and given up to besides that natural Darkness which is in all unregenerat Persons yea and regenerate likewise by Natural There is a Super natural and Judicial which some especially in the just Judgement of God have inflicted upon them Thus Rom. 1.28 It is said of the wicked Gentiles That as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledg God gave them up to a reprobate Sense or mind void of Judgment to do those things which are not Convenient Thus in all these respects are wicked men in Darkness Darkness it is the privation of light And so it is in such kind of Persons now we must know what Light this is Namely the Light of the Spirit As for the common Light of Nature the Light dime Light of Reason that even Natural men may have and in some Competent measure as the Heathen Philosophers had many of them in great Abundance But this Light of Grace and of the Spirit it is such as they are not acquainted with nor know not what it is This accordingly gives us an account of so many Stumblings and Miscarriages as there are in the World Here 's an account of the Diversity of Errours and false Opinions in matters of Judgment And here 's an account also of the Diversity of Outrages and Wickedness in matters of Practise whence there are so many Abomintions as do continually raigne amongst us it is from hence that men are in Darkness There is a mist of Spiritual Blindness which hath Surprised them and Over-spread them and therefore it is that they fall into such Miscarriages as these are And this for the Darkness of the way that Darkness which wicked men are incompast with here in this present life The Second is the Darkness of the End That Darkness which they are subject unto in another World This is of two sorts either the Darkness of Death or Judgment First Of Death that is common to all both good and bad And it is represented in Scripture to us under the notion of Darkness Thus in Job 10.21.22 Before I go whence I shall not return Even to the Land of Darkness and the shadow of Death A Land of Darkness as Darkness it self and of the shadow of Death without any order and Where the Light is as Darkness Thus it is spoken of the Grave and the condition of Bodies lying there So Job 17.13 If I wait the Grave is mine House I have made my Bed in the Darkness And so likewise in Eccles 11.8 The days of Darkness they shall be many It is spoken still of abode in the Grave this is common to all viz. The Darkness of Death The Second Is the Darkness of Judgment and Hell it self which is call'd in Scripture Vtter Darkness This is that which is especially proper to the Wicked Bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter Darkness sayes Christ Matth. 22.13 And Psal 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God This is that which is made to be their Portion And so much for the First particular viz. The state of Darkness which the Wicked and Vngodly of the World are Exposed unto The Second is the state of Silence in order to this Darkness They shall be silent in Darkness Thus it may admit of a various Emphasis which is involv'd in it we may reduce it to these following Particulars First That Grief and Horrour and perplexity of mind which shall seize upon them in this Condition Silence it is an attendant upon Grief and Astonishment in the Extremities of it Curae leves loquunter ingentes stupent so that where Grief is any thing moderate there it expresses it self in speech where 't is Excessive there 't is stupifying and Obstructive Vox faessi hucibus A mans words there stick in his Teeth and therefore great Grief is exprest to us in Scripture by Silence in sundry places thus Esay 15.1 The burden of Moab Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence Brought to silence that is Cut off and destroyed as the word Nidhmah also signifies Destruction it is signified by Silence So Jer. 8.14 Why do ye sit still Assemble your selves and let us enter into the defenced Cities and be silent there for the Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us waters of Gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. Hath put us to silence that is hath brought us into a distracted Condition so that we know not what to do or say So Jer. 47.5 Baldness is come upon Gaza Ashkelon is silent and Cut off Where Baldness and Silence are put for Sadness and Grief in the Philistians Again Lament 2.10 The elders of the Daughters of Sion set upon the Ground and kept silence Namely so far overcome with Grief as unable by speech to abate it And Job's Friends in simpathy with him in his great Grief thus sat down and spake not a word unto him in seaven days c. This shall be the Condition of Wicked men former or later they shall be full of Horrour and Grief unexpressible They that now are full of Jocunness and Joviality and Clamour and make a noise in the World there is a time a coming when they shall be filled with Anguish and perplexity of Spirit which they shall not know how to help in themselves Secondly Silence it is a note of Conviction They shall be silent that is they shall have nothing to say for themselves Wicked men as they shall be full of Grief so likewise of Confusion When God shall charge them with such and such Sins and Abominations whereof they are guilty they shall have nothing here to answer him Either by way of Apology for themselves or Censure of his proceedings against them That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God as it is in Rom. 3.19 Thus it was with him in the Gospel Which came to the Marriage-Supper not having on him his Wedding-Garment when the King aâ—kt him how he came thither it is said he was speechless Matth. 22.12 That is he knew not what to say for himself God will one day non-plus and Convince and Confound all impenitent Sinners They shall be in Darkness that is in Extremity of Misery and silent in it that is Convinced and perswaded of Gods design in his proceedings Thirdly It is a note of Abode and of Continuance in this miserable Condition They shall be kept and bound up in it As the Egyptian Darkness it was such as wherewith they were fastened and contained in their places as not knowing how to stir out of them They saw not one another neither rose any from his place for three Days And Wisd 17. vers 17. There is an Expression sutable where t is said They were all bound with one Chain of Darkness Sutable whereunto is that of Jude 1.6
Salvation and the concernments of a beter life take it singly and alone by it self and it does not reach thereunto Therefore Thirdly and in the last place let this be the Use of this Doctrine to perswade men to look after such a righteousness as does indeed exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees What may we say is that and what does our Saviour mean here by it I answer briesly thus That it may be reduc'd to two Heads both to imputed righteousness and to inherent The righteousness of Christ's Person without us which is made ours by Faith and the righteousness of Christ's Spirit within us which does change and alter our natures and make us in part conformable to him Each of these are the righteousness here intended First That righteousness of ours which is thus transcendent as is here implied it is the righteousness of Christ himself imputed to us both of his nature life and death This is our righteousness so far forth as it is accounted for ours and we have a share and interest in it whilst by Faith we lay hold upon Christ's person we partake of Christ's righteousness and this to be sure is beyond the righteousness of all Scribes and Pharisees because it is such as is fully satisfactory to the justice of God and will endure the severest and exactest trial at his Tribunal But this though it be here included yet I conceive it not much intended in this present Text. Therefore Secondly By this transcendent righteousness of ours we are to understand our inherent righteousness which by Christ's Spirit is bestowed upon us and wrought in us and this is such as must be beyond the righteousness of Pharisees or else will not serve our turn This consists principally in the changing and renewing of our natures and transforming us in the spirit of our minds in an hatred of sin as sin and in love of goodness as goodness in a sight of our own unworthiness and renouncing of any considence in our selves or the best of our performances in a conscionable endeavour and desire to please God in all things and a sear and shyness of doing any thing which may be displeasing unto him This is such a righteousness as exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees with all their glorious and specious performances and must be endeavoured after by every one that makes account to come hereafter to Heaven And accordingly it should perswade every one to look after it As nothing should satisfy us but Salvation so nothing should satisfy us neither but such means as do reach salvation because failing of the means we must needs consequently fail of the end which hath a conjunction and connexion with it and whereupon it depends as it is with any thing else which is of truth and regard This hath been the temper and disposition of all such persons as have understood themselves and that have known what has belong'd to Salvation As we may see it for an instance of it in the Apostle Paul who was a Pharisee and as he tells us himself one of the strictest way and carriage amongst them One that went beyond many of his equals in the Jewish Religion one that as touching the righteousness which is of the Law was blameless But yet when he comes to be converted and turn'd Christian he reckons all this as very defective and insufficient Phil. 3.8 What things were gain unto me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things to be but loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffer'd the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and may be found in him Not having mine own righteousness which is of tke Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith Thus it was with the Apostle Paul and so it is likewise ready to be with all others which are in his condition And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text in the order in which I have now handled to wit the principal Doctrine here propounded and declar'd in these words Except your righteousness exceed the righteousuess of the Scribes and Pharisees c. The Second is the Preface or Introduction hereunto in these words For I say unto you Where we may observe a special Emphasis in every word and that three-fold First in the Speaker I. Secondly in the form of speech Say Thirdly in the persons spoken to You. There is somewhat in each of these which is considerable of us First In the Speaker I. Who was that namely Christ himself It was He that said it We know that Speeches they do frequently receive an impression from the condition of the persons that utter them And so did this here now in the Text so far forth as it was uttered by Christ The Scribes and Pharisees they had cried up their own righteousness as sufficient and somewhat more and thereby had kept men off from the Kingdom of Heaven They had taught men to rest in an outward conformity to the Law without any regard at all to the inward man yea but Christ now when he comes he teaches them another lesson than this and causes them to look further than the outward letter of the Commandment even to the sense and spirituality of it I says he say thus and thus unto you And I as we may again take it according to a threesold reduplication First I that am your Law-giver Secondly I that am your Prophet Thirdly I that am your Judge First Your Law-giver I consider'd so It is I that say who can better expound the Law or his Authority so to do than he that makes it than he that gives it Now this is that which Christ has done He was present at the making of the Law He was an Agent in the publishing of it It was ordain'd by Angels in the hand of a Mediator and this Mediator was Christ who as he was the Mediator of Reconciliation through whom we are accepted of God And as he was the Mediator of Intercession through whom we have access to God so he was also the Mediator of Instruction and Information through whom we receive he commands and injunctions of God And forasmuch I say as 't is he that propounds it is he also that properly expounds them and is the best expounder of them of any other else besides Secondly I your Prophet Christ is also considerable so in reference hereunto Christ he was in the bosom of his Father and best knew his Father's mind and he was ordain'd to be the Prophet of his Church for the revealing of this his mind unto them Heb. 1.1 c. God that in time past spake to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son c. Thirdly I your Judge It is I also that say it That 's
of Christ and to the whole Church that Christ will at last in this sense also come unto them though he be now gone and withdrawn yet in time he will return again The Church is at present as it were a Widow and her Children Orphans and Fatherless as it is Lam. 5.3 yea but they shall not be left so nor continue so always Christ will not leave them Fatherless as he here says but will come unto them It is not a real Orphanage or Widowhood but onely by interpretation and resemblance A Wife whiles her Husband is in a far Countrey she is a Wife still though she be like a Widow and so her Children have a Father still though they be like to Orphans and Fatherless because her Husband will come back again and their Father will return them and that with advantage to provide larger Portions for them and to carry them thither also themselves when the place is fitted for them as Joseph did Aegypt for his Brethren And so 't is here Christ is gone and will come again and take his Church which is his Spouse to himself to be with him for ever He departs for a season that he may never part from them nor they from him We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory as the Apostle Paul tells us in Col. 3.4 5. Let those who are the Servants of God therefore be still in the expectation of this coming longing after it and breathing for it and desirous of it He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quicly Even so come Lord Jesus Rev. ult 20. That 's the third kind of coming which Christ does here promise And so much of the whole Text I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you SERMON XXIII JOH 15.5 For without me or severed from me ye can do nothing Our Blessed Lord and Saviour as he took upon him our Humane Nature and became Man for our sakes so he took upon him likewise upon occasion all other kind of resemblances as whereby he might the better convey himself into the hearts of his Hearers and draw them to a fuller and more perfect closing with him And he oftentimes likewise took occasion from the sight and presence of the creature and these infirm things to instruct them in heavenly matters Thus he does here now in particular in the course and carriage of this present Scripture Being as it is thought now under a Vine at this time when he spake to his Disciples he takes an occasion so to discourse of a Vine with them as thereby to lead them to a further embracing of himself as the true Vine indeed And makes this further improvement and application of it That as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more could they except they should abide in him For without me says he ye can do nothing This is the scope and coherence of these words here in this Chapter As for the Text it self it is nothing else but a â—â—â—â—â—â—ry of Humane impotency and inability in matters of Religion and the things of God Whâ—â—â—as for our better and more exact handling of it as a point of very great consequence and 〈…〉 these present times there are three terms especially which are to be explicated and unjâ—â—◠〈◊〉 us â—â—st what is meant by without me c. THis Text is nothing else but a discovery of Humane-impotency and inability in matters of Religion and the things of God Where in for our better and more exact handling of it there are three terms especially which are to be explicated and unfolded by us First what is meant by without me Secondly what by cannot do And Thirdly what by nothing as it is here propouded For the First This expression without me in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be taken two manner of ways either namely as an exclusion of Interest or else as an exclusion of Influence As an exclusion of Interest so without me that is without union to me severed or divided from me As an exclusion of Influence so without me that is without assistance from me deserted or forsaken and left alone by me According to either of these notions is it most true that a person without Christ is able to do nothing If we take it in the former notion so it is properly the condition of such a person as is in the state of Nature who therefore can do nothing for want of general union unto Christ If we take it in the latter notion so it may falt out to be the condition of such a person as is in the state of Grace who can do nothing neither without particular influence from Christ And this for the term without me The Second is what is meant by ye cannot do Now this we are to understand according to the power of a man 's own free-will he cannot 〈…〉 or act any such thing from such a 〈…〉 as this in him but is wholly disabled 〈◊〉 â—â—dated hereunto The Thus is what is meant by nothig Now this we are to take secundum subjectam materiam according to the matter in hand and that is as relating to any thing which is good and that not any good neither or at large but supernatural and spiritual good That 's the good which is here excluded And when 't is said ye can do nothing there is hereby meant such a good as this So then by without me is meant a man out of Christ by ye cannot do by the power of free-will by good spiritual good Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut vclimus bonum Certum est nos facere cum facimus sed ille facit us faciamus says Austin It is certain that it is we that will but it is he that makes us for to will that which is good It is certain that it is we that work but it is he that makes us for to work And again Nos ergo volumus sed Deus in nobis operatur velle nos ergo operamur sed Deus in nobis operatur operari We therefore will but it is God that works in us to will We therefore work but it is God that works in us also even to work De bono perseverantiae Cap. 13. We 'll First take this passage without me as an exclusion of interest in Christ Without me that is without union to me or severed from me one out of Christ And so the Point which is to be observ'd is this That man fallen and still remaining in his natural condition hath no freedom of will to that which is spiritually and supernaturally good He is able to do nothing of this nature whiles he so continues Now the best way for the handling of this present Doctrine will be by doing two things First by shewing what is granted
in their natural condition they are such as being out of Christ are therefore without Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is separated from Christ as we find this expression used of the Ephesians before their conversion Ephes 2.12 that they were at that time without Christ c Now for such as these we have accordingly also shewn how they are able to do nothing As the branch cannot bring forth any fruit in the course of Nature where it is separated from the Vine so the Soul cannot bring forth any fruit neither in the course of Grace where it is separated from Christ The second sense or notion of the words is that which is to be handled by us by God's assistance at this present time which is to shew that without Christ that is without influence from him and dependance upon him we are able to do no good neither in a spiritual and supernatural way as may conduce to salvation All our strength and ability as to the doing of any thing of this nature is to be fetch'd and drawn from Christ For the better and more distinct opening of which Point of Doctrine unto us we may take notice of three things especially which are requisite to any Christian performance each of which we do and must receive from Christ as tending to the accomplishment of it First a Spiritual life as the general grand work and foundation Secondly a Spiritual power slowing from this Spiritual life and answering to that particular Duty for the kind of it which God does require of us And thirdly a Spiritual activity or operation for the reducing of this Spiritual power into particular action of life As it is to explain it to you by a resemblance in Natural Motion There are three things which do make up this to us There 's the principle of Natural life there 's the Locom-motive faculty founded in this life and there 's the Walk it self which is produced and effected by this Faculty And as each of these are from God as the Author of Nature so each of the other are from Christ as the Fountain of Grace First There is a Principle of Spiritual life as the general Ground-work and Foundation of every Spiritual good work that comes from us Look as a man that is naturally dead cannot do any thing which belongs to Nature so a man which is spiritually dead also he can do nothing which belongs to Grace because Actus non excedit vires suae potentiae the Act cannot go beyond the Principle as we use to speak Now this Principle of Spiritual life we do derive wholly from Christ as the Branches derive life from the Root and the Members from the Head In which respect we are said not so much to live our selves as Christ is said to live in us in Gal. 2.20 Look as the First Adam was the Spring and Root of Natural life to all his Posterity so is the Second Adam the Spring and Root of Spiritual life to all his Members Therefore unless Christ by his Spirit do first change our hearts from that state of Spiritual death and corruption which we are in by Nature and put a contrary and better Principle of Spiritual life and holiness into us we can never be able to do any thing considerable to the purpose This I have in part declared already in our former Exercise and therefore shall not insist upon it now But secondly besides this Spiritual life whereby a Christian is qualified in general for the bringing forth of the works of new obedience namely the work of Grace and Conversion wrought in him by the Spirit of Christ there is moreover a Spiritual power slowing from this Spiritual life whereby a Christian being renewed by Grace hath some ability communicated unto him for the doing of such and such Duties as in particular in such and such cases are required of him And this is another thing which we do receive also from Christ without whom we are able to do nothing Of his fulness we all receive and grace for grace Joh. 1.16 that is answerable to grace in Christ grace in us We know that besides the common principle of Regeneration in general there are several habits of grace in particular according to the several kinds and distributions of them which have each of them their several abilities and qualifications belonging unto them as Faith enabling us to believe Love enabling us to embrace Patience enabling us to endure and so of the rest Now these particular Graces in specie as well as the work of Grace in general are communicated unto us from Christ and upon his account who is the Treasury and Storehouse of all Grace whatsoever for us It is true indeed that it is God in Scripture who is proclaimed to be the God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 but we must understand it still of God in Christ and in the mediation of the New Covenant out of which and out of whom God hath no intercourse at all with us nor we with him This is our state and condition now in the Covenant of Grace and a blessed state and condition it is that all our Grace and Comfort and Ability it is originated and founded in Christ who having taken our Nature upon himself and therein satisfied the Justice of God and being by Faith apprehended by us and united and made one with us is from hence a fit person for the conveying of all Grace unto us which we have need of and occasion for in the whole course of our lives Therefore it is profitable for us to understand and to take notice of the right method which is here in this particular used with us and wherein we come to be made partakers of this grace whereof we now speak and that 's this That the Spirit of God first of all sanctifies the Humane Nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us who are Members of him The same Spirit that sanctified that blessed mass of his Body in the Womb of the Virgin and the same Spirit that sanctified his whole Nature both of Body and Soul which is now in Heaven the same Spirit does now also sanctifie his Mystical Body which abides still on earth and which is made partaker of Grace by communication and derivation from him As the Oyl which was upon the head of Aaron it ran down to the skirts of his garments which were upon him so the Spirit which is upon the Head of Christ and which he is said to have received without measure it runs down upon all Believers and they have it no otherwise than as he conveys it and transmits it unto them We see then here in what sense we are said to do all things by Christ and without him to have power to do nothing namely so far forth as he gives us grace for the doing of them The Faculties of the Soul are three the Vnderstanding and Will and Affections and such as these but the sanctifying of all
blood of Christ hath that power and efficacy with it as to cleanse all such persons as are truly members of him from all their sins The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin as it is also 1 Joh. 1.7 For the better opening of this Point we must know that there is a double benefit which we do partake of from the Blood of Christ the one is the benefit of Justification as to the taking away of the guilt of sin and the other is the benefit of Sanctification as to the taking away of the power and dominion And each of these are here included in this expression First He hath washed us from our sins in his blood that is he hath freed us from the guilt of our sins in point of Justification Christs blood it is available to this purpose And so the Scripture signifies to us in sundry Texts of it as Ephes 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace And Rom. 5.9 Being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him And Col. 1.20 He hath made peace through the blood of his Cross Where the pardon and forgiveness of our sins is still attributed to his blood Now there 's a twofold Ground which may be â—â—gn'd hereof unto us First The Dignity of the 〈◊〉 which he did sustain who was the Son of 〈◊〉 and so the blood even of God himself though not of the Godhead According to that in Act. 20.28 where it is said that God hath redeemed his Church with his own blood The blood of such an excellent person must needs be infinitely meritorious and have a wonderful efficacy with it for the taking away of any guilt whatsoever Secondly From the Relation to the Persons whom he does represent as it was the blood of him that was God so of him that was man likewise having taken our nature upon him and received it into the Union of his Divine Person and therefore it was so far forth our blood likewise and was as much as if we had shed it in our own persons because Christ was a publick person appointed by God in our behalf in the work of Redemption and stood upon the Cross in the room of all his Elect through Gods acceptation of him He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Isa 53. ult Thus hath he washed us from our sins that is from the guilt of them in point of Justification But secondly From the filth and stains of them also in point of Sanctification sin besides the guilt of it it leaves a stain and defilement behind it which does pollute the souls of such persons as are guilty of it Now the blood of Christ it washes off this also from that power and efficacy which is in it It not only pacifies but purges the Conscience And so the Scripture also expresses it as Heb. 9.11 14. If the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The blood of Christ hath merited the Spirit of God for the sanctification of all his Elect and so is said to sanctifie them When it is said here That we are washed from our sins in Christs blood this must be taken by a synecdoche of the part for the whole By his blood we are not only to understand that blood of his which was shed upon the Cross but his whole Passion with all the circumstances and attendances upon it Yea indeed his whole obedience whether active or passive but his blood is here named as that which was indeed the complement and perfection of all the rest as also wherein the Legal Types are all accomplished as the Apostle intimates to us in Heb. 9.22 Almost all things are by the Law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission The Improvement of this Point to our selves may be drawn forth into a various Application First It may serve as a discovery to us of the grievous and heinous nature of sin which had need of such a remedy as this to be used for the removal of it We may see the greatness and desperateness of the disease in the nature and quality of the physick which is given for it and that is no other and no less than the precious blood of the Son of God himself Sin it is a bloody business and the Church she is Sponsa sanguinum she is a spouse of blood as Zipporah said once to Moses And we see upon what occasion she is so namely from sin Therefore we should hence learn to abhor it and to detest it and to be shy and afraid of it We know how it was with David in regard of the water of Bethlehem which was purchased for him but by the hazard of mens lives he would not drink it though he longed for it because it was the price of blood 2 Sam. 23.17 Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives Even so should we say when we are tempted to the commission of any sin Is not this the blood even of the Son of God himself which he was put to shed upon occasion of it There are many profane and atheistical persons in the world which make nothing at all of sin no not of the greatest and grossest that are think it but a trivial business and a matter of sport Fools make a mock of sin as Solomon tells us Now let such persons as these but consider with themselves what it cost as it is here exhibited to us that so accordingly they may rightly judg of it and be perswaded of it and accordingly be taken off from yielding unto it Suppose a man had such a disease or distemper upon him as nothing would cure but the heart-blood of some near relation would it not very nearly and closely affect him and how much then should men be affected with their sins which nothing else could expiate but the blood of Christ himself Secondly Here 's matter of comfort and encouragement also to the servants of God in all the troubles and upbraidings of Conscience and of Satan setting in with it that here 's a remedy and help for them Here 's a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness as it is Zach. 13.1 even the fountain of the blood of Christ which is able to cleanse us Therefore let us go to this fountain and let us bathe and wash our selves in this blood by the exercise of the Grace of Faith in us and let us not be discouraged Remember what the Apostle Paul tells us to this purpose Rom. 3.25 How that God hath set forth Christ to be a
with thee to know it and how durst thou then to deny it There 's each of thesein it First This Question of Elisha it is an expostulation with him as to his Fact went not mine Heart with thee And how durst thou to do it whilst thou couldst not but know that I my self looked upon thee and was observing of thee As Joseph sometime to his Brethren Did ye not know that such a man as I could certainly Divine Gen. 44.15 So Elisha here to his servant Didst thou not know that such a man as I could certainly discern that I could understand what thou wert doing and going about And could'st thou then think to lie hid whil'st thou servest such a master Who was it that healed the waters of Jericho was it not I Who was it that commanded the Bears out of the Forest for the slaughter of the scoffing children was it not I Who was it that rais'd the Shunamites child wa st not thou with me then And could I do all these things and thou know and understand that I could do them and yet couldest thou think or imagine that I could be Ignorant of thy wicked Haunt or durst thou venture upon such an Attempt even under mine Eye This is the force of these words here before us Now there are divers points which are here observable from them First of all we see here that a great cause of many men's Sinning and allowing themselves in evil Courses is because they conceit they lie hid and are unknown and undiscern'd in them by those Especially who have the Goverment of them Their Parents and Masters and Ministers and such as these This is here supposed and taken for granted in this Question of Elisha to Gehazi Went not my Heart with thee as who should say if thou hadst beheld this thou wouldest never have done that which thou didst thy hope of Secresy gave occasion to thy Presumptious Attempt and so it does to many others besides abroad in the World They never durst do what they do if they thought they were observ'd in doing it They durst not Theive nor Cheat nor Whore nor mispend their time in Lude and Villanous company as by Experience too often they do if they thought that others knew of them or that the Heart of those which are their Governours went along with them Therefore it is good for men in such cases to suppose such as are present before them As the Heathen Oracle gives that Rule whereby to keep men in order by considering that such men as Cato and Scipio looked upon them Where all Modesty and Ingenuity is not lost there is a great restraint upon some mens ways from such and such Persons beholding them That 's the first Observation Secondly Observe also this That the Presence of Man does commonly more affect men in Sinning then the presence of God This we gather from the Nature of the Prophet Elisha's Argument to his Servant Gehazi Where he does not say to him did not God see thee was not the Eye of the Lord upon thee But did not I my self see thee And did not mine Heart go along with thee Not but that the other Argument was more Effectual consider'd in it self but it was not so Effectual with this Person Elisha he framed Himself to Gehazi's temper and dealt with him according to that he knew that Gehazi if he could but hide his Wickedness from his Master he never cared for Gods knowing of it therefore he shews him how he was discovered in them And so it is with many more else If they can but keep their Evil practices and Courses from the Knowledg and Acquaintance of men their Friends and Neighbours and Governours and those whom they depend on that 's all they care for whether God know it or no. The Ground hereof is that exceeding Atheisme and Infidelity which abounds in the Heart Because men have not due thoughts and Apprehensions of God himself but think meanly and Scantily of him Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self as God speaks there to that Atheist in Psalmes Psal 50.22 Nay they think him not so much as one of themselves may be in this particular First They do not think him Omniscient and Omni-present That he is one who is privy to all the things which are done by them Thus Job 22.13 How doth God know Can he judge through the dark Clouds So Psal 64.7 They say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it So Ezek. 9.9 The Lord hath forsaken the Earth and seeth not Secondly They do not think him to be Just that he is one who will call them to a Reckoning and Account of what is done by them For men they are sometimes restrain'd by that Authority which is upon them but for God they seem to deny it Thirdly They doe not believe him in his Power and that ability which he hath in him to destroy them and to make a sudden end of them and hence it is they are more in awe of men than they are of Himself The consideration of this point should serve to humble men in this particular and to affect them with grief and amazement What art thou affraid of men and art not thou affraid of God himself Art thou ashamed that thy master should see thee or thy Minister should be acquainted with thy miscarriages and art thou not much more ashamed that the Lord takes notice of thee and beholds thee in all thy ways what a madness and folly is this and how much Atheism at the bottom of it But yet again further Thirdly There is here inclusively an assistance from God c. whiles Elisha sayes Went not mine heart with thee Because as I have formerly shewn in the opening and explaining of the words His heart did no otherwise know it then by Revelation and Instruction from God So that Did not my heart know it is in effect Did not God know it first and so there is this in it That this is enough to confound men in all their secret and hidden abominations That their Practises and Contrivances are discern'd by God himself That His Eye is upon them and that His Heart 's with them and that He sees them and observes them in all I have set the Lord alwayes before me therefore I shall not fall sayes David Psal 16.8 Thus should we doe likewise upon all occasions and make Him present to our Faith and Fear who is alwayes present in His own infinite nature and regardfull of what we doe Lastly There is this also in it That sin is so much the more hainous as it is at any time the more Impudent this we gather from the scope of the words where the Prophet would shew the greatness of Gehazi's sin that he should sin in such circumstances when he could not but know that his Master understood what he did and was all this while acquainted with it Went not mine Heart with
That thou wouldst keep me Jabez when he would now be freed and preserved from approaching dangers and evils which hung over his head he goes to the right person for the effecting of it and that is God himself As all kind of evils of punishment is ordered and disposed of by God No evil at all in the City that the Lord hath not done sayes the Prophet so all evil of the same nature likewise is to be removed and prevented by God or else it cannot be done unto thee at all As it is he that must inlarge our coast and He whose hand must be with us so it is He also that must keep us from evil and preserve us if ever we be kept All other means besides without Him are in vain and to no purpose at all This shews us what to think of such persons as have other shelters to defend themselves by which as the Prophet Esay speaks of them have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell are at an agreement that say when the overflowing scourge shall pass thorow it shall not come unto them for they have made lyes their refuge and under falshood they have hid themselves such as these shall not prosper in that way wherein they flatter themselves Their Covenant shall be dis-anulled and their agreement shall not stand c. There can be no hope or confidence for them but onely in God alone who has these things in His own disposing This does not exclude the use of means on our behalf which in their place are to be used by us we may not thrust our selves upon evil or carelesly fall into it and think it enough for us to desire God to keep us from it This is to tempt his providence rather then any thing else No but with indeavour on our part to betake our selves humbly to God and to rest and relye upon Him for it as Jabez here does I might here also take notice of the word which in the Hebrew Text is very Emphatical Gnazthea Hand of strength and activity or helping thereunto but I pass over that And so much of the Request That thou wouldst keep me from evil The second is the Amplification of it in these words That it may not grieve me Here was in his Name Jabez which as I have shewn signifies forrowful but he would not willingly have grief in his hands His mother bare him in sorrow in the verse before the Text but he desired not to live in sorrow From evil that it may not grieve me Mark here how he expesses himself in these present words before us He does not desire absolutely and wholly to be kept from evil That almost as the world commonly goes might seem to be a kind of petition but he desires to be kept from the trouble and vexation of it it is not from evil that it may not touch me but from evil that it may not grieve me It is not to be delivered from the Condition but onely to be delivered from the Affection This is that which we may accordingly desire of the Lord in such cases as these are That if he shall bring us at any time into sorrowful and sad conditions yet at least that he would keep us from sorrowful and sad hearts This is that which seems strange to Nature but Grace does very easily apprehend it God can suffer us to fall into evil and yet keep us from the Grief of the evil God can give a man a comfortable spirit in a sad and sorrowful estate and oftentimes does And this is that which Jabez rather then fail would obtain in this place so far forth as conveniently might be that he might be kept from evil but if not from evil wholly yet from evil at least in the sad effects and consequents of of it from evil that it might not grieve Him Thus for the better opening and unfolding of it to us may be taken with these following explications First He desired to be kept from grief That is from the Extremity of the Affliction so as to sink or to overwhelm his spirit Jabez could not imagine to have evil and not to have grief with it but hoped not to have it in the excess and violence of it And this he desired that though God in his Providence should afflict him yet he would not afflict him beyond his strength or lay upon him more then he could well and patiently indure This is that which we are subject unto if God doe not prevent us from it to be cast down upon every occasion and to be discouraged and put out of heart almost upon the smallest affliction and therefore is there need of prayer to God to support us and uphold us to this purpose and to keep us within bounds This is one thing which Jabez here intended Secondly When he desires to be kept from grief that is from the sinfulness of Grief and that inordinancy and distemper of minds which we are commonly subject unto through our corruption in such conditions Lord keep me from evil that it may not Grieve me That is that I may not be fretful in it that I may not be sinful under it that I may not be offensive by it That it may not grieve me nor I may not grieve thee nor thy holy Spirit occasionally from it This is the main and principal desire of every good Christian in such cases as these and where God is pleased at any time to doe this for us it is that which may very well satisfie us and quiet us and give us contentment whatsoever he does else besides A man's spirit it will help his infirmities as Solomon speaks and if our mindes be once well in us all things else shall be well with us what is it that we would to care for more And thus now we have also the third particular whereof this Prayer of Jabez is made up to wit for a Blessing in reference to his Protection and Personal Preservation That thou wouldst keep me in evil And so likewise we have done with the first General part of the Text viz. The Vow or Prayer it self both in the General Proposition of it at large as also in the particular explication of it in the several branches The Second is an Account of the Answer or Return which is made unto this Prayer That we have in these words And God granted him that which he requested which words may be looked upon by us two manner of wayes Either first of all in their common and general notion as they doe include in them God's manner of dealing in his answer of prayer at large Or Secondly in their restrained particular notion as they doe point out to us God's answer of prayer in these particulars which are here mentioned before us and which Jabez here beg'd at God's hands First To take them and to look upon them a little in the General God granted him that which he requested what 's the meaning of that
will be as sometimes they are full of Trouble and perplexity in themselves as if they had never had such a promise as this made unto them But perhaps you will here interpose that all Temporal promises are but Conditional and such as in the Event may fail for the accomplishment of them in which regard they do not exempt us from Fear and Sollicitude about them we have ground enough to be troubled in such matters as these are notwithstanding Gods promises which he hath made in reference to them forasmuch as many of the Saints of God do notwithstanding miscarry under them There are many which break their Legs and Armes and Limbs even of good men as well as others all things fall alike to all and therefore what stress is here in such promises as these are from whom the Saints and Servants of God might be kept from Fear as to themselves To this I answer and it may serve as a satisfaction in all other Temporal promises whatsoever of the like Nature That there is very great cause for Quietness and settledness of Spirit in the Saints and Servants of God notwithstanding all this And that from hence because it never fails but upon some special and eminent Considerations as wherein either the Glory of God or their own good in some other respect is principally aimed God will so fulfill to his Saints all his promises of temporal Blessings and amongst the rest of temporal Protection as that he will never turn aside from them but where themselves upon due Consideration and understanding of his providence towards them shall be ready to thank him for it All things fall alike to all in regard of the Condition it self which falls unto them but they do not fall alike to all in regard of the Ground and Principles and Arguments which they fall unto them upon God is carried by some other reason in his suffering of Miscarriages in his People and other men so that here is a double salve for this objection First That this promise it holds for the most part in the thing it self not onely in a way of common Providence but in special love Secondly That where it holds not in the thing yet it holds in regard of that Affection which was the ground of first making of it And so much for that That 's the first branch of Explication He will keep the feet of his Saints viz. in regard their ways Secondly In regard of their Works whatsoever they do This is said of a Godly man Psal 1. vers 3. That whatsoever he doth shall prosper And there are Instances and Examples of it In Joseph Gen. 39.3 The Lord was with him and made all that he did to prosper in his hand And Jacob he takes notice of it in himself in reference to Laban Genes 30. vers 30. The Lord hath blest thee since my Comming Le-ragli at my foot as it is in the Hebrew Text that is from my very first entrance and setting foot first into thine House There is a Blessing upon a righteous hand whatsoever it be that he undertakes As a Blessing of Protection upon his Person so a Blessing of Success upon his Labour and constant Imployment Now The common Application which may be made of all this to our selves is from hence to take direction what course is to be taken by our selves in reference to either of these two Heads which we have now mentioned unto you whether Prosperity and Success in Labours or Protection and Preservation in Dangers Especially in these times of Uncertainty and Distraction in which we live Namely to make this good to our selves that we are the Saints and Servants of Godwhich have his Grace wrought in our Hearts and are in Covenant with him We may from hence be then assured that he will preserve us and watch over us for good as over those which are of his own Household and Family and do in a special manner belong and relate to Himself we shall then be his in that day when he will make up his Jewel And he will spare us as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him Mal. 3.17 But so much of this first Branch viz. The State and Condition of the Godly in those words He will keep the feet of his Saints The Second Is the State of the Wicked in these But the Wicked shall be silent in Darkness As there 's a difference betwixt the Wicked and the Godly in regard of their Disposition so is there likewise in regard of their Condition And it is here among other places of Scripture exprest in this present Text which we have now before us Where for the Wicked and Vngodly we have two things fasten'd upon them First A state of Darkness And Secondly A state of Silence in order to that Darkness Both these are here hinted when it is said They shall be silent in Darkness First A State of Darkness As to which it would be here pertinently inquired what is to be understood by it It may be referred to a double Condition whether of this present Life or of that which is to come of the way or the end First For this life present as the way Wicked men they are here in Darkness First In the Ignorance of their mindes Having their understandings darkned As the Apostle Paul speaks of the Gentiles Eph. 4.18 Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance which is in them because of the blindness of their Heart And so Eph. 5.8 Ye wore all sometimes Darkness This is the Condition of all Carnal and Vnregenerate Persons so long as they are in a state of Nature they are in a state of Darkness The Natural man discerns not the things of the Spirit of God neither can be know them because they are Spiritually discern'd as it is in 1. Cor. 2.14 There is none that Vnderstandeth there is none that seeketh after God Rom. 3.11 Secondly In the Inordinancy of their Affections there 's Darkness in them from thence also He that hateth his Brother is in Darkness and walketh in Darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because that Darkness hath blinded his Eyes says the Apostle 1. Joh. 2.11 Take a man whose Affections are irregulated and distemper'd in him and he hath a virtiginous and giddy humour possessing him he is as it were in the dark and so to be accounted sayes Athanasius Malice it shades the mind and so any other unruly Passion in them Thirdly In the practise of all other Sins whatsoever besides works of Wickedness are works of Darkness and so they are still call'd The unfruitful works of Darkness Eph. 5.11 Forasmuch as they seek the Dark for the Commission of them The Theif and Murtherer and Adulterer they all wait for the Dark as Job observes it of them such Places and Times as wherein they may be kept and preserv'd from others Eyes as to the beholding of them Lastly In that Spiritual blindness which they are delivered
while they live here in the World Especially in his Patience towards them and Long-suffering and Forbearance of them in that he does not presently take advantage against them but heaps many comforts upon them thereby to lead them and draw them to Himself but they commonly make but an ill use and Improvement of it by being from hence so much the more harden'd and confirm'd in Sin they despise that Goodness which they should Imbrace and the Author of it as so much the greater Aggravation of Wickedness and Sinfulness in them The Mercies which God bestows upon the Publique and so upon themselves in commonwith others and the mercies which God bestows upon them in private for their own particulars each of these are misimprov'd by them as it is said concerning the Israelites Jeshuron waxed fat and kicked and when God fed them with Quayles and Manna gave them drink and water out of the Rock delivered them out of the hands of their Enemies by a strong hand and a stretched out arm yet they forgot the works of the Lord and all the wonders that he had wrought for them which he took as a contemning of himself Thus Esay 5.12 The Harp and Viol the Tabret and the Pipe and the Wine are in their Feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord nor the Opperation of his hands Whether in Judgments or if we will also in Mercy the great things which his hands have wrought for them And so Psal 28.5 There is the like expression Because they regarded not the works of the Lord nor the Opperation of their hands he shall destroy them and not build them up Again as in the Providences of Mercy so likewise in the Providences of Judgment wicked men they contemn God here also in that while his hand is lifted up they will not see neither any thing better'd or reformed by it as it is said of them in Esay 9.13 This People turneth not unto him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts And the Prophet Jeremiah to the like purpose Jer. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have not received Correction they have made their faces harder then a Rock they have refused to return When people shall come to this pass as to be inncorrigible under Gods Afflicting hand and Chastising of them it is a Contemning of him in a way of his Judgments which is the case of many Persons When Gods Judgments are either threatned but not Executed or Executed but with some Intermission or Mitigation of them this makes some kind of Natures to slight him and despise him in them Thus we know it was with Pharoah He that first asked who is the Lord when he sent a Messuage to him to let go his People and so contemn'd him as concerning his Commands when afterwards he was followed with Gods plagues and had any respite of them he still persisted and contemn'd him in his Judgments And that is the Second Explication of this Observation The Third and last is in his Servants and those which belong unto him We know how in the affairs of the world Contempt it does oftentimes proceed and Express it self in this not onely as to mens person but as to their Relations Thus are Parents contemned in their Children Masters in their Servants Princes in their Ambassadors and the like And thus is God also contemned in those that have Relations to him He that despiseth the poor says Solomon he reproaches his maker Those that contemn the poor members of Christ they contemn Christ himself and so he will account them to have done at the last day when he shall come to Judgment as much as they have done it to any of his little ones he will reckon it as done unto himself as he there professes in Matth. 25.45 Men may think when they slight and wrong and oppress any of the poor members of Christ that this Injury and contempt reaches no further then a Company of poor and Helpless men Oh but there is somewhat more in it if it be duly considered it reaches even God Himself who is despised in their Despisings and accordingly will take it to Himself at another day As in all their Afflictions he is Afflicted and Sympathised with them in their Sufferings so in all their Contemnings he is Contemned and Sympathised with them in their Despisings Those that Despise the members of Christ they Despise Christ Himself And so as for the Members of Christ so likewise for the Ministers of Christ which is another consideration of his servants It holds here also when these come to us in the Name of Christ and by authority from him and we shall contemn them in the discharge of their office it reaches to Christ He that despises you sayes he despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10.16 And 1 Thes 4.8 He therefore that despiseth not man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit What are we sayes Moses to the Isaelites that ye murmur against us your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord Exod. 16.8 And again the Lord to Samuel when they rejected him for ruling over them They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that is not onely thee but me and me in thee 1 Sam. 8.7 Thus we see in all these particulars and according to these various explications how wicked men do contemn God as a thing which is manifest by experience In his Ordinances in his Providences and in his Servants Now it would he further inquired whence this does proceed in them Because it seems some what strange that indeed it should be so what may we then conceive to be the Ground or occasion of it Surely there is a twofold Ground which may be assign'd of it as is usually observable in other Contumelies in the world The one as proceeding from Pride and the other from Ignorance These two taken together are the grounds and occasions of this contempt First It proceeds from Pride This hath a common and usual influence upon Contempt Those that do too much pride and over-value themselves they are apt to contemn others and sometimes better then themselves and so it is here The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts in the fourth verse of this Psalm Through the pride of his countenance that is indeed through the pride of his heart which doth usually express and manifest it self in the Countenance This is that which makes him not to seek after God but to neglect him because he thinks with himself that he can do well enough without him Self-sufficiency it disposes men to pride and so consequently to contemptuousness Those that apprehend themselves independent are scornfull and whiles they think they can subsist of themselves they subject to despise others yea sometimes even God himself
express it some their measure is larger and some their measure is smaller yet Cups they are notwithstanding and so God makes them to be both to his Servants and other People The use which we are to make of it is accordingly thus to look upon it we should observe and take notice of the Providence of God in this particular and be answerably affected therewith we should take heed of provoking the Lord by any Sin or Miscarriage whatsoever as knowing that in so doing we do but prepare as it were a Cup for our selves and treasure up wrath as the Apostle speaks against the day of Wrath. in Rom. 2.5 And let us not give our selves Liberty in any unwarrantable course or take Courage to our selves in sinning from any present impunity or forbearance because all this while the Cup is as it were but a filling and making up There is a Cup in framing and fashioning though it be not already brought out When we speak of a cup we know it has commonly a two-fold notion in it either a Good or a bad There 's a Cup of Physick a Medicinal Cup and theirs a Cup of Poyson a destructive Cup. Now in the hand of the Lord there is a Cup to either of these purposes and that also as to the same ingredients God makes the same providences to be a Cup of Physick to his children for the healing and recovering of them of their spiritual infirmities and a Cup of Poyson to his enmies for the killing and destroying of them in the midst of their sins And according to either of these senses may we take it here in this place That 's the first particular considerable in this Metaphorical Description namely the Vessel of Reception It is a Cup. The second Particular is the liquor which is contained in it This Cup it is not an Empty Cup a Cup of State and onely for fashion and no more but so a meer standing Cup but it is a Cup of Infusion and what it is we have here exprest unto us in two particulars First In the simple nature of it The wine is red And secondly in the Composition of it It is full of mixture These two branches make up the fillings and ingredients of it First The wine is red or troubled as some translate it Chamar There 's the kind or nature of this wine and hereunto do agree all those phrases and expressions of Scripture which we mentioned before of fury and trembling and astonishment and such as these whereby we are to understand the grievousness of the Judgement it self Red wine in Scripture is sometimes used in a way of commendation as Isa 27.2 Speaking of the Church of God In that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine Here 't is used in a way of disparagement and aggravation of the Judgements of God as carrying a great deal of sadness and terribleness in them and all little enough to make us to tremble at them at least afore-hand before they fall upon our heads This is the usual manner of Scripture to lay forth such things as these are under the greatest affrightings as Joel 2.2 Speaking of the day of the Lord. A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness c. And so Amos 5.18 The day of the Lord is darkness and not light And again Zeph. 1.15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness Still in terms expressions of astonishment thereby to sink so much the more into the minds and hearts of those whom they are uttered unto Here for the particular notion of it it is call'd red wine as the embleme of a bloody destruction which is very fitly resembled by it there being nothing more like to blood then such wine as this is It is like it for the substance of it as it is Wine and it is like it for the colour of it as it is red wine The Analogy and proportion holds very well in either of these considerations in which it is here exhibited unto us This then is that which is here intimated that there is a Cup of Blood which is prepared for the inhabitants of the world as an expression of Gods Vengeance upon them This is the Red wine here in the Text and it is that which is often mentioned elsewhere in holy Scripture as Deut. 32.42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood So Isa 34.5 6. The sword of the Lord is bathed in heaven and filled with blood And again in ver 7. Their land shall be soaked with blood and many such places as these are still there 's made mention of blood If we should ask why it pleases God to take such a course as this is The answer is easie and obvious that the remedy may be sutable to the disease and the punishment to the sin Sanguinem sitisti Sanguinem vitis as he once said Thou hast thirsted after blood and blood thou shalt drink Because men delight in blood therefore blood shall be poured out unto them yea their own blood shall be poured out This is the way of Gods Providence and the manner of his dealings in the world which because it is fill'd with cruelty shall be therefore fill'd with blood And so as for cruelty so for luxury and intemperance and drunkenness such sins as these The punishment holds good in the Analogy and Metaphor and resemblance it self Those that look upon the wine while it is red and whiles it gives its colour in the cup as Solomon speaks Those that tarry long at the wine and go to seek for mixt wine as it is in the same place Prov. 23.30 31. Such as these they shall have a cup of red wine prepared for them and such as is full of mixture as it is here in the Text. Here 's by the way a good item for drunkards and such brutish and beastly kind of persons as these are And thus much of this liquor consider'd in the simple nature of it The wine is red We may further here look upon it secondly in the its Composition It is full of mixture This is an amplification of the former and which adds somewhat unto it but yet such as we find in Scripture to be a different and contrary sense and signification for sometimes it is taken in a good sense and in a way of Mollification Sometimes again in a bad and in a way of aggravation First I say in a mitigated and good sense this phrase of a Cup full of mixture is now and then taken so as making it a kind of Qualification and Diminution of the Punishment and therefore the contrary is threatned for a Judgment Revel 14.10 The Wrath of God powred out without mixture But here now Secondly It is taken in a bad sense where the aggravation is made to be this that it
's his thoughts his Meditations his Expectations his Hopes and Desires He is nothing but Earth in the whole frame and temper of his Spirit Therefore are wicked men in Scripture Emphatically call'd the World and men of the World and Inhabitants of the World and dwellers upon the Earth as if there were nothing else which they cared for or had any mind or affection unto And then as it is their portion to we must take in that with it Terram dedit filicis hominum God has bestowed the Earth upon them as being all which he makes account to give them here they have their Portion and Reward and Inheritance and consolation as the Scripture does abundantly signify and demonstrate unto us more particularly and expresly in that place of the Prophet David Psal 17.14 Men of the world have their portion in this life as expressing the quality of the offender Thirdly The Wicked of the Earth it may be taken by way of Denomination that is such persons as are more notoriously wicked and are guilly in a more eminent degree The Spirit of God makes choyce of such words which might be most expressive and proper to the business in hand he does not say simply Sinners for then no man should be excluded forasmuch as the best that are they have the Defilement of Sin in them nor he does not say onely the Wicked that is meer natural and unregenerate persons for there is a difference also of these and all are not so deeply involved and ingaged in Sin one as another but he says the wicked of the Earth that is such as are more Scandalous and Presumptuous and Impenitent and farthest from Reformation such as these who for the nature of the Sin are more Abominable and for the continuance in it are more Incorrigible these are they which the Holy Ghost does here point at in a more principle manner And this for the persons here mentioned to wit the wicked or ungodly of the Earth The Second is the Evil which is denounced against them and that is That they shall wring out the Dregs and drink them Where again two things more First The Draught or Potion it self and that is the Dregs of the Cup. Secondly The manner of Participation of it and that is by wringing them out and drinking them .. For the First The Potion or draught it self it is the Dregs of the Cup. This is the Potion and Portion of wicked men while t is said they shall drink the Dregs there are three things implyed in this expression as belonging unto it First The Reservation of Judgment they shall drink the last Secondly The Aggravation of Judgment they shall drink the worst And Thirdly The Perfection and Confirmation of Judgment they shall drink up all They shall drink the last they shall drink the worst they shall drink all each of these are implyed in the Dregs First They shall drink the last here 's the Reservation of Judgment The Dregs they lie at the botom and are not come to till all the rest of the cup be drunk up before And this is the Stato and Condition of wicked men As to the Judgments of God they are such as are last in it When God has warmed Himself a little with his Children in the Chastening and Correcting of them then he pours forth the fierceness and fury of his Vengance and Indignation upon his Enemies in the Punishing and Destroying of them so that they have in a manner the weight and Impression of all that went before Look as in the shewing of Mercy in Dispensation of Himself to his People God reserves the best for the last to them as he did with the Wine at the Marriage in Canaan so likewise in the Exercise of Wrath and execution of Judgment upon his Enemies God reserves the worst for the last to them also He reserves wrath for his Enemies as it is in Nahum 1.2 Therefore let none flatter themselves from present forbearance and by thinking that they are not involved in the common Calamities for although they be not as yet they may be time enough hereafter and their condition so much the heavier It is is no sign or argument of innocecy alwayes to escape present Judgement The wicked they drink the dregs that is the last of the Cup. Secondly They drink the dregs and that 's the worst of the Cup If there be any thing worse then other at any time it still settles at bottom there 's the collection and congregation of all the venome and poyson together And so t is with ungodly persons in regard of Divine Judgements they partake of the very worst of all the rest .. That cup of mingled wrath which we spake of before it comes to them with the greatest disadvantage that possibly may be They have that which others have left and which there soul abhorred to partake off which they desired to be delivered from and were heard in that which they desired That wicked men do taste of and not onely taste but swallow down and as they are the vilest in sinning so they are the miserablest in suffering and that 's the aggravation Thirdly Here 's the Perfection or Confirmation of Judgement they shall drink up all there 's nothing comes after the dregs that 's the last of all in this cup and therefore they that take down them they take down all And this is the lot of ungodly men there 's not one judgement which belongs unto them which they shall not partake of As they fill'd up the measure of their sins so they shall likewise fill up the measure of the wrath of God which shall be poured upon them for their sins Yea and they shall All do it too we may not omit that neither All the wicked of the earth As there 's an universality of the Judgement so there 's an universality of the Patients They shall drink all of it and they shall all of them drink it that so no man may here favour or flatter himself They that are far from thee shall perish thou shalt destroy all them that go a whoring from thee as it is in Psal 73.27 And thus much for the first Particular to wit the draught or potion it self The dregs of the Cup. The second is the manner of Participation They shall wring them or suck them out and drink them whiles t is said they shall do it There are two things implyed in this expression First The Certainty of it it is unquestionable And Secondly The necessity of it it is unavoidable They shall do it that is they are sure to do it and no body shall contradict it and they shall do it that is they shall be forced to it and themselves shall not escape it or divert it or withdraw from it but do it thy shall First I say here 's the certainty of it it 's unquestionable there 's no doubt to be made of it God hath said it who is truth it self
inabled to see the work of Grace to be wrought in his own Heart and shall have his Adoption Evidenced unto him it must needs be a thing very pleasing to him and such as he takes a great deal of more Contentment and Satisfaction in then in all Injoyments of the world whatsoever which it is possible for him to reslect upon as his Thus we see in all these Particulars and Explications which we have now mentioned how the Meditation of God is sweet And we have had an account of it in regard of the Object or the Person Meditated upon which is God Himself Now further we may take account of it from the Subject or Person Himself that Meditates and that is here exprest to be David it is not onely the Meditation of God is sweet but my Meditation of him is sweet which is here moreover considerable and that to make it compleat For let the Object be never so delightfull in its own Nature and apt to give Contentment in it self yet if the person that fastens upon it be not qualified for it there will be yet no Contentment in it It is not every ones Meditation No not upon God which has sweetness with it but onely of such Persons as have dispositions sutable thereunto and can draw out this sweetness which is in Him Now the Qualifications which are required to this purpose are briefly these First For the General a Savouriness and Heavenliness of Spirit as it is this which must put men upon such Meditations so it is this onely which must make them to relish them and to take delight in them There 's not the best things that are but they seem flat to a carnal Heart which can find no Contentment at all in them A vain and frothy Spirit takes a great deal of more pleasure in some Toy and Trifle and Song and empty Fable then it does in the highest points of Religion and all because it is not sutable and agreeable to such things as these are Therefore this Savouriness which we now speak off is necessary to this Spiritual Delight and the sweetness of this Divine Meditation for the Sensibleness and the Apprehensiveness of it Secondly A special love to God that 's also necessary to this Delight those that men care not to see they for the most part care not to think off but Affection it advances Contemplation how pleasing are Lovers in their thoughts one to another their Meditation of each other is sweet and so it is also betwixt Christ and the Believing Soul that Heart which is inflamed with his Love can never think enough of his Person nor of his Graces nor of the Excellencies which are in Him but is much ravished with the thoughts of Him And then Thirdly A perswasion likewise of the Love of God to Him he that will think of God comfortably must be in some sense and apprehension of Gods favour and of his interest in Him and that he is in good terms with Him not onely that God is reconciled to his Nature which we spake of before but also that he is reconciled to his Person and that he is actually at peace with him Those that are Enemies to God or which think God to be an Enemy to them they cannot but think of him with a great deal of horror and Astonishment and Trembling and Consternation of Spirit Lastly There 's required hereunto also a special sense of a mans own wants It is Hunger that makes Eating delightfull and it is Thirst that puts a pleasantness into Drinking there 's not onely the Palate which does conduce hereunto but also the Appetite and so it is also here in these Spiritual things Therefore as there is required a Savouriness so likewise a brokenness of Heart also how sweet are the Meditation of Christ and the Truths of Christianity to an Heart affected with the sight of Sin and the sense of Wrath. Oh Christ is now Christ indeed and the Gospel the Gospel and the promises they have a special sweetness and pleasantness in them Men that are addicted wholly to the world and to the pleasures and delights thereof they do usually but Scoff at such things as these are and make a mock and derision of them talk to them of delight in God and of the sweetness of Divine Meditation and they count it but a mear fancy and idle Speculation But such persons as have their Consciences inlightned and any work of Conviction upon them they relish and savour these things and indeed to speak of it none but they The whole they have no need of the Physitian but they that are Sick as our Blessed Saviour has told us and so the thoughts of the Physitian are not so pleasing to to any persons as they are to them These rejoyce when they do but think of him from the Consideration of their own wants they Honour the Physitian for their necessities which is an account of this Delight in Divine Meditation from the Subject or Person Himself that does meditate my Meditation Now the Consideration of this point thus open'd and amply fied to us may be thus far improved by us Namely as a great incouragement to the Saints and servants of God in what ever condition falls them That they may comfort and solace themselves in Him in the worst of those conditions and be sweetly supported in them when there 's nothing else that they can think of with comfort they can then think comfortably of God and of the Interest which they have in him as a relief and a refreshment to them And they should accordingly put themselves upon such thoughts as these are and inure themselves to them oh there 's a great deal of good which might be got by such performances as these if we were but more acquainted with them and accustomed to them in the course of Christianity and we loose a great part of the true sweetness of our lives when we are deficient in them For the better and more effectual working and inforcing of these things upon us It may not be amiss for us to take notice of this passage of the Text according to the full latitude and extent of the expression which is here used which according to the Original Emphasis is of various signification The Hebrew word which is here used is Siach which signifies three things especially and each of them very considerable of us First Meditation And Secondly Prayer And Thirdly Discourse According to the former notion so it signifies the sweetness which is in Divine and spiritual Contemplation and the musing on heavenly matters according to the second notion so it signifies the sweetness which is in Divine and Spiritual Communion and converse with God in Prayer According to the Third Notion so it signifies the sweetness which is in Holy and Religious Conference and the speaking of God one to another All of them very usefull and profitable Duties and Performances and such as are to be practised
of them And what ever they do for Him it is pleasing and acceptable to him As for wicked men God loathes all that comes from them He does not take it kindly at their hands but rather quarrels and findes fault with it and excepts against it as we find often in Scripture Should I accept this from you Mal. 1.13 And who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Isa 1.12 He takes no pleasure in fools as it is Eccles 5.4 But for His Servants He is pleased to imploy them and He is pleased also with their Imployment Thus we see how in all these respects and Considerations which we have now mentioned the Lord takes pleasure in those that are his In their Persons and in their Graces and their Prayers and all their Services All which together make it up that He takes pleasure in them themselves as is here declared Now for the amplifying and further illustrating of this present Point before us This Delight which God takes in his people is considerable in these following Circumstances 1. As Free 2. As Lasting 3. As Operative and Efficacious First of all It is Free and Originated in Himself The Reason why men doe Delight and take pleasure in one another it is for the most part from some excellency in the Object moving them and inclining them thereunto from some sutableness to the Person delighted in and the Person that does Delight in him But in Gods delighting in His people there 's no such matter It is all here of Free Grace and Favour His taking Pleasure it does proceed from his Good-pleasure And there 's no other Account which can be given of it but His own Will As Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord loved you because He loved you that is His love it is best resolved into Himself as the proper cause and spring of it This is a very great Inlargement and Amplification of it unto us We count it a great piece of Favour especially in Great Persons to own Worth where they find it and to Delight in men there where they have somewhat amiable and delightful in them But to delight in any of their own accord and purely from the Goodness of their own nature without any thing worthy in the Person this is reckon'd a great Favour indeed why this is the case of Gods Delight and pleasure-taking in his servants It is there where they have nothing to move him or provoke him to it at least but what he himself first puts into them They are Comely with his Comeliness which he hath put upon them and from thence amiable to Him Secondly This Complacency and delight which God takes in his people it is lasting and Continuing As for the pleasure of men it is very uncertain and mutable they may delight in one at one time and disrelish him again at another as there are frequent experiences of it But the delight which God takes in his servants it is of a fixed and continued Nature and whom he loves he loves to the end The gists and calling of God are without Repentance This proceeds not onely from the Vnchangeableness which is in Himself but also from the Consideration of that Person through whom he is pleased with them and does accept of them this as I shewed before is Jesus Christ the Son of his Love forasmuch as God's love to Beleivers it is laid and founded in Christ therefore so long as he delights and takes pleasure in Christ he will do so in them also and his love can no more fail to them then to Christ Himself in whom he loves them Thirdly This Delight of God's it is Operative and Efficacious it is such as makes us to delight in God again and so it is mutual and Reciprocall Men they do sometimes delight and take pleasure in such kind of Persons as do not again delight in them but with God now it is otherwise where he is pleased at any time to fasten his Love and Affection upon any person he does cause him to make answerable returns in some degree of love unto him We love him says St. John because he first loved us not only as meriting it for us but as working it in us and not onely as the motive of our Love but also as the Efficient Therefore from hence by the way may we make a discovery to our selves of Gods delight in our selves namely according to this answerable Effect which it hath upon our own Hearts If so be he delights in us we shall also delight in Him and we may know the one by the other Those that shall say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways Those that care not to approach to God nor to injoy any Communion with him they may from thence very easily conclude that God does not delight in them forasmuch as this Delight it is operative and Efficacious And those are the several Amplifications of this Delight which is here mentioned to us Now this point thus illustrated to us it may be fruitful in sundry Inferences and deductions which may be drawn from it by way of Improvement and Application First In a way of Comfort and Consolation to the servants of God here 's matter of great Incouragement to them that God himself does take pleasure in in them and thus it is so in sundry respects First In point of Honour it is a great Dignity and Advancement to them We know in the affaires of the world that every one is so far Honourable as he is respected by persons of Honour those who have men of Quality to own them and to take delight in them they have so far forth a great deal of Excellency and Renown put upon them Now thus it is with all those who are true Beleivers and members of Christ they have the great God of Heaven and Earth himself takeing pleasure in them which is the highest Promotion of them Since thou wast precious in my sight thou wast Honourable because I have loved thee says God to Israel in Esay 43.4 And so it hold good of every Christian and Beleiver whatsoever He is so far forth Honourable as he is in favour with God Himself as well-pleased with Him Secondly In point of Safety it holds good in that respect likewise because God delights in his servants he will therefore protect them every one is Chary of that wherein they take pleasure for the keeping and preserving of it and as near as he can will not suffer any Evil to befall it Why thus now it is with God to his people He that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of their Eye as he has exprest it about them Zach. 2.8 So Esay 27.3 Speaking of his Vineyard that is his Church I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day Men care not what becomes of the Wilderness of dry and barren Ground because they have no pleasure
Confutation to all such persons Secondly As a word of Censure and Reproof to Children themselves who are the children of Wisdom and that in these particulars First In that they do no more rejoyce and delight themselves in these wayes then they do no more draw out the sweetness and pleasurableness and contentment which is in them by applying themselves to them It is a great disparagement to those which are good when as having such wayes as these to walk in they at any time turn from them and walk in wayes contrary hereunto Would we not count him a very strange man who when he might walk in pleasant Orchards would choose to walk in unsavory places c. Why such is the fondness of those which are Godly when they cease to walk in the wayes of Righteousness and divert to sin They are upon the point altogether as vain Thus did David and Peter and Solomon and others of the Saints and servants of God in Scripture Again Secondly Gods Children are here to be reproved as sometimes for walking out of these wyes so sometimes also for not walking answerable to them when they cause an ill report upon Religion through their sadness and pensiveness of Spirit It is true indeed there are occasions of sadness which do sometimes offer themselves from the world yea very often too many of Gods servants but they should labour that these things do not urge them and press them down but help to Comfort themselves from Religion against all worldly Discontentment that may be In the Third and last place here is a word of Tryal to set us a searching how it is with our selves seeing it is so indeed that Religion and the way of it is so full of Pleasure let us then consider with our selves whether we make it or think it to be so for our own particular where that we may not deceive our selves We must know that there 's a divers kind of pleasure or delight which men may possibly have in Religion and the exercises of Piety as viz. First A Carnal Delight when men delight in Religion not simply but as it brings them in some Benefit and Advantage Thus those that came to the hearing of Christ in John 6.26 They sought him not for the Miracles but for the Loaves These they love not the Lord Jesus but their own Bellies as it in Rom. 16.18 These they count gain to be Godliness as it in 1 Tim. 6.5 Thus when people shall love to come to the Ordinances onely out of an Affection of the Credit of Godliness because such do so before them of whom they would be well esteem'd this is a Corrupt and Carnal Delight it is to make the wayes of Godliness to be subservant to their own Lusts Secondly There is a Natural Delight in the wayes of Religion which is not properly Sinful but yet it is not sufficient nor enough for a Christian to have There is such a Comeliness and Gravity and Decency in the Exercise of Piety as does take with a mans real Principles And in the Scripture and word of God there is somewhat which may be pleasing to the fancy of a mear Natural man There 's the Story and there 's the Language and there 's the Rethorick and such things as these men may delight in the Duties of Religion as they are a part of good Education out of Custom and such things as they have been brought up and used unto now though this I say be not a sinfull Delight yet it is not that which we should rest in we may take pleasure in the Ordinances thus and yet come short of that delight which should be in us and such as a good Christian does labour to find in himself Neither of these two delights which I have now named will serve the turn Therefore the Third is a Spiritual which we delight in the wayes of Religion and the exercises and duties of Piety out of a savour and relish of them and an inward Principle in our selves carrying us to them When we close with the word of God in all the branches and parts of it Exhortation or Comfort or Reproof as being fitted in some sort unto them This is the true Delight indeed and such as none can have but those which are truly Religious and this as great a discovery of our Condition as any thing else whereby we may take account of our selves The Children of God the relish and take pleasure in the wayes of Goodness others may stumble upon them sometimes but then they are out of their Element they are never well while they are out of them but the Godly It is their proper Course and Motion which is most agreeable to them Let us therefore in this thing examine and search our selves as concerning our Deight c. And so much of the First Particular from whence Religion is commended to us and that is from the pleasure which is in it Her wayes are wayes of Pleasantness The Second is taken from it's Quietness And all her paths are peace There are many a fair and pleasant way in the world which yet is not without a great deal of hazard and danger to those that walk in it but this is the excellency of Religion that it is pleasant and peaceable both And of this latter are we now here to consider how Religion is a Business of Peace and does carry peace along with it This it does in a threefold Explications First With God the peace of Reconciliation Secondly With our selves the peace of Assurance Thirdly With one another the peace of Communion First With God the peace of Reconciliation Religion it brings us to this It is the first and main errand of the Gospel next to Glory to God that it brings peace on Earth and good will towards men And the embracement and Entertainment of the Gospel does make us actually partakers of the peace Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ c. sayes the Apostle Rom. 5.1 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Peace Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee the peace of Reconciliation and the peace of Assurance both Esay 26.3 This is the misery of all ungodly Persons that there 's an Enmity betwixt God and them and they are hatefull one to another the Lord has a quarrell and Controversie with them this he has with all men by Nature but now Religion takes up this quarrel and the paths of Spiritual Wisdom they are the paths of Peace thus namely in regard of God himself Let him take hold of my strength and he shall make peace with me Esay 27.5 Religion it is the way of peace in regard of God as namely it teaches us how God and we may become friends and likewise as walking in those wayes we do more strengthen our selves in this his Friendship and confirm his love to us for the better and holier we are the more does God
Fining Pot is for Silver and the Furnace for Gold but the Lord tryeth the Hearts Those things which we look upon as matter of Greatest Consequence we think we have need to exercise the Greatest Care and Caution about them Hence it is that in Civil Affairs and Businesses of our ordinary Concern our Gold and Silver and Coin And such things as these they do not usually pass us without some tryal and probation of them We have our Touch-Stone for the discovery of the Truth of them and our Ballance for the discovery of the Weight of them and our Furnace for the separating of the Dross Neither does it less behove us to be wary in Spiritual Matters where by how much the greater is our Concernment by so much the more dangerous is our Miscarriage and the better the things themselves are in their own nature the worse will it be for us to mistake about them For this reason does the Spirit of God in this Scripture which we have now before us lead us from the one to the other and from the care which is used about our Metals carry us to the care of our Minds yea God himself his care for us The Fining Pot is for Silver and the Furnace for Gold but the Lord tryeth the Hearts THe Text is a Parabolical Description of God's Almighty Power and Wisdom for the discovery and Reformation of the closest and subtilest and perfectest thing in the World which is the Heart of Man set forth by a Similitude taken from things of ordinary use amongst us The refining of Silver and the purging and purifying of Gold The words they do at the first hearing carry in them the form of an Opposition but they have indeed the force of a Comparison wherein the Lord 's dealing with the hearts and spirits of men as to the tryal of them is resembled and illustrated by the Gold-Smith's dealing with his Silver and Gold And we may in the for Order's sake take notice of these two general Parts the Proposition the Reddition The Proposition in the first part The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold The Reddition in the latter But the Lord tryeth the hearts We begin with the First viz. The Proposition in these words The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for Gold but the Lord tryeth the hearts Wherein two things more First The Metals mentioned and they are Silver and Gold Secondly The Instruments which are made use of in reference to them and they are the Fining Pot and the Furnace Each of these have their proportionable resemblance First For the Metals here mentioned we have Silver and Gold which hold analogy and correspondency with the hearts of the Sons of Men which follows afterwards in the Text they are set out very properly and fitly by these expressions and that especially in regard of the price and value of them we know that these are for the most part of greatest esteem of any thing else What ever is of Account in the World it is commonly set forth by these two Silver and Gold as ye may see in divers instances The Excellency of Seasonable Language it is like apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25.11 The several Gifts and Graces of the Church Borders of Gold with Studs of Silver The Return of the Churches Captivity Wings of Silver and Feathers of Gold Psal 68.13 Sacred and substantial Doctrine is called Gold and Silver and Precious Stones 1 Cor. 2.12 And so here the hearts of men silver and gold This it is true of all men's hearts whatsoever considered at large in the natural consideration of them being of a finer and purer frame than the rest of the Creatures But it is tue of those who are gracious and regenerate especially above the rest The tongue of the just is as choice silver whilst the heart of the wicked is nothing worth Prov. 10.20 Good men they are like Gold and Silver in sundry regards First From the Solidity and Substantialness of their Principles They are such as have some strength in them Take some men in the World and consider them in reference to Religion and they have no bottom nor weight in them at all they are flashy and empty Christians who have nothing at all in them but Profession But the Saints and Servants of God they are solid and substantial which makes them so much the better to persist and to hold out to the end They are like Gold and Silver thus which are the solidest Metals of any other Secondly From the Purity and Sincerity of their Conversation They have not those Mixtures and Adulterations which many others have There are divers which as God calls them by his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 6. ult Reprobate silver Their silver is become â—roâ— Isa 1.22 If they have any seeming good in them it is daubed and very much defiled little of that plain-heartedness and simplicity of Christ which the Scripture here commends unto us But for Good Christians this is their Character that they are pure and undefiled in their way Psal 119.2 Thirdly From the Splendor of their Example Gold and Silver they are such Metals as which does carry the greatest lustre in them of any other besides And so do good Christians They shine like lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom they live And Their light so shines before men as that they seeing their good works are hence provoked to glorifie their Father which is in heaven And so much briefly of the first Particular in this first General viz. The Metals here mentioned Silver and Gold The Second is the Instruments which are made use of in reference to them and they are the Fining Pot and the Furnace Whereby is signified to us the state and condition of the best men that are Their hearts are like Gold and Silver but it is like Gold and Silver in the Ore which has a great deal of Dross mingled with it and must be separated from it by God's Instruments of Purification which he has appointed for such a purpose as this is There is nothing almost in nature which is presented to us with that perfection but that it is a fit Subject for Art and Skill to work it self upon Even the best Metals that are they are not right till such time as they are refined nor the most precious Stones that are they do not attain to their splendor till they be polished And if it be so in Naturals it is so in Spirituals more especially Take those persons which for the present are the best and holyest that are and look upon them in massa corrupta in the principles of their unregenerate condition and there is little or no loveliness in them in the midst of the best natural Parts and Qualifications Besides we are all by nature the Children of Wrath and Bond-slaves of Sin till God puts us into his Fining Pot and his
and by himself Thirdly In man Eminently i. e. in the best man that is First In Man that is in whole Mankind by taking it Collectively It is as I in part hinted and signified before annext unto the Nature of Man now since his fall to abound with vain and Foolish Devices When ye name a Man ye name such an one as is full of such Fancies and conceits and extravagancies as these are Thus in Psal 14.2 which is again repeated and so confirmed by the Apostle in Rom 3.10 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Secondly In man Distributively and Particularly taking them one by one There are some things which are agreeable to mans Nature which yet are not found in every person in whom that nature is Yea but this of vain thoughts and unprofitable Contrivance is so either more or less This have I found counting one by one to find out the account Eccles 7.27 And what did he find out Loe he found this that God made man righteous And not he only but they also that is man in his distrustfullness found out many inventions and many Devices One man has oftentimes many Devices Thirdly In man Eminently That is in the best man that is one way or other It is not onely be-lev adham but be-lev ish here in the Text which has a more Emphatical signification with it and is usually taken in a sense of excellency and advancement Indeed in such men as these they are with a great deal of restraint and qualification but yet even in them they are at least by fits and turns even in men otherwise of the greatest perfection whether for wisdom or learning or Power or even Piety it self The Lord knoweth the Thoughts of the Wise that they are but vain 1 Cor. 3.20 And not onely of wise to the World but sometimes even of better Principles when they swerve and depart from them As we gave you an instance before in David himself And so it has been with many others of the same Principles with him That 's the subject of those Devices in General namely Man The particular Subject or Seat of them is here expressed to be the Heart Many devices in the heart of man But how comes he to say so Devices seem rather to belong to the Head than to the Heart How are they then said to be in this There is a various Account which may be given of this Expression Devices in the Heart First As taken Synecdochically The Heart being put for the whole Mind and Soul as it is very often and frequently taken especially in the Hebrew Language The Denomination is taken from that part which is most eminent and transcendent above the rest The Vnderstanding and Will and Affections and Conscience and Memory all is the Heart and so commonly called Which because it is so therefore the Devices of a man are said to be in his Heart in this general Construction Secondly In the Heart Originally as the Spring and Fountain of all What ever a man does or devices it comes first from the Heart which is Generale Principium A man's heart deviseth his way as Solomon speaks Prov. 16.9 which is so both in Good and in Evil. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts says our Saviour in Mark 7.21 which is true of thoughts in the full Latitude and Extent of them whether in matter of Opinion or Contrivance First In matter of opinion if ye take it so Men's devices they here proceed from their hearts All these Fancies and Conceits and Whimseys and Errors in matters of Religion which many people take up withal they take their rise first from their heart As a foul and distempered Stomach sends up noysome Vapours into the Brain and disturbs that even so it is also here If men had better hearts they would have better heads than for the most part they have at least in regard of the use and improvement of them It would make them more to attend unto the Truth and it would make them better to relish it and close with it and to yield and submit unto it Whereas now the Corruptions of their hearts restrains them and holds them off from it It is the Goodness of Doctrines which men stick at as well as the Truth of them Nay those Points which considered as Truths they cannot but in some manner hearken and listen unto for the strength and concretion of their Judgments yet as holy they cannot away withal from the corruptions and perverseness of their Hearts which either keep them back from attending to the Reasons which make for them or else incline them contrary to Concretion to detain the Truth in Unrighteousness The way to make many Persons to be Sound and Orthodox Divines is indeed as much as may be to make them real and wary Christians especially in such Points of Divinity which are of the Substance and Marrow of Christianity where the Experiences of their own Hearts will be a sufficient Instruction to them And they will not need that any one should teach them but as the Anointing it self will teach them which is a Truth and no Lye and that also abiding in them So also Secondly In matter of Contrivance and Design It holds here likewise that men's Devices are according to their Hearts Those who have naughty and rotten hearts they have commonly answerable Speculations and their Projects are suitable thereunto The liberal man deviseth liberal things agreeable to the frame of his spirit but the heart of the wicked worketh iniquity as the Prophet Isaiah tells us in Isa 32.7 8. So Psal 36.4 it is said of a mischievous person that He deviseth mischief upon his bed and setteth himself in a way that is not good And it is the Account which is given concerning an ungodly man in Prov. 6.14 who is there called a Naughty Person Adham Belijagnot and Ish Aven that Frowardness is in his heart and he deviseth mischief continually He deviseth it and he deviseth it continually because his heart carries him to it which is a constant and continued Principle that does always abide in him Therefore from hence we may take some account of our selves what we are according to the Reflection As man's heart is so is he and as a man's devices are so is his heart So that we may judge of the one by the other of the Spring and Fountain by the Stream which issues from it They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they which are after the spirit the things of the spirit as the Apostle Paul has it in Rom. 8.5 6. Take a man in his Natural Condition and State of Unregeneracy and he devises nothing but that which may either nourish or at least gratifie and agree with such a
God than to speak a Word in season and to give every one his proper Portion which of right does belong unto him And in particular as to the Tenders of Peace and Comfort and Consolation that they may not be layed hold on by such as have no Right thereunto And this is that which we may find here to be observed by the Prophet Isaiah in this present Scripture Who having in some Verses before declared God's kindness to Broken and Contrite and Humble and Penitent Persons in healing them and leading and comforting them aad in creating Peace for them does here in this Verse which I have now read very carefully exempt all others from the benefit of such Happy Privileges as these indeed are And signifies that howsoever it may be with such Persons as these are yet those who are otherwise affected have no Interest in them There is no Peace to the Wicked saith my God This Sentence is very Authentick and for the greater Weight and Efficacy of it we find it to be twice mentioned and repeated by the Prophet Isaiah here in this Book to signifie how much his Heart and Spirit was in it in Chap. 48.20 and in Chap. 57.21 this place which we have now before us IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Report it self And Secondly The Author or Maker of this Report The Report it self that is expressed in these words There is no peace to the wicked The Author or Original of this Report that is in these Saith my God We begin in order with the first of these Parts viz. The Report it self There is no peace to the wicked Wherein again two Branches more First The Persons mentioned Secondly The Condition of those Persons The Persons mentioned they are the Wicked The Condition of these Persons is that there is no Peace unto them First To speak of the Persons which are here mentioned and they are the Wicked Wicked is a large Word and of great extent and accordingly deserves to be explained by us how it is understood here in this place We may take it if we please according to these following Explications First Open and Prophane Atheists Such as live in all manner of Sins of what kind and degree soever Drunkards Swearers Whore-masters Blasphemers and the like such as give themselves over to Lasciviousness to commit all Vncleanness with greediness which are not ashamed of their Miscarriages but rather boast and glory in their Shame Profess and make a Trade of Evil and declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not as the Prophet elsewhere speaks of them Such as these are plainly the Wicked and so acknowledged in all men's Apprehensions and so do very properly come under this Censure in the Text as having no Peace unto them They have nothing to do with Peace nor it with them Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes as it is expresly declared of them Rom. 3.17 Secondly Close Hipocrites who carry it fairly and smoothly to the World but yet do give themselves liberty in secret and hidden Abominations Which hide iniquity under their tongue and keep it still within their mouths as Job speaks Which have a form of Godliness but deny the Power of it Which profess Religion hear the Word receive the Sacrament partake of the Ordinances and in the mean time together with it have their unlawful and unwarrantable Excursions their private Haunts their secret Fraude their sinful Retirements Such Persons as these whatever they may think of themselves or others may think of them yet they are no better than the Wicked and come within the number of those Persons which are here mentioned in the Text. Thirdly In one word All Carnal and Vnregenerate Persons which are as yet in the State of Nature not converted or effectually called and brought home to God nor having his Grace wrought in their Hearts They are in a sense of Latitude the Wicked and so looked upon in God's Account Whosoever aro not the Righteous they are the Wicked there is no Mean between them Whosoever are not the Children of God and born of him they are for the present the Children of the Devil and belong to him as the Apostle John seems to carry it in the third Chapter of his first Epistle Those who are Strangers to God are enemies and have no share in true peace being so far forth in the very gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity As Simon Peter said of Simon Magus Act. 8.23 And so much may be spoken of the first Branch in this first General viz. The Persons mentioned The Wicked The Second is The Condition which is here expressed of these Persons And that is that there is no peace unto them There is no peace to the wicked When it is said There is no peace to such Persons we are to take it in the fullest Signification And that is twofold Whether of a State of Peace or of a Spirit of Peace No Peace that is no Peace of Condition And No Peace that is no Peace of Mind Either or both of these are to be understood by this Expression First Take it as to the State or Condition There is no peace to the wicked in this sence There is a Difference and Variance betwixt them and all others else whatsoever with whom Peace is desirable First As to God himself which is the Main and Chief of all and who is the God of Peace There is no Peace to them with him But as they are Enemies to him so is he to them so remaining and does bid Defiance to them and does fight against them As there is no Agreement between them in their Dispositions they are altogether unlike to God and he to them So much also following thereupon as there is no Agreement neither in their Affections but Enmity and hatefulness rather Indeed we must add this by way of Concession and further Explication First That God does often times for a long time spare and forbear them and does not presently proceed to the inflicting of his Judgments and Punishments upon them The Lord does exercise a great deal of Patience and Long-suffering towards Wicked Men not suddainly taking the advantage of their Miscarriages and Provocations of him But yet this does not argue him to be therefore at Peace with them or they with him For though he doth not punish them presently yet he punishes them at last and in due time shews the sad Effects of his Wrath and Displeasure against them which he inflicts upon them God's Forbearance of punishing of Wicked Men is so far from being an Argument of his Favour and Good Will towards them as that indeed it is rather an Argument of the contrary It is not an Effect of Peace but a Symptom of Wrath. He forbears for a while that so afterwards he may more heavily fall upon them
of Christ and of God But that because of these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience In Rev. 22.8 that They have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone That is no other than that as it is here expressed in the Text they are turned into Hell There are none that live and continue in such Sins as these are whose end is destruction Phil. 3.10 howsoever they may flatter themselves with hopes of the contrary that can expect any other lot to befall them than such as this How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her It was said of the Whore of Babylon Rev. 18.7 And holds true of all other Whores and sinful Persons in any kind or condition whatsoever By how much the more that the heart of any People is drowned and swallowed up in Lust and Carnal Pleasure by so much the more are they from thence exposed to Hellish Torments and Tortures which shall accordingly light upon them This is a thing which is no way to be doubted or called in question as having the Word of God it self clear for it And there are few but are ready in mind to acknowledge it and seem at least to be perswaded of it But Secondly That is not all Not only Open and Scandalous Sinners but also close and secret Hypocrites and Formalists who have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof These come into this number also of those that are wicked and so consequently that are turned into Hell The Scripture takes a special notice and observation of those and fastens a special Character upon them to this purpose as we have divers Instances of it thus Psal 125.4 The Lord will do good to those that are good and to them that are upright in their hearts But as for them that turn aside to their wicked ways that is to say Hypocrites and Double Dealers the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity that is reckon them in the number of Wicked Persons and accordingly deal with them In Matth. 23.15 The Hypocrites they are made to be Children of Hell as all one with them And Matth. 24.52 it is said of the Unfaithful Steward that His Lord shall come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Where the Portion of Hypocrites is made to be The Description of Hell as that which is in a special manner appointed unto them Thirdly Which carries yet a little farther and enlarges this Name a little wider All Carnal and Unregenerate Persons whosoever are yet remaining and abiding in the State of Nature and not converted and brought home to Christ These are moreover the Wicked in the sense of the Text and have answerably the Doom of the Text falling upon them as being liable to be turned into Hell The Scripture is clear for this also as we have it in Joh. 3.3 from the mouth even of Christ himself in his discoursing with Nicodemus Verily Verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God What is it to be born again That is to have a new Nature and Principles put into him over what he hath brought into the World This is here to be supposed and taken for granted that as the Apostle Paul expresly tells us We are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 I was born in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me saith the Prophet David of himself Psal 51.5 And it is applicable to all other Persons whosoever they are The whole frame of the thoughts of every man's heart by nature is evil and only evil continually Gen. 6.5 From whence so considered there is no Agreement betwixt God and him or Communion betwixt them For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness or what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 this is that which makes God and Man Enemies and exposes Man for his particular to the Judgment of God and draws down all his Wrath and Vengeance upon him in the Demerit of it for there is no unclean thing or that defileth which can enter into that holy place Rev. 21.27 Therefore there must be a Change and Alteration wrought before any one come thither And they must be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light and begotten again to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Now there is nothing less than this which will serve the turn to bring men to Heaven and so consequently to keep them from Hell That which we call Good Nature if it be not moreover sanctified and renewed by Grace it is but Bad Nature still and Nature Corrupt and sodenounces such Persons as are the Subjects of it to be Wicked Persons notwithstanding all that seeming Comliness and Amiableness which may be in them Take Civility and Morallity and Ingenuity and such Principles and Dispositions as those of Temperance and Sobriety and Justice and Liberality and the like Although in themselves simply considered they are very noble and honourable Quallifications and such as had never more need to be extolled than in such times as these are wherein there is so much failing and decaying of them yet for all that they are not enough of themselves alone to bring men to Salvation If Men have no more but these they may go to Hell for all these And this is clear from the Passage of our blessed Saviour himself in Matth. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees it was as to outward appearance very perfect and exact Righteousness especially some amongst them above the rest As we may see in the Apostle Paul himself when he was of that Profession He was touching the Righteousness which was in the Law blameless as he says of himself Philip. 3.6 But yet when he came to be converted and to become a Christain he durst not stand to it as he again delcares of himself in the eighth and ninth Verses of that Chapter No more have any others besides cause to trust or to rely hereupon as which will 〈◊〉 serve them Men may have fair and civil outward Carriages and Deportments in regard of the World and yet have naughty and desperate hearts full of Pride and Envy and Malice and Rebellion of Spirit Now such as these they are wicked Persons also in the Language of the Text and Children of Hell it self These are such as the World does sometimes very much abound with who under the Visage of common Civility and External smoothness of Conversation are Great Haters and Opposers and Despisers of the Power of Godliness and of those who are the true
and see what we are according to our care and indeavour in this particular If we shall go from day to day and never care to improve in Grace and the strengthning of our inward man but rather by wilfull neglect and carelesness weaken it and diminish from it this does too palpably discover that we are not that which we ought to be in Christianity For if we we we should find this disposition working in us to abound more and more as the Apostle Paul speaks to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.1 we should still find our selves getting up in spiritual strength Look as it is with a man which is in part cured and recovered out of some bodily distemper by how much the disease weakens the man strenthens as that looses of its power so he gains and gets more in his Even so it is also with that person which is brought out of his natural condition when the sinfull corruption of nature is healed in him Look how that does any thing decay so does Grace flourish in him and increase As it was in those two opposites for the Kingdom Saul and David David waxed stronger and stronger and the house of Saul waxt weaker 2 Sam. 3.1 Even so is it likewise here As Grace weakens so corruption does more and more increase and as Grace encreases so does Corruption loose of its strength These two they are like a pair of ballances when the one goes up the other is sure to go down and so contrarily That heart which has the work of Grace truly and indeed wrought in it it will be desirous and indeavouring after improvement and settlement of it self Let none therefore plead weakness and justifie and allow themselves in such a condition as that is for it is not sutable to a Christian temper The best Christians that are they may have weaknesses in them but they do not content themselves with those weaknesses They have so much strength in them as to be sensible and apprehensive of their weakness and so much Grace in them as to labour as soon as may be to come out of it and to gather strength And where we find it otherwise with our selves we have cause to bewail our selves and to be truly humbled for it As for those which have no strength at all they do not care for the renewing of strength nay indeed they cannot they are uncapable of it The renewing of strength does suppose the having of some strength allready to be renewed Carnal and natural men which have no work of Grace in their hearts nor the Spirit of Christ stirring in them they are not weak but dead and so uncapable of getting more strength The Impotency of corrupt Nature it is not weakness but wickedness and so to be accounted but where there 's weakness there is in part some strength which is mingled with it and where there is this strength there 's an indeavour to work out that weakness and to recover after some former abatings and diminishings of Grace in it self That 's the second particular viz. A Christians Disposition joyn'd with his Duty They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength that 's their Inclination The Third is their Priviledge what they may do or does indeed actually befall them They shall renew their strength that is This happiness belongs unto them This is their state and condition And this indeed seems to be the proper sense and meaning of the Text to express thus much to us wherein the Spirit of God shewes us the difference between these and others in a way of opposition The youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength The word which is here rendred Renew is in the Hebrew Text. Jachalifu which signifies properly they exchange it commut abunt vires that is they shall have another kind of strength bestowed upon them then that which they formerly had For there is a double kind of change to be observed and taken notice of by us There 's a change in Quality of the worse for the better And there 's a change in Quantity of the less for the Greater Now both of these Changes are in a Christian as to spiritual strength First They have a change in Quality Another sort and kind of strength then what they had before Conversion And Secondly A change in Quantity more strength then at their first Conversion First I say there 's a change in Quality They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength that is they shall have a new kind of strength bestowed upon them over what they had before Conversion as Caleb had another Spirit and Saul another heart For we must know that even before Conversion in natural and unregenerate persons there is a kind of strength which does appear in them and that also in reference to Religion and the Duties of it but it is not such a strength as is here meant in this present Text nor yet such as any are to satisfie and to rest themselves contented withal To explain it a little unto you ye may take it in these particulars First There 's the strength of temper and natural Constitution Secondly There 's the strength of Custome and Religious Education Thirdly There 's the strength of Civility and Moral principles Each of these kinds of strength there are and that also before Conversion First I say There 's the strength of Temper and natural Constitution this is such as may go very far and a man may be able both to do and suffer very much by it This is that which does for the most part extend it self to the outside and form of Religion and in those performances which belong to that Men by a natural strength may be very much in them whether a strength of bodily frame or a strength of Natural parts but it is not this which is sufficient and yet it is that which many rest themselves in and are contented withal The strength of Wit and Reason and Vnderstanding and Memory and the like whiles their heart and will and Affections have no saving work at all upon them Secondly There 's the strength of Custom and Religious Education This it will go very far likewise many which have been piously Educated and brought up and accustomed to such and such Performances they through Vse and Exercise contract some kind of strength to themselves for the doing of them and become strong in the outward bulk of Religion This was such a strength as was in Joash whiles his Uncle Jebojada liv'd He did that which was good and right in the sight of the Lord though afterwards he departed from it And so 't is also with many others besides They have nothing which does so much act them and put them forward to any thing which is good but as it is that which they have been alwayes used and accustom'd unto Thirdly There 's the strength of
in Hell it self and be tormented before their time Thus is it against our selves Secondly it is also most against God of any thing else Despair it is the sin which does oppose him in his main design and project in the promulgation of the Gospel What 's God's design in the Gospel and the promulgation of it it is to advance the free riches of his Grace and mercy in his Son Jesus Christ to set forth the exceeding bowels of his love in him 1 Tim. 1.14 Now Despair and saying There is no hope it quashes this and makes this of none effect at all All this laid together should I say take us off from this desperate disposition and teach us to trust perfectly to the grace that is brought unto us by Jesus Christ as the Apostle Peter advises us 1 Pet. 1.13 We should believe the Promises of the Gospel which are made to poor sinners upon their Repentance and turning to God and draw out the comfort of them to our selves as we have occasion for them and never suffer our selves to be undone and to perish eternally with saying There is no hope as the desperate wretches in the Text are imply'd to do That 's the third sense of the Expression as it refers to God in calling to question his Goodness and Truth And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which I propounded to be considered viz. The Desperate Conclusion There is no hope The Second is the Peremptory Resolution or Determination taken up thereupon in these words But we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Which passage is considerable of us two manner of waies First of all simply and absolutely in the thing it self Secondly Reflexively or Derivatively as coming from these particular persons First Take it simply and absolutely in the thing it self This is that which is here declared by these people That they will walk after their own devices c. In which expression there are divers things considerable First as implyed That the nature of man is very prone and subject to devices This is that which is here implyed and supposed your own Devices And it is agreeable to other places of Scripture as Eccles 7.20 God made man righteous but they have sought out many inventions So Prov. 19.21 Many devices are in the heart of a man nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Devices and many Devices This is that which the nature of man is very subject unto Full of projects and devices and contrivances which they apply themselves to By Devices we are to understand evil Devices especially such Devices as tend to evil and to the promoting of it These are the Devices and Imaginations which are here meant Mans brain it is fruitful and copious And being by nature sinful and corrupt is from hence fruitful in evil and copious in devising and contriving of that which is naught every imagination or purpose and desire Col jesser the whole frame of the thoughts of his heart is only evil and that continually or every day Col ha-jom as the Lord himself declares concerning it speaking of it in Gen. 6.5 This is the difference betwixt the servants of God and other men When a man begins once to be good and to have his heart changed by grace and to become a new creature his thoughts and contrivances and devices are from hence tending to Goodness The liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isa 33.8 But till this good work be wrought in him he has other devices with him as it is here also exprest in ver 6 7. His heart will work iniquity And he deviseth wicked devices c. Thus it is said of the Gentiles among other sins which were raigning in them That they were inventers of evil things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 They were not content to take evil as they found it as it was offered and brought to their hands No but moreover they invented it and found it out and studied to do so This is that which we should all in a special manner be wary of If we will needs devise let us devise how to be good and how to be better how to be more useful and serviceable in the places wherein God has set us how now to promote his glory and to advance our own salvation and the salvation of others with whom we live These are things which are worth our thoughts and which deserve to be devised by us But as for evil and wicked devices it becomes us to be far from them whether considered as men or as Christians and who have the Image of God stampt upon us Our wits should be used to better purpose as being ordained to a better End in the first conferring and bestowing of them upon us But that 's that which we may here first observe from this expression in the Text That mans nature is prone to these devices as that which is implyed and supposed Now further there is here also exprest the Affection which is in many people in reference hereunto We will walk c. And here are divers things one after another First Their obstinacy and perverseness We will walk after our own devices c. This is that which is observable in the disposition of carnal men even a peremptoriness and wilfulness of Resolution Whatever can be said to them they are resolved and determined in themselves to do that which is evil This was the case of this people And so it is of many more of the same mind with them They are still roving in the world Thus in that place before cited Jer. 44.17 We will certainly do whatever goeth forth out of our own mouth And so the place cited before in this Book Jer. 2.25 Thou saidst There is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them I will go As who should say none shall restrain us This is a sure Rule in matter of evil That the more there is of the Will in it so much the greater sin And thus it was here in this place These people they do not plead ignorance nor they do not excuse themselves as they did in the Gospel for their not coming to the marriage-supper from such and such hinderances and avocations no but they understood themsleves well enough and yet would venture upon it There was malice and wilfulness in them They would do evil because they would do it This is that I say which is observable in many more and that from these Causes First From the Connaturalness which is betwixt them and their lusts Thus lusts are seemingly sweet and pleasing to them and therefore they are bent upon them and will not by any means be withdrawn or taken off from them but are carried after them with a great deal of violence and importunity of spirit Thus in Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his
loose his hand and cut me off And so the Prophet Jonah because his message was crost which he had delivered concerning Nineveh therefore he desires to live no longer in the world Therefore now O Lord says he I beseech thee take away my life from me for it is better for me than to live in Jonah 4.3 In others of worse principles it is commonly more frequent and ordinary but it is such as is very grievous and dangerous in them Those that with for death lightly and rashly and discontentedly they know not what they wish for as having not leisure to recollect themselves To wish for it as an opportunity of nearer and fuller and closer communion with Christ and enjoyment of him as a cessation and period to sin as an exemption from temptation this is very good and praise worthy and such as the Scripture leads us unto But to wish for it out of murmuring and impatience and discontent it is no way allowable especially according to the circumstances which such persons may possibly be in which is of strangeness and unacquaintedness with God and unpreparedness for another world Oh! it is a mad thing indeed to desire death in such a case as this is let their condition here in the world be otherwise never so lamentable because that then they do change but out of one bad condition into another yea out of a less evil into a greater as it follows after in the next verse to the Text. As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand upon the wall and a Serpent bit him such is the fruit of such desires as these And that 's one expression of this rash and unadvised desiring of the day of the Lord in those who do so desire it as proceeding from a principle of discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from a principle of presumption of their own innocence This is that which hypocrites sometimes do They seem to desire the day of the Lord as if they were ready in a manner to try it out with the Lord and to justify themselves at his Tribunal There are some persons that are so full of carnal confidence and conceited of their own righteousness as that they dare even to plead and contend with God himself and think to do well enough with him Such an one as this was that young man in the Gospel that said he had kept all God's Commandments from his youth upward and such an one also was the Pharisee that thanked God he was not like other men And such also were the people of the Jews that stood upon their own righteousness Now such as these might well have a woe to be denounc'd against them Woe unto him that strives with his maker as the Prophet Isaiah sometimes expresses it It was that which Job in all his innocency durst not do as himself professes Job 9.15 Whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but would make supplication to my Judge This is that which these considerate persons will not vouchsafe to do but rather think to carry it out by the strength of their own deserts as having nothing which might be charged upon them Thirdly From a principle of ignorance of the nature of the thing it self They know not what death is in the properties and consequences of it nor they know not what judgment is in the strictness and severity of it And therefore it is that at a distance they think favourably both of the one and the other and seem as if they were desirous of them Which is a very sad case to be so Thus do they desire the day of the Lord without understanding either the day of death or general or particular judgment Again further Take this day of the Lord in the other sense for the day of captivity and National desolation as it may be also taken And so there is a woe likewise belonging to those which do desire it or at least which so carry themselves as if they were little affected with it Thus it was with some of the Jews at this present time they were so far from being humbled under the predictions and prognostications of this condition which was threaten'd to them as that they were in a manner at a point about it and did in some sort wish for it so it happens to be sometimes with divers others of the like temper and disposition with them They do sometimes according to the discontents which may be upon them wish for war and wish for calamity and wish for confusion it self as conceiving that such extremities may be some kind of help and relief unto them But alas they do not know what they wish for in so wishing Such desires as these are rash and unadvised in them and have a woe attending upon them as it is here exprest It is not safe to give way but to the first beginning and entring of Judgment because we know not where they will stop or stay when we once dye I have not desired the woful day thou knowest it as Jeremy speaks in another case So it concerns all persons in this case to be able to say in this particular Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly or foolishly because ye do not consider it or attend to the circumstances of it That 's the first explication Secondly Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it scoffingly and scornfully because ye do not believe it This is another sense which may be founded upon this expression Desiring it in their mouthes but not in their hearts and so desiring that it might come as yet thinking it would not come and therefore mocking at the coming of it Such persons as these there are also sometimes in the world the Prophet Esay makes mention of them to us Isa 5.19 They say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Therefore as they laugh at the Day of the Lord so accordingly they laugh at the Word of the Lord and his Message concerning that day as the Prophet Jeremy has it in Jer. 17.15 Behold they say unto me Where is the word of the Lord let it come now That is Where is that which the Word of the Lord has so much threatned and spoken of as that which shall come to pass Not onely scoffing at Judgment it self but likewise at all the fore-runnings and monitions of it This is an high piece of wickedness and impiety indeed yet such as the sons of men are now and then subject unto Where they have not so much grace as to avoid Judgment they have at least so much vileness as to despise it and to make a mock and derision of it and of those that proclaim it They desire it
whereof we now speak Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 There 's very great reason for us to consider of such things as these are that so we may neither deceive our selves nor yet be deceived in others but may be able here to discern and distinguish of things that differ as some read those words of the Apostle Phil. 1.10 or to approve the things which are excellent as some others because mistakes as they are pleasing in nothing else so they are especially dangerous in Religion and deceit is always troublesome but self-deceit the worst of all And so much of the second Explication of this phrase afar off from the Kingdom of God to wit in regard of the terms in profane ones in hypocrites and in meer civil persons The third is in regard of the event and thing it self Thus they are said to be far from the Kingdom of God which are in such a distance from actual conversion and coming home to God indeed And here now we must make use of that distinction which upon occasion we premised before to wit of an absolute remoteness and a comparative According to which account those which are far from the Kingdom of God in one sense yet in another sense may be near unto it and nearer than some others which in some respects may not seem to be so far from it To explain this a little unto us we may take it thus First In regard of God's purpose and decree concerning them Thus those which are far from conversion consider'd in themselves and the state in which they now are yet so far forth as God does graciously intend a good work ere long upon them So in this respect they may be said not to be very far from it This was the case of Paul when he was going with letters to Damascus against the Church of God Acts 9.2 This man in regard of his state and present condition in which he now was his principle and his conversation so he was far from the Kingdom of God yea in a very great distance and remoteness as we could imagine for he was an enemy to the ways of God he was a persecuter of the people of God he was an opposer of the truth of God but yet notwithstanding in regard of God's purpose towards him and decree upon him so he was very near yea the next door to it for in the verses immediately following the next news we hear of him it is concerning his conversion and becoming a member of Christ Thus he who was far from God's Kingdom in regard of the terms and his personal qualification yet in regard of the event was very neer Secondly As in regard of God's decree and purpose towards such persons in particular so likewise in regard of his usual and more ordinary dispensation in general So there are some which though consider'd in themselves may be simply far from the Kingdom of God yet consider'd in reference to some others and in comparison with them so far forth they may be a great deal nearer And thus now those who live civilly may be said to be in a greater nearness and proximity than those who live profanely God does for the most part in the work of conversion civilize men before he christianizes them and makes them Men as I may say before he makes them Christians Civility it is antecedent to Grace For the right understanding of which Point that we may not yet mis-conceive it we must take in these following Explications First that the greatest Civility and that in the highest improvement of it yet it is not meritorious of Grace that is it does not oblige God to bestow Grace iâ—â—ambly upon the person in whom it is This is contrary to the Doctrine of the Semi Pelagians and Arminians who teach that if a man use his free will and the light of nature well God does ingage himself to give him Grace and all things necessary to Salvation Facienti quod in se est ex solis naturae viribus dantur a Deo infallibilitar ex certa lege Auxilia praevenientis Gratiae quibus ad salutem perveniet This is their Doctrine and opinion Now this we do not say or affirm as to the present point in hand yea there are two things which we say against it First That there was never any man yet which did put God to the trial in this particular that is which did so carefully improve the abilities of nature in him and led such an exact life in a way of civility it self as from whence he should ingage God if-so-be he were willing upon those terms to be ingaged to him as to bestow Grace upon him There was never any man yet who did this thing they now speak of and take for granted Again we say Secondly That though we should suppose that there were some man who did it that is who did improve his principles of civility to the utmost yet notwithstanding God were free for all this and were not bound either in regard of his own promise or in the equity of the thing it self to bestow this his saving and sanctifying Grace upon him It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy who will have mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth as it is in Rom. 9.16 17. God is not bound addere collatis to give more to that which he has given already no further than as he himself pleases He has neither past any word for it neither does the nature of the thing it self in equity bind him thereunto He may do with his own as he thinks good no man may ask him what doest thou There 's nothing so free as Grace which otherwise should not answer its name Rom. 11.6 That 's the first Explication then of this Proposition Civility is not meritorious of Grace Secondly Civility let alone to it self would never be Grace nor attain to the consequents of it These two are at a very wide distance one from the other and left alone would never meet together Though meer Civility be not so far from the Kingdom of God as absolute profaneness yet it will never come thither no more than profaneness it self A meer civil man is as truly excluded from Heaven as a profane man I say as truly though not in so great a degree To explain it to you by an easy and familiar resemblance Dover for example is not so far from Callis as London yet he that goes no further than Dover shall never come to Callis no more than he that stays at London So here a meer moral or civil person is not so remote from Salvation as a debauch'd but yet if he goes no further than morality he will come short of it as well
as the other A meer civil man he is only propior a salute he is neerer from Salvation but for to it that he is not And that 's the second Explication of this Proposition which we are now upon Now these things being thus premised we do yet say notwithstanding that as to God's ordinary and more usual dispensations of himself so a man that lives civilly is in a more likelihood and fairer way for conversion than a man that lives profanely there is more hope of the one than there is of the other of the former than there is of the latter So to him that hath shall be given as our Blessed Saviour speaks in the Gospel To open this a little further to us we yet say two things more First that God does not always and infallibly go by this rule without exception that is to give his Grace to a civil man when he denies it to a profane nay he many times does the contrary he oftentimes leaves a meer moral man in his sins when as yet he is pleased to draw and pull a profane man out of them He is found of them that sought him not he is manifest to them which ask'd not after him Isa 65.1 The Corinthians and Ephesians and Colossians before their conversion they were most grievous and notorious offenders And so it has been with many others which are now converted and brought home to God so that I say he does not absolutely and indefinitely bind himself to it As he is not bound to it from any congruous disposition in a civil person himself so neither from his own Divine purpose or resolution God is and will be free in all these things Nor yet Secondly do we say that it is easier in regard of God himself to do it There is nothing more or less hard to All-sufficiency and Omnipotency it self God's Grace being of an infinite power every thing is alike easy to it It is as easy for him if he pleases to convert the most obstinate sinner as it is the most ingenuous natur'd man as it is as easy for him to create a thousand worlds as one leaf or spire of grass There 's neither magis nor minus in infinito but yet in regard of the things themselves here there 's a very great difference God does exert and put forth more power in the conversion of a notorious offender than he does of a civil man because here there 's greater reluctancy and opposition made against him He does tollere majorem resistentiam and he does emollere majorem duritiem and he does edomare majorem ferocitatem He takes away greater resistance and he softens greater hardness and he suppresses greater untamedness in the one than he does in the other this is the distance and difference betwixt them God's Grace working upon a civil man is like fire in the consuming of dry wood but God's Grace working upon a wicked man is like fire in the consuming of green wood where both of them are burnt up but one of them with the greater opposition and repugnancy in the fewel it self to the burning of it And so answerably for the most part is conversion in such as these more difficult in regard of themselves and with greater trouble and affliction to them There 's more of the broken bones of the terrors and bruisings of the Almighty in the conversion of scandalous sinners and those who have liv'd wickedly and debauchedly than there is in the conversion of those who have been more free from such kind of offences as these are Thus we se what cause there is for men to be encouraged in ways of civility and to take heed of ways of looseness and profaneness not only as hereby avoiding the greater condemnation and as having less punishment attending thereupon but likewise as being not so far though far enough from a state of conversion A state of civility is not so far from the Kingdom of God as a state of profaneness But yet this again will admit of a further Explication of it still to bring it home to the full and that 's this That though a state of civility be not so far from the Kingdom of God as a state of profaneness simply and absolutely consider'd yet occasionally and accidentally it may be farther A civil man in some cases may be further off from conversion than a profane yea and oftentimes is Though not further off in regard of the terms yet further off in regard of the event and actual accomplishment And the reason of it is this because a profane person which commits such gross sins as are odious to the light of nature such an one is easily convinced of the wickedness and vileness of his ways from whence he is drawn to close with Christ upon his own conditions out of the necessity which he apprehends he has of him whereas on the other side a civil person which is guilty of none of those crimes he is apt to be so far opinionated and conceited of his own civil righteousness and that goodness which he has already in himself as to think that he has no need at all of Christ but may do very well without him and so perishes for want of that remedy which otherwise he might be supplied withal As it is sometimes in the body those which have great sicknesses they many times get up and recover whiles those which have some smaller distemper do perhaps dye under it What 's the reason of it and how comes it about why the one thinking himself to be in danger goes to the Physician the other being more secure neglects him and looks not after him Thus it is with men also in Religion Civility trusted in is further off from conversion than profaneness in the effects and consequents of it This was the case of the Jews in comparison of the Gentiles The Gentiles simply consider'd were far greater sinners than they yet in this event sav'd before them as the Apostle expresses it in Rom. 9.30 31. What shall we say them That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attain'd to righteousness even the righteousness which is of Faith but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not atttain'd to the law of righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the law c. So again Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God where we see that mens own righteousness is occasionally an hindrance to them of their looking after the righteousness of Christ This was likewise the case of the Scribes and Pharisees in comparison with the Publicans and Harlots Mat. 21.31 Our Saviour there tells them that the Publicans and Harlots went into the Kingdom of God before themselves The Scribes and Pharisees were persons of a strict conversation as I shew'd before The Publicans and
they get some benefit by them but the truth of it is they walk in the way of folly and they are absolute direct fools And so much the rather as they think themselves to be wise men They may think the Ministers are fools which warn them and admonish them of their condition and they may think their Christian friends are fools which labour to bring them out of it But in plain terms the fool it lights upon them These are they which must have it because these are they which deserve it and that so much more as they would avoid it This man here in the Text he was not therefore a fool because he knew he had such an estate but because he applauded himself for it he was not therefore a fool because he overlook'd his grounds because he viewed his barns because he was careful of his business but because that herein he placed his greatest happiness and was puft with the conceits of it It was not his fault that he did secum habitare but that he did secum cogitare he did idolize himself in his own proud imagination This was the reason why God call'd him fool and this is a reason why all others which are like him are fools with him This is the first This is the condition of all unregenerate persons who are yet in the state of nature and out of Christ that they are not only miserable but they applaud themselves in their miserable condition with the Church of Laodicea they see not their own nakedness nor poverty nor folly they think themselves happy men when there 's no such matter This is folly indeed that we cannot perswade them otherwise but that they are in a very right way and course when they are tending to destruction If ye were blind says our Blessed Saviour to the Pharisees ye should then have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth He that trusts in his own heart says Solomon is a fool Prov. 28.26 And if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise says St. Paul 1 Cor. 3.18 The way not to be God's fool is first of all to be our own they which are fools in their own account are least fools in his and those which are not are contrary He that thinks himself to be something when he is nothing he deceives himself as it is in Gal. 6.3 which is the greatest deceit of all and the greatest folly Carnal minded men are fools because they think themselves wise professing themselves to be wise they become fools Rom. 1.22 Beloved It may seem to be a strange word unto you I beseech ye let us be once Christians I say you 'l think it somewhat strange but yet I say it again let us be once but true Christians we talk of it and we profess it and we make much ado about it but how many of us do attain to the reality of it Methinks it is no wonder for the sons and children of the earth for carnal and worldly minded men to be such fools as we have hitherto spoken of the greatest shame of all is that those which are the people of God should be now and then besotted and overtaken with such madness as this and yet 't is that which too often we see them appear Those which have title and interest in a better and more noble inheritance yet that they set their hearts and affections too eagerly upon these earthly things as if they had no other patrimony and portion but this to look after I am ashamed to speak of this point in a Christian Auditory It is one of the greatest dishonours and disgraces which we can cast upon Religion and yet it is that which we too often cast upon it as if that the promises of God were meet delusions as if the hopes of Heaven were meet speculations as if that Christianity it self were no more but an empty profession What might the very Heathens say or think of such courses as these It is true that God does not deny us a sober use of these things and a care and endeavour after them but he likes not this excess and over-greediness He likes not that it should hinder our care of that which is better He likes not that we should follow it with this unsatiableness and immoderation This is that which offends him and is grievous and disrelishing to him He reckons it folly And this is the Second General which I propounded out of these words The reproachful and disgraceful compellation Thou fool The Third General is the tidings and menacing news which is brought him This night thy Soul shall be taken away from thee Wherein we may briefly observe these following parts First here 's the designation of the punishment it self and that was the loss of his Soul Secondly here 's the illimitation of the executioners they and they indefinitely Thirdly here 's the manner of the execution they require it from thee Last of all the determination of the time this night First for the punishment It was not the loss of his Goods but the loss of his Soul God does not threaten him to pull down his Barns for him and to burn them but to take away his life Secondly he does not tell him who should do it neither but by an Hebraism leaves the thing indefinite they It 's no matter to thee who it may be these very goods of thine it may be thy barns it may be thy servants it may be thy friends Thirdly thou shalt not give up thy Soul unto them but they shall snatch it from thee they shall take it away by force Fourthly and lastly all this must be done This night It is not as Jeremiah to Hananiah Thou shalt dye this year nor is it not as Hosea of the revolting Israelites a month shall devour them nor is it not as the Lord to Adam thou shalt dye this day But different from all these it is this night This night in opposition to this day not at noon but for greater horror at night This night in opposition to another night not to morrow-night not the next night not the night after but this very night which follows thine applauding of thy self All these particulars are observable I cannot stand long upon them all I shall cull out the chief observations and they are these First that all a mans wealth is not able to preserve his life much less to save his soul Secondly that God takes away mens lives many times when they least suspect it Thirdly that mens lives lye open to infinite and innumerable hazards Fourthly that ungodly men their souls are taken from them by compulsion First I say all a mans wealth is not able to preserve his life This man here in the Text he had a great many of goods and houses and barns and such like possessions but all would not serve the turn to keep him alive
Secondly whose c. That is thou shalt not know whose they shall be nor to whom thou shalt leave them First They shall not be thine A man's wealth lasts no longer than his life neither has he longer comfort from it This is plainly intimated and signified to us in these words for the Lord from hence does argue this covetous and rich man to be no better than a fool because he took so much pains for and promised himself so much comfort in that which he should never have liberty to enjoy Whose shall these things be which thou hast provided That is thou shalt have no refreshment nor delight from them When a man's foul's taken away the comfort and sweetness of his estate is taken away with it I need not stand to prove this unto you it is a thing which experience confirms and ye all know it well enough without any example all the business is to live proportionably to it and so to behave our selves as if this were a truth Seeing men they have their wealth for no longer time than their lives it concerns them then to enjoy it and to use it to the best advantage This is that which the Preacher continually presses in Eccl. 2.24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour So again in Eccl. 5.18 It is good and comely for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour which is his portion There is a vanity and a curse which God has laid upon many men that they shall be rich and nothing the better for it They are not the better for it here because they do not use it and they cannot be better for it hereafter because the nature of the things will not permit it They vex themselves to get their wealth they vex themselves to keep it and yet have no comfort by it Who would provide such things as for which he should never be the better And again let us then learn to provide for a better estate to lay hold on eternal life and to lay up in store for our selves a good foundation against the time to come to be rich in good works willing to distribute ready to communicate as the Apostle gives charge to Timothy about rich men Godliness it has the promise of this life and of that which is to come A man that lays up grace he shall be sure to have the comfort of it here in the sweetness of a Christian conversation and he shall be sure to have the comfort of it hereafter in the happiness of a glorious reward When he dies he has the things he has provided nay then so much the more whereas a worldly man when his soul is once taken away his wealth shall not be his own That 's the first thing implied in this expostulatory question These things which thou hast prepared they shall not be thine It 's a question of determination Secondly Thou shalt not know whose they shall be It 's a question of ambiguity The wealthiest man that is cannot be sure who shall be his heir No man when he goes out of the world can tell whose his goods shall be this is another affliction For a man might be ready to say though I shall not have the benefit my self yet I shall leave them to those that shall my children and my posterities after me nay but says God Thou knowest not whose they shall be neither whose if ye take it numerically for the particular individual persons nor whose if ye take it qualitatively for the nature and condition of the persons neither of these persons doest thou know First Thou doest not know it for the individuals what particular person shall enjoy There 's many a man leaves a very fair estate for his children and his children never enjoy it They fall into dishonest hands many times and among ill Guardians which secure all to themselves and the poor Orphans have little benefit and comfort from it Whose shall those things then be which thou hast provided Therefore men should especially leave behind them to their children the blessing of God and the interests of the Covenants of Grace a good education other things do well in their place by way of incouragement but these things are the main Again if ye take it qualitatively whose according to this sense Solomon which had experience has told us Thou knowest not whether to a wise man or a fool to one which will make good use of it or to one which will trifle it away How many heirs are there in the world yea in this City whose Parents and Progenitors have been careful to provide them an estate and they have squandred it away in ungodly courses And this is the fourth General to wit the Expostulatory Inference Now the close of all shall be this which I desire ye to take notice of namely what course the Lord here takes to fasten upon this covetous rich man apprehensive of his miserable condition and that is as ye have seen hitherto by setting death afore him and bringing him near to his grave which yet he does not in meet gross terms by propounding to him the mortality of mankind and telling him he was a mortal creature Though one would think that were sufficient to make men take heed but he comes nearer and closer to him and tells him in plainer terms that indeed he should now die Death in the notion and death in the speculation only that 's but a weak Argument The best way to make men reflect upon their evil courses is to approximate death unto them and to shew it approaching because that then 't is no time to dissemble A man may before put a good face upon his time and perhaps laugh it and sport it out in his health but when there 's no remedy but a man must certainly stand before the great and fearful Judgment feat of the Glorious and Omnipotent God when this must be done indeed and it is not only spoken of when 't is a thing which cannot be avoided but is certainly irreversibly concluded This is a terrible thing And therefore we have all cause to consider seriously of it I or this is the misery of all that we do not here set our thoughts on work Eternity because it is as soon spoken as another word therefore it easily slips and passes our cogitations whereas indeed it is a thing in it self of infinite vastness and not able to be comprehended Again death is a common thing and the way of all flesh and therefore in our health it 's ready to be slighted by us But when it shall ever come to our own particular we shall find a great alteration I will shut up this exercise with those words of the Preacher Solomons as pertinent and agreeable to this purpose in Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O Young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer
humility and subjection Lastly She heard his word This is not to be taken as meant only of outward hearing but with all inward and special qualifications as First Attention She attended to the things which were spoken as is said of Lydia Secondly Delight She had a sweet savour and relish of them and complacency in them Thirdly Reposition She retain'd them and laid them up in her heart As Mary the Mother of Christ She laid up all these things in her heart not a forgetful hearer Jam. 1.25 And thus much for the carriage of Mary the Sister of Martha So much for that The Second is Martha's carriage her self which was very different from it But Martha c. In which verse we have again two things observable First her own behaviour for her own particular she was cumbred about much serving And Secondly her censure of her Sister yea of Christ himself about it Lord doest thou not care that my Sister hath left me to serve alone c. First I say Here is her own behaviour for her own particular She was cumbred about much serving that is in the friendly entertainment of Christ's person She saw such a worthy Guest as this was now come to her house and all her thoughts and care was taken up how to give them the best welcome that she was any ways able to do This simply considered in it self was no fault or miscarriage in her but rather an argument and token of her good affection But accordingly as it is here qualified in her so it had somewhat which was vicious in it First Luxury and excess She was too large in her entertainments It may be she provided more than was fitting for such a time This is that which many are to blame and faulty in they think they cannot make their friends welcome except they load them and cloy them with variety of dishes I do not deny but that God does vouchsafe us now and then a more liberal use of the creatures than at other times but yet there is a reason and moderation in all especially according to the condition of the times wherein we live which do call for more restraint and abatement than others do as we may see in Isa 22.12 13 14. This might be one miscarriage in this good woman She was excessive in regard of the measure And therefore some when Christ afterwards says One thing is necessary they interpret it one dish but that 's a little too gross Secondly Curiosity for the manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was cumbred about it She was too punctual and curious and exact in her preparations that she thought nothing good enough It may be to a too much undervaluing of the creatures themselves and unthankfulness for them which many now and then are too too guilty of likewise and it is a very great fault in them But Thirdly Which we shall see more afterwards There was a turbulency and unquietness of spirit This is that which is too often seen in many persons in such performances they do too much distract themselves and others about them and there are divers grounds of it Sometimes it proceeds from unskilfulness as those things which people have no skill in they are troublesome to them to go about them Sometime it proceeds from unaccustomedness as those things which they are not used to they are disquieting when they undertake them But more especially it does arise from a weakness and impotency of mind as we shall see more hereafter As it is the disposition of many people that they can do nothing but they are presently troubled and distracted about it this was the fault of this Martha And so much for her own behavior The Second thing here considerable is the censure of her Sister's carriage yea upon the point of Christ himself wherein also there were many weaknesses and infirmities involved at once As First There was a spice of pride and vain-gloriousness in her obsequiousness Lord doest thou not care that my Sister hath left me to serve alone As who should say Doest thou not take notice of how much pains I take to entertain thee Whiles she finds fault with her Sister she does implicitly commend her self which is often-times the end of such speeches This good woman had a little tincture of ostentation and boasting in her mingled with her entertainment of Christ which is apt to cleave now and then to the best that are it is a worm which too often breeds in this sweet wood A kind of pride in well-doing especially there where there is an excellency and singular eminency above other persons as here it was She saw she outstript her sister in this service and now she would needs be commended for it This we may toke notice of here not to justify such kind of affections where-ever they are but to shew the weakness and frailty of our nature in this particular And that those which are any thing more or less guilty of it may accordingly both be humbled for it and strive against it The remedies of this distemper are these First a reslexion upon our weaknesses and failings other ways Secondly a consideration that all we do is a due debt Thirdly that others may be better in other respects c. That 's the first Secondly Here was a spice of envy and censoriousness of her Sister's forwardness in Religion Lord doest thou not take care that my Sister c. Here was a quarrelling and contending with her Sister as one weakness brings in another From pride comes contention Prov. 13.10 And this is joyn'd with envy and censure and emmulation She would needs be thought the best of the two and she pleased her self in her own good performances and hence falls upon her Sister This is another infirmity which is oftentimes seen too much in those which are otherwise good a kind of envying and emmulating of others This we shall find in the Disciples of Christ themselves Our Saviour had much ado sometimes with them they were ready ever and anon to go together by the ears in this business And so with all Censoriousness Martha which here followed her business and houshold-affairs she censures Mary her Sister which attended upon the Doctrine of Christ And this is that which we shall often-times find and observe in the World that those which are great Husbands or Housewives and are taken up in such kind of employments they are very forward to pass their censure and verdict upon the hearers of the word and those which do much attend upon special means I know very well there may be an unseasonableness even in this but yet it is not so often as sometimes it is conceived to be And where there 's one neglects the world for the looking after their souls there are hundreds which loose their souls for attending too much upon the world And that 's a second infirmity here observable Thirdly Here was a spice also of impiety in interrupting the good
and over-whelm'd in her business and domestical distractions that she wanted a little quickening and exciting and stirring up that so she might the better heed and give care to that which was spoken and this Christ is not wanting in to her Whence by the way we may observe thus much That in our teaching and admonishing of others we must apply our selves carefully to the temper and disposition of their spirits Those which are more tender and apprehensive they will need less stirring and provoking Those which are more heedless and negligent and minding of other things as Martha here was they need a little rouzing and awakening and stirring up like those which are fast a-sleep Martha Martha This the Apostle Jude presses to Jude ep 22.23 And of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire i. e. in great haste And the ground hereof is this because the manner and carriage of the business has a very great influence and efficacy upon the success of the thing it self Our counsel and admonition does so far forth prevail or miscarry as we in the administration of it have a respect to the condition of the parties we deal withal That wind which would but cherish some fruits it would nip and blast others And those expressions which would quite deject and discourage some kind of spirits for others are no more but necessary which they cannot well miss or be without This should therefore very much guide us and sway us in this particular But to come closer to the Text it self Martha Martha c. Here are two things briefly observable and considerable of us First his reprehension it self which he does here exhibit to her He does here gently check her And Secondly the ground and cause of it thou art cumbred c. First Here 's the reprehension it self he checks and reproves Martha and thus it may be amplified to us according to a various and different apprehension and notion in which we may here look upon her and that especially three-fold First as she was a good and godly woman And Secondly as she was a kind and friendly woman Thirdly as a woman beloved First She was good and yet Christ reproves her and checks her where she was now amiss Martha c. Though she failed in this particular yet she was otherwise a godly woman as well as her Sister Mary perhaps not inferior to her in that particular But though she was godly yet she was not to be let alone in her miscarriage Whence we note that even those which are good are to be reproved when they do that which is evil Thus it was here in the Text and thus also in other places Peter a good man yet Christ reprov'd him when he did that which was faulty and call'd him Satan Matth. 16. verse 23. Get thee behind me Satan for thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men c. And so Paul reprov'd him also because he was to be blamed Gal. 2.4 And so David a good man but the Prophet Nathan came and told him his own when he fell into sin c. And so Sarah a good woman but she was reproved as we read when she had offended and many such like instances besides And good reason for it For First The goodness of the person does not change the nature of the action Sin is no better than sin whosoever they be that commit it Evil and corrupt acts they cast a blemish upon the person but good and holy persons do not take off a tainture from these acts There 's a deep dye and stain in sin which pollutes and defiles and mars all that comes near it and which have any thing to do with it and it is the same where-ever it is found though in the best and holiest person that is which does not change the nature of it Secondly The goodness of the person sometimes makes the action worse The better any man is the worse is sin when it comes and proceeds from him It 's worse in regard of its appearance as carrying a greater ugliness and deformity in it like a spot in a fair face And it 's worse in regard of its influence as doing more hurt abroad and mischief to other men Good men are the rather to be reprov'd that others may not become the worse for their sakes Thirdly Those which are good may be better and this is a means so to make them therefore the rather to be reproved in this regard Wise and seasonable reprehension is a means which God has sanctified and appointed for this purpose let us take it from the mouth of a good man himself David in Psal 141.5 Let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me and it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head c. Thus then it shews the weakness of those which except against the just reprehensions of such as these as now in these days we live in We have many good people in the World that is which are so in the general and which there is cause to hope well of which yet abound with many strange humors and extravagancies and also sometimes even in order to Religion it self which they are given over to What! shall these now be let alone and have nothing at all said to them but to run on in such kind of ways Soft not so by no means There is a just and due censure and reproof which belongs unto them All that good people do is not a piece of goodness in them which accordingly they ought to suffer that so corruption may not proceed in them nor proceed from them And it is a piece of love to do it as it should be Peter was more reproved than Judas by Christ himself Indeed in the reproof of good persons there are some cautions which are sit to be observed First That we be sure to reprove them for that which is evil and no other we must take heed of censuring them for goodness This Eli did to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.14 Secondly we must do it with another kind of spirit than those which are commonly profane persons looking upon them as Brethren and Sisters in Christ Thirdly So order the business as neer as we can that our reproof of good persons may not reflect upon goodness it self And so much for that notion Martha consider'd as a good woman Secondly We may look upon her as a friendly woman She was one that entertain'd Christ took him into her house made much of him was very careful of him and respectful towards him yet for all this he checks her and reproves her there where she was in fault Whence we note that the receiving of courtesies from any persons does not discharge us from our duty towards them where by our place and occasions we are call'd to the
Matth. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church yea the first promise of all Gen. 3.15 The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head This as it is matter of great encouragement to us in general so in particular is it an encouragement to us in all our spiritual combats and conflicts that we may not faint or be dejected in our minds and so give up our selves as lost Forasmuch as at the last we shall overcome and go by the best And so St. Peter himself at some time and in some place improves it in the counsel which he gives to Believers upon this occasion 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Your adversary the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the Faith knowing that c. And so likewise the Apostle James Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Thus have we this Adversative Particle in all its several Antitheses or Oppositions here considerable of us The opposition of the place The opposition of the Actions The opposition of the Success Which latter now leads me from the First General Part to the Second here in the Text to wit The matter of Christ's Prayer or the thing it self requested by him in these words That thy Faith fail not This Passage may be consider'd of us two manner of ways First in the Negative what it is not And Secondly in the Affirmative what it is For the Negative First to consider that what it is not Where we may observe that it is not that Peter might have no temptation befall him that one would have thought had been more sutable When he had said before Satan hath desired to have you we might have expected he should have said next But I have prayed that he shall have nothing to do with you But we do not find him to say so no but rather that thy Faith may not Fail From whence we may observe thus much that God does not always keep his children from temptations but rather gives them Grace against them that they may not be foyled by them Thus he did here with Peter he suffer'd Satan to tempt him but withal he kept up his Faith Thus we shall find him to do with other of his Servants in Scripture Thus he did with his Servant Job he suffer'd Satan in some measure to set upon him when he desired to have him but yet withal he gave him Grace to overcome him and Job came off at last as a Conqueror As the Lord himself bears witness of him in Job 2.3 He still holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without a cause Thus he did also with his Servant Paul There was the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and he besought the Lord that it might depart from him But what was the answer which was made unto him My Grace is sufficient for thee c. I will not with-hold the temptation now but I will give thee the Grace which in effect shall be all one or better for thee In Heb. 12.47 We find it to be there recorded as a part of the condition of those Believers and Worthies of old that they were tempted And so it is likewise the condition of many others still This it pleases God to suffer and permit upon divers considerations First for their greater abasement and humiliation The Servants of God are apt sometimes where Grace is not more watchful in them to be advanced and lifted up in themselves now therefore does the Lord now and then let Satan loose upon them to humble them and to bring them into Order This we shall find to be expresly signified concerning Paul himself and that by himself which makes it so much the more remarkable in 2 Cor. 12.7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh c. lest I should be exalted above measure He repeats it twice both in the beginning of the verse and in the end of it that we might the more take notice of it Paul he was a man which had been taken up into the third Heaven and there had heard unspeakable words which it was not lawful for a man to utter as was signified in the fourth verse of that Chapter Now as he had been lifted up in his person so he was apt also through the remainders of corrupt nature still abiding in him to be lifted up likewise in his spirit Therefore for the prevention of this was there given unto him this thorn in the flesh this messenger of Satan c. which was as troublesome and grievous to him as a thorn in the flesh And it is worth our observation that it is said to be given unto him It is not only it was sent unto him or it was laid upon him or inflicted upon him or the like no but it was given unto him which has the force of a gracious dispensation included in it A Gift being in the true nature of it a matter of favour both proceeding from love and affection in the person that gives it and tending to some good and advantage of the person whom it is given unto Thus are temptations as it pleases God to order them to those which are his for which reason he suffers them to be upon them And as for other good purposes besides so amongst the rest for this which we now speak of either to prevent or to subdue pride in them and to root it out of them This was the case here with Peter in the Text Peter he had too good a conceit and opinion of himself and of his own stedfastness yea above all other men besides as himself expresses it now therefore would Christ have him to be tempted that so by this means he might be abased Secondly As to breed humility so also to breed compassion and tenderness of spirit to others Christians as they are apt sometimes to be too well opinionated of themselves so also to be now and then too harsh and rigorous towards their Brethren And these distempers they do commonly go together There are none which are more uncharitable towards others than those which are most indulgent to themselves Now temptation cures them of this it makes them full of bowels and pity towards others in the like condition As it is noted of the High-Priest that he was to be one who could have compassion on the ignorant or who could reasonably bear with them for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity He that is sensible of his own infirmities will be the more compassionate and bearing towards others This is that which is taken notice of in Christ though he had no infirmity of sin in him at all yet as to temptation to sin he was not freed from it And that for this very reason as the Apostle expresses it thereby to make him so much the more
it also here with Peter who fell from the third story in a spiritual sense by his threefold denial his spiritual life was still abiding in him though he seemed to be as dead This may serve to comfort and establish the hearts of God's servants in such cases There are many of the servants of God who are apt sometimes to question their standing and continuance in Grace especially in times of great affliction and temptation which they shall never be able to hold out but shall quite fall away And Satan himself sometimes does endeavour to press this upon them Well but they may here be well satisfied from this present passage and promise before us where it is signified of Peter and so consequently of all other Believers that when Satan shall desire to have them and to sift them their Faith shall not fail This Point is not to be improved by us to security and presumption of spirit but to watchfulness and use of the means Because we hear that our Faith shall not fail therefore to endeavour that it may not fail As indeed where-ever God intends the one he works the other God never preserves any Christian from having his Faith to fail in him but he does withal stir up in him endeavours for the strengthening and confirming of his Faith as much as he can and so as from whence he may assure himself that God will indeed bestow it upon him And so much may suffice to have been spoken of these words consider'd absolutely in themselves and as signifying to us the safety of Peter's condition which was such that his Faith should not fail The Second is to consider them respectively and in their dependance upon the words before and so as signifying to us the cause of Peter's safety Because Christ himself prayeth for them I says he have prayed for thee that thy Faith may not fail And so there is this in it that the stability of a Christian does much depend upon Christ's Intercession therefore it is that a Believer's Faith shall not fail because Christ interposeth for him This is expresly signified to us in that Prayer of Christ at large in Joh. 17.11 Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one When the stability of a Christian is said to depend upon the Prayers of Christ this is exclusive of any vertue or merit of their own The perseverance of a Believer is not so much from any thing within him as rather from somewhat without him not from his own personal excellency but from the Grace and goodness of God himself From God's Covenant and from God's promise and from God's purpose and amongst the rest as here from Christ's Prayer The consideration of this Doctrine is very much still for the comfort of Believers as to this particular They may from hence in the use of good means be very confident and perswaded of their perseverance because they have Christ praying for them And there are two things in this that make for them The one is as I said First The acceptance which Christ is sure to have with his Father To have one to petition in our behalf who himself were in no great favour that were no great booty to us But now here is our advantage in this matter when we have Christ himself praying for us that we have one praying for us who is sure to be accepted In Joh. 12.41 42. Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me and I knew that thou hearest me always In Matth. 3.17 This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased And Eph. 1.6 He is said to have made us accepted in the Beloved As long as Christ is beloved and as long as we are accepted in Christ so long we may assure our selves that Christ's Prayers shall be available for us and in particular efficacious to establish us Secondly As there is Christ's acceptance so the constancy of his interceding for us If Christ should only pray for us sometimes we might seem to be no longer upon sure terms than such time as he prayed for us But now he ever liveth to make intercession for us And he is daily at God's right-hand pleading for us so that no sooner are we ready to stumble but he is as ready at hand to help us up Because he does not fail in praying we do not fail neither in standing The Use of all comes to this That therefore First we acknowledg the great love of Christ to us and the great benefit which we receive by him We see how much we are beholding to Christ that so we may still labour to be acquainted with him and to be incorporated into him and to depend upon him Beloved we have need of Christ not only in reference to eternal salvation and to bring us to Heaven at last but also in reference to our present sustentation and support in this present life here below not only for the justification of our persons and delivering us from the wrath to come but also for the sanctification of our nature and the continual influence of Grace upon our hearts whiles we live here in the world Christ is and should be all in all unto us as being both the Author and Finisher of our Faith What a blessed thing is it to be under Christ's Regiment to be within the door c. For where Faith once is it shall be perfected Again We learn from hence to walk worthy of this love of Christ to us Christ prays for us that we may be kept from temptations and the prevalencies of them Let us take heed of sinning against Christ and in particular against these Prayers of his which he makes for us by putting our selves upon ways of temptation and voluntarily exposing our selves to the mischief and advantages of our enemy for hereby we shall provoke him to withdraw his intercession from us and to give us up to his malice and will as he desires to have us So much of these words consider'd respectively and in connexion with those that went before and so exhibiting to us the cause of a Christian's stability For a close of all Let us here in the general take notice what it is that the care of Christ does especially extend to about his people as exprest in his praying for them and that is their spiritual good and the welfare of their inward man Christ has the chiefest regard to that that their Faith may not fail As for other matters to wit the things of this present life Though the servants of God are even here also under a special Providence and Godliness has the promise of it to them as the Apostle speaks yet this is not the main business which he takes care of concerning them as not the main business which concerns them no but these spiritual improvements and the establishment of Grace in them here The Lord can dispence sometimes with our outward man and
that he would be mindful and careful of it even to recover and convert himself Thus we shall find this word used in another place likewise of the Gospel as Matth. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He speaks it to his Disciples who in the first sense were converted already being regenerate persons This distinction is necessary to be premised for the prevention of a mistake For as to Conversion in the former sense so it is not within the compass of our own power any further than the use of means A man that is in the state of Nature cannot convert himself to the state of Grace no more than a man that is dead in his grave can raise himself to a state of natural life But as to Conversion in the latter sense so in some sort we have power unto it A man that 's already regenerate and converted he may stir up the Grace of God in him and so revive and recover himself from some spiritual deadness which was upon him And this is the Self-Conversion which is here call'd for in this present Text. Now the Phrase being thus explain'd unto us we come to the thing it self which is this That it is the duty of every Christian when temptation is upon him thus to convert himself that is as soon as may be to return and to come home to God again from whom he has declined There were two friendly Offices which our Blessed Saviour did here for Peter in the course of this Scripture The one was to forewarn him of the evil which hereafter would happen unto him upon Satan's tempting of him The other was to counsel him for his carriage and behaviour and demeanour of himself when this evil did indeed befall him and that was not long to lye in it but as soon as could be to free himself from it which is the duty of all other besides This it is upon these considerations First because so long as a man is in this sense unconverted he is in the disfavour and displeasure of God A Christian whiles he lies under the power of any temptation he is at a distance from God himself and cannot enjoy that freedom of communion with him I do not say that God and he are enemies as it is with a man who is in the state of unregeneracy and absolute unconversion but there is an over-clouding of friendship betwixt them There is not that sweet complacency and contentment of one in another Thus it was with the Prophet David whiles he was as yet unconverted to God and not reduced by timely repentance he had no joy nor comfort in God but for the time was as one which had no Grace in him at all And so accordingly we shall find him to express himself discoursing about it Psal 51 10 c. Create a clean heart in me O God and renew a right spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence c. And ver 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Secondly Great untowardness and indisposition to that which is good As a man that is very sick he is unfit for work and business so a man that is sick spiritually he is not so fit to serve God acceptably in the place wherein God has set him Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joynt not only painful but useless he is not ready to every good work as it becomes him Thirdly Further improvement in sin and eagerness after it So long as a man abides in his sin he contracts more sinfulness to him and is more hardened and confirmed in it through the deceitfulness of it As a man that is out of his way the more he goes on the further he goes out till he return again Even so it is with a man which is drawn away by temptation into any miscarriage the longer he stays and continues in it without amendment so much the worse will it prove to be with him in this respect These and the like considerations being all of them laid together do shew how far it concerns those which are fallen to return and to recover themselves as soon as they can Therefore let us make this Use of it as we have occasion for it according to that counsel of the Apostle in Heb. 12.13 Make strait paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Those which are perverted by temptation they should take the first opportunity for returning and converting themselves as our Saviour here advises This is done three ways especially First by the preserving of a softness and sensibleness of spirit in us That man who will quickly return into ways of goodness must quickly spy ways of miscarriage It is a great advantage to this purpose to keep conscience in a tender frame those who have wide swallows and can down with any miscarriage without any chewing and those who have brawny shins that can endure any kind of striking without any starting they are not so quickly or easily recovered but for others they are easily reduced which therefore we should be careful of We find it much in David's heart it still smote him and upbraided him upon every occasion which was very useful to him Secondly By often reflexion and calling of our selves to an account That man that still goes on in his way and never minds whether he be in or out he may lose himself irrecoverably but he that often asks and enquires and considers he is the sooner reduced Even so it is also in these spiritual things By re-collection we convert our selves Thirdly After discovery by repentance and humiliation when we labour to set home sin upon us and aggravate and charge it upon our selves this does the better free us from it and bring us into a right path again Thus did Peter upon the look of our Saviour He went out and wept bitterly as the Text says of him This it mollifies and softens the heart and makes it pliable to any gracious impression which afterwards shall be fasten'd upon it And this is that which the servants of God are careful for their own particulars to do with themselves Which shews us by the way the difference betwixt the servants of God and other men As for wicked and ungodly persons when they are once overtaken with temptations they proceed still further in it and it gains and gets ground upon them Evil men grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 But the godly they do rather reform and recover themselves Thus much of the words in the second sense as they have in them the force of a Command or intimation of a Duty And so much also of the First General Part of the Text The Qualification When c. The Second is the Improvement in these words Strengthen thy c. Which words
belonging unto it as First of all in sorrow for sin They are ignorant and un-apprehensive of this and know not what belongs unto it Natural men they have a natural sorrow and grief for sin after a legal manner They may have great troubles and terrors of Conscience which for a while they may be exercised withal whereby they may be driven to great perplexity and desperation it self as we know it was sometimes with Judas But that Godly sorrow which St. Paul speaks of which worketh repentance to Salvation not to be repented of this is such as they knew not what it meant Sorrow for sin as it is an offence against God and so as may lead them and carry them nearer to Christ and pitch them and fasten them upon him This is such as is unknown unto them and far enough from them Secondly as for Spiritual Joy the comforts and consolations of the holy Ghost they are to seek also in these they are strangers to it and meddle not with it This is the hidden Manna and the white stone which no man knows save he that receives it The Spirit in the Witness of it is a Mystery to a carnal heart this is Honey which such persons never tasted nor had any sense or apprehensions of it They may have sometimes false joys and false comforts and false ravishments from the delusion and suggestion of Satan who is so far Gods Ape But the true joy of the Spirit of God indeed which is not onely chearing but purging not onely filling with comfort but quickning to duty and encouraging and engaging to obedience This is such as they are unacquainted with it and but ignorant of it which is a Peace and Joy above all that the World can confer Thirdly The Spirituality of holy Exercises and Duties of Piety Carnal persons they are ignorant of this likewise they can come off with some external performances as Prayer and Reading and Hearing of the Word and the like so far as they concern the outward man and as they are to be done by that but to perform them after a spiritual manner and to enjoy Communion with God himself in the performance of them this is that which is a Riddle to them and they understand not nor know not what to make of it A natural man he knows not what belongs to the Spirit of Adoption and to the going to God as to a Father in Christ He knows not what belongs to the improvements of Faith and to the getting of strength in his inward man occasionally from those Duties of Christianity which are performed by him as a man receiving strength in his body from that nourishment which is conveyed in his meat Fourthly The Exactness of Christian obedience and the inward life and power of Religion This is also a Secret and Mystery to an unregenerate spirit A natural man he may conform to some good things in Religion which carry no great difficulty in them and which do not cross him in his dearest lusts but as for others he is more weak and indisposed The Precepts of Self-denial and Mortification and Repentance and the Trade of Piety in holiness and righteousness of life and conversation these are more grievous to him Faith and Patience and Love of Enemies and forbearance of Revenge and such things as these the more refined and sublimer part of Religion as consisting in such matters as these are this is such as a carnal heart does very much stumble at and is offended with it Fifthly Perseverance and continuance in the Faith and Profession of Christianity notwithstanding all adventures In the multitude and violence of temptations in the changings and variations of Providence still to abide and remain the same and to hold out and to persist unto the end without declining or going backward or falling away This is that also which a natural man understands not but is much to seek and very ignorant about it It may be when he is out of a temptation and not strongly provoked to evil there he can such as it may be abstain from it But let it be a sin which his nature inclines to and let him be strongly assaulted about it and here he presently yields unto it Whereas now in the work of Grace there is strength given against strong temptations for the conquering and vanquishing of them And so as for the varieties of Providence not to be shaken or overturned by them in Prosperity not to be lifted up nor to forget God and say Who is he And in Adversity not to be cast down nor to blaspheme God or murmur against him nay which is more still to trust in him and to love him and to stick close unto him These are such things which the natural man knows not what to make of nor cannot perswade himself that they are in Reality Lastly Take this work of Grace also in the Reward of it and as it is swallowed up in Glory and it is very intricate and mysterious here also especially to such kind of persons As they know not whence this Wind comes so neither whither it goes nor what it tends to in the blessed fruits and effects and consequences of it Carnal persons they commonly think of Heaven as of a carnal place and as of a carnal condition a Fools Paradise such as Turks and Pagans and Infidels fansie to themselves or at least in some affinity and nearness thereunto They are not partakers nor any way discerners of the glory that is to be revealed Thus we see how as to all particulars as concerning the work of Regeneration such persons as are themselves unregenerate and but in the state of Nature are ignorant and inapprehensive of it Now there 's a double account which may be given hereof unto us The one is taken from the impotency of humane Reason and the other is taken from the indisposition of Nature corrupt First Humane Reason is impotent and unable to reach such a business as this is We do here suppose that many natural and unregenerate men they have notwithstanding sometimes great parts and abilities of humane wit and sagacity in them whereby they are able to dive into many great Mysteries and Profundities of Nature yea but they are not able for all this to dive into the work of Grace nor to comprehend the Mysteries of Religion which are far above them and superiour to them Secondly As from the Impotency of Reason so also from the Corruption of Nature which makes Reason more impotent and blind than otherwise it would be Wicked men they do not understand the work of Grace because they are strangers to it they have their under standing darkned and so are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness their heart as the Apostle himself gives us an account of them Ephes 4.18 There is not onely a blindness of the mind but also a perversness of the will which has an influence
upon this ignorance in them and does make them to be unable to conceive of such things as these are The consideration of this Point thus opened and enlarged by us may be variously useful to us First in a way of Confutation Secondly in a way of Information And thirdly in a way of Correction In a way of Confutation first of all of the fond conceit and imagination of such persons as would subject Religion to Reason and would make the Mysteries of Faith to come within the reach and compass and capacity of common and humane understanding Alas how vainly is this thought and expected by them when as the wisest and learnedest that are are not able to sink into them We see here in this present Scripture how this great and learned Pharisee one who in those days went for a Rabbi and great Scholar yet how childishly he discourst of this point of Regeneration and how dull and stupid he was as to the conceiving and apprehending of it And if it was so with him may we not think it so with more And if it were so in this one point is it not so also in many others Yes undoubtedly and out of question that so we may not think of men above that which is in them nor advance the power of Nature or Reason above its ability Men may please themselves in their own devices and in the vanity of their own thoughts but when all comes to all they will find themselves to come short of such things as these are as to any rational discovery of them which what is known of them to any purpose is revealedunto us onely by the Spirit which as it is said searcheth allthings even the deep things of God Secondly as to matter of Information We see here whence it comes to pass that many persons do no more look after such a work as this in themselves and besides over and above do deride it and scoss at it in others surely it is because they are ignorant of the nature of it We know that what men do not know they do not desire And so it is here in this particular And for the same reason also do they condemn it and speak evil of it They speak evil of that which they do not know and they censure it because they know not what belongs unto it Therefore they think godly men fools and the strictness of Religion to be superfluous because they are strangers to the discoveries of this spiritual life And we have cause no more to be troubled at it or to be offended with it than we would at some Art or Mystery with the censures of such persons as had no skill or insight into it The spiritual man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man says the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.15 that is The man who is truly regenerate he does so much understand of God's truth as may concern his own salvation having his Faith grounded upon Gods Word and setled in his heart by the holy Ghost independently upon the judgment or censures of other men Thirdly as to matter of Conviction we may make use of this Point so as from hence to take off the prejudices which do arise in carnal minds against the truth and reality of Regeneration as proceeding from the intricacy and improbability of it It is no Argument that there is no such thing as this New birth it self because that such and such persons do not presently discern and apprehend it Look as it is no good Argument against the Wind as if there were no such thing as that is because men do not know the particular original of it nor the course which is taken by it as long as they hear the noise of it and see it and feel it in the effects so neither is it any good Argument against Regeneration and the work of Grace as if there were no such thing as that is because men know not the particular nature and motion and proceedings thereof which in the mean time they see it in the influences and consequents and products of it It may be yea and it is in reality although the manner of its being be a mystery and not so able to be exprest as it is felt by such persons as are the subjects of it This is the very scope of the Text and the main drift of our Blessed Saviour in this his passage to Nicodemus Therefore let us strengthen and confirm our selves in the belief of this Point and be fully perswaded of it against all cavils and objections to the contrary and not suffer our selves by any means to be diverted or removed from it That there is such a thing indeed as Regeneration and the great benefit and necessity of it as our Saviour in this Chapter declares it so necessary as that without it there is no seeing of the Kingdom of God Let us not argue a non-apparere ad non esse from the non-apearance of it to the not being for if we do so we shall deal perversly For as we believe there is a Soul though we understand not the manner of its production and as we acknowledge there is a Wind though we see not the rise of its motion because there are such acts and effects as do demonstrate thus much unto us So to believe that there is a work of Conversion and Spiritual Generation though the circumstances of it may be unseen and undiscern'd by us as a Child in the womb that lives though it reflect not upon its life in that condition And especially and above all let us labour to be made partakers of it for our own particular There 's no such way for us to be convinced of the reality of Religion considered in it self as to have the sense and experience of it upon our own hearts Those who are themselves Regenerate will not deny or make a question of the work of Regeneration as being sufficient proofs and witnesses of it in their own Persons and believe it because they feel it Whereas on the other side those that do so question it they give great occasion of jealousie and suspition that they never had yet any work of it upon them Their speech in this case bewrays them and discovers them to be that which they are Therefore let us labour I say our selves to be partakers of this new birth of life in our selves and so we shall be able the better both to understand it and also to demonstrate it And this is a general Rule which accordingly is to be observed by us as to all the practical Points of Religion for the setling of our judgments in them There are great arguings and disputings now and then to and fro about such Points as these are and very hot contests about them about Free-Will and about Free-Grace and about Conversion and Perseverance and the like But the most compendious way to resolve them is to labour for a sanctified heart and a renewed mind and
Faith and that was justifying They believed on him There 's a threefold Faith as Divines distinguish it The first a believing of God Credere Deum to believe that there is a God The second a believing to God Credere Deo to assent to that which God says The third a believing in God Credere in Deum that is to rest and cast our selves upon God as he has revealed himself to us in the Scripture Now the latter of these is that which is here recommended unto us in these present Jews Many believed on Christ. And indeed this if we well consider it is the main of all And it hath a threefold eminency in it as peculiar to it First that it is the Faith of the Scripture and proper to the word of God Secondly that it is the Faith of the Gospel and proper to the New Testament above the Old Thirdly that it is the Faith of Salvation in the exercise whereof alone we are made partakers of the righteousness of Christ All these three eminencies are in it First This Faith of Recumbency whereby we rely and cast our selves upon Christ and believe in God it is proper only to the Scriptures and those Writings which are taken from it it is not to be found in any other Writings besides This phrase to believe in another it does not occur in any Heathen Author whatsoever that ever I could meet with It is an expression which God hath reserved as the proper language of Christian Religion There 's somewhat in that As the thing it self is purely Divine and Christian so is the form and manner of speaking Secondly As it is the language only of Scripture so it is especially the language of the Gospel and more proper to the New Testament To believe in God it is not a Legal business but an Evangelical The Law represents God unto us as an angry Judge as a consuming Fire as an avenger of all unrighteousness It is the Gospel only which propounds God as pacified and reconciled in Christ and so at such terms with us as for which he may be relied upon by us and therefore is called by the Apostle The ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 Thirdly It is the Faith of Salvation and in the exercise whereof alone we are justified in the sight of God as being that alone which does knit and unite us to Christ and make us one with him And so the Scripture sets it Joh. 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power or priviledg to be the Sons of God even to them that believed on his Name Where the receiving of Christ is explained by believing in him as that whereby alone we do receive him So Joh. 6.40 This is the will of the Father who hath sert me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life Where there seem to be two main acts required for the obtaining of Justification and Salvation by Christ The one is to see the Son that is to acknowledg Christ Preached for the Son of God and Redeemer of the World by which act we do discern the Fountain of eternal life and make towards it The other is to believe on him by which act we do draw life from the true Fountain of life and immerse our selves wholly into him This must needs be that Faith alone which saves us because it is that whereby God in Christ is so much honoured and advanced by us for God has joyned these two both together in his wise contrivance for his own Glory and our Salvation so that that whereby God himself is chiefly glorified we also are more particularly saved This is done by such a Faith as this is which is therefore justisying and saving Therefore let us especially labour to find this Faith in our selves A Faith of reliance upon Christ and adherence to him As for the other two kinds of Faith which we mentioned before to wit the Faith of acknowledgment and bare assent they are such as in their place we may bestow upon the creature it self and ascribe to meer men we believe that they are such and such persons and acknowledg them to be in being we assent and give credit to their words and receive that which comes from them Thus we may and do believe them But to rely and cast our selves upon them and to place our assiance in them that we may not do There 's a difference in regard of the object Again Secondly In regard of the subject Take the two other kinds of Faith and that even referred to God himself yet they may be found in reprobate persons even the Devils themselves they may and do believe both that God is and that it's truth which is said by God As the Apostle James plainly expresses it Jam. 2.19 Thou believest there is one God thou doest well the Devils also believe and tremble Where their trembling denotes their assent But now this Faith of relyance and recumbency it is proper only to those which are elect and born again Thirdly Consider'd also in the effects The other two kinds they are but common here neither for they work not any great change in the hearts of those in whom they are notwithstanding which men may still be as bad as ever they were before they had them But this Faith which we now speak of that does it it sanctifies and purifies the hearts of those persons in whom it is We have two express places for it the one Acts 15.9 Having purified their hearts by Faith And the other in Acts 26.18 Which are sanctified by faith that is in me And so much of the second Particular in this first General which is the nature of that Faith which was here commended in these Converts of Christs it was justifying and saving they believed on him The third is the Subject of this Conversion and they are here exprest to be many many believed on him Now this it hath a twofold significancy or Emphasis in it First an Emphasis of Restriction Many but not All. Secondly an Emphasis of Inlargement Many and not a Few First it has an Emphasis of Restriction or Limitation Many but not All. Christ could if he had pleased have so ordered it that it might have been All but he did not do so as being free in the working of his Grace in whom he pleases The Gospel is offered to All but all do not receive the Gospel no not of those which are the Auditors and Hearers of Christ himself As there were many that believed on him so there were many also that opposed themselves against him All men have not faith says the Apostle 2 Thes 3.2 it is true both of common Faith and of Justification c. The Gospel was preached unto us as well as unto them but the Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it Heb. 4.2 There hath been and always will be a difference of Hearers
an open and familiar manner So likewise of Jacob. Gen. 32.30 he relates it concerning himself I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved And therefore he called the name of the place Peniel which signifies the face of God So likewise the Prophet Isaiah in Isa 6.2 I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up c. And that we might know what Lord he means he adds presently afterwards in the fifth verse Mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts not Adonai onely but Jehovah that is the true God These and such like places of Scripture which sometimes we meet withall they do seem to imply as if God sometimes had been seen by men And therefore we must speak somewhat for the explanation of this passage here before us and the reconciling of it with those other Scriptures that at first hearing seem to contradict it Now this will best be done by removing Truth from Falshood and by considering how far it does hold good and again how it does not hold good that any man hath seen God c. For in a different sense and respect there is a truth in either Proposition which may be observ'd by us We may for methods sake reduce the terms of Explication to three Heads First to the Object Secondly to the Act. And thirdly to the Medium When we have fully considered of these three we shall be able to understand this Proposition which we have now before us according to its true proper and genuine meaning First the Object that is here express'd to be God No man hath seen God Now God in this Text is not to be taken Essentially but Personally God that is God the Father the First Person in the Blessed Trinity no man hath seen Him at any time It was not the Father that appeared to the Patriarchs but the Son who though invisible also in his own Nature yet by way of Preamble to his Incarnation would appear unto them in humane shape or in the similitude of an Angel and thus he appeared to Jacob Hosea calls him an Angel Hos 12.4 So the Holy Ghost is said to have appeared in the shape of a Dove at the Baptism of Christ in Matth. 3.16 and of cloven fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.3 4. These two Persons the Son and the Spirit they have sometimes appeared and been seen but the Father never took upon him any visible shape but hath always and altogether remained invisible namely as to Dispensation That 's the first thing here considerable viz. the Object God Secondly here is considerable the Act which is denied to this Object and that is Sight hath not seen This is to be taken in the full latitude of seeing whether corporal or mental whether with the eyes of the body or with the eyes of the mind no man hath seen God either of these ways First not with the eyes of the Body he cannot be seen so For the act seeing presupposes the Object to be visible now this God is not because he is a Spirit and so hath neither corporeal Light nor Colour nor Figure nor any thing else which is requisite to the visibility of any Object No nor secondly with the eyes of the Mind can he be seen here neither namely as to his Divine Substance and Essence There is a two-fold kind of seeing of God which our minds in some respect are capable of but neither of them reaching or extending to this which we now speak of The one is the sight of God by the Light of Nature and Humane Reason and the other is the sight of God by the Light of Grace and Divine Revelation which is a further advancement of it First take it as to the Light of Nature and Humane Reason There is thus far some kind of sight and knowledge of God which even the Heathens themselves did partake of as the Apostle Paul declares to us sufficiently in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans But this comes short of the sight of him in his Essence which is here now intended There are three manner of ways especially which Divines do usually assign to Reason for the discovery of God the one is by way of Causality the other is by way of Negation and the third is by way of Eminency But each and all of these are I say very imperfect and defective First by way of Causality when as by the Creatures whereof God is the Cause we do contemplate the Creator But notwithstanding this Knowledge the Essence of God is invisible For the Effect cannot show the Essence of its Cause but when it is the same with it in kind and has the whole virtue of the Cause in it The Creature shews that there is a God from whom all things receive their Being but what this God is it doth not show And so the sight of God on our part it is but short in the way of Causality The second is by way of Negation or Remotion when considering the imperfections of the Creatures as Mortality Passibility Peccability and the like we do remove these from God in our minds and conceive him as wholly free from them and uncapable of them as who cannot die suffer nor sin But this does not yet discover to us what God is but onely what He is not And no Privatives are de Essentia positivi We are still to seek of the Essence of God for all this The third and last is by way of Eminency when as considering the several perfections which are scattered and disperst through the Creatures we do attribute them and ascribe them to God after a more eminent and transcendent manner As because Goodness and Wisdom and Holiness are Perfections of the Creature therefore we conclude them to be in God in the highest degree when we call him most Good most Wise most Holy and so of the rest But neither hereby do we yet attain to the sight of God in his Essence because none of those are predicated of God and the Creature after an univocal manner and they do onely shew what manner of one he is but not what he is And thus for the sight of God by the Light of Nature or Humane Reason as being here deficient The second is the Light of Grace or Divine Revelation whereby we come also to the Knowledge of God but yet not of his Essence neither whiles we are here in this world And this again is of two sorts either Ordinary or Extraordinary Ordinary in the Discoveries of Faith Extraordinary in that which is caused from Prophetical and immediate manifestation by God himself First there is the discovery of Faith and the sight of God by that This is that whereby Moses is said to have seen him that is invisible Heb. 11.27 but this but an obscure and imperfect sight of him and therefore sometimes opposed to sight 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by faith and not by sight as
if it were hardly any sight at all Surely it is not a seeing of God in his Essence but onely of what he is towards us for our particulars And the Scripture does speak of it as imperfect Thus 2 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known Where are three words of disparagement which are put upon this kind of sight in comparison with that which is more perfect First it is but in a Glass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know that such sights as those are they are but imperfect because they are but reflexive As the sight of the Sun-beams in Heaven which cannot be look'd upon directly so is knowledge of God by Faith it is tantum in speculo The second is darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we conceive of things in a Riddle or Mystery which implies a great deal of cloudiness and mistiness and obscurity in it The third is but in part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which still denotes a shortness in it And this for that disco very which we have of God in a way of ordinary Revelation by the sight of Faith The second is Extraordinary in Prophetical manifestation Thus some of the Servants of God in former times had a special elevation of mind peculiarly vouchsafed unto them whereby they were enabled to have notable apprehensions of God and a glorious sight of him as in the instances above-mentioned Isaiah seeing him upon the Throne Jacob face to face Moses beholding his glory c. But yet neither did these reach so high as the Essence of God Moses that saw the most of him he is said to see but his back-parts that is some imperfect image and representation of his glory his face he could not nor might not see Ex. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for no man shall see my face and live This imports That Moses did not see the Substance of God but onely that God did after a familiar manner reveal himself to him and in some resemblance shew him his Glory so far forth namely as Moses was capable of it which did wonderfully affect him And thus we have the second thing here considerable for the explaining of this passage and that is the Act No man hath seen God at any time that is perfectly in his Divine Substance and Essence and that as to sight in the full latitude and extent of it whether Corporeal with the eyes of the Body or Mental with the eyes of the Mind And for this latter in all its varieties also whether of Nature or Grace of Reason or Revelation not by way of Causality not by way of Negation not by way of Eminency as to the obscurity of Reason nor yet either by the sight of Faith as more ordinary or by the light of Prophesie as more extraordinary as to Divine Revelation The third and last is the Medium or Means by which That must be also here taken in for the explication of this passage to us No man hath seen God but in Christ whereby he hath made himself in a manner visible and conspicuous to us so that He who cannot be seen otherwise yet in Him is seen after a most illustrious manner Hence he is said to be the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 because all the Excellencies and Perfections of God they are entirely in Christ Thus even the Father Himself which we shewed before was never seen yet comes to be so according to that of our Saviour to Philip Joh. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father namely because the glory of the Father does shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ. As it is again in Joh. 1.14 We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father c. No ma hath seen God to purpose any other ways than as revealed in his Son And thus we have the full explication as I conceive of this present Proposition That no man hath seen God at any time No man hath seen the Father No man hath seen the Father Essentially No man hath seen the Father but in Christ There 's the Object the Act the Medium Now to give you some account of the Point there is a two-fold ground which may be assign'd hereof unto us why God cannot be seen by us whiles we live here in this world in the sense which I have now given of it the one is taken from God and the other is taken from our selves First on Gods part there 's an obstruction from the Incomprehensibleness of his Nature which cannot be fully reached unto by any Creature whether in Heaven or Earth Even the blessed and glorious Angels themselves who are in a state of Comprehension though they comprehend so much of God as the Creature is comprehensive of yet they can never comprehend so much of him as is indeed comprehended in him Our God to speak strictly of him is beyond and above all Comprehension Therefore this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here which we translate no man may be as well rendred no Creature and it agrees with other places in Scripture as Matth. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is no person whatsoever So Rev. 5.3 No man in heaven and earth was able to open the book it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is no creature The Nature and Essence of God in the Fulness it is beyond any created Comprehension And so there is an obstruction to our perfect seeing of Him on His part But secondly There where he is also comprehensible and shall be also comprehended hereafter yet there is at present an Obstruction of it on ours and that again two manner of ways First of all from the frailty of our Nature as we are flesh and blood And secondly from the corruption of our Nature as we are sinful flesh and blood First there 's the frailty of our Nature as we are flesh and blood Who shall dwell with the devouring fire c. There is such an Infinity betwixt the glorious God and poor mortal man as there is no coming near unto him Here some even of the Servants of God when God has appeared unto them have conceived presently they should die as Gideon in Judg. 6.22 and Manoah Judg. 13.22 We shall die because we have seen God face to face Secondly As from the frailty of our Nature as it is flesh and bloud so from the corruptions of our Nature as it is sinful flesh and bloud Thus in the place before cited Isa 6.5 Isaiah bewails himself as one undone because being an unclean person and of polluted lips he had seen the King the Lord of Hosts And Job when his eye had once seen God he then says he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes in Job 42.5 6. Thus is
our Nature is so highly advanced as to be taken into union with the Nature of God himself for so it is whiles it is taken into conjunction with the Son of God Our Nature is hereby ennobled and raised to a very high pitch even in this respect above the Nature of the blessed and glorious Angels themselves which has no such conjunction Secondly as to the intimacy of affection it is a most sweet and comfortable point as any else is besides and none like it that Christ is thus dear to his Father for by this means we are so likewise from our union and relation to him Christ being in the bosom of the Father and we being in the bosom of Christ therefore that affection which the Father bears to Christ he does proportionably bear to us also for Christs sake and in respect to him And thus we have it expresly in Joh. 17.26 That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them and I in them What a wonderful sweet point I say is this especially if it be throughly digested and we should improve it and make use of it upon all occasions and set it in opposition against all doubtings and suspitions to the contrary When Satan would go about to perswade us to question the love of God towards us and our own misgiving hearts are ready also to joyn with him in this particular let us have recourse to this present Argument and Consideration which we have here now before us of the love of God to Christ and think that whiles he loves him he cannot hate us who by Faith are united to him and who have Him also given to us Because he looks upon us so far forth as one indeed with Him And we should be content with that love likewise which God afforded to Christ and not think he does not love us if he deals but with us as he did with Him afore us by suffering us to fall into sad and afflicted conditions as he sometimes did with Him God did not put Christ out of his bosom when he suffered him to be tempted to be persecuted to be reproached and shamefully used no nor then when he seem'd himself in a manner to desert him no more does he do so with any others that are Members of him he does not forbear to love them notwithstanding these his dealings with them If the Adopted Sons of God be no worse dealt with than was once His Natural they will have no cause to complain of the want of Gods love unto them at all but to satisfie themselves with it because when he dealt worst of all with him he bare an intimate affection to him And so as for the Certainty and Constancy and Perpetuity of the love of God towards us it holds likewise here that as Gods love to his Son is eternal as lying in his bosome so it is eternal likewise towards those who are his Members as in whom he loves them and as neither can separate or remove Gods love from the one so neither can it do it from the other who has respect unto it the Superstructure being answerable to the Foundation Thirdly From the nearness of Christs presence we may raise matter of comfort from hence also as that therefore we have one still at hand to stand by us upon all occasions we need not be afraid of any evil which may surprize us unawares or Adversary which may take advantage against us for He is near that justifies us as it is Isa 50.7 What ever accusations may be brought to God against us he is in his bosom to take them off Lastly From the Communication of Secrets we have great comfort here likewise that therefore there can be no secret kept or concealed from us which is fitting for us our selves to know The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 and his secret is with the righteous Prov. 3.31 To you it is given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven c. Matth. 13.11 and Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed these things to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things 1 Cor. 2.9 10. And again Matth. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And He has hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes But so much may suffice to have spoken of the first Branch in this second General to wit the Person mentioned and that according to his two-fold description First from his Relation the onely begotten Son And secondly from his Residence In the bosom of the Father The second is the Action attributed to this Person and that is in these words He hath declared him Which words may again be taken two manner of ways and so at this time looked upon by us First by way of simple Proposition And secondly by way of emphatical Appropriation The Son hath declared the Father and it is he upon the point alone that hath declared him First To look upon this clause in its simple and absolute Proposition where we have signified to us That Christ the onely begotten Son and that is in the bosom of the Father hath indeed declared him According to the common form and regularity of Speech the words should have been set thus No man hath seen God at any time but the Son he hath seen him But the Evangelist chooses rather to say declared him as being a word of greater comprehension and expressing both the perfection and Sufficiency of Christ himself as also the extent of it to us for our benefit and advantage There are three things at once which are included in this expression He hath dclared him First it is a word of Knowledge Secondly it is a word of Communication And thirdly a word of Perspicuity First He hath declared him it is a word of Knowledge which is implied and involved in it If Christ had not known the Father himself he could not have revealed him to others but whiles he declares him he does first of all discern him Christ being in the bosom of the Father and so intimate with him and to him he does fully and perfectly know him and understand him yea so indeed as none in a manner does know him but he as we have it in the place before cited In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Col. 2.3 Those Mysteries which are said by the Apostle to be hid in God they are not hid from Christ but he has a distinct knowledge of them yea he has the knowledge of God himself in the full extent and infiniteness of his Essence Secondly He hath declared him it is a word of Communication As he hath known him so he hath made him
discovery and knowledge of God whom he declares unto us and whom he declares also still with advantage as reconciled in himself for that 's also pertinent to the right knowledge and discovery of him To declare God absolutely considered that has but little contentment in it but to declare him to purpose is to declare him as pacified in his Son in whom he is well pleased And this is that which is here done even by the Son himself which should accordingly engage us in all acknowledgments and thankfulness to him Secondly We learn from hence also to yield all Honour and Service and Worship and Obedience to God that possibly we can who is thus manifested and made known unto us We cannot now plead ignorance for an excuse or defence of our selves for he is now here declared and that also by such a Person as is able to declare him unto us If the Gentiles be so liable to condemnation for not living answerably to that knowledge of God which they have by Nature what shall be their condemnation that improve not that knowledge which they have of him by such special and particular revelation as is imparted to them by Christ Thirdly We see here the excellency of Christianity above all other Arts and Mysteries whatsoever besides in the world wherein we meet with such excellent Points and Truths communicated to us as we have here now before us and those are concerning God himself who herein is made known unto us and whom to know and His Son Jesus Christ is even eternal life it self as himself has told us in Joh. 17.3 If there be any felicity or contentment in Speculation and Knowledge and the like here is that which transcends and carries it above any Art or Science whatsoever And so I have done with the Second General Part of the Text which is the Supply of the Defect premised and so with this whole Verse in the words which I have now handled and finished No man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him SERMON XXI JOH 14.6 I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me There is nothing which makes us more willing to part at any time with our Friends upon any journey to be taken by them than first of all to consider That they are likely to come to us again And then to consider that our parting with them for a time makes for our own greater advantage When-as we know whither they go And when-as we know how our selves are to go after them and to them Each of which considerations are propounded by our Blessed Saviour to his Beloved Disciples to satisfy them and comfort them in his own departure from them out of the World and going to his Father as we may see in the beginning of this Chapter I go says he to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also And whither I go ye know and the way ye know Now Thomas one of the Twelve makes a little pause and exception in part to this our Saviour's discourse Lord says he we know not whither thou goest and how should we know the way But our Saviour does sufficiently answer him in this Verse which I have now read unto you by assuring him that himself is not only the Traveller but the way and only means of conveyance to Heaven I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First the Simple Proposition Secondly the Additional Amplification The Proposition that we have in these words I am the Way and the Truth and the Life The Amplification in these No man cometh unto the Father but by me We begin with the First of these Parts viz. The Simple Proposition Wherein we have a description to us of the person of Christ according to a threefold distinct notion of him wherein he is considerable First as the Way Secondly as the Truth And Thirdly as the Life Where every particular word has its particular article prefixt unto it to make it more emphatical We 'll take each of them in that order in which they lye before us in the Text and begin with the First I am the Way This is one thing which is here declared of him and attributed to him We are to take it with respect to what was mentioned in the Verses before where Christ had spoken of his going to Heaven and of the way to that place Now here he signifies that himself is that way Christ is the proper way that leads to eternal Happiness and Salvation And so if we take the words in their conjunction we may interpret them thus He is the Way and the Truth and the Rise that is he is the true way that leads unto life But we will take it rather as it is here rendred distinctly though still with this reference Jesus Christ he is the way to Heaven That 's the Point which we have now before us We have it out of his own mouth who as he tells us is Truth it self and so therefore we may believe it A way in the proper notion of it is that space wherein and whereby one passeth from one place to another And this is Christ to Believers from Earth to Heaven or from a state of misery to happiness c. If we take Heaven for an House so Christ is call'd a Door or entrance into it Joh. 10.7 If we take Heaven for a journeys end so Christ is call'd a way or passage towards it And thus here in this place This he is said to be in the discharge of his threefold Office as a Priest as a Prophet and as a King In each of these respects he is very fitly and properly denominated the way to Heaven First He is so as a Priest by the merit of Death and Passion He did not hereby make way for himself but he made way for us As for Christ himself Heaven was due unto him from the very first moment of his Incarnation by vertue of the Union of the Humane Nature with the Divine but he had need to make way for us and that he did by his Blood Take him consider'd as our Surety and as carrying the guilt of our sins upon his shoulders so he had no way to come to Glory but by suffering And so the Scripture still sets it Thus Heb. 9.12 By his own Blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained redemption for us Luke 24.26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and then to enter into his Glory Phil. 2.8 9. He humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him c. And again Heb. 2.10 It pleased him c.
as he is God but as he is God-Man as he is the Mediator and Head of the Church in which sense we are here to understand it And so he is variously exprest in Scripture as the Tree of Life as the Bread of Life as the Water of Life Christ he is every way and in all respects Life unto us both in reference to Grace and Glory I am come says he that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 Christ he is both the Author of our life and the matter of our life too He is the root and spring of it in whom it is and from whom it slows unto us And he is the substance of it in whom it consisteth because he only is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 He is our life as that which we feed on and are sustained and nourished by as a man is by his natural food in the life of nature His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and conveys life indeed by it There 's a threefold life which Christ does convey to all those who are true Believers First the life of Justification Secondly the life of Sanctification And Thirdly the life of Glory And in the conveyance of each of these unto them he is said to be emphatically the life as also in another place The life was manifested and we have seen it in 1 Joh. 1.2 First Christ is the life of Justification as to the pardon and forgiveness of our sins Persons that are condemned they are so far forth said to be dead namely as they are appointed to death they are dead in Law And this is the state and condition of us all by nature by reason of our first transgression there was a sentence of death past upon us and we were adjudg'd thereunto In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3.17 Now Christ he hath reverst this sentence and removed this death from us by dying for us By his obedience and suffering he hath satisfied the Justice of his Father and thereby hath reconciled us and put us into a state of life again Thus Col. 2.13 You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Mark He hath quickned you by forgiving you I orgiving it is a kind of quickning because it makes a man a child of life who was before a child of death And this is that which Christ hath done for us he hath quickned us thus so far forth as he hath absolved us and set us free from condemnation by taking our guilt upon himself and that 's called a Justification of life Rom. 13.18 Now this it hath another life which is pertinent and belonging hereunto and consequent from it which therefore we may look upon under the same head with it And this is a life of peace and spiritual comfort For as by reason of sin we are plainly and absolutely dead and have a sentence of condemnation past upon us So from hence where it is discovered to us and we are made sensible of it we come to be dejected and cast down in our selves We are not only all dead but we are all a mort likewise Therefore as answerable to one death of sentence we have need of a life of absolution So answerable to the death of despair which is apt to follow upon that death of sentence where it does not appear to be remitted we have need of a life of consolation to be bestow'd upon us And this is Christ also unto us He is our Peace as the Scipture stiles him not only in the thing it self but also in our own consciences not only as to our state but as to our spirit not only as to our state to make it justifiable but as to our spirit to make it comfortable And in that respect also our life Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce c. in Rom. 5.1 c. Secondly As Christ is the life of Justification so he is the life of Sanctification likewise When God pardoned our sins through the Blood of Christ he gives us Grace and Holiness from the Spirit of Christ as a fruit and consequent of that pardon and reconciliation And Christ himself does impart and communicate his Spirit unto us for this purpose He is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Not only from the law of death as to matter of guilt and condemnation but also from the law of sin as to matter of filth and pollution and hath put a new and another law into me which is the law of Grace and holiness of the Spirit This is the method wherein we partake of this spiritual life that it is first of all subjected in Christ and from him derived unto us The Spirit of God first sanctifies the humane nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us and conveys a new nature unto us Christ lives in us by his Spirit Gal. 2.20 And therefore call'd a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 This Life is further considerable not only in the principle of it but in the activity of it not only as that whereby we are simply enabled and made capable of doing our duty but also are made vigorous in it Christ is our life so far forth as we have a livelihood in any thing which is good And thus also the life of Sanctification Thirdly The life of Glory Christ is that likewise so far forth as he makes all his Servants to be partakers of it For so he does he raises up their bodies from the grave and he possesses both body and soul with eternal happiness And so the Scripture informs us Thus Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye c. Christ is the life of the resurrection forasmuch as his resurrection hath an insluence and effect upon ours and is the cause of it Whatsoever is done to us it is done first of all to him He lives and we live in him He is risen again and we shall rise again by him and from him According to that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power And again 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you And again Phil. 3.22 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Thus is Christ the life
motion it does presuppose a natural form as productive of it so every spiritual motion or operation it does presuppose a spiritual form likewise as productive of it too which in a person spiritually dead cannot be found And that 's the first argument to the proof of the Point in hand taken from the general corruption of our evil nature in ordinary actions will and inferior faculties The Second is taken from the nature of a good work it self Every spiritual good work it proceeds from Faith in Christ the Mediator For whatever is not of Faith is sin Rom 14.23 And without Faith it is impossible to please God But now that which is perform'd by the strength and power of man's free-will it is not a work proceeding from Faith and so therefore cannot be good Besides It is not joyn'd with Charity neither so an action truly and spiritually good is proceeding not only from ture Faith in God and Christ but true love and charity also whose property it is to order all good actions to their last end which is God himself rightly known by his word without which ordination no good action spiritually good can be produced For unless it be undertaken out of love to God himself as the last end and either actually or at least vertually referr'd to his honour and glory as its ultimate scope it comes to have in it the nature of sin and thereby to be defiled The Third Argument may be drawn from the condition of the works of a natural and unregenerate man which are all of them in holy Scripture declared to be evil Rom. 3.10 c. There is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are altogether become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one so then thus the argument proceeds Those that do nothing but evil they have not free-will unto good Now this is the case of such as still remain in their lapst and fallen condition and therefore it is so also with them when we say that they do nothing but evil this is not always to be understood as to the matter or substance of the action but as to the circumstances and manner of doing it as was before explained Forasmuch as the principle of every good action is a pure heart the last end of it the glory of God and Faith working by love is necessary to be joyned with it as was shewn in the former argument the works of unregenerate persons are from hence evinc'd to be sins Being such as though for the substance of the work they may be good yet for the power carriage of them are not rightly perform'd That which is good is not good except it be well done The Fourth Argument is from the nature of the gifts of God themselves no gift of God which is free can proceed from free-will because Nature and Grace in this point are always opposed Now every good work is the free gift of God according to that of St. James in Jam. 1.17 And that also of St. Paul What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 Fifthly From the nature of the new creature and the work of regeneration it self which hath such Titles and Appellations put upon it as do carry such a truth as this with it Thus it is call'd a new creation a new birth a resurrection from the dead and the like Not that regeneration does in all these things answer the resemblance but only in this That as no man that is begotten could be the cause of his own generation nor nothing that is created could confer a being upon it self nor no man that is dead is able to raise himself So no man in his meer Natruls hath any propensity or inclination to good as whereby he may dispose and prepare himself for regeneration or for such works as are agreeable thereunto No. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them as the Apostle Paul expresly tells us to this purpose in Eph. 2.10 c. That 's the Fifth Sixthly In that the contrary opinion is clogg'd with divers and sundry absurdities as that from hence it will follow that our will should bear a greater stroke in our conversion that God himself that our Salvation should not be of God but of our selves and that we should discriminate and make our selves to differ All which and many more of that nature are such things as are not to be endured and therefore that which follows from them not to be asserted Lastly There is this also for a close of all which is further considerable That this opinion of ours hath in it the greatest safety and freedom from spiritual dangers whiles that which it takes from nature it gives to God which hath most of piety in it Now that in Religion which is safest is accordingly most to be embraced Forasmuch then as all these things are so that this Doctrine of the power of free-will in the state of nature supposes a perfection of the understanding in point of knowledg supposes an integrity of the will in point of appetite supposes a regularity of the affections and the inferior faculties of the soul in point of subordination which are such things as are not to be supposed but all declared and demonstrated to be otherwise from the general and universal corruption of man's nature in his laps'd condition Seeing this Doctrine is also further inconsistent to the nature of a good work it self incongruous to the condition of an unregenerate person injurious to the Grace of God opposite to the state of the new creature and the work of regeneration it self Seeing it is an opinion full of much danger and destruction to souls as the contrary is free from it And besides how many absurdities and further inconguities follow upon it we do conclude in the sense now exprest That a man out of Christ and still remaining in his natural condition hath not freedom of will in him to what is spiritually and supernaturally good There is but one thing now remains which I must not let you go without and that is a brief improvement of all to our selves by way of application Where the Sum of all comes to this First it serves for to convince us of the miserable condition of all such persons as are yet remainint in the state of nature and so without Christ Their case is very sad in this respect and consideration in that from hence they are wholly disenabled to the doing of any thing which is good as hath been hitherto declared out of this present Scripture Look as in them that is in their flesh there dwells nothing which is good so from them that is from their flesh there comes nothing which is good as done by them This is just matter of abasement and humiliation to them especially to some kind
of persons amongst the rest as Pharisees and Justiciaries and the like which boast of their legal righteousness and of the good works which are done by them as having some great matter in them Indeed when it comes to the point and trial it is just nothing at all Hoc aliquid nihil est Without me that is out of me says Christ ye can do nothing at all And we may take it in a threefold gradation First nothing really Secondly nothing acceptably Thirdly nothing comfortably and to your final satisfaction First nothing really and to purpose and good carnest ye can do nothing so The vertues and good works of carnal persons they are but shadows and pictures and skeletons as it were of vertues they are not the true vertues themselves like a body without a soul as being devoid of a principle of spiritual life What a vanity and fondness is it for men to make a great stir and noise as if some great and mighty matters were done by them when-as up starts nothing at all Parturiunt montes like clouds and wind without rain Secondly ye can do nothing acceptably That 's done to purpose which is done to the mind and liking of him that employs us and sets us on work Now this is that which all natural persons are failing in that which is done by them whatever they do in matters of Religion though never so specious and glorious in outward appearance yet it is all but loathsome and irksome to God He quarrels with all their services and can take no contentment in them As we may see a pregnant place to this purpose Isa 1.11 12 c. Where God tells them that their Incense is an abomination and that their sacrifices he cannot away with and that their assemblies are a loathing to him he cannot endure them Those things wherein such persons do sometimes most please themselves they are such wherein they least please him Thirdly ye can do nothing comfortably or profitably or with advantage to your selves ye shall get nothing by that which is done by you no reward for it at all which is that which follows consequently upon the former And serves to make such kind of persons perfectly miserable as whereby they are hereupon excluded from eternal Salvation As he that does any thing and does it not so as he should do he loses his aim and end which he propounds to himself Because as good never a-whit as never the better And further there is this use likewise of it which follows from the former even to perswade all men which are out of Christ as soon as may be to get into him which is the only way to attain to such a freedom of will which we speak of as may carry them to spiritual good actions If the Son shill mike ye free says he himself ye are free indeed Joh. 8.36 And till he shall please to make ye so ye cannot be so And he makes you so no otherwise than by union and conjunction with him and incorporation into him which accordingly should be the endeavour of all such persons in the use of such means as he has sanctified to this purpose Lastly Let this Doctrine serve as an antidote against all contrary errors whereby the power of nature and man's free-will is advanced and the power of Grace and God's Spirit is weaken'd and disparaged in the world It is true indeed that God in Scripture does call upon men for the doing and performing of such and such actions not as implying that they have power in themselves of their own ability to do them but by convincing them of their won weakness and insufficiency to provoke them to fly to Christ for his assistance And likewise sometimes moreover as medium's and conveyances of his vertue and power into them As when Christ call'd dead Lazarus out of the Grave he did not suppose that Lazarus of himself could hear him but by calling him he made him to hear together with the voice of Christ in speaking to him there went forth the power of Christ for the enlivening of him Even so likewise is it here in this particular Whiles in the Ministry of the word Christ bids men that are spiritually dead to do such good duties he does by his Spirit in his word put a strength and ability into them whereby they may do them As when Paul preached to Lydia God opened the heart of Lydia that she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul And whiles Paul as the Minister of Christ required such things of her Christ himself by his Spirit in Paul's Ministry enabled her to do those things which were so required So much for that and so of this expression Without Christ as it may be taken for an exclusion of interest c. Without me that is without union to me It may be also taken as an exclusion of influence without me i. e. without assistance from me SERMON XXIV JOH 15.5 For without me ye can do nothing There is nothing more necessary for Christians in order to their Christian course and conversation than to be well advised and informed in themselves where their strength or weakness lies as to Christian and Spiritual Duties and Performances which are required of them that so accordingly they may be the better able either to improve and make use of the one or to supply and make up the other Now this is that which is here the scope and drift of this present Scripture which I have once again read unto you namely by taking us off from our selves and the confidence of our own Personal Abilities in regard whereof we are very short and insufficient and by pitching and fastning upon Christ and his Fulness in whom as the Apostle teaches us whiles we have his Power resting upon us when we are weak even then are we strong For so indeed we have it here told us even from the mouth also of Christ himself who knew it best That without him we can do nothing THis Text which we have still here before us is as I have formerly delivered unto you a discovery of the necessity which we have of Christ as to any Spiritual Performance which is such as without him as it is here exprest unto us we are able to do nothing of that nature And this expression without him as I have also already hinted unto you may be taken two manner of ways First Without me that is without interest in me or ingrasture into me sever'd or separated from me Secondly Without me that is wthout influence from me or dependance upon me whether you neglected by me in regard of giving it or I neglected by you in regard of fetching it and drawing it from me As for the former of these senses viz. without me as it is an exclusion of Interest or Incision and Ingrasture into Christ of this we spake to at large the last day where we shewed you That all such persons as are still remaining
belly thou fillest with thy hidden treasure See here how these are described and joined together as one explaining the other The men of the world and those which have their portion in the world that is which have most of these outward things not but that the servants of God they have oftentimes an abundance of these outward things also God leaves himself not without witness unto them but gives them now and then a great share even in worldly comforts but with this exception and limitation First That it is not so generally and for the most part the greatest number are otherwise and destitute in this respect Secondly That where it is so yet it is not their lot and portion but they have some other and greater matters besides the world which belongs unto them whereas for other men it is their reward and that alone which they most trust to and therefore they are called the world Thirdly They are called the world as because they have most of the world and have the greatest share in that so the world is indeed in their hearts and has the greatest share in them It is that which they most love and desire and affect and make the matter either of their care or rejoicing If ye could but look into the hearts of carnal men and see what 's within them you should find little in them but the world and the things of the world the honours of the world and the pleasures of the world and profits of the world these are those which fill their souls and thoughts and contrivances about these are the things which most take them up and reside in them they do not only creep into their hearts as sometimes they do into the best that are even the derest Saints of God but they lodg and dwell in them they set open the door unto them and give them welcome and entertainment and that at all times and upon all occasions on the Lords-day and in the exercises of Piety such duties and actions of Religion as we are now about it is hard for those which are good and withal have great interests in the world to keep their hearts wholly free from them but for others which are not so they do not care whether they do or no. They are not only in their Fancies but in their Hearts and they are not only in their Minds but in their Affections These are the things which are their very form and essence which do constitute and make up their Being make them to be that which they are and distinguish them from that which they are not their affections to the world And hence they have very properly the name of the world put upon them which is the second term here to be explained what 's understood by the world The third is what 's meant by Wisdom The world by wisdom surely that 's the Wisdom of the world as the other was the wisdom of God Well but what now do ye call that here in this place We may reduce it to two Branches either first of all the wisdom of Parts and natural wit and sagacity or secondly the wisdom of study and industry and acquisite Learning and Philosophy their wisdom which consisted in knowledg of natural things Either of these make up humane wisdom and are such as the world before explained both may and did abound withal These persons which are here spoken of in the Text and especially the Greeks and other Gentiles they were very well seen in these they were men of excellent parts in point of Wit and they were men of excellent accomplishments in point of Art they were men of a deep reach and insight into the mysteries of Nature and yet for all that fell short of the God of Nature and that knowledg which they should have had of him and that occasionally from those very things which their skill extended and reacht unto They were wise in each forenamed respect and yet as it is here said of them they knew not God for all their wisdom The world by wisdom knew not God Nay but stay a little let us a little examine that and let this be the fourth and last term in order to be explained by us How namely we can make this good That the wise and learned men amongst the Heathen for of these he here chiefly speaks how can it be said of these that they knew not God forasmuch as this seems to cross and contradict some other passages of Scripture where 't is said expressly that they did know him as for instance in Rom. 1.19 we read there of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God is said to be manifest in for God had shewed it unto them And again v. 21. because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God c. therefore it should seem they knew him that 's supposed and taken for granted How is it here then said in this Text that they knew him not For this we must take it as I conceive in these following Explications First They knew him confusedly but not distinctly they knew him in the general but not in reference to the right person that there was a God they knew and they could not possibly but know it the light of Nature would not suffer them to be ignorant here but know it they must yea but who this God was is for the particular here that they knew not here they blunder'd and were quite in the dark The light shined in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not as it is Joh. 1.5 therefore we see how they run out into strange kind of fancies making this and that Creature to be a God unto them and not pitching upon the true God indeed which it concerned them to know This is excellently declared to us by the Apostle in that admirable first Chapter to the Romans ver 21 22 c. They became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened Professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible 〈◊〉 and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things Secondly They knew God imperfectly and according to some weak and slender apprehensions which they had of him in their minds but they knew him not in the latitude of those Excellencies which are to be found in him If they had some glimpse of the true God and did rightly pitch upon that yet they did not rightly conceive of him in their thoughts according to those Divine Attributes which are proper unto him his Goodness and Justice and Wisdom and Omnipresence and Omniscience and such as these in these they did not know him No but they thought God rather to be altogether such an one as themselves as it is Psal 50.21 Thirdly They knew God notionally and in the speculation they had some apprehensions of him in their understanding But they did not know
him practically and in the effects so as this knowledg had any influence upon their hearts for the ordering of their lives and conversations Thus they were ignorant of him did not know him so as to fear him to love him to honour him to obey him c. And this is indeed such an ignorance as oftentimes does very much prevail not only out of the Church but in it not only amongst Pagans and Heathens but also as we may take notice of it by the way sometimes even in profest Christians amongst whom 't is so much the more abominable There are a great many people in the world which have a great deal of knowledg and common illumination in whom that knowledg notwithstanding does not produce any gracious effect to the bettering of them like glow-worms which have light without heat and their heads are bigger than all the rest of them besides This is that which is most common and dangerous in great Wits as we shall see more afterwards and therefore requires so much the greater heed and care for the avoiding of it Take heed of resting in the partaking of any knowledg which does not put forth it self in some answerable activity and operation For as every Divine Truth in regard of the nature of it is ordained to some practise so indeed it is not known to purpose except it be put into practise These Gentiles because that when they knew God yet they glorified him not as God but in the midst of all their knowledg were many of them very base and wicked livers Adulterers and Fornicators and Drunkards and Idolaters and the like yea and the best of them which were free from those sins were unthankful and proud therefore they are said not to know God when in a sort and sense they did know him Quod curiositate invenerant superbiâ perdiderunt as Austin speaks what they found out by their wit they lost by their pride They knew God speculatively but they did not know him powerfully Fourthly and lastly They knew God Essentially as considered in his own nature but they knew him not Dispensatively representatively as exhibited in Christ Thus they knew not God neither indeed in the case they were could they know him They knew not God that is Immanuel God with us God manifest in the flesh God taking our nature upon him and becoming a Mediator for us Him they did not know This is clear out of divers places of Scripture and cannot be questioned Thus Joh. 1.10 speaking concerning Christ He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not And so 1 Cor. 2.8 Whom none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory The world knew not Christ neither in his Persons nor yet in his Offices so they knew him not And being they knew not Him who was the Image of the Invisible God the brightness of his Glory and the express image of his Person as the Apostle calls him In this respect and upon this account it is said of them that they knew not God to know God and not to know him in Christ is as good as not to know him at all for what 's to know him so but to know him rather to our own confusion and amazement and greater horrour of soul it is to know him as an enemy and to know him as an angry Judg and to know him as a person at variance and difference with us as a consuming fire and one whom there 's no coming near this is a very uncomfortable knowledg of him but now to know him in the union of our nature and in his Majesty vailed with our flesh this is sweet and pleasing indeed this is the knowledg which is manifest in the Gospel but this the world at present knew not they knew not God in Christ And that 's the fourth and last term which lies here in the Text to be explained what is meant by their not knowing of God And thus much for the Explication of the Words I come now in the next place to the Proposition it self thus explained as it lyes in the Text That in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God Which affords us this observation as the Moral of all That the greatest Wits of the world having no more but the common light of nature and the advantage of humane Accomplishments are oftentimes exceedingly to seek in the spiritual and saving knowledg of God This is the Point which here lyes before us to be considered by us And I shall endeavour to make it good by a threefold consideration and that founded upon the words of the Text. First The insufficiency of the Medium Secondly The weakness of the Faculty And thirdly The perversness of the Subjects First The insufficiency of the Medium and that is the Glory of God shining forth in the Creatures which is here called the Wisdom of God This of it self is insufficient to the producing of such a kind of knowledg as this is Indeed it has in a sort some sufficiency in it as is here intimated and implied unto us forasmuch as the world is censured for not improving it and from hence they are said to be without excuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.20 but yet it is not sufficient wholly and fully to such an end as we speak of this is most certain and unquestionable that every creature has some kind of footstep and impression of the Deity upon it Quaelibet Herba Deum as we use to speak There 's not the least spire of Grace but it signifies and presents a God to our thoughts much more the whole Body of the Creation This does exhibit and present God a great deal more fully But yet God as he is laid open in the Gospel and as he is made known in the Preaching of the Word this the Creature does not shew nor is able to do it this is a point which cannot be known but by the Scripture and written Word of God which those who were Pagans and Heathens were unacquainted withal To know God as a Saviour and as the Author of Eternal Happiness unto us this the Book of the Creatures does not discover or make known and therefore they knew not God first of all from the insufficiency of the Creation which is here denominated as I have shewn the wisdom of the Medium of God Secondly From the weakness of the Faculty the world by wisdom knew not God that is by its own wisdom and that wisdom which is within the compass of it self so it knew him not The wisdom of the world is insufficient alone of it self to bring any people to the saving knowledg of God this is clear out of sundry places of Scripture as for instance in Mat. 16.17 when Peter had acknowledged that Christ was the Son of the living God what says he unto him hereupon Blessed art
for our own use and improvement And first let us here take notice of the corrupt nature which is in man to be abased and humbled for it The world in the wisdom of God by wisdom knew not God what a perverse world was this now in the mean time that made no better use of those helps which were afforded unto it for its furtherance in knowledg Here were two special helps which though in some respects we have disparaged and diminished from them yet in other respects do remain intire and they are the wisdom of God on the one part and the wisdom of man on the other The wisdom of God in the Creatures for the Book and opportunity of teaching and the wisdom of man in the mind for the skill and opportunity of learning Both of these taken together they leave the world without excuse There are two special cases wherein we pity rather than blame such persons as are destitute of learning The one is when they want Books and the other is when they want parts those which have no very excellent pregnancy of parts or quickness of wit in themselves yet may know with the help of a good Library they make a shift to get some competent knowledg Again those which have no great store of Books yet if they have quick and nimble parts they are able to beat things out of themselves if they will set themselves to it and they carry as it were a Library about them in that respect But now where both these meet together surely here 's a very great advantage and opportunity indeed and it 's a sign of very great laziness and negligence to be a dunce here Why this is now the case with the world for the knowledg of God Here 's Books enough the Library of the Creature which is here called the wisdom of God And here 's parts enough even the wisdom of the world and yet the world for all this it knows not God What a stark and staring shame is this and how much to be abhorred But here we see the corruption of our nature which we have hence cause to abhor and bewail And that may be the first Application Secondly Seeing the world by wisdom knew not God let us then labour to find somewhat more in us than worldly wisdom let us not rest our selves in tha kind of knowledg which we may have and still be ignorant of God but labour and endeavour with our selves to reach to an higher pitch and perfection than consists barely in these inferior speculations what is it for us to have skill in every thing else if we have not skill in Religion an saving of our own souls What is it for us to make good others evidences for earth if we cannot make good our own evidences for Heaven I beseech ye let us seriously think of such matters a these are Humane wisdom and Divine they are not inconsistent as I have shewn in the nature of the things themselves but yet they are many times inconsistent in the subject in which they severally are and do not always meet together in one and the same person and that is because they are excellencies of a different nature As ye know in Professions which are independant upon each other there may be skill in the one where there is not skill in the other so also here Thirdly Let those who know God and have this worldly wisdom see what cause they have to bless God and to acknowledg his goodness to them those which are at once both men of parts and men of grace and piety also let them here knovv hovv they came by each and especially by the latte of them to vvit the knovvledg of God in Christ Flesh and blood has not taught it them It vvas not their vvit which made them that vvhich they are but the free grace and goodness of God unto them vvhich carried them into an higher strain of spirit And again for those who desire this wisdom let them learn hence to vail and cover the other and lay it down in order to the other where it makes any opposition and resistance yea where they have formerly too much stood upon it shew their remorse and repentance for this folly by another course as those in the Acts which were converted they renounced their curious arts witchcraft and sorcery and the like and brought their books and burnt them before all men Act. 19.19 Yet to conclude let me add one thing more and that 's this That though humane wit does not give Grace of it self yet it does sometimes forward the means of Grace and accordingly is to be improved by us As the Star occasionally led the wise men to Christ Mat. 2. Again though Parts make us not good at first yet when we are good they are good helps to make us better and more useful in the exercise of piety and so likewise are we conscionably to use them And thus now I have done with the first General Part in this Verse viz. The worlds neglect and miss-improvement of the opportunities of knowledg in these words The world by wisdom knew not God Now the second is the supply of this defect by a new kind of dispensation to them After that c. it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching c. But of this God willing we shall speak in the next Sermon SERMON XXVII 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe There 's no greater hinderance and impediment to the receiving and entertaining of Christ and of the Gospel which is the Doctrine of Christ than a too high and over-weening conceit and opinion of mens own wisdom Those which have more Wit than Grace and especially if they be proud of that Wit they are commonly too wise to be instructed and so consequently too wise to be saved Therefore the Apostle Paul that he might deal more effectually with the Corinthians which had high thoughts in this particular and might bring them into a temper sit for the receiving of Evangelical Truths he does labour in the first place to qualifie these conceits in them to lay them low in themselves and the apprehensions of their own carnal excellencies and to discover unto them the power and efficacy of the means of Salvation which they were otherwise apt to contemn pulling down strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledg of God and bringing into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ as it is in 2 Cor. 10.4 5. This is his special work in a great part of this Epistle and the next And in particular in this parcel of it which I have now again at this time read unto you in ver 21. of this Chapter and so forward He nullifies the wisdom of the world on the one side and he advances the wisdom of God on the other which he opposes thereunto OUR business this day is in
said that Nemani in laureis Thebani in virtutibus Graeci in eloquentia gloriantur And we know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was usually put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to play the Graecian and the Rhetorician come both to one effect It is certain that they were men of very great and deep knowledg and withal they were admirable speakers which seems to be implied unto us in that expression of the Apostle himself in Rom. 1.14 I am debter both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise where as the Barbarians are made to be all one with the unwise so the Greeks in St. Paul's language are the same with the wise And as Barbarism is a description of rudeness so Graecism is a circumlocution of Eloquence forasmuch as it was that which was so frequent and eminent amongst that people Now this was that which they here improved to a wrong purpose Now the great Learning and Eloquence of the Greeks was occasionally and accidentally through their corruption not in the nature of the thing it self a great hinderance and impediment to them for their imbracing of the saving knowledg of Christ they were so taken with the conceits and apprehensions of their own wit and excellent parts that the Preaching of the Cross it seemed no better than foolishness to them they would believe nothing now in Religion without an Argument and a Demonstration They seek for wisdom that is as Clemens Alexandrinus well interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compelling and demonstrative reasons and such Arguments as they could not but yield to from the strength of natural reason it self where they had not these whatever was brought to them was as good as nothing with them And again they seek for wisdom that is flourishing and rhetorical expressions and all the flowers of art and eloquence in the uttering of these things This they sought in the preaching of the Gospel and because they did not find it as they desired therefore they reckoned it but folly and the Apostles so many fools for their labour to come otherwise furnisht unto them Now this disposition and carriage of theirs St. Paul does here implicitly censure as he did before that of the Jews and whiles he tells us what they did he does by consequence intimate unto us what they shuld not have done and so proportionably what we our selves should not do neither In brief there are two things especially which are here by this passage of the Apostles prohibited to us First A restraining of the Truths and Doctrines of Religion to the apprehensions of carnal reason the wisdom of the flesh Secondly A corrupting and adulterating of the great Ordinance of Preaching with the affectations of humane eloquence the wisdom of words First I say here is prohibited a restraining of the Truths of Religion to the apprehensions of carnal reason the wisdom of the flesh This was the fault of these Greeks and we are to take heed it be not ours that we make not reason the rule of faith which is a chief point of Socinianism but that we be willing to believe those things which are here above our reach in the Gospel we must not seek after wisdom in this acception And the reason of it is this because indeed Religion is a Mystery and the things which are propounded in the Gospel they are above the reach of humane wit As for example The conceiving of Christ in the womb of a Virgin The Union of two Natures in one Person And the Trinity of Three Persons in one Divine Nature For God to become Man And he which is the Saviour of the World to be crucified die himself and after this to rise again All these are very great Mysteries and such as Reason does not know what to make of when they are propounded unto it Fides non habet meritum ubi humanaratio probat experimento Our wisdom it must here vail and couch and submit it self and cry out with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus 1 Cor. 3.18 19. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise for the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God And 1 Cor. 2.6 We speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world that come to nought but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery Why but then must we lay aside all kind of reason in matters of Religion is Christianity an unreasonable business and does the Gospel deprive us of our wits and ordinary understandings No no such matter Religion itis not against Reason but it is above it There 's nothing in Religion which Reason can say any thing against as opposite and contrary to it self though it cannot always speak so punctually to it as Faith can and this is that which again we maintain against the Papists our adversaries for they abuse this present Truth which we are now upon and they do it again in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation as concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper here when we argue against them that it is against the nature of a Body to be in divers places at once and the accidents of Bread and Wine without the substance here they tell us that we must not look to reason but must appeal to faith Though Religion be above reason yet it is not contrary to it now this is plainly contrary to it to make both parts of a contradiction true at once to be and yet not to be is that which is impossible in the nature of the thing it self and therefore we say God cannot do it that is indeed it cannot be done unless God should deny himself which he cannot do 2 Tim. 2.13 The sum of all is this That Reason it may be improved in Religion but Religion is not to be limited to Reason Faith and right Reason do not cross though indeed they do not always meet nay indeed Religion is upon the point the greatest reason and wisdom of all because it is the reason and wisdom of God himself who is the Highest Intelligence And when a man is once a Christian his reason will be so far from hindering him that it will help him in it so much the more As for example thus Forasmuch as God is Truth it self and cannot lye therefore it is reason for me to believe whatsoever God says upon this very ground because he says it although I do not presently apprehend the particular reason of it in the nature of the things themselves nor the immediate connexion and dependance of these things one upon another And that 's the first thing which was here taxt in these Greeks in the Text their seeking after wisdom namely the wisom of the flesh in restraining Religion to Reason which is a thing here prohibited to us we may not do it The Greeks seek after wisdom The
they have presently the better gifts There 's an affectation in some kind of persons after singular and peculiar abilities according to which they do ordinarily reckon and account of themselves though the things in their own nature are but indeed of common consideration Thus it is with some Scholars just as it is with some Books which have a price set upon them more from their scarcity and hardness to be got than from the matter and composure of them or any intrinsecal worth which is in them But this is not such a betterness as the Apostle does intend in this place Secondly Gifts are sometimes counted better as they are more glorious and conspicuous and plausible in the eyes of the world thus there are some which are especially more than others which have a greater luster upon them and do more appear and vent themselves abroad to the approbation of other men which yet notwithstanding simply considered are not the better gifts nor really so to be esteemed This was that wherein the false Apostles had an advantage over the Apostle Paul and whereby they did work themselves into the hearts and affections of the Corinthians to the disparagement and diminution of him with them They had it may be a little better put-off than he had better language and utterance and clocution and considence and the like which he was somewhat inferior in at least in his own acknowledgment I am rude in speech says he though not in knowledg and therefore they carried the bell away from him And thus 't is likewise still with many people to this present day who commonly more look at the voice and delivery and freedom and carriage of the Preacher which yet I do not deny but in their place are also to be regarded than they do at his Matter and Doctrine and Judgment and Spirit and such things as those are Now this is not that which is here meant in this present Text better gifts that is gifts which are more plausible and which do gain the better esteem and admiration from men this I say is not here intended And therefore St. Chrysostome very well observes and after him Theophylact and Oecumenius that it is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the greater gifts but the better gifts not greater in the applause of the world but better in the things themselves which still we must seek out what is meant and signifed hereby for as yet we have not hit upon it It is neither those gifts always which are most rare and unusual nor yet which are most conspicuous and plausible which are truly the better gifts Therefore thirdly to speak home to the point there are two things especially which as I conceive have a special influence and ingrediency into this betterness and qualification which the Apostle does here mention to us And gifts may be said to be better some than others in a twofold respect Either first of all by taking them intrinsece materialiter according to that excellency which they have in their own latitude and the compass of these gifts Or else secondly by taking them extrinsece effective according to that extent which they have to â—he good of others First Gifts are said to be better intrinsecally and materially as considered within their own compass and sphere and so those are the better gifts which do serve best to polish the mind and understanding and reason and do raise the faculties and powers of the soul to an higher and nobleâ— pitch thus there are some which do more than others and these in this sense are the better gifts so they are both intended by the Apostle and to be esteemed also by us But then secondly Gifts are likewise said to be better extrinsecally or extensively in their effects as they do more communicate and enlarge themselves beyond the subject in which they are to the good of other men Thus those are the best gifts which do tend best to edification and which in the exercise of them have most good done by them Those gifts by which the world and the Church is most advantaged and promoted those in the Apostles sense in this place are the better gifts And thus much first for that which is implied That there are some gifts which are better than others The second is that which is exprest That if there be any gifts which are better than others those are they which we for our particulars of all others are to apply our selves to Covet earnestly the best gifts This the Apostle here requires and he does it but upon reasonable considerations ' if we take notice of them First That common and general inclination which is in all men in every thing else there 's nothing else in any kind whatsoever which men do at any time desire or look after but they would have the best of it as neer as they can even there sometimes where worse might serve their turn and might be good enough for them yet they must still have the best or none if there be any thing better than another their mouths water after that The best garments the best houses the best provisions the best preferments all they can get of the best this is for the most part mens humour and endeavour in Temporal matters that they are all carried continually to the better as the object of their pursuit It is St. Austin's observation to this purpose and expostulation upon it Quid est quod velis habere malum dic mihi nihil omnino non uxorem non filium non servum non ancillam c. What is it says he that thou couldst be contented to have otherwise than good nothing at all not Wife not Children not Servants not any of these things here below Bona vis habere bonus non vis esse Wouldst thou have that which is good and be the worst of all thy self what an incongruous and unsuitable thing is this We may apply it to this present particular whereof we now speak concerning spiritual gifts As we desire the best in other matters so we have cause to desire the best in these as the best gifts from men so the best gifts from God so the best gifts of the Spirit of God It agrees with our inclination in other matters Secondly The consideration of the nature of the soul it self that calls for as much from us The better the soul is considered in its own substance and essence the better would those things be which should qualifie it and which it would be endued withal The better gifts do best become the better part So noble a creature as the Soul is doth require the best accomplishments that it is possibly capable of Thirdly In reference also to practice and execution therefore the better gifts that we may accomplish the better performances and may do the most good The operations are answerable to the Principles those which have but mean gifts they
of other persons especially that have their senses exercised to discern of things that differ as the Apostle speaks because two see more than one and God does usually treasure up to Chiristians that counsel which is fit for them in one anothers minds and mouths Secondly The meaning of it is not this neither as if a Christian did no good to others but only to himself or as if no other were satisfied and delighted with the good that is in him or from him for the Father of the righteous shall rejoyce as well as himself as Solomon tells us My heart shall rejoyce even mine Nor Thirdly Is the meaning this neither as if a godly man did keep his Comfort to himself in his own heart and did not upon occasion now and then impart it to others for that likewise he does in neither of these senses or the like is this expression to be taken here by us as we have now propounded But when it is said He shall have rejoycing in himself and not in another the meaning of it is briefly this First That he shall not have rejoycing only in another as affording all the matter and ground and occasion of joy unto him The comfort of a good Christian does not only lye in the opinion and esteem which others have of him but it is founded in somewhat in himself which does justifie and make good that esteem and that does lay ground and foundation for it it is a sad and pitiful thing for a mans rejoycing to lye thus in another Secondly When it is said his rejoycing is in himself alone and not in another the meaning of it is this That his rejoycing is not dependent upon the minds of other men so that they when they please might rob him or deprive him of it The world as it does not give this rejoycing so neither can it take it away it may blast a mans credit out it cannot disturb his conscience and it may â—ake away his reputation but it cannot take away his comfort your heart in this sense shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh away from you Thirdly When it is said he shall rejoyce in himself alone and not in another hereby is noted the secrecy and privacy and retiredness of that comfort which is in him A stranger does not meddle with this joy that comfort which arises from integrity it is such as every one does not behold or take notice of in the world The hidden Manna and the secret whisper and the joy that no man knows but he that receives it This is that which is consequent to those works which are good and approved and to the trying and approving of them The joy of an Hypocrise as it is momentany so it is blazing and making of a noise like the crackling and flaming of thorns under a pot as the Preacher expresses it but the joy and comfort of a good Christian is more private and retired and within the walls of his own breast which is as a brazen wall unto him Hic murus aheneus esto nil conscire stbi c. The Apostle Paul tells us of some that glory in appearance and not in heart 2 Cor. 5.13 This is the condition of men of the world but God's Children are otherwise gualified and affected as is here sigified unto us so much for that And so I have done likewise with the second General Part of the Text which is the Argument to inforce the Explication and Duty propounded and so with the whole Text it self in the words which I have now read unto you But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another SERMON XLII Gal. 6.16 And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God In all matters of controversie and difference betwixt men and men the best way to compose them and to reconcile them on with another is by pitching as near as may be upon some one Common and General Principle wherein both parties may agree In men considered as men by reducing them to the Principles of Reason but in men considered as Christians by reducing them to the Principles of Grace and Christian Religion which if it be duly attended in the power and efficacy of it is of force to unite those minds which are otherwise at greatest distance and variance This is that therefore which the Apostle Paul does here in this place he had observed atthis present time great differences in the Church of Galatia which were raised amongst the People of God and those hightened and promoted by the importunity of the false teachers amongst them And now he knows not how better to settle them than by calling them back to their Principles even those Principles whereof they did consist considered as Christians even the work of Saving-grace and Regeneration and the new creature in them As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God IN the Text it self we have two General Parts considerable of us First The qualification of the persons Secondly The fignification of the blessings or priviledges belonging unto them The qualification of the persons that we have in the first clause As many as walk according tothis rule The fignification of the blessings or priviledges belonging unto them that we have in the second Peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israelof God We begin with the first viz The qualification of the persons As many as walk according to this rule Wherein again we have three Particulars more First The Nature of Christianity and that is that it is a walk Secondly The Condition of this walk and that is regularity it is a walk by Rule Thirdly The Determination of that Rule which a Christians walk is conformable unto it is this Rule For the first The nature of Christianity and the whole business of Religion it self it is exprest by a walk This we find it to be not only here but in divers other Texts besides it is the common and general Term which the Scripture puts upon it in every page and passage of it insomuch as we need not to instance in particular Proofs and Testimonies to confirm it Now whiles it is thus exprest there are three things further which seem to be intimated in it First The activity of Christianity that it lyes not in the habits only but in operations Secondly The improvement of Christianity that it lyes not in beginnings only but in proceedings for walking it is a motion of progress and implies going on Thirdly The extent of Christianity that it lyes not only in some single performances but in the common tract and frame of ones life as walking it does denote the course and conversation Each of these are here considerable to this purpose First I say here 's the activity of Christianity that it lyes not only in habits
of their reward All which laid together should most effectually work upon us to perswade us to take heed of it and to put in practise what the Apostle here advises of Looking to our selves Seeing a little care and heed will do it let no us be wanting to it but improve it all we can that we may not be on the losing hand If a man will watch his house how much more should he watch his soul And if he will look to himself in such matters as in comparison are hardly worth looking after how much more should he do so in such matters as are of such infinite concernment So much for that sense of the words as they may be read in the second person That ye lose not what ye have wrought Now further secondly Take it in the first as it is here in our own Textual Translation That we lose not what we have wrought The Apostle John was desirous of these Believers that they would not frustrate his labours to him and make them in vain It is that which has been the answerable care of other of God's Servants besides and that very rationally Paul he desired it for himself Gal. 2.2 Lest by any means I should run or had run in vain So Phil. 2.16 That I may rejoyce in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain nor labour'd in vain So here now in this Text That we may not lose the things which we have wrought There are two things here considerable First Here is somewhat which is imply'd And secondly Here is somewhat which is exprest That which is imply'd is this That the heedlesness of people frustrates the labours of the Ministers That which is exprest is this That Ministers do above all things desire that their labours may not be frustrated by them First I say the heedlesness of people frustrates the labours of their Ministers it makes them lose the things which they have wrought Look to your selves that we do not therefore if ye do not we shall Let a Minister be never so careful of his work for his own particular as it comes from himself yet if his people do not look to themselves and their own ways it will be in the event lost as to them as it is in other matters besides Let a Physician give never so good Physick yet if his Patient shall distemper himself of his own accord he loses his Physick because it attains not its proper and intended effect This should therefore among other Arguments provoke our diligence and circumspection and cause us to take heed what we do for this among other things will be a further aggravtion against us God will one day call all wicked men to an account as for the motions of his Spirit and the checks of Conscience and the dispensations of his Providence so likewise for the labours of his servants which have been neglected by them whom he sets at a great rate even then when men despise and undervalue them There are two sorts of persons which make Ministers to lose the things which they have wrought the one is those that refuse to come to hear them when a Minister hath taken sad pains to prepare himself for the good of such a people to speak seasonably and pertinently and properly to them to their particular profit and comfort and edification and they now upon what pretence soever it may be some conceits or punctilio's shall withdraw themselves from him This is to make him to lose the things which he has wrought and God will be answered for this at another day and his Spirit will not always strive with them in this particular but being grieved will withdraw it self Another sort are those which though they hear are never the better for hearing can live many years under a Ministry and get nothing by it such as these they make us to lose the things which we have wrought and of these especially do we now speak at this time as here chiefly intended It is a very sad and grievous business we are tender of other workmen that they may not lose their labour amongst us but for this which is the greatest work of all we make nothing of it Well you see what St. John says of it It is a matter of heedlesness and disregard if people would more look to themselves they would prevent us from this inconvenience and evil that it happened not unto us Thus much for that which is here implied in the connexion of the words one with another Now secondly For what also is exprest That Ministers are justly very tender of the frustrating of their labours and of losing that which they have wrought It was that which the Apostle here stood upon more than any thing else as that which was most grievous to him This it is in three particulars First In regard of the person they work from Secondly In regard of the person they work for Thirdly In regard of the nature and condition of their workings First The person they work from and that is God himself it is he which imploys them and because it is so they would not willingly lose their work in reference to their Master who consequently so far as he is capable should lose by it also The miscarriages of the Ministry redound to the dishonour of God Secondly The persons they work for and that is the Church and People of God for the edifying of the body of Christ and perfecting of the Saints Ephes 4.12 They watch for your souls Heb. 13.17 And those that watch they hope not to lose for they therefore watch to prevent it but where love and affection to the Parties is joyn'd with it it makes it the more and so it is here They would not lose their work in reference to those they work for Thirdly For the work it self and that in sundry respects First The Labor of it it is a painful work and therefore is it so often in Scripture set forth by such an expression Those that labour in the Word and Doctrine The more pains that any man takes the less willing is he to lose it Where men do but play and toy and trifle their works are lost with a great deal less charge but where they are laborious here 't is more difficult that which costs the greater labour procures the greater loss Secondly The Dignity of it there 's somewhat also in that Men may take pains in a thing of nought it is the unhappy lot of sinful persons whose lusts are very chargeable to them in this respect they take a great deal of pains many times for the wronging of their own poor souls Now for such as these to lose that which they have wrought an to be disappointed in their sinful indeavours it is no great matter they may be the rather glad of it as an advantage to them But when-as besides the labour of the work there shall be the excellency this is an addition hereunto
not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing c. Where wholesome words and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to godliness are made to be synonymous to each other and to signifie still one and the same According to the second sense of the phrase so here is the like Censure of all unsoundness and averseness whatsoever from Evangelical Truth more especially The Doctrine of Christ that is that Doctrine which treats of Christ in his nature and person and offices and such as these either of these have one and the same Character fastned upon them and sentence pronounced against them and that is that they have not God Our business at this time will lye chiefly inthe latter of these as I conceive more especially aim'd at and intended by the Apostle and that is the Censure of such persons as do trespass upon the Doctrine of Christ as it is taken specifically for the Doctrine of salvation by Christ And that first of all in the simple denial and rejection of it Whosoever transgresseth i. e. transgresseth this Doctrine and transgresses it so notoriously with a special Emphasis considerable in it as denying or opposing himself to it suchan one hath not God It is not every transgression at large which is here intended as excluding those from having God which are guilty of it for then we were all of us in a very sad and miserable condition there being none of us but have enough ofthis in us and more than we should Our transgressions are multiplied upon us as David speaks But we must take it in reference still to the matter in hand the Doctrine of Christ whosoever transgresses this that contradicts it as the Arabique reads it or that sets against it as the Ethiopick carries it such an one comes under this censure Whosoever either on the one hand think Christ to be needless and superfluous that he might well enough be spared or on the other hand thinks Christ to be imperfect and insufficient that there is not enough in him either of these transgresses the Doctrine of Christ In one word Whosoever they be that do lessen and diminish from Christ as the Mediatour and Saviour of the Church and as the Scripture propounds him to us to be received and entertained by us such as these they have not God He that is not a Christian he is an Atheist and he that isnot a Christian in the true notion and sense of Christianity he is no Christian at all and as the Gospel does exhibit it tous let his name and profession and appearance be what it will be Thus 1 Joh. 2.23 Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father not only because that the Father and the Son are one simple pure and indivisible essence but also because the Father doth not manifest himself to salvation but only by his Son as we shall see more anon Therefore further in Ephes 2.12 The Ephesians at what time they were without Christ at the same time they are said to be without God which two expressions are both joyn'd together there in that place Wherefore remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles c. That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and strungers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world without Christ and without God they infer one the other And so now here in the Text He that transgresses the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God This may be said ofhim divers manner of ways First In point of Knowledg they have not the right notion and apprehension and understanding of God The Apostle Paul speaks of some in the Church of Corinth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have not the knowledg of God 1 Cor. 15.34 And he speaks this to their shame the same may be said of those which receive not the Doctrine of Christ they have not the knowledg of God neither they are ignorant of God and if they be such as live in places and under means of knowledg it is so with them upon the same terms of sham and disgrace unto them In 1 Thes 4.5 It is made a description of the Heathen which were persons living without Christ The Gentiles that know not God And in 1 Cor. 1.21 it is said That the world by wisdom knew not God It is true indeed some kind of knowledg of God they had even by the light of nature and therefore we read in Rom. 1.19 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that which may be known of God as manifest in them for God hath shewn it unto them they knew that there was a God but who this God was they did not know nor in the way of his most considerable and comfortable manifestations of himself There is no true knowledg of God indeed and such as will give satisfaction but as he is revealed in Christ who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person as we find him call'd Heb. 1.3 Therefore 2 Cor. 4.6 it is said That God who commandeth the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ In the face of Jesus Christ there we have the knowledg of the glory of God as who otherwise is a light whom none can approach unto therefore he is said to be the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 Why of the invisibel God not only as invisible to the eyes of the body which is true of every spirit but likewise to the eyes of the mind it self also out of Christ God without Christ is imperceptible and altogether undiscernable of us we cannot possibly each to any competent knowledg of him There 's no Knowledg of God without Christ nor there 's no Knowledg of God out of Christ no knowledg of God without Christ because it is he that declares him no knowledg of God out of Christ because it is he that resembles him and represents him and exhibits him to us First I say no knowledg of God without Christ because it is he that manifests him Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him It i Christ only that gives the kowledg of God Therefore in Matth. 11.27 we find this expression That no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him Secondly No knowledg of God neither out of Christ because it is he that represents him As we cannot look upon the Sun directly but in its reflexion so neither can we see God in His Majesty and as considered absolutely in himself but as his Glory shines
commonly in the object which is attractive of it in one kind or other In the love of Christ towards us there was nothing at all he loved us whiles we loved not him I knew says Christ that ye have not the love of God in you Joh. 5.42 Nay he loved us whiles we hated him Joh. 15.25 They hated me without a cause As we hated him without a cause so he without a cause loved us and thereby after a most happy exchange was avenged upon us You which were sometimes aliens and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled c. says the Apostle in Gol. 1.21 Here is the excellency of the love of Christ that it is bottom'd and founded in his own good-will and pleasure and nothing else besides as Moses tells the Israelites in Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not chuse you nor set his love upon you because you were thus and thus c. But because the Lord loved you c. He loved you because he loved you that 's the best account which can be given of the love of God That manner of reasoning which in other cases seems to carry an absurdity and incougruity with it here is the most rational of all other That 's the first kind of love the love of pity or benevolence The second is the love of Complacency or Beneficence as Christ loves us so far forth as to bestow his Grace upon us so he loves his own Graces in us Therefore where he has taken any persons into fellowship and communion with himself he does there bear a tender love and affection to them First Christ loves us so far forth as to make us his people and then he loves us upon this account because we are his people This we may see in the whole Book of the Canticles which is nothing else but an expression of the mutual love which is betwixt Christ and his Church and the contentment which they have in each other The consideration of this Point is thus far useful to us as it is an argument to us for our loving of Christ again Love it engages to love it has a special force and vertue with it in a mutual reciprocation And so it should likewise be with us in this particular we have cause to love Christ for himself and that variety of excellency which is in him considered abstractly but when we shall consider him in reference to our selves how he begins and prevents us with his love this does over and above challenge it from us If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16. And further it teaches us also to love our Brethren This love of Christ is exemplary and is propounded for a pattern unto us and so we should make it thus Ephes 5.1 2. Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loved us c. And 1 Joh. 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another Such persons carry themselves unsuitably and unequally to the love of Christ who have not some proportionable affection for others who are the members of Christ And so much of the first Emphasis as it may be laid upon the action of love and so having this Point in it that Christ does bear a special love and affection to his people Now the second is as it may be laid upon the Person of Christ himself To him that loved us It is spoken in a manner exclusively as if none did so much love us as Christ as indeed there does not This expression in the Text it is made a kind Of Periphrasis and description of Christ unto us whereby he is known and distinguished from all other persons Thus also in some other places as Rom. 8.37 We are more than conquerours through him that loved us Through him that loved us â— who is that namely through Christ so in 2 Thes 2.16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Still this love of us it is fastened upon Christ The Use of this Point is to believe it and to be perswaded of it and to teach us to labour more and more to assure our hearts of it We should endeavour to have the sense and feeling of this love of Christ more upon our souls and to be well setled and established in it Which was that which the Apostle Paul did so much pray for in reference to the Ephesians That they being rooted and grounded in love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and might know the love of Christ that passeth knowledg Ephes 3.16 17 c. To know the love of Christ that is sensibly and experimentally in themselves by the power and vertue of the Holy Ghost shedding it abroad in their hearts as it is in Rom. 5.5 This is known and discerned by such notes aâ— are most proper and peculiar to it we may know that Christ hath loved us according to that which he has done for us and especially done in us by changing of our natures and by infusing of his Graces into us There are many who think that Christ loves them because he casts outward blessings upon them in a way of common Providence but alas these will not serve the turn to assure us of his love he may do as much as this for such persons as to whom he will one day say I know you not No but we must make good his love from matters of an higher nature which is from that care which he has wrought in us to serve him and to keep his commandments this is the best discovery and trial of his love Then may we probably conclude that Christ does love us when he has perswaded us to love him which we cannot do in good earnest without his love first fastened upon our souls We love him because he first loved us not only as the motive of our love but also as the efficient Thus again in Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come in unto him and will make our abode with him And so I have done with the first General Part of the Text which is the description of Christ from his affection propounded in General in those words Vnto him that loved us The second is from the discovery or manifestation of this affection in particular in these words And hath washed us from our sins in his own blood This passage is considerable of us two manner of ways First Absolutely as it is an expression of our Priviledg and secondly Relatively as it is an expression of the love of Christ First Take it absolutely and in it self as it is an expression of the Priviledg of Believers and that is to be washed from their sins by Christs Blood The
v. 7. If I depart I will send him unto you The Holy Ghost is the Proxy of Christ that serves to bear his Bride company in the absence of Christ himself from her And he does carefully perform this office of respect unto her It was he that made her next to God Here 's the Spirit and the Bride both together And that 's the first particular in which he is here considerable of us to wit in the notion of his Presence or Personal Concomitancy The second is in the notion of Influence or operative concomitancy As it is the Spirit join'd with the Bride so it is the Spirit that is assistant unto her and what she does she does by his helping and enabling of her This is another thing here considerable of us it is the Spirit and Bride that say Come that is which make this particular request for the hastening of Christ second appearance And so there is this in general observable from it That the prayers of Gods people they are the workings of the Holy Ghost himself in them The voice of the Spouse it is all one with the voice of the Spirit they are not two voices but one and accordingly they are here in the Text join'd in one and put in a copulative expression It it not said the Spirit says come by himself and the Bride says come by her self No but the Spirit and the Bride say come both together as having the speech or action of the one transfer'd to the other We are the subjects of those actions which God himself works in us Certum est nos velle sed Deus facit ut velimus Certum est nos facere sed Deus facit ut faciamus says Austin We will but God makes us to will we do but God makes us to do And so we pray but the Spirit enables us to do so the spirit helps our infirmities Therefore we read of praying in the spirit Ephes 6.18 and of praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And of the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father in Rom. 8.15 and Heb. 4.6 c. this is called the intercession of the spirit In Rom. 8.26 27. The spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God c. There are two things which the Holy Ghost does for us to this purpose the one is the suggesting of the matter of our petitions by teaching us what to ask and to beg of God in prayer And the other the stirring up of holy desires and affections in us and giving us an holy boldness and confidence at the Throne of Grace and perswading us of our acceptance with God in the name of Christ He makes intercession for us by making intercession in us and helping us to make intercession The Consideration of this Point makes much for the comfort of Believers in regard of the success of their Prayers Therefore they are sure to be granted at one time or other because they are the workings and operations of the Holy Ghost himself in them whereby they are also distinguish't from the Petitions of other persons As for natural and carnal men they may sometimes cry to God out of the Dictates and suggestions of Nature or out of the Principles of custom and formality but the Holy Ghost has little influence upon them in such Applications and accordingly they cannot expect so confidently to be heard in them or to find any such benefit by them but the Prayers of the faithful being wrought in them by the Holy Ghost that does prompt them and put them upon them and help them and assist them in them they are therefore sure accordingly to have an efficacy and successfulness with them because God will be sure to hear the voice of his own Spirit and it is not so much they that speak as his Spirit that speaketh in them Where Christians pray as they should do and observe the right rules of Prayer which the Scripture does prescribe unto them their Prayers shall be followed with a blessing and good effect of them This is the confidence says the Apostle that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him in 1 Joh. 5.14 15. From hence also we learn to take heed of slighting such things as these are and of diminishing from them we should not think them to be of no value and to little purpose as some are ready to do But to set a price and valuation upon them there is more in the hearty prayer of the poorest and meanest Christian in the Church than the world is commonly aware of as being such as has very great Prevalence with God himself to whom it is tender'd But so much of the first of those persons which is here mentioned in the Text and that is the spirit considered both under the notion of his Presence as joyned with the Bride as also under the notion of his influence as being assistant unto her The second person is the Bride her self as she is here exprest and exhibited unto us By this title as I said we are to understand either the whole Church of Christ in General or every distinct Believer and Member of Christ in particular And according to either Consideration or Application of it it hath a twofold notion with it either of Eminency or of Diminution This word Bride as it lies before us in the Text is both a word of Excellency and a word of Extenuation It is a word of Excellency as it stands in opposition to Adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore It is a word of Extenuation as it stands in a distinction from Matrimony and compleat marriage It is the Bride not the Wife First I say The Church is here call'd the Bride as it is a title of Excellency and stands in opposition to adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore The false Church is an Harlot and a filthy and unclean adulteress it is the Whore of Babylon as she is called here in this Book of the Revelation the Mother of fornication c. And such an one as she is she never cares for the coming of Christ but rather desires he should stay away still and is glad of his staying as an Harlot is for the absence of her Husband The good man is not at home he is gone a long journey as she there expresses it Prov. 7.19 But the Bride which is the true Church as chaste and pure Virgin she longs for the coming of her beloved and calls after him as it is here declared
should be administred 344 Why called Christs Bride or spouse 447 Contentment Arguments to it 51 116 Coming to Christ what 105 109 144 145 Various comings of Christ 125 152 Touching Christs coming to Judgment See Judgment Comfort When others forget us in their prayers 69 From Christs Intercession See Intercession Choice comforts to believers 137 132 437 442 Comfortless what it denotes 149 Comfort when friends desert 150 Christ why stiled the first-begotten of the dead 438 Why stiled Prince of the Kings of the earth 439 Touching his eternal Generation See Generation Forming Christ in us what 368 369 Is true God 135 136 How the Way 140 141 How a faithful Witness 434 How the Truth 142 How the Life 143 How the Resurrection 144 How the Power of God 289 How the Wisdom of God 289 Distance From God threefold 9 Persons at a distance from God in one sense may be near in another 11 Discretion Lies in two things 15 Discretion Lies in two things 15 Duties Man by nature apt to think he pleases God by outside duties the ground thereof 421 We may over-do some duties 44 Take heed that duties interfere not 54 Why continued under weaknesses in them 165 What strength cannot carry us acceptably through them 165 Diligence Motives to it in Religion 47 59 Motives to diligent hearing the word preached 98 Doctrines General rules to judg of Doctriues 49 Disciple A disciple indeed displayed 101 103 Several sorts of disciples 102 Discord divisions contentions Amongst nearest relations whence they especially arise See Relations Touching Vnity See Unity Decays How to recover from under spiritual decays 80 Death Comforts against death 118 131 438 Comfort under the loss of near and dear relations 132 450 Several kinds of it 314 A great death what 314 Why God delivers his people from death threatning dangers 316 Despise How sinners despise the goodness of God 349 Whence a sinners despising Gods goodness arises 350 Take heed of despising Gods goodness why 351 Destruction What it implys 414 Dectrine Of Christ how taken 425 E Error General rule for discerning errors 49 Something tolerating it See Toleration Election Helps to right choosing 55 A Saints choice vindicated 59 All elected shall be converted 106 None converted but the Elect 110 Ear. The evil of an itching ear 277 Enthusiasts Condemned 340 See Prophesie Examination A Christians duty 385 Motives to it 385 Whence non-examination arises 385 By what we should examine our selves 386 F Fool. Sinners are fools in what respect See Sinners Feet Sitting at the feet what it signifies 38 Flesh Lusts of the flesh what 377 Feasts The faults attending them 38 Faith How it helps in temptation 75 Threefold 94 Its excellency 263 Saving faith what 263 264 Signs of true faith 264 Free-will and free-grace How to be able to judg aright touching both 91 92 Touching free-will 155 405 G God The several ways God speaks 17 How far God is seen and in what sense not seen 133 VVisdom of God how taken 251 Given Men given to Christ several ways 105 106 Godliness Vindicated against its being charged with folly 20 Rewards of it twofold 58 Grace No falling from it 58 74 87 How far we may how far we cannot resist it 87 Free-grace 259 Its excellency above gifts 294 Caution against decays in it 421 How Christ derives it to Christians 427 One difference between common and saving Grace 428 Glory Different degrees of it 120 How Christ prepares it 122 How Christ makes us meet for it 124 Generation Touching Christs Eternal Generation 135 Gospel It s Excellency above the Old Testament 138 327 Why God deprives a people of it 148 How men act against it 328 329 Dangerous to oppose it 328 How we further its progress 340 Its unvariableness 344 Greeks Who are meant by them in Scripture 268 Gifts Touching Gifts 292 Grace more excellent than Gifts 294 H Hearing Right hearing 38 97 262 263 345 460 Reproof to mandering hearers 38 96 We must labour to understand what we hear 461 Helps to the keeping of the word which it heard Ibid. Why we must give most diligent heed not to let what we hear slip 462 Hearing Preferred before reading 262 Why take heed of an itching ear in hearing 277 Whence it becomes unprofitable 263 279 280 Why we should stay the Ministerial Benediction 407 How people lose what they hear 420 Habitation Directions in chusing one 50 Humbling Considerations 257 291 430 House Of God how taken 117 Mansion-house What 119 Comfort to houseless Christians 131 Hell The punishment of loss most dreadful 430 I Interruptions Which God gives twofold 18 Infirmities Many Christian infirmities discovered 39 40 Justification How Christ makes way for it 122 Intercession Comfort from Christs 70 71 Ignorance Of a sinner in four particulars 90 All men ignorant respecting Providence in two things 111 Three sorts of ignorance 354 Judgment Why Christ will come to it 126 How Christ will come to it 126 How Christ knew how not the day of judgment 172 The suddenness of it 415 Image Images in worship condemned 134 Jealousie It s nature 326 Reproved Temporal 383 Reproved Spiritual 419 K Kingdom OF God how taken 8 Knowledg How wicked men know God how not 254 Its opposites 102 A twofold knowledg implied 435 L Life Threefold Christ communicates 143 A Christians life compared unto a walk See Walk Learning Commended 255 258 In what respects disparaged 256 270 283 Love Of God safe and sweet as conveighed thorow Christ 430 The love of Christ amplified 440 443 M Morality Not meritorious of special Grace 11 Let alone to it self would never be Grace 12 Morality accidentally may set a man further from Conversion than Prophaneness 12 Ministry Ministers their work 27 31 99 271 332 Several titles given them 28 Incouragement to them in their work 31 32 93 262 285 310 371 Pusillanimity a great evil in a Minister 41 VVhy the devil most tempts them 64 The chief subject of their preaching 97 274 Mind Take heed of worldly-mindedness why 43 Earthly-mindedness reproved 48 Helps to heavenly-mindedness 48 Marriage Directions in choosing a yoke-fellow 50 The difference between Christs and Ministers teaching Millenaries No personal reign 128 Ministers Two things Ministers should take heed of in preaching 260 272 Reproof to scandalous Ministers 279 298 Cautions respecting their studies 297 Touching their preaching See Preaching Motive to promote their diligence 302 Two parts of the Ministry 332 Must be assured of the truth of what they preach 341 Their travelling in birth what 365 Assiduity required in a Minister 366 The honour of it 371 See their titles 434 Reproof to the invaders of the Ministry 384 How faithful Ministers shall receive a though it may be not a full reward 424 Mercies Outward when sanctified 348 Meanness and sinfulness hinder not from partaking of mercies 459 Memory Helps to it 420 Magistrates A main ground of subjects obedience to Princes 429 N Necessity The one thing necessary 46
admiration of it whiles we are unable to dive into it or to comprehend it And withall to be comforted from it as matter of great comfort unto us that we have indeed such a Glorious Redeemer as this is The great God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle Paul stiles him in Tit. 2.13 And this for this expression of him in that he is singly called The begotten of the Father We may here also further take notice that he is called the Onely-begotten of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely Genitus but Vni-genitus And this will require briefly a little explication from us How Christ is said to be the Onely begotten of God when-as there are divers others begotten besides for thus are all true Christians and Believers Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth says St. James in Jam. 1.18 Who hath begotten us again to a lively hope says St. Peter in 1 Pet. 1.3 He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not says St. Joh. 1. Joh. 4.18 All this is spoken of the Saints and Servants of God who are said to be begotten by him And yet here and in other places besides it is spoken of Christ that He is the Onely begotten For the solution of this we must consider in what sense this is spoken that Christ is the Onely-begotten namely in regard of his Divine Nature and as to Eternal Generation as begotten of the Substance of his Father so there is none begotten of him but alone He is the Son of God from all Eternity we in Time and he is the Son of God by Nature we by Grace He by Natural Generation we by Voluntary Adoption as Divines use to express it he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He is the Onely-begotten Son because he is the same that is onely-begotten after an extraordinary manner As Isaac is said to be the onely-begotten of Abraham Heb. 11.17 although he had Ishmael begotten of him also because he was begotten of him after a strange and miraculous dispensation And so much may suffice to be spoken of the First description here of Christs Person namely which is taken from his Relation The onely-begotten Son of the Father The second is which is taken from his Residence as I may so express it Who is in the bosome of the Father This was a phrase which fitted very well the mouth of the Apostle John and who himself lay in the bosome and was the bosome-Disciple of Christ what he himself was to Christ he signifies Christ to be to his Father yea indeed a great deal more It is a Metaphorical expression and so we are to look upon it not as if God had properly any bosome in him but such as speak after the manner of men for our better capacity and apprehension of so great a Mystery as is indeed couched and comprehended in it Thus as God has his Bowels so also his Bosome There are divers things which seem to be implied and contained in this expression as applied to Christ of his being in the Bosome of God we may reduce them to these following particulars First a Conjunction of Nature or Identity of Essence He is in his Bosome that is he is of the same Substance with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom expresses it is that which is here pointed out unto us the parity and propinquity of Being This agrees with that which was said before of his Generation where it was said that he was begotten of the Father and it contains the same Truth inlarged and amplified unto us concerning the Consubstantiality of the Second Person in Trinity with the First as being Both of them One one in Essence though distinct in Personality Secondly The Intimacy of Affection that 's also in being in the Bosome and it is usually so exprest unto us in other places where things which are any thing dearer than other are there disposed of Ruth 4.16 Naomi of Boaz's child it is said that she took it and laid it in her bosom as a testimony namely of her great love and tenderness towards it Moses carried the Israelites in his bosome Numb 11.12 and Christ himself his Lambs Isa 40.11 We read of the Husband of the bosome and the Wife of the bosome that is the dear Husband or Wife The Bosome it is an expression of dearness And this is another thing observable in Christ towards God he is very near and dear unto him The Father loveth the Son Joh. 5.20 and he is therefore called the Son of his love in Col. 1.13 and so he testisied of him both at his Baptism and his Transfiguration This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased God has a great deal of affection for Christ as a Father for the Son of his Bowels and for the Son of his Bosome And that 's a second thing here implied to wit Intimacy of Affection Thirdly The nearness of Presence Things which are in the bosome are at hand and presently come to Whiles Christ therefore is said to be in the bosome of his Father there is thereby signified his great Proximity or nearness unto him He is always in the presence of God and ready for converse with him Thus Prov. 8.30 I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him And so he is said to the like purpose to sit at the right hand of God which are expressions of his continual fellowship and society with him Lastly The participation of Secrets that 's also in his being in the Bosome The Bosome it has that notion and emphasis with it amongst the rest A Friend in the bosome knows more of mens counsels than strangers and so it is here Christ being in the bosome of the Father he knows all that the Father himself knows which he reveals unto him Thus Joh. 5.20 The Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that he himself doth and will shew him greater things than these that ye may marvel Thus we see how in all these respects this expression does well agree to Christ of being in the bosome of his Father from the Conjunction of Nature as of the same Substance with him from the Intimacy of Affection as being dear and precious to him from the Nearness of Presence as being always and continually before him and from the Participation of Secrets as being throughly acquainted with him Now the consideration of this Point is very useful by way of Application namely as matter of great comfort and consolation to the Servants of God in all particulars Seing Christ is in the bosome of the Father this reflects very satisfactorily upon all those that are the Members of Christ and that according to the several explications of this phrase unto us First as to the Conjunction of Nature it is very pleasing and satisfactory here to consider that
thence matter of rejoycing but only such an one as upon tryal does approve it and give allowance unto it And so is that place also to be understood 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread c. What barely examine Is that all no but approve upon examination and even so all here Let every man prove his own work that is let every man so order it that upon due tryal he may approve it Where yet again further for the better understanding of this phrase This expression even in this sense also namely by way of approbation it is not to be taken only nor so much in reference to judgment but to practise when the Apostle says Let every man approve his own work his meaning is not this That he should absolutely think well of his work whatsoever it be whether good or bad for that many are forward enough unto of their own accord whereby they do now and then judg unrighteous judgment and besides it is not always in a mans power so to do Heman cannot approve what he pleases but the meaning of it is this That he should so manage and dispose of his actions as from whence he may have just cause and ground for the Approbation of them so that probare here in the Text it is as much as probatum facere to prove that is to make approved And so it is to be taken by a Metonymie of the effect for the cause because he that does any thing as he should do he does deserve and receive approbation therefore the doing of it in that manner it is expressed by approbation This now for the further illustration of this point unto us is considerable in two particular Branches First In reference to what And secondly in reference to whom we are to prove or to make our works to be approved we are to do it in the thing it self and we are to do it also in reference and order to such and such persons First In reference to what and for the thing it self Take it in three particulars more in which it is to be done by us for the matter of it for the manner of it and for the principle First We must approve our work in regard of the matter of it and the substance of the action it self This is necessarily to be premised as the very ground and foundation of all the rest that which is not a good work substantially it can never be made good by circumstances let them be the best that possibly can be A man may mar a good work by bad circumstances but he can never mend a bad work by good because Bonum oritur ex integris causis malum ex quolibet defectu It is a rule in Divinity that which is good must have all things concurring to make it good but that which is evil may be so but from some particular defect As a man is not a compleat man except he have all his parts but he is a lame man if he want but one limb This is that then which we say That that action which is materially evil it cannot be warranted or made good from any good which is concomitant with it or adhering unto it It is not the best end that any man can propound to himself which will justifie his action where it is sinful and unlawful in it self A man may not lye for God as Job speaks Job 13.7 Neither may we do evil that good may come thereof as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3.8 Indeed there were some that both thought so and said so of the Apostle that it was so with him but they wronged him in so doing as himself there declares it as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say no the damnation of such is just which so argue and reason and conclude and it 's such as will not hold water For this purpose we must know thus namely that there are some actions which are evil simply and intrinsecally and in their own nature there are others which are so only conditionally and in such and such cases but in their own nature and out of those cases are indifferent and neither good nor bad The latter of these actions according to the several conditions which may be upon them of circumstances which they may be cloathed withal may become good and warrantable but the former of these they cannot be warranted from any condition whatsoever but being evil formally are therefore so indispensably That 's the first Explication that work which is approved it must be approved for the matter and substance of the action it self Secondly It must be also approved for the carriage and manner of performance It is a good rule also of Nazianzene's to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is good is not good except it be well done there 's a peculiar Modification which is proper to every action to be attended and observed by us and without which it cannot be accepted nor we in it This is appliable to all the particular exercises and duties of Religion Prayer Reading Hearing of the word and such as these where it is not enough for us to do these things simply in themselves which yet are not to be omitted by us but we must be careful to do them in such a manner and fashion as God does require Thirdly We must approve our work also for the Principle and Spirit from whence it does proceed and arise in us Prov. 21.27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he brings it with wickedness or a wicked mind A wicked mind makes a good action to be abominable which is no further good than it has goodness for the Original of it This same spring and principle of our actions it hath a very great influence upon them for the Goodness and Approbation of them And thus much of the first Head namely in reference to what we are to prove or approve our work The second is in reference to Action and the persons which are to be regarded by us Now these are likewise of a threefold specification First To God Secondly To Man Thirdly To our selves First We must approve our work that is we must approve it to God that he may like it and be well-pleased with it This is that which the Servants of God have been careful still especially to do and it concerns them to do so and that especially upon these following Considerations First As he is one of the most exact and accurate judgment and best able to discern of our work what it is In all approbations of mens selves for any thing which is done by them they are commonly most careful to do it to such perfons as have most skill in it and are of greatest worth and dignity in themselves The approbation of one person of quality and that knows what belongs to a business is more than an
hundred applauses from other men Now this is the case betwixt God and us he is a Great and Holy God a God of Wisdom and Knowledg and that tryes every mans work of what nature and sort it is and therefore is there very good reason why we should approve out selves chiefly to him Secondly From our Relation to him as our Master and he that sets us on work Whom do servants that understand themselves or workmen that know what they do study chiefly to please in their work but those that imploy them Now this again is the case with us here betwixt our selves and God he is our Master that sets us all our businesses and imployments whiles we live in the world and therefore approve them to him Thirdly As it is he that must recompence us and give us our reward he is not only our task-master but our pay-master likewise and there 's a great matter in that We see this to be natural and frequent in mens dealings with men and one with another that let others find fault with their work as much as they please yet if he likes it that is to give them their wages they do not care nor weigh it a rush but are well satisfied with it and so it should be with us in regard of our dealings with God We should be careful to walk worthy of the Lord to all well-pleasing c. Col. 1.10 And then it is no matter what may happen unto us in other regards but we may be satisfied and quieted in our selves This as it concerns all kind of Christians at large so especially those who are Ministers and are Gods Servants in regard of their office and place which they sustain Alas If we speak of men a man will quickly be here at a loss what to do and he has the hardest task that can be of all other men task'd for one man approves one thing and another man approves the quite contrary so that he that observes this he shall never sin and he that regards the clouds shall never reap as the Preacher expresses it Eccles 11.4 Therefore it is the safest and surest way to look chiefly to God and to be ambitious of being accepted of Him For he is not approved that commends himself but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10.18 But yet secondly As Christians must approve their work chiefly to God so in its place to men also Thus we have it in 2 Cor. 8.21 Providing things honest not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men This was the Apostle Pauls care in regard of his own practise and he gives us a very good pattern and example for it in Act. 24.16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men This must be likewise the care of all other Christians besides to give no just ground or occasion of offence to other men from that which is done by them I say to give no ground or just occasion for if we speak of not-offending actually that 's not a thing within our own reach because it is not in any mans power to command another mans judgment and understanding I cannot make any man directly to approve what is done by me because I cannot put reason and light and apprehension into him but yet I may do it objectively and remotely in the action it self which accordingly is that which is to be regarded by all Christians There 's no man ought to do any thing but what may be and ought to be approved of and allowed of by all that observe is This is that which lyes upon us especially in this particular that if any one shall not approve of our actions it may be their fault and not ours not ours as doing any thing which we have no ground or warrant for but rather theirs as not fully apprehending our ground and warrant for it and so as returning upon them rather than on our selves In actions which are disputable and questionable betwixt one Christian and another there are these Rules which are briefly to be observed and regarded by them First That those that are strong do bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves Rom. 15.1 Christians ought not too rigorously to fasten their own sense and opinion upon others but rather to stay till God himself shall be pleased to reveal it unto them Philip. 3.15 Secondly Every one ought to be ready to give an account of his own practise it is a proud and surly humor in any to do things only because they will do them and never care to give any satisfaction to those that modestly require it of them which in Christianity they are bound to do as we are to be ready to give a reason of our hope so also of our performance We see how careful of this the People of God have still been in Scripture The Reubenites and Gadites and the half tribe of Manasses to satisfie the other Tribes of Israel in that which was done by them Josh 22.21 The Apostles and Elders and Brethren to give an account to the rest of the Churches about Circumcision and other matters in Controversie Act. 15.23 The Apostle Peter to approve himself to those of the Circumcision concerning his eating with the Gentiles Act. 11.4 Thus it has still been the endeavour of those who have been better affected than others not only to do that which they have conceived to be lawful in it self but likewise upon occasion to evidence and demonstrate their doing of it Thirdly Where Christians are forced to dissent from the rest of their Brethren they are bound very much to be affected with it and to lay it to heart though they do no more than they may do yet to be tenderly sensible of the occasion God does mutually humble his Servants in his Providences towards them whiles he suffers them to divide from each other in such particulars and it concerns each of them to improve it and to learn somewhat by it And so as for those who are good so for those which are evil likewise we are to approve our work to them also at least in the Negative that they may have nothing to say against it and where we have not the testimony of their mouths we may have at least of their consciences Thus 1 Pet. 2.15 For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men And again chap. 3. ver 16. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil-doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Chrift Whiles it is said that we must approve our work to men we must take it with a double limitation for the right understanding of it First That it be to mens Beasons not to their Humours Secondly That it be to mens graces not to their lusts First I say to mens reasons not to