with us at all but then when we do actually thus pollute our selves he takes occasion to depart to leave us to those evils and to fill us with our own back-slidings Thirdly Take heed of sinning against conviction against light this is dangerous indeed you may come to be shut up in darkness for this to be bound in affliction and iron to endure sad things upon your spirits for if the Spirit of Christ who convinceth you this or that is a sin be so far slighted as you heed it not what if he then forbear and is it not righteous he should forbear to shine upon your graces that you should see any thing that is ought in you So that you shall walk in darkness and see no light will not this be a paying of you home in your own coyn David could not be ignorant what his sin was before he committed it and yet you see he ventured upon it and what it cost him Fourthly Take heed of deliberate sinning when a man hath time of consideration of his sin to argue the case pro and con as we use to say and doth revolve with himself O this is sinful if I do it I rebell against God I do what in me lies to undo my self O but saith lust man it shall be satisfied God is merciful there is time enough to repent or it will easily be healed afterward Now upon such deliberations as this if a man will sin there is much of the will in it and so much the more wicked and therefore now the spirit must needs be grieved what can such a poor creature expect but to be brought under bondage as you see it in David his plotting and contriving the death of Vriah these sins in cold blood when a man is not under the sudden violent heat of a temptation and yet will sin O this grieves him much if a pot be on the fire and the scum rise we throw it out we expect it would rise but if no fire be under and yet a scum arise O this is so loathsom it is not to be endured Fifthly Take heed of Ranker and Malice of grudgings of heart one against another as the Apostle saith grudge not one against another prejudices heart-burnings grudgings upon injuries real or conceived and imagined O this grieveth the Spirit who is a Spirit of pure love and will have them that look to enjoy him to be a people of love to cover much bear and forbear and forgive in love for love will cover a multitude of offences Sixthly Take heed then of pride of being lifted up for the Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of humility O he loveth to dwell in the lowly spirit if we be lifted up we rob him of his honour to arrogate that to our selves which he hath been working for us to think we are something of our own of our selves he will let us know to our sorrow that we have nothing in our hearts but darkness and bondage and sin and that all was from him Seventhly Take heed of unthankfulness for what he hath done for us when the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shall be at all this pains with us contest with the quarrellings and disputings of our own hearts against our own peace and comfort and answer all our objections and still our complaints and seal up love upon our hearts remove our trembling and fears dispell our darkness cleanse our loathsom hearts in a great measure of those lusts that did so much prevail against us and we shall forget this now and not return to him the praise but either to grow into carnal security and when we have rest from that which galled us with the nine leapers go our waies never mind whence we received it or else so much pore upon the remainder of our sins as not to exalt that grace whereby we are in so great a part delivered O this grieveth him and therefore he may justly let us step back again or let loose upon us again those lusts that we were delivered from their strength and never prized the mercy that we learn to admire that grace much more might be added but this shall suffice The next use of the point shall be for satisfaction to some doubts since we are delivered and set free from the Law as you have heard from that It may be thought First that the Law was an evil that it is such a priviledge of the Saints to be delivered from it Secondly It may be doubted how far we are set free from it and therefore I will speak a little to each of them for the first First the Apostle meeteth with it or rather prevents it for seeing that carnal reason would be so ingenuous as to find out that cavil among others against the Doctrine of faith and of freedom from the bondage under the Law as the strength of sin specially What shall I say then saith the Apostle is the Law sin that we are said to be delivered from it and that sin hath its strength from it and so deliverance from sin is a deliverance from the Law as the strength of it Or is the Law death since sin by this means doth work death No saith the Apostle the Law is holy just and good the Law giveth no occasion to sin but sin takes occasion sin will not endure to be contradicted it sucks poyson out of that holy and good Law of God meeting with opposition it swells and rageth so that indeed it is sin that is the evil the Law is holy and good O but the Law it works wrath and works death and can this then be good and how can it be such a mercy to be delivered from it is it a favour to be put into golden fetters supposing the Law to be good and holy yet since it is as we may say ginns and fetters and bolts though of gold to hold the poor soul in to keep him in and up as in a prison is this so good then To this I answer It is true by the Law is the knowlege of sin I had not known lust except the Law had said thou shalt not covet whether in the last command or in each command now I will not dispute but the first motions thoughts risings and bubblings of corruption I had not known them to be sin but that the Law hath said thou shalt not covet Why but was that then that was good made death to me saith the Apostle You must know the Apostle speaks here of a death which is the receiving as I may say the sentence of condemnation in his own spirit by conviction for this is all his knowledge of sin that sin by the commandment might appear to be exceeding sinful this is the dying there mentioned sin revived and I dyed which is in order to liberty to make the poor creature see his necessity of Jesus Christ that so he might make out after him to make a pardon welcome therefore he casts poor sinners
into fet ters under this Law So that if you look upon it in this subserviency to the Gospel though the creature may be put to much grief by it yet it is good when pardon is proclaimed that a Prince should cast those rebells into prison to make them willing of a pardon the Gospel is a savour of death to death you know and yet it is a sweet savour in them that perish and them that are saved the Gospel is never the worse for that and if the Law prove fetters to a poor sinner to keep him under bondage for ever and bind him over to everlasting Judgement this is through his own wickedness that he will not accept of deliverance in the Gospel where it is preached the Law is never the less good and holy But the second is the main thing how far we are said to be freed from the Law of God and how we are not freed from it First we are delivered from it as a Covenant of righteousness do this and live that is to say be thou exactly conformable to this Law for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of suitableness to this Law is a sin and every sin the wages of it is death if thou break it but in one thou art guilty of all Alas Brethren the Law was weak through our flesh and could not justifie it could discover sin as a glass but not purge it it could work wrath work it out but it could not pacifie therefore the Lord Jesus came and took upon him that name the Lord our righteousness and he is now saith the Apostle the end of the Law for righteousness It was a School-master to whip us to fright us out of our selves to Jesus Christ therefore every soul in Christ now is delivered from the Law as a Covenant of life that is clear but this was mentioned before Secondly Now from the rigorous exacting of obedience for according to the Law nothing is obedience except perfect if a man miscarry in one thing he is guilty of all there must be a doing of every thing written yea in the fullest most spiritual sense of it yea a continuance in every thing to the end or else it is not obedience but now the Lord accepteth of the desires of the upright heart he heareth the prayer of such as desire to fear his name the will now goeth for the deed where the poor soul striveth to do and is not able Dear friends how sad a condition were we in many times if the Lord did so rigorously exact our obedience how often do we come to pray and can say nothing in his presence can scarce sigh or groan and in hearing and speaking his Word though we do stir up our selves to watch O how often do vain thoughts run away with our hearts now if we were under this exacting of the Law what would become of us what had become of Paul when he did the things he hated the things he would not c. if he had been under the rigour of the Law If there be first a willing mind that imprimis Brethren doth legitimate all the following Items though never so weak now the Law is in the hand of Christ as a Father who pittieth and spareth us alas what had become of the best of us else long since thus we are delivered Thirdly From the curse of it Gal. 3. 18. our Saviour being made a curse for us so that the curse of it doth not lie upon us to sink us that is to say the weight of the wrath or displeasure of God Nor yet as a compulsion to obedience to this Law as slaves and very wretched sinners may do much for the fear and dread of this curse of God but this the Lord delivered his people from he maketh them a willing people he now sheweth them greater reason against sin then ever they saw now opens to them the grave they see the rottenness of it which they saw not before now he opens his treasures of rich grace in Christ and so by mediation of the understanding works upon the will sweetly inclining it to God though there be a moral swasion by apposition of object as a Lamb is led by a green bush up and down yet this is not all there goeth more to the taking away the stone in the heart and giving a heart of flesh which doth most what lie in the making the will flexible and plyable not so much in sorrow and tears and meltings which doth many times accompany it and sometimes not at all or very little Pharaohs heart was hardened for he obeyed not he was stiff and stubborn and therefore said to be a stone Now I say a moral swasion will not reach to this a man may use much oratory to a stone and yet it remaineth a stone still a Preacher may hold forth sin to be sin and exceeding sinful and hold forth Christ crucified by them and for them before their eyes and yet alas all will not do they remain stones still No no an enclining of the heart he turns the hearts of men whithersoever he will as he did the heart of Esau to Jacob upon his prayer there was more then a swasion and as he did the thief upon the Cross in the midst of his torments and agonies of death then to think upon a Christ then to have his heart towards him that never regarded him in his life-time and in the midst of a people reviling him as you know and upon the Cross suffering and dying and yet then to be wrought upon argues a wonderful divine power put forth upon the will Well then when the will is overcome we are made free to the service of Jesus Christ now we can delight in the Law of God after the inward man it was a weariness to a sinner to hear the Word specially if it came near to him he could not endure to be grated upon and a weariness to pray now he delights in these things So far we are delivered from the curse as the great inforcement of Obedience Fourthly From the provoking power of the Law as you have often heard now that Law that was the occasion of the rebelling of lust is hid in the heart that we might not sin against him this is a great change indeed in a child of God from the former condition when before God would put his yoak upon our souls we writhed and pluckt away our neck would not endure it now it pleaseth us to be under it it is sweet and easie to us now it is a provocation to obedience that before was a provocation unto sin But now on the other hand we are not set free from the Law as a Law a rule of holy walking of new obedience our Saviour did not by fulfilling the Law destroy it but accomplish it because we were not able of our selves to do it he under went the rigour of it and took away all the condemnation of
and to secure a carnal interest by corrupt compliances His mouth was not gagg'd with a wedge of gold or his lips sown up with the silken thread of preferment Being poslessed of the pearl of price he thought himself rich enough and having food and raiment he was therewithall content If any thing considerable were providentially cast in it was not greedily gaped after and extorted by much pressing importunity and incroaching crouching attendances The things which he possessed he was ignorant of as not willing to intermiddle at all in the matters of the world that so he might in a more serene way and maner have his conversation in heaven from whence he expected the Saviour Christ was so fair and full in his eye that in comparison of him all other enjoyments though swelling to a mountanous bulk were but motes and molehills He admired not the beauty of any Rose save that of Sharon The flower-planted without hand was lovely in his sight and sweet unto his smell He tasted such surpassing and heart-ravishing sweetness in communion with Christ that the edge of his appetite to the things of the world was exceedingly blunted and rebated The love of God being shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost he valued not the favor or the frowns of the children of men Whilst others had their beilies cleaving unto the dust he almost loathed to touch it with his feet so far was he from panting after the dust of the earth He preferred grave contentments and solid delights before the fleeting and transcient titillations of the exterior senses How much better are the wholsome severities of Religion then the fulsome satisfactions of the flesh His heart and hands were mightily inlarged in a way of charitable contribution even to considerable summs when the necessitous condition of others called for speedy succours and supplies What he gave was not grudgingly but of a ready mind He did not say Come again and to morrow I will give thee when he had â—t by him He gave liberally and sowed bountifully He cast hâ—s bread upon the waters knowing that after many dayes he should find it His meekness was remarkable as knowing it was his glory to pass by an offence the reproaches of rayling Rabshakâ—hs he thought not worth the taking notice of He was not easily stirred up to anger but had a sweet calm in his spirit though sometimes blown upon by the surly winds of unhandsome provocations Passionate expressions fell not from him though naturally of an harsh and hasty temper He would not say I will do unto the man as he hath done to me but chose rather to do good for evil and melt rather then exasperate his adversaries by heaping up coals of kindness upon their heads Humility is not without cause stiled the grace of graces as being that which adds a lustre to them and makes them the more orient and resplendent He who is low in his own esteem is high in the esteem of God and good men Pride the prevailing sin of the Professors of this age is that which doth darken sulley cloud our otherways laudable endowments it is that worm which makes the greenest gourd to wither and the fairest flower to lose its native beauty Self-depressions provided they be sincere are always attended with exaltations and plentifull supplies from the fountain of all grace and goodness Humility was Master Murcot shâ—ning grace which though low in its self it was taller then the rest by the head and shoulders Soâ—e exâ—ressions of it are these that follow 1. His mean thoughts of himself though his gifts graces performances rendred him considerable yet the esteem which he had of himself was very small His face did shine as that of Moses to the dazling of others eys yet he saw it not himself nor could endure to be told by others that it did so but would cry out of a snare 2. His high thoughts of others gifts and graces though possibly coming short of his The proud man looks upon others enjoyments and attainments with a cloudy and discontented eye which in Master Murcot drew forth commendations and serious thanksgivings unto God 3. His condescending to men of low degree whose company and converse he â—i 〈…〉 dained not especially if godly He delighted not to be busily buzzing about the Chambers and Tables of great men but could sweetly solace himself with the society of the meanest Christian 4. His temptations to pride and puffings up were not a few having the high and bosome respects of great and small the applauses commendations gratulations of the generality of the people and great success of his labours When others would be lifting him up he still croucht and lay low He was none of those whom a freer access and a more open bosome a kinder glance and a more favourable nod from great men swell with self-conceit and pâ—ff up into a lofty disdain of their poor brethren so that they must not be approacht without much complementall observance and cringing incurvations 5. His garb had nothing of vanity and gaudry in it The vile raiment was more pleasing to him then silks sattins and plushcoats He was none of those Court-preachers whose extraordinary spruceness gay apparrel and bridling deportment are shrewdly suspected to be nought else but the frothy ebullitions of a proud and vain spirit He was no Borderer upon Religion dwelling only in the out-fields and confines of godliness but was admitted into its interiour and secret recesses Religion indeed was his business which he prosecuted with all his might The world had but a small portion of his time and a very slender interest in his affections He was grown as dexterous in the exercise of grace and in the successful promoting and carrying on of the holy life as others are in growing rich greatning themselves and providing for Posterity He was afraid of digging in the earth lest a cold damp should arise to dimm his light and suffocate his celestial comforts His constant commerce was with heaven and surely that trade which he drove was for rich commodities He adventured his all and was blessed with daily returns to his unspeakable advantage Though he were a stranger in this earth yet he was not so to his Saviour or himself which will plainly appear if you consider what his daily practise was for some years before his death He kept an exact Diary of his own life in which he was very curious and methodical in one Column or side of the page he would set down the Good in the other opposite against it the Evil. His intention doubtless was never to make either the whole or any part of it publick yet judicious Christians apprehending that several Passages in it may tend very much to the edification of others some choice flowers growing here and there in this spacious and odoriferous garden I have pickt up made into a Posie and do here expose them to publick view
to vvalk if a man be taken up vvith other things in his mind and it be intent upon them how unevenly doth he vvalk he is sometimes upon this side and then upon that side of the vvay up and down and many times loseth his way and heedeth it not but now if a man make his Journey his business he is intent upon it and looks about him at every turn and every turning lest he should go vvrong so to vvalk exactly then doth imply a vvatchfull eye a trembling heart fearing at every turning lest he should miss hâ—s vvay so David I said I would take heed to my ways lest I should go wrong so then to vvalk exactly is to lay our strength our might our vvisdom and all to it to keep our vvay so the word is used of Apollos he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being fervent in spirit diligently he taught the things of the Lord there it noteh not so much the exactness accurateness of his skill but of his diligence and industry for he knew only the Baptism of Iohn that is to say the Doctrine of Iohn and his Administration and so Herod is said to inquire Go and search diligently for the young child c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search exactly diligently pry into every corner turn every stone use all means search from bottom to top to find him so then to vvalk exactly is to make it a mans vvork business to lay out his industry in this vvork if he can but keep in the vvay of Jesus Christ the vvay to heaven it is enough Now for the second thing to make it good that it is a duty so strictly charged upon the Saints me thinketh this Scripture it self is a full testimony there needeth no further proof but yet a word or two more you find in that of the Hebrews the Apostles exhortation make straite paths to your feet straite steps or make straite paths with your feet which may appear to others that are to follow you as you follow Christ tread with a straite foot and by a straite rule and in that of the Proverbs Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established weigh your steps before you take them weigh them every grain and scruple in the ballance of the Sanctuary walk you Suspenso pede Look before you leap look and look again this is the way to have your goings established and here in the Text see how it is charged upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see to it it is a word of strict charge as we use to say to men Well see you do such a thing see you fail not then so saith the Apostle see to it that you walk circumspectly it is not an indifferent thing nor of small moment but of great concernment see to it look to your selves and then that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 increaseth the charge also See how ye walk exactly or how exactly you walk it is not the reflect act that is here commanded that they should view their ways and see how exactly they did walk this is not directly here commanded and immediatly though more remotely as it conduceth to this exact walking it may be here commanded but that particle doth intend the charge and heighten it but so much for the proof The third thing is why this duty is thus charged upon the Saints to walk so exactly circumspectly First because they are children of the light and therefore should walk as children of the light they should walk exactly without rowling out of the way without stumbling in the way because they have light they that are in the darkness and know not whither they go no marvell if at any time they stumble into the way of God yet they as easily stumble out again it is but suitable to them not to keep their way but now ye are in the light and therefore see that you walk accurately you have a light to your paths and a lanthorn to your steps therefore order your steps aright make them straite therefore saith Erasmus he well saith videte because nothing is seen in the dark but Beza thinketh this is more subtilly then need Secondly Because their steps are more eyed and taken notice of then other mens both by God himself and by other men first the Lord himself his eye runs to and fro beholding the evil and the good but specially in his own people he takes notice of them how they carry it and he takes notice of the most inward spirituall part of their hearts of the frame of their hearts and therefore let them look to it walk circumspectly in regard of him Secondly In regard of men 1. There are many out of the malignancy of their hearts do seek some advantage against the people of God they watch for your halting as the Prophet speaks they would have somewhat to accuse the brethren with to bespatter Religion with and therefore like their father the Devil if they cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accusers they will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false accusers But oh how glad is Satan and what sport is it to sinners to trap the people of God to take them halting and walking with an uneven foot though it is sport to none but devils and devilish sinners take that by the way they were enemies of the Lord that did blaspheme though David had given them cause report say they and we will report it concerning Ieremy some evil or other against him how much more if any thing fall from them which is justly blame worthy O a Candle upon an hill cannot be hid a spot upon white is easily seeâ— Secondly in respect of men who are scandalized by their uneven walking and those either good or bad men 1. Some of the Saints they are scandalized that is to say there is a stumbling block laid in their way whereat they stumble either thereby they are incouraged and imboldened to follow their steps though they sin against the Lord and so they fall and this is sad though a child of God cannot sure be so wicked as to intend the falling of others or drawing others into sin but his example as Balam did who put a stumbling block wittingly and wickedly before Israel taught the King of Moab to intice Israel by their women and they would draw them to Idolatry whereupon great wrath came forth against them this is hardly to be found but in aâ—â— Balaam and better a Millstone were hanged about his neck that shall do any such thing and he sunk into the sea never to rise again or else the thing in its own nature is matter of offence and occasions them to sin as the strong brohers eating things offered to Idols in the presence of the weak hat made scruple of it yet thereby were imboldned to sin but if it draweth not to sin yet it may be a grief to the hearts of them that
when thou hast heaped up Gold as the dust and Rayment as the clay and withall hast gotten a wound in thy Soul a worm in thy Conscience the rot and canker eats into thy soul what hast thou gotten who will be the wiser man when the sins whereby thou hast gotten this beginneth to stare like so many devils in thy face though thou hast builded thee an house a fair house and chambers by wrong and he that dwels in a tent is contented with a meaner condition with a good Conscience when the stone beginneth to cry out against thee out of the wall and the timber out of thy chambers and thy ears are full and thy heart full of the cry of thy sins and guilt whereby this hath been gotten who will prove the wise man then O surely Religion maketh not men fools Secondly It may be a word of retortion and serve to fasten the folly then upon the wisdom of the World Wordlings think the people of God fools for their preciseness but the Saints know them to be fools will ye believe when the Lord speaks do not harden your hearts now and say thou speakest falsly in the name of the Lord. Read that passage of the Apostle and tell me what you think then The Wisdom of the World is foolishness with God is not God the only wise God and do you think the Lord can be mistaken though we that are poor weak creatures like your selves may be mis-judge yet sure the Lord cannot he is wisdom it self and it is foolishness with God he judgeth it so and believe it they are wise whom he maketh wise and they are fools and that is folly whom he accounteth so by the rule of contraries it followeth if to walk circumspectly be to walk as wise men then to walk loosly and at large is to walk as fools according to our Text I will give you but two or three Demonstrations of their folly it may be the Lord will convince some poor creature of the folly of his ways First It is folly for men to pitch upon a wrong end to place their happiness in any thing but the chief good indeed now this is evident enough too plain that men of the world they do place their happiness in worldly things they have their god to worship as well as the Saints The lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life to which the Apostle reduceth all that is in the World their pleasures their riches their honours these are their ends to which they drive on all their designs and here they rest and sit down and look no farther many of them now is not this a gross mistake and grievous folly to end so low as the earth and what the would can afford which will appear if we consider 1. That none nor all these things will run parallel with the souls to eternity therefore if they could make a man happy as long as he enjoyed them yet afterward they would then encrease his misery when they leave him fuisse faelicem miserum It is perishing bread uncertain riches many times they make wings and are gone even he himself outlives them a miserable happiness that a poor mortal creature can out-live if not yet the soul out-lives them he can carry nothing away with him saith the Text the poor soul must appear in its nakedness before â—he Lord Judge at that day of appearing after death and soul and body to eternity after the Resurrection shall never be the better for them alas the remembrance then of your pleasures and honours and riches will be but a sting to your souls to eternity that such enjoyments you had and used them no better 2. As they continue not so while a man can keep them they cannot they do not satisfie the soul if any man could Solomon might have pickt out an happiness out of them when he had so much wealth to procure them so much wisdom to improve them so gave himself to find out but the sum is vanity of vanities not only vain but vanity and vanity of vanities and all is vanity the greatest vanity they are empty there is no substance in them they will not satisfie the soul there is no sutableness between such earthy things and a spiritual being nor equality between their greatest vastness and the largeness of a soul they can never fill it and therefore it can never rest but the more a man hath the more he would have still drinking doth but increase their thirst and therefore well might the Psalmist bebeast and befool himself for setting such an esteem upon them So foolish was I and ignorant and even as a beast before thee when he thought them to have more in them then they had and therefore that they were the happy men that flourished and it was in vain for him to cleanse his heart c. Secondly If they should or do propound a right end yet they miserably miscarry in the means towards this end For First There are some that are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge at all and if men make God and Heaven their end is this the way to it will the way to the devil and the way to hell bring a man to Heaven and yet this is the course that most men run as if men would be saved by contraries and were Christians by antiphrases because they are most unchristian surely Brethren the Spirit of God and the Scriptures every where hath determined sin to be folly and calleth sinners fools therefore we read of working folly in Israel so much now if one part of Wisdom be to aim at the right end surely Wisdom agreeth notwith it self if this be another part of Wisdom the Wisdom to do evil which indeed is improperly called wisdom but it is a cursed skill and ingenuity which men have whereby they are more industriously wicked this is so far from Wisdom that it is the very height of folly Again Secondly It is the Wisdom of the World to get a name of Christianity and therewith satisfie themselves take the power who will so they have the name and pass for Saints gain is their godliness and when they have gotten the gain by it the Godliness they care not to walk in but in their pleasures of sin the shew of Religion is profitable but not the reality it is burthensom is not this folly with a witness can the Shadow be profitable and not the Substance the Shell and Husk and not the Kernel can that be profitable whose Praise is of men and not that whose praise is of God Again As the top and crown and quintescence of their folly they are wiser in their own conceit then several men that can render a reason as he spaaks of the sluggard and such are all those that will not be at pains for God and for Heaven if men might devote all the
genera vari he is truth itself as well as being it self and other things are no further true then they have some proportion to him which they also have from him therefore the mind having gotten such an Object as this to dwell upon wherein it may be swallowed up and satisfied with truth it hath its perfection 2. The will that hath for its Object good and it is not content with a partial good here and there a little but it would receive all good now the Lord he is good and there is none good but God he is the supream good the greatest good and the last in genere boni all goodness in the Creature whether honour proportionable or delightful or pleasant good alas what is it but a little reflection of his glory upon the Creature a little spark of his kindling a little drop to the ocean but this is but answerable to the capacity and comprehension of the soul Secondly there is also the everlastingness of the soul it liveth for ever and therefore a short good though never so full is not commensurate unto it there must be certitudo aeternae fruitionis which as well as fruitio incommutabilis boni to make up a blessedness which is the end the soul proposeth to it self So Aug. de Chro. for fuisse selioem miâ—erum It is the depth of our misery we are now cast down so low because we were once seated raised so high in honour so near to God and yet if we might spend but a time in hâ—aven and enjoy God and afterward forsake that habitation this world would be the â—ell of hels unto such a soul but there is an everlastingness in the good itself we enjoy and in our enjoyment of that good We 〈…〉 this then is the great end â—o know and to propound to a mans self to set as his 〈…〉 as his mark is a part of wisdom he that doth great things takes much pains for poor ends is a fool the end speaks a man a wise man or a fool as much as any thiâ—g But 2. Then there are the means to be used for the attaining of that end that is the next thing If a man have never so right an end and yet know not what means to use for that end or use them not aright he is a â—ool not a wise man As now a man would have health and he knoweth not that physick will avail him it is all one to him a cup of poyson or a purging potion is all one to him or if he have the means and use them not or not aright and so in any other thing whatsoever I briefly wrapt up the other two in this place Now to this great end the enjoyment of God the means what are they but more immediately the closing with Jesus Christ by faith in his blood for he is not received but in Jesus Christ nor to be enjoyed but in him and through him Now since we have lost the image and glory of God it would not prove good to us to enjoy him if it were possible for us so to do that is to say it would not be suitable to us as we are corrupted heaven would be hell to a wicked man if he could enter into that holy place a while And therefore there is a necessity that we close with Jesus Christ that in him we may be brought near being reconciled through the blood of his cross and the enmity slain that is in our hearts against God and a new nature put upon us the heart changed and made conformable to God that image and likeness restored which consisted in knowledge righteousness and true holiness that now to enjoy God in the fulness and holiness and joy it is suitable to this new man wrought in us by Jesus Christ suitable to that spiritual Christ which is founded in us and so is good to us therefore this is the great means I say the closing with Jesus Christ for righteousness and reconciliation and holiness that heaven may be suitable unto us that we may also by him be changed and made fit and able to bear the weight of glory which is there to be put upon us More mediately and remotely now the means of grace the Gospel and ordinances thereof wherein God is revealed in Christ therein he is revealed for righteousness for holiness he is preached therein in the Covenant and that sealed up to us in the other ordinances And all the means of grace are helpful for this end Well now before I go any further Let us see the wisdom and folly of a pretender and a real Saint that is a virgin indeed 1. Then for the end though miserable man would be happy yet we miss it in the end and if we miss the end all our endeavours are nothing Now a child of God his end is God as he is a glorious God and as he is a good God and here is wisdom indeed that is to say he aimeth at this to glorine God to exalt him that he may be glorified in him as well knowing that the glory of the Lord is that wherein his own good and salvation is wrapt up for wherein are the riches of his glorious grace manifested but in the pardoning and subduing of iniquity O for thy names sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great for his names sake Who is like unto thee a God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin And then the salvation of his soul he is wise that is wise to salvation that is wise for himself indeed in the main thing You see a man wonderful industrious takes great pains runs and rides is very earnest and what is his end in this to have a flea to catch a butterfly You would judge this man a sool the end will recompence the laborious use of the means Now a formal professer he will keep as much a do as another happily be at as much pains in duty spend as many hours in private happily some may be of Jâ—hu his stamp and strain as long as it will hold but what is it for Alas they seek a poor empty self they would have a name they would have their zeal for God seen they would have their ends satisfied it is the way to flourish What pains did they take to follow Jesus Christ up and down and all was for the loaves a poor end Suppose the end be a little stopping the mouth of a clamarous conscience for the present a poor end Is not this folly to shoot so high and aim so low But happily it will not be so easie to convince hypocrites that they miss it in the end though for my part I think it is that which we ordinarily miss it in did you at all feast to me saith the Lord or fast to me did you not bring forth fruit to your selves which are infinitely too low to be our own end for when we enjoy the most we can in our selves
as our end we grasp no-thing but sin and emptiness wind and misery to eternity 2. Then for the means which you see what they are immediately Jesus Christ closed with mediate the ordinances wherein he is held out Alas herein they do fearfully miss it though they profess him As will appear in many particulars 1. They do not choose the right means for the attaining the end wherein a great part of their wisdom lies this is life eternal to know Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent this is the means and the way to it and indeed a part of it the suburbs of heaven Now alas brethren there are so many things which are so like to Jesus Christ and so many acts like to the embracing of him that they are deceived and so they miss of the main means and fall short of the end simile mater erroris A man misseth his way and takes another way lay near it and was like it and he runs and takes pains to come to the journeys end but alas it never will bring him thither he is out of the way Jesus Christ is the way as wel as the life now there are false Christs which men make to themselves there is much bad like to good and much error like to truth one man he thinketh a drunken Christ will serve his turn a covetuous man he thinketh Christ and his secret lusts will stand together though his profession and open sinning will not stand together he thinketh he may have Christ in his heart and sin regarded there though he cannot have holiness in his profession an appearance of it an open prophaness there as if sin would better agree with Christ then his profession Some think they have a Christ made up all of pardons no matter for holiness at all let them live as they list no matter for walking in him yet he is so merciful if they can but cry have mercy it will do the deed though they wallow in their uncleanness all their lives some they are on the other hand that make to themselves a holy Christ not minding his pardoning mercy O if they can but do this and that they walk uprightly with men they serve God none more constant at the ordinances then they private and publike and therefore surely Christ is theirs not remembring with Nehemiah the Lord spare me according to thy great mercy or multitude of mercy even when he had done so eminently for God Alas brethren what pitiful mistakes are these Many are ready to think if they have but now and then a little affections stirring at a Sermon O sure they have Christ if they have but a little velleity sometimes a wishing and woulding this must go for Christ how prone are we to substitute any thing in the room of Christ Now a man that would live and shall eat dirt or coles instead of bread you would think that man a fool or a man that would be rich professeth that is his end and he bags up indeed but what is it dung and dross stones and trash would you not count this man a fool this is the condition of every formal professor of Jesus Christ they do indeed fix upon something but it is trash it or if any thing better their duties their holiness it is trash it is dung instead of Christ this is the first Now for the secondary means the means of getting Christ which is the more immediate means and way to his enjoyment of God which is the happiness of the Creature herein indeed most ordinarily the folly doth appear and therefore I shall here consider several particulars 1. To use means to get any thing and not seasonably is folly to use them too late for a man that is deadly sick he will not be perswaded to take Physick untill he be past recovery such a man is a fool that so long will lean to his own understanding and so for meat a man that will fast so long until he cannot eat at all this is the very case in this place you see they did not ever neglect to get oyl in their lamps in their vessels they were very inquisitive sought it of the wise virgins and went to buy it of them that sold but alas it was too late Would you not count that man a fool that hath provisions to make for his family the week following at the Market and he goeth but it is when all is done and shops shut up and there is no more place to buy any thing So here and so the Manna if they went to seek Manna upon the Seveath day there was none to be had yea if daily they went not to seek it in the morning but staid until the Sun were hot there was none to be had it was gone there is a season for every thing the wise man saith and every thing is beautiful in its season he that gathereth in Summer is a wise man saith Solomon he that maketh hay while the Sun shineth It is a sad piece of folly that a man should have his grace and his Christ to get when he should use them when we come to dye and have five times as much need of Christ as in our life-time for the most part that then we should be to get Christ and have triâ—led away the day of grace in flourishes and shews in taking of Christ and had him not in our hearts 2. To have means for the getting of Christ and never make use of them there is folly indeed wherefore is there a prize in the hand of a fool and he hath no heart to it he is a fool that hath an opportunity to make himself for ever and hath no heart to it to improve it redeeming the time saith the Apostle that is to walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise what would many a poor Creature in hell give for such an opportunity of grace as we have Yea if the Gospel were preached to Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago saith our Saviour but you have the opportunity in your hands but you have no heart to it at all this is sad To see a man feed upon husks and dirt and so perish when he hath no bread to eat is a pitiful sight but this is necessity not folly but here is bread to eat that we might live and yet we neglect to gather it or to eat it content our selves with husks and trash is not tl is folly and this is the condition of every formal professâ—r 3. They rest in the means short of the end and that is grievous folly the means of grace whereby Christ is to be gotten and Christ in us revealed to grow and increase if we rest in these means whether we have Christ yea or no it is great folly what man is there that would so do But there is more in this for this preferring and prizing and lifting them up above Christ will be our condemnation setting
Judas when he pleadeth for the poor yet alas God knew the bottom of the business but I say they making such a profession now when they fall asleep it is as much to the dishonour of God as if a real Saint do fall asleep as now for instance suppose two one wise one foolish they fall into some giddy opinion of the times O let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall or else both grow worldly covetous griping or vain indeed cast off the ways of Gods worship the great Apostacy of our times Now I say this is alike dishonourable to God but it is not alike dangerous for the one he sleepeth and his sleep proveth the sleep of death as the foolish Virgins did for though they were roused with the Cry Conscience was a waked it may be yet their hearts were never roused up out of their sleep they were dead-hearted from the beginning and so they remained they never did arise from the dead that Christ might give them life the one when he waketh hath neither oyl nor Lamp neither reality nor profession the other hath both though the Lamp want triming there is not that lively expression of Christ in their Conversations as should be and therefore the light needeth snuffing the one hath the root under ground but the other neither root nor branches so that you see there is a difference between the sleeping of the Child of God and the son of Satan the wise and the foolish Virgins The third Vse of the Doctrine may be this If so be the people of God may thus sleep Then brethren It may be a warning word to us all to take heed of it to avoid it if it fall upon us I mean the people of God it will prove bitterness in the latter end Do you believe this that you are lyable as well as others to sleep that you have the seed within you have those Lusts such foul hearts which with their steam are in danger to benight you every morning every day do you believe this and do you believe it is a part of folly the folly of the wise Virgins to sleep what need more to be said to you concerning these things will not you avoid that which you judge evil But because we have to do with poor sleepy Creatures whose souls it may be are roady to drop asleep even when they are hearing this let me a little sot it on the Lord make the impression by his own spirit and bore your ears seal instruction to all our hearts 1. Then consider brethren that if once we fall asleep we lose our discerning between good and evil in a great measure the Saints that are of experience they have their fenses exercised to discern between good and evil you may happily wake in your sleep but your eyes are shut brethren and it is a wonder of mercy if you do not dash your selves to pieces upon this rock of offence or that rock of offence this stone of stumbling c. as men in their sleep sometimes will get up and climb indeed to the top of the house and are they not in great danger of breaking their necks would you not pitty such a man O such is the Condition of a Child of God that hath a sleepy soul a soul in a deep sleep thou wilt be ready to judge evil good and good evil Jonah his soul was asleep that sin of his laid him asleep though a good man and do you not know how sadly he missed it I do well to be angry yea even to the death what could Gain almost have said worse then he did in this fit A man in a sleep cannot discern light from darkness neither of tasts nor smels all is one to him when once Peter was asleep he could deny and forswear the Lord-Jesus David in a sleep he cannot discern between the chance of war and down-right murther between shewing kindness to his faithful servant one of his worthies in Israel and making his Neighbour drunk a sad Condition Asa in such a time when he was asleep as appears clearly a little before his saith was lively and he could relie upon God for the ruin of the Ethiopians Lybians yet now he relies upon Benhadad King of Syria to help-him against the King of Israel even Basha he was asleep sure that forsakes God to relie upon an enemy and takes such an evil Course to wish him to break his Covenant Then the Lord sent Hanani the Prophet telling him plainly he had done very foolishly he would not bear it he would not be roused out of his sleep brought to repentance Claps the Prophet in Prison oppresseth the people O what will a man stick at brethren when he cannot discern between good and evil where the senses are closed what will not a blind man run upon and yet a good man also and this leads to a second 2. When a man is once asleep alas brethren the passages between head and heart they are obstructed that nothing almost that he heareth will awake him So David when he was asleep you see how sadly he carryed it he went to the Ordinances questionless in the house of God from time to time or likely he did so and yet he lay in that condition for all that alas the word of God sunk not with him at all you know you may call upon a sleepy person that is fast many times again and again and and he answers not or if it move him a little or stir him alas he understands it not he heareth a sound which troubles him but he understands it not and so returneth to his rest again this is the very case of a poor soul asleep you hear indeed but as if you heard not as a man that hath his mind taken up with another thing he heareth but he heedeth not so a poor soul asleep goeth from Ordinance to Ordinance from Sermon to to Sermon and heareth but the word sticks in the ear it reacheth not the heart ordinarily and is not this sad brethren Who would willingly be in this Condition that knoweth what it is to have a fellowship with God heart-Communion with God in his Ordinances 3. Another Motive may be this The poor service God is like to have from us then when we are asleep some indeed he may have but it will be so poor as if none at all what kind of service will that man do his Master that is ready to drop asleep every step he goeth as David what service did he do the Lord while he lay in that deep sleep alas his mouth was stopped he was not able to shew forth the praise of God until he had opened it And the reason is plain because the graces of the Spirit though they be within us it may be there is the root of the matter there are the habits yet we cannot exercise them A man asleep hath life and he breatheth but what Acts can he
must needs perish God will not be merciful to them Isa 27. He hath a controversie because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hos 4. and where no vision is the people perish they perish for want of knowledge which cometh by vision and yet it is not knowledge alone will stand them instead the Devils are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that for their knowledge and yet are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their malice thou mayst have enough then to light thy Lamp and yet have no Oyl in thy vessel remember this Secondly A Hypocrite may have not only knowledge but his affections may be stirred also he may be warmed in the Lamp before it be extinguished there was heat as well as light Some have light without heat such are meer notions others have heat without knowledge and this is not good so far but the Hypocrite he may have light and he may have heat and affection also and yet be a foolish Virgin when all is done Let me speak a little to some affections among many others which they may have As 1. They may have sorrow for sin being convinced of it and what it exposeth them unto How doth Darius when he had signed the Decree against Daniel and his kingdom lay at stake his people would rebel if he executed not the Decree he laboured to deliver him he was sorry for what he had done and he could not rest nor sleep that night and early in the morning cometh with a lamentable tone to him O Daniel servant of the living God art thou yet alive There may be a spirit of bondage to fear or witnessing to a man that he is in a condemned state which is not succeeded with a Spirit of Adoption Sinners you may have your Consciences so galled sometimes with the Law that you cannot rest but cry out of sin O sin sin what a bitter thing is sin yea so far may this sorrow prevail that it may make you vomit up your sweet morsel make you make restitution with Judas God may so fire the Coal you cannot hold it in your bosom any longer the fire of Gods wrath upon Judas even melted his pieces they were too hot for him to hold and yet but a Judas still And I tell you brethren this is much a strong effect of those troubles 2. There may be some desires and seemingly earnest desires after things really good and which bring to salvation as those there in that place of John were they not much affected when they cried out Lord evermore give us of this bread As very a wretch as Balaam was yet he had his wishings and wouldings O that I might die the death of the righteous c. O how beautiful are his Tabernacles c. he seemeth to be taken with them or desires to enjoy that communion and fellowship with them in their Ordinances how beautiful are they And the young man in the Gospel had he not good desires and is it not said our Saviour loved him for that good that was in him though not with that special love of pitty to save him that we read of his desires carried him out far and yet never reach heaven I doubt not brethren but many of us this day have sometimes some good desires and you would have it go well with your souls you may cry out sometimes with the multitude O Lord evermore give us this bread you would be loath to part with the Ordinance of Christ it is good but all this may be in you and yet you may be hypocrites foolish Virgins O that you could lay it to heart 3. There may be also some hope we read often in Job of the hope of the Hypocrite he hath certainly an hope for heaven else he would never be at so much pains as many a Hypocrite is at as you shall hear afterward would the foolish Virgins think you have done so much as they did if they had not had a hope when hope expireth all endeavour giveth up the ghost with it 4. There may be also a joy and delight in holy things as those that kindled a fire of their own in that place of Isaiah saith the Text They walk in the sparks of their own fire that is to say they delight themselves in it And surely brethren the Galathians when they would have pluckt out their eyes for the Apostle they had no ordinary rapture upon them and yet alas how did they apostatize some of them And is is not sad to see in our days many that the Ministers of Jesus Christ whom he hath made instruments of God to their souls they have been as dear to them as their eyes and what is it come to with many of them are they not come to cast off all what shall we think brethren of such in such cases According to the hope so is the joy if the hope be sound so is the joy if the hope be false so is the joy which springs from it the Lord hinders it not haply doth not damp and overcast the soul and O how Satan endeavours to water such a plant as that is for what more available to lay a soul asleep then this he hath joy in holy things this is an high attainment indeed they take delight in approaching to God And we read in Heb. 6. that such as fall away may have a taste of the joy of the world to come such a temporary faith the light of it doth convince and shew us things worth the rejoycing in and then a false hope of a title to them when it is no such matter it will raise the spirit to rejoyce Well this is no ordinary pitch of affections and yet but a Hypocrite the stony ground received the word with joy and they rejoyced in John Baptists light for a season Thou art unto them as one that hath a pleasant voice c. 5. There may not onely be those affections and others but the fervor of them a mans affections may seem to be boyled up to a great height Zeal for God seemeth to be much this is Jehu his case how hot and zealous was he for God and so Judas seemed very zealous of good works when he would have had the box of oyntment spilled Ananias and Saphira seemed to have more heat of love then others to sell their possessions to be with the forwardest and yet you see what became of them and so may we brethren Not but that zeal is exceedingly to be commended and lukewarmness is the most loathsom temper to the Lord he will spue such a man out of his mouth yet there may be this fire which is not of Gods kindling The false Apostles did zealously affect those Christians to whom the Apostle writeth they seemed to be men of more then ordinary love and warm affections to their souls but yet they were but false Apostles they did it enviously to work the Apostle
world What comfort had Judas of his thirty pieces of silver when God opened his conscience and let him see his condition what an hypocritical dissembling wretch he had been to betray the Lord of life and glory with a kiss a sign of love and a bloody traiterous heart to sell his Saviour whom he had followed so long and acted by commission from him so long and his Master that had never done him hurt but good to sell him the Lord of life and glory for thirty pieces of Silver O this could not but gall and cut him to the heart the Devil helped him to a booty indeed but God added this sorrow with it Indeed of all sins God hath not revealed himself so terribly against any in Scripture as this and therefore when the soul cometh to see it that hath any knowledge of the terrors of the Lord displayed against it he must needs be for the present in a hell above ground this shall they have of my hand saith the Lord they shall lie down in sorrow Yea and sometimes he anticipates their death and they live in sorrow and wo and misery God doth as I may say set a mark upon them as upon Cain Secondly That they might be warnings to others for ever to take heed of Hypocrisie for when men that regard the work of the Lord and consider the operation of his hand shall behold a Judas hanged up in Gibbets being made a Magor Missabeb to himself doth it not preach aloud this Caution to take heed and beware of hypocrisie these things saith the Apostle were written for our ensamples that we might not do as they did so are these things acted for our ensamples that we might take heed or if they have not such terrors but their professions are blasted only and wither and they prove fearful creatures their latter end worse then their beginning is not this a warning written in Capital Letters that he that runs may read O take heed of rottenness at the root for all our fruit will give up as the dust as the Apples of Sodom we shall wither and come to nothing and go out like a snuff as well as them if we be not sound at the heart Thirdly It may be a stumbling block to some others who are ready to receive any prejudice against the ways of Christ and therefore they shall have a block to stumble upon O here you see what becometh of this preciseness and flourishing profession of Religion it is all but rotteness at the root it is better to take on fair and softly a soft pace in religion saith the Moralist or civil honest Man as good continue in a meer wallowing as being washed to enter into it again yea better saith the profane man and therefore he satisfieth himself in his carnal state which is wosul for suppose some professors wither yet do all Some they keep their leaf it shall never fail some lose their verdour but recover it again and what if some wither will you therefore offend against the generation of the upright saying they are all of the same stamp God forbid It is a sad thing to consider how many poor hearts are hardened in sin upon this very account which addeth to the Hypocrites doom but what if a discovered Hypocrite be so vile the condition so dangerous is not their own as dangerous if thou be prophane and a worker of iniquity there is no more entrance into glory for a Dog or Swine then for a Goat no more for workers of iniquity that professedly commit iniquity then for them who profess longer do much in his name and yet when all cometh to all they are found but workers of iniquity though secretly but so much for the second The third and last thing considerable in the Observation is That many times it is too late when Hypocrites are discovered to themselves this is plain in the Parable for the foolish Virgins all the time of the getting oyl in their vessels they complain not not see their want of it nor the going out of their Lamps but only when it was too late for before they could get it the gates were shut We must not here understand it generally of all Hypocrites as if none might be discovered to themselves while there is hope and so as to recover themselves for then it would follow they should none of them be pardoned for the Lord Jesus is the Prince exalted to give repentance and remission of sins Now if they never come to know themselves to be guilty of this great evil even their hypocrisie how should they repent of it and if they repent not of it how should it be pardoned It is true indeed there may be hypocrisie in a Child of God which he may acknowledge only in the general among his secret sins which he knoweth not of but I think where hypocrisie is so raigning a sin as to denominate a man an Hypocrite he must surely come to the knowledge of it and acknowledge it before the Lord or else how can he hope of pardon for it now I say there is pardon for all manner of sins only that against the Holy Ghost excepted and therefore sure some Hypocrites God doth uncase and unmask and rip up and shew them the abominations of their hearts that they may mourn over them and mourn after Jesus Christ and loath themselves for it and so be pardoned therefore remember this lest if God should come now and open any painted sepulchre any rotten-hearted Hypocrite among us when we see our wound we should faint away for though many times it is so that God discovers it not to Hypocrites until it be too late yet sometimes he doth and the sin in it self is pardonable therefore there is hope concerning this thing in Israel But for the making good this assertion consider either they are discovered not until judgement or else not until death or else not until their day of grace â—e expired many times though it be before death 1. If they be not discovered to themselves until judgement God never reproveth them of their hypocrisie and sets it in order with all its circumstances and aggravations until the day of judgement when the secrets of all hearts shall be displayed and all the nasty corners of sinners souls all the hidden things of darkness then surely you will all acknowledge there is no remedy it is past help there remaineth nothing then but a fearful looking for of their doom and some may go down in peace to the grave that is to say not a peace of God but of Satan a security and stupidity of conscience knowing nothing of their fearful condition which others also which are not so much as Hypocrites may do 2. If it be not discovered until the day of death or the time of deaths approach then though not alway yet ordinarily I believe it is too late and that is not a time that ordinarily God is
of what you have heard in a great part while I have been upon this parable already and all of it doubtless at other times you have heard again and again but I would put you in remembrance as is necessary and then 2. The arguments to confirm this point and so to the Application First then a man is ready or this is a part of it when he hath gotten this oyl in his vessel without this no readiness though the foolish Virgins be awaked after their long profession and falling asleep yet you see they are unready and are all in a hurry as people unready use to be when the Bridegrom cometh they are going to them that sell that they might buy oyl therefore they were unready my meaning is Brethren untill a man hath received from the Lord the spirit of holiness to dwell in him to be a living Cruse of oyl that never fails to be a spring of grace in his soul to water and refresh and supply him in all his conditions a man is not ready to enter Paul was a chosen Vessel but though he was a strict man I pray you mind it Brethren I doubt stricter then most of us the strictest sect of the Pharisees and touching the Law blameless at least in the Pharisees sense in the outward observance of the Law which is more then many can say Well now when the Lord meeteth him going to Damascus If he had called for him out of the world had he been ready for him surely no woful had been his condition there must then be a holiness without which there is no seeing God This is one thing then he that hath the root of the matter in him the seed of God in him he is ready in part so far he is prepared 2. There must be also the brightness shining the activity of the graces they must be in act or stirred up and bettered before we can be ready for the wise Virgins were not ready though they had oyl in their vessels because their Lamps were not trimmed their oyl grew low must be supplyed therefore they go about that work in the first place If Christ had come and given them no warning but taken them sleeping they had been all unready therefore you shall find still in Scripture the graces of the Saints smell sweetest and be most lively usually toward their latter end When was Paul or David or any of them more sweet they must stand with their loins girded and Lamps burning else they are not ready altogether 3. There must be mortifying of corruption a subduing of iniquity in a good part in how great a measure is hard to say It is true at the first when we believe sin hath its deadly wound but it many times recovers in a great measure and strugleth hard for life it must have many a thrust a blow by the sword of the Spirit wielded by the hand of faith before it will die When our Saviour saw how lively that pride and ambition was in his Disciples he telleth them they must be converted and become like little children in respect of that emulation before they could enter into the Kingdom of God When sin had gotten such a hand over David had he been fit to have dyed then to have entred into glory then though I believe it cast him not out of the state of grace yet it laid him in a swoon and prevailed much against him now was he ready to enter while sin was so strong surely no We must first overcome before we sit down with him in his Throne we must fight the good fight of which this is a great part and how low the Lord will have our corruptions brought and how much deadned he will have the root of sin before he tumble down the walls of these Tabernacles of clay we are not able to say 4. A man is never ready until he can go out of all this and the main thing with him is to be found in Jesus Christ c. This is indeed the first and last upon the matter of all for Christ is all we are ready then to go in to our heavenly Father when we have our elder Brothers garments upon us when we have put on Christ which is for holiness as you have heard for redemption from our sins our vain conversations our foolish and hurtful lusts But withall if we have him not on and girded close to us for righteousness we are not ready if we have him on but he sitteth loose upon us therefore you shall find this was the main thing the Apostle Paul minded and strove after that he might be found in Jesus not having his own righteousness upon him he speaks of the day of death and appearing before him the resurrection that he may be found then in Jesus When we have done all if we deny not all we undo all again this only will terminate the sight of the Father he will see through all other coverings whatsoever therefore the Apostle prayeth that One siphorus may find mercy in that day It is mercy then that must stand us in stead even when we have done all Remember this brethren as a fourth part of this readiness 5. A finishing our work so our Saviour I have finished my work c. Joh. 17. 4 5. and thus Paul I have finished my course c. 2 Tim. 4. 7. And thus David Acts 13. 36. served his generation c. Now these are the readinesses for an entrance But we must know that some of the Saints have not only an entrance but an entrance is ministred to them abundantly into glory they go with a full sail not only make a shift though it is true they have no oyl to spare from themselves for they can spare none of their abundant entrance it is that wherein God is most glorified in them and this they cannot part with and themselves have greates comfort in Now this is not common indeed to all Believers I pray you mind that lest any poor soul should be causelesly discouraged because he findeth not that readiness for it to which afterwards we shall speak First then to this abundant entrance into glory as a readiness or preparation there is required besides a faith in Jesus Christ for righteousness holiness redemption a knowledge reflecting whereby they know that it is thus with them many a poor soul hath the salvation of God near him and Jesus Christ in their arms and knoweth it not and is weeping after Christ when he stands by him as he did Mary and it may be if they should now die they would think themselves undone the terrours of God are ready to cut them off the fear of what would become of them and yet they shall have an entrance into glory too they would not miscarry but they pass as through a narrow pinching wicket But now a man that hath a perswasion he hath an abundant entrance into glory there must be then
they come to see to it in some measure 2. Others are ready and know it but are not so thankful for it have not the sweetness of their condition so fresh upon their spirits because they do not oftentimes review their condition 3. There are many that are unready and think themselves ready and O how is it likely it should be better with them until they come to know how the case stands with them will any go to buy Gold that they might be rich or white Rayment that they might be cloathed untill they see they are poor and naked surely no. 4. Others are unready and though their hearts misgive them they are unready yet they care not much for it or else they know not how it is with them and they are contented to be ignorant Now except the Lord perswade us all brethren to look into our state it is never like to be better with us such as we are such shall we be found at the appearing of Christ yea every day farther and farther off Therefore shall I beg of you brethren that you would consider it set some time apart it is the weightiest business you have to do in the world you will have a time for all other necessary things your eating drinking managing your civil affairs and is the soul-concernment the least that you should so slight it Well then wil you this day retire your selves deal effectually with your hearts what if this night you should be taken away or you should never see Sabbath more are you ready for the coming of Jesus Christ I doubt our hearts would answer no alas our work is to do alas how many poor souls that have not a week a moneth haply to live yet have not one dram of Grace O put that question have you this oyl have you the Spirit of Grace and Supplication given to you have you Christ dwelling in you and transforming and changing you into his image from Glory to Glory Ah dear friends what mean our loathsom conversations then what mean the vileness of our hearts the fulness and rottenness and sin that is there are you mortified in any good measure or no It may be you have forsaken the pollutions of the world but is the heart of sin killed hath it its deaths wound out of which continually the life and spirits of sin are emptying are you weary of it do you loath it and your selves for its vileness O do not deceive your selves Again Are your Graces lively It may be thou hast a spark but it is buried in the ashes Indeed I doubt brethren these times of prosperity to the Church bury more Christians alive then any days that ever we saw why now are we ready are our Lamps burning our loins girded O how active and stirring and lively are the Graces of the Spirit in some over they are in others you are so far unready for the coming of Jesus Christ and so far it will be uncomfortable to you besides do ye live by faith above all this for righteousness else we are not ready Is this the top of all that we might be found in him saith the Apostle search and see take heed you have to do with desperately wicked and deceitful hearts Again Are we ready for the abundant entrance how few of us have this perswasion our calling and election is not made sure we do not know what would become of us if God should call for us how can his coming be comfortable to us we are so far from waiting for his coming that every thought of it goeth cold to our hearts that which should most warm us refresh us O brethren let me beg of you for Jesus sake no longer to slight this great and necessary work give your hearts no rest until you see whether you be ready or no. Suppose you shall find your selves unready it is better to know it in time then when it is too late now there is hope if you be not ready you may obtain mercy you may make the more haste to get ready that that day may be a blessed a comfortable day to your souls 3. Then brethren If we be not ready for his appearing shall I beg of you brethren for Jesus sake and for your poor souls sake that you would now resolve whatever business be done you would not leave this at six and sevens It is the one thing necessary you have to do nothing will yield you a dram of comfort nor arm your hearts against the fears of death but this nothing will give you entrance into Glory but this Indeed if riches would be an entrance or he that keeps the doors and openeth and no man shutteth could be bribed with the multitude of gold it were somewhat for men to heap it up as the dust and raiment as the clay if men were admitted according to their glorious apparrel or if the riches of the head and treasuries of humane knowledge would do it Scholars might do well to spend all their time in searching after that and none or little or none to make ready for the appearing of Jesus Christ but surely brethren surely you will find nothing will find an entrance but readiness for his coming The Lord give you believing hearts this day how unwearied are men for other things which are trifles and will not profit and not one hour in an hundred spent seriously with their own souls And though some men have more time then others yet surely brethren he that is most busie must find time for this great work or misearry O therefore labour press hard after it use all means possible you must take pains brethren such unready hearts as we have will not be had in readiness without much and constant pains-taking As a Garden that is quickly overgrown with weeds it must be taken pains with again and again so here c. And so in keeping an house clean and ready there must be pains taken with it Ah brethren except your souls follow hard after Christ you will never find him to your comfort The Lord touch your hearts and then you shall find him Again you will say Why I hope I am ready Well then labour to maintain this readiness Alas how soon is the sweetest frame lost think not I have now done the main work therefore you may take more liberty then other men now you may indulge your selves take more ease more liberty about the world then other men Alas brethren how soon will the world and cares of it overcharge you how hard a thing is it to buy as if you possessed not to use it as if you used it not and if you be overcharged with the cares of the world this day will overtake you at unawares Yea I tell you brethren if that day take you at unawares as I doubt if it should come at any day upon us it would take many of us when we are overcharged O ease your selves of some of your burthen have
now the time of our working and Gods waiting is at an end God hath long waited to be gracious to us but now there is an end of waiting he seeth it would do no good as long as sinners could for sorrow or pain or death hold their vanities keep their sins their sweet morsels they would never spit them out therefore now he will wait no more though men were unready when Christ cometh yet if he would stay a while longer wait a year longer O if it might be but a Sabbath but a day what new creatures would men become they will promise fair No no the time of waiting is done he will not stay a jot they have had warning enough the cry hath past before him often enough Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him but you have not taken the warning now when he cometh and receiveth his own which were ready for him no more waiting the door is shut Though here in the Kingdom of grace God may be intreated to spare a barren tree or Vineyard a year or two longer yet when the time of waiting is at an end and he seeth nothing will do he will down with them by the roots into the fire with them so it is no time for us to work then to think of puting on Christ then if we would gather Manna it must be upon the six daies there was none to be found upon the seventh If we understand this of the day of the resurrection from the dead then it is clear as the tree falleth so it lyoth either hell-ward or heaven-ward But if of the time of death truly Brethren how ever this may sometimes through the exceeding riches of his grace be a time of repentance and faith to some yet ordinarily it is not so Alas they have enough to do to bear the weakness upon them they can mind little else or if they do return it is but feignedly for the most part with Judas and usually when a sinner hath so long trampled under foot the blood of Jesus Christ the Lord giveth them up to hardness of heart that they shall never repent or believe seeing they shall see and not perceive c. least they should be converted and he should heal them as it is there in the Revelations Let him that is filthy be filthy still let him that is an hypocrite be an hypocrite still this is fearful indeed So much for the Arguments For the Application Then Brethren What have we all of us to bless the Lord for that yet the door is not shut against us as we may hope indeed if God have sealed up any heart under hardness because of its long resisting the Holy-Ghost woful is his condition but doth he not breath now and then and stir and strive that is a good sign he hath not done with thee yet his waiting and striving time is not over he hath not given thee over yet c. What have we to bless the Lord for what are our lives Brethren good to us for in any respect besides but that we might work out our salvation make sure of God and Christ and heaven get our wedding-garment on put on the Lord Jesus for righteousness and holiness that our nakedness may not appear for heaven will not bear the nakedness of a sinner now though sinners have neglected this opportunity alas how many of us have we are exceeding busie making provision for our lusts our pride our luxury our backs our bellies provision for our wives our children but none for our poor souls and yet notwithstanding this he waiteth the door standeth open If you had many of you been cut off a year or a moneth ago and the grave had shut her mouth upon you would you not have found heaven shut against you and hell opening her mouth wide for to swallow you up Yea Brethren if this day he should come Ah I fear I fear Brethren as secure as many of us are now and sure of our conditions we should find the gate clapt against our souls O therefore Brethren bless the Lord admire his patience and long-suffering that yet draweth out our day of grace that yet holdeth his bowels open his arms open to receive us This is the first Secondly Then it may serve to lay before us the doleful condition of poor trifling creatures trifling professors that notwithstanding all the ado they make with their Lamps trimming of them and going up and down to buy they are found unready the door is clapt against them the Lord grant that none of your poor souls may ever see that woful day Brethren you will then know to your bitterness and sorrow what it is to sin away a day of grace an opportunity while the door stood open to receive you Ah surely there will nothing wound poor sinners more then this the time was I might have been happy I might have had heaven the bowels of the Lord Jesus stood open to me as well as to others but now alas it is past did it make the Lord Jesus weep for Jerusalem and was not her condition sad then and will it not make your hearts bleed O sure it cannot be but every such thought to Esau prophane Esau poor Esau when the blessing was gone he sought it with tears every thought sure of this time was I might have had the blessing but wretch that I was I sinned it away I despised it preferred a mess of pottage before it and therefore now there is no recovery of it Every thought sure in hell that heaven gate did stand open to you sinners you had as fair offers of grace and as long a season and opportunity to close with Christ as others but now they are gone will fetch blood from your very hearts and souls O the condition is sad and doleful Thirdly It shall be a word of Exhortation to us all that we would lay these things to heart It may be we have not so much minded them If this be true Brethren What need had we to look to it that we be found ready to enter which is an Exhortation I have already prest upon you there is a promise left of entering a threatning also that some shall not enter even as many as are not ready you see it here by the wise Virgins who enter and the foolish against whom the door is shut and the Apostle to the Hebrews Take heed lest any of you fall short through unbelief as those fell short the Apostle maketh that use of it to warn the Hebrews though Disciples in profession and many of them doubtless in reality such so here from this example I desire Brethren both mine own and your hearts may be quickned to look about us lest when all comes to all we have the gate of heaven clapt upon us 1. Then you that are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity have yet your filthy garments upon you your rotten
filthy rags of your own services duties prayers alms as if those were a wedding-garment you that are more profane it may be and cloath your selves with violence as with a Cloak and with cursing as with a garment and so for all manner of prophane persons I would beg of you for Jesus Christ sake this day you would consider this doleful word the gate will be shut against you if you be found unready for the appearing of Christ Now there is none of you but your consciences will tell you that you are not ready for it can a drunkard a swearer a blasphemer be ready for the coming of Christ can you hold up your heads sinners when he appears and look him in the face with comfort Ah no. Either men believe not this coming of Christ to them or else because it is not present they put it far from them therefore they are not affected with it O that I could preach this day Brethren as if hell were at sinners backs as if the Lord Jesus were at your backs now ready to call for you out of this world that you may be a little startled That I would beg of you shall be this that you would without any more ifs and ands without any more delaies set about this work to make ready for his appearing lest the gate be clapt upon you you have too long delayed it already therefore now if ever set about the work What would you have us to do you will say I answer Brethren without any more delay to consider your waies and turn to the Lord to repent that you may believe and believe that you may repent O that you might have hearts to believe this terrible threatning that so your hearts might be shaken sinners out of your security for this is the reason you make nothing of all these things you do not believe that there will be a shutting out or you do not consider it and that your selves are as likely to be the men that have the door shut upon you as any others O therefore learn this day a necessity of believing if you would not be shut out a necessity of repenting you see they were shut out by reason of unbelief I know what answer your hearts will make to this If believing will do it you will never be shut out for you do believe and will believe and have believed alway you have had a good heart and a good faith towards God and Christ Brethren I tell you that you never lookt upon the Brazen Serpent for healing if you were never wounded It is for them thatare wounded You that are all faith now before God have touched your hearts and set your sins in order before you if ever God come and shew you your guilt there will be nothing but doubting and fears and terrors It is an evident sign to me that a sinner never did believe because he maketh so light a matter of it No no Brethren you do not come to him indeed the door stands open now and you are invited to come and enter in by the door by Jesus Christ into the Marriage-feast but you do not come to him O therefore be exhorted sinners now while the door stands open to come and enter in take heed you fall not short by your unbelief and then upon this faith in Jesus Christ will follow a Gospel-repentance a melting and mourning over the Lord Jesus whose love and bowels you have abused and the love of Jesus Christ will constrain you to another course of life then you have led quite contrary you will not be the same men O break off your sins by righteousness be abrupt in your repentance in greatest haste men think it is hard to break off in the midst of such a design for the world or suddenly to leave their companions in sin but by degrees they will do it O break off c. Again Secondly For you that have somewhat more then ordinary of a profession of Jesus Christ I beg of you to look to it Brethren that you have the main thing lest when all comes to all the door be shut upon you as upon those foolish Virgins me thinks if we did but consider how many poor souls of great hope have gone out and sunk under such a sad disappointment as this is it were enough to startle us all O look to your footing Brethren for Jesus sake look to your Evidences the day is coming that if we be not ready there will be no entrance for us let us pass for what we will here among men I cannot stand to press these things I have already spoken much to the same purpose before 1. I pray you consider that upon this moment of time for our lives in comparison of eternity are no more a hand breadth a shadow a vapor nothing you that have lived thirty sixty years in sin now it is past the season you have had in your pleasures what is it but like a dream when it is past but as short as this time is upon it depends eternity he hangeth the heavyest weights upon the weakest wires O Brethren me thinks if men did but believe this and it were present now and then upon their thoughts there is an eternity to be enjoyed or lost an eternity to be endured or avoided an endless happiness or endless misery this should make you see to it to make sure you be ready lest this gate be shut upon you Brethren you live to eternity and you dye to eternity how careful was that Painter of every line very exact took much time to draw a piece O saith he Eternitati pingo As you live here so shall you live to eternity If in sin Brethren you shall lye down in an eternal bed of sorrow in everlasting burnings shall your souls be rouled up together if you make it your work to make ready to be found ready for his appearing there is an entrance into everlasting joyes a feast which never shall have end 2. Though time be short whereupon eternity depends yet you have time Brethren though it is true none but the present time be yours that which is past is gone that which is to come you know not what it may produce whether you shall see it or no but you have a time now while it is called to day Ah Brethren some of us have had a long day our day of grace hath had already some six some seven some eleven hours and yet it is day with us we have not wanted time but we have wasted it trifled it away but since yet there is time let this stir us up O the long-suffering of God should lead you to repentance Ah blessed are your ears for they hear and your eyes for they see Brethren they see a crucified Christ held out before you with his arms stretched out all the day long ready to receive you they see the door open stand open for poor
in this we may understand two things 1. That they do work iniquity some sin they live in if not many notwithstanding their profession of Christ and therefore they are workers of iniquity 2. That the very form of godliness and all their shew is but a working of iniquity First then they are workers of some iniquity or other and that either in an outward gross manner as gross hypocrites or else more closely and inwardly as close hypocrites and yet they are workers of iniquity and the Lord Jesus will not know them nor own them First then for gross hypocrites such as have their hands full of blood full of bribes their houses are builded by wrong and their chambers by unrighteousnesâ— and yet they bless themselves in being a people to God surely the Lord will not away with this such are the gross hypocrites among us that will all the week long make a trade of lying in their shops in their callings of sweaâ—ing forswearing of drunkenness and adultery and come and wipe their mouths with the Harlot and say hey have done no wickedness they are pure in their own eys yet not washed c. come upon these days and sit before the Lord as his people as if they were delivered to do all these abominations the drunkard will not believe nor the swearer but they are as good Christians as any though all have their infirmities and theirs are no more well th 〈…〉 e are lying words you trust unto they will deceive you for saith the Lord I will not hear when you make many prayers your hands are full of blood God doth not regard the services of such a people he examineth mens hands to see if they be hard with labouring in their iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if so it is not your words that are smoâ—ther then oyl that shall serve your turn Quid verba cum sacta videam to cry Lord Lord and yet go and serve and drudge for the Devil as if he were their good Lord will not the Lord search this out O surely he will not know such a person as this 2. It may be it is more secret there is not an hypocrite but he regardeth iniquity in his heart and in heart he works wickedness if not with his hands it may be he may wash his hands with Pilat but not his heart O how do mens mouths water after the pleasures of sin the stoln waters and bread eaten in secret if they durst do it for fear of being discovered and ashamed before men or for a galled conscience a secret lust a secret wound which bleedeth inwardly is not so visible is as deadly as any other now I say be it never so secret let Judas cover his Treasury never so close and Ananias and Saphira their double dealing their covetousness it is to no purpose burning lips and a wicked heart are like a Potsherd covered over with silver dross it maketh a glorious shew burning of lips with love much love shewed with it but the heart is wicked and therefore base as a Potsherd a vessel of dishonour fitted to distruction and shall never enter into glory but be dasht in pieces But Secondly the very form of godliness though in it self materially it be good yet as they use the matter to make it a cloak for their sin a fair skin over a belly full of Garbidge and filthiness it is iniquity it is iniquity saith the Lord even your solâ—mn meetings Incense is an abomination to me I am weary to bear them What was the matter why they did but flatterwith their mouths their hearts were not with him therefore the Lord hated it this is working iniquity working out a form of godliness with much pains and sticking there the prayer of the wicked is sin it is an abomination it will amount to no more then to filthy garments filthy rags and in these brethren the Lord will not know us O no workers of iniquity shall not dwel with him Dine and Sup with him in heaven the feast of new Wine he will not open to them and what greater iniquity then hypocrisie Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas an hypocrite when he thinketh he is at the best is at the worst then his hypocrisie is at the height and God will not admit any he knoweth them not Thirdly Not our part of the Conclusion that at that day it shall be declared openly to hypocrites that the Lord Jesus knoweth them not that is to say that he owneth them not notwithstanding all their seeming delight in his ways and their following of him in a profession yet this is the doom they are like to receive He knoweth them not this is also plain from this Text and also from that in Mat. 7. At that day that is to say the day of general Judgement or the day of death which is every particular souls Dooms day they shall say Lord Lord c. and then will I say to them Depart from me I know you not I never knew you First then Why is this so that at that day many Professors shall have this doom I know you not I never knew you it shall be thus declared from the mouth of the Lord Jesus himself it may be taken from the Office of Jesus Christ to be Judge God hath appointed to judge the world at that day by one even by Jesus Christ and therefore he shal pronounce the Sentence either with his own mouth or the ministration of Angels but rather me thinks with his own mouth this word shal go forth which shal be as a flaming two edged Sword to enter into the bones bowels of sinners and divide them in sunder for ever here sinners are shut up under sin they have chains of darkness upon their hearts already and hypocrites are lyable to this condemnation and are held with the cords of their sins and then shall be the time of the doom therefore then it shall be declared a Prisoner feareth what the sentence may be before he cometh to the triall and so hypocrites sometimes may have some foretaste some fearfulness may surprise them but they skin it over again but now it shall be declared by the Judge himself he knoweth them not and therefore they must depart from him Secondly For a confirmation of the words of his servants and an everlasting rebuke of their unbelief of his Word by them for this hath been the message of Christ to formalists in the mouths of all his Messengers your form of godliness will not carry you through all conditions it will fail you sooner or latter your fig leaves will not shadow you from the everlasting burnings the hope of the hypocrite shall perish and give up the Ghost God loatheth no sort of sinners more though they take themselves to be highly favoured yet they are deeply abhorred of God yet alas there is scarce an hypocrite but hath his shifts to put by an hundred
the heart of a sinner that was little worth before becometh a golden Vial full of odours it s concocted then the spices flow forth in the garden inclosed Seventhly the Sun dispels the mists and fogs which are unwholsom would poison the air yea and thick clouds which would muffle up the Sun from us we know this by daily experience So doth the Lord Jesus Brethren all the mists fogs and clouds of sin he dispels them for his name sake he blots out the transgressions of his people as a cloud It s the very heat Brethren of the love of Jesus Christ that consumeth as I may say melts away those clouds that they intercept not our communion and fellowship with him O! there is not a day but the streamings of our filthy hearts would gather into a thick cloud and cover his face from us were it not that the warm beams of his love did continually dispell them and scatter them we should never enjoy the light of his countenance an hour together if it were not for this and for his names sake he doth it And so the cloud of sorrow let the diseases of the people of God be what they will never so great and black clouds they are compassed about with their day is a day of gloominess and thick darkness how come these to be dispelled is it not the Sun of righteousness breaking forth on poor sinners that doth it one sight of Christ as reconciled to him puts an end unto all Eighthly the Sun is the cause of the sweet intercourse between the earth and the clouds and the clouds and the earth for its the Sun that exhales the vapours from the earth and draweth them up into the middle region of the air and there with the cold of the air its condensed into a cloud and hangs until it be dissolved and render it self to the earth again to make it fruitful and so the dew is in like manner begotten only is not far lifted up above the earth and with the cold of the night is congealed into little drops and so sweetly distills So the Lord Jesus he draweth out the hearts the affections of his people in prayers sweet breathings after himself and these prayers come down again sometimes on the same soul sometimes on another place they fall but abundance of sweetness and blessing and mercy is poured out by this means on poor creatures whereby they become fruitful Ninthly The Lord Jesus may be compared to the Sun for that the Sun Giant-like rejoyceth to run his race and who can turn him back alas all the clouds that gather about the Sun that to our apprehensions might haply seem to threaten a blotting of it out a clogging of it they are all below it It s true prayer once did hold him in his course and it looks like a word of command Sun stand thou still and so prayer may do much with Jesus Christ but not hinder him in his course riding on in his triumphant charriot conquering and to conquer enlightning poor dark places and people Before we come to the other we will a little apply this to our selves First then Brethren if the Lord Jesus be a Sun then they that have this Sun risen on them they are children of the day if the Sun be up it must needs be day and is not the Sun up Brethren among us is not the Lord Jesus gone forth as a Gyant to run his race among us we now have a day of Grace among us and how long or how short it may be I know not Brethren it seemeth to be declining in some respects and the shadows of the evening growing low O that we would be perswaded and stirred up to do the work of our day in this our day our great work which is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling I doubt if the Sun should set and the night come on you wherein no man can work you should have this work yet to do many of you especially brethren you into whose hearts the Lord Jesus this Sun of righteousness hath shone O how should you walk as children of the day not in surfetting and drunkenness I mean not with meat and fire only but with any creature-comforts and delights on this side Christ away then with all the works of darkness all practices which did suit better with the times of ignorance and blindness and now walk as becometh the light and the day that the Sun may not be ashamed to behold you Secondly Such as the Lord Jesus then hath not risen on they are yet in darkness children of the night and walk at uncertainties know not whither they go Alas many a poor soul thinketh he is as sure to go to heaven as he is to die when he is in the very rode to hell only some go in the broad trodden path open prophane impudent sinners some steal thither behind the hedge they are going to hell but in a closure walk hidden from others and from themselves Many night-Birds there are among us children of the night indeed though in one respect many of us may be said to be children of the day because Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel is held forth unto us as they are said to be the children of the Kingdom yet in respect of the inward revealing of Christ in the heart I doubt many of us are strangers to it though we fly about in the light yet we are but Owls and Bats darkness agreeth better with us our souls are full of darkness our works are nothing else but works of darkness How sad a consideration is this Brethren that in the midst of light we should be children of darkness 〈◊〉 noon-day when the Gospel is at the heighth and Christ the Sun as it were at the meridian we should be stumbling and groping as at midnight not knowing whither we go Then thirdly As there is this difference of persons where Christ cometh from them where he cometh not so it is in families and people Brethren what a sad people and family is that where they are all in Egyptian darkness Jesus Christ is not risen unto any soul among them they know him not experimentally but they are all in blindness Alas none can help another the Israelites and Egyptians though they dealed among one another in one family there was light in the other there was nothing but gross darkness that might be felt O who would live in such a family who would not haste out of such a condition you would think that a sad conditioned house that the light of the Sun and warmth of the Sun never entreth into of all places you would not live in it this is is nothing brethren to the total absence of Christ where neither Husband nor Wife nor Fellow-servant nor Children none of them have had the Lord Jesus shining into their hearts Gross darkness shall cover the earth saith the
springing in and trembling and the three thousand in Acts 2. To such as these the Promise may be applyable That Christ will arise on them with healing in his wings though I know not that it s to be taken in any equal latitude with this fear for there may be such a conviction and fear and yet haply never any healing for them 3. Such as fear the Lord and his Goodness as the Prophet hath iâ— Such as fear his Name though he himself be in Heaven and they cannot see him face to face as Moses did they seek not 〈…〉 t sâ—gns of his presence though they see him but darkly and through a glass though they see him not being invisible â—et by his 〈◊〉 they know him and the greatest part of his name is Mercy as you have it in Exodus and his name speaks his nature the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful long-suffering c. O! such as these they shall have the Sun of righteousness arise on them if they have but little yet they shall have more Some they have had else they could not be fearing him in such a manner as this is for this indeed is a part of the Covenant of grace made good to them already that he will put his fear into their hearts and this here is nothing else but the displaying of the same Covenant of grace to his people Alas many times the people of God that fear his name are under cloudings sometimes in respect of temptation to sin they are sore pestered with them Sometime the prevailing of sin over them to the darkning and disquieting of their souls Sometime they are in darkness and see no light and yet fear the name of the Lord. Now to such as these the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings But secondly what is meant by the Sun of righteousness That Christ the Covenant is meant I told you before but for a reason of this title why a Sun you have heard at large But the Sun of righteousness why so called is a further question and for answer to this let me speak a few words First One reason may be because of his perfection there should nothing be wanting in him he should have all perfections which were just and fit for such a Mediator to have and so some think there is a Hebraism in the words the Sun of righteousness the righteous Sun the absolutely perfect Sun and this is a truth in this Sun there was no spot no wrinkle no darkness no deficiency of glory of light of heat of influences of pains in wheeling about his Church continually for their supply and refreshing but this is not all Secondly Because in him the righteousness of God was eminently conspicuous therefore he may be called the Sun of righteousness Some imperfect footsteps of righteousness there are in the creature of holiness and conformity to God some lineaments of his Image but very naked they want their filling up and garnishing with colours and will do while we are in the body and there are so many blots and blurs and stains that it scarce appears many times witness the choicest examples of the Saints as 〈◊〉 Moses if you look on him at the water of Meriâ—ah you would scarce have thought him so meek a man and so David in the matter of Vriah and his dealing with Mephibosheth These were shadows cast on the beauty of Christ in them that it was not so conspicuous the glass is dimmed and defiled and so not so transparent but now the Lord Jesus is a pure glass of divine attributes and perfections and therefore of this righteousness here spoken of And secondly conspicuous in him was the vindictive righteousness of God it is true his justice is manifested in calling sinners to an account as he did the Angels the Sodomites the old world and us in our times his dealings do speak him to be a just God but never any so much as his dealing with Christ though a Son and equal with him in all essential glory yet if he will be surety for poor sinners he must as it were for a time vail his glory with raggs of flesh because the children partake of the same and though the Son of his incomprehensible love yet if he will so appear under the sins of his people he shall find them like a poisoned garment inflamed with wrath he must drink up the cup to the bottom though he were amazed at it and compassed about with fear surrounded with fear as the Evangelist hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it cost him a bloody sweat put him into an agony A strong potion Brethren that casts the Lord of Life and Glory into such a sweat as this though it lay him under reproach and shame cloud Gods face from him cost him the very blood of his heart and all the joy of his soul for a time though he put up strong cries and tears God will not be intreated to let the cup pass from him not spare him at all O! here the Justice of God is conspicuous in him Brethren never was there such a pattern of righteousness in God as this that he would not spare sin though in his dearest Son of his love O then shall sons by adoption think to make bold with sin and not smart for it in some measure Take heed you watchless careless walkers before God O! what shall become of poor sinners then that are never the better for all this whose sins shall be charged on their own account Did it amaze the Lord Jesus With what hearts do you think sinners you shall be able to look an angry God in the face when his flaming indignation shall stream forth on your souls to all eternity O! think on it sinners and tremble but this by the by Thirdly He may be called the Sun of righteousness as I conceive as he is the fulfilling of all the promises that were made of him The Lord made many promises as the seed of the woman shall break the serpents-head and that in Abraham in his seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed and that a Virgin should conceive and bear a son whose name should be Immannuel God with us signifying the union of natures in his person Now if Christ had not come according to the promise where had been the truth of God his righteousness and therefore saith the Apostle it was to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God when all the Fathers had believed in him to come and to be revealed they dyed in faith not having received the promises that is not having seen Christ come in the flesh for the accomplishment of their redemption though afar off they beheld them and embraced them Abraham saw his day and was glad Now what had become of the faith of all these grounded on the faithfulness of
it When we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly and while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us they are convertible terms a sick man a lame man a wounded man we cannot expect they should walk or work or run in a race it utterly unbefits us for any thing that is good this is a sad evil that is in sin as a disease or wound Thirdly There is filthiness and deformity in sin also O what a sight it were to see a poor creature full of running sores from head to foot all running and rotting what filthiness is here and and deformity So when a poor soul hath a lust a sore running and never ceasing how sad a condition is this Brethren how strangely will a fit of sickness change a person that the rarest piece of beauty in the world quickly becometh a gastly sight every part contracting its deformity from the sickness all withered and shrivelled joynts loosed the eye dead and dull the face thin the knees feeble the hand trembling and what not Brethren if the Lord open our eyes to behold in the glass of the word the deformities of sin and filthiness as we may see the lothsomness and ugliness of a disease we should for ever be haters of it but I will say no more to this head That sin is a disease a wound Vse 2. May be then to put us on to be more serious in viewing our selves in the glass of the Word the Law of God that we may see what creatures we are and loth our selves our wounds are so many that we are all one wound and all one disease there is no sound part in us how pale and lean do our souls sometimes look with envy at others how are we swelled with pride how great and unweildy are our bellies with this O how do some of our bellies cleave to the very dust we are bowed down as the woman in the Gospel O how lamely do we walk in the ways of God halting between two have a double object and one foot in the wayes of God and another in the way of sin alas how many wounds have many of us that we never searched to this day if we did but know them it would pluck down our feathers the proudest of us and for some of us we have great need of this admonition because alas until we see our selves wounded see our deformities we shall never care for healing for having his comeliness put upon us no nor can the people of God put a rate upon the mercy nor the rich exceeding rich Grace of God in Christ whereby they are healed except they have before their eyes the many wounds and running sores they are healed of When Paul saw that he was the chief of the Sinners then he advanceth the free Grace of God that it had abounded yea superabounded which a soul cannot admire the Lord for except he see and behold how sin hath abounded O then let us be all perswaded to this duty to eye our selves more often more seriously in the glass of the Law of liberty the Law of Christ and therein see how often how grievously we offend him see what deformities are upon us that it may be admired how the Lord can love such as we are and Sinners that are yet in sin that they may be willing to accept of pardon and deliverance in and through Christ for truly we are not any of us willing until we be reduced to extremity then the Marriner or Merchant will cast out his goods when there is necessity for it but not before Therefore let all of us be perswaded to this duty in the second place Thirdly Let us be instructed in this truth that healing is not in us I am the Lord that healeth thee saith God to Israel and therefore the Lord promiseth the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings which were needless if healing were in our selves some creatures if wounded healing is in themselves as some fish are said if wounded to heal themselves with their own slime a Dog licks himself with his tongue Brethren sins are not such wounds as will heal themselves of their own accord neither as if a man have a slight cut it may be he heedeth it not it heals of it self believe it the least sin the least wound thou makest in thy conscience in thy soul it will not heal it self nor will a lust heal it self and wear away of its own accord as some diseases will though no physick be administred It is a deadly disease it seizeth upon the vitals and then you know it is a matter of great difficulty and skill to cure it no nor can a man cure himself if he could to what end did the Lord Jesus undergo all why he was smitten for our transgressâ—â—ns if we could have been healed by any strength of our own no we were without strength when Christ dyed for us as the Apostle bath it and as to other things so to this great work did the Lord do any thing in vain much less then would he do the greatest thing that ever be wrought in vain alas who can pardon sins but he who can bind up the broken in spirit but he who was sent into the world for this very end who can pour wine and oyl into the wounds but the good Samaritan who can give rest for the anguish of the wounds but he we cannot heal our selves if the very marrow of our bones were distilled into continual tears and all our moysture it would not make a balm to cure a wound of sin nor a cordial to support in one swooning fit there are many considerations wherefore we cannot do it and therefore the Lord in pity and bowels toward us sent us his Son to be our Physitian because we poor sick creatures need the Physitian which we should not if we could heal our selves our wound is incurable and refuseth to be healed by us First alas We know not our diseases our distempers you know a disease is half cured if curable when it is known in the cause if a Physitian mistake the disease and mis-applications according to his mistake quite contrary to the disease this is the ruin of the Patient such Physitians are of no value and such should we all be and are For we cannot know our sins nor the plague of the heart who knows his errors if we discover one lust that it breaks out in such a manner that it cannot be hid yet there is ten for one that we never saw and how can we then heal them now the Lord Jesus seeth our hearts through and through and knoweth all the malig 〈…〉 y and poysonous humours that lye there and therefore knoweth how to purge them out we know them not Secondly We have no desire to have them healed at all we 〈…〉 w not what healing means being not sensible naturally of our distempers and sores that are
upon us no man desires that he knoweth not We think we are in health and strength of soul in as good a condition as any need nothing and yet are poor and miserable and blind and naked just like a poor man the strength of his disease works him off his senses as we say he thinkeeh he is well as ever in his life when alas he is drawiâ—g nigh the chambers of death his disease is so much the more dangerous Brethren sin 〈…〉 s our heads with such fumes of pride and self-confidence and carnal reasonings that we are ready to conclude all is well with us and I doubt many of us whom this concerneth will put it away from us upon this very account We are whole need not the Physitian so we have no desire to be healed the tender of a plaister by another to a man that thinketh he hath no wounds it is ridiculous they are more ready to mock at it then receive it so far are Sinners from providing an healing for themselves because they are not sensible of their need of it they desire it not Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways we are well enough without it yea more we have no desire to be healed because we are in love with our diseases not as a man that hath an issue he knoweth doth him good would not have it stopt but we have many bloody issues of sin and because of the pleasure and delight or proâ—t or humour or some things we please our selves with them for we are loath to part with them Augustine himself was loath to be healed so soon of his lust not yet Lord not yet said his heart when he prayed for healing the disease hath seized upon the will it self so that it is pleased and taken with the sickness the ill savour of our wounds the stench of them is sweet to us while we have a stinking nostril and therefore no marvel if we can never heal our selves there is need of this Lord Jesus to come with healing under his wings Thirdly We do reject healing and the Physitian When he would have healed us we would not be healed therefore much less can we do it our selves I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged c. Brethren how often hath the Lord Jesus called upon us all and have we not many of us as often refused Hath he not stretched out his hands all the day long all the day of Grace which hath continued long with us and we have been a rebellious a disobedient people we would none of his counsel either it is too mean as Naaman said when he was bid to go and wash in Jordan seven times and he should be cleansed What are not Abana and Pharâ—ar Rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel so proud dust and ashes the Lord opens a fountain for sin and uncleanness proclaimeth to every poor sinner who ever will let him come let his disease be what it will bathe in this Fountain he shall be healed what saith the proud sinner are there not waters of our own will not our own repentance do it we are very backward through the pride of heart to receive even gratis as that proud Papist said He would not have heaven gratis this Pope is in all our bellies therefore the Apostle calls it a submission they would not submit to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ So we look upon the blood of Jesus Christ as an unholy a contemptible thing will not trust wholly to this grace or else if not too mean yet the way that God goeth to work with a sinner to heal him it is too severe a bitter potion they must take down what must we so much bewail our selves must we search and try our ways rake in our wounds this we cannot indure this will cost us much smart and anguish as it did David and Peter and Ephraim poor foolish creatures we had rather dye of our wounds then to have them searched far from that temper of David we are Search me and try me though some of us I hope have been so exercised in the work of searching and mortification that we can many times say with the Psalmist Lord search us but alas many of us it is otherwise with we come not to the light lest our deeds should be discovered it would shame us you know Ahab could not indure to hear of his sins he hated Mâ—caiah and that cursed principle is in all our hearts we would be humored and daubed and have the hurt of our souls healed slightly because we cannot digest the severity and sharpness of the medicines we are afraid of the wrings and gripes the Prayers the Fastings it will cost us and therefore we are enemies to it 4. If we were never such friends to it if we would never so fain be healed it is not in our power it is above the sphere of our activity if the stripes had been laid upon us which were laid upon Christ when he was whipped with Scorpions alas every blow would have cut us in sunder and given us our portion in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever You see brethren that they fetched blood at every blow of our blessed Saviour who was equal with his Father having an infinite Power and Spirit to uphold him and yet O how he ran down with blood dropping upon the ground when the world was to be drowned and overwhelmed all the veins of the earth were as I may say opened so now the Lord Jesus when his Spirit was overwhelmed and amazed as I may say and the Lord in a manner would now swallow him up My God why hast thou forsaken me all the voins the channels of his body were opened O how the blows did even almost fetch away the soul of our Saviour witness that Out-cry what had become of poor man iâ— this had been laid upon him Beside who can pardon our sins is there any but God that can pardon sins and is not this a great part of healing who can speak peace but he He will speak peace to his people he can do it with one word of his mouth he createth the fruit of the lips peace peace assuredly he createth it peace who can subdue a lust all the maceration of the body that the frame of Nature will bear will not do it as it is said of Hierom though his hair did even stand upright with fasting and lying upon the ground yet all would not do to subdue concupilcence he should have taken Gods way and then his help would have come in no no I will subdue their iniquities they are too stiff-hearted for any but the Lord Jesus none could break the heart of sin but he by being broken himself for our iniquities nor can any do it to death though wounded and bleeding and the heart be broken but he himself
sins pardoned and healed were back-slidings only thou must be content to endure something for the healing of those fearful wounds thou hast made in upon thy soul for there is no wound cured in a moment nor without any anguish and all that he laies upon thee is nothing the smart is nothing though the plaister lie long upon thee before it be healed to draw the sore to a head to break it to draw it to heal it there will be some time but he will heal thee poor sinner if he have made thee weary of this sin desirous of healing indeed And for you that are crying out of broken bones it may be there are some whose condition this is that do fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servants it is the greatest fear of thy soul to displease the Lord to grieve him happy soul with whom it is thus but thou art over-cast thou art clouded thou seest no light thy bones are broken thy spirit is wounded O who can bear a wounded spirit Be of good chear man remember this hath he not promised it that he will arise upon them that fear the Lord with healing in his wings he will heal those broken bones and the flesh wherein there is no soundness by reason of thy sins he will heal it and he is doing of it though thou art not sensible of it he pittyeth thee and knoweth how to pitty thee for himself was ecclipsed though the Son of righteousness that he might know how to pitty them that suffer in the like kind for the time to come he knoweth thy frame what thou canst bear and he will not let thee sink O thou of little faithâ— though he may fright thee as he did his Disciples the cloud will be over again only thou must wait for him he knoweth what it is to be without the light of his Fathers countenance as well as thou and he knoweth what thou canst bear therefore be not discouraged man and beside thou hast his promise for it only look to it that thou fear him that thou put not forth thy hand to iniquity that thou say not with that wicked King Why should I wait for the Lord any longer he that shall come will come in the best season When the mercy will be most sweet and seasonable himself may have most glory by it and thy soul most refreshing O but saith another I am not healed I doubt then for alas I find though haply I break not out as before to uncleanness actually yet I have eyes full of adultery still I find the dispositions and inclinations and yieldings of my heart strong to mine own iniquity still some to one and some to another â—or answer to this Is this thy burthen thy grief that it is so dost thou loath thy â—elf for it dost thou hate it wouldst thou fain have it rooted up thou art healed in the greatest part there is the core fetched up from the bottom though the wound be not altogether healed up it is the work of longer time then haply God hath been dealing with thy soul but be of good chear man lay thy self under the Sun of righteousness labour to improve the Covenant of grace wherein he shines most gloriously he hath promised he will circumcise thine heart and thou shalt be able to love the Lord with all thine heart and that he will subdue all iniquity for thee and see if he be not as good as his word in his own time which is the best time We have already endeavoured to open the main promise in this bundle and apply it with what advantage the Lord and your own hearts can tell you have heard at large that Jesus Christ is a Sun of righteousness and that he will ariâ—e with healing in his wings upon them that fear him So that there is Christ promised light and heat and healing reviving and quickning promised and through him And now we are come to speak to the liberty which is promised with Christ which is none of the least considerable Appendices of our justification through his blood and though you have not long since heard somewhat upon this subject however if you hear but the same things the Spirit of the Lord may breath where and when it pleaseth we may meet with him sometimes in hearing the same things that at another time he hath not been found in And ye shall go forth This is principally as I told you spoken to the Jew to the Jew first but also to the Gentile as all the Gospel promises they were first preached to the children of the Kingdom when the Gentiles were strangers from the Covenant of promises but now the Lord hath made them nigh in the blood of his Son that were afar off in Christ all the promises are Yea and Amen to them as well as to the Jews I told you at the first that we are not to confine promises made to times and persons except by unavoidable neceâ—sity where the matter promised is such and the promise such as can agree to no other time or person no persons or peoples condition can become like to theirs to whom the promise is made or are not capable of the thing promised as the promise of the Messiah to come of David and that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed c. therefore this is a promise concerning all the people of God as their conditions become alike yea all that fear the Lord in any of these senses we have already spoken to By going forth here some understand a going forth of this life or a going out of the grave which is a prison indeed to some though not properly so to the Saints but a place of repose until the appearing of Jesus Christ So Alap citing Tert. and Jer. the reason is because they took that which is spoken of the day of the Lord in the foregoing verse of the day of Judgement That day which should burn as an Oven but I do rather conceive that it is not meant of the day of the last Judgement but the day of the fearfull desolations of Jerusalem out of which yet the Lord did deliver and save his own people and the rather I conceive so because of the growing up like Calves of the Stall promised afterward now if that be the day there is no room then to grow any higher to spread any further but as the tree is cut down so it lies there is then in the words a promise of an inlargement from under restraint wherewith their spirits were bound up as I may say and were imprisoned and this we shall see I hope is very great only take here the note of observation from the words The Lord Jesus rising upon a soul brings inlargement to that soul or people ye shall go forth For the prosecution of this I shall propose this Method First give you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quod that it
born witness to it in our dayes wherein there hath been so much leading into captivity and so much complaining in our Land So Satan he hath overcome us in our first Parents we were overcome and ever since he holds fast his hold he had of us and though he let Sinners enjoy a little chain sometimes so that they are ready to think they are at liberty yet alas he takes them alive at his pleasure you see a beast of prey sometimes so sportful as to play with the prey and let it go a little it runs and thinketh it is free but alas all this while it is under the command of the beast of prey as Pharoah would let Israel go so they would not go far he fetcheth them in when he pleaseth Secondly There is also a Bondage by Sale as you know Joseph was sold into Egypt for a servant and nothing more ordinary then selling and buying of servants he is bought with thy money saith God to Abraham Gen. 17. 12. 13. distinguishing of servants he must needs be circumcised whereby it appears they had a more absolute power over them then they had over other Servants bought of any stranger which is not of thy seed thy bond-men and thy bond-maids shall be of the Heathen not of thy brethren Of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids Levit. 25. 44. These were to be even as a Possession to them ver 25. and their power was so absolute over them that though they smote them with the hand or a rod so that they died if they continued a day or two before they must not be punished for it for they were their money which was somewhat an hard bondage to them truly brethren thus it is We are sold under sin as the Apostle saith speaking of himself who was not altogether freed from this bondage he was sold under sin being carnal that is to say in part as in that first of the Corinâ—hians They are called carnal that were as Babes in Christ so far as sin prevailed so far the bondage did appear he was sold in the first transgression Now there is another selling whereby a man doth sell himself to commit wickedness as you know Ahab did Paul did not now sell himself but was under the former sale and in such a bondage he could by no means altogether free himself from he could not shake off his chains and weights that did hang upon him by reason of this bondage but now Sinners they sell themselves Such as Ahab Hast thou found me O mine enemy saith he to Elijah I have found thee because thou hast sold thy self to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord and so the Israelites are said to sell themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord making their Sons and Daughters pass through fire c. Now by this Sale the Sinner passeth himself over into the power of him that buyeth him yet more and more fully Quod venditur transit in potestate ementis The Devil knew the meanest of his the price he pays a little pleasure of sin a little profit he cares not how often there be a bargain between him and the soul of a Sinner a man that for a little pelf will venture and hazard his soul he shall have it or else it shall cost the Devil a fall I speak not of Witches selling themselves to Satan for the accomplishment of some lust to satisfie some discontent but of every lew and wicked Sinner he little knoweth what he doth that goeth on in a course of Sin every new transgression and satisfaction to the flesh is a new price as I may say laid down in your hands for your souls to become slaves to the Devil O how many times hath he bought many of us and have we sold our selves to do evil in the sight of the Lord the ambitious man for the satisfaction of his lust sels himself to commit wickedness as the covetous you see in Ahab to have his desire would not stick to murther to suborn witnesses to swear falsly the ambitious person would not care to swim through a Sea of blood to the Throne they are slaves to the worst of Tyrants a lust it would make a man tremble to read the fearful things that are done upon this account specially by the Ottomans the great Turk who rivits himself in the Imperial Throne with the bones of his murthered brethren as one expresseth it O how dear a rate do men give who sell their precious souls for a spurt of pleasure for the pleasures of sin for a season they are not alway in season neither or a little profit of sin a little unjust gain they pay not twenty nor an hundred years purchase but if the Lord do not intervene with the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ they pay eternity for it and when they have so sold their souls to commit wickedness what can they give or what would they give in exchange for their souls again a world full of honours and pleasures and profits then alas would be nothing to part with if they might but have them redeemed when it is too late this is another way whereby sinners come into bondage Thirdly By brith also there is a bondage as you know the children of them who were taken captives were captives they were sold themselves that were sold and with them their children therefore such servants as the Israelites bought with money how many so ever they did beget in their families they were all servants and bond-men so Abraham had so many servants trained born in his own house 318. I had servants born in mine house saith Solomon The Israelites indeed if they did sell themselves through poverty or became servants they did continue until the year of jubilee but must not be ruled over with rigor as they might rule over strangers nor must be kept as bond-men for ever but the strangers they might buy of them and leave them as a possession for ever to their children that is to say both them and their children they might buy and so sell them again and leave them to their children and therefore all born in such a condition were bond-servants so we find in that place when our Saviour told them they should be free indeed if the Son made them free why said they We are Abrahams seed and never were in bondage by birth we are free not as the seed of the Canaanites who were bond-men and they never were in bondage to any they were not sold as servants poor blind creatures could see no further then a civil bondage or liberty Now truly Brethren thus we are all of us bond-men and women by birth being all strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel and Covenant of promises as the Apostle speaks they are the children of the promise only that are free We are all the children of wrath by nature not a mothers child
of us free-born if any by nature should have been free-born surely the seed of Abrahâ—m according to the flesh but our Saviour tells them their liberty was but imaginary if the Son did make them free they should be free indeed this is the third Fourthly by tenure and usurpation there is a bondage also as we see it in the case of Israel in Egypt they were bond-men in Egypt and they made them serve a hard bondage it is called the house of bondage they made them serve with rigour so saith the text in all manner of service the design of the King being to weary them out by degrees and yet to advantage himself by their service while they were wearying out this was their wise dealing with them lest they should be too hard for them and truly of this nature is the bondage wherein the people of God themselves are in part though the Devil have no title to them the price being paid for them to the justice of the Father yet he as a tyrannical â—aylor loath to let them go and therefore he loads them with chains laies heavy temptations upon them and sin rageth to lose its servant and therefore tyrannizeth and the Law in the members carryeth captive to the Law of sin and this is one great grief to the poor child of God that though sin do not raign in their mortal bodies yet it tyrannizeth over them and with a strong hand many times holds them down so as that they are not able to stir hand nor foot but more of this afterwards Now for the parts of this bondage with which the parts of that liberty or freedom we are to speak of will run parallel We shall devide this bondage into these two general parts it is either to sin or else to the black concomitants which are very many we shall particularize some of them and thereby our liberty will the more plainly appear First then for sin it is clear we are in bondage to sin either totally or in part all of us by nature altogether in bondage for we are sold under sin and though it be true that sin is only a privation of good and disposition to evil and so properly cannot be said to rule over us yet by a prosopopeia we are said to be in bondage to it therefore we are said to be sold under sin sold under it and therefore in Scripture it is that sin is called an old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts and this old man it is that hath the poor sinner under his power and ruleth him with subtilty O they are deceitful lusts â—he counsels of sin the fetches and tricks and devices depths and methods of a sinful heart who knoweth Brethren he carryeth it so slily that many think themselves at liberty as free-men as any the world hath yea so free as to promise to others liberty and yet themselves in the mean time are the servants of sin and not only so but theâ—â— are Laws of sin which carry a strength with them and the poor creature under them must obey them and these Laws are nothing else but the wills of the flesh as the Apostle calls them an arbitray government here beginneth and takes it rise Hoc volo sic jubeo c. saith the imperious person If a sinner begin to question what reason there is in such an act he is prompted to sin bloweth out the candle hoc volo c. let my will be a reason I will have it so So many lusts so many wills and is it not a bondage to be under these Ye were saith the Apostle the servants of sin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you and so in several other places whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin You talk of being Abrahams seed and never being in bondage this is nothing to my purpose I speak of a bondage to sin and he that commits it is the servant of it he that works it industriously is a drudge to his lusts as alas how many of us are and he that curiously works it is an Artist O with what art can some mon lye and cheat and cozen and play the hypocrites these are the servants of sin O when one fulfills the lusts of the flesh and of the mind maketh provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof This man is a servant of sin the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye the pride of life the love of profits the love of pleasures and the love of pride when men give themselves up to satisfie these study their lusts how to fulfill them this is a bondage under sin with a witness Now blessed be the Lord the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath delivered us as many as believe from this bondage so the Apostle breaks out pathetically Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you now saith he being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness and this is set forth by our death to sin ye are dead saith the Apostle to the Col. and your life is hid with Christ in God now death puts an end to all bondage 〈◊〉 as Job speaking of it the small and great are there in the grave and the servant is free from his Master A woman saith the Apostle speaking of sin of the Law with respect to sin as afterward we shall speak somewhat she is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if he be dead then she is free So it is in this case death breaks all the iron yoaks and brazen gates therefore saith the Apostle he that is dead is freed from sin not as the vulgar and some read is justified as if our justification and sanctification were confounded for here the Apostle is speaking of our Sanctification or the death of sin crucifying the old man of being buried with Christ in body and so dead to sin now saith he he that is dead is free from sin the Con. is comprehended in the Antecedent he is freed actually from sin Sin shall not have dominion over you saith the Apostle no iniquity shall have dominion over you Thus believers are freed from sin whereas before we were under a cruel bondage you that have experience of this liberty what it is to be freed from your former lusts which you served foolish and hurtful lusts the Lord teach you to prize it But secondly now for the Con. of this bondage to sin there are many and very dreadful which every poor sinner is under which are also as parts of this bondage First then hence it is that we are in bondage unto Satan that we are under his power that we are in bondage by nature to him as the Jaylor it is clear the Spirit that now
in the flesh or a greedy wen devours all the strength and yet will by no means let the poor sinner go free Fourthly It is a growing bondage the longer a man continueth in it the faster he is held with the snares and bonds of his sins in the transgression of an evil man there is a snare saith Solomon and every act of sinning doth fasten the snare so much the more upon the soul with bands of iron and brass yea of adamant the longer they are in this dark and filthy dungeon the deeper they sink into the mire and clay where there is no standing the heart groweth more hard through the deceitfuluess of sin O the cup of delights is a bewitching cup and the more a man drinketh of it the more he may every drop of oyl you cast upon the flame maketh it the harder to be quenched every act of sinning doth strengthen the habit as in all other cases and dispose a man so much the more strongly incline him to the same sin again and so there is so much the more ado to get the heart off from these lusts there is many a poor sinner among us I believe can speak by experience what a miserable bondage it is and what a growing bondage it is the further a man goeth in it he goeth still further into the prison binds the yoak upon his neck so much the harder and closer insomuch that a gray-headed-sinner you shall seldom see recovered out of the snare of the Devil though sometimes we may This the fourth Fifthly it is so durable a bondage that it abides in part even where a soul is brought under the command of another principle it doth continue in a great part in many a gracious heart as in this place of the Apostle I am carnal and sold under sin he saith not he was but he is carnal that is to say in part as those in that first to the Corinthians are you not carnal that is to say hath not the flesh a great sway with you when you are so divided and full of strife and emulation and one for Paul and another for Apollo c. and therefore the Apostle did walk heavily under the sense of the chains which were upon him not altogether shakt off O wretched man who shall deliver me I am carried captive by a Law in my members to the Law of sin O strange that in the Apostle so sanctified so mortified a creature yet the Law in his members should have such a strength as this is to carry him captive though the spirit do lust against the flesh yet the flesh doth lust against the spirit so that they cannot do the things they would they are under bondage in part though notunder the reign of sin yet it usurpeth and tyranizeth and laies its commands upon a poor believing soul as if he were altogether his own sin will not let go its hold altogether but if it lose the Cittadel the Tower the chief Fort the Will yet it will lurk in some of the out-works still if it lose the heart it will hold by the heel still and hang about us that we cannot walk at liberty in the waies of his Commandments Sixthly The reward to the service and bondage of sin what is it but bondage upon bondage you have heard how many sad Concomitants there are of this bondage of sin doth it not subject to the curse to the wrath of God it is not only an unprofitable service what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed that is to say what good had ye by them ye are now ashamed of them that is the reward as you see in the case of Adam it laid him open and naked before the Lord both without covering for the shame and without defence against his displeasure now he wanted somewhat in stead of his innocency to skreen him from the everlasting burnings or the presence of God who is a consuming fire yea the wages of these things is death whose end is destruction saith the Apostle whose glory is in their shame whose God is their belly who mind earthly things a man will hardly believe this that the savouring of earthly things is so dangerous a service being so pleasing as it is to men alas you little think what you do you have heard some of you how many evils do attend it you little know what wounds you get a wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away this is nothing to the wound of the conscience O what pains sinners are at to store up gun-powder at last to blow up their comforts and their souls and all would you not think it a sad servitude where a master should delight in nothing but the cruel wounding and goring of a mans self this is nothing indeed to the service of sin you will one day find sinners the truth of this whether you will believe it now or no that sin is big with terrours and fears and amazement that sin doth nothing but wound the soul the conscience though you feel it not for the present many and many that have been as sensless as many of us are that yet at last mourned and said O how is my flesh and my body consumed O what a wretch was I to serve sin to lay out my self for sin that now hath nothing but woe and misery nothing but racks and woundings to reward me with O what a reward is it Brethren to pass fro m the chains of your sins here to those everlasting chains of darkness Se venthly and lastly it is inextricable as to our selves we cannot open the prison doors nor loosen our fetters the cords of our sins wherewith we are held and bound over as I may say to Judgement O I know the poor creature specially when his eyes are open to see what a condition he is in will be making many an attempt sometimes to break prison sometimes to loose his bonds but it will not be O what resolutions and vows you shall have many a sinner make specially after a passion in their spirits when their eyes are a little open O they will never return to their folly any more and it is the next thing they do O the bands of our own making are too slender to pull a poor creature out of the mire and clay they all break even as a thread of Tow when it cometh to the fire and there the poor soul sticks no nor is it the prayers nor tears of our own that can do it for you shall see and haply some of us know it by experience though it be wonderful to see a man pray and sin and weep and sin mourn and sin go on in the same course of sinning a long time some of our souls I believe know this we pray and are not willing to be delivered as Aug. did and so mourn upon the sight of the grievousness of a
the Lord who is most slighted in all this should pitty and make a way for their deliverance this is unspeakable rich grace that the Lord should as I may say study a course to make them willing to come forth to which end all the sad and fearfull Characters of this bondage in Scripture are to which end is the Law given that sin might appear to be sin and exceeding sinful and the bondage very great that they might thereby see themselves shut up to this end all those sweet invitations and powerfull expostulations with poor sinners in the Gospel O why will ye die why will ye perish and rot in prison since there is a ransom found for you the Lord takes no pleasure in your death and why will ye delight in your own death O what powerfull Rhetorick are these loving intreaties expostulations the yearnings of his bowels over them his tears over Jerusalem when they would not be gathered under his wings and all this to make the poor sinner willing and when all will not do that he should even put forth a power upon their wills and hearts inclining them to it by a sweet and yet strong though not compulsory influence of his Spirit upon them this is admirable what tenderness was there towards Lot that when he lingered and delayed the Angel took him by the hand and brought him without the City and bid him haste for his life truly there is not a soul delivered from this bondage but there is as much exercise of the patience and bowels of Christ toward them to make them willing yea to take them by the hand when they linger and make excuses as those in the Gospel I will follow thee but let me go and bid farewell to my friends I must not come off abruptly from my old Companions in sin but take leave of them handsomly I must go bury my father saith another but the Lord Jesus takes by the hand plucks us out as I may say by head and ears before we will come out Again consider how we have worn out our selves in the bondage and slavery of sin and with these fetters upon our souls or else spent so that now he may even say we our selves may say of our days there is no pleasure in them so Luke 4. 18. to set at liberty them that are bruised Dimittere confractâ—s in remissionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are not in Isaiah 61. neither Hebrew Greek nor Latine but they are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Luke as some conceive â—atabl and others read them vâ—lneratos persons wounded shattered worn out with the hard bondage and service they were put to bondage is a weary thing at the best but when a man is such a slave as that he must like a Gally Slave work like a horse in the service of sin O what pains sinners do take with both hands earnestly they come to iniquity and so exhaust their spirits the best milk and marrow in the bones so that they are as dry sticks that are good for nothing and yet that the Lord Jesus should to such proclaim liberty bring them forth that are able to do him no service in a manner so the thief upon the Cross and so the Jew that Andreas is said to convert hanging upon the Cross and so many a gray headed sinner that never ceased serving sin yet now c. Truly if the Lord Christ should set us free with a respect to any service we should do him afterward I doubt none would ever be set free for Brethren what can we add to him if thou be righteous it profiteth him not at all he is a God infinitely perfect in himself our goodness extends not to him all the best of Lebanon and the wood are not enough for a burnt offering so great a God he is and yet though he be not advantaged by our service when we are set at Liberty but what commandments he giveth us to observe and giveth us hearts inclineth our hearts thereunto they are for our own welfare as in that of Deuteronomy The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath for his good his advantage and so is all the services or if it were yet alas I say how are we broken many times with the bondage of sin so that we are fit for nothing the understanding and affections so weakned and wasted and besotted with sin that afterward we can do little for him because of that sad effect sin hath left upon our souls and yet he delivereth us this the fourth Vse 5. Then it shall it be for Exhortation and invitation this day to every poor sinner that is in bondage that they would close with this promise that they would go forth O Sinners that you would but accept of Deliverance and Liberty that now the Lord Jesus after so dear a purchase of it doth tender to you you see he is willing he came on purpose into the world to preach and proclaim liberty to the Captives Now art not thou a Captive and hast thou no minde to be set free And for some Motives to stir us up a little at least to a consideration of our condition and what we do all this while First Consider this is the acceptable year of the Lord as in that of Isaiah O it beginneth with the preaching of the Gospel indeed the acceptable year minde you acceptable to Jesus Christ It pleaseth him wondrous well if sinners be willing to come out of prison to be set at liberty there is many a poor soul that thinketh with himself I am willing if the Lord Jesus be willing that I shall go forth O it is the acceptable year of the Lord there is nothing more pleasing to him then to see the ransom he hath laid down for you sinners take effect and bring out many out of bondage the Apostle applyeth it to the times of the Gospel There is joy in heaven c. The Father of the Prodigal how willing was he and then it is the acceptable year to sinners too O how did men that were in bondage long for the Jubilee and breath and pant after it especially if their bondage were hard that set them all free Dear Friends Consider this is the great Jubilee proclaimed solemnly with the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel that every poor creature that will may go forth out of prison yea that if now they go forth the Lord Jesus is willing we should but if we shall trifle away this year of the Lord which we know not how long it may last to us either the Gospel may be taken away from us or else we from the Gospel or else the things which concern our peace in the Gospel be hid from our eyes that we shall never see them O that sinners would but consider this these seasons the Father hath kept in his own power that sinners might be afraid to
tell you that liberty is sweet it is not to be expressed If Paul had not been free he had had many a lash by those cruel tyrants If the soul be not free it is liable to perish to be whipped to death to eternal death with Scorpions ask but any of the people of God who have been wearied and almost worried with their lusts O the iron entered into their soul they did sit in darkness in the dungeon many a sad day and hour and at last Out of the depths they have called to the Lord he hath set them free O what an Heaven upon Earth they found it when they have been delivered in any measure from this bondage what would they take to be in the same condition again specially under the command of their lusts not all the world brethren the Lord perswade your hearts now now while it is to be had before you be called for out of prison to the judgement that you may go forth and enjoy this glorious liberty O but you would say Alas what should we do in this case we are convinced it may be some poor soul maâ— say of himself that this is a miserable bondage we are in even by sin and the consequents of it and we would fain be set free but we know not which way to go about it we are in a maze a wilderness a labyrinth a duâ—geon we grope and grope and cannot find the way out O what shall we do it may be this may be the case of some of our souls I will tell you what you shall do First Deny your own policy and wisdom know they will not set you free Judas had much knowledge and yet he hanged himself you will rather by depth of reasonings plunge your selves deeper the Gospel is foolishness to them through the pride in their carnal knowledge Secondly Labour to know the Gospel in its tenor and to close with it to believe it you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free truth truly known will set a soul free this truth is the truth of the Gospel for Grace and Truth come by Jesus Christ and it is observable that they are both put together Sanctifie them with thy Truth saith our Saviour thy Word is Truth There are three things here considerable First That there must be a through acquaintance with the bondage that we are under and the better condition of service how much the service of Christ is to be preferred before that of Satan for the truth is while a man knoweth no better he will be content to serve the worse there is never a sinner under the dominion of sin but thinketh he is the freest man and the people of God that are bound up in their Spirits to such a strict way of walking with God he thinketh they are the men in bondage but alas it is because he understandeth not his own condition nor is it a slight hint of such a thing that will usually prevail to a freedom from all sin therefore you must labour to study what this bondage is see what thou art exposed to by reason of it and see what a prfect freedom the service of Christ is O what great reward there is in the very keeping of his Commandments joy is such an inseparable attendant upon obedience that some measure of it followeth every good action as the very heathens themselves acknowledged much more then when the Lord Jesus is the Master and his service the work Secondly Thou must be acquainted with the commands of Christ his precepts are pure and they have an influence upon the heart that believeth them to bring him out of that bondage to set him free I do believe nothing more keepeth many a soul in bondage he knoweth not what the will of Christ is in such or such a particular else he would do it Be acquainted with Christ the summe of the Gospel you shall know the truth that is to say what he hath done to set poor creatures free became a servant obedient to the death was in bondage in prison in the horrible pit how he was put to it to overcome c. Thirdly and principally thou must be acquainted with the promises of the Gospel that are made to this end it is their excellency to help forward our freedom this part of the truth well known so known as to be closed with will make every poor creature free ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free and so this in the text the Sun of righteousness shall arise upon you with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and so many other places sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace It is the very tenure of the Covenant and of the promises in Scripture that he will deliver his people save them from all their uncleannesses and subdue all iniquities for them yea though they work iniquity with both hands Vers 3. Either we know not these things or else we make not use of them we act not faith upon them the Lord doth love to have his people use the importunity of faith for nothing is so importunate as faith nor offers as I may say such violence to heaven as that doth O Brethren the Lord help our unbelief and forgive our neglect of our faith in this point if thou canst act it but weakly yet put forth some act of faith hang upon these promises tell the Lord he hath caused thee to hope upon this his Word else thou couldest not hope and thou dost hope in this Word else thy heart would altogether sink within thee and will he now make thee ashamed of his hope hath his promise ever failed a poor creature and will it now fail thee But beside this dost thou find thy heart moved made willing indeed to part with sin Art thou in good earnest in this business O yes saith the poor soul I would rather then my life be set at liberty for what good will my life do me if I must continually serve sin and grieve such bowels of love towards me in Jesus Christ have you searched do you know your hearts in this point it may be thou hast not that heed of trusting thy heart further then thou seest it it will deceive thee then but if thou hast searched it and beg'd of God to search it and thou dost not find but he hath through infinite riches of grace made thee willing to come out if thou couldst tell how I tell you Brethren if this be so the chains are fallen off from your hands and the bolts from your legs your freedom is in a great part accomplished only thou canst not find the way out of the prison O then follow Christ follow his Spirit when he moveth thy heart at any time to search and try maketh thee tender puts thee into a frame to bewail the evils of thy heart take
ordinary that in things so much controverted as they are now a daies can in a few daies time be so tost with a wind of Doctrine as to take up a strange a contrary practise this easiness to forgo our principles argues we are childish and weak Secondly Are we grown in understanding you will find it by this thou wilt not be so ready so easie to take offence as heretofore thou hast been alas before men are acquainted with the waies of God at all you see they are offended at every thing they see the Jews were offended with the meanness of Jesus Christ his descent that he was the Carpenters Son he was not like to be the Messias alas it was the weakness of their understanding they did not consider those Scriptures where it is said there should be no beauty in him that we should desire him and that he should come meek and lowly riding upon an Ass and so they were offended at his Doctrine when he told them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood they could not conceive of it and many of his Disciples went backward and walked with him no more And so sinners O they stumble at every thing in the people of God when they consider them and pry into them and find they miss it and fall in their duties they are prejudiced strongly against the waies of God upon this score alas it is ignorance they know not that they have a corrupt principle within whereby they are laid open to sin when lust and temptation meeteth except the Lord do wonderfully keep them they expect they should be as the Angels in heaven altogether spotless and pure even while they are upon the earth and therefore they are offended And so a weak child of God that is newly come on to grace alas every little thing in the way they stumble at for this offending is nothing else but stumbling upon a thing so as to hurt themselves by it either by being drawn to sin thereby being encouraged to sin thereby or else by being grieved at it without cause you know a child cannot get over that which a man maketh nothing of but he stumbleth and falleth so the Apostle where he discusseth of the use of indifferent things saith he All men have not this knowledge that an Idol is nothing and therefore if some weak ones see a Brother that is strong eat of that which was offered to an Idol which he knoweth to be lawful for him to do he is offended at it this argues weakness now have we found it so that we have been apt to take offence at any thing at every thing in others almost and now we can bear it argues we see more clearly the grounds of such actions but thus much for this Secondly Another part of this growth upward I place in the will which is indeed the main the commanding faculty of the soul and indeed wherein the main of faith doth lie and of other graces as of tender-heartedness and the like dost thou find then that heretofore thy will was more unsettled and wavering being as I may say halting between two thou wast not able to come up so fully to such a resolution for God and for Christ as to trample all under-foot for them thou wouldst have them but either hadst some reservation in such a case thou wouldst be saved now thy resolution breaks through all whatsoever this is growth indeed A man of a weak resolution for Christ alas if a temptation come to deny him the allurements of the world he forsakes him with Demas and imbraceth the present world or the frowns of the world he draweth baâ—k to perdition or else is foiled with Peter or at least much abated in his zeal groweth to a more indifferency of Spirit would joyn Christ and Moses together with the temporizing Jews to keep themselves from being persecuted and as Peter himself afterward alas his resolution was not yet so strong as afterward for fear of the Jews he did forbear to walk with the Gentiles as before he had done and so was an offence to them Ah dear friends it may be some of us can tell the time when for fear of men we have sadly miscarried is it better with us now have we now more courage have we for fear of shame come to Christ with Nicodemus by night and now are we not ashamed of Christ nor of his Gospel As the Apostle he was not ashamed of it though it were persecuted and though his meanness of speech were despised his preaching in a suitable manner to the subject which is a great part of a Preachers duty he was not ashamed Well then now consider doth the Lord give thee such boldness such courage such resolution of heart as to hold fast the Word of his patience the suffering-truth it may be we may be tryed in this point if we be not grown we shall miscarry as heretofore we have done Alas Brethren a little touch with a finger a little blast will blow a c 〈…〉 d over and over but if we be grown we shall find greater resolutions against sin to avoid the occasions of it do you find Brethren O the yielding frame of your hearts to sin to weakness every day it is weaker then heretofore and done away that now you can peremptorily deny a lust deny a temptation O you may not do this and sin against God! then we are grown in the will indeed and the more strong we grow in these resolutions the more we grow in this respect but if we cannot cease to sin Brethren we are where we were it may be we may be sometimes affected a little with our sins upon a flash or pang but have no power nor strength to resist our wills our wills are as weak as water to any thing that is good and against sin we grow not Brethren Again as thus downward and upward so see how we grow in fruitfulness we have spoken at large to that subject that we must bring forth fruits or else we cannot escape the Axe now I speak of the measure of the growth therein a young tree of the first year cannot be expected to bear so much as when better grown no more a young Christian here I would only mind you of two things First that we bring forth more fruit that is that we do more for God then we have done and for his people and for our own souls it may be thou hast heretofore but now and then prayed to God dost thou now do it more often it may be three times a day with Daniel and David It may be heretofore thou gavest but little to the relief of the poor Saints and others in distress dost thou now give more and more proportionable to thy estate as the Lord hath blessed thee for that is the proportion which the Apostle maketh and so where heretofore thou didst speak but now and then a savory word now
to chaâ—e it in our hearts 32 Oyl Motives to have it in our Vessels 115 Oyl of grace how to know we have it 118 Oyl in your vessels must surely be had in readiness 217 Oyl they that go to the Saints for it are like to have a denyal 302 P Papists reproved for taking upon them to sell grace 306 Papists are like to foolish Virgins 299 Parable what is it 1 People of God have slept 156 People of God that make profession of Jesus Christ an exhortation to them 232 People of God have considerations to stir them up to cut off all delayes 293 People of God that are guided by the Spirit it is a comfort to them 318 Perfection in this life there is not 192 Plots and Purposes how it comes to pass that many are taken away in the midst of them 213 Prayer we are to be much in it 253 Profession without the enjoyment of the Spirit is but folly 104 Professions all are full of folls 115 Professors formal what such are to know 265 Professors formal a startling word to them 280 Professors real to them a word of Exhortation 282 Professors trifling a warning word to them 316. Their doleful condition 371. See Saints Formalists Promises from them conclude that Christ will not put away any soul 84 Prophecyings they that despise them what to remember 24 Put away from Christ the souls objections answered 85 R Readiness labour to maintain it 337 Reaidness what is meant by it 326 Ready such as are when Christ cometh do enter with him into glory 325 Ready a child of God may be before he desire it and desire it before he be ready 329 330 Ready soul is in a blessed condition 332 Ready are we put this question 333 Ready to enter what need there is to look to it 372 With Directions what to do 373 374 Refuges how hard it is to beat a man off from them 319 Refuges what they should teach those that are brought off from them 321 Rejoyce in Christ the soul must 79 See willing Resurrection of the dead a Saint falls short of this though he have never so much grace here 311 S Saints seeming and real in what respect called and compared to Virgins 10 Saints real and formal the things that do distinguish them 14 Saints priviledges 60 Saints ought to communicate their experiences each to other 305 Saints may have a good esteem of hypocrites 229 Saint-ship what is requisite to it 89 Similitude is the mother of mistakes 271 Sins greatness wherein it lies 151 Sin how to know whether the conflict of it be right or no 238 Sinners hearts are full of self-confidence and presumption 383 Sleep what kind is it 145 Noted by two degrees ibid. Sleep the causes of it 147 Sleep of Formalists and Saints do differ 1â—7 Sleep considerations to stir us up out of it 163 Sleep they that are in it will find no ease 169 Sleep that we are kept from it considerations to heighten our praises 177 Sleep we are apt to be when most need to be awake 187 Sleep what it argues 192 Sleep is matter of deep humiliation ibid. Sleeping the sad effects of it is matter of mourning 155 Sleeping cautions against it 171 Sleepy the end why God leaves his people in such a frame 153 Slumbering and sleeping what is meant by it 12 145 Slumbering and sleeping the time considerable 143 Slumbering and sleeping incident to the best of Saints 144 Slumbering and sleeping argues an hour of need to watch in 196 Sorrow for sin how to know whether it be right or no 235 Souls dejected have arguments set before them to close with Christ 58 Soul of man hath two things in it considerable 106 Souls evil or loss 112 Souls doubting to them a word of encouragement 407 Spirit of Christ is the greatest woer 44 Spirit of grace there is need to keep in with him 195 Spirit must not be grieved when we have his presence 254 Spirits prophane reproved 135 T Teachers false and their waies are to be taken heed of 250 Teachers of God have a pattern set before them 24 Temptation hath an hour See Awaking Things the same inculcated upon Believers bespeaks somewhat more to be learned 28 Time is to be made good use of both by Saints and Sinners 139 140 Time unknown what is it put for 208 Truth for the abusing of it a word for conviction 130 Truths divine have cautions against the nauseating of them 27 V Vessel what is meant by it 15 Virgins why so called 10 Virgins foolish their request to the wise Virgins 262 286 Virgins wise their answer to the foolish Virgins 301 314. See Lamps Vnderstanding in man is very dull 20 Vnion between Christ and his people so sure that it cannot be shaken 87 Vnreadiness what is meant by it 365 Vnready two or three persons likely will be found 367 Vnregenerate estate See Members W Watch what is the end of such men as do or do not 18 Watch the reason wherefore 211 Watch to it men are perswaded 216 Willing to close They whom Christ hath made so should labour to make it sure 75 Wisdom wherein it lies 105 Wisdom for the compleating of it hath three things 106 Wisdom of a pretended and real Saint compared 108 Wisdom of a Saint and a fool wherein it appears 113 Withdrawing between Christ and us their difference 87 World See Church Workers of iniquity what is understood by that 398 Y Yield up themselves to Christ To such a word of comfort 86 The second Alphabetical Table containing the principal heads and matter in the foregoing Treatise of Christ the Sun of Righteousness hath healing in his wings A ACquaintance we gain with God by prayer 625 Afflictions outward from them there is freedom 505 From 1. The fear of them 2. The presence of them 3. The evil of them from 506 to 507 Arise when Christ doth upon a soul he brings enlargement to it 479 508 Arising of the Sun of righteousness on them what is meant by it 434 B Bondage the Authors of it 486 Bondage there is 1. By Captivity 487 2. By sale ibid. 3. By birth 489 4. By tenure and usurpation 490 Bondage to sin its consequences 492 Bondage the guilt of sin is a part of it 494 Bondage sinners that are in it exhorted to close with the promise of going forth 529 Bondage what God requires of them that are set free from it 536 Bondage unto men be not brought under 544 See Sin C Ceremonies of men from these there is freedom 508 Children are made free by grace not by natural generation 518 Children may be free in the account of the Church and yet be the servants of sin 520 Children of Believers can grow 581 Christ is to be valued by us 423 Christ of him there is great necessity 452 Christ is the only pipe through which grace is conveyed 568 Come to Christ considerations so to do 473 Communion of Saints in