ruine We have instances of a Council gathered against Christ Joh. 11. 47. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a Council and said What do we for this man doth many miracles They meet together and plot the ruine of Christ and his Kingdom and they were those that were of chief Authority in the place Another instance Acts 4. 27 28. For of a truth against thy holy Child Iesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done There is their agreement to put Christ to death In the Old Testament Pharaoh and his Nobles Exod. 1. 10. Come on ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any war they joyn also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land And against Daniel the Princes of the Persian Empire consult how to intrap him in the matter of his God Dan. 6. 4 5 6 c. 2. For abusing the Throne of Judgment and Civil Courts of Judicature to the molestation of the Saints I shall cite but two places Psal. 94. 12. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee which frameth mischief by a Law It is no strange but yet no small temptation that the oppression of Gods people is marked with a pretence and colour of Law and publick Authority and the mischief should proceed from thence where it should be remedied namely from the Seat of Justice so Mat. 16. 17 18. Christ foretelleth they shall have enemies armed with Power and Publick Authority Beware of men for they will deliver you to the Councils and they shall scourge you in their synagogues and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake Not only subordinate but supreme Governours may be drawn to condemn and oppress the godly In so plain a case more instances need not Reasons of it on Gods part and on the part of the Persecutors First On Gods part he permitteth it 1. To shew that he can carry on his work though Authority be against him and that his people do not subsist by outward force but the goodness of his Providence and so have the sole glory of their preservation When the Christian Religion came first abroad in the world not many noble nor many mighty were called the Powers of the world were against it and yet it held up the head and was dispersed far and near Falshoods need some outward interest to back them and the supports of a Secular arm but Gods Interest doth many times stand alone though God doth now and then make Kings nursing fathers and Queens nursing-mothers according to his promise Isa. 49. 23. Oftentimes the Church is destitute of all worldly props Mic. 5. 7. And the remnant of Iacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Yea the power of the world is against it and yet it subsists Thus it was in the primitive times there were only an handful of contemptible people that professed the Gospel yet it got ground daily not by force of arms or the power of the long sword but by Gods secret blessing Ambrose giveth the reason why God suffered it to be so Ne videretur authoritate traxisse aliquos veritatis ratio non pompae gratiâ praevaleret lest this new Religion should seem to be planted with power rather than by its own evidence and the authority of men should sway more with the world than the Truth of God There is a wonderful encrease without any human concurrence as the Lord saith The remnant of his people shall be as a dew from the Lord that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Without mans consent or concurrence So that God alone hath the glory of their preservation 2. That the patience of his people may be put to the utmost probation When they are exercised with all kind of trials not only the hatred of the vulgar but the opposition of the Magistrate carried on under a form of Legal procedure In the primitive times sometimes the Christians were exposed to the hatred and fury of the people Lapidibus nos invadit inimicum vulgus At other times exposed to the injuries of Laws and persecutions carried on by authority against them There was an uproar at Ephesus against the Christians Acts 19. and there seemed to be a formal Process at Ierusalem Acts 4. This latter temptation seemeth to be the more sore and grievous because Gods Ordinance which is Magistracy is wrested to give countenance to malicious designs and because it cuts off all means of human help and so patience hath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã its perfect work James 1. 4. There are some glory in suffering the rage and evil word of the Vulgar for they are supposed not to make the wisest choice but when men of Wisdom and Power and such as are clothed with the Majesty of Gods Ordinance are set against us then is patience put to the utmost proof and whether we regard God or man most and who is the object of our fear those that have power of life and death temporal or him that hath power of life and death eternal 3. That his people may be weaned from fleshly dependencies and doting upon Civil Powers and so be driven to depend upon him alone Psal. 94. 20 21 22. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee which establish mischief by a Law they gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood But the Lord is my defence and my God is the rock of my refuge There would not be such use of faith and dependance upon God if our danger were not great It is harder to trust in God with means than without means We are beaten out when outward helps fail otherwise we are apt to neglect God and then a world of mischief ensueth When the Emperor of the Romans began to favour the Christians poyson was said to be poured into the Church and in the sun-shine of worldly countenance like green timber they began to warp and cleave asunder and what Religion got in breadth it lost in strength and vigour Gods people never live up to the beauty and majesty of their Principles so much as when they are forced immediately to live upon God and depend upon him for their safety 4. That their testimony and witness-bearing to Gods truths may be the more publick and authentick in the view of the world This testimony is either to them for their conviction and conversion Mat. 24. 14. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations or against them Mark 10.
some great one So that there is no sin be it never so foul but covetousness will make it plausible and reconcile it to the consciences of men 2. As it doth dispose and incline the soul to all evil so it incapacitates us for God's service both in our general and particular calling In our general calling it makes us incapable of serving God why it destroys the principle of obedience is contrary to the matter of obedience it slights the rewards of obedience 1. It destroys the Principle of obedience which is the love of God This is that which constrains us which carrieth us out with life and sweetness in God's service Now 1 Joh. 2. 5. If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him It destroys the principle that should act us in obedience 2. It is contrary to the matter of obedience which are the commands of God The command of God and Mammon are contrary Mat. 6. 24. What are his commands God saith Pity the afflicted relieve the miserable venture all for a good conscience seek heaven in the first place seek it with your choicest affection your earnest diligence What saith Mammon Be sparing of your substance follow the World as hard as you can stick at nothing lye steal swear forswear comply with the lusts of men then you shall be rich Well now you see he that is rul'd by Mammon or sway'd by the inordinate love of worldly good can never serve God he is enslav'd to another Master he loves Wealth above all he trusts it more than God's Providence he serves it more than God himself Though his tongue dares not say that the earth is better than heaven that the things of this life are better than the favour of God yet his life saith it for more of his heart and care runs out upon these matters In short it unfits you not only for one duty but for all duties required of us God's Laws you know require respect to God your neighbour and to your selves Now he that is a slave to Mammon overcome by the love of Worldly things denies that which is due to God his trust his love his choice affection He denies what is necessary for his neighbour And he denies what is comfortable for himself He is unthankful to God unmerciful to his neighbour and cruel to himself 3. He slights the encouragements of Obedience which are the rewards of God as it weakens our future hopes and depresseth the heart from looking after Spiritual and Heavenly things They despise their birth-right for a mess of Pottage And when they are invited to the Wedding the choice things God hath provided for us in the Gospel they prefer their Farm Oxen Merchandize before it As it unfits us for the duty of our general so for our particular callings and relations The love of the world will make him altogether unfit for Magistracy Ministry the Master of a family or any such relation In Magistracy who are the men that are qualified for that office Exod. 18. 22. Such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness Let covetousness possess the heart a little and it will make a man act unworthily timorously with a base heart Nay for a piece of bread will that man transgress Take a Minister and what a poor meal-mouth'd Minister will he make if his heart be carried out with love to worldly things therefore it is the qualification of his person 1 Tim. 3. 3. Not greedy of filthy lucre Let a Minister be greedy of gain it makes him sordid low spirited flattering and dawbing to curry favour with men more intent upon his gain and profit than the saving of Souls So for his work 1 Pet. 5. 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind What a low flat Ministry will that be that is inspired with no other aim and impulsion but the sense of his own profit If that be his great inducement to undertake that calling and his great encouragement in discharging the duty of that calling how will men strain themselves to please men especially great ones and writh themselves into all postures and shapes that they may sooth the humours and lusts of others he will curse where God hath blessed if he be such as Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousness It is a powerful imperious lust saith God Will you pollute me for handfuls of barly and pieces of bread to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live Then you shall have them declaiming against the good hardning the evil complying with the fashions of the world So in other callings if a man be called to be a Master of a family Prov. 15. 27. He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house What a trouble and burden will this man be to his servants and all about him and how little will he glorifie God in that relation Nay in all other stations this will make him an oppressing Landlord a false Tradesman an ill neighbour And therefore it is the very pest and bane of humane Societies Thus you see how it unfits us for the service of God both in our general and particular calling The 3. Reason it hinders the receiving of good and those means of Reformation that should make us better It fills us with prejudice against whatever shall be spoken for God and for the concernments of another world Luk. 16. 14. And the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and derided him Come with any strict and holy Doctrine that shall carry out men to the interest of another life and they will make a scoff at it If the Word stir us a little and make us anxious and thoughtful about our eternal condition the thorns which are the cares of this world choak the good seed Mat. 13. it stifles our conviction while it distracts our head with cares and puts us out of all thought about things to come If a man begins to do some outward thing it makes him soon weary of Religion and attendance upon the duties thereof Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth wheat They think all lost that is bestowed upon God As Seneca said of the Iews they were a foolish people they lost the full seventh of their lives because of the Sabbath So they think all Sabbath-time lost Nay it distracts in duty Ezek. 33. 31. With their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness It interlines our prayers and the world will still be creeping in and when we are offering incense to God we shall be mingling sulphur and brimstone of worldly thoughts with it our minds will be taken up with worldly projects and then it perverts the good we do as they followed Christ for the loaves Ioh. 6. It turneth Religion into Venale Artificium a trade to live by If they do good things
They do no iniquity then they walk in his ways Why 1. The Law of God is positive as well as negative In every command there are precepts and prohibitions that we might own God as well as renounce the Devil and maintain communion with him as well as avoid our own misery Amos 5. 15. Hate the evil and love the good Rom. 12. 9. Abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good 2. The Mercies of God they are positive as well as privative Our obedience should correspond with God's mercies Now God doth not only deliver us from hell but he hath called us to glory John 3. 16. the end of Christs coming is that we should not perish there 's the privative part but come to everlasting life there 's the positive In the Covenant God hath undertaken to be a sun and a shield Psal. 84. 11. not only a sun which is the fountain of life and vegetation and blessing but a shield to defend us from danger in the world therefore our obedience should be positive as well as privative Use. It reproves those that rest in Negatives As it was said of the Emperor he was rather not vitious than vertuous Many men all their Religion runs upon Nots Luke 18. 11. I am not as this Publican That ground is naught though it brings not forth briars and thorns if it yeilds not good encrease Not only the unruly servant is cast into Hell that beat his fellow-servant that ate and drank with the drunken but the idle servant that wrapt up his Talent in a Napkin Meroz is cursed not for opposing and fighting but for not helping Iudges 5. 23. Dives did not take away food from Lazarus but he did not give him of his crumbs Many will say I set up no other Gods I but dost thou love reverence and obey the true God In the second Commandment I abhor Idols but dost thou delight in Ordinances I do not swear and rend the Name of God by cursed Oaths I but dost thou glorifie God and honour him I do not prophane the Sabbath but dost thou sanctifie it Thou dost not plough and dance but thou art idle toyest away the Sabbath Thou dost not wrong thy Parents but dost thou reverence them Thou dost not murder but dost thou do good to thy neighbour Thou art no Adulterer but dost thou study temperance and a holy sobriety in all things Thou art no slanderer but art thou tender of thy neighbours honour and credit as of thy own Usually men cut off half their bill as the unjust Steward when he owed a hundred bade him set down fifty We do not think of sins of omission If we are not drunkards adulterers and prophane persons we do not think what it is to omit respects to God and want of reverence to his holy Majesty to delight in him and his ways In the next place take notice of the notion by which the precepts of God are exprest here they are called ways that walk in his ways how is that not as he hath given us an example to be holy as he is holy just as he is just but his ways are his precepts Why are they his ways Because they are appointed by God and prescribed by him Which shews the evil of defection and going astray from him It is a despising Gods wisdom and authority The great and wise God hath found out a way for the creature to walk in that he may attain true happiness and we must still be running out into by-paths yea it is a despising of his goodness He hath shewed thee O man what is good how to walk step by step Then they are Gods ways as they lead to the enjoyment of him From thence we may learn that many that wish to be where he is shall never come there because they do not walk in the way that leads to him A man can never come to a place that will not go in the way that will bring him thither So they will never come to the enjoyment of God in a blessed estate that will not take the Lords way to blessedness that follow not the course God hath prescribed to them in his word SERMON V. PSAL. CXIX 4. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently THE Psalmist having laid down the description of the blessed man by the frame of his heart and the course of his life and the integrity of his Obedience he comes now to another Argument whereby to inforce the intire observation of Gods Law The Argument in the Text is taken from Gods Authority injoining this course and he propounds it by way of address and appeal to God for the greater Emphasis and force Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently In the words take notice of two Things 1. The fundamental ground and reason of our Obedience which is Gods commandor will declar'd in his Word 2. The manner of this Obedience God will not be put off with any thing but served with the greatest diligence and exactness to keep thy precepts diligently The Septuagint renders it That thy commands should be kept exceeding much In the first part take notice 1. Of the Law-giver Thou 2. His authority interposed or positive injunction Hast commanded us It is not left to our arbitrament whether we will take up the course which leads to true happiness yea or no. 3. The thing commanded To keep thy precepts Doct. To gain the heart to a full obedience it is good to consider the authority of God in his Word There are many courses we must use to draw the heart to an obedience to God We may urge 1. The reasonableness of Obedience so that if we are left at our liberty we should take up the ways of God rather than any other Rom. 7. 12. The commandment is holy just and good All that God hath required it carrieth a great suitableness to the reasonable nature so that if a man were well in his wits and were to chuse a Law he would of his own accord prefer the Laws of God before Liberty and any other service Certainly there is an excellency in them which is in part discern'd by carnal men they admire those that practise the duties which God hath required though they are loth to submit to them themselves It is no heavy burthen to live chastely humbly soberly and to maintain a communion and correspondence with God and whosoever doth so hath much the sweeter life of him that liveth sinfully We may urge 2. The profitableness of Obedience and how much it conduceth to our good Deut. 10. 13. The statutes which I command thee for thy good Our labour in the work of Obedience is not lost or mispent A godly course is refreshed with many sweet experiences for the present and will bring in a full reward for the future 3. The next Motive is that of the Text to urge the Command of God It is a course injoined and imposed upon us by our
a step-mother yet you remember you have a better home From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross Doth this comfort you in the midst of the molestations of the World They do not know your birth your breeding your hopes nor your expectations Strangers may be abused in a foreign place when we come home this will be forgotten The Saints walk up and down like a Prince that travels abroad in disguise though he be slighted abused he doth not appear what he shall be You have a glorious inheritance reserved for you this is your Cordial and the reviving of your souls and that which doth your heart good to think of and so you can be contented to suffer loss and inconveniences upon these hopes The discourse between Modestus a Governour under Valens and Basil in Nazianzen his twentieth Oration is very notable I shall only transcribe what is exactly to the purpose in hand When he threatned him with banishment I know no banishment saith he who know no abiding-place here in the world I do not count this place mine nor can I say the other is not mine rather all is Gods whose stranger and pilgrim I am This was that which supported him in the midst of those threatnings Therefore from whence do you fetch your support 5. If Religion be kept up in heigth and majesty the World will count you strangers they will stand wondering at your conversation 1 Pet. 4. 4. Men gaze upon those that come hither in a foreign habit that do not conform to the fashions of the countrey and so a child of God is wondred at that walks in a counter-motion to the studies and practices of other men as one that is not conformed to the world Rom. 12. 2. What do you discover of the spirit of your Countrey so as to convince others Thus much by way of enquiry namely Whether we are strangers yea or no USE 2. Behave your selves as strangers here upon earth 1. Avoid fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. these cloud the eye and besot the heart and make us altogether for a present good they weaken our desires of heaven 't is the Apostles argument As strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts The flesh-pots of Egypt made Israel to despise Canaan and so this is that which will take off our hearts from things to come from the inheritance of the Saints in light and from that blessed estate God hath promised 2. Grasp not at too much of the World but what comes with a fair Providence upon honest endeavours accept with thanks 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare c. The Devil hath you upon the hip when you make that your business and scope not he that is but will be rich that fixes that as his scope Then the heart is filled with sins and the head with cares 3. If an Estate comes in slowly remember a little will serve our turns to heaven more would be but a burden and snare Those that have their portion here most of Worldly things what do they get by it a little belly-cheer Psal. 17. 14. and they leave the rest to their babes Dainty cheer is no great matter and to leave our posterity great is but to leave them in a snare Children are under a Providence and a Covenant as well as we and it is blasphemous to think we can provide for them better than God 4. If God give abundance rest not in them with a carnal complacency Psal. 62. 10. If riches encrease set not your heart on them Suffer not thy heart to rejoyce in them as your only portion so as to grow proud of them so as to count them your good things Luke 16. 25. you that are strangers have better things to mind 5. Keep up a warm respect to your everlasting home It is not enough to despise the world but you must look after a better Countrey Many of a slight temper may despise Worldly Profits their Corruptions do not run out that way Heb. 13. 14. We have here no abiding city but we seek one to come Desires thoughts and groans these are the harbingers of the soul that we send into the Land of Promise By this means we tell God that we would be at home 6. Enjoy as much of Heaven as you can in your Pilgrimage in Ordinances in the first-fruits of the Spirit in communion with Saints Grace is but young-Glory and joy in the Holy Ghost is the Suburbs of Heaven and therefore you should get somewhat of your Countrey before you come at it As the Winds do carry the Odors and sweet-smells of Arabia into the neighbouring-provinces so by the breathings of the Holy Ghost upon our hearts do we get a smell of the upper Paradise it is in some measure begun in us before we can get thither and therefore enjoy as much of Heaven as possibly you can in the time of your pilgrimage We have our taste here it is begun in union with Christ and in the work of grace upon the heart And in Ordinances Prayer brings us to the throne of grace it gives us an entrance into Gods presence Heb. 10. 19. the Apostle calls it a boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus A Christian enters heaven while he is here in the world In the word preached Heaven is brought down to us The Gospel is call'd the Kingdom of Heaven And by reading we do as it were converse with the Saints departed that writ what we read Meditation it brings us into the company of God it puts our heads above the clouds amongst the midst of blessed spirits there as if we saw Jesus Christ upon the throne and his Saints triumphing about him Communion of Saints it is Heaven begun therefore you that are strangers should much delight there A man that is abroad would be glad to meet with his own Countrey-men we should be glad of company to go with us to Heaven these are to be our companions for evermore therefore we should converse with them here II. I proceed to the latter clause Hide not thy commandment from me Here 's his Request To make short work of it I shall endeavour to make out the connexion and sense of these words in these Propositions 1. Every man here upon earth especially a godly man is but a stranger and passenger Every man is so in point of condition he must go hence and quit all his enjoyments in the world wicked men whether they will or no but a godly man is so in affection and cannot be satisfied with his present state This I have insisted upon 2. It concerns him that is a stranger to look after a better and more durable state Every man should do so He that lives here for a while is concerned his greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest therefore Eternity should be his scope A godly man will do so Those whose hearts are not set
18. And ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles It is for a testimony and that should comfort them in all their sufferings Mark 14. 9. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her The testimony is more valid as being confirmed by their Courage in troubles they are Principles that they will suffer for which as it is a warning to the professors of Religion that they should own no principles in a time of peace but what they would confirm by their avowed testimony in the extremity of trials so also it should convince their enemies in case they be put upon this exercise It is needful that every truth should have a sealed testimony that is we should not only vent opinions but be willing to suffer for them if God should call us out so to do God hath been ever tender of imposing upon the world without sufficient evidence and therefore would not have his people stand upon their lives and temporal concernments that thereby they may give greater satisfaction to the world concerning the weight of those truths which they do profess Secondly On the Persecutors part or the persons molesting so the causes are 1. Their ignorance and blind zeal Joh. 16. 2. They shall put you out of their synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that they do God good service They think it to be an acceptable service to God to molest and trouble those that are indeed his people Those Princes that sate and spake against David were not Pagans and men of another Religion but of Israel and it is often the lot of Gods people to be persecuted not only by Pagans and openly prophane men but even by men that profess the true Religion Pseudo-Christians Rev. 14. 13. those that pretend they are for God and his cause and seem to be carried on with a great zeal and do not oppose truth as truth but their quarrel is coloured by specious pretences 2. Their prejudices lightly taken up against the people of God Satan is first a lyar and then a murderer Joh. 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it By lyes he bringeth about his bloody design Christ was first called a Samaritan and one that had a Devil and then they did persecute him as such an one And as was observed before as Christians of old were covered with the skins of wild beasts that Dogs and Lyons might tear them the more speedily so by odious imputations Gods people are brought into distast with the world and then molested and troubled represented as a company of hypocrites and unjust dealers and under that cloak true Religion is undermined Now in the Persecutor this is faulty because they lightly take up every false suggestion and so Christians are condemned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Iustin Martyr complained because of the common reproach without any distinct inquiry into their way and practice Nolunt audire quod auditum damnare non possunt 3. Their erroneous Principle in Civil Policy That Christs Kingdom and the freedom of his worshippers is not consistent with Civil Interests Whatever hath been the matter worldly Rulers have been jealous of Christs Interest and Kingdom as if it could not consist with publick safety and the civil interests of that State and Nation where it is admitted and suggestions of this kind do easily prevail with them Esther 3. 8. It is not for the Kings profit to suffer them and John 11. 48. If we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation Reason of State is an ancient plea against the interest of Religion In the Roman Empire though the Christians were inconsiderable as to any publick charge yet they had a jealous eye upon them Iustin Martyr sheweth the reason of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because they were often speaking of a Kingdom though they meant it of the Kingdom of heaven and were far enough from all Rebellion USE 1. It informeth us that we should not measure the verity of Religion by the greatness of those that are with it or against it This was one of the Pharisees arguments Do any of the rulers believe in him Joh. 7. 48. but this people that know not the law are accursed Alas men of Authority and great place may be often against Gods Interest James 2. 1. Have not the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory in respect of persons Mark that title that is given to Christ the Lord of glory he is able to put glory enough upon his worshippers though they have nothing of outward pomp and splendor and not many mighty are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. Many will say they have none of quality to join with them none but ignorant people If a man had judged so in the first times when the Gospel came first abroad in the world would not Christianity it self have seemed a very contemptible thing Therefore a simple plain-hearted love to Christ and his Truth whether Powers be averse or friendly is that which is required of us 2. It reproveth those who are soon discouraged even with the reproach which base people cast upon the ways of God David stood both in the one temptation and in the other the reproach and contempt of the Vulgar and also when Princes sate and spake against him But to these we may say as Jer. 12. 5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how wilt thou contend with horses If we be such tender milk-sops that we cannot suffer a disgraceful word from the basest of the people what shall we do when we meet with other manner of conflicts and oppositions in the farther progress of our duty to God If we are tired out with the disgrace and affronts of these mean ones and cannot put up a scornful word at their hands without disorder what shall we do when we are to contest for Gods Interest with those great and masterly ones that are armed with Power and Authority and it may be the advantage of Laws against us Scommata nostra ferre non potes said the Antiochians to Iulian in another case quomodo feres Persarum tela Gods servants do often receive discouragement from the people and from Authority but the goodness of their Cause and the favour of God makes them joyfully persevere 3. It teacheth us what to do when this is not our case I have treated as this Scripture hath led me of the oppositions of Princes and worldly
The Law is an enemy to them that count it an enemy and a friend to them that count it a friend 'T is a rule of life to them that delight in it and count it a great mercy to know it and to be subdued to the practice of it But it is a Covenant of Works to them that withdraw the shoulder count it an heavy burden not to be born Well then which do you complain of the Law or your Corruptions What are you troubled with light or lusts A gracious heart groaneth not under the strictness of the Law but under the body of death not because God hath required so much but because they can do no more Doct. 3. That the Law is granted to us or written upon our hearts out of Gods meer grace Grant it graciously saith David I will do it saith God and God will do it upon his own reasons The Conditions of the Covenant are conditions in the Covenant and the Articles that bind us are also promises wherein God is bound to bestow so great a benefit upon poor creatures which doth encourage us to wait for this work with the more confidence We are sensible we have not the law so intimately so closely applied as we should have Lord grant it graciously It is his work to give us a greater sense and care of it SERMON XXXI PSAL. CXIX 30. I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me DAVID asserts his sincerity here in two things 1. In the rightness of his choice I have chosen the way of thy truth 2. In the accurateness of his prosecution Thy judgments have I laid before me First For his choice I have chosen the way of thy truth God having granted him his Law he did reject all false ways of Religion and continued in the profession of the truth of God and the strict observance thereof There are many controversies and doubtful thoughts among the sons of men about Religion all being varnisht with specious pretences so that a man knows not which way to chuse till by the Spirit he be enabled to take the direction of the Word that resolveth all his scruples and makes him sit down in the way which God hath pointed for him Thus David as an effect of Gods grace avoucheth his own chusing the way of truth By the way of truth is meant true Religion as 2 Pet. 2. 2. By whom the way of truth is evil spoken of It is elsewhere called the good way wherein we should walk 1 King 8. 36. and the way of God Psal. 27. 11. and the way of understanding Prov. 9. 6. and the way of holiness Isa. 55. 8. and the way of righteousness 2 Pet. 2. 21. Better they had not known the way of righteousness that is never to have known the Gospel which is called the way of righteousness It is called also the way of life Prov. 6. 23. And reproofs of instruction are the way of life and the way of salvation as Acts 16. 17. the Pythoness gave this testimony to the Apostles These are the servants of God which shew unto us the way of salvation Now all these expressions have their use and significancy for the way of truth or the true way to happiness is a good way shewed us by God who can only discover it and therefore called the way of the Lord or the way of God in the place before quoted And Act. 28. 25 26. it is manifested by God and leadeth us to God The Christian Doctrine was that way of Truth revealed by him who is prima Veritas the first Truth The ways wherein God cometh to us are his Mercy and Truth and the ways wherein we come to God is the way of True Religion prescribed by him it is the way of understanding because it maketh us wise as to the great affairs of our souls and unto the end of our lives and beings and the way of holiness and righteousness as directing us in all duties to God and man and the way of life and salvation because it brings us to everlasting happiness This way David chose by the direction of God's Word and Spirit Secondly There follows the evidence of his sincerity the accurate prosecution of his choice Thy judgments have I laid before me The Sept. read it I have not forgotten thy judgments By judgments is meant God's word according to the sentence of which every man shall receive his doom He that walketh in a way condemned by the word shall not prosper for God's word is Judgment and Execution shall surely follow and by this word David got his direction how to chuse this way of Truth and this he laid before him as his line his desire was to follow what was right and true not only as to his general course and way of profession but in all his actions and so it noteth his fixed purpose to live according to this blessed Rule which God hath given him To have a holy Rule and an unholy life is unconsonant inconsistent A Christian should be a lively transcript of that Religion he doth profess If the way be a way of Truth he must always set it before him and walk exactly The Points are two 1. That there being many crooked paths in the world it concerns us to chuse the way of truth 2. That when we have chosen the way of truth or taken up the profession of the true Religion the Rules and Institutions of it should ever be before us There are two great faults of men one in point of choice the other in point of pursuit Either they do not chuse right or they do not live up according to the Rules of their profession both are prevented by these points Doct. 1. That there being many crooked paths in the world it concerns us to chuse the way of Truth I shall give you the sense of it in these Eight Propositions or Considerations Prop. 1. The Lord in his holy Providence hath so permitted it that there ever have been and are and for ought we can see will be controversies about the way of truth and right worship There was such a disease introduced into the World by the full that most of the remedies which men chuse do but shew the strength and malignâ⦠of the disease they chuse out false ways of coming to God and returning to him Micah 4. 5. All people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Mark there is his God and our God and then all people noting their common agreement in error all people will every man noting their diversity as to the particular false way of Religion and worship which they take up to themselves when they turn their back upon the true God and the knowledge of him then they are endless in seeking out false Gods Jonah 1. 5. They cryed every man to his God Among Pagans even in one Ship there
were many false Gods worshipped The controversie about Religion mainly lay at first between the Iews and the Pagans the Pagans had their Gods and the Jews had the Lord God of Israel the only true God Yea among the Pagans themselves there was a great diversity every man will walk and sometimes a hot contention and many times there were hot contests which was the better God the Leek or the Garlick When Religion which restrains our passions is made the fuel of them and instead of a Judg becomes a party men give themselves up headlong to all manner of bitter zeal and strife and persuasion of truth and right which doth calm men in other differences are here inflamed by that bitter zeal every one hath for his God his service and party and the difference is greater especially between the two dissenting parties that come nearest to one another We read afterward when this difference ââ¦y more closely between the Iews and the Samaritans and Christ decides that Salvation was of the Iews The Iews were certainly the better party John 4. 20. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship Mount Sion or Mount Gerizim which was the Temple of the true God one or the other Then we read afterward among the Iews themselves in their private sects who were very keen against each other Pharisees and Sadducees and Paul though an Enemy to them both and was looked upon as a common adversary yet they had rather joyn with him than among themselves Acts 23. 8 9. Afterward you find the scene of Contention lay between the Iews and Christians Acts 14. 4. But the multitude of the city was divided and part held with the Iews and part with the Apostles There it grew into an open contest and quarrel And then between the Christians and the Pagans which was the occasion of that uproar at Ephesus Acts 19. I and after Religion had gotten ground and the way of truth had prevailed in the world then the difference lay betwixt Christians themselves yea while Religion was but getting up between the followers of the Apostles and the School and Sect of Simon Magus those impure Libertines and Gnosticks who went out of them because they were not of them 1 Iohn 2. 19. And afterwards in the Church-story we read of the Contentions between the Catholicks and the Arians the Catholicks and the Pelagians the Catholicks and the Donatists and other Sects And now last of all in the dregs of time between the Protestants and the Papists that setled party with whom the Church of God is now in suit As the rod of Aaron did devour the rods of the Inchanters so the word of God which is the rod of his strength doth and will in time eat up and consume all untruths whatsoever but for a great while the contests may be very hot and sharp Yea among those that profess a reformed Christianity there are the Lutherans and the Calvinists And nearer to us I will not so much as mention those invidious names and flags of defiance which are set up under which different parties do encamp at home Thus there ever have been and will be contests about Religion and disputes about the way of truth yea different opinions in the Church and among Christians themselves about divine truths revealed in the Scripture The Lord permits this in his holy and righteous Providence that the godly may be stirred up more to embrace truth upon Evidence with more affection that they may more encourage and strengthen themselves and resolve for God for when all people will walk every one in the name of his God we will walk in the name of our God for ever Micah 4. 5. And the Lord doth it that he may manifest the sincere that when Christ calls who is on my side who that are willing to stick to him whatever hazards and losses they may incur 1 Cor. 11. 19. There must be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you I and that there may be a ready plague of strong delusion and lies for them that receive not the truth in the love of it 2 Thes. 2. 11 12. for damnable Errors are the dungeons in which God holds carnal souls that play the wantons and trifle with his truth and never admitted the love and power of it to come into their hearts Prop. 2. True Religion is but one and all other ways are false noxious and pestilent Eph. 4. 5. One Lord one faith one baptism There are many ways in the world but there 's but one good and certain way that leads to salvation So much the Apostle intimates when he saith He will have all men to be saved How would he have them saved 1 Tim. 2. 4. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Iesus which text implies that salvation is by the knowledge of the truth or knowledge of the true way others tend to destruction And so God promiseth Jer. 32. 39. That he will give all the elect one heart and one way Though there be differences even in the Church of God about lesser truths yet there 's but one true Religion in the essence and substance of it I mean as to those truths which are absolutely necessary to salvation To make many doors to heaven is to set wide open the gates of hell Many men think that men of all Religions shall be saved provided they be of a good life and walk according to their light In these later times divers unsober Questionists are grown weary of the Christian Religion and by an excess of charity would betray their faith and while they plead for the salvation of Turks and Heathens scarce shew themselves good Christians The Christian Religion is not only the most compendious way to true happiness but it 's the only way John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent There 's the sum of what is necessary to life eternal that there is one God Father Son and Holy Ghost to be known loved obeyed worshipped and enjoyed and the Lord Jesus Christ to be owned as our Redeemer and Saviour to bring us home to God and to procure for us the gifts of pardon and life and this life to be begun here by the spirit and to be perfected in heaven This is the sum of all that can be said that is necessary to salvation certainly none can be saved without Christ for there is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved but by Iesus Christ Acts 4. 12. and none can be saved by Christ but they that know him and believe in him If God hath extraordinary ways to reveal Christ to men we know not this is our Rule no Adults no grown persons can be saved but they that know him and believe in him And now Christ hath
6. 16. and all pretending to God Therefore what should we do but search pray resolve to be thus with God and take the way God will direct us As the King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way or at the head of the ways to make divination Ezek. 21. 21. So you meet with parting 's of ways that you need deliberate to make a wise choice therefore the Providence of God doth put you upon tryal Think there are false teachers I and the most holy and upright men are but in part enlightned and they may lead you into a crooked path and a by-way they may mis-lead us therefore we ought to see with our own eyes 2. Consider the sad consequence of erring There are damnable Errors and Heresies 2 Pet. 2. 1. Vice is not only destructive and damnable to the soul but Error now eternal damnation and salvation are no small matters A man cannot please God in a false belief how laudable soever his life be and they cannot put the fault upon others that they are misled by them for if the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch not only the blind guide but the blind follower 3. If we light upon a good way without search and choice it is but a happy mistake when we have not sufficient evidence You may have the advantage ground by chance may light upon a better way and it is Gods Providence you are born there where it may be so A Turk hath the same ground for his respect to Mahomet that many have for their owning of Christ it is that Religion he was born and bred in this will not be counted faith but simple credulity The simple believeth every word It is almost as dangerous to love a truth ignorantly as to broach an error knowingly Temere creditur c. saith Tertullian That is believed in vain which is believed without the grounds whereupon it is propounded the faith of Christians should not be conjectural or traditional If a man should not have reasons to sway his choice he will never be able to check temptations even in practical things If men have not received Religion upon true grounds and as Cyprian saith when they do not look into the reason of these things and when the Christian Religion is represented to them without evidence and certainty they have but a probable faith that is always weak against temptation either against lusts within or errors and seductions without therefore we had need look to the grounds of these things 4. The profit is exceeding great for truth will have a greater force upon the heart when we see the grounds and reasons of it We are exposed here in this lower world to great difficulties and temptations Now when we do not lay up the Supreme Truths of Religion with certainty and assurance alas these temptations will prevail over us and carry us away Atheism lies at the root therefore are there such doubtings in the heart in point of Comfort such defects in the life and conversation because Truth was never soundly laid in the soul it was not chosen If we were soundly setled in the belief of the Unity of the divine Essence and the verity of Salvation by Christ and the divine Authority of the Scriptures and the certainty of the promises therein certainly we would be more firmly engaged to God Comfort would sooner follow us and we would have better success in the heavenly life If the fire were well kindled it would of it self break out into a flame If we did believe indeed that Jesus the Son of God hath done so much for us and had this firmly setled in our hearts this would be a real ground of comfort and constancy 2 Pet. 3. 11. Beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness It is put in opposition to one that stands by the stedfastness of another he might be carried away by the error of the wicked no but he must have somewhat to say to ingage his own heart otherwise he is led thereby with every fond suggestion and simple credulity and easily abused But when men have chosen and are well fixed they are not easily shaken When men take up Religion upon trust without a satisfying argument they are like light chaff carried through the whole compass of the winds As Mariners dispose of several winds which blow in the corners of the world into a circle and compass the Apostles word alludes to that We are carried all round the points of the compass Eph. 4. 14. When the chain of consent is broken they are in continual danger to be seduced and the greatest adversaries of truth are able to use such reasons as have in them great probability to captivate the affections of a weak understanding by their sophistical arguments and insinuating perswasions Prop. 5. After this enquiry into the grounds and reasons of the way of truth then we must resolve and choose it I have chosen the way of truth as the way wherein we are to walk Jer. 6. 16. Ask where is the good way and walk therein and then ye shall find rest for your souls you must not only so understand and form your Opinions aright not only see what 's the good way but walk therein keep that way which you find to be the way of truth renouncing all others We should not lye under a floating uncertainty or sceptical irresolution as those that keep themselves in a wary reservation that are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the word is they do not come to the acknowledgment of the truth always examining but never resolve you are to prove all things but not in order to unsettlement but settlement 1 Thess. 5. 21. Consider enquire where is Gods presence most where is the Son like to be glorified and souls better to be satisfied and built up in the faith of Jesus Christ and resolve and stick there Prop. 6. That no Religion will be found fit to be chosen upon sound evidence but the Christian. How shall I be perswaded of this Why that Religion which God hath revealed that Religion which suits with the ends of a Religion that is with the inward necessities of mankind and most commodiously provides for man that 's the true Religion Surely the necessities of mankind are to be relieved thereby The great ends of a Religion are Gods glory and our happiness God is glorified by a return of the Obedience of the Creature and man is made happy by the enjoyment of God All these ends are advanced by this way of Truth First That 's the only Religion which is revealed by God for certainly so must a Religion be if it be true for that which pleaseth him must be according to his Will and who can know his will but by his own Revelation by some sign whereby God hath discovered it to us
Alas if men were to sit brooding a Religion themselves what a strange business would they hatch and bring forth if they were to carve out the worship of God they might please themselves but could never please God Vain men indeed are ready to frame God like themselves and foolishly imagine what pleaseth them pleaseth him also they still conceive of God according to their own fancy And this was the reason why the wisest Heathens having no revelation no sense of Gods will but what offered it self by the light of nature they would imploy their wits to devise a Religion but what a monstrous Chimera and strange fancy did they bring forth Professing themselves wise they became fools Rom. 1. 22. Though they knew there was a great and eternal being by the light of nature yet the Apostle saith they became vain ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in their imaginations how this infinite being should be worshipped therefore what they carved out was not an honour but a disgrace they devised Gods and Goddesses that were Patrons of murder theft and all manner of filthiness and brought out Bacchus the God of riot and good-fellowship or the Patron of boon companions And Venus the Patroness of love and wantonness But now God hath shewed us his will he hath shewed us what is good and what he doth require of us Micah 6. 8. Now that the Gospel is a revelation from God it appears by the matter which is so suitable to the nature of God it hath such an impress of Gods Wisdom Goodness Power upon it that plainly it hath past God it is like such an infinite and eternal being as God is in the worship and duties prescribed it is far above the wisdom of meer man though very agreeable to those reliques of wisdom which are left in us So that this is that true Religion which surely will please God because it came from him at first and could come from no other And also besides the evidence it carrieth with it and the impress and stamp of God upon it we have the word of those that brought this Doctrine to us and if we had nothing else if they say Thus saith the Lord c. we are bound to believe them they being persons of a valuable credit that sought not themselves but the glory of him that sent them When the first messengers of it were men of such an unquestionable credit that had no ends of their own but ran all the extreme hazards and displeasures surely it cannot incline us to think they did seek God's glory by a lye Yea they did evidence their mission from God by miracles that God sent them surely this doctrine is from heaven I and still God in his Providence shews it from heaven both in his Internal government of the world he blesseth it to the comfort of the conscience or to the terrifying of the conscience for it works both ways Wicked men are afraid of the light lest their deeds should be made manifest Iohn 3. 20. and also to the comforting and setling the conscience that we may have great joy by believing in Christ. This for his Internal government And then his External government by answering of prayers fulfilling promises accomplishing prophecies Psal. 18. 30. As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all that trust in him Put God to the tryal by a regular confidence in an humble walking and he will make good his promises I and make good his threatnings When people are ripe for judgment God will fulfil the threatnings of his word and will accomplish what is spoken by the Prophets and Apostles and God will reveal his wrath from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. 18. So that here are plain signs that this is a doctrine revealed from God and God can best tell us how he is to be worshipped and pleased Secondly Besides God's revelation it notably performs all that which a man would expect in a Religion and so suits the necessities of man as well as the honour of God Why 1. That is the true Religion which doth most draw off the minds of men from things temporal and earthly to things coelestial and eternal that we may think of them and prosecute them The sense of another world an estate to come is the great foundation upon which all Religion is grounded All its precepts and promises which are like to gain upon the heart of man they receive their force from the promise of an unseen glory and eternal punishments which are provided for the wicked and contemners of the Gospel The whole design of this Religion is to take us off from the pleasures of the flesh and the baits of this world that we may see things to come It 's the excellency of the Christian faith that it reveals the doctrines of eternal life clearly which all other Religions in the world only could guess at There were some guesses but still great uncertainty but obscure thoughts and apprehensions of such an estate But here life and immortality is brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Alas there 's a mist upon it in all other representations they seem to see it yet see it not but this is brought to light in the Gospel it makes a free offer of it upon condition of faith in Christ Iohn 3. 16. it quickens us to look after it all its design is to breed in man this noble spirit by looking upon things that are above and not upon things on earth Col. 3. 1 2. and it endeavours with great power and perswasiveness that we may make it our scope that we may neglect all present advantages rather than miss of this and make it our great design that we may look not to the things which are seen but to the things unseen 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. This is the way of truth because we believe it will make the worshippers of it everlastingly happy which all men by nature have enquired about Now it is but reason that a man's work be ended before he receive his wages and if God will reward the vertuous that it should be in the other world for our work is not ended until we dye and we have a presagiency of another world there is another world which the soul of man thinks of Now this is that which Christianity drives at that we may look after our reward with God and escape that tribulation wrath and anguish which shall come upon every soul that doth evil 2. That doctrine which establisheth purity of heart and life as the only means to attain this blessedness certainly that 's the way of truth Psal. 24 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity There is no true holiness no subjection of heart to God but by the Christian
doctrine Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy word is truth Hereby we know the word of God is truth because it is so powerful to sanctification Psal. 119. 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it All Religions endeavour some kind of excellency but now the holiness that is recommended in other Religions is a meer outside holiness in comparison of what Christianity calls for We have a strict Rule high Patterns blessed encouragement it promiseth a powerful Spirit even the Spirit of the holy God to work our heart to this holiness that is required The aim of that Religion is to remedy the disease introduced by the fall All other Religions do but make up a part of the disease and the Gospel is the only remedy and cure Therefore this is the way of truth you should chuse 3. That doctrine which provideth for peace of conscience and freedom from perplexing fears which are wont to haunt us by reason of Gods Justice and wrath for our former misdeeds that doctrine hath the true effect of a Religion Man easily apprehends himself as God's creature and being God's creature he is his subject bound to obey him and having exceedingly failed in his obedience as experience shews he is much haunted with fears and doubts Now that 's the Religion that in a kindly manner doth dispossess us of these dreads and fears and comes in upon the soul to deliver us from our bondage and those guilty fears which are so natural to us by reason of sin And therefore in a consultation about Religion if I were to chuse and had not by the grace of God been baptized into the Christian faith and had the advantage to look abroad and consider then I would bethink my self Where shall I find rest for my soul and from those fears which lye at the bottom of conscience and are easily stirr'd in us and sometimes are very raging there 's a fire smothering within and many times it is blown up into a flame Where shall I get remedy for these fears I rather pitch upon this because the Holy Ghost doth Ier. 6. 16. c. as if he had said If you will know what is the good way take that way where you may find rest for your souls not a false rest that 's easily disturbed not a carnal security but where you may find true solid peace that when you are most serious and mind your great errand and business you may comfort your selves and rejoyce in the God that made you In a false way of Religion there is no establishment of heart and sound peace Heb. 9. 9. They could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience That certainly is the true Religion which makes the worshipper perfect as to the conscience which gives him a well tempered peace in his soul not a sinful security but a holy solid peace that when he hath a great sense of his duty upon him yet he can comfortably wait upon God And you know our Lord himself useth this very motive to invite men Matt. 11. 29. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest That is take the Christian Religion that easie yoke upon you and you shall find rest for your souls The Lord Jesus is our peace and the ground of our peace but we never find rest until we come under his yoke Christians search where you will there is no serious answer to that grand question which is the great scruple of the fallen creature Mic. 6. 7. how to appease angry Justice And we are told of those Locusts who are seducing spirits which come out of the bottomless pit Rev. 9. they had stings in their tails their doctrine is not soundly comfortable to the conscience Among others this is designed by those Locusts that half Christianity which is taken up by the light-skirted people which reflect upon priviledges only therefore there are such scruples and intricate debates But some advantage there is and some progress they may make in the spiritual life that cry up them without duties but they never have sound peace upon their souls unless the Lord pardon their mistakes and doth sanctifie their reflections upon those spiritual and unseen priviledges so as to check their opposite desires and inclinations It is best to be setled in God's way by Justification and Sanctification There is a wound wherein no plaister will serve for the cure but the way the Gospel doth take Consider altogether Christs renewing and reconciling grace the whole Evangelical truth this Gospel which was founded in the blood of Christ his new Covenant and sealed with God's Authority and doth so fitly state duties and priviledges and lead a man by the one to the other This is that which will appease the Lord. There is no setling of the conscience without it and therefore whatever you would expect in a Religion here you find it in that blessed Religion which is recommended to us in the Gospel or new Covenant there is such holiness and true sense of the other world which breeds an excellency and choiceness of spirit in men Prop. 7. Of all Sects and sorts among Christians the Protestant Reformed Religion will be found to be the way of truth why because there 's the greatest sutableness to the great ends the greatest agreement and harmony with God's revelation which they profess to be their only rule I say as to God's Worship there is most simplicity without that Theatrical pomp which makes the Worship of God a dead thing and so most sutable to a spiritual being and conducible to spiritual ends to God who is a Spirit and who will be worshipped in spirit and truth for there God is our reward and to be served by faith love obedience trust prayers praises and a holy administration of the Word and Seals more sutable to the genius of the Scripture without the Pageantry of numerous idle Ceremonies like flourishes about a great letter which do rather hide Religion than any way discover it yea betray it to contempt and scorn to a considering man Besides the great design of this Religion is to draw men from earth to heaven by calling them to a serious profession of saving truth Popery is nothing but Christianity abused and is a doctrine suited to Policy and temporal ends and it is supported by worldly greatness And then as to Holiness which is the genuine product of a Religion the true genuine holiness is to be found or should be found according to their principles among Protestants and Reformed not external mortification but in purging the heart And here is the true peace of conscience while men are directed to look to Christ's reconciling and renewing grace and not to seek their acceptance in the merit of their own works and voluntary penance and satisfactions and many other doctrines which put the conscience upon the rack And then all this is submitted to be tried
confession of sin with grief and desire of the grace of Christ with a serious purpose of newness of life this is the doctrine of the Scripture They think that to the essence of true Repentance there is required Auricular confession penal satisfactions and the absolvence of the Priest without which true faith profiteth nothing to salvation Again the Scripture teacheth this doctrine That the Ordinances confer grace by virtue only of God's promises and the Sacraments are signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace to them that believe And they would teach us that they deserve and confer grace from the work wrought The Scripture teacheth that good works are such as are done in obedience to God and conformity to his Law and are compleated in love to God and our neighbour They teach us that there are works of supererogation which neither the Law nor the Gospel requireth of us and that the chief of these are Monastical Vows several Orders and Rules of Monks and Friers The Scripture teacheth us That God the Father Son and Holy Ghost is only to be worshipped both with natural and instituted worship in spirit and in truth and they teach both the making and worshipping of an Image and that the Images of Saints are to be worshipped The Scripture teacheth That there is but one holy Apostolical Catholick Church joined together in one faith and one spirit whose Head Husband and Foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ out of which Church there is no salvation And they teach us the Church of Rome is the center the right Mother of all Churches under one head the Pope infallible and supreme Judg of all truth and out of communion of this Church there is nothing but Heresie Schism and everlasting condemnation Instead of that lively Faith by which we are justified by Christ they cry up a dead assent Instead of sound knowledg they cry up an implicite faith believing as the Church believes Instead of Affiance they cry up wavering conjectural uncertainty Thirdly Come to their worship Their adoration of the Host their invocation of Saints and Angels their giving to the Virgin Mary and other Saints departed the titles of Mediator Redeemer and Saviour in their publick Liturgies and Hymns their bowing to and before Images their Communion in one kind and that decreed by their Councils with a non obstante Christi instituto notwithstanding Christs express Institution to the contrary their service in an unknown Tongue and the like are just causes of our separation from them But it is tedious to rake in these things So that unless we would be treacherous to Christ and not only deny the faith but forfeit sense and reason and give up all to the lusts and wills of those that have corrupted the truth of Christianity we ought to withdraw and our Separation is justifiable notwithstanding this plea. The USE Here is Reproof to divers sorts 1. To those that think they may be of any Sect among Christians as if all the differences in the Christian world were about trifles and matters of small concernment and so change their Religion as they do their clothes and are turned about with every puff of new doctrine If it were to turn to Heathenism Turcism or Judaism they would rather suffer banishment or death than yield to such a change but to be this day of this Sect and to morrow of another they think it is no great matter as the wind of Interest bloweth so are they carried and do not think it a matter of such moment to venture any thing upon that account You do not know the deceitfulness of your hearts he that can digest a lesser error will digest a greater God trieth you in the present truth He that is not faithful in a little will not be faithful in much As he that giveth entertainment to a small temptation will also to a greater if put upon it Where there is not a sincere purpose to obey God in all things God is not obeyed in any thing Every Truth is precious The dust of Gold and Pearls is esteemed Every truth is to be owned in its season with full consent To do any thing against conscience is damnable You are to chuse the way of truth impartially to search and find out the paths thereof 2. It reproves those that will be of no Religion till all differences among the learned and godly are reconciled and therefore willingly remain unsetled in Religion and live out of the communion of any Church upon this pretence that there is so much difference such shew of reason on each side and such faults in all that they doubt of all and therefore will not trouble themselves to know which side hath the truth You are to chuse the way of truth And this is such a fond conceit as if a man desperately sick should resolve to take no physick till all Doctors were of one opinion or as if a traveller when he seeth many ways before him should lye down and refuse to go any farther You may know the truth if you will search after it with humble minds Joh. 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self The meek he will teach the way If you be diligent you may come to a certainty notwithstanding this difference 3. It reproves those that take up what comes next to hand are loth to be at the pains of study and searching and prayer that they may resolve upon evidence that commonly set themselves to advance that faction into which they are entred Alas you should mind Religion seriously though not lightly leave the Religion you are bred in yet not hold it upon unsound grounds As Antiquity Joh. 4. 20. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain Or custom of the times and places where you live Eph. 2. 2. According to the course of the world the general and corrupt custom or example of those where we live nor be led by affection to oâ⦠admiration of some persons Gal. 2. 12. Holy men may lead you into error Nor by multitude to do as the most do follow not a multitude to do evil but get a true and sound conscience of things for by all these things opinions are rather imposed upon us than chosen by us 4. It reproves those that abstain from fixing out of a fear of troubles as the King of Navarre would so far put forth to sea as that he might soon get to shore again You must make God a good allowance when you imbark with him though called not only to dispute but to dye for Religion you must willingly submit If any man come to me and hate not his own life he cannot be my disciple Luke 14. 26. How soon the fire may be kindled we cannot tell times tend to Popery though there be few left to stick by us the favour of the times run another way we ought to resolve for God
offence Christians what Religion is it you are of Is it not the Christian Religion whose great interest and work it is to draw you off from the concernments of the present world unto things to come The whole drift and frame of the Christian Religion is to draw mens hearts off from earthly things and to comfort and support them under the troubles inconveniences and molestations of the flesh therefore for a Christian to hope an exemption from them is to make the doctrine of the Gospel as incongruous and useless as to talk of bladders and the art of swimming to a man that never goes to sea nor intends to go off from the firm land 3. A great occasion to shake the faith of many is Scandals the evil practices of those that profess the name of God O! when they run into disorder especially into all manner of unrighteousness and iniquity and cruel things and make no conscience of the duties of their relations as subjects as children and the like it is a mighty offence and we that have to do with persons and sinners of all sorts find it a very hard matter to keep them from Atheism such stumbling blocks having been laid in their way Scandal's far more dangerous than Persecution There are many that have been gained by the patience courage and constancy of the Martyrs but never any were gained by the scandalous falls of professors Persecutions do only work upon our fear which may be allayed by proposal of the Crown of life but by scandalous actions how many settle into a resolved hardness of heart In crosses and persecutions a man may have secret likings of truth and a purpose to own it but by scandal She dislikes the way of God of Religion it self it begets a base and vile esteem thereof in the hearts of men so they are loose and fall off And this mischief doth not only prevail with the lighter sort of Christians but many times those which have had some taste it makes them fly off exceedingly Matt. 18. 7. There will be offences but wo be unto them by whom they come Christ hath told us all will not walk up to the Religion they own therefore we must stand out against this temptation Secondly Be fortified within by taking heed to the causes of apostasie and falling off from the truth either in judgment or practice What is there will make men apostates 1. Ungrounded assents A choice lightly made is lightly altered When we do not resolve upon evidence and have not taken up the ways of God upon clear light we shall turn and wind to and fro as the posture of our interest is changed First we must try all things then hold fast 1 Thes. 5. 21. Men waver hither and thither for want of solid rooting in truth they take up things hand over head and then like light chaff they are driven about with every wind of doctrine Eph. 4. 14. Half conviction leaveth us open to changes Iames 1. 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways A man that seems to have a faith concerning such a thing then seems to have a doubt concerning such a thing sometimes led by his faith at other times carried away by his doubts If we have not a clear and full perswasion of the ways of God in our own minds we shall never be constant 2. Want of solid rooting in grace that is rooted in faith Col. 2. 7. or rooted and grounded in Love Eph. 3. 17. as to both it is said Heb. 13. 9. It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace that is by a sound sense of the love of God in Christ. A sweet superficial tast may be lost but a sound sense of the love of God in Christ will engage us to him O! we have felt so much sweetness and have had such real proof of the goodness of Christ that all the world cannot take us off The more experience you have and the deeper it is the more you will be confirmed The most of us content our selves but in a superficial tast When we hear of the doctrine of salvation by Christ we are somewhat pleased and tickled with it but this is not that which doth establish us but a deep sense of God's grace or feeling the blood of Christ pacifying our Consciences this is that which establisheth our heart and setleth us against apostasie 3. Unmortified lusts which must have some error to countenance them By an inordinate respect to worldly interests we are sure to miscarry A man governed by lusts will be at uncertainty according as he is swayed by the fear or favour of men or his carnal hopes 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present world If a man hath love to present things if that be not subdued and purged out of his heart he will never be stable never upright with God It may be he may stand when put upon some little self-denial for Christ he may endure some petty loss or some tender assault I but at length the man will be carried away as Ioab that turned after Adonijah though he turned not after Absolom 1 King 2. 28. there will some temptation come that will carry them away though at first they seem to stand their ground as long as lust remains unmortified in the heart 4. Sometimes a faulty-easiness As there is an ingenuous facility The wisdom that is from above is gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3. 17. so there 's a faulty easiness when men cannot say nay when they change their Religion with their company out of a desire to please all and Camelion-like they change colour with every object Some are of such a facile easie nature soon perswaded into great inconvenience This faulty-easiness always makes bold with God and conscience to please men when we are of this temper Jer. 38. 5. The King is not he that can do any thing against you It is not a good disposition but baseness and pusillanimity It is observed of Chrysostome though a good man in the main yet he ran into many inconveniences why because he was through simplicity and plainness of his nature easily to be wrought upon Therefore though a good man in regard of the sweetness of his temper and converse should be as a Load-stone yet he should be also resolute and severe in the things of God Paul though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose 5. Self-confidence when we think to bear it out with natural courage and resolution as Peter did Though all men forsake thee yet will not I. We are soon over-born and a light temptation will do it God gives men over that trust in themselves For the Lord takes it to be his honour to be the Saints Guardian to keep the feet of his Saints 1 Sam. 2. 9. He will be owned and depended upon 6. There 's an itch of Novelty when men are weary of old truths and
conforms it self to the body and only adheres to objects visible corporeal As water being put into a square vessel hath a square form into a round vessel hath a round form so the soul being infused into the body is led by it and accommodates all its faculties and operations to the welfare of the body And thence comes our ignorance averseness of sââ¦ul from holiness unruliness of appetite and inclination to sensual things In short without grace a mans mind is carried headlong after worldly vanities As water runs where it finds a passage so the soul of man being destitute of the Image of God finds a passage towards temporal things and so runs out that way 2. As man is thus corrupted and prone to worldly objects by natural inclination so by invelerate custom As soon as we are born we follow our sensual appetite and the first years of mans life are meerly governed by sense and the pleasures thereof are born and bred up with us and deeply ingraven in our natures and by constant living in the world conversing with corporeal objects the taint increaseth upon us and so we are more deeply dyed and setled in a worldly frame and we live in the pursuit of honour gain and pleasure according as the particular temper of our bodies and course of our interest do determine us Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Custom is as another nature and hardly left We find by experience the more we are accustomed to any course of life the more we delight in it and are weaned from it with a very great difficulty Every act disposeth the soul to the habit and after the habit or custom is produced then every new deliberate act adds a stiffness of bent or sway unto the faculty into which the custom is seated and the longer this evil custom is continued the more easily are we carried away with temptations that suit it and more hardly sway'd to the contrary Now this stiffness of will in a carnal course is that which the Scripture calls hardness of heart and a heart of stone for a man is ensnared by these customs and of all customs covetousness or worldliness is the most dangerous Why because this is a sin of more credit and less infamy in the world And this will multiply its acts in the soul most and works uncessantly Having hearts exercised with covetous practices 2 Pet. 2. 14. Well then these lusts being born and bred up with us from our infancy they plead prescription Religion that comes afterward and finds us biass'd and prepossest with other inclinations which by reason of long use is not easily broken and shaken off as upon trial when ever we are call'd upon or begin to apply our selves to the ways of life we shall be easily sensible of this stiffness of heart and obstinacy that bends us another way Thirdly The heart being thus deeply engaged to temporal things or things base and earthly it cannot be set upon that which is spiritual and heavenly for David propounds these things here as inconsistent To thy testimonies Lord and not to covetousness If the heart be addicted to worldly things it is necessarily averse from God and his testimonies for the habitual bent of the heart to any one sin is inconsistent with grace or a through obedience to Gods will That which the heart is inclined to hath the throne Now when we enquire after grace Have I grace or no Have I the work of God upon my heart The question is not what there is of God in the heart but whether that of God hath the throne Something of God is in the heart of the wickedest man that is and something of sin in the best heart that is therefore which way in the sway the bent the habitual and prevailing inclination of the soul what hath the dominion Sin hath not the dominion for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. What hath the prevalency of the heart Though the Conscience takes part with God as it may strongly in a wicked man yet which way is the bent of our souls And as all sin in its reign is inconsistent with grace so much more worldly affections Mat. 6. 24. No man can serve two masters c. It is as inconsistent as for a man to look two ways at once And the Chaldee on this very Text Incline my heart to thy testimonies read it and not unto mammon You cannot be inclined to God and manimon 1 Joh. 2. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him The world draws men from the love of God and from his service And labour after temporal things deadens and hindreth us from looking after things which are eternal and we lose the relish of things to come and things spiritual the more the love of worldly things doth increase upon us The School-men say of worldliness it is that which most of all draws us off from God as our last end and chief good and make us cleave to the Creature therefore it is called Adultery and Idolatry Adultery Jam. 4. 4. as it draws away our love delight and complacency from God and Idolatry Col. 3. 5. as it diverts our trust and placeth it in Wealth and sublunary things The Glutton or Sensualist's love is withdrawn from God and therefore his belly is said to be his God Phil. 3. 19. Interpretatively that 's a man's God which is the last end of his actions and upon which all his thoughts affections and endeavours run most But now covetousness is not only a spiritual fornication and adultery which draws off our affections from God but Idolatry Considering our relation in the Covenant it is spiritual adultery and above this 't is idolatry because men think they can never be happy well nor have any comfortable being unless they have a great portion of these outward things Fourthly This frame of heart cannot be altered until we be changed by God's grace why for there is no principle remaining in us that can alter this frame or make us so far unsatisfied with our present state as to look after other things that can break the force of our natural and customary inclinations There are three things which lye against the change of the heart towards God 1. There 's Nature which wholly carrieth us to please the flesh and inordinately to seek the good of the body Now nature cannot rise higher than it self and determine it self to things above its sphear and compass As the Philosopher saith of water it cannot be forced to rise higher than its fountain Our actions cannot exceed their principle which is self-love But besides this 2. There 's Custom added to Nature which makes it more stiff and obstinate so that if it may be supposed that Conscience is sensible of our mistake and ill choice and some weighty
of the body see how they are described in Scripture Psal. 127. 2. They rise early they sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows And Psal 39. 6. He disquieteth himself in vain By biting cares Eccles. 2. 23. All his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night Eccles. 4. 8. There is no end of his labours neither is his eye satisfied with riches Men are full of biting cares cruciating unquiet thoughts and so pierce themselves through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 10. Riches are compared to thorns not only for choaking the good seed but as piercing us through with many sorrows as they prove troublesome comforts to a covetous man And they wrong the soul when the heart is dead and opprest by them Lukâ⦠21. 34. Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life The heart is burdened and oppressed so as it hath no life and vigor for spiritual things but is unbelieving and hard-hearted the following the world brings a deadness upon us and these preposterous and eager pursuits spend the strength of our affections so that God and Religion is justled out and hath no due respect the lean kine devour the fat and Sarah is thrust out of doors instead of Hagar Thus is greedy getting seen by unjust means and the immoderate use of lawful means to the oppression of the body and soul. 2. The other discovery is an unworthy detention Prov. 11. 24. There is that with-holdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty This covetousness in keeping is seen partly 1. By a sordid dispensing of our estate or a denying of our selves and others that relief which they should have Our selves Eccl. 4. 8. He bereaveth his own soul of good that is of the comforts of the present life But chiefly denying of others that relief they should have A duty which our Religion often presseth us to Luk. 12. 33. Sell that ye have and give alms provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth We should rather scatter than hoard The only means to discover we are not covetous and to keep our selves from the filth of this and other sins is to be much in charity and distributing to those that have need Luk. 11. 41. Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you It bringeth a blessing purgeth the soul from that stain which it secretly contracteth by possessing worldly things as our fingers are defiled by telling of money But now when men are backward this way part with a drop of blood as soon as any thing for Gods use When they shut up their bowels against the miseries of others then is there this unmeet with-holding 2. By our lothness to part with these things for the testimony of a good Conscience When we are put to trial as Ioseph was to lose our coat that we may keep our Consciences I mean to part with these outward things or to defile our selves by compliance with men when we are put to this trial those that will with-hold and can dispense with the conscience of their duty to God they are guilty of this sin 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present world O it 's a mighty insinuating thing that gets into the hearts of those that profess Religion many times so that they cannot deny any small conveniencies for God But the contrary is in those Saints that take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. 3. It appears again when we are loth to part with them in a way of submission to Gods Providence Grief at worldly losses shews that these things have gained too much of our love If we did rejoice in them when we have them as if we rejoiced not then we would weep for the loss of them as though we wept not 1 Cor. 7. 31. They are both coupled together for one makes way for the other So we find the other couple 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to temperance patience Where there is temperance and moderation in the use of worldly things there will be patience a submission to God in the loss of them He lost them without grief because he possest them without love The greatness of our affliction comes from our affection to these things Did we sit more loose from our earthly comforts it would not be so irksome to part with them Grief is always a sign of affection Ioh. 11. 34. And Iesus wept and then they said Behold how he loved him When we are surprized with so great sorrow and trouble at the parting of outward things it may be said behold how we loved them Our hearts are not at so great an indifferency as they should be The root of all trouble of spirit lyeth in our inordinate affection Get off that and then what comfortable lives might we live Secondly I am to shew how it hindreth us from complying with Gods Testimonies I shall do it by these Arguments 1. It disposeth and inclineth the soul to all evil to break every Command and Law of God 1 Tim. 6. 10. The love of money is the root of all evil Let that once get into the heart and reign there and then a man will stick at no sin he becomes as Chrysostome speaks a ready prey to the Devil such a man doth but stand watching for a temptation that Satan may draw him to one sin or other Mica 2. 2. They covet fields and take them by violence First they covet suffer that to possess the heart and a man will stop at nothing but break out into all that is unseemly Let Iudas be but enured to the bag and inchant his thoughts with this pleasing supposition that he may make a gain of his Master and he will soon come to a quid dabitis what will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you he will soon betray him Gehazi let him but affect a reward and he will dishonour God and lay a stumbling-block in the way of that noble Syrian that new Convert Is this a time to take bribes c. Let Achans heart be but tickled and pleased a little with the sight and he will be purloyning the wedg of gold and the Babylonish garment Tell Balaam but of gold and silver and he will curse Israel against his conscience he will venture though there be an Angel in the way to stop him Let Ahab but have a mind to Naboths Vineyard and he will soon consent to Naboths blood Ananias and Saphira let them but look upon what they part withal let but covetousness prevail upon their hearts and they will keep back part of that which is dedicated to God Simon Magus will deny Religion and return to his old sorceries again that he may be
22. Psal. 7. All they that see me Laugh me to Scorn they Shoot out the Lip they shake the Head A good name is more precious to some than Life And possibly that may be the reason why these two are coupled together 7. Eccle. 1. A good name is better then precious Ointment And the day of Death then the day of ones Birth The coupling of these two Sentences together seems to intimate this that men had rather dye than lose their Names If a man dye his Memory may be Fragrant he may leave his Name hehind him But it is more hateful to have their Names and Credit mangled than their flesh with sharp Swords Now it is grievous to Nature there is somewhat of Corruption in it Now God knows how to strike in the right Vain The godly are not so Mortified to their Credit in the world many times when they are Mortified to other Interests And therefore God would try them in this way and exercise them that he may humble them and fit them more for his own use All that I have spoken is but to shew it is a thing grievous to Nature 2. It must needs be grievous because Grace concurrs As the flood was the more violent and did Over-spread the World when not only the Mouth of the great deep was opened below but the Windows of Heaven above then the floods did Swell and Over-spread the whole World I bring it to this purpose when the Windows of Heaven are opened above when Grace looks upon it as an affliction as well as Nature then the afflictions must needs be the more grievous Now certainly Grace concurrs to the Sense of our affliction for next to a good Conscience there is not a greater blessing than a good Name holily got You may observe usually he that is Prodigal of his Credit certainly will not be very tender of his Conscience Grace teacheth us to value a good Name Partly because it is Gods gift a Blessing adopted and taken into the Covenant as other such like Blessings are Promises are frequent Especially in the Old Testament where Heaven is sparingly mentioned A good Name is Promised as the reward of the Righteous and the name of the wicked shall Rot 'T is threatned as a Punishment of the wicked For a good name is a shadow of Eternity When a man dies his Name he leaves behind him which is a Pledg of our living after Death Therefore the Old Testament abounds with Promises of this kind he leaves a good Name behind him as Spices when broken and dissolved leave an Excellent scent And Partly too because Grace gives us a right Judgment of all things Now it is represented in Scripture as better than Riches 22. Prov. 1. It is better as in other respects so in this it is a Motive more pure and sublime than Wealth and in the Operations of it it comes next to Grace A dreggy Soul is for that which is more base but Grace teacheth us to value things So Eccle. 7. 1. A good name is better then Precious Ointment Aromatical Ointments are things of great use and esteem among the Jews they are counted a Cheif part of their Treasures And so a good name is better than precious Ointment that is it is better than other Riches for this was a great part of their Riches And Partly too another reason why Grace teacheth us to Prize it because of the great inconveniencies which attends the loss of a good Name and the mis-representation of the people of God to the World The glory of God is much interested in the credit of his Servants When they Pollute and shame themselves the Lord is polluted in them 13. Ezek. 19. Will they pollute me among my People And Ier. 34. 16. Ye have polluted my Name Christ that will hereafter be admired in his Saints will now be glorified in them The shame of our Mis-carriages real or supposed redounds to God and Religion it self And therefore when people are possessed and fill'd with Prejudices against Religious Persons they are possest and fill'd with Prejudices against the will of God and the unquestionable interests of Christ Jesus And the world that hates God Christ and Religion will presently say these are your Professors and this is your Profession Therefore since the cerdit of Religion lyeth much in it Grace teacheth us to value it Besides too their Safety lyes in it for by defaming the Worshippers of Christ they make way for greater Persecutions and Satan is usually first a Lyar and then a Murderer Iohn 8. 44. and when their Slanders abound Troubles will not long be kept out As heretofore they Invested the Primitive Christians with Bears-skins and then baited them as Bears So they represent them to the World as a vile and infamous sort of men and then the Persecution is the better countenanced First they smite with the Tongue and then with the Fist of Wickedness and therefore their safety lyes very much in this And as their safety so Grace teacheth us to value it upon other accounts their usefulness Nature desires a good name but it is for their own conveniences But the children of God if they desire a good name it is to honour God and that is the difference between Vain-glory or a desire of the good opinion of others If it terminate in self-respects it is vain glory but if the heart be pure and right in order to God then it comes from Grace A blemisht Instrument will be of little use Most would refuse to take their meat from a Leprous hand It is Satans policy when he cannot discourage Instruments from the work of God then he seeks to blemish them and blast them The Apostle tells us that those which are called to publick Office that they should be very careful of their credit that they may promote their work for he puts down this as one of their Qualifications 1 Tim. 3. 7. He must have a good report of them that are without lest he fall into Reproach and the snare of the Devil Interpreters differ a little how ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which we translate Devil is to be interpreted Either it signifies Devil or Slanderer both Sences are good lest he fall into the snare of the Devil or the snare of the Slanderer The Devil hath his Spies that watch over us and they have set their snares and watch for your halting that so the Service may be blemished and the Gospel obstructed and hindred Well then Grace prizeth a good name because of the Consequences and because the Lords honour and our safety and service is concerned in it Use 1. First Here is advice to the person Reproached O Christians acknowledge God in the affliction if this be your Lot and Portion David goes to God to stop it there it is best stopt with God Turn away my Reproach It is a great and grievous affliction but in all things God hath an aim Look what is said of Afflictions
love him in your hearts but openly plead for him and maintain his quarrel The Devil asketh but Christs Knee Mark 4. 9. Fall down and worship me What were all the Martyrs of God rash inconsiderate that suffered so many things rather than lose their liberty in Gods service Would we be content God should deal with us as we deal by him glorifie their Souls only love their Souls but punish their Bodies eternally 2. Them that though not tainted with this Libertine Principle yet are afraid or ashamed to own the Truth 1. Some afraid because of Troubles and Persecution Hath Christ endured so much for us and shall we be afraid to own his Truth God forbid If I would fear whom should I be afraid of Mark 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Whom should a Child fear his Father or the Servants of his house So whom should we fear God or Man a Prison or Hell 2. Ashamed in Peace and out of Trouble ashamed to own Christ in such Company or to speak of God and his Word Oh Christians shall we be ashamed to speak for him that was not ashamed to dye for us or count Religion a Disgrace which is our Glory Would a Father take it well that his Son should be ashamed of him Are we ashamed of the Gospel the great Charter of our Hopes the Seeds of the new Life the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God to Salvation Oh shake off this baseness Iohn 5. 44. How can ye believe which receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that comes from God only Use 2. To exhort us to confess with the Mouth and to own the Truths we are perswaded of And here I shall handle the Case of Profession 1. How far it is necessary It is a matter intricate and perplexed and therefore I care not to comprize all cases but to the most notable I shall speak 2. As to the manner how this Profession is to be made 1. How far we are bound to Profess 1. The Affirmative 2. The Negative 1. The Affirmative 1. It is certain that the Great Truths must be owned and publickly professed or else Christ would not have a visible people in the World distinct from Pagans and Heathens Our Baptism bindeth us to this Profession and to all Practises consonant and agreeable with it Rom. 10. 10. With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation To own Christ as the Saviour of the World evidenced by his Resurrection from the Dead 2. It is certain we must do nothing to contradict the Truth in the smallest matters 2 Cor. 13. 8. We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth Nothing contrary to the Glory of God or the prejudice of the least Truth whatever it costs us 3. In lesser Truths when they are ventilated and brought forth upon the Stage and God cryeth out Who is on my side who We ought not to give up our selves to an indifferency to hide our Profession for any danger 2 Pet. 1. 2. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present Truth The Church of God is out of Repair sometimes in one point sometimes in another the Orthodoxy of the generality of men is usually an Age too short in things now asoot they go wrong or forbear to give help to the Church because the God of this World hath blinded their Eyes Fight Christ Fight Antichrist they are resolved to be lookers on 4. When our Non-Profession shall be interpreted to be a Denyal Thus Daniel cap. 6. 10. Opened his Caseznent which looked towards Jerusalem and prayed three times a day as he was wont We must rather suffer than deny the Truth by interpretation when such Practises are urged as cross a Principle and we comply 5. When others are scandalized by our Non-Profession or not owning the Truths of Christ that is not only with the scandal of Offence or Contristation but with the scandal of Seduction in danger to Sin and to run into error by our not appearing for God the Interest of Truth should prevail above our ease and private Content 4. When an account of my Faith is demanded and I am called forth to give Testimony for Christ especially by Magistrates Matth. 10. 18. Ye shall be brought before Governors and Kings for my sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles 1 Pet. 3. 15. Be always ready to give an answer to every one that asketh a Reason of the Hope that is in you provided it be not in scorn Prov. 26. 4 5. Answer not a Fool according to his Folly lââ¦st thou also be like unto him Answer a Fool according to his Folly lest he be wise in his own Conceit Answer and Answer not not out of curiosity as Herod questioned Christ many things but he answered him nothing Luke 23. 9. or to be a snare Isa. 36. 21. They held their Peace and answered him not a word for the Kings commandment was saying Answer him not nor parly with Rabshekah In such cases you must not cast Pearls before Swine left they turn again and rent you Mat. 7. 6. 7. When Impulsions are great and fair opportunities are offered in Gods Providence Acts 6. 17 16. While Paul waited for them at Athens his Spirit was stirred in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry It is an Intimation from God that then it is seasonable to interpose for his Glory 2. Negatively which is to be forborn 1. Till you be fully perswaded in your own Mind of the Truth which you would profess for otherwise we shall appear with a various and doubtful Face to the World changing and wavering according to the uncertainty of our own thoughts and so make the Profession of Religion Ridiculous We often see cause to suspect what before we were strongly conceited of there is a certain credulity and lightness of believing which men are subject to now when this breaks out into sudden Profession men run through all Sects and Religions and so blast and blemish their own Service therefore what is contrary to the received Sense especially of the Godly ought to be weighed and weighed again before we appear to the World to be otherwise minded 2. When the Profession of a lesser Truth proves an offence to the weak and a disturbance to the Church and an hindrance of some greater benefit all private Opinions must give way to the great Law of Edification Rom. 14. 22. Hast thou Faith have it to thy self before God We must not perplex weak Souls with doubtful Disputations till they be established in greater things neither must the Peace of the Church
Heathens as their Interests did fall or rise So there are many that do intend or remit the Conscience of their duty according to their Interests and therefore when trouble ariseth they are offended 4 Mark 17. Use 2. For Exhortation to press you thus to keep Gods Law for ever and ever To this End Direct 1. First Be fortified within After you have gotten Grace I suppose men that they are in a good way O be fortified from that which may shake you from without Three things are wont to hurry men from one extreme to another Errors Persecutions and Scandals 1. Errors Be not troubled when differences fall out about the Truths of God nor shaken in mind 1 Cor. 11. 19. For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you Many question the ways of God and all Religion because there are so many differences about them therefore they think nothing certain These winds God lets loose upon the Church to distinguish the Chaff and the solid Grain God saw this Discipline necessary that we might not take up Religion upon trust without the pains of Study and Prayer 2. Persecutions are an offence 11 Matth. 6. Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me that is offended because of Troubles that accompany the Profession of the Truth The whole drift of the Christian Religion is to draw us off from the Interest and Concernments of the present world to look after another 3. Scandals of Professors All that profess the Name of God are his Witnesses their Lives should be a Confirmation of the Gospel but indeed they often prove a Confutation of it we should Confirm the Weak and we Offend the Strong Many have been gain'd by Persecution when they have seen the courage of Gods Servants O but the scandals of those that profess the Name of God have proved a Stumbling Block Those that are offended by Crosses yet they have a secret liking of the Truth but those that are offended by Scandals they loath the Truth it self and so are hurried away against the Profession of God therefore be fortified against all these Direct 2. Secondly Be fortified within by taking heed to the Causes of Apostacy and falling off from the Truth either in Judgment or Practise What are those things 1. Ungrounded Assent A Choice lightly made is lightly altered when men do not resolve upon Evidence We are to try all things 1 Thess. 5. 21. When we take up a Profession without Evidence we soon quit it men waver hither and thither for want of solid rooting in the truth 2. Ungrounded Profession want of solid rooting in Grace when not rooted either in Faith 2 Col. 7. or grounded in Love 3 Eph. 17. or established by Grace 13 Heb. 9. There must be a Foundation before a Building a through sence of the Love of God and a being rooted when our hearts are sound in Gods Statutes 3. Unmortified Lusts That which is Lame is soon turned out of the way while men keep up their respects to the pleasures profits and honours of the world unbroken they are sure to miscarry though they should stand for a while yet Temptation will come that will take them away Lusts put us upon great uncertainty as fear or the favour of men or as carnal hopes sway 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present world 4. A fond Easiness Men change their Religion with their Company out of a desire to please all as the Camelion changeth colours according as it touches True Religion is indeed easie to be intreated 3 Iames 17. but now to make bold with God and Conscience to please men is a sad adventure it is not a good disposition but Pusillanimity 5. Self-Confidence When we think to bear it out with Natural Courage and Resolution and will be playing about the Cockatrice's hole and dallying with temptation As Peter's Confidence you know how dear it cost him 18 Iohn 16 17. It is God which keepeth the feet of his Saints and he will be known to be their Guardian 1 Sam. 2. 9. therefore he will be depended on 3. Thirdly Take heed of the first decays and look often on the State of your hearts A man that never casts up his Estate is undone insensibly It is the Devils Policy when once we are a declining to carry us further and further A gap once made in the Conscience grows wider and wider every day The first declinings are the cause of all the rest Evil is best stopped in the beginning When first you begin to be careless mindless of God and neglectful of Communion with him O then take heed It is easier to crush the Egg than kill the Serpent He that keeps the House in constant Repair prevents the Ruine and Fall of it So do you keep your Soul in constant repair take notice of the first swerving lest it carry you further and further Men fall off by degrees and grow worse and worse neglect this Duty and that till they cast off all Like Nebuchadnezar's Image which was of Gold Silver Iron Clay from worse to worse they presently run from one extremity to another There are degrees of hardness Heb. 3. 14. Let us hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end The first Sence Tast and Liveliness of it learn from whence you are fallen and then a stedfast expectation of the reward 1 Cor. 15. 58. You have but a few years service more a little while to be put upon labour and striving then you shall be as happy as heart can wish Then a Religious use of the Lords Supper for here you renew again the Oath of Allegiance to God The great purport of this Duty is to bind your selves to this firm and close walking The Lords Supper is a renewing of Covenant to fix our hearts by new Promises of Obedience When we begin to waver and faint and stand we receive new strength As they when they had a little refreshing then they went on from strength to strength Psal. 84. 78. The Lords Supper 't is our viaticum our Well and refreshing by the way that we may hold out to our Journeys end SERMON LI. PSAL. CXIX 45. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy Precepts THE Copulative in the front of the Text sheweth some dependence which the Words have upon the former His last Request was ver 43. for an opportunity and heart to own the ways of God His Arguments are 1. His present Hope in the end of that Verse 2. His perseverance in Obedience ver 44. Now 3. The freedom of his Heart in that continued course of Obedience A free and open confession of the Truth may seem to cast us into bonds and straits but yet it giveth us liberty The Truth sets free Iohn 8. 32. If it bring the Body under fetters yet it enlargeth the Heart We never have greater freedom than when we are pleasing God though
ready to make Profession 1 Pet. 3. 5. bids us do it with meekness and fear Meekness respects Men Fear a care to approve our selves to God The Fear of Men is checked by the Fear of God Isa. 8. 12 13. Neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Luke 12. 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell An holy Impression of God's Excellency and Greatness left upon the Heart is this Fear that carrieth the Cause clearly for God And as one Nail driveth out another the Fear of Men banisheth the Fear of God out of our Hearts We are obliged to none so as to God who hath the power of Eternal Life and Eternal Death What is a Prison to Hell a little vain Glory to Eternal Glory the Creature to God! 4. A deep sense of the other World When we translate the Scene from Earth to Heaven from this World to the next and consider who is scorned there received there or rejected there the Temptation is lessened The Apostle sheweth that a Spirit of Faith is at the bottom of Confession with the mouth 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same spirit of faith believe and therefore speak He that believeth another World and hopeth for it will never be cowardly and bashful but will confidently confess Christ and own him both in Worship and Conversation A Spirit of Faith cannot be suppressed but will break out and shew it self and not be ashamed of Christ his Truth and Ways Well then Christians should be ashamed of that Spirit of Fear Bashfulness and Inconfidence which keeps us from confessing Christ and owning his Ways Kings are more formidable by their Place and Power than the rest of the World but alas we give place to the meanest Men and the smallest opposition maketh us give out 2 Tim. 1. 7. We have not the spirit of fear but the spirit of love power and a sound mind The Christian Spirit is a sober Spirit that valueth all things according to their weight but not a dastardly Spirit a Spirit of Love and Power that owneth Christ with meekness and a due respect to earthly Tribunals and yet with courage as looking higher to the Throne of God 2. We must not be ashamed to own the Testimonies and Ways of God before any sort of Men in the World The Apostle telleth us Rom. 1. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Iesus Christ. The Gospel is such a pure sure Rule and offereth us such glorious Hopes that we should be ready to profess it without being ashamed of it So he bids Timothy 2 Tim. 1. 11. Be not ashamed of the testimony of the Lord nor of me his prisoner neither of the Profession nor of our Companions in the Profession when they are under the greatest disgrace So again 1 Pet. 4. 16. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God in this behalf It is matter of Thanksgiving not of shame David is an Instance when Michol scoffed at him I will yet be more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. It is an honour to be dishonoured for Christ. The Primitive Christians when the Heathens reproched them Art thou not ashamed to believe in him that was crucified The Answer was I am ashamed to believe in him that committed Adultery meaning the Heathen Iupiter Affliction is no disgrace but Sin is But what danger is there of being ashamed of the Gospel since Christianity is in fashion Answ. 1. Sometimes the Simplicity of the Gospel is contemned by the Wits of the World and therefore they either muster up the Oppositions of Science falsly so called or else droll upon Religion and make it the common Jest and By-word 2. The stricter Profession of the Ways of God is under reproch Though the nominal Christian and the serious Christian have the same Bible and believe the same Creed and are baptized into one and the same Profession yet those that are false to their Religion will hate and scorn those that are true to it and among the carnal it will be matter of reproch to be serious and diligent Now though a gracious Heart can be vile for God yet others are afraid they shall be marked and accounted Precise or Puritans and so by resisting an imaginary Shame they fall into an eternal Reproch 3. It may be the strict sort of Christians are the poorer sort and though they be precious in the eyes of God yet they are despised by Men Iohn 7. 49. This people that knoweth not the law are accursed Have any of the Pharisees believed in him any People of Quality They shall be accounted People of no Port and Breeding if they are strictly Christian. Quantus in Christiano populo honor Christi est ubi Religio ignobilem facit coguntur esse viles ne mali videantur Religion is too mean a thing for Persons of Quality of their Rank Thus with many God's Image is made a scorn and the Devil's Image had in honour and serious Godliness is made a By-word Now to fortifie you against being ashamed of God and his Ways take these Considerations 1. The short continuance of this Worlds Glory Within a while we shall be levelled with the lowest and our Dust mixed with common Earth And shall we love the praise of Men more than the praise of God This corruptible Flesh must turn into a loathsom rottenness though now it looketh high and sets forth it self and would be brave and Lordly but the spirit must return to God that gave it to be commanded into unseen and unknown Regions 1 Pet. 1. 21. All flesh is grass and the glory of man as the flower of grass 2. God is the Fountain of Honour all Things and Persons receive an Honour by having relation to him Iames 2. 1. Have not the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory in respect of persons Services mean in themselves are accounted honourable with respect to Princes The Reproch of Christ is enough to weigh down all the Honours in the World Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming the reproch of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt 3. If your hearts be sincere with God you will not be ashamed of his Ways For Wisdom is justified of her children In Luke it is All her children Luke 7. 35. They that have a Faith which is the fruit of Conviction onely may be ashamed Iohn 12. 42 43. Among the rulers also many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God But that Faith which is the fruit of Conversion will make us courageous in God's Cause
praying in the Holy Ghost Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self helpeth our infirmities with groanings which cannot be uttered Zech. 12. 10. I will pour upon you the Spirit of Grace and of Supplication yet it is little relished by them A slat dead way of praying suiteth their gust better Christ compareth the Duties of the Gospel fasting with Prayer in the Spirit to new wine which will break old bottles Matth. 9. 17. but the Duties of the Pharisees to old dead and insipid wine there is no life in them 6. Serious speaking of God and Heavenly Things is in the phrase of the World Canting Indeed to speak swelling words of Vanity or an unintelligible Jargon betrayeth Religion to scorn but a pure Lip and Speech seasoned with Salt and that Holy Things should be spoken of in a holy manner our Lord requireth 7. Faith of the future Eternal State is esteemed a fond Credulity by them who affect the Vanities of the World and the Honours and Pleasures thereof They are all for Sight and Present Things and Christianity inviteth us to things Spiritual and Heavenly Now to live upon the Hopes of an unseen World and that to come they judge it to be but Foppery and needless Superstition Thus do poor Creatures drunk with the delusions of the Flesh judge of the Holy Things of God 8. The Humility of Christians and their pardoning Wrongs and forgiving Injuries they count to be Simplicity or Stupidness though the Law of Christ requireth us to forgive others as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us 9. Exact walking is Scrupulosity and Preciseness and men are more nice then wise which is a Reproach that reflecteth a mighty contempt upon God himself that when he hath made an holy Law for the Government of the World that the obeying of this Law should be derided by professed Christians the Scorn must needs fall on him that made the Law and gave us these Commands If he be too precise that imperfectly obeyed God what will you say of God himself who commandeth more then any of us all performeth Thus the Children of God are not onely reproached as Hypocrites but derided as Fools and it is counted as a part of wit and breeding to droll at the serious Practice of Godliness as if Religion were but a Foppery 2. The Reasons of this are these 1. Their natural Blindness 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned They are incompetent Judges Prov. 24. 7. Wisedom is too high for a fool Though by Nature we have lost our Light yet we have not lost our Pride Prov. 26. 16. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit then seven men that can render a Reason Though their way in Religion be but a sluggish lazy and dead course yet they have an high conceit of it and censure all that is contrary or but a degree removed above it From Spiritual Blindness it is that Carnal Men judge unrighteously and perversely of God's Servants and count Zeale and Forwardness in Religious Duties to be but Folly and Madness 2. Antipathy and prejudicate Malice The Graceless scoff at the Gracious and the Profane at the Serious there is a different course and that produceth difference of Affections Iohn 15. 19. The world will love its own but because I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you And they manifest their Malice and Hatred this way by Evil-speaking 1 Pet. 4. 4. speaking evil of you 3. Want of a closer View Christians complained in the Primitive times that they were condemned unheard ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã without any particular inquiry into their Principles and Practices And Tertullian saith nolentes auditis c. they would not inquire because they had a mind to hate A Man riding afar off seeing people dancing would think they were mad till he draws near and observes the harmonious order They will not take a nearer view of the regularity of the ways of God and therefore scoff at them 4. Because you do by your Practice condemn that Life that they affect Iohn 7. 7. The world hateth me because I testify that their deeds are evil Noah Heb. 11. 7. by Faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world Now they would not have their guilt revived and therefore since they will not come up to others by a religious Imitation they seek to bring others down to themselves by Scoffs reproaches and Censures 5. They are set awork by Sathan thereby to keep off young Beginners and to discourage and molest the godly themselves for bitter words pierce deep and enter into the very Soul II. It is a grievous Temptation it is reckoned in Scripture among the Persecutions Gal. 4. 29. As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now He meaneth those bitter mockings that Isaac did suffer from Ishmael Gen. 21. 9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian which she had born unto Abraham mocking When the Wicked mock at our Interest in God shame our Confidence the Church complaineth of it Psal. 123. 4. We are filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud the insultations of those that live in full Pomp over the Confidence and Hope the Saints have in God So we reade Heb. 10. 33. that the servants of God were made a gazing-stock by Reproaches and Afflictions again of cruel mockings Heb. 11. 36. It is more grievous when they mock and persecute at the same time there is both Pain and Shame The parties mocked were God's Saints the parties mocking were their Persecutors and Enemies which proved sometimes to be their own Brethren of the same Nation Language Kindred Religion In short these mockings issue out of Contempt and tend to the disgrace and dishonour of the Party mocked they make it their sport to abuse them David saith Reproach hath broken my heart Psal. 69. 20. III. This should not move us either to open Defection or partial Declining for these Reasons 1. It is one of the usual Evils wherewith the People of God are tempted Now a Christian should be fortified against obvious and usual Evils Let no man that is truly religious think that he can escape the Mockage and Contempt of the Wicked Iesus Christ himself endured the contradiction of sinners Heb. 12. 3. and the rather that we might not wax weary and faint in our minds This is a part of his Cross which we must bear after him The Pharisees derided his Ministry Luke 16. 14. The Pharisees also who were covetous
heard all these things and derided him They flouted at him when he hung on the Cross Matt. 27. 39 to 44. They that passed by him reviled him wagging their heads and saying Thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three days save thy self if thou be the son of God come down from the Cross. Likewise also the Chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said He saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the son of God The Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth So Acts 17. 32. Some mocked and said What will this Babler say Well then since it is an usual Evil which God's Children have suffered it should be the less to us Little can the Wicked say if they cannot scoff and little can we endure if we cannot abide a bad word There needs no great deal adoe to advance a Man into the Chair of Scorners if they have wickedness and boldness enough they may soon let fly 2. This as well as other Afflictions are not excepted out of our Resignation to God We must be contented to be mocked and scorned as well as to be persecuted and molested It is mentioned in the Beatitudes Matt. 5. 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil falsly against you for my sake 3. Railing and Calumniating will never prevaile with Rational and Conscientious Men to cause them to change their Opinions To leave the Truth because others raile at it is to consult with our Affections not our Judgments Solid Reasoning convinceth our Judgments but Railery is to our Affections and a Rational Conscientious Man is governed by an inlightened Mind not perverse and preposterous Affections Eph. 5. 17. Be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Therefore an Honest man will not quit Truth because others raile no he looketh to his Rule and Warrant A Man will not be railed out of Errors nay often they are the more rooted because ill-confuted 4. It is the Duty of God's Children to justify Wisedom Matt. 11. 19. Wisedom is justified of her Children What is it to justify Wisedom Justification is a Relative word opposed to Crimination so to justify is the work of an Advocate or to Condemnation so it is the work of a Judge The Children of Wisedom discharge both parts they pleade for the Ways of God and exalt them so much as others deny them they value them esteem them hold them for good and right When they are never so much condemned and the more despised the more zealous the Saints will be for them I will yet be more vile 5. Carnal men at the same time approve what they seem to condemn they hate and fear Strictness Mark 6. 20. Herod feared Iohn because he was a just man and an holy and observed him They scoff at it with their Tongues but have a fear of it in their Consciences they revile at it while they live but what mind are they off when they come to dye then all speak well of an Holy Life and the strictest Obedience to the Laws of God Numb 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Matt. 25. 8. Give us of your Oyl for our lamps are gone out Oh that they had a little of that Holiness and Strictness which they scoffed at whilst they were pursuing their Lusts. How will men desire to die as carnal and careless Sinners or as mortified Saints Once more They approve it in Thesi and condemn it in Hypothesi All the Scoffers at Godliness within the Pale of the visible Church have the same Bible Baptism Creed pretend to believe in the same God and Christ which they own with those whom they oppose All the difference is the one are real Christians the other are Nominal some profess at large the others practise what they profess the one have a Religion to talk of the others to live by Once more They approve it in the Form but hate it in the Power A Picture of Christ that is drawn by a Painter they like and the forbidden Image of God made by a Carver they will reverence and honour and be zealous for but the Image of God framed by the Spirit in the hearts of the Faithfull and described in the lives of the Heavenly and the Sanctified this they scorn and scoff at 6. Their Judgment is perverse not to be stood upon They count the Children of God foolish and crack-brain'd the Crimination may be justly retorted their Way is Folly and Madness for they goe dancing to their Destruction Though there be a God by whom and for whom they were made and from whom they are fallen and that they cannot be happy but in returning to him again yet they carry it so as if there were no misery but in Bodily and Worldly things no Happiness but in pleasing the Senses The beginning progress and end of their Course is from themselves in themselves and to themselves They pour out their hearts to inconsiderable Toys and Trifles and will neither admit Information of their Errour nor Reformation of their Practice till Death destroy them They neglect their main business and leave it undone and run up and down they know not why like Children that follow a Bubble blown out of a shell of Soap till it break and dissolve Now should those that are flying from Wrath to come and seeking after God and their Happiness be discouraged because these Mad and Merry Worldlings scoff at them for their diligent Seriousness surely we should deride their Derisions and contemn their Contempt who despise God and Christ and their Salvation Should a Wise man be troubled because Mad-men raile at him if they glory in their shame Phil. 3. 19. we must not be ashamed of our Glory nor ashamed to be found praying rather then sinning If they think you fools for preferring Heaven before inconsiderable Vanities remember they can no more judge of these things then a Blind man of Colours 7. If some dishonour others will honour us who are better able to judge Psal. 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Some have as low an Opinion of the World as the Carnal World hath of the certainty of God's Word They who labour to bring Piety and Godliness into a creditable Esteem and Reputation will pay an hearty honour and respect to every good and godly man 2 Cor. 6. 8 9. By honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers yet true as unknown yet well known as dying but behold we live as chastened and not killed contumeliously used by some and reverently by others vilified and contemned counted
Psal. 11. 6. Upon the wicked he will rain Snares fire and brimstone and an horrible Tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup They may flourish for a time yet at length sudden terrible and irremediless Destruction shall be the portion of their Cup. God's Judgments are terrible and unavoidable both here and hereafter Eph. 5. 6. For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience Rom. 2. 4. Tribulation Wrath and Anguish upon the Soul of Man that doth evil Alas these things are slighted by wicked Men or else they would not venture as they do you cannot drive a dull Ass into the Fire that is kindled before him Prov. 1. 17. In vain is the Snare laid in the sight of any Bird and would a Reasonable Creature wilfully run into such a danger if he were sensible of it and venture upon so dreadfull threatnings if he did believe them no they think it is but a vain Scare-crow a deceitfull Terrour or a false flash of Fire and therefore embolden themselves in their Rebellion But God's People that know the certainty of these things they cannot but conceive a great horrour at it when they think of the end of these Men their Judgments in this World but especially their eternal Condemnation in the World to come Well then forsaking the Law despising the Precept and slighting the Sanction should be a matter of great Horrour to a tender and gracious Spirit 2. It argueth that they have a due sense of things though others have not 1. They have a due sense of the Evil of Sin Prov. 14. 9. Fools make a mock of sin They sport at it and jeast at it and count it nothing but gracious and tender Hearts have other Apprehensions they know that this is a Violation of the holy and righteous and good Law of God and that it will be bitter in the issue and that they which had pleasure in unrighteousness shall be damned They look upon it with sad Hearts though it be committed by others that the Wicked goe dancing to Hell and are angry with those who mourn for them and dislike that vain Course which they affect 2. They have a due sense of the Wrath of God the Prophet that threatned it saith That rottenness entred into his bones and his bowels quivered Hab. 3. 16. A Lyon trembleth to see a Dog beaten before him It is a trouble to the Godly to think of the horrible punishments of the Wicked which they dread not nor dream of But the Saints have a Reverence for their Fathers Anger Search the Scriptures and you shall find that the Godly are more troubled at God's Judgments then the Wicked themselves who are to feel them Dan. 4. 19. Daniel was astonished for an hour and his thoughts troubled him when he was to reveale God's Iudgments against Nebuchadnezzar So the Prophet Ier. 4. 19. My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart verse 22. But my people is foolish they are sottish Children they that brought the Evil upon themselves are senseless and stupid Psal. 90. 11. Who knows the power of thine Anger according to thy fear so is thy wrath Few lay to heart the terrible effects of God's heavy wrath but the Righteous doe they are truly affected with it and with the Cause of it which is Sin God's Wrath affects Men according to the Reverence and Fear wherewith they entertain it but to the Wicked it is but a vain and empty Terrour 3. The certainty of the Threatnings God's People see Wrath and Judgment in the face of Sin whereas those who are drowned in Sensuality and carnal Delights scoff at God's Menaces and jeast at his Judgments neither crediting the one nor expecting the other as if it were but a meer Mockery Isai. 5. 19. Come say they let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it In their security they will believe nothing but what they feel 4. The Bane which cometh to Communities and Societies from the increase of the Wicked especially when their Wickedness groweth to an height that is when it is committed with boldness Isai. 3. 9. They declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not when Men have lost all shame and modesty and will not be restrained by any Law Surely if we know the evil of Sin the terribleness of God's Wrath believe the Truth of his Threatnings and then consider the danger that will come to our dearest Country we cannot but be greatly moved If a Man were sailing in a Bark and see it guided so that it must necessarily run against a Rock and suffer Shipwrack he would be sorry and deeply affected 3. It cometh from a good Cause 1. In the general it argueth a good Constitution of Soul 2 Pet. 2. 8. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their unlawfull deeds Passively he was vexed with the impurity of the Sodomites and actively he vexed himself So far as we are Carnal we are pleased with Sin so far as we are Spiritual we are vexed with it Isai. 63. 10. They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit The better any are the more affected with publick Sins and Judgments Christ weepeth over Ierusalem for their Impenitency and approaching Desolation Luke 19. 41 42. As he came near he beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes This was in the midst of the Acclamations and Hosannahs of the Multitude when he was welcomed with a Triumph Paul telleth the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12. 21. I am afraid when I come among you my God will humble me and I shall bewaile many which have not repented of the Fornication Lasciviousness and uncleanness which they have committed The more holy any one is the more he is affected and struck at heart with the Sins of others 2. A deep Resentment of God's Dishonour When his Glory is obscured it is a wound to the Hearts of his Children As a Child cannot endure to hear or see his Father disgraced Surely God's Glory is dear to the Saints Psal. 69. 9. The Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Injuries done to God and Religion affect them no less nearly then Personal Injuries which are done to themselves So affectionately zealous are they for God's Honour which is obscured by the wickedness of the Wicked who forsake the perfect Righteous Law of God and usurping God's Authority make a new Law to themselves 3. Compassion to Men. Though they are Wicked men yet they are Men made after God's Image remotely capable to know and love God and live with him for ever whom they should otherwise embrace as Brethren to see them treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath should be a grief and a trouble to us To think of the everlasting Destruction
dangers and those heart-cutting cares which otherwise are apt to seize upon us This a Believer can say this peace of Conscience I had in the midst of all the troubles from without Now this peace others cannot have Isa. 57. 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked they have not this inward tranquillity and serenity of mind their Affections are so unruly and their Consciences so unquiet they are never able to rest But how can this be none seem to be less troubled than wicked men I answer there is a difference between a dead Sea and a calm Sea a stupid Conscience they may have but not a quiet Conscience their Consciences are stupified by drenching their Souls in worldly delights and pleasures but the virtue of this Opium is soon spent their Consciences are easily awakened by the Convictions of the Word the Sting of Afflictions the Agonies of Death well then this may the composed heart say I had this peace this serenity of mind because I kept thy Precepts Secondly Next to Peace of Conscience there is Joy in the Holy Ghost this is the Fruit of Peace as Peace is the Fruit of Righteousness Rom. 7. 14. The Kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost First Righteousness and then Peace and then Joy in the Holy Ghost As joy of heart and gladness is the fruit of Temporal or Civil Peace when every man may sit under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree and reap the fruit of his labour without the danger of annoyance so now when a man can enjoy himself as being reconciled to God or being at peace with him and hath tasted of the Clusters of Canaan he can rejoice in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 11. This is that joy in the Holy Ghost which God doth graciously dispence to those that obey his Word and hearken to the motions of his Spirit Oh how may a Believer triumph and say This I had because I kept thy Precepts Joy is the fruit of Holiness and the Oil of Grace maketh way for the Oil of Gladness Psal. 119. 14. I rejoiced in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all riches David experienced the joys of Obedience and the joys of a Crown now saith David I rejoiced in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all riches not in the Contemplation but in the Way This was a Joy that did result from practical Obedience which is more than the Possessions and Treasures of the World Many picture Religion in their fancies with a sowr and austere face and think it inviteth men to nothing but harsh and unpleasant courses Oh no it inviteth you to the highest Contentment the Creature is capable of the joy in the Holy Ghost which is unspeakable and glorious A Sensualist that runs after the dreggy delights of the Flesh is the veriest fool in the World for he can never have any true Joy 't is but frisks of Mirth while Conscience is asleep but when it is gone it leaveth a Sting behind it Thirdly Increase of Grace This is another benefit we get by keeping God's Precepts They go from strength to strength Psal. 48. 7. As they that went to the Feast at Ierusalem they went from Troop to Troop so they are brought forward in their way to Heaven God that punisheth Sin with Sin rewardeth also Grace with Grace The one is the most dreadfull Dispensation that God can use when men have gone on in a course of Sin God often punisheth one Sin with another so that they are plunged deeper and deeper every day in the gulph of prophaneness But 't is most comfortable when Godliness encreaseth upon our hands and God is still perfecting his own work in us Rom. 6. 19. As you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness It standeth us upon to observe the growth of Grace as we were formerly conscious of the growth of Sin shall we be more earnest to damn our selves than to save our selves there is no man but in his carnal Estate might observe how he departed from God by degrees and his heart was hardned by degrees At first he had some Light and Conscience till he sinn'd it away and turned the back upon the Ordinances which might revive it and keep it awake and then his sin betrayed him further and further into a customary course of prophaneness I say a Carnal man may trace the growth of sin in his own heart step by step and say this I had because I slighted such a check of Conscience despised such an Ordinance fell into such an enormous practice for God forsaketh none till they first forsake him so may a Child of God trace his gradual encrease in holiness this I had by hearkening to the Counsel of God at such a time against the reluctancy of my Flesh. There is no Duty recovered out of the hands of difficulty but bringeth in a considerable profit to the Soul Prov. 4. 18. The way of the just is a shining light which shineth more and more to the perfect day Look as the Day decreaseth the Night increaseth till it cometh to thick darkness so by every Sin men grow worse and worse till at last they stumble into utter darkness But the way of the just is a growing light it increaseth always into more durable resolutions and exact practice of Godliness till it comes to the High-noon of perfection David taketh notice of the fruit of Obedience Psal. 18. 24. The Lord accept of me according to the cleanness of my hands Fourthly Another benefit that we have is many gracious Experiences and Manifestations of God vouchsafed to us in the way of Obedience In the present World God and Believers are not strange to one another a man that walketh close with him will meet him at every turn Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness The Psalmist there preferreth his present condition before the greatest happiness of carnal men why because he had opportunity of beholding the face of God or enjoying the Comforts of his presence But how in Righteousness in a strict course of Obedience If God be a stranger to others they may thank themselves Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me is loved of my father and I will love him and manifest my self to him Holiness is the onely way to clear up our right to these great Comforts of the Gospel and if you would get Experience of them make Conscience of Obedience and be exact and punctual with God and you will not want your refreshments and visits of love and expressions of his grace and favour to you those sensible proofs and manifestations God will not give to us but in a way of Obedience so the Promise runneth He
preference of Christ above other things Phil. 3. 7 8 9. I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledg of Christ c. Christ is apprehended as more necessary for the Soul it cometh to him under an apprehension of a deep want and with a broken-hearted sense of misery we are undone without him We are not so though we want or lose the World God can repair us here will at last save us without these things Luke 10. 42. but one thing is needfull Christ is esteemed more excellent the rarest Comforts of the World are but base things to his Grace but dung and dross in comparison not onely uncertain but vain and empty as to any real good Iob 27. 8. For what is the hope of the Hypocrite though he has gained when God taketh away his Soul Christ is more beneficial to a poor Sinner in him alone true Happiness is to be found therefore we must suffer any thing rather than offend our Saviour Rom. 8. 39. No Creature is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus our Lord. 2. No true Love Religion without self-denial in one kind or another is a Christianity of our own making not of Christs We call out the easie safe part of Religion and then we call this love to God and love to Christ. No the true Christian love is to love God above all Now one branch of loving God above all is to part with things near and dear to us when God calleth us so to doe We must be contented to be crucified to the World with our Lord and Master Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother or Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me An underling love Christ will not like or accept 2. On this condition we possess and enjoy the good things of this World namely to part with them when God calleth us thereunto We are not absolute Owners but Tenants at will Haggai 2. 8. The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The absolute disposal of the Riches and Wealth of the World belongeth unto God who hath all these things with the power to dispose of them as he pleaseth Therefore he is to be eyed acknowledged and submitted unto in the ordering of our Lot and Portion Hos. 2. 9. I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax given to cover her nakedness God still retaineth the dominion of the Creatures in his own hand and we have but the Stewardship and Dispensation of them he will give and he will take away at his own pleasure They are deposited in our hands as a trust for which we are accountable therefore if God demand there should be an Act of voluntary submission and subjection on our part If we enjoy them as our own by an original right exclusive to God we are Usurpers but not just Possessors we have indeed a subordinate right to prevent the incroachment of our fellow Creatures but that is but such a right as a man hath in a Trust or a servant to his working Tools Surely God may dispose of his own as he will if we give it for God's Glory or lay out our wealth in his Service God's right must be owned 1 Chron. 29. 14. For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee If God take it away by immediate Providence it was his own Iob 1. 21. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away if by men if we lose any thing for God it is his own that we lose 3. Our gain in Christ is more than our loss in the World both here and hereafter So his promise Mark 10. 29 30. Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal Life Our Religion promiseth us Spiritual recompence in this World and Eternal in the other but exempteth us not from Persecutions He that hath an heart to quit any thing for Christ shall have it abundantly recompensed in the world with a reward much greater in value and worth than that which he hath forsaken sometimes more and better in the same kind as Iob's estate was doubled and Valentinian that left the place of a Tribune or Captain of Souldiers for his conscience and got that of an Emperour If not this he giveth them a greater portion of his Spirit and the Graces thereof more peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and this is an hundred fold better than all that we lose Now this we have with persecution Iohn 16. 33. These things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the World you shall have Tribulation But then for the World to come then all shall be abundantly made up to us in Eternal Life when we shall reign with Christ in his heavenly Kingdom This is all in all to a Christian that which is lost for God is not lost Surely in Heaven we shall have far better things than we lose here 4. Because the wicked never overcome but when they foil us of our Innocency Zeal and Courage The victory of a Christian doth not consist in not suffering or not fighting but in keeping that which we fight for a Christian is more than a Conqueror Rom. 8. 37. Scias hominem Christo deditum mori posse vinci non posse He may lose goods lose life yet still he overcomes whilst he is faithfull to his Duty Those that were as Sheep appointed to the slaughter and killed all the day long they were oppressed and kept under yet were more than Conquerors The way to conquer is by Patience and Zeal though we be trodden down and ruined not by getting the best of opposite factions but by keeping a good Conscience and Patience and Contentedness in sufferings If God be honoured if the Kingdom of Christ be advanced by our sufferings we are victorious Rev. 12. 11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death That is an overcoming indeed to dye in the quarrel and be the more glorious Conquerors As long as a Christian keepeth the faith whatever he loses in the contest he has the best of it 2 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith c. Our victory is not to be measured by our Prosperity and Adversity but our faithful adherence to God though the Devil and his Instruments get their will over our bodies and bodily interests yet if he get not his will over our Souls we conquer and
Recreations when and how to pray what time for our Callings what for Worship when to speak when to hold our peace when to praise and when to reprove how to give and how to take when to scatter when to keep back or withhold and to order all things aright requireth a sound Judgment that we carry our selves with that gravity and seriousness that exactness and tenderness that we may keep up the Majesty of Religion and all the World may know that he is wise by whose Counsel we are guided But alas where this sound Judgment and Discretion is wanting we shall soon offend and transgress the Laws of Piety Charity Justice Sobriety Piety and Godliness will not be orderly we shall either be guilty of a prophane neglect of that course of Duty that is necessary to keep in the Life of Grace or turn Religion into a sowre Superstition and rigorous course of Observances Charity will not be orderly we shall give to wastfulness or withhold more than is meet to the scandal or prejudice of the World towards Religion Not perform Justice we shall govern to God's dishonour obey to his wrong punish with too much severity or forbear with too much lenity our Reproofs will be Reproaches our Praises Flattery Sobriety will not be orderly we shall deny our selves our necessary Comforts or use them as an occasion to the Flesh either afflict the Body and make our selves unserviceable or wrong the Soul and burden and oppress it with vain Delights In short even the higher Acts of Religion will degenerate our Fear will be turned into Desperation or our Hope into Presumption our Faith will be a light Credulity or our search after Truth will turn into a flat Scepticism or Irresolution our Patience will be Stupidness or our Constancy Obstinacy we shall either slight the hand of God or faint under it so that there is need of good Judgment and Knowledge to guide us in all our ways 2. Why this is so earnestly to be sought of God the thing is evident from what is said already but farther 1. Because this is a great defect in most Christians who have many times good Affections but no Prudence to guide and order them they are indeed all Affection but no Judgment have a Zeal but without Knowledg Rom. 10. 3. Zeal should be like Fire which is not onely fervidus but lucidus hot but bright a blind Horse may be full of Mettle but he is ever and anon stumbling Oh then should we not earnestly seek of God good Knowledge and Judgment the Spirit of God knoweth what is best for us in the Scriptures he hath endited Prayers Phil. 1. 9. This I pray that your Love may abound more and more in Knowledge and in all Iudgment That our Love and Zeal should have a proportionable measure of Knowledge and Judgment going along with it And Colos. 1. 9. That ye may be filled with the Knowledge of his Will in all Wisdome and spiritual Understanding And again Colos. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdome These places shew that it is not enough to have warm Affections but we must have a clear and a sound Mind 2. The Mischief which ariseth from this Defect is so great to themselves to others and the Church of God 1. To themselves 1. Without the distinguishing or discerning act of Judgment how apt are we to be misled and deceived they that cannot distinguish Meats will soon eat what is unwholsome so if we have not a Judgment to approve things that are Excellent and disapprove the contrary our Fancies will deceive us for they are taken with every slight appearance as Eve was deceived by the Fruit because it was fair to see to Gen. 3. 6. with 2 Cor. 11. 3. For I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Our Affections will deceive us for they judge by Interest and profit not Duty and Conscience The Affections are easily bribed by those bastard goods of Pleasure Honour and Profit 2 Cor. 4. 4. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not The consent of the World will deceive us for they may conspire in Errour and Rebellion against God and are usually the opposite party against God Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds Good men may deceive us true and faithfull Ministers may erre both in Doctrine and Manners as the old Prophet seduced the young one to his own Destruction 1 Kings 13. 18. He said unto him I am a Prophet also and an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying Bring him back with thee into thy house that he may eat bread and drink water But he lied unto him In what a wofull plight then are Christians if they have not a Judgment and a Test to tast Doctrines and try things as the Mouth tasteth Meats how easily shall we take good for evil and evil for good condemning that which God approveth and approving that which God condemneth 2. Without the determining Act of Judgment how fickle and irresolute shall we be either in the Profession or in the Practice of Godliness Many Mens Religion lasts but for a pang it cometh upon them now and then it is not their constant frame and constitution For want of this purpose and resolute peremptory decree for the Profession of Godliness there is an uncertainty levity and wavering in Religion Men take up Opinions lightly and leave them as lightly again Light Chaff is carried about with every wind Eph. 4 14. That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive If we receive the Truth upon the credit of men we may be led off again and we shall be ready to stagger when Persecution cometh especially if we see those men from whom we have learned the Truth fall away if we have not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a stedfastness of our own 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest ye also being led away by the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness Men should have a stedfastness proper to themselves not stand by the stedfastness of another the examples of others the countenance or applause of the World or the Opinion of good men but convincing Reason by which their Minds may be inlightened and their Judgments set for God So for Practice we are off and on unstable in all our ways why because we content our selves with some good Motions before we have brought our hearts to this Conclusion to choose God for our Portion and to cleave to him all in hast they will be religious but suddain imperfect Motions may be easily laid aside and given over by contrary
perswasions but when our hearts are fixed upon these holy Purposes then all contrary solicitations and oppositions will not break us or divert us Satan hath small hopes to seduce or mislead a resolved Christian loose and uningaged men lie open to him and are ready to be entertained and imployed by any new Master 3. Without the directing Act of Judgment how easily shall we miscarry and make Religion a burthen to our selves or else a scorn to the World Want of Judgment causeth different effects not onely in divers but in the same person sometimes a superstitious scrupulousness at other times a prophane negligence sometimes make conscience of all things then of nothing as the one weareth off the other succeedeth as the Devil cast the Lunatick in the Gospel sometimes into the water sometimes into the fire either fearfull of Sin in every thing they doe or bold to run into all Sin without fear Whereas a Truth judiciously understood would prevent either extream So again for want of Judgment sometimes men are transported by a fiery and indiscreet Zeal at other times settle in a cold indifferency and all things come alike to them the way to prevent both is to resolve upon evidence 1 Thess. 5. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good Certainly the clearer our Judgment is the more stedfast is our Faith the more vehement is our Love the more sound our Joy the more constant our Hope the more calm our Patience the more earnest our Pursuit of true Happiness otherwise we shall never carry it evenly between vain Presumption and feigned Reverence between legal Fear and rash Hopes uncomely Dejections and a loose disregard of God Wisdome is the Faculty by which we apply that Knowledge we have unto the end why we should have it 2. It makes us troublesome to others by preposterous carriage rash censuring needless intermedling Phil. 1. 9 10. And this I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledge and in all Iudgment That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ our Corruptions will otherwise break forth to the offence of others An injudicious Christian increaseth the Reproaches of the World as if the Servants of God were the troublers of Israel by unseasonable Reproofs mistiming of Duties medling with that which no ways appertaineth to him All lawfull things are not fit at all times nor in all places nor to be done by all Persons Much folly indiscretion and rashness remaineth in the best whereby they dishonour God and bring Religion into contempt 3. They trouble the Church of God it hath suffered not onely from the Persecutions of Enemies but from the folly rashness and indiscretion of its Friends There are different degrees of Light some Babes some Young men some grown Persons in Christ Iesus 1 Iohn 2. 13. I write unto you Fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you Young men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father Now Children have their Fancies and Young men their Passions and Old men their Humours When the one would prescribe to the other they hurry all things into Confusion the Injudicious generally seek to carry it and would govern the World In Young ones there are great Affections but little Knowledge and Judgment they have a great Zeal but little Prudence to moderate it and when this is joyned with Perverseness and Contumacy it is not easy to be said how much evil it bringeth to the Church of God as a fiery Horse routeth the Troop and bringeth disorder into the Army The Devil loveth to draw things into extreams to set Gift against Gift Prudence against Zeal the Youth of Christianity against Age and so to confound all things and so to subvert the Kingdom of Christ by that comely vanity which is the beauty of it In the general all overdoing in Religion is undoing The Use is Let all this press us to seek this Benefit of good Judgment and Knowledge To this end 1. Consider the value and necessity of it without it we cannot regularly comfort our selves in the Promises but it will breed a carelesness and neglect of our Duty nor fulfil the Commandments of God but it will breed in us a self-confidence and disvaluing of the Grace of God nor reflect upon our Sins but we shall be swallowed up of immoderate sorrow nor suffer for the Truth but we shall run into indiscrect reasoning and oppositions that will trouble all and it may be subvert the Interest of Religion in the World or else grow into a loose uncertainty leaping from one Opinion into another This uncertainty cometh not so much or not altogether from vile Affection as want of information in Religion professing without Light and Evidence having more of Affection than Principles There is a twofold Injudiciousness Total or Partial 1. Total when men are given up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã into a reprobate sense or an injudicious Mind Rom. 1. 28. when utterly uncapable of heavenly Doctrine or discerning the things of the Spirit This is one of God's heaviest Judgments that is not the case of any of you I hope 2. Partial and that is in us all alas we are ignorant of many things which we should know at least we have not that discretion and prudence which is necessary for directing our Faith tempering our Zeal ordering and regulating our Practice which is necessary to avoid evil to doe good or to doe good well Or if we have Light we have no Sense or Tast. Many never felt the bitterness of Sin to purpose or sweetness of Righteousness therefore we have need to cry to God Lord give me good Tast and Knowledge 2. If you would have it you must ask it of God We can have no sound Knowledge till God teach it us By Nature we are all blind ignorant vain after Grace received though our Ignorance be helped it is not altogether cured you must still fetch it from Heaven by strong hand Without his Spirit we cannot discern spiritual things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is chiefly the main things of the Gospel and universally all things so far as Conscience and Obedience to God is concerned in them It is the Unction must teach us all things 1 Iohn 2. 20. But ye have an Unction from the holy One and ye know all things the things of God must be seen in the light of his own Spirit The Spirit of God first giveth us the desire of these things and then satisfieth us with them it is the Spirit of God purifieth this desire that it may be holy as having an holy end that we may avoid whatever is displeasing to God and doe whatever
usually Soul-necessities are overlooked We regard them not or conceit we are well already Rev. 3. 17. Thou thoughtest thou wast rich and increased with goods and hadst need of nothing and then we have no relish for the offered Remedy The Word of God is the offered Remedy to repair our collapsed State The Gospel is not onely true but worthy to be imbrac'd 1 Tim. 1. 15. but who will imbrace it but the sensible Sinner for 't is offered as a Remedy to the Sick and Deliverance to the Captive 't is not enough to see the Excellency of things but we must see our Necessity of them There are two hinderances that prejudice our Salvation Either the Necessity and Excellency of the Gospel is not considered or the Truth and Reality of it is not believed 3. They measure all things with respect not to this World but the World to come 'T is an high point of Religion to doe all things and regard all things for eternal Ends 2 Cor. 4. 18. Looking not to things seen that are temporal but to the things which are not seen which are eternal Making this our scope and doing all to this end Gold and Silver are the most valuable things in the World what cannot Gold and Silver buy in this World but there is another World and Believers look to things unseen Within a while it will not be a pin to choose whether we have injoyed much or little of this World 's good things but much will lie upon this whether we have obeyed God and glorified God and accepted of Christ. The use of Gold and Silver ceaseth in the World to come these things are not currant in Canaan nor accounted of in our heavenly Country therefore Money should be a vile thing instead of Grace we can carry away none of these things with us when we die Eccles. 5. 15. And surely that which hath no power to free us from Death to comfort us in Death or goe with us into another World after Death is no Happiness or solid Tranquillity 4. They have had trial and experience of the Word what a Comfort and Support it hath been to them 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious There is an Appetite followeth the New nature and makes us desire spiritual Food Phil. 1. 9 10. And this I pray that ye may abound in all knowledge and in all Iudgment That we may approve the things that are excellent When the Spirit giveth us a tast of the goodness of those things offered in the Word of God a tast of divine Truth in our Souls when we find these Comforts verified in us then we come to approve the things that are Excellent above all other things Psalm 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee We never know the worth of the Word till we come to make trial of it by Practice and Experience The pleasure of the Word we find in practice and the comfort and support of it in deep Afflictions 't is not so with the World try it and loath it 't is more in fancy than fruition because the Imperfections which formerly lay hid are discovered but the more intimately acquainted with the Word of God the more we prize it we see there is more to be gained there than in all the World besides Use 1. Is to reprove and disprove those that prefer Gold and Silver before the Word of God this is done by four sorts 1. This is grossly done by those that revolt from the profession of the Truth for the World's sake 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us and embrac'd the present world that betray the cause of Religion as Iudas sold his Master for thirty pieces of Silver or by those who will transgress for a small hire the Devil needeth not offer great things to them when they will accept of less with thanks for two pence or three pence gain will profane the Sabbath or wrong their Neighbour Is the Law of God's Mouth dearer to them than Gold and Silver surely no they may flatter themselves with love to the Word but when they can violate it for a Trifle for a pair of Shoos 't is a sign that a little gain gotten by iniquity of Traffick is sweeter to them than all the Comforts of the Promise 2. 'T is done by them that will not forsake any thing for the Word's sake but when they are put upon an apparant Trial here is Gold and Silver and there the Law of God's Mouth what will you doe obey God or comply with your Interests you shew your Love by leaving the one rather than the other as Moses counted the reproach of Christ better treasure than the riches of Egypt Heb. 11. 26. Christ's worst is better than the World 's best The Thessalonians shewed their Love when they received the Word in much Affliction but when you decline Duty and are loth to hazzard your Interests 't is evident what you prefer To some this may be a daily Temptation If I should be conscionable in my Calling I should be poor keep touch and honesty in all things it would turn to my loss How many are discouraged from the Ways of God and discharging a good Conscience by Inconveniency 3. This is also in part done by them who turn back upon the Word and Ordinances of God for gains sake and fix their residence there where they can neither enjoy God nor his People nor the Comfort of his Ordinances as Merchants who remove for Traffick and settle their abode there where the true Religion is not professed it may be suppressed with extremity of rigour especially when they send Youth thither and Novices and Persons not grounded in the Faith This is like turning a Child loose among a company of contagious Persons or setting an empty Pitcher to crack before the fire Commerce and Traffick with Infidels or Persons of a false Religion is lawfull but to make our constant Residence where there is no Liberty for reading and hearing the Word of God no Liberty of Worship and Ordinances cannot be excused from Sin You make Religion to stoop to Gain I will not urge so high and heroical an Instance as Moses Heb. 11. 25. Choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than injoy the pleasures of sin for a season but of a Iew since the time of their Degeneration I have once and again read of one Rabbi Ioseph who being allured with the hope and call to a place of great gain to teach Hebrew where there was no Synagogue is said to have brought forth this Scripture for his Answer and Excuse The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver let us Christians remember it and consider the pertinency of it 4. 'T is more refinedly done by them who by earthly
mischievous ungodly treacherous Designs Attempts and Actions V. That the Innocent should not be much troubled to be maligned and hated by them who contemn God's Laws as well as oppose his People I shall gloss on these Points and then close all with Application I. That secret Plottings against the Interest of God and his People are an ancient practice David here complaineth that the proud had digged pits for him and Psal. 37. 12. The wicked plotteth against the just yea verse the 7th 't is a description of a wicked man The man who bringeth wicked devices to pass 'T is so known a practice that it is gotten into their name and stile A wicked Man's Brain is a Forge that is always hot So Psal. 7. 14. Behold he travelleth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falshood Wicked men conceive and then travail but usually the Birth proveth abortive To represent the truth to you I shall give you a draught of some of the designs of wicked Men 1 For the suppressing of God's Interest and People in the world 2 Private persons For the first you cannot imagine that I should unravel all the secrets of the Kingdom of darkness and break open the Devil's Cabinet I shall only point at some few Plots and Contrivances for the Ruine of God's Interest in the world I. Plots to foment and promote Divisions either between them and themselves them and their Rulers or them and God himself 1. Them and themselves Ever since God had a People in the world the Devil and his Instruments have sought to divide them that they may first ruine one another and then become a Prey to their common Adversaries Nothing hath hindred the growth of Christianity so much as the spirit of division ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sozomen And Chrysostom's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in his Homilies upon the Acts There came a certain Ethnick to him and told him I would fain be a Christian but there are so many Parties among you that I know not to whom I should join my self and Christ's Prayer intimates John 17. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me c. The world are apt to look upon Christ as an Impostor and his Religion as a fond Superstition when they see his People so divided and scattered one from another Divisions in the Church breed Atheism in the World Now Satan and wicked men have endeavored all they can to keep up these divisions and hatred among Christians This was Iulian the Apostate's design when he had a mind to suppress Christianity he did not openly persecute it but took the worst sort of Christians and upheld them that they might still maintain a quarrel between them and others In Germany the Jesuites go over to the Lutherans to keep up the difference They blow the Coals and then warm themselves by the Flame And among us the envious Man hath sown Tares Is not the hand of Joab in all this By what spirit are the Quakers and others acted and why are these things kept up but to render Christianity odious Sanballat and Tobias set up a Party among the Iews to hinder the work of their Restauration Ezra 4. 4. that they might foment division among them and so hinder the growth of the Peoples prosperity for they had now the countenance of the King of Babylon and by this means they thought to do so 2. To divide between them and their Rulers The Devil knoweth what an advantage it is to Religion to have the countenance of Princes and on the other side how jealous they are of their Authority and Prerogative and therefore by his Instruments seeketh to prejudice and preposses them against it and those that profess it in strictness and power Thus Amos 7. 10. Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Ieroboam king of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel the land is not able to bear all his words He chargeth him with Treason and open Rebellion that he withdrew Subjects from their Duty and excited the People against his Authority and this by clancular insinuation when Amoz was not called or heard Thus they pretend great friendship to Authority to sharpen the Rage of Princes against God's servants So Ezra 4. 1â⦠Be it known unto the king that the Iews which came up to thee from us are come unto Ierusalem building the rebellious and the bad city c. So Saul against David as appears by his Expostulation with him about it 1 Sam. 24. 9. Wherefore hearest thou mens words saying Behold David seeketh thy hurt So Haman against the Iews Esther 3. 8. Haman said unto king Ahasuerus There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom and their laws are divers from all people neither keep they the kings laws therefore it is not for the kings profit to suffer them So in primitive times thus did they take the Christians who were most innocent though they were more numerous yet still they were faithful to their Prince Bibamus pro salute Imperatoris they would rather endure to dye than venture upon it for they did apprehend it as an Heathen Sacrifice Thus Whisperers make Princes conceive an ill opinion of Religious Men. 3. To divide between them and God The Devil turneth every stone Would you ever think Malice should rise so high as to disengage God from the protection of his People and to disaffect him against them How can it be Have Satan and his Instruments a Plot upon God himself What else should be the meaning of all his Temptations But see Balaam's Plot Micah 6. 5. O my people remember what Balak the king of Moab consulted and what Balaam the son of Beor answered from Shittim unto Gilgal c. Balak and Balaam are framing a Project how to overcome the Israelites and that can never be as long as God is with them and how shall they do to get away God from them Iehovah was not as an Heathen God to be called out by Sacrifices and Inchantments as they had their Charms and Rites among the Heathens to call out their tutelar Gods from among the Nations against whom they came to fight Macrobius hath a Chapter de Ritu evocandi Deos. They were now to deal with the God of Israel who would not be moved with such deceits and blandishments therefore they will have a Plot to disengage him from his People 'T is insinuated Numb 24. 14. Come now and I will advertise thee what thou shalt do Moses doth not express the counsel given because 't was whispered secretly into Balak's ear therefore you see the sense is imperfect in that place and indeed there is a pause in the Hebrew to shew that something must be supplied But what the Plot was may be known by the effect in the 25th of Numbers and is in brief set forth Rev. 2. 14. where it is said
will not fear what man shall do unto me And Psal. 121. 4. Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep In both there is a negative Gradation his Eye-lids try the Children of Men the Lord waketh for us all Secondly That usually he doth protect his People against the Plots of the Proud and bringeth the Mischief they intend to others upon their own heads Job 15. 35. They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit But to keep the Notion of the Text. Psal. 7. 15. He made a pit and digged it and is fallen into the ditch which he made Psal. 9. 15 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared by the work of his own hand They are sunk down into the pit they digged in the net which they hid is their own feet taken So Psal. 35. 7 8. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares and let his net that he hath hid catch himself into that very destruction let him fall And Psal. 10. 2. Let them be taken in the device they have imagined And Psal. 57. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps my soul is bowed down they have digged a pit before me in the midst whereof they are fallen themselves All these places shew how usual it is that their devices do not succeed yea that the wicked cannot take a nearer course to ruine themselves than to seek the overthrow of God's Church and People All their Machinations turn to their own loss and the Mischief they design to others falls constantly on themselves As a Stone thrown up or an Arrow shut up against Heaven returneth upon the head of him that throweth it Their Acts and Attempts of hurting others are converted to their own ruine and destruction seizeth upon them by that very means by which they thought to bring it upon other Men. This God doth partly as they are proud as they despise God and his People Psal. 10. 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts They are so confident of all they design that they will not so much as call upon God for a blessing this is so firmly laid that all things shall succeed They will not seek after God through the pride of their countenance or suppose they should pray 't is but as Balaam offering sacrifice to entice God to curse his own people The Lord tells us Prov. 21. 27. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind Partly because of God's care and respect to his People The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Psal. 10. 14. He trusts his All with God who is the Patron of the innocent and oppressed USE To direct us to carry the Cause to God as David in the Text. Psal. 83. 2 3 4. For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance You must make the Lord the Party still against the wicked So Psal. 37. 12. The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth The wicked plotteth but do the just countermine him No the Lord interposeth he laugheth at him 'T is a mighty support to the soul to oppose his Justice to their wickedness his Omnipotency to their power his Wisdom to their craft his Love to their enmity They are in God's hands and cannot stir without him as if one designed to poyson me but cannot do it without my Fathers consent Wicked men are full of their boasts but their brags and threats are but as the brags of a man on the Scaffold who is ready to be executed Their day is coming 2dly When God doth so it must be acknowledged with thankfulness and praise yea though an old mercy Micah 6. 5. The Godly are preserved though there be Pits digged for them surely such experiences ought much to engage his Peoples hearts to him for it sheweth how mindful he is of their safety and welfare Blessed be God that yet we subsist that their devices are disappointed and their designs brought on them what they had projected against others Fourth Point That God's Law forbiddeth all Ungodly Treacherous Designs Attempts and Actions As contrary to Justice To design mischief and treachery against the life of any is the guise of wicked men As contrary to Sincerity and Godly Simplicity 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you wards Crafty and subtile dealings consenteth not with those that profess to direct their ways by the Word of God As contrary to Charity and Mercy which we owe to all men How God hath guarded the life of the innocent by his Precepts and what a base perverse spirit is it to dig Pits for them USE Here is some plea for Religion 'T is not Feralis Superstitio Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum It is not a false unnatural unkind Superstition when men under pretence of it commit such evils digging Pits laying Mines and Barrels of Gunpowder that Religion should persuade aââ¦l this The world thinks that Religion is a sowr superstition that it makes men ill natur'd no it is the peaceable and meekest thing that can be A false Religion indeed efferates the mind begets a bloody spirit Jud. 11. Gone in the way of Caââ¦n in the way of blood and murther They that have either a false Religion or are false in the true Religion indeed they are ill-natured and possest with a rough spirit unfit for humane society The true Religion which God hath established in his Law is the meekest thing in all the world Fifth Point That the Innocent should not be much troubled to be maligned and hated by them who contemn Gods Laws Why For their Wickedness Fraudulency and Cruelty is a certain Prognostick of their ruine The more their sins are aggravated their judgment cometh the sooner God's Law is wronged as well as our Interest endangered 'T is a great ease to the Conscience of the Godly that they dig Pits for us without a cause Psal. 35. 7. The most Godly and Innocent may have Pits digged for them It enencourageth us in our Addresses to God that we have no Enemies but those who are Enemies to God also and his ways and the most wicked men are most violent against Godââ¦s people Who was it first raged against the Christians but Nero and what a Beast
useful and refreshing when used in the day but if kept all night it perished and was useless It was useful in the Wilderness but ceaseth when they came to Canaan Uses are many First comfort to the Godly for their own particular He is an eternal God that ordereth and guideth all things that he may bring them to their eternal felicity and will in time admit them into it Psal. 48. 14. For this God is our God for ever and ever and he will be our guide even unto death After death he will be their God still death doth not put an end to this relation for God is Abraham's God when he is dead Matth. 2â⦠32. God is the same still both in himself and to those that believe in him he will constantly guide them all the days of their life and after death receive us to the everlasting enjoyment of himself and revive our dust Oh what a blessedness is this to have an interest in such an eternal God! 2. As to the Community and Society to which they do belong God's Eternity is the Churches stability and so 't is urged in Scripture Mal. 3. 6. For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed Psal. 102. 27 28. Thou art the same and thy years shall have no end The children of thy servants shall continue So when the flourishing of the wicked is spoken of when they spring as grass Psal. 92. 8. But thou O Lord art most high for evermore If they be high God is higher and they are but upstarts to him their power is of a late rise and short continuance So Psal. 93. 2. Thy throne is established of old thou art from everlasting God's Throne is as eternal as his Being So Lam. 3. 17. Thou O Lord remainest for ever and thy throne from generation to generation Is the life of thy Enemies long God endureth for ever Is their power great 't is but dependent God had power before them and will have power when they shall be no more Second Use Is Terror to the wicked Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God They may out-live other Enemies but they cannot out-live God who abideth for ever to avenge his quarrel against them and judge you if his Controversie against them be not just since they are such impious Fools and Brutes as that they prefer the creature before the Creator and chuse temporal things rather than everlasting and prefer Earth before Heaven and the satisfaction of their bodily lusts before the saving of their souls Can you blame God of any injustice in dooming them to everlasting misery What part of the punishment would you have relaxed the Loss or the Pain the Loss is double of God's favor or their natural comforts Would you have God admit those to the sight and everlasting fruition of himself who never cared for him Or return again to their natural comforts that they may eternally run Riot with them or abuse them to an occasion of the flesh Or is it the pain Would you have God take off that when the sin and impenitent obstinacy doth still continue since they preferred a temporal good before that which is eternal and would sell their birthright for one morsel of meat Heb. 12. 16. How just is it for God to make them everlastingly to lie under the fruits and effects of their own evil choice Third Use. Is to press us to seek after the everlasting fruition of this blessed and ever glorious God because many live as if they had never heard of things eternal most live as if they did not believe any such thing the best do not improve those things as they ought therefore I shall a little insist upon a quickening exhortation to stir you up to seek an eternal happiness in God 1. As we are reasonable Creatures we were made for Eternity for God hath given us an immortal spirit and there is no proportion between an immortal soul and temporal things it cannot be content with any thing that shall have an end for then we may survive our happiness if we had souls that would perish it would be more excusable to look after things that perish What will you do when your Souls shall be turned out of doors when ye fail Luke 16. 9. To what Region will the poor shiftless harborless Soul betake it self when you dye All your thoughts that concern the present world perish and if you did perish too it were no such great matter But you shall live and what will you have to comfort your selves if you have not an interest in the Eternal God in whose hands will you be if you have slighted him while you were upon earth and the eternal happiness he offereth to us and could not find enough in God and his Eternal Salvation to take off your hearts from the pleasures and vanities of the world Can you expect that he will favour you and be kind to you 2. Eternity is made known to us Christians and clearly set before us in the doctrine of the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. he hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel Nature hath but guesses at it the Law but shadows but here 't is clearly certainly and fully revealed You know that you have an Eternal God to please and an infinite and eternal reward to expect The whole drift of our Religion is to call us off from Time to Eternity from this world to a better Christ came not to settle us here in a state of prosperity nor to make this world our Rest and Portion but to draw us up to God and Heaven 3. The same Religion sheweth that we are already involved in an Eternal misery and stand under a sentence binding us over to the Curse and Everlasting wrath of God Ioh. 3. 18. He that beleiveth not is condemned already and this is the Condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil God hath offered Life and Immortality to them who have so miserably lost it and involved their souls in Eternal death Therefore if we know what it is to be liable to the wrath of an eternal God and to be interessed in the hopes of eternal glory we should awaken and be more serious in a business of such concernment 4. You will shortly be summoned to give an account Luke 16. 2. You have received so much from me such Riches Honours Parts Sufficiencies such Invitations to draw you home to me what will you answer Nay there is not only a little time between you and Judgment but a little time between you and Execution nothing but the slender thread of a frail life which is soon fretted asunder and will you can you sleep in sin so near Eternity and laugh and dance over the brink of Hell you cannot soon enough flee from wrath to come 5. Consider what poor deluded
not a slight looking into them that will give us this wisdom but an intimate constant acquaintance when we are much in studying out God's mind 2. They are ever with me this may imply also that they should be a ready help Such as derive their wisdom from without they cannot have their Counsellors always with them to give advice But when a Man hath gotten the Word in his heart he finds a ready help he hath a seasonable Word to direct him in all difficulties in all straits and in all temptations to teach him what to do against the burden of the present exigence to teach him what to do and what to hope for Having illustrated the words of the Text I now address my self to make good the Proposition That a Child of God is wiser than his Enemies I shall do it in a twofold Consideration 1. They are wiser in their general choice 2. Wiser as to the particular Controversie or Enmity that is carried on against them by their Enemies as to those contests they have with their carnal Enemies about the things of God for I suppose these Enemies here are not only such as had a private grudge or carnal quarrels but upon a publick account they have more wisdom by God to guide them than their Enemies have craft to ruine them First Supposing these Enemies to be carnal Men for such are the Enemies of God's People they are wiser than their Enemies in their general choice and course of life To determine this let us see what is wisdom and what is folly Saith Solomon Eccl. 7. 25. I gave my heart to seek out wisdom and to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness Wisdom lies in three things 1 In fixing a right end 2 In the choice of apt and proper means 3 In the acurateness and diligence of our prosecution and as to degrees of comparison he is wiser than another that hath a better end a better way and is more dextrous and vigorous in pursuing the means that he may accomplish his ends For instance If we speak of worldly wisdom the wisdom of the World is to fix the World for our scope He that will be rich saith the Apostle and accordingly he that busieth himself with such means as will conduce to that purpose that wholly gives up himself to worldly pursuits and that with all his heart and vigor makes haste to be rich this is the wisdom of the World He shall not be innocent saith Solomon Then there is heavenly wisdom when we make the enjoyment of God to be our scope take the Law of God for our Rule and make Religion to be our business avoiding evils improving all occasions sparing no cost nor trouble to compass such an holy end that we may come to the enjoyment of the blessed God this is a spiritual wiseman Then among the children of God one is wiser than another as his intention is more fixt as his means are more regular or as his prosecution is more exact uniform and industrious He that keeps close to his purpose of glorifying God and enjoying God and he that understands more of his Rule he is the wiser Man and he that is more acurate and industrious and with greater self denial doth give up himself to God As there are some that are more heavenly more watchful more diligent in the spiritual life than others Well then if wisdom be to be determined by these things the Children of God that are taught by the Word of God will be found to be wiser than their Enemies and all carnal Men. 1 They are wiser as they have a nobler end even the great end for which they were created which is the enjoyment of God surely the higher ends any Man hath the wiser is he now there is none higher than God for that which is the chiefest good that should be our utmost end There is nothing good in itself and for itself but only God when we have God we need not consider what further good to get by him for to get him that 's enough To look at any thing as good in itself without looking further what it is good for it is to put it in the place of God Of all other things besides God we may say What doth it serve for What use may I put it to What am I the better for it But now beyond God there is nothing to be sought food and raiment that is for health and health that is for service and service for the glory of God Every thing riseth higher and higher till it terminate in God Certainly he is a wise Man that lives up to the ââ¦ighest end and makes this his scope to enjoy God Well now he is a wise Man that doth not mind triffes but doth promote his proper necessary and great interest this is our proper great and necessary interest to make God our Friend and Heaven our Portion beyond these there is nothing more for God is the chiefest good Let me pursue it by another medium certainly an higher end is to be preferred before a subordinate a general good before a particular that which will yield all things before that which will only yield us a limited or particular comfort so he is the wiser Man that chuseth God for his Portion for he that hath God shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. and Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things shall be added that 's a more universal good Again a profitable good is to be prefer'd before a pleasing He that prefers a little Pleasure before a solid good you count him a Fool as Esau that sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage And to part with all for a little temporal satisfaction certainly that 's a main folly In short a spiritual good is to be prefer'd before a corporeal why because a Man is more concerned as a soul than a body therefore that wisdom that is only earthly sensual devilish as the wisdom is that is not from above Iam. 3. 15. This is all for the body or outward Man and he is called a Fool that only provideth for his body Luke 12. Why a Fool he had provided but for half his self for the worser and more brutish part and for that half but for a little while therefore thou Fool this night c. Then an eternal good should be prefer'd before a temporal Man that lives for ever must have a happiness that lasts for ever we live longer in the other World by far than here therefore our care should be for that Indeed if a Man did not live after death and there were an end of him when he dies it were the greatest wisdom to make the best use of his time here to look no further than temporal things I but now to look after the world and neglect things to come is to be wise for the present and be Fools to all Eternity we cannot count
that wisdom Again a necessary good is to be prefer'd before an arbitrary now one thing is necessary Luke 10. 42. It is not necessary to be rich to live in pleasure to wallow in delights within a while we shall not be a Peny the better for these things It is not necessary to have so great a plenty of worldly accommodations it is not necessary to our happiness hereafter nor to the comfort of our lives for the present to have so much here Now see who is the wiser Man he that looks no higher than to some subordinate end or he that fixeth upon the last end He that pitcheth upon some limited good or he that pitcheth upon the most universal good that will yield him all things He that pleaseth his fancy with toys or he that looketh after a solid benefit He that taketh care for his body or he that minds his soul He that mindeth that which is accessary or indifferent to his happiness or he that mindeth that which is mainly necessary He that looketh after a perishing vanity or he that mindeth eternal happiness Certainly if there be a God and this God can do all things and our happiness lies in the enjoyment of him he is the wisest Man that takes God for his Portion and makes it his business to keep in with him and so doth a child of God Thus wisdom is seen in fixing our aim 2 Wisdom lies in the choice of apt and proper means and that is to take the Word for his Rule First God for his Portion then the Word for his Rule To presume of the end without using the means is folly therefore next to a good end and scope there must be a good path Now that we might not grope blindfold and wander up and down in fond Superstitions God hath given us his Word to instruct us in all things which concern our duty and our danger and to make us every way wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. If our happiness lies in the enjoyment of God it is meet God should appoint the way how we should come to him We should have been at a great loss if the Lord had given us grace to fix upon him as our end if he had not given us a Rule we could not find out our way But now God hath so exactly chalk'd it out That a Fool shall not err therein Isa. 35. 5. Such plain directions as makes wise the simple Psal. 19. 7. A plain Rule found out by the wisdom of God and so stated for all and peremptorily commanded to all that the most simple that will give up themselves to God's direction they shall find it Now who are wise they that walk in the way of their own hearts or they that will take God's direction in his Word Those that will live according to the counsel of God's Word or those that will fashion their lives according to the course of this World or according to the customs and examples of carnal Men like themselves Who is wiser they that will enquire after the mind of God who is wisdom itself and can best judge of wisdom and folly or they which shape their course according to the secular wisdom that prevails in the world and which hath often failed in its end who the wiser Man he that hath taken God's counsel and can never be deceived or those that walk according to the course of this world and find themselves wholly to be deceived Psal. 49. 13. This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings They will imitate that folly which hath been so fatal and so mischievous to others and think themselves happy Many carnal Men when they died they all-to-be-fooled themselves and lamented it that they had taken no more care to please God and walked no more closely with him that they had been more busie about worldly things than they had been for their precious and immortal souls therefore surely the children of God are wiser than their opposites that give up themselves to the vanity of carnal Pursuits 3 Wisdom lies in a vigorous prosecution of fit means to the best end without which all is nothing It is in vain to be sensible of our end and to be convinced of our way unless we mind to walk in it Many carnal Men will say that their happiness lies in the enjoyment of God that the Scriptures are the Word of God and his directions to attain that happiness but their folly lies in this that they have not a hearty consent to take this Word for their Rule and give up themselves to the directions thereof Prov. 17. 16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it that is such means and such opportunities given them to be happy but that 's a price in the hands of a Fool his heart hangs off from the way and therefore here 's the great effect of wisdom when we do with all our hearts give up our selves to God that he may take his own way with us to make us happy for ever Wisdom lies in obedience Deut. 4. 6 7. Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom c. The World will say it is a simple course to be so nice scrupulous and precise but God tells you it is your wisdom and they that keep his statutes are a wise and understanding People The Devil fills us with all kind of prejudices against Religion To such as love ease he represents difficulty and the yoke of Christ to be a tedious yoke If they love honour he tells them of reproaches and disgrace If they affect wisdom he telleth them it is a low doctrine beneath the sublimity of their parts and abilities Now God assureth you this is your wisdom and understanding So Iob 28. 28. And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding There 's an enquiry there in that Chapter where wisdom is to be sound and it is resolv'd that it is nowhere to be found but in a strict obedience not in the knowledge of the secrets of nature not in the crafts and policies of the world not in the plots and contrivances of the wicked not in dexterity to get wealth but in keeping God's Commandments with all preciseness and care Briefly this dextrous and effectual prosecution of the means which lead to our end lies in three things and so accordingly we may know wisdom all these are call'd wisdom in Scripture 1. In diligence and constant labour in the spiritual life When a Man makes Religion his work then he is a wise Man true to his end There are a company of notional Fools in the world that make Religion their talk but do not make it their work that can talk at as high a rate as others they have a naked approbation of the things of God but do not lie under the power and dominion
for they will grow upon us and therefore it makes for the encouragement of you that they should sooner begin with God 2. It makes for the encouragement of those that have the Education of Youth as Masters of Families Parents and the like Do not say it is too soon for them to learn No Age is too soon for God 2 Tim. 3. 5. Thou hast from thy Infancy learned the Scriptures When we suck in Religion with our milk it 's a great advantage those things we keep with us that we learn young Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it When the new Vessel is seasoned with this precious liquor it will keep the taste tender Twigs are bent this way when they are as Wax capable of any impression Use 3. Caution for young ones If young men should obtain this benefit to grow wiser than the Ancients notwithstanding this yet they should learn to shew reverence to the aged Iob 32. 4 5 6. And then to ascribe it to God saith he ver 8. There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding It is not the sharpness of our wit but the inspiration of his Grace he is the Author of all this wisdom that is wrought in us Use 4. To humble the Aged that have not made conscience of their time and ways and therefore are more blockish than many Children Isa. 65. 20. There shall be no more an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days Old men that are ignorant of the mysteries of Faith after they have long sate under the Word of God and have many advantages to improve their youth Heb. 5. 12. When for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat In this sense God is said to take away the understanding of the Aged that is by a just judgment for their unfruitfulness and unprofitableness under the means of Grace They that are much younger than you are wise in comparison of you when they excel you for ripeness in wisdom for solidness and setledness in manners in a course of godliness Those old men that draw near to the Grave before they have consider'd either the end wherefore they came into the world or the state into which they shall be translated when they go out of it those are Children of 100 years old that have nothing to reckon Age by but wrinckles and gray hairs Doct. 3. That the way to increase in spiritual understanding is to be studious in practical holiness The Word that will give you understanding will keep you out of all snares sufficiently direct you to true happiness But how shall we get it refer it to practice practise what you know and you shall know more it must needs be so 1. Because these are such as have God's Promise Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self They that make conscience of their ways season their course in the fear of God that take Gods direction with them God will tell them they shall know what doctrine is of God 2. They have a greater clearness of mind and understanding therefore must needs discern holy things why because they are freed from the clouds of lust and passion which do insensibly blind and make them stay in generals Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Saith Nazianzene Where there is purity there 's brightness where there 's a pure heart there 's a great deal more clearness in the understanding Reason and Fancy are dark unless a Man have a command over his Passions and Affections over his Passions of Anger Fear Grief and over his Affections of Love and Joy and Appetite towards sensual delights unless he be able to govern these things he will never truly discern the mind of God for the seasoning his course in living a holy life that of the Apostle is notable 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance unless they be able to govern their affections in the use of worldly delights pleasures and profits they will never have this practical knowledge and therefore the only way to know divine things as Nazianzene well observes is conscientiously to keep the Commandments of God If you would know the Will of God do not spend your time in heaping up Notions but framing your heart to obedience governing your affections by the fear of God and suiting your hearts to the Word of God Alas Those that seek knowledge out of ambition curiosity and vain ostentation and lie under the power of vile affections get but very little true spiritual light they may have the understanding of Teachers but not the understanding to season them and guide them in their communion with God 3. The more we practise the more Religion is exemplifi'd and made sensible so that we come to understand more of the sweetness of it and on the other hand the more of difficulty is in it when there is nothing but bare Notions and naked apprehensions There we have a double advantage an exact Rule and more experience of the sweetness of Religion Prov. 3. 17. All her ways are ways of pleasantness When we practise what we know then we come to know the sweetness of entertaining communion with the Lord and they know more of the difficulty of Religion they know where their hearts are more averse and more in danger whereas others that soar aloft in Notions and idle and lofty speculations have not this experience 4. They that practise study things with more affection than others mightily help their understanding The more piety and zeal any man hath the more will the Lord bless his Studies Paul profited in the Iewish Religion above many of his Equals why Gal. 1. 14. Being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my Fathers A man that hath a zeal in any thing will profit more than others so he that hath a zeal for the things of God profits above others A blunt Iron if red hot will pierce through an Inch-board sooner than a cold Tool though never so sharp so those that have blunt parts in comparison of others yet if they have zeal and good affections they will pierce deep into the mysteries of Religion they that have sharper parts want the fire of zeal 5. The more fruitful any Grace is the more doth it abound with us and therefore when your knowledge is fruitful you will find it increased by laying out your Talents Col. 1. 10. Be fruitful in every good work always increasing in the knowledge of God First he presseth knowledge in order to practice then he presseth
practical esteem when they can forfeit this taste for every trifle and flesh pleasing vanity or when they carelesly look after him are indifferent as to communion with God and think it not much whether they are accepted of God yea or no or manifest himself to you in Christ when the comforts of the Spirit are things you can spare and the consolations of God seem to be small it is all one to you whether you have experiences from God in duty or no your souls are satisfied this is a cause of decaying Then negligence in duties pray lazily hear carelesly not meditate often Inordinate savor of carnal pleasure that 's another cause What 's the reason the Temporary seems to be so affected he loseth his taste altogether carnal things have the first possession of his heart and being confirmed there by long use and custom being so suitable to us and so long rooted in us and we have such a vanishing glance of things to come this will work out that taste the love the sense we have of better things godly men when they turn out to the contentments of the flesh they lose their taste it becomes dead This is a considerable loss as to the vitality of your graces for without a taste of good or evil we shall neither eschew the evil nor follow that which is good with that serious constancy and diligence that is necessary A man that hath tasted of the poyson of Asps and the bitterness of the gall and wormwood that is ââ¦n sin will be afraid of it Rom. 6. 21. So a man that hath tasted of the sweetness of communion with God in Christ he is quickned and carried on with life courage and constancy That 's a dreadful place Heb. 6. 4 5. the loss of their taste is a degree to final Apostasie O! how many lose their taste their relish of Christ the good Word of God the powers of the life to come and are fallen fouly some forward into error some backward into a licentious course so that it is impossible to recover themselves by repentance SERMON CX PSAL. CXIX VER 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way IN the former Verse the Man of God had spoken of the pleasure that was to be had by the Word now of the profit of it There is a great deal of pleasure to spiritual sense if we could once get our appetite we should find a world of sweetness in it and there is as much profit as pleasure As the pleasure is spiritual so also is the profit to be measured by spiritual considerations To escape the snares of the Devil and the dangers that way-lay us in our passage to Heaven is a great advantage Now the Word doth not only warn us of our danger but where it is received in the love of it breedeth a hatred of all these things that may lead us into it Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way In which Sentence the Prophet seems to invert the order set down ver 101. he had said I refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy Word Where the avoiding of evil is made the means of profiting by the Word Here his profiting by the Word is made the cause of avoiding evil In the one Verse you have an account of his beginning with God in the other of his progress In this Verse here is 1. The Benefit he received by the Word and that is Sound and saving knowledge 2. The Fruit and Effect which this knowledge produceth in his heart Therefore I hate every false way Mark first The firmness of this Effect I hate He doth not say I abstain but I hate Secondly The Note of Universality Every Thirdly The Object false way it is not said evil way but false way or as it is in the original every path of lying and falshood Falshood is either in point of opinion or practice If you take it in the first sense for falshood in opinion or error in judgment or false doctrine or false worship this sentence holds good Those that get understanding by the Word are establish'd against Error and not only establish'd against Error or against the embracing or profession of it but they hate it 1. They are established All Error cometh from Ignorance or else Judicial Blindness First From Ignorance or unacquaintedness with the Word of God so Christ said to the Sadduces Te do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. When Men study not the Word which is the Rule of Truth no wonder if they lie open to every fancy they take up things hand over head and by a fond credulity are led away by every suggestion presented to them So it is said 2 Pet. 3. 10. That the unstable and unlearned wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction By the unlearned is meant not those that are unskilful in Humane Literature though that be a great help but those that are unskilful in the Word of Righteousness poor deluded souls that lie under a great uncertainty Secondly Judicial Blindness For men that have great parts and a presumption of their own wit are given up to be blinded by their own Lusts and though they know the Scriptures yet they wrest them to speak according to the sense of their carnal interest 1 Thes. 2. 12. And so they see not what they see being given up to the witchery and inchantment of Error Gal. 3. 1. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you So that all false ways proceed from the want of reason and the pride of reason The one is the cause of the Simple's erring who believeth every word The other of those that are knowing and are otherwise of great parts but they make their wit their Idol and so would be wise above the Scriptures or else are sway'd by their own Lusts they do not fix themselves in the power love and practice of Truths revealed in the Scriptures and so are given up to hellish delusions Now in this sense I might speak with great profit of these words especially now when so many Errors are broached and all the Errors of Christianity come a breast to assault it at once and such changeable Times as produce several Interests whereby men are blinded and such Levity in the Professors of Religion Why then study the Word with a teachable heart that is renouncing your own wit and giving up your selves to God's direction and practise what is plain without being sway'd with the profits and pleasures of the world and you may come to know what is the mind of God Men think all is uncertain in Religion and are apt to say with Pilate What is truth John 18. 38. No the Scriptures are not obscure but our hearts are dark and blind with worldly Lusts otherwise The counsel is plain and you might say with David Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way 1. Where the Spirit
Herod enquired after the place where Jesus was born not to adore him but to kill him Mat. 2. 8. Our great Rule is Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth When you come to study the Scriptures to be the better for them and not to cavil then you are in the way to find profit from them 4. Some come to the Word leavened with some carnal affections and so their hearts are blinded by their lusts and passion 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not There is evidence enough in the truth but their hearts are wedded to their sins and so cannot see it they are ambitious and seek after honour and worldly greatness and the whole bent and scope of the Scripture being against their design they can never have a perfect understanding of it their hearts are full of Avarice Earthly-mindedness and some other beloved sin that they cherish which doth defile all that they touch even the very Word of God Hagg. 2. 13. A man that was unclean by a dead body whatsoever he touched was also unclean even holy things And Tit. 1. 15. To the impure all things are impure And so by the just judgment of God are blinded and hardned in their own prejudices for the light they have hindreth them from discerning the truth 5. Some content themselves with some superficial apprehensions and do not dig deep in the Mines of knowledge and therefore no wonder they mistake in many things Prov. 2. 4 5. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God No excellent things are to be had without pain and industry and search certainly the knowledge of God's Word must cost us great pains 6. Where men are right in the main and give diligence to know God's mind there will be mistakes in lesser things All have not parts alike and gifts and graces alike and therefore there is some variety of opinions and interpretations of Scripture among the godly wise Every man is not so happy to be so well studied nor hath not that ability to understand nor so furnished with acquired helps of Arts and Tongues nor such a degree of the Spirit There is a difference in age growth and experience among good men some are Babes and some grown in years in Christianity Phil. 3. 15. Grace is bewrayed in knowledge as well as in holiness Object 2. If there be such a Light in the Scriptures what need is there of the Spirit Answ. I answer The Scriptures are the means of Light the Spirit is the Author of Light both together enlighten the eyes Psal. 19. 8. These two must be taken in conjunction not in exclusion To pretend to the Spirit and neglect the Scriptures makes way for Error and fond conceits Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Light is not contrary to Light so to study the Scriptures and neglect the Spirit who searcheth out the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. leaveth us in darkness about God's mind The object to be known is fixt in the Scriptures but the faculty that knoweth must be enlightned by the Spirit There is a literal understanding of the Scriptures and a spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now as to the spiritual understanding of them there needs the Spirit for the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit so that here is a fair correspondence between the Word and the Spirit Object 3. If the Scriptures be so plain what need the Ministry I answer Answ. 1. It is God's institution and we must submit to it though we could see no reason for it That it is God's institution it is plain for he hath set some in the Church not only Apostles and Prophets but Pastors and Teachers to apply Scriptures to us And 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe If there were no reason but this because it is God's institution we should submit to it 2. The use of the Ministry is to explain and vindicate truth Men darken counsel with words and render plain things obscure by their litigations and unprofitable debates Now they are set for the defence of the truth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Phil. 1. 7. And the Ministry must be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tit. 1. 9. Able to convince the gainsayers good at holding and drawing it is the humane help for weak understandings The Eunuch was reading and could not tell what to make of it then God sent him an Interpreter Acts 8. Now God's help should not be despised when he will employ men to salve doubts to guide us in our way to Heaven we should thankfully accept of it rather than quarrel at the institution 3. They are of use to apply Generals to particular Cases and to teach us how to deduce genuine Inferences from those truths laid down in the Scriptures Mal. 2. 7. In this sense it is said The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts God hath appointed this office to some to solve the doubts that do arise about particular Exigences and Cases and to make out the mind of God to his People otherwise they need go no farther than the Tables and Books of Moses to seek the Law but God hath appointed some in the Church that are skill'd in consequences and deductions to raise matter therefrom so that it is a Minister's work to open and explain Scripture 4. There is a use of the Ministry to keep Doctrines still afoot in the Church and to keep us in remembrance Ministers are the Lord's remembrancers it is a great part of their office to mind People of their duty The Word is a Light but it must be set in the Candlestick of the Church they are to hold out the Light for our direction and guidance 5. There is a peculiar blessing and efficacy to a Christian from their calling Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you to the end of the world Object 4. It is said 2 Pet. 3. 16. That there are some things hard to be understood therefore how should it be a clear Rule to us Thereupon many take occasion to tax the Scriptures of obscurity and cry out that nothing is certain in Religion and so hinder and discourage men from the study of the Word Answ. 1. I answer The Apostle saith there are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some things hard to be understood but doth not say there are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã things that cannot be understood not there are things impossible to be understood but there 's some difficulty in
you renounce all your sins and all the vanities you have doated upon And we answer to God enter into a solemn Oath That we will renounce sin that we will accept of Christ as our Saviour and will walk before him in all holy obedience Among the Romans when any Soldier was prest for War he took an Oath to serve his Captain faithfully and not to forsake him and then he was called Miles per Sacramentum a Soldier by Sacrifice or by Oath and sometimes one took an Oath for all the rest and the others only said The same Oath he took the same do I and these were called Milites per conjurationem Milites evocati Thus every Christian is a professed Soldier of Christ he hath sworn to become the Lords to cleave faithfully to him and this Oath that it may not be forgotten is renewed at the Lord's Supper where again we solemnly engage by the publick Rites that are there used to stand to our Covenant We do not only come and take God's Enfeoffment take a pledge out of God's hands to be assured of the priviledges of the Covenant but we bind our selves to perform the duty thereof For as the blood of the Beast Exod. 24. 7 8. that was offered in the Sacrifice which is called there the blood of the Covenant was sprinkled not only upon the Altar to shew that God was engaged to bless but sprinkled half upon the people to shew they were engaged to obey there was a confirmation of that promise made to God All that the Lord hath commanded us that will we do Well now if God thought such a course necessary and profitable for us certainly we may upon occasion use the like means for our confirmation for our strengthning in the work of obedience That there is such a Vow exprest or implied in every Prayer may be easily made good in the whole tenure of our Christianity therefore certainly it is lawful so to do to make our duty more urgent and explicite upon our souls by solemn Vow and serious Oath of dedication of our selves to God's use and service 2. The practice of the Saints who have publickly and privately engaged themselves to God do shew the lawfulness of it Publick instances 2 Chron. 15. 12 13 14. They entred into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul. And they sware unto the Lord c. So in Iosiah's time 2 Chron. 34. 31. And the King stood in his place and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and keep his Commandments c. So Neh. 10. 29. They entred into an Oath to walk in God's laws And for private Oaths we have David's instance here in the Text. And Iob 31. 1. I made a Covenant with mine eyes He had bound himself by a holy vow and purpose to guard his senses and take heed his heart did not take fire by the gazing of his eye that it was not inflamed with lust and sin 2 That it is convenient so to do 1. To answer God's love and condescension to us in the Covenant God thinks he can never be bound fast enough to us and therefore interposeth by an Oath An Oath is properly conversant about a doubtful matter of which there is some question or scruple which cannot otherwise be decided than the Law saith He should give his Oath to his Neighbour Why then Doth the Lord swear Is there any doubtfulness in his promises No the Apostle saith Heb. 6. 18. The Lord swears being willing over and above to give the heirs of promise ample satisfaction Now for God that cannot lye and whose Word is above all assurance to stoop to us and put himself to an Oath certainly this should work upon our hearts and draw from us some answerable return on our part there being great and visible danger of our breaking with God none of God's breaking with us therefore that we may not play fast and loose with him we should come under this engagement to him of vow and publick promise to God 2. To testifie our affection to his service we should put our selves under the most highest and sacred Bonds that can be found out Many have some slight and wandring motions tovvards God and cold purposes of serving him vvhich soon vanish and come to nothing but novv it argueth the heart is more throughly bent and set tovvards God and that vve have a deep sense of our duty vvhen vve seriously confirm our purpose by a Vovv and holy Oath There are divers sorts of men in the World some that are of that spirit as to break all Bonds cast avvay all Cords and think they can never be loose enough in point of Religion Psal. 2. 3. They seek to deface and blot out of their Conscience the natural sense which they have of Religion and of their duty to God and so give up themselves head-long to all manner of impiety There are others have some cold approbation of the way of God and which manifests it self by some faint weak and vvavering purposes and slight attempts upon Religion but are soon discouraged and never come to a fixed resolution or serious dedication or surrender of themselves to the Lord's use Now a gracious heart thinks it can never be bound fast enough to God therefore doth not only approve the ways of God or desire to walk therein but issues forth a purpose a practical decree in his Soul Besides the approbation of Conscience there 's a desire of heart and this desire backed with a purpose and this promise backed with an oath which is the highest way of obligation and thus doth he dedicate himself to the Lord and his service in the strictest way of expressing his consent for an oath binds more than a promise 3 It is very profitable so to do because of our backwardness laziness and fickleness 1. Because of our backwardness we need to thrust forth the heart into the ways of obedience for we hang off from God Though we are his by every kind of right and title yet we are very flow of heart to do his Will and therefore an Oath is profitable to increase the sense of our duty a threefold Cord is not easily broken Now there 's a triple tie and bond upon a man First There 's God's natural right that he hath over us and to our service the sovereignty and dominion that he hath over us We are not free as to obedience before the Oath but are bound by Creation for God hath created us not only as he created other things ultimately and terminatively but immediately for his service All things were created for his glory so that ultimately they are for his use but the proper end and use wherefore man was created was for the immediate service of God He that planteth a Vine expecteth fruit from it By continual preservation he giveth us maintenance and therefore justly expecteth service By Redemption as having bought
he adds to it Gen. 28. 20 21. but the substance of it was this If the Lord will be with me and keep me in this way that I go then shall the Lord be my God There are many that will vow and promise trifles and so infringe their own Christian liberty and needlesly bind themselves in chains of their own making where God hath left them free This help is for the weighty things of Christianity not for by matters those monkish by-laws hath fill'd the World with Superstition not with Religion while they have been only conversant about some indifferent things as Pilgrimages Abstinences from meats and marriages wherein they place the heighth of Christian perfection 2. Helps to Obedience Such things as we shall find to be helps and do conduce to the removal of impediments such should come under a vow and solemn promise to God Iob 31. 1. I made a covenant with my eyes that was a help to the preserving of his chastity that he would not allow himself to gaze to take a view of the beauty of others And the Apostle when it was for the glory of God makes a Vow or kind of solemn promise that he would take no maintenance in Achaia 2 Cor. 11. 10. he solemnly binds himself that he might not hinder the progress of the Gospel So when we find our heart ready to betray us by this or that evil occasion we may in this case interpose a vow and promise but then with this caution that we do not unreasonably destroy our Christian liberty and so occasion a snare to our souls and that we do not think this to be a perfect cure of these distempers while we neglect the main things As many will make a vow to play no more at such a game or drink no more at such a house or use such a creature or come into such a particular company and so place all their Religion in these things this is but like cutting off the branches when the root remains or stopping one hole in a leaky or ruinous ship and vessel when every where it is ready to let in water upon us and to be broken in pieces therefore when you rest in those by-matters without resolving to cleave to God in a course of Obedience it is but like mending a hole in the wall of an house when the whole building is on fire or troubling our selves with a sore finger when we are languishing of a consumption it is but stopping this or that particular sin when the whole soul lies under the power and slavery of the Kingdom of Satan OBJECTION But here 's a doubt may arise How can I promise to keep God's Laws since it is not in my power to do it exactly it is impossible ANSWER 1. When David saith I have sworn c. he speaks not from a presumption of his own strength but only declareth the sense of his duty and useth his Oath as a sanctified means to bind his heart to God and therefore it is not to exclude the power of God's grace or to presume of his own strength God's assistance is best expected in God's way 2. Such vows and promises they are always to be interpreted to be made in the sense of the Covenant of Grace for no particular voluntary or accessory Covenant of ours can take away the general Covenant wherein we stand engaged to God but rather it must be included in it therefore when David saith I will keep thy righteous judgments he means according to the sense of the Covenant of Grace that is expecting help for duties and pardon for failings First As expecting help from God for so the New Covenant gives strength to observe what it requires Lex jubet Evangelium juvat the Law enforceth duty the Covenant of Grace helps us to perform the duty required of us The Gospel it is a ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 8. and therefore promissory Oaths according to the sense of the New Covenant are made with a confidence upon the Lord's strength and assistance 2. Seeking pardon for his failings Infirmities may stand with the Covenant of Grace provided we crave mercy and recover our selves by repentance and so make no final breach with God therefore this is a keeping according to the measure of grace received and as humane frailty will permit Briefly then When are Sins to be looked upon as Infirmities and not as Perjuries and breach of Covenant Answ. When we would not voluntarily yield to the least sin but in case of great sin we grow more watchful more humble more holy when our falls are such as David's when he had fallen fouly Psal. 51. 6. Now thou shalt make me to know wisdom When upon our failings we are more ashamed of our selves more afraid of our weakness more earnest to renew our former resolutions more careful to wait upon God for grace to perform what he hath required of us more watchful more circumspect when we begin to grow wise by our own smarting in such cases an Oath is not broken Look as every failing of the Wife doth not dissolve the Marriage Covenant so every failing on our part doth not dissolve the Covenant between God and us and therefore though there will be some infirmities but yet when we are careful to sue out our Pardon in the Name of Christ Jesus and you shall by your failings be more watchful circumspect then we keep the Covenant in a Gospel sense Doct. 3. That when we have sworn Obedience to God we must Religiously perform and observe what we have sworn to God So Psal. 76. 11. Vow and pay unto the Lord. When we come under the bond of a vow we must be careful to make payment 't is a binding upon the heart see how 't is exprest Numb 30. 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord or swear an Oath to bind his soul with a bond he shall not break his word When we have bound our selves with a bond that is when we have increased our bonds for the ingeminating words in the Hebrew doth exceedingly increase the sense when a man is bound upon a bond he should not play fast and loose with God but be very careful to perform what he hath sworn God on his part hath sworn to the Covenant and he is constant in all his promises and certainly he expects the like constancy from us especially when we are so deeply bound not only by his Laws and obligation of his mercies but by the solemn consent of our own Vows we have bound our selves then to keep them whether we will or no. Now what Reasons are there why we must perform 1. The same Motives that inclined us at first to take our Oath should persuade us to keep it whatever falls out After trial we shall see no cause to repent of our resolution for God is ever the same that he was and his Commands are ever the same in all his righteous Judgments holy just good profitable
a Pit to take me they have hid snares for my feet Secretly conspir'd and practis'd his destruction And David Psal. 140. 5. The proud have hid a snare for me and cords they have spread a net by the ways side and set gins for my feet Selah Hunters and Fowlers did never go more cunningly to work to catch the Prey than those proud men had laid their design to bring his life under their power And in Psal. 35. 7. For without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. And Psal. 57. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps my soul is bowed down they have digged a pit for me into the midst whereof they are fall'n themselves Selah Now of this sort are St. Bartholomew's Mattens and the Plot and Contrivance to out the Protestants in France when they were invited to a Wedding that they might destroy them and of this nature was the Gunpowder Treason there was a snare laid When Orestes had plotted Clytemnestra's Death Euripides expresseth it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã She fitly cometh into the snare 3. Of a mixt nature both to entice by endangering and endanger by enticing 1. As when they put them upon such conditions as may tempt them to Folly and Sin some think the Text verifi'd in David at that time when he said 1 Sam 26. 19. They have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other gods Meaning they excited Saul to pursue him and persecute him and forc'd him to flee into an Idolatrous Countrey and so a snare laid to endanger his stedfastness in the true faith 'T is a great Temptation Necessitas cogit ad turpia Necessity is but an evil Counsellor and this joined with the other Temptation of bad company Psal. 120. 5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar 2. When they Enact a Law or Statute whereby to force them to sin or trouble as they had a Plot against Daniel either to make him neglect his God or render him obnoxious to Authority Dan. 6. 7 8. When they burden them with such Laws and Statutes as the godly cannot obey without sin or refuse without danger they have their ends either to draw them to sin or suffer Now Snares are laid by the wicked 1. Because usually they excel in Policy Craftiness and worldly Wit are superior to God's children therein their whole hearts run that way and their principle is intire and unbroken and therefore our Lord Christ telleth us Luke 16. 8. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light They applaud themselves in their Artifices Idolize their Wit Habak 1. 16. Sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag therefore use it to the Saints destruction 2. Because they are acted by Satan who will ever be doing against the Church though to little purpose Luke 22. 3. The Devil enter'd into Iudas when he plotted against Christ. They learn their Wiles from Satan and conceive mischief by copulation with the great Incubus of Hell 3. Their own hatred and malice against the People of God Malice is a laying snares Anger vents its self in a storm of words or in some sudden violent Action but hatred lurketh in the soul and puts them that harbor it upon Plots and Contrivances of revenge The Historian observeth of Tiberius In malitiam statim invectus est c. When Absalom hated Amnon because he forced his sister he plotteth how to take away his life 2 Sam. 13. 22. Now whence cometh this malice against the Children of God Either by envy at their Interests or hatred at their Holiness 1. Envy at their Interests their Esteem and Respect in the World when they come to be of any regard among men Esther 5. 9. Haman plotteth against Mordecai because he sate in the King's gate Psal. 112. 9 10. His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and he grieved and gnash with their teeth When the Gospel was like to get credit Acts 17. 5. the envious Iews raised an uproar Pride is loth to stoop to see opposites in glory and power whets their malice and they contrive how to root them out Every man would have himself and his own Faction admir'd and magnifi'd The Pharisees conspir'd to take Christ Iohn 12. 19. All the world is gone after him When Religion prevaileth and groweth in credit and fashion it is deeply resented by naughty men 2. Hatred at their Holiness Men cannot endure to be outstript in Religion and therefore hate what they will not imitate Hatred is quick-sighted in Revenge full of Plots and Contrivances and tickleth the soul with a delight in them but especially Religious Hatred when a man hateth another for his Godliness when Religion instead of a Party becomes a Judge that which should restrain our Passions feeds them no Hatred so great as that against the power of Godliness Cain when he saw Abel so punctual in God's service he plotteth to draw him into the Field 1 Iohn 3. 12. and beginneth a Discourse with him about Providence and Judgment to come and Rewards and Punishments and while Abel maintained God's part Cain fell upon him and slew him To apply this As these Snares tend to our temporal destruction so there is a double use to be made of them 1. To trust God with our safety in the midst of so many snares What shall we do Whatever remedy we have against violence no man by his own foresight can find out all the snares that are laid for him therefore commit your safety spiritual and temporal to the Lord go to him and say Psal. 141. 9. Keep me from the snare they have laid for me and the grins of the workers of iniquity Constant dependance upon God is necessary for there can be no snare hidden from him who watcheth over us and our safety by night and by day There is a double Arguââ¦ent why we should trust God with our safety because of his wisdom and because of his watchful providence Because of his wisdom Alas we are foolish and simple and often betray our selves into an evil condition but God is wise for them that are foolish Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just and guasheth upon him with his teeth the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming There is a wise God acting for a foolish People I tell you the wisdom of God for us is much greater than the wisdom of God in us where Enemies deal proudly God is above them where they deal craftily God is beyond them The wisdom of God for us is greater than the wisdom of any against us And also because of his watchful Providence he hath a waking love and care of us night and day Psal. 121. 4. Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep He
your hearts upon your beds When our reins should instruct us and suggest wholsom thoughts to us Psal. 16. 7. Or when we should direct our Prayer to God in the morning Psal. 5. 3. then they employ their thoughts and musings on Evil the Apostle maketh it to be their disposition that are given up by God to a reprobate sense to be inventers of evil things Rom. 1. 30. 3. They that plot Evil they are of the Devil's Trade whose work it is to hurt and mischief those who are broken loose from him 't is his business to lay snares 2 Tim. 2. 26. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will When Iudas plotteth against Christ the Devil entereth into him So Acts 13. 10. 't is said to Elymas the Sorcerer O thou full of all subtilty and mischief the child of the devil They are like the Devil in their hatred of God and the Truth and the Persecution of the Church and like him for subtilty and politick contrivance bloody designs and inventions are the venom and poyson of the old Serpent sinked into mens hearts there are both cruelty and lying John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it 4. 'T is a sin contrary to the love of God and man against double light and double obligations from both the Tables Grace and Nature condemneth it 't is against God for if we did love him we would love his image the Saints that are so near and dear to him they are his jewels Mal. 3. 17. they cost him dear he gave an infinite price for them the blood of Christ they are the Apple of his Eye to strike at them is to strike at God himself And 't is against man if Reasons of Grace do not restrain such yet Reasons of Nature should to plot mischief against one that is of the same nature with us natural light will teach us we should do as we would be done by Oh what a cruel creature is man to man when God lets him alone to the sway of his own heart and natural fierceness 5. The contrary to the gentleness and simplicity of the Christian Religion Christian Religion is a simple and harmless thing Phil. 2. 15. That ye be holy and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoicing that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversations in the world 'T is a sign men have drunk in a false Religion when their spirits are efferated and grow Monsters in wickedness Men addicted to false worship are subtle and cruel subtle for where there is real worth there is no dissimulation they carry things open and fair they have a God and Conscience to bear them out and this is worth all the world and if things do not suit to their minds they can tarry God's leisure without base and creeping acts and underhand designs and machinations but a false Religion that hath not a God to depend upon breadeth fears and fear and pusillanimity puts men upon Plots and bloody designs as Herod when afraid seeketh craftily to murther Christ Mat. 2. And as a false Religion is crafty so 't is mischievous and cruel Jude 11. These walked in the way of ââ¦ain For a false Religion cannot subsist without the Plots of Blood and Tyranny and Cruelty When Iudaism begun to fall the Iews bound themselves under an Oath That they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul False worships put men upon a blind zeal that breaketh out in Tragical Effects Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum So much of Truth so much of Meekness Openness and Plainness as the other is of Spight and Malice Use. Oh then let the Children of God abhor this hateful disposition take heed of those kind of sins that have subtlety and malice in them these are the Devil's sins the cursed old Serpent that hath been a Murtherer from the beginning take heed of plotting mischief and secretly designing the ruine of others I would have you Christians that are of the true Religion carry it meekly towards others beware of deliberate sins 't is possible in some great temptation the Children of God may fall into these of sins as David plotted Uriah's death but that sin was laid to his charge more than all the sins that ever he committed These sins are accompanied with some notable affliction and judgment as on David's sad house they leave an indelible stain and blemish and cost us dear 1 Kings 15. 5. David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all his dayes save in the matter of Uriah How many failings have we left upon Record His distrust I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul His dissimulation with his rash Vow to destroy Nabal his injustice in the matter of Ziba and Mephibosheth indulgence to Absolom numbering the People wherein he shew'd his carnal confidence All these are passed over in silence as his infirmities save only in the matter of Uriah And they will cost dear there is always some eminent trouble and affliction that accompany such sins When David had sin'd in the matter of Uriah what troubles were there in his house his daughter ravish'd Amnon slain in his drunkenness Absolom driveth him from his Palace Royal and then poor man his Subjects deserted him he forced to go weeping up and down and shift for his life all Israel came to Absolom his Wives defiled by his own Son Thus you see what is the fruit of deliberate sins These sins cost us a great deal of bitter sorrow sighs and tears to recover our peace and God's love and favour Again how bitterly did David remember his sin and beg that God would restore to him the joy of his salvation Psal. 51. therefore take heed of deliberate sins when we have time enough to have serious and sufficient consideration of the evil and yet do it when a man knoweth a thing to be evil and yet resolveth to go forward with it Sin is not done suddenly in heat of blood but at leisure not limited to a minute or an hour or any short space of time and yet to do it this grieves the Spirit and will cost us dear SERMON CXXI PSAL. CXIX VER III. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart IN this notable Psalm there are many independent Sentences expressing David's affection to the Word of God In this Verse you have I. David's Choice Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for
something without to draw you forward Nature thrusteth Occasion inviteth but Grace interposeth and checketh the motion Gal. 5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh 't is against the bent and inclination of the New Nature there is a back Biass Ioseph had a temptation we read of occasion inviting but not of Nature inclining but presently his heart recoiled The heart of man is seldome without these counterbuffs 't is an advantage to have the new Nature as ready to check as the old Nature to urge and solicite 1 Iohn 3. 9. He cannot sin for his seed remaineth in him 2. In putting on the heart upon Duties that are against the hair and bent of corruption Such acts of obedience as are most troublesome and burthensome to the flesh as are laborious costly dangerous Laborious as private Worship wrestling with God in Prayer holding the heart to Meditation and self-Examination sluggish Nature is apt to shrink but love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Spiritual Worship and such as is altogether without secular encouragement that 's tedious to work truth into the heart to commune with God to ransack Conscience 't is troublesome but thy striving will overcome it So there is costly and chargeable work as Alms Contributions to publick good there must be a striving to bring the heart to it Then for actions dangerous as publick Contests for Gods Glory or keeping a good Conscience though with cost to our selves our great work is to keep the will afoot Nature is slow to what is good a Coachman in his journey is always quickning his Horses and stirring them up so must we quicken a sluggish will do what we can though we cannot do all that we should the will must hold up still A Prisoner escaped would go as far as he can but his Bolts will not suffer to make long Journies but yet he thinketh he can never get far enough so this will is a disposition that puts us upon striving to do our utmost for God 2. The matter resolved on To perform thy Statutes always unto the end Uniform obedience always or all his days As long as life lasteth we must be always ready to observe all Gods Commands which notes the continuity of our obedience sincerity and perpetuity of it We are to engage our hearts by a serious resolution to serve him and that not by fits and starts but always not for a time but to the end Resolve to cleave to him to hold him fast that he may not go to keep our hold fast that we may not go Take notice of the first decays and let us keep our hold fast and bewail often the inconstancy of our hearts that we are so unconstant in that which is good Every hour our hearts are changed in a duty What a Proteus would man be if his thoughts were visible in the best duty that ever he performed Rom. 7. 18. Evil is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not our Devotion comes by pangs and fits now humble anon proud now meek anon passionate not the same men in a duty and act of a duty unstable as water Compare it with Gods constancy his unchangeable nature his love to us that we may be ashamed of our levity from everlasting to everlasting God is where he was the same the same to those that believe in him Secondly This to the end Gods Grace holdeth out to the end so should our obedience He that hath begun a good work will perfect it c. Consider how unreasonable it is to desire God to be ours unto the end if we are not his Psal. 48. 14. He is our God for ever and ever he will be our Guide till death He doth not lay down the conduct of his Providence So Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory We can give nothing to God our obedience is but a profession of homage if God be always in our eye we shall be always in his We receive life breath and motion from him every moment he sustaineth us every day and hour yieldeth new mercy God watcheth over us when we are asleep yet how much of our time passeth away when we do not perform one act of love to God! The Devil is awake when we sleep to do us a mischief but the God of Israel never slumbereth nor sleepeth how can we offend him Let us then take up this serious resolution To perform Gods Statutes always to the end SERMON CXXIV PSAL. CXIX VER 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love THere are in men two great influencing affections Love and Hatred one serves for choice and pursuit the other for flight and aversation The great work of Grace is to fix these upon their proper objects if we could but set our love and hatred right we should do well enough in the spiritual life Man fallen is but the Anagram of man in innocency we have the same affections but they are misplaced we love where we should hate and hate where we should love our affections are like a member out of joint out of its proper place as if the arms should hang backward If men knew how to bestow their love and hatred they would be other manner of persons than now they are In the Text we are taught what to do in both by Davids example see how he bestowed his love and hatred I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Love was made for God and for all that is of Gods side his Law his Ordinances his Image c. but hatred was made for sin All sin must be hated of what kind and degree soever it be Every drop of water is water and every spark of fire is fire so the least degree of sin is sin Thoughts are but a partial act a tendency towards an action and yet thoughts are sin Of all the operations of the soul the world thinketh a man should be least troubled about his thoughts of all actual breaches of the Law these are most secret therefore we think thoughts are free and subject to no tribunal Most of the Religion that is in the world is but mans observance and therefore we let thoughts go without dislike or remorse because they do not betray us to shame or punishment These are most venial in mans account they are but partial or half acts What! not a thought pass but we must make conscience of it this is intolerable Once more of all thoughts vain thoughts would escape censure A thought that hath apparent wickedness in it a murtherous or an unclean thought a natural Conscience will rise up in armes against it but vain thoughts we think are not to be stood upon Oh but David was sensible that these were contrary to the Law of God transgressions as well as other thoughts and therefore inconsistent with his Love to God I hate vain thoughts Secondly He bestows his love on the Law Naturally
to us They are purged out as dross that they may not infect us by their example or molest us by their persecutions or oppressions Now the more we are befriended in this kind the more we are bound to serve God cheerfully Luke 1. 74 75. That being delivered from the hands of our enemies we may serve God in righteousness and holiness ââ¦ll the days of our lives The world is one of those enemies or the wicked of the earth therefore we should serve him faithfully 5. By this means we see the world is governed by God and we may the more safely commit our selves to his protection upon the encouragement of his promises If the affairs of the world were governed by blind Chance and men might do what they listed without check and controul we might think that we had cleansed our hearts in vain and that a man doth make himself a prey by the simplicity of his innocence But when God punisheth the wicked in our sight certainly this should teach us to be more holy in all our ways Psal. 58. 11. A man shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth They that knew not what to think of Providence shall see there is a God in the Heavens that doth wisely administer all things below and so we are encouraged to love him and serve him more heartily Say as the Psalmist It is good for me to draw nigh to God Psal. 73. 28. Use. Well then let our love to God and liking and approbation of his Law be accompanied with the hatred of sin The more we observe his Judgments in putting away the wicked like dross that we may be more holy and seek after communion with God as our only blessedness to this end 1. Let us bless God for giving a sure Rule to walk by and such promises of protection in the midst of the darkness and uncertainty of the present world When others perish you are safe Isai. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony c. Thou shalt walk in this way safely and shalt not stumble yea please God and you need not fear 2. Let us walk exactly by this Rule since our temporal and eternal safety and happiness is concerned thereby For the world to come 't is clear as well as in this life Prov. 3. 1 2. My son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee And Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace and mercy be upon them 3. The more God doth owne his Law by his Judgments the more let our love be encreased This is to wash our feet in the blood of the wicked Psal. 58. 10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked SERMON CXXXI PSAL. CXIX VER 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Iudgments IN this Psalm you find the man of God under divers passions sometimes of joy sometimes of sorrow sometimes of hope and courage and sometimes of fear As there is a time for all things in this world there are several conditions and duties that we run through and we have affections planted in us that suit with every condition Religion doth not nullifie but sanctifie our affections Some have vainly thought affections to be an after-growth of noisome weeds in our Nature corrupted whereas they are wholesome Herbs implanted in us by God at our first Creation of great use to Grace when rightly stirred and ordered Anima nunquam melius agit c. The passion expressed in the Text is fear for two or three Verses his meditations had been taken up in the observation of Gods Judgments upon evil doers ver 118. Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes for their deceit is falshood They were once high but God hath brought them down with ignominy and contempt they had born themselves out in their sinful courses on the account of their prosperity but at length they are utterly ruined and broken And why For their deceit is falshood that is they were unmasked and all their pretences of piety and justice found to be fraud and imposture In Verse 119. he still insisteth upon the same Argument Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross therefore I love thy testimonies They seemed to cleave to the Church and people of God as dross to gold or silver That God who is the purger and refiner of his Church failed not to put a difference and to consume the dross and refine his silver The use that David made of these Judgments was two-fold First To love Gods ways so much the more and to cleave to them with greater firmness Therefore I love thy testimonies Secondly To fear before the Lord and tremble at the Lords Judgments as in the Text. There are two affections wherein we should always seek to profit the love of God and the fear of God Of this last in the Text My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Iudgments In which words we have I. The degree of his fear My flesh trembleth II. The object of his fear For fear of thee III. The ground and reason of his fear I am afraid of thy Iudgments 1. The degree of his fear My flesh trembleth The word samar Saint Hierome rendereth Horrivilavit caro mea my flesh is in horrour and affrightment Symmachus before him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã my flesh maketh my hair stand an end as the prickles of a Hedghog which is an emblem of horrour The Poet Persius expresseth such an affrightment thus Excussit membris tremor albus aristas my fear made my hair stand up like a field of Corn from the contraction of the skin So it happeneth in eases of fear You have the like expression Iob 4. 14 15. Fear came upon me and trembling which made all my bones to shake the hair of my flesh stood up And elsewhere the same word is so used the Septuagint read it imperatively ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pierce through my flesh with fear as with nails surely it noteth some deep sense and high degree of fear as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth upon like occasion Hab. 3. 15. When I heard this my belly trembled my lips quivered rottenness entred into my bones and I trembled in my flesh his bowels did beat and shake for fear and his lips quivered for fear that he could not speak The Judgments of God ought to beget a deep sense and trembling not a slight affection in us The Prophet saith Amos 3. 8. The Lion roareth who will not fear We have need to stir up our hearts again and again When the Lord roareth and cometh forth to Judgment we have need be ashamed of our stupidity when we are not affected II. The object of his fear For
from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Iudgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the Widow This is particularly insisted upon as the proper fruit of their Change So Dan. 4. 27. Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Repentance is a breaking off the former course of sin the King an open Oppressour Daniel preacheth righteousness and mercy to him They that continue their former unjust Courses never yet truly repented Zech. 8. 16 17. These are the things that ye shall do Speak ye every man truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth and peace in your Gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false Oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. He would have their repentance thus expressed Fifthly Because it is so lovely and venerable in the eyes of the world A Christian if he had no other engagement upon him yet for the honour of God and the credit of Religion he should do those things that are lovely and comely in themselves and so esteemed by the world for he is to glorifie God 1 Pet. 2. 12. and adorn Religion Tit. 2. 10. to represent his profession with advantage to the Consciences of men God is dishonoured by nothing so much as injustice which is so odious and hateful to men and wicked men are hardned the hopeful discouraged Atheism prevaileth Neh. 5. 9. Also I said it is not good that ye do ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the Heathen our enemies On the contrary when we give every one their due we bring honour to God and credit to Religion you can the better hold up the profession of it against contradiction hold up head before God and man Now Justice is so lovely partly as 't is a stricture of the Image of God as before in which respect 't is said Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour Men are convinced that he is a more perfect man fitter to be trusted as being one that will deal faithfully And partly because the welfare of humane Society is promoted by such things Tit. 3. 8. These things are good and profitable for men Sixthly And indeed that is my last reason it conduceth so much to the good of humane Society A Christian is a Member of a double Community of the Church and of the world the one in order to eternal life the other in order to the present life as a man and as a Christian. Without justice what would the world be but a Den of thieves Remove Iustitiam c. saith St. Augustin The world cannot subsist without Justice The Kings Throne is established by righteousness Prov. 16. 10. The Nation gets honour and reputation by it abroad Prov. 13. 34. Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people Never did the people of the Jews nor any other Nation whose History is come to our ears flourish so much as when they were careful and exact in maintaining righteousness And as to persons all Commerce between man and man is kept up by Justice And if this be a truth that God and not the Devil doth govern the World and distribute rewards and the blessings of this life surely then Justice which is a compliance with Gods will is the way to be exalted and to live well in the World and not lying cozening and dissembling 2. 'T is very comfortable to us to be just The comfort of righteousness is often spoken of in Scripture Prov. 29. 6. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare but the righteous doth sing and rejoice Whatever befalleth him good or evil much or little in life or death Good or evil if good he hath comfort in his portion because what he hath hâ⦠hath by the fair leave and allowance of Gods Providence Prov. 13. 25. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul he hath enough because he hath what God seeth fit for him he hath enough to supply his wants enough to satisfie his desires sometimes 't is much sometimes 't is little 'T is much sometimes for they are under the blessing of the promise Deut. 16. 20. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow that thou mayst live and inherit the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Justice shalt thou follow if you will take care for that God will take care to bless you If it be little that little is better than more gotten by fraud and injustice Prov. 16. 8. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right Prov. 15. 16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith Though it be but a Dinner of Herbs Psal. 37. 16. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked The comfort if they will stand to the Scriptures lyeth not in abundance but in Gods blessing There is more satisfaction in their small provisions than in the greatest plenty Suppose their condition be evil whatsoever evil a just man suffers he shall get some good by it living or dying and so still hath ground of comfort if scorned or neglected he hath the comfort of his innocent dealing to bear him out As Samuel when he and his house was laid aside 1 Sam. 12. 2 3. he appeals to them Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defranded whom have I oppressed or from whose hands have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and I will restore it If you are opposed and maligned you may plead against your enemies as Moses did Numb 16. 15. Respect not their offerings I have not taken an Ass from them neither have I hurt one of them You may plead thus when you are sure you have not wronged them If you are oppressed as David in the Text you may appeal to the God of your righteousness In life in death they have the comfort of their righteousness In life Deut. 16. 20. as before In death Prov. 14. 32. The righteous man hath hope in his death Isai. 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee that I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight When he is going the way of all the Earth this will be a comfort to him that he hath done no wrong but served God faithfully and lived with men without guile and deceit Oh for comforts for a dying hour Now this Comfort ariseth partly from a good Conscience and partly from the many promises of God that are made to righteousness First From peace of Conscience We are told Prov. 15. 15. That a good Conscience is a continual feast Ahasuerus made a magnificent Feast that lasted an hundred and eighty days
they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God This is the true sense but because the heart is deceitful First Be sure your Cause be good your Adversaries evil that ye may say Psal. 74. 22. Arise O Lord plead thine own Cause 'T is not for your sins but your sins but your righteousness the hatred is not against the body Indeed they pretend some little faults 'T is as if a Leper should hate a man because he hath some pimples in his face Something they would lay to their charge Secondly That we use all means with God and Men to reclaim them praying for them Matth. 6. 44. Pray for them that despightfully use you Mourning for their sins Ier. 23. 19. My soul shall weep in secret for your pride Heaping Coals of fire upon their heads by all acts of kindness condescending to them as far as possibly we can Rom. 12. 18. These arts become his Kingdome that is not to be planted by force but consent them that would have the zeal of God not of a party Thirdly Be sure your principle be zeal for Gods Glory not a desire to establish your own interest and to see revenge on a party that differeth from you Luke 9. 54 55. You know not what spirit you are of Religious affections overset us and fleshly zeal puts on a holy spiritual Guise and Mask and we think 't is for the honour of Christ. Fourthly Not against particular persons but the opposite faction to godliness In general destroy all the enemies of Christ c. Secondly For the manner How We must seek to God first with submission not prescribing to God nor making a snare to our selves We that have short and revengeful Spirits cannot judge aright of Gods patience which is infinite out of fleshliness and affection to our own ease And so our times Iohn 7. 6. your time is always ready if none of these be yet we are limited Creatures and great is the wisdom of God and his power admirable it doth not belong to us to guide the affairs of the world Psal. 78. 41. We must not prescribe opportunity to him fixing times Besides that it argueth a spirit too much addicted to and eying of temporal happiness It doth much unsettle us and harden others The Devil maketh advantage of our disappointment Therefore not only when it seemeth seasonable to us we may seek to him for deliverance Once more there are other things concurr besides the enemies ripeness for Judgment preparing his peoples hearts fitting those instruments for his work therefore all is left to Gods will and let him take his time Use of all is to teach us how to behave our selves in these times with patience and yet with hope and waiting 'T is the time of Iacob's trouble but there will be a time of deliverance Ier. 30. 7. With patience God will have a time to chastise his people We must bear it patiently it will make Crosses sit easie they may be greater and longer than our joys Psal. 90. 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil Secondly With hope let us expect it Certainly it will not exceed the time limited by God That time is not long Isai. 13. 22. Her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged Ezek. 12. 21. to 28. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of man what is that Proverb that ye have in the land of Israel saying The days are prolonged and every vision faileth Tell them therefore Thus saith the Lord I will make this Proverb to cease and they shall no more use it as a Proverb in Israel but say unto them The days are at hand and the effect of every vision for there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel for I am the Lord. I will speak and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass it shall be no more prolonged Faith should see it as present approaching and then let us wait his leisure minding God in prayer SERMON CXXXIX PSAL. CXIX VER 127. Therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold IN the Words we have I. A Note of inference Therefore II. The Duty inferred I love thy Commandments III. The degree of that love Above Gold amplified by the repetition with some advantage in the expression Yea above fine Gold III. Gold by a Senechdoche is put for all worldly things the comforts and profits of this life as in many other places as Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey Comb. The two Bastard Goods with which the World is inchanted are pleasure and profit Old people are all for profit young people are all for pleasure Now both these truly so called are found in the Word of God So in Prov. 8. 10 11. Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choise gold for Wisdom is better than Rubies and all the things that are to be desired are not to be compared to it So Prov. 8. 19. My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my revenues than choise silver So Prov. 3. 14. For the merchandise thereof is better than gold and the gain thereof than fine gold So Prov. 16. 16. How much better is it to get Wisdom than Gold and to get Understanding rather to be chosen than silver This Comparison is used so often for two Reasons 1. Because it is more prized in the World All things that have a goodness in them have a certain Bait suitable to the several Appetites of men but in most mens opinions Gold seemeth chiefly to be desired partly for its beauty but chiefly for its use it being the great instrument of Commerce that doth all things in the world The corruption of mans heart addeth a greater price to it and therefore is the thirst of it so unsatisfied Now the Word and that wisdom and godliness which it teacheth is far above Gold and fine Gold 2. Because it is the usual temptation to draw off men from the love and study and obedience of the Word Babylon's abominations are offered to the world in a golden Cup Rev. 17. 4. And the Woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with Gold and precious Stones and Pearls having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication Preferments are the Baits of that black Religion True Christianity consists in sound Graces Pseudo-Christianity in pomp and state and worldly advantages and the Apostle telleth us 1 Tim. 6. 10. That the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith Therefore doth the spirit of God so often compare spiritual things to Gold and here David preferreth his love to the Word before Worldlings love to
same which Mahometans have to the Alchoran Education in it Ancestors embracing of it the countenance of the Law the custom of the Country c. 3. The manner or way how we come by it by much prayer and serious deliberation Some by chance are surprized and affected with a good motion suddenly good but habitually bad they will in all haste become religious but alas this estimation or approbation of Gods ways is entertained but for a time but afterwards vanisheth and cometh to nothing There must be a clear distinct knowledge of the excellency of Gods ways otherwise in a fit or in a good mood we chuse that which is good but the interest in evil not being renounced in heart it causeth an easie retreat into the former sinful course Fourthly It must be such an esteem as hath a lively and effectual influence upon our hearts and ways There is a liking that only produceth a velleity and wish and doth not engage the soul to prosecute the things willed or forsake the things nilled but there is such an effectual liking and esteem as will produce a constant habitual willingness that will have the authority of a principle and hath a powerful command over the whole soul to set it a working to do the will of God and will admit of no contradiction by contrary desires but maketh us act with life power and earnestness Cold and inconstant wishes produce no fruit in the heart the general course of most mens lives is as if they had no liking to the Law of God It may be they may dislike and sacrifice some of their weaker lusts and smaller interests which they can well spare but corruption doth ordinarily bear sway in their hearts and lives In the Text 't is I esteem all thy precepts and hate every false way 'T is true a man that approveth the Law is not wholly freed from sin There are sins of ordinary infirmity that cleave to us while we are in the world yea taint our best actions Isai. 64. 6. But we are all as an unclean thing all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags And sometimes though there be a principle of Grace a Child of God may be over-born by the violence of a temptation carried into presumptuous sins which may make strange havock in the soul. David prayeth Psal. 19. 14. that God would keep him from presumptuous sins but for the most part the Children of God are influenced by their consent and esteem of the Law of God And the renewed part for the generality hath the upper hand and prevaileth and the flesh is weakened as the house of David grew stronger and stronger 2 Sam. 3. 1. and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker Fifthly It must be an universal not partial esteem I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right Psal. 119. 6. When I have respect to all thy Commandments Luke 1. 6. Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God blameless Acts 3. 22. Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And he shall fulfil all my will 'T is not enough to be right in Commands in general or the lump but in this and that particular not in some but in all We pretend to give up our selves to the will of God in the general but particulars we stick at Men are convinced that holiness is necessary that they must have some Religion therefore when they take up Duty in the lump and abstract notion or naked consent it doth not exasperate opposite propensions Ye cannot serve the Lord c. saith Ioshua Josh. 24. 18 19. but when they come to particulars and see what it is to wait upon a holy and jealous God they tire and grow weary so that there must be a consent and purpose to obey not some but all and every one without exception not partial like that of Herod to Iohn Mark 6. 20. He did many things The worst man in the world loveth some good and hateth some evil but he doth not esteem all Gods Commandments in every point Nay the great enemy of our salvation Satan can be content to let us yield to God in many things if he would be contented with half our duty one sin reserved keepeth afoot his interest in our hearts as a Bird tyed by the Leg is fast enough The Devil will suffer men to do many things but if he hath them fast by one lust be it an inclination to sensuality or love to the world he is contented The World likes many things in Religion they are good and profitable for men but sticketh at others To live godly in Christ Jesus will draw on persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. The flesh will dispense with us to do many things for the more cleanly conveyance of others if it can but get us to spare the bosome lust which the soul delighteth in Every man as he is inslaved by his own customes opposeth one this Law another that the proud man doth not approve of that Law that doth forbid his pride nor the sensual man that which toucheth his intemperance and unbridled Appetite nor the worldly man his covetousness cannot endure that part of the Law that would abridge him of his gain Nothing more common than to cast off what liketh us not in the Law of God and to wish there were no precept given in that kind but our consent must be to all in general and to this and that in particular Many could be content with Gods Law so far as it doth not cross their carnal interest or hinder their corrupt desires but we must esteem all the Laws of God they are all holy just and good not one excepted all conduce to perfect our Nature and make us happy Creatures they all conduce to the benefit of humane Nature they are all enjoyned by the authority of the same God God spake all these words They are linked as Rings in a Chain one preserveth another they are all necessary for our eternal happiness not one given in vain So much thou continuest thine own misery and art defective in the way that leadeth to true happiness as thou art willing to indulge to any one sin They are all written in the hearts of Gods Children Heb. 8. 10. all suited to the new Nature and he hath given Grace to keep all 1 Pet. 1. 15. perfection of parts not of degrees The new Creature is not maimed in the birth A Child hath not the bulk and strength of a man Want of perfection of parts cannot be supplied by any after-growth Nay all are necessary to our Communion with God Psal. 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments c. If we dispense with our selves in the least things we are not fit for Communion with God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having such promises of Gods being in us and dwelling in us and
the power that worketh in us He instanceth in that which God hath done for us in Christ which is beyond our Prayer Conceptions and Hopes transcending the hopes and apprehensions of the most inlarged hearts Thus is a Christian a wonder to himself 2. He is a wonder to the world if he keep up the Majesty and vigour of Religion 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you It was strange to them that they should be altered so of a suddain that of filthy puddles they should become clear as Crystal Waters a Sink turned into a pure Fountain that men should live above Interests of Nature row against the stream of Flesh and blood this is all strange to the world and this is the fruits of the word for the word of God is perfect converting the soul Psal. 19. 8. Every grace is a Mystery and Wonder especially Faith for a man to believe that which he understandeth not to hope for that he seeth not to have that which he wants to be tossed with Tempests and yet to enjoy a sweet calm in our own hearts to be destitute of all things and yet be as little anxious as if we indeed had all things as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things to be a Rock in the midst of a storm as dying and yet we live 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed We are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things Thus is a Believer the worlds wonder a very Riddle to carnal sense So in other graces he can hate Father and Mother for Christs sake can also love enemies at Christs command he that doth even break his heart for the least sin can bear up against the greatest Trouble Thus I might exemplifie the Point but I must go a little largely to work First Gods Testimonies are wonderful in their Majesty and composure which striketh Reverence into the hearts of those that consider it speaketh to us at a God-like rate Jesus Christ leaves a Character of his divine spirit upon his words Mar. 7. 28 29. And it came to pass when Iesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes There was an impression of his Authority upon his word his hearers were convinced of a Soveraign Majesty proper to the Dignity of his Person Those that went to take him returned this account Ioh. 7. 46. Never man spake like this Man for Authority power and Evidence Now the Scriptures being Christs Doctrine why should they not have the same Power Authority and divine Character in them It is the same Doctrine the voice could add nothing to it and the writing take nothing from it Could not God discover his Soveraign Majesty in Writing as well as Speaking Look into the Scriptures are you not even compelled to say this can be no other but the word of God they speak not as conscious of any weakness or as begging Assent but as commanding it Thus saith the Lord hear it or ye are undone for ever The wisdom Majesty Authority of the Author sheweth it self in every line almost of Scripture Longinus an Heathen admired the Majesty of that passage ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Indeed every where there is great Authority mixed with simplicity and plainness of speech Such as moveth Reverence and awe in the consciences of men It may be it is not seen in every phrase and clause of a sentence but it is clearly discovered in the whole frame as the Majesty of a mans countenance is not so fully discovered in any one part of the face as in the whole visage taken jointly together Scriptura sic loquitur saith Austin ut alitudine superbos irrideat profunditate attentos terreat veritate magnos pascat affabilitate parvos nutriat Scripture so speaketh that it laughs proud and lofty men to scorn with the height of it with the depths of it it terrifieth those who with attention look into it with Truth it seedeth men of greatest knowledge and understanding with affability and sweetness it nourisheth babes and sucklings Let a man have but any thing of a prepared mind and he cannot contain his wonder and Reverence but will tremble at the word of God Isa. 66. 2. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and trembleth at my word Secondly It is wonderful for the Matter and depth of Mystery which cannot be found elsewhere concerning God and Christ the Creation of the World the Souls of men and their immortal and everlasting condition the Fall of man c. Here God is set forth to us in the clearest representation that we are capable of in this mortal state God is in part seen in the Creatures Rom. 1. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Every thing that hath passed his hand discovereth somewhat of the Author and maker of it but as imperfectly as God is discovered there we cannot behold him without wonder and Reverence If we use never so little of an attentive mind those Strictures of God that are seen in mans Body Galen wondered when he saw a mans hand the Sun Moon and Stars yea a gnat yea a pile of grass but these discoveries are not to be compared with the Scriptures revealing the glory of God in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. If we wonder at so much of God as we find in a Gnat shall not we wonder much more at so much of God as we find in his Law in his Gospel in the whole Oeconomy and frame of his gracious dispensations Besides that the Scriptures help us to interpret the Book of the Creatures they show forth more of God than all the Creatures can do the Book of Nature is an imperfect piece in regard of the Book of Scripture You cannot look upon the Book of the Creatures but in every page and line of it you will find this Truth presented to your eyes that there is an infinite eternal power that made all things this is enough to leave the world without excuse But in the Book of the word you may see more of God and the way how to enjoy him In the 19. Psalm David doth first admire the glory of God by the beauty of the Heavens then by the light of the word By reason the Heathens
when in hand and in present expectation work far otherwise than they do when they are considered at a distance So when the effects of sin are looked upon as near at hand when faith makes them present then they stir up these affections in the soul. Fifthly A fifth cause is from their publick Spirit and tender respect to the common good When they wisely foresee approaching dangers they are moved with the love and care of their Countrey and this melteth them They know sin is of a destroying nature that one sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 9. 18. One sinner may do his Countrey a great deal of mischief an open bold fac'd Sinner Achan troubled the whole Camp Iosh. 7. 11 12. much more when a multitude of Sinners are encreased therefore they sigh and mourn Godly men are the truest friends to their native soil they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel Those that plead with God stand in the Gap keep off Judgments and have the most publick spirit therefore the least they can do is to sigh for it and to plead with wicked men as Tertullian Si non vis tibi parcere parce Carthagini If thou wilt go on with thy soul-destroying course and wilt not spare thy self yet spare Carthage This will be bitterness in the issue The Children of God are always of a publick Spirit David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. Abraham prayed to God for Sodom a neighbour Countrey the godly Israelites were good friends to Babylon in their Captivity Ier. 29. 11. Seek the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried captive and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace If nothing but their interest and share in the common rest and quietness Passengers are concerned in the welfare of the Vessel wherein they are imbarked Babylon fared the better for the Jews prayers Now more especially are their hearts carried out with a respect to their native Soil and dearest comforts therefore this melteth them to see the Land defiled with sins and ready for Judgments SERMON CLII. PSAL. CXIX VER 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law USE 1. For reproof of two sorts of persons 1. Those that do not lay to heart their own sins Usually men make their affections to prescribe to their judgment and cavil at the fervorous exercises of Religion because unpleasant to flesh and blood To humble our selves before the Lord with a pressing sorrow seriously and indeed to rend our hearts and not our garments In this wanton and delicate Age men are apt to think I speak of a Theam obsolete and out of date as calculated for former times when men were more tender hearted if we could awaken some of the old godly professors out of their Graves as the Prophet calleth up Rachel to weep in Ramah for her Children Ier. 31. 15. then we might hope to prevail Alas to plead now for mourning over the sins of others when men think it a crime to mourn for their own this is like to be lost labour Were this the humour only of ungodly Wretches it might be born with silence and patience but those that would be taken for Christians of the highest form are altogether prejudiced against such Doctrines as this Men would be honeyed and oyled with Grace and distaste the wholesome discipline of repentance as too severe They cry out we are legal How may the poor Ministers of the Gospel go to God and say as Moses did Exod. 6. 12. The Children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharaoh hear me The Professors of Religion will not brook such Doctrine and how shall we hope to prevail with the poor blind carnal world To scoff at Doctrines of repentance and humiliation was once a badg of prophaneness many now adopt it into their Religion But be not deceived the Gospel doth not take away the Conscience of sin It may take away the fear of Hell and damnation upon right terms The heart of flesh is a promise and the spirit of Grace is a promise or mourning apart is a promise You that say that justified persons must no more mourn for sin you may as well say they shall no longer have an heart of flesh or a spirit of Grace and supplications that they shall no longer have a tender Conscience Be not deceived there must be some time to weep for your own sins as Peter went out and wept bitterly Sorrow must have its turn in the Christian life I would press it upon you by this Argument You cannot be sorrowful for others sins unless you be first sorrowful for your own sins Grief must begin at home there where you have the advantage of Conscience and inward remorse 'T is hypocrisie to pitch upon other mens sins and neglect our own as some will zealously declaim against publick disorders yet neglect their own hearts as the crafty Lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying to draw the Fowler from her own Nest. We have a nest of sin of our own and we are loth it should be rifled and exposed to publick view 2. It reproveth them that in times of publick defection never take care to mourn over Gods dishonour We complain and murmure under our Judgments but do not weep over our sins every person and family apart Whether it be out of negligence and carnal security or out of distaste and displeasure against the conduct of present affairs we seem to have lost our publick affections and can only wonder at the Children of God in former times since they were so broken and tender To many that would now go for Professors this Doctrine seemeth a Riddle a mere strain of wit and fancy like a precept wire-drawn or elevated beyond its pitch and tenour But in the fear of God consider what hath been spoken There are many abuses in our reflections upon the sins of others Wicked men are quite otherwise disposed they do not only do evil themselves but take pleasure in those that do so Rom. 1. 32. would be glad that sin were more common that it might be less odious and then there would be none to put them to the blush Prov. 2. 14. It is said they rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked So the Prophet speaks of some corrupt men in the Priesthood They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. God had appointed those that served at the Altar should live of the Altar have a proportion of those Offerings Now they flattered them in their sins so they might have meat and get a portion of the Sacrifices Many that would be accounted Ministers care not for the sins of the people but think the less serious men are in Religion the better they can work them to their private advantages and have more respect among them Then there are some
Souldiers being weary of this Pagan Emperour assoon as he dyed chose Iovinianus that had been banished and a fellow sufferer with him who recalled him and other Christians from their exile and after having reigned not full eight Months he dyed and Valentinian was chosen Emperour in his stead 3. The Third thing we should be zealous for is Gods Servants when they are opprest we should own and cherish them as good Obadiah did the Prophets who hid them by fifty in a Cave and fed them with Bread and Water 1 Kings 18. 4. And Ionathan owned David though his Father was greatly displeased with him and flung a Javelin at him 1 Sam. 20. 32. And Hester pleads for the Jews when they were doomed to Destruction Hester 7. 3. And Nicodemus pleads for Christ that he might not be condemned unheard Iohn 7. 50 51. When the Council was ready to condemn him Nicodemus saith to them he that came to Iesus by night being one of them doth our Law judge any man before it hear him And then they went their way That stopt the persecution for that time Certainly they have little zeal for God that can see good men perish before their eyes and have not a word to speak for them This Nicodemus that was before infirm and weak that sneaked unto Christ that came to him by Night gets courage in the time of need to speak for Christ. 3. What are the Acts of zeal with respect to these Objects 1. It quickens us to our duty and makes us publickly active for God Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing O how remiss and sluggish would we be otherwise in matters of Gods Kingdom and Glory if we had not a strong degree of Love to stir us up to appear for God in the worst times and in the way and places that 's proper for us Paul when he saw the whole City given to Idolatry it is said his Spirit was stirred in him Acts 17. 16. He could not contain and again Acts 18. 5. Paul was pressed in spirit and testified to the Iews that Iesus was Christ. That heroical act of Phineas when he saw the Laws of God broken and no body ready to vindicate the honour of God he took a javelin in his hand and thrust the offenders through Numb 25. 7. And the Lord saith afterwards ver 11. Phineas the Son of Eleazar the Son of Aaron hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the Children of Israel in my Iealousie He had an extraordinary call to do that he was High-Priest but he went then upon jus zenorum So Elijah 1 Kings 18. 40. He took the Prophets of Baal and brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there There was an extraordinary call but we are all to be active in spreading and defending the Truth and promoting the purity of Gods worship and welfare of his People as far as our calling and places permit 2. It maketh us spare no cost yea it judgeth that best done for God which costs us most as David would not serve God with that which cost nothing 2 Sam. 24. 25. That 's worth nothing that cost nothing in Religion Iezebel she was zealous for Baal and maintained 400 of his Priests at her Table In the Primitive times they sold all things that they had and had all things common And the Israelites they offered so plentifully to the Tabernacle that Moses was fain to forbid them to put a stop because there was enough given for the Advancement of Gods worship Exod. 38. 8. And therefore certainly they are cold and have little zeal for God that love as the Corinthians did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Gospel without charges would be at no cost for Christ. This was Pauls case there the poor Saints of Macedonia which had but from hand to mouth they ministred to him and maintained him when he was at Corinth a rich and opulent Town Paul would depart from his right rather then prejudice the Gospel Therefore they that will be at no cost for Christ maintaining his Truth upholding his worship relieving his People have no zeal 3. It vents it self by holy Grief and Anger when any of these are violated 1. With holy Grief we should be touched and that to the quick with other mens sins when they neglect their duty pervert all that is right and honest and seem not to be concerned with the glory of God 1 Pet. 2. 7 8. It is said of Lot his Righteous Soul was vexed at the wickedness of the Sodomites and he vexed himself not with Sodoms injuries but with Sodoms impurities he could not redress the evils but he mourns for them So the Prophet Ieremiah for the stubbornness of the People Ier 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore c. Though they would not hearken amend nor any way regard these things yet it grieved him exceedingly So you shall see the like of Ezra Ezra 10. 6. He mourned because of the Transgression of them that had been carried away The Transgression of Gods People was very grievous to him Thus we read of Ely 1 Sam. 4. 13. Ely sate by the way side watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God The Glory of God was dear to him and when Religion is in danger God dishonoured it leaves a mighty impression upon the hearts of those that have a zeal and strong love to God 2. It vents it self by indignation and holy anger As Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple and shewed his divine power therein Iohn 2. 15. And remember them O God that defile the Priesthood Nehem. 13. 29. And Exod. 32. 19. Meek Moses yet his anger waxed hot and he cast the Tables out of his hand And Ezra 9. 3. When I heard this thing I rent my Garment and my Mantle and pluckt off the hair of my Head and of my Beard and sate down Astonied Thus deeply are Gods Children affected with Gods publique dishonour though not occasioned by themselves but occasioned by others and this is to have a zeal for God 4. The Qualifications and Concomitants of this holy zeal I 'le name three 1. It must be accompanied with knowledge and discretion that is to say there must be a distinct knowledge of the Cause that we take up else we may be Factors for the Devils Kingdom when we think we are acting for God and be persecuting the Saints when we think we are destroying his Enemies It must be out of the knowledge of the Cause of the evil to be renounced and the good to be established There is a blind zeal Iohn 16. 2. Whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God good service The Pseudo-Christians the Literal Christians have a blind zeal against the serious Christians
nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
the word of God many pretend to have an high estimation and respect to the Doctrine of God when they cannot digest the directions of it because 't is contrary to their desires and carnal affections they reserve something in their hearts that makes their love questionable they that have not a real love to the word of God are but lightly tinctur'd with Religion not deeply dyed The stony ground received the word with joy Men may have strong affections and strange stirrings in their souls and yet not be right with God But here 's an undoubted Evidence to love the Word for it's purity A mans love may be questionable because he may love the word upon forreign motives either because of Novelty or fineness of expression or publique countenance and credit or external advantage Iohn 6. 26. Vix diligitur Iesus propter Iesum Or they may love it for internal reasons as 't is a good word as they that tasted of the power of the world to come they may look upon it for pleasure and profit but not as good and holy many look upon the Gospel as good and profitable as offering peace and pardon and comfort and eternal life nature that hath naturally a sense of Religion hath also an hunger after immortality and blessedness and therefore the promises of the Gospel may be greedily catched after as offering everlasting Life and Blessedness but now a love to that which is pure and holy leaveth a more durable impression upon the soul. And further many have a liking to the purity of the word and a general approbation of it as 't is a fit rule for Creatures to live by yet unless there be a strong prevailing affection all comes to nothing and therefore nothing but this love to the word because of its purity is unquestionable 4. Unless we love the word as pure we shall fail in many other parts of Religion we shall not love God as we ought for God is lovely not only as the Fountain of blessedness but as he is the most pure and perfect Being He was diligibilis naturae before any emanation of goodness passed from him We are to love him in desertions when we feel no good from him and he seemeth to write bitter things against us Isa. 26. 8. So that we cannot discharge this duty to love God as he is a pure and perfect Being if we do not love the word because 't is pure And we shall not love the Saints as we ought without this Psalm 16. 3. We are to love them for the Image of God in them If you love them that love you what thanks have you Matth. 5. 46. We are to love the Saints as Saints and for that reason Once more we are to hate sin as filthy as 't is a gross absurdity and deordination of the humane nature Psal. 96. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Now till we have this frame of heart to love the Law as 't is pure we can do none of these things For there is the same reason for the one as for the other and therefore 't is not a nicity but a necessary frame of heart Use. 1. Is to inform us that they can never love God and his ways that hate purity till their hearts be changed There are a sort of men in the world whose hearts rise against purity for if they see any make Conscience of sin they brand them with the name of Puritans so those that seek to keep themselves from sin and the more holy they are they are an eye-sore to them Now can they say I love thy Law because 't is pure and cannot endure to see it copied out in others Oh! What a vile disposition is this in you to be despisers of that which is good 2 Tim. 3. 3. None live up to the purity of their profession but you scorn them and let me tell you you scorn that which is most glorious in God himself Would a Father take it well that a slave should mock his child because 't is like him So will God take it well that you should scorn those that are good because they are like their heavenly Father These are of the seed of the Serpent who are full of Enmity they have the old Antipathy Gen. 3. 15. Prov. 29. 27. 'T is a vile scorn of the God of heaven to hate a man for his holiness And they can never love the Law whatever they pretend that do not love the Law for it's purity a carnal distempered appetite hath no tast for the Word of God as 't is a direction to holiness 2 Cor 2. 14. 2. Use is Information to Inform us in what rank to place Principles There are several sorts of Principles there are some that are false and rotten and some more tolerable and some good and sound and some rare and excellent 1. There are some false and rotten principles as carnal Example and Custom Men will do as they have done or as others do they will own the Religion that their Fathers have done be it what it will by the same reason you may serve Mahomet as well as Christ. A man that standeth upon the Vantage ground is not taller than another such are of no better Constitution than the Turks only they stand upon the Vantage ground Another rotten principle is Vain-glory to be seen of Men Mat. 6. they pray and give almes to be seen of Men. Come see my Zeal for the Lord of Hosts saith Iehu Vain-glory many times filleth the sails and carries us on in the Service of God So secular and worldly Interests and Ends as the Pharisees made long prayers that they might devour Widows houses Mat. 23. that is they made long Prayers and show of Devotion to be trusted with the management of Widows Estates to make a prey of them All that I shall say to this principle is this that 't is better for the World that men would serve God any how that Christ should be served out of Vain-glory then not served at all as the Apostle saith some preach Christ out of envy and others out of good will but I am glad so Christ be preached Phil. 1. 18. though they themselves be rotten hearted Hypocrites yet the World fares the better for it 2. There are some more tolerable Principles the hope of Temporal Mercies When we come and Pray and do not seek the Favour of God but seek Temporal Mercies Hosea 7. 14. They howled upon their beds for Corn and Wine Or the fear of Temporal Judgments Isa. 58. 5. Ier. 2. 16. when all that they do is to remove some Temporal Judgment in their Afflictions they will seek me right early And I think I may add one thing more here the fear of Eternal Death when 't is alone otherwise 't is a Grace they shall be Damned else and so 't is a sleepy sop to appease an accusing Conscience and so 't is but a sin-offering Though it requireth some Faith to fear
what is to come yet fear of punish ment alone sheweth you are slaves and only love your selves the Devils fear and tremble but do not love You may fear a thing though you hate it So far as the heart is affected with the fear of Hell 't is good 3. There are very good and sound Principles yet do not always argue Grace as when duties are done out of the urgings of an enlightened Conscience this may be without the bent of a renewed heart but yet the principle is sound for the first thing that influenceth a man is to consider himself a Creature and so to look upon himself as bound to obey his Creator I shall illustrate it by the Apostles words in another case I must preach the Gospel and wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. 17. Whether I do it willingly or unwillingly yet a Dispensation is committed to me So saith the Soul whether I be fitted to do God service or no God must be obeyed but because Gods precept is invested with a Sanction of Threatnings and Rewards here comes in the fear of Hell and the hopes of heaven The Lord hath commanded me to fly from Hell this is a good principle So the hope of Heaven Heb. 11. 26. 't is a sound principle a man may be gracious or he may not Many have a liking to Heaven and Eternal Life as 't is a state of happiness not of likness to God where 't is not alone 't is a very sound principle but as 't is it may sometimes be the sign of a renewed man and sometimes not 4. There are rare and excellent Principles when we Act out of thankfulness to God when we consider the Lords goodness that might have required Duty out of meer Soveraignty he hath laid the Foundation of it in the bloud of his own Son 1 Ioh. 4. 29. When we love him out of the sense of his love to us in Christ And when the grace of God that hath appeared teacheth us to deny ungodliness Tit. 2. 11. when the Mercies of God melt us Rom. 12. 1. when there are no intreaties so powerful as that of Love Again another principle that is rare and excellent is when the Glory of God doth season us in our whole Course that it may be to the praise of his glorious grace 1 Cor. 10. 31. Another is Complacency in the Work for the Works sake When we love the Law because it is pure when I see it will ennoble me and make me like God when I love God and his wayes when nothing but so noble imployment doth ingage me to his service and service to God is the sweetest life in the World SERMON CLVIII PSALM CXIX VER 141. I am Small and Despised yet do I not forget thy Precepts HEre David proveth the Truth of his former Assertion that seeing the Word of God was so Pure he loved it for its own sake and that he did not Court Religion for the portion that he should have with it but for it self Some are meer Mercenaries no longer then they are bribed by some Worldly profit they have no respect for God and his Wayes The Man of God was of another Temper if God would bestow any thing on him well if not he would love his Word still yea when it brought him apparent Loss Meanness and Contempt yet this could not make any divorce between his Heart and the Word I am small and despised c. In the Words we have 1. David's Condition 2. David's Carriage under that Condition His Condition might have been a Snare to him yet still he keepeth up his Affection 1. His Condition is set forth by two Notions the one of which implyeth the other Gods Providence I am small God had reduced him to streights the other Mans Treatment of him and despised the one sheweth what he was really in himself the other what he was in the opinion of others Mean in himself and Contemptible in the eye of others The Sept. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I am the younger and set at nought Therefore the Greek Interpreters suppose it relateth to the story when God bids Samuel to anoint one of the Sons of Iesse to be King and the elder Children were brought forth who were Taller and more likely too and they said of them surely the Lords Anointed is before him and when Samuel enquired for another they told him 1 Sam. 16. 7. That there remaineth the youngest and he keepeth sheep then when he was but an Youth and a despised stripling his heart was with God and God favoured him Or else they refer it to the time when Eliab his eldest Brother despised him 1 Sam. 17. 28. Others think this was verified when the Elders of Israel forsook him and clave to Absalom rather I think it generally to any Afflicted Condition when he was little in Estate and Reputation rather than in years elsewhere so is this word small taken Amos 7. 2 5. Iacob is small by whom shall he arise When his Condition was helpless and hopeless and Interest inconsiderable in the World So here I am small and despised I am looked upon as a man of no Value and Interest 2. Davids Carriage under this Condition Yet do I not forget thy Precepts First here is a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã less is said more is intended I do earnestly remember them Again a man may be said to remember or forget two wayes Notionally or Affectively Notionally a man forgets when the Notions of things formerly known are quite vanished out of our Minds Affectively when though he retaineth the notions yet he is not answerably affected he doth not act suitably So 't is taken here and implyeth as much as I am stedfast in the profession of this Truth as they say in a like Case Psal. 44. 17. We have not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant not parted with any point of Truth or neglected and dispensed with any part of Duty Precepts is put for the whole word of God I do not forget thy Word the Comforts and Duties of it None do so far forget God and his Precepts as those that make defection from him The sum of all is My mean and despicable Condition doth not make a breach upon my Constancy but still I keep the Credit of being a Faithful Servant to thee His Temptation was double his Faithfulness had made him small God seemeth to forget us in our low Estate yet we should not forget him and had made him despised though we lose esteem with men by sticking to the Word of God yet the Word of God should lose no esteem with us Doctrine They that love God may be reduced to a Mean Low and Afflicted Condition I am small saith David The Lord seeth it meet for divers reasons 1. That they may know their happiness is not in this World and so the more long for Heaven and delight in Heavenly things Psal. 17. 14 15. From men
of the World which have their portion in this life As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Christ gave his Spirit to the rest of the Disciples and the Purse to Iudas he had the keeping of the bag that was the worst Gods dearest Children usually have the least in this World that they may look higher as Levi had no portion among his Brethren because God would be his portion Others have more plentiful Accomodations for Back and Belly they are better Clad their Tables more plentifully furnished and supplied larger portions for their Children they that look to save any thing or get any thing by Religion but the saving of their Souls are fouly mistaken if we have more than others Religion calleth for more disbursements Charity and liberal distributions exposeth to Troubles Religion moderateth our desires and forbids all unjust ways of acquiring Wealth calleth upon us to forsake all for a good Conscience Therefore they that follow Christ out of a design to be rich in this World lose their aim not but that Hypocrites sometimes make a Market of Religion but then God is Angry and they and the Church too payeth for it at last not but that Religion bringeth in Temporal supplies Mat. 6. 33. First seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã food and raiment it bringeth in God may give some a more plentyful allowance especially if they be Faithful Stewards then they are intrusted with more but generally they are mean and small or if they have more of this Worlds goods they have their Afflictions in other kinds 2. 'T is necessary to cut off the provisions of the Flesh and the fuel of their Lusts a rank soil breedeth Weeds and when we sail with a full stream we are apt to be carried away with it We either glut our selves with the Pleasures of the Flesh or grow proud and hanker and linger after the Pomp and Vanities of the World and neglect God And therefore God is fain to diet us and to keep us bare and low as he is said to cut Israel short 2 Kings 10. 32. When he streightned their Coasts and Borders so for our cure we need not only internal Grace to abate the Lust but external Providence to catch away the Prey and Bait by which it is fed The wise Man saith not only give me grace but give me neither Poverty nor Riches Prov. 30. 8 9. and Gal. 6. 14. by whom the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World Both parts are necessary riches are a great Temptation we would root here and grow Sensual Worldly and Proud if God did not snatch our Comforts from us when we are apt to Surfet of them a plentiful portion of Temporal things is Spiritually Dangerous 3. That they may be more sensible of his displeasure against their sins and scandalous Carriage by which they have dishonoured him and provoked the pure eyes of his glory Never have scandals faln out but some great Woe followed Matth. 18. 7. Woe to the World because of offences Therefore God hath brought his People low that he may vindicate his Name which through their means is Blasphemed Rom. 2. 24. and make his People sensible of their sin the World shall know that he doth allow sin no more in them than others and therefore though they were as the signet upon his finger he will pluck them off and make them feel the smart of their wandrings Amos 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities They that have been so near and dear to him the World might think he did approve their sins if he did not manifest his displeasure at them Usually their sins go nearest his heart and meet with the sorest vengeance Deut. 32. 19. When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provokings of his Sons and of his Daughters Their relation to God their priviledges and the consequences of their actions aggravate their sins And therefore God is most quick and severe in punishing their sins We complain we were brought low but were not our Provocations first very high The most Religious cannot wipe their mouths and excuse themselves as faultless Oh what a sad part hath been lately acted upon the Publick Stage What a trade have many driven for themselves under a mask of Religion What breaches in the body of Christ uncharitable divisions making a profession of the Name of Christ for Carnal ends 4. That we may learn to live upon the Promises and learn to exercise suffering Graces especially dependance upon God who can support us without a temporal visible Interest Compare Rev. 12. 11. And they overcame him by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives to the death Rev. 13. 7. And it was given unto him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations You shall see how the Enemies overcome and the Saints overcome The seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent The Beast raiseth the World against the Saints and prevaileth over their Bodies he overcomes them by spoiling them of Liberty Lives and Temporal Estate but they overcome by adhereing to Truth and resisting his Temptations and their own Corruptions even in the lowest Estate by Suffering So for other Graces Patience Meekness Self-denial Spiritual Comforts as the Stars in their order fought against Sisera so all graces are exercised in their turn Rev. 13. 10. Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints that is a time to act these Graces a full Third of the Scriptures would be lost which containeth Comfort for Afflicted ones if God did not exercise them with Temporal Afflictions 5. That God may convince the Enemies that there is a people that do sincerely serve him and not for carnal selfish Ends. Iob 1. The Carnal World suspect private selfish worldly aims and designs in all that we do and attribute all our Duties to Interest being themselves led by Interest they cannot think others are led by Conscience Men are apt to suspect and maligne what they will not imitate There is sometimes too much advantage given many are Mercenaries only esteem the ways of God when beneficial to them Ioh. 6. 26. Ye seek me not because ye saw the Miricles but because ye did eat of the Loaves and were filled Therefore it is needful to heighten the price of Religion when it is too cheap a thing to be a Christian. This God doth by bringing his People low that the World may see some will cleave to him in all conditions not only when his wayes are befriended but when frowned upon God will glorifie himself and his Truth by their Constancy 6. That his glory may be more
thou afflicted and tossed with tempest Names are taken a notioribus things are known and distinguished by their name 't is one of the Way-marks to Heaven Act. 14. 22. Through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God As the way to Canaan lay through a howling Wilderness If we were told before that we should meet with such and such marks in our Journey to such a place if we found them not we should have cause to suspect we were out of our way From the beginning of the World the Church hath always been bred up under troubles and innured to the Discipline of the Cross Psal. 129. 1. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel now say The spirit of enmity wrought betimes The first Family that ever was in the World yielded Abel the Proto-Martyr and Cain the Patriarch of Unbelievers While the Church kept in Families the outward estate of Gods People was worse than their Neighbours Abraham was a Sojourner though owned and blessed by God when the Canaanites were possessors and dwelt in walled Towns Iacob's Family grew up by degrees into a Nation but Esau's presently multiplyed into many Dukes and Princes And as they grew up they grew up in Affliction Egypt was a place of retreat for them for a while but before they got out of it it proved an house of Bondage Their deliverance brought them into a Wilderness where Want made them murmur but oftner Wantonness But then God sent fiery Serpents and broke them and afflicted them with other Judgments After forty years wandring in the Wilderness they are brought into Canaan a Land of Rest but it afforded them little rest for they forfeited it almost as soon as they Conquered it it flowed with Milk and Honey but mixed with Gall and Wormwood Their story as 't is delivered in the Book of God acquaints you with several varieties and intermixtures of Providence till wrath came upon them to the utmost till God saw fit to inlarge the pale and lines of Communication by treating with other Nations Now if the old Testament Church were thus afflicted much more the new God discovered his approbation and improbation then more by temporal Mercies and temporal Judgements The Promises run to us in another strain and since Life and Immortality was brought tolight in the Gospel we must not expect to be so delicately brought up as never to see an evil day he hath told us 2 Tim. 3. 12. We must be conformed to our head Rom. 8. 29. And expect to pledge Christ in his bitter Cup and our condition must inform us that our hopes are not in this World 1 Cor. 15. 19. In the Gospel-dispensation God would deal forth temporal Blessings more sparingly and spiritual with a fuller hand the experience of all Ages verifieth this When Religion began first to fly abroad into all Lands the Pagans first persecuted it and then the Pseudo-Christians the holiest and best People were Maligned and Bound and Butchered and Racked and Stoned but still they Multiplied 'T were easie to tire you with various Instances in every Age those that went home to God were those that came out of tribulations and had washed their Robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb Rev. 7. 14. There is always something set a-foot to try God servants and in the latter times the roaring Lion is not grown more gentle and tame rather more fierce and severe Rev. 12. 12. For the Devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time Dying Beasts struggle most As his Kingdom beginneth to shake so he will be most fierce and cruel for the supporting of it 2. As to particular persons The whole Creation groaneth Rom. 8. 22. and Gods Children bear a part in the Consort they have their share in the Worlds Miseries and Domestical Crosses are common to them with other Men in the World Yea their condition is worse then others Chaffe and Corn are threshed in the same floor but the Corn is grinded in the Mill and baked in the Oven Ieremiah was in the Dungeon when the City was besieged The World hateth them more than others and God loveth them more than others The World hateth them because they are so good and God correcteth them because they are no better There is more care exercised about a Vine than a Bramble God will not let them perish with the World Great receipts call for great expences first or last God seeth it fitting sometimes at first setting forth as the old Germans were wont to dip their Children in the Rhine to harden them so to season them for their whole Course they must bear the yoke from their youth or first acquaintance with God Heb. 10. 32. Sometimes God lets them alone while they are young and raw and of little experience as we are tender of Trees newly planted as Iacob drove as the little ones were able to bear 1 Cor. 10. 13. He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able They are let alone till middle age till they are of some standing in Religion Heb. 11. 24. Moses when he was come to years ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sometimes let alone till their latter time and their season of fighting cometh not till they are ready to go out of the World that they may die fighting and be crowned in the Field but first or last the Cross commeth and there is a time to exercise our Faith and Patience before we inherit the Promises I will not inlarge in the common place of Afflictions and tell you how necessary the Cross is to subdue Sin which God will do in an accommodate way to weaken Pride to reclaim us from our Wandrings to increase Grace to make us mindful of heavenly things these are discussed in other Verses to make us retreat to our great Priviledges to stir us up to Prayer c. Tribulatio tam nobis necessaria quam ipsa vita immo magis necessaria multoque utilior quam totius mundi opes dignitates saith Luther We think Wealth is necessary for us Dignity and Esteem is necessary for us no Affliction is necessary for us 1 Pet. 1. 6. If need be you are in Heaviness c. Use 1. Let us look for Troubles and provide for them we shall not alwayes have a life of ease and peace the Times will not alwayes be friendly to Religion Then had the Churches rest Acts 9. 31. Halcyon dayes the enmity of wicked men will not always lye asleep we would gather rust and grow dead therefore look for them If because you are Christians you Promise your selves a long lease of temporal Happiness free from Troubles and Afflictions 't is as if a Souldier going to the Wars should promise himself Peace and continual Truce with the Enemy Or as if a Mariner committing himself to the Sea for a long Voyage should promise himself nothing but fair and calm
Morning Gen. 22. So for bad things if a man be Worldly his Worldly Desires and Affections compel him to rise early for their satisfaction Psalm 127. 3. The Drunkard is thinking early of his morning draught to be filled with Wine Isa. 15. 11. Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink The People when they were mad upon the Calf Exod. 36. 6. They rose up early in the morning and offered burnt-offerings to it Whatsoever hath secured its Interest in the Soul will first urge us so if Prayer be our chief pleasure it will urge us to be up betimes with God our Delights and Affections sollicit us in the Morning 3. 'T is the choicest time of the day and therefore should be allotted to the most serious and necessary imployment 'T is the choicest time partly with respect to the Body because the Body is then best refreshed and our Vigour repaired which is lessened and spent with the business of the day Our Memories quickest Senses readiest natural Faculties most acute And partly with respect to the Mind our Morning thoughts are our Virgin thoughts more pure sublime and defecate usually free from Worldly Cares which would distract us in prayer and will more incroach upon us by our Worldly business and the baser Objects which the necessity of our life ingages us to converse with and be imployed about Certainly the best time should be taken up about the best business not in recreations to be sure for this is to knit pleasure to pleasure and to wear away the sithe in whetting not in working They are brutish Epicures that rise up from sleep not to service but to their sensual Delights and Vanities as the Scripture brandeth them that eat in the Morning not for strength but Excess Eccl. 10. 16 17. The Morning is the fittest time for business now what business should we do but the most weighty and that which requireth the greatest heedfulness of Soul which is our communion with God 4. Consider 'T is profitable to begin the day with God and to season the heart with some gracious exercise as David Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee It sanctifieth all our other business as the offering the first fruits did sanctifie the whole lump and to whom should the first fruits of our Reason and Sense restored be consecrated but to him that gave us all and is the Author and preserver of them When the World gets the start of Religion it can hardly overtake it all the day the first thoughts leave a powerful Impression upon it Mich. 2. 1. They devise evil upon their beds and when the morning is come they practise it With carnal men sin beginneth in the morning stayeth in the Heart all day playeth in the fancy all night but if you begin with God in the Morning you take God along with you all the day to your business and imployment 5. This will be some recompence for the time lost in sleeping half our lives are consumed in it our time is parted between work and sleep 'T is the misery and necessity we are subject unto whilest we are in the body that so much of our time should be spent without doing any thing for God or shewing any act of Love and thankfulness to him None of the other Creatures ever stand still but are alwayes executing and accomplishing the end for which they were made And in heaven the blessed Spirits are alwaies beholding the face of God and Lauding and Blessing his Name and need not those intermissions which we bodily Creatures do Now though this be our Necessity and so no sin to need the refreshings of sleep yet because so much of our time is lost by way of recompence the least that we should do is to take the next season and if health and bodily constitution will permit to prevent the dawning of the Morning and to be as early with God as we can All the time we can well spare should be given to God do but consider since thou wentest to bed the Sun hath Travailed many thousand miles to give thee light this Morning and therefore what a shame it is that the Sun being continually in so swift motion should return and find him turning and tossing in his Bed like a door upon the hinges Prov. 20. 14. after Nature is satisfied with sleep And that we should not rise and own Gods Mercy in the Rest of the Night and sanctifie the Labours of the day by some serious address to him This Meditation is enforced by Augustine Indecus est Christiano si radius solis eum inveniat in lecto posset enim dicere sol si potestatem loquendi haberet amplius laboravi heri quam tu tamen cum jam surrexerim tu adhuc dormis So Ambrose on this Text Grave est si te otiosum radius solis orientis in verecundo pudore conveniat lux clara inveniat occulos somnolento adhuc corpore depressos III. 'T was a Vehement and Earnest Prayer for saith David I cryed Observe Doctrine 'T was earnest though private and 't was earnest though he could get no satisfactory Answer 1. Earnest though Private in all our Addresses to God we must be serious whether men see or hear or no God seeth and heareth An Hypocrite hath a great flash of gifts in Company but is streight when alone but Gods Children are most earnest in private when they do more particularly open their hearts to God without taking in the necessities of others Christ when he was withdrawn from his Disciples then he prayed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more earnestly Luk. 22. 44. Iacob sent away his Company to deal with God in good earnest and then wrestled with him ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet Peter went out and wept bitterly so a Christian trieth it out between God and him when he hath a mind to plead for his own Soul or for the Church therefore hath no outward reason to move him but Conscience and spiritual Affection The Pharisees would pray in the Synagogues and corners of the streets but Christ saith go into thy closet and shut the door and pray to thy father in secret Matth. 6. 7. This is the love and confidence we express to our Father in secret A man may put forth himself with great Warmth and Vigour before others that is slight and careless in secret Addresses to God In these secret intercourses we most taste our spirits and discern the pure workings of Affection towards God A Woman that only bemoaneth the loss of her Husband in Company but banisheth all thoughts of him when alone might justly be suspected to act a Tragical part and to pretend sorrow rather than feel it Some will pray in secret but customarily utter a few cold words but David saith I cried Remember there is one seeth in secret as Christ saith I am not alone Iohn 16. 32. And Mal. 1. 14. He is a God of
respect to the end now if they do not make the Everlasting injoyment of God their end the Scriptures are of little use to them a trouble rather than a comfort because they disturb them in pursuing their lusts but a man that would injoy God get to his Holy Hill is apprehensive of the benefit 2. They are not affected with their wants and therefore esteem not the Word For the great benefit of the Word is to teach us a remedy for sin and misery now they that mind not the misery and danger in which they stand go on carelesly and despise the Word of God Prov. 22. 3. A prudent man forseeth the Evil and hideth himself but the simple passe on and are punished They little think of the evil which is near them and so slight the Counsel of God Secondly Those that will not believe them that find sweetness in it as if all were phantastical and imaginary Are the wisest and most serious part of mankind deceived And hath the carnal fool only the wit to discern the mistake Surely in all reason it should be otherwise These tell us of those delights and transports of soul in meditating on the Promises in purifying their Hearts by the Precepts and though a stranger intermedleth not with their Joyes yet surely these find them All that is spiritual and supernatural is suspected by those who are drowned in matters of sense Iohn 12. 29. A voice from Heaven is Thunder the motions of the Spirit fumes of Wine Acts 3. 13. Joy in the Holy Ghost but a fancy c. Thirdly Them that count it an Alphabetary knowledge fit for beginners David was no Novice yet he rejoyced in the Word as one that found great spoil the more conversant he was in these Holy Writings the more he delighted in them No 'T is not only Childrens meat there is not only Milk there but strong Meat also Heb. 5. 14. 'T is our Rule to walk by till our blessedness be perfected The continual store-house of our comforts Rom. 15. 4. 'T is the continual means of growing into Communion with God in Christ. Use. II. To exhort us to delight in the Word of God 'T is the work and mark of a Blessed man Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he Meditate day and night As far as the necessities of the present life will bear it they are still getting more Knowledge of true Blessedness and the way that leadeth to the Injoyment of it This is their business and pleasing Study His work is to form his heart to a sincere uniform impartial obedience and as he doth increase in Godliness by the help of the Word his soul is more satisfyed all the joyes of the World to this are nothing to him Are your Hearts thus set to know the Lord and his revealed Will and the way of Life SERMON CLXXVII PSALM CXIX VER 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy law do I love IN this Verse the Man of God sheweth his Affection to the Word by the Hatred of those things which are contrary to the Word Observe here First Affection set against Affection Secondly Object against Object First Affection against Affection Hatred against Love Love and Hatred are natural Affections which are good or evil according to the Objects to which they are applyed Place Love on the World Sin and Vanity and nothing worse place Hatred on God Religion Holiness and it soon proveth an hellish thing But now set them upon their proper objects and they express a gracious Constitution of Soul let us hate Evil and love Good Amos 5. 15. and all is well Man needeth affections of Aversation as well as Choice and Pursuit Hatred hath its use as well as Love Love was made for God and things that belong to God and Hatred for Sin 't was put into us that at the first appearance sense or imagination of Evil we might retire our selves and fly from it and is any thing so evil as sin so contrary to God so baneful to the Soul The office of Love is to adhere and cleave to God and whatever will bring us to the injoyment of him and the office of hatred is that we may truly and sincerely turn from all evil with Detestation according to the nature and degree of evil that is in it The Emphasis of the Text is notable I hate and abhor it must be a thorough Hatred which David Psal. 139. 22. calleth a perfect hatred Secondly Here is Object set against Object As Love is opposed to Hatred so the Law to Lying for the Word of God is Truth and requireth truth of all that submit to it pure sincerity and simplicity Some render the word more generally the Sept. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I hate and abominate iniquity other Translations render it not so they expound it so that one kind is put for all the rest and fitly for every sin is a falsehood and often called in this Psalm a false way and a lye and will fail and beguile all them who are delighted with it and the purport and drift is that we should admit omit commit nothing which is contrary to the Word of God which is the great object of an holy mans Love The Points are three Doctrine I. They that love the word of God must hate sin Doctrine II. That a slight hatred of a sinful course is not enough but we must hate and abhor it Doctrine III. That among other sins we must hate falshood and lying and all kind of frauds and deceits For the first Point Doct. I. They that love the Word of God must hate sin This implyeth four things 1. That our Love must be demonstrated by such effects otherwise it is but pretended if we do not avoid what it forbiddeth for our love to God and his VVord is mostly seen in Obedience and dutiful Subjection to him and it for Gods Love is a Love of Bounty our Love is a Love of Duty he is said to love us when he blesseth us and bestoweth on us the effects of his special Grace and Favour we are said to love him when we obey him These Propositions are clear in Scripture That our love to God is tryed by our love to the VVord And our love to the VVord by our hatred of Sin Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And Verse 23. If any man love me he will keep my words On the contrary our Enmity to God and his VVord is determined by our love to Sin Enmity to God Col. 1. 21. Enemies in your minds by evil works To his VVord Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law neither indeed can be Habitual sin argueth a Malice or Hatred of God and his holy Law and actual Sin an actual Hatred 'T is finis operis if not operantis whether a man thinketh so or no 't is the intent of the
should his Mercy and Truth fulfilled Secondly To Frequency and Constancy therein Frequency in this Duty doth not beget a Satiety and Loathing but rather a greater delight to continue in it But here arise two Questions Quest. I. What Time must be necessarily spent in Acts of Worship and Adoration Prayer Praise and immediate Converse with God Answ. 1. 'T is a Truth that our whole time must be given to God for a Christian is a dedicated thing a living Sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. Now the Beast offered in Sacrifice with all the Appurtinances was Gods a Christian by the consent of his own Vows is not master of any thing After a Vow of all we must not keep back part as did Ananias and Saphira A Christian hath given his whole Self Time and Strength to God 2. Though our whole Time be given to God yet for several Uses and Purposes Gods Service is not of one sort and he is served in our Callings as well as in our Worship Man in Paradise was to dress the Garden Gen. 2. 15. as well as to Contemplate God Common actions may become Sacred by their End and Use. Isaiah 23. 18. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. 3. These several Duties must not interfere and clash one with another for Gods Commands are not contrary but subordinate We must not so attend upon Religion as to neglect the service of our Generation as Instruments of Gods Providence nor suffer the Lean Kine to devour the Fat the World to incroach upon Religion 4. The particular Seasons for each Duty are not determined and set down in Scripture 1. Partly Because God trusteth Love and will see whether we have a mind to Cavil and Wrangle and Dispute away Duties rather than Practise them 2. And Partly Because he would leave something to the Conduct of his Spirit and the Choice of Spiritual Wisdom Psal. 112. 5. A good man will guide his affairs with discretion 3. And Partly Because mens Occasions and conditions are different and he would not have his Law to be a snare 4. And Partly Because there are so many occasions to praise God that if we do not want an Heart we will be much and frequent in this Duty 5. Though there be not express Rules there is enough to prevent Carelesness and Loosness God calleth to us in very large and Comprehensive terms always continually and in every thing The Example of the Saints who Night and Day were praising God Paul and Silas at midnight sang praises to God Acts 16. 29. So Psal. 119. 62. At midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee because of thy righteous Iudgments And in the Text seven times a day Besides there are daily solemn services Personal and Domestick to be performed Matth. 6. 11. Watching dayly at my gates Prov. 8. 34. Morning and Evening they were to offer a Lamb Numb 28. 4. 6. There are general hints and limits enough to become love Psalm 71. 14. But I will hope continually and will praise thee yet more and more Enough to keep the Heart in good plight and maintain Faith and Hope in God and keep up a spiritual entercourse of Communion with God by dayly offering up prayers and praises to him Quest. II. Whether it be Convenient to state and fix a time David had his set times so had Daniel and surely all Occasions Opportunities and Abilities considered it may be an help to us and make the spiritual Life more orderly to have set stated fixed times for the performance of this Duty Thirdly To suit Gods Word and Works together Laws and Judgments Rom. 1. 18. God hath revealed his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness Heb. 2. 2. Every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompense of reward Deliverances and Promises fetch all out of the Covenant Psal. 128. 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion that relateth to the Covenant made to the Church This cheeketh Atheisme sweetneth our Duties allayeth our Fears and resolveth our doubts and helpeth us in the delightful exercise of praising God SERMON CLXXIX PSALM CXIX VER 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them ALL that live in this World find this life a Warfar Iob 7. 1. Much more must the godly expect difficulties and conflicts Psal. 34. 19. Many are the troubles of the Righteous to the eye of Flesh no Condition seemeth worse and more obnoxious to misery then the Condition of those that serve God yet in reality none are in a better Estate what ever happeneth they are at Peace built on the corner-stone which God hath layed in Zion and therefore in all the Commotions and Troubles of the World they are safe This is that which David here observeth In the former verse he had told us that it was his custom to praise God seven times a day for his righteous judgments and now he sheweth the reason namely from the ordinary course and tenour of these Judgments or dispensation of his Providence which was to give peace to them that keep his Law Great peace c. In these Words you have I. A priviledge great peace have they II. The Qualification that love thy Law III. The Effect nothing shall offend them Let me open these Branches the Priviledge is peace and that is threefold First External Secondly Internal Thirdly And Eternal First External in the House the City or Countrey and Societies where we Live in this sence 't is taken Psalm 122. 6 7. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee peace be within thy walls Now this is not all that is meant here for this is a common benefit though often vouchsafed for the sake of them that love God as Musick cannot be heard alone though intended but to one person yet others share with him in the benefit of it Or if you understand it of his own personal peace or being at amity with men they do not always enjoy that Gods best Children are often forced to be men of Contention that is passively they are contended with and troubled in the world Ier. 15. 10. And therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all men 'T is not always to be had but we should indeavour to live in peace with all men Secondly There is Internal peace arising either from Justification Rom. 5. 1 or Sanctification Isa. 32. 17. The Fruit of Righteousness is peace or from Contentment with our condition Phil. 4. 7. By Justification we have peace when God is reconciled and made a Friend By Sanctification we have peace when we walk evenly with God And by Contentment we have peace when our Affections are calmed and rightly ordered or set upon more worthy and noble objects So that we are not troubled at the loss of outward things these are the ingredients necessary to internal peace which is I suppose principally
by Land a stone of stumbling to those that travel by Sea a Rock of offence his slender appearance was an offence to them As to his sufferings 't is said 1 Cor. 1. 23. That Christ Crucified is to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness They had not a Messiah to their mind though such an one as the Scriptures had before described His Doctrine Matth. 15. 12. His Disciples said to him knowest thou not that the Pharisies were offended when they heard his saying Again Iohn 6. 61. When they murmured at his saying except ye eat my Flesh doth this offend you Flesh and Blood are apt to stumble in Gods plainest ways at the Doctrine of God which is strict and spiritual the Worship of God that is simple and without pomp the Dispensations of God in chastising and afflicting his People they are all an offence to carnal and worldly men And so through their sin prove an impediment to the success of the Gospel but this offence is causless and without any just ground and without special Grace when it prevaileth with men will prove their eternal ruine and destruction God never intended to satisfie mens lusts and humours truth must be taught who ever be displeased therefore all our care must be to avoid this kind of offence Matth. 12. 6. Blessed is he that is not offended in me that doth not stumble at Christ because of the Cross nor the holiness of his Doctrine nor the simplicity of his worship nor the despicableness of his followers nor the troubles that attend his service 2. Offence may be given where none is taken as when men Counsel others to Evil or reproach the Holy ways of God as when Peter disswaded Christ from suffering Matth. 16. 23. Get thee behind me Satan for thou art ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an offence to me 't was scandalum in se though not ratione eventus not that Christ was offended by it when the heart is guarded against evil Counsel or the infection of evil example So for reproaches they are a means of betraying the soul into sin and prejudicing it against Godliness but the Godly are well Fortified they can see loveliness in such ways as are hated and discountenanced in the World As David Psal. 119. 127. They have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold above fine Gold And Moses Heb. 11. 26. Esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then the Treasures of Aegypt They are no more moved at the Worlds scorn then a man that is streight and upright would be at the mocks of Cripples because he doth not limp and walk after their fashion they can see honour in disgrace and beauty in Gods despised wayes 3. Offences also may be both given and taken as when one provoketh and another is provoked to evil inticed by false doctrine corrupt Counsel or evil example False doctrine Matth. 15. 14. The blind lead the blind and both fall into the Ditch Not one but both the blind follower as well as the blind guide or by corrupt Counsel as Ahab was seduced by the False Prophets 1 Kings 22. and Amnon by his Friend Ionadab was drawn to incest 2 Sam. 13. 6. he as readily obeyeth the others wicked Counsel as he was to give it So for evil example it secretly tainteth us the Prophet complaineth Isaiah 6. 5. I am a man of polluted lips and I dwell among people of polluted lips 'T is hard to avoid the contagion of their iniquities with whom we do dayly and familiarly converse as to live in an infected Air without taint or to walk in the Sun and not be insensibly tanned We leaven one another by our coldness and deadness in Religion 't is hard to be fresh in salt Waters to live among offences and not be offended Secondly With respect to the object or matter of it a scandal may be given dicto aut facto 1. In Word 2. In Deed. 1 In Word by evil Counsel or carnal suggestion Psal. 1. 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the Counsel of the ungodly As carnal Friends and Parents that relish not the Word of Life themselves out of prejudice against godliness and holy zeal disswade their Children and Servants from attending on the exercises of Religion as Praying Hearing Meditation lest they grow mopish and Melancholy and lest a zealous minding Gods interest should hinder their preferment had rather see them lewd then holy but Luke 14. 26. If any man come to me and hate not Father and Mother c. Or by Atheistical or obscoene and carnal discourse 1 Cor. 15. 53. Evil Communications corrupt good manners Eph. 5. 4. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient 2. In Deed and so three ways 1. When they do things that are simply unlawful and so propagate their sin to others by their example Prov. 22. 24 Make no Friendship with an angry man and with a furious man shalt thou not go lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. The violences and furious passions of Anger are so uncomly that a man would think they should rather affright then allure to imitation but these things unsensibly overcome us and e're a man is aware a man is tainted 2. By the abuse of Christian Liberty to the wrong and hinderance of others in a way of godliness As Rom. 14. 13 14 15. Let no Man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way I know and am perswaded by the Lord Iesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean but if thy brother be greived with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed 1 Cor. 8. 9 10. But take keed lest by any means this Liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak We must not commit a sin or omit a duty to avoid offence yet in indifferent things we may expect from others what is lawful to do and forbear it as conduceth to edification For we must have a care of offending little ones and therefore must drive according to their pace using our Liberty as they are able bear 3. By Persecution enforce others against their duty Matth. 18. 6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe on me it were better a Milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the Sea Better he did suffer all extremity Offending is persecuting as receiving is countenancing cherishing treating them kindly and tenderly So Mattth 13. 21. When persecution ariseth by reason of the Word by and by they are offended Matth. 24. 9. 10. This opposing hating vexing the people of God is one way of offence and very dangerous to those that practise it how ever it succeedeth For though they be little ones little in their own eyes little in the esteem of
Persecution do expugne or assault Gods love to us but not our love to God For this maketh us cleave to him whatever Temptations we have to the Contrary Do but consider what you are to love 1. We are to love God there it beginneth love God once and then you will take nothing ill at his hands how smart soever his chastenings be they come from a God that loveth you and whom your Souls love Rev. 3. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Now they will not stumble at Gods dispensations be they never so cross to their expectations and desires But then 2. We must love the Law of God be satisfied with our Duty whatever cometh of it Next to a sincere love to God there must be a sincere love to his holy Law as the right way to eternal blessedness and then Temptations will have but little force upon us for they do not love their Duty for forreign Reasons but for its own sake So that whether it be befriended and countenanced in the World or hated and despised 't is all one they love the Law upon its own Evidence as it is recommended by God and is a sure direction to true happiness Iob. 17. 9. The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger He meaneth notwithstanding all the Troubles and assaults which he endureth they are not scandalized at Gods dealings or permitting them to be thus dealt with but doth persevere in a course of Godliness this is the way wherein he delighteth 3. He loves the Brethren 1 Ioh. 2. 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him They together with us uphold Christs Interest in the World the Coals by lying together inkindle one another and so are the better kept from having their Zeal quenched or being insnared by the manifold Temptations in the World 4. By this love the love of the World and its prosperity is much abated 1 Ioh. 2. 15. Love not the world nor the things which are in the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him This man cannot part with all when his Duty calleth for it Till we despise Worldly things we are still liable to take offence All our disquiet cometh from too great love of the World and too little love of the Word of God all this is spoken to shew you that 't is want of love wherefore men are so easily taken off and this love beginneth with the love of God then goeth on to his Word and the Obedience it calleth for and is strengthened by our love to the Saints and is an higher love than that it can be controuled by the love of the World Secondly This blessed peace hath an influence upon it upon a twofold account 1. This is an experience of the good of that way which the World speaketh evil of you cannot perswade a man against his Experience that honey is bitter when he has tasted the sweetness of it 1 Pet. 2. 3. They know the Grace of God in Truth they have found much comfort and peace in these ways Most men know Religion and Godliness but by hear-say or looking on the Testimony of Christ was never confirmed in them but these have tryed it and know the good of Religion by Experience therefore they cannot be so easily offended as others are who have only licked the Glass but never tasted the honey The pleasure they find in the Duties and Exercises of Godliness will with them infinitely out-weigh all the transient Delights and Advantages that are propounded or offer themselves as the bait to any unlawful practice 2. The particular nature of this Experience it is Peace which doth guard heart and mind Phil. 4. 7. that they are not disturbed or distracted by any thing that befalleth them but enjoy a Calm in their Souls whatever storms overtake them or befal them in the way of their Duty Eph. 6. 15. Having our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace This is the Gospel shoe there is no going to heaven without it and this is peace that is peace with God when all is quiet within and the quarrel is taken up between God and us we can the better bear the frowns of the World and he calleth it the Gospel of Peace because it mainly dependeth on the Terms of Grace revealed to us in the Gospel the law discovereth the enmity and the breach but the Gospel discovereth how peace may be had He calleth it also the preparation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because this peace breedeth a firm and ready resolution to go through all difficulties crosses and hardships Acts 21. 13. I am ready not only to be bound but to die at Ierusalem Well then this is the fruit of Peace and Friendship between God and sinners it breedeth a resolution to hold on our way to heaven notwithstanding crosses and continual hardships and allayeth the bitterness of all Worldly Trouble Thirdly There is Gods Providence and Care over them who is concerned in the Protection of all that love his law and take care to love and please him On the one side God sometimes threatneth the wicked that he will lay stumbling-blocks before them Ier. 6. 21. that is bring those things upon them that shall be a means of ruine to them On the other side Ier. 31. 9. that he will lead the penitent believer in a strait way that they shall not stumble we must not omit Gods Concurrence for it is his Promise that nothing shall offend them His People are very near and dear to him Our Lord telleth us in his discourse against offending them that their Angels do always behold the face of his father which is in heaven Matth. 18. 10. that is though the Angels be appointed to be their Guardians on Earth yet they have their continual returns and recourse to Gods glorious presence to make Requests or Complaints in their behalf or to receive Commands concerning them for as God seeth fit they are imployed in service for the benefit of those little ones I remember Solomon saith Prov. 12. 21. There shall no evil happen to the just but the wicked shall be filled with mischief We can easily understand that the wicked shall be overwhelmed with Gods judgments but how shall no Evil happen to the Righteous since their Troubles are many The meaning of the place is as Augustine well glosseth non ut non eveniant sed ut non noceant they do not stumble at Afflictions nor are they deserted by God as others are God moderateth the Evil 1 Cor. 10. 13. or removeth it Psal. 125. 3. or turneth it to good Rom. 8. 28. Now by this gracious dealing of God it cometh to pass that nothing doth offend them those that depend on the favour of Men and the uncertainties of a worldly condition how many Troubles are they exposed unto Therefore
break from us that is unseemly Secondly We come to the Reason For all thy Commandments are Righteousness The Doctrine is Doctrine There is Righteousness nothing but Righteousness all Righteousness to be found in the Word of God 1. There is a perfect Uprightness in all Gods Promises They are sure Principles of Trust and Dependance upon God Psal. 18. 30. The word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all those that trust in him He is most Just and Faithful and his Promises without all deceit or possibility of failing and will certainly protect all those that rely and depend upon him 2. As to his Precepts nothing is approved in them or recommended to us but what is Holy Just and Good There is no Vertue which it Commendeth not no Duty which it Commandeth not no Vice which is not Condemned therein nor Sin which is not Forbidden I shall prove the Doctrine by three things I. By the sufficient Provision that is made for mans Duty in a Moral Consideration there are but three Beings God Neighbours and Self Pauls three Adverbs are suited to these Tit. 2. 12. Soberly Righteously Godly 1. For Self-Government or living Soberly in the present World nothing conduceth to that more than Gods Precepts the whole drift of his Word is to check Self-pleasing and Sense-pleasing and to condemn all excess of Meat Drink or Apparel left our Hearts be besotted and overcharged and by indulging Sensuality diverted from spiritual and heavenly things 2. For Carriage to our Neighbour What Religion provideth so amply as the Word of God doth against all fraud and Violence requireth us in all things to do as as we would be done by yea it not only inforceth Justice but Charity and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to account his welfare our own and rejoyce in his good and mourn for his evil as for our own 3. For the third Godliness God is no where represented and discovered so much as in his Word nor a way of Commerce between him and us any where else so clearly Established nor what kind of Worship we should give unto him both for Matter and Manner In short the Scripture is written to teach us how to love him and entertain Communion with him and to serve him in Holiness and Righteousness all our dayes and maketh our daily Converse with God in Holiness our great work and business II. It appeareth by the Connaturallity and Suitableness which they have to the best and holiest Psal. 119. 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it 'T is written in our hearts as well as in Gods Book and there is some thing in the one akin to the other Heb. 8. 10. I will write my law in their hearts and minds On the contrary so far a man is depraved so far he hateth it Rom. 8. 7. yea the more he feareth it Ioh 3. 20 21. He that dothevil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved III. The Event sheweth it for the more the Word of God is preached the more is Righteousness spread in the World and men grow wiser and better Banish the Word of God or discourage the Preachers of it and there followeth nothing but Confusion of Manners and Corruption in Religion The Word then is the only means of Reforming the World and curing the Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men Where either the Word hath not been received as among the Pagans or where it hath been restrained as in Popery Scriptures locked up in an unknown Tongue or where neglected or sleepily urged as in Churches that have left their first Love there is a greater overflow of Wickedness Their Ignorance hath caused a great part of them to degenerate into a more sensual sottish sort of People Quest. But are not People very bad that have the Scriptures do not we our selves complain of a flood of Wickedness Answ. 1. Christianity must not be judged by the rabble of Nominal Litteral Christians no more than we will judge of the cleanness of a Street by the soulness of a Sink or Kennel or of the sound Grapes in the Bunch by the rotten ones or of the Fidelity of Subjects by the Rebellion of Traytors or the honesty and justice of a Nation by a crew of Thieves and Robbers nor of the Civility of a Nation by the Rusticity of Plowmen or Carters Those who are serious in their Religion are the best men and of the choicest and most excellent Spirits in the World the scandals and wickedness of others do not Impeach their Rule 2. The strictly Religious must not be judged by the Revellings of the Carnal who are their Enemies Ignorant and ungodly men will blast them 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you who shall give account to him that is ready to Iudge the quick and the dead 3. Neither is the State of Religion to be judged by the Complaints of Friends hating the least evil ashamed of mens unthankfulness Light maketh it odious as bad as we are 'T is worse where the Word is not Preached in a lively manner Use. I. Let us approve of those things which God hath bound us to believe and practice they being all suitable to the Nature of God and Man The first ground of Obedience is Consent and Approbation I consent to the law that it is good Rom. 7. 16. So to the Gospel 'T is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. II. Let us answer this Word let the of the Spirit fruit be in us all Righteousness Goodness and Truth The Stamp is answerable to the Seal this is the genuine result of the Doctrine we Profess SERM. CLXXXVI PSALM CXIX VER 173. Let thine hand help me for I have chosen thy Precepts THE two first Verses shew the drift of this Portion He begs two benefits Instruction and Deliverance His first Request for Instruction is enforced by a Promise of Praise Ver. 171. My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy Statutes In Ver. 172. Of Conferrence or holy Discourse whereby others may be edified My mouth shall speak of thy Word Now he comes to enforce the second Request for Deliverance by an Argument of his ready Obedience Let thy hand help me for I have chosen thy Precepts Observe here First The Petition Let thine hand help me Secondly The Argument or Reason to enforce it for I have chosen thy Precepts First For the Petition Let thy hand help me Hand is put for Power let thy Power Preserve me and Defend me and Help is sometimes put for Assistance and sometimes for Deliverance God may be said to help us when he doth assist us and support us in Troubles or when he doth deliver us from Troubles This latter acceptation suits with this place and it is equivalent with what he said before Ver. 170. Let my
was not hearty and durable but only formal and Temporary 2 Because they take all occasions to inlarge themselves out of the stocks of Conscience and as soon as their fear is worn off away go all their Religious Pangs and thoughts of the other World and care about it How often is this verisied by daily Experience Many that were frightned into a course of Religion went on from Duty to Duty out of a Fear of being Damned but their Hearts were another way but afterwards they cast off all when they have sinned away these Fears As Herod feared Iohn and afterwards put him to death Mark 6. 19 20. Yea all the while they did good they had rather do otherwise if they durst and therefore did but watch the occasion to fly out 3 Because men of this frame dispute away Duties rather than practice them and are quarrelling at those things which the new Nature would sufficiently incline them unto if they had it In the New Testament God much trusts Love and the number and length of Duties is not stated so exactly because where the Love of God prevaileth in the Heart men will take all occasions of glorifying God and edifying themselves But when men quarrel How do you prove it to be my Duty to do so much and to give so much when the Duty its self is instituted Love will make God a reasonable allowance and not stand questioning how do you prove it to be my Duty to pray so often in my Family or in secret or hear so many Sermons which our constant necessities do loudly call for Men that have a love to a thing will take all occasions to enjoy it or be conversant about it and a willing heart is liberal and open to God and is rather disputing the restraint than the Command how do you prove it is not my Duty and is loth to be kept back from its delight 3. Some do good out of Craft and Design there is some By-end is the cause as Iehu was not so much Zealous for God as his own Interests 2 King 10. 16. And our Lord telleth us of some that make long Prayers to devour Widows Houses Matth. 23. 14. made Piety a colour and pretext to Oppression and that they might be trusted took as a shew of great Devotion And of this strain were those that followed Christ for the Loaves Ioh. 6. 20. To be fed with a Miracle and to live a life of sloth and ease God never set any good thing afoot but some temporal Interest grew upon it with which men were swayed more than with what belongeth to God Use. II. Is to perswade you to choose Gods Precepts I have chosen thy Precepts said the man of God To this end I shall give you both Motives and Directions Motives why you should choose them and then Directions in what manner things are to be attended upon in your choice First For the Motives 1. Choose them because they are Gods to whom you are indebted for Life Being and all things Shall we not obey him that made us and in whom still we live move and have our being We are debtors to him for all that we have and truly we cannot have a better Master He was angry with his People that when the Beasts would own their Benefactors that his People would not own him from whom they had all things Isa. 1. 3. The Brute-beasts the dullest of them the Oxe and the Ass are willing to serve those that feed them and pay a kind of gratitude and shall not we own God Every day your health strength and comforts come out of his hands so every nights Rest and Ease and after this can you sin against God that keeps you by Night and by day 2. These Precepts are all holy just and good What is it the Lord requires of you but to love him and serve him and fear him and forbear those things which hurt the Soul thus he speaks to Israel Deut. 10. 12. Surely these commands are not unreasonable nor grevious You dare not say sin is better that it is more profitable to please the flesh and to wallow in and seek after worldly things O why then dost thou not choose Gods Precepts before the work which Satan would put thee upon for these Precepts commend themselves by their own Evidence 3. In keeping them there 's a great deal of benefit 1. For the present there 's a deal of Comfort and Peace to be be found in the ways of God If there were no reward of Heaven yet there 's such comfort and peace that attends holy living even as heat from the fire that certainly this should draw our choice All her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3. 17. And again the Prophet tells you the fruit of righteousness is peace A man that doth evil hath a sting in his Conscience and a wound in his own Soul But every good action is followed with a Serenity of Mind and an approbation from the heart of him thar doth it Nay you shall not only have Peace but Joy in the Holy Ghost for if you walk in the fear of God you walk in the comforts of his Spirit Acts 9. 31. And the Kingdom of God stands in Righteousness and Peace ay and a distinct Priviledge Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. What 's the difference between Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Peace is a Tranquility of mind resulting from the rectitude of our actions but this joy is an impression of the comforting Spirit This Joy it hath God for its Author he puts it into our hearts therefore it will more affect us then the bare Act of our natural faculties Peace it is an acquittance from Conscience but Joy in the Holy Ghost it is and Acquittance from God who is our Supream Judge and is the beginning of that endless joy which he hath prepared for them that love him in Heaven 2. For the future and final reward that is great and glorious indeed Surely the Glory of the Everlasting Kingdom should invite us to choose Gods Precepts whatever it may cost us to keep them for in choosing Holiness you choose Life and in choosing the ways of God you choose the heavenly inheritance which is the certain end and issue of them So Prov. 8. 35 36. Whoso findeth me findeth Life and obtaineth favour of the Lord But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul all they that hate me love death Christians when you are about choosing these are the terms propounded to you and they should be seriously weighed by us Evil and Death Good and Life will you choose Sin and Death or Holiness and Life Is the Pleasures of the Flesh for a few hours better then the endless Joy of the Saints If you believe Heaven and hell as you profess to do why should you stand demurring are you content to be thrust out from the presence of the Lord with the Devil and his Angels into unquenchable
1. Draws the heart from earth to heaven 2. Enlivens the heart in duty 3. Engages the heart against sin p. 787. 1037. Grounded on Gods word p. 927 Hope puts the soul upon diligence in prayer p. 927 1040 Humble carriage becomes us when we have most mercy p. 840 Humbling considerations under mercy p. 840 Humiliation caused by the consideration of the multititude of vain thoughts p. 761 Humiliation under Gods hand gives ground of hope p. 158 Humility caused by the fear of Gods judgments p. 811 Hypocrite appears best when he 's taken in pieces the sincere Christian when he 's taken all together p. 5 Hypocrites zealous about lesser slighty in great matters p. 33 Hypocrites discover'd by scandals p. 1032 Hypocrisie to serve God with the body not soul p. 1045 Hypocrisie to go from sin to sin from duty to sin from sin to duty c. p. 35 Hypocrisie to let God carry the name of our praises when we sacrifice to our selves p. 43. To be speaking of good things without hearts affected with their goodness p. 76. 89. Hypocrisie hateful to God p. 799 I. Idle words weigh heavy in Gods ballance p. 39 None of Gods servants must be idle p. 850 Idle discourses sinful p. 1065 1066 Iealous God exceeding jealous in matters of Worship p. 39. 852 Iewels Gods jewels are the worlds filth p. 141 Illumination by the word p. 629 Illumination of God necessary to a right understanding of Gods word p. 107. 853. A great mercy why p. 1057. A double work of God in Illumination p. 107 Several Uses of Divine Illumination p. 109 110. 852. 235 236. Worth of it in four things p 1059 1060 Imitation of God in his goodness p. 476 Immortality of the soul p. 890 Immoderate sorrow checked from the consideration of Gods justice and faithfulness in afflicting p 510 511 Immutability of Gods word emblems of it and reasons of it p. 574 890 A ground of comfort to Gods people p. 958 A reason of the immutability of our obedience p. 341 Impartiality of God in punishing and rewarding p 39 40. 810 Impatience in waiting for returns of prayer argues 1. Disobedience 2. Weak faith 3. Want of love 4. Want of patience p. 913 Impatience under delays whence p. 550. 913 From an opinion of our own merit p. 937 Impatience makes afflictions sharp and tedious p. 555 It is fed from a double spring p. 967 It causeth fainting under afflictions p 592 Importunity in prayer has great effects p. 911 Impotency of the Creature takes not away Gods right p. 28 Commands of God convince us of our impotency p. 29 We can do evil not good by our own power p. 247 Improvement of afflictions p. 557. By the word p. 592 Imprinting the word on the soul how discovered p. 890 Impudence to sin and not be ashamed p. 37 Inability to return and proneness to err the characters of fallen man p. 1101 Inclination to present things undoeth us p. 337 Inclination of the heart to Gods statutes what it is not what it is p. 752 753. 247 1. Negatively 1. It is not a simple approbation of the word 2. Nor a bare desire or wish 3. Nor a hypocritical will to the word 2. Affirmatively 1. It is a determination of the judgment for God 2. The will powerfully swayed to the word 3. Seconded with endeavours after new obedience p. 752 753 Inclination of the heart either from the world or to Gods testimonies is of the Lords grace p. 248 249 How God inclines the heart and how man p. 251 252 Indifferency in Religion reproved p. 206 Indirect means not to be used for relief p. 555 Indisposition of soul a Case whether we are to set upon duty under indispositions and deadness of soul resolved in eight Propositions p. 160 161 Indwelling of sin p. 18 19 Infinitely good God alone is so p. 384 Influence of Gods grace is not the warrant but the help of the soul in duties p. 160 We need continual influences of grace p. 979 Infirmities great sins may be but infirmities and smaller sins may be damnable transgressions how p. 19. 1107. Christ bears our infirmities p. 1107 How to distinguish between sins of infirmity and willful breaches of our Covenant p. 703 836 Infirmities unavoidable by the best p. 1102 They are to be watched against and repented of p. 1107 Ingenuous and open dealing with God procures audience p. 166 Ingratitude not to repent how that is p. 409 Inheritance of believers full sure lasting p. 744 745 Vid. Heritage Iniquity what it is to do iniquity who are they that do iniquity in God account p. 17 18 Iniquity comes to its height 1. when general 2. impudent 3. incorrigible 4. against nature c. p. 858 859 Injudiciousness either total or partial p 452 Injustice to God not to turn to him Now p. 409 Innocency gives holy boldness in prayer p. 36 136. 523 Innocency till it be lost a Christiââ¦n is not overcome p. 416 Innocency may be pleaded against men not God p 8ââ¦3 Innocent persons may be sore oppressed c. p 818 Inordinate desires of having more wealth than the Lord allows in a fair way of Providence is a main branch of covetousness p. 254 It is a natural evil the effects of it p. 257 258 259 Instruments of troubles too much eyed provoke God to anger p. 414 Whoever is the instrument God is the principal in all our afflictions p. 158 Insulting enemies not to be insulted over when Gods judgments fall upon them p. 810 Insulting over others in affliction reproved p. 812 Integrity and sincerity the whole heart p. 15 Integrity of parts p. 59 Inticements to sin what use may be made of them p. 738 Intimacy with few friendship with all that are godly p. 434 It must be improved for edification p. 434 Interest of God in the world lyes 1. In his Truth 2. His Worship 3. His Servants p. 851 852 Interest of God oftentimes stands alone yet God can carry it on though all the world be against it p. 143 Interest of God must be uppermost in the soul in prayer p. 903 Interest of a Christian is to keep in with God p. 152. 645 Interest in ââ¦d necessary that he be our portion p. 384 Interest in ãâã hearts of Gods people a rare mercy p. 504 Iourney to Heaven bespeaks provision against all weather Intermission of duty loseth ground p. 340 Interposition of God lawful to be desired in dangers Reasons p. 821 822 Only so far as may be for our good p. 823 Ioy of heart arising from a believers heritage 1. From the portion it self 2. From the disposition of a believers heart 3. From the dispensation of God p. 749 750. It is communicative p. 50 Ioy in Gods word must be mixt with reverence p. 100 Ioy in Gods word is 1. real 2. cordial 3. great 4. pure 5. it ends well 6. perverts not the heart 7. Overcomes sense of affliction p. 149 150 It 's
When you fall off after a tast of the sweetness and practice of godliness your condition is worse than if you had never begun There are two dreadful Scriptures which speak of the condition of total Apostates after some tast and after they have had some savour of holy things and some delight in the ways of God One is Heb. 6. 4 5 6. For it is impossible c. Christians after they have had some tast and some enlightning and made a savoury profession of godliness afterwards they split themselves some fall forward to errors and preposterous zeal others fall backward by an unfaithful heart one breaks his face the other breaks his neck as old Eli. But a little to clear that place Certainly all of us should stand in fear of this heavy judgment of being given up to perish by our apostasie to an obstinate heart never to reconcile our selves by repentance even the children of God for he proposeth it to them supposeth they are made partakers of the heavenly calling The Apostle doth not speak there of every sin against knowledg but of apostasie from the faith of Christ and not of apostasie of general professors that lightly come and lightly go as the loose sort of Christians here among us but specially of those that had a tast savoury experience of the sweetness of Gods ways Again he doth not speak of apostasie for a fit in some great temptation of fear but of deliberate apostasie of those that were enlightned feeling tasting so as to make some strict profession afterward turn off lose all turn Atheists Antiscripturists Formalists renouncing Christ and the World to come in the hope of which they seemed before to be carried out with a great deal of delight and strength and affection The Apostle saith it is impossible they should be saved because it is impossible they should repent This is a fearful state and yet as fearful as it is it is not unusual it is a thing we see often in some that have made a savoury profession of the name of God and afterwards have been blasted either given up to an injudicious mind or to vile affections and are fallen off and it 's impossible to renew them again unto repentance O then you that have begun and have had a tast of the ways of God and begun to walk closely with him you should lay this to heart Therefore this is propounded to believers that they should keep at a very great distance from such a judgment lest we grow to such an impenitent state as to be given up to a reprobate mind and vile affections The other place is 2 Pet. 2. 21 22. It had been better for them not to have known c. Mark there are some that through the knowledg of Christ may upon some general assent to Gospel truths take up a strict profession of the name of Christ may escape the pollution of the world that is outward and gross sins being enrolled among God's children and have the priviledges of the members of his Church and yet after this may fall off dreadfully it were far better for such never to have been acquainted with God and Christ than to return to their old bondage A sin after knowledg and profession of the right way is greater than a sin of bare ignorance therefore their condition is far more deplorable than the condition of other sinners for no men sin with such malice as they do they have had greater conviction than others not only external representations of the doctrine of Christ but some tast and have made some closure with it in their own souls they are more given over by God than others and so there are none persecute and hate profession and strictness so much as they that are fallen from it and they are more oppressed and intangled by Satan as the Jaylor that hath recovered the prisoner which ran from him loads him with irons Therefore we had need betimes look to it and continue and persevere in the practice of the ways of God which we have owned and taken up upon experience USE 1. Get grace then look after perseverance Evil men must get grace and God's children their business is to persevere in that state to which they have attained But what should we do to persevere First Be fortified against what may shake you from without beware of being led away by offences and scandals Three things are wont to give offence and exceedingly shake the faith of some viz. Errors Persecutions Scandals 1. Errors Be not troubled when differences fall out about the truths of God nor shaken in mind the winds of error are let loose upon the floor of the Church to sever the chaff from the solid grain 1 Cor. 11. 19. There must be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest Take heed of taking offence at errors I do not speak now of being led captive by error Many question the ways of God and give over all Religion because there are so many differences and sects therefore they think nothing certain Certainly God saw this discipline to be fittest for his people he hath told us there must be errors he would not have us take up Religion upon trust without the pains of study and prayer Lazy men would fain give Laws to Heaven and teach God how to govern the affairs of the world they would have all things clear and plain that there should be no doubt about it But the Lord in his wise Providence saw it fit to permit these things that they which are approved may be made manifest Men to excuse the trouble of search study and prayer would have all agreed else they take offence at Religion and think it to be but a fancy that is one means to draw them off even after some profession What the Canonists say grosly this was their blasphemy that God were not discreet and wise unless he had appointed one universal Test and one infallible Interpreter this is mens natural thoughts they would have such a thing The Iews say certainly Christ was not the true Messiah why because if he had he would not come in such a way as to leave any of his Countrey-men in doubt so many think Religion is but a fancy they fall off to Atheism and Scepticism at last and irresolution in Religion because there are so many Sects and Divisions and all upholding it with plausible pretences To excuse laziness we pretend want of certainty But God's word is plain to one that will do his will Iohn 7. 17. If we will use all the means God hath appointed and unfeignedly and with an unbiassed heart come to search out the mind of God 2. Persecutions they are an offence Matt. 11. 6. Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me When the people of God are exposed to great troubles when they are in the world they have but a mean outside what are these the Favourites of heaven it makes men take
it is for worldly ends they make a market of their devotion as the Sechemites would be Circumcised for then their substance and their Cattel will be ours USE 1. It informs us of the evil of Covetousness Most will stroke it with a gentle censure and say such an one is a good man but a little worldly as if it were no great matter to be so Nay they are apt to applaud those that are tainted with it Psal. 10. 3. He blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth He that getteth honour and riches by hook and crook is the only prudent and serious man in their account It is a foul sin though the men of the world will not believe it Surely we have too mild thoughts of it therefore do not watch and strive against it The Sensualist shames himself before others but covetousness is worse than Prodigality in many respects as being not occasioned by the distemper of the body as excess of drinking and lust is but by the depravation of the mind and when other sins decay this grows with them it is an incurable dropsie Luk. 12. 15. The words are doubled for the more vehemency Christ doth not only say Take heed but take heed and beware of covetousness Sins that are more gross and sensual are more easily discovered and a sinner sooner reclaimed but this is a secret sin that turns away the heart from God and is uncessantly working in the soul. Look as the Scripture tells you to make you careful against rash anger that it is murder 1 Joh. 3. 15. so to make you careful to avoid covetousness the Scripture tells you 'tis Idolatry and is that a small crime What to set up another God Who are you that dare to harbour so great an evil in your bosom and make no great matter of it Will you dethrone that God which made you and set up another in his stead How can you hope he will be good to you any longer when you offer him so vile an abuse It is Adultery 't is a breach of your conjugal vow You promised to renounce the world in your Baptism and gave up your selves to his service and will you cherish your whorish and disloyal affection that will carry you to the world in Gods stead We cannot think badly enough of such a sin USE 2. If Covetousness be the great lett and hindrance from keeping Gods Testimonies then let us examine our selves are we guilty of it Doting upon the Creature and an inordinate affection to sensible things is a natural an hereditary disease more general than we are aware of Ier. 6. 13. From the least to the greatest every one is given to covetousness It is a relique of Original sin and it is in part in the godly man though it do not bear sway in him there is too much of this worldly wretched inclination in a godly mans heart Nay those that seem most remote from it may be tainted with it A Prodigal that is lavish enough upon his lusts yet he may be sparing to good uses so he is covetous as the rich man that fared deliciously every day yet denied a crum to Lazarus Luk. 16. 19 21. Those that aim at no great matter for themselves that have not ravenous impatient desires yet may be full of envy at the increase of others and vexed to see them flourish it may be they have no ability or opportunity to do any thing for themselves but have an evil eye at the increase of others Most men are more industrious for the world whereas they are overly and slight in Heavenly matters and that 's evidence enough Some are not greedy but they are too sparing They seek not it may be a higher estate but they are too much delighted with present comforts The Gallant that pampers himself and wasts freely upon his pride and lusts may laugh in his sleeve and say I am free from this evil yet his heart desires wherewith to feed his excess and bravery and pride Covetousness may be entertained as a servant where it is not entertained as a master entertained as a servant to provide oil and fuel to make other sins burn Therefore let us see indeed whether we be not guilty of this sin It may be discovered 1 by frequent thoughts which are the genuine issue of the soul and discover the temper of the mind Thoughts either by way of contemplation or contrivance By way of contemplation when our minds only run upon earthly things and that with a savour and sweetness Philip. 3. 19. Minding earthly things What a man doth muse upon most think of when he is alone and speak of in company that will shew him the temper of his heart When men think of the world and speak of the world their heart is where their treasure is Mat. 6. 21. Nay when they cannot disingage themselves from these thoughts in Gods Worship their hearts go away in covetousness Ezek. 33. 31. Or else thoughts by way of contrivance Isa. 32. 7 8. The liberal man deviseth liberal things and the wicked man deviseth wicked devices The deliberations and debates of the soul discover the temper of it A carnal heart is altogether exercised in carnal projects as the rich fool discoursed and dialogized with himself When men are framing endless projects carking and caring not how to grow good and gracious but great and high in the world they discover the spirit of the world And as by thoughts so 2. by burning and urgent desires they are the pulses of the soul as Physicians judg by appetite so may you by desires A spiritual dropsie or an unsatisfied thirst argues a distempered soul when like the Horsleaches daughter you still cry give give and you are never contented but must have more 3. By the course of your lives and actions and the uniformity of your endeavours How shall we know who is the covetous man whom the Lord abhors Luk. 12. 21. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God A man that is always growing in estate and never looks to his soul and to be rich in grace spiritual experiences and rich in good works which is chiefly meant there by being rich towards God A man that seeks not the Kingdom of God in the first place for that which you love best you will seek for you will be most careful and diligent to obtain Well then when you mind Heavenly things by the by and are very slight in seeking and enquiring after God furnishing your souls with grace and getting assured hopes of Heaven and do not spy out advantages for the inward man this evil disposition of the soul hath mightily invaded you and then you can never do God any service USE 3. To press you to take heed of this great sin and if you would mortifie it mortifie the roots of it which are distrust and discontent 1. Distrust of Gods Providence you that think you cannot do well unless you have