both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
matter Thus we are by nature of no more reason than a wilde Ass and yet as unturnable as that Creature The old Man is proud and wilful yea presumptuous yea of enmity and despight if resisted as Lions and Dragons are spitting their some and poison as Cats in the face of all that contradict 'T is said of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he became head-long Act. 1.18 He was so in his life for he would on in his work of betraying Christ though convinced by Christ's own preaching and told to his Face that he should betray him And so are the ways of corrupt nature carried head-long He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the froward are carried head-long Joh. 5.13 And all this continually as the Blackamore that cannot change his skin No place better sets out the bad property of natural corruption then that Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil and only evil and that continually For such a visible as well as audible Sermon as Noah preached of 120 Years long would surely have turned them from their sins had they not been desperately obstinate and so continually of which God was sensible and complain'd and was grieved at his heart that he made man And shall God so much lay to heart the depraved state of a man and man himself not lay it to heart at all Fourthly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the consequence of it It is a body of death a body of this death that is it disposeth us to all the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come And therefore doth the Apostle cry out here in my Text as one utterly loft O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. And they likewise who were prickt at heart by the Apostle Peter's preaching with the sense of their sinful state Cryed out Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Which are Scriptures of purpose to shew that we should be deeply sensible of the evil consequence of corrupt nature as it will destroy Soul and Body Judas is called a Childe of Perdition and so are we called Children of wrath by nature that is such as are not under mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pitied as the expression is rightly rendered in the Queens translation 1 Pet. 2.10 Now how are Malefactors affected with the consequence of their evil way when they are going to the Gallows especially when they have no hope of mercy when they be not under talk of mercy and pardon Now our natural state is death without all mercy that is the sentence pronounced upon it if the state so abide a carnal state it is death without all mercy and every carnal man should speak of himself as the Apostle Peter doth as one not under mercy or as one that hath not yet obtained mercy but lies lyable as a Prisoner condemned every hour to Execution I take it that their attonement day spokeâ— of Levit. 23.27 Wherein they were to afflict their Souls upon pain of death had principal reference to their state of sin by nature that body of sin which they brought into the World with them which exposed them and us all unto death and all misery in this World and that to come and if it be so then you have the Point in hand proved and the reason of it why we should be deeply sensible of corrupt nature as well as of all that flowes from it because God commands it and commands it upon great penalty We die for it else unless we afflict our Souls under the sense of our fallen state and Gods displeasure belonging thereunto that Soul which doth not so well die for it their afflicting day was a day to go to the Root and to cast salt and brine upon the springs of wickedness which if they did not the wrath of God seized on their Roots Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade Men saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.11 We perswade Men. To what Answ To look well about them that they be not found in their carnal state when Christ cometh to Judgment So that the deepest sense of this thing should be upon us that can possibly be as if we were now going before the Judgment of quick and dead and all in our sins or as if we were going to the Wedding of a great Prince and had not one rag on our backs to cover our nakedness Vse I Learn from hence that if we should be sensible of natural corruption then of all actual transgressions which are but as streams from this Fountain If we should mourn over the evil Womb then over all the evils which this VVomb brings forth And yet what twins and what tens and what great man-sins and provocations doth this evil VVomb bring forth every where at this day and yet who lays to heart either Mother or Children I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done every one turns to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Jer. 8.6 Vse 2 Woe and alas how much are the most liberal reproved who are past feeling as to both natural corruption and all actual transgressions yea even the fowlest and greatest Giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all iniquity with greediness and drink in all abominations as the Fish doth Water So far from sense of all sin either in the heart or in the life that all such frame of spirit is scoffed at If a man do but cast the least discountenance on the greatest sin What you are a Phanatick and ready as Swine to turn and tear and rent such as cast such Pearls before them as wholesome and seasonable reproofs and are as the wilde Ass that snuffeth up the wind and in the heat of her lust cannot be turned away Febris accedit the mad Feavour will and must have its course though Heaven or Hell bear upon breaking off or going on They say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant To talk of a body of death Lord what strange language would this be now adays and if a Man should chance to sigh as the Apostle O wretcheà man that I am What will become of me that Hellish cordial I doubt would be readily administred God dam-me thou wilt do well enough Never was it such a God-daring time for wickedness If it be such a God-damning time as persons pâ—ay Hell will be full of Souls indâ—ed for many Ages surely as this Men have made their hearts as an Adamant that they may not repent and seared their Consciences with a hot Iron that they may be sin-proof and not fall before the greatest wickedness nor the greatest judgment of God That capital curse I fear is inflicted
Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness is very precious to that Leper which indeed and from his heart cryeth out unclean Vse 4 The last Use of this Doctrin is for Exhortation Be at this practise with this Apostle of panting and groaning under the Body of Death when the poor Woman with the Bloody Issue saw that she was not hid she came trembling to Christ Luk. 8.47 and confessed her condition and how long it had been so with her and what ineffectual means she had used and yet wasted all on them Though your corrupt nature be hid from the eyes of men and from your own eyes much to much yet not in the least hid from the eyes of Christ and therefore come trembling to him and confess all your vileness to him as far as you are able but alas what a hard task do I mention 〈◊〉 and how long you have layne in this forlorne state and do as Beggars by the High-ways sides pull off all Plaisters from every soar and take heed of hiding any sin with Fig-leaves as your Father Adam let the great Physician see and know all every putrefied soar that is not bound up nor mollified with oyntment and who knoweth but his eye may move his heart towards you to pity you and to play the good Samaritan and to dress your filthy souls and soars and to anoint them and mollifie them This I think is the meaning of the Prophet Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see This is a proper work for every sinner to be at to bleed and mourn inwardly for the Fountain of sin that is in him and to bewail the many springs of wickedness which boil up bad matters Night and Day in his Soul to the grieving of the Holy Spirit Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look to the roots whence ye were hewen Isa 51.1 to the hole of the Pit whence ye are digged meaning Abraham who was an Idolater and dead in trespasses and sins as well as others The Body of Death is the hole of the Pit out of which cometh all the Frogs and Locusts which crawle and swarm in your lives Many Professors not bewailing this well and throughly as they should build a brave House to look on but on the Sand which with storms falleth and the fall thereof is great The time of loss is to be lookt into and considered Damni dati tempus inspicitur And how old is our loss of God's Image How inveterate is our wound How old is the old Man as old as Methusalah The old man came into the World with you and a Miracle it is that it had not with its great weight like a Mill-stone about your Necks pressed you to your place long ago yea the old man came into the World with this world that now is and with the other world that is drowned and it will bring this to the Fire at last and from burning to burning it is very proper work to be casting tears upon such sparks as will burn to the lowest Hill Secondly 'T is needful work this to know every Man the Plague of his own heart To know it that is to sigh and groan under it as here the Apostle Paul doth When Daniel had received that sad Vision of Nebuchadnezar's ruin the lopping down of that tall Tree which reached to Heaven and the sad condition of a beast which he was to be cast into Daniel remained speechless for one hour and his thoughts troubled him and he was not able to say a word to the King but sighed and lookt sad Dan. 4.19 And an hour more it may be he would have stood sad and sighing before the King and silent if the King had not forced matter from him And this carriage was very needful to set home things upon the King's heart and to make him look about him well And would I could so preach to all you this Day and in this place who are in your natural condition If I were silent now for one hour more and did only sigh over all you carnal and unregenerate Men and Women and look sad and sometimes mourn would it not be very needful as hearts are now heardened well and deeply to affect you Certainly it would so make you look about you well before the great Lopper death come 'T is very needful work for you and me to be at this oft-bewailing our fallen state and the body of this death because we are become as Nebuchadnezar by his fall Beasts that perish even we that were in honour in higher honour than Nebuchadnezar was before his fall We are become as Beasts in some respects and much worse than Beasts in other respects We are in this state without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World which he calls upon every one to remember Ephes 2.11 12. Wherefore remember that ye in times past were thus and thus c. Thirdly This is to go to the Root of our Disease to lay an Axe to the Root The Apostle was wise when he fell upon the main body of wickedness in him Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say Thus saith the Lord God unto all Jerusalem thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite and thy Navel was not cut nor salted c. Ezek. 16.2 3. You cannot know your abominations as you should that is be affected with them as you should unless you look to the Root from whence they all spring and fix your eyes and your hearts there well according to this wholesome instruction of the Lord. We are by nature Amorites and Hittites as wilde as any Children of wrath as well as others and in us i.e. In our nature dwelleth no good but the seeds of all wickedness and until we thus go to the bottom we do in our humiliations but skin over soares and not search and cleanse them well This this Apostle calleth for 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven what a deal a-do there was to search out leaven and to get totally rid of it among the Jews much is said of it the Apostle would have us as industrious about corrupt nature which he calleth old leaven in all our humiliations wherein there should be soul-examinations that we should fall close upon our evil hearts and state within and smite upon them and cry out much upon them Damni dans causam damnum ipsum dedisse videtur The old leaven is the cause of all the sins and miseries we daily fall into This this therefore we should especially bewail and labour about to pluck up the root of bitterness Fourthly There is no dealing with any actual sin without effectual dealing with the body of sin To go to lave a Pool and not first to deal with the
to quench the Spirit of Christ quite but it seemeth that he is under such a Law and such an assistance from the Father that he must know no discouragement but must on with the work against all opposition and set and establish judgment that is the state of the new Creature or the work of grace he must make the new Creature and he must establish it i. e. so make it that it may never be marred again as the Image of God in the first Adam was Christ threw out filth so that the Devil cannot easily fetch it in again And Christ build so upon himself the Chief corner Stone and firm Rock that no stormes can overturn Job is a great instance The Apostle saith That Charity never faileth If our love never fail it is because that God's love to us in Christ never faileth The love of Christ is unchangeable and so he maketh ours that much water cannot quench it Christ ordains us to bring forth much fruit and our fruit to remain Joh. 15.16 When Polycarp was set on an Ass and carried to his doom he heard a voice from Heaven saying be of good chear O Polycarp and play the Man the Speaker no Man saw but the voice was heard by many of us saith the History And if any one did play the Man in his suffering he did Have respect to thine age tender thy life swear by the fortune of Caesar repent of what is past and say remove the wicked But he looking about with a stedfast countenance upon the wicked Multitude said Remove O Lord these wicked Fourscore and six years have I served Christ and he never offended me in any thing And how then can I revile my King that hath thus kept me The pro-consul still urged him but he still as stoutly resisted him and replyed I am a Christian and there was no turning of him with all that they could say or do The first Work of grace in our first Parents was lost but the grace we now have by Christ eating of that Tree of Life is preserved for ever and none can pluck out of his hand Secondly Christ doth this excellent work of the new Creature alone But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 What sacrifices soever have been used they did not mean that any could remove Man's guilt or filth but all pointed at Christ the sacrificing of himself and that this and this alone is the remedy of fallen and sinful Man He trod the Wine press of the wrath of God alone and of the People none with him Isa 63.3 David duell'd it with Goliah and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a Sling and a Stone And so Christ duell'd it with all the Enemies of Man's salvation and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a body subject to infirmities Christ would not put any of this work out of his own hands to be done Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness by whose stripes we are healed 1 Pet. 2.24 Christ had none to help him to bear the Cross which God laid on him though he had one to help bear the Cross which Men laid on him The weight of our sins as punished with infinite wrath and torment Alass who could bear this Cross or be compelled to it and yet all the damned are compelled to bear this Cross and so will all reprobates As in one part of our restoration Christ was alone so in all the parts of it foundation and top-stone he layeth both alone and none of the People with him None offered to him first not last Look to Abraham your Father and to Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and increased him and blessed him Isa 51.2 I think the scope of this Scripture was to strengthen faith that though they were but few yet that God was able to deliver them from all their Enemies as he did Abraham in a very lonely state in Canaan from the Kings that fought with him But take the place more spiritually and strictly for Gods calling of him out of the state of Heathenisme and so the bringing him to a state of grace the bringing him to a new Country and Religion and State all this God did for Abraham alone and subdued all his inward enemies alone and made him an Heir of Eternal Salvation alone God would trust Abraham's best estate with none but himself I desire but this saith Mr. Rutherford that Christ would take me in hand to cure me and undertake for a sick man I know I should not die under his hand sorrow which hath no eyes hath put a Vail upon my Soul that I cannot see him If Christ undertake a sick sinners cure let his disease be what it will never so desperate never so long standing he cureth him without any more Physicians and none die under his hand Thirdly Christ doth this great service for Man of making a better state freely for Jew and Gentile for great sinners and little sinners if there be any such Christ doth all freely He cured Naman that his skin came as if it had been the skin of a young Child and did it for nothing though a very rich Man and would have given much for his Cure Our Fathers had Manna from Heaven and Physick the brazen Serpent which cured them and supported them for nothing and all that was Christ The Manna that fed them was Christ the Serpent that healed them was Christ Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 In all sorts Jews and Gentiles Christ works for the Cure of natural corruption and doth many Cures of this kind but takes nothing no mony nor monys worth he cursed Gehazi that would be medling this way The Samaritan poured in Oil and Wine and healed the wounded Man of all his wounds and all freely And so brought the Prophet's Widdow out of debt freely such Samaritans are now much wanting for Prophets Widdows in debt and he frankly forgave a Debtor many Talents GOD lookt upon every of the Five Days Work and said it was good But on the Sixth Days Work when he had made Man he beheld and said it was very good to shew what special delight God had to make his own Image and to draw his own likeness in Man so doth Christ still not only do this work of restoring fallen Man and do it for nothing but delights to conform us to his Image and when this Days work is done for any wretched Man he saith it is very good and all the Angels rejoyce with him Vse 1 Learn from hence that our Soul-ruines and miseries by our Fall are very great in that none but Christ God-man is able to remedy them 'T is a strong Prison that which none can open but
Christ which hath an Arm like God Omnipotent By the which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 It is a very strong Prison and very filthy in which we are by nature and who can go into this Prison to preach there but Christ The Doors are all Iron and Iron-bars and Bolts upon them If any one could go into these Prisons and preach 't would have spoken the state the less deplorable but for as much as none can but Christ himself it speaks the Prison in which man is by nature very strong and terrible 'T is a great heap of filth and a very great Dung-hill indeed which all the Carts in the World imployed about at once could not carry away no none but an Infinite strength Then was a fiery Sword turning every way to keep out Adam from the Garden and from communion with God and from eating of the Tree of Life the Seal thereof and surely this misery of Man is great upon him and this fiery Sword terrible that none can sheath it and take it away and bring Man into Paradise again and communion with God but the Omnipotent Power of Christ If any could have taken away that brandished Sword or if an Angel from Heaven could have done it and have taken Adam by the hand and have brought him into the Garden of delights i.e. of communion with God the misery had not been so great They are great and fearful diseases which none in this World can cure no nor none in that World above though much more populous than this but one even Christ himself Let the Inhabitants of the Rock sing let them shout from the top of the Mountains Isa 42.11 This is spoken of them that lived in the Wilderness of Arabia among Stones and Rocks Ishmael's Posterity where nothing but wild Beasts and Devils haunt the Inhabitants were like the Country they dwelt in their Hearts Rocks and Mountains and Legions of Devils and cursed Spirits haunting them Now O how mighty must he be that drives a Wilderness How mighty must he be that bids or commands the Inhabitants of these hard Rocks to sing and melt with joy Secondly Learn that we are much obliged to Christ and God for laying the help of such desperate Diseases on one so mighty The Apostle John wept that there was none found worthy to open the Book nor to read it nor to look thereon and he wept much and when one was found out how the tone is changed They that wept much rejoyced much and sung a new Song saying Thou are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy Blood out of every Tongue and Kindred and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5.4.9 The opening not only of one Book but of all the Scriptures and the heart too much weeping there is among sinners about this and none is found worthy that is anointed and accepted of God to this service but Christ and he hath bought his skill dear with his own heart blood he was slain to get this art and ability Worthy art thou to receive Power c. for thou wast slain And being thus how much are we bound to this Physician for our eyes and for his eye-salve as to the light of the Scriptures and the way to any good which we have I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in Paths which they have not known I will make darkness light and crooked things straight this will I do and not forsake them And who this is by whom God will do this see Isa 42.6.16 compared namely Christ To lead a blind Body from place to place and to do so all Day long all the Year long yea all the Life long and never to be weary how wonderfully is Man obliged to Christ and to God that hath given him to such a work Who is not tier'd to lead a blind Body a Day Thirdly Learn that it is dangerous to reject Christ because he is the appointed and proper remedy of our fallen state There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but by the Name of Christ As there is but one Faith one Baptisme so there is but one Lord Ephes 3.5 There being no more Doors to go out from our filthy state we had need to take heed that we do not neglect it the shame of our nakedness will by such a course appear The marshy places will not be drained or healed Ezeh 47.11 i.e. we shall remain unhealed and die in our sinful state our sin will remain Ye are come to Mount Zion not to Mount Zina and to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel See then that ye refuse not Him that spake Moses was a Mediator of the old Covenant and could do little Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and can do all the Services of our fallen state and fulfill the great and precious promises of the New-Testament to us He that rejected that Mediator which spake on Earth died for it Heb. 12.25 How much more will they who reject this Mediator which now speaketh from Heaven to us If Christ be only he which blesseth us and turneth Jew and Gentile from their sins and God hath only raised him from the dead for this end to bring Salvation from afar and we reject all it cannot be taken well either by God the Father or by Christ his Son Vnto you first God having raised up his Son hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquity Act. 3.26 As if the Apostle had said God hath been at great cost and pains to part with his only Son to die and then to raise him from the dead and all for this end to bless you Jews and to turn you first and then the Gentiles from their sins and so to make them and you eternally happy If you shall reject all this love of God and love of his Son it will fall heavy he will conster it that you have no mind to be turned from your sins but to continue in them and so you shall for ever and die and perish in them He that is filthy shall be filthy still Vse 2 Try your selves Is Christ become actually yet a remedy to you Hath he delivered you from the body of this death Then as you have long groaned under the want of it so you are much taken with the mercy in any measure obtained with the freeness of it that the Waters which cleanse you should come to you through such a golden Pipe as the Blood and Wounds of Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle is much taken with this that the Pipes of his cleansing should be laid through the sides of Jesus Christ so costly a conveyance
his bosom then Christ doth the helping of poor wretched burdened sinners the binding up and mollifying their maladies Some are bound fast enough to a business by their word but not at all by their affection and these though they keep their word yet it is in such a rough churlish way as is much discouraging but it is not so with Christ because he is under the bond of his bowels and affections as well as under the bond of his word and therefore trust in him that your case shall be helped and very carefully and compassionately helped Finally Confider the danger of not believing in this able One. You become debtors to the Law to fulfill it and debtors to your own desperate wretched condition as not self murderers to deliver your selves from the body of death in which you are and from the wrath of God to which this obligeth you You frustrate the Ordinance of God which he hath anointed and appointed for your good You cast your selves under the Covenant of works as that young Man which said to Christ What shall I do to be saved As if he could have saved himself and so made himself a debtor to fulfill the Law and Christ put him upon it seeing he would that way be saved and so he will serve you and them Confider whether you be able to keep the Law in every point and so restore your own state some are at the Doctrin of Perfection but they make void the Gospel and Christ and will as the young Man miâ—s perfection in one thing at least one thing will be wanting and he that fails in one Point is guilty of all and will bring the curse of the breach of the whole Law upon him Confider that by nature you are the Children of wrath and Transgressors from the Womb and how soon may the curse of this state be executed Wherefore I conclude all with the repetition of the promise again to you Isa 25.6 7 8. And I beseech you heed it well and take hold of it for your good And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make a Feast to all People a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of marrow and he will destroy in this Mountain the face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations and he will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe all teares from all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take from all the Earth for the Lord hath spoken it and let me add his heart and soul is in it Jer. 3â— 41 What is the Vail that covereth all Nations Ans The Vail of natural corruption the Body of Death as the Apostle here calleth it and as this Prophet in this place calls it Death and saith it shall be swallowed up in victory yea he hath engaged to wipe all teares from all Mourners eyes who sigh and take on as this Apostle because of their wretched condition and to give them victory over the body of this death and the triumphs of this great victory in this World or in the World to come Comfort your selves all ye that groan under the Body of Death with these words FINIS SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS OF DEATH Being A SERMON ON Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come THe general Mortality of Man-kind and the Holy Use that should be made thereof by all the living are the two principal things of this verse Death takes away the wicked and doubtless the wicked and others too should lay this to heart for Death is no partial Visitor if it fetch off one wicked Man and send him to his place it will fetch down another nothing is more naturally the wages of wickedness than death and yet no worse enemy to any wicked Man than death therefore one wicked Man should be startled much at the death of another But Death sometimes taketh away all Men and then all Men bad and good should be much moved then all should lay to heart this i.e. should be sensible of their sin and the displeasure of God and speedily make peace with him by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that so present evils and also future presaged by present strokes may be turned away which thing this People could not be stirred up unto which was the reason of the complaint of this Prophet he preached the Funerals of the dead the best dead to the living good and bad but no man laid it to heart that is not held themselves deeply concerned to look about them to search their Souls to set House and Heart in order to die but kept on every one in his wonted pace of sin and wickedness and formality in Religion and so fell most of them in the common calamity The Doctrines which may be observed in these words are these First That God sometimes by common calamity taketh away the good as well as the bad Moses and Aaron as well as the mixed Multitude which murmured Did the Lord take off and would not let them come in to the good Land The righteous Man perisheth as if the Prophet had said the Lord strikes more mortally than any one is well aware he plucks up the stakes in the Hedg he pulls down the Pillars of the whole Nation and yet Men do not fear that all will fall about their Ears Hence it is that another Prophet calls upon the best People to look about them and to labour to be much better yet gives them but a may be for their safety Seek meekness all ye meek of the Earth ye which have wrought his judgments seek meekness seek righteousness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's wrath As if the Prophet had said I cannot ensure the life of the best Man because God sometimes destroyeth the righteous with the wicked for ends best known to himself This should make us all fear and tremble much in this dying Day and to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure and to be getting Oyl into our Lamps yea and to keep them trim'd and to stand guirt and ready to go in with the Bride-groom if call'd at Mid-night by the destroying Angel that is now abroad A Second Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That gracious Men and merciful are the likeliest to scape best in times of common calamity The Prophet seems to note it in these words of my Text as very severe Justice that gracious and merciful Men should not be distinguished from others in the Day of evil The righteous Man perisheth and
put out the talk of the other and this is our laying of matters to heart which is rather a laying them to our Heads and Tongues than to our Hearts What change do all your New-exchanges make He that was a Drunkard is so still He that was an Adulterer is so still And he that was an Hypocrite and a Formalist is so still They that were malicious to the righteous Man and to the merciful Man are so still Is it not at our peril even now to meet to Preach and Pray as we do at this time And have not righteous and merciful once been hunted from Praying even in this Plague-time And is not this our laying to heart general Mortality May not God well take those home to himself of whom we are so weary Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Isa 42.25 So it may be said of us the hand of the Lord slayeth us round about heaps upon heaps and we walk as if we knew nothing as if it nothing concerned us Who smites upon his thigh saying What have I done to caâ—se all this What is that wickedness in my heart by which I have slain so many and so good People righteous and merciful ones Lord have mercy upon us is put up now at next Door it is now right over against me saith another but Lord have mercy upon me what have I yet in my heart amiss that hath brought the wrath of God so nigh me to stare me in the Face I will scatter them saith the Lord among the Heathen whom neither they nor their Fathers have known and I will send a Sword after them till I have consumed them and observe what follows Were they moved with this soar threat Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come and let them make hast and take up a wailing Jer. 9.17 18. As if the Prophet had said unless you send for some artificial mourning here will be no mourning at all for all that God hath threatned or executed every ones heart is so dead and stone-hard and just so it is now with the most of us that certainly the Plague of the heart is much more numerous than the Plague upon our Bodies If any ask as Livy in another case Quin ad hoc accingeris But why do not People gird themselves to this thing no more Truly I know not 't is all the Plague Secondly Such are to be reproved who lay things to heart a little but nothing to purpose as when the Plague is come neer them or when they meet the white Rod and the black followers upon Neighbours nay upon strangers shoulders for fear the dead should infect their living Friends then they stand and stare and lift up their Eyes and Hands O what a doleful sight is this and others concerned for their Relations weep a while and wring their hands No Mother lost such a Child But as for sin the cause of all this Who cries out of this Who turns from this Or who enquires after Christ to take hold of him to make his peace with God that these mortal quarrels might cease How many converts by the Plague can ye shew me By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Men break out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the Beast of the Field and the Fowl of Heaven and Fishes of the Sea yet let no Man strive nor reprove another for the People are as they that strive with the Priest therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the Night Hos 4.3 4. The Dutch Notes are worth your perusal upon these words The fowlest sinners were committed by great ones and if any offered to reprove these and seek to bring them to the sense of their evil ways they were sure to be silenced and otherwise punished so far were that People from laying any thing to heart They strove with the Priest i. e. scorned his reproofs stopt his mouth imprisoned banished killed all that opposed and this was their laying to heart God's dealings with them the end was answerable they all ranks high and low perished by the wrath of GOD and common judgment and so shall we or any People who tread in their steps or else why are such Scriptures written A little laying to heart of late hath seemed to be by commanding Fire to be made in all Streets and this and this I fear is as I have said a little sense of God's hand and to very little purpose It must be other Bon-fires to purge the Heavens to clear the highest Heavens Whose heart is a fire as a righteous man as righteous Lot vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked Who sighs and cries for his own wickedness and the wickedness of the Land and turneth from the evil of his way and looketh to him that fires the Prayers and Offerings of his People by his sweet Incense and Intercession Bad men and good men die daily and is this Preaching only turned into prating for an Hour by all you that pass by Such is dead and 'tother is dying c. And is here all One of the Cardinals having a great Bishoprick in Germany in Luther's days confessed that the Mass was not void of its faults that the Courts of Rome were corrupted that a general reformation of the Priests and Friers was necessary but that the poor rascal Monk Luther should begin all that he thought intollerable and answerably set against him so the Men of this Age will confess that there are many things amiss in all ranks but that such poor rascals should reprove them in their Sermons and lives this this is now not to be endured Prisons are too good for such and the Cure is worse than the Disease And this is all the sense that these wise men have of matters amiss which is little sense but to no purpose Vse 3 Let us make use of this Doctrine in the next Place to try our selves by it Are you such as lay to heart the hand of God now the taking away of righteous and wicked merciful and un-merciful Men In most Houses are dead Bodies if not yet in every House as in Aegypt In your Houses it may be are or have been dead Bodies and now some dying Are ye sensible what dead Souls ye have and how hard to be raised from the dead How much alive to evil quickly but as Nabal as dead-hearâ—ed as a stone to
well in fair weather as in fowl saith Seneca but so doth not the Soul Thou hast made a Hedge about Job Doth he serve thee for naught No thou dost give him much and so hire him to serve thee do but take away as thou hast given to him and he will curse thee to thy face so saith God all he hath is in thine hands and then again saith touch his Bone and his Flesh and he will curse thee c. Take away Estate and take away health health and wealth and then questionless he will forsake such a hard Master and yet Satan was deceived Job held his integrity and now Job goes for current Coin in the Lords account Hast thou considered my Servant Job that he is a just Man and upright c. Though thou hast moved me against him without cause such an instance is David Thou didst thrust sore at me that is Satan because he saith that he thrust sore at him that he might fall but the Lord helped me Psal 118.13 God afflicts sore sometimes and then the Devil thrusts sore to shipwrack Conscience some way or other and thus doth God try Men sometimes to know all that is in their heart There is a Nursery at a great Dukes seat abroad which is called Schola illustris Great afflictions are the great God's Schola illustris that in and by which he makes the integrity of Men appear that is all the graces of Men in their true glory According to that 1 Pet. 1.7 That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ Barbils taken among Rocks are brave Fish and have their right colour Thirdly God brings all afflictions on Men yea on good Men to humble and to mortify Our Fathers were worried with all afflictions in the Wilderness forty Years together as to prove them so to humble them to pull down pride and stubborness and to make them long much for Canaan the Land of Rest And Job was kept at such a distance in all his conflicts as to try him so to humble him and abase him for his heart was too high What good Man's heart is not The Sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit such sacrifices in Religion God likes well Psal 51.17 He doth not despise low humble bleeding sinners that is he doth not worry and sleight to see them because they are as Wheat ground small enough to be Bread fit for their Masters Table David when his bones were all broken that is soul and body much afflicted then he begins to talk of a broken spirit when our conditions are high our spirits are so too and to bring the one low the Lord is forst to bring the other low too Paul that was a high confident Man God was fain from Heaven to fell him to the Earth and afterward to keep him low and humble was fain to let loose corruptions of nature and buffitings of Satan that by these thornes in his sides he might prick out and let out all the swelling windy conceits of himself and of his own holiness and goodness and usefulness which fluttered in his heart Mephibosheth being a Criple how humbly he speaks And he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead Dog as I am 2 Sam. 9.8 So when God Criples us in all things wherein we may be of use to him estate health inward and outward and yet keeps on a secret support and kindness though not sensible Oh how humble it makes the Man What a dead Dog am I that the Lord should regard me to do the least favour for me the ground is too good to bear me Naturali praevalet accidentale Sometimes accidental things prevail against natural accidental rods and punishments prevail against Natural Corruptions and Sins Secondly As God doth bring all afflictions to mortify pride so to mortify other sins to which our natures are too too prone to pluck up all sin by the roots well especially hypocrisie with which we do best play with in the matter of humiliation and mortification and renewing faith and repentance till the Lord swinge us indeed with all his Rods and long David though a good Man was beaten till he roared and made to roar all the Day long and Night and Day was God's hand heavy on him and his moisture turned into the drought of Summer to make him acknowledg and confess some special sin which lay hid and was kept close till a Fire was kindled in his bones then he confessed and spit out the sweet morsel which he tumbled in his mouth so long Psal 32.5 In some bad matters we are very bad and naught and ready to make excuses and defences and to hide our sin this way as Adam 't is but a little one and I do not use it it is but now and then when I meet with such bad company All afflictions and smart Rods are but few enough in these cases to make us speak out and do out as we should and to make such clearing our selves in these bad matters as becometh Penitents Sometimes of the year in Ethiopia when most hot their Silver waxeth Lead and no cover of any rich matter can endure saith the Historian And truly I may more fitly spiritualise it sometimes when the entisements of some sins most sutable to our nature are strong and hot through Satan's Fire-Darts all our silver becomes lead 1 All our graces Faith and love and courage fails and become corrupted and bribed by the sin which so easily besets and then is God enraged and layeth about him as a jealous God and taken up all his Rods and layeth them on as with all his might and all little enough to kill pleasing sin and beloved sin at the Root to dis-heart it well He makes a great Fire to purify well and make the scum come all out as it should When the Children of Ammon saw that they stank before David then they sent to him the Syrians 2 Sam. 10.6 So till a Sinner by the many punishments of God seeth that he stinks in the Nostrils of God he doth not raise forces against his sin as he should 1 He doth not set hmself to repent of it and clear and cleanse his afflictions throughly of it as he should by faith in the death of Christ They say of the Spaw Waters broad that they are not so pleasant as wholesome so I may say of afflictions that they are not so pleasant as wholesome Inutile per inutile perimitur Thirdly As God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon good Men to mortify sin well so to mortify them well to all the natural good things of this World and so to make them indeed dead with Christ to all here As the Nurse puts bitter things on her breasts to take off the Child from the sweet milk and put his mouth out of relish and
abate and yet Noah by faith knew he should see them quite down at length though long first And surely through his faith these waters hasted away to their proper places for in the last day they abated eleven Cubits which abated but one in four Days before By this which hath been said we see that Faith looketh through matters temporal though never so dark and difficult Secondly Faith looketh through matters spiritual though never so dark and difficult As the power of natural corruption the sense of God's wrath c. Faith can look through the power of natural corruption than which what is a greater Mountain in the eye of an enlighten'd Soul O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 25. Faith hath a strong and clear eye that can look through such a big and black Mountain as the body of death is Satan and corrupt nature are called the strong man and his goods Mat. 12.29 and Christ spoils them both and this faith seeth when both natural corruption and Satan are at strongest But I see another Law in my members willing against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man what a wretched state am I in And who can or who will deliver me out of this slavery and faith answers this hard question I thank God Christ can and will he that is mighty to save on whom help for me is laid To this may properly be added Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead indeed to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faith doth reckon the body of fin dead and all the Powers of it because that is done by Christ's death to procure it a Cure that never failed What shall we then say if God be for us who can be against us or what can be against us But God be thanked ye were the servants of fin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the forme of Doctrin into which ye were delivered Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother warm me behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in that inward hidden part thou shalt make me to understand wisdome that is experience the power of grace for by wisdom is meant grace Psal 51 5.6 By wisdom is meant grace and by knowing of wisdom means experiencing of grace Which sheweth to us that he by faith saw thorow the power of natural corruption and all the grieving operations and prevalencies of it and that the state of his inward man which was so ungracious and which had so deceived him and betrayed him in that matter of Vriah should notwithstanding be brought to a better and a more sincere frame for time to come Hence it is likewise that the Apostle Paul speaks of the work of Mortification as done which yet is still but a doing as long as we are on this side Heaven as seeing by faith every accursed thing in his heart slain They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts That is certainly they shall The Beasts of the Field shall honor me the Dragons and Owles because I give this and that in the Wildeâ—ness Isa 43.20 That is Creatures by Nature as blind as Owles and yet as confident and fiery as Dragons these shall see and become as tame that a little Child may lead them Jacob blessed Ruben that went up to his Fathers Bed and Simeon and Levy which had been such Brethren in evil and this he did by faith saith the Author to the Hebrews which sheweth that he saw thorow those corruptions wherwith they were over-taken the one with lightness the other with passion and fury and that God would change all their hearts both of the one and of the other and make them gracious and doubtless in his light the Children come at length to see light and by his faith were helped to believe Secondly Faith looketh thorow the sense of God's wrath which is he darkest and most dreadful thing or all Christ did so and he did it by faith when he cryed My God my God c. David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba as much clouded his Soul as any thing and filled his soul with the sense of Gods displeasure and yet he saw thorow that dark Cloud by faith as you may see 2 Sam. 12.23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me By faith he saw God reconciled as to this foul business yea reconciled to the Childe that was smitten dead or else he would not have wiped his eyes and have said I shall go to him but would have continued weeping and after the death of the Child most of all as he did for Absalom whom he gave up for a castaway They made the figure or the Sun upon Joshua's Tomb to preserve the Memorial of that great Miracle of causing the Sun to stand still Therfore also the place of his dwelling was called Timnath Serath or Here 's which witâ— some Letters transpos'd is as you should say the sign of the Sun upon the Tomb of a believer you may make the figure of Gods face and favour for when he is in the belly of Hell as Jona yet from thence he espies a reconciled God and his own everlasting mercies sure though these here be all uncertain Wilt thou be angry with us for ever wilt thou draw out thy wrath to all generations wilt thou not revive us again that thy People may rejoyce in thee I will hear what the Lord God will say for he will speak peace to his People and to his Saints but let them not return again to folly Psal 85.8 The People of God were very low at this time even as in their Graves and Tombes and yet there is the figure of Gods countenance even on their Graves they saw peace when there was nothing but War Who will bring me into the strong City Who will bring me into Edom Wilt not thou O God which hadst cast us off and thou O Lord which didst not go forth with our Armies Psal 60.10 Thirdly Faith looks thorow matters National as well as Personal though never so dark and difficult Thou will save the affâ—â—â—cted People but wilt bring down high looks for thou wilt light my Candle the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness for by thee I have ran thorow a Troop Psal 18.27 This Esaluâ— was made saith the Title when David was deliver'd out of the hands of all his Enemies and out of the hands of Saul so that it hath a National reference and respect David saw thorow all National conflicts as to the godly that how much distressed soever they were yet that God would own them and save them For thou wilt save the afflicted People