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
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
first calling and bringing home to God and then there is an after or progressive which is the continuation and going on forward in the first throughout the whole course of our lives and where this after does not succeed the first was never sincere Indeed at our first conversion we are turn'd to God but by our continuing the same we are turn'd more and more till we return to that state in which 2 Cor. 3. 18. we once were and that is not till death and therefore this turning is a continued act and daily exercise all this life And there is indeed matter enough to hold our repentance work all our lives both in regard of the sin of our natures hearts and lives our daily infirmities which as we daily renew so are we to renew our repentance and to persevere and continue therein to the end so as not to turn aside again from God and his ways to the crooked ways of sin nor from the holy commandement for it had 2 Pet. 2. 20. 21 22. been better for such not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandement delivered to them and the latter end with them is worse than the beginning Not but that the best Converts have their slips and falls their deviations and wanderings here for in many thins we offend all James 3. 2. Galath 6. 1. and are sometimes overtaken in a fault c. but it is not habitual though they may fall and go astray they get up again and turn into the way the high-way of the upright is to depart from evil A Sheep may fall into the mire but Prov. 16. 17. does not as a Swine wallow therein an ordinary habitual customary turning away or turning aside from God to the crooked ways of sin is inconsistent with true conversion and such as do so God says his soul shall have no pleasure in Hebr. 10. 38. Psal 125. 5. them but he will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity And thus I have now shewn you more particularly what kind and manner of turning that is which is so effectual as to a peoples being saved And now I shall proceed to the second thing I propounded to do which is to give you the Reasons why for God so to turn a people again and cause his face to shine is the onely way of their being sav'd CHAP. VIII The Reasons and Grounds of the point THat for God to turn a people again and cause his face to shine is their onely way to be saved appears R. 1. Because this is the way which the Church and people of God here betake themselves to They earnestly desire to be saved that though it was ill with them at present that yet it might be well with them for the future And what do they do what way do they go what course do they take to effect this why this they do they earnestly intreat again and again that the Lord God of Hosts would turn them again and cause his face to shine Surely had there been any other more effectual way of their weal they would have made use of it but they as inspir'd by God betaking themselves to this and being so importunate for this this must needs be the onely soveraign and most effectual way thereof R. 2. Because this is the way which others also have betaken themselves to as the Church in the very close of the Lamentations Turn thou us Lam. 5. 21. unto thee O Lord say they and we shall be turned renew our dayes as of old that is vouchsafe us thy favour again and so by doing these for us change our present sad condition into that happy state our fathers formerly enjoyed Thus in this way they seek their weal and so elsewhere Turn us O God of our salvation and Psalm 85. 4. 67. 1. cause thine anger towards us to cease and God be merciful to us and bless us but how would they be blest and cause thy face to shine upon us Wherein they plainly allude to the manner of blessing prescrib'd by God himself to Aaron Numb 6. 23. Jerem. 31. 18. So Ephraim Turn thou me c. And thus Moses sought the weal of Israel Psal 90. 13. Return O Lord how long c. and v. 14. O satisfy us dearly with thy mercy that is thy favour thy loving kindness for so the same word is rendered elsewhere as 63. 3. Because Benignitate tuâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy loving kindness is better than life c. that we may rejoyce and be glad all our days and v. 17. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us or loveliness some read the pleasantness or Jucunditas Domini pleasing look that is his amiable favour and grace let the Lord our God love us and delight in us let that beauty be upon us which shines in his favour The face is the seat of beauty and love shining in God's face is his beauty upon us By this expression says Calvin upon the place we may gather how incomparable a thing the love and favour of God is David was often under sore tryals and afflictions and what does he still crave for his succour and relief and that he might be sav'd it was God's favour Psalm 4. 6. 31. 16. 119. 132 135. c. that he would make his face to shine upon him and lift up upon him the light of his countenance R. 3. Because this is the way which the Lord himself who knows best what tends to his peoples weal prescribes and invites them to as the onely soveraign way thereof As in that known place Hos 14. 1 2. which contains in it the very way and platform of a peoples weal and being saved O Israel return unto the Lord Hosea 14. thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity The Lord here minds Israel how ill his iniquities had dealt with him how they had even overthrown him and laid him low made his condition exceeding sad this is all he got by them and yet the Lord would have it well with him again and that it might be so what does he advise him it is to return unto him as Continet haec supplicatio unicam consequendae salutis viam viz. si Deus auferat peccata c. Pareus the fountain of all his happiness and welfare and bids them as it follows v. 2. Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously c. This the Lord prescribes himself as the onely way of their weal as if the Lord had said It is ill indeed with you at present but if you would have it well with you then do thus and say this turn to the Lord and say unto him and say it not onely with your lips but with the ferventest Non ore tantùm sed intimo cordis
it well with us without this try we what other ways or courses we will or can without this they will signifie nothing Our felicity or our misery our safety or our peril our weal or our woe our having it well with us or our having it ill with us in a word life or death the blessing or the curse our being saved or our being utterly destroyed it depends upon this on our being turned or not turned again unto the Lord and on his favour or frowns on his love and grace and good will or anger and displeasure upon his causing his face to shine or hiding of the same and not on other things though we are ready to think otherwise and strangely therein to mistake If think we times would but turn things were but so and so O we should be a happy people but let times and things turn which way they will let them turn as we think never so much for the better yet if we be not turned again our selves and God does not cause his face to shine if he yet shall say his soul has no pleasure in us O woe unto us we are yet a miserable and an undone people but let the Lord but do this which the Church here so earnestly craves turn us again to himself and cause his face to shine and then let our condition be what it will seem outwardly never so calamitous we cannot but be happy But otherwise let it seem never so prosperous we cannot but be miserable For to be saved from our calamities and not to be turned from our iniquities to be saved from our afflictions and not from our transgressions from our sufferings and not from our sins what is it but to be saved so as afterward to be destroyed and that with a sorer destruction as it is said of the people that the Lord saved out of Jude 5. the Land of Egypt that he afterward destroyed them that believed not And hence when the Psalmist speaks of the Lords redeeming Israel in mercy he expresseth it thus And he shall Psal 130. 8. redeem Israel from all his iniquities And therefore let us be intent and earnestly bent upon this and importunate for this Let us humbly and earnestly supplicate this Turn thou Lam. 5. 21. us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of old that is vouchsafe to us thy favour And turn thou me and I shall be Jer. 31. 19. turned and let our hearts eccho back to God as Davids did When thou saidst seek ye my face Psal 27. 8. my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek And thus in this sense let not the Lord say Seek ye me in vain but let us answer his invitation O seek we the Lord and his strength seek we his face evermore and intreat we his favour with our whole hearts Let the Lord hear us and find us as frequent and as fervent as often and as earnest as vehement and as importunate as the Church and people of God here who thrice here as I have said in one Psalme make this their humble and earnest suit v. 3. Turn us again O God and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved and v. 7. Turn us again O God of hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved and again v. 19. Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved And the more to put us upon this earnestly and importunately to seek these let us consider these several particulars As 1. That this is that the Lord invites us unto and that often to seek him and his face and that he would take away our iniquities and turn us from our sins and when and where God invites and commands shall not we obey And surely if we look about us it is high time Hos 10. 12. to seek the Lord and to stir up our selves to take hold of him now that he seems as it were to be going from us How readily and cheerfully did David answer God's invitation when thou saidst seek ye my face that is my favour my grace for favour appears and shines in the face my gracious benign presence my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek he eyes God's command looks to that and presently yeilds and complies thy face Lord will I seek as if he had said whatever others seek let them seek what they will the face and favour of others but as for me this is that I am resolved to seek and this shall be in stead of all to me thou and thy favour and herein I freely and willingly comply with thy command and so should we as those to whom God had said Return ye backsliding Jer. 3. 22. children and I will heal your back-slidings Behold we come unto thee or behold here are we so the Dutch for thou art the Lord our God 2. Let us consider what great goodness kindness and gracious condescention it is in the great God that he should invite us to seek these and in inviting us to seek them should shew himself so willing and ready to discover himself and to communicate them to diffuse his grace and goodness unto us yea such goodness the chief good Seek ye me and seek my face as if the Lord should say I am for ever blessed my self and I would have you so too I am my own happiness and I would be yours too which none else nor any thing else can ever be I am happy and I desire to impart happiness to you also to shine upon you Seek ye my face that I may impart that to you for your felicity that is my own What kindness is this that God should be thus willing to bestow good yea the chief good to vouchsafe his favour yea more willing to vouchsafe it then we are for to ask it so willing as that he becomes a Suitor to us for to seek it he seeks us to seek him Heaven becomes a suitor to Earth the Creatour to the Creature he knows our happiness is out of our selves and wholly and onely in him and his favour the spring and fountain of all good and therefore puts us upon this 3. Let us consider that the Lord does this it is not for any need that he has of us but because of that need which we have of him not as if his happiness could in the least be impaired without us but because we cannot be happy without him How should all-sufficiency it self be under any want or indigency he who is himself all and every thing and has every thing bee in want of any thing Whatsoever says he is under the whole heaven is mine yea whatsoever Job 41. 11. is in heaven for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom c. neither 1 Chron. 29. 11. needs he any thing seeing he giveth to all
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