usque ad aras Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars but nothing of Gods neither ours to give nor his to receive For for this Cause you pay tribute also This the Apostle gives as a sign of that confest right that Magistrates have to the subjection and obedience of people that in all Nations this Homage and Acknowledgment is due to them Tribute payed which it may be he the rather mentions because some question might be what might Christians do concerning this however this according to the Constitution of several places he takes as granted to be not only lawful but due to be rendred Here we are not to insist on the seanning of this but certainly as the power of a Magistrate is not in this nor in any other thing absolute and unbounded so the legal and just paying of Tribute and other Revenues by the people argues their engagement to these set over them and is not as Wages to a Mercenary servant but an Honorary due to their place and calling who are the Ministers of God in civil Government so also convenient yet liberal maintenance to the Ministers of Gods own house is their right yet not to inrich them nor yet ought it to be given grudgingly as undue or superciliously as to servants but with the chearfulness and respect agreeable to the Lords servants watching for their Souls All Tribute and Obedience still relates to this and is grounded on it the Lords Institution of Power and Government for the good of Men though it sometimes prove otherwise in the exercise of it yet the Ordinance is pure and most wisely suited to its end from which the Sin and Corruption of Men turns it but too often so that one Man Rules over another to his hurt to the hurt of both the Ruler himself and of the Ruled Eccl. 8. 9. There is a time wherein one Man ruleth over another to his own hurt each proving a scourge to the other in the Just Judgment of God upon both for their Iniquities making a fire from Abimelech to devour the Men of Shechem and the Men of Shechem deal treacherously with Abimelech Yet still the thing it self remains good many skilful Physicians may kill instead of curing yet it is but a caprice to decry all Remedies and the use of things Medicinal that the God of Nature hath furnisht for that use Men may and alas most do prejudice their own health by either intemperate or some way irregular Diet yet this makes nothing against the continual necessity and use of Food nor can disswade any from using it Thus the abuses of Authority infringe not this That Magistrates are a publick good yea the Unjust better than none Tyranny better than Anarchy there is some Justice done in the most Unjust Government But thus they that are exalted to Rule ought to consider who raised them and for what they are raised and so faithfully to do Justice They are raised high as the Stars are set in their Orbs for influence and the good of the Inferiour World and as the Mountains which rise above the Vallies not to be places of Prey and Ruin but by the streams they send out to refresh them So from Magistrates Judgment ought to run down as Water and Justice as a mighty Stream they ought to consider themselves as Ministers though called Magistrates with relation to the people yet Ministers in relation to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the people's in him as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports being constant Labourers for their good Even the Sun a Minister Gods Minister of Heat and Light to the Earth Would they look up thus to God it would make them look down on their Inferiours not with the ill aspect of Pride and Cruelty but the benign looks of Good Will Fidelity and Vigilancy for their Welfare knowing that they are appointed for this very use in the World not referring to that which is nearest here and nearest themselves The receiving of Tribute but the remotest good which is the chief for which their Tribute and themselves are appointed The punishing of the Wicked and encouragement of the Good Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute c. The Apostle enlarges his Exhortation to the general Rule of Equity the humble upright mind will willingly suit with this and pay respect to men in obedience to God and therefore primarily to him which the most neglect Honour and fear are due to him as to our Father and Master and yet where is it to be found If I be a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear c. Mal. 1. The Tribute of Praise and Glory in all these is due and ought not to be purloyned nor any part detained but how few are faithful in this Much Uncustom'd Goods pass among our hands in the course of our Lives many things wherein we are not mindful to give Glory entire Glory to God but he cannot be deceived if we go on he will take us in our quietest conveyance and all will be forfeited We shall certainly lose all if all Glory return not to him all that we have and are should we daily and heartily offer up to him from whom we have life and breath and all things Owe no man any thing but to love one another c. That which the Apostle set before himself as his own study and exercise Act. 24. he doth in the latter part of this Epistle set forth at large as the Duty of every Christian to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Men. And having in the former part of it treated amply and excellently of the Doctrine of Christians Faith and Salvation and ascended to its highest cause he descends from thence to give the Rules of a Christian Life and he reduces them to those two To give the Lord his due which is our selves entire Our Bodies ought to be a living Sacrifice Chap. 12. ver 1. And that they are not without the Soul and it is Love in the Soul that offers up this whole burnt offering to God the fire that makes it ascend Towards men likewise Love is all of which in many several acts of it he spake likewise in the former Chapter verse 9. c. And having inserted an exhortation to Subjection to Humane Authority as a Divine Institution he now returns to that main Comprehensive and Universal Duty of Love and passes fitly from the mention of other particular Dues to Superiours to this as the general Due or standing Debt all men owe one to another So I conceive this is not intended for the further pressing of that particular Duty of Subjection by reducing it seeming hard in it self to the sweet and pleasant Rule or Law of Love but that he passes wholly from that particular to this common Duty so as that is not excluded but comprehended here with the rest though not specially aimed at but a
his Soul keeping it from sinking in the deeps of Afflictions Yea that big word which one says of his morally just Man is true of the believer Si fractus illabatur orbis Though the very Fabrick of the World were falling about him yet would he stand upright and undaunted in the midst of its ruins In this confidence considered in it self we may observe the Object of it The loving kindness of the Lord. 2. The manner or way by which he expects to enjoy it The Lord will Command it 3. The time in the day His loving kindness He says not return to the House of God for deliverance from the heavy oppression and sharp reproaches of the Enemy which would have answered more particularly and expressly to his present griefs but his loving kindness And the reason of thus expressing himself I conceive to be two fold 1. In the assurance of this is necessarily comprised the certainty of all other good things This special favour and benignity of the Lord doth engage his Power and Wisdom both which you know are infinite to the procurement of every thing truly good for those whom he so favours Therefore it is that David chuses rather to name the streams of particular mercies in this their living Source and Fountain than to specifie them severally Nor is it only thus more compendious but fuller too which are the two great advantages of Speech and this I take to be the other reason 2. A Man may enjoy great deliverances and many positive benefits from the hand of God and yet have no share in his loving kindness How frequently doth God heap Riches and Honour and Health on these he hates and the common gifts of the Mind too Wisdom and Learning yea the common gifts of his own Spirit and gives a fair and long day of external prosperity to those on whom he never vouchsafed the least glance of his favourable Countenance yea on the contrary gives all those specious gifts to them with a secret curse as here as he gave a King in wrath to his people so he often gives Kingdoms in his wrath to Kings Therefore David looks higher than the very Kingdom which God promised him and gave him when he speaks of his loving kindness In a word he resolves to solace himself with the assurance of this though he was stript of all other comforts and to quiet his Soul herein till deliverance come and when it shall come and whatsoever mercies with it to receive them as fruits and effects of this loving kindness Not prizing them so much for themselves as for the impressions of that love which is upon them and it is that Image and Superscription that both engages and moves him most to pay his tribute of praise And truly this is every where David's temper his frequent distresses and wants never excite him so much to desire any particular comfort in the Creature as to intreat the presence and favour of God himself His saddest times are when to his sense this favour is eclipsed In my prosperity I said I shall not be moved And what was his adversity that made him of another mind Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled This veriâ—ies his position in that same Psalm In thy favour is Life Thus in the 63. Psalm at the beginning My Soul thirsteth for thee in a dry Land where there is no water not for water where there is none but for thee where there is no water Therefore he adds in the 3. verse Thy loving kindness is better than Life and all that be truly wise and of this mind will subscribe to his choice Let them enjoy this loving kindness and prize it that what ere befalls them their happiness and joy is above the reach of all calamities let them be derided and reproached abroad yet still this inward perswasion makes them glad and contented as a rich Man said though the people hated and taunted him yet when he came home and lookt upon his Chests Egomet mihi plaudo domi With how much better reason do Believers bear out external injuries what inward contentment when they consider themselves truly enricht with the favour of God And as this makes them contemn the contempts that the World puts upon them so likewise it breeds in them a neglect and disdain of those poor trifles that the World admires The Sum of their desires is as that Cynicks was of the Sun-shine that the rays of the love of God may shine constantly upon them The favourable aspect and large proffers of Kings and Princes would be unwelcome to them if they should stand betwixt them and the sight of that Sun And truly they have reason What are the highest things the World affords What are great Honors and great Estates but great Cares and Griefs well drest and coloured over with a shew of pleasure that promise contentment and perform nothing but vexation That they are not saâ—isfying is evident for the obtaining of much of them doth but stretch the appetite and teach Men to desire more they are not solid neither will not the pains of a Gout of Strangury or some such malady to say nothing of the worst the pains of a guilty conscience blast all these deligâ—tâ— What relish finds a Man in large Revenues and â—â—aâ—ely Buildings in high Preferments and honour able Titles when either his Body or Mind is in anguish And besides the emptiness of all these things you know they want one main point Continuance But the loving kindness of God hath all requisites to make the Soul happy O satisfie us early with Goodness or Mercy says Moses That we may rejoyce and be glad all our days Ps. 90. 14. There is fulness in that for the vastest desires of the Soul satisfie us there is solid contentment that begets true joy and gladness and there is permanency all our days It is the only comfort of this Life and assurance of a better This were a large Subject to insist on but certainly the naming of his loving kindness should beget in each heart an high esteem of it an ardent desire after it And if it do so with you then know that it is only to be found in the way of holiness He is a holy God and can love nothing that 's altogether unlike himself There must always be some similitude and conformity of nature to ground kindness and friendship and to maintain it that saying is true idem velle idem nolle firma amicitia What gross self flattery is it to think that God's loving kindness can be towards you while you are in love with Sin which he so perfectly hates How can the profane Swearer or voluptuous Person or the Oppressor and Covetous or the close Hypocrite worse than any of them rest upon the loving kindness of the Lord in the day of troubles No sure But the terror of his wrath shall be added to all their other calamities and they shall find it heavier than all the
that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if there be any that think to shroud unpunished amongst the thickets of ignorance especially amidst the means of knowledge take notice of this though it may hide the deformity of Sin from your own sight for a time it cannot palliate it from the piercing eye nor cover it from the revenging hand of Divine Justice As you would escape then that wrath to come come to Wisdom's School and how simple soever ye be as to this World if you would not perish with the World learn to be wise unto Salvation And truly its mainly important for this effect That the Ministers of the Gospel be active and dexterous in imparting this Wisdom to their people If they would have their Conversation to be Holy and Peaceable and Fruitful c. The most expedient way is once to principle them well in the fundamentals of Religion for therein is their great defect how can they walk evenly and regularly so long as they are in the dark one main thing is to be often pointing at the way to Christ the Fountain of this Wisdom you bid them be Cloathed and Cloath them not How needful then is it that Pastors themselves be Seers indeed as the Prophets were called of old not only Faithful but wise dispensers as our Saviour speaks St. Luk. 12. 42. That they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able and apt to Teach 1 Tim. 3. 2. Laudible is the prudence that trys much the Churches Store houses the Seminaries of Learning but withal it is not to be forgot that as a due Furniture of Learning is very requisite for this employment so it is not sufficient When one is duly enriched that way there is yet one thing wanting that grows not in Schools except this infused Wisdom from above season and sanctifie all other endowments they remain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common and unholy and therefore unfit for the Sanctuary amongst other weak pretences to Christs favour in the last day This is one We have Preached in thy name yet says Christ I never knew you surely then they knew not him and yet they Preacht him Cold and Lifeless though never so fine and well contrived must those Discourses be that are of an unknown Christ. Pastors are called Angels and therefore though they use the secondary helps of knowledge they are mainly to bring their message from above from the Fountain the head of this pure Wisdom Pure If it come from above it must needs be pure originally yea it is formally pure too being a main treat of God's renewed Image in the Soul By this Wisdom the Understanding is both resigned and strengthened to entertain right conceptions of God in his nature and works And this is primarily necessary that the mind be not infected with false opinions in Religion if the Spring-head be polluted the Streams cannot be pure it s more important then men usually think for a good life But that which I suppose is here chiefly intended is that its effectively and practically pure it purifies the heart Act. 15. 9. said of Faith which in some sense and acceptation differs not much from this Wisdom and consequently the Words and Actions that flow from the heart This Purity some render Chastity The Wisdom from above is chaste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is indeed often so taken and includes that here but it is too narrow a sense to restrict it to that only It is here an universal detestation of all impurity both of Flesh and Spirit as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 7. 1. Pride Selflove Profanness of Spirit and Irreligion though they do not so properly pollute the Body as carnal uncleaneness yet they do less defile the Soul and make it abominable in the sight of God Those Apostate Angels called unclean Spirits are uncapable of bodily defilement tho'indeed they tempt and inveigle Man to it their own inherent pollutions must need be spiritual for they are Spirits Idolatry in Scripture goes often under the name of Fornication and Adultery and indeed these Sins may mutually borrow and lend their names the one to the other Idolatry may well be called Spiritual unchastity and unchaste Love carnal Idolatry earthly mindedness likewise is an impurity of the Soul in the Apostles phrase Covetousness is Idolatry and so a spiritual pollution yea it may well share with Idolatry in its borrowed name and be called Adultery too for it misbestows the Souls prime affection upon the Creature which by right is God's peculiar This Purity that true Wisdom works is contrary to all pollution We know then in some measure what it is it rests to enquire where it is and there is the difficulty it is far easier to design it in it self then to find it among men Who can say I have made my heart clean Prov. 20. 9. Look upon the greatest part of Mankind and you may know at first sight that Purity is not to be lookt for among them they suffer it not to come near them much less do dwell with them and within them they hate the very semblance of it in others and themselves delight in Intemperance and all manner of Licentiousness like foolish Children striving who shall go furthest into the mire these cannot say they have made clean their hearts for all their Words and Actions will bely them If you come to the meer Moralist the World 's honest man and ask him it may be he will tell you he hath cleansed his heart but believe him not It will appear he is not yet cleansed because he says he has done it himself for you know there must be some other besides man at this Work Again he rising no higher than Nature hath none of this Heavenly Wisdom in him and therefore is without this Purity too But if you chance to take notice of some well skilled Hypocrite every thing you meet with makes you almost confident that there is Purity yet if he be strictly put to 't he may make some good account of the pains he hath taken to refine his Tongue and his publick Actions but he dare not say he hath made claan his heart it troubles his peace to be askt the question He never intended to banish Sin but to retire it to his innermost and best room that so it might ewell unseen within him and where then should it lodge but in his heart yet possibly because what 's outward is so fair and Man cannot look deeper to contradict him he may embolden himself to say he 's inwardly suitable to his appearance But there is a day at hand that shall to his endless shame at once discover both his secret impurity and his impudence in denying it After these there follows a few despised and melancholly persons at least as to outward appearance who are almost always hanging down their heads and complaining of abundant sinfulness And sure Purity cannot be expected in these who are so far from it
Affliction but shall be for ever happy in the blessed Vision of his Face To him be glory Amen SERMON IV. PREFACE EXternal worship doth openly acknowledge a Deity but want of inward sense in Worship secretly denieth it The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God 'T is strange to hear so much noise of Religigon in the World and to find so little Piety To present the living God with a carcass of lifeless Worship is to pay him with shells of Services and so to mock him And it is a more admirable long-suffering in him to defer the punishment of such Devotion then all the other Sins in the World The Egyptian Temples were rich and stately Fabricks A Stranger who had lookt upon them without would have imagined some great Deity within But if they entered as Lucian says laughing at them nothing was to be seen but only some Ape or Cat or py'd Bull or some other fine God like those To behold our fair semblance of Religion that frequent this house it would appear that we were all the Temples of the Holy Ghost But who so could look within us would find in many of our hearts Lust Pride Avarice or some such like secret Vice adored as a God and these are they that while our Bodies sit here do alienate our Souls from the Service of the Eternal God So that we are either altogether senseless and dead before him or if any fit of Spiritual motion rise within us we find it here and here we leave it as if it were sacriledge to take it home with us But did once that Spirit of grace breath savingly upon our Souls we should straight renounce and abhor those base Idols and then all the current of our affection would run more in this Channel our Services would then be spiritual and it would be our Heaven upon Earth to view God in his Sanctuary and the obtaining of the change is and should be one main end of this our meeting and that it may be the happy effect of it our recourse must be to the Throne of Grace by humble Prayer In the Name of our Mediator Jesus Christ the Righteous Isaiah LX. 1. Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee ADmirable is the worth and depth of Divine Providence this either we know not or at least seldom remember while we forget the wonders of Providence we direct our thoughts to baser objects and think not on it and while we forget the depth of Providence if at any time we look towards it we judge rashly and think amiss of it If this be true of that general Providence whereby God rules the World 't is more true of his special Providence towards his Church This is both the most excellent piece of it and therefore best worth the reading and also the hardest piece and therefore it requires sobriety in judging above all other things he that suddenly judges in this makes haste to err To have a right view of it it must be taken altogether and not by parcels Pieces of rarest Artifice while they are a making seem little worth especially to an unskilful eye which being compleated command admiration P. Martyr says well De operibus Dei. Antequam actum non est judicandum There is a time when the Daughters of Sion embrace the dunghil and sit desolate in the Streets as Jeremiah hath it in the 4th of his Lam. verse 5. And at that same time the voice of Babylon is I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow Isa. 47. All is out of order here But if we stay a while we shall see Sion and Babylon appointed to change seats by the great Master of the World Come down says he Daughter of Babylon and sit in the dust Isa. 47. 2. And here to Zion Arise shine for thy light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee It is an entire Catastrophe both Parties find a notable alteration together That same hand that exalts the one ruins the other When the Sun rises upon the Church her Antipodes must needs be covered with darkness As we find it in the next verse to the Text. Darkness shall cover the Earth and gross Darkness the People but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his Glory shall be seen upon thee The Prophet elevated by the Spirit of God to a view of after Ages as clear as if present seems here to find his people sitting under the dark mantle of a sad and tedious night and having long expected the Suns return in vain before its time they give over expectation when it s near them and desperately sold themselves to lie perpetually in the dark Now the Prophet as it were standing awake upon some Mountain perceives the day approaching and the golden Chariots of the Morning of deliverance hasting forward and seems to come speedily with these glad news to a Captive People and sounds this Trumpet in their Ears Arise shine for thy light is come c. The very manner of expression is sudden and rouzing without a copulative Not arise and shine But arise shine c. The words have in them a clear stamp of relation to a low posture and obscure condition They suppose a people lying or sitting without light deep distress is that dark soil that best sets off the lustre of marvellous deliverances and among many other reasons of the Churches vicissitudes why may not this be one The Lord is more illustrious in the World by that deep Wisdom and great Power that shines when he raises and restores her from desperate Afflictions then if he had still preserved her in constant ease he seems sometimes careless of her condition and regardless of her groanes but even then is he waiting the most fit time to be gracious as our Prophet speaks And when it is time out of the basest Estate he brings her forth more fresh strong and beautiful than before Though you have lyen among the Pots ye shall be as the Wings of a Dove covered with Silver and her Feathers with yellow Gold Psal. 68. 13. Do with the Church what you will she shall come through and that with advantage Mergâ—s profundo pulchrior exilit as one says of Rome Keep the Church seventy years Captive yet after that she shall arise and shine more glorious then ever But surely the strain of this Evangelick Prophesie rises higher than any temporal deliverance Therefore we must rise to some more spiritual sense of it not excluding the former And that which some call divers senses of the same Scripture is indeed but divers parts of one full sense This prophecy is out of question a most rich description of the Kingdom of Christ under the Gospel And in this sense this invitation to Arise and Shine is mainly addrest to mystical Jerusalem yet not without some priviledge to literal Jerusalem beyond other people They are first invited to Arise and
shine because this Sun arose first in their Horizon Christ came of the Jews and came first to them The Redeemer shall come to Zion says our Prophet in the former Chapter but miserable Jerusalem knew not the day of her Visitation nor the things that concerned her peace and therefore are they now hid from her eyes She delighted to deceive her self with fancies of I know not what imaginary grandeur and outward glory to which the promised Messiah should exalt her and did in that kind particularly abuse this very Prophesie so doteing upon a sense grosly literal she forfeited the enjoyment of those Spiritual Blessings that are here described But undoubtedly that people of the Jews shall once more be commanded to arise and shine and their return shall be the riches of the Gentiles and that shall be a more glorious time than ever the Church of God did yet behold Nor is there any inconvenience if we think that the high expressions of this Prophesie have some spiritual reference to that time since the great Doctor of the Gentiles applies some words of the former Chapter to that purpose Rom. 11. 29. They forget a main point of the Churches glory that pray not daily for the Jews Conversion But to pass that and insist on the Spiritual sense of these words as directed to the whole Church of Christ. They contain a powerful incitement to a twofold act inforc'd as I conceive by one reason under a twofold expression neither of them superfluous but each giving light to other and suiting very aptly with the two words of command Arise for the glory of the Lord is risen and shine for thy light is come I will not now subdivide these parts again and cut them smaller but will rather unite them again into this one Proposition The coming and presence of Christ ingages all to whom he comes to arise and shine In this proposition may be considered the nature of the duties the universality of the subject and the force of the reason First the nature of the duties what it is to arise and shine Arising hath either reference to a fall or to some contrary posture of sitting or lying or to one of these two conditions that are so like one another Sleep or Death and to all these Spiritually understood may it here be referr'd This is the voice of the Gospel to the Sons of Adam Arise for in him they all fell The first sin of that first Man was the great Fall of Mankind it could not but undo us it was from so high a Station Our daily sins are our daily falls and they are the fruits of that great one Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity says the Lord to his people Hosea 14. 1. for these postures of sitting and lying the Scripture makes use of them both to signifie the state of sin Says not St. John The world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19 Are not the people said to sit in darkness mentioned Matth. 4. 16 which is directly opposite to Arise and Shine In the darkness of Egypt it is said the people sate still none arose from their places In the gross mist of Corrupt Nature Man cannot bestir himself to any Spiritual action but when this light is come then he may and should arise Now for Sleep and Death Sin is most frequently represented in Holy Writ under their black Vizors To forbear places where they are severally so used we shall find them jointly in one Eph. 5. 14. Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead which place seems to have special allusion to this very Text. The impenitent Sinner is as one buried in sleep his Soul is in darkness fit for sleep and loves to be so That he may sleeep the sounder he shuts all the passages of light as enemies to his rest and so by close Windows and Curtains makes an artificial Night to himself within not a beam appears there though without the clear day of the Gospel shines round about him The senses of his Soul as we may call them are all bound up and are not exercised to discern good and evil as the Apostle speaks Heb. 5. 14. And his leading faculty his understanding is surcharged with sleepy Vapors that arise incessantly from the inferiour part of his Soul his perverse affections nor hath his mind any other exercise in this sleepy condition but the vain business of dreaming his most refined and wisest thoughts are but meer extravagancies from Man's due end and his greatest contentments nothing but Golden Dreams yet he is serious in them and no wonder for who can discern the folly of his own Dream till he is awake He that Dreams he eateth when he awakes finds his Soul empty and not till then Isa. 29. 8. Now while he thus sleeps his great business lyes by yet spends he his hand-breadth of time as fast while he is fast asleep as if he were in continual employment judge then if it bâ— not needful to bid this Man Arise Lastly This voice may import that Man is Spiritually Dead God is the life of the Soul as it is of the Body while he dwells there it s both comely and active but once destitute of his presence becomes a Carcass where besides privation of life and motion there is a positive filthiness a putrefaction in the Soul unspeakably worse than that of dead Bodies Corruptio optimi pessima And as dead Bodies are removed from the sight of Mon dead Souls are cast out from the favourable sight of God till Christ's saying Arise revive them The Ministers of the Word are appointed to cry Arise indifferently to all that hear them and Christ hath reserved this priviledge and liberty to joyn his effective voice when and to whom he pleases A carnal Man may shew his Teeth at this but who is he that can by any solid reason charge absurdity upon this way of dispensing outward and inward Vocation I will not here mention their idle Cavils the Scripture is undeniably clear in these That Man is naturally dead in Sin The Gospel bids him Arise and it is Christ that is his life and that raises him Thus we see in some measure what it is for Men to Arise Now being risen they must Shine and that two ways jointly and publickly as they make up visible Churches and likewise personally in their particular Conversation First then What is the shining of the true Church Doth not a Church then shine when Church Service is raised from a decent and primitive Simplicity and decored with Pompous Ceremonies with rich Furniture and gaudy Vestments Is not the Church then Beautiful Yes indeed but all the question is whether this be the proper genuine beauty or no whether this be not strange fire as the fire that Aarons Sons used which became vain and was taken as strange fire Methinks it cannot be better decided then to refer it to St. John in his Book of the Revelations We find there
discourse of Light I take it in this resemblance Christ is the Sun and the Gospel his proper Sphere or Heaven wherein he gives light to his Church he is primarily the Glory of the Lord and the Gospel by participation because it declares him so that much of that which shall be spoken here of Christ will be secondarily to be understood of the Gospel of Christ. That Christ is Light the Scripture speaks abundantly his own voice concerning himself notwithstanding the cavil of the Pharisees is above all exception for he is Truth it self I am the light of the World sayeth he he that follows me shall not walk in darkness John 8. 12. The Father that sent him gives him the same title I will give thee for a light of the Gentiles Isaiah 42. 6. 49. 6. And not to multiply citations of the Prophets and Evangelists who with one consent all magnifie this Light take the true testimony of a false Prophet and indeed the favourable witness of an Adversary is strongest It is that of Balaam who saw that Christ was Light though because he saw him afar off as he says himself and had not his eye fortified like the true Prophets he discerned him but as a Star There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. Numb 24. 17. But what need we go so far to be certified what this Light and Glory of the Lord is the Lord of Glory himself seeing the very next verse to the Text assures us of it Upon thee shall the Lord arise And in the 19th verse The Lord shall be thy everlasting light and thy God thy glory By this time I hope it is clear That the Eternal Son of God co-essential with his Father was he that gave accomplishment to this Prophesie by appearing to the World wrapt up in the darkness of Humane Nature He is that day-spring from on high that hath visited us as old Zacharias speaks Luk. 1. 78. Among all created Excellencies none can be borrowed more fitly representing Christ tha◠that of Light And is it not Christ that decks his Church with supernatural Beauty and makes it indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comely World called out of the World But the manifold agreement of Light with Christ doth require more particular consideration Light is as they call it Primum Visible The first object of Sight And Jesus Christ whom the Apostle stiles God over all blessed for ever is Primum Intelligibile The prime object of the Understanding What 's then become of that Divine Sparkle that understanding Soul that the Father of Spirits breaths into these Bodies that all our Thoughts creep here below and leave their chief and noblest object inconsidered Which of us may not complain though few of us do that our Souls have either no Wings to elevate themselves to the contemplation of him from whom they issued or if they make offers at it our affections engaged to the World make us like a Bird tied by the foot fall presently down again into the mire It is high time to leave Hunting shadows and to turn our Internal Eye to the beholding of this Uncreated Light In this Elementary World Light being as we hear the first Visible all things are seen by it and it by it self Thus is Christ among Spiritual things in the Elect World of his Church all things are made manifest by the Light says the Apostle Eph. 5. 13 speaking of Christ as the following verse doth evidently testifie It is in his Word that he shines and makes it a directing and convincing Light to discover all things that concern his Church and himself to be known by its own brightness how impertinent then is that question so much tossed by the Romish Church How know you the Scriptures say they to be the Word of God without the Testimony of the Church I would ask one of them again How they can know that it is day light except some light a Candle to let them see it They are little vers'd in Holy Scripture that know not that it 's frequently called Light and they are senseless that know not that Light is seen and known by it self If our Gospel be hid says the Apostle it is hid to them that perish the God of this World having blinded their minds against the Light of the glorious Gospel c. No wonder if such stand in need of a Testimony a blind Man knows not that it's light at noon day but by report but to those that have eyes Light is seen by it self Again it makes all other things that are in themselves to become actually visible as they speak so by the word of this substantial word Jesus Christ all things in Religion are tryed and discovered The very Authority of the Church which they obtrude so confidently must be stopt and examined by these Scriptures which they would make stand to its courtesie Doctrines and Worship must be tryed by this Light and what will not endure this Trial must not be endured in the House of God To the Law and to the Testimonies says the Prophet if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8. 20. The rays of Christ's Light are display'd thro'both his Testaments and in them we see him But oh How sublime is the knowledge of him None is ignorant that there is Light yet what Light is few know the best wits are troubled to define it So all that bear the Name of Christians acknowledge that Christ is but to know what he is is of marvellous difficulty In a speculative way unsoundable is the depth of his Nature and Properties and his Generation who can declare says our Prophet I define not whether his eternal Generation or his Incarnation in time These are mysteries that shall hold the very Angels busie in admiration for ever and for experimental knowledge by Faith how small is the number of those that are truly acquainted with it Again Light fitly resembles Christ in purity it visits many impure places and Lights upon the basest parts of the Earth and yet remains most pure and undefiled Christ sees and takes notice of all the Enormities and sinful pollutions in the World as David says of the Sun Psal. 19. there is nothing hid from his Beams ye many of those foul evils he cures and purgeth away these pollutions and yet is never stained by them in the least degree he is a Physician not capable of infection and therefore while he dwelt among Men he shunned not Publicans and Sinners but sought them rather for with such was his business and employment Indeed for a frail Man to be too bold in frequenting profane and obstinate persons though with intention to reclaim them is not always so safe Metus est neattrahant They may pull him in that would help them forth and pollute him that would cleanse them But our Saviour the Light of the World runs no such hazard he is stronger
1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he dwelt in a Tabernacle among us and we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Fathers glory and the Character of his Person And under these expressions lies that remarkable mystery of the Sons Eternal relation to the Father which is rather humbly to be adored than boldly to be explained either by God's perfect understanding of his own Essence or by any other notion It is true he is called the Wisdom of the Father but this Wisdom is too wonderful for us He is called the Word but what this Word means I think we shall not well know till we see him Face to Face and contemplate him in the Light of Glory mean while we may see him to be the Glory of the Lord in a safer way and sufficient measure to guide us on to that clear vision reserved above for us We saw his glory says that sublime Evangelist but how could this excellent glory be seen by sinful Men and not astonish and strike dead the beholders He was made Flesh and dwelt among us says he and so we saw his glory That Majesty that we could never have lookt upon he veiled with humane flesh that we might not die yea live by seeing him There he stood behind the wall and shewed himself through the Trellis In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead Col. 2. 9. But it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily for who could have endured the splendor of the Godheads fulness if that Cloud of his Body had not been drawn betwixt And through it did shine that Grace and Truth that Wisdom and Power in the work of our Redemption whereby he was clearly manifested to be the glory of the Lord. Surely we need not now ask the Church or a believing Soul what is her beloved more than another or if we do well may she answer He is the chiefest among Ten Thousand and altogether lovely for he is the Light of the World and the glory of the Lord. Let not the numerous Titles of Earthly Potentates be once admitted into comparison with these If we believe David in his 62 Psal. 9. verse the stateliest things and persons in the World being Ballanced with vanity it self are found lighter than it and shall we offer to weigh them with Christ. If we knew him righly we would not sell the least glance or beam of this Light of his Countenance for the highest favour of mortal Men though it were constant and unchangeable which it is not it is ignorance of Christ that maintains the credit of those vanities we admire The Christian that is truly acquainted with him enamoured with the brightness of his beauty can generously trample upon the smilings of the World with the one foot and her frownings with the other if he be rich or honourable or both yet he glories not in that but Christ who is the glory of the Lord is even then his chiefest glory And the Light of Christ obscures that Worldly splendor in his estimation and as the enjoyment of Christ overtops all his other joys so it overcomes his griefs as that great Light drowns the Light of prosperity it shines bright in the darkness of Affliction no dungeon so close that can keep out the rays of Christ's love from his beloved Prisoners The World can no more take away this Light than it can give it Unto the just ariseth Light in Darkness sayeth the Psalmist and When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me says the Church in the 7th of Micah 8 verse And as this Light is a Comfort so it is likewise a Defence that suffers no more of distress to come near the godly than is profitable for them Therefore we find very frequently in Scripture where this Light and Glory is mentioned Protection and Safety joyntly spoken of The Lord is my Light and withal my Salvation whom shall I fear says David Psal 27. 1. The Lord is a Sun and he is a Shield too Psal. 84. 21. And truly I think him Shot-proof that hath the Sun for his Buckler And for glory Upon all the Glory shall be a Defence says our Prophet in his 4. Chapter 5. verse And the Prophet Zach. where he calls the Lord the Churches Glory in the midst of her he calls him likewise a Wall of fire round about her Zach. 2. 4. The only way then to he safe is to keep this Light and this Glory intire to part with any part of this glory is to make a breach in that Wall of fire and if that be a means of safety let all Men judge No keep it whole and then they must come through the fire that will assault you Nor is this Light only defensive of the Church that embraceth it but likewise destructive of all adverse powers see a clear Testimony for this in the 10. of Isaiah 17 18. verses And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame speaking there of the Assyrians and it shall burn and devour his Thorns and his Briers in one day and shall consume the glory of his Forrest and of his Fruitful Field both Soul and Body and they shall be as when a Standard bearer fainteth c. Let ever then the Church of God entirely observe this Light and Glory of the Lord and she shall undoubtedly be preserved by it But to close in a word first to those that know this Light and then to those that are yet strangers to it You who know Christ glory in him perpetually well may he be your glory when he is the Glory of the Lord There are some that pretend love to Christ and yet a taunting word of some profane miscreant will almost make them ashamed of him how would they die for Christ that are so tender as not to endure a Scoff for him Where is that Spirit of Moses that accounted the very reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt O learn to glory in Christ think highly of him and speak so too Methinks it is the Discourse in the World becomes Christians best to be speaking one to another honorably of Jesus Christ and of all Men the Preachers of his Gospel should be most frequent in this Subject This should be their great Theam to extol and commend the Lord Jesus that they may enflame many hearts with his love and best can they do this who are most strongly taken with this love themselves Such will most gladly abase themselves that Christ may be magnified and whatsoever be their excellencies they still account Christ their glory and they are richly repayed for he accounts them his glory this would seem a strange word if it were not the Apostles They are the Messengers of the Churches and the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23.
Delight who will either in sloth and ignorance on the one hand or in vain speculations and strains of frothy wit on the other Surely those Preachers shall only be approved in the great day who have constantly endeavoured in their measure to speak the best and fittest they could for their Masters advantage and happy these Christians of what estate soever that in all estates make Christ their glory and in all Actions have their eye fixed upon his glory who is their Light and the Glory of the Lord. Now to those that are strangers to him would to God none that are to be spoken to were such To them I say notice would be given both of the excellency and necessity of Christ. Though it were possibly to grop the way to happiness in the dark yea none will deny but to be conducted thither by a constant Light is both more safe and more delightful But were there any possibility to attain that end without this Light the neglect of it were not altogether so strange The wonder of all is this That Christ alone being both that Life and the way to it and the Truth or Light that guides in that way yet Christians so called should esteem and look after him as little as if he were wholly needless What meanest thou O besotted sinner is it so light a thing to die in thy sins and eternally for them that thou wilt not so much as open and admit the Light of Salvation what shalt thou pretend in that terrible day Though all other kind of people should offer some excuse thou who hast heard the Gospel shall be speechless For not only shall the rigour of justice condemn thee but Mercy it self shalt plead against thee for thou hast despised it That Light did come and was not embraced shall be the main condemnation How many thousands that make no doubt of Heaven yet shall then fall short of it It is not a superficial profession that will then pass current It is not some publick sighs and groans from an unsanctified heart which either come from custom or some present touch of the Word nor yet is it some sudden risings of inward affection towards Christ upon the report of his worth that shall then serve the turn The intellective knowledge of Christ the distinct understanding yea the Orthodox Preaching of his Gospel the maintaining of his publick cause and suffering for it shall not then be found sufficient only that peculiar apprehension of Christ those constant flames of spiritual love that even course of holy walking in his Light shall be these Characters whereby Christ shall own his Children and admit them into the inheritance of perfect Light One of the speakers in the Book of Job discoursing of the prosperity of the ungodly calls it but his Candle and tells how long it can last His Candle says he shall be put out with him and that 's the longest term of it if it last his life time it shall convey him no further he goes into eternity in the dark and therefore as St. John says he knows not whither he goeth Quo nunc abibis said that Emperor to his Soul is it not a sad thing when the Soul that knows no other but worldly Light must take leave of it and enter into eternal darkness there to be uncessantly tormented with present anguish and the frightful expectation of the last Judgment where it must take again that Body which was the complice of its wickedness to be partaker of its punishment where it shall have a double misery to behold Crowns of Immortality distributed to the godly after the short combates of this Life and it self thrust out among the Devils then shall all Men be some way sensible what is the worth of this now contemned light the Lord Jesus Christ the greatest number too late for they shall be banisht from it for ever but the Righteous shall then most perfectly know and for ever enjoy this Light and Glory of the Lord To whom with the Father of Lights and Spirit of Grace be eternity of Praise and Honour SERMON VI. PREFACE WHat shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul said our Saviour who was to lay down a ransom for it and knew well that it would cost infinitely more than the World was worth yet the most of Men value their own Souls at a far lower rate than the whole World losing them for broken morsels of it yea many times for vain hopes that are never accomplished And as these Men make a miserable bargain so by the contrary they that lose the World or any thing Worldly yea though it were the whole to save their Souls make a profitable loss of it Nature teaches Men to hazard and lose all for the life of the Body rather than lose it Although it prove many times very uncomfortable by the lose of these outward things and yet the most part of Men pass their whole life-time without one serious thought of the exellency and importance of their Souls whose life and Happiness is of a higher nature and neither consists in nor depends upon any thing here below Hence it is that while they use the helps of this present life and the defences of it when it is in danger and use them with so much diligence and attention The means of that better life of their better part their Souls they either use not at all or so slightly and coldly that they never find Salvation in them You may find it some way in your selves the threatnings and preparations of Men against you have awakened and rowsed you more to think upon means of your temporal safety but how few are sensible and afraid of the wrath of God who as our Saviour tells us can kill both Body and Soul and cast them into Hell you want not freequent advertisement from the Word of God so plentifully Preacht that many are perishing one part in gross Ignorance of God another in Profane and Licentious living and the greatest part in a formal and lifeless profession of Religion without the power of it and yet where are they that lay it to heart and bestir themselves to rescue their Souls from destruction Certainly whatsoever Men profess it is unbelief that is the cause of Impenitence Men are not convinced of the purity of Gods nature nor sensible of the impurity of their own therefore they apply not themselves in good earnest to the work of Repentance and Reformation the liveliest part of it Labour then for a more active and practical knowledge of God and Divine truths such as may humble and renew your Souls not only that you may be delivered from outward troubles that threaten you but much more that you may escape the wrath to come And because neither the Word Preached nor Judgments nor Mercies that are set before you are sufficient to quicken a dead Soul or soften a hard Heart without the effectual concourse of
rest God will not pour this precious Oyl of gladness this perswasion of his love into filthy Vessels even his own Children when they grieve and sadden his holy Spirit by unholiness shall be sadly punished by the withdrawing of these comforting and sensible expressions of his Love Labour then you that as yet never tasted of this Love to know what it means forsake and hate that which hitherto hath made you strangers to it for if you obtain this it shall comfort you when these things cannot but would rather prove your greatest torment And you that have received any Testimonies of it entertain it carefully for it is your best comfort both in your best days and in your worst days too You would all gladly be delivered from these many evils that threaten you for many they be indeed and Peace is a great blessing But suppose you were secured from all these fears and he should command a sudden calm which tâ—uly he can do would you then think your seâ—ves happy That life of yours which you so fear to lose by Fire or Sword though you had Peace would ere long fall into the hands of some Ague or Fever or Consumption and perish by them or at the longest a few years will end it it is a lighted Candle that though no Body blow out will quickly burn out of it self But this loving kindness is not so short-lived it shall last as long as your Souls and so long as it lasts they shall be happy Those goods that you fear shall be pillaged and spoiled in War how many hazards are they subject to even in Peace Solomon tells you That Riches oftentimes though no body take them away make themselves wings and fly away And truly many times the undue sparing of them is but the letting of their wings grow which makes them readier to fly away and the contributing a part of them to do good only clips their wings a little and makes them stay the longer with their owner but that by the way Howsoever in the day of death and in the day of wrath as Solomon says they profit nothing at all So then though you may desire that God would command deliverance for you yet if you would be truly happy your greater and more earnest suit would be That he command his loving kindness to appear to your Souls and having once obtained this you may possibly be persecuted and endure hard Trials But one thing is made sure you cannot be miserable nor shall you want temporal Mercies and Preservation too so far as they are good for you The inward assurance of this Love shall carry you strangely and sweetly through all outward vicissitudes and when the day shall come that all other comforts shall look pale upon you then shall you find the worth and happiness of this more than ever before Command Make it appear to me Sometimes God is said to shut up and hide his Love from his Children and that is a mournfull time with them But we Read not that he shuts out Love and ceaseth altogether to have affection to those whom once he loved And therefore when he shews himself again in the gracious manifestations of his mercy he is not said to begin anew to Love them but only to Command his Love which ere while he had countermanded to appear In the day If you have a mind to take the day and night figuratively for prosperous and adverse times it would lead you in that sense to observe David's constancy in Gods praises that not only in the day of deliverance but even in the night of distress he resolved a Song for God And truly many times God gives his Childen in an afflicted condition more sweetness of Spirit and Aptitude not only to pray but to praise and more spiritual delight in himself than in times of outward Peace and Prosperity He giveth Songs in the night saith Job and you know the sound of Musick is most delightful in the night But to take it properly he is confident that in the several Actions and Occurrences of the day he should find the goodness and favourable assistance of the Lord and then he resolves which leads to the other part of the Text. In the night time to Meditate on that goodness and frame a Song of Praise to the Author of it And indeed what is the whole Threed of our Life but a checkered twist Black and White of delights and dangers interwoven And the happiest passing of it is constantly to enjoy and to observe the experiences of God's goodness and to praise him for them David was a wise King and withal a valiant Souldier And yet we see he thought not this experience inconsonant with either of these two conditions This pecious Book of Psalms a great part thereof being his testifies clearly that Prayer and Praises were his great employment A religious disposition of mind may not only consist with fortitude and magnanimity but is indeed the best principal and cause of both contrary to the wicked and foolish opinion of profane persons whether of the two do you think might welcome a day of Battle with most courage and resolution he that had past the precedeing night in revelling and carouzing or he that had spent it in Prayer and obtained some assurance of a better Life Truly if they went on with equal forwardness there is no Man except he were an Atheist but would judge the one to be Bruitish Fury and Precipitation and the other true valour His Song In the worst Estate there is ever some mater of praise to be mixed with request and truly we may justly suspect that our neglect of praises makes our prayers unacceptable And my Prayer In the best Estate here below Praise must be accompanied with Prayer our wants and necessities and straits return daily upon us and require new supplies of Mercy and Prayer if we know how to use it right is the way to obtain them all To the God of my Life Or the God that is my Life This word is added as the reason of all that went before If you ask David why he reposeth so much upon the loving kindness of God what he means to spend so much pains in Praises and Prayer to God He Answers Because he is my Life He is the Author and preserver of my temporal Life and all the passages and accidents of it are in his hand alone he hath also given me and he maintains in me a spiritual Life yea he is the Life of my Soul it lives by union with him as my Body does by union with it and he hath laid up Life eternal for me Would Christians think thus indeed The Light of this consideration would dispel their distrustful fears Certainly there is Atheism at the bottom of them if not a denial nor a misconceit of God at least a forgetfulness of God See Isaiah 51. verse 12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that thou
shouldest be afraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man which shall be made as Grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth c. Consider then that Men have no power of our present Life but by the appointment of God and beside that we have another Life which is infinitely more precious than this a Life spiritual and which is the begining of eternal Life and this is altogether out of their danger Col. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God It is hid And wicked Men cannot so much as see it how then should they take it from us seeing it is hid and that not meanly it is hid with Christ in God What then shall become of it read the next verse and read it to your comfort for there is abundance in it if you look right upon it When Christ who is our Life shall appear we likewise shall appear with him in Glory They that are in God being united to him through Christ can never by any power be separated from him it is an indissoluble union death it self that is the great dissolver of all other unions civil and natural is so far from untying this that it consummates it it conveys the Soul into the nearest and fullest enjoyment of God who is its Life where it shall not need to desire that God would command or send his loving kindness as it were at a distance it shall be then at the Spring-head and shall be satisfied with his Love for ever c. SERMON VII PREFACE WHerefore do you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfies not says the Prophet Isaiah 55. 2. All Men agree in this that they would willingly meet with some satisfying good and yet if you look right upon the projects and labours of the greatest part shall find them flying from it and taking much pains to be miserable And truly considering the darkness that 's upon the Soul of Man 't is no great wonder to see these miss their way and continue wandring that hear not the voice of the Gospel to recal them and and see not its Light to direct them But this is somewhat strange that where true happiness and the true way to it is propounded and set before Men so few should follow it in good earnest If the excellency of that good did not allure them yet one would think that their many disappointments in all other things should drive them home to it How often do we run our selves out of breath after shadows and when we think we have overtaken them and would lay hold on them we find nothing and yet still we love to befool our selves even against our own experience which we say uses to make Fools wiser still we chuse rather to shift from one vanity to another than to return to that Sovereign good that alone can fill the vastest desires of our Souls rather to run from one broken Cistern to another as the Prophet calls them yea and to take pains to hew them out than have recourse to that Fountain of living waters One main thing that makes Men thus rove and wander is that they do not reflect upon their own course nor themselves what 's the main end they aim at and then see whether their way be suitable to that end If they would be happy as who would not then sure things that are empty and uncertain and certainly perishing will not serve the turn And truly as this thought would be seasonable at any time so especially to us in these times wherein besides the common uncertainty of outward things there is an apparent visible hazard that Men's Lives and Fortunes are likely to be put to Will you make advantage and gain of your trouble Thus the looser you find other things tied to you and as it were upon a running knot secure that one thing and your portion in it which is worth all the rest yea far above them all and that alone which can be secured and made certain wanting this what though you had Peace and Health and all imaginable prosperity you would still be miserable being liable to the wrath of God and eternal destruction But if once united to Christ and in him reconciled to God and intitled to Heaven what can fall amiss to you You shall have Joy in the midst of Sorrow and Affliction and Peace in the midst of War yea and Life in Death But think not to attain this assurance while you continue profane and godless not seeking it in the way of Holiness for there alone it is to be found and withal beg it of God by humble prayer Psal. CXIX 136. Rivers of Waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law LOve is the leading passion of the Soul all the rest follow the measure and motion of it as the lower Heavens are said to be wheel'd about with the first We have here a clear instance of it in the Psalmist testifying his love to God by his esteem and love of the Law or Word of God what is each of the several verses of this Psalm but a several breathing and vent of this love either in it self or in the causes or in the effects of it where he sets forth the excellencies and utilities of God's Law there you have the causes of his love his observing and studying it his desire to know it more and observe it better these are the effects of his affection to it The Love it self he often expresseth verses 47 48 113. and verse 140. Thy Word is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it And verse 127. I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold But as scarce accounting that love which can be uttered how much it is verse 97. He expresseth it most by intimating that he cannot express it O how I love thy Law Hence are his desires which are love in pursuit so earnest after it Amongst many that is pathetical verse 20. My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgements at all times Hence likewise his Joy and Delight which are love in possession verse 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as in all riches And verse 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word We have his hatred of things opposite which is loves antipathy verse 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love And 163 verse I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love And in the 139 verse you shall find his zeal which is no other but the fire of Love stirred up or blown into a flame My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words And to omit the rest in the 158 verse â—is love to the Law shews its sympathy in sorrow for the violation of the Law I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not
is used inâ—â— ver 27. conform to that of Moses Gen. 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil continually The word indeed signifies the wise thoughts so then take the full latitude of it thus The carnal mind in its best and wisest thoughts is direct enmity against God Carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What meant by the flesh here It is the whole corrupt Nature of man and that we may know by its opposition to the Spirit not to the Spirit or Soul of a man for so it hath no thoughts nor minding these being proper to the Soul but opposed to the Spirit of God Now the Corruption of Nature is called the Flesh not without very good reason not only to signifie the baseness of it the Flesh being the more ignoble and meaner part of a Man but because the greatest part of the sins of mens lives are about sensitive objects and things that concern the Flesh or the Body it lets in temptation of sin to the Soul by the doors of the Senses and it gives the last perfection or accomplishment to sin by external acting of it The very first sin that brought in Death and Misery with it upon Mankind the pleasure of the eye and of the taste were sharers in the guiltiness of it The carnal mind Man in regard of his composure is as it were the tie and band of Heaven and Earth they meet and are married in him A Body he has taken out of the Dust but a Soul breathed from Heaven the Father of Spirits a House of Clay but a Guest of most noble Extraction But the pity is it hath forgot its Original and is so drowned in flesh that it deserves no other but to go under the Name of Flesh. It is become the Slave and Drudge of the Body and as the Israelites in Egypt made perpetually to moyl in Clay What is all your Merchandise your Trades and Manufactures your Tillage and Husbandry but all for the Body in its behalf for Food and Raiment In all these the Mind must be careful and thoughtful and yet properly they reach it not for it self hath no interest in them It is true the necessity of the Body requires much of these things and superfluous custom far more but it is lamentable that men force their Souls to forget it self and its proper business to attend these things only and be busie in them They spend all their time and their choicest pains upon perishing things and which is worse engage their affections to them They mind earthly things whose end is destruction Philip. 3. 19. The same word that 's here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Will you consider seriously that your Souls run the hazard of perishing because you consider not their Spiritual Nature When that earthly Tabernacle of yours shall fall to the ground and e're long it must your Souls must then enter Eternity and though you had as large a share of earthly things as your earthly hearts now would wish they all lose their use in that moment they are not a proper good for the Soul at any time and least at that time If you keep it all your life long busie about the interest and benefit of the flesh the Body how poor will be when thy part having provided nothing at all for it self but the guiltiness of a sinful life which will sink it into that bottomless Pit Be forewarned then for to be carnally minded is death verse 6. precedeing the Text. The carnal mind Now as Sin hath abased and degenerated the Soul of Man making it Carnal so the Son of God by taking on our Nature hath sublimated it again and made it Spiritual The Souls that received him are Spiritualized yea as Sin made the Soul Carnal Grace makes the very Body to become Spiritual making it partaker and co-worker in spiritual things together with the Soul in doing and suffering and participant of the hopes too of an everlasting reward This is the main Christian Character our Apostle gives here that they are spiritually minded and that their actions suit their minds They walk not after the flesh but after the spirit whereas before with the rest of the World they were eager in the pursuit of Honours and Profits and Worldly Pleasures Now the stream of their desires run in another channel they seek after Honour and are very ambitious of it but it is such Honour as the Apostle speaks of in this Epistle Rom. 2. 7. By patient continuance in well doing they seek for glory and honour and immortality Their mind is upon profit and gain but it is with the same Apostle Philip. 3. that they may win Christ and they account all other things loss in comparison And their desires are after pleasure too but not Carnal Pleasures those are both base and of short continuance but the pleasures they aim at are those that are at Gods right hand and for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And that path of life he there speaks of that way of holiness that leads thither is their delight Spiritual Excercises they go to not as their task only but more as their joy and refreshment And this change the Spirit of God works in the Soul making it yea and the body wherein it dwells of Carnal to become Spiritual as the fire to which the Holy Ghost is compared refines Sand and Ashes and makes of them the purest Glass which is so neat and transparent Enmity against God Sin hath not only made us unlike God by defacing his beautiful Image in us not only strangers by making us wander far off from him but enemies nor enemies only but Enmity in the abstract for that is emphatical The carnal mind is Enmity nothing else but Enmity Now this Enmity is described in the latter clause of the Text by an Antipathy so to call it or Not-compliance with the Law of God it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be to wit while it remains such There is an absolute impossibility in it to suit with the Law of God and consequently with God himself the reason lies in their opposits qualities God is spiritual and holy and so is the law as our Apostle hath it in the preceeding Chapter and the opposition he there makes betwixt his Unregenerate part and the Law is wholly true of the Unregenerate man The law is holy says he ver 12. And ver 14. It is spiritual to which too he opposes but I am carnal sold under sin Where are now those that so vilifie Grace and magnifie Nature Or shall I rather say Nullifie Grace and Deifie Nature Here is the best Elogy the Apostle will bestow upon the best of Natures Enmity against God Nay all the sparkles of Virtue and Moral Goodness in Civil Men and Ancient Heathens is no better besides many other things to be said to the Vertues of those Philosophers as ignorance of Christ by whom alone this enmity is removed I
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8
pulls not from him they part with life Ay why not this life is but a death and he is our life for whom we lose it All these do but increase the victories and triumphs of Love and make it more glorious as they tell of her multiplying labours to that Champion they are not only Conquerors but more than Conquerors by multiply'd Victories and they gain in them all both more honour and more strength they are the fitter for new adventures and so more than simple Conquerors We overcome and are sure not to lose former Conquests but to add more and Conquer on to the end which other Conquerors are not sure of oftentimes they out-live their own Successes and Renown and lose on a sudden what they have been gaining a whole life time not so here We are secured in the Author of our Victories 't is through him that hath loved us and he cannot grow less yea shall still grow greater till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Having given the Challenge and finding none to answer and that all the most apparent are in a most Rhetorical Accumulation silenced Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword c. He goes on confidently in the triumph and avers his assurance of full and final Victory against all imaginable power of all the Creatures neither Death nor Life nor the fear of the most terrible Death nor the hope or love of the most desirable life And in the height of this Courage and Confidence he supposes impossible Enemies Angels Principalities c. unless you take it of the Angels of Darkness only but if it could be possible that the other should offer at such a thing they would be too weak for it No sense of any present things or apprehensions of things to come not any thing within the vast circle of the World above or below nor any Creature can do it Here Sin is not specify'd because he is speaking of outward oppositions and difficulties expressly and because that is removed by the former challenge Who shall accuse That asserting a free and final acquittance of all sin a pardon of the curse which yet will never encourage any of these to sin that live in the assurance of this love Oh! no and these general words do include it too Nothing present nor to come c. So it is carried clear and is the satisfying comfort of all that Jesus Christ hath drawn after him and united in his love 'T is enough whatsoever they may be separated from the things or persons dearest in this World 't is no matter the Jewel is safe none can take my Christ from me and I safe in him as his purchase none can take me from him And being still in his love and through him in the Fathers love that is sufficient What can I fear What can I want All other hazards signifie nothing how little value are they of And for how little a while am I in danger of them Methinks all should look on a Believer with an emulous eye and wish his estate more than a Kings Alas poor Creatures rich men great men Princes and Kings what vain things are they that you embrace and cleave to whatsoever they be soon must you part can you say of any of them who shall separate us Storms may arise and scatter Ships that Sail fairly together in fair weather thou mayest be removed by publick Commotions and Calamities from thy sweet Dwellings and Societies and Estates c. You may even live to see and seek your parting At last you must part for you must die then farewel Parks and Palaces Gardens and Honours and even Crowns themselves then dearest Friends Children and Wife must be parted with And what hast thou left poor Soul that hast not Christ but that which thou wouldst gladly part with and canst not The condemning guilt of all thy Sins But the Soul that is in Christ when other things are pull'd away he feels little or nothing he cleaves to Christ and these separations pain him not Yea when that great Separatist Death comes that breaks all other unions even that of the Soul and Body yet so far is it from separating the Believers Soul from its Beloved Lord Jesus that on the contrary it carries it into the nearest union with him and fullest enjoyment of him for â—ver SERMON XVIII Isaiah LIX 1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear OUR vain minds are naturally fruitful in nothing more than in mistakes of God for the most part we think not on him and when we do it we fancy him according to our own affections which are wholly perverse and crooked Men commonly judg it a vain thing to spend much pains and time in Worshipping him and if they are convinc'd in this and tied to it by the profession of his Name then they think all Religion is a Shell of external diligences and observances and count it strange if this be not accepted In the former Chapter we find this in the Prophets contest with the people about their Fasting and their opinion of it he cuts up their Sacrifices and lets them see what was within the skin was sound and look'd well but being opened the entrails were found rotten And here he enters into another contest against the Latent Atheism of their hearts who after their manner of seeking God not finding him and not being delivered are ready to think that he either cannot or will not help and rather rest on that gross mistake than enquire into themselves for the true cause of their continuing Calamities they incline rather to think 't is some Indisposition in God to help than what it truly is a want of Reformation in themselves that hinder it It is not likely that they would say thus not speak it out in plain terms no nor possibly not speak it formally and distinctly within not so much as in their thoughts and yet they might have a confus'd dark conceit of this And much of the Atheism of mans heart is of this fashion not formed into resolv'd Propositions but Latent in confus'd Notions of it scarce discernable by himself at least not search'd out and discerned in his own Breast there they are and he sees them not Not written assertions but flying fumes filling the Soul and hindering it to read the Characters of God that are writ upon the Conscience Impenitency of men in any condition and particularly under distress is from the want of clear apprehensions and deep perswasions of God of his Just Anger provok'd by their Sin and of his sweetness and readiness to forgive and embrace a returning Sinner his Soveraign power able to rid them out of the greatest trouble his Ear quick enough to hear the cries yea the least whispering