natural condition Surely such as ever were so they would be otherwise affected However men may be haply perswaded in an ignorant and secure condition when they have no sight or view of sin or of the wrath of God against it so as to rest satisfied in such a Righeousness as this is yet when their consciences are opened and awakened they will have other thoughts of it and discern the insufficiency which is in it In the time of sickness in the hour of death in the approaches of Judgment when they are leaving and forsaking the world going to give up their accounts to God at his Tribunal then this confidence in their Pharisaical Righteousness will vanish and come to nothing then they will see what little stress or strength is to be put in it as that which will not be able to afford them any peace of conscience or satisfaction of spirit Thirdly It does occasionally deprive men of the means of Salvation and set them so much the further off from true happiness The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees meeting together with the corruption which was stil inherent in them it was thus far prejudicial to them Therefore our Saviour tells them That the Publicans and Harlots went into the Kingdom of God before them Matth. 21.31 Not as if Whoredom and Oppression were better abstractly considered than moral Righteousness or in their own nature did more dispose unto salvation But that in regard of the Subjects in which they were they had accidentally a more happy effect for Publicans and Harlots being convinced of their own unrighteousness did from hence so much the more eagerly look after the Righteousness of Christ whiles Scribes Pharisees being conceited of their own righteousness had the Righteousness of Christ hereupon in greater contempt and contemning Christ's Righteousness did thereby put away from them eternal life And thus have we seen the point explained and enlarged unto us That Pharisaical Righteousness is insufficient to everlasting salvation Now the consideration of this Truth may be thus far usefully improved First We see here the misery and unhappiness of all such persons as are defective and coming short of this Righteousness If they cannot come to Heaven who do not go beyond such persons as the Scribes and Pharisees were what may we think of such as do not indeed go so far If those who are no more than merely Civil shall be shut out of Heaven what shall we say to those who are absolutely wicked and prophane What room will there be found in that holy place for such as these surely such as they must needs perish without recovery whiles they continue in such a condition Our Saviour by this comparison does not take men off from Moral Righteousness which is very requisite and necessary for them and comely and commendable in them wheresoever it is No but he does rather carry them on to somewhat further As the Apostle Paul speaking of Ministerial qualifications Covet earnestly the best gifts but yet shew I unto you a more excellent way So our Saviour here speaking of Christian qualifications he does not simply disparage Morality or Civility no more do we with him But he requires somewhat else besides to be joyned with it which is superiour and transcendent to it Therefore absolutely to be deprived of it does admit of no excuse whosoever they be that live in waies of wickedness and prophaneness in murther and drunkenness and uncleanness and injustice and oppression and such sins as these are they are sad and miserable creatures They which do such things they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God as the Scripture has peremptorily told us And they shall so much the harder inherit it as such as are better than they are are as if we heard excluded from it which therefore should so much the more effectually work upon them to bring them to reformation and amendment of life If Formality shall be shut out of Heaven what will become of prophaneness If coldness in Religion shall be punisht what shall become of Atheism and no Religion at all If those who keep the Law in the letter of it celebrate the Sabbath heat the Word receive the Sacrament give alms to the poor and perform such outward duties as these shall notwithstanding some of them be debarred of eternal salvation what will become of thee that never mindest any of these things that livest as if there were no God or Hell or Heaven or day of Judgment surely thy case must needs e desperate whilest thou so continuest For we must take in this with it that there are differences and degrees of punishment as there is also of sin for the preventing of an objection which may be truly made to this purpose for some people perhaps when they hear this that Pharisees with their Civil Righteousness shall be kept out of Heaven may be ready to make this Reply that then we had as good be absolutely prophane for we can then be but so excluded But such as these must know that their punishment shall be so much the greater as their wickedness is the more And though both shall be cast into Hell both one and the other yet these latter shall have greater damnation and shall be more the children of Hell as the Scripture expresses it And that 's the first Use which may be made of this Point Secondly This serves to call men to an account for the righteousness which is in them and to humble them under the reflections of it If such righteousness as this which we have now mentioned will not serve to bring men to Heaven then we see here the sad condition of such persons as have no more to say for themselves than this comes to that think their case to be good in reference to Eternal Salvation because they come up to some formalities of external obedience because it may be they have some knowledg in the Doctrine of Religion or because it may be they abound in some outward performances therefore they think that they are presently heirs of Heaven and have the Kingdom of God belonging to them as theirs Alas if it be no more than so with them their righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees And if it does not so we see here what a censure our Blessed Saviour passes upon them as those who shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That so they may be taken off from a condition of carnal security wherein at present they seem to be involv'd It is true that civil righteousness it has many other accommodations with it which are not to be deposed It keeps up Order and Peace and Unity betwixt men and men It preserves Families and Societies and States and the like without which men would be no beter than so many Salvages and Tygers and Bears and wild creatures there would be no living and subsisting in the world But yet as to matter of
interest in any outward and worldly blessing is belonging unto them It is true that they cannot absolutely and peremptorily conclude upon it no more than upon any other outward comfort of the same nature with it for all things fall alike unto all here in this life to the good and to the bad to the just and to the unjust c. as the Preacher speaks but yet they may more certainly expect it than any other besides may and they have a promise made of it to them so far forth as is requisite for them and may most consist with the glory of God which all things are to be subservient unto Job 5.26 Among other Blessings of the same condition with it this is reckoned as one pertaining to those which are faithful That they shall come to their grave in peace like a shock of corn in its season This was that kind of death which the Apostle here was delivered from in this danger which he speaks of in Asia as we may see if we look into the story where we shall find that he was ready to be pull'd in pieces in the tumult which was there made and therefore his friends intreated him that he would not adventure himself upon the Theatre namely to the rage and fury of his Enemies which were there met in a cobustion together This is a part of the aggravation of the miseries and calamities of War The difference betwixt a fever and a sword betwixt dying by the hand of an enemy and dying by the stroke of a disease The end and conclusion is all one and the same only there 's some difference in the conveyance when as the soul does not so much take its leave as it is rather driven out of its lodging This is that which nature shrinks at even there where grace has learn't in some degree to submit unto it And that 's the first aggravation which is implyed in this expression so great a Death namely from the nature and kind of it a violent death not a natural The second is from the Quality and manner of it a painful death not a gentle and easie Death it is unpleasing in it self considered as a meer dissolution and separation of two loving friends and companions the soul and body from each other but when to this we shall add pain and torture this makes it to be so much the more This was that which many of the Godly Martyrs suffer'd and indur'd They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were killed they were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 Deaths full of torment and pain and so great there are likewise such kind of Deaths in a natural way also Sone and Gout c. I need not name them some are afflicted with them and if we be delivered from them we have cause to bless God for it for delivering us from such great Deaths or Diseases as those as namely are painful and tormenting which makes up the second Aggravation Thirdly Take in another from the coming and proceeding of it A sudden death and not an expected This is another aggravation of Temporal Death which the Apostle seems here to allude to in his danger in Asia It was such as he did not look for and in that regard it was great indeed to speak properly Death is not altogether sudden to the Children of God because they are still more or less in the expectation of it and in some sort prepared for it but yet comparatively some is suddener than other and that which is so has the aggravation of a great death in it We find David cry in Psal 39. ult Oh spare me a little before I go hence c. that I may recover my self A Christian though he be able to give some good account of himself whensoever God shall call him as desiring always to live in such a constant frame and temper of spirit as from whence he may be fit to leave the world yet he desires to have some time to make his accounts up and to have them in a more perfect readiness than at all times else he has in which regard it is lawful for him with a submission to the good will of God to desire to be kept and preserved from a sudden stroke that so he may the better be able to reflect and recollect himself to consider what he is and what he has been and what he has done and whither he is going c. which in these sudden surprisals he is not so well able to do Fourthly From the time and season of it when it is an hastened death not a mature one in Eccles 7.17 it is there the counsel and advice of the Preacher Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dye before thy time And Psal 55.23 It is said of bloody and deceitful men that they shall not live out half their days For men to dye before their time and not to live out half their days it is reckoned in the Catalogue and account of great Deaths Now death may be said to be untimely in a twofold Consideration Either First of all in a way of Nature Or else secondly in a way of Providence First In a way of Nature When one dyes in infancy or youth or such time as he is not come to full age and it is a mercy to escape this God gives us great occasion of thankfulness when he sets us to run out our time here in the world when he cracks not the hour-glass before all the sand be spent or when the glass is but newly turn'd up as sometimes he does This is an untimely death in a way of Nature Secondly There 's an untimely Death also in a way of Providence When a man is at any time taken out of the world ere he has done his work and before he has accomplish't that business which in all likelihood he was to perform which is the very life of life it self Thus had this Death in the Text been a great Death to St. Paul because it had taken him off from that service which he was to have done for the Church and so consequently it was a great deliverance to be freed from it that he might now glory as afterwards he did before his departure that he had sought a good fight that he had finished his course c. 2 Tim. 4.7 Fifthly The greatness of Death has an aggravation of it from its latitude and extent When it is a death involving and including such and such persons in it As first for the number of the persons the death of many the death of a great many that 's a great death that 's a great death which does devour multitudes and swarms at once Thus had this death been in Asia not only Paul himself but his companions more had been taken away besides him in this violence he here speaks of And this is another thing which would have made it to have been so great a death
the chief Plaintiff and party wrong'd by this transgression of Davids Secondly When God will give peace and quietness none can there make trouble because as he is the onely plaintiff so he is the best evidence and witness which can come in and testifie either for or against us Though a man have a quarrel against another and that deservedly which he may justly fasten upon him yet if he have no body to witness on his side the party accused will do well enough for all this especially if there be a strong witness and evidence on his side that is accused Now thus it is here with us in this particular business whiles God himself is reconciled unto us there is no witness which can come in against us of any worth or validity which might be able to cause trouble to us And besides we have a special witness on our side which does bear down all and that 's the witness of the Holy Ghost in Rom. 8 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God He that is a swift witness against others Mal. 3.5 shall be a swift witness for us This is like the witness of a Prince Teste mcipso which where ever it comes there 's no further question to be made of the thing as Chrysostom speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It puts the matter out of all doubt where this is exhibited All the clamors and accusations of Satan of evil men or of mis-giving spirit are not able to bear down this witness and testimony of the Holy Ghost in the heart when he will give quietness in this manner who can make trouble Thirdly He is also the Judge in whom the power of condemning and absolving does wholly lye when the Plaintiff hath done his part and when the witnesses have done theirs yet notwithstanding the Judge be a mans friend and will shew him some special curtesie and favour in such a cause he will do well for all this Now this is further the state and condition of such a person as is in good terms with God He has the Judge his friend to acquit him and absolve him and set him free so that none shall be able to trouble him Rom. 3.26 That he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousnes Rom. 4.5 And Rom. 8 30. Whom he called them he also justified and ver 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth In all which places we see how God himself takes upon him to justifie and absolve and quit from condemnation The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King he will save us as it is Isa 33.22 Lastly It is he also who hath the power as of giving the sentence so of suspending the execution He hath power to cast into hell to save or destroy all these things are in his hands So that now if he will give this same spiritual quietness none in the world can make trouble This Point for the use of it is very comfortable to the children of God in all their spiritual assaults and temptations which they are subject unto that what ever may indeavour to disturb them yet nothing shall have power over them or prevail to an absolute trouble or molestation of them A child of God may set that peace and comfort which he has in his own heart and conscience against all the sollicitations and disquietings of the whole world besides when he gives quietness who then can make trouble as against a Nation so against a man onely And so much may suffice of the first Branch of the Proposition in this second Reference in matter of peace I come now to the second In matter of trouble And when he hides his face who then can behold him who can behold him That is who can behold him comfortably so as to have any sweetness or refreshment from him This no man can have when God will hide his face Thou hidest thy face sayes David and I was troubled in Psal 30.7 For the better opening of this Point and Truth before us we must know that Gods hiding of his face as we here speak of it from a particular Person may be consider'd two manner of wayes and so we shall find it taken in Scripture and common experirience either Privatively for a meer substraction or withdrawing of the light of his countenance or positively for some evident expression and manifestation of his wrath and displeasure now either of these when God does it is full of trouble First though that be the least when he does but withdraw the light of his Countenance and that sweet communication of himself which he does sometimes afford to his children then he hides his face There 's the darkness of an Ecclipse as well as the darkness of a Night And there is a sadness from the want of Gods smilings as well as from the making of His frowns and the knitting of his brows against us And this former is that which we now speak unto as a matter of disquiet We shall find how it was thus to the Spouse in the Canticles when her beloved was gone from her which is a parable to set forth unto us the condition of Christian in this particular The case is ill with him when God does but hide his face from him there is a great deal of darknesse and deadnesse upon his soul in such an estate as upon the earth when the Sun is Eclipst and 't is that which every good heart will be easily sensible and apprehensive of As the child does not onely cry when the Nurse or Mother strikes it but as well when she hides her self from it even so is it with a child of God in this particular He does not mourn onely under terrors of Conscience and the immediate expressions of Gods anger but as well under deadness of spirit and the loss of the sense of Gods favour when there is not that sweet intercourse and familiarity betwixt God and his heart as there hath been in former times Thus it was with the Prophet David Psal 51.12 He was not satisfied with bare salvation but he calls for the joy of salvation and he was not satisfied with holy Spirit but he desires the free spirit also This arises Partly from Affection as bearing a special love to God and desires a reflection of his love back again They that love another delight to be loved by them and to have some assurance of this love to them There 's nothing more troublesome amongst lovers then not to be sensible of each others affections and so it is likewise with the soul which bears a true love to God There 's an holy jealousie which is wrought in it c. Secondly It arises from experience and the former sense of this comfortable condition They
satisfie us and content us though we had nothing else but them If God will but forgive us our Sins and change our Natures and put his Grace into our Hearts and give us the Seal of his Spirit that we are his Children certainly we may very well bear with him in the denyal of many other things besides unto us and therefore let us not limit and confine God too much in this particular but let us leave it to his Holy Wisdom and providence who knows what is best for us better then we do our selves and in the supply of his own Gracious Spirit and presence with us can make up to us all things else whatsoever we can desire And further where we do injoy these Comforts let us preserve them all we can and take heed of parting with them let us not be prodigal of Spiritual Comfort or careless or negligent of it If we do herein we forsake our own Mercy and are Enemies to our own greatest Good Let us take heed of offending and displeasing the blessed Spirit of God and of grieving him whose office it is to comfort us Lastly Let us see also here what cause there is for us to look after true Godliness and Religion and to become true Christians indeed that so from hence we may come to partake of these Divine Comforts which we do no otherwise then so far forth as we have the Spirit of God in us and are become his Children Those which are Strangers in Religion they are also Strangers to the Comforts of Religion and to the sweetness which is in that Condition so that though there be Comforts Enough in God yet they have no Interest in them nor no Ability whereby to derive them and to convey them to themselves therefore let us look to that by all meanes Yea and moreover to abound in Grace and Holiness all we can for as we come to be partakers of Gods Comforts by being Godly and Religious so we partake of them the more as we are Godly and Religious in greater measure The closer we walk with God the more comfort we have from him not onely hereafter in Heaven but also now at present here upon Earth which should therefore be a further spur to incite us hereunto And so much for these Comforts in the first Notion considered absolutely and distinctly The Second is by considering them connexively in reference to what went before in the beginning of the verse In the Multitude of my thoughts The words in the Hebrew are Be-rov or as some would have it Ke-rov The one makes it to be in multidine as our Translations render it to us the other makes it to be secundum multitudines as the Vulgar Latin following the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It makes no great matter which there being but little difference betwixt them according as they run in the Text whether in the sound or in the sight From both together we have a singular commendation of these Divine Comforts which David was now refresht with in three particulars First For their Concomitancy Secondly For their Opportunity Thirdly For their Conveniency each of these are in this expression First Here is their Concomitancy by making in to be as much as cum In my thoughts that is altogether with them and so it does imply thus much unto us That the children of God they are never wholly and absolutely disquieted and dejected in themselves but as God does in his providences suffer them now and then to be troubled with sad thoughts so at the very same moment and instant of time does he administer comfort more or less unto them They have some light in their greatest darkness and they have some refreshment in their greatest sadness and they have some comfort in their greatest Distraction In the very midst of judgement upon them does God remember mercy towards them This is the state and condition of Gods people God does secretly uphold their hearts from sinking when it seems to be never so ill and sad with them This proceeds from his singular love and indulgence towards them who does not afflict his servants willingly nor does not desire to lay upon them any more then they may be able to bear If we should have all thoughts and no comforts there were no subsistance or holding out but God does now graciously mitigate and qualifie his dispensations towards us that so the spirit may not fail before him nor the souls which he has made as Himself gives that very reason and account of it Isa 57.16 He corrects in measure Isa 27.8 This teaches us both to expect it and also upon occasion to acknowledge it it serves both to excite our patience and thankfulness First Our patience in expecting it and making account of it when we fall at any time into trouble let us not aggravate it and make it worse then it is for it is neither so much as it might be nor yet so much as we deserve And therefore let us take heed of charging God foolishly in this particular as we are many times subject to do if we do but a little reflect and consider how it is with us we shall find that it is so as is here presented to us namely Comforts and some glimpse of mercy in the greatest sorrows And this is the great difference now betwixt the condition of men here in this world and of the damned in Hell those sad creatures there they have the thouhgts but not the comforts they have the destractions but not the qualifications there is sorrow without any refreshment but those which live here in the world especially those which are Gods children they have a mingling of some sweetness with their greatest grief And this Secondly excites our thankfulness and calls us to the acknowledgement of it upon all occasions and to bless God for it as David else-where does in Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy Judgements are right and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me And that 's the first particular which is commended to us in these Comforts viz. their Concomitancy The Second is their opportunity In the Multitude of distracting thoughts That is just when they were come to their height and extremity in me The Comforts of God are seasonable and observe the proper time for their coming neither too soon nor too late not before that were too soon nor after that were too late But in That is just in the very point and nick of Time This is another thing here spoken of In the Thoughts and in the Multitude of the Thoughts not in the indifferency of thoughts but in the perplexity not in the Paucity of thoughts but in the Plurality our extremity is Gods opportunity In the mount will the Lord be seen when we have thought and thought and thought all what we could and know not what to think more then does God delight to tender and exhibit his Comforts to us There are divers instances and examples
this which is belonging unto them All the Creatures are ready to stand up to avenge the quarrel of their Creator upon them whom such persons are at variance withal as we shewed before And so they have no peace with them We know here by the fall of man as the Creatures themselves are subject to vanity so they can also to be hurtfull and pernicious to the sons of men who have thereby lost the Primitive Authority and Dominion over them and are now become in a manner Subject unto them And this in wicked men especially holds in its full vigor and force who have a special share in this curse of all others besides As for those who are good either they are preserved from the Creatures hurting them or that hurt which they receive from them is sanctified to them for good in which sense they may be said so far forth to be at peace with them But for wicked men it is no such matter They are subject to all the inconveniencies that may be from them The Fire and the Water and the Air and the Earth all the Elements conspire against them and they are in no safety or security from them But if they escape the evil of the one they are ready presently to be surprised with the other and that in the most dreadfull and disadvantagious circumstances that can be imagined And so much may suffice to have spoken of the First Explication in which there is no Peace to the wicked By taking it in the state of Peace in reference to their condition there 's no peace to them so The Second is by taking it for the Spirit of Peace and in reference to the words There 's no Peace to them thus neither wicked men they have no true Peace in themselves this is another sense of those words and it seems to agree very much with the context in the verse immediately preceeding where we find it exprest thus The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt which seems to deny them that calmness and peaceableness of mind and soul which were desireable in them this is that which they want And there are two things again which seem also to be imply'd in this First There 's want of Peace as it is a Grace And Secondly There 's want of Peace as it is a Priviledge There 's no Peace to the Wicked that is they have not that meek disposition which is desireable in them And there is no Peace to the Wicked that is they have not that comfortable disposition which is desireable of them First Take it for the Grace of Peace And there is no Peace to the wicked thus Peace it is a fruit of the Spirit namely as Sanctifying and so we find it to be made Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace Hence also the Apostle James speaking of that wisdom which is from above says it is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated c. Now this I say among other things is that wherein wicked men are failing As they are destitute of many other Virtues and Graces besides so amongst the rest of this Grace of Peace which is failing in them They are not of quiet and peaceable spirits but rather the contrary Therefore they are said to be like the Sea which in a Storm casts up mire and dirt Even so do wicked men in their Passion cast out filthy and unbeseeming expressions This it hath a twofold ground or Foundation for it First The General Corruption of nature which does prevail and bear sway in them Corrupt nature is unquiet and full of Commotion Where there is envying and strife there is confusion and every evil work Now this is that which men are naturally prone to The Spirit which is in us namely in our Natural Consideration it lusts to Envy Now that excludes and keeps out Peace Secondly There is Satan also ruling in wicked Men The spirit that works in the children of disobedience And he is a quarrelsome and contentious spirit that hath no peace in him And so it is with those likewise who are Members of him As Cain who was of that evil one and slew his Brother as the Apostle John applies it in 1 Joh. 3.12 Those who are acted and carried by the Devil they must needs be Strangers and Enemies to Peace And thus of Peace as it may be taken for the Grace of Peace There is no Peace in the minds of wicked men as it is considerable in that Exception But Secondly Take Peace as a Privilege And there is no Peace in the minds of wicked men considered as such Wicked men have no calmness or tranquility of mind in themselves No Peace that is no Peace of Conscience or Inward Man Wicked and Ungodly Persons they know not such a thing as this is nor what belongs unto it Indeed they may have that sometimes which is a resemblance of it and which is somewhat like thereunto They may be for the present quiet aad unmolested and untroubled in themselves But yet in the mean time they have no true or real Peace for all that And that because it is not rightly grounded or bottomed in them which is the main of all The Peace of wicked men it is not from the Removal of Danger but from the ignorance and insensibleness of it therefore they are at peace and undisturbed because indeed they do not see or consider the great danger in which they are But this is no Peace to speak of because it is such as is not likely to hold out and continue but will sooner or later manifest and discover the Insufficiency of it self Yea and break out in greater trouble and perplexity of Spirit afterwards As a Sore which is only skinned over and so not perfectly healed it breaks forth afterwards more violently than before Even so it is also without Conscience There is the same inconvenience in both There are divers things in Wicked Men which do sometimes occasion Peace unto them in the appearance and resemblance of it Which yet are no Grounds of any true Peace indeed As First Outward Property and Success here in the World Their Peace is sometimes founded on this as thinking that God does certainly love them and is well pleased with them and will bestow Heaven hereafter upon them because he is pleased to follow them with such things as these are But this hath no good Bottom with it nor hath any true Ground of Peace in it if it be duly and rightly considered God may follow Men with many Temporal Comforts and yet deprive them of his Eternal Blessings which are the greatest Rewards of all Secondly Some good Duties which are perform-and practised by them they lay their Peace also in these The Outward Exercises of Religion or some Acts of Charity and Benificence They place their Peace sometimes also in these not in the mean time considering the
behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn either to the right hand or to the left But now farther if we please we may take these words a little more at large as I in part hinted before When ye turn to the right hand or to the left not as touching it of two extreams but in reference to all the passages of our lives whatsoever they be When ye turn to the right hand or to the left that is whatsoever place ye are in whatever business ye are about whatever condition befalls you ye shall have the hints of the Word and Spirit of God assistant to you This is the promise which is made to the Saints and Servants of God And it is made not only here in this Text but also in divers other places besides as Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass So Prov. 3.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy pathes So again in Prov. 16.3 Commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy Thoughts shall be Established This Disposition in God towards his People is founded on his Affection to them He loves them and therefore he Counsels them and cannot abide to see them miscarry Love it is full of direction of the party which it is placed upon and will not suffer him to go out of his way And so it is with God to us This is a great Comfort and Incouragement to us and should quicken us especially in his service wherein especially we are sure to have him to guide us and go before us and be assistant unto us And that in the darkness of this World wherein we walk If a man have a bad way yet if he have a good guide it is some Comfort to him This is the Lord to his Servants He teaches them to go taking them by the hand as it in Hos 11.3 Oh how much should we be affected herewith Especially in this Age and Time wherin we live In which we have so many Labarynths and uncertainties that a great many do not know what to do nor what way to betake themselves to We have so many humours and conceits amongst us that we know not almost what to believe nor what to practise It is the case and condition of many people that they are at a nonplus and almost at their wits ends in this particular Well in all these uncertainties and distractions Here 's the Comfort and Incouragement of Gods servants which do not provoke him to do otherwise with them from some default or miscarriage in them in which case it may be suspended to them That they shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk in it when they turn c. But here it may partinently be demanded How this word shall be discerned and known because there 's a great deal of deceit and mistake in the particulars many taking that to be the word and spirit of God which is no more but their own foolish fancy and the suggestions and intimation of the Devil joyning with their own corrupt hearts It is the condition of many people now in these present days and never more than now it is For this There are divers Touchstones and discoveries of it which we will briefly instance in First Let this within thee be regulated by the word without thee And the motions and suggestions of the Spirit examined by the Rule of the Scripture and the written word of God to the Law and the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 God never speaks in the Conscience contrary to what he speaks in the Scripture for he is unchangeable and cannot deny himself If therefore we have any motions in us which are cross and opposite hereunto we have very greet cause to suspect them as coming to us from another hand yea to abandon them and to bid defiance to them For which as the Wind does not sit at the same time in two contrary corners North and South so neither does the Spirit breath in two contrary motions Good and Evil. The motions of the spirit are always suitable and agreeable to it self Secondly They are also orderly and regular They keep men within the compass of their Callings and the spheres and the place which God has set them in Motions either from mens own Spirits or the spirit of Satan acting in them they are many times out of course they carry them above their line and make them to stretch themselves beyond their measure as the Apostle speaks But those which come from God and the suggestions and inclinations of his spirit they confine them and keep them within bounds They order them and frame them and keep them within bounds suitable to their several stations and Relations and Conditions and Circumstances in the world which they have regard and heed unto So likewise which we may refer hereunto they are agreeable also to the law of Nature and Civility and ingenuity in us Therefore such motions as cross these they are not such as come from Gods spirit but from the spirit of the Devil when any are carried to such acts as are against Civility and common modesty it self Thirdly They are also mild and gentle and seasonable They are not ordinarily violent raptures but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does and reflexion upon it A man knows where he is and what he does while he is followed with them which in the motions of Satan is otherwise Fourthly They are discernable also from their Effects and the ends which they tend unto all the hints and motions of Gods spirit they still tend to make us better and to carry us nearer to himself one way or other they serve to promote Piety and Holiness in us and to better us especially and above all in our Inward man whereas those which are contrary and do serve to weaken Grace in us they have another spring for them Lastly In all these Cases the Spirit commonly brings his own Conviction and Evidence with him And as he says This is the way walk ye in it so he does likewise manifest that it is he that says it from whence the Soul of a Christian may be assured that he is not mistaken or deluded in it Look as those which had the Spirit of Prophesy they did by the same light know both the truth of the things themselves which they prophesied about as also that it was from God that message which they delivered even so is it with those also still which have any motions of the Spirit of God in them they do at one and the same time know both the things themselves which they are moved unto as also the Authour and Original of them But so much for that In these hints and suggestions of the Spirit this voice behinde us may be discovered by
wickedness saving What have I done Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel The horse and the war-horse especially which is there meant it hath a great deal of fierceness and impetuousness with it whereby when it discerns the battel though afar-off as Job speaks it rushes into it Eagerly with a great deal of vehemence and desperately with a great deal of resolution and dangerously with a great deal of hazard as rushing upon the Pikes and Guns Even so in like manner do wicked men rush upon evil courses and the ways of sin They are herein like the horse and mule which have no understanding and their sins are pleasing to them as the battel is to such kind of creatures as the horse is Secondly This obstinacy and perversness in sin it is grounded upon security and presumption Because as yet they find no hurt by their sins but scape well enough with them therefore they are resolv'd upon them As Eccl. 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil If God should strike men dead presently in their wickedness this it may be would a little affrighten them But now whiles he spares them and lets them alone and does nothing as yet unto them this heartens them and encourages them in evil Thirdly It does proceed from the power which Satan has over them The Devil he is said to be the Spirit that works in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 And certainly so he does in a great many persons Those who will not have Christ and his Spirit to reign with them they are oftentimes in just judgment given up to the Spirit of Satan by whom they are taken captive at his will And he hurries them and carries them on headlong to all manner of evil whatsoever Thus it is said of Judas that the Devil entred into him And thus 't is said of Ananias that Satan had filled his heart And thus Elymas the Sorcerer he is said to be a child of the Devil Now those which are such it is no wonder if they be thus bent upon sin as being such in whom Satan himself rules Fourthly Infidelity and unbelief because they are not perswaded of the truth of those things which they hear and read in the word concerning the vileness of such courses and the danger which they involve them in They think these things are but scare-crows and bug bears to fright children which have no truth or reality in them And therefore it is that they are no more affected with them so as to bear their evil ways Lastly The reason here in the Text and that is a desperate frame of spirit because they think there is no hope no hope that they should be better having so long been accustomed to evil Nor no hope if so-be they were better yet that God would be gracious to them and preserve them from ruine and destruction This is that among other things which makes them thus vile and incorrigible And that 's one thing and the main here considerable viz. Their obstinacy and perversness The Second thing is their conspiracy and combination We will every one c. It seems it was a set plot and design amongst them against the Lord and his Prophet even one and all If some few of them had resolved to do so it had been bad enough so and a very great evil that But it seems they were well agreed and they were so joyntly it was every one without exception Sin is always so much the worse as it is any thing the more general and universal It is not an excuse as some sometimes are ready to make it but rather an advancement and aggravation as shewing the malignity to be so much the greater and more improved And thus it was here Thirdly Here was their wilful transgression and sin even against knowledg for they do plainly acknowledg their ways to be evil and yet for all that they do resolve and purpose to persist in it notwithstanding We will every one do the imagination of his evil heart It is not we will do what we think in our judgment to be best Jeremy You think our ways to be evil and therefore would have us to refrain them but we are of another mind and therefore will continue still in them But you and we are both agreed in one that our ways are evil and yet notwithstanding we are determined to go on in them still though never so bad This is a fearful case indeed And thus much of the words consider'd simply and absolutely as they be in themselves Now further Secondly We may look upon them in their reflexion as coming from this people and that is they said it All that do so do not say so but it seems they said so and are so recorded here to have done This may be understood by us two manner of ways either in their words or in their actions either expresly and totidem verbis with open mouth or implicitly and interpretatively and by consequence in that which was done by them First Expresly and in so many words They were not ashamed to do this to say and declare and to profess to all the world that they were resolved whatever was said to them to persist and to go on in their wickedness Thus Psal 12.3 We read of the tongue that speaketh perverse things And ver 4. Who have said with our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us So Mal. 3.13 14. Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord ye have said it is in vain to serve God c. And Job 21.14 They say unto God depart from us c. It is a sad thing when it comes to this yet sometimes we may observe it to do so So much impudence there is upon men's spirits as that they blush not to proclaim their wickedness with open mouth And that 's one sense of the expression Secondly It may be understood implicitly and interpretatively and by way of consequence They said it namely practically and effectively in that which they did and which was acted by them They said to the Prophet there was no hope i. e. they so behaved themselves as he could conceive no hope of them that they would ever be better And they said We will walk after our own devices c. i. e. they did still continue and persist in them without amendment and reformation and did give occasion to believe that they were resolved to do so still even for time to come This is the nature and quality of all perverse and obstinate sinners such as live in any course of sin without repentance though warn'd and admonish'd of it They do as good as say that they are purposed to do so continually And in the words of this present Text that they will every one do the c. Therefore accordingly let
begin in order with the first viz. the Persons mentioned those that sigh and cry c. from whence we may observe thus much That such persons there are that do so and it is their duty so to do even to sigh and cry for the abominations all of them that are done in the midst of the City We read of divers in Scripture which have been noted for this disposition in them Thus it is said of just Lot that he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man dwelling amongst them in seeing and hearing vext his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds as it is in 2 Pet. 2.7 8. David he beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not Gods word Psal 119.158 and rivers of water ran down his eyes because they kept not his law in verse 136. of the same Psalm Jeremy his soul wept in secret places for their pride c. Jer. 13.17 And Paul his spirit was stirred in him at Athens when he saw the City to be wholly given to idolatry Acts 17.16 Thus have the Servants of God been still affected with the abominations of the places and people whom they have lived withall and amongst whom they have at any time converst And this it hath proceeded thus in them upon divers and sundry considerations First out of their inward hatred and antipathy even to sin it self The children of God being born again and become new creatures and having grace in their hearts they cannot but abhor any thing which is opposite and contrary hereunto from that new nature and spirit which is in them Look as on the other side wicked men they are troubled at the slourishing of Religion where they see any to improve in goodness and to be any thing more forward in piety their hearts and spirits rise as it were against them and boil in them from the devilish disposition which is in them and hatred even of goodness it self So here those that fear the Lord they are as much troubled at the improvements of sin from that work of Regeneration which is in their hearts Secondly Out of love to God and a tenderness of his honour and glory Where abominations are at any time committed there God is exceedingly dishonour'd his Laws are slighted his Attributes are question'd his Name is blasphem'd Now those that are good themselves they have a great regard hereunto Those that are Gods children they are very jealous of Gods honour as any other children besides are of the honour of their earthly Parents and so accordingly they cannot but grieve when there is any trespass at any time upon it Those that areotherwise they shew but little love and affection which they bear unto him Thirdly Out of respect to themselves and their own advantage The more sin there is abroad the more are all men concerned in it not evil men but good who are from hence in so much the greater danger and that in a twofold respect both as to matter of defilement and of punishment They are more in danger from hence to be polluted and they are more in danger from hence to be afflicted and this makes them to be so much troubled at it First In order to Defilement they are more in danger from hence to be polluted Great and reigning sins and abominations are usually great temptations which do hazard the souls of many persons that converse amongst them and therefore there is cause to be grieved for them What is it that which makes men now so troubled to hear of the spreading of certain sicknesses and diseases Why it is because they think that themselves may haply come to feel them and to be infected with them that which befalls others they think at last it may light upon them And so is it likewise with gracious persons as to spiritual distempers when they hear of such corruptions and wickedness which are abroad in the world they are therefore much afflicted with them because they fear lest they themselves should be any thing defiled from them they are jealous of their own hearts in case of the prevailing of such sins and so do grieve and mourn for and under them And this they do it in order to defilement as being in danger to be polluted Secondly In order also to Punishment as being in danger to be afflicted Common and publick abominations they beget common and publick plagues and judgments which follow thereupon This those that are wise and prudent Christians know and discern well enough Evil men understand not judgment but they that seek the Lord understand all things says Solomon Prov. 28.5 Fools make a mock of sin and those that are wicked and ungodly they are commonly hardned and secure in the midst of the greatest wickednesses that are commited Because they do not suffer for them presently therefore they think they shall not suffer at all Yea but the children of God they are otherwise perswaded they know that sin will sooner or later come to a reckoning and when they see it to increase in the world they foresee the judgments that attend it and therefore tremble at the sight of it as knowing that God is so much the more provoked by it and so will at length proceed to the punishment of it There are two things in the increase of sin and the spreading of more nauseous abominations which to this purpose do very much affect the children and servants of God the one is they are conscious of Gods anger and displeasure in the cause of them And the other is as they are prognosticks of Gods wrath and judgment in the effects First I say as they ar consequents of his anger and displeasure for so they are There is nothing which is more redious to Gods children than the anger and displeasure of God Now reigning abominations they are a symptom and discovery of that they are a sign that God is very much offended with those places and persons where he suffers them and permits them to be in them and gives them up to them We many times make light of it but believe it for any people to be given up to more notorious wickedness is the greatest argument of Gods anger that can be and in that regard a special ground for mercy to those that are good As it is a sign of God's anger against a person to be given up to strong and strange lusts An whore is a deep ditch and he that is abhorred of God shall fall into it so it is a sign of Gods anger against a Nation when he gives them up to more eminent sins and abominations in any kind whatsoever And so there is very great cause to grieve at it But secondly As those raging abominations they are the consequents of Gods anger in the causes of them so they are the Prognosticks of Gods wrath in the effects they do as good as foretell some judgment ere long to be brought upon
onely see that such things are done but also see the great evil in doing them and the mischief that will likely follow upon them Thirdly Let us get into our hearts the love of God and a tenderness of his Honour We that love the Lord hate evil says the Psalmist in Psal 97.10 The more we take delight in him the more we shall lament any thing that is opposite and contrary to him as I in part hinted before Those that can see sin and not bewail it or 〈◊〉 affected with it they shew that they have not the love of God in them as our Saviour says of the Jews Joh. 5.42 The way then to attain to the one is to labour for the other That we may cry for these abominations get in us this love of God To perswade us so much the rather hereunto let us but consider the great benefit which hereby is likely to come to us as it is here set before us Even to have a mark set upon our foreheads and to be kept from the stroke of the destroying Angel in the midst of Jerusalem We would all of us fain be priviledged and secured in these dangerous times of infection and common contagion Now therefore let us not neglect the means and course which God has prescribed for it let us every one humble our selves seriously in his sight because of our own and others sins and do all we can for the amendment and reforming of our lives If we will not do it now when will we do it Now that the wrath of God is from Heaven revealed against us and does vent it self as we see it does amongst us Oh Beloved I beseech you by all means let us now labour to get an interest in Christ and to be reconciled to God through him that so he may set his mark of favour and protection upon us in the evil day and may say These are mine whom I own and take especial care of Especially that he may mark us out for salvation and eternal life what-ever becomes of us here The foundation of the Lord standeth sure and he knows them that are his and will know them effectually and distinctly own them from all other men It is a sad and miserable case for any one to be out of Christ at any time even in the best and healthfullest times that are and when the Land is clearest and freest from judgments or the appearances of them But what to be out of Christ now and not to have his stamp and impression upon us at such a time as this is in a plague and a time of common mortality What a fearful what a desperate thing is this Who that rightly considers of any thing would wilfully suffer himself to continue in such a condition No but rather make all the haste that may be to know him and to close with him and to lie down before him Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish out of the way If his wrath be kindled yea but a little Blessed are all they that trust in him Psal 2.12 As for this business of mourning and lamenting of sin in particular we have so much the greater cause to apply our selves to it as God is willing to accept it at our hands Who would not then be safe where a little crying yea sighing would save him being done in truth and sincerity as it is here intimated that it will do Had we not better cry for sin than cry for punishment Cry by way of prevenâ—â—on than cry then when-as all the crying we can make will do us no good Oh let us learn to be wise betime and to close with the first occasions and opportunities of mercy Where we cannot do what we would do let us do what we can There are many abominations abroad in the world that it may be we cannot remove them yea but yet for all that we can bewail them we can lament them and mourn for them and that at least is required of us and to be performed by us It is the great goodness of God to his poor servants that he takes delight in the reality of their affections and good desires where they have nothing more in their power and counts them not so much by what they are as what they would be Where they strive against sin they would be Where they strive against sin they want it where they hate it they are free from it where they grieve and mourn for it they are freed from the imputations of it And why should we not then all that may be endeavour to nourish and cherish such affections as these in our hearts Seeing God himself has such regard to the persons in whom they are we our selvâ—â— should not be wanting to them in these occasions which are now upon us but desire the Lord himself who alone is able to do it to bestow them and work them in us who bestows the spirit of mourning and lamentation upon whom he pleases So much may satisfie to have spoken of the second General part of the Text and so of the whole Text it self in the words which I have now explained Go through the midst of the City c. and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof SERMON L. AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light It is the manner and practice of carnal and presumptuous persons either to expect an absolute freedom and exemption from the judgments of God for coming upon them or else at least very much to mitigate and extenuate those judgments to themselves for their suffering of them That is either to nullify the day of the Lord in hope to escape it or else to mollify the day of the Lord in hope to endure it Now accordingly does there a double work lye upon the Servants of God the Prophets and Ministers of the Church in the course of their Ministry in order to the suppressing and subduing of this presumption in them The one is to declare the certainty of this day as unavoidable And the other is to declare the misery of this day as unsupportable The former was that which we have had exhibited to us the last day out of these words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail c. and they shall not escape it There we have the day of the Lord in its certainty and unavoidableness The latter is that which we have now before us at this present time in the words of the Prophet Amos to the people of Israel Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light And here now we have the day of the Lord
he must dye for all these This night shall thy soul be taken away from thee This we have set forth unto us in Ps 49.6 and so forward They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a ransome for him that he should still live for ever and not see corruption for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever So in Eccl. 8.8 No man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war If no man hath power not the rich man not the wealthy man not the man of a great estate let him get as much as ever he can grasp yet he shall never see death he shall never be able by his wealth to free himself from that All a mans riches are not sufficient to preserve his life Again not to save his soul When a man is to appear naked before the dreadful Tribunal of Christ and to give account of all the actions which he hath done whether they be good or evil It is not a whole world which will avail him or do him any good The treasures of wickedness profit nothing in Prov 10.2 Riches avail not in the day of wrath in Prov. 11.4 When God shall set home sin upon the conscience and proclaim his fierce wrath and judgment against a poor wretch when he shall pronounce a sentence of cursing and condemnation upon such a soul as has walkt perversly against him all the riches and estate and wealth which such a man is able to make they can never help him to peace There 's nothing but the blood of Christ apply'd here by Christ's Spirit which is here able to avail when a man 's going out of the world the world it self will then be made appear to be wholly insufficient and they now and then to have the least contentment from it which have the most portion in it Oh that I could but sufficiently fasten these things upon your hearts If riches cannot save a man's soul why should men hazard the loss of their souls to come by them why should men take so much pains and care as they do to obtain them why should men put so much trust and confidence and reliance in them surely men do not consider what their precious souls are Thou fool thy soul shall be taken away from thee Methinks this one word it should strike a serious horror and amazement into every mans conscience What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul In Job 27.8 What is a man profited though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul in Matth. 16.26 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul as it is there also in that place All the tidings could have been brought were not answerable for sadness to this They shall take away thy soul from thee because that this taking away it was not a meet taking away but it had somewhat else at the end of it Take it away to punish it and take it away to torment it and take it away to inflict vengeance upon it It was not so much the separation of the soul from the body as the separation of the soul from the Lord that was that which was terrible and fearful and hideous indeed This is the first observation All the wealth a man has is not able to preserve his soul Secondly We may observe this that God takes away mens lives many times when they least suspect it This covetous wretch in the Text. thought least of death then when it was nearest unto him He was thinking of many years when he had not behind many hours he was thinking of his barns when he had a foot in his grave Thus it has been also with many others besides when they have been pleasing themselves in their enjoyments God has then taken away their souls when they have been promising and forecasting some great things to come to themselves God has then been preparing their deaths Thus it was with Belshazzar in Dan. 5.5 Whiles he was drinking Wine and praising the Gods of Gold and of Silver it is said in the same hour there was an hand writing came out against him and in that very night was Belshazzar King of the Chaldeans slain So likewise again Herod when he was sitting in his Pomp upon his Throne in his glorious apparel and priding himself in the shout and applause of the people it is said that immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory in Acts 2.23 Thus it was also with Sisera whiles he was sleeping securely in the Tent Jael came upon him with an hammer and stroke a nail through his temples that he died And so I might instance in many other examples besides there 's nothing almost more usual This God will have to be that he may teach us that we are dependant creatures and that our times are in his hands that no man might think of himself more highly than he ought to think but think soberly and meekly therefore he usually disappoints men in their greatest expectations where they do not take him to counsel There 's nothing a surer evidence and fore-runner of any ones miscarriage than an absolute and peremptory determination upon any thing without reference to God No he will have us to know our selves to be but men and accordingly think of our selves This should therefore teach us to take heed of boasting of to morrow or of promising our selves any certainty and assurance in any thing below Alas for ought we know we may be stript and depriv'd of our lives and we know not how soon There 's nothing more ordinary among men than to resolve long before hand and to project to themselves what they will do for time to come And there is nothing more ordinary than for men in such cases as these many times to have their lives taken from them when men settle themselves in a condition as I may so speak and think when they are come to this they shall now be sure to make their mountain strong and think they shall never be moved as David said then 's the very time usually for God to disappoint them Therefore take heed of this setling and resolving afore-hand of any thing I know there 's a lawful forecast and providence which ought to be used and it is such as is both needful and commendable but take heed of this Soul take thy rest take heed of thinking thou hast goods for many years take heed of saying with Peter It is good to be here for then in all probability and likelihood art thou going away God will not have us to dream of rest in a place of disquiet nor God will not have us to think of certainty in a condition of
for heavenly discourse He that exercises communion with God shall be better able to exercise and maintain communion with men And he that converses with his own heart shall be the better able to deal with others because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks as our Saviour tells us He that will lay out must lay up and he that will ever be profitable to others he must have a treasury and store-house within himself None can give but he that has And this is one rule to be observed by us as tending to this duty Secondly We must also have respect to the company we converse withal There 's a casting of Pearls before Swine which our Saviour has given us warning of Thirdly To time and season Every thing is beautiful in its season and a word spoken then is like apples of Gold in pictures of silver The use which we are to make of this Point is in our places to conform to this example and to study all opportunities of doing good that possibly we can Thus much for that which is here implied Christ's instruction and improving of himself whiles he was here present with them The Second is that which is exprest The different entertainment of him by these two Sisters Mary she sate at his feet and heard his word but Martha she was cumbred about much serving We 'll speak to the carriage of them both c. First Of the carriage of Mary She sate at his feet and heard his word Wherein we have divers things observable of us First here was her wise improvement of the opportunity for the good of her soul She was not sure to have Christ always therefore she would make use of him whiles she had him From whence we learn the same wisdom for our own particulars we should get as much good as we can from Ministers and other Christians whiles they abide and continue with us And we should also draw them forth and improve them Thus in all probability Mary did here Christ did not only speak to her of his own accord but she ask'd him and question'd with him Thus the Queen of Sheba did with Solomon she pursued him with hard questions 1 Kings 10.1 c. She tried him and put him to it So the Disciples to Christ upon his Ascension c. This is requisite to be done First From the proportion of gifts which God does variously distribute to his servants There are some which have knowledg in them but such as does not run out of it self till it be pumpt and drawn forth yea oftentimes the greatest abilities this way the deepest as Pearls which must be digg'd for ere they be had Prov. 20.5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep waters but a man of understanding will draw it out Secondly There is also sometimes an indisposition and retiredness in many persons which must accordingly be quickned and removed Thirdly There are particular cases wherein such and such particular persons do need advice and instruction which are best known to themselves And therefore they must be active in the expressing of them How shall a Physitian be able to apply himself to such and such Patients except themselves shew their disease This condemns the contrary course of many people Many of excellent abilities which are as good as lost for want of this That 's one thing here observable in Mary she improves the opportunity of Christ's presence to draw forth knowledg and instruction from him whiles he was with her Secondly She sate at his feet Here 's another expression of her carriage which has also its several intimations contain'd in it as especially these two First Her reverence and composedness of carriage and quietness of mind Martha she ran up and down the house as one which was distracted with business but Mary sate still at Christ's feet A composed gesture is a good argument of a composed spirit Those which cannot sit still in a place but run up and down from one to another as many do sometimes in our Assemblies they shew but little reverence and regard to the business in hand This holy woman she sate still as a note both of her inward reverence and quietness of mind free from worldly cares and distractions This is one qualification required of worthy hearers they must come as near as they can with free minds A roving and unsetled hearer can never be a good hearer Be still and know that I am Col Psal 46.10 For this purpose we should come with preparation and premeditation afore-hand labouring to disburthen our minds of those cumbrances which are apt to molest us otherwise the world will be ready to be choaked in us and become unfruitful to us And that we may the better do this disuse our selves from our worldly employment Thus when the Sabbath's approaching we should lay aside our trade betimes And on other days when we go to hearing the word we should not go immediately out of our shops but fitting our selves to it by prayer c. And that 's the first thing here observable in Mary to wit her reverence and composedness of spirit Secondly Here was her humility She sate at his feet This expression is taken from the custom of ancient times which is still continued to this present day That the Teachers were plac'd in some higher and more eminent part not only for the opportunity of speaking that so they might be the better heard but also as a Symbol of authority and eminency in regard of their Doctrine In which regard their Scholars and Disciples were said also to sit at their feet Thus Paul Act. 22.3 He is said to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Here in Mary it does denote that subjection and tractableness and pliableness of spirit which every hearer ought to bring with him to the word of God We are to come with meek and humble and double affections hereunto Jam. 1.21 Laying aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls This was the commendation of Cornelius and his company Acts 10.33 Now therefore we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God They came with an humble and teachable spirit to the word of God as ready to yield obedience to every thing which should be made known unto them So the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2.13 c. We have many hearers sometimes which do not sit at the feet but rather at the head of their Teachers which will be teaching those which should teach them intruding into those things which they do not know vainly pust up by a fleshly mind as the Apostle's phrase is Col. 2.18 We have many captious and frivolous hearers which nothing will please or satisfy them but such as suits with their own lusts having itching ears This godly woman in the Text was otherwise disposed She sate at Christ's feet a note of
world that I should bear witness to the truth Joh. 18.37 Even so may every one say besides For this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should live according to the truth The consideration of this Point may be thus far useful to us First to teach us where especially to spend our chiefest thoughts and endeavours And that is upon this one thing which is so needful and necessary for us as we have heard it is We see here where to begin and fasten our studies First to take care of necessaries before we take care of superfluities It 's mens practice in other matters and it should be more especially so here in this We count him to be a mad-man in reference to the world who looks after flowers and pictures and musick and such things as these and in the mean time suffers himself to starve and want bread Even such a kind of mad-man is he who spends all his thoughts and time upon these outward things here below and in the mean time neglects Heaven and the salvation of his own soul Such a mad-man was he in the Gospel Luke 12.20 who laid up much goods for many years but never thought what would become of this and therefore God calls him fool for it as he very well might and tells him his following doom Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken away from thee and then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided Certainly if there be but one thing necessary it is the greatest folly and madness that can be to neglect that of all other and such as we should especially take heed that we be not guilty of it And yet if we look abroad into the world how many shall we find to be guilty in this particular and how few careful of the contrary It is a sad and woful thing to consider what a general Atheism abounds almost in every place men live as if they had no souls to save or as if there were no such thing as salvation belonging unto them Religion is the least of their care or those things which may any way tend to the promoting of it Instead of being the one thing necessary it is with them the one thing superfluous and they think there 's the least need of it of any thing else in the World therefore it is that they so much slight it and contemn it and scoff at it and at those which do any thing mind it or regard it and look after it which themselves neglect to do That time which men should spend upon their souls they spend upon their lusts and upon their vanities and such things as tend to their utter ruine and eternal destruction So far are they from minding those things which are of better and higher concernment Well There 's a time a coming when things will appear in another kind of view than now they do when this one thing needful will appear to be needful indeed And our Saviour will justify and make good this his sentence and declaration about it when Grace shall be esteemed above all the world besides and those accounted the wisest persons who have got the greatest stock of it aforehand and have treasured it up unto themselves and therefore we should accordingly be perswaded to think and judg of it As there 's a truth in the Doctrine it self that this one thing is needful so we should for our part be convinced of the necessity of it in our own minds that from thence we may be drawn to pursue it and follow after it The reason why most men do no more regard these things than indeed they do is because they do not think them to be so needful as indeed they are They think there 's no such great matter in them as Ministers and Preachers would perswade Who hath believed our report Now therefore this is that which in the first place we should work our selves unto an apprehension of the necessity of Religion The way hereunto is first of all to get a spiritual savour and relish and appetite in us what makes men to think meat to be needful but because their stomachs call for it from them and their mouths crave it at their hands as Solomon speaks And so what is that which makes men to think Grace to be necessary It is because they have gracious dispositions in them which accordingly we must labour for This will make us with the Prophet David to think the word of God to be to us as our necessary and appointed food He that has a principle of spiritual life in him he can no more be without the Ordinances and means of spiritual nourishment than he that has natural life in him can be without bread and natural food The one will be as needful as the other with such persons as are proportionably affected and disposed unto them there being the same ground and reason for either and so likewise which is pertinent hereunto look upon things in their order and connexion and subordination and in reference to their particular ends See how Grace and Glory are linked and tied together and subordinate and subservient to each other how a man must have another kind of life when this life is gone and so we shall see how this one thing is needful and shall be perswaded the more to seek after it Secondly Labour to be convinced of the vanity and insufficiency of the creature This will make us to think one thing necessary that is Religion and nothing else For it may be we think it necessary but other things as necessary as that and this divides our cares about it Nay but nothing to speak of is needful and necessary but this as will appear from the vanity of the creature All these things here below they perish in their using The world passeth away and both the lust and the fashions of it as we have it from the testimony of two Apostles together in Scripture The creature in some conditions especially can do us no good at all at least which is able to satisfy us and give us content It cannot pacify a disquiet conscience it cannot heal a broken heart or a wounded spirit it cannot settle a mind troubled and perplext with the sight of sin This nothing can do but the Blood of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience and the testimony of God's love in them applyed by his Spirit which in part makes up this one thing here in the Text. Thirdly Get our hearts freed from those lusts and corruptions which are in them and are apt to prevail over them that 's another way to make us to mind this one thing necessary What was that which made Martha here in this Scripture to neglect the word of Christ why it was because she was a little too much addicted to the world and her secular affairs And so what was that which made the young rich man in the Gospel to despise
the name for good understandings now we see here how they may do so and indeed attain hereunto which is by walking in such ways as are good and which tend to everlasting life and salvation This is the great wisdom of all and most to be looked after Who is wise and he shall understand these things Prudent and he shall know them Hos 14.9 Men commonly think it a part of wisdom in them to choose such ways as are best for the world but that 's wisdom in good earnest to choose such ways as are best for Heaven and as may serve to bring a man thither Secondly It is an argument also of a gracious and savoury spirit Men choose commonly according to their affections and there 's much of their spirit in those things which they fasten upon we may see what 's within them and what principles they are acted by according to that which they make choice of A spiritual heart is most affected with spiritual objects and places its greatest delight and contentment in such things as these Thirdly It is an argument of some courage and self-denial and resolution of mind For the better part it is not commonly without opposition and resistance in the world there will still be some or other that will malign it and set themselves against it There 's hardly any man that can make choice of goodness but he shall be sure to have enemies enough for it They that hate me says David are many in number because I do the thing that good is Psal 38.20 Now therefore to make choice of it in such circumstances it argues some kind of boldness and spirit and courageousness in it Lastly It is also an argument of an elect and chosen Vessel It is a sign that God has chosen us when we choose him and such ways as these which are good and pleasing to him For there where God elects he qualifies where he makes choice of any person he does withal confer a disposition suitable and agreeable to such a choice This is that therefore which we should labour and endeavour after and be still careful of to put it in practice In every thing whereunto we apply our selves still to choose that which is best to close with the best persons to cleave to the best causes to take up the best opinions to take the best courses and ways that possibly we can that by so doing we may approve our selves the better to Christ It is the disposition of many people in the world that if there be any way worse than other they 'l be sure to make choice of that and to make it their own Now what a fondness and madness is this we see in other matters for the world how careful men are what they are able to make the best choice that may be and there 's nothing good enough for them so exact and curious are they And how much rather should they then choose the best in spiritual matters The way hereunto is first of all To beg direction of God himself for the guiding of us Alas we are but fools of our selves without his Spirit to teach us and therefore we must have recourse to him Thus the Prophet David for himself Psal 143.8 9. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning for in thee do I trust Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee And again Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness Thus the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of revelation cap. 1. ver 17. And for the Philippians That they might abound in all judgment cap. 1. ver 9. And for the Colossians That they might be fill'd with the knowledg of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Secondly We must also seriously weigh and compare one thing with another Good election it proceeds from good deliberation Eccles 7.27 Behold this have I found saith the Preacher counting one by one to find out the account or as some expound and read the words weighing one thing after another to find out the reason If we would choose those things that are best we must not take them in their simple proposition or have a slight and superficial view of them but examine them and dive into them and consider them in all their circumstances Thirdly Take in the advice and experience of well-grounded and experienced Christians to help us We see how men do in other matters where they have no skill or very little in such and such Commodities themselves they will take with them those that have to choose for them and so should they learn to do here It is a good rule in doubtful matters to advise with the generation of God's children which in all likelihood should know what is best and be able best to guess at it Quilibet in Arte sua credendus est Lastly To labour to be acquainted with the power of Religion our selves Those things men best choose which they are best verst in A Trades man in his own Commodities and Mysteries and so likewise a Christian And this is the first observation That it is the commendation of a Christian to make choice of such ways as are best and most approvable to Christ as Mary here did The Second is this That we are then good to purpose when we are good upon right Principles namely of judgment and consideration in us when it may be said of us as it was here said of Mary that we have chosen the better part Religion it is a matter of election it is not a business of chance but a business of choice There are many persons sometimes in the world who do not so much choose Religion as rather Religion chooses them and they stumble upon it before they are aware But this should not be sufficient for us neither should we content our selves with it but labour rather to set our selves to it upon due grounds and motives upon us Thus David concerning himself Psal 119.30 I have chosen the way of truth thy Judgments have I laid before me I have stuck unto thy Testimonies c. Beloved It is true indeed it is a great advantage to have gracious opportunities of goodness afforded unto us and we are to acknowledg God's Providence in them and to bless him for them good counsel good example good education good company and the like But yet we are not to rest our selves in these but to have somewhat further to act us We are not to be carried only by others principles but by principles of our own not only to take the better part but to choose the better part that is to take it out of a liking of it and out of an affection to it at least to do so at last and before we have done Indeed I do not deny but those helps which I mention'd before may
Shulamite return return there 's a doubling still of the word The Spirit of God he speaks quick and he speaks often again and again where he would prevent from danger Thus it teaches us accordingly to submit to such quick and close admonitions as these are as we have need of them There are many that do not love to be startled they would fain go to Hell quietly without any disturbance or interruption and therefore abhor all such persons as deal roundly and tartly with them and would awaken them out of their natural condition Oh but we see there is sometimes cause for such dealings and we should not think much of them whether from Ministers in the way of their publick Ministery or from private Christians in the way of Christian converse and private admonition not to be offended with their rouzings and excitements of us which the state in which we may be in and the danger which is neer upon us may call for to be used to us That 's one intimation in this doubled and repeated expression viz. The greatness of the danger The Second is the security of the person warned Peter was not more in danger than he was insensible of his danger He thought the case to be well enough with him as he expresses it afterwards in verse 33 of this chap. Lord I am ready to go with thee both into prison and unto death He thought himself a jolly man and that he could do very great matters till it came to the trial was well perswaded of his own strength and of his ability to resist temptations Now therefore does our Saviour here awaken him out of this secure temper and disposition by this manner of expressing himself unto him As danger calls for excitement so especially there where it hath security with it As the Angel to Lot and his company when they took them and pulled them out of Sodom because of their lingring in it Even so is there need to be done with some souls from that presumption and security that possesses them Thirdly The affection of the Monitor or Person that gives the warning that 's also in the doubling of the appellation It is a sign Christ's heart was much in it and that he bore a singular love and respect to Peter in that he does thus passionately admonish him Love is full of sollicitude and carefulness for the party beloved and can never express it self as it thinks sufficiently about it for the welfare of it And this is seen in nothing more than in spiritual things It is a singular token of affection to give warning of spiritual dangers and hazards to the soul and of temptations which it is exposed unto This is that which Christ does here in the Text to the Apostle Peter and which he does also to the rest of his Servants by his Spirit still in their hearts He does secretly forewarn them of those evils which are neer unto them if-so-be they will take warning by him and that also with much importunity and vehemency as that which concerns them So much for that and so also of the First General in the Text viz. The person warned the Apostle Peter in these words repeated and doubled Simon Simon The Second is the matter of the admonition or the warning it self Behold Satan To say nothing of the word of attention Behold which yet might be inlarged upon There are two particulars here further considerable First the persons aim'd at and that is you Secondly the design upon them Satan hath desired to have you and to sift or winnow you as wheat For the First The persons aim'd at they are here said to be you He spake before to Peter in the singular Simon Simon now it is you in the plural To signify thus much unto us that there 's the same condition of all Believers as of one That which befalls one Christian it is incident to all the rest They have all the same dngers which they are exposed unto and enemies which do endeavour against them though they may not always have the like opportunity for the expressing of their enmity against them one as another Peter and the rest all alike The reason of it is this Because they all consist of the same natures and are acted by the same principles they all have the reliques of the same original corruption as yet in part abiding in them and they have all the same Spirit and work of Grace acting in them And so as to temptations they are all one and the same for the danger which they are liable unto Therefore it should work all to an holy jealousie and suspition of themselves and tenderness to others when we see any poor soul at any time exercised with Satan's temptations and it may be sometimes foyl'd with them let us not think that his case is peculiar and that we for our parts shall do well enough No but rather be so much the more watchful over our own hearts Be not high-minded but fear for that which befalls others if thou look'st not to it may befall thee And so it should teach us also bowels and compassion towards others under temptations not to be harsh with them and rigorous towards them and censorious of them but to use all kind of gentleness and tenderness to them considering that the case might be our own if God should permit it Thus the Apostle Paul improves it in his exhortation given to the Galatians Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such an one with the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Which rule if it were more observ'd there would be a great deal of more Christian affection in the world than commonly there is Men look upon the temptations of others as if themselves were altogether exempt and freed from them whereas if they were in the same circumstances they would bewray the same infirmities and weaknesses that others do afore them that so they may carry the greater bowels and pitty towards them As it is an argument to remembrance of others in bonds and adversty as being your selves in the body and so ready to be bound with them Heb. 13.3 So it is an argument for compassion towards others under temptations as being your selves liable and exposed to the same condition and apt and ready to be tempted with them And indeed this is the reason why God is pleased many times to exercise sundry persons in this kind and to expose them now and then to temptations that so from hence he may teach them to be less harsh and rigorous to others in such conditions which when themselves are free they are oftentimes subject unto that they may preserve in themselves a sweet and amiable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tenderness of spirit to the rest of their Brethren and that their moderation may be known to all men as the Apostle requires it should be Phil. 4.5 It is
in their several temptations When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up says David Psal 94.18 And Psal 73.23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee Thou hast holden me by my right-hand Still it was God's holding of him Secondly The Servants of God do sometimes happily light upon careful and skilful persons whether Ministers or other Christians which herein are very helpful unto them When a man has broken or put out of joynt a leg or an arm if he meet with a skilful Chirurgeon or Bone-setter it is a great advantage to him in that respect Why thus now does it happen sometimes to the people of God in temptation they meet with friends skilful to this purpose 〈◊〉 Intercessor one of a thousand who has the tongue of the learned and is able to speak a word in season to the weary soul a spiritual man which can restore them and put them in joynt again by a spirit of meekness And now whiles it is thus with them they do in such cases more easily recover This was the case of David who when he was fallen in his great temptations had this advantage of the Prophet Nathan for his conversion and turning again And this was the case of Eli who when he had trespast against the Lord by his indulgence to his wicked Sons had the advantage of young Samuel to admonish him and put him in mind of it And this was the case of Hezekiah who being tempted to pride and vain-glory and carnal confidence in his treasures and possessions had the advantage of the Prophet Isaiah to awaken him in it And this was here now the advantage of Peter when he was drawn aside to the denial of his Master that he had the seasonable eye of Christ to look upon him and thereby to reduce him and to bring him to repentance as we find him to have done Thirdly There is in the servants of God a Principle of spiritual life which does conduce hereunto There 's a great deal of difference betwixt a dead man and a man in a swoon A man which is stark dead there 's no recovery of him again because a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus from an absolute and total privation there is no return again to the habit But it is otherwise here with the children of God in temptation they are not dead but sleep Grace it is not absolutely lost or extinguisht but only stunned in them And from hence it is that they do at the last return to their former condition This is signified in the connexion of these words with the words going before I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not And when thou art converted So long as a man's Faith fails not so long is there hope of his conversion in the sense which is here spoken of The Servants of God their Principles are still sound in them and this is very advantageous to them in this particular As ye see in other matters when a man has a strong nature and a good temper and constitution of body it will easily work out some distempers in him which another lies under Even so is it here in these spiritual things where a man has a gracious frame and temper of heart for the general this will conquer and overcome some occasional weaknesses in him Lastly which I will here but only name because we shall speak to it more hereafter the children of God they are also careful of themselves When men are sick and distemper'd and take no care for their recovery or amendment they may dye of the distemper but by good heed health is often restored And so here God's Servants when they fall into temptation they take care of themselves in it and so at last get out of it and are freed from the inconveniencies of it which are appertaining to it Thus we see an account of this business how God's people after temptations are restored The Use of this Point to our selves is not from hence to make us so much the more bold and busy with temptations in hope of being at last delivered and freed from them which is an ill improvement of such Truths as these are but rather as a word of comfort to good Christians against Satan's assaults and attempts upon them The Devil when at any time he sets upon any poor soul his desire and intent is to undo it and to take it off wholly from God that it should never return to him more But yet he is herein disappointed and frustrated of his expectation so as he shall not prevail so much against it and therefore may every good Christian in this case triumph with the Church in Mic. 7.8 Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall rise again when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me As God sets bounds to his people's afflictions so to their corruptions also and temptations that they shall not too long lye upon them Peter though for a while tempted yet shall at length be restored and converted And thus much of the words in the first sense as they may be taken by way of supposition and as the intimation of a Priviledg When thou art converted The Second is by way of imposition or command and as they have in them the intimation of a Duty Return or convert thy self Thus the two ancient Eastern Translations both Syriack and Arabick carry it and that not altogether unagreeable to the Original Text It being ordinary in the Greek Language to turn the Imperative into the Participle As Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptizing them i. e. Teach them and Baptize them So here having converted strengthen i. e. Convert and strengthen And this sense is also further justified from the Participle in the Active signification We will therefore not excluding the former take it in this construction also So there is further in it That Christians when they are fallen through temptation ought as soon as may be to return and restore and recover and convert themselves from it Having first converted thy self which it concerns thee to endeavour then do so also to thy brethren For the better opening of this present Point unto us we must remember that there 's a double Conversion there 's a conversion from the state of Nature to the state of Grace and there 's a conversion from some decay or weakenings of Grace to the renewings and strengthening of it There 's repentance as to the state and also to the act Now it is not the former Conversion but the latter which is here intended in this Scripture As for Conversion in the former sense wherein indeed the word is commonly and most usually taken that Peter did partake of already and was not at all fallen from it that is from the general work of Regeneration and the new creature But as to the latter of that he was capable And Christ here warns him as occasion should serve
lose nothing by such improvements as these are but gain by them rather and they return upon us with so much the greater advantage that so we may be encouraged thereunto in the practice of them This Oyl it encreases in the spending and this Bread in the breaking of it And to him that thus hath it shall be given We should therefore be perswaded to put this duty in practice upon all occasions God has made and appointed us for the good one of another and not only for our selves therefore as we have any thing our selves we should mind one anothers good in it As the Ministerial official parts of the body The heart and liver and stomach they do not only receive nourishment for themselves but for the whole body So should we which are Christians in spiritual things As the Heavens what light and influence they have in themselves they bestow upon the earth even so should we do to those which are below us especially in these places of society We see how active evil men are in that which is evil Those which are themselves perverted they 'll be sure to pervert their Brethren and make others as bad or perhaps a great deal worse than themselves And why should not we then do the contrary in matters of goodness What a shame is it for the children of this world to be in this sense also wiser in their generation than the children of light Oh! let us cast off this sluggishness and remisness from us let us make it our business to make others partakers of the same Grace and comfort with our selves This is done divers ways as First by discovering and laying open the flights of sin and the subtilties of the spiritual enemy The reason why many miscarry and are surprized with spiritual evils is because they are not aware of the danger which is incident to them and which themselves are subject unto They are apt to think that there is no such great hazard in such ways as are undertaken by them as indeed there is Now here it concerns us being our selves converted to admonish them and warn them of it Peter who had now unadvisedly gone into the High Priest's Hall and mingled himself with the evil company which he met withal there in that place he was better fitted to advise others to take heed of such kind of temptations Exhort one another daily whiles it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Secondly By quickening and exciting and stirring up one another to good we do hereby strengthen our Brethren There 's nothing does more strengthen men in goodness than the practice of goodness And there is nothing which does more promote and advance this practice in them than the quickening and exciting of them Therefore it is the Apostle's Exhortation in Heb. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works We should be putting one another upon good as much as we can and thereby settle them in it yea we should encourage them and hearten them in it by convincing them of the great good and advantage which comes by it This is a means to confirm and strengthen them What strengthens men at any time in evil why it is the apprehension of little hurt in it and as they conceit a great deal of contentment The same would also confirm men in good if it were truly and really understood which we should therefore labour and endeavour to assure them and perswade them of and to fasten upon them Thirdly By imparting and communicating of our own Experiences we do hereby likewise strengthen our Brethren when we shall shew them what good we our selves have found by such and such good courses This is a means not onely to draw on but to confirm others with us And so when we shall shew what comfort we have felt in such and such like cases our selves this is a means to comfort our Brethren and to give satisfaction to them Therefore we shall find the Prophet David to be mindful of this practise in Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul As persons which are themselves recovered of such and such a sickness or distemper they are apt to tell what has done them good and thereby to refresh their Neighbours which are exercised with the like infirmities Even so should it be also with Christians in their spiritual conditions In case of temptation to sin I have found benefit by such a word of Command which has restrain'd me from it And in case of temptation for sin I have found benefit by such a word of Promise which has comforted me in it When I have been ready almost to sink in my self an to faint under such an affliction such a Divine Truth or such a Divine Attribute has been a Cordial and a Relief unto me and kept me up When Christians do thus mutually impart and communicate their Experiments to each other they do hereby wonderfully establish and confirm each other in good whether as to point of Grace or of Comfort And then further Not onely by imparting but by comparing these Experiences together one with another I was just in such a case my self and found these workings in me as you have done for your particulaâ— Why this is now a great Confirmation It appears from hence that Religion is no matter of meer fancy or imagination but has a Truth and Reality in it because it is thus uniform and consistent to it self as it is in one man as well as another Thus we see what ways those which are themselves converted may strengthen their Brethren To help us and enable us hereunto we must labour especially for such Graces as are conducing to the practise of it As first A Spirit of Discerning whereby to judge aright of the case and condition which our Brethren are in It is a great part of skill in a Physician to be able to find out the Disease and to know the just temper and constitution of his Patients Body and so is it also for an Healer of Souls All kinds of Remedies are not to be used to all kind of Persons some have need of one kind of help and others have need of another which is a piece of spiritual wisdom and prudence in our selves to be able to discover There is a word in season which must be spoken to the weary Soul or else it will do no good Isa 50.4 Secondly A spirit of love and tenderness and condescention There is a great deal of meekness required in a Spiritual Strengthner and Restorer Gal. 6.2 Restore with the spirit of meekness Men which are rough and austere and which stand too much upon their own terms they 'll never do good to others No there must be a yielding and bearing and pitying in such works and ways as those are There must be a putting on of the
does it freely and willingly and of his own accord without any thing in us either to move him or mind him of it or to perswade him and engage him to it There 's nothing so free as Grace in the Collations and Distributions of it It is bestowed without any worth or Dignity in us at all to Promerit it This may appear if we shall consider but the Persons upon whom it is bestowed who are often times such as have nothing in them tending hereunto whether we take it as to worldly qualifications or else to moral It is very free in either Consideration As to worldly Qualifications first of all the Aposte Paul has here informed us how that not many wise men after the Flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise c. And Secondly as for moral Qualifications God sometimes makes choice of such as are the greatest Sinners where he passes by some other Persons of greater Civility Matthew the Publican Mary Magdalen the Harlot Saul the Persecutor the Barbarian Jaylor That Gods Spirit should blow upon these whiles it blew over others which were better what does this speak unto us but that it bloweth there where it listeth Into what can we possibly resolve it but into the will and good pleasure of God! Look what St. Paul says sometimes of the common gifts the same may we say also of the sanctifying But all these worketh that one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 And again Vnto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gist of Christ Whatever Grace any man partakes of he has it purely from the Spirit of God who of his own accord bestows it upon them And therefore it is said in 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God All we have it is of free grace and it is freely given and conferred upon us The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us First as it may teach us where to acknowledge all that we receive If any have more Grace than others let them see here how they came by it not by Merit but by Gift not by any thing as deserving it in themselves but from the goodness of the Spirit of Godas bestowing it upon them and therefore not to attribute it to themselves but to Him who is the Author and Giver of it as St. Paul himself gives us an example in 2 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Secondly We have here an account of the difference and variety of Christians both from one another and from themselves we see why one Christian abounds in Grace more than another and we see also why the same Christian is better at one time than he is at another Both are from this ground in the Text because the Spirit bloweth there where it listeth And every one to this purpose should rest satisfied in this equal dispensation God may do with his own as he pleases and he pleases thus to do with it that so hereby he may shew his own liberty and freedom in this particular We are able to move no farther in good than the Spirit of God helps us so to do As ye know it was in the Vision in Ezekiel as the Spirit moved the living Creatures which were in the wheels so the wheels went when that went they went and when that stood still they stood still with it Ezek. 1.2 Even so is it here in these motions of the Soul we are so far forth more lively in regard either of Grace or Comfort as the Spirit of God is pleased to breathe and to infuse either of them into us And without Him we are able to do nothing as may be worth any thing to us Therefore thirdly Let us also make this use of it To be depending upon him for it If we cannot do any thing without his blowing and his blowing be onely there where he pleases we see what cause we have to keep in good terms with him and to do nothing which may be displeasing to him for if we lose his favour we lose his influence and his assistance which is the effect of it it is where he lists and onely there where he blows And therefore make much of him and wait upon him take heed of grieving so good and so gracious a Spirit as this is and besides who is so useful to us and necessary for us And further Fourthly let it teach us also tenderness and compassion towards others who it may be do not partake of so much grace or comfort as our selves For it is God and his Spirit who makes this difference betwixt us it is not we our selves Let us take heed of insulting too much over others weaknesses forasmuch as it is that Grace that distinguishes us and makes that difference that is betwixt us And that 's the second thing also in this motion its freeness that it is not engaged The third and last is its Efficacy or unresistableness that it is not nor cannot be hindred Whereever the Spirit of God will blow there is no standing out against it it blows where it lists that is it obtains whatsoever it endeavours Who hath resisted his will Surely none at all to any purpose Indeed corrupt Nature sometimes opposes the motions of Gods Spirit and that even Conversion in it self reluctates and strives against it but all in vain where he sets to the work Look as it is not in the power of a Child to hinder his own first birth even so it is not in the power of a sinner to hinder his own new birth where God undertakes and sets himself to it because his Spirit it does effect whatsoever he pleases Who hath gathered the wind in his fist as Agur makes the question in Prov. 30.4 Surely it is not Man but God Look as no man can hinder the wind or stop the blowings and motions thereof so neither can any man hinder the Spirit and stop the motions and influences thereof that they should not prove effectual This is a comfortable point in all contrary blasts whatsoever Satan who is the evil Spirit he has his blowings too and he oftentimes blows very hard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks but yet he does not blow where he lists nor can his blowings prevail against this blowing which we have here before us in this present Text which carries all before it and shall overturn and overthrow whatsoever stands in opposition to it It is said of Antichrist the man of sin and who is a great instrument of Satan that the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth and destroy
him with the brightness of his coming And so he shall and all such persons as do adhere unto him The Spirit of Christ shall scatter the spirit of Antichrist and the wind of the Holy Spirit shall confound the wind of the evil Spirit and what ever is attempted by it This is a very comfortable point in all the assaults and temptations of Satan and his endeavours either against the Church in general or against any particular member of it Every Christian is thus far secure and in good condition as he has this Wind as I may so say for him which is sure to blow him nothing but good The Reason of it is this Because he is one that belongs to Christ and has an interest in him and so consequently has an interest in the Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ and so all the motions of it subordinate and subservient to him and disposed of according to his pleasure There are different and various winds which blow now and then both upon the Church and likewise upon the Soul but they are all ordered and regulated by him Therefore we find in the Canticles how it is Christ himself that stirs up his Spirit for the good of his Spouse Awake O North-wind and come thou South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out The Spirit it blows where it lists and it lists there where Christ lists too which is very satisfactory for all those that seek unto him And so I have done with the first part of the Text as to the resemblance betwixt the Spirit and the Wind in the work of Regeneration and that is the Quality of the Maker The Wind bloweth c. The Second is the Sensibleness of its effects in those words And thou hearest the sound thereof The wind it comes with a Sound and so does the Spirit of God It did so in its first coming of all when it came upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost There came suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting Acts 2.4 And so it is still to this present day in a proportion It has a sound and such as may be heard Now thus it is in a two fold consideration The one is the sound of it in the Ear and the other is the sound of it in the Conscience First There is the sound of the Spirit in the Ear and that is in the external Preaching of the Word and Ministerial Dispensation where this is performed as it should be it is no other than the sound of the Spirit and the voice of the Holy Ghost himself speaking to us Their sound is gone forth into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 This is such a sound as may be heard and it is a mercy to hear it and to be made partakers of it and that in regard of the virtue and benefit which by the blessing of God is conveyed by it for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God as the Apostle there tells us Rom. 10.17 Therefore accordingly we should prize it and esteem of it and apply our selves to it as that which is appointed for our good If we look upon Preaching onely as the work of men so there is but little in it and it may be rather matter of contempt in regard of the meanness of it But when we shall consider that it is the Ordinance of God and the voice and sound of the Spirit here 's that in it which commands our regard and attention to it And we should be glad of all opportunities which are at any time afforded unto us for the partaking of it that we may hear the sound of this wind blowing upon us That 's the first The sound in the Ear. But secondly that 's not all there is moreover the sound in the Conscience which is the main and chiefest of all This is that which comes home to the heart of a Christian for his conversion and the raising him from the death of sin under which he was held Like the voice of Christ to Lazarus when he bad him come forth of the grave This is that which is heard also by those persons whom it pleases God to vouchsafe it unto according to that of our blessed Saviour in Joh. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Thus we shall find it was with the Disciples going to Emaus Luke 24.32 They said one to another Did not our bearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and whiles he opened to us the Scripture There was a special efficacy went with his word to the hearts of his hearers And so it was with St. Peter's Converts Acts 2.37 When they heard these words they were pricked at their hearts And the Jaylor Acts 16.33 he heard not onely the sound of the wind but the sound of the Spirit and this sound of it whereof we now speak in the heart-quake as well as the earth quake which he was sensible of upon that occasion And so it has been with many more and still is they daily hear this sound made unto them they have strong and strange impressions upon their hearts and spirits to this purpose which they cannot but hear in several kinds sometimes checking them for sin and sometimes restraining them from it sometimes exciting them to good and sometimes encouraging them in it The Spirit of God in their hearts and consciences deals diversly and variously with them and it is their duty and wisdom accordingly to attend unto him They that hear thus they shall hear that is they shall hear effectually as it is intimated in the place before cited And therefore it concerns us to regard it and to give heed unto it all that possible may be There are a great many people in the world who though this sound which we now speak of in both the branches of it be continually exhibited unto them and such as may be heard yet they do not or at least will not hear it who like the deaf Adder stop their ears and will not hear the voice of the charmers charm they never so wisely as the Prophet David speaks of them in Psal 68.4 5. Now what do such as these but as much as in themselves lies hinder their own conversion and regeneration and the work of grace in their hearts which is accomplished by such ways and means as these And besides after a great indignity and disrespect to the holy Ghost himself as the Apostle Paul signifies to us in 1 Thess 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given us his holy Spirit Whose voice as it is sensible to be heard so it ought to be heard by us as we have occasion for it And so
we have also the Second part which is the sensibleness of this wind in its Effects Thou hearest the sound thereof The Third and last is the Intricacy or Mysteriousness of it in its proceedings in these words But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth This the nature and condition of the Wind that there can but little account be given of it at least as to the manner and reason of its motions We can say It blows here or It blows there but the rise and original of it from whence it first comes and the term or end of it where it rests and stays that we are not able to discern forasmuch as at one and the same time the Winds are different on the Sea and in the Land And there is no fixedness or certainty in them We hear the noise and sound of them but we know not in the mean time what becomes of them as it is here exprest unto us by our Saviour in this present passage which we have now before us And as it is thus with the carriage of the Wind so more especially with the carriage of the Spirit and the proceeding of the Holy Ghost in us as to the work of Grace and Regeneration It is such as is not so easily perceived or discerned by us but is remote and hidden from us Therefore it is set forth to us in Scripture by such expressions as these Of the hidden Life of the hidden Manna of the mystery of Godliness and the like in regard of the great intricacy and imperceptibility which is upon it as that which is so difficultly apprehended It is such as the best that are and those who are the subjects of it do not discern or apprehend perfectly but it is such as natural and unregenerate persons do not discern at all The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 2.14 Indeed such persons as these may discourse at random about it and speak problematically of it as the Philosophers do of the windes and they may have some common notions and apprehensions of it as far as Parts and Books will carry them but to speak distinctly and understandingly of it that they cannot do as wanting the sense and experience of it upon their own hearts And those that have this experience of it yet are they to seek of it in sundry particulars We may take notice of it in either of these persons whether those who are not regenerate or which are so and so shew you how either of them are in their kinds ignorant of this Mystery First Take it as to those who are regenerate and themselves partakers of this new-birth and work of the Spirit even such as these cannot give an account of it in some particulars which are belonging unto it as to instance a little in some few amongst the rest For the manner of working of it for the moment in which it is wrought for the growth and encrease of it for the condition of the persons wrought upon why in these and not in others These are things which are not so easily discerned or if in persons that are grown and come to years there may be some clearer footsteps of these things than in others yet for infants and younger children how it pleases God to work upon them it is a Mystery which the most intelligent Christians are not able to determine And we may apply hereunto that which the Preacher has of the natural generations As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child even so thou knowest not the works of God that maketh all Eccl. 11.5 And the Argument it holds here in this particular business a fortiori If we cannot discover the Mysteries of Nature much less the Mysteries of Grace and if not the things of Earth how much less the things of Heaven which are so far remote from humane understanding This is the very scope and drift of our Saviour here in the Text to conclude the one from the other That because the motions of the winde were imperceptible therefore were also the motions of the Spirit And so we may reason likewise as to other things of the same nature with it As for example the soul of man and the manner of the production of that whether by creation or generation whether as infused by God himself or as resulting out of the matter prepared we know there are great disputes about it and difficulties in it Now if it be thus as to the Soul in the natural state of it how much more may it be thus with it in the spiritual This God will have to be for this reason amongst the rest that so we may the more adore him and acknowledg him in such works as these are and say that it is he that hath made us and not we our selves Not only as to our first make but as to our second Here 's that which does plainly shew how little we do confer or contribute to the work of Grace and Regeneration in our selves when-as those themselves who are regenerate can give so little account of Regeneration as it appears indeed by experience that they can What likelihood is there that they should work it that cannot know it or that it should take its rise and original from them who cannot express the conveyances of it that cannot tell of this Spirit whence it cometh or whither it goeth This should teach us all with modesty and humility and admiration to lay our hands upon our mouths and at last to break forth and cry out in the words of the Apostle Paul Oh the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his works and his ways past finding out as it is in Rom. 11.33 And thus does it hold good of the Regenerate as that which is not discerned by them But Secondly And more especially does it hold good of those who are unregenerate and at present in the state of nature such as these to be sure do not discern it or apprehend it indeed And these seem especially to be intended here in this Scripture where our Saviour applies himself in this his discourse to Nicodemus who was as yet but such a person as this though a great Master and Doctor and Teacher in Israel even he did grosly betray his ignorance in such a Doctrine and Point as this was of the new-birth And so in him we may take notice of the condition of all carnal and unregenerate persons They are such as who are very much to seek in the mysteries of Grace and Conversion and in the state and condition of a Christian in order to this Regeneration This is considerable of us in all the Parts and Branches of it and secrets which are
viz. The Duty supposed If ye continue in my word This is that which Christ requires of these Jews which now believed on him that they would go on and persevere in the Faith And it is that which he requires of all others besides In Christianis quaeuntur non initia sed finis It is not so much the beginning as the end which is looked after in Christians Therefore it is the counsel of Paul to Timothy that he should continue in the things which he had learned 2 Tim. 3.14 And to continue in the Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.16 Acts 14.22 The Apostles confirm'd the souls of the Disciples and exhorted them to continue in the Faith This perseverance and continuance is such a duty as the Scripture does generally in every part of it commend unto us As for the further prosecuting of this Point unto you I shall reserve that for the latter clause of the Verse in handling of the Connexion where it will come in with greater advantage All that I shall do in the mean time before I pass to that shall be to take notice of the phrase and manner of expression in this passage and that is that Chirst says not If ye continue in the Faith although that was the main thing which he meant but if ye continue in my Word Why does he so There are divers reasons which may be given of this expression First That he might hereby carry them to the Spring and Original of that Faith which was wrought in them And that was the word of Christ This was the means of drawing them to believe and Christ would have them to remember it and to take special notice of it for their greater reverence of his own Ordinance For when all comes to all this is that which must work it in an ordinary way It is true Christ is able immediately to infuse the habits of Grace into us by his own Spirit without the Preaching of the word but it is that which he will not commonly do If he does as in infants and young children yet the Word has still the honour of exerting it and drawing it forth from whence at last it is all resolved into that as the Principle of Conversion Of his own will begat he us by the word of Truth Jam. 1.18 And now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you God has put a dignity upon his word to this purpose And that not only in the mouth of Christ himself as it was here in the Text but also in the mouths of his faithful Ministers and Servants whose word is the word of Christ when 't is delivered in his Name and by his Authority as truly though not so fully as that which came directly and personally out of his own mouth it self Therefore he tells his Disciples that He that despiseth them despiseth him And St. Paul to the Thessalonians He that despiseth us despiseth not man but God who hath also given us his holy Spirit To abide in the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles and other Ministers is to continue in the word of Christ And to continue in the word of Christ is to continue in the Faith Secondly As to shew the rise of Faith so to shew the rule of Faith to shew what it is which out Faith must be regulated by and that is by the word of Christ We must henceforth believe nothing of Christ but what is exhibited to us in his word and which is taught us in that Search the Scriptures for they bear witness of me says Christ himself Joh. 5.39 All Doctrines which are beside this word they fall to the ground Thirdly To shew the improvement of Faith whence it is that our Faith is to be nourished and strengthened in us Ex eisdem nutrimur un de renascimur we are nourish'd by the same means as we are first born The word of God it is both seed and food to its seed as to the begetting of Grace and it 's food as to the encrease of it And so the Scripture stiles it The immortal seed and the meat that endureth for ever The word it hath both properties in it and so both are attributed to it The first in the former verse which we have handled As he spake c. And the second in this other which we are now upon If ye continue in my words So much for the reason of this expression and for the first Branch as it is here considerable of us viz. The duty required The Second is The Priviledg inserr'd Then are ye my Disciples indeed Where there are two things again distinctly considerable of us First the Priviledg it self and that is to be a Disciple of Christ Secondly the ground whereupon this Priviledg is founded or the condition of it Then If ye c. For the First The Priviledg it self simply consider'd it is to be a Disciple of Christ which is further set forth by the word of Amplification indeed A Disciple indeed This is that which every good Christian is and which every one should labour to be Not to be a titular Disciple only but a real Which is an expression that the Scripture does very much stand upon in sundry places of it Thus our Saviour speaking of Nathanael Joh. 1.48 says he was a true Israelite or an Israelite indeed And St. John speaking of our Saviour says he was that true light 1 Joh. 2.8 Our Saviour speaking of John Baptist Mark 11.32 says he was a Prophet indeed So here our Saviour again speaking of good Christians and sound Believers says My Disciples indeed Now to open this expression a little to you A Disciple indeed it does contain three properties especially in it First Sincerity Secondly Vniversality And Thirdly Perpetuity He that 's a Disciple indeed he is one unfeignedly And he is one indefinitely And he is one uncessantly First Unfeignedly A Disciple indeed does imply sincerity in it in opposition to hypocrisie and dissimulation There are many who are Disciples in pretence but that 's not that which will serve the turn nor which we should be contented withal but to be so in reality and good earnest that is to have the heart and spirit and substance of true Religion in us For look as in naturals painted fire is no fire where it wants the operations of fire in it and a dead man is no man but a carkass because he wants the Soul which is the form and life in him Even so it is also in Spirtuals one that is but a meer Professor he is no true Christian because he wants the life of Grace which should act Christianity in him This is that which Christ especially regards and requires in us 1 Joh. 3.18 My little children let us not love in word and in tongue but in deed and in truth And what he says of the Grace of love may be applied also to any other besides God esteems of us in Religion so far forth as we are hearty
to blame in this particular Secondly when it makes us unthankful and unsensible of the mercies of God towards us There are some Christians who are sometimes so dejected and cast down and troubled in themselves for such particular evils that befall them that they take no notice at all of any mercies which they enjoy with them Like some wayward and froward children who if they may not have what they would they throw away that they have but this does but provoke their Parents to correct them more sharply that so they may cry for somewhat indeed And so it is also oftentimes betwixt God and his When men take no notice of his mercies because of some concomitant afflictions he adds to these afflictions the removal of those mercies from them Thirdly this trouble is further inordinate in the effects and consequents of it when it makes us unserviceable and unuseful when either it keeps men from their work and the performance of that service which God requires of them or else when it distracts men in their work and disturbs and interrupts them about it First When it keeps from it is inordinate then as it is with every other affection besides whether love or joy or fear or whatever it be If it hinders a man from doing his duty and that work which God requires of him it is so far forth irregular and disordered Even so amongst the rest is grief and trouble of spirit It should be with us as much as may be in our affections as it was with Christ himself in his who whatever sadness of mind was upon him was still careful to do his work which there was nothing could keep him from Again Secondly When it distracts in duty it is inordinate then also when it makes us listless and heartless and indisposed in the service of God as for the most part it is apt to do This is a part of humane infirmity and not without some mixture of flesh and corruption in us And thus have we seen what this trouble of heart here is which our Saviour does prohibit to us And so also the Second General Part which is observable in the Text viz. A Christian's duty in not being troubled The Third is the Priviledg of a Christian in the care of Christ for him and advice and counsel to him in this admonition which he gives to his Disciples when he was now going from them Let not your heart be troubled c. That which was their duty to avoid it was his care and love to perswade them that they might avoid From whence we note thus much That it is the mind and desire of Christ that his Servants hearts should be kept from inordinate trouble and distraction He does not love that they should be frighted and disquieted more than needs This is the reason that he is so careful to advise them and to counsel them to the contrary as he does both here and else-where He had begun the Chapter with it Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me And here now he repeats it again towards the close Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Because it much in his mind it was much in his mouth as things commonly use to be yea and which makes it so much the more remarkable when himself was now in a sad condition He forgets and neglects his own trouble and takes care for the prevention of theirs There are two particulars which are considerable of us in this passage of Christ's desire to keep his Disciples from distracting trouble and fear First the reason why he desired it And Secondly the manner how or the circumstances and concomitants wherewith For the reasons why First they are the same for which he desires that any other of his Servants now should be also kept from the like distempers as namely these First For the honour and glory of God which is much disparaged by the contrary When Servants go sad and mournfully it reflects unhandsomely upon their service and their Masters whom they attend upon as if they were some way wanting to them in those things which were convenient for them And so it is likewise with the Servants of God in their relation to him as if there were not enough in him for the satisfying and comforting of them It is a denying of him in his Attributes and the fulness and extent of them A denying of the God that is above Job 31.28 Secondly Out of respect to Religion and the profession of Christianity it self A sad and disconsolate conversation it brings an ill report and conceit upon the ways of Godliness and makes that to be ill thought of in the World From hence men are apt to conclude that there 's no comfort to be found in such ways as these are that Religion is the high-way to melaucholy and trouble and disquietness of mind When men observe these things in the subjects they conclude this of the principle And when they see it is thus with Christians considered in concreto they conclude it to be thus with Christianity considered in abstracto which though it be a great mistake and false reasoning in them yet there should not be an occasion for it administred by us Thirdly For our own good and advantage By over-much sadness and distraction and fear we do very much prejudice our selves torment our selves before our time and sometimes more than we need make our lives uncomfortable and by grieving of our own spirits grieve the Spirit of God also in us and cause him so much the more and the rather to depart and to withdraw from us And besides as I hinted before hereby make our selves so much the more unserviceable and unuseful in our several places especially for the comforting of others among whom we live and with whom we converse which is a very great part and branch of the communion of Saints which is to be exercised and practised by us So far forth as Christ desires our good so far forth he desires our comfort and a spirit and conversation in us suitable and agreeable hereunto Now because it is Christs desire it should be likewise our indeavour which we should aim at and apply our selves to we should as much as in us lies discharge our selves of all distemper and inordinacy in this particular whether of Grief or Fear And for this purpose here know and take notice that it is in some sort in our power so to do Whiles our Saviour says to his Disciples Let not your Heart be troubled he does hereby imply that they were able to keep their Hearts from being troubled and so indeed they were And so likewise are any other of the Servants of Christ besides How may we say is that How may Christians preserve themselves from trouble of Spirit To this I answer two manner of ways First Negatively In withdrawing from such ways as may either occasion or cherish Grief in them And
known The knowledge of God by Christ is not onely in Christ himself but from him imported to us for our information There is neither envy in Christ nor neglect nor affectation of reservedness in this particular but free and open dealing with a great deal of alacrity indeed His declaration is not answerable and proportionable to his apprehension we may not imagine so for that is incongruous Christ does not declare so much of the Father as he knows because we are incapable of it but so much as is fitting for us and that we can receive he does discover He declares God himself and all such Truthes as lead us to further fellowship and communion with him Thirdly He hath declared him it is a word of Perspicuity He hath not onely barely and simply propounded him in a dark and obscure manner but he hath explicated him and revealed him unto us This is emphatically signified in the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an expression of manifestation and does imply a bringing of things to light which before were more hard and difficult to be understood And as the Criticks and Grammarians observe of it it is properly applied to Divine and Excellent matters whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does more properly belong and appertain to things vulgar and obvious This is that which Christ hath done for us as Philip sometime desired of him he hath shewn to us the Father he hath cleared to us the great Mysteries of our Salvation which were unknown unto us or which before were propounded but in a dark and enigmatical manner and with much obscurity This is the great excellency of the New Testament above the Old and of the time of the Gospel above the Law that the Vail is now taken away and we have things more clearly revealed unto us than were to them in former days There is the light of the knowledge of God now shining out unto us Christ hath cleared both the things themselves as also our minds and understandings for the conception of them and exhibited these things in reality which Moses gave an hint of but in Types and Legal adumbrations The consideration of this point makes much for our heed and attention to such things as these are and closing with them See that ye refuse not him that speaketh as it is Heb. 12.23 seeing Christ declares them let not us turn away from them we ought to give the more earnest heed unto them lest at any time we let them slip else we shall not escape if we neglect so great salvation as it is again Heb. 2.3 There is nothing which we can here plead by way of excuse and tergiversation but all the Arguments that may be to engage us Here is the knowledge of our Teacher himself here is his willingness to impart his knowledge to us and also his skill and ability for it that we may be partakers of it And so much may be spoken of this passage in its first notion to wit in its simple Proposition The second is in its Emphatical Appropriation He hath declared him that is upon the matter He alone This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text it is not demonstrative onely but restrictive This declaring of the Father it is restrained and appropriated to the Son as more peculiarly belonging unto him to be done by him He has declared him that is he onely has declared him Therefore it is that he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word not onely upon the account of his Nature or Person but upon the account of his Office he is called so upon the account of the former in regard of His Eternal Generation because as Speech is the birth of the mind so is the Son of the Father And he is called so upon account of the latter in regard of His Ministerial Dispensation because as a man remembers the meaning of his heart by the words of his mouth so God revealeth his Word by his Son He is the Interpreter of the will of his Father and the Prophet and Teacher of his Church And both of the Titles whereby Christ is here in the Text described unto us do seem especially to qualifie him for this purpose Therefore he is fittest to declare God because he is His onely-begotten Son and therefore also he is fittest to declare him because he is in the bosom of the Father Thus Heb. 1.1 2. God c. hath now spoken to us by his Son That which is our business at this time is to consider how far forth this Action is here appropriated to Christ which we may take according to this ensuing explication First it is He Primarily and by His own Authority that does declare him others have been used as Instruments but they have done it by delegation from Him who has instituted them and appointed them hereunto they have done it by his appointment and they have done it by his ennablement who has directed them and assisted them in it The Son of God first made known to his Apostles all those things that he heard of his Father as we have it in Joh. 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you And the same Son sent his Spirit to instruct them and to bring all those things to their remembrance which he had formerly taught them as we have it also in Joh. 14.26 And so Acts 1.7 8. Ye shall have power after that the holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me c. So is Christ Primarily though it be others Ministerially that do declare him Christ does it in his own Name but the Apostles and other Ministers in the Name of Christ Secondly It is he Perfectly and Infallibly Others unless such as were immediately inspired by him they were subject to human error and infirmity and they have now and then somewhat of themselves mixt in their declarations but Christ does it without all exception and so as there is no doubt or scruple or question at all to be made of it he does it so exactly Thirdly It is he that declares it effectually and with the best success He declares the Father and perswades our hearts to the receiving of him shews us the Truth and leads us and perswades us into it inlightens our understandings and inclines our wills opens our eyes and over-powers our consciences reveals God not onely to us but reveals him in us As God does likewise his Son according to the phrase which is there used to this purpose in Gal. 2.16 Thus we see how it is He and he alone that declares the Father unto us The sum of all may be drawn up to these Heads First from hence to take notice how much we are beholding to Christ We have heard of late of many singular benefits and advantages which we have by him let us now take in this to the rest in that by him we come to have a further
and acknowledged on both parts whether orthodox or heterodox in this business whether of the right or of the contrary judgment Secondly by shewing what it is that the former do deny to the latter and wherein they do dissent from this First then by way of concession and acknowledgment as to the first term in the Proposition which is a man fallen and lapst in Adam it is granted that even such an one when he once comes to be restored by Grace and to be renewed in the Spirit of his mind that then he hath some power even of his own to such a work as is truly and spiritually good Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty says the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.17 And again Being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness c. Rom. 6.18 When God hath once changed us and converted us and brought us home to himself there is then restored unto us that freedom and liberty to good which we once lost by our fall God that in our first creation did put into the will an habitual inclination to good he hath also in our new creation restored unto us an habitual conversion to the same good The will being freed by Grace becomes free Secondly As to that term of free-will If by freedom of will be meant no more than a freedom from natural necessity or extrinsecal violence and coaction so that a man does will and choose and do that which he does upon counsel and reason and advice leading him thereto there is no controversy at all in this business For freedom of will in this sense does as essentially belong unto a man as reason it self and to strip him or spoyl him of it were to turn him into a very beast We do will indeed we do will freely neither can we otherwise will any thing Therefore it is one thing to enquire of the nature and another thing to dispute of the power and ability of free-will in us Which latter especially taken in the active sense of it we say is wholly lost and extinguisht in man by his fall as to the performing of such things as do belong to eternal Salvation It is true that in the will of man fallen there is a passive power for the receiving of a supernatural being which by God shall be conferred upon it but there is not an active power for the producing of such a being as this is either of it self or with any thing else That Speech of St. Austin's is very significant to this purpose and which all must yield unto Libere velle est opus naturae bene velle gratiae male velle corruptionis To will freely is the work of nature to will well of grace to will ill of corruption As also that of Tapperus Opus pium quatenus opus ab arbitrio est quatenus pium a sola gratia quatenus opus pium ab arbitrio gratia simul A good work as it it a work it is from free-will as it is good from grace as it is a work and good from free-will and grace both Thus free-will in the true and right notion and acception of it is not rejected by us Thirdly As to the last term which is here exprest in the Text by nothing If we speak of that which is evil here we have freedom of will more than enough our corrupt nature carrying us too readily and freely hereunto But therefore we are here to understand it only of that which is good we are naturally prone to evil but to good we have no mind And here again there are divers particulars which we do further yield and acknowledg as First that a man in the state of nature and out of Christ may be able to do that which is good as to the matter and substance of the action By taking this word doing for the bare and simple effecting of the work in it self consider'd without any respect had either to the principle from whence it is produced or to the end whereunto it is directed Secondly A natural man he may be able to perform a work morally good according to a kind of moral honesty and the conditions of a virtuous action as prescrib'd by moral Philosophy not only as to the substance and matter of the action it self but also as to the very circumstances and manner of doing of it namely such as moral Philosophy does teach and require as honouring of Parents giving of alms and the like Thus the Apostle Paul tells us that the Gentiles which have not the Law they do by nature the things centained in the Law Rom. 2.14 Thirdly We also grant that the Grace of Sanctification and the power of living holily is not infused into any persons living idly and taking no care of any thing but in the diligent use of such means as God has appointed and sanctified to this purpose as coming to Church waiting upon the Ministry hearing the word of God both read and preach'd c. God will not save us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks nor sleeping and snoring and doing nothing but in our conscionable endeavours And so far forth as any one hath power to move and walk so far forth has he power to those things also as are ordinarily consequent and following thereupon in a way of ordinary providence Fourthly It is also acknowledged that an unregenerate person and as yet unconverted may be able to perform not only those outward good actions but some even inward good actions likewise As he may be able to have some kind of knowledg and apprehension of the will of God he may be able to meditate of God and of the things of God He may consider his own sins reflect upon his own guilt and have some kind of fear and horror in him upon the reflexions of it and much desire to be delivered from it These and many such things as are previous and antecedent to Faith and true repentance are required of men before the infusion of sanctifying Grace and accordingly may be performed by them Fifthly We likewise yield that in the Church of God where the word of God is ordinarily preach'd and the means of regeneration are ordinarily administred this Grace which does make men able to do such good works as are truly spiritual and saving is not denied to any before the repulse of initial Grace that is before they have resisted the Spirit of God in his preparatory works and refused those free and gracious offers and invitations which he has made unto them Lastly It cannot be denied but that some of the ancient Fathers did sometimes let fall some speeches and passages in their writings which at the first hearing or reading of them do seem somewhat to encline to this Doctrine of free-will whereof we now speak And thus have we seen what is granted and acknowledged on all hands by way of concession Now further it remains we should shew wherein the difference and
particular Now therefore does Christ here by his Spirit awaken the Habit and provoke us and sets us on doing making us ready and prepared as the Scripture speaks to every good work Thirdly He assists the Act that is he helps and concurs with us in the very performance it self and this is that which we now especially speak of at this present time as considerable of us to this purpose For we though we have some general power and ability for such a duty and withall some kind of desire and propensity towards it yet we cannot particularly act it and bring it about without the immediate help and assistance of the Spirit of Christ carrying us bringing us through it For partly our own natural corruption which remains still in part in us does retard us and keep us back and partly Satan joyning with our corruptions does exceedingly hinder and interrupt us and therefore there must be a stronger than each come between which may scatter the power of either and may help our infirmities Hence it is that the Apostle Paul complains sometimes of himself that to will is present with him but how to perform that which is good he finds not Rom. 7.17 And speaking of acts of charity and bounty to the Corinthians he requires that as there was a readiness to will so there might be a performance also of that which they had 2 Cor. 8.11 Because these two they are such as may be possibly separated and divided the one from the other and oftentimes are But now Christ he joyns them both together wheresoever he pleases the Act with the Habit and the Performance together with the Will and it is necessary that he should do so or else they are never likely to concur or meet together Without him we can do nothing that is without him assisting of us in the very act and point of performance And God will have it thus to be upon very good ground as namely first of all That so hereby he may keep us in an humble frame and in a state of dependance and subordination He will have us to see how that all our strength lies in himself and that we are able to do nothing any further than as he is pleased to concur with us whereby we may be the more engaged unto him As the beginnings of Grace are from him so likewise the proceedings and the further actings and accomplishments of it according to that also of the Apostle speaking to the Philippians He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ yea and he must perform it too if ever it be perform'd at all or else it will never be so which the Apostle speaks with a great deal of boldness and freedom of spirit In regard of the great certainty and assurance which he had of it being confident of this very thing Phil. 1.6 Where by the way whiles it is said of God that he will perform such and such good works it is not so to be understood as the Subject of those works but onely as the Essicient not as if he himself did believe or repent or hope or any such as this but that he helps and enables us to do so which is observable in him He works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 And all for this purpose to make us pure in spirit and sensible of our own insufficiency For Humility it is the Beatifying Grace it is that which does adorn and set forth all other Graces in us and which God takes so much delight to see acting and flourishing in us and therefore takes such a course as this is with us Again secondly God will have it to be thus likewise that so we may relish the greater comfort and sweetness in that which we do For whilst we have strength communicated to us from Christ in every performance our hearts are so much the more cheered and enlarged in it whiles we apprehend his assistance of us to be a pledge of his special love and favour and good-will towards us This is that which makes us to be so much the more lively and comfortable in that which is undertaken by us Thirdly That hereby Christ may have the greater Honour and Glory from us as not onely the Author but Finisher of our faith as the Apostle styles him Heb. 12.2 that is not onely as of him that begins but that perfects Grace in us and the Author not onely of Salvation as the End but of Sanctification as the Way and Means that tends to it and of this sanctification of all the works and and operations of it For the better enlarging and illustrating of this Point yet still further unto us Whiles it is said that without Christ we can do nothing here is an exclusion of a three-sold strength as but weak and insufficient to this purpose First the strength of meer Natural Parts Secondly the strength of meer Habitual Graces Thirdly the strength of no more than former Assistance First I say the strength of meer Natural Parts it is not that which will do the deed We know that Natural Parts they do many times make a great shew and lustre in the world and that men may go sometimes very far with them in matter of Religion being applied unto them but yet they are able to do nothing to any purpose or so as it should be but are very defective Men may be able sometimes hereby as I shew'd you the last day to reach perhaps to the outward shell and hull of the action and carry it as it may be very gloriously and with a great deal of humane applause but to come up to the Spirituality of the Duty and to perform it so as whereby it may find acceptance with God himself this is that which such as these onely cannot reach or attain unto The Heathen Philosophers some of them though they pretended to a great degree of mortification which they could accomplish by the strength of Reason yet in truth they fell very short and wide of it Secondly the strength of meer habitual Grace it is not that which will serve the turn neither Though habitual Grace be very good and necessary also in order to Spiritual performances yet this alone and of it self is not sufficient it is requisite that we should have it but it is requisite also that we should have somewhat else with it besides that especially according as the ease and condition may be with us It is not any inherent Grace of our own which is our security in the day of trial but the assisting and strengthning and quickning Grace of Christ so far forth as he does actually excite and stir up those fruits of Grace in us which he hath already bestowed upon us It is not onely the goodness of our Principles but the Spirit of God concurring with them in us Of this we have an eminent example in the Apostle
Peter as concerning his denial of his Master he was a person that had a great measure of Habitual Grace in him and in particular of affection to Christ and he poor man thought that this would support him and carry him through temptation and therefore he so considently proclaims it That though all men should for sake him yet that he would never forsake him but yet when he came to the trial and conclusion we know how it was with him and if Christ had not presently prayed for him that his faith might not fail and also by his Almighty power had not kept his faith from failing it had fail'd and ceas'd in him eternally Look as when he walked upon the Sea it was Christs support that kept him from sinking and perishing in the waters so also when he was under a temptation it was Christs grace that preserv'd and sustain'd him When my foot slipt thy mercy O Lord held me up Psal 84.18 This we may see likewise in Paul in the carriage of God towards him 2 Cor. 12.9 when he was there buffeted with Satan and had sought to God to be freed from that temptation how does God endeavour to comfort and encourage him in that his conflict why he does it from this consideration My grace is sufficient for thee And my grace that is not onely my preventing grace the grace which I have already wrought in thee when I at first call'd thee to my self but my grace that is my assisting grace the grace wherewith I still follow thee and am continually present with thee It is not thy grace but my grace not so much the grace within thee as the grace without thee that is my favour and good-will towards thee from whence I come to take special care of thee Thirdly The strength onely of former assistance is not that which will suffice neither As we need Christs Actual grace as well as Habitual and his Assisting grace as well as his Preventing so we need the daily and continual and fresh supplies of this grace unto us without which we can be able to do nothing at least for any time so as we should do This is another thing which is here to be added and taken in by us for the explication of this Particular Without me that is without me daily with you and standing by you and helping of you and imparting and communicating new strength and ability to you ye are indeed able to do nothing According to our particular occasions so must answerably be our support from the Spirit of Christ yesterdays strength and assistance will not serve for the repelling or conquering of this days temptation no more than yesterdays meal will serve the turn for this days strength and corporal improvements No but as new occasions do at any time increase upon us so proportionably is new ability to be imparted to us As a man that carries a burden which is heavier than what he carried the day before he must have somewhat more strength in him than he had before as adequate and agreeable thereto Every new affliction every new temptation every new condition every new duty and performance it requires new strength from Christ besides what has been formerly manfested for the bearing and resisting and managing and accomplishing of it So that though former assistance be so far forth very comfortable as it is an encouragement to the expectation of new yet it is not sufficient alone and of it self without new And thus have we seen this Point explicated and amplified in its several particulars Now the consideration hereof for the Use and Application of it may be drawn out in a various improvement we may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First in a way of Confutation Secondly in a way of Information And thirdly in a way of Excitement First it serves for Confutation of the contrary Error and false Opinion of the Pelagians and others with them who teach that there is indeed General and Universal Grace communicated to all men from Christ from whence they have power for the doing of good but that the reducing of this Power into Act and the particular doing of it it is purely and absolutely from themselves who do determine themselves in particulars to that which God has given them onely power for in general This I say is plainly refuted from this present Scripture where it is said that without Christ we can do nothing as well as will nothing Answerable to that other place before mention'd For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure that is not onely the power but the act And indeed it must needs be so and cannot be otherwise For forasmuch as the Act is more noble than the Habit the Operation than the Power the second Act than the first therefore the Act cannot be ascribed to our selves and the Power onely to God unless we will prefer our selves before God and give him the lowest place and least stroke in any good which is at any time done by us Again further it may be cleared to us that Christ must needs concur with us not onely by a common and general Qualification but also by a special and particular influence in every good work which is done by us by a proportionable consideration of what is observable even in Natural Actions For so we see it is with Fire the property whereof is to burn yet if God do suspend his influence from it and concourse with it it can produce no such effect notwithstanding the natural propensity and inclination of it thereto as we may see in the three Persons in Daniel which were cast into the fiery Furnace And so though God hath given us a power of Natural life at first yet if he do not preserve this life in us and give us motion together with life we can stir neither hand nor foot for all that because in him we live and move and have our being And thus may this passage here before us serve in a way of Confutation Secondly In a way of Information and Satisfaction We may from hence be now instructed in the truth of this Point which is here before us and take notice of it in its full latitude and extent where whiles it is said that without Christ we can do nothing namely that is spiritually good as we have hitherto explained it we are to take it in all te appurtenances belonging hereunto and the steps and gradations of it whereby this assistance and enablement whereof we speak does proceed First It is He who must inform us and instruct us in that which is our duty which must inlighten out dark understandings in this particular for we are naturally so blind of our selves as that we are unable to discern it That which we do not know we cannot do But he hath shewn thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee Mic. 6.8 Secondly It is
to help us and that 's one encouragement so he hath likewise Will and that 's another For to be told that we are able to do nothing without such an ones assistance and withall to hear that it were such an one as had no good will or affection for us nor any mind at all to help us this would be little comfort to us But now this is here such encouragement that we do not more need his help than he is willing to send his help unto us and to concur with us that so we may be the more effectually perswaded to have recourse to him for it This is done in the exercise of two Graces more especially in us to wit of Humility and Faith First Humility whereby we are emptied of our selves and any conceits of our own sufficiency Those that think they can do well enough by any power of their own they will never once look after Christ for such is that desperate pride and stubbornness which is in our hearts by nature that we care not to be beholding to Christ more than needs if we can any thing shift without him we never care to come to him But when we see that without him we are lost and that there is no help for us this will make us to apply our selves to him as much as we can Lay this then for a ground which is here the Doctrine of this Text That without Christ we can do nothing Secondly The Grace of Faith let us also stir up that in us which is that whereby we suck and draw from Christ that which is in him and apply it and bring it home to our selves Without Christ we can do nothing and without Faith we can do nothing neither even there where Christ of himself is both able and willing also to do any thing for us This is that which like the Womans touch of the them of his garment draws forth strength and virtue out of him both for the stopping of the issue of sin and for the walking in the ways of Piety Therefore let us be sure to exercise and set this on work and that according to those two great Mysteries which are eminent in him his Death and his Resurrection Fetch by Faith power from Christ's Death for the mortifying and killing of sin in us which is very agreeable and appliable to this purpose And fetch by Faith also power from his Resurreâ—â—on in the raising up to newness of life and to the practise of all the works of new obedience which are to be performed by us Now further that we may still do it more successfully let us be advised on this which is much conducing and tending hereto and that is That we be careful to keep in good terms with Christ and to walk in all well pleasing to him forasmuch as without him we can do nothing It concerns us very much to take heed that we be no ways offensive to him or do any thing which may alienate his affections from us which is the ground of his assistance of us We see how it is ordinary in the affairs here of the world such persons as men do absolutely depend upon for all that is to be done by them such without whom they are able to do nothing which is of any concernment to them they will not offer to displease them of all other persons besides but labour and endeavour to give all the satisfaction to them that possibly they can give Even so should it now also be with us in reference to Christ we should take heed of grieving him because we do all things by him and are able to do nothing without him The more dependant we are upon him the more serviceable should we be to him And especially take heed of presumption and rebellion against him to take heed of quenching the motions of his Spirit of turning his grace into wantonness of rejecting or refusing that help which he does at any time offer unto us either for the shuning and avoiding of evil or for the doing and working of good for then we provoke him to withdraw his assistance from us and to give us up to the power of Satan and the vanity of our evil hearts When Christ shall offer to heal men and they will not be healed to help men and they will not be helped this does sadly provoke him even to deny his help unto them at such time as they shall most of all desire it and stand in need of it This is a very lamentable condition if it be duly thought of when Christ shall at any time deny men the benefit of his assistance either the benefit of his Intercession and speaking a good word for them without which they can obtain nothing in matter of request or the benefit of his co-operating grace and effectual winning of them without which they can do nothing neither in a way of Christian and Spiritual performance Either of these cases are very sad and such as are to be shunn'd by us by giving all content to Christ And so now I have done with these words in both the senses and acceptions of them whether as to matter of Interest or Influence Without me that is without union to me and Without me that is without assistance from me and dependance upon me can ye be able to do any thing which is good SERMON XXV ACTS 1.7 It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power We are now this very day by the good hand and providence of God according to the common style and computation of time amongst us entred upon another new year And that after all the fears and dangers and hazards and calamities which have been upon us both in the City and divers places of the Kingdom for the year now past we have arrived to that year which hath been so much spoken of before-hand a great while ere the coming of it 1666. Many Prognostications there have been in the World concerning it many Characters and Significancies put upon it and many strange surmises and expectations have been had of it and what may be in the bosome or bowels of it we cannot tell We hear of wars and rumors of wars we hear of plagues and pestilences we have heard also of earthquakes and tempests and strange commotions These are such as do shew the World to be in a fading and declining condition and do bespeak the consummation of it But yet they are such as do not amount or come up to a full determination nor give us any warrant to make any absolute judgment or conclusion upon it They serve to awaken and humble us but they do not serve to dishearten or discourage us nor especially to take us off from that work which is to be done by us but rather so much the more eagerly and earnestly to put us upon it And therefore I have made choice of this Text at this present time as
expression it is none of all these things in themselves which makes Preaching so powerful a Conveyance no but the Ordinance of God which has appointed to work by these means and the Spirit of God who is pleased to concur with it in working It is he which has made us able Ministers of the New Testament says the Apostle Paul not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 This is that which gives an efficacy to this Preaching Well for the thing it self we see 't is a blessed means to a blessed effect to wit of saving souls and that not withstanding all the low apprehensions which the world commonly has of it and the disparagement which they are apt to cast on it and upon those which are the dispensers of it after all which can be any way said against it to the extenuating and diminishing of it here is that in the Text which is able to bear it up and advance it That by it God is pleased even to save them that believe The improvement of this Point to our selves for Application may be twofold First as it concerns Ministers there 's a very good item for them to quicken us and encourage us in our work and the conscionable discharge of it without fainting and giving out For see what a work it is and what a blessed and happy end it tends to Even no less than to bring men to heaven and to make them heirs of eternal life Who would not think himself honoured in such a noble imployment as this and accordingly go thorough it with a great deal of cheerfulness and alacrity in the midst of all discouragements whatsoever which we can meet with in the world our very work it self is a reward though there were nothing else and to save a soul is more than to gain a Kingdom Let us not be ashamed of that which is the power of God to salvation as the Apostle speaks Again Let us also hence learn so much the more faithfully to discharge and make that our chief end in undertaking it which was Gods chief end in ordaining it What was Gods chiefest end here in the first appointing and instituting of this Ordinance why 't was to save them that believe let that be now our main end in taking it in hand That in this service we may be instrumental to Gods Providence in the bringing in of the number of his Elect. This should work and prevail with us above all other ends besides And this for the Ministers Secondly Here 's somewhat also for the people and that is so much the more carefully to attend upon this Ordinance of Preaching and to take heed of the despising of it as a weak and foolish thing they which despise Preaching they do in effect despise Believing yea they do despise Salvation it self And therefore let us take heed how we be guilty of such a sin as this is Do not say that Reading is as good as Hearing and a Sermon read in a mans study is as good as a Sermon preached in the Church for we are mistaken if we so think for though it be as good for the matter of it and it may be better yet it is not as good for the performance which does receive a greater efficacy from Gods Ordinance and blessing upon it And we must not be wiser than Him in such dispensations as these are Elisha's staff will do no good without Elisha's spirit to improve it and go along with it This is that which is more frequently in Preaching whereas in reading it is for the most part cold or at least not the latter in such a full and plentiful measure Besides that 's good which is seasonable and in due time And further let this teach us with what affections to come to the Ordinances the Preaching and hearing of the Word namely as those which expect and desire salvation from it as the end whereunto it is intended Let us not come to a Sermon as to a Prize or a meer trial of wits to see who can do best only to spend our verdict upon the Preacher or out of meer fashion and custom only because others come afore us but let us come to it with meekness and humility and fear and expectation as that whereby we must be judged and whereby we must be saved Jam. 1.21 And so I have done also with the third Particular viz. The means of working the foolishness of Preaching Now the fourth is the work or design it self which we have in the last words To save them that believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where among many other things which might be profitably observed by us concerning Salvation in the nature of it and the causes of it and the means of it and the like I shall at this time only fasten upon that which is here especially presented unto us and that is the subjects of it Believers To save them that believe The Gospel is the power of God to salvation to them that believe This is the restriction which is put upon it Rom. 1.16 I call it a restriction and so indeed it is and that also in this present Text which we have now in hand Where this word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is to be taken not only Specificativè but Exclusivè Believers and none else them that believe and them only that believe and none but them This Preaching it saves none besides in all the world whether Jew or Gentile we must take this expression here in a limited and restrained sense as pointing out a certain number of persons distinguisht from all others in this business as concerning them that believe the receiving of benefit and salvation by Preaching And here there are two things again which this restraint does extend it self to First here 's a restraint of the benefit of Preaching to Faith And secondly Here 's a restraint of the benefit of salvation to faith There 's none which have benefit by Preaching any further than they believe and there 's none which do partake of Salvation but those only which do believe neither By the foolishness of preaching he saves them that believe First I say there 's none which have benefit by Preaching any further than they believe it is Faith which makes Preaching effectual without which it is but an ordinary discourse This is clear out of that place in Heb. 4.2 The Gospel was preached to us as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them because it was not mixt with faith in them that heard it It is faith or the want of faith which makes Preaching either profitable or not And the reason hereof is this Because that this is the Applicatory Grace which does suck and draw all to it self look as meat does no good in the stomack except it be digested so Preaching does no good in the soul except it be believed There must be a concocting faculty
will also have it for the honour of his own Truth and the Doctrine it self which is delivered If the Gospel should be Preached to a people and none give any entertainment this would reflect upon the Gospel it self which from hence would be disparaged by it But now that God may have the Gospel and have it known to be that which it is therefore some shall receive and imbrace it Thirdly For the Encouragement of the labours of his own Servants and Ministers which are imployed in Preaching the Gospel If Paul and the rest of the Apostles which Preached Christ crucified to the world should have had no entertainment in the world of that which they Preached this would have proved a very great disheartning and discouragement to them now therefore in respect to this does God in Providence give them some success though their Doctrine was a stumbling-block to some and though it was foolishness to others yet to the rest it was Gods power and wisdom This Observation should accordingly be improved by those which are Ministers to quicken them in their work and to carry them on in those places wherein God sets them without discouragement forasmuch as there where God calls them he will more or less be assistant to them and concur with them so far forth as is requisite to the blessing of their labours with success This is that which God has promised by his Prophet Isa 55.10 As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven so shall my word that goeth out of my mouth not return unto me vain c. And therefore let us not be discouraged Rom. 11.4 And that 's one Observation Secondly Observe this that a Minister for the success of his Doctrine is especially to consider how it takes with those which are most Godly and Religious thus does the Apostle Paul here he does not so much trouble himself to think how it was accepted of others those Jews and Greeks which at present were unconverted a stumbling and foolishness to them but how it was to them which were called this was that which most of all stuck by him and wherein he most comforted himself above all the rest Thus again Gal. 2.2 he considered how his Gospel took with them which were of reputation and of reputation not so much for the world as in reference to Religion And so therefore in vers 9. he reckoned this as an encouragement to him that James Cephas and John who were pillars own'd and acknowledged him The ground hereof is this First because such as these they have best skill and judgment in the work every one studies rather to approve himself in any business which he undertakes to workmen rather than to bunglers and to those which have some knowledg of the work than to those which are ignorant of it Now thus it is with those which are godly and Religious and effectually called they have best skill in that which is spoken of and delivered in Preaching Others may somewhat judg of other things but these can best judg of the Truths and Doctrines which are propounded unto them and so their judgment is most to be regarded such as these they come to a Sermon with those affections which it becomes them to do which many others do not Take now a natural man and he can tell you of some other matters it may be some pleasing story or witty sentence or passage of Rhetorick and the like but now come to the marrow of the business and those things which touch the conscience and serve to frame and establish the heart here he is oftentimes much to seek and is able to say little to the purpose But now a man which has the work of Grace in his heart he has a gracious savour and relish of Divine Truths fastened upon his spirit from whence he is able the better to judg of the Proposal and delivery of them The spiritual man judges all things Secondly Such as these they come to the Word freest from prejudice and carnal affection Take a Godly and Religious man and he comes to the hearing of the Word of God with an humble and obedient disposition as one that is ready to submit to the efficacy and power of the Ordinance in every particular whereas another he comes to it with his exceptions and reservations so far forth as it complies with his humour and does not stir him in his bosom-lusts and does not trouble him and take him off from his corruptions so far forth he likes it pretty well but now let it come neer him in these and here he kicks and rebels against it and cannot endure it A Drunkard will never like that Preacher that presses sobriety nor an Adulterer him that Preaches for chastity Thirdly Those which are Godly and Religious and effectually called are most to be regarded for their entertainment of the work because they are most intended in the work it self It is for their sakes chiefly and especially that God sends his Ministers amongst them as to bring home those which are straying so to confirm and strengthen those which are yet at home and already in the fold Now those whom God himself does most look at they should be looked at chiefly by us This condemns the contrary disposition and practise of many in this particular who more consider how their Doctrine takes and is accepted of those which are great and wise and mighty in the world than how it takes with those which are good and pious and experienced in Religion not but that it is possible for those which are the one to be the other too I do not deny that there are divers which are both great and good too wise in matters of the world and wise also to God But this is that which I stand upon that we should not so much in this present business in hand look at the one as the other And it is that which should principally affect us when our words are acceptable to those which are good Thus St. Paul We preach Christ crucified to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and to the Greeks indeed foolishness But unto them which are called that is to the godly Christ the power of God c. And so much for the Points Preparatory and in General We come now to the words more closely in themselves But unto them which are called c. where we have these two Parts chiefly considerable First the success of the Gospel considered simply in it self Christ the power of God c. Secondly the Parties to whom it is thus laid down two manner of ways First in their Personal Qualification To them which are called Secondly in their National qualification Both Jews and Greeks To these it is thus effectual and successful We begin first of all with the Parties and that first of all in their Personal Qualifications To them which are called By called here we are to understand as I have in part intimated already those which are
of Gods election he hath chosen a certain number of each I shewed you before how our effectual calling is founded upon our predestination Now there is a number of each which are elected therefore there must be a number of each which are called forasmuch as those which are appointed to the end they must of necessity partake oF the means which tend to that end Now for Jews and Gentiles they are both elected and chosen and therefore both also effectually called For the Jews they are said as touching the Election to be beloved for the Fathers sake Rom. 11.28 And for the Gentiles 1 Thes 1 Knowing Brethren Beloved your election of God Thus Jews and Greeks are both elected Accordingly God is said to be the God not only of the one but of the other Rom. 3.29 c. Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God c. Secondly Christ died for both for one as well as for t'other therefore there are those which shall be saved of both That Christ died for both 't is clear as out of that place in John 21.51 52 where it is said that Caiaphas who was the high priest for that year prophesied that Jesus should dye for that nation And not for that nation only but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad And so 1 John 2.1 2 We have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole That is not only for the Jews but the Gentiles And hence we are all both one and the other said to partake of the same mystical body 1 Cor. 12.13 By one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit They have both alike interest in Christ Thirdly They have both alike interest in the Gospel and means of salvation this was cleared by Peters going to Cornelius Acts 11.17 18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance and the condition which is given in charge to the Apostles runs thus Go unto all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature and go teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 They partake in the means and therefore consequently in the thing it self The consideration of this present point is thus far useful unto us as it teaches us two things First To pray for the calling and conversion of the Jews And Secondly to pray for the accomplishment and fulness of the Gentiles First For the calling of the Jews which is a mystery revealed unto us as that which in time shall be Rom. 11.16 c. We have here further a good ground to expect it from that which is done already being there were some which were called from the beginning in the days of the Apostles there shall be more of them at last wrought upon and converted And St Pauls argument holds good to this purpose If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches The conversion of so many Jews in the first plantation of the Gospel was a pledg and fore-runner of many more to be brought into the same number Secondly It also holds for our expectation of the fulness of the Gentiles we see there are yet many Gentiles which are still kept out of the pales of the Church which never heard of Christ nor as yet have partaked of the means of Salvation well but let us not from hence be discouraged and put out of hope we have some cause to look for it and expect it from those which are brought in already also The calling of these Greeks gives us ground to hope and expect that there will be divers others in time likewise converted The performance whereof is that which the Jews also stay for according to that of the Apostle in Rom. 11.25 That blindness is in part happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved And so much for the words in that sense To them which are called both Jews and Greeks But then again a little further These words may be here taken not only in an Historical sense but in a Moral not only as spoken particularly of these two Nations the Jews and the Greeks but likewise as spoken of such persons as were noted either for simplicity or wisdom as those Nations do point out unto us so that the Jews represent the one and the Greeks the other The Jews being notorious for their stupidity and the Greeks famous for their learning as I have formerly shewn unto you And so there 's this in it That God has his lot and portion amongst learned and unlearned both there 's no exception in point of conversion of either of these two we have instances of either of these in Scripture of the learned in Paul himself and many others whom we read of in Scripture converted to the faith and of the unlearned in many of meaner parts which did partake of the rich priviledges of Salvation The ground hereof still is this The good pleasure and will of God who is no respecter of persons but bestows his grace there where he pleases without any account given to any Therefore let those which are unlearned not here excuse themselves and say they are no Scholars c. though they be not Scholars yet they may be Christians and though they be not book-learned yet for all that they may be learned to Salvation And so it becomes them to labour to be and to endeavour thereafter because there are called of the Jews Again for those which are learned let them not rest themselves in their humane learning and that wisdom which they get here in the world but labour further to be taught from God and to have the knowledg of his ways in Christ because there are called also of the Greeks But so much of the first Part in the Text viz. the Persons here mentioned To them which are called c. Now the second is the success of this Preaching it self Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God where we may observe how as the Apostle crost these Jews and Greeks in what they desired so also he did in a sort comply with them Here 's the opposition and the accommodation both in this Text the Jews require a sign and they have brought unto them a stumbling-block the Greeks seek after wisdom and they have preached unto them foolishness there 's the opposition and contradiction Again the Jews require a sign and they have brought unto them the power of God the Greeks seek after wisdom and they have Preached unto them the wisdom of God There 's the accommodation and agreement Now the latter of these
the matter which the Act is exercised about and conversant in towards this object and the Argument whereby or whereupon we proceed in dealing with them First For the Act or what it is which is done it is perswading We perswade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is an expression which carries a various Emphasis First It is a word of endeavour we perswade that is we labour to do so Indeed if we speak of it as to the event so we do not always do it it is our misery and our great unhappiness that we cannot and more ours than any ones else Non suadebis etiamsi persuaseris as he said That that though we have as much cause and more than any others besides to perswade in that which we undertake to perswade men of yet we cannot so readily effect it men will not be perswaded by us even in such things as does concern them very nearly to be convinced and perswaded of Yet who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed we may complain with that Evangelical Prophet Isa 53.1 As for some other kind of persons that come with their fables and fancies and fopperies and delusions and Astrological Predictions these can perswade when they list to put an whole City into a fright for I know not what But we which bring news and tidings of the wrath of God against sin of judgment and eternal condemnation We which mention the terrour of the Lord yea and that upon knowledg too not meer guesses or conjectures but have good ground for that which we say We cannot stir men nor in the leaft manner perswade them they will not believe what we say as having any reality or certainty in it Well but for all that says the Apostle we perswade and so we do namely as I said in regard of our endeavour and application of our selves hereunto We in the execution of our Ministry do labour and study to perswade men if they will be perswaded by us and it is our duty so to do To do all that in us lies to convince men of that wretched condition which they are in by reason of sin and the danger which they are exposed unto for it This is that work which is proper to us and we do not go out of our way when we are conversant in it Secondly It is a word of mollification We perswade men we do not compel them Fides non cogenda sed suadenda It is a rule of ancient observation and it hath its truth in it according to a due explication and right apprehension which is in regard of the inward acts of the mind and the ultimate resolution of the understanding considered immediately Indeed there may be some kind of compulsion to the outward means and the attending upon them and likewise an use of such means extrinsecally as may cause men to set their understandings on work and to give heed to that which is spoken but directly and immediately to force it this is not agreeable to it as I may force a man to look though I cannot force him to see The work of the Ministry it is not a Physical work but a Moral and so is to be looked upon by us This sutes with the word that follows namely Men We perswade men men must be dealt withal as men and that is by perswasion Hos 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man What are they namely sound and convincing arguments which might perswade and bring off their understandings to those things which were propounded unto them This is that which we are to do in the Ministry and which God himself likewise does in Regeneration and the conversion of a sinner he does here perswade Indeed when we speak of God he does so and somewhat else that we may not mistake he does not only propound arguments and barely offer such considerations to our understandings but he does likewise forcibly incline them and irresistibly bring them off to those things which he offers and propounds he draws us and makes us to run after him whereby he doth at the same time both preserve the faculties of the soul in that nature which is proper unto them and likewise maintain the efficacy and soveraignty of his own Grace But for us in the Ministry of the Word we do no more than only tender and exhibit such truths to the mind and leave it to God himself to inforce them and set them upon it It is not all the reason or argument in the world which is able to convince and perswade a man without the influence of the Spirit of God When therefore it is said here We perswade you must remember in what sense it is spoken namely by way of Preparation and proposition of such and such truths and arguments which in their own nature are apt so to do It is not in the power of all the Ministers nor men in the world to perswade the hearts and conscience properly and directly and absolutely in the strict sense and notion of the word No this is no work of ours but of God alone God shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 The good old man his Father Noah the Preacher of Righteousness both by his Doctrine and likewise by his Life he had endeavoured it often but in vain and could not do it he could not perswade him by all the Logick and Rhetorick which he had used unto him there was no moving of him only by himself no but he leaves it to God to do it for him and commits it to his transaction as that which was most likely to succeed and to take effect And so must it be also with us which are Ministers as to our performances expect and desire that God may perswade by us but not to think that we of our selves shall be ever able to perswade We do but perswade almost as Paul sometimes did Agrippa Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian. It is God that must perswade altogether But yet thirdly this expression We perswade it is moreover a word of efficacy too and that likewise in reference to us in our dispensations though not in regard of the effect of our Ministry yet at least in regard of the performance and manner of ordering it so we perswade effectually when as namely we so handle the word in the preaching and publishing of it as that it may carry some life and power with it This was that which was observable in our Saviour He taught as one having authority and not as the Scribs Mat. 7.29 My speech and my preaching says he it was not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and with power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.8 Not in enticing words or not in the perswading words
should be rather translated we cannot do any thing this makes the impotency to be so much the more and does serve as an amplification of it even this word of restriction here before us There are many who as their power is restrained so their impotency is limited they are impotent in some things but they are not impotent in all As Satan in his attempts against Job could not meddle with his life but he could meddle with his goods could not hurt his soul but he could afflict his body and outward man Yea but this impotency here against truth it is general and universal and indefinitive we cannot do any thing against the truth whatever it be Not any thing that is the least thing that is this we cannot this we may not do The Spirit of God here meets with the reservations of a false heart which though perhaps in some things would be somewhat tender of acting against the truth yet in other things would take more liberty to it self in the hindering of it No says he not any thing at all not speak against it not write against it not preach against it not argue against it not live against it not think against it whatever otherwise we can do in this sense we cannot do against it This proceeds from Gods jealousie and affection God is a jealous God and of nothing more than of his Truth Now this is the nature of jealousie that it provides against the least appearances and shadows of disrespect any unbeseeming carriage any uncomely glance it is displeasing unto it as in Gods care of Jacob in regard of Laban Take heed thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad that is see thou have nothing at all to do with him Gen. 31.24 Do not hurt him in the least kind that is The same care doth God take of his Truths that not any thing be done against it Any wry or oblique look any discouraging or discountenancing of it it is very grievous and offensive to him he cannot endure it There are two things which God is tender of his People and his Truth and he that touches either he touches the very apple of his eye This may therefore accordingly regulate and order our carriage in this particular We should be jealous of our selves there where God is jealous of us And take heed of doing any thing which may prove prejudicial to truth not only directly and in the thing it self but remotely and in the preparations to it There are many who sometimes have proved adversaries and enemies to Truth before they have been aware beginning with some slight and easie oppositions of it at first perhaps out of curiosity only to shew the nimbleness of their wit or perhaps out of a love of contradiction and gainsaying of others who have afterwards fallen foully upon it and proved both haters and persecutors of it Therefore I say we had need to be very cautious and watchful over our selves in this respect especially take heed of disputes against Principles of Religion it being ill jesting with these edg tools Though it be lawful and in some sort necessary to argue and dispute against truth for the further clearing and evidences of it and drawing it forth yet even in so doing there is a special care to be had of the frame and temper of ones spirit That we do not any thing against the truth And that 's the second word here to be explained The third is the truth it self which may be taken either indefinitely or emphatically The Truth that is any truth at large expressing no particular Or the truth that is the main truth of all the Gospel and Doctrine of Christ which is called the word of truth more especially First It may be taken indefinitely We can do nothing against the truth that is the truth considered at large As not any thing so not against any truth that is Divine and Theological Truth There is a regard to be had even to other Truths in their place as Natural and Philosophical But the Apostle here speaks within the compass of his own perfection and so understands that which is spiritual There is not any truth in Religion which we ought to do any thing against whatever it be Those which in themselves are less material yet being fences and hedges to the rest and besides proceeding from God himself who is the God of Truth they are accordingly to be nourisht by us and preserved inviolable we have not liberty to diminish the least truth that is nor to deny it or to part willingly with it even for the greatest good All Truth is precious and sacred and inflexible it may not be opposed Indeed there are some seasons more than other which are proper to the discoveries of it according as it may be There may be sometimes a forbearing and withholding of some truths from some people till they are capable of them as we see in the carriage of Christ to his Disciples and the Apostle to the Hebrews there were many things which were to be spoken unto them but they were not able as yet to bear them and therefore for a time were kept from them But this was no opposing of the Truth but rather promoting it where the concealment or suppression of any Truth tends to the disparagement of it or of those persons to whom it belongs there it may in no case be concealed or supprest by us let the truth be what it will be Thus we may do nothing against the Truth i.e. against any truth whatsoever taking it indefinitely But then secondly Take it Emphatically the Truth i.e. the truth of the Gospel the Doctrine of Jesus Christ We may do nothing against that more especially This is the main truth of all and which is of highest concernment to us to be known and to be acknowledged by us and we must do nothing in opposition or contrariety to it or to any Branch or Particle of it and that for sundry Considerations First Because it is the most noble and excellent Truth in it self and considered in its own nature this the Gospel is for it treats of Christ himself who is the Way and the Truth and the Life It contains admirable Points and Mysteries and Speculations in it which no other Doctrine does besides now to do any thing against such Truth as this is were very dishonourable Secondly It is of the greatest interest and concernment to us for our particulars Christians should by all means be shy of doing any thing against the Truths of Christianity as being indeed their proper Charter the reward of them and chiefest priviledges entitling them even to Heaven and Happiness and eternal life and salvation it self And Ministers of all others more especially they are concerned in a tenderness to the Gospel and the Truths of it as being their special employment who are said by a special denomination to be Ministers of the New Testament and to have the Word and Ministry of
sense and meaning of the Scripture as they have thought after a spiritual manner and in the mean time departed from the power and scope of it by leading lives opposite and contrary thereunto But the Spirit of Christ here by the Apostle requires of us to make the Word of God the Rule of our life Secondly We may not content our selves neither with some Discourses an inlargements of speech as tending to Piety which is another thing which many are subject much to rest in and to satisfie themselves withal There are many which if out of the strength of parts or the advantage of company and education and converse they can speak commendably and plausibly in Religion that they have then discharged themselves and done all which is required of them nay but it is not this which will serve the turn neither This walking in the spirit it does imply more than simple discourse or Amplification of speech in Divine and Spiritual Points it is not talking but walking which is here commended unto us not the walking only of the tongue but of the whole man Thirdly It is not only good meanings and intentions as some please to call them which should content and satisfie us neither There are many which go no further than these pretend they have as good a mind to God-ward as any other though they do nothing which savors of so much in them promise and vow and resolve and are full of good purposes but such as at last come to nothing at all in them Now all such as these are cut off by this Exhortation Walk in the spirit It is not enough for men to have good intentions but they must have answerable actions it is not enough for men to have good purposes but they must have answerable performances they must do that which they do resolve on Indeed it is true in some cases God accepts of the will for the deed and the intention for the performance it self namely there where we are extrinsecally hinder'd and debar'd of an opportunity of performance as we may see for Abrahams offering up of his Son God was well-pleased with his willingness thereto and accordingly accepted it and so for Davids building of the Temple God took it very well from him that he had a mind and desire to do it though he did not do the thing it self as being prevented by Divine Dispensation This his Son Solomon signifies concerning him in 2 Chron. 6.8 The Lord said to David my Father Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my Name thou didst well that it was in thine heart Mark thou didst well because it was in thine heart to do so God looked upon it as well-doing good actions are good intentions incarnate because there was well-purposing and well resolving for as the thought of foolishness is sin so the thought also of goodness is grace and so to be accounted but yet where there 's opportunity for action there 's somewhat more which is required of us We must not rest our selves in good desires but endeavour to bring them into accomplishment what we can through the infirmity of the flesh and that 's the first thing implied in this walking viz. Activity c. Secondly Here 's implied strength in opposition to faintness and remisness he that walks he moves strongly so must a Christianin his course of Christianity He must labour to express some strength and vigor therein he must be able to do somewhat more than other men and the generality of people in the world in the subduing of corruptions in the bearing of afflictions in the performance of duties it does not become such an one as has the Spirit of God in him to be overcome or yield there where perhaps another would be foil'd no but as he has been made partaker of a nobler and higher principle so to put forth the vertue of it in his whole life and conversation both to the Honour and Glory of God as likewise to the greater advancement of Religion it self Thirdly Here 's implied also constancy in opposition to declining and giving back walk in the spirit that is continue and go on in goodness and proceed still from one degree of grace to another here 's improvement and perseverance in Holiness which is commended to us under this expression as it is said of the People of God Psal 84.7 That they go from strength to strength till they every one of them appear before God in Zion So it should be with us in our Christian course we shoul never give over till we come to our journeys end till we attain the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.9 Forgetting those things which are behind press forward Phil. 3.13 There are many which begin as it were in the spirit but they end in the stesh as the Apostle speaks of these Galatians they set upon that which is good but they do not persist and persevere in it Now this is that which he does here over and above require of them and in them of all others besides which pretend to Christianity And so now I have done with the first Particular in this first General viz The Affirmative Injunction or Precept which the Apostle here commends to these Galatians and in them to our selves Walk in the spirit The second is the Negative or Prohibition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do not or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh I put them both together because the words will bear either and I find them both in our own English Translation the one in the Margent the other in the Text. According to the former so it has in it the nature of a Prohibition or Dehortation as shewing what should not be According to the latter so it has in it the nature of a Promise or comfortable intimation as shewing what shall not be We may if we please take notice of both And first of the former sense as it carries in it the nature of a Prohibition and as shewing a Christians duty Do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh the Subjunctive for the Imperative Where we may by the way observe this in the general how careful the Spirit of God is to set us and keep us right and what means he uses thereunto Here 's precept upon precept and line upon line and negative upon affirmative one thing after another to make it so much the more full and effectual to us one would have thought it might have been enough to have said this Walk in the spirit no more but so for whiles we do thus we are not likely to do much amiss as we shall hear afterwards but the Apostle is not content with that he adds this to it moreover And do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh This he does upon a two-fold ground First His own tenderness and jealousie over us Secondly Our falseness and the slipperiness of
he walked 1 John 2.6 And how was that why according to the Spirit the Spirit of Holiness which was in him and acted him all his whole life If it be objected that David and Peter and other of the Servants of God have sometimes turned aside to these lusts First I answer that in the strict sense they did not fulfil them which is with delight and perseverance in them without repentance Secondly That so far forth as they did any way fulfil their lusts so far forth they did decline walking after the spirit but walk c. Again Yet further We may take these words not only simply and emphatically but if we will also exclusively walking in the spirit it does prevent and restrain the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh and upon the point nothing else but that at least so effectually and powerfully as that does There 's nothing which doe so infallibly civilize men as Grace and true Religion and the Spirit of God and the Power of Godliness This is the best means of Mortification that is in the world there are other means which are also happily used now and then as good company and fear of punishment and avoiding of occasions and the like But there 's nothing like this the living in the exercise of Religion This it makes sure work and sets our lusts at the greatest distance from us that possibly may be the best remedy against sin is duty and the best help against lust is grace every sin of commission it has commonly a sin of omission going along with it or rather going before it as the ground and occasion of it whereupon it is laid If we were but more in doing what we should do we should be less in doing what we should not therefore walk in the spirit if ever ye desire to be kept from fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh And in the spirit again in the highest and sublimest notion of it the spirit not in the natural or moral Consideration of it only the spirit of that 's his reason or ingenuity and good nature and the like though that be not excluded neither but in the spirit especially and actually in the supernatural Consideration of it The spirit of a man that 's his grace and his spirit indued with a principle coming from above it is not parts that will keep men from lusts but gracious and holy affections it is not reason but reason sanctified which will here serve the turn abstract it from this and it is too weak and feeble a Principle for such a business as this we now speak of We shall find by certain observation that men of the highest reason have been sometimes of the strongest passion and none have been worse for their Morals than those which have been most eminent and admired for their Intellectuals This I add that we may rightly understand it what spirit and in what sense it is spoken of here in this place when we are required to walk in it that we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And so now I have done with the first General Part of the Text which I propounded in order to be considered and that is the Doctrine or matter it self which is here delivered and propounded unto us Walk c. The second which we find to be the first in the method of the Text is the Preface or Introduction to this Doctrine and that we have in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This then I say This is as it were the dore in the Text and that which makes entrance into it This is such an Introduction as we oftentimes meet withal in Scripture and where we meet with it it is commonly with some special force and impression upon it Here in this present Text we may look upon it as carrying a fourfold Emphasis in it First As a word of Authority I say it that is I charge it upon you and require you to observe what I say I say it by special warrant and command mand from God himself and therefore know what I say it is not hoc dico ego non Dominus this I say and not the Lord as it was sometimes in another place 1 Cor. 7.12 But hoc dico ego quia dominus this I say because the Lord he has said it and I say it from him A Minister whiles he speaks from God he may speak boldly that which he speaks without difficulty or hesitation As Paul to Philemon I may be bold in Christ to enjoyn thee that which is convenient Philem. ver 8. When we speak purely from our selves according to the dictates of our own fancies or passions or the like here our speech may be well intercepted and hindred in us but we speak by direction from God here I say his Authority And especially may this confidence and boldness further be used when-as the things which we speak have some footing and foundation in the hearts of those whom we speak to It is great matter of confidence to a Preacher when he has the soul and conscience of the hearer bearing witness to that which he says and can say as the Apostle also does in another place concerning his Epistles We write no other things than what you read or acknowledge and I trust ye shall acknowledg even to the end in 2 Cor. 1.13 And again chap. 4.2 By the manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God And again chap. 5. ver 11. We are manifest to God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences Thus was St. Paul also here in the matter of this present Text and therefore says I say that is boldly as a word of Authority and Command And so 't is a word of Constancy I say it again and again and therefore confidently Prov. 21.28 He that heareth speaketh constantly that is he that is sure Secondly I say it is a word of experience I say it sensibly and I say it feelingly and I say it upon mine own knowledge as finding the power and efficacy of this Truth upon mine own heart from whence I may so much the more fully and freely commend it to you Thus did St. Paul say it here and thus should we also which are Ministers endeavour to say what we say upon such occasions and in such matters as these then indeed a Preacher speaks to purpose when he speaks thus When we deliver spiritual Truths out of raised and spiritual affections and more as the workings of our hearts than as the workings and inlargements of our brains it is not enough for men to speak out of Books from the spirit of other men or to speak out of themselves only out of the strength of parts and wit and invention and such kind of abilities to say what can be said of a Text in a way of logical deduction and as fetching one thing out of another by a kind of rational distillation but to spin
Apostle here expresses it and nothing less or inferior to it which will stand us in stead Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 The Scripture when it speaks of the goodness either of our state or conversation it speaks of them still with reference and respect had to these sometimes by walking in the spirit sometimes by walking in love sometimes by walking in the truth and by the truth of the Gospel sometimes by walkng in newness of life which is the very sam with this here of walking by this rule this rule of the new creature which is to act in us per modum principii as the byass whereby we are moved The second is per modum Metae sen Termini as the mark whereunto we are carried and so this phrase it does denote unto us the duty of Christians as to their following conversation after grace wrought in their hearts which is to live up to the power and height of those Principles in them And so therefore it is here rendred according those that walk according to this rule And these two now taken together do as I conceive make the sense compleat and the latter still supposing the former as many as are indeed made partakers of this new Creation and do walk suitably to it Peace be on them c. This is that which all Christians are to set down and to propound to themselves as the rule for the ordering of their lives and conversations the new creature and the workings of that that they conform hereunto And this is the point which may be hence taken notice of by us As many as walk according to this rule c. It is that which we shall find in its equivalencies to be urged in sundry other places besides Thus Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as children of the light So Col. 3.9 10. Ye have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man c. Put on therfore bowels c. So again 1 Thes 5.5 6. Ye are all the children of the light c. therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober Still the new creature in the principles and workings of it is made the ground and pattern and direction for a Christians ohedience and the framing and squaring of his life which it is to be regulated by we are shewn what we should be by considering what we are as regenerate an born again And thus it may be laid forth in divers and sundry particulars by way of Explication as wherein it is to be observed by us thus to walk First As to matter of opinion and the Doctrines which are taken up by us We are herein to walk by this rule in bringing them to the new creature as to the touchstone of them that cannot be sound in Divinity which is absurd and incongruous in Christianity and therefore we should hereby examine those points which are offered unto us whether they agree with this or no if they do not reject them and have nothing to do with them The Spirit of God in the Scripture and in the conscience agree both together and look as there is nothing at any time suggested by him to the mind which is not consonant to the written word so there is nothing neither by him set down in the written word which is repugnant to his influenres upon the mind and inward man the one being the counterpane of the other and declaring what is in it and when I say the mind I mean the mind as sanctified and renewed There are some which appeal to the mind in its natural consideration and so make humane Reason to be the rule of Faith But this is a Lesbian Rule and which will not hold no it is the mind as it is regenerated and repaired whereof we now speak and the dealing of God with it in order hereunto The actings of the new creature in us are the best discoveries of such Doctrines to us Hence we read in Scripture of the unction and anointing which shall teach us 1 John 2.20 27. which places are not to be understood as some fanatical persons would have them now in these days of such a light within us as does exclude the word of God and use of Ordinances but as is consonant and agreeable hereunto There are some points in Divinity the right resolution whereof lyes not so much in our books as in our hearts which therefore not neglecting the other we should be well acquainted with for this intent And the reason of so much mistake and miscarriage in them is indeed oftentimes and most usually the want of this because we are strangers at home in our own breasts and set our wits on work rather than our consciences by want of a due reflexion and looking into our selves and observing of the manner and carriage of Gods dealing with us in this respect or if not so yet at least a mistaking of common grace for sanctifying and making that to be a work of grace which is but a work of nature and civility and education a measuring of God by our selves and making his thoughts to be like our thoughts This is that which lays a ground to those errors about free-will and concupiscence and perseverance and such as these which are abroad in the world This is the reason why many great Scholars are at a loss where meaner parts sometimes hold out because the one speaks out of conjecture and the other out of Christian feeling Now therefore the way to settle us in these matters is to lay hold on this present direction which is now before us and by reducing these points of difficulty to the common sense and experience and observation of the Saints and Servants of God in all ages and times of the Church which though in some things which are circumstantial and of less concernment may be different one from another Look as he were a weak Physician that should deliver such a point in Physick as were contrary to the experience of nature and which all men find and feel in their bodies so he must also be as weak and fond a Divine who shall deliver such a point in Divinity as is contrary to the experiences of grace and which all Christians find and feel in their hearts there being as much and as general certainty in the one as there is in the other yet in essentials and the substance of Religion are one and the same so that those which think contrary to them must deny even Religion it self That 's one thing wherein we are to walk by this rule of the new creature namely in matter of opinion and the Doctrines which are taken up by us Secondly In matter of censure and
but to sin also thereby to humble him and bring him low and to shew him the vanity and sinfulness of his own corrupt heart But now when a man walks in the spirit and is careful to keep close to God God will free him from such evils as these Again secondly It holds also on Satans part who in this case has not this incouragement to tempt as thinking he shall but lose his labour and do all to no purpose It is true indeed that Satan is not easily put out of heart in regard of his temptations nor yet does he always forbear men because they have more grace in them nay therefore does hereafter sometimes so much the more violently set upon them he throws his sticks the fastest at those trees which have the most fruit upon them because he thinks thereby he shall have the greater booty but yet where he sees Grace in the activity and the exercise and improvement of it in a spritual way he is not so much heartened and incouraged and provoked to tempt men as otherwise he would be Resist the Devil says St. James and he will flee from you Give him but the least advantage and he will be sure to take it and improve it to the utmost but resist him an give denial to him and then he is gone Why thus now do those that walk in the spirit they leave no hole for Satan to come in and they put on all their spiritual armour whereby they stand against the wiles of the devil Ephes 6.11 Thirdly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have leasure or opportunity to fulfil them The more business a man has in goodness the less vacant he is to sin and has less time for the committing of it This a man shall be sure to find upon tryaland experience of it That man that truly walks in the spirit will find so much work for him to do in a spiritual course for the watching of his own heart for the getting of a farther stock of Grace for the serving of God in his relations and the place wherein God has set him as that he will find but little leasure for the lusts of the flesh at all And this is another Explication Lastly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall be kept from the thing it self in regard of the immediate influence and efficacy of a spiritual Conversation which it has in the nature of it for the restraining and preserving of the heart from any sinful miscarriage This ye shall not as to actual accomplishment we shall find to be true according to all the former senses and explications which we have given of this walking in the spirit take it in which ye will and ye shall find that in the practise of it Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh First Take it in the Graces and Principles of the spirit Walk in the spirit so and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh The more spiritual we are in our Principles the less carnal shall we be in our Conversation This is clear from the words that follow in the next verse to the Text the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the thing that ye would Ye cannot do the things that ye would it holds true of either part not only as to the doing of good ye cannot do the things that ye would that is whereby ye would with your sanctified will because the flesh which is in you is an hinderance and impediment to you but also as to the doing of evil ye cannot do the things which ye would neither that is which ye would with your corrupt will because the spirit which is also in you is here a curb and restraint upon you Look as the inherence of sin and corruption remaining in us keeps us from a full and perfect walking in the spirit so the infusion of Grace and Holiness abiding in us also keeps us from an absolute fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh Again Secondly Take it also in the motions and suggestions of the spirit and they all take us from the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh whether we understand it of the suggestions of Counsel or whether we understand it of the suggestions of Comfort they do either of them hold us back in this particular First The suggestions of Counsel the directions and excitements of the spirit they are such as if we follow them we shall be sure never to fulfil the lusts of the flesh which by the way shews the horrible blasphemy and wickedness of some persons in the world which would make their lusts of the flesh to be the motions and suggestions of the Divine Spirit What a grievous and fearful thing is this yea and how false is it too and incongruous the Spirit of God is an holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Holiness it self as the Scripture stiles him and therefore he does not nor cannot provoke men to that which is unholy no but it is the desperate vileness and rottenness of their own corrupt hearts together with the spirit of Satan of joyning and complying with them and improving of them Satan hath fill'd thy heart to lye against the Holy Ghost as Peter to Ananias So likewise secondly for the suggestions of Comfort which the Spirit of God does let in into us if we walk after them also we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh spiritual comforts and consolations they do not breed security and presumption or make men the more to abound in sin as some men vainly pretend against them no but where they are in reality and good earnest they make men so much the more to avoid sin and to be more shy and fearful of it To take heed of doing any thing whereby we should deface our evidences and lose that sweet and comfortable testimony of Gods love which he does vouchsafe unto us This is the proper improvement of such experiences as these are in the hearts of those which are God's People as also the proper consequence and connexion of the things themselves The Consideration of this point in hand may be thus far useful to us as it may serve to put us upon the search and examination of our own hearts and ways we may see what our selves are according to this Doctrine There are many which pretend to the Spirit and to the walking in it Well but how are they now as to this particular whereof we now speak the fulfilling the lusts of the flesh When men give themselves over to these without any curb or restraint at all Can they say and say with any truth that they walk in the spirit Certainly no such matter He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as