prey is a man to Satan and is carried headlong to destroying courses when a man hath more zeal and earnestness of spirit than knowledge to guide him how will he stumble and dash upon things that are very contrary to the will of God 2 If they can discern them they shall not have a heart and skill to remedy them without understanding VVe shall not have a heart for light will be urging calling upon us minding us of our duty warning us of danger whereas otherwise we shall go on tamely like an Ox to the slaughter and like a Fool to the correction of the Stocks we shall not have this restless importunity of Conscience which is a great restraint of sin And then we shall not have the skill for all is misapplied and misconceived by an ignorant spirit for the whole business of his Religion is making Cordials instead of Purges and Potions instead of Antidotes catching at Promises when Threatnings belong to him lulling his soul asleep with new strains of grace when he should awaken himself to duty 2. Never count your selves to have profited in any thing till your hearts are awakened into a further hatred of sin Christians they are but Notions it is not saving knowledge unless it be in order to practice men have no understanding that have not this active and rooted enmity against sin Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments They that hate sin more and are more weary of corruption He is made wiser by the Word that is made better by it It is not the talker against but the hater of iniquity that is the wise man If wisdom enters upon the heart and breaks out in our practice by that is our thriving in knowledge to be measured 1 Iohn 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments This was God's scope in giving the Word not to make trial of mens wits who could most sharply conceive or of their memories who could most faithfully retain or of their eloquence who could most nimbly discourse but of the sincerity of the heart who could most obediently submit to the will of God Ier. 22. 16. when he had spoke of hating of sin and doing good Was not this to know me saith the Lord This is to know God to hate sin Outward things were not made for sight only but for use as Herbs Plants and Stars so our Reason and the Scriptures the Lord hath given us it is not only for sight but for use that we may be wise to salvation not that we may please our selves with acute notions about the things of God but seriously set our hearts to practise The fourth thing in this general Point is That this wisdom and understanding is gotten by God's precepts Mark I hate every false way why Because by thy precepts I get understanding Where have we it by studying God's Word Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledge of sin How is the knowledge of sin by the Law three ways according to the nature of the sin according to who is the sinner and according to the guilt and dreadful estate of them that lie in a state of sin so the knowledge of sin that is the nature of it and where it lives and where it reigns and what will be the effects of it all this knowledge is by the Law 1. By the Law is the knowledge of sin quoad naturam peccati There are many things we should never know but by the Law of God though we have some general notions of good and evil Rom. 7. 7. saith the Apostle I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Those first stirrings and secret lingrings of heart and inclinations to that which is cross to the Will of God that they go before all consent of will and all delight these things we could never discern by the light of nature 2. Quoad subjectum what is the sinner and who is guilty of it So Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I died He saw his lost miserable undone condition by the Law of God The acts of sin are discovered by the Word of God it discovers the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. and state of sin our natural face the condition wherein we are is to be seen in this glass 3. Quoad reatum magnitudinem peccati what will be the effects of it Rom. 5. 20. The Law entred that the offence might abound Therefore the Law was given that it might work a deep sense of the evil consequents of sin and what wrath man was bound over to for violating the righteous Law The Law represents the heinous nature of sin as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law as it strikes at God's Being or at God's Authority seeks to justle him out of the Throne as it contradicts his Sovereignty and plucks the Scepter out of his hand and the Crown from his head and makes men to say Who is Lord over us As if we had nothing to guide us but our own Lusts the Word of God discovers this pride of heart and then the manifold mischiefs of sin are discovered we get this understanding by the Word It is better to know these mischiefs of sin by the threatnings of the Word than by our own bitter experience it is sin that separates from God and renders us uncapable of all blessings Use 1. Study your selves and take a view of the case and state of your souls by the glass of the Word see what you gain by every reading hearing every time you converse with him what is given out to convince you of sin or awaken your soul against sin 2. When you consult with the Word beg the light of the Spirit which is only lively and efficacious The Apostle speaks of knowing things in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. There is the same demonstration of the Spirit there 's a manifest difference between the evidence of Reason and Arguments held out from a natural understanding and between the illumination or the demonstration of the Spirit There are many that may have a full knowledge of the letter and the sense of the words as they lie open to the evidence of reason yet be without the light and power of those truths for that 's a fruit of the demonstration of the Spirit the lively light of the Holy Ghost that goes along with the word SERMON CXII PSAL. CXIX VER 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path THE present world as much as it suits with our carnal nature 't is but like a howling wilderness with respect to Canaan in which there are many crooked paths and dangerous precipices yea many privy snares and secret ambushes laid for us by
charity Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be known unto all men whether it be fear or honour that be due Rom. 13. 7. Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Or good will ver 8. Owe no man any thing but to love one another Secondly For truth You are to adhere to the truth not to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ Ephes. 4. 14 15. To speak nothing but truth in your ordinary communication Ephes. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his Neighbour To perform what you promise though to your loss Psal. 15. 4. He sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not Thus should the whole course of our lives express the properties of the Word Use 3. To shew the reason why men are so backward in obedience so prone to what is evil so uncomfortable in trouble We do not believe that the testimony of God is righteous and true very true every tittle of it but we are slow of heart to believe therefore is the faithfulness and truth of the Word inculcated Christ saith Believest thou this John 11. 25. Could we believe the word more what advantage should we have in the spiritual life what fear of God what joy of faith what readiness of obedience But we cannot depend upon Gods word and therefore are easily shaken in mind Our hearts are like a Sea one Wave riseth up after another We must be fed with sense and God must do all immediately or else we are apt to sink under our discouragements SERMON CLVI PSALM CXIX VER Cxxxix My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words IN these words you may observe 1. Two different persons 2. A different carriage mentioned 1. Two different persons are spoken of David and his Enemies By Enemies is not to be understood those only that were troublesome to himself but those who were an opposite party to God who opposed themselves against God and Godliness these without any breach of the Law of love may be counted Enemies Ps. 139. 21 22. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine Enemies It is a comfort and satisfaction to the godly to have no enemies to themselves but such as are enemies to God also such as rise up against God 2. There 's a different carriage mentioned and asscribed to these two parties on the one side Oblivion and Forgetfulness of Gods Law on the other side zeal 1. On the Enemies part oblivion and forgetfulness of Gods Word The Word of God is not effectual usually but where it is hid in recent memory They have forgotten thy Word a proper phrase to set forth them in the bosom of the visible Church who do not wholly deny and reject the Word and Rule of Scripture but yet live as though they had forgotten it they do not observe it as if God had never spoken any such thing or given them any such Rule They that reject and contemn such things as thy Word enforceth surely do not remember to do them 2. On David's part here is mentioned zeal or a flagrant affection which is set forth 1. By the vehemency of it 2. By the cause of it 1. By the vehemency of it my zeal hath consumed me It was no small zeal that David had but a consuming zeal Vehement affections exhaust and consume the vital Spirits and wast the body The like expression is used Ps. 69. 9. The zeal of thy House hath eaten me up Strength of Holy Affections works many times upon the Body as well as the Soul especially zeal which is a high degree of Love and vents it self by a mixture of grief and anger What a man loves he would have it respected and is grieved when it is dishonoured and under disrepute Both have an influence upon this consuming this wasting of the Spirits that is spoken of in the text because they had lessened and obscured the Glory of God and violated his Law and there was in him a holy care ardour and earnest endeavour to rectifie this abuse and awaken them out of their security and reduce them to their duty 2. Here was the Cause of it Why was David so much wasted pined consumed and troubled Because they have forgotten Thy Word the contempt of God and the offence of God sate nearest his heart as if he had said I should more patiently bear the injury done to my self but I cannot be coldly affected where thy glory O Lord is concerned since I have had a tast of thy grace and felt the benefit of thy Word I cannot endure it should be contemned and it much moves me to see Creatures so mad upon their own Destruction and to make so light of thy Salvation Thus was David consumed not at the sight of his own but at other mens sins and not at others in general but them his enemies that they should make void the Law of God Such was his love to the Word that he could not endure the contempt and violation of it and such was his Compassion to the souls of men that it grieved him exceedingly to see any of the workmanship of God to perish to be captivated to the World to be made Factors for the Devil and fuel for hell fire and to be so violent for their own Destruction Doctrine That Great and Pure Zeal becomes those that have any affection for the Word and for the Ways of God Here is a great zeal for David saith my zeal hath consumed me it prey'd upon his spirit And here 's a pure zeal for he mentions not personal injuries but disrespect to Gods Word when the same men are our Enemies and Gods Enemies we should be more zealous for Gods cause then our own Now both the greatness and purity of his zeal did arise from his love to the Word as appears from the precedent and subsequent verses in the precedent verses he had told them just and upright are thy testimonies and very faithful therefore zeal hath consumed me because this Word should be slighted and contemned And it appears also from the following verse thy Word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it He was troubled to see such a holy and pure Word to be trampled under foot and especially that those seem to disown it he doth not say they deny it who had generally profest to live under this rule that they made light and disregarded the precepts in which I found so much comfort and delight In the prosecution of this point I shall 1. Shew what is true Zeal
2. Why all that love the Word they should have this Great and Pure Zeal I. What is true Zeal There is a carnal zeal and there 's a spiritual zeal First The carnal zeal to begin with that is Threefold 1. That which comes from an ill cause and produceth ill effects An ill cause as hatred of mens persons or envy at their Gifts and Excellencies or their success and happiness in the World Iam. 3. 14. If ye have bitter envying in your hearts it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you have bitter zeal in your hearts There is a kind of bitter zeal and malignity at their excellency whether Gifts Graces Rank Dignity in the World And ver 16. he tells us this bitter zeal produceth confusion and every evil work To be consumed and eaten out with envy is little commendable This is not the zeal of the Text With this zeal were the chief Priests filled when they saw that the Gospel came into some reputation and that the people do what they could did haunt and frequent it we read Acts 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it they were filled with indignation it is in the Greek and in the Margin they were filled with zeal with this bitter zeal malignity envy indignation they would bestir themselves to suppress the growing Gospel by all the means that possibly they could 2. There 's an other sort of carnal zeal which hath an ill Object though it may be a good Cause from whence it proceeds such as an ignorant zeal which proceeds from some love to that which men call Religion but falsly and so the Apostle saith Rom. 10. 2. I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and such a zeal had Paul when he was a Pharisee he gives us an account of it Gal. 1. 12 14. How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God being more exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of my Fathers Paul was a man that never acted against his Conscience no not when he was a Pharisee he still acted according to his Light but when he was blinded with Pharasaical prejudices he wasted the Church of God and was exceedingly zealous for a false Religion This is such a zeal as possibly might have a tolerable Cause but it had a bad Object a zeal about the Dictates of a deluded Conscience and this zeal perniciosior est quo flagrantior is the more pernicious the more earnest it is it hath often raised confusions in the Church when men are led with a blind zeal they think for God if they be under then they make divisions if they get a top then they are persecuting and oppressing this is the zeal of a deluded Conscience In short zeal must have a right object otherwise it may be great but cannot be Good Pure and Holy 3. An other false zeal is when it hath no ill Object but it exceeds in the measure and degree and is far beyond the weight of the thing that it is laid out upon this is a superstitious a tristing zeal which runs out to Externals and is altogether employed about lesser things of Religion as the Pharisees Math. 23. 23. That made a great business about a small matter Titheing Mint and Anise and Cummin but neglected weighty Duties Faith Judgment Righteousness and the great things of the Kingdom of God The Apostle tells us Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink in being of this party and that Many all their care and strength of their souls runs out in matters of less importance and keeping up a Party and Faction in Religion we should first make Conscience of principal matters Superstitious scupulosity is always damagefull like those that come into a shop to buy a penny-worth of a Commodity and steal a pounds-worth O! they have a great zeal for lesser things when it runs out mightily about outward things either for that or against that and in the mean time they cherish the World Pride Envy carnal evil Affections that are destructive to and the bane of Godliness Secondly There 's a spiritual holy zeal which we may describe 1. By it's Cause 2. By it's Object 3. By it's Effects 4. By it's Use as to publick Reformation 5. As to it's Use as to Christians private Exercises to carry on the spiritual Life with fervour warmth and vigour 1. I am to speak of the Cause of it The true Cause of holy zeal is Love to God and what belongs to God Zeal is ferventis amoris gradus a higher degree of Love it is the fervor of Divine Charity We should mark still what spirit enflames the zeal that we have Every man is eaten up with one kind of zeal or another The zeal of the World eats up many Ps. 127. 2. They bereave their souls of good and all for a little pelf they work in the Fires they load themselves with thick clay The zeal of the Flesh inflames many they are mad upon carnal delights can let go all considerations so as they may fulfil their lusts they are consumed with these kind of zeales Another spirit should be working in us a zeal for God and that comes from an entire Love to God When the soul doth heartily and earnestly love God above all then there 's a strong desire of promoting Gods glory and interest there should be that spirit which breathes in our zeal and with this zeal should we be eaten up and spent Now they that love God will love all them which belong to God Friends have all things Common so it is between us and God the injuries done to him will be as grievous to us as if they were done to our selves Psal. 69. 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me and the glory that comes to them is as acceptable as if some great benefit had come to us Act 15. 3. Declaring the Conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy unto all the Brethren O! this is great joy to a gratious soul when Gods interest thrives in the world O! this is that they would willingly hear spoken of their hearts are upon it when Gods interest stands or falls such an earnest desire of the glory of God which is the highest degree and measure of Love to God! 2. Let us speak of the Object of zeal In three things Gods interest lies in the World viz. His Truth His Worship and His Servants Now it is not enough to have zeal that we do not oppose any of these but they must be tenderly regarded and looked after and we must be affected with these things as we would with our own concernments When wrongs are offered to any of these either to Gods Truth his Worship or his Servants they must go more nearly to our hearts then any personal injuries done to our selves What we cannot remedy we must mourn for All these
to the sutableness and proportion which it carrieth to our necessities and desires The Cock in the Fable preferred a Barley-corn before a Jewel the Barley-corn is more sutable to its natural appetite So believers have not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God 2 Cor. 2. 12. therefore the way of Gods Testimonies is more sutable and proportionable to that nature which they have Their wealth and worldly things they indeed sute with the sensitive nature but that is kept under therefore the prevalent inclination is to the word more than to the world 2. There is nothing in the enjoyment of worldly things but they have it more amply in the exactest and sincerest way of enjoyment by the word and walking in the way of its precepts Satans baits whereby he leads men to sin are Pleasure and Profit when bonum honestum the good of Honesty and Duty is declined there remains nothing but bonum utile and jucundum the good of Pleasure and Profit If we be moved with these things it is good to look there where we may have them at the highest rate and in the most sincere manner Now it is the word of God believed and obeyed which yieldeth us the greatest profit and the greatest You have both in one Verse Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than the honey and the honey-comb Because of the Profit it is compared to Gold and because of the Sweetness and Pleasure we have by it 't is compared to Honey 1. The word of God will truly enrich a man and make us happy The difference between Gods people and others doth not lye in this that the one seeketh after Riches the other not they both seek to enrich themselves only the one seeketh after false and the other true riches as they are called Luk. 16. 11. and so differ from one another as we and the Indians do who reckon their wealth by their Wampenpeage or shells of fishes as we do ours by Gold and Silver the one hath little worth but what their Fancies put upon it the other hath a value in nature or to speak in a more home comparison Counters glass Beads and painted Toys please Children more than Jewels and things of greater price yea than Land of Inheritance or whatever when we come to mans estate we value and is of use to us for the supply of present necessities So worldly men preferring their kind of wealth before holiness and the influences of Grace they do but cry up Bawbles before Jewels To evidence this and that we may beat the world with their own notions and so the better defeat the temptation let us consider what is the true Riches 1. What is indeed true Riches 2. Why these are the true Riches I. What is indeed Riches 1. Gracious Experiences or Testimonies of the Favour of God He is a rich man indeed that hath many of these So it is said Rom. 10. 12. God is rich to all that call upon him it is meant actively not passively it only noteth that God doth give out plentiful experiences of his grace 2. Knowledge Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom Col. 3. 16. And the Apostle mentions the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. this is a treasure indeed that cannot be valued and he is a very poor soul that wants it 3. Faith Jam 2. 5. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith He is a rich man that is emptied of himself that he may be filled with God 4. Good works 1 Tim. 6. 10. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded c. but rich in good works Oh miserable man that hath nothing to reckon upon but his Money and his Bags so much by the year and makes it all his business to live plentifully in the world laying up nothing for Heaven and is not rich in gracious Experiences Knowledg Faith and Good works which are a Christians Riches II. Why are these the true Riches 1. That is true Riches which maketh the man more valuable which gives an intrinsick worth to him which Wealth doth not that is without us we would not judg of an Horse by the richness of his Saddle and the gawdiness of his Trappings and is man a reasonable creature to be esteemed by his Moneys and Lands or by his Graces and Moral perfections 2. That is Riches which puts an esteem upon us in the eyes of God and the holy Angels who are best able to judg One barbarous Indian may esteem another the more he hath of his shells and trisles but you would count him never the richer that should bring home a whole Ships lading of these things Luk. 12. 20. Such a fool is he that heapeth up treasure to himself and is not rich towards God that hath not of that sort of Riches which God esteemeth We are bound for a Countrey where Riches are of no value Grace only goeth currant in the other world 3. That is Riches which steads us in our greatest extremities When we come to dye the Riches of this world prove false comforts for they forsake a man when he hath most need of comfort In the hour of death when the poor shiftless naked soul is stripped of all and we can carry away nothing in our hands Grace lyeth near the heart to comfort us 'T is said by a voice from Heaven of those that dye in the Lord their works follow them their wealth doth not Our Graces continue with us to all Eternity 4. That is the true Riches which will supply all our necessities and bear our expences to Heaven Wealth doth not this but Grace Mar. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Heaven and earth are laid at the feet of Godliness 5. That is true Riches which will give us a title to the best Inheritance The word of God is able to inrich a man more than all the Riches of the World because it is able to bring a man to an everlasting Kingdom All this is spoken because there is an evil desire that possesseth the whole world they are vehemently carried after riches and as they are encreased so are they delighted but saith David My delight is to encrease in knowledg and grace if I get more life more victory over lusts more readiness for Gods service this comforts me to the heart Now how do you measure your thriving by worldly or spiritual encrease 2. Here is the true delight Spiritual delight in spiritual objects far exceedeth all the joy that we can take in worldly
Here 's 1. The sin deprecated Remove from me the way of Lying 2. The good supplicated and asked Grant me thy Law graciously In the first clause you have his Malady David had been inticed to a course of lying In the second we have his Remedy and that 's the Law of God First let me speak of the evil deprecated there Observe 1. The Object The way of lying 2. Gods act about it Remove from me c. First for the Object The way of lying It is by some taken generally by others more particularly 1. For those that expound it more generally they are not all of a mind Some think the way of lying is meant Corruption of Doctrine others of Worship others apply it to disorders of conversation some take it for Error of Doctrine false opinions concerning God and his Worship which are called lying and so opposed to the way of truth spoken of in the next verse I have chosen the way of truth Heresie and false Doctrine is called a lye Ezek. 13. 22. Their diviners speak lies So John 2. 21. A lye is not of the truth and the word used The way of lying is elsewhere rendred a false way v. 104. and 128. there is the same expression Now this he desires to be removed from him because it sticks as close to us as our skin Error is very natural to us and man doth exceedingly please himself with the figments of his own brain All practical Errors in the world are but man's natural thoughts cryed up into a voluble opinion because backed with defences of Wit and Parts and secular Interests and other advantages they are but our secret and privy thoughts which have gotten the reputation of an opinion in the world for we speak lyes from the womb even in this sense we suck in erronious principles with our milk Nature carrieth us to wrong thoughts of God and the ways of God and out of levity and inconstancy of spirit we are apt to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men Now to this sense the latter clause will well agree Keep me from a way of lying that is keep me from falling into error and mistakes about Religion for he begs that the law may be granted to him or a certain stated rule without which all things are liable to deceit and imposture And according to this sense Austin beggeth that he may neither be deceived in the Scriptures nor deceive out of them Nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis let me never be mistaken my self nor cause others to mistake Again By a way of lying some understand false worship for an Idol is a lye Isa. 44. 20. Is there not a lye in his right hand meaning an Idol By others a course of sinning for a way of sinning is a way of lying for it deceives us with a conceit of happiness which we shall never enjoy therefore Eph. 4. 22. Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Lusts are called deceitful because they promise what they never perform they flatter us not only with hopes of impunity but much imaginary comfort and satisfaction O but it 's a lye Satan deceived our first Parents pretending to shew them a way of Immortality whereas that brought death to the world Most go this way Remove from me the way of lying that is the way of sin and the rather because the Septuagint translation read it thus Remove from me the way of Iniquity and Chrysostom in his gloss He means Every evil deed should be removed from him or it proves a lye in regard of all those flatterings and blandishments by which it enticeth the soul. Nay there 's a parallel place seems to make good this sense Prov. 30. 8. When Agur prays against sin Remove from me vanity and lies meaning a course of sin Thus it is taken more generally 2. Those that take it more particularly for the sin of lying or speaking falsly in commerce they again differ Some take it passively keep me from frauds or deceits of other men because it seems to be a hard thing to ascribe a way of lying to a child of God therefore they rather take it passively But this is to fear where no fear is But David begs that he might be kept from a way of lying that it might not settle into a way that 's his meaning Therefore I rather take it actively that he might not run into a false and fallacious course of dealing with others Now why would David have this way of lying removed from him Three Reasons 1. Because of the inclination of his corrupt nature We had most need pray to be kept from gross sins as Psal. 19. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins We need not only pray against lesser sins or spiritual wickednesses but from gross sins carried on presumptuously against the light of Conscience So Col. 3. 5. Mortifie your earthly members c. What members doth he speak of not worldliness and unbelief only but he speaks of adultery uncleanness inordinate affections and the like and the Children of God if they do not deal with God for grace against their gross sins they will soon know to their costs Jesus Christ warned his own disciples those that were trained up in his School those that were to go abroad and deliver his Gospel to the world Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness c. A candle newly blown out easily sucks light and flame again and we that are newly taken out of the dominion of sin into a state of grace may suck light and flame again therefore we had need pray against gross sins 2. Because he had been tripping and guilty in this kind In the story of David you may trace too much of this way and vein of lying as his feigning to Abimeleck the Priest 1 Sam. 25. 8. and to Achish 2 Sam. 27. 8. compar'd with vers 10. his perswading Ionathan to tell his Father he was gone about such a business Now this we may learn when we are foiled by any sin we should take heed lest we settle into a way and course of sin for in every sin as there is culpa the fault or the transgression of the Law and reatus the guilt or obligation to punishment so there is macula the blot an inclination to sin again in like manner as a brand once on fire is more apt to take fire again By every act of sin the Law of God is lessened our carnal inclination is increased therefore we had need be earnest with God Lord keep me from a way of lying 3. Man is strongly inclined to lying it sticks close to our nature so that God must remove it from us as more fully afterwards Thus for the Object a way of lying Secondly Gods Act about it Remove from me Sin is removed either in a way of Justification when the guilt of
sent Samuel to anoint David Samuel said How can I go if Saul hear it he will kill me And the Lord said Take an heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord That was a truth but not the whole truth Obj. But you will say Will not this justifie Mental reservation and Jesuitical Equivocation I answer There are two sorts of Reservations I may reserve part of the truth in my mind But the mental reservations the Jesuits plead for is this When that which is spoken is a lye if abstracted from that which is in the mind for instance If a Magistrate say Art thou a Priest no meaning not after the order of Baal So that which is spoken is a lye But if it be spoken with truth we may reserve part of it That in Samuel was not an untruth but concealing some part of the truth not fit to be discovered So Ier. 38. 24. to 27. Then said Zedekiah unto Ieremiah Let no man know of these words and thou shalt not dye But if the Princes hear that I have talked with thee and they shall come unto thee and say unto thee Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the King hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death also what the King said unto thee Then thou shalt say unto them I presented my supplication before the King that he would not cause me to return to Ionathans house to dye there Then came all the Princes unto Ieremiah and asked him and he told them according to all these words that the King had commanded so they left off speaking with him for the matter was not perceived 2dly We now come to the Blessing asked Grant me thy law graciously Where first the benefit it self Grant me thy law Secondly The terms upon which it is asked implied in the word Graciously 1. The benefit asked Grant me thy law David had the book of the Law already every King was to have a copy of it written before him but he understandeth it not of the law written in a book but of the law written upon his heart which is a priviledge of the Covenant of grace Heb. 8. 10. For this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts c. Doct. 1. Then is the Law granted to us when it is written upon our minds and hearts that is when we understand it and our hearts are framed to the love and obedience of it otherwise it is only granted to the Church in general but it is not granted to us in particular We may have some common priviledge of being trained up in the knowledge of Gods Will but we have not the personal and particular benefits of the Covenant of Grace till we find it imprinted upon our hearts Well then 1. Press God about this not only to grant his Word unto the Church but to grant it unto you unto your persons To reveal his Son in me Gal. 1. 16. There is a general benefit He hath shewed his word unto Iacob and his statutes unto Israel Psal. 147. 19. And there is a particular benefit Grant me thy law graciously The whole Church may be under a Covenant of grace and some particular members of it may be all that while under a Covenant of Works if they have only an external Law without to shew them what is good but not a Law within to urge and inable them to do it Lex jubet gratia juvat litteral instruction belongeth only to the first Covenant but when the word is made ours that 's a priviledge of the second Covenant The ingrafted word that is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 21. When it is received in our hearts and doth prosper there and fructifie unto holiness when it is written over again by the finger of the Spirit 2. See if this effect be accomplished if the law be granted to you It is so 1. When you have a sense and conscience of it and you own it as your rule for the governing of your own heart and life Psal. 37. 37. The law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide It is not in his book only but in his heart to guide all his actions 2dly It is so when you have some ability and strength to perform it Their hearts carry them to it as Psal. 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O God yea thy law is in my heart They have not only a sense and conscience of their rule but a ready spirit to perform it and set about this work cheerfully and heartily A ready and cheerful obedience to Gods Will is the surest note that the Law is given to us when the study and practice of it is the great employment and pleasure of our lives Doct. 2. The Law that is odious to the flesh is acceptable to a gracious heart What others count a restraint they count a great benefit and favour Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be They shun all means of searching and knowing themselves wishing such things were not sins or not desiring to know them to be so therefore hate the law and will not come to the light 3 Joh. 20. For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved As a man that hath light ware is loth to come to the ballance or Counterfeit-coin to the touch-stone or as a bankrupt is loth to cast up his estate They hate the directions and injunctions of the word as contrary to their lusts 1 King 22. 8. He doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil said wicked Ahab and therefore would not hear him and yet he was the Prophet of the Lord They are loth to understand their duty are willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. For this they are willingly ignorant of c. But now a gracious heart desireth nothing more than the knowledge of Gods Will how contrary soever to their lusts they approve it Rom. 7. 12. Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good The Law and Commandment that which wrought such tragical effects in his heart Therefore they desire the knowledge of it above all things Psal. 119. 72. The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver more than all earthly riches whatsoever it is the best thing they can enjoy to have a full direction in obedience 2dly The practice is welcome to their souls 1 John 5. 3. His commandments are not grievous They are to others not to them because of the suitableness of their hearts to a galled shoulder the least burden is irksome but to a sound back it is nothing love sweetens all USE Do you count the Law an enemy or a friend
grace to them is an argument why he will give more grace to them Two things will be here discussed 1. The necessity of the efficacious assistance of grace that we may walk worthy of God in all well-pleasing 2. How acceptable a frame of heart it is when we are once brought to delight in the ways of God Doct. 1. For the first That God from first to last doth make us to go in the path of his Commandments David was a renewed man a man that had gotten his heart into a good frame for he owneth his delight in the paths of Gods Commandments yet he begs for new strength and quickning Make me to go Lead or walk me Sept. First That at first conversion God maketh us go in the path of his Commandments that 's clear by Scripture for it is said Ephes. 2. 10. That we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them When we are renewed we are as it were created over again there is a power given us that we had not before to do this work Clearly the Apostle doth not speak there of the first Creation the end of our first Creation was to serve God but he speaks of supernatural renovation for he saith We are created in Christ Iesus There was a twofold Creation at first Ex nihilo ex inhabili materia either that which God created out of nothing or if out of pre-existent matter yet such as was wholly unfit and indisposed for those things that were to be made of it Now this latter suits with us We are created in Christ Iesus to good works that is we were altogether indisposed before to that which is good We have our natural powers but they are wholly vitiously inclined till the Lord worketh on us and infuseth a principle of new life till then we cannot do any thing that is spiritually good But when the Lord createth us anew he furnisheth us with an inward power and ability to do good What David prays for Make me to go in the way of thy commandments God promiseth Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes God puts his spirit a new principle of grace When the Gospel is proposed to a man his will must be determined by something either by an object or a quality not by the proposal meerly of the object without for the Scripture shews there must be some work upon the heart some Divine quality infused within to incline and bend us to what is good Well then first there must be an infusion of the principles of grace In sinning there the mischief began with an act Adam sinned and that infected his nature But in grace the method is contrary the principle must be before the action God first sanctifieth our natures and then we act holily and this difference there is between acquired and infused habits Acquired habits follow action for frequent acts beget an habit as often swimming makes us expert in swimming and much writing expert in writing but gracious habits are infused and so preceed the act as a wheel runs round not to make it self round but because it is round Indeed there is a farther radication of grace by frequent acts as the means which God blesseth Now by this first work of grace we have three advantages 1. An inclination and tendency towards what is good As all natures imply a propensity to those things which agree to such a nature As sparks fly upward and a stone moves downward it 's their natural propensity so in the new nature there 's a new bent and tendency of heart which is to live unto God Gal. 2. 19. there 's an inclination towards God and holy things and therefore the Apostle presseth them by virtue of this grace received to act according to the tendency of the new nature Rom. 6. 13. Yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead that 's his argument As soon as the life of grace is infused the soul bends towards God 2. A preparation of heart for holy actions There is a principle that will carry them to it These Vessels are fitted and prepared for their Master's use and are prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2. 21. they are fitted and rigged for all holy actions and employments Eph. 2. 10. Created unto good works which God hath prepared that we should walk in them He hath prepared them for us and us to them There is a sutableness in the new nature to what God requireth As every creature is furnished with power and faculties sutable to those operations that belong to them so when the Lord infuseth the principles of grace and works upon the heart we are suited to every good work so that we need not new faculties but new operations of grace to excite and move us A ship that 's rigged and fitted with sails ready for a voyage needs a Pilot to guide and steer it so we need influences of grace Therefore when the Spirit is shed upon us afterwards it is in another manner than upon the unregenerate The unregenerate are objects of grace but the renewed are instruments of grace he works upon the one but he works by the other 3. There is a power and an ability to do good works when we are renewed if otherwise one of God's most precious gifts would be in vain if we were altogether without strength That 's the description of carnal nature Rom. 5. 6. We were without strength therefore there is a power which must be improved not rested in Gal. 5. 25. If ye live in the spirit walk in the spirit There is an operation that accompanieth every life and if there be a life of grace there will be a walking And Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ so walk in him Grace received must not lye idle but be put forth into act Thus God creates and infuseth such divine qualities as may give us a tendency and preparation of heart and strength to do that which may be pleasing to him Secondly He vouchsafeth his quickning actuating assisting grace for the improving these principles infused that their operations may be carried forth with more success Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes God gives not only life but the constant motion of that life Natural things do not act without his daily Providential influence and therefore it is said Prov. 20. 12. God gives the hearing ear and the seeing eye not only doth give the eye and ear the faculty but the act of hearing and act of seeing he concurs to that and therefore God concurs by his actual assistance sometimes in a more liberal and plentiful manner by the freer aids and assistances of his grace and sometimes more sparingly according to his own pleasure He doth not only give us the habits of grace he worketh all
our works for us Isa. 26. 12. Now this actual help is necessary 1. Partly to direct us Psal. 74. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory We need not only a principle within and a rule without but need also a guide Though we have grace in our hearts though we have the Law of God to direct us yet we need also a guide upon all occasions the Rule is the Scripture and the Guide is the Spirit of God 2. Partly to quicken and excite us by effectual motions The heart of man is very changeable and it is like the eye easily discomposed and put out of frame Deadness creeps upon us and we drive on heavily in the work of God Psal. 119. 37. Quicken thou me in thy way God doth renew the vigor of the life of grace upon all occasions 3. Partly to corroborate and strengthen that which we have received and make it encrease and grow in the soul and more firmly rooted there Eph. 3. 16. The Apostle prays That God would strengthen you with might by his spirit in the inner man the inward man the frame of grace that we have received needs to be strengthned encreased and be more deeply rooted in the soul. So 1 Pet. 5. 10. The God of all grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you Many words are used to shew how God is interested in maintaining and keeping a foot the grace he hath planted in the soul. 4. Partly in protecting and defending them against the incursions and assaults of the Devil The regenerate are not only escaped out of his clutches but appointed to be his Judges which an envious and proud spirit cannot endure therefore he maligneth assaulteth and besiegeth them with temptations daily therefore Christ prays Joh. 17. 11. Keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me When a City is besieged fresh supplies are sent in they are not kept to their standing-provision so it is not the ordinary power of God that doth preserve and keep us from danger there 's new relief and fresh strength We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Pet. 1. 5. Now we experience the help we have from God partly by the change and frame of our heart when we are acted by him and when we are not When God by the impulsions of his grace doth quicken and awaken our hearts we are carried on with a great deal of earnestness and strength but at other times we seem to be much bound and have not those breathings from the Spirit of God to fill our sails and carry us on with the same life and strength Yea in the same duty how is a Christian up and down carried out sometimes with a great deal of zeal and warmth but if God withdraw that assistance before the duty be over how do the affections flag So that we are like the wards of a Lock kept up while the key is turned but fall again when the key is turned the other way While the work of grace is powerful we are kept in a warm and heavenly plight Thus as to duties we need spiritual relief Likewise in temptations when we are ready to fall into such a sin with great proneness of heart and the Lord quickens and excites us by his grace It is often with a Christian as with David Psal. 73. 2. My feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt even carried away by the violence of Satan and importunate motions of our own lusts then the Lord gives grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4. 16. in the Original it is no more but this seasonable relief God vouchsafeth Object I but are we to do nothing when we are indisposed This case is often traversed in this Psalm 1. The Precept of God falls upon us as reasonable creatures and doth not consider whether we are disposed or indisposed and God's influence is not our rule but our help We are to stir up our selves the Lord complains Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of me And Timothy is bid to stir up the gift of God which is in him 2 Tim. 1. 6. God's assistance will be best expected in a way of doing Up and be doing and the Lord will be with thee 2 Chron. When we stir up our selves and set our selves to the work in the conscience of our duty we can better expect God's help and assistance 2. In great distempers there may be some pause Elisha would not prophesie when he was under a passion of anger therefore he calls for a Minstrel to sing a Psalm 2 King 3. 13 14 15. and as he plaid upon an Instrument the Spirit of the Lord came upon him He was under a passion offended with the King of Israel therefore he would not prophesie until his spirit was composed Certainly we are not to run head-long upon duties in the midst of these distempers Sailing is more safely delayed in time of an extreme storm When the heart is put into some great disorder in a great storm of spirit the distemper should first be mourned for and prayed against The Reasons why that from first to last he must make us to go in the way of his Commandments 1. God keeps this power in his own hands that his grace might be all in all and 't is the glory of his actions always to set the crown upon graces head Not only those permanent and fixed habits which constitute the new man but those daily supplies without which the motions and operations of the spiritual life would be at a stand are for grace When the Lord reckons with his servants about the improvement of their talents he doth not say My industry but Lord thy pound Luke 19. 18. He puts all the honour upon grace So 1 Cor. 16. 10. Not I but the grace of God So Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that still they are giving the glory to grace Acts are more perfect than habits therefore if we had only the power from God and acts from our selves we should not give all to God That acts are more perfect than the power is clear it is more perfect to understand than to have a power to understand power is in order to the act and the end is more noble than the means 2. This is a very great encouragement to us to set upon the exercise of grace in the midst of weaknesses and several difficulties and temptations wherewith we are encompassed because God will enable and assist us he will not leave us to our standing strength but he concurs Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling why for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure When God will concur to the will and to the deed to both when we have wind and tide he is very lazy that will not take his
that live by Faith is Ridiculous to them those that trust in a Promise are Exercised with delay and Distress Heb. 6. 12. Be ye followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises here is matter for Faith and Patience Now they that know no Arm but Flesh no security but a Temporal interest no Happiness but in the things of this Life have them in Derision that look Else-where Use 1. Not to count it strange when this is our Lot to be exercised with Reproaches because of our Trust so was Christ. Psal. 22. 6 7 8. I am a Worm and no Man a Reproach of men and despised of the People all they that see me Laugh me to Scorn they shoot out the Lip and shake the Head saying he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him Let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Mat. 27. 39. 40 41 42 43. And they that passed by reviled him Wagging their Heads and saying thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three Days save thy Self if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross c. If Christ Jesus was mocked for his Trust we should bear it the more Patiently So the People of God 2 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we both Labour and suffer Reproach because we trust in the living God It is no new thing for the Adversaries of Religion to scorn such as trust in God and rely upon his Promises therefore bears it the more patiently 1. Whether they be upbraidings of our Trust Mat 27. 43. He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God Job 4. 6. Is not this thy Fear thy Confidence and the uprightness of thy ways thy hope 2. Or insultings over our low and comfortless condition men will tread down the Hedge where they find it low the Psalmist complaineth Psal. 69. 26. They speak to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded pour in Vinegar and Salt where they find a Wound and add Affliction to the Afflicted You will hear bitter words Christ himself was thus exercised Mat 27. 29. Hail King of the Iews to be mocked and scorned we must expect and that men will insult 3. Or whether they be perverse applications of Providence thus Shimei insulted over David in his Distress 2 Sam. 16. 78. Come out thou bloody man thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the Blood of the house of Saul c. So men will say this is for your Rebellion c. Use 2. Since there are two Parties in the World they that Trust and they that Reproach them for their Trust consider in what number you are it is needfull to be far from the disposition of the Seed of the Serpent and not to have your Tongues set on fire of Hell to be far from the disposition of those that are governed by Sense and Carnal Interests 1. It is unmannerly to insult over any in Distress and to Reproach them with their Condition Places blasted with Lightning were accounted Sacred amongst the Heathens because the hand of God had touched them so you should not speak to the grief of those whom God hath wounded but pity them and pray for them if they are fallen into Gods hands 2. It is unchristian to Reproach those that trust in God It is easie to know them who are they that pray that plead Promises that carry not on their hopes by present likelihoods though they have their faults they are for the main strict holy charitable 3. It is dangerous to offend any of Christs little ones and to grieve their Spirits Doct. III. That these Reproaches are grievous to Gods Children and go near their hearts therefore David desires God to appear for him that they may have somewhat to answer them that Reproached him 1. Mans Nature cannot endure Reproach especially a scornful Reproach every man thinketh himself worthy of some Regard 2. Religion encreaseth the sence of it as the Flood increased when the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the Windows of Heaven were opened Gen. 7. 11. When the Deep below and Heaven above the Flood was the greater so when Grace and Nature joyn it is very grievous David said Psalm 42. 11. It was a Sword in my Bones when they said where is now thy God these were cutting words to Davids heart 1. It is a dishonour to God and they are sensible of that as well as a Misery to themselves It is a dishonour to his Power as if he could not help to his Love as if he would not to his Truth as if he would fail in the needful time or were fickle and inconstant as if he would desert his friends in Misery to his Holiness as if he favoured wicked men in their evil Courses and formal dead-hearted Services Psal. 50. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self how can a Soul that loveth God endure this that the Power of God should be lessened or his truth questioned Rabshekah said what confidence is this wherein thou trustest Isa. 36. 4. compared with 18. 19 20. Beware lest Hezekiah perswade you saying the Lord shall deliver us hath any of the Gods of the Heathens delivered his Land out of the hand of the King of Assyria Where are the Gods of Hamath and Arphad where are the Gods of Sepharvaim and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand who are they amongst all the Gods that have delivered their Land out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand As if the Living God had no more Power than dumb Idols therefore Hezekiah goeth and spreads the Letter before the Lord you touch a godly man to the quick when you strike at Gods honour they have a tender sence and feeling of this 2. It reflects upon the ways of God to bring them out of Request you thought you were one of Gods Darlings you thought no body served God but you this is your Godly Profession your Fasting and Prayer what need such Niceness thus they count his way folly his life madness 3. These Reproaches strike at the Life of Faith and therefore go very near the hearts of Gods Children Trust and Confidence in God it is the Life of their Souls Psal. 3. 2. There is no help for him in God Such Temptations are very catching when he seemeth opposite to them Now our Unbelief put in to make the Temptation stronger there is some visible pretence for what is said Where are the Promises thou talkest of Where the Promises and the Deliverance What have thy Prayers brought from Heaven thou hast called and none answered cried and none hath pity on thee What Profit in serving the Lord and then what followeth after this open Objection Unbelief cometh and whispereth in our Ears do you think those things true the Word speaketh Well then
Apostle of our Profession The Christian Religion is a Confession not a thing to be smothered and kept in secret or confined to the Heart but to be openly brought forth and avowed in Word and Deed to the Glory of Christ If a man should content himself to own God in his heart what would become of the Church of God and all his Ordinances and the Assemblies of his People among whom we make this open Confession 1. This Confession is necessary as well as the inward Belief because God hath required it by an express Law which Law is confirmed by a Sanction of great weight and moment the greatest Promises on the one hand and the greatest Penalties and Threatnings on the other That there is an express Law for Confession besides what hath been said already see 1 Pet. 3. 15. Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts in your Hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you with meekness and fear where they are required not only to revere God in their Hearts but to be ready to own him with their mouths and to give a Testimony of him when it should be demanded Yea that sanctifying God in their Hearts is required in order to the Testimony given with their Mouths that having due and awful thoughts of God they may not be ashamed to own him before men Now this is backt with the greatest Promises and on the other side with the severest Threatnings God hath promised no less than Salvation to those that confess him Matth. 10. 33. Whosoever will confess me before Men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven Father this is one of mine he will do them more honour than possibly they can do him and Rom. 10. 10. With the Mouth Confession is made to Salvation Salvi esse non possumus saith Austin nisi ad salutem proximorum etiam ore profiteamur Fidem We cannot be Saved unless we profess the Faith that we have On the other side the neglect of Profession either out of Shame or Fear is threatned with the greatest penalties Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his Glorious Angels Then when all shadows flee away and we would crouch for a little favour that Christ should be ashamed of us these were Christians but cowardly and dastardly ones I cannot own them to be of my Flock and Kingdom Oh how will our faces gather blackness the same is Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels So for Fear 2 Tim. 2. 11. If we suffer we shall also Reign with him if we deny him he will deny us So that you see it is not a matter of small moment whether we confess or no but a thing expresly enjoyned by God and that upon Terms of Life and Death 2. This Confession is of great use as conducing much to the Glory of God and the good of others 1. The Glory of God which should be the great scope and end of our Lives and Actions is much concerned in our confessing or not confessing what we believe When we boldly avow the truth it is a sign we are not ashamed of our Master Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death Ministry or Martyrdom he calls this a magnifying of Christ whereas flinching concealing halfing the Truth denying Confession it is called a being ashamed of Christ Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words as if his Name were a thing base unworthy not to be owned 2. The Good of others and their Edification is concerned in our confessing or not confessing No man is born for himself and therefore is not only to work out his own salvation but as much as in him lieth to procure the salvation of others and to bring God and his Truth into request with them therefore not only to believe with the heart that concerneth himself but to confess with the mouth that concerneth the good of others when we own the Truth though it cost us dear that tendeth to the furtherance of the Gospel Phil. 1. 12. 13. For I would ye should understand Brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel so that my Bonds in Christ are manifest in all the Palace and in all other places c. But when we dissemble that is a scandal and a stumbling block to others whom we justifie and harden in a false way as Peter fearing them of the Circumcision dissembled and the Iews dissembled with him insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their Dissimulation Gal. 2. 12 13. Men of publick Fame and Favour when they are not men of courage and of self-denying Spirits their temporizing may do a great deal of hurt and like a Torrent or Stream carry others with them Oh! let us beware of this Zuinglius saith Ad aras Iovis Veneris adorare sub Antichristo fidem occultare idem est As well worship before the Altars of Jupiter and Venus as hide our Faith under Antichrist Fear and weakness excuseth not the Fearful and Unbelieving are put with Murderers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and sent together to the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Revel 21. 8. Use 1. To reprove them that think it to be enough to own the Truth in their Hearts without confessing it with their Mouths This Libertinism prevailed at Corinth where they thought they might be present at Idols Feasts as long as in their Consciences they knew that an Idol was nothing The Apostle argueth against them 2 Cor. 6. and concludes his Argument thus 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit To pretend to serve God in my heart whosoever thinks so mocketh God and deceiveth himself he that warreth with the Enemies of his Prince and is as forward in Battel as any of the rest can he say I reserve the King my Heart and Affections Or when a woman prostituteth her Body to another will the Husband be content with such an Excuse that she reserveth her Heart for him God is not a God of half of a man he made the whole Body and Soul and will be served with both he bought both 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirits which are Gods Therefore you should not only
compose and purifie the Mind and make Sin more odious and fortifie us against the Baits of Sense which are the occasion of all the Sin in the World All our Joy is to be considered with respect to its Use and Profit Eccles. 2. 2. I said of laughter It is mad and of mirth What doth it The more a Man delighteth in God and in the Ways of God the more he cleaveth to him and resolveth to go on in this Course and Temptations to Sensual Delights do less prevail for the joy of the Lord is our strength The safety of the Spiritual Life lieth in the keeping up our Joy and Delight in it Heb. 3. 6. Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Isa. 64. 5. Thou meetest him who rejoyceth and worketh righteousness But now Carnal Delights intoxicate the Mind and fill it with Vanity and Folly The Sensitive Lure hath more power over us to draw into the slavery of Sin Tit. 3. 3. For we our selves were also foolish deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Surely then the healing Delights should be preferred before the killing wounding Pleasures that so often prove a snare to us 2. The Object is to be considered thy commandments Here observe 1. David did not place his Delight in Folly or Filthiness as they do that glory in their shame or delight in Sin and giving contentment to the Lusts of the Flesh as the Apostle speaks of some that sport themselves in their own deceivings 2 Pet. 2. 13. that do not onely live in sin but make a sport of it beguiling their own hearts with groundless apprehensions that there is no such evil and hazard therein as the Word declareth and Conscience sometimes suggesteth they are beholden to their sottish Error and Delusion for their Mirth Neither did he place his Delight in Temporal trifles the Honours and Pleasures and Profits of the World as bruitish Worldlings do but in the Word of God as the Seed of the New Life the Rule of his Conversation the Charter of his Hopes that blessed Word by which his Heart might be renewed and sanctified his Conscience setled his Mind acquainted with his Creators Will and his Affections raised to the Hopes of Glory The Matter which feedeth our Pleasures sheweth the Excellency or Baseness of it If like Beetles we delight in a Dunghil rather than a Garden or the Paradise of God's Word it shews a base mean Spirit as Swine in wallowing in the mire or Dogs to eat their own Vomit Our Temper and Inclination is known by our Complacency or Displacency Rom. 7. 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Therefore see which your hearts carry you to to the World or the Word of God The most part of the World are carried to the Pleasures of Sense and mastered by them but a Divine Spirit or Nature put into us makes us look after other things 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises even of the great blessings of the new Covenant such as Pardon of Sin Eternal Life c. 2. Not onely in the Promissory but Mandatory part of the Word Commandments is the Notion in the Text. There is matter of great Joy contained in the Promises but they must not be looked upon as exclusive of the Precepts but inclusive Promises are spoken of Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart They contain spiritual and heavenly Riches and so are matter of Joy to a believing Soul but the Commandments call for Duty on our parts The Precepts appoint us a pleasant Work shew us what is to be done and left undone These Restraints are grateful to the New Nature for the compliance of the Will with the Will of God and its conformity to his Law hath a Pleasure annexed to it A renewed Soul would be subject to God in all things therefore delights in his Commandments without limitation or distinction 3. It is not in the Study or Contemplation of the Justice and Equity of these Commandments but in the Obedience and Practice of them There is a pleasure in the Study and Contemplation for every Truth breedeth a delectation in the mind Psal. 19. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the soul. It is a blessed and pleasant thing to have a sure Rule commending it self with great evidence to our Consciences and manifesting it self to be of God therefore the sight of the Purity and Certainty of the Word of God is a great pleasure to any considering Mind no other Study to be compared with it But the Joy of Speculation or Contemplation is nothing to that of Practice Nothing maketh the Heart more chearful than a good Conscience or a constant walking in the way of God's Commandments 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that with simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God I have had my conversation in the world Let me give you this Gradation The Pleasures of Contemplation exceed those of Sense and the Delights of the Mind are more sincere and real than those of the Body for the more noble the Faculty is the more capable of Delight A Man in his Study about Natural things hath a truer pleasure than the greatest Epicure in the most exquisite enjoyment of Sense Prov. 24. 13 14. My son eat thou honey because it is good and the honey-comb which is sweet to thy taste so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul when thou hast found it then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off But especially the Contemplation of Divine things is pleasant the Objects are more sublime certain necessary profitable and here we are more deeply concerned than in the Study of Nature Surely this is sweeter than Honey and Honey-comb to understand and contemplate the way of Salvation by Christ This is an Heaven upon Earth to know these things Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent As much as the Pleasures of the Natural Mind do exceed these Bodily Pleasures so much do these Pleasures of Faith and Spiritual Knowledge exceed those of the Natural Mind These things the Angels desire to pry into Now the Delights of Practical Obedience do far exceed those which are the meer result of Speculation and Contemplation Why Because they give us a more intimate feeling of the Truth and Worth of these things and our Right in them thereby is more secured and our Delight in them is heightned by the supernatural Operation of the Holy Ghost The Joy of the Spirit is said to be unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 18. In short
a-going as Christ saith I know whence I am and whither I goe They look altogether for the present and if they be well for the present they are contented Alas in what a miserable Case are these Men though they mind it not they seem to me to be like Men that are going to Execution A Man that is going to the Gallows for the present is well hath a great Guard to attend him an innumerable multitude of People to follow him you would think that hardly could a Man be such a Sot and Fool as to think all this should be done for his Honour and not for his Punishment and should onely consider how he is accompanied but not whither he goeth Many such Fools there are in the World that onely consider how they are attended and provided for but never consider whither they are a-going Oh Wretch whither goest thou may we say to one that should pride himself in the resort of Company to his Execution dost thou not see thou art led to Punishment and after an hour or two these will leave thee hanging and perishing infamously as the just reward of thine Offences So many that shine now in the pomp and splendour of worldly Accommodations and are merry and jocund as if all would doe well alas poor Creatures whither are they a-going Iob 21. 12 13. They take the Timbrel and the Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down into Hell Ye still live and are going to Punishment but mind it not but your Wealth and Honours and Servants and Friends will all leave you to your own doom and yet you are merry and jocund as if your Journey would never end or not so dismally as if you were hastening to a Kingdom and not to an eternal Prison one moment puts an end to all their Joy for ever 2. There are others that wean their hearts from this World and make it their Care that they may carry themselves becoming their celestial Extraction as their Souls were from above by Creation so all their Hopes and Desires and Endeavours are to attain to that Region of Spirits much more as being renewed by Grace do they aim at the Perfection and Accomplishment of that Life which is begun in them and so being made partakers of the Divine nature do they escape the Corruption that is in the world through Lust 2 Pet. 1 4. they are convinced of a better Estate than the World yieldeth and believe it and look for it and long for it and labour for it Now of which number are you or if you cannot decide that because more goeth to the assuring of our Interest than the World usually taketh to be necessary for that end and purpose of which number do you mean to be will you be at home in the World or seek the happiness of the World to come that is in other terms do you mean to be Pagans under a Christian name or Christians indeed you have but the name if you be not Strangers and Pilgrims here upon Earth All Christ's Disciples indeed are called to sit loose from the World and to have an high and deep sense of the World to come as to the other World they are no mere Strangers and Foreigners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. They are of a Family part of which is in Heaven and part on Earth Eph. 3. 15. of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth are named some of their Brethren have got the start of them and are with God before them but the rest are hastening after as fast as they can They are sufficiently convinced that the Earth is no place for them they are strangers there and the contentments thereof uncertain and perishing but they are no strangers to Heaven and the blessed Society of the Saints whose privileges they have a full right to now and hope one day to have as full a Possession and an intimate Communion with their Father and all their Brethren Now that you may resolve upon this and carry your selves sutably I shall 1. Give you some Motives 2. A Direction or two 1. Motives 1. He that taketh up his Rest in this World or any earthly thing is but an higher kind of Beast and unworthy of an immortal Soul The Beasts have an instinct that guideth them to seek things convenient for that Life which they have and therefore a man doth not follow the Light of Reason that seeketh to quiet his mind with what things the World affordeth and onely relisheth the contentments of the carnal and bodily Life that is satisfied with his Portion here Psalm 17. 14. All their business and bustle is to have their wills and pleasure for a little while as if they had neither hopes nor fears of any greater things hereafter Psalm 49. 20. Man that is in honour and void of understanding is as the beast that perisheth because he meerly inclineth to present satisfactions for Reason is as a middle thing between the Life of Faith and the Life of Sense it were no great matter whether you were Men or Dogs or Swine if Reason be onely given you for the present World and present satisfactions all your Sense of the World to come and Conscience is as good as nothing 2. None are of so noble and Divine a Spirit as those that seek the heavenly Kingdom Amongst men the Ambitious who aspire to Crowns and Kingdoms that aim at perpetual Fame by their Vertues and rare Exploits are judged Persons of greater Gallantry than Covetous muck-worms and bruitish Epicures yet their highest thoughts and designs are very base in comparison of Christians who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Life Glory and Immortality Rom. 2. 7. and whom nothing less will content than the injoyment of God himself Their desires are after him Psalm 73. 25. whom have I in Heaven but thee and who is there on Earth I desire besides thee So that as Man being immortal should provide for some place of perpetual abode so herein the Christian excelleth other men that nothing less will satisfie him than what God hath promised his People hereafter The Threshold will not content him nothing but the Throne 3. What a sorry Immortality mock Eternity do they choose instead of the true one when they neglect the pursuit of this heavenly Country If they look no higher than this World all that they can rationally imagine is perpetuating Themselves and their Names and Posterity by successive Generations Psalm 49. 11. Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their Dwelling-places to all Generations they call their Lands by their own names This is styled Nodosa Aeternitas when they live in their Children after death but alas to how few mens share can this fall and those who may in likelihood expect it who are Lords of fair Rents fair Lands Houses and Heritages how
Thirdly That which a man would make his Portion if he were free to choose it should be a proper and suitable Good our own Good The heart of man aims at not onely bonum Good in common but also bonum congruum a suitable fitting Good Every Element moveth to its own place and every living Creature desires Food proper to it self so man is not onely carried to Good but Good that suits to his Capacity and Necessity the Soul being a Spirit must have a Spiritual Good Indeed as it acts in the Body and accommodates it self with the Necessities of the Body and seeks the Good of the Body so it may be carried out to Honours Pleasures and Profits for these are the conveniencies of the bodily life but as it is a Spirit and can live apart from the Body it must have something above these a spiritual Object and as it is Immortal it must have an Immortal Good Now for a spiritual Immortal Good do we grope and feel about until we finde it and then there 's a great deal of satisfaction Acts 17. 27. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and finde him So we are groping and feeling about as the blinde Sodomites did for Lots door for some Good that may suit the Capacity of our Souls we were made for God and therefore cannot have full contentment without God But I speak not now of man as man but suppose him to have a new Nature put into him that carries him after satisfaction we are made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. It is called so because it comes from God and tends to Him Now there must be something suitable to this Nature pleasure is when those things are enjoyed that suit with us when the Object and the Faculty are suited when every Appetite hath a fit dyet to feed upon then a marvellous deal of Pleasure and Contentment results from thence Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the Flesh do minde the things of the Flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit All things seek a suitable Good Now they that are after the Spirit that have a new spiritual Divine Nature put into them renewed Souls they must have an Object proper and therefore must have something above the concernments of the Body and above the fleshly Nature for every thing delights in that which is suitable as a Fish in the Stream and an Ox to lick up the Grass and Man must have a suitable Good as a rational Being but as a spiritual being must have another Good Grace restores us to the inclinations of Nature when it was innocent therefore the Soul that came from God must center in God and it cannot be quiet without him Fourthly That which a man would make his Portion it must be sufficient to supply all his wants that he may have enough to live upon Now saith the Lord I am God Alsufficient Gen. 17. 1. Sufficient for the necessities of this Life and that which is to come He is the Fountain of all Blessings Spiritual Temporal Eternal not onely their Power for ever but their Portion for ever satisfied with him now and in the Life to come Psal. 142. 5. Thou art my Portion O Lord in the Land of the Living They expect all from Him not onely Peace and Righteousness Grace and Glory but Food Maintenance Defence to bear them out in his Work The Creature is but Gods Instrument or as an empty Pipe unless God flow in by it If God help them not the Creature â—…annot help them These are Streams that have Water onely so long as the Spring fills them Well then here is a Portion that is every way sufficient All other Portions are accompanied with a want but this alone sufficeth all Some things give Health Wealth O but not Peace Some things give Peace but not Honour But God is all to us Health Wealth Peace Honour Grace and Glory All things are yours because you are Christ's and Christ is God's so runs the Christian Charter there is omne bonum in summo bono all things in the chiefest Good So Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things how so for I will be his God He that hath God hath him that hath Power and Command of all things and therefore shall inherit all things for I will be his God And that 's the reason of the Apostles Riddle 2 Cor. 6. 10. As having nothing yet possessing all things that is all things in God when they have nothing in the Creature Many times they are kept barâ—… and low but God carries the Purse for them all things are at his dispose and we are kept more bare and low that we may be sensible of the strange Supplies of his Providence Alas without him in the midst of our Sufficiencies we may be in straits Fifthly That a man would choose that for his Portion wherein he may be contented satisfied and sit down as having enough Now this is onely in God When we choose other things for our Portion still our Sore runs upon us there are some crannies and vacuities of Soul that are to be filled up if we could satisfy our Affections we cannot satisfy our Consciences nothing can content the desires of the Soul but God himself other things may busy us and vex us but cannot satisfy us All things are vanity and vexation of Spirit If a man would make a critical search as Solomon did he set himself to see what Pleasures and Honours would doe to content the Heart of Man and what Riches and Learning would doe he had a large Estate and Heart and so was in a capacity to try all things to see if he could extract Satisfaction from them yet he concludes all is vanity and vexation of Spirit Whosoever will follow this Course will come home with Disappointment But in this Portion there 's Contentment we need no more but God and there is nothing besides him worth our desire Necessities that are not supplied by him are but fancies it is want of Grace if we want any thing else when we have God for our Portion Psal. 17. 14. From the men of the world which have their Portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid Treasure A Carnal man's Happiness is patched up with a great many Creatures they must have dainty Fare costly Apparel this and that and still their Sore runs upon them they have a fulness of all things and yet they are not filled But now saith David As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness Though God do not make out himself in that Latitude and Fulness as he will hereafter yet at present to have Communion with God is enough I shall be filled There are some desires that are working after God but they will be filled hereafter It is true we are not now perfect but
is a sure effect of great arrogancy and pride They think they may do what they please They have no changes Therefore they fear not God and put forth their hands against such as be at peace with them Psal. 55. 19 20. whilest they go on prosperously and undisturbedly they cannot abstain from violence and oppression This is certainly Pride for it is a lifting up the heart above God and against God and without God And they do not consider his Providence who alternately lifts up and casts down that Adversity may not be without a Cordial nor Prosperity without a Curb and Bridle But when men sit fast and are well at ease they are apt to be insolent and scornful Riches and worldly greatness maketh men insolent and despisers of others and care not what burdens they impose upon them they are intrenched within a mass of wealth and power and greatness and so think none can call them to an account Solomon speaketh of two sorts of people Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe The rich mans wealth is his strong city and as an high wall in his own conceit Every man is as his trust is For as the Psalmist speaketh of Idols in general They that trust in Idols are like unto them so it is true of spiritual Idols If a man trust in vain things his heart groweth vain proud and insolent promiseth him an uninterrupted course of felicity from poor perishing things that come and go at God's pleasure If a man trust in God then he is kept holy humble carried on with a noble and divine Spirit and findeth more safety than another that hath all the strength and power of the world to support and back him The Name of the Lord is a real Refuge but wealth and honour and worldly greatness is but an imaginary Refuge He that hath nothing but the Name of the Lord to trust in Worldlings think he buildeth Castles in the Air but the Godly knoweth that Worldlings indeed build Castles in the Air while they look big and and think their greatness shall bear them out Alas Wealth is but a Wall and a strong Tower in their own conceit not really so but this puffeth them up and they are quite other men when they are at top than what they were when they were under 3. Because they affect a life of Pomp and Ease and carnal Greatness and so despise the Affliction and Meanness and Simplicity of the People of God The false Church hath usually the advantage of worldly Power and external Glory and the true Church is known by the Divine Power Gifts and Graces and the lustre of Holiness Psal. 45. 13. The kings daughter is glorious within is found out by Faith Love Patience Sobriety Heavenly-mindedness Humility Purity and the like rather than by a splendid appearance And holiness becomes God's house Psal. 93. 5. rather than Gold and Silver and costly Furniture The false Church vaunts it self in costly Temples Officers richly endowed with Temporal Revenues and a pompous attendance And so the simplicity of the Gospel is corrupted and turned into a worldly Domination As for instance The Church of Rome boasts of her Grandeur and Magnificence and upbraids the Reformed with their abject condition Ministris eorum nihil vilius saith Campian They can tell of the pompous Inauguration of their Popes their stately Train of Cardinals Lordly Prelates whereas the poor Ministers of the Gospel live hardly and precariously Whereas indeed the glory of the true Church doth not make a fair shew in the flesh is not external corporeal and visible but internal incorporeal and invisible Cant. 1. 5. And like its Head Jesus Christ who to appearance was humble poor and afflicted but in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge yea the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily External splendor pleaseth the flesh and is not a sign of Virtue so much as Pride Luke 16. 19. What shall become of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years if outward greatness be a mark of it Naz. Orat. Con. Aroc The World is with them but the Faith with us they have pure Gold but we pure Doctrine So â—…ilary against Auxentius Unum moneo cavete Antichristum male enim vos parietum amor cepit male Ecclesiam Dei in tectis artificiisque veneramini male sub iis pacis nomen ingeritis anne ambiguum est in iis Antichristum cessurum Montes mihi Sylvoe Lacus Carceres Voragines sunt tutiores in iis enim Prophetoe aut manentes aut demersi Dei Spiritu prophetabant Well because of their affectation of worldly greatness they are called proud and so it is taken Mal. 3. 15. Ye call the proud happy And because of this they hate and molest the People of God because there is a contrary spirit They hear Christ's voice Mat. 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly They hate them because they contemn that Felicity which they affect and so put a scorn on their way 1 Pet. 4. 4. think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 4. They are called proud because of their insolent carriage towards the Lord's People partly in their Laws and Injunctions requiring to give them more Honour Respect and Obedience than in Conscience can be afforded them as Haman would have Mordecai to devote himself to him after the manner of the Persians Esther 3. 5. The man though a Favourite was an Amalekite one that came of that stock whose remembrance God would have to be blotted out Exod. 17. 14. And possibly more worship and honour was required than was due to a man God had forbidden to give divine honour to any but himself now according to the custom of Persia these honours did somewhat savor of divine worship vide Brisson pag. 10 11 12 13 14 with the 18th So Ieroboam would have his Calves worshipped 1 Kings 12. 32. And yet all that complied with him therein are charged for walking so willingly after the Commandment Hosea 5. 11. We dare not offend God to please men the good Levites are commended 2 Chron. 11. 14. So it was Pride in Nebuchad-nezzar to command all men to bow before his image Dan. 3. 15 16. God's Prerogative must not be incroached upon there is a superior Sovereign Partly in vexing molesting and oppressing them at their pleasure the formal Christian hateth the spiritual Gal. 4. 29. Now this cometh from their Pride Psal. 10. 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Would not have their lazy course upbraided and disgraced by the seriousness and strictness of others they malign what they cannot imitate And 't is carried on by their Pride or abuse of Power God counteth it Pride Psal. 12. 5. For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy the Lord will arise to deliver him and
upward that is to God for ease and relief as when we expect any bodies coming we send our eyes towards the place from whence he cometh Reasons 1. The Children of God make more of a Promise than others do and that upon a double account Partly because they value the Blessing promised Partly because they are satisfied with the assurance given by God's Word so that whereas others pass by these things with a careless eye their souls are lifted up to the constant and earnest expectation of the Blessing promised 'T is said of the Hireling that he must have his wages before the Sun go down Deut. 24. 15. Because he is poor and hath set his heart upon it Or as it is in the Hebrew lifted up his soul to it meaning thereby both his desire and hope He esteemeth his wages for it is the solace of his labors and the maintenance of his life and he assuredly expecteth it upon the promise and covenant of him who setteth him awork So it is with the Children of God they esteem the Blessings promised and God's Word giveth them good assurance that they do not wait upon him in vain 1 Tim 4. 10. Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the saviour of all men especially of those that believe They know God is good to all much more to his Covenant servants They value his salvation and venture their All upon his salvation and the truth of his Word and therefore lift up their souls to him in the midst of their pressures and difficulties 2. It is some satisfaction to enjoy the Blessing in Idea and contemplation before we have it indeed Hope causeth a kind of anticipation and preunion of our souls with the blessedness expected as Heirs live upon their Lands before they have them And that 's the reason why Joy is made to be the fruit of Hope though it be proper to fruition and enjoyment Rom. 12. 12. Rejoycing in hope of the glory of God It refresheth them in their Pilgrimage and affecteth them in some measure as if it were in hand So Rom. 15. 13. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the holy Ghost While believing waiting hoping while conflicting with difficulties They carry themselves as if they had already obtained the thing promised for by eying the Promise they are cheared and revived Hope giveth a foretaste especially when the comforting Spirit addeth his impression thereunto 3. The opening of the eye of Faith argueth a closing of the eye of Sense which giveth a double benefit First That we are not withdrawn with vain Objects Secondly Not discouraged with contrary Appearances First That we are not withdrawn by vain Objects Nothing doth quench Zeal and Holiness and Joy in the Lord nor cast water upon that sacred fire which should be kindled and kept ever burning in our bosoms so much as keeping the eye of Sense always open to behold the lustre and beauty of worldly vanities Alas then hope of Heaven and salvation from God is a cold heartless thing we think of it carelesly desire and press after it very weakly But now when the eye of Sense is shut and the eye of Faith kept always open then Hope advanceth it self with life and vigor and present things seem less and things to come more great and glorious in our eyes 1 Pet. 1. 13. Be sober and hope to the end c. Sobriety is the moderation of our affections in the pursuit and â—…se of earthly things The delights of the present life burden the Soul glue it to the earth and to base and inferior objects But when our Souls are kept in the fresh lively and serious expectation of better things all the things of the world appear more contemptible 'T is not for Eagles to catch Flies nor for the Heirs of Promise to be captivated by the delights of Sense so that every day our Hope is more certain and powerful our pursuit more earnest The mind is not darkned with the fumes of lust nor diverted from those noble objects Secondly The eye of Sense being shut we are not discouraged with contrary appearances nor with fears and troubles and the tryals of the present life because Hope seeth Sun-shine behind the back of the Storm We have a notable Emblem of the eye of Faith and the eye of Sense in the Prophet and the Prophet's man 2 Kings 6. 15 16 17. When the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth behold an host compassed the city both with horses and charets and his servant said to him Alas my master how shall we do And he answered Fear not for they that be with us are moe than they that be with them And Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and charets of fire round about Elisha's man is afrighted with the dreadful appearance of Enemies encompassing them round about and is at his wits end What shall we do But his Master Elisha had the eye of Faith and could see great preparations which God had sent for their defence which the servant could not see therefore encourageth him and in a Prophetical Vision sheweth not only more horses and charets but charets of fire which were no other than the Angels of God come together in the manner of an Host to rescue the Prophet of God What was represented to him in a Prophetical Vision is always evident to Faith and to the eyes of a believing Soul They see God and his holy Angels set for their deliverance When God openeth the eyes of the mind they can see the glory and power of the other world and then though troubled on every side yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despair though persecuted yet not forsaken though cast down yet not destroyed 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. Though wrestling with difficulties yea brought to some extremities yet this invisible assistance supporteth them and though they have little humane means yet God carrieth them on to their expected end and issue 1. USE To reprove us for poring so much upon present things and neglecting those to come especially the great recompence of reward Alas Men have either none or cold thoughts of that blessed estate which is offered in the Promises Our thoughts flie up and down like dust in the wind they may sometimes light upon good things but they vanish and abide not We may have some cold ineffectual glances upon Heaven and heavenly things which flie away and never leave the Soul better This argueth Hope is very weak if there be any at all for Hope is always longing and looking out for the blessing Sending Spies into the Land of Promise to bring it tydings thence it will discover its self
me in thy way O! when the children of God let loose their minds to vanity and take immoderate liberty in the delights of the flesh there 's a deadness comes upon them for therefore he goes to the cause Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity Immoderate liberty in earthly things or in gratifying the flesh brings on a deadness upon the heart The Spirit withdraws when the soul is taken off from other comforts and is more addicted to vain pleasures Iude v. 19. Sensual not having the Spirit As we are enlarged to the flesh we are straitned to the Spirit As sensuality encreaseth so the life and vitality of grace decays II. Secondly In such Cases the Word of God is the onely means to quicken us Why the Word For two Reasons 1. Because the Word contains the most quickning considerations and the affections are wrought upon by serious and ponderous thoughts for there God interposeth in the way of the highest authority straitly charging and commanding us under pain of his displeasure and there he reasons with us again in the most potent and strong way of Argumentation from the excellency of his commands their suitableness to us as we are reasonable creatures from his great love to us in Christ whom he hath given to dye for us from the danger if we refuse him which is no less than everlasting torment from the benefit and happiness in complying with his motions which is no less than eternal and compleat blessedness both for our bodies and souls and all this is bound upon us by a strict day of impartial accounts O! what a company of quickning considerations are there to set us a work with life vigor and seriousness when we are to answer for our neglects or else to receive the reward of our diligence now what will quicken us if this will not If the high and glorious authority of the supreme Lawgiver awe us not if the reasonableness of God's commands invite us not if the wonderful love of God in Christ constrain us not if the joys of Heaven do not allure us and the horrors of everlasting darkness do not preserve upon us a lively sense of our duty what will work upon us if this do not and gain us to a constant diligent care and serious preparation for our own happiness and salvation Out of what Rock was the heart of man hewen that all this shall be brought to him in the most persuasive way as it is in the Word of God and will not work upon him Again If the deadness should arise from our negligence in our duty the Word of God how powerfully doth it quicken us But if the deadness should arise from sorrow and discomfort is not the Word as powerful to raise and quicken the soul to a delight in God as to inforce our duty What puts a damp upon us Is it fury of men we have a living God to trust to who will remain when they are gone who will pardon our sins help us in all our straits who will lay upon us no more than we are able to bear who will never leave us utterly destitute but will sanctifie all and make all work together for the best for our everlasting salvation and finally bring us into his glorious presence that we may live for ever with him Here 's comfort enough whatever our heaviness be such a powerful God to stand by us in all our troubles and make all work for good that at length we may be brought home to God If this Word did but dwell richly in our souls it would keep us fresh and lively and we need not fear Man or Devil Col. 3. 16. Again 1 Iohn 2. 14. The Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one We need fear nothing for whoever trouble us they are something under God Whatever is our misery and whatever befalls us it is something less than Hell which we have escaped by Christ and will all be made up in Heaven The first sight of God and the first glimpse of everlasting glory will recompence all the sorrows of the present life and as soon as we step into Heaven all shall be forgotten In short God's particular Providence Fatherly love and care the example of Christ the promise of the comforting Spirit the hopes of Glory should revive us in all our languishings So that if deadness comes from backwardness and slowness in our duty in the Word there are most quickning considerations or if from troubles we have enough in God Christ the Covenant the promise of eternal life to support us This is the first Reason the Word of God is the onely means to comfort us because it contains proper quickning considerations that may keep life and vigor in us if either carnal distemper invade the heart or worldly sorrow and fear which is apt to perplex us 2. The quickning Spirit delights to work by this means The ordinary Chariot that carrieth the influences of Grace is the Word of Grace The Spirit that speaks in the Word speaks his own lively comforts to us Alas they are but cold comforts we can find elsewhere The Spirit of God rides most triumphantly in his own Chariot The Word and the Spirit are often associated to shew they go together The Word goes with the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart c. Isa. 30. 20. When God promiseth Their eyes shall see their Teachers it is promised also They should hear a voice behind them saying This is the way God would afford the Word and Spirit in times of their affliction The Spirit works still in concomitancy with the Word that it may the better be known to be a Revelation from God If God will set up a Word and Revelation of his mind distinct from the light of nature it is fit it should be owned and that 's done by a concomitancy of his grace and powerful operations of his Spirit that goes along with his Word Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth We find the Word to be truth because it 's associated and accompanied with the operations of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The Spirit still goes along with the truth of the Gospel and with God's Word His Word 't is the Sword of the Spirit God will not bless any other Doctrine so much as the Word to quicken revive and comfort the soul and therefore here we should busie our selves for it contains the surest grounds of Comfort and the Spirit is associated with it and goes along with it to bless it to our souls III. Thirdly Though the Word be the means yet the benefit comes from God For with them thou hast quickned me Life comes from the fountain of life The Gospel is a sovereign Plaister but it is God's hand that must apply it and
Law but the doctrine of the Gospel As if he had said Stick to that Doctrine where you have been quickned comforted revived and your hearts setled for God hath owned that doctrine He appeals to their own conscience and to their own known experience that they should not quit the doctrine of Faith but prize and keep close to it for surely that which hath been a means of begetting grace in our souls that should be highly prized by us If God hath wrought grace and any comfort and peace stick there and own God there and be not easily moved from thence Another Apostle reasons Iam. 1. 18 19. God hath begotten us by the word of truth wherefore be swift to hear that is O! do not neglect hearing take heed of forsaking or neglecting the Word for then you go against your own known experience you know here you had your life quickning comfort strength and will you be turned off from this for many times a Seducer may turn off a Believer from the Word which hath given him his first knowledge of Christ. There are three Causes which carry Saints to the Word and other Ordinances viz. Necessity Natural Appetite and inward Inclination and Experience Necessity they cannot live without the Word Natural Appetite and inward Inclination they have hearts suited to this work the Spirit which wrought in the heart hath put a nature in them sutable to the work And Experience they have found benefit by it These are the three grand Causes of respect to the Word and they are all implied or exprest in that 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word there 's natural appetite for the Word we have them come as new born Babes and there 's necessity you cannot live nor keep nor increase what you have unless you keep to the Word and there 's Experience if so be you have tasted you have had powerful impressions and quicknings by this Word We should engage our hearts upon experience the comfort life and light that we have had by the Word of God 3d Reason Our own spiritual Estate will sooner be discerned by these Experiences the comfort and quickning received from the Word in the way of duty for experience worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. If your experiences be observed and regarded this works a hopeful dependance upon God for everlasting glory your evidences will be more ready and sooner come to hand The motions of our souls are various and through corruption very confused and dark and this is that which makes it so difficult upon actual search to dâ—…cern how it stands between us and God it 's for want of observation But now if there be constant observation of what passeth between us and God how he hath quickned comforted and owned us in our attendance upon him and what he hath done to bring on our souls in the way of life these will make up an evidence and will abundantly conduce to the quickning and comforting of our hearts Use I. For Information It shews us 1. The Reason why so many neglect and contemn God's Word because they never gâ—… benefit by it they find no life in it therefore no delight in it Those that are quickned 〈◊〉 knowledge the mercy and improve it they esteem the Word and have a greater câ—…science of their duty It is not enough to find truth in truth not to be able to contradâ—… it but you must find life then we will prize and esteem it when it hath been lively in its operations to our souls 2. It shews the Reason why so many forget the Word because they are not quickned You would remember it by a good token if there were a powerful impression left upon your souls and the reason is because you do not meditate upon it that you may receive this lively influence of the Spirit For a Sermon would not be forgotten if it had left any lively impression upon your souls 3. If we want quickning we must go to God for it and God works powerfully by the influence of his grace and so he quickens us by his Spirit and he works morally by the Word both by the Promises and Threatnings thereof and so if you would be quickned you must use the means attend upon Reading and Preaching and meditating upon the Word As he works powerfully with respect to himself so morally by reasonings Use II. By way of Reflection upon our selves Have we had any of these Experiences David found life in God's Word therefore resolves never to forego it or forget it Therefore what experience have you had of the Word of God surely at least at first conversion there was the work of Faith and Repentance at first you will have this experience How were you brought home to God what have you had no quickning from the Word of God Case But here 's a Case of Conscience Doth every one know their Conversion or way of their own Conversion Christians are usually sensible of this first work There is so much bitter sorrow and afterwards so much rejoycing of hope which doth accompany that surely this should not be strange But though you have not been so wary to mark God's dealings with you and the particular quicknings of your souls yet at least when the Lord raised you out of your security and brought you home to himself you should have remembred it 1 Thess. 1. 9. They themselves shew of us what manner of entring we had unto you The entrance usually is known though afterward the work be carried on with less observation Growth is not so sensible as the first change God's first work is most powerful meets with greater opposition and so leaves a greater feeling upon us and therefore it were strange if we were brought home to Christ and no way privy and conscious to the way of it as if all were done in our sleep I say to think so were to give security a soft Pillow to rest on And therefore what quicknings had you then Can you say Well I shall never forget this happy season and occasion when God first awakened me to look after himself Many of God's Children cannot trace the particular Footsteps of their Conversion and mark out all the Stages of Christ's Journey and approach to their Souls 〈◊〉 are not alike thus troubled But yet that men may not please themselves with the 〈◊〉 position of imaginary grace wrought in them without their privity and knowledge let â—…e speak to this grand Case this manner of entrance of Christ into our souls how we are quickned from the dead and made living 1. None are converted but are first convinced of their danger and evil estate God's first work is upon their understandings Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh c. There is some light breaks in upon the Soul which sets them seriously a considering What am I Whither am I going What will become of me And Rom. 7. 9. When the
But what is this hatred of Sin 1. It implies an universal repugnancy in every part of a Man against Sin not only in his Reason and Conscience but Will and Affections There is not a wicked man but in many cases his Conscience bids him do otherwise Ay but a renewed man his heart inclines him to do otherwise his heart is set against Sin and taken up with the things of God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the law of God according to the inner man It is in the whole inward man which consists of many parts and faculties Briefly then it notes the opposition not from enlightned Conscience only but from the bent of the renewed heart Reason and Conscience will take God's part and quarrel with Sins else wicked men could not be self-condemned 2. Hatred it is a fixed rooted enmity Many a man may fall out with Sin upon some occasion but he hath not an irreconcileable enmity against it The transient motions of the soul are things quite distinct from a permanent principle that abides in a renewed heart he hath that same seed of God remaining in him 1 John 3. 9. An habit notes an habitual aversation A brabble many times falls out between us and Sin upon several occasions when it hath sensibly done us wrong destroyed our peace blasted our names or brought temporal inconvenience upon us In time of judgment and fears and present troubles and dangers men think of bewailing their Sins and returning to God but they fall out and fall in again this is anger not hatred like the rising of the heart against a drawn Sword when it is flasht in our faces whereas afterwards we can take it up without any such commotion of spirit 3. Hatred 't is an active enmity warring upon Sin by serious and constant endeavors manifested by watching striving groaning Watching before the temptation comes resisting in the temptation groaning under it and bemoaning our selves after the temptation hath prevailed over us 1 There 's a constant jealousie and watchfulness before the temptation comes They that hate Sin will keep at a distance from whatever is displeasing unto God Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway A hard heart that knows not the evil of Sin rusheth on to things according to the present inclination Ay but a man that hath a hatred against Sin that hath felt the evil of it in his Conscience that hath been scorched in the flames of a true conviction will not come near the fire A broken heart is shy and fearful therefore he weighs his thoughts words and actions and takes notice of the first appearance of any temptation they know Sin is always present soon stir'd and therefore live in a holy jealousie Certainly they that walk up and down heedlesly in the midst of so many snares and temptations wherewith we are way-laid in our passage to Heaven they have not this active enmity against Sin and therefore hatred is seen by watching 2 It is seen by striving or serious resistance in the temptation A Christian is not always to be measured by the success but by conflict he fights it out Rom 7. 15. The evil which I hate that do I. Though they be foiled by Sin yet they hate it An Enemy may be overcome yet he retains his spite and malice Sin doth not freely carry it in the heart neither is the act completely willing Gal. 5. 17. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh for saith he the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would that is you cannot sin with such proneness and full consent and bent of heart as others they have a principle of opposition a rooted enmity in their souls against Sin 3 By a bitter grief after the temptation as Peter when he had fallen fouly he went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. They do not lie in Sin but recover themselves by a kindly remorse it is the grief of their souls that they are fallen into God's displeasure grieved his Spirit and hazarded their communion with him O Sin is grievous to a gracious heart and this makes them groan and complain to God O wretched man c. 4. 'T is such an enmity against sin as aims at the utter extermination and expulsion of it that endeavoureth to destroy it both root and branch Hatred it 's all for mischief Annilation that 's that which Hatred aims at Anger it worketh trouble but Hatred mischief it is an implacable affection that continues to the death that will not be appeased till the thing which we hate be abolished So where there is this hatred of Sin it follows Sin close till it hath gotten the life of it As by the grace of Justification they have obtained such favor with God that ne damnat it shall not damn by the grace of Sanctification ne regnat Sin shall not reign and still they are aspiring and looking after the grace of Glorification ne fit that Sin may no longer be therefore they are longing and groaning under the reliques of corruption Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. Many scratch the face of Sin but they do not seek to root it up to destroy the body of death it is their constant grief that any thing of Sin is left in the heart as Enemies are not satisfied till they have the blood of each other Where there is hatred 't is not enough to stop the spreading weaken the power of Sin but labouring to destroy the being of Sin As David said of his Enemies I pursued them till they were destroyed so when we set against Sin with an aim not to give over till we have the life of it or as God said concerning the Canaanites Deut. 7. 23. I will destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed So doth a renewed heart war against Sin that he may leave neither root nor fruit within them Use. If this be to hate Sin how few can say with David I hate every false way how few are of David's temper some love Sin with all their heart that hide it as a sweet morsel under their tongue Iob 20. 12. The love of Sin that 's the life of it it dies when it begins to be hated but when you have a love to it it lives in the soul and prevails over us And as they testifie their love of Sin so they misplace their hatred what do they hate not Sin but the Word that discovers it They hate the light because their deeds are evil John 3. 20. They do not hate Sin but God's Messengers that plead against it 1 Kings 22. 8. I hate him saith Ahab concerning Micaiah for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil They hate the faithful Brother that reproves them he is hated because he will not hate his Brother to see Sin upon him
mind so darkly that no body could understand their meaning Christians they were not men that were to act a part oftheir own upon the stage of the world not men that aimed at ostentation of wisdom and curiosity of science but they were holy men they were free from ambition and envy and other such vile affections which are wont to make Writers to affect obscurity therefore in all simplicity of stile plainness of heart and faithfulness to their message they minded their Master's honour and the Peoples good they renounced pomp of words and lofty speculations minded that People might understand the mind of God published by them As they were holy men so they were acted by the Spirit of God now the Spirit of God is not a Spirit of darkness but a Spirit of light which gives understanding to all men therefore they spake luminously and clearly Nay they were not only acted by the Spirit but they were born up by the Spirit carried by the Holy Ghost while they were employed in this work publishing the mind of God to the Church they were carried beyond the line of their natural spirits by an extraordinary impulse infallibly born up so that they could not err and miscarry Now from such holy men that were not sway'd by ambition and private aims so guided so acted by the Spirit what can be expected but what is sure clear and plain 3. I argue and reason again from the end of God in giving us the Scriptures all which doth clearly infer that here 's a sure and plain direction that will lead you to Heaven There 's a fourfold end wherefore God hath given us the Scriptures 1. That by this means heavenly doctrine might be kept free from corruption that men might not obtrude Articles of Faith upon us and fancies of their own brain that heavenly doctrine might be put into a stated course and kept pure from corruption When mankind sate in darkness and in the shadow of death it was necessary that one way or other they should have light that God by some way or other would reveal his mind to them either by word of mouth or by writing Now God did it by Oracles and extraodinary messages at first while there were but few truths revealed and such as did not much burden the memory and while men were long-lived and so could a great while avouch their message from God and while they were of great simplicity and the Church was confin'd to a few men to a few families within a small compass of ground not liable to those miseries and changes now in latter days Before Christ came it was fit God should send his messengers but now in these latter days when he hath spoken to us by his Son Heb. 1. 1. it is fit the Rule of Faith should be closed up It is not for the honour of the Son of God that after him should come any extraordinary Nuncio or Ambassador from Heaven as if he had not fully discovered his Fathers mind Well then therefore God hath put all his messages into writing for the use of after-ages and for this end that there might be some publick standard for trying of things by now God's end would not be accomplished if this writing were not clear Here 's the Argument the world would be left at great uncertainties far more than in old time and so this end for preserving truth for the use and direction of the Church would be wholly lost Well then if God will make a writing serve instead of extraordinary messages which brought their own evidence with them certainly he will not put it into words liable to mistake but that are intelligible Wisdom saith Prov. 8. 9. They are all plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledge Certainly they that come in simplicity of heart with a mind to learn God's Will not to cavil they may know 2dly God's end in setting forth the Scripture was that it might be read of all Ages and of all Sexes as the Book of the Law was to be read in the Congregation before the Men Women little Ones and Strangers Deut. 21. From day to day it was read in the Synagogue Acts 15. 21. And God would have them teach their children Deut. 6. 6. And Timothy is commended for reading the Scriptures from his youth 2 Tim. 3. 5. And the Apostles do express themselves to be debters both to the wise and unwise to Greeks and Barbarians Rom. 1. 14. To speak wisdom to the wise and plainness to the simple And St. Iohn he writes to children and young men and fathers 1 Iohn 2. 3. Well then here 's my Argument If God would write a Book to be read by men women children all sorts surely 't is that all might understand not that they might repeat it by rote and toss the words of it in their mouths as Parrots do words they understand not surely then they are compiled to profit all 3dly God's end in giving the Word was for converting of men or leaving them without excuse Now take either end and it shews there must be a plain direction If for converting of men then it must be so plain that it may be understood by them for there is nothing gets to the heart but by the understanding After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh And all influences are conveyed by light and if God gains any heart it is by teaching and by light Or if it were for leaving them without excuse it must be by a clear revealing of his Will otherwise they might pretend obscurity The Apostle pleads this 2 Cor. 4. 2 3 4. saith the Apostle There is such plain truth in the Gospel that every man's conscience may take it up if he will and if he cannot see the Majesty of God in this doctrine they are blinded by Satan the fault is not in Gospel-light but in their own eyes they cannot complain of God but of themselves 4th End is that it might be a rule of faith and manners by which all doctrines are to be tryed A rule of faith Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them And Acts 17. 11. They received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so So to be a rule of manners Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this rule c. There are many actions which God requireth of us that expose us to great difficulty and hazard now before the heart be gained to them we had need have a plain proof that it is the Will of God For who will venture his all unless he have a clear warrant that knows whither he goes and whither to look for amends if he suffer the loss of all things Thus there 's light in the Word Secondly But now 't is a full direction for David speaks it of his
I am afflicted very sore O Lord quicken me Doct. We must not give over Prayer though our afflictions be never so great and heavy Why because 1. Nothing is too hard for God he hath ways of his own to save and preserve his People when we are at a loss This was the glory of Abraham's Faith that he accounted God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead Heb. 11. 19. difficult cases are fit for God to deal in to shew his Divine Power When means have spent their allowance then is it time to try what God can do Psal. 142. 4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living When all things fail God faileth not 2. We must still pray Faith must express something above sense or else living by Faith and living by sense cannot be distinguished In desperate cases then is the glory of Faith seen Iob 13. 15. Though he should kill me yet I will trust in him In defiance of all discouragement we should come and profess our dependance upon God Use. To condemn those that despond and give over all treaty with God as soon as any difficulty doth arise whereas this should sharpen Prayer rather than discourage us This is man's temper when troubles are little and small then to neglect God when great then to distrust God A little head-ach will not send us to the Physician nor the scratch of a Pin to the Chyrurgion So if our troubles be little they do not move us to seek after God but we are secure and careless but when our troubles are smart sore and pressing then we are discouraged and give over all hopes so hard a matter is it to bring Man to God to keep an even frame neither to slight the hand of God nor to faint under it as we have direction to avoid both Extremes Heb. 12. 5. to cherish a due sense of our troubles with a regular confidence in God That he prays you have seen Now what he prays for He doth not say deliver me but quicken me Doct. Strength and Support under Afflictions is a great Blessing to be sought from God and acknowledged as a Favor as well as Deliverance 1. You shall see this is promised as a Favor Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength That is shall not faint nor be weary but mount up as it were with wings as Eagles they shall have a new supply of grace enabling them to bear and hold out till the deliverance cometh They that wait upon the Lord do not always see the end of their troubles but are quickned comforted and strengthned in them they shall renew their strength 2. This is accepted by the Saints with thanksgiving and valued by them as a special answer of prayer they value it more than temporal deliverance itself many times as 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. Paul prays for the removal of the thorn in the flesh thrice when God only gives him this answer My grace is sufficient for thee saith Paul then I 'll rejoice in mine infirmities so I might have strength and support in grievous weaknesses reproaches and afflictions whatever they be So Psal. 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul. That 's noted as a special answer of Prayer How did he hear him with strength in my soul. Though he did not give him deliverance he gave him support so that was acknowledged as a very great mercy 3. There are many Cases wherein we cannot expect temporal deliverance then we must only go for quickning and support when by a lingring disease we are drawing down to the chambers of death and our outward strength is clean spent and gone then have we support that 's a great mercy Psal. 73. 26. when strength fail and heart fail God is the strengtâ—… of my heart and portion for ever That is to have his heart quickned by God in the languishing of a mortal disease So 2 Cor. 4. 16. Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day There are many troubles that cannot be avoided and therefore we are then to be earnest with God for spiritual strength Use. Well then you see upon what occasion we should go for grace rather than for temporal deliverance we should pray from the new nature not deliver me but quicken me and if the Lord should suspend deliverance why that will be our strength in time of trouble Psal. 37. 39. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble But more particularly let us take notice of this Request Quicken me saith he Doct. Quickning Grace must be asked of God 1. What is quickning 2. Why asked of God 1 First What is this quickning Quickning in Scripture is put for two things 1. For Regeneration or the first infusion of the life of grace as Ephes. 2. 5. And you that were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickned That is infused life or making to live a new life 2. It is put for the renewed excitations of God's grace God's breathing upon his own work God that begins life in our souls carries on this life and actuates it Now this kind of quickning is twofold spoken of in this Psalm there is quickning in duties and quickning in afflictions quickning in duties that 's opposite to deadness of spirit quickning in affliction that 's opposite to faintness 1 Quickning in duties that 's opposite to that deadness of spirit which creeps upon us now and then and is occasioned either by our negligence or by our carnal liberty that deadness of spirit that doth hinder the activity of grace 1. By our negligence and sloathfulness in the spiritual life when we do not stir up our selves Isa. 64. 6. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee When Men grow careless and neglectful in their souls An Instrument though never so well in tune yet if hang up and laid by soon grows out of order so when our hearts are neglected when they are not under a constant exercise of grace a deadness creeps upon us Wells are the sweeter for the draining Our graces they are more fresh and lively the more they are kept a work otherwise they lose their vitality A Key rusts that is seldom turned in the Lock and therefore negligence is a cause of this deadness 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stir up the gift that is in thee We must blow up the ashes There needs blowing if we would keep in the fire we grow dead and lukewarm and cold in the spiritual life for want of exercise 2. This deadness is occasioned by carnal liberty Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me
the World too Here 's the difficulty how a Christian that hath not a Foot of Land yet should be Heir of all the World All things are theirs saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 21. And it is said of Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful and whose Blessing comes upon us that through the righteousness of Faith he became Heir of the World He was re-established in the right which Adam had before the Fall that whereever God should cast his portion he should look upon it as made over to him by Grace as a sanctified portion belonging to the Covenant and in this sence he was Heir of the whole World All Creatures are sanctified to a Believer and the comfortable enjoyment of them fall to our lot and share and therefore 1 Tim. 4. 5. it is said commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving to them that believe and know the truth Mark Believers only have a Covenant right to Meat Drink Land Money and the things that are possess'd in the World to make use of the good Creatures God hath bestowed upon them Others are not Usurpers I dare not say so all men have a Providential right it is their portion God hath given them in this world but they have not a Covenant right Whatever of the World falls to their share comes to them in a regular way of Providence that shall be sanctified and truly without this Covenant right if we had all earthly possessions it would be a mere nothing and no Blessing Once more Providence is theirs even those things which are against us afflictions death not only life but death 1 Cor. 3. 22. as part of their portion Ordinances are theirs all the gifts of the Church Paul Apollos Cephas all for their benefit and Graces are theirs the righteousness of Christ and the Graces of the Spirit they are all a part of their portion made over to them by virtue of Gods testimony As to the righteousness of Christ It is said of Noah Heb. 11. 7. that he became an Heir of the righteousness which is by Faith The great Legacy which Christ hath left is his righteousness As Elijah when he went to Heaven left Elisha his Cloak or Mantle so when Christ went to Heaven he left the Garment of his righteousness behind him as a Legacy to the Church in confidence whereof we appear before God Look as Fathers leave Lands to their Children and such as they have so Christ hath left us what he had In the outward Estate we are despicable Silver and Gold he hath not left us that 's no solid portion but he hath left us his righteousness and obedience as a ground of our acceptance with God No Monarch in the World can leave us such a portion it cost Christ very dear to purchase it for us Then the Graces of the Spirit we have Grace enough to maintain our expences to Heaven and carry us on till we come to the full enjoyment of our portion Thus God in Covenant Heaven Earth whatever is great and magnificent the Ordinances of the Church the Graces of the Spirit all these belong to our heritage 't is a full portion 2. It is a sure portion both on Gods part and ours On Gods part there we have his Word and that 's better than all the assurance in the World He hath magnified that above all his name Psal. 138. 2. If we had but Gods single word that 's enough for God is very tender of his word more than of Heaven and Earth and all things he hath made Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away Then we have it confirmed with an Oath Heb. 6. 6 7. God thought our heritage could never stand upon terms sure enough therefore he condescended to give us an Oath over and above his Word An Oath is given in a doubtful matter But now because Unbelief possibly might not be satisfied with Gods bare word he hath interposed by an Oath and pawned all his Holiness and Glory laid them at pledge with the Heirs of promise that they might have strong consolation for that 's the effect of Gods Oath when the Lord swears As I live saith the Lord as if he should say Take my life in pawn count me not an excellent glorious holy God if I don't accomplish this for you I will make good this promise There is no inheritance in the world so sure as this made over to the Heirs of promise And then on our part there 't is made sure God will maintain our right to this inheritance we should imbezil our inheritance lose it every hour if it were wholly committed to us but mark Thou art the portion of mine inheritance thou shalt maintain my Lot O Lord Psalm 16. 5. An heritage is either wasted by the prodigality of the Owner or else wrested from us by the violence and cunning of others Now for the prodigal disposition of the Owner Indeed we should spend our patrimony apace soon imbezil our portion if we had the sole keeping of it for we are Prodigals But mark under the Law Exod. 25. 23. an Israelite though he might alienate his inheritance for a while till the year of Jubilee came yet God forbids him to sell it away for ever So we blot our Evidences often we cannot read our Title there 's an interruption of Comfort a kind of Sequestration from the priviledges of the Covenant for a while but Jesus Christ is our Guardian to look after them that take the promises for their heritages And then it cannot be wrested from us by the violence of others All heritages in the world are liable to violences Princes have been driven from their Kingdoms and Men from their Heritages but this is a Heritage God will maintain he hath engaged his own power Iohn 10. 28. No man is able to pluck them out of my hand It shall not be wrested from us by any Pleas in Law The Devil would soon pick a flaw in our Title there are so many temptations and accusations but now God will maintain our right and possession of the priviledges of the Covenant He is deeply engaged to maintain their right whose hearts depend upon him they may take away life but not the favour of God 3. It is a most lasting and durable inheritance as being eternal I have taken thy testimonies for my heritage for ever You know all estates are valuable according as they last a Lease for years is better than to be Tenant at will an Inheritance is better than a Lease Our inheritance lasts for ever and ever All other heritages determine with life but then ours begins this heritage of Gods testimonies A worldly portion may crumble away and waste to nothing before we dye but these testimonies will give us a good Estate when all things else fail A Believer when he is stript of all and reduced to bare promises is a happy man and when
from God that we may stand against his batteries and assaults Thirdly Because of the great impression which our temporal condition makes upon us We are now happy anon afflicted Now as unequal uncertain weather doth afflict the Body so do our various Conditions distemper the Soul To abound and to be abased to be up and to be down to carry an equal hand in unequal conditions is very hard and will call for the supporting strength of Gods spirit So the Apostle Phil. 12. 13. I know how to be abased and how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me From that place let me observe something 1. That we are subject to change of Conditions in outward things sometimes in credit sometimes in disgrace sometimes rich sometimes poor cut short by the Providence of God sometimes sick sometimes in health sometimes enjoy all things comfortably at other times reduced to great necessity Now it is very hard to go through all these Conditions not to be dejected on the one side or puffed up on the other 2. Observe again from that place Either of these conditions have their snares so that we need all the Grace that possibly we can get to avoid them Some think that snares and temptations lye but on one side namely they think it is easie to be rich and to maintain hope and comfort in God then but it is hard to be poor and to be destitute of all things when they have nothing to live upon they cannot see how they should live by faith or keep from murmurings repinings or uncomely dejections and sinkings of heart On the other side some think it easie to be poor and religious but how to keep a good Conscience in a full estate where there is so much to draw them from God to keep down pride and security and to live under a lively sense of the Comforts of the other world to do this in the midst of opulency this is hard There are indeed temptations on both hands 3. Observe again some that have held well in one condition have failed in another One sort of temptations have a greater force upon some spirits than others have When God hath kept men low they have been modest and humble but when they have been exalted then they have shewed themselves their pride their disdain their forgetfulness of God their mindlesness of the interest of Christ. On the other hand others have carried it well in prosperity yet when the bleak winds of adversity are let loose upon them they are withered and dryed up Some cannot encounter terrours others blandishments As the Prophet saith of Ephraim He is a Cake not turned that is baked only of the one side very dough on the other so it is with many men on one side of Providence they seem to do well but when God puts them in another condition they have foully miscarried 1 Kings 13. The young Prophet that could thunder out judgment against the King when the old Prophet enticed him he is gone 4. Nay and which is more to have these conditions to succeed one another makes the temptation the greater To be cast down after that we have got on the top of the wheel and have tasted of the worlds happiness is the greater tryal And so on the other side to be lifted up after extreme misery sudden changes affect us more Now to possess things without love or lose them without grief to be temperate and sober in the enjoyment of worldly happiness or to be meek and patient in the loss of it or to exercise a Christian moderation as to all these dispensations it 's a very hard thing to keep the heart steady and right with God and therefore we need the influence of Gods special Grace as the Apostle presently addes I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Use. To press us to look after this upholding and sustaining Grace that as we come to God so we may keep with God In some Cases perseverance is more difficult than Conversion it is a harder thing to persevere than to be converted at first In the first Conversion we are mainly passive if not altogether but in perseverance active It is God that plants us into Christ but when we are in Christ we ought to walk in him As an Infant in the Mothers Womb before it is born lives by the life of the Mother and is fed and grows by the Mothers feeding without any concurrence of its own but when born indeed it is suckled by the Mother still but the Child sucks it self and applies nourishment to it self and the more it grows the more the care of its life is devolved upon it self So the first Conversion is chiefly Gods work and when converted we cannot persevere without his help but the care of the spiritual life is more devolved upon us than before God doth give perseverance as well as conversion 2 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation but so that more is required to be done by us when converted than in Conversion it self Ephes. 2. 10. the Apostle tells us that we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works there 's an action required of us What is Conversion A consent to the terms of the Gospel-Covenant that 's the great act of Conversion on our part But now perseverance is the fulfilling of the duty of this Covenant now it is more easie to consent to the terms than to make them good As in the matrimonial Contract the promise of the duties proper to that relation is more easie than the performance so the consenting to Gods Covenant all the business is to make it good because of our unstable Nature manifold temptations and great discouragements in the way of holiness Certainly to keep in the life of Grace in the soul is a very hard thing The Israelites after they were brought to consent to receive Moses for their Captain to lead them to Canaan yet when they came out of Egypt and had tryal of the difficulties of the way and were exposed to so many dangers they were ever and anon desiring to return So it is with us it is hard to hold out against all assaults many things will be interposing and breaking your resolutions and taking you off from God The flesh will be interposing so that you must often say as Rom. 5. 12. We are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof And the world will be threatning and you must say as they Dan. 3. 16. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter Dangers will grow upon us and encrease and then we must say as Esth. 4. 16. If we perish we perish Friends will be solliciting and you must say us Paul Act. 21. 13. What
contrite heart they are thankfully affected with the least discoveries and manifestations of Gods love to the soul. If they could have but the least glympse of his love it would be very reviving Psal. 86. 17. Shew me a token for good The returning Prodigal could go no higher than Make me as one of thy hired servants Luke 15. 19. any place in the family so he might be no more absent from his father Gods people would have a nail in his holy place This shews 1. His necessity God seemed to look from him no sign of his favour appeared Thus it is often with Gods Children here in the World the sense of his love is gone and lost we sometimes have not so much as a look from him Isai 50. 2. Your sins have hid his face from you In Heaven our Communion is more full and it is uninterrupted 1 Cor. 13. 12. For now we see through a Glass darkly then face to face here God often hideth his face and we walk in darkness and see no light Psal. 104. 29. Thou hidest thy face they are troubled thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust 2. His value and esteem of Gods favour Psal. 4. 6 7. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased Esteem of spiritual priviledges is a great means to continue them to us We feel no more of Gods love because we are not thankful for the enjoyment of it It must be a practical esteem such as moveth us to seek it earnestly as David professeth here it would satisfie him if God would look upon him We count our selves most miserable in the want of it but if we have it it allayeth all worldly discontents abateth our desires of worldly comforts 3. His confidence One look from God is enough it is all he beggeth as the Saints in like cases if their God would but look upon them Deut. 26. 15. Look down from thy holy habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel So Isai. 63. 11. Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory Without any labour only by this look thou canst help all our evils and will not God cast a look upon us especially when we call him by his name Reasons 1. Because in our distresses the main thing we should look on is not so much the removal of Gods anger and the removal of the evil as the renewed sense of his love to be reconciled to them 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wickedness then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and will heal their land It is a part of the prescribed remedy to seek the face of God or a favourable look from him that is put in among the conditions otherwise we are not affected with our true misery and the cause of all our trouble though we may seriously enough desire to be rid of the trouble or the effects and the strokes of Gods anger The brute Creatures can feel pain as well as we and howl when they find any thing inconvenient to that nature which they have as well as we cry to God Hos. 7. 14. And they have not cryed unto me with their hearts when they howled upon their Beds God accounts it as howling when we do not seek Gods favour and Grace as well as the supply of our outward necessities It is an easie matter to be sensible of the evil of trouble Nature will teach us that 2. Because that bringeth other things along with it If God look upon us he will help us his love and power are set awork for us for his eye affecteth his heart When his heart is affected he will stir up his strength and come and save us So that go to the Fountain-head of all mercies when you beg a favour look for it from God for Gods favour is the Fountain of all blessings and without it all your other comforts will do you no good Psal. 80. 19. Turn us again O Lord of Hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved When God once sheweth the evidences of his favour and reconciliation to them other mercies come of their own accord O then be assured of the favour of God 3. If we continue in our misery a look from God will sweeten all We glory in tribulation also because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by his Spirit given to us Rom. 5. 3 5. To be in favour with God is enough and sweetens the bitterest of all our troubles The comfort of the Creature may be supplied with this greater comfort that if affliction be not removed it is made light to us Use 1. Beg earnestly for Gods look It is an ill sign to be careless and regardless of it Surely the heart is too much carried to earthly comforts if you care not how God standeth affected to you God deliver us from such a sottish spirit that we should neither care for Gods frowns nor smiles nor be sensible of his coming and going David said Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord Psal. 25. 15. to observe him and his postures but most men their eyes are ever towards temporal accidents how the Times smile or frown upon them or if they think of God they judge of his respect to them by outward things but have not any regard to his favour whether God be reconciled to them or angry with them 2. Improve it to hope Psal. 80. 14. Return we beseech thee O God of Hosts look down from heaven and behold and visit this Vine Will God love his people and take notice of their sorrows and not help them God will manifest his respects and kindness to his people by some visible deliverance when it shall be good for them 3. Be such as God will regard and have an eye unto Such are First The broken-hearted that have a tender Conscience affected deeply with what the Word speaketh concerning their everlasting condition Isai. 66. 2. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word The Word of God passeth sentence upon men most regard it not Now whilst they look not after God they have no promise God will look after them Indeed by his preventing Grace he is found of them that look not for him but then before they have any smiles from Gods countenance they are first humbled and brought to trouble Isai. 57. 15 16 17 18. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirits of the humble
habitual reign of sin may be known by the general frame and state of the heart and life where it is constantly yielded unto or not opposed but breaketh out without controul and beareth sway with delight Men give the Bridle to sin and let it lead them where they will That is peccatum regnans cui homo nec vult nec potest resistere so Coppen The Sinner neither can nor will resist non potest because usually after many lapses God giveth up men unto penal or judicial hardness of heart But he is willingly taking these Bonds and Chains upon himself Such are said 2 Pet. 3. 3. To walk after their own lusts To live in sin Rom. 6. 2. To be dead in trespasses and sins Ephes. 2. 1. To serve divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. To draw on iniquity with Cart Ropes Isai. 5. 18. Such as addict and give over themselves to a trade of sin with delight and full consent Secondly Actually when we do that which is evil against our Consciences or yield pro hic nunc to obey sin in the lusts thereof when it gaineth our consent for the time but the general frame and state of the heart is against it In short when sin is perfected into some evil action or in the Apostles Speech when lust hath conceived and brought forth sin Iames 2. 15. that is some heinous and enormous offence At that time no question it hath the upper hand and carrieth it from Grace and the Flesh doth shew it self in them more than the Spirit A man may please a lesser friend before a greater in an act or two Every presumptuous act doth for that time put the Scepter into sins hand Note That both Predominants spoken of in the former Distinction and the actual reign of sin in this do much prejudice a Christian waste his Conscience hinder his joy of faith and if not guarded and we do not take up in time or if often cannot be excused from habitual reign They are rare by the violence of a great temptation unlikely acts as for a Hen to bring forth the Egg of a Crow 4. The next Distinction is of sins reigning with a full and plenary consent and with reluctancy and contradiction as Herod reigned over the Jews for many years by mere force they opposing him and contradicting him but afterwards willingly consented to his Government so sin reigneth in some who readily willingly obey the lusts thereof and take its Bonds and Chains upon them And on the godly it doth sometimes prevail yet not quietly and without blows The evil which I hate that do I Rom. 7. 15. They are in Combate and Conflict with it The Virgin that cryed out was innocent 'T was a ravishment not a consent peccatum patitur non facit as Bernard The Seed of God is disliking and opposing 1 Iohn 3. 9. They are sometimes foyled but they keep up their resistance Sin gets the mastery in some acts but as a Tyrant not a lawful Possessor They groan under that oppression ever strive for liberty and freedome and in time recover it Chrysostome hath an expression on that of Rom. 6. 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin will play the Tyrant in the best heart but let it not have a quiet reign It will take advantage of present distempers and difficulties it may incroach upon us but it hath not our hearts whereas otherwise if a man be not in Armes against it but liveth in peace and good contentment under the vigour and life of his lusts there is no opposition unless it be some checks of a natural Conscience or a few thoughts of fear and shame or some temporal mischief and inconvenience no opposition of a renewed heart no hatred of it and opposition as it is an offence to God Then your condition is evil II. That it is a great evil c. It must needs be so 1. Because it is a renouncing of the Government of Christ we transferr the Kingdome from him to Satan and take the Scepter out of his hands when we give way to the reign of sin What though we do not formally intend this yet virtually we do so and so God will account it 'T is sinis operis though not operantis Look as the setting up of an Usurper is the rejection of the lawful King so the setting up of sin is the setting up of Satan Iohn 8. 44. and by consequence a laying aside of Christ for every degree of service done to him includeth a like degree or portion of treason and infidelity to Christ. For a man cannot serve two masters Matth. 6. 24. cannot have two chief goods at the same time therefore he that cleaveth to the one refuseth the other If you cleave to sin you renounce Christ and though we profess Christ to be our Lord that will not help the matter Matth. 6. 21. we are for all that as true bond-men to Satan as the Heathen that offered Sacrifice to him A druâ—…ken or wanton Christian giveth the Devil as much interest in him as those that sacrificed to Bacchus or Priapus or Venus For he doth as absolutely dispose and command your affections as he did theirs You are his by possession and occupation The Bond of your servitude to Satan is altogether as firm and strong as their Rites of Worship Now we that know Christs right both by Purchase and Covenant cannot but know what a great sin this is By purchase we are his 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price The Buyer hath a power over what he hath bought We were lost and sold we sold our selves against all right and justice and Christ was pleased to redeem us and that with no sleight thing but with his own blood 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. How can you look your Redeemer in the face at the last day If you have any sense and belief of Christian mysteries you should be afraid to rob Christ of his purchase 1 Cor. 6. 15. Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid He hath bought you to this very end that you may be no longer under the slavery of sin but under his blessed Government and the Scepter of his Spirit Tit. 2. 14. He hath redeemed us from all iniquity This was his end to set us at liberty and to free us from our sins therefore for us to despise the benefit and to count our bondage a delight yea to build up that which he came to destroy this is as great an affront to Christ as can be But we are not only his by purchase but his by Covenant Ezek. 16. 8. I entred into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine This was ratified in Baptism where we dedicated our selves to the Lords use and service and shall we rescind our baptismal vows and give the Sovereignty to another after we have
God values his happiness by Gods friendship not by his worldly prosperity and is miserable by Gods absence and by the causes thereof his sin and offence done to God Nay his loving kindness is not only life but better than life A man may be weary of life it self but never of the love of God Many have complained of life as a burthen and wished for the day of death but none have complained of the love of God as a burthen All the world without this cannot make a man happy What will it profit us if the whole world smile upon us and God frown and be angry with us All the Candles in the World cannot make it Day nay all the Stars shining together cannot dispel the darkness of the Night nor make it Day unless the Sun shines so whatever comforts we have of a higher or lower nature they cannot make it day with a gracious heart unless Gods face shine upon us for he can blast all in an instant A Prisoner is never the more secure though his Fellows and Companions applaud him and tell him his Cause is good and that he shall escape when he that is Judge condemns him Though we have the good word of all the world yet if the Lord speak not peace to our Souls and shine not upon our Consciences what will the good word of the world do 2 Cor. 10. 18. He is approved whom the Lord commendeth A sense of Gods love in Christ is the sweetest thing that ever we felt and is able to sweeten the bitterest Cup that ever Believer drank of Rom. 5. 3. We glory in tribulation It will be a blessed thing when we cannot only bear tribulations but rejoyce in them but how come we to rejoyce in them Why because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us so he goes on If we would know the value of things the best way is to know what is our greatest comfort and our greatest trouble in distress For when we are drunk with worldly prosperity and happiness we are incompetent Judges of the worth of things but when God rebukes a man for sin what 's our greatest trouble then That we may take heed of providing sorrow to our selves another time then we find sin and transgression the greatest burthen when any notable affliction is upon us Iob 36. 9. and what will be your greatest comfort then for then your comforts are put to the proof One evidence of an interest in Christ a little sense of the love of God how precious is it Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. His thoughts were intangled and interwoven one with another as Branches of a crooked Tree for so the word signifies there when his thoughts were thus intricate and perplext then thy comforts delight my soul. O then what should we labour for but to be most clear in this that God loves us This will be our greatest comfort and rejoycing in all conditions 'T is good for us in prosperity then our comforts are sweet and in adversity and deep affliction to see God is not angry with us Though we feel some smart of his afflicting hand yet his heart is with us 2. They deal with God as worldly men do with sensible things for as others live by sense so they by faith Now worldly men are cheered with the good will of men and troubled with the displeasure of men upon whom they depend The down-look of Ahasuerus confounded Haman and put him to great trouble He was afraid Esth. 7. 8. Absolom professes 'twere better for him to be banished than to live in Ierusalem and not see the Kings face 2 Sam. 14. 32. Surely it is death to Gods Children to want his face and favour upon whom they depend Their business lies mainly with God and their dependance and hope and comfort is in God they live by faith Poor Worldings walk by sense therefore their souls run out upon other comforts in the smiling face of some great Potentate or some friend of the World this is their life peace and joy But they that live by faith see him that is invisible and value their happiness by his favour and misery by his displeasure 3. The Children of God have tasted the sweetness of it therefore they know it by experience The best demonstration of any thing is from sense Description cannot give me such a demonstration as when I taste and feel it my self 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious They have an experimental feeling of that which others know only by guess and hear-say Carnal men know no other good but that of the Creature The Spouse did so languish after her Beloved being sick of love when her desires were disappointed it made her faint Cant. 5. 6. They that have not seen and known him know not what to make of those spiritual and lively affections that carry us out after the favour of God with such earnestness and importunity but they that have tasted and know what their Beloved is their hearts are more excited and stirred up towards him Iohn 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift of God c. You would more admire the favour of God if you knew it especially by experience you would find it is a better good than ever you have yet tasted Use. Is this our temper and frame of our hearts Can we live contentedly and satisfiedly with the light of his Countenance A Child of God may be without the light of his Countenance but cannot live contentedly without it Are we troubled about it ever seeking after it Surely this is the disposition of the Children of God they are ever seeking after the favour of God I shall press to this by this Argument 1. God bespeaks it from you Psal. 27. 8. Thou saidest Seek ye my face There 's a Dialogue between God and a gracious heart The Lord saith Seek he saith it in his Word and speaks by the injection of holy thoughts by the inspiration of his Grace and the renewed heart like a quick Echo takes hold of this Lord thy face will I seek Psal. 106. 4. You should ever be seeking after God in his Ordinances seek his favour and face 2. The new Nature enclines and carries the soul to God it came from God and carries the soul to God again The Spirit of the World doth wholly encline us to the World They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh and the Spirit of God doth encline us to God and therefore the people of God will value his favour above all things else David speaks in his own name and in the name of all that were like-minded with himself he speaks of all the Children of God in opposition to the many the brutish ones that were for sensual satisfaction Psal. 4. 6. Many say Who will shew us any good But
nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
draweth Light out of Darkness is able to revive our Credit and Esteem if not in this World yet in the World to come we shall be glorious though our condition be never so contemptible here Our reward is not in this Life When we die the Beggar is carried into Abrahams bosom would you be in Dives his condition or Lazarus To wallow in Ease and Plenty and go to Hell and be cast out with the Devil and Damned Spirits or to be poor and despised here to be carried by Angels into the presence of God hereafter So at the day of Judgement Matth. 10 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father in Heaven we shall be publickly owned 8. Great contempt shall be poured upon those that now contemn you When Hâ—…non offered injury to Davids Servants he took severe Revenge of it God will require an account of all the Wrongs and Affronts are put upon his Servants The wicked shall be made the Scorn of Good Men and Angels Psal. 52. 6 7. The Righteous also shall see and fear and laugh at him Lo This is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness But I am like a green Olive Tree c. 3. Doctrine That though our Condition be small and despicable yet we should be still faithful in our respects to God and his Word 1. The Temptation will not excuse us esse bonum facile est ubi quod vetat esse reâ—…tum est our Tryal is expresly mentioned in the promise as necessary for our Crowning Iam. 1. 12. When he is tryed when the Temptation is over the Tryal is past 't is no praise for a woman to be chast that hath no Suitors Adam was tempted by Eve and Eve by Satan yet both bore their burden Si taceret Deus â—…queretur Satan c. why should we hearken to Satans Suggestions rather than Gods Admonitions 2. God observeth what we do in our Trouble Psal. 44. 20 21. If we have forgotten the Name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange God shall not God search out this for he knoweth the secrets of our hearts If we slacken our service to God or fall off to any degree of Apostacy the Judge of hearts knoweth all God knoweth whether we have or would deprave and corrupt Doctrine Worship or Ordinances or whether we will Faithfully adhere to him to his Word and Worship and Ordinances whatever it cost us 3. God and his Law are the same and therefore though our condition be altered our Affections should not If we love the Word of God upon intrinsick Reasons there is the same reason we should adhere to it with Love still as to embrace it out of Love Ver. 142. Thy Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness and thy Law is the Truth Among men that may be just to day which is not so to morrow because they and their Lawes alter but Gods Law is the Eternal rule of Righteousness that never alters 4. In our poor and despicable condition we see more cause to love the Word than we did before because we experiment supports and comforts which we have thereby Rom. 5. 3. Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience c. 2 Cor. 1. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. God hath special consolations for his afflicted and despised people And makes their consolation by Christ to run parallel with and to keep pace with their sufferings for Christ. 1. Use. Carry your Duty still in Remembrance The first step of defection is to forget what God hath commanded There is an oblivion and a darkness for the present on the Mind so that a man knoweth not what he knoweth as Hagar saw not the Well that was before her till God opened her eyes therefore revive the grounds of your Adherance if you would constantly adhere to God The Temptation cometh afresh upon you every day with all the inticing Blandishments so should the reasons of your Duty It helpeth our perseverance to consider how strong and cogent they are and what wrong we should do to God and Religion to consent At first a man beholds Temptations with Horrour but being familiarized our thoughts are more reconciled to them therfore recollect your selves and remember the Reasons you first had to put you upon your Duty and if you duly consider them they will be strong and cogent to repel the Temptation that would take you off from it 2. Use. It sheweth who are Lovers of the Word and who not On the one hand some love the precepts of God when they are in Honour and Esteem have many to joyn with them and they see peace and plenty follow the Profession of it But rather than they will indure trouble and contempt forsake it The Samaritans would be Iewes when the Iewes were favoured but in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes when the Iews were in trouble they would be called Sidonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dedicating their Temple not to Iehova but Iupiter Iosephus These never received the Love of the Truth On the other side when a Man loveth it alike in all times and in all conditions when Rich when Poor in Liberty and in Bonds when the wayes of God are countenanced or when despised 't is all one to him they love it not for outward Respects but internal Reasons SERMON CLIX. PSALM CXIX VER 142. Thy Righteousness is an Everlasting Righteousness and thy Law is the Truth IN this Verse the Word of God is set forth by a double Notion of Righteousness and Law accordingly two things are predicated of it as it is Righteousness 't is said to be an Everlasting Righteousness and as it is Law 't is said to be the Truth Both imply our Duty as there are Truths in the Word 't is mans Duty to Believe them as there are Commands 't is Mans Duty to Obey them I shall treat First of the Notions Secondly of the Predications 1. The Notions And there the Word is first called Righteousness thy Righteousness Gods Righteousness is sometimes put for the Righteousness which is in God himself as Verse 137. Righteous art thou O Lord. Psal. 145. 17. The Lord is Righteous in all his ways And sometimes for the Righteousness which he requireth of us as Iam. 1. 20. The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God That is the Righteousness which God requireth of us and here in the Text. Once more that Righteousness which God requireth of us in his Word 't is sometimes taken in a limited sense for the Duties of the second Table and so usually when 't is coupled with Holiness Luk. 1. 75. Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is Created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness Holiness giveth God his due and Righteousness giveth man his due Sometimes 't is taken in a more general sense as
the Word Scripture Faith and Scripture Repentance are still fed by the Word It teacheth us how to believe and how to repent and how to pray and how to live especially the Heavenly Life and there can be no true Comfort and Peace without the Word Rom. 15. 4. That ye through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope 2. Use. We should consider the Truth of the Word partly in the general for the strengthening and settling of our Faith and to make it more clear and solid and certain Eph. 1. 13. In whom ye trusted after that ye heard the Word of Truth When boisterous Temptations would carry us to some evil which God hath forbidden and severely threatned that the point of the sword of the Spirit be put to the bosome of it Deut. 29. 19 20. 2. When you are settling your souls as to the main point of Acceptance with God 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief The Word will never deceive them that seek Righteousness there 3. When difficulties arise that oppose the promise or expectation of relief according to the promise you should urge the truth of the word in the very face of difficulty thy law istruth Take Pauls instance Act. 27. God by Promise gave all that sailed with Paul in the Ship their lives yet how many difficulties came to pass At first when they were in the Adriatique Sea for so many days and nights and had neither seen Sun nor Stars they knew not where they were nor whether they should go here was little appearance of Gods making good his word to Paul Another Difficulty fell out they feared they were near some Countrey they sounded and found they were near some land but what land they could not Conjecture and were afraid of being split in pieces against the Rocks but the Shipmen that knew the danger of these Seas they must go out of the Ship they would make use of their long Boat and so they were ready to miscarry in the sight of the land but Paul prevented them And after 't was day the men were spent because of long fasting and conflicting with the Waves they could not ply the Oar. Another difficulty they were where two Seas met they run the Ship a ground and resolved to kill Paul and the rest of the Prisoners lest they should swim to land but the Captain willing to save Paul prevented that purpose And so at length they came all to shore though followed with difficulty upon difficulty God made good his Promise to a tittle ver 44. Pray observe how Paul urged Gods Promise against the greatest difficulties as sufficient ground of encouragement to expect relief ver 25. for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me SERMON CLX PSALM CXIX VER 143. Trouble and Anguish have taken hold of me yet thy Commandments are my delights IN the Words we have I. Davids Temptation Trouble and Anguish have taken hold of me II. Davids Exercise under that Temptation thy Commandments are my delight III. The Benefit of that Exercise notwithstanding the greatness of the Temptation Yet 'T is propounded with a non obstante I. The Temptation was very great for he speaketh of Trouble and Anguish The joyning of Synonymous Words or words of a like import and signification increaseth the sense and so it sheweth his affection was not ordinary Yea both these words have their particular use and emphasis Trouble may Imply the outward Tryal and the difficulties and streights he was in Anguish Inward Afflictions the one the Matter of the Trial and the other the sence of it The other expression also is to be observed have taken hold of me in the Hebrew have found me so the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Vulgar Latin out of them tribulatio et angustia invenerunt me have found me that is come upon me as the expression intimateth Troubles are said to find us because they are sent to seek us out and in time will light upon us We should not run into it but if they find us in our duty we should not be troubled at them Sometimes in Scripture we are said to find trouble and sometimes trouble to find us We are said to find trouble David said Psal. 116. 3. I found trouble And so now here in the Text Trouble and Anguish found him There is no difference or if any the one noteth a surprize Trouble findeth us when it cometh unlooked for our finding it noteth our willingness to undergo it when the Will of God is so especially for Righteousness sake II. Davids Exercise under this great Temptation thy Commandments are my delights Where we have 1. The Object thy Commandments The Commandment is put for the Word in general which includeth Promises as well as Precepts the whole Doctrine of Life and Salvation However the property of the form is not altogether to be overlooked even in the Commandments or the Conscience of his Duty he took a great deal of Comfort 2. The Affection Delight He had said before that he did not forget Gods statutes when he was small and despised ver 141. now he delighted in them This was his great love to the Word that he could find sweetness in it when it brought him trouble such sweetness as did allay all his sorrows and overcome the bitterness of them 3. The Degree Delights in the plural number He did greatly delight in it Omnis oblectatio mea saith Iuâ—…ius Thy Commandments to me are instead of all manner of delights and pleasure in the World III. The next is the Opposition of this Exercise to that temptation yet 'T is not in the Original but necessarily Implyed and therefore well inserted by our Translators to shew that the greatness of his Streights and Troubles did not diminish his Comfort but Increase it rather The Points are these First God â—…th it necessary sometimes to exercise his People with a great deal of Trouble Seconâ—…â—…his Trouble may breed great Vexation and Anguish of Spirit even in a gracious â—…rt Thirdly Notwithstanding this Trouble and Anguish gracious Hearts will manifest their graciousness by delighting in the Word Fourthly They that delight in the Word will find more Comfort in their Afflictions than Troubles can take from them or such sweetness as will overcome the sense of all their Sorrows This was alwayes Davids help to delight in the Word and this brought him Comfort though in deep Troubles For the First Point That God seeth it necessary sometimes to exercise his People with a great deal of Trouble Though they are highly in Favour with God yet they have their share of Troubles as well as others This is true if you 1. Consider the People of God in their Collective Body and Community which is called the Church 'T is the Churches name Isa. 54. 11 12. Oh
and God is too Fatherly to deny it to his Children You may deny an Apple to a wanton Child but you will not deny Bread to a fainting Child The bowels of a Father will not permit you to do that you may deny them superfluities in wisdom but your love will not permit you to deny them necessaries Meat is not so necessary to revive and refresh the Body as Grace for the Soul and his Holy Inspirations to act and guide you And will God deny these requests 7. Know when you have received Quickning Many Christians look for rapt and extatick Motions and so do not own the work of God when it hath passed upon them they under-rate their own Experiences and so cannot take notice of Gods Faithfulness Sense Appetite and Activity are the fruits of life and quickning 1. We have the more sense of indwelling Sin as an heavy Burthen Rom. 7. 24. None groan so sorely as those that are made partakers of a new Life Elementa non gravitant in suis locis a delicate Constitution is more sensible of pain Wicked Men scarce feel deep wounds given to their Conscience nor have any remorse for gross sins Gods Children their hearts smite them for the smallest disorders and irregularities 2. Appetite after Christ his Graces and Comforts 1 Pet. 2. 2. the more life any have the more craving of Food to maintain it in being they are always hungering and thirsting after God Matth. 5. 6. our Appetite will be after the things that conduce to the maintaining and preserving that being which they have If a man lose his Appetite the body pineth and languisheth and strength decayeth desire prepareth the soul to take in its supplies Your Life is in good plight when that is desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't will be a means of Spiritual growth a kindly appetite after this Milk They are under a great decay who have lost their Appetite after the Gospel 3. Activity in Duties That we may honour Christ 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. To whom coming as a living stone ye also as lively stones are built up into a spiritual House Christ liveth and we live by him as the stones in the building carry a proportion with the corner-stone So Christians as the body with the Head It must needs be so because of Gods Spirit dwelling in us Ezek. 36. 27. Ioh. 7. 37. and because of the Graces in a Christian Faith and Love Faith working by Love is the great evidence of the new Creature If Faith and Love be strong it will quicken us to do much for God the apprehension of Faith doth enliven our notions of God Christ Heaven and Hell Faith puts Life into our thoughts of him Love is a notable pleader and urger 2 Cor. 5. 14. The Love of Christ constraineth us c. Secondly The Reasons why c. 1. They that have so much to do with God do see a need of it for he is a living God and will be served in a lively manner Rom. 12. 11. Not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. They that serve the Lord Negatively must not be slothful in business Affirmatively fervent in spirit God will not be served negligently coldly but with Life and earnestness The twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instantly Act. 26. 7. Instantly serving God with the uttermost of their strength He that hath a Right to our all must have our best surely he will not be put off with every slight thing Now the Children of God that are sensible of this are earnest for quickning that they may serve God in such a way as becometh him with Life and Power and Zeal for the manner in every Duty is to be regarded as well as the matter A man may do many things that are good but there is no Life in what he doth He prayeth but without any life in Prayer dead in Prayer Heareth but no Life in Hearing dull of Hearing All things in a Christian may be counterfeited but Life cannot be counterfeited that cannot be painted 2. They are acquainted with themselves and observe the frame and posture of their own spirits Now they that know themselves will see a need of Quickning 1 Because of the instability and changeable frame of mans Heart it hardly stayeth long in the same state now 't is up and anon 't is down as the constant experience of the Saints witness Sometimes they have a forwardness and strong propension of Heart to that which is good at other times a lothness and dulness or unfitness to perform any spiritual service when their Will is more remiss and their Affections unbent 'T is not indeed the constant frame of their Hearts yet it is a disease incident to the Saints even good men may feel a slowness of Heart to comply with the will of God and some hanging off from Duty Spontancae lassitudines sunt signa imminentis morbi so is this laziness and backwardness of spirit a sign of some great spiritual distemper Sometimes they are carried with great largeness of Heart and full sail of Affections at other times they are in bonds and streights that they cannot pour out their Hearts before God Psal. 77. 4. I am sore troubled that I cannot speak sometimes they have great Life and Vigour at other times no such lively stirrings but are flat and cold and dead when with Sampson they think to go forth and shake themselves as at other times Iudges 16. 20. by sad Experience they find that their Locks are gone that their Understandings are lean sapless and their Affections cold and their Delight and Vigour lost Man is a sinful weak inconstant Creature his heart is as unstable as water and much of this levity and instability remaineth with us after Grace as is seen in the various postures of spirit that we are under 2 Because of the constant opposition of the Flesh. There is an opposite Principle in our Hearts Gal. 5. 17. The body of Death that dwelleth in us doth always resist the life of the Spirit in us and therefore God must renew the influences of his Grace to preserve Life There are desires against desires and delights against delights this must needs abate our Vigour The Spirit draweth one way the Flesh another 'T is drawing Iam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 'T is depressing Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Carnal Affections hang as a weight retarding us in our Heavenly flight and motions 'T is warring Rom. 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin And therefore the Lord had need to cherish the new Creature and good seed which cannot but be weakned with this opposition 3 Because our outward condition doth
it appear this is Gods Testimony for that word that is propounded to be believed as such cannot be perceived by ease neither is it known of itself to the Understanding neither is it demonstrable by evident Reasons as to make infallible Conclusions The Word 's giving Testimony of itself doth not solve it indeed one part may give Testimony to another and one Revelation be confirmed by another as the New Testament giveth witness to the Old and confirmeth its Authority but how shall we know that to be Gods Testimony I Answer we have it 1. Partly from the self-evidencing light of the Scriptures themselves they have passed Gods hand and have his Signature upon them as all his Works make out their Author There are Characters of his Wisdom Power Goodness and Holiness impressed upon them 2 Cor. 4. 2 3 4. By manifestation of the Truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not left the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them The Gospel being the result of Gods Wisdom and suited to the heart of man for whose use it was calculated it hath something in itself to commend it to our Consciences It cannot be imagined that the hand of God should pass upon any thing and there should be nothing of his Character left on it to shew it came from God Look upon any fly or gnat any flower of the field or pile of grass And you may see some impressions to discover the Author of them So certainly if God shall set himself to write a book or set forth a frame of Doctrine to do man good surely he hath discovered his Wisdom and Holiness and Grace therein and that in plain and legible Characters that if man were not prepossessed and leavened with Prejudice and Corrupt Affections he could not choose but see it That there is such an objective evidence or aptitude in the Doctrine it self to beget faith in those that consider it is plain from that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 2 3 4. By the manifestation of the truth we commend our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God without Miracle or other Confirmation if they had a clear eye 't is light which discovereth itself and all things else The reason why it is not seen is not in the Object because of any defect there but the faculty the visive faculty their eyes are blinded with Worldly Lusts. Well then when things are spoken so becoming the Nature of God and so agreeable to the necessities of Man and with such an evidence of Reason not to the Law only but also to the Gospel as to establishing of a way of Commerce between God and us and exempting us from the grand scruples that haunt us though these things could not be found out by humane Wit yet now they are revealed they carry a great suitableness thereunto 2. And Partly by the Testimony of the Spirit this is one way of confirming the Truth of the Gospel Acts 5. 32. We are his witnesses of these things and so is the holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Where the Apostles are mentioned as one sort of witnesses and the Holy Ghost as another the great office of the Spirit is to testifie of Christ Jesus Ioh. 15. 26. Even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christs Coming and Power is so great a Mystery that 't is not believed and received in the World without the Spirit Upon the beginning of Christs Ministry in his Baptisme the Spirit appeared in the form of a Dove now the Holy Ghost doth two wayes bear witness of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artificially and Inartificially Artificially per modum argumenti and Inartificially per modum testis Partly as he doth afford sufficient matter of Confirmation and Conviction in those miraculous operations in the primitive times And also as he doth perswade the heart and convince us of the Truth of the Gospel 3. There is Experience of the Truth of the Word in Gods hearing Prayers Psal. 65. 2. O! thou that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Fulfilling Promises Psal. 18. 30. Thy word is a tryed word he is a buckler to all that trust in him Punishing the Wicked Hosea 7. 12. I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard Rewarding according to the Rules set down in the Word Rom. 1. 18. and Heb. 2. 3. but of this by and by Thirdly Why we must understand consider and believe Answ. Both in order to our Comfort and Duty 1. Comfort If the Certainty of the Scriptures were more understood believed and thought of we should be more fortified against fears and sorrows and Cares and Discouragements whencesoever they do arise for as fire well kindled doth easily break forth into a flame so assent freely laid doth fortifie the heart against trouble 'T is very notable when the Apostles would raise the joy of Faith they plead the certainty of the Doctrine they delivered for it was comfortable in it self suitable to the Necessities of man all that needed was to assure others of the truth of it See 1 Ioh. 1. 1 2 3 4. That their joy might be compleat and full upon this certainty of evidence and compleat demonstration we could not be so comfortless and dejected if we were perswaded of the reality of these things So 2 Pet. 1. 8. believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious We should love Christ and rejoyce in the believing confident expectation of enjoying of him and where this is firmly believed afflictions cannot damp or hinder this joy A firm trust in the Promises of the Word will fill a man with Comfort and strengthen him against all difficulties Psal. 56. 4 10. 2. Our Obedience would be better promoted 't would be a remedy against boldness in sinning and coldness in Duty Heb. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God You cannot drive a dull ass into the Fire Prov. 1. 17. Surely in vain is the net laid in the sight of any bird Men do not believe the everlasting verity of the Scriptures and therefore are so bold and venterous they think they shall do well enough after all Gods Threatnings Zeph. 1. 12. And it shall come to pass that I will search Ierusalem with candles and will punish the men that are settled upon their lees that say in their hearts the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Secondly Coldness in Duty how do the Scriptures reason against Neglect Heb. 2. 1 2 3. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time
not temporal things alwayes in specie in kind but sometimes in value for these things may be recompensed and made up another way but no recompense can be given us for Eternal Life The Apostle speaketh with submission as to his Temporal Case but is peremptory as to his Eternal State 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthned me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me to his heavenly Kingdom Again though we are not to neglect the meanest Promise yet our hearts should run more upon the things of another World A Christian honoureth God by his Faith about Temporal things when he will not cast away his Hope in the deepest Calamities but much more when the concernments of the World to come are of the greatest force with him and his Heart is wholly taken up about them Looking for the blessed hope Titus 2. 13. there is the Character of a Christian. Peace and freedom from Trouble in the World is not the main thing that we should look after but perfect Conformity to God and full Fruition of him God is the Chief Good and the fruition of him as Promised is the utmost happiness of the Creature a true Christian hath a greater indifferency to the things of this life all his business is to get an assurance of a better he can look through the troubles of the World and see sun-shine behind the back of the storm Psal. 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God But chiefly his Hope is layed up for him in Heaven Col. 1. 5. his portion is layed up for him and kept safe for his use in a sure place Here he knoweth he must be exercised with temptations and crosses In short Temporal things are desired for the sake of Spiritual and Eternal but Eternal for themselves a Traveller desireth an horse not for himself as for the conveniency of his journey so he expecteth temporal things as helps in his way and passage to Heaven Well then Salvation is the object of this hope temporal Salvation in order to eternal that we may have opportunities to glorifie God here and may not faint and be overwhelmed with incident Crosses This sentence is borrow'd from good old Iacob Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. 'T is notable Iacob speaketh this when prophetically blessing his Children and when he cometh to Dan the good old man seemed to be carried beside his Purpose breaking out this of a sudden but in Spirit foreseeing the Miseries and Calamities which his Posterity should fall into for their Idolatry for Dan was the first Tribe that made defection therefore he opposeth his Hopes to his Fears We are told in the General Lam. 3. 26. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God that is for deliverance out of Troubles 't will be of great use to us in our Troubles to look to the issue of them The Lord doth not wholly cast off his People when he seemeth to break down the Hedge and Fence of his Providence and leave them in their Enemies hands he hath Salvation for a hoping People But mark 't is thy Salvation 't is good to come out of trouble upon Gods terms in Gods way and in Gods time others break Prison Psal. 62. 1. My soul hopeth in God from him cometh my Salvation Expect it from God and him alone 2. The Act of Grace I have hoped Hope in the general is the expectation of some future good as 't is a grace 't is some good thing promised by God Psal. 130. 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in thy word do I hope I am judged for the hope of the promise saith Paul Acts 26. 6. So that Hope is the expectation of Good things promised Faith and Hope do both work upon the Promise but yet they are distinct Graces they differ in their Object The object of Faith is larger the whole Word of God is the object of Faith We believe things past present and to come but hope for things to come only among things to come we believe both Promises and Threatnings but the object of hope is only things desireable We believe the torments of Hell but do not hope for them in the Promises Faith believeth the promise and hope looketh for the thing promised Faith looketh to the Authority of the Promiser and Hope to the goodness of the thing promised Faith begets Hope and then Hope strengthens Faith Faith holdeth the Candle to the Soul whereby we see things invisible and to come and Hope maketh this light comfortable and ravishing to us We have comfort in Believing because hopes of Injoying to believe Eternal Life if we had not hopes to attain it were a comfortless thing Faith is before hope and leadeth us to the object and Hope followeth as Faith leadeth Faith assents to and applyeth the promise and Hope waiteth for the Accomplishment There are several sorts of Hope 1. There is a Vain and Groundless Hope the dream of a waking Man As if a Beggar should hope for the Succession of a Crown so there are some that dream of peace and safety and sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child 1 Thess. 5. 3. This is an irrational thing 2. There is rational and probable hope but yet not so firm and certain it is likely it will be so but we have no absolute certainty 2 Cor. 9. 10. He that ploweth ploweth in hope and he that thresheth is partaker of his hope This is necessary for the carrying on of all humane Actions that a man should have probable hope of success for without it there is no labour or rational attempt 3. There is a firm and certain hope when we have assurance of the things hoped for so in the Commerce between us and God he giveth us assurance in his Promises by his Word and Oath that our Consolation might be the more strong when we fly for refuge to the hope that is set before us Heb. 6. 17. 18. There is a blessed and glorious Estate reserved to be injoyed in the Heavens this is set before us propounded as a prize in the view of the World Now when we take hold of this gain a right and title to it God would have our Consolation the more strong by the Assurance he hath given us in the Covenant made with us in Christ. Well then Christian hope is not a Conjecture or Probability but an Assurance many times all kind of Probability is contrary to Gods Assurance Rom. 4. 18. Abraham believed in hope against hope Credidit in spe gratiae contra
designs p. 524 God will not disappoint the confidence which he raises p. 326 Discontent with Gods allowance a Cause of Covetousness p. 256. How to Cure it p. 260 Discord amongst Godly persons whence p. 527. How to remove it How to carry our selves under such circumstances p. 529 Discovery of a mans heart by what he accounts his bondage p. 24 Discovery of a Covetous heart p. 256 257 Discouragement in Gods way by Reproach an Argument of a low Spirit p. 61. 145 Be not discouraged from repentance by the difficulty of it p. 411 Discoursing of God seriously helps to it p. 1067 Discourses evidence the heart and Nature p. 79. 1063 Discourses should be of Gods Word ordinarily p. 1063 1064. They discover what is within p. 1064 What discouses Christians must avoid p. 1064 Disdain of inferiors a notable fruit of Pride p. 520 Disgrace How can we bear Death if not disgrace p. 871. Encouragements under it p. 870 Disingenuity not to turn to God Now p. 409 Disingenuity to be always craving mercy and never returning praises p. 422. 445 Dispensation of Grace is gradual that we may learn to depend on God for daily Grace p. 937 God never dispenced with the 9th Commandment p. 188 Disobedience against God not to turn Now as well as not to turn at all p. 409. Folly and ingratitude in Disobedience p. 349 Distance from sin must be kept P. 658 Distinguishing an Act of the Judgement p. 440 Disposition Vid. Temper Distresses bring us to God p. 29. In deep distresses we may plead with God to interpose p. 819 820 Advice what to do in deep distresses p. 822 The Main thing we should look after is not so much the removal of Gods anger as the renewed sense of his favour p. 903 Distrust of God the first rise of Apostacy p. 587 Distrust of God reproved p. 964 Distrust of Gods providence a cause of Covetousness p. 255 How to Cure our distrust p. 260 Divertisements Holy an excellent mean to Cure heart troubles p. 146. 542 Divertisements of wicked men sinful p. 146 Doing Good 1. A man may do good by chance 2. By Force 3. Out of Design and yet not be good p. 1075 1076 Divine Nature to love the Word for its purity an Argument that we partake of the Divine Nature p. 863 Doctrines of the Romish Synagoge p. 204 205 Dominion of sin ought to be deprecated by Saints p. 918 919 920. What it is Distinctions about it p. 918 919. A great evil ibid. Divisions fomented by the Enemies of the Church 1. Between Christians themselves 2. Between them and their Rulers 3. Between them and their God p. 560 561 Doubting Conscience p. 698 Dread of God useful in many respects p. 811 Drawing near to God What to be considered therein p. 954 955 Dross wicked men are as dross in what respects p. 802 God separates dross two ways p. 804 What required that we are not put away as dross p. 805 Drudgery no drudgery in Gods service p. 851 Dumbness about holy things reproved p. 1066 1067 Dust. The souls cleaving to the dust what it implies p. 156 Duty must be performed in every condition p. 1099 Duty not known no Conscience made of it p. 10 Duty must be kept up with affection p. 914 Duty sweet to a good heart as well as priviledge p. 84 Duty and Mercy must go together p. 910. Reasons ibid Duty and Comfort must go together p. 751 Duties of Religion and Graces of the Spirit fortifie each other p. 95 Duty more our concern then what we may suffer for it p. 147 Duty more considerable then success p. 170. 645. 10â—… Duties which imply not weakness as loving and praising God are part of our happiness p. 891 Whether we are to perform duty in case of indisposition deadness of Spirit p. 222 None are above duties of Religion p. 226 Dying hour giues other Notions of Godliness p. 6. 315 Dying hour Righteousness a great Comfort in that hour p. 816 This Comfort arises 1. From a good Conscience 2. From Gods promises p. 816 willingness to Die and prayer to Live how they are consistent p. â—…3 104 Dying dayly what that phrase importâ—… p. 727 E. EArly seeking God in Prayer viz. in the morning pressed from five considerations p. 923 924 Earnestness of longing for salvation arises 1. From suitableness 2. Experience 3. Our present pressures p. 1088 The end and use of earnest longings p. 1088 1089 Earnestness of the affections not lowdness of Voice makes an importunate prayer p. 899. Means to get it p. 1090 Earnest Prayer comes home laden with fulness of blessing p. 912 Earnest Prayer though private though the answer delayed a duty p. 924 925 Vid. Vehemency Earth wicked men are of the Earth p. 800 Earthly things in vain to seek comfort from them p. 158 Whilst the heart is set on them it cannot be set on God and heavenly things p. 250 Eating the VVord Three things required 1. Sound belief 2. Serious consideration 3. Close application p. 675 676 Vid. Taste Spiritual Edification Of others a great duty 1. In our own families 2. In our converses p. 78. Reasons of it p. 79. 1066. 1067 Education some mens best Reason for their Religion p. 287 Effects of Gods mercy either common or saving p. 517 Efficacy of the Word requires 1. Sound beleif 2. Serious consideration 3. Close application p. 632 Elect are taught of God p. 41 Emblems of the stability of Gods word 1. From the Heavens p. 575. 2. From the Earth p. 582 Encouragement to wait on God from his wonted goodness in former ages Why p. 912 Encouragements to the services of God 1. From the wages at the end 2. The Vailes by the way p. 7. Encouragement to weak Christians to study the Word p. 895 896 Encouragement to go to God 1. From the Covenant 2. Gods affection 3. Our relation to him 4. Our going it self to God p. 821 822 End of Creation seriously to be considered p. 397 378 End wicked men desire the end not the means p. 30 End is first in intention last in execution p. 924 Ends of God in afflicting his People 1. To try them 2. To awaken their importunity 3. To make them sensible of their own weakness 4. To advance his own glory p. 538 End fixed a main branch of wisdom p. 638 End ultimate well fixed will influence 1. Our Company 2. Our business 3. Our Recreations 4. Our Religious duties p. 777 End ultimate in conjunction with the means-p 621. 224 End of Prayer often given when the means is denied p. 167 Ends in Prayer when right are a sure Evidence of success p. 920 As we long for the end so must we desire the Means p. 1091. Reasons of it ibid. 1092 Enemies of God Who Such as forget his Word c. p. 649 Enemies of God are to be accounted our own p. 849 Enemies of the Church how far they may be prayed against p. 523 Word of God
without the Will The dreggs of things come out with squeezing and wringing Duty is best done when like life-honey it droppeth of its own accord chearful and hearty service only pleaseth the Lord. Now that is chearful service which cometh not from the influence of bye-ends and foreign motives or the compulsion of a natural Conscience or legal fears but from the native inclination and bent of the heart 1 Iohn 5. 3. This is love to keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous the work is not grievous but pleasant because suitable to the principles that are in us 't is not done against the hair Cain offered Sacrifice but with a grudging mind 'T is somewhere said They offered to the Lord whose hearts made them willing When the heart is in it 't is not constrained forced service but natural and genuine not like water out of a Still but like water out of a Fountain 2. For uniform obedience to serve God in the whole tenour of our lives that needs an heart inclined that may be as a constant Spring of holiness A man may force himself now and then to actions displeasing to himself but his constant course is according to his natural bent and inclination Haman could refrain himself from Murther but his heart still boiled with rancour and malice When men look only to the refraining of outward actions or the restraining the outward man it will never hold the bent of the heart will discover it self and so they will be off and on with God the compulsion of Conscience will sometimes urge them to God but the inclination of the heart will draw them to evil therefore God wisheth that his people had a heart to serve him Deut. 5. 29. 3. Constant obedience that can never be till the heart be inclined Iudas was a Disciple for a while but Satan entered into his heart Luke 22. 3. Ananias joined himself to the people of God but Satan filled his heart Simon Magus was baptized but his heart was not right with God Act. 8. 22. here is the great defect but now when God gets possession of the heart there he dwelleth Eph. 3. 17. there he abideth as in his strong Cittadel and from thence commandeth all the faculties of the Soul and the Members of the Body Use 1. To press you to get this bent of heart otherwise all your labour in Religion will be in vain every difficulty will put you out of the way and make you think of a revolt from God till this the work of Grace is not begun Gods first gift is a new heart Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give unto you and a new Spirit will I put within you without this you can never hold out but you will be uncertain and mutable in the profession of godliness whatever restraints are upon you for a time sin will be breaking out ever and anon with violence and at length men will return with the Dog to the vomit and with the Sow to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 20. Oh then go to God for it Ier. 17. 10. say Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me and I shall be saved 2. Carry forth the work of God so far as you receive it follow after to apprehend that for which we are apprehended of Christ Phil. 3. 12. Use 2. Have we such an heart an heart inclined to do the will of God First though there be such a bent and inclination there will be failings yea reluctancies and oppositions Rom. 7. 8. To will is present with me yet how to perform that which is good I find not There is a ready will asserted and a weak discharge complained of observe 't is a will not a wish a weak discharge not that nothing is done but not all that good that is required nor in that purity the work doth not perfectly answer the will nor the motions of the Spirit by which it is excited and mark this weakness is not rested in but complained of and not only complained of but resisted I find not that implieth he sought it for the word finding implieth a diligent search he laid about him on every side he did not expect it should come by chance or a lazy enquiry 2. If wrought 1. How was it wrought in you Did God turn thee and thou wast turned Were you ever brought to self-resignation By what steps was this work carried on Thy heart was naturally wedded to thy lusts and to carnal vanity did ever God make you see the odiousness of sin the vanity of the Creature the insufficiency of self Evil men seek contentment in the world as long as Conscience will let them hold out in that way you cannot cleave to God till you are rent off from the world and self was there ever such a separation such a rending work Conversion or the altering the bent of the heart lieth in three things in turning from the Creature to God from self to Christ from sin to holiness How to God by making us a willing people to yield up our selves to his service How drawn from self to Christ To seek all this good in him How from sin to holiness By seeing the beauty of Gods ways Paul found it a sensible work before he was brought to this self-resignation Act. 9. 6. Lord What wilt thou have me to do How did God draw you or drive you to this 2. How is this bent of heart kept up towards God Nature is apt to recoil and the heart to return to its own bent and biass again David beggeth verse 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies 'T is an hard matter to keep up a bent of heart towards God it will cost us much watching striving praying to keep it fixed The frame of mans heart is changeable and various doth not always continue at the same pass and lust will waken and be pressing and importunate deadness will creep upon us the great business of the spiritual life is to keep the bent of the heart steady neglected Grace will suffer decay and worldly vanities and listlesness and deadness to holy things will incroach upon the Soul and a gracious heart is much discomposed As a Needle that bendeth towards the Pole may be jogged and put aside though it cannot rest there but turneth thither again so the bent of the Soul towards God may be much disordered and we may lose much of our free Spirit and ready mind and grow uncomfortable and unchearful in Gods service and it may cost us much sorrow and deep humiliation to get in frame again a cold profession is easily maintained but to keep up a spiritual inclination is the work of labour and cost 3. How doth it work in you This bent of heart is seen in two things First in pulling back the heart from those sins to which corrupt Nature doth incline us Nature carrieth us to carnal things There is something within that puts you on and
something without to draw you forward Nature thrusteth Occasion inviteth but Grace interposeth and checketh the motion Gal. 5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh 't is against the bent and inclination of the New Nature there is a back Biass Ioseph had a temptation we read of occasion inviting but not of Nature inclining but presently his heart recoiled The heart of man is seldome without these counterbuffs 't is an advantage to have the new Nature as ready to check as the old Nature to urge and solicite 1 Iohn 3. 9. He cannot sin for his seed remaineth in him 2. In putting on the heart upon Duties that are against the hair and bent of corruption Such acts of obedience as are most troublesome and burthensome to the flesh as are laborious costly dangerous Laborious as private Worship wrestling with God in Prayer holding the heart to Meditation and self-Examination sluggish Nature is apt to shrink but love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Spiritual Worship and such as is altogether without secular encouragement that 's tedious to work truth into the heart to commune with God to ransack Conscience 't is troublesome but thy striving will overcome it So there is costly and chargeable work as Alms Contributions to publick good there must be a striving to bring the heart to it Then for actions dangerous as publick Contests for Gods Glory or keeping a good Conscience though with cost to our selves our great work is to keep the will afoot Nature is slow to what is good a Coachman in his journey is always quickning his Horses and stirring them up so must we quicken a sluggish will do what we can though we cannot do all that we should the will must hold up still A Prisoner escaped would go as far as he can but his Bolts will not suffer to make long Journies but yet he thinketh he can never get far enough so this will is a disposition that puts us upon striving to do our utmost for God 2. The matter resolved on To perform thy Statutes always unto the end Uniform obedience always or all his days As long as life lasteth we must be always ready to observe all Gods Commands which notes the continuity of our obedience sincerity and perpetuity of it We are to engage our hearts by a serious resolution to serve him and that not by fits and starts but always not for a time but to the end Resolve to cleave to him to hold him fast that he may not go to keep our hold fast that we may not go Take notice of the first decays and let us keep our hold fast and bewail often the inconstancy of our hearts that we are so unconstant in that which is good Every hour our hearts are changed in a duty What a Proteus would man be if his thoughts were visible in the best duty that ever he performed Rom. 7. 18. Evil is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not our Devotion comes by pangs and fits now humble anon proud now meek anon passionate not the same men in a duty and act of a duty unstable as water Compare it with Gods constancy his unchangeable nature his love to us that we may be ashamed of our levity from everlasting to everlasting God is where he was the same the same to those that believe in him Secondly This to the end Gods Grace holdeth out to the end so should our obedience He that hath begun a good work will perfect it c. Consider how unreasonable it is to desire God to be ours unto the end if we are not his Psal. 48. 14. He is our God for ever and ever he will be our Guide till death He doth not lay down the conduct of his Providence So Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory We can give nothing to God our obedience is but a profession of homage if God be always in our eye we shall be always in his We receive life breath and motion from him every moment he sustaineth us every day and hour yieldeth new mercy God watcheth over us when we are asleep yet how much of our time passeth away when we do not perform one act of love to God! The Devil is awake when we sleep to do us a mischief but the God of Israel never slumbereth nor sleepeth how can we offend him Let us then take up this serious resolution To perform Gods Statutes always to the end SERMON CXXIV PSAL. CXIX VER 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love THere are in men two great influencing affections Love and Hatred one serves for choice and pursuit the other for flight and aversation The great work of Grace is to fix these upon their proper objects if we could but set our love and hatred right we should do well enough in the spiritual life Man fallen is but the Anagram of man in innocency we have the same affections but they are misplaced we love where we should hate and hate where we should love our affections are like a member out of joint out of its proper place as if the arms should hang backward If men knew how to bestow their love and hatred they would be other manner of persons than now they are In the Text we are taught what to do in both by Davids example see how he bestowed his love and hatred I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Love was made for God and for all that is of Gods side his Law his Ordinances his Image c. but hatred was made for sin All sin must be hated of what kind and degree soever it be Every drop of water is water and every spark of fire is fire so the least degree of sin is sin Thoughts are but a partial act a tendency towards an action and yet thoughts are sin Of all the operations of the soul the world thinketh a man should be least troubled about his thoughts of all actual breaches of the Law these are most secret therefore we think thoughts are free and subject to no tribunal Most of the Religion that is in the world is but mans observance and therefore we let thoughts go without dislike or remorse because they do not betray us to shame or punishment These are most venial in mans account they are but partial or half acts What! not a thought pass but we must make conscience of it this is intolerable Once more of all thoughts vain thoughts would escape censure A thought that hath apparent wickedness in it a murtherous or an unclean thought a natural Conscience will rise up in armes against it but vain thoughts we think are not to be stood upon Oh but David was sensible that these were contrary to the Law of God transgressions as well as other thoughts and therefore inconsistent with his Love to God I hate vain thoughts Secondly He bestows his love on the Law Naturally