them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
speaking went all away from Christ If they had been called to fire from Christ it had been something but he saith no more but you must eat my flesh and drink my blood and they all went away Yet the Disciples there was twelve then saith Christ Will ye go away also Lord whether shall we go saith Peter thou hast the words of eternall life so they abode with him and clave to him Saith Barnabas with full purpose of heart that is you must not cleave as Iudas for Iudas did then cleave to Christ when all but the Apostles left him that we read of but with full purpose of heart the Greek word signifies with full decree of heart such as the Medes and Persians had when they decreed to cast Daniel into prison though the King were otherwise minded and had seen his errour yet they told him a decree of the Medes and Persians cannot be broken it must be kept the Apostle alludes to that there must be such a decree in the soul of sticking to Christ and cleaving to God notwithstanding all tribulations and persecutions and shame and reproach and trouble whatsoever that befalls that you may as soon break the lawes of the Medes and Persians as bring the soul from that decree As one said of old they might as soon stop the Sun in the firmament as hinder that godly man in his course of holinesse So let me intreat and exhort you in the exhortation of Barnabas that you would cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart There are two great times in generall when people 2. Speciall times of cleaving to God 1. In a generall deluge of sin leave God and then you must be sure to cleave to him that is First when a generall time of sin comes up among you as this of Baal peor there were twenty four thousand slaine for their sin at Baal-peor sin when it comes up once is like a streame truly the course of the world is but the streame of sin in the world and worldly men Therefore you shall see that sins in Nations though they begin from little see how men are carried away with them when once they are grown strong when once people begin to be proud and high and set themselves up every one shall be so I shall be laughed at if I do not spend my money in vaine things to maintaine my servants my coate my garb and Coach and the like This pride is grown to a streame in the world and so for swearing and so for drunkennesse and every other sin Now I say when sin doth in this manner break out and thou seest others carried with it more and more then take heed then be sure thou cleave to God Nay there are more spirituall sins then these as it is said Barnabas was carried away with the dissimulation When thou seest generall dissimulation in a Kingdom to call darknesse light and light darknesse and good evil and evil good to call good men treacherous and treacherous men good to call blinde base superstitious men Orthodox and Orthodox men superstitious take heed then that thou cleave to the Lord. Then secondly when persecutions and sufferings 2. In times of persecution come few men make account of it we cannot make people sensible of it what they must suffer they have false hopes they think that though people suffered in Queen Maryes time and others may after yet they shall go in peace We must suffer talk of Reformation and what you will all honest hearts inevitably shall have tribulation Therefore let this word abide with you that it be your study and earnest prayer to the Lord when you see others run into sin and are carried away for fear of this trouble and that crosse and the other shame that then you abide with the Lord as Iudah Though Israel play the harlot yet let Iudah be faithfull with his God Though such a man dissemble yet why should I do so though such a one go against his own light and conscience yet why should not I cleave to Christ That is one exhortation that you would cleave to the Lord. Expositions and Observations on PSALM 83. 1 Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God 2 For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have list up the head c. THis Psalm containes in it a grievous complaint of the prophet to God against the enemies of his Son and of his people Some do conceive that it was not the prophet David but Isaiah or some of the prophets in the time of Hezekiah when Zenecharib and other Nations that were confederate with him were coming up against Israel But however a confederacie there was of the wicked against the godly and the prophet whosoever he was here complaines to God and doth as it were First awaken God to hearken to his complaint The parts of the Psalm Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still Secondly he layes down the matter of the complaint which was the crafty counsell and the conspiracie of divers wicked people yea of Nations some ten Nations against the people of God the Israelites and he lays down in particular who they were Then thirdly he doth pray or prophesie for most of the prayers of the prophets were prophesies also he not onely prayed that it might be so but prophesied that it should be so that they should be as a wheel that they should be as fire in the wood or as a flame of fire upon the mountains Lastly he lays down the end why he so prayed or prephesied to wit that his enemies might be filled with shame that they might seek the name of the Lord that they might be brought home to God Or if they will go on and perish that others may know the name of the Lord that they may know that thou whose name is Iehovah art most high over all the earth And though their faces being filled with shame they will not fear the Lord yet doubtlesse others will and when God shall bring confusion on his enemies others will acknewledge the name of the Lord Iehovah and that there is no other in the whole earth This is the sum and substance of the Psalm I shall endeavour to open the meaning of it a little in particular First concerning the prophets complaint the prophets waking of God as it were in those his complaints Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still Or as the Septuagint renders it O Lord say they who is like to thee keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still And you must take notice and it is worth observing that when the prophet saith here O God he means Iesus Christ That whereas ordinarily in the old Testament especially in the book of Psalms when you hear the prophet mention God or Iehovah or the Lord you think of God naturally out of
and he wondred that there was no intercessor That is God suffered all this truth to faile and Justice to fall back and every thing to go to wrack and ruine God would see if any man would intercede any man among our Magistrates or Ministers or Citizens if any man would plead for God and for his people and for his truth but he saw none and wondered Truly God wonders and men may wonder to see what abundance of people follow God and good lives in the time of prosperity and when adversity comes and wicked men and al the powers of hell conspire against godlinesse to see how few shew themselves for God God wonders at it Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing and was clad with Zeale as a cloak The Lord comes and Arms himself just as valiant souldiers in the wars when a party is gone forth they stand to see what they do how they come off but if there be none that will stick to it but run away they buckle on their armour So the Lord stands to see where is the man that will stick to it in these cases and if there be any God rejoyceth in it if there be none God himself comes in Therefore be sure of this when the Lord suffers his Son or any thing that belongs to him to come to these low conditions when truth failes in the street and equity is perverted it is not that God means to suffer the wicked to have their wills for God hath sworn that Christ shall reign but to trie us a little space whether we will couragiously stick to God and his cause or basely for fear of men comply with the world 3. For the compendious destrution of the it enemies There is a third reason God as it were keeps silence and holds his peace in the middst of the greatest troubles to this end that God may as it were gather the wicked into one fagot into one bundle that they may be destroyed together There is a great deal of ado to gather the Saints in this world and truly there is some ado togather the wicked So God withdraws himself from his people yet he hath a hook in their hearts he holds them up secretly by his Spirit that they shall not leave him yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left them and all their Ordinances and his Gospell and every thing and then the wicked come together and insult whereby God may come upon them at once and destroy them as we finde ten Nations in this Psalm And so in Genesis God stirs up the Nations against Abraham and his posterity and there are ten Nations that God promiseth to cut off before Abraham at once the Perrezites and the Iebusites and the Canaanites c. So God heaps them together and burns them like stubble Those that burn stubble have rakes and they gather it to heaps and then they fire it This is the way of Gods keeping silence among his people and sitting still in the midst of their miseries thus God gathers their enemies on heaps as stubble that he may burn them together Therefore from this that I have said I have three words to say to you and to my own soul Vse 1 The first of all is that if the Lord should take any such course in our dayes that you would learn hence to awake God to call upon his Name to be earnest with him Truly there are a generation of people now I leave them to the Lord to judge them as I shall alway for we have all one master but there is a people that throw away the ordinance of prayer and they professe to live immediately upon God without ordinances without prayer and without all the rest I do not know what their perfections may be therefore I cannot judge but this I know as far as ever I had experience that the chiefest way of communion with God is spirituall prayer Build up one another on your holy faith and Pray in the Holy Ghost saith Iude. And therefore though you be ancient Christians and grow spirituall and see a great deal of formality in your prayers as some pray so many times a day and that out of forme not that they should not pray so oft in a day that is well take heed that out of any pretence you be not remiss for truly it is the readiest way to heaven and to attaine happiness and the clearest conduite to bring grace to the soul and the love of God and the shining of his face that I have yet known I yet know no better therefore take heed of the temptations of Satan that you do not upon any pretence either throw away prayer or be remisse in it Vse 2 Secondly if the Lord should leave his Church and people as we know not what he will do it may be God is going to take a napp let me warne you from the Lord and his word for that is the excellencie of the word by it thy servant is forewarned take heed of distrust and unbelief and impatience towards God God doth take a napp sometimes it is for his glory and for your good but yet cleave to him say as it is here in the Psalm O Lord who is like unto thee Do not think that the Lord will leave his people for God hath you know made a Covenant with his Son that he shall inherit all nations he shall subdue all his enemies under his feet All the enemies hitherto that have risen against his Church God hath subdued them and either our Gospell is vaine and our preaching vaine and our faith vaine and all vaine or else God will exalt his Son and his people and Saints and ordinances maugre all enemies though ten Nations as it is in this Psalm fight against them nay though ten thousand if there were so many in the world God will awake and subdue them and if there be no man in the world that will plead their cause God will do it Therefore live by faith and not by sense take heed of living by sense there is nothing that more poysons and imbitters our hearts and spirits and lives then the beholding of things by sense that as one good man speaks I wish saith he sometimes that I were quite bereft of reason that I might exercise faith We are used to sense and such a man doth this and this and here is conspiring in this and that place and all to overthrow Christ and the power of the Gospell What of all this Look by faith what God hath said and Covenanted and promised and keep up your spirits by faith Vse 3 Then lastly I would admonish all in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take heed of betraying Gods cause or people or your own salvation by your fleshlinesse I
have them opprest he need say no more But let us a little view these Nations that were joyned together they were very numerous very many The best place in the world will afford company enough if a man will conspire and plot against the Saints It is no argument for a man to say Such a Gentleman and such a Magistrate is in and such a one hath put his hand to it and they plead for it that is not enough here are ten Nations people enough A man must not go with a multitude to do evil It is rather an argument that the thing is evil when there is a multitude especially when it is a multitude of people that are set upon no good that the most are whoremongers or drunkards or covetous men when there are a multitude of such then the multitude is an argument rather that the designe is naught though they be not thorowly acquainted what it is But let us look upon them in particular First The Tabernacles of Edom were there they are first set down Now who this people of Edom were you shall see Deut. 2. They were the seed of Esau God had forbid the children of Israel when they were going up to Canaan they that should not distress Moab and Edom but should buy every thing for their money they should not plunder as we use to say nor do any thing unrighteously because God had given Mount Seir to Edom a people that had received abundance of kindnesses from Israel and when they passed thorow their country though they were a wicked people yet they paid money for their very water as it is in the beginning of Deuteronomie And the Holy Ghost put them in the forefront that Edom of all others should do it The Tabernacles of Edom. That is the Souldiers that lived in tabernacles or tents for they used tents in their Armies as we see clearly Iudg. 7. There was a cake comes and throwes down their tents The Tabernacles of Edom that is the Souldiery part of Edom they were they that did this Beloved they of all others the Lord takes notice of in conspiring against the Saints who have received kindness from the Saints How many men have we seen in England that have received many courtesies in their wants of the people of God and when they have been in distress otherwise yet after all their purposes they have come to cut their throats God takes notice of them more then others Therefore 2 Chron. 20. 11. you shall read of Moab and Amon and those of Mount Seir they were coming to fight against Iehosaphat Iehosaphat enters the suit to God he sets himself to seek the Lord and among the rest of his arguments this is one behold saith he how they reward us to come to cast us out of the posession that thou hast given us to inherit you shall read in ver 10. And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade when they came out of the Land of Egypt but they turned from them and destroyed them not saith Iehosaphat When we came out of Egypt thou commandedst us that we should not destroy them and that we should pay for every thing we took and behold how they requite us There are few wicked people but they receive courtesies from the Saints but when they turn persecutors it is a pittifull thing consider of it in the black roll of the accusations of the Saints the Lord will have them put in the first place The Tabernacles of Edom. And the Ishmalites That is the seed of Ishmael that presecuted his brother Isaac and jeered him and laughed at him And of Moab Moab was one of the children of Lot The Hagarens That is those that came from Hagar for though they were the same people sometimes they are called Ishmalites from their father or Hagarens from their Grand mother Hagar Geball Geball they say was a Nation near Zidon where Solomon sent to fetch gold Ammon Ammon was one of the sons of Lot by incest Amalek Was one of those that first fought against Israel Exod. 17. that God sware should be cut off and God sent Saul to do it and he did it not and he after was cut off by an Amalekite The Philistines We read of the Philistines often And them that dwell at Tyre Tyre was a rich City spoken of by the prophets on the Sea-side Ashur also is joyned with them Ashur that is the Assyrians that came from Aser one of the children of Seth. They have helped the children of Lot That is they have holpen Moab and Ammon they have strengthened their Arms against Israel Selah That is take notice Of what that they were numerous that did it and that they were in the first place that had received kindnesses of God people And take notice that those that acted most in it were the seed of godly men they have holpen the children of Lot Many times the children of Gods people the chiefest persecutors Beloved you see by experience many times the children of Godly people are the feircest persecutors All the rest Geball and those inhabitants of Tyre they were prophane people they did but help the children of Lot it was they that set it on foot and carried the designe a kinde of rotten professors that are persecuters of godly people I have oft thought if thou be the childe of a godly man or woman though thou have many priviledges that others have not thou hast more cause to fear then others have for usually it comes to passe that that Religion that was in power in the parents is onely in forme in the children they learn their fathers Religion by head that they had by heart they pray as their fathers did but there is not that Spirit and they can hear Sermons but there is not the heart of their fathers and mothers so for a time they keep a forme of godliness that will not last and then on a sudden they fall into the stream of persccution and then all that head knowledge that they have serves them for no other stead but to make them more desperate and skilfull in persecuting and opposing the people and the ways of God Thus you have the Nations set down that do this Now the prophet come to pray unto the Lord further or to prophesie for the prayers of the prophets were prophesies usually Do unto them as unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the brook Kison which perished at Endor they became as dung for the earth c. The prophet prayes or prophesies against them two ways First he desires God that he would punish them according to those patterns and examples of justice that he had shewed in former times Do unto them as unto the Midianites You shall read of them in Iudg. 7. The Midiantes were as Grashoppers for number and Gidion with an hundred men that had Trumpets in their hands comes upon them and
and plagued and punished them and sent the Pestilence into their Cities and families they will not learn but there are other people that will worship Iehovah that will fear the Lord by seeing his judgements on others As David saith When the wicked are taken away as drosse my flesh trembleth for fear of thee I am afraid of thy judgements When he saw the wicked took away as drosse with the fire of Gods judgements he feared Therefore learn not to desire their death onely to pray for them and to believe that all their plottings against the Saints will be as stubble and as chaff they will come to nothing And if the wicked will not learn by seeing God to crosse them as he hath crossed all their designes in our age blessed be his name yet do thou take notice how God went against such people and such a Nation that rose against God God crost and blasted them and be sure that God will do so to the end to all that rise against him and his people Only take notice of Gods ways in the world to fear him and trust in him and to wait for him to come and do what thy soul desireth Expositions and Observations on PSALM 116. I love the Lord because he hath heard my prayer and my supplications Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live The sorrows of death compassed me c. I Promised if the Lord would give me strength to speak a word unto you this afternoone concerning the mercies of God unto us in the victories of Scotland but especially of Bristoll because we have more knowledg of it and more relation to it the most of us And therefore I would briefly from this Psalm take occasion or ground of what I have to speak to you Two things briefly I see here laid down in this Psalm The first is the Psalmist doth expresse the great mercie of God to him in some speciall deliverance And that he doth illustrate by the misery he was in for he was in a very low condition full of tears and prayers and sorrows and his feet were ready to fall so the Lord heard his prayer and delivered him out of his troubles whatsoever they were That is one thing he takes notice of the great mercie of God to him The second is he doth consider what he should do to God now God having delivered him what is his duty For it is a known lesson among us that the mercies of God require somewhat from us though all be by his grace And those are here laid down in the Psalm they are various I will love the Lord I will call upon him while I live I will walk before him in the land of the living and diverse such duties he lays upon himself in consideration of Gods great mercy to him Now I have not time and strength to go over all which are many in the Psalm and therefore I will onely tell you a few thoughts that I have concerning Gods mercie in bestowing Bristoll upon us again and that according to Davids method here which is the most naturall and the most usuall by the Saints First to take notice of Gods goodness in that mercy And secondly to consider what is our duty Concerning the first there are abundance of mercies and kindnesses couched and wrapped up together in that It was not only the taking of a Garrison but there are abundance of mercies in it and mingled with it you Gods mercy in the taking in of Bristoll considered in five respects 1. In regard of the potent opposition especially that are concerned in it and are godly you know but in my eye these are the chiefe that I see and am affected with The first is I look upon the greatnesse of the mercie I see that all were great things in and about it there was no meane inconsiderable thing in it I know it is a great City the second in the Kingdom and I know also there were great works to keep it I know there were great and strong and numerous souldiers in it There were great resolutions in those souldiers And I am sure too there was great miserie in the City among the poor people and round about the City hath been these two yeers the plague scarsity of provision and other things And no man doubts but it is of great consequence if the Lord make it a blessing to us if the Lord sanctifie it it will be of great consequence not only to those parts being the chiefe City in that part of the Kingdom but to this City and to the whole State and Kingdom I see nothing in it but great things And therefore me thinks that he that should do this for us surely he must needs be a great God that pulled down the great pride of that City and the garison in it that must throw down those Bulwarks as it were And therefore let us exalt God let us conceive of God according to his greatnesse for surely he that did that work there no man will doubt or deny that it was God and that God that did it any man that will seriously consider of the work will say he is a great God therefore let us glorifie him in his greatnesse Another thing very observable that we should take 2. In regard of the hazard in storming notice of is that the Lord hath there preserved our friends preserved our Army in such a wonderfull manner in storming that City I have no skill in war but I think there are no people that go about storming but they resolve to lose many a man therefore they will do any thing rather then storme if it may be gotten otherwise and to storme such a City such Forts such strength such a Castle double lined in some parts and to do it by no very great Army neither and that the Lord should please to preserve them that so few should be slaine or wounded it is a wonderfull mercy For truly beloved when there were but a few in the City when the other side sought it they had it not so cheap it cost them the lives of many hundreds of them but this was the Lords goodnesse to his poor people and truly we may say as David doth here he hath inclined his ear to us and heard our prayer Then a third blessing that I take notice of in it is 3. In preserving it from the Pestilence that God should preserve our friends from the pestilence We alway conceived that if they had that City they knew not what to do with it because of the pestilence that might ruine and destroy the Army after they had took it and as we hear though they be in the same houses and quarter where the sicknesse was and have lain in the beds where men have been sick yet we hear little or nothing of the infection coming among them Surely this can be no other but the finger
Iohn 14. And in the Epistles of Iohn If we call upon God he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions and if you ask any thing in the name of Christ you shall have it You know these things onely I minde you as Peter and the rest of the Apostles often minded them of what they knew already least they should be carried away with the error of the wicked That is one thing it is an Ordinance you see four great pillars under it it hath the Law of Nature there are Precepts and Examples and Promises to perform what we pray for And there are threatnings to those that do it not Curse the Families that call not on thy Name Secondly I said it was an everlasting Ordinance or duty and you may see that three ways First If you look upon the old Testament you shall see there all the people of God they practised it I need not instance in any one place And secondly you will easily grant that if you look upon the times of the new Testament the dawning of it in Christs time for that was the dawning of the new Testament there you see Christ prayed whole nights and before day he was on the mountain seeking God and there are many Parables one in Luke 11. and another here wherein he exhorts his disciples to be earnest with God and though God as it were seem as if he had no minde otherwise to do it yet by the very importunity of prayer for that is the drift of that Parable in Luke 11. and of this the Lord will be intreated Then come after to the times that the new Testament was fully set up you see when Christ was gone to the Holy of Holies there they prayed and called on God continually all those Churches did call upon God there is nothing more clear Nay thirdly for there is the main hint of it in the last times in these times and in later times then these though these be called the last times the glorious times that shall be just at the end of the world the people of God will be a praying people in those days I will give you but one place Zach. 12. that is clear concerning the conversion of the Iews in the last times that they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn every family apart Now the Iews are not yet come in neither are those glorious times yet come to the Iews and Gentiles that shall follow upon their coming yet it is said when they shall come in praying shall be in such request in those days that even the conversation of the Iews is called a pouring on them the spirit of grace and supplication Therefore say not now the last times are come and these are glorious times and we can live immediatly upon God without Ordinances c. No those times are not come and yet when that time is come they shall have a spirit of grace and supplication to call upon God And therefore I beseech you let not the devil steal away any of your Ordinances for I tell you again and again he drives on a wonderful design among you in that respect And of all Ordinances labour to keep Prayer for cast off Prayer and cast off Saintship for to be a Saint and to call on the name of the Lord with a true heart are the same I will call thee no longer a Saint then thou callest on God Therefore notwithstanding all pretences look to that Some object God knows our wants and what need we pray Saith our Saviour Mat. 5. Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of and yet Christ taught them to pray We must manifest our obedience notwithstanding that God will do one thing when we pray for another that is a foolish objection because we know not what is good for us neither how to pray according to the minde of God but if it be according to his minde and for our good God will not deny it to us But the maine Engin that the devil hath to cheat us of this Ordinance is that there were times when there was neede of Ordinances and these beggerly rudiments this is the language of some these carnall Ordinances it is true they were good in the times of the Apostles and those former times but now glorious times are come for Saints to live immediately on God and therefore there is no need of them I told you that when the Iews shall be called there will be need of these Ordinances and though as we grow more perfect in glory so we have less need of them therefore as we are more glorious and have more of the Spirit of Glory in the new Testament then they had in the old so we have fewer Ordinances then they and when we shall come to heaven when she shall be full of glory we shall have no Ordinances for ought I know but yet we have infirmities and the Lord knows what is best for us and we have a great deal of flesh and carnalness and we shall have in a great measure till we be in heaven therefore God in mercy affords us these Ordinances and helps to deal with him and to keep our Communion with him and to live in and from him Therefore I pray you without partiality and prejudice weigh the Word of God whether this be not the Will of God and then take heed how the Devil cheat you of this blessed Ordinance for truly I may say as Christ said Now is the Ax laid to the root to the root of Prayer and if the Devil take away that thou art no more a Saint my life for thine if thou once throw away calling on God Therefore learn that word and endeavor to keep up the Ordinances of God and you that do not but are grown into remisness by the Opinions that are abroad concerning this duty I beseech you renew your care and diligence every one of you in publick and private to seek the Lord. And consider with your selves whether there be not a greater remisness on your spirits then before did you not set your selves oftner and more earnestly apart to seek God before then you do now If it be so in the name of God say as David O how sweet is thy Word by it thy servant is warned Now this is the goodness of God the sweetness of his Word that hath warned thee when thou wert going to undo thy self and to throw thy self away Therefore set thy self to it and let not the sin of others in throwing away of Ordinances make you remiss in using them either throw them away quite or use them as the Ordinances of God for the careless use of Ordinances is abominable to God Expositions and Observations on ROM 6. 14. For ye are not under the law but under Grace FOr ye are not under the Law There are three things in which a Christian is subject to be under the law and so to be scourged by it and if he