nore unto thee judge ye also of the equity of that And now this to bring all to some use is very applyable to our own condition of this Land and Nation To whom these words of the Text may be very well sitted and suited in all particulars And therefore O Generation see ye the word of the Lord. Let us think and consider with our selves how God has been pleased to carry himself to us from one Generation to another Has he been indeed a wilderness to us or a land of darkness Let us but a little look back and reflect upon the mercies of this very day as I mentioned it to you in the forenoon and had occasion as I then told you I had to do from a Sermon given to that purpose The seventeenth day of November which laid the ground work and foundation of so many mercies unto us which followed upon it In the breaking forth of the Gospel amongst us and many other blessings besides which we have enjoyed with it Peace and Plenty and Prosperity and Honour and Renown We have been a wonder to all Nations round about us for the great and remarkable favours which God hath been pleased from time to time to heap upon us Then they said amongst the Heathen the Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we rejoyce Psal 126.2 But have we made answerable returns to God's goodness and loving-kindness towards us Let us but see and consider that a little and seriously think of it What improvement have we made of the Gospel which we have so long time enjoyed to faithfulness and fruitfulness and heavenliness and holiness of conversation God has not been a wilderness to us have not we been so to him He has not been a land of darkness to us neither as opposite to the light of knowledg and information the darkness of error and ignorance nor as opposite to the light of comfort and consolation the darkness of misery and affliction God has been light unto us and in him is no darkness at all But whether have we walked in the light and not in darkness in reference to him This were worth the due scrutiny and enquiry by us Have we not wax'd proud and wanton and secure and presumptuous under all his dispensations towards us And so trusted to our own present welfare as that we have in a manner despised him and said with these people in the Text here before us We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Certainly the great abominations which do now in these days abound and increase still amongst us they do speak no less of us Well if it be thus with us we have great cause to be affected with it and to lay it to heart as that which is most absurd and unreasonable as it is here presented to us And to close at last with God's excitements and invitations of us to repentance and amendment of life This is that which we have an example of given us in this very people here before us the people as we may see in the following Chapter Jer. 3.22 Who when God had first himself said thus unto them Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding they presently make this answer and return unto him again Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God And so much may serve for this time SERMON XLIII JER 4.19 My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War This Text in the first reading or hearing of it one would be ready almost to think to be the speech of some travelling woman which were now in pain to be delivered and bringing forth a child into the world or which had miscarried through some fright or evil accident which had hapned unto her for it carries with it such expressions as are suitable to such conditions of bowels working and heart panting and spirit fainting and tongue crying aloud But yet if we look into the Context the Connexion and Coherence of it we shall find no such matter which makes it to be a business of so much the more wonderment and admiration so that we may justly upon occasion of it take up that inquiry of this very Prophet Jeremy himself in another place of his Prophecy and use the same words with him there in chap 30.6 Ask now and see whether a man doth travel with child wherefore do I see a man with his hands upon his loins like a woman in travel and his face turn'd into paleness And if we shall so ask we shall easily have an answer given us That so it is indeed and has cause to be so Here 's the Prophet himself travelling with the miseries and calamities of his people which now like so many pangs and throws came upon him and drew forth this bemoaning from him which he does express so much the rather that so he might draw on them to the same affections and dispositions with him who were now wholly swollen up with security and presumption and carnal confidence in their present condition not considering the sad and grievous estate which now they were in It is a Scripture which follows very pertinently upon that which we lately handled the last Sabbath day in this place and this time of the day for which cause I have fastned upon it that so though we change our Texts for the more variety and edification yet we might still hold our argument and keep to the main business it self which we drive at in this performance of awakening you and preparing you for God's judgments which hang over your heads and are threaten'd against you if we have eyes and hearts to see it and to be affected with it IN the Text it self we have two General Parts considerable of us First the Prophets Complaint or Lamentation it self Secondly the ground or occasion of this his Lamentation His Complaint or Lamentation that we have laid down in those words My bowels my bowels c. The Ground or Occasion of it in those Because thou hast heard O my Soul c. We begin with the first viz. his Complaint it self wherein again we have these particulars further observable First the parts affected Secondly the grief of those parts Thirdly the passage or vent of that grief The parts affected are described or exprest two manner of ways First in their simple proposition Secondly in their additional reduplication Their simple Proposition My bowels my heart Their additional Reduplication My bowels my bowels my heart my heart The grief of these parts is amplified from a double consideration First from the quality of it my heart is pained Secondly from the effect of it my heart makes a noise The passage or vent of this grief is again two ways considerable First as a matter of choice in
sence a comforting of us in Distresses a companion for us in solitariness and loneliness and what not If there be so much contentment in other Authors how much more is there in the book of God which is the chief Book of all It is the want of Experience and Tryal of such performanees as these are which makes any to be ignorant of the Delight and sweetness which is in them Those which have tasted of honey they know the sweetness of honey And so those which have tasted of Gods word they know the Excellency and Comfortableness which is in it and will desire it again and again Thirdly The Communion of Saints how pleasant likewise is this That holy Conference and Discourse which Christians have one with another in provoking one another to love and good works in quickning one anothers graces in Communicating one anothers Experiences in the inlarging of one anothers Comforts As Iron sharpens iron so does the heart of man here his friend It is the begining even of Heaven it self and a pledge of that perfect contentment which the Saints shall have hereafter in that place which should stir us up so much the more to the practise of it We see how it was with the Disciples in the first Plantations of the Christian Church Acts 2.46 They continued daily with one accord in Doctrine and Fellowship and breaking of bread from house in house and did their meat with gladness and singleness of heart They did eat their meat with gladness namely in regard of the delight which they had one with another Fourthly The Communion which Christ and the Saints both take at the Lords Table There is a great deal of Contentment here also How does the soul of a Christian feast it self with these Royal and heavenly Preparations Here Christ spreads His Table as it were for us sets before us His Milk and His Wine and His Honey and His Oyl and all that may be to give us refreshment A conscientious Christian who uses these things as he ought not Formally not Customarily but in obedience and dependance upon God He findes a great deal of Comfort in them which another does not find As Jonathan when he had tasted of the honey in 1 Sam. 14.27 It is said his eyes were enlightned by it and he was cheared and revived in his spirit and more strengthned for the pursuit of the Philistims even so is it with a Godly soul in its partaking of these Comfortable dainties this spiritual honey and Oyle he becomes more inlighten'd in his judgement more quicken'd and inlarged in his Affections and so much the more fitted to incounter with all his spiritual enemies whereas those which abstain from that grow weary and faint as the people did there in that place that abstained from the tasting of the honey There 's no Epicure has such pleasure in his Corporal dainties as a good Christian has in these Spiritual which he does by faith apply himself to and in an holy manner partake off Lastly In a word Take the whole Sabbath together The sanctifying of the Lords day in all the several performances of it and the mixture of the one with the another how much sweetness is there in it The Scripture tells us of some that make the Sabbath a delight as there are others which make it a burden Isa 58.13 14. Amos 8.5 This is the different Disposition of Persons in the world though some snuff at the Ordinances yet others take Contentment in them A Godly man he rejoyces when the Sabbath is come it is the best day to him in all the week in regard of that satiety of soul which he meets with in it He is hereby taken off from the world and the distracting imployments of it He is set upon thoughts of God and Heaven and Salvation and the life to come such thoughts as have some kind of a satisfactoriness and pleasingness in them And the very change and intercourse of Duty is not without its delight herein also sometimes Prayers and sometimes Hearing and sometimes Meditating and sometimes Conferring and sometimes Reading and sometimes Singing How graciously has God provided for our weakness in this particular while our Natures are so desirous of Varity that no one duty might be tedious to us we have many Duties to imploy our selves in and to exercise our selves with And that 's a Third Explication of the Pleasantness which is in Godlyness viz. from the Duties and Exercises of Religion Now the point thus Explain'd unto us may be fruitful in these following Applications Namely First As it serves to confute the fond conceit of men of the World which they have concerning Godliness and the ways of Piety There are many which are of this opinion that Religion is a Melancholly Condition that it makes men pensive and sad and has no pleasure nor delight in it at all and hence they come to be discouraged from the following and professing of it and are apt to discourage others likewise from following it to But this proceeds from a plain mistake and Ignorance and erroniousness of Judgment in them for indeed it is quite contrary as 't is here exprest to us in this Text. Her wayes are wayes of Pleasantness There 's a great deal of sweet delight and refreshment in the wayes of Godliness to those which walk in them and what ever is pleasant in any ways the same is to be found here in these First Godly Prospects they are one thing which make a way pleasant green Fields and flowing Rivers and the like to walk by such wayes as these it carries a great deal of pleasure and delight with it why thus now does the Spirit of God in Scripture set forth to us the wayes of Religion Psal 23.2.3 He makes me to lie down in green Pastures he leads me besides the still Waters he restoreth my Soul he leadeth me in the paths of Righteousness for his name sake Where the latter is an Explication of the former The green Pastures and still Waters are no others then the paths of Righteousness and the Ordinances which lead thereunto Secondly Another pleasantness of wayes consists in their Lightsomeness to walk in dark wayes in Holes and Woods and the like it carries no pleasure at all in it He that walkes in Darkness he knoweth not whether he goeth sayes the Apostle and from thence can have no pleasure in his walk such are the wayes of Sin and Wickedness no comfort at all in them Who leaves the paths of Vprightness to walk in the wayes of Darkness Pro. 2.13 But the wayes of Grace are otherwise Light is sown for the Righteous as it is in the place before used And joy for the Vpright in heart Thirdly Another Pleasantness of the way is much taken from the Company Comes facundus in via per rehiculo est Why this now is the advantage of Goodness there 's good Company in this way Prov. 2.20 That thou mayest walk in the way
and given up to besides that natural Darkness which is in all unregenerat Persons yea and regenerate likewise by Natural There is a Super natural and Judicial which some especially in the just Judgement of God have inflicted upon them Thus Rom. 1.28 It is said of the wicked Gentiles That as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledg God gave them up to a reprobate Sense or mind void of Judgment to do those things which are not Convenient Thus in all these respects are wicked men in Darkness Darkness it is the privation of light And so it is in such kind of Persons now we must know what Light this is Namely the Light of the Spirit As for the common Light of Nature the Light dime Light of Reason that even Natural men may have and in some Competent measure as the Heathen Philosophers had many of them in great Abundance But this Light of Grace and of the Spirit it is such as they are not acquainted with nor know not what it is This accordingly gives us an account of so many Stumblings and Miscarriages as there are in the World Here 's an account of the Diversity of Errours and false Opinions in matters of Judgment And here 's an account also of the Diversity of Outrages and Wickedness in matters of Practise whence there are so many Abomintions as do continually raigne amongst us it is from hence that men are in Darkness There is a mist of Spiritual Blindness which hath Surprised them and Over-spread them and therefore it is that they fall into such Miscarriages as these are And this for the Darkness of the way that Darkness which wicked men are incompast with here in this present life The Second is the Darkness of the End That Darkness which they are subject unto in another World This is of two sorts either the Darkness of Death or Judgment First Of Death that is common to all both good and bad And it is represented in Scripture to us under the notion of Darkness Thus in Job 10.21.22 Before I go whence I shall not return Even to the Land of Darkness and the shadow of Death A Land of Darkness as Darkness it self and of the shadow of Death without any order and Where the Light is as Darkness Thus it is spoken of the Grave and the condition of Bodies lying there So Job 17.13 If I wait the Grave is mine House I have made my Bed in the Darkness And so likewise in Eccles 11.8 The days of Darkness they shall be many It is spoken still of abode in the Grave this is common to all viz. The Darkness of Death The Second Is the Darkness of Judgment and Hell it self which is call'd in Scripture Vtter Darkness This is that which is especially proper to the Wicked Bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter Darkness sayes Christ Matth. 22.13 And Psal 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God This is that which is made to be their Portion And so much for the First particular viz. The state of Darkness which the Wicked and Vngodly of the World are Exposed unto The Second is the state of Silence in order to this Darkness They shall be silent in Darkness Thus it may admit of a various Emphasis which is involv'd in it we may reduce it to these following Particulars First That Grief and Horrour and perplexity of mind which shall seize upon them in this Condition Silence it is an attendant upon Grief and Astonishment in the Extremities of it Curae leves loquunter ingentes stupent so that where Grief is any thing moderate there it expresses it self in speech where 't is Excessive there 't is stupifying and Obstructive Vox faessi hucibus A mans words there stick in his Teeth and therefore great Grief is exprest to us in Scripture by Silence in sundry places thus Esay 15.1 The burden of Moab Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence Brought to silence that is Cut off and destroyed as the word Nidhmah also signifies Destruction it is signified by Silence So Jer. 8.14 Why do ye sit still Assemble your selves and let us enter into the defenced Cities and be silent there for the Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us waters of Gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. Hath put us to silence that is hath brought us into a distracted Condition so that we know not what to do or say So Jer. 47.5 Baldness is come upon Gaza Ashkelon is silent and Cut off Where Baldness and Silence are put for Sadness and Grief in the Philistians Again Lament 2.10 The elders of the Daughters of Sion set upon the Ground and kept silence Namely so far overcome with Grief as unable by speech to abate it And Job's Friends in simpathy with him in his great Grief thus sat down and spake not a word unto him in seaven days c. This shall be the Condition of Wicked men former or later they shall be full of Horrour and Grief unexpressible They that now are full of Jocunness and Joviality and Clamour and make a noise in the World there is a time a coming when they shall be filled with Anguish and perplexity of Spirit which they shall not know how to help in themselves Secondly Silence it is a note of Conviction They shall be silent that is they shall have nothing to say for themselves Wicked men as they shall be full of Grief so likewise of Confusion When God shall charge them with such and such Sins and Abominations whereof they are guilty they shall have nothing here to answer him Either by way of Apology for themselves or Censure of his proceedings against them That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God as it is in Rom. 3.19 Thus it was with him in the Gospel Which came to the Marriage-Supper not having on him his Wedding-Garment when the King aâ—kt him how he came thither it is said he was speechless Matth. 22.12 That is he knew not what to say for himself God will one day non-plus and Convince and Confound all impenitent Sinners They shall be in Darkness that is in Extremity of Misery and silent in it that is Convinced and perswaded of Gods design in his proceedings Thirdly It is a note of Abode and of Continuance in this miserable Condition They shall be kept and bound up in it As the Egyptian Darkness it was such as wherewith they were fastened and contained in their places as not knowing how to stir out of them They saw not one another neither rose any from his place for three Days And Wisd 17. vers 17. There is an Expression sutable where t is said They were all bound with one Chain of Darkness Sutable whereunto is that of Jude 1.6
Prosecution of their wicked Courses little think of them or call themselves to an account for them who yet afterwards when the sin is over and past have leasure to be think themselves and to Consider what they have done Yea God himself does by his Spirit oftentimes suggest it to them and suffers even Satan also though for no good to do it for them When men are past the time of Committing sin then he thinks he may very safely remember of it that he may drive them to dispair about it which is all the thanks they have from him for hearkning to Him Secondly As there 's an Exciting of the Memory for the calling of such sins to mind which have been committed in Youth so there is likewise a Convincing of the Judgment in the nature of the sins themselves how grievous and notorious they are that those which have been formerly slighted and neglected and made nothing of as no more but tricks of youth it may indeed appear in their colours to be breaches of the Law of God And that in all the several Circumstances and Aggravations of them and especially in that amongst the rest of sinning against all the Counsel and Admonition which has been given to the Contrary by Ministers and Masters and Parents and Christian Friends as we find an Expression to that purpose in Prov. 5.12.13 Thou shalt say How have I hated Instruction and my Heart dispised Reproof I have not obeyed the voyce of my Teachers nor inclined mine Ear to them that instructed me Thus will God not onely remember men but convince them of the sins of their youth And then Thirdly Afflict them also for them That 's like wise in this filling of the Bones The Conscience made sensible of sin and perplext for it which is done in succeeding times When God deals Effectually with men's Hearts and calls them to an Account for their Miscarriages he does not onely set home upon them their present iniquities but also their former Miscarriages This he does both in order to true and real Conviction as also upon any other occasion Yea and those sins also which have been most secret as I shewed the last day at large upon another Scripture the same word which is here used in the Text for the sins of the Youth it signifies in the Hebrew Language secret sins which such sins oftentimes are and so we find it to be taken in Psal 90.8 Thou hast set our secret sins in the light of thy Countenance Gnalâ—meni The reason why God does proceed against sins of Youth and set them home a great while afterwards First Because he will maintain his own Right and Interest in the world we use to say Nullum tempus occurrit Regi There 's no time which is slipt which can prejudice a Prince in his due no more can God Himself who is the cheif of all Sins of Youth they are sins still in their own Nature and so to be accounted Time does not alter the quality of them though it alters the Apprehensions of them through the weakness of our mindes Nay the longer agoe that sins have been committed by any the more they stand in Arrears to God Old and Ancient Debts they are the Greatest Debts of all because they have been so long without payment and satisfaction for them And so it is likewise to this purpose with old and Antient sins Continuance and Perseverance in sin for a long while and time together without reformation and renewing to God it becomes a further advancement and aggravation of it Secondly Because sins of youth they are commonly acted with greater Violence and vehemency of spirit It is observed by the Philosopher of Young-men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do every thing with much intention in that which they do Quicquid volun Valde volunt Now sin by how much men's Spirits are more intent and carried out in it by so much the worse it is and more provoking of the Majesty of God who is offended by it Thirdly It is a Foundation of more Sin the sins of Youth There 's a Ground work laid for sin in after times and succeeding Generations where Youth is naught there is a great hazard upon old Age which is very difficulty reclaimed and reduced in such cases Therefore says the Young-man in the Proverbs being overtaken with Wantonness I was almost in all Evil in the midst of the Congregation and the Assembly Prov. 5.14 A Vessell what Liquour it receives at first into it it long retains the savour and relish of it And so it is likewise with the Heart and the Life and the Conversation It is much what it was at first The Consideration of this present point in hand is of Various Improvement to us First To those which are Young that from hence they would be so much the more careful and watchful of themselves and take heed of doing any thing which may stain and defile their first years and the Flower of their Age for if they do so they wlll find enough of it in following times and when as they think the worst is past Their Bones shall be full of the sins of their youth Perhaps their Bodies and outward man through Corruption and rotting Diseases which shall cleave unto them or if not so yet at least their Consciences either here or in a worse place And therefore let them not be secure and vainly flatter themselves as for the most part they are ready to do Youth is commonly full of Hopes and sometimes of Presumpteous hopes which have little ground or bottom for them and so in this amongst the rest of escaping the Alarms of sin But let none deceive themselves in this particular as Moses once told the Israelites in Numb 32.23 Be sure your sin will find you out Find you out to discover you and to manifest what you are And find you out to punish you and to afflict you for being so bad And the longer time of Intermission the Heavier the Account when it comes Beloved we should all study to Consecrate and devote our best time to God and to his Service And that is the time of our Youth while it lasts to any of us when we have health and strength and parts in the Vigor and Activity of them Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before he Evil days come and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12.1 And thus as for the thing it self so moreover in reference to old Age that so if we live unto it it may be so much the more Comfortable to us and free from Disturbance it is observed as to matter of the Body and Corporal strength and it holds as well in regard of the Soul that an orderly and well-temper'd youth it breeds an Easy and pleasing old Age and so the Contrary Moderata juventus efficit senectutem facillem Immoderata Gravem Oh it is a Blessed thing when Old
then the Living which are yet alive c. He does not prefer Death and annihilation before Life and being absolutely but onely order to such a time and season of it He does not say I praysed the Dead which are already dead more then the living which have been formerly living but more then those which are now alive And he does not say better is he then both which never shall be but better is he then both which hath not yet been viz. Till these Miseries and Calamities are gone and over past So that still the injoyment of Life and so Birth is to be acknowledged a Blessing and to be counted so by us But here a Question may come in by the impertinent to this present argument in hand Whether it be lawful and warrantable for a man to celebrate his Birth-day or no to commemorate the day wherein he was born That which seems to make against it is that we never read of any in Scripture which did so but wicked men and Infidels and unbelievers and such as were never acquainted with the Mystery of Original sin which defiles our birth as for example Pharaoh in Genes 40.20 He made a feast on his birth-day And so also Herod in Matth. 14.6 His Birth-day was kept but for others which were Godly and holy men we have no instance or example of them for such an Observation To this I anser That notwithstanding we have no example for it yet forasmuch as we have nothing absolutely against it nor yet which by way of consequence may be inferr'd in opposition to it the thing in it self is such as may be lawfully practis'd but still with this caution that in regard of the frequent abuses which have crept into it through men's corruption in its corporal observation that therefore men had need to be more watchful over themselves in it And especially to let their hearts run out in the spiritual observation of it rather then in any thing else to wit in thankfulness to God for their Creation Birth Education and other mercies received An examination of their life past and a renewing of their Covenant with God for time to come to walk more carefully and exactly before him In such things as these especially does this business consist but as for other matters wherein men chiefly express their rejoycing at such times as by feastings and gifts and the like being they are things which are less material and impertinent to the main thing of all there is the less respect to be to them and perhaps as circumstances may carry it may be as well omitted as perform'd And so much of the first and main Benefit which is attendant upon his mercy and for which it is to be acknowledg'd as a Birth The Blessing of life Now besides this there are other Mercies also which belong hereunto which are to be acknowledged herein likewise by those which are partakers of them As for Example soundness of Constitution a good Temper and Natural frame and Healthfulness of Body when men are blest with this Vita non est vivere sed Valere He does not live that Breathes but that lives Healthfully and t is a very great mercy of God considering the manifold miscarriages and weaknesses which are in this kind when it pleases God to give us a good habit and Composition of Health Secondly Due proportion of Parts and Limbs and Senses and such as these we see how many deformed mishapen and monstrous Births there are sometimes in the World Blind and Deaf and Halt and Creeple and the like such defects and imperfections as these as makes life oftentimes a burden and weariness to those which have them These its a very great mercy to bee freed and Exempted from And this Holy man David seems to bless God here inclusively for these yea indeed he does it expresly in another place as we may see it there at large in Psal 139.13.14.15.16 Thou hast covered me in my mothers Womb I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Thirdly Wit and Understanding and Ingenuity and natural Capacity such as these are also here to be taken in as matter of Acknowledgment There are some which are born Idiots and Fooles and Dullards and void of common reach There are others which have crabbid Natures and Crooked and untoward Dispositions now where ever there is a freedom from these it is also a mercy And so I might proceed at large in these several Appurtenances but so much may suffice of the first particular which David here mentions The Blessing of the Womb in his Birth Thou art he that tookest me c. The Second is the Blessings of the Breast in his Nursery and sustentation being born Thou madest me to hope when I was upon my Mothers brests Madest me to hope How are we to understand this Infants have not the exercise of reason and therefore have not the exercise of Hope which is an act of reason how would then David say here Thou madest me to hope For the understanding of this we must know that he speaks not of the Mind but of the Estate Thou madest me to hope that is thou puttest me into an hopeful Condition thou gavest me Ground and Foundation of Hope from thy carriage at that time unto me And that as it may be further explain'd in these two Particulars First By Protection and Preservation Secondly By Provision and Sustentation Gods goodness in each of these particulars made David to hope First By Protection and Preservation God did then defend and preserve him from many Evils which he was subject unto and so some translate the present word Mavtictu Thou keepest me in safety as ye may see in the Margent of the Text. There are many Evils and Dangers which are kept and preserved from them You know what was the ill hap of Mephibosheth the Son of Davids friend 2 Sam. 4.4 His Nurse slipt and let him fall that he became a Cripple ever afterwards And the young Children which Herod slew in Bethlehem they were some of them killed upon the Breast and the blood of the child mingled with the milk of the Mother There are others which have been kept from Diseases and Sicknesses which they have been here liable unto the Nurse sometimes infected and yet the Infant free'd and escaped When we consider the many Mischances and Casualties which this first condition of Life has attendant upon it of Starving of Overlaying of Smoothering of Infecting and such as these we have very great cause to bless God that preserved us when we hung upon the Breasts And further to make it an argument of depending and trusting upon him him still for following times This is the Scope and drift of this Text and Scripture which we have now in hand and for which also I have the rather made choyce of it to handle at this present time to uphold us against the Fears and Dangers of the days we now live in
Condition of all created Comforts whatsoever But now the Lord God he is like the Sun which has light in Great Abundance and what it has it has onely in it self And this now makes very much for our Satisfaction and Contentment in Him yea and that in opposition also to the Creatures and that Comfort and Happiness which we expect from him when the Sun is once up there is no want or miss of the Stars and so where God will please to inlarge himself to the Soul of any poor Christian he has Enough and sufficency in that respect We know what is said of Heaven Revelat. 21.23 The City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof The same is true in a proportion even here in this present life according to Gods Gracious Importment of himself to any soul so is it better able to sustain under the want of other things But Secondly Seeing the Lord God is a Sun we should then hence learn to rejoyce in that light and Comfort which he does impart and which we receive from him We should still desire that the light of his Countenance may shine upon us more and more and nothing should be more greivous to us then the with drawing of this from us When the Sun is at any time darkned it causes sadness in the minds of men we see what a stir people make but about a common and ordinary Eclipse of the Sun in the Firmanent which is natural and certain and necessary and such as is Expected What Fancies possesses the minds of ignorant and simple persons in that regard and what sad and dismal Events they do project to themselves hereupon Oh but what is it then to have an Eclipse of this Sun in the Text which is here commended unto us for God Himself to hide his face from us and to carry himself strangely towards us and to desert us and leave us to our selves to cast us into dark Conditions of doubting and fear and distrustfulness and Horrour of Spirit this is that which is most sad and grievous of any thing else and so should be accounted by us especially those which has had any glimps and expressions of this his favour manifested unto them the more brightly that this Sun hath shown into any ones Heart the more does it concern them to be affected with the withdrawings of it and that as now the half of the Saints and Servants of God they know what belongs to such things as these are and understand what they mean These which are in their natural Condition which live in a state of continual Ignorance and Darkness they scoff and mock at such points as these are and think them to be altogether needless but those which are Savory Christians apprehend them and are sensible of them and lay them to Heart As an Eclipse it is a great deal more dreadful then an whole Night and yet a Night in it self considered simply is more then that It is more in regard of the darkness which is in a greater Degree and it is more in regard of the time which is of greater Continuance onely here 's the difference that an Eclipse we speak of the Sun it s always in the day which being a diversion from the common and ordinary course of it makes it so much the more to be observed even so it is here in this particular Take an Unregenerate Person with whom t is Night always and that knows no other Condition then that is this Sun it may be absent from him and he never regards it but now a Christian which is a Child of Light and a Child of the Day as the Apostle Paul expresses it We are not of the Light nor of Darkness 1 Thes 5.5 Such an one as this is to have the Sun though but for some time withdrawn from him it is very grievous and tedious to him Well we should all Labour and indeavour to have the fulness of this Metaphor made good and confirm'd unto us that God is a Sun that we may find him so for our own particulars and that influence which he has upon our Hearts as we shall have occasion to speak more anon and do nothing on our parts which may cause any Suspension or Intermission or Interruption of his favour and the sense of it to us We should be affraid not onely of an Eclipse of this Sun but also of any Cloudings of it by any Fogs or Mists or Damps which do at any time arise out of our Earthly and carnal Hearts we should study as near as may be that our Day it may be clear and bright and Sun-shine not onely to have some imperfect glimmerings and sparklings of Light to us but the Sun in its full strength and splender Our Graces glittering our Evidences sure our Consciences full of Comfort our Hearts in a full and constant apprehension of Gods love to us and inlarged in our love to him that so it may be with us which Solomon speaks of a Righteous person Prov. 4.18 The Path of the Just is as the shining Light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day And that 's the first part of the Resemblance whereby God is set forth unto us The Lord God is a Sun The second Resemblance is of a shield that is of another thing whereby God does set forth himself unto us and we have it in other places of Scripture we have it once before in this Psal the 9th vers of it Behold our God our Shield It was that which God promised to Abraham and upon that account exprest Himself to Him Fear not Abraham I am thy sheild and thine Exceeding great reward Gen. 15.1 So Psal 115.9.10 O Israel trust thou in the Lord he is their help and their shield And Prov. 30.5 Every word of God is pure he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him Under which expression we have signified unto us Gods Protection and Preservation of his People from those dangers which they are subject unto he will not onely be a Sun unto them to fill them with all Comfort but will likewise be a shield unto them to keep them from all Evil this is that which he is here in the second place set forth by as remarkable in him The Lord God is a sheild Indeed other things in Scripture are sometimes styled by this Name and that also in a Metaphoricall Acception as Magistrates they are called sheilds Psal 47.9 Cypri terrae The sheilds of the Earth which are said there do belong to God Forasmuch as it is their Place and Office to preserve and protect the Innocent from any wrong or injury which may be offered them therefore they are called shields unto them so likewise Faith is called a shield Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the sheild of Faith But all this is still in reference to this shield
the case of Senacheribs invading Him he spake Comfortably to his Souldiers about him saying be strong and Courageous be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be more with us then with him With him is an Arm of Flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battels 2 Chro. 32.7 Thus has the Lord still had more delight in those that have feared Him and that have hoped in his Mercy then he has had in all Humane Helps and Refuges and Advantages whatsoever And there 's a threefold Account which may be given hereof unto us First For the greater Confusion and Astonishment of those who are his Enemies There 's nothing which God does more delight in then to Crush the pride of man and to frustrate him of his Carnal Expectations now because that men do commonly trust and rely upon such things as these Horses and men and the like The strength of the one and the legs of the other as it is here exprest therefore does the Lord so much the rather and of purpose defeat and disappoint them and in that wherein they deal proudly does chuse to be above them Pride and Presumption and self Confidence and earnal Relyance is a thing so hateful and odious to God wheresoever he fins it that he will suffer or indure it But will chuse the weak things of the world to confound the strong 1 Cor. 1.27 He will make men to renounce all their Confidence in the Arm of flesh as the Church there seems to do in Hosea 14.3 Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find Mercy Secondly As for the Confusion of his Enemies so also the Incouragement of his own Servants that more readily close with him and with greater chearfulness commit themselves to Him in the greatest straits and exigences that may be that they may have somewhat to bottom upon even then when all outward helps fail them and give them the slip for this reason will God the rather own them in such cases as these are when they are armed with Faith and Patience and Hope and such Graces as these the Principle and Spiritual Armour of God rather then when accommodated with all other meanes besides Thirdly For the greater Advancement of his own Honour and Gloy There is nothing which God does more delight in or indeed has cause to delight in then the magnifying and advancing of Himself now this he does in nothing more then in owning of the Necessities of his People who fly unto him by Prayer and depend upon him by Faith and that especially when they are shut of all other Helps and means besides His power is most seen in their weakness and his strength in their Infirmities and his Assistance in their want and deprivation of all other Advantages And therefore because it is so does he delight to put it forth and evert it yea and sometimes refuses the Addition of outward Helps unto them as we see it was with Gideon as to the Midianites The Lord said unto him the people that are with thee are too many to give into their hands least Israel Vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand hath saved me Judg. 7. vers 2. The Consideration of this Point may be thus far improved First As a word of Direction and Councel to the Servants of God to teach them what Especially to look after and to fortify in themselves and that is such Graces as these are which are here mentioned in the Text. These are the Churches best Weapons and Preparations which she can make to her self and which will stand here more instead then all others besides as is here intimated to us It is not so much how far she is provided in other respects and Considerations as how far in this These are of use against Temporal Enemies and these are of use also against Spiritual for which reason there is cause that we should get them and take them to our selves Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the Wyles of the Devil for we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood onely but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world against Spiritual Wickedness in high places in Ephes 6.10.11 And again in vers 13. of the same Chap. Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the Evil day and having done all to stand These are armes which are liked and approved of by God himself who has the approaching and accepting of them he delights not so much in the others as is signified in the foregoing Scripture but these are such wherein he takes pleasure and in them that wear them Secondly Here 's a word of Consolation to the Church in her greatest Distresses which sometime she may fall into and under the snares and Insultations of her Enemies who are apt sometimes to judg of her according to outward Supplies and either to esteem of her or to despise her as she abounds or is defective in these but let her see here what is her greatest and cheifest security and that which must be most of use unto her in the Evil Day where man despises God has there in greatest regard and takes cheifest pleasure in her Thirdly Which is the General Scope and Drift of the whole Psalm and so of this part of it amongst the rest here is that which should inlarge our hearts in Praise and Thanksgiving to God for his Providence and care over his Church as it is here exprest unto us Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and â—â—â—se is comely As it is so in other regards so for this also which is here mentioned before us That takes pleasure in those that fear him and in those that hope in his Mercy This is brought in here in the Text not onely as a matter of Information but likewise of Celebration not onely as that which is to be be known but also acknowledged There are three things here propounded at once which are matter of due acknowledgment to us First That there is Mercy for us Secondly That there is occasion given us of hoping in this Mercy And Thirdly That our hope in it is so pleasing and acceptable to God himself First That there is Mercy for us and that God is a God of Mercy and Compassion he is to be praised and acknowledged for this that God deals not with us in a way of Rigor and strict Justice but in a way of Mercy and Love It is matter of just Acknowledgment the Scripture and the Psalmist especially is full of it's praises of God for them Secondly That there is administred to us occasion of hoping in
two Eminent Divisions and Ranks of People as we have alrerdy heard that is High and Low Rich and Poor Great and Small Magistrates and People Nor neither of these in these circumstances shall be exempted from Destruction and Desolation Those which are Great and High their Eminency shall not secure them but rather expose them And those which are Mean and Low their obscurity shall not hide them but also unvail them wherein the Lord does very much pervert the vain conceits of many persons in this particular For as great Persons depend upon their Greatness as thinking that that will shelter them and keep off danger from them So mean persons do sometimes trust to their Meanness as thinking that there shall be no notice taken of them The rush thinks to scape whiles the Branch is cut off yea but if these be otherwise then they should be they shall both of them go to it The wicked which are poor sometime there 's great wickedness amongst them I mean the common and ordinary Beggers which live without God in the world all which as the rush which are wicked none are here exempted And so for Persons in Places and Government and Authority which are the Head and the Branch if they still be naught and wicked and Atheistical so as instead of punishing sin to commit it instead of being examples of virtue to be patterns of vice instead of being a terror to evil works to be a terror to good they cannot think to escape neither in the time of Gods general Judgment and Destruction and not to be overwhelmed with it In a word when Governours shall be the Rulers of Sodom and Governours shall be the People of Gomorrah as the Prophet calls those of Israel in Esaiah 1.10 What can be looked for and expected by each but even ruine and destruction it self The Lord shall cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush That 's the Second thing to wit the Extent The Third and Last with which I will end is the Season or time of Execution and that is here exprest to be in one day There 's two things at once in it First it is tempus definitum and Secondly it is tempus contractum It is a day in regard of the certainty of it as that which is set and fixt And it is one day in regard of the suddenness as that which is speedy and soon accomplisht First It is exprest by a Day this time for the execution of Gods final and destructive Judgment It is that which he has set and appointed to all impenitent and incorrigible sinners Not so much a day in the ordinary account of it in so many hours but a time and particular season There 's a particular day for such a Peoples particular Visitation as the Scripture sometimes expresses it It is said of wicked men that the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that are coming upon them make hast Deut. 33.35 And again the wicked his day is a coming in Psal 37.13 Look as there is a day of respit and favor and indulgence in regard of Mercy This day as it is said to Jerusalem so on the other side there is a day of Wrath and Vengeance in regard of Judgment Secondly It is one day in regard of the suddenness and quickness of execution of Judgment This is that which God threatens to wicked Persons when he hath given them the warning of many days and they are not moved or reformed by them to destroy them and cut them off in one day that is very speedily and with great dispatch so as not to be very long and tedious about it He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 29.1 And Psal 64.7 God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded In one day that is at one time and with one destruction As Caligula wisht that the People of Rome had all but one neck that he might cut them off at once so does God threaten here to do with Israel as provoked by their wickedness even to destroy them altogether and in one moment as Abishai said to David of Saul that he would smite him to the Earth at once and would not smite him the second time 1 Sam. 26.8 And as the Lord threatens in Nahum 1.9 That he would make an utter end Affliction should not rise up the second time As the Lord threatens Babylon That in one hour should her Judgment come Rev. 18.10 The Consideration of all these things laid together comes to this to teach us to reflect upon our selves for our own particular ourselves of this Nation in General and our selves in this City in Special To consider how it is or may be with us if we go on to provoke God by our Impenitency and hardness of heart and continue in sin by our Oaths and Drunkenness and Uncleanness and Atheism and Profaness Let us not flatter and indulge our selves or bear our selves up upon Gods former goodness to us and patience with us and forbearance of us which will make but so much the more in conclusion against us as having turned his grace into wantonness and his having suffered so much mercy and loving-kindness which we have been partakers of We cannot be dearer to God than was his ancient people of Israel and yet we see here what he threatens to them in such cases as these were Therefore let us not be high-minded but fear for as the Apostle Paul argues to the Romans If God spared not the natural Branches but in this case cut off them neither will he also spare us but if we mend not and reform our ways even we also shall be cut off We cannot but observe and take notice except we are very blind and stupid indeed of the Judgments of God which are upon us and do farther threaten us for our sins We see how many amongst us in all places both in City and Country are cut off by those raging diseases which are amongst us How God punishes us in our bowels and smites us in our inward parts and takes away divers from us of all sorts and ranks and conditions Head and Tail Branch and Rush Yea and smites also very quickly in one day God does not only herein deal with the poor and meaner sort of People as at other times but even with the richer and greater It is observed by some that there are more of those who have been snatcht away by these late distempers than were in the late Plague and Pestilence which was amongst us Nor he does not only take away the aged and ancient and decripit but even infants and children and young and strong men as if he did indeed intend a general and universal Destruction of us SERMON XXXVI Esaiah 57.21 There is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked There is nothing more necessary for a Preacher and a Dispenser of the Word of
Professors and Embracers of it Now shall we exempt such Persons as these from being Wicked Men or from being liable to Eternal Damnation Or shall such as these think to flee from the Wrath to come Surely no in no wise they are as deeply engaged in it as any other and are as certainly inovlved in it Therefore Let none flatter themselves in this Particular or think ever the better of themselves in such Circumstances for they have no cause so to do For they are notwithstanding wicked Persons as they are here termed And accordingly shall have the Portion of the Wicked to happen unto them which is to be cast into utter darkness and to have their part in that lake which burns with fire and brimstone For this purpose consider thus much That God looks at the inward frame and temper of their Spirits more than any thing else which is considerable in that And if that be not such as it should be he has no reckoning or esteem of them as such who are little better herein than the Devil himself Take the Devil himself and If he were to live here in Humane Shape upon Earth he would not be a common Drunkard or Swearer or Whore-master or Ranting Person but would in a manner scorn such kind of Brutish and Swinish Sins as those as which would not be so much for his advantage No but he would be rather a secret Envyer and Underminer of the Power of Religion he would oppose and hinder Goodness and Piety all he could he would Scoff and Mock at Christianity and the Principles of it and do his utmost indeavour to draw men from the entertaining of it All this and the like he would do in a fair outward and civil conversation And whiles many others do no more then so and in a manner do as much How can they do other than fall into the condemnation of the Devil which is here mentioned that is To depart into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 Therefore though we have Civility and would have others to have it also and to be conscionable in the practise of all the Duties that belong unto it as they are laid down in the Second Table of the Law Yet we would have men to rest or content themselves in such a state as this is without somewhat else added unto it of Repentance and Humility and Self-denyal and Faith in Christ A new and gracious frame and temper of heart causing them to hate all kind of sin considered as sin and for the forsaking of it and to apply themselves to every thing which is Good for Goodness sake To be renewed in the spirit of their minds as the Scipture expresses it To take this part which we are now upon in the full Notion and Latitude of it concerning such Persons as are wicked and shall be turned into Hell we are to take in this as in a special manner belonging hereunto and as principally intended in it namely The Sin of Vnbelief and Disobedience to the Gospel of Christ. Such as are guilty of such Sins as these are the Main and Chief Sinners which are here spoken of as exposed and given up to this Punishment This is the Condemnation says our Blessed Saviour That light is come into the world and that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.19 And so the Apostle Peter seems to declare unto us in that his quick and convincing Question and Expostulation 1 Pet 4.17 If Judgment begin with us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of Christ And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Where by the Ungodly and Sinner he seems to intend more especially such as he had said were disobedient to the Gospel These being such as do in a special manner deserve such names to be put upon them These shall not be able to appear at the General Day of Account with any Confidence or Boldness in themselves Therefore though other Sinners are as we have shewn before included in this Expression of Wicked Persons and so consequently liable to the Judgment which is here passed upon them Yet these are more especially intended above the rest as being mainly concerned in it Vnbelief it is the great Damning Sin because all other Sins besides that do especially damn in the strength of that as giving an Actual Force and Efficacy unto them especially where it is joyned with slighting and contemning of the Mercies and Ordinances and Opportunities of Salvation Here it is damning indeed and puts those who are guilty of it into the lowest place of Hell This our Saviour intimates to us in the Case of Corazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum those Cities wherein most of his mighty Works had been done with little success as to the Improvement of them That it should be more tollerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgment than for them Matth. 11.22 The Tyrians rnd Sidonians and Sodomites they were great and grievous Sinners They were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly as the Scripture tells us Gen. 13.10 But yet these people which repulsed the Gospel and refused to comply with that they were wickeder and greater Sinners than those and are threatned with a hotter place in Hell as belonging unto them And so much may suffice to have been spoken of the Persons here adjudged and condemned in their Comprehensive Representation expressed in that word The Wicked as reduced to three Ranks especially that is Open and Scandalous Sinners Close and Reserved Hipocrites Carnal and Vnregenerate Persons The Second is as they are laid down Emphatically in these Words And all the Nations that forget God Wherein again two Particulars more First The Subjects of the Punishment here mentioned and they are all the Nations Secondly They Guilt which is fastened upon those Subjects as the Ground and Foundation of that Punishment and that is forgetting of God For the First The Subjects of this Punishment here mentioned They are all Nations Those if they prove to be wicked they shall not escape the Judgment of God Neither their Wealth nor Strength nor Power nor Multitude shall in this life be and security to them Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing saith the Psalmist Thou shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to peices like a Potter vessel Psal 21.9 In Jer. 25.17 It is said That all the Nations were made to drink of the cup of Gods fury And in other places we also read of the Destruction and Desolation of all Nations So as these as well as particular persons are concerned and involved in it And there 's a twofold Ground for it The one is the Great and Almighty Power of God And the other is the Great and Vehement Importunity of sin First Gods Peace and Omnipotency When we consider what the Lord himself is in his
behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn either to the right hand or to the left But now farther if we please we may take these words a little more at large as I in part hinted before When ye turn to the right hand or to the left not as touching it of two extreams but in reference to all the passages of our lives whatsoever they be When ye turn to the right hand or to the left that is whatsoever place ye are in whatever business ye are about whatever condition befalls you ye shall have the hints of the Word and Spirit of God assistant to you This is the promise which is made to the Saints and Servants of God And it is made not only here in this Text but also in divers other places besides as Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass So Prov. 3.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy pathes So again in Prov. 16.3 Commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy Thoughts shall be Established This Disposition in God towards his People is founded on his Affection to them He loves them and therefore he Counsels them and cannot abide to see them miscarry Love it is full of direction of the party which it is placed upon and will not suffer him to go out of his way And so it is with God to us This is a great Comfort and Incouragement to us and should quicken us especially in his service wherein especially we are sure to have him to guide us and go before us and be assistant unto us And that in the darkness of this World wherein we walk If a man have a bad way yet if he have a good guide it is some Comfort to him This is the Lord to his Servants He teaches them to go taking them by the hand as it in Hos 11.3 Oh how much should we be affected herewith Especially in this Age and Time wherin we live In which we have so many Labarynths and uncertainties that a great many do not know what to do nor what way to betake themselves to We have so many humours and conceits amongst us that we know not almost what to believe nor what to practise It is the case and condition of many people that they are at a nonplus and almost at their wits ends in this particular Well in all these uncertainties and distractions Here 's the Comfort and Incouragement of Gods servants which do not provoke him to do otherwise with them from some default or miscarriage in them in which case it may be suspended to them That they shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk in it when they turn c. But here it may partinently be demanded How this word shall be discerned and known because there 's a great deal of deceit and mistake in the particulars many taking that to be the word and spirit of God which is no more but their own foolish fancy and the suggestions and intimation of the Devil joyning with their own corrupt hearts It is the condition of many people now in these present days and never more than now it is For this There are divers Touchstones and discoveries of it which we will briefly instance in First Let this within thee be regulated by the word without thee And the motions and suggestions of the Spirit examined by the Rule of the Scripture and the written word of God to the Law and the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 God never speaks in the Conscience contrary to what he speaks in the Scripture for he is unchangeable and cannot deny himself If therefore we have any motions in us which are cross and opposite hereunto we have very greet cause to suspect them as coming to us from another hand yea to abandon them and to bid defiance to them For which as the Wind does not sit at the same time in two contrary corners North and South so neither does the Spirit breath in two contrary motions Good and Evil. The motions of the spirit are always suitable and agreeable to it self Secondly They are also orderly and regular They keep men within the compass of their Callings and the spheres and the place which God has set them in Motions either from mens own Spirits or the spirit of Satan acting in them they are many times out of course they carry them above their line and make them to stretch themselves beyond their measure as the Apostle speaks But those which come from God and the suggestions and inclinations of his spirit they confine them and keep them within bounds They order them and frame them and keep them within bounds suitable to their several stations and Relations and Conditions and Circumstances in the world which they have regard and heed unto So likewise which we may refer hereunto they are agreeable also to the law of Nature and Civility and ingenuity in us Therefore such motions as cross these they are not such as come from Gods spirit but from the spirit of the Devil when any are carried to such acts as are against Civility and common modesty it self Thirdly They are also mild and gentle and seasonable They are not ordinarily violent raptures but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does and reflexion upon it A man knows where he is and what he does while he is followed with them which in the motions of Satan is otherwise Fourthly They are discernable also from their Effects and the ends which they tend unto all the hints and motions of Gods spirit they still tend to make us better and to carry us nearer to himself one way or other they serve to promote Piety and Holiness in us and to better us especially and above all in our Inward man whereas those which are contrary and do serve to weaken Grace in us they have another spring for them Lastly In all these Cases the Spirit commonly brings his own Conviction and Evidence with him And as he says This is the way walk ye in it so he does likewise manifest that it is he that says it from whence the Soul of a Christian may be assured that he is not mistaken or deluded in it Look as those which had the Spirit of Prophesy they did by the same light know both the truth of the things themselves which they prophesied about as also that it was from God that message which they delivered even so is it with those also still which have any motions of the Spirit of God in them they do at one and the same time know both the things themselves which they are moved unto as also the Authour and Original of them But so much for that In these hints and suggestions of the Spirit this voice behinde us may be discovered by
of the strength of Beleivers in general Secondly A Particular Demonstration of this Proposition taken from the Consequences and Effects The Proposition in General That ye have in these words They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength The Demonstration of this Proposition in the Particular Ye have in these words They shall mount up with eagles wings they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint We begin with the first viz. The General Proposition They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Wherein again we have two Branches more First The Persons spoken of and they are Those which wait upon the Lord. Secondly The thing it self which is spoken of them and that is that They shall renew their strength For the First The Persons mentioned or spoken of they are Those that wait upon the Lord. This is here made the Description of God's People of Believers the Saints and Servants of God They are such as wait upon God This is a Duty often called for in Scripture and so considerable a Duty it is as that thereby the whole Race of Godly Men is expressed and signified to us As if there were nothing else almost which were pertinent hereunto but that It is a Phrase which we often meet with in Scripture to this purpose Thus Psal 25.3 Let none that wait on thee be ashamed Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him So again Lamen 3.25 The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him Where they that wait for him and that seek him are all one both Descriptions of his Children There are two things eminent in Waiting and so in Waiting upon God Expectation and Patience There is Looking for somewhat from him And there is a quiet Resting and Tarrying till it be bestowed And both Properties of true Believers First There is Expectation from God there is Looking for somewhat from him to be bestowed upon them This is always in the Servants of God Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Master and as the eyes of an handmaid looks unto the hands of her Mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy c. All Good Christians they do certainly expect somewhat from the hands of God and that which is worth the expecting Even glory and honour and immortality and eternal life as we have it exprest unto us Rom. 2.7 Other matters there are which they do sometimes look for and very well may but these things they look for especially as their reward and their portion and their inheritance and such as may not be denyed them They wait for these absolutely Secondly As they have the Waiting of Expectation so they have likewise of Patience They are content to stay Gods time and leisure for the obtaining of any thing which they look for and expect from him He that believeth maketh not hast Isa 28.16 He doth not prevent or out-run God in HIs Providence towards him but stayes till he thinks fitting to help him This is the right Temper of a true Christian and Believer Prophane and desperate persons they flye off in a discontent and impatience like that wicked king Jehorum 2 King 6 ult Why should I wait on the Lord any longer but his people they wait for him and they are contented so to do The Reason of it is because they are sure to speed at last There 's none that wait upon God shall be ashamed that is shall be disappointed which is many times the cause of shame As we see sometimes in waiting upon the Creature in waiting upon vain men As we have it exprest unto us in Job 6.19 20. The Troops of Tema looked the Companies of Sheba waited for them They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither c. thus it falls out in waiting upon such as these but now in waiting upon the Lord it is otherwise They that wait upon him they shall be sure not to want success Nay They shall speed the better for waiting there 's that also considerable The more willing we are to wait upon God the better it is for us for He he payes for time and gives us the more because we have waited This the servants of God considering are therefore content to wait and that with patience Thus David Psal 40.1 I waited patiently for the Lord or as it is in the Hebrew Text. I waited in waiting But so much briefly of the first branch of the first General viz. The Persons here mentioned Believers They that wait upon the Lord. The Second which I chiefly aym at in this Text is what is said of them and that is they shall renew their strength By strength here we are to understand spiritual strength strength in reference to Religion and Christian Conversation That 's the strength which is here pointed at in this place by the prophet Isay And when is is said they shall renew it there are three things intimated to us in this Expression First Their Duty Secondly Their Disposition Thirdly Their Priviledge Their Duty they ought to do it Their Disposition they are ready to do it Their Priviledge they may do it or 't is that which shall actually and indeed happen unto them First Here 's their Duty they ought to do it this is that which which lyes upon a Christian as a Duty belonging unto him to improve still in spiritual strength every day to grow stronger and stronger in his inward man To go from strength to strength as it is Psal 84.7 This is that which the Scripture still calls for as Ephesi 6.10 Finally brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And Colos 1.10 11. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might in the inward man A Christian must be like a tree not only growing to bear more fruit but also growing to more strength We need a great deal of strength not onely to overcome our own weaknesses but also to bear with the weaknesses of other men Whiles we are here required to renew our strength there are two things which may be pointed out to us in this Expression First Recovery of strength there where it is in some measure lost and abated in us To renew it that is to regain it to require it and fetch it up again after some diminution Secondly The Improvement of strength to renew it that is to increase it and to add new strength unto it Each of these are here imployed and both to be practised by us in reference to our Christian Conversation we must renew our strength to each purpose First In a way of Recovery we must renew it that is repair it Those which have lost any measure and degree of Grace which they have formerly had they must indeavour to restore it again It is an ill thing for a
in its severity and unsupportableness IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First an awakening Commination Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Secondly a convincing Expostulation To what end is it for you Thirdly an express Conclusion or Determination The day of the Lord is darkness and not light We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Commination in these words Woe unto you c. In which passage there are two terms to be explain'd by us First what is here meant by the day of the Lord. Secondly what is here meant by the desiring of this day of the Lord which is here censured and threaten'd in this people For the former the day of the Lord Jom Jehovah it may be here reduced to a threefold explication First to the day of death or personal dissolution Secondly to the day of captivity or National dissolution Thirdly to the day of Judgment or general Account Each of these are the day of the Lord and may promiscuously one with the other be understood of us here in this Scripture Now Secondly for the other term which is the desiring of this day and as it is here censured and threaten'd in this people this it may be taken three manner of ways First for their desiring of it rashly because they did not consider it Secondly for their desiring it scoffingly because they did not believe it Thirdly for their desiring it desperately because they did not fear it All these kinds of desire in reference to this day of the Lord in either of the fore-mentioned considerations are here condemned in them First Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly and foolishly because ye do not consider it Such desires as these of this day there are sometimes to be found in the world whether in reference to death and judgment or in reference to common and publick calamity First take it in reference to death and judgment There are divers persons sometimes which we meet withal who do seem very much to desire the day of the Lord in this sense though in the mean time if they duly consider it they have little cause or ground to do so Such as Job sometimes speaks of that long for death whiles it cometh not and dig for as more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3.21 22. Indeed there is a desire of such a day as this which in the right constitution of it is very noble and commendable and is sometimes made the character of the true servants of God to breathe after death and departure out of the world and to wait and long for the coming of Christ to Judgment Thus old Simeon when he had seen Christ come in the flesh and now had him in his arms he sings his nunc dimittas Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.29 30. And St. Paul he desired to depart and to be with Christ as in it self much better than to abide here in the flesh Phil. 1.23 And the Prophet Elijah as some interpret it out of an holy zeal he cryes out It is enough now Lord take away my life first for I am not better than my Fathers 1 King 19.4 Thus have the servants of God sometimes desired the day of the Lord as it concerned their own death and dissolution And this desire of theirs has been looked upon as very warrantable and commendable in them So likewise as it has concerned the last and general day of account they have desired this day of the Lord also And it hath been remarkable in them so to do Look as it was the character of the Servants of God in the days before Christ to desire and wait for his first coming his coming in the flesh Therefore Abraham is said to have seen his day and to have rejoyced and Simeon before-mentioned to have waited for the consolation of Israel So it is also now the character of God's servants in these days since Christ to desire and wait for his second coming his coming to Judgment These are compared to faithful Servants that wait for the coming of their Master and that with desire Thus Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus come quickly And the souls under the Altar they hasten his coming also Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 6.10 So St. Paul tells us that Christ will give a Crown of righteousness to him and not unto him only but also to all them that love and desire his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 So that it seems such persons as these are there have sometimes been and are still in the world which do desire this day of the Lord and that as having no woe belonging to them neither for so doing but rather the contrary which have not been threaten'd but rather encouraged for such desires as have been in them to this purpose But yet these here in the Text they have a woe denoune'd against them for their desire of the day of the Lord and so have many others besides as those who desire it rashly and foolishly as not considering for what end they do so We may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First from discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from presumption of their own innocency Thirdly from ignorance or misapprehension of the nature of the thing it self These people here in the Text they seemed to desire the day of the Lord thus and so are condemn'd and declared against for their desiring of it as that which is unwarrantable and unjustifiable for any to do so First They desired the day of the Lord that is the day either of death or judgment and in particular of their own personal and present departure out of a principle of discontentedness in their own conditions Because they had not all things to their mind and just as they would have therefore forsooth they would presently be gone and leave the world they wish for death and departure hence out of a spirit of impatience Thus it hath been sometimes even with some of God's Servants themselves when he has left them to themselves such fits of distemper as these have now and then discovered themselves in them Thus some have suspected it of Elijah in the place before alledged when he prayed to God to take him out of this present life it was out of the rediousness which he did conceive from Ahab and Jezebel's persecutions So Job though at other times noted for his admirable patience yet for the time he was surprized with this distemper Chap. 6.8 9. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let
judgment This passage may be looked upon by us as it lies here in the Text two manner of ways First in the general proposition of it as it stands in it self Secondly in the particular scope of it in reference to that which went before and the persons to whom it is directed First Take it simply and absolutely as it lies in it self and in the general proposition which is here exprest in a twofold representation First in the Affirmative what it is and that is that it is darkness Secondly in the Negative what it is not and that is that it is not light First To speak of the former and that is the Affirmative The day of the Lord is darkness Thus we find it to be called in some other places besides as Joel 2.1 2. The day of the Lord cometh and is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness And so also in Zeph. 1.15 A day of wasteness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess c. This is true of the day of the Lord in the full extent of it whether we take it of personal desolation the day of death or of national desolation the day of captivity or of general resurrection the day of judgment But still with this restriction as it referr'd to ungodly persons and to impenitent sinners with respect had to such as these are is this day that which it is said here to be But especially as I said does it refer to the day of death and final judgment which is here intended This is called a day of darkness that is to say a day of extreme misery and perplexity Darkness and light they do in the usual acception of Scripture where they are used metaphorically denote sorrow and gladness as it were easy to give instance of it and so here in this place amongst the rest Forasmuch as darkness does contain in it all kinds of sadness in which is fear and horror and solitariness and all kind of misery Such is this day of the Lord to the fore-mentioned persons not only dark in the conerete but also darkness even in the very abstract it self Take the unprofitable Servant and cast him into outer darkness Matth. 25.30 The ground hereof is this Because wicked men they are darkness themselves therefore is this day of the Lord darkness They are in the darkness of sin and ignorance whiles they live here in the world delight in works of darkness and which are opposite to the light of Grace and therefore go into a place of darkness and which is opposite to the light of Glory Their understandings are darkened and therefore their conditions are darkness also Being led and carried from one kind of darkness to another It is a day of darkness that is a day of fearfulness and terribleness and horror and consternation of mind There 's every thing terrible in it and adding to the astonishment of it The sound of the Trumpet the appearance of the Judge the opening of the Books the passing of the Sentence the dissolution of the whole frame of Heaven and earth the Sea and the waves roaring the Heavens passing away with a great noise the Elements melting with servent heat the Earth and all the works that are therein burâ—â— up the Sun darken'd the Moon withdrawing her light the Stars falling from Heaven and the powers of Heaven shaken What a terrible day must this be to such as are not provided for it that has all these concurrences in it That 's the first expression here considerable viz. the Affirmative The day of the Lord is darkness The Second is the additional Negative and that is that it is not light which is added for the greater emphasis of it Therefore we find it to be reiterated in the verse following darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it And it is agreeable in the like form of speech in reference to other matters which we meet withal in Scripture Thus Deut. 32.4 speaking of God A God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he And Joh. 8.44 speaking of Satan He is a liar and there is no truth in him c. In 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us In all which places and the like the Negative is joyned with the Affirmative to make it more emphatical and so here To take a more particular account of it It is said here darkness and not light as we may conceive for these reasons First by way of opposition darkness and not light that is it is not light but darkness as expressing the simple nature and condition of that day Take the word day and it does in the ordinary and common acception of it denote light Whensoever it begins to be light it begins to be day and whensoever it ceases to be light it ceases to be day as that which does give the proper notion and denomination unto it and which distinguishes the one from the other God called the light day and the darkness he called night Gen. 1.5 Yea but here now in the Text it is day and yet not light day and no light in it This by way of opposition Secondly By way of intension and to shew the greatness of this darkness It is dark and dark entirely without the mixture of any thing to qualify it or to take off from the severity of it without ease without comfort without direction or any good counsel which are such things as are sometimes exprest to us by the name of light This is the misery of Hell and of the judgment which passes upon wicked men that it is absolute and compleat and entire The wrath of God without mixture as the Scripture calls it that is without any mixture of favour or refreshment in it Take any day whatsoever here in the world whether in the proper sense or in the metaphorical and it is not so over-darkned with darkness but has some kind of glimmerings of light in it The day which is fullest of clouds the rainiest and most tempestuous day yet it partakes of some light And the day which is fullest of troubles the saddest and most disconsolate day it has some mixtures of refreshment in it likewise which do serve to allay it Yea but this day of the Lord here spoken of it has none of this it is darkness and no light it is sadness and no comfort Thirdly By way of perpetuity and continuation Darkness and no light that is darkness and always dark There are some days which though they may be dark for a while yet they do not abide and continue to be so but do at last overcome that The Sun it breaks through the clouds and the day recovers its light at last though perhaps it be long first ere it does it Yea but here it does not do so Dark and no light this is a continual and
endless darkness Lastly By way of extent or explication to shew unto us the full nature of this business wherein it does consist There are two Branches of the sentence of condemnation and which the judgment of the great day does extend unto The one is positive to the punishment of sense and the enduring of exquisite torments and so in that consideration it is called darkness The other is privative in the punishment of loss and expulsion from God's glorious presence and the comfort of his countenance and so in that consideration it is said to be no light And thus we have seen this passage in each expression of it both Affirmative and Negative darkness and not light And so much may be also spoken of it as consider'd simply and absolutely in its general Proposition We may further Secondly look upon it relatively and in its particular scope as directed more especially to the persons above mentioned who desired this day of the Lord. To these the Prophet Amos here declares that this day it is darkness and not light And here again in this reference it carries a threefold force or emphasis with it First an emphasis of Information to those which were ignorant and did not know that this day was Secondly an emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know what this day was Thirdly an emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate which knew it but laid aside the thoughts and considerations of it and would put it to the venture First I say This expression The day of the Lord is darkness and not light it has an emphasis of information to those who were ignorant and which did not know it as if he had said thus unto them You seem to desire the coming of the day of the Lord as if thereby you should get some great good to your selves but alas as the case stands with you you have no cause at all to do so for there will be no advantage from it to you The proper object of desire it is good and not evil it is light and not darkness But this day of the Lord as it is circumstanced it is that which is quite contrary it is evil and not good it is darkness and not light that ye may rightly understand it The world has other notions commonly of death and judgment than those which they should have but the Scripture and word of God is the best instructer of them in this particular and that gives them a true account and estimate of such things as these are if they will hearken unto it Secondly An emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know it Profane persons as I shewed before they laugh'd at those things thought there was no such thing indeed as the day of the Lord and therefore scoffingly and in scorn call'd for it Well let it come We would fain see this day that you speak of and threaten us withal Well says the Prophet to these ye have no great cause to be so full of this confidence and security if ye consider all for I can tell you there is somewhat more in this day than you are aware of there 's no playing or jesting with it This day of the Lord it is darkness and not light what ever you may think of it it is so and so you will find it The word of God is powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword and the threatenings of the word having the spirit of God going along with them and setting them home upon the conscience have an ability in them to conquer and confound the most impartial mockers Thirdly An emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate and though they knew and in some sort believed such a day as this was yet did not fear it but were hardened in their hearts against it To such as these the Prophet here declares the horridness and unsupportableness of it That though they may think they could grapple with it and hold out against the extremities of it yet in conclusion and when it comes to the trial they will find it to be too heavy for them and above their strength whether the day of common and publick calamity or the day of trial and general judgment Who may abide the day of his coming or who shall stand when he shall appear as it is Mal. 3.2 And again Rev. 6.16 17. They shall call to the mountains to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Take this day in reference to the Jews for their particular and it was full of astonishment in each acception whether we take it for the day of their Captivity or for the day of their Messias The day of their Captivity it was a doleful day unto them insomuch as the Prophet Jeremy made it the sole matter of his Book of Lamentations And the day of the Messias that was an heavy day like wise that it proved their final rejection for since that time they are mark'd out to the world for a persidious people and hardly known for a people The Vse of all to our selves and so to draw to a conclusion comes to this We have heard how the day of the Lord is darkness and not light that is terrible and full of horror in the whole latitude and extent of it whether we take it for the day of death and general judgment or whether we take it for the day of captivity and National visitation Now what remains but that accordingly we should be sensible and apprehensive of it in this representation and from thence to prevent the terribleness of it to our selves For this is the nature of such things as these are that the terribleness of them encreases with the security about them and the less grievous they are thought to be afore-hand the more heavy are they when they happen and come to pass And on the other side preparations for them do take off from the dreadfulness of them We should therefore labour to get a stock of Grace against such times as these are and in this day of the Lord's mercy and respite and intermission prepare for the day of his wrath and judgment and visitation We should labour and endeavour to make our peace with God in Christ who alone can take off the terribleness of that day from us and make it of a day of darkness to be a day of light We should cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light in the abandoning of all wicked and sinful courses and in the practice of all spiritual and heavenly Graces We should walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof as
remoteness this is in such as are wholly and universally depriv'd of all the Ordinances and spiritual Dispensations This is the case of the Heathens and of such as live out of the pales of the Church These are far from the Kingdom of God and accordingly are signified and described in Scripture by this expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall find it twice together in one Chapter Eph. 2.13 Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the bloOd of Jesus Far off i. e. Gentiles and Pagans So ver 17. He came and preach'd peace to you which were afar off and to them that are nigh To them that were nigh that is to the Jews a people joyn'd to God by special covenant And to you which were afar off that is the Gentiles which were in a state of separation from him his Ordinances and Covenant and Salvation This is the state and condition of the Heathen such people as have not heard of the Gospel they are at a distance from the Kingdom of God Neither can we upon grounds of Scripture give them any hope so remaining of eternal life What God may do by his Prerogative with some particulars among them we do not dispute nor enquire it is a secret within his own breast which we meddle not withal but in an ordinary way of proceeding and according to that course which he has prescribed and set down in his word we cannot expect it Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other c. Gal. 3.8 In thee shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed And Eph. 2.12 Without Christ and having no hope are joyn'd together Therefore let us take heed of all such Doctrines and opinions as those are which are too favourable to them in this particular as there are too many which now abound in these days who have inlarged the bounds of Salvation so far as to reach even to Heathens and such persons as never heard of Christ who can find room in Heaven for Aristotle and Plato and Seneca and such as these This is more then we have warrant for in all the Scriptures where we meet not with any thing assuring or intimating so much unto us Besides that it is not our business to trouble our selves about it That which lies upon us is to make use of such Authors as these are in a way of Scholastical improvement and to get what we can from them for the inlargement of our natural abilities but as for their final condition to leave that to an higher hand Not to be wiser than God or to have more pitty than is in him who knows what to do with his creatures without our counsel or instruction And especially bless his name that he has been pleased to put our selves into a better condition that whereas we were once afar of we of this Land and Nation as barbarous Heathens as any God has made known his Gospel to us and brought us within the limits of his Church I say we should bless him for it and labour to walk worthy of it and answerable to it and the more by prizing such a mercy as this is We should take heed whiles we think to advance common Grace that we do not diminish from peculiar and disparage that and whiles we go about to save the Heathens we do not in the mean time lose our selves So much for that The remoteness from the means which is Absolute in such persons as live out of the pales and compass of the Church Secondly There 's a Comparative remoteness which we may by the way also take notice of in such who live within the bounds of the Church and the compass of Christian Common wealths and yet have little or none of the Gospel sounding in their ears It is the case of many at this day in some dark corners of the land where saving only the name and notion of it people live in a condition little different even from Pagans and Heathens themselves This is a thing which is not so deeply thought of as it ought to be which makes it to be so much the more sad and miserable in it self We have great cause to bewail it and where we have any occasion or opportunity afforded unto us for our own particulars to remedy it that so others may be brought unto the same nearness together with our selves Besides all this there 's a remoteness voluntary and contracted in those which are near the means and yet never the nearer which put the word of God from them as it is said of those obstinate Jews Acts 13 46. which enjoy the Gospel and are never the better by it yea 't is well if they be not the worse more harden'd and confirm'd in evil These mens case is worse than the others But so much of the first Explication in which any be said to be far from the Kingdom of God Namely in regard of the means of Grace in the Ordinances and Ministerial Dispensations The second is in regard of the Terms namely the state in which they are at present compared with the state in which they stand in opposition unto As there are many which are far from the Kingdom of God that is from Grace and eternal Salvation as being destitute of those outward means which are requisite in order to that condition so there are many which are likewise far from the Kingdom of God as being destitute of those personal qualifications considerable and desirable in themselves in order to that condition likewise This I call a remoteness of terms forasmuch as these two will never meet or come together so remaining Whether we take it for a remoteness of principles that is such a frame of spirit as does not suit with the temper of a Christian or whether we take it for a remoteness of conversation that is such a tract and course of life as does not suit with an heavenly condition Those which are under either of these distances they are far from the Kingdom of God We 'll for brevities sake joyn them both together because the one refers to the other And here there are divers sorts of persons which we may consider as at a very great distance in this behalf We 'll reduce them to three ranks especially First all notoriously wicked and profane and licentious persons Drunkards and Whoremasters and Swearers and Profaners of the Sabbath such persons as live in idleness and all manner of debaucheries these are far from the Kingdom of God with a witness There 's no coming for these to Heaven at all whiles they continue in this wretched estate and it will cost them a great deal of pains to bring them out of it For this the Scripture's clear in sundry places Gal. 5.21 Having spoken of the works of the flesh of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Eph. 5.6 Let no man
Lord and Saviour towards us And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text which is the Antecedent or Intermediate promise which Christ here makes to his Disciples upon his departure from them And that is that he will come again unto them The Second is the Subsequent or Ultimate promise in these words And will receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Where again there are two Branches considerable of us First the simple Intimation and Secondly the additional Amplification The Intimation that we have in these words I will receive you unto my self The Amplification that we have in these That where I am there ye may be also First To speak of the simple and absolute Intimation I will receive you to my self And this again he may be looked upon by us two manner of ways First in its connexion with that which went immediately before Secondly in its distinction as consider'd alone by it self First take it connexively and in conjunction with the preceding words I will come again and receive you to my self Here 's not only the descension but the condescension also of Christ that he was pleased thus graciously to express himself to his Beloved Disciples He does not say I 'll appoint you to come to me at such a time of your selves Nor he does not say I 'll send somebody else to bring you and convey you to me No but I 'll come and fetch you my self and bring you along with me What an high piece of favour was this if it be rightly and duly consider'd and laid to heart But it came from the same root of love which fetcht him and brought him down frm Heaven at first That love which made him to leave he bosome of his Father to take our nature upon him to be incarnae and become flesh and therein to suffer death for us with all the preparatories thereunto the same love caused him now likewise to be thus willing to come to us again as he promised here to do and for fureness sake himself to come for us This should accordingly work in us all suitableness and corespondency of affection First It should teach us the like meekness and humility one towards another upon all occasions We see how ill it becomes Christians oftentimes to stand too much upon terms to take state upon them or to decline the offices of love and respect to those which are their brethren When as our Blessed Lord and Saviour himself does thus tenderly cndescend to his poor Servants and Disciples as is here exprest This is the Use which we are to make of this Passage as the Scripture it self teaches us to make it Phil. 2.5 6. Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of man c. As the humility of his Incarnation does commend humility unto us the humility of his first coming So the humility of his Assumption it does commend the same likewise to us even the humility of his second coming as it is here signified in the circumstances of it Secondly It teaches us also to decline no service for him nor to think any work too mean to undertake in his behalf We should not put off Christ wih others to do that which he requires of us but be willing rather to do it our selves as he is here for us Whiles the nature of things does so require it so long indeed he supplies us by his Spirit whom he sends to comfort us in his stead But as soon as ever he can with any convenience he takes care to come to us himself and thereby to bring us to Heaven Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel and afterwards shalt bring me to glory Psal 73.25 And so much may suffice to have been spoken of this Intimation consider'd in its connexion and in its conjunction with the words immediately preceding I will come again c. Now Secondly We may view it also in its distinction and as consider'd alone by it self I will receive you to my self Where again two things more First we shall look upon in the Negative and consider what is not said in it Secondly we shall look upon it in the Positive or Affirmative and consider what is Both of these are very proper to this Discourse First To look upon them Negatively by considering what is not here declared And that thus First our Saviour does not here say I will come again and stay with you He does not lay the point of their comfort in that particular There are some that would make it so In stead of carrying up the Saints to Christ would rather bring him down to them And therefore do very much urge his personal Reign here upon Earth as a mixt condition to him neither wholly in a state of Humiliation nor yet wholly in a state of Glory but paricipan of either which was the opinion of the ancient Chiliasts or Millenaries and is likewise the opinion of some others still in these days But the Scripture seems to hold forth no other coming to us than that which is joyned with the present Assumption of Believers into Heaven and their abiding with Christ in that place as is exprest here in the Text. The place that Christ prepared for his Disciples it was not Earth but Heaven And assoon as ever he comes again he will be sure to take them up into that place which he hath thus prepared And therefore is there no other place or abode remaining for them which is hereafter to be expected by them He will not come to live with them but he will take them to live with him Therefore he does not say neither That where you are I may be also but where I am you may be also Acts 3.21 It is said that the Heavens must receive him till the time of the restitution of all things Receive him that is retain him as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does also signify and is so to be understood there in that place And 2 Cor. 15.23 24. The coming of Christ and the end of all things are joyn'd together Therefore we should have our thoughts carried up higher than so It savours somewhat too much of a terrestrial and earthly spirit when we would rather so order it that Christ might stay here with us than that we might remove to him But this is not that which he does intend nor should we neither If we be risen with Christ we should seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.12 And that 's one thing in this Negative Christ does not say I will come again and stay with you Nor yet
c. Thirdly There is also here considerable the relation of a Master and his Servants Servants they are to be with their Masters that so they may the better attend them and be serviceable to them And thus now are we also to Christ and for this purpose likewise to be with him As Christ himself also urged and carried it Joh. 12.26 If any man serve me let him follow me And where I am there shall also my Servant be If any man serve me him will my Father honour Thus in respect of all these relations Where Christ is there shall also be Christians The proper Use which we are to make of this Doctrine is that which the Scripture if self teaches us to make of it in the Apostle Paul's own advice 1 Thess 4.18 Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words Comfort your selves and comfort ye one another both are to be done by us And the one making way for t'other When we have first by prayer and meditation wrought these ruths into our own hears and suck'd out the comfort of them we shall from hence be so much the more inabled to comfort others with the comforts wherewith we our selves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.4 And there 's a great deal of comfort which may be drawn from such Points as these are Especially if we shall take this Passage in the full Tatitude and extent of it as it becomes us to take it Not only as to an identity of place but also as to an identity of condition which is likewise to be understood in it as belonging unto it That where I am there ye may be also And that as I am so ye shall be also Believers as they shall be in the same house as it were with Christ so they shall likewise be in the same estate which is a state of Glory and Bliss According to that of the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Christians they are predestinated to be conformable to the Image of Christ as in other things so also in this Therefore says the Apostle It is a righteous thing with God to give to you which are troubled rest when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven And when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe 1 Thess 2.7 Now what a comfort are such Points as these to a gracious and spiritual heart It is comfortable in all the roubles and pressures of this present life and the manifold sad conditions which God's children are in here in the World in Banishment in Imprisonment in Desolation in want of place of abode That there is a place prepared for them where they shall rest with Christ himself and fare even as he himself does It is comfortable as to present desertion and as to God's withdrawing of himself from his people and seeming as a stranger to them That there will a time one day come when they shall meet so together as never to be separated from each other They shal ever be with the Lord and he also ever with them So likewise As to the thoughts of death and dissolution it is comfortable here also That though body and soul be divided and severed from each other for a time yet they shall be both joyned together at last and both to Christ And we may reason from Christ to our selves By considering in what condition he is together with what we shall be in also in reference to him Therefore as he is risen from the Grave so likewise shall we As he is ascended up into Heaven so likewise shall we As he is in full glory and happiness both of Body and Soul so we in due time shall be likewise He shall change our vile bodies that they may be made like to his glorious body c. Those that are made like to Christ here in regard of Grace have his image of likeness upon them they shall be made like Christ also hereafter in regard of Glory being changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 2.18 Last of all it is comfortable also in respect to Christian Friends in their departure here one from another that they shall at last be sure to meet together again and never part for their being always with Christ it does consequently infer their being also always one with another Besides they shall all be in the same place where Christ himself is And as the Members shall not be disjoyned from the Head so neither shall they be disjoyned from one another but be all of them together And so now I have done with this whole Verse in both the parts of it the intermediate Promise and Vltimate And if I go I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there c. SERMON XX. JOH 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Of the Equality of the Son of God with the Father we heard in part the last day out of that Scripture which was then at that time handled by us In this Scripture we have our Saviour instructing and informing us in the things of God who by how much the nearer he is to him the better is he accepted with him and so consequently the better able to acquaint us with him also in the midst of our own ignorance and incapacity And this is that which we have here offered unto us in this Verse which I have now read unto you No man hath seen God at any time c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First a Defect premised Secondly a supply of this Defect propounded The Defect premised we have in these words No man hath seen God at any time The Supply of this Defect that we have in those The onely begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father c. We begin with the first of those Parts viz. the Defect which is here premised No man hath seen c. This is agreeable to some other places of Scripture besides which have the same or like expressions in them In 1 Joh. 4.12 we have the same words expresly No man hath seen God at any time and in 1 Tim. 6.16 that which is equivalent where St. Paul speaking of God says He dwells in that light which no man can approach unto whom no man bath seen nor can see And in other places he is called the Invisible God This will require a little Explication from us because at the first hearing of it it seems to be repugnant and opposite to some others as declaring the contrary as if God indeed both might and had been seen Thus we read of Moses Exod. 33.11 that God spake with him face to face Panim elpanim and Num. 12.8 mouth to mouth Peh el peh a-mareeh apparently or visibly after
of Vtterance a third has a gift of Interpretation one is better in the Applicatory part another is better at the Expository This diversity and variety of gifts wherein all are excellent and it is very hard to say which is best it comes from the Spirit of Christ as the same Apostle also tells us in the same Chapter All these worketh one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he pleaseth 2 Cor. 12.11 Secondly As for the various Distribution so likewise for the Succession As these gifts in several persons so likewise in Ages and Periods of Time and Generation one after another It is very considerable this That Christ does so order it in his Providence that his Church shall still one way or other be furnished and provided for in the world the Prophets in their Age the Apostles in theirs succeeding Ministers in theirs and that in each of these in the withdrawing of one there hath still been the substitution of another for the preservation and upholding of the work Elijah translated but Elisha left behind him Jeremy imprisoned but Baruch inlarged Paul in bonds but Timothy at liberty John the Baptist removed but Christ continued Christ himself departed but his Spirit coming in his room I will not leave you comfortless but I will thus come unto you The Use of all this to our selves is with thankfulness to acknowledge the love and goodness of Christ in this particular and to improve it to our best advantage not to carp or cark or quarrel with the gifts of our Ministers or to compare them or set them one against another as we are apt to do but rather to bless God for them in the various ordering and distribution of them and to partake of that good from them which God affords us for the good of our Souls which is to walk answerably to Christs dealing with us in this particular And that 's the first conveyance of Christ's Spirit to wit In the distribution of the gifts of it The second is in the Distribution of Graces Christ comes by his Spirit in them not onely in his gifts of Edification but in his gifts of Sanctification Faith and Love and Patience and Humility and the like We find that after Christs Ascension there was a greater measure and abundance of these Religion was now more Spiritualiz'd and Christians themselves were now raised to a more heavenly and spiritual frame of Soul than before they had been As the Word of God grew and multipi'd so likewise the Improvements of it and the Graces of those who had the priviledge of being partakers of it It is said of the Romans that their faith was spoken of throughout the world Rom. 1.8 Of the Corinthians that they were enriched in all graces 1 Cor. 1.4 5 c. The Apostle commends the Colossians for their faith in Christ and love to all the Saints in Col. 1.4 c. Thirdly In the distribution of Comforts Thus did Christ come by his Spirit especially not onely as he was a qualifying Spirit furnishing them with all Gifts not onely as he was a sanctifying Spirit induing them with Graces but also as he was a comforting Spirit filling their hearts with joy And thus he did This is that which is principally stood upon here in this Scripture as we may see in the Connexions of it thus in verse 16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth c. The sadness of Christs departure it was scattered by the presence of the Comforter which was interpretatively his own presence with them Thus in all these respects did Christ himself come to them by his Spirit in its Gifts and Graces and Comforts Now to improve this still so much the more and that it might be a full Argument to them for the pacifying of them I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you we may take this in further with it that it is considerable under a two-fold Emphasis the one Discretive and the other Consequential The Discretive Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be very sad or uncomfortable for though I go from you yet I will come unto you The Consequential Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be sad or uncomfortable for because I go from you therefore I will come unto you my coming to you is both the consequent of my departure and following upon it And again my coming to you is also the effect or result of my departure and flowing from it First Take it in the Discretive Emphasis Though I go away yet I will come There was good reason why they should be satisfied from that that he was not quite and utterly lost or gone irrecoverably but cum animo revertenti with a full purpose of coming again or if not of coming in his Person yet of coming in that which was better at least for them and that was of coming in his Spirit which he here intends and which we have spoken to all this while His going had no cause to disquiet them whiles it had his coming following upon it to them Secondly Take it in the Consequential Emphasis Because I go away therefore I will come This was that which was here also considerable as it follows afterwards Christs going in his Person was the cause at least sine qua non of his coming in his Spirit if he had not gone that way he had not come this Thus we have it in Joh. 16.6 7. Because I have said these things to you namely of my going from you therefore sorrow hath filled your hearts Nevertheless I tell you the iruth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you That is if I do not go I shall not come but if I do go I then shall And that 's the second Explication of his coming the coming of him in his Spirit To this last of all we may add a Third with which I conclude and that is his coming in Glory at the last day This is very frequently and emphatically call'd in Scripture the coming of Christ and it is that which may very much pacifie and satisfie Believers in his present absence and keep them from being sad and comfortless that he will come thus This is that which he makes mention of in the three first Verses of this Chapter and wherewith he does labour to comfort them Let not your heart be troubled c. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This is in other words call'd his Appearing and Revelation and such like phrases as these This in the meditation of it is very comfortable to all true Saints and Members
Thes 1.5 This is that which becomes a servant of Christ as the best principle of all to work upon namely his own knowledg and experience of those things which he speaks of But of this we may have occasion to treat more anon out of the words themselves 2. As here 's an account of his practice from the principle of it so likewise from the matter and the thing it self which was handled by him which is by beginning with terror and laying judgment before them and the last judgment in particular This is the course which is taken by him for the more effectual progress of his Ministry to lay the ground-work and foundation in this And it so was likewise with him elsewhere Thus he dealt with the men of Athens Act. 17. 30 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every-where to repent because he bath appointed a day in which be will judg he worlds So he began likewise with Felix Act. 24.25 He reasoned before him of righteousness and temperance and judgment of come So Heb. 6.2 Amongst the rest of the first Elements of Christain Religion we find there reckoned eternal judgment as that which is mainly and principally to be known and studied by a Christian as preparatory and introductory to many other Doctrines besides 3. We may likewise here take notice of the order and method which is observed by him in all this which is first of all informing himself and then instructing of others Here 's scientes prinsquaâ—â— suademus First Knowing and after that perswading There are some which invert this order Begin first with perswading and then come to knowing aftewards Which will be teachers before they are learners which will take upon them to instruct ere themselves are sufficiently instructed But this is not the Apostles method here in this place who begins at the right end and that which is most natural and probable to know before he makes known And thus much by way of preparation of these words in their dependance and connexion We come now closer to the parts themselves Where we have these two particulars considerable First The work it self and that is we perswade men Secondly The principle of this working or the Motive that put them upon it Knowing the terror of the Lord. We begin with the last first which is first in the order of the words as it is also in the nature of the thing and that is the nature or principle of working Knowing the terror of the Lord. Wherein again two particulars more First The object propounded and that is the terror of the Lord. Secondly The apprehension of this object in reference to the mind c. Knowing the terror of the Lord. The Vulgar Latine gives it Timorem Domini the fear of the Lord which is a little more mollified and restrained The Arabick Interpreter for fail puts them in both Timorem reverentiam Domini Terrorem takwi trabbi wa-hashaitiho Erasmus simpliciter terrorem which is also followed by our own Translators as best agreeing with the drift of the place which is that which we will now keep unto 1. I say here 's the Object propounded The terror of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was that which the Apostle knew and desired also to make known unto them for their edification and spiritual improvement It 's called the terror of the Lord emphatically and exclusively as hereby shutting out any other terror besides which does not so well consist with this for we must know that there are sometimes false terrors as well as true There are terrores Satanae as well as terrores Domini and these are very cautelously to be distinguish't one from the other The Devil as he has his false comforts and raptures and elevations so he has likewise his false fears and astonishments and dejections whereby he does sometimes depress and keep down the hearts of Gods People in his uncomfortable representations in his suggestions to despair in his dreadful prognostications and the like These are such kind of things as are very sad and terrible and which St. Paul also knew well enough and was sufficiently acquainted withal He was not ignorant of Satans devices whereby he labours to affright men and to take them off from doing of their duty and that work which does belong unto them through their too much attendance hereunto But he does not make any of these to be a ground for his ministerial perswasions no but the terror of the Lord those terrors which God himself makes and which are of his allowance and approbation What kind of terrors are those may it be here demanded Let us hear of them what they are and what is meant here by them in this expression which we here meet withal in the Text. For these there are divers kinds of them we may reduce them briefly to three heads which as I think will reach this phrase in the full extent and latitude of it 1. The terror of the Word in the threatnings and comminations of it wherein is revealed from Heaven the wrath of God against all unrighteousness as the Apostle speaks in Rom. 1.18 This is one terror of the Lord and a very great terror it is if it be duly considered there 's a mighty power in the work of God set on by the assistance of Gods Spirit for the terrifying of the most secure sinner and driving him out of that condition and presumption and stupidity of mind in which he lyes The Word of God is powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit c. Heb. 4.12 And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God c. says the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.4 This we see in Paul to Felix who whiles he Preach'd before him astonish'd him and caused him to tremble 2. The terror of Divine Impression upon the heart and conscience This is sometimes called in Scripture the terror of the Almighty which Joâ— and David Heman and such as these did sometimes partake of when God himself appears as an Enemy and does immedlately wrestle and conflict with the inwards of any poor soul and write bitter things against it This is likewise the terror of the Lord and such as does indeed carry a great deal of terribleness with it but yet that 's not all which is meant here in this place 3. The terror of Judgment and more especially of the day of Judgment that 's likewise the terror of the Lord and it is that which is also principally intended here in this present Scripture which relates to that which was mentioned in the verse immediately preceding We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive c. Now knowing the or as some that terror of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the demonstrative particle we do therefore perswade so that the terror of the Lord is as
think to escape neither And therefore ye may again take notice of it that it is not only said Besides what we have Preached but what ye have received The receiver is as bad as the thief in this particular And as it is a cursed thing to scatter Error so it is as cursed a thing to take it up and carry it home and keep it by us or nourish it with us which therefore we should now all be perswaded in the fear of God to avoid and shun what we can It is a Caution and Admonition which is not needless to us or superfluous but very necessary and seasonable especially in these days wherein we live wherein so many and never more Errors abounded than now there do to take heed and look to our selves that we be not seduced and led away with them especially in those points which are of so great concernment to us The Authority of the Scriptures The Corruption of Nature The necessity of Regeneration The freeness of Gods Grace in Conversion The Perseverance of the Saints and the like Points which have again and again been inculcated to us and from time to time through several hands delivered unto us which therefore it concerns us to hold and keep our selves to as much as we can Especially you of this City that I may bring it a little nearer to you it behoves you especially above all other places of the Nation to be mindful of this Admonition as those who have been made partakers of the Truth in a more large and ample manner than any other else besides you cannot pretend the want of Preachers as having had more in this kind than any other City in the world not only us but Angels from Heaven as I may so express it which have come to you from all quarters and dispenst the Gospel unto you in the clearness and pureness of it yea and you have received it too which is somewhat more that is welcom'd it and imbraced it and given entertainment to it and exprest your affections to those who have been the Ministers of it both in former times and of late For which cause there are great ingagements upon you to stick close unto it and not to suffer your selves by any means to be taken off from it but earnestly to contend for that faith which hath been once delivered unto you It is a dangerous thing movere terminos to remove the bounds whether in civil affairs or in spiritual but in spiritual especially Here the Apostles rule elsewhere is seasonable for us To hold fast the form of sound words c. to keep that good thing which is committed unto us and to stand fast inone spirit with one mind and to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Gregory Nazianzene tells us of Constantine that when he drew near to his end of the three things which troubled his spirit this was one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he had made an innovation in Religion and the Doctrine of Christ The same will likewise any other which shall in like manner be guilty of it when they come duly to reflect upon it Let us for our parts be careful to maintain the Truth which for a recompence will maintain us and let us take heed of all such Doctrines and ways which are opposite and contrary hereunto Especially which now in these days do so much prevail and take place amongst us Socinianism Pelagianism Antinomianism Libertinism and the like And especially which is fittest to take in all the rest into it Popery and the abominations of Rome Le ts us take heed of that we may perhaps be secure in this matter and think we are now least in danger of this of all others but we are not for all that and our danger is the greater for our security the mystery of iniquity works and works now and all other Errors besides they do but usher and lead on to this and make way for it if we be not the more wary and watchful over our selves The Devil knows how to go backward that he may fetch the greater leap and have us at the long run and it is wisdom for us not to be ignorant of his devices This being the great design and project which he does now lay to himself for the undermining of poor souls I shall for this purpose and all other but refer you to what hath been formerly delivered unto you which you have heard and learnt and received and had confirmed amongst you from the mouths and pens of your forefathers and Blood of the Martyrs and conclude here as I began in the words of the Apostle Paul in this present Text Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel to you than what we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so c. SERMON XXXVII Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not known that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance It is a part of the Corruption of Nature and of the misery of Man through his fall to make his remedy to be his poyson and that which should be the greatest restraint and prohibition to him from sin to make it the greatest argument and enconragement to him for it namely the grace and goodness and patience and long-suffering of God This is that which the Apostle Paul does in a special manner meet withal and fall upon in this present Scripture where having in the foregoing Chapter inveighed agains the sins of the Gentiles and the compliance of others with them occasionally from Gods goodness to them doeshere in this particular Text which we have now before us set himself with a great deal of vehemency against this distemper and as it were taking them out man by man does expostulate it and reason it with them in the former part of this present Chapter for divers and sundry verses together Our business at present is with the fourth verse of it which is more full and close than all the rest Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The simple Expostulation And secondly The aggravating Amplification The simple Expostulation that ye have in these words Despisest thou the riches of his goodness c. The aggravating Amplification in those Not knowing c. We begin with the former viz. The simple Expostulation Despisest thou c. Wherein again we have three Particulars more First The carriage and behaviour of God towards wicked and worldly men and that is much patience and indulgence and kindness to them The riches of c. Secondly The miscarriage and unanswerable returns of wicked men back again to God and that is in much frowardness and perversness and contempt they despise this his Goodness to them Thirdly The accountableness in which they stand to God for this miscarriage of theirs Doest thou despise
carkass and as a body without soul This for spiritual death And then for Eternal which is damnation it self that 's clearly the end of all such courses It is so demeritoriously to all who thereby ate made lyable thereunto In the day that thou eatest c. thou shalt surely dye and it is so actually to all such as by repentance and faith in Christ are not freed from the execution of this sentence This is the plain and constant Doctrine of the Scripture that the wages of sin are wages of damnation both as to poena damni the loss of Gods gracious Presence and poena sensus the enduring everlasting torment c. This is that which the Apostle still is so careful to perswade and fasten upon those to whom he writes in divers places Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose glory is in their shame c. and 1 Cor. 11.29 Drinketh damnation And 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived c. and Gal. 5.21 speaking of the works of the flesh Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Therefore let us labour more to be perswaded of these things and have serlous apprehensions of them let us look upon sin in its colours and in the true shape and representation of it as that which has Death and Hell at the end of it that so we may the better be kept and preserved from it We should make use of this present Doctrine now in all suggestions and temptations to sin which we are at any time put upon Think not upon sin in the profit of it or in the pleasure of it which is but a meer fancy though it usually shews it self so but think of it in the end of it and in the concomitants of it and in the sad and pernicious effects which is death and damnation it self which though men perceive not presently yet at last they shall find to their cost if they take not better care to prevent it as the Apostle Peter speaks of them their judgment now of a long time lingers not and their damnation slumbers not Let us not look upon these things as words and notions and expressions as bug-bears to scare Children but as realities and unquestionable truths and let us labour to find the Power and Efficacy of them upon our own hearts It being better to hear of them than to feel them and to feel them now in the conscience by being affected and wrought upon by them than to feel them hereafter after another manner as all such shall which now make nothing of them let all which hath been said make us so much the more out of love with sin and if one argument alone will not do it let us take them all together as the Holy Ghost does here offer them to us Here 's a threesold Cord which theresore is not easily broken and if one or two should fail yet the other would make amends for the rest Those which have a mind to sin yet if it appears to be any prejudice to their profit that they get no good nor benefit by it it may be here they would be restrained Now for this consider says the Apostle that there 's no such sad fruit in it others there are which do not stand upon their prosit but their honour that goes near unto them and they are loth to forfeit their credit and reputation Now for this consider that these things bring shame whereof ye are now ashamed A third there are which are not moved yet They care neither for profit no honour so they may have their pleasure and safety and ease but their skin that a little affects them and their life goes to their heart and is very dear unto them all they have they would part with for this Now therefore consider here further that it is death and if there be any that stick not at this yet if they have any care but of their own souls consider further that it is damnation not only natural the death of the body but spriritual the death of the soul yea eternal the death of both and as wisdom speaks of her self Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all that hate me love death There 's but one thing more which I will here name and so end We may here from this Text further take notice not only of the wretchedness of sin considered in the streams and actions of it but also the wretchedness of nature and an unregenerate nondition as the fountain and spring which these issue from Here 's not only a Censure upon the performances What fruit had ye in those things c. But here is also a Censure upon the state What fruit had ye then Then when ye were unregenerate then ye were in your natural condition then when ye were at the present unconverted and as yet not brought home to God What fruit had ye then Whatever has been said of sin it may be applied in this An unregenerate condition is an unfruitful condition a shameful condition a dead and mortal condition All the time that any man spends and lives only in that he does but lose his time and run further upon the score with God for a back-reckoning hereafter We are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 What 's the improvement which is to be made of this point and observation But first for all those which are yet but in the state of nature to labour to bear it and to come out of it as soon as may be and not to content themselves with it Let us not think too well of nature and our condition from that as many persons are ready to do both for themselves and others For our selves if we have no better Principles in us than we brought with us at first into the world we are but in a sad an miserable condition although perhaps we should abound in some kind of outward and moral actions which might have some lustre and splendor upon them as the Heathem had What fruit had ye in those We may say it not only of those actions which are plain sins in their nature but in a sense also of those which for the matter of them are duties themselves yet not done in a right manner and from a right principle What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed The sacrifice of the wicked says Solomon is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind Prov. 21.27 All the time that a man remains unregenerate he is unprofitable as to matter of duty as well as provoking as to matter of sin and let us take heed of being too well perswaded of the Heathem Philosophers rather make our own salvation than destruction This is a great
a way of Application Thirdly In a way of Evidence or Conviction Probat qui tentat probat qui approbat probat qui docet argumentis But here in the Text it is confined only to the two former the word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same that is used by the Apostle in another place in reference to the Lords supper 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a man examine himself and let him prove his own work they come both to one and the same effect only in that place it is restrained to one work as the occasion is whereas here it is taken more at large and so it seems to carry two things in it which are understood by it First As it is a word of Inquity or Examination Let him prove that is let him try Secondly As it is a word of Allowance or Approbation Let him prove that is approve either may be meant by it First It may be taken by way of Examination or Exploration Let every man prove his own work that is let every man try it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it is in many other places of Scripture besides as 2 Cor. 8.8 1 Thes 5.2 That I might prove the sincerity of your love that is that I might try it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proving all things c. that is examining or trying them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 14.19 I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them that is to try them and to inquire about them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus is both this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek and also prove in our own language oftentimes taken in this acception for matter of Tryal and Examination And so first of all here in the Text. We must do with our works as Goldsmiths do with their Gold who prove it for their better satissaction Now Goldsmiths they prove their Gold two manner of ways First They prove it by the touchstone for the discerning of true from counterfeit they prove it that is they try it Secondly They prove it by the fire for the separating and consuming of the dross they prove it i.e. they approve it And the first of these is that which is considerable of us in this present verse in regard of our own performances This is the duty of every Christian as to search and examine and inquire into his own heart as concerning the general frame and temper and disposition of it so consequently into all the works and actions which do come from him whether they be such as are warrantable or not it is not a matter of indifferency to us what things they be which we do but we are to call our selves to an account about them and to set up a Tribunal in our own consciences for the trying and judging of our selves And that especially upon these following Considerations First For our own innocency and the better ordering of our own lives where we do not prove that is try our works we cannot dispose of them so as we should do but shall be apt still to go on in a way of security and self-pleasing whether we have cause to do so or no Those that never look in the glass they do not see the spots in their faces and so do not take any care for the wiping them off from them and so those that do not try their works they do not so easily see their miscarriages from whence they might be brought to reform them and to do them away This tryal is necessary to integrity and self-reformation and therefore we shall find the Prophet Jeremy so to set it in Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our mays and turn again unto the Lord. Self-examination is a very good step to Copversion when we inquire how it is with us we are likeliest to be that which becomes us and which we ought indeed for our own parts to be I considered my ways and turned my seet unto thy testimonies says the Prophet David Psal 1 19.59 Look as it is with those which are travellers when they never look after the way or consider whither they are going they many times go a great way astray before they return and come into it again even so is it with those that are upon their journey to Heaven c. Secondly This tryal is also requisite in order to our own comfort and satisfaction it is good we should prove our works as that we may be humbled for our defects so that we may be comforted from our good proceedings and reap the fruit of our own doings as the Scripture speaks For though the best things that come from us they have corruption mingled with them and so in that regard are matter rather of abasement than any thing else yet withal for the substance of them they are the workings of God's Spirit upon us and the evidence of his Graces in us which therefore in the discerning of them must be very grateful and comfortable to us in the sweet relishes and reflexious of consciences as rich men considering of their estates and worldly improvements This is such a special Consideration for this inforcing of the present Duty as that it seems to be the principal hinge upon which the Text it self turns as we shall see hereafter out of the following words And the c. Thirdly In an holy Conformity to the Judgment of God himself and his proceedings with us Therefore let us prove our own works because we shall have one to prove them for us at another day there 's a time a-coming when every mans work shall be prov'd whether he will or no namely at the day of judgment which is by a special Eminency in Scripture call'd the day of Discovery or Revelation Rom. 2.5 And again in another place it is said That every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 God will try every mans work and therefore it concerns every man to try it himself and so much the rather that that tryal may be with the greater comfort Schollers that have well examined themselves they are so much the better fitted and qualified for their Masters examination and so it is here This therefore justly meets with the contrary practise of abundance of persons there are a great many of people in the world which never take this so much into their thoughts whether their works be good or bad but let them pass without any reward or consideration at all And to give you some account of it it does proceed from a threefold Principle in them First From neglect and non-attendency Secondly From presumption and self-flattery Thirdly From consciousness and self-suspicion First The cause why many do no more prove their own works it does proceed from simple neglect and carelesness
signifies 408 Counsel Listning to good counsel a threefold Argument of VVisdom 224 How far the counsels of God may be known how not 258 Means tending to the knowing of Gods counsels 258 Company The danger arising by bad Company 368 Cities Why God often sends greater judgments on them than other places 401 D Despise The ways wherein God is despised 114 119 Whence despising of God springs 116 The danger of despising God 117 Dregs What they signifie 135 Death Comfort against it 192 Sinful in three cases to desire it 413 Discord The evil of it implied 197 198 Whence it springs 222 Delight What in Christians God delights in 208 The properties of Gods delighting in his people 209 Signs of Gods delighting in us 211 The ground of it or what it is 220 A threefold delight respecting Religion 221 Doubtings Whence they arise 211 Day The Sabbath a pleasant day 218 Day of the Lord taken three ways 412 A threefold wicked desiring a day of the Lord or death 412 The day of Judgment desirable on a threefold account 416 Darkness What it signifies in Scripture 352 Day of the Lord darkness to wicked men with the ground thereof 41 Day of the Lord darkness and not light threefold Emphasis in it 148 Devouring What signified by it 379 Despair Motive to a despairing sinner to hope 385 The evil of despair 385 386 Whence it springs 386 E Eye Look on Christ with a fourfold eye 7 Gods Eye what it signifies 20 Gods Eye hath three properties 21 Examples Bad their evil 46 Examination Why we should be much in self-examination 245 England See Nation Deliverance from Gun-powder-treason a great Mercy 52 62 Error Prejudicial to the soul 303 394 377 On the right and on the left hand what 302 Ezekiel Why called the son of man 401 Feasts The evils oft attending them 79 When laudable 78 Faith Incouragements to it 150 Fruitfulness Arguments to it 189 Fear The advantages of holy fear 212 Forgetfulness Of God opened in four particulars 287 Formality See Hypocrite It s consistency with prophaneness 345 The dreadful evil of it 375 Setting of the face its different notion 402 G God His standing What 6 His face What 84 140 What the hiding of his face implied 85 96 VVhy resembled to the Sun 151 How to know he is our God 111 VVhat his being our God implies 111 God speaks to the hearts of men three ways 138 298 To seek Gods face VVhat 141 His wings VVhat 149 The ways wherein despised See despise God See forward Grace or Holiness See Godliness VVhy God will certainly perfect it 113 Whence indisposition and averseness unto it springs 384 A Christians duty disposition and priviledg to grow in it 306 Motives to recover decaying grace 306 307 A threefold difference between saving-grave and meer morality 308 Helps to recover decaying and strengthen weak grace 309 God What kind of shield he is 153 Gods comforts What 165 Why called the most high 183 Gods right hand What 183 Gods songs in the night What 202 Gods counsel how taken 253 What Gods saying signifies 278 A double object of Gods guidance 301 Godliness See Grace The gain of Godliness 224 Guide How to discern between the guidance or dictates of Gods Spirit and the spirit of delusion 303 H Hearing The right hearer 139 300 Why many get no good by hearing the word Preacked 139 140 385 Heart The speaking of the heart What 119 Gods trying it What 245 How taken 252 How a grieved heart eases it self 362 Discovery of a tender heart 365 Humbling Humbling considerations 251 253 392 Head What it signifies in Scripture 124 127 Head and tail how taken 273 Hypocrite See Professor See Formality Terror to Hypocrites 246 Condemned by God and often by conscience described 347 348 371 Its odiousness 347 Its danger 349 Hell How taken 282 How to escape it 288 Heathens What to think of those who never heard of Christ 287 I Inheritance Implies three things 50 Justification Why no condumnation to justified persons 95 Infancy Mercy vouchsafed in it See Mercy Judgments When God will pour them upon a people 133 Pouring out Judgments What Ibid Why God sometimes brings great Judgments upon his own people Ibid Dregy judgments What 135 How Christians foresee them 363 Who most like to be secured and who to be exposed under publick judgments 409 410 411 Joy When holy 177 Infirmities Whence they flow 178 Men have their especial infirmities 179 Wherein infirmity consists Ibid Impenitency See Presumption The evil of it 268 Ignorance Several sorts of it supplied 383 K Knowledg THe difference between saving and meerly notional Knowledg 148 L Loving-kindness Of God taken two ways 143 146 The excellency of Gods loving-kindness 144 Love How to keep our selves in the love of God 146 M Gospel-Ministers WHy called Angels 7 Caution to them 280 402 386 362 Direction to them 404 405 366 Ministerial Qualifications 399 A sad judgment to be deprived of their persons 403 Magistrates Why compared to a head 272 Mercy Outward when given in mercy 33 Outward Mercies in themselves good things 36 40 Mercies attending our Births See Births Mercies attending Infancy See Infancy The especial mercies of God 146 295 The extent of pardoning mercy 295 Meditation Whence holy meditation proceeds 170 311 Its objects 172 Helps to it 173 175 How taken 174 Its excellency above other duties 175 Motives to it 176 See its excellency When right 364 Melancholy The evil of it in a Christian more than others 220 Mind Express'd in Scripture by bowels the reason of it 360 Why a Christian minds heaven and heavenly things 311 Marriage Touching mixt ours 368 N Touching Natural ability 294 295 397 Nation Wherein a Nations strength lies 378 A Nations gray hairs or the fore-runners of a Nations period 382 O Orphans Gods care of them 110 Obedience The properties of true obedience implied 141 Prayer AGainst praying to Angels and Saints departed 25 137 Why God oft answers prayer in kind 42 When answer of prayer in kind is done in love 43 Special seasons of prayer 138 204 Acceptable prayer 177 The power of it 213 A pleasant comfortable duty 217 Neglect of it a great evil 356 Presumption See Impenitency Whence it springs 28 98 123 263 264 350 One branch of it 348 350 Caution to presumptuous sinners 305 Peace The excellency of peace with God 96 How to get and keep pease with God 92 281 A threefold peace 221 276 279 Christian peace considered as a grace and as a priviledg 277 On what a sinners peace is grounded 278 Parents Mothers if able ought to unrse their children 109 Patents duty towards children 110 248 Promises How God makes good temporal promises implied 158 Preaching What power God puts forth in it 299 Providence How far we may and how far not know its events 258 260 Pride In Habit and naked Shoulders and Breasts reproved 265 Pardon The extent of pardoning mercy 295 God pardons repeated