this purpose Exod. 34.7 keeping mercy for thousands forgiving inquity c. And is still as full as ever as the sun which hath influenced so many animals and vegetables and expelled so much darkness and cold is still as a strong man able to run the same race and perform by its light and heat the same operations When mercy shews it self in state with all its train it is but to usher in pardoning grace Exod. 34.6.7 not a letter not an attribute that makes up the composition of that name but is a friend and votary of mercy And that latter clause a learned man explains of Gods clemency He will by no means clear the guilty visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers c. which he renders thus He will not utterly cut off and destroy but when he doth visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children it shall be but to the third or fourth Generation not for ever This name of God is urged by Moses Number 14.17 Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity c. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy Where Moses repeats this clause more particularly than he doth the other parts of his name which surely he would not have done and pleaded it as a Motive to God to pardon Israel if he had not understood it of God's clemency for otherwise he had dwelt more upon the argument of Justice than upon that of mercy which had not been proper to edg his present petition with Nay it is such pure mercy the genuine birth of mercy that it partakes of its very name as Children bear the name of their Father Heb. 8.12 I will be merciful to their iniquity which in the Prophet Jer. 31.34 whence the Apostle quotes it is I will forgive their iniquity That it is so will appear because 1. No attribute could be the first motive of pardon but this His Justice would loudly cry for vengeance and flame out against ungrateful sinners His holiness would make him abhor not only the embraces but the very sight or such filthy creatures as we are His power would attend to receive and execute the Commands of his justice and holiness did not compassion step in to qualify 2. Vnconstrained mercy Men pardon many times because they are too weak to punish But God wants not power to inflict Judgments neither doth man want weakness to sink under it Rom. 5 6. When we were without strength Christ dyed for us God wanted not sufficient reason to justify a severe proceeding both in the quality of sin every sin being a contrariety to the law Soveraignty work glory yea the very being of God now for God to pardon that which would pull him out of his throne hath blemished the creation robs him of his honour must be an act of the richest and purest mercy And in the quantity multitudes of sins of this cursed quality as numerous as motes in the Sun-beams 'T is impossible for the nimblest Angel to write down the extravagancies of men committed in the space of twenty four hours if he could know all the operations of heir Souls as well as their outward actions all those God doth see simul semel and yet is ready to pardon in the midst of numberless provocations 3. Resolv'd and designed mercy 'T is not through inadvertency and insensibleness of the aggravating circumstances of them God must needs know the nature and circumstances of all those sins he himself laid upon Christ Yea God hath an actuated knowledge of all when he is about to pardon Isa 43.22 God reckons up their sins of omissions They had been weary of him and had not brought to him their small Cattle had preferr'd their Lambs and Kids before his Service wearied him with their iniquities endeavoured to tire him out of the Government of the World What could one have expected after this black Scroul but Fire-balls of Wrath Yet he blots them out v. 25. though all those sins were fresh in his memory Nay the Name we have profaned becomes our Solicitor Ezek. 36.22 For my holy Names sake which you have profaned 4 Delightful and pleasant mercy He delights in pardoning mercy as a Father delights in his Children He is therefore called the Father of mercy Micah 7.18 he pardons iniquity and retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy Never did we take so much pleasure in sinning as God doth in forgiving Never did any penitent take so much pleasure in receiving as God doth in giving a pardon He so much delights in it that he counts it his wealth Riches of grace riches of mercy glorious riches of mercy no Attribute else is called his riches He sighs when he must draw his Sword Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim But when he blots out iniquity then it is I even I am he that blots out your transgressions for my Names sake His delight in this is equal to the delight he hath in his Name This is pure mercy to change the Tribunal of Justice into a Throne of Grace to bestow pardons where he might inflict punishments and to put on the deportment of a Father instead of that of a Judge 4. The Act of his Justice Those Attributes which seem contrary are joyned together to produce forgiveness Yet God is not to be considered in pardon only as Judex but paternus Judex there is a composition of Judge and Father in this act Free Grace on God's part but Justice upon the account of Christ That God will accept of a satisfaction is Mercy that he will not forgive without a satisfaction is Justice Mercy forgives it in us though Justice did punish it in Christ Christ by his death paid the debt and God by the Resurrection of Christ discharged the debt and therefore the Justice of God is engaged to bestow pardon upon a Believer God set forth Christ as a propitiation that he might be just and therefore a justifier of him that believes Rom. 3.26 Either the debt is paid or not if not then Christ's Death is in vain if it be then God's Justice is so equitable as not to demand a second payment Therefore another Apostle joyns faithful and righteous it might have been faithful and merciful faithful and loving but faithful and righteous or just takes in the Attribute which is most terrible to man 1 John 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isay joyns both together a just God and a Saviour Isa 45.21 So that here is unspeakable comfort That which engaged God formerly to punish man engageth him now to pardon a Believer That which moved him to punish Christ doth excite him to forgive thee 5. The Act of his Power 'T is a sign of a noble and
pardon of sin necessâ—tate decreti if not naturae God repented of making the World but never of forgiving sin So that the pardon of sin is more pleasing to him than the sufferings of his Son were grievous otherwise whatsoever the Father would have done by Instruments yet surely he himself would not have been the Executioner of him But in this affair there were not only Instruments Judas to betray him the Jews to accuse him the Disciples to forsake him Pilate to condemn him the Souldiers to mock and crucifie him and Thieves to revile him but God himself Isa 53.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief Thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for sin His own Father that lov'd him as Abraham in the Type puts as it were the knife to the throat of his only Son which surely God would not have done had not pardon of sin been infinitely pleasing to him And how great a pleasure must that be that swallowed up all grief at his Sons sufferings Yea he seemed to love our Salvation more than he loved the life of his Son since the end is always more amiable than the means and the means only lovely as they respect the end 2. The Certainty of Forgiveness God must deny Christ's payment before he can deny thy pardon God will not deny what his Son hath earned so dearly and what he earn'd was for us and not for himself Did God pardon many before Christ died and will he not pardon believing Souls since Christ died Some were certainly saved before the coming of Christ Upon what account Not for their own righteousness that is but a Ragg and could not merit infinite grace Not by the law that thundered nothing but death and condemned millions but never breathed a pardon to one person Or was it by their vehement supplications Those could not make an infinite righteousness mutable Justice must be preferred before the cries of Malefactors and if those could have done it God would not have been at the expence of his Sons Blood Therefore it must be upon this account Rom. 3.25 For the remission of sins that are past Did God pardon upon trust and will he not much more upon payment Did he forgive when there was only a promise of payment and some thousands of years to run out before it was to be made and will he not much more forgive since he hath all the debt paid into his hands Would God remit sin when Christ had nothing under his hand to shew for it and now that he hath a publick testimony and acquittance will he not much more do it Seeing his purging our sins or expiating them by his death was the ground of his exaltation to the honour of sitting at the right hand of God in our natures Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high it is a certain evidence of the grant of pardon upon the account of this Sacrifice to those that seek it in Gods Methods since God hath shewen himself so pleased with it For it is clear that because Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity i. e. kept up the honour of Gods justice and holiness by the offering himself to death that God hath given him a portion above all his fellows 3. The extent of it Both to original and actual sin John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world Sin of the World the sin of humane nature that first sin of Adam Of this mind is Austin and others that original sin is not imputed to any to condemnation since the death of Christ But howsoever this be it is certain it is taken away from Believers as to its imputation Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 to bear all sin It had been an imperfect payment to have paid the Interest and let the Principal remain or to have paid the Principal and let the Interest remain There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 and therefore no damning matter or guilt left in arrear It had been folly else for the Apostle to have published a defying challenge to the whole Creation to have brought an Indictment against a justified person Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect if the least crime remained unremitted for the justice of God the severity of the Law the acuteness of Conscience or the malice of the Devil to draw up into a charge Since the end of his coming was to destroy the works of the Devil whereby he had acquired a power over man he leaves not therefore any one sin of a Believer unsatisfied for which may continue and establish the Devils right over him If the redemption only of the Jews with the exclusion of the Gentiles in the first compact seemed to displease him to shed his blood for small Sins only would have been as little to his content It had been too low a work for so great a Saviour to have undergone those unknown sufferings for debts of a smaller value and to shed that inestimable Blood for the payment of Farthings and leave talents unsatisfied Certainly God sent not his Son but with an inten ion his Blood should be improved to the highest uses for those that perform the covenant conditions and that Father who would have us honour his Son as we honour himself will surely honour his Sons satisfaction in the extensive effects of it as he would honour his own mercy since they are both so straitly linkt together And it is as much for the glory of Christs satisfaction as for the honour of his fathers mercy to pass by the greatest transgressions 4. The continuance of it Thou art pardoned and yet thou sinneâ— but Christ hath paid and never runs more upon the score Thou art pardoned and dost â—aily forfeit and needest a daily renewal but Christ hath purchased and never sins away his purchase God exacted a price suitable to the debt he foresaw men would owe him for he knew how much the Sum would amount unto When he gave Christ he intended him for the justification of many offences Rom. 5.16 The free gift is of many offences unto justification speaking of the gift of God v. 15. And therefore since God cannot be mistaken in the greatness of the Sum because of his infinite knowledge it had been a greater act of wisdom not to provide any remedy at all than not to do it thoroughly If the continuance of that imperfect remission of Adam and the Patriarchs was drawn out for above 3000 years and more and the enjoyment of happiness made good to them meerly upon Christs undertaking surely it will be much more upon his actual performing Rom. 3.25 There was then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had a continuance of freedom from punishment by his mediatorship and sponsion much more shall Belevers
have a continuance of pardon by his actual Sacrifice upon which the validity of all the former mediatory acts did depend Since now there is no more remembrance of Sin by the continuance of legal sacrifices his being so absolutely compleat Therefore God hath erected a standing Office of Advocacy for Christ 1 Joh. 2.1 in Heaven for the representing of his wounds and satisfaction and bespeaking a continuance of grace to us He is said to be the lamb that taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath taken or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will take but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes actum perpetuum the constant effect of his death And since as I said before Christ hath an higher portion than others because he loved righteousness in this portion he hath a joy and gladness but his joy would certainly be sullied if pardon should not be continued to those for whom he purchased it 5. The worth of it That must be of incomparable value that was purchased at so great a price as the Blood of God Acts 20.28 So it is called by reason of the union of the divine nature with the humane constituting one person 'T is Blood which all the Gold and Silver and the Stones and Dust of the Earth turned into Pearls could not equal God understood the worth of it who in justice would require no more of his Son at least than the thing was worth not a drop of Blood more than the value of it Neither surely would Christ who could not be mistaken in the just price have parted with more than was necessary for the purchase of it It would have beggar'd the whole Creation to have paid a price for it The Prayers and Services of a gracious Soul though God delights in them could not be a sufficient recompence And the bare mercy of God without the concurrence of his provokt justice could not grant it though his Bowels naturally are troubled at the afflictions of his Creatures IV. Extensiveness fulness or perfectness of pardon 1. In the Act forgiving covering not imputing 2. In the Object iniquities transgressions and sins 1. Perfect in respect of state God retains no hatred against a pardoned person He never imputes sin formally because he no more remembers it though virtually he may to aggravate the offence a Believer hath fallen into after his justification So Job possessed the sins of his youth And Christ tacitly put Peter in remembrance of his denial of him The grant is compleat here though all the fruits of remission are not enjoyed till the day of judgment and therefore in Scripture sin is said then to be forgiven 'T is a question whether Believers sins will be mentioned at the day of judgment Some think they will because all men are to give an account Methinks there is some evidence to the contrary Our Saviour never mentioned the unworthy carriage of his Disciples to him in his sufferings and after his resurrection seems to have removed from him all remembrance of it 'T is not to be expected that a loving Husband will lay open the faults of his tender Spouse upon the day of the publick solemnization of the nuptials But if it be otherwise 't is not to upbraid them but to enhance their admirations of his grace He will discover their graces as well as their sin and unstop the Bottles of their tears as well as open the Book of their transgressions Our Saviour upon Maries anointing him applauds her affection but mentions not her former iniquity It must needs be perfect 1. All Gods Actions are suitable to his Nature What God doth he doth as a God And is he perfect in his other works and not in his Mercy which is the choicest flower in his Crown God sees blacker circumstances in our sins than an inraged Conscience or a malicious Devil can represent But God pardons not according to our apprehensions which though great in a tempestuous Conscience yet are not so high as Gods knowledge of it 2. The Cause of pardon is perfect Both the mercy of God and the merits of Christ are immutably perfect 'T is for his own glory his own mercies sake that he pardons He will not dimm the lustre of his own Crown by leaving the effect of his glory imperfect or satisfying the importunities of his mercy by halves The Saints in Heaven have not a more perfect righteousness whereby they continue their standing than those on Earth have for though inherent righteousness here is stain'd yet imputed upon which pardon is founded is altogether spotless A righteousness that being infinite in respect of the person hath a sufficiency for Devils had it a congruity but it hath both for us because manifested in our natures 2. In respect of the Objects Sinful nature sinful habits sinful dispositions pardon'd at once though never so heinous 1. For quality There was no limitation as to the deepness of the wounds caused by the Fiery Serpents in the Wilderness the precept of looking upon them extended to the cure of all let the sting reach never so deep the wound be never so wide or sharp and his sight be never so weak if he could but cast his Eye upon the Brazen one The Commission Christ gave to his disciples was to preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 every Humane Creature the worst as well as the best though you meet with monstrous sinners in the likeness of Beasts and Devils except none from suing out a pardon in the court of mercy The Almightiness of his mercy doth as much transcend our highest iniquities as it doth our shallowest apprehensions Our sins as well as our substance are but as the Dust of the Ballance as easily to be blown away by his grace as the other puft into nothing by his power No sin is excepted in the Gospel but that against the holy Ghost because it doth not stand with the honour of God to pardon them who wilfully scorn the means and account the Redeemer no better than an Impostor No man can expect in reason he should be saved by mercy who by a wilful malice against the Son of God tramples upon the free offers of grace and provokes mercy it self to put on the deportment of justice and call in revenging wrath to its assistance for the vindication of its despised honour The infinite grace of God dissolves the greatest mists as well as the smallest exhalations and melts the thick clouds of sin as well as the little icicles 2. The Quantity Hath God ever put a restraint upon his grace and promise that we shall find mercy if we sin but to such a number and no more 'T is not agreeable to the greatness and majesty of Gods mercy to remit one part of the debt and to exact the other It consists not with the motive of pardon which is his own love to be both a friend and an enemy at the same time in pardoning some
and charging others and thus his grace would rather be a mockery and derision of men Neither doth it consist with the end of pardon which is Salvation for to give an half pardon is to give no Salvation since if the least guilt remains unremitted it gives justice an unanswerable plea against us What profit would it be to have some forgiven and be damned for the remainder Had any one sin for which Christ was to have made a compensation remain'd unsatisfied the Redeemer could not have risen so if the smallest sin remains unblotted it will hinder our rising from the power of eternal death and make the pardon of all the rest as a nullity in Law But it is the glory of God to pass by all Prov. 19.31 It is his glory to pass over a transgression 'T is the glory of a man to pass by an offence 'T is a discovery of an inward principle or property which is an honour for a man to be known the master of If it be his glory to pass by a single and small injury then to pass by the more heinous and numerous offences is a more transcendent honour because it evidenceth this property to be in him in a more triumphant strength and power So that it is a clearer evidence of the illustrious vigor of mercy in God to pass by mountainous and heaped up transgressions than to forgive only some few iniquities of a lesser guilt Jer. 33.8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgrest against me Therefore when God tells the Jews that he would give them a general discharge in the fullest terms imaginable to remove all jealousie from men either because of the number or the aggravations of their sins he knew not how to leave expressing the delight he had in it and the honour which accrued to him by it It shall be to me a name of joy a praise and honour before all the nations of the earth He would get himself an honourable name by the large riches of his Clemency Mercy is as infinite as any other attribute as infinite as God himself And as his power can create incomprehensible multitudes of worlds and his justice kindle unconceiveable Hells so can his mercy remit innumerable sins 3. Perfect in respect of Duration Because the hand writing of ordinances is taken away Col. 2.14 15. Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross which was the Ceremonial Law wherein they did by their continual presenting Sacrifices and imposition of Hands upon them sign a Bill or Bond against themselves whereby a conscience of sin was retain'd Heb. 10.2 3. and a remembrance of sin renewed they could not settle the Conscience in any firm peace Heb. 9.9 they were compelled to do that every day whereby they did confess that sin did remain and want an expiation Hence is the Law called a ministration of condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 because it puts them in mind of condemnation and compelled the people to do that which testified that the curse was yet to be abolished by virtue of a better Sacrifice This Hand writing which was so contrary to us was taken away nailed to his Cross torn in pieces wholly cancelled no more to be put in suit Whence in â—pposition to this continual remembrance of sin under the legal administâ—ation we read under the New Testament of Gods remembring sin no more Hâ—â— 10.3 17. Christ hath so compounded the business with Divine Justice that wâ— have the sins remitted never returning upon us and the renewal also of remissions upon daily sins if we truly repent For though there be a blacker Tincture in sins after conversion as being more deeply stain'd with ingratitude yet the Covenant of God stands firm and he will not take away his kindness Isa 54.9 10. And there is a greater affection in God to his Children than to his Enemies for these he loves before their Conversion with a love of benevolence but those with a love of complacency Will not God be as ready to continue his grace to those that are penitent as to offer it to offending Rebels Will he refuse it to his Friends when he intreats his Enemies Not that any should think that because of this duration they have liberty to sin and upon some trivial Repentance are restored to God's favour No where Christ is made Righteousness he is made Sanctification His Spirit and Merit go together A new Nature and a New State are Concomitants and he that sins upon presumption of the grand Sacrifice never had any share in it V. The Effect of Pardon That is Blessedness 1. The greatest evil is taken away sin and the dreadful consequents of it Other evils are temporal but those know no period in a doleful Eternity There is more evil in sin than good in all the creatures Sin stript the fallen Angels of their Excellency and dispossessed them of the Seat of Blessedness It fights against God it disparages all his Attributes it deforms and destroys the creature Rom. 7.13 Other evils may have some mixture of good to make them tolerable but sin being exceeding sinful without the mixture of any good engenders nothing but destruction and endless damnation Into what miseries afflictions sorrows hath that one sin of Adam hurl'd all his posterity what screechings wounds pangs horrours doth it make in troubled Consciences How did it deface the Beauty of the Son of God that created and upheld the World with sorrow in his Agonies and the stroak of Death on the Cross How many thousands millions of poor creatures have been damned for sin and are never like to cease roaring under an inevitable Justice Ask the damned and their groans yellings howlings will read thee a dreadful Lecture of sins sinfulness and the punishment of it And is it not then an inestimable blessedness to be delivered from that which hath wrought such deplorable Executions in the World 2. The greatest Blessings are conferred Pardon is God's Family-Blessing and the peculiar mercy of his choicest darlings He hands out other things to wicked men but he deals out this only to his Children 1. The Favour of God Sin makes thee Satan's Drudge but pardon makes thee God's Favourite We may be sick to death with Lazarus and be God's Friends sold to slavery with Joseph and yet be dear to him thrown into a Lions Den with Daniel and be greatly beloved poor with Lazarus who had only Doggs for Chirurgions to dress his Sores and yet have a Title to Abraham's bosom But we can never be beloved if we are unpardoned no share in his friendship his love his inheritance without a pardon All created evils cannot make us loathsom in a justified State nor all created goods make us lovely under guilt Sin is the
fruit of his waiting 'T is the end of Christs exaltation whether it be meant of his being lifted up on the cross or his exaltation in Heaven 't is true of both that his end is to have mercy upon you 2. God will pardon the greatest sins His infinite compassion cannot exhaust it self by a frequent remiâ—â—ion Mercy holds proportion to Justice as his Justice punisheth little sins as well as great so doth mercy pass by great sins as well as little Your highest sins are the sins of men but the mercy offered is the mercy of a God The debt you owe is a vast debt but Christs Satisfaction is of a greater value and a Kings revenue may well pay a beggers debts though she owe many thousands the first day of marriage Multiplied sins upon repentance shall meet with multiplied pardons Isay 55.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abundantly pardon We cannot vie our sins with Gods mercy The grace of God and righteousness of Christ which are necessary for the remission of one sin are infinite and no more is requisite for the pardon of the greatest yea of the sins of the whole world if they were upon thy single score The grace conferred upon Paul was more than would suit his necessity 1 Tim. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superabound and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant enough to have pardoned a whole world as well as Paul like the Sun that emits as much heat in his beams upon one puddle as is enough not only to exhale the moisture of that but of a 100 more Suppose thou art the greatest sinner that ever was yet extant in the world do not think that God who hath snatcht so many firebrands of Hell out of the Devils hands will neglect such an opportunity to make his grace illustrious upon thy humble Soul If God hath given thee repentance it is a certain evidence he will follow it with a pardon though thy sins be of a deeper scarlet than ever yet was seen upon the earth for if he did not mean to bestow this he would never have bestowed upon thee the necessary condition of it Is there not a sinner can equal thee Then surely God is wiser than to lose the highest opportunity he yet had to evidence his superlative grace And therefore 1. Continue thy humiliations There must be a conformity between Christ and thee he was humbled when he purchased remission and you must be humbled when you receive it God will not part with that very cheap that cost his Son so dear though thou art not at the expence of the blood of thy Soul thou must be at the expence of the blood of thy Sins When a man comes to be deeply affected with his sin then God sends a message of peace Isay 6 6 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims and laid a live coal upon his mouth and said thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged When v. 5. he had cryed out woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips The way to have a debt forgiven is to acknowledge it Ps 32.5 I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin God stood as ready to forgive Davids unrighteousness as he was ready to confess it Mercy will not save a man without making him sensible of and humbled for his iniquity Put thy business therefore into Christs hands and submit to what terms he will impose upon thee 2. In thy Supplications plead his glory You find this the constant argument the people of God in the Scripture use for the prevailing with God for forgiveness That argument is most comfortably pleaded which God Loves most and whereunto he orders all his actions No stronger motive can be used to him to grant it than that whereby he excites himself to bestow it When thou beggest other things thou mayest dishonour God but God cannot be a loser of his glory in granting this Lord if thou turnest me into Hell where is the glory of thy mercy upon thy creature Nay where is the glory of thy justice my eternal torments not being able to compensate the injury done to thee by sin so much as the suffering of thy only Son whose death I desire to share in and whose terms I am willing to submit to 3. Exhortation to those that are pardoned 1. Admire this grace of God To pardon one sin is a greater thing than to create a world to pardon one sin is greater than to damn a world God can create a world without the death of a creature he can damn a world without the death of the Creator but in pardoning there must be the death of the Creator the Son of God 2. Serve God much Is the guilt of sin the cord that bound thee taken off It is fit that when thou art so unfettered thou should'st run the ways of Gods Commandments A sense of pardon of sin makes the Soul willing and ready to run upon Gods errands and to obey his Commands Isa 6.8 I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send Then said I Here am I Then when he had received assurance that his iniquity was taken away v. 7. Gods pardon set thee upon a new stock and therefore he expects thou should'st be full of new clusters 3. Be more fearful of sin Dispute with thy self Hath God pardoned the guilt of sin that it shall not damn me and shall I wallow in the mire of sin to pollute my self Oh thy sins after pardon have a blacker circumstance than the sins of Devils or the sins of wicked men for theirs are not against pardoning mercy not against special Love Oh thaw thy heart every morning with a meditation on pardon and sin will not so easily freeze it in the day time When thou art tempted to sin consider what thoughts thou hadst when thou wert suing for pardon how earnest thou wert for it what promises and vows thou didst make and consider the Love God shewed thee in pardoning Do not blur thy pardon so easily wound thy Conscience or weaken thy faith 4. Be content with what God gives thee If he gives thee Heaven will he deny thee earth He that bestows upon thee the pardon of sin would surely pour into thy bosom the gold of both the Indies were it necessary for thee But thou hast got a greater happiness for it is not said blessed is he that wallows in wealth honour and a confluence of worldly prosperity but Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven and whose iniquity is covered FINIS THE INDEX OF THE Principal Matters contain'd in the Discourse of DIVINE PROVIDENCE A ACtions all under God's Providence page 9 10 11 Many can be ascribed to nothing else page 15 16 17 Affections of God to his Church page 69 v. Church Affections made subservient to Gods designs page 14 Of good Men impeach not Providence à page 21. ad 27 Make them not
330 943.  9. 66  12. 1076. 8. 3. 1146. 10. 1. 336.  5 6. 60. 11 8. 630.  9. 1300. 12. 5. 23 † 6. 36 † 11. 1144. 13. 3. 737.  8. 910 911 1192. 14. 6. 40 † 19 20. 50 †15. 2. 488 40 † 8. 36. †19. 1 4 6. 23 † 13. 329 1091.  15. 694. 20. 9. 51 †21. 1. 40 † 3. 769 770.  5. 114.  16. 23 † 23. 489 497 770. 22. 1. 34 †THE INDEX A. ABel's Faith Page 601 1164. Abraham's Page 1164. Abstinence from sin may be without Mortification and the grounds of it Page 1317 8. Abuse of Mercy Dangerous Page 696. Acceptableness of Christs Death Page 883. How it was so Page 885 6. Demonstrated from Page 316. to 322 337 8 from 886 to 898 1087 1148. What made it so Page 882. a 899. ad 906. A Comfort to a Believer Page 323. 871 909. The fruits of it Page 317. ad 322. Acceptation of us and our services founded on that of Christ Page 322 897. Of Believers certain and perpetual Page 323 910. The matter of Christs Intercession Page 1146 7. Access to God Beleivers have with confidence delight and joy Page 366 7. In it God as Reconciled to be eyed Page 378. Studying the Death of Christ would animate us in it Page 844. Follows upon Pardon Page 110 †Vid. Prayer Accusations of Beleivers shall be answer'd Page 340. Of Sin and Satan the Death of Christ to be pleaded against them Page 753 4. 1103 1152. Activity of the New-Creature for God and of what kind a Page 88. ad 94. Essential Acts of the Soul not changed in Regeneration Page 73 4. Adam in Innocence how lie had a power to Believe and Repent Page 189. His first Sin what and how he fell Page 645 6. 730. Why not mentioned in 11. Heb. Page 646. His Faith in Christ Page 1165. What he knew of Christs sufferings Page 1170. Whose Sin greater his or Eves Page 78 †Adoption not without Regeneration Page 32. How they differ Page 72. How it differs from Reconciliation and Justification Page 244. How great a Mercy Page 1287. Thoughts of it a ground of confidence in Prayer Page 384. Advocate what Page 1111. Vide Intercessor Affections of the New-Creature for God unbounded Page 91. Of a Regenerate Man to the Law of God Page 99 100. Some sort of them may be raised in unrenewed Men. Page 109 110. Placed on God a mark of Regeneration Page 120. Follow sense Page 749. Inconstant ibid. Accompany a saving Knowledge Page 417. Corrupt a hindrance of Divine Knowledge Page 464. Sutable should accompany the Knowledge of God in Christ Page 519. Should accompany our Thoughts of God Page 3 †Afflictions the lot of all God's dearest Children Page 553 1286. We must not slight them nor be dejected under them Page 1282. All from God ibid. We should not be impatient under them Page 1282 1284 1289 1291. Their removal to be sought of God Page 1282. Sent on good Men by God as a Father Page 1282 1285. Effects of divine Love Page 1283 1289. Our carriage under them should be pleasing to God Page 1284. Should make us turn our Anger against sin ibid. The Wisdom of God in them to his Children above that of earthly Parents Page 1288. God to be loved for them Page 1289. The intention of God in them to be answered ibid. Grievous but profitable Page 1290. We should judge aright of them ibid. Faith necessary under them Page 1291. Vid. Faith Believers have assistance in them Page 1104. Sweetned by Pardon Page 111 †Great no sign of an unpardoned state Vid. Troubles Punishment Ambition a great hindrance of Conversion Page 2. A cause of unbelief Page 738. Angels could not have contrived mans Redemption Page 252. Nor effected it Page 860 937. Vid. Sacrifice Subjected to Christ Page 333 4. 1098. Not Redeemed Page 361 Good at peace with a Believer Page 364 5. Can 't know God perfectly Page 413. Their clearest knowledge of God is by Christ Page 495. How affected with mens sins Page 67 †Antiquity an unsafe rule Page 834. Apostacy unavoidable without growth in Knowledge Page 455. A folly Page 40 †Vid. Weak Grace and Perseverance Apostates are Unbelievers Page 729 730. Assurance how to be obtained Page 52 3. Of obtaining must not chill Prayer Page 384 Want of it not unbeleif Page 605 Often given at the Supper Page 762. Not necessary in a Communicant Page 783 4 And Faith how they differ Page 799. The more perfect our Mortification the clearer it is Page 1315. Possible Vid. Knowledge of a mans state Attendance on God our work in Heaven Page 39. Attributes of God some of them could not have been known without the fall Page 481 2. Others not so clearly Page 483. All manifested and glorified in Christ a Page 498. ad 512. 888 9. 906 941. A sense of them fix'd on the Soul in Conviction Page 575. All the object of Faith Page 1161. Faith to be acted on them Page 85 †B. BAptism shews the necessity of Regeneration Page 20. T is not Regeneration Page 75. No Converting Ordinance Page 792 Believers their Salvation certain Page 284 5. 911 1105 6. 1196. Their state better than Adams in innocency Page 371 2. 1356. Their Salvation the end of Christs Commission and Intercession Page 302 3. 1147 But few in all ages Page 671 714. Their happiness Page 701 2 3. a 909. ad 912. Christs possession Page 1328 9. His charge Page 1330 1 2 1359. Power given him for their good Page 1332 3 4. Vid. Exaltation His affections to them Page 1335 6 7. Blessings spiritual flow from the Father through Christ Page 258. Gods giving and accepting Christ an assurance none shall be denyed us Page 352 3. 369. 912. Christs acceptation the Foundation of them all Page 321. Blood of Christ cleansed from sins commited before it was shed Page 892. a 1187 ad 1192. Of perpetual vertue Page 893. Cleanseth morally Page 1186. From guilt and filth Page 1186 7. perfectly Page 1195 6 7. How a Page 1198. ad 1201. Comfort to those that are cleansed by it Page 1208 9. Vid. Death of Christ and Sacrifice Body prepared for Christ Page 275 6. Necessary for him Page 289. What kind of one Page 289 290. It s glory in Heaven Page 1093 4. Bodies of men shall be raised Page 1105. Boasting dangerous to a Renewed man Page 202. C. CALL of Christ to be our Redeemer by the Father a Page 266. ad 269. Cause of it self or any thing nobler than it self nothing can be Page 167 Ceremonies humane especially if abused not to be urged Page 747. Change a great one by Regeneration a Page 75. ad 84. 128. Goes with a saving knowledge Page 415 416. Christ may be esteemed by those that want saving Faith Page 2. Should be our end Page 66 The exemplar of the New Creature Page
affections which the worth of such an object doth require 2. Debasing Conceptions unworthy of God Such are called in the Heathen Vain Imaginations * Rom. 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their reasonings about God who as they glorified not God as God so they did not think of God as God according to the dignity of a Deity Such a mental Idolatry may be found in us when we dress up a God according to our own humors humanize Him and ascribe to Him what is grateful to us though never so base †Psal 50.21 Th u thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy seâ—f Exod. 15.11 Isa 6.3 Psal 89.35 Which is a grosser degrading of the Deity than any representation of Him by material Images because it is directly against his Holiness which is His glory applauded chiefly by the Angels and an Attribute which He swears by as having the greatest regard to the honour of it Such an imagination Adam seemed to have conceiting God to be so mean a Being that he a creature not of a daies standing could mount to an equality of knowledge with Him 3. Accusing thoughts of God Either of his Mercy as in despair or of his Justice as too severe as in Cain ‖ Gen. 4.13 Of his Providence Adam conceited yea and charged God's Providence to be an occasion of his crime * Gen. 3.12 Tâ—e woman whom thou gavest to be with me His posterity are no juster to God when they accuse him as a negligent Governour of the World Psal 94.11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity What thoughts Injurious thoughts of his Providence v. 7. as though God were ignorant of men's actions or at best but an idle Spectator of all the unrighteousness done in the world not to regard it though He did see it And they in the Prophet were of the same stamp That said in their hearts The Lord will not do good Zeph. 1.12 neither will He do evil From such kind of thoughts most of the Injuries from oppressors and murmurings in the oppressed do arise 4. Curious thoughts about things too high for us 'T is the frequent business of mens minds to flutter about things without the bounds of God's revelation Not to be content with what God hath published is to accuse Him Gen. 3.5 God knows that your eyes shall be openâ—d in the same manner as the Serpent did to our first Parents of envying us an intellectual happiness Yet how do all Adam's Posterity long after this forbidden fruit II. In regard of our selves Our thoughts are proud self-confident self-applauding foolish covetous anxious unclean and what not 1. Ambitious The aspiring thought of the first man runs in the veins of his Posterity God took notice of such strains in the King of Babylon when he said in his heart I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will be like the most High * Isa 14.13 14. No less a charge will they stand under that settle themselves upon their own bottom establish their own Righteousness and will not submit to the Righteousness of God's appointment †Rom. 10.3 The most forlorn beggar hath sometimes thoughts vast enough to grasp an Empire Obad. 3. That saith in his heart Who shall bring me down to the ground Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom c. 2. Self-confident Edom's thoughts swelled him into a vain confidence of a perpetual prosperity And David sometimes said in the like state that he should never be moved 3. Self-applauding Either in the vain remembrances of our former prosperity or ascribing our present happiness to the dexterity of our own wit Such flaunting thoughts had Nebuchadnezzar at the consideration of his setling Babylon the head and Metropolis of so great an Empire Nothing more ordinary among men than overweening reflexions upon their own parts and * Rom. 12.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking of themselves above what they ought to think 4. Vngrounded Imaginations of the events of things either present or future Such wild conceits like Meteors bred of a few vapors do often frisk in our minds 1. Of things present 'T is likely Eve foolishly imagin'd she had brought forth the Messiah when she brought forth a murderer Gen. 4.1 I have gotten a man the Lord as in the Hebrew believing as some interpret that she had brought forth the promised seed And such a brisk conceit Lamech seems to have had of Noah †Gen. 5.29 Esth 6.6 2. Of things to come either in bespeaking false hopes or antedating improbable griefs Such are the jolly thoughts we have of a happy Estate in reversion which yet we may fall short of Haman's heart leap'd at the King's question What shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour phancying himself the mark of his Princes favour without thinking that a halter should soon choak his ambition Or perplexing thoughts at the fear of some trouble which is not yet fallen upon us and perhaps never may 1 Sam. 27.1 And David said in his heart c. How did David torture his Soul by his unbelieving fears that he should one day perish by the hand of Saul These forestalling thoughts do really affect us we often feel caprings in our Spirits upon imaginary hopes and shiverings upon conceited fears These pleasing impostures and self-afflicting suppositions are signs either of an idle or indigent mind that hath no will to work or only rotten materials to work upon 5. Immoderate thoughts about lawful things When we exercise our minds too thick and with a fierceness of affection above their merit not in subserviency to God or mixing our cares with dependencies on Him Worldly concerns may quarter in our thoughts but they must not possess all the room and thrust Christ into a manger Neither must they be of that value with us as the law was with David sweeter than the honey or the honey comb III. In regard of others All thoughts of our neighbour against the Rule of Charity Such that imagine evil in their hearts God hates * Zech. 8.17 These principally are 1. Envious when we torment our selves with others fortunes Gen. 4.5 1 Tim. 6.4 2 Cor. 13.5 Such a thought in Cain upon God's acceptance of his Brother's Sacrifice was the Prologue to and foundation of that cursed murder 2. Censorious stigmatizing every freckle in our Brother's conversation 3. Jealous and evil surmises contrary to Charity Esth 5.13 Gen. 27.41 Esau said in his heart c. which thinks no evil 4. Revengeful such made Haman take little content in his preferments as long as Mordecai refused to court him And Esau thought of the daies of mourning for his Father that he might be revenged for his Brother's deceits There is no sin committed in the world but is hatched in one or
erected his stately head to seise upon the prey then God wounded him put an end to Aegypts pride and the Israelites fear He loves to beat down the pride of the one and raise up the lowliness of the other When Herod will assume the title of a God given him by the acclamations of the People an Angel shall immediately make him a Banquet for Worms Acts 11.22 23. When Sennacherib had prospered in his Conquest of Judea had taken many strong Towns closely be leaguered Jerusalem thundred out blasphemies against God and threatnings against his People then comes an Angel makes an horrible slaughter in a night sends him back to his own Country where after the loss of his Army he lost his life by the hands of his own children A greater pride cannot be exprest than what the Apostle predicts of the Man of Sin and that hath been extant for some time in the world * 2 Thes 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God in additions to the word clipping the Institutions of God and adding new and canonizing new Mediators of Intercession who sits in the Temple of God in a profession of Christianity shewing himself that he is God assuming the name of God and the title of God in being called most holy And perhaps it will yet amount to a higher step than it hath yet done before he be consumed by the brightness of the Lord 's coming since all that yet lets and hinders is not taken out of the way The higher the pride the nearer the fall When Goliah shall defie the God of Israel a stone from a sling thrown by the hand of David our great David the Antitype shall lay him vomiting out his soul and blasphemies on the Earth We are many times more beholding to the Enemies insolence than our own innocence Deut. 32.17 Were it not that God feared the wrath of the Enemy i. e in their pride lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high a sinful Israel should not have so many preservations * Trap on Exod. p. 9. When they will ascend into Heaven and exalt their Throne above the Stars of God when they will ascend above the heights of the Clouds and be like the most High then shall they be brought down to Hell to the sides of the Pit Isa 7.13 14 15. The highest Towers are the fairest marks for Thunder and the readiest Tinder for the lightning of Heaven When Tyrus had set her heart as the heart of God then would God defile her brightness and make her die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the Sea Ezek. 28.6 7 8. 3. Eager malice Nothing would Satisfie the Aegyptians here but the bloud of the Israelites My hand shall destroy them they were under a cruel bondage attended with anguish of Spirit before God began their rescue The serpents seed have the same principles of craft and malice sown in their nature that are resident in his ever since the beginning he endeavoured to shape men into the same form and temper with himself Their rage would raze out the very foundation of Israel and not suffer the name to be had any more in remembrance Psa 83.4 They love to be drunk with the blood of the saints and are no more satisfied with blood than the grave with carcases they repair their arrows and watch for an opportunity to discharge them and never want poison but opportunity this is Gods time to deliver When Pharaoh would pollute the land with the blood of the Hebrew males and ordain them to be drag'd from the womb to the slaughter then God raises up himself to attempt the rescue of Israel yet he bears with his insolence punisheth him but not destroys him But when he would be still stiff against a sense of the multitude of plagues and a greater mercy of patience in them when he would arm for the field against that God the smart of whose force he had felt and resolves to destroy or bring back the Israelites upon the point of his Sword God would then bear no longer but make the water his sepulchre When Haman designs the ruine of the Jews procures the Kings commission sends dispatches to all the governours of the Provinces sets up a gibbet for Mordecai and wants nothing but an opportunity to request the Execution he tumbles down to exchange his princes favours for an exaltation on the Gallows Est 6.4 Est 7.10 When the Serpent encreased his malitious cruelty and cast out a flood against the Church God makes the earth the carnal world to give her assistance and repel the force that Satan used against her * Rev. 12.15 16. The earâ—h helped the woman When multitudes shall gather together in the valley of decision then shall the Lord roar out of Sion and be the hope of his People and the strength of the Children of Israel Joel 3.14.16 And when Spiritual Aegypt shall make a war against Christ who sits upon the white horse and combine all their force for the destruction of his people then shall the Beast and the false Prophet be taken and brought to their final ruine and their force be broken in a lake of fire as that of Aegypt was in a Sea of water Rev. 19.19 20. The time of their greatest fierceness shall be the time of Christs fury he will strike them sorest when he finds them cruellest their rage shall rouze up his revenge when the men of Sodom to which the Antichristian state is likened shall be resolutely bent to wickedness they shall be struck with blindness and that blindness suceeded by destruction then will God set bounds to the outragious waves and snatch the prey out of the teeth of the Lyons 4. Confident security I will divide the Spoil my lust shall be satisfied upon them God lets the enemy come in like a floud and torrent with a confidence to carry all before him before he lifts up a standard against him Isa 59.19 Then shall the Spirit of the Lord stir up himself gloriously in the principles and actions of his people and the redeemer shall come to Sion God will set his force against their confidence break their impetuousness by his own power When the Enemies of the Church think they have intangled it in such a snare reduc'd it to so low a condition as to be secure of her ruine with a blast and puff then God will arise and set her in safety from them that puff at her Psa 12.5 This will be the case of Babylon when she shall say I sit as a Queen and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow then shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine for then God will stir up his strength to Judge her Rev. 18.7 'T is in the time of the Antichristian Polity and mutual congratulations with the highest security for their happy success triumphing over the dead bodies of the
As God shews his mercy in his Peoples Redemption he will shew his strength in their conduct Exod. 15.13 He that made this deliverance a standing Monument of his Power entitles himself by it Isa 43.16 Thus saith the Lord which makes a way in the Sea a path in the mighty waters 2. His kindness to and care of his People When the straits are remediless and the counsels whereby the Projects are laid not to be defeated by humane skill when God seems to have forgot then in a seasonable deliverance he shews himself the careful Watchman of Israel When the Ship is in a raging storm and Christ asleep he will leave his own ease to keep his word and content his People When the Church thinks God hath forgotten his mercies and they have forgotten their dependance when the misery is so pressing that there is no faith of a deliverance left then Christ comes when faith is scarcely to be found upon the Earth Luke 18.8 to exalt his mercy in the depths of their misery and work terrible things they looked not for Isa 64.3 The Israelites would not have understood God's care in their protection without this or the like strait God had a new opportunity to shew his watchfulness over them to turn the cloud which went before them as their guide behind them for their defence Exod. 14.19 The scoffs of the Enemy at the Churches misery are God's motive to help her I will restore health to thee because they called thee an out-cast Jer. 30.17 'T is in straits we see God's salvation not man's Exod. 14.13 Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. 3. His Justice He lets the Church be encompassed with miseries and the Enemies in a Combination against her that he may overthrow them at once God makes a quicker dispatch with the Aegyptians when they were united than when they had assaulted Israel with a smaller body His Righteousness gets glory at one blow when he makes them to lye down together Is 43.17 His Justice is unblemisht in striking when their wickedness is visibly ripe the equity of it must needs be subscribed that when the Enemies malice is greatest when they have no mixture of compassion 't is the clearest righteousness to crush them without any mixture of mercy God brings things to that pass that he may honour both his Justice and Mercy in the highest That the black horses and the white horses may march firm together Zech. 6.6 the black horses that brought death and Judgment Northward to Babylon where the Church was captive the white horses that followed them and brought deliverance to his People the one to be Instruments of his Judgments the other of his Mercies God loves to glorifie those two Attributes together he did so in the redemption of mankind by the death of his Son and he doth so in the deliverance of his Church there is a conformity of the Church to Christ in her distress that there may be a conformity of God's glory in temporal to his glory in eternal Salvation God singles out a full crop to be an harvest for both A wicked man is said to be waited for by the sword Job 15.22 God attends the best season for revenge when mercy to the one shall appear most glorious and vengeance on his Enemies most equitable and all disputes against his proceedings be silenced 2. It makes to the Churches Advantage God had a work to do upon Mount Sion and on Jerusalem before he would punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks Isa 10.12 His end shall be attained in the correction of his Church before his glory shall be exalted in the destruction of her Enemies There are Enemies in the hearts of his People to be conquered by his grace before the Enemies to her peace and prosperity shall be defeated by his Power he will let them be in the fire till like gold they may have a purer honour in a brighter lustre 1. Humiliation is gain'd hereby God would not presently raze out the Canaanites lest the wild Beasts should increase upon them Deut. 7.22 Too quick deliverances may be occasions to multiply the wild Beasts of pride security and wantonness in the heart humility would have but little footing There is need of a sharp Winter to destroy the Vermin before we can expect a fruitful Spring Without humiliation the Church knows not how to receive nor how to improve any mercy The Enemies hasten their own mine by increasing the measure of their sins and Israels deliverance by being instruments to humble then hearts The sooner the plaister hath drawn out the corrupt matter the sooner it is cast into the fire God hereby prevents the growth of weeds in that ground he intends to enrich with new mercies 2. A Spirit of Prayer is excited Slight troubles make but drooping prayers Great straits make it gush out as the more the bladder is squeezed the higher the water springs We hear not of the Israelites crying to the Lord after their coming out of Aegypt till they had a sight of the formidable Army Exod. 14.10 They were sore afraid and the Children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Prayer gains mercies but scarce springs up free without sence of distress We then have recourse to Gods power whereby he is able to relieve us when we are sensible of our own weakness whereby we are unable to relieve our selves men will scarce seek to God or trust him while any creature though but a reed remains for their support they are destitute before they pray or believe God regards their prayers Psa 102.17 He will regard the prayer of the Destitute and not despise their prayer Distress causes importunity and God will do much for importunities sake Luke 11.8 3. Discovery of sincerity Hereby God discovers who are his people and who are not who are in the highest form of Christianity and who are not in the School or at least but in the lowest form he separates the good corn from the useless chaff No question but there were some among the Israelites that in this extremity acted faith upon the remembrance of the wonders God had wrought for them in Aegypt before their departure certainly they did not all murmur against Moses Were there no Calebs and Joshuahs that followed God fully in a way of faith and submission Their faith courage had not been conspicuous without this extremity Thundrings and Lightnings and terrible things in righteousness are to prove us whether the fear of God be before our faces that we sin not Exod. 20.18 20. God separates the dross You never know a new building without pulling down to separate the rubbish and rotten rafters from the sound materials Abraham was put upon hard work the imbruing his hands in the blood of his only Son to prove his integrity when God sees his sincerity he divers the blow not only delivers him from his grief his Son from his danger
but renews the promise of the Messiah to him as a reward Deliverance then comes when God hath separated the Corn from the stubble 4. A standing encouragement for future faith When the straits are greatest from whence God delivers us there is a stronger foundation for a future trust When the distress is inconsiderable faith afterwards will be more feeble large experience heartens strengthens faith in the promise When gloomy clouds are blown over the brighter and thinner will not be much feared When we see the Sun melt the thickest over our heads we shall not doubt its force to disolve the lesser vapours which may afterwards assemble when the Ship hath escaped a raging storm we shall not doubt it in a less God often puts them in mind of their deliverance in the red Sea to strengthen their faith and dependance on him It must needs be an establishment to faith for deliverances from great straits are some kind of obligation on the honour of God When the Israelites had provoked God by murmuring and wished they had dyed in Aegypt and not in the wilderness Moses intercedes with this argument The Aegyptians shall hear of it from whom God brought up Israel with a strong hand and it would disparage Gods power and tax him with an inability to bring his people into the Land he intended then God grants their pardon Numb 14.13 14 20. 5. Engagement to future Obedience 'T is upon this account God prefaceth the Law with his mercy in delivering them out of Aegypt The strongest Vows are made in the greatest straits Many obligations there are when the extremity forces us to cry When we are in the Jaws of Death God may have his terms of us when we are at some distance we will have our own The lower a person is the more readily will he bend to any condition hope of deliverance will make him stoop And when God snatches his People as fire-brands out of the fire they are more obliged to him from common ingenuity and must be more ashamed of breaking their Vows than if their mercies were of a great alloy If common patience leads to repentance a rescue from an amazing danger is a stronger cord to draw us to repentance and obedience And it is certain that when the Church in sincerity makes Vows to God it will not be long before God puts her into a condition to pay them and furnish her with Incentives of a holy ingenuity 6. The greater thankfulness The more straitned the greater thankfulness for enlargement As we hear not of the Israelites prayers after they came out of Aegypt till they were in the pound so we read of none of their songs though they had matter enough for them in their first departure till God had dasht in pieces the Enemy and thrown the Horse and the Rider into the Sea Then and not till then had they a deep sense how glorious God was in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Exod. 15.11 Great mercies unvail God's face more to the view of his People When Israel inherits great salvation then the Lord shall inherit the praise of Israel When we have less mercies we take little notice of the Author God hears the language of but one of our bones but when he delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him and spoils him then all my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee 7. To prevent future mischief to the Church The destruction of the greatest Enemies is a disarming the less God by this destruction struck a terrour into those Nations upon whose confines Israel was to march into Canaan who without so remarkable a rebuke of providence would have been desirous to finger some of their prey Then trembling took hold of the mighty men of Moab All the Inhabitants of Canaan did melt away fear and dread fell upon them by the greatness of the Arm of God that they should be as still as a stone till they passed over the River Exod. 15.15 16. Their present deliverance was a Pass-port for their future security in their Journey and no Enemies troubled them in the way but those upon whom God had a mind to shew his Power 2. How doth God deliver when the season is thus 1. Suddenly They sank like Lead in the mighty waters which quickly reaches the bottom Judgment comes like lightning Death and Hell are said to ride upon Horses Rev. 6.8 They are too swift for God's Enemies and will easily win the Race of them Destruction comes as travel upon a woman with child 1 Thes 5.3 How suddenly did God turn the Assyrian Camp into an Aceldema overthrow a powerful Army and make their Tents their Tombs in the space of a night He will dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Psa 2.9 all in bits at a stroke He comes suddenly he rides upon a Cherub Psal 18.10 But because the motion of an Angel is not so intelligible he adds another Metaphor from the nimblest of sensible things he flies upon the wings of the wind to assist his People in extremity The Enemy comes like a whirlwind * They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me Hab. 3.14 and God goes forth as a whirlwind of fury Jer. 30.23 The whirlwind of his Judgments shall be as quick as the whirlwind of their malice a continual whirlwind when the other is vanishing it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked when the other shall be as fruitless as a Snow-ball against a wall of Brass The Enemy beholds him not till he be upon him for the clouds are as dust under his feet Nahum 1.3 and obscure his appearance as the raising the Dust doth the march of a Troop he comes unawares upon them in a Cloud The Execution is sudden They shall be cut down as grass Psal 37.2 which this moment faceth the Sun triumphing in its natural bravery and the next moment is cut off from its Root with one shave of a Sythe He quencheth them as Tow is quencht in Water Isa 43.17 as the snuff of a Candle is quench'd by being bruis'd by the fingers He cuts them off as foam the excrement of the water Hos 10.7 which bursts in pieces like a bubble on the sudden Vengeance comes upon Tyre and Sidon swiftly and speedily Joel 3.4 Tyre comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to afflict to straiten Sidon of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies to pursue All Persecutors are threatned in Tyre and Sidon with a swift destruction God delays the time to try the faith and patience of his People to make the expected deliverance more sweet and welcom and mercy more singular He may have some of the seed of Christ in the loins of some of his Enemies But when he doth draw his Sword he gives a sudden blow before the Enemy fears it or his People expect it The Jews in Babylon when the Chains of their Captivity were unloosed were like those that
dream they could scarce believe they were freed when the Enemy felt himself punish'd In all other Plagues God sent Moses as an Herauld with warning to Pharaoh but in this God surprised him and hurried him to destruction without giving him any caution Like chaff that the Tempest carrieth away and is seen no more Job 21.18 So shall the Plagues of spiritual Aegypt come in one day Rev. 18.8 yea in one hour v. 17. And the Church shall be like a Lilly which by the assistance of the Dew flourisheth in the morning when over night it looked as if it were withered 2. Magnificently Sometimes in deliverance God puts the frame of nature in confusion He melts the mountains cleaves the vallies as wax before the fire and as waters poured down a steep place Mic. 1.4 i. e. He wasts the strength and riches of his enemies when he comes to judge When he appears in the generation of the righteous he shall appear in such glory as to make the adversaries in great fear and strike a terrour into them Psal 14.5 God will perform it in a prodigious and unusual way God might have taken off the wheels of the Aegyptian Chariots before they had entred the gap of the Sea and hindred them from approaching so near his beloved people he might have afflicted their hands with the palsy and rendred them uncapable to manage their weapons or might have sent a spirit of aemulation among them and made them sheath their swords in one anothers bowels But though this had secured his people it would not have rendred his operation so illustrious as the making that which was a means of his peoples security to be his Enemies destruction and the waters at once Indulgent to the Israelites and severe to the Aegyptians He magnifies his Judgments and mercies by one and the same stroak and drowns the Enemies in the Sea whereby he delivers the Israelites So he preserved Daniel in the midst of those Lions which devoured his accusers The more contrary things are to an eye of reason the fitter subjects they are for the exaltation of God As Christ the head so the Church the body is raised out of the grave by the glory of God the Father Rom. 6.4 His right hand shall find his enemies Psal 21.8 his right hand shall teach him terrible things Psa 45.4 Then shall he come with a shout as one refreshed with wine recruited with new Spirits and risen from sleep Psa 78.65 He calls upon all creatures to be assistant to Cyrus in the design of his peoples deliverance Isa 45.8 He will perfect it by a way of creation I have created righteousness to deliverance with the manifestation of a creative power he makes things serve against their natural order appointed by God Thus when God shall appear for the final overthrow of spiritual Aegypt he shall come with Voices Thunders and Lightnings an earthquake out of the temple and appear as magnificently in the garb of a Judge as he did on Sinai in that of a Law-giver Rev. 16.19 and make the Ten horns which were the support of the beast to be the Instruments of her desolation Rev. 17.16 3. Severely They sank to the bottom like lead in the mighty waters God sends out the greatest Judgments against those that deal sharply with his people greater than against any other part of the world Zac. 6.6 The black horses the instrument of the execution of his Anger were sent towards Babylon where his people were in Captivity but the bay horses of a mixt colour noting a mixture of Mercy and Judgments are sent towards other parts of the world to walk not to run signifying the patience of God to those parts which had not yet opprest his people God deals not so smartly with those as with them that are Enemies to Israel In such concerns he answers his people by terrible things in righteousness When he appears as a God of Salvation to his people he appears terrible in his righteousness to his Enemies Psa 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our Salvation His Judgments shall be as terrible as they are righteous The executioners of his vengeance ride upon horses to shew their readiness to any warlike ingagement upon red horses of a bloody colour to shew the severity of their commission against the Enemies of God Zac. 1.8 He will pay all arrears together that they shall be forced to say God is true to the word of his threatning as well as that of his promise As the Amalekites in Samuel's time payed the scores of their Ancestors in the time of the Israelites travel through the wilderness 1 Sam. 15.2 I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when they came up from Aegypt So when God reckons with Babylon for all the bloud of the Saints Prophets Rev. 18.20 The bloud of all the Prophets and Saints that were slain upon the earth shall be found upon her skirts and avenged on her and gives unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath all that she hath done shall come into his remembrance Rev. 16.19 And how severe it shall be is exprest Rev. 14.19 20. she shall be cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God as grapes bruised with the greatest strength and crushed in pieces both skin stones And to express it more sensibly to our understandings he speaks of the flowing of the bloud out of the wine-press unto the horse bridles by the space of a 1000 and 600 furlongs two hundred miles not that we should understand it literally but the Spirit of God is so particular in describing the height of the deluge of bloud to the bridles of the horses the length of the floud to the space of two hundred Miles to set before our apprehension the severity of the wrath that shall be poured out upon them And as God never repented of his Judgments upon Aegypt so never will he of those which are to come upon Babylon 4. Vniversally and therefore severely The horse and the rider did God cast into the Sea the Chariots the Host and the chosen Captains were drowned there Exod. 15.1 4. The waters covered the Enemy there was not one of them left Psa 60.11 Exod. 14.28 Not a messenger to carry back the news their floating bodies and wracks were the first that gave notice of the defeat to their remaining countrymen God throws off all tenderness his bowels are silent he strikes like a wrathful Enemy lanceth not like a tender Chyrurgion so shall it be with their partners in their sins every man that worships the Beast and his Image shall drink of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and whoever receiveth the mark of his name Rev. 14.9 10 11. The Sun the political power that defends it shall be darkened the rivers whereby their traffick
saw their affliction was bitter and there was no helper yet when they did not thankfully improve it to a reformation God denounced judgments against them for their Idolatry 2 Kings 14.26 27. The Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel So that he had not yet denounced it for he waited to see the improvement of this mercy But before the end of Jeroboams reign by the prophet Hosea who began to prophesy in his time he declared their final captivity from whence they are not restored to this day Praise for former mercies is a means to gain future ones the Musick of Voices in Jehoshaphats camp praising the beauty of holiness was a prologue of a deliverance from a formidable army 2 Chron. 20.21 22. and more successful than the warlike musick of drums and trumpets 4. Exercise faith on the power of God manifested in deliverances in the time of straits 'T is not for want of ability in God but for want of faith in us that we at any time go groaning under misery Faith would quiet the Soul When David relyed upon God and found by experience God sustaining him he would not then be afraid of ten thousand Psa 3.5 6. Let that be our carriage which is recorded of the Israelites after this memorable defeat Exod. 14.31 They believed the Lord and his Servant Moses We must never expect to see Gods arm bare without faith in him Christ can do no great work where unbelief is predominant Unbelief doth not strip God of his power and mercy but it stops the streams and effluxes of it Unbelief against experience is a double sin 'T is gross when against a bare word worse when against the word confirmed by a Witness Israel was past thoughts of any relief in this strait but expected to perish by the hand of their Enemies yet God brought them into straits in mercy to bring them out of straits with power he makes their distress a snare to their Enemies and a scaffold for their faith That deliverance ought to be a foundation for our trust in God though bestowed upon another Nation yet not so much upon them as a State but as a Church and a type of those future ones under the Gospel which are yet expected Well then trust upon this foundation Great trust in God is a sort of obligation upon God Men out of generosity will do much for them that depend upon them Dependance on God magnifies his Attributes this will bring deliverance whereby God will magnify himself Do not distrust him till you meet with an Enemy too strong for him to quell a red Sea too deep for him to divide an affliction too sturdy for him to rebuke an Aegyptian too proud for him to master Then part with your faith but not till God hath parted with his power which he hath formerly evidenc'd 5. Expect and provide for sharp conflicts God brings into straits before he delivers Another deliverance is yet to come the Churches distresses are not come to a period Babylon hath another game to play The right of the Devil to tyrannize over the Mystical Body was taken away at the death of the head yet he still bruiseth Christs heel and bites though he cannot totally overcome As long as Christs Enemies are not made his foot-stool as long as there is the seed of the Serpent in the World as long as Christs members want a conformity to the head Satans pinches must be expected as long as the Beast is in being he will make war with the followers of the Lamb his power is to continue forty two months to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Revel 13.5 7. Forty two months or years 'T is like the time is not expir'd One thousand six hundred and twenty years which make forty two months no ending since he first had his power when his time draws near to an end he will bite sharpest This deliverance from Aegypt is yet again to be acted over and that must be at the end when the whole Israel of God shall be freed from Anti-christ the Antitype of Pharaoh 6. Yet let us not be afraid Apostacies may be great there will be but two Witnesses not two in number but in regard of the fewness of those that shall bear testimony to the Doctrine of Christ there may be no Advocate for the Church Sion may be an out-cast cast out of the affection of many that served or favoured her But the sharpest Convulsions in the world are presages of an approaching Redemption Luke 21.28 and the Gospel will shine clearer as the Sun doth after it hath been muffled with a thick Cloud The words in the mouths of the Witnesses will be most killing and convincing Fear not a natural above a supernatural Power Was not all the Church God had in the world in as low a condition at the Red Sea Not a Soul that we read of exempt or but few as Job and some few others in other parts yet the Church was then delivered for a Pattern to shew forth the power of God in the Ages to come What though there may be a want of Instruments Are not all Instruments out-liv'd by God Has God dismist the care of his People Is he not alwaies the Churches Guardian He must be dethron'd before he can be disarmed While Heaven is too high for humane hands to reach the Church is too well guarded for them to conquer Fear not till Christ lets his Scepter fall out of his hands and ceases to rule in the midst of his Enemies and flings away the Keys of Death and Hell fear not till God strips himself of his strength wherewith he is clothed He is clothed with strength Psal 93.1 Though there be little strength in the Church there is an Almighty one in their confederate 'T is no matter what the Enemy resolves against what God ordains Pharaoh intended to destroy God intended to deliver God will have his will and Pharaoh's lust goes unsatisfied When the Enemies are most numerous God shall darken their glory and strength and then shall he be the hope and strength of his People Joel 3.14 15 16. The Valley of Achor the Valley of the sharpest trouble shall be a door of hope Hos 2.15 That God that can create a World out of nothing can create deliverance when there is no visible means to produce it What can be too hard for him that can work without materials that can make matter when it is wanting and call Non-Entities into being He created the World with a word and can destroy the sturdiest men in the world with a look The strongest Devil trembles before him and the whole Seed of the Serpent is but as the dust of the ballance before the breath of his mouth He looked the Aegyptian Host into disorder and their Chariot-wheels into a falling-sickness Exod. 14.24 He created the World by a word He restored Jerusalem by a word Isa 44.26 27. dispirited Aegypt by
unwillingness that God should hear us It speaks a kind of a fear that God should grant our Petitions He that puts up a Petition to a Prince coldly and dully gives him good reason to think that he doth not care for an answer That Husbandman hath no great mind to a Harvest that is lazy in tilling his ground and sowing his seed How can we think God should delight to read over our Petitions when we take so little delight in presenting them God gives not mercy to an unwilling person The first thing God doth is to make his People willing Dull spirits seek God as if they did not care for finding him Such tempers either account not God real or their Petitions unnecessary 4. Without delight we are not fit to receive a mercy Delight in a mercy wanted makes room for desire and large desires make room for mercy If no delight in begging there will be no delight in enjoying If there be no chearfulness to quicken our prayers when we need a blessing there will be little joy to quicken our praise when we receive a blessing A weak sickly stomack is not fit to be seated at a plentiful table Where there is a dull asking supply there is none or a very dull sense of wants Now God will not send his mercies but to a Soul that will welcome them The deeper the sense of our wants the higher the estimation of our Supplies A chearful Soul is fit to receive the least and fit to receive the greatest mercy He will more prize a little mercy than a dull petitioner shall prize a greater because he hath a sense of his wants Had not Zacheus had a great joy at the news of Christs coming by his door he had not so readily entertained and welcomed him Use 1. Of Information 1. There is a great pleasure in the ways of God if rightly understood Prayer which is a duty wherein we express our wants is delightful There is more sweetness in a Christians asking than in a wicked mans enjoying blessings 2. What delight will there be in heaven If there be such sweetness in desire what will there be in full fruition There is joy in seeking what is there then in finding Duty hath its sweets its thousands but glory its ten thousands If the pleasure of the seed-time be so great what will the pleasure of the harvest be 3. The miserable condition of those that can delight in any thing but prayer 'T is an aggravation of our enmity to God when we can sin chearfully and pray dully When duty is more lothsome than iniquity Use 2. Of Examination We pray but how are our hearts If it be for what concerns our momentary being is not our running like the running of Ahimaaz But when for Spiritual things do not our hearts sink within us like Nabals Let us therefore follow our hearts close suffer them not to give us the slip in our examination of them resolve not to take the first answer but search to the bottom 1. Whether we delight at all in prayer 1. How do we prize the opportunities of duty There is an opportunity of an earthly and an opportunity of a heavenly gain consider which our hearts more readily close with Can we with much pleasure follow a vain world and heartlesly welcom an opportunity of duty delight more with Judas in baggs than in Christs company This is sad But are praying opportunities our festival times Do we go to the house of God with the voice of joy praise 2. Whether we study excuses to wave a present duty when conscience and opportunity urge and invite us to it Are our Souls more skillful in delaies than in performances Are there no excuses when sin calls us and studyed put-offs when God invites us Like the sluggard folding our arms yet a little while longer Or do our hearts rise and beat quick against frivolous excuses that step in to hinder us from prayer 3. How are our hearts affected in prayer Are we more ready to pray our selves asleep than into a vigorous frame Do we enter into it with some life and find our hearts quickly tire and jade us Are we more awake when we are up than we were all the time upon our knees are our hearts in prayer like withered sapless things and very quick afterwards if any worldly business invite us Are we like logs and blocks in prayer and like a Roe upon the mountains in earthly concerns Surely what our pulse beats quickest to is the object most delighted in 4. What time is it we choose for Prayer Is it not our drowziest lazyest time when our nods are as many or more than our petitions as though the dullest time and the deadest frame were most sutable to a living God Do we come with our hearts full of the world to pray for heaven Or do we pick out the most lively seasons Luther chose those hours for prayer and meditation wherein he found himself most lively for study 5. Do we not often wish a duty over As those in the Prophet that were glad when the Sabbath was over that they might run to their buying and selling Or are we of Peter's temper and express Peter's Language 'T is good to be here with Christ on the Mount 6. Do we prepare our selves by delightful and enlivening considerations Do we think of the Precept of God which should spur us and of the Promise of God which should allure us Do we rub our Souls to heat them Do we blow them to kindle them into a flame Do we send up Ejaculations for a quickening spirit If thoughts of God be a burden requests to him will not be a pleasure If we have a coldness in our thoughts of God and Duty we can have no warmth in our desire no delight in our Petitions 7. Do we content our selves with dull motions or do we give check to them Can we though our hearts be never so lazy stroke our selves at the end and call our selves good and faithful Servants Do we take our Souls to task afterwards and examine why they are so lazy why so heavy Do we enquire into the causes of our deadness A gracious Soul is more troubled at its dulness in prayer than a natural conscience is at the omission of prayer He will complain of his sluggishness and mend his pace 2. If we find we have a delight let us examine whether it be a delight of the right kind 1. Do we delight in it because of the gifts we have our selves or the gifts of others we joyn with A man may rejoyce in hearing the Word not because of the holiness and spirituality of the matter but because of the goodness of the dress and the elegancy of the expression Ezek. 33.32 The Prophet was unto them as a lovely Song as one that had a pleasant voice He may upon the same ground delight in prayer But this is a temper not kindled by the true fire of the
that Army as some think is uncertain And every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand A Hammer of destruction an Instrument of death the word seems to signifie a weapon much like a Pole-ax And one of them clothed with Linnen with a Writers Ink-horn by his side Christ say the Ancients and so they understood it before and in Hierom's time who appears here in his Priestly habit a Linnen garment being the Vestment of the Priests Levit. 16.4 White is an Emblem of Peace Christ seals his People with his Spirit the Spirit of Peace Calvin rejects not this Interpretation but rather understands it of an Angel whom God commissioned to secure his People in this destroying Judgment And indeed Angels have often appear'd in the form of men and clothed with Linnen as to Daniel Dan. 10.5 Dan. 12.6 7. Christ's Royal Power is founded upon his Priestly Office which is the ground of all the spiritual and temporal salvation Believers have from God Ink-horn The word is so translated Though the word say some signifies a Table such as they then used to write upon with a Pen of Iron Or rather it signifies a case to put those Pens in wherewith they wrote And they went and stood beside the brazen Altar 'T is uncertain whether this respects the original cause of their punishment viz. Their offering Sacrifices to their Idols upon that Altar which was consecrated to the Service of God Or else respects the Sacrifices of vengeance those were instrumentally to offer to God's Justice The Judicial punishment of God's Enemies is called a Sacrifice in Scripture Isa 34.6 A Sacrifice in Bozrah Jer. 46.10 God's Day of Vengeance is called God's Sacrifice in the North Country Observe 1. With what a small number if God please can he destroy a city or nation But six mentioned Almightiness needs not great numbers to effect his will no not a man since he can do it by his immediate hand and command judgment in a trice 2. How quick are Gods creatures to obey his call for the punishment of a rebellious people He calls those six men and they presently appear ready to execute Gods pleasure 3. God doth not bring judgments on a people till their wickedness hath overgrown the goodness of his own Children Six to destroy But one to preserve a Sixfold work of Judgment to one of preservation intimating that there were six bad to one good in the City 4. The security of Gods people in this world as well as that to come depends upon the priestly office of Christ v. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the Cherub whereupon he was to the threshold of the house The glory of God which was in the Propitiatory above the Cherubims went from one Cherub to another till it came to the threshold as birds that are leaving their nests leap from one branch to another till they fly quite away Observe 1. God is not fixed to any one place He hath his temple among his people discovers himself in his Ordinances but upon provocations departs The glory of God and his Ordinances are not entayled upon any nation longer than they walk worthy of them 2. The glory of Gods Ordinances is obscured among a people before judgments come upon them The glory of God went up from the Cherub I will take away the hedge of my vineyard and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down Isa 5.5 The Ordinances of God are understood by some interpreters to be the hedge and wall of a People when God takes away the Hedge the breach is made wide for every wild beast to enter and tread it down The presence of God in his Ordinances the presence of God in his providences is the hedge of a people The Temple is forsaken by God and then polluted in judgment by men v. 7. God then comes to the man clothed with linnen that had the Writers inkhorn by his side said unto him Go thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof v. 4. And v. 5. He commands the executioners of his wrath to go after him smite without any pity both small and great beginning at his Sanctuary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpreters trouble themselves much what this mark should be and tell us from Origen that a believing Jew told him the ancient Samaritan letter called Tau was written like a cross But that is a fancy the ancient Samaritan letter being the same with the Phaenician was not writ in that form Vossius de Arte Grammar l. 1. c. Some say it was the law because the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the law begins with that letter to shew that such were to be marked that were devoted to the observance of the law Markt they were saith Calvin with a Tau because that being the last letter in the Alphabet shews that the people of God are of the lowest account among men and the off-scouring of the world ת being the first letter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vives noted the preservation of them On the foreheads * Grotius Alluding to the custom of the Eastern countries to mark their Servants on the foreheads with the names of their masters * Oecolampad Not on their visible foreheads but on their invisible consciences the conscience is the forehead of the Soul As eminent in the heart as a forehead in the body The bloud of Christ upon the conscience is the best mark of distinction as the blood of the paschal Lamb upon the posts was the mark whereby the Israelites were discerned from the Aegyptians and the edge of the Angels destroying sword diverted from them It was a mark of a special providence of God The destroying Judgments were to follow the Sealing Angel and not touch those that were markt by him on the forehead Observe 1. All judgments have their commissions from God whom to touch whom to overthrow God doth not strike at random The man in the linnen garment was to bridle the Chaldeans direct their Swords to the right objects God overpowers the natural inclinations of all his creatures whom he appoints executioners God hath a hook in the nostrils of Leviathan nothing can be done without the leave of providence man forms the weapons God gives the edge and directs the stroak 2. In the highest fury and vengeance God hath reserves of mercy for his own people Angels are appointed to be preservers of his children in the midst of the destroying of a people Invisible Angels are joyned with visible enemies to conduct and govern their motions according to the Command of their great General God's Judgments are dispensed with greater kindness to his People than desires to take vengeance upon his Enemies He hath a heart of Mercy as well as a hand of Justice
wisheth his head were a full springing Fountain to weep for the slain of the Daughter of his People for the sin the cause as well as the calamity the effect Jer. 9.1 He wishes his head to be filled with the vapours from his heart and become a fountain What a transport of sorrow had Ezra when he heard of the peoples sins and the mingling the holy Seed with that of Idolaters A horror run thorow his whole Soul His astonishment is twice repeated Ezra 9.3 4. Every faculty was alarumed at the sin of the People 'T is probable John Baptist used himself to those severities which are mentioned Matth. 3.4 because of the sinfulness of that generation among whom he lived Paul discovers it to be a duty when he reproves the Corinthians for being puft up instead of mourning for that fornication which had been committed by one of their profession 1 Cor. 5.2 And when he writes of some that made the glorious Gospel subservient to their own bellies he mixes his tears with his Ink Phil. 3.18 19. I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ The Primitive Christians did much bewail the lapses of their fellows Celerinus among the Epistles of Cyprian acquaints Lucian of his great grief for the Apostacy of a Woman through fear of persecution which afflicted him so that in the time of Easter the time of their joy in that Age he wept night and day and was resolved that no delight should enter into his heart till through the mercy of Christ she should be recover'd to the Church And we find the Witnesses clothed in Sackcloth when they prophesied in a sinful time to shew their grief for the publick abominations Rev. 11.3 The kingdom of Satan can be no pleasure to a Christian and must therefore be a torment 2. It was our Saviours practice As he had the highest love to God so he must needs have the greatest grief for his dishonour He sighed in his spirit for the incredulity of that generation when they askt a sign after so many had been presented to their Eyes Mark 8.12 He sighed deeply in his spirit And the hardness of their hearts at another time raised his grief as well as his indignation Mark 3.5 He was sensible of the least dishonour of his Father Psal 69 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me I took them to heart Christ pleased not himself when his Father was injured as the Apostle descants upon it when he applies it to Christ Rom. 15.3 His Soul was more pierc'd with the wrongs done to God than the reproaches which were directed against his own person His grief was unexpressibly greater than can be in any creature because of the unimitable ardency of his love to God the nearness of his relation to him and the unspotted purity of his Soul Christ had a double relation to Man to God His compassion to men afflicted him with groans and tears at their bodily distempers his affection to his Father would make him grieve as much to see him dishonoured as his love to man made him groan to see man afflicted This grief for sin was one part of Christ's Sacrifice and Suffering for he came to make a full satisfaction to the Justice of God by enduring his wrath to the holiness of God by offering up an infinite sorrow for sin which it was impossible for a creature to do We cannot suppose that Christ should only accept the punishment but not bewail the offence which was the cause of it A Sacrifice for the sins of others without remorse for those sins had not been acceptable it had not been agreeable to the purity of his humane Nature He wept at Jerusalem's obstinacy as well as for her misery and that in the time of his triumph The loud Hosanna's could not silence his grief and stop the expressions of it Luke 19.41 It was like a shower when the Sun shined If Christ as our Head was filled with inward sorrow for mens displeasing the holiness of God 't is surely our duty as his Members to imitate the afflictions of the Head He is unworthy of the name of Christ who is not afflicted as Christ was nor can call Christ his Master who doth not imitate his graces as well as pretend to believe his Doctrine he cannot see that God who hath distinguisht him from the world dishonoured his precepts contemned but he must have his Soul overcast with a gloomy cloud 'T is our glory to value the things he esteem'd to despise the things he contemn'd to rejoyce in that wherein he was delighted and to grieve for that which was the matter of his sorrow and indignation Thus was he afflicted though he had a joy in the assurance of his Fathers favour and the assistance of his Fathers power The highest assurance of God's love in particular to us ought not to hinder the impressions of grief for the dishonour of his name Did Christ ever look upon the swinish world without melting into pity Did he bleed for the sins of the world and shall not we mourn for them 3. Angels as far as they are capable have their grief for the sins of men The Jewish Doctors often bring in the Angels weeping for sin * Grotius Luc. 15.7 Ob peccatum Hebraei Angelos flentes inducunt And one tells us that in an Ancient Mahumetan Book he finds an Answer of God to Moses Even about this Throne of mine there stand those and they are many that shed tears for the sins of men But the Scripture tells us they rejoyce at the repentance of men Luke 15.10 Their Lord is glorified by a return of a Subject The Subject advantaged by casting down his arms at the feet of his Lord. They do therefore as far as they are capable mourn for the revolts of men suo modo as Beza upon the place They can scarce rejoyce at mens repentance without having a contrary affection for mens prophaneness if they are glad at mens return because God is thereby glorified it cannot be conceived but they mourn for and are angry with their sins because God is thereby slighted Unconcernedness at the dishonour of God cannot consist with their shining knowledge and burning love They cannot behold a God so holy so glorious so worthy to be beloved without having some regret for the neglects and abuses of him by the Sons of men How can they be instruments of Gods Justice if they are without anger against the deservers of it II. 'T is an acceptable duty to God Since it is an imitating the copy of our Saviour it is acceptable to God nothing can please him more than to see his Creatutes tread in the steps of his Son 1. 'T is a fulfilling the whole law which consists of love to God and love to our neighbours 't is set down as a Character of Charity both as it respects God and man Not to rejoyce in iniquity 1 Cor. 13.5 i. e. to be
reason to think that he would be careless of maintaining the honour of it in his promises and thereupon be filled with despondencies What comfort could we have in an unrighteous God The righteousness of God in inflicting punishment is but a branch of that essential righteousness of his nature which obligeth him to be righteous in the performing his promise too 'T is a mighty support to faith that the righteous God loveth righteousness 2. Obedience in a Believer hath a greater lustre by them It was the glory of Job that he preserved his Integrity under the smartest troubles To obey a God always smiling is not so great an act of Loyalty as to obey a God frowning and striking 'T is the crown of our obedience to follow our God though he visits us with stripes 'T is a noble temper to love that hand which strikes us and chearfully serve that Father which lasheth us Our obedience is too low when it must be excited by a succession of favours and cannot run to God unless he allures it by smiles 'T is then a generous and sincere obedience when we can embrace him with a sword in his Hand trust him though he kill us love him though he stone us and as the Persians did by the Sun adore him when he scorcheth as well as when he refresheth us Were these punishments wholly absent we should not have a rise for so heroick faith and love and our holiness in this state would want much of its lustre 3. Humility These punishments are left upon us to allay our pride and be our remembrancers of our deplorable miscrriage It had been an occasion of pride in us to be freed from punishment at the first appearance of a Mediator 'T is reasonable the Soul should have occasions to exercise it self in a grace contrary to that first sin pride which was the cause of the fall We affected to be Gods and punishment is left that we may know we are but Men which is the end of judgments Psal 9.20 Put them in fear O Lord that the Nations may know they are but Men we should otherwise think our selves Gods We are so inclin'd to sin that we need strong restraints and so swell'd with a natural pride against God that we need Thorns in the Flesh to let out the corrupt matter The constant hanging the Rod over us makes us lick the dust and acknowledge our selves to be altogether at the Lords mercy Though God hath pardon'd us he will make us wear the halter about our Necks to humble us 4. Patience Were there no punishments there would be but little occasion for patience This grace would not have had its extensive exercise its full formation without such strokes left upon the creature Resignation to God which is the beauty of grace would not come to its due maturity and stature without such trials So that in these reasons of the continuance we see they are rather advantages to Salvation than hindrances by promoting through the influence of God's grace those graces in us which are necessary to a happy state Use 1. See the infinite mercy of God who when upon the defection of our first Parents he might have burnt up the whole world as he did Sodom would upon the Redeemers account who stept in impose so light a punishment upon that sin 't is but light in comparison of what the nature of sin deserves every sin being a contempt of the Majesty of God and a slight of his Authority and that sin having greater aggravations attending it 'T is a merciful punishment it might have been an everlasting damnation God might have left us to the first sentence of the law and made no exchange of eternal death for temporal pains He might have been deaf to the voice of a Mediator and put his mercy to silence as he did Moses Speak no more of this matter but his Bowels pull his Justice by the Arm and hinder that fatal stroke and a Mediator by his interposition breaks off the full blow from us by taking it upon himself and suffers only some few smart drops to light upon us Oh wonderful mercy that our punishment should not hinder but rather further our everlasting happiness by incomprehensible grace Let not then our punishments for sin hinder our thankfulness Let our Mouths swell with praise while our Bodies crumble away by diseases and Relations drop from us by death Let us love God's glory admire his mercy while we feel his Arrows Whatever our punishments are there is more matter for praise than murmuring 2. How should we bewail original sin the first fall of man 'T is a great slighting of God not to take notice either of his judicial or fatherly proceedings As we are to lament any particular sin more especially when the judgments of God which bear the marks of that sin in their foreheads are upon a nation or person so though we are to bewail the sin of our nature at all times yet more signally when the strokes of God the remembrancers of it are most signally upon us A Child doth more particularly think of his fault when he is under the correcting rod for it We should scarce think of original sin if we did not feel original punishment All the pains of sin should be considered as Gods Sermon to us and we should under them be afflicted with that sin as we may suppose Adam and Eve were when they first heard the punishment denounc'd in Paradice when they had a sense of the flourishing Condition they had lost for a slight temptation To turn sorrow for pain into sorrow for our first sin is to spiritualize our grief and sanctify our passion 3. What an argument for patience under punishments is here The continuance of them doth not hinder our Salvation Shall a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin For such a punishment that doth not hinder his eternal welfare but by the grace of God and the exercise of Faith rather promote it God promised as well as threatned both his mercy and righteousness directs him to that which is most for his honour and our good Let us not by any impatience charge infinite wisdom with blindness or unrighteousness They were punishments at first but by Faith in Christ the deportment of a judge is changed into that of a Father Drusius hath an observation Psal 56.10 In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word The first word Elohim is a name belonging to God as a judg the 2d word Jehovah is a name of mercy I will praise God whether he deal with me in a way of justice or in a way of mercy when he hath thunder in his voice as well as when he hath hony under his tongue Oh how should we praise God and pleasure our selves by such a frame When our distresses ly hard upon us we should justify Gods holiness So the Psalmist or rather Christ in the bearing our
punish whence follows the non-imputation of sin Not imputing their trespasses unto them The justice of God will not suffer that that sin which is pardoned should be punished for can that be justice in a prince to pardon a thief and yet to bring him to the gallows for that fact Though the malefactor doth justly deserve it yet after a pardon and the word passed it is not justly inflicted God indeed doth punish for that sin which is pardoned Though Nathan by Gods Commission had declared Davids sin pardoned yet the Sword was to stick in the bowels of his family 2 Sam. 12.10 15. The Sword shall never depart from thy house the Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye But 1. 'T is not a punishment in order to Satisfaction Because Christs Satisfaction had no flaw in it and stood in need of nothing to eek it out But 't is for the vindication of the honour of Gods holiness that he might not be thought an approver of sin and this was the reason of Davids punishment in the death of his child by Bathsheba 2 Sam. 12.14 Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to Blaspheme 2. 'T is not so much poenal as medicinal A judg Commands a hand to be cut off that is for punishment a Physician and a Father order the same but for the Patients cure and the preservation of the body And though God after pardon acts not towards his people in the nature of a Judg yet he never lays aside the authority and affection of a Father We are delivered from a Judges wrath but not from a Fathers anger In that remarkable dumbness inflicted upon Zachary for his unbelief Luk 1.18.20 there was a confirmation of his Faith as well as the chastisement of his incredulity The Angel upon his unbelieving desire of a sign gives him a Testimony of the truth of his errand but such an one that should make him feel in some measure the smart of his unbelief 3. If it be penal 't is not the eternal punishment due to sin 'T is but temporary and not embittered by wrath which is the gall of punishment This taking off the obligation to punishment is the true nature of pardon Which will be evident from 2 Sam. 19.19 Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me Shimei desires David not to impute iniquity and not to remember it It was not in Davids power absolutely to forget it and Shimei's confessing the fact with those circumstances in verse 20. was enough to recall it to Davids memory if he had forgot it but he desires David not to bring him to satisfy the penalty of the law for reviling his Soveraign II. The Author of Pardon God For pardon is the Soveraign prerogative of God whereby he doth acquit a believing Sinner from all obligation to Satisfactory punishment upon the account of the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith 1. 'T is Gods act Remission is the Creditors not the Debtors act though the Debtor be obliged in Justice to pay the debt yet there is no obligation upon the Creditor to demand the debt because it is at his liberty to renounce or maintain his right to it and God hath as much power as man to relax his right provided it be with a Salvo to his own honour and the holiness of his nature which he cannot deny for the sinners safety as the Apostle tells us God cannot deny himself Yet properly say some though sin be a debt God is not to be considered in pardon as a Creditor because sin is not a pecuniary debt but a criminal and so God is to be considered as a governor law-giver guardian and executor of his laws and so may dispence with the severities of them If an inferior person tear an indictment it may be brought again into Court but if the chief Magistrate order the casting it out who can plead it 'T is Gods act and if God justifies who can condemn Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies who shall condemn That God absolves thee that hath power to condemn thee that God who enacted the law whereby thou art sentenced proclaims the Gospel whereby thou art reconcil'd 'T is an offended God who is a foregiving God that God whose name thou hast prophaned whose patience thou hast abused whose laws thou hast violated whose mercy thou hast slighted whose justice thou hast dared and whose glory thou hast stained 2. 'T is not only his act but his prerogative and he only can do it God is the party wronged Nemo potest remittere de jure alieno This prerogative he glories in as peculiar to himself the thoughts of this honour are so sweet to him that he repeats it twice as a title he will not share with another Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blots out thy transgressions Pardoning offenders is one of a Princes royalties And this is reckoned among his Regalia as a choice flower and jewel in his Crown Exod. 34.7 for giving iniquity transgressions and Sins A Prince punisheth by his ministers but pardons by himself And indeed God is never so glorious as in acts of mercy Justice makes him terrible but mercy renders him amiable When Moses desired to see God in his royalty and best perfections he displays himself in his goodness Exod. 33.18 Shew me thy glory v. 19. I will make all my goodness pass before thee I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious And though the Apostles had a power of Remission and binding that was only ministerial and declarative like that prophetical power which Jeremy had to root up nations and destroy Jerm 1.10 i. e. to declare Gods will in such and such Judgments as he should send him to pronounce Men cannot pardon an infinite wrong done to an infinite justice Forgiveness belongs to God as 1. Proprietor He hath a greater right to us than we have to our selves 2 Soveraign He is Lord over us as we are his creatures 3. Governour of us as we are parts of the world 3. 'T is an act of his mercy Not our merit Though there be a conditional connexion between pardon and repentance and Faith yet there is no meritorious connexion ariseth from the Nature of those graces but remission flows from the gracious indulgence of the promise 'T is the very tenderness of mercy the meltings of inward bowels Luke 1.78 To give knowledg of Salvation and Remission of their sins through the tender mercies of our God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inexhaustible mercy Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art ready to forgive and art plenteous in mercy A multitude of tender mercies Psal 51.1 What Arithmetick can count all the bublings up of mercy in the breast of God and all the glances and all the doles of his pardoning grace towards his creatures And he keeps this mercy by him as in a treasury to
whether your Souls are sure Here I shall 1. Remove false signs whereon men rest and think themselves pardoned 1. The littleness of sin is no ground of pardon Oh may some say my sins are little some tricks of youth some petty oaths or the like The Scripture saith that Drunkards Fornicators Extortioners and Covetous shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not Great Drunkards only but those that are drunk but now and then as well as those that are Drunkards every day 1. Dost thou know the malignity of the least sin No sin can be called absolutely though it may comparatively little Is it a little God who is offended by sin Is it a little wrath which is poured down on sin Is it a little Christ that hath dyed for sin Is it a little Soul that is destroyed by sin and is it a little Hell that is prepared for sin Is not the least sin Deicidium as much as in a man lieth a destroying of God Did not Christ shed his blood for the least as well as for the greatest Is not Hell kindled by the breath of the Lord for the least as well as the greatest sins Is that little which is Gods burden Christs wound the Spirits grief the penitents sorrow and the Devils Hell Every drop of poison is poison every drop of Hell is Hell every part of sin is sin and hath the destroying and condemning nature of sin Can Angels expiate the least sin or can a thousand worlds be a sufficient recompence for the injury that is done to God by the least sin 2. The less thy sin the less the excuse for thy self 'T is the aggravation of their injustice that they sold the Righteous for a pair of Shoes Amos 2.6 Dost thou undervalue God so as to sell a Righteous and Eternal God so cheap for a little sin Is a little sin dearer to thee than the favour of the great God Is a little sin dearer to thee than an Eternal Hell is grievous To endanger thy Soul for a trifle to lose God for a bubble is a confounding aggravation of it as it was of Judas his sin that he would sell his Saviour for a little Silver for so small a Sum. Sin is not little in respect of the formality of it but in respect of the matter in respect of the temptation and this littleness is an aggravation of sin 3 Dost thou know how God hath punished the least sin A drop of sin may bring a Deluge of Misery An Atom of sin is strong enough to overturn a World It was but an Apple that poisoned Adam and his whole Posterity Less sins are punisht in Hell than are pardoned here God casts off Saul for less sins than he pardoned David for How many Ships have been destroyed upon small Sands as well as great Rocks 2. Fewness of sins is no argument of pardon Conceive if thou canst the amiableness and lustre of the Angels how far beyond the glory of the Sun it was yet one sin divested them of all their glory It was but one sin kindled Hell for the fallen Angels Every sin must receive a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 Shall one single sin intitle thee to Hell what will millions of sins then intitle thee to One sin is too much against God Had thy iniquities been never so few Christ must have died to answer the Pleas of his Fathers Justice against thee Every sin is Rebellion against God as a Soveraign undutifulness to God as a Father * Burges Contempt of God as a Governour and preferring the Devil before God the Devil that would destroy and damn thee before God that made thee and preserves thee a preferring the Devil's temptations before God's promises 3. The commonness of sin is no argument of pardon Many Angels combin'd in the first Conspiracy against God but as they were Companions in sin so are they Companions in torments The commonness of Sodoms sin made the louder cry and hastened the severer Judgment Not one Inhabitant escaped but only righteous Lot and his Family Common sins will have common Plagues It doth rather aggravate thy sin than plead for pardon when thou wilt rather follow mens Example to offend God than conform to God's Law to please him Sin was common in the Old World for all flesh had corrupted their ways Gen. 6.12 and all were swept away by the destroying Deluge To walk according to the course of the World is so far from being a foundation of pardon that it is made a Character of a Child of the Devil To walk according to the course of the World is to walk according to the pattern of the Devil and to be in the number of the Children of Wrath Eph. 2.2 Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air. 4. Forbearance of punishment is no argument of pardon Eccles 8.11 Because Sentence against an evil-work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Forbearance is made use of by men to make them sin more desperately more headily Fully set all checks silenced and stopt Forbearance is no acquittance it argues not God's forgiving the debt the debt is due though it be not presently sued for and the longer the debt remains unpaid the greater Sum will the Interest amount unto because the longer God doth forbear punishment the longer time thou hast for Repentance the account for that time will run high That God doth not punish is an argument of his patience not of his pardoning mercy God laughs at Sinners he sees their day is coming though they may be jocund and confident of a pardon God's forbearance may be in Justice he may be brewing the Cup and mixing that which thou art to drink Prisoners may be reprieved one Assize and executed the next Reprieval of Execution is no allowance of the Crime or change of the Sentence 5. Prosperity is no sign of pardon Oh! I am not only born with and forborn but I have a great addition of outward contentments since my sin That which you make an argument of pardon may be an argument of condemnation Asaph was much troubled at the prosperity of the wicked but at last saith Pride compasseth them as a Chain and violence covers them as a garment Psal 73.6 That kindness which should have made them melt made them presume That which should broach thy Repentance enflames thy Pride Thy goods may increase thy sins 6. Forgetfulness of thy sin and Commission long ago is no sign of pardon and therefore having no checks for them is no sign of pardon God doth not forget though thou dost no sin slips from the memory of his knowledge though now he doth cast many sins away from the memory of his justice In regard of Gods eternity the first sins are accounted as committed this moment for in that there is no succession of
102. 1338. Our need of him discovered by the Word as preparatory to the New-birth Page 235. All good conveyed by him Page 138 175 245 258. The end of the Creation and sum of the Law and Prophets Page 260 1. The naked declarations of him pleasing to God Page 319. Eternally beloved by him Page 321. His Mediation greatly valued by him Page 322. not carried into Heaven before his Death Page 300. to be glorifyed and praised Page 343. 754. a sufficient Mediator Page 351. the only one a Page 355. ad 358. 375. Vide Justification Blood of Christ and Intercession His Deity proved Page 206. 389. 668. 670. 711 2. 1147. 1178. Objections against it answered Page 388 9. 1158. the Medium of the Creation Page 493. his abundant fulness for his people Page 672. 1333. man an Enemy to him Page 749 750. highly esteemed by a Believer Page 801. his unspotted holiness Page 850. the only fit person in the Trinity to satisfie for man Page 941. necessary to own him as Messiah Page 1158. Vide Death of Christ and Sacrifice Christian Religion Vid. Religion Christians None are without Regeneration Page 19. 783. nor without knowledg Page 445. Church The forming one the end of Christ's coming Page 668. the greatest mercies to her attended with the greatest plagues on her Enemies Page 847. shall continue to the end of the World Page 744. 748. 1149. 21 †secur'd before her Enemies destroyed Page 847 65 †a particular one may be destroyed Page 1295 6 7. 23 †Vid. Gospel removed holiness necessary in it Page 21 †its stability Page 21 †when one is destroyed God will have another Page 24 †shall have a numerous progeny Page 25 †29 †hath been establisht against all opposition a Page 25 †ad 28 †shall be for the future and why Page 386. a 28. ad 36 †38 39 40 †a Gospel one hath greater grounds of confidence than the Jewish Page 38 †her establishment by God a comfort and wherein Page 38 9 †her Future Glory certain Page 40 †to be prayed for and loved Page 37 †40 †her establishment to be prayed for and endeavoured Page 41 †sometimes in desperate straits Page 44 †opposing her most fatal Page 44 †what times God takes to deliver her Page 45 6 †why he delivers her in those times Page 47 8 9 †and how Page 49 50 51 †very dear to God Page 51 †Vide Enemies of the Church Churches corruptions quickly creep into the best 747. 834. their actions observ'd by God Page 1293. the 7 of Asia their present sad condition Page 1296 7. Chearfulness in God's service a duty Page 57 †Vid. Delight Circumcision shadow'd the necessity of Regeneration Page 20. Cleansing to be desir'd as well as comfort Page 598. from sin 2 fold Page 1186 7. what it imports Page 1209. Vide Blood of Christ Commands of God to men to turn to him not unreasonable notwithstanding their impotence a Page 187. ad 196. Comfort none real without Regeneration Page 35. and the knowledge of it Page 52 3. a change of them upon Regeneration Page 82 3. ascribing Grace to our selves the way to lose it Page 202. Christ careful to give his people in distress Page 383. 553. 1157. 76 †none without Divine Knowledge Page 410 411. 504 5. encreased as we grow in it Page 456. studying Divine Mysteries the way to it Page 555. 844. not the measure of worthy or unworthy receiving the Supper Page 817. only by Faith in God and Christ in troubles Page 1159. all from above ibid. of Gracē may be eclipsed Page 1349. Coming of Christ two fold Page 768. Commission Christ had to redeem Page 299. ad 303. of Christ to be studied Page 304. Commonness of sin no argument of its pardon Page 114 †Communications of Christ can't be relisht or improved by the Unregenerate Page 35. Communion with God impossible without Regeneration Page 34 5. chiefly in the Supper Page 759. restored by the Death of Christ Page 896. founded on Union Page 1341. Company of good men keeping it a means of Divine Knowledge Page 473. Compassions to men Christ filled with Page 291. 296. manifested and improved in his Death Page 312. should be shewn to convinced sinners Page 596. of Christ to weak Saints great Page 1335. should be shewn to fallen Saints Page 1369. Conceptions of God carnal a hindrance of Divine Knowledge Page 465. the wisest Heathens had unworthy ones Page 485. debasing ones a sin Page 3 †Vide Imaginations Conditions of the Covenant very low and reasonable Page 374. 692. Conscience men oppose it Page 182. checks upon sin Page 183. its motions may be cherisht by a natural man Page 186. natural weak and false Page 567 8. excited and actuated by the Spirit in conviction Page 571. 574. terrors of it no argument of an unpardoned state Page 115 †Vid. Peace Consent not full in a Renewed Man when he sins Page 96 7 8 †Consideration natural men have power to exercise it Page 185. 6 7. intent caused by conviction Page 576 7. a necessary duty Page 1376. want of it one cause of a renewed mans sin Page 99 †Contemplation of God our work in Heaven Page 39. Content the duty of a renewed man Page 228. of a reconciled one Page 379. of every man Page 667. of a pardon'd man Page 118 †Contrivance of sin how hainous Page 5 †Conversation of a renewed man holy Page 84. and of him that hath saving knowledge a. Page 421. ad 424. Conversion hindred by Ambition Page 2. the critical Minute of it not necessary to be known Page 51. and Regeneration how they differ Page 70 71. of others to be endeavoured Page 130. further'd by Holy examples Page 132. the frame of our minds in it at first to be often reflected on Page 1375. 11 12 †Vid. Regeneration Convictions may be a long time before Conversion Page 2. alone not sufficient to Salvation Page 48. under them men find themselves unable to turn to God Page 166. the Spirit the Author of them all Page 560. 1 2. Spiritual he only can work a. Page 563. ad 570. 602 3. how wrought by him a. Page 218. ad 220. a. 570. ad 579 what is sinful in them the Spirit is not the Author of Page 570. by the Spirit of what sins and of what in sin a. Page 579. ad 583. of Nature and the Spirit their difference Page 583. 4 5. Legal and Evangelical their difference a. Page 585. ad 591. those of the Spirit and those by Satan their difference Page 591 2 3 4. the Devil the great stifler of them Page 595. comfort to those that have had them Page 595 6. and their duty Page 596. when under them what men should do Page 596 7. directions to prevent suppressing them Page 598. directions to obtain them Page 599. Pride often seen in men under them Page 735. should be oft review'd
witnesses that they shall stand again upon their feet the same persons if politically dead others witnessing the same doctrine if they were corporeally dead and damp all their mirth and triumph and turn their security into fears then shall glory be given to the God of heaven and the Ark of his Testament be seen in his Temple and the power of the Lord be magnified Rev. 11.10 11. When they shall all be gathered together to the battle of the great day of the Lord the place is called Armageddon Rev. 16.14 16 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A cursed troop an army under Gods Anathema when they have the greatest confidence When Jerusalem shall be penn'd up by a seige it shall be a cup of trembling in the hands of her Enemies Zac. 12.2 Fear shall seize upon them in the midst of their confidence The Sun was risen upon Sodom just before the devouring shower of Fire and brimstone With what derision would they have entertained any messenger that should have assured them of such a shower in so clear a day No doubt but the Aegyptian horses went prancing into the Sea and their riders confident of catching their prey when they saw the waters congealed they had not the least suspicion but that the division of the Sea was made in their favour till the Chariot wheels were taken off and the waters ready to roul upon them Exod. 14.23 25. 2. As something on the part of the Churches Enemies forwards the deliverance so there is some regard God hath to the Churches straits Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses 'T is Gods usual method to let the Church be in great distress before he commands deliverance The distress of the Church was great in the concern of this day though it was not sensible the deliverance being known near as soon as the danger The Church is to be in the depths of the Sea before she be fully delivered Psa 68.22 The Jews were to pass through the Sea with affliction before the pride of Assyria should be brought down and the Scepter of Aegypt depart away after that he would strengthen them in the Lord and they should walk up and down in his name Zach. 10.11 12. The sharpest pangs precede deliverance it was so when Christ came in the flesh it will be so at every new rising of Christ in his spirit when things were at a low ebb when the Sun sat in the greatest darkness of Errour Idolatry and prophaness when the Jews the only spot of ground God had was as a wilderness almost barren of any grace when the great predictions of the Prophets were unminded and less understood when Vrim and Thummim had ceased and the Spirit of Prophesy was shut up then Christ comes in the fulness of time to work an universal relief for mankind When the day of vengeance is in the heart of the Redeemer he shall look and find none to help he shall wonder to find none to uphold therefore his own arm shall bring Salvation Isa 53.5 This has alwaies been God's Method With his Son the powers of darkness had their hour and triumph'd when they had laid him in the grave before he was raised by the glory of his Father The Witnesses must be killed by the hand of their Enemies before they stand upon their feet and ascend up into Heaven in the sight of their Adversaries Rev. 11.7 when the Church shall walk in darkness grope for the wall like the blind mourn like Doves look for salvation and it shall seem far off then will the Lord put on a helmet of salvation on his head and the garments of vengeance for clothing and be clad with zeal as a cloak Isa 59.9 10 11 17. The break of day is ushered in by a thicker darkness than that which clouded the night before The sharpest persecution that ever the Church had was in the time of Dioclesian a little before Christianity was to rule his Empire in the exaltation of Constantine Abraham was in hardship out of his Country when he received the promises of the Messiah and Israel in the wilderness when the Oracles of God were delivered to them Confusion of the Church precedes alwaies the Communication of Light 1. The Reasons of the Doctrine are these 1. This makes for God's glory The creature cannot in this condition challenge any share in the honour of the deliverance or pare off so much as a splinter of his glory Had the Israelites been armed and drawn into a strong Battalion and so defeated the Aegyptian Army the Victory would rather have been challeng'd by them than ascrib'd to God but neither the strength of their multitude nor the wisdom of their Guides were able to protect them counsel failed and heads were feeble then did God get himself a name when they were upon the point of a remediless ruine It was manifest the name of the Lord got David the Victory since he encountred unarmed with Goliah who could have crusht him like a Fly had he been in his fingers The time of the Churches depression is the time of God's Exaltation he waits for the extremity to lift up himself When paleness is upon the face of his People when the Cedars of Lebanon hang their heads when the Churches beauty seems a lamentable deformity and Sharon is like a wilderness then will God arise Isa 33.9 10. God never builds up Sion but he ordains all things in a method for his appearance in the greatest glory Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in his glory that is when the Church is destitute v. 17. 1. God exalts his power his right hand then becomes glorious in power Exod. 15.6 He loves to appear in his dress as a Creator when there is no fitness in the subject to answer his end but what he bestows upon it When Jerusalem becomes a rejoycing and her People a joy 't is an act of creating power Isa 65.18 For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing When the creature can give them not the least assistance then will they be sensible of God's unbounded sufficiency and their own necessary dependance God never had too little help from his creature in a deliverance he hath sometimes complain'd of too much and disbanded some of the Churches Forces as in the case of Gideon Judg. 7. As Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies so doth God's Power most visibly in the midst of distresses A Physician 's skill is most conspicuous when the disease is most dangerous and most complicated and Nature at the lowest ebb 'T is more glory to God to quench the fire in its fullest rage than to extinguish it in its first smoke and sparkles God loves the fairest mark to shoot at and will rather down with Goliah than with the ordinary Philistines grapple with the great rather than with a light danger that the Lord may appear to be a man of war Exod. 15.3