Counsels go down glibly When persons are fully satisfied that in all our Addresses to them we study only their benefit and profit this opens an effectual door to all the means that we shall use Thus Paul accosts the Romans I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift Rom. 1.10 11. Thus he smooths his way to the Philippians Phil. 1.8 God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ Labour then to get their love their good esteem and the work will thrive beyond expectation Love is like the oiling of the Key which makes it to open the lock more easily love greaseth the nail and makes it enter with more facility 2. To holy hearty serious affectionate frequent admonition add an exemplary Conversation Inferiours are apt to be led rather by example than rule and are more prone to imitate Practices than to learn Principles They are more mindful of what we do than of what we say and they will be very prone to suspect that we are not in good earnest when they see that we command them one thing and do another our selves When we teach them well and do amiss our selves we do but pull down with one hand what we build with the other Like a man that at the same time sings a lovely Song and drowns the melody of it by playing an ugly Tune When the Father is immodest the Child that sees it soon grows impudent and therefore the Ancients thought themselves concern'd to be very reserv'd and cautelous before their children Maxima debetur pueris reverentia Psal 101.2 Nâ—l faedum dictu visâ—que ea limina â—angat intra quae pura est Pâ—il 1.4 Col. 1 3. Rom. 10.1 Walk as David therefore in thy house with a perfect heart Let thy children and servants behold nothing in thy deportment which if follow'd may prove sinful 3. To an exemplary conversation add faithful fervent humble constant supplication Paul without ceasing makes mention of his heart's desire and his prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved Ministers like spiritual Priests should not fail to offer their daily Sacrifices for their people confess their iniquities bewail their misery and cry mightily to God for his mercy All our instructions without prayer will do no good Go to God to sanctifie all By prayer carry thy children servants to the blessed Jesus in the Arms of Faith and beseech him to bless them by laying on his hands on them as Isaac did The accustomed Ceremony used in Blessing Beza in Mat. 19. Impositio manuum Symbolum fuit apud Judaeos familiare quoties solâ—nnis erat precatio vel benedictâ— Mat. 15.22 Gen. 27.1 and 48.9 14. with Matth. 19.13 and Mark 10.16 How pathetically did Abraham plead with God for Ishmael Oh that Ishmael might live before thee Gen. 17.18 Bathsheba calls for Solomon the Son of her Vows Prov. 31.2 Austin the Child of Monica's prayers and tears O pray then pray earnestly O that this my Son Daughter Servant might not dye for ever Thou Lord art the Prince and Lord of Life O speak powerfully to their poor Souls that these pieces of my bowels that are now dead in trespasses and sins may hear thy voice and live Cry out to God with that poor man in the Gospel Lord have mercy on my Son Matth. 17.15 If a Mother do as the Woman of Canaan did Have mercy on me O Lord my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil If he seem not to hear and to be silent go nearer to him by Faith and cry Lord help me Lord help me If his Answer seem to be a repulse do not thou desist but rather gather Arguments from his denial as she did and conclude that if he once open his mouth he will not shut his hand and if importunity may prevail with an unrighteous man then much more it will obtain with a gracious God Never leave him therefore till by laying hold on his own strength thou hast overcome him At last thou mayst hear that ravishing voice O Woman be it unto thee even as thou wilt and see thy Daughter made whole from that very hour 4. Lastly To fervent supplication add wary inspection Keep a strict hand Dr. Jacomb Dem. Dâ—c 83. and a watchful eye continually over those that are committed to your charge your utmost care and vigilancy in this will be found little enough How soon will those Gardens that now look like a Paradise be overgrown with weeds if the Keepers thereof do not look to them daily How soon is Childhood and Youth tainted with sin if it be not narrowly watcht Be thou diligent therefore to know the state of thy Flock and look well to thy Herds Carefully observe the natural temper of your inferiours you will by this the better know how to apply your selves to them in advice reproof correction Observe the first sprouts and buds of what is either good or evil in them encourage commend reward them in the one curb restrain and prevent the further growth of the other Do they begin to take God's Name in vain Do they nibble at a lye Doth Pride in apparel peep forth Be sure to kill this Serpent in the very egg to crush this Cockatrice in the Shell 2. Thus of Superiours A word to Inferiours and I have done Dear Lambs the Searcher of Hearts knows how greatly I long after you all in the Bowels of Jesus Christ Shall I prevail with you to remember this when I am laid with my Fathers viz. That 't is no less your Duty to make Religion your business in the relation of Children and Servants than 't is ours in the relation of Parents and Masters Oh what a credit what a glory is it to drink in the Dews of Godliness in the morning of your lives What a lovely sight to behold those Trees blossoming with the fruits of the Spirit in the Spring of their Age Better is a poor and a wise Child than an old and a foolish King Eccl. 4.13 What a Garland of Honour doth the Holy Ghost put on the head of an holy Child How profitable is early Piety Some Fruits ripe early in the year are worth treble the price of latter Fruits Godliness at any time brings in much gain but he that comes first to the Market is like to make the best price of his Ware On the other side how dangerous are delays Remember Children late Repentance like untimely fruits seldom comes to any thing Your lives are very uncertain As young as you are you may be old enough for a Grave Oh then seek your God 1 Tim. 6.6 We read of one that truly repented at his last gasp that so none might despair but 't is of but one that none might presume and seek him when and whiles he may be found Isa 55.5 If thou refuse him now he may refuse thee hereafter I have heard of one that deferring Repentance
Luke 6.12 But such as are fill'd with impertinent multiplications of vain words and have neither holy reasonings nor spiritual and warm affections and yet think to be heard for their much speaking Qu. But can God be moved by our arguments or affected with our troubles He is the unchangeable God and dwells in the inaccessible light James 1.17 There 's no variableness or shadow of turning A metaphor from the fixed stars which admit no parallax Kepler Astron l. 4. p. 495. Fran. 1635 c. Argol Tab. p. 72. and therefore Astronomers cannot demonstrate their magnitude for our eyes or instruments can yet give no intelligence of any increase or diminution of their diameter or light Ans Those holy motions upon the hearts of Saints in prayer are the fruits of the unchangeable decrees of his love to them and the appointed ushers of mercy God graciously determines to give a praying arguing warm affectionate frame as the prodromus and forerunner of a decreed mercy That 's the reason that carnal men can enjoy no such mercies because they pour out no such prayers Jer. 29 10 12. Isa 45.1 2 4.11 19. The spirit of prayer prognosticates mercy ensuing Wherefore vvhen the Lord by Jeremy foretold the end of the Captivity he also pre-signifies the prayers that should open the gates of Babylon Cyrus vvas prophesied of to do his vvork for Jacob his servants sake and Israel his elect but yet they must ask him concerning those things to come and they should not seek him in vain The glory of the latter days in the return of Israel is foretold by Ezekiel Ezek. 36.24 37 Rev. 21.12 17 20. but yet then the Lord will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them The Coming of Christ is promised by himself but yet the Spirit and bride say come and he that heareth must say come and vvhen Christ saies he vvill come quickly Even so come Lord Jesus Divine grace kindles these ardent affections vvhen the mercies promised are upon the wing Gerson T. 2. K K. 3 6. Prayer is that intelligible chain as Dionysius calls it that draws the souls up to God and the mercy down to us or like the Cable that draws the ship to land though the shoar it self remain unmoveable Prayer has its kindlings from heaven 2 Chron. 7.1 like the ancient sacrifices that vvere inflam'd vvith celestial fire 6. Submission to the allwise and holy Will of God This is the great benefit of a Saint's communion with the spirit that he maketh intercession for them according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 When promised mercies are revealed in more absolute terms the sanctified Will concenters with the Will of God When vve pray for holiness there 's a concurrence with the Divine Will 1 Thess 4.3 Rom. 12.1 2. For this is the Will of God even your sanctification When we pray that our bodies may be presented a living sacrifice acceptable to God vve then prove vvhat is that good acceptable and perfect Will of God But I speak here as to outward mercies and enjoyments and the gradualities or degrees of graces and spiritual mercies But as to substance of spiritual mercies the pomises in such cases run freely as if in any place there seem to lye any limitations or conditions those very conditions are otherwhere graciously promised to be vvrought in us In the Covenant of grace God does his part and ours too As when God commands us to pray in one place he promises in another place (a) Zec. 20.10 to pour out upon us a Spirit of grace and supplication God commands us to repent and (b) Ezek 14.6 turn unto him In another place (c) Lam. 5.21 Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God and again turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned (d) Ezr. 18.31 make you a new heart and a new spirit otherwhere (e) Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. and cause you to walk in my statutes that (f) Col. 1.9 10. ye might walk unto all pleasing says Paul for this cause I cease not to pray for you c. that he would (g) Heb. 11.21 work in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight Work out your salvation (h) Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Precepts promises and prayer are connext like so many golden links to excite encourage and assist the soul in spiritual duties But in other cases as to temporal and temporary mercies let all thy desires in prayer be formed with submission guided by his counsel and prostrate at his feet and acted by a faith suitable to the promises of outward blessings and then it shall be unto thee (i) Mat. 15 28. Gerson T. 2. even as thou wilt He said well cardo desideriorum sit voluntas Dei exaudiat pete cardinem Let all thy desires as to temporals turn upon the hinge of the divine good pleasure That man shall have his own Will that resolves to make God's Will his God will certainly bestow that which is for the good of his people Psal 34.18 and 84.11 Math. 7.11 Rom. 8.28 One great point of our mortification lies in this to have our Wills melted into God's and 't is a great token of spiritual growth when not only content but joyful to see our Wills crost that his may be done We pray that his Kingdom may come let it appear by sincere prayer that his Will may be done When our Wills are sacrificed in the flames of holy prayer vve many times receive choicer things then we ask expresly 'T was a good saying non dat quod volumus ut det quod malimus God many times grants not what we will in the present prayers that he may bestow what we had rather have when we have the prayer more graciously answered than we petitioned we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit helps us out with groans that secretly hint a correction of our wills and spirit in prayer Rom. 8.26 In great anxieties and pinching troubles nature dictates strong groans for relief but sustaining grace Heb. 12.10 and participation of divine holiness mortification from earthly comforts excitation of the soul to long for heaven being gradually weaned from the Wormwood-breasts of these sublunary transient and unsatisfying pleasures and the timeing of our hearts for the seasons wherein God will time his deliverances are sweeter mercies than the present return of a prayer for an outward good into our bosoms What truly holy person would lose that light of God's countenance Psal 4.6 7. which he enjoyed by glimpses in a cloudy day for a little corn and wine Thou hast put more gladness into my heart says David Nay in many cases
afflict affront and troubles us and wo to them that a child of God upon a mature judgment names in prayer I find not that such a prayer in Scripture return'd empty Jacob in a great strait Deliver me from the hand of my brother Gen. 32.11 from the hand of Esau David in the ascent of Mount Olivet O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness 2 Sam 15.31 2 Chron. 20.10 Prayer twisted the rope for him at Giloh Thus Jehoshaphat in his prayer names Ammon Moab and Edom conspiring against him Thus Hezekiah spreads the railing letter before the Lord Isa 37.14 Psal 83.6 c. Act 4 27. Joseph l. 18. c. 9. Euseb Chron. l. 2. p. 159. Eph. 3.14 Luke 17.5 2 Cor. 12.8 and the Psalmist takes them all in a round Catalogue that consulted against Israel Thus the Church in her prayer names Herod-Antipas and Pontius Pilate whereof the first was sent into perpetual banishment and the latter slew himself It 's of great use in prayer to attend to some special case or single request with arguments and affections suitable For this cause says Paul I bow the knee Suppose a grace deficient in its strength Lord increase our faith or a temptation urgent For this I pray'd to the Lord thrice A great reason why we reap so little benefit by prayer because we rest too much in generals and if we have success 't is but dark that often we cannot tell what to make of the issues of prayer Besides to be particular in our petitions would keep the spirit much from wandring when we are intent upon a weighty case and the progress of the soul in grace would manifest its gradual success in prayer 6. Holy and humble appeals before the Lord in secret when the soul can submissively and thankfully expose it self to divine searching about some measures of holiness and grace wrought in the heart Psal 139.23 Tertal de orat p. 213. The soul cannot bide by the presence of God under flashings of defilement neque agnosci poterit à spiritu sancto spiritus inquinatus neither will the holy spirit own a defiled soul But when a person can humbly modestly and reverently say search me and try my reins and if there be any way of wickedness in me lead me in the everlasting way it vvill be the means of the ebullitions and boilings up of joyful affections and meek confidence at the footstool of grace especially in pleas of deliverance from wicked and proud enemies When David can plead in comparison with and in the case stated between his enemies and himself For I am holy Psal 86.2 14 17. It shews him a token for good or when we plead against the assaults of Satan can we be conscious that we have watcht and prayed against entring into temptation When in the main we can wash our hands in Innocency Psal 26 6. Psal 18.20.7.3 we may then comfortably compass God's altar about In case of opposition and injustice He rewarded me says David in the point of Saul according to my righteousness and the cleanness of my hands before him Or about the truth of the love that is in the heart to God Thou that knowest all things John 21.17 Neh. 14.14 22 Isa 38.3 Isa 26.8 says Peter knowest that I love thee As to zeal for the Worship and Ordinances of God so did Nehemiah As to the integrity of a well-spent life so did Hezekiah or if we cannot rise so high yet as the Church did The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee Or lastly when we can unfeignedly plead the usefulness of a mercy intreated in order to the divine glory As when a minister or the Church of Christ for him prays for such gifts and graces Eph. 6.19 Col. 4 3. such knowledg and utterance that he may win souls to Christ and can appeal that it is his principal aim this is glorious 7. Pray for the spirit that ye may pray in and by the spirit Awaken the North and the South to blow upon thy garden that the spices thereof may flow forth Cant 4.16 Then thou mayest invite Christ Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits that the soul may enjoy him and hold sweet communion with him All successful prayer is from the breathing of the spirit of God when he inspires and indites when he directs the heart as to matter and governs the tongue as to utteranee 1 Cor. 2.10 Rom. 8.27 Psal 147.18 Ezek. 47.1 Gerson T. 2. K. K. 4. 49. Zech. 12.10 God graciously hears the sighs of his own Spirit formed in us He sent forth his spirit and the waters flow That I may allude the waters of contrition flow upon the breathing of the spirit and the soul is as it were all afloat before the throne of grace when these living waters issue from under the threshold of the sanctuary Sequitur lachrymosa devotio flante spiritu sancto Devout tears drop down from the spirit's influences Melting supplications follow the infusions of grace by the spirit Then they shall mourn for piercing of Christ says the Prophet and be in bitterness as for a first-born like the mourning at the town of Hadadrimmon where Josiah was slain Then (a) 13.1 2 4 14.8 Isa 66.12 Rich. de Sâ—ult p. 321. in that day what inundations of mercy shall refresh the Church when the Lord will extend her peace like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream great things to the Church and gracious things to the soul Inter orationem suspiria cognoscit holy sighs in prayer give intelligence of great mercies to follow Nay to withstand powerfully all the wiles of Satan one means is Eph. 6.18 to consecrate every part of the spiritual armour by prayer in the Spirit 8. Apply special promises to special cases in prayer For God hath and will magnifie his word of promise above all his name Psal 138.2 John 12.28 when we are under the word of command for a duty we must seek for a word of promise and unite them in prayer When a promise of aid suits to the precept it renders prayer victorious and obedience pleasant when we come with God's own words into his presence when we take his words with us that he would take away all iniquity he 'll receive us graciously Hos 14 2. Gen. 32.9 1 Kings 8.24 Jacob urged that God had bid him return from his Country and kinred Solomon urges the word of promise to David Jehoshaphat urges the a 2 Chron. 20.8 9. word of promise to Solomon Daniel fills his mouth (b) Dan. 9.2 3 with the promise given to Jeremiah he reads and then applies it in prayer First search the Bible and look for a promise and when found open it before the Lord. Paul teaches us to take the (c) Heb. 13.5 6. promise given to
sign of success Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress saies David Psal 4.1 though it be meant of deliverance yet it may be applied to prayer as the holy Prophet seems to do Psal 18.6 yea though the soul may be under some sense of displeasure and in extremities yet lifts up a cry when conscience stops the mouth of hypocrites that they shun and fly the presence of God 2. A blessed serenity and quiet calmness of spirit in time of prayer especially when the soul comes troubled and clouded at first whiles it pours out its complaints before the Lord but at length nescio quid serenius emicat Jerâ—m c. the Sun shines forth brightly and the heavens look serenely and chearfully upon the soul in prayer 't is said of Hannah she was no more sad Heb. her countenance was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille ulterius any longer in the old hue cast down and sorrowful because of her rival Thus the Lord dealt with David though not yet fully answered yet fill'd with holy (a) 1 Sam. 1.18 fortitude of spirit and revived in the midst of his trouble Prayer dispels (b) Psal 138.3 7. anxious sollicitude and chases away black thoughts from the heart (c) Phil. 4.6 7 it cases conscience and fills the soul with the peace of God 3. A joyful frame of Spirit God sometime makes his people not onely peaceful but (d) Isa 56.7 joyful in his house of prayer Thus sped Hezekiah when his Crane-like chatterings (e) Isa 38.14 20. were turned into Swan-like songs and his mournful elegies into glorious praises Hab. 3.16 19. 2 Chron. 7.1 10. upon ten-stringed instruments in the house of the Lord the lips of Habakkuk quivered and his belly trembled but before he finisht his voice was voluble in holy songs and his fingers nimble upon the harp Thus at Solomon's prayer when the fire came down the people were warm'd at worship and went away glad and merry at heart David's (h) Psal 43.4 5. experience of this sent him often to the house of God for comfort and thus chides his soul when cast down at any time I am going to the altar of God to God my exceeding joy why art thou disquieted within me his old harp that had cured Saul of his malignant dumps being plaid upon with Temple songs now cures his own spiritual sadness When we look upon God with an eye of faith in prayers it enlightens (i) Psal 34.5 our faces with Heavenly joy when Moses came out of the mount from communion with God how illustrious was his face from that Heavenly vision wherefore prayer for divine mercy and comfort sometimes exhibits its self in this language Psal 80.3 make thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved on this wise the Priests of old were to bless the children of Israel Numb 6.25 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee these and the like expressions in Scripture import that sometimes the Lord was pleased to give forth a shining glory from the Oracle and thereby made known his presence unto his people Exod. 4â— 34 Lev. 9.23 Num. 16.19 42. 20.6 1 Kings 8.11 and filled them with awful impressions of his majesty and mercy This joyful light of God's countenance is like the Sun rising upon the face of the earth it chaseth away the dark fears and discouragements of the night such heavenly joy shews the strength of faith in prayer and the radiant appearances of God yea to this end all prayer should be directed (b) John 16.24 that d our joy may be full 4. A sweetness of affection to God when the soul has gracious sentiments of God in prayer clouds of Jealousies and suspicions of the divine mercy as if God were a hard master are marvellous unbecoming a soul that should go to God as to a Father and hence from such unsuitable thoughts of infinite mercy to hide the talent of prayer is greatly provoking Whereas the apprehension of God's excellent goodness should work the heart into lovely thoughts of God (c) Parisiens p. 376. Man but especially a Saint is acervus beneficiorum dei an accumulated heap of divine favours and if nothing but the gifts of mercy should attract our hearts yet herein we are every moment laden with his numerous benefits But when the soul comes to perceive that all flows from the fountain of his eternal love it makes prayer to be res amorosa to be filled with holy delights and joys the extasies of love often rise upon the soul in secret and such divine affection as (d) Gers Tom. 2. k. k. 4. Gerson said 't is res extatica it carries the soul beyond it self let the prophane World say what they will when spiritual ardours like so many fragrant spices flow out of the soul I love the Lord says David (e) Psal 116.1 for he hath heard my supplications As answers of prayer flow from (f) John 16.27 the love of the Father so suitable workings of holy affections flow from the hearts of children When the soul is fill'd with gracious intimations like those of the Angelical voice to Daniel O Daniel greatly beloved O man of desires Dan. 9.23 Luke 1.28 to stand before the King of Saints or like that to the holy Virgin Hail thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee how greatly does it inflame the heart to God 5. Inward incouragements sometimes spring in upon the heart in prayer from remembrance of former experiments which mightily animate the soul with fervency When Moses calls to mind that God had forgiven and delivered from Egypt untill then Numb 14.19 v. 20 Psal 77.5 6.7.9.10 immediately follows a sweet intimation of mercy I have pardoned according to thy word When the soul considers the days of old the years of antient times and calls to remembrance its former songs in the night he draws an argument out of the quiver of experience will God be favourable no more can he forget to be gracious can he in anger shut up his tender mercies The soul concludes this thought to flow from its own infirmity for when God once hears a prayer as coming from a child of his in Covenant prove our filial interest and we may sweetly rest assured in all things according to his Will to be always heard 6. A ready heart for thankfulness and service the heart is brim full and ready to flow over in grateful memorials of his mercy What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psal 116.12 As of old at Temple-sacrifices there was Musick so it ought to be now while the mercy is praying for the heart must be winding up and tuning for praise Rev. 5 8. Psal 108.1 The vials full of the odours of prayer are joined vvith harps for heavenly melody when the heart is fixt or prepared
twelve years of age to dispute with the Doctors in such a manner as that all that heard him marvelled at his understanding and answers was not like at this time to go far to seek for an answer to such a question we have him therefore speaking roundly and directly to it ver 37.38.39 Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great Commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self The latter part of this answer falls under our present consideration thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self This is said to be like unto the first i. e. a great commandment because as that comprehends all the duty we owe to God immediately so this includes all that duty we owe to man The (c) Hillel Senex Lex nostra uno pede continetur Diliges proximum tuum tanquam teipsum Uno pede hoc est uno Capite quod vocant universale magnum Drus Apophtheg Ebrae lib. 1. John 15.14 Phil. 4.8 Jewish Doctors were wont to call it the Vniversal great precept sometimes again the Head sometimes the foot of the Law alluding possibly to the total sum in accounts For as in adding many particulars together if you begin below and go upward the total sum is set above and called the Head of the account if above and proceed downward it is set below and called the Foot of the account containing in it as much as all the rest so if you begin at Moses and go down to the Prophets or at the Prophets and go up to Moses of all that is spoken by any or all of them about our duty to man this is the sum Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self When Christ commanded his Disciples to love one another he charged them with many things in that one thing These things I command you that you love one another and who can tell how many things are required of us in this one thing whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report all these whatsoevers are required in it yea whatsoever else that is good and vertuous if there be any vertue any praise it is (d) Decalogus continet doctrinam tam copiosam sublimem ut nunquam satis perspici nunquam exhauriâ—i postit Melancthon Isa 40.12 Eph. 3.18.19 Psal 119.96 comprehended in this one command love one another and also in this saying Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self It cannot be expected that in so short a time as is allotted to this exercise we should speak of all things contained in these words we can but take up a few drops out of the Ocean or a handful of sand from the shoar It is only he that measures the waters in the hollow of his hand and comprehendeth the dust of the Earth in a measure that is able to give us the true dimensions of them as there is height and depth a length and a breadth in the Love so also in the Law of God which passeth knowledge This David acknowledged when he said I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandement is exceeding broad Neither is it our scope to speak of the words in the way of a treatise we shall therefore give ye the Doctrine and proceed with as much speed as well we may to the Query the resolution of which is our main business at this time Doct. It is the duty of every man to love his Neighbour as himself When God says Thou shalt he intends thee and me and every man else of what rank state or condition soever he be Before we propound the Quaery it will be requisite 1. That we shew who is our Neighbour 2. That we speak something of the lawfulness of a mans loving himself 3. That we lay down some conclusions which are to be taken along with us as a thread that must run through the whole contexture of our ensuing discourse 1. Who is our Neighbour Our Neighbour is not onely he who lives near to our habitation in the same street or City nor he only that is of the same Country or nation that we are of but every man of what place or nation soever he be whether he be one of our acquaintance or a stranger a friend or an enemy Luke 10.29 30. You find this question put somewhere to Christ himself by a certain Lawyer whether he were the same we have here in this Chapter it matters not and there you have Christ answering him by a parable to this effect A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among theives which stript him and wounded him and left him half dead there came a Priest that way and saw him and passed by on the other side after him a Levite in like manner but a Samaritan seeing him had compassion on him bound up his wounds and brought him to his Inne c. Now which of these three was Neighbour to him he answers he that shewed mercy on him What says Christ go thou and do likewise As if he should have said Thou art a Jew and as such hast little or no dealing with a Samaritan or indeed with any man of another nation there is a partition-wall between you and them so that you look on them as strangers if not enemies and none of your Neighbours (e) Ipse enim est proximus quem non solum conformis natura conjunxerit sed etiam misericordia copulaverit Ambâ—os de poenit lib 1. cap. 5. Levit. 19.33 and 34. Math. 5.43 but I tell thee a Samaritan or a man of any other nation whatever he be is one of thy Neighbours and therefore if he be in misery and come within thy reach be sure thou shew mercy to him This God required of the Jewish nation of old If a stranger sojourn with you in your land ye shall not vex him but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thy self Yea although he be an enemy the case is the same for so Christ resolves it ye have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies Ye have heard the Scribes and Pharisees might have taught them thus blotting the text with their false interpretation but Christ better informs them and wiping away their blots with his spunge restores the Law to its primitive beauty and perfection I say unto you love your enemies And doth not the Law say the same also we find a very fair text in the Law to this purpose If thou meet thine enemies Ox or his Asse going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again Exod. 23.4 5. If thou see the Asse of him that hateth thee lying
Minister could not get into thy Soul Death never cometh without a warrant yet it often comes without a warning We do not live by patent but we live at pleasure How knowest thou that the candle of the Ministry shall shine one Sabbath longer The message shall alwaies live but the messenger is alwaies dying The clods of the Earth may soon stop that mouth that so frequently and unfruitfully hath given thee the word of life He the light now of his place and of his people may be blown out by violence as well as burnt out by death Thou canst not say but God may soon make that ear of thine deaf that now thou stoppest God may soon blind those eyes which now thou shuttest It is a peradventure whether God will ever give repentance or no. God hath made many promises to repentance but he hath made none of repentance If to day thou saist thou wilt not to morrow thou maist say thou canst not pray It is just with God that he who while he liveth forgets God when he dies should forget himself I have heard of a profane miscreant that being put upon speedy repentance and turning to God scoffingly answered if I do but say three words when I come to dye Miserere mei Domine Lord have mercy upon me I am sure to be happy This miserable wretch shortly after falling from his horse and receiving thereby a deadly wound had indeed time to speak three words as the relation informed me but those three words were these Diabolus capiat omnia Let the Devil take all Thou dost not know what thy last words shall be the very motions of thy tongue and of thy heart are all in the hands of that God whose grace thou hast despised 7. It is a day That requireth present improvement because it is followed with a night a night that is dark as pitch The night cometh wherein no man can work So saith our Lord Joh. 9.4 There is neither work nor invention in the grave In the dark thou mayest see to bewail thy not working in the light but in the dark there is no working Sorrow then will not help thee couldst thou make hell to swim with thy tears Thy tears are only of worth in time Put not off your working till the time wherein you must leave work It is perfect madness not to think of beginning to work till the time of working is at an end Nemo finitis nundinâ—s exercet mercaturam What man after the fair will go then to buy and sell There is no negotiation but in the time of the fair the season of grace The spiritual manna of grace is only to be gathered in the six days of thy life The time after this is a time of rest wherein there is no more work to be done to procure Salvation If this be the day of thy death tomorrow cannot be the day of thy repentance It is miserable to have that to do for lack of time which is to do for loss of time Thus I have shewn you how we are put upon present improving the season of Grace As 't is here termed a day or in respect of the nature of the Season Sect. 13 2. Secondly In regard of the workers in this day we are urged from hence to a present improving of the season of grace 1. How little have we wrought in this day of grace What a pitiful account and yet an account must be given of this Day can we give unto God of thousands of Sabbaths and repetitions of ordinances and opportunities of life that we have enjoyed You have been perhaps long in the world and under the means of grace but can you say you have lived long 'T is one thing for passengers in a ship to be a great while tost in the Sea and another thing for them to sail a great way You have been long in the world tossed up and down with many temptations and impetuous corruptions and violent affections but which of you have sailed much or gone forward in your course to Heaven with any considerable progress Little is to be seen in the copies of your lives besides blots and empty spaces Much paper hath been spent with wide lines Had you not need now towards the end of the side to write the closer to redeem the time as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 5.16 We should redeem our time out of the hands of those that have taken it captive out of the clutches of those vain employments that have so often taken it captive Now in all redemptions there is the laying down a price for the party that is redeemed But what is that price you are to lay down for your time when it is to be redeemed I will tell you Id quod perdis pretium est saith Augustin That which you lose in your worldly employments in your idle recreations in your vain visits in your exorbitant eatings and drinkings that time that you take from these to give to God and your Souls that is the price that you lay down for the redeeming of seasons for your Souls It is miserable for our work to be undone for want of time when we are dying when it is undone for the loss of time while we are living 2. How great is the wo of those whose Day is done and yet their work is not done but still to do You have seen their end upon Earth but you have not heard their cries and their self-bewailings in hell How many have been cut off before your eyes who ceased to be before they began to live Improve examples lest you become examples Your Schooling is cheap when it is at the cost of another Let the lashes of Divine severity that have fallen upon others quicken thee in thy Spiritual pace and travelling towards Heaven Why should God stay for you rather than for them Thou canst not mispend thy time at so cheap a rate as they did by whom God hath warned thee Hell is not so full of Souls as it is of delayed purposes What would not lost Souls give for a crum of that time of which now in this world they make Orts If the foresight of their tears for neglecting the Day of grace fetched tears from Christ Luk. 19.41.42 How great shall the feeling be of the Eternal effects of their inexcusable folly How Exuberant but unfruitful shall be the flood of their own tears for their former slothfulness never enough to be bewailed because never at all to be repaired Surely a small loss could not draw tears from so great a Person as the Son of God 3. Many by beginning betimes in the morning of their day have done more work than thou a delayer canst now accomplish They should provoke thee to a holy jealousie They setting forth for Heaven in the morning have travelled further in that morning than thou hast done in that long Summer's day wherein thou hast been slothful What a shame is it that some should be
instruct us to a present improvement of it and that especially for these two reasons 1. Because it being the accepted time or time of free-grace and good will we must for the present improve it upon the account of gratitude and ingenuity 2. Because it being the accepted time and the day of God's free-grace in accepting of sinners we must presently improve it upon the account of real self-interest 1. Upon the account of ingenuous gratitude The terms upon which reconciliation is bestowed are all free 't is free not only in respect of the persons upon whom 't is bestowed who are weak and unworthy and polluted and opposite to God but in respect of the terms on which it is bestowed The terms are free terms The old friendship between God and man was kept up by Doing but restoring to friendship or reconciliation is bestowed in the way of believing We do not buy the favour of God 'T is not afforded Secundum pretium but Secundum pactum It is not by laying down any valuable consideration for the meriting and purchasing of it but it is in the way of doing that which God appoints and by his free grace is pleased to condescend unto and that is humble and thankful acceptation If we buy it it is with another's purse Jesus Christ only bought it We part with nothing for the favour of God but what is our bane if we keep it We may keep all but what will kill and damn us Nor doth our obedience to God when we accept of reconciliation with him through Christ make our reconciliation less free For the pardon of a Traytor may be free though it be under the condition of future Loyalty Now then what is more suitable to ingenuous gratitude than to embrace the season of God's bestowing so free a favour Surely the least we can do is to accept of that God that accepteth of us to accept of him that is so full of loveliness and rewards we having nothing to bring him but deformity and beggery Not to accept his favour presently argues the height of proud ingratitude concerning which God may say have I this for my good will for my free grace what not so much as accept of my favour that shall cost thee nothing surely the least spark of holy ingenuity would prompt us to say with him in a case of infinitely lower concernment Lord we accept it always with all thankfulness what thou offerest freely I accept it readily What beggar doth not accept of a free alms without delay or disputation 2. As the season of Grace is the accepted time or the time of God's free acceptation of sinners it engageth us to a present improvement of this season of grace upon the account of self-interest for the neglecting of free grace makes the divine vengeance 1. Vnavoidable and secondly Insupportable 1. Neglecting of free of grace makes vengeance unavoidable If grace be neglected what shall save you if grace shall not save thee works cannot save thee The neglecter of grace concludes himself under a necessity of damnation He rendeth the book of mercy He throweth away the remedy the cordial that serveth for his reviving He that accepts not of life and Salvation by free gift must have it by earning must have it by working and earn it we cannot Thou canst not obtain reconciliation with God upon easier terms for thy self than Christ obtained it for believers and what terms were those but even perfect and to thee impossible obedience You cannot dig perfect doing is impossible you are lost if asham'd to beg at the door of free grace for the dole of mercy 2. The neglecting of free grace makes Divine vengeance insupportable It discovereth the malignity of the heart against that which by free grace is bestowed for if we cannot dislike the price which is to bring neither money nor price you must then dislike the wares which are Heaven with holiness And how great a scorn do we then put upon the Lord Jesus the purchaser of free grace It was Christ's payment that made all free to us Who can excuse the contempt of such both love and cost at once there is no liquor that scalds so tormentingly in hell as the Oil of mercy Grace turned into fury is the most killing Enemy Freeness invites all worldly customers Who loveth not costly things that cost him nothing who shunneth an interest in a thousand pounds a year to be had for taking up at the Court and why alone my Brethren should Jesus Christ want customers are there any commodities so rich as his are there any commodities to us so cheap as his Why should they alone be slow that go to take the favour and love of God through him especially considering that they have paid so dear for that which is not bread yea for that which is their bane Free grace tendered and neglected is condemnation heightned You cannot have the favour of God by doing what will you not have it for receiving neither you will not then have it at all It is that hell of hells that free grace is despised hath been neglected Thus much for the first branch of the second Argument the season of grace is a time of acceptation and therefore in respect of that advantage it requires our present improving thereof For the second branch of this second Argument The season of grace is also called Sect. 16 the day of Salvation But why doth this second branch put us upon the present improving of the season of grace For answer take these considerations 1. It is a day of Salvation and Salvation is a work that must be regarded 't is a matter of absolute necessity Other things are may-be s at the best matters of mere conveniency but Salvation is a business of peremptory and indispedsible necessity A fair day is convenient to ride in but the journey it self being of life and death is absolutely necessary You may be excused at the day of judgment for leaving any thing in the world undone besides the getting of Salvation You may be excused if you never had time to get the riches or honours of the world or great endowments or employments but what shall excuse you if you have not looked after Eternal life Can you say we had another imployment more or as necessary can you say we were taken up about something more needful more useful no you cannot Now remember that which must be done should be most done and first done First attend necessaries and then look after circumstantials first seek the Kingdom of God Here 't is no measuring cast whether you should obtain Salvation it is a must-be Tempus perdimus dum aeternitatem non â—quaerimus You lose all that time that is not spent in looking after a happy Eternity First get bread for thy starving Children and then if thou hast time look after rattles for them A work of necessity must not be put off to a time of uncertainty If thou delayest delay
sufficient for the Salvation of them in their circumstances yet there is a vast difference between the abilities of several persons and therefore men are not to take their measures for their enquiries after Spiritual things merely by the necessariness of the things themselves but likewise by the abilities God hath given them So that upon the whole the better means and advantages in any kind men have for the gaining of knowledge so much the more knowledge is required to be in them Rule 4. By how much the more use men have for their knowledge and by how much the more good they may do with it so much the more knowledge will be expected of them That knowledge which might do well in a private Christian yet is not ordinarily sufficient for a Minister That which would be much in the one might be but little in the other And that which might do well in a Child would not be sufficient in a Parent or Master of a Family They that are to instruct others in the knowledge of God ought themselves to be more abounding in it Prop. 2. Men should in their seeking knowledge first study those truths which are most confessedly necessary to Salvation and before those which are apparently less necessary and so Principles before Controversies things essential before such as are only Circumstantial And indeed by how much the nearer any truth is to the foundation so much the more they should labour after the knowledge of it as for instance men should acquaint themselves 1. With the Being and Attributes of God as the foundation of all service yeilded to him and expectations of rewards from him Psal 14.4 Heb. 11.6 He that knows not God to be holy how can he know that God requires holiness and then how can he himself be holy how can a man trust God if he know him not to be wise powerful faithful or love him if he know him not to be good or fear him if he know him not to be just and it will easily follow that he who knows not God as he can never worship him while he lives so he can never expect that he should save him when he dies 2. With the Doctrine of the Trinity three Persons in the Godhead the Father Son and Spirit John 1.5 7. John 14.16 John 15.26 each Person having his proper part in the Salvation of sinners The Father as the Original and Fountain of it the Son as the Manager and the Holy Ghost as the Applier 3. With their own natural state and condition their being by nature in a state of sin and misery as having sin'd against this Holy Righteous Eph. 2.1 2 3. John 16.8 Powerful God and thereby exposed themselves to his wrath and curse They that would be delivered from the curse must know themselves to be obnoxious to it They that would not perish must know themselves to be in danger of it Men are not like to enjoy God's favour unless they know that they have lost it 4. With the Doctrine of a Redeemer and that both 1. As to the Person Who he is That the Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God the Second Person of the Trinity is the Redeemer of sinners Math. 20.28 and the only one Act. 4.12 That God hath not left all mankind to perish in their sin and misery but hath out of his abundant Mercy and free Grace found out a ransom for them a Saviour to deliver them and that the Lord Jesus Christ is he and none besides him so that it is in vain to seek for Salvation in any else seeing he alone hath the words of Eternal life John 6.6.8 He that knows nothing of a Saviour knows nothing savingly nor can any man partake of Redemption without some knowledge of the Redeemer They can never come to God that know not by whom to come 2. And as to the way of his working that Redemption 1. That he did in order to the Salvation of sinners John 1.14 and 3.13 take the nature of man upon him was both God and Man in one person and still continues so to be He had those natures united in himself which he was to reconcile to each other 2. That not only he was able as being God fit as being man Rom. 3.24 25 26. Rom. 5.10 1 Tim. 2.6 to satisfie Divine justice for the injury sin had done it but that by his obedience and death he did it to the full He that knows God to be infinitely just and himself to be a sinner had need know something of a Sacrifice for sin or he can never have any well-grounded hopes of escaping the hands of such a God 3. That Christ being raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven sits at the Father's right hand Rom. 8.34 Mark 16.19 and by his intercession there is now making application of the redemption he wrought on Earth He ever lives to make intercession Heb. 7.25 Men would be in an ill condition if redemption were wrought and there were none to apply it if Christ had died for them and left them to intercede for themselves 5. Men should acquaint themselves with the Doctrine of Justification by Christ that sinners must be justified by the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus imputed to them if ever they be justified at all He is the Lord their Righteousness Jer. 23.6 They are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1.6 Found in Christ not having their own Righteousness c. but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 All their own Righteousness inherent in them and wrought by them even after regeneration and by the help of the Spirit of grace being finite imperfect short of the Law and due to it 6. With the way of their being made partakers of this Righteousness that it should be received by Faith alone as the means God hath appointed for their being interested in it God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and therefore they that are justified must be justified by Faith Rom. 5.1 All the holiness any Saint could ever arrive unto in this life would never entitle him to Christ's Righteousness if faith were wanting 7. With the nature properties and fruit of that faith that it must be an effectual lively Faith not only an assent of their minds to the truth of the Scripture Jam. 2.17 John 1.12 but the consent of their hearts to the terms of the Covenant a receiving whole Christ with an eye to all rhe good things he offers there and for all those holy ends and purposes for which he is propounded to them In a word they are to look upon Faith as the Principle of their Obedience and walking with God according to that rule of Righteousness God hath given them 8. With the Doctrine of sanctification that God is wont to fit and frame mens hearts at first to the duties of
learned by the Ministery of the word (i) As you also learned of Epaphras Col. 1. 7. and the Philippians learned by Paul Phil. 4.9 (k) Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do the things that are to be heard by the Ministry are matters of Faith and matters of Practice and if by hearing the Word we gâ—t a good understanding in things that are to be believed by us and the things that are to be done by us then we profit by it But if we remain ignorant as to these things after mercy received then we hear the Word without profit II. For Conversion God hath appointed his Word Act. 26.18 (l) To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to ligâ—t and the Angel speaking of John Baptists ministry saith Luke 1.16 (m) And many of the Children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God now the Word turns man unto God 1. As it discovers sin If the Scripture be dextrously handled they will search into the very secrets of mens hearts 1 Cor. 14.24 25. (n) And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest the Baptists preaching discovered to the Jews their carnal security in trusting to Abram Mat. 3.9 (o) And thiâ—k not to say within your sâ—lves we have Abraham to our Father their want of charity their covetous and humorous disposition Luk. 3.11 (p) He that hath two Coats Let him imâ—art to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise it discovered the Publicans exactings v. 13. (q) And he saith to them exact no more than that which is appointed you and the souldiers violence v. 14. (r) And he said unto them do violence to no man 2. As it brings people to the confession of sins the Baptists Preaching brought his hearers to confess their sins Math. 3.6 and so did Pauls Act. 19.18 (t) And many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds 3. As it works a kindly mourning and sorrow for sin Upon Peters sermon the Jews were pricked at the heart (s) And they were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins Act. 2.37 the people wept when they heard the word of the Lord. Nehem. 8.9 After the children of Israel had heard these words they wept for the perverseness of their nature Jer. 3.21 the word which they heard was v. 20. surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her Husband so have you dealt treacherously with me O house of Israel saith the Lord. 4. As it works amendment and reformation the Word turns people from their sins 1 Thess 1.9 (u) They themselves shew of us what manner of entrance in we had unto you and how you turned to God from Idols to serve the living and the true God and makes them fruitful toward God Col. 1.5 6. (w) Which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit now then if the Word converts you to God if it discovers your sins if it causes you to confess them to mourn for them and to leave them then you profit by the word But if under Hearing you do not see the sins that reign in you as pride covetousness passion if you do not confess them heartily before God if you do not mourn kindly for them nor leave them you hear without profit III. God hath appointed his Word for the building up of those that are called converted and sanctified Act. 20.32 (x) I commend you to God and the word of his Grace which is able to build you up Apollos by his Preaching helped them that had believed through grace Act. 18.17 (y) And he went over all the Country of Galatia and Phrygia strengthening the Disciples the Word doth not only serve for the implantation of grace but it excites strengthens and draws out the graces of Petitioners Pauls Preaching strengthned the Disciples Act. 18.23 Gods Word is compared to meat Luke 12.42 (z) Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his Houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season and meat strengthens and nourishes the body and so the Word of God 1 Tim. 4.6 Well then if by the hearing of the Word you are built up and grown by it (a) Thou shalt be a Good Minister nourished up in the words of Faith and good Doctrine if your Faith grow exceedingly if your Love abound if you bring forth much fruit then you profit by it but if your sins grow not vveaker and your graces stronger then you hear it without profit 4. And lastly to name no more the Word was appointed for Consolation 1 Cor. 14.31 (b) You may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all be comforted the Samaritans rejoiced at Philips Preaching Act. 8 5.8 (c) Then Philip went down to the City of Samaria and preacht Christ to them and there was great joy in that City and so did the Eunuch v. 29. and so did the Jaylor at Pauls preaching Act. 16.34 (d) And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and he rejoyced believing in God with all his house now the Word comforts as it opens Gods Attributes such as his Mercy Wisdom Faithfulness and Power Secondly As it discovers Christ the Promises and Priviledges of the Saints Thirdly As it discovers and reveals the marks and Characters of Gods Children Fourthly As it answers the doubts and fears of Saints well then if in hearing the Word you find that it supports strengthens and revives your hearts like a Cordial then you profit by it But if you find nothing sweet nor refreshing in it you hear it without profit I come now to the third thing how we shall profit by hearing of the Word that is how shall we attain the benefit from the Word of God for which it was appointed It was appointed for instruction conversion edification consolation How may we hear it so that we may obtain these things by it I shall give you four directions and conclude 1. First Hear it attentively Christ in the beginning of his Sermons calls upon his auditors to hearken Mark 4.3 (e) And he said unto them in his doctrine hearken and so doth Paul Acts 13.16 (f) Men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience and Rev. 2.7 (g) He that hâ—th an ear let him hear what the spirit saith to the Churches and you read Luke 19.48 all the people were very attentive to hear him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hung upon him hearing that is they hung their ears upon his mouth that they might receive every vvord and miss nothing This phrase is common in Greek Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Latine warrantis conjux pendet ab ore viri and Augustine speaking of his hearing Ambrose saith verbi ejus susâ—endebar intentus and one
this part of God's Worship Zeph. 3.15 17. In the beginning of the Christian Aera when the Gospel first made the World happy with its glorious shine we find the primitive Christians much taken up in this Duty Cyprian in his Epistle to Donatus Nec est hora Convivii Caelestis gratiae immunis Sonet Psalmis convivium Sobrium Cypr. adviseth That there may not be an hour of feasting without some Heavenly grace and let every sober feast be accompanied with Singing of Psalms And Chrysostome in his Commentary on the 41th Psalm admonishes all persons Countrey-men Marrines Weavers c. to sing Psalms and spiritual Songs Estius cries out Take notice of the custome of the Primitive Christians who did not only sing Psalms and Hymns in their publique Assemblies but in their private Families Eusebius relates That Plinius Secundus in an Epistle he wrote to Trajan the Emperour makes mention that the Christians of those times being gathered together before day Sang Hymns and Praises to Christ as to a God This was about the year 98 after the birth of our Saviour Those early and more pure times rejoyced in this Duty Nicephorus tells us that Chrysostome caused Psalms to be Sung for the suppression of the Arrian Heresie And Ruffin witnesseth That Basil commanded the people to meet for the pouring out of their prayers to God and for singing of Psalms to the Most High The worthy Junius informs us That the Eastern Church from the time the Sun of Righteousness arose in the East did propagate the practice of Singing of Psalms to successive Generations And Paulinus testifies Per omnes penè Occidentis provincias manasse refert Paulin. That this practice overspread every Province of the Western Church Holy Ambrose so zealously pressed this Duty of Singing Psalms that he would not allow times of persecution to be a sufficient excuse for the neglect of it But the Empress Justina raging against Ambrose He commanded the Common people to lye in the Church and there Sing Psalms and Hymns according to the practice of the Oriental Christians that they might not be sensible of their sorrows or tediousness And this Custome prevailed in after times and was scattered in other places the Churches in other parts imitating this Worthy Practice This then was the Genius of the primitive Times In the middle times of the Church Rabanus Maurus and Gregory the Great mention this service with great approbation and speak liberally of the practice of it But since the Reformation the universal practice of the Reformed Churches give free suffrage to the Duty of Singing Psalms and I need not cite Zanchy c. to give in their testimony our judgments being best discovered by our practises 3. In all places Moses praiseth God by singing in the Wilderness throughout the 15th Chapter of Exodus David practises this Duty in the Tabernacle Psal 47.6 Solomon in the Temple Psal 10.12 Jehosaphat in the Camp 2 Chron. 20.21 Christ and his Apostles in a particular Chamber Mat. 26.30 And Paul and Silas in an uncomfortable Prison Act. 19.25 We may say of Singing as the Apostle speaks of Prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 I will saith he that men pray every where lifting up holy hands Thus every place is now Commodious for lifting up pure voices and pure hearts to the Most High Where devout Christians meet in any convenient place to sing praises to the Lord they make up a Heavenly Quire 4. In all Conditions 1. In a time of chearfulness and inward joy The Apostle James commands us then to take the advantage of singing Psalms Jam. 5.13 Holy Singing is the best Exertion of inward rejoycing Joy may excite must not stifle this Duty A dilated heart is fittest for a raised voice 2. In a time of affliction Paul and Silas sang in Prison a place of sorrow and confinement Acts 16.25 A chain might bind their feet but not their tongue while others sleep they sing and turn their Dungeon into a Chappel Holy singing can nobilitate every Duty and raise it to a better Notion 3. In a time of Fear When some would press Luther with the dangers the Church was in and what a black Cloud hung over Zion he would presently call for the 46th Psalm to be sung and he thought that Psalm was a charm against all fears whatsoever And since Quemadmodum est emnium Deus olim uterque Sexus adâ—ibebatur ad laudes Dei canendas Rivet Importunas in Ecclesia lâ—quacitates Apostoli Domini in Ecclesiis Magistri med stiae gravitatis reprimore studentes ut mulieres in ipsis Caâ—erent sepien in coâ—cilio permiserunt Isid Pelus this Psalm is called Luther's Psalm his sacred spell against invading Fears 5. By all Sexes Miriam sings a Song to God Exod. 15.21 as well as Moses Rivet well observes God is the Lord of both Sexes and therefore both may sing his praises Every Sex may tune their hearts to proclaim their Thanksgivings to God And so Deborah may sing her song as well as Barak Judg. 5.1 Holy singing befits the Female as well as the Masculine Tongue though Women may not speak yet they may sing in the Church there is no silence imposed on them in this particular Rivet here takes notice Women are not to be driven from joining in Divine praises when the Apostle enjoyns singing of Psalms and Hymns upon all believers Col. 13.16 And here Isidore Polusiota well interposes Although the holy Apostles those masters of modesty will not permit womens loquacity and the loudness of their Tongues yet in the greatness of their Wisdom they do permit the loudness of their Voices in singing forth the praises of the Almighty Thus He. Women though they are removed by Apostical command from the Desk or Pulpit yet they are not debarr'd the Quire to join in that Harmony where God's praises are elevated And now we come to speak of that Honour which God hath put upon this Heavenly Duty And this will appear in three things viz. 1. God hath Honoured this duty with glorious appearances This we find upon record in 2 Chron. 5.13 And it came to pass as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord and when they lift up their voice with Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Then the House was filled with a Cloud even the House of the Lord. The Cloud was a certain sign of Divine presence in those times A Cloud to rain blessings a Cloud because Divine brightness would over-power human sight a Cloud not to darken Service but to denote the certainty of God's approach 2. With Eminent Victories This we find upon record 2 Chron. 20.21 22. And when he had consulted with the people he appointed Singers unto the Lord that they should praise the Beauty of Holiness as they went out before the Army and to say
Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord set ambushments against the Children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir which came against Israel and they were smitten Israel's success follows Israel's singing If the people of Israel will look to their Duty God will look to their Enemy and lay that Ambush which shall ensnare and overthrow their power 3. With Evident Miracles This we find upon Record Acts 16.25 26. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them and suddenly there was a great Earth-quake so that the Foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately the doors were opened and every ones hands were loosed Behold here an eminent Miracle Prisons saluting the Prisoner's Liberty Paul and Silas singing set God on working and if their Tongues were loosed in Duty their hands shall be loosed for Liberty Singing like praying can work wonders Lorinus observes Angelicà peculiari â—peâ—d Sâ—lâ—tio Vinculorum accidit Lorin Case that the prisoners Chains were taken off and their bands loosed by the peculiar power and work of Angels And now I come to the main Case How we may make melody in our hearts to God in Singing of Psalms Answ 1. We must sing with understanding We must not be guided by the Tune but the Words of the Psalm we must mind the Matter more than the Musick and consider what we sing as well as how we sing The Tune may affect the fancy but it is the Matter affects the heart and that God principally eyes The Psalmist adviseth us in this particular Psalm 47.7 and so doth the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.15 Otherwise this sweet Duty would be more the work of a Chorister than of a Christian and we should be more delighted in an Anthem of the Musician's making then in a Psalm of the Spirit 's making A Lapide observes that in the Text 1 Cor. 14.15 the word understanding is Maschil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profound judgment We must sing wisely if we will sing gratefully we must relish what we sing In a word we must sing as we must pray now the most rude Petitioner will understand what he prays 1 Cor. 14.15 If we do not understand what we sing it argues carelesness of Spirit or hardness of Heart and this makes the Service impertinent Upon this the worthy Davenant cries out Facessunt Boatus Papistarum qui Psalmos in Templis reboant sed linguà non intellectu Dav. Non clamans sed amans cantat in aure Dei Aug. Adieu to the bellowing of the Papists who sing in an unknown Tongue God will not understand us in this Service which we understand not our selves One of the first Pieces of the Creation was Light and this must break out in every Duty 2. We must sing with affection Love is the fulfilling of this Law It is a notable saying of Augustine It is not Crying but Loving sounds in the Ears of God In Isa 5.1 It is said I will sing to my Beloved The pretty Child sings a mean Song but it delights the Mother because there is love on both sides It is love not skill makes the Musick and the Service most pleasing When we go about this Work we must lay our Book before us a heart full of love The Primitive Christians sang Hymns to Christ whom they entirely loved Love indeed is that ingredient which sweetens and indulcorates every Service 3. We must sing with real Grace This the Apostle admonishes us Col. 3.16 It is Grace not Nature sweetens the Voice to sing We must draw out our Spices our Graces in this Duty The Hundred forty four thousand which were Elected and Glorified Saints sang the New song Rev. 14.3 Singing is the tripudiating of a gracious Soul Gratia est devotionis radix Gorran Gorran well notes That Grace is the Root of true Devotion Wicked men only make a noise they do not sing they are like crackt Strings of a Lute or a Viol they spoil they do not make Musick The Righteous rejoice in the Lord Psal 33.1 The Raven croaks the Nightingale sings the Tune As God will not hear Sinners when they pray so neither when they sing the singing of Wicked men is disturbance not obedience Indeed the Saints singing is a more solemn Ovation Praising Him who causeth them to triumph in Christ 2 Cor. 2.14 The Saints above sing their Hallelujahs in Glory and the Saints below must sing their Psalms with Grace Fashion Puppets as you please they cannot sing it is the alive Bird can chirrup that pleasing noise 4. We must sing with excited Grace Not only with Grace habitual but with excited and actual the Musical Instrument delights not but when it is plaid upon In this Duty we must follow Paul's advice to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the Grace that is in us and cry out as David Psalm 57.8 Awake Love awake Delight The Clock must be pluckt up before it can guide our Time the Bird pleaseth not in her Nest but in her Notes the Chimes only make Musick while they are going Let us therefore beg the Spirit to blow upon our Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out when we set upon this Joyous Service Cant. 5.16 God loves active Grace in Duty that the Soul should be ready trim'd when it presents it self to Christ in any Worship 5. We must sing with spiritual joy Indeed singing only makes joy articulate it is only the turning of Bullion into Coyn as the Prophet speaks to this purpose Isa 65.14 Isa 65 14. Singing is only the triumphant gladness of a gracious heart a softer Rapture We must sing as David danced before the Ark 2 Sam. 6.15 with shouting and rejoycing in God We sing to Christ And Dr. Bound observes There is no joy comparable to that we have in him this is joy unspeakable and full of glory Joy must be the Selah of this Duty 6. We must sing with Faith This grace only puts a pleasingness upon every service if we hear the Word must be mixt with Faith Heb. 4.2 if we pray it must be the prayer of Faith Jam. 5.15 We must bring Faith to Christ's Table or else as Austin saith Dormit Christus si dormit Fides Dormit Christus si dormit Fides Aug. if Faith sleeps Christ is likewise asleep and so Faith must carry on this Ordinance of Singing especially there must be a credence in the Hallelujahs above we must believe that the Saints here are only tuning their Instruments and the louder Musick will be above that in glory there will be such pleasing sounds which the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 No Ear ever heard 7. We must sing in the Spirit As we must pray in the Spirit Jude v. 20. so we must sing in the Spirit the Spirit must breathe as well as Grace act or the Voice sound in this Duty
sanctified to the service and honour of God and so fear among the rest and is then to be exercised when we draw nigh to God especially in the solemn duties of a fast 4. Ingenuous shame Sin is in it self a shameful thing and therefore when it is confessed upon a solemn day it ought to be with shame As Ezra hearing of the sin of Israel after their return from their captivity he sate astonied untill the Evening and then riseth up and rends the mantle and speaks to God O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my faee unto thee Ezra 9.5 And to us belongeth confusion of face said Daniel in his fasting Dan. 9.8 Two things cause shame One is to act contrary to our own reason an I the other is to act unsuitably to another's kindness The one is absurd and the other is disingenuous and both may cause shame And there are both these in sin especially when committed with allowance for right reason doth condemn it and it is a high violation of the law of kindness to return evil where we receive all our good 5. Inward purity by which I mean not a total freedom from sin but a freedom from a corrupt end and the secret allowance of sin in our fasting Either of these will spoil the fast 1. A corrupt end As the Pharisees who fasted to appear religious before men And the Jews in Babylon who fasted but did ye fast to me even to me saith the Lord Zach. 7.5 their end was not right 2. A secret allowance of sin this made the Jews fasting of no avail with God Jer. 14.10 They have loved to wander There is their allowance of sin And when they fast I will not hear their cry ver 12. There their fast turns to no account It is said of Ahab he rent his cloaths put on sackcloth and fasted 1 Kings 21.27 But still he kept fast his sin and so not accepted As when the Jews came to enquire of God Ezek. 14. God tells them he well not be enquired of by them And why because they set up Idols in their heart v. 7. so if men come to God by fasting and prayer and have in their hearts an allowance of sin which God the searcher of hearts can know they bring an Idol along with them in their hearts and their prayer and fasting are rejected of him David well knew this when he saith If I regard iniquity in mine heart God will not hear my prayer Though men while they are fasting and praying are not visibly acting sin yet God seeth the aspect of the soul if that be looking towards sin with pleasure and delight as that Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there imports the prayer is rejected Si j'eusse pentè quelque malice c. Or if we read the words as the French Translation I think more properly renders them If I had regarded some wickedness in my heart God would not have heard my prayer the sence is the same to my present purpose 6. Evangelical Faith and Hope in God All our confessions and humiliations and supplications ought to be joined with faith in Christ and hope in God's mercies or else they want the great Ingredients of their acceptableness with God As in Ezra's fast Shechaniah stands up and saith to him we have trespassed against our God and taken strange wives c. Yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Ezra 10.2 And to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses said Daniel in his fasting Dan. 9.9 God's mercy and Christ's merits should bear up our faith and hope while our sin is casting us down with sorrow As Samuel endeavoured to bring the people first to a sense of their sin in their choosing a King and then bears up their faith and hope by telling them God will not forsake his people for his name sake 1 Sam. 22.22 and David while he was confessing his sins of adultery and murther Psal 51. yet stileth God the God of his Salvation ver 14. and whiles he was crying to God out of the depths as he speaks and making his supplication Psal 130.1 2. yet he joins therewith faith and hope in God's mercy ver 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared All our duties even our fasting and humiliations ought to be perform'd Evangelically which cannot be except faith and hope do accompany the performance of them 3. I next proceed to speak of the special occasions that call us to this religious fast 1. Is the affliction and distress of the Church When the Jews were in great distress then Esther appointed Mordecai and the Jews to fast Esther 4.16 When the Ammonites and Moabites invaded Judah with a great Army then Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast 2 Chron. 20.3 When a great famine was upon the land of Israel then said the Prophet Joel ch 1.14 Sanctifie a fast call a solemn assembly And when the Jews were in Babylon then they kept their fast of the 4th 5th 7th and 10th month all the time of their captivity though the several months had respect to some particular calamities that befel them in those months Sympathy and sorrow are naturally exprest by fasting and are spiritually to be exprest with respect to the Churches distress by a Religious fasting 2. Upon the occasion of extraordinary sin If in a particular family it may be a just occasion for a fast in the family if in a particular Church or in a Nation it may be an occasion of a more publick fast As the fast of Ezra chap. 9. and of Nehemiah chap. 9. was upon the occasion of the sin of Israel in making marriages with the people of the Land And Hezekiah rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord upon the occasion of Rabshakehs reproaching and blaspheming God as well as the distress that was upon himself and the people by Senacheribs invasion as we read Isa 37. beginning We should mourn over the dishonour done to God as well as any distress and trouble that may come upon our selves and we read of the Congregation of Israel weeping before the door of the Tabernacle upon the account of the whoredom committed by many of them with the Daughters of Moab and bowing down to their Gods Numbers 25.6 3. For the obtaining some eminent mercy or for success in any great undertakings and enterprizes As Esther Esther 4.11 before she went in to the King to beg for the lives of her People she required her Maidens Mordecai and the Jews to fast And Ezra proclaimed a fast to seek a right way from God for themselves their little ones and all their substance when they were coming out of the Captivity to settle in their own Land Ezra 8.21 When Paul and Barnabas were sent forth to their more publick Ministry certain Prophets fasted and pray'd and laid hands on them and sent them away Act. 13.3 and when they ordained
depths of heaven We read not a word that Moses spake but God was moved by his cry I mean not an obstreperous noise but melting moans of heart Yet sometimes the sore and pinching necessities and distresses of spirit extort even vocal cries not displeasant to the inclined ears of God I cried to the Lord with my voice says David Psal 3.4 Psal 5.2 Psal 39.12 Psal 142.1.5 6 7. and he heard me out of his holy hill and this encourages to a fresh onset hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God Give ear to my cry hold not thy peace at my tears another time he makes the Cave Eccho with his cries I cried I cried attend to my cry for I am brought very low and what 's the issue Fath gets courage by crying his tears watered his faith that it grew into confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coronabunt and so concludes thou shalt deal bountifully with me and the righteous shall crown me for conquerour Plentiful tears bring bountiful mercies and a crying suitor proves a triumphant praiser Holy Jacob was just such another at the fords of Jabbok he prevailed with the Angel for he wept Hos 12.4 1 Kings 20.5 Jer. 31.18 and made supplications to him Hezekiah may bring up the rear for the Lord told him he had heard his prayer for he had seen his tears Such presidents may well encourage backsliding Ephraim to return and bemoan himself and then the bowels of God are troubled for him Nay we have a holy woman likewise weeping sore before the Lord in Shiloh 1 Sam. 1.10 2.1 and then rejoicing in his salvation The cries of Saints are like vocal musick joined with the instrumental of prayer they make heavenly melody in the ears of God The bridegroom calls to his mourning dove let me hear thy voice for that 's pleasant Cant. 2.14 Gers Tom. 2. Fol. 77. â— What Gerson says of the sores of Lazarus Quot vulnera tot linguas habuit as many wounds so many tongues we may say of sighs cries and groans in prayer so many eloquent orators at the throne of God 5. Importunity and assiduity in prayer is highly prevalent Ambrose de Cain Abel l. 1. c. 9. Mat. 5.7 Epiphan haeres 30. Luke 18.1 1 Thess 5.17 Num. 28.4 6. 2 Sam 9.7 Non ut fastidiosa continuetur oratio sed ut assidua frequenter effundatur not that we should lengthen out prayer with tedious and vain repetitions as the Heathen did of old or as the Euchitae in Constantius his time that did little else but pray but that we should be frequent and continue instant in prayer Whereas our Lord bids us to pray always and the Apostle Paul to pray without ceasing we are to understand it of Constancy at times every day As the morning and evening Sacrifice at the Temple is call'd the Continual burnt-offering As Mephibosheth is said to eat bread Continually at David's table and Solomon's Servants to stand Continually before him i. e. at the set and appointed times So 't is required of us to be constant and assiduous at prayer and to follow our lawful requests with perseverance Thus Hannah is said to multiply prayer 1 Sam. 1.12 and received multiplied answers expresly indeed she prayed but for one Son but she had six children returned in upon prayer When the soul perseveres in prayer 't is a sign of a persevering faith and such may have (b) John 16.23 1 Kings 18.43 what they will at the hand of God when praying according to prescript Nay urgent prayer is the token of a mercy at hand When Elijah prayed seven times one after another for rain Isa 45.11 the clouds presently march up out of the sea at the command of prayer Ask of me things to come saith the Lord and concerning the works of my hands command ye me When we put forth our utmost strength in prayer and will as it were receive no nay from heaven our prayers must be like the Continual blowing of the silver Trumpets over the sacrifices for a memorial before the Lord Num 10.10 Like the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem which never hold their peace day nor night Isaiah 62.6 7 64 7 are commanded not to keep silence nor to give him rest Nay God seems offended at another time that they did not lay hands upon him that they might not be consumed in their iniquities Such prayers are as it were a holy molestation to the throne of grace It 's said of the man that rose at midnight to give out three loaves to his friend he did it not for friendships sake but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 11.8 because he was impudent so importunately to trouble him at such a season as 12 a clock at night Our Lord applies the parable to instant prayers The like we find of the success of the widow with the unjust judg because she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18 5 vex and molest him with her sollicitations But of all the pattern of the woman of Canaan is most admirable Mat. 15 23 when the Disciples desired her to be dismist because she troubled them by crying after them and yet she persists May I say it reverently Christ delights in such a troublesom person Though as an Ancient observes by comparing both Evangelists that first (a) Mat. 15.22 she cried after Christ in the streets but our Lord taking (b) Mark 7.23 house she follows him thither and falls down at his feet but as yet (c) Mat. 15.23 Augustin de consensu Evangelist l. 2. p 447. Tom. 4 edit Bâ—â— 1569. Jam. 5. Rhet. Divin p. 353. he answered her not a word In eo silentio egressum fuisse Jesum de domo illa then our Lord going out of the house again she follows vvith stronger importunity and argues the mercy into her bosom and Christ ascribes it to the greatness of her faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as another terms it a laudable and praise-worthy immodesty as in the former case to knock so rudely at midnight is deemed no incivility at the gate of heaven This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Parisiensis reads it deprecatio justi assidua An assiduous prayer is the vvay to become an efficacious prayer It 's ill taken if not importunate Cold petitioners must have cool answers If the matter of prayer be right and the promise of God fervently urged thou art like to prevail like princely Israel that held the Angel by the Collar to speak with reverence and vvould not let him go untill he had blest him Gen. 32.26 v. 24. But 't was hot work most of the night even to break of day to shew that in some cases of extremity vve must hold out in prayers For our Lord in the next verse to the Text does not forbid the length of prayer for he himself upon occasion continues a vvhole night in prayer
open denials of prayer prove the most excellent answers and God's not hearing us is the most signal audience Therefore at the foot of every prayer subscribe fiat voluntas tua and thou shalt enjoy preventing mercies that thou never soughtest and converting mercies to change all for the best resting confident in this that having askt according to his will he heareth thee 1 John 5.14 7. Lastly present all into the hands of Christ This was signified of old by praying towards the Temple 1 Kings 8.33 Heb. 8.3 because the golden mercy-seat typifying Christ was there he is ordained of God to offer gifts and sacrifices and therefore 't is of necessity that he should have something from us to offer being (a) Heb. 10.21 the high priest over the house of God What does Christ on our behalf at the throne of grace Put some Petition into the hands of Christ he waits fâ—r our offerings at the door of the oracle leave the sighs and groans of thy heart with this compassionate intercessor who is toucht with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4 15. who sympathizes with our weaknesses He that lies in the Father's bosom and hath (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.18 expounded the Will of God to us adds (c) Rev. 8.3 much incense to the prayers of all Saints before the throne of God and explains our Wills to God (d) Psal 141.2 so that our prayers perfumed by his are set forth as incense before him He is the (e) Job 9.33 days-man the heavens-man betwixt God and us Whatever we ask in his name he puts into his golden censer (f) John 15 16 and 16.23 that the Father may give it to us When the sweet smoak of the incense of Christ's prayer ascends before the Father our prayers become sweet and amiable and cause a savour of rest with God This I take to be one reason why the prevalency of prayer is so often assigned to the time of the evening sacrifice pointing at the death of Christ about (g) Mat. 27.46 Act. 3.1.10.30 the 9th hour of the day near the time of the evening oblation Hence it was that Abraham's sacrifice received a gracious answer being offered (h) Gen. 15.12 24 63. about the going down of the Sun Isaac went out to pray at eventide Elijah at mount Carmel prays and offers at (i) 1 Kings 18.36 the time of the evening sacrifice Ezra fell upon his knees and spread out his hands (k) Ezr. 9.5 at the evening sacrifice David begs that his prayer may be virtual in the power of the (l) Psal 141.2 evening sacrifice Daniel at prayer was toucht by the angel about the time of the (m) Dan. 9.21 evening oblation All to shew the prevalency of our access to the throne of grace by the vertuous merit of the intercession of Christ the acceptable evening sacrifice Yea and therefore we are taught in our Lord's prayer to begin with the title of a Father in him we are adopted to children and to use that prevalent relation as an argument in prayer There are some other particulars in respect to prayer in general as it may be connext and coincident with secret prayer as stability of spirit freedom from distraction by wandring thoughts the actings of faith the aids of the spirit c. which I pass by and come to the second branch Directions special and peculiar to secret prayer 1. Be sure of intimate acquaintance with God Can we presume that are but dust and ashes to go up into heaven and boldly to enter the presence-chamber and have no fellowship with the Father or with the Son (a) Job 22 2â— 26 27. Acquaint thy self witb him and be at peace c. Then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and lift up tby face unto God thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee (b) v. 28. The decrees of thy heart shall be establisht to thee and the light shall shine upon thy ways First (c) Job 29.3 4. Dan. 9.3 shining acquaintance and then shining answers Canst thou set thy face unto the Lord God then thou mayest seek him by prayer First Daniel sets and shews his face to God and then seeks him by prayer and supplications Does God know your face in prayer do you often converse in your closets with him Believe it it must be the fruit of intimate acquaintance with God to meet him in secret with delight Can ye come familiarly as a child to a father considering its own vileness meanness or unworthiness in comparison with his divine love the love and bowels of a heavenly father Such a father the father of fathers and the father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.2 3. How sweetly does the Apostle joyn it God is our Father because the Father of our Lord and because his Father and so our Father therefore the Father of mercies Oh what generations of mercies flow from this paternity But plead we must to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that manuduction and access to this father through Christ by the spirit We must be gradually acquainted with all three Eph. 2.18 Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.4 First with the spirit then with Christ and last with the father first God sends the spirit of his son into our hearts and then through the son we cry Abba father The bowels of mercy first wrought in the father to us he chose us in Christ and then sends his spirit to draw us to Christ and by Christ to himself Have ye this access to God by the spirit bosom-communion flows from bosom-affection If your souls are truly in love with God he will graciously say to your petitions be it unto you according to your love Times of finding God A godly man prays in finding seasons 2. Obser When God's heart and ear are inclined to audience vvhen God is said to (a) Psal 31.2 Isa 55.6 Psal 32.6 Cant. 2.9.5.2 bow down his ear unto us There are special seasons of drawing nigh to him vvhen he draws nigh to us times when he may be found When thy beloved looks forth at the window and shews himself through the lattess That 's a time of grace when he knocks at the door of thy heart by his spirit Motions upon the heart are like the Doves of the East sent vvith letters about their necks As he said of Bernard Ex motu cordis spiritus Sancti praesentiam agnoscebat he knew vvhen the holy spirit vvas present with him by the motion of his heart Gerson T. 2. 27. a. 2 â—am 7.27 Psal 27.4 8. When God reveals himself to the heart he opens the ears of his Servants for some gracious message When God bids us seek his face then the soul must answer one thing have I desired that will I seek after First holy desires warm the heart and they sâ—t the soul on seeking They are â—ikâ— mâ—ssengers sent from heaven to
Joshua and then to say boldly the Lord is our helper c. For the special ground of the answer of prayer lies in the (d) Psal 50.15.65.24 performance of a promise Simeon lived upon a promise and (e) Luke 2.29 expired sweetly in the arms of a promise in the breathings of a prayer Sometimes the soul depends for an answer by vertue of the Covenant in general as of that (f) Gen. 17.7 I will be thy God sometimes by the great (g) Joh. 14.26 remembrancer draws water out of some (h) Isa 12.3 well of salvation but in both God's faithfulness is the soul's surety Hence it is that David in prayer does so often argue upon the veracity and truth of God and the Church in Micah is so confident that the (i) Mic. 7.20 mercy promised to Abraham and confirmed in truth to Jacob should be plentifully performed to his people Israel 9. Sober and serious resolutions before God in prayer the 119 Psalm is full of these (k) Psal 119.6 I will keep thy statutes (l) v. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments (m) v. 46. I will speak of thy testimonies before Kings (o) v. 106. I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments and other where (p) Psal 80.18 quicken us and we will call upon thy name and again (q) Psal 101.2 O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Visit me with answers of mercy to prayer and then the soul makes holy stipulations and compacts of obedience to God Thus Jacob (r) Gen. 28.22 if God will be with me then shall the Lord be my God and resolves upon a house for God and reserving the tenth of all his estate to his service and worship where the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si if is not to be taken for a single conditional as if God should not bestow what he promised he should not be his God Rivet in loc p. 489. that were a great wickedness but 't is a rational particle or of order and time Because or since God is graciously pleased to promise I will acknowledg him to be the God whom I adore by erecting a Temple and paying tithes to maintain his worship But whatever it is that the soul in distress does offer to God in promise be not slack to perform Gen. 35.3 〈◊〉 â— 4 for many times answers of prayer mâ—y delay till we have performed our promises (a) Psal 96.13 19. David professes to pay what his lips had uttered in trouble for God had heard him If we break our words to God no wonder if we feel what the Lord threatned to Israel that they should know (b) Num. 14.34 his breach of promise 10. A waiting frame of spirit in prayer I waited patiently for the Lord he inclined to me and heard my cry Psal 40.1 Psal 38.15 Psal 123.2.130.6.143.8 Mich. 7.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I expected with expectation he walkt up and down in the gallery of prayer This is set forth by hope till God hear In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear O Lord my God our eyes must wait upon the Lord our God till he have mercy upon us more than those which watch for the morning and persist praying cause us to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do we trust and say with Micah I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Hoping expecting trusting living upon the promise and looking for an answer of peace as he said of prayer sagitta movetur post quietem sagittantis navis quiescentibus nautis Gerson When an archer shoots an arrow he looks after it with his glass to see how it hits the mark So says the soul I 'le attend and watch how my prayer flies towards the bosom of God and what messages return from heaven As the seaman when he has set sail goes to the helm and the compass and sits still and observes the Sun or the pole-stars and how the ship works and how the land-marks form themselves aright according to his chart So do you when you have been at prayer mark your ship how it makes the port and what rich goods are laden back again from heaven Most men lose their prayers in the mists and fogs of non-observation and thus we arrive at the second question 2. Quest How to discover and discern answers to secret prayer that the soul may be satisfied that it hath prevailed with God Let us now consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendition or reply to prayer in the text he will return it into your bosoms and as to this in general when the mercy sought for is speedily and particularly cast into your arms Psal 104.28.147.9 Like the irrational creatures in their natural cries seek their meat from God and gather what he gives them and are filled with good When God openly returns to his children there is no further dispute for the worst of men will acknowledg the divine bounty Acts 14.17 when he fills their hearts with food and gladness But when cases are a little dubious 1. Observ The frame and temper of thy spirit in prayer how the heart works and steers its course in several particulars 2 Cor. 1.17 1. A holy liberty of spirit is commonly an excellent sign of answers a copious spirit of fluentness to pour out requests as out of a fountain As God shuts up opportunities so he shuts up hearts when he is not inclined to hear The heart 's sometimes lockt up that it cannot pray or if it does and will press on it finds a straitness as if the Lord had spoken as once to Moses Speak no more to me of this matter Deut. 3.26 Ezek. 14.14 7.2 7 11. or as God spake to Ezekiel though Noah Daniel and Job should intreat for a Nation when the time of a land is come there is no salvation but for their own souls When God intends to take away near relations or any of his Saints unto himself many times neither the Church of God nor dear friends have either apt seasons or hearts to enlarge The bow of prayer does not abide in strength God took away gracious Josiah suddenly 2 Chron. 35.25 the Church had time to write a book of Lamentations and to make it an ordinance in Israel but no time for deprecation of the divine displeasure in it but in Hezekiah's case there was both a season and a heart enlarged in prayer and the prophet crying for a sign of the mercy Holy James might be quickly dispatcht by the sword of Herod-Agrippa 2 Kings 20.11 Act. 12.2 12. but the Church had time for supplication in behalf of Peter When the Lord is pleased graciously to grant space of time and enlargement of heart 't is a notable
then follows song and praise This streams from the sense of divine love and love is the fountain of thankfulness and of all spritely and vigorous services that prayer that does not end in chearful obedience is called by Cyprian â—e Orat. p. â—7 oratio sterilis and preces nudae barren and unfruitful naked and without ornament and so we may glance upon the expression of holy James the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 a working prayer within will be working without and demonstrate the labour of love 2. Obs The principal subject-matter of prayer the mark the white that the arrow of prayer is shot at the scope it aims at there 's usually some special sin unconquer'd some untamed corruption some defect some pressing strait that drives the soul to prayer and is the main burden of the spirit take notice how such a sin withers or such a grace flourishes or such a need supplied upon the opening our hearts in prayer Watch unto prayer Eph. 6.18 watch to perform it and then to expound the voice of the divine oracle and to know that ye are successful Cry to thy soul by vvay of holy soliloquy Watchman Isa 21.11 what of the night 3. Obs Ensuing providences Set a vigilant eye upon succeeding passages examine them as they pass before thee set a wakeful centinel at the posts of vvisdom His name is near his wondrous works declare His name of truth Psal 75 1. his glorious title of hearing prayers When prayer is gone up by the help of the spirit mark hovv all things work together for good Rom. 8.28 v. 27. Isa 58.9 11. and note the connexion there the working of things together follows the intercession of the Spirit for all Saints God is pleased often to speak so clearly by his vvorks as if he said here I am I will guide thee continually and thou shalt be like a watered garden whose waters fail not Secret promises animate prayer and open providences expound it Isa 45 4 11 19. Cyrus was promised to come against Babylon for the Churches sake But Israel must ask it of God and they had a vvord for it that they should not seek his face in vain Psal 107.19 20. and then follows Babylon's fall in the succeeding chapters When we cry unto the Lord in trouble he sends his vvord of command and heals us There 's a set time of mercy a time of life when Abraham had prayed for a son the Lord told him Gen. 15.2 18.10.14 Esth 4.16 6.1 Psal 3.4.5 Eliezer Gen. 24.15 at the time appointed I 'le return In a great extremity after the solemn fast of three days by the Jews in Shushan and the Queen in her Palace on the fourth day at night the King could not sleep and must hear the Chronicles of Persia read and then follows Haman's ruine Prayer has a strange vertue to give quiet sleep sometimes to a David and sometimes a waking pillow for the good of the Church When Jacob had done wrestling and the Angel gone at the springing of the morning then the good man saw the Angel of God's presence in the face of Esau Sometimes providence is not so quick Rev 6.11 the Martyr's prayer as to compleat answer is deferred for a season but long white robes are given to every one a triumphant frame of spirit and told they should wait but a little season till divine justice should work out the issue of prayer the thunder upon God's enemies comes out of the temple the judgments roar out of Zion Rev. 11.19 Joel 3.16 the place of divine audience but the means and methods and times of God's working are various such as we little forethink Submit all to his infinite wisdom prescribe not but observe the Embroidery of Providence its difficult to spell its characters sometimes but 't is rare employment (d) Isa 64.5 Psal 111 2â— Eccl. 3.11 2 Sam. 23.4 His vvorks are searcht into by such as delight in his providences for all things are beautiful in his season 4. Mark thy following communion vvith God Inward answers make the soul veget and lively like plants after the shining of the Sun upon rain lift up their heads and shoot forth their flowers A Saint in favour does all with delight Isa 61.3 Answer of prayer is like oil to the spirits and beauty for ashes The sackcloth of mournful fasting is turned to a wedding garment He grows more free and yet humbly familiar vvith heaven This is one I vvould wish you to pick acquaintance vvith that can come and have what (h) Joh. 16 23. Gen. 20.7 he vvill at Court. As the Lord once told a King by night that Abraham was a Prophet and vvould pray for him he vvas acquainted vvith the King of heaven O blessed person I hope there 's many such among you vvhose life is a continued prayer Psal 109.4 As David that gave himself to prayer Heb. But I prayer he 's all over prayer prays at rising prays at lying down prays as he walks he 's always ready for prayer like a prime favourit at Court that has the golden key to the privy stairs and can vvake his Prince by night Christians there are such whatever the besotted profane world dreams vvho are ready for spiritual ascents at all seasons besides the frequency of set communions His wings never vveary his willing spirit is flying continually and makes God the rock of his dwelling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which he may upon all assaults have holy retirements Psal 71.3 But so much for the main Question with its branches There be many particular queries of some weight that may attend the princ pal subject and such I shall briefly reply to as Qu 1. What 's the proper time for secret prayer Ans Various providences different temperaments and frames of spirit motions from heaven opportunities dictate variously Some find it best at even others in the night when all is silent others at morning when the spirits are freshest I think with respect to others that conscientious prudence must guide in such cases when others are retired and the spirit in the best frame for communion Qu. 2. How often should we pray in secret Ans If we consult Scripture-president we find David at prayer in the morning our blessed Lord early before day in the morning Psal 5.3 Mark 1.35 Chrys in Psal 5. p. 542 Etim Mat. 14 23. Gen. 24.63 Psal 55.17 Dâ—n 6 10. Psal 119.164 Chrysostom advises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. wash thy soul before thy body for as the face and hands are cleansed by water so is the soul by prayer At another time our Lord went to secret prayer in the even and Isaac went to prayer in the eventide David and Daniel pray'd three times a day and once 't is mentioned that David said seven times a day will I praise thee that is very often Such cases may happen that
may require frequent accesses to the throne of grace in a day But I humbly think at the least once a day which seems to be imported by that passage in our Lord's prayer give us this day our daily bread Since after our Lord's appointment of secret prayer in the text he gives us this prayer as a pattern to his Disciples Qu. 3. When persons are under temptations or disturbance by passions is it expedient then to pray 1 Tim. 2.8 Ans Since we are enjoin'd to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting I judg it not so proper to run immediately to prayer but with some foregoing ejaculations for pardon and strength against such exorbitances and when in some measure cooled and composed then speed to prayer and take heed that the Sun go not down upon your wrath without holy purgation by prayer Eph 4.26 though I must confess a Christian should always endeavour to keep his course and heart in such a frame as not to be unfit for prayer upon small warnings The very consideration of our frequent communion with God should be a great bar to immoderate and exuberant passions Qu. 4. Whether may we pray in secret when others must needs take notice of our retirement Ans I must confess in a strait house and when a person can many times find no seasons but such as will fall under observation I think he ought not to neglect secret duty if his heart be right before God for fear of others notice we must prevent it as much as may be and especially watch our hearts against spiritual pride and God may graciously turn it to a testimony and for example to others Qu. 5. Whether we may be vocal in secret prayer if we can't so well raise or keep up affection or preserve the heart from wandering without it Ans No doubt but yet there must be used a great deal of wise caution about extending the voice De Orat. That of Tertullian counselling persons at prayer ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis c. Ne vultu quidem in audaciam erecto Sonos etiam vocis subjecios esse oportet aut quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur c. qui clarius adorant proximis obstrepunt imò prodendo orationes suas quid minùs faciunt quam si in publico orent Advises that both hands and countenance and voice should be ordered with great reverence and humility What arteries need we if we think to be heard for noise and what else do we by discovering our prayers than if we pray'd in publick yet surely if we can obtain some very private place or when others are from home and the extension of the voice be found to some persons by long experience to be of use such may lawfully improve it to their private benefit Q. 6. How to keep the heart from wandring thoughts in prayer Ans Although it be exceeding difficult to attain so excellent a frame yet by frequent reflecting upon and remembring the eye of God in secret by endeavouring to fix the heart with all possible watchfulness upon the main scope of prayer in hand by being very sensible of our wants and indigencies by not studying of impertinent length but rather being more frequent and short considering God is in heaven and we upon earth and by exercise of holy communion as we may through the implored assistance of the spirit attain some sweetness and freedom Eccl. 5.22 so likewise some more fixedness of spirit in our addresses before the Lord. Qu. 7. What if present answers seem not to correspond to our Petitions Ans We must not conclude it by and by to be a token of displeasure and say with Job Job 10.2 shew me wherefore thou contendest with me but acknowledg the soveraignty of divine wisdom and love in things that seem contrary to us in petitions for temporal mercies and submit to the counsel of Elihu 33.13 since he giveth no account of any of his matters neither can we find out the unsearchable methods of his holy ways to any perfection 11.7 There be other cases and scruples that might be treated of as about prescript words in secret prayers to which I need say but little since such as are truly converted (d) Gal. 4 6. Rom. 8.26 Zech. 1◠10 Acts 9.11 have the promise of the spirit of God to assist and enable them and they need not drink of another's bucket that have the fountain nor use stilts and crutches that have spiritual strength neither are words and phrases but faith and holy groans the nerves of prayer Yet for some help to young beginners doubtless it 's of use to observe the style of the spirit as well as the heavenly matter of several prayers in the holy Scriptures Psal 23.6 139.17.18 Neither need I to press frequency to a holy heart that is saln in love with spiritual communion for he delights to be continually with him the thoughts of God are so precious to him his soul is even sick of affection and prayes to be stayed with more of the flagous and comforted with the apples in greater abundance Cant. 2.5 To some though I fear how few how far it is lawful and expedient to withdraw for the necessity of the frail body in this vale of tears It may be replyed (g) Jam. 5.11 Hos 6.6 that the Lord is very pitiful and gracious to our frailties that he had rather have mercy than sacrifice in some cases Though I doubt these Phaenixes are but rare that are in danger of expiring in prayer as martyrs of divine love as Gerson expresses Gers T. 2. kk 5. Having now finisht with what brevity I could the foregoing queries I should treat about short sudden occasional prayers commonly call'd ejaculations but indeed that requires a set and just discourse yet because of a promise above recited I shall give a few tasts of it and then conclude with some application Ejaculatory Prayer Is a sudden short breathing of the soul towards Heaven upon instant and surprizing emergencies In holy persons it 's quick and lively rising from a vehement ardour of spirit swifter than the flight of eagles and keeps pace with a flash of lightning It flies upon the wings of a holy thought into the third Heavens in the twinkling of an eye and fetches auxiliary forces in times of straits There are many presidents recorded in sacred page upon great and notable occasions with strange success When good magistrates are busie in the work of reformation Neh. 13.14.22 let them imitate Nehemiah when redressing the profanation of the Sabbath Remember me O my God concerning this c. When Generals and Captains go forth to war Josh 1.17 observe Israel's apprecation to God rather than acclamations to men The Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses In time of battels or pursuit of the enemy valiant Joshuah darts up
that shine upon our Israelites in the night and darkness that inlightens solitudes full of heavenly company and tears brim-ful of joy and holy sighs like a cooling wind in harvest sweats of love and sick fits that are symptoms of health and holy faintings that are the soul's cordials a weariness to the flesh that is the healthful exercise of and vigor to the spirit and a continual motion that never tires it Geâ—s T. 2. K. K. 4. As Austin said of divine love illò feror quocunque feror pondus meum amor meus it 's the weight of my soul it carries me up and down in all that I speak and all that I act Quae major voluptas quam fastidium ipsius voluptatis Tertul. Eccl. 2.2 c. 7.6 4. Cant. 5.10.2.3 Rev. 2.7 1 Sam. 14.26 2. Its extasies and heavenly raptures which allure and draw the heart from earthly vanities when the soul shuts its eyes to worldly delights and says of laughter with Solomon it is mad and of mirth what dost thou can't warm its thoughts at the crackling of thorns under a pot nor be joyful in the house of fools 'T is the soul's pleasure to loath pleasure it self none so beautiful to him as Christ the chiefest of ten thousand no sweetness like that of the tree in the midst of the Wood the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God he sits under it with great delight while it drops sweeter than hony into his closet 3. It s admirable prophesies Prayer stands upon mount Zion with a divining presaging spirit It foretells great things to the Churches joy and its enemies terror (f) 1 King 19.6 Elijah at prayer in Horeb receives answer of the ruine of the house of Ahab and bid to go and anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi King over Israel The two witnesses under the (g) Rev. 11. Romish defection have power to smite the earth with plagues as oft as they will consonant to what Tertullian said of old (h) de orat votum Christianorum confusio nationum the prayers of Christians confounded the nations and so it will shortly prove the doom of Babylon comes out of the Temple When the sanctuary is full of the smoak of the incense of prayer Rev. 15.7.8.16 1. the seven Angels come out with the seven last vials full of the wrath of God to pour them out upon the Anti-Christian world Prayer calculates and hastens the ruine of Rome When the spirit of prayer (a) Joel 2.21 32.3.1 2. is once poured out it brings deliverance to mount Zion and gathers the nations into the vally of Jehoshaphat unto judgment Let 's never be discouraged if prayer fall to work and awaken Christ in the ship (b) Luk. 8.24 of the Church her storms will cease in a halcyon calm 4. Its comforting evidences Secret prayer duly managed is a notable evidence of adoption pray to thy Father who is and sees in secret who knows the secrets of thy heart thy groanings are not hid from him Psal 44.21.38 9. None but a child of promise has this sweet freedom with God as a Father 5. Its rewards and revenues Nothing revives and chears the spirit so much as answers of love and mercy from Heaven As it feasts the conscience with the royal dainties of sincerity so it sets a lustre upon every mercy as being the child of prayer our closets influence upon our shops our ships our fields and all we enjoy that they smell of divine blessing as David said of precepts Psal 119.56 the soul may say this I have because I urged the promises Vse 4. To pity the miserable blind world that know not where true comfort Vse 4 joy and strength is to be found that see no beauty in the ways of God Gen. 27.27 and feel no sweetness in communion with him that find no pleasure in closets but play-houses which Tertullian call'd the Devil's Churches that cry out with Esau they have enough Alas what enough can be in the Creature Gen. 33.9 Tertul. de spect c. 25.26 unless of dunghils rattles and vanities Oh how ignorant of Heavenly treasures of that fountain of mercies whereof prayer drinks and resreshes the spirit of a Saint That know not that blessed enough whereof Jacob speaks Gen. 33.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mibi omnia that Ocean of all things to be found in God Now Europe's in flames and the ark in danger he cares not though the one be burnt and the other in ashes so he be safe But if his concerns catch fire he knows not to repair but (f) 1 Sam. 28.7 2 King 1.2 to Endor or Ekron Such have no acquaintance with no help from God no interest in the keeper of souls The world 's a deplorable hospital the great Lazar-house of sick lame and impotent persons as Gerson terms it Gers To. 2.76 6. that have no face nor heart to go to the physician of souls But ah most lamentable is the state of some prostitute wretches of our age that are I fear almost incurably gone with spiritual ulcers in their lungs and eating putrid cancers in their tongues that breath nothing but venom and openly spit out their rotten Atheistical jeers against the spirit of prayer and make a mock at communion with God That scoff at what God hath promised as one of the choicest tokens of his love to the Church Zech. 12.10 Joel 2.28 32. Rom. 10.13 Joh. 7.39 and symptoms of the glory of the latter times when God will turn such Ishmaels into the desert Amos 8.10 Job 30.31 and their drunken Songs shall expire in dreadful howlings Prophaner than many heathens that in the Primitive times had some reverence for Christian worship though they persecuted But those of this adulterous Romish age 2 Pet. 2.12 like brute beasts speak evil of what they are ignorant and are in danger to perish utterly in their own corruption pity such if there be yet hope and commend their condition to God's mercy and penitent sorrow that they may weep here where tears prick not in hell where they scauld and burn and swell that river of brimstone Gerson T. 2. 49. KK 3. In the mean time O ye that fear the Lord be diligent to observe and interpret messages after secret prayer for the life and joy of a Christian is improved by it God has declared himself graciously pleased with secret prayer Dan. 9.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vâ—lans in lassitudine so as to send an Angel that glorious creature to fly into Daniel's chamber and he weary with flying he moved so swiftly volans in lassitudine as the original text expresses it What a high expression is this that even Angels are represented weary with hasty flights to bring Saints their answers and of what great account does the Lord esteem his praying people that Angels are exprest to be tired in bringing tidings of mercy 6. Meditate on
the glory of heaven where all our prayers shall be turned into praises When every sigh below shall be an accent to the heavenly musick above and the tears of the valley shall be turned into orient gems in the diadem of glory Here we groan under wants and desires empty within and live on the craving hand But there palms in the hand white robes and everlasting joys upon the heads and hearts of Saints How may the duty of of daily Family Prayer be best managed for the spiritual benefit of every one in the Family Serm. XV. Joshua 24.15 latter part But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. JOshua being old and stricken in age and desirous before his departure out of the world solemnly to engage the people of Israel to adhere to God and his holy worship gathered all their Tribes to Shechem called for the chief of them that were Governours and Representatives of the whole body of the People (a) Quatuor crant in qualibet urbe gradus officioram 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senes vel Sâ—natus 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capira â—atâ—um singularum tribuum primotes primi eminenâ—toâ—â— in urbe 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judices 〈…〉 veram 〈…〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apparitores 〈◊〉 res judicates exequebantur â—â—culo lâ—ro p pulum corebant ad observantiam praeceptorum Schind Lexic Pentag namely for the Elders of Israel or the Senate that did chiefly manage the affairs of Church and State for their Heads the most eminent of each Tribe and prime Rulers thereof for their Judges that sate in Courts to hear Causes and execute judgment betwixt man and man and such Magistrates that ruled over them for their peace and welfare and for their Officers who did see to the execution of the sentences and judgments of Superiour Magistrates All these being present Joshua makes a brief historical narrative of God's signal providences and singular benefits to them and their Fathers in this order First His calling of Abraham from Idolatry to the knowledg of the true God and profession of true Religion ver 2 3. Secondly His multiplying of his Seed ver 3 4. Thirdly His delivering them out of Egypt and making a way for them through the Red-sea which returning destroyed the Egyptians that did pursue them ver 5 6 7. Fourthly His preserving them in the Wilderness ver 7. Fifthly The Victories that he gave them over the Amorites when they fought against them ver 8. Sixthly His defending them against Balak the Son of Zippor King of Moab and restraining Balaam from cursing of them ver 9 10. Seventhly His miraculous providence in drying up the waters of Jordan that they might pass over ver 11. Eighthly His delivering the men of Jericho and their several enemies into their hands ver 11. Ninthly That it was not by their own Sword nor by their own Bow that they subdued the Nations but God by weak and contemptible Creatures as Hornets drove them out from before them ver 12. Tenth His giving them the possession of such Cities which they had not built and to eat of the Vine-yards and Olive-yards which they had not planted thus he brings to their remembrance the great and wonderful things that God had done for them A capite bona valeâ—udo inde omnia vâ—geta sunt atque erecta aut languore demissa prout animus eorum viget aut marcet Et erunt Cives erunt Socii digni hac bonitate in totum orbem rectimores revertentur Seâ—ec de Clement lib 2. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ego domus mea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usurpantur 1. Pro domicilio The mercies of God to man being strong enforcements of man's duty to God upon these moral grounds and reasons Joshua in the 14th verse earnestly exhorts them to fear the Lord and to serve him in sincerity with a pure heart without hypocrisie and in truth without false pretences and counterfeit shews of godliness as becometh such as worship the most Holy the most Wise and glorious God and declareth his own fixed resolution That he and his house would serve the Lord as if he should say I have given you a Catalogue of the great and many mercies of God vouchsafed to you and I have exhorted and charged you all in the Name of the Great and Eternal God to fear and serve him but if ye will not I do here declare profess and publish my purpose and resolution in the ears of all you the Elders Heads Judges and Officers and all others that I and my house will serve the Lord be it known unto you that I will not only serve and worship God my self but will also set up his worship in my house and both I and mine will serve the Lord. The original words in Old and New Testament translated House have various significations amongst the rest these 1. For an earthly habitation properly taken this house cannot serve the Lord but the Inhabitants in this house must serve the Lord. 2. Pro Sepulchro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dupert Eheu fugaces Labuntur anni nec pietas morum rugis instanti Senectae afferet indomitaeque morti Hor. lib. 2. Od. 14. Dum loquimur fugerit invida aetas carpe diem quam minimum credula postero Idem l. 1. Od. xi 2. For the grave where we must all shortly take up our Lodgings and be carried on mens backs from our now dwelling houses to this sleeping house We that are now alive shall be in a little time housed in the earth while we live we dwell in several houses one house can contain or entertain but a few but what a large capacious house is the Grave that shall hold all the living Job 30.23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living There is no praying to or praising of God in this house in the houses where you now dwell you may you ought but in this you are going to and oh how quickly might you or I be in it you will be past praying and past hearing and calling upon God when death and dust have stopped your mouth 's and tyed your tongues Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Sirs you are going you are going every day every hour every moment to this house whether you are eating or drinking or sleeping whether you pray or not pray in your houses where now you dwell you are going to this house where you can never pray Therefore pray NOW or NEVER serve God and pray unto him now where you dwell or you must hold your peace for ever except you cry and roar and lament your negligence and folly in a Lake of burning brimstone because you did not pray
say I would my poor hungry child I would but I have it not Why then will you not come at me live together and eat together at my cost and care and charge and yet be whole months and never come at Me and that your children have reason raiment limbs not born blind nor of a monstrous birth which things Heathens have been affected with and a thousand ways besides have I done you good may God say Why then will you live whole years together and never together come at me Have you found one more able or more willing to do you good that you never can Why then are you so unthankful as not to come at me After the like manner the Lord expostulates with his People to whom he had been a bountiful Benefactor and yet they answered not his bounty nor served him their Benefactor for which he calls to the Heavens to be astonished and the Earth to be horribly afraid Jer. 2.5 Thus saith the Lord Mercies do engage to duties We should have him for our God for ever and serve him that always doth us good So the Poet. O Melibaec Deuo. nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus Virg. Eclog. 1. Officia etiam saerae sentiunt nec ullum tam immansuetum animal est quod non cura mitiget in amorem sui vertat Leonum ora à magistris impunè tractantur Eliphantorum feritatem usque in servile obsequium demeretur cibus adeo etiam quae extra intellectum atque aestimationem bemeficii sunt posita assiduitas tamen meriti pertinacis evincit Ingratus est adversus unum beneficium adversus alterum non erit Duorum obliru est tertium etiam corum quae excideruâ—t memoriam reducet Qui instat onerat priora sequentibus etiam ex duto Immemori pectore gratiam extundat Nâ—o audebit adversus multa ocuâ—câ— allollere Senec. de benef c. 3. what iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me 6. Neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt Should such a people forsake such a God and go far from him that did them so much good yet they did ver 13. Be astonished at this oh ye heavens You see when God is a Benefactor to a People and there is the same reason for Families and they do not serve him what monstrous wickedness it is God hath kept you all safe in the night and yet in the morning you do not say Where is the Lord that did preserve us come ô come Let us give joint praises to him God hath done you and your Families good so many years and yet you do not say where is the Lord that hath done such great things for us come let us acknowledg his mercy together God hath carried you through affliction and sickness in the Family the Plague hath been in the house and yet you live the Small pox and burning Feavors have been in your houses and yet you are alive your conjugal companion hath been sick and recovered children nigh to death and yet restored and for all this you do not say Where is the Lord that kept us from the Grave and saved us from the Pit that we are not rotten among the dead and yet you do not pray to nor pra se this your wonderful Benefactor together Let the very walls within which these ungrateful wretches live be astonished at this Let the very beams and pillars of their houses tremble and let the very girders of the floors on which they tread and walk be horribly afraid that such as dwell in such an House together go to bed before they go to Prayer together Let the earth be amazed that the Families which the Lord doth nourish and maintain are rebellious and unthankful Being worse than the very Ox that knoweth his Owner and of less understanding than the very Ass Isa 1.2 3. There is such validity in the consequence from God's being our Benefactor to our duty to him in serving of him that Joshua builds his exhortation to the Heads and People of Israel to fear and worship God upon this very foundation as appeareth plainly to any that read the Chapter where the Text lieth From what hath been said I reason in this manner 3. Arg. If God be the Founder Owner Governour and Benefactor of Families as such then Families as such are jointly to worship God and pray unto him This cannot be denied But God is the Founder Owner Governour and Benefactor of Families as such Neither can this be denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Moral Nunc adhibe puro Pectore verba puer nunc te melioribus affer Quo semel est imbuta recensâ— servabit odorem Testa diu Horat. Ep. l. 12. adeo in teneris consuescere mulâ—um est Virg Geor. l. 2. Therefore Families as such are jointly to worship God and pray unto him Argument 4. Masters of Families ought to read the Scripture to their Families teach and instruct their Children and Servants in the matters and doctrines of Salvation therefore they are to pray in and with their Families No man that will not deny the Scripture can deny the unquestionable duty of reading the Scripture in our houses Governours of Families teaching and instructing them out of the Word of God Amongst a multitude of express Scriptures look into these Exod. 12.26 And it shall come to pass when your Children shall say unto you what mean you by this service 27. Ye shall say it is the Sacrifice of the Lord 's Passeover who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses And there is as much reason that Christian Parents should explain to their Children the Sacraments of the New Testament to instruct them in the nature use and ends of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Deut. 6.6 And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart 7. v. And thou shalt teach * Crebris admonitionum quasi ictibus haec mea praecepta infiges optabis sicut repetitis mallei ictibus fâ—rram aptatur Lud. de Dieu Et dentabis ea i. e. inter dentes versabis assidue lo queris vel dentibus mandes praemansa in os ingeres filiis tuis Malvend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whet or sharpen them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest in the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up i. e. morning and evening Deut. 11.18 19. Ephes 6.4 And ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And God was pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they
corde se tantopere praesumere oportet ut modum quo Deus religiosè coli debet ipsi sibi pro libitu arbitrio praescribant non enim Deus hominum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delectatur aequum est non quo nos volumus ipsi sed quo ipse vult modo eum colamus veneremur Thes Salmur That Abel did Sacrifice and thereby pleased God Gen. 4.4 the Lord had respect unto Abel and his Offering i. e. God accepted Abel and his Offering It is not said what outward testimony it was whereby God did declare this respect and acceptance of Abel's Offering whereby Cain did perceive that Abel and his Offering was pleasing unto God when himself and his Offering were both rejected It is conceived that fire came down from Heaven and consumed Abel's Sacrifice but not Cain's Offering and by this sign God did discover his acceptance of the Sacrifices in following Ages Lev. 9.24 1 Kings 18.38 1 Chron. 21.26 2 Chron. 27.1 But if this had not been by God's own appointment it would not have pleased him for will-worship God is not delighted in if it had not been commanded by God it had not been obedience in Abel and if it had not been obedience it would not have been pleasing to God for hath the Lord as great delight in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams 1 Sam. 15.22 Abel did by faith what he did in sacrificing unto God Heb. 11.4 2. Fide oblata fuerunt sacrificiis ab initio sunt autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in religione fides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec enim habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa autem nititur divinae revelatione voluntatis ut qui cultus Deo ex fide praestatur sit obedientia Cloppenburgh Sacrific Schol. But faith must be bottomed upon some signification of the Will of God and must be done by virtue of some command if done in faith else there is no ground nor reason to believe that what is done will be pleasing unto God That there was religious worship in Adam's Family 2. A non scripto ad non factum non valet consequentia Inter primam promissionem de ventura semine mulieris primum sacrificium non relinquimus ullum temporis intervallum Munit hanc sententiam nostram Apostolus docens vetus foedus absque sanguine dedicatum non fuisse absque sanguinis effusione non fieri remissionem Heb. 9.18 22. Hinc enim consequens est vel cum promissione illa de venturo semine mulieris nullam factam esse foederis Dei cum bomine spiritualis instaurationem qua peccato um remissionem speraret crederet vel non esse factum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui est sacrificiorum character Cloppenburgh Sacrif Schol. and so handed down from his to others appears in that Adam did yield obedience to the command of God given to him concerning Sacrifices and other duties belonging to it and did educate his children in the same Though we do not read that Adam did sacrifice and pray to God yet it doth not follow that he did not The great wickedness of Cain and the martyrdom of Abel gave occasion to this first mention of their offering but it is not likely that this was the first offering made to God for do you think that Adam and Eve had so many Sabbaths before Cain and Abel were born and brought up that they kept none of them No not one Or that they spent their time and days in the matters of the World in the total neglecting of God and their own Souls If any be so uncharitable let them consider these three things 1. Had not Adam and Eve sad experience of the difference of being under God's favour and his frowns of being filled with the sense of his love and fears of his wrath Were there ever any in the world that knew both these as our first Parents did the one in the state of Innocency the other after their Apostacy When God himself came to look after these transgressors of his Law and to arraign them at his Bar and convince them of the evil they had done and pronounce sentence upon them for the same and cursed the one and the other and the earth for their sakes and drove them out in anger from that delightful pleasant Paradise in which at first they were placed by God were they not terrified now by the anger of the Lord as they were before delighted in his love Adamus cum totius generis humani esset pater familias promissionem seminis victricis posteris omnibus praedicandam acceperit illius officii nexu naturae positivi praecepti juris virtute tenebatur Officio isti cum non de fuisse plurima sunt quae suadent Munere enim mandato ut sedulò fungeretur effecerunt sine dubio beneficum à Deo maximum recèns acceptum sui generis amor misericordia aâ—que in quem staâ—um per peccatum redegisset miseres posteros sensuâ—â— tenerrimus Tota itaque illius familia ipso curante regente hoc est totum in universum humanum genus nemine excepto dei erat ecclesia in qua fides observantia cultus religiosus viguerunt Doct. Owen de nat ortu c. Theol. lib. 2. cap. 2. 2. Then add to this and consider Did not God after this out of his abundant grace and mercy towards them lying in this misery preach recovering grace by and through his own Son Gen. 3.15 q. d. Adam thou art a lost man Yes Lord I see I am Thou art exposed to my wrath and to the death that I did threaten if thou didst disobey Yes Lord so I am Adam and Eve you two have undone your selves and all the world and plunged your selves and them into the depth of misery and are exposed to my wrath and justice for ever Yes Lord so it is so it is wo unto us so it is Well but yet out of my meer mercy and free grace I will help you out of this condition I have a remedy for you I have kindness for you Sinners for you Rebels and such that all the Angels in Heaven could not have thought of for you poor Sinners and that is my own Son shall be your Surety shall become a man and suffer in your nature and bear the punishment of your sin he shall dye and you shall live he shall suffer and you shall be saved if you will yet consent to the terms of a new Covenant after you have violated the former and this shall come to pass at the time that I have appointed in the mean while you shall offer such Sacrifices to me and pray unto me for your pardon and my grace and these Sacrifices shall be Types of this promised Saviour and it shall be through him but not for these that I
to us all if God had spared him her or them if your house had been consumed by flames and God had turned you all out of doors before morning would you not have said It would have been a mercy if God had safely preserved us and our dwellings and caused us to rest and sleep and rise in safety Why Sirs will you not acknowledg mercies to be mercies till God hath taken them away from you and if you do should you not give the praise daily unto God Was it not God himself that watched over you while you did sleep and could not did not watch your selves When you all did sleep you knew not where you were nor what dangers you were exposed unto nor how you might prevent them but God then was good unto you and should you not conjunctly acknowledg this when you do wake and rise and see that God hath kept you and do enjoy the comfort and the benefit of his watchful Providence over you Psal 127.1 Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain 2. for so he giveth his beloved sleep And as you have had many Family mercies in the night to bless God for in the morning so you have many Family mercies in the day to give thanks to God for at night before you go to bed If you see not cause to acknowledg God's goodness towards you you are blind if you do and have not hearts you are worse Methinks you should not quietly sleep till you have been together on your knees least God should say this Family that hath not acknowledged my mercy to them this day nor given me the glory of those benefits of which to them I gave the comfort shall never see the light of another day nor have the mercies of one day more to bless me for When sleep doth close their eyes so shall death too they shall live no longer and rise no more this night they shall go to their beds and the day or two after shall be carried to their graves I wonder Sirs that you do not dream of an angry God because thus slighted by you I wonder that you do not dream of some sore judgment or other that might overtake you before the Sun doth rise What if God should say unto you when you are laid down in your beds THIS NIGHT your Souls shall be required of you you that went to bed before you had given me the praise of the mercies that I had given unto you all the day and before you had prayed for my protection over you in the night and should send some suddain sickness to make you feel that he is offended with you for this neglect might not God say shall I keep and preserve that Family till the morning that would not so much as ask me so to do and if I do will not acknowledg it to be a mercy or a kindness to them Take heed though God be patient do not provoke him Reason 2. You should pray to God daily in your Families because there are sins committed every day in your Families 2. 2. Ad candem à defectibus nostris excitamur Do you indeed sin together and will you not pray together what if you should be damned all together Doth not every member of your Family commit many sins every day How great is the number then of all when considered or put together What! so many sins every day under your roof within your walls committed against the glorious blessed God and not one Prayer one sin should be lamented with a thousand tears but you have not one tear shed by one and another by another in Prayer together for a thousand sins Is this to repent daily when you do not confess them daily Would you have God to pardon all the sins of your Family say would you or no If you would not God might justly let you go to your Graves and Hell too with the guilt of sin upon your Souls If you would is not pardon worth asking for Would you have it and not beg it at the hands of God would not all judg that man worthy of death that being justly condemned might yet have life for asking for and will not How do you how can you quietly go to your beds and sleep with the guilt of so many sins upon your Souls and have not prayed to have them blotted out What do you take to make you sleep What is your pillow made of that your heads can rest upon it under the weight and load of so much guilt Is indeed your bed so soft or your heart so hard that you can rest and sleep when to all the sins of commission in the day you add this sin of omission in the evening Lay to heart your daily Family sins and you will feel a reason why you should pray to God in your Families daily Reason 3. 3. You should pray in your Families daily unto God 3. Ad eandem plerisque tum cerporaelium tum spiritualium bonorum indigentiis premimur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indiget vir viro sed omnes Deo etiam Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Od. lib. 8. Omne bonum Dei donum because you have many daily Family wants which none can supply but God God wants not your Prayers but you and yours want God's mercies and if you will have them should you not pray for them Can you supply your Families wants If they want health can you give it them If they want bread can you give it them except God first give it unto you Why then did Christ direct us to pray Give us this day our daily bread If they want grace can you work it in them or do you not care though they die without it Is not God the giver of every good gift Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Mercies are above and good things are from above and prayer is a means appointed by God to fetch them down Jam. 1.5 If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God Do you think you do not want wisdom to discharge your duties to God and man that you do not want wisdom to manage your family for their temporal spiritual and eternal good If you think so you are fools and if you think you want it not by those very thoughts you may discern your want of it If you think you have enough it is plain that you have none and should you not ask it of God if you would have it If you and yours want health in your Family should you not ask it of God Can you live without dependance upon God or can you say you have no need of God's help to supply your wants then you speak contradictions for to be under wants and not to be dependent beings is a contradiction to think you do not live in dependence upon God is to think you are
by others iniquity these are most to be pityed the violent suffocation of their thoughts is not without great vexation of their hearts as Lot might be an instance 2 Pet. 2.2 8. And David Psal 39.23 I was dumb with silence I held my peace even from good and my sorrow was stirred my heart was but within me while I mused the fire burnt In others this is affected out of Moroseness doggedness or design in these the offence is most aggravated the silence is most sinful but more particularly When are we guilty of over-much silence 1. When Justice is obstructed by it my Neighbour has suffered wrong I know it without my testimony he cannot have right I conceal it my secrecy involves me in the iniquity Lev. 5.1 A pretence of peaceableness and good Neighbour-hood stops the mouths of several in this case but peace of Conscience and the cause of Righteousness should be preferred before all peace and above every other consideration take place if the matter especially be momentous 2. When Charity is omitted and is not like from other hands to be at least so seasonably and advantagiously administred there is oft-times great Charity in a word and it is the greatest cruelty imaginable to spare that word and it is often further heightned from the parties to which it is grudged For instance if we are made privy to any thing the discovery of which is for great publique good and conceal it for private advantage beyond what is fitting for our private capacity and a just reward for our ingenuity we highly transgress against publique Charity and are unworthy of the benefits of Society this we learn from the Lepers case themselves being Judges 2 Kings 7.8 9. Again if we alone are privy to a Brother or Friend's fault wherein he goes on and is not like of himself to come off bolstering himself up in the opinion of its secrecy a word of reproof from thee might save him and thou art the greatest Enemy he has if thou with-holdest it from him Lev. 19.17 Further thy own Soul is in a dark and dismal state thy Neighbour or Friend is full of light by one question thou mightest do much to thy own illumination and yet thou pinest away and perishest for lack of knowledg where is thy love to thy self in the mean time Tongue-Charity is the cheapest of all Charity and yet many certainly not without great guilt let their Countreys Friends and own Souls starve for lack of it 3. If our own Spirits be soured by it words kept in are many times like humours struck in go to the heart and offend the vital parts Maliciousness censoriousness are often so fed vent might give relief in this case and be the only means for our Cure if moderately and discreetly given Many can write their probatum est to this 4. If our Company whom we may and ought to please so far as we can be grieved or offended at it Silence where we may be free and have wont to be free and it is justly expected we should be free as among Friends Relations c. Speaks very cuttingly and should not causlesly be long kept lest it be ill interpreted it intimates anger at them or contempt of them it renders you wholly insignificant to them you had as good send your Horse among them if you will not converse like a man with them 5. If our Calling and Commission from God be to speak we may not be silent as to any one thing committed to us to speak in this case You know who said Acts 4.20 We cannot but speak woe is us if we do not Paul no other way could clear himself of their blood than by protesting that he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsel of God Acts 20.27 And our Saviour doth mainly comfort himself as having hid or kept back nothing given in charge to him Psal 40.9 10 11. Loe I have not refrained my Lips O Lord thou knowest I have not hid thy Righteousness within my heart I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth with-hold not thou thy tender mercies from me 6. If the Cause and Honour of God call for a publique testimony no one in his way may innocently with-hold it however mean be his capacity Children therefore in Christ's day were called forth to it and justified in it Mat. 21.15 16. And when offence was took on a like occasion he tells them that if those should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out Eccl. 3.7 You see then that there is a time to speak as well as keep silence happy he that hits his time and he that heeds it will hardly miss it or if he does shall the more easily be excused it We commonly say that little said is soon amended true but yet for not speaking as well as not doing in some cases we may be condemned It is therefore our duty to rouze our Tongue when it is sluggish as well as hold it in where it is lavish calling upon it as he Psal 57.8 Awake up my Glory or as you have another instance Judges 5.12 Awake Awake Deborah Awake Awake utter a Song 2. The second extreme to be avoided is Loquacity or over-much speaking a fault many are incident to through the levity of their temper and looseness of their Tongues and it is a very hard task for them to talk much and talk well He is peremptory Prov. 10.19 that in the multitude of words there wants not sin And I suppose he speaks modestly and that he means that there is a great deal of sin But let our Query be Quest When any one may be said to talk too much Some few of many instances take as follows 1. When talking excludes thinking the Tongue out-runs the wit a little of this talk is too much as being to no purpose but to betray our folly abuse our Brother's patience and waste precious time One may talk to Children at this rate to save a needless expence of sense where there is but little but it is an intolerable presumption upon men to entertain them with words morecrude than our belches that we fetch not so low as our breath and that little differ from an Asse's braying 2. When it will not give way to hearing especially when wiser and better men be present If they were inferior and weaker it were meet they should be allowed their turns every one may be supposed to have brought something wherewith the whole might be edified in ingrossing all the talk to thy self thou art chargeable with unseemly vaunting thou art in the ready way to emptying there is no hope of thy replenishing go hoop and hallow in the Woods if thou wilt be answered only by thy own Eccho Proud men and passionate men are apt so to offend they have no ears and so are unlike to edifie and for any thing they are like to get had as good keep out of Company Mark advice of
the one and the other might see the right way of Salvation by Jesus Christ for though the Light of Nature by which we are convinc'd of the equity and righteousness of the Moral Law do bind us to Repentance when we act against it yet it cannot promise that we shall get any thing by our Repentance being altogether ignorant of the Mystery of the Gospel Thus we see the Mountains must be brought low and the Valleys filled up and both reduc'd to such an exact level evenness and plainness that Christ may sit close upon the soul without the least interposition of any thing between him and us or the least remaining vacuity or emptiness in our selves into which his Fulness doth not descend making up whatsoever is wanting in us and when it is so there is a through perfect closure with Christ in the greatest nearness in the strictest and most intimate union that can be But you will say How shall we come to this How shall we walk thus between the Mountain and the Valley in a streight direct line of Faith and Hope to Jesus Christ which brings me to the Case or Question now to be spoken to from the Text which is this viz. How may we steer an even course between Presumption and Despair The true state of this Question depends upon a clear discovery of the real difference that is between the Grace of Hope and both these extreams Presumption and Despair therefore 1. I shall distinguish between Presumption and Hope The difference between Hope and Despair is more apparent but we are too too apt to confound Presumption and Hope there being a greater Affinity between these than the other as in Morality some vertue come nearer to one extreme than to the other So here there is something of the general nature of Hope in Presumption Presumptio non excludit spem sed rectitudâ—nem spei Zanch. Therefore we must be the more acurate and strict in distinguishing between the Grace of Hope and the Sin of Presumprion which fallente quâdam Specie Aquinas resembles the grace of Hope and those who are guilty of this Sin do alwayes put the specious name of Hope upon it they are not sensible of any Presumption as others are of Despair and therefore their case is more dangerous Eo magis desperati quo minus desperantes Ames de Consc And where one despairs thousands do presume Before I come to particulars I must distinguish of a double Presumption 1. Of our Selves and our own merits 2. Of God and his mercy Both stand in a direct opposition to the true Grace of Hope and I shall shew you where the difference lies I begin with 1. The First sort of Presumption which is of our selves This is a proud arrogant presumption arising from a vain conceit of our own supposed worth and righteousness we think to stand upon our own legs insisting not upon what Christ is to us or hath done for us but upon what we are in and to our selves and have done for Christ We have Prophecied in thy Name c. Mat. 7.22 We are not as this Publican we have done thus and thus and ought to be considered for our good works and we doubt not but we shall 't is not the Promises of Free-grace but the Law and their strict observance of that which these men ground their hope upon But the true Grace of Hope is alwayes grounded upon Faith in the Promises and is all along fed nourish'd maintain'd and strengthened by those believing perswasions that it hath of the truth of those Promises which at first produced and begat this hope in the Soul and in the continual exercise of this Grace in its daily actings it eyes the Promises hath daily recourse to them for its further confirmation 't is bottomed upon them takes its rise from thence and bears up the Soul upon the credit of them Rom. 15.4 Psal 119.74 this is the hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 that carries us out of our selves A Christian's Hope is hope in another and not in himself The right notion of Hope as it is an Evangelical Grace implies our sole dependance upon God as the only Author and Fountain of all that good which we desire and look for which doth sufficiently difference it from that false hope or self-presumption that I have been speaking of and which was principally aimed at by John in the Text being a Presumption more peculiar to those times and persons here spoken of who lived under the Law and were much in doing but understood not the End of their Moral or Ceremonial Works but trusted in them and made Saviours of them and at the first entrance of the Gospel they opposed the Doctrine of Free-grace would hear neither John nor Christ himself but rejected the Counsel of God against themselves Luke 7.30 33 34. See what a Character Paul gives of them and of all others throughout the world who should entertain the least thought of Salvation out of Christ Rom. 3.16 17. Destruction and misery are in their wayes and the way of peace have they not known This one Scripture if well weighed is enough to shake the confidence of the most Presumptuous Self-justitiary that is and to convince him and all the world of their need of Christ In Psal 14. which Paul quotes in this Chapter God is brought in taking a strict Survey of Mankind before he sent his Son into the World to see if there were any that stood in no need of him q. d. If there be any such let him come forth and shew himself David answers for himself ver 7. Not I Lord not I Lord I wait for Christ I long for Christ O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Zion O that Christ were come that the Free grace and mercy of God were more clearly revealed then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad this will be good news indeed So Jer. 17.5 6 7. The result of all is this true Hope eyes God in Christ and argues from him this Presumption now spoken of eyes self and argues from thence in all its actings 2. The second sort of Presumption to be distinguish'd from Hope is that by which we presume upon God and his mercy This is grown up since the preaching of the Gospel there is indeed too great a spice of the former Presumption among Professors and as that vvears off this succeeds nay they unhappily mingle together If Legal Presumption cannot altogether shut out conviction yet it minces the matter 't is a little one and my Soul shall live and so makes vvay for this credulous presumption that brings in a Salvo for all presently God is gracious mercy is promised Christ has died for Sinners and all vvill be vvell vve shall go to Heaven of course vvithout any more ado and so they sit down in security all their dayes till they are surprized vvith their everlasting doom unawares This is Infidelis fiducia Bern. a
faithless confidence a fond credulous presumption arising from a groundless over easie perswasion of the mercy of God towards us this kind of Presumption may be joyn'd vvith some sense and conviction of sin and the dangerous consequence of it but presently salves all vvith the general air and breath of a Promise misconstrued and misapplied The Mistakes are these 1. This is more Fancy than Faith or Hope 'T is a vain imagination that deludes men into a belief and expectation of that vvhich they are in no likelihood of in no capacity for they promise themselves vvhat God hath never promised cry peace peace vvhen God hath not spoken peace 2. Such an one doth not rightly distinguish between the vvorkings of natural affection towards any good propounded and the rational actings of Hope for the obtaining of it in a probable or certain vvay in the use of due and proper means Heaven glory and eternal Life are good vvords and better things at the first mention of them vve naturally desire them and vvish for them but shall vve be carried away vvith a meer sound of vvords must vve needs have all vve hear of vve shall quickly bring our selves into a fools Paradise this vvay dreaming vve eat and yet awake an hungry there is more ado than so to inherit the Promises vve must prove our title first the Promises give us an interest in Heaven but 't is Christ that gives us an interest in the Promises he opens the mouth of a Promise to speak comfort to us in him they are all Yea and Amen but out of him they all cry no no vve have nothing for you vvho are out of Christ they vvill deny all the vvorld that come not in his Name and never let out any thing of their treasure to such no vvringing out of one drop of solid comfort The bare History or outward Relation of the Mercy of God in the letter of the Word gives us no interest in the things promised the carnal Jews as Paul observes had the Promises and boasted of them but got little by them Christ is the door of every Promise let us not think to make a forceable entry to climb up at the vvindows like Theives to steal out mercy as if vve cared not how vve came by it you vvill find vvhat is so gotten vvill thrive accordingly and quickly come to nothing What I drive at is this 't is not the report of the vvorth or amiableness of a thing but an apprehension of the possibility of it as to us that causes hope till vve are clear in this our hope cannot act rationally if it have no other ground besides our own desires and natural inclinations raised and kindled in us by the specious appearance and ravishing beauty of some taking objects this argues rather vvhat vve vvould have than any likelyhood of obtaining of our vvishes vvhich is of the very essence of hope earnest desires are very apt to run out into a forward presuming hope vve know not vvell vvhy or vvherefore Quae volumus facile credimus 3. Another mistake in this fond credulous presumption is that it takes up promises in its own sense and not in the true sense and meaning of God So the Jews John 8.33 cryed they were Abrahams seed c. and the Promise run in these very words to Abraham and his seed therefore who but they must be included in it but it was the Spiritual seed that God meant not that after the flesh they are not all Israel which are of Israel Rom. 9.6 No sayes Christ you are the Children of the Devil of your Father the Devil John 8.44 and they took up stones and threw at him ver 59. being not able to bear any contradiction to their false hopes So when we read those Promises of salvation to those that come to Christ believe in him call upon his Name we must not understand them as if a bare form of Godliness and crying Lord have mercy upon us would bring us to heaven No My brethren the Mystery of Religion lies deeper than so 't is the labour of the heart that requires the greatest diligence intention and seriousness imaginable strong workings within great agonies and contentions of Spirit in our dealings with God in any duty The life of our Worship does consist in these inward spiritual motions of the Soul towards God This is that coming that believing that praying to which Salvation is promised The grace of Hope enquires after the Secrets of the Covenant the real intent and mind of God in every Promise prayes for a right understanding of all particulars Open my eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Law Psal 119.18 Besides the true meaning of a Promise a Child of God is very solicitous to know whether God do indeed mean him and speak to him and offer those pearls to him whether he be a person rightly qualified and under all those due circumstances that belong to persons entertaining such an hope 't is a great comfort and satisfaction to a Believer when God does own his hope and encourage him in it by some sensible demonstrations of his undoubted interest in such and such Promises he hears God saying to him take eat this is thy portion purchased by Christ for thee thou art my Child and this is childrens bread it belongeth to thee While we are musing and praying over a promise God does sometimes feed us out of that promise himself and with his own hand puts many a sweet morsel into our mouths O this is overcoming kindness this is a double a treble welcome to have such fare and the Master of the Feast standing by and looking on and carving to us himself and crying out as it is Cant. 5.1 Eat O my friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved When we have shut our Bibles and have done with a promise and are setting down the Cup of Salvation out of our hands God many times makes us to mend our draught and go deeper than ever we did drink yea drink abundantly O beloved But presumption is a bold guest thrusts in uninvited catches at this and that in a rude manner The word Presumption notes a taking before-hand before 't is offer'd before 't is due before he is called he runs away with a promise puts his own sense upon it and deludes himself with vain hopes from it and when the King comes to review his Guests shall be cast out into outer darkness Mat. 22.11 12 13. 4. Another errour or mistake in presumption is that it picks and chuses out some Promises and rejects others the priviledges of the Saints it catcheth at freedom from condemnation eternal life and glory but the Promises of Grace Sanctification and Holiness it minds not it hopes to see God without Holiness and to go to Heaven as well as the best it is more for the wages than for the work But the grace of Hope fastens upon every Promise gathers honey out of every flower
consider your selves out of Christ 't is necessary for believers to do so sometimes I do not say you should put off Christ that must never be done but it may be convenient as the case stands to let the wedding garment hang loose about you that you may see your own poverty and nakedness and then cover all again and admire the free grace of God who hath provided thee a better righteousness than any thou canst see in thy self to trust in and to ground thy hope upon This is the way to correct the exorbitancy of thy immoderate hope and to keep it within its proper sphere We never have more lively heart-ravishing thoughts and apprehensions of free grace than after fresh and warm apprehensions of our own vileness and wretchedness by nature Ephes 2.3 by nature the children of wrath and then he breaks out into a great admiration of the mercy of God verse 4. 2. Directions against that kind of Presumption that is of God and his mercy which I call'd a fond credulous presumption 1. Study the doctrine of Election that tells us that God is the Soveraign Lord of the whole world hath put a vast difference between man and man there are some that he hates as well as some that he loves of the same lump of clay some made vessels unto honour and some unto dishonour some vessels of wrath fitted to destruction some vessels of mercy prepared unto glory Rom. 9.20 21 22 23. That God is a free voluntary Agent not necessarily bound to chuse thee or me rather than others No he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth verse 18. Whence is it then that men are so confident of the favour of God you may be in the number of the many that are called and yet not in the number of those few that are chosen for all your confidence hath Electing Redeeming Love set any peculiar mark upon thee by which thou maist be known and distinguished from the reprobate world at the last day if not 't is strange presumption in thee to nourish such vain hopes 2. Consider the strict limitations and provisoes of the Covenant of Grace by which all obstinate impenitent sinners remaining such are shut out from mercy and art not thou such an one examine thy self hath grace taught thee to deny ungodliness till then it will never save thee 3. Consider the difficulty of Salvation 't is not so easie a matter to get to Heaven as you imagine narrow is the way strait is the gate and few there be that find it The righteous are scarcely saved 1 Pet. 4.18 Things that are arduous and difficult are not easily swallowed will not in reason admit of a rash credulous hope but call for serious counsel and debate There are in such cases many agitations in the mind accessus recessus Aquin. the soul goes and comes backward and forward off and on cannot presently fix and settle it self in an even stedfast constant hope Most Christians do pass through such fluctuations and perplexities to a quiet comfortable hope of Salvation 4. Consider this also have the promises thou boastest so much of begot fear in thee as well as hope A Christian's hope is a heedful careful sollicitous hope 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 4.1 Hope without fear is presumption 5. Let thy hope be grounded upon some inward experience of the mighty saving power of Christ put forth upon thy soul experience worketh hope Rom. 5.4 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it Phil. 1.6 To him that hath shall be given Mat. 13.12 What pledges then of divine favour what love-tokens hast thou by thee what taste and sight of the goodness and grace of God we hope for the complement and perfection of that which in some measure we have already attain'd when we see God pursuing us with his kindness in any particular expression of his love this begets hope that we shall have all at last those greater things that are promised God's end in bestowing lesser mercies upon us is to quicken and strengthen our hope of greater 't is strange presumption for persons who never received the least token of special grace from God to expect such great things as heaven and glory God gives many things before he gives heaven don't think at first dash to have heaven there are many preparatory mercies alwayes antecedent to that the Saints are compassed about with mercy and Songs of deliverance Psal 32.7 10. And from those experiences they argue as David did 1 Sam. 17.32 He will do this and that for us and not destroy us after he hath done us so much good But if thou hast nothing to shew as a convincing evidence of Gods love and good will to thee it looks too much like presumption to hope for pounds for the whole sum before we have received the earnest-penny Hope is not the first work of the Spirit upon the heart 't is a secondary grace the natural result of faith which gives very satisfactory intimations of God's love to us and so begets hope in us Consult therefore the experiences of God's goodness to you in some measure before you soar too high in the actings of your hope Secondly Directions against Despair 1. To those in Christ who are sometimes liable to these fainting fits and find their hope shaken are to seek of it being suddenly struck with an amazing sight and sense of sin and wrath they conclude their case desperate and cry out as Job did Job 44.19 c. The devil hath two wayes or methods by which he seeks to undermine and overthrow the hope of a Christian I shall discover both to you and endeavour to secure you against both 1. If thy Hope be strong and lively he will slander it with the name of presumption that he may shake thy confidence and discourage thee from those eminent actings of thy hope wherein thou hast had so much comfort he does envy thy happiness he would fain clip the wings of thy faith and hope that he may rob thee of the joy of thy Salvation and keep thee at a low ebb all thy dayes he would take off thy helmet that he may knock thee down at one blow Groundless fears of presumption do exceedingly bauk and check our hope bring it into suspence which is negative despair In such conflicts and fierce assaults gird up thy self stand fast and hope to the end hold fast thy confidence and that you may do this Call in thy faith to maintain and justifie thy hope as rightly grounded upon Gospel-promises and consequently capable of no excess Let it run in the right Channel never so swiftly and rise never so high 't is so much the better true grace is not confined to such a scantling or degree it can never be overgrown its beauty and comeliness do increase with its stature the greater the larger the fuller the higher it is
upon the greatest falshood that is imaginable Oh take heed of it When you are wronged then complain but do not do it till then and then I am sure you 'l never complain In a word let this Heart-quieting Consideration be much upon your thoughts all is Righteously ordered by God and therefore all must be contentedly undergone by you 3. All is ordered by God wisely He 's a God of Judgment Isai 30.18 We read of the rings Ezek. 1.18 that they were full of eyes take the several rounds and windings of Providence they are all full of wisdom As God at the first made all things with infinite wisdom Psal 104.24 so he doth also dispose and govern all things with infinite wisdom And this holds true not only with respect to the whole Creation in the general lump and mass thereof but also with respect to every part and parcel of the Creation especially to man and to every individual man in the world Now if this was believed and considered it could not but much conduce to make us contented in every condition for certainly it must be most absurd folly in us to find fault with or dislike that which is done by God in admirable wisdom In our worldly affairs vvherein vve have to do wtth men if vve apprehend them to be persons endued with understanding and prudence we can upon this wholly refer our selves and our Concerns to them and quietly acquiesce in vvhat they advise and order The Patient likes the Physick though never so nauseous which his skilful Physitian prescribes If the Pilot be skilful the passenger saith Let him alone he knows how to order the vessel and so in several other Instances And why do not vve in all our Concerns carry it thus towards God vvhose vvisdom and faithfulness doth infinitely transcend vvhat is in man shall we not contentedly rest in vvhat he sees to be fittest and best for us Vain man would be wise Job 11.12 he thinks he could order things better than God doth he vvill be finding faults in God's disposal of him but this his vvisdom is the highest folly What a wise Choice doth God alwayes make for men the Saints shall see it vvhen they come to Heaven if not before may they not therefore quietly resign up themselves to him saying Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us as 't is Psal 47.4 On the other hand vvhat a sad choice do men make for themselves when in their discontent they vvill be their own choosers Rachel must have a Child or she dies she had her desire but it cost her her life Jacob cannot stay God's time for the blessing by vvhich hastiness in what a world of troubles did he involve himself Poor Creature thou needest nothing more to undo thee than to be left to choose thy own condition Didst thou but consider this vvouldst thou not be contented when the vvise God chooseth for thee Qui create noverat ordinare non noverat Aug. Reason with thy self in secret thus Did God know how to make my person and doth he not know how to order my condition He that hath wisdom enough to steer the great Vessels of the World and of the Church hath he not wisdom enough to steer my little Boat He that hath by an unerring Providence brought so many Saints safe to Heaven doth he not know the best way to bring me safe thither also shall he mistake in my case who never yet in all the works that hvve passed through his hands was guilty of the least mistake I say reason thus and 't is to be hoped this will lay all storms of passion Oh what a blessed security of mind should we have in every state did we but live in the steady belief and ferious considrration of God's unsearchable wisdom 4. All is ordered by God graciously Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies Is it Poverty Pain Sickness loss of Relations worldly crosses all is in mercy or in order to mercy to God's Covenant-people I do not say that all is mercy to these formally as to the things themselves which befall them but I say all is mercy or in order to mercy Afflictions are not mercy in their formal nature but they are of mercy originally they coming from God's love and for mercy finally God by them designing good and nothing but good to them that love him This is a thing in special to be thought of by those who belong to God Others have the Soveraignty and Righteousness of God to awe them but Saints have the mercy and goodness of God to work their hearts to a quiet submission to his Will And how much is there in this for the furtherance of such a frame of heart in them could they but by consideration draw it out and work it home upon the soul What a Child of God to vex and fret at this or that when all is intended for his good and shall be for good to him according to that great Promise Rom. 8.28 God alwayes knows what is best for his such is his wisdom and he alwayes doth what is best for his such is his mercy what a heart composing meditation is this There 's much in the other Attributes before mentioned to suppress inward perturbations but there 's more in that which I am now upon Is mercy and goodness the ingredient in every condition then be it never so bitter the sense of this must needs sweeten it Is all ordered by a Father in love not to hurt men but to do them good Oh why then should I give way to discontent The truth is it is too low for the Saints in every state barely to be content there 's something higher that they should come up unto namely to rejoyce evermore in the Lord and in every thing to be giving thanks Phil. 4 4. 1 Thes 5.18 So much for the first thing that I would have you fix upon as the special matter of your Consideration in order to the learning of Contentment And I beseech you put it in practice when ever heart-disquietment begins to rise in you sit down consider pause upon it Who it is that orders your Condition and how he orders it irresistibly righteously wisely graciously 2. Secondly Act your Consideration upon the state it self in which you are Consideration about the state it self for out of that much may be fetched to further Contentment Paul our great Instance in the Text weighed and considered every state into which he was brought and by that means he learnt in every state to be content Let us take the same course and through the blessing of God we shall find the same effect How is a Christian to manage Consideration with respect to his state I answer 1. Let him consider that his state is mixt It s neither purely good 'T is mixt nor purely evil but there 's a mixture of the one
fed with these comforts have no losses or crosses in the world we are apt to grow proud secure wanton to forget God to cast off Duty to dream of an earthly paradise to say it's good being here to neglect spiritual and divine things 't is high time therefore for God by these waies to cut us short thereby to reduce us to a little better temper of soul If the sap run out too much into the branches there 's no way to preserve the root but by the cutting off the luxuriant branches God will have a thousand Estates to be lost rather than that one soul should be lost the burning of Cities is nothing if that be necessary to the saving of souls 4. Suppose all be lost in that All we lost but little for the All of this world is but one remove from a mere Nothing Perdidit infoelix totum nil is applicable to the losses of the rich as well as of the poor Is there any thing in this but what might be expected from the nature of the thing therefore there should be no disturbance about it Who will be concern'd at the melting of snow what wise man will be moved for the breaking of a glass 'T is strange that a Jonah should be in such a pet for the withering of a gourd Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever and doth the Crown endure to every generation 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away All the estate here is made up of Moveables that usual distinction which is good in Law is not so in Divinity 5. Again thou sayest all is lost perdiderat omnia quae dederat Deus sed hahuit ipsem qui omnia dederat Deum August but if thou beest a child of God the best is yet secure God and Christ and Grace and Heaven are yet thine and no loss is very considerable so long as these are safe O believer in all thy losses be quiet and chearful God who is thy portion is the same for ever Job lost all he had from God but God himself he did not lose and in him he had all that he had lost Never complain till God be lost Fas tibi non est de fortunâ conqueri salvo Caesare said Seneca to Polybius Let the stars disappear if we may have the Sun who will be troubled let earthly things vanish so long as God abides 't is enough Had we the whole world to lose one God would abundantly recompense the loss of all of it Many are inward gainers by their outward losses by having the less of the Creature they have the more of God O happy exchange the worse their condition is without the better it is within in respect of grace and comfort 6. 'T is an excellent frame of spirit under losses to be patient and contented All the possessions of Job when he was in the height of them did not reflect so much glory upon him as his blessed submission when he was deprived of them then God blessed him now in another sense he blessed God All are convinced they should do this when God gives but 't is very rare for any to do it when God takes away Micah's mother had some shekels of silver taken from her and she falls a cursing Judg. 17.2 this precious Saint had all taken from him yet no cursing as Satan had belied him no nothing but blessing God 'T is an excellent temper comfortably to enjoy outward blessings whilst God shall continue them contentedly to part with them when God shall remove them Suave est si quid dás parvus dolor hoc ubi tollis When I see any carrying it thus I conclude that earthly things are not too fast rivetted in their hearts as 't is a sign the tooth is loose which is drawn out without much pain and that they are duly affected towards God heaven and heavenly things These are some of the things the due consideration whereof would much help on Contentment under Losses And so much for the using of this Means towards the furtherance of tranquillity of mind with respect to what may disturb it in and about the Estate How Consideration ought to be acted in order to Contentment under cr ssâ—s in Relations 2. Secondly I 'le instance in Relations In and about whom there is as much of mercy or affliction of comfort or discomfort and consequently of content or discontent as in any one thing whatsoever The Discontent usually is occasioned and vented in these three Cases The want of Relations much desired The death of Relations much beloved The uncomfortableness of Relations who are spared Now Consideration wisely and faithfully managed would be of great use to allay all storms and to keep the heart even and calm in all these Cases and therefore my next work is to shew what we are under each of them to consider in order to the promoting of this frame But I must of necessity be briefer under this Head than I was under the former that I may not draw out this Discourse to too great a length Wherefore I will but shortly set the Particulars before you that you are to consider of and leave the enlargement of them to your selves in your consideration 1. When Relations are much desired but denied and withheld there is too often discontent How as to the want of Relations desired As to instance only in Children what daily inquietudes of spirit are there in some because of the want of these they have many other Comforts but the not having of this imbitters all Abraham himself was much troubled about it Gen. 15.2 3. Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless Behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is mine heir But Rachel's passion rose very high Give me Children saith she to her husband or else I die Gen. 30.2 Children are very great blessings they are promised as such Psal 128.3 4. and in other places and indeed they are one of the sweetest flowers that grow in the garden of earthly comforts hence 't is hard for persons contentedly to bear the want of them But whoever you are upon whom this affliction lies pray labour after a contented mind under it and in order thereunto Consider 1. It is the Lord who withholds this mercy for he gives it or withholds it as seems good to him Providence is not more seen in any of the affairs and Concerns of men than in this of Children that there shall be many or few some or none Gen. 32. all falls under the good pleasure and dispose of God When Rachel was so passionate under the want of these Jacob rebuked her sharply am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of thy womb Psal 127.9 Lo children are an inheritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psal 113.9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of
preserved and maintained and who though he could so easily destroy you and glorifie his justice hereby yet is both patient with you and willing also to be reconciled unto you and sends his Embassadors in his name to tell you that he entreats you that you would be reconciled and let these considerations affect you with ingenuous grief for sin Lastly Get conviction of the defilement of sin how your Souls are stained by it and hereby degenerated and debased into a lower degree of vileness than is in the beast that perisheth yea that hereby you are become without regeneration and until your Souls are washed more loathsom in the eyes of God than the most nasty thing in the World is in your eyes 2. Make confession of sin In some cases it is requisite you should confess some sins unto man but it is absolutely universally necessary in order to forgiveness that you should confess your sins unto God the promise of pardoning mercy is made to confession Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy David found by experience the evil of covering and keeping close his sins and the benefit of acknowledgment and confession Psal 32.3 4 5. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thine hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Selah I acknowledged my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Sinners make a full confession of your sins that you may have a full pardon and discharge do not hide any sin as a sweet morsel under your tongue it is a vain thing to seek and endeavour the hiding of any sin from him who is omniscient God hath knowledg of all your Iniquities do you therefore acknowledg all unto him Make free confession of your sins Stay not till God force you by his Scourges and even drag you unto it by his cords of affliction but let it be your voluntary act and be ingenuous herein mingle not your confession with excuses and extenuations Say not though you are bad yet you are not so bad as others that your hearts are good though your lives have been naught that such and such gross sins were your slips and failings that you were overtaken overperswaded and drawn unto such wicked practices by your companions and so by transferring your guilt endeavour to make your selves as Innocent as you can this is abominable in the sight of God and a certain sign of sin's dominion which is inconsistent with the remission of it and will shut you out from pardoning Mercy but in confession of your sins acknowledg your selves to have been the chief of sinners Sinners take all the blame to your selves and set your sins out in the deepest Crimson and Scarlet colours and with all their hainous circumstances and aggravations tell God that your heart is the worst part and if there have been some abominations found in your lives there are a thousand-fold more abominations in your hearts Confess your sins with humility and self-loathing say with Agur Prov. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man with David Psal 73.22 So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee with Job Chap. 42.6 I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Confess your sins with shame like Ezra Chap. 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift my face unto thee for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens Confess your sins with grief and godly sorrow like David Psal 39.18 I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for sin 3. Make Application of Christ by Faith that you may attain forgiveness There is no other Name given under Heaven amongst men whereby you can be pardoned and saved Acts 4.12 And he is able to save you and procure a pardon for you in the uttermost extent of your most hainous guilt Heb. 7.25 And the reason is given in the same Verse because he ever liveth to make Intercession for sinners it is his Office as High-Priest wherein he is most merciful and faithful to make Reconciliation for the sins of the People Heb. 2.17 Christ is near to the Father being at his right hand in Heaven and hath great interest in him being his dearly beloved Son and his Intercession for pardon is always accepted it being for no more than what himself hath purchased and what his Father hath promised and therefore you that are the worst of Sinners have great encouragement to come unto Christ and to make Application of him you have his promise that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 and if you apply your selves unto him and apply unto your selves his merits and Righteousness by believing you shall certainly attain the forgiveness of all your sins however numerous and hainous they have been Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And our Saviour himself telleth us Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And the Apostle doth discourse at large in the former part of his Epistle to the Romans concerning Justification which he proveth by manifold Arguments that it cannot be works that it must be by Faith therefore by Faith make Application of Christ and his imputed Righteousness and rest therein only that you may be justified that you may be pardoned and saved 4. Forsake every sin that you may attain the forgiveness of it Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon him Isa 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judg the fatherless plead for the widow 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 You must loath your sins that you may be pardoned and withal you must leave them you must cease from doing evil if you would have God cease from his displeasure and unless you do forsake your sins never expect that God should forgive them there must be a returning to God that you may be received unto favour and this cannot be without a turning from sin It would be a dishonour unto God to pardon you
whilst that you continue in your rebellions and wage War still against Heaven by going on still in your trespasses 5. Make your Supplication unto God and be earnest in Prayer unto him that he would forgive you your sins it is against God that your sins have been committed and it is God's Prerogative to remit and pardon and though he pardon freely for his Name 's sake yet he will be enquired after and sought unto for his high favour Isa 43.25 26. I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Put me in remembrance c. If you would have pardon you must ask it if you would find God's favour you must seek it if you desire the door of Mercy to be opened unto you you must knock at the door by earnest Prayer Mat. 7.7 Hence are David's earnest cryes in Prayer for pardoning Mercy in so many of his Psalms especially Psal 51. in the first verse Have Mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my transgressions v. 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out mine iniquities v. 14. Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation c. Be earnest in Prayer at the Throne of Grace for this blessedness of forgiveness wrestle with God by importunate Supplications fill your mouths with Arguments plead the gracious disposition of God the multitude of his tender Mercies and the riches of his free Grace plead the Glory of his Name which would greatly be advanced and admired if your great sins might be pardoned plead the merits of Christ and Satisfaction given to his justice by his Son together with his Intercession for you at his right hand plead the promises of the Covenant of Grace and his faithfulness which doth engage him to fulfil them humble believing fervent Prayer will prevail for forgiveness 6. Forgive others if you would that God should forgive you Mat. 6.11 Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors v. 14 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses If you do not forgive the hundred Pence of smaller offences unto your fellow-servants you will be called to an account and imprisoned in Hell and there tormented for the ten thousand Talents of hainous transgressions which you have committed against your Lord Mat. 18. at the latter end of that Chap. If you bear hatred and malice and revenge in your hearts against others whatever their offences their wrongs or injuries have been you put your selves out of capacity of obtaining pardoning Mercy Do not say I forgive such a one who hath wronged me but I will never forget him for this is a deceit of your hearts whereby you seek to stop the mouth of your consciences that they may not trouble you by these Scriptures for if you do not forget injuries so as to carry it towards such Persons as if they had not wronged you so as to love them cordially and to be ready to shew kindness unto them you do not forgive them and so you cannot be forgiven by God If then you would be pardoned by God you must from the heart forgive others receive the Exhortation of the Apostle Eph. 4.31 32. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Thus I have finished my Answer unto the two Queries wherein doth appear the blessedness of forgiveness and how this blessedness may be attained and now give me leave to borrow a little room for some Application Application I might speak much here by way of comfort unto pardoned Persons but the most that I have already spoken yea all that I have spoken under the first Query may be turned into a Use of comfort to your selves and therefore referring you thither I shall pass you by and bend my speech only unto you that are unpardoned too many of whom are to be found in every Assembly and therefore I cannot think that this Assembly is free I shall take leave to chide you in a Use of Reproof endeavour to awaken you in a Use of Terror and in the conclusion press you to endeavour after this blessedness of forgiveness in an Use of Exhortation Vse 1. For Reproof Is there such blessedness in forgiveness Whence is it then that so many of you neglect this blessedness in the neglect of your pardon Are not all of you sinners Have not all of you need of forgiveness Will not your own Consciences tell you that forgiveness is a great priviledg And have not Ministers often told you of this priviledg and the way of attaining it Hath not God by them held forth a pardon to you and used many arguments with you that you would accept it Whence is it then that so many of you slight and undervalue it as if it were of no worth Whence is it that so many of you are without pardon when profered when none of you are without sins often committed and those highly aggravated and whereby your Souls are so greatly endangered May not Robbers and Murderers and other notorious Malefactors rise up in judgment against you that are without a pardon When such Persons are apprehended found guilty and condemned though but unto a temporal death they will make all friends and use all means to escape and O! how welcome is a pardon to them And yet though you are all guilty of sin and condemned for it unto eternal death and a pardon is purchased proclaimed and profered unto you there are too many of you that slight and neglect it that have no earnest desire after it and hitherto have not been perswaded by any arguments to make use of the means which God hath appointed with any diligence for the obtaining of it Who is there that to any purpose doth look after a pardon Who do diligently hear for it earnestly pray for it Who do make full and free confession of sin that you may attain remission of it Who do prize Christ and by Faith make application of him that they may have a pardon by him Who do forsake sin which God absolutely requires of all to whom he doth forgive sin Who do when injur'd heartily forgive others as they desire God would forgive them Sinners will not many of your consciences accuse you of unpardoned guilt unto which you have added the neglect of forgiveness And is not your sin hereby doubled and most highly aggravated and the guilt of it fastned upon you Vse 2. Let me tell you by way of Terror for your awakening that God is displeased with all workers of iniquity but he is most highly displeased with you that slight his mercy
Your sins are inexcusable your condemnation is unavoidable and your punishment hereafter in Hell will be most dreadful and intolerable Possibly now you are careless and secure sin is sweet and conscience is quiet you are at ease and conscience asleep but will this ease and sleep always continue Is there not a time coming when you shall be awakened If you are not awakened under God's Word may not God awaken you under his Rod If you are not awakened under God's threatnings will you not awake when he cometh to execution If you are secure in the midst of outward peace and prosperity can you be secure in the midst of trouble and adversity Think what you will do when death doth approach Think what a dreadful aspect unpardoned sin will have when you are brought down unto the sides of the pit to the brink and border of eternity and when you are summoned to make your appearance before the highest Majesty O the horrour that then will seize you O the fearfulness that then will surprise you To have the black guilt of drunkenness or swearing of uncleanness or deceiving or any other iniquity to stare you then in the face O how dismal will it be and affrighting And think with what rage and fury your consciences will then reflect upon your fore-past sins especially your neglect of a pardon then unattainable and how tormenting will this be unto you You may then cry out Lord have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us But will God then hear you who have refused to hearken unto him Will Christ regard you who have neglected refused and shut the door of your hearts against him all your days But sinners what will you do at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you for unpardoned sins That great day will certainly come and it will quickly be here Time runs away swiftly and it will quickly be run out yet a little while and the Angel will lift up his hand and cry with a loud voice and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no longer Rev. 10.5 6. Then the mystery will be finished the prophesie accomplished and the whole frame of this visible world dissolved the Sun then and the Moon will be darkened and the Stars will fall unto the earth as the fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens themselves then shall be rolled together as a great scroll and so pass away with a great noise the earth and all the elements shall be on fire and consume away on that day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven with Millions of mighty Angels in power and brightness of majesty and then you must come out of your graves and will stand trembling before Christ's great Tribunal and none of you will be able to hide your selves under any Rock or Mountain from his angry face Then then you will fully know what a priviledg it is to be pardoned when you see where pardoned persons are placed when you see them gathered to the right hand of the great Judg and there acquitted openly owned graciously and crowned by him with honour and glory and invited by him to take possession of those eternal habitations of rest and joy in his Kingdom prepared for them by his Father But O the tearings of spirit and heart-vexing tormenting grief which you will have that no place is found for you amongst them that through your neglect of pardoning mercy you have forfeited and eternally lost a share in eternal glory and not only so but have by sin also plunged your selves into a bottomless gulf of endless misery Think how dreadful the irreversible sentence of condemnation will be unto you Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Alas Alas sinners what will you do no thought can conceive what your horror will be when you come to reap the bitter fruit of all your unpardoned sins It is the punishment of Hell Sinners which the guilt of sin unremoved doth oblige you to undergo And therefore I am sent this day to forewarn you and in the name of my Master to foretel you that if you do not now sue out for and obtain this forgiveness of sin your sin hereafter will bring eternal ruine and destruction of soul and body in Hell Without a pardon profaneness will be your ruine Some of you it may be can swear and curse and blaspheme the Name of God hereafter God will swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest and you shall be banished out of Christ's presence with a curse Depart from me ye cursed c. Those tongues which have been so liberal of oaths and blasphemies must be tormented in flames of fire without one drop of water to cool them Without a pardon drunkenness will be your ruine you that have so often enflamed your selves with wine and strong drink God will enflame you with the wine of his vengeance he will make you to drink the dregs of his wrath which is at the bottom of the cup of his indignation Without a pardon uncleanness will be your ruine your pleasures are empty and of short continuance but your pains will be full hereafter and they will abide for ever Without a pardon unrighteousness will be your ruine your unrighteous gains one day will prove your unspeakable loss and God will be the avenger of all such upon you as have been wronged and defrauded by you Without a pardon your neglect of Christ and Salvation will be your ruine and if you persevere in this neglect it is impossible that you should escape Sinners think seriously and think frequently of your unpardoned iniquities and withal think of the dreadful punishment they will bring upon you think of your eternal damnation unto the most exquisite torments of Hell and then drink on swear on and scoff your fill be unholy and profane unjust and unclean if you think good but know that for all these sins God will bring you to judgment know that these iniquities unpardoned will be your ruine Should I tell you of one that were condemned for some vile fact to be slay'd alive or burnt alive or sawn asunder or dragg'd to pieces with wild horses or starv'd with hunger and cold or any other ways cruelly tortured to death but that he might escape all this misery if he would accept of a pardon ready provided for him and withal leave off such vile facts for the future you would count him worse than mad should he neglect his pardon and expose himself to ruine and misery through his carelesness and obstinacy And yet though you are condemned for sin to far worse torment and misery that which is more dreadful than ten thousand painful deaths and all this mischief and punishment may be avoided and escaped if you will accept of the pardon
which Christ hath provided and in the Gospel is profered unto you and withal break off your sins by repentance yet no words or arguments will perswade you to use the means of prevention but still you live in the neglect of pardon and so great salvation and are secure however great your danger be O the folly and strange madness of unconverted sinners O the unspeakable sottishness and senslesness they are under Although we make it appear to their consciences that their condition is unutterably miserable they are not moved except it be with choler against the Minister that warns them of the sword of God's vengeance which hangeth over them and they champ at the Bridle that would hold them from running to their destruction But O that you would rather turn your anger against your sins and say this iniquity will be my ruine and that sin without pardon will be my damnation Vse 3. Therefore in the next place let me exhort all of you that lye under the guilt of sin that you would labour after this blessedness of forgiveness O that you would pity your own souls think what provision you have made for them think whither they are like to go upon their separation from your bodies and what you will do at the last day when Christ cometh to judg and punish unpardoned sinners think how you will be able to dwell with devouring fire to inhabit everlasting burnings Methinks you should take up such thoughts as these and argue thus with your selves What! Shall I undo my self for a filthy lust Shall I lose my Soul to gain a little uncertain earthly riches Shall I forfeit a Crown of Glory for the empty honour of this world Shall I cast my self into everlasting horrour and pain for a little vain fading carnal delight and pleasure Can I be contented to be tormented for ever in Hell to satisfie the desires of my flesh on earth and that when they will never be satisfied Shall I hugg a viper in my bosom that will kill me Harbour lusts in my heart that will slay me Shall I dishonour God and damn my own soul to gratifie the Devil my enemy and please my flesh which will soon be turned into dirt and rottenness and withal throw away the hopes of a glorious resurrection for my body hereby Away then ye foolish filthy lusts I 'le no more hearken to you or be entangled or enslaved by you Be gone thou deluding tempting Devil I 'le lend my ear no longer to thy lying suggestions nor yield any more to thy beguiling and bewitching temptations farewel thou glozing flattering world with all thy charmes and allurements thy gold is but dross thy wine mixt with water thy honour but wind and vanity thy delights are bitter-sweets such as will end in death and ruine I 'le choose another portion and look after a better blessedness than thou canst give me even the blessedness of forgiveness which will bring me unto eternal blessedness Methinks you should take no sleep nor rest and find no comfort in house or trade or friends or any thing until the anger of God be appeased your sins all pardoned and so your souls set in safety from all that ruine unto which they are exposed by unpardoned iniquity The absolute necessity of forgiveness should quicken you to look after it you have not so much need of food to remove your hunger as you have need of mercy to remove your guilt you have not so much need of clothes to cover your bodies as you have need of righteousness to cover your iniquities Better be starv'd than damn'd better be hang'd than burn'd better be exposed to the misery of the weather and any bodily distemper than to be exposed unto the storms and strokes of God's vengeance and the eternal ruine of body and soul in Hell which there is no possibility of escaping without a pardon And that which may encourage you to seek after forgiveness is the attainableness of it and that by the vilest and most guilty amongst you others have obtained pardoning mercy that have been found as guilty Manasseh was pardoned who was so hainous a transgressor Paul who was so Zealous a Persecutor Mary Magdalen who was possessed with seven Devils the Corinthians some of whom were Idolaters Adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind Theeves Covetous Extortioners Drunkards Revilers yet they were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus some of them who had imbrued their hands in Christ's Blood had the guilt of their sins washed away by it There is Mercy enough in God to give a pardon for the greatest Transgression there is merit enough in Christ to purchase a pardon and prevalency in his Intercession to procure it whatever your offences have been the invitation unto Christ for Remission and Salvation is General none are excluded but such as exclude themselves the promises are full Crimson sins such as are of the deepest dye God promiseth to make as Wool and the promises are free the acceptation of a pardon by Faith makes it yours without any price or merit on your part We Ministers have a commission to preach Remission of sins in the Name of Christ and to declare to you the glad tidings of Salvation yea we have instructions as Embassadors in the Name of God and Christ to beseech you that you would be reconciled that you would accept of forgiveness 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God Give me leave to press this Argument upon you the great God of Heaven and Earth so glorious in Holiness and Righteousness is so infinitely Merciful and Gracious as to beseech you that you would be reconciled although you are so infinitely inferiour unto him He condescends to intreat you not that you would shew kindness unto him but that you would shew kindness to your selves and accept of the greatest kindness at his hands of Forgiveness and Reconciliation God might command and upon once the least refusal he might execute his vengeance upon you but although some of you have stopped your Ears so long refused his gracious prosfer so often though you have abused his kindness trampled upon his Patience slighted his invitations despised his threatnings disregarded his promises and turning all his rich Grace into wantonness do continue still in your disobedience yet the Lord doth again make suit unto you stretcheth forth his hands unto you however disobedient and gain-saying you have been and by me doth intreat you that you would be reconciled Need we use intreaties with condemned Malefactors to accept of a pardon if we had commission to preach pardoning Mercy unto Devils would they need intreaties to accept would they be fooled out of such a gracious prosfer by any as you hitherto have been by them Sinners I beseech you in the name of the great and glorious Jehovah and the Lord Jesus Christ your
and light transient tasts and relishes are no evidences we must have these better things to bear up our hearts against the coming of the Bridegroom It sufficeth â—ot to be enrolled among Professors and to enjoy the charitable thoughts and approbations of the wisest Virgins under Heaven It is singular mercy to be rightly guided in self-esteem and valuation for they that measure themselves by themselves or compare themselves among themselves are not wise The Apostle 2 Cor. 10.12 would not have us to take up with the positive degree of good things but to take our aims by the comparative of better These good things are more light ineffectual and superficial and too often like the Seal that is impressed upon bare Paper whereas these better things are like the Seal's impression on the Wax Yet let no trembling Soul or broken reed be affrighted at the end of these foolish Virgins to see the Door thus shut against them the tender heart of Jesus Christ aimeth not at our consternation but awaking and to prepare and hasten us unto Glory before the Key be turned Nor doth his Apostle in the foresaid place despise the day of small things but his real scope and purpose is to excite Professors to look carefully to their foundations and then to go on unto perfection Heb. 6.1 And blessed for ever be the Lord for the second part of that sixth Chapter to the Hebrews in the close whereof we may see the afflicted heart tossed with tempests and not comforted yet hoping in Mercy and fleeing to Jesus as his Refuge and casting the Anchor of his floating Soul within the Vail whither the Fore-runner is entred for us who himself was once tossed in the Ship of the Militant Church albeit without sin but is now gone ashore to heaven as our fore-runner both to look to our Anchor which is fastned there and to hold all fast and to draw our tossed Ship to shore and to see all safe that where our fore-runner is there may we be also And thus the sweet conclusion of that Chapter doth fully recompence the severity of its beginning Let us comfort our selves and one another with these things Thirdly You have heard the miserable condition of such especially Professors of the Gospel and Pretenders to Christ who have Grace to seek at his coming As for the hapy state of such as are ready to enter in with him into the Bride-chamber of eternal peace and joy I shall speak a little in the Close Now therefore in the remainder of this Exercise it will be expected as seasonable that it be considered What gifts of Grace are chiefly to be in exercise in order to an actual Preparation for the coming of Christ by Death and Judgment For his coming is first by Death and then by Judgment And I say an actual Preparation because there is always a general and habitual preparedness to meet Christ Jesus in hearts that are truly godly but not always a particular actual fitness And this we see here in the five wise Virgins who are found in their midnight-sleep with Lamps that have need of trimming at the coming of Christ Thus Hezekiah was fit to dye as to a general and habitual fitness in that he could assert his sincerity before God when the message of death was brought him but he was to seek of a particular actual fitness in that he begs for longer life with prayers and plenty of tears The Message of Death awaked him and the holy man is startled and hath his Lamp to trim for the tidings of his death at hand was as much in effect as if it had been said unto him by the Prophet Behold the Bridegroom cometh go forth Hezekiah to meet him The nature of his distemper which some by the remedy a lump of Figs applied to the Bile conceive to have been the Pestilence and this considered with the shortness and sharpness of the Message and the Prophet Isaiah's quick abrupt departure from him that the King had then no Heir to succeed him in the Throne and also that he was now at the full strength of Nature being but nine and thirty years of age and his fear also what might become of his Kingdom and of his former Reformation after the grand Apostasie of his Father Ahaz I say these considerations made him to apprehend that there was a rebuke of God in this present Dispensation and therefore he is loth to dye under a temporal frown albeit his a vowed integrity would at the worst have seen him safe at heaven For though a Child of God cannot dye in his debt yet he is unwilling to depart under the sense of his temporal displeasure so as the good Prophet did whom the Lion slew at his return from Bethel to Judah 2 Kings 13.24 When David therefore was under God's rebukes for sin and even almost consumed with the blow of his hand he betakes himself as Hezekiah did to prayers and tears saith he Psal 39.10 11. to the end Hear my prayer O Lord and give ear to my Cry hold not thy peace at my tears for I am a stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Thus you see that the dear Children of God who have a general and habitual fitness to meet Jesus Christ when he is coming to them by Death and Judgment may yet be to seek of a particular actual preparation 2. Before I come to the answer of the Question let me premise this also That though a state of Grace is here supposed seeing Grace cannot be exercised where it is not yet there may be need to have it cleared inasmuch as the want thereof is a great hinderance in the way of this Duty You know that one that feareth God and obeyeth the voice of his Servant Jesus Christ may yet walk in darkness and see no light Isa 50.10 and he may say with Jonah he is cast out of God's sight and his soul is filled with troubles when his life draweth nigh unto the Grave wherefore let your eye be not only on your Lamp but also on your Vessel and examine your Oyl as well as mind your light For though you have received an Vnction from the Holy One and felt the sweet influences of the Spirit and have had the witness in your self yet the Comforter which sometimes relieved your Soul may at the present be far from you and suspend his testimony for Grace inherent is not self-enlightning but like the Moon which holdeth forth Light no longer than the Sun shineth upon it and though the Diall hath its Lines and Figures to declare the time of the day yet you will be to seek if the Sun withdraw hiâ— Light Even thus though the Spirit of God hath drawn the Lines and Figures of his Gifts and Graces in your heart yet if he also do not shine upon them you will not know what
Name of the Lord Jesus To dye at Jerusalem for there he remembred Christ died for him And this enflameth his love towards him and makes him willing to dye for him and to be for ever with him No marvel also that he was straightned between the choice of Life and Death and that the balance seemed to incline mostly towards departure and being with Christ He crieth Phil. 1 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am constrained between two Why so Because he could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The love of Christ i. e. to serve him with all my might constraineth me The Original word is the same in both places And how came Peter to sleep so soundly and sweetly in his chains between the Souldiers the night before his intended death in which he was to go to Christ Why he could say Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee John 21.17 When Christ lieth in the Embraces of Faith and Love what followeth next but Nunc dimittis How so Thus The more we are purified the more prepared Now as the heart is purified by Faith so also by Love For herein is our Love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this world 1 John 4.17 Love doth assimilate a godly Soul to Christ and then what followeth There is no fear in Love 1 John 4.18 i. e. no fear of the day of Judgment for perfect Love casteth out fear i. e. strong Love for so is perfect taken sometimes 1 Cor. 14.20 In understanding be men or perfect i. e. strong and not like Children So Heb. 5.14 So that strong Love casteth out the fear of the day of Judgment which every degree of Love will not do for he that feareth is not made perfect in love he may have a true sincere love but it is too weak to overcome his tormenting fears about that great and terrible day of the Lord. Be much therefore in the exercise of this Grace keeping your self in the love of God and looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal Life and be often in the contemplation of the preventing love of God and Christ to which John in the foresaid place directeth us for the strengthning of Faith Amat ille non immerito qui amatus est sine merito Bern. and overcoming our fears saith he We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 And Christ is deservedly beloved of him who is undeservedly beloved of Christ And though there is a force in Anathema Maranatha to put the Soul upon the love of Christ yet be taken rather with Grace be with all them that love him in sincerity Valdè sunt cognatae sorores Fides Spes D. Par. in Heb. 6. Thirdly As Faith and Love are co-operary so Faith and Love are very near of kin only Hope is the younger Sister as to operation as waiting with patience for that good which faith laieth claim to in the promise and without this Hope we can neither live nor dye with comfort For the promise is many times deferred as to accomplishment and without hope 's patience how will you spend the interval God made a promise to Abraham of multiplying his Seed but neither he nor yet Isaac nor Jacob must live to see it fulfilled But saith Stephen When the time of the promise drew near the people grew and multiplied in Egypt so that God's promises have their stated times and seasons during which there is work for hope or else the Soul would swoon away My soul saith David fainteth for thy Salvation but I hope in thy word Psal 119.81 i. e. thy word of Promise Hope is a Cordial against the Soul's fainting fits Again During this interspace between the promise and the accomplishment you may meet with many tribulations thorow which you must enter into the Kingdom of heaven fightings without fears within the watchmen may smite you and the keepers of the walls may take away your Vail as if you were no Virgin but a Prostitute you may meet with sad eclipses and the hidings of God's face his wrath may lye hard upon you and all his waves afflict you nay you may meet sometimes with such a storm that neither Sun nor Stars may in many days appear during which time you may reel to and fro like a drunken man and be at your wits end your tackling and fraught may be thrown overboard with your own hands you may call all the work of God in you into question and your hull may be laid a drift either to sink or swim In these and the like cases what will you do without casting the Anchor of your Hope within the vail and riding it out till Sun and Stars appear again O let the patience of hope have its perfect work for you will have great need hereof that when you have done the will of God you may receive the Promise Though the wise Virgins fell asleep yet so far as they waited for Christ's coming they exercised their hope and such can say at the Coming of Christ Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation Fourthly Keep even accounts with God and still be perfecting that repentance which is the work of every day and let there be no old reckonings between God and you for so it may be with a true Believer and it may be called to his remembrance in an evil day and lye heavy too upon his Conscience For this I conceive was Jacob's case who had sinned greatly in his fraudulent and surreptitious way of getting the Blessing from his Brother Esau for which he was not thorowly awaked to see the evil of it for the space of twenty years namely at his return from Padan Aram and that Esau was coming forth against him to be revenged on him but then his sin came fresh to his remembrance and he set apart a night to seek the Lord by solemn Prayer and to wrestle with the Angel of the Covenant And what did he wrestle with him for You may see by his Answer to the Angel I will not let thee go without a blessing Gen. 32.26 Why did not his Father bless him Yes I have blessed him saith he to Esau yea and he shall be blessed Gen. 27.33 And not only so but when Isaac sent him to Padan-Aram he blessed him again Gen. 28.1 But Jacob would not trust to this seeing the first and chief blessing which was due to him by Oracle and Promise had an ill foundation as to the manner of obtaining it and in that respect there vvas a flavv in the Title vvhich therefore novv he striveth to corroborate before he dares to look his Brother Esau in the face as if he should say My Father indeed hath blessed me but there vvas Error personae he mistook the person
and therefore the Blessing is null and moreover what the meaning of this Providence is that my Brother should come forth against me in this hostile manner I knovv not Wherefore I humbly beg thy Blessing and the confirmation of that Title vvhich hath so great an error in it Thus God brought an old reckoning to his remembrance in an evil day and set it on his conscience and put him to repent and mourn for he wept and made supplication to the Angel Hos 12.4 He came not off so easily but was fain to vvrestle hard all night to lose his rest and to struggle and sweat and pray and vveep and shed many a tear and to go halting aftervvard upon his Thigh unto his dying day Take heed therefore of old Reckonings undischarged look back and consider hovv it hath been and omit not a day vvithout revievving your Actions and Repentings I say as duly as the day determineth let not the Sun go dovvn upon any guilt contracted that so your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and exercise your self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and men and this vvill the better prepare you for the coming of Jesus Christ both by Death and Judgment Fifthly Be much in the exercise of Goodness Mercy and works of Liberality towards Christ in his needy Members according to your opportunity and power For though you shall be saved by your Faith yet you shall be judged according to your Works And it greatly concerneth us to be laborious in that Service upon vvhich the judgment shall pass at Christ's appearance Mat. 25.35 36. Call your self therefore to an account what you have done in this way for Christ as how you have fed cloathed visited relieved him in his Members here on earth And if this were more considered such as profess to Christ would be more active for him in ought wherein they might be more serviceable to him but when we see but little activity in the exercise of this Grace we may well fear there is but little Oil in the Vessel for rich anointings will make men agile and ready for every good work inasmuch as the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and they that hope for eternal Life when Christ shall come by Death and Judgment must seek for Glory Honour and Immortality not only in well-doing but in continuance in it Beware of Omissions and among others of this great duty The Judgment will reach unto all sins In the Narrative of his Life and Death and to omissions in a special manner Mat. 25.37 38. For which that learned and holy Vsher was humbled upon his death-bed The Nobleman hath put a Pound into your hand saying Occupy till I come yea he hath given you many Pounds in a literal sense with which you must trade as well as with the Talents of your Parts and Gifts of Grace And I know you would be glad to find Mercy with Onesiphorus in the day of Christ Remember therefore Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 But He shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy whereas mercy rejoyceth against judgment A merciful man is so far from fearing judgment at Christ's coming that he rather rejoyceth at the thoughts of it Sixthly Exercise diligence and faithfulness in your particular Calling For when Christ speaketh of his Coming saith he Be ye ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh What followeth Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Mat. 24.44 45 46. When Christ was speaking to this Point saith Peter Lord speakest thou this Parable to us or even unto all Luke 12.41 Truly Christ spake it unto all though in a special manner to such as Peter for Christ will have an account how every one of us have managed our particular Callings But they that are Stewards in the House of God which is his Church have a very great account to give and it is required of them in a special manner that a man be found faithful and of all Christ's servants his Stewards have most to answer for that if a dispensation of the Gospel and the care of souls were not committed to them he that understandeth the weight of Stewardship would dread to undertake it but a necessity is laid upon them and wo unto them if they Preach not the Gospel It is said of Calvin that when Nature began to decline in him Melch. Adam in vit Calv. and the symptoms of a dying man appeared on him he would be diligent at his Studies from which his friends disswading him saith he Nunquid me Dominus inveniet otiosum Shall my Master find me idle Let such therefore and all be diligent and faithful in their respective place and employments And indeed every man is a Steward more or less You know what the Master saith of the slothful Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Such slothful servants shall be under the tribute of eternal pains Prov. 12.24 when the good and faithful Servant shall be made ruler over many things and enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. 25.23 Would you stand before Christ at his coming Oh dread Idleness and unfaithfulness in your Callings as you desire to be sound of him in peace at his appearance Fill up your days with Duty and give your time to him who gave it to you Paul was a great lover of Christ and his Appearance and who more abundant in his Labours for him For he had the Conscience of his indefatigable industry and fidelity in his work for his Master Saith he I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith 2 Tim 4.7 8. He meaneth especially his military faith and oath in fighting a good fight for Christ And wherefore do we hear him groaning so earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with his house which is from Heaven It was because he laboured ambitiously that whether present or absent he might be accepted of him For saith he We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one might receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5 2. with 9.10 Lastly That I might not multiply particulars let me add what Christ hath joined together Sobriety Watchfulness and Prayer Luk. 21 34.36 And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this Life and that Day come upon you unawares Gird up therefore the loins of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought