This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith I John 5. 4. Above all take the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Eph. vi 16. Glorious things are spoken of thee O Faith who can recount the mighty acts and great atchievements of those holy Souls who have strongly confided in the gracious power of God and Christ Jesus for the subduing of sin as well as in God's mercy and Christ's merits for the pardon of it These through this Faith that I may borrow those expressions in the Eleventh to the Hebrews have subdued Kingdoms even the Kingdoms of divers lusts and pleasures and the Kingdoms of the Prince of this world to which they were once subject Through Faith they have wrought righteousness even the righteousness of God far excelling that outward slight and partial righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisee Through Faith they have stopped the mouths of Lions the impetuous and ravening solicitations and greedy desires of their selfish will Through Faith they have quenched the violence of fire or the Lusts of Passion Malice and Uncleanness which burned like fire within them out of weakness were made strong and turned to flight the armies of the Aliens Now there are many exceeding great and precious promises scattered through the Scriptures which are of soveraign force and virtue for the encouragement of our Faith and Hope in God for the strengthening of us against his and our enemies But there is abundantly enough in that one passage Luke xi 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him What could our Saviour have spoken more plainly and fully for our encouragement to a dependance on God for Grace and Spiritual strength and to a quiet unsolicitous expectation of assistance from him This promise concerned not onely those Disciples that heard Christ preach then from the Mount but all his Disciples and Followers all that shall believe on his Name to the end of the world It is said to them that ask him without any limitation either to a certain age or people language or nation and therefore we may be as much comforted from these words as if we had been in the number of those in whose hearing our Saviour preached that best of Sermons wherein they were uttered For as there is the same need of the Holy Spirit for us as there was for them who were then present with our Saviour so there is now and ever will be the same benignity and philanthropy in God the same good will compassion and love to men that there was then and in former ages He is without variableness or shadow of turning the same yesterday and to day and for ever But this word of promise is so rich and precious that it deserves a more particular Consideration If ye that are evil Earthly Parents are too commonly envious and niggardly close hard and cruel to others being all for themselves and not caring for the good of others Know how to give good gifts unto your Children As backward as they are to give to others they cannot find in their hearts when their Children ask to withhold from them they will be free open-handed and bountiful to them And such is the tenderness of their affection to their Children that they will not give them any thing that they know to be evil and hurtful to them they will not give them Stones for Bread a Serpent for a Fish or a Scorpion for an Egg. How much more shall your heavenly Father He who being good cannot but do good He who is the Father of Mercies the God of Love and Goodness and Love it self He who best knows what is good and is best able to bestow whatsoever is so He who is as willing to do us good as he is able and as able as willing as no earthly Parent is He in whom is nothing of envy towards others and hath in himself all fullness is Infinite Almighty and All-sufficient Give the holy Spirit to them that ask him so saith one Evangelist and give good things saith another The greatest good that Omnipotence it self and infinite Goodness can do for us is the giving the holy Spirit and with him spiritual light to know and spiritual strength to do his Will and to subdue our own Wills and whatsoever is contrary to him in us To be indued with the holy Spirit doth import an accession both of light and strength knowledge and power So that our Saviour argues from the less to the greater from the drop of goodness and benignity in Creatures and those sinful Creatures too to that Fountain-fulness which is in God What good soever children may expect from their Parents that and infinitely more may God's Children expect from him And it is impossible to conceive that the infinitely good God will be more wanting to his Childrens Souls than are evil men to their Childrens Bodies All that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those affections and tendernesses which God hath implanted in all Parents for the good of their Offspring are but a little drop to that ocean of Love and Mercy that is in himself are but a dark and short representation of those unconceivable riches of Goodness and bowels of Compassion which are in him Nullus Pater tam Pater No Father is so fatherly so much a Father as God is said Tertullian He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus stiles him out of Orpheus the tendernesses of both a Father and Mother are in God Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget it is possible but very prodigious yet will not I forget saith God Isaiah xlix 15. God doth not take empty titles to himself but fills up the utmost of whatsoever relation he is set forth by in the Holy Scriptures Whatsoever the wisest most careful and loving Parents are to theirs God is such and incomparably more to his Children If the affections of ten thousand Parents were in one Father or Mother how secure would the Child be of their tender care who indeed is secure without such a supposal but all these in one person are far short of God's affection who is the Spring and Original of all the Fatherly tenderness which is dissused in the hearts of so many millions of Fathers as are in the world Let me adde this That the promise of the Spirit is the great promise of the Gospel the great priviledge of the Evangelical Dispensation or New Covenant Greater aids and supplies of Grace for the subduing our corruptions we are encouraged to hope for under the Gospel The Apostle saith Titus iii. 6. that the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a rich and plentiful manner through Iesus Christ our Saviour If
that in Hebron too the very place where his Father was first anointed by the men of Iudah and seven years and an half after by the Tribes of Israel And now Absolom endeavours to confirm himself in his usurped dominion by the best arts of power and policy he could imagine He gains Achitophel to be of his side who was the King's Counsellor a man of that venerable esteem for his great wisdom that his Counsel is said to be as if a man had enquired at the Oracle of God Chap. xvi 23. He is busie in preparing a great Army against his Father the Conspiracy was strong and the people increased continually with Absolom which made him cry out as he did in the third Psalm ver 1 2. a Psalm penned upon this occasion Lord how are they increased that trouble me many are they that rise up against me many there be which say of my soul there is no help for him in God And that these many were not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philistims Moabites Amalakites Amonites and other Heathens but his own Subjects was a more afflicting trouble And that among these should be found Achitophel his Friend and Counsellor that his head and hand should be in all this this made it more afflicting still as he complaineth 55. 12. It was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have born it Neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then would I have hid my self from him But it was thou a man mine equal my guide and my acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company And that the General he that headed the Army against him should be Amasa the son of his sister Abigail and therefore so near to him as that David saith of him that he was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh this was another aggravation of his affliction And lastly This made the affliction most sharp of all that he that was at the head of all that animated this rebellious body should be Absolom That the Son should thirst after the Fathers bloud that he which came forth of his bowels should seek his life as he complains Chap. xvi 11. And that he should be the son whom he loved most passionately even so passionately that after his three years absence from Court it is said Chap. xiii 39. That the soul of David longed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was consumed to go forth unto Absolom And then all this to befall him in his old age too and after he had by his valour and prudent conduct saved his people out of the hands of their enemies Put all these sad circumstances together and was not David in sore troubles and trials But how doth he behave and acquit himself herein Doth he quarrel with Providence and the instruments of his trouble Nothing less But his disposition and carriage was all composed of meekness and submission to the Will of God Being sensible of the eminent danger he was in he prudently provides for his security by removing from Ierusalem which he and his servants did with all speed lest Absolom should suddenly overtake them and thrust or push evil upon them as the word is For his enemies were most quick and active in their preparations against him which therefore he calls the stormy wind and tempest Psal. lv 8. Of his hasty fleeing he speaks Psal. lv 6 7. which refers to this occasion as appears by ver 14. where he cries Oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I flee away and be at rest Lo then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness Selah I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest Being gotten out of the City in haste he and his Guard they tarry in a place that was far off v. 17. to refresh themselves not knowing whither to go or where to be at rest as he then told Ittai the Gittite who was come to him resolving to fare as he did v. 20. Having made a little pause here he passeth over the Brook Kidron ver 23. a Brook between the City and Mount Olivet the Countrey weeping with a loud voice at this sad Procession As also when they were going up Mount Olivet they went weeping as they went up every one covering his had after the manner of mourners ver 30. And in the midst of these hardships and sorrowful sympathizings of the people which could not but much affect his heart having given order to Zadok the Priest to return back to the City with the Ark of God which thus far accompanied him desiring that that Monument of God's Glory and Presence might not wander up and down with him in his desolate condition but be placed again in the City of God he thus expresseth the humble and quiet resignation of his spirit Ch. xv 25 26. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it the Ark and his habitation Ierusalem the City of the great King but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him Though I be brought to excessive straits though I be deprived of all my glory in this my old age after all the good services I have done for Israel and Iudah yet here am I let him do as seemeth good to him not as seemeth good to me Thy will O Lord shall be my will thy pleasure I will rest satisfied with and acquiesce in Thou shalt chuse for me and to thy choice will I accommodate my self Be it so as thou wouldest have it to be O thou most holy and wise and the Lord of all who dost whatsoever pleaseth thee both in heaven and earth My heart is ready O God my heart is ready it is fixed and resolved to drink of that Cup which thou hast appointed me And his humble disposition of Soul discovered it self immediately after in his penitential behaviour already mentioned as he went up the Mount He wept as he went up and had his head covered and he went barefoot which were the most significant expressions of a great humiliation and submissness of spirit And this meek frame of Soul in reference to God's disposals did dispose him to a rare meekness and patience in reference to men There happened a little after he was past Mount Olivet a very provoking occasion For Shimei a Benjamite threw stones at him and his men and cast dust at them all along in the way and added to this indignity curses and revilings of the person of the King Abishai one of his three chief Commanders was so incensed at the horrid insolence of this dead dog as he called Shimei that he prays the King that he might go over to him and take off his head But David was so far from permitting this that he was more offended at Abishai's Zeal
THE GREAT DUTY OF Self-Resignation TO THE DIVINE WILL. By the late Pious and Learned JOHN WORTHINGTON D.D. Luke xxii 42. Nevertheless not my will but thine be done Rom. vi 13. But yield your selves unto God LONDON Printed by A. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Pauls Church-yard M. DC LXXV The Preface THe following Treatise contains the Substance of several Sermons which were Preached on divers Texts relating to each other and most of them at Benet Fink in London where the worthy Author was for some time Preacher till his Church and Parish were laid in Ashes and they were the last that were heard from him in that place On that Lord's-day whereon the dreadful Fire of London brake forth he was come to insist on the Exemplary Resignation of holy Iob to the Divine Will under those dismal Sufferings he was exercised with which is the Argument of the Ninth Chapter of the Second Section of this Discourse And it is to be believed that he was directed by a very special Providence to so highly useful and seasonable a Subject for the preparing his Hearers for that heavy Calamity which was so nearly approaching them Some of those Sermons I heard much commended about the time they were Preached and since the much lamented Death of the good Doctor a worthy Friend having found them all tied together among a confused company of Papers with this Inscription Self-Resignation he delivered them into my hands signifying withall that he had for the most part perused them to his great satisfaction And I quickly saw cause to believe that it would be a good work to make them publick And had it not been for multiplicity of business which forced me frequently and that for a considerable time together to lay it aside this Treatise might have been completed and seen the light above a year ago And now that it is through the goodness of God at length come abroad I hope the same allowance will be made for it that uses to be for Posthumous Pieces and also that none will expect that the Author should have written with such accuracy for the Pulpit as he would have done for the Press But yet as it is I doubt not but all understanding and ingenuous Readers will acknowledge it highly worthy a serious perusal and that it is excellently fitted for the promoting a Christian's proficiency in his Master's School As for the Subject it treats of Self-Resignation there is no Duty more evident Nothing is more apparently reasonable than that we are obliged to give up our selves to God to be used and acted by him as shall seem best to his unerring Wisdom Nor is any thing so unnatural as for the Wills of dependent Creatures to oppose themselves to the Will of their great Creator which is inseparably conjoyned with and ever founded upon the highest Reason Righteousness and Goodness There is not such a Prodigy or Monster in Nature as he that will not suffer that same Will to rule him that governs the World and refuseth to be entirely at his dispose who being the Original must needs be the absolute Lord of all things This Duty is also most comprehensive and of largest extent the whole of that which the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth is reduceable to it And 't is very obvious that there is nothing either commanded or forbidden for it self in our Saviour's Religion but is a necessary and natural expression and instance of Self-Resignation I mean there is not any thing we are required in the Gospel to perform or forbear for its own sake and not in order to the better enabling us to some other Duty and guarding us from some other Sin but it is of that nature that Self-Resignation is antecedently to the Command or Prohibition inconsistent with the not doing what is so commanded or the doing what is so forbidden And where a Resigned Temper is through the Divine Grace in some good measure acquired it will naturally draw after it most chearful Obedience and willing Submission to the good pleasure and appointments of our blessed Lord So that we shall not complain of any of those Precepts he hath given us as harsh or grievous nor of any affliction he trieth us with as over-severe Let me adde that the entire Resignation of our Wills to the Will of God must needs be a Subject than which there cannot be any one handled of more weighty importance in that the restoring Mankind to this excellent Temper was the grand and main Errand upon which God the Father sent his Son into the World This is as evident as that our Fall which brought us under the necessity of a Saviour was no other than the loss of this Temper accompanied with the necessary and immediate consequents thereof Man's affecting independence on his Maker his being impatient to be restrained within those limits which his Creator had appointed him and chusing to gratifie his senses and fond imagination without consulting with the Divine Will made known to him by the Dictates of Natural Light and External Revelation this was truly his Loss of Paradise this was his Lapse from the heavenly to the hellish state And therefore the restoring mankind to their original constitution the reducing our Wills to a perfect harmony and compliance with the Will of God was an undertaking of all other the most worthy of his onely begotten Son 's manifesting himself in our flesh and his doing and suffering what he did in the humane nature And as our Author could not have made choice of a more noble or necessary Subject so I presume his Method and way of mannaging it will not be thought unworthy of it First he presents us with the most powerful Considerations in order to our being fully convinced and affected with a great sense of our indispensable and eternal Obligation to Self-Resignation and to the exciting and awakening us to the most serious endeavours to subdue our Wills to the Will of God Secondly he directs us to the most effectual means for the rendring this Duty as easie as is possible to our frail and corrupt natures And under these two general Heads he hath taken occasion without digressing from his business to acquaint his Readers with most if not all the best and most important notions and principles I mean such as have the most apparent tendency to the promoting of true Holiness and to rectifie the most dangerous and fatal mistakes which are such as either directly strike at or in their Consequences undermine a good life The Reader will likewise observe an excellent and most Christian Spirit running through this whole Discourse and see great reason to believe that the Author was very much affected with what he hath written that his heart was powerfully touched with the Arguments he pursueth and that he had not a mere notional but experimental knowledge of the Excellency of a Self-denying Resigned temper and was acted with a great zeal
manu Coeli excepto timore Coeli was an antient Maxim of the Hebrew Doctors implying that God himself cannot absolve and free men from the religious fear and observance of himself and a most obedient regard to his holy Will What the Apostle saith of Love that it is an old and yet a new Commandment is true also of this high and holy Commandment of Self-Resignation It is a new Commandment not as if it were first brought in by Christ as was said for men were never free to will their own wills to walk in the ways of their own hearts but it is new as the Commandment of Love is new in that it was enlivened and inforced anew by Christ had its power and virtue renewed and increased and the engagement to it heightned both by the Doctrin and Example of our Saviour Both tending to the advancement of Self-Resignation in a way beyond any Doctrin or Example of Life that ever appeared before or since in the world And therefore it is also the Law of the new Creation and by virtue thereof its Obligation is now doubled The Consideration of God as our second Creator mightily inforceth our engagement to this Duty For 1. The relation of the New-Creature is more noble and honourable In the second Creation the Image of God is repaired in the soul and man that was a disfigured and disordered thing by reason of his Apostasie and fall from God is restored now to that better and more excellent state As he is a New-Creature he partakes of the Spirit and is heavenly and spiritual Which is far more than having a natural Being by which as the Apostle speaks he is of the earth earthy 2. It is also a sweeter relation there is a most dear Love to be admired rather than to be express'd manifested herein 1 John iii. I. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Abba Father comes more freely from the lips and heart of the New-Creature Such may draw near to God with a filial freedom and humble boldness 3. Besides it is a more advantageous relation For if children saith the Apostle then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. And the Inheritance they are heirs to is uncorruptible and undefiled reserved in the heavens for them such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard and the glory and advantages of which no heart can conceive Of which according to the abundant grace of the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ they are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead 4. This new Creation impowers capacitates and enables us for this Duty These things might be largely insisted upon but thus much is briefly intimated that the Obligation to Self-Resignation may appear more from the notion of a New-Creature than from that of a Creature And to this purpose is that of the Apostle Eph. ii 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works created unto intire obedience to the Will of God the Foundation and also the Sum and Abridgment whereof is Self-Resignation CHAP. II. That Self-Resignation is that which doth eminently difference a good man from the Devil and the wicked And that mere external Performances do not distinguish between the one and the other II. SElf-Resignation is that which doth eminently difference a good man from the Devil and the wicked The Angels that would not continue in Resignation that would have another will of their own that rended their wills from the will of God they are the evil and miserable Angels and still they are impetuously acted by a boisterous Self-Will and are impatient of having it checked Belial is the Devils name and that word signifies without Yoke and the Children of Belial are for a boundless lawless liberty they set themselves against the Lord and his Christ saying Let us break their bands insunder and cast away their cords from us They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds are impatient of restraint Wicked men in whose hearts the Apostate Spirit worketh are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of disobedience they are not for intire subjection to the Divine Will though wise good sure and perfect but addicted to their own will which is childish vain perverse and boisterous and all for gratifying their many foolish and hurtful desires and longings They are all for walking after the imagination and stubbornness of their own hearts a phrase often used in the Prophesie of Ieremiah and for fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind Whereas the children of God are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of obedience 1 Pet. i. 14. not conformed to their former lusts but to the will of God as it was said of David Acts xiii 22,36 And here it is fit to advertise and admonish Christians that it is a piece of Mystery-Wickedness a policy of Satan in all ages to set up and magnifie some pieces of Outward Religion and put such a value upon them as from them to denominate men Good and Religious and so men are reputed Saints and the Children of God by such and such Opinions and Notions such Expressions such Observances such things as may be performed by very bad men So that on these different Forms are founded different Parties and Sects and each magnifies its own mode and thereupon men are tempted and invited to associate and link themselves with one or other because hereby they shall be reputed Religious and apologized for by those of that rank and way and all others shall be unsainted and decried But in the mean while the main thing is little minded that which doth intrinsecally and eminently difference the good from the wicked and that is Self-Resignation that which our Saviour makes the essential Character of a true Christian Self-Denial Now this Doctrin of denying and resigning our selves the Doctrin of the inward Cross of being dead to self-desires and self-interest is very unacceptable and grievous to the Pharisaical and formal Christians they would fain live to themselves please themselves being lovers of their own selves covetous proud incontinent fierce heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God as the Apostle speaks of some who hereby denied the Power of Godliness whereof yet they had a Form Now it is a good service done to Religion to endeavour both by Life and Doctrin to rescue it from these abuses from being thought to consist in such outward shews and to place the Kingdom of God where it should be It is for the interest of the pure and undefiled Religion and for the advancement of real Holiness to lessen the credit of such appearances viz. such an habit tone form of words mere Outward performances to lessen the repute of any sort of Mock-Holiness a mere outward Profession and Observance of only the externals of Religion be they
done and then especially when we are solicited by the Tempter within or without to sin Let us then say with holy David Thy vows are upon me O God I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments Neither hopes nor fears neither the terrours nor allurements of the world shall disswade me from a faithful obedience to them Vows prudently mannaged are of great use to secure us to Religion and this is the onely end of them To vow saith Cajetan is nothing else but to fix the mind and make it immoveable that it may not start back from the practice of Religion And as for those that are shye or slack thus to engage and devote themselves to God which I fear in most proceeds from a too dear affection to some sin or sins let them know that God's Vows are already upon them they are under the Obligation of the Baptismal Vow to renounce the Devil and all his works the vain pomp and glory of the world the covetous desires of the same and the carnal desires of the flesh so as not to follow nor be led by them So much is implied in being baptized in or into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And besides those that have received the Lord's Supper have thereby virtually renewed their Vow in Baptism In this other Sacrament we make a Profession that we offer and present unto God our selves our Souls and Bodies to be a Holy and Lively Sacrifice to him Than which there is nothing more due or reasonable considering the great Love of God in giving his Son for us the great Love of our Saviour Christ in his Death and Sufferings represented in this Sacrament and the great Blessings procured for us by the Bloud of that spotless Lamb. So that all of us young or old have already bound our Souls with a Bond as to vow is described Numb xxx being under the engagement of either one or both these Sacramental Vows and therefore in exhorting you to oblige your selves by solemn Vows to the duties of Religion I do not advise you to a new thing but onely to repeat what you have already done and if you intend to stand to the Vows you have made what should deter you from reiterating them whilst you have need of them But always remember when you vow to the Lord to do it with a trust and faith in his power and all-sufficient Grace and with a distrust of your own natural ability to perform your Vows And when at any time you have failed in the performance of them be deeply humbled before God and renew your Engagements with a greater sense of your weakness and falseness of heart and be more watchful over your selves and let your falls make you more narrowly look to your feet for the time to come 5. Fasting is another means to be used for the mortification of the body of Sin It is of great consequence and necessary to the health of the inward man to keep under the body to humble chastise and bring it into due subjection This was the practice of St. Paul himself who had not such unruly passions and appetites to tame as we have Religious Fasting is of great use to the subduing of the Body to the Spirit and to the starving of corruptions by cutting off their provision as the ungovernable beast is made tame by taking away his provinder And there are a sort of Devils that will not go out without Fasting added to Prayer and other means but 't is most especially of force for the casting out the Vnclean Devil And according as we find we stand in more or less need of this remedy we should oftener or seldomer make use of it CHAP. V. Of the great power and efficacy of Faith in God Faith in his Power and Goodness V. FIfthly The next Direstion I shall give in order to subduin gour Wills to the Will of God is that of our Saviour Have Faith in God Mark xi 22. Have faith in his Power and Goodness this will adde life to our prayers this will animate and strengthen all our endeavours Take heed of doubting whether the Lord's hand be not shortned that it cannot save whether his ear be not heavy that it cannot hear or his bowels shut up that he is not ready to help Take heed of questioning whether thine own Will and selfish desires be not stronger than can be subdued of entertaining suspicious thoughts that after all thy endeavours to win the Spiritual Canaan there will be no arriving at that Land of Rest but that at last thou shalt die in the Wilderness that there is none or but little hope of overcoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Giant-like mind as the expression is in Ecclesiasticus xxiii 4. and those sons of Anak that thou findest vigorous and strong in thee For by this thine unbelief or weakness of faith thou greatly dishonourest either the Power or Goodness of God who is able and as willing as able to save the Soul that trusteth in him And by this means will the Chariot-wheels of thy Soul be taken off thou wilt extreamly discourage and infeeble thy self and blunt the edge of those weapons wherewith thou art to encounter thy Spiritual Enemies If thy Soul be upright in thee if thou art sincere and hearty in imploring the aids of God's Grace and the assistances of his Spirit and hast faith to be healed and delivered from the Lusts that fight against thee thou shalt undoubtedly see the salvation of the Lord. He will teach thine hands to war and thy fingers to fight he will gird thee with strength and thou shalt be more than conquerour through Christ that loveth thee Though thou hast no might against that great company that cometh against thee against flesh and bloud principalities and powers yet if thou waitest on the Lord and art of good courage he will strengthen thine heart he will strengthen thee with strength in thy soul and through him thou shalt do valiantly and tread down thine enemies He that is in thee will be greater than they that are in the world viz. the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life Take heed therefore of all such reasonings suggestions and principles as tend to beget a despondency and fainting of Spirit but lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees To the Soul that believes all things are possible Let Faith say unto any mountain of difficulty be thou removed and it shall be done Who art thou O great mountain before this blessed Grace and in the exercise of it thou shalt become a plain Thy Self-will and Lusts are therefore strong because thy Faith is weak and thou in that regard makest but a faint resistance But if thou wert strong in the Lord and in the power of his might if thou didst resist stedfast in faith thou shouldest see thine Adversaries flye before thee
is another observable thing mentioned Heb. xi 27. He that had received the promises offered up his onely begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called Whom thou lovest That is very dearly and passionately as being the Son of their old age their onely Son and a Son of the promise These two go together tender and the onely one Prov. iv 3. The onely one and the choice one Cant. vi 9. To lose the onely Son is that which causeth bitter lamentation and the mourning for such a one is used to express the most passionate and doleful mourning Amos viii 10. Zech. xii 10. Ier. vi 26. And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there Abraham himself must offer him he might not command his two servants to do it and they went no farther than till they came within sight of the place where he was to be offered The tender Father must take his onely Son whom he loved and bind him with his own hands upon the Altar and take the knife to slay him As his eyes must behold him bleeding and gasping and burning so must he be himself the Executioner And offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of This was the place where the Temple was to be built by Solomon the place of offering Sacrifices And it was three days journey from Abraham's habitation which might make the Command yet more grievous As often as in that journey he looked upon the Wood or Fire for burning the Sacrifice or the Knife that must do the Execution or the place where it was to be done which he saw afar off how could it be otherwise but that his eye must most deeply affect his heart It follows ver vi And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it upon Isaac his Son and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together What an affecting and heart-piercing sight was this And herein was Isaac a Figure of our Blessed Saviour who bare the wood of the Cross upon his Shoulders whereon he was to be offered up for a Sacrifice to God And it is hence to be concluded that Isaac was now no Child or weak Stripling in that he was able to travel with so great a burden such a quantity of wood as was sufficient to burn his body to ashes could be no small weight Iosephus makes Isaac to be now twenty five years old but an Hebrew Tradition about thirty and three If so and for what end should they feign it he was in this circumstance also a Figure of our Saviour who was offered up at about the same age Now Isaac being at this time grown up to a good age and strength it might make his Father the more unwilling to part with him and considerably added to the greatness of his Trial. And those words of Isaac which he spake in a strain of sweet innocence and simplicity v. 7. My Father behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a Burnt-offering they must needs cause a great colluctation within him and yerning of bowels No doubt Abraham's affections did strangely work now and he was pained at the very heart There is one thing more which we may take notice of in this Command of God it is said Offer him there for a Burnt-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This kind of Offering was an Holocaust all of which was to be consumed by fire so that there was not the least Relick to remain of him This was the Command and was it not a most difficult one could there have been a sorer trial But behold the signal Resignation and Obedience of Abraham to the Will of God! He without the least delay or demurring betook himself to the performance of the divine pleasure It is said v. 3. that Abraham rose up early in the morning it is like the Command came secretly to him in a dream or vision of the night and at or before the first peep of day he addressed himself to obey it Thus he denied his natural and very great affection to his Son and gave a most illustrious proof that nothing was so dear to him nothing so powerful with him as the Will of God Wisdom kept him strong against his tender compassion towards his son saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom chap. x. 5. The completion of his Obedience is set forth in the ninth verse And Abraham built an Altar in the place which God told him of and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his Son and laid him on the Altar upon the wood By the way not onely Abraham but Isaac too was herein a rare example of Resignation He was doubtless as appears by what was said of his age and strength able to have resisted his Father now stricken in years but he expressed no reluctancy he quietly and meekly suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the Altar And herein again as in several other particulars was he a Figure of our Saviour who though he could have rescued himself from the power of the Jews and Romans yet permitted them to take and bind him to heap a many vile indignities upon him and at last to nail him to his Cross. And then it follows And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his Son This God accounted to him as if he had done it because he was fully purposed in his mind to do it and had it not been for God's interposition had performed his purpose Therefore the Scripture reports it as if he had actually offered up his Son Heb. xi 17. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his onely begotten Son And James ii 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar And hereupon as it follows ver 23. he was called the friend of God He eminently approved him as such for this high act of obedience This is a title thrice given him in Scripture in this place in 2 Chron. xx 7. and Esay xli 8. and implied in Gen. xviii 17. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do Where Philo addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall I hide from Abraham my friend And by this Periphrasis the friend of God without any mention of his name is he described in the Alcoran the Turks Bible I will conclude this great Example of Resignation with that in Esay xli 2. who raised up the righteous man from the East and called him to his foot Abraham was sequacious and obeyed God in all things he had him at his call as the Faulconer hath a well man'd Hawk and calls her to his hand And shall not the Spiritual Seed of Abraham for so Christians are be sequacious and observant of every call of God though
saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations After which the happy days he enjoyed here concluded in an unspeakably more happy Eternity And thus as Satan said doth Iob serve God for nought so we see that his great Patience and exemplary Submission to the Will of God under the sorest and severest trials was not in vain in the Lord but abundantly recompenced But before I conclude this Example of Resignation I must take notice that so great was Iob's Patience that some of the Rabbins of old and some of late have imagined the account that we have of him to be rather a moral fiction a Romance and Parable than a real History So very averse are men to think any higher degrees of goodness attainable than what they themselves are willing to come up to But that we may not doubt whether it were a true History besides other arguments that in Ezech. xiv 14. 20. doth evidently prove it so to be There it is twice said Though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were in it they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness intimating that if there were any hope or help for a Nation none were more likely to prevail than these three persons most dear to God for their singular Piety A like expression there is Ier. xv 1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be to this people Now Noah and Daniel Moses and Samuel being no imaginary but real persons why should it be thought that Iob onely was so Let it be farther considered that in Iam. 5. 10 11. we are directed to the Prophets and to Iob as examples of Patience Now the Prophets being no fictions but such as really spake in the name of the Lord how should Iob come to be joyned with them if there were never such a one in being Surely are not exhorted to the imitation of one who never was nor encouraged to a real duty by an imaginary and feigned reward If this Story were a mere fiction the argument to patience which St. Iames useth in those words Ye have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord c. might have been thus excepted against by those suffering Christians to whom he there speaketh viz. What do you tell us of one Iob of his patience and reward there was never such a person there were never such things practised as are said of him and therefore how can what you have told us concerning him signifie any thing to our encouragement CHAP. X. Of the Example of ELI X. A third Example shall be that of Eli. He was both the High-Priest and Judge the chief of both Capacities Sacred and Civil and judged Israel fourty years But being greatly faulty in not using his power to the restraining his two sons Hophni and Phinehas that rendred the Service of God and the Priesthood vile by their Covetousness Luxury and Uncleanness God sent Samuel with this sad message to him namely that he would judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knew of but did not restrain by his authority That his two sons should die on one day that the dignity of the Priesthood should be taken from his Family and given to another This sentence though most righteous was so severe that it is said that both the ears of every one that heard of the execution of it should tingle 1 Sam. iii. 11. And it was an irreversible sentence for God saith that he hath sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever ver 14. A dreadful expression of his great displeasure And now how was Eli affected with this message His Resignation of himself and free Submission to the Will of God is exprest ver 18. in that speech of his It is the Lord Let him do what seemeth him good or what is good in his eyes Let him do not what I but what he thinks best who is both infinitely wise and just and knoweth better than I how to dispose of all for his own glory He is holy in all his ways and therefore 't is fit his will should take place His heart did not fret against the Lord nor was he cut to the heart when this sad cutting message was brought him which was no less than the cutting off of his arm and the arm of his fathers house As it is exprest Chap. ii 31. And he gave proof of it For when he heard that his two sons were slain in Battel which was the sign God gave of the approching ruine of his house Chap. ii 34. he seemed to bear this unconcernedly in comparison of the following tidings For when he heard that the Ark of God was taken that sad word strikes him backward and made him sink down in a deadly swound Then he fell off from his Seat and brake his neck with the fall Chap. iv 18. The good old man was so resigned to the Will of God as to his own concerns that he could patiently bear the departure of the glory of his house but the departure of the Glory from Israel of the Ark which was the token of God's special favour and residence among them this he could not bear CHAP. XI Of the Example of DAVID XI THe fourth Example I shall propose of Self-Resignation is holy David a man after God's own heart that would fulfill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all his wills as it is Acts xiii 22. He was eminent for obedience to the Divine Commands he delighted to do the will of God yea his law was within his heart Psal. xl 11. And had respect unto all his Commandments Psal. cxix 6. And he was likewise eminent for a patient submissive temper under great trials and sufferings That was an exceeding great trial when with his houshold and loyal Subjects he was forced to fly with all speed out of Ierusalem for the saving his life from the bloudy machinations of his own Son Absolom We have the Story in 2 Sam. 15 16. Chapters Absolom his third son by birth but now his eldest and therefore Heir apparent to the Crown being impatient to stay for it till the natural death of his Father designed first by flattering civilities to insinuate himself into the hearts of the people and afterwards by armed power to force his way into his Throne For his person he was of a very lovely aspect and taking presence so that in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absolom for his beauty from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him He had also a fair and smooth tongue was of a winning and insinuating behaviour so that he stole away the hearts of the men of Israel And having so done it was an easie business to get himself chosen and proclaimed King which was done by the men of Israel and