of God considering how hot and violent it was Then I look upon it further as to consider what 4. In that this succeeded a series of mercies mercies there had gone in a streight line before and how this comes after mercy upon mercy God adding alway greater to the lesse This hath not been Gods way with us hitherto but if God heard us in one mercy he gave us a correction presently if we did get one garrison we lost another if we have one victory we lose another Now that God that is a Zealous God should go on and not see iniquity in his people and passe by their infirmities and should go from on Fort to another and from one garrison to another and bring in this great City to the rest I speak of it because the chief thing in this City is to desire to see the glory of God as Moses did to desire above all things to see God perfect God We know God is perfect and useth not to work by halves but God hath hidden that attribute in a great measure among us He gave us many overtures of mercie but he called for them back again and so presently turned our joy into sorrow It hath been familiar in all his dispensations to us for these two or three yeers Now that the Lord should go on from one thing to another without interruption and cast nothing in by the way to imbitter our mercies and to go from lesse to greater in this manner me thinks the Lord hath shewed himself a perfect God as he did to our fathers before and that is a glorious attribute Besides it is not a little mercie that the Lord hath 5. In respect of a confiding Governour inclined the Parliament to bestow a governour upon that City that they may confide in that is a greater mercy then we can now speak of And truly if you will give me leave to tell you what I think for we may haply judge of Gods mercie in this because of our concernment further then some of you it is a great mercie in our apprehension that the Lord hath cleared his people that came thence For when they came up I remember well of all people that came from any part of the Kingdom as I apprehend pardon me if I misapprehend the Bristoll people and those parts though they received much kindnesse from this City which they are bound with thankfulnesse ever to acknowledg yet they lay under a blurr because they were looked on as faulty and defective and negligent that they lost the City and endangered the Kingdom That truly besides their losses and sufferings that you cannot imagine unlesse you had suffered with them this was not a small affliction to see so many frown on them and to add affliction to affliction as though if they had been more valiant and couragious they might have kept the City and have saved it c. I meddle not with the commanders and governours but I speak of you that are here and the good people of Bristoll that use to be here I say the Lord hath restored the poor people to their home at least though that be naked enough for them and hath taken away their reproach for though we said before that we did what we could to save the City and stood out yet it was generally thought that we might have done more but now it appears to the world that now there were many more then we had at least three for one and there were two yeers works forts and lines built more then there was then and we kept them out three dayes in storming and I hear not that they did one As soon as we lost the City we capitulated so did they as soon as they lost it I say not but that we had weaknesses and it may be from the greatest to the least wanted skill in mannaging it but I know and I should know as much as oneâ— that the people of Bristoll were valiant from the least to the greatest The Lord hath taken away the reproach for whereas all others in the Kingdome were pitied many frowned upon Bristoll men after all their sufferings There are many other things that are not now expedient to insist upon I leave it to your serious consideration And what the goodnesse of God is to us in the victory in Scotland no man though we know it but in generall can be ignorant how that Kingdom being subdued the enemy would have been over us and all the three Kingdoms would have been gone in the eye of reason but God hath sent them seasonable reliefe beyond all expectation A great mercie Now from all this I will tell you my thoughts what you and I should learn First for ever hereafter we should learn patiently to wait upon the Lord when we have made our prayers to him and he hath made his promises to us We had many promises in our eye and we made our prayers but when the Lord gave the City into their hands we thought the promises and our prayers were lost neither did we see or could understand how any thing should become of them but onely shame and reproach For we boasted of God in the Pulpits and in the streets and at our work that the Lord was our God and would help us and yet the Lord turned it against us and there were few of us that had so much grace as to wait patiently on him and to know that though nothing appeared the vision would speak and would not lie But now we are convinced of our folly and we see that God hath fully answered those prayers of Bristoll For those prayers I believe did speak loudest of all the prayers in England in getting that City And I value one of those prayers more then an hundred now for they are old prayers in store stale prayers are good And they were prayers from broken afflicted spirits and believing hearts And now you see how the Lord hath graciously provided food and raiment for his people and done the souls of many of them much good and in due season restored their dwellings and habitations to them Therefore there is a word in Rom. 10. that I did think to open The Apostle there comparing the righteousnesse together he saith ver 5. that the righteousnesse of the law is thus described by Moses The man that doth these things shall live in them That is the language of the law he that doth these things he that keeps the law shall be saved But the righteousnesse of faith the way of faith as the Apostle calls it Gal. 3. or the way of the Gospell speaketh on this wise it hath another kinde of language say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the deep But what saith it The word is nigh thee the word of faith which we Preach That is this is the language of faith that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled all righteousnesse for us And how do we
blessed power and strength to do that it teacheth therefore saith the Apostle Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 3. 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us THe Apostle ends his Prayer for the Ephesians in a general manner with a kinde of Thanksgiving Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us According to the power that worketh in us There is a mighty power that worketh in the Saints and you shall see that power Ephes 1. 19. saith he I desire that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe according to the working of his mighty power It is not weakness but power and not a small power but a mighty power a great power an exceeding great mighty power That worketh in you The Saints are strong creatures If you ask what this power is you shall see in the verse following The power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers c. That is the power of his holy Spirit that dwells in us greater is he that dwelleth in us then he that dwelleth in the world We have a greater power in us then can be from the world or hell against us And that power is illustrated here by the raising of Iesus from the dead and setting him up in heavenly places There was no active power that ever God expressed that can be compared to that of raising Christ from the dead It was a power and a great power and Gods power too to make this world and it is a power to preserve it but that power is not comparable to this when Jesus Christ was dead under the curse of the Law and under the wrath of God and under all our sins under the malice of men and under a great stone that was rowled on him and for a dead man to be raised up through all those oppositions of heaven and earth and hell and to be set in peace at the right hand of glory and majestie on high It must be an exceeding great power The Saints do not consider what strength they have If thou didst consider what strength thou hast in thee thou wouldest not be afraid to hear a Cross thou wouldst not be discouraged to attempt any work for God thou wouldest not be dismaied at the threatnings of men no nor at the temptations of the devil there is such an exceeding great and mighty power that works in them that believe This power is the power of the Spirit of God for that is the power of the most High the holy Ghost shall overshadow thee and the power of the most High shall come upon thee The holy Ghost is the power of God which dwelleth in the Saints And therefore my aime is to fasten that word on you and to shew you how you come short of that life and strength and grace that otherwise you might have for want of magnifying and exalting the Spirit of God which is the Conduit the Intelligencer that which brings light and life and strength to our souls from God The Spirit of God is lightly esteemed therefore we have little grace a low esteem of the Spirit will keep a Saint low all his days I thought to have instanced in a few things wherein you undervalue the Spirit One is that you do not hearken enough nor regard and observe enough the teaching of the Spirit of God and that is one cause why we are left to our selves and do so often miss the will of God For I know not according to the Covenant of Grace why a Saint should at any time miss the will of God but that he doth not observe his Leader For I will give you the Spirit saith Christ that shall lead you into all truth Now if you observe not this Leader this Teacher it is very just that you should be left to wander and go out of the way If a Christian would observe his way and observe his leader a Christian might easily finde when he is in and when he is out for truly if a man would ask himself Why did I miss the will of God so often since I have such a Teacher promised me and given me by Christ he must needs say that oftentimes I did not observe him I did not hearken to him I hearkened only to men and not to the Spirit of God And so he would easily finde when he began to give over harkning where he left the teaching of the Spirit for in my apprehension a Saint follows the holy Ghost with a kinde of sagacity if I may compare it with reverence just as we see the Dog follow the Hare there is something in Nature that the Dog knows which way the Hare went when a wiser creature knows not so there is something in a poor Saint that when all the wise men in the world know not which way God went a Saint can tell Onely the Dog may hunt upon a cold sent and think the Hare went that way and it grows colder and colder and he misseth So a Saint shall finde when he misseth the will of God that the Spirit of God hath not left him unless it be very rare as the Spirit left Christ to be tempted in the wilderness so he may leave thee to pull down thy pride and to humble thee Isay that is rare but ordinarily the Spirit leaves not thee but thou lettest goe thy leader and thou goest all the while on a cold sent A Saint though he headlong follows this or that conceit yet notwithstanding he may know when he comes to look upon himself surely I went upon a cold sent in those things though I followed them headlong and giddily it was not of the Spirit it was not the same teaching that I had ordinarily Therefore observe your leader hearken to the Spirit of God If God give you him as a master he expects that his children should learn and see when you go in the way of the Spirit of God and you may easily finde that if you will avoid headlongness and giddiness and rashness I speak not this as if the Spirit were contrary to the Word as some men to advance the Spirit set the Word and Spirit by the ears but the Spirit leads by the Word That which I chiefly intended to shew you was The power of the Spirit set out in four things to give you a few instances that you may have a little light to see the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit working in you I shall not shew in all respects nor in many as I might but onely in a few I will instance in these three or four things As first
glorifies himself many times and a man knows not how in the world he comes to do it or why he did it or how he came about it so God doth many glorioous things by us and we are not aware This is the Lord this is the greatness of his power God in some actions he either carries a man and doth his work by a man without a man as it were or else he doth it above him There is no good almost that thou doest but thou shalt clearly see that it is above thee that it is God thou wert never able to speak or to do or to go through any such thing but the Lord went through with it It may be some of you understand not what it is to do a thing without you it is too spiritual but there are Christians that may and can say God did it without me I was as a block I know not how I was scarce active with God God did all O great and glorious is that power look which way you will what that power is in changing thy nature in destroying old Adam what that power is in resisting temptations what that power is in wrestling and prevailing with God what that power is to uphold thee in the wicked world and to preserve thee to the last day Consider it every way it is great wondrous glorious and mighty and exceeding mighty is that power that works in them that believe even the power of the Spirit of God The Spirit is called power Power it self as it were not that I deny the person of the Spirit thereby as if the Spirit were nothing but the energy or working of God that is not the meaning but he is called power because as it were he is nothing but power whatsoever he doth he doth powerfully and gloriously and effectually Angels work in little common outward things marke the difference between the assistance of the Spirit and of Angels The Angels are ministring spirits sent out to wait upon the Saints How do Angels work for us Angels make not prayers in us Angels never subdue one sin in me they can never bring peace to my conscience and soul Angels converse not in spiritual things but in outward things Angels keep thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone they keep thee from breaking thy neck they keep fire from thine house but spiritual things are done by the Spirit of God the exceeding greatness of power is by the Spirit Therefore consider of this word be not such poor low-hearted creatures to be afraid of every ill and to be discouraged from going about any good thing I say consider the power that dwels in you and indeavor to give glory to God to magnify the blessed Spirit that works in you to admire it for the more you admire the Spirit the more vile you will be in your selves and the viler you are in your selves that you attribute all to the Spirit the more glory God shall have and then things will be as they should be in the best order for God and man Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love c. THe Apostle in this Chapter and especially in that going before exhorts the Saints to walk worthy of their calling that is to walk humbly and meekly c. towards God and men and there he shews sometimes the good they should follow and the evil they should leave promiscuously which is meant by walking worthy of their calling And here in this first verse saith he I beseech you be followers of God as dear children He puts in this motive to all the holiness he speaks of before and after that as dear children of a blessed father they would hearken to him that they would hate all the evil and cleave to all the good he had proposed to them so that the Lesson is this That The Do ∣ ctrine Our spiritual priviledges should as much ingage us to holiness as they should help on our comfort My meaning is this you know in this wicked world wherein we are this is one Gospel way that we use and practise and have been taught that whensoever we came near the Lord especially then we should indeavor to raise up our souls by the consideration of our Gospel-priviledges and the relations between us and God When you and I come to pray we study as much as we can to look on him as a father and we do well and to look on our selves as sons and daughters as those that are in Christ as those that have their sins pardoned and covered in him to look on our selves as the Spouse and Wife of Christ And all the relations we can make out and all the priviledges that are laid down in Scripture we seek to own them whereby to get up our souls to some joy and comfort before the Lord and this is a good and blessed thing when we do so for the Lord would have his children as to live holily so he delights to see them live comfortably The Lord takes delight in the prosperity of his people But here now you and I miss we do this out of a kinde of Self-love because we would have comfort we make use of our priviledges and plead our relations but we should also make use of them to move us to holiness and to resist sin and evil as well as to raise us to comfort and consolation And thence it is that we are so oft foyled with sin because we walk as men as the children of men as the Scripture saith we forget in what a station God hath put us in what grace and glory we stand through Jesus Christ Therefore when we are walking and conversing in the world we look on our selves as men we think of our neighbours what they would have done in such a case and it may be we thinke of natural reason it may be of corrupt reason but we do not state our selves all the day as sons and daughters of God Man naturally doth not love to reflect upon himself which saith Dr. Preston is the difference between a man and a beast take two or three children it may be one is a Lords son and another the son of a Begger they reflect upon themselves you shall see by their carriage the poor childe carries himself respectively to the other the other carries himself disdainfully to him So all people every one hath a kinde of conclusion upon himself from natural considerations Such a one carries himself high he reflects so upon himself Why he thinks he is a man of such parts of such fortunes and breeding and feature and the like and he carries himself accordingly It is so with all mankinde Now if we would have the Spirit of God shine upon our souls and draw such conclusions alway that lie in our breasts that I am a son a daughter of God one in Christ married to Christ bone of his bone and
heavenly things in the language of Scripture a thing that if we could grow up to we should overthrow a thousand distinctions in Divinity we mistake things taking them in the old Notion John 14. what is the difference between the world and the people of Christ I will send thc Spirit which the world cannot receive The world are men that have not nor cannot receive the Spirit of God and the Saints are those that do and have received the Spirit of God You read in 2 Joh. 2. 18. of men that had made a great profession that were faln off that were faln away saith he They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us There are many faln away saith he but they were not of us Why What are you might some say We saith he have received an unction an anoynting and it abides with us And ye need not that any should teach you that will teach you all things They that fall off they were not of us Why they have not the Spirit of God therefore they were not of us So when the Apostles preached sometimes it is said that some of them believed and some did not and at other times it is said when they preached that the Spirit of God did fall upon the people that is they were converted they were born again they were made Saints So in Rom. 8. where the Apostle speaks of being in Christ and out of Christ which is the great point of all and salvation and damnation hangs upon it This is his language they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So in the language of the spirit of God the maine thing that belongs to a Saint it is not as we ordinarily account it there are a hundred things that we call Religion that God doth not A drunkard may be stricken with terrour in hearing the word and we say such a one is converted and it may be not and there are hundreds of other people that may pray twice a day and hear Sermons and repeat them and out of a naturall principle of devotion may have affections this is not Christianity or Gospel Religion There are abundance of professours among us that the Holy Ghost will not own because they have not the spirit Therefore the maine way whereby we may judge of a Saint or a sinner is whether he have the spirit of God in him or no. O such a one doth great things he prayes and hears and reads and disputes much I but hath he the spirit or no But you will say How shall I look for that How shall I know that I will tell you how A man may know the spirit The Spirit in us to be known by its own evidence in himself clearly by the evidence of the same spirit And a man that hath the spirit may know the spirit in another by the spirit There is a kind of Sagacity among the Saints whereby they having the spirit are able though not expresly and clearly to behold the spirit in another We are the sons of God but the world knows us not worldly men know not the Saints from Schismaticks and Hereticks and usually spirituall people receive those names from the world Schismaticks and Hereticks and the like But a man that hath the spirit of God he can see as clearly as a natural man can with his eyes How can a poor lamb know the dam among a thousand There is a Sagacitie in nature and so there is here in grace they have the same spirit As when Elizabeth and Mary were talking the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaped hearing the words of Mary that then had the Lord Jesus conceived in her I give you but a little resemblance from naturall things The Saints know it and their fellowship is in the spirit Our communion is in God and not in such a Covenant or meerly in outward duties but our communion is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ and in the spirit with all his Saints Therefore labor for the spirit of God Truly God is now coming I am confident it is his designe in these latter times to exalt his spirit and to pull and throw down every thing that exalts it self against the spirit that stands in his light and Eclipseth the glory of it And though the world which cannot receive the spirit of truth do either blaspheme or else do set little by it yet surely it is the will of God that all his children should honour it These thousand yeers learning and naturall parts and morall good works and supersticious good works have been exalted Now in these later times Our Sun shall be turned into darkness and our Moon into blood That is as the learned * Calvin interpret it all the glorious things that we had before the pouring out of the spirit that we made Suns and Moons of God will blast them I speak not against learning simply it is usefull especially in a Common-wealth but as far as learning intrencheth upon the spirit of God God will blast it learned men shall be laid by as Cyphers God will blast their labours that we might honour the spirit There is one place that comes to my heart with much sweetness Psal 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy law is very broad We have seen an end of all perfection of learning of common gifts of naturall parts we have seen God blast these one after another but Gods law is very broad The morall law the law of the letter is broad much more the law of the spirit of life in Christ that is extolled more and more therefore all must down to extoll the spirit of God Truly Religion is a hundred wayes mistaken by people I could give a hundred instances especially in your Catechismes where it is asked What is Religion It is such and such Christian Religion or Gospel Religion under the New Testament consists of two things Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit of God These are the two pillars of our Religion in the New Testament And this is all we have to preach to you and as far as any thing hath not relation to these two things it is not the Ministery of the Gospel it is not Gospel Religion We speak much of reformation and it is to be desired but among other errours in Religion this is one many think that the main point in Religion is the setting up of government whereas our main reformation is in pulling down and not in setting up for we have a world of institutions set up that will never hold And among those latter institutions that good people have set up I believe that there are not many will hold but these will the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the pouring out of Gods spirit And as many as tend to this and flow from this without scruple I think
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul
come to know this Here is the word and then the Spirit of faith this is the language this is the way of the Gospell the way of faith But you will say What is that word of Faith that this is grounded on The Apostle chooseth one Scripture verse 11. in stead of all other as there are abundance of Scriptures setting forth the Gospell way but he takes this as one of the chief among the rest whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed He takes it out of Isaiah 28. whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed He takes I say that as one of the chief Scriptures of Gospell that is to be the foundation of the way of faith and though you may apply it for the soul and principally so yet you may for every thing else that this is a generall and sure rule he that believeth on God shall not be ashamed So the Lord hath removed our reproach We heard with our ears jeering of God and Preachers and Preaching but now blessed le God we need not blush we may own our prayers and stand to our preaching and glory in the promises of God he that believeth shall not be ashamed Therefore hereafter though God doth delay a long while as this was about two years and a monety yet notwithstanding learn to believe in God still wait upon God patiently and either the whole Gospell will not hold or else this will for this is the pillar of it he that believeth shall not be ashamed The patient abiding of the meeke shall not be ashamed If God see a man meekly and patiently wait for him his waiting shall not be in vain and though it be long in our eyes yet a thousand yeers with God are as one day and one day as a thousand yeers And the delay of a thousand yeers is as it were but a day yet he brings about all his promises of mercies sweetly for his glory and the good of his people Therefore whatsoever we would have for his glory and the good of his people let us follow God and rest on his word Remember that Gospell pillar I say not promise but pillar he that believeth shall not be ashamed That is one thing Another is this that we should but God knows when we will learn it for people are further and further from learning it every day me thinks learn hence a little in due order and manner to honour the Saints and people of God A man would think so but blinde men cannot see We know that there is an Army the generality I hope I may say so of them being godly people an Army I think truly I may say without disparagement to any other fearing God and seeking his honour as much as any Army under the cope of heaven these five hundred yeers Blessed be God that put it in your hearts to reform them if there be any evill among them it is one of the most glorious works that ever you did Now it is no disparagement to God that under God and in God we honour his people Therefore wo to them that call light darknesse of which to this day the streets are full all the week long notwithstanding the humility the love and unity the self-deniall and all the graces that are to be seen as cleare as the sun in the firmament in this Army yet you shall have people and many that would be called professors to reproach them and raile and say A scandalous aspersion upon the Army that when they had got the power they intended to rule both King and Parliament The admirable graces observed in the Army by the Author long since they fight for their own ends they seek themselves they are no friends to the Parliament they meane to get a little power and then to rule King and Parliament too O blasphemous speeches Beloved for my part I have not been there oft but I saw more grace in that small Army poor wretches then in all the Kingdom besides First I see more love there their love is true love and it is love to one another as they are Saints as they are honest men and not as such a one holds a faction this way or that way If one man be wounded they will all venture their lives to fetch him off and if one be sick every one contributes to his wants there is abundance of sweet love There is unity here is biting such a one is a Presbyterian another is an Independent another is an Anabaptist there is no such biting there They look not in mens mouthes as men do in horses mouthes and say is he a Presbyterian or an Independent but is he an honest man a godly man if he be he is a companion for any godly man We are the most miserable men in the world this poor City if a man had as much grace as Paul had if some Independent see him and say he is inclining to Presbytery or if a Presbyterian see him and say he is inclining to Independencie then let him go and cut his throat The Lord pity you that so Christ Iesus in the souls of people may be the object of your love Is there grace and Christ there be there what there will if there be not that I have nothing to do Now if one that is carnall joyn with me or another or a third man in faction we take him The Lord pity us it is not so in the Army It would do you good to go among them twenty four hours to see the unity that is among them I say learn to honour the Saints Then there is a spirituality there there is a thing that may be called spirituality in the Army There is not onely a profession and duties c. as we have here but a kind of flower of godlinesse some sparklings of their graces there is not onely grace but grace flying As when I was in the Army I saw some glory shine in their graces that would dazle a mans eyes almost as the Sun an excellencie of grace the spirituality of grace We strive about low carnall things about this and that but they about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God you may see it gloriously And then what self-deniall is there Who lives there by plundering and stealing as many have done and do And then when honour is got how doth every one study to cast honour on his brother and not on himself and studies silence not to have his name mentioned but that God may have glory O it is a glorious thing And then what fidelity If there were nothing in them of all those things in that flaming manner yet me thinks their fidelity as subjects should make them honourable How I will tell you how because that having no encouragment almost but railing and scoffing and contemning of them and raising reproaches on them c. and the liberty of their conscience threatned day by day and impaired very much every day by those that stay
Observations on MICAH 4. 1 2 3 c. But in the last dayes it shall come to passe that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and the people shall flow unto it And many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths for the Law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong Nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up a sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever HEre are four or five things that the Lord The blessings of the later times promiseth in the latter times One is that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted That is the Church and people of God and the things of God shall be exalted in this world above all other things You know now that the power of Christ is beneath all other powers and the Kingdom of Christ is beneath all other Kingdomes and the people of Christ are beneath all other people and the Ordinances of Christ are beneath all other ordinances but in the latter times the Mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains The time shall come when God shall raise his Church and people and his laws and ordinances and every thing of his above the world that the Saints shall be more glorious and more respected then all the people in the world besides And therefore you that are Saints be not troubled to see Christ so low in the world it grieves them to see how every base thing gets over Christ to see how Christ and his things are trampled on in the world Christ is as a Worm thou worm Jacob every childe may put his foot upon the head of a Worm so are all the things of God and have been hitherto but in times to come the Lord shall raise his Mountain above all other mountains Another thing promised is that in the last times Many Nations shall come and say Come let us go up to the House of the Lord and to the Mountain of the God of Jacob c. that is when Christ and his Laws and Ordinances shall be exalted there will be a greater Harvest among the people then ever there was before First In respect of the extent of it Many Nations shall come and say Whereas now most of the Nations of the world are ignorant of or enemies to the things of Jesus Christ there are few Nations that hear of the Name of Christ but then many Nations shall come many Nations that lye in Paganism and Heathenism and darkness God will finde a way to spread the savor of the Gospel to them Secondly then there shall be a great deal of willingness to come to Christ in his holy Ordinances they shall say Come let us go up to the mountain of the House of the Lord and they shal flow to it Now you know what a deal of preaching there is to bring home one soul to God a man may preach and preach and searce ever a one brought home to God the Lord pours but a little of his Spirit with preaching we are to bless his Name for any but the time shall come that as soon as the people hear they shall obey The people shall flow unto The word is taken from the Tide there are two things meant by it First That then abundance of people shall come in to the Lord for the Tide comes in with waves and abundance of water it comes not with a little water but with multitudes Then it comes with strength and power that goes through all opposition We see now it is not so the Lord gives but little of his Spirit and therefore there are but few that come in to God and of those few many of them every little thing turns them off one is afraid of persecution another of the loss of his estate another of the loss of friends another of the loss of his grace but then they shall flow Another thing in this Promise of this glorious Harvest is this as they shall flow so also they shall be inabled their hearts shall be inlarged to learn abundance of the Will of God and moulded to a willingness to obey it This is not accomplished yet They shall then say Come let us go to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths Now you know there is but little teaching Indeed God teacheth some few wondrously more aboundantly then we can teach but yet there be many though we speak much and though they live under the Ordinances yet they learn little and then that little that they do learn there is very little power that goes along to frame their hearts to do it but then they shall say We will walk in his ways There will be a power that when the Saints hear the word from God they shall not be alway wishing and woulding and say I would I could do so but there shall be a power with the word whereby they shall be enabled to do it Another thing promised in the last times is that They shall be at their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning hooks c. The Lord will end these wars that are among the Nations that make the lives of people and of the Saints uncomfortable And especially as I take it with submission to the people of God that are wise that the wars here principally meant are wars for Religion as appears by the verses following they shal be at their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks They shall then give over wars and live peaceably together whereas you know now most of the wars in the world are about Religion The Turk would come and subdue Christendom to set up the worship of his Mahomet the Pope would destroy him to set up his Religion and so all over the world there is a disposition that with fire and fagot and sword and spear we would bring men to worship God every man according to his own fancie But saith he then there shall be no such wars every man shall sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree and none shall make them afraid The mouth
Gods love in Christ in the free Covenant which Covenant consists in such promises which promises speak to me by such ordinances as this and the Lords Supper c. This is a third way Fourthly and lastly the Saints live by faith that is in all afflictions they do bear up their spirits and are supported 4. It is their support in afflictions by the power of faith upon the word though there be nothing seen and appear A naturall man cannot hold up but sink further then there is some sensible visible thing to hold him up but the just those that are Saints they have an art a mysticall art whereby when they see nothing but have a word wherein God hath promised to do this or that for them they can bear up themselves and so go on as chearfully as if they did enjoy or as if they did see their deliverance Thus Habakkuk we read this proverb verse 1 2 3. The vision is for an appointed time in the end it will speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tary Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith There was a vision that did promise good to this people but this vision must tarry a little it must not be performed presently but they might say how shall we do in the mean while The just shall live by his faith Though there be nothing seen yet notwithstanding they shall bear themselves and carry themselves chearfully and comfortably and contentedly by beholding the truth of the busines and the sweet expectation they have of it as if it were come already You have the proverb repeated by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews in this sense yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry You have need of patience saith the Apostle They were in great afflictions there was a promise that God would help them but what shall we do in the meane while while the grasse grows In the meane while the just shall live by his faith he shall drive on and carry on the work and bear up himself and his spirit and his comfort and all on the word of the Lord and he shall do all this by his faith So that this being the lesson shortly though I be not able yet to clear this fully to you for truly this is a lesson wherein we still shall want light we are not able to see it perfectly it is from faith to faith saith the Apostle That is we come from one degree of faith to another to live by faith there are many kinds many degrees of living by faith Now this is it that I would commend to you and exhort you to that you would seek the Lord and study the Scriptures that you might come to this that you may live by faith First of all in the grosser part of it concerning sanctification that is an easie thing to be understood that you would not regard or weigh any thing in all your profession but what doth come from Iesus Christ by faith Truly much of our Religion is a naturall kinde of Religion and much of that which is like good in us doth not spring from Iesus Christ and whatsoever is not from him will never be accepted by him We have many morall vertues from old Adam that we gild over and account them graces but God loaths them We have many duties that we have taken up in the imitation of others by good education or the power of the letter Preached to us and yet this is not the life of faith it is not holinesse by faith And therefore let us not like many professors study the muchnesse of Religion or the plausiblenesse of it without as that I am able to preach as other preachers do and you are able to pray in a day of humiliation as other professors do this is nothing but let us labour that that little holinesse that is in us may clearly proceed from the Lord Iesus Christ One had better have a Garden of a few true and pleasant Flowers though there be but a few then to have a Garden with some Flowers and a world of trash like Flowers there is no pleasure in it Now I fear that much of thy best duties spring from old Adam much of thy best prayers and much it may be of that Religion whereby thou art accounted a professor much of it I fear is nothing but old Adam and his ruines screwed up and varnished or gilded and not from the Lord Iesus Christ And therefore remember this that as drunkennesse and whoredom and those grosse and scandalous works of darknesse are called dead works so every graine every stamp of good in thee if it be not from the new Adam it is but a dead work I could shew you how you shall know the one from the other but that the time is short and I must not hinder other occasions Therefore I leave that upon your thoughts that you may pray to the Lord Lord I do not care how men conceive of me I care not though I be among the least of all Saints as Paul saith if I be reckoned the least of all Saints so that that little Saint-ship and holinesse that is in me flow from Christ that it be a grace from his grace and light from his light But the other truth is wondrous hard to expresse that we should in respect of justification and assurance learn the Art of living by faith that when the Lord shall take away all comfortable objects of sight and sense that we can see nothing we cannot pray at all we see corruption upon corruption and waves of temptations one upon another and no working within to relieve us that I am able then to live by faith that is to see a righteousnesse in Iesus Christ and to build upon his word and Covenant to hold my self and my assurance still I am a son still everlasting life belongs to me still though I feele and see nothing but hell and something worse if it may be yet notwithstanding I am a Saint and I am righteous and just and the Lord is my father and hath reserved everlasting life for me Beloved the life that Christians ordinarily do live it is a life mingled with faith and sense for if God give me free grace why should not I rejoyce in it If I clearly see the first fruits of the Kingdom of heaven why should I exclude my reason not to conclude that there is more grace behind But there are other Saints that have a mixture of faith and sense that take away sense and their faith is gone their faith is grounded upon sense And I have oft times looked in to my soul and thought why the Lord suffered me to be carryed away with corruptions and to be overwhelmed with temptations whereas he hates these things and I hate them and I weary
them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
Iohn 14. And in the Epistles of Iohn If we call upon God he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions and if you ask any thing in the name of Christ you shall have it You know these things onely I minde you as Peter and the rest of the Apostles often minded them of what they knew already least they should be carried away with the error of the wicked That is one thing it is an Ordinance you see four great pillars under it it hath the Law of Nature there are Precepts and Examples and Promises to perform what we pray for And there are threatnings to those that do it not Curse the Families that call not on thy Name Secondly I said it was an everlasting Ordinance or duty and you may see that three ways First If you look upon the old Testament you shall see there all the people of God they practised it I need not instance in any one place And secondly you will easily grant that if you look upon the times of the new Testament the dawning of it in Christs time for that was the dawning of the new Testament there you see Christ prayed whole nights and before day he was on the mountain seeking God and there are many Parables one in Luke 11. and another here wherein he exhorts his disciples to be earnest with God and though God as it were seem as if he had no minde otherwise to do it yet by the very importunity of prayer for that is the drift of that Parable in Luke 11. and of this the Lord will be intreated Then come after to the times that the new Testament was fully set up you see when Christ was gone to the Holy of Holies there they prayed and called on God continually all those Churches did call upon God there is nothing more clear Nay thirdly for there is the main hint of it in the last times in these times and in later times then these though these be called the last times the glorious times that shall be just at the end of the world the people of God will be a praying people in those days I will give you but one place Zach. 12. that is clear concerning the conversion of the Iews in the last times that they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn every family apart Now the Iews are not yet come in neither are those glorious times yet come to the Iews and Gentiles that shall follow upon their coming yet it is said when they shall come in praying shall be in such request in those days that even the conversation of the Iews is called a pouring on them the spirit of grace and supplication Therefore say not now the last times are come and these are glorious times and we can live immediatly upon God without Ordinances c. No those times are not come and yet when that time is come they shall have a spirit of grace and supplication to call upon God And therefore I beseech you let not the devil steal away any of your Ordinances for I tell you again and again he drives on a wonderful design among you in that respect And of all Ordinances labour to keep Prayer for cast off Prayer and cast off Saintship for to be a Saint and to call on the name of the Lord with a true heart are the same I will call thee no longer a Saint then thou callest on God Therefore notwithstanding all pretences look to that Some object God knows our wants and what need we pray Saith our Saviour Mat. 5. Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of and yet Christ taught them to pray We must manifest our obedience notwithstanding that God will do one thing when we pray for another that is a foolish objection because we know not what is good for us neither how to pray according to the minde of God but if it be according to his minde and for our good God will not deny it to us But the maine Engin that the devil hath to cheat us of this Ordinance is that there were times when there was neede of Ordinances and these beggerly rudiments this is the language of some these carnall Ordinances it is true they were good in the times of the Apostles and those former times but now glorious times are come for Saints to live immediately on God and therefore there is no need of them I told you that when the Iews shall be called there will be need of these Ordinances and though as we grow more perfect in glory so we have less need of them therefore as we are more glorious and have more of the Spirit of Glory in the new Testament then they had in the old so we have fewer Ordinances then they and when we shall come to heaven when she shall be full of glory we shall have no Ordinances for ought I know but yet we have infirmities and the Lord knows what is best for us and we have a great deal of flesh and carnalness and we shall have in a great measure till we be in heaven therefore God in mercy affords us these Ordinances and helps to deal with him and to keep our Communion with him and to live in and from him Therefore I pray you without partiality and prejudice weigh the Word of God whether this be not the Will of God and then take heed how the Devil cheat you of this blessed Ordinance for truly I may say as Christ said Now is the Ax laid to the root to the root of Prayer and if the Devil take away that thou art no more a Saint my life for thine if thou once throw away calling on God Therefore learn that word and endeavor to keep up the Ordinances of God and you that do not but are grown into remisness by the Opinions that are abroad concerning this duty I beseech you renew your care and diligence every one of you in publick and private to seek the Lord. And consider with your selves whether there be not a greater remisness on your spirits then before did you not set your selves oftner and more earnestly apart to seek God before then you do now If it be so in the name of God say as David O how sweet is thy Word by it thy servant is warned Now this is the goodness of God the sweetness of his Word that hath warned thee when thou wert going to undo thy self and to throw thy self away Therefore set thy self to it and let not the sin of others in throwing away of Ordinances make you remiss in using them either throw them away quite or use them as the Ordinances of God for the careless use of Ordinances is abominable to God Expositions and Observations on ROM 6. 14. For ye are not under the law but under Grace FOr ye are not under the Law There are three things in which a Christian is subject to be under the law and so to be scourged by it and if he
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
directed 2 Cor. 1. not to the learned nor to the wise but to the base and foolish to base things of the world and despised things and things that are not And so we finde by experience that the Lord sends the Gospel to poor silly people the simplest people most commonly understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ best Every body seeks to dress the Gospel and to make it more curious but few labor to reduce the Gospel to its native simplicity One Generation dresseth the Gospel most bravely with humane learning Though I will not simply speak against humane learning it is good as fire when it is put on the hearth so humane learning when it is put in its own place it is a good thing but the use that men make of it to dress the simplicity of the Gospel with it makes it abominable Others dress the Gospel and multitudes now adays I speak not to censure them or out of spight against them but rather out of a zeal I have that you and I may be found at the last day in the simplicity of the Gospel they make a jingle of the Gospel they sublimate it as though it were as the Philosophers conceits were Notions above the Moon or things that they cannot conceive what they be existent and consistent and visibility and contrarietie and forms and I know not what Thus the Gospel is perverted I have been troubled more then modestly I may speak to a Congregation to see how the plain Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by Fishermen to simple people of Christ crucified That people should sublimate it almost into air to nothing that all things is God and that God is all things and that God is essentially in us and we in him And we must do all things to God passively and not actively Such a metaphysical kinde of Gospel and such terms as confound your souls and bring them in the end to nothing Therefore I exhort you to stick to the simplicity of the Gospel And do not think it is a small thing it is a great business that I exhort you to Why so Because I finde that there are many souls that make shipwrack of their own salvation by flying too high above the Gospel of Jesus Christ They lose themselves they run through all Religions as some say and at last come to be nothing at all And I am sure of it they destroy the faith of others I am sure of that almost by experience as Paul saith of Hymeneus and Alexander They destroy the faith of many That when a poor tender-hearted Christian hears them talk so high and is not able to understand litterally a word that is said saith he I have nothing in the world I never knew God aright because I see that I cannot understand a word of this and a world of evils more And I have observed and do observe it That usually those kinde of people that are so led when they have such Chymera's and Notions in their heads they nullifie all Religion besides and all but that is nothing and one Chymera carries the bell one quarter of a yeer and then that is laid aside and then they have another notion and that is all the Religion and then away goes that and then there comes a third These destroy the faith of poor souls in Christ crucified and justification by him and holiness to him and all holy duties in the Gospel by the Spirit this is destroyed Therefore my Exhortation to you is and it is a blessed word that I have thought much of in Rom. 12 Be of the same minde one towards another Minde not high things Mark that word We have a kinde of expression in our times of higher and lower light and which is more immodest people attribute the higher light to themselves We are of the higher light say they Saith the Apostle Minde not high things How It is not meant in carnal things that is Minde not to get high Offices or places or preferment or the like But he speaks of spiritual things as it is clear if you compare the third verse For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly then he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath delt to every man the measure of faith As if he had said I finde many among you that sublimate the Gospel almost into air in high conceits and Idea's and notions and leave poor Christ crucified and the simple Gospel preached by fishermen I would not have you wise above that which is meet not to minde high things but condescend to them of the lower sort The excellency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the plainness of it and that is the reason that you mar it with any kinde of dressing because it is excellent in it self If a man have a suite of Skarlet that is extraordinary good all-to-be-laid with copper lace it mars it because the cloth is good of it self So all dressing of the Gospel marrs it because it is excellent of it self When you meet with people that tell you that all your Religion is nothing and tell you Chymera's and high things that may shine bravely for a while Think of this I must not minde high things but condescend to them that are low Therefore the Apostle in those times when the Gospel was preached and perverted by Philosophy and oppositions of Science falsly so called many fine tricks they had to adorn the Gospel he calls them alway to Christ crucified and tells them that was the height and depth and bredth and length of all knowledg as the height and bredth and length and depth of a board or of a thing it is the whole dimensions of a board it is the whole board So the knowledg of Christ crucified is the height and depth and bredth and length of all knowledg that is It is all knowledg to know Christ crucified in the simplicity of the Gospel He opposeth not Philosophy to Philosophy or Science to Science but he saith Ye are compleat in Christ and calls them to his death and resurrection So keep close to that I speak it the rather because where there are such notions started up among us daily now of late they clearly draw us from Christ crucified A Platonical kinde of Religion a kinde of Heathenism a kinde of consideration of God in his own nature and essence without Christ Beware of this ambition It is enough for you and me to know Iesus Christ and him crucified and the power of his death and resurrection according to the simplicity of the plain Gospel once preached by fishermen to foolish and base people and things of no worth Therefore I beseech you stick to Christ crucified and to the simplicity and plainness of the Gospel I would not have you to stick in the Letter and to go no further but labor for the Spirit of God through the Letter to be
but now London must there my wrath shall be poured out The Lord grant that it may not be so but I greatly fear it Secondly The Lord brings them to imprisonment the Lord took them prisoners Verse 11. The husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days And then comes their plunder Their houses shall be turned to others with their fields and wives together For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this Land saith the Lord. O if the Lord should say This is the City to be visited and make war against it and then take you prisoners take the aged men the Aldermen Common Councellers and all prisoners and then plunder all and say their fields and their wives shall be turned to others That were sore that you should not onely lose your goods but your fields that your houses and trades and shops should be taken away and your very wives Thus the Lord did with others I will not say that he will do so with you Now there were stumbling blocks in Ierusalem before it was destroyed so there are in this City it is filled with stumbling blocks every little difference in opinion is a stumbling block that some men become Atheists because every Saint doth not agree one with another And then there is the fear and horror that did fore-run this misery Verse 24. But in a word the course that the Lord would have them take and that therefore I shall speak of that you may beseech the Lord that this poor City may prevent those evils One thing is the Lord would have them seriously and sincerely humble themselves before him to acknowledg their sins and bewail them Verse 26. Saith the Lord O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an onely son Not a formal day of fasting and humiliation for that is almost become all form but really humble thy soul and call upon the Lord that the Lord would be pleased to turn away his wrath Then the second thing laid down is That we should hearken to instruction Be thou instructed O Jerusalem least my soul depart from thee be ready to hear the Word of the Lord be ready to hearken what Gods will is how he may be glorified and we preserved Then thirdly here is a word that I exceedingly desired to open but I must but name it Verse 16. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls saith the Lord. This is the way to save you Stand in the wayes ask for the old way What is the meaning of the old way That is Iesus Christ That was the old way of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Iesus Christ and the way of righteousness and holiness and truth He alludes as I take it to the Patriarchs for that is called the old world and the old way Saith he Ye are not like your fathers heretofore Abraham he was not covetous and full of oppression they were willing to hear that which was for their good and they were not the worse for their afflictions Look to the old way and labor to get such a Spirit as the Saints had heretofore that were in Iesus Christ What of all this notwithstanding this counsel that the Lord had given them what if they will not turn to him what if they will not amend Then there is a terrible word that we read of in Verse 8. Lest my soul depart from thee It is not sin onely that makes Gods soul depart from a people nor their hardness nor wickedness but when they refuse all means and helps then his soul departs from them Therefore Be instructed saith he lest my soul depart or lest my soul be disjoynted as it is in the Margin What is the meaning of that It is a terrible word we have that word expounded in Ierem. 15. 1 2. See what it is for to have Gods soul to go from a people I beleeve that Gods soul is not gone from us if we will hearken to him and do not give our selves up to wrath and rage against Gods people Then said the Lord to me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde or my soul could not be towards this people There is before the ferventest blessed prayer for this people that I know in the Book of God Ieremy prayes And now their destruction was coming saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel should come before me my heart could not be on them I have put them out of my heart my minde and soul is gone from them I will never be troubled more with them What follows Cast them out of my sight let them go forth And if they say Whether shall we forth Then thou shalt tell them such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword such as are for the famine to famine and such as are for captivity to captivity Let them go whether they will some of them will be hanged some killed some to the sword some starved they can come to no good because they are gone out of my sight My heart and soul is from them that is the last gasp that is hell above ground Therefore the sum of all is That we hearken to God for these things were not written for Ierusalem onely but for our instruction God hath laid down their sin and wickedness and their oppression and the blessed remedy that they should have taken and if we take it not but go on in our wickedness we see what we may expect That when that shall come on us which God if it be his will forbid you may remember that you were told before I have one thing in my sad and serious thoughts to comfort me that this shall not befal this City and that is this That the Lord delt with them according to the administration of the Old Testament and so went by Cities and Nations but now every man and every person that calls upon God is respected in every Nation and City whatsoever But this comes in and cools it wonderfully and puts me to a non-plus If we in this City did go according to the administration of the New Testament I am perswaded that the Lord would not send desolation upon the City but because we would go according to that old administration we have chosen it and said so and do so Now as they chose that administration to deal with God he chose that to deal with them for the Lord will deal frowardly with the froward the Lord will deal with men according to their own law Those that sin against the Law of Nature shall be punished so those that sin against the Law of Moses shall be punished so those that go according to the administration of grace shall be delt with accordingly Now we are going according to the old administration
more and more for we are setling like the Jews in an outward formal Reformation without heart Now it would be terrible if the Lord should chuse our own administration and give us according to our own heart I hope he will not But this lay heavy upon my spirit to tell you of therefore the Lord direct you to make the best use you can that if it be his blessed will this place that is the honor and glory of the Kingdom and the refuge of the Saints that the Lord would not come against it FINIS THE TABLE  Page A  Abiding  ABiding with God in evil times 72 Actions  Saints not under the Law in their actions 157 Afflictions  Afflictions of godly and wicked how different 31 Afflictions turn to the good of Saints 119 The life of Faith in afflictions 130 Saints not under the Law in regard of afflictions 150 Afflictions not to be fainted in 194 Amend  All should amend when the wicked are punished 104 Angels  Angels pry into Gospel mysterie 201 Angels good and bad do it ibid. Apostacy  Apostacy a provoking sin 11 Assurance  Life of Faith in Assurance 130 Awake  Christians duty to awake God 86 B.  Betray  Not to betray Gods cause 88 Blasphemy  Blasphemy a provoking sin 9 Blessing see latter  Bristol  Gods mercy in recovering Bristol 107 C  Christ See cleaving  Christ makes all things amiable 192 Cleaving  Blessedness of cleaving to the Lord 70 Honor of cleaving to Christ in ill times 73 Special times of cleaving to God 77 Comfort  What should help Christians comfort 175 Conceits  Vain conceits of wicked men 33 Confidence  Ground of a Christians confidence 27 Consolation  Consolation a duty 40 Four things that hinder consolation ibid. Covenant  Spiritual understanding of the New Covenant effects of it 66 Covetousness  Covetousness a provoking sin 237 Creature  The vanity of the Creature why discovered 61 Conjunction  Conjunction of those that cleave to God 70 D.  Difference  Difference of Gods dealing with Saints 36 Difference between Saints and sinners 208 Discouraged  Weak Saints not to be discouraged 143 Distrust  Distrust in times of danger to be avoided 87 Division  Division among Saints a provoking sin 9 Duty See Consolation  Four grounds of Duty 149 E.  Enemies  Assurance of victory over enemies the effects of it 64 How God destroyes his enemies 85 Equality  Equality that should be between Saints 144 Evil see good  Example  Example of Saints a ground of prayer 150 F.  Faith  Faith the want of it what it doth 40 Faith the life of it 44 Faith how God tries it 83 Faith how the just live by it 128 See Affliction Assurance Sanctification  False  False dealing 237 Fondness  Holy fondness between God and the Saints 54 Holy fondness in five things 55 Fondness wrought four ways 61 Formality  Formality in duties a provoking sin 4 See Reformation  G.  Garison see Minde  God see Hypocrisie Persecutors  Good  To call evil good a provoking sin 11 See Afflictions Work  Gospel  Gospel precepts highest 162 Gospel Mysteries to be attended 202 Gospel riches to be admired 204 Gospels simplicity 225 Government  Government how to be affected 204 Greater  How to argue from less mercies to greater 120 Grace  Grace weak how to comfort it 45 Grace what meant by it 160 Of those that are under Grace 162 Power in Grace more then the Law 164 H.  Heart  Heart hardened 8 Hidden  Saints Gods hidden ones 90 Holiness  Holiness desired on wrong grounds 41 Right laboring for holiness 198 See Comfort  Hypocrisie  Hypocrisie hateful to God 48 Hipocrites honor creatures above God 50 Hypocrisie dishonors God ibid. I.  Judg.  Saints not to judg one another 143 Judgments  Maner of Gods proceeding to judgment 2 Cause of judgments what 3 Judgments why sent 103 Ingenuity  Ingenuity of right Saints 163 Justification  How to live by Faith in Justification 128 133 K.  Kiss  Holy Kiss what 145 L.  Latter Last  Blessing of the latter times 122 First shall be last how 138 Law  Saints under the Law how 156 See Persons Actions Afflictions Gospel  Learning  Learning humane wherein useful 211 Life see Faith Sanctification  Lord see cleaving  Love  Love of God what it works 62 To love though we be not loved 181 Mutual love how attained 184 M.  Minde  Garison of the minde what 16 Mingled  The life of a Christian mingled 133 Ministers  Ministers sins provoke God 149 N.  Nature  Duties grounded in nature 6 O.  Officers  Officers sins provoke God 8 Oppression  Sin of oppression 236 Ordinance  Prayer an Ordinance of God 149 Ordinances not to be neglected 152 Ordinances needful 153 P.  Patience see waiting  Peace  Peace to be studied by Saints 196 Perpetual see Prayer Persecutors Persecution  To cleave to God in persecution 78 Persecutors design 91 God persecuted in the Saints 93 Children of the godly may prove fierce persecutors 99 Persons  Persons of Saints how under the Law 156 Power  Power that Saints have 166 The Spirit called power how 173 See Grace  Prayer  Prayer a perpetual duty 151 Prayer whence it proceeds 169 Wants of prayer how supplied 170 See Ordinance Nature Precept Example Promise  Precept  Precepts ground of prayer 150 See Gospel  Promises  Promises ground of prayer 151 Protection  Protection of God who have right to it 21 Pride  Pride how discovered 185 R.  Reflect  Reflect acts hard to man 177 Saints to reflect on their estate 178 Reformation  Formal Reformation a provoking sin 5 Refuge  God a refuge 14 To repair to God as a refuge 17 Religion  Religion wherein it consists 211 Riches see Gospel  Revolting  Revolting a provoking sin 239 S.  Saints see Weak Sanctification  Life of Faith in Sanctification 129 131 Saintship to be prized 194 Satan  Grounds of Caution against Satan 202 Security  Security why to avoyd it 140 Self-love  Self-love a provoking sin 10 Shame  Iudgments sent to shame men 103 Simplicity  Simplicity of Religion 212 Simplicity of the Gospel 223 Sin  What sins provoke judgments 3 Carriage of Saints faln into sin 43 Saints carriage in a deluge of sin 77 Aggravations of sin 240 Silent  God silent in danger why 83 Soul  The soul of God departs from incorrigible sinners 244 Spirit  Spirit powerful in Saints 166 Spirit undervalued how 167 Spirit wherein powerful 169 Spirit differs Saints and Sinners 208 Spirit how known 210 Spirit to be labored for 213 Spirits excellency 215 Spirits grieving dangerous 220 Spirit to be prized 221 See Word Teaching Work Power  T.  Teaching  Teaching of the Spirit 170 Testament  Testaments compared 188 Trouble  Trouble in Saints whence 190 V.  Vengeance  Vengeance of God against the wicked 27 Union  Union between Christ and Christians 229 Upright  Uprightness ground of it 22 Uprightness how tried 84 W.  Waiting  Ground of waiting on God 112 Weak  Weak Saints not to be contemned 141 Weak Saints their carriage to stronger 142 Weak Saints to be encouraged 196 Word  Spirit to be advanced as speaking in the Word 168 Work  Who works in and for us 172 To be ready to every good work 206 FINIS
in your souls I know God many times by these broken words may do your souls good but this is a thing that I confess my soul is so full of that I am not able to express it to vent and open my self The mischief and misery that befals people by soaring above the Scriptures above the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel ye hear that they do themselves and others and the safeties and security that will be to your souls in keeping to the plain simple way of the Gospel of Iesus Christ I had another short lesson but I am loath to thrust out one duty with another It is a rule by which I would alway walk I cannot now handle it but only mention it to you and if God lead us by his blessed Spirit we may learn a little of it I thought to shew you The Oneness that is betwixt us and Iesus Christ Methinks it is a more glorious Truth then we have judged it to be that poor Saints are one with Christ The Lord Iesus Christ is anointed and so are they we have the same unction with Christ we have the same name with Christ we have the same Offices with Christ we have the same love of God with Christ we have the same Spirit with Christ and the same Kingdom with Christ in Heaven The Church is the fulness of Iesus Christ Christ is not properly a Christ without his Members This is a glorious thing to consider how the poor Saints and Iesus Christ make up one compleat Body He is no Christ as it were were it not for his members The Church is the fulness of him that filleth all in all It is said of the oyl that was poured on Aaron It ran upon the skirts of his garments So Christ being anoynted that oyl runs on us As he is a Prophet so are we as he is a King so are we as he is a Priest so are we onely with this difference That in all things he might have the preeminence He is the highest King the best Prophet the most excellent Priest But otherwise whatsoever Christ is that are we whatsoever he hath that we have nay we have his name So also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. We head and members are called Christ And the least Saint of God is a Prophet as well as the greatest and a Priest as well as the greatest and a King as well as the greatest Nay he is as real a Prophet Priest and King as the Lord Iesus was onely in all things he must have the preeminence We have a share in all his actions we are one with him in his graces in his life and death and resurrection and ascention There is nothing in Christ there is nothing that Christ is or hath but we are one with him in it Therefore this use we should make of the Scriptures not to be as babies always to read a Chapter morning and evening but you that are experienced Christians when you have a truth hinted to you be alway at the Scriptures to beat it out As for instance go home now and study that Oneness that Vnion that is between Christ and us and beat it out to the utmost and what the excellency of the Spirit of God in the New Testament is and not to tie your selves to read so many Chapters a day but be alway studying the Scripture As David saith Blessed is the man that exerciseth himself day and night in the Law of God Thus the spiritual man doth not so much read Chapters as compare Scripture with Scripture and is bolting out spiritual truths till they be fully fixed and fastened upon his soul I shall it may be if God will explain that union to you further in the mean while search for it and so I shall leave it here and hear what the Lord hath further to say to us Expositions and Observations on IERE 6. 1 2 c. O ye children of Benjamin gather your selves to flie out of the middest of Jerusalem and blow the Trumpet in Tekoa and set up a signe of fire in Beth-haccerem for evil appeareth out of the North and great destruction I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman c. I Shall desire leave at this time a little more familiarly then usually to tell you what I conceive is the will of the Lord because I do not expect to speak to you any more I remember a little before the Lord had brought us together before the desolation of that * Bristol City which indeed was greater then any man can imagine unless he had been there present the Lord by his providence guided me to expound Matth. 24. concerning the desolation of Ierusalem little thinking or imagining that the desolation of that place had been so near And now that word that was then spoken by providence was as I perceived afterwards a very great stay and refreshing to the souls of the people in their trouble By providence also not by any way of prophesie I never was addicted that way but by providence reading this Chapter in my family and seriously considering of it me-thoughts the Lord represented to me in a way a little more then usual the state of this City wherein you now live and are to live and that by the state of Ierusalem which is here laid down throughout the Chapter For though we cannot tell you now of Cities and Kingdoms as the Prophets did by revelations and visions and the like yet what is written is written for our instruction And the Lord hath given us examples of his judgments that we may learn from them what to think and how to judg of other places and Cities and Kingdoms that are parallel that are like to those that the Lord hath visited or destroyed heretofore Therefore I shall briefly lay down the condition of Ierusalem as it is here in this Chapter Here are things spoken promiscuously because here in the Prophets there are but the heads as it were of their preaching therefore for method and your memories sake I will digest the condition of Ierusalem and what is here said of it and about it into these heads briefly But first of all before I speak of Ierusalem it-self ye are to observe the condition of the Prophet that the Lord had set among them which is laid down at Vers 27. I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and try their way The Lord compares the Prophet to a tower in the City that is a watch-tower A tower for strength as it is Iere. 1. 18. I have made thee an iron pillar and brazen walls That though he preached contrary to their corruptions yet they could not touch him And a tower for watchfulness because the Prophets did watch as out of a tower all the City and all in it and the enemies that were against it So the Prophets were called Seers in those days eying the sins of the