of Zophar Iob 20. 4. was known in the days of old and found true ever since man was placed upon the earth For as the Apostle saith of righteousness that it hath both the promise of this life and of the life to come so it is most true of unrighteousness that it hath the curse of this life as well as of the life to come The first sin of our first Parents whereof we all stand guilty was thus punished as it were to be a Rule and Law of what God would do after I say the first sin of our first Parents was punished with a curse in things of this life From hence come all the outward calamities and miseries of mankind wherein the happiest man on earth hath his share hence our labour and vexation of spirit hence our pain our want and all our trouble wherein we travel under the Sun No man in the world is exempted from this Law all of us as well feel a present punishment here in this life as fear that which shall be to come hereafter in the world to come Now as the universal misery we all feel is a temporal punishment of an universal sin so the clods of daily sin which we add unto this great mountain of transgression doth usually bring us under some special kind of punishment above that which we have in common with other men The whole History of the Bible if we look well into it is most part taken up in Examples of this one Maxim whosoever thinketh otherwise he hath taken too slight a view and too short a survey of the world's affairs Perhaps he sees the person of a Tyrant of an Oppressor of a Blasphemer to live long in jollity and to end his days in tranquillity or to use the words of Iob in the same argument to spend their days in wealth and in a moment without any more trouble go down into the grave How is it then true That God requiteth sin in this life or that any regard should be had to any temporal calamities or worldly disasters since these come alike to the just and unjust to the fool and to the wise to those whom God favoureth as well as those he favoureth not But for Answer hereunto we must know That the way of God in temporal punishments is one and his way in eternal and spiritual another he deals not after the same fashion in both For eternal punishments in the world to come the person which sinneth shall alone suffer and no other for him but as for temporal punishments which are seen in this world sometimes God lays them upon the person sometimes upon the posterity of the offender or sometimes upon others which in such like respects are near unto them as he sees best in his wisdom When therefore thou seest a man live in open and gross sins confine not thine eye unto his person only but look farther about him survey his whole family if nothing appear while he is living yet after his death consider of his posterity and thou wilt find the ways of God to be just and glorious in the avenging of sin and wickedness This question was long debated between Iob and his friends and at last came to this very issue Iob himself determining and assoiling it after this manner I will teach you saith he chap. 27. ver 11 c. by the hand of God that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal Behold all ye your selves have seen it why then are you thus altogether vain This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty If his children be multiplied it is for the sword and his off-spring shall not be satisfied with bread c. The reason of this difference between temporal punishments and eternal is to be gathered from the several and differing Ends of them both Because they are for divers Ends and Purposes therefore the way of God is diverse in the execution of them The End of eternal punishments is to satisfie the justice of God in avenging sin but the End of temporal punishments chiefly exemplary that is for example and warning unto others that they might hereby know that God regardeth and observeth the actions of men and therefore fear lest the like might come unto themselves which they have seen to have befallen other men Now for such an End as this it is not always requisite that God should punish every offender in his own person because the punishment here respecteth not so much the person of the offender himself as others who have been witnesses of his sin that they might take heed of committing the like Now this End may be as well attained in the punishment of a mans posterity subjects servants as of his own person For by both alike may others see that God observeth the sins of men and hath plagues in readiness for those which commit them And by both alike will men be afraid of the hand of God seeing most men do most vehemently wish the good and happy condition of their posterity and others having like relation unto them Kings the weal of their Subjects Fathers the good of their Children Husbands the good of their Wives and therefore will refrain from doing that which they see by experience of others may bring a plague or a curse upon any of them Yea God so much regardeth this exemplary End in temporal punishments that I think this to be one chief reason why God forgiving the sin and consequently eternal punishment yet he remitteth not temporal plagues and chastisements lest when the sin is notoriously known and scandalous those who saw the sin and could not so well know of the inward reconciliation between God and the sinner might stumble and doubt in their hearts Whether there were a God or no who observeth the ways of men In this sort and for this end was David punished whom though upon his humble repentance Nathan had told The Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die yet nevertheless did God raise up evil against him out of his own house he took his wives from before his eyes and gave them unto his neighbour and the sword never departed from his house according as the Lord had spoken The reason hereof follows in the Text in the words of Nathan Because saith he by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also which is born unto thee shall surely die The child also that is all the former plagues together with the death of the child shall come upon thee for this end This then being so plain what End God chiefly aims at in his outward and visible judgments we ought hence to learn what to do as often as we see the hand of God fall heavy upon any open and known sinner namely to accomplish in our selves the End which God aâ—ms at to
nature indifferent the case is otherwise necessity there dispenseth as it did with David in eating of the Shew-bread For the eating of that Bread more than other was not of it self unlawful but only for ceremony sake But Injustice is always Injustice and such a one among other sins is Theft when we take that from another which is his and by no right is ours It is therefore a preposterous plea which Poor men are wont to use therewith to excuse themselves 1. What would you say they have us do the world hath forsaken us we have no friend to help us Alas have men forsaken you and will you make God forsake you too Will no body help you and will you make your selves uncapable of God's help too This is not the way to ease your cross but to procure a curse and to draw a great misery upon your heads Nay if you had not used these unlawful courses but had recourse to God your heavenly Father and trusted upon him who clotheth the grass and lilies of the field he would have provided for you but now you shut the gates of his blessing and mercy against your selves 2. Yea but I am a poor man and he from whom I have taken it is well able to spare it it will do him no harm and me good But who made thee a divider of other mens goods Thou must not look only whether he can spare it but by what means thou comest by it 3. But it is a small thing The more base and abject sinner thou who wilt corrupt thy conscience for such a trifle Take heed he that will serve the Devil for so small advantage if the Devil once mend his wages it is ten to one but he will mend his work This is the first Observation and if we mark it well here will be ground and roomth for another For if it be a sin for a Poor man to steal in his want from those that have enough how much more hainous is it for a Rich man to rob the poor as many do by fraud oppression detaâ—ning the hire of the labourer and the like The poor man's need is a strong temptation to make him steal therefore Agur makes Theft the poor man's danger and not the rich Lest I be poor saith he and steal not Lest I be rich and steal for why should the rich man steal he hath no need as we say he hath no direct temptation thereto as the poor man hath and therefore his sin is the greater And indeed there can be no other reason of his Theft but the rich man's malady He hath forgotten God and saith Who is the Lord and then no marvel if he be ready for any sin The hainousneâ—s and unreasonableness of this Sin may appear by that parable of Nathan wherewith David was so much incensed and convinced 2 Sam. 12. 1 c. There were two men in one city saith he the one rich the other poor The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds But the poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb which he had bought and nourished up And there came a traveller unto the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the way-faring man that was come unto him but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him And David's anger saith the Text was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the Lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity Hence in Scripture for the rich to spoil the poor is accounted a crying sin which kind of sins are in a degree above the ordinary rank of sins viz. such as call for some visible and remarkable judgment upon the head of the committers Iudge of the rest by that which S. Iames saith of one kind of robbing the poor by detaining their wages Little know some men who out of a kind of pride in their own might and contempt of the poor as scorning to acknowledge themselves obliged to them for their service commit this sin little consider they how grievously they offend Behold saith S. Iames. ch 5. 4. the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaâ—th To conclude this observation Men do not despise a thief saith Solomon Prov. 6. 30. if he steal to satisfie his soul when he is hungry yet if he be found he shall restore seven-fold If the poor man's theft be punished seven-fold amongst men sure with God the rich man's shall be punished seventy times seven-fold My third Observation shall be That we must avoid the occasions of sin as well as sin it self Agur prayes not that he might not steal c. but that God would keep him out of that condition which might occasion him to commit those sins This might have been observed from the other part of Agur's reason as well as from this for there he desired God to keep him from that Fulness which might occasion him to deny and forget God but I chose rather to defer it hither Opportunity we say makes a thief It is as true in the general That occasion is a snare whereby a man becomes a prey unto sin Eve by talking with the Serpent was at length caught to eat of the forbidden fruit David by seeing Bathsheba washing her self was tempted to commit adultery with her Peter by intruding himself into the high Priest's Hall out of too much confidence in his own strength came to deny his Master For this cause God commanded his people in the Law not only that they should worship no Idol but that they should demolish all the Monuments of them that they should make no covenant nor affinity with those who worshipped them and all lest they might be drawn by these occasions to commit idolatry with them If this be so we may see hence how much they deceive themselves who think it makes no matter what company they keep or what places they come in they will look to themselves forsooth and mean not to be corrupted but only to observe the fashions either to satisfie their curiosity or as some will pretend for the greater loathing of such abhorred courses This is a dangerous principle to play with the flames as the fly doth If thou wouldst avoid the Sin avoid the Occasion also And let me add one thing more Several sins have their several occasions and their proper gins but Evil company is the Devil's Magazine wherein are contained all Occasions of all sins Now I come to the fourth and last Observation which I gather from the last words of Agur's Reason That the commission of one sin makes way to another Agur thought if he were
be no gatherings when I come Which Institution seems to be derived from the Commandment of God in the Law twice repeated Let no man appear before the Lord empty For the words annexed to that Law Deut. 16. where it is applied to the three great Feasts when all Israel was to assemble to pray before the Lord in his Tabernacle the words I say there annexed sound altogether like unto these of S. Paul concerning the Lord's day Three times a year saith the Text there shall all the males appear before the Lord and they shall not appear before the Lord empty Every one shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee Is not this the same in sense with S. Paul's Let every one lay by himself in store as God hath prospered him The Primitive Church after the Apostles followed the same precedent and our own Reformed Church hath ordained the same in her Service-book were it accordingly practised as was intended For after the Epistle and Gospel she appoints divers choice Sentences of Scripture to be read which exhort us to Alms and other Offerings to the honour of Almighty God and then as supposing it to be done in the Prayer for the whole estate of Christ's Church We humbly beseech him most mercifully to accept our Alms and receive our Prayers which we offer unto his Divine Majesty Shall I now need to exhort you Brethren thus to furnish and strengthen your Prayers which you daily offer unto God to couple them with Almsdeeds to come before God with a present and not empty-handed Whom neither God's Commandment the Practice of his Church the Example of his Saints nor the Acceptance of such Prayers as the hand which dealeth Alms lifteth up to him whom these will not move no words of mine will do it But some may say Would you have us always give Alms when we pray No I say not so but I would not have you appear before the Lord empty that is such as are not wont to give them nor mean to do For you may give them before or second your Prayers with them after you may have set and appointed times for the one as you have for the other Or when the Law of man injoyns you any thing in this kind do it heartily faithfully and with a willing mind without grudging that so God may accept it as a service done to him Or lastly Thou mayest do as the holy men in Scripture were wont vow and promise unto God if thy Prayer be heard to offer something unto him either for relief of the poor the Widow the Orphan aâ—d distressed one or the maintenance of his Service and Worship If God will be with me saith Iacob Gen. 28. 20 c. and keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on c. Then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee See the use of vowing by such as came to pray in God's House Eccles. 5. 4. If thou comest before God in any of these ways thou shalt not come empty-handed But send not thy Prayer single and alone The Prayer with Alms is the Prayer God loveth Hear what himself saith Psal. 50. 14 15. Offer unto God thanksgiving Alms is an Offering of Thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High So call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me NOW I come to the second thing I propounded The power and efficacy which Prayer and Alms have with God Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel are come up for a memorial or are had in remembrance in the sight of God God is said to remember our Prayers when he grants them our Alms and good deeds when he rewards them or in a word when he answers either of them with a blessing as on the contrary he is said to remember iniquity when he sends some judgment for it So God is said to remember Hannah when he heard her prayer for a Son 1 Sam. 1. 19. and Nehemiah speaking of his deeds of mercy and bounty shewed unto his poor brethren returned from captivity says Think upon me or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember me O my God for good according to all that I have done for this people Thus were Cornelius his Prayers and Alms remembred Prayers therefore and Alms be they performed as they should be are powerful and approved means to obtain a blessing at the hands of God To speak first of Prayer What is it that Prayer hath not obtain'd It hath shut and opened Heaven see the story of Elijah It hath made the Sun and Moon to stand still read the Book of Ioshna It is the Key that openeth all God's Treasures of blessings both spiritual and corporal For spiritual blessings Cornelius we see obtained thereby Illumination and Instruction in God's saving Truth And S. Iames saith If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and it shall be given him Ephraim in Ieremy 31. 18. prays for converting grace Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned To whom God presently replies ver 20. Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord. Prayer obtains remission of sins I said saith David Psal. 32. 5 6. I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Prayer also obtaineth corporal blessings When Heaven was shut and it rained not Elijah prayed for rain and it rained Hannah prayed for a Son and she conceived If we be sick saith S. Iames chap. 5. 15. The prayer of faith shall heal the sick Nehemiah prayed that he might find favour in the sight of King Artaxerxes Chap. 1. 11. and found it Chap. 2. 4. But some man will say If Prayer have such power and efficacy how comes it to pass that many even godly men oft pray and yet speed not I answer There are divers causes thereof Either 1. we pray not as we ought or 2. we are not disposed as we ought to be when we pray 1. We pray not as we ought either 1. when we pray not heartily or not constantly For God regards not formal and superficial prayer but prayer that comes from the Heart and loves to be importuned before he grant as our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the woman and the unjust Iudge whom though at first he would not hear yet importunity made him do her justice Or 2.
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. and that in Esay the last To this man will I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit He that killeth an ox namely otherwise is as if he slew a man he that Sacrificeth a lamb unless he comes with this disposition as if he cut off a dog's neck he that offereth an oblation as if he offered bloud he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol And surely he that blesseth an Idol is so far from renewing a Covenant with the Lord his God that he breaks it So did they who without conscience of Repentance presumed to come before him with a Sacrifice not procure atonement but aggravate their breach According to one of these three senses are all passages in the Old Testament disparaging and rejecting Sacrifices literally to be understood namely when men preferred them before the greater things of the Law valued them out of their degree as an antecedent duty or placed their efficacy in the naked Rite as if ought accrued to God thereby God would no longer own them for any ordinance of his nor indeed in that disguise put upon them were they I will except only one Passage out of the number which I suppose to have a singular meaning to wit that of David in the 51. Psalm v. 16 17. which the ancient translations thus express Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem utique sed holocaustis non oblectaberis vel holocaustum non acceptabis Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus c. If thou wouldst have had a Sacrifice I would have offered it but thou wilt accept no burnt-offering c. For this seems to be meant of that special case of Adulterie and Murther which David here deploreth for which Sins the Lord had provided no Sacrifice in his Law Wherefore David in this his Penitential confession tells him That if he had appointed any Sacrifice for expiation of this kind of sin he would have given it him but he had ordained none save only a broken spirit and a contrite heart which thou O God saith he wilt not despise but accept that alone for a Sacrifice in this case without which Sacrifice in no case is accepted Now out of this Discourse we are sufficiently furnished for the understanding of this Caution of Solomon in my Text Be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools or as the words in the Original import Be more approaching God with a purpose and resolution of obedience to his Commandments than with the Sacrifice of fools that is Have a care rather to approach the Divine Majesty with an offering of an obediential disposition than with the bare and naked Rite But the sense is still the same namely The House of God at Ierusalem was an House of sacrifice which they who came thither to worship offered unto the Divine Majesty to make way for their prayers and supplications unto him or to find favour in his sight Solomon therefore gives them here a caveat not to place their Religion either only or chiefly in the external Rite but in their readiness to hear and keep the Commandments of God without which that Rite alone would avail them nothing but be no better than the sacrifice of fools who when they do evil think they do well For without this readiness to obey this purpose of heart to live according to his Commandments God accepts of no Sacrifice from those who approach him nor will pardon their transgressions when they come before him He therefore that makes no conscience of sinning against God and yet thinks to be expiate by Sacrifice is an ignorant fool how wise and religious soever he may think himself to be or appear unto men by the multitude or greatness of his Sacrifices The reason Because the Lord requires Obedience antecedently and absolutely but Sacrifice consequently only and then too not primariò or chiefly and for it self but secondarily only as a testimony of Coutrition and a ready desire and purpose in the offerer to continue in his favour by Obedience This is Solomon's the Preacher's meaning Wherein behold as in a glass the condition of all external Service of God in general as that which he accepteth no otherwise than secondarily namely as issuing from a Heart respectively affected with that devotion it importeth For God as he is a living God so he requires a living worship But as the Body without the Soul is but a carkass so is all external and bodily worship wherein the pulse of the Heart's devotion beats not But if this be so you will say it were better to use no external worship at all of course as we do the worship of the Body in the gestures of bowing kneeling standing and the like than to incur this danger of serving God with a dead and hypocritical service because it is not like the Heart will be always duly affected when the outward worship shall be required I answer Where there is a true and real intent to honour God with outward and bodily worship there the act is not Hypocrisie though accompanied with many defects and imperfections Here therefore that Rule of our Saviour touching the greater and lesser things of the Law must have place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things that is the greater things of the Law we ought to do and not to leave the other though the lesser undone For otherwise if this reasoning were admitted a man might upon the same ground absent himself from coming to Church upon the days and times appointed or come thither but now and then alledging the indisposition of his Heart to joyn with the Church in her publick worship at other times or if he came thither act a mute and when others sing and praise God be altogether silent and not open his mouth nor say Amen when others do For all these are external services and the service of the voice and gesture are in this respect all one there is no difference But who would not think this to be very absurd We should rather upon every such occasion rouse and stir up our Affections with fit and seasonable meditations that what the order and decency of ◠Church-assembly requires to be done of every member outwardly we may likewise do devoutly and acceptably These things we ought to do and not leave the other undone But you will say What if I cannot bring my Heart unto that religious fear and devotion which the outward worship I should perform requireth I could say that some of the outward worship which a man performs in a Church-assembly he does not as a singular man but as a member of the Congregation But howsoever I answer Let the worship of thy Body in such a case be at least a confession and acknowledgment before God of that love fear and esteem of his Divine Majesty thou oughtest to have but hast not For though to come
once brought to steal he should not stay there but be carried farther even to forswear and take God's Name in vain Lest I steal saith he and take the Name of my God in vain Peter first denied Christ but the Devil would not let him stay there but made him curse and forswear him David having once committed adultery with the wife of Vriah the Devil took the advantage to make him commit murther too Sin is like a Serpent if it can but once get in the head it will draw the whole train after While there is no rist in a block it is hard for the wedge or axe to enter but if a rift be once made it will enter all with a little driving So will sin The reason is Because he that commits a sin puts himself thereby more or less into the Devil's power who is not so negligent as to lose or not to ply his advantage The Devil is the Prince of death Heb. 2. 14. Now death comes by sin therefore sin gives the Devil a title and first brought and still bringeth man into the Devil's jurisdiction Hence those who are converted to God and acquitted of their sins are said To be delivered from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. But sin makes them again obnoxious to his power it reaches him a new hold of us which though perhaps it be not so much as he may quite pull us from God yet will it serve him to pull us into many a transgression and cost us much work and a great deal of sorrow before we get free again DISCOURSE XXIX ISAIAH 2. 2 3 4. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established or prepared in the top of the Mountains and exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it c. HILLS or Mountains are States Kingdoms or Societies of men which consisting of degrees rising unto a height one above another are compared unto Mountains raised above the ordinary Plain and Level of the Earth The mountain of the Lord's House is that State and Society of men which is called the Church and People of God Regnum Coelorum the Kingdom of Heaven that is a Kingdom whose both King and King's Throne have their residence and place in the Heavens These words therefore are a Prophesie or prophetical Promise of the glorious exaltation wonderful inlargement and unheard-of prosperity of this Society of men called the Church above all other States or Societies of men whatsoever The glory and exaltation is expressed in the words The Mountain of the Lord's House shall be one day exalted yea mounted not only above the lesser Hills but the highest Mountains though at this time it were depressed and trampled under foot by the proud enemies thereof The inlargement and ampleness thereof in the words All Nations shall flow unto it that is Though at the time of this Prophecy it were reduced to a small remnant yet the time was to come when it should not only consist of the one Nation of the Iews as then it did but of all Nations under the whole heaven The prosperity thereof begins to be described from these words in the 4 th verse They shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks c. that is Although the greatest part of Iacob were already captive and Iudah and Ierusalem in a continual fear and no less danger of the arms and invasion of the King of Babel yet the time should one day come that the People or Church of God should not only be the most exalted State upon the earth and the most ample and universal Dominion that ever was in the world but the most peaceable quiet and flourishing State that ever was since man was first created This is the Prophecy But now comes the Question Whether this as we have described it be and hath already been fulfilled or whether the time thereof be yet to come or if already any ways fulfilled whether it be not in part only performed and the full accomplishment reserved for the time to come Our Adversaries would fain find here the constant and perpetual Visibility of the Church And I must needs grant them that it is meant of a time when the Gentiles shall be called for the words of the Text viz. All Nations tell us so But without doubt he that will have this place for his purpose must shew us not only â—â—â—aked and single Visibility but more than that a glorious Visibility yea the most glorious among the sons of men For a Visibility is one thing and a glorious Visibility is another for many things are visible which are not glorious to look upon and oftentimes good and rich mettal may be within when the outside glisters not We must therefore when we talk of the Churche's Visibility distinguish between these two and not confound them The Church might be Visible though it were but a Hill much more if it be a Mountain but here it is to be established on the tops of Mountains and exalted above the Hills so that no other State shall overtop or overlook it much less trample it under feet Now whether there were ever yet such a time when this was compleatly fulfilled though all be granted our Adversaries they can ask yea and that the Romish Church be that Church here spoken of I leave it to any mans indifferent judgment who can compare the Description of the Prophet with the Stories of forepast and present Times But suppose it were to be fulfilled and fully accomplished in the times which have already been and I will not deny but in part it hath been so yet how doth it follow from this Prophesie that this glorious Visibility should be constant and continual and never interrupted or eclipsed Is not the Prophesie true and hath not God made his Promise good if he hath at any time performed the thing here spoken of though it neither were done all at once and though this exaltation and glory did not alway continue If one skilful in Divination or Astrology should meet with a private man for the present in great want distress contempt and misery and should tell him that it was his fortune to rise to the greatest honours and to become the greatest man that was in the Kingdom If this fell out so at any time of his life according as it was foretold him though perhaps it proved not long durable as such exaltations use not to be had he any reason to say that the Astrologer had lied unto him in that he had foretold him I think any man in reason will think him unjustly charged Why then may not the like be said and thought of the Chruch and as I may so speak with reverence of the prediction of the Churche's fortune But if the time of the full performance of this Prediction be yet to be expected as perhaps it is then it will serve our
examine our actions past to amend our lives lest as bad if not a worse thing befal us or ours And if at any time we see an Example of this upon one of God's own children as we heard of David before a man after God's own heart let us learn to fear and tremble and say If such things befal those whom God most loveth what shall become of us if we sin likewise Again when we see God thus punishing sin in the eyes of the world let us acknowledge his All-seeing Providence and say with those Rev. 15. 3 4. Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name when thy judgments are made manifest and with David Psal. 9. 16. and Psal. 11. 7. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness AND thus I come to the second thing I observed namely That God often forbears and defers his punishments As I did long ago saith Adonibezek yea again and again seventy times one after another so long and so often that I thought God had either not seen or quite forgotten me yet now I see he requiteth me How true this Observation is is sufficiently witnessed by their experience who have little less than stumbled and staggered hereat This made Cato a Heathen man to cry out Res divinae multum habent caliginis The disposals of Divine providence are not a little cloudy and dark This made David a man after God's own heart to confess and say My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped This made Ieremy cry out from the bottom of an amazed soul Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper why are they happy that deal very treacherously Yea those Martyred Saints Rev. 6. 10. are heard to cry from under the Altar How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell upon the earth Now as these forenamed have stumbled at God's delaying and forbearing his judgments so others there are who have been quite deceived verily believing that with God Quod differtur ausertur what was forborn was also forgotten Such as one was Adonibezek here who having escaped so long thought to have escaped ever And such were those whereof David spake Psal. 10. 6. Who say in their hearts We shall never be moved we shall never be in adversity Such an one is the great Whore of Babylon that sings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I sit like a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Such an one was Pherecydes Syrius master of Pythaegoras and a famous Philosopher and one that is said to have been the first Philosopher that taught among the Greeks the Soul to be immortal and yet among all his knowledge had not learned this one Principle The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom For as AElian reports he used among his scholars to vaunt of his irreligion after this manner saying That he had never offered sacrifice to any God in all his life and yet had lived as long and as merrily as those who had offered several Hecatombs But he that thus impiously abused the long-suffering of God came at length to an end as strange as his impiety was unusual for so they report of him that he was stricken like Herod by the Angel of the Lord with such a disease that Serpents bred of the corrupt humors of his body which eat and consumed him being yet alive But that we may neither distrust the righteous ways of God nor prevent his unsearchable counsels with our over-hasty expectation let us a little consider of the Ends why God oftentimes deâ—ers and prolongs his Iudgments These Ends I suppose may be referred unto four heads 1. For the sake of godly ones for whom God useth to forbear even multitudes of sinners So had there been but ten righteous persons in Sodom Sodom had never been destroyed I will not destroy it saith God for tens sake So for good Iosiah's sake God deâ—erred the plagues he had decreed to bring upon that people that Iosiah might be first gathered unto his fathers in peace and his eyes might not see all the evil that he was to bring upon that place as it is 2 Kings 22. 20. For as the new wine saith the Lord Esa. 65. 8. is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it even so will I do for my servants sakes that I may not destroy them all That is I will spare a whole cluster of men even for one or two blessed servants of mine which I shall find therein This is the first End and this is most if not only found in publick judgments and common sins such as concern whole societies of men for in such properly doth God for the sake of godly ones forbear a multitude of sinners 2. The second End is To give time of repentance and amendment For the Lord is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance as it is 2 Pet 3. 9. This is shewed by the parable of the Fig-tree Luke 13. 7. Three years the husbandman came to seek fruit and found none and the fourth year he expected before he would cut it down An hundred and twenty years the old world had given them before the Floud came And Ionah proclaimed not Yet one day but Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed This End concerns such punishments as deprive men of life and of the means of salvation and of amendment of life For such as these only can God be said to forbear to give time of repentance For as for other punishments not the forbearance but the hastening of them rather would cause repentance seeing men then use to remember and call upon God when they are in misery and affliction 3. The third End of God's deferring his punishments is The opportunity of example by them unto others and of manifesting his own glory God is Lord of Times and as he created them so he alone knows a fit Time for all things under the Sun He therefore who knows all occasions when he seeth a fit Time for his Iudgments to profit other men by example and most of all to set forth his own glory then he sends them forth and till then he will defer them 4. The fourth End or Reason hath some affinity with this and it is When God intending some extraordinary judgment suffers mens sins to grow unto a full ripeness that their sin may be as conspicuous unto the world as his purpose is their punishment shall be Thus God punished not the Canaanites in Abraham's time but deferred it till Israel's coming out of Egypt and that as
will it profit a man to enjoy an hour's pleasure for many a year's pain What will the sweet do us good which is mixt with so much four What will it profit a man to be rich in his youth and a beggar in his age What will it profit a man by guile and oppression to raise his house while he liveth by that which shall most certainly ruine it when he is dead and gone And lastly if none of all this were yet What will it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul NOW having done with the First consideration of these words I come unto the Second which is with relation to him that uttered them and so they are a Confession In which I observe Three things 1. That the suffering of punishment extorts the Confession of sin Thus this miserable King is made for all his pride and stomach to lament with an Ego â—eci with an I have done 2. God's Iustice in the punishing of sin visibly is one of the strongest Motives to make an Atheist confess there is a God Adonibezek who scarce believed or perhaps not well remembred that there was a God till now is here forced to confess The unresistible God that crusheth down the proud he hath requited me 3. As the Punishment in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten so the fashion and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand to know the very sin we are punished for Many sins had Adonibezek committed the condition and manner of his punishment made him remember his cruel usage of the seventy kings and say As I have done c. To begin with the First I say The suffering of punishment extorts the confession of sin The reason whereof is the very nature of Punishment which always implieth some offence and therefore is a good remembrancer of the same Thus Ioseph's brethren when they were distressed in Egypt cried We are verily guilty concerning our brother Proud Pharaoh when he saw the plague of hail and thunder said I have now sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked The proud stomachs of the Israelites came down when once the fiery serpents stung them and then they came to Moses and said We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee Manasses whom all the threatnings of God's Prophets in fifty years space could never move yet when he was bound in fetters and carried prisoner unto Babylon Then he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers Whosoever therefore he be that feels not this fruit and makes not this use of his crosses and afflictions is worse than hard-hearted Pharaoh worse than cruel Adonibezek But if by this means we come to see and acknowledge our sin then may we say with David It is good for me that I was afflicted and give thanks and praise unto our God who is able out of such hard rocks as these to make flow the saving waters of repentance And thus I come to my second Observation which is That God's judgment for sin is one of the strongest motives to make an Atheist confess there is a God Those who say There is no God David accounts them in the number of fools The fool saith in his heart There is no God Psal. 53. 1. Now Solomon styleth Punishment Eruditio stultorum the Schoolmaster of fools If for all fools then also for Atheistical fools that they either by their own or by example of God's plagues upon others may be taught to put away their folly Most certain it is The not observing of God's judgments or the supposed examples of some who seem to escape the hand of God in the greatest sins is a main occasion of Atheism This made David himself to say My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked It is reported of Diagoras Melius surnamed the Atheist that at the first he was very devout and a great worshipper of the Gods but having committed some certain money unto a friend's keeping and afterwards demanding it again his friend loth to forgo such a booty forsware that he ever received any whom when Diagoras saw notwithstanding this horrible perjury to thrive and prosper and no divine judgment to fall upon him he presently turned Atheist and enemy to the Gods and laboured by all means to bring other men to the like impiety For this cause therefore David as jealous of God's honour and knowing what force God's Iudgments have to keep Atheism from creeping into the hearts of men desireth God Psal. 59. 13. that he would avenge himself of evil-doers even for this end that it might be known he was the Lord Consume saith he in thy wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that is that men may know that God ruleth in Iacob unto the ends of the earth And hence it is also that God often in Ezekiel doth plainly affirm this to be the End of his judgments That it might be known that he was the Lord. As in chapter 6. v. 6. thus he threatens Israel Your cities shall be laid waste and your high places shall be desolate c. v. 7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you and you shall know that I am the Lord. And again v. 12 13. He that is far off shall die by the pestilence and he that is near shall fall by the sword Then shall ye know that I am the Lord. And chap. 25. 17. concerning the Philistins I will execute great vengeance upon them saith the Lord with furious rebukes and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay my vengeance upon them If this then be so as ye have heard let us learn hence a good preservative against Atheism and all the ill motions of the devil and our flesh drawing thereunto not lightly as most men do to pass over the Iudgments of God upon sin but duly and diligently to observe them if in our selves then more severely if in our neighbours curiously but charitably And so I come to the third and last point which is That as Punishment in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten so the fashion and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand to know the very sin we are punished for I have shewed already at large That God's visible judgments have usually in them a stamp and mark of conformity with the sin for which they are inflicted For either we suffer the same thing our selves that we have done to others or some resembling or like unto it or else are punished about the same thing wherein our sin was or lastly in the place or time where and when we sinned I am perswaded there is no judgment
their sins According to the Law none should appear before the Lord empty what offering what sacrifice then must we bring when we come in to Christ but that which David who well knew tells us Psal. 51. 17. The sacrifice of God saith he is a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Thus must they come furnished whom Christ inviteth For this is that which S. Paul calls 2 Cor. 7. 10. a sorrow after God or a godly sorrow which saith he worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of For understanding therefore of this Metaphor in my Text we must know That Sin is compared in Scripture unto a burthen wherewith every sinner is loaden yea overcharged a burthen intolerable So Psal. 38. 4. Mine iniquities saith David are gone over mine head as a heavie burthen they are too heavie for me Ver. 6. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly Ver. 8. I am feeble and sore broken I have roared because of the disquietness of my heart S. Paul followeth the manner of speech when he tells us 2 Tim. 3. 6. of silly women laden with sin and led away with divers lusts This loading and pressure of sin is in respect of a twofold weight which oppresseth the Soul the one of Punishment the other of Loathsomness For the weight of Punishment it is the ordinary style of the Prophets to term God's Iudgments for sin by the name of burthens Iehu calls his execution upon Iehoram the burthen which the Lord laid upon his father Ahab 2 King 9. 25. So S. Paul saith Gal. 6. 5. that every one shall bear his own burthen For the other the Loathsomness of sin that also weighs heavie Ah sinful Nation saith the Prophet Esay ch 1. 4. a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers and it follows v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores This also is a part of David's burthen Psal. 38. 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am troubled or wryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvatus sum I am bowed down greatly Is Sin indeed so heavie a thing how then do we make it so light a matter Nullum onus saith Ambrose Ep. 18. gravius est quà m sarcina peccatorum pondus flagitiorum No burthen is more heavie no load more pressing to the Soul than the weight and load of Sin If every thing that presseth down be heavy how heavy is that which presseth down to Hell that is unto that depth of woe whose bottom can never be fathom'd Is Sin so heavy a thing indeed how comes it then to pass we feel it not Our case is so much the more fearful and dangerous For saith Chrysosiome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The evil is so much the greater by how much it seems to be the lesser For Physicians all agree that those are most dangerously sick who have no sense and feeling of their sickness whereas on the contrary to be sensible of pain is a sign the sickness is not deadly Happy therefore are those who can add the other word to this being not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laden but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labouring under the weight of their burthen These are those whom Christ calleth and these are those whose condition we are now to consider that we may know it and whether our selves be any of that number That a man therefore may truly be said to labour and be weary of his burthen two things are requisite First That he feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Secondly That he desire to be rid thereof He must feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Now the weight of sin as I told you is twofold First The weight of Punishment and secondly The load of Loathsomness The first and soonest felt is that of Punishment which as it is the grossest weight so may it be felt while the sense of the Soul is yet but gross and dull But to feel the other that is to loath our sin requires a quicker and more tender sense which is not easily attained to unless the Soul be first well rubbed and galled with the weight of Punishment The entry therefore and as it were the porch of Penitence are those Terrors and Pangs of the Soul affrighted with the apprehension of the Wrath of God for Sin and of the danger we are in therefore When the piercing sting of an accusing conscience upbraids us and tells us we are in a state to be damned eternally That if I should die this day this night this hour I must go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth there to yell and howl with devils in pains unspeakable and be tormented for ever and ever When our Soul is stricken with horror to think how long we have lived in this danger and how little we thought thereof nay how securely we encreased our score as though we should never have come to a reckoning for the same how often God might have taken me away in the midst of my sins and where had I been then yea what shall become of me if he should do it now O how am I afraid of this moment who feared nothing so many years These are those arrows of the Almighty which must go through our Souls at the beginning of our Repentance That we may take up the words of David Psal. 38. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure v. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore v. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin This is a good beginning but is no more than a beginning for yet we labour not enough yet we are not weary enough for Christ to call us unto him This is but as the prick of a needle making way for the thread We must go further else this will do us no good For thus far as to be sensible and affected with the punishment due for sin to be terrified with the weight of the wrath of God which lies upon us for the same thus far he may come who shall be damned For it is common to the desperate reprobate as well as to the children of God to Iudas who hanged himself to Cain whom God drove out from his presence for he could say and confess to God himself My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4. 13. Let us therefore see what we are further to add unto it And that is a sense and feeling of the foulness loathsomness and odiousness of Sin If If we feel not our selves affected with this weight the former groaning will be accounted no better with God than hypocrisie and slavish fear for this is the soul and the life of a godly sorrow indeed without which the other is
We rely not upon God as we ought when we pray but trust more to second means to our Wit to our Friends or the like than to Him And this seems to be that wavering in prayer S. Iames speaks of when he bids us pray in faith without wavering Chap. 1. 6. that is without reeling from God to rest upon second means But as with our mouth we pray to him so should our Hearts rely upon him to give us what we ask But we often pray to God for fashion but indeed we look to speed by others and so God takes himself mocked and so no marvel if he hears us not If it were our own case we would not listen to such suiters Or 3. We pray and speed not when we make not God's glory the End of what we ask Ye ask saith S. Iames Chap. 4. 3. and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye might consume it upon your lusts Or 4. We may ask something that crosseth the Rule of Divine Providence and Iustice and then also we must not look to speed David prayed for the life of his child by Bathsheba Vriah's Wife but was not heard because it stood not with the Rule of Divine Iustice that so scandalous a sin which made the Enemies of God to blaspheme should not have an exemplary punishment In like manner sundry times when the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord and murmured against Moses and Aaron their Governours Moses poured forth very earnest prayers to God for removing his judgments from off the people but God would not hear him because their sins were scandalous and committed with so high a hand that it could not stand with the Rule of his Iustice not to inflict punishment for them 2. Again sometimes and that too often we are indisposed for God to grant our request As first when some sin unrepented of lies at the door and keeps God's blessing out Psal. 66. 18. If I regard saith David iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me So God would not hear Ioshua praying for the Israelites when they fled before the men of Ai because of Achan's Sacriledge Get thee up saith God why liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned for they have taken of the accursed thing that is the thing that cursed were those that medled therewith Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies because they were accursed Neither will I be with you any more except ye put the accursed thing from among you Or lastly our Prayers often are not heard because we appear before the Lord empty we do not as Cornelius did send up Prayers and Alms together we should have two strings to our bow when we have but one This is another indisposition which unfits us to receive what we ask of God For how can we look that God should hear us in our need when we turn away our face from our brother in his need When we refuse to give to God or for his sake what he requires why should he grant to us what we request Hear what an ancient Father of the Church S. Basil by name in Concione ad Divites saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have known many saith he who would fast who would pray who would sigh but not bestow one halfpeny upon the poor But what then will their other devotion profit them 3. Add to all these Reasons of displeasure a Reason of favour why God sometimes grants not our requests namely because we ask that which he knows would be hurtful for us though we think not so We ask sometimes that which if he granted us would utterly undo us As therefore a wise and loving Father will not give his child a knife or some other hurtful thing though it cries never so much unto him for it so does God deal with his children And how wise soever we think our selves we are often as ignorant in that which concerns our good as very babes are and therefore we must submit our selves to be ordered by the wisdom of our heavenly Father Moreover we must know and believe that God often hears our Prayers when we think he doth not and that three manner of ways As namely 1. When he changes the means but brings the End we desire another way to pass We ask to have a thing by our means but he likes not our way but gives it us by another means which he thinks better S. Paul that he might the better glorifie God in serving him desires the thorn in the flesh might be taken from him God denies him that means but grants him grace sufficient for him that so being humbled by the sight of his own infirmity he might glorifie God for his power in mans weakness And is it not all one whether a Physician quench the thirst of his Patient by giving him Barberies or some other comfortable drink as by giving him Beer which he calls for 2. God often grants our request but not at that time we would have it but defers it till some other time which he thinks best Daniel prays for the return of the Captivity in the first year of Darius but God defers it till the first of Cyrus We must not therefore take God's delays for denials The Souls of the Saints under the Altar Rev. 6. 10. cry out aloud for vengeance God hears that cry and cannot deny the importunate cry of innocent bloud yet he defers it for a little season saith the Text v. 11. and why because their fellow-servants and brethren that should be slain as they were might be fulfilled Lastly God sometimes grants not the thing we ask but gives us in stead thereof something which is as good or better And then we are not to think but that he hears us And thus much concerning the power and efficacy of Prayer Now I come also to shew the like of Alms how powerful a means they are to procure a blessing from God Not thy Prayer only saith the Angel but thine Alms also are come up for a remembrance in the sight of God For Alms is a kind of Prayer namely a visible one and such an one as prevails as strongly with God for a blessing as any other Hear David in Psalm 41. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble 2. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness A place so evident as flashes in a man's eye But hear Solomon speak to Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given he will pay him again And Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack but he that hideth his eyes
Spirit The rising of the Sun is known by the shining beams the Fire is known by its burning the Life of the Body is known by its moving Even so certainly is the presence of God's Spirit known by the shining light of an holy conversation even so certainly the purging Fire of Grace is known by the burning Zeal against sin and a servent desire to keep God's Commandments even so certainly the Life and liveliness of Faith is known by the good motions of the Heart by the bestirring of all the powers both of Soul and Body to do whatsoever God wills us to be doing as soon as we once know he would have us do it He that hath this Evidence hath a bulwark against Despair and may dare the Devil to his face He that hath this hath the Broad Seal of Eternal life and such a man shall live for ever But on the contrary He that walks not in the ways of Obedience to God's Commandments whatsoever conceit he hath of God's favour toward him without all doubt he knows not Christ to be his Redeemer he hath not nor cannot have any Assurance of Salvation for how should a man be assured of that which is not His Hope is Presumption his Faith is nothing but Security his Comfort if he feels any a mere imagination His Hope his Faith his Comfort are all delusions of the Devil For if we say saith our Apostle chap. 1. ver 6. that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we are lyars yea and the Devil the Father of lies is in us Here therefore is a good Caveat for us all Let us not deceive our selves without Holiness no man shall see God Beware of Presumption for Presumption sends more to Hell than Desperation Let us never think we have Faith to be saved by or acknowledge Christ throughly till we may see and know it by keeping his Commandments For hereby we know that we know him c. But you may say Alas this is an hard saying If none have true Faith or know Christ aright but those who keep the Law of God who then can be saved For what man is he who hath such a Faith For there is no man living which sins not and who can say his Heart is clean the best of us all hath need to pray unto God daily and hourly Lord forgive our trespasses 1. I answer It is true that an absolute and perfect Obedience to the Law of God is not attainable in this life For the best that are though not in a current and constant course yet ever and anon offend both in doing what they ought not and omitting what they should do yea some mixture of infirmity and imperfections will cleave unto the face of the fairest action So incompatible is an uninterrupted and unstained purity with this unglorified state of mortality 2. All this is true and cannot be denied For our Apostle himself saith chap. 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us But the same Apostle in chap. 3. 8. of this Epistle saith also That he which commits sin is of the Devil There is therefore some measure of holiness and obedience and that more than ordinary required of those who are the Sons of God That ours may be such we must know the requisites thereof are three To be Cordial Resolved and Vniversal 1. It must be Cordial that is Conscionable and Sincere it must be internal proceeding from the Heart not external only in the appearance of the outward work God looks for fruit and not for leaves therefore the Fig-tree in the Gospel which had nothing but leaves we know was accursed But blessed are they saith David that keep his Testimonies and seek him with their whole heart For true Faith not only restrains the actions of the outward man for that Humane laws and other respects may do but it purifies the Heart also from the reigning allowance of any lust or lewd course of sin There is abhorring as well as abstaining loathing as well as leaving for else a chained Lion though he abstain from devouring hath his Lionish nature still 2. It must be Resolved that is out of a full and setled purpose to conform our selves to the Law of God That howsoever we often fail in the execution yet this Root may still keep life within us For good actions which come only by fits and occasions are no part of true Obedience nor where such a Resolution is are failings and slips more a sign of a disobedient child than the missing of a mark argues he that shot never aimed to hit it but only is a sign either of weakness want of skill or good heed or some impediment 3. It must be Vniversal I say not absolute and perfect for no man can keep the Law of God absolutely and perfectly yet it must be Vniversal that is to one Commandment as well as to another True Obedience knows no exception no reservation nor can any such stand with a true Faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. First therefore there must no darling no bosome sin no Herodias be cherished such a dead fly as this will marre the whole box of ointment For how should he take himself for a faithful servant of Christ who still holds correspondence with his Arch-enemy the Devil It were treason in an earthly subject to do it how serviceable soever he might otherwise be unto his Prince One breach in the walls of a City exposeth it to the surprise of the Enemy one leak in a Ship neglected will sink it at last into the bottom of the Sea the stab of a Pen-knife to the Heart will as well speed a man as twenty Rapiers run through him If thou hedge thy close as high as the middle region of the Air in all other places and leave but one gap all thy grass will be gone If the Fowler catch the Bird either by the head or the foot or the wing she is sure his own So in the present case If Satan keep possession but by one reigning sin it will be thine everlasting ruine If thou live and die with allowance and delight in any one known sin without resolution to part with it thou art none of Christ's servants thou as yet carriest the Devil's brand he hath thereby markt thee out for his own Secondly An Vniversal obedience submits not only to Prohibitions of not doing evil but puts in practice the Injunctions of doing good Many think they keep the Commandments well so they do nothing which they forbid But the not doing good is a sin as well as the doing of evil Dives fries in Hell not for robbing but for not relieving Lazarus The unprofitable servant was cast into outer darkness not for spending but for not bestowing his Master's talent The five foolish Virgins were shut out of doors not for wasting but for not having oil in their Lamps And the wicked shall be