that they might bring forth fruit unto God serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter For though the Letter of the Law killeth being the ministration of Condemnation yet the Spirit giveth Life being the ministration of Righteousness which exceeds in glory And consequently they have liberty by the Spirit of God are beautified by it so as that Christ is formed in them They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit The mind of the Spirit is to them life and peace They have access by one Spirit unto the Father The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with their spirit that they are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that suffering with him they may be glorified together They are led by the Spirit sow to the Spirit and of the Spirit reap life everlasting through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness which is by Faith In a word that Life that Holiness that Beauty that Liberty that Joy that Hope that Fruit which a Christian hath from Christ is communicated by the Spirit and that Glory of Soul and Body which is expected hereafter that Quietness and Rest in life and death which is desirable is from the Spirit of God If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christ's But if Christ be in us the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8.9 10 11. So that I may safely infer from this enumeration of Benefits even the most precious Riches that a Spirit is capable of that the Gift of God's Spirit to a man is the greatest Commodity the Jewel of Heaven What Solomon saith of Wisedom is true of God's Spirit It is a Gift more precious then Rubies and all the things we can desire are not to be compared to it And therefore the Loss of it is the greatest Loss Which brings me to the Enquiry what endangers the Privation of it and that was asserted in the Second Proposition to be great Transgressions II. OBSERVATION That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit This is manifest from David's Petition in that by reason of his Sins he was afraid of its Loss and therefore begs the Continuance of it notwithstanding his foul Trespasses It is I confess a great Dispute Whether a person once regenerated by the Spirit washed sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God can totally and finally lose its Continuance with him I will not meddle with that Point But this is out of question That some Gifts of the Spirit may be lost else the Apostle 1 Thess 5.19 would not have premonished the Thessalonians that they should not quench the Spirit Such Gifts of the Spirit as are for others good to which the Salvation of a person is not promised may undoubtedly be totally lost by great Transgressions So Saul lost the Royal Magnanimity and other Princely Endowments which he had before by sparing Agag and by usurping the Priestly Office in offering Sacrifice Judas lost the Gift of Healing which he had with the rest of the Apostles and other Abilities to preach the Gospell by his traitourous Selling of his Master he fell from the Apostleship and Ministry by his Transgression Nor is it denied but that some who were once enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come might fall away and not be renewed again by Repentance that they might crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame that they might tread under foot the Son of God and count the Bloud of the Covernant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace Heb. 6.4 5 6. and 10.29 Yea those of whom God gave testimony that they did that which was right in the eyes of God as did David yet even they fell so foully as that they lost the Fruits and Comforts of the Spirit so as not to regain them in that degree they once had them Of Asa it is said that his Heart was perfect with the Lord all his days 1 King 15.14 and yet he put the Seer in prison being in a rage with him for reproving his Relying on the King of Syria 2 Chron. 16.7 10. and even in his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians vers 12. And Hezekiah though he walked before God in truth and with a perfect Heart and did that which was good in his sight yet when God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his Heart he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 31. Certain it is by David's and other Holy mens example that God doth sometimes leave men to themselves for a time so as to fall into such Sins as deprive them of the Joy of God's Salvation and the establishing virtue of God's Spirit so as not to be so active and constant in the exercise of Godliness as formerly at least for a time else why doth David pray in the next verse to my Text Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And however the event be yet there is great danger of an utter Loss of the Spirit of God not onely in respect of its Comforts and Motions but also of its inexistence and quickening virtue when men are so overcome by Lust as Solomon and David or Fear as Peter or other Temptations to sin so foully as they did The Reason whereof is because such Sins do grieve and vex the Holy Spirit For though the Spirit of God be not subject to humane Passions yet the Holy Scripture as it ascribes Repentance and some other Affections of men to God so doth it attribute Grief to the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 where it minds us that we grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption in respect of the effect that Grief hath in man which makes him withdraw from that which grieves him And so saith the Book intituled the Wisedom of Solomon Chap. 1.4 5. For into a malicious Soul Wisedom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject to Sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where Vnrighteousness cometh in Contraria se invicem expellunt There is a Contrariety between God's Spirit of Holiness and man's spirit that
Conscience exagitate him when he went out from the Presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod as a Renegado from God and one that was pursued by his own Bloud-guiltiness Nor is the Case of Judas less pregnant to demonstrate how furious and inevitable is the pursuit of a guilty Conscience He had sold his Master the Lord of Glory for thirty pieces of Silver but his Mony was as Fire in his Bosome the remembrance of his devillish Act did so envenome his Spirit that he could find no Rest till he had disgorged his Money and rid himself of his Life too So that of him was verified what Zophar spake of others who sin in like manner Job 20.12 13 14 15 16. Though Wickedness be sweet in the Mouth though a man hide it under his Tongue Though he spare it and forsake it not but keep it still within his Mouth Yet his Meat in his Bowells is turned it is the Gall of Asps within him He hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his Belly He shall suck the poison of Asps the Viper's tongue shall slay him How many Myriads of men have there been in the Ages of the world who have ventured upon Sin without Fear have blessed themselves in the Success of their unrighteous Projects have delightfully for a season satiated themselves with the enjoyment of their prohibited Lusts yet in the conclusion the Remembrance thereof hath been as a Fire in their Bones as a heavy Burthen that neither their own strength nor the help of other men could support them under And the Reason hereof is Because to them that obey Vnrighteousness there is Indignation and Wrath from God and consequently Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Rom. 2.8 9. And this is that which makes the Heart to be affected as Belshazzar's was When he saw the finger of a man's hand writing over against the Candlestick and upon the plaister of the Wall of the King's Palace his Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loyns were loosed and his Knees smote one against another How shall thy hands be strong saith God to the Jews Ezek. 22.14 when I shall deal with thee The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 Therefore the Lord saith I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made Isa 57.16 Which leads us to that which is intimated OBSERVATION That though the Spirit of man when it is wounded with worldly Sorrows or with Conscience of Sin cannot sustain it self from sinking yet the Lord can and doth support it This is verified by experience in holy Job then whom none was ever more sorely handled except our Lord Christ when he bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree insomuch that he complained Job 6.4 For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my Spirit the Terrours of God do set themselves in array against me yet did the Consolations of God so support him that he could allege Behold my Witness is in Heaven and my Record is on high Job 16.19 so as that he could never be drawn to disclaim his own Uprightness or God's Righteousness Holy Paul though he were abundant in Sufferings so that he had the sentence of death in himself yet he would not relinquish his Trust in God whom he found the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort so as that with the abounding of his Sufferings he had also abounding Consolation After the like sort was it with Christ Jesus who though he was in great Agony in the Garden so that his Soul was heavy unto death in the days of his flesh he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from death yet he was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 David after he had committed that Sin against Vriah the Hittite when Nathan had discovered the Evil thereof His Bones waxed old through his Roaring all the day long Day and night the Hand of God was heavy upon him His moisture was turned into the drought of Summer His Bones his Soul were sore vexed Innumerable Evils compassed him about His Iniquities took hold upon him so that he was not able to look up therefore his heart failed him yet God restored unto him the Joy of his Salvation upheld him with his free Spirit took away his Sackcloath and girded him with Gladness The waies that God takes to sustain the Spirits of men in their Infirmities are various Sometimes by allaying the Sharpness of their Afflictions sometimes by a mixture of outward or inward Refreshings sometimes by moderating their Temptations not suffering them to be tempted above that they are able but with the Temptation making a way to escape that they may be able to bear it making it short though it be sharp But the chief way whereby the Lord supports the Spirit when it sinks of it self is by giving to some the tongue of the learned that they may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary Isa 50.4 whose business it is first to humble to search the Wound and then to pour in Oil first to discover the Malady and then to apply the Medicine This method is described at large by Elihu Job 33. from vers 15. to v. 29. When God hath spoken to man in sleep and otherwise to open his ears to seal his Instruction to withdraw him from his purposes to hide Pride from man He chasteneth him upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong pains so that his Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers Yet if there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto man his Vprightness to make known to him the Atonement which is made by the Bloud of the everlasting Covenant when he washeth himself with penitentiall Tears and sprinkles his Conscience with the Bloud of Christ by Faith Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransome He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with Joy for he will render unto man his Righteousness If when God looks upon men they say We have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited us not He will deliver their Soul from going into the Pit and their Life shall see the Light Thus did Hezekiah find it as he acknowledgeth Isa 38.16 17. O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my Spirit that is by God's undertaking for him vers 14. so wilt
I. OBSERVATION That Afflictions Persecutions yea Death do not extinguish the Being of Saints who wash their Robes and make them clean in the Bloud of the Lamb. It is the saying of our Lord to Martha Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die It is true that believing Lazarus her Brother was then in the Grave and had been dead to her apprehension four days insomuch that she made no other account of him but as of a putrefied stinking Carkase yet even then Christ avoucheth him to have been alive And in like manner he judged Abraham and Isaac and Jacob though buried many Ages before yet even then when he conversed on Earth to be alive and so to continue for ever God being their God and he not being a God of the dead but of the living they must by consequence live unto him Luk. 20.38 Be the Dissolution of the Bodies from the Souls of the Saints never so violent their Flesh and Bones never so much consumed by the most vehement Flames torn and devoured by the most greedy and ravenous Beasts be they never so much putrefied and wasted with Sickness yet in their Dust and Ashes there is a Seed of Life It is with their Reliques as it is with Seed that is sown which though it be buried under the clods of the Earth and in appearance to men annihilated yet hath it a seminal Life which shall spring up again and flourish This Job was assured of when he said Job 19.26 27. Though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me But this is not all The Spirits of men even when their Bodies have onely a seminal Life have an actual Life they have a Life of Sense and Understanding they neither have their Life extinguished nor laid asleep without Feeling or Cogitation Though the Dust return to the Earth as it was yet the Spirit returns to God that gave it The Spirits that were sometimes disobedient when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing were in prison when S. Peter wrote 1 Epist 3.19 20. And it is the saying of the Authour to the Hebrews Chap. 12.23 Ye are come to the Spirits of Just men made perfect When Lazarus was raised from the Grave he had not a new Soul created which was not existent before but the same Soul brought back into his Body Neither at the Resurrection are other Souls joyned to the Bodies then those that before had lived in them For otherwise not the same Soul which had done good or evil should be rewarded but another When Act. 7.59 S. Stephen called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit he being full of the Holy Ghost was assured that though his Body were buried yet his Spirit should be with Christ And when the Apostle Paul expressed his willingness to be absent from the Body yet his expectation was to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It was his choice and option to depart and to be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1.23 He had learned that Christ was in Death Life that he that believeth on him hath everlasting Life that his Life was hid with Christ in God that the Spirit of God that dwelt in him was Life because of Righteousness and therefore he counted not himself to live but Christ in him And as Christ did commend his Spirit into the hands of his Father when he gave up the ghost being assured he should be in Paradise so doe all the Saints that have the Spirit of Christ even when they lie down in their beds of Earth they yield up their Spirits into the hands of their Father as assured to be with Christ who is the Way to the Father And this brings in the II. OBSERVATION That when Saints are removed from Men below they are placed before the Throne of God Though God be a Spirit dwelling in that Light unto which no man can approach whom no man hath seen nor can see yet the Holy Scriptures express him to us under the Similitude of a glorious King suppose a Solomon in all his Glory sitting on a Throne or Seat of Royal Majesty and that in the Heaven of Heavens where his Son termed the Lamb in this Chap. vers 9 10. hath his Throne also at the right hand of God for being ascended into the Most holy place as an high Priest he is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 There the Angels who are ministring Spirits unto him and the Elders all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessours as Kings and Priests unto God stand round about the Throne attending upon and beholding the King of Glory the number of whom is said Revel 5.11 to be ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands Now this place is by Christ termed Paradise Luk. 23.43 and by S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 4. said to be the third Heaven where is a place of Rest an Abraham's Bosome into which Lazarus is said to be carried by the Angels Luk. 16.22 Now though that were a great Happiness for a Beggar that lately lay at the Rich man's gate full of Sores and empty of Bread glad to have been fed with the crums which fell from the rich man's Table as the Dogs were who had more Compassion then the rich man for they licked his Sores when the rich man disdained to look on him or to pay for his Cure And though it be to all that undergoe sore Travail great Wants and Persecutions a very great part of their Blessedness that there remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. 4.9 and to the Saints which keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus after their patient Sufferings that a Voice from Heaven is heard saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in or for the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours Yet that is not the total Summe which completes their Felicity there is more in that which follows that their Works follow them so as to be approved in Heaven Their Persons are welcomed and entertained with Triumph over their Enemies they have the Crown of Righteousness conferred on them by the Righteous Judge of all the World their good Fight of Faith is applauded with an Io-Triumph as an Heroical act of the most gallant Fortitude by the Acclamation of the Celestial Quire of Angels and blessed Spirits they are cloathed with white Linen the Righteousness of Saints they are arrayed with the most sumptuous Apparel feasted with the Light of God's Countenance reign with Christ on his Throne are designed to be solemnly married to Christ and to be Judges of the World as Co-assessours with Christ at his Coming in the expectation of which they most delightfully see God
which God himself used in his most blessed Declaration of himself when he proclaimed of himself Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin To which it is very likely he had an eye and that he made that Proclamation the rise of his Hope That though his Sins were great yet they were not any other then God had proclaimed of old he did forgive and after in his New Covenant he more fully assured the Condonation of them Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 2. The thing David requesteth of God and that is full Remission expressed in three terms 1. Of Blotting out his Transgressions a phrase used by the Prophet Isa 43.25 and 44.22 And it intimates that his Sins were written by God in his Remembrance as in a Book of Records in the sense that Job said 13.26 and 14.17 God did write bitter things against him and sealed up his Iniquity And the blotting it out is the putting it out of his Remembrance so as not to charge it upon him nor condemn him for it as it is explained Isa 43.25 2. Of Washing him throughly from his Iniquity a term noting frequent or abundant washing that is Absolution meant by Ablution 1 Cor. 6.11 where it comprehends Justification as well as Sanctification And so it is said Revel 1.5 Christ hath washed us from our Sins in his own bloud alluding 't is likely to the cleansing of men from their Leprosy and other Legall Pollutions in the Mosaicall Law 3. The third term is Cleanse me from my Sin by Emundation meaning Emendation purifying his Heart from the love of his Sin and his Life from the practice of it any more as it is expressed Isa 1.16 17. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well 3. The Third thing considerable in David's Petition which is indeed the Hindge on which all turns is the Loving-kindness or Benignity of God the Multitude of his tender Mercies such as are in the Womb or Bowells of a tender Mother towards her Child And this Loving-kindness and Multitude of tender Mercies is urged by David as the Motive the impulsive Cause or sole Reason of granting his Request of blotting out his Transgressions washing him throughly from his Iniquity and cleansing him from his Sin In the same manner as Moses pleaded with God for Israel Num. 14.17 18 19. after whose Copy this Petition seems to be framed and is an exact Pattern according to which a Penitent Supplicant is to address himself to God for Ease from under the pressure of his Sins teaching us these Points 1. That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner David complains not of other Evils incident to him and his but his own Sin 2. That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but setteth it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress 3. That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God 4. That we are to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out our Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation and Amendment of life 5. That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blotteth out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin 6. That the onely way to obtain these things is to beg them of God upon this consideration and no other You see a large field and copious matter is before us in which I might exspatiate far and prosecute a long time but I will endeavour to abbreviate and end with the time I. OBSERVATION That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner This is evident from their penitential Complaints In the many mournfull Elegies of David the great Pressure of his spirit lay in the Remembrance of his Sin Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my Foolishness And again Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me It is true Afflictions are hard to be born Poverty and Disgrace and Imprisonment and Pains of body are very heavy upon many persons Discontents and Fears of trouble Griefs and Sorrows for loss of Friends Wife Children do often quench mens spirits and sink them into the Grave Nor is it to be denied but that many times they cause men to prefer death before life and to chuse strangling before breathing Job 7.15 But upon the sense of Sin when the Conscience feels the weight of it when God shoots his Arrows into a man and haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the deadly Arrow sticks in his side then the Venome thereof drinks up his spirit is as the stinging of a Scorpion or fiery flying Serpent it tortures like Hell and is more bitter and terrible then Death it self The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 but a wounded spirit who can bear In other Afflictions there is some Remedy from Reason or Faith if not to comfort yet to quiet the Soul but in the sense of Sin committed till Pardon thereof be apprehended no Argument can be fastned but will be rejected Men in these Wounds of Conscience doe like persons in extreme Anguish who tear off their Plaisters that should ease or cure them so do wounded Consciences reject all Allegations of Scripture brought to allay their Anguish as if they belong'd not to them as Spira and others have done And that which is the Sting of Sin that most of all makes it deadly poisonous is the apprehension of God as angry as an Enemy unappeasable till it be acknowledged to be what it is an evil and bitter thing that we have sinned against the Lord and that his fear is not in us as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.19 Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but sets it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress So David besides the variety of terms he here paints out the Deformity of his Sins by adds also vers 3 4. I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight
or Despair of a good issue out of his Temptations though he swam in rough waters against the stream yet he kept up his head The knowledge of his Purity the assurance of his Witness in heaven supported him with strength to undergoe all his Sores to refute all his Adversaries to conquer Satan and to recover out of his Fluctuations so as with greater advantage to get safe to Land and to improve his Losses to a greater encrease of Favour and Acceptance with God and temporal Prosperity Saint Paul even when the malignant Jews came about him like Bees and were prepared to sting him to death before their malevolent Council bore himself up with this Protestation that he had lived in all good Conscience before God to that day Act. 23.1 And this made him bold before Felix when he could say in truth Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24.16 When he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come before Felix the Governour and Drusilla his Wife which was a Jewess he was without Fear whereas Felix whose Prisoner he was trembled vers 25. In a word though he had Afflictions as much as any yet in them all he rejoyced in this that he had the Testimony of his Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisedom but by the Grace of God he had his Conversation in the world even at that time of his Trouble in which he was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life 2 Cor. 1.8 12. 3. But there is yet a third Prop of the Spirit of a man besides right Reason Prudence and conscience of Innocency which doth enable it to sustain its Infirmities more steadily then the rest and that is Faith in God through Jesus Christ the chief part of the Divine Panoply or whole Armour of God And indeed Faith is the best Cordial to sustain the Spirit of a man in his Infirmities be they never so great by reason of which the same Apostle could say of himself out of experience 2 Cor. 4.8 9 11. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always delivered to death for Jesus sake yet the spirit of Faith vers 13. so upheld him that though the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city saying that Bonds and Afflictions did abide him yet none of those things did move him Act. 20.23 24. He was so rooted and grounded in Faith that what-ever inward Decays he found what-ever outward Storms beat upon him yet his Spirit stood firm with unmovable Resolution So it was with David at Ziklag when his Fellow-souldiers with himself had their City burnt their Wives Children and Goods carried away captive by the Amalckites he was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his Sons and for his Daughters yet he encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Faith then shewed its virtue it strengthened his Heart when the rest of the people in a womanish Sorrow fell a-weeping and he betook himself to God to inquire what was to be done which was followed with such Success that he recovered all that was lost But what speak I of these Infirmities these Afflictions which are nothing in comparison of what the Holy Martyrs bare through Faith of whom we reade Heb. 11.35 36 37. that though they were tortured yet they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection that when they had triall of cruel Mockings and Scourgings of Bonds and Imprisonments were stoned were sawed asunder were tempted were slain with the sword were destitute afflicted tormented they could take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Heb. 10.34 and so contentedly undergoe their Sufferings as to take their Persecutours for their best Benefactours and make the sweetest Melody in the most scorching Flames Innumerable Arguments Faith presents to the Spirit from God's Presence Appointment Love Power Promises which do invincibly arm a Believer in all Perils in all Assaults in all Oppressions and make him invulnerable Reason enables the Spirit of a man to sustain his Infirmities stoutly a good Conscience comfortably Faith triumphantly APPLICATION And now give me leave to apply this to your use You are often told and if you were not your Eyes and Ears and other Senses might inform you that Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble Which of you unless besotted with vain Dreams or drunken with sinfull Pleasures but hath some foresight of imminent Dangers some foretaste of future Sicknesses and consequent Dissolution Is there any of you of so unshaken a Spirit as that none of the things ye feel or fear do in the least move you Why do you distill Hot waters but to revive you in Faintings why do you get Friends but to help you in Troubles why do you take Physick but to help you in your Infirmities why do you lay up some Money others Counsell but to provide for times of Affliction But doe you any thing to enable your Spirit to sustain you in your Infirmities I deny not but the Providence you use may be commendable but if there be no more then that it will be insufficient Some Infirmities may be remedied by natural Means some may be prevented by moral Prudence but the Decumane waves of Sickness and Death the thoughts of Sin 's Guilt and of Judgment to come require a better Anchour then these to keep you up from being drowned when the Conscience of the one and the Fear of the other beat upon the Vessel of your Spirit These Storms your Soul will not ride out without the Conscience of a Reformed life without the strong Cable of a fast-holding Faith the sure Anchour of a lively Hope in Christ All the Trimming and Tackling besides be it Wealth Friends Beauty Bravery yea though it be a Form of Godliness a strict Profession with some measure of Sufferings for the Truth will not keep you from Sinking without an upright Heart an unfeigned Faith a stable Hope in Jesus Christ What-ever you doe then let these never be wanting in the Closet of your Breasts make not Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience what-ever you lose lose not them yea have them always in a readiness when any thing happens which may oppress you with Fear or sink you with Sorrow Yea forget not to exercise your Faith in God your Hope in Christ continually that when you shall need them you may not onely have them in habit but also in use not onely in the Root but also in the Fruit. Let your Life be a Life of Faith your Breath be a Breathing of Hope in God and then you may be assured though your Body fall to the ground your Spirit will mount upward to God that
thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
experience Psal 119.97 98 99 100. O how love I thy Law it is my Meditation all the day Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then mine Enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding then all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation I understand more then the Ancients because I keep thy Precepts And S. Paul tells Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 that the Holy Scriptures were able to make him wise unto Salvation The greatest Wisedom is that which guides a man to the greatest Happiness and that is when he avoids the greatest Evill and attains the enjoyment of the best Good No Evil is greater then God's Wrath no Good better then God's Favour Now to the escaping the former and obtaining the latter the Meditation on God's Precepts conduceth most effectually For thereby we avoid Sin against God which incites him to Anger and thereby we learn how to please him which procures his Favour And therefore it is most evident to be the wisest course we can take and whereby we can shew most Love to our selves to Reade to Hear to Study and lay to heart God's Word And herein likewise we shew the greatest Charity to others by seriously endeavouring to make them intelligent therein it tending most to their Good if with Meditation there concurre also a Respect to God's Ways Which leads us to the other part of this Verse and the Conclusions thence deduced III. and IV. OBSERVATIONS That in his Practice a Godly man heeds God's Direction and That God's Works are his Observation The word which is rendred I will have respect or I will look imports the fixing and intentiveness of the Eye upon God's Ways such as is in a Traveller when he walks or a Sailour when he sails in the Deep whom it concerns that they have their eyes waking and their minds observant the one of the Path he treads in the other of the Chanel he steers his Ship in lest the first either miss his way or stumble and fall or the second run aground on Quick-sands or split upon Rocks and Shelves and so miscarry The Commandment saith Solomon Prov. 6.23 is a Lamp and the Law is Light and Reproofs of Instruction are the way of life And therefore as the Eye makes use of the Lamp and Light for its Direction so doth the Soul of a Godly man observe the Way of God's Precepts for his Rule and the Ways of God's Acting to encourage him in his Course and to deterre him from wandering therefrom Nor are the Ways of God's Providence either towards our selves or others to be let pass without heedfull Observation For thereby we are accommodated with usefull Arguments to give God the Glory of his Truth Justice Goodness and Power We have Experiments fitted either to deterre us from Sinning against him who is a consuming Fire or to encourage us to serve him with holy Reverence and godly Fear or to strengthen our Faith in a firm Dependence on him and a Reliance on the Lord in our greatest Difficulties Thus Phineas argues Josh 22.17 20. Is the Iniquity of Peor too little for us from which we are not cleansed to this day Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a Trespass in the accursed thing and Wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished not alone in his Iniquity That he might by this Argument deterre the Trans-Jordan Israelites from a Schismaticall departure from the God of Israel and a Communion in Worship with the other Tribes on this side Jordan Thus David in the great Trial of his Faith and undaunted Fortitude which he shewed in his heroick Encounter with the Giant of Gath recollects his own Experience of Divine Assistence formerly and fortifies himself against the fear of that Monster by assurance of the like now He alleges God's former Providences as the reason of his gallant Resolution to encounter Goliah without any hesitancy now telling Saul 1 Sam. 17.36 Thy Servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seeing he hath defied the Armies of the living God As God hath given us his Word that thereby we may understand his Will so doth he exercise his Judgments that we may discern his Excellency As the Word of God his Precepts and Promises are to be remembred that we may believe and obey and therefore it is the Character of a Righteous person that the Law of his God is in his Heart and none of his Steps therefore shall slide Psal 37.31 so it is said Psal 111.2 3 4. The Works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein God having made his Work honourable and glorious that his wonderfull Works might be remembred And therefore a Woe is denounced by the Prophet Isa 5.11 12. against those Epicurean Sensualists that spent their time in voluptuous Drinking and pleasant Musick but regarded not the Work of the Lord neither considered the Operation of his hands To which answers that true Censure of the Prophet Jeremiah 5.4 Surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the Way of the Lord nor the Judgment of their God In having respect to both kinds of his Ways we glorify him in neglecting either we vilify him and live as it were without God in the World APPLICATION Hereby we may discern whether we have the same Spirit with David and other Holy persons in their generation who have always had their Eyes fixed on God in their Pilgrimage on earth and their Minds intent on what God saith and doeth as the principall Object whereon to imploy their Meditations and Exercitations When we reade of Enoch Noah Abraham and other Holy persons that they walked with God we may thereby collect that they moved in a higher Sphere then this lower World and though their Bodies were carried up and down on the Superficies of the Earth yet their Hearts and Spirits were with God him they set before them and kept close to him And so David professeth of himself Psal 18.21 22 23. I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God For all his Judgments were before me and I did not put away his Statutes from me I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity And S. Paul Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Surely they that seriously mind being with God hereafter must make it their business to get acquaintance with him here they that look for their Portion in Heaven must have their Conversation in Heaven while they are upon Earth As it is the description of a wicked man that God is not in all his Thoughts that God's Judgments are far above out of his sight that he casts God's Word behind his back that he hides his face from God So on the other side nothing is a more reall demonstration of a Holy person
Conspiracy to kill him nor for escaping by being let down in a Basket from Damascus though he would not bribe Felix nor remit any whit of his Profession A person may be over-wise and over-righteous and so destroy himself as it is Eccles. 7.16 Therefore run to the Name of the Lord as thy strong Tower and follow that which is Good but withall take Solomon's Counsell Prov. 27.12 A prudent man foreseeth the Evil and hideth himself If God shut thee up in Streights so as there is no escaping learn what follows my Text vers 14 15. be sure to suffer for Righteousness sake and then be not afraid of their Terrour neither be troubled but sanctifie the Lord God in your Hearts Brethren it pleaseth the Lord still to continue our Fears upon us the Angel of God still draws his Sword and cuts down many the Sword of the Enemy is held over our head and we know not but that an overflowing Stream of Bloud may reach even to us No marvel while the Fogs of Sin are in our Consciences if an Earthquake of Trembling is in our Hearts It is a sign that we are not Followers of that which is Good because God raiseth up against us so many Evils It is time then that we should turn unto him that smiteth us and that we should seek the Lord of Hoasts that while we go against our Enemies we should keep our selves from every Evil thing lest the Anger of God be not turned away but his hand be stretched out still Could we cease to doe evil and learn to doe well we need not fear either God's Rod or Mens Rage Till then we can expect no withdrawing of either Oh then be so wise as to avoid Sin if you would prevent Harm Arm your selves with all the Armour of God above all the Shield of Faith that God may be your Sun and Shield Amen LAVS DEO THE WAY OF LIFE DISCOVERED Part I. The Twenty-first SERMON PSAL. xvi 11. Thou wilt shew me the Path of life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore THESE words are the Close of a Psalm which is thus entituled Michtam of David that is A golden Psalm of David or David's Jewel or notable Song Cethem is fine glittering Gold from whence this word Michtam may be derived for a golden Jewel and so note the Excellency of this Psalm The like Title is before other Psalms viz. 56.57.58.59.60 Nor is the Title unfit for the Matter or unbeseeming the Authour The Matter being most precious containing that Gold tried in the fire which Christ gives and with it enricheth his Church to all Eternity that Aurum potabile that cures and preserves Life for ever Congruous to David's Spirit who was a man of much Acquaintance with God and of Heavenly Meditations But that may be demanded concerning this Psalm which the Eunuch asked of Philip Act. 8.34 Of whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man There are that conceive this Psalm wholly meant of Christ and not of David others that part is meant of Christ onely and not of David others that all is meant of both others that part is meant of David onely and not of Christ at all I will not interpose in this matter It is sufficient for my present purpose that S. Paul Act. 13.35 36 37. makes the tenth verse of this Psalm proper to Christ and S. Peter Act. 2.25 26 27 28. makes the four last verses thereof to be a Prediction of Christ's Resurrection not applicable to David who saw Corruption as his Sepulcher then remaining witnessed Now of those my Text is cited as a part and therefore it may be safely interpreted as the Speech of Christ in an Address to God his Father in which he opened his very Heart declaring the Reason why he was not moved by that Tempest and terrible Storm of Evils that he was to feel how he was kept from sinking notwithstanding those Flouds and Waves that were to goe over his head why he despaired not in that great Earthquake that threw the Temple of his Body to the ground to wit Because he set the Lord or foresaw the Lord always before him or before his face that he was at or on his right hand that he should not be moved Therefore did his Heart rejoyce and his Glory or Tongue was glad his Flesh should rest or dwell confidently in hope he being by Faith assured that his Father would not leave his Soul in Hell in the place or state of the Dead though he descended into it nor suffer or give his Holy one so dear to him to see Corruption but had made known to him the ways of Life or would shew to him the path of Life in raising him up to Life and that he would make him full of Joy with his Countenance as S. Peter reads it or as it is in our Version according to the Hebrew that in his presence was fulness of Joy at his right hand there were Pleasures for evermore Word for word it may be rendred Thou wilt make me know the way of Life Satiety of Joys before thy face Pleasures at thy right hand to perpetuity In which sense the words are to the same effect with what the Authour to the Hebrews speaks 12.2 Looking to Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And thus secondarily these words might be David's and every Holy Believer's in a qualified sense as being assured of Restitution from Hell of freedom from Corruption of their Flesh of finding the Path of Life of Satiety of Joy with God and Perpetuity of Pleasures at his right hand in like manner as Christ found in his Refurrection they being quickened together with him raised up together and made to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.5 6. and thereby animated under all Persecutions and Sufferings to persist in their Adherence to their God unmovably as being assured of Christ's Resurrection and thereby of their own of his being in Fulness of Joys in God's presence and so of their own being of his being at the right hand of God with Pleasures which endure for ever and consequently that it shall be so with them Of which we have a most admirable Example in Holy Job who though under extreme Pains of Body and Anguish of Spirit yet thus expresseth himself Job 19.23 24 25 26 27. Oh that my words were now written Oh that they were printed in a Book that they were graven with an iron Pen and Lead in the Rock for ever For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth And though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold
right wits is always desired Now Joys are of several sorts according to the variety of the Objects Motives and Means of Rejoycing There are Objects of Joy within us and without us matters carnal or spiritual temporal or eternal present or future from faith or sight hoping or feeling natural and acquired longer or shorter in duration which make our Joys either more pure or mixed greater or lesser with great difference in degrees upon variation of Circumstances different apprehensions of the Object and the Good that accrues by it either comparatively with the precedent Evil felt or feared or absolutely as the thing is good in it self and its own nature or in respect of our Interest in it good to us Should I here make a Philosophical discourse of this Affection and exhibit to you a Scheme of the several kinds degrees properties and effects of this one Affection I might spend more then an hour upon this Subject But I pass to the next Head II. What Joys are in the Presence of God Those Joys are the best which spring from the embracing of the best and most lasting Good with least Defectiveness and greatest Latitude And such are the Joys that are in the Presence of God or with his Face and Countenance For therein there is 1. a perfect Freedom from all Evil 2. an entire Enjoyment of all Good in its Purity and Resplendency 1. The Evils a man is delivered from do much enhaunse his Joys He that is delivered from Dangers and Fears doth rejoyce and the Joy is the more if the Dangers were great and apparent the Fears of Evil imminent and oppressing still more when the Evils have been felt and that with much Anguish and long Continuance How do men rejoyce when they have overthrown their Adversary in a Law-suit in which if they had been cast they had been undone in their Estates How do men rejoyce when they have overcome their Enemies in Battel to whom if they had been Captives they had been led into Exile from their own Country How do Slaves rejoyce when they are redeemed from Turkish Bondage and in stead of rowing in their Gallies are returned to live with their own Masters in their own Families How do Prisoners condemned to the Gallows rejoyce when the King sends them a Pardon and they escape the hands of the Executioner These Deliverances do cause much Joy and Exultation in men and sometimes much Glorying though perhaps they be not long free from the Fear and Danger of their Evils but in the Change of Fortune fall into the same or greater Mischiess or if they escape them yet their Victory Pardon or Redemption though it bring them Liberty perhaps reduces them to Poverty and a low estate And which is worst although they overcome their Adversary on Earth yet the Devil their Adversary prevails against them though they get the Victory against their other Enemies yet they are led captive by their own Lusts which sight against their Souls though they be without Wounds by a Sword in their Bodies yet they have sore Wounds in their Consciences by their Sins though they be pardoned by the King yet they are condemned by the King of Kings though they are redeemed from Turks yet not from Hell And sure a Holy heart that prospers in the one and not in the other finds his Joys damped so as that he can scarce think those Deliverances worth the rejoycing in A Holy heart rejoyceth indeed with hearty Joy when he prevails against his Adversary the Devil and his Temptations when he is cured of the Wounds of his Spirit when he hath gotten power over that Body of death that makes him cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from it They are the Desertions of God the Domineering of his Corruption the Absence of God's Spirit his Decay in Prayer his Doubts of his Interest in God's Grace his Backslidings Inconstancy in good and such like Spiritual Evils that do most annoy him eclipse his Joys beget in him Lipothymies Fainting fits cold Sweats Trembling of Heart Fearfulness and Dejection of Spirit These break his Bones envenome his Spirits make him loathsome to himself as a man whose Wounds stink and are corrupt And therefore there is no Joy to such an one till he have the Joy of Salvation from God till in the multitude of the thoughts of his Heart the Comforts of God refresh his Soul till he finds the Presence of God accepting him till he sfinds that God prepares his Heart to Prayer and then inclines his Ear to hear till God speaks Peace to him sprinkles the Bloud of Christ on his Conscience and frees him from his Fear of God's Wrath and Condemnation till there be a Messenger an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto him his Righteousness till God be gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a ransome till he pray unto God and he be favourable unto him and he see his Face with Joy as Elihu speaks Job 33.23 24 26. He is not till then free from Anguish of Spirit and Anxiety of Soul In the day of my Trouble saith Asaph Psal 77.2 3 7 8 9. I sought the Lord my Sore ran in the night and ceased not my Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was overwhelmed Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies Thus mournfully also speaks Heman the Ezrahite Psal 88.3 6 7. My Soul is full of Troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the Grave Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deeps Thy Wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves And then expostulates vers 14 c. Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy Terrours I am distracted Thy fierce Wrath goeth over me thy Terrours have cut me off They come round about me daily like water they compassed me about together Such Complaints are frequent in the Psalms Job and Hezekiah's Song In the Penitentials of Holy men in the Relation of the Lives of Godly persons of tender Consciences Men and Women of former and later days we meet with such Apprehensions of their Sins dangers of Temptations want of God's Spirit hiding of his Face as benight their Souls take away their Joys fill them with Pensiveness Horrour and Fear of Divine Vengeance of Hell-sire of Apparitions of Devils that they can neither feed pleasantly in the day nor rest quietly in the night but look ghastly with dejected Countenances and goe mourning in the bitterness of their Spirit all their days But when these Clouds are seattered this Darkness taken away so as that
was accompanied with much inward Regret at their Sufferings Indignation against the Tyranny of them that oppressed them Vexation at their hard Destiny yea with Alacrity and Joyfulness of heart laid themselves down to sleep even in the midst of the Fire as if it had been in a Bed of Roses triumphing over the most extreme Cruelties of their violent Persecutours that were mad with Rage against the Sheep of Christ who herein followed their Shepherd who was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before the Shearers so opened he not his mouth Act. 8.32 This excellent Temper of spirit in Holy Believers ariseth from the Conscience of their Integrity and the vigour of their Faith A good Cause and an upright Heart are very prevalent to allay all inward Fluctuations of mind and to arm the Heart against outward though stormy Occurrences The Righteous saith Solomon Prov. 28.1 are bold as a Lion They that fear God need not fear Men or Devils Such as know the Uprightness of their Heart the Justice of their Cause especially when their Danger is for Righteousness sake for God can appeal to God with Confidence can mind God as Hezekiah did Lord remember that I have walked before thee with an upright Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.3 It was our Lord's Argument in that his Soliloquy with his Father that Bosome-prayer wherein he did expectorate himself open his Heart to his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was This was his Plea when he was to be betrayed and crucified It is so in like manner with all that doe the Will of God They know the work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever Isa 32.17 They know that God will keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusteth in him Isa 26.3 Faith doth assure them that he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep that as it is true Diabolus non dormit the Devil sleepeth not but goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour so Dominus non dormit the Lord sleeps not but his Eyes are open upon the Righteous He is that most vigilant Shepherd that keeps his Sheep night and day They know that if God be with them none either Tyrant or Devil can be against them That the Prince of Life hath by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death to wit the Devil and delivered them that through fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage That they may take up their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Triumph-song their Io Paean O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory That he that gave his own Son for them will with him freely give them all things That he is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which hath Foundations made and built by himself in a heavenly Country where no Nero's or Domitians or Diocletians no bloudy Bonner's or Spanish Inquisitours shall come where no Infernall Spirits nor Sons of Belial shall approach to hurt None shall be able to lay any thing to their charge they have God to justifie them Christ to intercede for them And therefore neither Height nor Depth nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor any Creature shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hereby they have that Peace of God which passeth all understanding which keeps as a Garrison their Hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus And therefore they can rest in their Beds without fear of humane Tortures or haunting Ghosts They can sleep in the dust of the Earth with expectation of a better Resurrection and after David's Example here they can resolve to lie down and sleep for that the Lord maketh them dwell in Safety and this with hope of Rising again to Life and of having Dominion over their Enemies in that Morning in which the Sun of Righteousness shall appear again from Heaven with Healing in his Wings APPLICATION And now I beseech you learn to discern between the Righteous and the Wicked How fearfull are the Minds of them that are troubled with an evil Conscience that are not armed with Faith in God! Every Report of an invading Enemy of a walking Ghost any ghastly Apparition any unusuall Noise terrifies them and takes away their Sleep Solitariness is a Terrour to them specially in the Night Cain gets him from the Presence of the Lord into the Land of Nod Caligula runs under a Bed at a Clap of thunder Adrian whines in his mournfull Ditty when he is to part with his Soul from his Body Sickness appalls others The message of Death makes a Saul fall all along on the Earth a churlish Nabal's Heart die within him as a Stone On the contrary Holy David sleeps quietly in a Cave though Saul's Army be near him he dies quietly though Adonijah go about to take his Crown from off his Head Job can trust God though he kill him S. Paul can trust in him that raiseth from the dead when he receives the Sentence of death in himself Oh then that you would consider these things to purpose Time may come wherein you may have the Name of Magor-missabib Terrour round about armed Souldiers may break into your Houses the Arrow of God may be shot into your Bodies Pestilence may enter in at your Windows sooner or later Sickness and Death will surprize you and seise on you If at that hour thy Spirit be wounded also and God call thy Sins to Remembrance if when the Decree goes forth This night shall they fetch away thy Soul from thee thou hast nothing but thy full Barns thy high Honours and Dignities the Favour of Princes to secure thee Oh how wilt thou be like Belshazzar when he saw the Hand-writing on the Wall Thy Knees will dash one against another thy Sleep will be gone thy Terrours will rush in upon thee like an armed man thou wilt feel Hell-Torments while thou art yet on Earth On the other side if thou hast Hezekiah's Uprightness and David's Faith thou wilt sleep in Peace and die with Comfort God's Grace will support thee here and advance thee hereafter He will guide thee with his Counsell and after receive thee to Glory Oh be wise then I beseech you Take heed of Sin which will defile you it will make your Bed as uneasie as if you lay on Flints or Thorns breed a Worm in your Conscience which will gnaw on you to Eternity kindle a Fire in your Bowells which will never be quenched but burn for ever produce the Sting of a fiery Scorpion which will never be cured Get
Desire of all Nations and that he was the Person whom the Godly did delight in and expect for what Reason appears by the III. OBSERVATION That the Certainty of the coming of Christ's Day was the Spring of Joy the Basis of Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits to Believers of old in the days of their Pilgrimage on Earth For this we have the words of S. Peter Act. 2.25 26 30. That David being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his Loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne spake concerning Christ that therefore did his Heart rejoyce and his Tongue was glad and his Flesh did rest in hope And Heb. 11.26 it is said that by Faith Moses esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt And of Simeon it is said that he waited for his coming in the Flesh as the Consolation of Israel and accordingly when he had seen him he took him up in his Arms and blessed God and said his Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.25 28 29 30. And conformable to these was also the frame of Spirit in all the Holy Believers when he appeared in the Flesh As persons over-joyed they were in a Rapture of Comfort so as that they could not contain themselves but must break out into holy Hymns of Praise My Soul doth magnifie the Lord said his Mother and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour For he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden And Blessed be the Lord God of Israel said Zacharias for he hath visited and redeemed his People and hath raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the House of his Servant David When the Wise men of the East saw his Star they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Matth. 2.10 And when the Angel had told the Shepherds that he brought them good Tidings of great Joy which should be to all People of the Birth of Christ in the City of David upon which there were with the Angel suddenly a multitude of the Heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men the Shepherds in hast went to view Christ in the Manger and upon their Return glorified and praised God Hallelujahs were then the Exercise of all that knew of his Birth and so they were of all the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets when they did by Divine Revelation foresee and by Faith wait for his Coming And the same spirit of Joy shewed it self after in all those that saw his Day either with their bodily Eyes or by the Eye of Faith When Andrew finds Peter as over-joyed he tells him We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ When Philip finds Nathanael he is in the same tune We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Joh. 1.41 45. And of succeeding Believers S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory So that I may by an Induction of Particulars raising the Observation from the Hypothesis to the Thesis conclude universally That the Day of Christ is to all Believers the Spring of their Joy the Basis of their Comfort the Stay and Support of their Spirits in the days of their Pilgrimage upon Earth The Reasons whereof are common to all Believers Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Though the Mystery of the Gospell was not so clearly nor so fully revealed before as it was by the Apostles Preaching but from the beginning of the world was in a sort hid in God yet in no Age was there Salvation in any other none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved He onely hath been the Way the Truth and the Life so that none come to the Father but by him Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and all the rest of the Holy Saints in foregoing Generations had Salvation by Faith in Christ as really as S. Peter and S. Paul or any of the Holy Martyrs and Confessours in the Catholick Church It is true the Knowledge of Christ was not so clearly revealed to the sons of men before his Coming in the Flesh as it was after when the Day-spring from on high visited us to give Light to them that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death to guide our feet into the way of Peace And therefore John Baptist exceeded all the Prophets foregoing he being the man that could say Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Yet the Apostles yea the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that can preach Christ Born Baptized Preaching Dying Rising Ascended into Heaven is greater then John the Baptist as having seen and heard that which many Prophets and Kings desired to hear and see but did not The Knowledge the Patriarchs had was Vespertine the Apostles and ours comparatively Meridian Besides before Christ's Ascension the Knowledge of him was not so amply revealed for though a few of the Gentiles found Christ yet the Way of Salvation was not prepared before the face of all People so as that Christ became a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the Glory of his people Israel But when S. Paul was made the Apostle of the Gentiles Christ was set to be a Light to the Gentiles that he might be for Salvation unto the ends of the Earth Act. 13.47 S. Peter was taught to call none common or unclean but to preach to the Gentiles as being those to whom also God had granted Repentance unto Lefe Act. 11.18 Whence the same way of Salvation was vouchsafed to Cornelius that was to Abraham Cornelius had his Faith imputed to him for Righteousness as well as Abraham God put no difference between them and us having purified their Hearts by Faith saith S. Peter Act. 15.9 He was the God not onely of the Jews but also of the Gentiles seeing it was one God which should justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.29 30. And hence as Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's Day so did the Wise men of the East and in all that were made Holy Converts by the preaching of the Gospel there was the same Joy for the kind which was in Abraham all with the same Spirit of Faith glorified Christ though some with more enlarged Hearts then others In the Effects of this Joy Praising God Loving Christ and Adhering to him there is the same Mind in all the same Hope the same Expressions though not to the same degree in all In some Ages the Joy was more extensive then in others in
XXXI SERMONS Preached to the PARISHIONERS of Stanford-Rivers in Essex Upon several Subjects and Occasions BY CHARLES GIBBES D. D. Rectour of that Church and Prebendary of Saint Peter's at Westminster Never before made publick QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS LOâ—â—â—â— Printed by E. Flesher 〈…〉 most Sacred MAJESâ—◠〈…〉 To the well-beloved the PARISHIONERS Of Stanford-Rivers in the County of Essex Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied IN this Age and Nation abounding with Learned Men and Books of all sorts especially in Points of Sacred Theology I should not have thought any thing of Mine worth the Press being conscious to my self of mine own Unfitness for that Employment by reason of Age and other Imperfections had not your Importunity extorted these Papers from me which I now exhibit to you But that I might not be wanting in what I am able for your Edification in the Doctrine of Christ I have yielded to adventure an Impression of them whereunto I have been induced by a like Consideration with that of Saint Peter 2 Epist ch 1. vers 12 13 14. where his writing is declared to be out of an apprehension of his approaching Dissolution that after his Decease there might be that extant which might keep in their Remembrance that which he had taught them and wherein they were established It is part of my Rejoycing that I have had so much Ability as to hold forth the Word of God to you in any measure and that it hath found so ready Reception with you It is that which I pray for and earnestly exhort you to that you will never forget the Saving Truths you have been taught though I be buried in oblivion nor backslide to Errour or Profaneness But that you be still constant in the true Faith of Christ and the right Worship of God in publick and in your private Families seeking the Divine Benediction on your selves and Families and living in mutual Love and Helpfulness towards all as knowing that the saving Grace of God hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of Good works Whereunto if this Writing or any Labour of mine may conduce I have my Desire who recommending both you and this Work to the Almighty's Blessing do yet remain Your truly loving and faithfull Servant in Christ CHARLES GIBBES A TABLE of the several TEXTS discoursed upon PSAL. VI. 6. I Am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears Three Sermons pag. 1 19 37. PSAL. LI. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin 57. PSAL. LI. 3. I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me 75. PSAL. LI. 11. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Two Sermons 87 99. PROV XVIII 14. The Spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Two Sermons 111 121. PSAL. CXXX 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared 131. PSAL. LXXIX 8. O remember not against us former Iniquities let thy tender Mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low 153. HEBR. IV. 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts 173. ROM VI. 1. and part of 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid 185. LAMENT III. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not 197. PSAL. LVI 13. For thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from Falling that I may walk before God in the Light of the living Two Sermons 217 235. PSAL. CXIX 15. I will meditate in thy Precepts and have respect unto thy Ways 251. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe into the House of the Lord. 263. PSAL. XXXVII 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Heart's desire 275. 1 PET. III. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be Followers of that which is Good 287. PSAL. XVI 11. Thou wilt shew me the Path of life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore Two Sermons 305 325. PSAL. LXXIII 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory 345. PSAL. XL. 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in Safety 357. 1 JOHN III. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 371. PSAL. CXIX 34. Give me Vnderstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart 383. PROV XIV 2. He that walketh in his Vprightness feareth the Lord but he that is perverse in his Ways despiseth him Two Sermons 399 411. REVEL VII 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them 421. JOHN VIII 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad 435. GEN. XII 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee 449. Imprimatur Febr. 27. 1676 7. Guil. Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis DAVID's GROANS Part I. The First SERMON PSALM vi 6. I am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears THIS Psalm is intituled to David and is styled by many One or the First of his Penitentiall Psalms And it is true it expresseth his Agony and dolour of mind for his Sickness undoubtedly for his Sins as the Cause of it in likelihood and so for both as in a Psalm parallel to this he complains Psal 38.4 which two make a heavy Burthen too heavy for any man to bear The Burthen of one onely to wit of Sin though not his own made the Mighty One the Mighty God to stoop under it when he bare the Sins of Men in his own body on the Tree insomuch that as in the Garden he told his Disciples Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull unto death so on the Cross he cried out in the Anguish of his spirit Matth. 27.46 O God my God why hast thou forsaken me No marvel then that
two-edged sword Prov. 5.3 4. Stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant Prov. 9.17 But after the mouth is filled with gravell Prov. 20.17 Though Wickedness be sweet in a man's mouth though he hide it under his tongue as men use to doe who would keep the tast of Sweet-meats long with them Yet his meat within him is turned into the Gall of Asps He hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of he Belly saith Zophar Job 20.12 14 15. The whole Books of the Proverbs and Job yea and the whole Bible are so full of such expressions as that a man scarce reads a Chapter but something or other occurrs to this purpose yea all sorts of Writers sacred and profane have left upon record their Observations concerning the attendance of Punishment upon Sin the lying of Sin at the door when Evil is done within the avenging Eye of God the Terrours that are subsequent when Conscience is awakened the secret and silent Lashes and Tortures of a guilty Conscience when Affliction Trouble the apprehension of Death or God's Anger seize on the spirit of a man We need not instance in Cain Saul Judas Felix and such like which the Scripture mentions nor such as Nero Caligula and others of whom the Roman and Greek Historians speak nor of Spira and others of later Times The Confessions of David the Complaints of Job the Lamentations of Jeremiah yield us pregnant proofs of this Truth Besides the forealleged Texts David tells us Psal 32.3 4 5. that when he kept silence his bones waxed old through his Roaring all the day long For day and night the Hand of God was heavy on him his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer till he acknowledged his Sin Psal 31.10 My strength faileth because of mine Iniquity Psal 38.8 that he was feeble and sore smitten that he roared by reason of the disquietness of his heart Job speaks thus to God Job 13.26 Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Sins of my youth And Jeremy Lament 1.14 The yoke of my Transgressions is bound by his hand they are wreathed and come up upon my neck he hath made my strength to fall and vers 20. Behold O Lord for I am in distress my bowels are troubled mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled This Anguish from the sense of Sin ariseth 1. From the nature of Sin which is really mischievous though seemingly pleasant Sin is of a Serpentine kind it hath a smooth Skin but a venomous Tail The sting of Death saith S. Paul is Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 It is a Sting and that deadly though it be hidden What Solomon saith of the Drunkard's Cup Prov. 23.31 32. though when the wine is red in the Glass giveth its colour in the Cup and moveth it self aright it is very delightfull yet at last it will bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder is true of every Sin There is a deceitfulness of Sin which hardens men in the committing of it Heb. 3.13 Men are fearless and secure while the pleasure of Sin beguiles them the consequent upon it is hidden from them they discern not God's Eye to be on them they delude their Souls with blasphemous imaginations as if he saw it not had forgotten it were such an one as themselves But it is otherwise when he sets their Sins in order before them rouzes up their sleepy Consciences causeth their Iniquities to stare in their faces then they find that there is a Sting in Sin the sweet drink which they swallowed down pleasantly gnaws and frets their bowels torments and corrodes their spirits so that they sigh and groan and are ready to destroy themselves to be rid of that Venome which they so easily and greedily drank down before 2. From the Properties of God ariseth the Dolour that is consequent on Sin 1. The Omniscience of God which discerns all the most hidden ways of man which caused Job to say Chap. 31.3 4. Is not destruction to the wicked and strange punishment to the workers of Iniquity Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps We are foolishly apt to imagine that God sees not through the thick Clouds that he hath forgotten that he regards not what we doe and thus we befool our selves with such devices as in the end ruine us We are like that Bird that puts its head in a hole as if thereby it were safe from the Fowler like Children we wink our selves and think none sees us because we see none A deceived Heart thus turns us aside that we cannot say Is there not a Lie in my right hand Quod nimis miseri volunt hoc facilè credunt But what saith the Psalmist Psal 44.20 21. If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hand to a strange God Shall not God search this out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart Hence doth Moses derive the Affliction of Israel in the Wilderness Psal 90.7 8. We are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance 2. The Purity of God makes God to hate Sin and so not to tolerate it Thou art of purer eyes saith the Prophet Habakkuk 1.13 then to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity Though he sees it yet he will not see it he knows it and looks on it yet turns away his face from it as we doe when we see some noisome unclean thing which we cause to be removed out of our sight And this must needs create Trouble As when the Sun shines not on the world Clouds and Darkness and Tempests quickly overspread the Heavens so when God hides his Face Sorrow and Anguish of spirit take hold on mens Souls Odium est Appetitus amovendi Hatred is a desire of removing of that which we hate from us I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me saith David Psal 101.3 It is much more true of God Psal 5.4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in Wickedness neither shall Evil dwell with thee The Foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of Iniquity Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing God's Holiness moves him to inflict Anguish on men for Sin 3. So doth also his Truth He hath given us a Law and hath fenced it with many Threatnings that it might not be broken He is true in his Threatnings as well as in his Promises as he is engaged to make good the one so to verify the other We are sure saith the Apostle Rom. 2.2 that the Judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things and again Rom. 3.4 Let God be true but every man a Liar as it is written That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest
overcome when thou art judged or dost judge God forceth the Jews to acknowledge this when he puts the question to them Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever But my words and my Statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers They returned and said Like as the Lord of Hoasts thought to doe unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us Zech. 1.5 6. 4. The Justice of God as well as the Veracity of God engageth God to inflict Anguish on men for Sin His eyes are upon all the ways of the sons of men to give to them according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings Jer. 32.19 He is the Judge of all the World and therefore must needs doe right as Abraham pleaded Gen. 18.25 That be far from thee that the Righteous should be as the Wicked So in like manner we may say That be far from God that the Wicked should be as the Righteous Yea God complains Mal. 2.17 thus You have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say Wherein have we wearied him When ye say Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or Where is the God of Judgment And again Mal. 3.13 Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee He tells them vers 15. Ye call the proud happy yea they that work Wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered See how God counts himself blasphemed when he is charged to favour Evil men by not executing Justice on them Justitia est perpetua constans voluntas suum cuique tribuendi saith Justinian in the beginning of his Institutions Justice is a perpetual and constant will of giving to every one his own And sure as Praise is due to them that doe well so Vengeance to him that doeth evil As Powers be ordained of God in his Ministers to reward well-doing with praise and to be revengers for wrath upon him that doeth evil Rom. 13.4 so God whose Deputies they are and bear his name will render to every man according to his works 5. It is from the Power of God that such Anguish befalls men for Sin as I have asserted He is great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked saith the Prophet Nahum 1.3 Moses therefore having bewailed the great Devastation of mankind by God's Anger that carries them away as with a Floud breaks out into these words Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thy Anger even according to thy fear so is thy Wrath. Whereby he plainly intimates that the Power of God makes God's rebukes for Sin extreme and intolerable 1. Because they reach to all parts of a man He can punish Soul and Body yea and cast both into Hell-fire Matth. 10.28 2. He can make all or any of the Creatures his Instruments of Punishment he can arm the least Worm for Vengeance yea and that which makes it most unsupportable he can make a man 's own Spirit his Sword to wound him and this is of all the sorest it being true which Solomon saith Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear 3. There is no way to escape from it or to avoid the Affliction he will bring on a person there being neither hiding-place where he cannot find a man nor remote place whither his hand cannot reach nor any auxiliary power to match or withstand him nor any Remedy but by him Qui vulnera fecit Solus Achilléo tollere more potest Which brings in the Second Observation II. PROPOSITION That Beds and Couches and other bodily Refections little avail to ease a Conscience or a Person that is oppressed with the weight of God's Stroke for Sin This Job found 7.13 14 15. When I say My Bed shall comfort me my Couch shall ease my Complaint Then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions So that my Soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life And the like we may say of any other Creature-help All the Artists Oratours Divines Angels and whatever there is in the Universe to cure or alleviate an afflicted Spirit are no more able to redress its Malady without God then the old World was to stay the universal Deluge or Sodom to prevent its Burning with fire and brimstone from heaven It is God's Prerogative to kill and to make alive to bring down to the Grave and to bring up to raise the Fiend of an awakened Conscience and to lay it again He that made the Spirit can by the Spirit and his Son's Bloud quiet and purge the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and he alone APPLICATION To apply this then to your use 1. It should deterre you from sinning against God Though Sin may smile upon you before you commit it it will bite you when you have acted it It may sing you a fair pleasant Song like a Siren but it will destroy you if it entice you thereby S. James tells you the true brood of Sin 1.14 15. Every man is tempted c. Though the Pleasures of Sin be delightfull yet they are poisonous Quisquámne Venenum vult in Auro Will any man venture to drink Poison in a golden Cup You that are given to drink excessively consider while the Cup is at your mouth that there will be a Cup of Wrath given you to drink the Venome whereof will set your Bones on fire and drink up your Spirits You that are given to unclean and unlawfull Lusts of the body if you be not afraid of the Morbus Gallicus yet fear the Wrath of him who will judge such persons and burn you with a more unquenchable Fire then that which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah You that so love the Mammon of Iniquity that you serve it that regard not how you get Wealth per fas per nefas by right or wrong Rem Rem quocunque modo Rem Money any way though by Sacriledge publick Robbery Grinding the face of the Poor by Bribery Extortion Perjury Over-reaching in bargaining Defrauding Theft or any other way think of Zechariah's flying Roll the Curse Zech. 5.4 which God will bring forth and it shall enter into the house of the Thief and into the house of him that Sweareth falsely by his Name and it shall remain in his house to cut off or torture the Inhabitant and to consume the Materials of the house You that are profane Scoffers that deride the Word and Service of God or close Hypocrites that counterfeit Godliness know that God will not be mocked and cannot be resisted Let me say to you or any other Sinner who goes on in any sinfull way insensible of the Sting which is in the Tail the Terrours of Conscience and Wrath of God these will
your unmercifull and unrighteous dealings in your Closets regarding Pass-times more then holy Sermons reading in your Chambers rather wanton Comedies or light Poems then the Bible and Holy Writings Yea let me ask the devoutest of you whether at any time you do weep for your Sins of daily incursion Are you sensible of your too much Formality too little Fervency in your Prayers Do you weep for your vain Thoughts proud Imaginations inordinate Desires your Ignorance Forgetfulness of many Duties Slothfulness Passionateness Omissions of many Duties you should doe Uncharitableness Unthankfulness and many other Sins of Errour and secret Sins which God knows though men do not Sure a sincere Christian is a weeping Christian if God keep him from greater Enormities yet he will find cause enough to mourn for his daily Aberrations if he do as a true Penitent doth take notice of the Naughtiness of his own deceitfull Heart If you say daily the Lord's Prayer and be not sensible of your daily Sins do you not mock God when you say Forgive us our Sins Sure Christ when he directed the use of that Prayer appointed you to be examining and judging your selves every day to confess your Sins to bemoan them to ask Pardon for them to resolve and vow against them every day And Oh that God would give you a Heart of Flesh in stead of a Heart of Stone you that are guilty of more hainous Crimes such as I have named or any other your own Consciences can inform you of to imitate S. Peter to goe out immediately after this Sermon is ended and weep bitterly to break off your Sins by Righteousness as Daniel advised Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.27 And you that though unblamable towards Men yet are conscious of offending God by any privy Transgressions yea all of you who have any remainders of sinfull Corruption in you Oh that you would not defer but this day yea every day imitate holy David in his holy vocall penitential Weeping which hath been this day described to you And let every Affliction you feel or fear specially the thought of your Death bring you to a daily practice of Repentance and Supplication unto God that your Iniquities may not be your Ruine but that your Tranquillity may be lengthned here and you may be blessed for ever in the world to come Amen LAVS DEO THE PENITENT's PRAYER The Fourth SERMON PSALM li. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin WE find in this Text a Sinner struck with the sense of his Sins and pleading at the Mercy-seat of God for the Remission and Forgiveness of them If the Greatness of his Person or the Sacredness of his Function had been Antidote enough against Temptation Armour of proof against the fiery darts of Satan we had not this day heard of David a Sinner for he was a King and he was a Prophet and a man after God's own heart But since neither his Profession nor his Royalty could protect him from being a Sinner and that in so foul and crimson Crimes as Adultery and Murther which occasioned the penning of this Psalm 't is happy that we yet find him here a Penitent and a complaining one for we have him here a Supplicant at his Prayers on his knees with a Miserere mei Deus Have mercy on me O God c. What S. Paul said of himself that his Fall and Recovery was a Pattern to all that should believe in Christ may be as rightly said of David The Lord permitted him to sin that no man might presume but the strongest Saint might take heed lest he fall that none might be high-minded but fear and the Lord also recovered him by Repentance and hath left his Confession and Absolution upon record that none might despair but that his Example might direct them to return to God after their Wandrings and erect and keep up their spirits from sinking by the assurance of his Mercy so remarkably vouchsafed to so great a Transgressour And therefore if there be any Soul that hears me this day struck with a deep sense and horrour of his Sins lying groaning and trembling under the heavy pressure and burthen of them let him not despair of Pardon either by reason of the Quality or Quantity of them for here are Loving-kindnesses or kind Mercies a Multitude of tender Mercies well expressed by Zachary Luk. 1.78 the Bowells of Compassion of our God such as are in a Woman or rather exceeding the Compassion of a Woman on the Son of her womb Isa 49.15 Loving-kindness of God against Unkindness of Man Bowells of Mercy towards him who had no Compassion on himself mercifull Remembrance of him who forgat his God and himself awakening and saving him who in his insensible Lethargy of Impenitence would have destroyed himself Whoever thou art know that the Holy Ghost hath recorded this Story for thy Consolation not onely set David's Fall before thee but likewise the means of his Recovery the many and tender Mercies of his God As the Prophet Nathan was sent to David so David himself is sent to thee He extends and reaches out to thee the same Physick that he took himself And therefore distrust not thy Cure but come and hear David bitterly bewailing his Condition and with him bewail sadly thine own See him weeping and weep thou as fast Hear his Voice and Cry piercing the Clouds and be not thou dumb but as loud as he till thou hast awakened the Compassion of thy God Observe all this and say with him Have mercy upon me O God c. Which words are the main Petition of this Holy Supplicant in behalf of himself for pardoning Grace out of the deep sense of his great Sins and apprehension of God's great Mercies And they exhibit to us 1. David's Malady the Disease which pained him to the heart which made him groan cry out and be instant with the great Physician of Souls for Cure which is expressed with Aggravation in three words 1. Transgression a word that notes sometimes Rebellion or Revolt from God 2. Iniquity or Perverseness importing his Unrighteousness to Vriah his Wife Himself his Child by her his whole House and People who all tasted of the bitterness of his eating that forbidden fruit 3. Sin or Errour intimating the great Folly which he now deprehended in yielding so to his Lust as to erre from God's Command and for a little Pleasure to draw on himself the Wrath of God and the Horrour of Conscience now upon him He useth not mincing or diminutive terms as those that love their Sins as fond Parents do their Children and call their Monstrosities small Blemishes but paints out his Sins in their most ugly Deformity to shew his Hatred of them to the utmost and to justifie God fully Yea he useth those very terms to express his Sins by
return again and findeth the house empty swept and garnished that is after the Sinner in some sort hath repented and his Conscience hath been quieted and his former Courses relinquished for a time he grow secure and loose in his Conversation the unclean Spirit taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked then himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse then the first Matth. 12.43 44 45. Satan doth make such a person more sinfull then before and his Condition is worse then it was before his seeming Repentance Most truly doth S. Peter tell us 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. If after persons have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them But it happens to them according to the true Proverb The Dog is returned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire As it is with men who relapse into a Fever which was for a time abated their Disease grows worse and mortal so is it with them that after some imperfect Change and Peace acquired do fall back into the same or other Sins become secure and heedless of Temptations they commonly become more notorious Sinners and more hardned therein to their perdition None likely make a mock of Sin and sport themselves in Evil more then they who once seemed to be humbled penitent and reformed And therefore there is as great a necessity of begging for effectuall Renovation as Condonation from God Sanctification throughout in Body Soul and Spirit as well as Justification from all our Transgressions To which the onely Motive is God's Loving-kindness and the multitude of his tender Mercies according to the next Observation V. OBSERVATION That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blots out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from his Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin As God said of the people of Israel that it was not for their Excellency Multitude Righteousness or Vprightness of heart that he took them to be his People Deut. 7.7 and 9.5 but out of his own Compassion Ezek. 16.5 8 9. speaks of them under the Similitude of an unpitied outcast infant till he pitied loved washed and cloathed them so it is true concerning every person that is saved that is justified and sanctified that he is before unclean till the Loving-kindness of God towards him appears Not by Works of Righteousness which he hath done but according to his Mercy God our Saviour saves him by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace he may be made Heir according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3.4 5 7. And indeed all that is done by us before God pardons and cleanseth us from Sin provokes God against us nor is there so much as a thought in us of returning to God after our departure from his waies nor any help in our selves to deliver our own Souls till he pities us and saves us O Israel saith God Hosea 13.9 thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help He blotteth out our Transgressions for his own Name 's sake and out of his abundant Mercy through Christ It is through the Bloud of Christ as a Price of answerable value that he redeems us and yet it is mere Mercy that procures this for the payment of our Debt So that full Satisfaction to his Justice and free Remission do well consist together notwithstanding the exceptions of Socinians And we must still acknowledge that it is not for our sakes but for his holy Name 's sake that he cleanseth us from our Iniquities and upon this consideration he will be inquired of by repenting Sinners to doe it for them as it is said Ezek. 36.22 33 37. Which brings us to the last or VI. OBSERVATION That the onely way to obtain Deletion of Transgressions and Cleansing from Sin is to beg them of God upon consideration of the multitude of his Mercies and his Love in and through Christ So did the poor Publican obtain Justification by his crying Peccavi and supplicating thus God be mercifull to me a Sinner whom Christ propounds as an Example of a prospering Penitent excluding the self-justifying Pharisee from attaining Righteousness This is the Gospell-way to address our selves to the Throne of Grace to confess our Sins to trust onely to the bloud of Christ for cleansing us from all Sin to make use of him as our Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins In him we have Redemption through his bloud the Forgiveness of Sins according to the riches of his Grace Eph. 1.7 This is the way whereby God will be glorified and we shall be saved And therefore still our Litany must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord have mercy on us or with David Lord be mercifull unto me heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee APPLICATION And now it behoves you that have heard David's Petition opened unto you to apply his Case to your own Souls You have sinned as David did if not in the same kind yet in Sins enough to sink you into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone Can any of you say My Heart is clean I am pure from my Sin Can any of you deny that you were shapen in Iniquity and that in Sin your Mother conceived you Will not your own Conscience if you heed it inform you of many unholy and unrighteous Thoughts Words and Deeds If there should be any self-boasting Pharisee any ignorant Papist that imagines he can keep the Law of God and merit Heaven by his Works any deluded Quaker or other Fanatick that conceives himself perfect without Sin If there should be any Protestant Justitiary that conceives so well of his Innocence that he thinks God should wrong him if he should damn him so well of his Good deeds Prayers Alms Religious performances at Church or in private as to expect Heaven as wages due to them in exact Justice let him consider that he prefers himself before holy David S. Paul and such other holy Saints as have gone before us to Heaven Christ hath told us he is the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh to the Father but by him Joh. 14.6 And S. Peter tells us Act. 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other but Christ for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And therefore as it was said once to a Novatian by the Emperour Thou that thinkest thy self perfect set up thy Ladder and climb up to Heaven by thy self if thou canst so may I say to
thee Make the best thou canst of thine own Righteousness thou shalt find the way to Salvation by thine own Works a way unknown to the holy Saints untroden by them none there ever got thither that way That is not Scala Caeli the Ladder of Heaven by which the Saints climbed thither but Scala Gehennae the Precipice by which proud Pharisees superstitious Monks and Friers ignorant Quakers and formal Protestants that trust to their own Devotions and Good deeds tumble down to Hell I beseech you then as you love the Salvation of your Souls seriously examine your selves whether you that have sinned with David do repent with David Complain of your Sins be sensible of them as your most heavy Burthen confess them to God with detestation be instant for Cleansing from Sin through the multitude of God's Mercies hope for Pardon and Righteousness onely through Christ's Atonement by the Sacrifice of himself and his Intercession in Heaven have a settled purpose of Amendment of life be impatiently importunate with God for a new Heart and a new Spirit and expect these things and whatever Good your Souls want onely through the Loving-kindness and free Grace of God in Christ If it be so with you I may assure you of Blessedness and tell you from the Spirit of God that Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose Sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32.1 2. cited by S. Paul Rom. 4.7 8. to prove the Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works I may tell you from him Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit But if you be insensible of Sins unhumbled for them neither confess them freely nor bewail them mournfully fly not to the multitude of God's Mercies for Pardon trust to other things for Salvation then Christ's Merits find no change of your Hearts nor alteration of your Lives nor work of renewing Grace in your minds nor beg it of God as a thing most necessary for you I may truly say you stumble at the Stumbling-stone and that you will unless God awaken you and change your minds die in your Sins and perish for ever Be perswaded then to follow the Example of David S. Paul and other holy Saints find out by God's Law your Sins confess them to God bemoan them with hatred beg for Mercy in the Forgiveness of them trust to the Obedience of Christ in his dying for you his appearing with his Bloud before God magnify God's Grace and Christ's Love pray for a new Heart and study to live a holy Life and thou shalt be blessed Amen LAVS DEO THE TRUE PENITENT The Fifth SERMON PSALM li. 3. For I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me THIS Psalm is one of the Penitentials occasioned by the greatest Sins which David committed the greatest Rebuke which ever he underwent and therefore penned with the greatest Compunction of spirit and most vehement Deprecation of his Guilt and Punishment of any which he composed After the Inscription of the Psalm which shews that it was framed after his Conviction by Nathan the Prophet and the Denunciation of Divine Vengeance for his Adultery and Murther he instantly craves Pardon with variety of Expressions and most prevalent Motives doubling and redoubling his Petitions and adding this forcible Reason which the words of my Text yield For I acknowledge my Transgression c. Wherein 1. He professeth ingenuously his Agnition of his Transgressions as most hainous of deep dye Crimson Scarlet Sins Red Sins Bloud-guiltiness and damnable Uncleanness 2. That he did not slightly take notice thereof but that as his Sin stared in his face to his great Horrour so he set it before him for his deep Humiliation and that not onely for a fit while the Prophet's Conviction was fresh in his memory but for a continuance it was ever before him he mourned and intended to mourn for it all or most of his days to repent and abhor himself in dust and ashes God had set it before his face by his Prophet and he did set it continually before his face as an humble Penitent And therefore he importunes God with strong hope for mercifull Forgiveness In the Text we have many considerable things to be observed concerning the estate of an holy and humble Penitent As 1. He owns his Transgressions and his Sins as by and from himself My Transgression and My Sin 2. He doth not extenuate but aggravate them by various terms denoting their Criminousness Transgressions and Sin 3. He doth freely acknowledge and confess them to God and Men. 4. He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sin is ever before him He continues this Humiliation as just and equall by reason of the greatness of his Iniquity 5. He pleads this as a Reason to induce God to a compassionate relenting towards him and a gracious Condonation Of these briefly in their Order I. OBSERVATION A Penitent Sinner owns his Sin as from himself He doth not as Eve did father it on the Serpent or as Adam on Eve but imputes the acting of it to his own innate Pravity as the fountain and spring out of which it did issue And that is indeed a right derivation of it Every man saith S. James 1.14 15. is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lusts and enticed Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Perditio tua ex te O Israel said God to Israel Thy destruction is of thy self And the same may be said of all Sinners The Providence of God orders the Occasions of Sin but it is Man 's own Free will that chuseth to sin upon these Occasions God ordered Bathsheba's washing her self and David's walking on the roof of the house but he put not Lust into David's heart or the wicked contrivance of her Defilement Vriah's assaulting Rabbah and the Souldiers falling upon Vriah were by Divine Providence but the Plot of David and execution of it by Joab were of humane Maliciousness Impenitent Sinners charge their Wickedness on their ill Fortune unhappy Destiny unlucky Planet which is done with the like reason as if the Knife were to be blamed for a man's Self-murther or the Bread he eats as the cause that he is choaked or the Girdle he wears that he was strangled by it Planets and other natural Agents though they have Influence on the Body which may provoke to Evil yet they cannot necessitate the Mind to assent to it or to act accordingly Casual Concurrence of things may prompt but not compell to Sin Evil Company bad Counsel cruel Tyrants may have power on the Members not the Will It is true the Devil is the Father of Lies He that committeth Sin is of the Devil but were it not that
of his Holiness in my Text. Now he is so termed in opposition to the unclean Spirit Matth. 12.43 or evil Spirit and Spirit of Devils which are in some men as the Holy Spirit is in others For as the Heathens imagined that every man had his good Genius or his bad his good or bad Angel so the Holy Scripture expresseth the Motions of men to be from the Spirit of God's Holiness in them who are sanctified and from Satan in them who are unholy as in Cain and Judas Now the Spirit of God is sometimes spoke of as God's Instrument by which he works in the works of Creation Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created and thou renewest the face of the Earth Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life When God bringeth any great thing to pass he doth it by his Spirit Zech. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit That which is in Matth. 12.28 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God is in Luk. 11.20 If I with the finger of God cast out Devils whence it appears that the Spirit of God is Digitus Dei God's Hand or Finger whereby he works But especially the works God doeth in and for the Saints are ascribed to the Spirit of God All these things worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally even as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 All those precious Qualities and Operations whereby we please God are termed Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 23. 2. This helps us to understand how the Holy Spirit may be taken from a person to wit by withdrawing from him those Operations of the Holy Spirit which are amiable to God or comfortable to us Now in this Petition it is to be considered that notwithstanding David's Sins he was not utterly bereft of God's Spirit for in this Psalm his humble Confession his ardent Supplication shew that there was some fire of God's Spirit remaining in him all the sparks were not gone out Yet he felt so little of the Vigour and Consolation of the Spirit that he feared its utter Extinction And because this would leave him in utter Darkness therefore he is importunate with God that he would not take his Holy Spirit from him but as it is in the next verse restore unto him the joy of his Salvation and uphold him with his free Spirit The Petition thus opened yields us these Observations 1. That the having of God's Spirit in us and with us is the most beneficial Gift which God gives to a Repenting Sinner 2. That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit 3. That a Repenting Sinner is an earnest Suitour to God for the Continuance of it to him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That God's Spirit is the most beneficial Gift that God bestows on a Repenting Sinner This is manifest from the words of Christ Luk. 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good Gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Which shews that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is a greater Gift and far better then that which earthly Parents give to their Children as bodily Food and the like and that God in giving his Holy Spirit to those that ask him shews an Affection far exceeding that which Parents have for their Children when they supply them with Corporall sustenance Adde hereunto that the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.14 in his Benediction of the Corinthians prays thus for them The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all Amen Whereby it is manifest that the Communion of the Holy Spirit is ranked among the best things he could beg for that people to wit the Grace of Christ and the Love of God Nor is this without reason for the Spirit of God removes all that Evil which is odious to God and noisome to our selves it washes away that Filthiness of flesh and spirit which is loathsome to God it cures that Blindness of Mind that Hardness of Heart that Perverseness of Soul that Impotency of Faculties which make us unable to doe any thing that may please God or rectify our own Actions It is this clean Water which being sprinkled on us by God makes us clean in his eyes so as to cleanse us from all our Filthiness and all our Evils It is that by giving of which we have a new heart and a new spirit is put within us God takes away the stony heart out of our flesh and gives us an heart of flesh which causeth us to walk in God's Statutes and to keep his Judgments and doe them Ezek. 11.19 20. In whom the Spirit of God dwells not there is a Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they do not hear even the Gospel is hid to them the God of this world blinds their minds lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image God should shine unto them they are held in the Snare of the Devil and are taken captive by him at his will An evil Spirit possesseth them so that they want the Consolations of God the Peace which passeth understanding which guards the minds of them that believe through Christ Jesus they are filled with Horrour of Conscience are under the spirit of Bondage they sow to the Flesh and of the Flesh reap Corruption On the other side where the Spirit of God inhabits it renews a man in the spirit of his mind so that he knows the things that are freely given him of God spiritually discerns the hidden wisedom of God in a mystery which God hath ordained before the world to our glory even those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Even to Babes are these things revealed by God's Spirit which the Princes of the world knew not but they were hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 Whence it is that they are made the Epistle of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord they are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.3 18. By which means they are made the Temple of God in that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them vers 16. and holy unto God an habitation of God through the Spirit they are joyned to the Lord one Spirit with him new Creatures in Christ and conformed to him Whence it is that Sin bath not dominion over them nor the Wicked one toucheth them They are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein they were held
the Fountain the Wheel to be broken at the Cistern as Solomon poetically describes that State Eccles. 12.3 4 5 6. These and innumerable more Weaknesses are incident to Man whereof some are natural common to all some adventitious by our own Folly Mens Injuriousness the Creature 's Harmfulness God's just Judgments which happen to men Yet all these the Spirit of a man will sustain By the Spirit is no doubt meant the Soul of man with its vital Faculties his Reason Will and Affections of which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2.11 For what man hath known the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him But then it must be understood of the Spirit of a man in its Rectitude and Integrity opposite to a wounded Spirit as the Antithesis in the latter part of the verse shews This Rectitude or Integrity of the Spirit consists 1. In the right use of Reason which is indeed the Sinews of the Spirit The less there is of Reason the more is the imbecillity of the Spirit and the weaker the Mind the less is the Patience Children can bear nothing upon every Lash every motion of a Rod presently they cry an ugly Vizor any strange Noise or unexpected Accident affrights them So it is with weak-spirited persons they are ready to faint at every Threat every Frown of a Superiour they think every Symptom of a Disease presageth Death and presently the Physician must be fetcht every Rumour of War puts them to a stand what to doe where to be every Loss is as if they were undone every Difficulty apprehended is as a Lion in the way When Gideon bids Jether his first-born up and slay Zeba and Zalmunna though they were in his hands under his feet yet the youth drew not his sword for he feared because he was yet a youth Judg. 8.20 Rise thou said they then to Gideon and fall upon us for as the man is so is his strength As is the man's Reason and Understanding so is his Courage and Fortitude of Spirit Mens cujusque is est quisque It is not the height of the Stature nor the bigness of the Bone nor the length of the Arm nor the vigour of the Members that inable a person to bear or act A little man with a lively Spirit can fight better then a Giant that is slow in motion and dull in contrivance a cunning Vlysses will overcome Difficulties and bear Storms better then a lusty Ajax Necessitas fortiter ferre docet Consuetudo facilé Men that have much Wit to find ways of evasion Skill to apply themselves to persons and times to foresee Means and Events will wind themselves out of Troubles when a man of a rude and boisterous Spirit by his self-vexing his fretfulness and fuming doth but hamper himself the more like the Bird that flutters in the Net Custome also makes many a Disease born without Disquietness many a dangerous Storm adventured through without Fear The more Experience men have of overcoming Afflictions the more are they armed against them Any way whereby Reason is confirmed Infirmities are abated The Foresight of Evils approaching makes them the less formidable Those Darts pierce least which are foreseen best Reason is indeed a Buckler that bears off many Blows which would cut a Fool to the heart The Argument of the Apostle is rational 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to men and therefore should be born Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes Nemo recusat is Reason in the Poet. How admirable were the Resolutions how constant were the Actings of spirit in Stoicks in bearing their Sufferings by the help of Philosophy Pains of the Stone Torture of the Rack were stoutly born without a Groan upon such Apprehensions as these This Evil reacheth not Me but my Sheath what is common to me with Beasts not that which is mine The Writings of Seneca Epictetus Suetonius and others are full to this purpose so are the Relations of the Lives of Philosophers Certain it is that for the sustaining of humane Evils Prudence is much availing That of Solomon is true of it Eccles. 7.19 Wisedom strengtheneth the wise more then ten mighty men which are in the City 2. But then 2ly Reason is much more strong when there is with it a Breast-plate of Righteousness a Conscience of Uprightness This is indeed Armour of proof such as no Infirmities no sad Accidents can penetrate Then is the Spirit of a Man whole and sound able to bear its Burthens of Afflictions and Injuries when he is Integer vitae Scelerisque purus of an innocent Life and unspotted Conscience Yea such hath been the height of Confidence in some moral Heathens such their Heroick Gallantry that they have provoked the most barbarous Tyrants to doe their worst have gloriously triumphed in the severest Tortures have vaunted of an undaunted mind though Heaven and Earth should be tumbled together Si fractus illabatur Orbis Impavidum ferient Ruinae What glorious talk have the Stoicks of their Vertues as of themselves sufficient to make them happy under any Pressures What sullen if not well-composed Deportment of Spirit have some of them shewed under Racks Strappado's and such like Engines of Cruelty What Euthymy or Tranquillity of mind have they had in Sicknesses yea in Death when Conscientia rectè factorum the consciousness of their well-doing specially for their Country hath animated them like strong Wine which chears the heart Holy Believers have if not with so daring a Spirit yet with a calmer and more gentle Submission to the Will of God held up their heads under the greatest Rebukes of God's Hand or Satan's Malice when they have appealed to God concerning their Sincerity in their Obedience to God's Will When Hezekiah was sick unto death and Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said Thus saith the Lord Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live he turned his face towards the Wall and prayed unto the Lord and said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.1 2 3. He was under a mortal Disease with sense of killing Pain had a sharp Message by the Prophet which might cut him to the heart yet this did not sink him but that he held up so as in the Conscience of his Uprightness to urge God to revoke his Sentence and lengthen his Life But of all the Instances of mere mortal mens enduring Afflictions no Example is like that transcendent Mirrour of Patience holy Job for notwithstanding all the Adversities wherewith Satan had laden him notwithstanding the Provocation of his froward Wife notwithstanding the injurious Criminations of his evilsurmizing Friends and the cross Arguings wherewith they a long while baited him yet he stood firm fell not into any kind of Dejectedness of mind
it is said Thou art a God ready to pardon or a God of Pardons gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindness And the Prophet Isa 55.7 exhorts the wicked to return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon It is then one of God's Jewells which his Crown is set with that he is not as a cruell Tyrant or infernall Fiend with whom there is nothing but Cruelty and Mischievousness but as a gracious King or loving Father in whom is Clemency as well as Justice affectionate Forgiveness as well as severe Correction Which that we may the better conceive it being that on which our Life lies it will be requisite that we consider 1. What Sins God forgives 2. For what Motive 3. To whom he forgives them 4. Why he forgives them I. For the first our Saviour hath resolved it in express terms Mark 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you All Sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness but is in danger of eternall Damnation What this Sin is and whether any be at this day guilty of it is a Question that requires some disquisition The Schoolmen as Aquinas make six Species of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Despair Presumption Impenitency Obstinacy Impugning the acknowledged Truth and Envying our Brother's Grace Protestant Divines taking in other Texts out of the Epistles to the Hebrews and Titus and out of S. John's 1. Epistle have formed such a Definition as this That it is a Blaspheming against the Gospel of Christ testified by a clear Conviction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Blasphemer arising out of a spightfull Hatred and obstinate Rejection of that Truth and Testimony of and by which he was convinced causing an oppugning of it and the Avouchers of it upon the strong possession Satan hath got in his Heart But the Text Mark 3.30 in which it is added Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit doth seem to restrain it to that spightfull belying Christ's Miracles done by the Spirit of God most evividently so as that they could not gainsay it as if they were done by the Prince of Devils and Christ were possessed and acted by an Unclean Spirit Which makes it very probable that none at this day can as things are commit it there being no such Miracles now done as can evidently shew the Operation of the Holy Spirit to be blasphemed as it was by the Pharisees Nor is Julian the Apostate sufficiently proved however so judged by some of the Ancients to have committed this Sin Much less have any of those doubting Souls who by reason of their Tenderness of Conscience which makes them very jealous and fearfull of their own Condition have been apt to charge themselves with this Sin any reason so to doe they being guilty of no such Blasphemy in words Rejecting of Christ Speaking evil of his Spirit or its Operations Oppugning of the Gospel or the Believers of it nor of any Obstinacy in any course of open Persecution or Disclaiming Christ and his Gospel Perhaps this which I have said may be of great use to some doubting and troubled Spirits who put themselves on the Rack through Mistakes arising from the Weakness of their Understandings and the Fearfulness of their Hearts As for any other Sins they are not in their own nature unpardonable other Blasphemies are pardonable Peter's Denying Christ though with Cursing himself if he knew him yet had Pardon Manasseh though notorious for his Cruelties as filling Jerusalem with innocent Bloud even of the Prophets of God though infamous for his setting up the most abominable Idolatries of the Gentiles though proceeding so far as to use Familiar spirits yet when he was humbled and prayed to God in his Affliction God heard him and forgave him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. I instance in these as seeming to come nighest to the Sin against the Holy Ghost the one sinning against Knowledge after Warning and solemn Promise to the contrary the other offending in the most hainous manner in Sins of the greatest Guilt with extreme Wilfulness and Violence Not to mention the Sins of David or Lot or Noah or Solomon If Cain meant it as the Vulgar Latin hath it Gen. 4.13 My Sin is greater then can be forgiven it might well be replied to him Mentiris Cain Thou liest Cain Thy Sin might have been forgiven if thou hadst had a penitent Heart and hadst begged Pardon from God Though in the Law God would not forgive some Sins as Blasphemy Murther Adultery Sins with an high hand so as to expiate them by Sacrifice and free the Sinner from death though God sware to Eli that the Iniquities of his House should not be purged with Sacrifice nor Offerings for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 though he never will pardon the Sin of Devils of Judas the Son of Perdition nor the final Impenitent and Unbeliever Yet Christ tells us plainly No kind of Sin or Blasphemy except one but is pardonable to the sons of men II. But then upon what Motive God forgiveth Sins is to be farther considered They that say that any Sins against God are venial ex genere suo the whole kind of them of their own Nature as having an evil or inordinate thing for their Object but not against the Love of God or our Neighbour or by reason of the Smalness of the matter in which or the sudden Motion by which they are done speak otherwise then the Scripture which makes the Wages of Sin simply and every Sin death Rom. 6.23 and him cursed who continues not in every thing written in the Law to doe it Gal. 3.10 They derogate from the efficacy of Christ's Bloud which alone is it that cleanseth from all Sin make it a light matter to sin against the Most high and infinite Majesty would excuse our First Parents Sin and harden men in Impenitency And when they make voluntary Works of Penance Satisfaction for such Sins Priests Absolutions Popes Pardons and saying of Divine Offices for the Sinner sufficient to take away the Guilt of Sin against God though they provide for their accursed Gain yet they derogate from the Necessity and alone Sufficiency of Christ's Bloud who is the onely Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins and the Sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. We learn Heb. 9.22 that without shedding of bloud is no Remission and that though the Sacrifices of the Law might procure Forgiveness in respect of some Penalties and sanctify to the purifying of the Flesh yet that it is the Bloud of Christ alone who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that can purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God vers 14. and that it is for Christ's sake whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith
Plagues require great Mercies and importunate Suing Now must the Bridegroom goe forth of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet The Ministers of the Lord all sorts of persons old and young must cry with Tears and Supplications Spare us O Lord and give not thy Heritage to reproach We must lift up our hands with our hearts to God in the Heavens as sensible that nothing but his Mercy can save us that he is ready to hear and help when we hope in his Mercy that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins We must mind God of his former Mercies trust on him as one that hath promised to deliver us when we call on him in the day of Trouble look unto him with Patience as being assured that they that wait for him shall not be ashamed 3. We must adde an unmovable Resolution to amend our waies to sin no more as we have done to abhor Evil and cleave to that which is good in Duties of Religion Prayer Hearing God's Word Praising of God Thanksgiving to be more frequent and serious to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts from double-mindedness to be upright in what we doe walking humbly with our God and seeking his Glory all our daies And in two things especially we are to deal rightly with God 1. In doing Justice to others if we be publick persons by punishing Sin and giving just Sentence for all that are wronged if private by restoring that which is not our own and righting those we have injured Remember that God abhors ex Rapina Holocaustum Robbery for Burnt-offerings and that the Prayers of the unjust are an Abomination to the Lord. 2. In shewing Mercy to others We are to be mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull chiefly when we beg Mercy at his hands This is a necessary Duty for a Fasting-day Isa 58.6 7. Is not this the Fast c Now especially is a time for this Duty in which there is so much Want by reason of the great Poverty that is come upon Families shut up now that Trading is decayed and Provision so dear and difficult to be got As you cry to God for Help so do others Necessities cry to you for Relief Have you then Bowels of Mercy for them as you would have Bowels of Mercy in God towards you Let your hand be open to them as you would have God's hand ready for you So may you expect Preservation in this time of Danger at least you may be assured however you speed now of Life eternall hereafter Which God grant c. Amen LAVS DEO THE HEAVENLY CALL The Twelfth SERMON HEBREWS iv 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts THIS Passage is a Quotation with an Application of it beyond what at first the words seemed to import They were spoken by David but intended as a Monition to hear the Gospell They are a Summons or Writ of Appearance served upon Jews and Gentiles limiting them to a certain Day of accepting the offer of the Gospell without delay upon pretence of Business Profit or Pleasure by themselves without Attorney or Proxy The thing to be done is hearing his Voice the means thereunto is Removere prohibens to remove that which might hinder the Hardness of the Heart This being applied to the Gospell of Christ intimates 1. That the Preaching of the Gospel is the Voice of God 2. That it is to be heard 3. That it is to be heard to day 4. That to the end it may be heard to day the Heart must not be hardned I. OBSERVATION That the Gospel of Christ is the Voice of God It is the express Assertion of S. Peter 1. Epist 1.25 alluding to Isa 40.8 But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Which is demonstratively confirmed 1. By its own Evidence in respect of which it is termed the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Image of God 2 Cor. 4.4 It is not denied that it is the hidden Wisedom of God in a mystery which none of the Princes of the world knew yea it is such as eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man without Revelation from him it being not an humane Invention but a Divine Contrivance yet shining forth in the Preaching of it by Christ and his Ministers it exhibits such a Light as can come from none but God It is not like any Talmudicall Fable or Popish Legend or Poeticall Fiction or witty Romance the Brats of mens Fancy or subtile Composure But it is for the matter of it sutable to God's Wisedom Goodness and Holiness agreeable to the undoubted Oracles of God committed to the Jews foretold and prefigured by the Prophecies of the Old Testament and Shadows of the Law Whence S. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.16 We have not followed cunningly-devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and vers 19. that Christians had a more sure word of Prophecy to which they were to take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark place adding that the Evidence of the Gospell is as the Dawning of the Day and the Arising of the Day-star in the Christians hearts 2. And in truth the Gospel appears to be such by its Effects It doeth to the Heart what the Stars and the Sun do to the Eyes it enlightens it enlivens it warms it spirits the Heart It doeth that which Natural Reason could not doe Philosophy could not attain to the Law could not accomplish It discovers our selves to our selves the Being Properties Counsels of God to us It turns the Heart from Sin begets Men to God fills the Soul with heavenly Comforts strengthens and quickens the Spirit to doe the Will of God and to suffer for his Name It makes men to be of composed Spirits and celestiall Conversation beyond what either Stoicall Philosophy or Rabbinicall Dictates could raise men unto to be more noble and heroical then those renowned Worthies or Patriots which either Greeks or Romans have admired and magnified 3. And which puts it out of all doubt to be Divine it hath such Attestations as could be given by none but God For besides what John the Baptist saw and heard at Christ's Baptism besides what S. Peter and his Collegues testified who were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty when he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1.17 besides all this the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles did so convinced Nicodemus that he confessed We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can doe these Miracles which thou doest except God be with him Joh. 3.2 And that
Mercies 2. By the Indesiciency of them Though men fail in their Duty though they fail in their Obedience though they be wanting in Returning to God though their Prayers be consumed yet his Compassions are not consumed and therefore they are not consumed And this is here alleged as a Door of Hope to the prophet that God would restore that People for to that end are these words brought in this place as that which follows in four Verses of this Chapter plainly shews From hence then this Explication of the words being premised these Observations do arise 1. That the Lord in Punishing of his People doth not consume them 2. That Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption 3. That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People 4. That these Mercies fail not 5. That the Non-consumption of God's People is to be ascribed to this 6. That the apprehension of this encourageth them to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Health and Peace Of these I shall speak in the order propounded and then apply them to the present state of things and so conclude I. OBSERVATION That the Lord doth not in Punishing of his People consume them This is equivalent to what God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth And he gives this Reason For the Spirit should fail before me and the Soul which I have made It is true the Devil is a roaring Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 He is the Apollyon the Abaddon the Thief that comes not to save but to steal and to kill and to destroy Joh. 10.10 because the Sheep are not his own He made nothing nor hath any Love to any thing and therefore seeks not to help any but to marre and doe mischief to all that God hath made But the People of God are the work of his hands and the Sheep of his Pasture Psal 100.3 and therefore he will have a desire to the work of his hands Job 14.15 What is our work we are loth to pull down So God doubtless doth not delight as Children to make a house of Sticks and then kick it down again As he made Man after his own Image so he is not easily induced to break him He that accounts it an hainous Injury to himself to curse Man with the Tongue who is made after his Image Jam. 3.9 and is so severe against what-ever shall destroy him that it is his strict Determination for Preservation of Mankind after the Floud that he will not let the killing of Man go unrevenged but enacteth this Law among his Precepts to Noah Gen. 9.5 6. And surely your bloud of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hands of every man's Brother will I require the Life of man Whoso sheddeth man's bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the Image of God made he man He doubtless is so chary of Men as not to consume them himself utterly till Iniquity is grown so daring as that there is no Remedy His own People it is true do sin and provoke God and he often brings them low yet he doth not make an utter end of them because they are not onely his Creatures as others but also his Redeemed and Chosen people Thus the Prophet Samuel told the Israelites 1 Sam. 12.20 22. Fear not ye have done all this Wickedness yet turn not aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name 's sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People That which a man hath purchased for himself he will hardly let it be taken from him with much more reluctancy will he cast it away Though Michal had been given to another and was defiled yet David would have her again 2 Sam. 3.13 because he had espoused her to him for an hundred Foreskins of the Philistines How much less will God let go those whom he hath purchased by his Son's Bloud He will not have him destroyed by our Meat for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 If any through the Watchman's failing to warn them perish their bloud will he require at the Watchman's hands Ezek. 3.18 Which shews that he hath a Fatherly Care of his own People that they be not consumed And though they provoke him so as to cause his Anger to wax hot against them yet in the midst of Judgment he remembers Mercy He chastiseth as a Father doth not exterminate or extirpate as an Enemy If they break his Statutes and keep not his Commandments Then he will visit their Transgression with a Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Nevertheless his Loving-kindness he will not utterly take from them nor suffer his Faithfulness to fail Psal 89.31 32 33. Though he make a full end of all the Nations yet he will not make a full end of them but correct them in measure yet will he not leave them wholly unpunished Jer. 46.28 Wherein he manifests a mixture of Mercy and Justice And therefore in the next place II. OBSERVATION Holy persons ascribe not the Mitigation of God's extreme Severity in his Punishments to any promeriting Cause in themselves but confess their own Sins deserve utter Consumption This was the acknowledgment of Ezra Thou our God hast punished us less then our Iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 Though the Punishment of the Jews were exceeding great insomuch that our Prophet Lament 4.6 compares it to the Punishment of the Sin of Sodom and aggravates it as secundùm quid in some respect greater then it yet to speak simply and absolutely there was an ingredient of Mercy that did allay it and therefore they acknowledge their Sins to have deserved greater Evils then they felt Whence in all their Addresses to God they ascribe Righteousness to their Maker and take all the Blame of their Sufferings on themselves In the same Chapter vers 15. O Lord God of Israel saith Ezra thou art Righteous for we remain yet escaped as at this day But most fully the Prophet Daniel Chapter 9.11 12 13 14. We have sinned against the Lord our God And he hath confirmed the words which he spake against us by bringing upon us a great Evil for under the whole Heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem Yet made we not our Prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our Iniquities and understand thy Truth Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the Evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is Righteous in all his works which he doeth for we obeyed not his voice See also vers 5 6 c. of the same Chapter And indeed such Acknowledgments are
God's Mercy is the practice and delight of them that have a Spirit of Holiness in all Generations They write Ex dono Dei on all they have they ascribe all they doe to Mercy all their Prosperity Victory Success they account as Mercies from God When they cast up the Inventory of their Good things they have enjoyed all that they possess the Summe totall is innumerable Mercies How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the Sand Psalm 139.17 18. The Law of Gratitude then which none is more equal ties every one to magnify God's Mercy What hath any which he hath not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And who can look upon his Receipts as due Wages and not rather pure Alms Who hath not received loads of Benefits from God and all out of pure Mercy Our Forming in the womb is a prime Mercy our Birth our Education our Instruction our Preservation our Salvation That I be not infinite in this Account Our Life Breath and all our Ways all our natural Parts and Abilities all our Motions and Proceedings all our Escapes from Dangers from Sicknesses from Death and most of all from being a Prey to the Devil and our Deliverance from Hell are Evidences of transcendent Mercy in God which all God's people are sensible of And this leads us to the VI. OBSERVATION That the apprehension of God's great Mercy encourageth his People to hope and wait on God for a Consummation of their Welfare The greatness of God's Mercies encouraged David to cast himself into God's hand rather then to fall into the hands of men 2 Sam. 24.14 And Holy Daniel in that effectual fervent Prayer Dan. 9.8 9. to appeal to God's Mercy O Lord to us belongeth Confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him Vers 18. We do not present our Supplications before thee for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies Psalm 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands Isa 63.15 Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowells and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is Mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption Not one of all the Holy Saints in all the Bible hath ever dared to utter such Expressions to God or men as if they could challenge the least Relief in Trouble the least Abatement of Sufferings much less eternall Life and Reward in Heaven upon account of their own Merit as Pharisaicall Self-Justitiaries have presumed to doe Holy Jacob on the contrary Gen. 32.10 tells God I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant And Nehemiah when he allegeth his Actings for God Neh. 13.22 thus bespeaks him Remember me O my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy Mercy This is the Plea of all upright humble Souls this is the Anchora sacra the sure Anchour upon which their Spirits are stayed in all their Fluctuations this is that Gale of wind which carries them on comfortably in all their Voiages They have learned from the Psalmist Psal 33.18 Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and that hope in his Mercy and therefore they say vers 22. Let thy Mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee They have found this Address to God always prosperous and therefore they joyn with the Holy Prophet in the words of my Text and the two following verses It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy Faithfulness The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him APPLICATION And now what is more necessary more just more meet for us to doe then to joyn in consort with the Holy Prophet in this passage Surely we may each of us say that it hath been of the Lord's Mercies that we have not been consumed in this most deadly Pestilence which hath swept away in our great City and the neighbouring places not many short of an Hundred thousand and yet we have hitherto been preserved alive to be Monuments of his Mercy Have not his Mercies been new to us every morning when we have heard either the dolefull Knells or the hideous voice of Carr-men Bring out your Dead or the Reports of the Weekly Bills of Mortality so many Hundreds in such a Parish so many Thousands in the whole dead of the Plague and yet we alive It was thought by God no small Mercy to Baruch when the common Calamity added Grief to his Sorrow when he fainted in his Sighing and found no Rest to give him his Life Behold I will bring Evill upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy Life will I give unto thee for a Prey in all places whither thou goest Jer. 45.5 And should you not count it a great Mercy to you that in this common and sore Judgment in which perhaps you have lost Wives Husbands Children Friends Neighbours Goods in which you have been filled with Fears oppressed with Griefs that yet you are not consumed that yet the whole City the whole Land is not consumed that yet our King our Nobles our Teachers our Government our Glory is not buried in perpetual Oblivion It is true it is a heavy Calamity but we have deserved worse It is true we have lost our Friends but our Lives are not lost our Souls are not lost unless our Unthankfulness our future Disobedience our Murmuring provoke God to bring a worse Misery the casting of Soul and body into Hell-fire which our Sins have merited Oh then let us still all our impatient Complaints let us quiet our Spirits in the present estate we are in let us be thankfull to God that we are not in Hell let us confess our Unworthiness let us be humbled for the great Depravedness of our former sinfull ways let us justify God in his inflicting Vengeance on us and our Land let us forsake those Sins which we have been guilty of that we have reason to conceive added fewell to this Fire that hath burnt so fiercely and wasted so extremely Let every one of us bewail the Plague of his own Heart let us lay to heart and mourn for the Sins of the City and the whole Nation their Pride Uncleanness Riot Oppression Unrighteousness Profaneness and the iterated Rebellions first open and hostile secondly more secret in Non-Conformity to Laws and Government and this maintained even against the unparallel'd Goodness
all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul And in a word He uses all the ways he can to demonstrate his sense of God's Goodness to him to keep a Memorial of his Loving-kindnesses to affect others with his Experiments that both he and all others as much as in him lay might be moved to pray unto to trust in to praise and obey God as one that delivereth from death The like Instance we have Isa 38. concerning Hezekiah A Message was brought to him that he should die He betakes himself to Prayer turns his face towards the Wall and weeps God hears his Prayer sees his Tears adds to his days fifteen years Being recovered he writes an Hymn of Praise sets out his Danger and Deliverance with his Resolution to praise God all his days in the most solemn manner he was able Even the Light of Nature taught the same to the Mariners Jonah 1.16 All people whatsoever that have acknowledged a God have still ascribed their Deliverances from Death to their God and have still performed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thank-offerings to their Deities upon their Preservation Nor was this done by them without great and just Reasons 1. For first Death is the chief of all Evils it deprives of all Good Omnia appetunt Bonum saith the Philosopher in the beginning of his Ethicks It 's natural to all to desire their own Good Beasts will struggle much with the Slayer before they will die Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life The most sickly needy person would fain preserve his Life Death is most resisted as the most terrible Nature apprehends it as the Privation of all Good Even our Lord Christ would fain have had this Cup pass from him and therefore in the days of his Flesh he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from Death Heb. 5.7 Though he had no Sin of his own to gall his Conscience yet he had a natural sense of the Evil of Death and earnestly desired Deliverance from it The Being he had as a Man he so prized that if his Father's Will had not engaged him to it he would never have parted with it Life is sweet it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun but there is Bitterness in Death as the King of the Amalekites speaks 1 Sam. 15.32 Many Circumstances make it indeed more bitter to some then others yet to all it hath its exceeding Bitterness O Death saith the Son of Sirach how bitter is the Remembrance of thee to the man that liveth at rest in his possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and that hath Prosperity in all things yea unto him that is yet able to receive meat Ecclus. 41.1 I deny not but some to avoid the fury of Tyrants have killed themselves yet not without fretting and indignation Some to gain an immortal Name and others by Satanical Delusions or Philosophicall Charms have of themselves embraced Death but I cannot say they have done it without any Reluctancy at all though to avoid a worse Evil or obtain a better Good as they conceived they have parted with their Lives There were some Circumstances which might have made Death more bitter at this time to David then it was to him when he fell asleep and was gathered to his Fathers To be killed in the Land of the Philistines by the hands of the Uncircumcised when he fled from Saul out of some distrust of God's Preservation in his own Country to have died with the Disappointment of his hopes of being King of Israel to which he was anointed by Samuel and had God's Promise for it had been a greater Grievance then to die in his Bed full of days and in a good old age Violent Deaths and dying by pestilential Diseases are the more terrible in regard a person is then deprived of all Help Society Conference with others all shun him even his nearest Relations as an instrument of Death when dying he kills others with his Breath his Plague-sore takes away the Life of his Child whose Life he prizeth above his own the Life of his Friend yea his Wife that is as his own Soul These and many other such Concomitants of Death do make it more dreadfull to a man But there is yet something besides that makes it most terrible The Consideration that Death is the Wages of Sin adds greater weight to the pressure of Death for then Death becomes not onely the Burthen of the Body but also of the Spirit While the Back is whole it will bear much but when the Skin is flayed off or the Shoulder-blade broken then to have a Load laid on the Back is intolerable So it is in the case of Death When there is Peace of Conscience it is not so heavy news but that Faith and a good Conscience can bear the tidings of it but when Death is presented as the Fruit not onely of the first Sin of Man but also of our own particular Sins so as Conscience tells a man My Excess in Drinking hath shortened my Life I have hastened my Death by my Riot and Intemperance by my Quarrelling my Disloyalty my Eagerness to get Wealth by my Wilfulness and Rashness in venturing into infected houses by a pragmatick humour in meddling with that which did not concern me by these and such like practices Oh then how doth Death bite as a Serpent and sting as an Adder The Sting of Death is Sin when it lies on the Conscience it kills as a Scorpion tortures as well as kills makes a Fire in the bones kindles Hell-fire in the Soul Especially when the Soul remembers how Sin hath been committed presumptuously with an high hand against Instructions of Parents Warnings of Friends Admonitions of Preachers Offers of Grace Invitations to Repentance that all these have been slighted and even the Gospel of Christ hath been neglected that the Sin remains unpardoned that after the first Death the second Death is expected after Death Judgment follows which ushers in Wrath and Vengeance When the Conscience of Unmercifulness Neglect of the poor Members of Christ wasting our Estate in Luxury spending our precious Time in vanities which should have been employed in Prayer and other holy Exercises and Meditations and in Self-examination flies in our Faces frights us like the sight of Furies when the thought of Christ's Coming to Judgment of that dreadfull Sentence Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels still runs in our mind then is Death the King of Terrours The man not onely sings Adrian's Ditty Animula vagula blandula Hospes Comésque Corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca but he roars out for the Disquietness of his Soul and cries out with Cain My Punishment or Iniquity is greater then I can bear Then will he wish the Mountains and Rocks to fall on
become the Path of Life to them as at several times he declares Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto Thomas I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life And indeed Christ is the Way of Life 1. As he is the Exemplary Cause of it All whom his Father hath foreknown being predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8.29 Wherefore Christ told his Disciples Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also The Life of Christ which he recovered by his Resurrection is the efficacious Pattern or Copy according to which God hath contrived our Life He is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.20 21 22. Hence the Apostle tells us Col. 3.3 that we are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God it is deposited as a Treasure in Christ's hand who is the Trustee to whom our Life is conveyed ad opus usum nostrum for our use and behoof as the Lawyers use to speak he hath Livery and Seisin given of Life on our behalf and so his Life is the Pledge and Path of our Life 2. As Christ is the Way of our Life as he is our Pattern Depositary and Pledge so is he the Way of our Life as the procuring Cause thereof He is the Prince of Life Act. 3.15 the Cause or Authour of eternall Salvation Heb. 5.9 and that many ways First by his Preaching which moved S. Peter to say Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall Life Joh. 6.68 The words saith Christ that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life vers 63. The Preaching of the Law was but the Ministration of Death of the Letter that killed 2 Cor. 3.6 7. but the word of the Gospel is the word of Life Phil. 2.16 Secondly by his Death for so he tells us Joh. 6.51 I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the world And indeed it was for this very cause that as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud so he also took part of the same that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death to wit the Devill and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their Life subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one better rendred by one Righteous deed to wit his Obedience unto Death the free Gift came upon all men unto Sanctification of life That as Sin hath reigned unto Death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternall Life by Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.18 21. His Death procures our Life both removendo Prohibens by taking away the Sting of Death Sin disarming Satan of his Power and by meritoriously purchasing our Life by paying a Price for us Thirdly by his Resurrection whereby he becomes as the First-fruits that sanctifies the rest of the Lump and so obtains Resurrection and Life for those that are Christ's As also he is impowered to give Life upon his Resurrection as himself saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 Hereupon the Apostle argues thus Rom. 5.10 For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Fourthly by his Ascension whereby he is become an High Priest not on Earth but such as is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 He is not as the Priests of the Law who were not suffered to continue by reason of death but continueth for ever and hath an unchangeable Priesthood or a Priesthood that passeth not from one to another being made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless or indissoluble Life and therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost or evermore that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Heb. 7.16 23 24 25. Fifthly He is the Prince of Life or Cause of our Life by shedding forth his Spirit after his being glorified which was as Rivers of living water as his own words import Joh. 7.38 39. This Gift of the Spirit of Christ is that whereby we are born again to a Spiritual Life That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit saith Christ Joh. 3.6 It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6.63 Neither indeed had Christ's Preaching or his Dying availed to bring us to Life had he not given us of his Spirit And therefore herein was the Prerogative of the Gospel above the Law that whereas that gave the Command but could not give the Spirit being a dead Letter by the Ministration of the Spirit or the Law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Christians are made alive 2 Cor. 3.6 The Gospel is become the Ministration of Righteousness vers 9. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.10 11. Sixthly Christ's Appearing shall consummate the Life of a Believer Though he now be dead in Appearance to the World to their Rites Practices Hopes Injoyments and his Life is now onely hid with Christ in God yet when Christ who is his Life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in Glory as the Apostle speaks most comfortably Col. 3.3 4. 2. On our part the Path of Life is 1. In our Union to Christ which is by Faith whereby he is our Head and we are his Members and therefore partakers of his Life I live saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life that I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Joh. 11.25 26. He that believeth on me although he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die The Life of a Christian is conjoyned with Christ's as that of a Child with the Mother's 2. In our Conformity to
Christ 1. In Dying with him and that First to the World If ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Col. 2.20 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is crucified to me and I unto the World Gal. 6.14 Secondly to Sin Rom. 6.6 7 8. Knowing this that our Old man is crucified with him that the body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin For he that is dead is freed from Sin Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall live with him Thirdly by Suffering with him It is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. If so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Rom. 8.17 2. In his Resurrection and that First by walking in Newness of Life Like as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of his Father even so we also should walk in Newness of Life and thereby be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.4 5. Secondly by living to God As Christ in that he liveth liveth unto God so those that have put on Christ reckon themselves to be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord they yield themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and their Members as instruments of Righteousness unto God Rom. 6.10 11 13. Thirdly in seeking the things above as their Treasure as the Apostle inferrs Col. 3.1 2. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your Affections on things above not on things on the Earth I have insisted the longer on this Point of the Path of Life because it is the main thing that concerns us to know III. How God makes known or shews this Path of Life to them This Question is not hard to be resolved from that which hath been already said God shewed Christ the Path of Life 1. By his Promise to him mentioned before at his coming into the world 2. By his Providence he make it known experimentally to him when he was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father To us he makes known the Ways of Life 1. By his Son 's Appearing and his Gospel who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to life through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2. By his Spirit which he gives whereby we are assured that through it mortifying the deeds of the Body we shall live Rom. 8.13 We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 IV. Why God doth shew them this Path of Life The Reason of God's making known the Way of Life to Christ and to us is one and the same That as thereby Christ was to be strengthened in all his Temptations in all his Sufferings animated in all his Obedience to his Father's Will by having an eye to the Life which was propounded to him so should all the Disciples of Christ be confirmed in all their Sufferings encouraged in all their Actings for Christ by their Assurance of Life with Christ that they may live by Faith and not be of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul Heb. 10.38 39. That with Moses they may chuse rather to suffer Afflictions with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures in Egypt as having respect unto the recompence of the Reward Heb. 11.25 26. Wherefore Christ assures Believers in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God To the Church of Smyrna vers 10 11. Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death To the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life APPLICATION I may say now with Moses Deut. 30.15 19. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evill Chuse therefore Life and take hold of the Paths of it Life is a thing naturally desired It is true in extreme Anguish men chuse Strangling rather then Life In his Fits of sore Pain Job was in such a mood as to desire Death most earnestly and to abhor Life Yet simply every living thing would fain live it struggles and strives what it can to keep Life men spare no cost to continue it though it be but for a while and that not without a mixture of Sorrow and Trouble to which the best Life on Earth is obnoxious Life we say is sweet nor is the Devil taken for a Liar in this when he saith Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life Job 2.4 But alas this Life is too much prized and that is the reason why a greater Death is consequent upon the immoderate affecting of it because they would still live here many die for ever in Hell That Life the Way of which was shewed to Christ and now to you is indeed worthy your knowing worthy your embracing and pursuing It is a holy Life a happy Life a safe Life an eternall Life If you live in Christ you shall live with Christ if you live in the Spirit you shall be quickened by the Spirit if you live the Life of God you shall live in his Presence In a word if you walk in the Paths of Life which I have this day shewed you you shall live not the Life of Men onely but of holy Angels you shall live a Life as far beyond the Life of Kings as Heaven is above the Earth The Life of the best and happiest Kings hath been attended with much Care and many Dangers nor is any Prince's Life-time so splendid but that the Day is sometimes darkened over him and Storms beat on him and perhaps his Sun sets in a Cloud 'T is otherwise to be conceived of this Life when once attained it is never darkened never eclipsed never ended Oh that you would then learn to die with Christ to Sin to the World to live by the Faith of the Son of God to be conformed to him by putting on the same mind that was in Christ to live to God to doe not your own will but the will of your Father which is in Heaven to commit your Souls in well-doing when you suffer for him as to a faithfull Creatour Is the Loss of Credit Goods Peace Liberty Life terrible to you Why the Life
they can say with that Martyr He is come He is come Glover in Queen Mary's days burnt at Coventry when they can discern the Light of God's Countenance shining upon them can see him reconciled in Christ can hear the voice of Christ speaking to them Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee when they find the Spirit enabling them to pour out their Souls before the Lord when their Souls can send this Challenge to the Gates of Hell Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who shall condemn it is Christ that died or rather is risen again who also sitteth at the right hand of God making Intercession for us Who shall separate us from the Love of God Then there is rejoycing indeed then they rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Though they be in much Affliction they can sing in the Fire and clap their hands at the Stake in a poor Cottage in a Prison they can be as merry as if they were in a stately Palace for then they are delivered from their greatest Enemies and their greatest Fears Now the Joys that are in the Presence of God are for Deliverance from these Evils from all of them bodily and spiritual from unrighteous Sentences of men violent Captivity forcible restraint of Liberty Sickness Losses Sorrows Death and which is more from all Corruptions within Temptations to Sin from without from the Malice of men the Power of Satan the Hiding of God's Countenance the Absence of his Spirit the Fear of Hell They that are with God in his Presence doe as the Children of Israel did when they saw the Egyptians dead on the Sea-shore they triumphantly glory in their Deliverance they sing as it were a new Song before the Throne they sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb with the Harps of God saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy Ways thou King of Saints Rev. 15. v. 3. There they with the greatest glorying and magnanimity of Spirit take up the speech of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God that giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. The Joys that Believers have in God's Presence are not onely because of Freedom from all the Evils which in their life-time did annoy them but also by reason of the entire injoyment of all Good in its Purity and Resplendency Many things there are which men rejoyce in on Earth and if but in one single Excellency they find themselves goe beyond others how do they glory in it as if others were not to be named the same day with them Some rejoyce in their Descent and Parentage as Pharaoh I am the son of the wise the son of ancient Kings Isa 19.11 Some in their Beauty as Absalom that gloried in his unblemished Body and goodly Head of hair Some in their Wisedom and Skill their Riches and Prosperity as the King of Tyrus that had his Heart lifted up and said I am a God I sit in the Seat of God in the midst of the Seas Behold thou art wiser then Daniel there is no Secret that they can hide from thee With thy Wisedom and with thy Vnderstanding thou hast gotten thee Riches and hast gotten Gold and Silver into thy Treasures and thine Heart is lifted up because of thy Riches Ezek. 28.2 3 4 5. Some in their Honours as Haman did in King Ahasuerus his promoting him Esther 5.11 Some in their Righteousness as the Pharisee that boasted he was not as other men are nor as the Publican Luk. 18.11 Yea some can rejoyce in their unsociable Cynical sowr austere Deportment though it be but a Delusion if they conceive Holiness in it as Monks Anchorets Quakers and such like have done and doe at this day All these and many more things the Hearts of men can rejoyce in though they be some of them but vain things some but petty good things yea if they were enjoyed in their Confluence as Solomon enjoyed them who had Wealth and Wisedom and Beauty and Dominion and what-ever the carnal Heart of man affects and yet after his ample experience of the Sweetness of them gives this account of them Eccles. 1.2 Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity yea Vexation of Spirit they produce but a forced Mirth Sardonium Risum notwithstanding which in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull and the end of their Mirth is Heaviness As it was with Belshazzar Dan. 5.6 He was in his Royall Palace at Babylon carousing in gold and silver with his Wives and Concubines praising his Gods when on a sudden upon a Hand 's writing on the Wall the King's Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loins were loosed and his Knees smote one against another That which is worth rejoycing at indeed as begetting a permanent and genuine Joy sutable to the Spirit of a man is his Acquaintance with God his Knowledge of him God's Adopting him to an Inheritance with him his Relation to the Son of God the Habitation of his Blessed Spirit in him the Holiness of his Heart the Beauty that is in the hidden man of the Heart which is in the sight of God of great Price the hearing of his Prayers the accepting of his Works the glorifying of his God the Love of his Saviour In these things are the Joys of the Saints So saith S. Paul We are they that rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World saith the same S. Paul Gal. 6.14 Many there be that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased saith David Psal 4.6 7. And again I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches Psal 119.14 These things do indeed beget the most solid Joys which enlighten the Eyes and chear the Heart under many Wants many Dangers many Persecutions many Expectations of future Evils And yet these Joys are eclipsed to the most Holy man Sometimes by his own Sins and the Withdrawing of God's Spirit from him as the case was with David Sometimes by reason of Calamities and the sinfull Practices of his Children as it was also with him Sometimes from his Doubting of his own spiritual Estate from the want of such Feeling as once he had of the Efficacy of God's Grace in his Heart by the Motions of it to holy Exercises to Prayer Praising God and heavenly Meditations in the
there be any After-dutifulness which might be accounted a fit and just Compensation on our part for such Love Who is there that gives any thing to God first Rom. 11.35 Surely when we bring forth any Fruit to God it is but what is of his own Culture Christ is the Vine his Father is the Husbandman and we are God's Husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 he it is that purgeth the Branches in Christ that they may bring forth more Fruit Joh. 15.1 2. Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Yea were it imagined to suppose an Impossibility that we could of our selves by our own Free will by the Light of Nature so ingratiate ourselves with God as to procure his Favour that we could obtain Arte propriâ by our own Skill or Marte proprio by our own Ability our Filiation our Regeneration our Adoption to be God's Sons yet were not God ingaged by any Worth of our Actions to yield it us this were no Purchace no Exchange of quid pro quo no advantaging God that he might benefit us Rightly saith Elihu Job 35.7 8. If thou be Righteous when givest thou to him or what receiveth he of thy hand Thy Wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy Righteousness may profit the son of man But alas all that in such a case we could doe all that Adam himself in his Innocency and Integrity could have done could not have given us such a Claim as that we could have challenged our Adoption as due to us according to distributive Justice in an Arithmetical or Geometrical proportion between our Actings and God's Adoption but that still it must be taken as the free Gift liberrimi Agentis of the most free Agent as the effect of the purest and most immense Love And therefore well said the Apostle Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us of free Gift that we should be called the Sons of God Which is the next thing to be considered IV. The effect of this Love of God that we should be called c. The Sons of God are of many sorts The Magistrates are so by Office Psal 82.6 the Angells by Dignity Job 1.6 Adam by Creation Luk. 3.38 and so all other men Act. 17.29 the Posterity of Seth as it is conceived Gen. 6.2 by Profession our Lord Christ is his own Son by peculiar and eternal Generation Rom. 8.32 All Believers are his Sons by Regeneration As many as received him to them he gave power to be the Sons of God even to as many as believe in his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. By Adoption God having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the glory of his Grace Eph. 1.5 6. Regeneration is by a Change of us inwardly whereby we are renewed in the Spirit of our minds and put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of truth Eph. 4.23 24. Adoption is an Act which alters the outward Estate whereby a person becomes as a Son to another as Moses was to Pharaoh's Daughter Heb. 11.24 It is Naturae similitudo ut Filium quis habere possit quem non generaverit Gaius Inst l. tit 5. an Imitation of Nature whereby a person may have another man's Child as if he were his own Son so that he is his Child by a Legal Right though not by naturall Birth and is to own his Adopter as his Father and he the adopted as his Child And it is this that S. John here means Behold what manner of Love the Father hath given us that we should be called by reason of our Regeneration and Adoption the Sons of God And not onely that we should be so called as if it imported a meer Title Appellation or nudum inane Nomen a bare and empty Name Sure this Adoption as it is by the best highest richest Father so it is to the best greatest and most ample Benefits He that is thus the Son of God by Faith in Christ Jesus hath the Name the Dignity the Honour of a Son of God hath the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father Gal. 4.6 hath the Apparel of a Son of God the white Linen which is the Righteousness of Saints hath the Provision Protection Attendance of a Child of God the Angells are ministring Spirits to him Heb. 1.14 The Spirit of God is his he is a Member of Christ's Body the Promises are his He hath the Society of Saints on Earth and is come to the Church of the first-born that are written in Heaven All things are his Paul Apollos Cephas Life Death things present things to come and he is Christ's and Christ God's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. If he be a Son then an Heir an Heir of God a Joynt-heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 And can more Favour be desired or imagined to be done by the most Holy and High God to such Beggars Malefactours Rebells condemned Prisoners such base contemptible Wretches as we are We may here cry out with the Apostle O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisedome and Knowledge I may adde and Love of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 With the greatest reason then doth S. John call upon us to behold this which is the last thing to be considered V. The Adverb of demonstration inviting us to consider this Love Behold what manner c. And this may also serve for the APPLICATION This is then the Use to be made of what hath been said and did time permit might be more amply declared of the Love of God in our Adoption that we are to behold it not so much with the Eye of our Body as with the Eye of our Mind Sure the Apostle S. Paul thought this to be of so great consequence that he ceased not to make mention of the Ephesian Believers in his Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give them the Spirit of wisedom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their Vnderstanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his Calling and what the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe Eph. 1.16 17 18 19. This of all things is most worthy our Contemplation our most full constant accurate Meditation We should behold it in all the Effects of it in us and towards us Every Motion of his Spirit every Providence in escaping Temptations every Gospel-Sermon every Prayer we make invite us to this
mind God in his Prayer Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Which acquaints us with the next Condition of this Walking 2. It must be a Walking in God's Ways It is not enough for him that walks in his Uprightness that his Intentions be good but he must also chuse the Paths of Uprightness he must doe what God requires to be done and to be done by him He that ran well but extra Viam out of the Way appointed him beyond his Line had not the Crown assigned him by the Judges in the Greek Games Neither hath he the Approbation or Reward of upright Walking who walks by another Rule then God commands They that chuse either their own Conceits or the Tradition of the Elders or any other humane Authority for the Square of their Actions are judged to worship God in vain to draw near him with their Mouth and to honour him with their Lips but to remove their Heart far from him whose Fear towards him is taught by the Precepts of men Isa 29.13 They are such as eye the Dictates of Rabbins the Decrees of Popes the Canons of Councils above or equally with the Precepts of Christ they make Conscience of the Vow of Corban not of honouring Father and Mother they will by no means break the Rules of the Founder of their Order but scruple not the violating of Christ's Commands Neither can those be said to walk in their Uprightness that make Conscience of keeping one Command but not of another that will not swear yet will lie that will pray to God and yet defraud men that will give Alms yet adore a Crucifix that will pay Tith of Mint Anise and Cumin and leave the weightier matters of the Law Righteousness Judgment Faith and the Love of God that abhor Idols yet commit Sacrilege All upright Walking is copulative takes in its Walk all God's Commands it excludes none but observes all in their due order and place Then shall I not be ashamed saith David Psal 119.6 when I have respect to all thy Commands Yet herein there must be heed taken that we regard each in its proper time To keep the Sabbath by Rest to attend the Sacrifice was a Duty but not when Mercy was to be shewed Vice is to be reproved but in fit season Sin is to be punished but by him that is thereto authourized Sacrifice is to be offered but by the Priest He that walks in his Uprightness must not onely look that the thing he does be commanded but that it be commanded to him Each must walk in his own Path in his own Rank if he will walk in his Uprightness 3. He that walks in his Uprightness must walk warily steadily evenly constantly according to that of Solomon Prov. 4.25 26 27. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine ey-lids look straight before thee Ponder the Path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy foot from Evil. So saith the Apostle Eph. 5.15 16. See that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time He that walks in his Uprightness hath his Eyes in his head to keep his Way gazeth not about to satisfie his Curiosity but minds his Journey the Way he is to walk in the Work he is to doe listens not to seducing Company that seeks to divert him out of his Path takes heed of such Offers such Temptations as may be Stumbling-blocks to him to cause him to fall sets his Foot his Purposes firmly that he may not slip looks not back like Lot's Wife to Sodom to his former Pleasures He goes not on weeping like Phalti when he restored Michal to David but like David with enlarged heart he lifts up his feet to run the way of God's Commands He is not slothfull but a diligent follower of them that through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises He looks to the Cloud of Witnesses that have gone before him and keeps company with them who confess themselves Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and thereby declare plainly that they seek another City to wit an heavenly He casts away every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset him that he may with patience run the Race that is set before him Such do arm themselves against Encounters of Spiritual Wickednesse that may rob or spoil them of their Provision for their Journey They goe on as David said of himself Psal 71.16 in the strength of the Lord God Their Strength is in him in whose Heart are the ways of them they goe from Strength to Strength Psal 84.5 7. The Joy of the Lord is their Strength his Love heartens them the Hope of Glory keeps them from fainting it is as an Anchor of the Soul firm and stable and which entreth into that within the Veil They look unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of their Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is set down at the right hand of God They endure Contradiction of Sinners and resist unto bloud striving against Sin In a word Faith in God through Jesus Christ Joy in the Holy Ghost Love to Christ Hope of the Inheritance above animate them to holy Resolutions of Obedience to God confirm them against Difficulties keep them from fainting under any Pressures till they get to the end of their Journey and that Rest which is prepared for them that walk uprightly II. How this Walking of a man in his Vprightness doth demonstrate the Fear of the Lord. Such Walking doth evidently demonstrate the Fear of the Lord that is that reverential Regard of God as their Lord and Master the Supreme Law-giver and Judge to whom they are subject to be the Principle that acts them and carries them on with vigour to walk in their Uprightness For 1. In that they set their faces towards God they shew that their Walking tends to please God to gain his Approbation which is the greatest sign of Fear in a Servant to his Master a Child to his Father a Subject to his Prince for in all these Relations it is the Reverence of Superiours which moves the Inferiour to put forth his ability for the Superiour So it is the Fear of God that moves the upright Walker to glorifie God in his Body and Spirit which are God's to present his Body to him as a living Sacrifice in his reasonable Service to devote himself to God and to gratifie him with what Offering he hath with what Performance he is able to doe 2. A man's Choice of God's Commands as his Path shews his Subjection to him and that is the greatest proof of an holy Fear of the Divine Majesty He is a man after God's own heart who will doe all his Will as it is said of David Act.
some Persons more intensive then in others yet in all that believe in Christ it was and is bottomed upon the same Ground a Fruit of the same Faith shewing it self by the same Expressions of Thanksgiving and Love Praising God Following Christ and Loving all his Members So that we may say All Abraham's Children by Faith rejoyce to see Christ's Day they see it and are glad And thus my Text comes home to you all APPLICATION You profess your selves Believers in Christ and Abraham to be your Father if you be in truth such then it will concern you to walk in the Steps of the Faith of Abraham who rejoyced to see the Day of Christ and he saw it and was glad I deny not that in this time of Advent there uses to be much Rejoycing pretended to be in Remembrance of Christ's Nativity yea that many long for this Time as the Time in which they are wont to rejoyce nor do I except against Rejoycing at this Time But is our Rejoycing such as was in Abraham a Rejoycing at Christ's Day out of Faith a Rejoycing at the Performance of the Divine Promise for the bringing of Light and Salvation into the world whereby all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Is the sense of the Spirituall Blessings in Heavenly things I mean the Knowledge of God's Counsell the Mystery of his Will in Reconciling the World to himself by Jesus Christ not imputing their Trespasses unto them the Adoption of us Gentiles into his Family with other Riches of his Grace the grand Motive of our Joy Are the Expressions of our Joy like those of the Shepherds who glorified and praised God of the Blessed Virgin who brake out into her Magnificat Anima mea My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour like those of Zacharias in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people like those of the Heavenly Hoast who sang Glory be to God in the highest These Hymns I acknowledge are sung in our publick Meetings and it is the Wisedom of the Church that you are prompted to remember them But what is done in your Houses Is any such Spiritual Rejoycing there any such Praising of God for sending his Son into the world that you might live by him Are not rather your Rejoycings carnal more like the Heathen Saturnals full of Looseness vain Sports and Debauchery Are not your Feasts like the Riotous Bacchanals rather then Christian Festivals Yea is not impious profaning of God's Name more frequent there then holy Conference of such as are filled with the Spirit of God singing and making Melody in your Hearts to the Lord If it be so I may say to you as Christ did to the Jews If ye were the Children of Abraham ye would doe the Works of Abraham If Abraham were your Father indeed if you did believe in Christ as Abraham did you would rejoyce in the Remembrance of Christ's Day as Abraham did you would rejoyce in Christ as born a Saviour from Sin a Teacher sent from God to direct you in your way to eternal Life that so you may live as Abraham did as Pilgrims on Earth as those that seek a City to come even an heavenly Heb. 11.10 13 16. Oh that your Faith your Joy in Christ might be such a Fruit of the Spirit of God as may make your Conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ not such as is more like theirs whose Belly is their God whose Glory their Shame who mind Earthly things Let our Conversation be in Heaven from whence we look for Christ to change our vile Bodies into Bodies of Glory like his and to give us an Inheritance above Which God of his infinite Mercy grant unto us all for the Merits of his Son To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO ABRAHAM's PILGRIMAGE The Thirty-first SERMON GENESIS xij 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee THAT after so great a Defection of the World from God as was upon the Dispersion of Mankind occasioned by the Giant-like Attempt of building the Tower of Babel God might have a Race of men who should own and adhere to him he singled out Abraham from his Fathers who dwelt on the other side of the Floud and served other Gods as it is Josh 24.2 3. And having removed him with his Father from Vr of the Chaldees where it is likely the Sun was worshipped in stead of God unto Charran his Father being dead he translated him into the Land of Canaan which he promised to give him for a Possession as it is in S. Stephen's Oration Act. 7.4 5. consonant to the words I have now read to you Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country c. Sundry ways God used to speak to the Ancients by Prophets Dreams and Visions So Gen. 15.1 The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a Vision and Gen. 17.1 The Lord appeared unto Abram and speaking of this very Precept here given him S. Stephen saith Act. 7.2 The God of Glory appeared unto our Father Abraham Some kind of glorious Apparition there was then when God gave Abraham this Mandate The Business no doubt being as in After-ages so in Abraham's days most famous God would have it begun by an illustrious Manifestation of himself that he might be known to be the God of Glory and all the Gods that Abraham's Fathers served to be but Vanities and Lies not Numina but Nomina not Gods though so called And that there might be the firmer Impression on Abraham thereby God thus shews himself and speaks However God speaks to us we are to hearken be it in a Dream or by a Prophet if it be God's Voice it must be obeyed But then most heed is to be taken when God makes known his Pleasure in an illustrious Apparition This Command to Abraham was doubtless of very great Concernment both to God's own Glory and Abraham's and all Believers Advantage And therefore it is of no small importance for us to consider the Charge which God here gives to Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee Wherein we have 1. A Journey or Motion commanded him Get thee or Goe thou 2. The Terminus à quo of this Motion or the Place whence he was to goe Out of thy Country c. 3. The Terminus ad quem or the Place whither he was to goe Vnto a Land that I shall shew thee 1. The Journy or Motion which is here injoyned Abraham is a Transmigration expressed thus in the Hebrew Lec Leca as if it were Vade tibi Goe thou or Goe to thy self which is by some conceived a Pleonasm or Redundance of speech