in the New Testament 1 Rom. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is Translated despiteful and denotes thus much When his power could not reach the Persons of Professours nor the worldly concerns of Professours yet he did his utmost to blast their names and blemish their reputation he was a reviler he forbore nothing that was injurious to them but what was beyond his power to inflict These were his sins 2. What mercy he did obtain notwithstanding such sins and that in three instances 1. Sparing mercy God had born with him Notwithstanding he was often guilty of those sins which might have brought wrath and destruction more quickly upon him he wondered at Gods patience towards him this is mentioned in this verse That he might shew forth all long suffering When he once came to understand what he had been and what he had done he stands amazed at the holy God that had so much patience with him God had it is true struck him to the ground he admired that God had not struck him as low as hell We are apt to think beholding the gross abominations that are more open and visible in our days what infinite patience there is in God that he doth not immediately break out upon such as are guilty but S. Paul like a poor humble sinner busies himself at home and spends his wondering chiefly on Gods patience towards himself who had been a blasphemer and persecutour and injurious and yet alive and on this side hell yet a pattern of the patience and long-suffering of God 2. He obtained pardoning and renewing mercy in respect of that double change that was wrought upon him there was an outward change in respect of his State and Condition and there was an inward change in respect of the frame and disposition of his heart These were the high and choice mercies which he obtained Mercy in respect of his state and condition Of a childe of wrath he became a childe of mercy and favour from a state of death he was brought into a state of life from a state of condemnation he was brought into a state of absolution and pardon as he himself speaks 2 Ephes 5. Even when we were deed in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ We were dead guilty of death under a state of condemnation but now 5. Rom. 1. being justified by faith we have peace with God Now justification is not only an act of mercy and consists not barely in the remission of sin but it is an act of justice also in regard of the account upon which sin is forgiven this is a Doctrine whereof many in these times speak very lightly therefore to give a right notion of Justification consider it doth not only consist in the bare remission of sin but this remission of sin is upon a valueable consideration Divine Justice having received a valueable satisfaction by the blood of Christ For nothing could expiate our sins but his blood Now S. Paul was sensible of the great mercy of God to him and by this mercy he means pardoning mercy Again he did partake of purging mercy in regard of the inward frame and disposition of his heart This he frequently mentions Thirdly That is not all but he obtained Commissionating grace grace to be employed to be made use of in the highest degree of service to God and his Church From the lowest degree of infamy he was raised to the highest place of trust 12. vers of this Chapter And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that be counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry Though the Ministry be never so much despised he accounted it a high honour to be put into it he that was a blasphemer a persecutour injurious that Christ should put this honour upon him here is mercy indeed for such an offender to be spared to be pardoned to be sanctified to be made use of as such a glorious chosen instrument of God among the Gentiles this was mercy indeed 3. What encouragement is there in this and such like famous instances which God hath left upon record as monuments of his mercy for broken hearted sinners who are ready to sink under the weight and burden of their own sins First These examples and standing monuments of Gods mercy to others are incouragements to humble broken hearted sinners because the same Fountain of mercy still stands open to us that was open to them and by these standing monuments God hath enabled his people to answer those puzzling objections that do stick most with them The bowels and compassion of a gracious God are open now which were open to Saint Paul This is the original of all kind of mercies and unless this be open every door of mercy is 〈◊〉 59. Isa 1. The Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save He hath the same bowels now which he had he is the fame yesterday and to day and for ever his mercy is from one generation to another The mercy of the Lord endures for ever It is no less then twenty times mentioned in the 136. Psalm We have the same fountain opened to us that is the Bowelâ— of God Secondly There is the fame meritorioussâ—â—â— in the bloud of Christ now as was He is the Laâ—â— slain from the foundation of the world There is an everlasting efficacy in his blood The Papists speak of their Treasury of Indulgences that sinners may live upon if they will give a handsome rate for them this is a gross delusion and multitudes have been deceived with it But this is true and real in Christ there is a treasury of all kinde of blessings laid up by his purchase by his once offering up himself be hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Thirdly There is the same efficaciousness in the Spirit of Grace We have the same operations of the Spâ—â—â— of grace to convince and to convert to sanctifie and renew us to prevent us from siâ—â—ing and to regenerate us to holiness to assist us and to enable us to every good way and work Fourthly If you regard the instrumental cause there is the same vertue in ordinances now which ever was because the strength and vertue of ordinances depend upon Gods presence and concurrence with them Now God hath promised his presence and concurrence to the end of the world 28. Matth. last Lo I am with you to the end of the world Not only with your Persons while your live but with your successours by whom the same ordinances are dispenced when you are dead and gone Again if you regard the final cause salvation and happiness God hath the same love for the salvation of lost and undone creatures now which he had of Old therefore says S. Paul 15. Rom. 8 9. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto your Fathers and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy There
the Apostle is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 To the Jew first because their light was clearet and they had greater priviledges than others and so those Cities to whom the Gospel came Wo to thee Corazin wo thee Bethsaida c. Marth 11.22 You have been lifted up to Heaven in respect of the means of salvation but you shall be cast down to Hell in respect of the punishment because of your unfruitfulness and unthankfulness for these mercies because you have received the Grace of God in vain PSALM 18.46 The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Savation be oxalted IN the words we have that full Contentment and that compleat satisfaction which David took in God alone the Lord liveth it is as much as if he had said Though Friends die and Creature helps be removed and though all outward Comforts may wither and perish yet still that which is enough for me is this The Lord liveth David had in former times been stript at once of all his Comforts it was the saddest condition that ever that holy man was it which we find recorded 1 Sam 30 6. when David was not only benished from Jerusalen and from amongst the people of God but after he had taken shelter under Achish the Philistine Lords complain against him so that he must to longer abide there neither the only place that was left him was a little Zoar Ziglag I mean and when he thinks to retire thither the Amalekites were come and had taken away his substance and which was worse his wives and all that he had in the world was gone and that which added still to his grief was that those few followers which were yet with him spake of stoning of him but though his case was very sad yet he comforts himself in the Lord his God And let our case be whatever it will our care should be to get an interest in God and to comfort our selves in him It is in a very high strain that David begins this Psalm with and the more abrupt and sudden the expressions seem to be the more Pathetical and affectionate they are I will love thee O Lord my strength The Lord is my Rock my Fortress and my Deliverer My God in whom I will teust my Buckler and the horn of my Salvation and my Tower I will call upon the Lord who is morthy to be praised c. Here are expressions upon expresions his heart was full and he scarce knew how to give his thoughts sufficient vent in admiring and adoring the goodness of God to him Now least these high confidences that David had in God should seem to be no better than some rash and hasty raptures he lays down the ground of these confidences in the reiterated experiences he had had of the goodness of God to him in vers 4 5.6 and so on The sorrows of Death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid the sorrows of Hell compassed me about the snares of death prevented me In my distress I called upon the Name of the Lord and cried to my God he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears then the earth shook and trembled c. I shall not need to trouble you with the several Opinions of Interpreters particularly what his distresses then were but in general it is acknowledged by all That his distresses were such that if God had not helped him none else could and when he had none other comforter or help left none else to depend upon then he cries to God and he doth not cry in vain and so you find him in another distress he was afterwards in the 16 17 18. verses of this Psalm He sent from above he took me he drew me out of many waters that is many afflictions he delivered me from my strong enemy and from them that hated me for they were too strong for me Relating to Saul as you may see if you compare that place with the Preface of he Psalm They prevented me in the day of my calamity but the Lord was my stay he brought me forth also into a large place he delivered me because he delighted in me Now here David comforts himself in his sincerity though he doth not speak as a self-Justificiary or manifest the least of a Pharisaical temper as if he thought he merited any thing from the hands of God yet it was his comfort in respect of himslef that God had owned his uprightness in preserving him in those dangers and it is the encouragement he gives to others he gives also cautions to wicked men for 't is very observable in this Psalme that when David speaks of his Experiences and Comforts in God he frequently intermixes his Cautions to the Enemies of God that if they would deal frowardly God would deal frowardly with them But then to encourage the people of God says he With the merciful theu wil t shew thy self merciful with the upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright and with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure In the words we have the result that Davids thoughts came too The Lord liveth he had seen how much of vanity and disappointment there was in all Creature comforts many of his people had been time after time knockt off from them but says he the Lord lives and therefore here he sits down here he is resolved to fix In these words be these three particulars 1. There is a Declaration of what God is in himself he is the living God The Lord lives 2. A Description of what God is to his people And blessed be my Rock A Rock denotes strength fafety protection God doth often set forth his goodness to his people under this Metabhor He is said to be a Rock higher than all waves a shelter from all storms their Fortresses of old were usually built upon Rocks that so the accesses of the Enemy might be the more difficult and therefore they were looked upon as places of the greatest security Their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies themselves being Judges says Moses Deut. 32.31 3. Here is Davids magnifying and admiring of God upon this double consideration both of what God is in himself and of what he is to his people The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted He is careful to comfort himself in this God and he would have others follow his practise Doct. That 't is the admirable suppore of the people of God that when friends die and all Creature comforts fail yet God lives yet the Lord Lives You Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1.5 Those Relations that are most comfortable and who use to have the most care in them for us yet these are fading Relations Your Fathers where are they Nay those Relations that are most useful not in
jealousies about God Hath God shewn you and doth he still shew you great and fore troubles if you can truly call God yours Question not he deals with you no otherwise than with Sons and in the sharpest Providences hath no other design upon you than your good and the very worst he means you is your profit 5. Be serious and frequent in meditation Meditation is the life of Religion Meditate oâ— these few Objects 1. How much better God hath been to you whom he hath owned as his than to the richest and greatest persons in the world in their carnal estate Hath he bestowed the world upon others he hath bestowed himself upon youâ— are others freed from present troubles you are freed from everlasting troubles The most prosperous estate of others is but like fatting for the slaughter like Hamans banquet which cost him his life nay suppose wicked men may spend all their days in mirth and you in sadness yet will the scene be strangely changed after this life Isa 65.13 14 compared with Luke 16 25. 2. Meditate upon the reserves of mercy God hath for his people hereafter are you now deprived of that Communion you formerly have had with Christian friends think of what Communion you shall have with them hereafter when you shall have Communion with all the Saints that ever lived and none but Saints with Saints and freed from all infirmities with Saints in the highest imployments of admiring and adoring God such communion as shall never have the least interruption are you deprived of any opportunities of Communion with God here meditate upon that Communion you shall have with him hereafter think of these things comfort one another with these words 3. Meditate upon the tendencie of all your afflictions to those blessed ends for which God designs them look not upon your afflictions as to their present aspect that may be grim and gastly but as to their effects and fruits and they are higly encouraging 2 Cor. 4.8 4. Meditate upon the smalness of those evils you undergo and the greatness of those evils you are freed from you may not perhaps be freed from losses reproaches pains weaknesses but if you belong to God you are freed from sin from wrath from hell 5. Meditate upon the meanness of the mercies God with holds and the greatness of the mercies he affords if God do not give the blessings of his footstool yet if he give the blessings of his Throâ—e if he keep open but the upper-springs though he shut the nether-springs if he with hold common and bestow distinguishing mercies we have cause for ever to be thankful Ephes 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ SERMON VIII Psalm 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more COnsidering how wonderfully God hath spared us from those common calamities which have brought no less than utter ruine and desolation upon the families of others having spared some of us as to our habitations our friends our Creature comforts Nay all of us here present as to our lives that we may be the more affectionately sensible of this kindness of God to us and more diligently careful to improve it that neither God may lose the honour of these favours nor we the benefit and advantage of them consider the example of David here who looks upon life and all the Comforts of this life as desirable upon no account so much as this that he may make some farther progress in Grace and holiness and that he might by these outward mercies be more inricht with spiritual mercies He doth not beg here nor simply desire that he might live but he begs the continuance of the life of Nature in order to his improvement in the life of Grace Oh spare me says he that I may recover strength c. This Psalme consists partly of Meditation and partly of Prayer these are the two great duties which are so absolutely necessary that the very life and power of all Religion depends upon them These two duties are like those two Pillars that Solomon set before the Temple 2 Chron. â— 17 Jachim and Boaz the one was Establishment and the other Strength These Meditations wherein the Psalmist imâ— ploys his thoughts were not upon melancholy trifles nor speculative fancies but things and subjects most solemn and serious imaginable Two things there are between which David here divides his meditation to wit Time and Eternity our short abode here and our everlasting condition hereafter and his design in both these his meditations are such as highly deserves our imitation He meditates on time to the end he might the better improve it and this in many verses He meditates upon Eternity that he might be the better provided for it and as the subjects of his meditations were solemn so his management of them was serious for you finde in the 2 3 and 4th verses when he was so overwhelmed with sorrow that he was unable to speak to men by way of converse yet he speaks to God by way of Prayer and to his own Soul by way of counsel and advice and truly those Professors that are not serious in these weighty matters can be no better than luke-warm Right Meditations about our eternal Concernments are like Bellows to blow up our affections and desires into an holy flame His Prayer may be reduced to these heads when once his affections were inflamed he could no longer contain himself but he gives his affections vent in these Petitions 1. That he might be throughly affected with his own frailty that 4 and 5 vers Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes c. 2. That he might be more convinced of the disquietness and folly that accompanies the cares of this world and that 6th verse Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain 3. That he may come off more fully to God in making him his trust and hope ver 7. And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee 4. That God would deliver him not only from the guilt and disturbance but from the shame of his former transgressions ver 8. Deliver me from all my transgressions make me not a reproach of the foolish Let me not open the mouths of profane persons to cast any thing of infamy upon the ways of God 5. That God would take off that heavy load of afflictions he had laid upon him and that 10 and 11th verses Remove thy stroke away from me c. 6. That God would afford him his natural strength in order to his obtaining a greater strength in Grace in the words of the Text O spare me that I may recover strength 1. Doct. How fixt soever our condition may sâ—â—m to be here in this world yet we must all go â—â—ncâ— 2. Doct. When we go hence we shall never
be proportionably a deadness and inefficacy upon all the means of doing us good The weapons of our spiritual warfare are only powerful through God The Gospel is the power of God Rom. 7.16 't is not food alone can nourish but the blessing of God going with it 't is not ordinances alone can refresh but God in and by ordinances 4. Every affliction will proportionably become more burdenson and afflicting as the heavyest of afflictions have seemed light to those who have had the presence of God to sweeten them and his assistance to bear them so the lightest of afflictions must needs be heavy to them from whom God is withdrawn Every small burden seems great to weak and feeble persons when greater matters seem a very nothing to hale and strong persons Now as Gods presence is with us so is our strength Vse If God hide his face from them who are the Objects of his favour what will become of them who are the objects of his displeasure If these things be done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry If this be the severity of God towards them whom he loves how dreadful is the severity of God against them whom he hates If this may be the portion of them who are in a state of grace whatshall be the portion of them who are in a state of sin If so much be endured by vessels of mercy what must be endured by vessels of wrath They may at present flourish but what will their condition be in that day of revelation of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 Vse When it goes worst with the people of God 't is much better with them then with others they are Objects of Gods favour though unable at present to discern any thing but anger their condition is safe though at present uncomfortable How vast a difference is there betwixt their sorrows and others joys The only ground of their sorrows is because they are unable to discern what cause they have of joy and the onely ground of others joys is because they see not what cause they have of sorrow Vse It becomes us to consider in how great a measure this is the case of our Church and Nation Hath not God hid his face from our Jacob by removing the wonted tokens and pledges of his gracious presence How great an Eclipse is this day upon all our glory How are we scanted of former opportunities It concerns us the more to be affected with these things because none of us but by our barrenness under former means and by our contempt of Gospel priviledges have contributed very much to the drawing down of his severity If the Prophet here accounts if so sore a judgement for God to hide his face in respect of temporal favours how much greater cause have we to lay to heart Gods hiding his face in respect of spiritual mercies and priviledges 2. Doct. That when God hides his face from his people the great work and business which then lies before them is to wait upon the Lord to look for his 't is their work at all times to wait upon God and that not only as servants to receive his commands but as necessitous persons to obtain his relief both which are put together Psal 123.2 As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters c. so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us There is not that person on earth whose ignorance of his duty does not lay a continual obligation upon him to wait upon the Lord for direction and Councel Not is there that person on earth whose necessities and wants do not lay the like obligation upon him of waiting upon the Lord for relief and assistance Hence is it that the people of God are frequently described by this Character they are such as wait upon the Lord believers in the Old Testament waited the accomplishment of those promises the fulfilling whereof God had reserved for the times of the Gospel Thus Jacob waited for the salvation of the Lord Gen. 49.18 John the Baptist waited for the Messiah Matth. 11.3 Joseph of Arimathea waited for the kingdom of God Mark 15.43 Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel Luke 2.25 The Jews look for redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.38 Believers under the New Testament are said to wait for the accomplishment of those promises the fulfilling whereof God hath referved for another world they are said to look for the Saviour Phil. 3.20 To look for that blessed hope Tit. 2.13 To look for Christ Heb. 9.28 But though it be both the duty and Character of Gods people at all times to wait upon the Lord yet is it especially their work and business at such times the Prophet knew not what better course to take in that dark and gloomy season and therefore he resolves for himself to wait upon the Lord and by his own example he provokes others to do the like when Jehoshaphat and the people were so distressed that they knew not what to do their eyes were upon God 2 Chron. 20.12 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.25 26. Psal 33.18 20. This is the course which God hath prescribed the faithful practised and God himself hath all along owned For the further clearing of this Doct. Two things shall be spoke to 1. The nature of this carriage or duty 2. The principles from which this carriage arises 1. Concerning the nature of this carriage or what it is to wait upon the Lord and in what acts it doth formally express it self It is in general such a carriage as results from the joynt exercise of many particular graces as faith hope patience humility repentance c. all these and many other graces are necessary ingredients to this carriage and without the concurrent acting of all these we cannot wait upon God aright but more particularly waiting upon God implies 1. An exercising faith upon the promises even when providence seems most to contradict the promise distrust drives us from God as that prophane Prince 1 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer his unbelief represents this duty vain and unprofitable but now faith seeks a certainty and sufficiency of relief in the promises and therefore builds upon them and consequently bears up the soul above all sinking discouragements the promises are wells of consolation but faith is the bucket they are treasuries of all kinds of mercy but faith fetches out supplies though there be never so much consort laid up in the promises yet what is all this to us unless we do by faith make use of them I had fainted says David unless I had believed c. Psal 27.13 14. There were many discouragements in the providences of God but David answers all by believing the promises and indeed
cannot make us miserable if we may but enjoy this one thing the love of God it is as if the Apostle had said I reckon that such Afflcitions may separate you from the comforts of this world but let what affliction will or can come upon you they cannot separate you from these refreshments this one singular Priviledge the Apostle opposeth to all those kinds of calamities that he had mentioned before though it is true every particular calamity is not mentioned amongst these yet the greatest and worst are and the rest are included in them If God should enlarge Satans Commission against us as he did once against Job and deliver all we have into his hands and power and if Satan should never fail in executing the utmost of that power that God gives him should God deal thus with us yet there is enough in the love of God to sweeten all Psalm 63.3 Thy loving kindness is better than life So our Translation reads it but in the hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prae vitis that is better than lives The meaning of this is as a Learned Expositor glosses upon the Text than any kind of life better than life with any kind of advantages that may render it more sweet and pleasant to us it is better than lives now life you know is of all outward mercies the highest for all other things are perfectly insignificant to us without life Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life But thy loving kindness is better life So in Psalm 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee David did not say he had nothing in the world for he had a Kingdom a Crown he had a great deal of worldly honours and greatness but these were not the things he looked at he could pass by these he eyed Communion with God and the favour of God was more than all Psalm 4.6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine did encrease Now how often did this holy man solace himself upon this account his interest in the favour of God Psalm 16.5 6. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my Lot The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage There was nothing that this holy man made his boast of but only of God and you find him often making him his glory and truly well might David be of this maind well might he despise all worldly greatness in comparison of God for could he have added Kingdome to Kingdom and world to world all had been nothing in comparison of him That excellent description of God in Isaiah 40.12 is highly magnificent and very helpful to raise up our thoughts to consider the greatness of God Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with a span c. But now to prove this truth farther I shall alledge these six Reasons 1. Reas There is nothing but the love of God can make us happy and therefore there is nothing but the want of this love that can make us miserable for misery consists in the want of some good or the enduring of some evil Now nothing I say can make us happy but the love of God It is not Honours for not many Noble are called it is not Greatness for Greatness and goodness do not always go together a man may be a Great man and withal a great sinner yea a miserable man It is said of Naaman that he was a Great man but withal he was a Leper and that spoil'd all It is not Riches can do it Mans life consists not in the abundance of the things of this world Besides you read of an infamous rich man Luke 12. he was boasting of his barnes and granaries and projecting how he might pull them down and make new kind of store-houses for the reception of his incoms When alas that night his Soul should be required of him And in Luke 16. you read of one faring deliciously every day but both of these were in a very sad condition as to their Souls you remember the Parables It is not Friends Children or Relations they cannot make us happy we find those that have been under the displeasure of God to abound in all these no less than twelve Dukes proceeded from the Loyns of profance Esau In a word it is not Creatures below us that can make us happy for happiness is mans perfection and Creatures below us are below perfection nor equal with us nay nor above all Creatures above us are finite but the desires of our hearts are infinite and that which hath its bounds can never satisfie boundless desires and where desires are not satisfied there can be no happiness But although God should give us so much of the world as our own hearts can desire or wish yet if he hide his face or stand at a distance from us there is enough in the want of that single mercy to make us altogether miserable therefore as Job speaks of Wisedom the same wa may say of the love of God Job 28.12 13 14. But where is wisdom found and where is the place of understanding Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it found in the land of the living The depth saith it is not in me and the Seasaith it is not in me verse 15. Gold shall not be given for it neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof 2. Reas The love of God is such a mercy that it is abundantly sufficient to make up the want of all other mercies and to sweeten the sourest of all kind of Afflictions that can befal us God in his giving himself gives us more than all other comforts what we have not in the stream yet if we have it in the fountain it is more fresh and more delightful says Bernard Lord where can I be well without thee and where can I be ill if may enjoy thee Thy favour is better than life True we may be impatiently desirous of this and that Creature-comforts and as froward in those desires as Rachel was when she quarrelled with Jacob for Children Give me Children or else I die we cannot live without this and that comfort we cannot subsist without God humor us Gen. 30.1 But as Elkanah said to Hannah so may we say to our sullenest and most impatient desires Am not I better to thee than ten sons Is not God better to us than all If God should deny us this or that or take away this or that Creature-comfort is not God better to us than all 3. Reas Thirdly the love of God in its full perfection is the very happiness of Heaven it self and so much as we
he had power to stand and ability to resist all oppositions and temptations but still he was left to a mutable will But our estate of Recovery is another kind of Estate as to our security in it because it depends upon Jesus Christ as I shall shew when I come to speak of that part of the Text The love of God is a fixt love because it is in and through Jesus Christ Apl. For the Application of this point How abundantly well are they provided for that have the love of God for their portion though they have nothing else though they have not a a Friend on Earth yet if they have the God of Heaven to be their Friend if they have God to own and stand by thm they have enough This was Saint Pauls comfort Though no man stood by me yet the Lord stood by me 2 Tim. 4.16.17 Though thou hast no estate nor Friend nor Creature comfort yet in having the love of God thou hast all nay ten thosand times more then all You may judge what a refreshing it was to the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9.23 At the beginning of thy Supplications the Commandment came forth and I am come to shew thee for thou art greatly beloved when Daniel was ready to faint under his Vision in the 10. Chap. 7.8 in the 11. verse O Daniel greatly beloved what greater word could be spoken then this A man greatly beloved of the great God Psal 144.15 Happy is the People that is in such a case yea happy is that People whose God is the Lord. Let our condition be what it will in all other respects yet if we have but this single priviledge there is enough in this alone to make us happy Though we be under reproaches as St. Pauls was yet he be being clear in his Conscience towards God that he had a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man he trampled on those Reproaches It s a small thing for me to be judged by mans Judgment We pass through good report and ill report If our condition be want what can he want who hath an interest in him in whom is infinite fulness If our condition be Sufferings what suffering can be harsh to them that have the presence and love of God to sweeten them Here is our strength and comfort indeed but if God with hold his love or suspend the manifestation of it where are we Death it self which is the King of Terrors is no terrour to us if we have but the love of God there is enough in that to turn the dark Valley of the shadow of death into a pleasant entry into everlasting glory Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the Valley of the the shadow of death I will fear no evil For thou art with me thy Red and thy Staff they comfort me Why because thou art with me with me why God is with all his Creatures he is every where Yea but with me in thy favour and love and care and tenderness to uphold support and comfort me when none else can comfort me 2. Appl. The next use is by way of examination You see this priviledge is highly great it is no small matter any of us to know in what posture we stand in reference to it It is our great and cheif concern for all depends upon this theefore let me perswade you from hence to examine your interest in the love of God And although the love of God as it is in him is secret and invisible to us yet it discovers its self in its Fruits and Effects so that it may become discoverable There are many hidden Causes but they may be discovered by their effects as we know the nature of a Tree by the Fruit and the nature of a Fountain by the Stream Now if we would know the love of God to us the truest way to discern it is by our love to God Examine your selves by this 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us If thou hast any spark of love to God to his truth to his ways to his ordinances to his People all these are as so many Fruits of his love to thee He loved thee first and that love kindled in thy heart a love to him Love to God is a spark that comes from Heaven But you will say our love to God may be as hidden and difficult a thing for us to discern in regard especially of the deceitfulness of our hearts as the love of God to us is I shall therefore turn you to one place of Scripture Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Comandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him He is loved of God that keeps his Commandments that is that makes it his design and endeavour so to do Now consider what love do you find in your hearts towards God his truth and his ways c. and from hence you may reasonably conclude his love to you 2. A second Rule by which we may be helped in discerning whether we have any right or title to the love of God is this What have you received those Mercies from God that are the infallible Pledges of his peculiar love there are no kind of outward Mercies almost but God may and does sometimes bestow those things in anger God answered the People of Israel in many of their rash requests in anger he gave them quailes in anger c. Again these outward Mercies at best if they do not come in anger are but Fruits of Gods common bounty But now what Mercies do you partaâ—â—e of which are infallible Pledges of his special love there are such Mercies there are indeed some Mercies that may be called in a 〈…〉 gâ—â—â—shing Mercies in respect of their 〈◊〉 and conducenâ—â—â—o bring us to partake â—of 〈◊〉 Mercies indeed as the Gospel for instance 〈◊〉 Yet God vouch fafes this to them 〈…〉 by it as the Jews had the sword Psâ—lâ— 147â—19 20. He shewed his word unto 〈◊〉 his Statutes and his Judgements unto Israel He hath not deâ—â—lt so with any Nation and as for his Judgements they have not known themâ— Rom. 9.2 To them were committed the Oracles of God Herein God hath been good to his People above others the body of his professing People Rom. 9.2 Theirs is the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises Yet this Mercy though it be a more limited Mercy then ordinary and common Mercies are yet is no such distinguishing Mercy but that we may be Partakers of it and yet not have an interest of Gods peculiar love This sadly appears for alas how many are there that live under the Gospel and yet are so far from reaping that salvation which the Gospel brings that it only heightens their misery and condemnation How many woes did our Saviour denounce against those Cities that enjoyed the Gospel in so great a plenty and yet