will suffer me to do is to hand out a coal from the Text and to convey a quickning beam from the Sun of truth that shines therein 'T is this Be righteous in your Sphear and temperate in your Spirits and actings for there is a future Judgement wherein God will call you to an account 'T is reported of Augustus that he enforced all the Roman Knights to give an account of their lives sure I am God will We must all saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the body Mark this we must all appear for no man is either above or past Judgement No! They that sit in Judgement upon others must come to Judgement And they that take an account must give an account and they that pass the sentence of Judgement upon others here must receive a Sentence themselves above for with God there is no respect of persons in Judgement All men of what degree and rank soever will be divided into two sorts Sheep and Goats with a venite benedicti to the one and an ite maledicti to the other If the former be your Sentence then you shall enter into your Masters joy but if the latter then nothing but horrour and trembling weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever And therefore I shall say to all here present as the Apostle doth 2 Corinths 5.11 Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men to flee from the wrath to come For neither Riches nor Honours nor Garments No! nor Mountains can shelter or profit you in that day Nothing but righteousness will deliver from death and without question it was the apprehension and belief of this that made guilty Felix tremble or as the Syrian hath it fill'd him with fear As the earth fill'd with vapours trembles and quakes so this made an earth quake in his conscience as the Hand-writing upon the wall did in carousing Belshazzars a sign that Fear was in its height and reing The sinners in Sion are afraid saith the Prophet Esay 33.14 fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrite and why so Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings For I can assure you that Hell is no painted Fire nor like the crackling of thorns under a pot that make a blaze but is soon extinct No! the element of Fire is but a dark and shadowy resemblance of Hell-fire For as it is far more tormenting so it is everlasting and that adds to the misery of that Soul that must endure it Oh when the Soul must be alwayes suffering and yet never satisfie and alwayes dying and yet never die this must needs be intolerable And therefore I do most humbly beseech all guilty persons to consider this and seriously to lay it to heart that you may tremble so here as not to tremble hereafter and so to repent here as you may not repent when it is too late And in particular give me leave to make my address to all you that are concern'd in the work of the day And I do as earnestly beg it of you that no cause may be pleaded at either of the Bars here but that which may have an Advocate in the Judgement to come and that those things and nothing else may be Presented and Endicted but what will be presentable in the Judgement to come and that if possible no Bill may be found but that which will be found to be a Billa vera in the Judgement to come And that none of you do take an Oath but that which will appear to have been taken in Truth Judgement and Righteousness in the Judgement to come And last of all that no Evidence be given either in Civil or Criminal causes but such as will have the testimony of a good Conscience in the Judgement to come For else even in this life when a Lecture shall be read to you of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come you may be brought to tremble for so was Felix As you have it in the Text As S. Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled FINIS THE MOST Remarkable Man UPON EARTH Or the true Portraicture OF A SAINT As to his Birth Life and Death Delivered in a Sermon at the Celebration of the Funeral of Mr. Francis Bowtel of Parham in High Suffolk Jan. 14. 1668. By Samuel Blackerby Minister of the Gospel at Stow Market LONDON Printed for Nevil Simons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church Yard 1674. To the truly Honoured Barnaby Bowtel Of Parham Hasta Esq With Madam MAGDALEN his Lady Grace and Peace THe preaching of the Sermon which I here present you with and the choice of the Text preached on at the Funeral of Mr. Francis Bowtel your deceased Father were as you inform me his dying Requests and conceived in his Breast some time before But had the choice of the Preacher and the Text been left to me I should have chosen a Newcomen or an Harris for the Preacher And know you not that a great man is fallen this day in Israel for the Text. The Task was so much the harder and more difficult for me to undertake because confined to so little time at so great a distance in the depth of Winter in a croud of Business and also having never preached on the Text before But verba morientis his Desires were as Commands to me and therefore since it was as it was I must humbly beg of you to receive the Sermon as it is without emendation or correction The Reason why I refused to print it when desired by one or both of you was because then I was utterly averse to that work but now being drawn thereunto I cannot but account my self obliged to conjoyn this with some others that I may lie no longer under the censure of Ingratitude and also that the memory of so worthy and remarkable a Person may be revived and perpetuated I know that Funeral Sermons are mostly made but matters of form and men come to them as to a great Feast The first course wherein God is most concern'd is lightly passed over The second wherein Man is represented is commonly most expected and stood upon but herein I was prevented and 't is like did frustrate the expectation of my Auditors partly by reason of my short acquaintance with him and partly that I might not give an alarm to my own people at home and provoke their Spirits to accuse me of partiality in serving them up with the first without the second even at the Funerals of some persons of great worth for true Piety and Godliness And yet I hope without offence I may take liberty to write that of him now which I did not then speak As to his natural Pedigree I shall not concern my self nor the Reader with it for his spiritual is chiefly in mine
THE CONTENTS THe Introduction to the words of the Text. Page 1. The Psalmists two-fold Experiment his Malady and Relief a Demonstration that God is good to Israel Page 2 The Particulars contained in the Text with the Observations raised from each Particular Page 4 The first principal Doctrine That God is the Rock of a Saints heart strength and portion for ever Page 5 Divided into two Branches Page 6 The first branch that God is the Rock of a Saints heart strength proved by Scripture ib. Explained in three particulars 1. He is the Author and giver of all strength 2. He is the increaser and perfecter of a Saints strength 3. He is the preserver of a Saints strength ib. Six Positions laid down by way of Demonstration Page 7 1. All strength is in God originally and fully ib. 2. The Israel of God have a peculiar interest in the strength of God Page 8 3. According to the Saints communion with God and Gods influence into them such is their strength Page 9 4. According to the fulness and extent of Grace promised in the Covenant of Grace such is Gods influence into the hearts of his people for their strength Page 13 5. According to that mutual Transact that is between God the Father and his Son Christ Jesus both on Gods part and on the Believers part so doth the Covenant give forth its vertue and grace to the Believer Page 14 6. According to the Spirits Revelation of this Grace in the Heart such is our sense and feeling thereof and according to our sense and feeling thereof such is our comfort Page 18 Vse of Instruction to all true Believers 1. To account God their strength 2. To give God the glory of their strength Page 19 The second Branch of the first principal Doctrine That God is Israels portion for ever proved and explained Page 40 Demonstrated by shewing how God comes to be a Saints portion Page 44 The Vse of Inference is in three particulars 1. That the people of God are the richest people Page 52 2. That the people of God are a truly happy people Page 53 3. That the people of God cannot be made miserable ib. The second Vse is of Instruction to teach us 1. Where to have a Portion for our selves and ours Page 54 2. That if we would have God to be our portion we must be his Page 56 The third Vse is of Direction and Counsel to Gods Israel 1. To learn the distinction to the height between God in himself or God in the Creature and the Creature without God Page 59 2. To be content with such things as they have Page 61 3. Not to be solicitously or distrustfully careful for what they want Page 62 4. Above all to be thankful for the enjoyment of God Page 63 The second principal Doctrine That Divine Relief flows from God to his people according to their necessity Page 64 The particular Cases wherein a Christian stands in need of Divine Relief are failing of the Flesh and failing of the Heart Page 65 Divine Relief flows in divers wayes when the comforts of a mans life fails him Page 66 Divine Relief flows in divers wayes when the outward man fails Page 75 Divine Relief flows in when the Vnderstanding fails Page 87 When the Will fails Page 94 When the Memory fails Page 102 Divine Relief flows in when the infused habits fail Page 110 God works four things for the Christians good by his decay in Grace and falling into Sin Page 114 1. Hereby God discovers that corruption that is in the Heart ib. 2. Hereby God teaches the Soul where its strength lies Page 115 3. The falls of Christians through the weakness of Grace and the power of Sin are made notable Antidotes and Preservatives against final Apostacie ib. 4. These falls and decayes settle him faster and make him root deeper in Christ Page 116 Four Cautions entered hereupon Page 118 Divine Relief flows in when the Animal Spirits fail through Disappointment Page 122 When they fail through the hiding of Gods face Page 124 When they fail through a sense of Sin and Gods displeasure for it Page 128 When they fail through a sudden passion of fear Page 132 When they fail through some strong temptation of Satan Page 136 The Doctrine confirmed by three Reasons The First Taken from that near relation that is between God and good men Page 140 The second taken from Gods design in all his peoples straights and necessities Page 142 The third taken from the beautifulness of Relief in the time of necessity Page 144 A grand Case put by a Christian that doubts of his Interest in God because he hath no experience of Divine Relief flowing into him according to his necessity resolved Page 145 Vse 1. From this Doctrine is inferr'd the woful state and condition of those who have no Interest in God Page 152 The second Vse is of Comfort to all that have an Interest in God Page 154 An Objection against taking Comfort from this Doctrine drawn from the Christians unworthy walking of former Relief answered Page 155 Jehovah Iireh OR THE Saints Relief In a Time of EXIGENCY Held forth in several Sermons Preached at Stowe Market in SVFFOLK By Samuel Blackerby Minister of the Gospel and Vicar there LONDON Printed for Nevil Simons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church Yard 1674. SERMON I. The Saints Relief in a time of Exigency Psal 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever THough Divine truth may be clearly understood by Divine revelation yet the heart of a Christian is then most confirmed and settled in the belief thereof and most confident to assert it when he hath had some experience of the power and life thereof in himself when he can say I know this by experience The first conception and rise of true faith and sound knowledge springeth from Divine principles revealed and explained by the Holy Spirit but the confirmation thereof flows from experiments made and had of those principles We need go no further than this Psalm for a proof hereof The Prophet whoever he was was one that was endued with a saving knowledge of Divine Principles and with faith therein I but the confirmation of his faith was made by a Divine work in which the life and power of those principles shone forth He did believe at first that God was good to Israel I but his faith was not strong and able to overcome an assault and to quench this fiery dart that Satan shot at him until he had found the truth of this principle by experience in himself So you may see vers 2 3 13 14. Sense prevails against his faith until such a Divine work was wrought in himself as terminated his faith and sense in one object Now he can with boldness and great confidence assert that God is good to Israel c. For he is able to give a demonstration thereof
the Father takes the poor sinner and puts him into the hands of Christ and saith thus to him Son take this poor wretched sinner into thine own hands for I cannot look upon him in himself I can do nothing for him as he stands upon his own carnal bottome he is undone weak and wretched and so he must abide without any help unless thou dost bottome him upon thy self and hide him under the robe of thy righteousness I can't hear his prayers nor own his desires nor pitty his groans unless they be all persumed with the odour of thine incense and presented to me by thy hand The Covenant of grace and the promises of grace are all made in thee and must be performed in thee and therefore he can have no benefit by them until thou hast an actual possession of him he must be thine or else they can't be his Then the Lord Jesus takes the poor sinner and having sprinkled him with his blood and washed him from all his guilt hides him in his own robes and presents him to the Father as an object of pitty and mercy And after this manner mediates and interceeds with his Father on the sinners behalf Heavenly Father here is one whom thou hast given me for whom I have shed my heart blood that I might make satisfaction to Divine Justice for all offences committed by him against thee and purchase all that grace that is in the Covenant for him he stands not upon his own account but upon mine I am touched with the feeling of his infirmities his weakness and griefs are mine his troubles and pains are mine his faintings and failings are mine his tears and cries are mine his prayers and desires are mine here I tender them to thee in mine own name and beg thine audience and acceptance of them my sufferings and my blood shed for him cries to thee yea thine own Covenant ratified and confirmed with thine own oath cries to thee for mercy and grace to help and strengthen him Now hereupon the bowels of grace and mercy earns and melts over a poor distressed sinner and like the great wheel in the Clock sets all the lesser wheels a going by its motion So the grace of God sets the Covenant of grace on work that it may give forth its virtue and strength to the soul This glorious mystery will be best understood and cleared to you by several steps 1. That God the Father is the first mover in this great business He first loves and then gives souls to Christ 1 John 4.19 Heb. 2.13 There is a two fold giving of souls to Christ 1. By way of Covenant designation or decree made in heaven between the Father and the Son in which God made over all his elect to Christ and Christ undertook to bear their names So Joh. 10.29 In this place he doth not only speak of those that did at the present believe but of all others that should believe So vers 16. 2. By way of actual possession and so God gives souls to Christ as his mansion to dwell in This is the Fathers work Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father draw him When God doth draw a man to Christ then he gives him to Christ for his actual possession 2. Gods design in giving souls to Christ is that they may be put into a capacity for relief for of themselves they are not Out of Christ they cannot come to God there is no immediate access to God His first giving them to Christ by way of designation was for satisfaction but this latter giving them to Christ is for application that they may reap and enjoy the benefit of his satisfaction that through Christ they might have access to God and an entrance into the grace of the Covenant and therefore did Paul so earnestly desire that he might be found in Christ 3. The whole Covenant of grace with all the promises therein are founded in Christ and performed unto none but the chosen of God in Christ and such as are given to Christ Hence is that of the Apostle 2 Corinth 1.20 Acts 2.39 4. The Lord Jesus owns every sinner that is given to him by the Father as his peculiar trust He becomes their shepheard and takes the care of them and never leaves them until he hath brought them into actual possession and fruition of all Covenanting grace You have this fully set forth Heb. 2.11 12 17 18 with 4.15 5. Having taken this trust upon him and made it his business he mediates with the Father for them that the Covenant of grace with all the promises may be performed to them Heb. 7.25 6. The Covenant being pleaded by Christ with the Father must be performed to the sinner God can't in justice deny it this treasury and store-house of grace is presently opened for the soul to come and receive grace and strength most full is that John 14.12 13 14. John 16.24 6. According to the Spirits Revelation of this grace in the heart such is our sense and feeling thereof and according to our sense thereof such is our comfort Divine Revelation gives us the sense of Spiritual incomes and influences and a true sense thereof gives us comfort the larger the discovery is the larger is our sense and comfort There is many a gratious soul that wants the strength of comfort and yet doth not want the strength of grace and holiness and the reason is because he hath not the sense and feeling of his grace This therefore is the office of the Spirit to reveal and make known those incomes and Divine influences which the soul enjoys of and from God for his strength and support As you may see 1 Cor. 2.10 12. The spirit reveals all spiritual gifts to the souls of his Saints that they may know them and have the sense and feeling of them in their hearts And hence he is called the comforter because he reveals that to the soul which is matter of comfort For it is the knowledge and sense of things that administers comfort To be without a good and not to know it is all one in point of comfort As what comfort doth any estate afford a man when he is ignorant of his interest in it and enjoyment of it If a man have a rich Mine of Gold and Silver in any part of his lands and yet knows not of it it is nothing to him So if a man have never such a measure of gifts and graces from God yet if he be still in the dark and know it not he can take no comfort therein So long as a soul questions and is in doubt about his spiritual estate he can't have comfort and therefore the holy Spirit comes and makes it known to the people of God that they may have true comfort Use If God be the rock of a Christians heart strength Then this may serve for counsel and instruction to all true Israelites 1. To account God your strength 2. To give
thy God until thou canst say thou art the inheritance of the Lord Thou art never sure of God as thy portion until God hath made sure of thee for his inheritance He must have some interest in thy heart or thou hast no fruition of him First Therefore Set thy heart upon God alone do not suffer it to be divided between many portions let not the earthly portion share one part and sin another and the Devil another and then what is left thou wilt be content that God should have it But know that God will be all or none the love of the world and the love of God is inconsistent 1 John 2.15 You know when the Merchant had found the pearl he sells all for it and so must thou thy heart must be taken off all for God and given up to him only God never matches with an adulteress with one that doth not love him intirely For then he would be but as a cloak for wickedness to hide it self under that it may be acted with greater security As men that marry whores they are but their wife's cloaks they commit whoredom with the greater boldness so would the heart of man if it could enjoy God with the love of the world it would sin the more securely and freely God should be but a cloak to its wickedness No thou must not think that God will be thy portion that thou mayst play the harlot the more securely Oh therefore set thine heart upon God alone let him have the whole of thine heart set thy heart wide open for God to come in and take possession of thy heart Psal 24.7 This is the voice of Christ open to me my sister my spouse Cant. 5.2 and Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man open I will come in Now love to God is the opening of the heart to God and lets him in entertains him and bids him welcome Thus God dwells in the heart and receives content and satisfaction from it Secondly If thou wouldst be Gods portion and Gods inheritance thou must receive Gods mark upon thee that thou mayst be distinguished from all others even as they that become the portion of Antichrist must receive his mark in their foreheads and in their hands Revel 13.16 So all they that do become Gods portion must receive Gods mark upon them they must be sealed with Gods own seal Ephes 1.13 and Revel 14.1 Even as Merchants set their mark or seal upon their goods so doth God set his seal and mark upon all his goods that they may be clearly known to him by their mark as well as in his own decree Now the distinguishing Character of a true Israelite from all others is Gospel sincerity truth in the inward parts Joh. 1.47 a true Israelite in whom is no guile Revel 14.15 in their mouth was found no guile Psal 32.2 Others may have gifts and grace in shew but Gods portion must have grace in truth Others may have a form but these have the power of godliness Others may have lamps but these have oyl in their lamps Others may have a name but these have the name of God written in their foreheads Alass God cares not for these hang-bies who call themselves by Gods name and cry up themselves as the only people of God and yet never received the name of God upon their foreheads but through a carnal liberty which they assume to themselves are on and off in and out when they please Sometimes they are for God and sometimes for the Devil No Beloved if you will be the Lords you must be in good earnest fully engaged mark'd out with this mark of holy sincerity so that God may have something in you whereby to own you When God shall look abroad and seek for his own and find them scattered up and down and mixed with the world God will take notice of none but such as have his mark upon them none but such as are sincere and upright 't is not a form of Anabaptism or Quaking or Seeking but sincerity that God will own Matth. 7.21 22 23. Use 3. For Direction and Counsel to all the Israel of God who have God for their portion I have four words of advice for you 1. Learn the distinction to the height God in himself or God in the creature and the creature without God There is a vast difference between the enjoyment of God in himself or in the creature and the enjoyment of the creature without the enjoyment of God Some enjoy God and not the creature Some enjoy the creature and not God Some enjoy both This is talked of amongst us and oftentimes little understood by us but the right and clear understanding hereof is of great concernment unto Christians 1. Some enjoy God and not the creature these are as I hinted before poor and rich 2. Some enjoy the creature and not God these are rich and yet poor as having all and yet having nothing 3. Some enjoy God and the creature or God in the creature These are rich in all respects they are worldly rich and heavenly rich they have a double portion But now here lieth a great task and difficulty it is hard for such a Christian so to distinguish between these two estates and portions as not to confound them As a man that drives two trades 't is very difficult for him to keep them distinct So 't is here when men have much of the world they drive a great trade therein 't is very difficult for them to distinguish between God and that i. e. so to use the world as not to make it his All hence is that counsel of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31 and so 1 Tim. 6.17 18. Oh Beloved for a Christian to be still in the enjoyment of all as if he had nothing this is right to live in a constant dependance upon God as his All and to make the creature but as the vessel or cistern through which God communicates himself this is a true life Such an one may say as Paul I am dead nevertheless I live I am dead to the world and the world is dead to me such an one lives upon God a true life of happiness and content But I say this is hard and difficult and our experience is a full demonstration thereof for according to creature enjoyments so we live for when the creature is full and all things flow in according to our desire then we are quiet merry and glad but when that is low and dry then we fail and flag Few Christians have and keep an even temper of spirit in fluctuating various conditions for few live so upon God as to make him their All and therefore when the creature ebbs and flows it carries them along in the stream either high or low but this is to make God our portion for Christians to make a real distinction between the enjoyment of God and the enjoyment of the creature so that when
are about him stand weeping over him to hear his groans and to see him toss and tumble in his Bed and know not how to afford him any relief first they turn him to one side and then to another but the man finds no rest then God steps in gives a word of command and that layes him to rest refresheth and revives him in an instant the pain and sickness is removed and the man thinks himself in a new world Thus you see how divine relief comes in to Christians in the time of their greatest corporal weakness when they are ready to despair of all help therein Sometimes by divine supports inabling to bear it with patience as also by renewing the inward man and making that to thrive and flourish Sometimes so sanctifying it as that it proves the effectual death and decay of the old man in him Sometimes giving him a sweet foretast of Heaven in clearing up the evidence of Gods love to him and sometimes by mitigating and moderating the pain and grief wherewith he is afflicted In some or all these wayes good men have experience of the incomes of divine relief in this condition And thus much for the first particular wherein I have shewn you how God is the strength of a Christians heart when the flesh faileth Secondly Let us consider the failing of the Heart and see how divine relief comes into a good man in this case Now this failing of the Heart I reduced to three Heads 1. The failing of the natural faculties and that either by way of Apprehension or Election or Retention I call them Natural Faculties although they are sanctified and changed for Grace doth not alter and change the essence of the Soul but only the quality and inclination thereof Now though they are thus altered yet they may fail a man in whom true grace is 1. In respect of Apprehension The Understanding is the eye of the Soul whereby it seeth and discerneth spiritual objects I but sometimes the eye grows dim so that though he be a child of light yet he may walk in darkness as you have it Es 50.10 Who is there among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness and hath no light Sometimes God is pleased to withdraw or cloud up the light and then though the eye be open yet the soul is in the dark the day of divine discoveries and manifestations may be turned into a dark night But sometimes the light shineth clearly upon the Soul and yet for want of a capacity to receive it the Soul is in the dark still as when the eye is shut a man seeth no more then he doth when the light is withdrawn from him and this was the case of the Pen-man of this Psalm as he confesseth of himself ver 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee You know whatever light of Reason is offered to a bruit it receiveth it not because it is beyond its faculty and power Read a Lecture of Philosophy to it and render it as plain as it can be made yet it understands nothing thereof Even thus the Prophet complains of himself That he was as a Bruit that understood not It was not for want of light shining but for want of a seeing eye He could not receive the light and therefore was very much in the dark and that in reference to three things 1. In respect of his own spiritual state and therefore mistook that He thought it bad although it was good for so he saith ver 13. Verily I have cleansed my hands in vain and washed my hands in innocency i. e. All my Religion is to no purpose it doth not at all advantage me that I have lived strictly according to the commands of God I might have spared a great deal of pains that I have taken to cleanse my heart and to wash my hands and have sped as well For notwithstanding all this I have been plagued all the day long and chastened every morning ver 14. Surely had God loved me had I belonged to him he would never have dealt thus with me 2. In reference to the spiritual state of others and therefore mistook that He thought the state of the foolish better then his own because they seemed to prosper ver 3. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked As he concluded his own estate bad so he concluded their's good He was so mistaken that he could have been content to have exchanged states with them and yet had he done so he had made a bad bargain for himself 3. In reference to God's mind touching his duty under this complexed providence he knew not what to do but was at a great loss exceedingly bewildred in his own thoughts through that darkness that had overspread his understanding and nothing less can be implied in these words I was as a beast before thee i. e. I knew not how to carry or behave my self toward God but acted very strangely and preposterously as one that had no command of himself or of his passions and this is the case sometimes of God's dear children they are so darkened in their Spirits as that they know neither how to judge of things nor how to act under divine dispensations And hence flow misapprehensions of themselves false conclusions of divine providence and cross actings to divine will Thus you see this particular case Let us now see what divine relief flows into the Soul herein 1. In time of the greatest darkness that is upon the Spirit of a Christian when 't is dark night with him when he meets with the darkest and most cross dispensation of divine providence that he concludes against himself and the goodness of his estate then God is bringing about some glorious eminent design for his good The more glorious any design of God is and the more it tends to the good of any Soul the more it is kept seccret and the less the Soul discerns it until it be wrought out There is many a good man that fears that God is setting himself in battel array against him and shooting the arrows of his displeasure and indignation at him and that the full vials of his wrath shall be poured forth upon him and yet at that time God is bringing about some eminent design of good for him It may be thou art questioning thy estate and concludest against thy self but God is about to clear it up to thee Thou doubtest of God's love and he is making way for the manifestation of it Thou art labouring under strong temptations and conflicts with strong corruptions I but God is giving in a glorious conquest and treading Satan under thy feet that which thou fearest will prove thy destruction shall be thy salvation God often works as Luther saith in mediis contrariis by contrary means God heals by wounds and makes alive by killing so that a Christian may say as he said I had been undone
is like a strong Fort or Garrison to a Christians Grace that keeps it safe It may be assaulted and beleaguered but shall never receive a mortal wound It is the great security of a Christian that God will not trust him with the root and principle of grace That shall never be in thine own keeping he trusts thee with the exercise of grace but not with the principle and root No he keeps that himself he is both the Garrison and the Commander in it and you may be sure that that is impregnable 2. God is the strength of a Christians heart when the infused habits of grace fail and sin grows strong and vigorous by healing and restoring him A Christian never fails in the exercise of grace but sin gives him a wound And therefore David prayed Lord heal my Soul for I have sinned Psal 41.4 And what David prayed for God promiseth to his people Hos 14.4 I will heal their back-slidings The weakness and decay of grace brings a Christian presently to the falling sickness and so it did David and Ephraim I but God will be a Physitian to the Soul in this case and will heal their diseases and so he did Davids falling-sickness for which he return'd the tribute of Praise Psal 103.3 My soul praise thou the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy name who healeth all thy diseases David had many diseases upon him once for one disease is the cause of another I but God healed all and raised him up again And herein the grace of God did shine forth with great lustre and glory that even ravished his soul in the sense thereof As it appears wonderful in preserving spiritual life and the root of grace so it is no less to be admired for its healing and restoring virtue that it puts forth upon the Soul when spiritual diseases have ceised upon it You have a notable place for this Cant. 8.5 I raised thee up under the apple-tree They are the words of Christ to his Spouse She had been feeding her self upon the forbidden fruit of earthly delights and sensual pleasures until she could stand upon her feet no longer and there she falls and lies I but then Christ comes to her seasonably takes her by the hand and raises her up Green fruit will cause distempers in the body natural and sensual delights and pleasures will cause diseases in the body spiritual none can cure them but Christ When thou art fallen under the Apple-tree he must raise thee up nay Christ will do it though he may suffer the poor Soul to fall yet he will not suffer it to lie and perish This is one main difference between the falls of a gracious man into sin and the fall of a wicked man God lets a wicked man fall and lie in his sin As he falls willingly and resolvedly so he lies wretchedly and desperately in his sin But as a godly man falls through a weakness of grace so God pities him and raises him up again Peter fell fouly when he denied his Master but he did not fall finally Christ raised him up and restored him to his former health and soundness So you may see Matth. 26.75 And Peter remembred the words of Jesus and he went out and wept bitterly The way that Christ takes to heal the backslidings of his people is to break their hearts and melt them into godly sorrow When poor Souls have been almost drown'd in the waies of sin he drowns their sin in the red sea of godly sorrow the Soul swims aloft but his sin sinks to the bottom that it may rise no more 3. God is the strength of a Christians heart when grace fails by working a new creation upon the heart The giving of grace at first is a creation and hence new Converts are called new creatures So the strengthening weak grace and reviving and renewing of grace is no less a creation it is the work of an Almighty power upon the Soul And therefore David prayed for it under this notion Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Psal 50.10 God puts forth the same power in strengthening the weakness of grace as he doth in giving the first act of grace as grace is not mans creature but Gods We are saith the Apostle Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 So the renewing and reviving grace is not mans work but Gods When he seeth a poor Christian lie languishing that he is scarce able to put forth one act of grace he can neither believe nor love nor obey that Satan makes a prey of him and is ready to carry him away captive as his prisoner God creates new strength and a new life and a new glory upon the Soul If a Christian hath his winter he shall have his spring also he shall not be alwaies without fruit Most full is that promise Hos 14.5 6. I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon Observe Gods method in working upon decaying Christians First he heals their backslidings so ver 4. I will heal their backslidings I but that is not all For without divine influence the Soul will be as apt to relapse as ever and therefore God promiseth as a further act of grace that he will be as the dew unto Israel Dew is of a fructifying and refreshing nature it calls forth the fruits of the earth when they lie hid in the roots of trees and herbs Even so is Divine Influence it is of a fructifying nature and calls forth the fruits of grace when they lie hid in the root thereof Let but God send forth his power and Grace will send forth new buds and blossoms of holiness that there shall be a new face upon a Christian He shall grow as the Lilliy cast forth his roots as Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive and his smell as Lebanon 4. God is the strength of a Christians heart by drawing forth much good out of this great evil It is a sore evil for a Christian to decay in grace and to fall into sin I but God works good out of this evil Four things God works by this and they are all good for him 1. Hereby God discovers that corruption that is in the heart As when the water ebbs and grows low then the earth appears then you may see what is at the bottom So when grace ebbs and grows low then the corruption of the heart appears then it is quickly known what foul dregs are at the bottom There is many a Christian that little thinks how full of sin his heart is until his grace grows languid and weak and then he comes to have a sad experience thereof Thus it was with David When grace became so weak in him as not to
John 1.13 born not of blood or as in the Original not of bloods nor of the will of man but of God Many men boast and brag much of their parentage and the family or house they came out of Such a Duke such a Lord such a great person was their Father or Grandfather and such a great person is their brother or their uncle or near allies But alas what is this to a mans being born from above to come out of the family of heaven to have God for thy Father and Christ for thy Brother and near ally the other is not to be named with this No were thy earthly parents beggars from door to door and thou born naturally upon a dunghil yet if thou hast God for thy Spiritual Father thou art more nobly descended then all the great ones in the world if they are not born from above as well as from beneath I tell thee thy relation speaks thee noble and honorable 2. Look upon him as to his education and breeding and see how he is disciplined and trained up and you must needs be taken therewith He is remarkable for that there are many that will boast of their breeding if not of their birth And indeed there is as much to be considered in that if not more then in the other And therefore Alexander the Great thought himself as much bound to his Tutor as to his Father because the one gave him his being but the other his well-being the one was the instrument of life and the other fitted him to live in the world Why Beloved a godly man hath not only the best birth but the best breeding for as he is born of God so he is taught of God Whoever is the usher or sub-tutor God is the Master-teacher So John 6.45 It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God And 1 Thes 4.9 Ye are taught of God to love one another Now if God undertakes the work it must needs be admirably well done those must needs be well taught that have God for their teacher for as he teacheth men the best things that can be taught and learnt so he teacheth them in the best way that can be used not only in the best method but also with the greatest efficacy and power he makes them such as he teacheth them to be and causeth them to do that which he teacheth them to do And in all enricheth and ennobleth the minds and spirits of his Disciples with such kind of learning and knowledge as is not to be found in the whole world he makes them all experimental Scholars in the great and profound mysteries of Heaven So that there is not one in all the world that can be a match for the meanest Scholar in his School No take a man that with Bereugarius is able almost to dispute de omni scibili or with Solomon to unravel Nature from the Cedar to the Hyssop yet a poor Soul in the lowest form in Gods School that is taught of him is able to baffle and to confound such an one if once they come to engage in the matters of Heaven 'T is very true Beloved Humane Learning ought not to be despised Humane Arts and Sciences are brave ornaments to the mind and are very useful in many respects I but not to be compared with divine and heavenly light and knowledge If Humane Learning be as the Ring Divine Learning is as the Pearl or Diamond in the Ring and far exceeds it in worth and excellency 3. Look upon him as to the complexion of his Soul and the air of his Countenance And indeed as a man may read much of the complexion of another mans Soul in the air of his Countenance so did Jacob in Laban's which put him to the flight So there is much glory and beauty in the Soul and Countenance of a godly man Solomon saith Wisdom makes the face to shine how much more doth it make the Soul to shine for that is the seat thereof Mark that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image Now if there be beauty and glory in the Original there must needs be beauty and glory in the Copy else the Copy will not be any wayes answerable to the Original And therefore saith Christ to his Church Cant. 2.14 Let me hear thy voice and see thy countenance for pleasant is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Yea he is so taken therewith that it puts him as it were into a rapture it ravisheth his Soul or takes away his Heart as the Hebrew signifies Cant. 4.9 And indeed a gracious Soul is a lovely and amiable Soul the greatest beauty in the world She stands not in need of a black patch to set her off or to commend her to others 4. Look upon a godly man as to his life and conversation and you must needs say that he is very remarkable for he is one that walks with God in the way of God even in that way that leads to the fullest fruition and enjoyment of God Nay he is one that lives the life that God lives in some measure for he lives a life of holiness and that is the life that God lives 'T is true he lives on the Earth but his conversation is in Heaven where his God and his Treasure is Yea 't is true he lives in Flesh but not after the Flesh for whilst he lives in Flesh he lives in the Spirit and walks in the Spirit and so turns the life of Nature into a life of Grace Now the more excellent the life of any being is the more remarkable and admirable is that being What is it that renders an Angel so admirable but because he lives an Angelical life And what is it that advanceth a man above a beast but because he lives a better life then a beast doth I speak now of men that live like men and not like bruits and so that advanceth a godly man above all other men because he lives a better life then others do The life of Reason is better then the life of Sense but the life of Grace and Religion is far better then the life of Reason Had I but time to set it forth in some particular instances this demonstration would carry a strong conviction with it into the hearts of any unbyassed hearers and cause them to confess that none upon the face of the earth live such honourable and noble lives as Saints do Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable Rule even the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable pattern Holiness of life is the power and virtue of Christ expressed to the life 't is the Divine nature manifested in Humane flesh 't is the Spirit of God breathing through corporal acts Holiness of life is the
or ground for the complaint For men swear and drink and whore and commit all manner of wickedness as if they had received a a Law to do such things For qui non prohibet peceare cum possit jubet But I must not insist upon this particular any longer for there are some persons in a lower Orb that I must a litle reason with and that in reference to that other part of Justice which we call 2. Commutative Take it in the Apostles words Rom. 13.7 Render to all their dues 1. To your Superiours 2. To your Equals First to your Superiours And that according to the command of Christ Matth. 22.21 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars or as the Apostle proceeds in his direction Tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Once more 1 Pet. 2.17 Fear God honour the King Secondly To those that are upon a level with you and are your equals and neighbours And oh that that golden rule were written upon your hearts and made legible in your lives which Severus the Emperour was so taken with that he caused it to be written in his Pallace and elsewhere 't is this Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris What you would not have others do to you do not you that to them and the rather because it was delivered by our Saviour and stands upon record in the affirmative Mat. 7.12 The extent whereof is this That what we would have other men to think speak and do to us with a rectified will that we must think speak and do to them and no worse Wouldst thou have good weight and full measure in buying why thou must give the same in selling Wouldst thou have another faithful in a trust committed to him by thy self why that also may be justly expected from thee when ever thou art trusted Wouldst thou have another keep his word with thee why thou must be as careful to keep thine with others Art thou unwilling that others should wound thy name blast thy credit by reproaches or bearing false witness against thee why then take heed of doing that to others and give me leave to tell you that were this Rule observed our Vine would not be as the Vine of Sodom nor our Grapes the Grapes of Gall. Judgement would not spring up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field nor righteousness be turned into wormwood but we should be the habitation of righteousness and the mountain of holiness and yet if any of you think this Rule too general or too narrow for you to walk by take some other that may convey a more particular light to you That in Levit. 19.35 36. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement in mete yard in weight or in measure just ballances just weights a just epha and a just bin shall ye have And Deut. 25.13 There is to the same purpose I know that a caveat emptor is a Salvo to the stupid and seared conscience of many a Seller I but the Apostle gives him another caveat that he must observe or else the other will not serve his turn You have it 1 Thess 4.6 That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter for the Lord is the avenger of all such It may be the man whom thou defraudest in thy dealings with is not able to right himself upon thee and therefore must put up the wrong that thou hast done him I but God will not No he will avenge it unless prevented by a timely repentance in which thou must not forget to make restitution and satisfaction according to thine ability Thus I have finished my discourse upon the first cardinal virtue And therefore briefly of the 2. Viz. Temperance for so the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred here by our English Translatours as also Gal. 3.23 2 Pet. 1.6 And therefore though I find it otherwise expressed in divers forreign Translations yet I shall not quit our own and the rather because I humbly conceive that the design of the Apostle was not only to lop of a luxuriant branch of incontinency in his Auditor but also to strike at the root from whence that branch did sprout and further to implant a contrary fundamental virtue in him that would produce better fruit for if I mistake not from hence springs chastity righteousness moderation clemency self-denial meekness sobriety and such like He that is temperate is endued with all these virtues For temperance is nothing else but a kind of Lordship which man exerciseth over himself subjecting himself and all his passions and affections to right reason When rectified reason is in power and keeps the reins streight in her hand then the affections and passions become regular in their motions and those motions may pass under the title of distinct vertues but if so what shall we call the opposite and contrary motions of mans passions and affections but so many distinct vices at least give to every one the black title of Intemperance even those very impetus primo primi the first risings of original corruption and the least degree of lust and will that is not conform to the rule of right reason and curb'd thereby is sinful and intemperate not only when the desire is enlarged as Hell but also when it is any wayes inordinate However I am certain that none can with any colour of reason deny but those belluine and beastly lusts of the flesh Drunkenness Gluttony Fornication Adultery and such like may very well pass under the notion of intemperance For as the actions of these do not at all conform to the rule of right reason so they have the same names given to them in Scripture that the bruits have for the truth is they do unman themselves and as it is recorded of Eli's sons They made themselves vile and contemptible Yea so much the more vile because that they take so much care to satisfie their lusts and so little to save their immortal Souls But oh that we could weep over such as one once did Pambus when he saw an Harlot dressing and trimming her self with her comb and her glass upon a double consideration First because she took so much care to undo her Soul and secondly because he took so little care in providing for his own For this is an undoubted truth and the Apostle tells us so much in the Text. That 2. There is a future judgement a judgement to come and this is the motive which the Apostle makes use of both to dehort his Auditor from Vice and also to press him to the practice of Virtue And so I pass from explication to Application I have already according to my Text presented you with a chequer table and discovered the black of Vice that all must shun and avoid together with the white of Virtue which all ought to pursue in their respective sphears and stations All therefore that the time