mind God in his Prayer Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Which acquaints us with the next Condition of this Walking 2. It must be a Walking in God's Ways It is not enough for him that walks in his Uprightness that his Intentions be good but he must also chuse the Paths of Uprightness he must doe what God requires to be done and to be done by him He that ran well but extra Viam out of the Way appointed him beyond his Line had not the Crown assigned him by the Judges in the Greek Games Neither hath he the Approbation or Reward of upright Walking who walks by another Rule then God commands They that chuse either their own Conceits or the Tradition of the Elders or any other humane Authority for the Square of their Actions are judged to worship God in vain to draw near him with their Mouth and to honour him with their Lips but to remove their Heart far from him whose Fear towards him is taught by the Precepts of men Isa 29.13 They are such as eye the Dictates of Rabbins the Decrees of Popes the Canons of Councils above or equally with the Precepts of Christ they make Conscience of the Vow of Corban not of honouring Father and Mother they will by no means break the Rules of the Founder of their Order but scruple not the violating of Christ's Commands Neither can those be said to walk in their Uprightness that make Conscience of keeping one Command but not of another that will not swear yet will lie that will pray to God and yet defraud men that will give Alms yet adore a Crucifix that will pay Tith of Mint Anise and Cumin and leave the weightier matters of the Law Righteousness Judgment Faith and the Love of God that abhor Idols yet commit Sacrilege All upright Walking is copulative takes in its Walk all God's Commands it excludes none but observes all in their due order and place Then shall I not be ashamed saith David Psal 119.6 when I have respect to all thy Commands Yet herein there must be heed taken that we regard each in its proper time To keep the Sabbath by Rest to attend the Sacrifice was a Duty but not when Mercy was to be shewed Vice is to be reproved but in fit season Sin is to be punished but by him that is thereto authourized Sacrifice is to be offered but by the Priest He that walks in his Uprightness must not onely look that the thing he does be commanded but that it be commanded to him Each must walk in his own Path in his own Rank if he will walk in his Uprightness 3. He that walks in his Uprightness must walk warily steadily evenly constantly according to that of Solomon Prov. 4.25 26 27. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine ey-lids look straight before thee Ponder the Path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy foot from Evil. So saith the Apostle Eph. 5.15 16. See that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time He that walks in his Uprightness hath his Eyes in his head to keep his Way gazeth not about to satisfie his Curiosity but minds his Journey the Way he is to walk in the Work he is to doe listens not to seducing Company that seeks to divert him out of his Path takes heed of such Offers such Temptations as may be Stumbling-blocks to him to cause him to fall sets his Foot his Purposes firmly that he may not slip looks not back like Lot's Wife to Sodom to his former Pleasures He goes not on weeping like Phalti when he restored Michal to David but like David with enlarged heart he lifts up his feet to run the way of God's Commands He is not slothfull but a diligent follower of them that through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises He looks to the Cloud of Witnesses that have gone before him and keeps company with them who confess themselves Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and thereby declare plainly that they seek another City to wit an heavenly He casts away every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset him that he may with patience run the Race that is set before him Such do arm themselves against Encounters of Spiritual Wickednesse that may rob or spoil them of their Provision for their Journey They goe on as David said of himself Psal 71.16 in the strength of the Lord God Their Strength is in him in whose Heart are the ways of them they goe from Strength to Strength Psal 84.5 7. The Joy of the Lord is their Strength his Love heartens them the Hope of Glory keeps them from fainting it is as an Anchor of the Soul firm and stable and which entreth into that within the Veil They look unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of their Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is set down at the right hand of God They endure Contradiction of Sinners and resist unto bloud striving against Sin In a word Faith in God through Jesus Christ Joy in the Holy Ghost Love to Christ Hope of the Inheritance above animate them to holy Resolutions of Obedience to God confirm them against Difficulties keep them from fainting under any Pressures till they get to the end of their Journey and that Rest which is prepared for them that walk uprightly II. How this Walking of a man in his Vprightness doth demonstrate the Fear of the Lord. Such Walking doth evidently demonstrate the Fear of the Lord that is that reverential Regard of God as their Lord and Master the Supreme Law-giver and Judge to whom they are subject to be the Principle that acts them and carries them on with vigour to walk in their Uprightness For 1. In that they set their faces towards God they shew that their Walking tends to please God to gain his Approbation which is the greatest sign of Fear in a Servant to his Master a Child to his Father a Subject to his Prince for in all these Relations it is the Reverence of Superiours which moves the Inferiour to put forth his ability for the Superiour So it is the Fear of God that moves the upright Walker to glorifie God in his Body and Spirit which are God's to present his Body to him as a living Sacrifice in his reasonable Service to devote himself to God and to gratifie him with what Offering he hath with what Performance he is able to doe 2. A man's Choice of God's Commands as his Path shews his Subjection to him and that is the greatest proof of an holy Fear of the Divine Majesty He is a man after God's own heart who will doe all his Will as it is said of David Act.
as the holy Apostles and Martyrs were after Christ's Ascension and therefore bemoan their exclusion out of the Land of Canaan and their privation of naturall Life more passionately then seems to agree with the quietness and rejoycing which the Saints since Christ's Ascension have expressed in their Death 2. A Second Cause of David's excessive Grief is intimated here vers 7. Mine eye is consumed because of Grief it waxeth hold because of all mine Enemies and vers 10. Let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed let them return and be ashamed suddenly It seems he apprehended they would or knew they did if God took away his Life insult over him and reproach him for his often profession of trusting in God if God did not help him So Psal 42.3 My Tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me Where is thy God vers 9 10. I will say unto God My Rock why hast thou forgotten me why goe I mourning because of the oppression of the Enemy As with a Sword in my bones mine Enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me Where is thy God The vilifying of his God and the deriding of his hope in him was more grievous to David then his Exile or Sickness or Death it self 3. Nor are we to doubt though it be not expressed in the Text that those Groans and Tears of David were also Penitentiall occasioned by the Remembrance of his Sins for elsewhere is the like Complaint Sin is that poisonous Herb which made his Affliction bitter and deadly to him like the wild Gourd that made the Sons of the Prophets cry out Mors in Olla There is death in the pot 2 Kings 4.40 Thus Psal 38.2 3 4. Thy hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities have gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me Psal 41.4 I said Lord be mercifull unto me heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee Where he expresseth his Misery he doth often declare his Sin to be the Cause of it as he prays for the removall of the one so for the pardon of the other and as he complains of the one so he bewails the other And therefore it is to be so conceived here where he describes the vehemency of his Groaning and the redundance of his Tears which is confirmed by that which he saith here vers 8. Depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping which implies a penitential frame of spirit to have been in David when he made this Prayer he abandoned the society of the workers of Iniquity which is one principal part of Repentance shewing displicency with our selves for Sins committed and resolution to avoid the Occasions of Sin to which we may be tempted there being no sign more evident of loving Sin then conforting with the workers of Iniquity nor any means more necessary to avoid it which is the chief part of Repentance then to shun the company of the practisers of Evil. And that his Tears were penitentiall is intimated in that it is said they had a Voice a praying Voice to God which what other can it be deemed to be then Confessing of Sin to God Complaining to him of his Misery be reason of it Deprecating of his Vengeance as vers 1. he expressed himself O Lord rebuke me not in thine Angor neither chasten me in thy hot Displeasure Sutably hereto he speaks Psal 39.8 10 11. Deliver me from all my Transgressions make me not a reproach to the foolish Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thy hand When thou with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Surely every man is vanity So that hereby we may well conclude without much straining of the Text That those Groans and Tears were mixt partly from the sense of Affliction and in that respect involuntary partly Penitentiall from the sense of his Sin and in that respect voluntary and that he mourned propter malum Culpae as well as propter malum Poenae for the Evil of Acting as well as the Evil of Suffering for both together as being concatenate and the one following the other And accordingly we may hence infer these usefull Propositions 1. That when God visits for Sin the Pain is extreme and intolerable 2. That Beds and Couches and other bodily Refections little avail to ease a Conscience or a Person that is oppressed with the weight of God's Stroke for Sin 3. That the want of opportunities of glorifying God is very grievous to a Godly man when he is under Affliction 4. That it aggravates his Affliction when by reason of his Suffering Reproach is likely to be cast upon God 5. The Groans and Tears and Disquietness of an Holy person are as well or more for his Sins then his Sufferings 6. In such sense of Misery or Sin the pious Penitent bemoans himself to God confesses bewails his Sins humbles himself before him deprecates his Wrath and earnestly seeks by Prayer and Supplication for Forgiveness of Sin Healing and Peace from God I shall consider each of these as they are placed I. PROPOSITION That when God visits for Sin the Pain is extreme and intolerable Be it Sickness Exile Restraint or whatever other Affliction the Almighty brings a man's Sin to remembrance by it will fetch Groans and Sighs from his Breast Tears Rivers of tears from his Eye The Anguish the Venome of his Indignation will drink up his Spirits Though as Solomon saith Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock of Sin It is a sport to a fool to doe mischief Prov. 10.23 yet the conclusion will be when God visits for it Indignation and Wrath to them that are contentius and obey not the Truth Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Rom. 2.8 9. When Abner and his men and Joab and his men met by the Pool of Gibeon Abner said to Joab Let the young men now arise and play before us but when they had a while been at the sport Abner calls to Joab and says Shall the Sword devour for ever knowest thou not that it will be Bitterness in the latter end 2 Sam. 2.14 26. A man never thrives by Sin he may for a while be in great Power flourish like a green Bay-tree but in the conclusion Terrours take hold on him as waters a Tempest stealeth him away in the night saith Job 27.20 The lips of a strange woman drop as an hony-comb and her mouth is smoother then oil But her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a
thee Make the best thou canst of thine own Righteousness thou shalt find the way to Salvation by thine own Works a way unknown to the holy Saints untroden by them none there ever got thither that way That is not Scala Caeli the Ladder of Heaven by which the Saints climbed thither but Scala Gehennae the Precipice by which proud Pharisees superstitious Monks and Friers ignorant Quakers and formal Protestants that trust to their own Devotions and Good deeds tumble down to Hell I beseech you then as you love the Salvation of your Souls seriously examine your selves whether you that have sinned with David do repent with David Complain of your Sins be sensible of them as your most heavy Burthen confess them to God with detestation be instant for Cleansing from Sin through the multitude of God's Mercies hope for Pardon and Righteousness onely through Christ's Atonement by the Sacrifice of himself and his Intercession in Heaven have a settled purpose of Amendment of life be impatiently importunate with God for a new Heart and a new Spirit and expect these things and whatever Good your Souls want onely through the Loving-kindness and free Grace of God in Christ If it be so with you I may assure you of Blessedness and tell you from the Spirit of God that Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose Sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32.1 2. cited by S. Paul Rom. 4.7 8. to prove the Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works I may tell you from him Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit But if you be insensible of Sins unhumbled for them neither confess them freely nor bewail them mournfully fly not to the multitude of God's Mercies for Pardon trust to other things for Salvation then Christ's Merits find no change of your Hearts nor alteration of your Lives nor work of renewing Grace in your minds nor beg it of God as a thing most necessary for you I may truly say you stumble at the Stumbling-stone and that you will unless God awaken you and change your minds die in your Sins and perish for ever Be perswaded then to follow the Example of David S. Paul and other holy Saints find out by God's Law your Sins confess them to God bemoan them with hatred beg for Mercy in the Forgiveness of them trust to the Obedience of Christ in his dying for you his appearing with his Bloud before God magnify God's Grace and Christ's Love pray for a new Heart and study to live a holy Life and thou shalt be blessed Amen LAVS DEO THE TRUE PENITENT The Fifth SERMON PSALM li. 3. For I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me THIS Psalm is one of the Penitentials occasioned by the greatest Sins which David committed the greatest Rebuke which ever he underwent and therefore penned with the greatest Compunction of spirit and most vehement Deprecation of his Guilt and Punishment of any which he composed After the Inscription of the Psalm which shews that it was framed after his Conviction by Nathan the Prophet and the Denunciation of Divine Vengeance for his Adultery and Murther he instantly craves Pardon with variety of Expressions and most prevalent Motives doubling and redoubling his Petitions and adding this forcible Reason which the words of my Text yield For I acknowledge my Transgression c. Wherein 1. He professeth ingenuously his Agnition of his Transgressions as most hainous of deep dye Crimson Scarlet Sins Red Sins Bloud-guiltiness and damnable Uncleanness 2. That he did not slightly take notice thereof but that as his Sin stared in his face to his great Horrour so he set it before him for his deep Humiliation and that not onely for a fit while the Prophet's Conviction was fresh in his memory but for a continuance it was ever before him he mourned and intended to mourn for it all or most of his days to repent and abhor himself in dust and ashes God had set it before his face by his Prophet and he did set it continually before his face as an humble Penitent And therefore he importunes God with strong hope for mercifull Forgiveness In the Text we have many considerable things to be observed concerning the estate of an holy and humble Penitent As 1. He owns his Transgressions and his Sins as by and from himself My Transgression and My Sin 2. He doth not extenuate but aggravate them by various terms denoting their Criminousness Transgressions and Sin 3. He doth freely acknowledge and confess them to God and Men. 4. He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sin is ever before him He continues this Humiliation as just and equall by reason of the greatness of his Iniquity 5. He pleads this as a Reason to induce God to a compassionate relenting towards him and a gracious Condonation Of these briefly in their Order I. OBSERVATION A Penitent Sinner owns his Sin as from himself He doth not as Eve did father it on the Serpent or as Adam on Eve but imputes the acting of it to his own innate Pravity as the fountain and spring out of which it did issue And that is indeed a right derivation of it Every man saith S. James 1.14 15. is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lusts and enticed Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Perditio tua ex te O Israel said God to Israel Thy destruction is of thy self And the same may be said of all Sinners The Providence of God orders the Occasions of Sin but it is Man 's own Free will that chuseth to sin upon these Occasions God ordered Bathsheba's washing her self and David's walking on the roof of the house but he put not Lust into David's heart or the wicked contrivance of her Defilement Vriah's assaulting Rabbah and the Souldiers falling upon Vriah were by Divine Providence but the Plot of David and execution of it by Joab were of humane Maliciousness Impenitent Sinners charge their Wickedness on their ill Fortune unhappy Destiny unlucky Planet which is done with the like reason as if the Knife were to be blamed for a man's Self-murther or the Bread he eats as the cause that he is choaked or the Girdle he wears that he was strangled by it Planets and other natural Agents though they have Influence on the Body which may provoke to Evil yet they cannot necessitate the Mind to assent to it or to act accordingly Casual Concurrence of things may prompt but not compell to Sin Evil Company bad Counsel cruel Tyrants may have power on the Members not the Will It is true the Devil is the Father of Lies He that committeth Sin is of the Devil but were it not that
III. OBSERVATION Penitent Sinners such as David was do beg earnestly against the Loss of God's Presence as their greatest Calamity and pray for its Continuance as their chiefest Happiness The Holy Writings are full of such Petitions as these Let my sentence come forth from thy presence Psal 17.2 Make thy Face to shine upon thy servant Psal 31.16 Forsake me not O Lord O my God be not far from me Psal 38.21 Awake why sleepest thou O Lord arise cast us not off for ever Wherefore hidest thou thy face Psal 44.23 24. Return for thy servants sake Isa 63.17 Take away all Iniquity and receive us graciously Hos 14.2 As it is with a Child who misseth his Father he cries after him till he appears to him or as a Traveller that is out of his way and knoweth not what way to take nor what may become of him calls for his Guide to direct for his Company to help him So it is with a Repenting person who hath wandered out of his way he is sensible that he hath done foolishly in leaving God's way fears lest he shall become a prey to Satan finds the want of God's Guidance the need of his Assistence hereupon he cries aloud to God not to leave him he wrastleth with God as Jacob did when he feared his Brother Esau's hostile approach so as not to let him goe untill he bless him he weeps and makes Supplication till he becomes an Isaac one that prevails with God his Eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from Heaven he bewails his turning aside into crooked paths begs to be led into the way everlasting and to that end resolves to hold close to God for the time to come and to keep his way lest he by Recidivation and Relapse drive away God for ever For which purpose he begs God not to take away his Holy Spirit from him as being his best Guide and Guard in his Pilgrimage on Earth Which leads me to the consideration of the Second Petition in my Text but at present time will not permit me to handle it Of what hath been said give me leave to make some Application APPLICATION You that have fallen into any such gross Transgression as David's was remember to imitate him in his Return to God As his Sin was very great so this Penitentiall Psalm shews his Sorrow after God was very conspicuous working Repentance not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 What the Apostle said of the Corinthians guilty of Indulgence to the Incestuous person For behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what Carefulness it wrought in you yea what Clearing of your selves yea what Indignation yea what Fear yea what vehement Desire yea what Zeal yea what Revenge in all things ye have approved your selves to be clear in this matter the same was true of David and ought to be verified in every one of you chiefly in these things 1. To be sensible of the great danger of the Loss of God's Presence to know and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God and that his Fear was not in you when either by Wantonness or Intemperance or Profaneness or Unrighteousness or any other kind of Leudness though committed in secret from the eyes of man ye did Evil in God's sight and rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit so that he was turned away from you became your Enemy fought against you and left you to be insnared by the Devil and to be led captive by him according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Oh this is a thing you should mourn for as one mourneth for his onely Son and be in bitterness for his absence as one that is in bitterness for his first-born 2. For the time to come that with the spirit of Grace and Supplication you instantly press God to vouchsafe you his preserving guiding comforting aiding Presence that you may not be overcome by a like Temptation nor wander from God by Errour nor by Infirmity of your flesh yield to such Motions in you or Solicitations of others as may overcome you and prevail upon you to goe astray from God and leave him who is your Shepherd lest the Wolf of Hell catch you and tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Oh what-ever you doe watch and pray that God may lead you in the paths of Righteousness for his Name 's sake And what-ever Bait or Suggestion may be set before you yet remember that which Joseph thought on when he was enticed to Leudness by his Mistris How shall I doe this great Wickedness and sin against God Oh set God alwaies before you who being at your right hand you shall not be moved It will be your everlasting Comfort in life and death that you can say I was upright before God and kept my self from mine Iniquity While you live on Earth walk humbly obediently patiently with God Doe as Enoch did who had this testimony that he so walked with God as to please him and then you may be assured notwithstanding your former Falls yet at last to be translated if not as he was not to see death yet so as not to abide in death but to be with your Father for ever Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE HEAVENLY GIFT Part II. The Seventh SERMON PSALM li. 11. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me IN this Penitentiall Psalm of David wherein he applieth himself to God for the recovery of his Favour after his great Fall in the matter of Vriah as he sincerely confesseth his Sin and humbly beggeth Pardon so he doth earnestly deprecate God's Dereliction of him as being the most sad presage of his everlasting Perdition and the taking away his Holy Spirit from him as the inlet to Satan's possession of him and so the forerunner of his extreme Ruine I have heretofore considered his Petition against Ejection out of God's Presence the regaining of which is a most desirable thing to a Penitent Sinner and though it be forfeited by Sin yet is it recoverable by humble and earnest Supplication It now remains that I consider the other Prayer in my Text against the Privation of God's Spirit in these words And take not thy Holy Spirit from me For explication whereof it is requisite that it be shewed 1. What is meant by the Holy Spirit or Spirit of God's Holiness which he feared might be taken from him 2. How it is taken away from a person 1. The term Spirit is meant sometimes of God the Father as Joh. 4.24 where it is said that God is a Spirit sometimes of the Son as 2 Cor. 3.17 where it is said The Lord is that Spirit and sometimes of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity as 1 Joh. 5.6 where it is said It is the Spirit that beareth witness who is termed the Holy Ghost or Spirit and is all one with the Spirit
of his Holiness in my Text. Now he is so termed in opposition to the unclean Spirit Matth. 12.43 or evil Spirit and Spirit of Devils which are in some men as the Holy Spirit is in others For as the Heathens imagined that every man had his good Genius or his bad his good or bad Angel so the Holy Scripture expresseth the Motions of men to be from the Spirit of God's Holiness in them who are sanctified and from Satan in them who are unholy as in Cain and Judas Now the Spirit of God is sometimes spoke of as God's Instrument by which he works in the works of Creation Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created and thou renewest the face of the Earth Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life When God bringeth any great thing to pass he doth it by his Spirit Zech. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit That which is in Matth. 12.28 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God is in Luk. 11.20 If I with the finger of God cast out Devils whence it appears that the Spirit of God is Digitus Dei God's Hand or Finger whereby he works But especially the works God doeth in and for the Saints are ascribed to the Spirit of God All these things worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally even as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 All those precious Qualities and Operations whereby we please God are termed Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 23. 2. This helps us to understand how the Holy Spirit may be taken from a person to wit by withdrawing from him those Operations of the Holy Spirit which are amiable to God or comfortable to us Now in this Petition it is to be considered that notwithstanding David's Sins he was not utterly bereft of God's Spirit for in this Psalm his humble Confession his ardent Supplication shew that there was some fire of God's Spirit remaining in him all the sparks were not gone out Yet he felt so little of the Vigour and Consolation of the Spirit that he feared its utter Extinction And because this would leave him in utter Darkness therefore he is importunate with God that he would not take his Holy Spirit from him but as it is in the next verse restore unto him the joy of his Salvation and uphold him with his free Spirit The Petition thus opened yields us these Observations 1. That the having of God's Spirit in us and with us is the most beneficial Gift which God gives to a Repenting Sinner 2. That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit 3. That a Repenting Sinner is an earnest Suitour to God for the Continuance of it to him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That God's Spirit is the most beneficial Gift that God bestows on a Repenting Sinner This is manifest from the words of Christ Luk. 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good Gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Which shews that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is a greater Gift and far better then that which earthly Parents give to their Children as bodily Food and the like and that God in giving his Holy Spirit to those that ask him shews an Affection far exceeding that which Parents have for their Children when they supply them with Corporall sustenance Adde hereunto that the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.14 in his Benediction of the Corinthians prays thus for them The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all Amen Whereby it is manifest that the Communion of the Holy Spirit is ranked among the best things he could beg for that people to wit the Grace of Christ and the Love of God Nor is this without reason for the Spirit of God removes all that Evil which is odious to God and noisome to our selves it washes away that Filthiness of flesh and spirit which is loathsome to God it cures that Blindness of Mind that Hardness of Heart that Perverseness of Soul that Impotency of Faculties which make us unable to doe any thing that may please God or rectify our own Actions It is this clean Water which being sprinkled on us by God makes us clean in his eyes so as to cleanse us from all our Filthiness and all our Evils It is that by giving of which we have a new heart and a new spirit is put within us God takes away the stony heart out of our flesh and gives us an heart of flesh which causeth us to walk in God's Statutes and to keep his Judgments and doe them Ezek. 11.19 20. In whom the Spirit of God dwells not there is a Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they do not hear even the Gospel is hid to them the God of this world blinds their minds lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image God should shine unto them they are held in the Snare of the Devil and are taken captive by him at his will An evil Spirit possesseth them so that they want the Consolations of God the Peace which passeth understanding which guards the minds of them that believe through Christ Jesus they are filled with Horrour of Conscience are under the spirit of Bondage they sow to the Flesh and of the Flesh reap Corruption On the other side where the Spirit of God inhabits it renews a man in the spirit of his mind so that he knows the things that are freely given him of God spiritually discerns the hidden wisedom of God in a mystery which God hath ordained before the world to our glory even those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Even to Babes are these things revealed by God's Spirit which the Princes of the world knew not but they were hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 Whence it is that they are made the Epistle of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord they are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.3 18. By which means they are made the Temple of God in that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them vers 16. and holy unto God an habitation of God through the Spirit they are joyned to the Lord one Spirit with him new Creatures in Christ and conformed to him Whence it is that Sin bath not dominion over them nor the Wicked one toucheth them They are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein they were held
the Fountain the Wheel to be broken at the Cistern as Solomon poetically describes that State Eccles. 12.3 4 5 6. These and innumerable more Weaknesses are incident to Man whereof some are natural common to all some adventitious by our own Folly Mens Injuriousness the Creature 's Harmfulness God's just Judgments which happen to men Yet all these the Spirit of a man will sustain By the Spirit is no doubt meant the Soul of man with its vital Faculties his Reason Will and Affections of which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2.11 For what man hath known the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him But then it must be understood of the Spirit of a man in its Rectitude and Integrity opposite to a wounded Spirit as the Antithesis in the latter part of the verse shews This Rectitude or Integrity of the Spirit consists 1. In the right use of Reason which is indeed the Sinews of the Spirit The less there is of Reason the more is the imbecillity of the Spirit and the weaker the Mind the less is the Patience Children can bear nothing upon every Lash every motion of a Rod presently they cry an ugly Vizor any strange Noise or unexpected Accident affrights them So it is with weak-spirited persons they are ready to faint at every Threat every Frown of a Superiour they think every Symptom of a Disease presageth Death and presently the Physician must be fetcht every Rumour of War puts them to a stand what to doe where to be every Loss is as if they were undone every Difficulty apprehended is as a Lion in the way When Gideon bids Jether his first-born up and slay Zeba and Zalmunna though they were in his hands under his feet yet the youth drew not his sword for he feared because he was yet a youth Judg. 8.20 Rise thou said they then to Gideon and fall upon us for as the man is so is his strength As is the man's Reason and Understanding so is his Courage and Fortitude of Spirit Mens cujusque is est quisque It is not the height of the Stature nor the bigness of the Bone nor the length of the Arm nor the vigour of the Members that inable a person to bear or act A little man with a lively Spirit can fight better then a Giant that is slow in motion and dull in contrivance a cunning Vlysses will overcome Difficulties and bear Storms better then a lusty Ajax Necessitas fortiter ferre docet Consuetudo facilé Men that have much Wit to find ways of evasion Skill to apply themselves to persons and times to foresee Means and Events will wind themselves out of Troubles when a man of a rude and boisterous Spirit by his self-vexing his fretfulness and fuming doth but hamper himself the more like the Bird that flutters in the Net Custome also makes many a Disease born without Disquietness many a dangerous Storm adventured through without Fear The more Experience men have of overcoming Afflictions the more are they armed against them Any way whereby Reason is confirmed Infirmities are abated The Foresight of Evils approaching makes them the less formidable Those Darts pierce least which are foreseen best Reason is indeed a Buckler that bears off many Blows which would cut a Fool to the heart The Argument of the Apostle is rational 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to men and therefore should be born Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes Nemo recusat is Reason in the Poet. How admirable were the Resolutions how constant were the Actings of spirit in Stoicks in bearing their Sufferings by the help of Philosophy Pains of the Stone Torture of the Rack were stoutly born without a Groan upon such Apprehensions as these This Evil reacheth not Me but my Sheath what is common to me with Beasts not that which is mine The Writings of Seneca Epictetus Suetonius and others are full to this purpose so are the Relations of the Lives of Philosophers Certain it is that for the sustaining of humane Evils Prudence is much availing That of Solomon is true of it Eccles. 7.19 Wisedom strengtheneth the wise more then ten mighty men which are in the City 2. But then 2ly Reason is much more strong when there is with it a Breast-plate of Righteousness a Conscience of Uprightness This is indeed Armour of proof such as no Infirmities no sad Accidents can penetrate Then is the Spirit of a Man whole and sound able to bear its Burthens of Afflictions and Injuries when he is Integer vitae Scelerisque purus of an innocent Life and unspotted Conscience Yea such hath been the height of Confidence in some moral Heathens such their Heroick Gallantry that they have provoked the most barbarous Tyrants to doe their worst have gloriously triumphed in the severest Tortures have vaunted of an undaunted mind though Heaven and Earth should be tumbled together Si fractus illabatur Orbis Impavidum ferient Ruinae What glorious talk have the Stoicks of their Vertues as of themselves sufficient to make them happy under any Pressures What sullen if not well-composed Deportment of Spirit have some of them shewed under Racks Strappado's and such like Engines of Cruelty What Euthymy or Tranquillity of mind have they had in Sicknesses yea in Death when Conscientia rectè factorum the consciousness of their well-doing specially for their Country hath animated them like strong Wine which chears the heart Holy Believers have if not with so daring a Spirit yet with a calmer and more gentle Submission to the Will of God held up their heads under the greatest Rebukes of God's Hand or Satan's Malice when they have appealed to God concerning their Sincerity in their Obedience to God's Will When Hezekiah was sick unto death and Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said Thus saith the Lord Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live he turned his face towards the Wall and prayed unto the Lord and said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.1 2 3. He was under a mortal Disease with sense of killing Pain had a sharp Message by the Prophet which might cut him to the heart yet this did not sink him but that he held up so as in the Conscience of his Uprightness to urge God to revoke his Sentence and lengthen his Life But of all the Instances of mere mortal mens enduring Afflictions no Example is like that transcendent Mirrour of Patience holy Job for notwithstanding all the Adversities wherewith Satan had laden him notwithstanding the Provocation of his froward Wife notwithstanding the injurious Criminations of his evilsurmizing Friends and the cross Arguings wherewith they a long while baited him yet he stood firm fell not into any kind of Dejectedness of mind
gave it Which He grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE WEAKNESSE OF A Wounded Spirit Part II. The Ninth SERMON PROV xviij 14. But a wounded Spirit who can bear THE Life of man on Earth consists of Action and Passion of Doing his Work and Bearing his Condition And in both these there are innumerable Difficulties so that it becomes a hard Task either to doe what we ought or to suffer as it becometh us In Doing our Work we are commonly unskilfull and slothfull In Bearing our Burthens we are querulous and unquiet Man is born like a wild Asse's Coli saith Zophar Job 11.12 If you drive him he will not goe rightly if you put Burthens on him he will throw them off if he can if he cannot remove them he will wince and kick especially when his Back is sore his Mind galled in which case this of Solomon is by much experience found true A wounded Spirit who can bear So we reade but the Vulgar Latin hath it Who shall be able to sustain the Spirit that is easy to be angry But the word is more general and signifies not so much the Passions of one to be born by another in which case it is a truth That the Wrath Envy Insolency of some mens Spirits is intolerable as it is Prov. 27.4 Wrath is cruel and Anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before Envy But it is rather to be understood of the person's Spirit who is to bear Who of all men can bear his own Spirit when it is wounded or broken so as in that case his own Ability and all other mens is insufficient to bear up such a wounded Spirit Such a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek expresseth it one that hath but a little life in him It is onely God that revives the Spirit of the humble and revives the Heart of the contrite ones Isa 57.15 Now the Spirit is wounded or broken either by worldly Sorrows By Sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken saith Solomon Prov. 15.13 and S. Paul 2 Cor. 7.10 Worldly Sorrow causeth death or else it is broken by the sense of Guilt and the fear of Wrath. In respect of which David complains that his Bones were broken Psal 51.8 and more fully Psal 38.2 c. Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thy Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me to bear My Wounds stink and are corrupt through my foolishness I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I goe mourning all the day long For my Loyns are filled 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 In both these sorts of Wounds Experience hath proved the Imbecillity of mens Spirits to bear them or of any other man to keep them from falling untill there appear Deus è machina Divine help from Heaven So that I am to demonstrate to you That in the great Pressures of Spirit either through worldly Afflictions or by reason of the Conscience of Sin no man is able to hold up himself from sinking nor can any other support him besides God with the Reason hereof That God onely makes up the breach and closes the Wounds in the Spirit and how he doeth it That worldly Crosses break mens Spirits so as that they are weary of their Lives is evident in the instance of Ahitophel who was counted so wise a man that his Counsel was reputed as if a man had inquired of the Oracle of God yet barely because he saw his Counsell was not followed by Absalom God so over-ruling the heart of Absalom that he hearkened to Hushai rather then to himself his Spirit could not bear this Disappointment of his Design to be the grand Minister of State under Absalom but in stead of dissembling his Grievance he saddled his Ass got him home to his City put his house in order hanged himself died and was buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers 2 Sam. 17.23 Many more such Examples of men eminent in respect of Wisedome Dignity Power Wealth who upon some unexpected Loss Fear perhaps but the angry Looks of a Prince the Expulsion from Court or Deprivation of an Office have been impatient of their Lives and turned Executioners of themselves may be found in Histories or known by our own Experience And the Reason hereof is from the extreme Folly that is in men who lay so great a stress of their Happiness upon worldly things that when they fail them their case seems deplorable they have no Buttress to keep up their Spirits How great a number are there that trust in uncertain Riches and not in the living God And therefore when the Prop of their Wealth is gone then all is gone with them their Hearts are faint and they cast away their Life as if it were an unsupportable Burthen to them How many are there that depend on the Prince's Favour and make such account of Preferment by it that all their study is to get and keep it though with the loss of God's Favour But that being changeable and their Hopes thereupon frustrated there is no Acquiescence in God's Will but violent Impatience till they have dispatcht themselves How many have so set their Affections on some particular person as Amnon on Tamar that they wax lean from day to day because they cannot obtain their desire Yea the Inconstancy of their Mistress the miss of the hoped Match shortens their Lives brings down their heads with Sorrow to the Grave And it is just with God it should be so that those things should be cursed to us be as blasted Trees from which we seek that Fruit that Content and those Enjoyments which alone are to be had in God's Favour When our Hearts wander after some Creature and make it as our God love it trust in it in stead of God himself he will not brook it but remove it or make it our Vexation make it become our Perdition which was the means of our Corruption This is much more true when the Spirit is wounded by the Conscience of Sin against God In the former there is defect of Love to God in this express Enmity against him and therefore it is more intolerable Cain's Complaint Gen. 4.13 verifies this whether we reade My Punishment is greater then I can bear or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven How dolefull was his complaint when he said Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me vers 14. How terribly did the Sting of
it is said Thou art a God ready to pardon or a God of Pardons gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindness And the Prophet Isa 55.7 exhorts the wicked to return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon It is then one of God's Jewells which his Crown is set with that he is not as a cruell Tyrant or infernall Fiend with whom there is nothing but Cruelty and Mischievousness but as a gracious King or loving Father in whom is Clemency as well as Justice affectionate Forgiveness as well as severe Correction Which that we may the better conceive it being that on which our Life lies it will be requisite that we consider 1. What Sins God forgives 2. For what Motive 3. To whom he forgives them 4. Why he forgives them I. For the first our Saviour hath resolved it in express terms Mark 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you All Sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness but is in danger of eternall Damnation What this Sin is and whether any be at this day guilty of it is a Question that requires some disquisition The Schoolmen as Aquinas make six Species of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Despair Presumption Impenitency Obstinacy Impugning the acknowledged Truth and Envying our Brother's Grace Protestant Divines taking in other Texts out of the Epistles to the Hebrews and Titus and out of S. John's 1. Epistle have formed such a Definition as this That it is a Blaspheming against the Gospel of Christ testified by a clear Conviction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Blasphemer arising out of a spightfull Hatred and obstinate Rejection of that Truth and Testimony of and by which he was convinced causing an oppugning of it and the Avouchers of it upon the strong possession Satan hath got in his Heart But the Text Mark 3.30 in which it is added Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit doth seem to restrain it to that spightfull belying Christ's Miracles done by the Spirit of God most evividently so as that they could not gainsay it as if they were done by the Prince of Devils and Christ were possessed and acted by an Unclean Spirit Which makes it very probable that none at this day can as things are commit it there being no such Miracles now done as can evidently shew the Operation of the Holy Spirit to be blasphemed as it was by the Pharisees Nor is Julian the Apostate sufficiently proved however so judged by some of the Ancients to have committed this Sin Much less have any of those doubting Souls who by reason of their Tenderness of Conscience which makes them very jealous and fearfull of their own Condition have been apt to charge themselves with this Sin any reason so to doe they being guilty of no such Blasphemy in words Rejecting of Christ Speaking evil of his Spirit or its Operations Oppugning of the Gospel or the Believers of it nor of any Obstinacy in any course of open Persecution or Disclaiming Christ and his Gospel Perhaps this which I have said may be of great use to some doubting and troubled Spirits who put themselves on the Rack through Mistakes arising from the Weakness of their Understandings and the Fearfulness of their Hearts As for any other Sins they are not in their own nature unpardonable other Blasphemies are pardonable Peter's Denying Christ though with Cursing himself if he knew him yet had Pardon Manasseh though notorious for his Cruelties as filling Jerusalem with innocent Bloud even of the Prophets of God though infamous for his setting up the most abominable Idolatries of the Gentiles though proceeding so far as to use Familiar spirits yet when he was humbled and prayed to God in his Affliction God heard him and forgave him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. I instance in these as seeming to come nighest to the Sin against the Holy Ghost the one sinning against Knowledge after Warning and solemn Promise to the contrary the other offending in the most hainous manner in Sins of the greatest Guilt with extreme Wilfulness and Violence Not to mention the Sins of David or Lot or Noah or Solomon If Cain meant it as the Vulgar Latin hath it Gen. 4.13 My Sin is greater then can be forgiven it might well be replied to him Mentiris Cain Thou liest Cain Thy Sin might have been forgiven if thou hadst had a penitent Heart and hadst begged Pardon from God Though in the Law God would not forgive some Sins as Blasphemy Murther Adultery Sins with an high hand so as to expiate them by Sacrifice and free the Sinner from death though God sware to Eli that the Iniquities of his House should not be purged with Sacrifice nor Offerings for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 though he never will pardon the Sin of Devils of Judas the Son of Perdition nor the final Impenitent and Unbeliever Yet Christ tells us plainly No kind of Sin or Blasphemy except one but is pardonable to the sons of men II. But then upon what Motive God forgiveth Sins is to be farther considered They that say that any Sins against God are venial ex genere suo the whole kind of them of their own Nature as having an evil or inordinate thing for their Object but not against the Love of God or our Neighbour or by reason of the Smalness of the matter in which or the sudden Motion by which they are done speak otherwise then the Scripture which makes the Wages of Sin simply and every Sin death Rom. 6.23 and him cursed who continues not in every thing written in the Law to doe it Gal. 3.10 They derogate from the efficacy of Christ's Bloud which alone is it that cleanseth from all Sin make it a light matter to sin against the Most high and infinite Majesty would excuse our First Parents Sin and harden men in Impenitency And when they make voluntary Works of Penance Satisfaction for such Sins Priests Absolutions Popes Pardons and saying of Divine Offices for the Sinner sufficient to take away the Guilt of Sin against God though they provide for their accursed Gain yet they derogate from the Necessity and alone Sufficiency of Christ's Bloud who is the onely Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins and the Sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. We learn Heb. 9.22 that without shedding of bloud is no Remission and that though the Sacrifices of the Law might procure Forgiveness in respect of some Penalties and sanctify to the purifying of the Flesh yet that it is the Bloud of Christ alone who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that can purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God vers 14. and that it is for Christ's sake whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith
then this that he meditates on God's Precepts and hath respect unto his Ways Oh that it might be verified of each of you that you have the same Mind that David had But alas how far are men degenerated from this Patriarch how few write after his Copy Survey the Motions of your Mind of your Tongues of your Eyes you will I fear find too little of David's Imployment used by you Do not your Inquiries your Conscience your Practice shew how little your Thoughts are upon God his Being his Counsells Commands or Works How sedulously do you eye and observe what Way is most in credit at Court what Disposition is in the Grandees of the Times what is the most taking way for Preferment in the Land what the most conducible either to get Wealth or else to procure Ease or Pleasure Are not these things or such like all that is sought after or minded when we are still asking after News at Court in City or Country when we listen so greedily after what Intelligence the most inquisitive men can give us of these things But seldome do you apply your selves to know how to rectify your Consciences by right Information concerning God's Will little notice do you take of God's stirring up your Hearts to pray his answering your Prayers or rewarding your Obedience or punishing your Transgressions How few Memorialls are kept either of publick Plagues or common Deliverances How solicitous are we to please Men how careless to please God how intent and diligent to promote our Earthly how negligent and slack to farther Heavenly-Designs Deceive not your selves such a posture of your Spirits shews an Estrangedness from the Life that is in God and manifests want of interest either in his Favour here or Glory hereafter Learn rather with the Psalmist to meditate on God's Works and to talk of his Doings to hearken what the Lord God will say to doe as the Prophet Hab. 2.1 to stand upon your Watch and set you upon the Tower and watch to see what he will say to you and what you shall answer when you are reproved In a word That God may have his Eye on you for good you must have your Eyes on his Ways to serve him sincerely and glorify him perpetually Which he grant for Christ's sake To whom c. Amen LAVS DEO DAVID's JOY The Eighteenth SERMON PSAL. cxxij 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe into the House of the Lord. THIS Psalm is intituled to David and it is very probable that it was then composed by him when he brought the Ark of God to Jerusalem and there fixed the Seat of his Kingdome over Israel and ordered the Services of the Temple with the Officers of Justice for which a solemn Gratulation was made 1 Chron. 16. And to shew that now he was Voti compos had attained the great Desire of his Soul Psal 42.1 2. in somewhat a like Affection to that of Simeon when he found Christ he congratulates the joynt Alacrity of the people with him in the words of my Text I was glad when they said unto me c. It is true the Temple was not built by David but by Solomon his Son yet David had prepared a place for the Ark of God in his City and pitched for it a Tent where there were offered Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings before the Lord 1 Chron. 15.1 and 16.1 and certain of the Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark of the Lord and to record and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel 1 Chron. 16.4 For which reason it became the House of the Lord then and thither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel the Ark of the Testimony to give Thanks unto the Name of the Lord vers 4. of this Psalm And for this he expresseth his exceeding Gladness in my Text. Whence we may observe I. David's pious Disposition He prefers the Honour of God before his own Dignity Though the Settling of the Kingdome on him were matter of much Joy specially after so long a Persecution as he had undergone during Saul's life and those so frequent and sad Removals and Flittings from place to place which made him bewail his Condition Psal 120.5 6. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar My Soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth Peace Yet as that which cut him most to the Heart in his Exile was his Absence from the Tabernacle and those bitter Sarcasms of his Enemies when they said to him insultingly Where is now thy God so now he most rejoyceth that he is restored to the House of God that now God's Worship was begun to be solemnized and he with the people of Israel frequented it with Gladness This was the constant frame of David's Spirit as may appear in that he laid aside his Robes of Royal Majesty and putting on a linen Ephod in company of the Priests danced before the Ark and when he was derided by Michal his Wife as if it shewed Lightness in him he justified himself as being guilty of no Indecency since it was before the Lord who had chosen him before her Father and before all his House to appoint him Ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel He knew his Exaltation was from God his Favour was better to him then his Kingdom therefore in it he rejoyced more then in his Regality and thought he could not rejoyce enough in the Lord nor sufficiently debase himself before him and this made him resolutely tell his Wife that he would play before the Lord and be more vile then thus and base in his own sight being assured that this was the ready way to his Honour 2 Sam. 6.21 22. And not content with this demonstration of his glorying in God in the next Chapter vers 2. he complains of it as a reason of his Discontent that he dwelt in a house of Cedar when the Ark of God dwelt within Curtains So true was it of him which he professeth Psal 69.9 The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Which was more exactly and amply fulfilled in our Lord Christ to whose Purging of the Temple from the profane and unrighteous Abuses thereof the first part is applied Joh. 2.17 and the second to his Sufferings for his Faithfulness towards the Spiritual House of God by testifying the Truth of God notwithstanding the Contradiction of Sinners Rom. 15.3 That this is a Duty common to all to prefer the Honour of God and the Service of his House before any Grandeur or Concernment of our own is abundantly manifest from the Precedency of the First Table of the Law before the Second the Precept of Loving God before the Command of Loving our Neighbour from our petitioning according to the Lord's Prayer for the Hallowing God's Name the Coming of his Kingdome the Doing
that I desire besides thee My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my Trust in the Lord God Such Apprehensions as these do affect the Spirits of a man as the breaking out of the Sun doth the Eyes after it hath been overcast with thick Clouds in the day or concealed by the Darkness of the night Then the Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun So it is with the Soul after such Perplexities and Affrightments and Disconsolations of Spirit as are incident to the most holy Saint by reason of the seeming Disorders and dismall Occurrences in the world which are obvious to him When he recollects himself and determines against all Arguings ad oppositum that the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of hoasts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Psal 84.11 12. then he delights himself in the Lord as the most pleasant and eligible Good thing as his Sun and his Shield and accordingly fixes his Contemplations on God quickens chears confirms raises up his Spirits in the remembrance of him expresses himself in holy Hymns in devout Prayers in wise Observations of his Doings in commemorating of his Works and his Word in holy Conferences and such like ways as shew that none is so amiable to him as God none to be adhered to in comparison of him none to be glorified like unto God Conformably hereto he delights in the Consideration of God's most excellent Being that he is not like the Vanities of the Nations that he is the living God and an everlasting King that in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength that there is none holy as the Lord no Rock like unto our God that great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is infinite that he is mercifull and gracious abundant in Goodness and Truth He delights also in the beholding and observation of his Works which however they are not minded by them who are alienated from the Life that is in God yet to the Godly enlightned Soul they appear Great so that in Admiration of them he is affected like the Psalmist Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Psal 104.24 In wisedom hast thou made them all and rulest all He is holy in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works and therefore are they sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His Work is honourable and glorious and his Righteousness endureth for ever And hereupon the Psalmist resolves Psal 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Nor is his Delight less in God's Word then in his Works I will praise thy Name saith David Psal 138.2 for thy Loving-kindness and for thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name And thus he often professeth that the Word of God his Judgments were more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold sweeter then Hony and the Hony-comb that not onely his Word of Promise was his Comfort in his Affliction for by it he was quickened but that he greatly delighted in God's Commands they were the Joy of his heart And Holy Job 23.12 I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary Food But Holy mens greatest Delight in God is when by Faith in Christ they apprehend God to be their God and they his People that he dwells in them they are his Temple that they are made by him Kings and Priests to him by his Spirit that he is their Father through Christ they his Children that they have access to him by the Faith of Christ and are assured of an Inheritance above with him When they understand this that Christ is All to them they delight in the Almighty and lift up their face unto God with Joy as it is Job 22.26 Now this indeed is best for the Godly thus to delight themselves in the Lord even in their own lowest Conditions and their Oppressours highest because the greatest Good that Evil men have is but vain Be it Plenty Peace Honour Liberty Power Pleasure or what-ever else is valued by men that have their Portion in this life it is but an imperfect fading vexing Good much of it is such as Beasts injoy more fully then they who have more Delight in their Food and sensitive Pleasure then Men have Applause Honours Wealth are but Toys such as Childish persons delight in rather then wise Men. Philosophers by the Light of Nature have censured them as empty of reall Worth not good because they made not the Possessours of them good Wisedom and Vertue are by them preferred before them Yea they bring often much Vexation in stead of Delight In acquiring and Using them is much Vanity In the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull Solomon styles it Madness But Delight in the Lord is the most rationall exquisite durable Delight far above not onely Epicurus his Pleasure and Zeno's Vertue and Seneca's Tranquillity of mind but also Solomon's Glory his Wisedom his Knowledge of the Properties of Natural bodies and what-ever Excellency short of Acquaintance with God he was endued with He confesseth as much in the close of his Penitentialls and before him his Father David Psal 4.6 7. There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased This makes the Saints delight in Prayer and Praise and other Worship of God it being their Privilege as well as their Duty to delight themselves in the Lord Isa 58.14 and according to the Desire of their Heart Which brings me to the II. OBSERVATION That they who delight themselves in the Lord shall have their Hearts Desire and in fine speed better then they who are in the most illustrious estate of Wicked men The principal Desire of one that delights himself in God is to glorifie God that is the main End of such as glory in God that they may doe all to his Glory Therefore are they taught to make this their first Petition Hallowed be thy Name and to that end to pray Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in God's most severe Dealings with them they say with those Isa 26.8 Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee To which that of the Apostle Phil. 1.20 is consonant According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always
Christ 1. In Dying with him and that First to the World If ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Col. 2.20 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is crucified to me and I unto the World Gal. 6.14 Secondly to Sin Rom. 6.6 7 8. Knowing this that our Old man is crucified with him that the body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin For he that is dead is freed from Sin Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall live with him Thirdly by Suffering with him It is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. If so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Rom. 8.17 2. In his Resurrection and that First by walking in Newness of Life Like as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of his Father even so we also should walk in Newness of Life and thereby be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.4 5. Secondly by living to God As Christ in that he liveth liveth unto God so those that have put on Christ reckon themselves to be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord they yield themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and their Members as instruments of Righteousness unto God Rom. 6.10 11 13. Thirdly in seeking the things above as their Treasure as the Apostle inferrs Col. 3.1 2. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your Affections on things above not on things on the Earth I have insisted the longer on this Point of the Path of Life because it is the main thing that concerns us to know III. How God makes known or shews this Path of Life to them This Question is not hard to be resolved from that which hath been already said God shewed Christ the Path of Life 1. By his Promise to him mentioned before at his coming into the world 2. By his Providence he make it known experimentally to him when he was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father To us he makes known the Ways of Life 1. By his Son 's Appearing and his Gospel who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to life through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2. By his Spirit which he gives whereby we are assured that through it mortifying the deeds of the Body we shall live Rom. 8.13 We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 IV. Why God doth shew them this Path of Life The Reason of God's making known the Way of Life to Christ and to us is one and the same That as thereby Christ was to be strengthened in all his Temptations in all his Sufferings animated in all his Obedience to his Father's Will by having an eye to the Life which was propounded to him so should all the Disciples of Christ be confirmed in all their Sufferings encouraged in all their Actings for Christ by their Assurance of Life with Christ that they may live by Faith and not be of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul Heb. 10.38 39. That with Moses they may chuse rather to suffer Afflictions with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt as having respect unto the recompence of the Reward Heb. 11.25 26. Wherefore Christ assures Believers in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God To the Church of Smyrna vers 10 11. Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death To the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life APPLICATION I may say now with Moses Deut. 30.15 19. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evill Chuse therefore Life and take hold of the Paths of it Life is a thing naturally desired It is true in extreme Anguish men chuse Strangling rather then Life In his Fits of sore Pain Job was in such a mood as to desire Death most earnestly and to abhor Life Yet simply every living thing would fain live it struggles and strives what it can to keep Life men spare no cost to continue it though it be but for a while and that not without a mixture of Sorrow and Trouble to which the best Life on Earth is obnoxious Life we say is sweet nor is the Devil taken for a Liar in this when he saith Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life Job 2.4 But alas this Life is too much prized and that is the reason why a greater Death is consequent upon the immoderate affecting of it because they would still live here many die for ever in Hell That Life the Way of which was shewed to Christ and now to you is indeed worthy your knowing worthy your embracing and pursuing It is a holy Life a happy Life a safe Life an eternall Life If you live in Christ you shall live with Christ if you live in the Spirit you shall be quickened by the Spirit if you live the Life of God you shall live in his Presence In a word if you walk in the Paths of Life which I have this day shewed you you shall live not the Life of Men onely but of holy Angels you shall live a Life as far beyond the Life of Kings as Heaven is above the Earth The Life of the best and happiest Kings hath been attended with much Care and many Dangers nor is any Prince's Life-time so splendid but that the Day is sometimes darkened over him and Storms beat on him and perhaps his Sun sets in a Cloud 'T is otherwise to be conceived of this Life when once attained it is never darkened never eclipsed never ended Oh that you would then learn to die with Christ to Sin to the World to live by the Faith of the Son of God to be conformed to him by putting on the same mind that was in Christ to live to God to doe not your own will but the will of your Father which is in Heaven to commit your Souls in well-doing when you suffer for him as to a faithfull Creatour Is the Loss of Credit Goods Peace Liberty Life terrible to you Why the Life
propounded to you will sweeten all Death it self though the King of Terrours is to them that are in Christ as a Serpent without a Sting which you may handle without Danger without Fear it will but as the Poets feign of Medea's Medicaments let out your old Bloud and beget new Life When I consider the voluptuous and worldly Life of most it pities me to think that Men made to live like Angels should chuse to live more Pecudum a Life not higher then the Life of Beasts that those who are made for God for Christ for Heaven to live there should terminate their Thoughts Affections Endeavours on things on Earth on Money gay Cloathing Mirth Riot Pomp State Favour of men Vain-glory and such like momentany things which must pass away and likely lead men to Hell and end in a Life with Devils Oh follow Christ I beseech you If you value your Souls cast them not away on Trifles Learn the Path that Christ chose to Life follow him and you shall live with him Let I beseech you the serious Warning of Christ Matth. 7.13 14. take impression on you Enter ye in at the streight Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the Way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be which goe in thereat But streight is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Let your drowzy spirits heed S. Paul's monitory Alarm Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Life Amen LAVS DEO GOD's PRESENCE Fulness of Joy Part II. The Twenty-second SERMON PSAL. xvi 11. In thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore THIS Psalm is a Golden Psalm of David and the words which I have read to you make the Close of it which whether they are meant of Christ or of David or both and so are applicable to Christ and his Members hath been formerly considered In reference to both the First Proposition in them hath been already handled and therein the Encouragement which Christ had and all Believers have in their Sufferings by God's shewing them the way of Life hath though much short of what so precious an Argument deserved been somewhat unfolded to you That which is yet farther to be insisted on is the latter part of the Verse in which I told you are contained two more Observations 2. That in God's Presence there is Fulness of Joy or Satiety of Joys before his Face to Christ and all Believers 3. That at his right hand they shall have Pleasures for evermore or Pleasures at his right hand to perpetuity This latter S. Peter omits in his Citation of this Scripture Act. 2.25 c. Yet it is not improbable but he alludes to it vers 33. where he useth these words Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and that the Holy Ghost intended it for a Prediction of Christ's Ascension and Sitting at the right hand of God and so it is applicable both to Christ's Exaltation and our sitting together with Christ in heavenly places of which S. Paul speaks Eph. 2.6 But the former is expresly mentioned with some little difference in the Reading Thou shalt fill replenish or make me full of Joy or Gladness with thy Countenance Face or Presence And it is alleged as being the Cordial that strengthned and restored the Spirits of Christ in his Agony at his Death which is intimated in that speech of the Authour to the Hebrews 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God which shews that both in the Garden and on the Cross our Saviour had his Eye on the Joy that was set before him as the Prop and Basis that did support him in those extreme Passions and heavy Burthens which no other Shoulders but his could bear so as not to sink under their pressure And S. Peter tells us 1 Epist 1.11 That the Prophets searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow or the Glories after them Which shews that the Prophets did testifie before-hand together with the Sufferings of Christ the Glories after them which no doubt was done in Isa 53. Psal 22. and in many other places of which number I question not but these words of my Text are by S. Peter's alleging them Act. 2.28 My II. OBSERVATION I shall consider in these Four Propositions 1. That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance 2. That there is a Fulness in these Joys 3. That these Joys in their Plenitude or Fulness belong to Christ and those who believe on him to eternal Life 4. That the Assurance and Expectation of these Joys was the grand Encouragement and Support of Christ in his Obedience active and passive and is so still to all the Holy Saints who doe and suffer according to the Will of God I. PROPOSITION That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance The same is in other words taught us Psal 36.9 For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy Light that is in the Light of thy Countenance we shall see Light that is Joy and Gladness according as it is explicated Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in heart To like purpose is that passage Psal 30.5 In his Favour is Life Weeping may endure for a night or in the evening but Joy cometh in the morning Though in the Night-time or Evening when the black Veil of Death covers their Faces there is Sadness and Weeping even to the Righteous yet Joy comes in the Morning of the Resurrection when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear with Healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and they shall see the Face of God The better to conceive this we must consider 1. What Joy is 2. What Joys are in the Presence of God 3. And from what Cause or Motive they come I. What Joy is Joy is that Affection of the Soul whereby it embraceth some present or future Good For there is a Rejoycing in Hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12.12 Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 Now of all Affections this is the sweetest to a man's self as Love is the sweetest to others Joy is that which chears the Spirits enlargeth the Heart which is shrivell'd up and contracted like a Purse by Grief and Fear It makes the Countenance lightsome the Feet and other Members lively and nimble furthers the Concoction of our Meat makes our Sleep which refresheth the body sweet to us And therefore Joy is most sutable to the Will of man and if the Mind be in its
not the Truth but had pleasure in Vnrighteousness And it is indeed just with God that they who forsake him should be forsaken by him which must of necessity be their Downfall for mens own Counsells are but as rotten Posts which if they be shaken the House will fall of it self All the Thoughts and Devices of man are but vain even the Wisedom of the world is Foolishness with God for it is written He taketh the wise in their own Craftiness and again The Lord knoweth the Thoughts of the wise that they are vain 1 Cor. 3.19 20. It is with Men as with Sheep that wander from their Pasture and Shepherd they are caught and made a Prey to Wolves and Foxes so those who leave God's Counsell and chuse their own Ways are easily beguiled and enslaved by Satan to their Destruction But which is the II. OBSERVATION It is the Safety of God's Servants that they are guided by his Counsell There is a twofold Counsell of God The first is that Counsell by which he guides himself of which the Apostle speaketh Ephes 1.11 that God worketh all things after the Counsell of his own Will and of which the Psalmist saith Psal 33.10 11. that The Lord bringeth the Counsell of the Heathen to nought he maketh the Devices of the people of none effect The Counsell of the Lord standeth for ever the Thoughts of his Heart to all generations And this Counsell of God is oft times contrary to Man's and clean different from Man's Imaginations For though there are many Devices in man's heart nevertheless the Counsell of the Lord that shall stand Prov. 19.21 Hereby he asserts his own Singularity Independency and Sovereign Dominion as Isa 46.9 10. Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying My Counsell shall stand and I will doe all my Pleasure This is not that Counsell of God by which he guides his Servants to Glory this being the Secret which belongs onely to the Lord. But it is the Thing revealed which belongs to us that we may hear it and doe it it is this Counsell of God whereby he guides his people and brings them to Glory And though it be true that even this is a Secret in respect of the World the Great things of God's Law are strange things to them the Mystery of Godliness is so profound so confessedly great as that none of the Princes of the world knew it yea when it was in Christ opened it was the hidden Wisedom of God in a mystery containing such things as Eye had not seen nor Ear heard nor had entred into the Heart of man to conceive even the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Yet it was ordained by God before the world to our Glory and revealed to his people by his Spirit who have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely given them of God as it is 1 Cor. 2.12 This Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant This is not either an imaginary Light in every man conceived by deluded Quakers as sufficient to guide them to God nor is it any peculiar Enthusiasm such as Fanatick spirits have been deceived by nor any such Dreams and Apparitions as Friers and Monks have themselves been abused by and miss-led other persons in times of Ignorance nor any such vain Raptures or Conceits as those whereby men have been so lifted up as to despise others as Pygmies in Knowledge in respect of themselves or to fansie as if they were of God's Privy Councill But the Counsell of God by which he guides his Servants is his Word containing his Precepts his Promises and what-ever Revelations in Holy Scripture he hath delivered for our learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scripture might have hope especially the word of the Truth of the Gospell such as S. Paul meant Act. 20.20 21 24 26 27. when he said to the Ephesians that he kept nothing back that was profitable to them but testified to Jews and Greeks Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ the Gospell of the Grace of God so that he was pure from the bloud of all men in that he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole Counsell of God This is that Counsell of God which makes men wise unto Salvation or brings to Glory And with this Counsell of his he guides his Servants 1. By the Preaching of it in the Ministry of the Gospell of Christ which is the Power of God unto Salvation Rom. 1.16 2. By the Operation of his Spirit by which they with open face behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Hereby they have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 To which may be added such speciall Guidance as either by joynt or solitary Prayer Christian Conference Self-examinations particular Experiments secret Motions Illuminations and Warnings remarkable Providences God vouchsafes some of his Children in Temptations against fears of Persecution attempts of Corrupters apprehension of Divine Desertion against all such Scandalls and other Evils as become Precipices into which Souls are cast or Snares and Stumbling-blocks by which they are apt to be overthrown And by this Counsell of God their Feet are guided into the way of Peace and Safety and they after brought to Glory Which is my III. OBSERVATION That those whom God guides by his Counsell he doth at last bring to Glory The Glory which the Psalmist may here mean especially if David were the Penner of this Psalm is not unlikely to be the Glory which he expected in being made King of Israel it being probable that this Psalm was composed in the time of his Persecution under Saul during which he complained that his Enemies did live and were mighty and they that hated him wrongfully were many in number Psal 38.19 Yet no doubt he also had an eye to the Glory which he expected after this Life So Psalm 17. having prayed to the Lord vers 14 15. to deliver his Soul from the Wicked which were his Sword from the men of this world which had their portion in this Life whose bellies God filled with his hid treasures so as that they were full of Children and left the rest of their Substance to their Babes he declares his expectation to be of a higher kind vers 18. As for me I will behold thy face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness And this the phrase of receiving him to Glory after his guiding him by his Counsell doth most clearly intimate And indeed this is the thing which
shall enquire 1. What is this Walking in a man's Vprightness 2. How this demonstrates the Fear of the Lord 3. What Advantage accrues to a man that walketh in his Uprightness and feareth the Lord. Of these in their order I. What it is for a man to walk in his Vprightness Walking in the primitive acception thereof imports a natural progressive Motion of the Body and Vprightness is that Position of the Body according to which it is so placed as not to incline to one hand more then the other but to be even set between both But in the Metaphorical sense in which hundreds of times this Expression is used in Holy Scripture it signifies the moral Motion of the Mind and Members of a Man as he is a rational Being to be regulated by the Law of his Maker And so it supposeth the Actings of the Understanding Will Affections and Members of a man in an orderly and constant Course out of a vital spiritual Principle in him by a certain Rule from one term of his Motion to another for the attaining of his End Whence it is evident that as to Bodily Walking there are many things requisite or presupposed so to the Spiritual Walking of the Soul or Man in his Uprightness there belong sundry things either as presupposed or required without which he cannot be said to walk in his Uprightness As it is with our Body while we live on Earth there will still be some Motion Man is born to Labour as the Sparks fly upward God hath given to the sons of men sore Travail to be exercised therewith so it is also with the Soul there are stirrings of Thoughts Desires which cause elicit Acts of the Will in its Purposes and imperate Acts in setting the Members of the Body on work for avoiding Evil or obtaining some supposed Good And as corporal Motion is not in an instant but requires Time more or less so for the contriving and prosecuting such Designs as the Will pitches upon the whole Life of man is imployed Likewise as there is in Walking some Place or Person from which or from whom the Motion begins and to which or whom it tends which are called in Philosophy the Terminus à quo the bound from whence and the Terminus ad quem the bound to which it is directed so are there in the moral Actions of the Soul and Members some like Bounds persons are either turned from God after Satan or they are turned from the power of Satan unto God they either move from or to Heaven or Hell Life or Death And as there is a Way in all Walking of the Body in which the Motion is performed Motus est super immobile there must be some fixt and settled thing which men ordinarily walk upon they do not move as Fishes in the Sea or Birds in the Air whose Way hath no fixed Path so it is in mens Walking spiritually there is a broad Way which leadeth to Destruction or a narrow Way which leadeth to Life a Way of Satan's or a Way of God's in which every man walks And as there is in man's Walking a vital locomotive Principle which is well or ill ordered according to the Sight and the state of the Members and such Guidance as is from others Direction so that sometimes for want of Sight or Light a person stumbles and falls or by reason of Mistakes from himself or Mis-direction of other persons he errs and never attains to that which he moves towards sometimes he prospers in his Motion seeing his Way aright heeding it not fainting but holding on to the end of his Journey So it is in mens Spiritual Walking there is a wrong and a right Principle which moves their Mind and Will they walk after the Flesh or after the Spirit their Way is either Satan's or God's his Dictates or God's Precepts they walk in Darkness or in the Light either they are weary of well-doing and goe back to Perdition and turn aside to crooked Ways or else they discern the Errour of their ways chuse the Way of Life goe on with Alacrity and liveliness therein and persevere to the end Also as in Bodily Walking the Motion is not per Saltum one Step or Leap doth not begin and end it but it is progressive there is Step after Step one slower another quicker one part of the Way is sooner and with less trouble and danger passed over then the other So it is in the Spiritual Walking the Actings of the Mind and Will are not performed all together neither the immanent nor transient Acts of a man whether right or wrong are done at once but some one hour some another with various Success with diversity of Ability and Speed and Event by reason of the Assistence or Hindrance of concurrent Accidents or Causes which do frequently alter both the Motion and the Consequence of it such as are the Temptations of Satan or the Influence of God's Spirit the Society of evil Company or the Converse with Godly persons corrupt Teachers or holy Pastours outward estate of Prosperity or Adversity with many other things which occasion mens Progress to be more or less expedite either to the better or the worse Thus I have somewhat opened to you what this Walking is in general It is now farther necessary that I shew you more specially what is this Walking of a man in his Uprightness which shews he fears the Lord. 1. For a man who feareth the Lord to walk in his Uprightness it is necessary that he set his face towards God that is that he propound God's Glory and the obtaining of his Favour as his End In all such Actions as are rational it is the End propounded by the Doer which hath a chief sway in the denominating of them good Finis dat Mediis Amabilitatem Many brave Exploits done by heroical men onely to immortalize their Names to spread their Fame though they were advantageous to the people of their Generation yet being not acted out of Dutifulness to God as the impulsive to exalt God as the final Cause they were but splendida Peccata glistering Sins like Gloe-worms or Wood that seems to shine in the dark but is nothing else but rotten matter or mere Dirt. He that walks uprightly stoops not down to the Earth nor pores on his own Cloaths but looks upwards to something higher then himself towards Heaven Pharisees Alms Fasting Prayers though much esteemed by themselves and other men were not regarded by God as being done for themselves not for God But such Actions as are done without Ostentation with an eye to God's Approbation though in secret and of no account with men yet are they in the sight of God of great price as S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 3.4 of the hidden man of the Heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit The Rectitude of the Heart is most conducible to a man's upright walking which emboldned Hezekiah thus to
Desire of all Nations and that he was the Person whom the Godly did delight in and expect for what Reason appears by the III. OBSERVATION That the Certainty of the coming of Christ's Day was the Spring of Joy the Basis of Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits to Believers of old in the days of their Pilgrimage on Earth For this we have the words of S. Peter Act. 2.25 26 30. That David being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his Loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne spake concerning Christ that therefore did his Heart rejoyce and his Tongue was glad and his Flesh did rest in hope And Heb. 11.26 it is said that by Faith Moses esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt And of Simeon it is said that he waited for his coming in the Flesh as the Consolation of Israel and accordingly when he had seen him he took him up in his Arms and blessed God and said his Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.25 28 29 30. And conformable to these was also the frame of Spirit in all the Holy Believers when he appeared in the Flesh As persons over-joyed they were in a Rapture of Comfort so as that they could not contain themselves but must break out into holy Hymns of Praise My Soul doth magnifie the Lord said his Mother and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour For he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden And Blessed be the Lord God of Israel said Zacharias for he hath visited and redeemed his People and hath raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the House of his Servant David When the Wise men of the East saw his Star they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Matth. 2.10 And when the Angel had told the Shepherds that he brought them good Tidings of great Joy which should be to all People of the Birth of Christ in the City of David upon which there were with the Angel suddenly a multitude of the Heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men the Shepherds in hast went to view Christ in the Manger and upon their Return glorified and praised God Hallelujahs were then the Exercise of all that knew of his Birth and so they were of all the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets when they did by Divine Revelation foresee and by Faith wait for his Coming And the same spirit of Joy shewed it self after in all those that saw his Day either with their bodily Eyes or by the Eye of Faith When Andrew finds Peter as over-joyed he tells him We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ When Philip finds Nathanael he is in the same tune We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Joh. 1.41 45. And of succeeding Believers S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory So that I may by an Induction of Particulars raising the Observation from the Hypothesis to the Thesis conclude universally That the Day of Christ is to all Believers the Spring of their Joy the Basis of their Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits in the days of their Pilgrimage upon Earth The Reasons whereof are common to all Believers Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Though the Mystery of the Gospell was not so clearly nor so fully revealed before as it was by the Apostles Preaching but from the beginning of the world was in a sort hid in God yet in no Age was there Salvation in any other none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved He onely hath been the Way the Truth and the Life so that none come to the Father but by him Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and all the rest of the Holy Saints in foregoing Generations had Salvation by Faith in Christ as really as S. Peter and S. Paul or any of the Holy Martyrs and Confessours in the Catholick Church It is true the Knowledge of Christ was not so clearly revealed to the sons of men before his Coming in the Flesh as it was after when the Day-spring from on high visited us to give Light to them that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death to guide our feet into the way of Peace And therefore John Baptist exceeded all the Prophets foregoing he being the man that could say Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Yet the Apostles yea the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that can preach Christ Born Baptized Preaching Dying Rising Ascended into Heaven is greater then John the Baptist as having seen and heard that which many Prophets and Kings desired to hear and see but did not The Knowledge the Patriarchs had was Vespertine the Apostles and ours comparatively Meridian Besides before Christ's Ascension the Knowledge of him was not so amply revealed for though a few of the Gentiles found Christ yet the Way of Salvation was not prepared before the face of all People so as that Christ became a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the Glory of his people Israel But when S. Paul was made the Apostle of the Gentiles Christ was set to be a Light to the Gentiles that he might be for Salvation unto the ends of the Earth Act. 13.47 S. Peter was taught to call none common or unclean but to preach to the Gentiles as being those to whom also God had granted Repentance unto Lefe Act. 11.18 Whence the same way of Salvation was vouchsafed to Cornelius that was to Abraham Cornelius had his Faith imputed to him for Righteousness as well as Abraham God put no difference between them and us having purified their Hearts by Faith saith S. Peter Act. 15.9 He was the God not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles seeing it was one God which should justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.29 30. And hence as Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's Day so did the Wise men of the East and in all that were made Holy Converts by the preaching of the Gospel there was the same Joy for the kind which was in Abraham all with the same Spirit of Faith glorified Christ though some with more enlarged Hearts then others In the Effects of this Joy Praising God Loving Christ and Adhering to him there is the same Mind in all the same Hope the same Expressions though not to the same degree in all In some Ages the Joy was more extensive then in others in
some Persons more intensive then in others yet in all that believe in Christ it was and is bottomed upon the same Ground a Fruit of the same Faith shewing it self by the same Expressions of Thanksgiving and Love Praising God Following Christ and Loving all his Members So that we may say All Abraham's Children by Faith rejoyce to see Christ's Day they see it and are glad And thus my Text comes home to you all APPLICATION You profess your selves Believers in Christ and Abraham to be your Father if you be in truth such then it will concern you to walk in the Steps of the Faith of Abraham who rejoyced to see the Day of Christ and he saw it and was glad I deny not that in this time of Advent there uses to be much Rejoycing pretended to be in Remembrance of Christ's Nativity yea that many long for this Time as the Time in which they are wont to rejoyce nor do I except against Rejoycing at this Time But is our Rejoycing such as was in Abraham a Rejoycing at Christ's Day out of Faith a Rejoycing at the Performance of the Divine Promise for the bringing of Light and Salvation into the world whereby all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Is the sense of the Spirituall Blessings in Heavenly things I mean the Knowledge of God's Counsell the Mystery of his Will in Reconciling the World to himself by Jesus Christ not imputing their Trespasses unto them the Adoption of us Gentiles into his Family with other Riches of his Grace the grand Motive of our Joy Are the Expressions of our Joy like those of the Shepherds who glorified and praised God of the Blessed Virgin who brake out into her Magnificat Anima mea My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour like those of Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people like those of the Heavenly Hoast who sang Glory be to God in the highest These Hymns I acknowledge are sung in our publick Meetings and it is the Wisedom of the Church that you are prompted to remember them But what is done in your Houses Is any such Spiritual Rejoycing there any such Praising of God for sending his Son into the world that you might live by him Are not rather your Rejoycings carnal more like the Heathen Saturnals full of Looseness vain Sports and Debauchery Are not your Feasts like the Riotous Bacchanals rather then Christian Festivals Yea is not impious profaning of God's Name more frequent there then holy Conference of such as are filled with the Spirit of God singing and making Melody in your Hearts to the Lord If it be so I may say to you as Christ did to the Jews If ye were the Children of Abraham ye would doe the Works of Abraham If Abraham were your Father indeed if you did believe in Christ as Abraham did you would rejoyce in the Remembrance of Christ's Day as Abraham did you would rejoyce in Christ as born a Saviour from Sin a Teacher sent from God to direct you in your way to eternal Life that so you may live as Abraham did as Pilgrims on Earth as those that seek a City to come even an heavenly Heb. 11.10 13 16. Oh that your Faith your Joy in Christ might be such a Fruit of the Spirit of God as may make your Conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ not such as is more like theirs whose Belly is their God whose Glory their Shame who mind Earthly things Let our Conversation be in Heaven from whence we look for Christ to change our vile Bodies into Bodies of Glory like his and to give us an Inheritance above Which God of his infinite Mercy grant unto us all for the Merits of his Son To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO ABRAHAM's PILGRIMAGE The Thirty-first SERMON GENESIS xij 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee THAT after so great a Defection of the World from God as was upon the Dispersion of Mankind occasioned by the Giant-like Attempt of building the Tower of Babel God might have a Race of men who should own and adhere to him he singled out Abraham from his Fathers who dwelt on the other side of the Floud and served other Gods as it is Josh 24.2 3. And having removed him with his Father from Vr of the Chaldees where it is likely the Sun was worshipped in stead of God unto Charran his Father being dead he translated him into the Land of Canaan which he promised to give him for a Possession as it is in S. Stephen's Oration Act. 7.4 5. consonant to the words I have now read to you Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country c. Sundry ways God used to speak to the Ancients by Prophets Dreams and Visions So Gen. 15.1 The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a Vision and Gen. 17.1 The Lord appeared unto Abram and speaking of this very Precept here given him S. Stephen saith Act. 7.2 The God of Glory appeared unto our Father Abraham Some kind of glorious Apparition there was then when God gave Abraham this Mandate The Business no doubt being as in After-ages so in Abraham's days most famous God would have it begun by an illustrious Manifestation of himself that he might be known to be the God of Glory and all the Gods that Abraham's Fathers served to be but Vanities and Lies not Numina but Nomina not Gods though so called And that there might be the firmer Impression on Abraham thereby God thus shews himself and speaks However God speaks to us we are to hearken be it in a Dream or by a Prophet if it be God's Voice it must be obeyed But then most heed is to be taken when God makes known his Pleasure in an illustrious Apparition This Command to Abraham was doubtless of very great Concernment both to God's own Glory and Abraham's and all Believers Advantage And therefore it is of no small importance for us to consider the Charge which God here gives to Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee Wherein we have 1. A Journey or Motion commanded him Get thee or Goe thou 2. The Terminus à quo of this Motion or the Place whence he was to goe Out of thy Country c. 3. The Terminus ad quem or the Place whither he was to goe Vnto a Land that I shall shew thee 1. The Journy or Motion which is here injoyned Abraham is a Transmigration expressed thus in the Hebrew Lec Leca as if it were Vade tibi Goe thou or Goe to thy self which is by some conceived a Pleonasm or Redundance of speech