without hurt and though six and seven troubles throng us not any the least evil toucheth Job 5. 19. Ps 25. 10. us but all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth Thus when we turn to God with a holy turn God turns to us with a gracious turn and when God turns to us all good is afloat towards us and all evil is ebbing and hastening from us all in heaven and earth will become turned for our good Deut. 30. 3. The Lord tells Israel that if they shall return to the Lord their God then the Lord their God will turn their captivity and have compassion on them and will return c. But let me a little more particularly and distinctly hold forth some of the benefits of this turn 1. This is the great blessing of the Gospel even the blessing that Jesus Christ himself being raised up and exalted by his father is sent to bless with in the preaching and dispensing thereof Vnto you first God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every Acts â— 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si vos converteritis c. So Syriack and Arabick c. one of you from his iniquities Some indeed read it if you turn or every one of you turning c. and so make being blest an argument and motive to turn And this is a true and a good sense that when we turn away from our iniquities though not by any strength of our own that then Jesus Christ will bless us But first Jesus Christ must bless us in turning us before he bless us being turn'd and therefore others render it as here in turning you as declaring the way and manner how Christ blesses and this agrees well with the word bless for iniquity being that alone which brings the curse the onely way to be blest must needs be to be turned from it and while people are not turned from their sins but still go on impenitently in them they cannot be blest Thus conversion is the great Gospel-blessing and the way to be further yea for ever blest and it prevents the curse which else we cannot evade And he shall turn the heart of the fathers c. Least I come and smite the earth with a curse Mas 4. 6. 2. Upon this follows that great and glorious and inestimable mercy and priviledg of pardon that mercy of mercies which makes 〈◊〉 and the want of which makes hell yea which if not enjoy'd every thing else as one expresses it even our very boards and beds and fields and houses are but as an hell to us David having been for a while under the sense of God's cispleasure for his sins but feeling at length the Sun-shine of God's favour breaking forth through the clouds upon him in this mercy O how jowfully does he break out and how admiringly does he speak of the blessedness of those who partake of so great a mercy of so glorious a priviledg Blessed is he whose transgression Ps 32. 1 2. is forgiven whose sin is covered that is by the Lord for man must not cover it but acknowledg it Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity c. Blessed or as others O blessed O happy or O the blessednesses or O welfares the man it is a joyful acclamation for such a man's felicity Dutch read it right happy or happy indeed he is so indeed whose transgression is forgiven c. We have here in several words the same benefit repeated because of the greatness of it and though here is Autology yet not Tautology for these several Metaphorical expressions are wonderfully comfortable 1. Sin is a burden and the first word signifies an easing or taking away and blessed is he that is eased of such a burden 2. Sin is most loathsome and filthy in the sight of God and he is of purer eyes that he can behold or look on it but with utter detestation and abhorrence and the second word notes a covering of it and aâ—â—â—tting it out of his sight contrary to that Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance To set us our selves there is our happiness but to set our sins there is our wo and misery and there cannot be a greater And cover not their Neh. 4. 5. iniquity c. 3. Sin is a debt and the third notes a not imputing or reckoning it and what a blessed thing is pardon that does all this does sin trouble as a burden pardon eases and takes it off as loathsom pardon covers it as a debt pardon does not impute it and this follows upon repentance this priviledg of remission upon the grace of conversion not as the cause of it but as the way and order in which God will have it to behad And hence we find them joyned together Luke 24. 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name c. Acts 5. 3. To give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin c. And be Joh. 12. 40. converted and I should heal them Mark has it c. 4. v. 12. And their sins should be forgiven them which is the souls healing That 's a full place Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The former of these words repent seems to import conviction and contrition the latter conversion and amendment one repentance of sin or for sin the other repentance from sin And this is to repent indeed to do both to bewaile what we have committed and not go on still to commit what we have bewail'd and what follows upon this the Deleta non ut non sint sed ut non imputentur propter imputatam sponsoris nostri obedientiam Tossan blotting out of our sins that your sins may be blotted out that is pardoned our sins are in Scripture compared unto debts and these are registred as it were in God's book and there stand upon record and now the Apostle tells them that if they did repent and were converted these debts should be blotted out God's Metaphora sumpta à creditoribus qui debita vel interveniente satisfactione vel gratis remissa delent book cross'd all scores quit and that hand-writing which was against them should be cancell'd which is so choice a priviledg and mercy of mercies that this if there was no more might seem motive enough to put people upon repenting and turning to God that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall come from the presence of the Lord. There are by the way times of refreshing or cooling as the Greek hath it to come to the people of God after the heat of their afflictions and persecutions here compar'd to fire As there 1 Pet. 4. 12. remains a rest for the
cure If I shut up heaven says the Lord that there be no rain or if I command the Locusts to 2 Chron. 7. 13. devour the Land or if I send pestilence among my people that is whatever judgments I inflict on a people for under these are comprised all other if v. 14. my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves c. So if they shall confess their iniquity c. and their uncircumcised hearts be humbled c. At what instant I shall Levit. 26. 40. Jer. 18. 7 8. speak concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them Is there says the Prophet no balm in Gilead is there no Physician Jer. 8. 22. there Gilead was a place where there was plenty of Balm and it was famous for the soveraignest Balsams for from thence they were wont to be transported into other countreys and there were also store of skilful Physicians and therefore it was strange and matter of wonder indeed that Balm and Physicians should fail and not be had there But admit there should be no Balm no not in Gilead yet is there Balm with God and that all Physicians fail on earth yet is there a Physician in heaven who whatever are a peoples maladies if he do but undertake the cure will be sure to bring remedy Psalm 60. 11. 68. 20. who gives help from trouble when vain is the help of man and unto whom belong the issues from death For we have no might against this great 2 Chr. 20. 12. company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee who yet canst help us and save us from above though no help nor way of salvation appears from beneath Thus there is a way for a people to be saved whatever is their case and truly this is a great mercy and that the Lord is pleased also to point a people to it when their case hath been exceeding deplorable and seem'd almost desperate as Joel 2. in the first chapter and the former part of the second what sore and terrible judgments had God threatned and yet v. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me c. So Return thou back-sliding Israel saith Hos 14. 1. the Lord c. Who says the Lord would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would Jer. 3. 12. go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may Isa 27. 4 5. make peace with me and he shall make peace with me How desperate seemed Ninivehs condition Jonah 3. 4. yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed and yet there was a remedy and they betaking themselves to it are saved And as it is with people so with a particular person and as in regard of their miseries so their iniquities as Shechaniah said We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the Land directly against God's express Law Dent. 7. 3. yet now there is hope in Israel Ezra 102. concerning this thing our case is not desperate but we may yet be brought to repentance and pardoned Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in these is continuance that is in those Isa 64. 5. ways of grace and mercy thou art still the same and if thou pleasest thus still to shew and manifest thy self we shall be saved So wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings c. Isai 1. 16 18. and then Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool These were the deepest Dies implying whatever their sins were though never so great yet upon their repentance they should be graciously and fully pardoned Let Israel hope in the Lord for with Ps 130. 7. the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities There is a way for the wicked and most unrighteous man to be saved which the Lord calls and invites him to Let the wicked Isaiah 55. 7. forsake his way and the unrighteous man his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et vir iniquitatis thoughts Hebr. The man of iniquity or made up as it were of iniquity or the man of wrong or vexation as some render it one word signifies both that hath so much wrong'd not onely his own soul but God vexed his holy and good Spirit yet there is a way for such a one to be saved Let him but forsake his way and his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Hebr. he will multiply to pardon So that his pardons shall infinitely exceed his sins there shall be pardons and to spare as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superabundavit plus quà m abundavit supermultiplicata est Paul expresses it 1 Tim. 1. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant or redundant superabundant more than enough or as it were overfull enough and to spare it abounded to flowing over as the Sea doth above Mole-hills And because we are ready to be measuring God by our selves and to think this cannot be done because we cannot do it we cannot our selves pass by so many and great provocations and therefore how should God hence God foreseeing our low conceits of him he answers v. 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord v. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts 2. If this be the onely way for a people to be saved this lets us see in what an unlikely way and posture we of this Nation are at this day to be saved And O that we had hearts to bewail it I am sure we have cause even to have rivers of waters to run down our eyes as they did Ps 119. 136. Jer. 9. 1. Davids and to wish with the Prophet Jeremy Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night c. and to say as the Prophet Isaiah Isa 22. 4. Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me c. For are we turned again to the Lord or do we turn from our sins Surely as to the generality of people amongst us nothing less no nor yet though God hath inflicted upon us so many sore and heavy judgments such as scarce have been heard of nor have been in our days nor in our fathers days before us
his countenance that he lifts it up It is not that he hath any need of us or any motive from us except our misery and this the Scripture every where holds forth Of his own will that is of his meer good pleasure James 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia voluit becanse he would and free grace begat he us with the word of truth this alone is the spring and original both of our regeneration and salvation For by grace ye are saved but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we Eph. 2. 8. v. 4. 5. were dead in sins hath qu savâ—d us c. But according to his mercy he 〈◊〉 us by the washing Titus 3. 5. of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost c. I will heal their back-sliding I will love Hos 14. 4. them freely c. He will turn again and whence he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities c. Since thou wast precious in my sight that is since thou becamest dear to me Is 43. 4. and I vouchsafed thee grace and favour thou Iter ad gratiam est per gratiam per quae ipsam venitur ad ipsam Prosper hast been honourable and I have loved thee I have manifested my love several ways to thee and all from love and meer grace and good will So that it is of free grace meerly that God exhibits and shews grace it is of love that he manifests love and how much may this encourage poor creatures to seek unto the Lord that he would turn them again and cause his face to shine it being nothing but free grace and meer mercy that hath put him upon doing this for others and though they be so unworthy yet why may not free and rich grace put God upon doing that for them which it hath put him upon doing for others God never turned any again to himself or caused his face to shine on them because they were worthy but because he was gracious not because they deserv'd it but because it was his good pleasure so to do it not because of any merit in them but because of that mercy that is in himself not because of works which they had done but because of what he was pleas'd of meer mercy and free grace for to do Thus the Lord tells Israel that because Deut. 7. 7 8. he loved them he set his love upon them here 's the spring and rise of all the good will and pleasure of God the natural bent purpose and Rom. 9. 15. Phil. 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro gratuitâ suâ benevolentiâ Pise inclination of God's heart to do the creature good I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion whom I will have compassion and he worketh both to will and to do of his good pleasure 9. Let us consider that as it is from free grace that any are turned again so it is by grace that they are turned as from favouring accepting grace so by sanctifying renewing grace as from the freeness of the one so by the effectual operation of the other it is free grace alone that puts God upon doing and then sanctifying grace that does it Look what ever any have been or are as to any saving work of conversion upon the soul and turning them again unto the Lord as it has been wholly upon the account of free accepting grace so it has been wholly by the powerful operation of sanctifying renewing grace as meerly from grace so wholly by grace and whatever any have been or are as to any saving work it is by the grace of God that they are what are and what that grace hath done for others that sometimes were what thou now art the same can it effect for thee We all says the Apostle with 2 Cor. 3. 18. open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory But how by the Spirit Psal 51. 12. of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord is free not only as making free or being freely given but as acting freely The wind bloweth Joh. 3. 8. where it listeth c. and so does the Spirit breath freely where he pleases and can cause the same gales of grace to breath upon thee as he hath done upon others as God vouchsafeth his favour so he also gives grace and works by his grace where when and on whom he pleases and all that any are or have it is by that grace as the Apostle expresseth it as concerning himself that they are what they are and have what they have And last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time For I am the 1. Cor. 15. 8 9 10. least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am what I am as to that change that is now wrought in me as to any saving work of conversion Quicquid est non sibi aut meritis suis sed soli gratiae Dei tribuit Pareus upon my soul as to being a true convert a true Christian and believer as to being an Apostle and a preacher who before was a persecutor as to what I thus am as it is meerly from grace so it is wholly by grace that I am what I am and others whatever they are being by grace what they are as to any saving work of grace why by the same grace mayest not thou be the same they are Is not grace as free and as effectual for thee as for another can it not do and effect that for thee that it hath done for others Take grace away and others are what thou art let grace work upon thee and thou shalt be the same as others are O what may not free grace put God upon and what will not effectual 2 Cor. 9. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace do And God is able as the Apostle speaks to make all grace to abound towards you that ye always having all-sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work What cause have we to adore the fulness of this Scripture here are five all 's 1. All grace and not some onely 2. All ways and not now and then onely 3. All-sufficiency and not some sufficiency onely 4. In all things and not in some onely 5. To every or all good works and all grace abound as to all these what wants can exceed such supplies what indigencies such sufficiency and what cannot such grace do 10. Consider how far soever thou mayest have turned away or turned aside from God yet God has turned again as great sinners and turners aside as thou hast been or art Ephes 2. 1. And you hath he quickened which were dead in sins and trespasses not
you shall not be saved but perish none indeed are saved for it but for me and my merits sake nor can any be saved without it Had Jesus Christ shed Seas of bloud he would never yet save a sinner that he does not bring to repent of his sins The Father and Son never agreed nor resolv'd upon saving man in an absolute illimited way but in such a way and order as in a way of repenting and believing not as if there was Quamvis Christus millies mortem obiisset nullus tamen impoenitens peccatorum condonationem ex illius morte consequetur nec quemvis alium fructum percipiet Deutus any merit or causality in repentance but as the way and condition without which though not the cause for which remission of sins and salvation cannot be obtained Thus Repentance is necessary not onely as God's command but also as a way means and order that God has ordained for remission and salvation so that though there is no causality dignity or merit in our repentance yet it is of that nature that the holy Ghost must necessarily work it in all those who are partakers of them so as to qualifie for them so that either we must repent or Aut poenitendum aut pereundum perish turn or dye be converted or destroyed either this must be done or we undone for ever Ezek. 18. 30. If indeed we repent and turn from our transgressions then the Lord hath told us iniquity 33. 11. shall not be our ruine though it tends to our ruine but unless we repent and turn it will inevitably be so If we still persist and live and lie Si divinae miserationes nequeunt nos allectare tum judica Dei nos terreant in our sins we shall then certainly dye in our sins and perish in our sins Hence says the Lord Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye O house of Israel implying that 'till we do turn from our evil ways we say in effect we will dye For the turning away of the simple shall Prov. 1. 31. 11. 19. slay them and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death If thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness he shall dye in Ezek. 3. 19. his iniquity Either we must be turned to God here or separated from him for ever hereafter either be converted or for ever excluded the Kingdom of Heaven and turn'd into hell Verily I say unto you except ye be converted c. ye Matth. 18. 2. shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If Tertullian therefore thou be backward in thoughts of repentance be forward in thoughts of hell c. for we must turn or for ever burn in hell Thus conversion is necessary as a means to life and happiness so that as life is a necessary consequent of conversion so death is an inevitable fruit and effect of the neglect of it so that I may say to you as Moses sometimes said to that people See I here set before you this day life and good death and evil life and all manner of good if you obey and repent and turn to the Lord but death and all manner of evil if ye refuse and I call Deut. 30. 15. heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life that ye may live Why life and death are the greatest and forciblest arguments in the world what will not a man give or do for life Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life And death is the most formidable of evils call'd the King of terrours we use to say such a man is as earnest and intent upon a thing as if life and death depended upon it Why truly life or death depend upon our turning or not turning to God life and death are in these things and accordingly such should our prayers and cares and indeavours be in and about the same 5. The gratefulness and acceptableness of it unto God how pleasing welcom and delightful it is to him when a sinner does indeed repent and turn to God! O with what joy and singular complacency does the Lord speak of Ephraim as turning from his Idolatries and not going on as he had done to provoke him and wrong himself Ephraim shall say what have I any more to Hos 14. 8. do with Idols I have heard him and observ'd him and that with a great deal of joy and delight as that I am glad of and rejoyce in So I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Jer. 31. 18 19. c. that is bewailing his sins the Hebrew is hearing I have heard him that is attentively pleasingly delightfully so as to take special notice of him and to have a singular regard to him and now his bowels are troubled for him and he will surely have mercy on him As God has a singular hatred and abhorrence of sin so Quemadmodum Deus summo odio habet peccatum ita quoque summe hominis poenirentia delectatur per quam à summo malo ad summum bonum convertitur Gerh. he cannot but be much pleased with repentance by which the sinner turns from it to himself from the chief evil to the chief good and it being that wherein his own glory and the sinners good is so much concern'd For thereby God is honoured Jesus Christ sees of the travel of his soul and is satisfied the Spirit ceases to be grieved as formerly sin is pardoned God's favour recover'd Satan defeated and the soul saved how well was God pleased with Josiah his heart being tender and he humbling himself before 2 Chr. 34. 27. God which he twice mentions as being much taken therewith And so Manasseh though so great a sinner yet repenting what respect had God to him yea so acceptable is this to God that he had respect to it even in Ahab so far as temporally to reward it though hypocritical the more to encourage to that which is true And the acceptableness of this to God does further appear by his earnest invitings to it longings after it waitings for it bearing so long with sinners as in reference to it his readiness to receive sinners upon the first discoveries of it and pardoning the hainousest sins upon it Psal 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise and what is a broken heart but a penitent heart an heart kindly melted humbled and in bitterness for sin and this now is the sacrifice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia Dei God 1. Of God to denote its singular excellency it being usual in the Hebrew to set out the excellency of a thing by the addition of the name of God as the mountains and Cedars of God c. 2. It is called the
to their capacity and whatever is the stile or language know that the remedy it self here propos'd is not mine but of his making and prescribing who is the great Physician and healer of Nations and he therefore that rejects or despises rejects and despises not man but God onely he 1 Thes 4. 8. hath spirited me and bid and appointed me as he hath some others to mind you of it and to put you speedily upon it yea and to betake your selves to him to help and assist you in it that so the Nation may not perish and so soveraign a remedy at hand for want of being applied and made use of as unto which if any thing here dictated shall prove subservient or any ways adjutant it shall ever be acknowledged as a singular mercy to him from the God of mercies who is and remains A studious well-wisher of Thine and the Nations weal R. P. To the Christian Reader SAlvation is the most sutable and the most desireable mercy for sinners for sinful persons for sinful Nations Salvation as it imports deliverance from evil and that it imports most properly is a very great mercy but as it implies the gift and injoyment of good of the highest good so it is far better Temporal salvation is a signal favour but how unspeakable a favour is Eternal Now as questionless salvation with all the appurtenances and consequents of it is the greatest mercy that can be desired so the greatest question that can be asked is that of the Jaylour Sirs what must we do to Acts 16. 31. be saved Reader the worthy Authour of the ensuing Discourse having I doubt not well weighed and deeply laid to heart the doleful condition of many thousand souls in city and countrey who remain in a state of sin and persist impenitently in the practice even of the grossest sins considering also with himself possibly with others the dangerous state of the whole Kingdom by reason of those much to be lamented overflowings of sin he I say having laid to heart and considered these things hath studied and in this Treatise freely held forth a remedy indeed an unfailing and the onely remedy whereby the souls of men may be saved and delivered from wrath and damnation and the whole Kingdom from ruine destruction and desolation There needs no more for the saving either of persons or Nations but the Lords effectual turning of our hearts from sin by the working of his powerful grace in us and the sweet manifestations of his favourable grace towards us or as the Authors Text hath it the causing of his face to shine upon us A remedy compounded of these two Gospel-ingredients both the fruits of Christ's bloud and death for the cure and help of sin-sick dying souls and Kingdoms thou wiâ—t find Christian Reader ready at hand for thine and the Kingdom 's benefiâ— in the doctrinal part of this book if thou hast an heart to make use of it And that thine heart may be drawn out to make a right use of it thou wilt find it stor'd with many clear directions to guide thee with strong reasons to convince thee with many cogent motives to quicken thee all fetcht from and grounded upon the holy Scriptures many Texts whereof are not onely as thâ—y all are pertinently alledged but solidly pithily and largely paraphrased and expounded I commend all to the blessing of God and thy diligent perusal praying that all may turn not onely to thy souls profit and everlasting salvation but to the temporal salvation of these Kingdoms from those impending evils of punishment which our abounding evils of sin threaten us with and may quickly bring down upon us unless the Lord God of hosts according to his super abounding goodness turn us again to himself and cause his face to shine upon us then and not till then we shall indeed be saved or dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil This Christian Reader is the apprehension this the daily petition of Thy friend and servant in the Lord JOSEPH CARYL Good Reader WE learn from the story of the Fall that man was first a fugitive from God and then an exile first Adam ran to the bushes and then God drove him out of Paradise and ever since besides the aversion of mans own heart there lieth a legal exclusion on Gods part Man in this condition is become a stranger to God and his own happiness and not only a stranger but an enemy but though we are enemies to God we cannot make good our quarrel against him the Lord of Hosts will be too hard for poor worms Alas what will our many lusts do against his mighty Angels God cannot be overcome yet such is his Grace he is ready to be reconciled Turn unto me saith the Lord of Hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 1. 3. The same stile is used both in the exhortation and the promise 'T is the Lord of Hosts who inviteth us to turn to him by a serious repentance and the Lord of Hosts who promiseth to reward us with all manner of felicity and happiness If we turn not we find him a dreadful adversary but if we have an heart to return to him we shall find him as powerful and delightful a friend Woe to him that striveth with his Maker But blessed he that submitteth to him We keep off from him out of carnal liberty not liking the strictness of his precepts and also out of legal bondage fearing the strokes of his Justice and we are hardened in our alienation from God by patching up a sorry happiness in the creature apart from him our remedy must be fully correspondent with our disease therefore our cure consists in turning from the creature to God from self to Christ from sin to holiness Do this and it shall be well with you sin shall be pardon'd and everlasting happiness shall be your portion But who is sufficient for these things The legal exclusion is taken off by the merit of the Lord Jesus and the straying disposition is cured by the all powerful and converting grace of his Spirit and in conversion we find him to be the Lord of Hosts aswell as in destruction as he conquereth and subdueth mans heart to himself for surely God never made a creature too hard for himself But his grace must be sought after by us in the use of all holy means Gods complaint against his people was that they would not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord surely they do the work of Christianity who most labour in this very thing especially in a time of general defection and corruption of manners when a people temptingly and daringly put it to the tryal whether God will be so severe against sinners as his word representeth him to be in such a time we need cry aloud both to God and men to God that he may turn us by his preventing grace and turn to us by his rewarding grace to
could not God do especially the God of Hosts and much more the Lord God of Hosts Thus in our addresles to God we should so consider of him as may most strengthen our faith and encourage our hopes as to the obtaining of what we have access unto God for and thus our Saviour himself hath taught us to do Math. 6. 13. for thine is the Kingdom and power c. Cause thy face to shine ie in a word Aspice nos vultu sereno ac benevolo Pisc vouchsafe us thy favour shew thy self gracious and propitious to us in thy Son give us the sense of thy love and because favour and grace much appears and manifests it self in the face in the sereneness of the face in the pleasantness and lightsomness of the countenance hence is this phrase both here and in many places elsewhere made use of to set forth the favour and grace of God as Psalm 31. 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant So Psal 67. 1. 119. 135 c. and it is the same with that Psalm 4. 6. lift thou up upon us the light of thy countenance And these forms and expressions seem to be taken from that solemn form of blessing the people prescribed by the Lord himself Numbers 6. 25 26. The Lord make his face shine upon thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee And we shall be saved i. e. if thou vouchsafe His rebus fructum felicitatem salutis assignat dicens Et salvi erimus vivemus regnabimus nec ullo bono destituemur si placatus nos respicias conversos ad te benignus complectaris Musc but to do these for us it shall be well with us we shall be happy this will remedy all our evils and be to us as it were a resurrection from the dead it will bring full salvation and deliverance from our miseries here and eternal salvation to us hereafter and upon God's turning them again and causing his face to shine this they certainly and undoubtedly promise to themselves as well they might for what should effect it if not these for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine CHAP. III. The first Doctrine observable as more general THE time and season when it was that they made this prayer that God would turn them again c. it was a time of trouble and distress Whence observe Doct. 1. When miseries and calamities do abide the Church and people of God that which then more especially and most earnestly they are to pray for it is that the Lord would vouchsafe them spiritual mercies As that God would turn them again and cause his face to shine that he would lift up upon them the light of his Countenance vouchsafe them his favour and grace c. This indeed In omnibus angustiis favor gratia Dei inprimis quaerenda imploranda est Amesâ—in locum they are to seek at all times Psal 105. 4. Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore but then more especially and more than the removal of outward evils or the obtaining of other mercies and blessings because God then seems to suspend them and as it was to hide his face and to withdraw the sense of his favour and then they most need them yea and then the experiencing of such mercies is most seasonable Thus the Church and people of God do here the Lord fed them with the bread of tears and gave them tears to drink in great measure c. And what do they now pray and importune for for spiritual blessings soul-Soul-mercies that God would turn them again and cause his face to shine and thus we are to doe R. 1. Because this is that which the Lord prescribes and puts his people upon and advises them to As Hosea 14. 1 27. take with you words and turn to the Lord. Say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously c. Zeph. 2. 3. Seek ye the Lord seek righteousness seek meekness c. And how should we bless the Lord that gives us this counsel and advice to seek things so excellent and of such importance and wherein we are so infinitely concern'd and the having of which is of such absolute and indispensible necessity as that we cannot at any time want them nor be without them much less at such times who would not seek God's face divine favours at any time but especially at such times R. 2. This is that which others have done as here so elsewhere as Psal 90. 14. Moses there in a time of great and grievous calamities prays that the Lord would return and satisfie them early with his mercy or loving kindness for so the word is rendred elsewhere as Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 26. 3. the same word so Psal 119. 76. i. e. with thy favour the sense of thy love and v. 17. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us c. So Isaiah 26. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee v. 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night with my spirit within me will I seek thee early c. Lament 5. 21. Turn thou us unto thee O Lord c. and so David often still when he was in any distress he is seeking for spiritual mercies as Psalm 31. 16. make thy face to shine on thy Servant 35. 5. say to my soul I am thy Salvation Psalm 119. 76. Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my comfort v. 77. let thy tender mercies come unto me c. R. 3. Want of this the Lord complains of Hos 7. 4. They assemble themselves for corn and wine c. Isa 9. 13. neither seek they the Lord of Hosts R. 4. To this the promise is made of pardon and healing too 2 Chron. 7. 13. If says the Lord I shut up heaven that there be no rain or send pestilence c. v. 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evill wayes then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land R. 5. This is the onely way to have those miseries and calamities removed in mercy so as to be sanctified before their removal to seek unto God to turn us again to himself and to cause his face to shine and unless the Lord do this they cannot be removed in mercy but we must expect heavier and sorer as the Lord threatens Is 9. 13 14. Amos 4. 11 12. Levit. 26. 21. c. for he will overcome when he judges but if he vouchsafe those spiritual mercies though the other should continue they could do us no hurt the evil and sting of them being remov'd R. 6. If the other should still continue these will comfort and support under them and
the joy and comfort of them more than countervail the other there being no comparison between them but the one exceedingly transcending the other As the sufferings of this present Rom. 8. 18. time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed hereafter so neither are they to be compared with spiritual mercies here as for God to turn us again to himself to pardon our sins to cause his face to shine to vouchsafe us his favour and his comforts and consolations What sufferings or afflictions will not these comfort and support under or what other wants will they not more than countervail what are the world's frowns to God's smiles the world's troubles to God's peace the world's sorrows to God's joyes the world's afflictions to God's consolations the world's pressures to the pleasures of God's presence or its burdens to the rest which that affords what are its Bitters to God's Sweets its Gall and Wormwood to the Wine of his Love Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his mouth for thy love is better than wine and v. 4. we will remember thy love more than wine yea 't is better than life and in it even in death it self there is life And hence is it that the Apostle speaks what is a Paradox to the men of the world troubled but not distressed as sorrowful yet always rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things as dying and yet behold we live live in the light of God's countenance in his sight as Hosea 6. 2. and we shall live in his sight where indeed only the Soul truly lives and there it may live even in death and have light arise to it even in darkness and see light in the greatest obscurity and this light I mean the light of God's countenance it giveth Songs even in the night as it did to Paul and Silas when thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the Stocks yet God's gracious presence did so cheer their spirits and put such joy into their hearts that even at midnight they brake forth in praises to God Acts 16. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them they did not onely pray but sing prayses and sung so loud that others heard them the prisoners heard them they were awaken'd by them And what did they think of them surely they thought they were not well in their wits to sing at such a time and in such a place and in such a condition who having been beaten and many stripes laid upon them were cast into prison yea thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the stocks and yet now to sing O if God cause but his face to shine if he lift but up the light of his countenance it will make a man sing at any time in any place in any condition it will turn a prison into a Pallace and a dungeon into a Paradise This made David to have his Psalms yea Michtams i. his golden Psalms or as the Dutch render it his golden Jewels Aureum ornamentum aut insigne exputissimo auro factum it signifies what is made of the best and finest gold so called because of their singular preciousness and excellency in the saddest places and in the saddest outward condition as when the Philistins took him in Gath when he fled from Saul in the Cave when Saul sent and they watcht the house to kill him c. See Psalm 56 57 59 the Titles Moses Psalm 90. 14. prays O satisfie us early with thy mercy i. e. with thy loving kindness vouchsafe us thy favour that we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes This is enough to make the people of God rejoice and be glad all their dayes be they never so dark and gloomy evil and perillous As we have received mercy sayes the Apostle we faint not 2 Cor. 4. 1. The Lord tels Moses Exod. 33. 14. My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest Though Moses was to go through a wearisome wilderness and amidst a wearisom people yet the Lord's presence should give him rest We may go any where with him he will be an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Isa 32. 2. Vse 1. Of Reproof to those who when miseries and calamities are upon themselves or the Nation look after the removal of them but not after Spiritual mereies they are very earnest and sollicitous that God would take away their ourward plagues remove his judgments but not that God would take away their sins and turn them again to himself and cause his face to shine But so God will but do the other free them of their miseries let the latter do what they will Psalm 4. 6. There be many that say who will shew us any good i. e. any outward good how to compasse any earthly worldly gain or advantage O that we might have peace and plenty or how shall we once get out of these troubles and afflictions but few say with David lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and then all shall be well if thou do but this Many when they are in pain and sick and weak they cry out indeed but for what for ease and health and recovery not that they may be turned from their sins and recover God's favour as Pharaoh he calls to have other plagues taken away but never begs to have the plague of his own heart taken away which was the greatest of all and far worse than all the other but this is the voice onely of nature and argues a graceless heart and that which the Lord as I said complains of Hos 6. 14. Vse 2. Of Exhortation Then when miseries and calamities do abide us let this be our Prayer let us with the Church and people of God here more especially and most earnestly beg and implore spiritual mercies that God would turn us again and cause his face to shine lift up upon us the light of his countenance vouchsafe us his grace and favour bless us in turning us from our iniquities let us be importunate for these ask them again and again and whatever outward evils or distresses may abide us these as you have heard will not only comfort and support us under them but more than countervail them When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble c if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8. 31. You know what Philip said to our Saviour John 14. 8. Lord shew us the father and it sufficeth us So let but the Father shew us himself shine on us with his face vouchsafe us his favour and it sufficeth As the Lord said unto Paul and says to all his people 2 Corinth 12. 9. my grace is sufficient for thee though then Paul was in
an ill case there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him c. v. 7. yet says the Lord to him my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Let our condition be what it will let it seem never so sad let our tryals and afflictions be never so many and great yet God's grace i. e. his favour his accepting grace is sufficient to comfort us yea and his sanctifying strengthning and supporting grace to uphold us When says David I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my Soul Psalm 94. 18 19. The Lord alone and his favour is a full compleat and more than sufficient counter-comfort to all troubles and calamities whatsoever and the light of his countenance does not onely put more joy and gladness into their hearts upon whom it is lift up than in the time when others Corn and Wine increases but it puts more joy than the greatest decrease of them can occasion sorrow Habuk. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. yea it alters the very nature of the evils themselves that they are not what they were that sickness is not sickness as it were hence it is said Is 33. 24. And the Inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity And hence Matth. 9. 2. our Saviour there bids the man sick of the Palsie be of good cheer his sins being forgiven though his sickness was not yet cured and so had he cause had it never been cured In six yea in seven troubles this keeps all evil from touching us Job 5. 19. And therefore how earnestly how importunately at all times but more especially in evil times should we implore these mercies CHAP. IV. The second Doctrine observable as more general LOoking upon these words as being the burden of the Psalm and that which the Church and people of God do so often and earnestly beg and intreat again and again no less than three times v. 3 7 19 in this one Psalm thence we observe Doct. 2. Spiritual blessings special Ter repetitur haec precatio ut fieri solet quando animus in invocatione ardet Strigelius peculiar mercies are to be prayed for with all earnestness not onely simply to be asked to be sought but in such a way and after such a manner viz. frequently and fervently often and earnestly again and again with ardency and ut most importunity For thus the Church and people of God seek them here for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine these were Spiritual blessings choice special and peculiar mercies Soul-benefits and they are earnest and importunate for them they beg them once and again and again as if they would not be denied them and as if they were resolv'd not to be put off without them But what are we to understand by Spiritual blessings by special peculiar mercies By these we are to understand in a word such as these here specified and such like as for God to turn us from our sins to himself to take away our iniquities and receive us graciously for him to be our God and for us to be his people and vouchsafe us his favour Spirit grace his accepting grace and his sanctifying and renewing grace pardon of sin and power against sin the blessings of the Covenant the sure mercies of David such as we find recorded in these and the like places Jer. 31. 33 34. 32. 38 39 40. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 c. Micah 7. 19. c. And such blessings such mercies are thus to be prayed for thus to be sought R. 1. Because God thus commands us to seek them and unless we thus seek them we do not seek them as he enjoyns Psal 105. 4. Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Math. 6. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness c. first not onely in regard of order of time but earnestness of endevours we are commanded to seek these not onely before other things but more than other things As these must be first so chief and most in our pursuits So Joh 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for the meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the father sealed not that we are forbidden to labour for things necessary to this life for that we are and ought to do but the meaning is that we must mainly and chiefly labour for that meat that endures to everlasting life that is for Christ and his benefits those things appointed by God for refreshing and sustaining the soul to eternity So that this is to be understood comparatively rather for the meat c. preferring the one before the other as when it 's said Matth. 9. 13. I will have mercy and not sacrifice he excludes not sacrifice but preferreth mercy So Luke 11. 9. And I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you By these expressions Christ enjoyns earnestness and perseverance in prayer for it is not a bare simple repetition of the same thing but a gradation and it is meant of things necessary to salvation and the whole scope of the place is to stir up to earnestness Ask and Scopus est oportere nos constanter orare cum ardore do not onely ask but seek yea and not onely seek but knock Thus when the Lord prescribes unto Aaron and his Sons to bless the children of Israel which was by supplicating his face and favour this they were to implore again and again as in that form Numbers 6. 25. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee v. 26. The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace R. 2. Because others have thus sought them even with all earnestness as the Church and people of God here and so others elsewhere The Prophet David tels us Psalm 119. 58. he intreated the favour of God but how with his whole heart I intreated thy favour with my whole heart So how often in the same Psalm does he beg of God to quicken him and to teach him his statutes nine or ten times the one and seven or eight times the other So how importunate is he for pardon Psalm 51. 6. according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my trnsgressions v. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity clense me from my sin v. 7. Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me c. v. 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities c. And how importunate was Jacob for the
them requires it and may command it they being things which are so precious and of so great importance and so absolutely and indispensably necessary that what should be sought with earnestness if not these as God and his face and favour and grace and pardon It is reported of the Macedonians that Alexander being displeased with them they not onely laid by their Arms and put on mourning apparrel and came running in Troups to his Tent but that there they remained almost for three days together beseeching his pardon which at last they obtained How much more should we implore God's pardon But to instance onely in these two in my Text as 1. for God to turn us again to himself what an excellent thing is this to be turned from darkness to light from Satan to God from sin to grace and holiness from evill to good from misery to felicity from hell to heaven Who would not be thus turned And then of such absolute and indispensable necessity is it that we be turn'd that we dye else we are undone and perish else either we must be converted or destroyed and then for God to cause his face to shine how precious how excellent is his favour Psalm 36. 7. How excellent is thy loving kindness O God c. therein is life yea it is better than life Psalm 30. 5. 63. 3. and so necessary that though many live no soul truly lives but in the enjoyment of it Deut. 32. 20. God said there he would hide his face from that people he would see what their end should be But O how sad must their end be that he hides his face from that he takes no pleasure in Psalm 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Job 34. 29. When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a nation or against a man onely And things of such excellency and such necessity do not they require and may they not command importunity I remember a story that one relates of a poor woman in Essex that being condemned to dye she fell a crying and scrieching as if she meant to pierce the heavens and the Judg and those on the Bench bidding her hold her peace she cryes O my Lord it is for my life I beg I beseech you it is for my life So when thou goest to God to beg for such mercies it is for thy life yea for what is better than thy life it is for the life of thy life the life of thy soul for that without which thou losest thy soul and dyest eternally perishest everlastingly and wilt not be earnest for this and as blind Bartimeus cry out and the Mark 10. 46 47 48 c. more others bid thee hold thy peace cry the more a great deal Prov. 2. 3. Yea if thou criest after wisdom and liftest up thy voice for understanding c. And what should we cry after or lift up our voice for if not for such mercies R. 4. Because this shews that we are earnest for them and that our desires are real and not indifferent when we are importunate for them and are resolved not to go away without them as the Prophet David was for mercy Psalm 57. 1. Be merciful to me O God be merciful to me c. So for pardon Psalm 51. Wash me cleanse me purge me and again wash me Genes 30. 1. So Rachel for children Give me children or else I dye So that woman of Canaan for her Math. 15. 21 22 23 c. daughter she would not be said nay and Paul that the thorn in the flesh might depart 2 Cor. 12. 8. for this thing I besought the Lord thrice And when we are thus earnest and importunate we manifest and make appear our desires are real and that we pray in truth and such the Lord is nigh unto Psalm 145. 18. R. 5. Because this shews us to be in a fit posture and capacity to receive them For this declares 1. that we need them that we want them I mean that we have a due sense of our want of them when we are importunate for them and will not be said without them For take a beggar that comes to your door for an Almes if he be soon said and presently goes his way what do you say surely he had no great need for if he had he would not so soon have taken an answer 2. This declares that we value them and set an high price and esteem on them when we are importunate for them and these two bring us into a fit posture and capacity for to receive them but else we shew no great need that we see of them and withall a kind of slighting of them As if a man was to ask some great matter and he should ask it frigidly coldly carelesly what would he say that he askt it of what is it no more worth than so O when you go to seek spiritual mercies you go to seek what is of great worth of more worth than a whole world and if ever you have them God will have them valued and have you see your want of them and so be brought into a capacity for them R. 6. Because we are so unworthy of them of so great things and therefore we must the more earnestly and importunately ask them and seek them by how much the more unworthy we are of them Psal 34. 6. This poor man cried unto the Lord. Truly we are all of us such poor and unworthy creatures that we had need not onely pray but cry Thus that poor woman of Canaan being in her own sense Math. 15. 21 22. c. and apprehension so unworthy but a meer dog as it were how earnest is she why as Jacob said so may we say more truly we are not worthy of the least of all God's mercies or we are Genes 32. 10. less than the least of all God's mercies We partake indeed of many mercies as we have whole bundles of them but if we search into them we can find none so little so small but we are less our selves and if we are not worthy of the least how much more unworthy of so great and therefore when we that are so unworthy of any the least mercies go to God for so great is there not cause we should be earnest and importunate and so the sight and sense of our so great unworthiness should so much the more stir up and increase our earnestness as it hath done in others So great matters begg'd of so great a Majesty and by such as are so mean and unworthy had need be begg'd with all importunity and earnestness Majesty and greatness considered with our weakness and unworthiness should much excite earnestness Jesus Christ himself though so worthy and without sin yet how earnest was he in prayer Hebr. 5. 7. it is said he offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears c. how much more we who are involv'd in sin c. R. 7. Because the great price which hath been given to purchase and procure them no less than the precious bloud of Christ the precious life of Christ John 6. 51. and the bread that I will give is my flesh that I will give for the life of the world 1 Thes 5. 10. who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him the life of grace here and the life of glory hereafter Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of sins Math. 26. 28. This is my bloud which is shed for many for the remission of sins and Hebr. 9. 22. and without shedding of bloud is no remission So we read of being justified by his bloud and reconciled by Rom. 5. 9 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. his death and of his suffering for our sins that he might bring us unto God And shall not we cry for what Jesus Christ was pleas'd todye shall not we earnestly beg for what he bled shall not we lay out our strength for what he laid down his life and lift up our voice for what he yeilded up the Ghost O how unworthy then should we shew our selves of them R. 8. Because this is all that the Lord requires of us for the obtaining of them that we should ask them seek them beg them intreat them and should not we do this to purpose earnestly and with all our might when he requires no more as Math. 7. 7. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall he opened unto you v. 8. For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened So in Ezek. 36. when God had made there those exceeding great and precious promises of blessings and mercies more worth than many worlds as v. 25. that he would sprinkle clean water upon them c. and v. 26. give them a new heart and put within them a new spirit and take away the stony heart out of their flesh and give them an heart of flesh and v. 27. put his spirit within them which is more than many worlds without them and cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments and do them and v. 28. and they should be his people and he their God c. Now after all hear what the Lord says v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquir'd of by the house of Israel to do it for them or be sought to and is this all and should not this be done earnestly Surely he that can't find in his heart to do this for such mercies deserves to go without them O consider God required a great deal more of his Son that we might partake of them What could he indeed require more he requires of him that he should come down John 6. 38. from Heaven to Earth from the Throne to the Footstool and become man be made flesh yea in the likeness of sinful flesh that though he was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet that he should make himself of no reputation and take upon him the form of a Servant and be made in the likeness of Philip. 5. 6 7 8. men and being found in fashion as a man should humble himself and become obedient unto death even the death of the Cross that he should lay down his life shed his precious bloud one drop of whose bloud is more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds and than all the bloud of all the men that ever lived upon the face of the Earth yea that he should be made a curse ☞ undergo his wrath make his very Soul an offering for sin and be for a while as it was forsaken of his Father and all this and infinitely more than can be conceived much less exprest that we might obtain such mercies yea and Jesus Christ willingly and readily obeyed his father in all these Hebr. 10. 7. Then said I lo I come to do thy will O God and I delight to do thy will and as the Father gave me Psalm 40. 8. commandment so I do though to do that did John 14 31. as it was amaze him and make his soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death and brought Mark 14. 33 34. Math. 26. 38. him into such an agony that his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud falling down to the Luke 22. 44. Math. 26. 39. and Mark 14. 35 36 39. ground So that as man he could not but recoile as it were and pray and that three times O my Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me that is this bitter passion but if it may not pass but I must drink it or otherwise such choice mercies such inestimable benefits cannot be procured for poor sinners but they must come swimming to them in my bloud and be purchas'd by my undergoing of thy wrath thy will be done seeing thou wilt have it so that I must undergo all this to procure them I am willing I am content rather than poor sinners should go without them I am willing to purchase them at any rate This now God requires of his Son that we might partake of these mercies and all this his Son obeyed him in but to us that we might obtain them he says onely ask seek knock and let me be enquired of by you and should not we do this and do it to purpose surely else it must needs argue fearful ingratitude and strange disingenuity and we deserve to go without them You know what Naaman's servant said to him 2 Kings 5. 13. My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith unto thee wash and be clean So what could God have said unto us do for such mercies more worth than many worlds but we should have been ready and willing to have done it how much more then when he says onely ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find and Rom 10. 13. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved and seek the Lord and ye shall live Amos 5. 6. But Jesus Christ dies that we may live 1 Thes 5. 9 10. and shall not we cry that we may live Was a malefactor condemned to dye and was there procured for him upon some great price paid by another a pardon of his Prince which he should have upon asking and begging O how importunately would he beg it and ask it When God said to David Seek ye my face O how readily does David's heart eccho back Psalm 27. 8. again thy face Lord will I seek Lord thy face thy favour makes heaven and may I have that for seeking for asking which Jesus Christ
tender affection and earnest desire of her son's welfare more than she could utter or express and therefore she several times repeats the same thing O he was her Son her most dear Son and therefore the Son of her vows the son of many prayers and probably tears * Cùm filium votorum nominet oftendit se non tantùm cum filio de piâ ejus educatione egisse sed Deo sine cujus auxilio irritus fuisset reliquus labor in precibus commendâsse c. Cartwritus in locum O let us pray for ours as Abraham did for his son Ishmael Gen. 17. 18. And Abraham said unto God O that Ishmael might live before thee not onely live but live before thee or live in thy sight live in thy face so it is in the Hebrew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in conspectu tuo vel in facie tua is in the shinings of thy face in the light of thy countenance i. e. live and enjoy thy love thy favour find grace in thy eyes O that his soul may live that he may live not onely a natural a temporal but a spiritual and eternal life a blessed and happy life the life of grace and a life in thy favour here and then the life of glory hereafter And Abraham was very earnest and sollicitous for this O says he or O if i. e. I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Utinam Quaeso vocula optantis earnestly wish or I beseech thee I earnestly pray and intreat thee it is the voice of one wishing and earnestly desiring a thing O that Ishmael might live before thee And this Abraham speaks 1. not as slighting or rejecting Gods Videtur Abraham risu intercessione suâ pro Ismaele in quem valdè fuit intentus quasi abrupisse Dei orationem quam igitur v. 19. continuat c. promise concerning a son of Sarah as if he had said Having Ishmael I desire no more nor 2. as despairing of the promise as if he had said I should have but little hope if I had not more hope in Ishmael already born than the promised son yet to be born or how is it possible we should have a son at this age and therefore O that Ishmael might live c. It was not I say from hence nor upon these grounds that Abraham thus speaks for when the Lord had made that promise to him it is said v. 17. that Abraham fell upon his face he bowed himself and this he did not onely as expressing reverence Abraham audiens promissionem de semine ex Sarâ orituro eámque firmissimâ fide amplectens toto pectore laetatur haec non esse dubitantis sed certissimae fidei verba Paulus clarè testatur Rom. 4. Chytraeus in Gen. 17. 17. but shewing his thankfulness which was an evidence that he believed and highly valued and heartily embraced what God had promised and whereas it is said he laughed it was not from doubting or staggering at the promise through unbelief Rom. 4. 20. but as admiring the goodness of God in it not as judging it impossible or thinking it a fable but as overjoyed and even amazed at such welcom tidings it was not from distrust in God's power but out of admiration at God's favour And therefore this earnest wish of Abraham as concerning his son Ishmael that he might live in his sight it proceeded from Abraham's dear and fatherly affection toward Ishmael and his earnest desire of his weal so that his affections being suddenly moved with the thought of Ishmael they make him as it were forget other things to beg for him or as if he had said though I cannot well conceive how this should be that at this age I Bonus pater auditâ promissione de filio novo sollicitus est etiam de Ismaelis salute metuens fortè ne totus abjiciatur vitam ei precatur non modò naturalem sed potiùs felicem c. Pareus in locum should have a son yet I believe and gladly embrace the promise but however O that Ishmael might live before thee let not him O Lord be cast off nor be abandoned by thee but let him live in thy favour though I have a promise indeed of another Son yet I pray thee let it be well with this son also bind up his soul in the bundle of life let him live in thy love let him be an heir of grace here and an heir of glory hereafter Thus though Abraham did yeild to the promise yet he thus speaks as being very sollicitous for Ishmael that God would set his eyes In promislâ felicitate fratri conjungatur Junius and his heart upon him for good for the chief good for spiritual good eternal good for thus Interpreters generally carry it Though God promised more seed to him yea that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for number ch 15. 5. yet this does not remove nor take off his affection from one he had already but still his heart and endeared affections are towards him Quasi dicat peto et ejus haberi rationem ne abjiciatur vel pereat Pareus he knew not how to have any one of his abandoned of God but as if he had said Lord take care of him also that he be not cast off or perish Thus the affections and desires of this holy Patriarch were carried forth not in gathering riches or heaping up treasures for his son Affectus hic pii parentis in filium docet praecipuam parentum curam hanc esse debere pro liberis non ut colligant eis thesauros sed ut conservent commendent eos Deo püs precibus c. Pareus but in earnest prayers to God for his eternal good And this blessed example of his we should follow we should imitate so as to be very earnest and importunately sollicitous for the great concerns of our children for spiritual blessings for them special peculiar favours tender mercies bowels of mercy the blessings of the covenant the sure mercies of David that their souls may live that they may live in his sight in his face in the light of his countenance that as he hath granted them life so he would vouchsafe them his favour which is the life of our lives as Job speaks Job 10. 12. that he would turn them again and cause his face to shine on them and so they may be saved we should wrestle with the Lord that he would thus bless them and resolve with Jacob not to let him go till he so bless them and bless them all every one both small and great that so while some are taken Luke 17. 34 35. others may not be left but that those whom one house hath held one heaven may hold and that being all heirs of grace together here they may come to be all heirs of glory together hereafter that so hell may never be the fuller for any of ours for which of ours can we endure to
Zach. 1. 3. the Lord of Hosts turn ye unto me and I will turn unto you For them to turn to him repentingly and for him to turn to them graciously these two do the work as to their weale they turn all evil away from them and set all good a coming towards them the sanctifying grace of God renewing and his accepting grace graciously receiving the sincerity of a peoples repentance and the serenity of God's countenance the effectual working of God's grace and the favourable shining of his face this is the very way for a people to be saved and this I shall illustrate in several particulars 1. This is the right way the true and proper way for a people to be sav'd It is said of Ezra 8. 21. Ezra that he proclaimed a fast c. to seek of the Lord a right way for them and their little ones and all their substance and here 's that right way indeed for us and ours and others for all for our little ones and all our substance for all we have or enjoy and if the Lord delight in us as Joshua and Caleb said of the Land of Numb 14. 8. Canaan he will bring us into this way which he who is just and right yea the most upright prescribes and surely were we our selves and in our right minds we would betake our selves to this as the onely right way of all our weal and happiness 2. It is a sure soveraign way a prevalent way an effectual way it never fails nor falls short and that let a peoples present state and condition be what it will seem it never so sad and desperate yet if the Lord do but turn them again and cause his face to shine they shall be saved yea they cannot but be saved as these undoubtedly here do promise to themselves 3. It is an experienc'd way a well prov'd and tried way a way that hath many probatum est's upon it for never was there people or person that God did indeed turn to himself and cause his face to shine upon but they were saved Niniveh that great city was within 40 days to have been destroyed But God seeing their works Jonah 3. 3. â—â— that they turn'd from their evil way he repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not and although the children of Israel forsaking the Lord and serving other Gods the Lord tels them that he would deliver them no more but bids them go and cry unto the Gods that they had chosen c. yet they Judg. 10. 13 14 15 16. putting away the strange Gods from among them and serving the Lord his soul was grieved for their misery And what an ill case do we find Israel to be in 2 Chron. 15. 3. it is said that for a long season they had been without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law and yet v. 4. when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord and sought him he was found of them So God hearing Ephraim to bemoan himself Jer. 31. 18 19 20. 21. and to repent his bowels are troubled for him or earns towards him as the mothers towards her child and now I will surely says the Lord have mercy on him and now he must think of and prepare for his return Set thee up way-marks c. So in Hosea 14. the Lord there bids Israel take with them words and turn Hosea 14. 1 2 to the Lord and say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and then they resolve so will we render the calves of our lips that is the spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and such indeed shall have cause for it cannot but be well with them Thus whatever proofs whatever assays have been made in this kind whether formerly or lately they have done they have been found effectual as to a peoples being saved and never was it yet known that ever a people or a person truly turning again unto God and being graciously received of him did miscarry let any produce an instance if they can Look as he being wise in heart and mighty in strength none ever hardned Job 9. 4. themselves against him and prosper'd so he being great in kindness and rich in mercy none ever turn'd to him but were saved 4. This is the way to be saved in mercy so to be saved as to be blest with Salvation as the Lord promises to his people as concerning peace Psalm 29. 11. that he will bless them therewith It is one thing to have peace and salvation and deliverance and mercies and another thing to be blest with them and to have them in mercy and as mercies and this latter is the greater many have these but few are blest with these but when God so saves a people as to turn them again and cause his face to shine then they are sav'd in mercy so as to be blest with their being saved I speak now of temporal salvation then in love to their souls God delivers them as it is said of Hezekiah Is 38. 17. And they are not so saved as afterward to be destroyed as it is said of the people that the Jude 4. Lord sav'd out of the land of Egypt that afterward he destroyed them that believed not 5. This is the way to be sav'd universally and that in a threesold respect 1. which way soever we take or understand being saved For this word saved is very comprehensive and of large extent denoting not onely the privative part of happiness though that most properly as freedom from enemies and evils of all sorts but the positive also as the fruition of all good and hence is it here variously read and rendred we read it we shall be saved others blessed happy or it shall be well with us and all things Servabimur salvi erimus beati verè felices omnia nobis feliciter cedent vivemus regnabimus nec ullo bono destitueemur shall happily succeed to us or we shall be safe and secure and in a good case and condition we shall live and raign and want no good thing And now which way soever we take or understand it or which way soever we read or render it this here reaches and takes in all and all follow upon this God's turning us again and causing his face to shine and when he is pleas'd to do this to vouchsafe these we may write under it what ever we will that tends indeed to our weal and makes for our good 2. This is the way to have all saved Kingdom saved Nation saved Church saved Court saved City saved Countrey saved Towns Families persons our selves ours others our relations our little ones to have bodies saved souls religion lives liberties estates gospel or whatever else is neer or dear to us 3. This is the way to be saved with all manner and kinds of salvation and from all
Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and return and I will heal your back-slidings So Turn to the Lord your Joel 2. 13 14. God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him c. And Let the wicked forsake his way Isaiah 55. 7 8. and the unrighteous his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on Nemo se curandum praebeat qui contemptui non compassioni se medico suo putat futurum him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts c. And so in many places besides and also in the New Testament the promise of grace and pardon and salvation is propounded as the great motive and means and cause of Repentance i. e. as apprehended and received and how can that be but by faith Repent ye for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and Repent ye and be converted Matth. 3. 2. 4. 17. that your sins may be blotted out c. And hence true repentance may be thus described that it is An Evangelical or Gospel-saving grace whereby a believing sinner or a sinner upon the apprehension and perswasion of the mercy of Acts 3. 19. God in Christ to such as are penitent so grieves and humbles himself for his sins as that he turns from them to the Lord for where there are nothing but apprehensions of wrath and displeasure there can be no true saving Evangelical conversion 4. It must be such a turning as hath joyn'd with it shame and even confusion of face for what the sinner turns from for what he hath been and done for the sins he hath committed And thus it was with Ephraim when he repented and turn'd to God indeed as himself acknowledges Surely after that I was turned I repented that Jer. 31. 19. is God working in me by a spirit of conversion I also cooperated by and with his grace having a lively sorrow for my sin and a striving after newness of life and now my heart was in another frame and my life in another way then before And after I was instructed saw and understood and consider'd how it was with me what I had been and what I had done I smote upon my thigh I was much moov'd troubled and griev'd and not onely so but I was ashamed yea confounded Thus it was when he was turn'd and repented indeed because says he I did bear the reproach of my youth of those sins and excesses and miscarriages of my youth these much dear'd me and exceedingly sham'd me as they will do others when they come to repent indeed O that sin and Satan and the world and vanity should have the prime and flower of their age and the best and first of their days and that in their very strength and vigour when they were best able to do him service they should do him least nay be unserviceable and serve the Devil and their lusts And what a shameful thing is this and how can the sinner but blush when he comes to be sensible of it Pudor est affectus qui nascitur ob aliquam turpitudinem c. P. Martyr Shame and confusion of face is that which arises from doing shameful things from doing what is unworthy unseemly vile even against common principles so from doing that of which comes no fruit or benefit but hurt rather as also from having hopes frustrated c. and all these fall in with sin What a vile and unworthy thing is it that God should be left for the creature the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water that happiness it self should be forsaken for misery all sufficiency for indigency and vanity and the Lord of life and glory for vile lusts and leasing c. There is a natural affection of shame which appears in the countenance by blushing when any thing is done amiss and is to be cherisht especially in young ones so as to be as a bridle to keep off from what is matter of shame so it grow not to excess but then there is a holy and gracious shame which is a concomitant of Repentance and conversion causing trouble and grief and debasing of the soul before God and this hath been still found among true Converts Thus Ezra 9. 6. Ezra I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God c. So the Lord tells Jerusalem Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed Ezek. 16. 61. 36. 31. c. And ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities c. And this Sancti viri semper dolent erubescunt de admissis peccatis Pet. Martyr hath such an affinity with repentance that it is sometimes put for Repentance What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed that is whereof ye now repent and from which ye are converted for the end of those things is death and therefore well might they be ashamed of such things in which not onely there was no profit but which tended to so much hurt even to their own ruine and destruction And thus it is with all true converts however before they bore themselves up and set a good face on their sins yet now being enlightned and come to themselves and their right minds they are ashamed And if this be to repent and be converted how few Converts are there in these days and how far are such from it who go on in their sins without shame which is an heavy aggravation of them It is best not to do what is matter of shame but having done it not to be ashamed doubles it and it is that the Lord much complains of Thou had'st a whores forehead thou refusedst to he ashamed And Jerem. 3. 3. 6. 15. were they ashamed when they had committed abominatoon nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush they would not blush and at length they were so hardened they could not blush This the Lord complains of again Jer. 8. 12. and again in Isaiah 3. 9. The shew of their countenance doth witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not they are bold brazen-fac'd impudent Illum ego periisse dico cui periit pudor Salust they care not who sees or knows their sin they glory even in their shame And this is too too much the guise of England this day which does so much aggravate our sin and augment our guilt and is exceeding sad and bodes exceeding ill Our filthiness as was said of Jerusalem Lament 1. 9. is in our skirts it is not hid but open obvious apparent and I have not found it says the Jerem. 2. 34. Lord by secret search or by digging
deem them why because Singulare beneficium cruce quasi spinis occludi viam peccandi God makes use of them many times to further and help forward this blessed turn and this being the onely way for sinners to be saved and to have it well with them this speaks well of afflictions Thus Manasseh who was so grievous a 2 Chron. 33. 12. sinner yet being in affliction he sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly c. and Luk. 15. â—7 18. when the prodigal suffered hardship and was ready to perish with hunger then he resolv'd to arise and go to his father and when God hedged up Israel's way with thorns sent troubles and Hosea 2. 6 7. distresses upon them then she resolves to go and return to her first husband not as if they effected this of themselves but by the Spirits working in them and by them But whiles sinners live in jollity and prosperity and have no troubles nor changes they never think of changing their way nor returning to God and thus the prosperity of fools destroys them whereas adversity might be Prov. 1. 32. a means to save them but by the other they are hardened and encouraged to go on still in a course of sin without returning Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed Eccles 8. 11. Psalm 73. 5 6. 50 21. therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil They are not in trouble as other men therefore pride compasses them about c. These things hast thou done and I kept silence Psal â—0 21. thou thoughtest I was such a one altogether as thy self So Thou art wearied in the Is 57. 10. See also Ps 55. 19. Jer. 5. 28. 22. 21. c. greatness of thy way yet saidst thou not there is no hope and why thou hast found the life of thine hand therefore thou wast not grieved that is thou hast found comfort by the Assyrians and they promise to strengthen thy hand with help and therefore thou art incouraged to go on still in thy way and therefore 't is a great mercy to such for God to afflict them and give them trouble and grief that so the ways of sin may be wearisome and troublesome and so they may think of returning from them when in some measure they feel the weight and burden of them and happy affliction that works to conversion happy troubles that further a sinner's peace by furthering his turning to God and putting a stop to him in his sins that cause sinners to seek the Lord whom before they forgot and lived without And how may this help to sweeten and alleviate the bitterness of afflictions and though bitter yet render them better than the sweetest pleasures of sin Blessed is the man whom thou châ—stenest O Lord and Ps 94. 12. teachest him out of thy Law c. Blessed blacks that are a means to turn us white and happy darks that are a means to turn us to light But 2 Chron. 15. 4 Is 26. 16. when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord c. Lord in trouble have they visited thee c. In their affliction they will seek â—e verly c. Hos 5. 15. But while sinners go in 〈◊〉 their greatest affliction and punishment is not to 〈◊〉 afflicted their greatest crosâ— and 〈…〉 crost for such are like to go on still in their sins And thus that which many sinners count their greatest felicity to prosper and be without trouble and affliction in their evil ways they go on in it is their greatest misery and that which they count their greatest priviledg is their greatest plague and proves their greatest detriment there being nothing sadder than a sinner prospering in an evil course and God not afflicting him and thus the Lord threatens it I will not punish your daughters when they commit Hos 4. 14. whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery c. And this is the greatest punishment the forest wrath the highest displeasure the furnace is heated here seven times hotter than ordinary for such are like to go on to commit whoredome and adultery still God withholding those punishments whereby they might be restrain'd and letting them go on without controule to their own utter confusion and destruction not taking any more pains with them by corrections to restrain their courses in sin but letting them go on still in the full career of their lusts and be as vile as they will and this is the heaviest judgment and argues the hottest displeasure it is next door to hell and such are within one step of being as miserable as they Vis indignantis Dèi terribilem vocem audire c. Orig. can be Wilt thou says one hear the terrible voice of a provoked God hear it here I will not punish c. So v. 17. and Matth. 15. 15. Bernard calls it a mercy more cruel than all Misericordia omni indignatione crudelior indignation a killing courtesie a cut-throat kindness yet how many are ready to bless themselves and think it a fine world to go on in their own ways without trouble whereas there cannot a greater plague befall them which made Luther cry strike Lord strike spare not and Feri Domine feri c. Jeremiah 10. 24. O Lord correct me but with judgment c. And this makes afflictions a great priviledge a choice mercy when they further our repentance and make us change our purpose and resolve to turn to God CHAP. X. The second Vse of the point in general by way of Exhortation and first to seek this by Prayer THE onely way for a people to be saved Use 2. of Exhortation is it for God to turn them again and cause his face to shine O as ever then we would be saved saved our selves or have others saved ours saved the Kingdom saved Church saved City countrey towns families friends relations little ones bodies souls religion lives liberties estates Gospel or whatever else is near or dear to us and as ever we would be sav'd indeed sav'd to purpose sav'd in mercy so as to be blessed and happy in being sav'd and have it well with us and all happily succeed to us here and be everlastingly saved hereafter let us all in the name and fear of God be exhorted excited and stirred up to seek this beseech this earnestly to intreat and importune this O that the Lord God of hosts would turn us again and cause his face to shine let this be our frequent and our fervent our often and our earnest prayer unto him and let us continue thus praying asking seeking begging beseeching intreating importuning knocking 'till the Lord is pleased to give us a gracious answer let us resolve with Jacob not to let him go except he thus bless us for nothing can avail us as to our happiness as to our weal as to the having
life and breath and all things or if it could be Acts 17. 25. supposed that he should want any thing which yet cannot be no ten thousand times sooner may darkness be in the Sun drought in the Sea than any defect in God but suppose such a thing what supply could the fountain have from the cistern yea a broken cistern the Sea from a drop the Sun from a candle the fruitful field from the barren heath the pleasant garden from the wast wilderness all-sufficiency from indigency he who is all from such who are nothing less than nothing and vanity a whole Jsa 40. 17. world of them and yet though he hath no need at all of us that he yet meerly out of that respect he hath to our good should call upon us and invite us to seek so great things so choice mercies the transcendent excellency and indispensable necessity of which might command our seeking of them and that with all earnestness what kindness is this that God should say seek ye me seek ye my face why what can we seek better or that is more what makes heaven but this surely there 's nothing there in comparison nor in competition with this God's face his special gracious benign presence it is the heaven of heaven 4. That the great God should not onely invite us to seek these but that he should as it were indent and covenant and make as it were a contract with us if we will seek them make such and such promises to us and tell us he will do so and so for us if we will seek them yea and upon seeking of them think himself as it were obliged to us though things in themselves so excellent and of such infinite importance and of such indispensable necessity as Seek ye me and ye Amos 5. 4 6. shall live and seek the Lord and ye shall live I will save you alive I will give you your lives Ps 30. 5. 63. 3. for a prey why the Lord's favour is life yea better than life and yet says God seek ye me and ye shall live so seek ye the Lord c. it may Zepli 2. 3. be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger and if my people which are called by my name 2. Chron. 7. 14. shall humble themselves and pray and seek my Facies pro gratia quae in vultûs serenitate ad aliquem conversione cernitur face c. then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land if ye seek my face and seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Now let Heaven and Earth Angels Matth. 6. 33. and men be astonished and stand amazed at this at this way and manner of God that he ☜ should thus as it were indent and covenant to seek such good how well may we cry out as David does in another case and is this the manner of men O Lord God do they use thus to 2 Sam. 7. 19. do or deal no so admirable is thy grace and goodness herein as it altogether exceeds man's way and manner of practice and it is peculiar to thy self alone Great ones do not use to invite and sue unto mean ones to beg great matters of them much less will they engage or covenant or make promises to them if they will seek great things no their way and manner is quite contrary A poor creature may if he beg get it may be some small matter of them but if he ask any great matter he is sent empty away this is not the way to speed but to be denied and have nothing when a poor creature begs a penny will they say ask a shilling or if he beg a shilling will they say ask twenty or if he ask twenty will they say ask as many pounds and you shall then have both no never was any such thing found among men this is onely the way and manner of God which therefore let us for ever admire and adore and withall readily and heartily imbrace and comply with for as David said in another case And what can David 2 Sam. 7. 20. say more unto thee so what can poor creatures say more to thee what can they ask or desire more that thou shouldest give them than that thou puttest them upon asking and seeking And it is that which should very much humble us that though the face and favour of God be that which is our very happiness and felicity and our chief good more than a Kingdom than a world yea many worlds were they extant yea more than heaven or earth too yet that we even we who profess our selves to be ☜ the people of God and are called by his name should be so backward for to seek it and that we should need to be bid yea to be conditioned and indented with for to seek it as you have heard O what strange kind of creatures are we and how woefully degenerate Are people backward to seek the Ruler's face or to intreat the Princes favour to seek the friendship of great ones no Solomon tells us Many Prov. 29. 26. 19. 6. seek the Ruler's favour Hebr. the face of the Ruler and Many will intreat the favour of Hoc Proyerbio inertia nostra insigniter coarguitur ut Deum principum principem non precamur c. Cartwright the Prince c. and are we backward to seek the face and favour of the great God are people backward to seek and desire life no Satan in that said truely skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life and what man is he that desireth life c. Austin brings in all sorts saying I do and I do and I do all Job 2 4. Ps 34. 12. Ego ego c. Ps 30. 5. 63. 3. desire life Why the favour of God is life yea better than life and yet we no more desire it so backward to seek it how should it humble us and stir us up the more to seek it for the future and if this be the will and command Ps 40. 8. and counsel of God let us say with David I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law this thy law is within my heart I do readily and heartily reverence it embrace it and yeild to it and I will bless the Lord who hath given me this counsel and is this that Lord which thou wouldest have me to do Lord I will do it and thou shalt not say to me do this in vain There be many that say who will shew us any good they are for any good and who will shew us no matter who if any and but shew it we will procure it we will work it out with our own wits let us alone for that we have wit enough to compass it but Lord lift thou up upon us the
light of thy countenance let us but enjoy that Psal 4. 6. good and that shall be in stead of all thy favour Lord thy face one good look from thee one smile from thy countenance vouchsafe us but this and for other things do what seems good to thee we leave them to thy wisdom to dispose as thou pleasest 5. The more to excite us to supplicate these let us consider he onely can effect these and vouchsafe these 1. He onely can turn us again to himself as was hinted before This is God's work the work of no less than an almighty power an omnipotent arme we can easily indeed and of our selves turn aside and turn away from God but it is onely the Lord God of Hosts that can reduce us the arme of Jehovah himself must be revealed to effect this who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Isa 53. 1. Lord revealed The Lord himself must speak and that with a strong hand so to instruct us as not to walk any longer as we have done or as others do as the Prophet Isaiah expresses it For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand or Isa 8. 11. as it is in the Hebr. in or with strength of hand In fortitudine manûs which denotes the strong and powerful operation of the holy Ghost in the Prophet and some others together with him and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people that is that I with others of the godly Jews should not follow the manners and practices of the greater sort of that people and it must be the Lord 's speaking his instructing and that with strength of hand that must effect this else all our speaking and preaching be it never so earnest and often is but with a weak hand and ineffectual and people will walk and go on still as they did we may tell people they should profit or declare to them what is profitable but it is the Lord God onely which can teach them to profit or what is profitable that is effectually So we may shew them the way they should go but the Lord God only can lead them in the way they should go I am the Lord thy God which teacheth Isa 48. 17. thee to profit or what is profitable as the Dutch read it which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go Every one therefore says Joh. 6. 45. Christ that hath heard and learned of the father cometh to me and so by me to him This is never done indeed 'till God does it and therefore how earnest should we be in our addresses to him that he would do it for Ministers can not do it nor can we our selves do it unless the Lord comes in with his help Acts 16. 9. It is there said a vision appeared to Paul in the night there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us our great work and business is to help people to help them in the main in their chiefest and greatest concerns to help their souls to help them as to God to turn them to him to further their being brought home to him and their being reconcil'd unto him but our help will signifie little unless the Lord help as the King said to that woman unless the Lord help how should 2 King 6. 26 27. I help 2. He alone can cause his face to shine we can indeed cause it to frown but he alone must make it smile We can raise those mists and clouds which obscure and hide his face and interpose between us and him and his favour but he alone can scatter and dispell them your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you Isa 59. 2. c. that is have caused him to hide his face from you you have done this but I onely can and must do the other viz. remove that which separates and discover my face and display my favour you can procure my displeasure but I onely must manifest my love you can erect a partition-wall between me and you but I onely can throw it down O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Ephraim by Hos 13. 9. the iniquity of his covetousness could cause God Is 57. 17 18. to hide himself and to be wrath but God alone could restore comforts to him and to his mourners David he could lose the joy of God's salvation but God onely could restore it I create Psalm 51. 12. Is 57. 29. the fruit of the lips peace peace c. We can marre our peace but God onely can create it and therefore to him we must seek and earnestly sue as the Church here and David and the people of God often elsewhere Lord lift thou up Ps 4. 6. 31. 16. the light of thy countenance upon us make thy face to shine upon thy servant c. 6. As he onely can do these so let us consider how infinitely able he is to do them he being as he is here described the Lord God of Hosts Job 42. 2. I know says Job that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be withholden from thee that is whatever thou hast purposed and decreed can by no means be hindered or kept from being perform'd Is any thing too hard for the Gen. 18. 14. Lord If any man says Paul be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away and 2 Cor. 5. 17 all things are become new and what follows And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and that was a great work indeed to reconcile heaven and earth yea heaven and hell as it were to reconcile us when we were such desperate enemies to heal a breach that was great like the Sea and which all the creatures in heaven and earth Angels and men could never have effected any thing as to the making of it up and all things are of him who hath done so great things already viz. which concern this new Creation greater than the first all things be they never so many or never so great he can make new heavens and new earth and new hearts and new spirits yea all new and how should we then resolve with David I will cry unto God most high Psal 57. 2. unto God who performeth all things for me and can perform all things for thee be they never so many never so great all things that concern thy weal thy happiness thy soul thy salvation thy conversion and restoring thee into his face and favour here and to eternal felicity hereafter We read often in Scripture of that Phrase and it is very observable of God's commanding such and such things such and such mercies and blessings as of his commanding deliverances for Jacob of his commanding strength of his Psal â—4 4. 68.
silence this life is the time of working but death of cessation not onely do civil works cease then as buying selling trading c. but the religious also as praying hearing repenting believing c. The time for these is onely while you are upon the earth there are none of these in the grave nor in hell and therefore how should you resolve to work the work of him that sent you while it is day for when the night Joh. 9. 4. cometh no man can work 9. You can never come hither again to do it when once you are gone there 's no return back As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away so he Job 7. 9 10. that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more I shall behold Is 38. 11. man no more with the inhabitants of the world And There is hope of a tree if it be cut Job 14. 7 10. down that it will sprout again c. But man dieth and wasteth away yed man giveth up the ghost and where is he c. no more here where ever he is not that Job denied or was ignorant Non negatur resurrectio ad vitam sed ad similem vitam Pined of the resurrection but he speaks it in regard of a natural life he shall come no more into this world to live and dwell here amongst men as he did or to dispatch any work no if his work was not done before he went hence he cannot return again to do it but it must cease for ever death as to that being the utter conclusion of man he is gone and returns no more and had you not need then to hasten to do your work when as Job speaks after a few years are come it may be weeks or days or hours you shall go Job 16. 22. the way whence you shall not return 10. The Scripture runs all upon Nows and upon the present as to this great work Acquaint now thyself with him c. Therefore also now Job 22. 21. Joel 2. 12. saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart c. and Return ye now every one from Jer. 18. 11. his evil way God does not onely command the duty and makes it every man's duty but prescribes also the time that it be now that it be forthwith without any further delay But now commandeth all men every where to repent and Act. 17. 30. If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return that is presently and To day if ye will Jerem. 4. 1. hear his voice c. See also Eccles 12. 1. Math. 5. 25. Isa 21. 11 12. c. 11. The not doing what you are to do at present as to this great work makes Gods putting a price into your hand in vain and to no purpose Why because you do not imploy it nor improve it and so to what purpose is it it is all one as if you had none Wherefore says Solomon Prov. 17. 16. is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it Now to repent and turn to God is your wisdom and you have at present a price in your hand for to get it a price of time strength parts gifts means and opportunities of grace but to what purpose seeing you have no heart to it nor to improve the present price that is in your hand for to get it Whereunto do opportunities and advantages of gettting good serve unless improv'd Say a man wanted some necessary commodity that he could not be without but must perish if he get it not and not having wherewith to procure it another should put a price into his hand now to what purpose was this if he be yet such a fool as not to lay it out but perish with a price in his hand had it not been better he had none To every thing there is a season Eccles 3. 1. and a time to every purpose under heaven and so for this but what are any the near if they let it slip and have no heart as to what they should improve it for which is wisdom saving conversion and so salvation and what should a man have an heart to if not to these 12. The not hearkening to God now at present while he calls does much provoke his wrath and aggravate your sins and will augment your misery For who are we that we should not presently stoop to and obey the call of so great a Majesty especially in what is so much our own concern Because says he I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man Prov. 1. 24 25 26 27 c. regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsell and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh c. And this was the heavy aggravation of Jezebel's fornication that God gave her space to repent but she repented not and so Rev. 2. 21. 9. 20. of those who though not killed by former plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands and Solomon tells us that because to every purpose there is time and judgment therefore Eccles 8. 6. the misery of man is great upon him But how is man's misery therefore great is it not rather a mercy yes but his misery is therefore great because he either is so blind that he cannot see it or else so careless and negligent that he lets it slip For man also knoweth not his 9. 12. time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snar'd in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them they know not in this their day the things which belong unto their peace at least not practically not savingly so as Luk. 19. 41 42 c. to pursue them till they are hid from their eyes which is so sad as that it made Jesus Christ himself to weep over Jerusalem and the neglecting such opportunities given to sinners for the good of their souls will certainly be another day as a dagger at their hearts when they shall see how wilfully and foolishly they have ruined their own precious souls in delaying to make Cùm nihil morte certius ac horâ mortis incertius quomodo quis audebit sciens ac volens in tanto remanere periculo per quod incurrere potest aeternam poenam c. Gerh. use of those helps they had to have prevented it and that they should be so strangely besotted and as it were bewitched not to look after that which so infinitely concern'd them till it was too late And therefore as you love your souls and tender your salvation delay no longer but forthwith set upon the work and dare not to go one
people of God so a time of cooling and refreshing and who would not long for it in such a dry scorching place and weary land as this world is It is a figurative speech and a fit Metaphor especially as to the condition of those Regions which were so exceeding hot and where workmen being even spent with heat did retire into the cool shades for refreshing and this refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord that is from his special gracious presence or from his face that is the shines of his face the bright beams of his favour the light of his countenance and whence else indeed should it come that being the very spring and fountain of all refreshings there they are and thence they flow In his presence is Psalm 16. 11. fulness of joy c. And this refers to the last day for that day which shall be a day of such heat and scorching unto others shall be a day of cooling and refreshing to all such as repent and are converted and that of far greater than of the coolest shade to the weariest workman that is even spent and ready to faint for heat But how is it said that your sins may be blotted out then are they not blotted out before yes the meaning thereof is that then ye may find and feel and experience the comfort of their being blotted out and while others sins stand still upon record and therefore to be accounted for the red lines of Christ's bloud may then as it were be seen drawn over yours the comfort of which at that day will be more than the possession of many worlds and however it will be the heat of the day to others who yet persist and go on in their sins this will make it the cool of the day to all such and as the most refreshing shadow after heat yea much more refreshing And thus Diodate interprets it not says he that the remission of sins is put off till then but because it shall then be publickly declar'd and bring forth its full effect of life and glory and they shall then be openly acquitted Ut non veniat Deus vobiscum in judicium sed eum tunc propitium habeatis Toss before Angels and men and God shall not enter into judgment with them but shew himself gracious and propitions to them Many indeed read this latter clause otherwise viz. and the times of refreshing shall come or that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venient vel ut veniant So the Syriack and Arabick and others as Luther Camerarius Illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accipiunt c. may come and so make it another motive to conversion and when sinners do indeed repent and turn to God then and not till then is it that times of refreshing do come to them from the presence of the Lord their sins which alone did interpose being now remov'd Others think it a defective kind of speech and that something should be supplied viz. that when those times of refreshing come you also Elliptica oratio c. ut cùm venerint tempora refrigerii vos sentiatis refrigerium c. Arcular may be refreshed you may share in them as all that truly repent and are converted are sure to do 3. Upon this follows divine favour which is better than life then he is gracious to him and he will be favourable unto him and he shall Job 33. 24 26 28. see his face and his life shall see the light and we shall live in his sight But I do but mention Hos 6. 2. this because I have spoken of it before 4. Audience of prayer a great priviledg a choice mercy It is one of God's Attributes that he is a God hearing prayer O thou that hearest prayer Psal 65. 2. 66. 18. and such experience him as so If saith David I regard iniquity in my heart then indeed the Lord will not hear my prayer no he will never be a prayer-regarding God to a sin-regarding sinner but when a sinner comes to hate sin in his heart and abandon it in his life then he will hear him and accept him and his prayers Now we know said that man that was born Joh. 9. 31. blind God heareth not sinners Why in some sense we are all sinners we have sin and are subject to sin and so God should hear no man but we are to understand it of such as are in a state of sin as love live and lie in sin and make a trade of sin and go on in sin without remorse and turning to God and such God heareth not but their very prayer is an abomination And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine Prov. 15. 8. 28. 9. Is 1. 15 Prov. 1. 28. eyes from you yea when you make many payers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud they shall call upon me but I will not answer c. But repenting sinners God hears Manasseh was a great sinner yet being greatly humbled and becoming a convert he prayed and God was intreated 2 Chron. 33. 12. and heard his supplication c. So when Ephraim bemoaned himself I have surely says Jer. 31. 18. the Lord heard him c. and Then shalt thou Is 58. 9. call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am What wonderful condescension of the great God is here as if he should say what wouldst thou have or what should I do whatever it be I am here ready to do it for thee or to communicate it to thee The Lord is nigh to such as are of a broken heart Ps 34. 1â— c. and If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven c. yea such shall have audience and acceptance though never so mean and contemptible in the eyes of the world He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer That Ps â—02 17. which we render destitute others read desolate the Dutch wholly stripped Piscator and Junius of the most naked or of the poor shrub the Nudatissimi Jun. Pisc Hebrew word signifies such a shrub as stands alone in the wilderness worthless and unregarded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liable to every blast and to be troden Of the much afflicted or altogether destitute and made naked of all help so the word imports down by every beast it comes of a word which signifies he was naked and the doubling of the two radical Letters imports the intension of the signification as most naked and most destitute and stript quite bare of all help and Eorum qui sunt veluti myricae humilésque myricae Virg. comfort and yet the prayers of such are not despised but heard and regarded of God When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and
their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will Is 41. 17. 1 King 8. 38 39. hear them c. and what prayer or supplication soever be made though never so weak though but a sigh and by any man that shall know the the plague of his own heart then hear thou in Ps 34. 6. Heaven c. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him c. And this is as I said a choice mercy a singular priviledg and in this God much favours and honours a poor creature and thus the Lord promises it and thus the Saints speak of it I will set him on high and how 91. 14 15. he shall call upon me and I will answer him and The Lord will hear when I call unto him and 4. 3. 116. 1. 102. 18. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice c. And hence it is said This shall be written for the generation to come that God shall hear the prayer of the destitute it shall be set down in a book and recorded and so published 5. Upon this follows a fitness and aptness to receive the Word and the impressions thereof for upon Ezek. 36. 26. true conversion the stony heart is taken away and there is given a heart of flesh that is a soft or tender heart easily admitting or receiving the Word it being like Wax to the Seal and like Gideon's fleece drinking in the dew thereof or like soft earth to the rain whereas the hearts of such as are impenitent and unconverted are as rocks and steep stony places which shoot off all without any impression Josiah humbling himself and his heart being tender what an impression had the words of the Law upon his 2 Chr. 34. 27. heart the hearts of such open and the Word goes in and there it comes to be ingraffed which is a choice mercy whereas the contrary is the greatest judgment as a stony heart an hard heart and such is every impenitent heart it receives no impression of God's Word nor works it yeilds neither to precepts nor promises nor threatnings nor admonitions nor reprehensions nor perswasions neither to judgments nor mercies But they refused to hearken c. Let favour Zach. 7. 11. Is 26. 10. 1. 5. be shewn to the wicked yet will not he learn righteousness and why should ye be stricken any more c. The natural man receives not the things of God he neither believes them nor yeilds to them There may be some slight superficial Non credit nec cedit reception for a little while as is said of the stony ground but it is not solid nor deep so as to enter root and abide The Word may have place among them but it has not as Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees place within them and therefore they sought to kill him Joh. 8. 37. That which is observ'd in Printing is very appliable and considerable here viz that the Paper which is to be printed upon is not of it self as it is dry and stiff and stubborn fit to receive impression and therefore to render it fit it is several times drawn through the water and so being throughly moisten'd mellowed and made soft it becomes fit and truely so it is with our hearts as they are by nature and of themselves and much more by custom in sin they are hard and stiff and stubborn very unfit to receive any impression of God's truth but being drawn as it were through the waters of repentance and so mellowed and made soft and tender they become fit Thus the repenting Corinthians became 2 Cor. 3. 3. Christ's Epistle for their hearts being made tender the Gospel was wrot upon them with ease and so the hearts of the Romans Rom. 6. 17. were cast into the Word as into a Mould bearing the stamp and figure of it Solomon says A reproof Prov. 17. 10. enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool his heart opens and yeilds to reproof Salt enters not into a Stone but it does into flesh and seasons it and makes it savoury and so do reproofs which are as Salt unto hearts of flesh such sit down as it were at God's feet and hear his words and they are willing and pliable and their language is Lord what wilt thou have me to do and Speak Lord for thy servant heareth c. 6. Upon this follows inheritance among them which are sanctified To open Acts 26. 18. their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance c. What an excellent thing is repentance here describ'd to be an opening of the eyes and a turning as you have heard the sinner from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and then what inestimable benefits do follow thereupon not onely forgiveness of sin as you have heard but inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ that is a lot in the heavenly inheritance in that inheritance of the Saints in light which now they are made meet for being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into Col. 1. 12 13. the Kingdom of God's dear son an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away reserv'd in heaven of which such glorious things are spoken which is of God's own preparing Christ's purchasing and that by no less price than his bloud which has the glory of God and where not onely Angels but God himself dwels and resides for ever and into this all true converts have entrance ministred unto them but no other shall or can but are without Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who Psal 24. 3 4. shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart c. The wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of Prov. 3. 35. fools And thus some interpret that in the Acts 3. 19. That your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord that is that your sins being blotted Ut remissis peccatis vestris recipiamini in coelum ad fruendum aeternis gaudiis c. Pisc out or forgiven you may be received into heaven to partake of those eternal joys c. And hence true repentance is said to be repentance unto life and repentance unto salvation and therefore not to be repented of not as if it was the cause or did in the least merit life or salvation Acts 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. for ipsae lachrymae lachrymabiles sunt our very tears need washing and our repentance pardon Non agit de causa salutis sed eventu poenitentiae ordinem ostendit quòd nimirum conversis donetur remissio non securis impoenitentibus Tossan but as the end of it and the way and means
none among them to call and invite them to better but suffer'd them to walk in their own ways and to go to hell in their Acts 14. 16. Idolatries God did not manifest his will to to them as he did to the Jews and thus the old Translation has it God regarded not Dutch reads it overlooked or disrespected lightly and slightly past them by his eye was not upon them for good so as to provide for them and send amongst them those that should call and invite them to repentance as he does now The word is the same that is used Acts 6. 1. and it signifies to despise neglect look over or besides because their widows were neglected So that to have an eye upon a place or person it being to manifest kindness and respect this winking seems to be Psal 33. 18. 34. 15. opposed to favour rather than justice viz. that God disregarded them overlooking them or besides them and not at them in mercy And de Dieu upon the place shews that it signifies God's anger and displeasure against them and therefore hid the means of salvation from them so that here not onely is God's command of repentance made known but the goodness of God in pressing the same c. And truly it is very sad in this sense for God to look over or look besides a place or people not so to regard times and shew that care of them and respect towards them as to send those among them that should call and invite them to repentance But England has nothing to charge God with as to this if this be to manifest respect to a people never had Nation clearer nor fuller demonstrations thereof then we have had And this sense and interpretation of the words does best agree with the sequel but now commandeth all men every where to repent and therein manifests more grace and favour he does not now leave nor let men alone to go on in their sins and walk in their own ways as formerly but many are now sent forth to call and invite them to repentance to reclaim sinners and to reduce wandering prodigals crying Turn ye turn ye and return return Repentance and remission of sins is now preached in Christ's name and many shew here and there and where ever they come that men should repent and turn to God c. So that now the great God does not onely command all men every where to repent but the holy Ghost specifies it here as a choice mercy and singular favour and priviledg that he does so and that beyond what he vouchsafed to former ages and the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent and truly next to true repentance and saving conversion it self this is the choicest mercy and greatest and highest priviledg that God can betrust a place or people with and this is the clearest and amplest demonstration of God's regard and respect to times that he can give for God to send his messengers up and down here and there in his name to command and invite and call upon people to repent and turn to God to cry as those Prophets of old Thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye now from your evil ways Zach 1. 4. and from your evil doings c. and Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dy and as that blessed Martyr Repent O England repent repent this is the fruit of God's compassion 2 Chr. 36. 15. on a people and in this the tender mercy of Luk. 1. 77 78 79 God yea the very bowels of his mercy do break forth and display themselves and to despise and reject such mercy to kick against such bowels causes the wrath of the Lord to arise against a people till there is no remedy for if says 2 Chron. 36. 16 17. Christ I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin that is in comparison their sin Joh. 15. 22. had not been so grievous as now it is but they might have had some excuse because of their ignorance but now they have no cloak or pretence for their sin Thus that the great and most high God commands us to repent not only should his soveraign authority therein awe us and have a strong influence upon us to obey but the regard and respect also which therein he manifests to us and the care which he shews he has therein of our souls and this is here subjoyned as one reason why he now commands all men every where to repent v. 31. because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead There is a day of judgment set a great and terrible day in which God will judg the world and he hath given assurance thereof to all men and now God would have it well with men at that day that they might be found then in peace and that it might be a day of refreshing to them and to that end he now commands them all every where to repent and to turn to him without which he knows it will be a sad day to them a day of perdition and destruction and therefore is he still long-suffering towards us not from slackness but from a willingness that none of us should perish but that we should all come to repentance and so be saved And what a great mercy and singular kindness is it that God has put us into a capacity of finding good by repentance by giving his Son to shed his bloud and to lay down his life for our sins without which all our repentance could have avail'd us nothing And shall not now God's authority nor clemency his soveraignty nor sweetness in commanding us to repent prevail with us but shall we despise both his greatness and his goodness his Majesty and his mercy what will this be but after our hardness and impenitent Rom. 2. 5. hearts to treasure up to our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God 2. There is a necessity as a way and means of our happiness and 2. Necessitas medii Nisi agnitis peccatis seriâ cordis contritione pungamini verâ fide á deo irato ad eum propitium in filio placatum conversi fueritis vitamque emendáveritis omnes simul peribitis Winckel weal as that without which it cannot be but we must perish and this Jesus Christ himself who is the Amen the faithful and true witness yea truth it self hath twice averred Luk. 13. 3 5. I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And again I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish I tell you who know full well who shall be saved and came to save that except you repent
woes and curses and horrors and terrors and tearings a pieces rolling garments in blood Psal 50. 22. Hos 13. 8. and renting the caul of the heart and devouring like a Lion And sinners not being sensible of this at present does but aggravate their misery and make their condition the more lamentable and is here any ground for mirth and not rather of grief and continual sorrow of heart and well may we say to such as the Apostle James Be afflicted and mourn and â—â—mes 4. 9. weep let your laughter be turn'd to mourning and your joy to heaviness And though in a right way and upon good grounds we wish and desire comfort to all yet as to the state that many are at present in we cannot wish them better than trouble as the way to peace and Timorem plurimum grief as the way to joy as Bernard once writing to one that he thought not sollicitous enough about the judgments of God wisht him much Hos 9. 1. fear Rejoyce not says God to Israel as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God c. And however such may at present find pleasure and delight in sin and carnal mirth in their evil ways yet let them know this is but their disease and from the distemper that is upon their souls for were their hearts right they would cry out of the bitterness of what they now say is sweet and what pleasures are they but such as are common with beasts and of the brutish part and but for a moment and such as have a poysonous sting in them and death and damnation entail'd to them and such as will certainly end in bitterness if not mercifully here dreadfully and eternally in hell hereafter and therefore be no longer enemies to your own comfort in going on still in your sins but turn to the Lord and then you shall experience true joy and comfort indeed and shall not lose your joys nor pleasures but change them for better for spiritual heavenly and more refined Would you not all now have joy and comfort and be glad which indeed is the very strength and support of our spirits and life of our lives for what is life or any thing else without comfort this being as one well expresses it the Spring of our year the light of our day the Sun in our firmament for the joy of the Lord is your strength and a merry heart does good like a medicine yea such a one hath a continual feast and would you have so O then turn to God we who are Ministers are called helpers of others joy and we would be glad to be so but never can we be so indeed till we become helpers of your conversion and instrumental in bringing you to God and turning you to him and then and not 'till then do we become helpers of your joy indeed yea and of our own too in yours and then may we say Go thy way eat thy bread with Eccles 9. 7. joy c. In the transgression of an evil man there Prov. 29. 6. is a snare but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce CHAP. XIII Some further Motives to turn to God 1. LET us consider that while we refuse or neglect to do this we forget our selves and hence when people turn to the Lord they are said to remember All the ends of the world Psal 22. 27. shall remember and turn unto the Lord c. It is a Prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles who turning to the Lord are said to remember but whom or what should they remember why in general themselves and their own interest how much they were concern'd therein more particularly some refer it to what immediately goes before They shall praise the Lord that seek him and their heart live for ever that â— 36. is through the manifestations of his favour be filled with spiritual joy this being indeed the living of the heart as the contrary is its dying 1 Sam. 25. 37. Cogitabunt de suis peccatis miscriis et considerata Dei misericordia tandem seriò expetent opem remedium suorum vulnerum i. e. convertentur Moll or live a spiritual life here and an eternal hereafter and remembring this they shall turn to the Lord or 2. They shall remember their sins the number and nature of them how many and great they have been and their misery by reason of them what wrong by their sins they have done to God and their own souls He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul they shall remember me c. because I am broken with their whorish heart c. Or 3. remember how Ezek. 6. 9. Zach. 10 9. Prov. 8. 36. much this is their duty as also its equity excellency c. and also how great God's goodness and mercy and riches of grace are to such as do indeed turn or they shall remember God's patience and the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering towards them how long he hath born with them though every day angry with them and provoked by them as it is said of the Israelites that about fourty years God suffered their manners in the wilderness or he bore them as a burden their froward Acts 13. 18. and untoward carriages were as an heavy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burden is to a man or as the peevishness and unquietness of a sucking Child is to the Nurse c. Now this they shall remember and despise Rom. 2. 4. those riches of goodness no longer but be led by them to repentance c. Thus there 's very much which if we did but remember and seriously consider might put us upon turning to God and how long shall we forget God and our selves and our own concerns and our own and the Nations weal. O that at length we might all remember and turn to the Lord especially considering the lowd cryes we have had to it alate not onely from God's Word but his works his judicious proceedings why whom should we remember if not our selves or what if not our own good we are bid not to forget to do good to others and shall we forget that which makes so much for our own good We would that God should remember us yea and he does or it would be quickly sad with us and shall not we remember him nay our selves but in refusing to return forget both The Psalmist complains his heart was so smitten c. that he forgat to eat his bread that was sad and strange Psal 102. 4. but this is sadder for that can but famish the body but this the soul that can but bring to the grave but this to hell The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget 9. 17. God and forget themselves to turn to him and therefore let us no longer forget our selves but in turning to the Lord shew at length that we remember
much do we fail his expectations and what he promises to himself concerning Quasi dicat omnia tentavi media sed lusi oleum operam nec bonis nec malis estis curabilâ—s c. Pareus us so as that he is even at a stand with us and knows not what as it were to do to us as he says of Ephraim O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee c. for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away c. Hos 6. 4. A most pathetical expostulation as if the Lord had said I have several ways try'd you and made several assays upon you sometimes one way and sometimes another sometimes by my word and sometimes with my rod one while prospering you another while áfflicting you c. and after all I profess I am even at a stand concerning you and you shew your selves such as that I know not what to do to you Your goodness if any what is it but as the morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away it is but a meer flash an outside fickle unconstant nothing and you unsteady and deceitful So it is said of the Israelites that the Deut. 3. 2. Lord led them fourty years in the wilderness to prove them and to know what was in their hearts whether they would keep his commandements or no and what upon proof did he find them even an awker'd untoward perverse people they gave God indeed good words made him fair promises spake well but acted ill and quite 5. 27 28. contrary to what they pretended God said indeed Surely they are my people children that will Is 63. 8 9 10. not lye so he was their Saviour c. But they Deut. 32. 15. rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit c. When Jesurun waxed fat then he kicked and when lean he murmured It is said God left Hezekiah 2 Chr. 32. 31. to try him to know all that was in his heart and how much pride and vain glory and ingratitude was there found there God many times lays us low and what large promises do we make if he will but restore us which many times the Lord does but what false deceitful creatures do we shew our selves and so we think if we had but such and such mercies how would we improve them but it is quite otherwise upon tryal so before affliction comes we think many times we have a good measure of faith and patience and christian courage and submissiveness to the will of God but upon proof how little does it appear to be But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee Job 4. 5 6. and thou art troubled c. thus surely men of low Psal 62. 9. degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be laid or being laid in the ballance that is put to the tryal they are altogether lighter than vanity i. e. vanity being laid in one scale Sensusest si homines ponerentur in una lance bilancis vanitas verò in altera tum comperirentur leviores esse quâ—mvanitas Pisc and all they together in the other vanity would yet outweigh them and be found weightier than the weightiest of them By a â—ye we are to understand false and deceitful and as men of high and low degree comprehend all sorts of men so vanity and a lye all sorts of deceitfulness and uncertainty But God now he upon proof is ever found what his Word declares and what he promises to be yea such as make proof of him find him to be better and more than what they expected him to be Joshua when he was Josh 23. 14. now going the way of all the earth he appeals to all Israel that not one thing had failed of all the good things God had promised all came to pass and not one thing failed thereof And Solomon declares as concerning his father David that 1 King 3. 6 God had shewed him great mercy and kept for him great kindness according as he walked before him in truth and in righteousness c. and David Psal 119. 65. himself says thou hast dealt well with thy servant O Lord according to thy word And O that England that we of this Nation would at length by true conversion but prove God and see but what would be the effect and issue thereof if he would not bless us and cause it to be well with us we have tryed others and other ways and upon proof found them vain and ineffectual O that at length we would but try here if not for our own sakes yet for the sake of the Nation or at least of our little ones if we have no regard to our selves nor any other yet at least let us have respect to them that they may be saved which are or should be so dear to us and which we especially should seek the good of because while so little they cannot seek it themselves and that when we have served the Lord in our generation they may continue after us to stand up in our stead These Ezra had a Ezr. 8. 21. special regard to in that fast he proclaim'd at Domino parvuli maximae curae sunt nec dubium Deum saepiùs urâ— ibus maximis paâ—cere propter multitudinem infantium c. Winck in loc the river Ahara it was to seek of him a right way for them and their little ones Yea what a singular respect hath God himself to such how have his bowels even yern'd towards them and shall not ours you know what he said to Jonah And should not I spare Niniveh that great City wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand their left that is young children and infants And shall not Parents have a tender respect to such can ye indure to see the evil else that is like to come upon them do but read and seriously weigh what the want of turning to God hath brought upon others little ones * Lam. 2. 11. 4. 10. and shall this move us nothing O that something Hos 13. 16. Ezek. 9. 6. or other might prevail but to try what not try what is purpos'd for our own weal why the Lord you see is pleas'd to put himself to the tryal prove me and shall we refuse when as never yet any prov'd him thus in vain O did we but truly and unfeignedly repent and turn to God we should then see what was the power and prevalency thereof and we should meet with such proofs of God's favour and goodness as would fully convince us that all the while we refus'd to do it we for sook our own mercy and from Hag. 2. 19. that very day would the Lord bless us and let us all set our selves to this as belonging to all and as being the concern of all both old and young high and low rich and poor great and mean