this glory a defence will make States and Nations blessed Surely if we the Lord's People were but as zealous to use liberty and priviledge well as we are to have it it would come faster than it doth Let us look more into our selves and more up to God as the readiest way to all good These are the thoughts desires and prayers of Him who is Yours ever in the Lord. N. L. Rom. vii xxiv O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death THe great weight of sin and misery and the want of one to remove well both is the cause of this dolefull complaint O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death as it is put in the Margent The weight of sin is groaned under in this terme of my Text body which is a word of quantity nomen quanâ—itatis and means the corruption of our nature to be a very extensive thing that the whole state of man in all the powers of his Soul and Body is depraved and vitiated and made utterly unfit to serve God and most fit to serve sin and Satan with all Organs and Instruments within and without Secondly This terme in my Text body is also Nomen qualitatis a word of quality that means the naturalness of this general pravity to us it lay with us as Mr. Rutherford saith in our Mothers Womb as Twins as one body lieth with another It took us fast by the heel in the Womb and we could never kick it off since And Thirdly For as much as there is this Epethite given to this Body calling it a Body of Death and a Body of this Death it notes not only the weight of sin but also of misery death being here put to signifie guilt and punishment Our depraved condition casteth us under all guilt and under all punishment that is actually under much misery and lyable every moment to all misery in Soul and Body in this World and in the World to come not only liable to death as 't is a dissolution of Soul and Body and all the sicknesses and diseases which prepare unto it but liable to this death that is a separation of both Soul and Body from God for ever Now to deliver us from the Body of this death a Body of corruption which exposeth us to such a death as this There no Man nor Angel is able no all the Angels did they joyn to do us service in this thing to change our natures to take off guilt to rectifie the Image of God which we have lost they cannot stir this Body as to any of these in the least nor any member of it they are not able to remove one sin or satisfie for the guilt of it nor draw one line an eye or an eye-brow or one finger of the new man This great weight of sin and misery and this utter impotency of all created strength to help out of it maketh the Apostle to cry out thus O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. There be several things very profitable to be observed in these words as First this That every one is in a wretched and miserable condition by nature Depraved in all powers of Soul and Body and exposed in both to the utmost displeasure of God O wretched man that I am c. He doth not mean himself alone but speaketh as personating the best of men and so consequently all men for that he did thus complain of a corrupt state who was so holy who else but hath cause much more to complain For this death which my Text speaketh of hath passed over all Men for as much as all Men have finned in Adam And this Apostle which speaketh but of himself in this case in my Text speaketh generally elsewhere That by nature we are the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 Secondly This may be learned from these words That our state by nature is not a safe state to be rested in That our state as we come into this World is not such as we should be contented with but a state much to be complain'd of by the best and much cryed out upon and much strugled under to be freed from O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of God They which rest in their state as they come into this World and think that they attain to be moral and civil just and righteous to men and little or nothing complain of that which the Apostle doth here in my Text a Body of Death do not know their own danger Thirdly We may here learn That the best are not so good as they should be That the best in this World are much burdened and much endangered with natural corruption The Apostle Paul though regenerated found much of the rebellion of an evil nature of which he knew not how to get rid carrying him Captive to what he would not and so exposing him continually to the displeasure of God I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good I would I do not but the evil I would not that I do Corrupt nature as it easily besets us so it as easily overcomes us for any strength that we have of our own Such as so feelingly complain as Paul here doth will not easily be brought to drink in the Popish Doctrin of Perfection Fourthly We may here learn That our state in this World at best is but a wretched state for though a little grace be given unto us it is so over-matched with a great body of sin that we rather undo than do any thing that is good Is it not a wretched state to be so hampered with an ill Inmate Night and Day that when one pulls one way 'tother pulls stronger still the wrong way To see two Dogs coupled a little one and a great one What a woful condition is the little one in how he is pulled and haled up and down this way and that way not which way he would go but which way the great one will go or else he grins his teeth on the little one and bites him and abuseth him much just so is the condition of the most regenerate in this World And therefore he that is best and hath best in this World can say no better of it than he findes and daily feels that his condition is but a wretched condition O wretched man that I am c. The Point which I would stand on Doct. is this That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption Or we all ought much to lay to heart our fallen state by nature The Apostle Paul was a holy Man yet very sensible of much unholiness a body of it of which he was
Famine then I conclude that general Mortality should be generally laid to heart for the Prophet did thus complain to God to affect all Men that they might so complain to God as he did how sadly matters went amongst them Take one Scripture more Lam. 1.6 And from the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her Princes are become like Harts that can finde no pasture and they are gone without strength before the Pursuer This Prophet layeth to heart particularly the distresses of Princes and great Men and alass what are all these to the distresses and death of the righteous and holy and merciful Men which proves that we should lay to heart the common strokes of God as the Sword and Pestilence take away one as well as another bad and good high and low I will prove this Point more particularly and distinctly to you First We are to lay to heart Mortality by the Pestilence I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt your Horses have I taken away and have made the stink of your Camps to come up into your Nosthrils and so killed you with Plagues and Diseases attending the Sword and yet ye have not returned to me Amos 4.10 that is you have not laid things to heart throughly to be ashamed of your evil ways and to turn from them The death of Men nay the death of Horses as such deaths not long since were amongst them we are to lay to heart and so to lay to heart as to prepare to meet God then the death of good Men by the Pestilence we are surely to lay to heart From above hath he sent a Fire into my Bones and it prevailed against them he hath made me desolate and faint all the day Lam. 1.13 The Prophet in these words as in all the rest personateth the state of the People generally and much laid to heart GOD's immediate strokes upon the Persons of Men by many mortal fierce Diseases without sparing any From above hath he sent Fire into my Bones and it hath prevailed c. Secondly Mortality by Famine is to be laid to heart The Prophet Joel speaketh of this stroke which indeed is great The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness and nothing shall escape them speaking of Vermin so devouring all Man's Provision Joel 2.3 at the 12th vers of this Chapter the Prophet telleth us what effect this should have Therefore now also saith the Lord turn ye to me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and not your Garments for he is gracious who knoweth if he will return and repent By which of these strokes either Pestilence or Famine the godly were taken away no Man can say for by Pestilence Famine and Sword did the Lord contend with that People That he contended with them by Famine the Prophet Joel and also the Prophet Jeremiah testifieth They have sowen Wheat and shall reap Thorns they have put themselves to pain but shall not profit thus doth the Prophet poscere aciem bid battel and ye shall be ashamed of your revenue because of the fierce anger of the Lord Jer. 12. 13. But most plain in Ezek. c. 4. 5. Where the Prophet is commanded to make Bread with Beans and Fitches and to eat this by weight and to mix dung with it And must this be laid to heart Yes much How can any do otherwise Thus saith the Lord smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel for they shall fall by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ezek. 6.11 Then they fell by all these and then it is probable that the righteous fell by all these as others then we should lay to heart Mortality by all these we should smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass What great abom nations have caused all these great Judgments God's temporal strokes and judgments which kill and slaughter all sorts should much be laid to heart by all sorts But you will say Q. What is it to lay to heart the mortal strokes of GOD in a Nation I answer A. It is to be deeply sensible of the cause as it may be in our selves or in the Nation wherein we live Observe how the Lord counselleth Ezekiel to carry it in the day of their dreadful misery Thus saith the Lord smite with thine Hand and stamp with thy Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the Land of Israel He doth not barely bid him to say alass for all the evil punishments of the Land as Sword Pestilence and Famine but alass for all the wickedness of the Land which hath caused these He that is far off shall fall by the Pestilence and he that is neer shall fall by the Sword and he that remains and is besieged shall die by Famine Ezek. 6.11.12 So that to lay to heart mortal strokes in a Nation is to be deeply affected with the cause of them in our selves or in others If you ask me further where we have found out causes in our selves and in others quos accidam as Salust saith To whom shall I turn and prostrate my self and say I have sinn'd Q. and done this evil abomination Answ To God in the Name of Christ A. Therefore thus saith the Lord turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 And to do this forth-with presently without all delay or else to be sure it is not turning to the Lord with all the heart To lay to heart God's willing Discipline is to be full of deep sorrow for sin in our selves and others as the proper causes of all sorts of deaths and deaths of all sorts of Persons good and bad and to turn from these to the Lord and to believe on Christ that the Lord for his sake will be pacified and turn away all his displeasure and not make us a reproach unto the Heathen as it is in that Chapter Joel 2.17 Having thus proved and opened the Doctrin I will shew you in the next Place Vses what Use may be made of it First This Point is profitable to teach If we are to be deeply sensible of temporal strokes such as refer to the death of our bodies then much more are we to be sensible of spiritual strokes and eternal strokes which refer to the death of our Souls I will send a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Amos 8.11 12. How diligently we get the Bills of Mortality now and being come up to Thousands O how we lift up our hands but who brings in Weekly Bills of
our Death of Souls by the Famine of the Word of hearing the Word of the Lord in City and Country A great deal of do seems to be about the death of Bodies but ah Lord how many Thousand Thousand Souls have perished in this City and in these Nations in a few years past for want of hearing the Word of the Lord that is able to save the Soul Be not wrath very soar see behold we are thy People Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a Desolation and all our pleasant things are scattered Will the Lord refrain for these things Herein the Prophet seems to be toucht to the quick that Zion and Jerusalem was desolate and all these Soul-pleasant things were spoiled whereby Souls starved and perished and Soul-Famine and Pestilence was made a Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that whither soever they went from one City to another from one Sea to another 't was all alike This this the Prophet laid deeply to heart and so should we I urge it by way of proportion if we should deeply lay to heart bodily death then much more Soul-death and destruction A fide exorbitans puniendus saith the Civilian such as play the wanton from the truth must be punished answerably We have been and yet still are a fide exorbitantes such as play the unruly Persons from the truth Children of Belial which cannot bear Christ's Yoke full of Soul-itch for another Gospel and being thus lewd in spirituals answerably in spiritual liberties and enjoyments hath God punished us it is not a little peril unto us that we meet now although the hand of God affright such as would be looking after us This this we should deeply lay to heart that the Bread for our Souls fails from the House of our God The strokes of God and the strokes of Men together affright away the Pastors and so the Pastures of your Souls and yet all this but the just punishment of much spiritual wantonness and exorbitancy Secondly If temporal strokes which refer to the death of the body should be laid much to heart then Eternal strokes which make the everlasting destruction of the Soul should be deeply laid to heart much more Such a stroke as that Isai 63.17 O Lord Why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and such as that Prov. 17.10 A reproof entereth more into a wise Man than an hundred stripes into a Fool. Some Mens hearts are by the inward strokes of GOD made Judgment-proof that Plague Famine and Sword all the Ten Plagues that were inflicted on Pharaoh and Ten more to them will not stir them nor turn them no more than they stopped or turned him nor yet so much And what do you see in this day done on the hearts of Men by the hand of God abroad now of Sword Famine and Pestilence Do these enter the hearts of Men This speaks that Eternal strokes judicial wrath upon the Soul is abroad fiting Men for Eternal death much of which I fear the most of us are little aware O Juresalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen her Chicken and thou wouldst not but now they are hid from thine Eyes This was a Soul-mortal and an Eternal stroke and how Christ laid it to heart how he sighed and wept O Jerusalem And if our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish saith the Apostle and how long hath thâ—s stroke been upon the Souls of most Assemblies in these Nations and else where the Power of the Gospel hid and a spurious efficacy gone forth in the place thereof faithful Labourers fishing all night and can catch nothing scarce covert a Soul and unfaithful Labourers such as come not in by the Door but come in their own name these pervert many yea though they come with never so damnable Doctrines if denying the Lord that bought them yet flockt after O give me leave to tell you in this day of God's sore Visitation Hinc illae lachrymae these are Soul-Plagues which have brought our Bodily-Plagues these are Soul mortal and eternal strokes because we have not received the truth in the love of it and no Man of us have laid these to heart as we should Spiritual Plagues and Judgments have swept away Souls by thousands all the Nations over many years together and who of us have laid this Mortality to heart as we should See how the Prophet Isaiah layeth to heart spiritual strokes Isa 24.16 17. My leanness my leanness the treacherous dealer hath dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealer hath dealt very treacherously fear and the snare and the Pit are upon thee Treachery swearing for swearing thus in spiritual matters as Judas who betrayed Christ and as much as in him lay the Bodies and Souls of all Man-kind such treacherous dealers were the Jews which the Prophets much bewailed as great spiritual and eternal strokes and so should we as we see these on any Nation for these things are written for our learning that we should follow the foot-steps of the Flock It were well we that live in these last and worst times of the World could with the Prophet for like things sigh and say My leanness that we could sigh our selves lean this day before the Lord because of hypocrisie treachery and all Soul-villany and spiritual wickedness and the hypocrisie and treachery of our own hearts greatest of all and O how should we sigh and lament our selves lean for this ere the Plague sweep us away The next Use of this Point may be for Reproof and it may reprove two sorts 1. Such as are sensible of nothing 2. Such as are sensible of nothing to purpose First This may reprove such as are sensible of nothing or nothing sensible Temporal strokes are thick God and Man upon us Pestilence at home War abroad God and Man killing and slaughtering us one at Sea 'tother at land Is not this general Mortality God shoots his Arrows every where and how great is his dread fallen upon us In what Street of this poor City can one walk but dead Corps and Ghosts walk In what Fields about this City can one walk where death also doth not walk and as God's Bailiff seize and arrest and carry away to the great Bar above and to the Judge of all the World to receive all that they have done here in the Body good or bad At what corner of this City can we that live abroad creep in and not be met and saluted with trains of dead Corps carrying to the Grave to new Church-yards and New-exchanges old Burying-places being over-fatted and glutted and Corps inhumanely crowding one another out of their Places before the time and among all these sad salutations some righteous Men and merciful Men and Women taken away and we can tell their names and where they lived and so ends the story till the next Bill of Mortality come out with more taken away and then they
Spring as it is foolish so it is an endless work How can a clean thing come out of an unclean If the heart remain still filthy How is it possible to make the life holy Hence it is that the heart is so much called for to be cleansed and that sinck to be well lookt after because there is the seat of natural pravity and the very Core of all corruption Cut off branches as you would lop a Tree cut them off all and leave the roots through the sent of mud they will grow as Job saith every occasion and temptation so long as the nature remains unrenewed and unlookt to will make sin break out afresh and the Dog will return to his own vomit The Queens Daughter is therefore called upon to forget her Father's House or else she would be hankering to be there again They which came out of Egypt in body and did not come out spiritually as to their souls how unsteadfast were they and their righteousness as the morning dew and in their hearts went back again to Egypt If any Israelite having taken in War a Heathen Woman and beautiful that he had a desire to marry he was first to bring her home to his House and shave her Head and pare her Nails and was to put off the raiment of her captivity and then she was to bewail her Father and her Mother a full Moneth c. That is her Heathenish state wherein born and bred she was to bewail and taught by this paring of her Nails and changing the Raiment of her Captivity to look after deliverance from her inward captivity and for a new state a new Father and Mother and all new her hands yea her very Nails and all this but little enough to make her forget her Father's House and to forsake old haunts and customs and ways Who knoweth not but that Nails and Hairs and such excrements are most apt and ready to grow again and yet not more apt and ready than sin is though pared and shaved if it be not dealt throughly with in the heart and in the root Finally Without this deep sense of our natural condition Christ will not be precious to us nor indeed desirable who is the only Physician for this great cure We shall be righteous in our own eyes as the Pharisee and not care for any righteousness else but our own though we may talk of faith and of the righteousness of Christ as many Christians do We shall be as Country-people which are whole as a Fish and laught at all Physicians Till the Apostle Paul was smitten down from Heaven and his eyes opened to see this body of death of which he complains in my Text he was alive and brisk and who but he for a holy and a happy man But when the Commandement came in Authority upon him which he thought he had perfectly kept sin revived and he died 'T is the poor and blind and wretched and naked that Christ counsels to come and buy of him Eye-salve and Garments to cover their nakedness Rev. 3.17 18. As we are Proselites i.e. Comers to Christ so we are cured of our spiritual Leprosie and such Proselites we will never be but as we see and feel our lost state by nature and our great necessity of him Who looks after the things which they do not need Ho he that thirsteth c. and such will prise Milk and Water I cannot get a House in this Town wherein to leave drink-silver in my Masters name saith Mr Rutherford There is no sale for Christ in the north meaning at Aberdeen he is like to lie long on my hand ere any accept him Thus it is with all unsensible and unheart-broken sinners though at the brink of Hell yet will not come unto Christ that they may be saved from their sins and from the wrath of God FINIS THE REMEDIE OF NATURAL Corruption Being A SERMON ON Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THese words are an Answer to a sad Question the Question is in the words foregoing Who shall deliver me from the body of this death v. 24. That is from natural corruption the guilt and the dominion and Power of it This Apostle was at an utter loss in himself and as to all others and then God revealed an able Physician to him as these words of my Text tell us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is revealed to Sinners which dispair of all help in themselves or in any other Creature Such will thank God for him as here this wretched Man doth Mr. Rutherford speaketh of a sorrow that hath no eyes This Apostle's sorrow was such for a time Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He knew not of any deliveâ—er and then God became eyes to the blind and helped the sorrowful sinner and the blind sinner to eyes to see a Saviour and an All-sufficient one I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When Isaac was at a loss for an offering and Abraham also when the sorrow of both had no eyes God was sight and help to them both Here is the wood but where is the Sacrifice i. e. One to die My Son God will provide And he did so Donatum non petitum gratius est saith the Civilian A gift not asked is the most free So did God provide that offering for Isaac and so did he provide this offering for this Apostle and wretched Man and so he doth for every wretched Man which hath the benefit of him he is Donatum non petitum to every fallen Son of Adam that is raised by him He was found of him that asked not after him Secondly This may be further observed in these words That God doth not barely shew us the means of our good the proper means of our Souls good but enable us to make effectual use of them to that end If I should paraphrase upon this Text it would be to this effect Wretched man I am burdened much with a body of sin and death which is so heavy that I think oft it will one time or other sink me to the lowest Hell and I am as helpless as to all â—thers as impotent and miserable in my self O doubly wretched man that I am and am like to be who will who can deliver me Yet I have some help shewed to me I thank God but no body else he hath in my blinde and wretched conditiâ—n shewed me an able Physician by name Jesus Christ our Lord anointed and allowed under his own hand to help all such wretched Creatures as I am and he doth enable me to make use of him to my burdened Souls ease and rest This Scripture and such like shew that there is full and effectual relief for all burdened sinners who are ready to sink under the burden of their sin and misery Doct. The Doctrin
put out the talk of the other and this is our laying of matters to heart which is rather a laying them to our Heads and Tongues than to our Hearts What change do all your New-exchanges make He that was a Drunkard is so still He that was an Adulterer is so still And he that was an Hypocrite and a Formalist is so still They that were malicious to the righteous Man and to the merciful Man are so still Is it not at our peril even now to meet to Preach and Pray as we do at this time And have not righteous and merciful once been hunted from Praying even in this Plague-time And is not this our laying to heart general Mortality May not God well take those home to himself of whom we are so weary Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Isa 42.25 So it may be said of us the hand of the Lord slayeth us round about heaps upon heaps and we walk as if we knew nothing as if it nothing concerned us Who smites upon his thigh saying What have I done to caâ—se all this What is that wickedness in my heart by which I have slain so many and so good People righteous and merciful ones Lord have mercy upon us is put up now at next Door it is now right over against me saith another but Lord have mercy upon me what have I yet in my heart amiss that hath brought the wrath of God so nigh me to stare me in the Face I will scatter them saith the Lord among the Heathen whom neither they nor their Fathers have known and I will send a Sword after them till I have consumed them and observe what follows Were they moved with this soar threat Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come and let them make hast and take up a wailing Jer. 9.17 18. As if the Prophet had said unless you send for some artificial mourning here will be no mourning at all for all that God hath threatned or executed every ones heart is so dead and stone-hard and just so it is now with the most of us that certainly the Plague of the heart is much more numerous than the Plague upon our Bodies If any ask as Livy in another case Quin ad hoc accingeris But why do not People gird themselves to this thing no more Truly I know not 't is all the Plague Secondly Such are to be reproved who lay things to heart a little but nothing to purpose as when the Plague is come neer them or when they meet the white Rod and the black followers upon Neighbours nay upon strangers shoulders for fear the dead should infect their living Friends then they stand and stare and lift up their Eyes and Hands O what a doleful sight is this and others concerned for their Relations weep a while and wring their hands No Mother lost such a Child But as for sin the cause of all this Who cries out of this Who turns from this Or who enquires after Christ to take hold of him to make his peace with God that these mortal quarrels might cease How many converts by the Plague can ye shew me By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Men break out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the Beast of the Field and the Fowl of Heaven and Fishes of the Sea yet let no Man strive nor reprove another for the People are as they that strive with the Priest therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the Night Hos 4.3 4. The Dutch Notes are worth your perusal upon these words The fowlest sinners were committed by great ones and if any offered to reprove these and seek to bring them to the sense of their evil ways they were sure to be silenced and otherwise punished so far were that People from laying any thing to heart They strove with the Priest i. e. scorned his reproofs stopt his mouth imprisoned banished killed all that opposed and this was their laying to heart God's dealings with them the end was answerable they all ranks high and low perished by the wrath of GOD and common judgment and so shall we or any People who tread in their steps or else why are such Scriptures written A little laying to heart of late hath seemed to be by commanding Fire to be made in all Streets and this and this I fear is as I have said a little sense of God's hand and to very little purpose It must be other Bon-fires to purge the Heavens to clear the highest Heavens Whose heart is a fire as a righteous man as righteous Lot vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked Who sighs and cries for his own wickedness and the wickedness of the Land and turneth from the evil of his way and looketh to him that fires the Prayers and Offerings of his People by his sweet Incense and Intercession Bad men and good men die daily and is this Preaching only turned into prating for an Hour by all you that pass by Such is dead and 'tother is dying c. And is here all One of the Cardinals having a great Bishoprick in Germany in Luther's days confessed that the Mass was not void of its faults that the Courts of Rome were corrupted that a general reformation of the Priests and Friers was necessary but that the poor rascal Monk Luther should begin all that he thought intollerable and answerably set against him so the Men of this Age will confess that there are many things amiss in all ranks but that such poor rascals should reprove them in their Sermons and lives this this is now not to be endured Prisons are too good for such and the Cure is worse than the Disease And this is all the sense that these wise men have of matters amiss which is little sense but to no purpose Vse 3 Let us make use of this Doctrine in the next Place to try our selves by it Are you such as lay to heart the hand of God now the taking away of righteous and wicked merciful and un-merciful Men In most Houses are dead Bodies if not yet in every House as in Aegypt In your Houses it may be are or have been dead Bodies and now some dying Are ye sensible what dead Souls ye have and how hard to be raised from the dead How much alive to evil quickly but as Nabal as dead-hearâ—ed as a stone to
they see that they escape as well as others and live as long as others The World is drawing on apace to Atheisme and the providence of God seems to rock the Cradle The Idolater and the sincere worshiper the superstitious and the truly tender conscience Nabal and the merciful Abigail all die promiscuously Why who can tell now which to prefer to follow That one may think his Religion as good as the other the the Papist and Protestant both die of the Plague and that the ceremoneist may think as well of his way as the strict Non-conformist they both die of the Plague and this is a Plague indeed to some this is raining snares upon Men which are willing to slumber in their own ways Some are afraid to be over-righteous and over-strict and the judgments of God falling so promiscuously will make such very temperate in their Religion If this be the import of God's destroying righteous and wicked to harden slight and loose Professors we had need look well to it who profess the Gospel that we be very substantial and real and that we be not catcht with this snare of judging by outward appearance but look to the Word what that requires This snare the Prophet Malachy speaks of Mal. 2.17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words and yet ye say wherein have we wearied him When ye say that every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord or Where is the God of judgment Surely the Lord likes our good fellowship and all the latitudes we use and carnal contents and pleasures as well as their rigid strict self-denying conversation or else he would not spare us as much or more than he doth them lay to heart this import of GOD's promiscuous dealing above all how God hardens sinners in their sins by such dealings Or Thirdly and Lastly This promiscuous dealing of God imports that which my Text here tells us that there are greater evils to come which God takes the righteous from and this should be much laid to heart indeed according to the very letter of my Text. So was Josia by a less judgment taken from a greater A praesenti praesumitur circa futura saith the Civilian From present things we may presume concerning future If Lot be warned and pulled out of Sodom there is surely some great and fearful storm a coming If God snatch his People as he did Josia in hast as it were to Heaven we may say with this Prophet in my Text they are taken from the evil to come Lay to heart therefore the hand of God that it slayes so generally one and all and lay to heart the import of it that it boads some greater evil to come There be Serpents which have heads in their tails called Amphisbaenae This stroke of God taking away righteous and wicked hath a head in the tail of it that will make worse work than this head which is now fore-most and yet how many doth this fore-most head now smite and slay and how mortal and tremendous is this fore-head Thirdly Be exhorted to lay to heart this that you may be the next cut off who ever you be seeing the slaughter men in this day spare none young nor old rich nor poor close Lanes nor open Streets righteous nor wicked What should we all then say to our selves but this surely I may be next the mark which God will hit What a trade the Coffin-makers and Grave-makers now have And Hell answerably doubly inlargeth it self as you do now seek out for new Church Yards and should not we smite on our breasts and say O the wonderful mercy and power and patience of the Lord that none of all these have been employed about me yet That so many thousands should be gone before and so many thousands more drawing on and drawing after and I yet not one of these O magnified be the rich and Soveraign mercy of God! Am I more righteous more merciful more useful with my Talent than such and such that are gone O no not worthy to be named in the Day with them and yet that I should be left and they taken that they should have their turn their over-turn before me When I say lay to heart that you may be next I mean more than one thing the admiring of GOD's mercy that you are yet spared I mean this also lay to heart your state whether you be ready I was wroth with my People I have polluted mine Inheritance and given them into thine hand thou didst shew them no mercy upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid the yoke And thou saidst I shall be a Lady for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart neither didst remember the latter end of it Isa 47.6 7. Many parts of the Christian World are given into the hands of Men and they do with them at their pleasure and yet are secure and consider not the end of such ways that it will be bitterness at last I have nothing to do with such but with you Are not you yet in some ways which are not good and yet promise peace to your selves in them yea though GOD's slaughter-men and Fellers be come up to London The Plague was first at South-hampton and at other Countrey-Towns before it came to London yea come up to your Doors and not say rather to your selves I had need look about me I am likely to be next And what if the Fellers fell me Whither will the Tree fall when it falleth Will not the fall of it be very great If the righteous scarcely escape now if the merciful Man scarcely escape now Am I likely to escape Motives to press you thus to lay to heart these things are these First Is this in my Text How few do lay matters to heart now either the matters of his works or words rods or escapes righteous Men merciful Men rich Men and poor Men the Judge and the honourable c. are taken away and yet none lay this to heart If the Prophet had said few lay things to heart I would have kept his phrase but because he saith none I am but too justly lead to say so too Mortality and deadness of Bodies is not yet so general as mortality and deadness of Souls Zion stretcheth forth her hands and there is none to comfort the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries should be round about him Jerusalem is as a menstruous Woman amongst them Lam. 1.17 We the Lord's People as in every Age have adversaries round about the righteous Man and the merciful Man hath adversaries enough But who of the World nay who of our selves lay this to heart A Second Motive to press you to lay to heart these times is also in the Text. Lay to heart present Rods or it will be an ill presage upon us that worse things Seven times worse are at Door If we be yet senseless and walk contrary surely we shall be
which God inflicts sometimes upon the Sons of Men yea upon his own Children Secondly This Metaphor is to set forth the numbers and troops of trials wherewith God punisheth his sometimes and the number can as well be numbered as the nature be fathomed you can as well fathom the bottomless Ocean as number the Waves and Billowes which beat up and down in it Thirdly This Metaphor fetcht forth the continuedness of afflâ—ction Deep calleth upon deep or calleth for deep That is one Wave beateth up and beateth on another * Undam undaque pellit or unda sequax as Virgil saith through the Tempests which God raiseth Afflictions unfathomable innumerable and very durable fall sometimes upon the People of God The next thing this Text sheweth to us is the greatness and invincibleness of faith which is set forth unto us by the Person faith taketh hold on in distress and that is God Faith leans on no Creature high nor low for in great distress What can the greatest Man do but God Yet the Lord shall c. Secondly The potency and invincibleness of faith is shewed unto us by that attribute in God on which faith fastens and that is his Soveraignty which commands all other wheels to go The Lord will command his loving kindness c. Thirdly Faith in the potency and invincibleness of it is shewed us by its excellent issues and effect which it doth produce which are two Prayer and Praise and in every dark state And in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my life in which is involved peace and joy and all good Doct. The Doctrin which I observe from these words is this That God sometimes maketh all his Waves and Billowes to go over Men yea good Men. The Psalmist thus complaineth not once in my Text but in Psal 69.1 2. Save me O God for the Waters are come into my Soul I sink in deep Mire where there is no standing I am come into deep Waters where the Floods overflow me I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail whilst I wait for my God David was a Man after God's own heart and yet saith he The waters are come into my Soul and I am come into deep Waters which overflow me and I cry to God and he lets me cry till my throat be dryed and can obtain no answer Elsewhere he speaks of himself and others Thâ—u sellest thy People for naught and dost not increase thy wealth by their price alluding to Slaves thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us my confusion is still before me and the shame of my face hath covered me Psal 44 12 13 14. There is a great distance between the Planets they cannot dart one to another saith Seneca But it is not so with afflictions these will dart and reach one to another when pain is on the body it will reach unto the Soul All afflictions for kind and qualities and all for degree and quantity doth God sometimes bring upon Man First All afflictions for kind and quality that is spiritual and temporal Spiritual afflictions GOD brings upon Men yea upon the best Men. The loss of Ordinances When I remember these things I pour out my Soul for I had gone with the Multitude to the House of God Psal 42.4 As the loss of Ordinances So 2. The loss of God in Ordinances Why are thou cast down O my Soul c. O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan So Job complaineth of the loss of God The Arrows of the Lord are within me and the poison of them drink up my Spirit Job 6. And what a Man was he for integrity I acknowledge my sin and yet mine iniquity is ever before me Psal 51.3 Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a heavy buâ—den too heavy for me to bear my wounds stink and are corrupt through my own foolishness Psal 38.4 5. A storm cannot raise it self above the Moon much less as far as the Stars saith the Philosopher and yet spiritual storms raise themselves in the Soul above all Sun Moon and Stars above all the graces gifts and endowments the Soul hath and eclipse and darken all My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.4 So Haman whilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And then God is gone indeed and Sun Moon and Stars overwhelmed Secondly Temporal afflictions doth God bring upon Men yea upon the best of Men. How our Saviour was afflicted in Spirit we read his Soul was heavy to death how he cried out and roared because of God hideing himself and as to all outward miseries and injuries what was not inflicted on him that Man or Devil yea or the Justice of God could inflict His visage was marred more than any Man's He had no House nor home He was in the Wilderness worried by Devils and wild Beasts He had no Bread no Bed no Friends forsaken of all even of all his Disciples So Haman how he complaineth of Bodily afflictions I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth Psal 88.14 He had not a well day in all his life as we say and yet lived in an ill time to be sick namely when our Fathers were in their conflicts in Egypt under Pharaoh And yet mark what he saith then Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deep thy wrath lieth hard upon me Ps 88.7 and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves Sela. As if he had said that it should be done thus to and poor Creatures such a season as this when under the tiranny of a Foreign Enemy let it be wonder'd at by all the Creation Angels and Men. So Hezekiah how afflicted outwardly with a great Army of merciless Men insulting and besieging him and no sooner that over but sick unto death of the Plague and other infirmities as you may read by his complaints Mine Age is departed like a Shepheards Tent it is removed I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sickness which is many thousand deaths from Day even to Night he will make an end of me I reckoned that as a Lion so he will break all my bones Isa 38.12 Comets appear in the calmest Ayr and yet are very prodigious things So corporal calamities break out upon Men when in the greatest calm of ease and content When David said his Mountain was strong and that he should never be removed by and by you hear him cry out I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the Day long for my loins are filâ—d with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I
have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart Psal 38.8 Secondly As God brings all afflictions for kind and quality on Men yea on good Men that is afflictions spiritual and temporal inward and outward on soul and body So he brings all afflictions for quantity and degree that is afflictions very great and of long continuance Were they not great and sore things done against Job Whilst he was yet speaking there came another and saith the Fire of God is fallen from Heaven i. e. A great Fire and hath burnt up the Sheep and the Servants and I only am escaped to tell thee Poor Job now indeed that Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven should be rained upon him as upon Sidom that so he might judg himself to deserve no better than the wicked Sodomites did What a degree of high Trial and what a great Twig in the Rod was this Yea God saith of the Devil that he moved him against Job without cause to swallow him up Job 2.3 that is saith the Margent when the Devil had nought against him nor able to bring his own malicious designs to pass against him yet read Satans Second Commission So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his Foot to the crown of his Head and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withall and sate down amongst the ashes and then his friends poured Gall and Vinegar into his Cup which altogether made his afflictions of the greatest magnitude indeed the greatest I think that ever meer Man had David tells us of the Lyon and the young Lyon upon him Psal 17.12 and of such as did set their mouths against the Heavens and bark and bite all good Persons and things and therefore the Lord's People returned hither that is when they could get no shelter from the wicked and Waters of a full Cup were wrung out to them Psal 73.10 And full Cups of misery speak the greatest punishments for degree and quantity Secondly God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men as great and sharp so of long continuance It hath been a sharp Winter this and of long continuance so doth God make in other matters some times Some Rivers * As Nilus that ancient River had their beginning with the World and so it may be will have their end not till the World ends And some afflictions have their beginning as soon as we and will have no end till we have yea some Rods extraordinary begin with some good People as soon almost as they begin to be and end not till they end their lives It is God's threat that if all his Laws be not observed and his glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God be feared and reverenced And who can call God his God but God's Children that then he will inflict upon his People great Plagues and of long continuance and such he did inflict and such he hath said in the new Testament also will fall out great troubles and of long continuance so long as if he heard no Prayers that every ones faith and patience shall faint and fail When the Son of Man shall come shall he finde saith upon the Earth Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove that is always so the next words expound it Mine eyes fail with looking upward GOD gave no answer that his faith was quite spent O Lord I am oppressed and bear all the burden alone Vndertake for me lend me a hand What shall I say he hath spoken unto me and himself hath done it and therefore it will never be undone I shall go softly all my Years in the bitterness of my soul Isa 38.14 15. That God inflicts punishments great punishments and of long continuance upon good People read 1 Kings 22.27 And the King of Israel said put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace His warrant you see had a long date Thus God sometime let loose wicked Men upon the best of his to fasten their teeth and scarce ever let go their hold till they have pluckt out their throats to lay them fast in all extremities like Joseph and there let them lie long till even their skin and bones rot And as God lets Men deal thus with their body so he lets the Devil sometimes deal thus with their Soul worry them and worrry them long even all their days 'T is but GOD's Commission given to the Devil and he will do it as 't is God's Commission given to wicked Men to torment and then they do it and without his Commission a Dog could not bark or shew his teeth against any child of God The Plowers plowed upon my back and they made long their Furrows Psal 129.3 And woe is me that I remain in Meshech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar my soul hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace Psal 120.5 6. God excommunicated Nebuchadnezar Seven Years and made him a Companion for Beasts and so sometimes he excommunicates his own People and makes them companions as David in Arabia with Black mores with Devils those black Fiends of the lowest Hell and so long The Reasons of this Point are these First That God may shew his Soveraignty I will not say hâ—s Justice We have all sin'd even the best Men and therefore God may bring all afflictions and miseries upon the best But I rather choose to say that God may shew what an absolute Lord of all He is and can set up what Man he will to be his mark to shoot at and then take him down and set up another Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head saith David Psal 40.12 Usually less than this number are our afflictions when most and therfore where God shews soveraignty he also sheweth justice Israel would none of me Psal 81.11 Therefore where God pronounced to Ammi I will have none of this People he was just as well as absolute and peremptory in his will Sometimes God smites a sinner as Joab smote Amasia under the fist Rib so as that he smites him not again maketh an utter end at a blow and no cause visible no more than in other of the Sons and Daughters of Men and of his People This properly we call soveraignty Thus may be smite any one for we have not any one of us all the priviledge of Antwarp who have two marts lasting six weeks apiece during which time no Man in his Person or Goods can be arrested No man hath such priviledge for a day in order to God he can arrest Person Goods and Life when he pleaseth and yet in all so that none can charge him with injustice Secondly Doth thus bring all afflictions upon Men yea upon the best Men to try integrity The Sea pulleth up from its bottom all excrements as
Dart cometh so I believe will the Flood of these last times surprise and come as a Dart as a Wall swelling out to use the Scripture expression Actus morientium non possunt esse in suspenso 'T is the speech of them that study Nature Death when once it begins to knock beats down all apace and cannot be stayed Learn what need we have to beg that God would not lead us into temptation Extremities are terrible charges When Jona was beat upon with all God's billows and likewise Job how they both broke out and cursed the day wherein they were born and how David in like plunge fained himself mad and drivel'd at Gath. A tempted Soul with all temptations will have much adoe to bite in blasphemy I said in my hast all Men are lyars yea even Samuel which from the Lord had told him that he should be King Some dead Mens bodies putrified turn into Serpents See holy Ainsw in Gen. 3.19 Truly the better we are when overborn with temptations we become much the worse what Serpents and Scorpions some have become by these things in these times more fiery and worse than others who yet knows what may be in their hearts as to the main we know not How earnestly Christ desired that the Cup might pass and yet was not in danger of sin as we are how much more should we so desire who have not a body to bear being so crackt by sin but much less not such a Soul to bear trials as Christ being so wholly defiled and immersed with sin This on which I am now makes me think of David's speech to Jonathan who as you know he loved dearly If there be iniquity in me slay me thy self 1 Sam. 20.8 as if he had said let me dye by the hand of one that loveth me and then I shall dye but one death but if I dye by the hand of such as hate me I know not how many deaths I shall die There is a kindness in the Hang-man nor how many sins I may commit under such cruelties and inhumanities If the Cup may not pass ye◠beg that you may be deliver'd from the evil I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World saith Christ but that thou shouldst deliver them from the evil Upon this insist that you may have the benefit of Christ's intercession that no Wave may over-whelm any Grace or hide the face and favour of God a moment from you Peccatum tametsi non bonum tamen in bonum c. saith Augustin Sin though it be not good yet it may be ordered to good So afflictions though in themselves not good nor joyous yet God can order them to work about the peaceable fruit of holiness and so to make them very good and very joyous Learn from hence what great cause we have to be full of pitty and tender-heartedness one to another and what Monsters of Man-kind they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are hard-hearted close fisted without Man-friendship such as you read of Psal 69.26 They persecute him which thou hast smitten and talk to the grief of him whom thou hast wounded they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Job's friends sate down by him Seven Days and said nothing to him for they saw that his grief was great and when they did speak it had been better much they had held their peace they did so talk to the grief of him whom God had wounded A sore evil we are apt unto when all God's billows pass over any to have many hard things to say against them but very few merciful deeds to do for them May not their case become yours May not you whole become sick and you rich become poor and you Londoners may not you be driven here and there as well as they in the Country See therefore and take notice of all the lurking places of David and see where he hideth himself and come tell me saith Saul to the Ziphits 1 Sam. 23.23 You Londoners have been some lurking places for the Lord 's hunted ones long May not some Ziphits discover these lurking places and make you run and lurk for it too where you may And would not you then be glad when such billows beat over you to be pittied and shelter'd then think how much it becomes you to shew pitty to wounded souls and distressed bodies and to pour out your spirits and Purses to them whilst ye can A storm fulfils its course in a round and then bursts with its own violence saith Seneca and indeed the storm which hath been in divers parts of the Country will I believe fulfill its course in a round in which Circle this City will have its share and therefore take heed that that be not true of you which David complains of some when in his Cave Psal 142.4 I look on my right hand and behold but there was no man that would know me refuge fail'd me and none cared for my Soul Several bleed in soul and I doubt but few of you care for these bleeding sinking Souls to support them with your experiences and with your prayers Many flee to Caves and Dens to hide here and there and have not to put bread in the heads of them nor theirs and few I doubt visit David in his Cave Learn from hence that we should not sentence our Eternal condition by our temporal All God's Waves may pass over the best Man in this World Christ was exercised with all trials and miseries in this World was poor was hated was murthered was inwardly tormented his Soul was heavy to death and in a great Agony and so was Job and therefore were judged hypocrites and deceivers and accursed of God Paul when the Vipers was on his hand they judged him a Murtherer and when he threw it off and had no hurt then they would have worshipped him for a God There is no judgment of God's love or hatred by the things of prosperity or adversity but rather by our carriage in them Many will say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance and thou shalt put more joy into my heart c. Many can make no other estimate of Mans eternal felicity but as he is so and so prosperous in this World Crowns which begirt the Sun or the Moon last not long saith the Philosopher All the Crowns and adventitious Raies of riches and honours which begirt the Saints in this World to give light and conduct to it by Day and by Night they last not long some tempest or other blows them away and then when those painted Crowns are vanished away to judg and censure that therefore their Eternal Crown and Glory is gone too is to judg amiss of the Generation of the righteous Discord in the matter of exhalations maketh storms and tempests so discords in the matters of God's dispensations make storms not discover'd in his
providing for them and protecting of them and therefore his tryal was nothing only his lust 'T is true the issues of War are doubtful and Casus fortuitus non est sperandus a doubtful case is not to be hoped this may be good talk in humane matters as we have to do in common bargening but in divine matters as are to be confidered in order to God it is not good so to reason yet thus and no otherwise in all fortuitous and hazardous matters will Men which have but meer reason they will say there is no hope and so fall to the use of their wits and make hast to some evil or other if God do not mightily prevent Though the promise be exceeding great and precious and though there be many of them as the Apostle Peter saith yet a Man in whom is no faith can see by these no relief at hand but still a dreadful sound is in his ear he believeth not that he shall return out of darkness Job 15.21 22. This stop of trade will beggar me these crosses and losses will certainly undo me these and these Bags will be quite emptied by and by and then what shall I do for more And so instead of hoping to the end the distressed Man never hopes at all but universally down and thus at every straw and strait There was a universal darkness over the World for twelve hours then was light created in this upper horizon saith a great Scholar but where faith is not there is a universal darkness for more than twelve hours even all the days of the Man's life and nothing can create light neither the word nor works of God but always and in all cases the Man cries out like that Rockwood which was a great stirrer up of Persecution against the Martyrs and being smitten in conscience was exhorted to seek mercy from God and to hope therein and all that it could do was All is too late all is too late meaning that all their good Exhortations were too late as to his case So when faith is not talk of what one will to support and bear up the distressed will cry out still all is too late and to no purpose as to him Learn from hence how excellent a grace faith is it over-ruleth all things Invincible we may be but un-assaulted we cannot be saith Seneca Assaults how many do we meet withall in such days as those are and what a shield is that above all shields which maketh us invincible not to be hurt by any assault from Man or Devil and such a shield is faith All Nations compass me about but in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them they compass me about yea they compass me about but in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Psal 18.10 11. And the Devil struck in with all these so he saith v. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me Surely it is the Devil which thrusteth us to make us fall And yet against all Nations of Men and against all Nations of Devils Did David by faith stand How excellent an Engin then is faith and how invincible when Joab fought with Edom in the Vally of Salt he had a hard bout as appears by the Psalm which David made upon that occasion Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it heal the breaches of it thou hast shewed thy People hard things thou hast made us drink the Wine of astonishment yet observe what faith saith in the very next words Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of the truth Selah that thy beloved may be delivered save with thy right hand Thou hast given a Banner 1. Thou certainly wilt give a Banner because of the truth the certain truth so saith the Original and means the Promises saith Ainsworth upon this place And these being certain faith is still at a certainty and seeth beyond all evil 'T is thought that our Parents in Paradise knew of the good Angel but knew not of the fall of the bad and so took that voice in the Serpent to be the voice of a good Angel and so were led by him and fell about Noon that being the eating time and lay comfortless till Three of the Clock in the After-noon which is called the cool of the day and then were visited by God and Christ revealed to them We may have cheats put upon us in these days by Devils instead of Angels and I fear we have too many of us but faith heeds nothing but the certain truth namely the promises of God which are infallible and so putteth no cheat upon any nor maketh any ashamed It may be distressed Persons may lie longer disconsolate than three Hours and yet it may be no longer for assoon as they believe they enter into rest this gives a vision of Christ and so of pardon and of release from distress certainly to follow which is rest and so is indeed an excellent Balsom for such an unwholsome Climate as we here live in Learn likewise from hence the necessity of faith without this we cannot please God nor can we be pleased with God nor in God but he will loath us and we shall loath him and all his ways He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him And he that must believe this must have faith Suppose that the Lord call to contend by Fire burning and destroying or by famine and drought so great that is should even seem to dry up the great deep as the Prophet useth the speech Amos 7.4 Meaning exceedingly scorch and wither and kill all Or suppose that not only Famine should be but the Sword also yea as prevailing and as devouring a Sword as the Famin and that God should make that good against us which Job saith of his condition Job 16.11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hand of the wicked I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the Neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark Vers 12. How neer such things may be God knoweth and what then when all is gone What shall we or what can we live by but by faith Then faith is as necessary to our Souls as life to our Bodies or as our Souls to our Bodies Elihu was sensible that Job was full of complaints of his hard condition but alas faith he Brutes and Beasts when hard used will cry and roar but what is this of a godly Man or what will the great God regard such carriages By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry they cry out by reason of the Arm of the Mighty but none saith where is God my Maker which giveth Songs in the Night who teacheth us more than the Beasts that is
the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him If giving way to unbelief in the least had been pleasing to God he would not have made the promise first to our Parents before he came to pronounce the curse upon them Now giving way to unbelief consists in two things construing all things in the worst and hardest sense our own matters towards God and God's matters towards us I have been a stubborn rebellious â—retch and surely God will never have mercy upon me Observe Moses upon thâ—s theme Destroy not this People remember Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not on the stubbornness of this People nor to theiâ— wickedness nor to their sin Deut 9.27 Ne respicias ad dutitiem the hardness that is the â—mâ—eâ—â—tency of this People but thy Covenant with Abraham And this is the great thing only to be eyed by poor guilty wretches O sirs such and such sins were nothing if I could be humbled for them but I am of a very hard heart Be it so yet should you believe in the word of promise that is in that God which hath said he will give a heart of flesh This People hath finn'd and they cannot repent saith Moses do not therefore look upon them for there is no loveliness in them but look upon thy promise to Abraham to be a God to him and to his Seed and what cannot a God do to mend the heart of man Lamech having made himself guilty of Polygamie reflected upon the sin of Cain as is thought of which Loin he was and consters himself a far more guilty wretch than Cain for that Cain had only slain one and that only his body but Lamech had destroyed many soul and body both by his evil example which now so generally was followed in the World and a hastner of the worlds destruction so that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold for his fin Lamech surely for his fin was to be avenged seventy times seven fold this is the sense of this Scripture as an able Expositor judgeth Sure I am that thus do poor guilty wretches please themselves to look upon all their sins in a very multiplying glass and to see them greater than any others and so conclude that if such and such despaired I have much more reason and this is no other but giving way to unbelief The Jews observe much how the providence of God complyed with the fire upon the Altar that it never went out they say that the Rain of Heaven though never so great never did put it out so we should much observe how the Lord by his Providence in his Word and Works complies with the weakness of our faith to strengthen and to preserve it that it go not out quite out and not be severely catching at every thing to weaken and to destroy our faith as if God's thoughts were as narrow as ours Secondly Way is given to unbelief when all wit and parts are used to argue down faith And the Angel of the Lord did wonderously and Manoah and his Wife looked on But the Angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah nor to his Wife then he knew it was an Angel of the Lord And Manoah said to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.19 20. God sometimes doth wonderously own us in all our ways and holdeth up our hearts evâ—n by sense he is so for us in every thing Another while he seems to be as much against us and Manoah that did look on and see God do wonderously seeth him no more and now the improsperous Man concludes that he shall die And just thus do many when God upholds them not by sense but with draws and seems to be as much against them as for them then conclude surely God is our Enemy and will destroy us and all is naught Sineca saith that there is no universal thunder I may say so in morals When God doth most against wicked Men yet some things of kindness he doth as we see in the example of Pharaoh And so on the other hand there is no universal Sun shine when God doth most for any Child of his yet he shall have exercise and tryal enough one way or other and therefore to argue when things do not run so stilly and calmly as they did that therefore God doth not respect us is to give way to unbelief The people of Israel as they were espying out their way met with many difficulties And they turn'd and went up the way of Bashan and Og the King of Bashan went out against them and all his People And the Lord said to Moses fear not for I will deliver him into thine hand and all his People and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon King of the Amorites Num. 21.33 'T is just thus spiritually as a tempted Christian is spying out his way to Heaven out starts some Og some strong lust or Devil and then is he ready to fear and despair and mistrust all and conclude all is naught and will be worse and worse which is arguing down faith from sense and giving way to unbelief The High Priest was train'd up against the day of expiation to learn how to take up his handful of Incense and lay it one the Altar and so how to order himself in every thing and was kept in a Room of purpose separated with abstinence so should you rather conster that you are training up to your Priestly work by your tryals how to take up your handful of Incense I mean the Promises and lay them on the Altar Christ and so make a sweet Saviour of rest to God and to your Souls That you may not upon any account give way to unbelief know that you cannot do so and be innocent that is free from sin in so doing There are two things that are indispensable duties as long as we live and that is to wait on the Lord and to keep his way to which the blessing is certainly fixed and no difficulty shall make it void The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged What is the use to be made of this read the next words Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it Psal 37.32 33 34. There are two parts in Religion faith and obedience that we walk in all Gods ways and yet not rest in this but in Christ by faith and this we ought in all weathers to do and the good event of these is certain God will exalt us to inherit the Land flowing with Milk and Hony i.e. All good God will give us a lift to the possession of all that he hath promised And therefore it is to destroy all Religion and the recompence of reward too
little other than the Soul and this he groans and sighs under O wretched man that I am c. And this written for our Example Take another instance in this Apostle as soon as converted And Saul arose from the Earth and when his Eyes were opened he saw no man but they led him by the Hand and he was three Days without sight and did neither eat nor drink Act. 9.9 Why did he neither eat nor drink for three Days Doubtless he was in a deep sense of his lost condition as one in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity both by nature and practice That his natural corruption was so great a weight upon him afterward as we here see it was by my Text it was much more heavy upon him at first view when this bottomly gulf was first opened to this self-conceited Pharisee what I say is very likely by the three Days horror and astonishment wherein he lay starving himself Doubtless he thought himself as unworthy to eat or drink so unworthy to live as the poor Publican which smote his breast and would not look up to Heaven as not judging himself worthy to go upon the Earth The eating of the Pass-over with sower Herbs might point at this for their coming out of Egypt snadowed their coming out of spiritual bondage and misery in which they were And so the miseries of natural bondage by sin and our fall and then their sower Herbs might well teach them as to keep a sense of their bodily slavery and misery so especially to keep a deep sense of their soul-slavery and misery and all the sower things and conflicts of their inward condition The poor Jaylor may be a further authority for this Doctrine which I have observed His eyes being some thing opened to see what a wretched Man he was by his nature and practice trembled and would have made away himself and came and fell at the Apostles Feet with a great out-cry What must I do to be saved Act. 16.30 And whereas I make the Proposition Universal saying That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption I ground it upon my Text and the Example that is given to follow in such an eminent Man as the Apostle Paul was That the Apostle Paul was not exempted from natural corruption nor from this duty of deep-laying it to heart neither are others But then the Question will be by what Rule the Apostle Paul did this for he himself saith that we should follow him no otherwise than as he followed Christ By what Rule then did the Apostle thus lay to heart his fallen state And was his Rule universal that is for all the fallen Sons of Adam For this see 1 King 8.38 When the House for communion between God and Man was made and consecrated this is the great Law of fellowship and communion between God and Man That even every one should know the Plague of his heart Now by the Plague of the heart is meant saith Interpreters principally our fallen and corrupt state of Soul by nature and then such particular special ebullitions thereof in act to open scandal and provocation And this one Law is for Jew and stranger And by knowing this Plague of the heart which every one was to do means that they should be well acquainted with their natural corruption and actual transgressions and deeply bewail them and truly as having to do with an All-seeing and All-searching God who searcheth the heart so it follows in the next words Vers 39. What Prayer or Supplication soever be made by any Man or by all the People of Israel which shall know every Man the Plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive and do and give to every one according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou knowest all the hearts of the Children of Men. The New Testament concurreth to this in as much as John the Baptist thus began the Gospel by calling upon all to repent and so Christ himself called upon all his hearers to repent Mat. 4.17 The other of John the Baptist is Mat. 3.2 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This is the Power of God by the Word to change your hearts and to open the everlasting Doors By repenting he means what he saith further in his Sermon Mat. 5 3 4 5. Poor in spirit mourning for sin attended with a desire of relief a hungering and thirsting for a better state That is Repentance is that sinners be throughly convinced of their lost condition by nature and of their utter inability to make their own relief and escape from the displeasure of God due unto them by it and therefore hunger and thirst that is earnestly desire relief from God in that way which he hath appointed in Christ through the Gospel for the Salvation of sinners Thus and in this Path the Publican was taught to come begging mercy for a sinner He smote his breast as that where he felt the Plague lay and said God be merciful to me a sinner I purpose to say no more to prove the truth of the Point For the Explication of this Doctrin these things may be said wherein the further confirmation of the Point will arise First We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in its being simply considered Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Psal 51.5 David had fallen into great actual transgressions of Murther and Whoredom and he that he might practice repentance according to the rule thereof took to heart how he came into the World Behold I am an old sinner so born shaped in iniquity in the Womb and out of this shape I cannot change my self and therefore I complain to thee O God Do thou wash me throughly and cleanse me throughly that is justifie and sanctifie me with the Blood and Spirit of thine anointed one on whom thou hast laid my help So in Psal 8. What is sorry man Enosh or wretched man as the Apostles Epithet is in my Text that thou art mindful of such a forlorne Creature which words also shew that we should be sensible of our natural state in the Being yea in the first being of it in us Our Saviour in his Sermon to the Woman of Canaan confirmeth this that I am upon that we should all Jew and Gentile be sensible of corrupt nature in the being of it But he answered I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel by these words he names the Jews state by nature to make this Gentile reflect upon her own state as also such and lost Then came she and worshiped saying Lord help me As if she had said with much sorrow of heart if there be any lost Creature in the World surely I am one Then Christ replies again It is not