blackest hour pleasantly sweetly and submissively subjoyned and said to his Father Luk. 22.42 Mat. 26.32 Nevertheless not my will but thine be done Not as I will but as thou wilt Twelfthly and finally If it be considered That when the whole contexture and web of Providences and more especially about the Catholick visible militant Church and every individual Member thereof shall be wrought out and in its full length and breadth as it were spread forth in the midst of all the redeemed perfected glorified and triumphant company of Saints standing round about and with admiration beholding it there will not be found to say so one misplaced threed nor one wrong set colour in it all but every thing will be found to have fallen in in the fittest place and in the most beautiful season and order thereof O! so rare so remarkable so renowned and so ravishing a piece as it will by them all unanimously and with one voice be judged and declared to be even worthy of the most exquisite Art and infinite Skill of the great Worker thereof the severest Criticks and most difficultly satisfiable of them all while here below about more publick and more particular Cross-providences will then fully and to the height be satisfied and will all without any the least hesitation or jarring readily and chearfully bear him this concordant testimony Mark 7.37 that he hath done all things well every thing in particular and all things in the general though when he was a doing of them they often presumptuously took on them rashly to censure and to offer their impertinent and crabbed Animadversions on and their Amendations and Alterations of several of them and will most cordially bless him that he wrought on in his own way about his Church and each of themselves without consulting them or following their way which would have quite marred the beauty and darkned the lustre and splendour of that most close and curious divine contexture Every one of these Considerations hath much reason in it to perswade to this intire and absolute submission to God's will and pleasure in what is cross to you afflicted and sorrowful Christians but O! how much weight and strength of sound spiritual reason is there in them all united together beside the many other excellent Considerations dispersed up and down these choice Sermons stuffed full with strong Cordials fitted both to recover and to preserve you from fainting under your many several Afflictions powerfully to perswade and prevail with you even the most averse untoward way ward and cross-gained to say so of you all without further debate demur or delay in these things that are most afflicting to you and do most thwart your inclination to come in his will and pleasantly without any the least allowed reluctancy or gainsaying to submit to him how might ye thus possess your Souls in patience and how quiet calm sedate and composed might ye be more especially in troublesome Times amidst these things wherewith others are keeped in a continual hurry almost to the hazard of being distracted by them Let them all my Noble Lord prevail with your Lordship in particular reverently to adore silently to stoop unto and sweetly to acquiesce in the Lord 's soveraign holy and wise ordering your many and various complicated Trials and more especially his late removing your excellent Lady the desire of your Eyes the Christian and comfortable Companion of your Youth by his stroak As indeed all the tyes of nearest and dearest Relations betwixt Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Brothers and Sisters c. are capable of dissolution and will all ere long by Death be actually dissolved there being but one tye and knot of Marriage-union betwixt precious Jesus Christ and the Believer that by divine ordination is eternally incapable of any dissolution even by Death it self which though it dissolve the strait-union that is betwixt the Soul and the Body yet doth not at all loose the straiter bond of Union that is betwixt him and both of them but it remains still inviolable and by vertue thereof the Believers vile dead Body shall be raised again at the last Day conform to his own glorious Body and be reunited to the perfected-soul which two old Intimats will then meet in far better case then when they were parted and pulled asunder for he is an Husband that cannot grow old sick or weak neither can he die he is an Husband whose Bride and Spouse is never a Widow neither hath he any Relicts The drawing on of which matchless Match and marvellous Marriage is one great design of these sweet Sermons wherein pregnant reasons are adduced by this friend of the Bridegroom to perswade Sinners to embrace the offer thereof made to them in the Gospel and to make them who by his own gracious and powerful insinuations on their Hearts have entertained his Proposal towards making up and final closing of the Match to bless themselves in their choice and to bless him that ever he vvas pleased to stoop so very lovv as to become a Suiter to them vvith a peremptory resolution to admit of no refusal but infrustrably to carry their Hearts consent to take him for their Lord Head and Husband to be to them a Saviour a Physician and Treasure even their All in all their All above all which day of Espousals as it was the day of the gladness of his heart so it will never be any grief of heart to them Let all mutinous thoughts about his dealings with you be silenced with It 's the Lord let not too much dwelling on the thoughts of your Affliction to the filling of your heart still with Sorrow incapacitate you for nor divert you from humble asking the Lord what he aims at by all these Dispensations what he would have you to learn out of them what he reproveth and contends for what he would have you amending your hand in and what he would have you more weaned self-denied and mortified in and what he would have you a further length and a greater proficient in He hath told you the truth that these things are expedient for you study to find them to be so in your own experience Sure he hath by them written in great legible and capital Characters yea even as with a Sun-beam Vanity Emptiness Uncertainty Mutability Unsatisfactoriness and Disappointment upon the forehead of all Creature-Comforts and with a loud voice called your Lordship yet more seriously then ever to seek after solid Soul-satisfaction in his own blessed and all-sufficient Self where it is most certainly to be found without all peradventure or possibility of misgiving make haste my Lord yet to come by a more closs confining of all your desires and expectations of Happiness and Satisfaction to your Soul to God only contracting and gathering them in from the vast and wearisome circumference of earthly Comforts and concentering them all in himself as their point study through Grace in a sweet Soliloque to bespeak
and Afflictions do of themselves produce this profite and bring forth this fruit for alace we may from doleful experience have ere now arived at a sad perswasion that we are proof against all applications excepting that of soveraign efficacious and all-difficulty conquering free Grace and that nothing will do at us save that alone Whatever means be made use of this only must be the efficient producer of our profite It is a piece of God's royal and incommunicable prerogative which he hath not given out of his own hand to any dispensation whether of Ordinances never so lively and powerful in themselves or of Providences never so cross loudly allarming and clearly speaking abstractly from his own Blessing effectually to teach to profite Isa 48.17 and therefore he doth as well he may claim it to himself alone as his peculiar priviledge while he saith I am the Lord thy God that teacheth thee to profite Since then this is his design in all the Chastisements inflicted on his own People and since he only by his Grace can make it infrustrably take effect let him have our hearty allowance and approbation to carry it on vigorously and succesfully and let us pray more frequently and fervently that by his effectual teaching our profiting may be made more and more to appear under our Chastisements and withall in the multitude of our sad thoughts about them let his comforts delight our souls and this comfort in particular that in them all he graciously designs and projects our profite even the making of us more and more to partake of his holiness Seventhly If it be considered That all your Tryals and Troubles are but of time-continuance and will period with it they are but for a season 1 Pet. 1.6 2 Cor. 4.17 yea but for a moment He will not contend for ever knowing well if he should do so Isa 37.16 the spirit would fail before him and the sould which he hath made though they should follow closs on you and accompany you to your very dying day yet then they will leave you and take their last good-night and everlasting farewel of you Rev. 7.15 and 21.4 sorrow and sighing will then for ever fly away and all tears on whatsoever accompt shall then be wiped from your eyes It is a great alleviation and mitigation of the most grievous Affliction and of the bitterest and most extream sorrow to think that not only it will have a term day and date of expiration but that it will quickly in a very short time even in a moment be over and at an end as a holy Martyr said to his fellow-sufferer in the Fire with him It is but winking and our pain and sorrow is all over and that there shall be an eternal Tack of freedom from it and that everlasting solace satisfaction and joy without any the least mixture of sorrow and sadness shall succeed to it and come in the room thereof It is but for the little space of threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 or fourscore which length most men never come that his People are subjected to trouble and what is that very short moment and little point of time being compared with vast and incomprehensibly long Eternity in respect of which a thousand years are but as one day Psal 90.4 or as a watch in the night when it is past And no doubt the little whiles trouble sadness and sorrow of sojourning and militant Saints is in the depth of divine Wisdom ordered so that it may the more commend and endear that blessed calm and tranquility that fulness of purest joys and these most perfect pleasures at his right hand that triumphant Saints shall for evermore enjoy Eighthly If it be considered that all along the little moment that your trials and afflictions abide with you they are even the sadest and most severe of them moderat and through his grace portable and light Isa 27.8 In measure he debateth with you and stays his rough wind in the day of his east wind And whatever difficulty ye sometimes find undersore prâ—ssours to get it solidly and practically believed 1 Cor. 10.13 yet God is faithful who hath promised and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Isa 30.18 He is a God of judgement and discretion that suits his peoples burdens to their backs and wisely proportions their straits to their strength He puts not new wine into old bottles Mat. 9.17 Isa 42.3 Isa 57.17 18. Neither doth he break the bruised reed And even when he hides his face and is wroth with his children and smites them for their iniquity It is only Fatherly wrath And however dreadful that may be and difficult to be born yet there is nothing vindictive in it It is a Fathers anger but contempered with a Fathers love where also love predomines in the contemperature And indeed the most extream and the very heaviest of all our Afflictions are moderat and even light being compared first with what your sins deserve exceedingly far beneath the desert whereof ye are punished even so far Ezra 9.13 that ye may without all complement most truly say Lam 3.22 That it is because his compassions fail not that ye are not consumed That ye are kept out of Hell and free from everlasting burnings to which your many various and grievously aggravated provocations have made you most justly liable So that ye have reason to think any Affliction short of everlasting destruction from the presence of God to be a highly valuable piece of moderation and to say Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 Micah 7.9 We will bear the indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him 2dly With what others of the people of God have readily met with Heb. 12 4. for we have not resisted to the blood striving against sin We have it may be all this while been but running with the footmen Jeâ— 12.5 when they have been put to contend with horses 3dly With what our selves have sometimes dreaded and been put to deprecat when horrid guilt hath stared us in the face and when God was apprehended to be very angry even threatning to smite us wâ—th the wound of an enemy Jer. 30.14 and with the chastisement of a cruel one to run upon us as a Giant Job 16.14 and 12. Job 10.16 to break all our bones and again to shew himself marvellous upon us by taking us by the neck and shaking us in pieces 4ly With what our blessed Lord Jesus suffered for his people who all the while he sojourned here on earth was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.4 and might most jâ—stly have said beyond all men I am the man that hath seen affâ—â—tion by the rod of
for ever possessed in that which eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entered in the heart of man to conceive of 3. From the words as we exponed them Observe That our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and was in suffering brought very low is God We find ordinarily in Scripture especially thorow the New Testament these three going together 1. Christs Humiliation 2. His Exaltation on the back of that And 3ly His Godhead His Humiliation is not readily spoken of without his Exaltation nor his Exaltation without his Godhead because it 's impossible to separate Christs Exaltation from his Godhead his Exaltation being the evidence of his Godhead and the Prophet's scope here being to set but Christ's Exaltation and Philip preaching of it to the Eunuch from this Text it 's doubtless the contemplation of Christ's Godhead that occasioneth this admiring-exclamation who shall declare his generation which we apply not so much to the ineffableness of his generation as to its being an evidence that he is God There are three or four ways whereby the Scripture confirms this let me desire you by the way not to look on this as a little momentuous or but a common Doctrine since there are many so ignorant that we would be ashamed to tell what we hear from some of you concerning the Godhead of Jesus Christ ye would take the better heed to it it being a main pillar of Christian Religion without which our Preaching and your Faith are vain for he is not believed on at all if ye rest not on him as God But to prosecute what we proposed to wit these several ways whereby the Scripture confirms this truth and to this purpose consider 1. The express Titles and Names that are given to him in Scripture and some Scripture-sayings of him which hold it out three whereof we shall instance The first is that of Isaiah 9.6 7. Where when Christ is prophesied of it 's said Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and what is he He shall be called wonderful Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end Here we have these three His Humiliation Exaltion and God-head His Humiliation Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given His Exaltation Of the increase of his governmentâ— and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice And his Godhead is interjected and put in between these two In the names and titles given to him Wonderful Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father not as personally taken but as the word signifies The Father of Eternity from whom all things have their Being and for the same reason Chap. 7.14 He is called Immanuel God with us A 2d place is that of Phil. 2.6 Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery he did God no wrong to be equal with God he made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant c. wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name c. A 3d. place is that of Heb. 1.2 3. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds what is he by whom he spake to us who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high there is here much of Christs excellency holden forth he is the brightness of the fathers glory and the express image of his person the beam of the Sun is not liker to the Suns light the impression of the seal on the wax is no liker to the seal then the Son is to the Father nay the livelyest resemblances fall infinitely short of a full and exact resemblance the Father and he being the same God and he being compared with the Father not simply as God essentially taken but as the second person of the Trinity compared with him who is the first person O deep and adorable mystery A 2d way to clear and confirm it is to consider his works oft-times joyned with his name The works of Creation Providence Redemption and guiding of his Church so we have it John 1.1 In the beginning was the word the substantial word of the Father the Son of his love called the word either as expressing the Fathers image as a mans word expresseth his mind or because as Prophet of the Church he hath revealed the Fathers will It s said that this word was not only with God but was God and then follows in several Verses together his Works the works of Creation all things were made by him c. the works of Providence are attributed to him John 5.17 My father worketh hitherto and I work and the work of Redemption and his glorious going thorow with it declare him to be the Son of God for none but God could redeem his Church 3ly For clearing and confirming of this truth we may take the express confession of the Saints in Scripture whereon there is much weight laid and I shall name but five or six of their confessions which to this purpose are expressly and fully recorded The 1. Is that of Matth. 16.16 Whom do men say that I am Peter answered thou art the son of the living God and Christ says Blessed art thou Simon Barjona flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven to let us know that it is not such a little thing to believe Christs Godhead as many take it to be and then he calls himself the rock on which his Church is built Christ's Godhead is the foundation of Christianity A 2d is John 1.49 in Nathanaels words Christs tells him before Philip called thee when thou was under the fig-tree I saw thee and he having gotten this proof of Christs omniscience presently breaks out Rabbi thou art the son of God thou art the king of Israel and that is the first thing his faith evidenceth it self in A 3d. place is John 6.67 68 69. where when Christ is saying to the twelve will ye also leave me Simon answers Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the son of the living God there is muâ—h in these words we believe and are sure that it is so A 4th place is John 11.27 and it is Martha her confession yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the son of
forbid wo unto them that make such an use of this truth nor do I speak of it to allow any to dispense with or to give way to themselves to sin for we shew before that Christ is here proposed as our Patern and we are bidden purifie our selves as he is pure But this we say that none living here on the earth are without sin the most perfect men that are on this side Eternity carry about with them a body of death called five or six times sin Rom. 7. that hath actual lustings and a power as a law of sin to lead captive and that makes the man guilty before God Use 2. For reproof to two sorts of enemies to this Truth 1. These inveterate enemies of the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ to wit the Papists that black train that follows Antichrist who plead for a perfection according to the law as attainable in this life saying down two grounds to prove this perfection 1. That the inward lustings or first risings and moâ—ions at least of the body of Death are no sins And 2. Their exponing of the law so as it may suit to their own apprehension and opinion yet so as they say that every Believer or godly Person wins not to this perfection to keep the law wholly but only some of their Grandees This the Lord hath mercifully banished out of the Reformed Churches as Inconsistent with the experience of the Saints who find a law in their members warring against the law of their mind and leading them captive to the law of sin that is in their members inconsistent with the Scriptures which clear that none have attained nor do attâ—in perfection in this life but the contrary that in many things we offend all and inconsistent with Grace that leaves sinners still in Châ—ists common and debt as standing in need of his imputed Righteousness This perfection they place in inherent Holiness and habitual Grace but we insist not on it 2ly Another sort of enemies reproved here are the old Familists who are owned by these who are called Antinomians several of which miserable persons are now going up and down amongst us who say that the People of God have no sin in them wherein they are worse then Papists for Papists make it peculiar to some only but they make it common to all Believers And Papists make their perfection to consist in inherent holiness but they make the nature of sin to be changed and say that sin is no more so in a Believer even though it be contrary to the Law of God We grant indeed that the people of God are free of sin in these respects 1. In this respect that no sin can condemn them they are not under the Law but under Grace in that respâ—ct Rom. 8.1 It 's said that There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 2. In his respect that they cannot fall into that sin which as unto death as is clear 1 John 5.17 18 And 3. in this respect that they cannoâ—â—o sin â—s to ly or be under thâ—â—â—â—gn and â—omiâ—ion of sin as is evident Rom. 6 14. The Believer delights in thâ— Lâ—w â—f God according to the inner man Râ—m 7.22 And is not in sin neither doth câ—mmit sin as the unbeliever doth for the seed of God abideth in him and is kept from being involved in that which hiâ— corrupt nature inclines the Believer to So then what the Scriptuâ—e speaks of the Believers being free of sin is to be understood in one of these respects But to â—ay 1. That a Believer cannot sin at all sad expâ—rience and the practice of the Saints is a proof of the contrary Or 2. To say that sin in a Believer is no sin because of his faith in Christ is as contrâ—â—y to Scripture For the Law of God is the same to the Believer and the unbeliever and sin is the same in both Adultery is Adultery and Murâ—her is Murther in David as well as in â—ny other man Sure when Christ bade his Disciples pray for forgivenness of sin daily he taught them no such Doctrine as to account their sins to be no sins For if so they should neither repent of sin nor seek the pardon of it as some are not a shamed to say they should not That which we aim at is to â—lear it to be Christs prerogative only to be free of sin none oâ—her in this life can claim it And to teach Bâ—lievers to carry about with them daily all along their mortal life that which is for their good even the sense â—f sin I know it is now an up cast â—rom some pretended perfectionists to the people of God that they think and say that they have sin and aâ—e not perfect And we are by these men called Antichristian Priests and Jesuits because we Preach that Doctrine Buâ— let it be soberly considered whether it doth better agree with Papists and Jesuits to say that Believers are without sin or to say that they have sin They who say that Believers or the Saints have no sin do agree in this with the Papists who maintain a perfection of holiness or a conformity to the Law in some in this life and who deny the lustings of the body of death to be sin without which opinâ—on though most gross they would not nor could with the least shadow of reason mainâ—ain their Doctrine of Juâ—tification by Works And yet some now among us will needs call us Popish because we say that we have sin and that none of God's people are â—ithout sin in this life Tâ—is seems to be very strâ—â—ge But that wâ—ich hath been the thought of some sharp-sighted and sagacious men since the bâ—ginning of our confusions to wit that Popery is a working as an under-hand design is by this and other things mâ—de to be more and more apparent Is there any thing more like Popery working in a mystery yea more Popish then to say that the motions of corruption in Believers are no sins thaâ— a man or woman may attain to perfection in holiness here and yet to carry on this with that subtilty as confidently to averr that it's Popery to say the contrary Nay if the Scâ—iptures they make use of in their Papers or Pamphlets be well considered we will find that not only a perfection in Holinâ—â—s and Good works is pleaded for but a possibility of fulfilling the Law and Covenant oâ— Works as namely 1 Pet. 1.15 1 John 3.3 and 5.5 and Matth. 5. ult Will ye say they call your selves Saints that are not purified even as he is pure And will ye câ—ll your selves Believers that havâ— not overcome the world c As if all that is commanded duty might be or were perfectly reached in this life and as if no diâ—tinction betwixt begun yea considerably advanced holiness and intire perfection were to be adâ—itted That for which I mark this is to shew that the design of Popery seems to be on foot the Devil