condition of Gods Church in the times of the Gospell The most of the expressions are of Gods delight among his people in the time of the law but know that all those expressions were but meer types and there is a great deal more in the Antitype then in the type therefore the Saints of God joyned under the Gospell have abundance more of the glory of God of the presence of God and of priviledges then Zion had or Ierusalem could have because that was but a type of their happy condition under the time of the Gospell It is an observable place that we have in the Hebrews it is said concerning the state of the Church that the law had but a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 and not the very image of the things It is not so much as an image observe a shadow is not so much as an image but an image is not so much as the thing it self but that was not an image but a shadow As a Painter that takes an image he draws first the dark shadow with a cole there is a great deal of difference between that shadow and the image in beauty so much difference there is between all the glory of God in the Church in the time of the law and that glory of God that is among his people in the time of the Gospell We may safely say there is the like difference between Gods manifesting of himself to his people then and now as between a dark shadow drawn with a cole in comparison of an image But mark it was but a shadow of the image that which we have now is but an image As there is not so much in a shadow as in the image so there is not so much in the image as in the thing it self The presence of God and all his goodnesse to his people and his glory to his people now it is but an image to that which shall be there shall be another presence of God another communication and revelation of God hereafter in another kind then there is now all that we have now is but an image of that which shall be all that was in the law was but a shadow of that image therefore we should have a great deal of delight in the Saints Much might be said further for delighting in them now because they are those that we shall live for ever with in heaven hereafter Look to the Saints especially together they are those that we shall live eternally together with in heaven therefore they are those that we should delight in They are those that we shall be joyned with for ever in everlasting halelujahs before him that sis upon the throne and the Lamb. Look upon any Saint though he be never so mean in gifts and abilities thou and he shall alway joy in the presence of God in glory Yea to be among Gods people is heaven it self they are not onely those that we shall be with in heaven but it is heaven Behold saith the Lord I create a new heaven and a new earth Isa 65.17 The state of the Church is called heaven For what is there in heaven but is here I might shew the resemblance of heaven and that which is in heaven is here among us and therefore if heaven be a place to be delighted in the Saints are Therefore have a high esteem of the Saints close with them and come into as near communion as is possible If they be so excellent and to be delighted in then especially when they are joyned together labour all to come in and joyn with the Saints in the nearest union that is possible in that fellowship wherein you may as near as can be have fellowship onely with them especially that have the appearance of such The mixture of our communion doth much hinder our delight Cast dirt into the fire and it will damp it so the mixture of ungodly ones their spots and blemishes hinder the delight of Gods people one in another But now to come among those that your hearts may close with that you have comfortable evidence that they are not meer talkers of religion and professours at large but that the image of God is on them O what closing is there with their hearts and what admirable good might we enjoy in the communion and society of them Therefore know that it is one of the greatest blessings that you are capable of in this world to have the nearest communion with the Saints next to your immediate communion with God himself it is that which you should so esteem and your hearts should work after Mark that Text Psalme 36. what is said of our joyning with the people of God how excellent is thy loving kindnesse wherein appears the excellency They shall be satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house It is a fruit of the excellency of the loving kindnesse of God for people to be of Gods house and to partake of the fatnesse of it To have abundance of Gods creatures and to have an estate and friends it is a fruit of Gods kindnesse but to joyn with Gods people in a way of worship and in the nearest union that is a fruit of the excellent loving kindnesse of God to admiration How excellent is thy loving kindnesse it was so excellent that he was not able to expresse the excellency of it It is made in Scripture to be the proper inheritance even of the elect of God to enjoy communion with the people of God in the type it is a fruit of the very inheritance of the elect of God so as it is opposed to all the vanities of the world Mark what God saith by Isaiah Vanity shall take them away but he that putteth his trust in me shall possesse the Land and shall inherit the holy Mountain and shall say cast ye up cast ye up prepare the way take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people 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 spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Here is a firm inheritance indeed the Saints shall possesse the holy mountain God dwelleth on high in the highest heavens and the Saints that are of a contrite and humble spirit with him Do you not perceive a joyfull revolution of the Saints they shall be dwellers with God himself in eternity Iob saith I shall see my Redeemer with these very eyes though for a while they be as it were closed up in darkness yet at last they shall be glorified Nay every part of the bodyes of the Saints shall be glorified Christ shall make our vile bodies like his glorious body saith S. Paul There is no question but his body is glorified throughout there cannot be the least shade of darkness for he is the Sun of righteousness
some that lived in Samaria that were Samaritans that wrote to him to desire his favour that were not their own selves Iews but Samaritans and Iosephus saith they wrote to him in this stile To Antiochus c. Antiochus the mighty God they gave him this title of honour He was a great man on earth accounted where he lived among the Samaritans a mighty god yet the Scripture calls him a vile person And then his name Epiphanes which is as much as illustrious or glorious He hath that title of almighty god and illustrious and glorious and yet he was a vile person Thus it is where God sees not the work of grace The consideration of this might give us some hope that there will be a time wherein God will appear for his Saints It is not probable that God will alwayes suffer his Iewels to be trodden under feet in the world that God will alway look upon such as are excellent on earth and see them so abused in the world so contemptible as they are surely this will not be alwayes God hath this time to make it manifest to the world that they are the excellent of the earth They are now Iewels yet they are such as are in the dirt and so are despised contemned but there is a promise that the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people for they shall be as the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his Land Zach. 9.16 As the stones of a Crown God will lift them up and make them honourable And there is another Text which is very observable for every one to take notice of Gods intention to make these excellent ones famous on earth The governours of Iudah shall say in their heart The inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God Zach. 12.5 There was a time when the governours of Iudah despised those that were gracious godly but God hath promised that the governours of Iudah shall be convinced of their errour and shall say in their hearts the inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God However now through the calumnies of the world however now through the reproaches that are cast upon the Saints of God it falls out many time that even the governours of Iudah despise and contemne them and say they are seduced people that they are factious and turbulent and so their hearts are against them hate and abhorre them look upon them with such an evill eye as those that they name puritans yet there is a time promised when the governours of Iudah shall say in their hearts the inhabitants of Ierusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts O ye inhabitants of Ierusalem Gods Church and people his sanctified ones for Ierusalem typified the estate of Gods people under the Gospell Gods sanctified ones under the Gospell shall be such as the governours of Iudah in their hearts shall say My strength is in them I see they are my best subjects my chief strength is in them and they are of principall use for me and my Kingdom is upheld in peace for them and there is the blessing of God on them they shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God Now I see God is their God God hears their prayers and hath done much for them we are convinced of it O this will be a blessed time when it shall be that the governours of Iudah shall say so Blessed be God that they do say so in any measure that the governours of Iudah say at all of the inhabitants of Ierusalem of the godly that their strength is in them that they may see those that are the excellent of the earth in any measure to be truly the excellent of the earth It were a ruefull spectacle and would draw tears of bloud to see the excellent ones to have that usage that they have had But now to see those excellent ones countenanced in a publick way especially in publick courts of Iustice it is glorious when the governours of Iudah shall do it And this we are to pray for that it may be more and more seen amongst us and to say no more let us learn to honour them that God hath honoured since they are excellent ones and God hath put excellency upon them do you so too look on them according as God esteems them It is observed that God in the time of the law did not require them to offer in sacrifice Lions and Eagles those brave creatures but Lambs and Doves mean creatures he would have offered in sacrifice So God doth not regard the brave spirits of the world that strut it out but if there be any that be gracious and godly though they he never so poor and mean as Lambs and Doves God honours and respects them they are a sacrifice to him the broken heart is a sacrifice to God The sacrâ—fices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise Therefore when God would lift up himself in glory he saith He that dwells in the high and lofty place What of him he looks to those that are of humble and contrite hearts and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit As if there were no other subject in the world worth looking upon he looks onely to them As a thing that is before ones eye that he prizeth his eye is fastned on that so God looks on them as if they were the onely object to be looked at therefore let them be looked at by us with reverence in our hearts it is fit that we should honour those that God honours Therefore it is observed in the message of the King of Babylon to Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.31 When Hezekiah was sick and God had given him a sign of his recovery that the sun did go backward It was a wondrous honour that God put on him that the sun should go backward The ambassadours of the king of Babylon came to congratulate with Hezekiah after his recovery but what was the businesse not onely to congratulate with him for his recovery but to enquire of the great miracle so the Text saith the ambassadours of the Prince of Babylon were sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land Why did they enquire of this wonder there were many wonders done but they were not sent to enquire of others but of this Because they worshipped the sun for their god and because their god had put such an honour upon Hezekiah they perceived the altering of the sun that it went backward and they enquired of the matter concerning the alteration in the sun and after enquiry there was news that it was for the sake of Hezekiah Now because they worshipped the Sun as their god and so apprehended that their god had put such an honour upon Hezekiah they honoured him
in prayer God gives them the key of all his treasures to come and open them and take what they will it is a glorious priviledge that belongs to the Saints in any condition God gives them a gracious praying heart and that is the key of all the treasures of God of all the excellencies of God that they have liberty to come and take out what they will be it unto thee as thou wilt These are the excellent of the earth that have these priviledges Again they are the excellent in earth in regard of that which comes from them As the work of grace is so excellent as hath been spoken of so every gracious action that comes from a gracious heart there is a wondrous excellency in it There is not any one gracious action but it hath more excellency then heaven and earth Not onely grace it self but any action that comes from grace hath more of God in it and God more delights in it then in all other things in heaven or earth It is an expression of Luther though he were a great advancer of faith yet he was also an advancer of holinesse as well as of faith therefore speaking of any gracious work of a godly man or woman saith he preciosa c. it is more precious then heaven and earth And then he goes on with another expression I had rather be able to perform any one gracious act of the poorest woman or maid of the poorest Christian that is then to be able to do all that ever Alexander or Iulius Caesar had done The least act that comes from faith from a sanctified heart he had rather be able to do it then to get all the victories of Iulius Caesar and Alexander all their triumphs and trophies were nothing to the least breathing of the work of grace in those that are godly that which comes from them are exceeding excellent Now I reason they must needs be excellent that have such excellent things come from them As when there were such excellent things came from the body of Paul that had such virtue in them that had such virtue in them that noted that there was a great deal of excellency that God conferred upon that Apostle and a great deal of honour that was put upon him So when there comes flowing such precious liquor such precious things from the Saints as an holy action is it shews that there is a great deal of excellency in them Which by the way should teach us to abound in holy duties though our actions as they are from us corrupted we look on them as despicable yet know that God looks on them as the most glorious things in the world any breathing of a gracious heart therefore he despiseth not the broken heart nor the sighing of a contrite spirit Psalm 51.17 God can despise Monarchs and Princes of the world but God cannot despise a broken heart nor any breathings from it Though thou mayest despise it thy self and look on it as despicable the Lord cannot despise it he sees so much excellency in it though it be mixed with thy corruptions yet there is that remainder of excellency in it if there be but so much as may denominate it a gracious act it is a glorious thing in the eye of God Lastly to name no more the excellency of the Saints appears in this the great use that they are of in the world As especially this is one thing that God attains in them his great aim and end in creating the whole world Were it not for a few gracious men and women what glory should God have in all the world They are those that hold up the glory of God in the world by which God hath his glory actively for that is that God aims at It is true God can force glory in spight of mens hearts he will be glorified in spight of Devils but God hath no active glory but from gracious godly people I speak of the inferiour world it is onely the godly that God hath glory from Therefore were it not for them God in some kind had made all the world for nothing Now those that are imployed in such a great work and are of this great use in the world as to bring to God that which he made the world for the main and great end that he made heaven and earth for certainly these are principall in Gods esteem and excellent God can say I have my end in these Take any town where there are but two or three that are godly what glory hath God but of these So for other places where hath God glory but for a few contemptibile ones They are these that God glorifies in high and great services these are the lights of the world the salt of the earth they are these that are the blessings of the world wheresoever they are they are these for whom the world continueth so as it doth There is a notable expression in Isaiah In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the middest of the Land whom the Lord of hosts shall blesse saying blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance Isaiah 19.24.25 Wheresoever they are in a Kingdom or a family or a town they are a blessing in that Kingdome in that town and in that family Israel shall be a blessing in the middest of the Land These are they that are the excellent of the earth I would now willingly be over this that I may come to the other but onely there is a word or two of applicatian And that is First to shew what a vast difference there is between those that are godly those that are wicked Many things I might shew that the Scripture expresseth of wicked ones in all their glory let all the glory of the world be put upon them yet the Scripture speaks exceedingly contemptuously of them I must not spend time in those expressions onely one and that is Daniel And in his estate shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honour of the Kingdome but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the Kingdom by flatteries Daniel 11.21 It is spoken as most Interpreters carry it of Antiochus Epiphanes he is called a vile person we may observe that David doth here more fully set out the love and affection he bears towards those that feare God by the contrary effect of hatred wherewith he doth prosecute the wicked as in the 4. v. of this Psalm in the 4. vers of the foregoing Psalm the Psalmist saith In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the LORD Psalm 15.4 Of this Antiochus there are three things observed yet he is called a vile person First he was a great enemy to many sinnes Secondly when the Iews wrote to him because they feared his wrath he being a persecutor of the Iews there were