thine owne heart fall off like the Jsraelites from entring the holy Land and thou wouldest as they step back when at the doore ready to enter who though Moses and Aaron bid them to enter yet they fell off so though Parliament and Synod were at thy back and did incourage thee to enter yet if thou have no other incouragement thou wilt not step a step in the wayes of God by the grace of God J am that J am saith Paul let all the men in the World be never so gratious to thee yet wilt thou be as ungratious as thou art to the day of thy death if the grace of Christ do not put Spirit and Life into thee Externall inducement is nothing that mans Religion is nothing that thinks otherwise and 't will prove so to his shame and losse if his eyes be not opened to see it If a man speake meerly of a naturall life that is a life as a man as such a creature then a man may say of externall good things as Hezekiah of health and strength and other outward advantages in these is the life of my spirit but if you speake of Divine Life life to that which is Heavenly in riches honours friends parts in no exernall thing in no internall thing but in Christ is the life of my spirit according to his working not according to my own working shall I worke for God and for his glory Stratagents and wiles is much made use of in these times of woe Satan uses it too stay saith hee till Parliament and Synod put life into thee till they doe this and they do that 't is good to honour authority in that which is proper to such authority but so you may stay till the sword of Gods wrath that is in the Land kill you all Worke according to his working within you and take heed of checking this to waite for others working without you to set you forward strangle the quicknings of the spirit and expect quicknings from men and thou wilt be executed by conscience for the greatest murtherer in the World Our life beares upon the operation of Christ Le ts make Christ the fountaine and then le ts draw as much water of life from him as may bee You see how exact and expresse the proportion is made betweene Christs operation and our life such operation such life we strive according to his working therefore le ts set Christ at worke hard and get as much divine operation and life from him as may be Divine operation is the choysest mercy in the World how full of life is my spirit when in the Hands of God! when hee hath it working and moulding of it commend thy spirit therefore often into his hands send him much worke Spirits are so much imployed and over-wrought in the World that Christ hath little or no work sent him no house nor shop to work in A man no an image stands before God in duty a thing without a soule no spirit sent to God to talk with no soule no child of the soul at home to tell where the Parent is children of the soule I meane thoughts desires all sacrificed to devills at the end of the earth and thus farre from home must abide and never be sent for home who ere come to visit them though it be Christ himself what Divine operation can be in the soule when the soule is so given up to gadd after worldy things Divine operation is a very retired act two great Pears in conference may not be interrupted things in discusse being of such great concernment the Spirit of God and the spirit of man Divine operation it is a vision from Heaven of property like that of Pauls that bindes the soule in order to all carnall objects that may make the minde gad and in this vision as in that is a voyce a still voyce Saul Saul sinner sinner why dost thou do this and that against me but this still voyce is full of life to the soule that stilly listens this operation of Christ silenceth that noyse which is in the soule by the operation of other things and then is there a voyce from Heaven to the soule come up hither O soule thou must be above this and that for the tranquillity and felicity of thy life These are the operations of God in which is the life and Heaven of man All divine operation hath voyce the word and the spirit goe together still Christ workes and talkes makes peace and speakes peace makes war and speakes it to conscience You might know what God is a working in your soules hee speakes it now and then very plaine to conscience you that have eares to heare what the spirit saith the spirit workes and then it speakes what it workes the spirit saith now and then in still weather if you listen now and then you may heare what it saith The spirit and the word go together one moves and quickens the soule by the other Hell-ward or Heaven-ward the one should be much dreaded and the other much desired Divine operation is a thing of the greatest concernment in the World 't is as the spirits in the blood if the Pulse beate and worke not spirits are all wasted death is seized upon the state Sinners I know not how God workes in your soules how hee hath stirred or how he doth onely know this when he leaves pulsation that is ceaseth knocking know that your life is departed the operation and the pulsation of God is the life of the soule the life of the soules is the blessednesse of the soule as I am lively and agile in divine things carried upon Eagles wings to God in all duties so am I in Heaven Get as much therefore of this operation and life as you can I speake this because there is a great difference in Divine operation There is an operation that makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to will and there is an operation that makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all readinesse of minde to will 2 Cor. 8.11 Act. 17.11 they received the word with all readinesse of minde speaking of the noble Bereans There is a great difference betweene Divine operations and this makes a great difference betweene Christian and Christian one farre more noble then an other These were more noble then those of
forgivenesse of sin is p. 57 Christ is admirable in action and in person p. 59 The excellency of Christs person makes the excellency of his action p. 60 How Noble action proceeds from the Noble forme of things p. 61 What Christ is in compleatnesse he is for believers p. 62 63 Christ as the Image of God to man explained p. 63 64 65 How to conforme to Christ as the Image of God p. 66 No representation for Divine adoration but Christ how nature attempts nothing this way and how fancie if it would is disadvantaged p. 67 68 God invisible in action and person p. 70 That God is invisible in action tremble before him p. 73 Gods action is invisible trust in him ibid. That God is in person invisible long to be out of the body p. 74 What first-borne notes Birth-right an honourable thing p. 74 75 They which have but a meere naturall birth-right spoken to and they which have both a naturall and a spirituall p. 76 77 Bâ—avenesse of spirit to maintaine priviledge wanting p. 78 Every thing a this side Christ a creature things therefore should be feared loved trusted in as they are p. 79 80 81 Men are apt to conceive too low and too meane of Christ p. 82 We set up things as we see them and as we love them p. 82 83 84 Demonstrations of setting Christ above all p. 84 85 A holy soule cannot tire it selfe in the contemplation of Christ p. 87 There is variety congruity transcendency of excellency in Christ p. 87 88 Three things that destroy divine contemplation p 88 89 T is our duty and our consolation to contemplate whole Christ p 90 91 God doth create and new create in Christ ibid. All divine action going forth in Christ is consolation to the godly they may argue for the choysest mercy upon this ground p. 93 Earth the room we live in here which is low common darke filthy p. 95 96 97 As our dwelling is so should we expect to find things p. 97 98 But one good neighbour in Earth ibid. The workes of God afford man a full soule imployment p. 99 The soule is noble in its acts and Christ would lose none for want of imployment p. 100 The soule is remisse in its acts Christ leaveth this without excuse p. 100 Whence soule-idlenesse about divine things springs p. 100 101 Thrones Dominions are explained p. 102 Christ hath an unexpressable power by him at command to over-rule this world p. 102 Angelicall properties p. 103 104 The pride and folly of men that war against God p. 105 Christians exhorted to trust in Christ because of his command of Angels p. 106 107 All things must be for Christ p. 108 Many will dye by this law that all is to be for Christ p. 110 Nothing will be for Christ as it should be when the heart is not p. 110 What speakes the heart for God in action p. 111 Affection naturally is no whit divine p. 112 What eternity is p. 113 There is principium ordinis temporis essentiae p. 113 Obedience must be suited to Christs being and moving p. 114 Christ as an eternall agent worketh in the soule p. 115 Christ being eternall eternall things may be had p. 116 In Christ all things consist and what this expression imports p. 117 118 What providence is common and speciall p. 119 120 Consolation to necessitous creatures that in Christ all consists p. 121 122 What to be observed to make Christ give out himselfe for sweet subsistance p. 123 There is store in Christ for all spirituall necessity p. 125 Grounds why not supplied with much from Christ our head p. 127 Many spirituall eonsiderations to quiet soules that are complaining for want of much of Christ ibid. Christ as head what his rule is and where p. 130 131 Men cannot beare the rule of Christ p. 131 Two things demonstrate the heart ruled by Christ p. 132 133 Severall considerations to draw the heart under the rule of Christ p. 134 135 The principality of Christs Priesthood demonstrated p. 136 137 Christs Priestly Office to be made used of p. 138 Hard to convince men that they trust in their woâ—kes two things discover it p. 136 Consolation in a double respect issues from the Priestly Office of Christ to believers p. 140 141 The superiority of Christs Propheticall Office set forth p. 142 143 Christ teacheth internally eternally instantly p. 15 146 Whether taught of â—hrist and what demonstrates it p. 146 147 Christ hath a generall glory a garment without seame p. 148 Gold proffered to sinners that hath no drosse p. 149 Persons that would love Christ are excepted ibid. God fits one thing to another p. 150 Gods way in this world is a tracing of man ibid. The Deity speaks out it selfe in apt action ibid. Divine action is to make conviction p. 150 151 God will be even with men that oppose him p. 152 England to justifie Christ in all her misery p. 153 The folly of some in looking for great things what fitteth for great things p. 154 155 A gracious heart is taken with Christ as chiefe ibid. Judgement is cleare and love sincere in a Saint p. 155 156 Persons exhorted to consider who is chiefe in their soules three things speake the undervaluing of Christ p. 156 157 158 I cannot believe this objection answered to p. 159 Saints prize Christ as chiefe and so doth he them the benefit of this ibid. We are all by sin dead the properties of spiritually death p. 160 161 Now trading is dead to thinke of dead hearts p. 163 Two things tend to spirituall life p. 163 164 Christ hath in all things the preheminence what universall dominion meanes p. 165 166 The power of Christ to be laid to heart proud sinners to trouble at it p. 167 As God hath set Christ over all so should we p 168 Love sets Christ as high as God hath set him over all ibid. The blessednesse of their condition that gives Christ preheminence in all things p. 169 How freely God contrives reliefe for man p. 170 Free motion the purest the noblest the surest the sweetest p. 170 171 That Gods motion to sinners is free should comfort them p. 172 T is pleasing to God to give grace but not so to sinners to receive it ibid. Deniall of free grace hath foure aggravations p. 173 174 Every thing is shaped to man according to Gods own will p. 178 Things below man equall to man above man are all shaped by Gods will p. 179 Though God yet no man may pursue his own will ibid. A man fast to his will was first very loose from God p. 180 A man pinned to his will hath three grand plagues upon him p. 181 182 Very comfortable in all conditions that things come to us according to Gods will p. 183 God restlesse till fallen man relieved p. 161 T is naturall to God to shew mercy he eyes the beauty of action the necessity of action p.
have him p. 291 What the word Paul signifies p. 293 The freenesse of God in all dispensations of grace and place should be matter of admiration p. 294 The Land full of mercies and full of nothing but brutes which tread upon them p. 295 The proper worke of Christians to admire the grace of God p. 298 299 Duty at last is sweetest p. 300 Obedience rejected because of its issue a damnable fault p. 301 What magnanimity is p. 302 303 The great need of magnanimity in these times p. 304 The soules of Gods people as well as their bodies suffer in this world p. 306 307 Comfort when paines rage inwardly p. 309 A man should be very long ere he make a positive conclusion upon some workes of God towards him p. 310 Two considerations which may relieve much when trials pinch the soule p. 311 To fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ c. This opened p. 401 The fury of man implacable ibid. Malicious men fire-shovels p. 402 Christ hath left all his prime businesse in this world to Christians ibid. At what height we are to be for Christ p. 403 None should be secure sin and justice will meet any where in a City walled with Brasse ibid. Christ hath drunke of the bloody cup in his turne the next is this Saint or that p. 404 Gods people are not all in prison at once and why p. 404 405 The order of trials to Gods people hints the order of judgements to the wicked p. 407 The sufferings of a Saint but his turne p. 408 A great honour to drinke of the cup that Christ did ibid. All earth beares thernes p. 409 What oppression is p. 410 How many waies oppression is made p. 411 Great men incident to the sin of oppression p. 412 The greatnesse of the evill of oppression the cause of civill war p. 413 The goodnesse of Christ to be admired as delivering from oppressors p. 414 The Church Militant described p. 415 The misery of the Militant Church to be laid to heart p. 419 How Christians finde their hearts moved to wrestle for the land p. 420 The Crosse keeps off some from the Church Militant p. 421 The Church Triumphant p. 423 All cannot be of the Church Triumphant p. 427 The soule that pants for Heaven spoken to p. 428 What 's done for the soules reliefe must be speedy p. 429 Two things incomparably swift in bringing forth p. 430 Of a sudden sinners are undone ibid. Forbidden fruit agrees well enough with some stomacks p. 431 Family distribution mans blessednesse p. 433 We should not content our selves with common mercies p. 434 They that feed on family favours owe much to God ibid. Christ peculiarly applies himselfe in all his dispensations unto his owne people p. 436 Towards whom Christ inclines we should p. 438 The heart of Christ hanging towards his people they should sucke this Honey-combe p. 439 How the heart of God inclines cannot be gathered by his hand p. 441 Not safe to calculate kindnesse by the motion of outward things p. 442 The word of Christ pure pleasant p. 444 The Gospell rejected p. 446 We are spectators of sin and justice in height p. 447 VVho it is within us that speakes and what answers we returne p. 448 There is a power opening and shutting things of eternall consequence in order to man in this life p. 449 VVhat Christ can doe to a perverse soule p. 451 Sweet to consider that sacred concealments are but for a time p. 452 Mercies have their severall demensions p. 453 Love heightens dispensation till the soule be lifted to Heaven ibid. Growth not regarded speaks unsoundnesse of heart p. 454 We have greater things then our fathers and regard them not p. 455 What the demonstrative light of the Gospell is p. 456 Some have Jobs wish they give up the ghost in the wombe p. 458 The most are finally left ibid. Two things hint a soule finally left p. 460 Gods people shall not be utterly forsaken ibid. A Christian is a hungry thirsty soule and the grounds of it p. 464 465 What is a Christians game p. 466 Growing Christians a great blessing to a Land p. 467 Such as would be strong in affection directed p. 469 What the riches of the mystery of the Gospell is p. 470 Heaven proferd as in Heaven p. 474 Christ and his Ministers to be prized p. 475 What a Gentile is p. 477 The danger of conviction stifled p. 461 Gentiles in heart should be so in name p. 480 Mercy for Gentiles p. 481 Christ in man what it is p. 482 Christ chuseth a very forlorne seat in this world p. 483 Our soules are the spirituall grave of Christ and he will be the victory of this grave p. 487 VVhat hope is p. 488 Our felicity lies in Noble principles p. 450 VVhat glory is p. 491 492 Gospell administration makes exact illumination p. 496 Christ slaine his blood cries in conscience p. 498 The vindiction of conscience p. 499 Divine words put themselves into the mind p. 501 VVhere the word is magisterially in the heart p. 504 VVhat to doe when the word is of no spirituall force p. 506 Gospell purification is full p. 508 I am so filthy that I shall never be made clean this objection answered p. 510 The soule of man is with much difficulty brought home to Christ p. 514 The severall waies the heart hath to keep off the power of the word ibid. VVe should consider well to what our hearts are facile p. 516 How we are to put price upon the soule p. 517 All our perfection is in Christ p. 519 Most in their pursuit after a perfect state mistake p. 521 The employment of a Minister of Christ very laborious p. 524 525 The soule very precious to Christ p. 526 How to ease a Ministers labour p. 528 Bad contention what it is p. 531 Good contention what it is p. 532 The divine nature of contention wherein it lies p. 533 The contention of most voyd of divine property p. 535 Efficiency sufficiency alsufficiency in Christ p. 537 Externall inducements nothing to make one truly religious p. 541 Our life beares upon the operation of Christ p. 542 VVhat internall operation is p. 544 Internall operation of eternall force p. 546 Our greatest maladies are internall and yet cureable p. 547 The greatest good is that which Christ loves p. 549 FINIS TABULAE
shadow of eternitie he is said to be without beginning of dayes and end of life You may call eternity life for 't is an essentiall attribute to the highest life but then you cannot measure this life by dayes and years no not by beginning nor endding for 't is without both saith the holy Ghost Without beginning of dayes or end of life Eternitie is a life of and to it self without term or dependance any denomination from any thing without it self You may denominate some things by some accidents that belong to them as long short great little but eternity is without all accident and can be called by none of these neither long nor short great nor little but what it is essentially within it self a life without all term a life everlasting a life from everlasting to everlasting and such a life did Christ live whilest on earth a life that had no term that was before all things and after all things Eternall life is consistent with humanity though not with iniquity with humane nature though not with sinfull nature The God-head dwelt bodily with us that is in our nature dwelt that life which is eternall that is of and to it self without any term dependance or denomination but from it self There is principium ordinis principium temporis a beginning of order and this is competent to Christ as the Sonne of God First the Father and then the Sonne There is a beginning of time and this is competent to Christ as the Sonne of man but principium essentiae a beginning in regard of that essence and life which is the same in all the three Persons so there is none The Father is eternall the Sonne eternall and the holy Ghost eternall without termination or denomination known to us The Sunne is appointed for times and seasons for dayes and moneths and years Gen. 1. 'T is a long met-yard to measure the Heavens which is wonderfull spacious and it doth it speedily 't is mensura motus the measure of all motion above and below but there is no measure for eternity but it self but the Sonne of righteousnesse who fully comprehendeth his own being in all the properties of it it can be put under no definition in our terms and so consequently into no humane conception and therefore when spoken of 't is very brokenly and yet as may best reach to your apprehension as calling it something before the eldest thing you can think of He is before all things As Christ is in being so in office the one giveth fitnesse to the other He is a King eternall a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck Every being hath proper action as Christ is he doth he hath eternall life and doth eternall actions he blesseth for ever curseth for ever he blotteth out sinne for ever and writeth down sinne for ever Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever that this is a rebellious people lying children that will not heare the Law of the Lord. Esay 30.8.9 If thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever 1. Chron. 28.9 The works I do they bear witnesse of me saith Christ when he would convince them of what a being he was As things are so they act such a life generateth such a life Whosoever shall drink of the waters that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life Our dutie must be suited to Christs being and moving both which are for ever and so must our obedience be I will extoll thee my God O King and I will blesse thy Name for ever and ever Psalm 145.1 the being and moving of Christ should not be separated his Person and Office should go joynt and answerablely be observed in conversation God and King are here coupled together by the Psalmist and Christ as God and King lifted and extolled I will extoll thee O God my King Christ is eternall in both and in all other attributes he is God-King and God-Priest and God-Prophet that is of suitable action in all these Offices to the nature of an eternall life of a God-life I may so speak and therefore ought joyntly still to be considered and observed Naughty hearts suspend duty at pleasure they consider not with whom they have to do to day they will be holy to morrow they will not and in this undoe themselves for ever as falling under an eternall stroke Beings and Offices over us must be acknowledged as they are they are eternall and must be obeyed eternally Ever follow that which is good Thes 5.15 Religion if it cost you money or if it cost you bloud yet you must obey for he that liveth for ever will otherwise make you die for ever O England take heed of eternall blows if thou wave thy fidelity to Christ to wave temporall strokes thou wilt have eternall stroakes thou wilt be judged as Elies house for ever and as the Churches in the East with a perpetuall desolation and Ziim and Ochim shall dance here and thou shalt heare the voyce of the Turtle no more for ever Esay 13. Thy bending affrighteth me more then thy bleeding but I spare thee O weak England Truth should be managed according to its nature and according to its Father 't is eternall and so must we cleave to it if thou canst not receive this the Lord have mercy upon thee England I leave generalls and speak to particulars 't is an eternall God ye have to do with he is before all things and will be after all things wherefore tremble and consider your state every one what eternall things are done upon you An eternall agent hath an eternall subject to work upon your souls are everlasting and there Christ specially worketh as most suitable to him little is to be heeded what is done without in comparison of what is done within you complain of many strokes upon your states names bodies but is there not a stroke of strokes an eternall stroke upon your souls Hence forth let fruit never be on thee more Ah Lord here is an eternall God striking a stroke like himself Barren souls is not this eternall stroke strucken upon you You of this congregation let me wash my hands of your bloud ere my glasse amongst you be quite out what hath my eternall master done in your eternall souls by the eternall words which he hath spoken by me since the day I came amongst you Are not your hearts the same as sowre as bitter as cold as carnall as worldly as ever Are not these symptomes of an eternall stroke that God hath cursed you for your barrennesse under brave means which you a long while have had never to be otherwise then you are Take time to give me an answer till I come to this place again Christ being eternall eternall mercy may be
had if wanted by any people and with more content to Christ then lesser things great persons delight to give like themselves He asked life of thee and thou gavest him long life even life for ever more As for naturall life Christ maketh nothing of this gift David thought that to beg naturall life had been a great request and no doubt but he would have accounted this much in some straights but God maketh nothing of this as being not to give like himself An eternall God loveth to give eternally The gift of God is eternall life This is the priviledge of the generation of them that seek him they ask small things and he giveth great they ask one thing and he giveth them a better they ask like themselves and he giveth like himself Tender hearts are afraid to ask great things but it should not be for 't is most becoming him with whom we have to do and you will sooner get him to give audience about such things then about petty temporary things Kings will not be moved in small things but in matters which beseem their greatnesse to this they are ready Our God is ready to give the least good thing we need to tender every hair and every leaf His leaf shall not wither but he is most delighted to give the things that are most like him When Jacob wrestleth in a case of naturall life the Angel would fain get gone doubtlesse his petition lay too low for the Text saith he was greatly afraid and had there not been something wrapt up in the businesse that had an eternall respect and which the Angel at this time did more look to then Jacob did doubtlesse Christ would have got away he would not have been troubled with Jacob all night onely about the naturall life of him and his Let weak souls remember the carriage of the King to Hester when she cometh upon matters of weight the golden Scepter is held out and she toucheth it What wilt thou Queen Hester It shadoweth out what Christ is to his Church ready to give things of weight such a royall life and state to his Church as he hath himself and to continue it against all Hamans Coloss 1.17 In him all things consist c. PRovidence hath put me to speak of many things but now she puts me to speak of her self she is a servant of servants she waits upon every one but now she commands you to wait a little upon her to know what she is and what a blessing you have in her Of Christ as a creatour you have heard and now as an upholder you shall hear of him In him all things are made of nothing and in him all things abide or else would turn all to nothing One thing lives in another fish in the sea foul in the aire brutes in the earth but all in Christ In him all things consist There is an inconsistencie in the creation by the curse one thing cannot live by another one thing bites and devours another great ones eat up little ones the whole world is a great body gnawing out it self it hath gnawed it self to skinne and bones now 't is so old and torn as is very sad to look upon or live in and it would have gnawed it self to nothing long ere this if Christ had not upheld in him hath the whole creation things in heaven and things in earth a reconciliation of consistency father would kill sonne else and the stones in the street would rise against you all but in him these all consist The expression speaks supportation there be many things in the world and they all live upon one Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest every living thing There be many mouths in the world and some gape very wide and yet one hand fills them all In whom things have esse they have porro esse 't is the case of all created things they are dependant The noblest life below Christ is in Christ upheld in him or else it would die presently In him we live move c. Man holy man lives the highest life of all creatures here below yet this is in Christ life is the noblest thing and Christ is the fountain of this he is the fountain of the noblest life that any creature lives all life the life of plants the life of beasts the life of men the life of Saints the life of Angels all runnes from that vast spirit of life that is in him Look what your spirit is to the little world that is Christs spirit to the great world your spirit carries life about to all to every finger to every toe and to every joint your soul is a fountain of life to all the strings veins and sinews of your body so is Christ to all the creation he gives life to all Bread is called a staffe and support but this is but by Ordinance from Christ for life comes not merely out of bread it comes from Christ life is not in bread but in the word of blessing which comes out of the mouth of Christ One thing would die in the bosome of another if all were not in the bosome of Christ children in the bosome of parents and parents in the bosome of plenty for in him and not in these all things consist The expression speaks disposition Every life hath proper motion this also is in Christ In him we live and move Look how seas and winds and heavens and birds and beasts and men move and admire for 't is in Christ Christ is not onely the supporter but the orderer of all things 't is not in the noblest creatures to live its own life nor to move like to its own principle of motion 't is not in man to order his steps Man hath the noblest life the greatest parts and gifts and yet 't is not in these to order themselves like themselves 't is not in man to order his life like a man do you not see many men live like beasts In whom is it then 't is in Christ No life hath its one property independant we cannot live of our selves nor we cannot move but in Christ although we have life life and motion proper to it is in him this is true at the same height of the new man We can do nothing of our selves not think a good thought thinking good and holy thoughts this is the property of a holy spirit and yet this its own property is dependant 't is not in a holy spirit think holy thoughts but 't is in Christ To live and to act the least acts of life is in the fountain of life In him all things consist that is beings and actions Christ doth uphold goings as well as beings Uphold my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Such beings and such goings Christ upholds he upholds the world and disposes the world being and government both are upon his shoulders that is being and disposition of being Who hath given him a charge
be in-entereth the World sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou fitted mee Christ is fitted and ready to make in entrance and this in-entrance is that which makes peace and hope in the soule Christ centered in the heart is at rest when Christ is at rest in us wee are at rest in him COLOS. 1.27 Hope of Glory T Is hard to open this terme yet it will be meete to make at it a little if one can but get a glimpse of glory by humble industry it will be worth the while a little of Heaven and for but a little while as Paul had when on earth t is very sweet in our sad and forelorne state Glory is absolute perfection as things come short of this they are defective all defect destroyes glory as glory is strictly and properly taken so it is here there be severall glories the utmost of every such a being is its glory That may bee called glory in order to a Plant or a Brute which may not be so called in order to man his being is so vast and so receiving unlesse this vast being be fild up and every veine and rivelet run as many fadome deep as they should and as they did when first made out from the fountaine man cannot be said to be in glory And therefore to speake properly glory is a garment which God only weares and such as sit in his bosome who have there that which is else no where the utmost of such vast beings this is generall We must by the command of our Text speake of glory precisely in order to man and what that is you shall see in Christ who brought mans glory from Heaven for him and in the person and nature of man wore it here though the World could not see it a curtaine of flesh being drawne before it but the Saints then living saw a glimpse of it in him And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and truth John 1.14 The first Adam lost his glory Christ held it though the World far otherwise and far worse then when Adam lived in it What was Adams glory The Image of God What was Christs glory The same full of grace and truth Were we but full of grace and truth wee should be in glory in Heaven here as Christ was What was Christs glory is our glory his fulnesse was in way of unction and Office and so shewes and assures what is and what shall be our glory Glory is holinesse and joy in fulnesse therefore is Heaven called a holy Heaven Psal 20.6 Christs fulnesse fully imparted grace for grace The soule come to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ The glory of the eyes is to see and to see perfectly and so of the eare and so of every other Organ Sinne hath rackt the soule and pul'd every lim out of joynt bu◠they are set againe by Christ here for a little use but not so as they shall be we go lame and go in paine our very holinesse is halting and afflicting there is no glory in that So farre as we come short of the Will of God habitually or actually wee come short of glory Wee all sinne and come short of the glory of God The expression notes what is glory to wit full congruitie to the Will of God such a congruity as excludes all sinne Our inheritance is undefiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.4 it is unspotted and cannot be defiled the word used in the originall is the name of a pretious stone too which do what you will to it you cannot blemish it throw it into fire t is taken out still more bright and cleare such is our inheritance and state above a glory that hath no in-glory or dis-glory nor nothing can make disglorious can any spot the Sun though they should throw dirt at it not the shaddow of sinne above or imperfection nor can by any diabollical art be made there be that set their mouthes against Heaven Psal 73.9 that blaspheme the Tabernacle of Heaven and yet cannot spot grace and truth here much lesse can it be spotted above Every one goes all cleane above inside outside and nothing can defile either they are of such an amiantous nature there is no having and then losing above Fulnesse of joy this necessarily springs out of the other for as holinesse is so is joy t is the flower that holinesse beares the greene leafes and fruit of the Tree of life If wee could attaine a fulnesse of holinesse here wee should have a fulnesse of joy they are so connaturall if we were in the condition of Christ for the one we should necessarily be for the other Our Saviour is expresly cleare in this Jf yee keepe my Commandements yee shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandement and abide in his love these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remaine in you and that your joy might be full Could wee walke in Christs Commandements as he did in his Fathers we should live in his bosome here and be embraced with such embracements and raptures as he was If we had Christs holinesse wee should have Christs joy remaine in us and then our joy would be full these things have I spoken to you that my joy might remaine in you that is such a joy as I have that hath no want nor no expression t is so full of glory and so full of sweetnesse for that is the reason Christ gives it such a name my joy because the nature of it is unexpressable in our termes or in any Language amongst the Sonnes of men in a suffering condition when the soule holds tite in obedience through the power of Christ it comes then mighty neere Heaven and then observe what it hath it hath Christs joy joy full and beyond expression joy unspeakable and full of glory Full joy is full of glory 't is the spring of the Yeare all things greene and florishing smiling and singing These things hint their state above and what glory is t is fulnesse of holinesse and joy as the one is proportioned to Christ so is the other we have his stature and his measure in both brim-full Our state here is a state of reception and therefore asking and praying continuall worke their state above is a state of plenitude and therefore praying and asking work quite over aske and you shall receive saith Christ aske that your joy may be full John 16.24 Aske that asking worke and begging worke may be over there be no beggars in Heaven no not for joy though that be a top mercy Defect in joy is from the distance of something that the soule reaches at there is no longing in Heaven that which wee account a mercy here is an affliction there to thirst and pant after such and such Divine things such and
such heigths and depths of grace we account it a great mercy to finde our soules in such a frame here and yet this would be misery above there is no panting nor thirsting after any thing because no distance of any thing that is blessed there is no darkenesse no twilight no cloud of a hand breadth all that Heaven over to hide any thing from any soule to sad him all there have all plaine and open to them abundance of Revelations a Hyperbole of Revelations it is the expression of him that was there a little while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Least J should he exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations 2 Cor. 12.7 t is abundance of Revelations indeed for t is a personall beholding of God and that is a Hyperbole of Revelations you will all grant and yet t is very true and me thinkes very plainly set out Exod. 33.17 18 19 20. at the eighteene verse this is Moses request J beseech thee shew me thy glory observe how God answers to this at the 20 vers thou canst not see my face by which is interpreted what is meant by Gods glory to wit his face what Moses before called Gods glory that God himselfe when he comes to English it to us calls his face but what then is meant by Gods face why this also in the next words God himselfe interprets There shall no man see mee and live expressing his person so that the glory of God according to Gods owne interpretation is a personall beholding of God and this is a hyperbole of revelations indeed and that which makes a hyperbole of joyes indeed thou shalt make mee full of joy with thy countenance Acts 2.28 which is a place paralell with the former and poynts at the personall vision of God which and which only makes full joy to the soule of man COLOS. 1.28 Whom wee preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that wee may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus 29. Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in mee mightily THe call of God by whom to whom and to what are the generalls exprest and amplified in these two verses The call of God now is by men whom wee preach and whereunto J also labour Sinne is punished weakenesse condescended to immediate commerce was our life it is now our death we cannot see God nor heare God and live take both in a parallel speach but wee shall doe both 'T was shadowed by the mediation of Moses who talked with God upon the Mount and in the Tabernacle which shadowed Heaven as our spirituall Tabernacles now do Face to face as a man talkes with his friend Exod. 33.11 there was very immediate vision and commerce though not personall yet as neare it as it was possible for our frayle condition to beare to be strongly preaching and confirming what Christ our Mediator will one day bring us to againe in that holy of holies that glorious Tabernacle where now he himselfe officiates The call of God is by men to men by some selected to all in generall whom wee preach warning every man and teaching every man Earth to earth Potsherds strive with Potsherds of the Earth wee must beseech and intreat every one and with every degree of patience wee must be beggers at every ones dore for Christ for earth to go to Heaven and if it will not be earth must shake off earth against earth we must shake off the dust of our feete against Adams sons Earth is used to save or to destroy earth Goliah is kil'd with a stone a little heape strikes downe a great Goliah some thinke may signify a great heape which if so name and person did agree and David who was but a little man and with a little stone strikes downe this great person Earth kils earth and earth buries earth earth rings the Funerall of earth by us though poore earthen Vessels Christ sounds and sets forth who are dead eternally You know the call of God by whom it is and to whom it is to what it is is the next generall particularly to bee spoken to Wee are cal'd to a perfect person and in him to a perfect condition That wee may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Divine vocation is in opposition to diabolicall avocation we were called from God by Satan and God cal'd us to him againe simply and circumstantially i not onely to him but as fully to him as ever to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toti dilecti wholly beloved Having thus divided the verses wee will begin with the first clause thereof whom we preaeh The originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom we exactly shew or fully declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this composition notes a superlative and is to intend the expression like as it doth Luke 12.58 where our Saviour sayes of conscience that it should not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is throughly draw or perfectly draw The word thus opened that which I would stand on is this That Gospell administration makes exact illumination the Gospell hath a peculiar Idiom nothing speakes so plaine and so full of every thing concerning man as this doth 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speakes 1 Cor. 14.9 a word very significative i very plaine and very full every administration humane conducing to illumination speakes darkely and by halves no language yeelds vox bene significans therefore are they which leane upon these helps children of darknesse notwithstanding all their light their hearts and lives full of lyes a lie is in their right hand i. In that wherein they are confident they are intelligent they understand nothing Gospel adminstration makes that which the old Testament calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Col. 3.24 Noting certaine knowledge and the new Jadang * Isa 6.9 Perception a looking through things i. it makes every thing transparent manifest quite through out-side and inside Yee see indeed but perceive not 't is as if the Prophet had said yee doe not Gospelly apprehend your reception makes not perception not vision quite through as doth the Gospell therefore is the light of the Church of Christ compared to a stone most precious as Jasper Chrystall He carried me away in the spirit saith John and shewed me the great City holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven having the glory of God and her light was like to a stone most precious even like to a Jasper stone Revel 21.11 Like to this is Cant. 6.10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning faire as the Moon cleare as the Sun By all which Metaphors is made manifest that what light the gospell gives is very cleare Vse Gospel-Administration makes exact Illumination what hath it done in you what is your light under all the meanes of light you enjoy paines is considered t is so with you t is so with God you observe