your unmercifull and unrighteous dealings in your Closets regarding Pass-times more then holy Sermons reading in your Chambers rather wanton Comedies or light Poems then the Bible and Holy Writings Yea let me ask the devoutest of you whether at any time you do weep for your Sins of daily incursion Are you sensible of your too much Formality too little Fervency in your Prayers Do you weep for your vain Thoughts proud Imaginations inordinate Desires your Ignorance Forgetfulness of many Duties Slothfulness Passionateness Omissions of many Duties you should doe Uncharitableness Unthankfulness and many other Sins of Errour and secret Sins which God knows though men do not Sure a sincere Christian is a weeping Christian if God keep him from greater Enormities yet he will find cause enough to mourn for his daily Aberrations if he do as a true Penitent doth take notice of the Naughtiness of his own deceitfull Heart If you say daily the Lord's Prayer and be not sensible of your daily Sins do you not mock God when you say Forgive us our Sins Sure Christ when he directed the use of that Prayer appointed you to be examining and judging your selves every day to confess your Sins to bemoan them to ask Pardon for them to resolve and vow against them every day And Oh that God would give you a Heart of Flesh in stead of a Heart of Stone you that are guilty of more hainous Crimes such as I have named or any other your own Consciences can inform you of to imitate S. Peter to goe out immediately after this Sermon is ended and weep bitterly to break off your Sins by Righteousness as Daniel advised Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.27 And you that though unblamable towards Men yet are conscious of offending God by any privy Transgressions yea all of you who have any remainders of sinfull Corruption in you Oh that you would not defer but this day yea every day imitate holy David in his holy vocall penitential Weeping which hath been this day described to you And let every Affliction you feel or fear specially the thought of your Death bring you to a daily practice of Repentance and Supplication unto God that your Iniquities may not be your Ruine but that your Tranquillity may be lengthned here and you may be blessed for ever in the world to come Amen LAVS DEO THE PENITENT's PRAYER The Fourth SERMON PSALM li. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin WE find in this Text a Sinner struck with the sense of his Sins and pleading at the Mercy-seat of God for the Remission and Forgiveness of them If the Greatness of his Person or the Sacredness of his Function had been Antidote enough against Temptation Armour of proof against the fiery darts of Satan we had not this day heard of David a Sinner for he was a King and he was a Prophet and a man after God's own heart But since neither his Profession nor his Royalty could protect him from being a Sinner and that in so foul and crimson Crimes as Adultery and Murther which occasioned the penning of this Psalm 't is happy that we yet find him here a Penitent and a complaining one for we have him here a Supplicant at his Prayers on his knees with a Miserere mei Deus Have mercy on me O God c. What S. Paul said of himself that his Fall and Recovery was a Pattern to all that should believe in Christ may be as rightly said of David The Lord permitted him to sin that no man might presume but the strongest Saint might take heed lest he fall that none might be high-minded but fear and the Lord also recovered him by Repentance and hath left his Confession and Absolution upon record that none might despair but that his Example might direct them to return to God after their Wandrings and erect and keep up their spirits from sinking by the assurance of his Mercy so remarkably vouchsafed to so great a Transgressour And therefore if there be any Soul that hears me this day struck with a deep sense and horrour of his Sins lying groaning and trembling under the heavy pressure and burthen of them let him not despair of Pardon either by reason of the Quality or Quantity of them for here are Loving-kindnesses or kind Mercies a Multitude of tender Mercies well expressed by Zachary Luk. 1.78 the Bowells of Compassion of our God such as are in a Woman or rather exceeding the Compassion of a Woman on the Son of her womb Isa 49.15 Loving-kindness of God against Unkindness of Man Bowells of Mercy towards him who had no Compassion on himself mercifull Remembrance of him who forgat his God and himself awakening and saving him who in his insensible Lethargy of Impenitence would have destroyed himself Whoever thou art know that the Holy Ghost hath recorded this Story for thy Consolation not onely set David's Fall before thee but likewise the means of his Recovery the many and tender Mercies of his God As the Prophet Nathan was sent to David so David himself is sent to thee He extends and reaches out to thee the same Physick that he took himself And therefore distrust not thy Cure but come and hear David bitterly bewailing his Condition and with him bewail sadly thine own See him weeping and weep thou as fast Hear his Voice and Cry piercing the Clouds and be not thou dumb but as loud as he till thou hast awakened the Compassion of thy God Observe all this and say with him Have mercy upon me O God c. Which words are the main Petition of this Holy Supplicant in behalf of himself for pardoning Grace out of the deep sense of his great Sins and apprehension of God's great Mercies And they exhibit to us 1. David's Malady the Disease which pained him to the heart which made him groan cry out and be instant with the great Physician of Souls for Cure which is expressed with Aggravation in three words 1. Transgression a word that notes sometimes Rebellion or Revolt from God 2. Iniquity or Perverseness importing his Unrighteousness to Vriah his Wife Himself his Child by her his whole House and People who all tasted of the bitterness of his eating that forbidden fruit 3. Sin or Errour intimating the great Folly which he now deprehended in yielding so to his Lust as to erre from God's Command and for a little Pleasure to draw on himself the Wrath of God and the Horrour of Conscience now upon him He useth not mincing or diminutive terms as those that love their Sins as fond Parents do their Children and call their Monstrosities small Blemishes but paints out his Sins in their most ugly Deformity to shew his Hatred of them to the utmost and to justifie God fully Yea he useth those very terms to express his Sins by
which God himself used in his most blessed Declaration of himself when he proclaimed of himself Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin To which it is very likely he had an eye and that he made that Proclamation the rise of his Hope That though his Sins were great yet they were not any other then God had proclaimed of old he did forgive and after in his New Covenant he more fully assured the Condonation of them Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 2. The thing David requesteth of God and that is full Remission expressed in three terms 1. Of Blotting out his Transgressions a phrase used by the Prophet Isa 43.25 and 44.22 And it intimates that his Sins were written by God in his Remembrance as in a Book of Records in the sense that Job said 13.26 and 14.17 God did write bitter things against him and sealed up his Iniquity And the blotting it out is the putting it out of his Remembrance so as not to charge it upon him nor condemn him for it as it is explained Isa 43.25 2. Of Washing him throughly from his Iniquity a term noting frequent or abundant washing that is Absolution meant by Ablution 1 Cor. 6.11 where it comprehends Justification as well as Sanctification And so it is said Revel 1.5 Christ hath washed us from our Sins in his own bloud alluding 't is likely to the cleansing of men from their Leprosy and other Legall Pollutions in the Mosaicall Law 3. The third term is Cleanse me from my Sin by Emundation meaning Emendation purifying his Heart from the love of his Sin and his Life from the practice of it any more as it is expressed Isa 1.16 17. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well 3. The Third thing considerable in David's Petition which is indeed the Hindge on which all turns is the Loving-kindness or Benignity of God the Multitude of his tender Mercies such as are in the Womb or Bowells of a tender Mother towards her Child And this Loving-kindness and Multitude of tender Mercies is urged by David as the Motive the impulsive Cause or sole Reason of granting his Request of blotting out his Transgressions washing him throughly from his Iniquity and cleansing him from his Sin In the same manner as Moses pleaded with God for Israel Num. 14.17 18 19. after whose Copy this Petition seems to be framed and is an exact Pattern according to which a Penitent Supplicant is to address himself to God for Ease from under the pressure of his Sins teaching us these Points 1. That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner David complains not of other Evils incident to him and his but his own Sin 2. That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but setteth it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress 3. That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God 4. That we are to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out our Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation and Amendment of life 5. That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blotteth out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin 6. That the onely way to obtain these things is to beg them of God upon this consideration and no other You see a large field and copious matter is before us in which I might exspatiate far and prosecute a long time but I will endeavour to abbreviate and end with the time I. OBSERVATION That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner This is evident from their penitential Complaints In the many mournfull Elegies of David the great Pressure of his spirit lay in the Remembrance of his Sin Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my Foolishness And again Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me It is true Afflictions are hard to be born Poverty and Disgrace and Imprisonment and Pains of body are very heavy upon many persons Discontents and Fears of trouble Griefs and Sorrows for loss of Friends Wife Children do often quench mens spirits and sink them into the Grave Nor is it to be denied but that many times they cause men to prefer death before life and to chuse strangling before breathing Job 7.15 But upon the sense of Sin when the Conscience feels the weight of it when God shoots his Arrows into a man and haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the deadly Arrow sticks in his side then the Venome thereof drinks up his spirit is as the stinging of a Scorpion or fiery flying Serpent it tortures like Hell and is more bitter and terrible then Death it self The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 but a wounded spirit who can bear In other Afflictions there is some Remedy from Reason or Faith if not to comfort yet to quiet the Soul but in the sense of Sin committed till Pardon thereof be apprehended no Argument can be fastned but will be rejected Men in these Wounds of Conscience doe like persons in extreme Anguish who tear off their Plaisters that should ease or cure them so do wounded Consciences reject all Allegations of Scripture brought to allay their Anguish as if they belong'd not to them as Spira and others have done And that which is the Sting of Sin that most of all makes it deadly poisonous is the apprehension of God as angry as an Enemy unappeasable till it be acknowledged to be what it is an evil and bitter thing that we have sinned against the Lord and that his fear is not in us as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.19 Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but sets it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress So David besides the variety of terms he here paints out the Deformity of his Sins by adds also vers 3 4. I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight
And to set out his Sin as the more venomous he derives it from his originall innate Pravity Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my mother conceive me vers 5. And S. Paul acknowledged himself the chiefest of Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 The Reasons hereof are 1. Because otherwise the Heart loves and favours the Sin and the Repentance and Humiliation will appear to be but feigned True Hatred of Sin will cause us to confess and abandon it with all our might Odium est Appetitus amovendi it will stir up a desire to remove it it will cause Detestation Clearing Revenge Indignation Zeal Fear as it is said of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.11 The poor Publican durst not lift up his eyes to heaven but smote on his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner Luk. 18.13 2. By this means he justifies God in his Sentence against his Sin in his Punishment acknowledgeth his own Desert which is the Reason here That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest vers 4. The more we aggravate our Sins the more we magnify the Justice of God's Law and his dealing with us 3. It also tends to the magnifying of God's Grace in Pardoning that where Sin abounds there Grace over-abounds Rom. 5.20 It is rich Grace that forgives great and many Sins They that make their Sins venial and speak of them as small matters do shew they take themselves little beholden to God to pardon them and that they owe little thanks for it To whom much is forgiven he loveth much to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little Luk. 7.47 4. This is the way to obtain Pardon He that hideth his Sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28.13 Stultorum incurata Pudor malus Vlcera celat They are foolish persons that when they are to make use of a Physician conceal their Disease and tell not the worst of it for thereby they disable the Physicran from Curing them and are Authours of their own death But a wise Patient will relate all the Symptoms of his Disease and declare the worst of it that so there may be a through and not a palliated Cure So it is with a true Penitent he declares his Sin to God with the greatest Shame to himself in all its evil Circumstances that he may dispose God to forgive him it being God's way to justify them that condemn themselves as the poor Publican that with a dejected heart and look craved mercy to him a Sinner Which brings us to the III. OBSERVATION That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the Cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God This was the course which David took and Manasseh 2 Chron. 33.12 13. When he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his Supplication No such Prayer to be found in Scripture as is in the Office of the Romanists Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy defend us from the Enemy grant Pardon to the guilty Christ directs us to say Our Father which art in Heaven forgive us our Trespasses And good Reason for 1. Our Sins are against him and therefore are to be pardoned by him Against thee have I sinned saith David therefore do thou blot out my Transgressions He must cancel the Bond who is the Creditor I will say to my Father saith the Prodigall son Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son 2. It is he onely that hath power to forgive Sins Who can forgive Sins but God onely Mark 2.7 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.4 It is God's Prerogative which he challengeth Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy Sins It is true the Son of man had power on earth to forgive Sins but he was also the Son of God It is true the Apostles had power to remit Sins by a peculiar delegation from Christ or as the Apostle S. Paul speaks in the person of Christ 2 Cor. 2.10 Nor is it to be denied that Ministers of the Gospel ministerially by preaching the Gospell may be said to forgive Sins declaratively and instrumentally by bringing men to Repentance and Faith on which Forgiveness and Cleansing from Sin follow but not as the Pope pretends to forgive Sins by his Indulgences authoritatively or as the Popish Priests by their Absolution certainly and immediately Men may forgive Sins by the assuring of Pardon to the truly Penitent and Believing And the Absolution of the Minister is of great moment to quiet the guilty Conscience if he doe it Clave non errante when he is skilfull in Binding and losing and the Penitent freely confesseth and sincerely believeth in Christ and unfeignedly purposeth to amend without which the Absolution is invalid And therefore which was the IV. OBSERVATION The Penitent Sinner is to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out his Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation or Amendment of life So David Psal 51.9 10. Hide thy face from my Sins and blot out all mïne Iniquities Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me These are to be conjoyned As the Guilt of Sin is to be pardoned and the Stain of Sin to be washed away so is the Conscience to be purged from dead works that we may serve the living God the Heart is to be sprinkled from an evil Conscience and the Body to be washed with pure water as the expressions are Heb. 9.14 and 10.22 allusively to the Legall Purifying with bloud and water to which answers the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 which is thus expressed by S. Paul Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And this is a principal part of true Repentance to have a renewed Heart and to lead a new Life And therefore S. John Baptist when the multitude came to him to be baptized of him for the Remission of Sins chargeth them to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Luk. 3.7 8. letting them to understand that every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire And our Saviour when he found the impotent man who was healed by him at the Pool of Bethesda told him Joh. 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee For as Christ saith if after the unclean Spirit is gone out of a man he
return again and findeth the house empty swept and garnished that is after the Sinner in some sort hath repented and his Conscience hath been quieted and his former Courses relinquished for a time he grow secure and loose in his Conversation the unclean Spirit taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked then himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse then the first Matth. 12.43 44 45. Satan doth make such a person more sinfull then before and his Condition is worse then it was before his seeming Repentance Most truly doth S. Peter tell us 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. If after persons have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them But it happens to them according to the true Proverb The Dog is returned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire As it is with men who relapse into a Fever which was for a time abated their Disease grows worse and mortal so is it with them that after some imperfect Change and Peace acquired do fall back into the same or other Sins become secure and heedless of Temptations they commonly become more notorious Sinners and more hardned therein to their perdition None likely make a mock of Sin and sport themselves in Evil more then they who once seemed to be humbled penitent and reformed And therefore there is as great a necessity of begging for effectuall Renovation as Condonation from God Sanctification throughout in Body Soul and Spirit as well as Justification from all our Transgressions To which the onely Motive is God's Loving-kindness and the multitude of his tender Mercies according to the next Observation V. OBSERVATION That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blots out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from his Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin As God said of the people of Israel that it was not for their Excellency Multitude Righteousness or Vprightness of heart that he took them to be his People Deut. 7.7 and 9.5 but out of his own Compassion Ezek. 16.5 8 9. speaks of them under the Similitude of an unpitied outcast infant till he pitied loved washed and cloathed them so it is true concerning every person that is saved that is justified and sanctified that he is before unclean till the Loving-kindness of God towards him appears Not by Works of Righteousness which he hath done but according to his Mercy God our Saviour saves him by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace he may be made Heir according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3.4 5 7. And indeed all that is done by us before God pardons and cleanseth us from Sin provokes God against us nor is there so much as a thought in us of returning to God after our departure from his waies nor any help in our selves to deliver our own Souls till he pities us and saves us O Israel saith God Hosea 13.9 thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help He blotteth out our Transgressions for his own Name 's sake and out of his abundant Mercy through Christ It is through the Bloud of Christ as a Price of answerable value that he redeems us and yet it is mere Mercy that procures this for the payment of our Debt So that full Satisfaction to his Justice and free Remission do well consist together notwithstanding the exceptions of Socinians And we must still acknowledge that it is not for our sakes but for his holy Name 's sake that he cleanseth us from our Iniquities and upon this consideration he will be inquired of by repenting Sinners to doe it for them as it is said Ezek. 36.22 33 37. Which brings us to the last or VI. OBSERVATION That the onely way to obtain Deletion of Transgressions and Cleansing from Sin is to beg them of God upon consideration of the multitude of his Mercies and his Love in and through Christ So did the poor Publican obtain Justification by his crying Peccavi and supplicating thus God be mercifull to me a Sinner whom Christ propounds as an Example of a prospering Penitent excluding the self-justifying Pharisee from attaining Righteousness This is the Gospell-way to address our selves to the Throne of Grace to confess our Sins to trust onely to the bloud of Christ for cleansing us from all Sin to make use of him as our Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins In him we have Redemption through his bloud the Forgiveness of Sins according to the riches of his Grace Eph. 1.7 This is the way whereby God will be glorified and we shall be saved And therefore still our Litany must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord have mercy on us or with David Lord be mercifull unto me heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee APPLICATION And now it behoves you that have heard David's Petition opened unto you to apply his Case to your own Souls You have sinned as David did if not in the same kind yet in Sins enough to sink you into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone Can any of you say My Heart is clean I am pure from my Sin Can any of you deny that you were shapen in Iniquity and that in Sin your Mother conceived you Will not your own Conscience if you heed it inform you of many unholy and unrighteous Thoughts Words and Deeds If there should be any self-boasting Pharisee any ignorant Papist that imagines he can keep the Law of God and merit Heaven by his Works any deluded Quaker or other Fanatick that conceives himself perfect without Sin If there should be any Protestant Justitiary that conceives so well of his Innocence that he thinks God should wrong him if he should damn him so well of his Good deeds Prayers Alms Religious performances at Church or in private as to expect Heaven as wages due to them in exact Justice let him consider that he prefers himself before holy David S. Paul and such other holy Saints as have gone before us to Heaven Christ hath told us he is the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh to the Father but by him Joh. 14.6 And S. Peter tells us Act. 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other but Christ for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And therefore as it was said once to a Novatian by the Emperour Thou that thinkest thy self perfect set up thy Ladder and climb up to Heaven by thy self if thou canst so may I say to
forgiven So indeed it falls out sometimes that mens Transgressions when they have sinned presumptuously against Conviction of Conscience within and Warnings without do so stare in their faces that they affright them with terrour and astonishment their Spirits are wounded they apprehend the Devil haling them to the infernall Prison expect nothing but Hell and Damnation cry out of God as Cruel of themselves as Damned wretches Such a View of Sin as thus tends to Despair that eyes onely God's Justice and their own Desert that begets Hatred of God as a Tyrant no Address to him as a Gracious Prince is indeed very dangerous Humble Penitents do not so set their Iniquities before them This is the manner onely of despairing Saul's revolting Spira's such as have sinned wilfully with an high hand and continue in their Apostasie from the Truth that say There is no hope we have loved strangers and after them will we go Jer. 2.25 But returning Sinners remember their Sins and they are ever before them in another manner and to another purpose They present their Sins to themselves that they may shame themselves and give Glory to God in acknowledging his Righteousness without deniall of his Grace They look not onely on the foulness of their Trespasses and the greatness of their Debts but also on the riches of God's Grace the fulness of Christ's Obedience the inexhaustible fountain of Christ's Bloud the infallible Assurance of the New Covenant the ample Promises of the Gospel and accordingly with Confession of Sin they adjoyn Prayer for Pardon Faith in Christ's Bloud and plead God's declaration of his own Properties his former dealing with great Transgressours and in the same manner as David did here V. OBSERVATION The true Penitent tells God of setting his Iniquities before him to induce God to relenting Compassion towards him and gracious Condonation of him In the Penitentiall Psalm De profundis 130.2 3 4. the Penitent Sinner thus bespeaks God Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplication If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is Forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Even the wicked Ninevites had so much apprehension of the possibility of God's mercifull Clemency that after Jonas's Proclamation of their approaching Ruine they resolved to cry mightily to God upon this apprehension Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce Anger that we perish not Jon. 3.9 'T is true they that worship the Devil and pray to him doe all out of Fear as looking for nothing but Cruelty from unclean Spirits But Jonas in his froward fit Chap. 4.2 acknowledgeth that the Lord is a gracious God and mercifull slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. Even by the experience of them that know not God this is found true which made even Infidels cry unto the Lord in their Distresses and confess their Sins in hope of Help The believing Penitent knows both by experience and from the Nature Works and Word of God that when he sets his Sins before him God casts them behind his back that God looks upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his Soul from the Pit and his Life shall see the Light Job 33.27 28. They have learned that he that hideth his Sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have Mercy Prov. 28.13 That if we confess our Sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our Sins and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin 1 Joh. 1.7 9. They judge that what David found they shall find I said I will confess my Transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin And therefore For this shall every one that is Godly pray unto thee in a time that thou maist be found Psal 32.5 6. And consequently it is their course as being best for them to set their Sins before them so as to humble them and to set them before God that he may pardon them APPLICATION And now I beseech you lay all that I have said to heart as of greatest concernment to each of you What David did what all the Saints have done in all Ages you should doe in this their Practice should be your Pattern It is necessary to be done though it be much against the spirits of men Most men are quick-sighted in viewing the Faults of others but blear-eyed when they are to look upon their own Crimes Censuring and Judging others is very frequent Self-judging is very rare They that would take a Mote out of their Brother's eye will not take notice of the Beam in their own Few are willing to have their Sins set before them by others and themselves are far from setting them before them of their own accord A free Reprover is accounted intolerable Men hate them that rebuke them Yea a Minister who by Office is bound to doe it though he doe it to save their and his own Soul yet he is not endured for it but declined and persecuted They that cannot deny their Sins yet put off the Faultiness of them to some other Cause They that acknowledge their Sins to have been from themselves yet excuse and extenuate them Scarce a man confesseth his Sins that are hidden from men if he do confess them to God it is but slightly What a Beast was I saith the Drunkard God forgive me saith the Swearer though the one wallows in his Intemperance day after day and the other profanes the Name of God every hour Thus Sin is slightly acknowledged by the Sinner without any sense of the Iniquity of his Nature or the Love he hath to his Sin which are the Causes of it without any Compunction of heart without Remorse of Soul without Bemoaning it to God in Supplications bewailing his Folly his Naughtiness and earnestly humbly begging Pardon Yea when God sets mens Sins by his Judgments on them in order before them they will not set them before themselves to give him the Glory of his Justice when his Hand is lifted up they will not see when he makes their Hearts ake their Eyes weep by his Strokes for their Sins they fret with Anger but weep not out of Sorrow for Sin No marvel that men find not the Comfort of God's pardoning Grace when they slubber over this great Business which the Godly have always found to be the right and onely way to Mercy in so dull and negligent a manner as if they could deal with God as with an Idol that hath neither eyes to see their Impenitency nor hands to punish their Sins and so carry themselves as if they could mock God with a few words of course without any serious or hearty Sorrow for their Disobedience to God's Law and Provocation of his terrible Majesty Oh that you would in time repent throughly of
Sins have withholden good things from you Jer. 5.25 We may then thank our selves for all the Evils that come upon us we must not cast them upon Destiny Stars or any other Cause and leave out the principal Cause which is the plague of our own hearts God is neither the Authour of Sin nor the Punisher of Sin without cause It is the Devil's property to rejoyce in Evil and therefore as he tempts to Sin so he delights to torment It is otherwise with God Afflictions are Opus alienum his strange work He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth Lament 3.33 34. Is God unrighteous who taketh Vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shall God judge the world saith the Apostle Rom. 3.5 6. We deny not that God might impose Sufferings on him that had no Sin of himself He made his Son to be Sin for us who knew no Sin 2 Cor. 5.21 Job's Calamities came on him by God's Permission though he were an upright man one that feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 that he might prove his Integrity by his great Patience Of the Son who was born blind Christ saith Joh. 9.3 Neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents that is there was no special Sin committed by either of them as his Disciples deemed which was the immediate cause of his Blindness but it came to pass that the works of God should be made manifest in him The Holy Martyrs suffered for Righteousness sake and were therefore to count it all Joy when they fell into manifold Temptations But in such Evils as their Circumstances demonstrate to be from a more then common Hand of God specially when they are publick and universal as we are to acknowledge the Finger of God in them so we are to discern them to be the fruit of our doings and the work of our hands The Scripture styles them God's Judgments and we are sure saith the Apostle Rom. 2.2 that the Judgment of God is according to truth against them that commit such things And therefore though we are not allowed to judge of the afflicted as greater Sinners then others and point out them as the Causes of common Calamities yet we are to judge our selves and impute the Evil what-ever it be to our own Sins Moses the man of God in the 109. Psalm which was made in a time of great Mortality such as is now with us having said to God vers 7. We are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled addes vers 8. Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy countenance It is true that all outward things happen alike to all there is in publick Calamities especially one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked No man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before him Eccles. 9.1 2. Yet even in these and all other that of the Prophet Lament 3.39 40. is necessary for every person to mind Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Though in this day of God's Visitation we may discern many common and open Sins the increase of which may be judged the Cause wherefore God brings this sore Scourge of the Pestilence in such a manner at such a time in those places on which it lights considering that God shoots not at Rovers but at a certain Mark and so the consideration of the Practices of the Persons and Places may justly lead us to determine that such Sins as have been by them and there committed are the Sins God punisheth for instance the Uncleanness Riot Profaneness and other Sins committed among us have brought down this Vengeance on our great City yet since there are particular Sins also with us and there is never a one of us but hath his secret Sins perhaps our Security putting far from us the Evil day living in Ease and Pleasure Unmercifulness and Insensibleness of the Afflictions of others secret Atheism Lukewarmness in Religion leaving our first Love Backsliding from our Profession secret Hypocrisie Formality without the Power of Godliness which may cause Christ to spue us out of his mouth it is necessary that the best of us make a strict Enquiry into our own Bosome-sins and resolve that God by this his Judgment on others calls our Sins to Remembrance and presseth us to justifie him and to betake our selves to his Mercy as the Psalmist here Let thy Mercy speedily prevent us Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That the Removing of the Calamities which are inflicted by God when he remembers mens Sins is the effect of God's tender Mercies So it is expresly said Lament 3.22 23. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy Faithfulness Vers 32. Though he cause Grief yet will he have Compassion according to the multitude of his Mercies And hereto accord very many speeches of God concerning himself That he is the Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin as he says in his solemn Proclamation to Moses Exod. 34.6 7. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Mic. 7.18 Hence it is that the Holy Writers and all the Saints do still celebrate his Mercies as being tender abundant free rejoycing against Judgment and to instance in no other there is a whole Psalm 136. in which the close of every verse is this For his Mercy endureth for ever And this Mercy of his is the Reason of all those works of Goodness he doeth as to the World in general in causing his Sun to rise on the Just and Vnjust and being kind to the Vnthankfull and to the Evil Luk. 6.35 so as that his tender Mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 so chiefly to his own people all whose Deliverances and Benefits are made the fruits of his Mercy Above all the great Redemption in Christ of which the Apostle thus speaks Eph. 2.4 5. God who is rich in Mercy out of the great Love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in Sins hath quickned us together with Christ is the effect of the highest most transcendent and everlasting Mercy Hence in all their Praises the Godly remember his Mercies as the Prophet Isa 63.7 I will mention the Loving-kindness of the Lord and the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great Goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his Loving-kindnesses
Mercies 2. By the Indesiciency of them Though men fail in their Duty though they fail in their Obedience though they be wanting in Returning to God though their Prayers be consumed yet his Compassions are not consumed and therefore they are not consumed And this is here alleged as a Door of Hope to the prophet that God would restore that People for to that end are these words brought in this place as that which follows in four Verses of this Chapter plainly shews From hence then this Explication of the words being premised these Observations do arise 1. That the Lord in Punishing of his People doth not consume them 2. That Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption 3. That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People 4. That these Mercies fail not 5. That the Non-consumption of God's People is to be ascribed to this 6. That the apprehension of this encourageth them to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Health and Peace Of these I shall speak in the order propounded and then apply them to the present state of things and so conclude I. OBSERVATION That the Lord doth not in Punishing of his People consume them This is equivalent to what God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth And he gives this Reason For the Spirit should fail before me and the Soul which I have made It is true the Devil is a roaring Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 He is the Apollyon the Abaddon the Thief that comes not to save but to steal and to kill and to destroy Joh. 10.10 because the Sheep are not his own He made nothing nor hath any Love to any thing and therefore seeks not to help any but to marre and doe mischief to all that God hath made But the People of God are the work of his hands and the Sheep of his Pasture Psal 100.3 and therefore he will have a desire to the work of his hands Job 14.15 What is our work we are loth to pull down So God doubtless doth not delight as Children to make a house of Sticks and then kick it down again As he made Man after his own Image so he is not easily induced to break him He that accounts it an hainous Injury to himself to curse Man with the Tongue who is made after his Image Jam. 3.9 and is so severe against what-ever shall destroy him that it is his strict Determination for Preservation of Mankind after the Floud that he will not let the killing of Man go unrevenged but enacteth this Law among his Precepts to Noah Gen. 9.5 6. And surely your bloud of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hands of every man's Brother will I require the Life of man Whoso sheddeth man's bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the Image of God made he man He doubtless is so chary of Men as not to consume them himself utterly till Iniquity is grown so daring as that there is no Remedy His own People it is true do sin and provoke God and he often brings them low yet he doth not make an utter end of them because they are not onely his Creatures as others but also his Redeemed and Chosen people Thus the Prophet Samuel told the Israelites 1 Sam. 12.20 22. Fear not ye have done all this Wickedness yet turn not aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name 's sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People That which a man hath purchased for himself he will hardly let it be taken from him with much more reluctancy will he cast it away Though Michal had been given to another and was defiled yet David would have her again 2 Sam. 3.13 because he had espoused her to him for an hundred Foreskins of the Philistines How much less will God let go those whom he hath purchased by his Son's Bloud He will not have him destroyed by our Meat for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 If any through the Watchman's failing to warn them perish their bloud will he require at the Watchman's hands Ezek. 3.18 Which shews that he hath a Fatherly Care of his own People that they be not consumed And though they provoke him so as to cause his Anger to wax hot against them yet in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He chastiseth as a Father doth not exterminate or extirpate as an Enemy If they break his Statutes and keep not his Commandments Then he will visit their Transgression with a Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Nevertheless his Loving-kindness he will not utterly take from them nor suffer his Faithfulness to fail Psal 89.31 32 33. Though he make a full end of all the Nations yet he will not make a full end of them but correct them in measure yet will he not leave them wholly unpunished Jer. 46.28 Wherein he manifests a mixture of Mercy and Justice And therefore in the next place II. OBSERVATION Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption This was the acknowledgment of Ezra Thou our God hast punished us less then our Iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 Though the Punishment of the Jews were exceeding great insomuch that our Prophet Lament 4.6 compares it to the Punishment of the Sin of Sodom and aggravates it as secundùm quid in some respect greater then it yet to speak simply and absolutely there was an ingredient of Mercy that did allay it and therefore they acknowledge their Sins to have deserved greater Evils then they felt Whence in all their Addresses to God they ascribe Righteousness to their Maker and take all the Blame of their Sufferings on themselves In the same Chapter vers 15. O Lord God of Israel saith Ezra thou art Righteous for we remain yet escaped as at this day But most fully the Prophet Daniel Chapter 9.11 12 13 14. We have sinned against the Lord our God And he hath confirmed the words which he spake against us by bringing upon us a great Evil for under the whole Heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem Yet made we not our Prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our Iniquities and understand thy Truth Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the Evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is Righteous in all his works which he doeth for we obeyed not his voice See also vers 5 6 c. of the same Chapter And indeed such Acknowledgments are
XXXI SERMONS Preached to the PARISHIONERS of Stanford-Rivers in Essex Upon several Subjects and Occasions BY CHARLES GIBBES D. D. Rectour of that Church and Prebendary of Saint Peter's at Westminster Never before made publick QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS LOâ—â—â—â— Printed by E. Flesher 〈…〉 most Sacred MAJESâ—◠〈…〉 To the well-beloved the PARISHIONERS Of Stanford-Rivers in the County of Essex Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied IN this Age and Nation abounding with Learned Men and Books of all sorts especially in Points of Sacred Theology I should not have thought any thing of Mine worth the Press being conscious to my self of mine own Unfitness for that Employment by reason of Age and other Imperfections had not your Importunity extorted these Papers from me which I now exhibit to you But that I might not be wanting in what I am able for your Edification in the Doctrine of Christ I have yielded to adventure an Impression of them whereunto I have been induced by a like Consideration with that of Saint Peter 2 Epist ch 1. vers 12 13 14. where his writing is declared to be out of an apprehension of his approaching Dissolution that after his Decease there might be that extant which might keep in their Remembrance that which he had taught them and wherein they were established It is part of my Rejoycing that I have had so much Ability as to hold forth the Word of God to you in any measure and that it hath found so ready Reception with you It is that which I pray for and earnestly exhort you to that you will never forget the Saving Truths you have been taught though I be buried in oblivion nor backslide to Errour or Profaneness But that you be still constant in the true Faith of Christ and the right Worship of God in publick and in your private Families seeking the Divine Benediction on your selves and Families and living in mutual Love and Helpfulness towards all as knowing that the saving Grace of God hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of Good works Whereunto if this Writing or any Labour of mine may conduce I have my Desire who recommending both you and this Work to the Almighty's Blessing do yet remain Your truly loving and faithfull Servant in Christ CHARLES GIBBES A TABLE of the several TEXTS discoursed upon PSAL. VI. 6. I Am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears Three Sermons pag. 1 19 37. PSAL. LI. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin 57. PSAL. LI. 3. I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me 75. PSAL. LI. 11. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Two Sermons 87 99. PROV XVIII 14. The Spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Two Sermons 111 121. PSAL. CXXX 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared 131. PSAL. LXXIX 8. O remember not against us former Iniquities let thy tender Mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low 153. HEBR. IV. 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts 173. ROM VI. 1. and part of 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid 185. LAMENT III. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not 197. PSAL. LVI 13. For thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from Falling that I may walk before God in the Light of the living Two Sermons 217 235. PSAL. CXIX 15. I will meditate in thy Precepts and have respect unto thy Ways 251. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe into the House of the Lord. 263. PSAL. XXXVII 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Heart's desire 275. 1 PET. III. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be Followers of that which is Good 287. PSAL. XVI 11. Thou wilt shew me the Path of life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore Two Sermons 305 325. PSAL. LXXIII 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory 345. PSAL. XL. 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in Safety 357. 1 JOHN III. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 371. PSAL. CXIX 34. Give me Vnderstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart 383. PROV XIV 2. He that walketh in his Vprightness feareth the Lord but he that is perverse in his Ways despiseth him Two Sermons 399 411. REVEL VII 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them 421. JOHN VIII 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad 435. GEN. XII 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee 449. Imprimatur Febr. 27. 1676 7. Guil. Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis DAVID's GROANS Part I. The First SERMON PSALM vi 6. I am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears THIS Psalm is intituled to David and is styled by many One or the First of his Penitentiall Psalms And it is true it expresseth his Agony and dolour of mind for his Sickness undoubtedly for his Sins as the Cause of it in likelihood and so for both as in a Psalm parallel to this he complains Psal 38.4 which two make a heavy Burthen too heavy for any man to bear The Burthen of one onely to wit of Sin though not his own made the Mighty One the Mighty God to stoop under it when he bare the Sins of Men in his own body on the Tree insomuch that as in the Garden he told his Disciples Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull unto death so on the Cross he cried out in the Anguish of his spirit Matth. 27.46 O God my God why hast thou forsaken me No marvel then that
thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thus did David when God sent a Plague on Israel and swept away 700000 1 Chron. 21.16 17. He and the Elders of Israel cloathed in Sackcloath fell on their faces confessed the Sin which was the Cause of it prayed God to remove the Pestilence and he was intreated of them When there was a Plague upon Israel for their Murmuring Aaron took Incense and made an Atonement for the people and he stood between the living and the dead and the Plague was stayed Num. 16.47 48. At another time when the Israelites provoked God to Anger with their Inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed Psal 106.29 30. This Antidote hath in all Ages been found a Preservative against the Plague and the most effectual Medicine to cure it Physicians prescribe many good Receipts and Magistrates doe well to use all the best means they can to hinder the spreading of Infection and justly are those destroyed as Pests of Mankind who willingly infect the sound or carelesly permit those things which may poison others They that are unmercifull to the Sick suffering or causing them to perish by their negligence and ill usage are justly censured as Promoters of the Contagion But the truly Penitent who confesseth and forsaketh his Sins the importunate believing Petitioner at the Throne of Grace the zealous and impartiall Magistrate who executeth Judgment against those venomous Sins that provoke God to shoot his deadly Arrows against us are the best and most prevalent Instruments to cure the Plague and to restore Health in our dwellings On the other side the unchast intemperate unrighteous covetous Worldlings the Atheistical proud profane the deceitful Hypocrites that are impenitent that confess not their Sins nor forsake their evil ways those that hang down their heads for a day forbear a Meal or two and perhaps come to hear but are not affected with God's Hand nor sensible of the Evil of their ways that reform not their ungodly and unrighteous Life that use other means to preserve them but seek not to God in good earnest for Pardon of Sins that appear here for company but do not execute Justice nor shew Mercy to others These are so far from being instrumentall to removing the Plague that they rather cause the continuance and the increase of it it being God's course not to turn away his Anger but to stretch out his Hand still in punishing when people turn not to him that smiteth them nor seek the Lord of hoasts Isa 9.12 13. APPLICATION And now to apply what hath been said to the present work What the Preachers of God's Word have often foretold us that for the Sins of this Land and especially of the people of our great City we had reason to expect some great Scourge the same is now come upon us The destroying Angel hath drawn his Sword hath killed thousands already the Plague is not onely begun but hath wasted some part of that City great Terrour is upon us many fly thence and perhaps die by the way or live to infect other places Houses are emptied Streets untroden Markets without Sellers and Buiers a heavy dolefull Disease is come upon us Who is so hard-hearted so Atheisticall as not to see the Hand of God in all this The Preachers from the Pulpit foretold it Any who was acquainted with the Holy Scripture with the way of God's Judgments in our own or former times might see that our excess of profane Swearing Contempt of Religion and the Word of God our unmeasurable Pride Vanity Luxury in Meat Drink Apparel sensuall Pleasures our Contentions our Oppressions our Hatred Divisions Unmercifulness and all sorts of Vices continually shewing themselves openly among us would be the Seed out of which this or the like Calamity would at length be produced And yet where is the person that laies this to heart as an effect of Divine Vengeance and the Fruit of his Sin Who is there that searcheth and trieth his waies that is sensible of the Plague of his own Heart that with repenting Ephraim smites upon his thigh that repents him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Who is there that either fears God the more or prays the more or amends his waies the more Are not our Pride Fulness of bread Wantonness Unmercifulness yea which is worse our Cursing Swearing Lying Rage Blasphemy Lewdness as much as before Do we not to use the Prophet's phrase every one turn yet to our course as the Horse rusheth into the battel Have not we yet such an unsanctified unhumbled spirit as to deride Preachers Monitions to slight God's Judgments to harden one another in Sin and so to disappoint God's Design in this Visitation which should awaken us from our Security humble us under his mighty Hand bring us on our knees in earnest Supplications teach us to fear Sin learn us to doe well lest a worse thing happen to us If it be so with us what can be expected but that our seeming Humiliation Fasting and Prayer this day should become Sin to us and be so far from averting the present Evil as that it will provoke the Divine Vengeance to punish us yet seven times more for our Sins For sure when one Judgment doth not cause us to return to God he will send another The more Warnings God gives us if the fire of God's Wrath be not quenched by our Repentance and Supplications it will burn the more fiercely It is in vain for us to imagine that by any other means we can prevent our Danger this is the onely safe course for our Preservation And therefore let us be perswaded this day to draw nigh to God that he may draw nigh to us 1. We must begin with a through Search into our own waies finding out and confessing to God with serious Compunction of Heart and Remorse of Conscience not onely our open but also our secret Sins Know that the revenging Eye of God cannot be deceived with Shews that he knows the secretest Motions of our Hearts the most hidden Practices of our Lives Know that it is in vain to strive with him that it is Madness to provoke him to Jealousy unless we were stronger then he is And therefore it is no better then Folly and Madness to be superficiall in this business of Searching Confessing Repenting of our Sins We say Non est tutum ludere cum Sacris We must not trifle in things of God we must not sport with God Neither must we onely be sensible of our own personall Sins but of the Sins of others our Governours our Neighbours our Forefathers Sins David's Sin may bring a Plague on the People We are to mourn and be humbled for them especially which goe unpunished which cause the Land to mourn 2. We must goe on to cry mightily to God as the Ninevites did The Pardoning of great Sins the removing of great Plagues require great Mercies and
which a Bee would convert to the sweetest Hony In the end this course is most pernicious to him that follows it there being nothing that more alienates Affection from a person then his abuse of Kindness God's Love abused turns to Rage and none have God more incensed against them then those that having tasted of the good Gift of God fall away into sinfull Courses that are so unthankfull for so great a Favour as the offer of Reconciliation the Sacrifice of Christ the Invitation to his Supper to the Marriage of the Son of God as that they chuse rather to be at home with their Oxen and Wives and Farms or to come without a Wedding-garment then to accept of his Motion and accommodate themselves to his Kindness that having had ten thousand Talents forgiven them take their Brother by the throat for an hundred pence When men despise the Riches of God's Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth them to Repentance after their hardness and impenitent Hearts they treasure up to themselves Wrath against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2.4 5. APPLICATION Oh then let me in the most tender Bowells of Compassion my Heart can be touched with with the most serious Importunity that my words can express with the deepest Adjuration by the most affecting things that I can mind you of instantly press you to take heed of this most vile ugly dishonest irrational and damnable Abuse of the Divine Grace so as to continue in Sin that Grace may abound It is most meet yea natural that Love should beget Love Grace should beget Observance Is not he a most egregious Villain that hates his own Father that begat him that kills him that gave him Life Is not the Lord the Rock who begat thee the God that formed thee And wilt thou then be so unnatural as to hate God as thou dost if this be thy Requital for his Grace to persevere in Wickedness He tells thee that he is hated when thou lovest any thing more then him givest his Glory to another makest thy Belly thy God gloriest in thy Shame mindest earthly things And wilt thou thus recompense so great Goodness with such extreme Badness He saith he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And wilt thou pollute the Holy Name of thy Holy Father with thy impure Swearing The earnal mind is Enmity against God as being not subject to his Law but inconsistent with it And wilt thou suffer vain Thoughts to lodge in thee fleshly Reason to sway with thee carnal Lusts to rule over thee All Benefits received engage to answerable Duty What art thou then but a very Miscreant that having so much taste how gracious God is how amply he hath vouchsafed to be bountifull to thee in giving Christ for thee how profusely he hath bestowed on thee the Riches of Heaven in the largess of Spiritual Blessings in heavenly things in Christ dost yet side with Sin and Satan his profest irreconcilable Enemies that canst harbour that Enemy which thy Allegeance to God binds thee to pursue zealously unto death Oh that rather the Sense of God's Goodness might make us good the Taste of his Grace might make us gracious Surely none are worse Enemies to God then such as have been acquainted with the excess of God's Grace in Christ yet exceed in their obstinate perseverance in Evil such as when God's Grace should draw Tears from their Eyes Sighs from their Breasts cause Dejectedness in their Spirits by reason of their Sinning against so incomprehensible a Love as that which he vouchsafes to the Sons of Adam in Christ have yet a Forehead of brass that cannot blush glory in their Wickedness boast of their Lewdness and are secure in their Impenitency Greater Woe was to Chorazin and Bethsaida then to Tyre and Sidon because they repented not upon such Proofs of Christ's Excellency as would have wrought on the other As they had been lifted up to Heaven so Christ foretells their casting down to Hell No people in the world are likely to have a greater degree of Torment in Hell then profane and unrighteous men among us who have the greatest Proof of God's Grace of any people on the Earth As then you either stand in fear of so great Damnation or are desirous of that abundant Grace which the Gospel of Christ exhibits abhorr the thought of Continuing in Sin that Grace may abound Let the Mercies of God lead you to present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service for that will procure his Favour here and your Blessedness hereafter Which he grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE DIVINE COMPASSIONS The Fourteenth SERMON LAMENT iij. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not I Have read to you a passage out of a most dolefull Poem composed by that Holy Prophet Jeremiah with much Art in the four first Chapters the order of the Hebrew Alphabet being observed in the initiall Letters of the Verses yet with a very deep sense of God's Judgments on Judah and Jernsalem and a tender Sympathy with them in their Affliction He had long and often foretold those Evils would befall them which he now saw come upon them quorum pars magna fuit and in which he had a great Share and he might well say Quis talia fando temperet à lacrymis Who could think or speak of such things with dry Eyes or an insensible Spirit This set may I say his Muse I should say rather his Prophetick spirit on work to endite and leave to the Church this Poem In which with much Compassion towards his Country he bewails their Desolation yet with much Piety towards God justifies him as punishing them according to the Demerit of their Sins and magnifies his Goodness as punishing them less then they deserved Both which are expressed in the words of my Text It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not And sure we may say the like It is of the Lord's Mercies that London and all England are not consumed by the Pestilence because his Compassions fail not And therefore the handling of this Passage will be apposite to the present Face of things with us and the Occasion of this Day In it 1. The Prophet takes notice of the Mitigation of God's Wrath in that they were not consumed 2. He assigns the genuine Cause of it the Lord's Mercies or Benignities great Mercies which is exclusive of any other procuring Cause that might deserve it and intimates that there was sufficient reason did not his Mercies interpose why he should have consumed them 3. These Mercies are described 1. By the kind of them they were Compassions in the Original Bowel-mercies such as a tender Mother hath to the Child of her womb in God Pardoning Mercies Relieving
it is said Thou art a God ready to pardon or a God of Pardons gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindness And the Prophet Isa 55.7 exhorts the wicked to return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon It is then one of God's Jewells which his Crown is set with that he is not as a cruell Tyrant or infernall Fiend with whom there is nothing but Cruelty and Mischievousness but as a gracious King or loving Father in whom is Clemency as well as Justice affectionate Forgiveness as well as severe Correction Which that we may the better conceive it being that on which our Life lies it will be requisite that we consider 1. What Sins God forgives 2. For what Motive 3. To whom he forgives them 4. Why he forgives them I. For the first our Saviour hath resolved it in express terms Mark 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you All Sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness but is in danger of eternall Damnation What this Sin is and whether any be at this day guilty of it is a Question that requires some disquisition The Schoolmen as Aquinas make six Species of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Despair Presumption Impenitency Obstinacy Impugning the acknowledged Truth and Envying our Brother's Grace Protestant Divines taking in other Texts out of the Epistles to the Hebrews and Titus and out of S. John's 1. Epistle have formed such a Definition as this That it is a Blaspheming against the Gospel of Christ testified by a clear Conviction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Blasphemer arising out of a spightfull Hatred and obstinate Rejection of that Truth and Testimony of and by which he was convinced causing an oppugning of it and the Avouchers of it upon the strong possession Satan hath got in his Heart But the Text Mark 3.30 in which it is added Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit doth seem to restrain it to that spightfull belying Christ's Miracles done by the Spirit of God most evividently so as that they could not gainsay it as if they were done by the Prince of Devils and Christ were possessed and acted by an Unclean Spirit Which makes it very probable that none at this day can as things are commit it there being no such Miracles now done as can evidently shew the Operation of the Holy Spirit to be blasphemed as it was by the Pharisees Nor is Julian the Apostate sufficiently proved however so judged by some of the Ancients to have committed this Sin Much less have any of those doubting Souls who by reason of their Tenderness of Conscience which makes them very jealous and fearfull of their own Condition have been apt to charge themselves with this Sin any reason so to doe they being guilty of no such Blasphemy in words Rejecting of Christ Speaking evil of his Spirit or its Operations Oppugning of the Gospel or the Believers of it nor of any Obstinacy in any course of open Persecution or Disclaiming Christ and his Gospel Perhaps this which I have said may be of great use to some doubting and troubled Spirits who put themselves on the Rack through Mistakes arising from the Weakness of their Understandings and the Fearfulness of their Hearts As for any other Sins they are not in their own nature unpardonable other Blasphemies are pardonable Peter's Denying Christ though with Cursing himself if he knew him yet had Pardon Manasseh though notorious for his Cruelties as filling Jerusalem with innocent Bloud even of the Prophets of God though infamous for his setting up the most abominable Idolatries of the Gentiles though proceeding so far as to use Familiar spirits yet when he was humbled and prayed to God in his Affliction God heard him and forgave him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. I instance in these as seeming to come nighest to the Sin against the Holy Ghost the one sinning against Knowledge after Warning and solemn Promise to the contrary the other offending in the most hainous manner in Sins of the greatest Guilt with extreme Wilfulness and Violence Not to mention the Sins of David or Lot or Noah or Solomon If Cain meant it as the Vulgar Latin hath it Gen. 4.13 My Sin is greater then can be forgiven it might well be replied to him Mentiris Cain Thou liest Cain Thy Sin might have been forgiven if thou hadst had a penitent Heart and hadst begged Pardon from God Though in the Law God would not forgive some Sins as Blasphemy Murther Adultery Sins with an high hand so as to expiate them by Sacrifice and free the Sinner from death though God sware to Eli that the Iniquities of his House should not be purged with Sacrifice nor Offerings for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 though he never will pardon the Sin of Devils of Judas the Son of Perdition nor the final Impenitent and Unbeliever Yet Christ tells us plainly No kind of Sin or Blasphemy except one but is pardonable to the sons of men II. But then upon what Motive God forgiveth Sins is to be farther considered They that say that any Sins against God are venial ex genere suo the whole kind of them of their own Nature as having an evil or inordinate thing for their Object but not against the Love of God or our Neighbour or by reason of the Smalness of the matter in which or the sudden Motion by which they are done speak otherwise then the Scripture which makes the Wages of Sin simply and every Sin death Rom. 6.23 and him cursed who continues not in every thing written in the Law to doe it Gal. 3.10 They derogate from the efficacy of Christ's Bloud which alone is it that cleanseth from all Sin make it a light matter to sin against the Most high and infinite Majesty would excuse our First Parents Sin and harden men in Impenitency And when they make voluntary Works of Penance Satisfaction for such Sins Priests Absolutions Popes Pardons and saying of Divine Offices for the Sinner sufficient to take away the Guilt of Sin against God though they provide for their accursed Gain yet they derogate from the Necessity and alone Sufficiency of Christ's Bloud who is the onely Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins and the Sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. We learn Heb. 9.22 that without shedding of bloud is no Remission and that though the Sacrifices of the Law might procure Forgiveness in respect of some Penalties and sanctify to the purifying of the Flesh yet that it is the Bloud of Christ alone who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that can purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God vers 14. and that it is for Christ's sake whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith
In like manner their Obsecrations are by the Mercies of God Rom. 12.1 as of all things most dear to them and their Prayers are still enforced by minding God of his Mercies So in the Penitentiall Psalms Psal 6.2 Have Mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak vers 4. Return O Lord deliver my Soul O save me for thy Mercy 's sake Psal 51.1 Have Mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions and so in the rest There is scarce a Psalm of Petition or Thanksgiving or Narration of God's Acts but there is some if not frequent mention of God's Mercy and tender Compassion as the Source of all the Help his people have and the Ground of their Hope for what they want And the Reasons hereof are 1. Because without God's Mercy there would be no Forgiveness of Sin and without Forgiveness of Sin there would be no Deliverance from Evil. Where the Holy Scripture mentions Redemption from Evil it ascribes it to the Forgiveness of Sin The Redemption in Christ is in the Forgiveness of Sins Eph. 1.7 Forgiving of Sins and Healing Diseases are conjoyned Psal 103.3 And Forgiving of Sins is derived from Mercy He pardoneth Iniquity because he delighteth in Mercy Mich. 7.18 Of his own Mercy he saved us Tit. 3.5 Therefore à primo ad ultimum those follow one another Redemption from Evil follows Forgiveness of Sins and Forgiveness of Sins God's tender Mercies And therefore it is God's tender Mercy that Evils are removed as taking away the Cause whereupon the Effect ceaseth 2. But farther All Influx of Good is from God's tender Mercy There is nothing that doth or can make God a Debtor to any but his tender Mercy Man is a poor helpless thing of himself the best of men in their estate antecedent to God's Help are more destitute of power to help themselves then the very Brutes whether in respect of Naturals or Spiritualls As we are born into the world we are as God said of the Israelites Ezek. 16.6 as a young Child exposed polluted in our own bloud without the Mercy of God teaching strengthening and providing for us certain to perish There is none eye that pities us to doe us any good without God It is his Mercy that the Sun shineth on us that the Air refresheth us our Food nourisheth us our Cloaths warm us that we have Strength to act Wisedom to direct us It is his Mercy that our Parents take care of us that our Friends comfort us our Enemies pity us Devils are curbed from hurting us Ministers preach to us the way of Life the Holy Angels assist us the Spirit of God guides us and which is the Mercy of Mercies that the Son of God is given for us and to us and with him all things and so he crowns us with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies In a word all the Safety and Benefits we enjoy which are innumerable are Fruits springing from the tender Mercies of God as the Root Mercy is the Principle which sets God on work to doe all the good he doeth This is evidenced from the III. OBSERVATION He makes the low Condition of Supplicants his Season of ministring Help This is acknowledged Psal 136.23 Who remembred us in our low estate for his Mercy endureth for ever In another Psalm 107. throughout this way of God's Providence is exemplified in his dealing with Pilgrims Prisoners Captives Diseased persons Mariners oppressed Subjects to all which and all other sorts of dejected and disconsolate persons when their Case is deplorable when they are destitute of all other Remedies when all things are dark and cloudy about them when they are reduced to extremities and are at their wits end God steps in and by some way unthought of unexpected ministers seasonable supply timely Succour and Relief The Scripture is full of Instances in the case of Jacob David Jonah Paul and many others Besides the famous Instances of old of Rain sent to Antoninus his Army upon the Prayers of the Christians of Help to Constantine against Maxentius to Theodosius against Eugenius and of late our own great Deliverances from the Spanish Invasion in Eighty eight of the King and Parliament from the Gunpowder-Treason and which is most apposite to the present state of things the Deliverance of our Metropolis from the sweeping Pestilence in the memory of many of us These and innumerable more Experiences of which no considerate Christian that hath been at Death's door or under Agony of Spirit or in any other low Estate wants Instances do abundantly prove this Truth That Man's Extremity is God's Opportunity And the Reason is Because then Mercy appears to be Mercy God is then manifested to be what he is styled to be the Father of Mercies and the God of all Consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 As the Devil then appears to be a Devil when he takes advantage of our Weakness to hurt us so God appears to be God by making our Infirmity the Reason of his Help Thereby he encourageth us to trust in him engageth us to Thankfulness and to Obedience That is the Harvest-time when God reaps most Glory and we carry home with Joy after our Mourning our Sheaves of Assurance of his Salvation S. Paul therefore tells us that in his Trouble in Asia he was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life had the sentence of death in himself to this end that he should not trust in himself but in God which raiseth the dead and then God delivered him from so great a death and did still deliver him and therefore he trusted that he would yet deliver him 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. Such seasonable Help in Extremities God would therefore have observed and kept upon Record and always acknowledged The Israelites were commanded to present their basket of First-fruits and to make this Confession solemnly Deut. 26.5 c. A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard Burthens And when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord heard our voice and looked on our Affliction and our Labour and our Oppression and brought us thence into this place Such Providences of God he requires us to observe that we may understand his Loving-kindness Psal 107.43 that we may be excited to cry unto the Lord in our Trouble who delivereth us out of our Distress Which brings us to the IV. OBSERVATION That Bewailing of Sins and humble and instant Supplication are the proper and effectuall Remedies against the Calamities incumbent on God's people Hereunto we are directed Lament 3.40 41 42. Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens We have transgressed
importunate Suing Now must the Bridegroom goe forth of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet The Ministers of the Lord all sorts of persons old and young must cry with Tears and Supplications Spare us O Lord and give not thy Heritage to reproach We must lift up our hands with our hearts to God in the Heavens as sensible that nothing but his Mercy can save us that he is ready to hear and help when we hope in his Mercy that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins We must mind God of his former Mercies trust on him as one that hath promised to deliver us when we call on him in the day of Trouble look unto him with Patience as being assured that they that wait for him shall not be ashamed 3. We must adde an unmovable Resolution to amend our waies to sin no more as we have done to abhor Evil and cleave to that which is good in Duties of Religion Prayer Hearing God's Word Praising of God Thanksgiving to be more frequent and serious to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts from double-mindedness to be upright in what we doe walking humbly with our God and seeking his Glory all our daies And in two things especially we are to deal rightly with God 1. In doing Justice to others if we be publick persons by punishing Sin and giving just Sentence for all that are wronged if private by restoring that which is not our own and righting those we have injured Remember that God abhors ex Rapina Holocaustum Robbery for Burnt-offerings and that the Prayers of the unjust are an Abomination to the Lord. 2. In shewing Mercy to others We are to be mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull chiefly when we beg Mercy at his hands This is a necessary Duty for a Fasting-day Isa 58.6 7. Is not this the Fast c Now especially is a time for this Duty in which there is so much Want by reason of the great Poverty that is come upon Families shut up now that Trading is decayed and Provision so dear and difficult to be got As you cry to God for Help so do others Necessities cry to you for Relief Have you then Bowels of Mercy for them as you would have Bowels of Mercy in God towards you Let your hand be open to them as you would have God's hand ready for you So may you expect Preservation in this time of Danger at least you may be assured however you speed now of Life eternall hereafter Which God grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE HEAVENLY CALL The Twelfth SERMON HEBREWS iv 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts THIS Passage is a Quotation with an Application of it beyond what at first the words seemed to import They were spoken by David but intended as a Monition to hear the Gospell They are a Summons or Writ of Appearance served upon Jews and Gentiles limiting them to a certain Day of accepting the offer of the Gospell without delay upon pretence of Business Profit or Pleasure by themselves without Attorney or Proxy The thing to be done is hearing his Voice the means thereunto is Removere prohibens to remove that which might hinder the Hardness of the Heart This being applied to the Gospell of Christ intimates 1. That the Preaching of the Gospel is the Voice of God 2. That it is to be heard 3. That it is to be heard to day 4. That to the end it may be heard to day the Heart must not be hardned I. OBSERVATION That the Gospel of Christ is the Voice of God It is the express Assertion of S. Peter 1. Epist 1.25 alluding to Isa 40.8 But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Which is demonstratively confirmed 1. By its own Evidence in respect of which it is termed the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Image of God 2 Cor. 4.4 It is not denied that it is the hidden Wisedom of God in a mystery which none of the Princes of the world knew yea it is such as eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man without Revelation from him it being not an humane Invention but a Divine Contrivance yet shining forth in the Preaching of it by Christ and his Ministers it exhibits such a Light as can come from none but God It is not like any Talmudicall Fable or Popish Legend or Poeticall Fiction or witty Romance the Brats of mens Fancy or subtile Composure But it is for the matter of it sutable to God's Wisedom Goodness and Holiness agreeable to the undoubted Oracles of God committed to the Jews foretold and prefigured by the Prophecies of the Old Testament and Shadows of the Law Whence S. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.16 We have not followed cunningly-devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and vers 19. that Christians had a more sure word of Prophecy to which they were to take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark place adding that the Evidence of the Gospell is as the Dawning of the Day and the Arising of the Day-star in the Christians hearts 2. And in truth the Gospel appears to be such by its Effects It doeth to the Heart what the Stars and the Sun do to the Eyes it enlightens it enlivens it warms it spirits the Heart It doeth that which Natural Reason could not doe Philosophy could not attain to the Law could not accomplish It discovers our selves to our selves the Being Properties Counsels of God to us It turns the Heart from Sin begets Men to God fills the Soul with heavenly Comforts strengthens and quickens the Spirit to doe the Will of God and to suffer for his Name It makes men to be of composed Spirits and celestiall Conversation beyond what either Stoicall Philosophy or Rabbinicall Dictates could raise men unto to be more noble and heroical then those renowned Worthies or Patriots which either Greeks or Romans have admired and magnified 3. And which puts it out of all doubt to be Divine it hath such Attestations as could be given by none but God For besides what John the Baptist saw and heard at Christ's Baptism besides what S. Peter and his Collegues testified who were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty when he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1.17 besides all this the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles did so convinced Nicodemus that he confessed We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can doe these Miracles which thou doest except God be with him Joh. 3.2 And that
necessary and are always made by those who are wise-hearted in all Generations for the very best of Men or People can never acquit themselves from being guilty of such Iniquities as might justly expose them to greater Wrath then they feel There is not a Just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not saith Solomon Eccles. 7.20 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 Holy Job of whom God testifieth that he was his Servant none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 though he still avouched his Integrity yet when he is to speak of his Afflictions as they come from God he is crest-fallen le ts down his Plumes speaks in such forms as these How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand If I justisie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.2 3 20 30 31. He makes no such plea for himself as the proud Pharisee that trusted in himself that he was Righteous and despised others nor doth he out of meer Modesty speak thus of himself but out of the sense of the verity thereof he confesseth concerning all the Sons of Adam Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one The Septuagint reads vers 5. No though his life be but one day upon earth and after them the Ancients Though he be but Infans unius diei an Infant of one day We reade of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 that he deprecated the Sentence of his Death in these words Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Yet when the Sentence was reversed he doth not ascribe it to his own desert but vers 17. he thus speaks to God Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back He doth not like a proud Pharisee impute his Recovery to his own Righteousness nor like some boasting Frier brag of his own Merits or Works of Supererogation Such language of Self-justitiaries such Conceits of men puffed up with arrogant Self-esteem were far from him He speaks like an humble Penitent not like a vain Glorioso He assigns as the cause of his Recovery not his own Merit but God's pardoning Mercy Nor can any People justly reckon their own Innocency as the cause of God's sparing them but must if they will speak truth acknowledge they have deserved to be consumed Though David when the Pestilence was upon Israel said Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24.17 yet that there were Iniquities in the People which occasioned David's Sin is plain from vers 1. where it is said that the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel The Churches of Christ in the Primitive times were the purest yet S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.20 21. saith he feared lest when he came to Corinth he should not find them such as he would and that he should be found unto them such as they would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults lest when he came again his God would humble him among them and that he should bewail many which had sinned already and had not repented of the Vncleanness which they had committed In Christ's Survey of the Seven Golden Candlesticks the Seven Churches of Asia though golden or pure by his Acceptance yet he finds much drossy stuff their Light but dim and almost wasted and ready to go out such Imperfections such Errours such Decays such Practices of evil savour as were enough to move him to extinguish their Light quite and to remove the Candlesticks except they repented It is by reason of man's deceitfull Heart that God finds even in the best Men and Churches sufficient matter against them to consume them which yet he permits by his own just Decree and wise Counsel that he may hide Pride from man and none might glory in himself but that his Mercies might the better be discerned Which leads us to the III. OBSERVATION That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People It is true Mercy and Compassion as they are in Man are Perturbations which do disquiet them Compassion in them is a dolorous Passion arising from some appearing Evil that is destructive or otherwise grievous which happens to a man undeservedly And it is occasioned by a sense of the common Condition of men and a possibility of the like Accident befalling themselves as Aristotle describes it in the Second Book of his Rhetorick But in God who is without Body Parts or Passions as the First Article of the Church of England speaks there is no such Perturbation no afflicting Affection But Compassion in him is a sweet calm and gracious Inclination of his Will whereby he hath regard to the Defects and Miseries of his Creature This Attribute is asserted by himself in that most majestick Proclamation of his when he shewed his Glory and made all his Goodness to pass before Moses Exod. 33.18 19. descended in a Cloud passed by him and proclaimed the Name of the Lord The Lord the Lord God Mereifull and Gracious Long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth Exod. 34.5 6. The same hath been by many of the Holy Writers attested it being the great engaging Property of God whereby all his Creatures chiefly his Elect are eternally obliged to be his Thus he is styled by the Psalmist Psal 116.5 Gracious is the Lord and Righteous yea our God is Mercifull by S. James 5.11 a God very pitifull and of tender Mercies or of much Bowels of Compassion by S. Paul the Father of mercies and the God of all Consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 rich in Mercy Eph. 2.4 And therefore Mercy is most truly ascribed to him so that as Christ said There is none Good but one that is God Mark 10.18 so we may say There is none Mercifull or compassionate but one that is God understanding it of the most intensive Degree quoad Affectum in respect of the disposition of his Will to help and of the most extensive Latitude quoad Effectum in respect of the Effect and working of it for so it is universall Psal 145.9 The Lord is good to All and his tender Mercies in some kind are over all his works Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reacheth to the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains thy Judgments are a great Deep O Lord thou preservest Man and Beast Psal 36.5 6. And Christ sets out
the Mercifulness of God in that he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and Vnjust Matth. 5.45 But his Mercies are most abundant to his own People chiefly to his Elect who are therefore termed Vessells of Mercy Rom. 9.23 on whom he bestows Mercies most freely He saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion vers 15. On them he bestows the sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 Not by works of Righteousness which they have done but according to his Mercy he saves them by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 He keeps Mercy for thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments Exod. 20.6 Yea for their sakes he doth often shew Mercy to and spare those that are disobedient in respect of outward Judgments Thus Moses stood in the Gap and turned away his Wrath from the Children of Israel Phineas stood up and executed Judgment or prayed and the Plague was stayed David supplicated for Jerusalem and the Angel of the Lord put up his Sword and the Pestilence was stayed Daniel prayed and obtained the Return of the Jews from Captivity And thus still God does to his People in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He doth not always chide nor keep his Anger for ever Psal 103.9 He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7.18 And this brings us to the IV. OBSERVATION That God's Mercies and Compassions fail not To this purpose is that the Lord saith Isa 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great Mercies will I gather thee In a little Wrath I hid my Face from thee for a moment but with everlasting Kindness will I have Mercy on thee saith the Lord. And indeed the Mercies of God to his Elect are as himself is eternall As they arise from himself so are they of interminable duration as himself is His Electing Mercy was before the World was his Redeeming Mercy before we were his Calling and quickening Mercy when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses his Pardoning Mercy when we have gone astray his Confirming Mercy when we are ready to slip his Comforting Mercy when we are ready to despair his Raising Mercy when we shall be returned to the Earth his Saving and advancing Mercy when we shall stand in Judgment and have no other Plea for our selves but his free Mercy when Time shall be no more His Mercy therefore is indeficient because it helps us when we are in the lowest Condition We count him a sure Friend who fails us not when we are at the lowest ebbe in the greatest Streights in the extremest Necessity And thus doth God who remembred us in our low estate for his Mercy endureth for ever Psalm 136.23 When our Pressure is great so as that the Enemy hath inclosed us and we know not which way to escape as Pharaoh did the Israelites at the Red sea even then he redeemeth us from our Enemies for his Mercy endureth for ever vers 24. Even then when we have none to help he helps us When he seeth his People's power gone when there is none shut up or left Deut. 32.36 when the Enemy is most insolent the Danger greatest our Hearts fail us we despond and despair when we say Our way is hid from the Lord and our Judgment passed over from our God when we conclude that we are cast out of the sight of his eyes and say with our Saviour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when in our own account we are free among the dead like the slain that lie in the Grave whom we think he remembers no more but they are cut off from his hand yet even then his Compassions fail not They neither fail in their Duration nor in their Constancy nor in their Efficacy nor in their Seasonableness but when there is a Necessity when it is for his People's greatest Advantage they then appear effectually Yea sometimes when we are insensible of our Danger when we are disappointed of those Supports we relied on when we are out of Hope when perhaps we are secure and know not how near our Affliction is when the Judgment comes in a way that is not perceivable as when the Arrow of God flieth by day and the Pestilence walketh in darkness and the Destruction wasteth at noon-day In these and all other cases wherein there is no Help nor Deliverance but in and from God yea when there is no reason to expect any no not from God himself yet even then his Compassions fail not he comes in opportunely and shews Mercy efficaciously And therefore justly in the next place V. OBSERVATION The Non-consumption of God's People their Salvation is ascribed by them to his indeficient Mercy onely to his Compassions that fail not David thus begins one of his Psalms 89.1 2. I will sing of the Mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy Faithfulness to all generations For I have said Mercy shall be built up for ever thy Faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very Heavens And Psal 117. he saith O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People for his mercifull Kindness is great towards us and the Truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise ye the Lord. And the 136. Psal throughout is one continued Invitation to give Thanks to God for his Mercy endureth for ever 26 times repeated Consonant whereto is that of the Prophet Isa 63.7 I will mention the Loving-kindnesses of the Lord and the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great Goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his Loving-kindnesses In the New Testament the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Magnificat sings thus My Soul doth magnify the Lord for that his Mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his Mercy Luk. 1.46 50 54. Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people to perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers vers 68 72. John Baptist was to give knowledge of Salvation unto his People by the Remission of their Sins through the tender Mercy of our God vers 77 78. In a word this was the main in the holy Songs of the Ministers of the Temple to give thanks to the Lord because his Mercy endureth for ever 1 Chron. 16.41 And in like manner Jehosaphat when he had consulted with the people appointed Singers unto the Lord and that should praise the Beauty of Holiness as they went out before the Army and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever 2 Chron. 20.21 And the same Commemoration of
God's Mercy is the practice and delight of them that have a Spirit of Holiness in all Generations They write Ex dono Dei on all they have they ascribe all they doe to Mercy all their Prosperity Victory Success they account as Mercies from God When they cast up the Inventory of their Good things they have enjoyed all that they possess the Summe totall is innumerable Mercies How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the Sand Psalm 139.17 18. The Law of Gratitude then which none is more equal ties every one to magnify God's Mercy What hath any which he hath not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And who can look upon his Receipts as due Wages and not rather pure Alms Who hath not received loads of Benefits from God and all out of pure Mercy Our Forming in the womb is a prime Mercy our Birth our Education our Instruction our Preservation our Salvation That I be not infinite in this Account Our Life Breath and all our Ways all our natural Parts and Abilities all our Motions and Proceedings all our Escapes from Dangers from Sicknesses from Death and most of all from being a Prey to the Devil and our Deliverance from Hell are Evidences of transcendent Mercy in God which all God's people are sensible of And this leads us to the VI. OBSERVATION That the apprehension of God's great Mercy encourageth his People to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Welfare The greatness of God's Mercies encouraged David to cast himself into God's hand rather then to fall into the hands of men 2 Sam. 24.14 And Holy Daniel in that effectual fervent Prayer Dan. 9.8 9. to appeal to God's Mercy O Lord to us belongeth Confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him Vers 18. We do not present our Supplications before thee for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies Psalm 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands Isa 63.15 Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowells and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is Mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption Not one of all the Holy Saints in all the Bible hath ever dared to utter such Expressions to God or men as if they could challenge the least Relief in Trouble the least Abatement of Sufferings much less eternall Life and Reward in Heaven upon account of their own Merit as Pharisaicall Self-Justitiaries have presumed to doe Holy Jacob on the contrary Gen. 32.10 tells God I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant And Nehemiah when he allegeth his Actings for God Neh. 13.22 thus bespeaks him Remember me O my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy Mercy This is the Plea of all upright humble Souls this is the Anchora sacra the sure Anchour upon which their Spirits are stayed in all their Fluctuations this is that Gale of wind which carries them on comfortably in all their Voiages They have learned from the Psalmist Psal 33.18 Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and that hope in his Mercy and therefore they say vers 22. Let thy Mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee They have found this Address to God always prosperous and therefore they joyn with the Holy Prophet in the words of my Text and the two following verses It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy Faithfulness The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him APPLICATION And now what is more necessary more just more meet for us to doe then to joyn in consort with the Holy Prophet in this passage Surely we may each of us say that it hath been of the Lord's Mercies that we have not been consumed in this most deadly Pestilence which hath swept away in our great City and the neighbouring places not many short of an Hundred thousand and yet we have hitherto been preserved alive to be Monuments of his Mercy Have not his Mercies been new to us every morning when we have heard either the dolefull Knells or the hideous voice of Carr-men Bring out your Dead or the Reports of the Weekly Bills of Mortality so many Hundreds in such a Parish so many Thousands in the whole dead of the Plague and yet we alive It was thought by God no small Mercy to Baruch when the common Calamity added Grief to his Sorrow when he fainted in his Sighing and found no Rest to give him his Life Behold I will bring Evill upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy Life will I give unto thee for a Prey in all places whither thou goest Jer. 45.5 And should you not count it a great Mercy to you that in this common and sore Judgment in which perhaps you have lost Wives Husbands Children Friends Neighbours Goods in which you have been filled with Fears oppressed with Griefs that yet you are not consumed that yet the whole City the whole Land is not consumed that yet our King our Nobles our Teachers our Government our Glory is not buried in perpetual Oblivion It is true it is a heavy Calamity but we have deserved worse It is true we have lost our Friends but our Lives are not lost our Souls are not lost unless our Unthankfulness our future Disobedience our Murmuring provoke God to bring a worse Misery the casting of Soul and body into Hell-fire which our Sins have merited Oh then let us still all our impatient Complaints let us quiet our Spirits in the present estate we are in let us be thankfull to God that we are not in Hell let us confess our Unworthiness let us be humbled for the great Depravedness of our former sinfull ways let us justify God in his inflicting Vengeance on us and our Land let us forsake those Sins which we have been guilty of that we have reason to conceive added fewell to this Fire that hath burnt so fiercely and wasted so extremely Let every one of us bewail the Plague of his own Heart let us lay to heart and mourn for the Sins of the City and the whole Nation their Pride Uncleanness Riot Oppression Unrighteousness Profaneness and the iterated Rebellions first open and hostile secondly more secret in Non-Conformity to Laws and Government and this maintained even against the unparallel'd Goodness
for then all minding and intending other Business and other Duties whether Sacred or Civill yea the due use of Recreation by eating and drinking sleep and other Refections of the body which God allows yea commands should be sinfull But as we interpret other like Passages concerning continual Praying against the Dotage of Euchites or Messalians of old who as the Monkish Fraternities since thought they were to doe nothing but pray Shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him Luke 18.7 Without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my Prayers night and day 2 Tim. 1.3 of a constant course of doing this Duty when other Duties Offices and Necessities permit So in this Meditating of David in God's Law we are to conceive he resolves so to doe it as not to omit it out of Slothfulness or sinfull Avocation not out of averseness of Heart to desist from it but as often and as much as Opportunity Divine Providence and the Use of it did permit and require he would be occupied therein Concerning which profitable Exercise of Meditation many Directions might be given in respect of the Acts Degree Manner End and Use thereof As God appointed the King of Israel when he sate on the Throne of his Kingdome that he should write him a Copy of God's Law in a Book out of that which was before the Priests the Levites and that it should be with him and that he should reade therein all the days of his life that he might learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of the Law and the Statutes to doe them Deut. 17.18 19. So he injoyned the rest of the People that the words which he commanded should be in the Heart of the whole People of Israel and that they should teach them diligently unto their Children and should talk of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way and when they lay down and when they rose up Deut. 6.6 7. Which brings us to the II. OBSERVATION That God's Precepts are to be the matter of a Godly man's Talk Yea God commands that they should bind them for a Sign upon their Hand and that they should be as Frontlets between their Eyes and that they should write them upon the Posts of their houses and on their Gates Deut. 6.8 9. And that this Precept was not confined to the Five Books of Moses but that it exended to the rest of the Holy Scriptures that which is said of Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise unto Salvation doth evince It is also manifest that the people of the Jews as they do to this day did conceive themselves bound by God old and young of all Sexes and Ranks to exercise themselves in reading and meditating on the Holy Scriptures which God vouchsafed to them in all the Books that were by any of the Prophets delivered to them To which accords that of the Apostle Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope It is then evident that it was God's Institution and Design in vouchsafing to communicate to the sons of men the great Treasure of his Oracles that they should busy their Minds and Members about them Nor is this sufficient that they have them in their Houses or that the Grandees of the Earth for Parts and Learning the Clergy Priests and Religious Votaries do reade or study them while the Laiety or simpler sort do onely by an implicit Faith rely on their Rulers or Rabbins as heretofore the Judaicall Pharisees and at this day their Successours the Popish Clergy craftily and deceitfully insinuate into peoples minds But as God hath promised to write his Laws in their hearts and put them in their minds that they shall all know him from the least to the greatest so it is the Duty and Property of all that expect Mercy and Favour from God to imploy their own Eyes to reade and their own Ears to hear what God hath vouchsafed to impart of his Mind in them to the sons of men And not onely so but also to search into the Sacred Scriptures as our Lord requires Joh. 5.39 to seek after the Wisedom therein as for Silver and search for it as for hidden Treasure Prov. 2.4 and when any Doctrine is taught as from God to doe as it is said of the Beroeans Act. 17.11 who searched the Scriptures daily whether the things S. Paul preached were so or no and withall speaking the truth in love to edify one another by communicating what they have found and learned And indeed the Law of Gratitude binds us to meditate on God's Precepts it being one of the greatest Favours from God to Men that he is pleased to reveal his Will to them Among the many Mercies for which the Psalmist extolls God's Goodness after the Commemoration of his Providence in his ordering Peace and Plenty he concludes thus Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord. Which plainly intimates this to have been the top or chief of his Goodness to Israel not that he seated them in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey which was the glory of other Lands Ezek. 20.6 but that he revealed his Counsells to them whereby he advanced them above all the people of the Earth as Moses tells them Deut. 4.8 What Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day It would therefore be an high Provocation of God to Anger so far to neglect the great Favour he hath shewed in giving us such Holy Precepts and beneficial Revelations of his Counsell as not to make them our Study not to consider the Usefulness of them not to observe our Concernments in them not to set forth to his Praise his gracious dealing in his notification of them to us But besides as it is an extreme Neglect of God not to meditate on his Precepts so it is a most injurious Neglect of our selves and our own Good to take our selves off from the Contemplation of them For thereby men deprive themselves of that means which might make them wiser then those who neglect them or imploy their minds on any enquiry after Wisedom without them Which it were easy to demonstrate by comparing the Wisedom that may be got by them with the Wisedom of the most renowned Philosophers and the most profound Rabbins among the Jews or acutest Schoolmen among the Christians who have sought the knowledge of Morality or Religion from Inventions and Traditions of men from their own Reasonings or devised Rules without the excellent Directions of the Holy Scritures Holy David professeth his own
love himself less If we cannot reach the height of this Document which is to die for an Enemy yet we may goe so far as not to incurre our Destruction by an affected Hatred As God's Mercy is transcendent and runs through all his other Attributes so ought ours to be our very Acts of Justice and severest Rigour must be Acts of Mercy As it is our Compassion to the Body that makes us cut off a gangraened Member so must our Tenderness of the whole season that Severity which is directed against a private person The whole Frame and Course of things seem to lesson us to this Duty If we look towards that Heaven which must be the Seat and Mansion of the Saints 't is boundless and uncomprehended so much delights his Mercy to exspatiate it self that it will not be confined whereas his Wrath and Vengeance are content with a narrow Room for the execution of his Justice He hath made Heaven of a vast Capacity which betokens an Infinite Goodness but the Place of Torments hath he bounded with streight Dimensions lest his avenging Justice should be exalted above his Mercy in the largeness of its Dominion If God have scarce afforded his just Vengeance a Point or Angle in this great Vniverse then ought not Man in so small a Room as his Heart give any entertainment to unjust Cruelty or Hardness but study rather to enlarge it that he may take in a greater measure of that Mercy whose Property is to be boundless and transcendent Page 53. line 13. for delight your Bodies reade defile your Bodies A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Richard Royston viz. THE Works of the Learned Mr. Joseph Mede in Folio The Fourth Edition Books Written by Jer. Taylor D. D. and late Lord-Bishop of Down and Connor Ductor Dubitantium or The Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Folio The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus in Fol. with Figures sutable to every Story ingrav'd in Copper Whereunto is added The Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles By William Cave D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or A Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio The Third Edition The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying The Eleventh Edition newly printed in Octavo Books Written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick The Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with sutable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God Or a Book of Devotion for Families and particular Persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend the Third Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist in Octavo Two Parts Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth in Two Parts in Octavo New The History of the Church of Scotland by Bishop Spotswood the Fourth Edition enlarged Folio The Lives of the Apostles in Folio alone by William Cave D. D. Chirurgical Treatises by R. Wiseman Serjeant-Chirurgeon to his Majesty Fol. New The Principles and Practices of several Moderate Divines of the Church of England also The Design of Christianity both which are written by Edward Fowler Minister of God's Word at Northill in Bedfordshire In Octavo The Second Edition Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church with the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authours In Three Parts in Octavo New Goe in Peace Containing some brief Directions for Young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Usefull for the People in their state both of Health and Sickness In 12. New The Countess of Morton's daily Exercises or A Book of Prayers and Rules how to spend the time in the Service and Pleasure of Almighty God The Practical Christian in Four Parts or a Book of Devotions and Meditations with Psalms and Meditations upon the Four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By R. Sherlock D. D. Rectour of Winwick In Twelves The Spiritual Sacrifice or Devotions fitted for the hours of the day by a late Reverend Divine In Twelves Animadversions upon a Book Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo The Estate of the EMPIRE or an Abridgment of the Laws and Government of Germany Farther shewing what Condition the Empire was in when the Peace was concluded at Munster Also the several Fights Battels and Desolation of Cities during the War in that EMPIRE And also of the GOLDEN BVLL In Octavo The Sicilian Tyrant Or The Life and Death of Agathocles With some Reflections on our Modern Usurpers Octavo The Royal Martyr and the Dutifull Subject In Two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet In Quarto The Life and Death of King Charles the First By R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo